6741/Far Reaches of a Wayward Heart

Far Reaches of a Wayward Heart
Date of Scene:	16 August 2019
Location:	Ga-Rei Japan
Synopsis:	Unpleasant business as a youkai takes over a school.
Cast of Characters:	Yomi Isayama, Shigure, Lexicon

---

Yomi Isayama has posed:
It's late at night, and the area around the school where the communication went out, presumably by accident, is eerily quiet only ten minutes after the transmission. There's no movement nearby, though a policeman crouches in the bushes about a block away, hand shaking as he holds his radio. "This is Officer Yamamoto. I've found the site, but I'm not getting any closer. I can make out movement and..." He covers his mouth and nose with a hand and silently nods at something he hears back over the radio. "..roger. Will await assistance."

Shigure has posed:
    A few minutes after the radio call went out, a tall, black-haired woman wearing a modified shrine maiden outfit clicks along the street on strange platform clogs, that look like ship hulls. She has an ethereal grace about her, but no weapons of any kind of be seen at the moment. She comes to a stop near the bush where the officer is hiding, red eyes gleaming faintly in the shadow of her bangs. "Battleship Yamashiro, ready to sortie." she says, seemingly to noone in particular.

Lexicon has posed:
    "Yamamoto again," that familiar, tired voice sounds out. Passing his hiding place is the equally familiar petit brunette, in a somewhat less conspicuous semi-stylish outfit inspired by a student's uniform. Normally the sort of girl that the police would direct away from a violent incident, but most girls aren't carrying a hammer quite that large.

    Lexicon swings the weapon down and plants it at her feet, "I won't ask you to put yourself in danger, but what details can you give us?"

Yomi Isayama has posed:
So focused is the officer on watching the building in question - a middle school, from the looks of it, that he doesn't notice the approach of others until they speak up. He jumps a bit, backpedaling slightly as he sees Yamashiro... and then letting out a breath as he notices Lexicon. "Ah... sorry. The last time I saw a miko outside of a shrine, she was trying to eat someone's face off." That is a long story for another time. ...blink. "Did you say Battleship Yamashiro?" Yamamoto shakes his head and holds a hand up. "Answer me later. Hello, Lexicon. Isayama and her team are on the way. Not sure I can tell you much, though. I was sent here on reports of gunshots, then... well, you probably heard the transmission, huh?" He stands up and adjusts his hat, glancing toward the school again. "It's been completely silent since I got here, which is all the more reason to not get closer on my own."

Screeching tires around the corner betray the arrival of a vehicle before it can be seen. A large humvee, far too large to fit in a single lane inside the town, squeals around the corner and comes to a stop, driven by a man with a white mohawk, white beard, and white eyes. The door slides open, and Yomi hops out, worry on her face turning to a smile as she sees who else showed. "Lexi! And..." Yomi's eyes squint, and she peers at Yamashiro for a moment. "A...friend of Shigure's? You have a similar feel about you."

Lexicon has posed:
    "This one's mostly harmless," Lexicon gestures to Yamashiro, "We've fielded together before. It was an entirely different country though." Eyes lift to peer up at the school building, "Sounded like a monster to me, but the monsters around here are pretty different from the viruses I'm used to. A lot more crafty, tricky, and manipulative. Little shits."

    Said in a complete deadpan. Not bitter at all.

    "Going all quiet could mean things are resolved, but it more likely means whatever it is settled things with our predecessors and is now waiting in ambush." Tires screeching draws her attention, glancing back over her shoulder, "--That would be Isayama." And once the exorcist has stepped out, Lexicon raises one hand in a greeting wave.

Shigure has posed:
    Yamashiro looks toward the Officer, nodding briefly, before turning to the approaching vehicle. She doesn't flinch as it screeches to a halt nearby. The Battleship nods to Yomi. "Battleship Yamashiro. Second in command of the Fifth Strike Squadron, Secretary to Flagship Shigure." she replies, bowing politely, before looking back at the school.

    Her brow furrows, and her rigging materializes in a flare of blue-white light. A catapult unfolds from one of her turrets, and a small float-plane loads onto it, with help from little fairies. "Type 0 reconnaisance floatplane. Launch." The silence is broken by the piston engine striking up, and with a burst of steam, the plane is fired into the air, where it climbs and begins to look over the area before anyone gets too close.

