Why Did You Summon Me?

Baiyi’s appearance could be changed at will, but he usually preferred three appearances.

 The first was his classic pumpkin-head-plus-emoji-face form, used before the Voidwalkers and his closest friends for no reason other than familiarity.

 The second was a spectacularly grandiose and magnificently gilded armor that would gleam in golden hues under every ray of light. Such an awesome and awe-inspiring look was for public appearance.

 Finally, exclusively for his family members and his mistress, Baiyi assumed the look of a sophisticated, gallant man — a bourgeoise, cultured man with profound sensibilities and finely-aged handsome look. This was also the body where every essential biological function was complete.

 Bai Yin’s favorite was the third one bar none. The second one was also fine, but the first one was the face of her nightmares. Her father had assumed that look before giving her the most memory-scarring spanking in her life, and so the girl equated it as Baiyi’s Demon Dad mode and associated it with her most deep-seated trauma.

 The thugs, however, were blissfully unaware of the man’s true identity. They started to mock his appearance.

 “Yo, who lost their grandpa on the streets?”

 “Hey, hey, only a moron would wear armor and go out on a midnight stroll!”

 “Please don’t tell me you mistook some tin can as a mobile suit!”

 Baiyi’s eyes ignored all of them but Bai Yin, who had shrunken behind Anshin’s back. He waved his feather-duster and said coldly, “So, are you going to come to me, or do you want me to get over there?”

 Threatened, Bai Yin let out a low whimper before tearing herself away from Anshin. She took baby steps and inched as slowly as possible toward her father.

 “Oy, f**k you; we’re still here!” One of the hoodlums thundered and spun his chain-mace. He was about to open this particular walking can!

 He had barely hurled his weapon when his body suddenly fell limp and crashed onto the ground in a kneeling position.

 He was far from the only one. Every step Baiyi made past the gang members were accompanied by the sounds of bodies crashing onto the pavement. Sinisterly, none of them let out a yelp, and Anshin was utterly baffled.

 Only these hoodlums could, somewhat, understand what was happening to them: right when they lurched into an attack, time suddenly slowed into a grind. A pair of giant hands nipped their heads and lifted them into an abyss, where the darkest black poured around them like fog until a harrowing face manifested. Seeing its victims, the face’s maw stretched painfully into a crooked, twisted grin.

 It slowly brought the hoodlums to its eyes, its sight boring through them as though it was a food critic rating how their souls would taste. No matter how much they struggled for their lives, their bodies remained cemented into inaction, as though they had long lost control of their own body.

 The ghastly disembodied head swallowed them, and the hoodlums’ senses went black.

 When their senses returned, the hoodlums found themselves imprisoned in a freezing cage blended completely with the darkness surrounding them. They could not feel their limbs, yet their sensory receptions appeared intact because they could feel the passing of time, the biting chilliness, and pain. Yet, their only reaction was to suffer them quietly because they had lost the capability to scream.

 Realizations hit a few of the more learned members of the gang as memories of what the media called the ‘Punishing Torture’ surfaced into their mind: banishment to the Void. It was a punishment reserved only to convicts who had committed the most heinous atrocity precisely because it was even more torturous than the death penalty. Even more terrifyingly, depending on their serving time, convicts imprisoned in this eternal darkness might be released one day, even if the punishment had left lasting trauma and psychological scars in its prisoners. Those who were released rarely lived their last days in peace, as the torments they had experienced slowly compelled them to kill themselves.

 The hoodlums were disconcerted. They spent so much time as gangsters roaming through a long-abandoned city and not particularly paying dues to the law, yet all it took to skip through conventional punishment and straight into the Void was the thought of kidnapping a girl? The longer they mused about it, the more the question loomed: ‘Who the f*** was that armored nutcase? How the f*** did he sentence them with the worst punishment without a sign or sound?’

 Unbeknownst to these hoodlums, every other criminal in Eos had all been banished to the Void, including the Mad Dragon Gang’s perverts who had thought of sexually assaulting Bai Yin. According to all of the crimes they had committed, these thugs might face three days in the Void at best, and permanent exile at worst.

 The only residents in Eos who had not been swept away into the dark were the homeless and traveling artists.

 Perhaps the most hair-raising aspect of this was that it happened within a snap. It was so quick that unaffected observer like Anshin had no idea what just happened, nor would she imagine the atrocity this creepy uncle in a strange outfit had just committed.

 Bai Yin espied the unconscious hoodlums sprawling on the pavement and knew that her father had meted out his punishment toward them, so she hastened her pace and threw herself onto Baiyi, wrapping his thigh into a tight hug. She lifted her face to him and forced her eyes to watery before saying, “I’m so sorry, Daddy, I shouldn’t have!”

