In over your head (RYUU)

Simon was walking down the street in downtown Jump, wandering aimlessly. He was finished with college for the day and he had no friends to spend time with. He wanted to go on patrol and fly around, but thanks to DOMA it was too much of a risk to be seen using his powers in public, so he was stuck with nothing to really do. Not being in the mood to game or watch anime he decided to get some fresh air instead and went on a walk, with no real destination in mind. He would just walk until he got tired of walking.

While he walked he couldn't help but think about his friends from the ranger team he was a part of back in Lakeside City. After the team disbanded they all went their separate ways and now they were out there living their best lives. But to be honest it was easy to feel like they had abandoned him, leaving him with no one to spend time with.

While following that depressing train of thought he found himself standing outside of a Japanese-looking temple. The place looked a little worse for ware but it still piqued Simon's curiosity. What's a Shinto temple doing in the middle of an american city?

For reasons he himself was fuzzy about Simon decided to enter the temple. There weren't any signs telling him to stay out and the door wasn't even locked, so it was probably fine for him to enter. He walked in and looked around, taking in the sites inside. Little did he know that he was walking into a trap.

The Great Temple shuddered as the newcomer entered its holy infrastructure. In way of greeting, an elaborate display of candles came to life, their flames dancing with excitement. Lanterns lit themselves to reveal a storied building with grand tapestries and wooden carvings. Seemingly endless halls stretched into darkness, lined will more exquisite paintings. The temple, once erected long ago, seemed teeming with warmth and life despite its years of dilapidation.

A giant statue of a great and powerful dragon lay center in the opening room, ferocious as an inferno yet beautiful as a coursing river. Entangled around its slithering body was a strange red string, floating inexplicably. Below, a stately plague red “赤い糸” –– The Red Thread of Fate. Fate, indeed, had brought Verdant Gale to the sacred grounds, but not all was as it seemed.

Four women in traditional Japanese garb appeared, one standing on the grand staircase, another sitting on a rail, the third shyly hiding behind a bannister, and the youngest at the unsuspecting teenager’s side. Their beauty could not be disputed, and their alluring gazes seemed to beckon their guest.

So long as he did not touch them, the illusion would hold. For beneath this façade of decadence lay a run-down, hostile dwelling place for the evil and damned souls of Japanese heritage. The yokai, translated as demon, flocked to the run-down temple like bees to a honeypot, only to be trapped inside until a certain yokai priestess decided to free them.

Stories below the temple and in her secret hideout, Rapture currently busied herself in meditation, unaware of the wrongdoings occurring on the surface world.

Simon walked down the old hallways of the temple that seemed far more active than they should be, with the lit candles and lanterns. This sense of strangeness caused Simon to hesitate for a second, but only for that long. If the unusual nature of this place housed anything that might be dangerous then he had to at least take a look, even if just so he could try and report it to the Teen Titans.

Simon walked on further until he reached the room with the giant dragon statue that had red string floating around it. He had to admit that the statue was very well made, it almost looked like it could come to life right now. Considering the creepy atmosphere of this place that probably wasn't a good thing to say, he might be jinxing himself.

Although Simon was being very alert and keeping an eye on his surroundings he still did not see how the four girls that suddenly arrived entered the room, almost as if they had appeared out of nowhere. When he noticed the one that had suddenly appeared at his side he quickly darted away from her "Sorry girls, I'm shy."

Simon had to admit that the girls looked beautiful, but all the creepy stuff in this place made him wary of them, they themselves were included in the 'creepy stuff' category. He backed up a bit so that all four girls were in his line of sight "Who are you? What is this place?" he said, adopting a fighting stance. He wasn't in his Verdant Gale form at the moment, so unless they had some magical way of telling what abilities he has they would not know what he was capable of, only that he didn't seem as afraid as he should be.

Giggling in tandem, the mysterious women covered their bottom faces with ornate fans, only to snap them back into place and put them away after their laughter had subsided.

“Welcome, stranger,” the woman on the railing smiled, her voice heavily accented. “I am Airi.”

“Lost traveler,” the lady on the stairs observed. “I am known as Ayame.”

The third simply moved toward the foreigner. “Tsubaki,” she introduced herself, bowing.

