horrorrpgartmastersupplier requested: Do you take crossover requests? If so, how about the escorts meeting the Kotori Obake from Forest of Drizzling Rain?

Admin Notes: Sorry this request took so long. I love this game! You have to forgive me, though, I haven't played it in a while and I might have left out some details, but I'll keep it right as best I can! It's also rather long, so I'm putting it in the undercut. -Admin Hirahara

"You have a new assignment today," Rokkaku briefed Kirishima as he stood at the center of the Colonel's office. "This one's a bit tricky, so everyone will be working with you." The crimson eyed escort handed Kirishima the reports. "I sent Saeki ahead of you to look things over, so you'll have to read over these yourself. Tanizaki also headed out a little earlier, so meet those two when you get there. Your mission is to capture this deceased one at all costs."

"Sir!" Kirishima saluted before taking the papers and exiting the office. The escorts rarely ever had to work together on a mission, making the azure eyed escort's attention spike. In the forest next to Azakawa, a deceased one has been taking children and cursing the village. Kirishima read as he flipped through the pages. Known as Kotori Obake to the village, the woman had been previously condemned to the forest for the bad deeds which she performed to men. The rest of the reports were recent activities around the forest and supposedly related incidents in the town.

—

Kirishima arrived at the edge of the forest, close to some sort of museum, in no time at all. He saw the start of some sort of path further ahead, and decided that it was the right place to begin the search. Before he made it any closer, though, he thought he saw someone out of the corner of his eye. Grabbing the handle of his katana, Kirishima turned to face deep within the trees. He thought he saw a woman with brown hair in a white kimono staring back at him, but she was quickly gone without a trace. Kirishima blinked a few times, wondering if she was the deceased one he was looking for. He released his grasp on his weapon and decided to hurry to the start of the forest to confirm his beliefs.

Just before the opening of the forest, Kirishima spotted someone who looked impatient. Tanizaki, his arms crossed, was leaning against a tree, his Kanabo resting at his feet, wearing his usual look of irritability. When he spotted Kirishima, he huffed and picked up his weapon, resting it on his shoulder. "It's about time," He groaned. "Saeki already went in but he made me wait for you." The azure eyed escort apologized for being late, then turned to face the forest. It was rather dark and ominous, but it was nothing out of the usual for him.

"It looks like it's going to rain soon," Kirishima addressed the clouds in the sky. "We might as well start heading in." There was no point waiting for the others. They'd catch up eventually. At the start of a narrow path into the thicket, an old wooden sign was posted. Entry into this forest is forbidden. The pair ignored this and continued further until they found themselves at a large blue stone. What it was doing in the middle of a forest, neither knew, but gave it no further thought.

"Saeki's probably already been this way." Tanizaki said, then pointed to the path further up, gesturing that they should follow it. Further up seemed to be some sort of shrine, the doors wide open. Kirishima couldn't shake the feeling that there was something following the two. The walk continued inside the shrine, where a huge crack in the wall lead further down into a cave. Tanizaki decided, at this point, he'd go stand outside to make sure the last three escorts found their way. "It'd be stupid if they got lost," he complained, heading back out. Kirishima was left alone to explore.

The cave was a strange place, and there were bits of blood, both fresh and dried, lining the ground. Kirishima couldn't tell if Saeki had passed through here or not, but his doubts were quickly vanquished when he heard gun shots further up. Down a hall with three doors, the one furthest left was also opened, two more gun shots erupted. Kirishima put a hand on his sword before following into that door, to find Saeki with his back turned to the entrance.

"Hm? Another ghost child?" The icy eyed escort asked before turning face to face with Kirishima. "Oh! It's just you, Kirishima!" The taller escort eyed the room he had just entered, seeing that there was a bullet hole near the back wall. Saeki followed his line of sight as well. "Oh that. It's nothing really, I handled it." Saeki explained with a smile on his face. "It's good that you're here, though, I need you to do something." Saeki lead Kirishima back down the hallway to face the middle door. There was some sort of number lock on it. "It wasn't a keyhole, so I couldn't just shoot it off." Saeki explained.

