So this all came about on a whim really. I was talking with Jenna over the IM and wondered briefly if there were spirit mediums who focused solely on dealing with troublesome spirits. This fic and the ones undoubtedly to follow it are the result.

Also, be forewarned. The following stories have swear words and make mention of certain adult activities.

No we will not describe these activities.

Chapter 1: Meeting the Gang

It was a dark and dusky night and a thick fog hung around the intrepid five as they braved their way though the old town gates. The crescent moon watched them sharply from his throne in the sky, and a new, horrific sound cut through the heavy silence.
"When there's something strange-" Sang Naomi Miyoko, a small girl with long loose brown hair and a fondness for pastel pink which could be seen in the white and pink color scheme of her spirit medium robes.
"Shut up." Grumbled Michiko Sorano. Where Naomi's robes were pink, Michiko's were a deep blood red. She also kept her dense black hair cut short as to not get in the way in her fighting.
"In your neighborhood." Naomi continued.
"Shut up!" Michiko demanded again. She gripped the shovel in her hand tightly as she held back her urge to clobber the sweet sixteen-year old girl over the head.
"Who you gonna call?" Naomi asked cheerily.
"A FUCKING DOCTOR IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP!" Michiko burst.
"I believe she was referring to the Ghostbusters." Interjected Raiju Isamu Yasashiku with a single finger in the air. Raiju was wearing the scrubs blue male version of the robes, which only meant that he had the sash around his neck instead of wrapped and tied at the waist. Wearing the sash that way seemed to disrupt the flow of the blond clusters of hair and jutted from his head like he had a constant case of static electricity.
"I KNOW WHAT SHE WAS REFFERING TO!" Michiko snapped at him next.
"Shut your yap, Michiko." Growled Matt Stone, bounty hunter/ghost slayer. The latter part of his title was something added only recently. Unlike his other companions, Matt wasn't wearing a spirit medium uniform. Instead he had on a long black coat with a black shirt and black pants. His messy black hair only helped to make his pale complexion stand out more, and make people think he was an emo or goth. Of course, he was neither.
Cho Kiyoshi, a young woman with her long brown bangs pulled into mock pigtails at the side and decked in as much baby duck yellow as she can get away with, just followed along happily and without a single word to add to the argument.
The pure white magatama around Naomi's neck started to glow through even the thick fog that clung around them.
"We're getting closer to the yūrei." She said softly. Matt got out his gun, which had a key chain of holy symbols dangling from the metal under the trigger, and check how many bullets were inside. "What are you going to need that for?" Naomi asked.
"Insurance. That's all." Matt smiled at her before putting it back into his coat.
"Your silly modern weapons are useless against the rage of an angry spirit." Michiko snorted.
"Maybe, but it makes me feel a helluva lot better."
The glow of Naomi's magatama got brighter.
"She's nearing. We must be close to her remains." Naomi informed them.
"Okay, well you let us know when that little body detector of yours goes off." Matt replied.
"We should be banishing this nuisance. Not burying it." Michiko argued.
"Not all spirits are evil, Michiko." Raiju sighed. "Most of them are just trapped and confused."
"Trapped in a torrent of their own self loathing and spite." Michiko hissed.
"Guys-" Naomi tried to interrupt.
"Which is why we're here to help them find the light so that they can pass on." Raiju corrected her.
"Hey, guys-" Naomi tried again.
"Yeah? Well how about I show them the light with a bolt of holy aura in their twisted faces!" Michiko roared.
Cho slipped two fingers in her mouth and let out a sharp whistle. Then when everyone looked her way she pointed at Naomi.
"I found it." Naomi had to cup her hand over her magatama so that the light wouldn't blind anyone looking her way.
Matt glanced around, “Alright, where is it?”
Naomi strode a few inches forward and swept some dirt off of the bones. They were charred black and sat in what appeared to be the remains of a burnt out compound.
Michiko let out a low whistle, “Wow, someone did a number on this place. So are we talking arson here?”
Raiju sighed, “We don’t know yet, we just got here Michiko…hopefully the spirit just needs a proper burial.”
Michiko grinned, “Right. Hey Matt! You heard the man, start digging!”
Matt glared at her, “What?! Why do I have to do it?”
Michiko glared back and tossed the shovel at Matt’s head, “Because I said so. You won’t be much use otherwise, right?”
Naomi cut off any reply Matt may have made, “Matt, just dig please, we don’t need a repeat of the last time the two of you fought. I understand they’re still rebuilding that part of the manor.”
Matt grumbled, but started digging a small grave next to the bones.
Naomi looked over to find Raiju following the perimeter of the building. “Rai-kun, what’s the matter?”
