An Exorcist Magical Girl! Chapter 132

“Heard something…?”

 

“No, never mind.” 

 

I waved my hand at Soo-hee who instantly froze in fear.

 

 The sound was inaudible.

 

 “Did you hear anything?”

 

“No, never mind. You can’t hear it anyway, right?”

 

“Uh, uhhh… uhhhh…”

 

I didn’t mean to say that. I didn’t mean to…

 

Soo-hee put her hands over her ears, ready to cover them at any moment. She chattered fluently on the way to the science lab, but her tongue twitched at the sudden horror movie-like atmosphere.

 

 “You’re giving me an assignment, aren’t you?”

 

“Uh, yeah, the, uh, grapefruitade is a gift certificate for—”

 

“Okay, that’s for later, you go ahead, I’ll take care of this.”

 

“Uhhh, can I?!”

 

 She looked like she wanted to get out of there, so I let her go. The client doesn’t need to see the whole exorcism.

 

As soon as she was told she could go, her stiff face lit up.

 

 “Then do me a favor…!”

 

“Uh-huh.” 

 

Soo-hee left without looking back.

 

Her almost running footsteps faded into the distance and I turned my attention back to the sound of the liquid.

 

At first, it sounded like a frog croaking, but it was a bit forced.

 

It sounded like a man scratching his throat and mimicking the sound of a frog.

 

While wondering if I should just remove the black plastic covering the source of the sound, I began my own investigation.

 

The water that had collected under the black plastic had somehow made its way to where I was standing.

 

“Ugh, the smell.”

 

I grimaced as the stench hit me.

 

*Snap, snap, snap*

 

The thing rippling on the water was definitely hair. Tufts of hair soaked in black blood and sticky.

 

The dried blood dissolved in the water, leaving a trail of blackness. It was the reason why the water looked black to some. The stench of iron and the fishy smell that the students had smelled were also attributed to the blood clinging to the hair.

 

‘I can smell it, I can see the color, but no one says they can hear it. Oh, and the hair.’

 

There were no eyewitness accounts of the hair, which flowed in waves like roots.

 

I don’t know if it’s because the hair was too invasive to the human senses, or if they couldn’t hide the stench or the color of the water.

 

Either way, it’s clear that the hair and the croaking frogs were in the category of undetectable to the average person. If there had been a story about it, Hanbyul would have told me about it.

 

 There’s no way she didn’t know about those rumors, and there’s no way she forgot to tell me.

 

 

❰Skill: ‘Light that can only be seen by closing your eyes’ has been activated❱

 

 

A black aura spread through the air like mist when the skill was activated.

 

I couldn’t see it with the naked eye because it was covered in plastic, but I could get a rough idea of the ghost’s shape from the energy seeping under the plastic.

 

 “Head…? No neck, what’s that? Something’s attached to it…The core is right inside the head.”

 

With that much figured out, I withdrew my black energy. Any closer and you never know what might happen.

 

It was only sneaking glances at me as it splashed water in my direction, so even though I was so close, I kept putting off a direct confrontation.

 

 I am frustrated. I can’t get rid of this thing.

 

 If it was just me, I’d have no problem removing the plastic,

 

“Stop moving seats around and sit five by roll call!”

 

“The last four people to sit.”

 

“Mr. Watson wants me to turn on the computers early.”

 

“Oh, just do it in class, don’t bother.”

 

“We’re supposed to be looking at something under a microscope.”

 

“Ying? Why did you bring a textbook? Do you need a textbook today? It’s a lab class.”

 

 It’s three minutes before the sixth period.

 

The students in the science lab next door are bursting in, and it’s hard to act quickly, because if I suddenly turn around and take them hostage, or try to separate their souls from their bodies like I did with the Head Collector, I’ll be in a lot of trouble.

 

 It is a bound spirit anyway, so it can only move as far as the science lab over there.

 

 The spirits here have a distinctly bound aura, a sense of being assimilated into a place.

 

‘Since it can’t move at will, I’ll come back when class is over and no one is around to deal with it. But isn’t that a little strange?’

 

 I was about to leave the science room before the 6th period started in earnest, but I stopped in front of the door with a sudden question.

 

‘Does a bound spirit appear out of nowhere like that?’

 

The connection between the room and the ghost was strong enough to make me think that it was artificially created. The ghost hadn’t been in the science lab for more than a day or two, so why was it being noticed now?

 

 I was about to turn my head again out of sheer curiosity,

 

 “Grrr…, kegg!”

 

 A cold, unpleasant sensation hit my cheek.

 

The ghost’s hair was whipping around, sending water droplets everywhere, even in my face.

 

 It was a brief moment, but I could tell. It wasn’t swinging to attack me.

 

 Not the way the hair was pointing, not the pitiful cry of “Kek!”. It was a defensive struggle rather than an attack.

 

It was a stupid, ill-timed attempt to escape.

 

 “Anyway, running wouldn’t have saved me…”

 

 I turned around, but the demon I was expecting was not there.

 

There was only a bug with a blank face floating on the black vinyl, fluttering and slowly sinking to the floor.

 

 “I’m sure it hangs out in the hallway from time to time…”

 

I’m an exorcist, so I’ve seen it a few times with the door open, but it can never penetrate a normal person’s senses with its own power. Not the slightest smell, not the slightest shape or color, not anything about me that would be visible to a normal person.

