Starring:
Date: September 14, 2014
Summary:
Michiko is sent ghost hunting in a village outside of Kumogakure.
"Ghost Attack in the Land of Lightning"
Village in the Land of Lightning
Kumogakure wasn't particularly well known for it's ghost stories. For as often as there had been claims that the shrine in the mountains had been haunted, the rest of the land had been relatively peaceful. However, the last few days had come with numerous reports of people wandering a certain stretch of road at night, and coming face to face with the spirits of the restless dead. If it had only been one story, it might have been brushed off as people either making things up, or a case of hallucinations… But every night afterwards, similar stories had come in.
The stories all happened during the night. All of them describing a pale woman who seemed to be lost at first, accompanied by an eerie fog. There had been stories of the travelers attempting to offer her their help, for which they were attacked, as well as stories of her following them for long distances, showing up at random points along the road, even if they ignored her… But there had not been any casualties as of yet, and in most cases the victims had not suffered much more than a few scratches for their efforts.
And so it came to pass that the local ninja village was employed to look into the problems, lest trade to the Land of Lightning be cut off due to the stories.
Michiko heard the stories, of course, and somehow she's the one to end up on the mission to investigate it. She had faced a few 'ghosts', most of them actually being an animal or a person. She really hopes this 'ghost' is really an animal, since they're easier to deal with, but if it's a person… Well, hopefully that person can just leave. And if it's a ghost, she'll see if Kumo can't invest in an exorcist. So the girl made her way to the village this ghost appears at, staying at one of the inns in town to rest in the day so she can take a night shift.
The night that Michiko had arrived at the inn… There didn't seem to be too much happening. People went about their business as normal, most of them heading inside after a long day of work, and then it was quiet… but for a thin fog that had started to fall over the streets shortly after silence fell over the village… the first of the apparent signs of a haunting.
The mysterious fog that appears has Michiko's guard on high. She debates whether or not to go inside, but (unwisely) stays out in the streets. Fortunately there's a few lights where she is. The girl keeps her back to a wall for now, mostly not wanting to have anything sneak up from behind her.
Michiko has little to worry about… As whatever it was out there at this time of night, didn't seem to be interested in sneaking up on her. After a few minutes, it almost seems like nothing is going to happen… Then the girl appears, walking down the street, looking to and fro, with her pristine white hair covering her eyes as she looks around. She wore all white, something that the stories had mentioned once or twice, but not frequently… But all in all, it seemed likely that this was indeed the ghost people were talking about.
The girl didn't seem to be paying Michiko much mind at this point, and she seemed to be quite lost.
Michiko sees the girl from afar and hesitates for a second before calling out. "Excuse me. Are you lost, by any chance? Or did you want something?" The girl isn't quite sure how to react to this 'ghost'. For all intents and purposes, she looked lie a normal person. Granted, she was in all white and her hair is the same color, but still…
The white haired girl stops as she hears Michiko's voice calling out to her, and turns her head to face the girl. "…" She is silent, staring blankly through the shroud of her bangs. For a second, it doesn't look like she's going to do or say anything… and then the window next to Michiko starts to shake violently, continuing for just a few seconds, until another window joins suit, and then they both explode outward, showering glass all over the street, and of course, a bit at Michiko herself, seeming to go out of it's way to try and cut her, despite her not being directly beneath the window at the time.
The girl's formerly neutral expression slowly curls up into a creepy sort of grin, as her hair parts, revealing one of her eyes… or what should have been an eye anyway. Now though, it was little more than an empty pit where an eye SHOULD have been.
Michiko doesn't move when the windows start to shake, nor does she move when they explode outward. The glass scratches her only lightly, and even then the girl disappears in a puff of smoke. Apparently the one standing there was only a clone! But the ghost had shown herself to be hostile, so Michiko is going to take care of her. The Iwata makes a few hand seals from where she is hiding, sending three firebolts at Arisu in rapid succession. Hopefully they hit!
The Ghost girl screeches angrily as the firebolts strike her body, blasting holes in it, but producing no blood or any signs of singed flesh. The ghost stays standing though, staring towards Michiko. She produces an inhuman screech of rage, but makes no attempt to approach her, instead adopting a sort of battle-ready stance as she focuses on Michiko, her wounds rapidly shutting up, and her white clothes quickly regenerating as if they had taken no damage at all.
Michiko takes the opportunity while Arisu isn't attacking to focus her own chakra. Something she forgot to do with all the glass flying at her… She watches the ghost girl across from her with wary eyes, though she keeps herself relaxed so she can react quickly in response to an attack. She's being careful for now, though it might be a bit too cautious… Whatever the case, charging at an unknown is a bad idea, in her opinion.
