Holic [OPEN to all]

[Sakamoto Aki]

La, laa la la la la la, la la la. La, laa la la la la la.....

The lullaby continued without cease. The girl’s voice was beautiful. The branches from surrounding trees swayed, as if indulging themselves in the sweet voice.

The lullaby echoed through the darkness, surrounding him at that old shrine.

------------------------------

Why do I have to be here?

Sakamoto Aki frowned as he walked through the darkness. He walked, with a flashlight on his right hand, and a bucket on his left hand, on a narrow path surrounded by trees.

Washizu High School was holding a school trip. It was an annual event. Washizu’s school trip was unlike ordinary schools’. They always went to fancy places and stayed at luxurious hotels.

But this year was different.

The new principal thought that Washizu’s students were too spoiled. So he changed this year’s school trip destination. They were going to a camping trip. They had to sleep in tents (which they must build in groups) and cook their own meals.

Here they were now. A camping ground in the middle of the woods. It was a public camping ground which was popular for school camping trips.This time it was not crowded though. Only two schools, including Washizu, were using the camping ground.

Aki complained to himself. He was okay with not staying at fancy hotels. Regular hotels were fine.

But not tents.

Troublesome.

How did the school got the parents to permit this anyway?

The chilly wind blew and made Aki shivered. He wore a black T-shirt, a green thick jacket, and a pair of dark brown cargo pants. I should’ve wear a sweater, he thought.

He was going to get a bucket of water from a well, 1,5 km from Washizu camping spot. His class needed some water. Believing the rumor about ghosts, none of the students volunteered to get the water. The whole class argued. Aki, who was looking forward to sleep, thought that he had to deal with it fast so he could sleep. Without saying anything he grabbed his flashlight and a bucket, and went by himself. He’s not afraid of ghosts. To him, no such thing existed.

The wind blew again as Aki arrived in front of the gate of an old shrine. He looked up to a series of stone stairs. It was not really long. He climbed up the stairs in small jogs. Not long after that, he reached the top of the stairs. It was dark. None of the lanterns was on. He flashed his flashlight and it shone upon a well. It was on his right, not far from the shrine’s main building. He walked in quick steps towards it. But then, he abruptly stopped.

Something was moving in front of the main building. It was too quick to catch, but Aki was sure something moved. But he saw nothing, so he shrugged it off and headed back to the well.

If you ghosts exist then show yourselves. He smirked as the thought came across his mind.

But something brought his steps to a halt once again.

A voice. A girl’s voice. It was singing. Aki turned his head to see who was singing. He couldn’t find her. The voice seemed to come from everywhere.

La, laa la la la la la, la la la. La, laa la la la la la.....

Aki stood still, trying to find the source of the voice. He was not afraid. His heart didn’t even beat faster. But that voice......

Deep inside his head, he told himself to just get the water and go back, not wasting time in here. But he was trying to find the voice. He wanted to know. Why? He didn’t know.

His gaze fell on the shrine’s main building.

La, laa la la la la la, la la la. La, laa la la la la la.....

[Satonaka Mari]

The whole time from the date they’d been told about it to until they arrived at the camping grounds, Mari had been excited. It was her first field trip with her new school, so it was something she was definitely looking forward too. The fact that it was camping didn’t even deter her any. So what if she got a little dirty or there were bugs or whatever? Such was nature, and it wasn’t the first time she had been camping either.

She wasn’t sure how many times total that she had been camping exactly, considering she had done it with quite a number of different schools, but it was enough times that she could put up a tent without a lot of effort. She’d helped a couple of her friends with theirs, before she set about putting her sleeping bag in her tent and sitting her bag inside it too.

After a little while, the staff members on the trip gathered all the students to lay down the ground rules of the trip. Finally though, there were some small chores to be done around the campsite. A group of boys volunteered to get firewood, and when it came time for someone to volunteer to go get some water, Mari raised her hand. “I’ll go!” she said, standing up and wiping the dirt off the back of her jeans.

However, a second volunteer was also called upon as she fetched her flashlight, because they would need more than one bucket of water, that was for sure. After digging through her bag and finding her flashlight, she pulled on a short jacket, before making her way back over to near where the teachers were standing to grab one of the large buckets.

Grabbing the black bucket by it’s handle, Mari looked up to see who her ‘water-gathering’ partner would be. She smiled when she seen it was Mizusawa. She wasn’t scared about having to walk through the woods to the old shrine, but she was pleased she wasn’t going alone. Having company was always better than being alone, no matter where you were going.

“Mizusawa-kun,” she said brightly as they started to walk. “Are you looking forward to this?” She gestured back at the camp behind them so that he wouldn’t think she was talking about collecting the water. Of course there was nothing good about going off in the woods at night. Thank god there was a main trail that was pretty easy to follow, otherwise they would have probably gotten lost. After all, there was no map or signs in the forest itself.

“You would think there was an easier place to get water from, huh?” she said, looking at the boy beside her and giving him a smile. She didn’t talk to Mizusawa a lot, but he seemed like a sweet boy from what she had seen, if a little more on the quiet side. The gates of the shrine came into view not long after, and Mari stopped to look up at it.

“Creepy…” she said to herself, before shaking her head and walking up the steps, swinging the bucket in her hand and holding the flashlight steady in her other hand. The first thing she noticed as she shone her flashlight around, was the figure standing near the well. She jumped, not expecting to see anyone else out here, before she composed herself and started over towards the well. “Hi,” she said to the stranger, smiling. “You must be from the other school that’s here, right?” Rumour had it that the other school was Washizu, but no one knew for certain.

“lalalalalalala…lala…lala…lalalalalalala…lala…lala”

Mari froze and looked around at the shrine. A cold breeze seemed to come from nowhere and made a chilling shiver go straight up her spine. There was no one in sight, and the voice seemed to be coming from everywhere. She had always believed in ghosts, but her more rational side also had some thoughts that perhaps it was just some students playing a prank.

“Mizusawa-kun…-” she started slowly, about to say that maybe they should go hurry and get the water so they could go back, before she abruptly stopped as she spotted movement. There, at the corner of the opposite end of the shrine, was a small crouched figure, all in white. Her curiosity peaked, Mari squinted a little to try and see better from such a long distance.

“Is that…a child?” she asked both of the boys beside her. The more she looked, the more it looked like a small child. Maybe it was just her mothering side, or maybe it was something else entirely, but she felt drawn towards the small figure that stood alone near the corner of the building. Without even thinking, and completely forgetting about the ghostly voice from only moments before, she set her bucket down and started to walk towards the child.

She was only several metres away before she slowed her steps some. Now that she was closer, Mari could tell that it was a little girl, her long black hair hanging down beside her face, her back facing towards where Mari stood. She was wearing a pure white dress, but it didn’t cross Mari’s mind that the dress was far too clean for a child that was in the woods.

“Hey there,” she said, crouching down slightly to be closer to the child’s level of sight. “What are you doing all the way out here by yourself?” Instead of getting an answer, the child stayed completely still, not moving at all with the exception of the wind blowing her long black hair. “What do you say we go find your parents, ne? Are they in the shrine? At the camping grounds?”

Still no answer.

Frowning slightly, Mari stood up and took a few further steps forward. Before she could go any further though, the child stood bolt upright. Surprised by the sudden action, Mari’s steps faltered slightly. A split second later, the child seemed to glance over her shoulder, though her hair hid her face from view, before she bolted around the side of the building at unnatural speed.

Blinking, it took Mari a second to catch up with what happened, considering the movement was too fast. “W-wait,” she called after the little girl but, again, there was no answer. Jogging to the corner of the shrine, she looked around, spotting a bit of a white dress disappear through a doorway on the side of the building. Going over to it, Mari didn’t think twice about stepping inside, shining her flashlight around.

The little girl was nowhere in sight. “Where did she go…?” she asked, her voice echoing slightly off the walls of the room she now found herself in.



((ooc - outfit is here~! Mizusawa’s next~~ XD I hope I didn’t get too carried away! haha))

[Mizusawa Taku]

ooc: Yay, thank you for inviting me, minna! This shall be fun! And sorry about the randomness...I tried to take the post a little further for me and Aki. XD Outfit HERE!

ic:

Camping wasn't all that new to Karasumori High students. Mizusawa had certainly done it a number of times before, not only with his school, but with his mother and father back before his father had been so completely controlled by his place of work. Those had been good times, which was why camping essentially brought him a thrilling feeling. It was nice to be out there in nature, with several chaperones and all your friends. Broke up the school year.

This camp they were going to was the traditional, man versus nature kind: no running water, no real bathrooms--well, there were a few port-o-potties, but the students had all been encouraged to "be one with nature."

