RP What Shadows Lie

Rei sighed. That was part of one disaster averted, but it didn’t really do much to help with the other one did it? The man was now giving them that look, the one usually reserved for a particularly rabid looking animal that was a little too close for comfort, which was understandable if not mildly frustrating. She looked back to Kasumi who was at least looking slightly less wild than she had a moments earlier and motioned to the still open drawer of talismans with her chin. “If you need another take from the stack bound by the silver ribbon.” For now that would have to be enough, she could worry about making sure the girl wasn’t about to grow a longer pair of horns later.

“Look, I don’t ask that you believe me, and you are under no obligation to hear me out about something you clearly find crazy. The door behind you is unlocked.” Rei stood, she reached for the paper talisman she had placed on the desk but she hesitated before deciding to leave it. If the man wanted to take it he could, if he chose not to, well… Rei stepped around the table and made sure to give the man a comfortable berth as she walked back over to her food. “But you agreed with me earlier, didn’t you? You said we all had things in our lives we couldn’t quite explain, right?”

She pulled her lunch out of its bag, it wasn’t as warm to the touch as she would like it to be. She placed her hands together to say a silent thanks before breaking a pair of chopsticks and popping the top off. Wasn’t hot but the smell of curry still made her mouth water.

“Noroi are our misfortunes, they form from them, feed on them, and if they are strong enough then they will cause them. You’ve been touched by one, hanging on your back and pressed to your ear no doubt. If you take that talisman from the table it will help you clear your mind, it won’t fix the problem, mind, but I’ll give you time for someone who can. She scooped up a piece of chicken and plopped it into her mouth. Ah, that was delicious. She swallowed and looked back to him. “What you do with this is up to you, as I’ve said the door isn’t locked. But I promise you, if you take the talisman you’ll feel clearer than you have since your personal misfortune.”
 
Yeah, that was weird.

Actually, the whole thing had been weird. Habiki didn't know if it was even worth thinking about at this point. The crazy lady had done something with a paper and maybe the crazy went into the paper or something. It wasn't like he had the faintest idea what was going on here. This all seemed like one of those weird shows on TV, where a normal person ended up in a situation where progressively weirder things happened until someone jumped out and said "You're on Uncanny Camera!"

His eyes drifted to the corners of the room, looking for hidden cameras. It was tough, they could make them so small these days - the cameras could be hidden in anything, even the secretary's lunch. At least her lunch didn't seem weird - it smelled like a perfectly normal curry, which was spoiled by her talking about how he apparently had some kind of otherworldly backpack hitching a ride on his soul-spine or something like that.

Sure thing, lady, sure thing. He didn't like the way she said personal misfortune though - she couldn't know, couldn't possibly know - how dare she-

But wait. No. This was like those fortune tellers - the ones who said something basic and watched your reaction. It was the I see a tall dark stranger in your future, but this time it was the past and the tall dark stranger was some sort of evil gremlin. Well, fine, if he was going to be on television for something silly, he could at least be a good sport about it. "Sure, I'll take one of your pamphlets, no problem." Pamphlet, talisman, whatever. He had a feeling if he picked it up it was going to have a message about spiritual hitchhikers and possibly a coupon for 10% off at Madame Farseer's House of Past, Present, Future, and Pluperfect Sight.

Maybe it would make his mother laugh if he showed her. She could use a few laughs. He gave the secretary an indulgent smile, and walked forward to pick up one of the papers and give it a looking over.
 
Rei’s eyes narrowed as Hibiki picked up the talisman, though she remained silent for a moment while she chewed. The paper was old as was the style of the written kanji, but the ink was obviously new. The slip of paper didn’t offer up any discounts or buy one get one free palm readings — not that she even knew how to do those. Couldn’t be too hard to learn, could it? All one needed to do was what, trace some lines on a hand and rely on cold reading for the rest. Still, it wasn’t like she didn’t understand why people would fall for such a thing.

She understood desperation well enough. And, well, as far as cold readings went she had an idea about what the construction worker might be feeling about now. When the priest had slapped the talisman onto her back it had felt like a weight she hadn’t even noticed had suddenly been lifted from her, that something dark had been pushed from her mind where it had taken up residence in the recesses. The skin around her wrist tightened, and Rei massaged the prickling feeling away.

