An Exorcist Magical Girl! Chapter 157

The soft murmur of voices cut off abruptly.

 

All they could do was mutter, “What was that?”

 

 ─Broadcasting room… Can you hear…?

 

 The loudspeaker crackled again, repeating the same message.

 

 “…How are they broadcasting with the power outage?”

 

 Someone whispered in a shaky voice, and someone else on the other end of the line sarcastically replied.

 

 “How is it getting broadcast? Of course it’s the ghosts talking…”

 

 It was a moment that could have sent me over the edge, but fortunately, my neighbors quickly intervened.

 

 “Hey, hey, hey, be a good boy!”

 

“You’re just fed up, I know.”

 

 Meanwhile, the voice continued to blare from the speakers.

 

This time, the sound quality was clearer than before, with no crackling,

 

 —Hey, everybody on the fourth floor, can you hear me, can you hear me, ah, ah, ah.

 

 That’s when the confusion began.

 

The voice coming through the speakers was all too familiar.

 

 “This is…, hold on.”

 

 The first person to mention “familiarity” was Moon Soo-hee.

 

 “Isn’t this the voice of the broadcasting department?! Listen carefully.”

 

“What? Hey, everyone, be quiet.”

 

 ─…Do you hear that?

 

 After a moment of silence, everyone’s jaws dropped when they heard the voice again.

 

 “Wow, crazy. This is real.”

 

“Dude, that’s the voice of a real broadcaster!”

 

“Who the fuck said she was a ghost? she’s on the air!”

 

“Is it emergency power or something?”

 

“Are they broadcasting to the other classes too?!”

 

“Hey, Jiyoon, can’t you get in touch with your classmates? Ask them who’s in the broadcast room right now.”

 

 I had to decide if I should be happy or scared of the announcement in a second.

 

Even the teacher, who had just come in for her 6th period class and was trapped with us, quickly texted her best friend on the fourth floor to check on the situation.

 

 “Hey, guys, they’re broadcasting it.”

 

 Choi was the first to respond. She received a reply from Song Ju-kyung, the student council president.

 

Min Jiyoon then shouted that she also received a reply from Cha Hanbyul.

 

 “They’re broadcasting it now. They turned it on for us to hear. The Department of Broadcasting has certified it!”

 

“Wooaaaaaah!”

 

 The class let out a collective gasp and cheered, as if a ray of sunshine had descended. Just in time, Seo Jun returned to the classroom.

 

 “…What the hell is going on?”

 

 Seo Jun was taken aback by the sight before her as soon as she opened the door.

 

 “Oh, it’s–”

 

“There’s a broadcast, there’s a broadcast!”

 

 Just as I opened my mouth to explain the situation, other friends who had spotted Seo Jun rushed in, chattering away. 

 

Suddenly, a voice came out of the speakers, and in no particular order, they all said at once that it was the voice of the broadcasting teacher, and that he had confirmed by text that the broadcast was indeed on.

 

 “I think I know what you mean.”

 

 Seo Jun barely made it through the crowd of students and came to the back of the room where I was.

 

 “This is crazy…”

 

 She’d only been back in the classroom for ten seconds, and she looked exhausted, like she’d been suffering for a decade. It was hard to see her expression in the dark, but I could tell by the small sigh she let out.

 

 “By the way, I didn’t realize you had any contact with the outside world. No broadcasts, no texts.”

 

“Yeah… No, well. Why not…?”

 

 Seo Jun nodded, muttering under her breath.

 

 “Yeah…, right, because the sound wasn’t completely cut off.”

 

 She was referring to the fact that she’d been able to talk to her friends on the third floor when the gates had just closed. If they wanted to prevent communication with the outside world, they should have blocked each other from hearing each other’s voices from the first time they closed the gate.

 

 ─We have something to communicate… about the current situation…

 

 Everyone listened intently to the next broadcast. The concentration was reminiscent of an English listening assessment.

 

The speaker crackled a couple of more times before spitting out clean sound quality again.

 

 ─ …will tell you what to do, so please remember …to pay attention.

 

─If anyone calls you outside the classroom, please do not answer. Do not answer and do not react. You should never react to a child.

 

─You must remain still, even if it is a child.

 

 Uneasy glances were exchanged.

 

 ─The person calling to you in the corridor is said to be a being that can mimic a human voice. It is a trick to lure you in, so please do not fall for it and wait in the safety of the classroom.

 

─A reminder. Never answer a call from outside the classroom. Even if the voice is someone you know, you should pretend you don’t know them.

 

─If the situation develops, we will make another announcement over the air… then…

 

 The announcement ended with a dire warning.

 

The classroom, which had been buzzing with hope before hearing the details, instantly froze.

 

“Isn’t it okay to talk to each other…?”

 

 Min Jiyoon sneaked up on us. All the other kids clung to their friends and held each other’s hands tightly. Everyone was huddled together, as if the friend next to them was suddenly going to turn into a monster.

 

 “Hey, hey, Seo Jun.”

 

 I whispered in a low voice, my voice drowned out by the sudden drop in the classroom atmosphere.

 

 “Did you find out anything?”

 

“Oh, yeah. I think I need a certain “word” to open the door.”

 

“A word?”

 

“A word that I’ve chosen and imbued with magical power…, but it’s easier to think of it as a voice-activated lock.”

 

 Seo Jun gave up on the long-winded explanation and settled for a short analogy.

 

 “How I wish you’d said that from the beginning.”

