Ch. 4
"No! No No Noooooooo!!! I didn't want anyone to know about this," Ran-chan(Ranma in his girl form) cried, staring at herself in the mirror.
"Ranma, it's not that bad...I mean, you've been like this for years....why can't they know?" Akane asked, hugging her friend.
"You don't understand!" Ran-chan yelled. "I'm a guy!"
"You sure don't look like one right now..." Akane said, observing Ranma's shapely girl figure.
"I gotta act tough here, I can't embarrass myself like I did against Yusuke!" Ran-chan sobbed.
"I hear a GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRL!!!!!!!!!"
Ranma and Akane's eyes went wide as Carrot burst into the room, and rushed over to his newly discovered girl. "Ouuu! You're a cutey!"
"LEMME GO, OR I'LL SOCK YOU ONE!" Ran-chan yelled, squirming in Carrot's arms.
"Carrot, you really don't want to go after her!" Akane said.
"And why not? Her boobs seem to be big enough for 10 me's!" Carrot drooled.
"YUCK! Akane, help!" Ran-chan cried.
Akane rushed over to Carrot and Ranma, and tried despertly to break them apart.
"Akane, chill out." Carrot said, holding Ranma above his head, so that she couldn't reach. "It's just a babe!"
"Carrot, I swear, you're gonna regret this! Whatever you do, don't kiss him!"
"Him? Are you blind?!" Carrot laughed, lowering Ranma to his level. "This is a beautiful....HOTT....young girl..."
"Lemme go, I'm warning y-" Ranma was cut off, as Carrot's tongue invaded his mouth, and his eyes went wide.
'H-He kissed me.....he kissed....me.....'
"How was I, hott stuff?" Carrot asked, purring.
"..........................DIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!" Ran-chan rushed out of the room, crying her eyes out.
"Die?" Carrot repeated.
"Carrot, you baka, you kissed Ranma!" Akane yelled, as she ran out to go find her mentally unstable friend.
At that moment, Tira walked into Carrot in the hallway, and blushed. "Oh...Hi Carrot." she said, looking down.
"T-Tira....I.....I....."
"You what?" Tira asked, staring at Carrot's innocent face.
"I'M A BAD CARROT!!!!!!!!" he cried, dropping to his knees, and pulling Tira into his arms.
***
"So....you kissed another girl?..." Tira asked as Carrot finished his story. She sat on her bed, looking down and feeling heartbroken.
"No! Akane said I kissed Ranma! But Ranma's a guy, isn't he?"
Tira didn't answer, she felt tears building up in her eyes and tried as hard as she could not to let them flow.
"I gotta figure this out," Carrot said to himself. He then noticed the depressed look on Tira's face.
"T-Tira....I...please don't be sad....something just...came over me, and...."
"And you kissed another girl..." Tira finished for him.
"Tira, you don't understand!" Carrot said, getting to his feet. Ever since that one night when he got her drunk, Tira didn't seem to remember pouring out her secrets to him, or the kisses they shared. 'Should I tell her?....S-Should I tell her...that I...love her....'
***
KNOCK, KNOCK!
"Oro?" Kenshin sat in the main lobby, staring at his sword, when he heard a knock at the door. "I wonder who that could be, that I do..."
He walked across the room and looked out the old, dusty window. Rain poured down onto the front yard, and a raincoated figure stood on the porch. "Who would come here at this hour? And in the rain no less....that I ponder."
Being the nice guy that he is, Kenshin opened the door and smiled out at the thousands of hooded figures standing before him. "Konnichiwa."
"Oh, yeah, hi." The one closest to the door said. "We're lookin for a place where we can eat some tastey huma- I-I mean food, and maybe stay the night, would you be so kind as to share your house with us, good sir?"
"Why of course I would!" Kenshin said, stepping aside. "Please, do come in, that you should."
Kenshin's dark blue eyes watched as his many guests shuffled into the main lobby. All seemed to be wearing the exact same outfit, and none seemed to have feet, which was very very strange.
Kenshin stared at the floating figures, and suddenly felt as if something was wrong. "Umm, would you like me to take your coats?" he asked nervously.
"No thanks, we'll take them off ourselves." said another hooded figure, grinning.
Kenshin took a step back as all the figures pulled their raincoats off at exactly the same time, revieling some transparent, ghostly, creatures!
"O-ORO?!" Kenshin studdered.
"ROAR!" one of the ghosts shouted.
Kenshin's eyes went wide as he quickly darted up the stairs. "EVERYONE, GET INTO THE HANG OUT ROOM, THE GHOSTS ARE HERE!!!" he shouted, picking up Sakura and Syaoran as he ran.
"N-NANI?!" Sakura shrieked as Kenshin rushed into the hang out room, where the others stood, watching.
"Kenshin, whats going on?" Syaoran asked as he was set down.
