Worker (part 1)

1.3 - Worker

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"Tadaa!!!!"

Nico loudly announced as he took out an item from his bag, and I cannot look more surprised.

We are currently inside the premise of the building, behind the thin metal walls that keeps intruders out of the construction site. Nico led the way and found us the way in, and we had to crawl on the dirt ground in order to enter.

Once we were inside, I took a quick look at the entire construction site while Nico was busy with his bag. He then called me over to have a look, and he showed me the very thing that he was boasting about earlier.

The way for us to fight the demons and completely get rid of them.

… Water gun toys.

"… For real?"

I mumbled after he took them out, and he quickly began explaining.

"You see, demons have weaknesses. There have been plenty of cleansing acts in churches, where the priest sprays the victim's possessions with holy water. And it wasn't done without reason, because the demons actually find those holy waters to be very painful, to the point where it can kill them!

Now! I have a couple bottles of holy water right here, and we can share them between the two of us as we shoot them with these machine guns!!"

He is absolutely joking.

These 'Machine Guns' that he spoke of, were actually children's toys that can shoot a certain amount of water in the form of squirts. Squirt guns.

The trigger at the bottom will pump air into the water tank at the top of the gun, and it shoots out the water through the exit as a result. The amount of water being shot out isn't that much, and it will only be deadly if you shoot them straight to your eyeballs. Even then, it'll probably only make you go blind.

To reload, all the children had to do was to just take off the tank from the water gun, fill it with water through a tap, and place it back without spilling the water. Then, they can continue shooting the deadliest weapon known to mankind.

This is absolutely a joke. There's no way holy water can get rid of demons so easily. In fact, those priests at the churches did it alongside prayers to cleanse the possessed. They didn't do it with just goddamn holy water.

I took a deep breath and let out after a while. Nico could only stay silent as he watched me gather my thoughts, and he looked rather frightened once I'm done thinking.

"Where… did you get all this information from?"

".…The internet.…?"

Okay. We are done here.

"W-Wait!! This will actually work!!"

Nico quickly grabbed me in the shoulder as soon as I headed for the exit, and I quickly slapped his hand away. Finally, I showed him my tired expression.

Today has been a very long day for me. Not only did I get interrogated by my classmates, the most popular guy in our year suddenly came up to me and talked to me. And now, he wants me to fight demons with water gun toys.

At first, I thought he had some hidden intentions from approaching me. I thought he wanted me to build up trust towards him, so that one day, he could betray me and make me beg him on his knees. I've seen some dramas where the male antagonists do that to the female leads, and I was keeping an eye out for that possibility with Nico.

Or maybe he wants to bring me somewhere dark and silent so that he can rape me and kill me. Who knows, someone as pretty as him has a high chance of being a psychopath, after all.

But, seeing him revealing everything now to me…

I was a donkey to even think that he is a serious human being.

"I don't… have time for something like this."

"Please…? You said it's just this once."

That's true. I guess I did promise him to only go with him once. But even then, once is more than enough to get me killed. Once is an enough amount of attempt for me to get killed.

How do I tell him… that whatever it is he is planning to do, just won't work?

"How about this? If you can prove to me that these toy guns can actually do something to those demons, then I'll follow you."

Seeing me saying that, he quickly formed a grin.

"You won't be disappointed! Now, come!"

He turned around quickly, and I let out a long breath as I followed.

Nico placed his bag on the ground and kneeled to take some stuff out. Apparently, he has been carrying those water gun toys and bottles of holy water the entire time we went to school. I'm just so confused as to why he even thought of bringing those things to school, especially when we just started high school.

Most students would just be focusing more on getting to know one another or studying the high school subjects, or maybe take a glance at what the extracurricular activities were like. But, not him.

No, he went to school with toy guns and a goddamn holy water. What is he going to do with it if he didn't go to this place with me?? Drink them??

Nico… just what kind of life have you been living?

I watched what Nico was doing on the ground and noticed that he was loading the guns with the holy water. The holy waters he brought were bottled up in a mineral water bottle that you can find on any minimarket, and surprisingly it's quite the amount. He brought two bottles, and both bottles were medium sized. The proper size for a single session of exercising, I guess.

After filling up the tanks on the water guns, he gave one to me and I stared at it blankly as I realized what the world has in store for me.

Today has gone from me being confronted by my classmates for a sin I didn't commit into hunting ghosts with water guns. I can only expect more from this point on, and I won't be surprised if I'm coming home possessed by a demon.

"I don't like this…"

"Trust me, it'll work! At least… that's what the guide at the website said."

The website, he said…

Surely, it's not a shady untrustworthy website that steals all your data, is it?

"Anyhow, let's begin!"

Nico kept his bag on the ground where he filled the water gun tanks, and I placed my bag right next to his. I then turned my gaze towards the entrance of the building where Nico is walking to, and immediately I had cold feet.

FWOOSH!!!!

"Stop right there!!!"

I shouted at the top of my lungs, which completely startled Nico. He stopped walking and turned around very slowly, wearing a very startled expression as he stared at me.

"T-There's something in front of you. Do not move closer."

"Eepp!!"

Nico mumbled from his position, and I began to walk closer to him. I kept my eyes on the entrance, and I lifted my hand up to point the water gun at the entrance.

Damn it… Am I really going to trust these water guns!?

The thing I saw in front of Nico isn't actually that close to him. It was rather deep behind the entrance, and it's not really doing anything.

It was an old man, floating two meters above ground and five meters behind the entrance to the building. From the attire he is wearing, I can see that he was wearing a worker's attire.

I see… he must be the worker from the story Nico told me.

"It's the worker."

I said to Nico, and he quickly looked shocked. Looks like the story was true, after all.

Nico also turned to face the entrance, but he can only look so confused. After all, there's no way he is seeing the same thing I'm seeing.

The worker's floating body is just there, not moving, and gazing dead straight at us. It's eyes were watching our every move, not making a single move probably until we stepped foot into the building.

Our target is right there, and yet I am very much shuddering. If what we are facing is truly a demon, then that thing right there can actually touch us and hurt us. I was so used to the idea that invisible spirits don't have the ability to touch the living, and when this new information was inputted into my brain, I began to falter.

What are we going to do, here…?

"Where is it?"

Ah, right. Nico.

"The worker is behind the entrance, floating about two meters in the air. It is watching us and not doing anything."

"Could it be… guarding the place?"

"Guarding?"

I turned to him, and Nico nodded.

"I read once, that… evil spirits don't leave their marked location because they are tied emotionally to that place. There were some evil spirits that stayed because they cared about the place, and that they would scare away any external annoyances to keep the place in perfect condition.

The worker… because he was emotionally attached to this place, he must've found it annoying when trespassers came to the building."

Nico's explanation does make sense, and I had to agree with that one. The worker must be hating it when there are living humans coming to this building, that he would just scare them away to keep this place at peace.

In that case… how can we use that to our advantage?