GHOSTBUSTERS ♦ Exam for Grema

Grema received a letter by her guilds second, currently first, in command and the woman almost wanted to sing. Of course, she didn’t sing, the genius did have an image to keep up, but the feeling was there. Finally, she’s getting the recognition she deserves! No more being the butt of people’s jokes! No more stupid little errands! No more being forced to be social in the name of ‘networking’! Just actual serious guild work from now on and respect!

But… what was this ‘spa’ thing the letter spoke of (though she knew the scientific meaning of a hot spring)? They certainly didn’t make use of that word in Bosco and in the few months Grema has been in Fiore she hadn’t heard such a word being used in any context (at least that she paid attention to). Finally, for the sake of better understanding, the job she was assigned the cyborg gave in and asked her virtual assistant M.A.I for a definition of ‘spa’. Then received exasperated spluttering in return for not knowing such a common thing.

Now Grema was on her way to Bamboo Falls, a bag filled with things her assistant said was necessary for a hot spring resort, though supposedly there will be things given to her there or something. To make the trip faster Grema brought along the over-excited puppy that was actually supposed to be a fearsome Mire Wolf, her newest companion Game Changer. Who was, once again, MUCH to excited to be brought along on a trip with his master.

But Grema was beginning to wonder what exactly she got into. What kind of traditional practice was getting naked in a shared bath with others? Wasn’t that usually considered erotic by cultural standards? People were odd sometimes, but as Mai pointed out Grema should be more open about the culture she was adopted into, no matter how freaky she felt public nudity was.

Game gave a small yip and Grema looked up to see a beautiful large Midi style building amongst the trees and bamboo. The waterfalls and slight steam in the air just made the whole thing more beautiful and Grema began to think she might even enjoy her stay before she remembered she had a job to do. People who stay at this place went missing and it was her job to find out why and get that B rank damn it!

She was greeted at the door by a middle-aged woman wearing a plain Midi kimono and was asked to take off her shoes. Game Changer received an odd look, but after a moment the woman just asked Grema’s permission to wash his feet and put… socks on his paws? Maybe it was for hygiene reasons? Grema didn’t know but gave in and ignored Game’s whines at the manhandling on his ticklish paws. After being shown to her room and how to change both her and Game Changer(??) into their own kimono’s, the woman made a move to leave. It was then Grema stopped her and question the woman about the inn, mostly about the disappearances.

The woman gave a bland businesslike smile with eerily blank eyes and commented on how she wasn’t allowed to talk about such things and that Grema should just enjoy her stay. That honestly didn’t make the cyborg feel any better.


WC: 559

The member 'Grema Fen' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

The kimonos were a plain blue base with a lighter blue and white stripped jacket-housecoat thing to go over the top. Grema was impressed that the outfit was still able to fit her even with her hunch. They were comfortable if a bit hard to move in. Grema left her usual covering off’, leaving her cyborg parts open for the world to see, making her self-conscious.

The inn was also pretty spooky in general. It was getting later in the afternoon, the setting sun making the rooms rice paper doors give off an orange glow, which was in fact very pretty, but the shadows of the bamboo swaying in the wind was less so. It was also oddly quiet for such a large inn. Game Changer shifted uncomfortably in his doggie kimono and gives a whine. He was creeped out as well.

The tension was unnecessarily high as the three beings sat awkwardly in the room. Mai was just about to suggest they question some other people when a rustling sound could be heard outside of the screen door. Grema and Game Changer jumped a mile high, and Mai gave a squeak of surprise from Grema’s arm.

Then the woman immediately felt foolish. She was a mage for goodness sake, one on the cusp of B rank-dom! She could handle whatever was out there!

Resolve made Grema got up and slowly approached the door leading to the garden outside of her bedroom, Game Changer cowering behind her. She then slowly opens the rice paper doors, and with batted breath, peers outside.

Only to find a bunny, a fox, and a tanuki staring at her with glowing violet eyes. Grema lets out a sigh of both relief and discorn at herself for getting so revved up over nothing. Then it occurred to her that having two predators standing beside a bunny so peacefully was suspicious (along with glowing eyes) when they all pounced.

“Aaaahhhggg!” Grema yelled out as she fell over backward as the animals attempted to claw at her throat. Game gave a yip of fear and ran in the opposite direction to hide in a closet, the cowardly dog. Grema received a bit of damage before she managed to yell “Magi Shift: Sheild!” to make a shield form from her mechanical arm, and she used it to knock the beasts off of her. She then used her equipment to fend them off as she dove for her bag and pulled a small cylinder from it. “Magitech Spear!” She yelled, causing a spear of yellow runes to burst from the cylinder.

