10391. I'm almost afraid to ask, but Hawke, just how did you end up in Heavenly Host Elementary School and what the heck did you do?
10391a. You brought back more than a dozen kids, teens and adults, including four traumatised ghosts. How do you traumatise a ghost that's already lost most of its head?
10391b. More to the point, how do you traumatise a murderous spirit in the first place?
10391c. "I might have threatened them with a squid-faced elder being… after tanning their hides several times and introducing them to arcano-tech machine guns. Magical lasers hurt ghosts, who knew?" - Hawke
10391d. And now I'm worried about other supernaturals. You're the one that has to deal with their messes.
Rule by Ghrathryn
Groaning as she awoke once again in a ruined school corridor, Nicki pushed herself up, ignoring the cracked, rotted floorboards. "Okay, that didn't work out," she muttered, pushing her brown hair back over her shoulder. "I don't need to worry about getting myself fucked up too easily, but it's looking like I'm going to need to protect the kids by having them in my hull."
Looking around with a frown, she chewed her lip thoughtfully. "Would that be better? I can have a few marines drop for those areas that need to people, but, huh, do I remember where everything is?" After a couple of minutes she decided that it didn't matter, worst case scenario would just be another run, but just to be sure, she asked her crew to log where each item, and other thing was found.
Pulling out a fist-sized, pale blue trapezohedra (or an over-sized D10 as she often thought of them) from her stores, she raised it up, letting the light within illuminate the still fairly dark corridor. Between two holes that covered, in one case the entire floor and nearly as much in the other, right against the larger hole, lay a newspaper while what looked like two doors were on one wall, the other seeming to have once held windows long since boarded up.
Moving over to the newspaper, she crouched, carefully brushing her fingers over the pages until she found something legible.
Third Student Reported Missing
The story title proclaimed under the newspaper's name of "Heavenly Post," reading it, it looked like something that seemed to be someone's attempt to play on words.
Article: One by one, the young students of Heavenly Host _ School seem to be disappearing, as now a third student has joined the ranks of the missing. Classmates testify that fifth-grader _ was on her way home from school, but got separated from her friends in the hall and hasn't been seen since. Police are investigating the possibility of a serial kidnapping and have assigned countless investigators to the case in the hopes of a speedy resolution. However, ten days have already passed since the first disappearance, giving parents and classmates ample cause for concern."Yup, Heavenly Host, the shithole haunted by a pissy kid, what fun," Nicki muttered, shaking her head in disgust. "Fifth grade, huh? That'd be what? Ten year olds since if I remember the last run, Heavenly Host was an elementary school. Sachiko or that principal had probably already killed the girl if she'd been missing a week… or she's one of the corpses in here."
Hearing a yelp behind her, Nicki spun around, far, far too many encounters having trouble sneaking up behind making her react much faster than most. Spotting the cause of the noise, she relaxed slightly, getting to her feet to help the brunette that seemed to have tripped over one of the rotten floor boards up. "Hey, you okay?" she asked, trying to remember just who this was.
"M-my ankle's… in pretty bad shape," the girl replied, having to hold on to Nicki to stead herself. "Who are you? What are you doing here? Where are we?"
Hooking an arm around the girl – Naomi, that was it – Nicki shifted her phosphor plort to the hand holding the girl. "My name is Nicki Calhoun," she replied. "We're in a type of purgatory, a place called Heavenly Host Elementary School and I'm hoping I'll be able to bust my way out by destroying the source of this place, a murdered girl called Sachiko Shinozaki, or figuring out how to send her on."
Naomi blinked. "What? Heavenly Host was supposed to have been demolished, and what do you mean about Shinozaki?"
"I'd rather limit the amount of repeats I have to do," Nicki replied. "Is there anyone else around here from your group?"
Nodding, Naomi pointed to the door nearer the large gap. "My friend Seiko is in that room, I couldn't get to her through it."
Once she was sure Naomi could stand on her own, Nicki grabbed the newspaper, stuffing it into a pocket before the pair went into the classroom to find Seiko, another brunette wearing the same white top and blue skirt as Naomi, lying on near what was probably a teacher's podium.
"Seiko!" shouted Naomi, rushing towards her.
Following her, Nicki knelt next to the girl, checking for a pulse and breathing, both of which were present and steady. "She's alive," she said, pulling another plort, a water one this time, out of her hold via her pocket. Holding it over Seiko's forehead, she crushed it, feeling the water run between her fingers.
The girl sat up rather quickly after the water splashed down on her face, blinking and yelping, only for a strong hand to catch her arm. "W-what?" asked Seiko.
"That's a bit of a long story," Nicki admitted. "Cliff notes version is that back in the fifties there was an elementary school called Heavenly Host. The Principal there killed the school nurse, a woman with the family name of Shinozaki, by pushing her down one of the stairwells. He then murdered her daughter, Sachiko, and buried her in the basement or something. He committed suicide later, but not before his family line was cursed.
