RP What Shadows Lie

Salt.

It wasn't exactly how Habiki would have hoped this was going to go, but it was at least a tolerable sort of weird. It all just seemed a little... unrealistic. If there were really noroi out there and they could be defeated with salt and sake, why weren't they all gone? Maybe it was just a farce. Maybe next time he'd just invite Miss Rei out for lunch like a normal person.

Maybe next time his roof wouldn't cave in.

He shook his head a little and took a sip of the sake - sweet and mild. Maybe he could recommend that next time they start with a whole bottle of sake so that the rest of this seemed less odd. A quick glance and a skill of reading the room showed that this wasn't the time, and Habiki knew that if you wanted to impress someone, you didn't make fun of their friends or their hobbies. Even if those were weird. Maybe especially if those were weird. Miss Rei moved behind him with the sword and slashed it down behind him, which made an odd sound. The candles flared, and then the lights above went out.

Was that supposed to happen?
 
The cre-ak lingered in the air, like wood being slowly turned and tested to find where it was weakest. Dust fell in strange swirling streams from the ceiling, and with a quick hand Rei trained her light upwards to the source of the noise. Black strands hung from the ceiling like thin worms which quivered with an unfelt breeze as they reached for Habiki. Ah, right, that was a problem. She tapped the back of her hand against Habiki’s shoulder.

“Get behind me and stay behind me. Keep a hand on my back so we don’t get our legs tangled.” Give people things to do. The candles hadn’t gone out, so the magic there would be strong enough if no one panicked. The two of us need to move to the circle, you’ll need to guide me, okay?” She paused for a moment before turning her head to her associate.

“Kasumi, catch!” Rei called, tossing her flashlight to the girl with little extra warning. She took a step backwards, taking the hilt of her bamboo sword up with both hands as she held her weapon out in front of her in a mid level stance. Another step back. The ceiling around the doorway sagged, slowly at first with a wooden squeal before it gave away all at once with a crash of plaster and a splintered wooden beam. Something followed after, flowing like brackish water into a shivering mass which gathered itself upwards into the almost-shape of a person. Rei felt her wrist pricking again, and she tightened her grip.

The Noroi wasn’t acting right, when she cut the connection it should have been drawn to the flame, but this one was…

“Back towards the candles, keep your pace steady. Kasumi, keep the light on it, Todai, can you help with your lantern?” She should have checked that beforehand, that was a mistake.

The noroi advanced, its shape never quite holding, like a ball of hair removed from a drain.
 
If Chie were disconcerted by the noroi's odd behavior, it didn't show on her face. She maintained that same, stoic, chilling stare as the spirit appeared above them - a writhing mass of hairs cast in sharp relief by the low, dim lights. The ceiling buckled, then collapsed. Chie took a step back. A shape rose up from the wreckage, form shifting and knotting, turning its malevolent aura upon them. The lantern dimmed, then flared.

"I can."

There wasn't any hidden snark in her voice, now. All business. One didn't live long if they didn't take situations like this seriously, after all. Lifting the lantern, pole held out, Chie faced one palm to the back. A beam flared out of it like a spotlight. Were this a weaker spirit, it might lose itself in the glow entirely, torn apart in an instant. This was not a weaker spirit. Still, the light would do part to slow and weaken it, burning away its edges and drawing its full, undivided attention on her.

"In the divine spirit world of infinite but tangible powers, in the throne of the heavens where the spirit of the gods is born into fire!"

She strode clockwise around the manifested noroi, eyes locked on its form, light unyielding.

"By the powers of divine fire and water, ruler of all that exists, ruler of man, I invoke the Amatsukami, True Light, Creator!"
 
[Volt]

Kasumi took Rei’s praise in silence, figuring more words would give Todai more reason to criticize her. She merely watched as the ritual was prepared, the salt splashed against Habiki, the sake sipped. She paid extra attention as Rei shone the flashlight, eager to test her knowledge, to prove she knew something.

The shadow defied the light, clinging to Habiki’s back like a mollusk to its shell, wavering this way and that. The black strands drew out, twisted, knotted. Rei sliced the threads, and everything seemed routine. That is, until the lights shut off, wood creaking and shifting as only the flashlight and candles lit up the small apartment.

