Disclaimer : I do not own Ah! My Goddess, nor do I own Killer Klowns from Outer Space
-oOoOoOo-
Deep within the Big Top, Tamiya and Otaki were walking around, trying to find the owners. The tent had metal corridors with various pipes, grates, and tubes attached all over. It made them think more of a spaceship than circus tent. The whole place also somehow seemed bigger on the inside, but not in the fun way like that doctor with the blue box.
"I keep telling you, Den-chan, I'm starting to think that Aoshima might've had…" Otaki said before gulping like he had tasted something awful. "The… the right idea to get the cops. This place seems crazy and not in any of the fun ways. I look around and every one of my senses tells me that this wasn't put together right, like in the laws of reality sense!"
Tamiya huffed in an annoyed way as he pushed a low-hanging tube out of the way. A slight twitch in his eyes was the only sign that he was also getting scared.
"And I keep telling you you that we can scare the bums who stole our spot without getting the law involved!" Tamiya replied as they reached the end of a corridor with three closed doors, each with a panel of buttons by their sides. All the buttons were unmarked. He looked at all three and let out a sigh. "Which door you wanna try?"
Otaki scratched the back of his head as he answered, "Is the door that goes back outside a choice? 'Cause it's the one I wanna go with."
Tamiya gave a glare back and even a slight growl in response.
"R-right… Bad answer... I think… Maybe… The Middle door?" Otaki responded before he pointed at the middle door. Tamiya walked up to the door and pressed what he hoped was a 'door open' button. To both men's surprise, the door did open. The door was small enough that Tamiya would have to walk in sideways and the room inside was barely bigger than the door.
"Doesn't look like there might be enough room, Den-chan…" Otaki commented as they looked at the elevator.
"Sure, there is! Just gotta squeeze in real tight!" Tamiya said, thumping his chest. The duo then did their best to get in, not wanting to leave the other behind. Like Tamiya stated, it was a tight squeeze, barely enough room for Tamiya to be able to press the elevator's buttons
"I've been in Phone booth pranks that had more room than this!" Otaki muttered as Tamiya pressed a random button from the top.
"Me too, Otaki, me too. and that attempt to get in a record book. That whole day was a waste..." Tamiya grumbled as the elevator doors closes and the elevator began to move. From what the two could tell, it seemed to be moving upwards. After a few minutes, the elevator stopped and the two fell out. Tamiya was the first to stand up and look around.
They were on a small platform in a extremely large room, one far bigger than what the tent outside had been. The walls only had metal panels, though every few stories, a pipe went from one wall to the one on the opposing side. A large tower with small platforms was in the center of the room. Purple electricity crackled from the tower to the pipes every so often.
"Den-chan… I think we stopped on the wrong floor…" Otaki said in a quiet tone as he stood up and began to back into the elevator.
Tamiya looked down and all he saw was darkness. A cold shiver went up and down his spine.
"I… I… I agree with you…" Tamiya muttered as he squeezed into the elevator with Otaki. Once the door closed and Tamiya pressed a button near the bottom. The elevator began to move again.
-oOo-
While still standing in front of Skuld's door, Banpei made a beeping noise. In Banpei's computer vision, a window opened up. It was a program that connected him to many mini-Banpei that guarded outside, like a main server to a large group of smaller ones. At the moment, the Mini-Banpei that contacted Banpei showed that it was looking at several bushes. Because it was now night, Banpei had to bring up the brightness of the video. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary, so he began to look through the rest of the Mini-Banpei's memory. For the last few minutes, there was nothing but bushes, occasionally moving in the wind. The robot stopped when what looked like several small white balls with red shiny dots appeared.
Banpei slowly rewound the memory even more to see how the white balls appeared. What he saw worried him somehow enough to go to Belldandy. Before he did, he went into Skuld's room. Banpei disconnected Skuld's computer monitor and picked it up. It didn't take long for him to find the goddess. Currently, she was washing dishes.
