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KHR Rarepair Week, June 18 - Necromancy AU
"So, do you have any... wraith dust?" the mountain of a man asks her, rubbing his chin, and Haru has to pause.
Honestly, she loves running a magical supply shop. It's exciting, and she's always having to think about the various things she keeps in stock. Sometimes it's for sensible purposes - you don't keep blessed holy silver near werewolf teeth, or else that's some stock that's just eroded away overnight. Other times, it's to help her customers find exactly what they're looking for, whether it's a particular magical artifact she might have stored away, or the ingredients for a potion.
One of the things she prides herself on having is, well, everything! A wide variety of items and supplies, for the discerning individual. Her stock is helped out a lot by what her friends bring back, of course - Yamamoto with supplies from creatures that were either donated or forced over through a scuffle, Gokudera badgered into handing over any magical artifact he doesn't have any use for himself (so long as he gets a giant discount in her shop, the scoundrel!), and then all sorts of fascinating and unique things that really only Tsuna could stumble across. Then with Kyoko and Chrome helping her out all the time....
So of course she has wraith dust. Comparatively speaking, it's one of the easiest ingredients to get from one of the undead. Wraiths just float around and, whatever their ghastly forms "touch" often ends up with a coating of their dust. All you have to do is collect it.
Well, collect it and not draw the attention of the wraith itself, of course. The dangerous thing about wraiths is that they're all emotion, and even the slightest disturbance can set them off. Once that happens, well... Old spirits like that aren't anything to be trifled with. There's tons of tales of someone accidentally stumbling into the territory of a newly formed wraith, and the terrible injuries that can be sustained. She's fortunate that Yamamoto seems to have a calming effect to even the most terrifying of undead spirits; his own relaxed emotions are like a wave of calm to the undead she thinks.
But... A problem. "We might have it in stock, but I would have to go check," she says, hopping out from behind the counter. She's always been a naturally short girl, although she supposes that can't be helped, but she feels even moreso next to a guy who is taller than even Hibari Kyoya's friend. "It's not always an easy item to get, huh!"
As she begins to trot through the aisles, the big guy follows after her. He's just a little intimidating, with the giant scar on one cheek, but she's gotten all sorts of strange characters in her shop before. Haru doesn't let it get to her, just pays attention as he tilts his head to the side slightly. "Boy, I can imagine... I don't have much luck with them either." He shakes his head, no doubt unaware of the way Haru's thoughts are crashing into each other.
So he's just going to admit that he goes looking after wraiths!? What a bold necromancer! Or, well - maybe she's jumping to conclusions again, and Haru tries to remind herself of that, resisting the urge to bounce around from too many thoughts and too many emotions. She's been told that's her greatest bad habit.
"Oh, yeah?" she says, trying to avoid squeaking and only somewhat succeeding. "What's so bad about dealing with them for you?"
"Well, they're the type of undead that are nonmaterial, right?" he says, and shakes his head. "I can make earth walls all I want, but they just go right through them. It's not really an easy kind of thing to deal with..."
Oh. Oh. Relief hits her like a blast. Of course, he's just a magic user - in tune with earth, no less! Somehow, that makes his big size make sense. Certainly it's one of those things that seems to really match its user. "It must really be hard for you, then," Haru says, a little more cheerful now as she corrects her course to go down one of the many hallways in her massive little emporium. "But so handy in everything else! I know a lot of earth users go into construction or gardening - ah, not to stereotype or anything!"
When he smiles, it's actually quite a sweet smile - the kind that makes her feel warm and comfortable inside. Tsuna has the same kind sometimes. "Don't worry. It just makes sense, right? But the market can get kind of oversaturated that way."
"Maaaaaaah, tell me about it!" Haru sighs, pausing to adjust a display so that it's not out of place. Someone must have disrupted it when they came in earlier. "My friends tell me about that kind of thing all the time.... It makes me glad that I decided to go with this instead of leaning really hard into what people say my attunement is. I like it a lot more, too!" Interesting people, interesting events, interesting things. It feeds someone like her, really. "So what are you using wraith dust for, if I can ask? Oh, I'm sorry, I haven't even asked your name yet, have I? I'm Haru!"
The man tears his attention away from some books that have started to levitate in a wobbly and inconsistent pattern - oh right, it would be around that time, huh? "I'm Ooyama Rauji," he says politely, with a slight bow of his head. "And it's fine. It's just for a personal project."
