2025-11-06: I Ain't Afraid Of No Ghost
- Log: I Ain't Afraid Of No Ghost
- Cast: Isabeau Fontaine, Niko Kirisaki, Jun Kashihara, Hazuki Nakao, Ruzica Crvena, Yukari Takeba, Shizuka Kuroki, Kazusa Motojima, Fuuka Yamagishi, Maria Sakurai
- Where: Hirasaka - Eifuji Haunted Manor
- OOC Date: 2025-11-06
- IC Date: Mon Aug 06 2012
- Summary: * Are you a COWARD?
* STAY HOME!!!!!
* Legitimate ghost hunters ONLY invited to Eifuji Manor group stay
* If you are just going to scream and run away DO ***NOT*** WASTE MY TIME!
Isabeau's learnt of a haunted manor operating as a hotel in Hirasaka Ward -- but unfortunately for /her,/ it only accepts /group/ bookings. Thusly has she sent out a challenge over social media, demanding with great aggression that people sign up to come with her... /if they think they can take it./
But the twist is that this is a /Sumaru/ haunted house, and people have been spreading rumours about Eifuji Manor for /ages/...
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfZkqG_gfIc Ghosts - If You Have Ghosts (Roky Erickson cover)
Eifuji Manor offers a unique stay for groups of travellers; the promise of a haunted experience at their hotel-manor. They say a woman once died there, following an attack by her jealous sister; ever since, there have been unexplained events which have chased any permanent occupants from the lodgings. All that remains are the haunted-eyed maiden maid, Kinori Chikahata, and the strangely peppy concierge, Hisayasu Yabu -- or 'Yasu-Yabu', as he introduces himself to you all.
One presumes they would be quite strange, living and working here.
Or perhaps... IT'S ALL AN ACT?!
Isabeau Fontaine kept one of her luggage-cases with her when Yasu-Yabu took your bags, though -- obviously she has more than one, she's rich, she came prepared. It rolls onto the floor of the entrance hall, where it straightens up with a ka-CHUNK. The tiled floor is well-suited for things to be wheeled over, at least, with a stark black-blue-white pattern which can feel a little dizzying to look at; there's a grand staircase leading up, and an arched entryway leading into what must be the loungeroom, alongside the kitchen and dining areas. Bronze sculptures of furious eagles decorate this entry hall, with paintings of a love-lorn woman who always seems to be looking out into the world beyond the fourth wall. (You look lovely today.)
"All right," she says, as she turns, stomping one boot-covered foot down on the tile as she places her hands to her hips. "Listen up!"
... she didn't take off her shoes...
Isabeau is a remarkably tall girl, at five-foot-six -- and markedly larger than most of her peers, heavy weight settling about her hips and padding out the muscles on her arms and legs. She wears a purple blouse with a lace-mesh neckline and broad shoulders to even out her bottom-heavy figure, and a pair of jean shorts cropped just above her knees. Her honey-blonde hair is prone to tight curling, and three of those locks have made themselves known in the ponytail behind her head, with two drills framing either side of her face. She has green eyes, and aside from her freckles, she's white as a ghost -- definitely a foreigner, if the slightly stilted Japanese didn't clue that off.
"I have called you here tonight to find the Ghost of Eifuji Manor. If ANY of you," her finger points, in the world's rudest gesture, across the gathered teenagers, "have come here only to mess around -- you can find the exit -- right behind you!" Oh, thank god, she started pointing at the door instead of at anyone here, that was way too aggressive, did she arrive in Japan yesterday. (She did not. She's been part of Shujin's 2-A class since April. Don't worry, everyone is upset about that.) "I do not need anyone here who is not taking this seriously!"
It's a haunted manor, how serious could it be? Deathly serious, according to Isabeau's stern expression.
"I would have only done this myself," she grouses, "but they would not let me book the manor alone. That is why you are here. So!" Isabeau leans down, to open up her luggage -- revealing an entire array of gizmos and gadgets. "These are our tools. If you break them you will pay for them, and I tell you they were not cheap. First --"
She pulls out a camera, which she passes to Ruzica. "This is a thermal imaging camera. I trust you can find it in yourself to be of some use to this investigation." The rest of the equipment, she distributes amongst the others. Hazuki gets an EVP Recorder, a sensitive sound recording device said to be able to pick up the delicate voices of ghosts. Jun gets an EMF Meter, a sensitive device designed to sense supernatural electromagnetic fields. Kazusa gets a night vision camcorder, the kind which can record an investigation even after the lights go out. Niko gets a pair of night vision goggles -- perfect for seeing anything in the dark. Maria receives a full-spectrum camera; unlike a thermal imaging camera's ability to image warmth, this one takes photos which show the ultraviolet and infrared light spectrums. Fuuka receives a 'Spirit Box': a device that creates white noise from radio frequencies to allow ghosts to speak through. Finally, Shizuka receives an ouija board, used to receive messages from the dead.
To Yukari, finally, she hands... a heavy-duty flashlight.
"The operation of these tools is like this --"
What follows is a quick (and really rather mean) tutorial on how to properly use and handle all this ghost hunting equipment, during which very little spookiness happens at all. Perhaps ghosts are polite, or perhaps haunted houses aren't real. Sure, maybe there's a little creeeeeak here and there... but it's an old house! Houses creak.
No, everything is fine. The tutorial goes off without a hitch. There's just enough time to air some sassy comments, before --
-- the lights flicker --
-- and the manor blacks out!
(Luckily, all those high-tech gadgets which were just handed around were all designed to be used in low-light conditions, so their menus and dials and buttons are all backlit.)
<Pose Tracker> Ruzica Crvena has posed.
Ruzica Crvena has come along with Isabeau in part because she's been goaded by the latter's insistence, but also she had business here in Sumaru City... elsewhere, so sharing accomodation only made sense. Tonight, though, it looks like she won't be able to peel off to do her business, and when Isabeau plops the thermal imaging camera in her hands--
"Wherever... did you obtain this?"
Ruzica does look rather enamored, though, so much that Isabeau doesn't bother her this time because this is still a camera-shaped object and thus she is instantly in her HAPPY PLACE as she begins to meddle with every little nook and cranny of it, as if to truly get her craft hands all over and understand it. Click click click. Beep beep. Oh, thermal imaging... how fascinating, even if they're not even certain what kind of photographs they'll be able to take by the end of this. It looks like this is a digital camera, because for once Ruzica isn't handling something made 40 years ago.
Don't worry, Ruzica will still love you, dear camera...
The young woman isn't terribly tall, only 156cm, with her black hair tied into a high ponytail with cold, golden eyes peeking vividly out from her curtain of jet-black fringes. She's wearing a crisp wine-red button-down shirt and black pinstripe dress pants all worn fastidiously like she could actually just be a member of the hotel staff, with a harness to go with their shirt.
It looks like the social media post really did rouse a large number of people. She wasn't certain if it was going to end up with just her and Isabeau. ... there might've been a non-zero chance it was going to be that way.
"... it's nice to meet you," Ruzica greets quietly, her expression phlegmatic, her voice barely above a whisper. Her expression hasn't changed once in the middle of all the explanations. "I'm Ruzica Crvena."
The lights flicker just right after they're done familiarising with their tools.
"Ah..."
A blackout!
Ruzica's face can be very lightly seen in the backlight of her thermal camera. "Of course, it isn't a certainty if our ghost will exhibit body heat... but perhaps the true value of a thermal imaging device is to find cold spots instead... how fascinating..."
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Kuroki has posed.
Shizuka Kuroki, you are a badass Shadow hunter who deals in the supernatural and climbs a hell tower every night.
Shizuka Kuroki, you've got incredible magic powers that can take care of any creep or ghoul or ghost.
Shizuka Kuroki, why are your knees knocking together?! Cut it out!
Shizuka was already regretting coming here. The best thing to raise your courage is to immerse yourself in fear, right? It's a 'haunted manor,' that stuff's all fake! Ghosts aren't real! It's safe! Right?
The mousy girl takes the ouija board and tucks it under her arm. Come on, this is definitely fake. It's a piece of cardboard, how is this going to get any messages from the dead?
Hey, are anyone else's feet getting cold?
She turns over to Fuuka and Yukari, putting on a nervous smile. "Boy, this place is really going all out, huh? Just like that weird carnival the other week!" She can't really fully hide the nerves in her voice, but she's trying.
And then the lights go out. Oh no.
"EEEK!"
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
WHO ELSE DIDN'T TAKE OFF HER SHOES THAT'S RIGHT IT's HAZUKI NAKAO WITH THE STEEL CHAIR----
Hazuki took up the offer of ghost hunting not necessarily because she wanted to hunt a ghost (she believes in them, why wouldn't she? But that's not her priority!) but because she wants to see if they can put up Roger for a few days. Unfortunately, she's unaware it's GROUP BOOKINGS ONLY because she skim reads when she doesn't quite know the language. She just thought they were ghost hunting a hotel!
Hazuki has seen Isabeau around, but never talked to her. She knows the rumors, and she seems just as prickly... but maybe she's secretly nice? Ren was secretly nice!
As her luggage is taken and equipment is tossed into her hands, Hazuki takes it carefully. "Alright! I'm Hazuki Nakao. Time to befriend a ghost, befriend a ghost, nanana..." Wait, no.
She does listen to the tutorial, thankfully, and is not sassy. She nods to Ruzica and Shizuka, the latter of whom she's met alongside several other Persona Users, though she clearly seems to believe in ghosts.
AND THEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT
Hazuki holds up her EVP recorder, clicking the buttons as instructed. She's straight to work! "Hello, miss ghost...?" She's assuming it's a woman, she *did* hear the story.
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
It's close to sundown when Jun returns home to Hirasaka Ward from Iwatodai, where he spent most of the day tutoring Hyousuke, his underclassman. It was a very productive session... but he's spent a little too much time acting as though everything's normal with him.
Because everything's not normal. Between being interrogated by Strega and learning that Sutoh is actually Sudou and most likely the Joker Killer... Jun is very much not having a normal time of things.
That's why, when he saw a call on social media for a ghost hunt in what is functionally his backyard, he decided to sign up for it. For all that its confrontational language claims this is a SERIOUS mission for SERIOUS ghost hunters ONLY, Jun doesn't actually think it's serious; he figures it's a test of courage, as Japanese students often do in the summertime. The fact that it's set at Eifuji Manor, a local legend that he's been to before, only reinforces this.
