Hello people. This is DarrkKatt, and I know what a majority of you are thinking. Why hasn't this woman updated Ice Meets Wind, Ghost and Shadow and HellBus? Well, I have worked on them, but simply wanted this story up as soon as possible. Please forgive me, you faithful fans (you know who you are!). Also, please check out my new C2, Crossovers That Rock My Socks. Now, enjoy the wonder that is Bath House of Spirits!
Chapter 1- Mission: Inconceivable
Kurama walked into Koenma's office in Spirit World thoroughly confused and curious. He had been called out of school by Botan who had said that it was vital to arrive immediately. So, here he was. Right outside of Koenma's door, wondering what the hell was going on. Slowly, Kurama pushed open the door and got the shock of his life.
Koenma was in his teenager form, standing on top of his desk with a microphone in hand. As Kurama opened the door, George the Ogre ran up and gave Kurama a small tape recorder. George motioned for Kurama to play it, and, as Kurama did, Koenma began to sing the Mission: Impossible theme into the microphone extraordinary off-key.
"Dun-dun...Da-da-da-dun dun..." sang Koenma as his normal voice played through the tape Kurama was holding. "Your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to sneak into the Bath House of Spirits run by the evil witch Yubaba. When you enter, take her magical generator-thingy that I have no idea what it looks like so don't ask me and then get out of there in prompt order. Also..."
Kurama had had enough. He flung the tape recorder at Koenma's head and covered his ears with both hands to drown out the noise.
"Ow! Why'd you do that?" Koenma had popped back into toddler form when the tape player made contact with his skull. At the moment, he was having a temper-tantrum. "Why?! WHY?!? WHY ARE YOU SO MEAN?! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
"George, would you be so kind as to hand me the file on this mission? It's on his desk, I can see it from here. "Kurama had tried to ask George gently, but it came out in bellow over the wails of Koenma. Quickly, George ran over to the desk and plucked a very thin folder from amongst the paper piles. Running back before Koenma could beat him with a giant mallet from no-where, George gave the file to Kurama. "Thank you."
Kurama opened the file and saw, to his utmost annoyance, that there was very little known about this 'Bath House of Spirits'. All that was in the folder, in actuality, was a map on how to get there and some vague info on Yubaba's conducts in the Spirit and Human Worlds; there was also a mission summary, but that is included in every file.
"Not much here, but it can be done. Have a nice day, George. I'll pick up the car when I get to the Human World."
Kurama quickly left the office, leaving George alone to take care of a very temperamental toddler.
Stepping out of the car he had borrowed from Spirit World Humanistic Interests., Kurama gazed at the tunnel in front of him. It was pitch-black from the opening to where ever it ended on the other side. Sighing, Kurama pulled the car into a patch of trees to his immediate right. Sending out his spirit energy to make the trees cover the car, he reassured himself that if any person were to come up here (highly unlikely, considering this was an overgrown road that lead almost to no-where. But there were some stupid people out there) they would not see the car and go looking in places they shouldn't.
The grass outside the tunnel was neatly clipped, almost as though someone had just run a lawn mower over it. It gave the eerie impression that someone was keeping everything in living-condition order in an uninhabitable area. Shaking his head to prevent himself from concentrating on something so trivial, Kurama concentrated on making the grass around him grow back to the over-grown state. In what seemed like no time at all, the grass and trees in the area covered up the tunnel from view. Kurama slipped through a small gap in the trees and then proceeded into the dark depths of the tunnel.
Kurama walked for about half a mile in the dark tunnel until he emerged into what appeared to be an abandoned train station. Leaning on one of the old wood benches for a moment to gather his thoughts, Kurama sensed the familiar rumbling of a train pulling into the station. Looking around, he saw no such train, yet the sense remained. As he was looking, he caught sight of a gleam of light from a door he had not noticed before. Watching in wonder as the light flooding out of the door seemed to ripple like water, Kurama walked slowly over to the doorway.
Outside of this door, instead of a sea, was a large and very hilly field. 'This looks about right. At least, according to the map it does,' Kurama thought as headed into the grassy expanse. every so often he would check the compass on his watch and the map given to him to make sure he was going in the right direction, and then continue on. Just as the sun was about to begin setting, he arrived at a small dried-up creek of stones. Nimbly jumping across them, Kurama found himself at a tall stone staircase leading up to a number of booths like the kind at a theme park.
As he looked at these booths, Kurama was shocked to see steam and smoke issuing from a great number of them. Hoping that this was not a sign he was about to get caught, Kurama slowly proceeded up the stairs, ready to jump at a moment's notice behind one of the stone frogs lining the stairs. When no one came down the steps when Kurama was halfway up, he sprinted up the final portion and ducked behind a nearby booth. It took a moment for him to realize his error: this was one of the booths issuing steam. Cursing himself for being careless, he made a move to get up. However, a large chopping sound from above caused him to freeze in a mid-standing position.
