|| 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 7 |

At the source of the noise pollution in the mansion...

Kirin realized that her attempts at getting attention were going nowhere. She sighed as she brushed herself off again, trying to figure a way out of the muddy pool. She turned around in search of Rasen, only to find that she was alone.

"Rasen?" She called softly. "Rasen? Are you here?" She started to panic. "Rasen! Where are you?!"

She tried to recall what had happened before she had fallen through the shaft. "Hm... first it was those knights and stuff, then they chased us... and I fell through the wall... and, wait a minute, Rasen didn't come down with me. Which means he's still up there!"

With renewed energy, she started again, "RRRRAAASSSEEEENNN!!!!!!!!!!!"

Twenty feet above Kirin, Rasen was busy getting rid of the suits of armor. He knew that something had happened to Kirin but, from experience, also knew that of she could scream and screech her head off, she probably wasn't injured. He narrowly avoided a slash from a rusty sword and retaliated by making the sword disappear.

Suddenly, he heard a *very* familiar sound coming from under him.

"RRRAASSSEEEENNN!!!!!"

He winced inwardly as the sound assaulted his eardrums. He contemplated making her voice disappear but decided against it. He *did* need a translator after all.

Just then a strange thing happened. The red glow in the visors gradually faded and left, leaving the suits of armor standing in their various positions of attack. Curious, Rasen poked at the nearest one gently and nimbly jumped aside as it crashed down almost on top of him. Whatever was controlling them had apparently given up.

He noticed the hole in the wall where Kirin had most probably fallen through. He walked over to it and poked his head through it. 'Kirin? Are you there?'

Somewhere far below him, he caught the sound of someone splashing in something gooey.

"What took you so long?! Can't you hurry up and get me out of this pig hole?" Kirin yelled back as angrily as she could. she was, in actual fact, more relived than angry.

Rasen thought about whether he should leave her there so that she wouldn't bother him. On second thought, he decided not to. Goodness knows what she might do to my eardrums if she finds out what I would really like to do to her. Rasen thought to himself.

'Teleport yourself out of there, you baka. You don't expect me to go down there and carry you out, do you?' He told her blandly.

"Oh, I forgot I could teleport. Hee hee. I'm coming out now!"

Kirin appeared in front of Rasen. He stared at her mud-splattered state and asked, 'what on earth were you doing down...' Kirin flung her arms around him and hugged him as hard as she could.

"Did you miss me? I missed you!" She chirped happily. Rasen had not dodged her hug, and that definitely made her day.

Rasen sighed as he untangled her from around his neck. He did not appreciate being given a mud bath by a semi-lunatic. He decided not to pursue the matter, and thought of it as a welcome back gift from Kirin.

'Let's go.'

"Gee, what happened to all the armor? And how come you didn't fall down with me? And also,...." A torrent of questions bombarded Rasen's ears as he began to regret not leaving her behind.

Meanwhile, in another part of the mansion...

... two people were *still* arguing.

"Sheesh, Jisho, don't you have a light or something?" Neon asked in irritation. "I can't see a thing. Stupid house."

"Do I look like I carry everything around?!" Jisho shot back. "Let's just continue."

Neon growled, "But it's pitch black, you baka!"

Jisho glared at Neon, although in the darkness Neon did not notice, "I'm not stupid, onna!"

"Grr... I have a name... NEON!!!" Neon aimed a kick at Jisho. However, since they were still in the dark, she missed and crashed to the fall instead.

Suddenly, the lights flickered, and came back on.

"Good. Now, let's take the left path and get out of this damn place!" Neon was in a really bad mood.

However, there was no answer from Jisho. He had turned rather pale and was staring at a spot on the ground about two feet behind the fuming Neon.

"WHAT?!?!" Neon demanded.

Jisho continued to stare in some sort of horrified fascination, totally ignoring Neon, who was beginning to get uneasy from Jisho's weird behavior.

"Jisho... stop trying to be funny!" Neon glared at him.