All considered, Jun figures he could stand to test his courage some more. He managed to stand his ground emotionally with Strega, but if "Sutoh" approaches him again... he needs to be ready.
He doesn't show up with luggage, per se; he lives locally, so he can go home whenever he wants to. So, aside from the pale blue button-up shirt with a sprig of lavender in the breast pocket, brown slacks, and tennis shoes, and of course his phone, Jun arrives with a shoulder bag with a) a single change of clothes plus a pair of pajamas b) a book to read if it gets dull c) that's it. Hotels have travel-size toiletries already, so he doesn't need extra.
He wasn't really expecting the ghost-hunting equipment, though in retrospect he should have. One look at Isabeau (she's a foreigner, it's more or less fine that she doesn't take her shoes off, what can you really expect (Jun is not immune to prejudices)) tells Jun that she is most definitely taking this seriously.
"Hmmm," he murmurs, dubious, when she points at the door for anyone not ALSO taking this SUPER SERIOUSLY--but he has his own reasons for being here, so he'll stay. He looks at the rest of the crowd that's gathered and decides not to spoil anyone's fun. (By the time he clocks Niko in particular, it'll be too late.) He smiles at Ruzica when she introduces herself--he likes her style--and replies, "A pleasure to make your acquaintance. I'm Jun Kashihara." He nods to Hazuki and the others in similar greeting. "Let's make the most of this, shall we?"
He accepts the EMF Meter with aplomb and even interest, once he learns what it's supposed to be for (however rudely Isabeau's tutorial may be delivered); supernatural or not, electromagnetic fields are most certainly real, so they might actually pick something up on it. Considering the mood, staying calm even so could be a good test after all...
Especially when the power suddenly goes out.
Shizuka's shriek is startling; fortunately, in the dark, no one can see Jun flinch. "Ah, that's skillful timing. Good effects," he remarks aloud, looking up with the assumption that Yabu-Yasu or whomever turned off the lights on purpose.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Why is Kazusa, of all people, here? That might be a mystery (but a smaller one than finding the ghost of Eifuji Manor.) She's an average 5'2", thin (as befits a rhythmic gymnast), with along straight black hair and purple eyes. She's dressed in a dark red cami top, skinny black jeans, and a stylish bomber jacket. (Also cute black boots, but she did remember to take those off.)
If any of them are here to mess around, and she just smirks and says, "What about if we're just here to see you fail?" She looks around. "Kazusa Motojima," she introduces herself. "Yes, that Motojima."
She might be needling Isabeau, but she does quiet down once the equipment comes out. "Mm," she says with an arched eyebrow. "Well, you didn't skimp on the equipment, at least," she says offhandedly.
But when handed the night vision camcorder she doesn't need to wait for Isabeau's instructions. She takes it and does actually study it, flipping through the various settings and filming some test footage. "Not bad. But we should test this in a dark room first. Just to make sure you didn't get ripped off."
She does actually jump a little as the lights go out, looking around. "... Nevermind. Time to see what this can do." She starts filming, swinging the camera around to take note of everyone. "... Seems like everyone's here." She smirks in the dark. "And there's no unexpected guests yet, either."
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
"Hey Yukatan, up for a little summer fun with a test of courage?"
Yukari looked up from painting her nails in the common room to give Junpei an odd look, "What kind of a 'test of courage'?"
"Eifuji. Manor." He enunciated every syllable, "Home to an infamous ghost story in the Hirasaka district of Sumaru City."
"Uhhhhh- Nope." Yukari went back to painting her nails, pretending her best not to be freaked at all. "I don't need my courage tested- Stupei. Go on your own."
"Hey come on! It'd be totally lame to go by myself. And besides - I'm pretty sure that you're just scared."
"I am not. I just have better things to do." She says sharply. "It's not like with Fuuka-chan where people were collapsing anyway... so there's no reason for it."
"... Well I think you're chicken!"
"I am not chicken-!"
-=-=-
Yukari Takeba is very much chicken. At least when it comes to ghosts. The idea of the afterlife where restless ghosts can't move on disturbs the heck out of her.
And worst of all.
"Where... is he?"
Junpei didn't show. He's not even answering his texts. "If he convinced me to come only to ditch me I'm going to-"
And Isabeau starts to speak. It's her last chance to bow out. If Junpei doesn't come, would he ever even know?
But as she looks around, there are people who would know. And could tell him. Like Fuuka and Shizuka. She can't believe she's even here after what happened to her!
A sweeping fingerpoint, and Yukari seems taken aback by the aggressiveness of the gesture, before- "Seriously... Yeah sure." She says, obviously not sounding, thrilled, but also not playing around.
And they brought... "Ghost equipment?" Like she's baffled by people trying to look at this scientifically as she murmurs, "Iiii dunno..."
It's probably all demon-shadow, Persona stuff anyway, right? RIGHT?
A heavy duty flashlight is put in her hands which she holds like it's a hot potato she wants to get rid of, and- "Wait does that mean I'm up front?" She maybe pales a shade, before replying, "Sure. I guess I can handle that."
As Ruzica introduces herself, Yukari gives her a strange look, "Ah uh nice to meet you? Takeba. Yukari Takeba."
Why are those gold eyes so disturbing? They remind her of Kaneshiro, but that's stupid... she's definitely got nothing in common.
Up front she goes... the flashlight on, with her stopping every so often at the creaks, "That was, us right?"
And then the lights flicker and-
"AHHH!!" Yukari lets out a little shriek of shock at the blackout before... "I-It's fine. Totally fine. We have plenty of light." The heavy duty flashlight seems dimmer than ever, in the face of this darkness, as she shines it here or there.
"But we should probably try to find a breaker a-anyway." She babbles, "No sense on relying on... just flashlights, aha... ha."
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
A meeker person might have looked at that advertisement on the socials and thought it's way too aggressive.
A skeptical person might have looked at that advertisement and reasoned that ghosts don't exist so clearly it's some kind of hoax.
A more cautious person might have looked at that advertisement and thought that they shouldn't go to a strange manor with a person and people they don't know.
Maria is... well, Maria is here, isn't she? That may say everything for her.
She's changed into casual clothes, a light-blue button-down shirt paired with a knee-length white skirt with lacy fringe, and had a pair of slip-on flats (blue) before exchanging them for slippers up front because she's kind of an airhead but has been thoroughly housebroken. A shiny plastic round purse hangs over one shoulder. Her pink hair is pulled into a high ponytail, tied off with a large white ribbon.
Her attention is everywhere. She's looking at the spooky picture and the spooky house-keepers (until they themselves away) and the spooky tiled floor, and had been craning her neck to sight whatever or wherever those stairs had led, until Isabeau calls everyone to order.
Maria has been put in custody of one (1) camera. It's full-spectrum! Isabeau might have had to explain to her what 'ultraviolet' and 'infrared' mean.
"Wow... light is full of colors," Maria remarks, bearing her new prize aloft (Maria no you can't keep that). How did she miss that in science class again?
(Cut to, years ago, Maria zoning out during science class while teacher tries in vain to bestow precious knowledge unto their proteges...)
Pointing the camera right at the stairs, Maria takes a picture! Cliiick. "Oh, is it like a Polaroid? My grandfather had one of those, you know, he used to take a lot of photos of me as a kid and they'd develop right away! I liked watching those develop. You shake them you know and--"
The lights, mercifully, go out.
Maria, for her part, just looks confused. "They should get the wiring looked at. My grandfather was an electrician, you know."
He's also dead, Maria.
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Believe it or not... but Niko is actually taking this completely seriously. In the sense that she fully expects there to be a legit haunting involved. That's one of things that makes this an interesting venture. All the people that will be involved is another interesting thing. You learn a lot about people when they're put in situations like this. Most of it is bound to be funny.
...Also, an open call is like her one chance to get in on something like this. There's no way she could convince any of her Strega fellows to join her for something like this. Their loss, really.
Niko just kind of stares at Yasu-Yabu when he gets to her, then shrugs. No bags here, she literally just showed up with the clothes on her back. That's fine and normal. Really, the others are the weird ones. "Y'all brought bags? That's optimistic, thinking you're gonna get any sleep. Or... only a short sleep, if you catch my drift. Maybe you should have brought a different kind of bag..."
She's talking about a body bag, if that wasn't clear. I mean, it's a ghost house, in Sumaru. She doesn't know what anyone else is expecting here, but she's got her guesses.
Isabeau seems cool, though. Taking this stuff seriously, coming prepared, looks like she can fight, taking the leader role... failing to take off her shoes, just like Niko. Very nice. They might just be similar in many ways, including height, just not in build. Oh, and friendliness, obviously. As everybody knows, Niko is the pinnacle of friendliness.
And she gets freaking night vision goggles! She wastes no time in putting those on, while there isn't any need for it yet. "Hell yeah, this is metal as shit, I'm never taking these off." She didn't bother introducing herself, or paying much attention to who else was there, until she can look at them with those goggles on her head. Grinning the entire time, making it hard to be sure if she's grinning at anyone's presence in particular... but she's definitely clocked the familiar faces in the crowd here.
Look at her though, being a good girl and not interrupting the tutorial with any of her nonsense... until the lights go off. People start screaming, and Niko just starts laughing, boisteriously. Not so much because she's absolutely fine with those goggles on, but because the game, clearly, is afoot.
"Oh, here we go, now we're talking! This is gonna be good, only a matter of time before someone dies in a way that'll be really funny. But who will it be, hmmm..." She once again scans the group, driving home the point all the more that even if you can't see her, she can still see you.
"I just can't decide, you ALL look like you could be the first to die in a horror movie!"
If nothing else, she's setting the proper tone, right?
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
And that's when Yukari- who didn't notice Niko's presence earlier during prep, too distracted waiting on Junpei, turns around, her flashlight moving past her... then suddenly zooming back towards Niko's face like she realized something, either from that glimpse of the face or the voice.
Violin Screech - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TUeUL7EW9M
"AHHHHHHHHH!" Another shriek, "What are you doing here!?"
If this is a horror movie, then she must think that Niko is definitely the killer.
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
One might imagine Fuuka to be the kind of person who wouldn't go anywhere near an ostensibly-haunted hotel. She seems the type - she's small and quiet, she probably gets spooked easily. Well... she used to be. But a steady diet of science fiction and a ten-hour stint in said hell tower has done a lot to work up her tolerance.
