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"MYSTIC MAYA!"
Maya immediately turned her head in the direction of the shout, the source of said shout running out of the side room, fear evident in her eyes and bolting towards her.
"Pearl!" Maya allowed her to tackle into her chest, wrapping her arms around her shaking form. "What happened?"
"A...a stranger was...in there..." Pearl pointed a finger towards the side room, her grip on her clothes was iron. Whoever that was in there had the nerve to scare her sweet little cousin.
And Maya was intending to teach them a lesson on it.
"Stay close, Pearly." Maya instructed, receiving a little nod from her as they cautiously stepped into the side room. Once inside, the spirit medium could see that it's empty, all that was there were beds and a clothing box that has been repaired of a bullet hole long ago.
"Where is the stranger Pearly?" Maya asked, knowing that her cousin wasn't the kind to lie about this stuff.
"In...in the box." Pearl gestured to the clothing box, its lid closed. She probably slammed it shut after seeing this stranger.
Stepping closer to the box, Maya kept a protective hold on Pearl, opening it up once she was close enough.
Who she saw was a boy with blue hair and wearing rather...strange clothes. He appears to be unconscious as told by his eyes being shut and position in the box.
"Who the..." Maya muttered, feeling Pearl tighten her grip on her at the sight of the strange stranger. He seems peaceful, but if he managed to scare her cousin, then perhaps he isn't as peaceful as he looks asleep.
"Mhm..." The boy started to stir from his slumber, slowly looking at the two girls and causing Pearl to shrink closer to Maya, trying hard not to scream again. "Huh?"
"I'm gonna keep this brief." Maya stated, becoming serious with the boy. "You scared my little cousin half to death, and you're going to answer what you're doing here in the village."
"What? I don't..." The boy blinked his eyes at them, before apparently being dawned by realization. "Wait... so this isn't a dream?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I saw you." The boy pointed towards Pearl, who was still petrified by fear.
"You saw Pearly in a dream?" Maya has no idea what he's talking about.
"Well, I now know it's not a dream." He sighed, now deciding to get out of the box, which prompted both of the spirit mediums to back away. "Hey, I'm harmless, I swear. Exorcism may seem like a taboo subject, but I swear it's-"
"Exorcism?" Despite herself, Maya found herself asking about the exorcism part.
"Yeah?"
"So you're an exorcist?"
"I am, what about it?"
"Nothing, just asking."
After that, neither of them said anything for a while, just staring at one another until the boy decided to address the elephant in the room.
"We're getting off topic. Who are you both if I might ask?"
Maya looked at Pearl, wanting to see if she would be comfortable with sharing their identities with this stranger. Her little cousin just gave a little nod, and that was all the confirmation she needed to introduce them both.
"I'm Maya Fey, a spirit medium, and this is my cousin Pearl."
"It's.... nice to meet you both. I'm Chongyun, as you already know, I'm an exorcist." The boy, known as Chongyun, responded.
"Okay, first and foremost, I need to know, do you know how you ended up in Kurain? It's clear that you didn't come here of your own accord."
"I have no idea. I just remember walking when I passed out. And Kurain? Is that the name of this place? I never heard of a place like that before."
"Huh? You never heard about the village?" Maya knew that not everyone would know about the place, but since he's an exorcist, she expected him to know of it at least.
"No, the only villages I know of are Qingce, Mingyun, Qiaoying-"
"I never heard of those names either."
"What?"
This is weird. Very weird. Neither of them knew of the places they speak of and his fashion sense is strange as well.
Maybe she should call Nick. Maybe he'll have an idea what's going on.
"Hang on, I need to make a call." Maya said as she released her hold on Pearl, as much as neither of them wanted to. She gave an apprehensive stare at Chongyun as she went over to one of the corners of the side room, keeping one eye on the exorcist as she dialed the number to reach out to her friend.
"Nick! I found someone in Kurain. He's dressed strange and he mentioned some places I never heard of before. Huh? Wait, so he's from... that's ridiculous...okay I'll need some evidence for that. Me and Pearl will use the train with him to meet up with you, you better be there, alright?"
After she ended her call with Nick, she puts away her phone, seeing that neither of the other two moved an inch when she went away.
"Okay!" Maya clapped her hands together to get their attention. "We'll be heading to a friend of mine to settle a few things, using a train!"
"What's a train?" Chongyun asked, looking confused at the word.
"You... you're just like Pearly aren't you?"