An Exorcist Magical Girl! – Chapter 80

Author: Dakku-san

“Your dog’s name is Bunny?”

Yin Charang mumbled in disbelief, and I couldn’t believe it either.

I mean, who would have ever thought that “Bunny” would be a dog’s name.

“Yes!” Eunji nodded innocently and her eyes suddenly widened. “Uh, it’s a Bunny!”

Where Eunji’s eyes went, there was a puppy.

The puppy dropped the green ribbon it was clutching to the ground and wagged its tail.

Eunji’s blue core began to glow like tear-filled eyes when she spotted the puppy.

“Bunny, bunny, bunny!”

But the puppy just barked happily, stopping at a distance from the gate and not running any further.

It nudged the green ribbon with its paw toward the cage outside the gate, then backed away, then backed away with the ribbon in front of it, then backed away again.

It was like it wanted us to come and get it.

Eunji was embarrassed by this reaction and stopped short of running to the puppy.

Eunji paced and frantically called the dog’s name.

“Bunny, it’s me! Why aren’t you coming here? Bunny, come here…”

As if to answer her call, the puppy made a squeaky sound.

But it still didn’t come outside the school gate, instead it stayed just inside the gate.

Why was that?

Why didn’t it come out after it went out of its way to find the ribbon and bring it to her?

I thought it was because it didn’t want to be in contact with its former owner, but that wasn’t it.

Now I realize that the puppy’s core is also blue. And now that it was looking at Eunji, the puppy’s heart was pulsing just like Eunji’s heart.

Just as Eunji missed the puppy, the puppy missed Eunji.

The puppy was to Eunji what Eunji was to the puppy, and the puppy was the key to unlock the ties of Eunji.

The way it whimpered, unable to take its eyes off Eunji, made me feel both nostalgic and happy to finally see them.

But why doesn’t it come closer?

Why the hell isn’t it coming out of the school gate-uh, wait.

It’s not “not” coming out, it’s “it can’t” coming out.

This place called paradise or hell, Mukgyeong Girls’ High School.

A place where eternity and freedom were traded, a fence that could never be crossed, and…

“The front door.”

It was as if a line had been drawn connecting all the dots.

“Seo Jun, is this what you wanted me to see for myself? I mean, Bunny can’t take a step out of here now, can it?”

“…Yes.”

Bunny, the dog ghost, can’t get out of the school gate.

So, based on everything that’s happened so far, we can conclude that maybe…

“It’s not just Bunny, but all dead or disembodied ghosts can’t leave the school, right?”

“That’s right, Baek Iri.”

“Shit, the school is like a fishbowl…”

“….Similar. Though not exactly the same concept.”

Mukgyeong Girls’ High School was a huge prison for ghosts.

It was a prison where ghosts who were already dead, or ghosts who were separated from their bodies and wandering alone, could not get out once they entered.

“They can’t get out, Seo Jun, is that what you meant when you said there were too many stupid ghosts in the school?”

Yin Charang, who had overheard our conversation, grumbled and interrupted.

Apparently, he knew that Mukgyeong Girls’ High School was haunted, but this was the first time he had heard that ghosts who entered Mukgyeong Girls’ High School couldn’t leave.

“…stupid ghost?” I asked, and she chimed in.

“No, I asked her once if it bothered her that there were so many ghosts in the school she goes to all the time. But you know what Seo Jun said? She said that there were too many stupid ghosts and that she didn’t care. But after today, I understand why she said that.”

“If they aren’t stupid enough to voluntarily go to this prison just to… avoid the Grim Reaper, I don’t know what is.” Seo Jun muttered.

Despite her dry tone, there was an undeniable disgust in Seo Jun’s voice.

“I don’t know why the Grim Reaper left this school alone, but I guess he had no choice, because he couldn’t get out if he set foot in there himself.”

Yin Charang whispered to me. I wondered what he meant by voluntarily getting trapped to avoid the Grim Reaper, but that’s what he meant.

The Grim Reaper knew that this school was haunted and that there was no way out, so he didn’t come in.

But even in an all-girls school, where even the dead are imprisoned, “annihilation” happens.

Annihilation is the transfer of spirits from this world to the next.

Seo Jun, who was looking at me, nodded slightly as if he was thinking the same thing.

“Let’s let Eunji in.”

“Yes. It’s the only way for both of us to free her from her bonds and extinguish her.”

Taking our gesture, Yin Charang took Eunji’s hand and led her away.

“Come on Eunji, let’s get up. Let’s go see the puppy!”

“It’s not a dog, it’s a rabbit…”

“Well, yeah. A rabbit. Anyway, let’s go to the rabbit first.”

“Okay!”

