trans_9 | Target Practice

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Target Practice

Since living in the new castle with Ruffnut, Mindy had done her best to maintain upkeep, even "borrowing" a few things from the wreckage of Grand Central to spruce up the place. It helped, especially since the events of the homecoming, to keep her head busy. On the one hand, yes, dad had appeared: he wasn't dead, he was proud to know they won, and for just a little bit? She got to be a little girl again, to crack wise with her dad, to show him how far she'd gotten.

But then he was gone again, and the new pod pop didn't bring him out. She shouldn't have hoped for it, but she had, a little. Once that was a no go though, she was either training or helping Ruffnut patch up some of the frayed tapestries or fix up carpeting or overall making sure there were no holes for them to fall through anywhere. It had been good, but even Ruffnut had sort of side stepped asking her about dad. It was something she appreciated: Mindy wasn't known for easily delving into her feelings.

This naturally led to another thing on her mind: what had happened on the mission, where the Castle gun shootout had almost taken her out- SHOULD have, if it was anyone else. She had severely underestimated what she could do: the way she;d moved, the accuracy in each shot, the sheer carnage: that was akin to a limit break.

And now, she wanted to control it.

She emptied herself of all thought: that was how a fight in the dark was, if you had no edge. There were only a few precious seconds to gather your mind, and then you opened your eyes and all hell broke loose. Your eyes and your hands had to work in tandem then, and you pulled back and took out people one by one until you got the job done or you were dead.

Like now: it was those gun slingers from the castle, and she started with ten at first, taking them out easily. The background was the saloon again, only she made it bigger to accomdate the increase in shooters.She cursed to herself (it was too quick!) then brought the number to fifteen, then twenty.

Each took less time, and Hit Girl nodded: she HAD gotten better. She wasn't even using Zetta's gun or her artifact, and she was still taking these bastards down.

"All right: switch it to forty, and place them all over the bar."

Ok. GO.

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"Oh, that's right. You have that different type of demon. I should probably meet them sometime." Knowing about other worlds demons would be very useful.

"Well, there's tons that hang about the hotel." He made a large gesture with his hands to emphasize. "I don't mean like a a dozen or something, I mean that there's gotta be at least 100 attached to that place. It's really charged up. S'why I like it, really."

"They're mostly human spirits." He shrugged. "I mean, of course there's a few other spirits here and there, like the cluster of wisps hanging out in the chandelier of the ballroom, but for the most part it's people."

Hana spoke about them more as if they were part of the hotel staff rather a gathering of left behind souls.

"Are you serious?" Hit Girl looked a little amused. "With all this time you spend with Ruffnut, I figured you would have met Overlord Zetta by now! He's kind of our trainer and everything. Besides, a talking book is kinda hard to miss, since he's also on the council."

Now that was something she wanted to know about. The last thing she needed was to know there were a bunch of peeping tom ghosts all over the place. Not that they really had anything to peep at, Mindy being an underage twelve year old and Ruff with the physique of...well, a twelve year old with a growth spurt, but that was neither here nor there.

"A hundred spirits, are you shitting me?" Hit Girl said, looking pretty shocked. "What, did they die here or something? Not that I'd care, mind you, but that's still something pretty shocking to find out! What do they want?"

"Well, I met Zetta, but it was only once. 'Sides, just one meeting won't teach me much, will it? I mean, you wouldn't learn everything about Oni from just one meeting with one." He stopped to think about that. "Actually, you wouldn't learn much at all from a few meetings since the lower lever ones don't talk so good."

Hana on the other hand, seemed totally relaxed about the idea of spirits being hither and fither. That was probably the difference in seeing them all your life and suddenly finding out they were all around you unseen.

He smiled a Hit Girls shock, the reaction to spirits was always fun. "At least a hundred, yeh. Likely more." Hana's smile grew as he explained. "Remember when Ruff wanted to rip down that picture hanging in the hall and the closet suddenly opened and all those buckets fell on her?" He chuckled at the memory. "That was Janice. Man, she was piiiiissed. Real unhappy with Ruff for trying to take it down. Had to talk with her for a whole half an hour about it before she agreed she'd let Ruff move it."

