Chapter Text
Another auspicious day in Qingce Village with Xingqiu. The firm grass beneath his feet, the sight of the plentiful fields in oranges, yellows, and green, and a friend by his side, what more could Chongyun ask for?
“Yun, Yun? Chongyun~”
He broke out from staring at the other’s face.
“Hmm?”
“Look, there’s a shooting star! Let’s make a wish!”
Xingqiu closed his eyes and bowed and Chongyun smiled and followed. Fate has been generous in allowing his path to cross with that of his reliable companion. He knows that one day, Xingqiu would take the mantle as the biggest commerce guild’s heir and he, too, would leave onto the path of exorcists away from the bustling, city life. Chongyun could only wish for moments together like these, as brief as crystal flies, to lengthen their stay. Even one more adventure, just one more, would be enough.
Chongyun opened eyes and he noticed that the shooting stars had split. How lucky! Oh, oh, and there’s more! And over there too! And over here… too? More appeared, and split. A lot more appeared. And split.
“Xingqiu…?”
His friend still had his eyes closed.
“Shh…”
The shooting stars turned from blue to purple and burst into zigzag paths. Some even did a full back-flip.
“Xingqiu…” Chongyun nudged his friend’s shoulder.
“Not now, I’m almost finished…”
A star veered and beelined toward them.
“Xingqiu!” Chongyun shook the other and Xingqiu finally responded.
“What-Oh, Morax!”
Xingqiu pulled Chongyun away from the star and it whizzed past them. It turned around and aimed for them again. They summoned their weapons and charged. Xingqiu splashed it with water blades and Chongyun sent a mighty slam that froze it in ice. The duo turned back and more meteors headed their way.
Chongyun pulled his claymore onto his back and brushed his head.
“You ready?”
Xingqiu spun his sword into his battle stance and smiled.
“Ready as I can be.”
—
“Are you sure this is the place?” Jake whispered to Riu as the other rotated his ‘treasure map’ and flicked his long hair to read better.
“I am 99.9999% sure. And get off your phone. We’re doing something here.”
Jake quickly closed his Genshin Impact fanfiction tab and put his phone away. In front of them stood a gray, shoddy house. One of its windows had broken and the walls seemed barely holding on.
“Com’on man,” Riu said and playfully slapped his shoulder, “If this one’s another waste, I’ll take you to the ice cream shop. It’s on me this time.”
“Alright, but you first.”
Riu took a deep breath and stepped onto the front porch. The wooden floor broke under and Jake caught him in time. Riu thanked him then entered the house
Jake looked up, wishing for a gloomy cloud to strike an ominous lightning in the background. Perhaps that would scare Riu away. Sadly, he only met the shiny sun smiling at him.
A purple shooting star passed in the sky. He blinked and it was gone.
Jake only hoped that this prank of Tao’s is as fake as the others…
Once they entered, the door creaked shut and slammed behind them. Somehow, it was pitch-black inside. Jake and Riu held out their phones as flashlights. The house’s paint was non-existent by its age, and furniture was placed at weird angles.
Riu unfolded the map. “It says number 2 here… Let’s go upstairs.”
“What if it’s the toilet?”
“Never, ever, go to the toilet in a haunted house.”
Jake nodded and followed Riu up. The stairs creaked the whole way as dust fell from the ceilings. Claw marks covered the walls.
There was only room upstairs. With a flick of a switch, a small hanging lamp lit what seemed to be a cozy grandma’s bedroom. The floor had a conveniently huge ‘x’ mark made of chalk. This was the room.
The duo searched the whole room, every drawer, and even under the bed, but there was nothing more than dust, cobwebs, and more dust.
Jake laid on the bed, kinda good and soft, not gonna lie, while Riu continued to reopen the drawers.
“There must be something here… I can sense it!”
“What if that something is just dust? Like, an extra large dust.”
Riu chuckled and continued his search and Jake put his head on the pillow. Phew, another fake clue and another ordinary old house. He could get a nap or two. Ugh, the pillow was hard though.
He lifted up the pillow. Still nothing under. A soft clanking. There was something in the pillow. Jake shook it and a golden ring-thing came out. No, too thick and huge to be a ring. He could put his whole arm in there if he tried. Wristband? A piece of golden armor maybe? What kind of grandma owned this house? Jake peeked back and Riu was still busy with the drawers.
Nothing wrong with trying. Jake opened the cuff up and clasped it onto his wrist. Hmm, a bit loose, but much lighter than he thought.
