After spending a few days in the mansions, Mark took a day to go to the nearest town, despite not being happy about it, and went to the mall where he got a number of casual clothing. His body was pretty solid but it didn’t reform his phantom clothing so he needed to do that for himself.

It was impossible to not get it. He had a mortal shell and to walk around normally he needed normal clothing.

As he looked at himself mid change he noticed something.

“Huh? Did I change again?” he said and finished taking off the pants and shirt and checked his body and poke it.

The ‘muscles’ had begun to define itself. After blinking a moment he looked around to make sure there was no one peeking and went into his ghost form because he had been noticing how it was shrinking as well and when he reformed he lifted the phantom clothing and saw that the big gut had drastically shrunk. He could actually see his own feet and his own face was already devoid of excess fat while his body was on its way.

After changing back he put on his underpants and took another pair of pants while in thought. “Could my training be ‘repairing’ my shape?” he muttered.

Indeed, the fat from his mortal shell had been reduced to remove the fat that was spreading the form while his ghost form was now starting to match the form that was still shifting.

“All the flab is gone and I’ve just noticed but my pasture is fixed… did my upper chest also start growing?” he said as he began to nitpick and actually start to notice the changes.

It was very weird so he put it at the back of his mind as he went through the many pairs of clothing and after thinking about the new thing he noticed, he decided to get clothing one size bigger than what fit comfortably in his current size. He had the sneaking suspicion that if his posture and ‘shape’ was being fixed, soon his ‘muscles’ would start to grow as would his physical strength.

In all honesty, his physical strength had already increased quite a bit from his weakly original strength.

After spending quite a while on pants and shirt he took those he found good and purchased them. It was still pretty hefty but there wasn’t much way around it.

He couldn’t get much more out of it meaning he would have to stick with the stolen shoes for the time being.

He did go to a supply shop and get some supplies for exorcism. He wasn’t going to do such a mediocre job as before, he now had to prepare both ghost and human equivalent things.

On his way out he stopped just before going to the register when he noticed a small stand of necklaces.

One hook in particular was very strange. It was a simple string with what looked like a chinese coin. At the center was a square hole that they generally have.

He went to the register and asked her, “What are those little bronze coins?” he asked.

“Oh, the owner is Chinese so he has a few Chinese memorabilia. Those are Chinese lucky coins meant to bring monetary wealth. You would need to look up how to properly use them though.” She said.

Mark looked but his thoughts were on something else, “Those fit perfectly for that… the Pendant of Clarity.”

This was a very low quality pendant which was included in his book but said is close to useless if the spector isn’t already fully pieced together but corrupt.

He also noticed some candles and remembered a new technique he hadn’t seen before. It was called the Nine Soul Flames which, when used, would show if a soul possessed all 9 pieces. If it did it would naturally have the sin as well.

Remembering that he took a pack of candles and after some thought he went to the pendant and secretly channeled some spiritual power and was happy to feel a reaction. He took four of them and walked out happily.

This was how mortal exorcists did things with limited knowledge and resources.

When he got back to the car he stored his things and sighed and thought for a while as he took out the vajra he had taken and put a quartz bead bracelet on his arm and channeled his immensely larger supply of spiritual power.

It caused the object to glow and the faint outline of a blade formed on one side.

Turning it and willing it the blade instantly changed sides.

He looked around and didn’t know what to test it on and he didn’t want to ruin property but then he looked down at the asphalt under his car and smiled as he opened the door and ran the blade against it but it passed through it.

“Oh right, human touch is what affects material objects.” he muttered and withdrew it and channeled the mortal fighting form and reformed the thin spiritual blade and ran it along the ground and was surprised that it actually could leave a distinct cut but it couldn’t penetrate far.

There was a shopping cart nearby and looking around he walked over and carefully pushed the blade into it but it didn’t even leave a scratch on even the thin metal.

When he tried on a piece of cardboard, thrown on the ground it was like a hot knife.

“Hmm… so my energy has thickened enough to be a danger but not so much that it can cut things that actually matter but… is this enough to work?” he muttered.

