(First draft. Last edited 2023/11/20)
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The first sign all was not well in the Eguchi household was the silent kitchen.
Rie rooted through the cupboards, as any good new housemate ought to, and glanced at the stove. Buried in pans, all burners off--no sign it had been used recently. Her previous visits, the Eguchi family had forcefully retired from the kitchen only when (and frequently hours after) someone took to a chair or the floor to collapse from cooking-induced exhaustion, and she couldn't imagine what would pull them from their beloved kitchen at a mere 8 o'clock on a freezing December evening short of the apocalypse.
Well, she mused as she helped herself to their expensive teabags, she certainly hoped it hadn't come to that.
Trees scratched at the windows as she waited for her water to boil. The steady creaks and groans of an old house with old pipes settled around her, yet no human response came to her arrival.
Jun had said they were home half an hour ago. What gave?
Her water bubbled.
Yes. If any Eguchi caught wind of her making tea in a saucepan, there would be unfathomable consequences, such as Juri's descent into unabashed horror and/or Jun's immediate resolution to emulate such terrible behavior. This would assuredly summon some unwitting member of this household, if only ot publicly release proof of her sins to the masses. Surely!
And yet the house remained quiet.
There was only so much suspense Rie could take. She dunked a teabag in the saucepan and turned the burner off. Were the Eguchis pranking her, as she was beginning to suspect the unease welling in her stomach stemmed from, the jig would have to be up eventually.
She stepped towards the door, and it flew open.
"Juri," she said. Good, a friendly face. Her nerves were frayed. "What were you up to? I thought I'd somehow missed you."
Rather than offer a greeting or a continuation to this terrible prank, Juri laughed and lurched forward.
Rie could only blink as Juri stumbled about with a knife in her hand. It wasn't a rare sight for this house, but her movement seemed off. Puppeted, almost.
"Is this another of your pranks?" Rie asked, stepping back a bit to observe. "I can't say I haven't missed them terrible over the past few weeks, but--"
Juri lunged at her.
Rie's back hit the counter. The knife hit air.
"Jesus!" she yelled. "Juri?!"
Juri only laughed and swung again.
Whatever the hell this was, Rie scrambled into the corridor, Juri on her heels.
This was too far. The Eguchis knew better than to cross the unspoken line into physical threats. What the hell was going on?
Rie flew up the stairs and slipped into a room, Juri's laughter still echoing off the walls.
She's possessed, whispered something in the back of her head.
She bit her lip and whispered, "What do I do?"
Let me take over.
"That's a good friend of mine waving a knife around," she said, shaking her head. "Don't you dare hurt her."
Ouch. You still trust me that little?
"I trust you as much as anyone trusts their violent alter ego. That is my friend out there, however, and I would prefer to handle her myself."
I say this with no malice or judgement whatsoever: you have jack shit in terms of ghost experience.
"I'm aware."
Drip.
You have me as a resource. I can help you.
"And I appreciate the offer.
Drip.
But?
Drip.
"But what the hell is dripping from the ceiling?" She inched towards the kotatsu, peering at the growing stain on its surface.
Drip.
That's blood.
Only a creak warned Rie of the body crashing through the ceiling.
Jun's body sagged against the kotatsu. Juri's laughter leaked through the door.
Rie couldn't move fast enough as the door opened behind her.
Daichi slid just out of range. Juri's knife hit nothing.
"Shit," he said summarily, throwing his arm out to grab at his sword. "Let's dance, dame."
Juri rounded on him and lunged again, but she wasn't a fighter. Daichi grabbed her wrist and wrestled her knife away with one hand, kicking her down with no resistance.
She ragdolled to the floor, but not without a sardonic voice in the back of his head mumbling, You certainly know how to treat a lady.
"I'm something of a man's man," he said, stabbing her through the chest. "And I feel your overwhelming panic. She'll be right as rain in a few seconds."
Are you going to get into the habit of kicking my stepsister in the head, or would you mind saving it for special occasions?
"I have your other stepsister to worry about."
He shifted Jun's arm. Rie's nonstop pangs of alarm kept pulling at his attention, but he managed to find a pulse, and then Jun started stirring.
