Long story short, they took public transit to Ki Rojojati's house in a suburban village. Obviously, Arua couldn't fit both Gio and Kasna on his beat-up Supra—unless they were aiming for an illegal circus act.

  Normally, navigating the rush hour traffic by motorcycle would take thirty minutes. By bus, the travel time was extended, not to mention the additional walking required from the nearest bus stop to their final destination.

  Arriving at Ki Rojo's place, Gio immediately explained the chronology. The old man was feeding his backyard chickens in a severely holed undershirt and a worn-out sarong.

  The second he spotted a new guest—specifically, a pretty girl—the old man's attitude drastically flipped. He quickly herded them to the front porch before disappearing inside the house to undergo a visual transformation.

  Five minutes later, he reappeared with a new outfit: black t-shirt, faded white cap, and the same worn-out sarong. His spiritual gear was fully equipped—keris earring, ancient Javanese necklace, twisty fidget bracelet, and Asafoetida flip-flops.

  The consultation session started. Gio and Kasna shared a long wooden bench, while Ki Rojo occupied a single chair. Between them was a wooden table holding three items: bulky laptop with a vintage Intel Pentium sticker, a full ashtray, and one glass of water for Kasna.

  Rojo stared intensely at his laptop. Thick hypermetropic glasses rested on his nose, with a little crack at the right lens’ edge. Arua, with no more chair left, just sprawled out on the bare concrete floor. Leaning against a wooden pillar, his eyes were glued to his phone, busily scrolling Reddit meme threads.

  As Gio dumped his initial Poltergeist Curse analysis, Ki Rojo listened, occasionally nodding and typing in Notepad.

  Minutes later, the verdict dropped. "It's a shame, Miss Kasna..." Rojo let out a heavily dramatic sigh. "I can't cure it right now."

  "Eh? Why is that?" Gio asked, leaning forward.

  "First, allow me to explain the theoretical foundation..." The old man cupped his hands on his thighs. He slouched forward, posing like a hardboiled detective, though his perverted face completely ruined the vibe.

  "This curse is indeed caused by a Poltergeist Jinn. But the energy residue left in Miss Kasna's Noi is way too simple for a sample. I can't identify the Jinn's exact species from here."

  "Is there really nothing we can do?" Gio pressed.

  "I can craft a ward." Ki Rojo pointed at Kasna's medical mask. "That mask... I can turn it into an anchor for a Nisaga to shield your head from the Jinn."

  Ki Rojo raised three fingers. "But there are conditions. First: I need three days to fabricate it. Second: It's expensive, requires imported reagents. Three: It's just a shield, not a cure. As long as the Jinn and its handler are roaming around, Miss Kasna isn't really safe."

  "Wait... Handler?" Gio interrupted. "You mean there’s a culprit?"

  "Spirits don't just mess with humans for no reason, Gio," Rojo explained. "This curse is way too clean. There must be a mastermind behind this. Most likely a Supernaturalist contracted with the Jinn."

  "A Soulist-Shaman?" Gio chimed in.

  "Yeah," Rojo replied.

  In the Supernaturalist hierarchy, Soulist is a type of Spirit User (Supernaturalist capable of Astral Projection) right after the Venator. While Venator's duty is to eradicate demons because their senses are tuned for them, Soulist's senses are more sensitive to Jinn. However, they don't have to exterminate them unless the Association officially flags the Jinn as a threat.

  Meanwhile, Shaman is a practitioner who binds a contract with spiritual entity—whether as a master-pet relationship, boss-subordinate, or straight-up contractual slavery. Combine these two roles, and you get a Soulist-Shaman (assuming the Soulist holds the authoritative position).

  "Judging from its capabilities..." Ki Rojo adjusted his glasses, reading the bullet points he’d just typed in Notepad. "Manipulating facial motor nerves without damaging physical tissues, mimicking the host's voice, mind-reading, perhaps even telepathy... This creature is no ordinary Jinn."

  He swapped his gaze between Gio and Kasna. "Same goes for the Shaman. We're dealing with a professional."

  "That’s bad..." Gio turned his head toward his cousin, who was still chilling on the floor. "What do you think, Arua?"

  All focus shifted to the middle-parted guy. But the center of attention was totally zoned out, chuckling while glued to his phone screen.

  No response. "Arua?" Gio called out again. Realizing someone was bothering him, Arua looked up, visibly confused. "Eh, what? You guys done storytelling?" He completely ignored the entire discussion.

  "No! Sigh," Gio shot him an exhausted, deadpan stare. "I can't believe you're just chilling right now."

