1.1 - Existing
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The world doesn't always seem like how you would perceive it.
Even if you have the ability to see everything, there will always be things that you could not see.
Even if you know all the things about a certain subject, there will always be things about it that you have never heard of before.
Even if you have the ability to see ghosts… that doesn't mean you can see the demons surrounding you.
"Careful around her… you will get possessed."
"Do your best to avoid her. She's weird."
"Watch where you're going so you won't bump into her. I heard you can get haunted if that were to happen."
Those are the voices I hear all week long right after high school starts. They are the voices of my old school mates from junior high, and they were warning the other students who came from other schools about me.
Having the ability to see more than usual doesn't mean I receive less of other senses. My tasting ability is fine, and my nose can smell fart normally like everybody else. It's just that my eyes can see something that other people normally couldn't see.
Ghosts.
Truthfully, they are spirits. The invisible people that roams around us and simply existing. Not only are they harmless, but they also does not have any effect on our daily lives. They are spirits, emotionless and aimlessly wanders around our world without being visible.
Being able to see them might seem like a cool ability at first. But, of course, nothing comes without a price.
Spirits aren't the only thing that I can see. There are many kinds of invisible things that exist in this world, and the second type is the one that started to become problematic.
Demons.
"Huh!? Where did my wallet go!?"
A random lunch break right after break time ends, a girl shouted to everyone in the class. It didn't take long until everybody starts crowding her, asking this and that about how her wallet looked like or where did she placed them.
Her classmates began asking around if anyone saw her wallet, even to the extent of checking the bags to look for them. One by one, the search group looked through the bags of the students that is in the class. After all, break time just ended. Certainly, the thief must be from this class.
Until finally, the search group arrived on my seat. To my surprise, they actually wanted to talk to me and asked me to open my bag.
Meanwhile, I turned my eyes away from them and stared at the white board in front of the class.
'Keeekekekee...…'
Laughing, grinning, and floating in front of the class's whiteboard is a single old ugly grandpa wearing white cloths as his only attire. He is invisible, that's for sure, since nobody else in this class can see them. And most importantly, he is holding a small square brown item in his hands.
A naughty spirit, huh…?
They are not counted as demons as they are still sane. To put it simply, there are a few spirits out there that have the ability to think for themselves and even went out of their natural behavior to cause an occurrence in the human realm.
Those kinds of spirits were categorized as 'Naughty Spirits'. They went out of their usual boring and silent behavior to suddenly do stuff that has an effect on the human lives.
That old grandpa is a naughty spirit, and the act of stealing the wallet is its naughtiness. After all, no normal spirit would ever think of doing that.
Now. What will I do with this information?
Simple.
"Go ahead. Check my bag."
I will ignore it.
I allowed the search group to look for the wallet inside my bag, even though there's probably nothing. My bag is mostly empty, anyways. All I got was a couple notebooks and a novel that I was reading. There's literally nothing else.
Once they are satisfied with the search, the group moved on to the other students.
I placed my head on top of my hand on the table and stared at the old grandpa in front of the class, thinking whether or not what I did was the right thing. That wallet might be very important to the girl, but if anything my experience has taught me was to never meddle in on anything spiritual. No matter how important it was.
Because, otherwise, the aftereffects will only destroy me.
The day went on, and the wallet was never found. Of course, it was at the hands of an invisible spirit. And anything the spirit touches or hold, it turns invisible as well.
Now, what if the case of items floating mid-air like you see in movies? Simple. Those weren't being held by spirits. Not spirits specifically, at least.
As I gone home, I saw a glimpse of a student group right by the exit gate. It was a rather popular group from the first year students that even I, an antisocial, knows who they are.
Popular students from class A to D are grouping by the gate, and they seemed to be talking about something rather hot. They even shouted once in a while, which definitely worries the students that walked past them on the gate.
Included in the group was the girl that lost her wallet to the spirit. And from the looks of it, she was the center of the topic.
And… she was crying.
Shit… was the wallet that important, after all?
During the walk, I noticed one of them was one of the super popular boy from the first year. A delinquent that was famous for skipping an entire year during his junior high but still managed to take first place in the school class placement test in our entire year.
Nicolas Class, the delinquent prodigy of the first year.
As the top student in our year, there's no one here that doesn't know who he is. Naturally, since he is quite socialable, his position is also one of the popular ones within the students of this school.
Aside from all that, there is also his looks.
As I walked past the group by the gate, I kept my eyes specifically on him who is talking with the other students on the group. Seeing him laugh and having his blonde hair waving around thanks to the wind breeze, I can't help but feel jealous of those popular girls who were also there with him on that group.
