An Exorcist Magical Girl! – Chapter 79

Author: Dakku-san

“Eunji, come here.”

“Is Bunny here?”

“Not really, but you have to come by before you meet the rabbit.”

“Why?”

“I have to buy something for the rabbit.”

“What does the rabbit need? Food?”

“Um. Something like that.”

Holding the little ghost’s hand, Yin Charang entered the grocery store.

This time, she wanted to buy thread and a needle.

He planned to improvise and sew together the head and body of the rabbit Baek Iri had found.

He had to go all the way to DaXo, but a quick search showed that convenience stores also sold simple ring sets, so he went to a nearby convenience store.

He realized that it would be difficult to make a new head from scratch, but if he could just sew the head and body together, he could do it.

“Oh, wait, let me get one more thing.”

He put the set of rings on the counter and then, as if he suddenly remembered something, he rummaged through the housewares aisle.

“Can I shop for these, too?”

Back at the register, Charang returned to the front of the line, a bottle of instant glue in hand.

It was a last resort, in case sewing didn’t work.

He didn’t want to go that far, but you never know.

“Where’s the rabbit food?” Eunji, the young ghost, asked from the side.

For the umpteenth time, Yin Charang grabbed a snack from the pet food stand in the corner.

“Is chicken breast too much for a rabbit…? It’s a puppet, so it doesn’t matter what it eats, as long as it’s food.”

While I was thinking about it, Eunji pointed to a product on the shelf next to them.

It was chewing gum with a bone on the wrapper.

“This! This one!”

“….Really? Eunji, is this real?”

“Yes! This!”

“Mmmm, yeah.”

I’ll take what the doll’s owner wants, what can I say?

I wonder if when she played with dolls in her life, she fed her dolls her dog food.

Imagining Eunji sitting next to her rabbit doll and her puppy, serving the dog gum in a toy bowl, Yin Charang went back to the cash register and paid for the gum she had chosen.

He shoved the convenience store ring set, the instant glue, and the gum into his bag.

There wasn’t much room in the bag, as the doll’s body from the cemetery and the doll he’d bought from DaXo earlier had taken up most of the space.

“Now let’s go to the real rabbit.”

“Wow! Rabbit, we’re going to see a rabbit!”

With Eunji in tow, we made our way to Mukgyeong Girls’ High School.

It was time to give Eunji back the “rabbit” she had been screaming for since they first met.

“How much does Eunji like bunnies?”

“So much! I can’t wait to see it!”

“The rabbit can’t wait to see you either.”

He was happy for her, but also sad for her.

While he was happy that the child could leave with her ties loosened, he wanted to find the doll’s head with his own hands, because that was the whole point of this project.

‘No matter what happens, I’m going to fix the doll with my own hands.’

As he walked up the subway stairs with Eunji on his shoulder, he swore to himself.

What should have been a momentary feeling of regret had turned into a burning sense of competition.

It was probably because it was Baek Iri who had found the doll’s head.

Baek Iri.

A new genius who had appeared like a comet in the fourth branch of the training center.

For Yin Charang, the arrival of S⁺, who was the same age as him, meant that there was one more person to beat.

Winning was proof, and proving was fun. At least it was for him.

But the current Yin Charang was more impatient than necessary.

Just as impatient as he had been when he was trying to keep up with the S⁺ class of the first branch of the Academy who were a year older than him, maybe even more so.

That was because Baek Iri had taken Seo Jun’s place as her new partner.

Seo Jun needed an S-class partner to achieve her goals.

He didn’t care how he had felt when he first realized the identity of Seo Jun’s partner.

He had always seen being chosen as a kind of self-validation.

So Baek Iri’s unintentional arrival had left him with a deep sense of defeat.

Maybe that’s why.

As for her, Yin Charang’s competitive spirit was ignited by every little thing.

If Baek Iri was the one who found the doll’s head, he would be the one to attach it to the body.

***

“I want you to see it with your own eyes after class.”

As if she wasn’t trying to hide it, Seo Jun complies with my question.

Seo Jun taps the amulet she received from Kim Hae-yoon and says that it’s dangerous to move a disembodied spirit far away, a logic that only applies to this school.

“Hmm…? What’s with this amulet…”

“Be quiet.”

I wanted to investigate further, but class had started.

After this lesson it was time for lunch.

The two of us filled our stomachs with cafeteria food while we waited for Yin Charang.

It was about halfway through lunch when he texted Seo Jun that he was almost there.

“He’s almost here.”

Seo Jun broke the news and I nervously grabbed the doll’s head.

“Let’s go downstairs first.”

The puppy ghost looked back and forth between the desk with the amulet and my hand with the doll, then barked loudly and followed Seo Jun and me down the stairs.

I don’t know how many floors we made it down.

“Huh? Hey, didn’t you see the tape?”

I realized afterwards that the little green ribbon on the doll’s ears was missing.

I thought the thread connecting the ears to the ribbon was a little loose, but I didn’t realize it would break so quickly.

“Where did you lose it?”

“It was fine when we left the classroom. How did it happen in that brief moment…”

Seo Jun stops and looks around.

It’s barely the size of a ribbon and I sigh, realizing that it’s going to be a pain in the ass to retrace all the stairs and hallways we’ve been through.

“Seo Jun, why don’t you go ahead with the doll and I’ll look for it on the way up.”

“Wouldn’t it be faster if we both tried to find it?”

“You’re waiting with Yin Charang, don’t you think it’s better to deliver the head first?”

“No, we’ll find it together.”

The dog blocked our way as we started back up the stairs, scanning the floor.

As I crouched down to get eye level with him, he bit the toe of my slipper and dragged it down the stairs.

