Kabuki Street Community School originally served as a high school before shutting down twenty years ago. The rengou-kai paid to maintain it after they took over the neighborhood, using the gymnasium for dances, and it was renovated and reopened as a K-12 school in the summer of 2019.
The school features the Chae Gymnasium, a fully updated facility emblazoned with the school mascot, the Fighting Wallaby; the Sato Archery Range, made possible by donations from Mai and Saori Sato; and the Moon Garden, which has a white plum tree, a bench, and a plaque mentioning the benevolence of the Zama Shrine, the shrine maiden Hana Sasaki, and the goddess Tsukuyomi.
The school owes much of its success to the donation drive that funded its renovation. Notable donors include: Andrea Anderson, Michelle Montoya, Roka Maeda, Lisa Takamine, Jewell Ravenlock, Colleen MacLeod-Fenner, Ebon Ilnaren, Kenny Chae, Saori and Mai Sato, Patrick Richie, Mallory Maeda, and the City of RhyDin.
The school’s team name is the Fighting Wallabies, and its seal is a wallaby baring its teeth and raising its paws like fists, with the school motto printed underneath:
πύξ λάξ δάξ (“With fists, kicks, and bites”)
Selected Faculty Yuko Kubo, Principal Reira Tanaka, Vice Principal Kiyomi Kubo, Nurse Mallory Maeda, Classics Teacher Velen Ilnaren, Music Teacher Kaori Tokioka, Japanese Teacher Roka Maeda, History Teacher Brad Kaiser, Music Teacher Charlotte Ravenlock, Magic Teacher Yuri Yamamoto, Automechanics Teacher Imrathion Tathar, Shop Teacher Jasmina Massey, Art Teacher John Cole, Home Economics Teacher Nila Kapur, Sign Language Teacher Kim Park, Gym Teacher Eregor Túr Gairdín, Life Sciences Teacher Wilfred McQuire, Custodian* Ada Rodin, Literature Teacher* Wakana Funayama, Gym Teacher* Foster Hummel, Math Teacher* Melissa Caskey, English Language Teacher* Linda Park, Chemistry Teacher* ((*These are NPCs we are open to replacing. Let us know if you're interested in your character working at K.S.C.S. in these or other positions!))
2022-2023 Academic Calendar: First term begins: April 11th, 2022 First term ends: July 15th, 2022 Second term begins: September 12th, 2022 Second term ends: December 16th, 2022 Third term begins: December 27th, 2022 Third term ends: March 31st, 2023
((This post will be updated with additions to the faculty, new school facilities, and academic calendars. Teachers, field trip guides, students, parents, and other participants, please feel free to reply to this thread with your K.S.C.S. stories or post links to them here!))
As the summer sun shone high above RhyDin, Velen walked through down Kabuki Street. He stopped at a roadside noodle stand to grab lunch, a bowl of pork ramen, and settled on a shaded bench to eat and watch. Occasionally passers-by would notice him and nod or smile in greeting, and he readily returned the gestures in kind. A band of girls walked past, giggling among themselves over some shared amusement, and the man chuckled softly to himself. I wonder if I'll be seeing any of them in classes next week.
Having finished lunch, he rose with a contented sigh and continued on his way, finally coming to the once-abandoned school that was set to reopen next week. While this was not his first visit to the facility, it was the first since the reconstruction had completed, at least sufficiently for opening. Taking the stairs, he strode the hallway to the music room and stepped inside.
It was perfect, with a high ceiling above tiered stands allowing plenty of room for students to see him or Brad down at the front, and each tier was wide enough for the students to have their instruments of choice with them. A stand-up piano rested to one side in front of the risers, perfect for the teachers to play along. Velen sat down at the keys and hit middle C, then began playing a jazzy little tune to get a feel for the room's acoustics, which did not disappoint. At the opposite end of the room from the entrance, there was a separate door leading to two small offices, presumably one for Brad and one for himself. I'll let him pick his choice. In one corner, a stairway led to an upper level over the offices, with three small rooms overlooking the main room, for students who sought individual practice or tutoring.
