Hello everyone! Finn and I are so excited to bring you Busters Holy! This has been our pet project for months and, although it's not quite finished, it's close to being done so we're going to publish it slowly as the illustrations are made.

Before we start, I just want to make it known that this was written before Busters T actually ended, so some things may be a little different, i.e. Cindy being a human instead of a shark (both forms of her are Gorgeous but by the time we got to the end, it was much too late to change it) so I consider this a Canon Divergence fic.

This can also be read at AO3 with illustrations!

Oh, and this fic contains coarse language as well as sexual references so if that isn't your thing this story might not be for you.

Thank you so much for reading! We really hope you enjoy it!

- Tori

"This kid sucks at acting."

Mr. Scoop talking through movies was nothing new. Luckily for him, Indy had the same habit.

"Aww, cut him a little slack. He's a human, you can't really count on him to be TOO good of an actor!" Indy did not even bother averting his eyes from the screen as he nudged his little friend with his elbow.

"What about the kids in The Goonies?! They were amazing, Indy!" Mr. Scoop was barely paying attention to the movie at this point; he was getting heated. He grabbed onto the sleeve of Indy's shirt. "Mr. Movien couldn't get a kid who could act?! Why is there even a human in a yokai movie?!"

Scoop was a movie purist in the truest sense of the phrase, and his attitude towards films put Indy (who had prided himself on being THE biggest adventure film snob for the longest time) to shame. The half-mechanical yokai would spend most of their time watching movies with his eyes narrow, hands on where his chin would be were it not covered by his helmet, criticizing every bit of the adventure aspect of every movie they watched.

"Maybe he'll get better," Indy shrugged. "Maybe he wasn't into the role yet."

"Indy, we're half an hour in," Mr. Scoop replied, slumping in his seat and letting out a huge sigh. "I know Komasan and Jibanyan are in this, but the human version of this movie is probably much better…only the cloud guy is any good at acting."

"Well, I'm sorry, but Yo-Blockbusters didn't h-"

Indy was cut off by the sound of the door slamming open, followed by heavy footsteps. If footsteps could have emotions, these ones would be wrought with sadness. Scoop, in reaction to the sudden noise, leapt up and peeked over the edge of the couch on his tiptoes, eyes darting around the room.

"Indy!" A familiar voice shouted. "Have you seen my favorite necklace?"

Indy paused the movie and Mr. Scoop turned around, pressing the button on the front of his suit to retract his helmet. His face went bright red and he started twiddling his fingers.

Indy's younger sister, Cindy Jaws, slouched against the doorframe, lips pursed into a disappointed frown and arms crossed. One of her slim fingers impatiently tapped against her arm, blue eyes turned down to her feet.

"Nooooooo~ho, I haven't seen your faaaavorite necklace, Cindy!" Scoop chirped, wiggling his butt and still twiddling his fingers. A bashful smile was painted across his face as his eyes were glued to the beautiful woman standing woefully in the doorframe. Indy just let out a groan and rolled his eyes before giving his friend another sharp jab in the general area of where his ribs would be.

"Sit. You're too big for your fake spacesuit." The shark gripped him by the ring that covered his neck, easily lifted the lightweight Mr. Scoop, and plopped him back onto the couch.

Cindy let out another sorrow-filled sigh and rested a hand on her cheek. "I'm not sure if I left it here, or if I lost it when I was out…it's irreplaceable."

"Is that the one our mother gave you?" Indy asked, his brow furrowed with concern. Cindy nodded and swallowed a lump in her throat, feeling like she was about to cry.

"Are you sure you didn't just put it in the wrong place again?" Indy, now on his feet, began worriedly glancing all around the room for any place the prized necklace could be hiding. His fingers shakily clutched the pillows on the couch and shoved them aside; it was not until he accidentally grabbed the pillow-sized Mr. Scoop and tossed him onto the floor (eliciting a sharp screech of surprise from him) that the shark was broken out of his fear-induced trance.

"Ow…" Scoop groaned and squeezed his eyes shut, rubbing the area of his back that had hit the floor.

