Spirit Panic!

[umazak]

Ishiro just smiles as the girl vanishes in his arms before a tear rolls down his cheek. He quickly wipes it away and nods a thanks to the leader before something hits him. He spins around only to see down the direction that he came from and says, "Okay, if I felt that, it must be strong." He knew that his ability to sense anything was shit compared to the other members, but that was just too strong. He quickly puts the flux out of his mind and then directs his attention to Nao. He admits that he didn't acknowledge Nao, but he was a little too distracted. After all, he expected to see Ace and Hayden and Tsumiki was too much of a surprise to not notice.

"Sorry about not saying hi to you. How about I make it up to you by baking you a cake?"

He smiles at the one standing there before noticing that Tsumiki herself has decided to run off in search of Yui. It's then that it hits him that Yui being alone in a place full of spirits looking to battle would be a very bad thing. He finally decides to just let it slide seeing as how he thinks that if everyone caused as much destruction as he did in the library, it might be cheaper just to rebuild the place. With that in his mind he looks back to Ace with a bit of a more serious expression. "Do you think that we'll get billed for all of the destruction? I mean the guy basically lost his entire library. There's that and I'm hoping that I can borrow this book." With that he pulls the book out of his back pocket and shows it to their leader.

[nightmarezeroX9]

With a big sigh of relief, Satoshi stretched his arms out wide, and cracked his neck. Why he needed to do so was pretty odd, seeing as all he did was one thing, and Emilia sent the creature aftwards. Looking at her, she had asked him a question regarding to what he had done that seemed to calm the spirit down. He only shrugged, indicating he didn't have a damn clue what happened. He reached for the dagger he had placed in his pocket, and held it up to Emilia.
"Could this be what calmed her? I found it in the locked drawer in the other room," he said while scratching his head. Honestly, he wouldn't know how this dagger would contribute to anything, but the only thing that crossed his mind was that the stain on the knife could be blood. And the only way blood could get on a knife was either from stabbing someone, or cutting up a piece of bloody meat. Whatever the case, the knife was the only thing that shot out to Satoshi, and that seemed like the most reasonable thing too. Placing it back in his pocket, he turned towards the broken down door.

"Right then, I think we should probably go back and find Ace. I think we filled our ghost sending quoata, don't you?" He gave a small smile to Emilia, and began to walk out the door. Surprisingly, sending that spirit was easier than usual. Most of the time, they put up a bigger fight, and there wasn't one occasion that someone walked away without having any scars. Satoshi was glad though, even though Emilia looked like she was thrown around a bit. He honestly felt quite bad that he had her go off on her own. This poor decision on his part would probably loom over him for quite a while had she suffered any serious injuries. At the moment, she looked completely fine. Taking a step out of the room, he turned around and beckoned to her. "Shall we get going?" With that, he began his walk towards the foyer.

[IceBlueWings]

Emilia looked at the dagger in Satoshi’s hand, and she instantly spotted the dried blood on the edge. Her face turned slightly gloomy as she pieced together the facts, but immediately brightened up once he placed it back into his pocket. She exhaled slowly. She was still a little jittery from the whole ordeal. She’s been through situations like these, of course, but this was probably the first time she’s been flung across the room. I am still so inadequate. Had he not arrived, I would have been hurt terribly. She berated herself as she cast her eyes to the ground.

Silent the whole time, she had not noticed that Satoshi had walked out of the room until he asked her a question. She looked up immediately. “Yes, sorry.” She stuttered as she walked behind him, following his lead. “Thank you for coming just now. It really helped.” She said gratefully yet apologetically as they made their way back to the foyer. Walking down the same set of stairs they came up from, it wasn’t long until they saw Ace and the rest. Pushing away all the negative thoughts in her, she smiled at the group.

“We’re back.” She said with a calm smile.

[Keyblader!]

Looking at the book Ishiro showed him Ace blinked a few times. A book? Seemed like an odd thing to be interested in. Ruffling his hair Ace shrugged his shoulders. "You're asking the wrong guy, you'd have to ask the owner if you could borrow it... I doubt he'd care much though." He had a feeling the owner would be more concerned with the amount of destruction that took place inside his home. And as for a bill, that had already been worked out. They weren't getting paid to do this, it was just something they had to do.