She's even been accused of being a ghost herself, before - some people still call her the 'ghost girl' at school, after the stories that arose from her disappearance.
It's easy to convince her to come along - and so, here she is, joining the others in the group. As expected, there's a bunch of unfamiliar faces here... and some she does.
"I'm Fuuka Yamagishi... It's nice to meet you all." Fuuka greets with a polite bow as Ruzica introduces herself, and she listens to everyone introduce themselves in turn.
Her attention turns to Isabeau as she calls for them all to listen up.
...The shouting and the rude gesture might be scarier than any ghost, and she definitely has to check that she isn't being pointed at directly.
Tools are being handed out - and Fuuka, who has an eye for these things, looks over the Spirit Box she's handed curiously. ...She has to admit, she's intrigued at how such a thing works. Though, thermal imaging, night vision...
"How... did you get all of this?" Fuuka asks. It's some pretty advanced stuff...
...and then, the lights go out!
"Oh!" Fuuka says, surprised. She turns on the Spirit Box, keeping an ear out for any sounds.
"It'd probably be somewhere they usually don't let guests into." Fuuka considers, as Yukari points out that they should probably get the breaker. She looks toward Isabeau. "Did we get any keys...?"
"It's alright, Kuroki-san. Stay close and don't get separated..." Fuuka advises, as the sudden darkness elicits an 'eek' from Shizuka. That's how it always happens in horror movies... which becomes pertinent advice, when Niko says that it's only a matter of time until someone dies.
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Niko just casually puts her finger in her ear, possibly to deal with the ringing after Yukari's even louder shriek. "Last I checked, this was an open invitation. Anyone could come, I'm anyone too. Relax, Yuka-chan, I'm no ghost. OR AM I-- nah that's not even a good joke."
Although this whole venture is definitely all the funnier for it, with people here who know her.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Where did Isabeau obtain all this equipment? "My mother realised I had resonant indigo harmonics when I was still quite young, so she was more than happy to support my explorations to the spirit world," Isabeau explains, and perhaps only because Ruzica is the first one who asked. (Does that mean she would have just snubbed Fuuka if Fuuka were the only one to think to ask?! Man, how cruel...)
"It would be bad luck to bring a body bag," she assures Niko, gravely. "Besides, these things are handled by the ambulance responders." Why does she know that?!
"This is no carnival," she promises Shizuka, with a haughty sniff. And to Hazuki, she says: "Do not be so quick to think a ghost will be your friend. Ghosts are trapped in the living world due to strong emotions... they usually are not good."
Seeing everyone introduce themselves, though, has her going, "Ugh, yes, you all want to be friends, very well, I am Isabeau Fontaine, if you must know." Man, all Jun's smooth social skills look even smoother against someone like this!
"If you are so sceptical," Isabeau shoots back to Kazusa, unable to hide her scowl, "I am sure the hand on your shoulder is no problem for you." There's no hand on her shoulder, of course, but sometimes people fall for that one.
(She and Fuuka would likely have common ground in being viewed as creepy... but hey, didn't Fuuka already go through an entire character arc about being bullied?!)
"Yes, ghost hunting equipment," she informs Yukari, quite prim. "How are we to conduct an investigation if we do not have tools to investigate? And of course they work," she adds, to Kazusa. "I have been using them myself." To Niko, she issues: "Have fun if you like, but handle the equipment properly."
Isabeau pauses, lightly, looking to Maria. She takes a breath. "Ruzica, explain the visible spectrum to her," she delegates, at length.
She does not scream when the lights go out. "Keep the light forward, Yukari," she says, and addresses her yobisute and with her first name as if they're the closest friends in the world, what the fuck. "A breaker, it will likely be in the basement."
You mean THE SPOOKIEST ROOM IN THE HOUSE???? "Access to the basement is through the kitchen, mostly. Do not worry, I was given a full set of keys," she adds, to Fuuka, with a jingle as she holds them up.
When Yukari shrieks a second time, though, Isabeau snaps: "What she is doing here is filling space, just as you are doing here! I do not remember inviting you to dictate who would fulfill the terms of the stay, so either hand over the flashlight and go, or make your peace with her!"
She's telling her to HAND OVER HER FLASHLIGHT when it's THIS DARK?! When Niko has night-vision goggles?! She might as well just declare, bold as brass, that Yukari's first to the chopping block--!!
"Anyway," Isabeau shakes her head, "the kitchen will be past the loungeroom. We go."
The loungeroom is a rustic, comfortable place... or it would have been, thirty years ago. The television here is one of those old massive ones, the kind which have seriously fallen out of style. (These days, it's all about that LCD!) A fabric-upholstered couch and lounge chair face it; behind them stands a high bookshelf, filled with hundreds of tomes. A display cabinet beside the television holds an array of video tapes which must fit into that VCR under the television's stand, alongside a few war medals displayed on the top shelf.
There's a shifting sound -- and a book falls from the bookcase. Its title reads 'The Sand Woman' against a backdrop of aimless black and sandy ink. It's an old book -- it was published all the way back in the sixties -- but if by chance anyone has studied it for school, or at least picks it up to read the blurb, they'll know that it's about a man who was trapped in a house surrounded by sand dunes and forced to keep his home free of sand with the woman who lived there. ... in the end, the man lost the desire to escape from his new family when he realised that he was no more free in Tokyo than he was trapped in this place of eternal labour, and eventually he was pronounced officially missing by his old life.
Which means, essentially, that anyone with ranks in their literary skill will realise what's going to happen several minutes before it does.
" no escape , " a voice whispers, to the left of your shoulder. (Everyone's shoulder, though the words were assuredly only spoken once.)
The cameras will catch a blur of a flash -- and the EVP recorder will pick up laughter -- but whatever was there flees the moment it's noticed.
No -- it's when they turn back that they'll see her, as if she were standing in front of them the whole time.
"Haha... pretty good, huh?"
She's statuesque, stunning, and TALL -- easily a hundred and eighty centimetres. (Or, as the bullies in Shujin would 'kindly' translate for Isabeau, a girl they call 'California' because she's foreign and fat and everyone knows everything in America is big -- around 5'11"!) Her skin is pale, but her hair is long, black, and straight; her face is covered with a cloth mask, and her clothes would have been in fashion several decades prior.
She's also speaking, like, standard teen Japanese, which is in stark contrast to Isabeau, who exclaims, in French: "`That's amazing! I've never seen such a defined apparition!`"
The tall woman claps her hands together, and says, "I knew you guys had that 'JAY NAH SAY COY!'" And she says it like she's speaking English, which of course has Isabeau's brow twitching.
"Un je ne sais pas quoi," Isabeau corrects her, automatically.
"Oooh, la la!" The woman claps a hand to her masked cheek, her eyes glittering. "But the this-or-that of pass and coy isn't that important. What I really want to know is..."
She leans forward -- and down -- expectantly, hands clapping to either side of her lovely eyes.
"Do you think I'm pretty?"
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
"Anything can be your friend if you believe!" hazuki no
As they're moving through the shadows, and people start shrieking and fighting, Hazuki is still using her EVP recorder, keeping to herself. Even if Kazusa's there and probably going to bully her. Once they're heading to the loungeroom, she does not recognize the book...
But she picks up that laughter. "Reading, reading!" she immediately calls out, especially with that voice over her head.
As the ghost is spotted when they turn, Hazuki doesn't... panic, per se. She does get highly tense for just a second, before the ghost seems to clap her hands together and be nice.
"Oh, hello...! I'm Hazuki. You seem very personable," she starts, before considering the question. She knows a little bit about yokai traps from anime... but also she tilts her head philosophically.
"Do you *want* to be pretty?" Hazuki, an incredibly queer person, wonders what she truly desires. Not every girl wants to be called pretty, not every boy wants to be called handsome, et cetera. "I think what matters is what you think of it!"
<Pose Tracker> Ruzica Crvena has posed.
Shrieks come from their various companions, which doesn't seem to deter Ruzica. Hazuki introduces herself. That's Hazuki Nakao from class 2-E... they're not certain if she's going to notice, given that they haven't really stopped to talk at school or anything. Jun's introduction has her nodding in turn. His style is striking... does he like flowers too, with the lavender on his breast pocket? (She doesn't know the half of it.)
"Jun Kashihara... your lavender is nice. I like flowers a lot..."
For someone with quite the exotic name (is it French? it must be European, at the very least), Ruzica's Japanese is impeccable, combined with her looks and manners largely blending in -- in contrast to Isabeau, whose looks and mannerisms make her stand out quite a bit.
But Kazusa is here as well. It doesn't look like she's particularly noticed her, and that's particularly fine by Ruzica. She does particularly stand out with her style as well, though. And Yukari Takeba... it seems like she's a little bothered, but Ruzica isn't particularly certain because of what.
(The golden eyes do often disturb people.)
"Oh... do you like Polaroids as well? The chemical composition within them is very fascinating. I prefer to develop photos on my own, but there is a different appeal to silver halide emulsions, is there not...?" Ruzica quietly brings up to Maria.
Niko's really getting into it, though, with a boisterous laugh. She points out that they all look like they could be first to die, like in a horror movie.
This gives Ruzica some thought.
"Hmm... if I go first... I want a good head-popping death..." they say placidly to Niko, as if they were talking about whether to get milk or eggs from the konbini. "I like the models they do for that from old movies... CG just doesn't quite have the same effect."
Isabeau points out that this actually came from her *mother*. Unlike the others, this actually does give Ruzica pause, and they're forced to look aside in quiet contemplation for a moment as Fleur comes distinctly to her mind. Somehow, the camera feels a lot more precious in her hands now, though she was never particularly intent on being disrespectful to a camera. No, that's not the way of things.
Isabeau also instructs her to explain the visible spectrum to Maria. "Oh. Yes, what we think of as colour is electromagnetic radiation upon a spectrum..." On the one hand, Ruzica is clearly knowledgeable about this. On the other hand, the near-lifeless monotone might be a deterrance to her being an actually good teacher of things.
It looks like Yukari and Niko's gonna go off to reset the breaker. The loungeroom, for the rest of them, could've been charming thirty years ago... but there's a charm even now that Ruzica finds somewhat fascinating. A book falls. Moments later, there's a whisper to the left of her shoulder, and Ruzica quietly turns to point the thermal imaging camera to--
Her.
Pale-skinned, with long, black, straight hair, covered in a cloth mask...