All in all, it was a promising starts. I just hope we actually get some interested musicians, or it'll all be for nothing.
Yuina found it difficult to sit still for the morning opening day assembly. A brand new uniform and first day nerves brought about a compulsion to shift in her chair as she listened to the principal's prepared remarks. Once the meeting had adjourned and students began milling back to their home rooms she rose and quickly loosened the uniform necktie a bit. From her bag she produced a stack of printed sheets, each one decorated with drawings of kitsune masks and boldly marked. 'Explore the unseen world! Solve otherworldly mysteries! Support the forming of the Kitsune club!" Weaving nimbly through the crowds, she began boldly handing these sheets to any who would accept them until she saw the history teacher moving her way down the hall and fled into her morning classroom with a sigh exhaled. Looking at the remaining stack of papers she tucked into her bag she nodded with a grim look of determination.
Mallory frowned over the name at the bottom of the strange flier in her hands as the bell rang, reading it over one more time as she stepped out of the teachers' lounge and into the busy hallway. She blindly avoided the bodies both strolling and scurrying across her path with the practiced ease of a native city-dweller, and found herself at her classroom by the time she'd finished her second reading. She neatly folded the flier in half and tucked it into the black leather bag at her hip.
She'd have to ask Penny what she thought about the wisdom of a spirit club when she saw her next.
The witch checked her hair, tucking it back behind her horns, then pushed through the door as the second bell rang. There were close to twenty students in her class, most of them seated but a few small groups standing around their friends' desks, lowering their voices to a murmur when she entered.
Not everyone had seen a person with horns before -- nor a teacher with visible tattoos -- which made it easier to get their attention and get them to listen when she told them, "Take your seats, please." By the time she'd finished setting out her lesson plans, they were sitting down at least.
Quiet was another matter. She could hear several students whispering to each other as she wrote out her full name in English, Japanese, and Greek. As she turned around, she caught a few in the process of straightening up from leaning to whisper while looking right at her.
It wasn't surprising that she'd developed a reputation in the neighborhood. She was well aware of the rumors passed around by shrimps that she turned people into mushrooms, rumors that she did little to dispel when she started ordering mushrooms on her pizza. She was surprised to see several shrimps raising their hands, two of them nearly out of their seats as they stretched them even higher.
She glanced aside at the seating chart on her desk and saw a familiar name among the curious students. "Yes, Miss Hirano?"
"Is it true you beheaded that snake man because he told you to break up with the sukeban?"
The witch narrowed her eyes as the subject of Samuel Adder's demise came up, and she watched as most of the class stared goggle-eyed at Yuina Hirano's bold question and leaned forward with interest.
She walked back to the board and wrote out seven Greek letters, saying them out loud. "Mu... epsilon... delta... omicron... upsilon... sigma... alpha..." She snapped the cap back onto the marker and smiled at her class. "Let's talk about Medusa, a creature with snakes for hair, and what her name means -- and how she came to lose her head."
August 14, 2019, RhyDin Standard Calendar
Kabuki Street Community School
First Day of Classes
The shop classroom, along with the auto-mechanics garage and home economics kitchen, was tucked away in a special wing of the Kabuki Street Community School. A long hallway filled with lockers fed into the wing, and less effort had been made to pretty up the walls and floors in these rooms than elsewhere in the school. After all, the thinking went, there would be plenty of messes, unintentional and otherwise, made in the future in these classes. Why clean up what would likely become dirty in a few months?
The ceiling in the shop room was lofted higher than the other classrooms, and the pipes and ductwork remained visible even after the school’s renovation. Several large wooden tables, bandsaws, drill presses, milling machines, lathes, and grinders occupied most of the room. A small classroom space, with no more than two dozen student desks and an additional one for the teacher, had been tucked into one corner of the space. It was there that the Kabuki Street Community School students got their first introduction to industrial arts -- and the strange teacher the school hired to teach them.
