Back by the Myth Incorporated van.
Juliet clutched a Bible and a golden rosary against her chest, trembling as she stared at the shattered mannquin on the ground. "God be with us, God be with us, God be with us..."
Hope adjusted the 360 camera on the harness she was wearing and then looked at Juliet. "You have a goddess with you. Why do you want the Big G too?"
Hearing that snapped Juliet out of her fear, replacing it with sheer befuddlement. "Did... Did you just call God... Big G?"
"Well, yeah? Isn't he?" Hope looked confused. "We use a big 'G' for God, right? So he's Big G. No one else uses it."
John laughed. "That's a good point. Also, I'm just now realizing that Myth Incorporated is pretty close to Mysteries Incorporated."
Hope's eyes sparkled. "That's true! Like with Scoobi Doo, right?"
"Yep." John chuckled. "Maybe I should bring along a talking dog next time."
Juliet looked between John and Hope and said, "How are you two so... normal right now?!" She spun around to point at the hospital on the hill and said, "That thing is definitely cursed! And haunted! And Rin just tossed a mannequin out the window! And look! Erie is just... casually streaming and talking with chat! It's disrespectful!"
John tilted his head. "I don't see what the big deal is. It's just some ghosts and some bad luck at worst. I'll just do some purification rituals and good fortune rituals when we get back."
Juliet resisted the urge to throw the Bible and rosary in frustration. "How is that supposed to help?!"
"You understimate my power, Julie." John chuckled. "Even if King Enma was here, he'd bow his head and pretend he never saw me."
"...What kind of crazy confidence do you even have, Johnny?" Juliet gave him a flabbergasted look and said, "You're literally talking smack about the Japanese king of the dead. In a place that looks like the dead are about to stand up and curse us any second."
"Mm... I'd tell you, but from how you're reacting right now, I don't think you'd be able to handle it, Julie." John shrugged. "Give it a year first. I think you'll be able to handle it then."
Juliet gave John a blank stare. "...Are you God?"
"I mean..."
Hope laughed and said, "What's there to be scared about, really, Julie? Ghosts aren't real anyway, right?"
"Ghosts are DEFINITELY real." Juliet shivered. "I've seen them. They hang around New York late at night if you're not careful. Then they rush at you with a bloody knife."
Hope slowly blinked and said, "I think those are just drug addicts, Julie..."
"You don't understand! You've never seen them!"
"I mean, they can't be scarier than skinwalkers or wendigos."
John gave a sage nod. "I'd take ghosts over crazy cryptids that would eat my organs and wear my skin like a cape."
"Right?! At least ghosts are just people!"
At that time, Erie walked over, holding up her phone like a mic. "Did you hear that chat? Our dear Goddess and Pops just said they'd rather take their chances with the cursed spirits than cryptids!"
Hope nodded. "Yep! After all, if you don't believe in ghosts, they can't hurt you!"
Erie raised an eyebrow and said, "Is our goddess saying she doesn't think ghosts exist?"
"Huh? No. I just said I don't believe in ghosts, not that they don't exist."
Erie blinked. "Huh?"
John chuckled. "Hope means that she fundamentally rejects acknowledging the presence of ghosts, although she accepts the plausibility of them as a concept. It's like saying God is real, but saying you'd deny him to his face anyway. Honestly, pretty ballsy. I've seen people try to do it to heavenly tribulation. Doesn't work quite as easy."
Hope blinked. "That's lightning though! You can't just 'I don't believe you, lightning!' And expect not to get zapped! But you can with ghosts!"
Juliet pulled at her hair and said, "What do you even meeeeaaaann!?"
Erie looked confused and stared at her phone, reading chat. Then her eyes lit up. "Ohhh! You mean like, ghosts can't affect you if you don't acknowledge their ability to affect you! So you can just no sell them by saying... no?"
John nodded. "Pretty much. But it works the opposite way too. If you COMPLETELY acknowledge their ability to affect you, that means that you can affect them too. It's how you murder ghosts."
Silence filled the air.
Then Hope spoke up. "...Mister John. Have... you murdered ghosts before?"
"Plenty of times. It's super funny when they think it's a one-sided interaction too. But honestly, is something can touch you, you can touch them back, you know? It's basic cause and effect. Nothing can break that without being on a higher tier of existence."
Erie laughed. "Are you hearing this, Chat? Pops here is literally powerscaling evil spirits in real time."
John looked amused and said, "You're sticking with calling me Pops now, huh?"
"If I don't, it's cringe. If I do it enough times, it's a bit and hilarious." Erie shrugged. "I'll commit to the bit."
Hope paused. "...Then should I start calling you Dad all the time too, Mister John?"
"I mean, you can... Might make things awkward though." John paused. Then he looked at Hope thoughtfully and said, "Actually. Now that I think about it... ironically, if my daughters were all here with me and people didn't know they were mine, they'd probably assume you were my daughter since they all look half."
Juliet gave everyone a blank stare and said, "How. How are you just... chatting. Like there's not LITERALLY a spooky white miasma emanating from the hospital?!"