"Are you okay, Mr. Scoop?!" Cindy forgot her sadness for a moment to rush over to Scoop's side, crouching down next to him.

Scoop opened his eyes; Indy could practically see the hearts in them. "I am now…"
Scoop then straightened up, kneeling and smiling at Cindy. "I just remembered something, Cindy!"
"Is it about my necklace?" Cindy asked; Scoop's smile fell upon seeing the way her face glowed with hopefulness.

"N-no, but it's necklace-related!" Scoop's smile then returned, albeit more sheepish than before. "I remember reading...this archaeology book a while back…" He began fidgeting again, pressing his fingers together like a bashful schoolboy ready to admit he accidentally broke his neighbor's window.

At this point, Cindy's eyes were glued to Mr. Scoop, and if she were sitting, she would be on the edge of her chair. Even Indy, normally immune to the random factoids Scoop would spit out about things he saw in books, was eyeing his best friend keenly.

"It's about this legend of the Seven Lucky Gods! The legend states that if you do a favor to get on each god's good side, they'll reward you with a charm!" Scoop, now finished with his fidgeting, was excitedly rocking back and forth as he recited everything he could remember reading. "Get all seven charms and link them together, and they'll make a necklace that'll bless the wearer with the best fortune they can dream of…!"

Scoop beamed at Cindy. "So… if you got that, you could probably find your necklace!"

"I think a lot of good things would happen to me if I had that," Cindy said, eyes sparkling, "not just finding my necklace!"
Her frown returned and she folded her arms again. "... But I still have my last semester of college to finish. I can't go on a big trip now."

"That's no problem!" Scoop said immediately.

Scoop's mouth was running on its own, and Indy knew he was powerless to stop it, but that didn't prevent him from crying out, "SCOOP, NO!"

Just like Indy expected, Scoop ignored him. "I'm no stranger to adventuring, and neither is Indy!" Scoop pointed at his desperate-looking friend with his thumb. "We can get those charms for you!"

"You would do that?" Cindy smiled at Scoop, folding her hands under her chin.

"Gladly!" Mr. Scoop put his hands on his hips, beaming broadly. Much to his surprise, Cindy leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him.

"Oh my God," Scoop couldn't help saying, his eyes widening.

"You're the best, Mr. Scoop!" Cindy released him from her embrace and Scoop almost fell over. "I'm always causing you and Indy so much trouble…even after you guys found Yodelsen, I stayed as a human, after all…"

"That didn't bother me!" Scoop replied; his cheeks were still a deep pink from Cindy's hug, but that didn't affect his cheerful tone.

Indy sighed heavily. It did bother him, but if Cindy was happy, it wasn't that big of a deal. He chewed on his lip a bit, trying to figure out what to do or say next. Sometimes, Scoop would get him in stuck in a tight spot that was quite the struggle to get out of. Kind of like that time with the eggs...but Indy refused to talk about that.

"We can hunt down these...Lucky Gods if you think that would be best, Mr. Scoop...but we're bringing in Chopper as a reinforcement. And also to keep you in line."

If Scoop had a nose, he would wrinkle it incredibly at this. He wanted to argue, but the sole possibility of making Cindy happy would be enough to deal with a grody zombie for just a while.

"Fine. Call Zom B. Chopper and have him meet me at my store. I'll get his weird, crusty, slimy, smelly...self clued in on what's going on." Scoop wiggled his finger at Indy before turning on his heels to smile at Cindy again, his demeanor completely changed.

"We'll get this done as soon as possible, Cindy! I promise!"

Cindy sighed. "You're an angel."

"WELL, we have to get going!" Indy interjected, then picked Scoop up by one of his mechanical arms as if he weighed nothing and clutched him under his arm. "Gotta call the school, let them know they're going to need another substitute because their GREAT, GREAT, GREAT teacher's going on a GREAT, GREAT, GREAT adventure again!"

Before Mr. Scoop could sass back, he hurried out of the room, almost forgetting to grab the backpack full of supplies he kept by the door "just in case".

"BYE CINDY!" Scoop screamed at the top of his lungs, almost causing Indy to go deaf.