Yomi Isayama has posed:
"Thanks for the ride, Iwahata!" Yomi waves back toward the humvee, and the driver gives a grin in return.

"I'd love to stay and help here, but it looks like this bungle caused a chain reaction and stirred up a nest of Category Ds across town. I'm going to help the rest of the extermination squad with cleanup."

Yomi gives him a nod and another wave, and he returns the gesture to Yomi, the officer, the ship, and the girl with the hammer, one at a time, before peeling out again.

"Right, so. If the Paranormal Disasters Countermeasure Headquarters team went in there first, they almost certainly made whatever problem was there even worse. Best be careful, right?" Yomi wrinkles her nose a bit in distaste and lets out a sigh. "I bet they didn't even make it to the front doors... but given we've had some missing persons reports here lately, I'm betting the cause is holed up inside."

It really is very quiet on the school grounds, but the recon plane can see at least part of the reason why: there are about a dozen dead soldiers lying on the ground. It's hard to get an exact count, though, considering some have chunks missing and a few are in multiple pieces.

Shigure has posed:
    Yamashiro closes her eyes, 'seeing' through her plane's cameras. She doesn't balk at the scene she can see, but it isn't pleasant. "Count about twelve bodies... they are, not intact." she says, opening her eyes and tasking the plane to circle and continue surveillance. "They were mown down by something that was not kind in how it killed them." she says, the catapult folding back into its storage place, then a few lighter emplacement folding out of the turret caps, giving her a 'bristling with guns' appearance.

    Yamashiro looks to Lexicon, giving the DCC a nod, before stepping forwards. "Miss Lexicon and I shall take the lead. Whatever is in ther ewill have to contend with my armour and her hammer. You can identify and neutralize it once it shows itself."

Lexicon has posed:
    "First that high school, now this," Lexicon shrugs towards Yomi, "It seems like the Paranormal Disasters Countermeasures team is better at causing them than countering them. But at least they make it obvious where the danger is." Gripping her hammer one-handed, she hefts it up and rests it over her shoulder, "Yamamoto, stay here and keep watch. Alert me on band 23.44 if you see anything." She gestures at his police radio before turning and stepping onto school grounds.

    Between the Silver DCC and the avatar of a battleship, this party should be a good sight more resiliant, at least. Glancing towards Yamashiro, "Let me know if your plane spots anything unusual--" And the other shoulder, towards Yomi, "And your eyes. You see all kinds of shit I don't when it comes to these spirits."

Yomi Isayama has posed:
Yomi brings her hand to rub the bridge of her nose as she hears the damage reports. "I knew it. I just knew it. They always go in half-cocked and never watch their flank. Only a handful of them are ever competent and those ones know better than to work with the rest." The exorcist takes a deep breath and nods. "Depending how squeamish you are, I suppose you could take the eyepiece from one of the dead ones. He's not going to be using it anymore."

One hand falls to her sword's hilt as the three walk toward the school. "Bad news is that I can't call Ranguren here. He'd probably destroy the building." She gives a quick glance toward the battleship. "Make sure you're precise with those guns, okay?"

As they cross the gates, the light seems to reflect eerily in places, especially near the bodies of the soldiers. A few of them shake unnaturally, and Yomi points toward one of them. "Category C specter. Probably just a standard ghost, but don't let them get too close. They're probably what did this."

The specters, at least, don't seem in too much of a rush to attack. A few of them stand up and lurch forward, their glowing blue forms visible even to those without spirit sight whenever the moonlight hits -just- right. "I really need to see if Master Michael or Director Jinguuji can figure a way for you to see them more clearly."

Even though the specters are advancing, they don't seem to be a large threat... at least not until one rises up from the ground right behind Lexicon and lifts its arms to grab for her... only for those arms to flop to the ground as Yomi draws her sword and lops them off, then slashes through its head. "-That- is probably how they got these guys. They're not all that smart, but they can be sneaky like that. Let's take care of them before we check out the inside."

Shigure has posed:
    Yamashiro says, "Securing main armament. Secondary batteries, prioritize accuracy over fire rate." her tone is commanding, but she's clearly not talking to either of the others when she speaks... the crew, for lack of a better term, salute, and the smaller turrets all traverse out from centerline, while the larger turrets lock forward and secure flat. She won't be lobbing 16inch shells, but plenty of 5 and 8 inch, as well as 12.7mm, 25mm and 30mm bullets from her secondary batteries.