Perhaps in unison with Isabeau, Ruzica does get offended by the bad French. "`... what she said,`" she points out in French, silently LIVID that Isabeau BEAT her in the impromptu contest to correcting the ghost's bad French. Of course, if she's feeling livid, it hasn't surfaced at all to her surface expression, which is...
Well, the tall, spooky lady has more expression than Ruzica at the moment.
"Ah... this must be the Kuchisake-onna, the Slit-mouthed woman," Ruzica points out.
Two seconds of silence pass.
"Wait... is that spoilers? Am I not supposed to just say it like that...? I'm sorry."
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
Ruzica compliments Jun's flower, a thing that instantly endears her to him. He gives her a broad, pleased smile. "Thank you. I do too--you can communicate so much with them, and everything about them is the essence of beauty. For you, perhaps a white rose would suit?" A white rose, or devotion, innocence, andor silence. Ruzica is fairly deadpan...
The crowd is indeed big enough that Jun doesn't notice Niko at first. However, when the lights go out and she bursts into some very familiar maniacal laughter... when someone shines a flashlight on her face and screams... Jun gasps sharply, his pretty face going deathly pale.
It's one thing to go ghost hunting in a manor you grew up hearing about and thus has lost any sense of tension or mystery.
It's another thing to go ghost hunting with a serial killer's accomplice at best and a serial killer in her own right at worst.
Jun is fully on board with Yukari's shrieked question. He does not dare echo it, especially with those night goggles on Niko. If she hasn't noticed him in the crowd--unlikely, given that he introduced himself to everyone quite casually, but hope springs eternal--he very much does not want to draw her attention.
Looks like this will be far more of a test of courage than he could've ever expected... He swallows hard, circles the group from behind as Niko responds to Yukari, and takes up a spot closer to Yukari. When Niko's attention moves away from her, he leans in to murmur to Yukari, eyes still on Niko, "You know who that girl is?" From his tense tone, Yukari will be able to tell Jun very much does too--especially when he continues, "We should keep an eye on her, for everyone's sakes..."
Jun might just have an EMF reader, but people have electromagnetic fields too. He can track her... hopefully. Certainly the host of this expedition doesn't seem to know andor care that they have an actual literal killer among them. Social skills aren't all Isabeau lacks, clearly...
The group moves into the lounge room. A book drops. Jun picks it up to return it to its spot, but he has read this book before. Just one glance tells him. He looks up and around at the others nervously, unsure of if he should say anything or not. The killer in their midst is real, but the "ghost" is all theatrics... right?
Theatrics or no, that whisper, that bait-and-switch of where the newcomer should be and then where she actually is, is quite effective. Jun whirls around, a bead of sweat trickling down his face. He's trying to keep an eye on Niko and on this new development while maintaining his calm, but he can't stop his hands from shaking.
'Do you think I'm pretty?'
If it's theatrics, it's very good theatrics--for all that the staff here seem to be mixing up an urban legend with the actual ghost story of the major.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
The Yobisute takes her very off guard, "Wha-" She barely even knows this girl, but then again it is a weird situation, that she's leading.
She decides to let it go
Yukari stares slowly at Niko as she explains, breathing a little harder, before Isabeau just scolds her. And- "Nope! It's okay! I'lllll keep ahold of it..."
And with that, Yukari inches that much closer to Fuuka, murmuring, "I'll stay close."
As Jun asks her about that girl, and Yukari gives him a startled look, before murmuring, "Yeah... I do. She's... dangerous." 'We should keep an eye on her just in case.' "Stay close." She whispers, "Let's not give her any easy openings."
What about Shizuka then? ... Look in a horror movie there must be sacrifices, and Shizuka's hat collection has marked her as one.
Her pace is perhaps a little more measured, given that Isabeau gave the actual murderer in the room the perfect tool to kill them all without anyone noticing.
They move on... into the loungeroom, and Yukari keeps her flashlight up front, with small shifting sweeps, before- a book falls and-
Her flashlight triangulates in on it, landing on it.
"Uh!" She keeps the flashlight there, eyes darting this way and that, before no escape ,
"Ah!" As she turns around rapidly, breathing hard, before she turns around again and- "AHHHHH! Where did you come from!?"
As she backpeddles a step, almost running into Fuuka, then... she looks, more skeptically. You see...
... stuff you can't see is way creepier.
"Are you sure she's an apparition?" She could just be a demon, or a rumor - or a rumor demon!!! "I don't think a ghost would be so uh- friendly..."
'Do you think I'm pretty?'
"... Sure? Though uh, it's hard to judge when you have a mask on."
And then - Ruzica gives spoilers!
"On second thought... your ensemble is so pretty it seems a shame to- unveil you so soon!" She babbles out quickly, trying to head off a disaster caused by her and her big mouth.
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Kuroki has posed.
Shizuka collects herself as her eyes adjust, having clung to Fuuka's arm in the darkness. "I'm fine, I'm good, everything's gonna be okay. Sh-Shizuka Kuroki, by the way." She clings to Fuuka even tighter as Niko begins her teasing. "Don't jinx it!!!"
With a bit of mustered-up courage, she manages to pry herself off her kohai and picks her ouija board back up, now holding it folded like a wrestler holding a steel chair. What good cardboard would do against any attackers would remain to be seen, but it was better than nothing.
The board is dropped once again as the group is accosted by a kuchisake-onna! This is just an actor, it's just an actor, she thinks to herself. Shizuka mentally refers back to the three months back in first year where she really got into urban legends. How to survive a kuchisake-onna... they could say they were running late, but running late to what in a place like this? Confusing her by calling her appearance average might work, if they had enough space to run away... she didn't have any bekko ame on her... Well, the easiest one to try...
"Er... Pomade, pomade, pomade!"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Isabeau explains, and Kazusa has another eye roll. "'Resonant indigo harmonics'? Really?" She smirks at the attempted trick. "Nice try."
"Sure, you know that," she responds about the equipment, "But none of the rest of us do, do we?"
Maria comment sthat they should get the wiring checked out. "They probably leave it like that to add to the 'ambiance'," she says dismissively. "Or they just turned them off to scare us."
Niko declares they all look like they could be the first to die in a horror movie. Kazusa rolls her eyes. "Don't get morbid. This is just a tourist attraction. You're making yourself sound like a weirdo serial killer by saying that."
She jumps and whirls the camera around when the book drops. "Ah!" Deep breath, compose yourself Kazusa. "... oh, it's just a book. Somebody probably just... pushed it from the other side of the bookshelf, that's all."
There is a louder yell and a jump as the whisper comes and she whirls around. "What the-- okay, who did that," she snaps. She tries to capture that blur, but it's just a bit too fast.
But she starts (more quietly) when the woman appears, frowning. French is exchanged, and Kazusa is looking her up and down with the camera. "... okay, a ghost wouldn't be speaking modern Japanese," she declares, confidently (and maybe a little bit to reassure herself.)
'Do you think I'm pretty?'
"Eh? Well, if we updated your wardrobe, and got you a nice foundation, then... maybe that'd be workable," is Kazusa's off-handed response.
Kazusa scoffs at Hazuki. "Don't give her your name, idiot. If she were a real ghost she could use it to curse you or something. Not that she's a real ghost, of course."
"... Hey, Crvena-san. You got the thermal imaging camera, right? Does this woman show up on it?" Nope, she noticed you! "What about that book?"
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
'Resonant indigo harmonics'...? That's a term Fuuka's familiar with - but Resonance is something she's well enough familiar with, and it's close enough that Fuuka really can't say one way or another whether or not that's a real thing.
"I see..." Fuuka considers - and leaves it at that, for now.
Shizuka is now clinging to her arm, and Yukari seems to agree with her advice on not getting separated.
...Fuuka doesn't recognize Niko on sight, but she can tell that Yukari isn't happy to see her.
"Okay. It'll be easier to keep together." Fuuka replies with a nod, as Yukari says she'll stay close. The breaker is in the basement, through the kitchen - and, thankfully, they do have the keys.
"Ah, good..." Fuuka breathes out, relieved. It's difficult to pick locks in the dark... and, would probably go against whatever agreements the hotel owners have in place. That's the more important issue.
And so, they start that way, heading first into the loungeroom - Fuuka keeps a close ear on the Spirit Box for any sign of activity. It looks like it could have been cozy, once, and her attention is quickly drawn to the VCR. Ancient technology... what a stunning find...
And then, there's a voice. 'No escape'...
...Oh, so that's what it's like. Fuuka looks to the left - and then when she looks to the front -
A tall woman stands there. The sudden sight of her causes Yukari to stumble back, almost running into her -
"Ah! Yukari-chan!" Fuuka gasps - and then, the woman speaks.
A ghost is one thing. ...But a stranger asking for her opinion on her personal appearance? That's true terror. Fuuka goes stock still for a moment.
"U-um..." She starts, unsure. What does she say...? Is it a trick question...??
"I-I'm sorry..."
...Why is she apologizing?
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
But, all that aside, why did someone like Maria come here? The answer is, truly, painfully simple:
Because it's the sort of thing that her grandmother would have refused her if she'd asked. So for all intents and purposes, she's-- definitely not at home tonight. Did she bother coming up with a reason for why she wasn't home? Sources say... ...maybe.
Maria also has not introduced herself in time with the others. This is not out of rudeness or anything like it -- she just forgot...
That is, until just about everyone else does, which proves effective at jogging her memory. "I'm Maria! Maria Sakurai. Class 2-C at Sevens!" No one asked, Maria. She bows, her long ponytail spilling about her. "Please take good care of me! Thank you for arranging this trip, Fontaine-san!" You know, like this is a fun expedition and not a ghost-hunting trip.
"Uh huh!" she tells Ruzica. "They're fun to shake! Nothing happens with other photos, though, if you shake them." It must be nice to be an airhead...
And then, as previously noted, the lights go out. "But it could be that the wiring's bad, too," she tells Kazusa. Slowly, like a confused dog, Maria then cranes her head to look at Niko, as if trying to make sense of who she is and what she's saying.
"What about you?" she asks of Niko at last, clasping her hands behind her back. "Couldn't you die in a horror movie, too?" She glances back at Ruzica. "I think... I'd like to die... Oh! A dagger in the heart! That's 'romantic', right? Heaving your last, in the arms of your beloved..."
Isabeau got all this from her mother, huh. Maria considers this carefully and appears to wrangle her camera with significantly more care than before. Ruzica meanwhile tries to explain how electromagnetic radiation works. "So where's the radiation come from? A big bomb?" asks Maria, who in fairness, is not entirely wrong here.
