An Exorcist Magical Girl! Chapter 88

A headless, transparent body about 150 centimeters long soon appeared.

 

After running for a while, it spotted the procession and stretched out its arms to grab the heads.

 

“……!”

 

Seo Jun quickly reached into her pocket and pulled out a crumpled amulet and a red dagger.

 

 

❰Skill: ‘Carving and Engraving’ activated❱

 

 

The amulet was imbued with the sharpness and strength of the dagger, and the dagger was imbued with the effects of the curse written on the amulet.

 

The blades glowed on the fiery yellow paper, and the blade of the dagger burned as hot as a hellish iron skewer.

 

Gain─

 

Seo Jun’s dagger dug into the transparent arm.

 

The flesh on its arm melted and tore away in an instant.

 

The lower part of the severed elbow rolled helplessly down the corridor, but then it steadily rose to its feet and attached itself to the upper part of the severed elbow.

 

Like two lumps of slime, they stuck together, leaving no trace of the cut.

 

It reached greedily for the procession again.

 

This time she swung the amulet, now stretched to its full length, and plunged it into the shoulder blade of the transparent body.

 

With a jerk, the body lost its balance and fell to the ground.

 

“Please…!”

 

Knowing that it was futile, Seo Jun continued to slash. Clear blood splashed everywhere.

 

She didn’t know what the purpose of the new body was, but she knew it wasn’t something that she or Baek Iri would welcome.

 

Whatever its purpose, she had to delay it as long as possible.

 

But as the transparent flesh was shredded by Sepo Jun’s blade, the heads of the procession, which had been standing still and devoid of self, began to move of their own accord.

 

“The school bell is ringing.”

 

“Come, let’s gather.”

 

“The teacher is waiting for us.

 

“The teacher is waiting for us.

 

“The teacher is waiting for us.

 

“The teacher is waiting for us.

 

“The teacher is waiting for us.”

 

Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong!

 

The heads bounced happily to the beat of the nursery rhyme, touching each other on the tops of their heads, the sides of their heads, and their lower jaws.

 

The tiny transparent bodies melted, seeping into the gaps between the heads and acting as glue.

 

The lifeless heads stuck together to form a sphere the size of a watermelon.

 

And so the singing assemblage of heads was complete. 

 

Mouths everywhere gurgled and spat out sounds.

 

“The school bell is ringing. Come on, let’s gather. The teacher is waiting for us… The teacher is waiting for us… 

 

The spherical aggregate rolled to a stop directly behind Seo Jun, separating the upper and lower halves of its invisible body.

 

Snap!

 

The sphere jumped over Seo Jun and appeared in front of her.

 

And in an instant, the tables had turned.

 

“Oh, no!”

 

Seo Jun, realizing what was coming, panicked and grabbed the neck of the body beneath her.

 

Where there should have been a head, there was a cluster of heads.

 

A ball of heads trying to cling to the cross section.

 

“Aaaahhh!”

 

An invisible hand grabbed Seo Jun’s fingers around its throat and ripped them off, one by one.

 

Each finger tingles. Her fingertips had no more strength.

 

So Seo Jun picked up the sphere and ran.

 

She ran down the stairs, the transparent body following close behind.

 

Snap!

 

The figure jumped over the banister in a single bound and landed in front of Seo Jun. If ahe hadn’t stopped after three flights of stairs, ahe would have crashed right into the invisible body.

 

“Ha…”

 

Seo Jun turned and ran back up the stairs, ducking into the toilet half a floor up.

 

She had to buy some time. She slashed her palm with her dagger, letting it bleed, and drew a no-entry symbol on the bathroom door.

 

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

 

Every time someone knocked on the door from the outside, the crimson color faded to black.

 

It was just a symbol to ward off bugs. She knew it wouldn’t last long because it had been painted in a hurry and there was no time to properly energize it.

 

The transparent creature would soon shatter it, enter and eventually take possession of the assembly of heads.

 

Something had to be done first.

 

Seo Jun dialed a number she’d gotten a long time ago and never called.

 

“…Dr. Jang Jin-cheol. I need your help. There was no time to explain what was happening. I need you to seal off all entrances to the first floor. Right now.”

 

***

 

Boom!

 

The words were barely out of her mouth when the barely holding sigil was fully activated.

 

An invisible arm burst through the door and wrapped around Seo Jun’s neck.

 

“Kwak, kwak…!”

 

Thump! Thump, thump, thump!

 

A spherical head popped up and landed on its empty throat.

 

The invisible human released Seo Jun from its grasp.

 

But for her captor, it was less of letting go than a full-on throw.

 

Seo Jun slumped against the inside wall of the toilet, her head hanging down.

 

Singing louder than ever, the invisible man left the bathroom with a flourish.

 

“School bell tinkle tinkle, let’s gather, the teacher is waiting for us!”

 

The song was loud enough to echo throughout the floor. And it wasn’t just louder than before, it seemed to have more power to possess spirits. 

 

Even Seo Jun, the exorcist, was distracted for a moment.

 

As the invisible man ran through the halls singing, the spirits were drawn to the song.

 

The song drew souls from the first, second, and third spheres at a rate unparalleled by any other.