Raiju looked up, “This building…it looks like it housed several families. I’m surprised we only found one skeleton here.”
Naomi looked around the compound, “That is strange, but we don’t know exactly when this building burned down so it could have been when most of the other occupants were out.”
Raiju shook his head, “That still doesn’t make much sense. Even if it’d been burned during a time where a good portion of the occupants were away there’d at least be another person here.”
Naomi, “I hadn’t really thought about it that way…this is odd.”
A loud ‘CLUNK’ sound was heard from where Matt was digging the grave.
Michiko leaned down to look into the pit, “ did you break the shovel or something, Matt?”
Matt glared at her, “ I hit something for your information. Doesn’t sound like stone though…”
“Here let me see.”
Before Matt could object, Michiko jumped down into the grave and knelt down next to his shovel.
She stood back up, “This isn’t good…”
Matt stared at her, “What do you mean? What’d I hit?”
Michiko pointedly ignored him, “Hey guys we’ve got a problem!”
Naomi and Raiju came back over, as did Cho who had been poking around the building remains as well.
Naomi was the first to speak, “What is it Michiko?”
Michiko gestured down into the hole. “We’ve got a skeleton already here.”
Matt shrugged, “It could be a burial that the house was built over, you know.”
Michiko shook her head, “Not many burials bury a person like this. The neck is twisted around, so I think it’s safe to say we’ve got a murder victim here.”
Raiju nodded, “ I thought there was something odd about this. Do you think there’s just the one body here? Or…could there be more?”
Michiko shrugged, “I’m not the one who’s a diviner. Naomi, do you think you could pinpoint the bodies here or would the close proximity be a problem?”
Naomi looked doubtful, “I could try…I don’t know how effective it’ll be, though. Matt you’d better come with me as you have the shovel.”
Matt started to climb out of the hole, laying the shovel on the ground, “Sure, fine…”
Raiju quickly snatched up the shovel, “I’ll go with you Naomi!”
Matt watched them head off to search the rest of the area, “He’s so desperate it’s scary.”
Michiko, “Seriously. Ten bucks says that she never catches on.”
“Done.”
The search was slow going, as Naomi’s magatama would often react simply to the presence of the discovered bodies instead of any still buried. The slow search did turn up six bodies buried at vary depths throughout the compound. All of them appeared to have been hurriedly buried with the neck twisted at awkward angles.
Naomi walked back to the group, “So what does this mean for us?”
Michiko crossed her arms, “I think we’re dealing with reburying a serial killer.” She had a wicked smile on her face.
"Let me guess." Matt sighed. "We just went from yūrei to an onryō…"
"It can't be an onryō." Raiju shook his head. "If it were we'd have been attacked by now."
"Not if they're a coward. It's pretty damn obvious what we do and what we're here for." Michiko replied.
"Besides, don't onryō traditionally only return to seek revenge on abusive lovers?" Naomi included softly.
"Man, this chick must have been some whore then." Matt smiled at himself and then clapped his hands once. "Well let's get started, shall we?"
"Happily." Michiko said that much too darkly for Matt to keep the smile on his face, which may have been the intent.
The preparation for the banishing took little time. Raiju took some strips of paper from inside his robes with kanashibari in kanji painted on them in black ink. He set them gently onto the ground in a circle big enough for two people. Those two were Cho and Michiko. Once the circle was finished Cho closed her eyes and soon enough her physical form began to change. She grew tall and slender and when her eyes opened again they were not her own. Before the spirit in her body had a chance to react Naomi gripped her magatama tightly and began to chant. Michiko stood there smugly while the spirit in Cho grabbed her head and writhed until in a white hot flash she was forced from Cho's body. Before the spirit could escape, spectral chains jutted from the tags and wrapped tightly around the writhing spectral woman. Michiko pressed her hands together and then pulled them apart. As she did a white pulsating ball of light formed. It looked a lot like a glowing pearl between her hands. It remained there only for a second before she pushed it into the spirit. The scream was horrific and when the lights dissipated everything was as silent as it had been when they arrived.
Matt never really had anything to do during the actual banishings, so he'd taken out a thin black hand held game console. The only light now was the glow of the screen illuminating his face.
"Well that was disappointing." Michiko muttered.
"What do you mean? We banished the spirit, didn't we?" Naomi got that blank look on her face that often came up when Michiko was talking.
"I was hoping it would put up more of a fight than that." Michiko rolled her eyes. As the group started walking, Matt trailed behind them; his focus was more on the game now than his companions.

