Shen stood outside the alley, a red crime scene tape blocked the entrance. Barrier Agents scurried to block the public from getting anywhere near the street on where the body lay. Shen approached the agent outside the alleyway and showed him an identification card.

“Though you’ve been dispatched as support, you can choose to stand outside… This is a real dead body after all. Though I suggest you get used to it soon…” Shen advised, turning his head back to look at Mark, Mai and Hannah.

Mark turned to look at his fellow trainees.

Mai gulped, her expression clearly showed that she was nervous. Hannah on the other hand remained stone-cold serious.

Mark knew almost nothing about his new batchmates other than the basic introductions in class and the display of their powers in the test the other day. Mark was expecting more time to get accustomed to this new exorcist lifestyle and perhaps know more about his fellow trainees. He didn’t expect to be investigating a death on his first day.

The three trainees took a deep breath and stepped under the red tape. In an instant, they each felt a strange eerie feeling. Like pins and needles all over their bodies. The sunrays of the moring sun no longer beat on their backs and the tint of their surroundings shifted slightly red. Mark recognised this sign. They had entered a barrier.

Disturbing traces of some sort of fight that wasn’t visible outside the barrier, suddenly sprang into view. Broken pieces of metal littered the floor, forming a trail down the alley. As the three of them walked down the alley, following closely behind Shen, the strange aura they felt started to increase in intensity.

Mark observed his surroundings, it was obvious a sort of fight or struggle occurred. There were broken pieces of metal embedded in the walls, some metal pipes had been dislodged, cracks and craters appeared along the concrete walls as if someone had punched it.

The trail of metallic pieces was soon replaced with a trail of blood leading to the end of the alleyway, where the body of a teenager in SAIB uniform lay.

Mark shuddered at the sight. Hannah maintained her unfazed demeanour. Mai was about to puke.

“Holy… Geez, I can’t look…” Mai muttered as she covered her mouth and eyes, but still occasionally peaking through the gaps in her fingers. She slowly increased the duration in which she peeked, trying to accustom herself to the sight of a dead body.

Shen stepped closer, though making sure to not touch any of the debris or blood on the floor.

He examined the body closely, brow furrowed and eyes dead serious.

Ryu was slumped against the wall, his head facing upwards, eyes wide open, mouth agape, teeth clenched. Ryu’s face was tensed, purple veins were crawling up to his eyes, clearly visible. His eyes, though dull and lifeless, were incredibly bloodshot.

Shen shook his head, his attention shifted away from Ryu’s face. He couldn’t stand looking at it anymore.

Shen diverted his attention to the items on Ryu’s chest.

“ID card, prayer beads are laid out on his chest… still intact…

“The perpetrator seems to be aware of the exorcist death ritual… and wants us to know his soul is trapped on the mortal plane….

“His death wasn’t due to physical injuries… I can still feel the spiritual aura around his body… He died via a spiriutal attack… It’s likely a spirit did this… an intelligent one…”

Shen knelt down and began examining the more abnormal details of the scene. Both of Ryu’s forearms had a strange inscription on them, seemingly carved with a knife. Similar symbols were found around Ryu’s body, forming a circle around him. The symbols on the ground were written in Ryu’s own blood.

“The symbols on his arms… It’s a curse… I’m not sure what type…” Shen started thinking out loud. Shen didn’t recognise the symbols on Ryu’s arms but the ones on the ground seemed familiar.

“Hmm… The symbols on the ground… They’re characters… they look like ancient Chinese characters…” Shen spoke as drew out the symbols on his notebook.

The four symbols repeated themselves over and over. Shen stared at the symbols intently, and slowly, it all started to click in his mind.

No… it can’t be…

Shen furrowed his brow, deep in thought.

But before he could mention anything, he was interrupted by the feeling of muliple presences.

“Shen-Sensei… there’s trouble… I think the spiritual aura has brought some unwelcome spirits…” Hannah noted, taking out a pen from her jacket pocket.

Several translucent worm-like spirits emerged from the concrete ground, wiggling and squirming. From the walls, spirits in the shapes of dark clouds emerged, their bodies covered in eyes.

“Hmm… I guess this will a perfect opportunity then… Let’s see how you guys deal with lesser spirits in close quarters.” Shen said as he backed away from the walls, walking closer to Ryu’s body. Shen unbuttoned his blazer, revealing a sheath strapped to his body. The sheathe had an intricate design of a golden snake. Shen pulled out a short blade from the sheathe, no longer than half his torso length.

Hannah’s eyes darted left and right, accessing the situation.

The worm spirits are slow, the cloud ones are faster… if I do this… I should be able to take them out at once…

Hannah started drawing a line in the air connecting every cloud spirit in her field of view.