"In the seventies, his son, who was a teacher or custodian here, was used by Sachiko to kidnap multiple children, three of which I know she was involved in." Nicki scowled at the wooden platform. "The kids were murdered to send them to keep Sachiko's mother company, or because she liked it. A lot of murdered spirits turn into things like wraiths or grudges or other vengeful types.
"After a time the school was demolished, but they built another school on the site, leaving her a path back. Also, at some point, some paranormal investigators came here using the Sachiko ritual."
Naomi gasped. "The Sachiko Ever After ritual?" she asked.
Nicki nodded. "Apparently one of the pair had a student who was somewhat obsessed with him; she screwed the ritual to get more people here so he would have more data or something." She took a breath and let it out slowly. "She's here as well, along with Sachiko, the girl's mother, the son of their killer and three of the kids, all of them looking to kill anyone else here."
"H-how do you know this?" Seiko asked.
"Because I didn't come here from a botched ritual, but because someone was playing with an ability that let them go into media, to use it as a door to the universe it actually happened in," Nicki replied. She looked between the pair. "I still intend on getting people out of here, alive. That's going to mean being careful and laying some ground rules."
"Ground rules?" both girls asked.
Nodding, Nicki held a finger up. "The media to get here is classed as 'horror' for reasons I'm sure you can guess. So, first thing to know, going off on your own is probably asking for trouble. Even if you have trouble with each other, stick close. Second, there are at least half a dozen others roaming around that are not friendly. The kid in red is the worst, but all four kids can kill you and if you don't recognise someone, presume they're potentially unfriendly or can go that way. Heck, even friends can if we're stuck long enough. The best way to get notes to one another, from what I've seen, seems to be these podiums, so if you come across information you need to share, put it on them. Lastly, for you girls at least, keep your parts of the paper doll somewhere you're not liable to lose it. It's a key, so you'll need it unless you want to try to stick with me as I try breaking a hole to get through, and that may not let you into your universe."
She looked between the two younger girls. "The last thing to be aware of, a lot of people died in this place or were killed in the real world version, some of the spirits are in this 'closed space', for others, their corpses are." Nicki paused for a moment, frowning. There was something… right, that. "Oh, and be careful what you read, some of the notes are cursed. If you're not careful, reading a full set can make you black out and find yourself or others around you dead."
Both girls swallowed hard at that dire warning. Seiko shivered hard while Naomi huddled with her. "We-we can get out of here, right?" asked Seiko.
"If I have anything to say about it, you will," Nicki replied. Frowning, she dug around in her pockets/hold, drawing out some paper and a pen. After a couple of minutes, she quickly wrote out the cliff notes and survival tips in kanji and placed it on the podium. "I think… we're going to need to scour the school to find the things to send some of those here on. I'm not sure what else we'll need so keep an eye out for literally anything useful."
The girls nodded, Naomi taking Nicki's hand before taking Seiko's. Before they left the room, Nicki paused by the notice on the wall.
Article: Heavenly Host ElementaryNotice to all Faculty and Students
Due to the recent kidnappings, caution is highly recommended during all daily activities. In each instance, the victim was taken quickly and unexpectedly. So please remain alert and aware at all times.
-Principal Takamine Yanagihori
Nicki shook her head, heading for the door, only to pause as the girls pressed against her back when a tremor struck shaking the room and dropping lights from the ceiling.
"W-what was that?" Seiko asked.
"Things shifting around within this cluster of pocket dimensions," Nicki replied, turning to give the girls a hug. "We'll get through it girls, you're both getting through this." She squeezed the pair gently as they held onto her.
Article: Heavenly Post
Breaking News: Serial Kidnapping Ends in Murder
The good name of Heavenly Host Elementary school has been stained in blood today as horrific details on the recent wave of disappearances are revealed. Over the past month, numerous children have gone missing within the town, and authorities quickly turned to kidnapping as the most likely explanation. Now investigators have located the whereabouts of these children, and their findings are far worse than anyone could've anticipated.
The bodies of the absconded youths were discovered within the Heavenly Host Elementary School building on September 18th, 1973 at around 7:00 PM. Authorities further revealed that a male instructor from the school was found with them, alive but near-catatonic, holding a pair of bloodied scissors. The good name of Heavenly Host Elementary school has been stained in blood today as horrific details on the recent wave of disappearances are revealed. Over the past month, numerous children have gone missing within the town, and authorities quickly turned to kidnapping as the most likely explanation. Now investigators have located the whereabouts of these children, and their findings are far worse than anyone could've anticipated.
The bodies of the absconded youths were discovered within the Heavenly Host Elementary School building on September 18th, 1973 at around 7:00 PM. Authorities further revealed that a male instructor from the school was found with them, alive but near-catatonic, holding a pair of bloodied scissors.