 

Like children following the Pied Piper, the dazzled spirits followed the invisible man in line.

 

The worst-case scenario that had flashed through her mind the moment the invisible body first appeared in front of the procession was now playing out in reality.

 

Seo Jun staggered to her feet and grabbed the wall. 

 

She took a moment to catch her breath, then ran out of the bathroom and down the stairs, heading straight for the path.

 

“He’s waiting for us! He’s waiting for us! He’s waiting for us, he’s waiting for us, he’s waiting for us, he’s waiting for us!”

 

The number of souls mesmerized by the invisible man’s song was endless.

 

A quick glance inside the classroom revealed that there were more disembodied bodies than alive students.

 

It was too much for one person to handle.

 

“Anyway, once Baek Iri gets rid of the Head Collector, the possessed souls will wake up on their own.

 

Whether it’s a few dozen or a few hundred, once the Head Collector is gone, everything will return to normal.

 

So for now, it was more important to protect the bodies that the possessed souls would return to later.

 

“School bell tinkle tinkle tinkle, let’s gather, you better sing along with us, let’s gather, let’s gather, let’s gather!”

 

The invisible man who had followed her whispered in her ear.

 

“You should sing with us. You need a music lesson from your teacher.”

 

“You should sing with us. You need your music lessons.”

 

“You should sing with us. You need music lessons from your teacher.”

 

The mouths on each head chattered.

 

Seo Jun ran and covered her ears. If she continued to listen to these voices, they would possess her.

 

“If I sing, I can forget. I can be forgotten.”

 

“If you sing, you can forget, you can be forgotten.”

 

“If I sing, I can forget, I can be forgotten.

 

“Forgetting is a blessing.”

 

“You want that blessing.”

 

“Misery begins with memory.”

 

“You are unhappy because you remember.”

 

“Come with me.”

 

“You need a music lesson from a teacher.”

 

It was tempting to dismiss it as nonsense, as not worth listening to, but she couldn’t.

 

For Seo Jun, it was such a sweet whisper.

 

‘How long had it been since her heart had beaten so hard?’

 

The memory of her friend’s death, trapped in the same space, followed her like a shackle.

 

Since then, it had become her only past.

 

There were many times when she thought it would be easier if she could just forget what happened that day and be forgotten by everyone.

 

But no,

 

“…Shut up.”

 

Poof─

 

A dagger ripped open the mouth of one of the chattering mouths from the front.

 

If she didn’t want to give up being human, she had to remember.

 

“Even if my brain forgets, my left arm will remember.”

 

She had no intention of letting that stupid ghost possess her.

 

Slashing her dagger from the bottom to the top, she split the head in half and headed for the first floor.

 

“A pity! It’s a shame! It would have been fun to sing with you!”

 

“Too bad! The teacher is waiting for us!”

 

“The school bell is ringing.”

 

“Come on, let’s get together…”

 

***

 

The sound of cracks being patched and singing faded into the distance.

 

The first floor was relatively quiet compared to the upper floors where each classroom was located.

 

“Teacher.”

 

Mr. Jang had just finished locking the main entrance door when he turned to face Seo Jun.

 

“All other entrances are locked from the outside. Now we just need to lock this one.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

“Seo Jun, I didn’t expect you to contact me.”

 

“I apologize for the suddenness of my call. The situation was urgent.”

 

“No, on the contrary, I appreciate it.”

 

“…I haven’t done anything, I just do little things to help Baek Iri.”

 

“So you two are still going to work on the case together?”

 

“No. I’m not going to go any further.”

 

“Well, that’s fine. I didn’t expect it, but you’re still stubborn.”

 

At the beginning of the second semester last year, Mr. Jang had taken Seo Jun aside after learning that she was an aspiring exorcist.

 

He asked her if she would take care of the school’s ghosts.

 

The PTA would pay her handsomely, and she would only have to exorcize the ghosts that bothered the students from time to time, but nothing too difficult or dangerous.

 

But Seo Jun had flatly refused the offer. She couldn’t afford to take care of the school.

 

“Please don’t let anyone else go out except me,” she said.

 

“Isn’t it safer outside ……?”

 

“No, no. We need to stay inside the school building for now, so we can make sure everyone wakes up safe later.”

 

“Okay, if you say so…”

 

Mr. Jang checked that there were no classes on the playground and put the lock on the last door.

 

The reason for locking all the doors on the first floor of the school was to prevent the spirits from escaping and taking over the remaining corpses.

 

Since it was impossible to stop them from taking over the bodies, it was imperative to prevent the stolen bodies from leaving the school.

 

In fact, even the playground was a safe zone, but she deliberately emphasized “inside the building”.

 

The playground was large, and the walls weren’t very high, so there were many ways out of the school that didn’t necessarily involve the school gates.

 

If the empty-bodied ghosts were to spill out onto the playground, there would surely be one or two who would manage to escape from Mukgyeong Girls’ High School.

 

It would be out of control.

 

So they have to keep them inside of the school as much as possible.

 

They put both locks on the door and slid the latches up and down.

 

“Mr. Jang, you’d better stay away from here from now on.”

 

Seo Jun said, looking at a student who had appeared at the end of the first floor hallway.