City streets and backroads

"Yuuuuuuuup."

Isamu agrees and then he reaches down and drags her to her feet. Once she is settled back down he gives her a serious look, ready to slap her if she keeps panicking.

"We aren't done yet. That was just a projection it wasn't the spirit itself."

He lets her go and his eyes go roaming around. Spending even that small amount of time focused on her could have spelled trouble but for the moment it appeared they were safe.

"Now you were doing pretty good when the projection showed up. So calm down, grit your teeth, and follow my lead. It's your best bet to survive this."

"You better hope that you can if you want to live."

Isamu says as he starts to move, trusting her to follow him. The house was larger than it should have been with far more doors and corridors than was possible, to the inexperienced Kiyoko she would feel lost yet as long as she followed Ping he seemed to know exactly where he was going, navigating with a surety that was in stark contrast to the dishevelled washed out monk he'd been acting like back at the temple.

"Most spirits, the ones you have likely dealt with, are harmless for the most part. Even the dangerous ones, the ones filled with anger that your average exorcist deals with can only do so much. However, those are all spirits that just have unfinished business, those can be helped and guided, made to move on."

He stops kicks in a door and heads into the room making his way to a back wall.

"Some ghosts, some spirits, are malicious though. Real evil sons of bitches who die and their unfinished business is to keep on hurting people. They will feast on other ghosts and spirits, become stronger, more powerful. They gain a measure of control over the space they haunt. They can send out projections that manifest physically in the world. They lure people in, toy with them, feast on their suffering, then kill them and consume their spirit to make themselves stronger. They are one of the most dangerous form of yokai, true demons."

As he was talking he raps his knuckles against the wall until he finds what he is looking for. Then he kicks that in as well, each blow of his foot splintering wood until a doorway appears behind which is a long staircase leading down. Turning to look at her.

"If you still want to be my apprentice by the end of this, understand that this is the kind of spirit you are going to be dealing with. The kind of spirits the other exorcists are frightened of. So you don't get to be afraid of them, you get to suck it up, grab your sacred instruments and kick their fucking asses. Because if you don't no one else will and people will die."

"It's not about who's strongest." He says with a snort. "It's about having the balls to get it done." Which was true, he knew some priests who had far more spiritual power than he did. The issue was that they were all pacifists, people who had forsaken worldly desire to be one with the universe, and while they had the raw power to resist the more virulent ghosts they didn't have the will power to fight them only ward them off.

"Come on, let's see what we are dealing with." He turns and heads down the hidden passage step by step. As they move a smell starts to fill the tight corridor. It was unmistakable, almost choking, the scent of rot and decay. "Before this place closed down it was an inn," Isamu says through the pungent odour. "Whenever a young woman checked into the inn by herself she would go missing."

They come to a door the scent of decay was almost overpowering here. "They were all travellers so it took them some time to figure out what was happening when they finally did the innkeeper had already killed twenty young women over the course of sixteen years. They never found their bodies and after his execution, they condemned the inn. But then rumours starting springing up that anyone who went into it would vanish."

Once again he kicks open the door and inside is a nightmare. Bodies were littered everywhere. Some almost fresh, others rotted down to the bone, the newer ones were missing chunks, and the older ones were missing limbs. The stench of death wafts out like a wave of putrid entropy enough to make even Isamu gag before he pulls out a rag and binds it around his face handing one to Kiyoko.

"The spirit of a cannibal, if its hatred is strong enough, can return to its lair after death to continue to hunt."

Folding his arms Ping watches as Kiyoko reacts like anyone exposed to rotting flesh and the abundant horror like this for the first time would. Even he wasn't completely immune, hence the rag around his nose and mouth. They were dipped in a potent citrus scent to help keep the gag-inducing stench of death from overwhelming them. He could have given her the rag before he opened the door but that would have lessened the blow.

There could be no quarter or compromise when dealing with spirits of this nature, which meant that she needed to have this first experience be as unfiltered as possible. "I did the same thing the first time my master brought me to a yokai lair." Of course, that had been the cave of a more traditional kappa spirit, the sight of those small bodies in that dank cave haunted him to this day.

"But you can't afford to show such weakness." As if to punctuate this she would feel something silken and soft wind around her neck. The rope suddenly pulled taught choking her and dragging her to the side towards the waiting maw of darkness before Ping surged forward and with a swing of his staff brought it down in a blaze of holy light severing the rope.

