Octo

The Devil Hunter Agency

Hanako was getting ready for a relaxing night of easy listening and visual novels when she heard a few gunshots ring out nearby.

"Hunters," she thought, frowning, "about damn time, but could they be a bit quieter? Who wants to bet it's a foreigner that thinks a gun is an acceptable weapon to be toting around?"

Hanako closed her laptop with a sigh, consigned to the fact that this evening would not be filled with visual novels, but easy listening was still a possibility. Hunters really did make a spectacle. It was, in its own way, pretty fun to watch them when you weren't the person they were trying to slice to death (undeath? super death?) with a sanctified blade. Hanako grabbed her radio and some binoculars and floated lazily up to the roof, where she began playing her tunes.

"Ah... they really did end up starting a fire, huh?" Hanako thought as she immediately noticed the orange glow that had begun flickering inside the building. She looked around for the source of the gunshots and, to her surprise, there was a man with a rifle just a roof over. Looked like a foreigner. Once again, right on the money. She had her opacity set to 100%, so she probably wouldn't be shot on sight. She waved over at the man with a friendly smile on her face. If he was being cautious, he'd be checking his peripheral in between shots and notice her.

If he wasn't being cautious, he'd be a prime candidate to sneak up on and scare.

The Devil Hunter Agency

A crimping, crumpling sound faded into abject silence as Akari fumbled with her camera, eventually turning it on Sachiko. A vague, blurry panorama of the girls' bathroom could be seen, with nothing but the flickering fluorescent light to illuminate it. Sachiko's face was dimly cast in a sickly shade of green under the weak light, and Akari's heavy breathing could be heard on the other side of the camera.

"...Is it on?" Sachiko asked, glancing to and fro as if something could come out of an unseen corner at any moment.

"Y-yeah, but Sacchan... d-do you really think we should be doing this?"

"Don't be a baby. Hiroko and them challenged us to a test of courage, and what better test than the old Hanako-san rumor?"

"D-don't say her name!"

"It's not like it's cursed or anything," Sachiko replied, her nervous glances betraying her true feelings, "all we have to do is knock on the door and call out for her, and then once nothing happens, we can leave."

"...Y-you hear that Hiroko? W-we're doing it right now. We aren't scared," said Akari tremulously.

...

After a few moments, Sachiko rapped lightly on the third stall three times. Akari backed up.

"H-hanako-san... a-are you... i-in there?"

"...S-see? There was nothing to-"

The lights began to flicker more and more, and the room began to tremble. The girls screamed, and Akari ran for the door which shut violently in front of her. The phone fell to the ground, and all that could be seen were two panicked young women throwing themselves at the door. There were a series of loud pops off screen as piping burst, and a cacophony built over the screams and the banging and the sound of water spraying violently until the lights went off.

Even among the noise, the voice of a different girl could be heard, quiet and unnerving in its gentleness amongst the chaos.

"...I'm sorry," it whispered before the video and audio cut out.

---

Far away, a very different scene played out in a dilapidated bathroom in an old school building as a song from the '50s played softly in the background. Hanako chuckled as she watched her latest conquest rack up views on Youtube. The comments were confused and scared and most were convinced that it was a performance manufactured to get the girls into a nice film school. Little did they know that the real Hanako-san was lurking in the comments, teasing them and prodding them.

Doubtless the video would be taken down soon, but enough had watched it to be an annoyance for the Siracha DHA. It really wasn't their year. In fact, only a few streets down was a warehouse with a large gathering of Youkai who loved nothing more than to go out at night and eat people. The neighborhood really had gone to shit, not that Hanako could do much about it. She just had to wait for the hunters to do their damn job so she could go back to her relatively peaceful life. Er, undeath rather.

A shrill beeping broke through her Perry Como as the oven went off. The chocolate croissants were done! Hanako waved a finger and the sheet pan slid gracefully out of the oven, resting gently on the sink counter. Obviously she couldn't eat them, but Hanako was unwilling to let her entire life be a waste. Thus, even in undeath, she kept baking on as a hobby.

"Tres magnifique," she said, giving a little chef's kiss before minimizing the video and pulling up her Steam account.