The Doushikai Village main dojo was cold that night. The dojo was cold every night. Matt had insisted time and again that they purchase a proper heating system, but the only answer he got was some bull shit about the cold being important for spirit training. He wouldn't have minded their aversion to central heating so much if the village wasn't located at the top of a mountain where it snowed for way too many seasons out of the year. The group was lightly covered in soft white flakes as they went inside. The dojo itself was decorated appropriately. A magatama about the size of a deer's head trophy hung on the first wall. The others were bare save for the thousands of kanji painted in lines so tightly down the walls that you wouldn't even know they were words until you stood with your nose pressed against them. It was the furniture that made the place look different from any other dojo. It was plush and modern. They even had a television set in the corner with several different consoles littered around it and a cable box sitting on top. It was still flashing twelve from the last power outage because, despite them being surrounded by technology, no one in the house knew how to fix it.
"Christ! It's colder in here than it is outside!" Matt snapped when he stepped in and shook off.
"Do you want me to get you a blanket?" Naomi asked sweetly. She was the last one in, so she was also the one who had to shut the door. It took her a little effort to push the thick wooden thing closed. Especially when the wind picked up and blew some flakes inside. Most of them bit Matt in the face.
"And some hot water for when I get hypothermia." Matt grumbled.
"You know, for a guest in our home, you complain a lot." Michiko snarled.
"Oh please. If I were a guest I'd have left and sprung for a hotel by now." Matt snarled back. They glared into one another's faces for nearly an entire minute.
"I'll go make us some soup!" Naomi announced and purposefully walked between them to get to the kitchen.
"I'll help." Raiju followed her.
Cho stared at the two for a moment before deciding to go to the kitchen as well.
Michiko grumbled something under her breath as she stomped over to the television area and plopped into the seat with a distinct lack of grace. Matt walked over and plopped in the chair next to her.
After a minute of silence, Matt looked over to her, “So…what do you want to do?”
After several minutes helping Naomi make soup Raiju looked at the door, “The two of them have been awfully quiet, what do you think they’re doing?”
Naomi continued to slice some vegetables as she spoke, “I’m betting they finally killed each other. Considering how much they fight, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Raiju opened his mouth to comment, but he was cut off by a, “WHAT? HOW DID YOU BEAT ME?!”
Raiju sighed, “I’m going to go check on them before they do actually kill each other.”
Raiju came out excepting to see the two of them fighting or at the very least tearing up the place. What he found was Michiko grinning victoriously at a supremely irritated Matt. Guilty Gear was running on the PS2 they had hooked up to the TV.
Matt launched into another rant, “How could you win?! You’ve never played Guilty gear before, how could you beat me?”
Michiko leaned back in the chair, “Beginner’s luck? Or maybe I’m just better than you.”
“No way! I’ve been playing playing this game forever! There’s no way you should have won that match!”
Raiju looked at the two of them confusedly, “what are you two doing?”
Michiko grinned at Matt, “Watching Matt being a baby.”
Matt, “I AM NOT!”
“Just keep telling yourself that.”
Raiju shook his head, “I still have no idea what you’re talking about…”
Matt sighed, “We were playing Guilty Gear and Michiko beat me when she’s never even seen the game before. I say she cheated.”
Michiko glared at him, “And I say you suck.”
“Do not!”
“Oh, that’s a mature response.”
“Go to Hell Michiko!”
“Already there.”
Raiju looked at the two of them, “What’s a guilty gear?”
Matt stared at Raiju, dumbfounded, “What?! Sit down, Raiju, you’re going to play a match.”
Raiju stared, “What?”
Michiko chuckled, “He’ll never leave you alone until you do. Here, take this controller and randomly mash buttons. That’s what I did.”
Matt glared at her, “There’s something called ‘combos’, Michiko, they require ‘skill’…which I don’t think you’ve got.”
“So says the man who just got his ass whupped.”
Raiju looked over at Matt, “Um…I picked my character, can we play?”
Matt turned, “Faust? You’re playing with FAUST?!”
“Is that bad…?”
Matt shook his head, “No, just surprising…Alright, I’ll play May.”
Naomi and Cho carried the soup out to the living room, intending to dish it up there. Michiko and Matt were fairly quiet (for them that meant steady grumbling with randomly interjected exclamations of anger) and Raiju had been out with the two since he’d left the kitchen. Naomi glanced over towards the TV and was met with a rather odd sight. Raiju was playing against Matt and systematically beating him down.
Matt glared over, “Stop mashing buttons! You can’t use any combos like that.”
Raiju grumbled something rather incoherent and angry sounding before resuming his beat down on Matt.
When DESTROYED flashed onto the screen Matt threw his controller down in disgust. “I can’t believe you won, again!”
Michiko smirked, “Well it would help if you used other moves aside from that one kick. Using the same move over and over is little better than button mashing, you know.”
Matt glared at her, “Don’t care.”
“God, you are such a pervert.”
“Go to hell.”
“As I said earlier, already there.”
“…I hate you.”