“Good evening, students!” A cheerful voice cut through the low din of students whispering amongst themselves, waiting for their instructor to arrive. Which he had, albeit five minutes late for the start of class. He seemed to pay no attention to his tardiness, sweeping through the space with swishing, drooping brown robes more commonly seen on desert nomads than professors. He swooped a hand over his messy brown hair, only succeeding in making it stick up even more, and then picked up a black dry erase marker and began writing on the whiteboard.
Mr. Tathar
“I’m...Teacher? Well, I’m not a professor, but teacher just sounds weird. Teacher Tathar, no…” Mr. Tathar tapped at the side of his head, as twenty sets of eyes stared at him in confused silence. Then, he snapped his fingers. “Instructor Tathar! You can call me Instructor Tathar, or just Mr. Tathar, if you like. Now...before we can start working with any of the machinery out there, you all need to pass a safety test.” A groan or two escaped, but Mr. Tathar pressed on. “Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it sounds, it’s all pretty common-sense things, like don’t wear loose-fitting clothing to the shop -- why are you raising your hand?” Two or three of the students had their hands held up, one of them waving it rather insistently. Then, the instructor clapped his hands together. “Yes! Sorry, you raise your hand when you want to be called on in class! What’s your question?”
“Mr. Tathar?” the anxious hand-raiser asked.
“Who?” The teacher blinked rapidly.
“That’s...your name, right?” The student looked to her other classmates, clearly confused, feeling only a little less puzzled when they nodded their heads to indicate that, yes, that was the name their instructor had given them and written on the board.
“Oh, right, yes! That’s the name I’m going by now! I’m guessing that wasn’t your question, though?”
“Right.” She straightened up, gaining some more confidence as she continued. “If we’re supposed to not wear loose-fitting clothes, Mr. Tathar, why are you wearing those?”
“That...is a very good question. Um...I forgot I was teaching today?” A peal of laughter spread among the students, which didn’t seem to faze him. “I’ll remember next time, and you should too. Any other questions? Yes! You with the blue-dyed hair...I’m assuming…”
“Can I go to the bathroom?”
“Yes, but please go to the restroom to do that.” The blue-haired student scrunched her nose a little as she gathered up her backpack and hustled towards the hallway.
“Any other questions? No? All right, we’re going to start today with a short...well, I think it’s short...it’s a safety video.” Mr. Tathar dashed back into the main portion of the shop room, pushing a cart with a large CRT television and VCR player. On the way, he struck an electric outlet in the floor and nearly tipped it over, but luckily for him, everything had been locked into place on the cart, so after a wobble and a few “Whoa’s”, he got things settled to where the students could see it.
Unfortunately for them, the video likely bore a strong resemblance to one they had already seen in chemistry class. In fact, it may have been the same one...
A message was posted on corkboards all around the school, announcing Friday afternoon jam sessions in the Music Room after classes. No sign-up necessary (at least for now), just an open invitation to bring an instrument, or a voice, and make some music. If students want to just listen, that's fine too!
((This is a bit of vapor-play for anybody who wants to run with it.))
With her suspension shortened after review, Yuina was back to school in time for Thursday. This seemed to be a critical issue of timing for the shrimp - who arrived with one eye still bruised from the fight and an impatient look through all her morning classes. When lunch time finally arrived, she had plotted to leave her math class several minutes early, predicated on a need to visit the facilities but in fact to make certain that she arrived first at the doors of the cafeteria. So it was that when the speakers throughout the school played the Westminster chimes Yuina Hirano was striding briskly into the tiled space with its tables and making such a quick pace to the food line that her momentum caused the skirt and necktie of her uniform to trail after her.
Her pace faltered as she saw the makeshift sign taped to the wall, which she halted so abruptly to read that she nearly stumbled forward. Due to a chicken shortage, Thursdays menu will now be tuna-noodle casserole until further notice.
The shrimp's eyes widened in disbelief, her fists clenching as she looked around the cafeteria wildly. A few students had now begun to drift through the doors, only to be nearly toppled as Yuina fled from the cafeteria at a full sprint.
