Chapter Two

Himeko and Takumi's eyes widened as they looked at Kune; or whatever was right behind Kune. Himeko dropped the pillows in her hands and ran out screaming, while Takumi soon followed screaming in the same pitch as her, after dropping his phone on the floor. Kune stared at the door in confusion, wondering what could have possibly made those two drop their belongings and run away screaming. He picked up Takumi's phone and turned around, using the light of the phone to illuminate the pitch black room.

Once he spotted the unexpected visitor standing right behind him, he flashed a nervous grin, "... Hey, how you doing?"

The being behind him just stared at Kune who was slowly trying to make his way out of the room, closing the door behind him. Not too soon after closing his room door, he followed Himeko's and Takumi's example by running down the hallway, down the flight of stairs and into the front lounging area. He took a moment to regain his breath before looking around for his friend, and the girl that ran down screaming her head off with his friend. Himeko was passed out on one of the nearby sofas while Takumi looking out of the window, sighing.

Out of all the possible days to pour down, it was pouring down on the day when Takumi wanted to get as far away as possible from where he was. Along with the crashing lightning, the wind was really strong. These were weather conditions you should avoid when going through a dense forest. The fact that it was already dark outside made it a lot more dangerous. Of course, Hunters should be fit enough to handle just about anything, but considering the fact that Kune and Takumi only ended up finding this inn after a whole day of walking around could change their survival chances. Especially since the village they were in wasn't even that big to begin with.

Noticing his depressed friend, Kune approached Takumi and lightly patted his back, "you okay, man?"

"Do you think a bear would let us stay in it's cave for tonight?"

"I'm not spending the night with any bears," Kune stated firmly, "if we aren't going to stay here, we are going back to the village."

"I don't trust you to lead us back to the village in this weather."

According to Takumi, it was safer staying with a bunch of bears than let Kune lead them back to the nearby village. Kune however didn't want to leave the place without getting his money back. They booked the place for the night, but only stayed for an hour or two. He marched up to the counter and spotted a small, silver bell. As the half dead owner and his wife were no where to be found, he started to ring the bell over and over again, trying to get the attention of the inn's owners.

Instead of gaining the attention of the owners, he attracted the attention of fellow guests at the inn, who were irritated by the loud ringing of the bell. Loud steps could be heard marching down the old, wooden, stairs.

"Oi! Who is making all this noise?" A deep, masculine voice echoed through the lounging area, making Kune stop ringing the bell momentarily. He looked up to see a very tall, muscular, man, who could easily be double his height. Seeing the facial hair on the man's face and a couple of tattoos on his biceps made Kune retract his hand from the bell. "What's with the noise, kid?"

"I want my money back," Kune answered, "there was some messed up creature in my room, I ain't staying here any longer."

The man looked at Takumi standing by the window, who was also listening to their conversation. Compared to the slightly calmer Kune, Takumi looked like he's seen a ghost; literally. "You two fuckers probably pissed your pants while telling each other ghost stories. Just man up and go back to bed."

"It wasn't just us two," Takumi interrupted him, before he pointed at Himeko lying on one of the nearby sofas, "she saw it too!"

With all the arguing going on downstairs, two other pairs of footsteps could be heard making their way down the stairs. The first one to come in sight was a tall woman who looked like she was in her mid twenties. The black dress she wore hugged her slim body and reached until her mid thighs. Her blonde hair was curled into bouncy curls and she had attractive facial features that were enhanced with some eyeliner and some red lipstick. "Oh my god, why is it so noisy here?"

Behind her was a boy who was most likely in his late teens, nearing his twenties. His medium brown hair had a few strands sticking up, and you could see some eye bags underneath his eyes, hidden by his thick framed glasses. In contrast to the woman, his clothes were a lot more casual with a loose, grey, sweater and fitting, black, jeans. "I'd appreciate it if you'd all argue a little quieter, I'm trying to do some work upstairs."

"Don't blame me!" The muscular man yelled at them. "It's these two runts and the one lying on the couch over there that are causing the ruckus."

The boy wearing the glasses rubbed his temples in frustrations, "first of all, how could that girl cause any ruckus if she's unconscious? And I doubt that loud, angry voice I heard a few minutes ago could belong to any of those two boys. Please think before you let words come out of your mouth."

"What?" The man's face started to get red at the boy's disrespect. "Watch your words, you are talking to a Hunter."

"Then I should suggest that you should watch your words too, you are not the only Hunter here."

"Typical men, trying to boost their ego whenever they get an opportunity to do so," the blonde commented bluntly, clearly annoyed at all the bragging going on.