“I won’t pretend to know what your tragedy was, that’s your business, Noroi, however, are mine. That talisman will help, but it isn’t a solution to the problem’s root, it’ll just delay things. A business card with my number is on the right hand side of the desk, please take one.”

She never had a good knack for picking out which ones were the types who reached out sooner and which ones waited until it was too late.

“Keep it on your person or hang it in a room that has something you want to keep safe, and keep an eye out for anything strange. If you see anything, contact me, okay?”
 
===​

Hibiki's life had been uneventful for a while.

That wasn't quite it. It had been eventful, but in the right sorts of ways rather than the wrong ones. He'd play with his little girl, and when she'd smiled, he'd smiled back. He hadn't realized what that was like, what he'd been missing. There was always that sense of guilt, the fear, the idea that he had no right to her smiles, and certainly no right to respond to them.

But things had been different, since that very weird afternoon. He'd been unconvinced that strip of paper was good for anything, but there had been something about it, when he'd taken it. A sense of... he didn't know how to describe it. Peace, maybe. It wasn't that he didn't still feel guilty about everything he'd been responsible for, but the voices about it were quieter, and there was space around him for other things. He'd tucked it in his wallet, for lack of anywhere better to put it.

Over time, he'd noticed it slowly turning black. That had to be some sort of trick, didn't it? Something with chemistry. Materials changing over time. He didn't pay it much attention, but it was always in there when he got his wallet out to pay for lunch. One day he'd noticed it was entirely black, and thought about the one in the shop that the weird girl had picked up, the way hers had been that way almost immediately. He had no idea why he was thinking about that, though.

That was when things started getting bad again, though. The afternoon had been a series of bad luck and near misses; he'd dropped a hammer off of the side of the building and almost reached too far after it before his instincts had caught up and kept him safely on the roof, but it had been weird - and there'd been that nagging little feeling back again, the feeling that he'd have deserved it if he fell.

He still might not have done anything about it, but it was that night that the ceiling of the apartment had caved in - in his daughter's bedroom, right beside her crib.

She'd been fine.

But.

There was that little voice in the back of his head again, whispering that he didn't deserve her. That it would have been all right if the ceiling had fallen on her, since she would have been better off without him, even if that meant not existing.

Habiki hadn't slept the rest of that night. He'd put his daughter to bed in his own, then sat up, watching over her. In the morning, he'd dropped her off safely with his mother, as usual, then called off from work anyway and dialed the number on the business card from the weird place, before he could convince himself not to.

The conversation was short, simple enough:

"Hey... I was in a while back. Do you have any more of those, um... paper things? And could I get some?"
 
When she was a girl her father had always told her ghost stories on hot days. The chill you get from the scare, he had always said, was the best way to beat the heat. This day, however, Rei didn’t have any scares on hand, let alone anyone to tell her a good story, so she was making do with the shop’s air conditioning system. Which, she had to admit, was doing a pretty good job at keeping her chilled while she waited. It wasn’t a particularly busy day today, the only thing she had scheduled was a phone call with a group of university students who had gotten themselves into a squeeze of trouble a few weeks back that Miss Amaris had helped them with. Not that she didn’t trust the Weaver’s work, but with Noroi it was best practice to follow up with a client to be certain they were actually cleansed.

While waiting she busied herself with the sorts of little tasks that always needed doing around Final Rites. Tidying up the front, cleaning out the fridge, dusting off her gun locker, painting a few extra talismans, all the regular sort of things, all of this was to say trust Rei was more than ready to snatch up the phone when it finally rang.

“Final Rites, this is Rei speaking.” She said, her lips quickly tucked into a frown when a voice she wasn’t expecting came from the other end. It took her a moment to put a face to the voice, the man who had stepped into her shop to give advance notice about construction work, she felt fairly certain. “Yeah, yeah, uh, you were the construction worker, right?”

As Rei spoke she leaned across her desk and thumbed open her day planner. She flipped quickly back until she found the quick note she had scratched into the margins of the book.

“The one you had wore out already? Getting you a new one wouldn’t be a problem, but, uh, like I said last time talismans will only keep a Noroi away for so long. If you’re willing to hear me out, I have a more permanent solution to your problem.”

