Starring:
Junko (as herself and emitter), Hiromu, Arisu
Date: May 22, 2012
Summary:
A D-Rank mission to check out a weird haunted house turns into a D-Rank mission to check out an ACTUAL HAUNTED HOUSE. But th-that's okay, because th-this team's n-n-not a-afraid of n-no g-g-g-gh-ghosts!
"Ghost Busters Pt. 1"
Kadomai - Land of Fire
Kadomai, home town of the Yamanaka Clan, is a pretty peaceful place. Its very name means 'Calm Town' after all. However, something very not-peaceful and not-calm is occurring in Kadomai around one particular home! Yes, it's that most dreaded of all threats that require ninja-level investigations!
GHOSTS.
"G-g-g-ghosts!?" Junko had cried out when she heard about the 'spirits'. "I am weak against Ghost-types! I refuse to go alone!" the blonde girl declared, hoping this would save her from having to accept this mission. Unfortunately she was then told that she was being paired up with a Chuunin for this mission. The mission-distributor had placed a hand on Junko's shoulder and said, "There, you are now cleared to go!" "B-but — " "No, it's okay. You won't be alone." "That is not being the problem!" T_T
The home in question is now looming before Junko and Hiromu here at the creepy and perilous hour of 'morning' in the gloomy and frightening weather of 'sunshiney and cheerful'! The house is missing a single tile from the roof, but it is otherwise just a quaint single-story structure. "H-hmph! This is not even a proper haunted house! How can a ghost be living here!? It is probably a rogue tile-scraper! Hiromu-sempai! It is a rogue tile-scraper, right!?" Junko starts looking around for the fallen tile that is missing from the roof, thinking perhaps if she replaces it, the rogue will lose face and never cause trouble again.
-This logic is flawless.-
If Hiromu was ever the type to show emotion, this genin would definitely do it. The sweatdrop could almost be seen as she went off about a rogue tile-scraper. A small shake of that masked head, Hiromu would look at Junko. "Before we assume it is a ghost, we should indeed seek more mundane answers. However, I do doubt it to be a rogue tile-scraper." That voice was a rhaspy, hollow sound that would echo from within the mask, making it hard to really tell what gender Hiromu even was. One arm would be lifted to motion to the door. "Why don't you go knock and we'll see what information we can gather from those who live here, hai?"
"Assuming there are people who live here…" Arisu spoke up from behind the pair. "…I would think that the people who reported the mission would have checked to see if someone was living here afterall." She moved a little lazily, "Though… I seriously doubt it's a ghost… There must be some reasonable explaination." She waves a hand at the house. "No matter, let's do things the proper way…" She steps between the pair of other ninja, and raises a hand to the door to knock…
once… twice… three times…
"Hello…? I would like to speak with the residents of the house please…" She grimaced a little, this was hardly the way she imagined this mission going, but at least this time she was inside the Land of Fire and not Fuuma Alley for the mission.
Junko listens intently to Hiromu's plan of action. She holds up her hands on either side of her chest and clenches them into fists of determination. Her eyes are focused in concentration, her mouth set in a line of stoicness, and she is nodding eagerly. Then she says, "Yes! Your strategy is one that Kami-sama himself would have come up with if he needed to investigate ghosts in a house for a mission and were required to think of a strategy!"
…What?
"…Or so I would like to say. However, are you not a Chuunin, Hiromu-sempai? It seems that your skill level is much greater than mine and thus the threat of harmful danger much less for you! I have a new strategy thus!" Dramatically, Junko spins around with lens flares and motion blur and everything and then points at Hiromu with a totally awesome *SHEEEEEN* sound-effect and everything! "…You should knock instead!" >:o
What part of knocking on a door is dangerous!? She's probably just scared of ghosts. However, the imminent threat of ghosts eating Junko's face is bypassed by virtue of Arisu moving to deal with it instead. A bit startled, Junko steps back and lets the other girl deal with it. "O-oh! Soo desu ne… But the mission request also said everyone was too scared to go near this house of — " "THE DEAAAAAD!" wails a ghastly voice as Arisu's knocking is completed, the door suddenly swinging open, and an oversized, enormous, hideous, malformed monster's head forcing its way out through the doorway with googly-eyes and everything!
Junko screams like the girl she is. "EEEEEE!" DX
The head turns out to belong to an old man with a very large head who continues on to say, "…Would have a hard time sleeping through all that racket! What is wrong with you, banging on my door like that!?" The freakish old… Old… Oldie peers at Arisu on his porch with a critical, bulbous eye from less than 1 inch away from her face. His hooked nose twitches repeatedly, at various unnatural angles, like it might not actually be a nose and is instead some kind of very large hamster with a deathgrip on an old man's face.
