~Chasers: Boundary of the Crimson Sky~

Dangeki City. The Crimson Sky. Two locations that, for one reason or another, had a close correlation to each other. As such, the balance between both the world of humans and the world of Youkai were kept in constant turmoil and strife. It was the duty of those born and trained to combat monsters and keep the peace to monitor this delicate duality between both realms. They called themselves Chasers, and although they were scattered throughout the globe, their presence was most prevalent here in Dangeki City.

Although supernatural activity flourished in the city, certain locations were pooling sources of such power and phenomenon. One such location was the ever popular Dangeki Café and Pawn Shop, supposed home to the leader of the Chasers globally. Serving as a rather popular establishment by day, it was only by night in which the building would reveal itself as the Chaser’s main head-quarters.

Such as it were then that those Chasers who expected another boring night of reporting in for missions and rewards would find the Dangeki Café under attack. As if by an ill omen fated for worse scenarios, the very heart of the Chasers was being laid under siege, torn asunder and decimated by the very forces they had sworn to destroy….

Well, maybe it wasn’t exactly that dramatic, but the Chasers would find the place under a serious epidemic of infestation. While some buildings had rats and some may have even been plagued by a horde of cockroaches, the Dangeki found itself assaulted by something most peculiar. Ghosts. Lots and lots of scary-looking ghosts.

How this could have happened was really unknown given the café’s owner and Chaser leader was nowhere in sight. Had something happened to them? Maybe, though at least one of the Dangeki’s staff wasn’t going to let a few spirits ruin her night of work. While some of the other maids were too busy trembling in the corner, the pink-haired girl continued to rush about with prepared drinks for any who came in.

“Welcome to the Dangeki lovelies! Tonight we have the usual specials of green, black, and red tea assorted with some-hey! No touching the merchandise!” the girl all but snarled, glaring at one ghost girl slowly reaching over the counter to steal a muffin. Missions would have to wait. Cleaning out the Dangeki of pests would be the first priority.

---

Maria Hamada

"Typical," Maria Hamada said, "ghosts on my break." She then paid for some strong black tea, before saying to the staff member:

"I have a special type of powder that can scare away ghosts," and by that, she had managed to bargain for some body parts of a flower Yokai, mostly flower petals, which she had mixed with special herbal compounds to produce the aforementioned powder, enough of it to cover the entire cafe when burnt. Of course, it was not free or cheap, as the woman would later say:

"The price for me using the powder is 10,000 Yen, or failing that, some Entei fur."

She was aware that she was asking a high, perhaps extortionate price, and the mercenary knew that it probably wouldn't be paid and she might offend someone. However, there were a few newcomers to this establishment, and she wanted to establish an image, an image of a tough woman who would do all that it takes for profit. Well, profit and the continued existence of Castilian-Tagalog Alchemy, but those went hand-in-hand.

You'll alienate potential future students with that attitude, part of Maria's mind thought.

Then I'll just recruit from orphanages, was her mental response. Either way, these people respect strength, and I'm giving it to them.

It's only been a few days since Sheolred has officially started working as a Chasers. She's met them before and has done some collaborations with them, but she's never been formally a part of them until two days ago. Sheolred had finally finished her mother's tests to prove that she is a capable witch doctor, and now she gets to leave home and seek out a life for herself. Emptying the nest wasn't always an easy thing to do for either a mother or the child, as Sheolred still loved her mother. But she had her own aspirations of greatness outside of her mother's shadow, and if she intended to reach it she must learn to fly on her own.

Hence why Sheolred joined the Chasers. They were a fairly powerful organization who fought against creatures of the Crimson Sky, which is something that Sheolred has already been doing since she could wield a stick. She figured she'd be a natural member, though after seeing them in actions Sheolred knew she still had a lot of learning to do. These past few days Sheolred has mostly been scouting around the city of Dangeki, keeping track of Yokai movement as well as selling off her potions every now and again. Sheolred wanted to try to form a list of contacts who could be the eyes and ears when the Chasers needed to find a mark or just to keep Sheolred in the know. This would be the first time Sheolred actually came to the HQ during the night, and she was excited to see what it's like.

But maybe now things got too exciting. There were spirits everywhere! Sheolred didn't know what was going on but she knew she had to act. There were countless spirits running amok, and while they haven't tried to attack anyone openly just yet, Sheolred wasn't going to wait for them to attack. Taking out her crossbow she intended to get their attention with one shot. Loading a bolt and letting it fire, Sheol shot a spirit in the back. A lethal shot on living creatures, but for these spirits it only seemed to bother them. At least the bolt stuck into the spirit this time thanks to the bolts bring tipped with silver. Expensive, but useful.