    As the specters start shambling along, Yamashiro sets her feet, and allows her secondaries to open up on the approaching near-invisible enemies.. They fill the area with tracer fire, making up for the lack of visibility with sheer volume of outgoing fire... they do take some time to aim when they get the brief glimpses of the things moving, but they're not waiting for the 'perfect shot' every time.

Lexicon has posed:
    Ghosts. A bit harder to see than the ghost-like viruses she's encountered. Par for the course, all the monsters in Yomi's tokyo are terrible. Lexicon narrows her eyes with a noise of frustration. The annoyed expression quickly disappears when Yamashiro just becomes a singularity of small arms gunfire a few meters away-- "Damn!"

    A ghost is dispatched behind her, as the DCC swings her hammer up and behind herself in preparation, "Well, it's hardly time to get shown up by the gunshow..! Thanks for the cover, Isayama--" With her free hand, the DCC scatters motes of blue-white light. These rapidly grow as she sweeps her hammer down into them, scattering the objects as magical bolts that ricochet off the courtyard walls and anything else solid enough to not just be punched through, "GEFAHRLICHTERN!"

Yomi Isayama has posed:
With magic flying around everywhere, it's easier to see the specters. The glow from the magic blasts and tracer rounds seems to illuminate them better, showing them to be mostly nondescript blue humanoids. There are no faces, only openings roughly similar to mouths. They also, despite being ghosts, seem to be affected by both physical and magical attacks, though the former takes a bit more to take them down than the latter.

"Aim for the heads. If you can completely destroy their head, they won't come back up. See how a few have bullet holes?" It's hard to tell because of their lack of full solidity, but some do have holes in them that don't seem to slow them down much. Probably from the soldiers.

Speaking of soldiers, some of the bodies start to.... move. And then stand up, joints craking as they bend ways they should not be bending. In the light of the magic and tracer shots, there looks to be something like a faint blue jellyfish attached to their heads. "...ugh. Category D." Yomi darts to the side, making sure to stay clear of the projectiles, and puts her sword right through the face of one of the soldiers. As it slumps down, the exorcist glances back and makes a face. "I know they look human, but they're already dead. Don't feel sorry for them, and don't go easy on them." The front doors of the school push open, and two more walking corpses shamble out. A night janitor and another soldier. Yomi lets out a soft curse. "I need to get inside and find the source or we'll be fighting these things all night. Can I count on the two of you to clean up out here?"

Shigure has posed:
    "Suppress the enemy fleet." says Yamashiro, balling a fist up and summoning one of her main battery shells into it, before ramming it down the mouth-hole of a Specter, triggering the fuse manually where it detonates in the head, blasting it clean off the body. "Roger." As the bodies start to move, Yamashiro just wades straight in, palm-striking to break necks, or just delivering kiloton-backed punches in a near dance-like swath through the Cat-C and Cat-D's. Tracer fire, and smaller caliber explosive shells continue to rain from her secondary batteries all the while, if not killing, then staggering from the impact at least.

Lexicon has posed:
    Aim for the heads. Well, it seems like competing with Yamashiro for area saturation isn't going to work then. Lexicon sweeps her hammer back in recovery, producing an object with a blue-white glow in her free hand, "Go in and sort this out, Isayama. We'll hold the line out here." Opening her fingers, she reveals the symbol-shaped crystal, then presses it to her breastbone.

    In a flash of digitized light, and without a relay this time, Lexicon's switched into her Digital Divinity. The hammer is now an axe, its blade shining white energy, "Just my luck, I'm in a cheap Japanese zombie movie now..! If only I had a camera, maybe I'd make a movie about it-- TANZERIN TROMBE!

    Freshly transformed, Lexicon hurls herself into a spin with the leading edge of her axe moving in wide circular sweeps. While she typically does this at shoulder-height, this time she's aiming a bit higher. Aiming for necks. Even if that doesn't kill the things, it'll make it easy enough to finish the job.