She would likely be horrified to discover that it was made of braided human hair, doubtlessly taken from its numerous victims. An intense hateful wailing rises from the other side of the room. Somewhere in the darkness, the beast was displeased to find its rope had been severed. "Your life is on the line!" He snaps at her. "Now stop crying and get ready." The beast would be coming for them soon.

"Don't apologize." Ping growls as his eyes stare into the darkness. "I've given you all the coddling you will get on this job. From here on you will have to act like an exorcist if you want to survive." There is no indication that he'd noticed anything untoward as she'd been laying on the floor. Then again, his attitude had shifted once again. He now seemed to be in a far more serious mood, he had many faces Isamu Ping but she was now seeing the closest thing to his true face as she was likely to observe.

From the darkness there is a steady click, click, clicking and then it emerges. The thing was terrifying to say the least. It had pallid grey flesh and a vaguely human-like upper body. Its limbs were bit too thin though and they bent at odd angles. Bits of bone were erupting from its chest, arms, and head forming a protective carapace. Its jaw was elongated and filled with razor feet and it was approaching them on the ceiling. Its bottom half had four spider-like legs with sharp talons that let it cling to the ceiling.



It lets out an ear wrenching shriek, loud and piercing enough to make Isamu grind his teeth in pain as he readies his rosary beads. Then it launches itself from the ceiling heading directly for the older exorcist. Talons raised to strike as it moves so quickly it was almost a blur of motion. The creature was death made manifest, its emaciated frame spoke of a terrible hunger that would only be satiated when it had rent the flesh from their bones and sucked out the marrow.

The creature seems to sense the attack. One of its legs bends unnaturally digging into the ground and it shifts direction at the last moment dodging the arrows... mostly. Ony of them does clip it in the arm and it hisses in pain as the holy magic burns its skin. Leaping back it scoops up a femur and hurls it with deadly force directly at Kiyoko's head.

Before it turns its attention back to Isamu he rushes in. The head of his staff is thrust into its face like a spear, the creature jerking back with unnatural reflexes but that was what Isamu was counting on. He whips out his prayer beads and the long necklace wraps around its neck while it is on the back foot and he jerks it forward knocking it off balance.

The arrow stricks true and the creature hisses as it pierces its flesh. Black Miasma leaks from the wound and it struggles against the holy beads. Realizing it can't free break the infused beads it lashes out with its legs forcing Isamu to move backward his grip on the beads breaking. Without him holding them taught the creature tears them free and quickly launches them at Kiyoko this time throwing them like a pair of Bolas, low and at her leg. The speed of them would make it hard for any normal person to dodge.

While that was happening it lunges at Ping with its claws and he is forced to ward off its blows with his staff. He moves with skill but it was seeking to overwhelm rising up on its hind legs to attack from four directions at once.

The onslaught almost had Isamu on the ropes. He knew he couldn't keep it up forever his only hope was that Kiyoko was going to be able to capitalize on its focus on him. He doesn't see what happens but as the shards bury themselves into the creatures back it cries out in pain its clawed hands reaching behind it trying to rip free the painful shards free.

This gives Isamu the opportunity to strike though. He slams the pointed end of his staff up and into this neck, jerking it savagely tearing a massive hole open in its shell. The creature lets out a horrifying shriek grasping at its neck trying to keep the black miasma inside. It doesn't realize its mistake until the staff whirls around and drives into its stomach.

The creature screams and backhands Isamu who flies across the room smashing against the wall with a painful thud. However, his job was done. The creature staggers from one side to the other trying desperately to stop its essence from leaking out but its too much, too quickly, it can't recover from this and soon it collapses and dissolves into a cloud of black smoke.

Groaning Isamu forces himself back to his feet as some of the oppressive aura of the place subsides. But they weren't done, not yet. He staggers over to the unconscious priestess and slaps her cheek lightly. "Come on, wake up." He says with a low growl.

The sudden shift in demeanour takes Isamu by surprise and he retreats pulling out a prepared talisman from his pocket. It doesn't take him long to deduce who the woman is. "Ancestor spirit." He mutters a curse under his breath as he pulls out his flask and takes a swig. This was the last bloody thing he needed.

"A moron would be the one trying to coddle the girl."

The exorcist growls in dismissal clearly not thinking much of the obvious attitude of the spirit.

"Now clam up before I banish you. Your descendant is going to miss the last part of her lesson because of you."

Turning on his heel he stalks off into the darkness. They'd banished the primary shade of the spirit but they needed to purify its lair or it would eventually reconstitute its form. So he was going to set the place on fire.