An Exorcist Magical Girl!

“Now for the third question: Do you have to break a bone to get out of the hell you’ve been invited to?”

 

While the tone of the first two questions was slightly different, the third question was just as out of context.

 “It’s just a matter of luck…”

Hanbyul muttered to herself as she looked down the hall. 

 

It was a stupid quiz without any logic.

 

There was no reason for the answers.

 

“The correct answer to the third question is O. The answer is yes, you have to break a bone to get out of the hell you’ve been invited to.”

 

Of the six students who took the third question, four were lucky enough to get it right. 

 

Only two first-graders picked X.

 

“That’s the end of the quiz. Oh, no. Two people got all three questions wrong.”

 

With these words, the five voices that had been chattering in unison were cut off.

 

The two freshmen who had answered the last question wrong exchanged terrified glances.

 

Their names were Jin Yubin and Chae Hyo Eun, both juniors in Hanbyul’s broadcasting department.

 

“Guys!”

 

Hanbyul realized that her juniors were the last ones to answer wrong.

 “Se-senior.”

 

Chae Hyo Eun called out in a trembling voice.

 

“Uh, what can I do? I’m standing still, but my hand just moved…”

 

Chae Hyo-eun’s right hand, holding the pen, creaked and lifted. Jin Yubin did the same.

 

But before Hanbyul could do anything, it happened.

 Kwajik!

 

“Aaaaaaaaah!” “Kyaaahhhhhhhh!”

 

The right hand holding the pen slammed down on the left palm.

 

They let out screams as they writhed in pain.

 

Blood dripped from their torn left palms.

 

“Holy shit!” “What did they do to my hand…!”

 

Some froze in shock, others instinctively turned away from the horrific sight, and a few scrambled to their feet to check on the pair.

 

No, they tried to get up, but an unseen force held them down.

 

They flail their arms slightly, as if their legs were tied to the chairs, but none of them could stand.

 

While everyone’s legs were as stiff as stone, Jin Yubin and Chae Hyo Eun jumped up from their seats.

 

Actually, something made them stand up.

 

As they approached the window overlooking the playground, they pounded on the glass with their injured left hands, smearing blood on the window.

 

“Yu-Yubin, what should we do? What, what’s going on?” “I don’t know, Eun, please help me. Help me!” 

Their fearful voices were drowned out by the roar that followed.

 Boom!

 

The front and back doors of the classroom, which had been kept firmly closed no matter what, burst open with a tremendous sound.

 

As if they had been waiting, Jin Yubin and Chae Hyo-eun ran out of the front and back doors, respectively.

 

This time, it was not of their own volition, but rather as if they were being dragged out.

 

“Kaaaak! Yubin! Hyo Eun!” “Where are they going?”

 

Boom! 

The sound of doors opening and closing continued to echo as they entered and exited other empty classrooms. 

 

***

 

As the banging faded, so did the screams and footsteps.

 

Meanwhile, the five teachers in the hallway stood still in a row, still shaken.

 

“Ugh!”

 

Hanbyul, who had been struggling to get up, suddenly rolled off her seat.

 

“Ouch! Uh…? Hey, I can stand up now! Everyone, get up! We have to go after them while we can still move!”

 

The students in the classroom were finally able to move.

 

Hanbyul was the first to run out the door after her two juniors, but this time the door was stuck again.

 

“Ack! It won’t open again…” “First the door got stuck, then the bridge got stuck, and now the door is stuck again.” “Hey, didn’t your cell phone work earlier? Call the police!” “Police?! Ambulance?! Uh, who do I call?!” “Call them both!”

 

But now the cell phones are dead. The cell phones of all fifteen people were dead.

 

“Shit, let’s go.” “What if Hyo Eun and Yubin are really in trouble…”

 

Someone cursed, someone cried,

 

“Even if this is the classroom where Bunshin Saba was held… Nothing usually happens to us, we’ve always been good at self-study here, so why did it suddenly happen today…”

Someone muttered, trying to find an explanation.

