"Are you guys okay?" A voice yelled from the entrance to the back of the truck.

"We're fine." Tiffany replied as she cracked her neck.

The sun had already gone down by the time the truck crashed, so our surroundings were relatively dark.

Who are they?

I thought my question would be answered once the two strangers entered the van, which it was, but only partially.

The slightly ajar doors of the truck were easily swung open by the pair of hands that grasped them. Those same hands undid the chains restraining my arms and legs we're small, soft and cold. I could easily tell that they belonged to a female.

I tried to get a good look at this person's face, but her long hair covered it as she leaned over to help me up.

 

...

 

We all stood outside of the overturned truck. Even through the dark, I was able to somewhat make out the faces of the new people in front of me.

Both were girls, had well-defined faces and long, dark hair. Through the darkness, I could tell that one girl was Korean, while the other was foreign – she appeared to be of Hispanic descent.

The Korean girl had brunette hair, and was thin with relatively pale skin. Her demeanor appeared nonchalant, almost cold, and gave me the chills when we first made eye contact.

From what I could tell, the Hispanic female was fairly light skinned as well. She was a bit more athletic and curvy than the other girl, but they still appeared fairly similar. Her hair was very dark, almost black, but it gave off strange shimmers of other colors when the light hit it.

 

 

Tiffany stared at the Korean girl for a bit before running up to her and assaulting the girl with a large hug.

Huh?

"It's nice to see you too." The girl said in response to Tiffany's embrace.

"What are you doing in Korea?" Tiffany questioned the stranger.

"What are you doing in the back of some random truck?"

"Touché..."

 

...

 

 "Taeyeon and Eli, this is Jessica Jung: I stayed with her family for the majority of the time I was in America."

"Hey." She introduced herself with a slight smile.

"Hi." Eli and I responded.

"... So you're the girl that Tiffany was upset with the entire time she was in the U.S." Jessica directed the statement towards me.

"Umm... yeah, that's me." I looked down and kicked the dirt under my feet, not really knowing how to respond.

Tiffany gave Jessica a look as she nudged the pale girl's shoulder.

"I didn't mean that in a bad way." She corrected herself; choosing her wording carefully this time. "I just meant that you must be really important to her."

"You'll have to excuse Jessica; she's really blunt." Tiffany mentioned.

After Tiffany finished speaking, the girl standing next to Jessica coughed in order to grab everyone's attention.

"Oh yeah, this is my friend from school." She gestured toward the Hispanic female.

"What's your name?" I asked, assuming that she could speak Korean, or at least understand it.

"Jessica." The dark-haired girl replied.

"What?" The three of us responded flatly.

"So both of you are named Jessica?" Eli was as shocked as me and Tiffany.

"Yup" The two of them replied simultaneously.

"Then how do you not get confused by that?" Tiffany asked. It was more of rhetorical question.

"Most people just call me Jay." The Hispanic girl explained.

"That'll make things easier."

 

"Well it's nice to meet both of you." I eventually said. "... But I don't understand how either of you fit into this situation."

"I think I can explain a bit of it." Tiffany responded. "The Jung's, Jessica's family, are Liners... Well at least I think they are: It's the reason my father sent me to live with them."

"That's basically it." Jessica stated.

"Which explains that..." Eli commented on the relatively plain, ice-white bracer that dressed Jessica's left arm.

"Yeah, this belonged to my mom."

"... Speaking of your family: Where's Krystal? I initially thought Jay was her." Tiffany asked.

"Oh, she's with my parents right now. The whole family is in Korea at the moment."

"Really? Why?"

"Your dad informed my parents of everything going on, and they wanted to help. Apparently they were all a part of the group that went to Africa."

"If that's true, then your family's crest is another key." I randomly spoke without thinking.

"...A key to what?" Jessica tilted her head to the side as she asked this question.

Oh... I guess her parents didn't tell her yet.

"Probably something they won't tell you about since your parents didn't mention it to you." Jay stated nonchalantly.

"What she said." Eli pointed towards Jay.

 

"That's understandable..." Jessica responded. "So, I have a question: How did the three of you end up in the back of that truck?"

 

We were all embarrassed at how the situation came about, so we just gave each other looks that said: You tell her, I'm not saying anything.

After a while, I finally cracked and told Jay and Jessica everything that happened from the moment we started the mission.

"If you left before they were drugged, how did you end up in the truck?" Jay directed her question at Eli.

"Huh?" He tried to shake off the question.

"How did they get you if you were already gone before they did anything?"

"Umm... that's a good question... Taeyeon, explain what happened."

"He tried to save us, but ended up in the same position." I said flatly.

Eli let his head fall into the palm of his hand as the two new girls burst out laughing.

 

"I think it might be better if we didn't team up with someone who purposely gets himself caught." They joked.

 

"That may have not been my best idea, but you heard about the plan I made for those demons – it was pretty top-notch."

"Meh... it was alright." Jessica waved it off.