Feeling that she was being watched, Belldandy looked over and was surprised to see Banpei holding a computer monitor.
"Banpei! Won't Skuld be angry with you for removing that from her room?" Belldandy asked as Banpei placed the monitor on the ground and hooked it up to himself. When he was done, he replied to Belldandy's question with a nod.
Before Belldandy could say more, the monitor flickered on. On the screen was the image of several bushes. Other than them waving in the wind for several moments, nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary.
Then a branch started to move. An oversized white hand with red dots for fingernails appeared out of a bush and pushed some more branches out of the way. An oddly shaped head grossly overpainted like a clown then appeared. It had oversized ears and green hair. There was a small group of hair on the top of its head like a spike. All over the back of its head was green hair wildly flailing out. Two blue circles surrounded its eyes. Red dots were at the edge of its red lips and its nose was a standard red sphere that was on the nose of a person who dressed as a clown.(1)
The clown looked around for a few moments before it noticed the Mini-Banpei spying on it. The clown sank back into the bushes before it grabbed some branches and placed them back to where they were before they had been moved.
The Monitor screen went blank.
Belldandy looked at Banpei and she now knew why the robot was worried and what caused it to worry.
"Don't worry, Banpei. I'll go out and check if that clown is still there. If I find him, I'll ask him to leave," Belldandy said as she summoned her staff. As she left the kitchen and headed outside, Banpei went back to put the monitor back.
Once outside, Belldandy went over to where the clown had popped out of. Using her staff, she moved the branches out of the way. There was no trace that anything had been there. Fallen leaves were untouched, there was no broken branches, and none of the leaves on the branches had any makeup on them.
While still poking around with her staff, Belldandy thought, 'Either Mara has messed with Banpei's programming like she did when we blocked Urd from going back to Heaven, or we're dealing with something that only looks like a clown...'
After placing one end of her staff down, Belldandy closed her eyes and increased her awareness of the surrounding area.
That's odd… I sense less life than there was in the morning… I don't think they went on vacation… The difference seems too big for that, but I could be wrong...' Belldandy thought before she put her awareness back to what a human's would be. Her hands went into fists as she thought, 'I have a feeling that doesn't seem likely. Perhaps it's because of that clown that Banpei saw?'
After Belldandy entered the temple, unaware she was being watched. A few houses away, in the bushes, Shorty the Klown giggled as he held his hands like he was holding a pair of invisible binoculars. The short, green-haired klown soon heard the sounds of a balloon rubbing against leaves. Looking to his left, he spotted a purple bird balloon animal had landed on the next bush over. Shorty picked up the Balloon and put it near his ear. The bird balloon moved its head and made a few squeaks. The klown sighed as he left the bushes and wandered towards the town. According to the balloon, Jumbo was somewhere nearby, ready to spy on the Temple.
For some reason unknown to the klowns, they felt a weak, strange urge to go to the temple.
-oOo-
Sayoko was driving away from the Police station. After stopping at an intersection and waited for the light to turn blue, she looked over at her passenger and smirked.
"I was always wondering when I would have to pick you up from there... " Sayoko said. Her smirk grew bigger as she continued, "Always thought it would be for you being too drunk or you got to grabby with one of your dates, though… Never thought it'd be because of clowns, though..."
"Look, something about that tent still bothers me... " Aoshima muttered as he crossed his arms, slid down in his seat, and looked ahead. "And whatever was there broke into my car and left… Popcorn! Sticky horrid popcorn!"
Sayoko took a deep breath and sighed as she looked ahead and the light turned blue, letting her know it was time to drive across.
"All things considered, it's a minor prank…" Sayoko muttered.
"It was not the auto club. The two morons were as surprised as me to find a tent in our spot at the campground," Aoshima replied with a glare, making Sayoko lose her smirk. Sayoko was surprised to see that her cousin was actually defending Tamiya and Otaki.
