An Exorcist Magical Girl!

It wasn’t until the next day, Tuesday, that the training center resumed classes.

 

Apparently, the gate wasn’t the only thing that broke on the day of the incident, as several other facilities were also smashed.

 

So it took a little longer to recover.

 

Anyway, when I returned to the training center after a long time, the preparations for the 8-hour practical assessment on June 8th were in full swing.

 

I had been preparing for the practical exam in between my basic classes with Senior Shin Wook, but it was the first time for me to prepare for the exam with my sophomore classmates.

 

Due to the illness of Mr. In-Joo Kang, the teacher in charge of the second year class, and the gate incident, I actually just joined the sophomore class today, the first Tuesday in June.

 

In fact, preparing for the exam was as much a mental exercise as it was a physical one.

 

As I learned in training, slapping the ghosts in front of me is not the answer.

 

The ghosts that are lying around and easy to spot are worth a small number of points.

 

Maybe 70 points at the most.

 

To get a high score in one go, I had to find and solve tricky problems hidden all over the place.

 

All my headaches during the practical exam preparation were due to solving these tricky problems.

 

In April, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a

“hard problem”

and I was just blindly trying to beat the crap out of things worth less than 70 points, but now it’s different.

 

I can make a strategy based on the “information” they teach me at the training center!

 

“Anything good?”

 

A break during the preparation for the exam.

 

Seo Jun asks me while I keep giggling.

 

“Well, it’s my first formal practice assessment, so I’m excited.” “That’s right. Last time you just burst in. It’s only been two months, but it feels like a year.”

I mumbled in agreement with her.

 

“That’s true, but so much has happened since the April evaluation, so I guess it feels like we’ve known each other longer. We’ve been to the Rapid Train station, we’ve searched the park, we went to catch Eom Jingyu when the gate blew up, and there’s been a lot of stuff going on at school.” “Yeah.” Hearing Eom Jingyu in the distance, Yeo Seon-yeo and Hwang Hanju approached. “What did Eom Jingyu do?” “Nothing.” 

When Seo Jun said that she didn’t say anything, Yeo Seon-yeo asked me again, saying that everything Seo Jun said sounded meaningful.

 “Really? You’re not hiding anything important, are you?” “No. I’m just telling memories.” “Oh, come on, why keep them to yourself? We have a stake in the memories, too. Count us in.” “Right, especially you, Baek Iri! Did you forget that me and Yin Charang took the right fork together? I feel sorry for you.” 

But the person who should have joined the conversation first, Yin Charang, was nowhere to be seen.

 

“Hey, where is Yin Charang?” “Yin Charang? He’s late today.” 

While Hanju was saying something, the door to the training room swung open and Yin Charang walked in.

 “He said he’d be late, but he’s here earlier than I thought. It’s better to hear it from him.” 

Yin Charang, realizing that I was talking about him, greeted the teacher and came straight to us.

 “You cursed me for not being here, I know.” “No, I just wondered why you were late.” “What is it, Baek Iri, why are you so interested in me?” “Why do you always make people angry as soon as you arrive?” “Hahaha, listen, I’ll tell you why I’m late!” “Just don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”

 

Yin Charang, talking excitedly whether I cover my ears or not.

 

“I’m late because I’m working on a request for the Grim Reaper.” “Oh, I’m suddenly curious, tell me more.”

 

Yin Charang became smug and began to explain.

 

“Did you see my big sword the other day? It’s an afterlife weapon, and those who have a contract with the afterlife, like me, can pull it out anytime and anywhere.”

 

Hwang Hanju already knew this from what he had heard that day, but he still listened intently.

 “In exchange for using the weapon, I have to help the Grim Reaper with some tasks, maybe one every month or so, something simple like retrieving souls he’s lost.” “So you’re helping the reaper again today?” “Yep. I’ve been looking for a doll’s head all day, so the ghost of a child can release her anger and go to the other side.” “Doll head?” “Yes. It was her favorite doll when she was alive, so she left it by the urn in the morgue. I don’t know who or what touched it, but they say the head fell off. All I have to do is fix the doll and put it back in the urn, but there’s a problem.” *** “What problem?”

 

Yin Charang sighed heavily.

 “We still haven’t found the doll’s head, and it’s been three days. I have until Friday of this week to release Han…” 

I asked if there were any penalties for not fulfilling the request, and he said no.

 

“As long as you’re not deliberately lazy, he doesn’t care.”

 

When the deadline is up, the child spirit is supposed to leave this world with the Grim Reaper, unfulfilled.

 “There is no punishment for me, but I would feel terrible if I couldn’t solve the problem by the deadline. If I didn’t find it by tomorrow, he said he would make a new doll’s head for it. It wouldn’t look like the original doll, so it wouldn’t be the same, but it would be a small consolation.” “Yin Charang, you good boy!”