Yomi Isayama has posed:
"Thanks, both of you." She's seen now what Yamashiro can do, and she knows quite well what sort of violence Lexicon can get up to. Yomi isn't worried about these two being as stupid as the soldiers were. Still, a warning wouldn't be bad... "Just be sure you destroy the heads of the specters and the things on the Category Ds' heads. They might pop back up and surprise you if not." Yomi pauses again and lifts out her phone. "I'm going to have this with me so we don't have another shapeshifter pretending it's me. See you two soon." The exorcist waits for an opening before dashing toward the door and disappearing inside.

The Category D zombies aren't really a massive threat, though they do have a tendency to get back up again if the bulb on their head isn't destroyed. The C specters have some limited intelligence and seem to be fond of the tactic of sinking into the ground and popping back up behind. As long as Lexicon and Yamashiro watch each others' backs, there shouldn't be much surprise, though, and their numbers thin as the two of them take out more of the specters. It's not easy due to their numbers, but they don't prove too much of a danger against seasoned fighters who pay attention to their surroundings.

As more fall, though, a strong scent begins to waft through the air. It smells like blood and death and a tinge of burning hair. About fifteen feet up, the air begins to shimmer as if from heat, and smoke wisps up from... something. The top of the wall surrounding the schoolyard suddenly crumbles down in one place, and a giant round footprint forms on the ground. And then another footprint, far to the side and in front of it. As the heat and the smell grow more intense, the invisible form shimmers into full view, a black.... thing with red markings on it, two elephantine feet, a long tail, and flaming spines sprouting along its back. The squared head has no eyes, but a fang-filled mouth opens and lets out a screeching roar.

Shigure has posed:
    Yamashiro has 360 'vision' thanks for her turrets, and their fairy operators. The banks swap priorities when they spot a spectre bearing down on Lexicon's back, withering it down with concentrated fire.

    As the numbers start to thin, the ground shakes under the footsteps of something massive, and then the wall crumbles under the weight of it stepping down. Yamashiro grits her teeth, "Primary battery, all turrets, traverse, bearing 280. Load type 91 Armour Piercing. Elevate 12 degrees, prepare to fire, sequential spread. Two second delay."

    Yamashiro speaks into her radio. "We have a new player, some kind of large monster just broke down the east wall." Yamashiro's turrets unlock, swivel into place and elevate, the lower pair ratcheting out on their gimbals to provide a better spread. She sweeps her arm forwards, and intones. "FIRE!" causing each barrel to belch out a plume of flame and smoke, launching a shell at the large beast, one after another with a two beat space between each barrel discharging.

Lexicon has posed:
    Small fry are small fry-- Knocking them down, cutting them up, smashing the pieces one can get to before they can reconstruct themselves. Lexicon sweeps her axe out of her spinning attack, holding it up high and behind herself. She eyes one of the less-completely-destroyed specters picking itself back up, "It isn't hard to knock 'em down. It's getting the fuckers to stay down that's the trick."

    Rumbling and then a wall entrance. Lexicon whirls on the new challenger's arrival, the symbols in her pupils shining in the evening light, "Oh, did we kill enough mooks to spawn the boss?" She casts a glance at Yamashiro when she hears what she presumes to be heavy artillery loaded. The axe is lifted, braced with both hands, "Hold still for the big guns, giant flaming jackass! LATENT KATASTROPHE!"

    When Lexicon brings her axe down, blue-white energy pulses into the ground where the blade impacts, dashing off at right angles like circuitry. Moments later, ice erupts around the Kasha's legs in an attempt to hinder its movement. Not just blocks around the feet, but various icy spines and spikes breaking out through cracks in the courtyard stonework as well.

Yomi Isayama has posed:
The kasha staggers as a pair of shells slam into it, cracking its skin and showing a glowing red underneath the black hide. It roars in confusion as ice sprouts around it, having never encountered anything like that attack. Several of the ice spines pierce one of its legs, though its weight and large feet seem to give it very good balance despite having only two legs.

It lets out a roar and lurches forward, lowering its head... but instead of charging, its neck bends down further, until its head touches the ground. The tail pushes it off, and the kasha begins to roll forward like a giant flaming wheel, leaving tracks of singed grass and cement walkways as it rolls straight toward Yamashiro!

Shigure has posed:
    Yamashiro tchs as her volley doesn't find any critical weakness. And Lexicon's follow up doesn't seem to slow it down either. "Reload, 15 seconds. Type 91 armour piercing." The turrets gimbal back in against her back, and start to emit clanking sounds as shells and powder charges are loaded up and secured.