Each of the corpses appeared to have had its tongue sev_ed and remove_ique mutilations far too grot_g to describe.
"Huh," Nicki grunted, ignoring the sound of the door slamming shut behind them. "So that's how they found the lot of them. Makes me wonder what they thought happened to the teacher if he was close to catatonic."
"H-how are you so calm about this?" Naomi asked. She looked around and swallowed. "T-the door closed on its own."
Nicki nodded. "I heard," she said before standing. "And I'm calm because this isn't my first run in with this sort of crap." Walking to the door, she tested it, frowning slightly. "You know," she said. "You can open this door for us, point out the way to open it, or I can open it and if I open it, there probably won't be a door left."
Getting no response, she shrugged. "Okay then, girls, stand back a bit." Once the girls were out of the way, Nicki pulled a boom plort from her armoury, backed up and hurled it at the door, where it detonated thunderously, tearing open a massive hole in the wall where the door stood and showing wood and brick shrapnel around the area. As the dust cleared, she caught a glimpse of a girl in a red dress glaring through the hole and smirked at her. "Told you," she drawled.
As the apparition faded away, Nicki turned to Naomi and Seiko, who had both taken shelter near the other end of the room where an unlit candle lay. A moment with a fire plort and the candle was burning merrily while the two younger girls recovered from being deafened. It also gave her a chance to slip out a few fairies to recover the body. If nothing else, removing that from here would probably help ease any restless spirit still lingering, as would the more religious members of her crew giving last rights.
"What was that?" Seiko asked, once she could actually hear again. "And how much stuff do you have? Were you planning on coming here?"
"Planning for this? No, but there's plenty of times when things have gone sideways for me or my colleagues, so we tend to be prepared for what we can think of," Nicki replied. "As for that, think of it as a grenade, it's not quite accurate, but it'll do." She shrugged, helping Naomi back to her feet. "You've both got your doll fragments?"
Naomi nodded. "It's still in my student ID holder," she replied, checking the relevant area.
Seiko on the other hand, quickly checked her pockets and nearly panicked. "Oh no, I-I can't find it!" She dug around for another moment. "Craaap… I put mine in my pocket. It must have fallen out somewhere…"
Naomi sighed, the sort of sigh that told of seeing this sort of thing repeatedly. "That's why I keep telling you, you need to put things away before they get lost."
"How about you both slow down," Nicki interrupted. "Seiko, why don't you empty your pockets onto the table here and go through them one at a time?" she suggested, getting a nod from the younger girl.
A few minutes and a bit of searching later, they managed to find the scrap under the desks where the two had sheltered. This time, Seiko put it inside her student ID holder on a lanyard around her neck like Naomi's.
Grunting as she evaded the shadow again, Nicki glanced up at Naomi's yell, only to realise that Seiko was missing and Naomi was frantically pulling on the door.
Dragging the shadow to a corner, Nicki leapt the nearby desk, skidding over it before running to Naomi. "Quick version, what happened?"
"Sei-Seiko was trying to open the door, when something reached in and pulled her out," Naomi responded, tears in her eyes. "I-I tried, but the door… the door's bound shut." She gave a sob as Nicki hugged her.
Letting go of Naomi, Nicki turned to the door, scowling at the sight of what looked like someone's hair, dark hair at that, which made sense for Japan, woven all over the door. Trying to burn it with a flame plort didn't seem to do anything, making her scowl deeper. "We're going to need a stronger flame; I noticed rubbing alcohol in the cabinet earlier, think you can get it if I distract ugly?"
Naomi visibly shuddered as she took a deep breath but nodded.
Reaching into her armoury again, Nicki returned the flame plort, withdrawing a something that looked like a variant design for a Star Trek Original Series phaser, only longer and smoother. "Go," Nicki ordered, moving in the opposite direction. "Oi, ugly! Yeah, you, what, did your mother dump you in a pot of ink when you were a kid or something?" she asked.
When the shadow hissed and lunged, she leapt aside, bringing the gun up she opened fire.
Everything paused for a moment at the rapid series bright blue light pulses that tore the air with an equally rapid cracking sound similar to a Sten SMG. Then the shadow shrieked its pitch almost high enough to shatter glass.
It lunged again, only to fly through empty space as Nicki took a couple of quick steps to the side. Another burst pinned the thing in the corner, shrieking as Naomi ran from the medical cabinet to the door. After pouring the alcohol onto the hair, Naomi ran back to Nicki's side allowing Nicki to use a shot from the pistol to set the hair alight.
Moments later, they were both out in the corridor again, with Seiko nowhere to be seen.
"I am going to kill you!"
"No, bitch, you're not," Nicki snarled, sending a burst into the creature as it reached for the door behind them, sending it shrieking back as the door slid shut.
