Chapter 15

Realization dawned to the girls once they stepped on the human world. They've refused to partake in the second exam. Moreover, they –especially Momo– had disrespected the rulers. It only means one thing. They've failed the test to become a ruler.

"She's not going to kill me, isn't she?" Momo mumbled in horror, the gravity of her action encompassed her. "Oh my God I even called her a ."

"She deserved it," Jeongyeon, still boiling in anger, wrapped her arm across Momo's shoulder and pulled her close. "You did the right thing."

"I just hoped that they won't come to our keepers," Jihyo grumbled. "I don't care what would happen to me as long as Yongsun-unnie's okay."

"Agree," Dahyun chimed in. Stomping her feet in anger. "Tch. And here I thought they've finally warmed up to us."

The nine fuming Anihumans sat down. Because they don't have any teleportation power like Sooyoung, the gate Momo made opened back at the city park. The only different is that it's now empty. The night has fallen, after all.

All nine of them are occupied in their own mind. They're mostly thinking about the exam, their unnie, how cruel it was for the Soshi team to told them to kill their keepers, and so on.

Their reverie was cut short by the voice of Sana clearing .

"Umm, girls?"

"What is it, unnie?" Chaeyoung raised her eyebrows.

"We've failed, now, right?" the lizard asked carefully. At her friend's approval, she cast her eyes down.

"So... what... are we going to do?"

###

The walk back to their respective houses was filled with a deafening silence. The only Anihumans left are the ones living with Yongsun and Wheein, due to their house being close with each other. Jihyo, Mina and Dahyun stopped first because Yongsun's house's closer to the big street.

Bidding the three dazed Anihumans goodbye, Tzuyu and Nayeon continued their journey with heavy steps.

"I don't want to go home," Tzuyu suddenly stopped, frowning at the asphalt.

"I don't want to go home, too," Nayeon spoke softly. She touched Tzuyu's wrist, grimaced when the younger Anihuman flinched. "But if we don't, Wheein-unnie will be worried."

Tzuyu's frown deepened. "I.. I don't know what to tell Wheein-unnie."

"Me too..." Nayeon's voice is getting quieter.

"She'll be very disappointed."

The oldest Anihuman has nothing to say by that point. She only stood still, gripping Tzuyu's wrist tiredly. For a few suffocating moments, both girls said nothing. They stayed under the dim lamp lights, reflecting on everything happened today.

It feels as if the world's ending for them.

"We don't..." Nayeon spoke again, tightening her grip on Tzuyu's small wrist. She ponders for a while, searching for a good sentence to try to calm her younger teammate. "We don't have to tell her anything."

Tzuyu looks up, meeting Nayeon's gaze. She has a very vulnerable look in her dark chocolate eyes. "But it won't solve our problem."

"It won't, yes," Nayeon whispered regretfully. "But we can wait. Until we're ready. We don't have to tell Wheein-unnie that–"

"Don't tell Wheein-unnie what?"

A high pitched, sullen voice behind Nayeon made her heart stopped. Tzuyu widened her eyes, stiffly peeking from above Nayeon's head to look at the newcomer. The sight of the brown-haired girl with an inexplicable expression made her nearly broke down right away.

Wheein stood behind Nayeon, covered in a thick jacket and hand gripping her phone.

"Don't tell Wheein-unnie what, Nayeon?" she spoke again, voice deep filled with concern and a tint of disappointment. When Nayeon and Tzuyu refused to meet her eyes, Wheein pocketed her phone and her heels.

"It's night already, and it's cold," the petite keeper said. Both Anihuman cringed at the sharp edge in Wheein's voice.

"Let's go home."

###

Nayeon and Tzuyu still evaded Wheein's searching eyes once they reached home. The keeper sighed in annoyance, rubbing her temples aggressively. She was tired, doing all kind of assignments at the campus and coming back home to find that her sisters' missing.

Nayeon usually left a note at the fridge when they went somewhere. Today, there are none. The lack of presence and notes made Wheein terribly worried. She was just about to go to Yongsun's house to ask for her sisters' whereabouts only to find them standing in the middle of the night, conversing about something she wasn't supposed to know.

"Where have you guys been?" she asked softly, trying to coax her sisters to tell her something, anything. "You know how worried I am when you're nowhere to be seen. You said nothing to me since yesterday and now you went somewhere without noticing me."

Silence.

"What happened, girls?" Wheein groaned. She slumped her body to the couch, closing her eyes tightly. "Is this about the Anihuman stuff? Am I really not that reliable that you wouldn't want to tell me anything?"

