New Year's Eve was always hectic in Japan, and Yuzoraku City was no exception to that. The liveliness of its people during the day couldn't compare to the insanity that was at night, though; with festival stalls lining the path to the Koumi Shrine (which had been erected who knew how long ago), Ren couldn't help but let out a sigh as he was bumped around like a pinball inside a machine.

"...Why am I even here right now?" he sighed to himself as he slowly moved through the crowd to get somewhere with notably less congestion. While he had been here to help man a stall, the abnormal amount of people (coupled with a lack of foresight by the owner) caused them to be done before 9. That was fine and all for him, given the yen that was now lying comfortably within his wallet, but because of how many more people were entering rather than leaving, the young man was, for all intents and purposes, stuck here for at least a few more hours.

Thank the heavens he had his phone charged before he came.

With music now attempting to drown out the chattering of the crowd in one ear, Ren slipped his way back into the crowd and began to walk towards the shrine itself. Though it wasn't the only shrine in the city, it was certainly the largest; this, in turn, made people tend to cluster here more often than anywhere else. But hey, a job was a job... And since he was already here, he may as well get his prayer out of the way.

The line for the shrine's donation box was longer than he would have liked, though, but as he stepped up to the donation box (after however long that took), something weird seemed to catch his eye--something that looked like a skeleton's arm stretching out behind the shrine. THe scene caused him to take a double take as he looked around for a moment to see if anyone else had noticed. He couldn't tell if anyone actually had, though, with the chaos of the crowd, but when he looked back to where the arm had been, there was now nothing.

Weird.

Shaking that thought out of his mind, Ren quickly finished praying and walked down the steps, only to notice the skeletal arm again.

...

"Okay, that's--I'm checking this out," he affirmed himself internally as he once again slipped out of the crowd to walk off to the side of the shrine. As he drew closer, though, the arm seemed to draw back behind the wall, which... Irked him, to say the least.

When he arrived, though, there wasn't a sign of anything like a skeleton--no arm, no bones, nothin

"Maybe I'm just tired. Yeah. That'd make sense," he sighed, shaking his head as he massaged his forehead with his right hand. Right as he turned around, though, the feeling of something firmly grasping his left shoulder took hold.

Then his right.

Then his waist.

Legs.

Before he had a chance to break free or even see what had taken hold of him, Ren was dragged backwards, his vision fading out as the sight of the foliage behind the shrine faded away past a distorted crimson tear in the air.

---

"Nngh... Ah, damn, my neck..." Ren groaned as he came to, slowly pushing himself off of his back and into a bit of a seated position as he massaged his shoulders and rolled his neck around a few times. "What the hell was that about?"

With his whole body feeling stiff and sore, the young man struggled for a moment to shake his body out before dragging himself up with the aid of a nearby metal ba-

"...Wait a second."

With a quick look around, Ren's eyes widened as he noticed that everything around him had changed. Instead of being near the back of the shrine as he had been, Ren was now standing in the middle of what was the steps up to the shrine, complete with the railing and everything.

Well, that's what he would have assumed, had the sky not been painted an eerie shade of red and there being absolutely no sign of any life nearby whatsoever.

"...Okay. This is just... Wait. No. Don't freak. Calm yourself. Calm down. Caaaaalm down."

With a few deep breaths, Ren walked off to the side and took a seat on the railing. Given how he could still feel things, the young man was assured that the current situation definitely wasn't a dream.

But... What was it, then?

She hadn't realized what time it was. Thankfully, there was still a chance to make it.

Tanikawa Ayumi had become quite absorbed by her practice. Her competitive nature wouldn't allow her to be outdone, and part of a method of self-motivation she had given herself was to challenge herself to always do better then her last practice session. The bokken felt even more weightless in her hands as she moved, but at the same time, she hadn't noticed just how much time had passed. Checking her phone, however, swiftly brought her to this realization.

She'd pulled on her coat, wrapped her scarf around her neck, and packed up her bokken before breaking into a sprint. New Years wasn't a time to miss, after all.