A personal project, huh? Well, she sort of figured it was personal. The professional stuff usually comes to her through different channels, ahead of time, just to make sure that everything is available and ready before anyone shows up in person. A random guy just showing and inquiring in person about the availability of something? Definitely personal. "You can tell me," Haru promises. "I see all sorts of weird things running this place!"
Speaking of which, there's the wraith dust, locked behind a transparent but unbreakable case. She skips up to it, pressing her hand to it and concentrating.
There are a few different ways to keep something locked to just one person. There are keys, obviously, but those can be copied, or the lock can be picked unless it's a really fancy enchanted one. Some require a fingerprint, and yet the problem with that is that there are shapeshifters, and also definitely the kind of people who would cut off body parts to get what they wanted. Others are tuned to the owner's own soul, but that can be a problem if an actual necromancer gets involved, of course. Haru prefers this: something that follows the specific wavelength of her, mingled magical power and unique soul alike.
Of course, as she's concentrating, that's right when Rauji goes, "Well, if you're sure then, but it's for a ghost project."
Electricity - or some form of energy, but electricity has a sting to it - goes off in her left ear. Haru jerks a little bit, but it's too late. The case slides open, and, oh boy, well! There is certainly an actual necromancer right behind her in front of all the materials that shouldn't be sold to people who recklessly use the dead for hteir own means! Yet somehow, the crashing in her brain does not clog up her voicebox, and she echoes, "Oh, a ghost project?"
"Yeah," Rauji says, and how can he sound so casual about this. Necromancy isn't inherently a crime, she knows, but the kind of people who get mixed up in that often have bad intentions or are so stricken by grief that the end result never ends well. It's a really, really, really tricky magical field to even vaguely dabble in.
Haru isn't entirely sure what she's thinking when she takes the wraith dust and says, "Well, as you know, necromancy like that has some laws around it, so I'll have to be present when you set this personal ghost project of yours going."
That is a lie. It is a lie she does not even mean to say. It just happens.
While Haru is still incoherently screaming in the mental safespace that is her skull, Rauji just pauses, and then looks sheepish. "Is that how it is...? I apologize, I didn't know. Still, if that's how it is, then it is how it is. I don't plan on doing it today, however. Sorry for making you do all of this right away..."
Oh jeez. Oh jeez. Okay! Right, she just has to roll with this. She can do that. "No problem!" she says, in full customer service mode. She quickly draws the case shut again, which is one worry that's out of her mind. "Why don't you come back with me to the counter, and we can arrange a good date for the two of us? You can pay now if you would like to make sure that it's done and off of your plate, or you can save it until the day of!"
Rauji is surprisingly amiable to the whole thing, with them figuring out a nice sunny noon meeting in just a few days time - "I wouldn't want to keep you waiting for too long, Mr. Ooyama!" - that doesn't seem like it really belongs with the act of necromancy. Then again, Haru supposes that's just an association thing. It's not necessary.
Once he leaves her store, Haru takes a moment to just... sink behind her counter and clutch her head. What was she thinking!? Going up with a necromancer to a strange place, no doubt just FULL of the undead ready to do his bidding, and make her just another bone puppet!
With no small amount of force, she smacks her palms against her cheeks. No! She won't think things are doomed just because of that! She's only panicking because she ran her own dumb mouth off before her brain could catch up with it. This is by far not the most terrifying thing she's ever walked into. All she has to do is be properly prepared on the way into this meeting. Look at her - she has a ton of various magical artifacts and supplies! She knows how to hold back a bit of problem magic, if that's what it comes down to. The kicker is ensuring she's not too obvious about it.
If there's one problem, and one she's kicking herself for, it's that she has no idea what the exact nature of his "personal ghost project" is, because she didn't ask. Ugh! Stupid. But that's fine. She has a rough idea of the kind of undead that normally hang around necromancers, and so she can work off of that.
Wraith dust can be used for a lot of things - it's pretty emotional stuff on a magical and spiritual level. The one good thing is that she's pretty sure it can't be used to trap another wraith into service, although she has to admit that her necromancy knowledge isn't that indepth. So that leaves some grotesque meddling with still fresh corpses, the rising of older ones that could be skeletal servants, forcing the dead to inhabit a material object and make it cursed... Plus a few other things.
And he's someone in tune with the element of earth... Sprinkling some salt on the ground isn't going to cut it any which way.
