Soul Mission:

“Come on don’t lag too far behind you will get lost!” The sound of his voice bounced off the trees as it travel towards Chi. There was something they needed to do here on this day. He heard of a spooky tale that made him investigate the rumors. It was best to go looking in broad daylight to avoid getting lost in the forest. Also it lowered the chances of running into something monstrous while checking this rumor.

Rumor has it that with the carnival and the time of the year spirits had begun to roam the land. These spirits were souls of the departed who could not leave this plane of existence to be at peace. If they helped these souls out they could be rewarded with more of those spectral lollipops. Of course this was just speculation and you can’t believe everything you hear. So Shura figured it would be wise to see if this was true for himself. He wasn’t alone, Chi was with him on this job as well. They had been walking through the forest for about thirty minutes or so. The shame was there was nothing present at first. Well that was of course until he started to hear crying.

Someone was sobbing in the forest extremely close by. He became very cautious and spoke in a hushed tone, hoping Chi could hear him. “You hear that? Someone is here.” He crept around the forest, moving towards the crying. He peeked around a tree to see a woman crying her eyes out. She was blonde and covered in all sorts of wounds as if she was attacked. She didn’t notice that Shura was peeking around the tree because he managed to stay relatively quiet upon approaching her. He figured he could come out of hiding and he walked around in front of her. He must have startled her because she suddenly began crawling backwards and her back pressed on the tree. She only began to cry harder before Shura could even speak.

“Look I am not here to hurt you what happened here?”

The woman tried to calm herself down a bit before speaking. She stumbled over her words a bit but managed to tell a clear story. “M-my family and I were together in this forest, not knowing what was in store. Our son ran off and my husband went looking for him. While he was doing that I was attacked. I never knew what happened to my family. I have been searching through this forest ever since with no luck.” she explained.

Shura tapped the chin portion of his mask while listening wondering what he could do to help. By now Chi should have been present to catch the story and he looked to her for a answer.

“Think we can help her?”

471/1500

Name: Afterlife Labyrinth
Reward: 3x Pumpkin Pops
Location: Worth Woodsea
Description: A family of four, a married couple and their two daughters, died tragically during a camping accident in Worth Woodsea. They got lost, separated from each other and never managed to find a way back to each other or society which eventually led to their deaths through starvation and monster attacks. Every year the family returns to Worth Woodsea as ghosts, desperately trying to find each other and reunite. Find one of the parents who will task you to reunite the rest of the family one last time before the night ends. Do not get lost in the woods!

TRAPPED WITHIN WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN i'M GONE? Panting, she tried to run after the man. Her case had become a walking stick and sweat covered her face. Her hair was unkempt and messy and she was nearly out of breath. She wondered how much of their lives, and the stories that surrounded them were true. She had proven the stories of her god and that whoever this Geno was, was in fact real. She knew her god once had a name but it was lost to time. But of the two they followed, who was the elder? Who was the master? Whose story held the most truth? Did either story contradict the other? "A-Almost. .. There... Just... Keep going..." she tried to get the words out but it only left her more faint to speak. She knew it was just suspicion and that could be nothing more than a rumor. But she had seen these spirits the day before they crossed paths again. Surely they would be the same reward she got before. It was food she wasn't able to eat. Something greatly discouraging. . . It was a story of a lost family who would be cursed with an eternal night without each other. Something about the idea brought back memories about the little girl. And they weren't pleasant ones. By the time Chi caught up to him, she would have braced herself against her legs to catch a breath. Leaning forward she listened to it all. "Yeah... Whew... Anyways. We gotta find some ghost campers and bring them here, right? Only a son or you got a daughter too?" Chi thought about what could have been the cause of all of this but it seemed like nothing more than misfortune. She understood it and knew that helping some ghosts and spirits would ease their pain. Their time was limited and trying to find a living mist in the day would be hard enough. Trying to find them at night would only make it more dangerous for the both of them, Shura and Chi Lau. Whatever they had in mind, they had to do it quick and they had to do it fast. There was no time to screw off and get distracted. At least this time they were not fetching flowers or shells. They just had to find spirits and guide them back to the woman. It was a family of three or seventeen, Chi would make sure of it that all of them would find their way back to each other. "I'll look for the kid... or kids, and you look for the father?" she'd suggest. "Either way we're limited on time, we've gotta split up and get this done fast." 440/1500