Returning the gun to her armoury, Nicki wrapped her arms around Naomi while the girl shivered.
After a few minutes to get her sobbing under control, Naomi pulled back. "You-you're not a normal person, are you?" she asked. "That-that gun, and the crystals and you not caring about facing those things, that's not normal, even for a paranormal investigator."
"Figured it out, huh?" Nicki asked, a smirk quirking her lips. "Good girl, you need to keep your head on straight in a place like this." She shifted; letting Naomi lean against her while she rubbed the girl's back. "No, I'm Royal Navy, but my group… well; we deal with things like this and worse." She shrugged, turning it into a roll of her shoulders. "You go through things a few times you start learning how to handle the fear, not lose it, but deal with it so you can do what's needed even if you're terrified."
She looked down at Naomi. "There's also the fact I've done this a few times. I said before I was from where this was media to people, but I've been stuck for a bit, even so, I've managed to break a few instances so hopefully this'll be the last." She sighed, looking up at the wall that had, several times, been splattered with blood and entrails, which for a change, was clean. "Come on, I know where we need to get for where it's likely Seiko is. The sooner we're there, the better off she'll be."
Naomi nodded, looking determined as she stood. "Let's go," she said.
Opening the lavatory door, Naomi could only stare in horror at her friend. Seiko hung from the ceiling, suspended by her neck above a broken off toilet, drool and tears running down her face while blood splattered the walls of the stall. "Why? WHY?! No! NO!"
"Na… o… mi…"
"Seiko! You're alive?! Hold on, I'll get you down!"
A hand landed on Naomi's shoulder before she could try and Nicki squeezed into the stall, hoisting Seiko up onto her shoulders with a grunt. "Go up and cut the rope," Nicki ordered, passing Naomi a combat knife even as she braced herself to hold both girls.
"B-but…"
"It's safer this way," Nicki interrupted her.
Taking the knife, Naomi climbed into Nicki's hands, bracing herself before starting to saw through the rope around Seiko's neck.
Then, against all odds, Seiko shifted, slipping as the rope pulled tighter, revealing her face to Naomi, blue tinged skin and bulging eyes begging for something.
Yelping, Naomi fell from Nicki's hands, the knife falling to clang off Nicki's shoulder as she scrambled back into the corner in sudden fright.
Growling as three child spirits, bloody and laughing, the nearest one missing most of her head appeared around Naomi, Nicki shifted her grip. "Marines," she ordered quietly, feeling some of her men slip from her hair and run up the girl, using axes, swords, fire plorts and even guns to finish what Naomi had started.
The rope parted with a snap, more of it pulling up as Seiko collapsed, coughing, against Nicki's back. Moving out of the cubicle, Nicki put Seiko down, leaving some marines and a couple of doctors to get her breathing normally again and calm her down.
The boy spirit turned a pair of scissors he had gotten from somewhere in hand as he noticed Nicki approaching, eyes wide and mouth agape.
Nicki moved, relieving the boy of his weapon, jamming them into the wall and snapping them in one movement before she slapped him twice. "No, bad boy," she snapped. "No attacking people with scissors. Didn't your mother teach you better?"
As he fell onto his rear, she turned, already pulling a puddle plort from her armoury and chanting a benediction. Dodging the headless girl's swing, she grabbed the girl's hand with one of her own, preventing her from fighting, even with the spirit's supernatural strength.
Hand moving above where the girl's head would be, Nicki blinked as the girl moved into where her hand was, crushing the puddle plort instinctively. The spirit shrieked as she had blessed water dumped straight down her throat from where her head should have been.
That girl staggered away, clutching at her head and hissing while Nicki turned to the last girl. She felt the one-eyed spirit's attempt to paralyse her and shrugged it off, flicking her still damp hand at her, making the spirit shriek as she cringed away.
A scream of outrage had them all spinning around to find the girl in the red dress charging at Nicki. "They were supposed to DIE!" the girl yelled, swinging a knife towards her.
Evading a few wild swings, Nicki spun to the side as Sachiko lunged, knife straight out. Grabbing the girl's outstretched arm, she spun them in a circle before flipping Sachiko over her own shoulder with a sudden reversal that had the knife almost skinning the child's face.
As Sachiko landed with a rather loud thud for a spirit, Nicki pressed Sachiko's arm up behind her back, weakening her grip and took the knife from her, tossing it out the door before hoisting the girl up and laying her over her own knee.
Pinning Sachiko between her leg and arm, she flipped the skirt of the girl's dress up, pulled down her underwear and smacked the child's suddenly bare butt, causing Sachiko to shriek in pain as she was spanked. "You. Do. Not. Attack. People. With. Scissors. Knives. Or. Any. Thing. Else. Do. You. Under. Stand. Me. Sachiko. Shinozaki?" Nicki asked, smacking Sachiko's butt like an annoyed mother after each word and getting pained yelps after each crack as flesh met ghostly flesh.