"You and I are going to have a long talk in the car, young man," Indy squeezed Scoop's arm, and the latter yelped a bit.

"I totally don't deserve it," Scoop pouted at Indy, who rolled his eyes.

Indy swung open the car door and plopped the smaller man down into the passenger's seat, setting the weighty backpack down in his lap.

"The last time you 'didn't deserve one of my talks' was after I had to save your sorry butt from a gang of hungry Gabunyan, so I think it'd be best to just listen on the way before you get all three of us almost killed this time."

"Okay, first of all, you didn't save my butt. Neko II did. And second of all, it's not gonna happen this time, Indy," Scoop argued, still wearing his pout. "We're not going into caves and temples and really big holes like before. We're going places gods hang out."

At this point, Indy, seated in the driver's chair, had his head planted firmly against the steering wheel, frowning as he tried to hold back a giant sigh.

"And you know how people stereotypically MEET gods, right? You don't think that these guys are going to give us some scary, huge, monumentally tough tasks that will cause me to lose twenty years off my lifespan and Chopper to lose at least an arm and a leg? And maybe his head?" Slowly, he raised his face from the wheel, resting his chin on its top.
"For Cindy's sake, I hope you're not biting off more than you can chew with this, buddy."

"This is real life, Indy, not movies." It was clear Scoop was only hearing what he wanted to hear, which is to say, nothing Indy said at all.

Indy slammed his head on the steering wheel and left it there for a few moments. "Mr. Scoop," Indy said, his voice simmering, "I almost died fifty times 'in real life' trying to release Yodelsen. And, I don't know if you remember, but so did you."

"It was like four times for me," Scoop tapped his chin, his helmet still off from earlier. "Maybe five. And we were fine! We'll be fine again."

The optimism in both Mr. Scoop's voice and face would have lit even the dampest of hearts on fire...had they not known how foolish his optimism was under all of that cute cheeriness. With a sigh that weighed more than Dekanyan after a buffet of all-you-can-eat Yo-nuts, Indy gave his friend one last tired look and turned the key in the ignition, gunning his old car's engine.

"Scoop, as much as I appreciate your friendship...I really miss when you didn't want to come on adventures with me." He forced a wobbly smile, trying to reassure himself that maybe, just maybe, this whole thing would turn out okay.

"Yay! Love you too, big guy!" Scoop winked and blew Indy a mocking kiss.

"OOOOOOH-KAY!" Mr. Scoop, teetering on his tiptoes from his perch atop one of his shop's rickety chairs, waved a small stack of papers in the air before triumphantly setting them down. The resulting bang shook Indy to the very marrow of his bones, reminding him just how much power that little friend of his possessed behind that cute face.

"A-ah. What's this, Mr. Scoop?" The adventurer tugged at the bandana around his neck, straightening up and trying to pretend like his heart was not in his throat. Great, great, GREAT adventurers were not supposed to get startled over such silly things, after all.

"Well…" Scoop picked up a few pages out of the stack and handed them to his friend, then grabbed a few of his own, "I figured that it would be awful to go into our mission blind! So I found some cool resources about the Seven Lucky Yokai Gods to get our feet wet!"

The papers reminded Indy of the crummy handouts the secretaries at his school would provide for his students in more ways than one. All of the sheets were splattered with grainy gray ink, huge print, very cursory information...not to mention how parts of the text drowned underneath the reddish-brown stains of mud Scoop always seemed to have on him, no matter how hard he tried to keep clean. Indy sighed after looking over what he could read of the papers, casting his friend an unsure look.

"This really isn't a lot to go on, l'il buddy. Were you REALLY not able to find any good information on these guys?"

Mr. Scoop's eyes narrowed and he puffed his cheeks out, shooting his friend a look of childish dissatisfaction.

"I didn't really have a lot of time to dig up better resources, Indy! I just...figured we would get better info the more we worked on this mission for Cindy!"

With another sigh and after massaging his temples for a few seconds, Indy forced a smile and, putting his hands on his hips, puffed his chest out. Even if he was not feeling too confident about this mission that he was dragged into, that did not mean he was going to look pathetic about it! Cindy's happiness was at stake, after all!