Still silence.

"Is this about the test?" Wheein continued. She's getting a bit agitated by her sisters' selective mutism it made her unconsciously clenched her fists. "The second test. When will it be held?"

The keeper's face was dark when she shot a look at her sisters. "Was it today? Is that why you left without prior notice?"

Nayeon squirmed uncomfortably.

Wheein scoffed. Anger threatening to take over her mind. "I've nearly died at the first test and you went to the second one without noticing me. You know I think I at least had the right to know when you'll take the second test."

Tzuyu hung her head low.

"Ugh, fine!" Wheein raised her hands in exasperation. "I give up. Talk to me when you need to. I'm going to sleep."

Nayeon's silent apologize was ignored as Wheein slammed her bedroom door. The brown haired girl ran her hand through her hair. She let out a frustrated groan. She wanted to be angry, but she rarely able to be mad at people without crying her heart out. And the last thing Wheein want is to broke down in front of her sisters.

The brown-haired girl took off her jacket, fishing out her phone and dialed a number.

"Hello, Yongsun-unnie?"

"Wheeinie!"

Yongsun's panicked voice made Wheein closed her eyes.

"Unnie, Nabong and Chewy returned home."

"Yeah! Ji and the others are home too! But they're acting really strange..."

"They refused to speak with me, unnie. I've talked a lot to them but they remained unmoved."

Wheein could imagine Yongsun nodding her head.

"Yeah, me too. Mina was crying the whole time and Jihyo was just completely silent. I tried to ask Dahyun but you know what? She shoved me away and ran to her bedroom! She locked the door afterward!"

"Must have been something to do with the exam," Wheein spoke softly to the phone.

"I think so, too."

Wheein sighed. Despite talking via the phone she could feel Yongsun's frustration seeping into her tone.

"Unnie, let's meet up."

"Now? It's past eight already."

"Not now. Tomorrow. Hyejin and I have a supplementary class until ten. I'll message her after this. Can you meet us at the campus? I don't really want to go anywhere else."

"Sure, I'll call Byulyi too."

"Thanks, unnie."

"No problem..." Yongsun fell silent for a few seconds before continuing. "I just hope that they'll be okay. I get sad seeing them down like this, you know?"

Wheein sighed. "I'm torn between feeling bad and wanting to outright destroy them for keeping this a secret."

"Don't say that, Wheeinnie. I believe they must have a reason for acting like that."

"I know. I know. I just think that they could be a bit more cooperating."

"I agree. Well, it's already late, Wheeinnie. I need to do something with my work. Good night. Let's hope that tomorrow will bring some light to this problem."

"Yeah," Wheein closed her eyes, heart's warming by Yongsun's optimistic tone. "I hope so, too."

###

Yongsun fulfilled her promise to meet Wheein at the next day, dressed in a peach-colored tee, a pair of jeans and a brown coat. Byulyi followed her silently, hands tucked in her signature black jacket. Both girls were waiting at the campus' cafe when Hyejin and Wheein came flopping beside their chair.

"Good afternoon, girls," Yongsun greet the two college students.

Wheein groaned and Hyejin planted her face on the tabletop. "Bad afternoon, unnie."

"What's the matter?" Byulyi asked softly, rubbing Hyejin's stiff shoulders.

"Our dongsaeng matters," the maknae muttered, more to herself than to anyone else. She lifts her head and slammed the table, ignoring the strange looks given to her by other students roaming the cafe. "Just what the hell is their problem?"

"I told you it must have been the second exam," Wheein growled. "I had a bad feeling that they're failed. But why? What was the second exam anyway? Why didn't they told us?"

"They didn't tell you too?" Byulyi raised her eyebrows. "I thought I'm the only one. Jeongyeon refused to even meet my eyes and Momo walked around my neighborhood mindlessly until very late at night."

"Sana cried to me but didn't tell me anything. Chaeng sulked in her cat form and hissed at me everytime I tried to go near her," Hyejin lamented.

"Mina cried too. Jihyo was silent and Dahyun literally slammed the bedroom door in front of my face then locked it," Yongsun pouted.

"So at least we know that they agreed on not telling us anything," Wheein concluded. "The question remained the same. Why?"

"We should have asked the examiner themselves, really," Byulyi mused, playing with the loose threads of her rundown jacket.

Yongsun slumped into her seat. "At this time, I really wished that we have a way to contact the rulers."