He paused at the dying comment. "Some did, some didn't." He said, mysteriously.

Hana began idly picking at the threading of his clothes as he tried to elaborate. "Spirits gather at certain places. Sure, some'll actually died here, or known this place when they were alive. Just like some will have know or died in the hotel. But any spirits in the area will sense the energy coming from that place and be drawn to it. The more that come, the more energy, the more will sense it. It just grows and grows. Most of 'em don't remember how they died, it was so long ago. After being around that long, you don't see the sense in remembering something so small and pointless."

He bit his lip, looking as though he was divulging secrets about a friend he had concerns about. "They don't really want anything. I mean, some want to pass on, and I've been helping them. But most just like hanging around. They don't wanna go yet. They like being here. Those are the human one's anyway. And the nature spirits, like the wisps and stuff, they don't pass on anyway. They always exist one way or another, they just think the hotel is one big fun home."

"Alot just got brought here, like us. And they're kinda stuck. Some can't even pass on coz of it. And the one's that had no attachments, or just had weak ones to places in the City, just ending up going to the hotel and making friends there. They've made it their home." Hana shrugged, looking at Hit Girl with an open, honest face.

"I guess since the City is a mix up of places, it brought along a mix up of spirits too."

"No, you definitely won't, but trust me, he'll at least give you a good idea what the demon world is like where he is from. That, and he's supposed to be an Overlord anyway, so he'd be a good idea to know where a lot of that bravado comes from."

She nodded. "Yeah, although it is Ruffnut, so I figured she might have just been clumsy: she does stuff like that sometimes. Why did the spirit get so pissed about that anyway?"

Mindy nodded. She'd read up on stuff like will'o'wisps, and faeries and all, but she had no idea these could technically count as spirits. "So you're saying that these guys just like being around where there's a lot of energy. That makes sense: Lash is working in the place, so its bound to get a big boost, and obviously Ruffnut is like one big thing thunderclap, so they would want to come here. At least they're not angry or something."

She shivered a little. "Ghost energies on Stacy. I wonder if we'd even want to know their story."

Another shrug. "Janice has been around the hotel for ages. She used to work there. Still does in a way. That was one of her favorite pictures."

"Yeah, they really like being in the hotel. And it's good for them." He was smiling again. "Plus with that much power and their own power, they're pretty much set. They'll let you know if there's something they want. Usually they shake stuff or something. Most of 'em will just wanna play though."

"Mmm, I could ask but... You know." A person's death was kind of personal. "They usually tell me themselves if they want to share it."

"Oh, so she was probably one of those kind of anal retentive people who liked things to be just so where they work. I've seen them before. One of them as a ghost should be pretty wild."

That still creeped her out slightly. She was just chasing puberty, and she really didn't like the idea of some freaking ghost popping in and watching her or something. Then again, there was the obvious cool part of living in a place with ghosts. REAL ghosts. Who could pass that up?

"Yeah, I hear you. I'm just sort of wondering what kind of ghosts we have. I don't wanna wake up to, like, rapist trees or the fucking backyard trying to eat us or something."

Hana could sense she was still a bit uneasy about it all, it made sense, the subject of ghosts always did that to people. "Hey, you alright?"

He tilted his head. "Er... Okay. I don't think you have to worry about that." Hit Girl thought up some weird stuff. "Most of 'em like you anyway."

"Yeah, I'm all right," Hit Girl said. "It's just...in my world, we sort of know about ghosts and things, but not really. Most people think that those who talk abut ghosts are kooky in the head, and what they can't see can't be real. I believe you, it just makes me question a lot of stuff about people and mortality and the next life, I guess."

She chuckled. "I watch a lot of movies, ok? I'm pretty sure spirits don't do that stuff...I hope. But I haven't really felt creeped out at the place, and truthfully, I'd stay even if there were poltergeists there. I wouldn't let Ruffnut be alone, and honestly? It's good to actually have a place to live, instead of sleeping in random places."

