|| 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 5 |

"I say we go this way."

"No, we should go this way."

"Trust me, this way is better. My intuition tells me so and I'm always right."

"Gr… you really drive me mad, you know."

Neon and Jisho were in the midst of an argument over which corridor to take. Sadly for them, there was no Raiha to break up the fight that was about to happen. Finally, Neon came up with a brilliant idea.

"Ok, let's toss a coin. Heads, we go my way; tails, we go yours."

So, they tossed a coin. It landed on a crack so that it was upright. In other words, it did not solve the problem.

"ARGHHH!!!"

Jisho covered his ears. "Shut up, onna! And you should have just followed me instead!"

*whack*

"Why can't you just go my way?! I'm sure it's this way!" Neon pointed emphatically to the left as she stamped her foot.

"What makes you so sure? I say it's the right!"

"It's the left, dammnit!"

"What would you know about such stuff? You're just a stupid onna!" Jisho glared at Neon.

"Stop being a male chauvinist pig! You're beginning to sound like Wufei from Gundam Wing! And just follow me!" Neon shouted.

"Injustice! It's the wrong way!"

Just then the lights in that area went out.

"ARGHHH!!!"

"Jisho, this is all your fault! If you'd just followed me..." Neon screamed in frustration.

"If YOU'd just followed me, we wouldn't be stuck here!" Jisho shot back, "you're the one being difficult!"

"Now, what are we going to do?! This is all your fault!"

Meanwhile, in another part of the mansion...

Mikoto and Mokuren had locked themselves in a room and were doing unspeakable and indescribable things to each other.

Anyway, somewhere else...

"La la la..." Kirin sang loudly as she bounced along behind Rasen. "La la la..."

Rasen stopped. He turned and glared at Kirin. 'Would you mind just shutting up?'

"La la la..." Kirin continued singing. "I'm diffusing the tense atmosphere. La la la..."

Rasen sighed and continued walking as he tried to block out Kirin's singing. It was distracting him from the mission. It was not as if Kirin could not sing well, in fact, she sang pretty well. It was just *very* distracting. Rasen once again cursed his luck at getting paired with Kirin. She could be so irritating some times... okay, most of the time. She just kept on messing up. The worst thing was that he was actually alone with her... well, the Uruha were all in some other part of the mansion. He could not guarantee that he would have the self-control to not throttle her, especially if this kept up any longer.

Kirin however, was in seventh heaven. It had been a great day so far... except for the bus ride of course. First of all, Rasen had actually allowed her to cling onto him... but only because he had been too shocked by the chandelier suddenly falling to protest or glare at her. And now she was *alone* with Rasen... so it was a mission, but well...

"La la la..." Kirin was rather freaked out about this house. What she had seen of it so far made her believe that the house really was haunted. She sang louder in order to distract herself.

Rasen turned and gave her a lethal glare. 'SHUT UP!!!'

"La la la..." 'Rasen, where are we going?'

'Do I look like I know?!'

*crash*

Rasen stopped and turned around again. Kirin was buried under a suit of armor that she must have crashed into. 'Can't you look where you're going?!' he asked her exasperatedly. He pulled her out of the wreckage and continued walking, giving no further thought to the suit of armor.

*creak* *creak* *creak*

Kirin, however, was rooted to the spot. "Ra... Rasen... ARGHHHHH!!!"

Rasen winced painfully as his ears were assaulted by Kirin's scream. 'WHAT NOW?!' He turned around and his jaw dropped.

The suit of armor had pulled itself together and was upright once more. That in itself was impossible since Kirin had scattered all the separate pieces of armor all over the floor when she had bumped into it. Even more unbelievable was the fact that it was slowly shuffling stiffly towards them, its rusty sword drawn. The gap in its visor where its eyes ought to have been was glowing an eerie red.

Rasen stared at the walking armor, not believing what he was seeing. Kirin screamed again as it raised its sword, as though to strike her. Suddenly, the corridor seemed to come alive as the various arrays of armored knights slowly came to life, surrounding the two assassins...