A first-year high school student mumbled something to the teacher monitoring the science lab -- set up as a study hall after school hours for anyone who needed a quiet place or to make up work. The teacher nodded, and the boy darted out the door, squeaky sneakered feet audibly heading in the direction of the restrooms... then stopping and doubling back.
The teacher looked over her reading glasses, sighed, shook her head, and returned to grading. Five minutes later, the Westminster chimes signaled the end of study hall and other after-school activities.
Ms. Rodin shuffled her papers together, still looking over a few things as she distractedly called out to the noisily rising and murmuring room of students, "Remember to collect your things before you go, I do not want to carry anything to the lost-and-found!"
The boy's books, backpack, and knockoff Hollywood jacket remained at his desk.
Yuina was seated with her history book, hunched over and looking a bit morose. She looked up with a glance over her shoulder, ponytail flipping over the collar of her uniform shirt as she watched the younger boy leaving the room. When the chimes sounded she glanced at the clock with her dark eyes squinting for a moment, and she slowly rose and gathered her books. She trailed a hand over some of the microscropes idly as she headed over to the door, pausing briefly as she noticed the boy's left behind items and passed them by on her way to the door.
No one else seemed to notice them -- that is, no one except for Ms. Rodin. "Mr. Ouichi!" she called out in annoyance as she stood up from her desk, but there was no sign of him in the classroom.
Instead he was out in the hall, about ten feet past what was supposed to be a dead end with a water fountain and a fire extinguisher. There were double doors now, rusted and stuck halfway open, strewn with torn and flapping cobwebs, and the light didn't pass much further.
The boy's shape was only visible due to the glow of the phone he'd dropped by his feet, which illuminated the way he shook in place with strange, erratic motions.
Yuina wasn't moving very quickly, absent and daydreaming now that she was out of the study hall. Her uniform shoes scuffed at the tiles of the hallway. Her eyes glanced up at the corridor, and her daydreaming demeanor vanished quickly when her dark eyes landed on the sudden sight of doors where none had been. "What?" she squeaked in alarm. She looked rather afraid, but also keenly interested. "Ms. Rodin!" she called, darting suddenly back into the classroom. Her hand pointed out to the hallway. "There's doors! Doors that weren't there!" she exclaimed. She was looking at the windows of the laboratory room, as if contemplating making her own escape out one of them.
"What? What are you talking about, Miss Hirano? Speak sense!" Ms. Rodin snapped, though she was already moving to the door to see for herself.
The literature teacher stood and gaped at the corridor-that-had-not-been, completely unprepared for this development. The boy finally stopped shaking and simply fell to the floor.
Yuina looked to Ms. Rodin, her mouth opening and closing without any sound coming out. When she saw the teacher step out into the hallway she looked even more worried. Her urge to flee was finally overriden by concern for the teacher... and of course her curiosity about the supernatural. She followed out into the hall to take the lead. Her legs tensed and she began to charge forward, evidently intent on rushing in to pull the first year boy who had become a casualty out of the mysterious new corridor.
"No! Leave it, stupid girl!" Ms. Rodin snapped, grabbing Yuina by the crook of her arm to stop her mad sprint. "There is no telling what is down there!"
"Shouldn't someone help him?!" another student asked, trying to peek over Ms. Rodin's shoulder, who attempted to maintain an iron grasp on Yuina -- though she was not particularly strong.
The boy remained still, with a litltle dark spot on the floor near where his head had struck the tile.
Yuina was brought to a halt, feet sliding a bit as she was pulled back. She frowned up at the teacher, then looked over at the collapsed form of the boy in the corridor and the dark spot on the tiles. She broke free with a jerk of her arm and charged forward again. "Go get Mrs. Maeda! And Nurse Kubo!" she called as she headed for the doors at a full charge again.
There was cursing from Ms. Rodin at Yuina's charge, though the teacher didn't pursue her more than a few uncertain steps closer to the mysterious corridor. She appeared to have lost any control of the situation, as many students queued up around her to look on curiously, while a few broke away to do as Yuina said.