Junko is busy crying behind a hedge and hoping her team mates are able to keep her from being killed or anything. T_T
There's a good thing Hiromu is wearing a mask. Afterall, it gives away nothing about his dismay at exactly how far Junko ran and hid from an old man answering the door. A small shake of his head given, he looked over at the old man and Arisu, a formal bow given to the man, "Hai. We were assigned to look into a report of a potential ghost here. Please do pardon us, we were just seeking some more information." That rhaspy voice lifted slightly in volume, the hollow tone echoing a bit further within the mask to reach out to the old man.
Hiromu would straighten up, form a sign and with a *POOF* a clone would form into exsistance beside him. They just looked at each other, gave a nod and while Hiromu stepped up to stand beside Arisu to listen while she (hopefully) asked some questions, the clone went in search of Junko. "Junko-san. Please come back to the others. The resident of the house answered the door, hai?"
Arisu leans back from the large headed old man, her face twisting into one of disgust, the sort of look a noblewoman might get if a grubby child rubbed his hands over her silk dress. Her brow twitched a little in annoyance… though thankfully, Hiromu, A.K.A. The Uncultured Animal In The Mask, came to her rescue by announcing the propose for their visit. Arisu just stared for a few moments before composing herself and taking a step back from the hideous old man, "Clearly you have no sense of decorum when dealing with a lady. My knocking was hardly that loud, though I suppose your hideously large ears may have picked it up quite well." She frowns, then looks back at Junko, "You! Stop sniveling over there! Honestly! How can you ever expect to be a chuunin if you run crying from everything on such a low ranking mission!" Another look of irritation.. but it softens, and with a sigh, she turns to the old man again, "As my… associate said, we're here to look into reports of ghosts in the area. More specifically, around this house." something occurs to her suddenly, "Though, come to think if it, I thought we were supposed to be looking into this house because they wished to have it occupied? It appears to already BE occupied…"
The old man is busy driving his pinky finger into one of his ears and looking off into the distance as Hiromu speaks to him. Then he cries out crankily, "Naniiii!? Speak up! I can barely hear you!" He peers at Arisu as she complains about manners. "What's that!? You want to come inside my house!?" he demands, even though that is in no way what she said. "Well, it's about time! Yes, yes, ghosts everywhere!" He says dismissively while waving one thin arm in a half-hearted fashion and turning his back on everyone. He then scuttles along at old-man pace inside, leaving the door open. "Come in! Enter this house of the DEAAAAAAD!" he wails for no apparent reason.
Junko, meanwhile, has leapt up and rejoined everyone about the time that Hiromu starts talking to the old man calmly. She leans back a bit though at Arisu's reproachfull words and tone, looking askance at the other teenager. 'Put-off' radiates from her as she says, "I don't want to be a Chuunin… I just want to not have my face eaten by ghosts or bears." O_o
Pause. "Especially not ghost bears." She folds her arms across her chest and nods her head several times as though she had just said something significant.
Before long, everyone should hopefully be inside the house and seated in the living room through the power of 'scene change'. The old man is kneeling in the middle of the room, and gestures to the side off-handedly. "Meet The Deeeeead." A wavering, smoke-like, featureless ghost says, "Hi." while various glowing fireballs, other indistinct figures, and more human-looking spirits zip around the room, lie in front of a broken radio that isn't plugged in but is still producing entertaining static, and similar such things. Junko falls over, curls into a ball on her side, and stays there, face expressionless in her shock.
There are spirits everywhere, most of them ghosts though there are some that resemble other kinds of creatures. A zombie-looking spirit is crouched behind a potted plant and giggling. A one-eyed goblin-looking thing is chewing on a table leg. A pair of children's ghosts are playing tag on the ceiling.
Junko offers conversationally from where she remains on her side, "Ara, ara… This is quite a collection of spirits you have here." The old man leans back and gives Junko a put-off look. "I didn't collect them… They just flocked here on there own." O_o
"O-Oh. Right. Gomen nasai," Junko replies as she sits up and rubs the back of her head in embarassment at her faux pas. Man. Who knew ghost busting was such a high-stakes diplomatic mission! The old man says, "I'm the resident. These spirits are causing all kinds of commotion, so my neighbors have been staying away. They probably just wanted the commotion to stop. That's why you're here right? To deal with THE DEAAAAAD!?" The old man wails and clutches with his thin hands dramatically.
