Chapter 4 - Riddles of the Reverse World

“I see,” Tao said while sipping his tea Lay prepared. All the members including Su Ho and Chan Yeol were sitting in the meeting room. “This is unfortunate.”

Yin just finished explaining Lu Han’s condition and the group’s predicament. The time-master sat across from her and Kai. D.O sat in an armchair while Baek Hyun on the arm. Se Hun stuck with Lay helping him serve tea at the table. Su Ho and Chan Yeol remained standing.

“I have a question though.” Chan Yeol wondered. “You disappeared without a word four years ago. Mind telling us why your sudden return?”

He didn’t mean to be hostile but he wanted an explanation. Tao glanced at him for a moment then back at everyone else.

“We’re in more danger than we have ever been. Not just our faction, but to all Argents yet to have discovered the society.” The atmosphere became slightly colder.

“Of course,” Su Ho muttered. They looked at him. “The solar eclipse is close and we’re all not prepared enough for the war.”

“The Daemens are on the move. With each passing day, their numbers are increasing and the Argent’s slowly decreasing.” Tao continued for him.

“Did anything happen to your village?” Yin asked with concern.

He nodded with a painful expression. “A party of Daemens came in the night. Half of the villagers were killed and the rest fled deeper in the mountains. I did my best to defend my people,” he said while slipping off his shirt to reveal a nasty wound covering nearly half of his torso and the members winced. Lay immediately came up to him and quickly healed it, leaving only a faint scar.

“I departed the Gunga mountains for Notro to check up on Song Ji Eun. I advised her to take precaution and find refuge in her fiancé’s base.” Yin sighed in relief. “I know that she will be well protected there.”

“But she’s not the only one in danger among B.A.P. Moon Jong Up is an Argent like us.” Kai added.

“As much as we want them to come here, the law states that humans are prohibited from entering this dimension.” Baek Hyun dismally stated.

“This is so complicated,” D.O held his head.

“We need to find as many Argents as we can before we can start training.” Tao advised.

“Yin’s hasn’t found all the Runes yet either.” Kai said, “And she thinks one of them is here in this building.”

“Why didn’t you tell us earlier?” D.O stood up.

“Because I wasn’t sure.” Yin defended herself. “That’s why I wanted to ask you something.” She walked closer to him. “I was going to try it myself but now that you’re here, I know you could do it better than I could.”

Clairsentience was proven to be very tricky, even for a time master like Tao. Unlike clairvoyance, looking into the past was a very fragile job. Even one mistake while meddling in the past could alter the future.

Tao had his eyes closed tightly while his hands were hovering over Lu Han’s unresponsive head. The time traveler hid himself in the meeting room where the telekinetic wearily take a pill from a tiny bottle and sipped water afterwards. He suddenly grunted and held his aching temples, nearly hurling.

He watched him stumble to the bathroom and as quietly as he could, he followed him. He was surprised that he didn’t notice because telekinetics could sense presences around him. It hit him when he realized that he was that weak. When he heard his body collapsing on the floor, he disappeared from the memory and opened his eyes. He took a step back.

“Yin, try putting your hand on his forehead and see if you can sense something within.” He instructed. She came over to where he was and did as he said.

She immediately felt the same ancient energy coming from Lu Han. She sharply pulled away, frightened and in denial.

“I thought so. There must be a Rune in his Reverse World.”

“That’s impossible.” Yin mouthed.

“You must be the one to retrieve it.”

“How?”

“It has been done before.” Lay said, who was also in the room with Kai and Se Hun. “But it is very tricky. Only very few could be successful. When you venture into someone’s Reverse World, you must not be seen. The consequences are too ghastly to imagine if you were.”

“Is that the only risk?” Kai asked.

“No.” Tao answered. “She will also have a time limit depending on how much his abilities developed. With these circumstances and the fact he already has a Crux, she will have about three hours to find it and come back.” 

Yin swallowed and clenched her teeth to calm her nerves. “I'll try it. If I don’t retrieve it before his due time, then I’ll never find it again.” 

“She’s right. It’s all or nothing right now.” Kai agreed with her. Se Hun nodded firmly. Tao and Lay looked at each other for a few moments.

“We don’t have a choice then.” 

Yin lay down on a bed beside Lu Han with her sack of Runes in her arms. Kai brushed the hair off of her face. “I’ll be right here.” He reminded. She smiled and felt the watch that he let her borrow.