"Heh, don't worry, I get it. Nowadays we tend to keep our powers to ourselves since people find it weird. Or they hassle us about talking to dead relatives. Or think that we're a bunch a hippies talking to trees." He shrugged, the spectrum of prejudice was pretty wide.

"I've been trying to teach Ruff how to see 'em." The look on his face indicated that it wasn't go so well. "But she's gotten real good at sensing them. And of course she can hear them, especially the non-human ones, they're always giggling." Hana smiled. "Most of the time it's just easier for me to show them to her."

He looked Hit Girl over. "You can probably hear them. You've got power. You could probably sense 'em too, if you try. Ruff said she found it confusing at first coz her powers were new so she didn't know the difference between all the different types of energy, they all ended up meshing together and not making sense."

"Those are all really stupid reasons not to listen to you guys. Ghosts are serious business, at least as far as I know. These guys sound ok though. But look at it this way: now that you're on the ship, its not like people are going to hassle you about it. Hell, we have a girl on board that sees ghosts, right?"

At least she was pretty sure about that.

And there was that stupid twinge when he mentioned Ruffnut again, like she should get mad about that. Why? Its not like Ruffnut would only stay her friend forever, that was retarded. Anyway, what the hell, she liked Hana: he cared about Ruffnut like her, right?

"Sometimes her powers of observation aren't so great," she said. "She tends to put more stock in what she can see and hear and taste. I think its why the Overlord likes her as his disciple in the first place: she barrels along into things, when shes sure they're there. I just make sure she doesn't, you know, fall off a cliff or whatever. For me? Um...maybe. I never really thought about using my abilities to detect stuff like that."

Hana grinned and chuckled. "Heh, that's why the non-human ones like her. They're all about impulse and doing as they please without thinking too far ahead. It's why their pranks can be dangerous. They think 'making a step on the stairs disappear would be so funny' not 'that could really hurt someone'." The cheery look on his face showed he probably thought along the same lines.

Hana was totally oblivious to Hit Girls thoughts.

"Well, you can always just come get me if you want to talk to them so it's no big deal if you don't wanna do the whole sensing thing. I mean, I need to know where spirits are because it's kinda important to how I fight, but it's just second nature to me, I see 'em even if I don't wanna. And Ruff just wanted to know how because she thought it was cool." He flashed her a playful smirk. "Plus I think she wanted to make sure they couldn't sneak up on her."

Hana waved his hand dismissively. "But you don't need to worry about that, since you've got your friend there, no other spirits will be goosing you." He said, oddly.

"No wonder they're always messing with her: they just like doing that! In that case, I don't feel too bad about the ghosts being ?around: as long as they're not spying on us, what's the big deal? They're probably just mischievousness, right? Steps disappearing and stuff isn't such a big deal."

All the better: those thoughts were stupid to her anyway. Probably a result of not having actual friends as long as she had.

"Good to know," she said. "Hopefully we won't need to have someone talking to ghosts, but you never know. Anyway, I do think its cool to be able to see and talk to ghosts. I'm with her though: I dont exactly want one walking in on me in the shower or something."

She cocked her head. "Goosing me? Do they do that?"

"Yeah, you might get some perverted ones. But usually the other spirits will see them off and keep them at bay."

Hana burst out laughing, his mane of hair bouncing. "Joking! Joking!" He bit his lip to hold in his laughs. "I mean, some might give you a pinch but I've never heard of a ghost goosing someone!"

"It's a reaction they love. Screaming. Squealing. All that." He was still chuckling, just a bit. "But like I said, you've got your new little friend to watch out for you, so he'll probably stop the others bugging you too much." Hana gestured above Mindys head vaguely.

Hit Girl looked pretty stricken now. The last thing she wanted to do was contend with a perverted ghost: wasn't the occasional perverted demon along with crazy humans and nutty aliens enough?