Before an argument could start between the three, the door behind the front counter opened, and the inn owner's wife stepped out to see what the ruckus was all about. Kune wasted no time to complain, "I demand my money back, there was some strange thing in our room. We are leaving this place!"

"Sorry, but if you've read our policies up on the wall behind us, you'd understand that we don't have any money back guarantee."

"Woman, there is some weird creature in your inn room! Don't you care about that?!"

"Listen boy, we do our best to clean the rooms up as much as we can, but there are some things we can't get rid off."

Takumi left the window and walked towards the counter to find out more about the things she 'couldn't get rid off'. "What do you mean by that?"

"This inn is quite old, so it wouldn't be surprising to have a couple of apparitions wandering around the place once in a while. We tried calling in exorcists, but it didn't work. According to them, they all died in regret and are willing to stay in the world of the living. It's going to be really hard to get rid of them."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Takumi interrupted her, "you gave us a room knowing there was some kind of messed up monster inside?! Are you crazy, woman?!"

"It's an apparition Takumi, not a monster," Kune corrected him.

"Does that really matter now?"

"A ghost?" The man questioned mockingly. "Don't make me laugh! You probably just saw the curtains swaying in the wind."

"I agree, there is no such thing as supernatural beings," the boy added, agreeing with the older man, "it's just your brain playing tricks on you."

"It was really there though," Takumi argued back, once again getting confirmation from Kune.

Kune nodded his head, "do you think we are mad enough to go out in this weather at this hour?"

"He does have a point," the woman pointed out. They all spent a brief moment looking around the room, questioning themselves whether they should actually believe such a crazy story.

"I would like to get rid of these apparitions, but everyone who's tried to get rid of them has failed," the inn keeper's wife continued to explain, "I've even hired Hunters for the job offering them a reward, but none of them could do it." The mention of a reward turned heads.

"Out of curiosity, is the reward still up?" The muscular man asked. "I'm a Blacklist Hunter so I've only had experience catching criminals, but this shouldn't be much different."

"If you are able to complete the job, I'd be more than happy to offer you the reward." The old woman continued to look around the room. "But you might have competition, everyone here is a Hunter. Everyone showed me their Hunter licenses as ID before getting a room."

Thus far, only the Blacklist Hunter had accepted the job so he was looking around for any other Hunter that was willing to accept the job. To Kune, this was more of a challenge he had to accept in order to keep his pride and honor, "Kune Kagashi, Contract Hunter. I guess I can't turn down a challenge."

"You have guts to take the job although I already accepted," the Blacklist Hunter remarked, "you want to get crushed, don't you?"

"What the fuck, Kune?!" Takumi yelled. "I thought we were going to get the fuck out of here, not go ghost hunting."

"Chill, Taku. We are catching some ghosts, getting the reward and going back. How bad is it going to be?"

"Very bad!"

"Look, think of it this way; that reward will count as a refund and lunch tomorrow. How about some sukiyaki?"

"I could always make sukiyaki!"

Kune turned to the much larger Hunter. "I'll make you eat those words while I eat my sukiyaki tomorrow!"

"I could always make sukiyaki!" whined the blonde teen.

"You're on pipsqueak, don't forget who the alpha is," the muscly Blacklist Hunter said, clearly trying to intimidate everyone around him.

Kune and the man stared at each other for a long while, neither took their eyes off of the other, and neither dared to blink. The staring went on for about a minute, and all the while it was completely silent, except for Himeko's snoring.

"Hey Kune, you realize that the longer you stare at him the less time you have to look for ghost, right?" asked Takumi.

Kune whipped around to face Taku, and then seemingly out of nowhere, Kune started to chuckle. "You realize now we're going to go look for the apparitions now, right?" he stated, "which means we're going to fight them now, right? Which means you just forced yourself to help me look too."

Takumi started blushing, the blonde was clearly embarrassed by his mistake. He started to scratch the back of his head, and then let out a sigh. "You know what, fine. You got me, let's just go," Takumi surrendered.

"Great!" Kune shouted, "now carry the girl with us!"

Takumi sighed and obeyed, clearly defeated. He walked over to the sleeping girl and looked at her for a second.

"Just pick her up!" Kune shouted at the blonde.

Takumi looked back down, thinking 'How are you supposed to pick up a girl? I don't want to hurt her or anything…'

"Oh my god, you like her don't you!" Kune teased.

"N-no! I j-just don't want to hurt her!" Takumi defended. His cheeks got warm, which indicated that he was blushing.

"Just pick her up like you'd pick up anyone else, idiot," Kune instructed.