Jisho continued to stare at whatever was behind Neon. Finally, her curiosity got the better of her, and Neon turned round.

Fresh blood was dripping steadily from the ceiling, soaking a large crimson patch into the old threadbare carpet. However, the ceiling did not have any leaks or cracks. Furthermore, there were no bloodstains on the ceiling.

"Uhh..." Neon shifted away from the puddle uneasily. "Shit! Jisho what are you doing?!"

Neon had just narrowly avoided a lethal blow from Jisho's N-S swords. Even as she scrambled out of reach, Jisho was preparing for another blow. It looked as though Jisho was out to kill her, but why?

"Jisho... this is *not* funny!" Neon panted as she jumped away from his swords once again.

Jisho did not reply. His face was a blank, expressionless mask. He continued advancing toward the confused Neon.

"Shit..." Neon cursed as she hastily pulled out her Fukyo Waon. She blocked the blow just in time. It would have cracked her collarbone if she had been any slower. "What the hell is happening?"

Somewhere else in the mansion...

Joker and Raiha looked at each other.

"Oi, Raiha-han, where are we?" Joker asked the ninja, his tone serious (well, relatively).

Raiha shrugged and continued to walk.

They had somehow, during the chase, ended up in what seemed like an endless, empty corridor. What was odd, were the old fashioned candlesticks that lined the corridor at regular intervals. The candles burning provided the only light apart from the madougo. As the two assassins walked, they noted that it was gradually getting colder.

They walked... and walked... and walked...

Joker sighed as he propped his madougo against the wall and leant against the rough stonewall. "This corridor's endless! And did you notice? The wax never burns."

A high-pitched, yet strangely haunting, wail filled the air as a strong gust of wind swept through the corridor.

Joker felt his skin start to creep. He did *not* like what was happening to them. He shivered and asked, "Hey, Raiha-han, do you think you could turn down the air-conditioning or whatever? It's kinda cold you know."

Raiha sighed. Sometimes, like now for example, he really felt like blasting Joker with his raijin just to see how a fried Joker would look like. "Could you just shut up until we get out of this place? Although, I must say that you're right, the wax isn't burning."

They continued down the corridor again. The strange wailing had stopped by now, but there seemed to be some air currents in the passageway, which was odd, as the entire place was enclosed. Raiha frowned slightly as he thought about all the strange events that had taken place. 'The chandelier was definitely cut, it couldn't have fallen exactly at the moment when almost all of us were under it. Besides, the wires were all spliced with a knife,' he mused as he walked along with Joker. 'Strange, there's a slight wind in this place, but the flames aren't even flickering. Could it be that...' He stopped next to one of the candlesticks and stared hard at it.

Joker asked, "Is something wrong? Why are you staring at the candle like that?"

"Do you notice anything strange about the candles?"

"Well, as I said, the wax doesn't burn. Oh, and also, there's no smoke or heat from the flame. Wait a minute, are you saying..."

Raiha held his hand in the middle of the flame. He looked at Joker and said, "The flames don't exist at all."

The words were hardly out of his mouth when the candlesticks seemed to turn wavy and disappeared. The corridor seemed to shorten as a door appeared a few meters away to their right. The two assassins looked at each other in surprise.

"So, shall we go see what's behind that door?" Joker asked.

Raiha shrugged. "Why not? Since we're already here, there's no harm in just taking a look." But he could not get the incident out of his head. He was steadily becoming convinced that there was more to those events than the supernatural.

Somewhere still in a locked room...

Mikoto and Mokuren had, well, finished whatever they had started. They decided that they should rejoin the others before they got into trouble with Kurei. Mikoto remembered how she narrowly escaped being burnt the last time Kurei got *really* mad at her for slacking.

She put her hand on the doorknob and attempted to open the door. To her surprise, it would not turn. She rattled the knob impatiently and cursed under her breath.

Mokuren drawled, "Did you unlock the door?"

Mikoto snapped back, "I'm not stupid, of course I did! OUCH!" She shouted out in pain as a sudden bolt of electricity ran through her hand. "What the..." The doorknob was slowing turning red-hot.

