An Exorcist Magical Girl!

“Who’s there?”

 

The sound of someone muttering harshly came back.

 

Maybe it was because the hallway was empty, but I could hear it clearly, even though it was a quiet muttering from so far away.

 

Yin Charang walked briskly from the far end of the hallway.

 

It was the boy who had entered earlier.

 

The flame of the amulet in his hand had faded.

 

The talisman that had been tracking Hanju’s location must have led him here.

 

“Hello, I heard you’re the new S-rank?” “Uh, hi.”

 

The voice that had just stood over me had suddenly turned casual.

 

I awkwardly returned the greeting.

 

“You’re a sophomore, right?” “Yeah.” “We’re the same age. I’m Yin Charang, S-rank. Branch 4.” “I’m Baek Iri, I’m new to Branch 4.”

 

Brief introductions followed.

 

“Director must have informed you that you’re here.”

 

Yin Charang glanced at my amulet, which had completely extinguished its flame.

 “…Yeo Seon-yeo?” “Yep. Hanju is also here.”

 

A hallway deep inside the third floor.

 

In front of us was a sign for an elementary and secondary math academy.

 

Fruits of Growth Scholastic Academy.

 

A sheet of lettering taped to the center of the frosted glass door was peeling off and read,

“The Fruits of Growth Scholastic Academy”.

 

The square sign on the side of the door had a cherry painted in red with a lime green border.

 

It appeared to be the school’s logo. The chartreuse border around the cherry image glowed faintly, as if it were about to go out.

 

“That’s the logo of a neighborhood cram school. I don’t know if elementary school students will recognize it, but middle school students will think it’s cheesy.”

Yin Charang patted the square sign and muttered.

 

“I don’t think elementary school students will like it.” “Why? Don’t elementary school kids like cute things?” “No matter how cute and cuddly it is, they don’t like school logos.”

 

Yin Charang nodded in understanding.

 

When we reached the final location indicated by the amulet and relaxed, a series of nervous sounds came out of both his mouth and mine.

 “Is it open?”

 

I pushed lightly on the glass door. He didn’t even flinch, as if he’d locked the door on his way out, as the police had instructed.

 

“Pull.”

Yin Charang gestured to the sign next to the handle.

 

“Ah.” “Hahaha!” “Don’t laugh.”

My face was as red as an apple.

 

We walked inside the school.

 

“I thought it was a really small school. They have quite a few classrooms. Three on each side, maybe six.” “They’re probably in one of them. I’ll start with the classroom on the right.”

 

Yin Charang pushed open the blue door on the right.

 

I naturally checked the classrooms on the left with turquoise doors.

 

“Are they there?”

 

I asked after a quick check.

 

“No. What about you?” “No.”

 

We exchanged anxious glances.

 

“Why not?”

 

Yin Charang nervously ran a hand through his brown curly hair.

 

Both talismans pointed to the same place, but they were wrong?

 

“Let’s try again.”

 

I pulled out one of the remaining talismans and doused it with the same blood as before.

 

The flame that quickly sprang up didn’t point in any direction and died out immediately.

 

“It says it’s right here.” “What the hell is this…” 

Yin Charang trailed off despondently.

 

Silence descended for a moment. Yin Charang seemed to find the thick silence hard to bear, and then he spoke again, his voice a little lighter.

 

“Why don’t you take a look at the stairs leading up to the fourth floor? There might be some traces there.” “You mean where the students went on their mission?” “Yes.” “Let’s call the director first.” *** 

 

I followed Yin Charang out of the math academy, tapping away at my phone’s keyboard.

 

 

Ping!

 

The reply came right away.

 

 

This was my job. I’m going to end up doing nothing?

 

What about Yeo Seon-yeo and Hanju Hwang? Can they be saved? Can the Association find them?

 

I must do something quickly before it’s too late.

 

At that point, I paused as goosebumps broke out all over my body

.

 

It wasn’t because I suddenly had a vivid image of the body of the missing girl from the Rapid Transit station in my head.

 

I just realized that my mental image was horribly ugly.

 

How close was I to Yeo Seon-yeo, and Hanju Hwang? Didn’t I even remember Hanju’s name correctly earlier?

 

I hadn’t spoken to them personally; I only knew their faces. We’ve only known each other for about three weeks.

 

So, what am I pretending to be affectionate about?

 

Let’s face it. I was wrapping up my need to satisfy my own insatiable heroism by saying that saving people was a matter of course.

 

“Before it’s too late”

or something like that.

 

I just wanted to do something before they took them away.

 

I pushed the ugly feelings aside and faced reality.

 

I did what I had to do. I had to be grateful for what I could do.

 

I cleared my throat and called out to Yin Charang, who was ahead of me.

 

“Charang, the association will be here soon.”

 

When I relayed the message from the director, Yin Charang’s face suddenly crumpled.

 

“Let’s hurry. I’m going to take matters into my own hands no matter what.”

Then he stormed out.

 “Hey, Yin Charang!”

 

He didn’t look back.

 

What’s wrong with this guy?

 

I’ve known Seon-yeo and Hanju for a long time, so I don’t think it’s a mistake, but his sentence was strange.

 

“I’ll have to take matters into my own hands.”