John shrugged and said, "Well, we're by the ghostbusting van. I've got enough spiritual exorcism tools AND spiritual murder tools here that we could probably go kill Izanami if we found the pathway to Yomi. Also, it's roughly around noon. The spiritual pressure is the weakest right now. After around 4 PM it'll start getting denser and the spirits come out to play."
Dead silence.
Erie stared at John and slowly said, "...This is a bit, right?"
John smiled.
Hope wiped a bit of sweat from her brow and said, "D-Dad. You're joking, right?"
"Well. You'll find out. Or maybe you won't?" John waved. "Either way, have fun! Rin and Hana are already running around inside by the way. See? They're waving from the top floor windows."
John pointed towards the building.
Because of that, Erie, Hope, and Juliet both turned to look.
Erie tilted her head. "Huh? I don't see them, Pops- WHAT THE FUCK?!"
Hope and Juliet immediately turned around to look towards where John was standing.
And then he was gone.
The whole van was gone.
Hope screamed.
Juliet legitimately started to hyperventilate.
And then light flickered and John showed up again. "Sorry. I was testing the optical camoflage. Didn't mean to scare you."
Juliet dropped her Bible and rosary before lunging at John. After she grabbed him by the shirt collar, she started shaking him and screamed. "ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK?!"
John handed her a chocolate bar. "Here."
Juliet reflexively took the chocolate bar. "...What?"
"It helps with dementors, it'll definitely help with normal fear."
Juliet stared at John.
John stared back.
Juliet grumbled and unwrapped the chocolate bar to take a bite. And the moment she did, she felt a soft warm spread through her body.
John smiled. "See?"
"...I hate that you're right."
Hope let out a relieved sigh and patted her chest. "You're terrible, Dad!"
Erie laughed. "Okay, that was a good one. Don't do it again though."
John immediately vanished.
Hope, Erie, and Juliet froze again.
Then John came back. "Okay. Last time, promise."
"YOOOOUUUUU!" Juliet screamed and then opened the back of the van before jumping inside. "Forget it! I quit! I'm staying here!" After that, she slammed the back doors shut.
John chuckled and said, "Alright. You can run support with me. I've got drones set up to cover certain areas already, so you can camera watch for anomalies with me."
Erie's emerald eyes sparkled. "No way! You've got actual Five Nights style cameras in there?!"
"Yep. So if any of you are having trouble, I can send in help right away." John gave a thumbs up. "No worries."
At that time, Hana called out from an open window at the top level of the hospital. "We found a lot of creepy things up here, Erie! You should come take a look!"
"Bet!" Erie laughed. As she did, she glanced at her phone to read chat. Then she laughed again and said, "No, Chat. You are not listening to a found footage horror movie, and this stream isn't going to turn into one."
Juliet's voice echoed from the van as she said, "That's what all the white girls who die first in horror movies say!"
Erie rolled her eyes and said, "Then it's a good thing I'm not white."
Hope gasped. "Does that mean I'm going to die first? The horror!"
"STOP TEMPTING FAAAATE!" Juliet's terrified screams continued.
John chuckled. "Okay, okay. You two should get going. Julie might literally have a full blown panic attack at this rate. I'll calm her down. Have fun!"
Erie waved. "You bet, Pops. Be back with lots of cool stuff." She adjusted her harness and the 360 camera. Then she paused and said, "These things are on, right?"
John pulled out his phone and checked the live feed. "Yep. I can see everything."
"Great." Erie nodded. "Come on, Hope. Let's go get a real haunted house experience."
"Yeah!"
After that, Hope and Erie started walking up the hills together towards the hospital.
And the moment they did, a white mist stirred and made them disappear.
Juliet was watching, so the moment she saw that, she immediately passed out.
John sighed and flicked his wrist, forcibly shattering the attempted spiritual boundary. "Honestly, upstarts never learn..." He walked inside the van and then gently adjusted Juliet to be comfy in a makeshift bed in the back.
After that, he lit some soothing candles, placed a teddybear in her arms, and gave her headphones (immune to spirtual interference of course) with her favorite music playing.
Juliet visibly relaxed after all of that, drifting off into a peaceful sleep.
And the moment she did, an evil spirit zoomed over to try and invade her dream.
But John's hand lashed out and choked it.
The evil spirit froze, trembling in John's grasp.
He smiled and said, "You didn't listen. No afterlife or reincarnation for you." After that, he clenched his fist and the evil spirit turned into pure light. No life, no soul, and no lingering traces of even thoughts or will left behind.
John brushed his hands off and then tossed out a few jade talismans. "Since these brats won't behave, I might as well do some precautions. Those guys look spookier anyway, right? Let's see... Pyramid Head, some bioweapons, that one guy who says to 'return the slaaaaab.' Then I'll drop a PC that spawns weapons... oh, maybe the BlackOps upgrade vending machines..."
[author] This was going to be a stream chapter, but it started taking waaaay too long. Too much to juggle too, making my head spin, haha. The reaction stream will be a stream chapter, but I think we'll cover the events in person like this.[/author]