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

For a long moment after their conversation ended, Rei stared down at her planner, tapping the pad of her index finger against her lips. When she had seen the man, from
what she remembered anyway, the Noroi attached to him didn’t seem like it was particularly powerful, but the rate at which it had bled the talisman was faster than she had expected. That happened sometimes, but it left her with an uneasy feeling. She rapped her knuckles against the table, it might be silly to go just with it feeling weird so she could justify it to herself because it was a residential job and apartment complexes typically didn’t like random women with rifles showing up.

See? All nice and logical like that.

With that matter settled, Rei searched through a few drawers until she found the card she was looking for, a list of specialists she had bummed off a friendly priest. She ran her finger down the names until she found the one she wanted, and picked the phone back up and dialed. The number ringed, which was a good first step. She placed her thumb over the mouthpiece and turned her head.

“Kasumi!” Rei called back into the shop, “can you call and see if Emma is available for another job right now? After that get your stuff packed, got something that needs doing.”

She heard someone pick up on the other end and her attention returned to the phone.

“Hello, is Miss Toudai available? I’m Rei Ayoama, a ‘Breaker looking for assistance on an urgent matter.”

—~—~—~—~—~—~—~—

Hibiki’s apartment complex was nothing special, from the outside it was nice but plain, and Rei was fairly certain the inside wouldn’t do too much to dispel the notion. It was the sort of place you lived when you were comfortable, when you had enough money coming in to pay the bills and you were looking for a little extra space for a family. It wasn’t the sort of place you expected to hear about a Noroi making a little nest for itself, but in her experience tragedy cared very little about comfort.

The meeting point was also nice, a little park not too far from the apartment building that Hibiki had offered. It was good to have a place outside of a Noroi’s nest for people to regroup if necessary. She slipped a long and thin carrying case off her shoulder and rested it on the bench.

“Well, hopefully we won’t have to wait too long for everyone to show up.” She said with a yawn.
 
She didn't have to wait long at all. Punctual as a grammatician, a black Isuzu Bellel with tinted windows pulled up by the park. An older man in a suit and a cap stepped out of the driver's seat, moving to open the back door nearest the curb. A young woman exited, bobbing her head in thanks, then turned to glance towards the bench where Rei sat waiting. She looked - prim. No, prim wasn't sharp enough. She looked like a figure out of a wood relief, all edges and muted colors, from the crisp white kimono bound by a pale blue band, to the wide-brimmed hat hiding the upper half of her face, to the ornate metal pole she rested over her shoulder as she began to approach. When she spoke, too, there was a sharpness to her, despite the softness of her voice. No inflection. No emotion. Simply - expressing themselves as they were, enunciated like a teacher reading out a piece of prose.

"You called."

The pole was attached to a lantern, now visible swinging back and forth behind her. Small, ornate, and lit with a flame that looked as cold and sharp as the girl holding it. The hand not holding the pole tilted the hat back, eyes locking Rei's with an almost accusatory intensity.

"It isn't here, is it?" she muttered. "It better not be. No protection in sight, no wards, no watchers or talismans - not that I'd expect anything less from a corner shrine."
 
[Volt]

Kasumi did not hone her skills through rote memorization. She learned through practice. Although that perhaps may have been a simple way of putting it. Dealing with a Noroi trying to displace your soul and take your body for her own, while also being your source of magical power does tend to throw a wrench into things. Even gaining knowledge from the Noroi was enough to take slivers out of her control. Fortunately, Kasumi had found that if she documented this knowledge, it became her own. Thus she had begun a journal. It could hardly be called organized, a random jumble of various bits of knowledge that had come up during her early days at First Rites, where she’d drawn on Ichi’s abilities far too hastily.

It was through this book that she was flipping, making a list of ingredients required for her next batch of tonics. She figured that she probably needed to restock, and was taking an inventory on what she’d prepped and had on hand. The phone rang, momentarily breaking her concentration before Rei’s voice filtered down to her. Kasumi ignored it, scratching some numbers down before her name caught her attention. She’d caught vague hints of the conversation before, something about a construction worker. Wait, could it be that one she’d snapped at earlier? Interesting.

Kasumi did not, in fact, call to see if Emma was available for another job. Professional courtesy or no, it was clear that something was off between them, and Kasumi didn’t like talking to Emma any more than she had to. So instead she fired off a quick text.

[div]Rei wants to know if you’re available for a job right now. Ask her for details.[/div]
Task accomplished, Kasumi began putting things in a little satchel to take before bumping up against a small container of incense. She had an idea. Kasumi began measuring, calculating how much she’d need. She’d done this only a handful of times, and the exact measurements were still a bit foggy. She popped her head out into the hall and called back to Rei.

