Case 0: The Midnight Train

Upon Lethe's face -- her large grin grew and grew as Kore approached.

She didn't even really need to look at her. There wasn't any intent behind it, but the threat that Kore could theoretically pose sat passively in her head. After all -- Lethe would be quite familiar with an old training partner. Her mind had begun to form scenarios -- as instinctively as one might breathe. But at this point, it wasn't something that bothered her.

As she heard her voice, she whipped around to meet her like an energizer bunny. Kore might remember that Lethe was as energetic as ever. Her face did not lie and in reality she was very happy to see her. "I was wondering when you were going to show up." Lethe smiled as if she'd just received a compliment. "I'm doing that good of a job, huh? Maybe I'll think about it." Lethe giggled. Like she said -- she literally had given it thought. But discarded it as quickly as it appeared in her head. She returned the dap, her grip firm for a brief moment as she then fluidly went through the motions.

"I'm glad to see you." Her face became a bit less competitive and mischievous, and more warm. A sincere smile for an old friend who was at least close enough to know her real name. But as much as she would like to catch up, there was something a bit more important.

With that -- Lethe's eyes turned towards the woman who'd yet to speak. And seemed to be struggling to do so. She'd a pleasant smile still lingering on her face. Lethe spoke quite a few languages and it wasn't too uncommon to meet with people who weren't the best at english. She couldn't help but wonder exactly what language she spoke but suspected it might be something that wasn't human. Her patience had been far from tested.

The smile did not leave when the woman placed her hand the sword. Lethe held out her hand in front of Keeper's. A motion that held no force. But it's message was one beyond words. But a few words to make her intentions clearer would probably not hurt.

"Easy. It's okay. Ally." Lethe chimed, speaking in single words. But she would lower her hand. The woman was on edge and she didn't want to. By now, some onlookers were probably beginning to make the decision to hurry along to where they were going. And many were making the decision to cross the street rather than pass by the now trio.

With that -- Lethe would listen to her words and was glad to get them. She certainly wasn't writing Shakespear any time soon. But the message had gotten across. Particularly given the resentfulness all over her face. That in and of itself seemed to tell a story -- along with her tone. Despite her being from somewhere else, she seemed to care and be sincere. That in and of itself said a great deal to her. It wasn't as though Lethe was a stranger to bloody trails herself, after all.

"I see." She said. The woman admitted that they were drawn to it. But this was not something deliberate or planned. "If normal people won't help, that's why we're here." She said simply. Lethe was human but not quite normal, she liked to think. There was a brief moment given the ponder what the Keeper had said. But in reality, Lethe had no more questions. While the towering figure was one of few words, most of the details she gave were very relevant to what she wanted to know. As to why they were here. And what they were doing. She didn't know what they were up against aside from it being a "Yokai."

But this was far from the first time that Lethe had gone against an obscure threat or otherwise mostly unknown opponent.

"Good enough for me." There was a brief look at Kore and then at keeper. With a shrug, Lethe had begun to move towards the station, and she cleared the tape as she hopped over it and then landed. Her boots would hit the ground and echo all throughout quiet train station. Before moving forward, she drew only one Glock and held it in both hands. She scanned the area and was determined to be the first to get close to any threat -- so that she could alert anyone else. Yet outside of her intuitive ability to find danger, she scanned the subway for clues as to what happened and what was here. Things as blatant as corpses and as subtle as how well lit the place was.

"You two play nice!" Despite how tactically Lethe moved, she didn't seem to be very stealthy. It was a bit difficult in a bright purple outfit. But if anyone was lost in the dark -- they'd be able to spot her at least fairly easily. Even if it was very unlikely.

And if something came at her, then maybe it'd be apt to attack her first.

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Keeper looked at Kore for a moment, before watching Lethe walk off towards the station. She wasn’t reassured by Lethe calling Kore an ally - but it wasn’t really fear behind her eyes. She wasn’t afraid of Kore, it was more like she was bracing for something that was going to happen. Nevertheless, she followed towards the station; waving her hand for Kore to walk and talk with her as she made her own way into the station.

As she walked, she thought about how to explain. Her hand would drift to her chin, thinking about the words before just shrugging her shoulders.

“Spirit. Curse. Malevolent - often appears due to many factors. Buried without being known, murder; negative emotions. Manifest from that. Not always dead people, enough negative emotion in area - yokai will exist. Sealed away for a long time. Idiots let them out.”