Slipping her mask over her face Sheol dropped her crossbow onto the ground to make a loud noise that would hopefully get the attention of the spirits here. If these spirits were armed with their own polearms, then Sheolred would respond in kind. Drawing the spear from her sling she looked at all the Spirits before her eyes glowed a profane red. Activating her Evil Eyes any spirit who met her gaze would feel weakened and sluggish, even for restless beings they were. Hopefully that would give Sheolred something of an advantage since right now it looks like she was on her own.

"The dead walk, but tonight I have a live audience."

---

"What a great way to kick off a night....a haunting."

Avalanche rubbed his eyes, grumpily mumbling to himself, before putting his sunglasses back on. As usual for his evening routine, pretty much nothing was going right. He quickly glanced at the various creepy spirits infesting the halls of the cafe', though not for very long, as he was certainly not going to make eye contact with any of these grim-looking revenants. One might consider it unwise, sitting at a table in the middle of a bar filled to the brim with frightening ghosts. But his feet hurt, god damn it, and he was not about to let a bunch of dead people stop him from taking a load off.

The question he pondered now, however, was who exactly was going to be the one to solve this minor ghost conundrum? He sure as hell wasn't going to do it. Those ghosts looked liked they meant business, and he was sorely outnumbered. And his feet hurt! Being the intellectual tactician that he was, he simply deemed it unwise to attempt to start a conflict with odds like those, especially when he wasn't going to be paid for it. You don't do work for free, that was his number-one rule in life.

He felt a minor sense of relie-.....satisfaction, when he noticed a Chaser nearby offering her ghost-busting services to one of the maids....his favorite maid at the Dangeki Cafe', in fact. His mood brightened considerably at the sight of her, as it always did. He always admired her can-do attitude, her willingness to charge headlong into the thick of danger....and those LEGS. MM.

He briefly breathed into his hand to smell his own breath, before slicking his hair back slightly and flagging her down the moment her attention was toward him. "Hey there, beautiful!" he said with a sleazy smirk, making a quick flick of his hand to turn the chair opposite him toward her. "How much will it cost me to have you take a break at my table and chat for a little while?..."

---

"Ah, for fuck's sake..."

Initially, Maaz just thought that the Dangeki was particularly crowded today with other Chasers. He didn't take a second glance or stare through the windows before ambling in, so it wasn't until he entered that the supposed "Chasers" were just unwelcome spectral customers. No Chaser he knew of could drop the temperature of an entire restaurant by fifteen or so degrees just by being inside. Honestly, the last thing he wanted to have to deal with was this. The thought crossed his mind that he could go ahead and take care of a few, but then he realized that he didn't exactly know how to deal with this many ghosts without damaging the cafe in the process and causing more unnecessary inconveniences.

Then he noticed that a . . . green-skinned Chaser had taken initiative and started working whatever powers she had on the ghastly intruders. Maaz hadn't seen her around before. An additional presence made itself known - a white-haired man. Middle-aged, he guessed. Seemed kind of cool.

Huh. Must be another Chaser.

So, instead of going ahead with that plan (since the problem was already being taken care of, sort of), he just decided to shove his way over to the counter. Most of the ghosts were docile enough since he didn't attack them outright, so they didn't retaliate thankfully, and soon the Chaser made it over to a stool and sat himself down. Setting a pair of crossed forearms on the counter top and leaning forward, he sighed. Really wasn't in the mood for any beverages.

From what Maaz could see once he craned his neck over, there was another Chaser there. Female, black hair, and unfamiliar to his eyes. Another stranger. He was really out of the loop, not knowing anyone in the cafe at the moment besides the bartender, or perhaps it was just his subpar memory. Either way, he certainly hasn't shared a conversation with any of them. Maaz decided a greeting was in order, starting with Maria.

"Hey, does this happen often here, or . . . ?"

@Letter Bee

Maria Hamada

"This happens often," Maria spoke to the handsome black man with dreadlocks. "Ghosts and Ghost infestations are basically the equivalent of roaches here. And, yes, I did just offer a high price to help get rid of them at speed. By the way, my name is Maria Hamada; I am an Alchemist. And by that, I can make magical compounds that have various effects, but they are expensive, and transmuting lead to gold is not cost-effective - it's possible, but you spend more than you gain." Unless the right Yokai gives his horn willingly, of course. She would then continue:

"So, what's your name?" The woman would then turn to the pervert prepositioning her, the silver-haired guy, and say, sort of nicely:

"Sorry, I'm too expensive for you. And by too expensive, my goals are to start an academy for Chaser-Alchemists, so the only way I'll go to your table is if you promise me an academy building and/or students. Preferably orphans." Yes, Maria was discussing dubious transactions involving orphaned children in the middle of a bar full of Chasers, some of whom might be moral.

Reckless! Do you want people to wreck your shit? Maria's sensible side said.

Hey, at least I'm talking to people and have a conversation topic instead of just standing there all 'dark and edgy', her 'main mind' replied. And you never know, maybe Mr. Sleazeball might have the resources needed to found an Academy. I'll sleep with him on the infestimally small chance that happens.

