Supernatural Investigation 101: Chronicles Of Nakashima Wakana

"If you want to meet your brother, stay in Limbo," The Limbo demon lord tells him with a bright smile. "If you want to be immortal, I will send you to the next circle."

"Send me," Choi Minho replies. This demon is trying to trick him. If he chooses Limbo, he is going to become a demon. 

"Maybe you want to reconsider this." JJ, the limbo demon lord, tries to convince the boy. "Limbo is a nice place. You can laze around all day. Our wifi technology is even better than the human world."

"I can read minds." Choi Minho squints his eyes. "You should not try to fool me."

"A mindreader." JJ sighs, closing the file in his hands. "And I was wondering why would a phoenix send an average human child."

Choi Minho walks to the door leading to the next circle. He takes a breath. What is waiting for him in the next circle? When he opens the door, he finds himself in a white space with other people. He takes a space inside. The door closes itself behind him.

There are only four people in this space including him -- a monk, a magician, a fae, and an esper. It seems that he must wait for one more person to appear before the next circle opens up for him.

In hell, he doesn't grow. His age is frozen. Choi Minho reads the other contestants' minds to evaluate them. The magician is the kind of person who wouldn't think for a second before disposing of people to save himself. The Fae is too cruel. The monk is a little better.

Where is this brother in hell? Is his brother in the deepest pit of the hell? 

Three years are gone. Finally, a girl comes. She has long dark wavy hair and tanned skin. She seems to be around a decade older than him. He reads her thoughts. It seems that the Limbo demon told her that she's pregnant. Is she? Limbo demon lies a lot. She is better than all of them here. Can he rely on her? 

Noona is pretty. 

When she looks at him, he smiles at her. She gives him a slight smile and turns to talk to the magician named Christian. He bites his lower lip. She's already married. He lets out a sigh. If it's her, he wouldn't mind leaving hell for her. 

"Fang Aisa," She introduces herself. 

Choi Minho walks to her and greets her with an excited voice, "Pretty Noona, I didn't introduce myself. My name is Choi Minho. I am not a magic-user or spiritual energy manipulator. I am an esper."

"Esper?" So, she doesn't know about espers. Isn't she a witch? 

"Haven't you seen those movies about people with psychic abilities?" He takes her hand. "Noona is pretty. So, I will explain. There are magic users, demons, priests and the fae. Then, how can humans stay behind? Nature has a funny way of doing things. So, there we are. The espers. We are the ones with psychic ability. We can't do magic, but we have one or two special talents like being able to read the mind or move things at will."

Fang Aisa chuckles.

[Tell her that she's not pregnant.]

He glances at the monk. She's not pregnant, huh? "He asked me to tell you that you are not pregnant."

"WHAT!" She exclaims, shocked. "I am not?"

Isn't that good? Choi Minho scratches his chin. Did she believe that demon completely? Pretty Noona is a little naive.  "Noona, the limbo demon is a liar. It comes up best lie to make you stay there instead of moving on to the next level. He told me that my brother was waiting for me in that city. He always exploits a person's weakness."

The corners of her lips curl down. She lets out a pronounced sigh. Choi Minho tells her not to feel bad. 

"You can read minds?" She asks him. Usually, people are scared of having their minds read when they find out about his ability. But she finds him interesting. 

"I can read the mind and see the other world." He beams up at her. "And a bunch of other things."

"You are amazing!" She ruffles his hair. "And cute."

His cheeks become hot. He squeezes her hand. "Noona, if we leave this place, will you leave your husband and marry me when I grow up?"

Fang Aisa laughs at him. "You are an interesting kid, Choi Minho."

He rubs his nose shyly and looks down at his feet shyly. Though it's clear that she's not going to leave her husband, he still likes her. 

Choi Minho and others explain to her about the working of the contest. She agrees to join their team. The door to L.u.s.t finally comes to them. 

The magician wants him on his side because of his mind-reading abilities. "You must always stay beside me. I will help you get out."

