Chapter 24: Boogeyman

Chapter 24: Boogeyman

After receiving a brief explanation in the staff room, we were led to the room that served as the school’s spiritual disaster counseling room. A partition divided the large room into two parts, one of which was occupied by a regular school counselor.

Damage caused by evil spirits and symptoms of monstrification were both closely related to the instability and distress peculiar to adolescence so this arrangement was for the sake of making it easier for us to cooperate.

We gave our greetings to the counselor and opened for business, however…

"No one is coming!"

Soya angrily hammered the desk in the counseling room.

"You’re going to disturb the neighboring rooms so stop it."

Having said that, I could understand Soya’s frustration.

It had been a few days since we opened our doors. We had been continuing to head for Shinonome High School right after our morning classes at the School for Exorcists but not a single person had shown up yet.

It was common to see some idiots who were attracted to Soya and Karasuma’s looks squirming outside in the hallway, but that was about it. It could be that those guys were keeping people away, but perhaps the main reason was,

"It’s all because of the trouble you caused on the first day!"

"P, pwease sdop, pwease forgib me, forgib meeee…"

Soya raged as she assaulted Karasuma’s ear canals with a long and elongated rod (an earpick).

"Most people are already reluctant to come to counseling rooms and yet you caused them to lose trust in us from day one!"

"Well, that’s true."

As I had feared, the girl named Nagumo Mutsumi was no ordinary person.

According to the counselor, Nagumo Mutsumi became the ace of the kendo club at the beginning of spring during her freshman year. She was popular with the boys for her ferociously big breasts and popular with the girls for her mannish manner and headstrong character. Both matched well with her big-sister aura. Rumors of the scoundrel who tried to grope her breasts had probably spread like wildfire.

"Therefore, I’ve come up with an idea."

Soya raised her index finger.

"Let’s split up into two groups to patrol the hallways after school with Aoi-chan and me in one group and Furuya-kun in the other. Since minor spirits tend to come once it’s evening, patrols might be needed to deal with them. Furthermore, we’ll have a lot of opportunities to interact with people who have club activities and can try to cultivate trust with them."

"I-ib we’re going to do that, wouldn’t… it be more efficient to split up into three groups?"

Karasuma suggested as she shivered from the pleasurable sensation of the ear pick. However, we didn’t even consider it.

This idiot was 100% planning to go hit on some girls so who was going to let her move around unchecked?

"Do I have to do this school patrol thing too? You remember your promise to not let anyone find out about my ability, right?"

She was aware that even if I were to find a minor spirit within the school, I wouldn’t be able to deal with it right? Me using climax exorcism would only result in lewd cries echoing throughout the school…

"The main purpose of this patrol is to interact with the students and win their trust! So Furuya-kun, for the time being, you should prioritize talking to students first. If you find any minor spirits, you can contact me!"

"Well, I suppose that’s fine…"

And so with that, our after-school patrol activities began immediately starting from that day.

"I’m lost…."

I was in a large area and an unfamiliar school building.

I had wandered into a deserted part of the school and had no clue where I was. The classrooms looked like they were being used as storerooms and the quiet evening atmosphere that permeated this area made it seem like something could jump out at any moment. This area was probably an unused part of the old school building that the current building had been extended from.

I was supposed to be heading towards the areas with a lot of students such as the staff room or the building where the clubs were located… I wondered if there was an information board somewhere.

I looked around restlessly as I walked through the hallway. If there had been anyone around to see me, they would’ve probably thought I looked rather suspicious.

"Kyaaaaaaa!?"

I suddenly heard a girl scream from a nearby classroom.

"What’s wrong!?"

The scream sounded really urgent. I hurriedly ran into the classroom where the voice had come from.

"H, help mee. Someone, help mee–"

In a dimly lit classroom crammed with a miscellaneous collection of protective gear and face guards that might have been used for kendo, a female student was huddled on the floor with her head in her hands.

Above the girl, a bloodstained man had sprouted from the ceiling and was whispering something to her. He was the typical low-ranked evil spirit that tried to maintain its own existence by inciting fear in people.

I would have called Soya immediately but didn’t know where I was and besides, the girl’s eyes and ears were conveniently closed up. More importantly, it did not feel right to abandon a girl who was being attacked.

I took off my bracelets from both wrists and struck the pleasure points I saw on the bloody man’s back.