 

“Yeah, that’s weird.” “What else happened today?” “Broadcasting of Lost and found? But lost and found isn’t the only thing that happened today. It happened a couple of times before that…” 

A few students whispered, but Hanbyul interrupted them.

 

“Today was probably the first time we’ve had to contest a lost and found show. The student council said that if the owner of the notebook or something didn’t show up, they would get rid of it by today. I heard they burned it during lunch.”

 

The students whispered among themselves, “

Yes. We used to just ignore the ghosts and leave them alone,”

and at the same time a question came from the other side.

 

“But what the hell does this notebook have to do with anything?”

 

This was a natural question for someone who didn’t know who the note belonged to yet.

 

“Oh, the purple notebook that was sent today belonged to Kang Yoon-ju. I heard from a friend that she’s on the student council. Ji-won, right? You know you’re on the student council, right?” 

A freshman carefully feigned familiarity and then asked Ji-won for confirmation.

 “Yes. Kang Yoon-ju’s name was on it, and it was a notebook she wrote during Bunshin Saba.”

 

Ji-won, the only student council member present, nodded.

 

At the time of identifying the notebook’s owner, Ji-won was looking through the previous year’s lost and found book, so she didn’t see the name herself.

 

However, she was able to confirm it thanks to her kind friends in the student council, who took pictures of the name and the Bunshin Saba marks on the notebook and uploaded them to social media.

 

“So it’s because of Kang Yoon-ju that Yubin and Hyo Eun are like this now…?”

 

Someone else chimed in from the side.

 

Then, one by one, the people around me started to speak up.

 “Wow. That makes perfect sense.” “I don’t get it. So the ghost that beat up the lost and found the notebook is the same ghost that’s giving us this shit now?” “I thought I heard you say that you don’t understand that shit.” “Then why is the ghost looking for the owner of the notebook?” “Why do you understand half of it and not the other half? It must be the ghost that Kang Yoon-ju summoned as her alter ego. What’s so strange about finding the one who summoned her?” “That’s right. Usually, when you play such strange games, the ghost sticks to the person who summoned it. I saw that in a movie.” “Aha. Well, what about now? Why are you doing it now?” “Well, I don’t know. Isn’t it just to let off steam?”

 

Maybe twenty or thirty minutes went by.

 “Get out on the field. Get out on the playground.” 

The teachers spoke again in unison.

 

The ghost spoke again, borrowing their words.

 

Kreeeek—

 

The front door opened slowly.

 

The fluorescent lights in the classroom flickered on and off, as if to tell them to hurry up and get out.

 

“Out to the playground, out to the playground, out to the playground.” *** 

 

Fifteen students ran out into the hallway as if being chased.

 

Nervously, they looked around and went to the playground as instructed.

 

They had many questions about why they were suddenly asked to go to the playground, what happened to their two friends who chose the wrong answer at the end, and so on, but none of them asked out loud.

 

The students cautiously walked out of the first floor entrance, afraid that there might be something in the playground.

 

Led by Yang Ji-won, they all went to the playground and looked around.

 

Fortunately, the playground was empty.

 

But that wasn’t the only problem.

 

A first grader shouted and pointed to the school building.

 

Two students were leaning precariously on a roof railing.

 

The moment everyone spotted them,

 

Zap!

 

All the classrooms on the playground side of the building lit up simultaneously.

 

They couldn’t see them in the dark, but now that the fluorescent lights were illuminating the windows, they could see them.

 

“Blood, blood…!”

 

I looked toward the playground, and every window was smeared with blood.

 

Crimson palm prints, drawn in such a way that they looked like giant O’s and X’s from the outside.

 

The students on the roof began to move slowly from side to side.

 

They staggered out, one on the O side, the other in the middle of the X, and sat on the railing.

