An Exorcist Magical Girl! – Chapter 136

Author: Dakku-san

“What shall we eat today?”

“Hmm, well, you can choose from rice, bread, or noodles.”

“Everything sounds good except noodles.”

“Why noodles?”

“We had noodles for lunch today.”

“Oh, yes. So what’s more appealing to you, toast or kimbap?”

“Toast.”

“Okay, take it.”

We walk slowly down the hallway, debating what to have for dinner,

“But why is it so dirty?”

We noticed that the second floor hallway was oddly quiet, considering that the second floor, where the science labs are located, consists mostly of special rooms such as club rooms and classrooms for academic classes, so it’s not usually crowded at dismissal time.

“…It’s always been so quiet here–ah.”

I noticed, muttering.

The silence on the second floor wasn’t just due to the lack of people.

It was just after the exorcism, so there were no ghosts in sight, even though the door was wide open. The whitish figures that would normally be everywhere were nowhere to be seen.

Not a single one.

“Kee, kee, kee…”

“Hee, hee, hee…”

The faint cries that came from time to time told me that the ghosts hadn’t suddenly vanished, but had simply slipped out of sight.

“This is similar to the situation at the Rapid Transit station.”

Seo Jun, who also sensed something unusual, looked around and whispered in a low voice.

“They’re hiding from a strong presence?”

“Yes. I think so.”

I couldn’t quite comprehend the magnitude of the silence.

What the hell had happened in that brief moment when we were in the science lab?

Then it happened.

“What?!”

“Eh…?”

The classroom door to our left flew open and someone grabbed both of us and pulled us inside.

I staggered backwards and almost fell, but someone else caught me and I managed to avoid a nasty fall.

Before I could look my captor in the face, the classroom door slammed shut in front of me.

“What the…”

“Shh, quiet.”

She clamped her hand over my mouth to keep me from screaming.

Once I forced myself to calm down, the sight of the classroom finally came into focus.

The front door was barricaded with stacks of desks and chairs, and the windows were haphazardly covered with paper from a recycling bin. There was also a mess of desks near the back door where they let us in, so I guess they were in the process of barricading the back door as well.

There were seven nervous students in the room, fear written all over their faces.

There were a few familiar faces among them.

“Ji-won?”

It was Yang Ji-won from Class 3 who pulled us into the classroom.

“You’re… Soo-yeon, right? you came to ask melast week.”

There was also Soo-yeon from Grade 1 who had recently been tormented by a ghost while trying to erase the red line on the neck of a trophy.

The seven of us were all sophomores in the student council.

Oh, so this is the student council room, right here.

The eight words “Rules of Use of the Student Council Room” were scrawled in large letters on the blackboard.

“What is this all about?”

Seo Jun asked quietly. Aware of the silence in the room, Seo Jun lowered her voice even more than usual and looked around the classroom with her characteristic dry expression.

It was Yang Ji-won who answered the question.

“I guess you haven’t seen it. There’s a monster roaming the halls right now.”

What?

The answer was so unexpected that I couldn’t help but doubt my ears.

What’s going on in the school?

“You’re both in trouble, come hide with us for now. I think that thing is still on the second floor.”

“Okay, wait. Really?”

I quickly check my phone’s notifications, but there’s no emergency text. The gate hadn’t burst, so where did the monsters come from?

Occasionally, a crack too small to be called a gate would flicker open, spit out a monster, and then close. That happened the last time we had a monster in the schoolyard, so was this a repeat?

No, but it still doesn’t make sense. Any crack, no matter how small, requires a safety text to be sent out to people in the area, but minutes after the monster appeared, there was no warning, no action?

“Hey, we didn’t get any texts either, I don’t know why…”

“But it’s real, we saw it with our own eyes.”

“That’s right, the creature walked right by the student council room!”

As I frowned in disbelief, they all chimed in with one word after another.

They said they were gathering for an after-school student council meeting when they spotted the monster and locked the door.

“We decided it was safer to stay here and hide rather than run away.”

Ji-won added with a serious voice.

I know. I know that our friends in the student council have no reason to stage a situation against us and that they aren’t the kind of people who use this kind of material to make jokes.

I just can’t believe this situation, that a monster is on the loose on campus.

Seo Jun was silent for a long time, as if she was thinking about something. Her expression is still so calm that I can’t imagine the complexity of the threads in her mind.

I don’t know if she is trying to come to terms with the situation or if she has already accepted it and is thinking about what to do next.

As we spend more time as friends, maybe one day I’ll be able to see through the expressionless face Seo Jun usually wears.