Something was definitely wrong.

Rei trained her light back on it, the black strands now hanging from the ceiling. Kasumi clumsily caught the flashlight as it was tossed to her, keeping the blue light fixed on the Noroi. She wracked her brain, sifting through her knowledge. Something was off about it, something she couldn’t quite place her finger on. The ceiling by the doorway shattered, a loose mass following the plaster and wood, amorphous, made of hairlike strands.

Hair, something about hair was the key. Not on the head, loose hair, idle strands, stuck to clothing, and once removed clinging to whatever displaced them.

Attachment. That was it.

“Habiki,” Kasumi said slowly. “The child’s mother. Is she dead?” She waited for him to confirm her theory before continuing.

“Rei, it’s attachment through loss. Habiki lost his wife, and it attached to him. It lost its connection to Habiki and, well.” Kasumi swallowed nervously.

“It’s attached to the building.”
 
Stay behind her?

But Rei was just a girl, and he shouldn't be standing behind her. He ought to be standing in front of her, protecting her. Shielding her from the darkness or the roof caving in or whatever else happened to people when they were around her. He shouldn't be standing there watching her get hurt. It was just like...

...just like...

...just like standing there doing nothing and there was all the blood and screaming and then the screaming stopped and the blood was still there and all the noises were mechanical and the screaming started again and this time it was him...

"I killed her," he said, quietly. Not to Rei, to the other one, the one with too-sharp teeth and too-sharp eyes. The one who saw too much, or not enough, or nothing, because she was all wrong and it didn't mean anything and nothing of this was real. None of it mattered any more. She should have been here. Not him.

"Okay? I killed her."
 
“What? You—“

For a brief moment, it had seemed like things were finally back under control. The noroi turned as Tohai’s light grazed against it, her incantation sending a gust of motion through the twisted tangled hairs giving a flash of the almost-shape beneath. A hazy joke of human form with a wispy half-moon smile appeared for a moment, before vanishing again. It turned towards the weaver, towards the pain, and Rei gripped her sword tight ready to strike. Between the two of them, they could weaken it enough for it to succumb to fire, as long as they could keep its attention off Hibiki. So long as Kasumi’s inclination about this hairdresser’s nightmare was correct, and she often was about these sorts of things, then this was salvageable.

Then, Hibiki spok, and there was guilt.

Walls groaned as if the space itself were attempting to pull close as the noroi turned. Floorboards shifted underfoot with a strange scratching noise, and between the slats thin strands prickled out like thin blades of grass. They reached for Hibiki as a flower might for the sun, and Rei really didn’t want to see what would bloom from that reunion.

“Kasumi! Git him to the candles now.” Her even clinical tone broke as she spoke harsh and quick with a faint countryside twang. Kasumi wasn’t a fighter here, and she wasn’t going to put that on the girl’s shoulders just because she hadn’t brought her damned rifle. Rei shifted her weight forward as she pushed out a breath, short and cutting. Footwork and breathing, as an instructor once told her, were the basics of any proper stance. How true that was, this ronin hadn’t the faintest idea, but it made for a good way to channel frustration towards something productive.

“You deserve this, you know.” the voice shivered, like a whisper just behind the ear. “Do you enjoy watching women die?” the noroi took a step forward, strands of hair pulling taut where they had wormed into the floor. Smoke curled where its edges smoldered from Chie’s lantern, but it did not seem to mind anymore.

“Todai! Burn the ones connected to the floor!” As Rei called she took a step forward, her heel hitting hard as she pivoted her momentum into a horizontal strike with the shaft of her sword. Hairs rose to intercept the blade, strands sizzling as the sword sliced through. Rei stepped back, as quick as she had advanced as the mass attempted to catch her sword before she could pull it away, burned edges drifted to the ground as they nicked the tip of the shaft.

”You deserve this.”
 
[Volt]

Kasumi had expected something along those lines, the confession of Habiki’s loss like pebbles dropped into a pond. The water would ripple, briefly, but then it would settle and they could finish this job, be free of Todai, and return to the shop. Unfortunately, Hibiki’s words were less pebbles and more boulders heaved into the water. The guilt surged from him, a bitter, pungent scent, and Kasumi swore she could see the Noroi swell slightly.

