sevenhorrors | I'm poking at the setting and would like compensation for damages!

[As promised, Yuma delivers Suzuha an approximate hour in 24-hour time notation for the place in advance. Once it's time, he drops by Kai-un's dormitory so that they can head out together.

Their first stop: the first floor's bathroom. Between the threads of red yarn everywhere and the ghosts roaming the hall, it takes them a little longer to get there, but they do so without incident. He turns to her in front of the door.]

Well, here we are. Are you ready?

[An uneventful journey to their destination surely bodes well for their little investigation today, and Suzuha is feeling fairly chipper when they finally arrive at the first of the bathrooms.

Her gaze does one last sweep of the hall behind them—just to be sure nothing spooky might have followed them—then she's glancing up at Yuma with a smile and a nod.]

Let's do this! It'll be a piece of cake.

[Cake?

Although it's questionable how sweet this investigation will be, he pushes the door open and holds it for Suzuha while looking it up and down for anything out of the ordinary. Seeing nothing, he lets it close and turns to the bathroom interior.]

I will check the sinks and the mirrors. You can join me or look elsewhere, but we should try to stay close in case anything happens.

[It's not such a big space that they wouldn't be able to make it across in seconds, and Suzuha seems more than capable; however, a single second can make all the difference in an unpredictable situation.]

[She steps on in, eyes likewise scanning the room for anything that stands out, threatening or otherwise. And as expected, it's... an ordinary bathroom. Just kind of on the dirty side.

She stops in the center of the room, glancing around.]

Agreed. If you've got the sink side covered, I'll check out the stalls then.

[Might as well be efficient about it.]

[He joins her at her side, if momentarily.]

Understood. Please proceed with caution.

[Depending on where she begins, he'll approach the sink closest to that stall and scan the space from top to bottom. He inspects the mirror visually and with the swipe of a finger to gauge how thick the layer of dust is, then lowers his gaze to the sink, which is in a clear state of neglect like everything else. Turning the faucet on, he tests the water while washing off said grime on the pad of his finger. So far, so good.]

[A determined nod from her, and she's off to poke at the first in the small row of bathroom stalls. The door opens with a creak as she slowly pushes it open, finding... a toilet. She steps in to peer around at it, jiggling the handle a bit, checking in on the toilet paper situation (half-full!).]

Kinda grody in here, but... [A little muffled as she tries to get a look underneath the thing, but she straightens up after finding nothing of note.] Seems pretty normal.

It's the same on this end.

[He shuts the water after letting it run for a little longer, noting nothing off about it. Then he crouches down to take a look at the plumbing underneath.]

While everything appears to be in working order, I would still advise against anyone using these facilities for longer than necessary. This place lacks the same feeling as our assigned dormitories.

[In short, it doesn't feel safe. It's located on the opposite end of the hall, too. This could just be another venue for a haunting . . . ]

Yeah, agreed. Something kinda unsettling about it, even if it does seem pretty normal.

[But that's kinda par for the course with most of the school, so it's hard to say if it's all just in her head or not. Either way, better to err on the cautious side.

She steps back out of the stall, feeling confident to check it off her list in the search. Glancing over her shoulder at him as steps over to the next stall and pausing with her hand on the door.]

Would've been nice to have a safer place like the dorms to duck into on each floor, but y'know.

[No such luck. Especially not for those with Kai-un's curse.]

[He straightens in time to meet her glance over his own shoulder.]

Indeed. Even the nurse's office is closer to the dormitories than out here.

[This didn't use to be an issue until the emergence of additional spirits and entities, and he doubts it'll end here. As more things take notice of them, the dangers will only grow until they have a proper grasp of what's happening and why.

Hence, even the bathroom is a place worth investigating. While she enters the second stall, he moves to the next sink over. The results will be much the same, but there's still plenty more to see.]

Maybe the ghosts'll be too busy looking for people to bother in the main halls to duck into a quiet place like this.

[Wishful thinking, but hey. Another stall, another uneventful search, so it is pretty quiet. The most exciting thing to find this time is a broken toilet seat, but otherwise it's much the same as the first. She gives the thing an actual flush this time, and it seems to work just fine, if a little loud.

She steps back out, eyeing the next stall door that's ever so slightly ajar. ...Had it been like that before?]

[That could and has worked on at least one occasion for him. Given their incorporeal forms, though, he believes it was a matter of luck.]