It was crowded, too. The shrine was pretty much swarmed with people, and stands where everywhere. As attractive as the stands were, Ayumi was confident that she could check them out later. First she wanted to visit the donation box, then drop off her New Years prayer. After that she had free reign to do whatever she wanted... As she made her way to the line, however, she noticed some shady-looking guy running off to go behind the shrine.

What was with that? It looked pretty suspicious... there was no way she was going to let that stand! Breaking away from the line, she jogged after him, pulling out her bokken as she did and slowing to a halt behind the shrine, and...

Nothing. He wasn't even there. Where had he run off to? Ayumi looked around, frowning. That was just weird. People didn't just disappear, after all. That made this even more shady. Where was this guy hiding that she couldn't see him anymore? She thought she'd seen something really weird, but she couldn't have, right?

... Right? She didn't see skeleton hands grabbing that guy, right?

She didn't buy that for a second.

But when you suddenly feel something grabbing you from behind, you start believing in outlandish things pretty quickly. Before she could turn and try and hit whoever it was with her bokken, letting out a yelp of surprise...

Things went dark.

---

When Ayumi opened her eyes, she felt a little sore, like she'd been unceremoniously dropped onto some kind of particularly hard surface. As she sat up, she discovered this was pretty accurate. She'd been tossed, on her back, onto the... steps of the shrine? Had... had she been tossed somehow? Was that what happened when she was grabbed? But where was everyone? Ayumi shot to her feet, and one of the first things she spotted was the shady guy she'd seen in the first place.

Before taking in anything about her surroundings, she clutched her bokken and raised one hand to point.

"What did you do?!" she demanded, "And where did everyone go?!"

Ayumi trailed off for a moment. After her kneejerk reaction, she realized that assuming he turned the sky red and made everyone run away was kind of ridiculous.

"... Okay, maybe you didn't do all of this, but running off like that was kind of shady..." the black-haired girl said, looking around to try and understand just what had occurred.

Another day, another job.

And more money to boot. Giddy with the prospect of another night out, Yagra wandered around the town, looking for a place where she could drink in peace. Not because she was a youkai living amongst humans, but because she might get thrown into the lock up if she drank somewhere public again. Hiding her true nature was easy enough anyways; all she needed to do was hide her horns. Her darker than average skin and her stature was nothing save for conversation pieces for the humans. All she needed to do was make sure she never got herself in a situation where her beyond human capabilities was discovered. She did get hit by a car, but she had ran away before anyone could get a good look at her, and she doubted anyone would believe that driver's story of the girl he hit like a brick wall.

Taking another long sip at her gourd, she spied the roofs of the old shrine from a street away, and decided to go drink there. While it was strange for a youkai to actually like the shrine, it was a place where she had first slept in when she first came here. It was empty most of the time, save for a few occasions like the New Year, so she had crashed there a lot, though she made sure to not leave a mess there. It was also one of the more recognizable places in the city, so she had hidden her kanabo there, considering there wasn't much she could use it for here in this city.

Sighing, she sat down somewhere relatively secluded, where the regular comers to the shrine usually wouldn't go. A few more drinks later, she decided she might as well donate to the shrine while she was at it. Fumbling about trying to get her money, she accidentally dropped her sake gourd on the ground, where a skeletal hand promptly came out from nowhere and started dragging it through a bush.

"Oi!"

Without thinking, she jumped on the gourd and grabbed it with both hands.



Yagra blinked.

Her mind was in a jumble, trying to rationalize the sudden change of scenery. She was at the shrine itself before, but now she was sitting on what seemed to be the steps leading up towards the shrine, her kanabo mysteriously on her lap, and her gourd in one hand. The sky had turned red, and she was in front of what seemed to be one girl leveling a bokken at someone else.

Seemingly nonplussed at what happened, she took another deep swig from her gourd.

Kenji wove through the crowds. New Year's Eve, the Japanese people always liked visiting shrines at this time to send their prayers/wishes to the gods and goddesses for another fruitful year. He felt that it was more tradition than belief by now. Now what was he doing at Koumi Shrine and not at his own? He was sent here to deliver a bottle of sake, a gift to the larger shrine and for those that help in it. He looked around, a smile on his face as he saw how lively the area was. It was always nice to see the humans mingling with each other.