@Lucius Cypher@Ebonsquire@MacDuffy

---

"Alchemy? Neat. Name's Maaz," he plainly responded, giving Maria a curt nod in response. "Nice to meet you, then."

And then she turned to face Avalanche, promptly shutting down his bold move on her. Mentioned something about an academy for alchemists. And then orphans? Maaz furrowed his brows in confusion, only catching the few snippets of her statement. These spectres were starting to grate his nerves a bit, as some of their sporadic wailing, moaning, and recitation of phrases to themselves tended to reach his ears and drown out the words spoken by the Chaser's beside him. Maybe it was time to do something with these nuisances. The fact that this was a common occurrence for the cafe must've made it a real pain in the ass to deal with time and time again. Must suck to work here, seeing the faces of the dead regularly saunter around...

Swiveling around in his stool to face the rest of the cafe, he could see that Sheolred was already dealing with a number of them, but this looked like it might be a job for more than one Chaser. Maaz cupped one of his hands around his mouth and called out to her.

"Want some help?"

@Lucius Cypher

---

Avalanche blinked in confusion, as he turned his attention from the waitress to the ghost-killer for hire. Amidst her spiel on academies and orphans, it occurred to him that she had assumed he was flirting with her. His attempt at setting up a mood interfered with, he looked at her with an annoyed squint. The nerve of that girl! To think she would assume his standards were so low that he would try putting the moves on a woman NOT wearing a tiny skirt!

"'Ey, 'Ey, I wasn't talkin' to YOU, lady!" He replied to her, pointing his thumb towards the pink-haired waitress. "I was speakin' to this hardworkin' member o' this fine establishment...."

Looking the black-haired woman over, however, Avalanche made a brief, lightning-fast analysis....she didn't look TOO bad. Perhaps if she were in a tiny skirt.....He didn't get far in that particular train of thought, however, as in the corner of his eye he could see a younger-looking Chaser attacking the roaming spirits in the cafe'...with a burlier one offering his aid. Annoyance had turned to curiosity had turned to apprehension...he was going to have a damn heart attack if he kept doing emotional hard turns like this. He might not even live THAT long, if these ghosts got pissed.

He looked towards the burly warrior, holding up a hand toward him. "Hey, hold on a second, hold on a second...We don't gotta do this VIOLENTLY, do we? Think about the property damage, yeah?...I like the ghost repellant idea better, s'a lot cleaner that way..."

@Ebonsquire @Lucius Cypher @Letter Bee

---

Mako's stay in Dangeki City had exactly like she thought, a month of work fending off pesky Yokai who intruded onto her Temple and allocating her familiars to scouting out the city for her. With this night being the same, as her eyes carefully scanned the plane of existence before she once again fell into a trance as her eyes grew glossy as if far away. Suddenly she was there, in control of her familiar as she saw what it did as she commanded it from afar as it flew above the city like it usually did on patrol. A month of surveillance and gossiping with the locals had provided her a fair amount of knowledge about the city and talking to the yokai around only expanded what she knew.

Dangeki Café was a popular place for Chasers from what she gathered from the Yokai who talked to her and also a busy place in terms of a business from what she heard from the neighbors. It was a place that she had placed a bird shikigami to watch over and always checked at it multiple times a day, which proved to be useful considering the activity that happened within at night. This time, however, upon checking the café was very much different from the other occasions which she had previously come upon as what she heard was quite disheartening...

'Well... this seems interesting...' Mako thought to herself as the paper bird that she was controlling came to the window of the café outside and watched intently on what they would do inside. They wouldn't notice as for when the shikigami descended, its feathers seemed to faintly glow from the spell etched onto them before it turned invisible. It was the only spell written onto the space available on the painted bird but it was all that it needed to perform its job. Even if the discovery of the bird did happen, it was the work of an Onmyōji which connected much more to a Chaser like themselves rather than a yokai.

While she sure did observe the Chasers, she never had the time to see how competent they were and maybe tonight would be the chance for her to see it. The knowledge of getting to now what you're might be facing against is always worth it.

---

On top of a nearby roof, a strange striped fish-like was standing by, watching the gently organized chaos below, with an erstwhile and equally strange companion Blob-fish flopped over the railing next to him.

"What do you think, Mob?" The fish-creature said. "Should we help out?"
"Misery is the best flavor for a cheese sandwich." The Blobfish replied.
"Ah, you're right, we don't really know whether or not we can even hit them." The fish creature said, nodding as if he understood.

In reality, he didn't but talking to Mob helped him gather his thoughts. Mob only ever said strangely cryptic things which Sume always felt like he was relating to in some way. Perhaps to some it would be an indication to keep on pressing his ever-present companion on the hopes it would ignite something in his memory, but he'd already tried that a long time ago.

