My Girlfriend Is a Shaman

33 – Heoju #2

The whispering voices of students were heard.

“Did you hear that? A police officer was killed near the school.”

“I know. It’s near the park.”

“I saw the body in person on my way to school.”

It was after school when Sarah and I came out of the school building. Among the students leaving school, there was already talk about the murder that occurred last night. Since it was a murder case that occurred near a school, rumors could not help but spread. Some students passed by the scene on their way to school.

10 Minutes later.

We arrived in front of Jayu Park where the incident occurred.

Yellow tape was placed near the entrance to the park, warning that entry was prohibited. Beyond the tape, a blood-stained patrol car was visible. There were also corpses covered in white cloth. The police were busy investigating.

Sarah and I had a conversation while looking at the scene.

“There was a lot of blood. It was on the patrol car and splattered on the ground.”

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“It looks like he was probably hacked with a knife.”

That was all I could tell from a distance. We moved closer to the tape to get a closer look at the scene. At that time, there was a police officer blocking us.

“Students over there! You can’t come close!”

When I looked at the rank insignia, I saw that it was a police officer.

A police officer in a blue uniform tried to stop us from approaching. There was no way I could get out of the way. Sarah spoke to me in a whisper.

“…Jinwoo. Should we just look through a telescope from a place like the rooftop? We can’t even enter the site anyway.”

“Still, it would be easier to look around here.”

It was when we were talking for a while.

When he refused to back down, the young police officer frowned and came out of the tape.

“Go on your way. You can’t mess up the scene for no reason.”

The young policeman tried to pull us out with his own hands.

It was right then.

An older middle-aged man walked out from the park entrance. A middle-aged man approached the police officer who was trying to pull us out.

“Hey, Police Officer Choi! What’s going on?”

“Gasp! Captain!”

As soon as the young police officer saw the middle-aged man in civilian clothes, he politely saluted him.

A middle-aged man called the class president raised his hand and received a light salute.

“…That’s right! There were students here wandering around near the site. I tried to quickly chase them away. I didn’t want them to disturb the site.”

The young police officer explained step by step.

The middle-aged man looked at me and abruptly interrupted the police officer.

“Huh? Aren’t you Kim Cheol’s son? It’s been a while.”

“Hello, Mr. Seunghoon. It’s been a while.”

When I looked closely, I saw that the middle-aged man called class president was someone I knew.

To be exact, he was an acquaintance of my father.

Do Seung-Hoon.

He was a detective chief working in the investigation department of Seungcheon Police Station.

He was a junior who graduated from the same police academy as his father.

When my father was alive, that uncle would often come to our house for drinks.

“Oh…! Jinwoo, you’ve grown up a lot? When I saw you before, you were just a kid.”

“I’m a high school student now.”

“Are you already a high school student? Time flies.”

Class leader Do Seung-hoon grinned and walked out of the tape.

Then he tapped my shoulder and spoke to the young police officer.

“Police officer Choi! Don’t stay here, go and take care of your work.”

The police officer who was trying to pull us out looked embarrassed when he saw Captain Do Seung-hoon.

“Huh? It’s my job to keep citizens away. It’s what the captain told me to do.”

“This guy is fine, so go ahead. He’s senior Kim Cheol’s son. I’m sure you’ve heard of him at least.”

Kim Cheol.

It was my father’s name.

“Kim Cheol…?”

The young constable was lost in thought for a moment and seemed to remember something about my father.

The young police officer looked surprised.

“Ah! You mean the detective who used to work at Gangsudae?”

“Yeah, dude! I understand.”

“I’ve heard a lot about him too. There are so many amazing stories. Like, he was the one who took down a famous gang, or caught a criminal who was called a drug lord in Korea. But there were some stories that made no sense.”

The young police officer asked Captain Do Seung-hoon with a puzzled expression.

“It is said that he once killed a wild bear that roamed the city with his bare hands. Is that even true? I think it’s an exaggeration.”

“Do you think that’s bullsh*t?”

“Yes?”

“I’m telling you, most of the stories you heard are true.”

At that moment, the young police officer’s expression hardened. Captain Do Seung-hoon’s voice was serious. It was a true story about a detective who hit a bear with his bare hands.

“Jinwoo, don’t you have leather at home? That.”

“Yes.”

In fact, there was a tanned bearskin hanging in the living room of our house.

It was a trophy acquired by my father at the time.

“Huh…”

The young policeman looked at me with startled eyes, and then he hurriedly backed away.

After the police officer retired, we were able to have a comfortable conversation with Captain Do Seung-hoon.

“But what are you doing here? Why do you have a foreigner wearing a school uniform next to you?”

“He’s not a foreigner, he’s mixed race. Sera, please say something.”

As Sarah fiddled with her phone, she answered with one letter.

“Horse!”

When I was told to speak, I was really speaking.

I shrugged my shoulders and spoke to Class President Do Seung-hoon.

“Did you hear? He speaks Korean well.”

“Is that so? I’m not sure, but he’s a bit of a picky kid.”

“He’s my childhood friend, so please be kind to him. We came here because we heard a murder happened near our school. We heard that police officers in our neighborhood were murdered.”

“That’s right. They’re young people who worked in the safety department.”