After setting up their tents, picking bunkmates, and putting their sleeping gear away, all the kids were assembled to their camp area's meeting ground, to be told all the usual rules--such as not going out after dark or sneaking off once "lights out" had been established. This was followed by the request that two volunteers go and get some water for everyone from the well. Mizusawa couldn't help chuckling with Yuuta over the irony of this request, considering they had just told the students not to go out after dark.

The first to make a request was Mari-san, a girl in his class.

“I’ll go!” she said, standing up and wiping the dirt off the back of her jeans. She seemed pretty enthusiastic. Mizusawa hadn't had any intention of raising his hand, but when he saw no one else volunteering and realized how bad it looked that a girl had volunteered to do some of the manual labor, while a boy had not, he slowly raised his hand to be the second volunteer. It wasn't a big deal. Get some water and come back. He could do that.

Grabbing a flashlight and bucket, he jogged over to where Mari was waiting, and the two began walking down the path in the darkness.

"Mizusawa-kun,” she said brightly as they started to walk. “Are you looking forward to this?” She gestured back at the camp behind them so that he wouldn’t think she was talking about collecting the water.

Mizusawa turned to look at the girl before training his eyes back on the dark path in front of them. He didn't really feel any particular closeness to Mari, but she was a little nicer than most of the girls in his class. He smiled. "Yeah, it should be fun." He was actually surprised that she looked so happy. Normally the girls didn't like the camping trips--maybe it was too dirty for them or something. But Mari at least seemed to be enjoying herself. "You?" he asked, though he thought he probably already knew the answer.

“You would think there was an easier place to get water from, huh?” she said, looking at the boy beside her and giving him a smile.

He was about to answer her and say that the camp chaperones always enjoyed making them go out of their way for doing this or that, but still looking straight ahead, he saw the old shrine rising up in front of them. This was where the well was.

The two passed the large tori gate of the shrine, which signaled its main entrance, and stared up at the set of stone stairs and the old, sacred Japanese building that they led to.

“Creepy…” Mari was speaking. Mizusawa turned to her, but realized she had not been addressing him with her comment. He followed her up the stairs, shivering a little as a cold night wind blew through. It seemed befitting of the area. The entire place was dark--none of the old shrine lanterns had been lit. The little light they had came from their flashlights.

They reached the landing, and that was when he saw Mari jump slightly in front of him. He looked in the same direction as she was, and saw the figure standing there by the well. He felt chilled by the sight of it, until he saw the bucket the other was holding and realized it was just another camper.

Mari must have realized this too. Mizusawa watched as the girl stepped towards the well, smiling at the stranger. “Hi. You must be from the other school that’s here, right?”

That was when it started. “lalalalalalala…lala…lala…lalalalalalala…lala…lala”

Mari stopped talking, and Mizusawa froze. That voice...it wasn't coming from either of his companions...And it sounded far too young to be the voice of any of the campers from Karasumori, and even from the school of the kid who was with them now, who looked about their age. A colder wind than before blew through once more, making the voice seem to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Mizusawa shivered, his hair being tousled teasingly by the wind.

“Mizusawa-kun…-” It was Mari speaking again. She sounded unsure, maybe a little scared. He couldn't blame her. This was a little scary--he wondered what the other student thought. He was trying to think of some small way to comfort her, was thinking about saying maybe they should just get the water and get out of there--the other kid too, unless he really didn't want to leave--but then Mari seemed to notice something else.

“Is that…a child?”

Mizusawa glanced at Mari, before following her gaze in a direction a little further from the well, by the corner of the shrine.

He felt his blood run cold. Mari was right. There seemed to be a child--a little girl--just standing there. Her white dress made it seem like she was glowing amidst the otherwise near-complete darkness. And the way her long black hair was hanging over her face...Mizusawa shivered. She looked a lot like something out of Ju-on or Ringu.

But clearly Mari didn't think so. The older girl began walking towards the ghostly one.

"Mari-san--" Mizusawa began, his voice hushed. He didn't think it was wise to go near that little girl. But Mari hadn't heard him anyway.

“Hey there,” she said, crouching down slightly to be closer to the child’s level of sight. “What are you doing all the way out here by yourself?”

The child didn't move at the sound of Mari's voice. She didn't even try to answer the girl's question. And--Mizusawa had finally realized--since they had spotted that little girl, something creepy had happened. The eery singing had stopped.

“What do you say we go find your parents, ne? Are they in the shrine? At the camping grounds?”

When she didn't get an answer again, the older girl got up and began moving closer to the child.

"Mari-san..." Mizusawa spoke again, this time his voice a little louder, a little more persistent. They really ought to get their buckets of water and go. He knew it wasn't nice to leave a child lost in the middle of the forest, but he was getting very creepy vibes from this. He wasn't all that superstitious, but something just didn't seem right. Like this was all a setup. A trap.

And then the child suddenly shot to her feet. She turned in the direction of Mari and the two boys, her face still hidden by her hair. Mizusawa actually began shivering violently. When she moved like that, it was tough to distinguish who exactly she was staring at. It could have been anyone of the three of them. And it was creepy.

And then, just as suddenly, the little girl took off around the building. That might have been a good thing for the three older kids there, enough time for them to just leave with or without water, except the fact that Mari started running after her.

“W-wait,” she called after the little girl but, again, there was no answer.

"Mari-san!" Mizusawa called again, his voice now far more concerned than it had been before. Shining his flashlight in the other boy's face, he told him, "You should come too," and then took off around the building after both the girls. If this was some kind of trap or some kind of joke, it would be better to have more people around. Although he still wasn't sure if the boy who they had found here had something to do with all this.

He rounded the building quickly, his breathing quickening, and shone his flashlight around the area. Mari and the little girl were completely gone.

"Mari-san?" he asked again, his eyes scanning the area rapidly, looking for some sign of her. He glanced at the entrance into the shrine on this side of the building. Had she gone inside that old place?

Taking a few steps closer to the shrine entrance, he peered inside, his flashlight's beam bouncing off of the walls. The place looked decrepit, with cobwebs lining every inch of the ancient Japanese architecture. And no sign of Mari at all.

But she must have come in here, Mizusawa thought anxiously. There's no sign of her in the forest nearby.

"Mari-san?" he called again, cupping a hand to his mouth to make the sound go further. No answer.

Turning to the boy behind him, he gave an affirmative nod and then said, "Come on." Then he took a step inside the eery place.

It was even scarier standing inside, surrounded by walls on every side, even when he knew those walls--this entire building--were surrounded by walls of forest. They were completely isolated.

"Mari?" He dropped the honorific for now. If Mari was here, she would know he was calling for her.

"Do you--" Mizusawa began coughing on the stale air, his flashlight's beam bobbing against the furthest wall. He looked back at the boy in glasses behind him. "Do you know what's going on?" he asked again, as soon as he had regained the ability to speak properly. He stared at the boy, trying to decide based on the way the other was acting whether or not he was in on this joke (or whatever it was) or not.

[Nakata Ryuu]

Ryuu resisted the urge to run a hand through his hair as he sighed. He wasn’t particularly bothered about Washizu going camping for their field trip, but if he was being honest, he would have preferred the luxury of a hotel right now. Because he knew that no matter how you lay in your tent, you were going to feel the ground beneath your back, even through the material of the tent and sleeping bag. The last thing he wanted was to get up the next day with back ache of any kind.

He had been camping before, but never really in this way. He had went a few times before with his family and, with his father being the way he was, he wasn’t about to sleep on the ground, was he? No, his father’s idea of ‘camping’ was either spending time in a camper van or in one of those holiday homes in the middle of the forest.

After setting up his tent, Ryuu had just sat fiddling with his phone, itching to just break away from the group and go for a walk in the forest with his camera before it got really dark. Unfortunately, he wasn’t so lucky as the chaperones were keeping a close eye on them. Probably think we’re going to leave and go home, he thought to himself, a smirk tugging at his lips. I wouldn’t be surprised if people did…

Despite him having changed for going to Washizu, his underlying anger problems were still there, as well as occasionally some of the habits and behaviour from his yankee days. As much as he tried to let it all go, it was harder than he thought it would be. So he found himself easily irritated that he was being made to stay when he wanted to go. It took a lot of effort not to snap at anyone, but he managed to control himself.

It was already starting to get dark when the teachers gave some students camping chores to do, and by this point Ryuu had almost given up hope of an open opportunity to escape for a while. He immediately perked up from where he had been sitting slouched over on a small log, and raised his hand when volunteers to get some more firewood were being asked for. Perfect… he thought to himself.

He was disappointed that it was too dark now to take any proper pictures, so he left his camera in his bag in his tent. Though, he was just glad to get away from the annoying noise his fellow students were making for a while. Grabbing a flashlight, he stood up and set off out of the camp site. He had no plans on grabbing any firewood just yet, he’d do that on his way back. For now, he was just going to walk and enjoy the peace and quiet.