“[Piercing Chain]” Hannah chanted and a long winding chain materialised, piercing through every cloud spirit on the right wall.

Mark stood in awe, seeing Hannah’s ability up close was surreal. But observing it up close also made him question certain things.

I wonder if she can only make certain types of objects… It is interesting how she could only clear up the right side instead of extending her chain to the left wall as well… Is she limited by length?

Mark’s thought process was interrupted by Mai.

“Woah…I’ve never mentioned this… but that’s such a cool ability…” Mai heaped praise towards Hannah, who simply shrugged and pointed to a cloud spirit behind Mai.

Mai turned around and was slightly shocked by the cloud spirit, its various mouths opening to bite Mai. Mai took several steps back, the cloud spirit moved slowly enough for her to gain considerable distance.

“Remember, what we’ve discussed in class earlier…” Shen probed Mai while at the same time, without looking, effortlessly sliced through any spirit that came near him.

Mai thought back to the orientation class.

“The fastest way to exorcise a spirit, is by destroying its physical manifestation…” Mai started to verbally recall the lesson.

…

“... and we can use either physical attacks, spiritual attacks or a mixture of both. Physical attacks rely on your natural strength and if not combined with spiritual energy, isn’t that effective. Spiritual attacks come from spiritual energy and are the most effective against other spirits. Spiritual energy doesn’t have to manifest in grand forms like Omukade or even Mark’s mummy form. From the reports I’ve seen, you guys don’t really know how to efficiently use those kinds of abilties yet. So let me introduce to you the simplest form of using spiriutal energy….” Shen said as he held out a fist.

“Now, think of spiritual energy as a body of water. Then, think of your thoughts, emotions, belief and intent as paths in which the water can flow in. You can direct your spiritual energy using your thoughts and emotions. This may be a normal fist, but when I start directing my thoughts, emotions and my intentions to my fist…”

The class could sense the difference immediately. An aura surrounded Shen’s fist, like a coating of pure energy. Shen then punch the air, and a wave of air burst forward.

“This is the simplest form of spiritual energy usage… Physical Enhancement.”

…

Mai concentrated and tried to direct her thoughts and emotions to her fist.

“Okay… Like water… Flowing…. Flowing….” Mai spoke out loud as the cloud spirit made her way towards her. It’s sharp, spike-like teeth visible as it opened its mouth. The spirit began sticking its slimy tongue out, it was the tongue of a lizard, long and thin.

“Ew, ew, ew, that is sooo gross!” Mai started to nervously fidget as she continued to direct her spiritual energy to her fist.

I hate how they look! Just please, go away!

Mai felt a burning sensation in her fist and insitncively swung her arms. Her fist connected with the spirit and caused it to slam into the ground, exploding into pieces before fading away.

“Ohmaigosh! One punch! Did you guys see that?” Mai beamed excitedly.

“Wow… Seriously.. You actually did it!” Mark blurted out, shooting Mai a thumbs up, surprise still clearly showing on his face.

Hannah was too focused clearing out the rest of the cloud spirits to respond.

Mark knew he had to try it next. He couldn’t really understand or believe it at first, but seeing Mai do it, he somehow felt he could replicate it. A slow moving worm-like spirit was approaching him, the size of a large dog. This was his chance.

“Okay… Okay…. Here goes!” Mark exclaimed as he felt some energy build up in his fist. He threw a punch right at the worm’s head. Mark felt his hand connect, but the worm didn’t seem to take much damage. It simply recoiled slightly and moved forward, this time opening its mouth to showcase its hundreds and hundreds of small toothpick like teeth.

“Shit, did I mess up?” Mark asked, he could have sworn his fist connected with spiritual energy.

“Hmmm, I think it took damage… but your spiritual energy may not have been enough…” Hannah replied, she had already cleared all of the cloud spirits with Mai.

Mark continued to smack the worm spirit around, his fists connected and he could tell he was doing damage, but not enough. Meanwhile Mai and Hannah were easily exorcising the spirit’s with single attacks. Mai looked almost too happy, waving her arms around like a kid, one-hit killing spirit’s left and right.

Mark felt slightly embarrassed that he was spending so much time on one spirit. But then an idea popped into his mind.

Maybe… Spiritual Reinforcement would help…

“Hey guys!” Mark shouted, drawing attention to himself.

“My hand… is a blade that can cut through spirits!” Mark announced, closing his fingers together, as if he was about to karate chop the spirit.

“Umm okay… do it then?” Hannah asked, slightly confused.

“Really? Yeah! You got this Mark!” Mai shouted back, her mood still high from her spirit killing spree.