"You call?"

The four keepers whipped their head in surprise when a woman dragged the vacant seat at their table. The green hair is a total giveaway, especially with the way the woman casually sat down and snatched Yongsun's mineral water.

"May I?" Hyoyeon grinned. Her usual, carefree grin that always made the keepers' nerves calmed down. Yongsun nodded in approval and Hyoyeon happily gulped the water down.

"Whoa! Thanks! It's been such a long time since I went to the human world alone and I forgot how exhausting it was to open the gate!" the green-haired woman giggled, resting her chin on her palms. "So... I heard you girls talking about 'the rulers'?"

"YES!"

Hyoyeon nearly falls off her chair when the keepers all yelled at her. Yongsun grasped her hands, clutching them tightly and staring at Hyoyeon intensely. "Please, Hyoyeon-sshi! You have to tell us what happened yesterday!"

"Why?" Hyoyeon tilted her head mischievously. "Your sisters are acting up, I guess?"

"YES!!"

The green-haired ruler sighed, putting her hand on top of her heart to calm it down. It's been the second time in one minute that four people screamed on her face. This line of job is not good for her health. Tiffany should've paid her more.

"Well, truthfully some things did happen, but I can't tell you here," Hyoyeon cleared . "How about you girls come with me? I believe Fany will explain everything better to you than I ever will."

Yongsun doesn't even need to see her friends approval to nods. "Take us to her. You have a lot of explaining to do."

###

"Dahyun!"

Said girl turned her head to the direction of the call. She waved her arms, signaling her friends that she'd seen them. Eight Anihumans who are also the members of her team were running to her. They stopped once they reached the red-streaked hamster standing near the Seoul University entrance.

"You guys felt that?" Dahyun asked quickly, worry etched on her pale face.

"It was Hyoyeon-unnie," Sana clarified. "We all felt that."

"And to think that she showed up here, of all place," Jeongyeon frowned. "Byulyi-unnie and the other keepers were having a gathering. Probably talking about us but who cares anyway."

"I have a very bad feeling about this," Nayeon gnawed on her nails. "Tiffany-unnie said that she will give us three days to complete the job. You know, the second examination, even after we decided that we would rather fail. If Hyoyeon-unnie came here to fetch our unnies, I don't doubt that those wretched Soshis are going to do something bad to them."

"We have to go there," Mina bit her lower lip. "Momoring, you think you can open the gate again?"

Momo rolled her sleeves. "I didn't know that opening the gate is extremely tiring, but I'll try. They sent Hyoyeon-unnie, not Sooyoung-unnie. So there must have been a trace of her gate around here. Give me a few minutes."

The Anihumans all followed Momo into the building complex. Most people ignored them. After all, they're in a common age where humans go into a college. The raccoon sniffed the air at times, trying to find Hyoyeon's leftover aura.

Once they arrived at the cafe, Momo stopped at a particular table. After making sure that no one's paying them any attention, she channeled her power and made a circle shape with both her hands. The small circle immediately widen. She nods at the girls.

"Let's go!"

Jihyo was the first one to step into the gate. She closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of Momo's excess power bringing her to the other side of the dimension. The red-haired girl only opened her eyes again when her feet came into contact with a solid ground.

She was greeted by the Soshi castle, in all their glory. In the middle of the room were their keepers, seemingly surprised by their appearance. Tiffany and the other Soshi members are also present, standing at the heightened platform that led to the throne.

Sunny smiled at the girls. "Oh, hi! Didn't expect to see you came back in such a short amount of time!"

Jihyo ignored Sunny and went straight to the keepers. She also ignored the pang in her heart in seeing Yongsun's saddened face.

"Unnie–"

"You didn't tell us," the older girl deadpanned. "You didn't tell me."

Jihyo halts. Mina nearly bumped to her back in surprise while Dahyun just approaches her unnies slowly.

"We're sorry–"

"Why?" Yongsun gave her sisters no chance to speak. "Tiffany-sshi had explained everything."

Dahyun was the first one to broke into tears. "U-unnie... w-we're sorry. We didn't... we didn't want you to know that... that we've..."

"Failed?" Hyejin interrupted.

Chaeyoung nodded, gripping her shirt to prevents her tears from falling down. She flinched when she feels Hyejin's hand caressing her head. "You should have told us. We are sisters, no? You can tell me everything. Everything, Chaenggie.."