“Rei, I’m gonna visit real quick! I have the incense measured for five minutes, and a timer set for seven.” Satisfied, she ducked back into her little area, carefully arranging the incense into a sigil she’d found one night while doing research. Confident in her work, Kasumi lit one end of the incense. She watched the smoke begin to twist up from the powder, closed her eyes, calmed herself, and inhaled.

[font color="red"]How nice of you to visit.[/font]

Kasumi opened her eyes. She was no longer sitting in Final Rites. Instead, she stood within a cramped little home, most features obscured by dark or smoke. The only visible elements were a small table, upon which sat a tea set and two cups. Crouched on the other side of the table was a feminine figure, its features obscured, each small movement accompanied by a chorus of metallic jangling. Kasumi sat down at the table, across from the figure, not acknowledging that it had spoken. It looked up at her, its features monstrous, yet familiar.

Ichi always liked to wear Kasumi’s face when she visited. A twisted, deformed version, perhaps, with solid red eyes, fangs visible even with a closed mouth, and gnarled horns curling up from her forehead. Kasumi knew what it was, that the kijo was trying to unsettle her. She didn’t need to know that it worked.

”Ichi.”

The figure attempted a mock bow, but her hands were arrested before they’d moved more than a foot from her torso. Dull chains wrapped around her frame, covered in dozens of locks, many of them seemingly redundant. Kasumi tried not to dwell on it too much. Physical representations of metaphysical constructs rarely made sense, especially when scrutinized further.

[font color="red"]”To what do I owe the pleasure?”[/font]

”What do you know of the construction worker who came in a bit ago? Clearly he has something attached to him.”

The kijo leaned forward, one wrinkled hand grasping a cup full of steaming tea. She made a wave towards the cup in front of Kasumi, which she refused to touch. She wasn’t sure what would happen if she drank tea with the, as one kid had called it, ‘ghost in her blood’, but she didn’t want to find out. After a long sip, Ichi responded.

[font color="red"]”Ah yes, him. Poor sap. Such delicious misery wasted on an otherwise mundane life.”[/font]

”So you do know something?”

[font color="red"]“Of course I do.”[/font] Ichi let out a cackle. [font color="red"]”But you know my price.”[/font] She shook her arm, the bindings rattling noisily. [font color="red"]”Just one lock removed. I could move a bit more, perhaps make tea that’s better suited to your liking.”[/font] Another dry chuckle came, along with those eyes staring deep into Kasumi’s own. Kasumi’s breath began to burn in her lungs, that withering gaze moving her hand slowly towards the cup. She knew she shouldn’t, that it was dangerous, but the knowledge could be useful. She could help deal with this Noroi outside of generic suppor-

Kasumi exhaled, the beeping of her phone’s timer dragging her back to Final Rites. She shook her head, Ichi's words echoing in her thoughts. Several minutes later, she stood with Rei in a little park, sunglasses firmly covering her red eyes. Her satchel hung at her side, various objects tucked away in case they were needed. Kasumi's lip curled as the newcomer appeared, clearly not interested in blending in, and immediately began belittling them. Kasumi protested, her lips barely moving in a conscious effort to keep her teeth relatively hidden.

"We're not novices. We know better than to stand around twiddling our thumbs in the presence of a hostile Noroi."
 
With an air of true professionalism Rei maintained a neutral smile as Miss Toudai (Toudai-hime perhaps? Old blood was always particular about how they wanted addressed) approached and made her opinions known. She had quite a sharp tongue, its edge only rivaled by the cut of her kimono and what little of her face that Rei could see. Fitting really, the woman with a history to her family name looked like she was out of an old wood press. With a faint sigh, Rei reached out and placed a hand on Kasumi’s shoulder. She could appreciate the girl getting worked up, but some fights weren’t worth the energy.

“Thank you for joining us Toudai-hime, I know it was short notice so I appreciate you accommodating us,” Rei said, her smile not faltering, “the park here is just a neutral place we can fall back to if things are hairier than expected. Our target is in the apartment complex behind you, in the flat owned by Mr Suden.”

Hopefully that would be enough to smooth the edges.

