Chapter 150: The Pen Spirit!
Since the evil spirit in the restroom was not their target…
Still, that thing really was infuriating.
If Luke could memorize fifty English words every day, why would he need some ghost to help improve his grades in the first place?
Absolutely useless.
Subjects that required constantly accumulating basic knowledge were probably the most troublesome ones for students.
In that case, next up was the Pen Spirit.
Luke turned on the faucet and splashed some water over his face.
"How did it go, Sensei?"
Two little heads—one with straight hair, the other with twin tails—poked around the doorway.
Miko and Yuria looked at him together.
Luke wiped the water from his face and nodded.
"The evil spirit from that story really exists, but it probably isn't the one responsible for the injuries."
"Oh. So that kind of spirit actually exists?"
Miko murmured without much surprise.
With her and Yuria's unusual constitutions, plus Hana's overwhelming life energy, she had already encountered all kinds of ordinary and downright bizarre evil spirits.
Mm.
She was used to it.
She really was~
"Then, Sensei…"
Miko thought for a moment and curiously asked, "How does it improve someone's grades? What method does it use?"
Luke walked out of the restroom.
"Pay attention in class, complete your homework properly, and memorize more vocabulary."
"Ugh!! That's seriously all?!"
Yuria looked as though the crushing truth had struck her directly in the head.
"Even praying to gods and Buddhas won't magically fix your grades, much less an evil spirit."
Luke sighed.
"You have to rely on yourself for things like that. Stop fantasizing, kid."
"Sigh!"
Miko and Yuria exchanged glances and sighed together.
Luke looked around the empty corridor.
Every classroom was locked for the weekend, making it inconvenient to enter anywhere.
'Then we'll just find somewhere empty to perform the ritual.'
Luke turned toward the two girls to gather more information.
"We'll find somewhere to perform the Pen Spirit ritual."
"By the way, do either of you know someone who has actually tried it?"
"No."
Both girls shook their heads like rattles.
"Doesn't matter. Let's find a desk first. I already brought paper and a pen."
Since the two girls knew the school well, they quickly found an old desk and chair on one of the upper floors.
"Will this work?"
"It'll do."
They deliberately chose somewhere without security cameras.
The desk was covered in dust, so Luke took out some tissues and wiped it clean before laying down a sheet of paper with an X and O already drawn on it.
The two girls watched everything curiously.
They had heard stories about the Pen Spirit at school and experienced plenty of evil spirit incidents themselves.
However, this was their first time seeing an evil spirit deliberately summoned through a ritual.
Even with Sensei beside her, Miko knew she would probably cry if a long-haired spirit with a bloody mouth suddenly crawled out of the paper.
She pursed her lips.
"This feels kind of scary."
"It's not that bad~"
Luke casually responded before muttering,
"Still nowhere near as terrifying as Yuigahama's cooking rituals."
"Eh?"
Miko and Yuria looked at him strangely.
Luke visibly shuddered from the memory.
When Yuigahama Yui had been learning how to prepare lunches from Yukinoshita Yukino, Luke could describe the scene very accurately—
It was an illegal ritual for summoning demons.
He still could not understand how something as simple as fried chicken cutlets could become charcoal after Yukino repeatedly explained the process.
Even worse, Yui constantly added unnecessary creativity to recipes that already had perfectly established methods.
For example—
Adding drinks and mountains of sugar to desserts.
Putting cookies into stew.
"Forget it. Let's begin."
Luke shook away the unpleasant memories.
He intertwined his fingers with Miko and Yuria's hands as the three held a fountain pen positioned between the X and O.
"Mm…"
Because her arms were too short to reach comfortably, Yuria had to stand from her chair.
Then she joined Luke in reciting the agreed incantation.
"Pen Spirit-sama, Pen Spirit-sama~"
"Please descend upon this place…"
"You are my former life~"
"I am your present life…"
"Pen Spirit-sama, Pen Spirit-sama~"
They continued repeating the invocation.
Luke sharpened his senses and carefully monitored their surroundings.
If a Pen Spirit truly existed, there should be no reason they could not summon it.
There were two girls with Yin-Yang Eyes here, plus Luke himself—a meal overflowing with spiritual power.
If even that failed…
They might have to ask Miko's well-endowed friend with especially abundant life energy to help.
"Please desce—"
"It's here."
Luke sensed sudden malice and stopped chanting.
