An Exorcist Magical Girl!

The class three, who were staring in that direction, were able to capture the moment the ghost revealed itself.

 

A piercing scream echoed through the air, and all eyes on the field turned to the parking lot.

 

There, with her hair pulled back, was Ms. Park, letting out an instinctive scream.

 

The ghost looked down on her from above and chuckled.

 

It must be because of it that her screams didn’t stop.

 

“What was that?! Oh, my God…”

Startled by the unexpected scream, the PE teacher blurted out a panicked exclamation into the microphone he was casually holding.

 

Realizing that the scream was coming from the same staff member, the PE teacher rushed over and asked if the fallen teacher was hurt.

 

“Are you okay?!”

 

The problem was that he was running with a microphone.

 

Ms. Park’s shouting was amplified by the microphone and transmitted to the school.

 

It was as if she was giving an interview.

 

The ridiculousness of the situation caused a few chuckles to escape.

 

“What’s going on out there?” “Was that a siren?”

 

Three or four classroom windows opened and students poked their heads out.

 

The PE teacher, finally realizing his mistake, retraced his steps with an

“ah ha”

look on his face.

 

The moment.

 Boom!

 

Water fell from the roof above the parking lot.

 

The water cascaded down like a waterfall in slow motion.

 

The stream of water glistened in the sunlight as it passed through the ghosts and landed directly on Ms. Park.

 

The ghost was instantly melted by the water, which was exactly the scenario I had envisioned in my head the moment I saw the falling water.

 

“The ghost…melted?”

 

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

 

A water-soluble ghost.

 

The floor and the surrounding parking lot was stained with the thick, gory blood of a molten ghost. Unmelted eyeballs, teeth, fingernails, and other things floated around.

 

“Kyaaaaaaaah!” “Aaaahhhhhh!”

 

The gym teacher, who witnessed the scene right behind me, screamed along with me. Naturally, the rumblings were picked up by the microphone and broadcast to the entire school.

 

“What the hell was that?!” “Hey. Look at that.”

 

This time, the staff room window was flung open, and the angry voices of the teachers spilled out.

 

The field soon turned into chaos.

 

One after another, students tried to break up the group dance practice while the PE teacher wasn’t looking, and the students from class three and a few other classes who had been bullied by Ms. Park Eun-kyung rushed to the parking lot to watch the chaos.

 

All the while, the loudspeakers were blaring a cheerful campaign song.

 

─No cigarettes, protect your clean lungs.

 

It’s called

“Campaign for Tobacco-Free Schools,”

and it’s a Park Eun-kyung sniper song.

 

Some kids were openly singing along and giggling.

 

I took advantage of the opportunity and quickly left the field.

 

The melted ghost’s body slowly regained its original form and ran away.

 

The momentary liquidization allowed it to break free of the shawl’s bindings.

 

It was driving me nuts because I had to finish the exorcism.

 

It was going to leave the parking lot and get rid of me while it was good!

 

I ran back into the parking lot after the ghost.

 

It was easy to track because it had just returned from its liquid form, and I could hear it splashing wherever it moved.

 

The ghost quickly made its way up to the floor where the second grade classrooms were located, closing the distance between the ghost and me.

 

But the problem was, even after all this chasing, there was nothing I could do about the ghost.

 

I need to keep it alive at least while the effect of the hearing lasts.

 

By the way, Ms. Park is in the classroom right now.

 

If it went to the classroom, I would lose the ghost.

 

“Oh, my God!”

 

My feet were moving steadily, but my head felt as if it was frozen.

 

It was then.

 

❰Activate Master of Mirrors: The surface of the calm lake is like a mirror! ❱

 

“What a long name!”

 

Only after I spat out the words did I remember that I already had a twelve-character skill.

 

And that this

“Master of Mirrors”

was a sub-skill of that 12-character skill.

 

❰The surface of the calm lake is like a mirror, you have 0 triggers left!❱

 

What the hell, is this another one-time use?

 

I don’t even know what it does, and you expect me to do anything if I only have one chance!

 

I muttered to myself and took out a hand mirror from my pocket.

 

“How am I supposed to use it? Ugh!”

 

At the same time, the mirror’s surface cracked and a piece of shrapnel flew out.

 

The shard, which looked to be about the size of a thumb nail, spun around and flew toward the ghost.

 

It spun like a helicopter’s propeller as it flew in a maddening circle.

 

I take back the helicopter propeller comment.

 

That’s a sprinkler going wild.

 

The shards sprayed water in all directions.

 

The path of the flying mirror shards was now a sea of water.

 

It splashed me in the face with about two buckets of water. What an ungrateful mirror who doesn’t recognize its owner.

 

But hey, it helped a lot.

 

The water was concentrated on the ghost.

 

The ghost was pelted with water over and over again before it had a chance to clean up its melted body.

 

It couldn’t even run away as its body kept melting and collapsing.

 

I took advantage of the opportunity to grab some gourdwood from the class and was able to capture the ghost safely.

 

***

 

 

Later, I heard from Yang Ji-won that the students in class three knew that the ghost was water-soluble.

 

Apparently, since the place of its appearance was the restroom, they were often startled and splashed the water in their toothbrush cups or wiped the water off their hands.

 

That’s probably why no one realized that the ghost was holding out its arm instead of its tongue.

 

They couldn’t tell if it was an arm or something else because they could only see a blurry shape dissolved in the water they’d thoughtlessly splashed.

 

The vice president of class three was the one who sprayed water from the roof to the parking lot at the right time.

 

Oh, and the classmates helped clean up the water in the hallway.

 

They’re going to celebrate next Monday, after the sports fest.