And then Hana revealed he was joking, which earned him what Ruffnut got on a daily basis from Hit Girl: a swift punch on the arm. "You bitch!" She exclaimed, grinning. "You really had me going! Perversion is not something that's hard to find in my world!"

She shook her head. "Ghosts are messed up then. But I guess everyone likes a practical jokes, especially when they're dead."

Now Hit Girl looked puzzled. When he mentioned her having a friend she thought he was taking about Ruffnut: but now she thought he was talking about someone else.

"Wait, are you serious? Do I have a ghost following me?"

"Hey!" He rubbed his arm, feigning pain before reaching up to ruffle her wig. "Oh man, your face! Should have seen it! Best thing ever!" He laughed so hard he almost lost his balance.

"Come on, admit it! It was funny!"

Hana looked at her, tilting his head. "Yeh. I thought you knew." He pointed to just above her shoulder. "It's not really 'attached' to you, you know, when they follow you everywhere all the time? But it does seem to like you."

"I should totally crush you for that, and easy on the hair man! It gets enough abuse from me!"

But Hit Girl was laughing now. It seemed silly, thinking of Hana as just one of Ruffnut's friends. He seemed like one of those guys you could hang around with, occasionally feel like killing, but in truth she generally did like the guy. He was one of those guys you could just hang out with and laugh with before puberty did weird things with your brain.

"Ok, it was a little funny, in a perverse kind of way. Now, I figured it wasn't attached to me, otherwise it'd be a pretty fucked up ghost by now. But how do you know it seems to like me?"

"Ha! Like I don't know you could totally beat my ass!" His tone became playfully taunting. "Aww, does the girl not like me messing up her hair?"

He put his hand just above her head, in that irritating 'I'm not touching you!' way friends just love to do. He liked Hit Girl, but in typical boy fashion, you had to tease your friends.

"S'not really a 'ghost', it's more like a Holy Spirit. And I can just tell." Hana looked contemplative for a moment before smiling. "Wanna meet him?"

"Damn right you know I can kick you ass!" Hit girl said, tripping him on purpose. "And don't you forget it! The wig is...kind of important, actually. Hides my hair and keeps it in place, and honestly, I do enough insane shit I'm surprised it's still in one piece."

She was serious, but she also didn't mind the teasing. She did bat away at his hand playfully though, not seriously trying to keep him away.

"A holy spirit?" Hit Girl said, looking skeptical. "Ok, now I know you might be full of it. Nothing with the word 'holy' in it would willingly follow me. I'll believe it when I see it."

He flailed his arms so he'd stay upright, pouting and poking her cheek. "Oi! Meanie!"

"Yeh, most people think it's weird when we say 'Holy' but that's because you're thinking about human definitions. Spirits aren't bound by the same rules."

In smiled at her 'when I see it' comment. "Whatever you say."

Hana reached over, looking as if he was going to stroke her cheek, but instead the hand veered off and he grasped at something in the air just beside her ear.

Suddenly, an orb of bright light appeared in his hand, as it shined and flicked, a cheerful giggle filled the room. As he drew it around to hold it between the two of them, the glowing orb grew long wings, giving it a similar appearance to Navi.

With what could only be described as a 'pop of light', the orb had suddenly been replaced by what seemed to be fairy of some kind. It had the shape of an infant or young child's body, the long wings now sprouting from its back. It didn't really possess any distinguishing features aside from a vague indication of where its nose should be, the general shape of what seemed to be eyes, and what looked to be the outline of spiky hair around its head.

"This," Hana declared, "is a type of Holy Spirit (http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n16/Itako_No_Dragon/holyspirits.png)."

Its whole body, including the spiky head of hair, was a light shade of lilac, aside from the eyes, which were slightly darker. Its stumpy hand was holding onto Hanas as it looked at Hit Girl curiously.

Hit Girl couldn't help it: she giggled, then remembered herself. That was a MINDY thing to do, not a Hit Girl thing. It was hard enough these days, keeping the two personas so separate.

