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A small address scribbled on a worn pale yellow sticky note clutched in the redhead’s hand. They got a job. Their client had given a ridiculous amount of money up in exchange for his ghost problem to be fixed. Chuuya had to fight the stupid smile from creeping on his face. This was a steal! Taking care of ghosts was easy enough, especially for seasoned ghosthunters like the Sheep. The redhead was one of the best. Ghosts trembled with fear when they heard his name! According to Shirase that is! A gust of wind almost tore the note from his fingers, unluckily for the wind, Chuuya’s grip is scary. A small yelp from Yuan as her hair, done up in her typical bun, was tugged at by wind. Chuuya fiddled with his hat, holding it down to his head. Oddly windy area. Though that was common in ghost infested areas. Icy chills, abnormal for a hot sunny day, in the middle of July, creeping down their spines. There were definitely ghosts somewhere around here.
“What floor is the guy on?” Chuuya asked gruffly, glancing at the note once more. Yuan let out a sigh, pink hair whipping around in the winds.
“Third I think?” She hummed, squinting up at the building standing tall in front of them. The address has led them to an apartment complex. The once vibrant building was dull and faded, cracks slinking around the bricks, small green sprouts of tangled weeds and vines crawled out of the voids, clawing at the walls. A rusty mailbox stiff and bent was leaning against the apartments. Chuuya scrunched his face.
“Didn't the client pay like 100,000,000 yen?” Both Chuuya and Yuan turned to Shirase, faces practically screaming their confusion. Shirase whistled a bit.
“Well,” he started nervously, “He said he was just burning money his dad gave him.” Chuuya felt a prick of annoyance flash through him. “Feel a bit bad for his poor dad but we get a lot of money!!” Well, Chuuya couldn’t argue with that.
“Let’s just get this over with,” He grumbled, brown and blue eyes scanning the cracked steps. “Yuan, Wanna bet on how many ghosts we get outta here?” Yuan’s light pink eyes lit up.
“What are we betting?” She hummed, skipping next to Chuuya as they walked up the stairs. Shirase gasped running to catch up. The three threw their numbers in small guesses, their sneakers thumping against the concrete cracked steps. Chuuya gave a swift knock to the old rusted door, with one gloved hand as Yuan bounced on her feet. Good to see everyone had energy. Sometimes these ghost missions could really put everyone in a grumpy mood. They stood there silent for a few moments before the door swung open.
A brunette, with a single dead boba eye staring blankly at them. His other eye was covered by a milky white bandage that wrapped around the rest of his head, slipping under messy brown locks.. Those said bandages were wrapped around his neck, arms, and legs. His outfit consisted of a lame grey t-shirt with a dumb as hell cartoon crab image printed on its chest. His shorts were barely above his knees, and oddly wrinkled, as if the boy had been sitting in an uncomfortable position for hours. The boy was lank with pale sickly white skin, that clearly had never seen the sun. His eye was narrowed slightly, dark eyebags slightly more visible as the boy stepped out into the light. His brown curls looked unkempt, as if it had never been brushed before. He tilted his head, eyes lighting up with an artificial happiness. If Chuuya didn’t know better, he’d think this hobo was a ghost.
“Ah! You must be the Ghost Hunters I hired!” He chirped, eye squinting, as his hand waved around without a direction. “Bit short for a hunter though aren’t you?” Chuuya felt his eye twitch, his fist clenching. Shirase placed a firm hand on his shoulder, an awkward chuckle escaping him.
“Yes we are! You must be Dazai!” Shirase, of course, matched the brunette’s energy, sticking his other hand out for a hand shake. Dazai, gave him a blank stare, the small glint of braces, shining as his lips curled into a smile.
“Sorry! I don’t wanna shake hands with street filth!” Dazai, no, the bastard hummed, hands slipping into his pockets. Yuan’s face fell.
“We aren’t street filth!” She stated, a pout making its way to her face, as her arms crossed over her chest, pink strands flowing in the wind. The bastard scoffed, eye rolling. Chuuya felt his blood boil. This asshole had hired them and now was acting like a dick? Insulting the Sheep? No. Chuuya wouldn’t let him get away with that.
“Ya think you’re tough or something?” He hissed, gloved hand tightening around his phone. “We’re here to help ya, but we could always take our business somewhere else.” His deep brown eye and deep cerulean eye narrowed, a fierce, man killing glare settling across his face.