Upon reaching the main shrine's entrance, he greeted one of the workers and then was led to their head priest to whom he gave the bottle of sake to. They conversed for a while, nonsensical questions and answers about what is going on in their lives and such. He lived way longer than these humans so he didn't get why they were so caught up with what happened in their lives. It might be something he will never understand. The head priest continued to talk about his nephew who was apparently very close to them and how he's growing up and that the priest missed playing with the young male. Kenji listened without much of a reaction. He simply sat there, drinking the sake given to him and listened, sometimes humming because he was impressed or approved of what the male had said.

The head priest looked at the time and then apologized for taking so much of his time, even though he only came here for an errand. The white haired male waved it off dismissively and then told him that it was no problem at all. They said their farewells and then Kenji left. He let out a sight once he stepped out of the main shrine. However, movement caught his eye of something or someone heading to the back of the shrine. Tilting his head to the side, he decided to investigate. Someone might need help after all.

Upon turning the corner, there was no one there. Probably a trick of the light or something. He turned around and then began making his way back to the festivities. However, he felt something grab his shoulder in conjunction with something else grabbing his leg and torso. It all happened in an instant and he couldn't even turn his head to look at the attacker. In a snap, he seemed to have gone unconscious.

---

When Kenji came to, he immediately noticed that he was staring up at the sky. That meant he was lying down. He would have assumed that someone drugged him and stolen something of his that looked precious, but seeing the sky painted red, he knew something was wrong. He slowly sat up and then surveyed his surroundings. Surprisingly, this looked like the shrine steps and there were other people with him, but not nowhere near as much as before. There was one girl pointing an accusatory finger at a guy and then another person who was taking a drink from a gourd.

He slowly stood up and dusted himself off. Yes, this was odd. The crowds had disappeared, the sky is now red and they are apparently in an exact copy of the shrine but it was not the shrine they were in before... and the problem was, Kenji had no idea how they got here in the first place. He rubbed the back of his head and then slowly approached the other people, stopping beside Yagra who was a few steps below the male and the other female.

"Apologies for the intrusion... and by your expressions, I do not think I should even ask if you know where we are." There was no time for panic. Panicking won't help this situation after all so he set aside his rational side arguing that this is all just a weird dream or something. He clasped his hands together, as a sort of polite gesture. "I would like to know if any of you remember how we got here. I certainly do not." He admitted. No shame in that.

Sven was at the shrine like many other poeple that day. He had a stall set up at a shrine to sell some of his wursts. He was one of the last people to be sold out though due to his food not being 'traditional' like the other food at the shrine. That and he had no idea on the Japanese religion. He was catholic after all which for him meant no lines to wait.

To Sven lines like this were the bane of his existence, he hated them that he often went out of his way to avoid them. If that meant being disrespectful to those that worked at the shrine then that was fine by him.

After he finished packing up his stall he decided he may as well see what was left. It was at this point that he saw a skeletal hand. Who was decorating this place. I mean isn't that a little out of place? Sven thought to himself. Then he turned around to look at something else. It was another skeletal hand he started to walk towards it seeing it go behind the shrine. Once there though he found himself tripped by a tree root.

---

When Sven came too he found himself being hurled into the ground and once he hit the ground his head rolled right off his shoulders and rolled away infront of a girl with silver hair and piercing blue eyes. His body a few feet away just laid limp on the ground. After about a minute it started to twitch again and then a blue flame seemed to come out of the neck with a burst. It wasn't hot at all though and was the same size that his head was.

Sven looked up at the silver haired girl. "Well this is a headache isn't it?" Sven said spouting one of his terrible puns. His body meanwhile got up and after turning in a circle started to walk towards the head. Once close enough the body picked up the head. But didn't return it to the neck. "It has been way too long since I felt this light headed." Sven added with yet another pun about being without a head.

The main reason for the jokes though was because most people that saw him without his head often panicked, sometimes there was screaming, other times cursing. A few times people soiled themselves. He just found that cracking lame jokes tended to help calm them down a bit and focus on something else.