She didn't get a chance to hear an answer as Naomi shrieked a warning giving her just enough time to throw Sachiko away from her while throwing herself in a different direction, avoiding a massive overhand hammer blow that boomed through the room, breaking the plank flooring.
Ducking another blow, she danced backwards long enough to see what was attacking. She frowned at the zombie-like monster with the hammer, no doubt the remnants of the man Sachiko had used to kill so many.
The hammer came at her again and this time, she didn't evade it, she caught it in one hand, causing a loud 'CLANG!' as the steel sledgehammer met her metal hull. Grinning, she started squeezing the metal, crushing it in her hand with a horrible shrieking as the metal stressed and shattered.
Pulling her hand away as the zombie staggered back a step and raised the hammer to look at it in confusion, she closed a hand into a fist.
Two steps later, her fist met the zombie's gut driven by all two hundred thousand horse power she had available. The zombie disappeared in an explosion of gore, shattered bones and blood splattering the walls, floor and ceiling like the results of a shotgun blast.
There was an 'eep' from behind her as all four ghosts vanished as quickly as they could.
Another puddle plort let Nicki clean the muck off her hand before she made her way to the two girls, both frozen in shock. "Either of you hurt anymore?" she asked, getting shaken heads from both girls. "Want to know what that was, I take it." This time they both nodded. "Well, Nicki Calhoun, the HMS Hawke. I'm a Minotaur-class cruiser of the British Royal Navy Devonport Fleet," she reintroduced herself. "And I intend on getting as many as I can out alive before scuttling this place completely and leaving myself."
"I am surprised," the comment, from a young woman wearing a light purple blazer and red tie over a white blouse, roused both Naomi and Seiko from where they were still cuddling one another, having nearly dozed off. "I had thought that there was only one living girl in this closed space."
Nicki looked up and smirked at the girl. "It wasn't from lack of trying on Sachiko's part," she commented. "I wasn't expecting her to try pulling in the rot bag or attempt things herself over one girl."
The young woman blinked a couple of times before shaking herself. "So you know?"
"About Sachiko being the killer of most of those here?" ask Nicki. "I do, but I also know she's not the only one that caused things. Her mother's curse, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the source of the darkening. The fact both Sachiko and her mother were killed in these halls by the principal of the time, who later cut out Sachiko's tongue the way she did to the kids she forced his son to kidnap for her." She paused for a moment, looking the woman over. "Then there's the one that publicized the ritual that dragged far too many here, because she was obsessed with a senior that she wound up murdering within these halls. Lastly, there's the kids themselves along with their kidnapper, corrupted by this place and bound by the will of a grudge or wraith or whatever you want to call the Shinozakis, only able to be free when the last parts of their bodies available – their tongues for the kids – is returned to them, or those dragged here and corrupted like the one who arranged for the ritual to be learned by others."
Naomi blinked several times. "Wh-Who are you?" From the tone of her voice, there was more she wanted to ask, if she hadn't blurted that question out.
"I'm the… spirit… of a girl who died here." The young woman replied.
"And do you know what Nicki meant about the 'darkening'?" Seiko asked, moving to stand next to Nicki with Naomi's help. Even with the help from Nicki's crew, her voice was hoarse from her near death.
"The curse that holds this school together," the woman replied. "Those who are touched by it slowly lose their minds to it. Some people realize this is happening, and go to great lengths to prevent it… even taking their own lives. Of course, others just go insane." She paused for a moment to look between the three. "Sometimes they start hurting the people around them. The exact response varies quite a bit from one person to the next."
"That's horrible," Naomi gasped, getting a nod from Seiko.
Nicki nodded as well. "It's also what needs to be undone to make this place stop dragging in more victims," she added. "All of which means dealing with the two dead Shinozakis and their killer, before which, we're going to need to get people out and stop the other killers in here."
"How?" asked Seiko. "Didn't see anyone else?"
"There is nobody else alive in this closed space," the woman responded.
Frowning, Nicki sucked her lips in thought. "There's got to be a way to move between spaces, because the spirits can. I know the quakes are to do with the spaces moving around or people being moved between them…" Could they get a spirit to take them to another closed space with living people? Would they be able to trust any spirit in this place to do that?
"I might be able to help," another voice said, drawing everyone's attention to another girl with red eyes and a black Lolita dress.
"And the cost?" asked Nicki. "Something like that is bound not to be free, or cheap."
The girl gave her a sad smile. "Save those you can, and remember me."
Nicki frowned slightly. "You're already dead, aren't you?"
