R&R please!
Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter One of this fanfiction. I don't own Haunting Ground either.
Chapter Six: Haunting Ground Part 1 Point 5, Lacking
"Double what the hell!"
She backed as far away from Kura-Dani as possible and looked above her. What she saw might have surprised her more than Kurama standing in front of her in Daniella's complete ensemble, although she could not tell if his hair had been dyed purple or not.
A chibi girl, no bigger than her fist, hovered in the air above them with full, white, bird-like wings; her eyes shone green in the moonlight. She had short brown hair parted in the middle with some longer strands braided together on the right. Her clothes were smaller than most dolls; she wore punk schoolgirl fashion and had a doll the size of Takara's fingernail in her possession.
"Who…and what in the heck are you?"
"Oh! Sorry about that!" The girl apologized, "My name is Tiaret and I'm here to help you!"
"You sound like a sales person with that line. Don't say it again. And what was with the "get in the car" thing?"
"Just a random phrase I like to use. Anyway, I was sent by Master Ariel to help you with—"
"OH MY—"
She was cut short by the appearances of Meriel and Cayenne. They took one look at Kurama and fell to the ground clutching their guts.
"Whoa, whoa, wha-ha ha…what happened Kurama? Lose a bet?" Cayenne got out.
He returned her daggers from earlier that evening.
"Well, it was either me or Kuwabara in this dress, if you'd rather have him I can easily go back and cha—"
"NO!" they shouted and latched onto his arms.
"Well, there's something you don't see everyday. People hugging Psycho Maid Daniella, interesting," Takara pointed out to them.
"AH!" they screamed and immediately unattached themselves from him.
"You know," Tiaret began," I've been watching for a while, and now the mood's completely ruined from all this laughter. Why'd you have to go and dress up Kurama?"
"So now this is my fault?"
"Yep," all four said simultaneously, "wait, who are you?" Meriel asked Tiaret.
Takara introduced her and said she was sent by some "Master Ariel."
"Hey, a second ago you said you were sent here to help me do something, what was it?"
"Erm…I forgot!"
"Well, that's helpful," Takara said sarcastically, "anyone up for finishing this tomorrow?"
They all agreed and made their way back to the temple, leaving Yusuke behind. Kurama insisted that he could find the way back on his own, in other words, there was no way he would catch a glance of himself dressed as Daniella. He managed to disappear from them as they neared the others and they assumed he was making his own path back to the mansion and they did not blame him one bit.
It was surprisingly quiet back at the house. When they came in Kurama was un-Danified and sitting on the couch finishing a book. He told them the others were helping Yusuke out of something involving toothpaste, a lighter, and a plague of one thousand mutant goldfish. Meriel and Cayenne snickered and crept upstairs grinning evilly. Takara sighed and walked over to the fridge looking for goodies.
She opened it and, "QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM!"
Kurama fell to the floor and exclaimed, "What's in there! What happened?"
"COOKIE DOUGH!"
"Oh" he laughed, "of course."
"Hey, hey," she started over excitedly after her fourth piece, "wanna do something fun?"
"Like…?"
"Daniella and luminessants versus Cayenne and Meriel, right here, right now."
"I get to be a luminessant!" Tiaret shouted happily.
"Wouldn't we need to go back to the forest for that?"
"Heh heh heh, see, that's where you're wrong, my dear Kura-Dani, we used the forest for the Debi thing because it had enough twists and turns. In the Daniella saga it's mostly running around in the same rooms completing puzzles."
"Oh, I get it; we do have seven floors to ourselves until the others get back."
"So, we're doing this?"
"Oh yes, I'm especially looking forward to the Jupiter Room puzzle," he grinned sadistically; he was having too much fun with this.
The other two were safely tucked away in Cayenne's room, once again playing Haunting Ground. They had left off at the boss battle. It was all about timing, she had to get Hewie to attack while she was beside one of four blocks. She needed to move the blocks to a certain position while Hewie stalled for her, but she couldn't ignore him if he got too tired and needed to be fed or praised. In short, the three main factors were timing, speed, and keeping her companion alive.