It was strange to say it, but people underestimated how long he had been missing his memory for. He told many Yokai about it but they never seemed to realize that between the time he had lost his memory and the time he was telling them he had, that he had been learning and creating new memories the whole time because putting effort into recovering his old ones had been proving fruitless for a long time. He'd learnt plenty about the world in between then and now, and in terms of knowledge he was practically a native Yokai now.

He was however still lacking knowledge in certain areas just because of his own strange nature, such as whether or not any of his forms could actually hit ghosts right now; since he wasn't quite sure what their attacks were composed of. Still, it would probably be a nice gesture to show himself. He was sort of a powerful associate to the Chasers in a way. He liked how there were a variety of people in their group and their cakes were very good, so he sometimes accompanied Chasers on missions if they seemed interesting enough.

"Alright, let's go!" He said, picking up mob by biting down on his head.

He stepped off the roof and came down, almost running directly down the wall; before jumping off just before he hit the ground and going into a forward somersault. He trotted merrily along, dodging all the ghosts on the street before sliding into the front door.

He completely ignored the rest of the people and trotted up to the front counter.

"Excuse me!" He said cheerfully, hopping up onto the counter. "Can I have a chocolate muffin please?"

It seems he had lost sight of his original objective.

---

@TheWindel

---

The cafe door slammed open as Elliot made his entrance, his foot still hovering in the air from kicking it. He took a glance around the room then casually walked in as if there was nothing to be seen. Dragging behind him was a giant Youkai head still dripping it's burnt orange blood, leaving a trail behind him. He head was almost human-like but for it's size. The lips were deep red with large fang-like teeth biting over the top lip. The eyes were closed but covered in shades of reds, purples and blues. The hair on the creature was a dark brown and seemed unkempt like a lions mains.

Elliot took a few strides in the let out a roaring laughter at the sheer amount of spirits in the vicinity. "Somebody call pest control we seem to be having a problem!" He reached the reward counter for completing his contract, lifted the head of the Youkai and dropped it enthusiastically down allowing it to bounce once or twice. It's blood began oozing off the side of the counter towards the ground. He slapped his hand down on the counter with the contract underneath it and waited for his money."One, ugly ass Youkai head, signed and delivered."

Elliot nodded at the pink haired girl working behind the counter. He motioned to her to give him a drink. He's seen her here many times before but her name slipped away from him as a spirit came knocking into him. "Oy, no need to be rude!" He said, grimacing at the spirit. He reached his left hand under the sleeve of his right arm and felt for his bead. It was dark red with eyes covering it's surface. At a glance the eyes look painted on but when viewing the object out of the corner of your eye the eyes seem to be searching the room, blinking or staring right back. He kissed it gently before using his thumb and middle finger to flick it in the air.

The bead shot up quickly then hovered just below the ceiling, to began looking around, beaming it's eyes at the spirits while it turned slowly and beginning it's undistinguished whispers of an unknown foreign language. The spirits began moving in extra slow motion, so slow you'd have to look closely to even see if any type of movement was happening at all. Elliot started laughing and slamming his fist against the counter repeatedly as an emphasise. "That's my girl! Look at the fuckers go!" He jumped in front of the spirit that nudged him, made a few outlandish funny faces at it then sat down where his drink was placed and began sipping on it. Seemingly ignoring everyone else in the room.

---

Rotating back around in his stool, using the leverage of one hand on the edge of the counter to assist him in turning, the Chaser gazed up some to face the white-haired man. Listening to Avalanche's words, he nodded in clear agreement. Last resort measures weren't really a necessity in this situation, so maybe Maaz could just stay benched for now. Besides, the ghosts didn't really seem to be fighting back all that much, so there was no need to jump into action immediately. Maaz revolved back around to rest his gaze back upon Sheolred before responding to Avalanche.

"Yeah, I was thinking that. It's not like you need a jackhammer or anything to get rid of roaches, right? Good point."

He wasn't really sure what to properly think of Avalanche, besides the fact that he dressed well -- better than most people in the establishment, at least -- and was pretty damn bold. Maybe 'boisterous' was the right word. Had a good taste in women, though. That bartender was a catch.

Before Maaz could properly greet the Chaser next to him, the creak of the Dangeki's door caught his attention and in came -- what the hell? All he could do at this point was stare with narrowed eyes and an upwardly arched eyebrow, trying to process what kind of creature had waltzed into the cafe. Stripes like a tiger, on four legs, tail and fin like a shark . . . Maaz tapered his eyelids further. He had just assumed it was a Youkai since it wasn't humanoid in figure. That would explain it. He wasn't about to spend more time trying to comprehend what Sume-san was carrying in its mouth, though.