Quickly, Kenshin locked the door after him. "No time to explain now," he started as he bolted up the door with as many chairs as he could. "Syaoran, I need you to keep the spirits out, use one of your chinese scrolls."
"A-Alright..." Syaoran said slowly as he pulled a few out and threw them at the door. They stuck nicely, omitting a light green aura, and acting as bug repelent to the ghosts.
"Kenshin, WHAT is going on?!" Kaoru demanded, getting to her feet, forgetting about her game of checkers against Yusuke.
"Well, Miss Kaoru, umm...you see....erm....heh," a huge sweatdrop came over Kenshin's face as he quickly spat everything out. "Thesestrangerswereatthedoorsoilettheminbutididn'tknowtheywereghosts! Ohi'msorryreallyreallyreallysorry, Miss Kaoruuuuu!!!!"
Everyone just stared at the crying samurai, who was now on his knees, and took in the info they had just gotten.
"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!" Kaoru screamed.
"HOIEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M SCARED OF GHOSTS!!!!" Sakura cried, clinging tightly to Syaoran.
"How could you be so STUPID?!" Akane scolded, walking up to Kenshin. "A big clue would be the fact that they're FLOATING IN MIDAIR!!"
Ranma (who was now in his guy form) put his hand on Akane's shoulder. "That's not the problem right now," he started, eyes closed. "Right now our problem is getting these guys outta here."
Yusuke let out a laugh and set his checkers pieces down. "That's simple for me! I'm a spirit detective! Ghosts are easy to get rid of."
"Feh, they'll be simple to kill," Inuyasha said, stroking tetsusaiga and smiling evilly. "AND ONCE WE KILL THEM WE CAN EAT THEM FOR DINNER! MWAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!"
"But, they're ghosts....ghosts aren't edible, are they?"
"Who cares if they're edible! Lets just kill em!" Ranma yelled, raising his hand into the air, clenched into a fist.
"You said it, pigtailed kid!" Yusuke said.
Tira looked at the door, which seemed like the entrance to a battle fort and sighed. "You idiots, Carrots still out there!"
"WHAT?!?!"
***
"Hmm, wonder where everybody went," Carrot said, walking down one of the hall corridors. "It's really quiet around here...." A smile came over his face. "Maybe the girls are asleep! Hehehehahahahaha!!"
"Oh they'll be sleeping alright," came a voice from down the hall.
Carrot quickly straightened up and peered down the dark corridor. "Who said that?"
"They'll be in such a deep sleep, you'll think they're dead!"
"WHO ARE YOU?!" Carrot screamed, getting pissed off, and rushing over to the other end of the hall.
His eyes went wide at the sight he saw, and the color drained from his face. The thousands of huge, white ghosts smiled back at him. "Boo."
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
***
Inuyasha's ears perked up. "I heard something, feh."
"Like what?" Tira asked, staring at the dog demon, and interupting the secret "Ghost Hunt" meeting.
"Does that really matter right now? It's probably a cat or something." Yusuke said.
"No, it was a scream." Inuyasha answered, ears twitching.
"Scream? Who's scream?" Kaoru asked.
Inuyasha looked as though he was thinking hard. "Ummm.......hmmmm........Can I answer that after we get some noodles? I'm starved!"
Everyone facefaulted to the ground, except for Sakura, who remained huddled in the corner shaking.
"G-G-G-Ghosts...."
"Whats wrong with her?" Ranma asked, pointing at the young Cardcaptor.
"She's very scared of ghosts." Syaoran answered simply.
"I can see that you doof, I mean WHY is she scared of them?!" Ranma tried again.
"Dunno." Syaoran replied.
Sakura remained in the corner, her eyes as wide as could be.
"Sakura," Sakura looked up to see Kaoru smiling down at her. "There's no need to be afraid, Kenshin and the others will chase the ghosts away, don't worry."
Sakura sniffled and gave a slight smile. "Arigatou, Kaoru-chan."
Kaoru sweatdropped. "Please, just call me Miss Kaoru."
"Miss Kaoru, does this mean you have a plan of action?" Kenshin asked as Kaoru stood up and faced the group.
"Well....umm...I was hoping you guys would come up with something, heh."
Kenshin facefaulted.
"We don't need a plan!" Tira shouted. "We need to get out there and save Carrot! I'm not scared of any ghosts!"
Kagome, Kaoru, Akane, and Keiko clapped.
"Go Tira!" Kagome shouted.
"You go girl! Go save your love!" Keiko cheered.
Tira's face turned red with anger. "I DON'T LOVE HIM!!"
"Feh," Inuyasha grunted. He sat at a table with Yusuke, Kenshin and Ranma, who were discussing who should be the first one to go out.
"I say we just all go charge em!" Ranma suggested, pounding his fist on the table.
"That would not be wise without a plan, that it would not." Kenshin corrected.