On the day of, she thinks she's completely prepared as she waits outside of her shop with a bag containing wraith dust in one hand, and a few magical artifacts hidden about on her person. They're all subtle things, but she's quite pleased about them. A pendant hidden underneath her shirt is filled with magical water that isn't compatible with the undead, and should be enough to chase off one singular enemy for at least a minute. Her earring can transform into a sturdy club, and that ought to do good for any of the more physical undead who might come after her. And finally, as a last resort if her Sneakers of Haste can't get her out of a bad situation fast enough, her bracelet can teleport her to Tsuna's side.
This is a last resort because, oftentimes, Tsuna is in just as bad a situation as she is, but at least he's unwillingly equipped to handle it better.
Haru doesn't have to wait long for Rauji to show up. There's the grumble of stone against asphalt, and he comes up on a sturdy scooter that looks little on him but is too big for Haru on her own. The wheels are made out of smooth stone - handy, and no doubt leaves no carbon imprint - and there's a large platform on the back for no doubt carrying all sorts of things. Like corpses! Or maybe groceries. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting long," Rauji says. "Are you fine with riding in the back? There's a seatbelt enchanted to keep people safe back there."
Well, the alternative is riding Rauji's literal back, so... "No worries, you're fine," Haru says, and hops onto the back. The seatbelt fits snugly around her waist. "Over the phone, you said that it would take a little bit to get to the location you need to get to, right?" And look at her, saying that with a totally steady and level voice.
There's a rumble beneath her, not from an engine but from earth magic rolling through the scooter, and then they're off. It's a surprisingly smooth ride; the wheels are made well apparently. Still, it's not really a great position to have casual conversation in, so Haru takes advantage of her placement to enjoy the passing scenery in an attempt to calm her fluttering heart. Their journey takes them through town, to the outskirts, and there they take a small teleportation set up that's been done up beforehand. From there, to another teleportation spot, which means they really must be heading away from town.... And then Rauji sets his little scooter off into some nearby woods and Haru feels her heart smack straight into her ribcage.
"Are we at our stop?" she asks, twirling her hair around one finger so that she has her hand close to her earring. You know. Just in case!
"Not yet," says Rauji. "We need to take another 'port. Sorry about the weight."
Another teleport? So far away from the main ones? While Haru is left to wonder, the scooter starts to slow down, and she looks around them. That's when she notices it: teleportation runes, hidden in the trees. As she cranes her neck around to see what Rauji is doing, she's able to catch a quick glimpse of some sort of light emanating from his hand...
The actual teleportation catches her off guard, and she wobbles in place for a moment as her stomach and mind lurch from the sudden pull of one place to the next. No doubt it's only thanks to the seatbelt on the scooter that she's able to stay in place at all. As her brain catches up with her body, Haru looks around them. The place they're in... It's like a cathedral, almost, except it's not. It's not manmade at all - no elegantly carved pillars, no shimmering stained glass windows.
Instead, it appears that the two of them are inside a massive cave - or maybe an actual mountain? She thinks she can actually see sunlight, filtering in from high above... But what provides most of the light would be what look like brilliant miniature suns that hang in the air and gently shine. They help provide nourishment to the trees that are actually growing inside, rising tall to a massive natural ceiling that could house a church, or something even bigger. Somehow, it doesn't feel like it's underground at all, and Haru marvels at the soft grass and moss spread out beneath them and the scooter.
It's not what she was expecting at all, she reflects as Rauji helps her off the back of the scooter. Definitely not the kind of place she would think a necromancer would set up shop in.
And that's when she sees the graveyard.
Dozens and dozens of headstones, all of them completely different from one another - it's like looking at a crowd of people, seeing the different feelings and personalities they all carried. Some have simple stones. Others have statues curved over their final resting place. She doesn't see many tombs, but there are a few hidden in the shade of a tree or even where a tree is growing out of.
"This is where it's meant to happen," Rauji says, and holds one massive palm out to her. "I should be good for the wraith dust, right?"
"Oh! Sure!" And Haru hands it over. This time, it's not because she's not thinking. Rather, now she's curious. A graveyard like this would definitely give a lot of minions to some diabolical sorcerer, sure, but... It's too well maintained, too kept a careful secret, for it to be used for that so easily. So what's going on?
Rauji gets to work promptly, going over to the hollow of a tree to get out some other things: a few more ingredients, a mortar and pestle, and a... bottle rocket of some sort? Haru can't help but sliding over, peering around his shoulder as he patiently begins to mix together everything that needs to be mixed together. The wraith dust shimmers eerily in the light, like it might disappear in the blink of an eye, but the other ingredients ground it. Haru even thinks she recognizes a few of them. Let's see... There's the down of a roc, what looks like crushed amber...