  "Arua, you must know something, right?" Rojo added.

  "Tch. Why me? You're the shaman here," Arua grumbled cynically. Moving lazily, he dragged himself across the concrete floor—refusing to stand up—closer to the table. Without asking for permission, he snatched Rojo's laptop, spinning it to face him. "Hey!" Rojo snapped.

  Arua ignored him. His eyes moved rapidly, skimming the entire Notepad log. "Seriously? You didn't catch the species?"

  "Check the database yourself if you don't believe me," Rojo replied defensively. Arua pressed Alt+Tab, switching to a browser window that was already open.

  The website's UI was a total nightmare for modern designers. Pure deep web aesthetic mixed with clunky 2000s HTML style. Pitch-black background, eye-bleeding Courier New font, inconsistent sized image boxes, and low-res GIF icons in the corners. It looked like a cheap creepypasta blog or urban legend conspiracy forum.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Despite the amateur layout, the content was an absolute goldmine of information. This wasn't an official Association site—they didn’t have something like this. It was an underground database for spiritual entities taxonomy, run purely by an independent community.

  "I ran a filter based on Gio's description," Rojo explained. "Still got 27 Jinn genuses matching the criteria. We need more specific information on its Ectopraxis mechanics."

  Arua scrolled the page rapidly. Eyes swept over the species descriptions, cross-referencing them against his own logic.

  He glanced back at Ki Rojo's notes. One critical point stood out: "Based on visual and behavioral data, this Enneapus Jinn shows no signs of high sentience. Its IQ is roughly equivalent to crow, octopus, orcas, or lower primate."

  In a matter of seconds, Arua caught the flaw. "Nope," he muttered, typing on the grimy keyboard. "Telepathy is way too complex for an animal."

  He moved the cursor using the touchpad, typing a new parameter into the filter. "Vocal organs manipulation is also out. Ventriloquism is hard, definitely leave muscle strain on a host's neck if they weren't used to it. But she doesn't feel any."

  Tap. Enter. 27 candidates instantly shrank to just 6 species. "Now, just verifying the last variable..." Arua turned to Kasna, who'd been quietly listening the entire time. "We need to run a quick experiment on you. Maybe using some sticky paper, or—"

  "Ummm I think... I’ve already done it." Kasna cut him off. Little interest in her eyes upon realizing a relevance between the guy’s theory and her own experience.

  "A few days ago, in the school bathroom, I attemted a test using a mirror and sticky tape over my mouth."

  Arua raised an eyebrow. "And then?"

  "I don't get it..." Kasna explained. "The results were inconsistent. Sometimes, my mouth moved completely on its own, blurting out my exact thoughts. I watched it happen in the mirror..."

  The girl pressed a finger against her masked lips. "My mouth was forced open, snapping the tape off. But it didn't feel like external control. I could feel my own jaw and lips moving. Like I was just... blurting it out?"

  "Oh, that's, uhh..." Arua tried to remember, but drew a blank. "Tch, what's it called?" He opened a new browser tab, typing rapidly. "Tourette Syndrome. But that’s too generic. Yeah, something like that. Go on." His eyes returned to Kasna.

  "Other times, a mysterious voice just manifested on its own," Kasna continued. "Even though my mouth was locked shut and the tape was perfectly intact."

  A brief pause. "It sounded exactly like my voice, but the content didn't match my thoughts. Purely random, no pattern. Sometimes it was curses, sometimes just weird noises. Is that Auditory Hallucination?"

  Arua smirked. "Haha, interesting. You're pretty smart." A rare, genuine compliment. The girl had a natural researcher's instinct.

  Arua pointed straight at Kasna. "You’re just promoted to Tier A. Congrats, you're officially qualified to become my harem." As always, straight back to his delusions.

  "Eh?" Kasna gaped, buffering to process the last sentence. "Arua, be serious!" Gio snapped, then turned to Kasna with an apologetic look. "Ignore him, he’s just weird."

  Kasna's information was exactly what Arua needed. He resumed typing. "Nah, that's not a random hallucination. Which means—"

  Click! Enter key was pressed. The bizarre webpage refreshed, displaying the complete profile of a specific Jinn species next to a rough hand-drawn illustration.

  "Bingo." Arua spun the laptop around, letting Gio and Kasna see the results. The screen showed a flat-headed, nine-legged octopus creature. Right next to it, a dense block of technical description:

  SPECIES: RING-DOWN FUNGAL ENNEAPUS

  ABILITIES:

  1] Brain Interruption: Utilizes micro-electric Ectopraxis to temporarily paralyze the frontal lobe's “verbal brakes,” which normally restricts thoughts and speech. Consequently, the target loses their social filter, impulsively blurting out intrusive thoughts via motor reflex.

