Authoress's Notes: Oh, hello there. It's nice to see you again, or if you just discovered this story, welcome to the party! As you can see from the description, I started writing Battlefront in response to a Halloween challenge that was issued by a member of The Reviews Lounge, Too. Since then, a lot has happened, and I was forced to quit writing for quite a long time, but it seems I'm finally making a comeback.
Now, there are a few things I want to make note of. The first is, this actually is a semi-reincarnation fanfic. Semi meaning the main cast are all very good friends, but don't have any memories of the (canon) afterlife, but they do have that very comfortable feeling as if they've known each other for a very long time. Another is that, Hinata and Yui are a bit more mature than what you're probably used to. I'll elaborate more on that in later chapters.
The usual disclaimer and such goes here. Warnings: mentions of a non-descriptive murder/suicide, death of a small child, and spookiness. Because spirits don't go rest just because Halloween is over.
[maleficence – noun: 1: the doing of evil or harm, 2: the quality or state of being maleficent or harmful]
Maleficence
Having found little more than a healthy amount of spider webs, and what was surely a thriving population of allergens, Hinata listened with mild annoyance as Yui chattered on about her favorite all-girl band's latest release. It wasn't as if he weren't a fan of Girls Dead Monster as well, but it seemed to him that his pink-haired companion's interest in the band members was almost disturbingly obsessive. In fact, it wouldn't have surprised him one bit if the pinkette knew which brand of toothpaste each of them preferred, and why. He knew better than to ask though, as doing so would likely lead to an in-depth analysis of the products in relation to the girls who used them.
As Yui continued to rattle on, Hinata sighed and rolled his eyes. Admittedly, it was his own fault for asking what she thought of the band's latest single that had been released just in time for Halloween, but he hadn't realized such a simple question would start the girl in the cat costume to rant on for the better part of an hour. Suddenly, the scent of something sweet caught his attention, causing the blue-haired boy to stop walking and regard the girl with curious suspicion. "Are you wearing perfume?"
Surprised by the abrupt change in subject, Yui blinked and refocused her attention. "Yup! It's called Magnetism." She tilted her head and smiled mischievously. "Is it working?"
Hinata frowned in slight confusion. "What do you mean 'is it working?'
"Well, it's supposed to be infused with human pheromones."
Hinata's voice held it's usual amount of sarcasm as he turned and resumed walking. "Meaning?"
Yui fell into step beside her companion and explained. "Meaning that by the end of the day tomorrow I'll have every guy in school just begging to go out with me." She quickened her pace and took the lead, turning to face him while walking backward. "You don't have a problem with that, do you?"
Hinata shrugged. "Not unless you want me to."
Suddenly flustered, Yui turned away quickly, hoping her friend hadn't noticed her rapidly flushing cheeks. Her voice threatened to fail her, but she somehow managed a coherent response. "W-Well of course not. I mean, why would I?"
In the brief seconds after her explanation, Hinata had already begun pondering the most likely outcomes of Yui's efforts to attract the opposite sex, none the which he liked. "Well, let's say there really is something to this human pheromone thing; what if you end up attracting the wrong kind of guy?"
Yui's expression turned from pensive to smug as she turned to face him once again. "Maybe that's what I want; the bad boy with a motorcycle and leather jacket and dark sunglasses." She nodded emphatically. "Yup! That's exactly what I'm going for, the rebel without a clause!"
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
She tilted her head, curious of his unusually sarcastic tone. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you sound jealous of my dream lover."
Hinata snorted and gave her a sideways glance. "That's crazy. You're crazy. And it's 'rebel without a cause,' not clause."
Yui grinned. "You are! You're actually jealous of my imaginary dream lover!"
Again, Hinata stopped abruptly. "Don't call him that. It sounds weird." He squeezed his eyes shut while shaking his head. "And I am not!" He paused and took in a breath. "It's just that some guys are jerks-'
Yui snorted in a very unladylike-like fashion and crossed her arms. "You would know."
Hinata rolled his eyes at this but continued. "-and I don't want you getting into something you can't handle." In truth, he worried about Yui more than he'd like to admit. She was smart, and energetic, but at the same time too innocent, and trusting for her own good. Whenever she spoke of such things, Hinata almost felt like he could predict the future, and didn't like what he saw one bit.
Yui's brow furrowed. It was strange that her friend seemed so concerned about a completely hypothetical situation, and she wasn't quite sure what to make of it. "You know, you're making a big deal out of nothing. It's not like this motorcycle riding, leather jacket wearing-"
"Chain smoking delinquent."
"-dream boat is real. I can't just make him magically appear by wishing or something."
Hinata smirked as the two began walking once again. "Knowing you and your wild imagination, I wouldn't be surprised if this loser did show up one day out of nowhere." Until that moment, the teen hadn't given any real thought to how he'd feel if Yui broke away from their friendship circle to start dating. Nice guys or bad boys, he was positive he wouldn't be okay with it, not even a little.