“We haven’t had time to set up a perimeter within the apartment itself, so that will need to be the first order of business once we get inside.” As she spoke, Rei picked up the long tube she had rested on the park bench and slid its strap back over her shoulder. “We can do our introductions on the walk over, once we meet up with the client I’ll go over the plan of action, to save us all having to hear it twice.”

~~-~~-~~

The walk was uneventful, as most walks in a park were. This was a boring residential street where odd things didn’t happen, so to anyone peeking outside their window the three of them must have made for a bizarre sight. Kasumi, form a distance at least, could probably pass for a university student, Chie looked far too much like she had just gotten off the set for some period drama, and much as she was loathe to admit it, Rei knew that she she looked too much like an office worker loaded down with a few too many things for her presentation later. Maybe they could pass themselves off as a sketch comedy troupe if someone got curious.

The apartment’s door was inoffensively bland, which fit well with the rest of the hallway. Rei reached out and rapped her knuckle against the door before taking a step back.

Well, hopefully the sight of three weirdos standing outside of his apartment wasn’t going to cause him to suddenly decide to not let them inside.
 
Hibiki supposed that he was about as ready for this as he possibly could have been. The baby was at his mother's - he did not want her around for whatever was happening here. He'd done what he could to tidy up the corner of the bedroom where the roof had collapsed. He'd offered to go up and fix the roof, but the apartment complex's landlord had someone for that already, and truthfully Hibiki probably couldn't have done it entirely by himself. He'd cleaned the room, though, and gotten all the dust out, and put up a tarp and patched the drywall.

And he'd cleaned the rest of the apartment and done the dishes and wiped down the counters and done the wash and taken the diaper bin out to the dumpster, because he was having company and that meant the place needed to be clean - or at least it meant it was something he could do to get rid of all the nervous energy.

After what was simultaneously an eternity and barely even a second, there was a knock on the door. Hibiki took a breath, and wondered if he was really doing this, and - for about the five hundredth time in the last hour - wondered if he should just send them back to the office and pretend none of this was real. He frowned, thoughtfully, and then his eyes caught the framed portrait of an infant girl, and he shook his head and went to answer the door.

There was the hopeful possibility for a moment that it was only someone collecting signatures or trying to sell poorly made chocolates... but no, opening the door proved that it was, indeed, the people from the office - or at least some of them.

"Hello, Miss Rei. Please... come in."
 
[Volt]

Kasumi rolled her shoulder slightly at Rei’s touch. She wasn’t going to pick a fight with this person, whose help was apparently required in this situation. She was simply stating a fact and lightly rebuffing an assumption. But still, apparently even that could have been enough to ruffle feathers, judging from the measured way that Rei was addressing and speaking to her.

The apartment complex was nothing notable, nothing that screamed there was a hostile spirit on the premises. The door to the apartment in question was equally generic, giving no indication of who or what may live inside. After Rei’s knock, the door was opened by their customer. Kasumi stepped inside, waiting until the door was closed to remove her glasses, crimson eyes taking stock of the apartment. Either Mr. Hibiki was a very neat person or he’d cleaned in anticipation for their arrival.

A picture on the wall caught her eye, and she stepped closer to inspect it. An infant girl, perhaps his daughter? She couldn’t hear anyone else, which meant that hopefully the child was somewhere else. A faint chuckle grazed her mind as Ichi’s fondness for children made itself known once more. Kasumi spoke up, gesturing to the picture.

“Is this your daughter? She’s not here now, correct?”
 
Oh, good, the crazy lady was here, too.

Well, they were all crazy, but Habiki felt that if he had to rank the people he'd met in that weird shop in order of craziness, there was one of them that was going to be at the top of the list, and he was staring right at her. He let her in, because it would have been rude not to - especially because he had invited them here, after all. Of course she went right to the pictures on the wall, and of course she had questions about them.

Or... maybe that was just a normal thing that normal people did, and Habiki wouldn't have been nearly as rankled by it if he hadn't seen her pulling out the crazy back in the shop. He tried to make himself settle down - it didn't work entirely, but he could at least pretend they were normal people having a normal conversation. He didn't know if he was all that good at pretending, but with this crowd, he probably didn't need to be.

"Yes, that's her. She's with my mother today. I didn't want her here for... this." Whatever this was - Habiki still wasn't entirely certain himself, he had just known that whatever it was going to be, he wanted his little girl far away from it - somewhere safe, with someone who loved her and cared for her. Not here. Not with them.

Not with him.
 