It's all stirred together quite neatly, and then put into a small container whereupon he adds some sort of dark liquid. That could be any number of things, but Haru would guess chimera blood. "Did you get that from a good dealer?" she asks, frowning a little. "Some people don't think to ask if their blood products are donated or not. All mine are, of course."
Rauji smiles over his shoulder at her. "Don't worry... I'm pretty sure the dealer I went with is legit. But I'll remember that if I have to go looking for it next time."
Her chest swells with pride, glad at nabbing yet another customer who could hopefully become a regular. Then she remembers that this is technically a necromancer, and oh, right. While she grapples with that quandary, Rauji finishes mixing everything together and grabs the bottle rocket. Everything is put into a small compartment there, and he moves over to a large open space in the middle of the cemetery.
"You'll want to stay back there," he warns her, taking a vial of blood out from his jacket pocket. "The aftershocks are a little much."
That just makes her want to take a look at everything more, but she understands that it's best to listen to the practitioner when it comes to the use of a spell. So she hangs back, standing on a root on the tips of her toes while her hands keep sturdy hold on a branch. This is all to watch as Rauji begins to use the vial's contents to draw out some sort of symbol in the open space.
It must be his blood. That's one of the things important to necromancy, and even Haru knows that. The use of one's own blood can do a whole lot of things...
With the symbol finished up, Rauji stands right in the middle, and shoots the rocket up towards the sky at the same time he stamps one foot down against the ground and it rolls.
She feels it, even from her perch on a tree root, but her eyes are rooted on how the rocket shoots up all the way to the very top of the cave. It doesn't explode, like a normal firework might, but instead seems to hit something. Immediately, something shimmers down from the point of impact as the rocket is absorbed, and that translucent light goes all the way down the walls in the form of various symbols that go by too quickly even for her sharp eyes to catch. What she can tell is that it's all incredibly complex, the kind of magical engineering that people gnaw at trying to crack or create.
This isn't just necromancy, is it? Oh, of course it's necromancy at the source, that much is obvious... But it's a learned magic combined with someones innate abilities. That kind of thing is tricky.
Marveling at the feat so much, Haru almost doesn't notice the grass around some of the graves sinking in or flopping over, hard dirt reduced to something as easy to shift around as sand. Before her eyes, she watches as various skeletons begin to reach out, pull themselves from their graves. That's when it hits her: no wonder Rauji makes a good necromancer. His control over earth allows him to make the journey easier for physical undead entities to leave their spaces.
Yet there doesn't seem to be any particular... rush, to the movements of the skeletons as they pull themselves up onto their feet. Instead, some of them mill around, seeming to test out the curl of their fingers and bend of their bones. Others go to some of the bigger tombs or stone coffins in small groups, helping lift up stone slabs or open doors to welcome out another of their similarly skeletal kin. It all seems like a rather casual affair, honestly. So, even though they're all undead skeletons that have been called forth by a necromancer, Haru hops off of the root and makes her way over to Rauji.
"Excuse me!" she says, sliding between different skeletons, and spinning around them to avoid any head on collisions. Rauji looks over to her as she skips on over. "That was really impressive! What exactly are you doing?" Because it doesn't really look all that dastardly.
Rauji's smile is so pleasant to look at. "Thanks. And we're setting up the next watch for the next while. Which... Actually, do you want to sit down and eat? I made sure to bring some food around here a while earlier, since I figured we'd be hungry after traveling so far." And, well, what is she supposed to do? Lie and say she's not hungry when her stomach decides to rumble just then?
So the two of them go fetch a picnic basket and cooler that was hidden away in one of the grander tombs, and Rauji explains, all while skeletons around them begin to clean up the cemetery.
Ages ago - centuries - "some stuff happened" where his ancestors agreed to go into hiding. This was not only for their living members, but also those who passed away. What if someone tried to rob them? Disrupt the dead? Even years later, dungeons still naturally spawn in some locations that aren't taken care of, or respected, or paid attention to. It's a government job to make sure they don't drag innocent people in, of course, but there are some who still go looking for them for riches of their own. What if someone mistook a hidden gravesite for that? What if a necromancer wanted to disrupt their dead?
"So this is how we do it," he says while they're digging into sandwiches. Some of the skeletons are now hanging around them; Haru thinks one is even scrutinizing the construction of food in the picnic basket to make sure it's up to par. "Every generation, we have someone who comes down here to keep the spell going strong, along with calling up the newest batch of our ancestors who agreed to make up the, uh.... afterlife workforce, I guess you could call it."