How could kids these days possibly complain of boredom? There was so much fun to be had!

The Devil Hunter Agency

@TheWendil

Coolio, I look forward to working with you on it.

Viewer beware, you're in for a scare~

The Devil Hunter Agency

Hanako

• Appearance:

• Name: Hanako Yamamoto

• Title: Toire no Hanako

• Age: 15 at death, has existed for ~90 years

• Class/Species: Ghost/Rumor

• Abilities: Hanako has basic ghost abilities, such as intangibility, minor flight, precise kinetic manipulation, and the ability to become invisible. Some creatures, such as Hanako, become so ubiquitous that they gain more power based on the belief of Humans. Because Hanako is so widely known and associated with bathrooms, she has gained the ability to teleport instantly to any bathroom that she knows of. That same belief makes it impossible to exorcise her for good. As long as someone believes in Hanako, she must return.

• Personality: You’d think that Hanako was some sort of evil spirit because she’s bound to the earth through a seething hatred of Humanity, but she’s mellowed out a bit since her death. More than anything, Hanako likes having fun. She enjoys scaring people, though her reasons are more for amusement than anything malicious. When she isn’t spooking some middle school girls in the bathroom, she’s usually at her base playing games or watching videos on her phone. Even ghosts need to get with the times! She also has an interest in observing people, especially DHA members, because she inevitably ends up getting into scuffles with them when her pranks go too far. She’s capable of cruelty, especially if she’s being antagonized, but she generally avoids hurting anyone.

• Background: Those bitches locked me in the bathroom. Can you believe that? Just because I was popular with guys. It’s not like I wanted it anyways… they could take all the guys they wanted and I wouldn’t care. It was dad that pushed that stuff on me. I wonder how he felt when he heard the news? I went to my own funeral and watched them. Dad didn’t cry.

All of it was for nothing, is what I’m getting at. The cooking lessons, the knitting lessons, obsessing over my looks, insisting on a beneficial marriage… all of it useless. My entire life futile. My fate was sealed when a bunch of old farts decided something in a room halfway across the world. It had nothing to do with me, nothing to do with them, and we were the ones that got shafted.

The last thing I really remember is the air raid sirens. After a life of submissive servitude, doing everything you were told because that’s how things had to be, being the perfect little princess… and then to come to an end in a middle school bathroom because some jealous bitches thought it was funny to lock you up? What a riot. Who wouldn’t become a grudge-riddled earthbound spirit after something like that?

I’ve been playing this game for over 70 years. You’ve heard of me, right? Toire no Hanako… what a crappy title. Hah. Pardon the pun. It started out just me being angry and wanting people to suffer, and soon enough, I made a name for myself. The rumors became widespread in like… the ‘50s or something? I must’ve worked fast, because I had only just died in ’45. Yeah, I calmed down after that, and it became more about the art of the scare. It’s art, you know? You have to do it juuust right, and if you’re really good, you can even get them to wet themselves. That’s the standard I hold myself to. Eh? Other Youkai? Who cares about them? Most are assholes. Very few of them have been Human before. They don’t understand people like I do. If they did, they’d find a different freaking snack.

• Inventory: Hanako makes her base in a dilapidated old bathroom in an abandoned old school building. She keeps all sorts of trinkets and odds and ends there.

The Devil Hunter Agency

@Octo

I would prefer Youkai to either be aligned with the DHA or against them for the sake of being involved in the RP. I may make an exception depending on the case you make for her in being relevant to the RP and other people's characters though. That said, this won't be a common thing. No neutral parties unless you can convince me with a good case for her.

@TheWendil

I figured. I thought it would be nice to have a character that's kind of 'between' Humans and Youkai. For the most part, once a DHA member encounters a Youkai, they're gonna get right to the ass-kicking. Nobody's asking Zorgoth the Babyeater why he eats the babies. It's chainsaw time. With a ghost, though, it's a bit more nuanced. You can't just kill it, and it's probably not gonna hurt you. It's a different kind of conflict.

If you want a clear alignment, she could side with the DHA though. Her main motivation is her own amusement, and that sort of thing might be fun for her. She's no good at direct combat, but it's hard to do any actual damage to her which makes her a great resource for scouting and investigation.