 

With their upper bodies straddling the railing, they soon pulled out a length of rope from somewhere and tied one end around their necks and the other end to the railing.

 

It was the middle of the night, so they couldn’t tell which one was Jin Yubin and which one was Chae Hyo Eun. Besides, their cell phone cameras weren’t working.

 

Everyone was frantically calling out their names.

 

Suddenly, a voice came from next to them.

 

“I said. You’ll have to break some bones to get out of this hell you’ve been invited to.”

 

It was the voice of the lost and found person looking for the purple note.

 

“Break one of their necks, I’ll give you a choice.”

 

This time, instead of using the teachers’ words, the ghost spoke directly to them in his own voice.

 “Choose. O or X? It’s your choice. Make your choice. Go ahead. O or X? Choose. Answer.  “Now, wait!”

 

It was Hanbyul who interrupted the ghost’s words, which sounded like a broken tape.

 

“Isn’t it Kang Yoon-ju, the owner of the note you’re looking for? These children have nothing to do with it! If you can spare them, I’ll help you…” “If I let them live, then what?” “Then I’ll help you find Kang Yoon-ju.”

 

Cha Hanbyul’s head whipped around, not knowing where to look or what to say since the ghost hadn’t even revealed himself.

 

A situation where people could die.

 

Since they were both juniors in the broadcasting department, she naturally thought that she should try to negotiate.

 

When the ghost heard Cha Hanbyul’s words, it let out a laugh mixed with anger.

 

“Ahahahahahahahaha, the name of the bastard who brought me to this hellhole is Kang Yoon-ju! Ahahahahahahahahaha!”

 

He continued, his voice dripping with laughter.

 

“I know those two kids have nothing to do with the notebook, but today I saw that Tearing X didn’t show up until the very end, even though she said she was going to throw her notebook away, and her friend didn’t come to get it either! I was just waiting here to kill all those evil bastards! If I can’t find her or her friend, there’s no reason for me to be in this school, so I’m trying to get out, I’m trying to get out, I’m trying to get out!” “Your friend?” “There must be another person who brought me here!”

 

The spirit was furious, and Cha Hanbyul was stunned and couldn’t speak for a while.

 

“No, who said you can’t leave? Please leave. And please, if you’re going to go, at least go quietly, and don’t take your anger out on us. You’re so mean.”

 

Of course, Hanbyul was only thinking to herself.

 

Next to her, Yang Ji-won also tried to talk to the ghost.

 

“Hey, I think you’re misunderstanding something… Kang Yoon-ju transferred to a new school a long time ago, so of course she won’t appear.”

 

A freshman who was a friend of Jin Yubin and Chae Hyo Eun also shouted.

 “Ji-ji-ji-Ji-won, you’re right…! She-she-she doesn’t have any friends in this school! She-she-she always tries to do crazy things, so we all cut our losses early!” “You hear me? If you change your mind now and let her live, I’ll take you to Kang Yoon-ju’s school next week. They’re not Kang Yoon-ju, so there’s no need to take out your anger on them, so please…”

 

Hanbyul rambled on in a tone that made it hard to tell if she was angry or trying to persuade, but the ghost didn’t even pretend to listen.

 “Hahahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahahaha! You’re the one who got it all wrong! Ahahahahahahaha! You really don’t know anything! You really don’t know anything! I can’t believe you thought this was a tantrum! I’m trying harder than anyone to get out of hell, and you dare to call it a temper tantrum!” “Oh, okay, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, so just calm down and let her go, please. Okay? Please. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’ll take you to KANG Yoon-ju. You’re looking for KANG Yoon-ju. She’s all you need.”

 

Hanbyul fell to her knees and begged.

 

There was a moment of silence and then the spirit spoke again.

 

“Then bring her here and…” “And?” “Bring her friend with her.” “What do you mean, friend…”

 

When Cha Hanbyul tried to plead with a confused face, the spirit whispered.

 

“I told you. You can’t ride the seesaw alone.”