My Girlfriend Is a Shaman

15 – Shinju Complex #5

A car accident that happened to Ayoung’s parents.

I couldn’t think of it as an ordinary accident. Ayoung’s parents were on their way to get a spirit jar to seal the ghost. There was no way the severed head ghost would leave them alone. They must have tried to somehow interfere and prevent him from receiving the new liquor jar.

“…Ugh.”

Her tears flowed down Ayoung’s cheeks. Now the next target of the severed head ghost was Ayoung. Sarah spoke to Ayoung, who was crying.

“It’s okay. We will save you.”

“Really…?”

“As you know, I am the daughter of a shaman. I know all the ways to exorcise ghosts. In the past, there was a ghost disturbance in our class, and Jinwoo and I solved it.”

“Ah…!”

Ayoung, who was shedding tears, looked at me and Sarah. Of course, our class president, Ayoung, knew about the ghost disturbance that occurred at the beginning of the semester. She said the ghost of a girl who died 10 years ago was making a fuss.

“Are you talking about the strange thing that happened in the classroom at that time? I thought the strange things had somehow stopped…”

“That’s right. We exterminated the girl’s ghost.”

Sarah smiled and pointed at me with her finger.

“Jin-Woo also has the ability to perform exorcism. Last time, he tested himself by defeating an evil spirit, so he can be trusted. So from now on, please follow what we tell him.”

“Ugh… I understand! I’ll do whatever you ask!”

Ayoung wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and then lowered her head towards me.

“Jinwoo…! I’m sorry for not contacting you until now and for lying to you. I’m really sorry for hiding things about your uncle.”

I received an apology from Ayoung.

About the things she kept quiet about and hid about her household chores.

“I will forgive you. Raise your head.”

To be honest, she was angry that she had lied. Still, it wasn’t something she could blame Ayoung for. Her problem was her parents who told their daughter to keep her mouth shut. I forgave Ayoung.

“First, let’s take Ayoung to Hyehwadang. Our house’s shrine is a place where evil spirits cannot enter.”

Hyehwadang.

It was the name given to Sarah’s house, the party’s house. She was told that evil spirits cannot easily enter a shrine, which is a space for worshiping spirits. This means that Sarah’s house is the perfect place to protect Ayoung.

We took Ayoung to Hyehwadang. A shaman’s house engraved with the character 卍, which means a good omen. When I entered the house, Sarah’s parents were nowhere to be seen again today.

“Sera, where have your parents gone?”

“He was busy again, so he left the house empty. My parents have a lot of people calling from all over.”

“It’s hard to see your parents’ faces…”

We were the only ones in the house. But there was no need to worry. We had Sarah, the daughter of a shaman. Se-ra took A-young to her shrine and told her not to go outside.

“Don’t come out of the shrine until the exorcism is over. If anyone calls from outside, just ignore them. No one will come to our house today.”

“Ah, okay.”

Sera tightly closed the door to the shrine where Ayoung was.

I asked Sarah something I was curious about.

“How are you going to exorcise the severed head ghost? Are you going to drive it out like last time by biting the ghost and offer offerings to make it become a Buddha?”

“The situation is different this time. The ghost we saw last time was still someone worth trying to talk to. But the severed-headed ghost has already committed murder in his lifetime.”

“Did you say she murdered her parents and committed suicide?”

“Yes, he’s a suicidal demon. Besides, he’s probably been imprisoned in the Shinju complex for a long time and is extremely resentful of him. Trying to talk to him peacefully is the same as talking to a wild beast.”

Is it a wild beast? The situation was definitely different from when the girl ghost was consecrated to Buddhahood. There was no way that a severed-headed ghost who had already committed murder would calmly attain Buddhahood. Ayeong would not stop until she had eaten her entire family.

“Then?”

“You have to extinguish the soul, not attain Buddhahood. You said that the libation jar contained the hair of a corpse. Her hair must be burned. That is the object that the severed head ghost resides in.”

You have to burn your hair.

I touched the silver-plated Zippo lighter in my pocket. The time has finally come to use the Zippo lighter that my father gave me as a gift. It was worth carrying around with me all the time.

“Jinwoo, do you have a Zippo lighter?”

“Of course. I always carry it with me.”

“Good! I’ll bring the items needed for the exorcism in a moment, so please wait.”

Sarah went to Hyehwadang’s warehouse.

After a while, I couldn’t help but be surprised when I saw what Sarah had brought.

“It’s a new knife, right?”

Sera came carrying two swords. It’s not like an ordinary kitchen knife she used to bite off a ghost. The blade was curved like a scimitar, and a tassel made of red thread was attached to the end of the hilt. It was a new knife used by shamans during exorcism.

“Yes, it is a divine sword. To be exact, it is a warrior’s sword among divine swords. The warrior’s sword contains the dignity of the gods. It means that it has the power to cut down ghosts.”

Gunungkal was a new sword used to serve the general god.

Sera handed me a military sword. Because it was reduced to the size of a knife, I was able to accept the Gunwoong knife without difficulty.

“You can cut down a ghost with this knife? So, if you stab it with the martial arts knife, the ghost will die?”

“They are already dead, but they cannot die again. They can only temporarily prevent their actions. To extinguish evil spirits, you have to burn the source of their power.”

“Still, it’s probably a useful item.”

I remembered the last time I faced a ghost with a kitchen knife. At that time, even if I swung a kitchen knife, it would only pass by the spirit body in vain, but if I swung a military knife, it would be a different story.