Junko thinks, «I really wish he'd stop doing that.» T_T
And so, the team was now within the building. Hiromu passively took in the floating about spirits, a small frown hidden behind that mask. Alright.. so.. definitely ghosts. Looking at the old man, that rhaspy, hollow tone, if anything, got even more dry, "Please. Stop wailing like that." A small shake of his head given, Hiromu glanced over at Junko, "Junko-san. Get the ghost to line up. We'll interview them to find out which one is causing trouble." That attention would turn to Arisu, once the order was given to Junko, "Do you wish to interview the.. resident.. or the ghosts?" Yep, definitely a wry sense of humor in that voice as he'd ask that question. Well, every day one sees new things, this one would definitely be something that goes down in the history books.
Arisu is… actually surprised to find REAL ghosts in the house. Luckily, they didn't seem violent… but still, they were REAL. Or so it seemed anyway, however strange it might have been. She reached out to try and touch one, curious and without fear apparently. She turned briefly to talk to the old man, but shut her mouth… it was an exercise in futility to get him to understand her. Instead, she turns to Hiromu, with a look of 'What do you think' plastered on her face, "I doubt anything I said to him would get through to him… so, assuming the ghosts are intelligent, I'd rather deal with them." She turns back to the ghosts, still curious… and still confused, though she wouldn't show it.
"NA-niiiiIIII!?" the old man cries out at Hiromu's words. "Weren't you even listening to the things that were emerging from my mouth!? They have ALL been making a commotion!" he waves his arms expressively as his overly-large head tilts from left to right like one of those meters that keeps time for playing instruments or maybe a dashboard hula-girl figurine, only much uglier and bigger and balder. As Arisu speaks, he tilts his head so far to the right that it goes almost all the way around, even turning upside-down, before snapping back upright. What the heck. Is he even human!?
Then he interrupts Arisu and says, "I doubt anything I say to him will get through!" as he indicates Hiromu, apparently unaware he is repeating Arisu's exact words. "I will thus speak to YOU, ghost-girl!" he points dramatically…!
…At Junko instead of Arisu. Junko realizes she is being pointed at, waits a few seconds, and then goes, "EEEEEH!? I am not a ghost-girl! Why would you call such me such a terrible thing!? I never deal with ghosts! I am not an authority on this subj — " Q_Q
She is interrupted when she realizes the old man has tilted his head forward enough to show the very top of his bald head. It has an odd Seal-looking design right in the middle of it. "Sore wa… <That is…>" Junko begins, but is drowned out when one of the ghosts suddenly pulls its flowing bottom half away from Arisu's questing hand and cries out, "IyaaAAHHHN~!" in a girl's voice. Then the smokey ghost is suddenly kneeling next to Arisu and staring intently from its faceless face. The blue-white smoke turns bright pink as the ghost puts its indistinct hands together and begins wiggling in place while saying bashfully, "But we only just met~! You are so forward… So bold! But you're also just. My. Type!" The ghost leans forward with each word, apparently attempting to start up some 'shoujo-ai' action by placing herself in Arisu's arms and sighing dreamily at her new romantic interest.
Junko blushes as she looks at this for a moment, then turns her focus back on the old man and holds up a finger. "Umm…" The old man is suddenly like, less than an inch away from Junko, all looming up in her business and everything. "THE DEAAAAAAD!?" he wails for no reason again. Junko turns her head away and starts crying again. T_T Hiromu goes ignored, apparently. At least until nine identical cat ghosts come yowling through the living room, pursued by what appears to be a towering, fat, 'chef'-looking ghost with a cleaver. "NON, NON, NON! That is THREE 'NON'S to you FE-LINES! That RED HERRING is NOT FOR YOU!" The cats fall into battle amongst themselves despite probably all being from the same cat, scuffling over some fish of the decidedly not-ghostly variety.
This battle takes place all around Hiromu, and perhaps even ON him, if he doesn't move aside. Either way, the chef ghost suddenly rises up, glowing with spectral energy in his rather distinct facial features, and says, "Yooouuuu….!" Then he attempts to seize Hiromu by the nearest extremity and drag him into the kitchen. "…Will help me with the MEAL PREPARATIONS! I am be-HIND SCHEDULE!"
Hiromu could take a lot. Afterall, he didn't seem phased by the fact that ghosts are all over. He even stepped out of the way of the cats calmly enough. Right up until that Chef tried to drag him off somewhere, did he have enough. This would have a sudden flare about him, heavy on that fire chakra as That deep baritone voice would almost explode from behind the mask, "EEEENNNOOUUUGGGHHH!!!" One could almost see a red glare light up the eye holes of that mask as a glare was leveled on the Chef. "YOU! You will go back to your kitchen and make your food without trying to obtain help that you shouldn't need to start with!" That attention shifted to the ghost cats and with one foot, he'd stomp towards them, a little extra push with some chakra to cause the briefest of rumbles in the ground. "SCAT!" Then he'd turn his attention on the other ghosts, still venting that pissed off aura in spades, "I SAID LINE UP. NOW!!" With that last word, he'd point at a spot on the floor. This of course was probably all pointless, however, in the end it made Hiromu feel better.