The ghost girl seems more than willing to strike first, rearing back and screeching at Michiko before vanishing from sight all of a sudden, disappearing into the fog… or perhaps just becoming one with it, it was hard to tell.
Michiko winces at the screech, taking a knee so she can cover her ears to the sound. Eventually it becomes too much for the girl, and she ends up disappearing in a burst of flames, some of the fire from the earlier attack being used while she tried to find a different place to hang out. Arisu's vanishing act is successful, the girl unable to sense a trace of the ghost-girl now.
The surrounding fog becomes ever thicker as it closes in on Michiko, and ever so often the sound of childlike giggling can be heard somewhere in the fog. Once on the right, once above her, and then again on the left… the ghost was toying with her! All of a sudden, the glass on the ground shivers and then launches itself at Michiko's legs, catching the lights in the area and giving a little flash to signal it's movement, perhaps giving Michiko a chance to dodge before the shards bury themselves in her legs. Shortly after, the ghost girl reappears a few feet away, closer than she was before, but still far enough to avoid any attempts to punch her.
Michiko sees the flash of glass out of the corner of her eye while looking around at the various spots the laughter seems to be coming from. She is unable to form the seals fast enough, sadly, and ends up with a series of cuts on her legs. Painful, but not unbearably so. The cuts are shallow enough and only a bit of glass is staying in the wounds. Michiko retaliates with a very large barrage of fire bullets, these ones being smaller, but more numerous, than the firebolts that bombarded Arisu before.
The ghost girl reappears twice more, and several of the bullets passing through two of the clones on either side harmlessly, while the last set appears to do precious little to her body, creating small holes that once again close up after a few seconds. The ghost does NOT look pleased however… and hisses angrily before vanishing, and reappearing further away from Michiko. The ground begins to shake violently in front of her before bursting forward, spraying Michiko with rocks and soil coming from two sides.
Michiko winces as more projectiles are sent her way. The rocks and dirt are somehow much more painful than the glass, likely due to the fact that they're larger in size. She decides to attack Arisu with a similar attack, the girl making a seal so the dirt near Arisu explodes and maybe blinds the ghost. Then there's a very large flaming bullet sent the ghost's way!
If the goal was to blind the ghost girl… the dirt fails to do so, and only results in the ghost girl stepping through the exploding dirt, and the following bullet of flame as if neither of those things were near her at all… She makes no move to come closer as she seems to take in a deep breath, focusing the chakra in the air around her once again as she prepares for another collection of attacks.
With the ghosty taking a break, however momentary, Michiko uses the opportunity to clean up those cuts on her legs. It's small, but it does provide relief. She keeps her eyes on the ghost girl still, wary of her movements. She can sense the chakra being stored up, and she realizes something big is likely about to come soon.
The ghost smiles wickedly as Michiko stands still and does seemingly nothing, aside from clean up her own wounds… Which gives the ghost time to do something of her own, the air around Michiko rapidly lowering in temperature as the ghosts' poltergeist abilities attempt to trap HER instead of something in the surroundings. What followed that could only be very very bad.
Michiko braces herself, a slight aura forming around her and flickering slightly as she gets ready for the attack. Apparently earth can't form fast enough to counter the temperature drop and the feeling of being trapped by nothing. It honestly felt like genjutsu, but it wasn't Michiko has been hit by enough genjutsu to know when that's coming!
Michiko is suddenly caught, and then lifted off the ground by the ghost and her poltergeist abilities. Suddenly, she's swung to the side, the ghost seeking to smash her body up against the wall of one building, before throwing her THROUGH the window of another, and hopefully out of the way, where she could either run, like all the others… or come back for more.!
Michiko gets crushed against the side of a building, which is extremely painful. She comes away with a broken bone or two, most likely, after that. Fortunately she has enough wits about her to make a few seals, allowing a large wall to form between her and that window she's about to go through. With a faint sigh of relief, she makes another seal, attacking Arisu indirectly with a whirlpool to maybe stun her. Then a flaming bullet is aimed at the ghost girl.
Apparently, the ghost does not become incorporeal fast enough to avoid the sudden whirlpool of earth beneath her feet, and is caught, distracted by that enough to fail to avoid the sudden blast of fire putting another hole in her already fading body.
Michiko notices the ghost is finally trapped. With this in mind, she makes a few seals and launches her very familiar attack at the ghost: Firebolt. This attack she sends at the ghost girl twice, and hopefully ending that reign of terror she seems to be having on the village.
The ghost girl hisses and looks up at Michiko again, just in time to be hit once more by the firebolt shot her way! It explodes against her chest, and takes her body along with it. For a moment, it looks like she might come back, but then the fog slowly fades, leaving Michiko alone on a very fog-free street, without a ghost or corpse to show for her efforts!… Looks like she won though.