Takumi went to go grab the girl's arm, but as soon as his hand touched her body he noticed that she was really warm.

"Hey Kune, she's warm!" Takumi yelled to the raven haired teen who was now on Takumi's phone.

"No fucking duh! The human body is 37° Celsius, now stop stalling!"

Takumi crouched down beside her and wrapped his hands around her waist, trying to hoist her over his shoulders. But as he started to lift her, she woke up without him noticing. And Himeko waking up to a guy around her waist was not something that happened often, and when it did, you're in for it.

"I'll give you three seconds to get your hands off me," Himeko warned, before she started counting down slowly, "three, two-" But before she could finish counting, Takumi let out a quiet shriek in surprise at her voice and wasted no time to drop her on the floor. Himeko groaned as she got back on her feet, "for fucks sake, you can't do anything properly can you? You can't pick up a woman properly, neither can you set a woman down properly."

"Ah, I'm sorry. You just surprised me."

"Well now that I'm awake, I can finally leave this god forsaken place." She walked up to the counter with the inn keeper's wife talking to the Blacklist Hunter and interrupted their conversation. "Excuse me, I'd like to vacate my room." For Himeko it was no big deal. After all, she got her room for free, so she didn't have to demand any money back.

But the man standing right beside her didn't seem so pleased by her rude interruption, "can't you see that we are in the middle of a conversation here, runt?"

'Ignore the stupid, and the stupid will go away.'

Himeko waited patiently for the woman's answer while the man was starting to get furious. However, before their conversation could progress any further the blonde woman joined them at the counter.

"I thought about it, and since there is a reward involved, I'm in!" She seemed to be overflowing with confidence. "I'm a Beauty Hunter, my name is Jessica."

"A Beauty Hunter?" The Blacklist Hunter questioned in a mocking tone. "Aren't you just a group of vain women trying to look pretty all the time."

"Whatever Hunter I am, I still have more brains than you, so it's fine."

Himeko seemed slightly confused at this reward they were talking about. She knew something must have happened while she was asleep, but the fact that a reward was now involved caught her attention. After all, for a rookie Contract Hunter jobs were really hard to find; especially the more well-paid jobs.

After nearly everyone had accepted the job, expect Himeko of course who had no idea on what was going on, the boy with the glasses also seemed a little interested. Unlike the others he spent some time calculating the odds of him actually catching these ghosts, and ways in which he could do it. Once he came up with a good enough plan, he also decided to accept the job. It wasn't exactly the field of work he would do. Jobs like this would rather suit Contract Hunters, who would usually do these kinds of odd jobs. But there was one Blacklist Hunter and even a Beauty Hunter involved, so why not? He could always use the money to buy himself some new tech gear.

"I'd like to try the job too," he said to the elder woman, "I'm a Hacker Hunter, and I believe that I could be of some assistance to you. The name is Ai Zweistein."

All this reward talk got Himeko curious, "if you don't mind, could you please tell me what this reward is all about?" Her interest grew as she heard the woman talk about a job and how there was a reward for anyone that completes it. Naturally, Himeko was very much into the idea of getting some extra cash before going back home. She didn't have to hear much about the job description to actually accept it just like everyone else. She confidently accepted the job before someone pointed out that she hadn't even heard the full job description yet. However, at that point it was already too late. Before she knew that the mission was to get rid of the ghosts haunting the inn, she had already agreed to do it, and as an Inoue it was against her morals to go back on her word. It would bring shame to her family name.

"Now what, it would be embarrassing to back out now that I agreed to do it. I seriously can't stand anything that's not alive though, but I really want that reward!" Himeko started to scan the room trying to find a potential 'partner in crime' to help her complete the mission; or more like someone she could trick into doing all the dirty work for her. "The muscle head is too stupid, so he is off the list. The woman looks kinda smart, but my girl instincts tell me that she's a bitch, so not her either. Glasses boy over there is probably the sanest person to team up with, but I doubt he'd get tricked by me. He looks too smart." Finally, her eyes landed on the pair that were the most familiar to her. She sighed loudly, "I guess those two will have to do for now. They don't look too stupid, but they don't look that smart either."

Himeko fixed the expression slightly annoyed on her face, turning it into a bright smile, before she looked up at the pair and waved at them. Kune was the first to spot her cheerfully waving at them.

"Look Taku, that chick's waving at me now."

Takumi looked in Himeko's direction, and seeing that she now had their attention, she smiled even brighter, jumping up and down a couple of times while waving at them with both arms. In contrast to Kune, Takumi was slightly confused. She clearly seemed pissed off at him a good five minutes ago, she couldn't possibly be waving at them so happily now. He took a good look around to check whether there was anyone around them. But, there was no one.

