Chapter 2 - Argents

Ja Young and Hye Young couldn’t keep count on the distance from their destroyed house or the number of days they were running. All they knew was that they couldn’t stop until they reached their limits.

The twins were only wearing the clothes on their backs and still carrying their school bags. They barely had enough money to last them a while but they figured they were no ordinary people. Ja Young and Hye Young carried special abilities that no other human could possess. One of their benefits in their dilemma was being able to endure days or even weeks without food, water or sleep. On top of it, Ja Young continued to endure with the grimy scratch on her arm that slowly numbed her system.

The time of the year was planting season - on Earth before Shugo's rebirth, its equivalent to Spring Season. While Ja Young and Hye Young were uncomfortably sleeping on the side of a road, the older twin’s head shot up when she heard a vehicle coming around the corner. Her short hair whipped around when she woke her sister up. The pick-up truck stopped at the twins. 

“What brings two little lassies in the middle of nowhere?” asked a man around his late 40’s. He had a fatherly glint in his eyes and Hye Young felt his warm aura from the smile his goatee accented.

“We got lost. Where does this road take us?” Ja Young smoothly lied, covering her injured arm.

“This leads to the Haipo Harbor. About three hours away from here I’d wager. Hop on the back. You little lassies must be beat. We need to stop at my place on the way, if you don’t mind.” He pointed to the back of the truck, secretly glancing at what the short-haired teenager was hiding.

Hye Young bowed in gratitude. “Not at all. Thank you very much, sir.”

Ja Young helped her up before she herself got on. As the man drove, Hye Young started to shiver in her uniform. Ja Young saw her rubbing her arms for warmth. She took off her own blazer and placed it around her shoulders, not caring about the cold breeze. Hye Young looked up to meet the kind but tired eyes of her sister. ‘Even when we are lost and abandoned, you still take care of me,’ she thought.

“Ja Young, aren’t you getting cold?” Hye Young quietly asked. Ja Young, who was only in her thin white shirt and vest, shook her head. “Don’t worry about me. When we find somewhere safe to stay, I promise you will be just fine.”

Hye Young looked at her bare knees while remembering how much Ja Young cared, even when they were adolescents. She also glanced at her sister's arm that had been scratched by that wretched creature they encountered. She shuddered to herself, thinking that it must have been painful to endure, especially without anything to treat it. The blood that stained her white shirt had crusted to a marron colour around the tear, and the healing skin was turning black, likely to leave a scar.

Hye Young mentally compared herself with Ja Young. She pictured herself in her skinny and bony frame while Ja Young had some lean muscle evident in her body. If only she didn't have this sickly condition, Hye Young would most definitely desire to follow her footsteps to be stronger. Instead, she decided to train herself mentally, strengthening her emotions and resolve. If it could match Ja Young's physical strength, then Hye Young wouldn't ask for anything more. She smiled to herself, holding back her chattering teeth as she dozed off to sleep, leaning her head on her sister's shoulder.

The twins’ parents favoured Ja Young more than Hye Young because she was always helping around the house. The only thing they didn’t approve of as much was her complex attitude that could give off an aloof and sarcastic mood. They were discontent with Hye Young’s weak body and they could barely do anything to help her grow stronger.

One day in the winter, Ja Young saw Hye Young shivering in her thick covers. She immediately ran to her side and tried to comfort her. Their mother came in the room and asked what was going on. Ja Young was about to get her medicine from the shelf but Hye Young didn’t want her to leave. Their mother smiled.

“I’ll go get it, Ja Young. Hye Young loves you very much.” Their mother reached for the medicine and carefully poured a spoonful for the sickly twin. Hye Young coughed and grimaced the bitter taste, though Ja Young still held her hand afterwards. When the door closed, Ja Young climbed into Hye Young’s bed and held her cold hands again.

“Will you stay with me forever? I don’t want to be alone.” Hye Young’s vision was getting blurry with the tears in her eyes.

“Don’t worry, Hye Young. I promise I will never leave you. We can never be apart. Not until we die.”

The twins dozed off after crying together and still holding onto each others’ hands.