The young woman at Verdant’s side edged forward, innocence gleaming in her big brown eyes. “And I am Kohana. Do not fear; you are in the safety of our domain,” she aimed to soothe, but it did not help that more women were appearing in various clothing, ages, and beauty.

Suddenly, a din of voices permeated the atmosphere as the strange women introduced themselves. “Chirippu!” one piped up. “Asagao, thank you,” added another.“Himawari, if you please!” Without warning, doppelgängers appeared in rapid succession, filling the room to a near suffocation point. They were closing in on Simon as their faces became cracked, putrified, and pale. In Japan, this tribe of Onryō were known as the ‘Flower Sisters’ in accordance to all of them having been named after flowers. Once innocent people, tragedy had warped their existence into that of undead, mirthful souls.

Souls that, until now, the yokai priestess hadn’t bothered with; she already had a surplus, and it proved best to not provoke a hoard of angry yokai without absolutely necessity. However, to Rapture’s chagrin, they had instigated contact with an outsider, and that would not abide. Standing from her meditation position on the floor, the petite powerhouse concentrated her third eye on what transpired far above. She could sense the density of spirits and one unfortunate living being. Now resolved to do some spiritual smackdown, Rapture left her post and quickly ascended to ground level, appearing from a hidden lift in a side room.

Calm as an untouched pond and resolute as the namesake of the statue in the middle of the room, the rather annoyed teenager whipped out her bladed fans and sliced on of the Onryō in the back, causing all of the ‘women’ to drop their façades and appear as they truly were: terrifying hags, made ugly by hundreds of years of spite and anger.

Screeching as the Onryō died for the second time––this time, for good––an all-out alert sounded through the entire temple. Defeating these demons were relatively easy, but not in such dense numbers. Downing a couple more of the beasts, Rapture called to the mortal on the other side of the room.

“Hey, pretty boy! Help me with some house cleaning, will ya?”

••••

ooc: The Flower Sisters are a real Japanese legend. Each of their names have been included. Here are the translations. Airi = Jasmine. Ayame = Iris. Tsubaki = Camellia. Kohana = Little flower. Asagao = Morning Glory. Chirippu = Tulip. Himarwari =  Sunflower.

While the sound of laughter was usually a sign of a nice and chill atmosphere, but the giggles of the mysterious women were certainly not nice and the only chill he felt was the shiver running down his spine. The women all took turns introducing themselves, but he was less concerned with trying to remember their names and more concerned with the fact that more and more of them were appearing.

Simon's wariness of the women proved to be justified as they approached him and their faces became increasingly ghoulish. Simon grimaced and concentrated, suddenly becoming enveloped by light for half a second. When the light faded the boy was garbed in a green bodysuit that made him look like a cheesy masked superhero from a Saturday morning kids show. His body was surrounded with an aura of wind that would blow at the clothes of the Onryo.

Simon skipped the usual choreographed dramatic poses that came after transforming and just took to the air, narrowly evading the reach of the women below him. On the other side of the room a pale goth-looking girl with spikes all over her outfit came out and slew one of the creatures. This apparently pissed the women off, causing them all to take on hideous appearances. Simon reared back in shock "Gah!" he wasn't spooked by the women's new appearances, but rather the large contrast between before and after.

Taking stock of the situation it seemed that the spiky girl was an ally, or at the very least was an enemy of the Onryo. The girl called out to Simon asking him to help her out "The name's not 'pretty boy'! It's..." he flew down into a group of Onryo grouped together and knocked them all down like bowling pins with a flying kick "...VERDANT GALE!!" he said, striking an over-dramatic fighting pose.

‘Is this kid… for real?’ Rapture thought, decapitating another ghost and absorbing her soul. He seemed to have some type of wind-based abilities, magical in nature due to the usually physical attack hitting the ghastly beings. As he kicked a row of them backward, the yokai priestess flung one of her fans to sever their worldly collection. ‘But cheesy as he is… this might work.’

Verdant Gale, he called himself, and the teen had to stifle her laughter. Luckily and yet very unluckily, a group of onryō attacked Rapture from above, using the unique architecture to gain the high ground. Screeching like banshees, they extended their claw-like fingers and began to swipe at the reluctant superhero, only to be met by swift permadeaths. They were annoying enough, but Rapture had fought a skeleton larger than the Titans tower.