And then, rather loudly, another individual entered. Elliot slamming his foot against the door nearly made Maaz jump in his seat. And he was towing something large behind him. A bag? It was oozing some sort of liquid, so then -- Oh. It was a head. A huge Youkai head, by the looks of it. And it was rather ugly. When Elliot slammed his trophy on the table, Maaz took his elbows off as the blood had splattered near him upon impact with the counter, and a drop or two landed on his tattooed arm. Swiftly going to wipe it off with his fingers, the Chaser grimaced some at Elliot. The giant Youkai slayer had effectively soiled the counter top with his kill, which was a little more than annoying.

"Seriously, man?"

Soon after, Elliot launched a small, dark orb into the air. The movement of bringing the treasure out, kissing it, and launching it into the air was too fast for Maaz to catch the intricate details of the object. When the eye kept itself suspended in the air, Maaz tilted his head to the side some as a gesture of curiosity. Then the meandering ghosts started slowing down, more and more, until it was as if they had been frozen in their own individual blocks of ice. Maaz gave an impressed nod, almost beginning to envy not having any special treasures of his own.

The Evil Eye being accompanied with Elliot's bead was sure to immobilize the spectral Youkai. Maybe. But then there was the issue of actually getting rid of these eyesores.

"Oh. Huh..."

Maaz then jabbed an index finger over at the cluster of time-stuck spirits while he faced Maria and Avalanche.

"Problem half-way solved?"

@MacDuffy @RoflsMazoy @Heap241 @Letter Bee

---

She'd arrived in the Maelstrom of Strife without any fanfare, yet with her first step through the threshold of Chaser HQ, the city's Nom De Guerre could not have been more fitting. Ghosts were all over the place and the Chasers themselves weren't any less haphazard in their placement or actions, one even being so savage as to drag in a severed head and drop it on the same counter Miranda figured would be serving food if not for the unwelcome company.

"Despicable." The woman muttered lowly, derision clear were anyone close enough to the door to hear over the ghostly wailing. Gore was part in parcel when it came to releasing Null from the Book of Companions, but at least she knew Null was a malevolent, but intelligent, predator. It was of the nature to kill what it considered prey and it certainly enjoyed its purpose in life. That it restrained itself enough to let Miranda apprehend the Youkai most of the time was a sign it knew just how far it could push but still keep their partnership intact, a calculated move and not an act of mercy. This was just its nature and Miranda abided every Youkai to act within the realms of their nature without holding it against them. Succubi fornicate, Orcs respond with violence- As the display before her only seemed to support-, and the undead tended to haunt the living. Human nature was far more diversified, and with a long recorded history of overcoming their base nature.

Seeing the severed head so crassly displayed for the pittance of a bounty almost had Miranda open her book to a page with Null or Bevin ready to be summoned, and it was only the plight of the damned that forced her hand to turn to a blank page.

"Excuse me. Ms. Orc? Bartender? If you don't mind I'd like to take these ghosts off your hands. It should only take a minute or two to seal them all away since someone seems to have bound them, so if we could avoid attacking them any further, it would make this all a lot faster."

With the book open wide in one hand, she approached the nearest specter still petrified by the ominous floating eye and heartily slapped it in the center mass. A noise like decompression on a plane preceded the ghost being sucked onto the page and branded there in black ink. From there it was free of the eye's petrification, but it was too late for it now.

Maria Hamada

"Indeed," Maria spoke to the sleazeball, "my idea -" Then everything went into chaos as people began attacking the ghosts, and someone with a very large Yokai head entered the building. She also barely noticed Sume-san entering the area; she knew of the cute 'friendly' Yokai with hidden powers. Deciding that no one here was going to give her any payment, Maria walked to the sand-shark who held a blobfish in his mouth, and said, holding out her hand:

"Hello, Sume-san, my name is Maria Hamada, Alchemist. Can I pet you? Also, what do I need to do to have some of your sandshark fur given willingly to me?"

She was actually smiling; the Yokai's sight brought a light note into her heart rivalled only by the Ponies from My Little Pony. But that would not stop her from bargaining seriously for Sume-san's body parts, because she knew that the Yokai was more powerful than people thought he was. How? Well, she had her ways, ways involving powders and parts of weaker Yokai. Speaking of Yokai, the reason she didn't look at the man who brought the large Yokai head was because said Yokai head, being no longer willing to give body parts because it's dead, had its potency for Castillian-Tagalog Alchemy much reduced.

Then, a random thought:

If 'Paracelsus' means greater than Celsus, does that mean that calling myself Maria ParaParaCelsus is valid, as I can actually accomplish the usual goals of an alchemist?

@Lucius Cypher@Ebonsquire@MacDuffy@RoflsMazoy

It was time to strike. No one else seemed to take the threat seriously aside from Sheolred; perhaps it was just because of her inexperience making things a bigger deal then they were. But these specters were obviously causing some distress to the staff, so Sheolred would show them no mercy! She had at least five of thests ghosts attention, and soon after one of the Chaser asked Sheolred if she needed help, they lunged at her. Fortunately her Evil Eye made their movements slow and predictable, even for five ghosts coming at her at once. All she needed to do was step to the side and she began her counter attack.