“Remember, Yin: For the first thirty seconds, your mind must be completely blank.” Lay said. He conjured nearly invisible threads connecting Lu Han’s left hand to Yin’s right. She closed her eyes and did as instructed for exactly thirty seconds.

It was like she was walking in a room without any light. The only thing she could see in front of her was her own hands. She could hear her shoes clanking on the ground. A door gradually appeared in front of her. Could this be the entrance, she asked herself.

She reached for the handle and twisted it open. She pushed it and went in. She was welcomed in a child’s room with puzzles and notebooks strewn on the floor. Trying not to step on anything, she looked around. There were four Rubik's Cubes in different shapes and colours, all unsolved. The papers showed scratches and clumsy diagrams but neat handwriting. Before she could read it, she heard the doorknob rattling behind her. She slid to the space by the door before it.

“That’s strange, I don’t remember locking it.” She could hear a boy speak. The lock unlocked itself and opened. The door covered her. She could barely get a closer look at the person, however she recognized the face. She covered with her hands before she could gasp. She heard him take something out of his wardrobe.

The boy’s footsteps grew louder as he was about to leave the room. He stopped and looked at the gap between the door and the floor. He saw a slight shadow but he shrugged and closed it behind him.

Yin soundlessly heaved a sigh in relief. She couldn’t believe that it was Lu Han in his childhood. She came out of her hiding spot and made sure that no one else would come in. She indulged herself in the papers by her shoes. She picked up one that did not have a diagram sketched. It didn’t have much text but it caught her attention the most.

“Take three steps once you leave this room in three seconds after reading this.”

She folded the note and stuffed it in her pocket. She stepped over the mess and opened the door and shut it. She took three steps and her surroundings change. It was as if tiles were crackling off the walls. Now, she stood outside of the house, only that it was in flames. There were screams coming inside, but no one was paying any attention.

She took out the folded note from her pocket and was taken aback that the previous instructions faded away before her eyes and was replaced with new ones.

“Save only the boy.”

She didn’t know what happened but her legs took off on their own. She dove through the broken window and landed safely. She wove through the debris caused by the hungry fire, in search of Lu Han. She was very tempted to save the entire family but she remembered Tao’s and Lay’s instructions. She couldn’t change the past.

Fighting the urge to call out for him, she tried her best not to get burned. She heard a collapse from the second floor and raced up the stairs to the room at the end of the corridor. She pressed her ear and heard a pained moan from the other side. She slipped on her gloves and tried to twist the handle. It was locked.

Without a choice, she detached it from the door and swung it open. There was Lu Han’s exact same child form, slipping from consciousness to unconsciousness on the floor. She quickly approached him and shook his shoulder.

“Hey! Hey!” She tried to get him to regain his senses but he finally passed out from the heat. She cursed under her breath and lifted him up. Before she could retrace her steps, the debris fell from the ceiling and landed in front of her only way out. She began to sweat profusely and scanned his room. There was a window to her right. Before she charged towards it, she picked up one Rubik Cube from the floor and placed it in Lu Han’s hands. 

“Hold on tight,” she whispered and barged through the window, plummeting down to the ground outside, knocking her head in the process. She held her head as a new memory crept into her mind. 

She saw a pair of corpses sprawled on the floor in a familiar house with a Daemen facing her. They were covered in their own blood. Before the beast could attack her next, she snapped to her senses. She stumbled to her feet and took out her piece of paper waiting for next steps. 

“Take the number of steps away from the boy according to the number of blue square on the side the cube is facing you.”

She pinpointed her eyes at the Rubik Cube in his palms and counted six. She took the same number of steps away from him and the scenery changed again.

This time she was in front of an orphanage. Yin looked at the paper with new instructions.

“Go and visit him. Your duration is 500 seconds.” 

Less than nine minutes, she thought. It puzzled her because there were specific numbers given to her.

She suddenly felt like the answer to all her questions were staring at her in the face. Lu Han must’ve risked his life to plan out everything for her. That was why she was allowed to save him.

She went inside the grand building and walked to the receptionist.

“I am looking for Lu Han.” She whispered. The elderly woman benignly nodded with a gentle smile. She stood up from her seat and led me up the stairs.

“It has been a couple years since he had a visitor, but he still smiles every day.”

She opened his door just a slight bit. Yin set her watch to eight minutes and twenty seconds.

“Lu Han, there is a visitor for you.” When Yin came in the room, she took a good look at him. He grew significantly taller and the chubby cheeks were gone. He gaze at her in return. The woman left them alone moments later.

