Meditating had become a part of Nara’s daily routine since her first exorcism training with Yona. Doing it constantly every day, she finally got used to gathering spiritual energy from her surroundings and caging it inside her body. The duration of her spiritual energy containment increased each day and now, after a week of painstaking meditation training, she could hold it within for approximately five minutes. Though, she had to admit, it was a ridiculously difficult feat.

Confining the spiritual energy inside her body was like trying to fill up a bottle full of holes with water.

However, Nara wouldn’t be completely satisfied until she could stop being useless and protect people around her from evil spirits, which was the reason she’s willing to train and become an exorcist. And hopefully, until she could bring Jinushigami back into existence.

Time seemed to go excruciatingly slow as Nara counted down the minutes until she got to go home from school. The last lesson, history, felt so exceptionally boring today. But it was most likely because she just wanted to go home quickly and practice her meditation.

Later tonight, Nara would have her highly anticipated second exorcism training with Yona. And she needed to show huge improvements to get Yona to teach her something of a higher level than meditation.

As soon as the bell rang, Nara ran out of her classroom, too impatient to even stay a minute longer in school – where she had to pretend as a Vanilla when she was actually an Indigo. She barely passed the school’s front gate when Yoon Soomi – the girl with a bun sitting in front of her at class – blocked her way.

Nara grimaced at the sight of her. Soomi had been pestering her a lot lately as though she’d seen through her lies and Nara wasn’t confident she could convince her with her false pretenses any longer.

Soomi had been sticking to Nara like glue and persistently trying to make friends with her no matter how many times Nara had pushed her away. Her perseverance was absolutely something to be admired.

“Why are you in such a hurry?” Soomi frowned, her arms crossed as she stared down at her. She was slightly panting, assumedly from trying to outrun Nara. “You just ran off while I was talking to you, you know.”

Panic rose in Nara’s chest as she tried to find a reasonable lie, at least one that didn’t sound too shady. “Uh… I… I have a part-time job.”

“Oh.” Soomi narrowed her eyes, clearly not believing Nara. “And where is that?”

Think, Nara! Think! “Uh… I’m helping my cousin with her job.”

Soomi didn’t look content with her answer. “What is your cousin’s job?”

“She’s a…” Saying Yona was an exorcist would be the same as telling Soomi that Nara could see spirits.

Nara was darting her eyes around anxiously, thinking of a believable lie, when she saw something big and dark towering behind Soomi. Her breath hitched in .

A tall youkai with a tiger-like body and a grosteque human head was hovering over Soomi. He was standing on two feet despite having dark grey and black colored tiger body. But his bestial physique wasn’t the horrifying part. His horrid human head with long scruffy black hair and monstrous face was.

Sensing the youkai’s overwhelming spiritual energy, Nara automatically stepped back, intimidated. Her sense of spiritual energy was much keener now, thanks to her meditation routine.

Nara watched in horror as the yellow eyes of the tiger-like youkai was boring into Soomi, his hands – or front legs – approaching her body. It was evident that his target was Soomi, not her. The reason was still unknown, but whatever it was, Nara wouldn’t let him hurt Soomi.

Protecting Soomi was her responsibility. Nara believed it’s her fault that the youkai was here. Her power must have attracted him.

Nara had to do something. She couldn’t just stand there and do nothing.

A sudden burst of courage surged inside her. With one strong pull, she managed to get Soomi to stand behind her.

Giving him a warning look, Nara daringly shouted to the youkai, “Don’t touch my friend! Go away!”

Nara realized it a bit too late that she wasn’t alone. Feeling eyes on her, she glanced at her surroundings to find that many students had gathered around them. Some of them shot her a dirty look, some others were purely terrified. They were muttering to each other, intentionally loud enough for her to hear without straining her ears.

“That transfer girl just spoke to herself, right?”

“Geez, we got a creep in our school.”

“I know, I know! She must be one of those people who have a sixth sense! I bet she just spoke to a spirit!”

“Gah! Stop it! That’s even creepier! Give me a break! I don’t want to have anything to do with those freaks!”

Freaks.

The word struck a chord deep within Nara. She’d grown up hearing people calling her a freak. It’s the word she despised the most. At the same time, it’s also the word she feared the most.

Nara didn’t want to be called a freak ever again.

Laughing awkwardly, Nara turned to face Soomi, who was gaping at her in confusion. She deliberately said in a loud voice, “There’s a huge bug flying over your head! I was trying to drive it away from you!"

Lying wasn’t actually a good deed, but she would do anything to avoid getting other people involved in her trouble. And more importantly, to prevent them getting scared of her.

“Oh, interesting!” a voice roared from behind Nara, making her whirl around in an instant. “You can see me, young girl?”

Ignoring the youkai, Nara scanned her surroundings once more, desperately looking for help. Then she remembered that Minseok was away on a job with Yona. Of all days, Yona just had to choose this day to take Minseok with her. Just when Nara needed him the most.

Yona had assumed that Jongin really had no attention to kill Nara because he hadn’t visited in a week. So she thought Nara would be safe by herself. Technically, she wasn’t wrong. It’s true that Nara was safe from Jongin. But not from the evil spirits.

“So this spiritual energy I sense is yours? You must be strong then!” The youkai suddenly lunged forward, hunger glinting in his eyes. “I’ll start with you first!”

An idea struck Nara. If he changed his target to her, then she could easily get him away from the crowd of innocent students.

“Sorry, Soomi! I’ve got something to do! See you tomorrow!” Nara yelled as she bolted towards a less crowded place: a bridge behind the school.

The bridge was leading to a farm and another entrance of the forest, other than the one behind the bus stop. People rarely crossed this bridge, besides the few farmers who tended the farm. It was like an unspoken rule between the residents that the forest must be avoided at all cost.

Nara, while running, took a glance at her back and saw the youkai following her. Good, he’s following me.

Bolting down the stairs leading to the riverbank under the bridge, Nara searched the grounds for a stick to fight him with. Her parents had made her take kendo classes – a Japanese form of fencing – since she’s young. She didn’t know why they’d done that, but it was beneficial for her to chase away the spirits who attacked her, so she didn’t see the purpose to question them.

Nara found a sturdy looking stick – it seemed to be an abandoned stick of a broom – lying on the footpath below the bridge and she skidded to a halt to snatch it. She spun around, pointing the stick towards the youkai. Since they were already concealed by the bridge, it’s time to stop running and face him.

The youkai laughed maliciously as he saw