 

"How did you find us though?" Tiffany asked from behind me.

"Didn't you send out a beacon?" Jessica responded with a question.

"How could we? Our bracers were in the front of the truck."

"Huh... Maybe one of those guys accidently turned something on..." Tiffany added.

 

I thought back to our time in the truck, and realized that there was only one instance where that was possible.

 

"It must've happened when they were going through our stuff." I concluded.

"That's odd that it could work without anyone wearing it..." Tiffany said.

"I thought that wasn't possible." Jessica looked puzzled.

"It's not supposed to be... but I get the feeling that these things aren't functioning properly yet." I said as I tapped my bracer.

 

"Well despite all of that, we were headed towards that hotel when Jessica got a beacon from one your bracers, so we just followed the road." Jay explained.

"We've been stuck in the back of that truck for nearly half a day – how in the world did you catch up to us?" Tiffany questioned.

"Speaking of that, I owe whoever was driving my hospital bill." Eli joked. He winced as he popped his shoulder back into place.

"Well Jay is a pretty fast driver..." Jessica pointed back towards their car, which was all worn out and dinged up from the past few hours.

"Maybe we should've left you in the back of that truck." Jay responded to Eli's joke with one of her own.

 

...

 

After standing around and getting to know each other for a bit, the five of us suddenly became quiet.

"So what do we do now?" Jay finally said what was on everyone's mind.

"We definitely shouldn't stay in this spot any longer." Tiffany concluded.

"Well we don't exactly have a means of transportation." Eli said as he pointed out the two vehicles nearby.

 

The truck we had previously been in was currently flipped over. Even if the car was upright, it still wouldn't be in driving condition due to the shattered windows, flat tires, and the two unconscious men in the front seats.

The car Jay and Jessica had arrived in was now banged up from the multiple collisions it had with the truck, so it would have easily drawn unwanted attention. Not to mention that the car was only a two-seater, and there were five of us.

 

"How do you suppose we get out of here then?" Jessica asked, afraid of the obvious answer.

"It looks like we have to walk." Tiffany, Jay, and Jessica all sulked as the words left my mouth.

 

 

...

 

 

"AHA, finally some air-conditioning!" Jay shouted as all of us entered a cafe.

"I never thought the feeling of cold air would ever make me this happy." Tiffany commented.

"Ugh..." A zombie-like noise came from Jessica as she was the last one to crawl into the cafe.

 

"So what's the plan?" I asked; really unsure of what was next.

"Well since we're all going to the same place, we might as well go together." Jessica suddenly recovered from her sluggish state, and joined the conversation.

"We're going to need a car or something though." Eli added. "Do we have any money?"

 

At that moment, everyone turned to look at Tiffany, who had started munching on a pastry she had literally just purchased.

"Umm... why is everyone looking at me? Jessica's family is richer than mine." She said through the food in .

Everyone now turned their attention to Jessica.

"Hmm..?" She was sitting directly in front of a fan, and turned to face us once she noticed our eyes on her.

 

"Shouldn't we all chip in for a car?" I asked.

"How much money do you have?" Jessica asked me.

 

I reached in my pocket and pulled out my wallet.

"Let me see... ... Oh..."

My face grew red as I realized that I only had 2,000 won in my wallet.

 

"Well, Taeyeon's broke. What about you, Eli?"

"I spent most of my money on fireworks... I was kind of planning on being at my destination by now." He chuckled.

"... And I already know Jay didn't bring any money... so it looks like Tiffany and I are going to be paying for the car."

"I'm up to go car shopping." Tiffany sounded excited at the idea of buying something new.

"We're not getting a pink car..." Jessica said flatly.

Tiffany's excitement turned into a disappointed pout as we all got up and left the cafe.

 

...

 

"Are we getting close?" I asked Eli.

We were using the mapping feature on his bracer to find someplace where we could buy a car.

"We're not too far from a place."

"Alright."

I slowed my pace a bit to walk next to Jay, whom I wanted to know better. Jessica and Tiffany were a bit farther behind, catching up with each other.

 

 

"So what's your story?" I bluntly asked the dark–haired girl.

"What?" Her response signaled that she heard what I said, but she wanted me to clarify what I meant.

"I mean: What's your place in all of this? Are your family Liners too?"

"Nope, I'm just a regular person."

"... but you know about everything going on?" It didn't make sense to me.

"... And you're curious as to why?"

"Yeah, pretty much." I responded.

"Well..." She thought. "Jessica asked me to help her with some important stuff, so I figured: Why not?"

"Your decision was that easy?" Her response perplexed me.

"Yeah... I didn't really have anything going on at the moment."

 

"How did you two meet?" I asked another question after a small break in the conversation.

"We've been close friends for a while. We're also sparring partners."

"Sparring partners?"

"Jessica's parents have been teaching her martial arts since she was nine years old."

WHAT?!

"I'm assuming that they taught you too." I ignored my initial shock at the revelation, and got back on topic.