The further away from the campsite Ryuu got, the more relieved and at ease he felt. Being around people for too long tended to grate on his nerves and he became irritable and very easily annoyed. It was fairly common knowledge by now around his fellow students that it was not wise to be around him on field trips.

The forest was quiet apart from the breeze making the leaves rustle, and twigs snapping under his feet every so often. It was slightly eerie, but in a kind of calming way, at least for him. The longer and further he walked though, the more the wind seemed to pick up, and the temperature dropped further. The gates of a shrine they were told about came into view. The shrine that was meant to be “haunted”, according to rumour.

Ryuu snorted, shaking his head. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe in ghosts, but some of the rumours and things his fellow students had been saying had just been ridiculous. He paused for a second at the gate before his curiosity got the better of him, and he walked up the steps. Shining his flashlight around as he reached the top, he saw nobody around, but what he did notice was three buckets left sitting next to the well.

His brow furrowed as he looked at the buckets for a moment, before shrugging it off and turning his flashlight on the shrine. The run-down building was definitely not much to look at, and it did have a rather creepy air about it. The longer he looked at it, though, the more curious he got about whether the rumours could be true or not. And once again he was wishing he could have brought his camera with him.

He avoided the well as he walked towards the shrine, going in the front entrance. Shining his flashlight around, the first thing he noticed was all the cobwebs. His lips twisted as he pulled a face to himself as he thought about spiders. But, even so, he was still curious about what the shrine held, so he set off, beginning to walk through the building. He stuck to the part of the building that was on the same side as the well, looking in every place he came across.

It surprised him though, that the shrine looked a hell of a lot bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. And if he didn’t know any better, he would claim to be walking in circles. Just as he was about to give up hope of finding something, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned around there was nothing. What the hell…? he thought to himself as he stared at where he had seen the movement, moving his flashlight around. His brow furrowed as he contemplated what to do for a moment.

Something shone in the light of his flashlight as it went passed it, and Ryuu moved the flashlight back to reveal that the reflecting object was a large vase. The vase was ornate and looked entirely out of place in the run-down old shrine. Surely something that seemed to be as valuable as the vase did would have been sold or stolen by now? Eyeing it for a second longer, he turned around to start walking again.

Something smashed against the wall not far from his head, and Ryuu found himself rooted to the spot. Looking at the pieces of what had smashed on the floor, his eyes widened considerably, spinning around at pointing his flashlight to where the vase had been on a rickety old table. It wasn’t there anymore…and the pieces on the ground looked exactly like the vase he had been looking at only moments before.

He…hadn’t just been imagining things, right? Was something he ate making him hallucinate? Was he ill and getting a fever? Placing a hand on his forehead, the latter question was dismissed. His musings were interrupted though as next the old table the vase had been on was knocked onto it’s side, before it seemed to fly across the floor in his direction.

Scampering out of the way, Ryuu just managed to get out of the way in time. Though, the corner of the table had clipped one of his ankles, which was now throbbing slightly from the pain, and had made him stumble over slightly, landing on all fours on the ground. His breathing was now coming harshly and quickly as his heart rate sped up accordingly, his mind having trouble processing all that had happened in the last few moments.

Even though there was no wind in this part of the building, a few old books and scrolls on another table at the opposite end of the room began to flutter about as though blown by some non-existent wind. Then the table they were on began to shake. Ryuu instantly felt cold all the way through. This hadn’t been such a good idea, after all…

The sound of creaking floorboards reached Ryuu’s ears and, bracing himself, he jumped up onto his feet and turned around to see where the noise was coming from, only to be surprised as not only was it a person, but also someone he recognised. "Azuma," he said, both surprise and slight distaste tinting the word.



((ooc - outfit is here~. Wataru’s next~ XD
And btw, for anyone that joins the thread or posts after this, can Mari be left alone for a while, for at least her next few posts? Ty <3))

[Sakamoto Aki]

La, laa la la la la la, la la la. La, laa la la la la la.....

“Hi.”

The “hi” cut off the song. It stopped so abruptly.

Aki turned around to see a girl and a boy almost the same age as him. With their outfits, buckets, and flashlights, they looked like other campers.

Were they from the other school? Or from Washizu? He didn’t know many students in Washizu, but he’s sure he had never seen them before. Aki couldn’t care less though. He was still concentrating on the eerie song, hoping to find the faintest trace of the song.

“You must be from the other school that’s here, right?”

He ignored the question.

Then, as sudden as it stopped, the song started again.

“lalalalalalala…lala…lala…lalalalalalala…lala…lala”

He stood still, concentrating on the song. Where was the source?

And then the girl said, “Is that…a child?”

He threw a questioning glance to the girl. Her gaze was directed to somewhere else. He followed her gaze to the corner of the opposite end of the shrine.

There was a small girl in white dress with long black hair, crouching at the corner of the shrine.

So she’s the one who’s been singing?

Being sure that he had found the source of the song, he felt like he just got a slap in the face.

What am I doing here? This is a waste of time.

He looked at his companions and said, “Let’s go back to the camp and tell the chaperons so that they can return the girl to her home.”

But the older girl walked towards the younger one.

"Mari-san--" the boy said. It was clear that he didn’t want Mari to get closer to the little girl. It’s understandable. The little girl looked like she had been from a mental hospital. She might attack Mari.

But Mari ignored the boy’s call.

“Hey there,” she said as she crouched down slightly. “What are you doing all the way out here by yourself?”

The little girl didn’t answer her question.

“What do you say we go find your parents, ne? Are they in the shrine? At the camping grounds?”

Still not getting answers, Mari moved closer to the little girl.

"Mari-san..." the boy spoke again, this time a little louder, a little more persistent.

Suddenly, the little girl stood upright and dash to the building.

Okay, let’s just go back and tell the chaperons about the kid. They’ll look for her. He thought.

But Mari started running for the little girl.

“W-wait,” she called.

Aki looked at her in disbelief.

What a bother.

"Mari-san!" the boy called again, his voice now far more concerned than it had been before.

“Hey!”, he called out to Mari. But she wouldn’t stop. Soon, she was gone.

The boy shone his flashlight to Aki’s face. He told him, "You should come too," and then took off around the building.

Feeling out of option, Aki went after them in quick steps. His right hand waved his flashlight to the darkness in front of him. The light shone at the boy’s back and the main shrine. His left hand was inside his jacket pocket. He forgot his bucket.

They rounded the building, but there were no signs of both girls.

"Mari-san?" the boy asked again, his eyes scanning the area rapidly.

Aki followed the boy as he peered inside the shrine entrance. Aki also looked inside. Nothing. There was no one inside.

"Mari-san?" the boy called again, cupping a hand to his mouth to make the sound go further.

“Mari-san.” Aki called out loudly. He threw his gaze around. Still nothing.

The boy turned to Aki. He gave an affirmative nod and then said, "Come on." Then he went into the shrine. Aki followed behind him.

Dusty. The place was dusty and filled with cobwebs. The dust filled the air and made Aki coughed.

"Mari?" the boy called again.

"Do you--" the boy said to him, but began coughing. "Do you know what's going on?"

The boy stared at Aki. Aki stared back at him.

“No, I don’t,” he said.

Aki walked towards another room. “Come on. Let’s go search for her,” he said impatiently. He was starting to get irritated.

He entered the next room. No one was there. The room was empty.

“Mari-san.” he called out again, loudly.

No answer.

He started walking to the next room when he heard a cry. The cry was filled with rage and pain. Whoever let out that cry was also sobbing furiously.

Did something happened to those girls?

He started running towards the other room. But suddenly the air felt heavy. He felt as if the air was pressing his entire body. It became hard to breathe. The cry made it even worse. It was piercing, making his head dizzy. The sensation was overwhelming. His vision started to blur.

Unable to stand anymore, he got down to his knees. But he quickly tried to get back up. He needed to get out of here. He moved his flashlight, trying to search for the boy. His flashlight shone to a face, but it wasn’t the face of the boy he was with.

---------------------------------------------

ooc: I’m back! Sorry for being late! Thanks for joining guys!
Can Akira join too? She would like to investigate about the missing students and the ghost rumor.

[Azuma Wataru]

Camp, Camp, Camp. What a troublesome event.
Wataru disliked these things, considering that there weren't going to be staying at a luxurious hotel with a fluffy bed. Also, he wouldnt be able to relax at an onsen or play with bubbles during his time in the shower. It was always his bubbles.

Wataru sighed as he just finished relieving his bladder. He had forgot to bring his pillow along. The one he grew up with for so many years, he wouldnt be able to get much sleep tonight in the tents, he thought. Everyone else was setting up the tents and gathering resources when he dismissed himself without permission to go to the toilet, if you could still call going to pee in the bushes a 'toilet'. Wataru walked pretty deep in the woods with only his hand held torch and even he had to admit that it was not a pleasant place. There were overgrown ferns and bushes everywhere, and he had accidentally scraped himself on his right arm when trying to head back to the campsite. It wasn't a big cut, but it stung like hell, with the cut managing to pierce through his T-shirt.
Damn thorns, Wataru thought.