“Riu, look what I found-” The cuff tightened to his wrist.
“Woah, what? Is that real gold?”
“I don’t think so.” Jake picked at its lock. It was stuck. “Bro, I can’t get it out.”
“Ha, that’s for disrespecting the dead. But still… wrist armor? What is Tao thinking this time?”
“I’m not kidding, I really can’t get it off!”
Jake started to pull it off and it hurt. Riu grinned worrily and came over. The moment Riu touched it, a voice rang,
“Xingqiu?”
A light shone from the cuff and a small child popped out. It had light blue hair and white jacket. Jake remembered that costume from somewhere.
“Thank you, you freed me! And, Qiu, why are you bigger? Who’s this?”
Jake looked at Riu. Riu looked at Jake. They did the most common sense thing they could. They screamed. The tiny chibi screamed and fell backwards by its sheer head weight and the duo bolted out the room.
Jake and Riu ran down the stairs and dashed to the door but the knob fell off.
“How did you summon a demon?!”
“I didn’t! It-it’s this wrist-thing!”
Jake shook and the cuff still wouldn’t budge.
“Wait! Xingqiu, it’s me!” The boy’s shouting echoed from behind. Riu cursed and dragged Jake the other way.
“What did he say?” Jake asked.
“Nevermind that. I saw another window back there. Let’s roll.”
The house was bigger than Jake clearly remembered. At the front door, a dark figure blocked the door. It had a tribal attire with a familiar horned red-white mask and a bushy mane under. It roared at them and the duo screamed. A-a hilichurl??
They turned back, but another hilichurl appeared!
They were cornered.
“Demons! Fight someone your equal!” That voice called again and the hilichurl was knocked to the side. The chibi demon had summoned a friggin’ claymore out of nowhere. He swung his sword and shot a tiny ice blade at the other hilichurl. The hilichurl crushed the blade like a toothpick and snorted. The boy gulped but pounced into a fight anyway and the other falled hilichurl joined back in.
Jake and Riu took this chance and bolted out of the door.
Panting outside, Jake felt guilty.
“Should we go back and help him?”
“Why should we save someone we were running from 5 minutes ago?!”
“But that’s the guy who saved our butt from 5 seconds ago!”
Sounds of howls inside and the duo dropped their empathy and ran down the street. There was a throbbing pain in Jake’s head the further he went from the house that he skidded to a stop. There was this other feeling… to help that boy. This was mad, this was mad, this was mad. He veered around, and ran back to the house.
“No! You’ll die!” Riu shouted behind but Jake made up his mind.
He crossed the patio, tore out a wooden plank from the floor, and entered the house. There were 3 hilichurls now, surrounding the tiny chibi, who was panting, all battered and bruised.
Jake whacked the hilichurl so hard his wooden plank broke in half. It shook its head and all three looked at him, menacingly. Maybe that wasn’t the brightest choice…
A red plumber knocked itself on one of the hilichurls. Another pinned itself on the hilichurl’s mask, blocking its vision. The chibi got back on his feet and stumped the last hiilchurl’s toe.
“Mario for the win!!” That was Riu! Armed with… plumbers?
“You said never go to the bathroom in a haunted house!”
“This is a special occasion! I’m not leaving you hanging!” Riu held the door open and Jake quickly scooped up the child and ran off.
–
They regathered themselves at an ice cream shop nearby. Jake and Riu chose the innermost seat, away from the window, where the chibi can be hidden a bit. Jake stared at the chibi, happily licking his ice cream that Riu bought. Riu was sitting beside the chibi, pointing at his tiny cheeks and Jake had to send him a “don’t you dare” glare. Riu mouthed “I don’t care” and poked at it anyways. “It’s freaking soft” Riu mouthed and Jake stopped himself from face-palming.
Jake cleared his throat. “So you’re saying you’re… Chongyun. Like, Chongyun from Genshin Impact?” A videogame .
The chibi Chongyun nodded.
“Under these circumstances, I understand if you don’t recognize me, Qiu.” Chibi Chongyun gestured his tiny hands towards Riu, who cringed.
“Ahem, just because my hair is long, I am not Xingqiu.”
“Your hair is just as whacky though,” Jake whispered and earned an offenced glare from Riu. Riu gave a fake polite smile towards chibi Chongyun.
“I’ll need a private chat with my friend here. Please stay here, would you?”
After the chibi nodded, Riu and Jake moved to another table.