Donald sat on a bench with a cup of some sort of hot drink that he wasn't entirely sure of the name of. The old man had long since moved away from the choking crowds and now sat on a bench that gave him a good view of the sky. For several minutes he entertained the thought of taking the area around the shrine as his own. It was a mere idea though, and such a thing would perhaps ruin the atmosphere. The old man took a sip of the drink and looked back up at the sky before soon drifting off to sleep.

---

He awoke to a sky that was entirely unlike the one he had been gazing at. It took a second for his sleep addled mind to realize that it wasn't just the lights from the festival or the fireworks but that Donald wasn't where he had been before. He stood up, dropping the, now cold, drink on the ground. He put a hand into his pocket and turned his back on the sky to face the shrine. Well there was no point in panicking and little chance of rescue so it would be best to find out what was going on for himself.

The man walked towards the shrine with a faintly bemused expression on his face, humming thoughtfully to himself.

Ren threw his arms up in the air as the younger girl pointed her weapon at his face, a somewhat worried expression on his face as his glance flitted between her and the wooden sword.

"Well, I mean... If you saw something weird poking out from behind a wall and nobody else saw it, you'd want to check it out to make sure you weren't going crazy, right? Besides, you really think this--" he said, motioning to the sky as he continued. "--is normal? Seriously, what kind of New Year's Eve...?"

As he was about to start complaining to himself, though, the spontaneous appearance of a few other people (who were also presumably dropped in from the middle of the festival) caused him to hold his tongue and turn to address them. While one was a pretty apparent drunkard (which probably meant there wouldn't be much use in trying to talk to them), the other seemed to be a rational human being asking questions that weren't obvious to the point of rhetoric. That was something he could get behind.

"Ah... Well, I saw a weird skeletal arm... Thing... Poking out from behind the shrine. Went over to check, found nothing; turned around, felt like half a dozen things were grabbing me, and then darkness. That's about as succinct an explanation I can give from my end," he said, getting off of his seat on the railing and slowly lowering the girl's bokken with his right arm. "Also, please don't point that at me. There's only so much my mind can take before I start getting anxious."

The pseudo-sarcasm loaded in his voice was half-serious, and though the girl definitely seemed to be a few years his junior, she was armed and he was not. A bunch of bruises from being whacked by a wooden blade was not something he wanted at the moment.

"Well, regardless of what's going on, we're not getting anywhere without some exploration..." he began to say before noticing the ground starting to shake under the group--the pebbles that seemed to jump into the air every few seconds was an indication of that, if anything.

"...Huh? Okay, what's--"

Before he could finish that question, though, an unearthly roar came from the bottom of the steps to the shrine before a giant skeletal arm came crashing down right in their field of view. Another one soon followed, dragging a giant skeleton that seemed to be the size of a large house up towards the group.

Ren stared in shock for a few moments before the skeleton moved again, dragging its body further up the stairs.

"Oh, shit," he swore before taking a few steps back up, moving closer to the shrine. "Nope. I'm running. Not dealing with that. No way."

With a few more steps back as the monster let out another scream, Ren took a look around before noticing that a few smaller skeletons were beginning to claw their way out of the darkness under the thing's ribcage.

"Er... I vote... We run. NOW."

With that last statement, Ren turned around and began to run, passing by another girl and a... Weird headless person of some sort okay it was probably long past time to freak out by now but there were bigger problems at hand. No way that sort of thing would go down to anything less than a few RPG blasts to the head. Or some sort of magical sword from a game bisecting it.

What the heck was up with today?!

The more people showed up, the more obvious it became that there was something... very strange going on. If it hadn't already been clear the shady guy hadn't done all of this, it certainly was now. She didn't resist his attempt to lower her bokken, but that was only because she was already lowering it herself. Still, she wasn't going to entirely let him off the hook. Something seemed shifty about him, and Ayumi wasn't about to back off when it came to that. However, attacking him didn't exactly seem like it should be a priority, even if she didn't really believe him about a skeleton. No matter what she had seen.

"... Even if something did grab me," she began, "I don't buy that it was a skeleton. Still, something weird is going on... what happened to the sky, and how did all these other people end up over here?"

To say Ayumi was concerned was an understatement. Whoever was responsible for this would get a piece of her mind!