She stabs the fox as it gets close and bats the tanuki with her shield as it attempts to get her from the side. She manages to fend them off for a while, the rabbit being too quick for to hit it most of the time, grunting as she does so, until the two predators go down unconcise but not dead.

Then the bunny hit unexpectedly, it’s strong legs ricocheting off of her shield, shattering it and breaking the spell as well as sending Grema flying. The cyborg lands against a wall with a grunt and rolls out of the way as the rabbit smashes into the ground, breaking the tatami matt below.

Grema saw her chance. “Die you little critter devil, die! You aren’t some bunny I know! Magitech blast!” Grema yells, her magitech arm changing into a blaster and hitting the rabbit square on, sending it to the same dreamland as it’s friends. “I would make a veggie joke, but there’s no one here to carrot.” Grema says with a tired smile, looking over her work. She was kidding about killing them, that wasn’t her thing but now knew something for certain. There really was something wrong with this inn.

WC: 632

HP: 160
MP: 80
(Buffs: 5% HP regen per post(lineage))
Spells: Spear(3/4), Shift (4)

(Made the two normal monsters into a strong one)

After the threat had been dealt with Game Changer had literally come crawling back to his master with a whine. He was either asking if Grema was okay, or if the threat was really gone. Grema wasn’t sure, she didn’t speak wolf. But she had immediately set to putting the critters out of her room and closed the door, hoping they didn’t wake up still possessed later to attack her again. She didn’t want to tie them up in case another predator found them and killed them, or if they froze to death or something because while the cyborg wasn’t all that fond of animals she didn’t like even their death on her soul unnecessarily.

She had just finished closing the shogi doors when another opened behind her. Whipping around Grema saw that it was just their hostess rather than something else to attack her. Then Grema realized that her room was absolutely destroyed from the battle since the tatami mats and rice paper doors didn’t stand a chance against a mage. There was a moment of awkward silence as they kneeling woman stared blankly at the room, then turned her head to Grema herself. Who started to sweat furiously.

Just as Grema was about to say something about the state of her room, the woman spoke up. “The outdoor hot springs are ready if you would like to take a soak, honoured guest.” The woman spoke in a monotone voice, completely ignoring the destroyed room.

“Uh, ya, thanks… Is there anyone else staying here?” Grema asks, more than mildly creeped out. Usually, because of her hang up on her appearances, the cyborg wouldn’t be caught dead or alive at public places requiring little to no clothes. But she did have a job to do and the best way to do it was to investigate the inn more, including its most popular attraction.

“No, honoured guest, you are the only one. All of the rest went home.” Then the woman smiled, which was the creepiest thing ever since the rest of her face was still suspiciously blank.

“Riiiiight… we’ll just go then…” Grema says slowly, grabbing her stuff and beckoning Game changer all without taking her eyes off the statue-like woman. The hostess got out of the scientists and wolfs way when they left, and Grema felt more than relieved when they went around a corner, out of sight.

The hot springs were beautiful and utterly relaxing. Grema let out a sigh as she relaxed against the stone behind her, this was her first time experiencing hot springs and so far it was great. Game Changer didn’t like the humidity and was relaxing nearby on top of a rock where there was a cool breeze.

The peace was utterly ruined by some morons cannonballing in the middle of the spring. “What the hell?!” She screeches, reaching over to snatch her towel from a ledge behind her, then wraps it around herself and grabs the spear she brought along with her combat gear. What? You didn’t really think she would let her guard down and relax, did you? Grema took her job seriously.

Grema’s horror grew when the cannonballers got up to reveal themselves as a human man and woman, completely naked. The cyborg blushed and didn’t know where to look. A moment later she wasn’t given a choice as they lunged for her, forcing Grema to move fast to get out of the way in time. ‘Dammit, are they possessed or something?!’ The scientist thought as she swung her spear around threateningly. Then realized from the blank looks on their faces and red-tinged eyes that she was on the mark.

“H-hey, snap out of it!” She attempted to reason while standing on higher ground above the spring, batting the naked people away from her with the side of her spear so not to harm them. But she didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t just stab them, the duo didn’t have control of themselves and hurting them would be immoral. Plus she would probably get in trouble. She was a tad stumped.

