Back with a vengeance! I think I've got some more kick in me, now.
***
[X] Try and keep the ghosts around here from getting in the way of Youmu and Ran. You're not sure what to do, but you can think of something.
***
"Well, if you two are going to be handling all that, I'll try and keep the ghosts out of your hair."
Youmu looks uncertain again, and she's started fidgeting. One hand travels to her sword and rests on the handle; maybe that's a comfort for her.
"Those ghosts can be a handful, are you really sure that you--"
"Youmu," Ran interrupts, "we already agreed to let him assist, did we not?"
"We did, but--"
"Then let him assist."
Youmu sighs and climbs to her feet, keeping her eyes trained on the ground for a few moments.
"Very well. However," she looks at you intently, "do not hesitate to ask for help if you run into trouble." With that, she shuffles off into the house, heading for the kitchen.
"That girl is so uptight all the time. She should learn to accept help when it comes up." Ran sips at her tea and shakes her head. You think you can see some tears forming in her eyes. "Well, I should tend to my work as well. Do your best."
Ran stands now and moves to leave you to your devices. You note absently that there's a slight slump in her posture. Poor woman looks really overworked. But that just means you have to do a good job keeping the ghosts away from those two.
But how are you supposed to do that?
You just sit there, idly running your hand through Chen's hair for a while. In the distance, you can see the spirits starting to move faster, and some of them are drifting over to the manor. Well, whatever you need to do, you can't do it from here. You slide Chen off of your lap gently - she rolls over once, and curls up into a ball on the porch - and set off to confront the slow-moving tide of ghosts.
The air becomes a little chillier as you close in on your target. From this distance, you can see that the mist the ghosts produce has been obscuring your vision just enough to hide a good number of them. You hear a sort of excited whispering, though you can't find any discernible language in it.
You stand there puzzled, as the wave of souls approaches gradually. You decide to call out to them; better to try something and see if it works, right?
"Hey, ghosts! Ran and Youmu said to keep you away from them! Go back!"
No response. In fact, a couple of those little bastards drift right by you, as though you weren't even there! You're a ghost too, and ignoring you like that is just plain rude. Perturbed, you reach out on impulse and grab at one of the floating orbs.
<Ahn! Where do you think you're touching me?>
The voice speaks straight into your head, but you can feel it pulsing out of the ghost in your hand. It's obviously a female voice, as well, though there's no audible way to know that. Maybe that's just what talking to ghosts is like? You ponder briefly trying to talk to Myon like this, but push that aside to deal with your current situation.
"Well, where do you think you're going, ignoring me like that? That's rude!"
<Shut up and let go! Who cares what you think?>
Damn, what an inconsiderate little thing! You're about to fire off a response when a different, more mature, yet still female and ephemeral voice pulses next to you.
<Hey, kid, throw her at that bunch of ghosts over there.>
The voice is coming from a particularly bright, greenish ghost orb that's hovering just over your shoulder. Your eyes automatically travel over to a somewhat scattered group of spirits that chittering loudly in that strange wordless noise. The ghost that just spoke must have made some sort of gesture towards them, because you knew exactly what she was talking about.
Seeing nothing better to do, and with the ghost in your hand still complaining about how poorly you handle ladies, you rear back and throw the spirit straight at the indicated group. She bounces around like a pinball, knocking several of the other spirits into separate flight paths, and creating a chain reaction that rattles the entire cloud. Well, it sure as hell got their attention.
And it might have pissed them off.
That irritated whispering grows to a loud, wordless roar of noise, and the spirits start swirling around. You can actually feel the malicious intent rolling through the air. The spirit over your shoulder pulses again.
<Well, kid, you might want to start running.>
Good advice, troublemaker.
Without waiting for the angry cloud to do anything, you sprint away along Hakugyokuro's main path, sending several of the now hostile ghosts scattering. Once you make a fair bit of distance, you can hear another roar. There's no need to look back - you can already tell that those souls are following you. This just got bad.
<Dodge left, kid.>
You do so on instinct, and what looks to be a tentacle formed out of spirits comes crashing down where you just were. You're already dead, but something tells you that getting hit by that would have hurt more than a tiny bit. The spirit that's supporting you pulses again.
<Evade right.>
You do so, and once again a flurry of angered ghosts crashes down where you just were. This pattern continues for some time, with you dodging as your spirit guide tells you to. Eventually you can see a huge gate approaching in the distance - there's no where to run once you get there!
<Alright, now break to the west.>
The west, that's on... your right. You swerve right, setting off down a side-path through a previously unknown section of the garden. You can still hear that angry buzz coming from behind you. Worse still, you're beginning to feel a little tired, and you're starting to gasp for air.
<Get it together, kid. Tired? You don't have muscles! And what the hell are you gasping for? You sure as shit don't have lungs.>
Wait. She's right. Why the hell are you getting tired? It's like an epiphany - your fatigue washes away, and you start to pick up speed. In fact, you feel great! Light as air! You're moving even faster now, and you're starting to gain some distance on the swarm of angry ghosts. Before you know it, you've covered more distance than you'd have thought possible in the time you've been running. You can still hear the dull roar of the spirit cloud, though.
<That's more like it. Now, you see that stream up ahead?>
You peer into the distance, and can vaguely see a long body of water up ahead, dividing two sections of the gardens. From the looks of the water, though, you'd sooner believe it was a river - and a fast, choppy one at that.
"Yeah?"
<Dive in.>
Wait, what?
[ ] Spirit guide lady's been right so far. Just dive on in!
[ ] Dive into a river? Hell no!