"Nobody taught me how to fight; it kind of came naturally: Most things do."

"Ah..." The news intrigued me.

"... but enough about me" The Hispanic female changed the topic. "Let's hear about you."

 

*

 

"It feels like forever since we last spoke." Jessica spoke towards Tiffany.

"It's been about two months, but so much has happened since I left the U.S."

"Speaking of which – it's pretty obvious that you've settled things with Taeyeon."

"I have no idea what you mean." Tiffany was shy about the subject.

"No need to be shy about it." Jessica read through Tiffany pretty easily. "She's a catch."

Tiffany's eyes widened at Jessica's statement. The shock of what her friend had just said caused Tiffany to choke on the very last piece of her pastry.

"Huh?" was the only word she could get out through coughs.

"Oh, wow... you haven't even realized it yet." Jessica said, surprised.

"Realized what?"

"I'm not telling..." Jessica responded playfully as she sped up to catch up with everyone else.

 

*

 

"Well if you and Tiffany don't work out, just give me a call." Jay spoke towards me.

"Work out what?"

 

Before I got an answer, Jessica and Tiffany caught up with Jay and me. The four of us walked a few paces behind Eli as we started talking about random stuff.

 

 

...

 

 

As we walked, I noticed that Eli suddenly became tense. About the same time, my bracer beeped a few times – signaling that the beacon had been activated.

"That thing's still bugged?" Jessica asked me.

"I guess so... "

"Where are we going?" Tiffany randomly asked.

"To buy a car, remember?" I tried to remind her.

"Have you looked around us, Taeyeon?" Jay questioned.

 

I hadn't noticed until it was brought to my attention, but it was apparent that we had left the main city: We were now walking amongst shrubbery and old abandoned buildings.

 

Where are we?

Eli had taken a random sharp turn a while back, but no one thought anything of it.

"He's probably lost." Tiffany said.

"That's what I was thinking." Jay added.

"Even if he was, I doubt he would admit it." Jessica put her two cents in.

"What should we do?" I asked everyone.

"Let's just wait for him to tell us that he doesn't know where he's going." One of them said.

 

 

We walked for a bit longer before Eli started to slow down. As we caught up to him, I was about to ask if he knew where he was going when I noticed something.

What the hell is that?

 

Out of nowhere, I suddenly felt a pressure against me. Feeling pressure isn't what shocked me, but it was the fact that the pressure was coming from far away. The pressure was a bit overwhelming, but it didn't sway my balance at all. I could tell Tiffany felt the same thing just by the look on her face.

 

"You feel that too?" Eli finally spoke up. He hadn't said anything for at least half an hour.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"The only thing I know is that we're being followed."

"... but you feel something pressing against you from far away, right?" Tiffany sounded a bit nervous as she spoke.

"Naturally, since you've learned about presence and you can hide your own, you can now sense someone else's by proxy." Eli explained.

"I was able to sense that one bounty hunters presence before, but it didn't feel anything like this." I tried to reason with the information.

"I can't really go into detail now, but each person has a unique presence. They differ in size, depth, and latency." He paused. "The presences of the people following us are enormous and force themselves outwards."

"Presences... there's more than one?" Tiffany asked.

"There are two people following us. Both presences are large, but one is significantly bigger and darker than the other."

"Darker?" I asked.

"It's something you'll understand in the future."

 

"What are the three of you talking about?" Jay questioned. She and Jessica had been listening to the conversation, but were utterly confused.

"We can't really explain right now, but there are some people following us." I answered her question.

"... Then why are we running from them? We shouldn't have a problem with a few thugs." Jessica stated.

 

I hadn't really thought of that.

 

"Why would we be scared of two random people?" I asked Eli.

"The overall feeling of a person's presence is almost directly related to their strength."

"What do you mean by that?" Jessica asked.

"Um... Well judging off of our collective presences, we're a lot weaker than they are." He answered.

"You can tell that without even seeing them... how much weaker?" Jay wondered.

"Let's just say that: the weaker one of the two is about four times stronger than all of us combined."

 

Shock covered all of our faces.

 

"Uh... can you repeat that?" I fumbled through my words.

"It sounds like we're pretty outclassed."Jessica joked.

"Yeah, pretty badly..." Eli tried to shake out his nerves.

"Well we can't just keep walking forever – we're going to have to face them eventually." Jay reasoned.

"That's exactly why we're out here..." Eli suddenly stopped, and turned around. "I wanted to get us far away from the city before any confrontation happened."

"So we're just supposed to fight them?"

 

My question was unable to be answered as we were interrupted by the sound of feet shuffling through the grass. Then, as quickly as the sound came, it stopped.

Soon afterwards, we spotted two figures walking in our direction.

 

One of the figures was a tall man wearing glasses – his stature gave off the feeling of a bear. Leaning on his shoulder was what appeared to be a large staff wrapped in some sort of cloth.

