An Exorcist Magical Girl! Chapter 135

“Hey, is something bothering you?”

 

“Huh?”

 

Noticing that I was being pulled by my hand instead of looking ahead, she slowly stopped walking.

 

 “Do you want to check something out? I’ll walk with you.”

 

“No thanks, class is about to start.”

 

 I waved her off and walked on.

 

As if I wasn’t annoyed enough, Hanbyul kept looking in the direction of the science lab.

 

 “It’s okay, really. It’s more like…”

 

 She wasn’t joking when she said that I didn’t need to check the lab again.

 

I knew what was in there the moment I saw it.

 

 I craned my neck to find the right spot.

 

 “Can you see the field from here?”

 

“Huh?”

 

 Instead of answering Hanbyul’s questioning voice, I opened a window on the field side of the hallway we were walking down and stuck my head out.

 

 “Ah, there it is.”

 

 Some of the sand on the side of the field closer to the school building was darker than the rest.

 

It was wet.

 

The water spirit in the middle of the wet sand made eye contact with me and ruffled its hair.

 

 A shallow bend in the ground led to a pool of stagnant water that began to flow toward the building.

 

The science lab invited it back.

 

 “See you later.”

 

 I caught one last glimpse of the gushing water, like an inverted waterfall.

 

 “Uh, Dr. Watson, it’s leaking again! Is it leaking through the wall? The windowsill is soaked.”

 

 A surprised voice from the science lab signaled the students to return to their seats.

 

 

* * *

 

 

The second time I visited the science lab was after the 7th period had ended and the bell had rung.

 

Unlike the first time when I was led by Moon Soo-hee, when I was determined to finish the job right away, the exorcism had been delayed for two hours.

 

I can’t blame her for the short break.

 

 Unless it’s something really urgent, like the bug case or the head collector, I try not to cut class as much as possible.

 

That was my self-imposed rule for the school exorcism business.

 

 I didn’t want to be labeled as the kid who skipped class in the name of exorcism.

 

If I did something wrong, the teachers who didn’t like my dishonest attitude would ban me from the exorcism business altogether.

 

It was safer to minimize the chances of being criticized by teachers like Park Eun-kyung and Choi Wan-beom, who were in Heo Kyung-wook’s camp.

 

If I was punished unfairly, it would be difficult for Mr. Jang Jin-cheol or other “anti-Heung Kyung-wook” teachers to help me if the cause was my bad attitude.

 

 Most importantly, my other friends, who are also potential clients, would think badly of me.

 

Even if they treat me like a savior now, they might refuse to let me perform an exorcism if they think I’m a “special treatment” seeker.

 

 The last thing I needed was to be labeled as such.

 

 “Do you need a key?”

 

 I frowned at the locked door of the science lab, realizing that I should have gone to the staff room first, but Seo Jun appeared out of nowhere and held out a key.

 

 “Ah…”

 

“You didn’t seem to remember to take your keys.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

“You’re on your own to return them.”

 

“Of course.”

 

 I unlocked the door with the accepted key and stepped inside.

 

 “The switch was… ah, hidden by the dummy.”

 

*Clink-clink*

 

 The first science room was immediately flooded with artificial light.

 

 “Bold, huh?” Seo Jun muttered as she followed.

 

The omitted words in front of her were probably “rejecting an amulet that hides the signs of life”.

 

 “It’s okay, I’ve already blocked the way out.”

 

“I see.”

 

 I knew that the water spirit, sensing my presence, would try to escape again. A pointless escape that would force it back to the starting point in a few minutes anyway.

 

 “I don’t want to waste any more time here.”

 

 I’d vowed to minimize the amount of help I got from Seo Jun when I was doing my own thing, and today’s lunch had done just that.

 

I didn’t want my decision to be on my own to be reversed in a matter of hours.

 

 So before I got to the science lab, I spread a wide swath of black energy around th outside of the broken window, so that from the outside it would look like there was a fire inside and black smoke billowing out the window, but it would only be visible to an exorcist’s eyes anyway, and I wouldn’t have to worry about a false 911 call.

 

This was the basis for keeping the ghosts away.

 

Even the dumbest ghosts that would attack an exorcist without a care in the world would instinctively cower in the face of that kind of power.

 

And without something to replace it, even a wide-open door is no longer an exit.

 

 They waited patiently in the second science room.

 

 “By the way, Seo Jun, aren’t you going to eat?”

 

“I’ll join you when you’re done.”

 

“I might not be able to eat if I’m late.”

 

“It doesn’t matter.”

 

Seo Jun is willing to wait when she can’t help.

 

Seo Jun with her give and take mentality.

 

I’m almost in tears with emotion.

 

 “But if I get hungry, I’ll go first.”

 

‘Return the favor, asshole.’

 

 “Why do you look at me with those eyes?

 

“Just. I’m just glad I didn’t shed a wasteful tear too soon, I guess.”

 

“What are you talking about, just get to work.”

 

 Seo Jun shoved me into the second science lab with a sour look.

 

*Splash, splash, splash*

 

 I locked eyes with the water spirit, who was meaninglessly splashing water.

 

 “Don’t look so pitiful.”

 

“Grrrr…”

 

“Don’t even make a pitiful sound.”