Nodding, the girl shifted. "I was born Akagiri Saki long ago, I was beaten to death as a witch when my powers ran out of control. I wanted to aid Tamaki Minase and while she escaped this place, I did not." She looked at Nicki. "Tell me, Daughter of the Oceans, can you stand to fight the Queen. It is Her power that the Shinozakis used in this place, and not just that, other things dwell."
"I won't know until I encounter her," Nicki admitted. "I aim to ensure this place permanently closes, but without information, I don't know whether a cruiser will be enough to stop a 'queen'."
"You speak the truth," Saki said softly after a moment. "Gather your companions. I won't guarantee you will visit the same spaces, but you will finish in the same one."
Nodding, Nicki turned to the two girls, pulling a couple of bottles of water out and blessing them before giving one to each girl. "If you see any spirits, spray them with these, okay?" she asked, getting nods from both Seiko and Naomi.
Once the three were ready, she called Saki over, surprising the girl with a gentle hug. "Thank you for this," she said.
Disoriented from the transport, Naomi almost failed to notice that she was in the infirmary again, though this time, instead of a shadowy figure, there were five people, two she recognised as the young girl ghosts that had attacked her, headless and eyeless. The remaining three were her classmates, Ayumi Shinozaki, her dark hair in two tails, Mayu Suzumoto floating between the ghost girls, her light brown hair still up in an antenna style tail and blond Yoshiki Kishinuma standing tensely at the scene.
"…Come on, you two… I have something you need to hear, okay? Just listen!" Ayumi was saying as she raised what looked like a doll towards the two spirits.
Jumping forwards and almost falling as her ankle nearly failed to take her weight, Naomi shoved the doll down. "Don't!" she snapped at Ayumi. "They won't accept it; look at them, without catching their eyes… or where their eyes should be." She pointed at the two spirits, who had started tensing when the doll was raised and now looked, if she could tell from trying to focus on their bodies rather than their faces, nervous or unsure.
"What do you mean they won't accept it?" Yoshiki asked belligerently. "That woman with glasses said they would be appeased by it."
"Yoshiki, look at the girl without a head, not where her eyes would be but where her mouth is supposed to be," Naomi retorted, pointing. "While they're not being aggressive, take a good look at that area."
She watched as both ghosts looked at one another.
"GIHH IT BACK!" The left spirit yelled at them while the right pointed at her missing head and missing tongue, waggling what was left of the latter as if trying to speak.
"Th-they're missing their tongues?" Ayumi asked, shivering.
Naomi nodded. "Didn't you read the note in 1A?" she asked. Both her friends looked at one another in surprise while Naomi face palmed and groaned.
"GIHH IT BACK!" the spirit yelled again, hoisting Mayu higher.
Whirling at the squeak from her friend, Naomi opened the bottle of blessed water and threw it at all three of them. Both spirits shrieked in pain and bolted, letting Mayu drop to the ground. While Ayumi ran to Mayu, Naomi limped to the door. "WE DON'T KNOW WHERE THEY ARE YET! LEARN A BIT OF PATIENCE!" she yelled, startling the spirit outside, who looked suspiciously like the one she had seen in the bathroom where she almost died.
Turning around, she found three sets of eyes widened in shock as she slid down the wall. "I hope Seiko had an easier time," she muttered.
"W-what was that?" Mayu stammered, while Ayumi fussed over her.
"I second the question," Yoshiki commented.
Naomi sighed. "I don't know how long I'm going to stay here, so check 1A on the podium, there should be more notes there," she said before taking a deep breath and looking at them. "This is Heavenly Host, the school that was demolished before ours was built. The principal killed the school nurse and her daughter and she cursed him, the nurse that is. The daughter somehow made this place and found a way back. She used her murderer's son to kidnap students of her school and killed them. Three are still 'formed' or 'around', that was two of them. There's also at least two more definite threats. A big zombie with a hammer and a shadow shape," she continued. "I hope the zombie's gone, it got punched hard enough that it disappeared. The shadow, it was here once, I don't know how it moves. As for the ghosts, keep from looking them in the eye and you should be relatively safe unless they catch you. Watch out for the one in red, she's the murdered daughter." She paused and blinked as she started fading out.
"I'm shifting space," Naomi called. "Look on the podium in 1A, and stick together!" With that she vanished from the room.
Seiko blinked as she found herself outside on what seemed to be some kind of roofed bridge or corridor of some sort facing a group of four students that definitely weren't from Kisaragi Academy. Two of them, one boy, one girl, were wearing glasses and all seemed to be from the same school, though she wasn't sure which from where she was.
Facing the group, holding them mesmerised it seemed, was the headless spirit. "Gihh me back my heahh…" the spirit moaned.
Swallowing, Seiko stepped towards the group as the spirit raised her arms and shook the bottle Nicki had given her, the sound of water sloshing around causing the ghost girl's lower jaw to snap around. "Why don't you leave them alone?" Seiko asked, surprising herself at how steady her voice was. "Unless you like getting dowsed," she suggested, raising the bottle and unscrewing the lid.