As Hinata contemplated being jealous of an imaginary rival, Yui was temporarily lost in thought, as well. For a moment, the plucky little girl in the cat costume was silent, and when she spoke next, her voice was soft, and her words thoughtful. "That's not really what I want."
Hinata regarded the girl, his expression confused and questioning.
"I want to be with someone that will love me for me. We'll spend cold winter nights snuggling by a cozy fire, sharing a nice bottle of wine – nice, but not expensive! - and in the summer we'll go to the beach. And sometimes we'll stay and watch the sun set over the ocean. Then we'll kiss, and maybe if there's no one around-"
Hinata raised a hand hoping to silence the girl before she was able to finish her thought. "I...yeah okay, I get it. You don't have to make it sound like some smutty romance novel."
Yui huffed. "That's not smutty, it's romantic!"
"I'm not so sure I'd consider getting sand in places I never knew I had romantic." He paused, pushing the thought from his mind, and began walking. "So you want the whole thing then, the fancy wedding, the house with the white picket fence, and the two point five kids, and optional pet – I'm guessing a dog, is that right?"
Yui smiled brightly, and nodded. "That's right."
Hinata nodded as well, noting her sincere enthusiasm and idealistic vision, and chose his next words carefully. Unfortunately, what he actually said wasn't nearly as poetic as what he intended. "It's not bad."
"It's my fantasy, you know. You don't have to-"
"I meant the perfume. It's kinda nice."
She stopped walking, and stared, shocked at the admission. "You...you like it? Really?"
Hinata stopped as well. "Yeah."
Feeling nervous once again, Yui swallowed hard, trying to suppress the butterflies in her stomach. "So...what's the story on this place? I heard there's a portal in here somewhere. Is that true?"
As the two continued on, Hinata informed Yui of what he and the others had learned during previous investigations. "Maybe. If there is, we haven't found it. Yurippe thinks it's in the panic room."
"That's so weird."
"What?"
"The only people I've ever heard of having panic rooms are celebrities and politicians, not normal people."
"It's not that weird if you're convinced your house is trying to kill you."
Yui shook her head, confused. "I don't get it."
"Translation, 'I didn't do my research.' What a surprise."
Yui glanced at her partner sheepishly. "Would you believe me if I said I've been busy with school work?"
"No."
"Oh come on, don't be that way. I just forgot." She smiled sweetly. "Forgive me?"
Hinata sighed. "Fine, but if you're going to be a part of the team, you have to promise to do your homework. It's the only way to know who, or what, you might run into."
Yui gave a sincere nod. "I promise."
They rounded a corner, and stopped in the threshold of the first room they came to. Hinata took a small camera from his pocket, snapping pictures of the room in rapid succession, and continued on alongside his friend. "This house has a seriously messed up past for only having two owners."
She looked around as they made their way down yet another hallway. "Only two? How bad can it be?"
"About twenty years ago, a young couple were expecting their first child. The husband was an architect, so he designed their dream home, and had it built here. Everything was going well for the first few years, but the husband started to...change."
"My mom says everyone changes after they get married, especially when they start having children."
"No, change – like he was a totally different person. He was always angry, and started getting really paranoid, eventually accusing his wife of cheating on him."
"Was she?"
Hinata shrugged. "According to their friends and family, no."
"So what happened?"
"Well, one night after she put their little girl to bed, they finally had it out. He stormed off to the garage, and she followed him. When he demanded that she admit to cheating, she denied it just like she always had. And that's when he finally lost it."
At that point, Yui was wringing her hands, wide-eyed "What-what did he do?"
"He grabbed an axe off the wall, and swung it right at her head."
Yui stopped walking, as did her friend. She looked at him, her eyes still wide, and her skin even more pale than usual. "You mean he..."
The blue-haired teen couldn't help being amused at his companion's discontent. With a grin, he nodded, and made a slicing motion across his neck.
The pinkette covered her mouth with her hands, and hurried into the next room, thankful to find an open window, where she promptly emptied the contents of her stomach onto the lawn below. Once finished, Yui turned around, speaking in a weak voice to her momentarily ex-friend. "You really are a jerk."
Hinata put a hard on her shoulder, helping to steady her as she regained her composure. "I was just messing with you."
"Jerk."
"How was I supposed to know you were going to throw up?"
Letting herself lean against her friend, Yui wiped the tears from her eyes. The nausea had not subsided, as it should have, and she had suddenly developed a very painful headache. "If the rest of the story is like that, I don't want to hear anymore of it."
"It's not." Just then, a shadow, and an acute drop in temperature caught Hinata's attention. He ushered Yui out of the room, ignoring the possibility of capturing the voice of the entity on his digital recorder. Instead, he focused on the now recovering Yui. "You okay?"
She nodded. "I think so."
"Tell me what happened."