Mikoto and Mokuren stared at the strange sight. Suddenly, they heard a noise like someone laughing on the other side of the door. Mikoto hammered the door, only to find that there was an invisible wall that was charged with electricity in front of it. Angered at the thought of being tricked and locked into a room, she shouted, "Let us out you $#@* lunatic!"

There was no answer on the other side. The laughter faded away into nothing.

Mokuren shrugged. "Oh well... how about more 'fun'?"

The two of them went back to their previous activity.

"Noroi, pass the scalpel."

If the masked body had eyes it would have glared at Genjurou. Here it was, on a mission, and it was stuck with Genjurou of all people. And worse than that, said loony old man was busy dissecting one of those... uhh, bodies. Deformed did not even begin to describe the bodies. One thing was certain, they had been people at some time or other. If the madougo had been human it would have shuddered in disgust and/or been violently ill. Thankfully it was not human.

Meanwhile, Genjurou was peering at the specimen, his face mere inches from it. The specimen being observed was just one of many, but it was the only one not kept in tall glass cylinders.

"Interesting, interesting," Genjurou muttered to himself. "Cloning processes went on here... but apparently it was a failure."

Noroi ignored the old man and proceeded to investigate the glass cylinders that each held a body, albeit an extremely deformed one. The people in the cylinders could not even be called people anymore, they looked like... aliens.

"Strange... specimen was injected with foreign cells," Genjurou noted. "Subsequent rejection by body caused death and abnormalities."

Noroi shook its head.

Deep, deep underground...

Kurei continued walking stoically towards the source of the dim glow at the end of the corridor. He was secretly rather glad of Kurenai's company although her incessant comments got on his nerves far too much. He hated to admit it but there was something creepy about the mansion... not only that, but he kept getting the feeling that something was not right. Also he was beginning to really regret not pairing up with one of his Uruha. He would have been glad for Neon or Raiha's company... even that baka Joker would have been fine.

Kurenai laughed. "So you are getting freaked..."

Kurei glared. "I am NOT! There's just something weird going on."

"Yeah, I know... I don't like this place," Kurenai replied seriously, "Hey!"

Kurei had found a door in the wall of the corridor. Trying to turn the brass doorknob, he realized that it was locked, and short of getting Kurenai to flame it, impossible to open. Just as he was about to order Kurenai to destroy the door, the door swung open by itself on its hinges, nearing knocking him out.

Kurei cursed as he cautiously stepped through the doorway. The room was circular and bare, and still rather dark. Right smack in the middle of the room was a large, ornate coffin.

Curious, Kurei walked slowly towards the coffin. When he was a few meters away from it, the room suddenly lighted up mysteriously by itself. Heavy brass candle stands were arranged in a rough circle around the coffin, illuminating a strange pattern on the floor, which only extended as far as the candle stands.

He passed the candles, noting absently that the wax was not burning. He stood beside the coffin and saw that the lid was not secured. He debated whether or not he should raise the lid.

'This is so like a Dracula movie,' Kurenai commented. 'Why don't you open the lid?'

"Notice that *I* will be the one who gets hit if anything happens? As for being in a Dracula movie, vampires don't exist!" Kurei retorted, although he was starting to doubt the truth of the last sentence.

He took a deep breath and placed his hand on the lid. Kurenai was watching him closely and he wanted to prove that he was *not* getting freaked out. He discovered that the coffin felt warm, as though it had just been taken in from under the sun. He shook his head. That was virtually impossible. There was no sun in this underground place at all. He must just be imagining things.

Kurei traced the carvings on the lid with his fingertips before he slid them under the lid. He pulled the lid up slightly, bracing himself for whatever he might see. He could not help shutting his eyes as he finally worked up the courage to fling the lid open. Nothing happened. After sometime, he opened one eye, half-expecting to see a withered old man or something out of the horror movies Joker borrowed just to freak Neon out.