The girl spirit hissed at her, diving forwards only to receive the promised dowsing that caused her to shriek, her torso smoking as she fled.
"Okay… I don't think that happened before…" Seiko muttered before turning to the other school students and giving them a wave, "Uh, hi?"
"Who are you?" one of the girls asked.
"Seiko Shinohara," Seiko replied. "Uh…I guess you don't know what's going on?" The response predictably was a confusing mess of yelling and screaming for a moment before Seiko managed to whistle loud enough to be heard, and nearly went into a coughing fit after forcing her to take a drink from the bottle. "I can't talk loud right now," she said. "You're in Heavenly Host; probably the Sachiko Ever After ritual brought you here. Stay away from the ghosts and zombie in particular. Stay together as much as possible and read what's on the podium in class 1A if you can get to it. We're trying to sort things out, but we don't know how well it'll work." She paused for a moment. "Oh, and look for tongues." Hearing their protests, she raised her hand. "The kids will stop if those are returned, but you need the right one so find something for that as well…" she trailed off as she was pulled away.
Finding herself in another classroom, Nicki looked around and groaned at seeing a woman pinned under a cabinet, a red, flame-like spirit floating nearby. "Okay, seriously, don't people know horror movies around here or did she get dumped alone?" she muttered.
Walking up to the pinned woman, she grabbed the cabinet and hoisted it up, flipping it around as she tossed it aside.
"STOP! What are you doing?" the spirit yelled, drawing her attention.
"Saving this woman," Nicki responded, calling forth some of her medical crew to patch the woman up. "I take it you're the reason she was trapped."
"Tch… she's nothing, she's a teacher, not a mother," the spirit spat.
Nicki arched an eyebrow. "And you'd know that she couldn't be both, how?" She gave the spirit a look. "Besides, you don't need to have kids to have maternal instincts. I spent years in a lab and there were kids younger than me there." She flexed her shoulders, spreading her wings slightly. "Me, Blake, and Helene grew up together looking out for the younger kids, right up until the military learned about the project. They were the aunts, I was the mum to most of the younger kids and so help me if you ever try to play 'no blood relation so you can't care' again I will find a way to feed you to an Elder God." The spirit seemed to draw back against the wall with the threat.
"Th-they are my children," the teacher managed to put in, apparently having been woken by the lack of weight on her and the two medics cleaning her wounds. "I think I speak for every single one of us at Kisaragi Academy… when I say that we love our children… We care about them just as their parents do."
It took a minute before the teacher managed to stand, the medics having put her arm in a sling along with bandaging her back where various things from the cabinet had cut it. "Now, answer me this! Your little rant earlier suggested that more of my students are here than the two I came with and the one I heard… Is it true? Were the others brought here as well?"
Nicki looked at the woman. "You left two kids alone in a school of horrors situation? I hope that you're the only one that's done that."
"It is. Numerous corporeal entities joined us in these closed spaces, all at the same time. Counting you… I sensed the arrival of nine people." The spirit responded.
"I… had hoped to find the others. After I heard Nakashima scream, I went to try to find her. Do you know where any are?" the woman paused for a moment. "Oh, I'm sorry; I'm Yui Shishido, a teacher at Kisaragi Academy."
Nicki nodded. "Nicki Calhoun, British Royal Navy," she introduced herself. "And as long as Saki's right about her teleport through closed spaces, I have Naomi Nakashima and Seiko Shinohara, or will do once the teleport completes."
Yui sighed in relief. "That's something at least. You don't know where Satoshi and Yuka Mochida, Mayu Suzumoto or Sakutaro Morishige are, do you?"
Shaking her head, Nicki frowned. "I don't, but I'll keep an eye out for them. Listen, if possible, you should head back to classroom 1A and check the teacher's podium there, I left some notes on what I know for what's happening. They should have spread through the closed spaces, but watch yourself. There's four ghost kids around that aren't friendly along with a zombie and a shadow. Avoid them as much as possible, we'll deal with them, but I want to try to get everyone at least informed first."
Yui nodded before one of the crewmen spoke up. "Hawke, if you don't mind dropping a shore party, we can keep Ms Shishido safer, especially given her wounds need time to heal."
Nicki frowned, looking at the two medics and ignoring the confused look on Yui's face. Only those used to fairies or having them as crew could readily understand them. "You're sure, gents?" Getting nods from them, she mentally ordered a marine squad to arm up with the lasers similar to the one she had used on the shadow and deployed them just before she was yanked away.
Warping into what seemed to be an art classroom, Nicki braced herself as Naomi and Seiko staggered into her. "You two alright?" she asked.
"Yeah, though… we almost lost Mayu," Naomi replied swallowing. "I-if I hadn't wound up there the girl spirits, the one missing an eye and the one missing her head, probably would have killed her because someone convinced Ayumi to show them a doll."