His gaze moved toward the evil spirit flickering through the corridor.
Compared with the two naturally gifted girls beside him, Luke could not see it particularly clearly.
But a rough outline was enough.
In Miko's eyes, however…
'Ugh!'
It really was a long-haired evil spirit with a huge bloody mouth.
"Sigh."
Miko dejectedly tilted her head.
Even though she had grown accustomed to evil spirits, every time she saw one, she remembered that her future probably involved dealing with creatures like this forever.
'Sigh. Life is hard.'
"Um… Sensei, what do we—"
"OPEN YOUR MOUTH BEFORE I TEAR IT APART!"
The evil spirit representing the Pen Spirit had already reached them.
"I'll leave it to you two."
Luke looked at Miko and Yuria.
"Oh… Eh?! Us?!"
Miko stared in surprise.
"Haven't you two already practiced on plenty of evil spirits?"
Luke gestured with his chin.
"What are you afraid of? Go."
"But wouldn't an evil spirit summoned through a ritual be stronger than ordinary ones?"
Miko glanced at the creature beside him, whose broken fingernails were reaching outward.
"Probably."
Luke shrugged.
"But don't worry. You two still have physical bodies, so you can handle it."
"Oh, and there are no cameras here. Go wild."
Luke grabbed the so-called Pen Spirit as it tried to pry open his mouth and crawl into his body.
Then he casually tossed the socially oblivious creature toward the two girls and began thinking.
The Pen Spirit summoning game was widely known throughout Asia.
However, countless different versions of its story had appeared through literature, rumors, and human imagination.
The most familiar version involved summoning a spirit through the game, asking it questions, and communicating with it.
Some stories even claimed it could grant power or provide divination.
Luke had previously asked Kasumizuki about this kind of tale.
According to the miko, any proper spirit-summoning ritual required the correct method, the correct time, and the correct participants to summon a spirit capable of normal communication.
"Don't come any closer!"
Luke glanced over.
Miko had one arm wrapped around Yuria's head while wildly stabbing at the spirit with her dagger using the other.
"OPEN YOUR MOUTH! SCREAM!"
The evil spirit kept being forced backward by the exorcism tool.
'Hey, Miko.'
'Yuria can't breathe!'
Luke pulled out his phone and checked his previous messages with Kasumizuki.
Just as the shrine priestess had explained…
When ordinary people without a legitimate spiritual tradition performed these rituals, only two outcomes were common.
Either nothing happened—
Or they summoned some random wandering spirit from nearby.
The evil spirit before them was exactly that.
'So it forces people to open their mouths and scream, then enters their bodies and steals their souls?'
Luke considered the possibility.
A scream was a method of releasing emotion.
Using that emotional opening to seize someone's soul was not completely unreasonable.
"Hey?! Yuria-chan, are you okay?! Did the evil spirit do something to you?!"
Miko had finally gathered enough courage to stab the evil spirit nearly into pieces.
Now she was desperately shaking a dazed Yuria, who had almost suffocated.
'You did that yourself!'
Luke helplessly rubbed his forehead.
Whenever Miko panicked, she instinctively trapped whoever stood beside her in a rear choke.
She had even done similar things during other tense moments before.
Luke had no idea who had taught her that python-like chokehold.
He took out a talisman used to suppress evil spirits, pulled the fountain pen from where it had been stabbed deep into the desk, then wrapped it securely.
Obtained: Fountain Pen Containing Lingering Resentment!
Another small profit.
Under Miko's frantic shaking, Yuria finally recovered.
"I think I saw a river…"
"My grandma was standing on the opposite bank and waving at me."
"Don't answer her, Yuria!"
"Uh… Was it really that bad?"
Luke looked between them.
"Anyway, good job."
He took out his phone, photographed the talisman-wrapped fountain pen, and sent the picture along with a voice message.
"Miko, the job on my side is complete."
"I sent you the mission number. Settle the payment."
Miko, who was supporting Yuria, looked at Luke curiously.
"That's enough?"
"Of course."
Luke put his phone away.
"As a reward, I'll treat you two to something tasty."
After sending the message to Kasumizuki, Luke looked toward the only casualty, Niguredo Yuria.
"Niguredo, is there anything you like eating?"
"R-red fly agaric pancakes…"
Yuria shook the mushroom decoration attached to her hair.
"…Ahaha. That's so childish."
Seeing that she had recovered, Miko laughed happily.
…
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