Naomi banged a ladle on the side of the pot, “Aright you two that’s enough. Let’s eat.”

Dinner went…well it went. Everyone ate and with the exception of Matt bitching about losing, and Michiko lording it over him, things were rather peaceful. It wasn't really long until Naomi and Cho were left to clean up the mess. Usually Raiju stayed behind too, but he'd been challenged to a rematch.
"I wonder why Ms. Aileron didn't tell us about the mass murder at that house?" Naomi asked innocently while she washed the bowls. Cho shrugged while she dried them. "I mean, that's the sort of thing Matt asks at the very beginning of the job." She scrubbed at a particularly hard spot. "But then maybe she didn't know. That would explain it." She passed the bowl over and Cho nodded in agreement.

"Why don't you pick someone other than May?" Michiko suggested after Matt's fifth smack down at the hands of Raiju and Faust.
"Because I can see up her skirt." Matt stated this like an innocent fact.
"That's disgusting." Michiko huffed.
"About as disgusting as your face." Matt grumbled.
"And the maturity of the evening takes another tumble downward." Michiko sighed.
"Bitch." Matt smirked at her. This word earned him a belt in the jaw. "Totally worth it." He went back to getting his ass kicked by Faust.

Night started turning into early morning before they finished playing and Naomi and Cho were the first to roll happily out of bed fresh and ready. Raiju was the second to get up and be ready to go about an hour later as Naomi woke up Michiko very very carefully.
Raiju grumbled a little as he knocked on Matt's door.
"Come on, it's time to go." He said through it loudly. "MATT!" He snapped harder just in case he was in one of those really deep sleeps that required Raiju come in with a bucket of ice water and a bat to beat Matt off with when he tried to attack him.
"What?" Matt asked from behind Raiju making him jump.
"Ah! Why aren't you in your room? Why are you wearing a straw hat?" The second question came out a lot more confused than the first. The comically large straw hat really pulled the focus away from Matt's miss buttoned shirt and total lack of pants. Matt looked at Raiju gravely from under his big straw hat.
"You really want to know?" He wondered.
"No…not really." Raiju sighed.
"Awwww. Sounds like a fun story." Michiko replied. Naomi had been physically pushing her out of her room until she saw Matt in the hat.
"I'll tell you later." Matt's smile was all you could see from the shadow of the hat. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must acquire pants!" He pointed at the door before going through it.

Moments later he came out, sans hat, much to Michiko's dismay. Without the hat he looked sort of rough. His face was unshaven, his hair was a mess, and his eyes were a bit bloodshot.
"Party hard?" Michiko asked with her arms folded atop her rack.
"Yyyyes." Mat smiled and pushed his finger against Michiko's nose. This did not get a smile out of Michiko. In fact it did quite the opposite.
"Oh my god!" She pronounced every word with a thick layer of disgust. "You're still drunk, aren't you!"
"Oh come on now, Michiko." Naomi smiled assuringly. "I'm sure he wouldn't just go out drinking in the middle of the morning when he knew we had a client to meet today."
"Yeah." Matt said defensively. "It was like three in the morning. Totally not the middle."
"WE CAN'T MEET THE CLIENT WITH HIM LIKE THIS!" Michiko roared.
"I have to agree, Matt certainly doesn't seem to be in the condition to do his only job on this team."
"I'll have you know I'm perfectly capable of doing my job." Matt said with a bit of a glare.
"Oh? And what makes you say that?"
"Well I did manage to get laid by three different women at the same time. They were even in the same room, they took turns." Matt smirked.
"You did not." Michiko called his bluff.
"Oh yeah? Want me to show you the pictures?" Matt pulled some polaroids out of his coat.
"AH! NO!" Raiju forcibly stuck Matt's hand back into his pocket.
"How do you not have diseases?!" Michiko snapped.
"Matt's purification tags are a wonderful thing."
"Hey! I told you not to take my tags out of my room!" Raiju complained.
"Oh, so you want me to get diseases?" Matt grumbled.
The argument was interrupted by a sharp whistle and Cho pointing at the clock. They were already late.