"Rie?" she slurred, face deathly pale.
"Where were you stabbed?" Daichi asked, trying to shove down the alternating relief and alarm now leaking off his landlord. "I'm calling an ambulance."
"Arm." Her face twisted in pain. "Leg. Ow."
"Okay." She was still conscious. They could figure something out. "I--"
"Juri--!"
Daichi barely avoided a downward slash. Juri stumbled over the kotatsu cover, still laughing, but righted herself to drop the knife and pull the sword out of her chest.
Fuck, Rie said.
Daichi couldn't agree more. His sword only affected ghosts, meaning it couldn't hurt Rie, but it sure could hurt him, and this was not the time to get exorcized.
Juri laughed again and again as she clumsily swung the sword around. Daichi could play defense, but this room was small, and he only had so much ground left.
Her swings were rhythmically clumsy. The second he found the pattern, he dove.
The blade nicked his arm as he grabbed her around the shoulders with one arm and twisted his sword out of her hand with the other. He got both his hands on the hilt and slammed the blade through her stomach, catching his own side, and grit his teeth.
"Rie," he yelled over Juri's laughter, vision blurring against the pain shooting from his cuts, "any idea what cursed objects Juri might have?
Cursed?
He hooked an arm around Juri's neck and dragged her down the hallway, slamming her into a wall and skewering the sword through it.
Tiara, Rie finally announced. Door behind you.
Got it. He pulled his sword back and shoved into the room.
Books. Clothes. Desk. Computer. Where?
A bright red tiara materialized in his mind. That would have to do.
Juri stumbled back in, still laughing, armed with a knife again.
How many places can you hide a fucking bright red tiara?! Daichi yelled into the void.
Try the closet.
Daichi rolled away from Juri's recovered knife and crawled into Juri's closet.
Clothes. Hangers. Old uniform, boxes--There! The tiara buzzed beneath his fingers, 100 percent cursed.
Stab it!
I need to purify it, he said, darting our of the closet and back into the hallway. Where did you put the charm?
The one you can't touch?
That one. I need you to chant a few sutras, and--
That's going to take too long!
There's nothing else we can do.
There's nothing else you can do. His arm jerked up against his will, blade to his neck. Goodnight.
"Rie--!"
The path to the fireplace was muscle memory.
Daichi's sword disappeared when Rie took control, which left her, the tiara, and Juri coming at her with a knife.
She threw the tiara into the fireplace and fumbled with her his flask's cap.
Juri giggled. Her neck stung.
Cap off. She upended the whole thing, chucked it across the room, and threw open a drawer. No lighter.
Juri stumbled closer.
Other drawer. Empty. Other drawer. Garbage.
The knife gleamed.
Fourth drawer. Lighter.
She clicked the trigger. Clicked the trigger. Clicked the trigger, and Juri lunged.
Daichi kicked her into the stone facade. Something cracked.
The lighter!
This wouldn't work. What was the point? But, dammit, Rie wanted this tiara on fire, and that meant he was setting it on fire.
The lighter finally caught. Juri crawled back to her feet, and into the furnace the whole lighter went.
It caught. It blazed.
And Juri froze.
The solid metal tiara burned, somehow, and like a puppet with its strings cut, Juri collapsed to the floor.
Daichi watched the fire burn red hot for a few more seconds, roaring until it suddenly died, all alcohol from Rie's hip flask burned off.
Hey, he said. Rie.
Yes?
You had alcohol in that flask?
Rie conveniently did not respond.
We're having a talk as soon as I call an ambulance.
You're no fun.
Mr. Eguchi's phone was off.
Rie stared at the scuffed hospital tile as the line rolled over to voicemail.
"Hello," she said, quietly detached from the world around her. "This is Rie. I'm at the hospital. Jun and Juri are in the ER. Juri is going to be released soon, but..."
Jun is going to be fine.
"Jun is going to be fine," she parroted before she had enough time to doubt it, and she faltered.
Do you want me to take over?
"No. I'm fine." She dragged a hand down her face. "Jun lost a lot of blood and is undergoing surgery for... something at the moment. I'll text you as I receive updates."