"You do remember her telling me to get my hands off her, don't you?" Takumi asked, wondering whether his friend had actually forgotten that incident. "She can't possibly be waving at us, I think she hates us."

"She probably just hates you. She is just too shy to talk to me, so she puts on a facade. She might be one of those tsundere types."

"I doubt there is any -dere in her. She is just the tsun of the tsundere" (As in she is just plain rude and stuck-up, she doesn't have the sweet/caring side a tsundere would show)

Kune just sighed at his friend's statement, "Taku, women are all different. You got to learn how to deal with them all."

While Kune and Takumi continued their talk about women, Himeko kept trying to get their attention by waving, but she was getting ignored. "I'm waving at you retards, look at me!" However, it didn't seem like it was working at all. Himeko decided to take a different approach; something Natsume from the dojo had taught her. She took a brief moment to fix her hair and clear her throat, before she walked up to the boys with the same smile. She held out her hand. "Hey, I'm Himeko Inoue. I was wondering whether you two would like to work with me."

"Aha! I told you! She was waving at us!" Kune announced.

'Clearly I was waving at you, there's no one else here, idiots,' Himeko thought to herself, still smiling brightly.

"Now look, Takumi. You need to make her your friend as soon as possible, make sure you show no interest in liking her more than a friend, clearly you want to wait a few years before announcing your undying love!" Kune instructed, "watch as I shake her hand."

"Hey, I don't like her!" Takumi protested.

Kune turned to the pale girl and slapped her hand, before grabbing it and twisting it around, fiddling with her fingers.

"Did you see that sick handsha-" Kune was cut off by the very irritated Himeko clearing her throat.

Kune turned to look at the girl, and not soon after Takumi turned to look as well. They both have her a puzzled look before Takumi tilted his head and gave the "Oh, I remember" look.

"Oh, I remember!" Takumi exclaimed. "Kune, she finally remembered how pathetic you looked when you tried hitting on her!"

Himeko gave a puzzled look before thinking 'Lol, he actually tried hitting on me. He's not even in my league!' "Well…" Himeko started, "no, I asked you if you wanted to work with me on this mission. After all, three brains work much better than one." 'Well, more like one brain and two puppets work better than just one brain, but I can't tell them that.' "Oh, but I do have one condition- you two need to give me half of your profits!"

"Uh, actually we're fine," Takumi said in a monotone voice, after he started to slowly understand Himeko's ulterior motive. Well, at least the most obvious one of her motives.

"Yeah, Taku here's right," Kune responded in a serious tone, "we're fine with working with you!" Before Himeko could respond, Kune walked up to her and whispered something in her ear so that Takumi couldn't hear. He said, "I'm actually fine with it, I was going to take half of his pay anyway, so we can split it."

"But Kun-" Takumi tried protesting to his companion before Kune cut him off.

"Think of it like this Taku, now we have two people who aren't afraid of ghost, so you're safer."

Takumi was going to open his mouth but he couldn't say anything. 'Kune is right…' Takumi thought, 'now there are two people to protect me.'

Himeko rubbed the back of her head, nervously chuckling while doing so. "I guess your friend is right, you are safer with me around!" Himeko thought, 'I can't let them know that I'm afraid of ghosts too, I can't risk them breaking the deal with me. I need to change the topic!' She looked at the other Hunters, who were all headed up stairs. "That reminds me, your room. Did you close your room door?"

Kune thought back at the things he did on the way out of their hotel room, and he remembered that closing the door was one of them. "Yeah, I closed it."

'At least the idiot closed the door on the way out. Since only these two have access to their room with the apparition in, we will have an advantage over everyone else. I doubt anyone would risk breaking the door down and then pay the repair fee out of the reward. That leaves me to think about these two. Unfortunately only one of them is somewhat useful, the other one is worse than me.' She then looked back up at both of them, "Listen up you two, right now we have more of an advantage than the others. We were the only ones to see the apparition and you two are the only ones with access to the room it was in. We just have to come up with a way to get rid of it, and I'm assuming that the other Hunters have no idea on how to do that. Except for that Hacker though, he might have some sort of gadget to detect the change in temperature of the rooms, and I'm almost certain that he has cameras and microphones with him too."

"You mean like those shows on TV?" Takumi asked.

Himeko nodded, "that's right! We have to somehow lure the ghosts out of the inn if we can't catch them, and we should do that without attracting any attention towards us."

"In that case we should start off looking in our room," Kune suggested, "there is a good chance the apparition is still there."