 

Is the ghost behind this black plastic a weak one? Not at all. How could it be the color of water and do all the bloody things it does with so much power?

 

The water on the floor was gone, as if it had been sucked up by a giant sponge in one fell swoop.

 

I almost panicked for a moment, but it quickly became clear what was going on.

 

“Aaaaah!”

 

 The sound came from the hallway in front of me.

 

 “Ow! What is it?”

 

“All of a sudden there’s this water…”

 

“Your socks are all wet.”

 

The murmuring voices faded into the distance.

 

 “Oh, bouncing like that, haha, asshole.”

 

 It was a switch.

 

The damn ghost had switched places with one of the mosquitoes outside.

 

 I never thought I’d see a water ghost at school.

 

Or rather, I didn’t think it was a real water ghost.

 

 As for finding water ghosts at school, I guess it’s because it’s an all-girls high school.

 

 It came into the school and became a bound spirit?

 

 Water ghosts are very strongly bound to the place where they died.

 

If they can’t find someone to take their place, they’ll be stuck in the place where they drowned for years and decades, and they’ll even drown other people.

 

 Such a water ghost comes to Mukgyeong Girls’ High School and decides to stay there again as a possessed spirit?

 

 They don’t want to be dragged back to the afterlife once they get out of the water, so they came to Mukgyeong Girls’ High School as the next best thing, which is similar in that they can’t leave at will, but it’s still better than being stuck in a place where they can’t move a step.

 

 So I don’t understand it.

 

‘Didn’t they choose to go to an all-girls school because they didn’t want to be restricted and wanted to enjoy their freedom?’

 

‘Why would they come all the way here and become a ghost trapped in a science lab?’

 

 With this question in my mind, I stepped outside.

 

I thought about going straight to the hallway from here, since the doors were supposed to open from the inside, but I didn’t want to bother locking them later, so I decided to go through the first science room.

 

“Eh, eh, Baek Iri?!”

 

 A familiar voice greeted me as I opened the door to the first science lab.

 

 “Uh, Hae-yoon?”

 

 It must have been the fifth class of freshmen who had a class in the first science lab during sixth period.

 

Kim Hae-yoon, who had asked me to save her friend Idamin during the head collector incident last Friday, spotted me and came over.

 

 “Oh, hello!”

 

 It was cute the way she bowed her head awkwardly, as if she couldn’t forget to say hello again as she ran over to me.

 

 “Senior, what are you doing here? Ah, are you ghost hunting again…?”

 

“Oh, that’s not…”

 

 I was about to lie to her and tell her that it wasn’t true when I suddenly had a thought.

 

 “Actually, yes, it is. I’ve been asked to perform an exorcism.”

 

“Huh…!”

 

 Kim Hae-yoon’s eyes widened in surprise.

 

 “Oh no.”

 

“Hey, guys, guys, don’t look at that. Look away! Shoo, look away!”

 

 Hae-yoon waved her hands in the air as if she thought I was in trouble.

 

 “Senior, let’s go outside and talk!”

 

 She grabbed my arm and led me out of the science room.

 

I didn’t bother to tell her that this was the way to get closer to the ghost.

 

 “It’s no big deal, just a simple exorcism…”

 

“Yeah!”

 

“Well, there’s your friend Idamin. Idamin!”

 

 As we spoke, water was pooling in the corner of the hallway.

 

 “It’s leaking here too. Maybe it’s the whole floor.”

 

 A few students walked by, grumbling.

 

 “Senior, what’s wrong?”

 

 I stopped talking for a moment, distracted, and Kim Hae-yoon blurted out.

 

 “Oh, sorry. It’s really nothing, but can you, uh, stay with Idamin for the rest of the class?”

 

“It’s…?”

 

 ‘How do I even explain this?’

 

The water ghost that had become the permanent resident of the science lab still had some of the characteristics of a water ghost.

 

The one that says you have to bring a replacement to get out of a fixed position.

 

It had just grabbed a random mosquito outside by the hair and dragged it inside to get away from me. Unfortunately, it moved too fast and got caught by me.

 

 Anyway, it reached out with its hair to change places and possibly touch a living person.

 

No problem if it’s an ordinary person.

 

As strong as this water demon is, it’s not strong enough to easily pull a soul out of a living person’s body.

 

 The problem was Idamin, who had been possessed by the head collector before.

 

Before the group possession of hundreds of disciples, she was easily released from her body by a relatively weak song, so she might lose this time as well.

 

 “Idamin isn’t exactly a strong spirit, is she?”

 

I ask, trying not to make her nervous.

 

 “Just asking, in case.”

 

 I try to be as gentle as possible and say it one step at a time.

 

I know from experience that jumping to conclusions will shock the other person.

 

 “During the exorcism, the spirit could be a bad influence on the people around you.”

 

“Oh, yeah!”

 

“Just pat her on the back if she dozes off or looks a little groggy. You know, you’ve heard the one about patting your back and shoulders after telling a scary story.”

 

“Oh, I know! Ears, they can be haunted…right?”

 

“Yeah, that’s right, do me a favor.”

 

 The water ghost I dealt with today isn’t as strong as the Head Collector. So this is exactly what she needs.