“Dude, this guy’s insane,” Riu whispered. “And look at that size, he may not be a demon but a pokemon. We should take him to the police!”
“They’ll call us crazy! He might be a robot that escaped from a lab or something. Or-or, what if he’s actually Chongyun? Like a reverse Isekai fic?”
Riu put his head in his hands.
“And why is it us to find him? You don’t have Chongyun. I don’t even main Chongyun!”
“You main Xingqiu.”
“Yeah, whatever! Why did you put on that wrist cuff? If you didn’t disrespect the dead, we wouldn’t be in this lucid dream in the first place!”
“I am as real as you are, Xingqiu,” chibi Chongyun said sadly. “Maybe a little smaller now.”
“I am not Xingqiu!”
Jake snapped at the chibi, “Hate to break it to you, but you’re not real in this world.”
Chongyun dropped his ice cream.
“What?”
Suddenly, a loud horn blared outside. And those weren’t car horns. A couple of hilichurls broke the shop’s door. One of them swung a club and broke a nearby table. People screamed and ran out as the hilichurls dove behind the counter and roared at the employees.
“I’m not paid enough for this!”
Crowds gathered and a wild frenzy gathered at the entrance and the backdoor while the hilichurl rummaged through the ice cream buckets.
With the exit blocked, Jake, Riu, and Chongyun hid under the tables.
“Can’t you just grow to your original size?” Riu said to Chongyun.
Chongyun closed his eyes and shivered his whole body, looking like a puppy after the rain. He shook his head sadly.
Jake peeked back to the monsters. The hilichurls were actually robbing the place of ice cream, AND money. What can they do with money anyways? Jake felt someone pull the corner of his shirt.
“I have a tingling feeling to do something, but you may not like it.”
The other hilichurl sniffed the air and look in there way.
“Shoot it.”
“I am going to… jump into your body.”
Riu turned immediately. “You WHAT?”
“I know, I know it sounds weird…” The hilichul ran towards their table.
“Just DO IT.”
Chibi Chongyun squeaked and headbutted Jake, and he flew into the hilichurl. Riu gave a high-pitched scream and hid deeper under the table. Breath in, breathe out. Think. Call the police.
“Hello, 911?”
I’m so sorry Jake , Riu thought. I”ll go to your funeral and one day be a martial artist to avenge you- A brown, furry hand grabbed his phone and crushed it to pieces. It growled at him. Oops, nevermind. I’ll join you soon…
Crash!
The hilichurl flew to the side.
“Sorry I’m late.” A cool voice said.
Riu coughed at the dust and brushed away his soggy face (totally didn’t cried a second ago). In front of him was a young man with blue hair dressed in white jacket. His ice blue cat-eyes filled determination. Chongyun?? At normal size?!?
Riu squeed inside with fanboy thoughts as Chongyun grabbed his shoulder and asked,
“You okay?”
“Y-yes.”
“Why, I got something on my face huh?” Chongyun touched his face and looked at his hands. “Oh wow! I’m Chongyun!”
What?
“It’s me, Jake!” His eyes turned brown for a second then back to the light blue cat eyes. Chongyun then whispered to himself.
“No, that’s still not Xingqiu.” A hilichurl raised its club behind him.
“Behind you!”
Chongyun ducked and sweeped the hilichurl off its feet.
“Did you see that?! I have martial arts moves now!”
Riu continued watching in confusion as Chongyun summoned a claymore and tossed the hilichurl to the other side of the shop. He somersaulted into the air and a huge ice blade appeared, chilling the whole ice cream shop. He swung the hilichurls away from the counter and dodge a club smack. He flipped right back with an ice-infused swing that froze the hilichurl.
The rest of the hilichurls exchanged alarmed growls and they fled with their fallen comrades.
Chongyun let out a sigh and Riu got out of hiding. Chongyun pierced his claymore into the ground and it disappeared. He slumped down panting.
Chongyun whispered again.
“I-I can’t hold on any longer.”
Suddenly, his light blue hair faded to brown and the white jacket rippled and disappeared into the gold cuffs, returning to Jake’s simple t-shirt and pants. A smol Chongyun popped out of Jake’s body and flopped on the ground. Small cute snores slipped out of the chibi’s mouth.
Jake coughed. “Wow, that, I, we, what…”
“Yes, I saw, and we need to get out now .”
Riu dragged both of them out of the shop through the backdoor.