“Who are you?” He asked. They were sitting beside each other on the edge of his bed.

“I’m a friend.” She answered.

“What’s your name?”

“I don’t have one.” She lied.

“I don’t believe you.” He frowned.

“I really don’t.” It was only half of the lie. She wished she knew her real name by now.

They were silent. Lu Han continued to stare at her. She couldn’t figure out whether he was waiting for her to say something or whether he was trying to read her.

“You’re a strange person.” He noted. “I can’t read your mind.”

In the present, he couldn’t read her mind either. “Don’t you have a home? A family? Friends?” He asked her.

Yin only gave a mysterious smile.

“What are you?”

“I’m like you. I’m special.” She said.

“What can you do?” He seemed to understand where she was coming from.

“Many things.” She answered while feeling her Origin Arm over her shirt.

“I can do telepathy.” He piped.

“I know.”

“How?”

“You wanted to read my mind. You said so yourself.” Lu Han’s younger form sheepishly scratched his head.

“I guess I did.”

She spotted the Rubik Cube on his desk. Lu Han followed her gaze.

“Oh, this is a Rubik's Cube.” He waved it over into his palms. “Have you played it before?”

She shook her head sadly.

“I figured out how to solve it last year. Now I’m just timing myself.” He handed the cube to her, prompting her to twist it as much as she wanted. She took it and shuffled.

“What happened to your family?” She asked, curious to hear his side of the story. His face fell.

“A couple years ago, there was a large fire in my home. I remember someone saving me and she left me with the cube.”

“She?”

“I remember hearing a girl’s voice before I out.”

“I see.” She absentmindedly replied as she twisted the cube, handing it back. “Why don’t you have any visitors seeing you?”

“They wouldn’t go near me.”

“Why not?”

“People in my hometown thought I was the one who started the fire.”

“So that means, you didn’t know anyone who is like... us?” He shook his head. She looked at her watch. She had five minutes left.

“I came here a few weeks after the incident. There were prosecutors pursuing me.”

“Why would they based from the fire?”

“It’s not just that time. It was only the beginning. When I was wandering the streets looking for a place to live, I found someone assaulting a woman in an alley. I didn’t know what to do because I could never forget that look of fear on her face. I was so shocked that I couldn’t remember a thing until I blinked. The only thing I had in my mind was that I wanted that man to disappear.” He stopped to collect his thoughts.

“And?” She said.

“Instead, I ended up killing him.” Yin his back. “There were many witnesses and people thought I was a devil’s child.”

“I’m sorry, Lu Han.”

“It’s not your fault.”

They were quiet again. “You know, I just told you the story of most of my life without a second thought. I guess you’re right. We’re special somehow.”

“What are you going to do next?”

“I’ll just hope that someone would take me in. If not, I’ll just wait here for a little while longer and get out when I’m not a minor anymore.”

Yin looked at her watch. It flashed thirty seconds remaining. She stood up.

“It’s time for me to go. I really enjoyed visiting you.” 

Lu Han grinned. “I enjoyed your company.” When Yin was about to open the door, he asked her, “Will I see you again?”

She looked over her shoulder and gave another mysterious smile. “I don’t know. I’ll leave it up to you, but I do want to see you again.”

She opened the door without another word and closed it. She took out the piece of paper for more instructions.

“Run to the nearest fire exit.” She spotted it to her left and dashed. The exit opened for her and she went through. Instead of the outdoors, she was welcomed in an eerie library. Immediately, she felt the same resonant sensation in her arm.

Lu Han did lead her to the Rune but there was something lingering in the air that confused her senses. She looked at the piece of paper and it finally crumbled into pieces. The effects of time must have caused it to wither.

Suddenly, she heard an ear-deafening screech from down below. She leapt from the banister and landed on the first floor. A Daemen Beast was face to face with her. Before it could attack, she raised her fist and punched it into a bookshelf. From the corner of her eye, she saw someone emerging from a pile of books.

It was Lu Han in his teenage years. His eyes widened at the sight of her face.

“It’s you.” She went up to him and helped him stand. “You haven’t aged a day.”

“Are you alright?” She asked.

“Yes.”

Their conversation was cut short when three more Daemens broke through the walls, famished for blood. Fear gripped her heart as she reached out and grabbed his arm.

“Run!” She yelled and they ran through the endless bookshelves. Lu Han used his telepathy to send out flying books to distract them. They climbed the coiling stairs to the second floor. One of the Daemens ravished the first steps and the banisters began to break apart. Lu Han reached the top but extended his hand for hers. Her foot slipped on her next step but he caught her with his ability. He levitated her to him.

