Inverse System

"Shh!" A teenage girl put her index finger over her mouth in silence as she closed the door, removing all light from the room the group was dragged into.

"What's going on? Who are you?" Xenia whispered as their eyes began adapting to the darkness, a faint outline of a girl emerging.

The shadowy silhouette of the girl suggested that she wore her hair in 2 long twin tails, with a small face and slim figure.

"You guys must be the Rangers auntie hired. What do you think you're doing wandering around the village like that? Haven't you heard the stories?" The girl softly whispered, with a scolding tone mixed into her speech.

"We apologize about that. We just finished dealing with a rather unsavory band of men. They said that they often come on their glowcycles. I assume you know who I'm speaking of," Clyde recounted, the girl gasping as she heard his story.

"No way?! What do you mean you 'dealt' with them? Do you know who they were?" The girl lost her composure, her voice beginning to leak through the whispers.

"What's wrong?" Sho interjected.

"They're part of an even bigger group from Marzell, the town across the border. If they find out what happened, they might attack!" She panicked frantically, beginning to hyperventilate as Core set a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, I already have people on the job. The gang should be split by the end of the day," he assured her.

"Oh, okay. Then it's fine," she took a deep breath, not questioning what Core had just said for some reason, making everyone come to the conclusion that she was an idiot.

"A-anyways, where are the lights? Does this house not have a glow stone?" Chloe asked as she let go of Rein's hand and stood up, trying to move on to a different subject.

"No, none of the houses in town do. We use candles and campfires as light sources, but the lumberjacks in town haven't left to gather firewood in ages, so we can't light them. I have a candle here with me though," she set it down on the floor, to which Sho grabbed it.

"I have a lighter with me. One second."

Sho turned around while holding the candle and pinched the candle wick, lighting it on fire through his Spring, illuminating the room with a fiery glow.

The home was significantly more well-kept than they expected. It had a smooth, spruce wood interior, with no bumps or splinters in sight. Though they felt it on their shoes, they were still surprised to see a red velvet-colored carpet along the floors, leading all the way to the interior of the home. The shoe rack near the front door held 2 pairs of shoes, one smaller, sky-blue pair along with a larger brown pair.

The fire also illuminated the girl who dragged them in, outlining her supple, fair pale skin. She had long, black hair styled into a pair of twin tails that spilled over her shoulders. Her most striking feature, a pair of large, blue eyes, which pierced into Sho's gaze as the light came on.

"Wow, so you just carry around a lighter, huh? Are you some sort of delinquent? Do you smoke wee—"

"No, of course not. I just have this in case of emergencies," he explained as he pretended to slip something into his pockets, the rest of his classmates knowing the ruse he had just pulled.

"Hm, okay. Well, I guess I should take you to my auntie. You guys probably saw her looking through the window earlier," she led them up the stairs, Sho walking behind her with the candle in hand as they navigated the ill-illuminated house.

As they reached the top of the stairs, they looked out into a series of rooms, only one of them having light emerging from it.

"Auntie! The Rangers are here," the girl announced as she walked into the lit-up room, the group of Rangers walking in after her to see a woman who looks to be in her mid-30s, sitting on a chair, doing paperwork while keeping wary of the covered window.

"Thank you for greeting them, Lillia. Good afternoon, my name is Lisbeth Akah. I apologize I couldn't welcome you to the village myself, but I was just getting ready to go face those gang members, so I didn't have time. I overheard your conversation with Lillia, and thank you for dealing with them. They've been causing trouble for us ever since these disappearances became commonplace," the black-haired woman explained as she stood up from her seat, bowing down to the young group of Rangers that stood in her room.

"It's no biggie. We were just protecting ourselves anyway. But enough with the formalities, could you please explain your request?" Rein asked the woman bowing down, making her raise her head in a swift motion.

"Of course, though I'm not sure what else I could add from what you read on the request board. Over the past week or 2, people have started mysteriously disappearing in town. We want you Rangers to investigate the incidents and find the cause," she explained as the group attentively listened.

"And have you come up with anything from your own investigations? Do you have some sort of hypothesis?" Clyde added as the woman sat back down.

"We weren't able to investigate for long. The night of the first incident, my men and I were searching for clues, when more and more people began disappearing across the town. As the village chief, I was forced to put the town on lockdown and halt the investigation."

"And you want us to continue it for you?"

"Yes… it is unfortunate, but we're forced to rely on Rangers for help, since none of the townspeople have useful Springs. Everyone who does moves out of the village for better opportunities."

"I see… that is rather unfortunate," Clyde remarked.

"So then you have no clues? No leads?" Sho asked as he set the candle down on a table and crossed his arms.

"Well, we were able to figure out when the kidnappings are most active. That would be when the sun sets. Because of that, we're inclined to believe that it's the doing of a spirit or ghost," she informed, those words making Xenia and Sho twitch in fright.

"Haha… you don't know that for sure though, right..?" Xenia nervously laughed as she tugged onto Clyde's sleeve.

"We do. There has been 1 witness testimony that backs up that fact. Old man Gorg who lives just outside the village said he saw a villager disappear in front of his eyes while he was watering his plants. He said that the villager was covered by a floating black shadow, then suddenly vanished into thin air," Lisbeth retold the story as Rein went into deep thought.

"Was he the only witness you could find? Nobody else saw someone vanish?" He asked, wanting to make sure.

"Yes… it seems that anyone that would have been a witness was also taken away. It's a miracle that old man Gorg was able to escape."

Rein sat down on the ground, crossing his legs as he entered thinking position.

"I see…" Clyde thought out loud. "Do you have a list of lost people? That could help us with the investigation," Clyde requested, to which Lisbeth handed him a paper.

"Here it is. A total of 24 people have been taken so far. We've already checked for patterns among the victims, but we weren't able to find any. It seems the ghost attacks indiscriminately."

Rein glanced over at Core as he continued thinking, seeing him whistling softly to himself as he pretended not to care. Rein sighed, then stood up.

"It should be safe to go outside now, right? We should go investigate while we have the chance. I think I've understood the gist of the case so far," Rein stated as he cracked his knuckles in preparation.

"I concur. I think that we're on the same page, Rein. Let's go everyone," Clyde motioned as he followed after Rein.

"Thank you for the information!" Chloe bowed down before following Rein and Clyde, Sho and Xenia also thanking them before continuing.

"Are you gonna leave too shorty?" Lillia, the girl who dragged them in asked Core, who's mind was drifting off into space.

"Ah! My bad, I was dozing off. Yep, I'll be going then," he said as he left in a hurry, stopping before he left the house to place something in the living room, then running out to follow Rein.

"Alright, we have about 2 hours before sunset. Where should we start?" Xenia asked, as if all her previous fear had simply disappeared.

"Hm? What happened to being super scared?" Rein asked as the group went through the dark alleyway leading back to the main street.

"You heard the woman! The ghost only appears at night, so there's nothing to fea—"

Suddenly, she heard the sound of ruffling behind her, shrieking and instinctively jumping onto Clyde's back.

"Calm down, it was just a rat," Clyde pushed her away lightly from her tightly clinging to his back.

"O-oh! I knew that, of course! I was just testing you Clyde! It looks like you pass!" She laughed as Clyde palmed his face in embarrassment, the rest of the group nervously laughing as they emerged onto the main road.

"Alright, there's one thing I want to check before we do anything else," Rein declared.

"Hm? What is it?" Chloe inquired.

"Clyde, it says the victim's addresses on that paper, right?"

"Yes? Though, I don't see what good that will do us," he remarked as he handed Rein the paper.

"Not much. It'll just either confirm or deny my suspicion. After that, we can start investigating for real…"

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