The building groaned in response, thin strands of hair emerging from the floorboards, growing towards Hibiki. Rei’s voice cut through the air, urgency clear as she took up her sword. Kasumi wasted no time, digging her nails into Habiki’s shoulders and pulling the back towards the candles, within their soft light. With any luck that would give enough protection. But Kasumi knew more than to rely on luck.

She went to her satchel, rifling through it as the stench of burned hair tickled her nostrils. At last she found it, pulling out a small bottle filled with a clear liquid. It was taken from the Otowa waterfall at Kiyomizu-dera, blessed by the head priest there. She opened it, affixed the pour spout, and began scattering water along the floor, splashing at wherever she saw strands reaching towards Hibiki.

Thinking twice, Kasumi also turned to the man himself, roughly grabbing his hands and jerking them towards her, splashing some of the cool water on them. “Rub that on your face too, it should help.” The noroi may no longer be connected to him, but hopefully the harae would offer some protection.
 
Chie took a step back, and another, her stern face growing dark.

"This was not part of the contract, ronin," she hissed, raising her lantern again and swinging it across the ground, sending little flickering sparks along the floorboards. Wherever they touched the hairs, they'd shrivel back, drawn into the glow. "You had said it was a simple nuisance, not the guilt of a murderer."

She flashed an angry glance - not at Rei - but at Hibiki.

A foul world, to live with the sins of others. Often better to let them fester in the fruits of their deeds.

As the sparks cleared path along the ground, Chie moved forward again, slowly approaching to match Rei's stance alongside.

"Does your weapon burn?" she asked, angling her lantern towards the wooden sword.
 
For a moment, Habiki wasn't there - he was somewhere else, not that far away, not that long ago. Trapped - in the hospital, with all the muffled sounds, all the shadows of the doctors and nurses running back and forth, all the words that he didn't understand but whose meaning was all too clear. He knew the moment, too, when one of the nurses had taken his hand and given him-

But what his hand held wasn't the soft warmth of a tiny babe - it was cold and wet and-

Water?

Habiki blinked, clearing away the shadows of the past. No, he was here, in his apartment, and... everything had gone wrong. Miss Rei - not a doctor, a... he didn't know what to call her. Todai-hime called her a ronin. She was ordering things around just as efficiently, though, and the nurse - how could he ever have confused Kasumi for a nurse? She was so...

He really did not have room her to talk, he realized.

He splashed the water on his face, obediently, and asked, hesitating: "What should I do?"
 
“You’re free t’ leave if you can get the door open.” Rei said, her gaze not leaving the tangle of hair. She wasn’t going to deny Chie her anger, perhaps she’d feel more bitter herself if she had checked the particulars more closely rather than make assumptions. Still, if she had allowed things to languish what would have happened to the little one? Wasn’t like any of this was on her head.

Rei swept her blade down and fast, the rounded edge slicing through a bundle of exploratory strands that had been reaching for her legs. The acrid smell of burning hair pricked her nose as the prickling points of hair squeezing through any gap the floor offered went limp. Rei took another strong step forward as she swept her blade upwards in a backhand strike to pull the noroi’s attention away from Chie as the priestess moved to her side.

“Burn? It will.” Rei paused for only a moment. It would be a shame to lose the sword, but it would beat being strangled by hair. She shifted the blade so it would cross the flame of the lantern. “I’ll try to strike its core, that should weaken enough to pull it to the flame.”

Bundles of hair reached out like long slim arms that bent in every wrong sort of angle, one reached for the two women, ends fraying into stiff sharp ends while the other splattered against the ceiling with a low scratching sound. Rei clucked her tongue.

“Kasumi, keep an eye up!” Rei called. “On your mark priestess” There was a faint tremor along the length of her sword that didn’t linger in her voice.
 
"Quell your worry, ronin. This fire burns cold," Chie replied calmly. She shifted a little closer to Rei, her voice falling to a low whisper.

"You are a warrior. Even warriors bend, but tempered, they do not break."