However, there are yokai like the nekomata who prefer to be in rooms.

[Each creature has its habitat. He can't imagine what would choose the bathroom over everywhere else, but that's part of the reason they're here, and so he shuts off the water once more to move down to another sink.

A look at the mirror yields his own reflection. This one is a bit clearer than its neighbors with a lighter layer of grime. He looks down and the sink is equally as dirty, yet devoid of anything alarming like blood or hair.]

That's true...

[Letting that thought trail off as she steps over, hand a little more hesitant as she presses it against the cool metal of the door. Bathroom-dwelling ghosts probably wouldn't be the craziest thing about this place, though she's not sure what one would even look like.

Well. Maybe like the hunched over figure in red that's revealed as she carefully pushes that next door open.

She freezes, sucking in a breath.]

[He's about to test the water when he hears the sharp intake of breath behind him. Yuma lifts his chin, intending to angle his head toward Suzuha, when something dark flashes in his periphery. Prudence demands that he snap his attention back to the mirror, where his distorted reflection greets him.

No. It's the image of another person overlaid on top of his. He pauses, taking in the messy state of the girl's dark hair while she weeps behind her hands. Has she noticed him . . . ?

Something is going on with Suzuha; he can neither dawdle nor act in haste. After a brief moment of deliberation, he decides that it would be too risky to turn his back to an unfamiliar entity or speak carelessly when he has no idea what else is happening, so he gambles on making the first (second?) move by reaching up, if simply to establish whether she's incorporeal or not, while he attempts to engage her further with words:]

Is something wrong?

[In that quiet moment immediately following the reveal of this figure in red, Suzuha wonders if it's truly noticed her just yet. Is it friend or foe? Should she back off, alert Yuma? That would be the wisest course of action, maybe.

She hears that question of his, and having no sense of what he's facing himself at this current moment, assumes the question is for her. She slides a foot back, preparing to back off, but before she can respond, the figure in front of her shifts and speaks a question of its own.]

Do... you have a favorite color?

[Is it best to ignore it, or play along? It's undeniable that the thing's got it's sights on her now, so maybe... she eyes that red cloak and decides to take a gamble:] Blue?

[The smile it flashes her sends a chill down her spine, alarm bells blaring in her head. As it lunges for her, she hurriedly steps back—and luck of course is not on her side, and she stumbles over her own foot and trips backward. All she can really do is shout in alarm as the thing is upon her, hands grasping at her neck.]

[Another voice joins them. Someone—something—is talking to Suzuha. The timing is unideal and he feels a vibration in the mirror when the weeping ghost lifts her face with a bloody sneer.

Without warning, the mirror falls apart beneath his fingers. From the cracks, a ghostly hand shoots out to seize his wrist in a bruising grip. Suzuha's shout rings loudly behind him, and he takes one step to the side and back, revealing the reflection of her plight muddled with that of the sneering girl's.]

Hanabi!

[Surely they exchanged aliases on the way.

He pulls against the grip in vain, finding himself severely outclassed in strength. It's a feeling he deeply resents in the moment as his eyes flit between Suzuha and his wrist when his hand is yanked into the mirror.

Naturally, he resists. He plants a foot against the wall and braces himself while the edges of the glass tear into his fingers, but his wide-eyed gaze is trained on the reflection of Suzuha's back and the ghost upon her while the entity in the mirror is relegated to his periphery. He can't pull away. What should he do?]

[The ghost is surprisingly fast, surprisingly strong, and most of all, surprisingly solid. Those red hands are around her neck in an instant, squeezing so tight that she can no longer breath. She tries to rein in her focus to fight back, but with the momentum of its lunge for her and the way she'd tripped over herself in her initial attempt to flee, she doesn't have the leverage needed; she stumbles to the nearest wall until her shoulder collides painfully against it, fingers scrabbling at the hands around her neck to no avail.

She hears her alias called, feels a flicker of hope when she realizes Yuma can help get this ghost off of her. From here she can see him just at the edge of her vision, and... oh, god. He's struggling against something else there near the sinks.

Shit, shit, shit. No, she has to get over there to help him.

This is going from bad to worse, but Suzuha is ever one to keep putting up a fight. And she gives it her best, kicking, shoving, attempting to pry it off of her, but its hands are practically like a vise and she's at a disadvantage as it is against this wall. Panic surges when she feels a tingling in her arms and the edges of her vision start to fuzz black, bit by bit until she can feel herself teetering dangerously at the edge of consciousness as she grabs futilely at the ghost's red cloak—

And in a blink it's gone, and that pressure around her neck with it.

