Demons Beside You

Fali shook her head. “No. At noon, I was patrolling along the coastline after lunch. Suddenly, I saw someone struggling in the sea. I charged towards the drowning man, but when I reached there, that person had disappeared.”

“Maybe that person sank into the sea and was brought away by the waves?” Chen Zhao asked.

Fali shook her head again. “I thought so at the start as well. I reported it to Robio and carried out search and rescue, but I found no one. We also did not receive any reports of missing people.”

“Did you see wrongly?”

Actually, Chen Zhao was indeed an amateur spiritualist. He was unsure if Fali was mistaken or really encountered a supernatural event.

Among the coastlines in America that were open to tourists, over a thousand people would go missing each year. Therefore, it was hard to say what really happened.

Even Fali probably did not know if there was actually a drowning man.

Supernatural events were rare, after all, so Chen Zhao would prefer to believe that there was indeed a drowning man.

Perhaps, nobody was drowning in the first place. It might well just have been a tourist surfing in deepwater zone.

“I’ve thought about that too: maybe the person was not drowning after all. However, during my break just now, I came across this.” Fali placed an old newspaper before Chen Zhao.

“What’s this?”

Fali pointed at a particular report on the newspaper. “It’s an accident on Angel Beach five years ago. The victim Kirk Eta’s body has yet to be found.”

Chen Zhao saw the news, as well as a photo.

“When I was over ten meters away from that person, I clearly saw the drowning man’s face. He was Kirk Eta.”

“Is there any other clearer evidence that it was a supernatural event?”

“No.”

“I’m not sure whether it’s really supernatural. In any case, let Walter stay beside you. He’s powerful enough to defeat normal evil spirits.”

Walter was already 50 kilograms now and his body was formidably huge.

Most members of Coastal Rescue Team did not think that Walter was the same hero they had in the past.

“Also, call Sienna here. She’s more professional. Perhaps she can tell.”

Soon, Sienna arrived.

“Chen, what a surprise.”

“Ask Fali about it. She seems to have encountered a supernatural event. I’m not sure if it really is, and whether she’s in danger, so we asked you to come here.”

“Fali, tell me what happened.”

Fali told Sienna every detail. After thinking, Sienna said, “It’s very likely that Fali’s encountered a supernatural event, but I’m not fully certain whether the evil spirit will harm her.”

“I don’t think Fali can see evil spirits. If she really saw him, it means that the spirit was targeting her in particular.”

“Under most circumstances, normal people can’t see evil spirits and evil spirits also can’t let themselves be seen, but that’s not always the case. One possibility is that the evil spirit is extremely powerful. He can choose whoever he wants to be seen by. There’s another possibility which is not controllable, not even by the spirits themselves. They appear in this world only because he have some obsessions. They can sometimes be seen by others due to various unexpected reasons.”

“Which of the two did Fali encounter?”

“I can’t tell either. Fali has given us too few clues.”

“Can you find the evil spirit and cleanse or exorcize him?”

“Can’t find him without enough clues. Given that this coastline is so long, he might be anywhere along the coastline or in the sea nearby,” Sienna said.

Chen Zhao could not help too. His understanding of supernatural events was even less than Sienna’s.

This was why Chen Zhao had always been firmly stating that he was an amateur spiritualist.

Chen Zhao would not flaunt his superiority in a field that he was not even good in. Sienna was more professional and Chen Zhao was happy to listen to her.

“Sienna, have you finished processing the white crystals that I gave you last night?”

“I’ve already made some of them.”

Sienna opened her backpack and took out several bottles of liquids. Chen Zhao picked one up and asked, “What’s this?”

“I’ve mixed the crystals you gave me with holy water to channel the sacredness in those crystals out.”

“How do I use this? Pour it onto evil spirits?”

“I’ve done my experiments. It’s very effective against evil spirits, even better than magical phosphor. Moreover, one doesn’t need magical power to use it. However, I don’t think it’s good against that old ghoul-witch.”

“What do we do then?”

“I’ve asked someone to turn the remaining crystals into bullets. If we shoot her with the bullets, we can inflict severe damage to her soul.”

“Sienna, do you still have any left? Give me one.” Fali was still somewhat scared because of her encounter that day.

Although she had not been attacked, nobody knew that evil spirit’s plan.

If Fali was attacked in sea, she could not even escape.

“No. Ask Chen. He should still have some.”

Chen Zhao took out a walnut-sized angelic crystal. “Use it to make a pendant and wear it. Beware that Walter doesn’t like it. When you have it on, don’t go near him.”

Indeed, Walter had long shied away from the angelic crystal.

In the afternoon, Chen Zhao returned home with Fali. On the other hand, Sienna left alone because she still had things to settle.

By the time Chen Zhao and Fali returned, David was already back.

“Chen, Fali, why did you come back together?”

“David, how’s your investigation in town?”

“I discovered that almost everyone here hates Winry Gargamel, and she also never communicates with the people in town. Therefore, when I asked about her, all the residents enthusiastically offered me various clues.”

David paused and then continued, “That old witch has a very bad name in town. One time, a resident discovered that countless pets which were thought to be missing were buried in her backyard. She’s even prosecuted in court for this. However, because she’s already old and couldn’t go to jail, she ended up only paying a fine. Because of this, everyone in town started to hate her. Also, since that incident, very few residents had pets.”

“Has anyone been killed in the past?”

“In the recent ten years, there aren’t any obvious accidental deaths,” David replied.

“When do we act?” Fali asked.

“We? You just stay at home with Walter.”

“So I’m not involved?” Fali said, somewhat bored.

“Why would you follow us? To watch the fun?”