An Exorcist Magical Girl!

Author: Dakku-san

The attack was neither blocked nor dodged.

“You mean they were pierced by magic and still alive? Like a zombie?”

Yang Ji-won asked, and I quickly shook my head.

Pierced.

That’s not a strong enough word, as if something sharp had torn through their flesh, dug into their muscles and bones, and finally pierced through to the other side.

The spear, made of orange magic, simply “passed” through him as if there was nothing but air in front of it.

“I’ve never seen or heard of a monster like this. What the hell is it? What if it’s not a monster at all, but an illusionary magic? Then everyone here is under the spell of illusion magic – ugh!”

“Quiet. Your voice is getting louder.”

Seo Jun put her hand over my mouth.

“……!”

“Seo Jun?”

Yang Ji-won was more surprised than I was by the sudden outburst.

In fact, the fact that I was about to raise my voice was just a hasty excuse to stop me. I had just mumbled in such a low voice that she couldn’t hear me clearly unless she put her ear so close to mine that our heads physically touched.

Seo Jun’s action was not to stop the words, but to stop the stream of thoughts that were gnawing at my mind in real time.

What a quick and clear stop.

“Are you calm?”

Instead of answering out loud, I blink twice as hard, and she obediently removes her hand from over my mouth.

I’m so lucky to have a friend who can correct me when I lose my train of thought, especially in a situation like this.

“I’m sorry. I’m not the only one who’s upset.”

“Never mind, you’re the only one who looks upset.”

As an aspiring magical girl, I worked harder than necessary at everything magical girl related. I stayed up all night analyzing magic circles and memorizing every type of monster and their characteristics.

I was always at the top of my class in theory tests.

However, my natural magic power never caught up with me, and I always placed last in the all-important practical simulation tests.

Now that my magic is completely gone, the only thing that proves my past is the knowledge I crammed into my head back then.

I wanted to turn away from it.

Something that didn’t belong to “my knowledge”, something I’d acquired through nosebleeds.

Because unlike when I was excited by new knowledge, the realm of ignorance I encountered at this point was just a confirmation that I was completely off the Magical Girl path.

This subconscious fear must have shaken me to my core.

“I shouldn’t have said that out loud, I’m sorry… Seo Jun, I didn’t mean to silence you… but…”

Yang Ji-won patted me on the back when she realized. I wonder if she thought that Seo Jun and I were fighting, but for those who don’t know that it was part of her psychiatric treatment, it’s easy to misunderstand. I didn’t say anything about what was really going on.

“Well, you didn’t insult each other, did you?”

“No, no, no. I was just worried about my little Seo Jun, what if I suddenly yelled at her?”

I grabbed Seo Jun’s wrist and flicked it close to my face. Seo Jun’s hand fluttered away, and her fingers brushed the corner of my mouth.

“Look at that. I don’t even feel bad.”

“Ugh. Yeah.”

“I do feel bad.”

“Uh-huh. My Seo Jun, be quiet.”

Yang Ji-won turned away, relieved.

There was no reply from Narea. She must have read my latest message.

I don’t know if she’s too busy to answer or if she doesn’t want to listen to my advice not to fight too hard.

I hope it’s the former.

I’m debating whether to text Narea again.

Thump!

The wall vibrated.

“…aaaahhhh! Run!”

“Get up! Get out, get out!”

“Hey, don’t go that way!”

“I’ll take care of it; you guys go the other way!”

“Uh, what should we do, go up?! Go down?!”

“Just go wherever you want!”

Screams erupted from just downstairs.

The voices were so familiar that I immediately got goosebumps.

They were the voices of my friends from the drama club acting team.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Soon, the floor on the fifth floor began to thump.

The monster that had followed us up to the fifth floor had started running after the screams.

“Keeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

The monster’s howl grew closer and closer.

Just past this classroom we are in is the staircase. And up those stairs were my friends, running for their lives.

“Holy shit!”

“No, I told you there was a monster on the fifth floor!”

Yang Ji-won had already relayed the fact that we had climbed to the fifth floor with a monster to her other friends.

I understand. Anyone who sees a monster in front of them loses all rationality.

They’re so frightened that they forget everything else and just run, and even when they realize they’ve taken a wrong turn, they can’t stop.

That’s what it means to let fear take over.

“Oh, the roof—”

“The roof is locked, you idiot!”

“Gah, go back down…, ouch!”

“Come on, get up! Take my hand! Come on!”

To make matters worse, it sounded like someone had fallen and rolled.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

The monster’s footsteps were about to turn a corner in the hallway.

“…back here!”

Her legs moved before her head.