Ignoring the pain, he continued to walk back to the camp area. That was when he faintly Mizusawa's voice.. "Mari-san!" Mizusawa called again, his voice now far more concerned than it had been before. It was pretty loud and seemed to echo through the vast forest. Something must have gone wrong for even Mizusawa to respond in that way.. Mari chan must be in trouble.

Looking in all directions desperately trying to find them, Wataru gave into his gut reactions and decided to walk the path he thought would lead him to them, not realising he was getting further into the woods. Mizusawa's calls were no longer there.

It was dark and eerie. He couldnt hear any other noises anymore. This was getting bad.

Wataru logically decided to trace back his steps and tell everyone what seemed to have happened. That was probably the best. But it was already too late. He could no longer recognise his surroundings, the trees engulfed him as the ferns surrounded him like a maze. Starting to panic a little, Wataru's eyes searched furiously around for any signs of light or somewhere familiar he might recognise. Was that... a light? It was dim but the darkness highlighted the slightly fluorescent...lantern? Was that really a lantern or was his eyes just going too stressed from the darkness? Well, Wataru's eyesight has never been 20/20 before.

Trudging through the thick bush, Wataru managed to get out of the tree formed maze, only to realise he found himself standing infront on an old shrine. As he got closer, his ears could make out the slightest noise.. crashing noises.. there were things breaking. The noises led Wataru inside the creepy shrine.

Inside the shrine, strange things were happening. Someone else was there and it made Wataru jolt.

"Azuma," he said, both surprise and slight distaste tinting the word.

"Nakata Ryuu? What are you doing here?" Wataru asked. He was confused. What would he be doing here all by himself. Then, finally, Wataru took notice of the fluttering old books even though there was no wind even outside the shrine.

"Just what is going on?" Wataru thought his mind was playing tricks on him...maybe it was a poisonous thorn that makes people hallucinate. Yes, that must be it.

Suddenly, something flashed just behind Nakata. Instantaneously, Wataru used his torch to follow whatever the shadow was, trying to shine the light one it but failed. "What the heck?"

Then, one of the scrolls rolled off the table while a strong chilly gust of wind blew. "We need to get out of here" Wataru told Nakata, with a strong sense of urgency.

Freaky, That was Wataru's most used word at that moment. It was the only word his brain could think of.

[Satonaka Mari]

Mari’s lips down-turned into a frown as she looked around for a moment longer, flashlight lighting up where she turned her gaze to. After a moment, she moved over to an arched doorway that led into another room and peered inside. Again, she couldn’t see anything except cobwebs. Where could she have gone…? she wondered, twisting her lips in thought.

Taking a breath, she walked further into the shrine, using the thin beam of her flashlight to light the way. It was eerily quiet, and there was a sense of…something hanging in the air. It was only beginning to dawn on Mari that perhaps this had been a bad idea. Maybe she shouldn’t have followed the girl, after all… For one thing, she wouldn’t be lost if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have lost Mizusawa and the other boy either.

Just as she was wondering what had happened to the two boys, a flash of white out of the corner of her eye got her attention. She spun around, only to see nothing. Had it been the little girl? Pursing her lips slightly, she turned back around to start walking again, coming out of the room into a long hallway.

Right there, at the opposite end of the hall, was the little girl, her white dress flowing around her ankles. Now that she was looking at the girl from the front, she looked…creepy. It hadn’t dawned on her before, but especially now that she was looking at the girl face-on, she could see it. The temperature in the corridor seemed to drop quite drastically,

“They’re looking for you…” the sing-song voice spoke, seeming to come from everywhere, just like the singing had outside. Even though she could see the little girl, she couldn’t see if her mouth was moving or not because of the hair hanging right over her face. “And not just the boy’s you were with… Another came running when he heard the other boy call out to you…”

Mari’s thoughts raced. Another boy? Who could it be? Maybe one of the other boys collecting firewood? No, she didn’t know any of them… The whole time her gaze remained locked onto the small ghostly figure at the opposite end of the room. The girl’s hair and dress seemed to sway slightly in a non-existent breeze, making the image all the more eerie.

It was then that the little girl began to flicker. “They won’t find you,” the little girl said, and she sounded entirely too happy about what she said. It was creepy and made a shiver run down Mari’s spine. “They’re not going to get near you. You’re not going to get away…” The girl’s tone freaked her out, and she found herself edging further and further backwards.

A ghostly laughter filled the room as the little girl flickered again, and then vanished completely. An eerie, high-pitched child’s laughter. The little girl’s laughter. Wind rattled a nearby window as the laughter died off, as though the girl was leaving and going off in another direction. The silence that was left in its wake was eerily calm, and it took Mari a moment before she gathered her senses enough to stand up and start walking while she had the chance.

Moving her flashlight around, she tried to figure where exactly in the shrine she could be and how to get out. Her hands were shaking and she was beginning to break out in a cold sweat. She didn’t like this. At all. Why did she have to follow the little girl? She had known that something wasn’t quite right, but yet, she had followed anyway. People always told her that she was too caring for her own good, and perhaps that was true, now that she looked at it.

The floorboards creaking beneath her feet and the rattling of wood being shaken by the wind made her jump, and her heart raced even more. Thanks to her hands shaking, the beam of light from her flashlight was bobbing up an down slightly. But, it almost seemed like the more she searched for the exit, the further away it got, because she wasn’t even sure what direction she was facing anymore or what part of the shrine she could be in.

Distant sounds of smashing and banging reached her ears, making her turn around, automatically searching to see if she could tell where it came from. More ghosts, perhaps? Although, there was also the possibility that it was Mizusawa and the other boy. What if something’s happening to them? she thought, her footsteps faltering. A loud sound came from behind her, making her heart jump right up into her throat, the flashlight slipping from her hand to the floor with a quiet thud and her knees gave out beneath her as she clutched her chest over her frantic heart.

Still on the floor, Mari turned around, only to find herself face to face with the little girl. Her dark hair was still hanging over her face, but now, this close, her eyes were visible. They were pure black, surrounded by pale skin, marked only by the dark shadows under and around her eyes. Eyes that seemed to suck her in. And then the girl was grinning, before she moved forward in a sudden, animalistic movement.

Mari screamed.



((ooc - Almost time for her to get attacked, I think… Maybe in her next post. But yes, people, please still leave her alone~ XD))

[Nakata Ryuu]

Ryuu wasn’t sure whether to be pleased that someone else turned up, or to be just plain annoyed at who it was that turned up. Clucking his tongue in a slightly annoyed manner, he barely spared the other boy a glance as he stood up fully, looking over at the fluttering books. He wondered, though, if Azuma would even remember him. After all, it had been a few years, and Ryuu had slunk into the background after ‘reforming’. Well, he was in the background as far as Yankees were concerned.

“Nakata Ryuu? What are you doing here?” Azuma asked, clearly confused. Ryuu rolled his eyes at the slightly taller yankee. Clearly, intelligence was still something the yankee lacked. “I could be asking you the same question,” he drawled as nonchalantly as possible given the current situation.

“Clearly, if you had used that tiny little brain of yours,” he began, unable to help his tone. He was weirded-out, cold, and annoyed, “You would have been able to logically figure out that perhaps, just perhaps, both our schools were here, and thus people were sent out on chores, no?” He exhaled sharply through his nose, his lips twisted into a frown.

Finally turning his eyes back to Azuma, he looked him over. He hadn’t changed much, with the exception of… “What the hell did you do to your hair?” he asked, eyeing the red spiked mass that was resting on top of Azuma’s head, a ‘tch’ sound leaving his lips as he scoffed. Last time he had seen Azuma, his hair had been a normal black colour, not…this. In Ryuu’s eyes, it was almost laughable.

“Just what is going on?” Azuma asked as he finally seemed to notice the fluttering books and scrolls. Ryuu resisted the urge to facepalm. Of all the people that could have came… He started talking again, sarcasm dripping from every word that left his lips. “Gee, because I wasn’t wondering that myse-”

Azuma cut him off with a “What the heck?” and practically shining his flashlight directly in Ryuu’s face in an attempt to catch whatever he saw over his shoulder. Ryuu ducked his head to the side and cast a glare in the redhead’s direction. Thanks to the bright glare of the flashlight, he now had light spots dancing in front of his eyes. He looked over his shoulder to see if he could spot anything, but he saw nothing except the light spots. Or…were they really light spots he was seeing? He couldn’t be sure after what had happened to him only moments before.