“Thank you for allowing us into your home.” Rei said with a dip of her head as she stepped inside. The skin on her left wrist prickled, like little needles were probing for a reaction. Which, maybe that wasn’t as far from the truth as she would care to admit, Noroi always had a knack for probing the places that made one weak. It was one of those little blessings, after all it meant that something was here. As Kasumi and Mr Suden spoke, Rei slid her pack off her shoulder and placed it down on the cleared top of a coffee table, though she kept the long fabric case on her shoulder.

If she had to guess from the looks of things, Suden had taken some time to tidy up before they arrived which she found a little amusing. Or maybe that was normal and she’d simply spent too much time sticking her nose into the sorts of abandoned places more reputable hexbreakers wouldn’t deign to do.

“That’s good, with any luck we should be out of your hair by supper time.” Rei added as Suden explained that he had dropped his daughter off for the day. She opened her bag and removed several items which she neatly laid out; a few baggies of white salt, a metal flask of sake, some chalk, and a handful of familiar paper charms. “Thinking of, I don’t believe you’ve been properly introduced. The girl with the glasses is Kasumi, she’s a little odd but her knowledge for dealing with these sorts of matters is nothing to scoff at.” Rei said flatly, before tilting her head towards the other woman with her lamp.

“And this is Toudai-hime, she’s agreed to lend us her talents, which I greatly appreciate.” With that said, Rei zipped her bag closed. “So, the plan is simple enough. First, we’ll need to set up a simple perimeter, putting these charms on the windows and doors should be enough to keep it from leaving the apartment. Second, we’ll need to agitate it to draw it out, salt and sake should work fine for that. Third, Miss Toudai will trap the Noroi, and from there we’ll be able to cleanse this space of it. If we run into complications we can’t handle, the park outside will be where we retreat to, and so long as the charms are in place it shouldn’t be able to follow us there.”

Nice and simple.


“If you have any objections to us doing this, please air them now Mr Suden.” As she spoke, Rei picked up the stack of charms and split them into four roughly even stacks. “If not, let’s get to work.”
 
[Volt}

Kasumi let out a hm of interest as Mr. Suden confirmed that this was, indeed, his daughter. She studied the picture, noting aspects that, at a glance, bore a resemblance to those of Mr. Suden. He further explained that he’d sent his daughter to be with his mother during this visit. The man seemed sheepish, but he had some sense about him.

“Good,” Kasumi said, still facing the picture. “There’s a not insignificant amount of Noroi that have a fascination with children. Drawing it out with her here could have endangered her and made the situation far worse.”

She took a deep breath through her nose, drawing in the scents of the apartment. Most of them bore the sterile sting of chemicals and cleaning products, but underneath them all was a faint, familiar scent, pungent and cloying. Kasumi turned to face Mr. Suden, her red eyes locking with his.

“The good news is that whatever Noroi is here wasn’t attached to her. Its scent still lingers. If it had attached to her, this process would be entirely different, and your daughter may never have been the same.” She gave a small smile that may have been meant to comfort before going to the table and picked up one of the charm piles, heading to the nearest window and beginning to place them.
 
Chie slipped into the apartment behind the pair, eyes narrowed, scouring the small interior with the intense appraisal of a health inspector in a backroom noodle shop. Ears perked for the questions and answers - always important to know the context of the victim - she scanned the doorways, drew her fingertips over the countertops, and sampled a droplet of water from the tap of the kitchen sink.

The social aspects of this job often eluded her. It was nice, having others to ask the questions, while she could focus on investigating the premises. She supposed, for that at least, it was useful to have the pair here, though she would've preferred only the company of the hunter, and not the sin eater beside. Hex breakers were allies, crass as this one's methods may be. The spirit-taken, though?

Attack wolves.

Her lip curled. Useful sometimes, sure, but with all untamed, a risk of danger.

Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a twined bamboo mat, unfurling it on the counter. Inside, a bundle of white wax candles and a stack of silver holders. Methodically, muttering under her breath, she set aside five candles, pushed them into holders, opened the door of her lantern, and lit each in turn with the flickering pale flame.

"Many Noroi have fascination with children, yes," she said abruptly, sharply, not looking in the group's direction as she moved to each corner of the room to set one of the candles. "But they have little problem with sinking their vile claws in any profane flesh that presents itself to them. The dangers of this cannot be understated - they are a disease of the spirit, bringing blood to your hands and death to your lips."

