An Exorcist Magical Girl!

He threw himself against the barricade of desks blocking the back door, layer upon layer.

 “When are you going to get rid of all this stuff, I’m in a hurry.”

 

BANG!!

 

I rolled down the hallway of collapsed desks.

 

My side and back throbbed where I hit the desk.

 

But it was fast, wasn’t it?

 

“You, you ignorant…!”

 

The ghost’s face was colored with embarrassment, as if it hadn’t noticed that I had hit it with my whole body.

 

It wanted to get as far away from me as possible, but by running right after me, it didn’t get as much distance between us as it had hoped.

 

I drew the black energy that had grown as long as Hodger’s thorns from my fingertips and aimed it directly at him.

 

“You should have stayed in the classroom, ghost.” 

There are no distractions in the hallways.

 

The moment the black spike left my hand, I was sure that this time I would hit.

 

Kying─!

 

With a sound like an arrow cutting through the wind, I pierced the back of the ghost’s head.

 

“Kaaahhhh!”

 

The ghost fell backwards.

 

But it wasn’t easy.

 

My right hand slowly moved to my throat as if to strangle me.

 

“This is how you controlled the students?” 

So the ghost was manipulating people, cutting their palms and dragging them up to the roof.

 

“Dude, did you think that shit would work on an exorcist?”

  

I was able to dispel the demon’s power with a simple flick of my hand.

 

“You should’ve run before you had time to do that, but you would’ve gotten caught pretty quick anyway.”

 

Once the ghost was on the ground, it stepped on its left wrist and stood up.

 

“I’m going to ask you a question, and if you answer honestly, I’ll let you go.” 

I’m lying, of course.

 “Uh-huh. Don’t be silly.”

 

I put my hand in front of the ghost’s face and it immediately tried to bite the back of my hand.

 “Ouch!” “If you give me a good answer, I’ll let you go.” “My, do you think I believe you? No matter what I say, you’ll destroy it!”

 

Oops, I got caught.

 

“So, do you want to give a good answer and not be destroyed, or don’t answer, hold out and be destroyed?” “You cowardly exorcist, do you think your threats will work on me?” “You think it will work?” “You crazy bastard!” “I wanted to ask you a question first, do you want to keep talking?” “Ugh…”

 

Well, there you go.

 

I pointed the umbrella at the ghost and he listened obediently.

 

If only it was like that from the beginning.

 

“Are you sure you were “called” by Bunshin Saba?” “I am… of course I am, I never intended to come here in the first place!”

 

Bunshin Saba is a necromancy practiced by two people.

 

If Kang Yoon-ju had practiced Bunshin Saba

“alone”

that day, there’s no way she could have actually summoned a spirit.

 

Many students testified that she was the only one there.

 

Even one of my student council friends whom I met at lunch yesterday said that she saw her being dragged out of the classroom.

 

So I naturally concluded that Kang Yoon-ju was playing the Bunshin Saba impersonation by herself, and that her half-assed necromancy couldn’t have summoned the ghost.

 

This led to the conclusion that the ghost searching for the note’s owner had nothing to do with Bunshin Saba.

 

A notebook with traces of a failed necromancy was the perfect object for a wandering spirit to attach itself to, so the lost-and-found report was the work of a wandering spirit that happened to be attached to a discarded notebook.

 

There was really no other explanation, so I stuck with my conclusion.

 

That is, until her friends called last night.

 

Yang Ji-won, Cha Hanbyul and Kwon Yuri told me that the ghost was angry with Kang Yoon-ju and her friend for bringing it here.

 

Hearing this, I had no choice but to throw out the conclusions I had drawn that afternoon.

 

The ghost was speaking directly to me.

“I had been “called” here.” 

 

There were two people doing the Bunshin Saba. Then they saw her being scolded in the staff room, but she was the only one being scolded.

 

In retrospect, none of the friends who were convinced that Kang Yoon-ju was alone had actually seen her perform the Bunshin Saba.

 

This means that the “friend” hid or ran away before the crowd gathered.

 

I was told that one of the teachers was the first to see the scene.

 

If Kang Yoon-ju’s

“girlfriend”

was a student who was favored by the teacher, it’s possible that the teacher let her go before the other students noticed.

 

Honestly, if she had a personality similar to Ms. Park’s, she could have done that.

 

Anyway, now that I had a clear answer from the ghost, it was time to move on to the next question.

 

This was the real question I wanted to ask today.

 

“What does “hell” even mean?”

 

This wasn’t the first time the word

“hell”

had come out of the ghost’s mouth.

 

The ghost in the drama club room that had dragged me into an escape room game earlier had also talked about paradise and hell.

 

If they’re calling it hell, they must be…

 

As I replayed the clubroom ghost’s words over and over, I put more weight on the foot that was crushing the ghost’s left wrist.