Looking around now he could see that most of the group was present. Asagi was far off in the mansion, and from what he could tell she was dealing with a spirit. He was worried, but he had faith in her. She may be stubborn but he could tell she was strong. Turning on his heel he walked up to the large stone door. It seemed to loom over him, and felt imposing. He placed his left hand on the door, it felt cold. He ran his fingers to the oddly shaped lock in the center. It was large enough that he could fit his fingers inside.

Gripping the key in his right hand he slid it inside, he could hear metallic clicks indicating a mechanism was working. Turning the key counterclockwise the door rumbled, and the massive stone doors opened inward. Stale chilling air poured out from the space beyond the entrance. With a push the doors opened all the way, and the first thing he could see were stairs. They lead deep down, so far down that he couldn't see the bottom. Taking out his flashlight he turned it on, using it's faint light to lead him as he began to walk down. Even with his flashlight he still couldn't see the bottom, it'd be a long way down...

[nightmarezeroX9]

Arriving back at the foyer with Emilia, he gave a small two finger salute to Ace, and watched him open up the large door sitting underneath the staircase. Standing next to Ace while he did so, a blast of cold and chilling air hit Satoshi head on, and goosebumps began forming on his arm. Ace turned on his flashlight, and Satoshi followed suit by pulling a small, but bright flashlight out of his back pocket. Turning it on, the light pierced the darkness, and he began his descent down the stairs. Reaching the bottom, all he was met with was more darkness, and the flashlight had barely made any way to see what was there. He awaited everyone else to get down here too, being the first one already there.

[luna008]

"C'mon Yin!" Ashely exclaimed as she started (well, more like ran) down the steps. She didn't need a flashlight, not with her night light like fairy, Pip. His light was like he had a tiny moon inside him that was glowing from the inside out. Pure white light, not the yellow light that came from flashlights, much better to see with. When she made it down the stairs she stopped and looked around so she could wait on her sister to catch up. Ashely had to admit, the upstairs had been creepy, but it was even creepier down where ever they were. "We better be on guard Pip..." Pip just a quiet wind chime like noise in response and landed softly on Ashely's hat.

Mizuki on the other hand was stuck at the tops of the stairs, freaking out. Not at the prospect of going down the dark stair way though. No, she had seen Hayden's hands. "What in world did you do to your hands Hayden!? It looks like you put them them in a blender!" She quickly took Hayden's hands, trying not to hurt her to badly as both of their hands started to glow with healing. Blood, why did every one had to bleed when they got hurt? "I'm sorry if it hurts," Mizuki told her as they waited for her powers to finish healing Hayden. "Do you got any other wounds that need healing?" Mizuki happened to glance at Ichiro, Emilia, and Nao who happened to look as if they were in the rougher part of the fights. "Do any of you need to be healed?"

[Raspberyl]

With most of the group gathered up, it seemed it was time for the main event. Hayden could hardly contain her curiosity, practically shaking in anticipation as Ace slid the key in. There was a click, and the door's opening, and… "Oh?" A stairway wasn't what she had expected—she thought more along the lines of creepy secret laboratory. But this was exciting, too. If you have to go past strange doors and down eerie stairways, it usually means there's something big hiding.

Hayden was about join Ashley in her mad dash down the stairs, but Mizuki's panicked cry startled her. She had actually forgotten about her injuries, but now that she was reminded of it, whatever rush of adrenaline she was running on was suddenly depleted. The pain surged through her all at once, and increased sharply when Mizuki started working on her hands. She bit her lip, focused on blinking back the few drops of tears that started welling up in the corners of her eyes. The healing always hurt more than the actual injury for some reason.

Luckily, her wounds weren't the worst, so her healing session didn't last too long this time. "Thanks, Mi!" she grinned, giving her a quick hug. "Really don't know how I'd survive without you." And that wasn't even an exaggeration, as she can proudly attest to being one of Mizuki's frequent patients. This deep cut was new though; burns and blast wounds were her usual.

