“Whoa… Black Cocoon, that’s a fitting na.” Ji Minghuan teased, curling his lips. “Matches that weirdo’s creepy look—like so giant flappy moth.”
“I thought of you the mont I saw his photo,” the Instructor suddenly said.
A casual statent, but it brought a mont of silence to the confinent room.
What kind of joke is this… They already figured
out? Are we skipping ahead to the dismbernt part now?
Ji Minghuan was startled inside, but didn’t let it show. His face carried an expression caught between confusion and annoyance.
He asked, “Why? Do I look even the slightest bit like that ugly-ass thing?”
“You—”
Ji Minghuan propped his chin on his hand, lazily cutting him off. “If you wanna say I’m ugly, just say it, Instructor. No need to beat around the bush. I can take that kind of personal attack.”
“I ntioned yesterday how you were as a kid. Back then, you wrapped yourself up tightly with toilet paper in the bathroom. One of the nurses at the orphanage even took a picture of it.”
As he spoke, the Instructor pulled a photo from his white coat pocket and placed it on top of the one of “Black Cocoon.”
Ji Minghuan silently looked down.
In the photo, a younger version of himself had locked himself in the bathroom and wrapped his whole body in roll after roll of toilet paper—like a white mummy. The shape bore a faint resemblance to the black cocoon in the photo underneath, just a rough prototype.
The two photos were stacked so that the lower one peeked out from underneath. The cocoon made of toilet paper on the left, the one ford by Binding Restraints on the right—a stark contrast in color.
Ji Minghuan stared for a mont, clicked his tongue, and defended himself, “Co on… I already explained this. It was just so dumb sh*t I did when I was a clueless kid.”
He spoke absentmindedly while recalling, “At least I never had a habit of dressing up like a giant moth in public to scare people… Back at the orphanage during Halloween, the scariest thing I ever dressed up as was Ghost Dog. You know, the kind that barks and says ‘trick or treat.’ Totally harmless.”
“I just ant… maybe when your Esper ability awakens, it’ll turn out to be similar to his.” The Instructor smiled.
“Well that’s freaky as hell. Who in their right mind enjoys wrapping themselves up like a mummy?” Ji Minghuan sighed. “If you guys ever catch this Esper, I suggest sending him to Neurology first—make sure there’s nothing wrong upstairs.”
The Instructor put the photos away and asked with a smile, “So? Are you a little more interested in Esper powers now?”
“I know my limits. A muggle is a muggle—being interested doesn’t help.” Ji Minghuan paused. “Besides, even if I were as amazing as you say, I’d have already busted outta this dump instead of sitting here taking your crap.”
“But if you really were just an ordinary person, we wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to lock you up.” The Instructor didn’t take his words seriously.
“I still don’t get it. Why exactly did you guys catch ? Hasn’t a month been enough to prove I’m just normal?”
“Soone predicted you’d destroy the world.”
“Ha. Ha.” Ji Minghuan gave two dry, emotionless laughs. Then he asked, “Did that person binge too many Hollywood movies?” He sighed. “Every little thing turns into world-ending destruction… If it were that easy to end the world, fine. But man, I can’t even destroy myself. I try to self-harm and get tased for it.”
“Who knows.”
“So who was it that spread this rumor about ?” Ji Minghuan probed. “Can’t you bring them to see ? Let us hash it out face-to-face.”
“No,” the Instructor cut in. “To be precise, we can’t.”
“Why? Don’t tell
the guy’s chilling in outer space?”
“No. We’ve never even t him. Don’t know who he is.”
“Huh?” Ji Minghuan raised an eyebrow, stunned. After a long pause, he asked, “So you locked
up for over a month just because of so rando you’ve never even t?”
“He’s made many predictions about events that would cause massive global impact. And every single ti, the outco matched his prophecy exactly,” the Instructor said slowly. “He’s helped us avoid countless major disasters. But we’ve never had direct contact with him. In fact… he never gave us the chance.”
He paused. “And ever since he told us about you, he vanished.”
“You guys really couldn’t co up with a more believable story, huh?”
The Instructor just smiled calmly. “Anyway, none of us have ever seen him. No one knows who he really is. He’s like a ghost—just watching the world from afar. No matter how serious the disasters he predicts—there was even a country that got wiped off the map—his tone in the letters was always flat, like he was describing sothing mundane.”
He paused again. “But…”
“But?”
“But when it ca to you, he was dead serious. Said you must be contained, or the consequences would be grave.”
Ji Minghuan’s vision went dark. Head drooping, he slumped, defeated. “Got it. The dude definitely has beef with … Could he be the head of our orphanage? I was a little nace growing up, watched his hairline recede from his forehead to the crown thanks to my antics—no, wait, now he doesn’t even have a hairline. Just one big ol’ egg.”
“Sorry to disappoint, but your orphanage director is just a regular person.”
“If this so-called prophet shows up again soday, will you guys tell ?”
“Alright. If he really appears again, maybe I’ll let you know.”
“Cool,” Ji Minghuan went quiet for a bit, then casually added, “By the way, didn’t you say yesterday…” He already knew—the Instructor was probably gonna bail again.
“Yes, I’m here today for that very thing.” This ti, the Instructor took yesterday’s lesson to heart and made sure to na her: “Kong Youling will be here in five minutes to see you. I’ll give you two privacy—no one will disturb you. Say whatever you want.”
“For real?”
“Of course it’s real.” The Instructor smiled calmly. “I’m leaving now. Wait here.”
With that, he got up from his chair and walked out of the monitoring room. As his figure disappeared behind the descending isolation door, the rows of cool-toned lights dimd, and the whole world fell into darkness.
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