'Dammit! I'm stuck here.' Kurama thought to himself as he slid back into a sitting position. 'Might as well finish reading the mission overview while I'm here.' It was unlike Kurama to leave Spirit World without finishing the mission summary, but Koenma had been driving him insane so Kurama left in a hurry. That, and on top of the issues with getting the car and figuring put how to get to this place, all meant that Kurama had no idea what the hell he was doing.
Swiftly pulling the folder out of his coat, Kurama flipped it open to the mission overview section and began to read. The mission, it turned out, had three major points to it: 1) take the generator thingy once you find out what it is; 2) find out exactly what the frogs and slugs were in their previous states; 3) find out what she Yubaba uses to control her slaves. There was a lot more of random chatter, but it was just Koenma imitating even more of the Mission: Impossible theme. Apparently, Koenma had seen both movies before calling Kurama in and had gotten it in his head that he was giving directions to Tom Cruise. 'From this point on, he is not coming near my DVD collection,' Kurama thought as hid the file in a loose plank n the booth (it was too much of a burden to do a mission with a piece of paper jamming you in the ribs). 'Booth is closest one to the stairs on the East side. Plank is on South end.' He repeated the phrase over in his mind until he was sure it had been stored away in some dark corner of his mind until needed. Looking out from behind his hiding place, Kurama studied the sun's position. It was halfway over the horizon line, his cue to get going.
Getting up quickly and sliding along the wall of the booth got Kurama into the main walkway of the abandoned park. The indistinct spirits that manned the booths paid Kurama little mind as he walked towards the tall structure he saw in the distance; he assumed it was the locale of this 'Bath House of Spirits'. He had been able to see this structure since when he first got to the stone staircase, and at that point it had been determined as a good place to start. Kurama slowing walked up a smaller staircase and found himself in an immediate glow of lamps. Ducking out of sight, he looked around for who had spotted him; however, he quickly realized that the lamps were simply being lit because of nightfall. The strangest part of the lighting was that the lamps were lit from the Bath House onward. Lamps closer to the bath were lit before the ones farthest away. Kurama stood up from his hiding spot and continued on the walkway at a much faster pace since now the spirits that could see humans were to begin their shifts.
As he approached the Bath House, Kurama slid into some bushes. The greeters were out, and Kurama took the opportunity to observe them and the Bath House itself. The greeters were he things that had to be frogs and slugs. They were too ugly to be human and too human to be animals. With wide mouths and loud voices that sounded more like croaks, Kurama took those 'men' to be the frogs; the ones with slightly smaller mouths and odd eyebrows shaped like dots above the eyes he took to be slugs. The Bath House itself was possibly ten stories above the ground and had a bridge connecting it to the theme park booths. The bridge was right of a feudal era screen painting, the same was the ancient spirits that filed across it into the house. The smoke Kurama had seen earlier was not from the booths but from this Bath House; he could see the stacks now as even more smoke than before was flooding into the air.
Kurama deiced that it would be easier for him to enter the Bath House as long as he kept the little trick Botan had taught him in mind as he walked across the bridge. Spirits could not see humans on this side of the bridge, but once a human was seen on the Bath House side they were permanently caught. Kurama stood up from his hiding spot and walked slowly to he edge of he bridge. Taking a deep breath before he had set foot on the first plank, Kurama began a slow chant under his breath. If all went well, including if he didn't run out of air because only one breath could be taken in, when he got to the other side the spirits could still not see him. He set his foot down on the first plank, and when nothing happened, he continued on. As he walked, he caught sight of some very elite and rarely seen outside of their specific realms' spirits. He had never seen the likes of them before.
Suddenly, a random thought entered Kurama's head; well, not a thought per say, but a memory. If Kurama's memory served him correctly, both he and Kuronue had been patrons of this very Bath House. He couldn't remember how they had gotten in, but the smell of the place was the same as he one the demonic duo had visited on occasion. The thought of Kuronue had an unexpected effect on Kurama. He froze in place and sighed.
"A human!" an unseen frog cried out. Very shortly the cry was echoing over the bridge and he world seemed to freeze. Kurama had not realized it at first, but his mistake was a major one. When he had stopped and sighed, Kurama had stopped chanting.
Well, that's it for the first chapter of my new story. What do you think? I need feed back, because I live for it. Please push the button right below. Thank you, and I'll get back to my other stories as soon as possible.
This ENTIRE story is dedicated to my best bud Tigeriss Lightwater. Kate, this one's for you because you gave me the idea. Check out her stories, people!!