She skillfully finished Daniella off quickly and it went to a cut scene. Daniella was spinning happily but shrieking loudly at her reflection. The dome's glass roof shattered sending shards falling everywhere. It was all mystical to her up until a final piece pierced her through her middle section. A low, drawn out "no" escaped her mouth as she slid down it somewhat. Lastly, before death, a smile graced her lips.
"Well, that was interesting, on to Riccy!"
Cayenne was talking of the next enemy, Riccardo. He was weak physically but was also fast and carried a gun. Not that it mattered, his aim sucked. Fiona could be in pointblank range and he would shoot over her shoulder. Whenever he missed too much though, he would attack Hewie which seriously pissed Cayenne off.
But before she could start the new saga, Takara called them downstairs for something. She shrugged and paused as they obliged her request. No one was around and they turned to go back up to play the game but something stopped them. It was just an eerie feeling behind them. Even so, Meriel slowly spun to see Kura-Dani, back in action, staring them down, and inexplicitly every stereo in the house blared "Something Lacking."
Cussing the whole way to the second floor, they turned into a random room and ran into somebody. Resisting the urge to yell and give away their position, Meriel looked up from the floor to see Suzuki.
"That was unexpected. Anyway, welcome to the (1) synthesis room, girls."
"No flipping way! That means Kura-Dani can't get us in here!"
Cayenne jumped up from the floor and yelled, "Quick! Give us fairy earrings!"
"What? I don't know what you're talking about," he moved in front of a desk with some unknown materials on it.
"MORGAN! Now give us fairy earrings!" They yelled in unison.
Pop!
The materials spontaneously changed form into a pair of fairy-shaped earrings.
"What the—how the hell did you do that? I've been trying to get those raw materials to change form for days!"
"We said the codeword, duh," Cayenne told him and rushed toward the shiny jewelry, "Dibs!"
"Huh? NO!" Meriel screamed and lunged for them but was too late.
"Ha ha, you'll have to get something else, Meriel," Cayenne grinned at her.
"Grr…fine, ADAMAS!"
Another "pop" was heard in a nearby drawer. Upon searching it, Meriel uncovered a diamond choker.
"Yes! Hello, doubled stamina!"
"I don't get it, how does a simple cryptograph change these compounds?" Suzuki wondered aloud.
"Well, it's the way it works in the game. Hey, you don't think…?" Cayenne looked skeptically at Meriel.
"Nah," they both said at once.
In a castle in Europe…
"Why won't the MORGAN plate key work?" Fiona disappointedly stared at the item in question.
Back at the mansion…
"I should warn you before you go, a lot of the doors are locked now, only the ones being used for your, er, game are open, except the ones you need keys for, which will have symbols on them."
"Okay! We're off then!"
They left the safety of Suzuki's work chamber, also now known as the synthesis hole.
"Where…do we go first?" Meriel asked.
"Well, after Daniella chases you the first time like Kura-Dani just did, you have to lure a luminessant to a lamp that reveals a hidden door."
"Great! How do we get a luminessant?"
"If we try to go to the third floor I bet Takara will be there."
"Yeah, she's probably waiting to scare us too."
They traveled up the second flight of stairs plotting what to do when they saw Takara. Technically they could not do anything to a luminessant, but Takara could oh-so-accidentally trip on her way down the stairs.
And that's exactly was she did, as she jumped from the opened doorway at them they stomped loudly on either side of the door. Confused as to what was happening, it distracted her long enough for her to trip and tumble to the second floor. The other two mischievously made their ways past her to the third floor with her bounding in pursuit. She was slow in comparison; luminessants bobbed up and down, so to mimic this she had to skip.
They led her effectively into a room where a circle she needed to stand in was. Only when they lured her into it with a Dr. Pepper and two Nutter Butters did they realize exactly what she was wearing. She nearly pummeled them for laughing as hard as they did.
