An Exorcist Magical Girl! Chapter 85

❰Skill: “Detection Dog” is activated❱

 

Music Room.

 

Seo Jun pressed the skill against a transparent wall with a pattern on it. It was the same skill she’d used on the CPR training day to find the weak points in a room.

 

The Detection Dog skill she’d honed to track this room based on the tracks it left behind had been internalized to the point where she could read the room’s information in real time.

 

“Mmm…”

 

She thought the music room had been overlaid with a new space that no one but spirits could enter, but that was not the case.

 

The Music Room was still the Music Room. The only thing the Head Collector had created was a transparent wall that blocked the doorway.

 

The transparent wall wrapped around all four sides of the room.

 

The front and back doors, the windows in the hallway, and even the windows on the outside of the building were all blocked by the transparent wall.

 

There was no information to be gleaned from the walls, other than the fact that they didn’t let in anything but ghosts.

 

Furthermore, it was impossible to crack it open to create a passageway as she had done the last time, as the wall was not meant to keep anyone in or out, but rather to act as a filter, letting only the right people through.

 

Seo Jun looked to see if there was any way to erase the carvings on the walls, but that was impossible as well.

 

It was carved from the inside of the music room.

 

‘Oh, come to think of it, the skulls of the head collectors seem to get in and out just fine.’

 

Seo Jun throws her slippers at the transparent wall to see if it’s safe for inanimate objects.

 

Bang!

 

The slipper hit the wall and bounced right back.

 

It seems that not all inanimate objects can come and go, but only those that have been given a body by a Head Collector, like these heads.

 

So Seo Jun turned her attention back to the music room itself.

 

It had been several hours since the Head Collector had taken over the music room and unleashed its disembodied death spell.

 

Surely it could read the traces of the Head Collector that permeated every inch of the room.

 

“Two minutes to the next out…”

 

The information wasn’t perfectly legible, but she could get the gist of it.

 

“Two minutes to the next departure of the procession.”

 

So far, the head collector was targeting one student per period.

 

Two minutes left probably meant two minutes until the bell rang for fourth period, when the Head Collector would send out another procession to claim a student’s soul.

 

So far, so good, as far as Seo Jun knew.

 

“My own school…, music… up, choir…?”

 

After that, there was only space. Well, that was a fair conclusion.

 

For the Head Collector, this music room was its own classroom. Its own classroom in an all-girls high school, free from the interference of the Grim Reaper.

 

Here it would make music with students who would make noise at its will.

 

They were the ones Seo Jun hated the most.

 

Even more than the fools who imprisoned themselves because they thought eternity was sweet, Seo Jun hated those who forced eternity on others, not just themselves, and took the next thing from them.

 

Putting aside her personal feelings, Seo Jun calmly read the following information.

 

“You have too much brain to be… a student?”

 

What does that mean, “student”? It doesn’t sound positive.

 

Just then, Baek Iri arrived.

 

“Hey, put this on.”

 

Baek Iri threw her an orange vest.

 

“What is it?”

 

“Mr. Jang gave it to me. Don’t get into trouble.”

 

“Oh…”

 

“So how’s it going? Did you find out anything?”

 

Seo Jun shook her head at Baek Iri’s question.

 

“Not much.”

 

“That’s hard…”

 

“I keep reading the information, but I don’t have anything useful.”

 

“Hm, maybe we can get in with a weapon?”

 

Baek Iri picked up the mop bag she had left in the hallway near the music room earlier.

 

❰Skill: ‘A Craftsman Wears No Tools’ has been activated❱

 

Baek Iri enchants the mop sack with black aura and throws it down.

 

Tuung!

 

But it was no use. The black staff smashed into the wall with the force of a club and bounced in the wrong direction.

 

Only the nearby ghosts scurried away in anger.

 

“I tried, but it didn’t work.” Seo Jun interrupted Baek Iri.

 

“Wait, maybe it’s not a weapon, maybe it’s just a “thing”.”

 

“No, I mean no. I’ve done it.” It wasn’t until Seo Jun told her that she had also thrown a slipper that Baek Iri calmed down.

 

“The severed head was loose, so I figured it could be anything.”

 

“I thought so too…”

 

Seo Jun mumbled to herself and went back to listen to what the music room had to offer.

 

***

 

Meanwhile, the bell rang for the fourth period.

 

“The fourth procession is about to start, they say, and those heads are coming out again.”

 

With that, the trophy head took its first steps out of the music room.

 

Baek Iri hit the transparent body underneath the trophy head with the mop sack she was carrying.

 

BANG!

 

Like a balloon popping, the transparent body was torn to shreds.

 

However, the pieces of transparent flesh that were scattered in all directions quickly gathered back together and resumed their original form.

 

Unless their master, the Head Collector, was destroyed, these things would resurrect endlessly.

 

“This doesn’t solve anything, it’s just an infinite loop! Can’t we get the Head Collector to come out?”

 

Baek Iri racked her brain and asked herself nervously.

 

“Of course not, damn it. If he’s going to come out, he should have come out when he stole those two kids. That bastard, he’ll stay in a safe place until the end and let his assholes do the kidnapping.”

 

As Baek Iri grumbled about the peacefulness of having the two exorcists right in front of her, her eyes lit up as she suddenly had an idea.

 

Baek Iri led Seo Jun to a corner of the corridor out of sight of the music room and whispered.

 

“Seo Jun, why don’t you use this amulet?”

 

A talisman to summon a certain spirit.

 

Baek Iri was referring to the same amulet that had come in handy during the straw doll and bug scares.

 

But Seo Jun quickly said no.

 

“Not because of the wall. The wall will block the amulet’s energy.”