Do you have some kind of hero disease?

 

I scurried after the damned S-rank.

 

When I got to the stairwell, I found him standing on all fours, almost waiting, inspecting the stairs.

 

Hearing my footsteps, he looked up.

 

“Look.”

 

What does he want me to look at? Well, I saw the gum stuck to the soles of his shoes.

 

He coolly ignored my salty glare and continued.

 

“You heard that the last message from Seon-yeo said that it wasn’t an exorcism. I thought that was what she meant, but then I saw this. Look at the railing here.” “There’s a string…?” “You can’t see it if you close the account.” “Oh, yeah?” “That’s what happened.” “Charang, please explain this to me so I can understand.” “Oh, right. You said you were new.”

 

Uh? Why are you being mean?

 

“You don’t know much yet.”

 

This guy. He’s really good at scratching people’s insides.

 

“The ghost here wasn’t possessed; it was just tied to the stair railing. It’s called “self-possession”, which means the ghost tried to make itself possessed. And this string was probably tied with the hem of its own clothes, right? You see the tear marks here?”

 

So maybe the feet of the people who walked by here were caught in the straps made from the hem of their clothes.

 

“Hmm, okay, but why is this still here? Usually when a ghost is exorcized, all the clothes they’re wearing turn to dust.” “It’s because the string has been assimilated into the space, and as it’s been tied here, it’s become a part of the space, not a part of the ghost, and that’s why it hasn’t disappeared!”

In an oddly softer tone, Yin Charang explained.

 

Then he patted me on the shoulder with a cheerful expression.

 

“If you’re old, you might not know, it’s natural for you to not know!” “Well, okay. Thanks.”

 

Just then, there was a shout from below.

 

“I see, people from the association are already here”

 

After a moment of excitement as he explained to me, Yin Charang became impatient again.

 

“I haven’t done anything yet!”

He looked a little pitiful, so I decided to comfort him.

 

“If you really want to do something more, why don’t you ask the people from the association to let you stay involved in the search? I’m sure they’d be happy if an S-rank student wanted to help.”

 

Then Yin Charang looked up at me with eyes that seemed to have a lot to say.

 

“Or we can think about it some more on our own. The association said that exorcizing this ghost was the cause of the incident, and you can guess what that means.”

 

He still looked like he had a lot to say, but I could tell he was intrigued.

 

“Uh, yeah. I was wondering what the hell he meant by saying that Seon-yeo and Hanju’s souls were in danger because they were exorcized.”

 

I tried to calm down Yin Charang, who was about to panic, so I said it out of the blue.

 

If you ask the association staff, you’ll know right away, you idiot, you’re taking things for granted.

 

Meanwhile, the footsteps coming up the stairs were getting steadily closer.

 

Soon a man dressed in all black appeared in front of us.

 

“Ah, hello.”

 

We jumped out of our seats and greeted him stiffly.

 “Uh, yeah”

, but there’s a weird vibe in the air.

 

The man seemed a little embarrassed.

 

After an awkward silence, Yin Charang spoke up.

 

“Are you, uh, alone?” “What’s the matter with you, frog?”

 

The man looked at us but remained silent.

 

Ping!

 

Just then, both of our cell phones rang at the same time.

 

It was the director calling us.

 

 

They’ve just arrived now? Then who is the man in front of us?

 

***

 “Excuse me, are you an official? Civilians aren’t allowed in—” 

I poked him in the side. It was to tell him not to be discouraged.

 

In times like this, you have to go out hard and take over.

 

“Hey, are you a ghost?!”

 

This time, Yin Charang stabbed me in the side.

“Hey, aren’t you poking too hard? I was poking gently.” 

I didn’t care, I shouted.

“Hey!!! Talk to me! Who are you?”

 

Then Yin Charang also gained courage and shouted.

“Tell us who you are!”

 

Now I could hear several people coming up from below. The real association workers had arrived.

 

The man, sweating profusely, shoved us aside and started running upstairs.

 

“Damn it, we didn’t talk about this!”

The man yelled profanities and ran away.

 

Yin Charang and I instinctively ran after him.

 

We had to catch him.

 

But the distance didn’t close easily.

 

I took off my school bag and threw it as hard as I could at the back of the man’s head.

 

I didn’t mean to, but I accidentally activated the exorcism skill.

 

❰Skill: “A CraftsmanWears No Tools” activated❱

 

Bam! 

The bag hits the man in the back of the neck.

 

The man falls forward, and all sorts of things spill out of his jacket pockets.

 

Cell phones, wallets, and a piece of wood hit the floor.

 

Yin Charang, who was running behind me, saw the scene and freaked out.

 

“Hey, hey, hey! Are you crazy?! Don’t you know you’re not supposed to use exorcism skills on people?” “I didn’t mean to do that either! No, I didn’t even know that the exorcism skill could work on people in the first place, isn’t it natural for a newbie to not know?!” “You shouldn’t have said that out of your own mouth!” “Hey, I’m sorry, I’ll use the skill one more time.” 

As the man struggled to get up, I swung my bag like a golf club at him.

 

But before my bag could strike again,

“it”

happened.

 

The man’s soul separated from his body, and in a split second, it was sucked into a piece of wood.