 “Off, off, off, it hurts!” “Don’t be annoying and answer me.” 

The

“hell”

mentioned by the ghost in the club room and the

“hell”

mentioned by the ghost in front of me now. Are they referring to the same place? Did they mean the same thing?

 

I wondered.

 

“Well, yes. You asked me what “hell” is… Ahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahaha! Hahahahahaha! Hell! You didn’t know what hell was? Hahahahahaha!” “Laugh and answer.” “You don’t know what hell is, hahahahahahahaha! It’s the very place you have entered! Stupid—” “Shut up. I didn’t ask you where hell is, I just figured out that you already referred to school as hell by saying “invited hell”. What I want to know is the “meaning” of hell.” 

Based on the sentence the ghost gave as the last question on the O-X quiz and what he did after that, I was able to make a rough guess.

 

The one about having to break bones to get out of the hell you’re invited to.

 

And the ghost’s act of trying to break a person’s neck by saying,

“I have no reason to be in this hell (school), so I’m trying to get out.”

 

To be invited is to be called by the Bunshin Saba.

 

So when we say

“invited hell,”

we’re referring to the place where Kang Yoon-ju was forcibly led by her necromancy, Mukgyeong Girls’ High School.

 

In order to get out of this school, invited by the Bunshin Saba, the ghost have to break someone’s bones.

 

I’m not sure what breaking a bone has to do with getting out of school, but one thing is clear.

 

To understand the connection between the two, I had to understand what

“hell”

meant.

 

“Tell me, why do you call this school “hell”?” “Because… traded freedom for eternity, and if that’s not hell, I don’t know what is.”

The ghost beneath my feet muttered incoherently.

 

“A place where I can exist forever.”

The words of the ghost in the club room echoed in my head.

 

“Eternity? Explain. What do you know about this school?”

 

I insisted, but the ghost didn’t answer.

 “How about we rephrase the question? I mean, the phrase “you have to break bones” in your third question is a clever pun, to say the least.” “…….” “You said you had to break some bones to get out of here. You weren’t satisfied with just cracking your knuckles?” “…Let’s just say it was the only way to get over a fence that could never be crossed.” “Dude, if you say it right, I’ll just let you go. Don’t twist it like that, please!” “No need.”

 

No matter what I did, it didn’t seem to want to explain itself to me.

 

Then there was no reason for me to wait.

 

It was time to make it disappear.

 

❰Skill: “A Craftsman Wears No Tools” is activated.❱

 

Bam!

 

The core of his left hand has been destroyed.

 

The ghost shattered from the fingertips and disintegrated.

 

His shoulders, then his neck, crumbled like sand.

 

“…Someone said it was paradise, this horrible place.”

 

The ghost said nothing for the rest of the way, and only when it was on the verge of destruction did it mutter a last word.

 

❰[Talent: Exorcist (Aspiring)] Deletion crisis defense is 9.45% complete❱.

❰Defense work progress has reached a total of 37.1%!❱

 

***

 

Monday.

 

Two juniors in Hanbyul’s broadcasting department, who were potential victims, did not show up to school.

 

Instead, their parents went to the school office.

 

The parents of the victims said that this happened because the school left a dangerous environment unattended, and they even thought of filing a report with the media.

 

I don’t know what was said in the staff room, but the incident ended quietly with the teacher who supervised the study hall that day being referred to the disciplinary committee.

 

The most popular theory was that the school had paid off the parents of the two students.

 

Jin Yubin and Chae Hyo Eun both decided to change schools. They said they would take a week off and go to another school the following week.

 

Their parents packed up their school supplies when they came to school today and they never returned to Mukgyeong Girls’ High School.

 

No one accused them of being heartless for leaving without saying goodbye.

 

They almost died in that school.

 

After such a terrible experience, they didn’t want to come back to say goodbye.

 

Everyone understood.

 

Later I heard that Hanbyul only wrote to thank me.

 

After this incident the atmosphere in the school became even more turbulent.

 

Self-study at night was naturally stopped, the normally open door to the roof was locked, and access to empty classrooms with no classes was restricted.

 

Students also tried to stay together as much as possible on their way to class or to the bathroom.

 

Some students carried amulets, Bibles, and Buddhist sutras, and the lunchtime music program alternated between hymns and remixes of the Anti-Yamasutra Sutra.

 

Although school policy prohibited the wearing of jewelry, teachers turned a blind eye to children wearing cross-shaped earrings and beaded bracelets.

 

Little did they know that this practice, intended to shake off their fears, would attract the opposite of what they intended.

 

“Who touched the woodcarving doll on the table in the art room? It’s school property and not to be tampered with.” “Hey, who’s the crazy kid that scribbled on the doll?” “Did you see the trophy in the main entrance? It’s creepy as hell.” 

That was just the prelude to events.