Black Hand Inn

An abandoned, burned down inn located at the peak of phantom hill. Rumors has it that there's a secret lurking around somewhere within the inn. The area is inaccessible to everyone beside the takikage and to those that bears the takikage's seal.

Kakuzu opens the burnt door of the inn and enters it as a soft organ music can be heard coming from within it. It died down..what's wrong with him... Kakuzu walks further into the inn as the darkness covers him up.

Chouko makes it to the inn at the top of the hill. She looks back. "That was some ride..." She looks at the inn in front of her. She approaches the door and knocks on the door, unsure if she should enter or not.

From within, the soft sound of organ music can be heard as the burnt door of the inn creeps open slowly revealing the darkness within as if enticing Chouko to enters it.

Chouko enters into the inn, following the sound of the music while also keeping alert for anything else that might be lurking around. A little bit of caution never really hurt anyone. She goes slow, walking through the darkness to make sure that she doesn't end up running into a wall or something else.

the soft music starts to get softer the further in Chouko goes as the door and pathway starts to disappear from view. As Chouko is moving in, the sound of raindrops can be heard falling on top of the burnt down inn. A flash of lightning lights up the room briefly as in that brief moment, a staircase can be seen leading to the top of the inn as it disappears into the darkness again.

With the flash of lightning, Chouko quickly memorizes what she sees so that she can navigate. She heads to the stairs and climbs up the stairs, still alert for anything, knowing that she was probably no where close to safe.

Climbing up the stairs, the soft organ music is now gone and surrounding Chouko is complete darkness as she comes to what seems to be a wall in front of her. Another flash of lighting lights up the stairway briefly revealing the wall to be a door and what seems to be a shadow of a man on that door in front of Chouko only to disappear into the darkness again.

Chouko looks around in the darkness after the flash of lightning. She listens quietly for anything, completely alert with the music now gone. She still goes to open the door, slowly, listening while she does so for any other noise.

Entering the room, Chouko finds herself in a charred room dimly lighted by a table lamp. Following this, the door behind Chouko slams shut as a small and faint laughter of a child is then heard inside the room. The dim light from from the lamp starts to flicker.

Chouko whips around at the sound of the door slamming shut. She tenses when she hears the laughter. What's going on here? She thinks to herself as she tenses more, waiting as the light flickers, both katana unsheathed, ready for anything that might happen.

As the light flickers, at the corner of the empty charred room, an image of a small girl can be seen crying. With every flicker of the light, the girl seems to be moving closer to Chouko.

Chouko is wary of the image of the girl. 'Something's is not right...' she thought to herself. She took a step back away more from the girl. She wasn't scared, just wary, especially after making her way up a hill past a bunch of moving skeletons. She only just said one word while still on guard, "Who...?"

Crying, the little girl removes her hands from her eyes and looks at Chouko still sobbing. The girl inches slowly but surely towards Chouko, still sobbing and stops again in front of her. The flickering lights in the room stops as the room is now only lit up a dim light from the table lamp. Following this, it seems that the condition of the room is no longer charred as it is now covered with a pale, green color.

Chouko looks around in an almost awe. 'This is very... strange...' she thought to herself. She just can't ignore the want to ask, so she did, "What's wrong?" She was trying to still keep alert but her nice side wanted to help the poor girl, despite the insanely weird occurrences.

Slowly, the girl moves towards Chouko and starts to ease on her sobbing a little as her little hands slowly reaches up to tug on the hem of Chouko's shorts. The sound of a struggle can be heard below them can be heard as the light in the room starts to flicker again. The girl is now hugging and burying her face in Chouko's legs as she starts crying again. The sound of struggle starts to gets louder.

Chouko looks down at the little girl, fighting the urge to try to pick the girl up and comfort her. She was very conflicted, her care for others calling her to comfort the crying girl. Something else in her was screaming no and to see what was causing the sounds below. Another part of her was telling her that none of this was real and all a figment of her imagination. She was tense, staring down at the girl still.

As the sound of the struggles beneath them starts to get louder, the girl hugs Chouko's legs tighter and seems to be scared of whatever is occurring beneath them. Suddenly, everything the room starts to gets brighter a little though still somehow, just barely showing the outline of everything surrounding Chouko

DO NOT LET HIM GO! More sounds of struggling is then heard beneath them followed the sound of chairs and tables being dragged around.

Suddenly ignoring the latter two thoughts in her head, she picked the girl up, comforting her, "It's okay..." She knew something was up and she was curious to know what was going on. She went over to the door and tried the handle of the door to open it.

With ease, the door opens itself as the what was darkness is now lit up with faint orange light lighting up the stairway. Beneath them, the sound of chairs and tables being dragged around continues followed by a loud thud. The girl is now burying her face in Chouko's chest crying as the scene that is happening below comes into view dimly. A mass of people can be seen gathering in the hall accompanying what seems to be a holy man standing in the center of it facing another man who is tied to a stake. The mass of people are holding torches and seems to be enticing the holy man to do something.

Chouko holds the girl more tightly as she surveys the scene in front of her. Her other hand that isn't wrapped around the girl rests against the girls head as she whispers comforting words into the girl's ear. She didn't want the girl to see anything or be scared but she didn't want to leave the poor girl in the room all alone. She creeps down the stairs quietly.

Beneath Chouko, the holy man motioned the mass to calm down as he turns back to look at the man on the stake. Looking at the staked man with unforgiving eyes, the holy man raises what seems to be a book and points his right index finger at the staked man. YOU HAVE BEEN FOUND GUILTY OF BEING IN LEAGUE WITH THE DEVIL AND OF USING HEATHEN AND FORBIDDEN RITUALS! YOU WILL BE COMMITTED TO THE PURIFYING FIRE! SO REPENT OF YOUR UNHOLY SINS THAT YOUR SOULS CAN BE SAVED FROM ETERNAL HELL! the mass starts to cheer with every word of the holy man as they raise their torches high up in the air.

The dim light lighting up the stairway starts to flicker as it starts to get dimmer and dimmer. The girl is now easing on her crying and the crying has now turned to mere sobs.

Chouko rocks the girl in her arms, continuing to hold her tightly to her without holding too tightly. She feels the urge to suddenly speak up. This was looking bad for the guy. Too heck with it. She whispers into the girl's ear, "I'm going to set you down now, but it's going to be okay..." She set the girl down and then yelled out, "Hey! Stop! Don't kill him!"

With the girl set down, she grasp tightly Chouko's hand and hugs her legs. Seemingly unaware of Chouko and not able to hear her, the mass continues to cheer the holy man as the man that was staked gnarls at the holy man.

Your lies can't impress me, cause the truth will come to light! YES! I WILL SET THE MARK FOR THAT I WILL RETURN TO REVEAL THE HOLY TRUTH AND WHO IS THE TRUE EVIL!

With a scorn on his face, the holy man turns his back towards the man that was staked and moves to the center of the mass. The lights lighting up the entire scene starts to flickers and starts going erratic.

Chouko keeps a tight hold on the girl's hand and frowns. 'Is it...?' she thinks to herself. It would make sense. She picks up the girl once more, wanting to comfort her. "Shh... it's okay..." She walks closer to the mass as the lights start flickering like crazy. 'It must be...' she thinks.