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[color=009900]"You know, for a major disturbance, it sure is hard to find,"[/color] An emerald-haired teenager groaned as he trudged through the forest. For all his tsukumogami's alarm, Naoto certainly hadn't seen any signs of onryo activity, and he'd been walking for at least the past twenty minutes.

[color=ccccb3]"It wouldn't be if you'd listen to my directions and not wander off toward whatever catches your eye,"[/color] The gnarled rag perched atop his shoulder responded, its tail end swaying like an agitated cat.

[color=009900]"But what if that light in the distance was an onryo?"[/color]

[color=ccccb3]"It was clearly a street lamp, pay attention!"[/color]

How was he supposed to know he'd wandered too close to the road? Kabi had just given him a direction and told him to start walking, and Naoto didn't believe for a second that the shiro-uneri knew his way around town. Back in his day, this was probably all rice fields or something anyway. Case in point; if there was a street nearby, why hadn't he been told to walk here using that instead of trudging through the forest in the dark with only a phone flashlight and a nagging towel to guide him? He'd nearly tripped like three times now.

Fortunately, his woes seemed to be at an end (only to be replaced with entirely new woes of the supernatural variety) when the silhouette of a person shambled into Naoto's field of view.

[color=ccccb3]"We're here,"[/color] Kabi announced as he vigilantly perked up in search of the onmyo, [color=ccccb3]"They're all heading for the source of the corruption. Follow the trail."[/color]

Naoto wasn't sure who 'they' were at first, but as he nudged his slipping glasses up and shined his phone light further along in the silhouette's path, countless others revealed themselves - ordinary people trudging mindlessly forward like zombies in search of a meal. Lucky him; everyone always said he'd be perfectly safe if zombies started eating brains. The enthralled masses didn't seem hostile to him, in any case. But beyond that, he felt something else, something that felt like Kabi but definitely wasn't, a tingle in whatever sixth sense linked him to the other side. Other hunters were already here, close enough to be felt but somewhere Naoto couldn't yet see.

He didn't bother waiting for Kabi's input, and instead took off running toward the subtle allure ringing in the back of his head. Naoto crashed through the threshold of limbo mid-bound, as if he'd simply dove into a wall of water before him. It washed over him much the same as a jump into any lake would, the cool dampness of Kabi's borrowed power replacing the familiarity of his own skin and clothes. The weight on his shoulder grew rapidly heavier and then subsided all at once as the tattered rag perched atop it expanded into a serpentine curtain and slithered off to take flight beside him.

The doe-eyed gaze he'd sported before sharpened into the scarlet glare of a predator as Naoto took in the scene again from a more spiritually-aware vantage point, not that he really would've needed to - the zombies were slumping over now, which meant whatever was feeding on them had to be very close.

[color=009900]"Wah! Creepy ghost girl eating the dead guy over there,"[/color] Naoto yelped as he gesticulated wildly at a newfound figure hunched over one of the bodies. That was easy. The purple girl next to her didn't look like an onmyo either, so she clearly had to be the other hunter he'd felt. Looked like she already had it cornered. The pink one could go either way, though she looked more at home haunting a candy factory than a forest.

[color=ccccb3]"That's a hunter,"[/color] Kabi grumbled wearily, [color=ccccb3]"And they're not dead yet, so stay on task."[/color]

Naoto deflated immediately. [color=009900]"Oh."[/color] Wind promptly stolen from his sails, the newly ashen-haired boy shuffled over to his fellow hunters with an apologetic grin and a casual wave. [color=009900]"Sorry about that. Um. Have you seen the ghostie yet?"[/color]

[hr][@LuckyBlackCat][@Wayward][@Strawberry]