He sits back in his seat and pulls his spiritual power back and looks at the bounty board.

He activated his hidden localization and asked for the nearest bounties and when it did his face clenched.

There were jobs all over the place making his face twitch. “What the fuck.” He muttered.

He looked at the restaurants near the main roads, shocked that the place had not one but three spectors.

“The bounty is all $150.” He said, shocked.

He looked at the restaurant and after some thought he pulled the car out and headed over and when he approached he noticed how there weren’t any cars anywhere.

When he got out he went to look around and saw a notice on the door.

“Due to unforeseen events that resulted in several deaths, this restaurant has been closed. Please do not enter.” he read.

He looked at the door and pushed it and it was unlocked and knew it was the ghosts but he didn’t enter.

He looked around and walked back to his car and looked through his supplies before taking out his book and began to draw out talismans.

He looked at the restaurant to see how many windows there were and made a lot of them and then looked at another talisman he commonly used since he couldn’t see or touch. These were the seal talisman which were hard to use without seeing.

He made several in case things get serious since there are three.

After about an hour he finished using his new pens to make the talisman and headed to the restaurants and began a quiet chant which channeled a lot of spiritual power into each talisman as he put it on all the windows until he reached the door and he saw a small wave of energy coming off it unlike he ever saw and he smiled.

He pushed the door open and he felt a very slight chill and began to look around.

“Hello!” he shouted.

“Another! Another! DISRESPECT!” a hollow voice said and suddenly a skinny ghost rushed out covered in a thin shadow.

It went totally on reflex and shoved a seal talisman and gripping the face he shoved it to the ground and it smashed into the ground.

He looked at the skinny ghost and surprisingly the smoke filled the body and slowly the form regained a more normal appearance while the monstrous features vanished.

He looked down and then turned and continued to look but found no one else. He took another seal talisman out and channeled some spiritual power in and walked to the back and looked around.

The kitchen was completely clear of any utensils and he knew why. That said it was so much easier to find the ghost, the dark force was completely clear to his eyes as a ghost and he went to the oven and opened the lid. A hairy ghost face was in there and shouted but as soon as it lunged he smashed his hand against its face and dragged it out. The hand naturally had the seal talisman and he took it to the front and dropped it next to the other ghost while the energy radiating from the ghost slowly returned and the monstrous features started to vanish.

He went to the storage but it wasn’t there and only when he got to the manager's room did he find the third one and this one was much more dangerous. It was almost equal to the specter that had killed him and was on the verge of becoming a vengeful spirit.

It threw anything left from a chair to a few loose screws in the wall until he could catch it and drag it out of its room to the main dining area where he dropped all three sealed ghosts.

“The efficiency is amazing.” He said shocked that even without being a wisp he could dominate with such ease.

He walked outside and got some of his new items including the lucky coins and took out his book while sitting down on one of the chairs.

The forceful passage chant he had used that made the specter evolve had left quite a bit of trauma but he reread the passage about it.

“Lack of spiritual power against sufficiently developed specters could instead force its negative emotion to the limit.” he read at the end and frowned when he read that. “Put that shit at the start, fucking assholes.” He cursed and then opened the segment about the Pendant of Clarity and he saw how to transmit the energy and the effect.

“Okay so the pendant will push out the negativity returning the ghost to its original form before death and without injuries. It will enhance the consciousness, intelligence and wisdom that are likely to be damaged from negative energies or missing.” he read.

He looked at the front door ghost and took out one of the pendants and chanted and infused the coin with spiritual power before putting it down against its chest.

The ghost shouted while a thin black mist came out and any distortions that looked like burning recovered until he saw it turn into a young woman wearing an employee uniform.

She growled and snarled like a beast clearly showing she didn’t have either of the reasoning parts but clearly had some emotions.

After 30 seconds the dark energy returned but that wasn’t important, he got what he wanted by seeing the true form of the ghost.

He did the same for the other two and found the strongest one wasn’t an employee and had intelligence because she rambled about managers and calling police and other things that were all too familiar from a certain kind of customer.

