#auspooky

"You have GOT to be kidding me!"

It took only moments after waking up before Toph noticed something was wrong. Very wrong.

The space-rock armband she had received from her best friend, Sokka, was nowhere to be found. It was her most prized possession, a one-of-a-kind gift! She almost never took it off, and she felt naked without its familiar weight on her arm.

 "Where IS IT!?" she practically yelled in her frustration. There were very few times she wished she could see, and this was fast becoming one of them.

Slamming a foot down onto the floor of her dorm room, Toph sent out a wave of bending, hoping maybe it rolled onto the floor or something. Normally this wouldn't have worked, since the floors are wood panel, but she had bent a thin layer of rock over the floor so she could "see."

No. Not there either!

Who could have taken it? Toph had no roommate, and she would have felt someone coming from a mile away, or at least heard them!

If this was some sick prank, whatever punk thought to mess with her would be buried up to their neck in the ground!!

Hearing a slight flutter as she sent another shockwave into the floor, Toph quirked her head. Whatever it was, it was light enough that it hardly registered in her "Seismic Sense." The blind girl stooped to pick up what sounded like a piece of paper. It was rough and cold, and had likely been on her floor for hours. While she was sleeping, probably.

She never kept papers lying around, having little use for the stuff (no writing or reading and all). So obviously someone must have left it here.

Oho, now she was REALLY pissed. 

Whoever took her armband decided to leave a freakin' note and she couldn't read whatever load of turd was written on the stupid thing!

Grumbling as she threw on something to wear and put her hair up to go out, she stormed out of her room, ire rising as she had to maneuver over the wood flooring that impaired her "sight."

She felt a little better being outside, on solid ground, where she could "see", but she didn't slow down. This was a woman on a mission.

The earthbender ran up to the nearest person she could find, shoving the note out to where their face should be.

"Hey you! What's it say on this paper?" she demanded, irritated at having to ask some stranger for help.

   And that feeling, the unease in his stomach, nauseated him to the point where he could hardly eat a quarter of his breakfast when after ten minutes, there would usually only be a quarter of it left. When Kagami Taiga was unable to finish a meal, something had to be severely wrong. On average, he consumed at least five times more than the average human for any meal, whether it was breakfast, lunch, or dinner, he never left food on his plate. But he couldn’t shake the sickening sensation starting in the core of his stomach and eating at him. No, he didn’t buy into crazy shit like that but even he couldn’t hypothesize what the hell was wrong with him.

   It was with reluctance and even a little guilt that he trashed the food and cleaned up behind himself before heading back to his room in order to get dressed before his first class of the day started. Kagami thanked the goddamn heavens that uniforms were no longer a necessity, as he thoroughly enjoyed having the freedom to decide on what to wear himself. His choice in fashion wasn’t flashy or over the top, but rather simple and emphasizing on comfort while still looking decent. It was just black jeans, a red shirt, and a white oversized jacket that still fit snug against his muscular build.

   Then, that was when he made the discovery.

   It was gone.

   The chain which held the ring symbolizing his brotherhood with Tatsuya was…

   Gone.

   And in its place, a letter… 

  Blazing liquid fury scorched through his veins, entire body trembling with anger. That ring meant so much to him. More than anything else he owned, a gift from his brother, who brought him into the world of basketball and opened a whole different universe to him. Losing that ring was like…

   It was like losing a part of himself.

   Or rather, it was losing part of himself. Kagami never took it off, not since he received it from Tatsuya all those years ago, barring when he slept and bathed. He knew where he left it last night and it was fucking gone now. There was a sound building in his chest and rising into his throat, an inhuman growl that sounded downright animalistic. Never before had he felt so shaken or pissed and goddamnit when he found the person who snatched his prized possession he was certain he would tear them limb from limb, like the wild animal he was.

                ‘Five minutes left. Good enough. I’ve been working hard enough to leave early.’ The flame alchemist jumped out of his chair and strode toward the coat hanger with an air of tired satisfaction about him. As soon as he lifted his blue military jacket, he knew something was wrong. He put it on, buttoned it up, and felt in his pocket.

                “My pocket watch is gone!” Roy’s look of fury turned to one of immense curiosity in an instant as he felt a slip of paper in the watch’s place.

                “Well, looks like I’ve got plans that night after all.” Roy felt in his opposite pocket. The gloves were still there.

Rin stared at the paper on the floor, evidently slipped under her door while she was sleeping. Creepy.

" Zashiki-Warashi? What a strange name," she noted dismissively, still too tired and loopy from the  cold medicine she took last night to wonder what it was she was missing.

Maybe she shouldn't have eaten so many of the candy-flavored pills. It did things to her head she wasn't sure she liked very much.

Looking at the opposite end of her room, she realized what it was she had lost.

Her drawing.

The one Hisao made of her all those months ago. The one thing she held more dear than anything else. Gone.