“Go ahead!” Dazai let out a rough laugh. “I paid way too much for you to just leave! I did my research. You guys are barely scraping by! You need that money I’ve got!” Chuuya clicked his tongue, hating how the dead eyed fish was right. Yuan’s frown deepened, as Shirase stepped forward.
“We don’t need your money,” He declared. “There are plenty of ghosts, spirits, etc out there in the world. We don’t need your money-” The brunette interrupted with a laugh.
“Don’t need?” He giggled, a single tear filling his eye. “Please, I've seen your place of work! If I didn't know better I’d think you were some charity case!”
Chuuya bristled, brows furrowing. "Why you-" The ginger paused, biting his tongue, preventing a string of insults at the bastard fish. As much as he hated to admit, the money would be more than helpful. A single glance at Shirase and Yuan showed they agreed.
"What even is your problem?" Chuuya grumbled, raising an eyebrow. "And I mean ghosts...not whatever is going on in that head of yours." The brunette's black void eye widened in shock, a small offended gasp slipping past his lips. The brunette's mouth opened as if to protest. Chuuya made sure to shut him up.
"Actually, just let us in so we can check the place out. A rundown shit show like this definitely has some sort of ghost sneaking around the corner.” A small smirk crept its way to his face seeing the brunette so annoyed.
"Well well! Aren't you a charming chibi!" Dazai retaliated, a hint of arrogance in his tone. Chuuya almost smacked his flashlight against the brunette's forehead. Almost. However, Chuuya was civilized.
The ginger tugged at his collar clearing his throat. "Mind letting us in?" He asked, in a disinterested tone. The brunette paused.
“Yea,” he sighed. “Might as well.” A breath of relief exhaled out of the three Sheep. Finally they could get to their job. The bandaged fish opened the door just wide enough to make it painfully annoying to slip inside. Chuuya made sure to give the brunette a ‘gentle’ shove on their way in. A small ‘oof!’ sounded behind him. How satisfying it was.
Within a few minutes their bandaged client brought them to a specific apartment. The door was, well, barely on its hinges, old rust stains scattered across its surface. Dazai shot them a beaming smile, the metal of his braces visible for just a second before he turned back to the door shoving it open.
“Welcome~ to my humble abode!” He hummed, moving out of the way, allowing the three to enter. Honestly, Chuuya was surprised. Clearly this ‘Dazai’ didn't take care of many things, including himself, but this apartment? Yea no fucking wonder it has ghosts in it! The apartment, if you could even call it that, was honestly more garbage dump than apartment. Suspicious orange stains littered the torn carpet, random cans of crab lay on the counter, in what appeared to be a work in progress tower. The laundry basket was overflowing with T-shirts that looked like they’d been through an oil leak. And God the amount of dust! Yuan let out a tiny sneeze and quickly excused herself to go check the other apartments. Shirase shot Chuuya one look before dashing after her. His eye twitched. Great. He was alone with the fish eyed bandage freak.
“Tell me about the ghost,” he grumbled, pulling out a thermometer. It beeped a few times before dipping into the negatives.
“Ahh well!” Dazai began sitting down on an oddly lumpy and stained couch. “I was trying to commit a lovely drowning attempt when suddenly something shoved a bottle of milk into my bath!!” Chuuya felt his mouth drop. “I would hate to die covered in milk soooo my attempt failed!” The younger tsked.
“How dreadful,” his voice was flat, his eyes focusing on his tools. A few more readings and he should have found where this rotten ghost was hiding down. Dazai let out a dramatic whine.
“It was! I thought I’d finally be dead but this stupid ghost refuses to let me!” His arm draped dramatically across his face, pathetic sniffles filling the room. Chuuya partially tuned him out, walking over to the closet, checking the temperature. The whole apartment had abnormally low temps. Even the AC wouldn’t have gotten it down this low. Chuuya tsked, pulling out the EMF reader instead. If he couldn’t rely on temperatures, the paranormal activity would give the ghost away. A quick switch on and the readings came flowing in.
“Is your whole apartment haunted…jeez,” He scoffed at the extremely high ratings. “What’d you do summon a fuckin’ demon?” The brunette went oddly silent. Chuuya felt the stabbing prick of a headache forming. “You summoned a demon?” A loud offended noise sounded from behind him as the brunette jumped to his feet.