“Tekekekekeke, that won’t do any good.” “Nono, no it won’t.” Two voices echoed out and Grema immediately started to swing her head. But it was not needed as the mist began to swirl around the area, and two pretty looking, yet short, semi-transparent white ghosts with long Midi princess styled hair and kimonos, one having wind patterns on it and the other water, appeared behind the possessed humans. They looked like pretty versions of those creepy Midi dolls Shea once showed her. Which pissed her off for the specific reason she hatted anybody beautiful as a rule of thumb.

So it was little surprise that Grema launched herself at the duo with a roar of fury. The two float out of the way with shrieks of childish laughter. “Ohohohoho this one thinks she’s funny does she not?” “Kekekekeke Oh yes she does! Minions! Show her you’re funny as well!” With that command the assult of the naked duo became harsher. Grema still didn’t know what to do about them. She still didn’t want to hurt the duo and they were fairly plain looking so she couldn’t use her beauty-rage as an excuse to attack them. Also her eyes still didn’t know how to address the butt-naked situation. Actually it was taking all of her willpower to not die from embarrassment from only being in a towel. At this point a more effective method of beating Grema was if the ghosts stop possessing the couple and just let the cyborg be viewed in all of her glory. It would be an instant KO.

But anyways, those ghosts were hard to hit. It was even harder to hit them and dodge the humans without hurting them. Right now it was a losing battle for the engineer if she didn’t do something since she had already been hit by one of the humans, and man that hurt. Grema knew regular items would go through them, but magical items hit very nicely. She also knew that the ghosts like to stay in the water, why she wasn’t sure. That gave her a plan.

It took some maneuvering and some well thought out moves AND destroying her helpful spear, but things were finally ready. It was still risky for her and the humans, but better than nothing. The plan was so stupidly simple that it almost made her want it to be more elaborate. But she should really just get this done.

“Nyahahaha She’s cornered~!” “Bwahahaha yes she is~!” The two ghosts said, dancing together happily in the water while their minions had concerned the wretched woman. They had been chasing her for what felt like hours as she jumped from rockt-to-rock, sometimes using that spear of hers as a vault until it broke. They didn’t know how she could stand being out in the open like that, wasent she cold? The weirdo got dry after awhile, then dirty as one of their minions hit her, hehe. Now they had her cornered and were about to make her another one of their minions~! Sure they might have destroyed the hot spring in the fight and their boss might be mad at them for awhile, but they caught a mage of all things! But then the girl smirked at them and they tried not to get worried, but the yell out “Tech Lightning Shock!” made them more so. The fact that the mages weird arm was aimed at the hot spring instead of an actual target made them scream out in fright. Then in pain as electricity coursed through them.

Plan succeeded. Both of the humans were down for the count (please please please don’t be dead) and the ghosts looked worse off than before and a lot more pissed. “You bitch!” "We’ll kill you!” They screeched and together started building up a giant ball of shadow. Grema just stood there for a moment, dumbfounded. Were they really that stupid? Their speed was one of their main advantages and they stopped using it? “… Magitech blast.” Grema said in monotone, lifting up her magitech arm and shooting at the building ball. Then she grabbed the humans and took cover.

The explosion of darkness rocked the area as the shrieks of the ghosts joined the blast sound. Grema poked her head around the corner of the rock she hid behind, and yup, the ghosts were down for the count. She checked the humans and was glad to find they were alive but unconcise.

With that done Grema marched over to where the ghosts were floating on the water, grabbed one by the scruff of her kimono with the magitech hand and lifted the scarred looking ghost up to her one good eye. “Now I have a few questions that need answering punk…” Grema growls out to the increasingly fearful ghost.

To their very left lies Game Changer on his rock, who had slept through the entire battle.

WC: 1502

HP: 100
MP: 50
(Buffs: 5% HP regen per post(lineage))
Spells: Spear(3), Shift (3), Lighting (3)

(Put the boss in since word count was reached last point. Sorta defeated her?)

The night was quiet as a lump slept quietly under its futon. The girl and her wolf had retired for the night, thinking their job was done and decided to rest. But they were wrong. The foolish mage left herself open to become another of her pillars to this world. A mistake she will never get the chance to regret. The ghostly figure approaches the sleeping creatues, throws back the covers, then pounces.