Not needing any further explanations, Kirishima drew his sword, neatly cutting around the door's frame until it toppled over. There wasn't much in the room except for what looked like a buried hole. Saeki sighed, showing a bit of a tired smile. "It would help if we had something to dig with," he said, facing Kirishima. "When do you think Hirahara could get here?"

"Tanizaki did say he would wait at the doors in case anyone else came late. We could go back and check." Kirishima offered. The two returned to the entrance of the shrine, Saeki greeting Tanizaki upon exiting. The violet eyed escort huffed, mumbling something about how the drunkard was late again. The two then caught Tanizaki up on the events thus far, the the three decided to wait together for the arrival of their friends. It wasn't long before Hirahara's voice could be heard, followed by a bored voice that was unmistakably Tagami.

"We're he~re!" Hirahara announced as he saw the other assembled escorts. Saeki greeted them both with his signature smile, while Kirishima just nodded to the two. Tanizaki grunted, acknowledged their presence, and continued staring down the path. After a quick update for the two new escorts, Hirahara effortlessly dug up the hole in the middle room. The four decided to head down to the new area together, and as it turned out, they once again found themselves in the forest, the cave behind them.

"So tiring…" Tagami complained. It was quiet where the four stood, and Kirishima could hear the sound of the light rain hitting the canopy above them. However, all that trouble and still no sign of the deceased one they were looking for again. Maybe the woman I saw before was just my imagination… Kirishima thought. He couldn't help but agree with Tagami on this one, it was rather exhausting. Still, they couldn't just go back without finishing their mission.

"Let's keep looking around here," Kirishima suggested, continuing to the fork in the forest. Saeki followed after him, but Tagami had decided to go back and wait in the cave. His excuse was to wait for Tanizaki and Kinoshita, but the azure eyed escort was pretty sure it was so he could take a nap. Hirahara decided to stay with him, in case there was another demon or something lurking in there. Saeki and Kirishima said their quick good lucks before turning around to continue their journey. Saeki decided to take the path on the right, while Kirishima took the one to the left.

Soon, the azure eyed escort found himself at a broken bridge. Kirishima couldn't find a way around it, and decided to head back to where Saeki was. Just as he was turning, though, he felt the same strange presence of being followed. Quickly drawing his sword and slashing back, Kirishima nearly cut down a strange white ghost child. He was about to swing again when it jumped back and yelled "Wait!"

"Excuse me?" The escort asked with some delay. The ghost took a minute to make sure it was not going to be attacked before continuing.

"Can you… help me?" He asked. When Kirishima asked what it was the ghost wanted, it replied with a strange answer. "I want… to return to my mother's womb…" He turned to face the right side of the bridge. Some strange overgrowth seemed to block a path. "You can cut those down and find something down there. And maybe, later, you can bring me to my mother…" Although he had his doubts, Kirishima wasn't one to turn down this free suggestion. He used his katana to cut down the growth, revealing a ladder on the side of a cliff.

After descending, a small cave was found. It looked like some sort of old workshop, although Kirishima didn't spend too much time looking down there. A blueish stone managed to catch his eye before he deemed the place useless, and chose to take it with him. It reminded him a little of the rock he and Tanizaki saw earlier, but paid the coincidence no mind. He hurried back up to the broken bridge to tell the ghost child he had done his task, only to find that the boy was no longer there. Perhaps it had crossed over already. Seeing no point in further explorations, Kirishima decided to head back to the fork in the road and take Saeki's path.

Once back at the fork, Kirishima debated going down there or heading back to the cave to wait with Tagami and Hirahara. To his luck, the light haired escort was hurrying his way. "Kirishima!" Saeki called and waved, running over to him. There was something rather strange down that way, like another underground cave." Saeki explained his escapade where he found a casket.

"I also found something as well," Kirishima said, showing his collected jeweled stone. "A ghost child told me to retrieve it." Saeki looked at it before taking the jewel from Kirishima.

"It looks like it can be a necklace…" He said, fidgeting with it quite a bit. "It's strange you should bring up a ghost child. The casket was missing a piece, which I had found before you and Tanizaki joined me. Once I put it in, I was visited by a ghost child as well. He mentioned something about his mother before hurrying off." Saeki finally handed back the jewel, now on a necklace, after finishing his story.

