Holding her phone close to her face, Erie said, "On this episode of Ghost Hunters, Protest calls in the special investigations team for a case of life or death situations..."
Hope giggled as she watched Erie act like the narrator for an old TV special. "Ghost Hunters? I haven't heard about that show in a long time."
Erie lowered her phone and chuckled. "I used to watch it every year around Halloween. They used to make an annual special episode. I kinda miss it."
Rin tilted her head as she idly spun around a flashlight in her hand. "Ghost Hunters? Wow. America has weird shows..."
Erie rolled her eyes. "You say that, Senpai. But Japan is like, the OG for weird shows. Especially game shows."
After dinner and chatting until around 11 PM (and after assuring Juliet for the hundredth time they wouldn't be murdered by vengeful ghosts)...
Erie, Hope, and Rin headed back into the hospital. But this time, instead of just their 360 cameras and their phones, the group was equipped with proper ghost hunting equipment.
A talkbox that responded to fluctuations in the EMF field by matching words to certain wavelengths, letting (theoretically at least) spirits communicate like a Ouija board but more high-tech.
A kinetic camera that detected any fluctuation in movement on any spectrum of light.
A temperature reader and a thermal camera.
Then an EMF reader.
There were more, but for the first early loadout, that was what the girls brought on.
Hope held up her talkbox and stared at the blank screen. "How is this supposed to work anyway? I don't think the Ghost Hunters show back then had something like this, right?"
The moment Hope asked that question, the talkbox lit up with the word 'Correct.'
At the same time, a robotic voice echoed from the speaker saying, "Co-rrect."
Hope froze.
Erie froze.
Rin giggled and said, "Mister John~ Stop trolling."
The talkbox flickered again. And then...
"L-O-L. Okay. Will. Stop. Have. Fun. Bye."
Erie screamed. "POOOOOOOOOOOOOOPS!"
Hope rolled her eyes. "Dad is such a troll..."
Rin nodded. "Mmhm! I think it's because he's really a proper Dad now with a baby girl. Not that he wasn't before! But I think when guys see a baby and realize they made a baby, they get all weird."
Erie calmed down, composing herself. Then she nodded and said, "I get that. Paternal instincts and all. It's like how every Dad suddenly becomes an expert in puns."
Hope stretched and looked at her talkbox. Since it didn't activate again, she nodded and took a look around. "It's really spooky now that it's night time, isn't it?"
Under the sunlight, although run-down, the hospital had looked more like a post-apocalyptic setting from a sci-fi game than a horror setting.
But now in the dark...
Long shadows. Winding hallways with outlines that could belong to just furniture, or they could belong to dark figures and spirits...
Then with the mist now being even more opaque since it was cool, it definitely gave off horror movie or horror game vibes.
Erie looked around and nodded. "Yeah. If it wasn't for these night vision goggles that Pops gave us, then I don't think that I'd-"
A black figure slowly walking down the hallway.
Erie quickly scrambled back as she stared at it. "G-Guys?!"
Hope turned to look towards where Erie was pointing and then tilted her head. "...What are you so scared of, Erie?"
"THAT!" Erie jabbed a finger towards the direction of the black figure. The empty void shaped like a person in her night vision. "Can't you see it!?"
After that, there was a soft sigh. Then Hana's voice echoed. "I might not be completely human, but that's rude calling your senpai an it..."
Erie blinked. Then she lifted up her night vision goggles and shone her light to see Hana standing there. "...Oh." She let out a relieved sigh. Then she paused and looked at her with a confused expression. "Wait. Why do you show up as blank on the night vision goggles?"
"Camo."
"...Camo."
Hana nodded. "People can see me, but technology has a hard time unless it's specially filtered. Or I let it see me."
Erie frowned. "So THAT's how you and Rin-senpai gaslight everyone- Wait!" She pointed at Hana. "Does that mean you literally just did that to scare me?"
Hana giggled.
Rin giggled too and said, "Hana-chan! That's mean!"
Hana shrugged, carrying a thick manilla folder under her arm. "Hope doesn't get scared too easy, and Erie likes being scared."
Erie laughed. "You're lucky that's true or I would have chucked my phone at you, Senpai."
Hana gave Erie a thumbs up. Then she looked around and said, "So are we doing real ghost hunting now?"
Hope nodded. "Yep! Niko's doing the whole documentary style! Voice overs too!"
"Ooh! I'll help!" Hana cleared her throat and then held her hand out, waving towards the shadows. "The four young women enter into the dark unknown... By dawn, no one knows how many will remain standing..."
Erie blinked, genuinely impressed at Hana's voice over. "Huh. Since when could you do that, Hana-senpai?"
Hana smiled and said, "I'm trying to get into voice acting! You know, since Rin-chan is going to the Olympics, I have to work hard too! We already filled all of my dreams, so I need new ones! I think I wanna be on a Hollywood movie trailer!"
Hope's eyes lit up. "Ooh! That sounds fun! Maybe we can work with Kuromi-senpai to make a movie! Then you can do the voice over!"
Rin gasped. "Can I do my own stunts?!"
Erie laughed and said, "Alright, alright. Let's focus here. We've probably annoyed the ghosts enough, so let's see how much activity we have tonight. Let's get going."
===
Back in the Ghost Busters van.