━━Sreung!

I pulled the sword out of its scabbard. The blade illuminated by the moonlight radiated sharp light.

In addition to the sword, Sarah also handed me mugwort rolled up like a battery.

“Is this wormwood?”

“Yes.”

Illegal wormwood.

It was also called mugwort.

It was a shamanic item used to drive away unclean energy.

“When you burn the hair of a corpse, burn the wormwood as well. That way, you can more surely extinguish the evil spirit.”

I took the mugwort and nodded.

“This is the end of preparation.”

“Let’s go.”

We left Hyehwadang carrying a bag containing a sword, mugwort, and a flashlight.

*

1 O’clock in the morning.

It was the time Sarah and I arrived at the apartment. It was time for everyone to go to bed, so most of the lights in the apartment were turned off. Unlike usual, the apartment felt eerie and eerie, like an abandoned house.

We took the stairs to the third floor.

No. 302.

I walked down the hallway and arrived in front of Ayoung’s house. Ayoung’s house, where all the family had left, was ridiculously quiet.

“Open.”

“Be careful.”

There must be a severed head ghost in this house right now. I nervously pressed the door lock code. Before leaving Hyehwadang, I heard the house password from Ayoung.

━━Kkiiiiik!

When I turned the handle, the front door opened with an ominous sound. We entered the house with our shoes on. The interior of room 302 was dark with the lights off. The outlines of the furniture at first glance looked like monsters.

“The light doesn’t turn on?”

“It’s a good thing I brought a flashlight.”

I pressed the switch near the front door, but the fluorescent light did not turn on. Room 302, where we arrived, had a power outage. Sarah and I took out a military knife and a flashlight from our bags. I put the rolled up mugwort in my pocket along with a Zippo lighter.

“Is there no one inside? It’s so quiet.”

“Well….”

It was when we were looking inside the house with a flashlight.

A loud sound suddenly rang out from behind.

━━Boom!!

The front door that was open when I came in was slammed shut. The door closed without anyone touching it. I quickly went back and tried the door handle, but the front door wouldn’t open.

“The door won’t open!”

“Trying to open it is in vain. It’s a trick of the ghost.”

A ghost’s prank.

As soon as she heard Sarah’s words, her whole body became cold. We were trapped in this house because the door wouldn’t open. The severed head ghost was definitely in this house. I returned to Sarah’s side and looked around again.

Spacious living room.

Kitchen and bathroom.

Several rooms connected to the living room.

But there was no need to look around the entire house.

We thought we knew where the severed head ghost was hiding.

“Where is Shinju Complex?”

“It’s the master bedroom! It was over there.”

He raised his finger and pointed to the main room of the house. This is where the broken Shinju complex was located. The door to the master bedroom was tightly closed. We illuminated the door with the light of our flashlight.

I shouted loudly toward the living room.

“Don’t hide, come out quickly!!”

The door to the master bedroom slowly opened.

A man’s head popped out through the crack in the door.

The man with his hair falling down looked at us and started laughing from the top of his lungs.

━━Ihihihihi! Heeheeheehee!

It was a severed head ghost. Unlike when I saw it in the dark management room, I could now clearly see the ghost. Because we were shining our flashlights on him.

A head floating in the air with only its neck hanging down.

The long flowing hair wriggled like a snake.

The evil spirit trying to kill the family has revealed itself to us.

━━Hee hee hee!

At some point, the laughter stopped.

The door opened wide and a severed head ghost flew into the living room. The speed was faster than I expected, so much so that I was embarrassed. It was clever that it didn’t attack us right away. It was flying around the living room, making our vision dizzy.

The flashlight’s light could not catch up with him.

It was the moment when the head floating in the air melted into the darkness.

In the blink of an eye, a ghost with a severed head rushed towards me.

“Ugh…!”

I quickly jumped to the side and avoided the ghost’s head. However, the moment I thought I had dodged it, the wriggling ghost’s hair reached out towards me like a snake. It’s not a speed you can avoid just by looking at it.

The ghost’s hair tried to grab my neck.

I swung the military sword at the hair.

At that moment, something amazing happened.

The ghost’s hair was cut off cleanly with a sword. Sarah’s words were true. It felt different from when I dealt with a ghost with a kitchen knife. The sensation of cutting off his hair was felt heavily by the hand holding the hilt of the sword.

“I cut it! I cut it!”

The sword of Gunung truly had the power to cut down ghosts. The severed head ghost stretched out its hair again, but I swung my sword and cut it off. It was when I was fighting a severed head ghost in the dark.

━━Wheeik!

Sera appeared from behind the severed head ghost.

Sera stabbed the sword he was holding back into the top of the ghost’s head.

The ghost with the severed head with the sword stuck in it disappeared like a ghost.

“It’s gone!”

With a sword stuck in the top of its head, any living thing should have died. It was a scene that would not be strange to think that a ghost had been defeated if you saw it with your own eyes. But Sarah shook her head and looked around.

“It will appear again soon. I only stopped it for a moment.”

Sarah illuminated her bedroom with her flashlight.

A mysterious thing happened.

In front of the door of the master bedroom, the severed-headed ghost that had just disappeared with a knife stuck in the top of its head reappeared.

The hair I had cut off and the top of my head that had been split by Sarah were still intact.

The severed head ghost did not die. Sera opened her mouth while aiming her sword at the ghost that had reappeared.

“Don’t forget that we are dealing with ghosts. They are immortals who will not die even if you kill them.”