“My hand, is a blade…” Mark announced once again, this time, to himself. He visualised it, his hand cleanly slicing the spirit. Images of him slicing the crow spirit’s neck flashed through his mind. He could do this.

Mark steadied himself staring at the worm spirit in font of him.

“My hand is a blade… My hand is a blade…” Mark repeated it like a chant, closing his eyes, visualising the energy within him.

“My hand is a blade!” Mark shouted and swung his hand like a blade. Mark felt a distinct difference, unlike his fist, the energy lacing his hand was sharp, precise, like a blade.

His ‘blade’ connected with the worm in front of him and like a sword slicing through butter, his hands carved a path smoothly through the spirit. It’s remnants started to disintegrate almost instantly.

“Yeah!” Mark did a small fist pump.

“Nice!” Mai offering a high-five.

Hannah simply smiled, slightly impressed.

Mark didn’t stop there, he proceeded on to the next one, slicing through it easily as well.

The result repeated itself for the next one, and the one after that, Mark could feel it get easier with every exorcism.

The three of them quickly cleared the area.

“We… did it…” Mark muttered.

“You know, didn’t we all exorcise tougher spirits just the other day? Why are you so surprised?” Hannha asked, stating the facts.

“True, but this feels different, I’m actually aware of it now!” Mai rebutted.

“Good job… using Spiritual Reinforcement was a good call kid…” Shen commended Mark, genuinely impressed.

But the mood turned solemn once again as Shen redirected his attention to Ryu.

“Sensei… you mentioned that his soul is trapped on the mortal plane… Does that mean…” Mai was interrupted by Shen himself.

“Yes… It does. It’s highly likely, with the curse placed upon his soul and the unbroken prayer beads…he’s likely a vengeful spirit now…” Shen spoke.

“Did, did you know him sensei?” Mark asked.

“Yes, I taught him for a few classes, but the person in charge of overseeing his batch was Tony…a once excellent exorcist.”

“Once… what about now?” Mark followed up.

“He was murdered… in the Nan Ching Distrcit Massacre last year… by spirits as powerful or more powerful than the one responsible for this…” Shen replied, seriousness bleeding through his tensed up facial features. Mark lowered his head, feeling slightly awkward for asking.

“We need to locate that spirit as soon as possible… if it’s not at its death site, it must have gone searching for a Tether.” Shen began walking out of the alleyway.

The four of them stepped out of the barrier and faced the bright morning sun once again.

“Charles, classify this case as an A13, Unnatural Death by Curse, perpetrator is a possible Lower Demon level Spirit. I’ll take this case.” Shen spoke to Charles, who was waiting outside the barrier.

“Understood. We’ll begin moving the body once the spiritual aura subsides. Delta-157 is yours sir.” Charles handed a manila case file over to Shen. It was clearly labelled: “Δ-157”

Shen jotted down his observations in the file before heading to a black sedan.

“Come on, we’re going back to HQ… I need to conduct some interviews…” Shen hopped into the car, pulling out his briefcase and placing the manila file inside.

“Who are we interviewing?” Hannah asked as the three three trainees hopped into the back seats.

“I will be the only one doing the interviewing… and it will be with the people closest to Ryu… the last two trainees from batch 3021.”

[PRELIMINARY REPORT FOR CASE: GAMMA-158]

Spirit Classification: Lower Demon

Exorcist In Charge: Khan Tenjin

Case details: On the 25th February 2022 10:37AM, [REDACTED]-Rank Exorcist Khan Tenjin, accompanied by 2 unranked trainee exorcists, Ozai Sasaki and Vince Seung, reached the southern side of Nan Ching District to investigate sightings of a possible Lower Demon Spirit.

Khan confirmed the sighting and proceeded with the exorcism.

Actions Taken: As per operational procedure, all civilians were evacuated from the area and Barrier Agents set up a barrier. At 10:45 AM, Khan entered the barrier to exorcise the spirit, while the 2 trainees waited outside.

Outcome: At 11.28AM, an Epsilon Level spiritual anomaly was detected within and around the barrier, it is suspected that the spirit is capable of Disposession. This resulted in the barrier breaking and the Spiriting Away of the following individuals:

Barrier Agent Mando Lee Barrier Agent Soo Jin-Ho Barrier Agent Lara Gunther Trainee Ozai Sasaki Exorcist Khan Tenjin

The area affected was declared to be unsafe and Exorcist Rohan was called in to contain the Epsilon Level anomaly.

Further Action: Spirit Reclassification is advised. Case reassigned to [REDACTED]-Rank Exorcist Rohan yang.