Somewhere else in the middle of the mansion...

"So, exactly what are we supposed to do?" Joker yawned as he tagged along behind Raiha. His stomach was growling and he remembered the *real* reason why he decided to team up with Raiha. "Do you happen to have anything to eat?"

Raiha turned around and looked at him, "We're supposed to be investigating the place, so stop thinking about your stomach."

Joker complained, "Easy for *you* to say, you brought your own food. You don't want me to die of hunger do you?" He opened his eyes really wide and gave Raiha his apparently most appealing look, which did not exactly work, since Raiha could not see his eyes. "Please please please please please...."

Raiha gritted his teeth and wondered why he had to be the one "baby-sitting" Joker. Right now, he *really* wanted to sit on Joker, preferably, a Joker that had been knocked out. "Oh fine, you can have this."

He threw a packet of biscuits at Joker, who immediately devoured all. His cheerful and insufferable personality restored to 100%, he started to drive Raiha mad all over again.

*****

"So where are we heading to now? Wait, that's a stupid question, we're not even *going* anywhere. In fact, we can't *go* anywhere. Still, Raiha-han, where are we going?"

"WILL YOU QUIT ASKING ME STUPID QUESTIONS?!?!?! YOU'VE BEEN ASKING ME THAT FOR THE LAST 5 MINUTES!!!!!!" Raiha was finally losing his patience with the black-and-white baka known as Joker.

Joker grinned at Raiha and said cheerfully, "That's what Joker's are for, to drive you mad!"

Raiha whacked his forehead with his palm. "If you don't stop bugging me, I'm going to make you into a piece of patchwork!"

Just then, both of them heard a faint whirring sound.

"Hm... did you just hear what I heard?"

"Yes, and I think it was coming from behind one of the walls. You take this side of the corridor, I'll take this side."

Both of them made their way slowly along the walls, tapping each one to see if it was hollow. Joker knocked on each panel, feeling like a fool, not like he *wasn't* one.

Just as he was about to start pestering Raiha again on what they were supposed to be doing, he heard the ninja give an exclamation of surprise.

"Joker-han! I think I've found something... ARGH!"

Joker turned around in time to see his friend falling through a hole in the wall that wasn't there the last time he looked. He ran over

and peered through it.

"Raiha-han! Are you alright?" He called through the hole. A faint muffled reply came up from somewhere down there. Before Joker knew what was happening, Joker felt something hit him from behind. He tumbled headfirst through the hole to join Raiha, wherever he was.

TBC…

Author's note: Hahaha… I'm sort of having a laughing fit, which means I'm hyper. This is bad. Actually being hyper in school is a good thing because it means I'm not asleep. School is so boring I could fall asleep. I haven't before, but it's tough to stay awake. Besides, I sit somewhere in front and the teacher's always like standing in front of my desk.

You know, I seriously don't think Mikoto and Mokuren are ever going to really do anything in this fic. They'll just continue having their 'fun'. *sweatdrop* Actually I don't see how they can go on and on… like don't they get tired or something? Oh well… expect them to be 'having fun' and doing unspeakable and unmentionable stuff for a long time. I have no idea what to do to them. Maybe it's better to just leave them inside. At least they enjoy themselves, right? ^_^

The Neon and Jisho part is seriously exaggerated. And Jisho is beginning to sound like Wufei from Gundam Wing, there's a reference somewhere up there. Sigh… I really want to watch GW. It's actually showing on television but it's at 7:30 in the mornings every Saturday, too early for me. Okay, I'm very lazy. ^_^

I have no idea what prompted me to write the Rasen and Kirin part. ^_^ I originally wanted to add some sap, but since I really suck at writing sap I just left it like that. Actually neither of us is any good at writing sap.

In case anyone was wondering, En wrote the part where Joker was pestering Raiha for food. It sounds very, well, En. Basically, it's something En would do when she's trying to drive people mad, which is like always. ^_^ Do you notice that the parts she writes all end up sounding very like her? ^_^

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

Ning.