She turned, then, a sidelong glance to Kasumi. Just a glance - but enough to say something.

"While it is important to understand any personal emotional elements or circumstances that may influence this Noroi and how we choose to handle it, your presence here is a danger, and by participating in this ritual with us, you do place your life at risk, Mr. Suden."

She approached him, holding the final candle out for him wordlessly.
 
Mr. Suden had objections. Mr. Suden had a number of objections. He had just determined that voicing them, while suggested by Rei, was probably not actually in the best course of interest. He could have objected, for example, to the fact that the weird lady was apparently going around sniffing his apartment. That was definitely something to object to.

At least it was clean, anyway. He didn't know what she was looking... er, smelling for... but he hoped that his apartment, at least, was unobjectionable. Well... aside from the part where the roof had fallen in and it was apparently infested with demon spirits or whatever happened to be going on here. That was worth objecting to.

But Rei was so unfailingly polite that he would have felt bad, so he just shook his head a little. The weird one was apparently Miss Kasumi, and Habiki wasn't sure he had really wanted an introduction there. The new one was Miss Toudai, emphasis on the honorific. He didn't know what to make of that - generally, Habiki felt that most people who insisted on it were stuck in the Nobunaga era, but it was possible that Rei was just again being polite.

Miss Toudai did not sniff the apartment. Habiki was relieved, and bothered that apparently this was something now on his list of considerations. She was... not as polite. Blunt, even. Interesting - he'd have expected more flowery words from someone with a -hime attached. She was doing something with candles, which was remarkably fine with him. Habiki knew where he stood on candles - he didn't keep them around because he didn't want fire around the baby, but candles were an understandable quantity.

She offered him one, with a warning of potential death. He still wasn't sure that he believed in all of this, but she seemed serious.

And it's not like you deserve to live, anyway.

He took the candle, frowning slightly at the thought, then letting it go to swim around with all the others like it. "She'll be all right, though? My daughter - she won't be in any danger?"
 
“Noroi thrive on the connection between people and places, it’s how they spread their curse.” Rei said with the sort of matter-of-fact tone that was typically reserved for commenting on a particularly dreary day rather than the occult. As she spoke Rei removed a worn flashlight from her bag and clicked it on, casting a dull blue glow on the tabletop. She nodded slowly, turning her attention back towards Suden. “If the question is today then so long as she is with your mother, then yes your daughter will be safe, as Kasumi said the Noroi is attached to you, not her. That said, if anything were to happen to you, you and your daughter are linked and that means it could very well follow that connection back to her.”

Rei opened the end of her cylindrical carrying case and drew out a bamboo sword, the shaft covered by interlocking slips of paper. She looked the wooden sword over, gently tugging at the paper to ensure that nothing was loose. It was no rifle, but it would work.

“Though I suppose there’s always the chance that the Noroi will decide one of us three would make for a better target.” She added, lowering the bamboo sword. ”As Miss Toudai said, this will be dangerous, but it’ll give us the best opportunity to deal with this Noroi so you won’t have to see any of us ever again.”
 
[Volt]

Kasumi paused in her application of charms as Miss Toudai spoke. The woman seemed to feel that speaking was frivolous, keeping her words to herself, only deigning to let others hear them when they were important or, more likely, when she was talking down to them. At least that was how it had seemed from their short time with each other. She turned to face the room, her eyes following Chie as she floated to each of the corners, placing a lit candle before moving to the next. Kasumi caught her eye, her lip curling faintly to expose a suggestion of sharp teeth. There was enough understanding there. Thankfully she owed Miss Toudai no loyalty, and felt no need to protect her, if it should come to that.

She returned wordlessly to her charm applications, ensuring that each one was put into its proper place. She wouldn’t be surprised if Chie decided to follow up and check every single thing she did, ensuring Kasumi wasn’t sabotaging this in order to gain some form of power.

[font color="red"]You could, though.[/font]

That cold voice dragged a single long fingernail down her spine.

[font color="red"]Just a slight tweak, nobody would notice, not unless they looked really closely, and by that point it would be too late.[/font]

Kasumi squeezed her eyes shut, mentally ensuring the locks were solidly in place. All she got was a raspy chuckle in response.

[font color="red"]Before this is over, you’ll wish you had me free.[/font]

Kasumi realized she’d been standing still and hastened to continue applying charms, keeping an ear on the conversation as Ichi’s oppressive presence faded.