The other person was an averaged sized girl who was clothed in a silk sundress with a matching hat. Even from a distance, it was easy to tell that she was very beautiful; her skin had a certain glow to it. Something odd – that betrayed the complete whiteness of her attire – was the small black umbrella that she had over her head.

Strange... it's not raining out.

As they walked closer, the girl moved the umbrella from her left shoulder to her right.

Oh no...

When she adjusted the umbrella, it pointed directly at us. A skull and crossbones marked the very top of the black object.

My heart dropped.

 

 

 

Let's all take a break for a moment: Music break

 

 

 

And now back to the story.

 

 

 

"Yahhh... I'm so glad they stopped – it's too hot for me to stay out here much longer."

"Isn't that why you brought an umbrella along?" The tall man responded to his companion.

"It doesn't completely protect me from the sun." She replied. "My skin will start to darken if it's exposed too much."

"God forbid your skin darkens a fraction of a shade." He joked.

"These kids won't be the only ones in pain if that happens."

 

Once they were a few meters from us, the two strangers stopped.

 

"How many targets do you have to kill before you're a complete member?" The female asked the man in the glasses.

"Umm... Five or six... I think?" He scratched his head as he answered.

"Well here's the deal: If you can get the note that those kids took, you'll finally become a demon."

"HAHAHA!"  The bear-like man laughed wildly for some time. "Okay, what do I really have to do?"

"Don't underestimate them – a few of them were able to pull one over on TOP and that new girl."

"What? These kids did that? Well this might be interesting then."

 

All five of us stood there; just listening to their conversation... but the man in the glasses eventually made his way over to us.

 

"It was nice of you all to stop for us: I'm guessing at least one of you could sense our presence."

None of us responded. I couldn't tell if we did it because we were scared, or if it was out of spite.

"Well I guess we can skip the small talk..." He paused for a second time; waiting to see if we would say anything. "The five of you have something that my friend and I want: Let us have it, and we'll be on our way."

 

"And what if we don't?" I reactively asked; which surprised me along with everyone else.

"Ah, now I know at least one of you isn't a mute." He responded. "Back to your question: I don't really think you want to consider the other option." The man tightened his grip on the staff over his shoulder as he finished his sentence.

After the short conversation, both sides wordlessly faced each other for some time. Eventually, the man decided to speak up again.

"I'll give you some time to think it over." He said confidently. "We'll be waiting over there."

The man pointed towards an old courtyard, where the grass had started to protrude from the concrete.

With that, he turned around and told the idea to his partner – who was visibly upset about having to stay outside for longer.

"I swear... If I get even so much as a mild tan..." she muttered as they made their way towards the spot.

 

...

 

"They seem nice." Jessica was able to joke about the situation.

"That was pretty bold of you." Jay spoke towards me. "... but we don't exactly have a plan for dealing with them."

"Well we only have to face one of them." Eli explained. "That girl doesn't seem like she cares enough to join in."

 

We took what time we had to devise a plan, so that we could deal with the bear-like man.

 

"Are you feeling alright?" I asked Tiffany.

She had seemed frightened from the moment we came face to face with this new threat.

"Y-Yeah, I think so..." She stuttered. "It's just... I swapped glares with that girl: Her eyes were so chilling – I legitimately felt cold."

"What the..." I had moved over to Tiffany in an attempt to console her... but as I touched her arm, it was evident that her body was actually cold.

"Is something wrong?" Jay asked: which drew everyone's attention.

"I think that girl made Tiffany sick somehow." I explained what I was thinking.

"How is that even possible?" Jessica questioned. "Wouldn't doing something like that require some kind of contact? I mean; she was kind of far away."

"There are a lot of things we don't understand about this stuff yet." I answered.

 

Tiffany started coughing furiously for a while before pulling a pill out of one of her pouches. With a tilt of her head, Tiffany dropped the pill into and forced herself to swallow it.

"Umm..." Eli was curious about what Tiffany had just done.

 

In a few moments, Tiffany let out a huge sneeze that created a so much torque; her head jolted back. After her sneeze, Tiffany's body forcibly let out a gigantic burp that rang through the area.

It took everything in our power for us to not laugh at the sequence.

"Guhh... I think I'm okay now." Tiffany finally said after gagging a few times.

"What in the world was that?" I asked; completely baffled at what just happened.

"Oh, I just took a pill that rids my body of infections and illnesses... It's not very pleasant, but it gets the job done.

"So you're okay – just like that?"  Everyone else was as surprised as I was.

"I'm alright for now." Tiffany responded. "...but my body is going to have to purge again in a few hours..."

"Purge how?" Eli asked.

"You really don't want to know... honestly." Tiffany replied.

 

...

 

"You really think this is going to work?" I asked Eli as I took my eyes off the floor where the plan was sketched.

"Yeah, I don't think we want a repeat of that whole truck incident." Tiffany laughed despite her being in discomfort.

"I've actually thought this one through. My plans on the fly tend to not go well..."