    But that's when the beast just starts doing its blue hedgehog impression. "Too fast..." She can't dodge it coming in that fast, and so just braces and claws her hands, ready to just bodyblock the thing.

    The flaming spikes crash into her, and with a groan that sounds part human, part metal fatigue, the battleship skids back, digging furrows in the ground as she grasps at the rolling Kasha, slowly arresting its momentum while it burns at her body, scorching her miko outfit.

Lexicon has posed:
    When the beast starts its rolling charge, Lexicon digs her heels in, crouching. Those square-shaped wings burst from her back, panes of light, and the DCC surges right at the Kasha's side with Yamashiro straining to hold it. Her axe swings back, trailing mist and blue-white magic, such that when she brings it forward the head is rapidly encased in ice--forming a colossal blade from the head of her axe.

    "Get the FUCK outta here with that! TODESSTOSS!"

Yomi Isayama has posed:
The kasha isn't used to anything it rolls toward being strong enough to actually stop its forward motion. It jerks as Yamashiro catches it, the flames along its spine burning hotter against the battleship. Its legs extend back out from the wheel shape and plant on the ground, and its head unrolls and lifts until it's just over Yamashiro's head.

As the kasha opens its fang-filled mouth, the ice axe slams it on the side of the neck. There's a loud sound of two hard things hitting together as the black hide on that entire side forms cracks that glow a burning red. The kasha shakes its head and takes a step forward, staggers on the side Lexicon hit it, and uses its tail for balance as it once more opens its mouth and lowers its head to bite at the two!

Shigure has posed:
    Yamashiro takes a half-step back, just as her turrets emit a resonant CLAK, as the breaches are sealed. She lifts red eyes, blazing in the dim light, as the barrels lift to point into that gaping maw. "I hope you're hungry." she growls, firing off a volley at point blank range, pumping all eight barrels out in rapid succession. The secondaries that are still functioning open up as well, filling the Kasha's face with a large amount of 'Ow', like a dog trying to bite a porcupine.

Lexicon has posed:
    That got some headway. The icy axe blade shatters on impact, surrounding Lexicon with mist and shards as she wheels back. Briefly appraising Yamashiro's tactic of point-blank gunfire, Lexicon shifts her axe and raises it overhead. "EIN SCHLAG!" With that shout, she brings her axe down near the neck. With Yamashiro filling its face and throat with explosives, her intent is to straight up decapitate the thing.

Yomi Isayama has posed:
Though it was intending to bite Yamashiro in half, the kasha was not expecting a mouthful of high explosive armor piercing shells. As explosions erupt inside of it, the youkai staggers back again, smoke starting to rise both from its mouth and from several ruptures along its neck and side. It lets out one last roar before Lexicon's axe finds its neck. There's some slight resistance from its tough hide, but the blade manages to cleave right through. There's no blood, as the creature seems to be made only of ash and fire, and the two parts of it fall to the ground, unmoving.

Shigure has posed:
    Yamashiro drops to one knee after her point-blank shot. She breathes heavily, and waves Lexicon off. "Go help Yomi. I'll finish the rest off out here. My equipment is ill suited for combat in confined quarters." she says, traversing her secondary battery to fire on whatever remaining spectres and zombies are still milling around.

Lexicon has posed:
    Lexicon follows through completely with her axe, throwing her body into a somersault. Once she's upright again, she nods once to the battleship, "Got it!"

    Lexicon twists in midair, dashing into the building. Past the door, her Digital Divinity fades and she hits the ground at a run, carrying her hammer one-handed, glancing through classroom doors as she moves down the hallways, "Isayama, give me a direction to go in!"

Yomi Isayama has posed:
Near the doors, the interior of the school doesn't look too damaged. Further in, though, there are deep gashes in the walls, bits of what looks like webbing hanging here and there, and... Shishiou, Yomi's sword, embedded in the wall.

When the exorcist responds through the radio link in her phone, her voice sounds a bit distant, as if she's not holding the phone near her mouth. "Nurse's office! Bring my sword!" There's a loud crash and a growl that doesn't sound like like it was made by someone about Yomi's age, though it definitely isn't her voice.