"So be it! We'll...work out the finer details later! But until then, we just gotta take what we got," he sharply rapped his knuckles against the papers once for one of his famous dramatic flourishes, "and do what we can! And as soon as Zom B. Chopper gets here, we can REALLY get into the meat of our first steps!"

As if on cue, the door to Scoop's shop rattled a few times, fell silent...and then swung open with enough force that it was a wonder it did not tear clean off of its hinges. Both Indy and Scoop perked up at the sight, just barely seeing the shock of flame-red hair over the top of all of the piles of pricy goods stacked on top of one another in the little shop. Chopper's heavy footsteps shuffled towards them, albeit a little unevenly. It was not until the half-human was within spitting distance that Indy finally decided to greet him.

"ZOM-B-CHOPPER! You're late! Scoop and I were j-"

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR LEG?!" Scoop shakily squealed, not even concerned with cutting the self-proclaimed leader of the Busters T crew off, pointing a trembling finger at Chopper.

"Ah. This," Chopper said with indifference.

Indy's eyes wandered down to where Mr. Scoop was pointing and inhaled sharply. Firmly clamped to Chopper's leg was a gleaming bear trap, teeth deep enough to be hitting bone. A broken segment of chain dangled from its end, cut cleanly (most likely by that danged chainsaw blade that never so much as left the half-yokai's side). As usual, the visible portion of Chopper's face read a very plain, unemotional expression; such coolness would be admirable, had it not been in the face of situations that would make a normal person faint.

"'S nothing," said Chopper with a nonchalant shrug. "Pretty boring trap, actually. The only problem is...I really can't get it off."

"Scoop, help him get out of that trap while I explain what's going on!" Indy barked, jamming his thumb in the direction of his best friend's prized motorized shovel resting against the table.

With a tiny whine and a look of disgust on his face, Mr. Scoop leapt off of the chair as smoothly as a cat and snatched up the shovel; all it took to get its motor purring was a swift, smooth yank of its ripcord. The tiny yokai easily lifted it above his head and placed the jackhammering spade against the joint where both jaws met. Face still blank, Chopper brought his eyes up to meet Indy's, body comically jostling to the rhythm of the spade's hammering.

"So!" Indy barked once more, just a little louder to compensate for the echoing clangs now reverberating around the store. "As I told you, Scoop decided to sign us up for a little mission. What we're doing: holy favors for each of the Lucky Gods to create a special necklace in hopes of finding Cindy's prized jewelry. The plan's to leave as soon as we can!"

At this, Zom B. Chopper's eyes lit up, a rare eagerness glinting in them.

"Does this mean my liege is coming along?"

The sound of Scoop blowing a sarcastic raspberry at the mention of the bratty prince could barely be heard over the sound of the trap clattering to the floor.

"Unfortunately, no. I figured it would be best if he stayed with Komasan while we were gone...he may talk big for his crib, but that doesn't mean we're going to drag a little kitten into a dangerous mission where we're going against literal gods." Indy coolly remarked, trying to gently let Chopper down.

"It's a big boy trip!" Mr. Scoop sounded strangely proud of this.

Chopper side-eyed Mr. Scoop. "Then why are you going?"

A shadow crossed Mr. Scoop's face. "Do you want me to put this bear trap back on your leg? Because I fucking will."

Chopper's back tensed a little as his brow furrowed a bit. Not at the threat, no (like he would be scared of a measly little trap), but rather the fact that the adorable Mister Scoop said...the f-swear.

"Now...if you two metaphorical children will stop and actually act like you're going on a…" Indy threw his head back, letting out a single, slow breath, "big boy trip, I'd like to continue from where we left off!"

Chopper now straightened up, ears perked at attention; Scoop, on the other hand, thought it fitting to give the zombie one last childish glare of disdain before turning back to his friend.

"So as I mentioned, we're going after the Lucky Gods. Seven gods, seven charms," Indy explained. "At the end of the day, they'll form a necklace that'll bless the wearer with good fortune beyond their wildest dreams. The biggest hurdle for us right now - barring the obvious threat of death at these amazing holy forces - is that Scoop really didn't give us a lot to work with!" Indy waved his papers around, a tinge of frustration in his voice.