"Clearly" Jay commented.

"This idea doesn't seem that bad though." Jessica added. "It's just strange – that's all."

"It'll work just fine." I stated. Everyone looked at me curiously afterward.

"What makes you so sure?"

"I don't know: just a feeling." I responded.

 

...

 

We went over everything one more time before we came to a final decision.

"Are you sure that all of this is right?" Eli asked the two new faces of the group.

"Positive." Jessica replied.

 

The majority of our plan was based on the information that Jay and Jessica gave us. Apparently, they were both very adept fighters, and were experienced enough to read someone's strengths and tendencies just by getting a good look at them.

 

***

"That guy has insane strength." Jessica pointed out. "You can tell he's strong just by his stature, but his size doesn't do justice to his strength."

"Can you give us an estimate?" Tiffany asked.

"Look at it this way: Don't take one of his punches unless you want a few broken bones." Jay explained; which gave us a pretty good perspective of what we were getting into.

"So how do you figure we fight a guy if we can't get hit by him?" I asked.

"Maybe we can use speed to our advantage." Eli suggested.

"Yeah, that's not going to work." Jay interjected.

"The guy is also deceptively fast." Jessica added. "I'm not sure if we can beat this guy."

"Hmm..." Eli thought. "If we can't use strength or speed, let's just run away."

"That's your great idea?" Tiffany questioned the plan.

"Let me explain..."

***

 

When our opposition returned from the courtyard, they spotted us sitting in the exact same area where they left us.

 

"It looks like you haven't made a decision yet... Sorry, but I can't give you guys any more time."

"We've already made up our mind – you don't have to keep talking." Jay snapped back.

"Whoa, no need to be so hostile. One of you can just hand me the paper then." He assumed we would be giving in to their demand.

 

He stood still for a bit with his hand stuck out – waiting for us to hand him the note.

 

"What's your name?" Jessica randomly asked the man wearing glasses.

"Tae Woo... why?" He responded curiously.

"I just like to know a person's name before I knock their teeth in."

Tae Woo's eyes widened as he heard Jessica speak. "You kids honestly have no idea of what you're getting into."

"Oh, we have a pretty good read on things." I said boldly. "It seems like you're the one who doesn't understand."

"I have to say – I'm a bit impressed: You kids are determined...  but I can't say that your decision is a very smart one."

 

 

Tae Woo swung his staff directly in front of him; unraveling the cloth as it traveled through the air.

His staff was made of some dark–shaded wood. On the end of the staff, there was a strange black, metal ball that was about the size of a lemon.

Eli noticed the ball, and looked at it curiously.

"If I'm not mistaken, that metal ball weighs a couple hundred kilos." He stated.

"That's just confirms his strength." Jessica stood up as she spoke.

"Well it doesn't really change much: The idea is to not get hit." Jay added.

 

The five of us stood up and spread out.

"Hmmm..." Tae Woo had a perceptive look on face, due to how we placed ourselves.

We all stood in a line with a few meters between each of us.

 

"I don't know what you plan on doing, but it's not going to work." Tae Woo said with unease in his voice.

 

Tae Woo stood in the same spot for a while, unsure of what to do. He stared directly at me since I was in the middle of the line. With one deceptively quick lunge, he shortened the distance between us by half.

With the plan in mind, I swiftly hopped to the side... and everyone else shifted with me.

 

We remained in a line with each other, but there was now a small curve in our line.

 

That was close.

I had barely dodged the man's approach, and he hadn't even tried to attack.

He was just trying to get a feel of what's going on.

 

Tae Woo did the same thing a few more times – focusing a different person each time... and each time, we followed Eli's complicated instructions.

Imagine that you're a link in a chain with the people next to you. I relayed the message in my head.

Trying to picture our line as a linked chain wasn't the hard part. The difficulty of following the plan was that: Our movements were completely dependent on the order in which Tae Woo attacked us.

Keeping track of where he had last went and where he was going made things difficult... but we all followed through correctly each time.

 

After a few more attempts, Tae Woo finally understood what was going on – but he was too late.

"Right when I started to see the pattern to your movements." He said sadly.

 

Our straight line had slowly curved after each attack, and was now a circle surrounding the tall man.

"Okay, so this is your great id–" Tae Woo's sentence was cut off by a fist colliding with the back of his head.

He turned around to see Jay swinging her leg at him for another strike. Tae Woo shifted and moved for a counterattack, but Jay hastily got out of the way.

She's so fast.

Despite not wearing a bracer or having any real training, Jay was by far the fastest one among us – and she was easily faster than Tae Woo. She was very sporadic in her motions, and all of her movements had a sense of elegance to them.

As Jay rolled through the air, we all shifted once more; to recreate the circle. It was Jessica's turn to attack this time.

She stayed on her feet the entire time, and made quick steps towards the center. Tae Woo spotted before she got there, but Jessica continued forward. Tae Woo swung his staff at the approaching girl, but she sidestepped the attempt.