“There’s rumours this place is haunted,” he supplied for Azuma, in ways of at least some sort of explanation as to what could be happening. It had been all his fellow students had been talking about on the way here. At first he thought it might just be a rumour after all, but now…he was thinking a little differently. After all, he had just been ‘attacked’ by a vase and a table.

“We need to get out of here,” said Azuma, with a sense of urgency in his voice. And, for once, Ryuu would readily agree with the other yankee. Sticking around here was definitely not wise; the sooner they left, the better.

He turned around, completely ready to get the hell out of there as fast as possible, but he was a fair bit into the shrine by now. He had only managed to take one step, when something flickered a few metres away. He stopped, and stared at where he had seen the vague white shape, turning his flashlight on the spot also. It happened again. It almost looked like a vague, flickering outline of a person.

And then she appeared. A little girl dressed in white and long hair hanging over her face. Even the sight of her was enough to give Ryuu chills. And as if that wasn’t creepy enough, she continued to flicker, only this time she stayed mostly in sight, and not vanishing like the last time. She raised a hand, one finger about to point, and for a second Ryuu thought she was going to point at him, but instead, she pointed to his right, at Azuma.

“You came here looking for her, didn’t you? You heard one of the other boys call out to her,” the little girl said slowly, the voice almost seeming to not come from her closed mouth, but rather from all around them. Ryuu just blinked, eyes slightly wide, as he looked between the ghost and Azuma. Girl? ‘Other boys’? So there were more people in here…

“You won’t find her,” the sing-song voice continued. “No one gets out of here… If you do find her, it will only be too late.” The way the girl was saying it sent an unpleasant shiver up Ryuu’s spine. Like she was getting some sort of pleasure out of hurting others or messing with people’s heads. “Azuma, what is she talking about?” he asked. He instinctively took a step back as the girl took one forward.

And then she vanished completely.

Ryuu was about to give a sigh of relief, when a loud scream pierced the air, making him freeze momentarily in place. He looked at Azuma, slightly hesitant. “Did you really come here looking for a girl?” he asked, wondering if Little Freaky Ghost Girl could be right and, if she was, could that possibly be the girl Azuma had came looking for that had screamed?



((ooc - …Ryuu is an ass XD lol I <3 him~))

[Tsukimori Ryosuke]

Ryosuke didn't want to be at this damned old shrine. He'd once thought it was bad moving from the city into the almost rural area that was now his home, but having to sleep over at a creepy old shrine was probably the last thing on earth Ryosuke wanted to do. It wasn't so much that he was scared of ghosts or evil spirits or anything like that. But just.....why? Why would anyone want to have a sleepover at a place like this?

The instant he'd set foot at the site, Ryosuke couldn't find a single pleasant thing about it. It wasn't even as though they were going there to bask in the kind of peace most temples should have brought. This one was just old, dirty, decrepit....And oh yeah, Ryosuke had thought, hefting cleaning supplies up into his arms as he gazed up the long stairwell beyond the temple gate, we're here to fix it up.

"Why don't they get someone else to do this?" he asked out loud, under his breath. "Bringing students here...What's the point..."

He'd caught a look from a not-so-happy-looking teacher and quickly turned away, shuffling somewhat grudgingly over to where the rest of his classmates were headed. The school field trips had been something of a pile of crap, lately. The one to the mountain had been terrible, people had actually gotten hurt, and now the students had been taken to this dump. Ryosuke snuck another look, through the trees, at the tip of the shrine and made a face. He wouldn't even want to go up in there to pray, let alone clean out the place's probably 5,000-year-old gunk.

The worst part? Ryosuke was kind of indebted to the whole thing. Not in a good way. But he was still short on some of his extracurricular credits, so he'd had no choice but to come along and participate. And when it got to the point in the night that the students were being asked to volunteer to finish some chores--that was after all the tent-pitching and whatnot, which Ryosuke had to admit he was only lucky he'd managed to do--he'd grudgingly raised his hand and been asked to go collect some firewood.

Ryosuke hadn't been too happy to find out that he'd been the only one of his group of friends to get picked to look for firewood. The other kids he didn't really know. And Mizusawa, though he'd volunteered, had been put on water duty. With Mari-chan.

The blonde Yankee pouted. Looked like he was on his own. And he was willing to bet Wataru didn't feel too good about not having volunteered with Mari. Even Ryosuke was a tad bitter he hadn't thought to go with her. Mari-chan was cute and all, and she was always nice...

"It would be a lot nicer than picking up old wood by myself," he mumbled to himself out loud, as he set to work. Even though he wasn't exactly enjoying his job, he was sure he'd get a few extra credits for volunteering, at least, and he figured he could do this easily enough. But it was actually kind of difficult being able to look out where he was going. The flashlight's beam kept bobbing all over the place as pile after pile of twigs and branches made their way into Ryosuke's arms. By the time he had enough, he guessed, for maybe two or three small fires, he decided to make his way back to the campsite. He'd gone deep enough into the wood to get the damned objects; he was fairly certain he would like nothing better now than to get out.

And that was when he realized, turning on the spot, that he couldn't see "out", wherever it was.

"Oh no....not again...."

A repeat performance of the forest venture with Kashiwagi Sensei. Ryosuke knew he just didn't have the right instincts to deal with nature. Once he got lost, he was lost for good. He couldn't even begin to predict where North was. Then again, he didn't even know what part of the woods the campsite itself was. North, South, East? He hadn't come so far, had he? Was that even possible?

Turning again on the spot, Ryosuke recognized something through the trees.

The decrepit old temple. The rooftop was still rising above the smallest of the trees, and the dark, aged wood of the walls was somehow quite distinct, even in the blackness of the forest. It was probably the last place Ryosuke wanted to head for, but he knew that if he could find the end with the gate, he could get back down the steps and follow the main path back to the campsite. He'd just been an idiot for getting himself lost in the first place. It would mean taking the long route back, but it was better he followed a place he knew than one he didn't.

This part of the forest came out to a part of the shrine that Ryosuke didn't recognize. It was probably part of the back quarters or something, because from what he could see, the gate was nowhere around. And yet his flashlight was still almost useless with the large pile of wood in his arms. Where were the shrine's lanterns? The teachers couldn't have been serious sending students up into this hot mess.

Ryosuke shook his head and threw the pile of twigs to the ground at his feet. Now he was getting annoyed. Hadn't the teachers been the ones to say, "Don't go out after dark!"? Well, unless they'd gone completely bonkers, the Yankee was fairly certain that the dark they were currently in was beyond ridiculous. These puny little flashlights were nothing for it. A tiny little beam showed him only a few feet ahead of him and nothing more. If he wasn't careful, he could go falling into a ditch, maybe the well the teachers had mentioned, if it the wall was low enough.

Instead, Ryosuke moved for the wall of the shrine, thinking he could follow the edge of it until he found the main entrance, and then, the gate that led back to the campsite. Anyway, it felt a little better to have the extra stability. For some reason, though he didn't think it had solely to do with the chill in the air, his limbs were quivering. He was cold, but something seemed wrong. Where were the kids who'd come to get the water, for instance? Where were the other people picking up firewood? He suddenly felt very alone.

And that's when it happened, completely out of the blue. The blonde Yankee had been sort of clinging to the wall of the Shrine as he slowly moved forward, the light of his flashlight playing on the ground in front of him. He'd decided he would just grab twigs on his way back to the campsite, and he'd begun to tell himself that the almost distant sound of a child singing was purely in his imagination, along with the apparent chill in the air and the eerie sensation that seemed to be overcoming him.

And then he'd been struck. A hard blow to the back of the head. He didn't even realize he'd been hit until he sank to his knees and finally flopped forward, lying still on the ground.

When Ryosuke came to, he saw only the blackness. The air had changed. He couldn't be outside, and yet he didn't think any place on earth could have such a terrible, confined feeling, a very close, constricting air. He could barely even breathe. Though, was he breathing at all?

And then there was light. Maybe the brightest light he'd ever seen, shining right into his eyes. Ryosuke pondered carefully. Had he died? Was he finally seeing the light?

...

What the hell!? How had he died? That sucked....it didn't seem fair for him to have to just die without even knowing how he'd died. Or...wait, wait. He'd been struck with something, to the back of the head. That seemed even more unfair, if that was how he'd died. He hadn't been doing something worthwhile. He hadn't been protecting Kiyama (like when Kiyama's friend had died from a head blow) or anything....He'd just been defenseless and some *ss had thought it would be funny if they just smashed him over the head with a rock.

Hell of a way to go, he thought, grateful at least that if he was dead, he still had his mind.

Then all of a sudden, there was the outline of a person over him now. Yeah, someone leaning over him, maybe looking right back at him, though he couldn't see the face with the way the light was beaming down on him.

