A/N: Fun tiem begins nao. Have a big long chappie.
Streetlights began to flicker on as Danny and Sam made their way around downtown Amity Park.
"Why do these things always have to happen at night?" Sam lamented, shoving her hands into the pockets of her coat.
"Because that's when all the creepy things come out" Danny put on his best 'creepy' voice as he crept up behind Sam, hands raised to grab her in jest.
"Knock it off." Sam rolled her eyes and started walking away from the halfa. "I still don't see why Oleander can't take this guy down himself. I mean… what could he possibly be capable of that… oof!"
The goth girl was cut short as she walked into a wall standing in the middle of the street.
"Weird place to put a wall." Danny walked up to the stone slab and ran his hand along it's surface.
"I don't think it's a wall." Sam started, as she tried to get around one side of it, only to have the wall extend to block her path.
"Do you think it's him?" Danny asked, as he and Sam backed away and turned to walk in the other direction, only to have the wall reappear on the road in front of them.
"Pretty sure." Sam checked over her shoulder, nodding when she saw nothing behind them.
"Oleander said that she doesn't want me to fight him… so what do we do?" Danny asked, as Sam pulled out the book she'd been given earlier and started to flip pages.
"I read something about it in here…" Sam frantically searched for the entry as Danny read over her shoulder, not noticing that the wall was starting to tip towards them until it's shadow fell over the pages of the book.
The ghost boy became intangible as he pushed Sam out of the way, the goth girl landing safely on her rear a few feet away as the barricade shook the ground with it's impact.
Sam scrambled for the book as the wall righted itself and Danny took up a protective stance between the girl and the slab.
"Here! It's a Nurikabe!" Sam quickly skimmed the page until she came to the section on dealing with the creature in the field. "Danny, get the bat!"
"What's the Anti-Creep Stick going to do against a giant WALL?" Danny asked, as he retrieved the item from the ground where it lay a few feet away from the pair.
"I don't know! The book just says to hit it at the bottom!" Sam openly shrugged as she gathered the book and got to her feet.
"Okay…" Danny wound up and whacked the wall at it's base, making it disappear.
"…Where did it go?" Sam asked, as Danny looked around for the demon.
"I didn't hit it that hard…" Danny shrugged, giving Sam the bat to tuck away in her bag. "But it's not here now. Let's keep going."
--
On the way back towards Casper High, Skulker kept an eye about him as he walked a few paces ahead of Tucker, who was busily plotting their path on his GPS.
"I don't see why you couldn't just fly us there." Tucker started up, gaining the hunter's attention.
"I do." Skulker started, crossing his arms. "Oleander gave me a device to finally purge that stupid program from my suit. You're not getting anywhere near me again."
"Oh, come on! You were trying to kill my best friend! It was self-defense." Tucker caught up to the hunter and stopped in front of him. "… And my feet hurt from all this walking."
"You should have thought of that before, then." Skulker shrugged, stepping around the boy to continue towards the school. "Consider yourself lucky that you're not walking alone."
The technophile grumbled under his breath and jogged to catch up with the mercenary.
"I don't see why you have to be such a sore loser about that…" Tucker started, cutting himself short as his phone went off. "Y'ello?"
"Have you guys run into anything weird yet?" Sam's voice came across the line.
"Nope… why? What happened?" Tucker answered, turning the speaker on and getting Skulker's attention, beckoning the mercenary over before he'd wandered too far.
"We just got attacked by a giant wall." Danny's voice joined Sam's. "It just about crushed us."
"Was it Hibiki?" Skulker asked, leaning over the mortal's shoulder.
"Probably. I've never seen anything like it before." Danny responded. "Let us know if you run into anything strange."
"Okay." Tucker answered, ending the call. Turning to Skulker, he continued. "We should probably hurry up."
"After you." Skulker motioned to continue down the street.
"Thanks." Tucker rolled his eyes.
As the pair continued, Skulker looked slightly over his shoulder when he heard footsteps approaching them.
"Do you hear that?" Skulker stopped in his tracks, silencing the footsteps as well.
"Hear what?" Tucker raised an eyebrow.
"I could have sworn I heard footsteps." Skulker frowned, turning back to look down the empty street.
"Must have been an echo." Tucker shrugged, continuing to walk.
A few minutes later, the footsteps returned, now loud enough for both of them to hear.
"That's not an echo…" Tucker stopped, warily tossing a glance of his shoulder.
"Call the girl." Skulker popped up one of his wrist cannons, and aimed it down the street behind them, motioning for Tucker to keep walking with his free hand.
The phone rang twice before Sam answered. "What's wrong?"
"Does the book say anything about footsteps?" Tucker started, as the disembodied steps quickened to match the pace he and Skulker were travelling at. "There's nobody attached to them… and I'm getting a little freaked out."
"Footsteps… footsteps… here we go!" Sam leafed through the book. "It's a creature called 'Betobeto-san'. Go stand on the side of the road."
"O…kay." Tucker beckoned for Skulker to follow him onto the sidewalk.
"Now, say 'Betobeto-san, please go on ahead'." Sam continued.
"What?" Tucker deadpanned at the phone. "Are you serious?"
"Absolutely." Sam answered.
"What did she say?" Skulker looked down at the boy.
"We have to stand over here and let it pass." Tucker explained. "And she said we have to say 'Betobeto-san, please go on ahead', otherwise it won't leave us alone."
"You're kidding, right?" Skulker raised an eyebrow.