When they entered the office everything about Matt changed. His body language, the tone of his voice, even the smile on his face was different. He was charming, cute, suave, and incredibly dangerous. It was just a shame he didn't show this side of himself at the dojo. This was probably a blessing for the girls, though.
"Valerie!" Matt greeted happily and enveloped the woman in a hug when he saw her.
"Good to see you again, Matt." The woman smiled at him. This had been the second time they'd met, but the phrase still applied.
"Valerie, I'm disappointed in you." Matt said somewhat sadly. "I asked you if something bad had happened at that house and you promised me there hadn't."
"W-what do you mean?" The woman got a little flustered by Matt's sad eyes.
"The house was burned down, we found a lot of bodies, most of them buried, and the spirit was very dangerous. If we hadn't been prepared I might have lost one of my lovely ladies." He replied.
"Oh that." She couldn't look Matt in the eye anymore. "I was afraid you might not take the job if…if you knew what happened." Matt sat down and gently took the woman's hands.
"What happened, Valerie? You can tell me." He assured her, and she believed him. Her eyes welled with tears as she sobbingly told her tale.
"The woman who owned that house…she was crazy…" She sniffled. "She'd marry these men and then kill them. I-" She nearly broke down crying, so Matt pulled her into a hug. After a moment she continued. "My brother was one of them. I…I figured out that what she was and when I tried to warn him I was…I was too late. Then she tried to kill me too, but I escaped. Burning the house was an accident!" She pulled away from him and looked at him with desperate eyes. "Really!"
"I believe you." He assured her softly. "It's okay, though I wish you'd have told us this sooner."
"I-" She sniffled. "I know. I'm sorry."
"You realize I'm going to have to ask for more money, don't you." Matt said sadly. She only nodded and sniffled again. "Not much though, just fifty more. For the materials." He smiled.
"Thank you." She smiled back and rewrote the check before handing it to him. Matt hugged her again before he took it.
"Are you going to be okay?" He asked with concern. She nodded. "You sure? I can stay longer if you want."
"No no. You've heard me sob long enough. Go." She smiled and waved them out. The group got up and Matt smiled and waved at her before they left. Once they were outside the building Matt changed back over to asshole mode.
"Ugh, what a whiny bitch." He stretched and scratched the back of his head.
Michiko eyed him warily, “I still can’t believe you’re such a two-face…”
Raiju broke in, “but he got us paid, plus some extra and we got the story behind the site.”
Matt threw an arm around Michiko, “See, listen to the man! You should be grateful for my glorious presence.”
Michiko bit out her words, “Get your arm off me if you value it.”
Matt backed up quickly, “Alright, alright, Jesus. So what now?”
Raiju sighed, “We wait for another job.”

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Last edited by SerenityBlue on Tue Jan 15, 2008 1:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This is splendiferous!( )

I love how everyone has their own personality,and a couple even hate each other.'Cause I'm tired of fanfictions like,nine people are in a house(all hooked up and fighting evil),and never fight...Like the fricking power rangers or something.
I hope to see more.

Yay, a comment!

Thanks, we have some other plots in mind so if we get enough love you can expect more installments.

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I love this =D

I must say the remvoing spirits technique is much like my own ideas - horribly complex at times. xD

Yeah, they really have to rely on teamwork to get the job done. I'm pretty sure that's the only reason some of them bother to put up with others.

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Especially Matt and Michiko =P.

Hate-hate relationship =D

Yah. One of the interesting things that Jenna and I have discovered is that even though they clearly hate each other they actually get along when they aren't fighting (verbally and physically). I suppose they've both accepted the requirement of the other on the team.

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So, will you two be making a new chapter of it?

We're working on one now. Both Jenna and I have been a tad busy on the writing front, so it's going sort of slowly.

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Alright,I don't want to rush,but I would like to know if you're still working on this.You said you were working on it about 5 months ago,at which time you were still doing the now discontinued Marilyn Grant comic.I know fanfiction's hard, but we still haven't heard for sure that you're not dropping this too.