“What, you want me to go down? Hey, talk to me.”

I take a step or two down the stairs, and he spins in place as if to tell me to keep going, and soon I’m running up the stairs on my own.

“I guess he’s trying to fetch. Smart.” Seo Jun muttered.

The puppy seemed to instinctively know that we were trying to return the doll to its owner.

“Are you sure you want to let him go up there alone?”

“Isn’t it okay? I think he’ll be faster than both of us.”

“Sure. He has a good sense of smell.”

We decided to leave the tape with the dog and went to the gate where we were supposed to meet Yin Charang.

We waited outside the gate for about two or three minutes, and there he was, waving at us from a distance.

“Can you see them? She’s on my shoulder…”

There was a little girl on his shoulder. I wanted to see what it was, but it was a ghost.

He took the girl off his shoulder and introduced her to us.

“Eunji, say hello. These are Brother’s friends.”

“Oh, your name is Eunji? Nice to meet you, Eunji. I’m Baek Iri and this is Seo Jun.”

Seo Jun waved quietly from the side.

“Hi! Did Iri and Seo Jun come to see the rabbit too?”

“Uh, yes, they came to meet Eunji and the rabbit.”

While we were greeting Eunji, Yin Charang took out a doll body and sewing tools from his bag.

“Wow, what are you doing? You’re so prepared.”

“Aren’t I?” He said cheerfully, adding that he’d brought some glue just in case.

Then he looked at the doll’s ears and asked in disbelief.

“What? Where’s the tape for that?”

“Why don’t you put the head and body together first? The puppy will bring it to you soon.”

“What? A puppy?”

While I explained my predicament to Yin Charang, Seo Jun threaded the thread through the eye of the needle and handed it to Yin Charang.

“Ah, thank you.”

He calmly started sewing.

He was a little clumsy at first, but he soon got the hang of it and picked up the pace.

“Hey, that’s great, you’re good at sewing.”

I flattered him, and he quickly became smug and tied the last knot neatly. He didn’t even have to use glue.

“What do you think? Perfect, right?”

“Yeah, I’m not kidding, I don’t think it’s ever fallen off.”

“Hahahaha!”

One more compliment and I’m pretty sure he’ll just fly away.

Charang was similar to Senior Shin in that he wanted the crowd to be enthusiastic.

The difference is that Senior Shin tends to ask for an answer outright, while Yin Charang only expects it inwardly.

Feeling better, Charang forgot that he still didn’t have the ribbon and called to Eunji who was crouching by the wall playing tag with Seo Jun.

“Eunji, look at this. Brother fixed your doll.”

Eunji was excited even without the ribbon.

“Wow, my doll’s face is back! Where did you get that face?”

It’s only fair to give credit where credit is due.

“He worked hard to find it.” I interrupted.

“Wow, you’re a good big brother.” Eunji said.

“Thank you!”

When Yin Charang mumbled something like “No, I didn’t find it, Baek Iri…”, I silenced him.

“It is not because you were so enthusiastic about it and advertised it everywhere that I could recognize the doll at a glance.”

“No, but…”

It’s kind of annoying that he’s so competitive over nothing, but I don’t hate him for being hard on himself.

“If that’s the case, I didn’t find it, the dog did, so thank the dog.”

“…But should I thank the dog in human language or dog language?”

“Of course it’s a dog. You have to think like a dog.”

“Oh, right. Well, why don’t you come over here and demonstrate?”

As the conversation became more and more mountainous, Seo Jun interrupted.

“Hey, guys.”

“What?”

“Why?”

“Why isn’t Eunji happy after I fixed the doll…?”

Eunji was happy to accept the doll, but the core was still glowing blue.

If this was really the key to unlocking it, Seo Jun said, the core should have started to glow when the doll returned to its original form.

The glowing core was a sign that the spell had begun to unravel.

“It is, but why? Is it because there’s no ribbon?”

“Eunji, he’ll have a green ribbon for you in no time.”

“Wait a minute, Eunji!”

At first, I thought it was because there wasn’t a ribbon.

But then.

“But, big brother. When will we meet the bunny? I want to see the bunny.”

We soon realize that the basic premise is wrong.

“Uh, Eunji, the rabbit is here? Huh?”

I point at the doll he just fixed and Eunji shakes her head vigorously.

“Isn’t that a rabbit? If it’s not a rabbit, then what is it? Oh, is it a bear? It’s a teddy bear, but am I wrong? Uh, yeah. That brown furry thing… is a bear, not a rabbit, and it’s a teddy bear, and I’m prejudiced to think that if it has long ears, it must be a rabbit, so stop…!”

Yin Charang suddenly doubts the doll’s identity.

“No, it’s a rabbit.”

Seo Jun dismissed Yin Charang’s nonsense once and for all.

There was a moment of silence,

“…So I guess she meant to show her a real rabbit! What am I supposed to do, take her to the zoo?”

Seo Jun raised her eyebrows at me for starting the next round of shenanigans.

“Gee, a real rabbit? Can’t we get a fake rabbit? I-I bought a fake rabbit because I knew this would happen!”

Yin Charang pulls a bunch of items with rabbits on them out of his bag.

“Eunji, I actually got you a present too! You like rabbits, right?”

Eunji jumped for joy at the sudden onslaught of gifts.

But again, nothing happened to the core.

“Shut up, everyone.”

Seo Jun finally spoke up.

“Eunji, why don’t you tell your sister what a “bunny” is?”

Eunji, who had torn off the rabbit stickers that Yin Charang had brought and placed them on both cheeks of her brown stuffed rabbit, replied in a cheerful voice.

“Bunny is our dog’s name.”

What?