"How…" Seiko coughed. "How do they get around so fast? I stopped the headless girl attacking a group of four kids from another school."
Nicki shrugged her shoulders. "Not sure, beyond they're probably more powerful than most in here." Shifting slightly, she gave them both a hug. "At least you gave those kids another chance, so hopefully we'll get them home." She frowned slightly, furling her wings against her back. "Do you two know a woman by the name of Yui Shishido?"
"Is she alright?" Naomi asked.
"Injured, but alive," Nicki replied. "Some douche of a spook dropped a cabinet on her; my medics reported a broken arm and cut up back. I left a marine squad with her just before I got pulled here." She smiled slightly at the pair's sighs of relief before turning to Saki, who was standing uncomfortably nearby. "Thank you, Saki," she said, giving the spirit a hug that caused her to squeak. "I don't know if we'll be able to find your body, particularly if you died elsewhere, but… do you want to come aboard? If nothing else, it'll give you a way out of here."
Saki looked at Nicki for a moment before taking the other's offered hand and fading out.
"Ooh, funky… I wonder if I count as a haunted hull now," Nicki murmured before blinking at the sight of a girl standing in the corner of the room. "Hey!" she said, frowning as the girl didn't respond.
Giving her companions a quick check, and seeing them taking a moment to rest on some of the stools around, Nicki made her way over to the girl, who was dressed in a white-on-Prussian blue serafuku, long straight hair and dead, grey eyes. Frowning, Nicki waved a hand in front of the girl's face, and then pressed her fingers to the girl's neck. "Got a pulse but not responding, darkening?" she muttered.
Pulling a puddle plort from her hold, she muttered the benediction that Lyrene had taught her, making the plort glow softly before raising it over the girl and crushing it to release the water.
The girl shrieked, jumping backwards and landing on her butt, only for her shriek to be drowned out by something a lot darker, something that immediately lunged towards Nicki only to screech in pain as she broke a phosphor plort nearly blinding herself in the process.
Shaking her head, Nicki pulled the laser SMG from her armoury and released a burst of burning blue laser bolts at the shadow, destroying it as it screeched again.
"Well, I guess now we know what happens to the 'darkening' when it encounters blessed water," Nicki commented before crouching down near the fallen girl. "Hey there, you got a name honey?"
"Kokuhaku," the girl answered, "Kokuhaku Akaboji. Wh-where… are we? I-I don't remember…."
Nicki frowned, looking up as Naomi and Seiko joined her. "That's a bit of a long explanation," she said. "I'm Nicki Calhoun, British Royal Navy; these are Naomi Nakashima and Seiko Shinohara of Kisaragi Academy. We're in a pocket dimension or closed space for Heavenly Host Elementary, which was demolished before Kisaragi was built." She paused for a moment before dropping the rather obvious bomb shell. "This place is pretty much a giant death trap that I'm trying to close, while saving whoever I can."
"Death… trap…" Kokuhaku repeated, swallowing hard. "Then…?"
"We haven't seen anyone else in your uniform, living or… or dead," Naomi responded quietly. "I-I'm sorry."
Kokuhaku frowned at the wall for a minute, fiddling with the ends of her hair. "Then… may I come with you?" she asked finally.
When the other girls looked at her, Nicki nodded. "Did you take part in something called a Sachiko Ever After ritual?" she asked, getting a nod from Kokuhaku. "Make sure you've got your piece of the doll and that you keep it. It's likely your way out." Getting to her feet, she helped the girl up.
"Um… miss… Miss Angel?" a young sounding female voice asked, causing everyone to turn to look, finding an older teen boy with a younger girl, the pair looking similar enough to be siblings. "Could… could Satoshi and I come too?"
"Satoshi as in Satoshi Mochida?" asked Nicki while Naomi and Seiko almost pounced on the boy, both crying.
The younger girl nodded. "Uh huh… I'm Yuka Mochida, he's my Big Brother!" She said proudly.
Nicki smiled at Yuka, ruffling her hair gently. "Nice to meet you, Yuka, I'm Nicki," she introduced herself. "And, by-the-by, it's Valkyrie, not angel, there're some differences between the two." She looked up at the older girls and the boy. "I think, folks, we should see about checking room 1A, see if there's anyone there after that we need to have a planning session."
"Before we do," Saki said, materialising herself near Nicki, which caused everyone else to jump. "I can feel others nearby; multiple others are in this closed space, but two are close, the rest are further away."
"Can you show us?" Nicki asked, getting a nod from Saki. "Is it on the way back to 1A?" Once again Saki nodded. "Alright, everyone stay close, Saki and I will divert once we find where she's detecting living people, the rest of you will probably be better off staying back a bit, but keep an eye open for spooks."