As if on cue, a roar and an enormous crashing sound echoed from behind them. Ayumi turned on her heel, and her eyes widened as an enormous skeleton pulled its way onto the stairs. Both hands on her bokken, Ayumi took a weak step back. This... this had to be a dream, and... and so she wouldn't let herself just back down... even... even as the other skeletons began to crawl out from under it... she didn't truly realize the electrical currents that now visibly circled her head, even as her hands trembled lightly.

This had to be a dream, but... even so...

"... E... Everyone, get inside the shrine!" she called, backing up. It really was a... a huge skeleton... it was coming closer... Ayumi's grip tightened on the wooden sword, as one of the smaller ones came closer.

She acted almost on instinct, swinging the bokken in an arc that struck one of the skeletons in the side, detaching bones from one another and sending it tumbling loosely to the ground. She began to swiftly retreat, unable to ignore she was afraid but unwilling to show it as she made her way up the stairs, trying to cover the retreat of the others.

Well, it was nothing like a play or a drama.

Yagra had half expected a whole slew of dialogue and exaggerated movements that was usual for a theatrical performance but instead, a large skeleton appeared out of nowhere, climbing slowly up the steps as more skeletons spawned from its body. It was enough to make her wonder if something got into her sake while she wasn't looking. Just before she could convince herself it was really well made prop made for whatever the boy and girl was practicing, the boy zoomed quickly away towards the shrine, leaving her and the girl behind.

"Oi! You're just going to leave two defenseless girls behind?"

"... E... Everyone, get inside the shrine!"

So no chance of this being a drunken halucination huh?

There was a quite visible skeleton giant spawning regular skeletons from it just climbing up the steps. Maintaining the illusion that she wasn't what she was seemed quite pointless at this point. Retreating with Ayumi, she tied up her sleeves and secured the hem of her clothes, before swinging the steel kanabo one handed at the smaller skeletons pursuing them. Yagra's unnatural strength was readily apparent from that simple swing; for one to be able to swing what was essentially a large metal club one handed and shatter several of those skeletons in a cloud of dust, one would have to be something not entirely human. In her case, due to her horns being very visible now, she could readily be identified as an oni to those familiar with Japanese lore.

"You, girl with the bokken, go on ahead. I'll slow them down."

Yagra had not fought for a long time, but the giant skeleton looked easy enough to just shatter into a million pieces. But, she had no idea what it can do, nor did she feel that could be risked with the two humans there. There was no telling if it had some sort of wide ranged attack that wouldn't be a threat to her but kill everyone else that wasn't as tough as an oni. Four, she amended seeing another pair once she got to the top of the stairs. Four humans. Ah wait, that one has his head off. A nukekubi?

Drinking from her gourd all the while, she kept on swinging her kanabo wildly through the air, making her way slowly to the shrine. Hopefully whoever runs the shrine didn't get the idea to exterminate her alongside the giant skeleton.

Today, a typical high school girl and one of the many typical shrinegoers today, was hungry. In fact, as soon as she heard the howling of an old man from his takoyaki stall and the ringing of his chimes, the girl was quick to rush in and be his first customer for the day. The stall looked freshly set up, and the takoyaki on display presented itself palatably.

Without further ado, the girl quickly handed out a 500 yen coin for 3 takoyaki, priced at 100 yen. The old man handed out a 400 yen change through 4 100 yen coins, and the girl left to enjoy the sumptuous taste of her snack.

Finishing her meal, the girl peeked at her wallet to figure the amount of donations she would give today, only to find out the old man hadn't given her 400 yen. He gave her 4 yen.

You fuck!

Outraged, the girl quickly hurried back to where the stall was, but alas, the old man and his cart was gone.

At least the takoyaki was worth it.

---

496 yen-- swindled! Just one of the many jackpots Rumi Amano's luck leads her to. The foxgirl, strolling behind the bushes, took another bite from one of her takoyaki in her bag, actually a buy from a stall somewhere else in the festival markets.

It sure was a busy day. Now was a good time to take a nap. The drowsy kitsune laid herself to sleep at the bushes just beside the shrine, a place rarely tread upon by visitors.

