An Exorcist Magical Girl! Chapter 148

Third, fourth and fifth floors.

 

I checked the classrooms directly above the science lab, but found nothing.

 

 All that was left was the roof.

 

The black flames kept pointing upward.

 

 Somehow I knew this would happen…

 

 I took one last look at the third grade classroom, the bright yellow morning sun streaming in at an angle, and started walking.

 

There was only one set of stairs leading up to the roof, at the corner of the main building where it curved to the east.

 

And the door to the roof above that staircase was now firmly locked.

 

The roof.

 

No, perhaps it’s more accurate to say, “It was the roof”.

 

 In fact, I tried to keep all possibilities in mind until I could pinpoint the Tinker’s location with certainty. I mean, who knew if it was just wandering around in the middle of the night after everyone else had left school.

 

 But I couldn’t shake the reasonable suspicion that it had most likely been on the roof since 10:05 Monday morning. The last thing they saw of the ghost was it disappearing upstairs in the third grade classroom.

 

 It was on Monday of that week that Heo Kyung-wook did something on the roof early in the morning, and it was also on Monday of that week that the ghost suddenly climbed up the outside wall of the building to the roof in a strange position.

 

 It couldn’t be a coincidence.

 

 “Maybe I should take Seo Jun with me.”

 

 I pushed my soul out of my body just in case, but it was still limited to my right arm.

 

 It was seven in the morning.

 

Seo Jun came to the school every day around 7:20 for her library duty, so I should only have to wait about 20 minutes.

 

 I thought about waiting near the library, but decided to go to our classroom instead.

 

With nothing else to do, I stared out the window at the empty playground and parking lot. My eyelids fought to close again and again as sleepiness overcame them.

 

I look out at the street, which is quiet except for the occasional car, and then back out to the playground, and I have the strange feeling that time has only stood still at my school.

 

 I closed my account and enjoyed the silence.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“What the hell, are you done already, how early did you get to school…”

 

 My head snapped up at the familiar voice next to me. My neck was stiff.

 

 “Ugh, when did you get here?”

 

“Just now.”

 

 I hadn’t heard the door open or close. I must have fallen asleep without noticing.

 

Seo Jun scolded me for sleeping in such an uncomfortable position.

 

 “If you’re going to sleep, sleep comfortably.”

 

“No, I was just awake.”

 

“Okay, you can sleep comfortably from now on.”

 

 I desperately rejected the koala pillow that had become the common pillow of the second-grade class. I don’t even remember who brought it, whether it was Joo Yeon-seo or Cha Hanbyul.

 

 “Hey, why don’t you put it away? I just washed my hair this morning!”

 

“It doesn’t smell, what’s wrong with you?”

 

“What? It doesn’t smell? Hey, smell it. I said, smell it. Smell this saliva.”

 

“Ugh… put it away.”

 

“Hey, you put it in my face first!”

 

“I didn’t touch it.”

 

“Yes, you did! It touched your skin!”

 

“I didn’t touch it.”

 

“It did!”

 

 This koala has already crossed the river of no return. I’m sure the original owner doesn’t want to claim it now.

 

 “Oh, right. Seo Jun, do you have to go to the library?”

 

“I have some time, but why?”

 

“Good. Why don’t you come up to the roof with me?”

 

 Seo Jun stops unpacking her bag and stares in disbelief.

 

 “The roof? Now?”

 

“The Tinker is on the roof.”

 

 Seo Jun’s eyes light up with excitement when I tell her that the black flame led me to the roof.

 

 “It’s been on the… roof for a day or so. Let’s go.”

 

 She puts her hand under my chin.

 

I put my hand on top of the soul that was already sticking out of my right arm.

 

 “Pull through. Two, three!”

 

 Seo Jun pulled on my translucent right arm and the soul slipped out of my body.

 

 “Try to feel this yourself.”

 

 Seo Jun told me to remember the feeling of being pulled out of my body and laid my upper body flat on the desk. Thankfully, she placed a pencil case under my head instead of the dirty koala pillow.

 

 “Oh, right. Shouldn’t you use that?”

 

“I will. Hold on.”

 

 She sits down, adjusts the seat so I can lie down comfortably, and quickly scribbles out two pages of a spell to hide the signs of life.

 

 “Hey, do you think I should make my own from now on?”

 

“Why?”

 

“No, I feel like I’m taking advantage of you too much.”

 

“Are you? It doesn’t feel like it.”

 

 I ask, looking a little confused, and get a nonchalant answer back.

 

 “It’s not hard, is it? I can do so much.”

 

“Oh, generous.”

 

 Soon after, Seo Jun slipped out of her body as a ghost.

 

 “By the way, why do you seem to have become shorter all of a sudden?”

 

 Sure enough, we’re both standing upright and looking at each other, but somehow our eye level is strangely different than usual. Seo Jun seems to be looking up from a slightly downward angle.

 

 “My feet are on the ground.”

 

 I followed her gesture and rolled my eyes to the floor, and unlike me, who is floating about five centimeters in the air, Seo Jun’s feet are firmly planted on the classroom floor.

 

 “For your information, I can control it.”

 

“How?”

 

“Just by…?”

 

 As usual, she is not good at explaining things with words.