But there was something even more wrong here, something of a feeling that teemed like electricity in her bones and spoke of a deeper plot. The presence of a mortal usually did not call these creatures in such concentrated doses. Allowed brief respite in between waves of attack, Rapture called out to the eccentric Verdant Gale.

“These aren’t ordinary vengeful demons,” she called. “They’re a smokescreen, cannon fodder for something much bigger and more sinister. We defeat them, we’ll be facing an entity far worse.” What that could come in the form of endless possibilities.

‘Just don’t be a giant Jorogumo,’ Rapture prayed silently. 'I fucking hate spiders.’ And yet, a Jorogumo would be easy to track. Their distinctive energy signature would reek of death. So far, no such presence. That did not bode well for the two.

Another slew of failed attacks, but Rapture had begun to feel their wicked presence begin to seep into her mind. Spending too much time around these creatures would result in the deteriorating of even the most resilient foe. And amidst all the chaos, there still stood this kid. He must have one hell of a past to be such prime bait, or a rather innocent one on the other hand. Needless to say, the yokai priestess felt oddly connected to the young teen. She hated it, but she hated these creatures more.

“Stay close and don’t let them separate you,” she instructed, “and steel your mind, Verdant Gale. Carrying your catatonic body from my house would be a drag.”

Simon watched as the Onryo he knocked over were finished off, he turned to the pale girl to give her an appreciative thumbs up. But when he turned he saw her holding back laughter at his name "Hey!" he said, breaking character for a second. He noticed the Onryo attempting to attack her from above "Watch out!" Luckily his concern was misplaced, as the girl was effortlessly able to dispatch them.

Once there was a moment of rest the girl called out to him to inform him that all these demons were just the calm before the storm and that there was likely a greater threat behind them "Hmph, I know that much. I may not have ever fought these things before, but mobs coming before a boss is monster-fighting 101!" Or at least it was in his experience. Where he came from you didn't really get human supervillains, just monsters that had grunt mobs for back up, so although he was scared at first he was actually quite in his element.

When the Onryo started attacking again Simon began fighting them off using hit and run tactics, seemingly having little trouble evading their attempted attacks. He dove at one with clear intent to attack, but came to a sudden stop just outside the reach of its claws so that its swipe that was intended to intercept him just hit air, then he kicked it in the jaw, giving Rapture a good opening to finish it off.

Rapture warned Simon to stay close to her and to steel his mind, because she didn't feel like carrying his catatonic body "Got it!" He wove above the heads of the Onryo, continuing to strike at them and then flying away before they could retaliate. He occasionally dashed over to some that were nearing Rapture and struck them, just to lighten her load a little.

At this rate it would probably take them a few minutes to clear out the Onryo, providing there were no unexpected twists.

As Verdant Gale spoke of boss battles, she could not help but to smile. His spirit felt fresh and excitable, a nice change from the typical doom-and-gloom, super-serious vigilantes that acted like they had spikes up their asses — not that Rapture would know anything about that. He seemed to get the gist of things and proved to be a good deal of help. Sure, she’d rather real alone, but with this much garbage to take care of, their methods may very well work. The horde before the boss battle... but did that setup seem too basic? Surely, something more complicated and sinister lurked within these walls. Something... new? Something old? Or worse: something evolved? Again, Ryuuzaki sent out a psychic signal to scan for anomalies, but only the typical spiritual activity plus the uncanny horde of Onryō registered.

‘Damn Yokai,’ Rapture cursed, realizing that things could be going a lot more quickly with the Golden Scorpion. Putting her fans away and positioning her hands in a steeple-like formation, the teenager breathed out, murmured in a foreign language, and breathed in. At once, a pillar of lightning struck her body from seemingly nowhere. In a literal flash, it had disappeared, revealing a change in attire that gleamed like gold just as the color of her eyes that had changed. In place of bladed fans, she brandished pair of dual Chakram, each charged with mystical lightning capable of reaching much farther than the previous weapons. Additionally, with the spirit of the Golden Scorpion, Rapture could reach speeds up to thirty miles per hour.