They resumed running. They were able to buy some time. She stopped in the middle of the room, without any idea on where to find the Rune. She looked at the sections labeled on the ceiling and the numerical values on the ends of the shelves.

“Of course.” She said to herself. She finally figured out the puzzle. She looked above and turned to him, “We need to go to the third floor!”

“But it’s the restricted section.” He said.

“Trust me! There could be something that can help us destroy those!” He thought for a moment and nodded firmly. She sighed in relief and they ran for the next set of stairs. When they reached the top, they spotted the Daemens slithering on the floor below them. As quietly as possible, they lurked through the restricted section.

“Is there a sixth section?”

“Where are you getting at?”

“It’s complicated.” She answered ambiguously. If she could predict, she thought of the numbers three, six and five hundred. In other words, the third floor, the sixth section and the five hundredth subject.

She took another step towards the “6” labelled at the back of the floor before a heart-stopping surprise startled her. One of the Daemens created a hole on the ground, snarling at her. It tried to bite her but she held its snout open. Sweat began to trail down the side of her face as she let a battle cry rip through and threw down the beast to the ground level, killing it.

“They’re coming!” Lu Han warned her. The remaining two finally arrived with revenge. They ran to the sixth section and quickly glanced at the label that said, “500: World History”.

“Go from here! I’ll hold them off!”

“But you’re already hurt!”

“Don’t worry. I trust you!”

They panted before they went separate ways. She skidded a stop in front of the fifth hundreth section. She closed her eyes and unravelled the bandages. Her hand traced the power that was calling out to her. She snapped her eyes open at a large thick black book that was a little out of place.

She took it out and turned the cover open. They were not pages, but a container holding her ninth Origin Rune: The Rune of Telepathy. It glowed a pure fuchsia luster with the cluster of circles flashing in the center. She took it out and equipped it into her arm. The gaps were filled with the rich pink. She followed her steps back to where Lu Han was.

He was struggling. He attempted to create a repelling wall, but he was failing miserably. It was about to falter when a powerful force crushed the Daemens into the wall behind them and strangle them whole.

Lu Han turned around and saw Yin with her right arm unveiled for the first time. The mechanical hand clenched into a fist and the captive Daemens burst into ashes.

There was silence.

“You?”

“That’s right. I’m not from here.”

“But why? How?”

“In a few years, you’ll find that out for yourself.”

"But I don't understand."

"You will. I have no doubt about it."

“Wait!” He said as she glowed, signaling that her task was complete. “Who are you? Can you tell me?”

She gave him a sad smile. “It’s better if you didn’t know. Just continue to live and everything will be alright.”

She gradually faded away into tiny particles of time as he took out his old Rubik's Cube from his bag. It was completed. “You who had those lost eyes like mine, I hope I’ll see you again.”

Back in the present time, Lay’s threads faded into nothing. Kai sat up straight.

“Lay! Check this out!” He pointed at the two hands. He heard her grunt and saw her eyes weakly open.

“Yin!” She snapped out of her daze and sat up. “Kai.”

They embraced for a brief moment before looking at Lu Han, who was still unconscious. Lay asked, “What happened?” Tao and Se Hun woke up from their nap and went up to her. Alarmed, she opened her knapsack and took out her new Rune. Smiles of solace and victory lit on everyone’s faces.

“She found it.” Kai said, ecstatic. She sadly gaze at Lu Han and slid off her bed. She equipped it back on her Origin Arm and gently grasped his cold hand. They all held their breath before his eyes started to twitch, along with his fingers.

“Lu Han!” They called his name. His eyes opened, as if he was only blinking. He tilted his head to meet Yin’s eyes.

“You figured it out.”

She closed her eyes and avoid his eye contact with tears threatening to fall. He sat up and saw Tao, who had his arms crossed and a good-hearted smirk.

“You greet me with this dilemma? You are a mischievous man, Lu Han.”

He grinned from ear to ear.

“It is good have you awake, my friend.” Lay greeted. Kai and Se Hun came to his bedside with beaming expressions. Yin sighed in content but she couldn’t recollect how much she accomplished for him. She showed him her new Rune embedded in the back of her palm and he smiled.

“I knew you could do it. You really are the one who had the same lost eyes like mine.”

Her mind went blank when he addressed her that way. Perhaps his own past was supposed to be turned out that way. She squeezed his hand tighter, overjoyed for his recovery.