|| Flame of Recca: The Spirits Within (The House) ||

| En | Ning |

Disclaimer: None of the characters used here belong to us (duh!). They were just borrowed without permission for entertainment (and torture) purposes.

Last Revised: 18/07/2001

| Chapter 3 |

"At last!" Joker exclaimed as he stepped off the bus. "So where's that house?"

The Uruha sweatdropped and pointed toward a long, winding and overgrown path in front of them. The path led through thick, overgrown shrubs. It was impossible to see where the path led as the shrubs obscured one's vision.

"Look! Blueberries! I'm starving!" Kirin shouted as she dashed toward the shrubs and plucked a handful of the delicious berries, which she crammed into her mouth.

Neon glared at her friend and fellow Uruha member. "I thought you weren't hungry."

The next moment, Neon was standing alone as everyone else was helping themselves to the juicy wild berries. She sweatdropped and fumed. Hmph. Even her Kurei-sama was eating those blueberries.

Raiha suddenly pulled out some *real* food that he must have brought from the Uruha mansion. "I knew this would happen and I didn't want to eat Neon-san's cooking."

A few seconds later, the bus and the surrounding area were mostly deserted as the hungry Uruha members chased after the poor ninja in a bid to steal his food. Neon was chasing after the ninja too, but only because she wanted to torture and kill him for insulting her wonderful cooking skills.

"Hn." Kurei was the only one left after his Uruha had taken off. He was beginning to agree with Mori Kouran on the point that the Uruha were incompetent, and he hated it. He was also beginning to get a headache. It was a good thing that he had had the foresight to bring along one whole bottle of aspirin. Sighing, he set off after his Uruha.

Meanwhile, the chase had led the Uruha up the path. The path itself wound around a hill. The mansion was supposed to be located at the peak of the hill. As the starving Uruha chased Raiha, they failed to notice that the sky had become overcast as black storm clouds covered the sun, which had, just a moment ago, been shining brightly. They also failed to notice the lightning in the sky and the increasingly strong wind that howled through the trees on the hill.

"Hey! Where are we?" Kirin asked in amazement. The Uruha had finally reached the top of the hill after their, er, race with Raiha. Neon had managed to catch him and was presently beating the crap out of him. As for the food... let's just say it had conveniently disappeared into a bottomless pit called "Raiha's stomach" somewhere on the way up.

"Hmm, I don't remember it being so dark just now, it looks like it's going to rain." Mikoto commented as she clung onto Mokuren's arm. Kurei strolled uninterestedly onto the scene, only to find the "professional assassin group" engaged in various activities very unbecoming to their "fearsome" reputations. For example, Neon was jumping up and down on a purple and blue blob that could once have been a certain purple-haired ninja; Mikoto and Mokuren were doing what they usually did best together, etc, etc.

"Wow! Look at that big old house! It sure looks freaky and scary..." Kirin observed as she tried to inch behind Rasen, who promptly stepped away from her. He did not need anyone clinging onto him at the present moment.

"That's the mansion Mori-sama was talking about. We'll be staying in it for the duration of the mission, so somebody go down and get the bags." Kurei's voice came from behind her. Kirin jumped. She had been too busy gaping at the house to sense him coming.

"Kurei-sama, you're not kidding are you? We've got to stay in THAT place?" Joker chipped in playfully. Kurei *looked* at him.

"OK then, I'll just pop down and get our stuff. My madougo sure can come in handy at times..." Joker's voice trailed off as he stared at the dense undergrowth surrounding them. "What happened to the path we came up by?"

"That's strange, I could've sworn it was right here a minute ago." Neon had apparently satisfied her violent nature, judging from Raiha's shape, appearance and state. "It couldn't have just disappeared like that, could it?"

"Itai..." Raiha winced as he rubbed the bumps on his head. "Neon-san, you're right. There's no path."

The Uruha exchanged looks. There was something going on, although whether it was actually the supernatural at work was open to question. Most of the Uruha were staunch supporters of the 'there is no such thing as ghosts' faction.

"What are we going to do, Kurei-sama?" Neon asked rather uncertainly. The place gave her the creeps and she was not the only one. Even the normally outrageously cheerful Joker was rather subdued.

As the Uruha watched and waited for an answer, or at least some indication of one, a brilliant bolt of lightning flashed across the black sky. A few of the Uruha shivered as the wind whipped around them with renewed force. The only one who seemed impervious to the surrounding atmosphere was Noroi... but that was expected. It *was* dead, after all.

Whatever answer Kurei might have given was drowned out by the sudden, loud clap of thunder. The Uruha jumped in spite of themselves. Kirin once again tried to inch closer to Rasen, but this time he did not pull away. Genjurou muttered something about the weather being bad for his rheumatism.

"Ano... Kurei-sama, what were you saying?" Raiha asked again. Even he was looking distinctly unsettled.

"It looks like I can't get our stuff anymore..." Joker eyed the overgrowth and the area the path was supposed to have been.

"But what are we going to do?!" Kirin wailed as she inched even closer to Rasen, who gave an insufferable sigh. Well, at least she was not clinging onto him... *yet*.

"Er... where's Mikoto and Mokuren?" Jisho asked. This was probably the first sentence he had uttered since they had left the Uruha mansion.

The remaining Uruha looked around.

"They seem to have... disappeared," Neon replied in a hushed voice.

"Oh well... who cares?" the fanged one shrugged and grinned. "They weren't exactly very useful either."

Joker just *narrowly* avoided the doukumashin as Mikoto and Mokuren immerged from the bushes. What they were doing, you would not want to know... well, at least it proved that nobody was missing.

"Continue to the mansion. We have to finish this mission," Kurei ordered his assassins as he glared at them. He thought his Uruha were behaving rather irrationally.

The Uruha trooped obediently toward the mansion, with Noroi in the lead and Rasen not far behind. Considering that a mask did not have feelings and Rasen had lost his, it was not surprising. The two did not know the meaning of the word 'fear'. Kirin, who was last, eyed the mansion with distaste. It looked black in the prevailing gloom, and the Victorian architecture was... well, the house was in an irreparable state of disrepair.

TBC…

Author's note: I just wish Mikoto and Mokuren had really disappeared. But we need them for later parts of the story which is fast turning into an epic. Maybe they can disappear later… hmm… *thoughtful pose*

Lastly, arigato Kai for proofreading (our spelling is rather atrocious) and giving suggestions.

Ning.