A/N

This story begins in a fictional rural Japanese town but will go far and wide around the globe. Translations of some words will be at the end of the chapter.

FYI this is not horror even tho our main girl, Emi, and her hometown are freakishly paranoid about ghosts.

Hope you enjoy!

1: Freaks

It should be an impossible feat for a small Japanese rural town of ordinary citizens to force the freaky super humans away but, they did it.

Oyamaa, they did it!

Well, the townsfolk did it. Emi was back home in Chicago when that happened.

Ever since that incident in New York with destruction falling from the sky on account of the Avengers, Emi had been petrified for her hometown. It was enough that tourists came and went with stories of horror – they didn't need rowdy super humans playing with their powers by the rice fields scaring them off too.

Underneath her window, she could see the children playing with their kendami and pranking each other on the streets, and adults walking to and fro, stopping to chat, pulling along a wagon, going on with their peaceful lives. The women were particularly gossipy in these areas, and she knew that since her temporary return she had been a subject of talk among her old friends - "The blue-haired American freak whose father was eaten by a ghoul."

She remembered nights from when she was five years old, before she and her newly widowed mother fled to America. Emi couldn't sleep back then, so she would pull apart the curtains and stare up at the winking stars. That's when she learnt that around 1AM everyday, the super humans came out to play.

She learnt things others did not, like how Old Man Yutaka's shop burnt down not because the man was a drunk, but because a little boy with flaming hands torched down the shabby building.

Emi did not know who or what the boy grew up to be, but she needn't care. He was gone now.

It was nice to know that her town would be safe when she was home.

As she pulled away from the window, the door flung open. "Emiko!"

"Obaa-chan?"

Her grandma stood by the door frame in a polka dot apron, her fuzzy grey hair yanked up into a bun. The smell of that night's dinner wafted up through the cracks between the wooden floorboards. She had been cooking up a storm, again. The eccentric grandma whacked Emi lightly with chopsticks in her hand.

"That horrible accent of yours!"

Emi blinked, rubbing her arm where she was hit. "Obaa-chan, why do you keep saying that?"

"You sound like an American," her grandma seethed. "That country sucked the Japanese out of you."

It was something she had been saying since Emi came and she learnt that Emi once thought Captain America was a little more than fine. She probably shouldn't have brought along her Captain America action figure so soon after the guy became a fugitive and the town chased the likes of him out, but her boy cousins wanted to have the doll. How could she say no?

Emi pouted. "Did you come here to scold my Japanese again, or talk about how the boys will use my doll as a connection to hell?"

Her grandma's face went blank. "Ah… No, no. Why did I… Oh, your mother called to make sure you were packed for your flight home. Your friends will meet you in Tokyo."

That's right. They were going for an around-the-world trip this weekend before going back to finish college.

"Okay, thank you obaa-chan."

"Hurry and remind your uncle he's to drive you to Osaka."

"Hai!"

Her grandma hit her again as Emi bolted past.

"My pesky grandchild."

"I love you too!"

Emi was running too fast to bother looking back. If she had, perhaps she would have seen the joking amusement from the old lady's eyes drop or how the crinkles at the ends of her eyes turned downwards, as if weighted by words and emotions she couldn't speak of.

Korin loved his boys and his only niece dearly, but sometimes those kids really stressed him out to the point he had to work out his frustration at the rice fields.

Finding that Captain America doll under one of their beds drenched in rice vinegar, the now adult Emiko putting those ridiculous stories of superheroes and villains into their heads, the endless roar of fun and laughter blasting from their house and the constant attention cast on them...

It was all too much for a man like Korin to handle.

He swung at the rice stalks. "Those kids," he muttered.

"What?" one of his fellow workmates said, thinking Korin was talking to him.

"Nothing, Rin!"

Being descended from the Ina family that migrated here a solid century ago, it wasn't a total surprise that their family was an odd bunch. The town had a strange history of myths and legends that had occurred here, most of which involving members of the Ina family. His ancestors were daredevils, the elders once told him. They loved to know, they loved to play and they loved to seek thrills.

It was dangerous and exciting all the same, but apparently none of those danger-seeking genes passed onto Korin.

He was a simple man with a simple job desiring a simple life.

All he could wish for was at least one night where he could pass his boys' bedroom without overhearing plans to cross into the spirit world or hijacking a car that would occasionally come into town. He'd had enough of that from his younger brother back in their childhood days.

"Oi, Korin! Were we meant to use that old machine today?"

He straightened and wiped beads of sweat from his forehead. "No, Danno. Why?"

It was then that all six rice farmers at the scene paused, and looked up to the rustling rice stalks where Danno was pointing at. It was as if the skies had turned darker and the songs of the wind hushed into a silent stillness. An involuntary chill flashed through his veins, pulsating his eyes.

Danno gulped. "Then what is that?"

Something not good, Korin wanted to say.

He couldn't though. The shadowy figure that pushed forth strangled the words from his throat.

Translations:

Oyamaa - Oh my heavens!

Obaa-chan - Grandma

Hai - Yes

Oi - Oi. LOOOL The one time Aussie slang is used elsewhere, woot woot!

Sorry for not introducing Captain America characters yet, I've got to set up the scene, y'know? But very soon, I promise. I hope you enjoyed!

xx roaary