The corridor itself was freezing, cold enough for a meat locker, but there was no sign of what may have been causing it. The darkness was impenetrable, and there was a sense of foreboding and vastness beyond the little pool of light...
The Ouichi boy's phone was cracked, but seemed to show a distorted image of the edge of his fingers, a few rusted lockers along the wall, and something blurry and blue that filled most of the frame, with a single spot like a white eye.
The boy appeared to have a relatively small scrape on his head from where he'd hit the floor, though he may have been concussed, and head injuries bled quickly. He was skinny for his age, not much more than a hundred pounds.
Shivering from the cold, Yuina looked around wide eyed at the dark and the few ominous sights that the phone's screen revealed. Though trembling, she leaned down and seized hold of the boy's shoulders to attempt to drag him back through the doors. Though smaller, all the workouts in both of Kabuki Street's fighting schools would pay in the physical strength needed. When she turned to look for the double doors she had a look of dread, clearly certain that they would prove to be absent now that she had entered the corridor.
They were indeed swinging shut, as an ominous red flash appeared just beyond them, and a pale tattooed hand slapped a door to stop it. The chill receded somewhat as Mallory held the way open for Yuina, scowling into the darkness, her left hand curled into a bloody fist. "That's it... nice and easy," Mallory said to Yuina as she dragged the boy out, keeping watch for whatever malevolence inhabited this space.
Yuina's strength kept up, though she was visibly sagging with a huge sigh of relief when she saw Mallory stopping the door from shutting her in forever. Once she'd hauled Mr. Ouichi free of the doors she heaved another great sigh while laying him gently down on the floor. After a moment of thought she reached down to press her fingers to his neck, seeing if he was alive. He seemed stable, she noted as she peeked curiously at the doors that the witch was watching over.
Mallory stared into the hallway for a moment longer, and easily decided to call his phone a loss -- she pulled the door shut with a heavy clang and called over her shoulder:
"Ms. Rodin, could you try being useful and get the students the hell out of here?!" The literature teacher bristled at the words, but quickly set about her task, clearing out the hallway in short order.
"Nurse Kubo will be here soon," Mallory murmured as she knelt down, seemingly reassuring both the boy and Yuina, though she glanced at the shrimp a beat later. "Yuina, go get your cousin and tell her to come down here -- fast!"
Yuina was glancing to the end of the hallway again after seeing the boy was alive. It seemed she was considering the phone as well, and very regretful that it seemed to be a loss. She badly wanted a closer look at that image on the screen, but even a pile of gold wouldn't motivate her to try to venture in again. Once she heard that Kiyomi was on the way, she nodded with a hum of relief, then got up. "Right!" she called, and then she was off. The shrimp really could sprint amazingly fast for her height and was vanishing around the corner in a moment.
((Adapted from live play with Yuina, with thanks!))
By the time Yuina returned to the school with her cousin in tow, Hitomu Ouichi had been woken up and moved to the nurse's office. A couple of teachers lingered in the stairwell, but only as far down as they needed to be to keep the remaining gaggle of curious students from slipping past them; Mallory seemed to be the only person one still in the basement, standing in front of the rusty old doors that hadn't been there earlier that same evening.
She wasn't completely alone. A large three-headed dog with sleek black fur and scaly, hissing tails was standing guard just a few feet behind her. It twitched several of its ears and turned one of its heads at the sound of approaching footsteps, viper-tails wagging in excitement.
Yuina seemed to be more relaxed after her run to the shrine, and more especially confident in her safety now that the scene of the mystery doors was properly contained and that she had her cousin with her. She even had time to take her phone from the pocket of her uniform blazer, trying to take some pictures of the doors and the three-headed dog. Even in her effort to capture some evidence and text the pictures madly to Raven, she was watching Hana closely to see how she would react to the manifestation.
Hana was still dressed in the reds and white that marked her as the miko of the Zama Shrine. She was only dressed this way because she had been interrupted in the middle of sweeping the shrine, but it matched well with what she was being asked to help with. "This wasn't here the last time I came around..." she commented upon seeing the rusted doors. "I should've done a more through job," she chastised herself in a lowered voice.