"Are you kidding me?!" Scoop clenched his fists, puffing out his cheeks once again. "There's a LOT of papers there! There's bound to be something we can find!"
"Why don't you just look on your Yokai Pad?" Chopper suggested to Indy.

"I worked hard finding all those resources!" Scoop looked at Indy desperately. "You're not going to sell out your best buddy bro for some stinky BOYFRIEND of yours, are you?"

With a roll of his eyes, Indy was already digging for the Yokai Pad in his pack.

"I'm not selling you out. I just think that Chopper's onto something. No offense, but muddy papers with information that a child would know isn't going to help us much."

"You are MEAN to me, you INSULT ME...you don't APPRECIATE anything I DO…" Scoop began babbling with twinges of fake sadness in his voice as his strong fingers tugged at Indy's pants leg. Not wanting to give his friend the satisfaction of some sympathetic response, Indy flatly ignored him in favor of quickly tapping away at the pad in his hand.

"AH...okay, here's something!" A true smile of relief spread across Indy's face. Indy would be lying if he said he was TOTALLY fine with Scoop's godforsaken mission at this point, though.

"The Seven Lucky Gods are named Benzaiten, Bishamonten, Hoteison, Jurojin, Ebisu, Daikokuten, and Fukurokujo. Each one has a divine duty that they must attend to...and there's commonly shrines paying homage to them in hot springs!"

Scoop, now done with his fake tantrum, had a huge grin plastered across his face.

"OHHH! I think Paradise Springs would be the best place to start! Doesn't that sound like a place a god would hang out and relax at?!" Scoop had his hands on his hips and a proud look on his face. It was clear he was mentally praising his own genius.

"Can't say I'd be opposed to going to a hot spring, especially if it's vital to the mission at hand," Chopper agreed. He crossed his arms, and if his face was fully visible, a warm smile would have probably been plastered on it. "I mean...not only is it relaxing and a solid first step towards our goal, but there's...other good reasons for us to go there!" Chopper looked at Indy and shot him an affectionate wink.

At this, Indy harshly cleared his throat and averted his eyes, trying to force back the blush rising up on his cheeks.

"I mean...if you think that'd be the best course of action for our first step…!" His voice was wobbly and warm, tinged with embarrassment.

"PLEASE! When I said a big boy trip, I didn't mean a sappy, cheesy, gross, awful, honeymoon for you two lovesick losers!" Scoop whined, hanging his head like a toddler who was just told that the grocery store was sold out of ice cream by his tired father. "This is supposed to be a cool trip where we make Cindy very happy and she hugs me again!"

Now fully snapped out of his little flirt-fest, Indy turned his full attention to his pouty little friend at his feet.

"Mr. Scoop. Please. You got us into this mess, you can deal with the side effects that come along with it."

Scoop folded his arms tightly and, much to Indy's surprise, said, "You're right. Fair enough. But I'm not gonna like it."

At that, Indy's lips curled up into a wide, sharp grin. "Good, with that settled, we should get ready! Don't wanna miss our ride!"

Scoop's pout was instantly replaced with a starry-eyed, amazed expression.

"I've never been on a train before!" he said. "There were no trains to the temples we explored!"

"I know, I was there." Indy couldn't help snickering. Realization washed over his face and his smile fell.

"Wait, Mr. Scoop… you don't expect me to pay for all of this, do you?" He squinted at Mr. Scoop accusingly and Mr. Scoop blinked back at him, bewildered.

"Did I never tell you guys…?" He sprinted over to the store's counter and fished around underneath it in search of his phone.

"Tell us what?" Zom B. Chopper asked.

"Well…" Mr. Scoop, having found his phone, poked at the screen a few times before rushing back to his friends. He turned it around so they could see the screen, which showed his bank balance.

"OH MY SHARK!" Indy couldn't help yelling. Even Chopper was caught off guard; he gasped softly and his eyebrows shot skyward.