 

“Let’s get right to the question and answer.

 

 “If I’m right, you grunt one, if I’m wrong, you grunt two.”

 

 I think I hear Seo Jun grunting outside, but I guess it’s because she’s in a bad mood.

 

 “You got crushed by that ghost, didn’t you?”

 

 I ask, pointing to his arm, which is still lying in the corner of the science room, its sleeve torn off.

 

I recognized it immediately because of its unconventional clothing. I knew it belonged to the Tinker who fell out of the window of the third grade classroom every day.

 

 “Yeah.”

 

“Okay, right. Well, just for the record, how many months have you been here, and answer with a number.”

 

“Grrr… Grrr… Grrr… Grrr…”

 

“Oh, sorry. I got confused with the counting. Slow down, please.”

 

“Grrr……!”

 

“Well, who says you have to put a “grrrrr” in the middle? That’s why it’s been months. In other words.”

 

“Grrrrrrrrr.”

 

“Six months, so it’s been since winter break. Okay… Ah, Seo Jun, if you’re going to laugh, laugh out loud.”

 

 I heard the sound of heavy breathing coming from the first science lab behind the door and said something, but Seo Jun protested.

 

 “I’m not laughing.”

 

“Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I heard you, but I’ll pretend that I didn’t.”

 

“I didn’t laugh.”

 

“Oh, you were laughing when you heard us talking, weren’t you?”

 

“No, I wasn’t.”

 

‘Haha, you’ll be crying all the way to the bank.’

 

 How ironic, by the way.

 

The Tinker who spent six months stomping on the water ghosts is suddenly reduced to a pest for “swapping”.

 

 What the hell happened to the Tinker?

 

 ‘What happened to that arm?’

 

 Does it make sense that a ghost that was strong enough to invade people’s senses and even appear on video would lose its power so suddenly?

 

Frankly, it’s a bit shocking that none of the people in the science room saw the ghost’s severed arm.

 

 However, the fact that the severed body part didn’t disappear means that the core is still intact.

 

So where is the rest of the body? I mean, does the rest of the body even exist?

 

 I need to find the body that contains the core in order to exorcize it.

 

I have a feeling that I’d better hurry. I had a feeling that if I took my time, I’d miss something more important, as well as the progress of the defense.

 

 “Just out of curiosity, do you know what happened to that ghost you fought?”

 

 It twists its slender limbs and shakes its head desperately from side to side.

 

Oh, so that’s how it does body language, even if it can’t tell a specific story.

 

 “Okay, you don’t know, so did that arm really get caught in your hair by accident, and did that broken window happen by accident?”

 

 This time he flexed his limb and nodded his head in a bloody fashion, then shook it from side to side again.

 

 “Whoa, yeah. The arm was an accident, and the window was not an accident?”

 

 It nods its head vigorously.

 

 It gently persuaded Yoo Sung-eun to throw the ball at the window to gain some kind of escape route, but it was just a coincidence that It caught an arm. It just happened to be the arm it grabbed while it was ruffling its hair in search of a bug to replace.

 

 I didn’t need to use the mirror of truth to know that the answers I gave myself were the truth. I could see that it was secretly hoping that I would just let it off the hook for answering my questions truthfully.

 

 I’m sorry, but that hope is about to be dashed. Yes, I should have been careful with the hope circuit.

 

 “I’ve gotten all I can out of you. I’m sure you’d like to hear more, but…”

 

 

❰Skill: ‘Creator of Something Out of Nothing’ activated❱

 

 

“I’m going to let you go where you belong, now.”

 

 It squirmed, its hair wrapped pleadingly around my legs and baseball bat.

 

I felt bad for the way it looked.

 

 “Don’t stay in this shitty school, go to the other side.”

 

 I felt sorry for it, but I had to be cold.

 

To give him the punishment he deserved, to give him a new chance at life.

 

That’s the greatest mercy I can give that soul, the way to really help it.

 

 It’s not hard to bring a misguided person to rest.

 

Not at all.

 

 Bam!

 

 I smashed the water ghost’s core with my bat, shattering it in one blow.

 

The head, bereft of its core, crumbled and dissolved like brown sugar dissolving in water.

 

The water that had pooled on the floor evaporated without a trace.

 

 

❰[Talent: Exorcist (Aspiring)] Defense against the Deletion Crisis is 4.8% complete❱

❰Defense work progress totaled 47.1%!❱

 

 

47.1 percent.

 

I’m really close to the 50% defense milestone. If I can successfully exorcise the third-year ghost, Tinker, I’ll be over the 50% mark.

 

 It had taken a little over two months to get halfway through the Talent Removal Crisis defense. It was the second Monday in April when I first visited Mukgyeong Girls’ High School, and it’s now the middle of June.

 

 “Not bad.”

 

 There’s about a month left before summer vacation.

 

I really hope it will be a busy month.

 

 As I push open the main doors and enter the first science room, I see Seo Jun sitting at the desk, looking at her cell phone.

 

 “You finished early.”

 

“Yeah, I’m a good student. Now let’s go eat.”

 

 I flipped off the fluorescent light switch behind the dummy, my gaze trying to linger on the lone arm that remained behind the heavy doors.