F.R.O.S.T.I.N.G.

Chapter 2

NOTE:

1.) The Meiji period, also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era, which extended from October 23, 1868 through July 30, 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan during which Japanese society moved from being an isolated feudal society to its modern form. Fundamental changes affected its social structure, internal politics, economy, military, and foreign relations. The period corresponded with the reign of Emperor Meiji after 1868, and lasted until his death in 1912. (Source: Wikipedia)

2.) Yato and Yukine are both characters from the anime "Noragami" that know Hiyori intimately enough to make the 3 of them the main characters of the animation. The mention of their names here are used as an excuse to remove Hiyori from our story since she is a minor character and we have no use for her anymore.

3.) Arachnophobes are people who are prone to arachnophobia, the fear of spiders.

4.) The Japanese term Senpai is how you respectfully refer to people who are older than you.

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Blythe was in awe of the architectural structure. "Nice house." She commented.

Looking like it came from the Meiji Period, the mansion had a Western-style to it, though it had the low-sweeping roofs of traditional Japan. But whatever appreciation of beauty it once had was now overridden with the wrath of nature and time. Windows were broken, there was mold and grime on every wall and paint was peeling, leaving ugly grey crevices in the wall. Even plants died in the depressing sight, leaving barren soil and rock. It had an unnervingly beautiful feel to it.

There was a noise of irritation behind them. "Pfft! As if haunted houses are that nice." They turned to see a frowning girl with square glasses perched atop her nose who flipped her straight, shoulder-length dark-brown hair behind her back. As she flipped it, everyone noticed the silver streak of hair tucked neatly behind her ear.

Blythe resisted correcting her sister by saying that it was a haunted mansion and not a house. "Brynn! Yo, sister, where did you come from?" She brightened.

"From eating my perfectly good bacon." Was the cold reply of Brynn. "I was interrupted, y'know, from eating it." Brynn shot her older sister a piercing glare.

"Whatever for?" Blythe asked her sister innocently.

"Whenever you pull out your weapon, it alerts your siblings. Rick should be here in a minute, though." At this, Brynn rolled her eyes. "Ugh! Why is he always late?"

"Oops. Sorry, false alarm. I was just playing with my-"

"Oh, for Pete's sake, why did I ever agree to bonding my magical weapons with my scatterbrained sister and wet-brained brother?"

"Hey, watch it. I was just using my weapons to instill fear into our 'friend' here." Blythe was looking pointedly at Juuzou, a hint of mischief in her eye.

As Brynn's eyes fell on Juuzou, she smirked.

Feeling like an object at the mercy of 2 merciless troublemakers, Juuzou took an instinctive step backwards. At this act of cowardice, Touka and Stefi shot Juuzou dark looks. It was apparent that they didn't appreciate his being moderately afraid of anyone (besides themselves, of course. It is believed to be human nature to want to be feared rather than to be the one fearing and so, everyone enjoys having well-placed fear in their company. Thus, it is in the conscious mind –though they are not always aware of it- that Stefi and Touka would want Juuzou to have some fear for them but not for the other people around him because it was he who usually liked to portray the tough, cold, psychotic individual whose main job was to slice people –namely ghouls- in half. Likewise, it was Touka's main job to serve coffee to her customers and to keep her fellow ghouls in line and keep the peace between the ghoul and human species. Stefi's job was to keep the 2 from tearing each other's throats out -a tough job for just any person. Investigators and ghouls weren't known to be 'friends'.)