But Isabeau says they should (or someone should) go into the basement and check on the breaker. Maria, with her free hand, waves in the air heartily. "I can go! I think I remember how breakers work!" ...Is everyone going to trust that she can do this, though?
(Then again, sometimes calm waters conceal depths.)
She pads after Isabeau and the others gamely enough, only to startle when someone whispers over her shoulder. "Huh? Did someone say something?"
There's someone else here. She's very tall. Maria has to tilt her head to look up at her. "An apparition?" she asks of Isabeau, the word sailing right over her head. She gets close and closer, and almost certainly, someone would be expected to see a disaster is in the offing, given Maria's overall demonstrated level of intelligence thus far.
But there are spoilers. This is, as Ruzica states, Kuchisake-onna, the slit-mouthed woman. ...Is there a Japanese teenager who hasn't heard this one?
"Oh," says Maria, looking up at the figure. She lifts her camera. "Then, may I take your picture?" There's a pause. "We're meant to take pictures of ghosts, you see."
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Oooh, a believer in bad luck! Niko snickers at Isabeau's comment, but doesn't argue the point. It is kind of preparing for failure, isn't it? Though really, some of these people don't look nor sound like they have any idea what they're doing, some measure of failure is probably a foregone conclusion. This is fine, it wouldn't be funny if everything went well.
Ruzica's reaction to possible death prompts a shrug from Niko. "That'd be cool, but honestly, of all these people you probably look the most like a protagonist, so I'm not seeing it happen. They rarely pull a twist like that." And to Maria's suggestion, "Nah, I'll be fine, I know all the tropes." Clearly that's what will make the difference at times like this.
And then she pulls a big-ass knife from her coat pocket, cheerfully suggesting, "Got a dagger right here for you though, if you wanna give that one a shot." She's not gonna do anything with it, simply putting it away again, as if she just wanted people to know she had that. She's not bothered at all by people thinking she might be 'a weirdo serial killer', as Kazusa calls it. It's funnier if people think that.
It's not until Isabeau introduces herself that she follows suit on that herself. "You can call me Niko! Because... that's my name. I will accept any and all Niko-chans from the audience!" It's rarely easy to tell whether she fully realizes what's going at any given time.
She fully intends to have fun, either way, and Yukari's reaction has already given her one obvious opening for it. Jun conveniently provides another when she sees him near Yukari. Niko takes the opportunity to tiptoe right behind the two of them, and when Jun mentions her, casually starts speaking distressingly close to their ears. "My ears are burning~" And then backs away, cackling, gleefully abusing the fact that she has way better vision in the dark. Who's bright idea was it to give perfect night vision to this gremlin??
But at least that's all the trolling she does, for the time being. As the group moves on ahead, she hears the book drop - and can clearly see what it is, so her interest ends there immediately. She's not here for books.
She then starts when suddenly given a taste of her own medicine from a voice nearby, but that and her mumbling "good one" are the only signs that she was surprised. Until the apparition appears, that is, and she freezes in her tracks. Not out of fright so much as being on guard.
Gotta do something to lighten the mood at a time like this, so when Isabeau starts speaking in French, she pretends to not know what that sounds like, remarking, "Holy shit, someone's speaking in tongues! Write that down, it could be a clue!"
When the name 'Kuchisake-onna' is dropped, though... "Shit shit shit, I know this one," she says, waiting to do so after some people have already given a response to say, "Don't matter what they said, someone who answered that question is definitely dying first."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"I would not expect you to understand," Isabeau sniffs haughtily at Kazusa, "you are as sensitive as a rock."
(Isabeau, we note for the record, has no particular spiritual gifts, but her mother was quite convinced she was special. ... Fuuka may notice the regular Resonance around her when she considers it, though.)
And when Maria volunteers her skills in breaker...ing, Isabeau nods to her. "Good. I will then send you in first." Let no one say she doesn't understand the value of delegation.
"Weapons will not protect you from a ghost, Niko," Isabeau warns the serial killer, as if that's why she has a giant knife. No Niko-chan, but she did hit her with yobisute address too, so maybe that's also good???
When Niko declares that Isabeau is speaking in tongues, she lashes back: "My language is French!" What, the word people say when even mentioning 'swearing' is beyond the pale?
Jun's hands are trembling, but luckily, there are people here willing to speak up ahead of him. Like Hazuki -- who has a strange answer to her question. "Ehhh? Do I want to be? Golly, no one's ever asked me that..."
But Ruzica names her, and the woman puts her hands on her hips. "Have you been gossiping with my sister?!" She demands, petulant. "Yes, that's me... I'm Kuchisake-onna!"
She pouts even harder at Yukari: "Why would you scream at my entrance?! I worked hard at that, you know!" Oh no, she's losing points with the ghost...
"Amazing," Isabeau remarks, as she steps closer to the murderous ghost. "Finding a ghost whose spirit is strong enough to hold a conversation in plain hearing is very uncommon! Does this mean you were killed for your looks?" She asks the Kuchisaka-onna.
"I was killed by jealousy!" The Kuchisake-onna declares, before she pouts, turning to Kazusa: "And this is the latest fashion! ... well, at least," she adds, turning to Fuuka, "you realise how rude your friends are being."
She frames her face with her hands, like a heart, as she assures Maria: "Sure! But no flash photography!!" That's... probably not a problem with this kind of camera. (Thermal imaging, as it happens, will find a suspiciously cold spot where she is.)
But Shizuka starts invoking pomade, and Kuchisake-onna yelps, "Eek!!", as she turns and flees...
... right into the kitchen, which Isabeau just said was where the basement entrance ought to be.
Is Niko right? Is someone about to die? "This way," Isabeau insists, placing a hand on the kitchen door and barreling through, regardless of anything like self-preservation.
And so -- the kitchen.
It's big; any chefs in their retinue would be overjoyed, in normal circumstances, to have so much elbow room in this place. There's bountful countertop space, with knives and ladles and other tools hung up abovehead, a big oven and six burners on the stovetop. The chest freezer looks big enough to store a man (s-surely not?!), and the fridge is a touch old-fashioned, judging by the way it's humming so loudly.
And there's a door settled in against one wall which looks suspiciously spooky. That must be the basement door...
... and there's the Kuchisake-onna, sharpening a pair of scissors at the countertop between them and their path to the breaker. She turns to them, and snip, snip, delicately cuts off the ties keeping her cloth mask tied to her face.
Of course, everyone knows this story: long, horrific scars tear from the corners of her mouth right up to her cheekbones, turning her beauty to a stark thing.
"Am I pretty now?" She asks them, with a permanent grin.
<Pose Tracker> Ruzica Crvena has posed.
"Communicate... I see, the language of flowers," Ruzica takes just a bit to catch on, but then nods slowly. A white rose. "... I can only strive to become a real rose," despite her name -- 'little red rose', in Croatian. "But I appreciate that you think that of me, Kashihara-san." ... what she means by that is a little cryptic, perhaps, but Jun's suggestion nonetheless does seem to bring a silent cheer, a bit more visible in her golden eyes than her face.
It seems that she didn't have to worry about spoilers, since Yukari and Shizuka have cottoned onto the task particularly quickly. Pomade... perhaps the ones most suited to deal with these are the greasers.
Kazusa did spot her after all. ... well, she does check her camera to see if the kuchisake-onna does emit body heat. ... and the book? Suna no Onna, was it... the Kobo Abe book. A horror story, but as much as other works of the time, it's meant to be a critique of society... Perhaps it's still relevant even today. "Without the threat of punishment, there is no joy in flight..."
... perhaps that is what makes a haunted house fun?
But the camera does reveal truth: "No... where she is, the temperature is quite Cold," she points out to Kazusa.
"Hmm... not shaking, but developing photos in a dark room is fun in its own way. You have to be careful and gentle with the photos... and that's fun in its own way," Ruzica advises to Maria. Maria chooses a dagger to the heart, because it's romantic. Ruzica considers this. "I will accept it... B- way to die."
Where does the radiation come from? A big bomb? "The Sun is a big bomb, yes," Ruzica answers without missing a beat. "Don't forget to put on sunscreen..."
Oh no, are they both airheads?
Niko DENIES her a cool head-popping death by saying she looks most like a protagonist. This seems to dampen her spirits... very mildly, again mostly reflected in the slightly different way her eyes shine. (In other words, Ruzica has no visible reaction for most people.) She has a Big-Ass Knife, too, which-- does seem to get her to stare at it for a while with more intensity, like she's... appraising its details? Or it's getting her to stare at some point far, far away, beyond Niko and the knife...
The kuchisake-onna asks if she's been gossiping with her sister. "Mmm. A little bit... but mostly, you're pretty popular even on Sumaru social media now..." Ruzica advises. "I wish I had my regular camera... I could've taken a professional shot. Sakurai-san, please do your best in my stead."
Isabeau inquires if she was killed for her looks -- but no, it was jealousy. Shizuka's chant sends the kuchisake-onna flying. Isabeau leads them to the kitchen, and it's... big, and well-appointed. The chest freezer looks big enough to store someone in it... (that'd be a C+ death, Ruzica notes). But the Kuchisake-onna is sharpening a pair of scissors and turns to them, mask off... of course, her scar is from ear to ear.
Is she pretty now?
Without breaking her perfect, expressionless monotone, Ruzica quietly puts a fingergun up as she shows the kuchisake-onna the results, that there's a very cold spot where she's standing.
"You're..."
the fingergun goes bang.
"... Pretty Cool."
MONAD: Ruzica Crvena has acted with Cornbanwa toward Am I Pretty Now?! Puns and Cringe!
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
"Oh, the first time you consider it can often be the most important," Hazuki nods to herself, before tilting her head at Kazusa. "I can't befriend her by being rude!"
Kuchisaka-onna... the slit-mouth woman. Well, she hasn't attacked yet! So Hazuki assumes they can still diplomacy it.
When she runs off, though, Hazuki *frowns*. "Don't be rude, everyone!"
As they enter the kitchen, she turns to the Kuchisaka-onna. Her face... is creepy, sure, but Hazuki tries not to be judgmental. She smiles softly, sympathetically, letting her Understanding mingle with her Guts to push her forward.
"You know... you keep asking, and it makes me wonder... did people treat you poorly about it? Needing some affirmations is fair, but..." A pause. "Do you really just need someone to talk to?"