 

 Words are the key to the door.

 

The best she could make out using her Detection Dog skills, the word was four letters long.

 

 “Didn’t they tell us not to answer if someone calls from outside?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Maybe there’s a hint in the sound of it calling us.”

 

 Seo Jun’s eyes lit up with interest.

 

 “What if we can’t find the words? What do we do then?”

 

“We break it down by force.”

 

 It was a clear answer.

 

 “It’ll be dirty hard and dirty long, but it can be done.” She added.

 

The barrier that isolated the fourth floor was something that the two of us could break through if we tried hard enough, but it would be literally “hard” to do it by force, so Seo Jun suggested that we try it as a last resort if we couldn’t find the words.

 

 “Yeah, why go through the trouble when there’s an easy way out?” she said.

 

 I agreed. Kicking down the door is only after you’ve searched as far as you can for the key.

 

 “It’s a four-letter word… What is it? Is it some kind of lionized language?”

 

 As I was mulling over Seo Jun’s information in my head, I started to hear shouting in the distance down the corridor.

 

 The tension in the classroom was like nothing I’d ever experienced before.

 

Everyone was shivering and covering their ears, some of them even covering their mouths for fear of reflexively screaming.

 

 The footsteps echoing down the corridor were getting closer and closer to our classroom.

 

“…Guys!”

 

“Get out! Guys, get out in the hallway!”

 

 Shit.

 

Our eyes met and instantly turned to fear. The voices we knew all too well.

 

 “Hey, class six!”

 

“Come out!”

 

“Get out in the corridor!”

 

 Calling to us from the corridor were the voices of other classmates trapped on the fourth floor with us.

 

 

***

 

 

“Class hasn’t even started yet, what are you all doing in the hallway?!”

 

 The middle-aged English teacher, teaching seventh period, first year class five, finally exploded at the noise coming from the corridor.

 

 “What grade are you guys in?”

 

 They tried not to yell.

 

As soon as he opened the front door, the sight stopped him in his tracks.

 

 There were not one or two people in the corridor, but about one or two classes of students, all huddled together and muttering.

 

 “Look,” the teacher said, “I think you’re sophomores and seniors, huh? Don’t you know we’re all in class right now!”

 

“I’m sorry sir, but the situation is…”

 

“Situation? What situation? You guys are supposed to be in class, you know?!”

 

“No, I’m sorry, we need to talk…”

 

 The first-year class five were listening, pretending not to hear the corridor bickering.

 

 “Wow. That’s funny. I just heard a big sigh from a certain student.”

 

“Who? Who?”

 

“The tall girl over there.”

 

“No, don’t you think you’re being a bit harsh?”

 

“But you had every right to be angry, it was kind of embarrassing, admit it?”

 

“No matter how you slice it, it’s not fair to the students?”

 

 The argument between the second graders and the English teacher lasted longer than expected.

 

 “I think you’ve forgotten about us, Mr. Shaw.”

 

“Kya, sweetie. I want them to fight until the end of class.”

 

“Mr. Shaw, you’re so slow. Can we do this before the exam?”

 

 Some of the students took advantage of this time to put on their noisemakers, some grumbled and pulled out their study materials, and a few slept soundly, whether or not they were shouting outside.

 

 Kim Hae-yoon was nervous, not belonging to any of them.

 

The atmosphere was eerie.

 

 Yeah, like a ghost had come out.

 

 “Oh, you can’t open it, of course! You can’t do it with human power. The ghosts have blocked all the ways to the fourth floor!”

 

 Kim Hae-yoon jumped up from her seat as soon as she heard the second-year senior’s shout.

 

 The chair fell backwards with a loud thud.

 

 “What? What’s wrong, Hae-yoon?”

 

 The normally quiet and timid Hae-yoon was startled by her seatmate.

 

 “I have a stomach ache, so I’m going to the clinic. Could you tell me about the lesson later?”

 

“Uh-huh?”

 

“Please do me a favor!”

 

 Kim Hae-yoon uncharacteristically spoke like a rapid-fire cannon and ran out of the classroom.

 

 “Idamin, come with me!”

 

 She called after her.

 

 “Me, me?”

 

 Idamin was somehow pulled by Hae-yoon’s hand and they ran down the corridor together.

 

 “Excuse me, Hae-yoon? The clinic isn’t that way…?”

 

 It wasn’t until they reached the playground that Hae-yoon slowed her pace.

 

 “Idamin.”

 

“Mm-hmm.”

 

“Let’s go outside the school for a while.”

 

 The short-haired senior who had promised to be my mentor said, “If you think something is going to happen, take Idamin and leave the school. Just one step outside the school gate.”

 

 “If you stay in school…, Idamin, you might be in danger…”

 

 Kim Hae-yoon’s hesitancy when pulling her hand disappears, and she pleads with her usual timid voice.

 

Lee Idamin looked at Kim Hae-yoon shyly and asked, “Is it because of the ghost?”

 

 Kim Hae-yoon nodded, looking like she was about to cry.

 

 “…Yes. I’ll do whatever you say.”

 

 Hae-yoon’s face brightened at that.

 

 “Let’s go, Idamin.”

 

 As she obediently followed her friend out the school gate, Idamin’s gaze suddenly turned to the playground.

 

 “Why is she alone at this hour…”

 

 The question briefly crossed her mind, only to be interrupted by Kim Hae-yoon’s urging.

 

 By the time Idamin looked in that direction again, the playground had emptied out.