Anyways, here's the sheet in case you're curious. Even if it's a no, I'll probably think something else up, so no big.

Hanako

• Appearance:

• Name: Hanako Yamamoto

• Title: Toire no Hanako

• Age: 15 at death, has existed for ~90 years

• Class/Species: Ghost/Rumor

• Abilities: Hanako has basic ghost abilities, such as intangibility, minor flight, precise kinetic manipulation, and the ability to become invisible. Some creatures, such as Hanako, become so ubiquitous that they gain more power based on the belief of Humans. Because Hanako is so widely known and associated with bathrooms, she has gained the ability to teleport instantly to any bathroom that she knows of. That same belief makes it impossible to exorcise her for good. As long as someone believes in Hanako, she must return.

• Personality: You’d think that Hanako was some sort of evil spirit because she’s bound to the earth through a seething hatred of Humanity, but she’s mellowed out a bit since her death. More than anything, Hanako likes having fun. She enjoys scaring people, though her reasons are more for amusement than anything malicious. When she isn’t spooking some middle school girls in the bathroom, she’s usually at her base playing games or watching videos on her phone. Even ghosts need to get with the times! She also has an interest in observing people, especially DHA members, because she inevitably ends up getting into scuffles with them when her pranks go too far. She’s capable of cruelty, especially if she’s being antagonized, but she generally avoids hurting anyone.

• Background: Those bitches locked me in the bathroom. Can you believe that? Just because I was popular with guys. It’s not like I wanted it anyways… they could take all the guys they wanted and I wouldn’t care. It was dad that pushed that stuff on me. I wonder how he felt when he heard the news? I went to my own funeral and watched them. Dad didn’t cry.

All of it was for nothing, is what I’m getting at. The cooking lessons, the knitting lessons, obsessing over my looks, insisting on a beneficial marriage… all of it useless. My entire life futile. My fate was sealed when a bunch of old farts decided something in a room halfway across the world. It had nothing to do with me, nothing to do with them, and we were the ones that got shafted.

The last thing I really remember is the air raid sirens. After a life of submissive servitude, doing everything you were told because that’s how things had to be, being the perfect little princess… and then to come to an end in a middle school bathroom because some jealous bitches thought it was funny to lock you up? What a riot. Who wouldn’t become a grudge-riddled earthbound spirit after something like that?

I’ve been playing this game for over 70 years. You’ve heard of me, right? Toire no Hanako… what a crappy title. Hah. Pardon the pun. It started out just me being angry and wanting people to suffer, and soon enough, I made a name for myself. The rumors became widespread in like… the ‘50s or something? I must’ve worked fast, because I had only just died in ’45. Yeah, I calmed down after that, and it became more about the art of the scare. It’s art, you know? You have to do it juuust right, and if you’re really good, you can even get them to wet themselves. That’s the standard I hold myself to. Eh? Other Youkai? Who cares about them? Most are assholes. Very few of them have been Human before. They don’t understand people like I do. If they did, they’d find a different freaking snack.

• Inventory: Hanako makes her base in a dilapidated old bathroom in an abandoned old school building. She keeps all sorts of trinkets and odds and ends there.

The Devil Hunter Agency

<Snipped quote by Octo>

Depends on what you mean by acceptable.

If it's as a character in the RP as a neutral party, it's possible since there are Demons that don't want to bring harm to people. If it's as part of the DHA, it's unlikely because they are a human organization, any Demon assisting them, would likely have to be contracted.

@KoL

Yeah, I'm going for a neutral thing. She has no interest in hurting Humans, and cares about the DHA insofar as they can be fun to mess with. Ostensibly she'd have her own interests outside any of the groups, though I could see her getting involved in plot for her own enjoyment. Once you've been dead for so long, it's really about making your own fun.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Would a Youkai that doesn't particularly want to hurt anyone be acceptable? I was thinking of a ghost that mostly makes a nuisance of herself and enjoys scaring Humans. More of a trickster than a threat.

My Hero Academia: Raw Potential

Go ahead and put me on the interest list if anything opens up.