"That's strange indeed." Kirishima agreed, accepting his findings back. With nothing further in both directions to explore, the two headed back to the cave. As they approached the opening, they could hear Hirahara yelling (or maybe laughing?) and Tagami saying something back. Saeki and Kirishima exchanged looks before hurrying inside to see what the problem was.

"Kirishiiima! Saaaeki!" Hirahara greeted as the two came into view. They had obviously just been fighting something or other, Tagami with a few minor scratches and Hirahara slightly bruised. "You made it ba~ck!" After explaining that some time after the digger duo had returned to the cave, some ghosts had popped up, saying that they were not to leave. "It was easy taking care of them!" Hirahara concluded.

"Hm… this makes me a little worried about Tanizaki, who's alone right now." Saeki said, a hand on his chin. "We should hurry back. Since these parts of the forest were cleared, it's possible that the deceased one is back with him." Kirishima decided to hurry ahead of the other three, climbing up the rope with ease and hurrying back to to the shrine. As he got closer to the exit, he could hear some yelling from two distinct voices.

Once he was outside, the calling was louder. A third voice was also mixed in, a woman's painful cries. "GET AWAY! YOU ARE SCARY!" She screamed. Kirishima hurried in the direction of the commotion. To his surprise, he saw Kinoshita, Halberd in hand, behind Tanizaki, who was blocking the emerald eyed escort from the same woman Kirishima had first seen.

"I told you already, he ain't making any promises with you, or whatever!" Tanizaki yelled, swinging his Kanabo at the deceased one. The ghost woman staggered back after receiving the blow, continuing to cry.

"AWFUL! AWFUL! I HATE YOU!" She yelled. Kirishima hurried to the three, stepping right in the middle of the fight and drawing his sword.

"Eh? Kirishima?" Tanizaki questioned, no surprise in his voice.

"Kirishima!" Kinoshita exclaimed, peeking out from behind the violet eyed escort. The ghost woman seemed to stop for a moment at the sight of the blade, backing off.

"Are you the Kotori Obake?" Kirishima asked. The woman was releasing a horrible amount of negative energy, and it was starting to become painful just standing by her. "You've done horrible things, which you must atone for. Please, come with me."

"I've done nothing! It's false accusations!" The Kotori Obake cried. "My child! Return to my womb." She then broke into tears, saying something about how she was falsely accused of doing bad things, and how others were to blame for her misfortunes. Kirishima was ready to strike down with his sword when he heard a faint voice telling him what to do. Give her the jewel. He thought he recognized it as a young boy's voice, but did as it instructed. He reached into his pocket and withdrew the blue stoned necklace, revealing it to the Kotori Obake. The woman stopped crying for a moment, and Kirishima placed it in her hands.

"I cannot understand what you're going through, but that doesn't mean I don't sympathize for you." Kirishima explained. "But it still makes your crimes inexcusable." The Kotori Obake finally looked up to face the azure eyed man, a calmer look on her face.

"My child… my child is back." She stuttered, gripping the necklace tightly. With her head hung, she put the amulet around her neck and looked ashamed. "I understand my crimes. I'll return with all of you."

—

"It seems like all of you did a good job catching this deceased one." Rokkaku congratulated his escorts as they all returned home. "It will be judged accordingly and returned to the flow of reincarnation." After telling the escorts they could rest for the remainder of the day, the crimson eyed escort returned to his office. Kirishima caught up to Kinoshita after the latter had recommended they all go drinking to celebrate their success.

"I was wondering," he asked, "what was this 'promise' Tanizaki mentioned to the Kotori Obake?" Kinoshita blinked, rather surprised by the question, before smiling as if it was nothing at all.

"Oh, it was rather strange!" Kinoshita recalled. "You see, on my way into the forest, I saw the deceased one and tried to convince it to come with me. The Kotori Obake said that it would, under the condition that I become her child. But then she seemed to want to eat me instead, so luckily Tanizaki came barreling over." With that, he changed the subject, bringing up that Kirishima should go with him to get a drink and Kirishima kindly turning down the offer.