"Alright," Hayden called out after testing out her hands. "I'll see you guys down there." She then descended the stairs excitedly, and in her haste, missed a few steps along the way. She came to a crashing halt, and only then thought to light her path with her bright fireworks.

[IceBlueWings]

Emilia turned to look at Mizuki, startled by her outburst, and then at Hayden. Looking closely, she realized Hayden's hands were terribly injured, and although she hadn't said a word, she was relieved that Mizuki had the power to heal. It didn't take long for Hayden to look better, and Emilia smiled at Mizuki's offer to heal. Even though Emilia was thrown across the room earlier, the most she would get were bruises, and it shouldn't be too bad...at least for now. Still, she could deal with it. Emilia shook her head. "Don't worry, I'll be just fine." She said, rejecting Mizuki's offer with friendliness.

The first to go down the stairs was Satoshi, and she knew Ace and Hayden had disappeared from sight as well. Honestly, she dreaded what they would find down there, granted that they find the root of all the mayhem that was occurring in this place. She took a deep breath and followed after the others, using her own pocket torchlight to brighten her path. She placed her hand along the wall for security, making her way down the dark staircase. As she was reaching the bottom, she spotted familiar members, and she grinned.

[darkmagewolfe]

Nao thought about the offer of cake. Normally, it would be considered a nice gesture, but in the mind of Nao it, naturally, wasn't. Cake is rather high in fat and sugar, its equivalency could be eating several pounds of processed sugar, depending on the size of the cake. And food with absurd amounts of sugar could severely affect his heart and, mostly, his insulin production which would result in diabetes.

Diabetes would then result in both painful, and inconvenient treatment, and if the condition was exacerbated further by other factors it could result severe impairment and, eventually, death.

He tilted his head and frowned slightly, "If you wanted me to die, cake isn't a very productive way to go about it. Bullets or a sword would be a lot more effective you know."

~---~

By the time Tsumiki had found Yui, he was alone in the bathroom. The bathroom itself had looked like it had gone through a tornado. The wall was literally torn down from its foundation and skeleton structure only remained. The sink, toilet and bathtub were obliterated, the light above was flickering in and out as Yui stood, rather ominously, in the middle of the room.

Tsumiki wasn't afraid of anything, but admittedly looking at the ever-cheerful Yui standing with a destroyed bathroom before him was creepy.

"Yui? We need to get going, stop grinding for experience points, we all know it's only headed toward strength anyways."

When Yui turned the room's temperature had lowered so much and so quickly that her ears popped. An absolute monster had reflected in his dull eyes and a sinister presence had taken up residence in his usual happy demeanor. Reacting fast, Tsumiki had raised up a magical barrier to ward potential attacks.

Yui, instead, opted to tackle Tsumiki so hard that they crashed into the wall behind her. He hugged her tightly and began to laugh, "Miki! Why have you been avoiding me the entire time? That's kinda mean~"

Tsumiki strained to speak under his impossibly vice-like hug, but managed to speak coherently, "Sorry, now stop trying to kill me and let's get going."

Yui looked up and nodded, "Why do you smell like soda?"

She ignored the question and whisked the two away.

Forming back into reality, they stood before the group. Yui was still hugging Tsumiki by the waist and the latter looking rather annoyed with that idea.

"Hey," Miki said in her usual hoarse voice, "What'd I miss?"

[umazak]

Ishiro shakes his head at the question to be healed and says, "No, I'll be fine. But I am pretty thirst. Anyone have any soda?" Just as he says that, Tsumiki appear with Yui in tow. He finally looks to Nao and says, "Well think of something that you want to eat. Once you think of something, I'll make it for you as my way to apologize, not kill." With that he walks down stairs after the others and notices just how dark it is. He quickly notices that several of the people are using some form of flashlights which causes him to curse himself for not thinking to bring one. But he just shrugs it off and makes his way down deeper until he gets to the point of seeing Hayden light the area with fireworks of all things.

He thumps the girl on the back of her head and says, "Hey, make sure you don't burn the house down. There's enough damage already."

