Octo

The Devil Hunter Agency

Hanako's face got progressively more red (even though she had no blood) as Da-Xia began talking about dating for some reason and Limen practically begged her to eat him. She just wanted a little snack, and it was getting so... so lewd! She fidgeted in her seat with all the demure energy of a pure Japanese maiden.

"I mean yeah, I did ask her in a vaguely flirtatious manner, but no one has ever flirted back! That's not allowed! Who'd flirt with a ghost? GEEZ."

"W-what are we, newlyweds?" Hanako scolded Limen, "I'd be too embarrassed to eat you if you offer like that!"

Hanako sighed.

"Although... because I don't want to harm Humans, I generally only take a bit of blood. But if you're fine with anything, I've always wanted to try bone marrow. Eheehee... I wonder if I'd become a hone-onna?" Hanako joked.

"Anyways, Da-Xia, I'm not sure what sort of dates you've been on, or what kind of eating you're talking about... but I'd be happy to be a local friend. You know, I've existed in Japan for around 90 years now. It doesn't get much more local than me," she said proudly, "and I can assure you that I am 100% trustworthy! Look at this face. Can you even imagine me lying to you or doing something bad? Although counting me as a 'friend' doesn't preclude the possibility of a promotion to a 'friend with benefits'. Girl's gotta eat."

She turned back to Limen.

"Ah... actually, I heard that music too. Very old-timey. Definitely my style. I kinda wanted to check it out too at some point. I'm a bit of a... 'free spirit', so it's a bit interesting to be called to by those rocks and that music of late."

The Devil Hunter Agency

Hanako, who was having a grand old time riding along on Da-Xia's motorcycle, gingerly flicked the flaming rubble off the woman's back. She stored the pieces of the gun in Da-Xia's compartment (which she would want to snoop through later for fun) before closing it and returning her attention to the apparently Chinese Canadian who was operating in Japan.

"Ufufu~ it's deserved praise, my heroic knight. My name is Yamamoto Hanako, but you can call me Hanako. I'm still learning French, but my English is much better and my Japanese is fantastic. It's an absolute pleasure," said Hanako, examining the bike, the knight, and her fellow demon.

It was an odd group, to be sure, and it became even odder when the woman revealed that she seemed to know that either Hanako or Limen were monsters. Put simply, Hanako had scarcely met a hunter that seemed to have no interest in separating her ghostly head from her spectral body. Normally she'd think that maybe the DHA were finally learning that she couldn't be gotten rid of, but Da-Xia seemed to hold no malice for Limen as well.

Actual chivalry was a rarity.

Hanako smiled as she got off the bike in front of the noodle shop.

"Well I have neither warmth nor substance of my own, and I won't get any here. I only took up baking because otherwise my life would have been a complete waste. I can't eat anything, although..."

She slowly floated towards the knight with a wide grin on her face.

"If I can choose what I like, does that include you?" she asked, winking and doing a couple of rounds of finger guns, "obviously I won't take more than I need. I'm an innocent young maiden, after all. Either way, you and Limen can enjoy yourselves. I'd love to tag along regardless."

Even though Hanako had lived a long time, actual interactions were rare and she wanted to savor them. Humans she met were either terrified of her or they wanted to exorcise her, and demons she met were usually instinctual baby-eaters or they had an agenda that at no point involved chilling and watching Netflix.

The Devil Hunter Agency

Hanako clapped, grinning like a dork when Da-Xia rode up to them and began shouting. She always expected DHA members to be insane, but sadly most of them were brooding psychopaths that could only feel elation by killing demons. Of course, this girl could still be that, but at least she was coated in the fun kind of crazy where she acted like a knight on a motorcycle. This was the sort of fun Hanako was sorely in need of.

Without a second thought, Hanako hopped up on the motorcycle.

"My hero, o beauteous knight in shining armor," Hanako gushed half ironically, "truly thou hath the valor of a hundred men. Perchance thou wouldst like bellytimber for thy strength?"

Hanako shoved a sheetpan half full of chocolate croissants at Da-Xia before they were to depart. The other half was filled with gun.

"Alas, thy steadfast companion hath swooned. Wouldst thou also keep his weapon safe that it might be repaired anon?"

Hanako could hear the record playing, could hear the stones calling out to her, but this seemed more fun. How often do you get to hitch a ride with a motorcycle knight?

The Devil Hunter Agency

Hanako frantically reached for her Handy Handbook for French Fledgelings when a young man began speaking to her entirely in French. She knew most of the words, but he was speaking so damn fast! She handed him a croissant to get him to shut up for a second while she caught up.

"Uh... uh... oui, je suis un démon," she replied in a less confident heavily Japanese accent as she scanned the pages. Having an actual conversation was way different than some French dude speaking slowly on an audio tape. Her English was much better, because she had more chances to practice it.

"Pour- hey."

And then the dude began speaking perfectly serviceable Japanese to a tree. Tree monster. Tree monster? Hanako hadn't seen many of those, and never in a warehouse. Usually you could find them around Mt. Fuji, but in her shitty neighborhood? Very interesting. It was probably those black rocks. She too felt a certain attraction to them. Something was definitely happening... maybe something big. It was odd that they had all hands on deck for a bunch of low-level ghosts, after all.

But more importantly...

"...You know the motorcycle girl is a Hunter, right?" she asked Limen, looking the girl up and down, "if she has a sense for creatures like us, she'll probably kill us right... hm..."

Actually, the more she looked at motorcycle girl, the more she thought it might be a risk worth taking.

"Me too! I'm a helpless maiden," she lied through her teeth.

The Devil Hunter Agency

"...Is that old guy about to pull a knife on me?"

The old man was looking at her alright, with the same expression she'd seen on hundreds of hunters before. Either he was a complete psycho or he was experienced enough to be able to clock an opaque ghost on sight, but with all his attention on Hanako he didn't seem to notice his footing was giving way until it was too late.

"Hey, watch out, you're gonna-"

SMACK.

Hanako watched the old hunter take a huge tumble out the window and slam into the ground below. His gun splintered, his knife flew off somewhere, and he wasn't moving.

Ironic thing is, most hunters die full of hate and regret and end up becoming restless ghosts anyways. Dumbasses. Hanako floated down, and noticed that the man was still breathing. Good thing. She didn't need more furious earthbound spirits around these parts. She flung a croissant at his unconscious body, and telekinetically lifted the splintered pieces of his rifle onto her sheet pan.

"Fais de beaux rêves, mon petit chou," she said, giving the man a gentle pat on the head before looking around.

Thankfully, she didn't need to call anyone, because anyone was already here. There was sirens, and even more fire, and self-propagating explosive rocks... she walked over to an officer, passing a young man who might have been going to check on Maurice on the way, and tugged at the officer's shirt, pointing to where Maurice had been.

"An old guy took a tumble out the window over there. He's still breathing, but he's a bit away from the rest of the action so I don't want you to miss him. I think one of his buddies might be checking up on him, but he needs help," she said before wandering off and taking in the sight of the destruction the loose group of psychopaths called the DHA had caused. She chuckled. Those guys were always pretty funny, but it was rare to get a screaming, flaming disaster at this level of insanity. She waved at the remaining members, hoping that her friendly demeanor wouldn't accidentally almost kill someone this time.

"Anybody want a chocolate croissant? They are... très bien!"

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.