Lexicon has posed:
    "Shit," Lexicon's curse is low, under her breath. She plants her foot against the wall beside Shishiou, grasping the hilt and yanking the blade free. Now dual-wielding, she makes for the administration--where the nurse office would be. All the damage is noted, but pushed to th eback of her mind for a moment. The only thing that stays up front is the webbing.

    Son of a bitch, she thinks to herself, is this another of those shape-shifting spider bastards?

    Rearing back, Lexicon kicks the nurse office door open, lunging into the room in the same motion, brandishing both weapons, "This better not be more shapeshifter shit!"

Yomi Isayama has posed:
The nurse's office is a mess. Cabinets are overturned, curtains are torn down, more of that webbing is hanging from the walls and ceilings, and most of the bed frames are dented in. Yomi's phone is open and on the floor near a wall.

Yomi herself looks to be in about the same condition as the room. Her uniform is torn in places, her hair is a mess, and there are sveral cuts on her face, arms, and sides.

She's also trying her best to keep someone pinned down, a girl who looks a bit younger than her, wearing a middle school uniform... and with four extra, clawed arms. She probably couldn't manage at all against so many limbs, but her opponent doesn't seem to be able to match her strength... though it's still all she can do to keep those clawed arms from taking swipes at her. "It's not, but... I can't put her to rest without Shishiou!"

Lexicon has posed:
    Welp. Lexicon makes a snap decision. Her friend is struggling to pin someone down who has far too many limbs, and is getting mangled in the process. And will need her hands free to do the thing that makes this monster disappear. She doesn't think too long about it, either. She simply tosses her hands up, discarding her hammer and Shishiou to hit the floor on either side.

    "Time to tag in," is all she says before the small brunette leaps right into the melee. With her high strength and incredible endurance, wrestling the middle schooler should be a simple matter, and frees up Yomi to collect her weapon and do the thing, "I'll take over, sword's right there!"

Yomi Isayama has posed:
The exorcist pauses for a moment as Lexicon wastes no time in coming to her aid. "Lexi..." It's only for a moment, though, before she reaches down to take hold of her sword. When the younger girl sees what's happening, she starts to struggle more, but she's no match for the DCC's strength!

"Lexi... please look away." Yomi closes her eyes briefly and takes a step forward, hand shaking slightly as she lifts her sword. Her eyes slowly open, and she looks down at the girl on the floor. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to save you." There's another pause, to give Lexicon enough time to look away if she chooses, and Yomi brings her sword down through a point just below the youkai's neck. The wound is messy, there's a lot of blood, and... a red gemstone rises up from beneath the cut skin, cracks, and shatters. "Don't touch the shards. They're the cause of this whole mess."

Lexicon has posed:
    Lexicon obligingly does look away. It's not that she's squeamish about non-digital death or viscera. It's entirely out of respect for Yomi's request. While this may spare the Exorcist's emotions, it does little to spare Lexicon's wardrobe, due to the messiness of the strike and the DCC's proximity. She flinches, but once the body goes limp, she releases it.

    "Eugh," the complaint can't be helped. She examines her hands, then the shards littering the floor, "I'll avoid that... Your organization has a cleanup crew for stuff like this?" Turning her head, she fixates on the exorcist, "Because I think you might need to not be in this room right now."

Yomi Isayama has posed:
Once the deed has been done, Yomi flicks her sword quickly to the side to fling the blood from it. Silently for now, she walks over to get her phone and taps a few keys. "Yes, I'll let them handle it. I think you're right. I need to step outside."

Of course, Yomi only makes it a few steps outside the nurse's office before leaning against a wall and sliding down to sit on the floor. Her hand presses to her forehead and she lets out a long breath. "...she was the sister of one of the girls in my class."

Lexicon has posed:
    Lexicon collects her discarded hammer, dismissing it as a code string as she follows the exorcist out of the nurse's office. She hesitates when Yomi slides to the floor, perplexed, until the relationship is explained. The confusion gives way to concern, and the DCC glances downward in silent thought.

    After a long, quiet moment, Lexicon joins Yomi on the floor, right beside the taller girl. An arm is looped around Yomi's shoulders, a tangible gesture of support. No words, only contact.

    Lexicon knows just how distraught that elder sister is going to be... but she knows that Yomi did everything she could. And that's the message she can't put to words, the message she instead tries to convey with her presence.