"Tch. I should have seen it, too... Either it's something that was sealed off in the past, but reopened itself by feeding off the Fujii twins' magic down here... or it had managed to hide itself." Mallory glanced at Yuina for a moment, thinking over her words carefully, before looking back at Hana and continuing: "There's something malevolent beyond those doors. It wanted us there, and I think it wished to do us harm."
Yuina shook her head. She wouldn't consider the idea that her cousin had missed something. "Those thaumaturgists?" She looked back to Hana and assured her, "It wasn't here when I went into that classroom. Just a wall."
"Then there's no point in waiting out here." Hana's tone was serious, something not often seen from the shrine maiden. Her wrist rolled so the palm of her hand faced the heavens; and from that simple gesture came an orb which radiated moonlight. With a gentle toss of her hand, the orb was floated out in front of her before she took a step toward the doors. "There's a dark pressure, enough to possibly manipulate the surroundings.. Let's try not to fall into any traps."
"Right. Kirby," Mallory told the three-headed beast, "if any spirit comes out of those doors while we're gone? Kill it," she said, scritching at his jowls before moving up to the doors. "And Yuina? Stay put," she said, and pulled open one of the doors...
Yuina swallowed audibly once she had heard Mallory's orders, looking around the hallway and back toward the stairs. "By myself? Here?" she asked, bravery fading somewhat finally now that the rush of the sighting had fled. The three-headed beast didn't seem much comfort to her as she glanced at it, and leaned away uncomfortably when it responded by licking her face.
There was no foreboding darkness, no rusted lockers, no malevolent entities -- even the preternatural chill in the air was fairly subtle. The corridor extended for ten feet past the double doors, with a fluorescent light flickering to life overhead, and a fire extinguisher and water fountain at the very end, identical to the ones that had previously appeared at the end of the corridor before the doors had replaced them.
"We need someone to watch the rear and make sure nothing tries to escape. It's an important job," Hana said to her cousin. "Call out if you see anything strange..." she added with a reassuring smile, though it faded after she turned her back.
"O...okay," Yuina said. She watched nervously from where she stood in the corridor as Hana and Mallory made their way into the short corridor.
Hana took one step past the rusted doors, then another -- she wouldn't allow the the eerie developments to still her stride. "There's no point in hiding... We will find you, but what happens after we do is up to you... This can be done the easy way, or the hard way."
Mallory bit down hard on her hand, hard enough to wince, and swiped the bloody heel of her thumb across her eyes... but her solid crimson gaze found nothing that her mortal sight had not already seen. "Ouichi dropped a phone here," she said, "but I don't see it... and I don't See any sign of the entity..."
The lack of answer from the spirits said enough to the shrine maiden. A soft click came from Hana's side as her thumb pressed to the guard of her weapon. The simple motion brought another feeling to the surrounded area -- and that was a heavy pressure. One that didn't reverberate with one's body, but instead what was held deeply within: their soul. The bloodline of the Shinigami which flowed through her, within that moment, had been put on display; both to taunt the spirit who may wish to gorge, or to strike fear into its depths. "It'll appear..." Hana said, one hand gripping the sheath of her blade while its opposite ducked into her top to retrieve a talisman. She left Mallory's side, if only for a moment, to slap it against the nearest wall. While it wouldn't do much alone, it was the start of a cleansing ritual.
The temperature dropped about twenty degrees, and the flickering light dimmed. "...Okay, I see it now... left... or right... or..." Shadows began to deepen from the end of the hall, which itself was stretching out longer, revealing once more the rusty lockers and old classrooms and supply closets that had been cut off for decades. The shadows seemed to be attacking from all directions, trying to dim even Hana's moonlight.
Cerberus let out a low keening sound, even as it shifted in front of Yuina protectively. "Hana, it's not one entity... I see eight of them right now," Mallory whispered.