She hung up, slipped her phone back into her bag, and pushed the heels of her hands into her eyes with a sigh.
We still need to call your mother. Are you sure you don't want me to take over?
"I..."
Truth be told, she very much wanted to slip control back to Daichi and sleep for twenty hours. Unfortunately, he was still trying to recover from his own stab wounds, and if she lost control of one more thing tonight, she might formally swandive off the handle.
None of this changed the fact that she needed to call her her mother. "I'll make that call."
The air conditioning buzzed as she dug her phone out of her bag again. Bone-white walls leered at her as the other end rang and rang and rang.
"Maybe she passed out on the dining table again," Rie muttered.
Have a little more faith in her, Daichi said. She still hasn't heard back from you. How many times did she call you while we were dealing with Juri getting possessed?
"What does that have to do with her tendency to get blackout drunk at inopportune moments?
Daichi tried to say something, but then the line connected.
"Riri?" her mother greeted. "Baby, you made it to the Eguchis' place? How is everything? How was the trip?"
"I'm in the ER," she said bluntly, and then she put a snagged nail to her neck and dug until she drew blood.
"What? Rie, what happened?!" Rie's mother asked, rightfully panicked. "You're hurt? I--Mommy's canceling her flight, okay? I'll be there on the next train out--"
"No, I'm fine," Daichi said, frantically trying to readjust to the whole 'physical sensation' thing. The sting in his neck and side and shoulder did not help, nor did the woman on the other end of the line quickly devolving into (earned) hysterics. "I'm okay. Jun--Jun had a kitchen accident, but she's going to be fine."
"Baby, I'll be there--I'll be there in a few hours, okay?"
"You have work tomorrow," he protested. What was he supposed to do in this situation? Goddammit, Rie. "I'm really fine. Juri is here." And hospitalized, but she didn't need to know that. "Stay in Nagoya. I'll call you when Jun gets out."
A huff. "The second I'm off work, I'm coming over, okay? Love you forever, Ririn."
"I..."
His voice caught in his throat. This wasn't his mother. He had no right to return this sentiment intended for Rie, not as some parasitic tumor whose only reason to exist was revenge. He'd already lived his shameful, useless life through. What right did he have to relive some kind of fantasy where his mom told him she was ditching work and moving early because she was concerned about him?
"I love you too," he blurted out, and he hung up like that could absolve him.
Rie woke up with a horrible crick in her neck and shoulder.
She pulled her head off her chest with a groan and squinted in the blaring fluoresent lights. The little waiting room in this area sat right outside Jun's room, blessedly almost entirely devoid of sentient life. Unfortunately, the 'almost' did indeed mean someone else was in Rie's line of vision, namely a beautiful girl in a coat a few chairs down leafing through a magazine.
Rie didn't realize she was staring until the girl locked eyes with her. "Can I help you?"
"Ah. Um." Rie ever so casually looked away in a futile effort to pretend she hadn't been staring creepily. "Not unless you'd know how to stitch up my stepsister's leg, no, I don't imagine you could."
"I'm certainly not licensed for that." She smiled. "I'm Maeyama Kazuha. You?"
"Soejima Rie. A pleasure. What brings you here, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Well." Maeyama's face collapsed into irritation. "My friends decided ten at night was the optimal time to play a game called 'covering the pressure cooker vents to see what happens.' What happens, in case you were wondering, is explosions."
"And you survived to tell the tale? Were you designated driver?"
"No, I just have more important things to do than blow half of my face off," she said flatly.
"You seem unfazed. Does this happen frequently?"
"More frequently than it should. I'm on a first-name basis with most of the night staff here." She glanced at the clock. "I went through most of my panicking a few hours ago."
Rie glanced at the clock as well. One in the morning. She'd been asleep for a while. "I guess I did too. If I'd been smart, I would have used my time to pack something to do in here."
Maeyama started to say something, but a scream cut her off.
Her head snapped to the side. "That was from the bathrooms."
"Well." Rie stood and brushed her skirt off, then held her hand out to Maeyama. "Let's investigate, shall we?"
"That's a terrible idea." Maeyama took her hand. "Count me in."
to be continued...
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