Sike. Unknowingly to the ghost boss Grema had gotten all of the information she wanted out of the twins, then stuffed them into the futon as a trap for their boss. While the strikingly beautiful young ghost (which made Grema fume, why were all of the ghosts here good looking?!) reeled from seeing her downed lieutenants, Grema striked from behind. “Poison Point.” She said simply, sticking her magitech arm transformed with a needle into the ghost, then quickly pumping her blood in. The ghosts gives out an inhuman screech of pain as the acidic blood visibly courses through her translucent white body. This ghost looked a lot like the other two, but older and prettier with bamboos stitched onto her kimono. While Grema usually disliked using that spell, it was really needed at the moment since she was running out of magic and she really needed the edge in terms of speed. This spell would give her that.

“You! You wont get in my way!” The ghost screeches and backhands Grema, who blocked it with her magitech arm but got thrown into the wall behind her. The ghost clutches the area the needle stabbed her in pain for a moment, giving Grema time to roll out of the way of the next attack. “Magitech Blast!” Grema yells and grins as the blast hits. Then stops as she is grabbed then bodily thrown through a wall.

“Frick.” She grumbles in pain, knowing she couldn’t take another hit. The ghost shrieks in pain as the poison continues to take effect, and Grema flinches a little. Time for the round up. It was rather simple, she really just needed to make the ghost weak enough for her to talk to it. According to her minions the ghost wouldn’t even listen if she didn’t do at least a little damage. Which she did. So hopefully the next part would work.

Grema had to time it juuuust right. Not now, the ghost wasn’t close enough. Not yet, but power up the device… Now! “Magitech Ball!” The cyborg yells out, tossing out a triangle at the ghost, who stops thinking it was a weapon of sort. She was wrong. The next moment found the spirit trapped in a ball of yellow runes, unable to escape. She first made some leeway by attacking the walls, but soon was to weak from pain to continue and the rebound injuries she accidentally inflected on herself.

Grema waited for her to calm down before speaking. “You’re the founder of this inn, aren’t you?” She said, and the ghost looked up I surprise. “The stupid duo told me, how you owned this in and loved it, so much that you used a spell to keep your spirit here after you died at a young age. You woke up only recently and found that you needed life force to keep you here. Thus you decided to suck it out of the wildlife, your staff and your guests.” Grema summarized, and from the look on the ghosts face, she was correct. “Then think about this. What did you want when you first opened this inn? How did you feel on the first day, when it was full of smiling faces of your guests and staff, and rich in wildlife? From the pictures in the entrance, pretty damn happy and relaxed. That was your goal for your inn, right? To bring happiness and relaxation to those who visit Bamboo Falls, a place you love, and fill them with wonder. To provide and fill your staff with content. To protect the local wildlife. But now because of you and your greed, that dream is dying and I’ll be the last guest this place ever has. No one will be here to enjoy it. Your staff will leave, poor and betrayed. The local wildlife will leave and the ecosystem will fail. Bamboo Falls and your dream will be destroyed. Is that what you want?” Grema finishes off harshly, face blank even as the young ghost starts crying.

“You don’t know me! You don’t know my story! How can you judge it so?!” The ghost cries out, in both physical and emotional pain.

“I don’t. All I know is that happy girl who died so long ago, you, would have never wanted this. And the ghost girl in front of me deserves to have her past dream come true, and most of all, rest in peace. Will you allow me to aid you in both?” Grema offers, still stoic. Usually this wasn’t something she would try to do, or even think she would succeed at, but the cyborg felt a connection to this woman. Both lost their dreams, their homes, and have, or will, die at a young age.

“Yes… your right… In my greed to stay here I lost track of what truly matters… I’ll go but… Please…” Whispered the crying ghost, poison no longer affecting her, the pain all emotional now. “Please help me rest… I-I’m scared… But I’m also tired… can you be with me before I go?” The scientist could tell this wasn’t deception, that the woman was being honest. So she conceded.

Over a fancy gave behind the inn stood a hunchbacked woman, a wolf, and a beautiful ghost. The ghost whipped a tear off of her translucent face and seemed to stay something to the woman, before giving her a hug, then in a breath of wind and in the noise of the shaking bamboo, disappeared. The hunchback and the wolf stayed there for some time, heads bent over, before the woman patted the dogs head and left to inform the now no longer possessed staff what happened, then to report to her guild. Her job here was done.

WC: 1031
Total:3724

HP: 10
MP: 0
(Buffs: 5% HP regen per post(lineage))
Spells: Spear(3), Shift (3), Lighting (3), Poison (3), Ball (5)