For as dense as she can be (having not even recognized Ruzica), she seems to be trying to be compassionate, too. She nods once to Ruzica, though. "Yeah! If you're lonely, you don't have to be. You seem like you could hang out with us, you know?"
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Kuroki has posed.
As the others answer and Niko pulls out a knife, Shizuka shuts her eyes and braces to have her cheeks cut, but... the spell works! The kuchisake-onna is driven back by western hair products!
She bravely puts her hands on her hips, knees still shaking. "Ha! I ain't 'fraid of no ghost!" Liar.
And then Isabeau follows the apparition into the kitchen. "Oh we're following her, okay. That's what we're doing. Investigating ghosts." Gathering her board, which she still isn't sure about the relative usefulness of compared to the other equipment, she follows into the kitchen herself.
The color drains from her face as the kuchisake-onna reveals her Glasgow smile. This wasn't an actor!!! "Y-You look average! I'm late for an appointment! I-I'm sorry!"
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
Yukari confirms she knows who Niko is. At this point, it doesn't matter who she is; she is an ally in this situation. Jun gives her a grim nod back. She may not name Niko or say how she's dangerous, but knowing that much is more than enough.
Of course, then Niko follows to approach them, and Jun flinches back from her, teeth grit as he turns the EVF meter on her. It, naturally, does nothing. All living creatures have an electromagnetic field. It's not telling him anything he doesn't already know. (If only he were pointing it at the Kuchisake-onna...)
However, then he composes himself, stands up straight, and gives her a polite, if tense, nod. "Niko-san. So this is the sort of thing you do for fun?" ...He already knows she gets bored easily, so he'd better saddle up for this test of courage and be boring...
...too bad she's already backing away into the darkness while cackling her head off... and... holding a knife.
This is already shaping up to be a nerve-wracking night.
Jun's smile at Ruzica is thus rather more tense than he'd like it to be. At least she seems to be having a good time--or maybe just a slightly better one than before. He doesn't know Croatian, but he does know French (convenient for following along with Isabeau and the Kuchisake-onna). "Even a flower must strive to bloom. They only make it look easy."
Speaking of whom, the Kuchisake-onna can't be a real ghost. As Isabeau points out, she's so... chatty. She's barely a ghost at all. She must be an actress. She's doing a good job of tying the local legend in with the Kuchisake-onna,though... She even runs on cue when Shizuka invokes pomade--and runs right into where the group has declared they're headed. (Well, where Isabeau declared it.)
For what it's worth, it's a beautiful kitchen. Jun has seen it before, but it's been years--not since he was a kid--and he's much more of a chef now than he was back then. He wishes he could actually appreciate it.
He is keeping the EMF reader on where he saw Niko last, leaving the others to deal with the actress with the admittedly impressive costume make-up. Which one of these colored blobs is that over-friendly knife-wielding maniac...?
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
She'd tell Fuuka about Strega and Niko's role in it immediately, except she thinks it'd only draw more attention to them.
For now 'She's dangerous' between her and Jun will have to suffice given that Niko is RIGHT THERE!
"Not enough of you is, if you ask me." She says sharply, as Niko cackles and takes off. She's not really that spiteful but... maybe burning the witch has more merit than she once would have given it.
Though, now she looks at Jun, to make certain he's alright and, she double takes? He's real pretty, for a boy, isn't he?
Back to the ghost though! "Uhhhh- if you didn't want us to be scared, why'd you do that whole 'no escape' thing?" She asks, Kuchisaka-onna suspiciously. "And hey, don't misjudge Fuuka-chan. She's not trying to be rude." Then Shizuka invokes, "Oh come on, that's not going t-" She flees, "What, it actually worked!?" She says, taken aback by it.
Into the kitchen they go... and Kuchisaka-onna sharpens a pair of scissors - snipping the cloth, as Yukari eyes wide gasps, smothering a scream, before she pulls out the most powerful weapon of all-
-a gun!
"Stay behind me, Fuuka!" Except she's pointing it at herself!? Does she not know how guns work!? "You- don't scare me!" She says with a slight tremble in her arms.
"You're not even real, you're just some- stupid rumor!"
She didn't answer the question at all!!!! That's not how the flowchart of this horror monster is supposed to work!
Before her eyes shoot sidelong at Hazuki, "Are you trying to befriend her!?" She says aghast, "She's going to try to slit your mouth open!" And Shizuka takes cover behind NIKO!?, "Hey don't hide behind HER!"
Pause.
"Actually nevermind, good thinking."
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"Gentle, huh...?" She seems like she's thinking about it, as Ruzica mentions what's fun about using a darkroom. "I guess that could be fun..." She seems like she's a little doubtful, though. "And there is that one cute guy in the art and photography club..."
"Okay! Can I borrow the flashlight?" she says, waving her hand as Isabeau says she can go on into the basement first (alone??).
"Oh, really? Can you teach me them too? I've been learning how to pick locks, too, so it'd be good to survive a horror movie, right?" she asks of Niko, as if that's something that can just be passed along. And then, as Maria expresses the way she'd think would be the most ROMANTIC way to die, Niko says she's got a knife right there.
"Is that a real knife?" she wonders aloud, her gaze unfocusing as she stares for a long moment at the knife's edge. It's as if for an instant that her strings have been cut, but-- "Hmmm. I think I'd need a 'beloved' to die in the arms of first, right?" And then she's back, like nothing at all had happened. Ruzica gives her manner of death a rating. "Eh--? B minus??"
She doesn't go for the book, of course. 'Sand Woman' doesn't sound that interesting as a title. Where's the passion? The throbbing intensity! The-- well, third-rate romance.
The sun is a big bomb.
"A big bomb..." Maria echoes, her gaze distant. "Wow..." It's better not to speculate the sorts of images transpiring inside her head. "I guess I should use more sunscreen."
Kuchisake-onna poses cutely for her and Maria, as promised, takes her photo! "This should look great! You've got a real model-quality, right? Now what about one more--"
Pomade, pomade, pomade...!
"Ah--! She ran away..." Maria says, lowering the camera as her subject turns and flees. "I wanted to get her good side," she sighs. "Do you think she's still in the kitchen?"
She is! And she's sharpening a pair of scissors.
Which she uses to snip snip snip the mask right off her face. Maria gazes at her wounds, her eyes widening, but then--
"Wow! That makeup job looks so real!" she declares, raising the camera again. "Can you pose with your hands in a heart-shape again? And turn to your left-- oh, oops, your right! Ehe, I mixed up my directions!"
Is... that the real reason why Maria can stay calm? Is it because she thinks it's a super-cool costuming and makeup job...?
(also, being an airhead, the most calming power of them all)
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa looks at Maria. Or at least in the general direction of her, it is rather dark. "Come on, they're charging for this. There's no way they're gonna let the wiring get that bad. They gotta keep this place up to code."
"... a dagger in the heart?" Cue Kazusa's extremely skeptical face. "That's morbid."
And then Niko--that camera whirls around right quick to behold... well, maybe a vaguely knife-shaped green blur on screen. "Wait, seriously!?" She is... currently more freaked out by Niko than the is the actual (probably not actual) ghost. "What the hell? What is your problem you're not supposed to carry a weapon like that!"
... Kazusa, why are you mouthing off to the person with a weapon?
It takes her a moment to respond to Isabeau. She's trying to stay well away from Niko. "... Somethin'gs a rock here, but it's not me." That one felt weak, even to her. She's a little unnerved by the presence of a weapon.
Kazusa, if she knows anything, knows her fashion. "Well, you're got that retro chic thing going. Props to whoever does your costuming for the accuracy, at least. But if you ask me I'd add in a modern twist. A splash of color, maybe a new material. Just for the contrast."
- Kazusa used Fashion Talk!
They proceed to the kitchen, and there are knives. "Nobody let that... Niko woman near those knives," Kazusa mutters. (She'd use a last name, but she wasn't given one.)
A little startled lean back as 'Kuchisake-onna' reveals her face. "Eugh! Okay... good makeup... I'll give you that."
She looks to Ruzica. "... eh? Are you sure?" She frowns a little. "... What did I tell you about calibrating your equipment, Fontaine-san?"
A stare in the darkness at Hazuki's direction. "... you shouldn't be befriending her at all."
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
Is that... Resonance? Fuuka lingers on Isabeau for a moment longer. That's surprising... She makes a mental note of that, but there's not much she can say about it here.
And then, Niko pulls out - is that a knife?? Fuuka blinks, and then looks toward Isabeau. That's... way too normal of a reaction!
And in the loungeroom, the ghost speaks - and actually reacts to them. If she's just an actress, she's doing a really good job of it...
Her incidental apology seems to go over well, at least - and Shizuka's invocation sends the Kuchisake-onna running. ...Right where they need to go.
"We don't have a choice... The breaker is that way." Fuuka replies with a shake of her head, at Shizuka's comment.
They do, indeed, follow her into the kitchen. It's a big kitchen, in fact. Fuuka wouldn't know what to do with half of the equipment here. And then, there's the scraping sound of grinding metal - sharpening scissors, as the Kuchisake-onna stands in their way. She cuts off her mask, revealing her scarred face.
Yukari tells her to stay behind her, drawing out her Evoker.
"Yukari-chan..." Fuuka starts, cautioning. It might be dangerous to use an Evoker here, with so many people around... but she does stay behind her, as suggests.
Fuuka doesn't reach for hers... but what she does do is press a few buttons on the face of the Spirit Box, to start it scanning.
"I'm sorry if we're intruding..." Fuuka apologizes. "We're just trying to fix the breaker. Can we get through...?"
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
"Gotta have fun somehow!" So Niko replies simply to Jun, neatly summarizing her main motivation in few words. On the plus side, Niko's idea of having fun tends to be annoying at worst, reactions like Yukari's only making it better. The question is what will happen if she stops being entertained, and she either can't or doesn't want to just leave. Acting unpredictable for unpredictability's sake might be the least of one's worries. At least she can be counted on to not do the same thing twice in a row.
If there is one other absolute truth about Niko, it's that Niko takes whatever Niko can get. Yobisute is better than most options, in her book. Not that keeps her from whining, "I knoooow," when Isabeau cautions that a knife won't work on ghosts. "I was just making a point." Don't bother asking what it was, she'll only deflect the question. But it is, without a doubt, a real knife. (If one does care to appraise it: it's a 180mm Outdoor Nata, not the most common thing to carry around, but it would make for a solid companion when doing the more traditional kind of hunting. It looks pretty new, showing no signs of wear.)