Certainly… he had the looks of a model. There are plenty of blonde guys in this school, but he definitely has the most damaging charm. There's just something about his bright attitude and cute face that is just so different from other guys. So much different that even I, a passerby, would fall in love with him just from his laugh and looks alone.
Even now, I can see six other girls walking past the group while keeping their eyes on him. He is just too charming for this poor school.
To have him right there, dealing with the crying girl who lost her wallet somehow made me feel like I should have done something with that wallet.
But, I will not regret it any further.
Past experiences has taught me not to meddle with the spiritual realm. I won't ever… involve myself unnecessarily--
"Your father will really lose his job, then!?"
Suddenly, I can hear a shout coming from the group. It's a male voice, and certainly, he was quite shocked at something that he just heard.
My walk gradually turned slower, and I turned my gaze towards the gate and began walking there instead. I stopped by the gate on purpose and opened my phone, all with the intention of listening in to the group talking.
Unfortunately, it's quite hard to hear when it's so loud. It's right on the gate, and there are multiple cars and other vehicles on the road passing by. Listening in like this is rather difficult, but maybe I can get tiny pieces.
"Damn! That really sucks, then. To think that you would put that kind of thing on your wallet, that's crazy! We absolutely should find the culprit!"
Another guy shouted loudly, and looks like I can understand what happened from just those words alone.
That wallet… contains something important that can get the girl's father to lose her job. It's very… very important.
I know how it feels to be in a difficult monetary situation. It can be very harsh. And now that I know I can stop someone else from experiencing it, I will have to do something about it.
Beforelong, I turned my walk the other way around. I walked past the group, and began marching towards my classroom once more.
Arriving on the classroom, I noticed the naughty spirit is still in the room. He was sitting on the teachers table, staring at the wallet while giggling and smiling.
Usually, naughty spirits will only do things according to their previous instincts. The kind of habit that they performed when they were still alive. Some spirits do follow those habits even after they die.
As for this naughty spirit, it's very clear to me just what his habits were when he was still alive. Seeing him smiling and laughing when he is holding a wallet, it's obvious that his previous life has been nothing but stealing.
I began walking into the classroom, and I turned my eyes towards the camera at the top right corner of the room, above the window. That CCTV camera is always on, and it is still capturing a scene at this very moment.
Fortunately, the camera only captures visual footage. It does not capture anything like voices or sound.
As planned, I began to wear my facemask and purposely stared at the whiteboard. I kept my eye on it for quite a while, and then I began walking towards the teacher's table to grab the whiteboard eraser.
And as I moved my hand to grab the eraser, I watched the trajectory of my hand's movement so that it will be able to grab the wallet from the hands of the spirit. I managed to grab ahold of the wallet successfully since the wallet was not part of the spirit realm, which completely took the wallet out of its invisibility.
The wallet is now in my hand, and as expected, the naughty spirit reacted angrily. It was about to riot and affect the visible world negatively, but I quickly opened my mouth.
"Go away."
I mumbled behind my facemask in the language that the spirit will understand, and to my command, the spirit jumped away from the teacher's table to the center of the classroom. It didn't do anything, and simply stayed there like a frozen spirit.
The plan worked, and now the wallet is in my hand. All I have to do is drop the wallet on the floor, then drop the eraser on the floor, so that it will look like I found the wallet underneath the teacher's table to the CCTV while grabbing the eraser.
As I was lowering myself to grab the wallet and eraser, I noticed that the door to the classroom was opened. Immediately, I lifted my body up.
S-Someone came??
It was the group of students from the gate, just not all of them it seemed. Only some that came along, including the girl who owns the wallet.
As soon as they noticed me alone in the empty classroom, they immediately began asking questions.
"What are you doing here? I thought you went home, already."
One of the girls asked, and I knew her because she was not only my current classmate, but also my old school mate from junior high. She definitely recognized me.
I turned my eyes to the other students, and I knew exactly what those gazes were. Suspicion.
I see… Looks like I'm out of luck again, today.
"I… was about to do the chores…"
"Chores?"
"Yeah. I forgot it was my turn, today…"
I said as an escape, and fortunately, it was the truth. It was indeed my turn to do the class chores today, and they probably knew that as well.
The only thing was, I already did the chores earlier with the other students who also had their turn today. Hopefully, they won't notice this.
"Uhuh… And what were you about to do?"
She asked, and I turned my gaze towards the whiteboard. It was already clean, so there was actually no reason for me to do anything at all.
Now, this… is a problem.
"Well…"
I didn't know what to do…
Screw it.