Her displeasure was immediate, and she let out a sigh of frustration.

If there was one thing Takashi had learnt from seventeen years of being able to see things that weren't supposed to be there, it was that nothing good ever came out of dealing with the world of the supernatural. So many people desired a glimpse from that other world, but this teen knew from experience that ayakashi led to more trouble than excitement. Being able to see and comprehend was definitely not a blessing; in fact it more resembled a curse.

It was also by the will of a youkai that this teen bordering adulthood had made his way out on this particular night which was one he would rather have spent at home. But he had to get it back. The Book of Friends had been taken from him and if he didn't get it back who knew what would happen to those countless of youkai who still had their names written within? Nyanko-sensei had told him to just let it be, that he would go eat that snotty Zashiki Warashi and take ownership of the Book, but there was no way Takashi could allow that to happen. This was the mess his own carelessness had brought about, and as long as he was still alive and kicking he would go to any lengths to get it back. Maybe he was just too stubborn for his own good, but it was impossible for him to just stand by idly while knowing that someone else out there was hurting and that he could possibly have prevented it.

Wandering around alone on Halloween was, however, asking for something to happen to him. Nyanko-sensei had refused to come along, telling him to just go get gobbled up if he wanted it so badly, but had at least been nice enough to help him get hold of a costume to mask his human scent, a black kimono much to the displeasure of the youkai who had been robbed of its clads, and a mask decorated by a single kanji written in the cat's blood. Takashi tended to forget his body guard's status because of that silly form his body had accustomed itself to, but admittedly it was handy having such a high ranking ayakashi as your ally. Much reluctantly he had also put on the horns Matoba had given him back when he had helped out to perfect the look, even despite Sensei's complaints that he was being ungrateful to not just accept the cat going out of his way to help him.

Surprisingly enough it had been fairly easy to make his way to the supposed meeting spot; with the reputation the school had a quick search online had been all it took to get directions before heading off. Takashi had not expected to not be able to leave the building upon entering though and was now cursing himself. So many times had he been through a situation like this, and yet he hadn't even considered a barrier sealing the place. Oh well, he would have to worry about that later: for now he needed to track down that Zashiki Warashi and get the Book back. The sooner the better.

Barely had he walked around in the corridors of the school for a full ten minutes before a nearby sound caught him by surprise and making him jump slightly on the spot. His eyes still hadn't got used to the darkness and that darned mask was making it harder to see even if the paper was transparent. "... Is anyone there?" he called into the darkness more wearily than he had intended. Fists were already clenched ready to give any and all youkai that might think of jumping on him one of his trademark punches that could knock out even a youkai of Sensei's calibre.

For now he just wanted to rest. Most of his nights were spent awake, trying to drown out the noises from various youkai inhabiting his dormitory room, leading their life of go-lucky. How he wanted to just kick them out right there and then, but there was no way he could throw a tantrum when he had to share the room with someone else. No, the less he had to do with his room mate in general the better. When he had realised that he wasn't alone in the room the first of Takashi's problems had begun. The reason he had run away in the first place was to not put anyone around him in danger again, so it definitely was an unpleasant surprise to realise that he had another human so close. But if he made as little attempts at contact as possible, the other would probably become disinterested and distance himself from him. It was better that way.It was too scary having anyone dear to him.

With a sigh Takashi let himself into the room muttering an 'I'm back'. A nice nap now and then studies in the afternoon, that was the plan. It didn't seem like his room mate had returned yet, but a voice still greeted him. "Natsume! Did you buy me some grilled squid?" Barely had he even stepped inside the door and the youkai stuck in the form of a strange maneki neko was already making unreasonable demands from him. "I came straight from school, Sensei, there would be no time for something like that," he retorted, not at all finding the mysterious creature to be anything out of the ordinary. "Beside kitty cats shouldn't be eating so much." "Idiot!" the cat immediately shouted at him, "how many times do I need to tell you that I'm not a cat?!" Dismissing the youkai as he was far too tired to argue right now, Takashi ventured further into the room getting rid of his belongings in the process. Halfway through he noticed a small piece of paper on the table. Did this belong to his room mate? He hadn't seen it when leaving in the morning. Curiosity overtaking him, Takashi gave in and read the words on the paper:

As the message processed within his mind the adolescent teen's face became paler and paler.This had to be a practical joke right? He had never heard of any youkai leaving a note like that to announce their presence - usually they would either wait for him or track him down or threaten him with 'I'll curse you' - but on the other hand he didn't recall ever having met a Zashiki Warashi before. Wait, that wasn't the important matter here... If this note was not just a practical joke this was bad. Rushing back to pick up his bag Takashi frantically searched through it only to figure out that what he was looking for was not there. Although he was sure he had put it in the bag this morning never daring to leave it alone with Nyanko-sensei, he ran to his room to continue the search although futilely.