Chi finally managed to catch up, she was a exhausted trying to keep up. Being a bit shorter she had to move a bit faster to keep up with Shura’s long strides. He looked over to see that she was panting trying to catch her breath. She wasn’t used to this kind of exercise and he was. He trained majority of his life so this kind of thing wasn’t hard for him. It came with the territory of being a Ranzu. Chi spoke to the spirit who was still gathering herself. She continued to wipe the tears away from her face and slowly stood up. Shura saw the full extent of her wounds, he could see clearly how she died. Clawed marks covered her body and it looked like bite marks were across her throat. It was a gruesome way to go, being attacked and left to rot in the forest. After she stood up she spoke a bit more clearly.

“My son and husband are out here somewhere. I just hope they are alright. Could you please find them for me? I am too afraid to walk around in this forest.”

Shura nodded in response, “Ya we can help look around.” He couldn’t help but feel sorry for the woman, it seemed she didn’t know she was already dead. Just a lost spirit looking to be reunited with her family. Thankfully it was only two people they had to find in this labyrinth like forest. They needed to make haste. It wouldn’t be wise to split up because they could get lost. He didn’t want to light the forest on fire and search using brute strength. He didn’t want to needlessly destroy nature. Also he didn’t want to accidentally hurt Chi in the process. He didn't need that hanging over his head at the end of the day. 'Hopefully we don't get lost.' He thought to himself.

He looked around for a moment, “Do you have any idea of what they looked like and what direction they went in? Don't want to wander around with no real direction. Be a big help if you can give us something to go off on.” He wanted to get a bit of information to help with the search. She pointed behind them, “My husband went that way, looking for my son. My husband is about your height with blonde hair and the boy looks like him.”

It wasn't much help but then again they should be ghosts like her. No telling how long the family has been dead. Shura looked over at chi, “Well we better get going before nightfall happens. Let’s also try not to draw any unwanted attention."

He then turned back to the woman, "You wait here, we will be back before you know it.” He turned and began to walk into the direction she pointed in.

The woman began to cry once more at the situation. No matter how one looked at it, was a sad thing. If they never came back to this spot it most likely meant they were both dead too. A family lost to the harshness of nature. There were somethings that really couldn’t be helped. Shura led the way into the forest looking, listening and watching for the missing family members.

1019/1500

TRAPPED WITHIN WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN i'M GONE? They were strangers not that long ago, and here they worked together almost seamlessly. Chi was under trained and obviously not used to the exercise that Shura had proven to be effortless for him. He was much more fit and athletic that she was, and would take a lot of training to get anywhere near to where he was now. Whatever it was, she needed to catch up and she needed to catch up fast. The woman would rise and with all of the open wounds, Chi and her partner had a good idea of how her life was ended. If it was anything important, it was only going to show her what to expect the others to look like. The woman was killed by animals ans most likely fed off of afterwards. Her family probably faced the same fate and perhaps even looked more worse than she did. Chi sighed at the thought of ending her life at that. She had more time, she imagined. After all, with her goddess at her side, surely they both could work together. The woman was too afraid to move, as expected. It only made it easier to find her when they were done. Chi would take up a rock and begin to cut off the top layer of bark off trees. She was going to mark her way back to the woman and she wasn't going to get lost in these woods. Not again. "Stay with him," the deity spoke, "He will need you, more than you would believe." Chi didn't and wouldn't know of the troubles that Shura had gone through since their time apart. With his injuries and changes, it was something she wouldn't ask. She would listen should he ever tell her, but it wasn't her place to ask. "Let's do this fast then." she would say softly to herself as he continued to ask the ghost questions. Whoever she used to be, she didn't know she was dead. Perhaps she just hasn't accepted that fate, or wants to believe that she's alive and well just like her family. Maybe the memories of her death were lost to her. Maybe she couldn't remember even if she wanted to. "I died plenty of times, I'm sure even Geno killed me during one of my lives. . . " As the woman pointed, Chi ran before he would and started to mark the way. It would have been easier with a torch or a flashlight, but they were both tools and powers that were . . . "Shura, I just remembered something." She smiled as she stuck her fist before her. "Nameless god, I invoke your power. . . " the words within her mind would slip out. . . "Awaken, Gwon-wi!" With the single mention of an old god, the both of them would be surrounded by a red light, a ring to light their way. She would point at Shura for the moment until they both could see within the forest. His power would raise however slight, but for this day it wasn't important. Chi would take a single step, only to hear a faint voice followed by a whine. If it was what she hoped, the father and son would be near each other. It would be easy to end the day, but how far and where they were would be their next problem. 1006/1500 (MP: 475/500)