"You could count a ghost hunt as a date," she casually suggests to Maria, and leaves it at that before putting the knife away, shrugging in Kazusa's general direction. "Yup, that's kind of my thing, doing things you're not supposed to do."
If it wasn't obvious yet by now that Niko has been messing around at least 50 percent of the time, her response to Isabeau's declaration that she spoke French might be somewhat of an indicator. "Ahh, pardonnez-moi." Just don't ask her to say much more than that, all the French she knows comes from people who randomly intersperse short French phrases into their speech. All fictional characters, of course. No one would do that outside of fiction.
Niko's certainly been having a lot of fun today, and very little of it involved the actual ghost hunt. Mostly because it's turning out to be a little bit too real. She doesn't like it when other things seem more dangerous than her. She's not so confident about outdoing a scissor-wielding ghost in the danger department.
At the very least, they are in a kitchen, and she's clearly seen what's there. When people moves are made to hide behind her, she's quick to point out, "Hey - there's enough knives here for everyone, you don't gotta rely on mine!" Not like she's about to get into a knife fight with a ghost, anyway.
She'd have to admit to not actually knowing what the right call is to deal with this situation, so this seems like a good time to turn to Isabeau with what actually seems a measure of legitimate concern. "What now, Leader? Don't look at me, this thing you gave me's only going to help me get a good view when she starts cutting people up."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Ruzica is... having fun with photography.
Since she's also helping here, Isabeau will accept it.
(It's nice that she's happy, or whatever...)
"I would simply decline to die," she adds, on the topic of how she'd like to. And when Maria asks to borrow the flashlight, she assures her: "I will bend Yukari's arm until she is going with you."
"Good," Isabeau nods, to Shizuka, when she declares she ain't afraid. "You are lying, of course. A knowledge of the weaknesses of ghosts still is essential to navigating the supernatural."
And when Kazusa declares that something here is a rock, Isabeau scrutinises Niko, and replies: "True. Niko has an admirable physique." Is that really what she meant?!
"Your pronounciation needs work," she informs Niko, primly, when she hears that French from her -- which is a real high horse for her to be riding when her Japanese is so stilted.
Kuchisake-onna blinks, when Ruzica declares her pretty cool. "Is that because I'm popular? What's a social media, anyway? Is it like, making a movie with your friends? OH! I get it, that's what you're doing right now, right?!" She points, excitedly, at the camcorder. She's pointing with her scissors, but that's probably fine, right?
She taps a finger to her horrific lip, as Hazuki answers a question with a question. "I guess it's hard for me to believe people when they say I am," she admits. "So I think, if you think I'm so pretty, you'd better want to be just as pretty as I am, right?! And everyone always screams and wails and then eventually stops running around, and, I mean, they're always delicious, so it's whatever, but it's SO hard for me to do my affirmations when no one actually wants to look like me!"
Shizuka declares that she's late, and the Kuchisake-onna walks right up to her, with ghostly steps which don't seem to disturb the floor at all. "That's it, that's it! That's the story they told about me, right? Like when you said those awful greasers were around!" She claps one hand into her opposite wrist, because her other hand is of course holding the scissors. "Somehow, hearing it became such a popular story makes me happy...! They're right, you know. You shouldn't lie to a girl just to get out of an awkward situation!!"
Shizuka... earned points with the ghost...?
"But, you know... I noticed something! You! Yeah, you! Hey, you!!" Oh no, the 'actress' is talking to Jun. "You're pointing your camera at that other girl! That must mean... another ghost is trying to move into my house?!" She marches right up to Niko, poking her in the shoulder with her free hand. Mercifully, it's not the one holding the scissors... and that means her finger phases right through Niko's shoulder. T--the acting must be really good, right...? "Don't you muscle in on my turf!!" She huffs. "I already had to give those Jacks some extra eye-holes when they thought it would be a good place to get a snack!!"
Poke. Poke, poke. "Heeeey," the Kuchisake-onna pouts. "You're not a ghost! You're a human, too! What gives, why's everyone scared of you instead?!"
"Stay calm," Isabeau advises Niko, before she lifts her voice a little more. "Oh, Kuchisake-onna? You did tell me you were died of jealousy, did you not? Does this not mean it would invite your sister to come here if you became jealous of Niko?"
"Haaah?" the Kuchisake-onna turns to Isabeau, instead, who gamely does not turn tail and run when she marches up to her. "What about my sister?! I already killed her!"
"You are dead also," Isabeau points out, quite sensibly.
"Well, I guess you're right, but..." Kuchisake-onna pouts.
Yukari PULLS OUT A GUN, given all this tension, and Isabeau turns to her, palm-up. "Put it away," she advises her, her voice somehow still steady. "Escalating to 'that' will certainly get you slit apart. Right now, it seems like she is content to talk... I also think some of these people will be shocked to see your 'gun'."
The way she doesn't look surprised to see Yukari pointing it at her head, and the particular pause-emphasis she puts on gun, kind of implies that she knows full well it's really an Evoker. It might imply something else about how shocked Isabeau isn't, but, well, she's not going to make that explicit right now.
Luckily, Maria asks the Kuchisake-onna to pose, and of course she's charmed. "Sure!" She chirps, putting her scissors down -- they disappear in an ectoplasmic poof, just as Isabeau was trying to sneak forward with a little plastic evidence bag -- so that she can turn to Maria and pose just as she asked.
"It is normal for ghosts to be cold!" Isabeau lobs back to Kazusa.
The Spirit Box starts scanning, and from the white noise, Hazuki's EVP Recorder will start picking up a... rather strange...
" e v e r y d a y . . . s a m e . . . w e a r e . . . a l l . . . "
But the Kuchisake-onna isn't saying anything like that. Instead, she turns to Fuuka. "Oh? That's really all you wanted to do?" She asks. "Well, I guess that's okay... actually, you know what, I like you!" She decides, clapping her hands and doing a little spin. "I decided you can stay! Even if some of you had terrible arguments... I guess you're all doing your movie together, so I'd better grade you as a group!!"
She steps back, then, to hop up on the countertop. "You can go turn the lights back on. I promise I won't cut them again tonight! But let's hang out tonight, okay? That nice girl promised, so you've gotta!!"
The path to the basement is free...
... but at what cost?
Dear God, it's a sleepover with a Kuchisake-onna.
Luckily, the stairs down the basement have a railing -- and one that's solid, even! -- so Maria isn't likely to go tumbling down the stairs. ("Yukari, light the way for her," Isabeau bends her arm, just as she promised.) There's a boiler down here, and an old workbench, and a bunch of tools, and... a box on the wall!! Lift up the metal hatch, and Maria will find that one of the switches have been flipped from 'on' to 'off'.
So, like, switch it back to 'on'. Breakers ain't rocket science, at least when they're still basically working, which these ones apparently are -- since all the lights roar back on once the breaker's switch is restored to its rightful state.
The Kuchisake-onna has disappeared from the countertop when someone thinks to look back, and the sceptically-minded might think she ran out the back door -- which is also a perfectly valid escape for the less ghostly terrors of the party, one might note.
(Don't worry. Kuchisake-onna will be back for her slumber party... WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT!)
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
"I think... everyone has their own beauty. To want to look like others, or others to look like you... is everyone ignoring their true self," Hazuki tells the ghost sympathetically, remembering the 'boy' who decided that wasn't *her*, who decided they could only be her true self.
And then turns to Kazusa, still smiling. "It's fine! I have a good feeling about this."
When the EVP recorder picks up a sound, Hazuki listens to it, but she's still focused on the ghost ahead of her. She'll mention it later! If she remembers!
"It was nice to meet you!" Hazuki calls out as they wait for Maria to turn the lights on.
And then, expecting a sleepover, Hazuki looks proud of herself as she gestures to the group once the lights are on. "See! I told you, you can befriend anything. All's well that ends well!"
Hazuki may be too naive often, but...Social Link with a Ghost, get?!
"Don't worry! If you're still scared of her, I'll do all the talking tonight!"
<Pose Tracker> Ruzica Crvena has posed.
Hazuki appeals to the ghost, perhaps convinced that the Kuchisake-onna is lonely and needs someone to talk to. Shizuka, on the other hand, appears to be stalling for time, as Ruzica vaguely remembers the script on how to deter one. Jun's looking particularly tense, and she can't blame him -- in fact, it's far more eerie that this young woman doesn't appear to have had a single emotional reaction -- at least, not on her face.
Even a flower must strive to bloom... they only make it look easy.
"... that's very true," Ruzica quietly says, as if taking that advice to heart.
Indeed, Ruzica is appraising Niko's knife -- the length and capability, the manner in which the grip is held, its single edged nature, as if appraising how to best disarm such a weapon if it came to it...
Yukari's reaction breaks Ruzica's metaphorical strings much like Maria's did, though, and the approximate shape and weight of a gun being drawn instantly has her in tension and tautness.
She immediately grabs Maria by the shoulder to lower themselves behind one of the kitchen islands to take cover from assumed stray gunfire. Since she's kind of cottoned onto her as an approximate Buddy in a make-believe Buddy System.
"Behind here, Sakurai-san, now--"
But Yukari's also pointing the gun at herself. This seizes Ruzica up further, her eyes staring at a point far, far beyond the Evoker itself, but she's still trying to cover Maria as best she can. Something's strange, however. That Fuuka girl doesn't seem nearly as startled as she'd expect another to be-- no, a lot of them don't...
The kuchisake-onna has a point when she's like, why are you so much more scared of a gun than ME, the ghost! Ghosts out here doing their besties and y'all just ignore her! It's pretty rude, y'know. It's like denying a ghost their primal purpose in life. They're gonna bugger off to some microcosm and wear funny hats and play shooting games just to survive at this point.
The ghost hustle be real.
Isabeau, very pointedly, doesn't seem to be surprised by the gun, and points out that escalating to 'that' will get her slit apart. ... Ruzica can intuit the meaning behind the words, but she's not privy to what an Evoker is. She's not sure she wouldn't have reacted the same way nonetheless, however...
The ghost asks what social media is, and if it's like what they're doing right now. A pause, as Ruzica considers this. "Yeah..." she's starting to come down from the sudden high. "I think you're pretty popular."