When Eunji approached, the dog barked angrily as if it didn’t want Eunji to come in.

“Bunny, why are you mad…?”

“Eh, he’s not angry, he’s just worried about Eunji. You can go and hug him.”

As Eunji and Yin Charang entered the school gate, the puppy barked angrily.

“Arf! Arf! Arf!”

It was more subdued than before, but it still had the same vibe, as if it was questioning its owner as to why it was in this place.

Still, its tail whipped like a propeller as Eunji stroked its head.

“Bunny, I missed you!”

Her blue core shook violently like waves, then gradually faded away.

And just like that, we could let her go, safe and sound and in peace.

“I’ll take the doll back to the graveyard.”

Yin Charang took the doll and the green ribbon and left, leaving Seo Jun and me with 15 minutes for lunch.

“Let’s clean up before we go to class.”

Seo Jun didn’t say anything out loud, but she followed me to the vegetable garden.

That was her confirmation.

***

I sat on a bench in a deserted corner and Seo Jub sat on a bench facing me.

“Wow, I’m confused, ghosts can’t get out, disembodied spirits can’t get out, not even the Grim Reaper. What kind of school is this? Anyway, they can come in, right?”

“Yes.”

“And the ghosts who don’t want to go to the afterlife came here because they can exist here forever without the interference of the Grim Reaper?”

“Yes. I don’t understand, and I don’t want to understand, why anyone would want that.”

Seo Jun sounded angry, but she also sounded sad.

I didn’t want to put her in a negative mood, so I deliberately said my next words with twice as much energy as usual.

“Anyway, Seo Jun, I understand now why you were against calling an ambulance, and I also understand what you said about the “danger” logic only applying to this school, because once the body leaves the school, the rest of the soul can’t leave it forever, right?”

“Right.”

Now that I knew the truth about the school, I understood why the dog spirit was so obsessed with the amulet I’d removed from Kim Hae-yoon’s front door.

The amulet had been on the door for 20 years and had absorbed the energy of the door.

The dog must have thought that the desk or cleaning box where the amulet was attached was actually a door to the outside.

In a place surrounded by invisible walls, it believed it was the only door that would let it out.

Even though it wasn’t a real door.

“I have to ask her to take the amulet back home and not leave it at the school.”

I don’t know how to explain to Hae-yoon why.

I’ll just say that it doesn’t seem to work at school.

“Seo Jun, do you have any idea how the school came to imprison the ghosts?”

“I don’t know that much about the school.”

“Hmm, I see.”

So what happens when they try to force the spirits out?

I wondered for a moment, and then I realized that I already knew the answer.

The shopping bag and the doll that were mixed in with the drama club’s luggage.

The doll that Kang Yoon-ju had used and thrown away when she was alone.

The ghost vaporized as soon as she stepped out of the school gate, the result of her recklessly dragging the ghost out of the school.

She didn’t know the condition of the school at that time, so I just chalked it up to something strange.

The ghost had crossed the Han River without realizing it, screaming and wailing.

I thought that was enough about the school, so I changed the subject.

“Speaking of missing heads, why do I have a feeling this isn’t the end of it?”

“Is that just your gut feeling?”

“Uh, well, yeah. I don’t really have anything to base it on, it’s just something that feels off.”

I was uneasy.

The last time I’d lost something, I’d gotten complacent and thought I could just burn the purple notebook and be done with it, and it had come back to bite me in the ass.

I don’t like to worry about things that haven’t happened, but I couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of foreboding.

A ghost that took the heads of inanimate objects like dolls and trophies.

Nothing was really known about this ghost, which we both conveniently called “The Head Collector.”

We don’t know if the brown rabbit was the first head he took, or if he’s been taking heads since before the rabbit, or if he has plans to collect more heads, not me, not Seo Jun, not anyone.

We don’t know if the head collector came to Mukgyeong Girls’ High School with a purpose, or if he just walked in with a rabbit head.

“Hey, Seo Jun.”

“I’m listening.”

“What if the “redneck” was a “prelude” to the head disappearing, just like the head disappearing was a ‘prelude’ to another event?”

“That could be…”

“Oh. I shouldn’t have said that. I think I raised a flag.”

“If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen without you saying a word.”

“I know, I know, I just feel a little off!”

Seo Jun said, “I meant not to worry too much,” and stood up first.

“Hey, Seo Jun. I’m not mad at you…”

“I know. I just got up because I thought the bell would ring.”

Yeah, I see you didn’t freak out either.

***

The rest of the day, the fifth, sixth, and seventh periods passed without incident.

But the “big one” happened two days later on Friday.

“Hey, Hae-yoon, what’s wrong?”