Ja Young saw Hye Young falling asleep with her head on her shoulder. Her long hair tickled her skin as the truck kept moving. She wrapped her arm around her shoulders and took her hand, warming it up.

“I promise I will never leave you alone, Hye Young. We only have each other from now on. Mom and Dad aren’t here anymore. As long as we stick together, we'll be alright.”

After softly speaking to her sleeping sister, Ja Young closed her eyes and leaned her head onto hers - drifting off into a dreamless sleep.

After what it seemed like an eternity, the truck came to a stop at a cottage. The twins woke up after a little jolt of the vehicle.

“Y’alright, lassies? This is my home we’re at for now. You can come inside if you want. You must be hungry.” The man got out of his truck and took out a package from the passenger seat, while the twin sisters jumped off the back.

The cottage was small and remote from anywhere. By the looks of things, it was a farm with a wide field of crops. This was something you wouldn’t see in a 1st world continent very much. The stars in the sky seemed brighter and more beautiful than the twins remembered back at home. 

Ja Young and Hye Young followed the kind man into the cottage and were greeted with a warm cozy atmosphere. 

“Honey! I’m back from Kuno!” He raised his voice a little. A woman came out of the kitchen with a tea towel in her hand while feeling the entrance around her. ‘She is blind,’ Hye Young noted. “Oh, don’t move. You’ll hurt yourself.” The man approached his wife and took her hand. 

“I’m sorry, lassies. I haven’t been able to introduce myself properly. I’m Yoon Seung Hyun and this is my wife Kim Haneul. As you realize just now, she is indeed visually impaired.”

“I’m Hong Ja Young. This is my twin sister, Hong Hye Young. We’re from Kuno," she paused and remembered the events that happened, "Well, we were from Kuno until not too long ago.” Ja Young trailed off.

“‘Were’? Can you elaborate on that, Ja Young?” Seung Hyun inquired. Haneul led them to the dining table where hot tea was waiting for them. The twins gratefully sat down and Hye Young gingerly grasped on the mug to warm her hands more. 

“Well, it’s hard to explain because-”

“The both of you are no ordinary humans. Right?” He finished. Ja Young and Hye Young froze at his question. Ja Young’s gloved hands clenched into fists under the table with anxiety. Hye Young reached her her sister's hand in the same anxiety.

“Not to worry. You two aren’t the only ones with special abilities. Let me give you a little clue - Inside the kitchen, Haneul is roasting chicken inside the oven while slicing cucumbers and tomatoes for salad," he hushed and the twins listened closer.

The kitchen was blocked from the twins’ views and Haneul suddenly called out, “Would you quit stalking me? It’s getting on my nerves while cooking in here!” The twins held their giggles and Seung Hyun gave a hearty laugh, although her outburst earned himself a little chill up his spine.

“You have 360 degrees of vision?” Hye Young guessed. “That’s right, lass. Haneul has high sensitive hearing, hence her complaint moments ago. What can you girls do?”

“Ja Young is strong, and I project forcefields,” Hye Young generously replied.

"I can tell that you're suffering from some sort of illness when I found you two,” he inquired.

“Yes, I have been sickly for as long as we could remember and I have been focusing on my health rather than developing my own strengths.”

"Let me take a look at that," he motioned his hand for hers. Ja Young nodded at Hye Young, and she placed her fragile hand in his. He pressed two fingers on a spot on her wrist where her pulse was located and closed his eyes, feeling the flow of her life force. His eyebrows furrowed briefly as he released her hand. "From what I can feel from your pulse, it seems your abilities are taking a toll on your body. Your Argentic power is not compatible with your and only Argentic treatment can help you prolong your life. How many years has it been like this?"

“Our memories did not start until we were ten years old. We only have seven years of memories.” Ja Young added to the mystery.

“Sounds like both you lassies are human-born Argents.” He concluded with a snap of his fingers.

“‘Human-born Argents’?” Ja Young slowly repeated.

“Argents are special beings who possess phenomenal abilities that no other humans can develop. With your cases, your memories started late which can probably mean that your abilities erased your memories before the age of ten.”

“Are there a lot of people of our kind in Shugo?” Hye Young asked.