Facing five opponents with long-reach weapons, Sheolred had to cut off their reach advantage. Her spear was just a bit shorter then theirs, but that meant that she could get pass their blade and still strike at them. The first spirit she stabbed into the chest; sure enough it wouldn't kill the ghost unlike a mortal. Sheolred's blade when through the ghost's lungs and into it's heart, but it's undead state made such a target useless. These spirits may as well be zombies, which meant on thing: Destroy or sever the head.

Pushing against the spirits Sheolred knocked two over just as the others struck back. They swung their glaives at Sheolred, who narrowly avoided losing limbs. She did however suffer a few cuts, not that she cared too much about them. The searing pain of their ghostly blades rending her flesh was all the more reminder of her life. Twisting the spear Sheolred elicited a pained scream from the ghost as Sheolred dashed forward, removing her Witch Knife from the sheath to shank a spirit right into the neck. Her blade slit the throat, and with as much force as she could muster SHeolred brought the rest of the blade through the neck. Not quite a clean decapitation, it at least severed the neck in half, which was effective enough for the job. The spirit fell, but before it touched the ground it vanished into the air, weapon and all. "... Huh."

Sheolred couldn't let her guard down however. One of the spirits grabbed her by the ankles and when she looked down, another spirit speared her through the abdomen with her spear. The half-orcish girl, despite her heritage, was rather waifish, and the blade when in the front and out the back. But instead of some pained death gurgle Sheolred simply smiled. "That simplifies things!" Sheolred was certain of one thing now: these weapons were corporeal. It wasn't simply negative energy causing entropy of her flesh, but some sort of quasi-physical manifestation of their spirit. Basically, Sheolred can touch it. She she grasped the shaft of the polearm the spirit used to stab her with and looked deeply into the spirit's eyes. Sheolred's Evil Eyes increased their potency against this spirit and her grip weakened, weakened to the point that Shoelred was able to wretch the polearm out of the spirit's hand, out of her body, and then smashed it over the head of another spirit who thought to stab Sheolred in the back. Knocking that spirit away Shoelred used the glaive to stab the spirit on the ground. Perhaps because it was weapon made by ghosts, or maybe it was just Sheolred hallucinating things, but the spirit she stabbed died and vanished after she impaled it.

That was two down, now three more to go. The other spirit that Sheolred stabbed was starting to get up, but she wasn't going to have any of that. Tossing her polearm into the face of the spirit she stole it from, Sheolred pounced onto the spirit on the ground and viciously stabbed the ghost about the shoulder and head. A few stabs in the chest, a couple slices to the neck, and at least one thrust into the eye, and the spirit vanished. Just as she was about to look up she saw the spirit she had struck swing her blade towards Sheolred's head. She aimed for a decapitating blow, but her strike was foiled by none other than Sheolred's mask. The blade shattered against the wooden effigy mask, and underneath Sheolred smirked at the surprised ghost. Lifting her knife Sheolred proceeded to give another brutal stabbing.

One more left. The same Spirit who had taken an extra powerful Evil Eyes. She should be easy enough to deal with. But before Sheolred could she noticed that the others have done something as well. Many of the spirits were paralyzed, frozen still. More Chasers arrived to worked their magic on the spirits, vanishing them or otherwise subduing them. And an adorable looking tiger/shark with a ugly yet cute blob came in asking for a muffin.

The Chasers where strange people.

The last spirit tried to attack Shoelred, who responded by taking her totem club and batting the spirit across the face, caving her skull in. She was already quite weakened by now so Sheolred had no real difficulty with this Spirit. Sheolred touched the wound where she was stabbed, using her Scar Shield to cause the wound to scan over. In time it shall heal on its own.

Looking over to a dark skinned chaser Sheolred slipped off her mask and spoke to him. ”I would like an apple juice please!” Sheolred loves apple juice.

"Sharks don't have fur, silly!" Sume-san said, turnin so that his side faced Maria. "We only have smooth, lustrous skin!"

As if to accentuate the point, Mod slipped off and rolled across his side, leaving a trail of mucus which made Sume's skin shinier.

Maria wasn't a Chaser he had been around a fair amount. Well, actually he hadn't really been around that many Chasers relatively speaking. He was mostly put to work with the Senior agents when he ran a mission. He hadn't ever been told why, but he was assuming it was just in case it turned out that Sume-san was dangerous. He didn't really think too much about it though, because that did seem like a reasonable thing to think about a Yokai who couldn't actually remember who he was or everything he could do. He only seemed to have four forms, but there could be other things he didn't know about.

"If you want, I can give you some scales from my dragon form?" He finished.