She explained, just shaking her head. A bit too generalised for her tastes so she stopped for a moment, her horns lighting up a path in the station - she wasn’t much else for stealth either. The girl would stop, making sure Lethe and the Anti-Christ could hear her before proceeding.

“Not… All yokai bad. Some guardians. Some help humans. Not all bad. Just some evil, cause misery because there’s nothing else they do. Vengeance. Anger - amplified.”

She explained, gesturing around as she looked around the entrance into the station. It was bleak, it was empty. Dark and dank, there wasn’t a sound at all. For anyone who lived a normal day to day life, that might have been fine - an abandoned train station making no nose? But Lethe would notice it, that her footsteps weren’t making a nose. This station was covered in artificial silence - completely drowned in it.

Keeper noticed it, but she looked around still, waiting for her new allies to keep walking. They were the investigative types, she was a very bruteforce type of person. Being a yokai herself, even half, usually aggravated them to no end. But she noticed that there was nothing, silence. That put her on edge, and her hand would grip her sword as she looked around.

There was a shift in the air that Sacha sensed. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and then she whipped around to face the sealed off entrance -- shining a light on it as her mind alerted her to the danger of being unable to go back the way that she came.

"Oh? We actually can hear each other. Good! Makes it at least a little harder to get picked off." She said, lightening the mood at least a little bit. And yet one could see that she was yet ever alert and was watching whatever it was that came her way. When it came to listening however -- she found herself listening to key words of what keeper said. In her mind, the "Yokai" seemed to be a diverse bunch. But she did mention a bit of consistency. Greed and unnatural pain were two things that came to mind. And there was an attraction seemingly not to Lethe herself with her being a human. But to the two of them. As they simply had more "energy". It made sense to her. A thing stood out.

"Sounds almost like a spirit. Like something bulletproof." The thought of that didn't scare her. Because likely one of the other two had other things. Especially the one who likely had a great deal of experience with them. "But wouldn't be my first time. If you have something like a blessing or a spell, I'd appreciate it!" While Lethe found herself able to feel the danger from any source, up to and including magic, it still wasn't as though she had a lot of experience when it came to this sort of thing. Zombies, giants crabs, thugs and other superhumans came to mind. But she hadn't yet fought anything that she pieced together as intangible. Mostly just things that she had to hit harder, set traps, attack faster or attack the correct target. But ultimately were physical in nature.
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But given Lethe's background, she was always one to try different things.

Kore had a plan that sounded nice. And she wasn't saying that just because it involved her being bait and more than likely having her dance with the creature in question. The thought process that she was likely the weakest looking seemed to be appealing. In a way similar to how predators often picked off the youngest looking of the pack, Lethe thought that since she was human, the thing would likely go after her for an easier meal.

"Not much use in splitting up then? Although...since you mention it feeds off power and negative energy, you imply I'm not the one who'd make good bait." Lethe said. A part of her sounded less than enthusiastic. The entire reason she wore the bright outfit was to attract attention and ire of her enemies. She didn't like the thought of putting others in danger.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked towards the source of the dripping. And she began to move towards it. The area was dark but she scanned ahead with the light. Whatever it was, she sought to look at it from a distance. And then slowly but assuredly approach the source of the dripping. It was after all, the only other noise present aside from the voices of the other two. She looked with an inquisitive eye rather than an immediately confrontational one, though she aimed the gun at it to highlight it and in case something did happen that she she saw fit to shoot at as an attack or a distraction.

"I do like a good story."

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“Uhh. Word for it. Normal hitting? Don’t work. Hitting with power? Works. And, we all bait now.”

Keeper followed, resting her hand on her sword. It was clear that she knew something could happen at any moment, and she was ready. She followed to the sound and as they arrived - there was a pool of water where the water was dripping. Above was a pipe that dripped water down into the pool, which almost seemed to be bottomless. Ripples travelled like waves, moving out and reflecting something.

A memory. It was hard to see but it was of a man and a woman, standing at this very train station, waiting for a train while holding each other's hands. The man looked very formal, wearing a very expensive suit. The girl wore a dress, messy hair - but she looked happy. They both did. Which to Keeper was troubling. She would shake her head, almost knowing where this was going - and she didn’t like it. A happy couple? A vengeful spirit?

She looked a bit disheartened once she saw it.

As for the water, it was a still image. Just a happy looking couple. Next to the puddle was a note, folded neatly and just far away enough for it not to get read. As everyone looked around, it looked like the trainstation hallways were getting longer and longer. The area around them was changing, almost like an ever shifting labyrinth. Whatever was here was strong enough to project something like this.

“...Mmh.”