Jessica's fighting style was extremely polished. Every move she made was incomparably precise and wasted no energy. Each motion she made was relatively slow, but packed a lot of power.

 

Despite their similar personalities, Jessica and Jay were polar opposites when it came to fighting... but it meshed well to give a good sequence to their chaining movements. Even though they were new to the group, Jay and Jessica were obviously the best fighters out of the five of us.

 

Jessica tucked her elbow in before raising her fist to the man's face. Tae Woo's head jerked back from the force of the blow, but he was otherwise unscathed. With a frustrated look covering his face, the man swung his staff at Jessica's head. She saw the attack coming, and was easily able to dodge it... but the staff was just a diversion. As he moved the staff with his right hand, Tae Woo also went for a left hook.

Jessica spotted the movement from the man's off arm, but decided to not move out of the way. Instead, she raised her right forearm in an attempt to block the attack.

There was a loud sound caused by a gap in the air as the two's arms collided. Jessica jumped backwards; falling back into the circle – her forearm bruised and throbbing a bit.

"Stop trying to show off." Jay spoke as if she and Jessica were in a similar scenario before.

Jessica rubbed her arm, which was starting to shade a dark-purplish color. "I just had to let him know that we're not afraid of him."

Tae Woo had an impressed look on his face. "I was certain that my attack was going to break your arm. Well I guess I shouldn't take it easy on you after all."

 

The man standing in the middle of us turned his staff downwards before dropping it. A split second after the metal ball came in contact with the ground, and a large crevice had been created. Dirt and stone flew around the hole and filled the air around us.

It weighed that much?!

It was nerve-wracking that the man was able to move so quickly and fluidly while holding something that heavy.

 

With my nerves prominent, I zoned out for a second. When I came back to reality, I noticed that Tae Woo was gone.

"Where–?"

My question was answered before I could finish asking it.

In a split second Tae Woo was directly in front of me, with his hand open and arm arced back. The speed in which everything happened was exactly like what happened on the rooftop just days earlier.

Before I could even think about trying to dodge the blow, I was grabbed from the side and pulled out of the way. I looked to my side and saw that Jay was my rescuer. It awed me that she was still able to keep up with Tae Woo when he was moving so quickly.

The moment Jay pulled from the direction of the attack; Tiffany took her turn on the offensive. Tae Woo, however, heard her coming and moved out of the way with insane speed. The momentum from Tiffany's swing had carried her past the spot where Tae Woo was standing, and into me and Jay.

 

The large man laughed loudly as the three of us clumsily fell together.

"This is a lot more fun than I thought it would be." He said while rotating his shoulder to loosen up.

"Hurry it up!" His partner said from some distance away. She was sitting under a tall tree to give her more protection from the sun.

"Well you heard the lady." He cracked his knuckles as he spoke. "Let's get this over with."

 

 

We're not in control anymore.

The circle we had created around Tae Woo was now two lines – in front and behind him. Tiffany, Jay, and I were in the direction he was facing; while Jessica and Eli were at his rear.

It was pretty clear that our opponent wouldn't fall for the same trick again, so all of us were at a loss.

"Do we go for plan B?" Jessica asked loudly to no one specific.

 

Plan B wasn't really a set plan, but more of an idea for if the plan went wrong.

 

"If we can't stop him straight out, we might have to disable the guy." Jay suggested.

I replayed the conversation in my head.

"How do you figure we do that?" I had asked.

"Go for his spine..." Jessica responded flatly.

"Won't that paralyze him for good?" I didn't necessarily agree with the method.

"Tiffany, can you heal a spinal injury?" Eli asked with his head down.

"My dad taught me how... but I haven't actually attempted it on anyone."

"Well hopefully it doesn't come to that." I unintentionally ended the conversation.

 

 

Well it has come to that... I realized.

The feeling in the air become a bit grim as everyone else came to the same conclusion. With our initial tactic having failed, we chose to resort to a more scrappy style.

 

We fought as the sun reached its peak, this time, with no clear direction. Our main goal of not getting hit remained the same, but it was a lot more difficult with Tae Woo's recently unveiled speed.

There were far too many close calls when it came to dodging the large man's punches.

I hate feeling completely outclassed.

As I thought about the frustration of being weaker than Tae Woo, I realized something.

All he's done is throw punches – he's yet to go for a single kick...

"Aim for his legs!" I shouted, so that everyone could hear me.

My four companions looked at me quizzically, but took heed of what I said. On the opposing side: Tae Woo sneered at my words, while his partner slightly smirked.

 

Jay went for a sweeping low-kick moments after I divulged the information. Tae Woo reactively jumped over the kick, but that didn't save him from injury. As he jumped out of the range of Jay's kick, Jessica came from behind and kicked the back of his knee – which caused his leg to buckle.

The buckling of his leg forced Tae Woo to land unsteadily. Eli decided to take advantage of our opponent's lack of mobility.