Out in the corridor, Yuina was watching Cerberus shift in front of her, but she seemed to be shifting herself. Her hair had grown longer, and her eyes took on a bright, otherworldly hue as her own Shinigami bloodline responded to the heightened activity. She searched desperately for any of the vague auras that usually let her know that a haunting was occurring around her... and found that Mallory was way off.
There were far more than eight spirits, and each of them appeared to be malevolent.
"You've all been hiding for a while..." Hana took another step and in that moment drew her blade with one hand and pulled back the saya with the other. The quick motion saw moonlight glinting across the steel, before the weapon struck the glowing orb and shattered it. The moonlight within lingered in the air for a brief moment before it expanded in all directions, a sudden flash of light that filled the entire room. Though it faded within seconds, it disoriented and stunned the spirits manifesting around them.
It also disturbed the rising spiritual energy from deep within this abandoned annex of the school basement, which let out what started as a low bellow that built into an eerie whine, loud enough to shake the corridor.
"We need to get out of here!" Mallory called to Hana, backing towards the open doors as she held out her bleeding left hand. The first stunned spirit to recover was held in place by some spell from the witch, thrashing angrily against unseen bindings. "Seal the doors, inscribe them with wards of solitude and binding...!"
Hana stayed put but cut a look over her shoulder toward the retreating Mallory. She considered the witch's words... Stay, she told herself. These spirits needed to be released, the frustration -- anger -- sorrow, it was a dense miasma within the air that needed to be cleansed. But there were risks: the students still within the school, they were all at risk of possible possession... or worse. Hana's decision was made then as she quickly turned and brought down her blade to cut through one of the advancing spirits. A sudden burst of spiritual energy unleashed by the strike, but it was one of many, and she was only creating a path for herself to escape through. While she said nothing, the look on her face was an incredibly frustrated one as she hurried to reach into her top once more to draw out three talismans while she muttered; and from that the ink on all three began to twist and turn to create different writings infused with divine energy...
As they retreated through the doors, one of the spirits that had not been cut down by Hana's weapons soared after them. A shrieking face pushed through the doorway--
And Cerberus stepped forward to meet it. His tails seemed silvery and ethereal as they lashed forward, vipers biting into the spirit, turning its cries of anger to pain as it dissipated. The witch threw the doors shut, and began preparing bindings of her own to join Hana's -- bloody symbols drawn in the air, words of Koine rapidly murmured, as shadowy circles of her magic manifested on the doors and faded away.
"We'll come back soon... better armed, better prepared, with more backup," Mallory stated through gritted teeth, between warding rites.
The talismans were released the moment the doors were closed. One north, the other southwest, and the final on the southeast of the door. The text faded and seemed to blend into one another to take on the shape of an eye; one for each of the three. As the spirits pressed on the barrier from the other side, the image of the eyes began to contort and stretch; but they held the spirits at bay, and their forms settled. Hana took a moment to pause and watch the wards do their work... before finally setting her katana back into its saya.
She unfastened the weapon from her side as she sat down, then set it down to the side while she crossed her legs and waited. "I'll keep watch for now and create a stronger barrier... Maybe I can get a few of the spirits to cross in the process to make things easier for when we're ready to go back in."
"When you're done..." Mallory looked down at the dog, still growling at the door. "I'm leaving Kirby here. Between him and the wards, I'll know if something goes wrong." The witch's lips thinned as she frowned at the doors. "I need to call Yuko, tell her what's happened and what we're doing about it... figure out whether we're putting these doors or the whole basement off limits."
"It's hard to tell where there may be possible openings..." Hana mused. "I'll take a look around some more after I'm done here, but closing the whole basement off would be the best idea for the time being, at least until I can do another cleanse once the spirits are exorcised. I don't have my phone with me, so if you could tell Yuki I won't be back home until tomorrow, I'd appreciate it."
Mallory looked over her shoulder, then, spotting the younger delinquent. "Are you okay, Miss Hirano?"
Yuina was quiet, still checking the corridor for ghosts... Then the bright gleam left her eyes, and her hair appeared its previous length once more. "I'm okay," she assured them, then blinked. "At least I feel okay... but what if I got possessed. Would I know?" Her eyes squinted as the worry began to work on her. "What if I did when I ran in there to pull that guy out?"