---

Rumi woke up later to an odd noise not far from where she was. The red skies, however, immediately caught her sight before she could catch wind of where the sounds were coming from. Though definitely an unnerving sight, the fox girl oddly found herself comfortable with the environs, and she had laid for a little while to enjoy the view before she could actually proceed to the source of the noise.

A giant skeleton and a bunch of kids were having a ruckus.

"What the goddamn!? Can't a lady take her beauty nap in peace here!?"

The masked lady, tails and ears out, emerged from the bushes, disgruntled with the racket.

So they were grabbed as well hm? The same thing happened to him. Someone must have dragged all of them to this place - whoever it was, though, still remains unknown. Kenji nodded at the other male's suggestion of exploring the grounds, but the feeling of the ground shaking took him by surprise and it was followed by a deafening roar which made the male flinch, the sound louder to him than the humans with him thanks to him being a wolf and all. He turned around to see a giant skeleton arm rising from the bottom of the stairs and then slamming down on the bottom steps and another one followed suit.

And finally the body had shown itself. Kenji narrowed his eyes at the skeleton. A yokai? Definitely one. He can't mistake such a giant skeleton for anything else. A Gashadokuro perhaps? These ones were hard to cleanse, but smashing it should do the trick. Several skeletons crawled out of its body, eliciting a groan from the white haired male. He heard the male suggest they run away and he could hear his footsteps as he ran away.

"I agree. Let us take shelter at the shrine." Kenji said, reaching under the wraps of his clothing and then taking out the Celestial Brush. He looked at the two other girls who were still remaining - with one having visible electric currents circling above her head and the other having horns. A Raijuu and an Oni? He couldn't be too sure about the former as she showed no signs of wielding the electricity but the Oni, with her superior strength as she shattered one of the skeletons to pieces, made it obvious that he was right.

The white haired male looked back at one of the skeletons who was charging at him, bare-handed. He quickly started to write the kanji for fire in the air, each stroke visible as if he was writing on paper, but he was writing on thin air. The symbol was very simple and very quick to do and once that was done, he crossed the symbol and it turned into a fireball and hurled itself at the skeleton, the impact shattering it and the fire still remained burning at the bones. It had been a while since he had actively used this against other beings, mostly because it was not normal (as it was magic) and it could potentially kill humans.

He reached the Oni and dodged one of her swings before writing another fire symbol on the air and sending one at another skeleton to help her. "Shall we fight together, Oni?" He asked, for formality perhaps. He then went up a few more steps and hurled another fireball at the skeletons. He finally noticed two others at the top, one girl and another male with his head lopped off but still looked very much alive. Nukekubi? But, that only occured on women according to all accounts. The Gashadokuro was still there and certainly still a problem.

"Do you think you can handle the Gashadokuro?" He asked the horned woman, expecting her to know about some Japanese lore. Though he was not entirely sure that it was a Gashadokuro, as it lacked the noise it would often produce, but it was the closest he could think of. "I can cover for you." He then turned his head towards the other people. "And them as well." His barrier spell should hold and they were further into the shrine which could be some sort of cover.

Sven started to reach for his neck with his free hand when he was grabbed by the silver haired girl and pulled towards the shrine. "I could fight. But I guess for now staying close to the others would be helpful." Sven said aloud as he followed after the girl. As he spoke his German accent could be heard a bit. Though his face started to show more and more of an overly joyful smile, part of his head being seperate from his body.

According to legends Dullahans normally had a wide grin on their face. In Sven's case it was just from the feeling the wind go through his flame which made him extremely happy as he rarely got to feel it. He saw a barrier go up later and frowned a bit. "ANGEBEN!" Sven yelled into the air right at the one with the celestial brush. What he yelled it could be translated into meaning "Show Off". Sven didn't want to say it in a way that they could understand for fear of sounding rude to the others.

A few of the skeletons however had gotten close enough to be inside of the barrier. "I appreciate you helping me, my lady." Sven said as he pulled his hand out of the girls hand. "I'm Sven by the way. Owner of Sven's Wurst! I do hope that you will come by when this is over." Sven said with a smile as he reached into his neck and started to pull out his spine, popping noises could be heard as he pulled it out. Once it was fully out though it showed to be a bit more ethereal in nature, it elongated into a whip and made a crack into the air once it was in it's full form.