---

@Letter Bee

~ Z A M O R A ~

"Hello Dangeki City~....!" Talia entered the café, fumbling with the door on her arrival. It wasn't the most graceful of entrances, but she had just arrived into town earlier today and finished setting up her new performance hall that would be opening this week. She was relatively exhausted, but it was never too early for a little promotion. "I am Zamora, conjurer of the mystic arts and .... I need a drink, sorry." Talia brushed off her introduction like it never happened. She paid the fellow patrons and current mess of the place no mind as she wandered off to a table and sprawled herself across a table, burying her face in the fold of her arms after setting down her hat in front of her. She took a deep breath as she thought about what to order; only to remember that she left her purse back on top of the box of fake flowers in her hall. It really was a pain working by herself, but she would try to keep it going as long as she could. Especially now with her other job.

"Nruter ym esrup." She looked under her hat and smiled, strapping the pinkish purple bag across her shoulder before immediately drifting off to a light sleep. She wasn't going to crash here, just rest her eyes a bit as she kept her ears open in case there was something important going on. Give half an hour...? And she would quell her needy stomach with a fine burger, some fries... a chocolate shake... Zzz.

"Alright, kiddos, that was nice show but, we have to keep business rolling, don't we? Fufufu~" A voice seemingly coming out of nowhere rang through the Dangeki as the ghosts were finally dealt with by the gathered Chasers.

From behind the counter would come the form of a very peculiar member of Dangeki's staff, looking all high and mighty, with her obviously fake glasses and know-it-all attitude. For those who were regulars, the figure of Ellie, the succubus familiar of the Dangeki's owner and Chasers' leader, would be a common sight as well as her silly antics.

"I see that you all came as you were supposed to and there's a lot of new faces over here. Well, don't fret, the Great Ellie will guide you all to the path of greatness with her limitless wisdom, fufufu~ But, first..." Ellie clapped her hands to call for everyone's attention, just in case a moron or two haven't noticed her greatness yet, "...we have a special guest for tonight. Ladies, gentlemen and..." a quick glance was spared at Sumesan's direction, "... other things. Please welcome our guest, who came out of her way to deliver us a message."

Just as Ellie went silent, the lights of the Dangeki, in fact, seemingly the whole world around them, flicked black for an moment as an aura of power took the Dangeki. When the lights came back, the oppressive aura vanished, leaving behind a, seemingly young, girl carelessly sprawled over the seats of one of the cafe's booths. She was listening to a very loud song, completely indifferent to the environment around her. Obviously, it could be no one other than Miss Chikage Akane, the leader of the Youkai Junction. A very rare sight outside of her couch, to say the truth.

"Ara? Is it this late already? I thought the meeting was going to be in an hour or was it a week away?" Chikage complained nonchalantly as she paused the music, but didn't really cared to straighten her posture. Dangeki's seats were fine stuff, after all. "Are these all the one who you called here, Ellie? Most of them look like greenhorns to me, are you sure they are gonna make it?"

"Oh, well, it doesn't matter anyway." Chikage sighed deeply and crossed her legs before turning her attention back to the Chasers. Clearly, she couldn't be bothered to shake her laziness. "I came here to warm you all that a great evil of old will soon come over your world and you'll need to be prepared to defeat it if you want to avoid the end of the world as you know it. YTC seems to have something to do with it as well, so I suggest you find a way to investigate their movements. Personally, I would begin with the Yellow Jackets, a gang of no good youkai led by Suzumebachi, they usually are hired to do grunt job, so it's as good a place to start as any."

"So, any questions at all?" Chikage asked, while swinging one of her feet lazily.

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@TheWindel @Letter Bee @Aether Spawn @Lonewolf685 @RoflsMazoy @Lucius Cypher @Heap241 @Ebonsquire @MacDuffy @BubbleGumKing

So a lot of things had happened since the Dangeki had opened for nightly hours. Barring the appearance of the strange ghost girls, who really didn’t seem like they were bothering anyone, the only staff on sight who wasn’t cowering in the back of the store was, as always, expected to man the place by herself. Considering the pay, it wasn’t too bad of a trade for Dinky, this she knew.

First came some edgelord who thought, actually thought, she could buy her way into cleaning house. That was answered by a flat out laugh in Maria’s face provided by the pink-haired maid before moving on; they were expected to do this for free. Like hell they were wasting money on some chick who thought she could take an easy way for her Academy or whatever. Thankfully, no one else seemed idiotic enough to indulge Maria in her ridiculous proposal.

Then came some orc girl who, by Dinky’s memory, was a fairly recent addition to this gathering of freaks. Mmkay. Next was the dude with the shades who offered up a little personal time alone. Dinky winked at Avalanche, just about to reply, only to be intruded upon by more Chasers appearing in the premises. Not that this was a bad thing, but that meant filling out more orders.

“Yeah, hang on. I’ll toot you later toots,” she called over to Avalanche, grinning immensely. Revealed in the gleaming light were rows upon rows of shark teeth smiling right back at the man before the maid rushed off to do her job. Chocolate cake for the weird fish with four legs, apple juice for the orc girl who had apparently defended the Dangeki by herself, and-oh yeah.