Since Kura-Dani was forced to run around in Psycho Maid Daniella's ensemble, he made her dress in a shiny, light blue, Lolita dress. It seemed that revenge was abundant in this game. For fear of unnatural deaths, the two quickly dashed to the fourth floor. Going through the first door they unlocked, they knew it was the copy of the I Want My Mummy Passage because an oversized doll was placed on a couch.
"Where's the closet? We should have a closet to hide in," Meriel stated.
"Oh well, things can't be perfect. C'mon, the next room should connect to the bathroom and the Caged Off Room."
She was right, obsession paid off. A door connected to a bathroom which they could assume connected to the duplicate of the Caged Off Room. Hanging on the shower curtain were three plate keys. As Cayenne reached up to grab them one, MERCURY, slipped over the curtain and into the tub.
"Go on ahead Meriel, just let me grab…this…one," she paused and stared into emerald eyes, "oh shit…RUN!"
Yes, Kura-Dani was waiting in the bathtub to surprise them. To make matters worse Takara was waiting in the hallway for them. Cayenne was the distraction for Kura-Dani and Meriel tried several doors with Takara hopping after her. Finally, she found one that opened and called to Cayenne. They rushed in and Meriel dived under the first couch she saw. Cayenne saw no where convenient and hurried into an adjacent room.
Kura-Dani quickly followed and had to pick one. To Meriel's relief, he walked through the room and into the next one. He thought it would be easy to catch Cayenne off guard and struggling since that room was old and dusty. The only piece of furniture was a small chest of drawers. Smirking, he walked slowly and dramatically towards it. At a total change of pace he swiftly pushed it away from the wall to reveal…
…Dust bunnies.
What the…? Oh well. He left to hunt down Meriel who would have no doubt left her hiding place in search of a more favorable one. Almost as soon as he exited the room and, in spirit of Daniella's OCD, closed the door behind him, the chest of drawers began to shake violently. Coughing from the dirt, Cayenne popped out of the lowermost drawer with a key in hand. If he ever makes me do anything like this again, I don't care about the rules; I'll suffocate that damned drag queen.
She met up with Meriel in the next room. Surprisingly, she figured out Kura-Dani's thinking and stayed where she was. When Cayenne showed her the key she had found, she was baffled.
"A key? I don't remember that in the game."
"Me neither, but it looks old so I don't think it was put there on purpose."
"Ooh! Let me figure out where it goes! I've been checking out all the rooms so far anyway."
"Okay, just watch out for Takara and all her sparkly evilness."
"'Kay, you solve puzzles and I'll collect items during my search and save them for the boss battle."
"Alright, meet back here if I whistle."
"If I hear it, but I'll make no promises."
So, the girls split up and Cayenne went after the key items. The first puzzle was the Fury of the Serpents. She had to take the three keys from earlier and place them in the proper positions to reveal a new path. I wonder how they managed to make…the pillar…of fire… She stopped short in a room with a Merry-Go-Half-Round. It was somewhat demented, half of a miniature merry-go-round, like the kinds that are in front of Wal-Mart's and such, was placed in the center of the room. One of the heads was crumbling off and she quickly moved to the next room.
It was like before, with a bathroom acting as a hallway. Inside she was surprised to find Tiaret waiting for her.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm a luminessant! Whee!"
"Hell!"
She ducked and ran into the nearby room. Well, that answers that. There was an orange ladder in the middle of the room. She tried to climb it to see what would happen and it collapsed, and then reformed. She saw three ropes hanging from the ceiling and attached the plate keys to them. They pulled on something that released a shimmering blue liquid onto the ladder. She tested it again: it held her weight. Tricky, a part of me would actually like to know how they did this.
"Freaking hell!"
Almost as soon as she got up she jumped back down, Kura-Dani was up there. How does he...? Oh yeah, he's supposed to be imitating Daniella. Very soon, she was caught and "killed."
"Hey, did we ever designate any save points?" Kurama asked casually.
"I don't think so…you are NOT making me do that again!"
Cayenne held firm in her claim and insisted she wanted sleep before sunup. She went to whistle for Meriel, but got no answer.
"Huh…I wonder which room she's in."
"HA! I've found you!" Takara yelled from down the hall.