"It's been so long since I took this thing out, it's spine tingling!" Sven yelled into the air with a hearty laughter at his own pun. He pulled his arm back and then sent the whip flying at a skeleton that had grown too close to the others. The skeleton fell to the ground into many different peaces. At most what Sven had done was dismantled it. "Whelp time to keep running!" Sven said running up the stairs again after the silver haired girl.

Things started to go badly before he could get much of a look at wherever he had ended up. This sudden, even steeper spiral was heralded by the arrival of a giant skeleton. Donald was starting to regret not taking at least Hsien with him. One of the smaller undead approached him and he pulled the pistol out of his coat pocket, backpedaling several steps.

After a moments consideration, he fired, beheading it in a spray of bone shards with a neat shot through the spine. The old man didn't think that a mere hole in the skull would stop them. Over his shoulder he spotted several people at the shrine and he calmly walked over and entered it, pistol pointed casually up towards the ceiling.

"I don't suppose anyone has more of an idea about where we are?"

Ren turned around as he reached the shrine, his pace slowing as the absurdity of the entire situation clicked. There was a giant skeleton storming its way to the shrine, the sky was as red as blood, and...

Well, it seemed as if almost everyone else was some kinda youkai or magician or something, save the old man with a gun who had just arrived. Granted, the gun made him feel no less safer near the shrine than he did otherwise, but there was at least something that he could understand conceptually here.

"Sorry, sir, but I have about as much of a clue about what the heck's happening here as anyone else... In other words, nothing at all," Ren said, bounding up the stairs to the shrine itself and opening the sliding door. The place was caked in dust, but a few things stood out in the dim light that filtered through: a metal bell about half his size with a hammer of sorts next to it and a small talisman that seemed to pulse with light every few seconds. The bell seemed to be pretty useless at the moment, but as things seemed to be rapidly making a turn towards the supernatural with every passing moment, Ren decided to grab the talisman and head outside once more.

Squinting his eyes to see the two people fighting the smaller skeletons, Ren watched as they seemed to effortlessly sweep through the monsters as if they were nothing. While he could appreciate the fact that there was protection now, it was only a matter of time before the giant one made it over...

And he hadn't a clue if they could handle that, regardless of how strong they were.

After a moment, the young man noticed that the talisman in his hand seemed to glow brighter the closer the giant skeleton came. With a small gulp, Ren turned to the rest of the group who had gathered near the shrine and held out the object to the others.

"Okay, gut feeling right now, so don't sue me if it flops, but I think that slapping this thing on that giant skeleton might be good for us. I definitely have all of zero experience in fighting this kinda thing, so... Anyone else feel like testing this theory? I mean, 's all I got, unless you guys think you can break it down somehow," he said, waiting for someone else to pick up the slack for him.

The giant skeleton, on the other hand, seemed to be moving marginally faster after scaling the stairs to the shrine; that, coupled with the increasing rate at which the smaller skeletons spawned, definitely added to the young man's anxiety.

"Okay, while this definitely feels like something out of a manga, I'm probably no stronger than a faceless mob character in the background right now. This sucks."

There were... there were other people fighting the skeletons? That woman was knocking them apart with her bare hands, and... but, how? Weren't these terrible monsters? Weren't they...

The moments of hesitation born by her surprise allowed another skeleton to creep up closer to her. Eyes wide wither surprise, Ayumi took a step back and swung her bokken outward... and a bolt of electricity snapped out and struck the skeleton the moment the wooden blade hit it and knocked it to pieces. Where had that come from?! It felt like... like... no, there was no way it had come from her. The girl retreated further and further back up the stairs, until she finally reached the shrine itself. The man from before hand grabbed some kind of talismen, and the other object of note... was the bell.

"... Th... this is all crazy..." she said, and yet she refused to lower her weapon. As insane as the situation seemed to be, this... was... she could try and defend people, right? Those other people, though, they were... were... this was crazy. But Ayumi stood firmly. She could at least defend others!