She shook her head. "I don't know. It wasn't the story, I just...out of nowhere I felt sick to my stomach, and after I threw up, my head started to hurt – like an instant migraine, except a million times worse."
Hinata sighed inwardly. He was beginning to feel guilty for exposing the girl to such things without having her properly trained first. "I'm sorry. Let's forget about the investigation for now, and go home."
Yui straightened, and dusted herself off. "Not happening." She started walking, temporarily leaving a stunned Hinata behind.
He quickly closed the gap between himself, and the pinkette. "After what just happened? Yui-"
"Don't do that to me, Hideki. Don't treat me like I'm different – like I'm weak and fragile just because I get sick easier than most people."
He could see the determination in her eyes, but even so, her safety was more important to him at that point than her desire to feel normal. "We can come back another time."
She paused in step, and turned to look him in the eyes. "I can do this."
"Are you sure?"
Yui rolled her eyes, and groaned dramatically. "Yes, I'm sure! And I also want you to tell me the rest of that story."
Hinata raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"
She shot him a noncommittal glare. "Don't make me hurt you."
Relieved to see the tenacious pinkette back to normal, he scoffed. "Yeah, because that will totally happen in this lifetime." When her only response was an exaggerated huff, Hinata resumed telling the story. "Okay so, according to the news reports, the husband was immediately horrified by what he'd just done, so he went back into the house, shot the little girl, and then himself."
"How awful..."
"Yeah. We think they're still here."
"Really... So what about the next owners?"
"For several years, the house sat vacant, and was eventually put up for auction. Oddly enough, it was like history was already repeating itself. Mr. and Mrs. Tanaka were about the same age as the first owners, except that they had a little boy."
Yui frowned. "Don't tell me the same thing happened to them, too."
Hinata shook his head."No, but they started having problems almost right away. Their little boy began talking to, well, no one as far as his parents knew, so they just figured he had an imaginary friend, and went on about life as usual. But strange things started happening, and Mr. Tanaka started having nightmares about his own death."
"Why didn't he go see a psychiatrist..or psychologist, or whatever?"
The blue-haired teen stopped at another room to snap some more pictures before answering. "Nothing helped. The nightmares got so bad that he decided to take an extended leave from his job, and that's when he began building the panic room."
Yui nodded. "Ah, now I get it."
"Mrs. Tanaka was relieved at first, thinking some time away from work would do him some good. Eventually though, she found out he he'd spent all of their money on the panic room, including their son's college fund, so she packed as much as she could for herself, and her son, and left."
"Good for her, I guess. What happened to him?"
Hinata shrugged. "No one knows. She tried contacting him. She even came back here, worried something might have happened to him. It's like he just vanished."
Yui considered this for a moment. "People don't just vanish. And when they do, it's usually because they're living a double life, and are close to being found out."
Hinata waved a hand dismissively. "The chances of Mr. Tanaka being here are much higher."
Yui raised an eyebrow, and tilted her head, shrugging. "Well, lets find him then."
Several rooms, recordings, and pictures later, the two had little to show for their efforts, save for the occasional orb, and unexplained noise. Nearly finished with the investigation, Hinata and Yui stopped for a momentary rest.
Leaning against a dust-covered end table, Yui yawned. "Man, my feet are killing me."
"Yeah, we should heard back so we can get home, and go to bed for a few hours. I can't afford to be tired at practice tomorrow."
As they turned to leave, Yui absentmindedly brushed her hand across the pleated lampshade of a floor lamp, causing it to swivel.
To the amateur investigators' astonishment, the floor began to tremble, and a panel in the wall slid open, revealing a staircase.
Yui blinked, and, gestured toward the lamp. "Scooby Doo 101. I bet you feel pretty silly right now."
"And I guess you have a masters in hidden passages, and how to trigger them."
As the teenage spirit hunters descended the staircase, the already dim light quickly faded, and the air became increasingly heavy.
The closer they got to what was surely their ultimate goal, Yui started feeling ill once again. "It feels really bad down here. I think I'm going to be sick."
Hinata nodded, and activated the flashlight app on his phone. "I know. I don't like it either." He failed to inform her that something had made its presence known to him by way of a horrific, yet fleeting vision, right around the same time she commented on not feeling well.
Finally, the staircase ended at a partially open, and very large, steel door. The pair stopped just short of the threshold, and despite their intense feelings of dread, and unannounced fear, they peered inside.
The room was just big enough for a small group of people, and was furnished rather comfortably, complete with a kitchenette, rations, and several non-functioning closed-circuit video monitors.
Yui looked around the space, trying her best to maintain a brave facade. She nearly jumped out of her skin, however, at the sound of three distinct taps on a nearby wall. "What-"
"Holy shit!" Visibly shaken, and his mental wall broken, Hinata turned sharply in the direction of the noise. "This isn't happening..." His racing thoughts were quickly interrupted by another, possibly even more terrifying sound – the sound of the heavy steel door slamming behind them.