She slips down to the floor, sucking in a deep breath on instinct—and doubling over as it sends her into a coughing fit.]

[Suddenly, there's a shriek.

The hand releases him and Yuma stumbles back, his fingers tearing even deeper along the broken mirror edges. The mirror is blank save for his own reflection again, and he stares aghast at it for a beat before whirling around with the metaphorical skip of his heart, only for the ghost in red to vanish after he's taken a single step toward the wall.

Just like that, they're alone. With a racing heart, Yuma rushes over to Suzuha's side.]

Hanabi . . . !

[It takes her a moment to recover as she tries to steady her breathing again, willing the light-headedness to recede as quickly as possible. There's real relief when Yuma appears at her side, free from whatever he'd been tangling with himself.

Her gaze sweeps the room a little frantically for a moment, needing to be sure the threats were really gone, before it settles on him. The blood dripping from his sliced up hand snares her attention almost immediately.]

You're— [voice hitching as she strains to speak. god her throat hurts—] You're bleeding.

[Crouched before her, he remembers the effect of his curse before he can think about reaching out. She seems steady enough, so he won't make things worse by burdening her with his emotions.]

They're mere cuts.

[Blood runs from the gashes of his shredded fingers, but he's able to bend and move them just fine. His concern lies foremost with Suzuha, whose airway was cut off harshly for an extended period of time. They're not out of the woods yet, either.]

There are ice packs in the nurse's office. We can rest there and pick up additional supplies. Can you stand?

Think so.

[More of a pained whisper in response than anything, but she gives herself another moment of trying to make sure that dizzying light-headedness has had a chance to pass before making any sort of attempt to actually stand.

And still, staying here in this place when they can't know for sure that the danger has left them is spurring on an anxious need to get up and go already, so she forces herself into it. Mostly steady, to her credit, but she might unthinkingly reach for Yuma for just a moment as she wobbles—the curses are the farthest thing from her mind right now.]

[She grasps his arm, making his concern and anxiety known, yet with a determination that's accompanied by a clear sense of mission. His objective now is to move Suzuha, his present teammate, to safety. All else is secondary.

With the implicit permission gained from her accidental touch, he moves to stabilize her with a hand on her back. He'll maintain this if necessary, but will just as easily let her walk ahead if she's confident in her stride.]

[A little jolt of surprise when those emotions come through; something she always has to adjust to when not actively expecting it from the Shiawase crew, but that determination of his is steadying to her, and it bolsters her own focus on their current objective. Exfiltration, get somewhere safe, tend to their wounds.

There's an appreciative nod for him once she's steady on her feet and they can get moving. A straight shot right for the door, though her gaze does stray to that cracked mirror as they pass, connecting the dots between that and Yuma's wounded hand. The details can wait for the moment, though. The nurse's office might not be far, but they can never be sure if anything lurks in the halls.]

[She's all right. She'll be all right. In contrast to that thought, he hardly feels a thing in his hand.

They look both ways out the door before exiting. Between the stillness and the absence of a chill, there's not anything haunting the hall as far as Yuma can tell, so he nods at her once the bathroom door closes behind them. It's a straight line and then a left to the nurse's office. If things escalate, they can simply make a run for it.]

[Out, get the visual all-clear, move. Focus on the destination, eyes and ears sharp, one foot in front of the other. There's no time to worry about her own wounds or that of her comrade. If they can move, then there's no time to waste, not when there could be danger, danger, danger—

It feels like they get there in a blink, an uneventful trek save for a little Mischief Maker poking it's head around the corner at the school entranceway as they pass. Her hand's on the doorknob and pushing it open quickly, stepping aside to let Yuma follow while she keeps an eye out on the hall.]

[They pass the mischief maker before it can so much as take a single step toward them. Once they reach the door to the nurse's office, Yuma swiftly enters so that they can shut it behind them, effectively keeping the unfriendly spirits out.

There, he gives the closed doorway a glance over his shoulder before making a beeline for the storage freezer. With his left hand, he pulls out an ice pack, strides back to Suzuha, and holds it out to her.]

Here is a pack.

[Given her experience and agreement from earlier, he feels an explanation as to why she should use one is probably unnecessary.]

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