Eli ran up to the disable man with his arms at his sides. Tae Woo noticed the foreigner coming, and chose to put up a fight. Eli clumsily dodged a few anger-driven punches before pressing his hands together and hammering Tae Woo's ribs.

The result of Eli's attack was a stumbling Tae Woo – who was forced to hold his side due to the pain. With his free hand, Tae Woo reached over for his staff, but Jay swiftly kicked the man's hand out of the way.

This is my only chance.

With the multiple wounds that our opponent had just suffered, he was forced to steady himself by pressing his right hand to the ground. The motion had left him vulnerable, but I knew that there was only a small window of opportunity.

 

I ran towards the fallen Tae Woo and sprang into the air. I jumped at an angle with my arms tucked in, which caused me to spin in the air. At the same moment, a nice breeze whisked across the buildings surrounding us.

 

As Tae Woo began to try and stand up, I whipped through the air and brought my elbow down directly on top of the lower part of his back. The blow I dealt was followed by an audible cracking sound, and the loss of Tae Woo's balance.

I'm sorry... I apologized in my head.

The large man's body went completely limp once I landed; except for his head. Without the function of his arms or legs, Tae Woo dropped face first onto a small patch of grass beneath him.

 

 

"Why do I get the eerie feeling that he's not alive?" I asked as the others approached my position.

"That's just because you're hoping that you didn't kill him." Jay responded flatly in a manner that came off as cold, but obviously wasn't her intention.

"Geez Taeyeon, you are stone-cold." Jessica described the way I handled the situation.

"I... just... uh..." I was at a loss for words.

"She's just kidding Tae: You made the best of a bad situation." Tiffany consoled me.

"So how is this supposed to go exactly?" Eli finally spoke up.

"Well you want me to fix his back, right?" Tiffany questioned.

"It wouldn't feel right if we just left this guy as a quadriplegic." Jessica added. "Work your magic Tiff."

 

"Just hurry up and end me." The muffled voice of Tae Woo came from a few steps away.

"No one's going to kill you." Jay spoke towards the immobile man. "Now stop talking and let us work... unless you want to eat that grass for the rest of your life."

 

After hearing Jay speak, Tae Woo silently conceded.

 

Tiffany pulled out four very-thin, metal needles as she approached the paralyzed man.

"Isn't that going to hurt?" I asked question that had an obvious answer.

"He's paralyzed from the neck down – he literally can't feel a thing." Eli explained without any heckling.

 

 

Tiffany sat down next to a motionless Tae Woo, dropped her pouch on the ground, and got to business. She started off by taking off her patient's shirt and cleaning her hands as much as she could without any running water. Tiffany then placed the four metals needles in such a way that they formed a square around the afflicted area. Afterwards, she took a small, purple pyramid out of her pack and rested it face-down on the top of the needles: The needles held up the pyramid, so that only the point of it was touching Tae Woo's back.

The rest of Tiffany's operation was a blur to me, but it ended with Tae Woo lying face-up with bandages wrapped around his lower-back/rib area. Though the feeling was slowly returning to his body, he was still unable to walk or function properly.

 

"Why did you do this?" the vulnerable man asked.

"We needed you incapacitated, but we didn't have anything to restrain you with, so it was our only option." Jessica answered.

"No..." he tilted his head to get a look at us. "Why did you treat my wounds? I'm a threat to you – it doesn't make any sense."

 

The five of us looked one another – none of us really knew how to answer the question.

 

"You kids are a strange bunch."  He spoke weakly. "... What's going to happen to me now?"

"Well your body is going to take a few months to recover... we're not exactly sure if you'll be able to fight again though." Tiffany responded slowly.

"I think I'm done fighting anyways... there's not much coming back after losing to four girls and some kid – no offense."

Jay made a sassy face to display her displeasure. "No offense taken." She said the opposite of what she was thinking.

 

...

 

"Come get your friend." I spoke as I walked towards where the female demon was sitting.

"He's not my friend: more a coworker if anything." She spoke with apathy. "... And even if he was, how would you suppose I get around with somebody who can't walk?"

"I'm more than certain you're strong enough to carry him."

"HAHAHAHA!" The girl burst out into laughter at my words. "... Oh that was good." She wiped a tear from her eye. "That would require me to expend effort – which would in turn make me sweat."

 

The girl seemed surprised as we all responded with curious/judgmental looks.

"Oh... you're those kinds of people..." She uttered.

"What kind of people?" Tiffany asked defensively.

"The type of people who care for others – I really don't understand it."

"I really don't understand how you cannot care for others." The girl confused Tiffany

"Hmm... I guess I just wasn't born weak like the rest of you."

 

The words that seamlessly flowed from her lips angered Tiffany in an unexplainable way.

 

"You make me sick!" Tiffany blurted out with her fist balled up. Her body tensed up as she prepared to fight the girl.

All of us looked at Tiffany with shock in our eyes.