Arisu looks a bit surprised as the ghost girl leans against her. It even draws a slight blush from her cheeks. "I… I…." she shakes her head, clearing the expression from her face, "…I would love to explore this with you in detail, but… I have a job to do here first. Perhaps after we're done…" she trails off. What exactly was she playing at? There was no telling.. But she DID appear to be somewhat interested in the ghost girl, despite her coldness. "Perhaps you can help speed things along… I need to ask you, and everyone else in the room, a few questions… can you round them up for me, dearest?" She raises a brow at her ghostly suitor. "I would like to get this taken care of as soon as possible." She glances briefly at the old man… she had begun to suspect that he was the key to all of this. Him and that big head of his.
Arisu glances back at Hiromu with a frown, "Do calm down… I'd hate to see you go on a terrible animalistic rampage in this poor old man's house."
The ghost chef turns around, wiping blood off from his hands on his apron as he deals with Hiromu's raging rage of anger-rage and intimidation with a somewhat perplexes expression on his face. The cats do as they are told and run off. Some ghosts do as they are told also and try to line up, but it's all over when some kind of ghost knight on a horse literally charges through the backdoor with a lance and sends various phantasms scattering with various cries of dismay and protest. The knight looks around over and over, demanding, "Where is the windmill!? — I mean dragon! Where is the dragon!?" He eventually heads back out the way he came. The ghost-corpse behind the potted plant giggles a bit and creeps out from behind his cover as though intending to sneak up on Hiromu, but one glance in his direction will send the cadaverous creeper back to crouching and giggling. Freaky!
Arisu's new admirer places a hand to where her cheek would probably be if her face was something other than smokey ecto-cooler or whatever. "Oh! Ohhh~! Yes, my ai-jin! Ohhh, I'm so happy I could just DIE!" She floats up and does her best to follow the request given. Her pink hue changes to sunny yellow as she begins cheering and calling out orders. The other ghosts listen to her more readily than they did Hiromu.
Go figure.
Eventually, everyone is assembled, the ghost chef has forgotten what he was doing and has begun chopping up the coffee table with his cleaver to produce a new stove, and the ghostly girl is all hearts and bubbles as she stays as close as possible to Arisu. She turns pink again and asks, "Ohhh, ohhh~! <3 Is there anything else I can do for you… Umm…" She realizes she never got Arisu's name. "…Mistress?" she asks breathily (and consequently chillingly) right in Arisu's ear as her pink coloration turns an even brighter hue. Like, 'hurts male eyes to look at' pink.
Junko has recovered enough to sidle up next to Hiromu once he has finished being scary and whisper, "Oi, Hiromu-sempai… That old man has a weird Seal-looking design on the top of his head — " "WHO ARE YOU CALLING OLD!?" the old man demands suddenly from across the room, eyes growing huge and veiny. Junko waves her hands in a panic of attempted assuagement and insists, "O-oh, I wasn't talking about y — " "WHAT!?! SPEAK UP!" the old man shouts, apparently able to hear whispers just fine but not normal speech. Wth. Srsly.
The ghost girl says, "M-my name is Lily, by the way, Mistresss~… What's yours, if your love-slave may know such a thing? <3"
Having been able to vent, Hiromu was able to calm down enough to get back under control. This was pretty close to them lining up as well, so that worked for the best. At least until the horse came in. Hiromu would glance at Junko as she mentioned the old man with a seal, he would give a nod towards her and ignoring any non-corporial entity, strode across the room to confront the big head himself. Not even bothering to talk to the man anymore, Hiromu would attempt to grab the melon and turn the man's head until he could see the seal. If he could study it, that understanding of seals that he has recently aquired may tell him what to do with this situation. It could never really be said that Hiromu didn't do what needed to be done to get a mission done.
Arisu shakes her head, "Arisu… a pleasure to make your acquaintance Lily." She offers a small smile. "For now… why don't you help me ask my questions… It appears that these friends of yours respond better to your requests than my own." She glances at her companions, then back at Lily, "You see, we were sent here to find out why it is you and your friends have been hanging around this house." she reaches out to draw the ghost closer… for effect maybe, and possibly to keep the ghost girl interested. "So if you could help me by asking them why they were drawn here… and maybe tell me about why you, yourself are hanging around this old house, that would be lovely. It may even come with a reward worthy of a good little love-slave." She hints.
To be continued…
