Chapter 21: Haunted Apartment (3)

Walking down a corridor on the second floor of the Apartment Building, A Boy asked a Ghost a question.

"Hikari-chan, Do you have any idea which Yokai lives here? We've been going through rooms for almost twenty minutes and still haven't seen anything." The Boy, Motohama Ken, asked the ghost of a young girl he found inside a Janitor's closet.

"I don't know..." The Girl whispered, her seethrough hand clutching tightly onto the Paper Seal she placed on the boy's shoulder, holding it as if it was her lifeline in the ocean.

"That's fine," The Boy tried to reassure the young girl, "I'm sure whoever they are will be super nice,"

"What makes you say that?" The Girl asked quietly, Her eyes looking all around her at the doors and windows she hadn't seen in what must have been years.

Perhaps even decades...

"Because if they did mean us harm, they would have shown themselves by now," Motohama explained, "They don't want any issues with Shin-Corp, so when we do find someone, they'll leave voluntarily."

"Or at least, I hope they will..." The boy added with a whisper.

"I wonder what Connla is up to?"

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A Loud clanging sound echoed around the Small living room as the box of rusty forks was flung against the wall.

"For the last time!" A Tall Teenager wearing black clothes and a pair of sunglasses yelled, "I Just need you outside the building!"

"You're not going to kill me!" Across from him, A Deer with intelligent eyes yelled in fluent Japanese, jumping over the dusty furniture in an attempt to keep distance from the Shin-Corp Agent.

"Don't tempt me!" Connla yelled angrily as his shadow elongated across the floor, swallowing the furniture between him and the Deer Yokai.

"Aah! Help me Aniki!!!" The Deer yelled in a panic as he leaped away from the growing shadow and burst out the door of the apartment and into the corridor outside.

"Dammit..." Connla took a deep breath before his shadow swallowed all the objects around him, from forks and spoons, chairs, and a Microwave, everything that stood above his shadow was taken.

Once the room was clear, Connla stretched his arms as his shadow returned to normal, His Sacred Gear returning to its dormant form as a regular shadow.

Night Reflection was its name, A Sacred Gear that allowed its user to control their own shadow, use it as a storage space, and most importantly-

With a step forward, His Sacred Gear flew at the wall in front of him, growing to the size of a door as Connla slowly walked up to the shadow.

And passed through it.

-Night Reflection allowed matter and energy to pass through it, and vice versa.

As Connla exited through the other side of the wall, he saw the Deer who ran away turn to look at him with wide eyes.

As a smile of victory crossed the Human's face, a huff of warm air caused him to turn his head to the side.

To be met with a Large Muscular Man, His arms covered in Tattoos depicting Branches and Fruit, From his short brown hair grew a pair of sharp antlers, and a large nose-ring of silver in his left nostril.

Without waiting for a second, Connla fully exited the shadow on the wall and ducked to the floor as an angry haymaker from the Humanoid Deer Yokai flew above his head.

"Yes, Aniki! Beat him up!" The younger Deer Yokai cheered the other Yokai as he moved closer to fight with the Human.

Seeing the Leg of the Deer moving in to kick him, Connla couldn't help but sigh in disappointment at how his first mission was going.

"What a bother..." He whispered as his shadow spread beside him, and with the speed of a car on the highway, a wooden stool flew out and smashed into the Yokai.

"ANIKI!!!" The younger Yokai screamed as the Humanoid Yokai tumbled backward into the wall behind him, the wooden stool shattering on his body, leaving a quickly healing red bruise.

"Regeneration? Guess I'll have to knock you out quickly," Connla said from his spot close to the floor before his shadow spread below him as he sunk into the floor.

"Taking you out should be easy enough..." He said in a bored tone from his spot inside his shadow, Before another piece of furniture shot out at the Deer.

"Ahhh! Aniki Dodge it!"

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"I'm sure he's doing fine," Ken said nonchalantly as he waved goodbye to a pair of young Deer Yokai he managed to convince to go outside, joining the slowly growing group of Yokai sitting on the ground outside the Yamakabuki Apartment Complex.

Looking at the stairs in the middle of the building, Motohama Ken nodded to himself as he started making his way up to the fourth and final floor of the building.

Only to instantly gag as the smell of fish entered his nose.

"What's going on?" Hikari asked as she floated around him, poking his cheeks with her finger, seeing it pass through him as if she didn't exist.

"You can't smell it?" Ken asked as he covered his nose with his sleeve, "This whole place STINKS!"

Hikari floated back from Ken as he yelled about the stench of fish. The entire floor smelled like A Musty Swamp.

"Don'thurtmedon'thurtmedon'thurtme-" The Ghost started mumbling as she kept backing away from the boy, Her eyes wide as they looked for a way out of her predicament, memories of her past surfacing, causing her to wish to return to her closet on the ground floor, where it was quiet and dark and safe.