  2] Acoustic Ectopraxis: Possesses intelligence equivalent to Parrots (Psittaciformes). Capable of recording and replaying short phrases via cross-domain air manipulation. Audio is generated externally without involving the target's vocal cords.

  HISTORY & DISTRIBUTION: Endemic to Southeast Asia, Australia, and South America. Sightings have been recorded since the 17th century. Frequently weaponized for political espionage since the 20th century. Humans train them to directly mimic a target's voice using only a few samples. Current Status: Illegal black-market commodity.

  Gio and Kasna read the text. The data cleared up all of Gio's confusion, but completely lost Kasna. For a normies, getting hit with Consciology terms left her deeply confused. Made sense why she hadn't talked much.

  "Simply put," Arua broke the silence. "The Jinn operates in two modes: The Leak and The Parrot. When your guard is down, or your brain is actively processing thoughts, it uses the first mode: interrupting the frontal lobe to cut your verbal brakes. But when you panic and your mouth tighly shut..." Arua pointed at Kasna, elbow resting on the table. "...Which you definitely do a lot... The Jinn switches to mode two: sound wave Ectopraxis. It's not a hallucination. It literally isn't your voice."

  Jinn is an Ophema entity. Its voice should be inaudible to humans in the Proteum. Ectopraxis bridges that gap, letting Ophema sound waves physically interact with Proteum air. A direct cross-domain information transfer.

  Gio was stunned. "That... makes sense."

  Arua glanced at Ki Rojo, who was silently listening. "What's wrong, old man? Couldn't even figure out something this basic. Just retire already." Ki Rojo just shot him a cynical glare.

  Still not satisfied, Arua roughly spun the laptop back. "And right here it says..." He pointed at another data line. "The curse activates precisely at 07:00—the morning bell, and stops at 15:15—the dismissal bell?"

  Kasna nodded slowly. "Yes. It's always like that, from Monday to Friday."

  Not wanting to lose the spotlight, Ki Rojo chimed in, stroking his tangled beard. "This thing behaves exactly like a highly disciplined pet dog. The owner literally trained it to 'clock in' and 'clock out' perfectly matching the school schedule. Plus, it seeks a specific target... Way too organized."

  Arua dropped his head and arms onto the table, exhausted by the dialogue. "It's obvious, isn't it? The culprit hates Kasna."

  "Wait, a grudge!?" Gio blurted in shock.

  "Yeah. Is there any other reason behind humiliating Kasna in front of the whole school?"

  "I think so," Gio muttered.

  "High probability the culprit is from our own school." Arua lifted his head back into slouch pose, typing in a new Notepad file. "Btw, we have two officially registered Soulists there."

  “So..." Gio said. "Are they the suspects?"

  "Yeah. But the probability is low. They’re usually under heavy surveillance."

  Gio locked eyes with Kasna. "Kasna, try to remember. Who would possibly hold grudge against you?"

  Kasna looked confused. "Grudge? Ummm... I’m not sure, I've never sought trouble with anyone. I barely even talk."

  "You're wrong, Gio," Arua cut in, still locked-in to the screen. Fingers typed rapidly.

  "You can trigger a grudge without ever realizing it," Arua explained. "Kasna might not know the culprit. But the culprit definitely knows her. Agree?"

  "Oohhhh... Okay.”

  "However, the main culprit isn't necessarily a Soulist," Arua continued.

  "Wdym?" This time, the confused hiss came from Rojo.

  Arua elaborated, still typing. "There’s a chance the culprit is just a normies. They could've hired an illegal Soulist to terrorize Kasna.”

  Arua pressed Enter one last time. "Done."

  The laptop screen displayed an amateur detective-style list of clues:

  1) Jinn's owner is undoubtedly a Shaman-Soulist, but the culprit might not be.

  2) The culprit is likely a Purwokerto High School’s student.

  3) Culprit know Kasna.

  4) The Shaman-Soulist isn't necessarily an Association member.

  5) Culprit should actively monitoring Kasna at school.

  6) The Jinn appears at morning bell and vanishes at dismissal bell. Is there a way to disrupt this cycle?

  7) Kasna doesn't recall meeting any strangers; the curse just appears and drops. Either: a) Soulist recalls Jinn using long-range Nexus signal, b) Jinn is fully trained to return on its own.