Lana let out a piercing scream, pulling away from Ivy. There was a small cross that she wore between her chest, and when the pair had been together, Lana had ended up touching the cross. As soon as this happened, her chest had begun to burn like she had touched lava. She pulled back immediately.

“What is going on?” Ivy seemed to snap out of her daze as Lana hissed at her.

At that moment, Lana tried to lunge at Ivy, her hands outstretched. Her fingers had seemingly elongated and sharpened, and they resembled claws more than hands. Ivy could only stumble back in confusion and shock. Her body had already been weakened significantly, and she didn’t have the strength to deal with a malignant spirit. Thankfully, I was present. A little bit of liquid struck Lana from the side, and she let out another cry, her eyes turning toward me.

After Lana had left the basement, I remained behind to clean things up. Of course, I had remained vigilant and skeptical of the ghost’s sudden disappearance as well as Lana’s change in temperament. Since things never turned out well, I made it a habit to prepare for the worst. That was why I had already made up several items to fight such a malignant spirit.

I hadn’t used these items earlier because I knew that such creatures were capable of hiding themselves inside a person to the extent that even such potions would have no effect. If I had acted at all suspiciously or tried to confront her, the ghost would have hidden inside her so deeply that by the time it surfaced, I might have no longer been in her life. At that point, it’d be too late to do anything.

There had been cases in my world where malignant spirits would wait years before they finally manifested themselves. This spirit didn’t seem to be as patient as some of those and had quickly exposed itself. It had been looking to extract energy from Ivy to strengthen its existence. It was a nearly born malignant spirit, after all.

The creature let out a shriek in my direction, but I responded by tossing more liquid at it. Lana had no choice but to back up, finally abandoning her attack on Ivy. She instead glared hatefully at me.

“Foolish boy. You’re delving into powers far outside of your understanding!”

“You underestimate my level of understanding,” I responded. “However, it won’t take long to correct you.”

“What’s going on?” Ivy had taken a step toward the pair of us, recovering from her dazed state shockingly fast. “Lana?”

“Lana is no more!” The creature shouted.

The two of us were in a position where the creature couldn’t escape. It suddenly moved against the wall and then started to crawl up it. In only a few moments, it crawled up onto the ceiling crabwalk style before charging past the pair of us. It moved far quicker than one would expect, and in only a few seconds it was already disappearing around the corner.

“Tsk! Running? What a cowardly thing.” I muttered as I stared out at it.

Ivy was staring in the same direction, her mouth slightly parted. She turned to me.

“What the hell is going on?” She ended her question by slapping me on the arm with the back of her hand.

I reached out and rubbed my arm. “It appears that Lana was possessed by a malignant spirit.”

“A malig… a ghost?”

“No, ghosts are formed from…” I could see Ivy staring at me blankly, and I cleared my throat and changed what I was going to say. “Yeah, something like that.”

“Why is there a ghost in Lana?” She demanded.

“Because her arcane inscription could use some work.”

“What?” She narrowed her eyes accusingly my way.

“Nothing…” I looked the other way.

She stared at me for a few more moments before finally looking away. “Whatever… but I didn’t hear about any deaths in the school…”

“That’s why I was saying it’s not a ghost…” I started but then changed my words again. “I mean, the high school is full of heightened emotions. These emotions have a resonance, and that resonance can become amplified over time. If these negative emotions gather enough in a single spot and are seeded by a reserve of mana, they can give birth to a malignant spirit. That is what happened.”

“Mana? Like magic? How could they have been exposed to magic?” Ivy asked incredulously.

“I don’t know.” I lied.

Ivy was already giving me glares, and I didn’t want to get into the technicality of whose fault this was. In this world, the mana was normally too low. At worst, the emotions would manifest into a few supernatural anomalies like poltergeist activity or affecting someone emotionally. If I hadn’t brought magic and attempted to summon the creature, this wouldn’t have happened. I had to accept that, but the blame came down to Lana messing up the circle she was supposed to draw. Once I had a chance to look at them more closely, I could see her work wouldn’t pass the aptitude for even a level one witch.

She made an irritated noise, putting her hands on her hips. “Then, what do we have to do to get Lana back to normal?”

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I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

She glanced over at me, and her cheeks turned pink for a moment. “What?”

I shook my head. “I’m just a bit surprised you don’t need more time to process this.”

Even in my world where magic and malignant spirits were known to be a thing, some people would become frozen with indecision upon being confronted with these supernatural forces. To my best understanding, this was a world that had almost nothing supernatural ever happen. I had expected someone learning that the supernatural world was both real and could hurt you to be a shock to anyone’s system.

She reached between her chest and grabbed the cross still on the necklace there. “My Abuela used to tell me all about bad spirits. She even had me practice a few techniques for protecting myself from demons and ghosts.”

“Hmph, what do demons have anything to do with this?” I asked with a frown. “Demons are often given a bad wrap!”

“Ah, I was just saying…” She looked taken aback by my sudden outburst.

I coughed awkwardly. “For the moment, we need to find out where it went.”

“It? Don’t you mean Lana?” She shot me a look.

“At the moment, Lana isn’t in control. It is.” I explained.

She made a face. “It’s still Lana deep down, right? We can bring her back?”

“Most likely.”

“Hey! What do you mean most likely?” She demanded, grabbing my arm.

“Ow, your grip.” I frowned down at my arm.

“Tell me what you mean?” She squeezed even tighter.