With that he walks pass the girl and notices the rest of the group a little further down. He contemplates transforming again, but he decides to save his energy. Instead he pulls out a cell phone from his pocket and opens it up to check the time. Once he sees the time he holds the phone out to his front to watch where he is going until he comes up to Ace again. But this time he notices that Satoshi is with him. He goes to say something to the two, but the timer on his phone runs out and the light dies. He curses himself and quickly brings the light back on while setting the dimmer to never go off and keep the backlight on at all times.

[Keyblader!]

Making his way down the stone steps Ace ran his right hand along the wall. As he expected it was getting colder, however there was something else going on that he made note of. He could feel moisture on the wall, like building condensation. He also noticed that his flashlight was becoming less and less effective, as if it's illumination was being downed out by something in the air. These conditions made him think that there was an unnaturally thick fog in the air. Reaching the bottom of the steps, he was confounded. He could sense that there was a single spirit in this room, but it didn't make much sense. "A Yuki Onna?" He said aloud. A Yuki Onna was a type of spirit usually only seen in cold areas, typically in something like a snowstorm. For one to venture out of such a place was extremely rare. "Everyone, be careful, I believe there's a Yuki Onna in this room." He said loud enough to inform everyone behind him.

His flashlight was useless, hardly doing anything to make the piercing darkness any less smothering. He couldn't tell how large this room was, so he kept his hand on the wall and began moving along the right side. He took careful steps, making sure to not make too much noise. It only became colder as he went on, and he couldn't help but start to shiver. Eventually he hit a wall, no doubt the other side of the room. Judging from the amount of steps he took he figured the room was fairly large, about half the size of a football field.

He stopped here, about to turn back and regroup with the others. He took a single step back, and slipped on what felt like ice. He let out a moan of pain as he landed hard on his back. He was sure there was no ice before, so where did it come from? "....!" He rolled quickly to his left, the sound of ice shattering on the position he was just in. Moving his hand in the darkness he picked up an object from the floor. Running his fingers over it he could tell it was a broken piece of a sharp icicle. It was as he expected, that spirit was down here with them all, and it intended to kill them. "Everyone be on guard! Locate the spirit, and pacify it!"

[luna008]

Ashely waited for Mizuki to catch up with them, she even sent Pip back up to light her way so she wouldn't fall down the steps. When Mizuki made it down, they both reached for each others hands out of instinct. When they had the others hand in their grasp, they started following the others.

"So this is going to be like the boss battle now?" Ashely said, trying to make light of the gloom.

"I guess...though don't die, theres no reset button..." Mizuki told her, starting to get worrid. There was something really powerful down here, and it wanted them dead...

Ashely just laughed, "Don't worry, you and Pip will make sure I don't!"

Mizuki just rolled her eyes as she noticed she could see her breath and heard Ace's warning. Ice spirit, great..."Yang, I'm going to let the other purifiers take care of the ghost if they can, I'm going to stay on stand by in case someone gets hurt."

Ashely nodded and let go of Mizuki's hand. A second after she did, a good deal of her body was covered in flames thanks to Pip's magic. If that spirit even thought about touching her, it was going to get burned, lituarly.

[nightmarezeroX9]

Once everyone had arrived at the bottom of the creepy stairway, Ace had announced that a spirit was afoot, if that was even a surprise, and watched to a little stunt in dodge an icicle. It immediately reminded Satoshi of the quick time sequences in Resident Evil 4, and he couldn't help but chuckle slightly. Quickly letting out a small, but fake, cough, he noticed that thick ice was covering the whole ground. Not wanting to risk slipping, he began to float in the air, thanks to him being able to manipulate wind. The kamaitachi weasels were floating around him, the fur on their backs sticking up due to the sudden chill that everyone felt. Satoshi himself could feel the small hairs on his back immediately spike upwards, and rubbing it, it almost felt frozen. Cracking his neck, he began to float forwards a little, spinning around like Peter Pan to get a better notice of his surroundings. Not really seeing anything, because of the dense fog really, but with the occasional glances past that, nothing was really in site. Taking it slow, he made sure to stay close enough to his teammates, so as to not suddenly disappear in a cliche trap, and get seperated for a while. Stopping for a brief moment, he decided to wait until someone else came up along side him, at least so he could have reassurance as to not disappear without a trace.