"B-But–"

"We were also told about the exam," this time, Wheein's the one who speaks up. She stared at her sisters, both of who are stunned. "Why didn't... you girls did it?"

"How could we?!" Tzuyu yelled. Her eyes red. "W-we love you, unnie. We couldn't possibly... possibly..."

The tall maknae's voice is slowly dissipating. "...kill you."

"So you chose us instead of your own future?" Byulyi asked, unsure. The Anihumans all nodded. "We may be.. 'sisters', but at the end of the day, we're actually no one, aren't we? We aren't even blood-related."

"ANIYO, DON'T SAY THAT, UNNIE!!" Jeongyeon exclaimed, throwing her arms around Byulyi to hug her tightly. "You are our everything! We love you! We'll never hurt let alone kill you! Don't say things like that!"

Yongsun sighed. "But if you don't pass the test, you won't be able to become a ruler. You wouldn't even grow into an adult Anihuman."

"Why is unnie so obsessed with this?" Mina asked quietly, already on the verge of crying. "We've accepted our failure. It doesn't matter anymore. For us, unnie worth more than just being an adult and a ruler. We can't... lose you. Not now, not ever."

After she finished her sentence, Mina immediately dived to hug her keeper. She sobs into Yongsun's chest, ignoring the fact that Yongsun took a lot more time to hug her back. Jihyo gripped Yongsun's shirt and Dahyun cried while holding Jihyo's free arm.

"Well, unfortunately," Yuri's emotionless voice cut through the atmosphere. "We can't accept your failure. Your team is the best team to ever come to us in eleven eras, and we had agreed to not let you go."

"No, please, Yuri-unnie!" Nayeon pleads, kneeling at the floor to the dark-skinned ruler. "Please just let us be! We give up! We've failed! Please don't do anything to us, or our keepers! We'll leave! We promised we'll never return here or disturb you again!"

"Denied, Im Nayeon," Yuri shook her head. "You girls are talented, and we've ruled for far too long. This region needs a regeneration."

"No! No, please!"

"Your keepers must die to ensure you pass this exam."

"Over my dead body!" Momo roared, placing herself in front of Byulyi. "You'll never touch Byulyi-unnie until my very last breath!"

Her action was followed by the other Anihumans who put themselves between the keepers and the rulers. All nine of them are glowing in a dull light, colors variating depending on their aura. Their fangs and claws are elongated, ready to fight the rulers despite the massive ability gap.

"Touché," Tiffany laughed. "You think you puny little cubs are able to stand against us?"

Her face darkened after that and the Pegasus lifts her hand. "Think again."

Four white aura balls blasted from Tiffany's stretched palm, moving in a speed of light to the four keepers. The balls hit them on the chest, echoed a sickening crack and sent them flying to the pillars supporting the castle.

"Aah!" Yongsun throws up blood when she collided with the marble pillar. Her eyes are shut closed as her lifeless body fell into the floor with a loud thud.

"UNNIE!!!"

The younger Anihumans immediately rushed to their respective keeper, trying and failing to wake them up. Nine different cries resound on the castle walls. No matter what the young Anihumans do, their sisters are not waking up.

"Oh, well, that's settled, then," Tiffany yawned, catching the attention of the nine grieving Anihumans. "You passed the test. Chukkae!"

"We passed?!" Chaeyoung snarled. "We passed, you said?!!"

Chaeyoung quickly her heels and launched herself to attack Tiffany. But her efforts are useless because the moment she came close to the ruler, Seohyun caught her shirt and threw her to the ground. Chaeyoung gasped when the air inside her lungs left her forcefully, curling when she feels her ribs throbbed painfully.

"Chaenggie, stop..." Sana wailed, clutching Hyejin's cold body against herself. "It's useless.. we can't... w-we can't bring her back.."

Chaeyoung choked. She looks helplessly at Sana. The cat crawled to the brown haired Anihuman, slumping beside her. Chaeyoung gripped Hyejin's hand limply, feeling the cold sensation of her usually warm unnie.

"H-Hyejin-unnie..." the cat sobbed. Wailing softly next to her keeper-mate who is crying a river. Between her own sobs, she could hear Mina's pained gasps, Jeongyeon fruitless calling and Nayeon's despair. "W-why... why would you... do this?"

"Why, you ask?" Sooyoung chuckled. "Why of course because we wanted you to pass. As Yuri said earlier. We need a successor. We can't become a ruler forever."