Spoiler:

A 4’8” scorpion may seem a poor choice when facing such large numbers, but this scorpion stung quickly and with lethal force. Rapture sharpened each of her chakram on the other, causing an electrical charge to spark and surge through the weapons. She cast them simultaneously, sending them flying like deadly frisbees, hitting on onryō after the other in a circle of severed souls and killing surrounding figures with a magical electrical barrage. Dropping like flies, each creature’s soul was consumed by Rapture’s very presence. Only a handful were left, plenty for Verdant Gale.

Satisfied for now, Rapture caught her chakram as they sped back to their master. Once again, the yokai priestess channeled her third eye, hoping that clearing the majority of the onryō. A huge ‘ping’ resounded from the floor above, revealing what would happen next. A shiver ran down Rapture’s spine. ‘Fuck. Why did it have to be spiders?’ Her previous supposition became more evident; these were, indeed, Jorōgumo, but something darker powered them.

Casually ignoring the present demons, Rapture opted for informing her new teammate of the imminent dangers. “Verdant, keep a good distance from these next ones,” she advised. “They’re basically giant woman-spider hybrids that will sic their ugly-ass spider babies on you and get pissed when you kill ‘em. But they’re in this plane of existence, meaning our psychical attacks will hit. Just don’t expect to one-KO these bitches.” Rapture grimaced as spiders began to crawl through the floorboards from above. Taking a defensive stance and charging up her charkram, the girl steeled herself.

Simon and Rapture were doing their thing together, taking down Onryo left and right. When he saw Rapture smile it made him pause for a second. He may have only known her for less than a minute, but at least based on the first impression he had gained of her she didn't seem like the type. He quickly got his head back in the game just in time to dodge a swipe that might have claimed it, then he kicked the Onryo in the head in retaliation.

He was distracted once again when Rapture was struck by lightning and for a second he was worried, but before he could say anything the lightning disappeared and Rapture appeared unscathed and with her appearance changed "Awesome!" he said, dropping his exaggerated 'hero voice' for a second.

As Rapture used her new forms electrical ability to take out the Onryo in her half of the room Simon was finishing off the ones fighting him. With a kick that broke its neck the final Onryo was defeated. If they had bothered to keep count they would have noticed that Rapture had killed a decent amount more than Simon had, but it wasn't a competition.

When Rapture used her powers to sense for more Yokai Simon noticed that she seemed to be bothered by something. Before he could ask her what was wrong she explained that the demons that would be coming up next were giant women spiders and that he should keep his distance from them. Simon nodded to show he understood, but couldn't help but notice the way she was talking about them, she very clearly hated spiders. He decided it was probably not the right time to bring it up and instead waited for the spider demons to come to him, rather than charging in recklessly.

But a few moments respite transpired as Rapture moved toward Verdant Gale, getting her first good look at the presumably younger teen. He really did look like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon show in Japan and wondered if he had purposefully made himself look campy or not. These little choices that people made always had her intrigued. Perhaps his demeanor could explain why he reacted with excitement rather than bewilderment or fear when she had changed her appearance and assumed the form of the Scorpion. This could be good. Not the typical person she’d partner with, but solid.

’But why is the temple acting so violently to this kid?’ she wondered, narrowing her featureless golden eyes as she came to the center of the room. Further inspection would be required, but thinking straight had become a bit challenging as the temperature in the grand abandoned building began to lower so severely that soon, she could see her breath. It didn’t make sense –– Jorōgumo preferred warmer temperatures. They were essentially giant, horrific bugs, standing well over ten feet tall on average. Skittering sounds could be heard from above, then the foreboding sounds of floorboards breaking. Sure enough, two Jorōgumo burst through the upper floor, landing with a mighty thud and screeching by way of greeting.

“Fucking rude,” Rapture huffed, whipping around and grabbing Verdant, pulling him out of the way of the beasts. As she got up to brush herself off, the petite powerhouse turned toward the monsters and sized them up. They had their trademark bottom spidery bottom half, humanoid upper half, and all-parts disgusting appearance, with spider mandibles erupting from the sides of their slitted mouths and a set of four blade-like appendages. Acid dripped from their maws, hinting at their spitting attacks. But even more bizarrely, their eyes were covered with an icy veil that seemed to hover just above the orbs, more akin to a blindfold than decorum. That made no sense. Additionally, it appeared that their skin had been covered in permafrost as if it were some type of wintry armor.

