An Exorcist Magical Girl!

The threads that held the detective’s limbs together prevented him from braking or turning the wheel.

 

Everything seemed to be in slow motion.

 

The car sped towards us.

 

Hanju grabbed the back of Yeo Seon-yeo’s head.

 

Seo Jun threw herself in front of me and Yin Charang.

 

Senior Shinl grabbed Eom Jingyu’s throat.

 

Exorcist Shin Ji Woon pulling the bowstring again.

 

Another thread of Eom Jingyu wrapped around my neck.

 

And…

 

“Heehee.”

 

Pow! 

The pale ghost jumped out of the trunk and stood between us and the car.

 

In a flash, she snatched the arrow from the exorcist’s hand.

 

The palm of Pale ghost melted into a bloody mess.

 

She smiled as if she didn’t care and struck the arrow through the center of her left thigh, hitting the glowing blue core.

 

“I’m not here to eat your ass.”

 

The moment the detective’s car pulled up in front of him.

 

 

The shards of the core glowed, sending blue light in all directions.

 

Yes, just like the red flash of light when the CPR dummy destroyed its own core a few days ago.

 

The swarm of light soon formed a huge blue wall.

 

BANG!

 

The fiercely charging car slammed straight into the blue wall. The wall withstood the tremendous impact and then gently pushed the car’s bumper away.

 

The blue wall evaporated into nothingness as the car came to a complete stop.

 

“I don’t want anyone to die. Heehee…”

 

That was the last we heard of her.

 

With a hearty laugh, it completely shattered and disappeared.

 

“What the…”

 

Seon-yeo’s muttered words to herself echoed in the air.

 

For a while, none of the five of us could speak easily.

 

In the back of the car, the detective and Senior Shin were dutifully applying the spirit sealing amulet to Eom Jingyu.

 

Thanks to the spirit sealing amulet, Eom Jingyu could no longer struggle and was crumpled up like a piece of luggage in the car.

 

“She left on his own accord.”

 

After confirming that we and the detective were unharmed, Exorcist Shin Ji Woon spoke quietly.

 

He just broke the spell.

 

I thought that the issue of the ghost could only be resolved by punishing Eom Jingyu.

 

I had clearly told Pale ghost earlier,

“You didn’t come here to eat Eom Jingyu in the first place, did you?”

 

When I cautiously asked if Exorcist Ji Woon knew if she had joined us for this purpose. 

 

The exorcist shook his head, saying it was unexpected even for him.

 

“I figured out long ago that it wasn’t for cannibalistic purposes… I thought she was trying to harm Eom Jingyu in some way other than eating him, and to be honest, I didn’t expect her to leave like this.”

 

…I should have asked for her name.

 

I’ll have to pick up some flowers on my way back today.

 

The target is already gone.

 

***

 

 

A few days later, we heard that Eom Jingyu was dead.

 

The gate to the feeding grounds had been safely closed after a long eight-hour battle.

 

It had taken a long time, thanks to the endless monsters, but the damage was minor compared to the time it took.

 

Not a single citizen or magical boy or girl had been killed.

 

I was lying in bed, scrolling through articles with titles like

“Rookie Narea Shows Her True Colors at the Feeding Grounds Gate”

and

“Who Killed the Most Feeding Grounds Gate Monsters?”

when I received a message from Senior Shin.

 

The message began with the sentence, “I have been officially informed by Exorcist Shin Ji Woon not to tell you until later, but there’s no harm in knowing in advance.

 

After a few sentences of unimportant editorializing about how the director would tell the others separately, the message got to the point.

 

Senior Shin told me the news of Eom Jingyu’s death.

 

When I asked how he died, I was told that the CCTV was broken and the exact circumstances of his death were unknown.

 

I followed him so closely.

 

I couldn’t find out the purpose of the kidnapping or who was behind it.

 

In desperation, I pulled the covers over my head, only to be jolted awake by my cell phone ringing like a morning alarm.

 “What is it?”

 

There were already 40 messages in the chat room that had opened a minute ago.

 

There were five of us in the chat room.

 

Yin Charang had set up a chat room for the five of us who were involved with Eom Jingyu.

 

In the chat room, Charang and Hanju expressed their anger over Eom’s untimely death. 

 

Shortly after I read the message, the last remaining message disappeared.

 

“Ouija board? What the hell is that?”

 

I rewind the chat to try to make sense of the announcement, and a group voice comes on.

 

I thought it was Yin Charang again, but Seo Jun was the one making the voice call.

 

—Oh? Suddenly?

 

The first thing I heard was Yin Charang’s voice.

 

I wanted to ask what all the fuss was about.

 

But Seo Jun, who initiated the call, was muted.

 

I think Seo Jun made the group call because she didn’t want to be bombarded with dozens of notifications and would rather have a nurturing conversation.

 

Nevertheless, she doesn’t leave the chat room. Asshole.

 

—Yeah, so you sell them at the Ouija board carrot market?—Wait and see, you short-tempered bastard. I’m looking for them now.

 

Hwang Hanzhu and Yin Charang were busy talking to each other, whether Seo Jun had muted them or not.