 

Instead, as if to demonstrate, she zips her half-open bag with her translucent hand, then immediately dips her hand into the ground and swirls it around like a water balloon.

 

It’s amazing how freely she can both grab and pass through things.

 

 “Seo Jun, I want you to take these things up to the roof.”

 

“What for?”

 

“I have to make a certification video.”

 

“Oh.”

 

 I pointed to the thermal imaging camera and cell phone I kept in the back of my desk drawer, and Seo Jun pulled them out with a nonchalant expression.

 

 “Wow, that’s great. I haven’t caught anything yet.”

 

 I reached to the side, but my hand went through the locker door in vain.

 

 “It doesn’t matter, I’ll hold it for you now.”

 

 Seo Jun offered dry consolation and then rose into the air.

 

 “I’m going this way.”

 

 Since it was impossible to walk through walls or floors with real objects in her hands, Seo Jun opened a window and slipped out of the unobstructed building.

 

 After watching Seo Jun rise like a balloon, I rose vertically on the spot and went through the ceiling.

 

It was like swimming from the depths of the ocean to the surface.

 

 The sounds of the spirits bouncing off the walls came from all directions.

 

Scratching on a chalkboard, clumsily mimicking the mechanical beep of a timer, grinding teeth, and the slow bounce of something all combine to create a sweet cacophony.

 

I couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling of being a conductor as I threw out my arms to propel myself upward.

 

 From the fourth floor to the fifth, from the fifth to the roof, I floated through ceiling after ceiling.

 

Until I could see the pale blue sky above me.

 

 “It’s not so sunny today.”

 

 Seo Jun, who had reached the roof first, muttered to himself and looked up at the sky.

 

 “Why do you appreciate the weather all of a sudden?”

 

“Just…”

 

 The translucent soul, the birds, the sunlight, the moderately hot air, the unobstructed view, and the occasional breeze. It was like a scene from a young adult movie.

 

 If it weren’t for the thermal imaging camera in her hand, or the murderously expressionless face of the lead actor, it would have blended right in.

 

 “The barrier that traps the ghosts, I still don’t know how high it extends, but I’ve never felt the need to know before.”

 

“I see.”

 

 It was only yesterday that Mukgyeong Girls’ High School had become a “need to know” for Seo Jun.

 

 “Well, it’s not that important right now.”

 

 Seo Jun quickly tore her eyes from the sky and returned to the present.

 

 “Nothing much here. Where did you say that the Tinker runs out every time?”

 

“It’s the third class line…, so it should be around there, past the solar panels.”

 

 The roof of Mukgyeong Girls’ High School is pretty well maintained because it was originally open for students to use.

 

The rooftop above the annex building was grassy with no sports fields, and the rooftop on the side of the main building was plain concrete, but there were colorful flower beds among the gray outdoor units and ventilation fans. Benches and wooden tables were scattered along one side, a vaulted rainscreen ceiling was installed overhead, and sculptures created by the art department for festivals were displayed here and there.

 

The roof is more like a garden than the Central Garden, which is really just a fancy name for the empty rectangular space between the annex and the main building.

 

 “If it weren’t for the ghosts, it would have a reputation as a pretty good school, don’t you think?”

 

“I mean, it’s got better facilities than the last school I went to.”

 

 We quickly walked past the rows of solar panels and up to the ceiling of the third grade classroom.

 

Seo Jun was carrying the thermal imaging camera I’d asked for, snapping away at the screen.

 

 “Where did you find this?”

 

“It was in the science lab. I got lucky.”

 

 Seo Jun and I chatted at a reasonable pace.

 

But soon we both fell silent at the horrible sight in front of us.

 

 There it was, the Tinker, its limbs torn apart.

 

 A half-melted core lay in a puddle on the tattered skirt of the hanbok. The core, destroyed to the point of annihilation, was tinged with a color I’d be embarrassed to describe as reddish.

 

 “What the hell is this…”

 

 I stammered.

 

 “…to, uhhh … Boo, boo, stir…”

 

 The Tinker’s head, lying in the corner, somehow squeezed out a voice.

 

 “It says ‘let me go.’“

 

 Seo Jun whispers, quickly understanding the meaning of the imprecise syllables.

 

I can now read the embarrassment in Seo Jun’s grave tone.

 

 “I’ll do it.”

 

 

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

 

 

Thud─

 

 As soon as the baseball bat was formed, I wasted no time in striking the ghost’s core.

 

The already exhausted core could no longer hold on and shattered.

 

 

❰【Talent: Exorcist (Aspiring)】 Defense against the Deletion Crisis is 3.2% complete❱

❰Defense work progress has reached a total of 50.3%!❱

❰Congratulations! [Talent: Exorcist (Aspiring)】 Your defense against the Deletion Crisis is more than halfway complete❱

 

 

The status window flashed, displaying one message after another, but none of the flashy effects that filled the holographic window, none of the numbers that barely passed fifty, made it easy on the eyes.

 

 All I could do was stare at the souls scattered all over the place, vanishing in an instant as if they had been waiting.

 

 “…….”

 

 The only thing that saved me was Seo Jun, who looked twice as perplexed as I was.

 

 “I don’t think this is a one-time thing.”