... Wait, that bell... if this was a shrine, then it would stand to reason that there might be some chance of repelling them, so...!

Ayumi sprinted towards the bell, snatched up the hammer, and brought it down.

Correction: a bunch of kids, and an old man.

Now where to start here...? There's the screwed squad of nonskeletons trying to unscrew themselves, and there's the squad of skeletons with their giant Gashadokuro leader trying to screw the other team. Rumi could try to play a trick on the skeletons, but she doubted she would be able to deal with them with only a dagger at hand when pursued. Rumi could also try it out on the fleshy beings at the shrine, but, well... same problem. There's a few youkai among them, made obvious by a few people at the scene.

I'm calling out the damned squad already! Jeez.

-

All at once, three mysterious warriors jumped in sight outside the shrine, and began furiously attacking the skeletal legion. The skeletons' bodies appeared to wear down, and a few looked like they shouldn't be able to walk anymore, but... why are they still alive?

Around the same time, a mysterious girl, bearing the resemblance of the customer claiming to have been deceived by a takoyaki vendor, entered the shrine. Only this time, she had three tails and two foxy ears...

"Apologies for intruding~." the girl greeted and bowed, stepping onto the wooden floors. "Anyone here?"

She turned her head towards the kitsune that came out of the bush for a moment, before focusing back on the skeletons. Yagra didn't have the luxury of dealing with a fox right now, and judging from the fox's annoyance, it was clear this situation wasn't the result of kitsune trickery.

Raising her weapon, she made to swing at another skeleton approaching her before a fireball blew it apart.

"Shall we fight together, Oni?"

It was a man with an eyepatch, with hair white as snow. He certainly stood out a bit from the usual lot of humans. He continued on speaking. "Do you think you can handle the Gashadokuro?"

"Gashadokuro huh? Aren't you an onmyouji or a priest? You'll be better suited to dealing with that." Swinging the kanabo around, she smashed a few more skeletons. The skeletons themselves didn't really provide much of a threat to her, but they could perhaps hurt the others. "I don't think its one of those - they're not invisible or making some sort of noise, plus, it didn't try to chomp that coward's head off. If you're asking, I suppose you don't have any sealing talismans on you, yeah?"

The boy who had ran first into the shrine came back out, holding up a talisman, as if summoned by the mentions of a sealing talisman. "Okay, gut feeling right now, so don't sue me if it flops, but I think that slapping this thing on that giant skeleton might be good for us. I definitely have all of zero experience in fighting this kinda thing, so... Anyone else feel like testing this theory? I mean, 's all I got, unless you guys think you can break it down somehow."

A talisman? Perhaps he could run over and slap it on the large skeleton while she and this white haired person cleared the path, but with such a display of cowardice before, he was just as likely to fly and drop bombs out of his mouth. Yagra could snatch it up herself and slap it on the skeleton to see what would happen, but if it did what she think it will do, she was just as likely as to exterminate herself. The black haired girl, who Yagra had thought to be human before she shot out some lightning, suddenly ran into the shrine. For what, she did not know, but she hoped the girl didn't accidentally touch something and exterminate herself.

"I'm not much of a fighter either, but I'm fast," offered up a girl. It was the same girl who had been holding hands with the nukekubi person, who seemed to be fighting with his own spine. Odd sort of youkai. Must be one of those rarer subtypes of a more common youkai.

"You, girl, if you're confident of your speed, take that talisman and stick it to the big skeleton." Yagra shouted to Kiyoko, shouldering the kanabo and lowering her body. "I'll clear a path towards it."

Catching the white haired man's attention, she motioned towards the big skeleton, signalling her intent. Regardless of whether the talisman works or not, regardless of whether the girl would be able to gather her courage to charge straight into the giant skeleton or not, Yagra still have to take the giant thing down. Indestructable or not, she doubted it would be much of a threat if she smashed the skull into the next prefecture. There was no denying smashing up the endless waves of skeletons was fun though.

Holding the kanabo in both hands, she charged straight down towards the giant skeleton, smashing a line though the ever spawning skeletons, before digging her heels in just before she was about to hit the giant skeleton, and swinging as hard as she could at it.