 

—No, what’s with the sudden mention of the wizard board? 

Seon-yeo’s voice interrupted. It was nice to see that I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t understand the situation.

 

—Are you going to use necromancy to summon Uhm Jingyu and interrogate him?—Yes! 

You’re crazy.

 

I could see Seon-yeo ruffling her hair.

 

The conversation soon turned to when she would return to the academy.

 

Three days have passed since the gate broke on Monday. Today was Thursday and the institute was still closed.

 

I heard that all the windows were broken, nothing serious, but it’ll take some time to repair.

 

—So our June evaluation will be delayed. 

The rest of us cheered at Seon-yeo’s news.

 

—Of course! Honestly, it’s too inconvenient for us to keep the June practical evaluation schedule.—Charang would have been happy even if we went on the original date!—Is that so? Hahaha!

 

At Hwang Hanju’s flattery, Yin Charang laughed happily.

 

“Then how long will it be delayed?”

 

That’s the most important thing, right? You can’t just put it off for a day or two and be embarrassed, right?

 

As if she had been waiting for this question, Yeo Seon-yeo replied.

 

—It will definitely take more than a week. The teachers don’t know the exact date yet, but they said it will be delayed for at least a week. Anyway, I want you to bring the parental consent form for the June evaluation to the next class. Are you listening, Hwang? Are you listening?—What? Were you talking to me?—You’re the only one who hasn’t given consent yet.—Ah, *gasp* Really?

 

For the record, I signed it on the spot when I got it last week.

 

Parental permission? Consent? I graduated from that a long time ago.

 

My parents don’t care about me anyway. I don’t even live with them.

 

After going through the whole mess of divorce and remarriage, I just decided to be independent.

 

Neither of them seemed to want to live with me, so I told them I’d rather live on my own and they could support me financially until I was an adult and working.

 

My parents were never short of money, so they readily accepted my offer.

 

As a result, I grew up to be a high school student who could perfectly imitate the handwriting of adults.

 

That’s not to say that I don’t miss the days when all three of us lived under the same roof.

 

They were just as indifferent to me when we lived together.

 

I would treat a snail I picked up from the grass on a rainy day with more respect than they would, so when I had the chance, I coldly announced my departure.

 

—Ah, right. Have you heard? We’re going to have a training camp.—What? Really?! Wow, awesome!—Look! I told you I’d do it, Yin Charang! 

Before I knew it, they’d moved on to a new topic, the camp, and were chatting away.

 

After that, it was just a bunch of uninformative chatter, so I just listened like I was listening to ASMR.

 

It would have been fun to join in, but I had work to do.

 

Sketching ideas for the drama club’s art team poster.

 

I’ve been sketching in my spare time for the past few days, but the results have all been disastrous.

 

It’s due tomorrow and it sucks.

 

I ripped up the paper in frustration, and the sound must have been heard by the others on the phone.

 

-What’s all that rustling? Are you eating candy by yourself?

 

With Yeo Seon-yeo’s words,

“my snack”

became the center of attention.

 

I decided to take advantage of the

“first come, first served”

interest.

 —Heh! Me!—No no no! Me!─-Me!

 

The three of them, minus Seo Jun, who was still muted, rushed forward.

 

Yin Charang was the fastest of them all.

 

“Congratulations, you won! Now you have to draw the picture as I describe!” ─Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa…? Huh? What kind of drawing? “I have something like that.” ─What the hell, where’s the honorific? “I have something like that. Anyway, come on, you got a pen? You got paper? You got paper?” —Uh-oh. “Okay, first, there’s a big spider on the top right…”

 

I tried my best to ignore Yin Charang’s

“What is this? Is this good? Is this good? Can I be happy?”

questions, and instead he drew a village with a praying girl, a spider, and a muddy field.

 —I drew everything you asked, but what is it?—Isn’t it some kind of psychological test?

 

 “Nice try, Hanju, but you didn’t get it right.” 

The picture he sent me was pretty good. I saved the image first, and then revealed the real purpose of this random picture show.

 

“The correct answer was my club project!” ─What? I thought it was something good, but it was a scam.

 

Behind Yin Charang’s disappointed voice, Seon-yeo and Hwang Hanju could be heard giggling and saying,

“We are the winners.”

 

“I’m sorry. I can’t draw, so I asked you to do it for me.” ─How bad are you at drawing?! “Nope. I’ll never show it to you.” 

But life doesn’t always go as planned.

 

─…Back to the drawing board.

 

That was the first time Seo Jun turned on her microphone, which had been muted until now.

 

Soon, the sketches of last Friday’s poster were uploaded to the chat room, and the roaring laughter of the other three continued for a while.

 

—No, when was that taken again?

 

By the time we finished laughing, it was dark outside the window. The conversation ended there.

It felt like the air in the house was suddenly silent after all the chatter.

 

In the sudden silence, I remembered something I had forgotten.

 

The thread of Eom Jingyu’s rope that was wrapped around my neck when he tried to run over the five of us with the detective’s car.

 

It was a split second, so I don’t think anyone else noticed, but I could definitely feel it.

 

He was trying to pull me out of the way of the car.