“Well, there is a secret society of Argents that is hidden from the map of the world. Many of us are residing there right now," Seung Hyun pulled out an old map from the corner of the dining room and unrolled the parchment for the twins to see. He also pulled out an old book and turned the page to where the heading read 'The origin of Argents'. There was an illustrated man drawn with precise detail, with some sort of power flowing out of his hands.

"However, there’s a war brewing right at the very moment and for a long time now. When there is good, there is evil. There are the dark ones called Daemens," Seung Hyun turned the page to reveal an abstract figure, the caption reading 'A variation of a Daemen'.

"They plan to exterminate the Argents for good and here’s the main problem: we are extinct species. That’s why many of us outside of the secret society are living in hiding. When you see a Daemen, they are what you call, mutilated beasts. For example, one could have a body of a lion with a head of a snake.” He stopped to look at the twins’ faces. The color went pale and their eyes were clouded with fear.

“From the looks of your faces, they must be the reason you two were on the road away from home.”

“A Daemen killed our parents on the night of the fourth lunar eclipse. We were running away so that they wouldn't find us there in Kuno,” Ja Young explained.

“Daemens never stop hunting us Argents. They won’t let anyone escape until all of us are dead. If the Argents are wiped out by the next solar eclipse in two years, Shugo will be gone.” Seung Hyun’s face went dark.

Hye Young craned her head to the page where there was the illustration of another Argent but there appeared to be some sort of magical creature fighting alongside with it. "What is that beside him?" she pointed.

"Those creatures are called Cruxes, the manifestation of the Argent's heart. Many Argents do not encounter them until they are in their mature stages of training. Only a select few of us Argents possess one. There is no fixed process of how to obtain them, each testimony of each Argent is different than the next. The symbol of your Argentic power will appear on your skin when your Crux is drawing near."

Ja Young was initally fascinated about the new information, but at the same time, she figured that if Hye Young was close to obtain hers, she might not even make it to see it. She gulped and warily requested, “We need to go to this society. Anything to keep Hye Young safe. I don't care about me, but my sister needs treatment and training.”

“I'm afraid you can’t access the portals here in this continent. You have to head to the harbor and take a ship to the 2nd World Continent. It’s getting late right now and ships don’t run after sunset. I’ll take you two there first thing tomorrow morning. Right now, we should feed you two before bed. You look undernourished."

By the time they finished their conversation, Haneul had brought out a very late dinner to the table. There weren't many words exchanged under the heavy atmosphere. Ja Young tried to put some of her own serving to Hye Young's plate so that she could get some more energy into her system. She couldn't afford her sister to not have enough food after learning that her abilites were shortening her life.

The twins were put to bed upstairs with spare clothes from Haneul to sleep in. Ja Young found it very hard to fall asleep, despite the comfortable blankets and pillows. She couldn't move very much either, even after having her wound properly treated and dressed in bandages. She heard her sister whimper, "I miss mom and dad."

"I miss them, too," Ja Young softened. Hye Young looked up to her right, peering at the older twin. "You'll be fine, Hye Young. I swear that you'll get to the society. That way you don't have to worry about yourself anymore. Let's get some sleep."

Hye Young yawned and dozed off under the covers. Ja Young sighed, wishing that she could be the one who is suffering as opposed to her sister. If she couldn't save her when she had this abnormal strength within herself, how could she live on like this? She laid on her back and looked up at the wooden ceiling, praying that everything will be alright.

Meanwhile in the master bedroom, Seung Hyun couldn't go to sleep, not when he felt one of the twin's life force a while ago. He never mentioned it to them, but the twins were both so powerful that he could never imagine how it was possible that they could have at least some control of it, especially Hye Young in particular. Her abilities were overdeveloped, to the point that her body couldn't sustain it. He could confirm it from how saturated the colour of her life force was. If her willpower was strong enough until she is treated, should her Crux be released her her body, there was a great possibility that it would kill her instead of saving her.

Ja Young would also become too strong; Seung Hyun could feel the presence of her strength from at least one mile before finding the twins straggling on the road. They were dangerous weapons when together, but he wondered how long they would last.