“Alright, the seals should last a few hours so i can probably do this.” He said and looked around before laying down and converting into a ghost before he quickly put his things away and locked his car from the electric key before flying into the air.

The air of the town was irritating but he decided that he should improve the chances of making the ghosts move on. At the moment he could either destroy it by forcefully killing the soul and making it break apart, as spoken of in the book or make it pass on by somehow pulling the reasoning fragments to it through the techniques. He thought it was better to use his unique talent to find the fragments itself.

He went around the entire area and as you would expect from a city, there were a lot of scattered souls from those of babies to those of old people.

He moved them around and flew through them until he grinned as he found one of the ghost’s fragments. Shockingly they were surrounded by rot and the two pieces were holding hands already.

“Well that’s new.” He said but grabbed them and pulled them to the restaurant and through the walls before he guided their hands until they were almost against their specter counterpart.

After that he charged the pendant again pushing out the negative force and pushed the connected hand and all three opened their eyes and the parts holding hands turned into light and were sucked in causing the ghost to rapidly change while the dark energy gathered above before it started to spin and formed a black hole above.

“What the fuck?!” He said taking his hand away along with the pendant and after a moment the ghost reformed but unlike Agatha or others her body was colorless and hollow but she looked at him with reason and smiled, “Thank you.” she said weakly and floated into that hole.

Shockingly a part of the negative energy in the air began to come off the building and into the hole before it closed.

“What…” he said shocked and blinked in surprise. “What was that?” he said and looked through the book but as you would expect there was nothing on that. “It’s got to be something to do with my ability, it can’t be normal or it would have been included in the book if just summoning the fragments was the key.” He said.

He looked at the other two and flew out the search and he soon found one of the pieces for the crazy customer but she was missing her lower half and her body was severely burned clearly showing the corruption it had faced.

She looked around and shockingly found the missing legs near the ground and didn’t know how it would work but neither part merged when touching so she took them back before looking and finding the separated pieces of the last ghost.

She decided to deal with the still weaker ghost first and made them hold hands like the first one and surprisingly they closed hands and it seems to bond them somehow. With a push against the negative energy he made them combine like the first ghost and shockingly the reaction was the same. The negative energy formed a black hole and the ghost regained sentience before thanking him as if they had resolved their regret or maybe just freeing them from their pain was enough that they would accept moving on and they would leave.

A lot of negative energy was sucked up causing the chill in the shop to almost vanish and it actually had an effect on the last one as her own negativity weakened.

“So that one was affecting the other two and getting feedback meaning this is the actual regretful one and is going to be the bitch to handle.” He said as he pushed the negativity away and she started screaming.

He made the rotting hand and foot touch her spiritual body and both parts shined and joined at the hip once more and formed into a ball before it was shucked up and the ghost gained clarity but instead of moving on, the dark energy gathered above her head like a black flame and formed a piercing flame that entered her body.

“GET ME YOU’RE MANAGER!” she shouted as she tried to move and shout.

“Fuck me!” he cursed and took out his Vajra and channeled his power until he had the blade and put it in front of her eye, “Shut up if you do not want me to destroy your soul for good.” He said.

The screaming stopped, “You can’t do this to me! I am the customer!” she shouted.

“It seems her mind has gone to hell and her wisdom hasn’t recovered enough.” He said and tried the pendant of clarity once more and this time it pushed out a large portion of negative energy from her body and her eyes began to show some clarity but sin was much greater than his power and it returned within 5 seconds and she shouted.

He couldn’t save her and took out more seals and stamped it on her body but he opened a new page and began to chant while infusing a seal and replacing what was on her head. He huffed greatly because it took a lot of power unlike normal ones but when he put it on, her eyes turned cloudy and she could no longer move.

It had completely sealed her consciousness, making her go to sleep. He had learned his lesson when making a specter go forcefully.

He took some time to rest before he set down his required equipment and did the same chanting as he did with the vengeful spirit.