 One could tell that was the “correct” way of placating Baiyi’s initial fury because he immediately lowered his feather-duster and brought the girl up in his arms. “Good. We’ll talk about this once we’re home.”

 His eyes dashed to Anshin, who was so frightened she could not get up to her feet and began to examine her. He made a few steps forward and said, “I’m Baiyi. Thank you for protecting my daughter.”

 “Oh… um… Uh, h-h-hello, M-M-Mr. Bai,” Anshin stuttered through her greetings while her mind stubbornly blanked. Although her eyes saw an uncle wearing a weird armor, her mind could not help but perceive a towering mountain — unscalable and untoppable.

 She remembered standing before her king before she furthered her studies in the New Empire. She was considered one of the laureates of her country worthy of the king’s audience, and back then, she thought she had seen the greatest, most powerful man ever.

 Now, however, she realized that no matter how powerful her king was, if the sky crashes down, it would be this strange-looking man who could single-handedly hold the sky when no one else could.

 ‘Little Yin’s father is freaking horrendous! How does she even cope with her daily life?’ Anshin remarked quietly as memories of her nervous audience with the king rose to her mind. The pressure of seeing a man of high-status had chagrined her, but now this uncle was choking her.

 Bai Yin placed her hand on the sides of Baiyi’s mask. “Daddy, please. Anshin’s been taking care of me very much. Can you please stop scaring her?” She implored softly.

 “Oh! Right, sorry, I’m also at the meeting right now. Distracted,” Baiyi replied abruptly.

 Suddenly, the air relaxed, and Anshin felt like she could breathe again. Just as suddenly, Uncle Bai had become marginally less terrifying; at least the girl could now slowly rise to her feet.

 “So, you’re Anshin, a foreign student from the vassal country of Bibliosia. Presently a student majoring in Imperial History, of the Ivy Academy located in Mnemosyne City?” Baiyi recounted Anshin’s background as though he was reading her bio.

 Anshin was too rattled to figure out how the stranger knew her information. So she nodded meekly instead.

 “A pity. Ivy Academy isn’t well-known for its degree in history. You deserve better,” Baiyi said.

 ‘Oh, I love how easy that sounds — especially when compared to how difficult it is to get in the most famous and renowned Imperial Da Xue! But I didn’t make it past the frickin’ entrance exam, so what do I have left?’ Anshin thought dejectedly. She was one of the most talented youths from her home country — bright enough to earn an audience with her king — yet ever since she came to the New Empire, she was constantly reminded of how unimpressive she was. Even her classmates made fun of her and called her a backwater bumpkin.

 Baiyi fished out a name card from his pocket after shifting his daughter to his other arm. “Give this number a call. Now, is there somewhere else you would rather be?”

 “If I could, I would like to return to my bed right now. I would like to pretend that everything that has happened today was a dream… Which would probably be classified as a nightmare,” Anshin answered in a dazed tone. She took the number from Baiyi’s hand and kept it without asking him whom did it belong.

 “Considered it done. I wish you good luck,” Baiyi said, turning his back against her. “Goodbye.”

 “Goodbye, Big Sister Anshin! I would love to see you again in the future! By then, I promise I’ll bring you my mother’s tasty treats!” Bai Yin shouted from Baiyi’s shoulder, waving her hand.

 Anshin had not gotten the time to answer her when her vision blurred. When she could finally make sense of her surrounding, she realized she was, indeed, tucked snugly in her bed back in her dorm!

 She leaped from her bed as though someone stepped on her tail, frightening her roommate.

 “Holy crap, Anshin!? Aren’t you supposed to be in Eos or something?!”

 “S-sorry, can I get a glass of water? I’m so, so confused right now. Hell, can I get the coldest water we have?” Anshin babbled from her spot on the edge of her bed, massaging her temples. She looked at her palm, and there it was: the paper with the number on it.

 Her head cleared a bit more after a big gulp of water. Eyeing her roommate’s concerned look, she said, “Um, you’ll have to wait a bit for an explanation. Right now, I think I have a call to make…”

 She dialed the number and waited until a stern but feminine voice spoke from the other end, “Yes?”

 “Er, um, h-hi. I, um, called because Mr.Bai told me to call you. Um, right, m-my name is Anshin…” The girl gave her best self-introduction and launched into a short description of what happened. Finally, she asked, “I’m s-so sorry to bother you, but can you please tell me what just happened?”

 The woman at the other end was surprisingly patient and attentive to Anshin, even if her retelling was a bit jumbled and at times disconnective. A soft giggle came through the phone upon Anshin’s question. “Oh, that’s my eccentric godfather, alright! He was probably busy with some other affairs at that moment; he didn’t mean to scare you like that. Please, allow me to apologize on his behalf.”

“Now, as for this number, I believe it’s his way of thanking you. Perhaps we should schedule a meeting soon,” the voice continued. “Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself. I’m Vidomina.”