"Ugh!" Xin Linhua places the knife down.
Good thing he’s wearing gloves, he’d hate to dig his hands into Yokai stomach acid.
"Yaras?, why don’t you guess what it is I’m doing right now?"
"Grossing me out."
"Touché." Xin Linhua clicks his tongue "It’ll kill you to humor me, wouldn’t it? Anyway, I won’t hold it against you. I have a hypothesis."
Rong Yizhan slips up his mask to save himself from the smell. He crouches beside Xin Linhua.
"In order for the rift to close, no human must be detected." Xin Linhua carefully digs his hand in "So, how did the Yokais bring in live humans? Simple! They swallow them whole."
Xin Linhua tugs hard. A figure collapses at their feet.
"They’ll pass it off as humans they ate and haven’t digested." Xin Linhua continues "Since the humans are hidden in the Yokais, they’ll pass out from the smell of stomach acid, and their heartbeats will be faint– faint enough to be covered up by the heartbeat of the Yokais holding them."
Xin Linhua moves towards another Yokai. One by one, he split open the stomach of the bigger Yokais. And one by one, he fishes out a pale and sickly human.
He turns to Rong Yizhan, but the youth isn’t saying anything and just keeps following his movement.
"What?"
"Nothing." Rong Yizhan moves to the humans to check their pulse "They’re alive."
"That brings me to my second hypothesis!" Xin Linhua grows excited "The Yokai I followed a while ago– I saw it retch up this lady and submerged her in the pond. I think the pond has some chemicals in it. It induces and makes people hallucinate– it’s like relieving your worst nightmare."
"That’s why you reacted like that."
"Exactly! It–"
"What did you dream about?"
Xin Linhua pauses. His back is to Rong Yizhan so his expression is hidden, but not the tension in his shoulders. Well, guess it’s a good thing that Rong Yizhan can’t see.
Xin Linhua recovers quickly, his signature smile in place. He skips to Rong Yizhan’s side, his head tilting to the side.
"What is this?" He teases "Is Yaras? curious about me?"
"Forget I asked." Rong Yizhan turns away.
"No way!" Xin Linhua blocks him "It’s the first time you’ve shown interest and curiosity in anything involving me."
"What did you dream about?"
Xin Linhua’s teasing cuts off.
Instead, Rong Yizhan actually takes the initiative to ask again without Xin Linhua forcing a story down his throat.
"Forget it, forget it!" Xin Linhua waves his hands "Let’s take the humans out first."
"Xin Linhua? Phantom?"
Xin Linhua turns towards the voice.
A few sentinel steps through the rift entrance, roughly fifteen in total. The one leading them is the same man who always spar with Rong Yizhan, Hirano Asahi.
Or...as Xin Linhua likes and has recently started to refer him as–
"Senior!"
Xin Linhua jogs towards the man like he’s some sort of salvation.
"Senior! What took you so long!? Do you know how terrified I was!? I thought I was dead for sure!"
"My bad, my bad." Hirano apologizes sincerely "We couldn’t get through the rift. Even now when it opened, we thought the humans inside were all dead. How come you two are here? What’s going on?"
"Oh senior, it was tragic!" Xin Linhua wipes away non-existent tears "I finally managed to drag Yaras? out of the institute for fresh air, but who knew we’d be kidnapped by a Yokai– two Yokais I mean!"
"You were kidnapped?" Hirano frowns.
"I’m telling you, Yokais are smarter than they look. I can’t even begin to narrate the horror! If Yaras? wasn’t here, I’d be dead for sure. We had no choice but to start hunting down every Yokai so we could escape!"
The newcomers find it hard to believe, Hirano included.
Yokais may be low ranked, but their great numbers put them at a slight advantage. They’re difficult to kill cause if you take down one, you’ll be targeted by three.
Not only were they nabbed off the streets in broad daylight, they actually took down so many Yokais and cleared the rift.
It’s crazy that such a thing happened– a rift was cleared, but the people who accomplished that are the most low ranked in the institute, a pair of defects!
"We were able to save the civilians the Yokais were planning to eat for dinner, but I think they’re in a sleep induced state." Xin Linhua concludes.
"I see..." Hirano scans the area "We’ll get them to safety and have them treated."
No matter how unrealistic the story sounds, the evidence is laid out right in front of them. They can’t ignore it. Plus, if it’s Phantom, anything’s possible with him.
Xin Linhua’s scalp prickles. The newcomers are none other than Rong Yufei and her guide.
"Xin Linhua?" She frowns.
Like a mice running from a cat, Xin Linhua hides behind Rong Yizhan, his head peeks out.
It’s not like the institute ran out of Geomancers to send but why did they pick Rong Yufei? He still can’t forget the threat her brother had dropped the other day and he’s not crazy enough to fight against C-Ranks.
Besides, he hasn’t cut off the engagement yet, it was only verbal. If he and Rong Yufei end up in scuffle or anything, it’ll be an insult to the elders. One of these days, he’ll go back home to visit his family and officially break off the engagement.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" He questions "Are you planning to gang up against me with your boyfriend like last time?"
"You–"
"Alright, calm down you two." Hirano intervenes "Let’s get out of here first. The rift will close at anytime."
"I’ll leave first." Rong Yizhan finally speaks after minutes of staying silent.
"All right." Hirano nods "We’ll clear up this place and bring back the civilians and inform you of their well being."
"Mm." Rong Yizhan nods.
Xin Linhua trots after him, his eyes trained on his ex fiance as they approach the rift entrance. He suddenly stops.
"Hold on. How are we getting out of here? There’s no Yokai to ride on."
Rong Yizhan turns to him with an exasperated expression.
Without explaining, he grabs Xin Linhua’s hand and falls forward.
"Yaras?! Are you trying to get us killed!?" Xin Linhua’s anxious voice can be heard two districts away.
He shuts his eyes, feeling the wind whip past him and through his hair.
"Open your eyes."
"No."
"We’re on solid ground."
Xin Linhua cracks one eye open. Truly, they’re back on solid ground. An actual sidewalk with actual people walking back and forth.
Good thing they had slipped their masks on inside the rift. They wouldn’t want to risk an identity crisis.
"What was that?" Xin Linhua turns to him.