God? No, wait, was he being reborn or something? Was he back to his baby stage and looking up at the doctor and the hospital lights?

Ryosuke finally dared move his limbs, bringing one hand up to his chest, then sweeping it down to his belly. Well, if I was this big as a baby, no wonder my Mom hates me, Ryosuke thought bitterly, closing his eyes to darken the lights for a moment and hating the fact that he felt as though he'd just been sucked down some kind of Wonderland hole.

"Hey...." Ryosuke was almost surprised to find he still had a voice, though it was difficult even for him to hear it, he felt so weak. "Can you....tell me what's going on?"

Outfit Here!

[Mizusawa Taku]

ooc: Kac, yes! Please have Akira join our group! That would be a ton of fun!

ic:

“No, I don’t,” he said. The other boy was staring at him suspiciously too. Perhaps they both suspected each other of foul play. Well, Mizusawa knew he was innocent enough. Whatever had happened, he'd had nothing to do with it. He'd only volunteered to get some water for his camp, and that was the extent of his role in what was going on. But if this kid did know something, he would have to be careful. Because the last thing he wanted was for Mari to get hurt.

Aki walked towards another room. “Come on. Let’s go search for her,” he said impatiently. He was starting to get irritated.

Mizusawa could hear the irritated nature of the boy's voice, but he slowly followed behind the other anyway. The two of them called out Mari's name, scanning the rooms for her. All Mizusawa's flashlight seemed to uncover was a lot of dust and vast empty space. No matter how grand this shrine had once been, it was quite empty at this point. And there was absolutely no sign of Mari anywhere. Which was weird, Mizusawa couldn't help thinking, considering she'd only disappeared for a few seconds.

The other boy was a little further ahead of him in the room when a cry suddenly began. It was scary, like the cry of someone who was very hurt, very angry. It sounded female too, but not like Mari's voice. Mizusawa felt his body freeze at the cold, creepy sound of it, but the other boy was taking off in the direction of the voice.

"Wait!" Mizusawa called, but it was too late. He saw the other boy sink to his knees, a look on his face as though he could not take the sound of the voice. Mizusawa began moving in the other boy's direction, trying to come to his aid, when suddenly the other boy's flashlight fell on the face of another. A face that did not belong to Mari.

He froze again, nearly dropping his own flashlight.

"Hey...." came the familiar voice, making Mizusawa suddenly feel very cold all over. "Can you....tell me what's going on?"

What the heck was Ryosuke doing here?

The cry seemed to have stopped now, so Mizusawa made his way over to the other boy, not Ryosuke, and gave him a hand. "Are you alright?" he asked, before pulling the other to his feet.

Then, turning to Ryosuke, he shone his flashlight in the boy's face, a concerned look etched across his features. "Ryosuke...what the heck are you doing here? Do you have something to do with Mari's disappearance?" He searched the other boy's face for answers, wondering if this really was some kind of Yankee prank, Ryosuke being a huge player and openly adoring "Mari-chan" and all...But by the look on the Yankee's face, he didn't think that was it at all.

Something very strange was going on here.

[Azuma Wataru]

“Clearly, if you had used that tiny little brain of yours,” he began, unable to help his tone. He was weirded-out, cold, and annoyed, “You would have been able to logically figure out that perhaps, just perhaps, both our schools were here, and thus people were sent out on chores, no?” He exhaled sharply through his nose, his lips twisted into a frown.

What's gotten into him? Wataru knew his temperament wasn't always the best but he didn't need to just lash out at Wataru like the right? Especially in this type of situation, it was better to remain calm.

“What the hell did you do to your hair?” he asked, eyeing the red spiked mass that was resting on top of Azuma’s head, a ‘tch’ sound leaving his lips as he scoffed.
Nakata was eyeing Wataru and his hair as if he had just arrived from another different universe, billions of light years away.

"It's cool, isn't it?" Wataru grinned. Well, to him, he definitely thought it was cool. Not alot of people managed to pull red hair off but he reckon he suited it pretty well. Wataru has always been proud of his red hair.

...

“There’s rumours this place is haunted,” he supplied for Azuma, in ways of at least some sort of explanation as to what could be happening

...Haunted? Wataru didn't seem to comprehend what was going on yet but as soon as Nakata mentioned it, the atmoshere dawned on him. The fluttering books and the 'thing' that was just behind Nakata a while ago were more than just a supernatural phenomenon.

"We need to get out of here" Wataru told Nakata, with a strong sense of urgency. Wataru started to walk back out of the shrine when something infront of them has started to flicker. It appeared of out nowhere. White...and...was that a person? Slowly, the figure became more clear, but it was still flickering constantly. It was a little girl...pale with a blank face, long black hair.. Wataru stared at her with both surprise and a tad of fear bulding inside his guts. Everything was happening too quickly for his brain to process. Yet, he was still asking the same question in his mind. What is going on?

Then, the little girl pointed at him directly with her pale, slender finger. “You came here looking for her, didn’t you? You heard one of the other boys call out to her,” the little girl said slowly, the voice almost seeming to not come from her closed mouth, but rather from all around them.

Wataru froze. He knew who the girl was talking about immediately. But just how did ths girl kno-
“You won’t find her,” the sing-song voice continued. “No one gets out of here… If you do find her, it will only be too late.” His thoughts were cut off by the girl.

Fear was now swarming all over him. Mari-chan was in trouble. He just knew it. Rather than actually know, he could somehow sense it. Wataru clenched his fist tightly as his other hand grasped his torch angrily. He was frustrated, yet helpless.

“Azuma, what is she talking about?” he asked. Wataru took a step forward and coincidentally so did the girl.

"Oi, wait! Where is she? Where are they?! Wha-"
Then she disappeared. Wataru looked around the dark area, searching for her with his strained eyes but she was nowhere to be seen. What was she? Ghost? Spirit? He was just imagining the entire thing was he?

Suddenly, a loud scream filled the shrine, echoing through the surroundings.

“Did you really come here looking for a girl?” he asked, wondering if Little Freaky Ghost Girl could be right and, if she was, could that possibly be the girl Azuma had came looking for that had screamed?

All Wataru could say was "Mari-chan...she's in trouble!" Why was this happening? Isn't this supposed to be a fun outdoor camp, not some kind of haunted adventure?

Wataru turned to Nakata and said " We've got to find her.. find them. They must be in trouble." His voice was filled with fear as he spoke. But what could he do? He didnt have any weapons that could ward off evil spirits or swords that could defeat the undead. But Wataru also couldnt just leave behind his friends.

Then he asked " Did you see anyone else when you came in? We have to hurry before more bad things happen." Wataru started to walk further into the shrine. He wasnt sure which direction Mari and the rest were. The scream seemed to come from all different directions, but somehow, he felt that he could find them if he went deeper into the unknown shrine.

He faced Nakata again, "Oi, let's go." His heart was pounding with fear while his whole body was as cold as unthawed meat. Using his torch to light the corridor, Wataru noticed the place looked like a maze. It was old and filled with cobwebbs.

Suddenly, something caught his foot and he stumbled onto the creaking floor, his hand scrapping the wood as his torch slid across, out of his reach.

"Ow..."

[Uchida Kaoru]

OOC: You know the drill, I hate this post, so on so forth.

Kaoru chewed on a fingernail, half-listening to the conversation going on around her.

She was annoyed.

Of course, the trip was optional... but most of her "friends" had opted to go. They were the frilly types of girls who normally would seem like they would absolutely abhor anything related to the outdoors. But they were also the flaky types who would agree to go on such a trip just because a few of the "cute" boys in the school were gung-ho about the school camping trip, so they'd have to follow suit.

So they all got their dads to pack supplies into their brand-name hand bags and hauled out that night to the camping grounds just outside of town. A few hours later, Kaoru sat on a blanket with most of her main clique, some rumors about a student banging one of the teachers going in one ear and out of the other.

Yeah, rumors. Being who she was, Kaoru was always on top of the whisper circuit. A more timely one was this one that said there was a haunted shrine somewhere around, and the ghosts would be out in full force that night. Kaoru received the news with wide eyes and a feigned shiver down her spine to match her other creeped out companions.

But the truth was that she didn't feel any way about the ghost stories. She didn't really believe in the supernatural, although she didn't really disbelieve it, either. The truth was that she probably had a more-than-healthy interest in things like slasher films and the occult. She wasn't a creepy goth or anything (of course!) but given the opportunity to go out and watch a horror film or a romantic comedy with her friends, her choice was obvious.

She'd go with the romantic comedy, hating every minute that heads weren't rolling.

Kaoru tuned in again to what the girls were saying. They were debating the symptoms of an abortion; apparently one of the second years was suspected of having one--

Really?

"Enough!" she shouted, slapping her hands to her ears.