 

He showed me a picture of the ghost hugging her doll when she was alive, and I promised him that if I ever found it on the street, I’d give it to him.

 

I said I would, but I honestly don’t think I’ll ever find it.

 

Seo Jun made eye contact with me and shook her head slightly, as if she thought the same.

 

The child’s doll in the ossuary was a brown fluffy rabbit.

 

It wasn’t the kind of stuffed animal that tends to lose its head or limbs, like a buildable robot or a Barbie doll, so why would it lose its head while standing still?

 

The only explanation I can think of is that someone maliciously took the head off.

 

As I stare at the picture of the doll in disbelief, Seo Jun quietly asks,

“Is this all you have?”

 

When Yinq Charang looked back with wide eyes, Seo Jun spoke again.

“I’d like to see the last one with the doll’s head still on.” “Um, the only one with the head intact is the one I just showed you… But why?” 

Seo Jun paused for a moment, then slowly opened her mouth.

 

“…I’m just asking, just in case, because when you mentioned the doll’s head, I suddenly remembered my school.” “Your school? Why? Is it haunted again?”

 

Mukgyeong Girls’ High School must be really famous. 

 

As soon as Seo Jun mentioned our school, Hwang Hanju and Yeo Seon-yeo, who had been silent and uninterested in the conversation since

“Hahaha, listen, I’ll tell you why I’m late,”

rushed in with bright eyes.

 

“Baek Iri, did you understand what I wanted to say?” “Oh, yes. You’re talking about the “redneck”.” “Right.”

Seo Jun nodded and then looked at me.

 “What? What? Why are you looking at me like that? Do you want me to explain everything?” “Yes.”

Seo Jun casually left the explanation to me.

 

The other kids wanted to know what

“red neck”

was, so I started to explain, feeling like an audience member who had been dragged on stage.

 

Redneck is a bizarre phenomenon that has recently appeared as a new problem in our school.

 

It started with a wood carving doll in the art room.

 

While the art teacher was setting up the dolls, one per six-person table, for the next class, someone had drawn an indelible red line around their necks.

 

Next came the trophies.

 

The trophies were displayed in the main entrance hall on the first floor of the school.

 

The golden neck of the trophy, shaped like a simple human figure, was also marked with a red line.

 

But the curse-like red line didn’t stop there.

 

Students’ personalized stuffed animals were the next targets.

 

One stuffed animal with official merchandise of a popular anime character was found with a bright red line around its neck, and its owner went into a frenzy and eventually left school early, unable to cope with the trauma.

 

Other stuffed animal keychains on students’ backpacks did not fare as well.

 

Nearly half a dozen victims per grade were found.

 

The wood carved dolls and trophies in the art room were taken yesterday, Monday, and the stuffed animals were taken today.

 

It happened in the last two days.

 

The student body was divided between

“it was done by a crazy, attention-seeking kid”

and

“it was done by a ghost.”

 

When it was revealed that the tool used to draw the red line was meteor magic, the proponents of the

“Second Kang Yoon-ju”

theory seemed to gain momentum, but the students pushing the ghost theory countered by saying,

“A ghost could use meteor magic, how?”

 

They argued that it didn’t make sense that there were more than twenty objects with red lines around their necks, and that there wasn’t a single witness, so it must be the work of a ghost.

 

But after a lot of pointless discussions, nothing was ever really revealed.

 “Anyway, at Mukgyeong Girls’ High School, we call it the “redneck incident. End of story!” 

After the story ended, Hwang Hanju and Yin Charang started arguing again, this time over whether it was a human or a ghost.

 

“I think it’s a prank because it’s a bad time to be in school.”

 

Hanju claimed that it was just a prank by an immature and conceptless student.

 “But if you’re going to prank me, you should have done it properly. I would have used red paint or fake blood for makeup instead of oil-based magic.”

 

Yin Charang wondered if it was too insincere for a human prank.

 

“What do you think, Seon-yeo? Who do you think is right?”

 

I nudged Seon-yeo for her opinion and she replied that the winning team was our team.

 “Okay, everyone has had enough rest, let’s focus again!”

 

Amidst all the noise, Mr. Kang clapped his hands to signal the end of the break.

 

I spent the next few hours preparing for the practical exam, then went home and passed out.

 

***

 

Some of the owners of the plush keychains that were attacked by the Red Line today were in the bathroom cleaning their dolls, hoping to somehow restore them.

 

But of course, the red oily magic only faded slightly, not completely.

 

Despite their frustration at the lack of success, none of them gave up on the doll right then and there.

 

But they couldn’t walk the streets with wet dolls in their backpacks, so they left them on the windowsills of their classrooms.

 

Little did they know what the next day would bring.