Her expression was flat, her words cold, but - it almost seemed like encouragement, or at least, some strange attempt at it. Holding two fingers against the fire of her lantern, she drew it out along the side, flicking a lacquered whip of it across the edge of Rei's sword. Immediately, the flame took to the bamboo, flaring brightly, tongues licking at the edge of the hexbreaker's hands with a frigid discomfort.

Chie then stepped forward, holding her lantern up high while the light in it flared.

"Take me, spirit!" she hissed, thrusting the light forward towards the bulk of its body. "Give me your eyes!"
 
[Volt]

Hibiki obediently followed her directions, hesitantly asking what there was that he could do. The simple answer would’ve been “tell us everything before we start a ritual to expel a noroi without realizing what it actually is”, but Kasumi felt they were past that point. Rei and Chie were having their own argument, The scent of burning hair filled the space and Rei’s warning drew her eyes upward. Kasumi poured water into her palm before throwing it upward, splashing it against the ceiling to fight the Noroi that Hibiki summoned.

This should have been simple, it should have been easy. But no, he had to make it worse by omitting information, everyone knew that guilt was one of the strongest binders for a noroi, everyone knew that. Kasumi was pulled from her thoughts by a voice tutting in her head.

[font color="red"]If only you had taken my deal, I could have told you exactly what this Noroi was. You could have prevented all of this if you’d just listened to me.[/font]

Kasumi let out a grunt of frustration and wheeled to face Hibiki, fangs bared and eyes red.

“You want to help? You should’ve told us your wife was dead instead of dancing around the issue, wallowing in your guilt like a swine in the muck” She stepped towards him, her voice scratchy and rough, unlike how she’d sounded earlier. “Now, did you actually kill her, or did you just forget your anniversary and she decided to jump out window?
 
Oh.

Right.

For a moment he'd actually believed in all of this. Kasumi's words brought back the ridiculousness of it all, like being splashed with ice water rather than whatever water she'd splashed him with earlier. The harshness made him put the walls back up - walls of ice, keeping him cold, detached. This was all just... superstition and tricks of the light. It had to be. If there were any truth to any of this-

Well, he didn't know how to finish that thought, exactly, it was just that he thought that the holder of truth shouldn't be such a raging bitch. He didn't find he had anything to say to her, not even to answer her idiotic questions - just gave her a look, thoroughly disgusted and hopefully quelling. Anything to get her to shut up.

It was a shame, too, Miss Rei was such a nice girl. But she'd be better off on her own, of course. He should never have spoken to her. She'd be safer that way. His girlfriend would have been safer, too, if he'd never spoken to her. Habiki reached for the shadows on the walls. If he closed his eyes, he could almost pretend that they were slipping through his fingers, like the hair of a beautiful girl.

She was gone, though, and only the shadows remained.
 
Was that her attempt at a pep talk? A faint chuckle escaped Rei as she loosened her grip on the sword’s hilt, just enough to allow blood back into her knuckles. With that Chie drew flame from her lantern and spread it along the bamboo sword. Where she expected heat, only its absence licked at her finger, uncomfortable, as if she had shoved her hand into a pile of snow. Still, discomfort wasn’t pain, nor would it kill her. Rei turned her blade back to the noroi and set her shoulders. No time now to worry about Kasumi and Habiki, if they failed then it wouldn’t matter.

Light flared, passing through the twisting, quivering, mass and illuminating an almost-shape that squirmed within, a knot of hate in a beating heart. The noroi jabbed an arm out, if hairs spun upon themselves could be called that, at Chie’s stomach. Rei took a step forward, her heel clipping hard against the ground as she swept her blade upwards, flame met hair and sliced through it clean. It tumbled away, fraying as it went into a limp cluster as Rei shifted her weight to bring her bamboo sword down into a downward sweep.

The hairs skreeked as they ran across one another, as it had many times before the noroi moved to catch her blade with more than its dull edge could cut. Bamboo was no shaper than before, but flames licked through the hair, burning the impurity clean through and the shell was finally cracked. The hair reached for her again, brushing her shin as it ensnared her leg to keep her from pulling away. Rei set her teeth as she brought her weapon back up horizontally at shoulder level. The noroi turned towards her, hairs reaching out to grab what part of her body they could, coiling tight like a snake capturing its prey. Rei kept her gaze on the uneven core, kept pinned and solid by Chie’s light, before she thrust her sword forward, through the gap in the shell. The tip of the blade met the heart of the noroi, it’s edges harder than the fluid motions it made.