There was Elliot, who thought it was a perfectly reasonable and sanitary idea to plop a severed Youkai head on their counter. She gave the boy a darkening glare, body twitching just a bit as the sight of the blood splurged downwards in a river of red-she needed to clean this. “Ellie, make yourself useful please and clean up this counter. Oh and Elliot, maybe next time don't drop a severed head right on MY COUNTER. Okay? Thanks~”

Her voice cut deep, so much so that it frozen any remaining spirits in place before they were cut down, banished, or otherwise dealt with by the rest of the gathered Chasers in account for. Dinky’s twitching slowly came to a standstill before she happily hummed to herself, whipping up a quick drink for the recently arrived Zamora and one for Miranda cause can.

With all that taken care of, Dinky figured she deserved a little break. That was why she hovered over napping Zamora, gently prodding her cheek with light pokes. It was enough to amuse the shark-toothed maid before Ellie finally decided to show herself. “Oh wow, the great and powerful Ellie! Please, grace us with your humble abode and charming ways,” Dinky said with bubbly sarcasm.

But at least the succubus wasn’t talking out of her ass like she usually did because of all people, Dinky wasn’t expecting Chikage herself to step forward. Dinky rushed to the back of the bar counter and swiveled in her seat, prim, proper, and ready to receive whatever message Chikage had in store for them. While she did that, she had to wonder….when was the owner going to wake up from their nap?

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Avalanche leaned back slightly in his chair as we watched the hard work of his fellow Chasers make quick work of the Dangeki's little ghost problem. How admirable the efficiency and spectacular the powers of his fellow supernatural hunters! In the end, he was right not to have gotten involved, thanks to his ever-so-helpful co-workers! He even saw some familiar faces amidst the arriving regulars: the loud, cocky kid in the hood, the lean, bespectacled blonde, the.......fish with legs. The gang was all here, though he hadn't done much in the way of interacting with any of them. His attention had shifted threefold: First, to the green-skinned girl who had just finished her bout of ghost-slaying. She was a relatively new face....seemed pretty young, so not exactly ready for the romance game just yet. Green too, and not just her skin color. Avalanche had to cover his mouth to keep from chuckling too loudly at her demand for apple juice, though it still came out as an audible snigger.

"Hey, you heard the young lady, Waiter." He said jokingly to Maaz with a pat on his back. "Provide our brave heroine her juice!"

Next, his gaze went to the bombastic magician girl, who made her flashy entrance into the building and then immediately went to sleep. Hers was a face he hadn't seen yet...was she a new Chaser as well? He'd question the attire she was wearing in that regard, but considering what the rest of these freaks were dressed in, he hadn't a clue. He was about to get up himself to rouse her from her slumber when he was beaten to the punch by the third object of his attention, the lovely Dinky. Ah, Dinky...what a trooper. He could feel his spirits lift significantly, when she gave him a knowing wink and a smile, showing off her lovely....

.....Oh.

Oh. Hm. Teeth? Teeth. Yes. Sharp teeth, very sharp. Lot of. Teeth. Hm. Yes, hm. Teeth.

...........

.....Yeah, he was still totally going for it.

He flashed a flirtatious smile back at Dinky after a bit of....staring. When suddenly an announcement was made by the newly-arrived, ever-smug Ellie. He always tried his best to steer clear of Ellie, as the girl reeked of nothing but trouble to him. You don't do personal business of any kind with the boss' main squeeze...never ends in anything but pain and tragedy. His musing over such matters mostly tuned him out to whatever the succubus was saying...something about a special guest?....What, was there a concert playing tonight?

Then the cafe' went dark, and the overwhelming presence of power hit Avalanche like a truck. Oh, fuck, was the bar under attack by some Super Youkai, now!? Hurriedly and reflexively, he bolted right out of his chair and vaulted over the cafe' counter, taking cover and putting his back against it. As the lights flickered back on, he nervously peered up from under the counter, palming his holstered magnum, when he exhaled at the sight of the cause of the power outage. It was just the boss of the Youkai Junction............wait, the boss of the Youkai Junction, what was she doing here!?

He listened to her explain about the "great evil of old" and the need to prevent the end of the world.....two concepts that sounded both very dangerous and very frightening, and "Dangerous" and "Frightening" were typically the aspects of his job he tried to avoid the most. This did not sound like a mission he had any intention of undertaking, no siree. Leave the world-saving to the Chasers with the high-level superpowers, says he.

"...Uh, yeah, I got one," He said at the request for questions, rising up slowly from behind the counter. "This sounds like real important stuff, what'll you be doin' about it?"

@Ebonsquire @TheWindel @KoL @Lucius Cypher @Aether Spawn @Letter Bee @Lonewolf685 @Heap241 @RoflsMazoy