"STOP SHOUTING!" She screamed, her Hair standing on edge as she turned away from Motohama Ken, flying away from him and down the stairs, intent on making her way to the ground floor as quickly as possible.

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"Aniki Fight it! Fight it!" Connla ground his teeth as the Young Deer Yokai kept cheering for his Aniki.

"Aargh!" The Humanoid Deer roared with anger as his large fist smashed through another old sofa, the red bruise on his knuckles rapidly fading away as he pushed forward against the stream of old furniture Connla kept throwing at him.

"Just get out of the building already!" Connla yelled from his spot inside his shadow, Sweat was already dripping down his forehead from how much he'd been using his Sacred Gear.

A quick tap from his magical reserves told him he'd soon run out of objects to throw at the Yokai, and he really didn't want to use lethal force on his first mission.

"Should have stayed with the Kid," He complained as his sacred gear spit out the last table he had, Smashing into the Deer as he once again brute forced his way closer to Connla.

"Seems I got no choice..." Connla whispered as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, "What a bother..."

And with a burst of magical energy, The Room Exploded outward, a powerful burst of air breaking the old wall of the building and pushing everything that was inside the apartment into a freefall of three stories height.

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Down below, The Yokai who previously left the apartment looked up to see An Agent of Shin-Corp and Two other Yokai fall towards them.

"NIGHT REFLECTION: MIDNIGHT NET!" The Agent yelled as his Shadow spread on the ground below him, catching both him and the two Yokai as they sunk into the shadows, only to spit them out wrapped in black ropes.

Crawling out of his shadow, Connla lay on his back and took deep breaths, staring at the full moon high above him.

"I wonder how Ken is doing..."

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On the top floor of the Yamakabuki Apartment Complex, Motohama Ken coughed loudly as he held his nose and mouth under his Sleeves, The stench of Fish and Mud filling his nostrils as he struggled to breathe clearly.

The Shining Beacon of his Sacred Gear flickered as he struggled to keep it on, briefly pulling the boy into an eerie darkness.

His arm moved to a Seal Pouch on his hip, struggling to open it with one hand before deciding to simply bear with it.

He held his breath as he let go of his nose, his eyes tearing up from the awful smell as he used his now free hand to open the Seal Pouch and pulled out two healing Talisman, slapping them over his cheeks as the restorative magic of the Paper Slips soothed his mind, allowing him to ignore the awful smell.

And so with the issue of the smell taken care of, Motohama Ken walked to the first Apartment of that floor and Knocked.

"Shin-Corp, Open Up!" He yelled weakly, his head dizzy as he struggled to stay standing.

His knees shook as he moved on to the next door, too tired to even open the previous one to check if anyone was inside.

A Slimy feeling spread over his hand from where he knocked on the door, almost like touching a frog in a swamp as it covered itself in mucus.

Struggling to walk straight, Motohama Ken knocked on the second door, The slimy feeling in his hand only growing as his knees shook weaker.

Something was wrong.

And With that simple thought passing through his head, His Sacred Gear reactivated, The Powerful Beam of Light shining from his chest more powerful than before, lighting up the entire corridor as if it was the middle of the day.

And with his vision restored he saw the source of his discomfort, Standing on both hands and knees like a sick creature, A Young Girl.

Thin and See-through, Almost Skeletal in appearance, She couldn't have been older than ten.

Her long and untamed black hair spread around her like a web, sticking to the walls of the corridor like a tumorous growth, a slimy black substance dripping from her mouth as she heaved, almost as if she was vomiting tar.

"So that's the source of the smell..." He whispered to himself, Glaring at the spirit at the end of the corridor. A Once Living Being who couldn't pass along to the afterlife.

Yet unlike Hikari from the bottom floor, who sheltered herself away from the outside, timid and small, This Spirit cursed the ground she walked upon, chaining herself to her place of death as her hair trapped her like a spider's web, her feet stuck to the floor like sinking into Tar.

And as his hand moved to the pouch of Anti-Evil Spirit Seals on his hip, She screamed.

Her Scream shook the corridor, the fried light bulbs on the ceiling exploding in a shower of glass as the Spirit raised her head to look at the Human.

Her face was identical to the Ghost on the bottom floor, par for the eyes. Empty and Devoid of Life.

And with those eyes, Motohama Ken knew, that he wouldn't be able to talk his way out of a confrontation.

Slapping the Anti-Evil Spirit Seals onto his hands, He grabbed another handful before balling them in his fist and putting them back in the pouch as a ball of crumpled paper, ready to be thrown, He pulled out his sword and held it in front of him, a thin line of Light coating the edge of the blade as his Sacred Gear buzzed with the sound of a flying moth.

Shutting his eyes and mouthing a silent prayer for good luck, Motohama Ken opened his eyes and carefully stepped toward the Spirit.

Ready to put her out of her Misery...