 

The amulet was merely a decoy to lure the ghost into appearing before the exorcist on its own.

 

No matter how powerful a lure is, it is useless if its energy cannot reach the ghost.

 

A spell cast by an S⁺-ranked exorcist can temporarily increase its effectiveness by several orders of magnitude, but only as a decoy.

 

They can summon spirits from farther away, have more power to dazzle them, and so on.

 

It didn’t mean that the exorcist himself would be able to travel through impenetrable “carved walls”.

 

When Baek Iri heard Seo Jun’s explanation, he sighed in disappointment.

 

Then, without hesitation, she uttered her last words.

 

“Hey, if only souls can go in there, doesn’t that mean that I can go in there if I disembody myself? I just don’t need a body.”

 

“That’s right.”

 

“Then I’ll disembody myself and go in.”

 

“What?” Seo Jun grabbed Baek Iri’s arm. Her grip tightened.

 

“Baek Iri, you don’t realize how dangerous it is to fight ghosts with only your soul and no body, do you?”

 

“Whatever. I’ve learned enough to know that. How long do you think I’ll be a novice?”

 

“You say that even though you know.”

 

“It is the only solution at the moment. If we leave it alone, we’ll just end up in the same situation again and again.”

 

“Baek Iri.”

 

Still, Seo Jun didn’t let go of Baek Iri’s arm.

 

“Why are you doing this? You could get yourself killed. You’ve known these children for so long. This kind of sacrificial spirit, this kind of exorcism love, it’s not compatible at all.”

 

The unspoken words stung the tender flesh of her mouth.

 

Seo Jun felt her stomach churn.

 

A noble sacrifice? She didn’t need it. Such a thing was a luxury she could not afford right now.

 

Since the death of her boyfriend, she had never had the luxury of taking care of others.

 

And now, the person she’d lied to about the cause was talking about a pure cause.

 

“Seo Jun, time is running out. Look!”

 

Baek Iri pointed to the back of the music room.

 

A procession of transparent heads was already halfway out of the music room.

 

“I can’t help it, Seo Jun, even if it’s dangerous.”

 

“…….”

 

“Hold on to me.” Baek Iri said.

 

***

 

“Hold on to me.”

 

“Do you know how to teleport?” Seo Jun asks, giving her my other arm, and she grimaces.

 

“I don’t know. I’ve never done it on my own, but there is a way, though I don’t know if it works.”

 

“Come on.”

 

“Anyway, as soon as I am out of my body, I will go in and deal with the head collector. Seo Jun, I want you to follow this procession and return any other disembodied souls to their proper places.”

 

“Yes.”

 

When I heard Seo Jun’s answer, I grabbed the mirror in my pocket. Good thing I always carried this with me.

 

Running my fingers along the cracks in the mirror’s surface, I muttered to myself.

 

“Hey, mirror, activate the treasure trove.”

 

❰Sub-skill: ‘Master of Mirrors – Incorruptible Treasur Trove’ activated❱

 

This was a gamble.

 

My vision went black in an instant, and soon the familiar inventory space opened up.

 

“Hey, it’s been a while. Inventory, how are you?”

 

Successfully entering here means that I am now out of my body. This inventory room always only lets my soul in.

 

“Mirror, don’t say anything stupid and listen carefully.”

 

❰Please explain.❱

 

“When you send my soul out of here, don’t send it right back into my body, just let it awaken outside of my body. In other words, I want you to take the coordinates for my soul to leave and arrive as “right next to my body” instead of “inside my body”. “

 

❰Confirmed. Do you want to change your destination?❱

 

“Uh, just this once.”

 

❰Confirmed. Change the desired destination. It will revert to your existing destination on your next trip.❱.

 

“Uh, yes. Mirror, do you think you’re a little smarter than before?”

 

‘Your search function sucked, but at least you’re good at recognizing requests.’

 

“When you’re done with the changes, let me out.”

 

As I gave the command, my surroundings slowly brightened.

 

My eyes caught sight of Seo Jun and my limp body.

 

“Wow, that worked.”

 

“Dude, you’re really…”

 

It’s been a long time. That crazy look in Seo Jun’s eyes.

 

Seo Jun dragged my body into an empty classroom next to the music room.

 

“Ugh, I’m sorry. I should have laid down first and then disembodied myself. I didn’t think of that.”

 

“Next time you do that, I’ll throw you down the hall.”

 

“Ouch, Seo Jun. You can still do that.”

 

“What are you talking about? You’re making sense. Don’t you realize that you can sleep anywhere?”

 

Seo Jun replied bluntly and pushed me back into the chair.

 

She grabbed a handkerchief from the wastebasket at the back of the room.

 

“For what?”

 

“To make an amulet.”

 

I didn’t feel like asking any more questions, so I shut up and waited.

 

Seo Jun put the finished amulet into my right hand.

 

“It’s an amulet that hides the signs of life. Do you remember the one you wore at the train station? If you wear it, the ghosts won’t recognize your body. 

Never, even if you’re right next to them.”

 

“Why do I need that?”

 

“For your information, this is the same amulet I gave to your two friends who were in the infirmary earlier.”

 

As if he wanted me to find out on my own, Seo Jun spoke in a low voice.

 

“When you left after second period to take a phone call from a friend in first grade, I took the amulet and went to the nurse’s office when I heard about the out-of-body experience of a first grader, because they needed it.”

 

“You’re telling me I need an “amulet to hide signs of life” now?”

 

“Yes.”

 

I was at a loss for words.

 

Seeing my confused expression, Seo Jun added.

 

“Think about it. Why would that ghost, who was called here as an alter ego, try to kill an innocent student by breaking their neck?”