"Nhooooooooo!?"

After watching the bloody man disappear with an ecstatic expression, I gently tapped the shoulder of the female student who kept repeating, "Help mee"

"Hiii–"

"Hey, are you okay? You don’t need to be afraid anymore, the evil spirit is gone."

I called out to her a few more times and the female student finally nervously raised her face.

"I, it’s okay now? T, the boogeyman’s gone?"

"That’s right, the evil spirit has already–hm? It’s you."

The teary-faced schoolgirl looked familiar. I would have never forgotten her face… or rather, her breasts.

"It was Nagumo Mutsumi… wasn’t it?"

A ponytail and a pair of strong-minded eyes. Arms and legs so long that you could see them even when she was huddled down. Calling this strong-minded big-breasted girl the belle of kendo fit her perfectly.

Nagumo also seemed to remember me and with a startled look on her face,

"Y, you’re the… counselor who was with that pervert."

"Ah, yeah. That’s right. I’m Furuya from the spiritual disaster counseling room. I was together with that idiot back then."

I reintroduced myself awkwardly then unconsciously couldn’t help staring at her chest again.

Nagumo’s face flushed.

"T, this is, it’s not like that!"

She shouted as she tried hiding her trembling hands while remaining huddled down.

"I’m fine with people like the perverted girl from before or things like cockroaches! But boogeymen… I mean, evil spirits, you can’t just beat them up, you know? So it’s not that I’m afraid of them… it’s just that I’m not very good at dealing with them!"

Nagumo rattled on for a while and then turned her face down,

"H, however, thanks for the help… I’d also appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about this. You know, I also have my own image at school that I need to maintain."

Her words of thanks were said clearly, while the second half was shyly mumbled.

"I understand, I understand. It’s okay so just relax."

"Y, you’re not going to laugh at me?"

"Not at all. Evil spirits are scary for us too."

I had been running away from a fourth-rank woman who crawled on all fours just a few days ago after all…

"Really?"

"Really. Even we, who see them all the time, feel scared, so it’s only natural for ordinary people to also feel scared. In fact, I’d even appreciate it if you were scared. It’s better to be scared than be like those idiots who go to haunted places as a test of courage."

Doing that only increased the power evil spirits had to commit pranks so I hoped people would stop doing it.

"Well, I also wouldn’t recommend being too scared since it makes it easier for strange things to approach you."

As I continued idly chatting with Nagumo in an attempt to calm her down, her expression gradually relaxed.

"…I thought you guys were a suspicious bunch but it turns out you guys aren’t so bad after all. Sorry, I misunderstood before and said bad things about you guys to quite a few people."

"Ah, it’s fine, that idiot Karasuma did make quite a mess back then after all… the other girl and I are good people though so please set the rumors straight."

As we were having this exchange, Nagumo was eventually able to stand up on her own. She lightly patted me on the shoulder a few times as if to hide her embarrassment.

"Thank you very much. I just can’t stand boogeymen… I usually try to stay away from this part of our school building but I had some small things I needed to do here today."

Nagumo told me that this year’s kendo club was so popular that they were running out of protective gear due to the rush of boys wanting to join the club. She had no choice but to take a break from the club activities to see if she could reuse some old protective gear but ended up encountering the evil spirit.

Nagumo pointed at her chest and smiled as she said in a half-disgusted tone,

"I can’t believe I’m saying this myself, but honestly, there are a lot of idiots who join the club just for this. That’s why I suggested to the club that we push the old, smelly protective gear on them and let only the gutsy ones stay"

It seemed that she was trying to take the initiative to deal with the trouble she had caused the club. It wasn’t Nagumo’s fault that she had big breasts.

"So? How did you end up here, Furuya?"

"I was patrolling the school hallways. Well, the reason I’m here specifically is that I got lost…"

Nagumo nodded as she said, "Yeah, our school is ridiculously big." Then continued,

"All right. I’ll show you around. I’ve already checked most of the protective gear and besides, you just saved me from a boogeyman so I need to return the favor."

She gave me a cheerful smile.

Perhaps it was because I had been dealing with a scary childhood friend, the idiotic guys from class, and teammates who seemed to have a bit of a problem with their heads for so long, but I found my conversation with the sensible Nagumo to be incredibly soothing.