 

When they first planned this, they hadn’t planned to have an after-party, but the PE teacher seemed to be happy that Ms. Park had been embarrassed in front of the whole school thanks to the microphone.

 

Originally, the second graders were content to watch.

 

Yang Ji-won apologized profusely, saying that she couldn’t call me, the main staff member of this revenge play, because it was seemingly an aftermath of a sports meet between classmates. 

 

I didn’t mind, but Yang Ji-won wanted to include me somehow, and she came up with an idea.

 

“Oh, Hanbyul usually follows all the other classes to the after-parties, so we can say that she followed you. Do you want to come?” “No, I’m really fine.”

 

I had to go straight to the training center after the sports fest that day, so I couldn’t join the after-party anyway.

 

After convincing Yang Ji-won that the grapefruitade I was paid for was enough, I stopped by the parking lot to retrieve the ghosts’ shawl.

 

Afterward, I headed to the audio-visual room for club activities.

 

I was told that clubs are basically every other Friday, but sometimes they are spaced three weeks apart if there are exams, like this one.

 

Today was my second club time, auditioning for roles in a play for a competition right before summer vacation.

 

The art team was also invited to put down their knitting for the day and vote for roles.

 

The auditions were conducted by the club president and the writer team leader.

 

The acting team members were behind the podium, memorizing their lines for the last time.

 

The rest of the members sat in teams and waited for the auditions to begin.

 

Behind them sat Ms. Kim Hee-kyung, the teacher in charge of the theater club, and the outside acting instructor who actually leads the theater club.

 

“Shall we turn off the lights?” “Let’s turn them off except for the stage. How about that?” “Oh, it’s fine.” “Pull down the window blinds.”

 

Even though it was just an audition for a school club, once the lights were turned off, it felt like a real theater.

 

Once we were ready, the director came to the front of the stage and announced the audition.

 

“We will now begin auditions for the role of “The World Ruled by Spiders”.”

 

A brief applause followed.

 

“The audition method will be to perform two scenes that have been decided by the writing team, as voted on last time. We’ll start with the lead roles first, and the first batter will be, Kwon Yuri, second year, fourth class, please come up to the stage.”

 

I was worried that she would be at a disadvantage, as the first actor usually fades into the background.

 

But Yuri was too good to be true.

 

“We follow the spider’s thread,”

she said,

“because in this tangled world, its thread is the only one that is right.”

  

“Do you really think I’m the one who broke the thread? Get off me! I’m first! Put me up! I’m not the one who broke the thread!” 

It’s a scene that reveals the selfishness of human beings.

 

Kwon Yuri nailed it.

 

“Wow, she’s like a real actress.” “What’s next?”

 

I’ve said it all, because this kind of admiration was leaking out among the members.

 

I could have sworn she was a professional theater actress. The emotions, the pronunciation, the volume, the facial expressions, everything was perfect.

 

Even after watching all the performances of the other candidates for the lead role, Kwon Yuri’s impact was not erased.

 

In fact, it was even more striking.

 

The lead role was unanimously awarded to Kwon Yuri.

 

“I told you, there was no one else.”

 

A member of the art team sitting next to me poked me in the side and whispered. I wasn’t that close to Yuri, but it was still nice to see a classmate being recognized.

 

“Your performance last year was so awesome.” “Oh, Kwon Yuri’s tears were amazing.”

 

My friends from other teams nearby also chimed in with a comment or two.

 

Thanks to my seat at the back, I could hear the teachers’ comments.

 

“Yuri is really good.” “That’s right. I realized from the first time I saw her, she’s got the talent to be a top actress even if she’s not.”

 

I suddenly wondered if Kwon Yuri was preparing to make her acting debut.

 

If your acting instructor says,

“Even if you’re not good, you’re A-grade,”

how good is she?”

 

Is she going to audition for an acting agency, or is she preparing for an acting entrance exam?

 

Isn’t she a former child actor, and if so, why did she come here on a regular process and not by recommendation?

 

I’ll have to ask her in person when I get a chance.

 

I don’t want to pry too much, or she might get offended.

 

By the time the audition for the supporting roles finished, it was five minutes before the end of sixth period.

 

The club director looked around and quickly dismissed the group.

 

“We’re running late this week, so next time, we’ll try to finish about 10 minutes earlier. Thanks for a great job, everyone! Oh, and…”

 

A few impatient kids who were about to get up off their asses at the hastily added afterword sat back down.

 

“We don’t have a lot of regular club time left before the competition, so I think it would be a good idea for the acting teams to get together every Friday morning for extra practice, at least for now, but I’ll put this up for a vote on the wall, and now it’s really over, everyone can go home!”

 

Just like last time, there was a crowd of people outside the audiovisual room from other clubs that had finished early.

 

I started to head out to find Seo Jun, but the art team leader grabbed me and the other art team members.

 

“We’re a little short on club time to finish the backdrop. I was thinking we could get together a few times during acting team practice, if not every week, to finish the knitting. What do you think?”

 “I don’t mind, as long as it’s after school.” “Me too.”

 

The art team’s extra work was unanimously approved.

 

“Let’s do it now, because we don’t want to put it off and then have it conflict with finals. How about right now, next Friday?”“Sounds good.” “Let’s get it done and have a break before finals!” “Go, Art Team!”

 

And just like that, the day’s club activities  ended on a high note.

 

I realize that coming to school so early in the morning is a pain and a hassle, but it’s only once a week, so I’m more excited than frustrated. I should take this opportunity to get to know my friends from the art team. It’s good to have friends outside of my class.

 

“Well, let’s meet next Friday morning at 7:40 in the audio-visual room.” “Okay.”

 

But little did we know, that would be the last time we would meet in the audio-visual room.