Tucker shrugged, and Skulker crossed his arms. "That's just foolish. I'm not doing it."
"I don't think we have a choice." Tucker started. "It might manifest as more than just footsteps if we keep going."
"Fine." Skulker huffed, shooting a dirty look down the street as the footsteps drew closer.
The pair recited what Sam had told them, and the footsteps stopped.
"I still say that was a fool's errand." Skulker grumbled as he and Tucker continued.
"At least it worked." Tucker shrugged.
Skulker grunted in response and shoved his hands into his pockets.
--
Oleander and Walker made their way through the park towards the Nasty Burger, walking in relative silence.
"…None of your men have reported in… I suppose that's a good sign." Oleander started, startling the warden slightly.
"I hope you're right." Walker nodded. "But if that kid's skipped town…"
"I don't think that'll happen." Oleander crossed her arms, rubbing them to warm herself up. "Everyone knows Amity Park is a spiritual hotspot… and Hibiki's energy signature is unique, even for this area. He's still here. I can feel it."
"…Are you cold?" Walker looked over at the reaper, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm fine." Andy chuckled. "I'm just used to working in warmer climates."
"Here." Walker removed his overcoat and handed it to the reaper. "I know… you're dead… but still. Take it. I don't really need it anyway."
"So it's true then…" Oleander smiled to herself.
"What's true?" Walker gave Andy an odd look.
"Chivalry is dead." The reaper laughed. "I always did wonder what happened to it."
Walker shook his head, trying to suppress a chuckle of his own. "That's awful."
"What? You've got a 'no bad jokes after 8 pm' rule now?" Andy asked.
"No, but I could write one." Walker threatened jokingly. "It'd make the world a better place, that's for sure."
Andy shook her head in pity. "You're incorrigible."
Before Walker could make a comeback, the trees started making rainstick-like sounds.
"What's that?" Walker looked around, trying to perceive what was making the noise.
"Forest spirits." Oleander waved off the warden's worries. "It's fine. They're just saying that this area is clear."
"How do you know that?" Walker caught up with the reaper as she quickly headed towards the city.
"I've reaped enough shaman in my time to know some things." Oleander smiled.
"Fair enough." Walker shrugged. "Did they say anything else?"
"No… but I can see Hibiki from here." The reaper motioned to a pile of skulls rolling along in the street. "Oi! Yamero!"
The skulls stopped and turned to face the reaper and Walker as they approached, piling up on top of one another until they were at the same height as Oleander.
A pair of eyes appeared in the sockets of the topmost skull, the bones of the orbit narrowing into a glare. "…No."
The pile fell apart, sending skulls flying as they smashed into the ground and disappeared.
"…Great." Andy turned to face Walker, who was still trying to wrap his head around what just happened.
"I thought you said it was a kid!" Walker motioned behind the reaper, where the last fragments were dissolving into the street. "Kids don't turn into rolling piles of disembodied skulls!"
"Hibiki is a kid." Oleander huffed, turning away from Walker. "…Given, he's a really weird kid with a couple thousand years of mythology in his pocket… but he's still a kid. He wants to play 'Let's Scare the Crap Out of Everyone', but it doesn't work here like it would back home. He's getting aggravated because people aren't responding the way he thinks they should. I suppose that's what you get for having a population that's desensitized to ghosts… and a time gap of a couple hundred years."
"Then let's tweak the rules to his little game and bring him in." Walker put a hand on the reaper's shoulder. "Meet me at the fountain outside City Hall in ten minutes. … I know it's cheating, but I'm going back to the Ghost Zone to grab a couple of fellas that we might find useful."
"In that case, here." Oleander pulled out her Monk's Spade and struck the ground with the crescent blade, opening up a staircase that descended into the earth. "Nothing in the rules says you can't take a shortcut."
"That's true." Walker smiled as he floated down the steps, the ground closing up after him.
Mythology/Language:
Nurikabe – A large wall-shaped demon (sometimes with tiny arms and legs) that appears in a traveller's path at night. Trying to go around the wall will either make it extend forever, or it will fall on it's victim in hopes of crushing them. Trying to turn around is useless as well, because the wall will merely appear in front of them again. The only way to get rid of a Nurikabe is to hit it at the bottom with a stick. This demon was blamed often by people arriving late at their destination. Made famous by the Thwomp in the Mario Bros. games
Betobeto-san – A demon that follows travellers at night, and only manifests as the sound of footsteps. It's said that if you stand to the side of the road and say "Betobeto-san, please go on ahead," the footsteps will stop and you can continue in peace.
Ko-dama – Nature spirits that normally inhabit trees of great age. Cutting down one of these trees is said to bring disaster to the entire village. They are known to play with and mimic human voices. Even though they are known to be mischievous, they are always benign. Kodama were featured in Princess Mononoke
Me-kurabe – "Staring Contest" – Taira Kiyomori, a somewhat notorious figure in Japanese history was said to have gone mad towards the end of his life, and was haunted by supernatural visions. One day when he was looking out into his courtyard, it filled with human skulls that rolled back and forth. Kiyomori was unmoved by this and looked for a living culprit. As he did, the skulls began to roll together on their own, creating a huge pile, all glaring bitterly at him with eyes like the living. People say they might have been the begrudged spirits of those lives he had cut short. Still unfazed, Kiyomori grunted and stared right back at the skulls, which vanished without a trace.
Yamero – Stop!