“Verdant!” Rapture exclaimed, “ice yokai are especially in tune with people who are close to their mothers, dead or alive. I’m assuming by this activity that your mother and perhaps even family are still alive. That’s bad; these creatures want to feed off your happiness, so I need you to think of the worst, saddest things you can think of, okay? Give them a reason to give you the cold shoulder.”

As the fighting stopped for a moment Simon couldn't help but notice when Rapture took a closer look at him, causing him to slightly change his pose into one that looked more dramatic, but still ready to battle. He wasn't that dedicated to his dramatics. It certainly became more difficult to hold his pose when the temperature started to rapidly decrease. Soon he began to shiver in more than just anticipation.

When the Jorogumo rained down from above and let out a terrible screech it was almost a relief. Almost. Simon allowed himself to be dragged aside by Rapture and listened to her explanation about how they feed off of happiness and that he would need to think of something really sad "Thinking sad thoughts seems kind of counter-productive in a situation like this!"

That being said, something did come to mind. His brain lingered back to the thoughts he had been having earlier. He had no friends in this city, all of his friends were scattered around the country. It didn't really show when he was striking poses and yelling out the name of super moves, but Simon was quite lonely. Although he was currently trying to hold a cool-looking fighting pose his shoulders visibly sagged and his head was tilted downwards "I just need to think sad thoughts, right? I can *sob* do that."

Look, it's already working!

'He can cry that easily?' Rapture puzzled. Her own emotions were not easily so volatile; she had learned to suppress them from a very young age. Seeing such a quick display made her uncomfortable, but it technically was her doing.

“We split up, take one on at a time each,” she instructed, then lured one of the Jorōgumo to the other end of the hallway. Doing so proved to be easy, as was always the case with the yokai priestess; spirits flocked to her like bees to honey, either yearning for the release of this plane of existence or more commonly release of malevolent actions. Either way, there they stood: a four-foot-eight girl wielding electric chakram and a fifteen-foot-tall yokai, the stuff of nightmares having breached the waking world. Keeping a fair amount of distance between the spider beast and her, Rapture continued her barrage of chakram attacks, at one time slicing––or rather, breaking––off two spidery appendages. By doing so, she confirmed that the creature had indeed developed some type of icy armor, further proof of atypical phenomenon.

Rearing backward for a downstroke, the Jorōgumo managed to make a cut deep enough to bleed on Rapture’s cheek as she tried to roll away but ended up having to dodge an acidic spit attack instead. ‘Better a cut than an eroded mug,’ she grumbled, touching the wound lightly and discovering that the flesh had ice crystals jutting out of it as well. No time to deal with the wound, though, as the Jorōgumo charged and Rapture was forced to run, knocking all sorts of ancient artifacts from the walls in an attempt to slow it down. Thankfully, the Scorpion gave her an extra edge in speed, barely beating the yokai as she slid into a back room and shoved a bronze statue in front of the sliding door. The creature could easily break through the Japanese-style paper walls, but at least it would have one more obstacle to get through.

“I hope Verdant can get along without me,” she huffed, charging her chakram and readying to give a big jolt to the Jorōgumo. “…but I have a feeling he’ll have to do better than tears to win."

The face underneath Verdant Gale's helmet was flushed red, embarrassed to have been brought to tears in front of a complete stranger. He was not the kind of person who is afraid of being vulnerable in front of others, but straight up crying was usually something he reserved for those he was close with. But recently he had been feeling low, and this weird place messing with his head certainly wasn't helping.

Simon was almost grateful when a distraction from his mental state came in the form of Rapture ordering him to split up and take on the Spider-women separately. He was already very used to following orders and working in a team from his experience in the past, so he jumped straight into action after a simple nod to show he understood.

The Jorogumo seemed to be especially attracted to Rapture however, so when she split off to get one of them to follow her the other one tried to follow. The super flashy superhero took offence to being ignored, floating into the air slightly with his powers and then flying backwards for as long as the limited space of the room would allow him. Then he dashed forwards at his full speed like a bat out of hell.

