Kai shuddered and followed the sobbing through the doorway.
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Kai shuddered and followed the sobbing through the doorway.
The room was a lavishly decorated bedroom, with numerous hanging beads, paper lanterns, wind chimes, and other decorations.
There were people. Two were on their hands and knees, serving as a living chair for the supernaturally beautiful woman atop them. She wore little, had golden eyes, and was being fed grapes by a third human. No doubt she was a Bakeneko.
By her side was an Oni. Only... not? He was small, by Oni standards and... his face. His face was oddly vacant - even by Oni standards - and... strangely, unsettlingly, human-like. He didn't even have horns!
And in the corner. In the corner was a pale, reeking, woman. She wore what looked like it had at one time been nice clothing, but it was - like she herself - completely covered in dirt and filth. Like the zombie ashigaru, the dirt seemed to be part of her now. Her face was obscured by her filthy black hair, but she seemed to have a lower jaw, and to be the source of the sobbing.
The Bakeneko gave an annoyed sigh and rolled her eyes as the thing continued to sob in the corner.
Kai grimaced and made his way back to the group. He explained what he'd seen, then shrugged. "Full frontal assault?"
"Works for me." Yuanjun shrugged. "I know Shari can't handle an Oni by herself so I can help her with it." She added, cattily.
"Yeah, doesn't seem like we can do anything else. One of you, break the door open."
"Shall I go in and flank the sobbing thing? Bear in mind you'll have to break the door down after me anyway as I can't do anything other than attack corporeal things when incorporeal."
"You know what? You sound like you've been handling Oni a great deal." Shari just growled back with a bitter insult, utterly indignant about not being able to focus on the task at hand. It was bad enough having her draped all over Rin every time they finally dragged themselves home.
"...Okay. Even if you just lead some of them away and split them up, that would be enough, mister Kai." The monk just marked gruffly, doing her best to at least sound professional once again. "This door should come off the hinges pretty easily. You want to give us a sign when you are inside, or shall we just give you a minute?"
"Just give me a minute. I'll attack when I hear you bursting open the door." He nodded, then went incorporeal and got into place
Shari quietly tested the integrity of the door around the corners and by the joint, before finally settling on a plank just below the lower of the two hinges. The proceeding heavy palm strike impacted straight through, allowing her to easily yank the nails free from the frame. All that there was left after that was to simply kick the bottom, and watch the burdened upper hinges twist off uselessly.
The monk had done this rather often before, then. They were inside.
Everything began to move as a frantic blur. She took a quick gander for targets.
Shari could only see the jawless woman and the empty space behind her where Kai presumably was. But she could already hear movement upstairs, Oni-like stomping. Off in the distance there was the sound of shuffling and heavy footsteps - presumably the dirt-zombies Kai mentioned.
The Jawless Thing, for her part, reacted with a horrible wail at the intrusion.