Inverse System

"Shit, they can't hear us! This is bad! I wasn't expecting it to isolate the town! And what's worse, both Clyde and Sho are marked now," Rein thought out loud as Chloe and Xenia both attacked the barrier with all their might.

"It's no use, nothing works! This thing is indestructible!" Xenia yelled in desperation, breathing heavily after a barrage of kicks on the barrier.

"My wind just gets nullified as soon as it touches the barrier. I can't do anything!" Chloe claimed.

"I set up a teleportation path from the Spring I gained from the other teleportation panels, but it's not working. I can't teleport to them using that red-haired guy from Crypt's Spring either. This barrier nullifies the effects of Springs... This is bad…" Rein thought as he heard Core give a suggestion.

"Remember what the chief said? They went into the village after they were notified of the ghost's attack. If their house is outside the village, there should be some sort of entrance, right?" Core hinted, making Rein also recall.

"You're right. Let's go check out that area, there might be some sort of opening in the barrier," Rein said as he took off towards the chief's home, Xenia and Chloe following closely behind him, leaving Core behind.

As they ran around the barrier, they saw the chief's home come into view, accelerating towards it as Rein realized something when they got closer.

"Why does it look like it's inside the barrier…" he uttered.

When they finally reached it, they found themselves unable to enter, the house being within the border of the village.

"Hey, Rein! Didn't you say the chief's house was outside the barrier? So why can't we get in?" Xenia asked as she tried kicking the barrier here as well.

Rein put his hand on his chin and thought about what this development could mean.

"I guess we were just wrong then? The chief's house is inside the barrier and that's how they were able to go in and investigate when the first incident happened," Chloe concluded, Rein shaking his head in disagreement.

"No, there's definitely something wrong with this… I was almost positive the chief's home would be outside the village…" Rein stated.

"Why? What made you so sure?"

"Well, according to our investigation, our theory implies that whoever is inside the village when the ghost appears, they gain an affliction, right?" Rein recounted, the 2 girls nodding in agreement.

"So if the chief's house is inside the barrier, both her and her niece should have an affliction as well. But they didn't. That could mean 2 things. Either our theory has been wrong this entire time, and there's another variable affecting people who become 'targets', or the chief has been lying to us about something," Rein concluded as Core finally caught up to them.

"The chief was lying to us? But why would she do that?" Xenia asked in confusion.

"I don't know, that's why I'm more inclined to believe that our theory is just wrong. Though, I imagine Clyde's come up with the same train of thought as us and he's heading this way as we speak. He'll be surprised to see the chief's home is in the village and go in to investigate," Rein explained as the group turned their gazes towards the inside of the village, seeing Clyde and Sho running towards the chiefs home as Rein expected.

"Why're we coming here again? You said the chief's lying to us or something?" Sho yelled after Clyde, who was roof hopping ahead of him, the shadowy creature still in pursuit of them.

"Yes, either that or there's an entrance to the barrier up ahead," Clyde explained as he noticed Rein and the rest of the group standing on the ground up ahead, waiting behind the chief's house.

"Why are they standing behind it? Go inside! Wait, it looks like they're punching an invisible wall again… could it be that the chief's home is actually inside?" Clyde racked his brain as he approached the house, diving straight into the premises of the home, expecting to go straight through into it.

However, he too slammed into an invisible barrier from his side, denying him entry to the chief's home.

"Huh?! Here too? Is this house isolated as well? But that doesn't make any sense!" Clyde's train of thought was cut off as he heard Sho scream behind him, warning him of the approaching ghost, forcing him to jump off the invisible wall and continue running.

"The hell? Did he slam into a barrier from his side too?! Then there's no doubt in my mind, the chief was lying. I don't know why or how, but either her or her niece is behind this," Rein concluded as Chloe and Xenia's eyes widened in shock.

"No way… then why would they hire Rangers to solve the mystery? That just doesn't make sense," Chloe stated as Rein continued thinking.