"B-but... unnie.." Tzuyu chokes, vision blurry with how hard her crying is now. "Wheein-unnie... she doesn't deserve this... she shouldn't... she shouldn't–"

"Eh, it's not like it's a big deal," Yoona shrugged. "Those are just humans, after all. They're just pests compared to us noble Anihumans."

Silence.

Tzuyu saw red.

"How dare you..." the crow growled. She slowly stands, ignoring Nayeon's plea to challenge the rulers. "How dare you to call my unnie as a pest."

The rulers are all silent, waiting for Tzuyu's next move.

"YOU WILL ALL PAY FOR THIS!!!"

But the one jumping into action was not Tzuyu. Mina dashed past the tall girl, arms outstretched in an attempt to land a blow to the rulers. Yoona moved fast, though, catching the raging penguin and slammed her to the floor. Mina cried in pain when her chest collided roughly to the marble floor.

Yoona was just about to lock her arm, but the seasoned Anihuman felt a coming presence and quickly let the penguin go. Momo blinked right after, slashing at empty air in anger. The raccoon helped Mina up, growling to the hazelnut-haired ruler.

Yoona chuckled, putting her hands up in a ready stance. Noticing the beginning of a fight, Jeongyeon, Nayeon, Tzuyu, Jihyo, and Nayeon immediately flocked to Momo and Mina, all in their own fighting stance.

But the fight didn't actually break because Dahyun suddenly screamed.

All the time her friends trying to fight the rulers, Dahyun had stayed silent. She couldn't accept the fact that her sister had died, leaving her without having the chance to apologize after their mini fight. Her chest coiled in a painful way when she remembered how much of an she was to her sister last night.

I shouldn't have done that to Yongsun-unnie

I should have apologized to unnie

I should have appreciated her more

I should have helped her more

I should have said more thank you to unnie

I should have...

I should have...

Dahyun gasped, and the coil inside her chest snapped.

"AAHHHHHH!!!!"

The hamster screamed when she feels an extreme sensation covering her whole body. Her skin's on fire, her breathing shallowed and her scleras are bloodshot. Her mind fell into a haze as she didn't realize that her orange aura is leaking, burning her very existence.

"Dubu!"

She also didn't hear Chaeyoung's panicked call. What she knows is that she has to lure her friends to feel the same sensation with her. The hamster curled, whining as if she's in need of immediate comfort. Her darkened eyes caught Chaeyoung's worried ones. Dahyun whined again, further increasing the cat's worry and made her touched the hamster's skin.

"Dubu what's wrong!"

A mistake.

Chaeyoung screamed when Dahyun's orange aura her own greenish one, triggering the cat to release her own power and made her writhed in pain. She's never been in this kind of situation before. All her power is oozing out, engulfing her in a green fire similar to Dahyun's orange one.

The next one to have her power released unexpectedly is Sana. The lizard girl was stunned by the two burning Anihumans, didn't realizing that she's crouching far too close to the two thrashing girls. She panicked when a green spark flies from Chaeyoung and touched her arm, but her own aura immediately burst, leaving her in a same haze with her two friends.

"W-what's happening?!" Jihyo exclaimed in horror. The other six Anihumans stood close to each other, too terrified to do anything to their screaming friends.

"It starts."

Tiffany's calm voice caught Jihyo's attention. The bat looks at the ruler, desperately asking for an explanation for her friend's condition.

"What? What has starts?" Jihyo panicked. She was intending to inquire further but she felt the burning sensation on her skin and she screamed.

Jihyo forces her remaining sanity to look at her friends. Aside from Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Sana, the other five are also already shrouded in their own aura. Mina cried, slamming her forehead to the floor while she's burning in a blue fire. Jeongyeon crouched still, holding her head and she's burning in a yellow fire.

Tzuyu yowled as she curled into a magenta ball of fire. Nayeon wheezes beside the maknae, gripping her shirt tightly as she's enveloped in a brown blaze. Momo was seemingly the most pained out of the other. She's thrashing, clawing and biting at everything with a massive white fire engulfed her. There are steams coming out from her body, more specifically from the wounds left from her encounter with the berserk Anihuman.

Jihyo lifts her head, eyes desperately asking for help from the rulers standing not far from her. Her own blazing red fire is threatening to take over her sanity. But before she completely succumbed to madness, she heard Tiffany's satisfied chuckle echoed on the castle.

"It begins. The true second examination of the Silver Moon Region."

The Pegasus smiled, and this time, the smile she wore is a genuinely warm smile.

"Let's see how you will fare, young ones."

To be continued...