The sun is shining brightly on the early summer afternoon, but it doesn’t feel warm.

I suddenly felt a strange chill,

An unexpected shout came from outside the classroom.

“……!”

A short roar brought me back to reality.

The air that had carried the faint whisper instantly froze, and no one dared to move, as if time had stood still.

The trembling of frightened eyes and the stiff, steady ticking of a clock’s second hand seemed so enormous because they were the only two things in this place that proved the passage of time.

*Thump, thump, thump, thump…*

When the monster’s footsteps faded into the distance, I could finally breathe.

“What about the kids on the other floors? I don’t think they’ve all gone home yet… The teachers haven’t left yet either.”

“Don’t worry too much. They’re probably all hiding by now, just like us.”

The monster’s howl must have been clearly heard on the other floors. Somewhere in the school, no one is too cowardly to run around while a ferocious beast is roaring. Everyone is hiding somewhere, watching the situation.

And judging by the lack of cries for help, it seems that no one was unfortunate enough to have a head-on encounter with the monster.

“If only we could have made an announcement…”

“We did everything we could to get the word out. We posted a story on the student council’s StarStar account, and we alerted the teachers. We did everything we could.”

“No, you could have gone to the broadcast room right now and-“

“You don’t even know how to turn on the broadcast. Calm down. It’s for the best.”

Yang Ji-won tried to remain calm in response to her friend’s sighs. But even though she tried to comfort her, she couldn’t hide the deep sense of helplessness in her tone.

The fact that she had the presence of mind to look out for others while she was about to be killed was admirable enough, but it didn’t seem to be enough for her.

That’s something I’ve seen in some of my friends in the Mukgyeong Girls’ High School student council over the course of a short and long semester.

They are true to the original purpose of student government, which is to protect the safety of their classmates.

In the beginning, we were probably just like any other student organization. You may have applied for student government because you like to take initiative, you want to use your planning and organizational skills, you’re good at working hard even if it’s a little annoying, or you like the sense of solidarity and upliftment that comes with student government.

As they learned more about the school and interacted with the teachers, the sense of mission became deeply ingrained in them.

Although they have not yet seen this sense of mission materialize into anything tangible, it is clear that they feel a heavy sense of responsibility when something happens to their classmates and friends, even if it is not their fault.

“There are four kids from class 2 hiding in the bathroom on the fourth floor right now. I just got a call.”

“Tell them to keep the door locked. It looks like the monster went upstairs.”

The student council responded quickly.

Even after my classmates from class 2 contacted me, the news kept coming: “I’m hiding safely with someone in a classroom on a certain floor.”

It was a small consolation in this sudden misfortune.

The fact that so few students remained at the school long after the ceremony ended was due to the fact that high school seniors had gone home early after attending an entrance exam in the auditorium during 6th and 7th period. As soon as the presentation ended in the middle of 7th period, the school dismissed them all at once.

So the only people in the school were the teachers and some first and second graders who hadn’t gotten out yet.

If the school had been full as usual, it would have been a much bigger mess than it was, so this was a good thing.

“Guys, do you think we should wait for the magic girl or take our chance and escape?”

“I called her, so she should be here soon. Let’s wait. You never know what might happen if we go out alone.”

“Yes, let’s stay here and kill some more.”

It was the right decision.

There is no guarantee that it is only one monster.

“Kii-ii-ii-gain!”

Just as the group was coming to a consensus about the barricade, the cries of a different entity than before echoed from the ground floor below.

“……!”

Anxious eyes crossed as they realized the situation was about to take a turn for the worst.

“Kiiiiii, kiiiiiiiiiii!”

The eerie figure was getting closer and closer to our student council room.

We all lowered our postures and held our breaths.

Just let it pass, please.

*Thump, thump, thump, thump*

The sound of something scraping against the floor mingled with the footsteps.

“…It’s a tail.”

I could see the monster’s tail flapping uselessly in the confined space.

‘A monster of this size with a tail shouldn’t have a tail…’

The experience of being an aspiring magical girl is something that comes naturally to me. Even if I analyze the current situation correctly, it’s not like I can do anything about it.

*Bang! Bang!*

“……!”

A cheerful explosion sounded in the distance, and a glimmer of relief washed over the grim faces.

It was the sound of a magical girl unleashing an attack on a monster.

Ah, hope.

Salvation was just around the corner.

Now we just have to wait patiently for it to reach us safely.

Surely it will,

But why…

“Why am I so anxious?”

*Bang! Bang, Bang! Bang!*

“I’m not… struck…, once I… retreat!”