–
At his apartment room, Jake woke the chibi Chongyun up. It was getting late, so Riu had already returned home.
“You should stay in my room only. My mom’s coming home soon, and we don’t even allow pets,” he told Chongyun as the other clung to his backpack and eagerly devoured the sights.
“What is that?” Chongyun pointed to the TV.
Jake smiled and put down his backpack on the sofa. He opened the TV, gave the remote to Chongyun and taught him how to use it. Satisfied with seeing the other play with the remote like a child, Jake unpack his bags and showered.
Jake realized that the golden cuffs still couldn’t be taken off, what a bother to him when he changed into his pajamas.
He came back into the living room and started to do his homework when Chongyun nudged him.
“Look, we’re in the black box too!”
“It’s just a picture…”
There in the news, some vlogger had taken a video of him, as Chongyun, fighting with the hilichurls. Jake swiped the remote from Chongyun and closed the TV. Chongyun let out a little groan.
“It’s late now, you should… go do whatever exorcists do at night.”
“I normally meditate at this hour.”
“Right… Do your thing, I have my work too.”
Jake opened his phone and started scribbling in an essay while Chongyun laid splat on the sofa, wiggling his current tiny legs.
“Jake… That’s your name, correct?”
“Yeah?”
“What did you mean back there… that I’m not real here?”
Oh that. He still remembered.
“This… isn’t Teyvat is it? Or at least… The one I know of…”
Jake closed his phone and notebook. He carefully sat by Chongyun and patted his back. He scrambled his head for an apology.
“I didn’t mean to say that.”
“But Xingqiu-Riu also said something similar. There must be some truth to them? I-I’m sorry I’ve eavesdrop on your conversation.”
“Well… we were strangers who literally kidnapped you to some ice cream shop. So, you did kinda have the right to eavesdrop. About this-your-our… world. How should I say it?”
Jake opened Genshin Impact and wikipedia (because he Chongyunn didn’t come home, in-game) and explained all about the video game and the concept of reverse-isekai.
“...but normally, you should come into my world as, you know, you, not this version.” Jake gestured towards Chongyun’s current Paimon-sized form.
“So world traveling is normal in your world?”
“ Stories , yes, actual traveling, no, especially not these past few years.”
“Oh… I was hoping, there would be others…”
Chongyun stared into the distance, as if thinking about someone. Jake sighed and tossed him a book with a samurai on the cover.
“A visual novel?”
“We call them manga here.”
Chongyun smiled at him and gave a small thanks. They both dove into the mangas throughout the night.
–
Unbeknownst to the duo, a dark figure stalks them since they’ve entered the apartment. The moon lit up the green mask hung from the stranger’s waist as he stared through the windows. He nodded his head at some agreement and disappeared in a green flash.
–
In an abandoned hill somewhere, dark mists appeared. Out poured lines and lines of hilichurls. They marched into the nearby half broken warehouse, now poorly fixed up by wooden gates and makeshift shields. Each threw their loot onto a pile. Some were food, others shiny objects, and the last was a pile, a pile of money.
A loud horn blew and they all scrambled to the side.
A purple mist appeared and an Abyss Mage appeared. The hilichurls that failed to rob the ice cream shop didn’t hide in time. A bubble chased it and it got trapped inside.
“How dare you come back empty handed?” The hydro Abyss mage screeched and the hilichurl flailed inside, desperately clawing for air.
“The Master needed materials soon! Do not disappoint me again.”
The bubble finally popped and the hilichurl wheezed.
“Useless scums.” It turned away.
A louder step came from behind as huge mitachurls walked in with human prisoners.
“Ooooh, trying to steal our stuff? Do you know what we do with robbers?”
The humans pleaded and cried and the Abyss Mage grinned under its mask.
“What is the human phrase? Hmm… I know, ‘If you can’t beat them, join them.’”
The Abyss Mage nodded and the mitachurls held the humans tightly. Some hilichurls took masks from the walls. They slapped it on the humans’ face and purple, gooey tendrils grabbed onto their heads. The humans writhed and squirmed as muffled screams slipped under. One by one, the sounds died down and they stopped resisting.
Under the masks were no longer human. Manes replaced where their hair were and their hands were paws. The mitachurls let go and the once-robbers quickly clawed the masks off. The Abyss Mage turned away and cackled as the more inhumane cries howled behind.
“Let them rest boys, everyone gets used to it… eventually.”
The warehouse door closed as more stars fell from the sky.