The distracted Jorogumo was not able to react in time as it was kicked at super speed by Verdant Gale's signature technique "Gaaaaale Kick!!!" Of course, because he was indoors he didn't have enough space to get the full run up he needed so his attack hit with lessened force, hitting with less than half of its full strength. However, that was still enough to send the Jorogumo off of it's many feet and crashing into a wall.

Simon moved in to make sure that the Jorogumo was dead, not doing so was a mistake that had ended in his team having to fight a giant monster form of the monster they had just defeated on multiple occasions. However, as he flew in through the hole in the wall he had made a stream of acid flew right at his face.

He took the acid straight to the face, as his aura of wind ensured that all of the acid was blown away before it could even so much as touch his face. However, it did blind him for long enough that he did not notice the Jorogumo's follow up attack until the last second. He twisted his body to the right, evading the monsters slash closely enough that instead of disembowelling him it just gave him a cut on his hip.

Simon backed off out of the spiders range, thinking on how he will next approach this dangerous opponent.

As predicted, the statue did not hold for long, but thankfully had been tossed aside rather than launched at the petite powerhouse. Still, being cornered with a giant spider lady blocking the entrance didn’t exactly present the best scenario… or did it? Having charged the lightning blast, Rapture released its awesome power in the confined space, forcing it to concentrate and making it easier to land. The creature screeched something fierce, buckling to the ground. The opportunity gave her the chance to bolt forward, chakram flying at extreme speeds, one aimed at the beast’s face, one at its chest, effectively blinding it and shattering the ice veil. However, a surprise lay in wait for Ryuuzaki; instead of eyes, gory empty sockets were revealed.

‘The price for ice abilities? Enhance one ability, you miss out on others.’ It explained their even more erratic nature. ‘Perhaps they ‘see’ best in the snow or ice? …does it even matter?’

Another lightning bolt and the Jorōgumo fell down for the count. Rapture severed its head, revealing an outpour of baby spiders. A solid spread of electrical charges fried the disgusting creatures but provided little repose for the yokai priestess. To finish it off, Rapture absorbed its corrupted soul, fueling the spirits within her. Ominously, she felt she would need it. Backtracking with her senses fully alert, she returned to the outer hallways with the goal to aid Verdant Gale should he need it. But an ear-splitting myriad of tormented cries invaded her mind, bringing her to her knees. Three distinct entities could be detected from deep within the temple. This felt vaguely familiar, a cocktail of grief, agony, and insidiousness. A deep, thrumming psychosis.

Within Rapture’s psyche, she heard a trio of voices whisper, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up. “Verdant Gale…” came the raspy rhapsody, “Simon Camden… our little Simon.”

While Rapture was being tormented by the voices in her head Simon was still fighting his Jorogumo. He was bobbing and weaving and diving and dashing his way away from its attacks. The Jorogumo seemed to be quite frustrated at its inability to land a solid hit on the slippery hero apart from the sneak attack from a moment ago.

However, the Jorogumo's luck was turning around. Through the positioning of its attacks it had managed to back Verdant Gale into the corner. It prepared to unleash its acid spit on the young hero. However, instead of trying to avoid it Simon actually jumped into it, catching it on his chest. In truth, he had been waiting for the spider monster to use the spit again, as getting hit by it the first time had given him an idea.

As before his wind aura reflected the acid. But this time he had been hit at point-blank range, meaning that much of the spray from the reflected acid hit the Jorogumo. The monster screamed in agony, rearing its head back and wildly lashing out. That move had not defeated it, but it was heavily weakened.

Simon moved in, raining down blows on the creature from all angles. It tried to fight back, but in its weakened state its retaliation was easily evaded. Simon slowly removed its limbs so that it couldn't move or fight back. Now that it was helpless he flew back and geared up for a Gale Kick. Although it was a low power Gale Kick due to the close quarters he struck the Jorogumo right in the neck, finishing it off.

Simon waited a few seconds just to make sure it was really dead, he even gave it a kick just to be sure, before collapsing to his knees. He wasn't a specialist in fighting Yokai like Rapture, nor was he able to fight at his best in cramped quarters like these, so he was physically quite a bit worse for ware afterwards than Rapture was.

He gave himself only a few seconds to rest before he got back to his feet and ran to go find Rapture.