"Then someone hurry up and think of a plan! I'm getting bored here!" Yusuke complained.
"I can't think of a darn thing!" Ranma yelled.
"Neither can I, oro...."
"HUMAN SACRAFICE!" Inuyasha randomly shouted.
The three guys stared at the dog demon. "Human Sacrafice?" they all repeated.
"Just throw someone outside and see what happens." Inuyasha then got to his feet and picked up Kagome.
"INUYASHA! PUT ME DOWN! WHAT'RE U DOING?!"
"Feh! Be quiet and go talk to the ghosts!"
Inuyasha then opened the door and chucked Kagome out. Quickly, he bolted it shut and put tables and chairs in it's way just in case.
Everyone rushed over to the door and all was quiet, until they heard an ear piercing scream.
"W-What was that?..." Keiko asked, backing into Yusuke.
"Lets go find out, I've had enough of this hiding." Yusuke put his hand on the doorknob and felt his heart beating wildly against his chest. 'I'm not scared! I've seen worse, i mean, it's not like they ate her or anything...'
Slowly, the door was creaked open to reveal........
"NOTHING'S HERE!" Syaoran shouted.
"Where'd Kagome go?!" Kaoru asked, frantically searching the halls.
Not even the ghosts remained in the old hallway, nothing could be found, not even a trace of Kagome.
"Feh, the ghosts must have eaten her." Inuyasha said plainly, putting reality to Yusuke's fear.
"EATEN HER?! WHAT?!" Yusuke yelled.
"And you don't care?! Inuyasha, you were her boyfriend!" Kaoru screamed.
"Shh!" Tira said softly. "Everyone calm down, there's gotta be a logical explanation for this...."
Everyone stared down the dark hallway, their hearts pounding harder than ever. Not a sound was made as they started walking off down the hall, without a plan.
"HAMHA EVERYONE!"
"HOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Sakura suddenly hoped into Syaoran's arms, screaming bloody murder as Hamtaro appeared on the floor in front of everyone.
Syaoran's face went bright red as he tried to calm her down.
"Oh, great, it's just you." Ranma said as Akane picked up the tiny hamster.
"I have come to inform you that....tragically.....one of your team mates has died....or rather.....been eaten....."
"Feh, told you."
"NANI?!" Sakura screamed. "GHOSTS EAT PEOPLE?! HOEEEE!!!"
"Apparently these ghosts do!" Tira replied. "Which means we have to find Carrot as quickly as we can!"
With that, Tira and the guys ran down the hall on their new rescue mission, followed closely by the rest of the girls, and Syaoran who was holding Sakura.
"Where did you last see them, Hamtaro?" Akane asked as the tiny hamster rode on her shoulder, and she made sure he didn't fall.
"They were headed towards the basement, kushi kushi."
"Then we must get down there, that we should." Kenshin suggested, taking a sharp turn and dashing down the master staircase. Everyone else followed, their footsteps sounded like that of an army.
"Shh, be quiet." Kaoru whispered and everyone crept over to the basement door.
Tira pushed her way in front of everyone. It's not like this is the first time she had to dig Carrot out of trouble. She was only hoping that there weren't any girl ghosts down there.
Carefully, she touched the doorknob, and turned it, being sure not to make a sound. "It's locked...."
"I say we ram it!" Ranma whispered harshly.
"What if the ghosts hear us and decide to charge us?" Keiko asked, looking horrified.
"I won't let them near you, Keiko." Yusuke said, holding Keiko close to him. Her cheeks lite up at Yusuke's affection towards her.
"This isn't time for mushy stuff, someone pick the lock!" Tira said, looking back at everyone.
There was a moment of silence as everyone checked their pockets for anything they could use to unlock the door.
"I bet my paw is small enough!" Hamtaro suggested.
"Yeah!" Akane replied, bringing Hamtaro over to the door.
The tiny orange hamster wiggled his way to the lock, and shoved his small fuzzy paw inside it. He put his tongue between his teeth as his paw ran across many metal things inside the door. Then a click was heard. "Got it!"
"Hamtaro, you're the best!" Akane cheered, kissing the hamster.
Ranma shot a glare and grunted. "Stupid hamster....it's just like Ryoga...."
"What'd you say?"
"Oh, nothing."
"Ranma, cut it out." Yusuke said, as he noticed Tira's tension. Her hand lay on the knob and she slowly twisted it. Then, she pulled it open just a crack and peered inside.
The whole room seemed to be lightened by a bunch of candles, and a large pot sat in the middle of the floor. Around the pot were the thousands of ghosts, who were all chanting something in some unfamiliar tongue. Tira looked around for Carrot, but couldn't find him anywhere. 'Damnit....he has to be somewhere down there....Carrot, where are you, you idiot?!'