Before Cayenne had the chance to explain that they had officially put the game on hold, she was within tackling distance. She stopped short when, for the second time that night, she heard a voice from above.
"No! Leave Cayenne alone!"
Fire suddenly manifested itself in the hallway and Takara had to backstep to keep from being burned.
"What in all hells was that!"
It was another chibi. This one had spiky feathered wings as opposed to Tiaret's more fluffy ones. Her hair was short, blonde, and had two pigtails stuck in it and her eyes were a raging red. She had on loose cargo pants with flip-flops and her shirt read "3y3 PwN U." She was staring madly at Takara.
"The game's over, dummy, now go away!"
Cayenne snatched her out of the air before Takara could use her in table tennis.
"Whoa, whoa, calm down; now, who are you?"
"Oh, me? I'm Michon and I was sent by Master Michael…"
"Another Master? Who the heck are these guys anyway?" Takara questioned irritably.
"Hey Takara! Didja get her? Oh! Michon! You've made it!" Tiaret squealed.
"You'd better believe I've made it! Have you told them about our mission yet?"
"No, truth be told, I forgot it," Tiaret grinned sheepishly.
"I can't leave you alone for a minute can I? Well anyway, our mission is to—wait, where is everyone?"
"Eh heh heh heh, you see, what had happened was," Cayenne chose her words carefully, "they're all unwinding from training."
Michon sighed, "Then I guess we should wait until everyone's around to hear."
"Does that mean we can sleep now?" Takara asked.
"Ch-ya, I'd like to see someone stop us."
Forgetting about the "Masters," mission and Meriel, Cayenne and Takara took the little sprites to their rooms and passed out.
On the seventh floor…
Meriel struggled with the last door. If the key did not work with this one then she was out of luck and all her searching would have been in vain. She slowly turned it to the right and was soon rewarded with a "click." Her happiness plummeted when she saw that nothing was in the room except dust and a few cobwebs that spiders had abandoned long ago.
"Grr…you have to be kidding me!" she yelled and looked up in anger.
Then, she noticed a thin square was outlined in the ceiling. An almost invisible string trailed down in front of her and she hurriedly yanked it. A trap door was revealed and stairs dropped down. She crept up them at a curbed pace. At the top was a nearly spotless attic, deeply contrasting with the room she came from. The closet… She smiled; it was like the unofficial hiding place in Haunting Ground, the closet that was a neglected setting piece earlier that evening. She wandered aimlessly, wondering what to do next, when she saw a window seat with a thin blanket on it.
As she laid down on it, an exhausted expression on her face, she heard a voice beside her.
"It pretty, right? The pink clouds beside the rising sun?"
"You're right…what in the?"
Hello, fairy She had little bat wings with long, curly black hair covering them. Her eyes were blue and she wore a Gothic Lolita style kimono with the bow in the front. She smiled and introduced herself as Talli.
"I'm a sprite, and like the others I've been sent to help further your training, my Master is Gabriel."
"Alright…hey, I've been wondering this for a while, is this because we've gotten our weapons?"
"Yes, that's precisely it. Our Masters felt you would need our help but," she paused.
"But, what?"
"But, it doesn't feel like we're all here, haven't you seen Pink anywhere?"
"Who's Pink?"
"She was sent by Master Raphael to Arabelle, considering she took her weapon first I would have expected her here by now."
"Ara...? Oh, well Reijin's been sick for a few days now, she hasn't come out of her room," she stated, temporarily misrecollecting her friend's real name.
"What? That's impossible; at this stage it's almost impossible for you to contract a simple human illness!"
"So, Reijin's been playing hooky all this time! Remind me to get her when I wake up," Meriel swore.
"I still feel odd, it really feels like we're only three-fourths here," Talli expressed before both of them fell asleep in the strangely clean attic under the rising sun.
Author's Notes:
(1) Synthesis room – these handy little places are where Fiona does alchemy to get items during the game. The enemies can't get in, but she can't hide there either when they're after her.
It was hell trying to get that last horizontal rule right. . I haven't worked on this in a while now…onward to chapter seven!