In the end, though, it's Maria's request for the Kuchisake-onna to pose that causes the scissors to drop and-- well, oops, they disappear in a puff of ectoplasm. You won't be able to trade in for your reward like that, Isabeau... however, their real reward is a sleepover with Kuchisake-onna. If she's going to be spending time around, then that means she'll be able to take proper photographs later... perhaps.
Fortunately, it looks like the breaker does just need to be reset, and they don't have to find a missing FUSE, which is behind an EAGLE DOOR that you need a HEART KEY and a CRANK to get.
Ruzica's a pretty annoying person to have a sleepover with later, though, cause it turns out she doesn't like sleeping with the lights off. She'll even insist on sleeping in the bathtub instead with the lights on if needed. I mean, after all that trouble to fix the breaker...
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
Ruzica might be inexpressive, but that's at least a normal kind of strange. She seems like a perfectly nice young woman otherwise. Jun offers her a small but sincere smile when it seems like she's... cheered up?... by his words.
Then Jun laughs nervously at Yukari's clapback at Niko. Not that he can blame her, but... He pauses, though, when she looks at him and does a double-take. His face is indeed as beautiful as a goddess's, or at least according to certain fire-wielding maniacs, but it's only puzzled now. "Yes?"
That puzzlement turns to alarm when Yukari pulls an Evoker and--points it at her own head?! Jun, whose only exposure to guns thus far is in movies, utters in a harsh whisper, "What are you doing?! Stop!!"
He might remember later that Yukari told the 'actress' she's 'just a rumor.' Right now, Jun is focused on the real-world danger of a girl playing around with a deadly weapon andor bluffing with a realistic (not actually that realistic to someone who actually knows guns) model and either way apparently threatening suicide at someone. What is going on with this group?!
Niko encouraging other people to get their own knives instead of hiding behind her and relying on hers is not making it better. What do you even say to someone who asserts they've 'gotta have fun somehow'? Jun genuinely can't tell if she means that--implying that it doesn't matter what she's doing as long as she's stimulated--or if she's messing with him. Both are equally plausible to him. Maybe the thin-lipped, stressed frown he shoots her as he attempts to talk Yukari down will be entertainment enough.
Of course, that's when the 'actress' addresses him. "Huh?!" Jun utters, staring at her wide-eyed. "U-um... S-sorry?" The line here seems to be that she thinks, or is pretending to think, that they're making a video of her, but... There's an actual murderer in the room here!! He can't spend time wondering if this is an actress or a real ghost when that is a known science fact!!
...
...did her fingers just go through niko's shoulder
no. no, that did not happen. jun denies. he fumbles with the emf reader and has to focus on that to keep from dropping and breaking it.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
"Let's... deal with our current situation first?" Re: bending her arm and Maria??? ... Some people just have very little survival instinct.
As for Jun yelling at her to stop, she says, "It's not what it looks like!" She says quickly, even if she knows it might be difficult to convince him otherwise, "Just stay behind me."
And Yuchisake-onna, talks, and talks and- "... This is one talkative 'ghost'." Yukari says, sounding more glum and skeptical both at the same time.
Isabeau however advises her to put it away, "I'll put it away when she puts those scissors away." She says, clipped.
Though, she hasn't done anything rash with 'pulling the trigger' so to speak. Isabeau though- well, she understands what that must imply.
Great.
Well at least more than the people in SEES, Hazuki, and Niko are able to defend themselves. ... Probably.
Maria though, convinces her to pose and- the scissors are put down, and POOF?! It's only then that Yukari gives this whole situation a 'Why me?' kind of look and lowers the Evoker, putting it away.
"Tell... you what. How about Fuuka-chan and you just exchange contact information." It is the universal girl code for 'give her a fake number Fuuka'. "And she'll hang out with you later."
The ghost probably died before this tactic was common right? She hopes!
She keeps the Evoker close at hand, but does light the way down for Maria, "Watch your step..." She cautions, as they go down to the basement and...
... once the breaker is back on. Yuchisake-Onna is very very gone.
"... Ooookay." Before she whispers sideways at Fuuka, "Fuuka-chan you gave her a fake number, right? Be sure to block hers."
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Kuroki has posed.
Shizuka freezes up as the ghost approaches her, still shaking even as the spirit seems to bear her no ill will. She's advised to stop telling lies and she nods her head. "Y-Yes, ma'am..."
She falls to her knees as the kuchisake-onna invites them to a sleepover, her strength leaving her as the lights come on and her stress nears its breaking point. "Yuka-chan, Fuu-chan, I wanna go home... And kick Iori-san's butt!!!" Oh no, she dropped the nickname. You're in trouble, Junpei.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa is still just kind of glaring at Niko a little. "Just... don't do anything too messed up. And stay away from me." She points out the knives, and Kazusa scoffs. "Not helping your case any!"
Kazusa just stares at Isabeau. "... are you admiring the girl acting like a serial killer!? Seriously? I know you believe in ghosts or whatever but come on."
Jun isn't the only one keeping an eye on Niko, though, and Kazusa's eyes go wide when Kuchisake-onna's hand goes right through Niko. "What the-- H-hooow did you do that."
She's been solidly Team Skeptic, mostly to needle Isabeau, but she's getting more and more unnerved. Which means she look to see Yukari and yelps, stepping back from her now, too.
"You have a gun!? What is wrong with you people?" She looks to Isabeau. Ghosts are cold! "Yeah-- but--" She sputters a bit. "She's not supposed to be a real ghost though!?"
Annnnd once the lights are up the 'ghost' is gone. "... right. Right. She... gave us a scare, she used some kind of... stage illusion and then she left, and... that's that. Right? Right." She's muttering to herself.
And she's gonna keep well away from Niko and Yukari for the rest of the night.
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
Fuuka blinks. Did she just insinuates that she eats people...? And... she mentions 'Jacks'... That's a coincidence, right? Still, it's true that she's really talkative for a ghost... Maybe she's just lonely and likes playing it up for a crowd?
Maria convinces her to drop the scissors, and when Fuuka explains what they're after... She seems to agree?
"Oh, thank you..." Fuuka replies with a polite bow. And, the Kuchisake-onna declares that she likes them!
...That's a good thing, right? Isn't it...? She wants to hang out, even!
That's... not what she expected. And Fuuka blinks, as Yukari puts her on the spot.
"M-me?" She asks. She hesitates for a moment - and then nods. "...Okay."
The breaker is turned back on. The ghost is gone... for now. She looks toward Yukari at her question.
"I generated a proxy number, so... we can monitor it." Fuuka whispers.
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
She'll bend Yukari's arm until she helps her out. At that, Maria positively beams. "Oh, Yukari-chan! We can go down there together!" Into the dark of the basement, where there's a breaker that needs attention... hey, when did they get to 'Yukari-chan' anyway!! They only just met!
Maria's back is to Yukari, which may well be for the best: the knife has plausible deniability when all is said and done, but the Evoker is--
Well, no, it's entirely possible that Yukari could tell Maria it's a very realistic fake and she'd buy it. It's probably all fine...?
"Ohhh," Maria utters in awe, as the kuchisake-onna advances on Niko and it looks like the two of them are about to throw down. "This is just like a movie, but in real life! You're both great actresses!" ...Is that why she wasn't panicking at the knife, either??
(did the kuchisake-onna's finger just go through Niko's shoulder a little? what are you talking about, Maria didn't see that at all)
"Eh? Gun?" Maria glances back sharply as Ruzica grabs her shoulder to lower her behind the counter, but she's just in time to see all of nothing at this angle, her confusion writ plain across her face. To wit: ??? ????? ????????
But even so, she won't let something like 'confusion' get in the way of things like 'taking a photo just like she was asked'. The moment Ruzica lets go of her, she pops backup onto her feet, her camera in her hands. "Okay! Now smile!"
And, in spite of the 'makeup-job', the actress playing kuchisake-onna is very pretty, and she'd make a great model. Maria is so focused on getting that shot that she misses the fact that the dropped scissors vanish into ectoplasm. "See? You're a natural! Hehe, I've always wanted to say that..."
But just like that, the 'actress' (ghost) says that she's pretty chill with the lot of them, so they can go down into the basement. They just have to hang out with her tonight! "Sure!" agrees Maria, as she makes her way to the basement door (thank goodness, Yukari's here with the light or this would be a fairly fraught journey down). And just as promised, Maria is a genius at 'circuit breakers'--
...anyone could have done this, though, couldn't they? It's literally. Just a flipped switch.
"I did it! The lights are back on! Thanks, grandpa!" Maria cheers, as if she's done something of consequence.
Of course, once she's back upstairs--
"Hey, where's the lady playing the kuchisake-onna? Did she have to use the bathroom?"
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Niko's French is not good enough?? C'est impossible! No, that was pretty rough and Isabeau's right to say it, hypocritical though it may be. "Well, excuse me," Niko effectively repeats herself in the language she is fluent in. But she lets it slide otherwise. An oddly sassless response, such things may happen when she feels there may be some measure of an understanding. It's hard not to identify with that 'simply declining to die' attitude, if nothing else. Hard to be sure just how much she has in common with Isabeau from just this venture, but not feeling a strong urge to poke fun is generally a solid sign.
Of course, that's when everything -stops- for Niko, Jun getting unintentional revenge by inadvertantly getting the Kuchisake-onna's attention focused on her. "H-hey, you better back off--" is as far as she gets before getting fingerpoked right through the shoulder. Suddenly she feels ice cold, and she can't be sure how much of it is directly due to the ghost, or it just all getting a bit too real. Fully tense and frozen up, she can't muster any sort of response at all to the ghostly beratement that follows.
She's not scared, of course. Just... surprised, to the point where she only finds her voice again once Isabeau tells her to calm down, managing to respond to that final question of why everyone's so afraid of her. "...That's... just how it should be!"
Kind of an odd response, but it's the only one that would come out following that moment. She has a half a mind to do that one over, but maybe it would be best to just... not draw anymore attention to herself? Yeah... that back door which she conveniently can see quite clearly is looking mighty inviting right about now. With the ghost declaring to return later, she has weighed the odds, and the amount of entertainment she can still get out of this venture no longer outweighs the potential for... less pleasant situations, in her estimation.
By the time the lights come on again, Niko is already long gone. If nothing else, at least the group will only have to spend the night with a ghost, instead of a ghost and also a Niko. Small mercies.
But hey, entertainment aside, Niko did get something out of it. Free night vision goggles! She was only told not to break them, so there can be no complaints about stealing them.