Indy had never seen so many zeros in his life.

"H-how…?" Chopper spluttered.

Mr. Scoop turned his phone's screen off and smiled proudly. "Some of the stuff I dig up goes for a lot. Who knew full intact yo-dinosaur skeletons were worth so much?"

Scoop winked at Indy. "This trip was my idea, so it'll be my treat!" He pushed his pointer fingers together, his smile suddenly becoming sheepish. "I really… don't know what else to do with all this."

"Dear God." Chopper was sweating a bit.

"Scoop, you never cease to amaze me," Indy complimented, patting Scoop on the head.

Scoop giggled, his cheeks coloring a bit at the praise. He suddenly shot into the air, his eyes widening.

"Ahhh, I need to pack!" Scoop clicked his heels, already taking off toward the stairs that led to his loft apartment and grabbing his Treasure Gear-equipped shovel as he ran by it.

Chopper slowly lumbered towards his partner, and when he was close enough, let the fingers of his remaining flesh-hand interlock with the shark's. His eyes wandered to meet Indy's, although the latter was still staring in the direction that Scoop had run off in.

"You sure this is going to be okay? You're not nervous? You can just tell him that this isn't going to work out, and nobody's going to be upset...well, Scoop might be for a few minutes, but-"

"Chopper, Cindy HUGGED him when he said he'd do this for her; the little guy's not going to be stopped by that. If I don't go, he'll go by himself and I don't trust him to not get...swallowed by one of these gods like he made us get swallowed by that snake. I'm sure one of them's that scary. Anyways, everything will be fine. It always is." Indy shrugged, trying to deny his own nervousness.

"If you say so…" Zom B. hummed, pointing his nose up in the air with a confident aura about him. "If you don't mind me asking, how about a kiss for good luck, before the big boy comes back down?" He pulled down his scarf, his lips curled into a smile.

Not a stranger to such requests but still always caught off-guard by them, Indy choked on nothing for a split second, then nodded.

"Sure, I'm fine with that…!"

The two leaned in, eyes closed, lips ready…

Only to be interrupted by a shrill scream as Scoop barged in at EXACTLY the wrong moment, his pack loudly dropping to the floor.

With that, Chopper just huffed a bit and pretended to adjust the bandana around Indy's neck, giving the shark a quick pat on the cheek and whispering a husky "Later…" before turning back to Scoop.

"Alright, big boy, you ready for the train ride? You're not going to let a little kiss kill your excitement for this new adventure, are you?"

Scoop scowled for a moment, but the excitement bubbling up inside him was too much to ignore, so he put his pack back on and grinned. "No way!"

Scoop tilted his head quizzically at Indy and Chopper. "Don't you two need to pack?"

"These are the only clothes I own," Chopper shrugged nonchalantly.

"Grody," Scoop said with a nod.

"I can run home to pack, just give me a few moments…" Indy tapped his chin, trying to remember everything he would need for a trip to the hot springs.

"OHHH, can I come? Say goodbye to Cindy? Let her know I'll miss her loooots?" Scoop chirped, wiggling his little butt excitedly.

"No, Scoop. It'll just be a few minutes. I don't need you mugging up to my sister." And with that, Indy tipped his trusty, worn hat and stood up as tall as he possibly could before marching towards the door.

Scoop deflated and collapsed to all fours. "Damn it…" he murmured as he trembled in defeat.

"Please tell Miss Cindy that I say hello!" Chopper shouted after the adventurer, almost out the door. "And please…" tears now forming in his eyes, "call Komasan and tell Neko II to be good. I don't want to hear that he peed on the carpet again!"

"Duly noted!" Indy smirked over his shoulder. If nothing else, he wanted to alleviate Chopper's sadness over not inviting the little prince along; as bratty as the cat was, he was a beloved friend of the zombie's.

Indy really didn't expect to be going on another adventure so soon after the last one, but Mr. Scoop was an unstoppable force, especially when Cindy was involved. Indy closed the doors to Mr. Scoop's shop behind him and let out a huge sigh.

Hopefully Indy would be able to keep his pants on this time.