"You're not possessed." Mallory seemed confident in that much, at least. She nodded at Hana's assessment of the situation, then told Yuina, "You've been a big help tonight... Can you do one more tihng for me, and find Yuki and pass the message along? I'll go talk to her sister. Okay?"
"Yes, I can," the shrimp said with a nod, easy enough to convince that she had escaped her encounter possession free. All the more so with a task to do. "You'll be back home tomorrow, that's it, right?" she glanced at her cousin to make sure.
"I should be," Hana said, her eyes focused on the sealed off door.
"Call if anything happens," the witch's words echoed from the stairwell as she preceded Yuina out, already digging out her phone to get a hold of everyone she could.
((Adapted from live play with Yuina and Hana, with thanks!))
The gym was crowded with students changed into their PE attire for basketball tryouts, which Yuko had come from the office to ceremoniously declare the beginning to. Amusingly, the principal had changed into shorts and a t-shirt as if she intended to try out for the team herself. She seemed to have no prepared remarks, but lifted the microphone to speak with a cheery grin at the assembled would be athletes.
"I understand that some of you may have some stage fright, while you wait for the try outs to begin. So I have come to show you all that basketball is actually pretty easy. So you see, there is really nothing to worry about at all" she concluded with an airy wave. A demonstration seemed to be in order, and she approached the bin of basketballs to select one. Dribbling the ball a few times, she approached the half court and stopped there, eyeing the distant goal and carefully raising the ball to take her shot. As the orange ball soared majestically through the air her eyes watched it with a look of wonder and impending triumph. Heads turned to watch its course, all the way to the point that it missed the entire backboard by several yards.
There was silence, then laughter as she turned, grinning broadly at the group and coaches. "So.. you see there's really nothing to worry about. Just don't do it like that"
There will be a field trip out onto Kaiju Lake on Saturday, October 26th, for students to get a chance to observe the kaiju for which it is named, in its natural habitat. Eregor assures all students that sufficient precautions will be taken.
Kabuki Street Community School will be hosting a Halloween Dance & Trick or Treat Night for the schools students on Friday, October 25th.
Students are encouraged to dress in costume (older students you are reminded to dress appropriately) throughout the school day and participate in events that are planned later in the evening. For Elementary through Middle School students, there will be a a Trick or Treat tour down select halls of the school and courtyard starting at 6 PM. Courtyard activities (Halloween themed festival games and the like) will be moved to the auditorium should there be changes in the weather.
High School aged students are invited to attend the Halloween Dance starting at 7 PM in the gymnasium. An assortment of candy, cakes, and other treats will be provided by the generous Kabuki Party Planning Committee. This is another reminder to please dress appropriately.
Yuina arrived at the gym for the dance promptly at 7:00, still wearing her Vampire Queen Masako costume inspired by the popular Yorozuya manga. She was accompanied by Haku Kubo and they danced a number of times though with care not to over tax Haku's ankle which seemed to have been injured sometime recently. Yuina's smile was radiant and she seemed to enjoy herself thoroughly, including staying late to play some of the games with Haku before they both departed with Kiyomi and Yuko.
Donning her Sister-in-Law's signature uniform and sukajan Haku, escorted by said sister in law, Yuko, had stepped into the Sunny Mart with the task of collecting a few more bottles of soda for the dance.. and while there Yuko had no qualms of showing off her little sister to the Heavenly Queens and other older Kabuki girls, which resulted in an impromptu photo while they doted on the younger Kubo girl. After the doting and photos Yuko and Haku arrived at the school — where Yuko began her principal duties of overseeing the Halloween Event night and Haku met with Yuina to enjoy the dance.
Students weren't the only ones enjoying the KSCS Halloween Dance. Velen had been left in charge of the music, and he did not disappoint. There was a live band that rocked the gym with some sick jams and slow dances. Some of the students even stepped up to join in, showing off their mad skills while their classmates danced and partied well into the evening.