“Hey, Actor Team, I’m going to distract it, so get into the restroom, a classroom, anywhere, and hide!”

Before anyone could stop me, I sprinted out of my seat and stood face to face with the monster that had emerged from the far corner of the hallway where it turned to the right.

Behind me are my drama club friends.

“This way, asshole!”

I sprinted toward the monster, the prey outpacing the predator, but it was the only way to lure it away.

Sure enough, it ran right back at me.

“Keeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Just before a thick front paw slammed into my skull, I narrowly veered into the left corner of the middle hallway.

It was the hallway that led to the annex across from the central garden.

The windows on the right overlooked the kitchen garden and the windows on the left overlooked the central garden.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Fortunately, the monster was completely distracted by my sudden appearance and followed me.

For now, we went down the front stairs.

Fetter tends to slow down a bit in places where he has to make quick turns every short distance, like the stairs, so hopefully I’ll be able to get some distance between us.

I walk down the stairs three at a time, hoping that no other monsters will appear from below. I was afraid of falling, so I held onto the railing lightly, but the vibrations from the monsters’ movements were transmitted to me.

Before I knew it, I was on the first floor.

Fortunately, there were no people or monsters in front of me. The ghosts were all hiding somewhere, so there was no chance of meeting them, and I had closed my account a while ago. Even if I had come face to face with a ghost while running away, it would have been invisible to my eyes unless it was a ghost with the power to invade human senses.

“Wait, now that I think about it, why are the ghosts…?”

As I rushed towards the central garden, I suddenly realized that I was missing something.

Something very important.

Was it just a coincidence that the monster’s appearance coincided with the time when the ghosts began to scurry about?

The relief of having put some distance between me and the monster that was chasing me, and the question that had just popped into my head, “Something feels important,” dulled my nerves a bit.

“Eek!”

Through the shattered window of the second-floor student council room, another monster plunged toward the central garden.

“Holy shit.”

A jet-black shadow fell quickly overhead.

“Kuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”

Taking the worst of it, I reflexively threw myself out of the way, only to be crushed to death by its massive body.

“Ugh, bastard…!”

I try to get up, but my whole body goes limp.

My left leg aches from the floor.

As I struggled to my feet, the creature that had just descended the stairs came out into the center garden.

Monsters in front of me, monsters behind me.

There was nowhere to run.

Two monsters that looked like the body of a herbivorous dinosaur and the head of a carnivorous dinosaur were slowly closing in on me, snarling as if they had no intention of letting go.

‘Is it even possible to get out of here?’

No matter how I look, I can’t see an angle.

There was no way out except to soar into the sky or plummet to the ground.

There’s the small matter of the risk of having an arm or leg ripped off, and the nape of my neck instead of my limbs, but it’s a better gamble than staying put and dying.

“Kie-e-e-e!”

“Keeeeeeeeee!”

I threw myself at them as they pounced on me from behind and in front, somehow finding an opening.

Claws like hooks flashed before my eyes.

“Oh, shit. This isn’t working.”

A moment of certain death,

“Get back!”

A pale arm pushed me as hard as it could from the threshold of death.

“ooff!”

My body rolled across the floor, a strange sound that I couldn’t tell if it was a grunt or a scream escaping my mouth.

Physiological tears welled up in my eyes from the dirt that had gotten into them.

“Ugh…”

I wiped my eyes roughly with the neck of the T-shirt I was wearing and got up from the ground.

My eyes were half-open, tears still pouring out,

“Are you alive?”

Seo Jun approached me with her hand outstretched.

“Seo Jun, yes, go, why are you here, you know—”

“Don’t cry, tell me.”

“I’m not crying, I’m freaking out, hiccupping, you know, ah!”

“Tears are coming out?”

“Dust, get in there, ah!.”

Behind Seo Jun, two black boxes stood tall.

A monster roar of rage emanated from within.

“I, ah…”

“I forgot for a moment; I’d built a defense.”

It was the same box that had imprisoned Choi Hee-young. The spell had been modified to instantly wrap anyone who approached Seo Jun with murderous intent, and it had worked on the monster as well.

“Oh… No matter how much you believe in the sphere, the stone, it’s not… Who’s so cowardly that you’re going to come at this monster, eh?”

“Hey, you’re not talking about you who ran off by yourself without any defense, are you?”

“That’s right, I’m sorry.”

“Were you just psyched to die?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“You don’t have ten mouths to feed, do you?”

“Yes…”

“Then be quiet.”

“Yeah.”

“Shut up.”

I closed my mouth and squinted at her, but she didn’t look that angry, so I opened it again.

“Hey, that…”