"Well if that's the case, why don't you show me different?"

No sooner were the words out of her mouth that she twitched slightly as he reached out for something near her cheek. Had she thought him up to no good, he would have never gotten that far: likely she would have caught the offending finger and bent it back. But it was obvious he was going for something and a moment later, he had this circle of light, which seemed to be laughing. The longer he held it, the more it looked like something out of a Miyazaki film (SO SHE LIKED PRINCESS MONONOKE AND SPIRITED AWAY FUCK YOU).

She stared at the creature, and it seemed to stare back. It sorta reminded her of Kodoma, a kind of spirit that said nothing but seemed to stare holes through you. It smelled good though, like the memory of something she forgot a long time ago. In a way, the only word to describe it was pretty.

"It's...wow," she said, dumbfounded.

The spirits eyes seemed to scrunch up to indicate a smile and it giggled a sweet, echoing laugh despite having no visible mouth. It was about the size of Mindys head and gave off a faint glow, its wings didn't move, instead it just floated in the air of its own accord.

Hana grinned proudly as Hit Girl stared, always happy to show off the more wonderful aspects of his world and powers. "Yeh, these guys usually hang about in groups. They're real big on tricks and pranks. Just like little kids really, love having fun."

Hit Girl really didn't have any smart alecky comments that came to mind, or any real criticisms to make: she knew it was likely that most people in her world wouldn't have seen something like this without completely losing their shit somehow. What was more, it was weird in a way, Hit Girl thought she was looking at something that seemed kind of...what? Pure?

Well maybe not, with all those pranks those guys would likely play. Likely, it might be something about her age or her energy?

"Wish I knew why it chose me," she finally said. "But man: little kid spirit guys. How do you handle seeing all of these spirits and things, Hana?"

Edited 2011-10-09 02:38 (UTC)

"Because you seem like fun, human!" The spirit suddenly spoke up, again, with no mouth. It had a high voice, enough so to be endearing, but not so much so that it would be annoying. Like the giggling, it had a slight echo to it. "I could tell right away you were interesting! We can sense things about you!"

"Eh." Hana shrugged. "I'm used to it. I've seen 'em since I was born. Really, it's just like having other people around all the time. So it can get kinda annoying. Luckily, being a Shaman has its perks, I can usually have 'em do stuff or make 'em go away for awhile."

Hit Girl definitely started when she heard the voice, but finally she had to laugh a little. "Fun? I guess that's a word for it, fun. I know some other people might have more creative words for it. But who am I to go arguing with spirits?"

And that definitely got her attention. "You can actually make these spirits do things? Not that I would say you should be making them do stuff, but I'm curious. What exactly do you make these guys do?"

The spirit laughed again, doing a little mid-air somersault to show its happiness.

"Well, I mean, it's not nice to 'make' them do stuff. But they usually don't mind so we aren't really 'making' them, and having them do things is just sort of what we do."

He paused to think about it, remembering when he had to try and briefly explain the same thing to Ruffnut. "We can have them do loads of stuff. We can Hyōi Gattai, which is sorta like letting the soul integrate with us, which is handy, it gives us their strength, knowledge and wisdom but there's a few catches."

Hana then tried to put the idea of integrating into more relatable terms. "So, if anyone but a Shaman had a soul integrated into them, even those who can see ghosts, it'd be a 'possession', since only Shamans can control spirits. Strong willed people can fight 'em off a bit but really they're no match and the spirit will take over."

He gestured to the Holy Spirit, which was now waving at Hit Girl. "So, if this guy wanted to possess you, even though you can you have some power, which allows you to see him sometimes, and you're strong willed." He prodded Hit Girl in the chest, smirking. "I can tell." Hana continued. "He'd still end up taking complete control." He pointed to himself. "Shamans are incapable of being possessed, as our souls will dominate any others that try to enter."

Hana grinned widely. "But the best way of using a spirit by far is an Oversoul."

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sorry about the novel ^^;;

It's totally fine, Mindy likes learning new stuff

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