Juliet nervously chewed on her fingernails as her olive green eyes flitted from camera to camera, glaring at them as if she was playing Anomaly Spotter Duties Simulator.
John noticed and then let out a soft chuckle. "You realize that if you DO see something you're going to be scared out of your mind, right, Julie?"
Juliet gave John a side-eye and said, "Better I'm scared than see everyone di-"
There was a flicker on the screen in the night vision feed of the girls in the main lobby of the hospital.
Juliet frowned and leaned in closer. "What's-"
A pale and bloody hand suddenly covered the screen, as if trying to lunge at Juliet.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?"
John sighed. "...You really should have just stayed home, Julie."
Juliet placed her hand over her chest, feeling her racing heartbeat. "Th-That's impossible! If I stayed home and they never came back I'd never forgive myself!"
"I'm telling you that would never happen."
"How do you know, huh, Johnny?!" Juliet glared at John. "You're all here so calm and relaxed when there are LITERAL Silent Hills monsters walking around the... hallways..." Juliet trailed off when she saw a hulking figure with a Pyramid on its head walking behind Erie and Hope, dragging a giant cleaver along the ground.
But neither of them noticed.
Rin seemed to have noticed, but she just giggled.
Hana rolled her eyes.
But...
"...I'm hallucinating." Juliet let out a nervous giggle. "This is all just a bad dream, right? O-Or maybe that's all just CG? On the camera feeds?"
John frowned. "...Are you sure you don't want to go home? You look one scare away from a panic attack. I didn't think you were that bad with haunted houses."
"I THINK EVERYONE WOULD BE BAD WITH HAUNTED HOUSES WHEN THE HAUNTING IS REAL JOHNNY!" Juliet tugged at her curly black hair. "What if we get cursed?! Possessed?! Oh my god, what if it's like Nightmare on Oak Street and we get killed in our dreams?!"
John stared at Juliet. Then he sighed. "Alright. I'm only showing you this, okay? Since you're literally about to have a heart attack."
"H-Huh?" Juliet looked at John. "What are you-?!"
John snapped his fingers.
And then the soft golden light of his Dao hummed, spreading out throughout the surroundings.
The moment it did, a few of the cameras flickered as pale figures screamed before turning to ash.
At the same time, for a split second, literal angels and golden dragons emerged, moving to guard the Ghost Busters van.
Juliet was quiet.
John looked at her, his hair shimmering with soft golden light and his eyes a pure jade green. "Feel better now?"
"...Oh heavens." Juliet murmured. "You really are God."
"I mean... In this multiverse, kinda technically? It's complicated once you start adding in dimensions beyond the fifth." John shrugged.
Juliet stared at John for a while longer. Then she quietly leaned back on the van floor. Then she said, "I am sleeping. When I wake up, this will all have been a dream. Then I can go back to streaming. And designing the haunted houses with Erie and Hope."
"...I guess denial is a way to cope with it too. Want some more mocha?"
"...Can I have a white chocolate coconut milk turtle mocha, Johnny? You know, since you're God and-"
John handed a Starbox cup with her exact order.
Juliet stared at it. Then at John. Then she slowly said, "Oh. You weren't joking."
John smiled. "I can lie to you if you want?"
"...Lie to me." Juliet nodded and took the cup before sipping on it. "...This is all just, I dunno. Blackbox hardlight technology or something? Right?" She stared at John with desperation clearly in her eyes.
John nodded. "That's right. All cool tech stuff. Light fabricators and the whole shebang."
"Right. Right." Juliet murmured and sipped her drink. "All just fancy technology. Not divine intervention or anything. And the things on the camera feed are all just spooky CG for chat..." Juliet laughed. "Yeah. That makes sense. Thanks, Johnny."
"10/10 would gaslight again."
"...I am never going on fieldtrips with Hope and Erie again."
"That's probably a smart idea."
Juliet sighed. Then she pulled out her phone to look at the chat on the stream. "...Well. At least I'm not the only one freaking out..."
===
> @rationalinquirer: Okay. Okay, so I've scrubbed the audio 1000 times. WHY IS THERE A RANDOM VOICE SAYING YOMI IS OPENING?!
> @nekomancer_enthusiast: Is anyone else randomly getting Meryl's streams bleeding in as interference?
> @open_secret: I just came from Tsubaki's stream and she said everyone listening to this is getting Great Misfortune...
> @americanidiot: So like, I don't hear the girls. I just keep hearing 'die die die' over and over again. Am I hearing things?
===
John glanced over at Juliet. Then he hummed. "I should probably do something about that."
Juliet gave John a blank stare.
John stared back. "I mean, compensation. You know, for the scares."
"Right. Not like... divine intervention or anything?"
"Definitely not. That would be silly. Right? I'm just a guy."
"Right. Just a guy. Definitely not God. Or this multiverse's equivalent of God. Even though the Lord said he often takes the common man's form. And stuff. And-"
John reached over and tipped up Juliet's cup to force her to sip it.
Juliet let out a content sigh. Then she nodded. "I'm just going to watch some of Hana's old streams."
"Smart move."
With a stiff nod, Juliet held up her phone and replayed Hana's karaoke streams. She connected her noise cancelling headphones again and then started watching.
As she did...
John rubbed his chin and thought to himself. '...Note to self. Warn Julie before she finds the Backrooms-inspired secret floor that Little Xuan and Little Wu made in the Myth Inc. HQ...'