To his surprise, a young girl with silver hair was lying inside the coffin. Her face was composed as she lay in a position with her hands folded. He looked closer at the corpse and saw that she was wearing a necklace that had a strange pendant, which rested just above the collar of her dress. Curious, he reached his hand out to take a closer look at the pendant, only to be interrupted by his flame.

'Are you *sure* you want to touch her? I mean, she's dead and all that stuff.' Kurenai succeeded in sounding skeptical and curious at the same time.

"I believe you want to find out what this is as much as I do. Besides, what's so bad about touching a dead body? I seem to recall having one inside me." Kurei turned back to the body. He repressed a shudder as he leaned over the side and pulled the pendant towards him. As his fingers brushed her flesh slightly, Kurei realized with a shock that she was still warm. Now he was starting to freak out. A bit. He pushed it out of his mind and told himself to stop imagining things.

He stared at the strange engravings on the pendant, which was in the rough shape of a circle. 'Strange, where have I seen that design before? It looks so...familiar,' he thought to himself. He turned it over in his palm and saw it had some words on the back of it. Kurei strained his eyes to make out the faint lettering. " 'Awakening'," he read out loud. "What kind of inscription is that? What the-?!"

A light shot out of the pendant, lighting up the inscriptions. Kurei hastily dropped it. It fell back to its original position on its wearer where the light continued to shine, growing brighter each moment. 'Look at the ceiling,' Kurenai said in an awed voice. Kurei looked up. He saw that the light was acting like a projector - the inscriptions on the pendant were magnified and displayed clearly on the ceiling.

Fascinated, Kurei stared at the strange designs that revolved slowly on the ceiling. Suddenly, he noticed a glow coming from below him. He looked down at the floor quickly and was stunned to see that the design on the floor had also lighted up and mirrored the image on the ceiling exactly. Kurei finally remembered where he thought he had seen the engravings on the pendant. He turned towards the coffin and reached out to shut the lid to see whether the engravings matched those on the pendant.

Instead, he got a shock of his life as he looked down at the body of the girl. The pendant lighted up her face and her hair was now floating around her face. Even as he looked on, she seemed to take a breath and her fingers seemed to move slightly. For the second time that day, Kurenai was speechless as she hovered over the open coffin.

Kurei tried to back away from the body but discovered his feet were rooted to the ground. He saw her eyelids flicker slightly before they opened. He found himself looking into a pair of intense violet eyes, which stared unblinkingly past his shoulder and at the ceiling. He said to no one in particular, "What on earth is that?"

Suddenly his vision blackened, and Kurei felt himself sinking into oblivion. His last thoughts just before the darkness claimed him were of the mysterious silver-haired girl.

TBC…

Author's note: Hip, hip hooray! Jisho just got possessed! ^_^; Okay, I think I'm very mean. Well, at least they're not arguing anymore, right? Now they're fighting. ^_^ I only realized when I wrote this part that they'd actually been arguing in the dark all this time. *sweatdrop* I don't think they'll ever get along.

In case you can't tell by now, the Rasen and Kirin part was written by En. It sounds very her. She also wrote the part about the silver-haired girl. She was probably sober when she wrote the latter part. What can I say, En is just a very hyper person. ^_^ I seriously don't know what she gets high on everyday, but she seems to go mad and/or have a laughing fit just about every day in school. ^_^

Well, En tried to get the horny duo to do other more constructive activities, but luckily she decided to let the door remain locked. So now they are still doing what they do best. They'll probably be doing so for like the remaining parts… maybe.

Hmm… I have no idea what the silver-haired girl is for. En invented her, but she has no idea either. ^_^ She was influenced by Card Captor Sakura when she wrote that. They just started showing the lousy English version on television although the Chinese dub's been showing for a long time. By the way, she originally had white hair but I changed it so her hair colour is the same as my favourite villain's. ^_^ Too bad she didn't have green eyes… but I like purple a lot too.

I honestly don't know where the story is heading. It seems to be going on and on and on. ^_^

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

Ning.