As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she heard a familiar voice let out a scream. "CARROT!" she whispered, hopefully. Squinting, she noticed two ghosts floating through the wall, carring what looked like Carrot tied to a wooden plank. The strange thing about it was that he was completely naked, aside from a short grass skirt which covered his private areas.
"They're prepairing to cook him!" Hamtaro squeeked, from atop of Tira's head.
Tira's pink eyes widened as the two ghosts carried Carrot over to the boiling pot in the center of the room. They were just getting ready to set him down inside the pot, when Tira's frustration reached it's limit.
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"
All the ghosts looked up atop the basement stairs to find Tira, dressed in her battle clothes, with her whip in hand. "You lay one finger on him," she started, giving the whip a lick. "And I'll have to kill you all over again."
"TIRA!!!!" Carrot screamed. "SAVE ME!!!! PLEASE!! THEY'RE CRAZY!!! THEY WANNA EAT ME, TIRA HEEEEEEELP!!!!!"
Tira dashed down the stairs, followed by Kenshin, Ranma, and Yusuke.
"If you come one step closer," one ghost started, reaching into his overcoat and pulling out a small pocket knife. "I'll slit his throat."
Carrot's eyes shot wide open and his face grew very pale. He let out a short whimper, indicating for Tira to get him outta there.
"Inuyasha, why don't you go help Tira and the others?" Akane asked, as she, Keiko, and Kaoru popped their heads into the basement.
Inuyasha let out a sigh. "Well, you see, without Kagome....I just don't feel inspired to kill demons anymore...."
At that, the three girls turned around. For almost their entire trip to this mansion, Inuyasha had said little more than one worded sentences (most not making sense at all, I mean, whats "FEH!" mean?!), and now, all of the sudden, he seemed very emotional.
A tear ran down his cheek, and his eyes began to water. "SHE WAS THE LOVE OF MY LIFE, AND NOW SHE'S GONEEEEEEE!!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"
"Shh, Inuyasha, it's alright!" Kaoru said, patting the dog demon's back and trying to get him to be more quiet. "We can help you with this later, but for now, try to not make a sound."
In a simple motion, Tira whipped the knife out of the ghost's hand, and it dropped to the ground. "Got anything else you wanna pull on us?"
In their rage, all the ghosts began to charge at the four, and Tira used this as a chance to escape and save Carrot. She leapt over all of them, and pushed her way through the croud. "Carrot!"
"Tira!!" Carrot cried as Tira rushed up to him. Tira sniffled and wipped a tear out of her eye. She then gave her Carrot a quick hug. "You big pervert.....you idiot...."
"I know, I know, now can you please untie me? This skirt is making my...ya know, kinda itchy."
Tira slapped Carrot across the face, then smiled and began to untie the ropes that bound him. Once he was free, Tira looked him over. "Ya know, you kinda look hott in that, my little vegetable."
"Hmph!" Carrot grunted. "Hott my as- did you just call me hott?....." He paused, realizing that this was the first time ANYONE had ever called him attractive. His heart began beating wildly, and color gathered in his face.
"You must be hearing things, let go." Tira replied quickly, as she fought her way through the croud of ghosts again.
After a dozen Spirit guns, punches, blasts, and sword slices, all the ghosts remain in bloody pieces in a heap on the floor.
"Heh, guess they were a special kinda ghost, that can be killed." Hamtaro laughed, sweatdropping. Everyone shot him glares.
"I'm just glad that I wasn't eaten alive." Carrot said, walking back up the stairs, and pausing. He then turned around and stared at Ranma. "DUDE, don't look up my skirt!"
"I WASN'T LOOKIN UP THERE, YOU FREAK!" Ranma yelled.
"This is priceless...." Yusuke laughed. "A guy in a hula skirt, nothing else could make my day."
"Hey Carrot," Kenshin stared. "How about you and I head over to that strip joint downtown and you could do a little hula for the naked ladies?"
The whole house fell quiet. "K-Kenshin?..." Kaoru whimpered.
Kenshin sweatdropped. "All of this pervertedness is getting to me, that it is."
"If only Kagome were here!" Inuyasha wailed from atop the staircase.
"Stop being such a baby, at least Carrot is saved!" Kaoru cheered.
"Who needs him." Inuyasha spat.
"I NEED ME!" Carrot yelled back. "Who needs a freakish dog demon thingy like you anyway?!"
Inuyasha burst into tears and ran up the stairs.
"That....was random...." Hamtaro commented.
"And scary." Keiko added.
"LEAVE ME ALONE, YOU HAPPINESS SUCKING FREAKS! WAHHHHH!!!!"
Authors note: *hops into the scene* Konnichiwa, mina-san! Colie-chan wa! Wow, that chapter was short compared to the others....well, I hope you liked it! It took me a while to finish, but I already have ideas for the next one, so check back here every once and a while, and get ready for the next chapter of Anime Mansion! Some fun is gonna get loose ~.^