”Hah!” Rei yelled through her teeth as she threw her weight forward, pressing with all she could muster as she felt hairs wind around her neck, making it harder to pull in breath and scratching at her skin as if it aimed to push through, her sword, however, broke through first. The noroi convulsed, the strands doused with holy water going limp as flames took to the interior of its shell. Its body drifted towards the lantern, pulled on by the light as the shell, the tight cluster crimped inwards in some attempt to put out the flames chewing through its innards.

“Now, Todai-hime!” Rei called, as the pressure on her neck loosened.
 
The ronin struck at the core of the spirit, splitting it open, dark hairs severing and floating through the air before returning back to the shadows from whence they came. Chie took a step forward, and another. The light of the lantern bore down on the noroi, eating away at the heart of darkness within, rays scorching and dissolving whatever tendrils still tried to push in to grasp at its glow.

"Be clean of this place," Chie hissed, lowering the lamp inside the beast. "You have no hold here. Be clean."

The fire flashed - candles in the corners of the room and flame along Rei's sword flaring up to match - and then died down, light giving way to dark once more in victorious withdrawal.

Chie drew a deep, shaking breath, wiping the beads of sweat that had gathered on her brow with the back of her free hand.

"We will have to discuss prorates."
 
[Volt]

Kasumi saw the shift in Hibiki’s face, the internal walls slamming back into position. He still thought this was all a show, a sham, despite his grief, despite seeing a literal Noroi in front of him, he shut her out. He stepped away from her, and that idiot reached for the shadows, letting them run through his fingers as they began to slowly creep up his arm.

She let out a snarl, splashing water at the wall. It sizzled where it met the shadows, the smell of burnt hair filling her nostrils as it recoiled, slipping free of Hibiki’s touch. Kasumi pulled him back with surprising strength, pushing him down to the floor. She leaned down, until she was face to face with him, red eyes and jagged teeth on full display. Her hair had become more ragged, and she roughly whispered to him.

[font color="red"]“Stay put. You will not undo Rei’s hard work.”[/font]

Kasumi straightened herself, planting her foot firmly on Hibiki’s chest to keep him in place. Watching as Rei and Chie worked together, slicing and burning hair before creating an opening, in which Chie’s blessed fire burned before plunging them all into darkness.
 
Wow.

She was, indeed, batshit insane.

Habiki didn't know quite what it was about Kasumi; every time he looked at her it seemed like his eyes were playing tricks on him. Normal girls didn't look like that... but normal girls couldn't toss him around like a doll, either. Habiki was a construction worker - he was used to being one of the stronger guys in a room, especially a room filled with... well... girls. Not that there was anything wrong with girls, or with strong women - he just didn't expect getting thrown to the floor like that.

Sure, that was it.

Her foot was on his chest, which was all sorts of uncomfortable for very many different reasons. The whisper in his ear had been way too close, way too companionable. Boy, was she ever not his type. "Ugh. Fine. Get off me."

They were not a thing.
 
The shadows deepened, first from the flare of light from Chie’s fire and then again when the flames fell low. The room was still, but not motionless as the dark leaked like ink from a broken pen from the corners of the room. What remained of the noroi fizzled, limp strands of hair drifting in the air like ash escaped from a fire, illuminated in sudden orange flashes as nightmare reduced itself to memory. Eventually it would be gone, and all that remained would be the damage, because it always lingered.

Rei sighed, placing a hand on her shoulder as she rolled her neck. She was sore, but that was survivable. The bamboo sword was still in one piece, the ghost flame Chie had lit the blade with seemed to have only burnt away at the talismans she had woven around the shaft, which she supposed would have kept her coach happy. Next time, however, it would probably be better to simply bring along a real sword, or just her rifle.

“Yeah, priestess?” Rei said, stepping past the other woman as she walked back over to the coffee table she had placed her bag on. “I’ll see that you are properly compensated for our unforeseen… expenses.” Rei paused for a moment, clucking her tongue. Should be enough squirreled away to keep her happy. Well, not happy, Rei doubted she’d ever see Chie again, but no reason to add kindling to a burnt bridge.