 

"Oh, you're made because I called you and your friends weak? You're the weakest one of them all! Exactly how many times did your attacks make contact during that fight? Don't know? I can tell you... Not once."

The girl paused to discern Tiffany's reaction, which had not changed.

"You're angry because you know you're weak, and there's nothing you can do about it. I'm sure you've been lagging behind your peers your entire life, and it bothers you – it kills you inside. You're the only one who couldn't withstand my presence..."

The female demon was cut off by Tiffany.

"SHUT UP!" Tears formed at the corners of Tiffany's eyes as she spoke.

"... And how do you plan on getting me to stop talking?"

 

"We took out the powerful one, let's deal with her too." Tiffany said to the four of us on her side.

"Tae Woo was by far the weaker of the two." Eli explained. "We couldn't deal with her even if we wanted to."

"What..." Tiffany's eagerness to fight slowly deflated as she heard the explanation.

"That demon sitting across from us completely outclasses us in every way."

The girl smirked as she heard Eli confirm her strength.

 

Tiffany wasn't the only one bothered: Something about her had annoyed me from the moment I laid eyes on her smug face.

"So are we not even going to put up a fight?" Tiffany asked. She was no longer looking for a fight, but she retained every bit of anger.

"Don't worry, I have no interest in dealing with you – I'm feeling lazy today." The demon said.

"What about your precious note?" Jay spoke up for the first time in a while.

"Hmm... well I don't really care about that stuff – I have better things to do."  The girl looked at a small, but expensive wristwatch she was wearing. "I should really get going..." She stood up and started walking away.

"Wait!" Tiffany shouted once more.

"What do you want this time? You're becoming more and more pathetic by the second." She replied coldly.

"What's your name?" Tiffany asked with determination in her voice.

"Ha!" The girl continued to walk.

Tiffany didn't repeat herself or try to get the girl's attention again: she just continued to stare in the demon's direction.

 

"It's Ga-in... if you're really curious, but I don't know why you would be." With that, the girl walked past a group of trees, and out of our sight.

 

...

 

Tiffany let go of her anger after Ga-in left, but she remained uneasy.

"Are you alright?" I asked. "Don't take anything she said to heart."

"I'll be fine: I just need to relax."

It seemed best to talk about the situation in its entirety, but Tiffany was clearly reluctant to discuss it, so I left it at that.

 

"So what are we going to do with this guy?" Jay gestured towards Tae Woo. "We can't just leave him here."

"I can contact my parents: they'll be able to facilitate him." Jessica suggested. "At least until he's able to walk again... then they'll decide what to do after that."

"Any objections?" I asked the man lying on the floor.

"It's not like I have much of a choice. Plus, I don't have any priorities, so I'm okay with whatever you choose to do." He responded.

"You don't have a family, or anything to go home to?" Tiffany asked.

"All I've known the past fifteen years of my life is fighting. Any family I had wouldn't even recognize me at this point."

"That's so sad..." Tiffany concluded.

"Humph..." Tae Woo grunted.

 

"We should get going before it gets dark." Eli suggested. We had been fighting for such a long time that the sun was starting to set. "I guess I'll carry the big guy."

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"We still need to find a place where we can buy a car." Eli spoke as he propped the large man on his back. "Please don't try to bite me or anything while you're back there." He joked at Tae Woo.

"I take it we're lost then." Jay added.

"We came from that direction." Jessica pointed towards a small path through a group of trees. "Let's just backtrack."

"Ugh... even more walking." Jay groaned.

 

"Well are we all ready to go?" I asked the group.

"Umm... remember when I said my body was going to have to purge again earlier?" Tiffany asked the rhetorical question.

"Yeah, what's that about anyway?"

"Well..." Tiffany was unable to finish her sentence as she crossed her legs and covered .

As quickly as she could possibly move, while maintaining her balance, Tiffany sprinted towards and old building and hid behind it.

 

"BLEH!!!"

 

 

 

...

 

 

 

"Ever since we've joined this group, Jay and I have done more walking than any human should have to." Jessica explained.

"Stop grumbling, we're almost there.

 

After fighting the demons, we were able to get back on track to our original goal. Tae Woo was now in the custody of Jessica's parents, and the five of us went back to finding the engineer. We were finally in the area that Mr. Hwang identified: all that was left was for us to climb the small set of hills that covered it from plain sight.

"I honestly don't think these hills ever end." Tiffany joked as we reached the peak of one of the shorter hills.

After she spoke, a small wooden house came into view. In front of that house were two people: A short old man with a wispy mustache, and a cute girl with chubby cheeks.

As we approached the house, I was able to make out a design on the old man's shirt: There were three golden horizontal lines with a large circle around them.

"Finally, I thought I was going to die of old age before you kids showed up" He spoke slowly "Let's go ahead and start your real training now."

 

Wait... what?

 

 

End of Arc II: Blindfold's Off

 

Arc III: Getting Down to Business

Starts in chapter twenty.

______________________________________________________________________________________________