[ThePromise]

Stepping over the shards of glass and the scattered patches of grass before her, Asagi moved to her spirit, giving him only a small taste of what she really wanted to do. It had been ten entire minutes of the same process, making use of her abilities to touch the said spirit, and effectively use him as a ragdoll. He had been flying all across this yard for ten minutes, and Asagi didn't give him the opportunity to fight back. The spirit that was once a horrible man was face first in the dirt, but moments after impact, it had still found the strength necessary to pick himself up again. And she didn't mind it, it saved her the trouble of dragging him to his feet.

"Different, isn't it? How nothing you do is working anymore.." she began, stopping a couple feet in front of him. Her weapon and strength had tore his form time and time again, but it would ultimately stay bound here until he was sent. She couldn't truly give him what he deserved, and she wasn't even certain if this was hurting him. It made her feel better, and that was all she cared about in the end. "Not very fun when I'm not a little girl to kick around, isn't that right?" her words encouraged an increase in heavy pressure around him again, and though it was impossible to tell from how bundled up he was in those clothes, she was starting to understand that this was getting to him in some form. "..And what did I say about that damn aura!?"

Her blade came upward and sliced cleanly through the father's right arm before dragging it at a diagonal angle across his torso. The harshness of her own energy through that sharp weapon must have had some greater effect than before, because this time, he collapsed with ease. The arm she ran her Matsuro through only reconnected itself. She was severing the bond he had on this plane, but didn't continue the sending and instead had his parts return again and again, only to feel the same helplessness when they were gone each time. No matter how much anger she put into these strikes, Asagi couldn't truly torture him without the satisfaction of knowing this hurt him.

Though her piercing dark eyes narrowed dangerously at Hanabi's father, he didn't react this time, and in fact remained there. Those empty yellow pupils looked up at the sky above, no emotions coming forth. The area surrounding him was still dark, still heavy. "Even now you don't show anything ..did you plan to hurt her even after you already caused her death? I wouldn't be surprised." Drawing her right foot back, Asagi threw it forward towards him, and the crushing energy sent towards him would lift his body up and throw him back towards the greenhouse before slumping just inside of it. This was it. All this kicking around, all this frustration being vented ..but she wasn't getting anything from it, no real satisfaction, no begging, no cries of pain. This guy was impervious to anything she did, anything except her words.

So there he was, face in the ground, not moving any further ...and there she stood, directly behind him, her Matsuro raised in the air, gripped with both hands, prepared to pierce right through him and channel her Shatter ability throughout him. If he wasn't going to fight back, she could at least pretend that this was a fate worse than true death. "I guess we're through here ..I'll at least take some comfort knowing you'll never make her cry again." Asagi was capable of letting him suffer for an uncertain amount of time, but something kept her from the last few inches to pierce his covered back.

And it wasn't the 'good' in her either.

"...What the hell?"

"What would your grandfather say if he saw the protective ability of Soul Scatter being used like this?" A voice of confidence and subtlety would make mention behind her in an attempt to give her a second chance.

"Or bodybuilder-chan for that matter?" A more light-hearted and joker sounding voice would be the complete opposite of the very first.

"...I should have known, no one in this club has the balls ..but you two are different." Stopping her at such a time. What was their game?

[IceBlueWings]

Ace's announcement of the Yuki onna caused Emilia's heart beat to accelerate in fear, alert, and anticipation. Not that she didn't feel the ominous presence after she searched for any spirits, but his voice reverberated and she took a sharp breath. She nearly slipped and fell on the ice, but regained her balance. Her eyes darted around. She heard Mizuki talking about the current situation having no 'reset button' like a game, and she gave a tiny laugh that sounded nearly nervous. She immediately stopped, realizing that she sounded a little panicky to the rest.

In the meantime, she decided to raise everyone's defense, should anything happen. Or maybe she was just too nervous that she wanted to do something to reassure the fact that she wasn't powerless. She shivered. Where is it? She asked herself repeatedly, trying to locate its presence. Inaudibly, she took a deep breath. "Is everyone alright so far?" She asked, feeling that hearing her friends' voices would be reassuring.