A girl sitting beside her looked to her, surprised. "Kaoru, what's--"

"I'm going to the restroom," she declared, grabbing the bag functioning as her purse and jumping to her feet. With an "I'm fine" and a wave of her hand, she promptly dismissed any offers to accompany her (as she never did get why girls had to go to the bathroom in flocks) and marched off from her friends' campsite.




About twenty minutes later, Kaoru found herself trudging through a field, hugging herself, shivering.

She'd never seen the inside of a porta-potty before.

Groaning, she prayed that she would never have to again, and resolved that she would not consume any more liquids for the rest of the duration of the trip. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't even notice that she wasn't going the right direction towards camp. That is, until the she came across that.

"Wow," she whispered. In front of her was a run-down looking torii gate and shrine. This was what the school had come to visit? Just what was the new principal smoking, really...?

And then Kaoru heard it. A beautiful, haunting voice coming from far away? It was soft, but it didn't really sound like it was coming from any direction in particular...

“lalalalalalala…lala…lala…lalalalalalala…lala…lala”

It was quiet; much too quiet for her to discern if it was a recording or a person actually singing. That thought brought a smirk to Kaoru's face... come on, just how perfect was this? Nighttime trip, young people lost on a trip, abandoned old building in the middle of the woods, creepy children's songs that sounded like they came from everywhere and no where.

And then suddenly, it stopped just as quickly as it had begun.

She shivered, thoroughly spooked by the song. But she didn't run. No...

In fact, her smile only grew larger. She knew it was probably dangerous and definitely dumb, but she wanted to do anything but return to her tent and talk about who was dating who. And against her better judgment, she ran into the shrine, determined to figure out what was going on.

The inside of the shrine didn't look much better than the outside of it... but for some reason, it seemed like the architecture inside was unnecessarily confusing; there were many more twists and turns inside the structure than she expected. The adrenaline of from the her suppressed fear and curiosity spurred her on, and she started walking faster and faster. She was nearly running by the time she passed a room with an open door, catching what seemed like the figure of a person out of the corner of her eye.

She quickly backtracked, literally walking backwards until she stood in front of the doorway, and peered in.

It wasn't a specter, or a headless man with a chainsaw, no...

In the room, were three boys... three boys that she recognized. Her mind flew back to that incident weeks ago in the boys tumbling team office... those kids? Not wearing his glasses that evening was the part-time cleaning boy, shining around a flashlight, and standing right beside him was that... that jerkface of a yankee! A little past them was a shorter boy who was actually in glasses that she recognized as an underclassman at her school. She knew him about as well as the Karasumori duo, though she'd heard on the grapevine he had the attitude of a jerk, too.

Despite freezing and the fact she should probably be scared out of her wits, she automatically begin to feel her blood boil. "You guys! What the hell? Why are you--"

That's when she heard that scream. It was the loud shriek of a woman. This time, she could discern that the sound was coming from a certain direction... right behind her. It felt like a cold wind was blowing from behind her, sans the moving air... wait, did that even make sense? The hair on the back of her neck all stood at attention, and for a moment, her eyes opened so wide the eyeballs might've rolled right out and fell on the floor.

Kaoru shivered. She wasn't even sure if she was scared or not, but she found her limbs shaking even after the scream had stopped.

She debated turning around for about two seconds before she rushed over to stand beside the not-glasses kid, grabbing the hand he was holding the flashlight in and shining it where she just stood.

"You guys heard that, right?"

She looked to the others before she turned back forward, and stared. She hadn't seen a thing, and that's what really bugged her. In front of her was a circle of light being cast on the dusty wooden wall; nothing more, nothing less.

But... it had felt so close...

"You saw something... right?"

[Tsukimori Ryosuke]

Judging by the response, Ryosuke guessed he hadn't died and he hadn't gone back to his baby stages, though he wasn't so sure he was content with the other things going on here either.

The light of the flashlights becoming almost painful now, Ryosuke closed his eyes and groaned slightly. He felt sick.

"Are you alright?"

"If you count feeling like you've just gotten attacked by a sack of bricks 'alright', then yeah." Ryosuke opened his eyes to find that Mizusawa had been talking to someone else in another direction, to the source of another flashlight glow beaming down on his face. Suddenly bitter, he closed his eyes again and forced himself into a sitting position.

Ryosuke lifted a hand to the back of his head, almost nervous to touch the place where he'd been struck. He tapped the spot tenderly and closed his eyes against the pain. He was surprised he'd come to at all......given the force of the blow and the obvious bruise he'd gotten from it, he wouldn't have been surprised to have incurred some kind of concussion. Although, with that thought in mind, he couldn't help wondering.....what if this was all some kind of nightmare? That is, he hadn't actually woken up. He'd hit his head so hard that he was still out cold somewhere, probably in the same spot he'd fallen, and now he was stuck in this odd world of his mind's making. Though, that wouldn't quite explain the obvious and very real hurt he felt from touching his head. Or the sick feeling in his gut.

"Ryosuke...what the heck are you doing here?"

The blonde Yankee started grumbling when Mizusawa turned his flashlight his way again, scanning the bright light over his face. Ryosuke raised an arm to shield himself from the glow, frowning.

"Do you have something to do with Mari's disappearance?"

"Can you turn the damned light off or something? God, don't shine it on me...I already feel like the living dead as it is..." Ryosuke made his point by shifting sideways across the floor and out of the path of the fluorescent beam, casting an unhappy look Mizusawa's way to emphasize how cruddy he was feeling. Trying to maintain his calm and ignore the almost overwhelming feeling of instability and sickness about to throw him helter skelter, he tried looking around the black pit of an area. "I don't know what I'm doing here, Mizu. I got knocked out somewhere outside while I was gathering wood and I woke up to you. And....him." He gestured over to the kid with the glasses. He wasn't much in the mood to spend time with Washizu kids, though the other boy looked fairly scared too, in Ryosuke's opinion.

But something about what Mizusawa had just said was weighing down on Ryosuke. Mari....? Mari had disappeared? Come to think of it, Ryosuke had been well aware of Mari heading up to do some of the camp chores, but he was surprised to hear that she'd also ended up in this place, and, evidently, disappeared too. He actually overlooked any annoyance at being Mizusawa's possible "reason" as to why the girl had disappeared in order to find out just what the heck had happened.

"Mari's gone?" He squeezed his eyes shut. Dizzy.... "What the hell is going on? Seriously? I got conked out, you guys are hanging around in this place...." He gestured at the two other boys as if they'd purposely come here. "Now Mari-chan is missing.....This is ridiculous..."

"You guys! What the hell? Why are you--"

The voice came as something of a shock, though Ryosuke recognized the speaker instantly. He quickly turned his head in the direction of the sound as it came echoing to them from one side of the chamber.

Kaoru. The girl he and Mizusawa had encountered during a sort of mistake of an adventure in the Washizu school. He'd had her on his mind a lot since then....

Ryosuke wasn't entirely sure whether he was happy to hear her speaking, someone he knew, even if not well, and someone he admired, or disappointed that she'd somehow ended up in this predicament too. Come to think of it, he hadn't even thought she was at the camp. He opened his mouth to tell her with as much enthusiasm as he could muster that he'd yet to hear a nicer greeting than hers, when it came to them.

A loud shriek, like that of one of the banshees in Western horror stories. Ryosuke's head was still tingling from the blow he'd gotten earlier, and it took everything in his power not to press both his hands to his ears and block the sound out of his head. But it was short-lived. As quickly as it had come, the horrifying sound was suddenly gone.

Then Kaoru was moving forward, past Ryosuke and for glasses kid. She grabbed the other's hand and shone his flashlight in a direction opposite the area they were standing in.

"You guys heard that, right?"

"You'd have to have been deaf not to..." Ryosuke replied, climbing unsteadily to his feet. He searched for a wall to hold onto. It wasn't that he wanted to go back to what had led him here in the first place, holding onto a wall and getting conked out from behind, but between his spinning head and now shaking limbs (and the fact that Mizusawa--the only person he would otherwise ask for the extra support--seemed to think he might something have to do with Mari-chan's disappearance), the wall seemed the only place he could go for.

He ended up choosing the place Kaoru was shining the flashlight on. Truth be told, anywhere was better than nowhere, and though he hated to think he might accidentally run into some Medusa-type ghost figure by putting some distance between himself and the others, he knew he needed it. At least for now.

"You saw something... right?"

Ryosuke shook his head, even though he knew no one would probably see the gesture. "I see a bunch of us looking scared out of our freaking minds because we all just heard something ridiculous." He dragged a hand across his forehead, wiping away a nervous sweat, and glanced around the area in the hopes that maybe there would be an obvious exit out of the place that he'd missed earlier. He didn't have a flashlight of his own, so even if he'd wanted to lead the way or help try to find an exit, he was stuck. Anyway, at least they had a few lights on them and not just one. Wherever they were--and he was guessing inside the shrine--there was obviously something wrong. He'd never been inside of one, but he'd certainly heard about haunted temples and shrines and things in Japan before. There were many such places, even if they were only in legends.