He is aware of the magician's intentions. Choi Minho runs to Fang Aisa's side and grabs my hand. "Thank you, Hyung. But I will stay with pretty Noona. She is my first love."

The magician laughs heartily. Fang Aisa smiles at Choi Minho. "I am taken though."

"Love is love~" He winks at her. "Hell is a long time. I want to protect my first love."

"Fine." She pinches his cheek. "When we get out, I will treat you to a meal."

"It's a promise." He raises his pinkie finger. 

She curls her pinkie finger around his. "Promise." 

***

Choi Minho already knows what is lying ahead. He did read Limbo's minds. Though there are barriers between the circles of hell, he is able to hear thoughts of demons. He warns Fang Aisa, "Don't let go of my hand."

She promises him that she wouldn't let go. Noona intends to protect him. Even he knows that he has to rely on someone to reach his destination. 

When he enters L.u.s.t, he sees countless l.u.s.t demons waiting for them. All of them are stark n.a.k.e.d, watching them lusciously. He clicks his tongue. This has no effect on him. He's still a child.

His eyesight and hearing are gone. He suppresses his laughter. Noona thinks that he is innocent. "Noona, what are you doing? I know about the matter between men and women."

But Fang Aisa is rather frustrated. She won't let him see anything indecent. It's been a while since someone cared about him in this way. 

"Noona, we are in hell. You should not let them touch you or me. If they touch us, we can never get out."

He guides the dark sorceress. Her thoughts are full of her husband. She creates a force field around them, chopping all the creatures who have taken the appearance of her husband while cursing them out loud for not being perfect enough. He can't help but find it funny. Is her husband that perfect? He wants to meet that person. 

His bet has been right. She successfully kills the L.u.s.t demon lord. "Noona, you are cool."

[I know, right?] She doesn't bother speaking. 

They move to the next space. In the space between L.u.s.t and Gluttony, he tells her to cultivate dark energy. Choi Minho lies down on the spongy floor. Her thoughts are so clear. Even during cultivation, she keeps thinking about her husband. He tries to deter her by telling her that her husband might be super old or dead by the time she can leave hell since time flows differently in hell. 

However, she's not dismayed. 

It seems that her love for her husband is the driving force to cross hell.

She wants to cross hell to meet her husband. He came to hell to meet his brother. Does he also love his brother that much?

He does. 

Even if his brother is a killer, he can't hate his brother. 

After she's done, there are changes in her body. Her skin has a different glow. Her eyes are bright and enchanting. Still, he lies to her. "Noona, you look the same."

"Minho, you are not good," She tells him glumly.

The god of time did teach her some useful things. She uses a high-graded spell and opens the secret door. They enter the third circle -- Gluttony.

The table is long and full of delicious food. On both sides of the table, people are chatting and eating merrily. Some of them invite them to join. His swallows his saliva. If he eats one bite, he would never be able to leave this damn place. 

There's honey-flavoured icecream. He must not eat that. "I am allergic to honey. If I eat it, I will get sick."

But he wants to eat that.

"I want to eat dumplings..." Fang Aisa is in a worse stage than him. Her mind is already foggy. Choi Minho rubs his eyes when he hears her thoughts.

[Didn't Sung Jun buy them for me once? When was it? How long has it been? I want to eat dumplings with him. If he feeds it to me by his hand, I will reach heaven on earth. I want to eat him. I didn't get to love him enough. I am already in hell. Sung Jun, where are you? This woman is lonely without you. My eyes, my heart, my soul, and my body are starving without you, Sung Jun.]

What the hell is she thinking? Her loud thoughts sober him up. "Noona, you are thinking loudly. Why do you want your husband to feed you? Don't you have hands? Why do you want to eat him? Are you a carnivore?"

"Food is tastier when I am with him." Her words are even more puzzling than her thoughts. "He is tastier than the food."

"Noona, you are delirious." Min Ho grasps her hand tightly, "Thanks to your l.e.w.d thoughts, my head is cleared now. We can't eat this food."

However, the woman is out of control.