If no one saw her, it would be considered a bizarre supernatural event.
But they had seen her.
And that made it feel… a bit ridiculous.
Yuuko awkwardly tapped her foot in the air.
Miko was surprised. "Eh? Ghosts can get embarrassed?"
Yuuko retorted loudly, "Ghosts were humans too, you know!"
"Uh, sorry, sorry!"
Miko scratched her cheek awkwardly.
"You… are you really communicating with a ghost?"
Yukino's voice trembled slightly, while Yui shrank behind her, too scared to even peek out.
"Eh? Where? Where's Miss Ghost?"
Hana looked around, shaking her head back and forth as if trying to spot something.
Miko: "…"
You really are something, Hana.
But this ghost was different from the ones she had encountered before.
Not only could she communicate, but she also seemed to be creating incidents to scare students away.
A kind ghost.
Meanwhile, Lynn looked at the glowing [Evil Piece] on his panel, then at the ghost floating in front of him. His expression turned strange.
Can ghosts be turned into peerage members?
Is this… diversity in the Devil race?
Adhering to his usual approach of studying the [Evil Piece], Lynn felt it was worth trying.
Once this commission was over, he'd find an excuse to recruit her.
For now, he put the thought aside and listened to her story.
The ghost's name was Yuuko Kanoe.
An old ghost.
A groundbound spirit.
Because she was stuck here and had nothing to do, she spent most of her time sleeping.
Then, one day, when she woke up, the atmosphere of the old school building had completely changed.
It was now crawling with cursed spirits.
Of course, they were just low-grade cursed spirits and didn't pose a direct threat to her.
But they were invading her territory.
Mainly, they were just disgusting.
Then, at some point, a barrier had appeared in the old school building, preventing the cursed spirits from escaping.
So, Yuuko drove them all to the second floor and moved the barrier to the stairs to keep them trapped.
As a result, the cursed spirits began to devour each other, eventually forming a composite monster.
Even Yuuko was a bit frightened.
She hadn't expected that driving them to the second floor would actually accelerate the creation of a terrifying cursed spirit.
If not for the barrier, she might have already been eliminated.
But now, the barrier was full of cracks, and she had no idea how much longer it would last.
Still, Yuuko was surprisingly calm.
She had been a ghost for decades, with nothing much to do every day.
Dying completely didn't seem like a big deal.
After listening to her story, Lynn quickly grasped the situation.
Someone was deliberately cultivating cursed spirits.
By trapping them in a closed environment and allowing them to cannibalize each other, they were producing stronger cursed spirits.
Yuuko's decision to confine them upstairs had only sped up the process.
No wonder Natsuki said the people on the board of directors were idiots.
Cursed spirits were easy to breed but hard to control.
If one of them went rogue, it would spell disaster.
Lynn had Miko explain the situation to the three who couldn't see the supernatural.
Yukino was surprised. "So the floating chair was just Yuuko's way of keeping students away?"
Unexpectedly, she was a kind ghost.
But…
Yukino glanced up.
As expected, she still couldn't see anything.
She frowned before sighing. "Even if you tell me there's something terrifying up there, it won't feel real if I can't see it."
She couldn't help but glance at Lynn and the others.
Aside from Lynn, could they all see?
Was it something innate, or was there a method?
After a brief hesitation, she asked, "Is there a way for us to see it too?"
Lynn glanced at her. "Of course there is."
"But… are you sure you want to?"
"Once you see the real world, there's no going back."
His tone was calm, but something about it made Yukino and Yui's skin crawl.
After a brief pause, Yukino gritted her teeth. "I'd rather understand everything than remain ignorant!"
"Utaha, give her a buff."
Following Lynn's instructions, Utaha summoned the Devil Tome.
Devils had plenty of spells to grant humans temporary spirit vision.
As the floating tome opened in Utaha's hands, Yukino's pupils shrank.
Does this woman actually have supernatural abilities?!
Utaha activated a ghost-seeing spell through the Devil Tome.
A golden beam shot into Yukino's eyes.
She instinctively closed them.
A strange sensation washed over her vision.
When she opened her eyes again.
A black-haired woman floated in the air before her.
Her eyes widened slightly. "Is this… Miss Ghost?"
She really was floating.
Taking a deep breath, she looked up toward the second floor.
And then—
"Hngh…!"
Her pupils shrank, and a chilling sensation rushed down her spine.
Cold sweat dripped from her forehead.
A thick, eerie purple mist filled the old school building like a dark storm cloud, covering everything in a hellish shroud.
"This is the real world…"
Yukino trembled slightly.
For years, she had believed in a certain reality.
And now, that reality had shattered completely.
The world she thought she knew had been nothing but an illusion.
"What? What?"
Hana's curiosity was piqued.
"I want to see it too! I want to see it too!"
Seeing her excitement, Utaha cast the same ritual on her.
Then, she turned to Yui.
Do you want it too?
Her gaze silently conveyed the question.
Yui hesitated, then looked at Yukino who seemed utterly shaken and took a deep breath.
She nodded firmly.
Another golden beam was cast into her eyes.
"AHHH! So scary!"
Even Hana, who was usually carefree, let out a startled yelp.
"Ah, but Miss Ghost is cute."
Miko: "…"
Hana is still completely off track.
Yuuko blinked, then chuckled.
"Thanks~ You're cute too."
"Hehehe~!"
On the other side, Yui felt like crying.
She wanted to act natural like Hana.
But…
I can't do it!
She just couldn't!
Is this even the same world I knew?!
While the three of them were struggling to process their new reality, Lynn casually walked toward the second floor.
Yukino instinctively reached out.
Are we really… going to fight something capable of causing this?!
Shouldn't the school handle this kind of thing?!
"Uh…"
Even Yuuko wanted to stop him.
But Lynn was already at the staircase.
He raised his hand and lightly tapped the cracked barrier.
Crack.
Crack-crack.
BOOM!
The weakened barrier shattered into dust.
"YAAAAAAA!!"
As if it had sensed its release, a deafening roar erupted from deep within the building!
Lynn turned around and smiled at them.
"Now… let's begin the real commission."
(To be continued.)