“I did not!” He exclaimed, body leaning onto the shorter man. Chuuya let out a sigh rolling his eyes.
“Sure,” he scoffed, turning towards some more piles of overwhelming trash. “Has anyone died here recently? Or like…ever?” The brunette paused.
“Hm,” A finger placed on his lips as his head tilted, “I don’t think so!” Chuuya sighed, loudly. Well that was just great. An unknown ghost caused by something unknown! He pushed the taller off of him, walking over to the kitchen. This man was disgusting. Empty, rotten ramen cups were scattered on the damn kitchen counter.
“Do you ever fuckin clean?” Chuuya snapped, waving his tools around the area. Dazai let out a small giggle. “Of course not!! It’s a waste of my time!” Blue and brown rolled as Chuuya stepped closer to a cabinet that was slightly ajar.
“This always been like this?” He called over to the other, who was now picking up discarded cans and throwing them at the wall. “How long have ya even been livin here? You clearly got money to have a better place than this shit show.” Dazai let out a laugh.
“I haven’t been here long! Just trying to burn that old man’s money~” Dazai hummed, skipping over to a tower of cans. “This stuff isn’t even mine! It was just here when I got here!” Chuuya felt his eye twitch.
“Didn’t think to bring that up to us at all?”
“Not really~” Oh Chuuya was going to kill him. Who was this bandaged freak anyway?! He opened his mouth to say something insulting back, when a loud slam shut him up. Dazai shrieked, throwing himself into Chuuya’s arms.
“Help!! It’s going to eat me!!!” He sobbed, arms wrapping around Chuuya’s neck. Chuuya felt his mood improve instantly. The shaking brunette was gripping onto him for dear life. “C-chuuyaaaa saveee meeeee!!”
“Yea yea,” Chuuya smirked, holding the man close. “It was just the cabinet…You’re jumpy, Bandages.” Dazai let out a shaky breath.
“Just the cabinet? Did you forget why I hired you, Chibi?!” He shrieked, grip tightening. “There’s a rotten ghost in here harassing me!!” Chuuya let out a sympathetic hum. Oh boy this was a bit more fun than he thought.
“Don’t worry,” Chuuya teased. “I got you. The big bad ghost won’t lay a hand on your head.” Dazai narrowed his boba eye, as if he was trying to check if Chuuya was telling the truth. After a few minutes of black glaring into caerulean and leather brown. Whatever Dazai must’ve seen, he liked. Within a few seconds Dazai let go of him, shuffling awkwardly, a hand clenched on Chuuya’s sleeve as Chuuya continued his search. A few more readings, more scans, using a spirit box and trying to pinpoint where the hell this damned ghost was. He was in the middle of digging through a pile of laundry when Shirase and Yuan came back looking awfully ragged.
“What happened to you two?” He blurted, staring at their singed clothes and hair. The two stared at him briefly, looking at him and then the brunette gripping his arm.
“..Damn didn’t mean to interrupt,” Shirase muttered, rolling his eyes. Yuan let out a small pout. “We found the ghost. Went through hell and back trying to catch it…” Chuuya let out a sigh.
“So it wasn’t even in this room,” He placed a hand to his forehead wiping some sweat. The apartment was much warmer now. A tell tale sign of the ghost being removed. “Good thing you guys found it.” He stood up, Dazai following his steps.
“What were you two doing?” Yuan asked, hand on her hip finger pointing at them. “Making out or something?” Chuuya’s face went red as he sputtered, eyes widening at her words.
“What?! No! I wouldn’t make out with a client!!” He yelped, voice pitching slightly. Yuan just hummed, looking unconvinced. “I’m being serious!” A few deep laughs escaped Shirase as he turned to leave the apartment.
“Well our work is done,” He wheezed. “Let’s get back to base.” Yuan nodded, still glaring suspiciously at the two. Chuuya let out a choked groan, tearing his arm from Dazai’s grip. “Coming…” He mumbled, ears still tinted red. A small whine sounded from behind him.
“Going already? What a shame! I really enjoyed the company!” He pouted. “Ahh no matter…You have my phone number so make sure to call okay?” Chuuya paused for a split second before giving the brunette a gentle wave.
“Yea, sure. I’ll call ya if I feel like it,” He turned his back to the bandaged fish following his two teammates. Next time, he’d be the one finding the ghost and taking it out. Hopefully the next mission is a good one…