“There is a chance that even if this fails, the Noroi wouldn’t be passed to her, but instead linger here. Some of them have a fascination with certain objects after all.”
 
Kasumi would feel a cold presence behind her, the scent of incense roiling up in the air. Just as expected, Chie looking over her shoulder, eyes scouring the charms. After a few nosy, uncomfortable seconds, the priestess gave a huff of approval, then moved between Habiki and the rest of the apartment, her lantern raised.

"It fears the fire," she explained without a question. "The candles are echoes, but hold the same chilled burn to its kind. When the beast arrives, it will be forced to face the flame, and if fates provide, be consumed in them."

She lazily swung the lantern back and forth, trails from the pale fire twisting in the air. It was more like mist than smoke. Thick, clinging, billowing out in strands, carrying with it a scent of jasmine and fresh loam. Chie closed her eyes.

"Well, ronin? We're waiting."
 
They were not exactly reassuring. Habiki had wanted something more concrete, something along the lines of "Oh, don't worry, even if everything goes horribly wrong, your daughter will be safe." He didn't know why it even bothered him so much, when he didn't believe in any of this anyway. Still, it was not what he wanted to hear, and no doubt his frowning expression made that quite clear.

But what else could he do? If this noroi thing was real, then it had already almost killed her once. If they tried to get rid of it and it went wrong, her life could be in danger - but if they did nothing at all, it would be. He sighed, and shook his head, drawing in a breath that smelled like jasmine and... something else. Maybe soap.

He let the breath go. "I wouldn't mind seeing you again, Miss Rei."

Hopefully it was not entirely apparent that had been you, singular. Miss Kasumi had at least seemed to settle down a little bit, but now Todai-hime was acting oddly. Rei seemed to be the only normal one among them, and even she was brandishing a wooden sword. She seemed to know what to do with it, at least, and...

...and no, he wouldn't mind seeing her again.

And his daughter's life was in danger, and what was he even thinking? It's not like he deserved-

"Let's... get this over with, please."
 
“Good work, Kasumi.” Rei said, without checking over the girl’s work. Todai-hime had given what was likely the most disapproving grunt of approval that Rei had ever heard, so chances seemed good that every charm was exactly where they needed to be. It helped to have orny people like that around sometimes, it made her job a little easier. She added a small bag of salt, and a little bottle of sake to the table next to her flashlight. She glanced up at Habiki’s comment that he wouldn’t mind seeing them — her — again, and a faint smile traced her lips.

“As I’ve said, the door to my shop is always open.” She said, though once said she exhaled. Rei couldn’t very well deny the implication behind Chie’s words, Rei knew she was trying to put this part off. Rei picked up the bag of salt and the sake. “Very well, it looks like everyone is ready, Mr Suden, if you’d excuse me.” Rei stepped close to the man as she opened the bag of salt. She took a healthy pinch and sprinkled it over his head and shoulders before tossing a fair amount onto his back. She opened the small bottle of sake and held it out for him to take.

“Take a sip of this. If anything feels wrong once we get fully started, splash some onto your head and back.” She waited a moment for Habiki to do as she had instructed before she picked up her flashlight and bamboo sword. She stepped behind Habiki and clicked the flashlight on. She shone the light on his back, and the shadow was there, it moved and quivered as one might expect a living thing to when touched by something deeply uncomfortable, and extending out under the touch of the light where long black filaments. Like long strands of uncombed hair, twisted and knotted and leading away to something dark and hungry.

“This might feel strange, but please bare with it.” Rei said, with the same tone a nurse might offer up when saying that a shot would sting for a moment. ”Once I cut these, the noroi will react, and it will be drawn to Todai-Hime’s lights.”

Rei raised her bamboo sword up, her attention on the long black strands that quivered with a wind that Rei didn’t feel, then she sliced down. The black strands offered a moment’s worth of resistance as the shaft of the sword made contact, there was a sound too which was sharp like a tea kettle left on too long, then the sword passed through. There was a change in the air, as if things were just a little cooler, or the flames of the candles burning just a little hotter, or her breath remaining in her lungs just a touch longer than she expected. Then, with a sharp electric crack, the lights overhead turned off. The blue glow of her flashlight and the shivering light of the candles filled the room, and there was a sound like wood cre-aking under weight.

Shit.
 
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