Unlike the negative energy and sin that took the other two away, his spiritual power gathered above and began to spin, opening a warm entrance but beyond, he knew was the same afterlife.

The spirit began to groan and near the end it shouted as it broke apart into 9 pieces. They tried to run but they all hit against the barrier of his sealing talismans on the outer wall and he gathered them all and was able to push all the fragments into the afterlife before he could finally close the entrance and felt drained.

“So that is why I failed the first time.” He said “I might have failed this time as well but it didn't get the opportunity to reform as a more dangerous being.” He said and smiled.

He put on his clothing after reforming his mortal shell and picked up his things before checking the pendant. “Hm… it seems each pendant can handle roughly 10 usages. There are cracks all over this one already from the six times I used it.” He said but he found that this was extremely useful for making ghosts move on. It was possible many of them are meant to move on but don’t.

He takes out the phone and pulls up the three bounties and presses completed for all three.

“Thank you for the work, we will send a dedicated investigator to the location. If you could wait for the inspection you will gain your monetary reward upon the completion of the inspection.” the message returned once he input everything.

He waited around and soon someone walked in after ripping the door talisman. It was a serious faced man wearing a trenchcoat to look the part in the cold.

“Mr Black, I’m here to inspect.” He said and looked around with a frown, “Mind explaining why the quantity of negative energy is half what it should be?” He asked.

Mark smiled weakly and explained the ability he had that he used to find the soul fragments and the process he used with the Pendant of Clarity which caused the complete specter to pass on of their own will and it took along a part of the negative energy.

The man was shocked and smiled, “So that is why there is a passage for exorcists to use pendants of clarity when summoning the fragments. It is a shame that it needs a good pendant to last that long.” He said and looked around.

He explained where the three ghosts had been and their true forms.

“Right, the accident here had been a gas explosion killing 12. It happened when one of those entitled women were arguing, likely resulting in her maintaining extreme anger in her soul at the time of death. The other two were likely the target of her anger.” he said and walked with Mark to the managers room and took out a marble and began to chant.

The dark negative energy throughout the shop and concentrated here rushed out and was sucked into the marble until no more negative energy was left and warmth from the light finally broke the spiritual cold.

“Finally this place can be put to usage.” He said.

“Is this owned by soul society?” Mark asked.

“It does now. Since it became haunted we’ve had it on lockdown because all there was were some angry poltergeist hauntings occasionally. Soon the shop was abandoned and it seems the specters grew with that isolation. Now we can reform this and put it to proper work.” He said.

He did an inspection in the other areas to make sure nothing was hiding before going back to the entrance and produced Mark’s reward money of $750 spirit dollars.

“It’s amazing that these weak ones go for so much.” He said.

“Anything affecting mortal business will go for a lot. Just like a specter haunting the house of a millionaire even if it is just a specter or a vengeful spirit could get payment on par with dark specters. Thank you for your work.” He said, shaking his head.

“Thank you for your’s.” Mark replied and the man walked out and got into his own car.

Mark took a moment to rip out his remaining talismans and burn them since they were now useless after one usage. When he got in his car he sighed, “I’m still a bit away from being able to properly purge these stronger ghosts but this is how I wanted to be an exorcist.” He said, laughing. It was an amazing feeling to be able to do exorcism properly and see the result of it, in particular how the face’s of those two ghosts had gone from pain to peace as they moved on.

He spent some time on the app and even found a special option pertaining to his home and the facilities.

“Holy fuck, 1,000 spirit dollars to replace just the water pump motor and another thousand to fix the entire piping?! $100 to fix the wiring and $200 to rebuild the pump house! That’s over 100 grand in US dollars! Holy fuck!” he shouted.

He swallowed hard as he looked at his right hand where his money was placed. He now had over 1,000 spirit dollars.

“So that is why they gave me such a big house.” he said, finally understanding the scope that he was capable of working with.

He looked at the time and knew it was time to go, he had wasted a lot of time on this as a result of not being prepared beforehand. He would fix that before getting into the groove of proper work and some more training.

Turning the car on he hit the road back to his home where he filled his closet before getting ready to train.