“You did good work, you’ll be paid for it Todai-hime. Kasumi! Give me a light over here!” Rei knelt down as she spoke, pulling a business card out of a side pocket and, with the help of some light, quickly wrote down a number. Standing back up she made her way over to Hibiki. “Well, seems we’re leaving you with a bit of a mess, sorry about that.” A smile found her lips for a moment before she held the card out.

“A therapist I know, she’s good and used to…” Rei looked back over her shoulder towards the collapsed ceiling. “…odd things. Drop her my name and she’ll give you a good rate, probably.”

She chuckled faintly as the shadows in the corners of the room lightened as the curse returned to what it had once been.
 
Habiki sat up, slowly, still a little dazed by the idea of getting knocked down by a girl, even if she was absolutely crazy. For a moment, he thought he saw something almost apologetic in her look, but he was probably imagining that. The other one - the one Miss Rei kept calling -hime - was apparently upset about expenses, which put Habiki in mind of every contractor he'd ever worked with. He didn't know enough about this situation to say if she was right or wrong about it. Maybe he should offer her a tip? Would that be considered rude?

Miss Rei apologized for the mess, which prompted him to look around. She was... not wrong. The place looked like a disaster had hit it. Hard to imagine that could have been caused by a little bit of smoke.

But... no.

It wasn't just smoke, was it? It was... whatever that thing had been, back then. The thing he was trying not to think about. For the first time in a while, his head felt... clear. It seemed quiet, suddenly. He didn't know what to make of that. He took the card because it was offered more so than because he thought he needed it. He'd tried therapy, once. It hadn't been helpful.

"I'll get it fixed up," he said, more about the mess, though he supposed the same could be said of himself. Well, he'd just have to work on that, too, wouldn't he? "Ah... would it be appropriate for me to have a lunch sent by your office to thank you? Maybe tomorrow?" He didn't want to overstep, but it seemed like some thanks would be appropriate here - and he had inadvertently interrupted Miss Rei's lunch at least once this week.

"Does this sort of thing happen... er... often? Because..." He wasn't quite sure what he was planning to say there, except the words came out anyway, completely disconnected from his mind: "I might not be good at the sorts of things you were doing, but I know my way around drywall and spackle, and I suppose if you need to have cards for therapists who are used to odd things, maybe it wouldn't hurt to have a contractor who's used to odd things, either?"

Unless she already had someone, of course. She probably did.

...He really was just hoping to see her again, wasn't he?
 
“Lunch? Can’t say I’d be opposed to it.” Rei said, with a small smile playing at the edges of her lips. She looked back over her shoulder to the building’s entrance way as she mulled over the second question. She chuckled, a small puff of air escaping as she shook her head. “More often than you’d like, but we’re usually in abandoned buildings, though…” She paused for a moment, her dark eyes returning to Hibiki.

“Join us when you send lunch over, and we can iron out the details then. As long as you don’t mind the odd job, anyway.” The smile was quick and warm, like the brush of a candle before her attention turned away and her smile with it. “Kasumi, let’s get everything packed up, I think we’ve made more than enough of a mess already.”

————

Sunlight leaked between buildings, low and red, by the time they arrived back at the shop. Hibiki had taken most of the day in stride, which Rei appreciated, not a lot of different ways people responded to their ceiling collapsing because of a curse hiding in their pipes, so she says always appreciative of understanding. Chie however was definitely a burnt bridge but if she kicked enough of a bonus the woman’s way she might hopefully keep her from maligning the shop’s name with other potential contacts.

All things she could worry about once they got themselves settled.

Rei pushed through the door and stepped into the lobby of the Rites. She relaxed for a moment as a sigh escaped her lips, but only for that moment as she straightened. A young woman sat on the couch dressed in, what was it called? One of those frilly dresses that European dolls wore or girls down in Shinjuku, it didn’t really matter.

“Hello, I apologize we were out on business so I hope you haven’t been waiting long.” Rei said, crossing the room in a few long strides to pick up a pen from the top of her desk. “Welcome to Final Rites, how can we assist you?”
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top