MHA is fun and I like an underdog story. Seeya~

Epithet Erased: Use Your Words

Jessica grinned her big shark grin, feeling accomplishment well up inside of her. She definitely didn't feel good because she helped a scared kid and it was the right thing to do. No, she felt good because she was AWESOME and now she could make that woman bow and apologize! She would order that lady to get down on her hands and knees and assume the dogeza stance just like in her anime!

"GAHAHA!" Jessica laughed loudly out of nowhere, to nobody but herself like an ABSOLUTE CHAD.

As if her massive accomplishment wasn't enough, the TV star Jensen Ackles of award-winning drama blah blah blah you get the point DIVULGED the nature of his epithet. He must've been pretty confident and, from the sounds of it, he had every reason to be. However, like that one cartoon said, "knowing is half the battle". Now that she knew what his epithet was, she could SCHEME ways to counter it just in case.

As Jessica turned to head back to the beach, her head HUGE from accomplishment, she quickly came face to face with a girl who looked like a PUNK. Dammit... PUNK was JESSICA'S aesthetic! At least when she wasn't a delinquent. It switched between the two depending. Jessica was about to tell the woman off for TOTALLY APING HER STYLE when she found herself being ABSOLUTELY FLATTERED.

"W-well," Jessica replied, blushing a bit, "I'm actually EVIL, you know? Definitely not a good person. But thank you for noticing how AWESOME I am. Actually, we were just... did I recently eat a candy?"

Jessica smacked her lips, paused a second, and then opened the bottle in order to sniff it.

She had combined a bottle and something that could be bottled, but had only assumed it was sap. Maybe it was syrup or something? She gave the contents a sniff.

"We were just, uh... going back to camp... with this kid... to make that teacher apologize," Jessica answered, a little distracted.

"You know... that busybody meganekko. I like your shirt, by the way. Do you think this TRACKSUIT looks cool on me?"

Epithet Erased: Use Your Words

"Ah... it's that WEIRD CELEBRITY that was harassing me," Jessica said as Mark came up to them, GAGGING a little for effect, "you know that you only get away with picking on LITTLE GIRLS because you're famous, right?"

Although... dunking on this WEIRDO kind of took a back seat to saving a kid at the moment. A task which, due to the child engaging in dialogue with them, became significantly easier. It took a while, but they were able to locate the girl. She was stuck up in a tree, like a cat in a cartoon.

...Not Jessica's favorite configuration. Only HEROES saved cats from trees, and Jessica was a VILLAIN through and through. Surely one of the others would be able to save this small child. Then again, she appeared to be stuck in some thick SAP. That might be difficult for the others to handle.

Jessica flip-flopped between wanting to RUB this rescue in that DUMB WOMAN'S face and MAINTAINING her VILLAINOUS PRESENCE, but then something that the little girl said tugged at Jessica's BLACK HEARTSTRINGS.

Jessica bit her lower lip, and looked up at the kid.

"I bet... your mommy misses you a whole lot. I guess... I can help get you down."

Jessica thought, for a moment, about how much her own mother probably didn't even know she was gone, much less missed her. Then again, that was just business. Her older sister was perfect. A genius. Why waste time on the runt that nobody needed? Nobody needed her... but at least she could do this.

Jessica took out her lighter, and flicked the switch. She touched the PLASTIC CARAPACE of the bubble machine, and combined PLASTIC with HEAT to create a different configuration of plastic: a bottle, to be precise. Then, holding the bottle, she touched a streak of sap that was running down the tree. By combining a BOTTLE with the SAP, she was able to make a BOTTLE of SAP.

One strength of her ability was that, by combining things, she used the components to create a new object. Thus, the sap had all but disappeared from the tree and was now inside her bottle. The girl would be released, but Jessica wasn't strong enough to reach her all the way up in that tree, much less help her down.

"Sap's taken care of. Can either of you help get that kid down? I skip school because I'm an EVIL DELINQUENT, but if I DIDN'T skip school, I would fail gym."

Jessica examined her bottle, and considered all the things she could do with sap. Depending on the sort of sap it was, it could be used to make syrup, lacquer, or, uh...

Probably other stuff too! Maybe the teacher could identify the type and uses, because it was not Jessica's area of expertise.