Name: Gwon-wi
Rank: D
Mana Cost: 25
Requirements: Spirit of The Samurai
Type: Buff
Element: Non-Elemental
Range: 5 Meters
Cooldown: 1 Posts
Duration: Sustain
Effect: The caster clenches their fist and calls upon the dark spirit of Gwon-wi. A red ring with symbols surrounds the user, illuminating anything around them. The ring is 1m wide. The light itself gives away the caster's location and reveals what they are doing. The caster then points at their target. Their target's strength is increased by 5 points. The ring will be around them as long as the spell is sustained,
as well as their target will emit a red aura which will also create light.

Shura stopped at the moment of hearing chi call out to him. A red light erupted from beneath the two. Carving a large circular symbol into the ground beneath them. Small red particles lifted from the ground and pressed into his body. The crimson particles surged through his body, empowering him. A tingling sensation crept through out his body, it wasn’t much but he could tell something was different. Chi took one step forward and a whine could be heard off in the distance. It was no doubt a cry but since they were further away it was reduced to a whine. It was coming from the direction that the woman pointed in. “You hear that?” He stopped again, making sure to stay extremely quiet. He wanted to confirm that he heard someone whining. With any luck it was one of the two family members that were lost. If they were really lucky both of them would be present.

Shura proceeded forward with Chi in tow. While he searched she did the smart thing and mark their way back just in case. With the density of the forest, Shura could see how easy it was to get lost. He proceeded forward at a slower pace because he didn’t want to accidentally get separated. With how the forest was set up all it took was one wrong turn. Not to mention by proceeding slower he could listen carefully to where the sounds were coming from. After walking for about five minutes in a straight line the whining was getting louder. It was five more minutes before he was next to the trunk of a large tree. A small, spectral boy was crying in the middle of the field, a man was hunched over holding him. A light shined through the treetops illuminating them. He crept out into the opening, not saying anything. He looked around the area cautiously, making sure there was nothing else watching. Even though it was in broad daylight the danger of predators lurking around was still a threat.

After making sure the coast was clear, Shura felt free to announce his presence. “Hello?”

The boy peeked around to see who had spoke and the man holding him turned his head. The man turned and pushed the boy behind him. This was his attempt at protecting the lad from any harm. Shura removed his mask and clipped it to his side to show he was not a threat.

“We are here to help.”

“How do I know if you are telling the truth or not?” the man asked.

“A blonde haired woman sent us to come looking for you two.” After Shura said that the boy peaked around from behind the man. “Mommy sent you?”

Shura nodded and stood back up. “Yes she isn’t that far off, she is actually…” before he could finish his sentence the woman came sprinting from behind and actually passed right through Shura. She was crying hysterically, Shura was a bit thrown off by her appearance. Even though she looked like she was too scared to move she must have been following them the whole time. She couldn’t just wait for someone else to do what she failed to do all that time ago. Shura could only smile, “Well I guess we don’t have to bring them back.”

The family embraced each other, not saying much else. They began to fade and while doing so they waved goodbye. The woman tried to speak but no words came out. He had a idea of what she was trying to say. ‘Thank you.’

They were gone just as quickly as they found them but there was something left behind. A stack of pumpkin pops were left in the opening. Shura walked up to them and picked up six. He split the pile and gave his partner three of them. ‘First the games now this?’ he thought too himself.

1674/1500