"There could be many reasons. Maybe they're unaware of what they're doing, maybe there's another condition for the activation of the ghost, maybe they enjoy it, who knows. All we do know is that we have to stop them," Rein listed as he clenched his fist.

"We can just wait for sunrise, right? Shouldn't the ghost disappear after that?" Xenia inquired, Rein shaking his head.

"That was probably another lie the chief fed us. There was likely never a condition on the time of day of the ghost appearances. Now that I think about it, there was something strange about what the old man told us. He was working on his crops while he saw someone being abducted. Why would he be working on his crops in the darkness of the night? And why were the villagers hiding even though it was daytime? It all points to the fact that the time of day doesn't matter. So even if we wait for morning to come, it won't matter," Rein theorized as his furrowed eyebrows tensed up, his teeth gritting in anger.

"Shit, if only I could do something… if only I could somehow make it into that house…" he set his palm on the barrier, suddenly feeling someone's hand land on his shoulder.

"I think now's about time," Core muttered as his face approached Reins.

"Core? The hell do you want? You've been damn near useless this entire time," Rein scolded as he saw Core reach for his pocket, taking out a small metal disk.

It was a minuscule, circular object that glimmered under the moonlight, a large button laying in the middle of the circle with the number 2 etched on it.

"Don't worry, I've got the situation under control. I can get 2 of us into the house," he claimed, Rein's eyes widening as he heard his absurd remark.

"What are you talking about? I just told you, Springs don't work."

"I know. We don't need a Spring. All we need is science," he remarked as he held the metallic disk up to his face, the entire group looking at him with bewildered expressions.

"You two stay here and press this button when it turns green. Rein and I'll go in," Core instructed as he set the button with the number 2 on it on the ground, still holding onto Rein's shoulder.

"Wait, what do you mea—"

Suddenly, Core pressed the button with the bottom of his shoe, him and Rein vanishing into thin air, leaving the button behind with Chloe and Xenia. The button lit up in a red glow, Core having told them to press it again if it turned green.

"Wha… where'd they go?" Xenia asked in a baffled tone.

Suddenly, Chloe grit her teeth and ran towards the button, holding her arm out with the intention to press it, Xenia instantly reacting, managing to hold her back just in time before she pressed it.

"Wow wow wow! What do you think you're doing Chloe? He told us to only press it if it turns green!" Xenia recounted as Chloe struggled to escape her full nelson.

"I don't care what he said! Who knows where he just took Rein! I'm not waiting for this stupid button to turn green!" Chloe cried out as Xenia held her in confinement.

"I've been meaning to ask, but why don't you trust Core? He's my classmate, I don't see anything untrustworthy about him, other than his ugly tattoos," Xenia posed while still holding Chloe.

"Right… you weren't there when they explained it… I don't know if I'm allowed to say, but basically, he's a bad guy… I don't know how Rein's forgiven him, but I sure as hell haven't," Chloe's eyes welled up with anger.

"And that's why you want to press the button? Do you even know what will happen when you do? What if there was a reason Core told us not to press it until it turned green? I don't know, but so far, he hasn't done anything to make me super suspicious of him, though maybe I'm just an idiot. And Rein wouldn't go down that easily even if it is something dangerous, you know that right? Have some faith in the man you love. Even if he's in some trouble right now, he'll be fine. Just like I know Clyde, who is trapped inside the barrier will be fine too," Xenia spoke to calm Chloe down as she felt her muscles ease up, Chloe taking a deep breath as Xenia released her.

"Thank you for that… I won't act rashly. But… When you said the man you loved, what did you mean?" She muttered with a blushing face, which made Xenia's face also turn red as she spoke without thinking.

"Ahaha… you see…"

Meanwhile, somewhere that looked familiar:

Rein and Core suddenly appeared in the same position, in a clean, polished wooden home.

"How the hell..? This is the chief's home..!"