“I’m sorry.”

I expressed my condolences briefly. The murdered police officers belonged to the same police station as Captain Do Seung-hoon. Class leader Do Seung-hoon, who lost his co-worker, looked confused in front of us.

“It’s a pity. One was a newbie and the other was a guy who was recently promoted and was happy. I had no idea he would pass away so suddenly.”

“We were attacked by a masked assailant. In fact, the kids at our school are very scared. Since the incident happened near the school, it would be a big problem if that guy shows up at the school as well.”

“…I guess so. It would be a big problem if a student got hurt. Although patrols will be strengthened starting today.”

Class leader Do Seung-hoon sighed as if he was worried. The time to ask about the incident was now. I was able to use the kids at school as an excuse to ask class president Do Seung-hoon a question.

“So, sir, please tell us about the incident.”

“What?”

“If you tell me the newly discovered method of committing the crime, I will tell it to the kids at school. It’s faster than sending an official letter to the school. If you tell me the method of the crime, we will be safer too.”

Please tell us about what the police investigated. Then, I will tell a story to the students of Seungcheon High School. Class leader Do Seung-hoon nodded his head as if what I was saying was plausible.

“…Is that so? It’s definitely very dangerous around here. Tell the kids at school not to wander around at night. If you see a white mask, tell them to report it right away.”

“Anything else?”

“It looks like there is a high probability that the killer is a pleasure killer. They cut off the fingers one by one from the corpses. The police corpses found at the scene now also have empty finger parts one by one. Why would an ordinary murderer collect fingers? “There is no such thing. It’s just the pleasure killers who get the loot.”

“You mean you took your finger as a trophy?”

“Yes. This will be released as news soon anyway. That’s why I’m telling you.”

The masked assailant cut off the corpse’s fingers one by one. This was important information for us. There were cases where things that seemed meaningless on the surface became meaningful when interpreted magically.

“And…”

Class leader Do Seung-hoon hesitated for a moment while looking at us.

“I don’t know if I can tell you this.”

Captain Do Seung-hoon turned his head and looked at the scene. As far as his eyes could see, there was blood splattered on the ground. It was quite far away from the corpses. In particular, the blood stains in that area seemed to be separate from the corpses. In the end, Captain Do Seung-hoon opened his mouth to us.

“First of all, it’s not for sure, so don’t tell other kids. It looks like the masked gunman got into a fight with the police and was shot. A bloody bullet and new blood traces were found at the scene. Residents living nearby also said “I heard a gunshot.”

“But why isn’t it certain? I heard a bullet was found.”

Class leader Do Seung-hoon opened his mouth with a shocked expression.

I heard a story that was quite common sense.

“There is no way the criminal could have escaped unharmed after being shot, right? He must have been caught while lying nearby. Or at least he should have left a trace of his escape as he was bleeding. But he bled for a moment and then the trace was completely gone. “No matter how much I think about it, it doesn’t make sense.”

“Aha.”

That was the end of the story.

Chief Seung-Hoon Do muttered while looking at the scene.

“No, is the criminal some kind of ghost? Does it make sense that he got shot and is still fine?”

“I see.”

I found out most of the information that could be found through conversation.

“Thank you for telling the story. We’ll go now.”

“Goodbye.”

We said hello to Captain Do Seung-hoon and left the scene.

Sarah, who was fiddling with her phone, had a photo of the scene on her phone.

It seemed like Sarah was secretly taking photos of the scene while I was talking.

*

After a while, we returned to Hyehwadang.

Sarah and I deduced the identity of the masked stranger.

“First of all, the person who shed blood is not a ghost. The person who was shot looks like a person.”

“Yes. If it were a ghost, there wouldn’t be any blood splattering.”

The fact that he was shot meant that the gunman was not a ghost. If it had been a ghost, the bullet would have passed through without any blood splattering. Sarah looked at me and told me her story about her fingers.

“Fingers cut off from corpses. If you think about it magically, it has meaning. It won’t just be a simple collection.”

“What does it mean?”

“Human fingers are imbued with vital energy. If you cut off a person’s finger, you can use it as a sacrifice. There are many related records in East Asia, such as a prince’s ear made by cutting off a child’s finger.”

Prince Jagui.

It was the soul of a child who died unfairly. In the past, in Joseon, the practice of artificially creating such crown prince’s ears took place. The method was to starve the child, then cut off the child’s fingers and seal them. A soul would reside in a severed finger.

Of course, this kind of behavior did not only occur in Joseon.

There was a similar record in Japan. It was a record of a box being made using a severed finger and animal blood. If the box was sent to someone else, the recipient would be cursed.

The name of the box was Kotoribako.

“A record like Kotoribako?”

“There are things like that.”

Sarah continued her words while looking at me.

“A cut off finger can be used as a sacrifice to a ghost. Among the mediums who serve evil spirits, there are those who sacrifice human bodies to increase their power. The more a finger is sacrificed, the more the power of the medium increases.”

“That’s a terrible story.”

“So, I think the masked man is worshiping a demon. He goes around collecting fingers to offer to the ghost.”

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We were able to deduce the identity of the culprit.

The stranger wearing a traditional mask was a medium serving evil spirits.