Chapter 88: Knock, knock, knock

When he heard the word “plan,” the other three exorcists reacted in strikingly different ways.

Ayano Fujiwara’s shoulders gave a faint shudder, as though she had recalled something unpleasant.

Masato Kondoi looked at Qiao Qiao with curiosity, his thoughts impossible to read.

Only Ariko Asano’s eyes shone with excitement; she looked every bit the devoted little fangirl.

At the mention of Qiao-san’s plan...

Ayano Fujiwara remembered the shrill ringing of a sacred bell blaring from a loudspeaker during the Wicked Child incident, and the final image of Qiao Qiao drawing out a massive revolver and blowing the evil spirit’s head apart with a single shot.

She suddenly began to feel a little worried about this old gymnasium storeroom.

“I wonder what sort of plan Qiao-san has in mind?”

Ayano Fujiwara mustered her courage and asked.

“If we rush into this storeroom, we may be ambushed by the evil spirit, or it may use the confusion to slip away.”

Qiao Qiao looked at the old gymnasium storeroom and explained.

“Besides, this case is a little unusual. We can’t be certain this evil spirit is acting alone. There might already be several of them in the gymnasium storeroom.”

“So, I propose a controlled demolition.”

As expected, Qiao-san was still Qiao-san.

For some reason, Ayano Fujiwara suddenly felt relieved.

“I happen to have two exorcism grenades on me. If we toss them in through the ventilation openings, they should be able to purify the things inside the storeroom to a certain degree. If that’s not enough, I also have flash-and-stun bombs infused with spiritual power, which can create an opening for us...”

As he spoke, Qiao Qiao took two sooty-looking objects from his backpack.

“?”

Masato Kondoi and Ayano Fujiwara instinctively took half a step back as they watched Qiao Qiao’s practiced, matter-of-fact movements.

Meaning that while they had all been riding together, laughing and chatting in the car, Qiao Qiao had already been carrying explosives in his bag?

Did something seem a little off about this person?

“Don’t worry. The chance of the fuse on this kind of grenade misfiring is lower than the probability of a plane crash. If there’s no fuse, it absolutely will not explode.”

Apparently assuming the two of them were worried about safety, Qiao Qiao offered another explanation.

“Incredible. In that case, even if the evil spirit has accomplices, or has already recovered most of its strength, we can deal with it easily.”

Only Ariko Asano nodded, speaking with sincere understanding.

“Exactly. With no hostages involved, this is the safest approach.”

Seeing Ariko Asano’s expression, Qiao Qiao felt very gratified.

Off to the side, Vice Principal Mizawa, who had witnessed the exchange among the exorcists, looked utterly horrified.

Though she had already had a bad feeling when she learned the evil spirit was hiding in the old gymnasium storeroom, she had not expected modern exorcists to be so direct and brutal.

Wait, demolition? Grenades?

Was this exorcism, or was it a demolition job?

When that master exorcised the spirit a few days ago, he hadn’t used methods like this, had he?

“Um, Master, this storeroom is sort of a cultural relic of our school, so if possible, could you please...”

“Mizawa-sensei.”

At her words, Qiao Qiao spoke.

“Imagine this: on a dining table lies a slice of bread, and beside that bread is a cockroach. How would you deal with the bread?”

“W-Well, of course I’d throw it away.”

Vice Principal Mizawa did not understand the point of Qiao Qiao’s question.

“Exactly. You don’t know whether the cockroach crawled over that slice of bread, but since there is a possibility that it did, of course you choose to discard it. It could even have laid eggs in the bread, and once you eat it, countless little cockroaches could hatch inside you...”

As Qiao Qiao spoke, everyone present began to picture the scene in their minds.

“Stop, Qiao-san. We still have to eat lunch later.”

Ayano Fujiwara hurriedly cut him off.

“My apologies. What I mean is, this old storeroom is the same.”

Qiao Qiao glanced at the old storeroom.

It had stood for a hundred years, tucked away in a corner of the athletic field. Ordinarily, few people paid it any attention, yet in recent years rumors and ghost stories had begun to spread among the students.

Such a thing, even when Qiao Qiao and the others, and the master before them, had come to the school, had gone completely unnoticed.

Didn’t that seem strange?

Even now, with the four of them standing at the entrance to the old gymnasium storeroom, none of them felt there was anything remarkable about the place.

In a world of the uncanny, if something appears entirely ordinary, then either it truly is ordinary, or it only seems ordinary.

The old gymnasium storeroom clearly belonged to the latter category.

Qiao Qiao even ventured the bold speculation that the evil spirit had not “hidden” in the old gymnasium storeroom.

Rather, it had “returned” to it.

The way an evil spirit and a vengeful ghost manipulate accumulated dark energy to strengthen their own existence—didn’t that sound familiar?

“This old storeroom may already have partially transformed into a spirit object.”

Qiao Qiao explained.

“An animistic spirit...”

Masato Kondoi immediately thought of that strange being known as a god.

“Come to think of it, why has a building from the Taisho era, one that has no particular historical significance, remained standing to this day without ever being demolished? Is it really entirely a coincidence?”

Qiao Qiao added another point.

Nagoya Girls’ University High School had a long history, and most of its buildings had already been renovated. Yet every time the old gymnasium storeroom was due for renovation, all sorts of problems arose, and the project was eventually shelved.

Wasn’t that far too coincidental?

In the world of the uncanny, coincidence is not a good thing.

If the old gymnasium storeroom had truly half-transformed into a spirit object, becoming a strange being of the animistic kind, then everything would be easy to explain.

Just like the time Qiao Qiao had encountered Tetsu Inokuchi, who tried to build a house out of corpses in order to become an evil spirit himself.

The animistic spirit within the old gymnasium storeroom could naturally control the vengeful ghosts in the vicinity, making them gather dark energy for it.

When a vengeful ghost is destroyed, it is not truly destroyed.

As long as the animistic spirit remains, the vengeful ghost will be reborn.

Unless the source is removed, the trouble will never end.

“I see. So that’s why you decided to use demolition from the very beginning, sensei?”

Ariko Asano said, enlightened at last.

“No. At first, I simply fell back on the most convenient method. All of this was something I thought of only afterward.”

Qiao Qiao did not hide it and answered directly.

If not for his previous exorcism experience, frankly speaking, Qiao Qiao might not have noticed it so quickly.

What a cunning anomaly.

“Hm? Why are you all backing away?”

Qiao Qiao noticed that after he finished speaking, everyone except Ariko Asano had once again retreated three more steps.

“Even so, no matter how you look at it, directly blowing up the old gymnasium storeroom...”

Vice Principal Mizawa was still uneasy.

After all, the old gymnasium storeroom was something steeped in history. Even though Qiao Qiao had explained it so earnestly, it still sounded as though he was merely looking for an excuse to blow the place up.

Was that really all right?

“Don’t worry, Mizawa-sensei. There is a Chinese saying: what is old cannot stay; what is new will come.”

Qiao Qiao had already prepared the exorcism grenades.

“If you cannot let go of the past, you cannot move forward.”

“Is that a line from some television drama?”

As Vice Principal Mizawa watched Qiao Qiao skillfully check the exits of the old gymnasium storeroom and then prepare to throw the grenades inside, he suddenly stopped and turned to look at her.

“Mizawa-sensei, may I ask you something for the sake of argument: has this storeroom been insured?”

“?”

Vice Principal Mizawa froze.

Insured... what did that mean?

“It should be... the school buildings all have the proper insurance, I think... what’s the—”

Before Vice Principal Mizawa could finish speaking,

Qiao Qiao had already thrown the two grenades through two separate ventilation openings.