His back against the wall now, Ryosuke tried to relax a little bit and get some feeling back into his legs. He was scared, definitely, but not as badly as he could have been. He knew the majority of the people he was with, at least a little--and he couldn't deny that he was secretly happy inside to see Kaoru again, though he couldn't have asked for a worse place for them to meet up once more. If Mari-chan had disappeared, it was very possible Kaoru could get lost too....though if he had to be brutally honest, Kaoru was probably more aware of her surroundings than Mari-chan. The two girls seemed to have completely different personalities.
That being said, he didn't know the circumstances around what had happened with Mari, but with four of them together now, maybe strength in numbers would count for something? Ryosuke turned back in the direction of the group he found himself with, thinking it was about time he find out how the others had gotten here and everything that had led up to know.

"Like Mari-chan," Ryosuke said aloud, turning to face the group. "What happened to....."

A flashlight was still dancing around the area he was standing in, the too-bright glow seemingly piercing his skull all over again, and Ryosuke saw Mizusawa standing not too far off with his own flashlight....

But the Washizu guy. He was...

"The....the glasses kid...." Ryosuke's eyes widened. "Where did he go? Where'd the glasses kid go?"

[Satonaka Mari]

Mari scrambled backwards as fast as she could after she screamed. As the little girl went to follow her, Mari darted up and span around, running for the nearest doorway, out into the long corridor. She was pretty sure she had never moved so fast in all her life. Her heart was pounding in her chest, she could hear the blood rushing in her ears, and it was all she could hear besides her own footfalls on the old wooden floor. Reaching a corner, she darted around it, almost tripping, and ending up scraping her arm on the wall.

Ignoring the sting of pain, she continued to run, her breath coming faster and heavier now as she ran flat out. She was terrified. This was undoubtedly the most terrifying experience of her life, and she was feeling more and more like an idiot for following the little girl. She didn’t know where Mizusawa and the other boy were now, and for all she knew, they could have followed her and were now perhaps in trouble themselves.

With the guilt now eating away at her as well, Mari was getting more and more frantic as the seconds passed. The corridor she was running down seemed to be never-ending, and she was pretty sure that the shrine wasn’t that big. But, then again, with ghosts around, and kami-sama only knew what else lurking in the shadows, it was very possible that she was being played with, and the corridor was never-ending.

Panic gripped her as the other end of corridor seemed to be getting more and more distant now instead of closer. Tears were beginning to brim in her eyes as she panicked, she turned and ran into one of the rooms instead, hoping against hope that there would be another way out. Instead, the site that greeted her made her skid to a halt.

There was the little girl, just standing there in the middle of the room. The sight made Mari’s stomach turn and she suddenly felt sick and light-headed - whether it was from running so much or not, she didn’t know. All she wanted to do was turn around and run, and run and run until she finally got out. Hopefully Mizusawa and the other boy would still be outside when she got there. Hopefully they hadn’t followed her inside. She wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if anything happened to either of them.

But, she couldn’t move.

As much as she wanted to move, and as much as she tried to, her feet were rooted to the floor. And the little girl was getting closer. She wasn’t even walking, it was more like…floating, the tips of her toes just barely dragging along the floor. A whimper of panic and fear escaped Mari’s lips and she felt increasingly sick. The little girl was right in front of her now.

One more struggle to move, and she managed to succeed, the sudden release of her feet and her momentum making her land hard on the wood floor. She made a quick effort to get back up and out the door despite now scraped knees, but it was too late. The little girls long, sharp nails, which were more like claws than anything else, scratched her right down the side of her face, leaving behind five long, relatively deep gashes behind, going from halfway up the side of her head, over her cheek and stopping just before her lips.

The pain made the side of her head throb, and she cried out in pain. Blood spilled down the side of her face and soaked into her shirt and sweater. It wasn’t a horrendous amount, but it was enough to make her feel dizzy, or maybe that was just the impact and the pain that made her feel that way. It took a lot to ignore the throbbing in her head, the pain and the hot liquid dripping down her neck, but she forced herself to as she tried to fight off the little girl.

There was some noise from the corridor outside the room, and Mari found herself gripped in fear once again. Was there something else coming? The little girl appeared to be solid, maybe because she was attacking Mari, but as Mari was lashing out in retaliation, she actually made contact with the girl. She had managed to get a foot around to try and kick the girl off of her, as she got another couple of scratches on the arm she was shielding her face with, when the noise in the corridor reached the room.



((ooc - okay, she can be found by Wataru after Ryuu’s post now, if you want, gok~ =]))

[Nakata Ryuu]

“It’s cool, isn’t it?” Azuma said, with a grin on his face that Ryuu just wanted to smack off of it. He wasn’t normally quite so touchy, but this situation was entirely too creepy and he was feeling really unsettled. “If you say so…” he trailed off, the sarcasm still not leaving his voice. It had been so long since he had last seen Azuma that he had forgotten just how…annoying the taller boy could be. Though, maybe he was slightly biased in that he never really had gotten along with anyone…ever.

The encounter with the little girl left him more than a little weirded out. He got another shiver up his spine, and he grit his teeth together. This was getting freakier by the second, and he really was beginning to think that the best thing to do right now would be to leave - and fast. However, the ‘girl’ that the ghost mentioned… Would he really be able to deal with having that on his conscience if he left now?

Instead of giving him an answer, Azuma just exclaimed, “Mari-chan…she’s in trouble!”. He seemed panicked, so in a way he did answer Ryuu’s question, although Ryuu didn’t appreciate being ignored. “We have to find her…find them. They must be in trouble.” Ryuu wrinkled his nose in annoyance, exhaling sharply through his nose. “And how do you propose we do that, huh?”

“I doubt you’ve got any ideas in that small brain of yours.” Ryuu sighed, twirling the flashlight in his hand, much like the way he would with a gymnastics stick, which was his apparatus of choice for when he entered competitions solo. Ignoring the dull throbbing that was starting in his temple, he stopped twirling the flashlight in his hand and instead began moving the beam around them to see exactly where everything was, and what could or would be the quickest way out.

“Did you see anyone else when you came in? We have to hurry before more bad things happen,” Azuma asked, and Ryuu reluctantly turned to look at him again as he started to walk away. Rolling his eyes again, Ryuu crossed his arms over his chest. “I saw three buckets out by the well at the front of the shrine, but no people,” he answered shortly, though he was taken aback by Azuma’s tone of voice. He sounded scared; not like the Azuma Wataru he knew at all. This girl, whoever she was, must have meant a lot to him.

Ryuu was about to open his mouth to speak again, when he got cut off. “Oi, let’s go.” He stood still for a second longer, somewhat indignant, before following Azuma, refraining from twirling the flashlight so that the beam would be straight and they could see better. The shrine was dark, and Ryuu was thankful that they had two flashlights. It made things a hell of a lot easier.

A cobweb caught on his arm before he could notice it was there, and he only managed to notice a moment later. Quickly brushing the thing off, he shivered and wiped his hands on his jeans to make sure the cobweb was off his hands. But now he was paranoid that there was a spider somewhere on him. He glanced at Azuma, before looking down at himself and moving his flashlight over himself to check. Relieved when he saw nothing, he figured he could just pass off flicking the flashlight over himself as him having ‘felt something touch him’, if Azuma were to ask.

Suddenly there was a thud from in front of him, and Ryuu snapped his head up, moving his flashlight to where Azuma had been before. Seeing nothing, he moved the flashlight about a bit, before he caught a bit of red. “Ow...” Lowering the beam of the torch to the floor, Ryuu snorted in laughter. “Smooth, Azuma. Real smoo -” He cut himself off, as his flashlight caught a bit of movement to the side of Azuma. However, whatever it had been was now gone. Frowning, he muttered a “What the f*ck…” under his breath. For all he knew, it could have been the poltergeist…or something worse.

“Get up,” he drawled uncaringly at Azuma, not feeling inclined to help the boy at all. Instead, he moved the beam of his flashlight around their surroundings again. He walked on ahead, leaving Azuma behind to get up on his own, his feet leading him down a corridor. He was the majority of the way down it when he heard someone cry out in what sounded like pain. And there were these odd, slightly demonic sounds.

Moving the smallest bit closer, he managed to catch a glance of what was going on in one of the rooms, thanks to part of the wall being missing. There was the little girl ghost…and a real girl. The real girl had blood on her face and arms, he noticed; they had probably been just on time. “Azuma! Over here!” he called over his shoulder, starting towards the girl and ghost girl. How the hell were they going to get out of this one?



((ooc - yay, Wataru to the rescue now? XD))