I sighed. “Once taking a body, the malignant spirit usually goes into hiding. In most cases, they lay low for some time gaining strength until they are ready to strike.”

Her eyes narrowed. “And what happens after they strike.”

“The spirit will consume the host of the soul and then become the body’s new soul. At that point, the old soul is gone forever.”

Ivy stiffened. “But, she’s not laying low at all!”

I nodded. “This malignant spirit is a bit more aggressive. Rather than risk waiting for strength, it plans to forcefully consume that strength. That’s what it tried to do to you. It was draining your life force so that it could take over Lana completely.”

“Then… it’s probably…”

“Looking for another host to consume right now.” I nodded. “And once it’s consumed them, Lana will be next.”

“We have to find it immediately!” Ivy grabbed me with both hands.

“That’s what I was trying to do until you demanded an explanation,” I responded irritably.

She finally let go of me, blushing slightly. “Where would this… um… spirit go anyway?”

I thought about it for a few moments and then nodded. “I think I know someone who might know.”

I turned and walked away, only feeling slightly annoyed when I realized Ivy was following close behind. It wasn’t that I hated her presence, but I didn’t feel like she’d provide a lot of help here. If anything, she’d just make the whole thing riskier. However, I wasn’t going to push her away either. Seeing as how she was a good distraction earlier, I might need her again. The pair of us went to a familiar closet labeled the audio-visual department.

Ivy looked at me in shock. “Wh-why did you take me here?”

I raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything as I opened the door and glanced inside. In the back of the room, I could see a glow of monitors hidden away in a certain corner.

“Are you there?” I asked.

“Yo.” A voice responded.

I walked farther back into the room, and that was where I saw Naomi still tucked away in the dark, her glasses reflecting the images on the screen.

“What are you still doing here after school?”

“It’s a dance tonight,” Naomi responded without looking away from the screen.

“You’re a volunteer,” I stated, looking down at her shirt.

She was wearing the same volunteer shirt as the others who had chosen to help Miss Alma.

“Oh! You’re helping run security!” She declared.

“Affirmative” She picked up a radio in her hand, clicking the send button. “Redstar, we have a code 4 in the third hallway, over.”

“Naomi… we’ve been over this. Use your normal words.” An exasperated Miss Alma replied.

“A couple are necking behind the lockers in the library hallway.” She sighed, looking unhappy.

I couldn’t help but look Ivy’s way, and she returned a shrug.

“Naomi… you have your eyes on the entire school. We lost track of Lana a short time ago. Any chance you know where she went?”

“Lana? Who that?” She asked.

“Dark hair…” Ivy described. “Brown eyes… attractive…”

“Might enjoy crab walking on ceilings,” I added, prompting Ivy to shoot my a sharp look.

She didn’t respond but instead held out her hand. Ivy looked down at her hand, her face growing angry.

“Aren’t you volunteering tonight? You’re going to demand-” I stopped her by touching her shoulder with a hand.

“I have prepared an appropriate tribute.” I pulled out a baggy filled with chips and put it in her hand.

I had recognized Naomi’s value from the beginning and also understood the way to maximize my gains while keeping the tributes within reason. I made sure to keep a few of these available just in case I needed to use her services.

She grabbed the chips from my hand, glanced at them, and then nodded before popping the bag open. “Lana’s the weird goth chick who’s making all my cameras fizzle. She took off out the back. She’s left the school now.”

As she spoke, she was already shoving chips into her mouth like she hadn’t eaten in weeks.”

“She gone?” Ivy cried out. “Th-that means… she could be anywhere!”

“Or, you cwan jwust swee her tomorrow.” Naomi tried to speak with a mouth full of chips.

“It’ll be too late tomorrow!” Ivy cried out but then realizing she couldn’t explain why without saying some things that sounded strange, she quickly shut her mouth.

“It might not be too late,” I responded thoughtfully.

“Really?” Ivy very nearly grabbed me again but stopped herself just in time. “Where is she?”

“The malignant spirit is a fusion of negative emotions from teenagers,” I responded. “She would naturally be attracted to these emotions, as they would give her power. What do you think is the biggest emotion teenagers feel?”

“How could I know…”

“Horniness,” Naomi stated after swallowing the last chip.

“Naomi!” Ivy chastised.

“Yes, I also came to that conclusion.” I nodded. “Lana will likely go somewhere rich in teenage hormones. Do you know where that is?”

“Wh-why would I know?” Ivy cried out, her face turning red. “I-I don’t do that kind of stuff anymore. Besides, wouldn’t the dance be the… um… place?”

“The dance is too busy. She won’t want to be disturbed again.” I looked over at Naomi, causing Ivy to turn even redder. “Naomi.”

Naomi held out her hand, and I gave her a licorice rope. “Many of the guys have spoken of a place. It offers privacy for the rambunctious couple. Many guys plan to take their lady friends there after the dance to play. Some have already left… It’s a bit of a drive, but a lot of couples will be to climax peak.”

“That would create a trail that it would follow.” I nodded and then stopped myself. “I suppose you need a car to get there.”

“I’ll drive!” Ivy nearly shouted, and when we both looked at her, she blushed. “I have a car tonight.”

“Then, I’ll have to inconvenience you. You’ll need to bring me to climax peak.”

“Ah! I-it’s not like I want to, it’s for Lana! For Lana!” She cried out, looking flustered.

“I never said it wasn’t…” I felt a little helpless over Ivy’s emotional swings, but at least we’d have a chance to save Lana.