"Just relax… You're getting stressed out enough that you're defending those knuckleheads," Sayoko stated. "So how was the grounds? Good for a party or a place we should skip out on?"
"Muddy and miserable. Wouldn't be surprised if that's why they chose…" Aoshima muttered before he noticed a four-foot tall clown walking on the sidewalk. The bright yellow outfit that the clown wore made Aoshima's face pale. After Sayoko's car passed by, Aoshima quiet said in a pleading tone, "Please let me stay with you tonight, Sayoko."
Sayoko briefly looked at Aoshima with a very puzzled glance before she said, "What brought this on?"
"Saw a clown. I think it might have followed me to town," Aoshima answered, looking like he was trying hard not to panic.
"Aren't we a bit too old to be afraid of clowns?" Sayoko chuckled. When Aoshima didn't respond, Sayoko looked over. Aoshima had his knees up and was hugging his legs. Sayoko looked back at the road and thought, 'Considering how prideful he is, this doesn't make much sense. Might as well let him spend the night and hope he gets better in the morning...'
-oOo-
The two kids had enjoyed their ice cream. Because it was night, they rode back to Sentaro's house because it was closer than the temple. When the two got near it, Skuld and Sentaro pulled over to the side of Sentaro's front door.
"I need to call my home and get either Keiichi or big sis to come and pick me up…" Skuld said as she and Sentaro got off their bikes.
"I'm sure my parents will let you call. My mom might even ask to talk with Belldandy for a bit and probably ask for a recipe or two," Sentaro replied with a smile, making Skuld chuckle for a moment as they walked into Sentaro's home. "Mom! Dad! Skuld needs to use the phone!"
After a few moments with no response, Sentaro called out once again, "Mom?! Dad?!"
After a few more moments, Sentaro looked at Skuld and said, "The phone is in the kitchen. While you call home, I'll look around to find my parents to let them know once I find them."
Skuld nodded before she walked into the Kitchen.
'Dad's probably in his study, so that's a good place to start...' Sentaro thought as he walked into the living room and into the hall behind it. The door to his father's study was partially opened, so he knocked for a few moments as he asked, "Dad? Are you in there?"
When he heard no response, he knocked some more while he opened the door. Inside, his father's computer had its screensaver on for a moment before the computer went into sleep mode. Sentaro looked around the room, hoping his dad was in a corner for some reason.
Not spotting the older man, Sentaro shrugged before he went back into the hallway and headed towards the kitchen.
"Skuld? Were you able to call home?" Sentaro called out as he neared the doorway to the kitchen. Skuld quickly appeared and blocked the way to the kitchen. The expression on her face was a mix of shock, horror, and fear.
"N-No, I didn't call, didn't get a chance to. We need to head to the temple. Right now," Skuld said, sounding like she was barely holding together. Sentaro began to get a little scared as he looked at Skuld.
"I thought you needed to-" Sentaro said as he tried to look past Skuld. She mostly blocked him from looking past her, but he did manage to see two large piles of cotton candy. "Why is there cotton-"
"Please, Sentaro! We NEED to go to the temple!" Skuld cried out with tears in her eyes, her hands shaking and trembling a great deal.
There was no way he could refuse her at that point.
"Al-alright, Skuld. whatever you say…" Sentaro said as he began to walk to the front door. skuld followed after him. "Kinda weird my parents aren't here."
"Big sis will find them…" Skuld quietly replied as they left the house and got on their bikes. The two began to ride to the temple. Sentaro noticed that Skuld seemed to act as if she expected some monster to jump out at them.
-oOoOoOo-
Notes from HotelKatz : The title, 'Coulrophobia' was thought up by Nena Camadera of the Goddess Relief Office forum.
(1) Shorty the Klown. That little klown that appeared from a pizza box and knocked some guy's head off with boxing gloves, if you want details of what he did in the movie. Description was taken from the Killer Klown wiki.