Haru claps her hands together. "I see!" she exclaims, shuffling to the side a little without thinking so that a skeleton tapping her shoulder can sit down on one side. "So the wraith's dust was used as a part of a protection spell! And the ring you're always wearing must be attuned to this place as well, so that not just anyone can use teleportation here. That's so interesting!"
Another tap on her shoulder. She looks up, and there's another skeleton. Well, all right... As she moves to the side a little more, Rauji keeps talking. "Right. So long as we know the spell and what goes into it, it's pretty easy.... I was chosen since my affinity for earth magic works really well for everyone here."
"And you're not worried about me knowing all of this?" she asks, shuffling again.... and bumping right into Rauji, which has her pause.
One of the skeletons claps their hands together.
Rauji's face goes a little red, and he glances away, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well... Everyone talks about how well regarded your store is, and how much you can be trusted. Besides... You needed to come here to make sure everything went well, right?"
why is her face heating up? This wasn't in the plan at all. She nods, fast as she can, like that will do anything. "Yup! And it was really interesting. But, well, you know..." She tugs on some of the paper around her sandwich, even though it doesn't need to really go any further. "If you ever do something like this again, I'd love to see it. And you know my store has all the ingredients and items you could ever need!"
The same skeleton from before starts to clap once more, only for another to stride over - with legs that seem to go on for days, those are some impressive tibias - and yank them up by the back of the spine, dragging them off. Rauji snorts out a laugh before he can stop himself entirely, a hand smacking upwards as he watches the spectacle.
Or maybe - and this could be egotistical of her - he's just trying not to look at her too hard and worsen the blush on his face.
"I'll gladly show you whatever magic you'd like, whenever you like."
Honestly, she loves running a magical supply shop. It's exciting, and she's always having to think about the various things she keeps in stock. Sometimes it's for sensible purposes - you don't keep blessed holy silver near werewolf teeth, or else that's some stock that's just eroded away overnight. Other times, it's to help her customers find exactly what they're looking for, whether it's a particular magical artifact she might have stored away, or the ingredients for a potion.
One of the things she prides herself on having is, well, everything! A wide variety of items and supplies, for the discerning individual. Her stock is helped out a lot by what her friends bring back, of course - Yamamoto with supplies from creatures that were either donated or forced over through a scuffle, Gokudera badgered into handing over any magical artifact he doesn't have any use for himself (so long as he gets a giant discount in her shop, the scoundrel!), and then all sorts of fascinating and unique things that really only Tsuna could stumble across. Then with Kyoko and Chrome helping her out all the time....
So of course she has wraith dust. Comparatively speaking, it's one of the easiest ingredients to get from one of the undead. Wraiths just float around and, whatever their ghastly forms "touch" often ends up with a coating of their dust. All you have to do is collect it.
Well, collect it and not draw the attention of the wraith itself, of course. The dangerous thing about wraiths is that they're all emotion, and even the slightest disturbance can set them off. Once that happens, well... Old spirits like that aren't anything to be trifled with. There's tons of tales of someone accidentally stumbling into the territory of a newly formed wraith, and the terrible injuries that can be sustained. She's fortunate that Yamamoto seems to have a calming effect to even the most terrifying of undead spirits; his own relaxed emotions are like a wave of calm to the undead she thinks.
But... A problem. "We might have it in stock, but I would have to go check," she says, hopping out from behind the counter. She's always been a naturally short girl, although she supposes that can't be helped, but she feels even moreso next to a guy who is taller than even Hibari Kyoya's friend. "It's not always an easy item to get, huh!"
As she begins to trot through the aisles, the big guy follows after her. He's just a little intimidating, with the giant scar on one cheek, but she's gotten all sorts of strange characters in her shop before. Haru doesn't let it get to her, just pays attention as he tilts his head to the side slightly. "Boy, I can imagine... I don't have much luck with them either." He shakes his head, no doubt unaware of the way Haru's thoughts are crashing into each other.
So he's just going to admit that he goes looking after wraiths!? What a bold necromancer! Or, well - maybe she's jumping to conclusions again, and Haru tries to remind herself of that, resisting the urge to bounce around from too many thoughts and too many emotions. She's been told that's her greatest bad habit.
"Oh, yeah?" she says, trying to avoid squeaking and only somewhat succeeding. "What's so bad about dealing with them for you?"
"Well, they're the type of undead that are nonmaterial, right?" he says, and shakes his head. "I can make earth walls all I want, but they just go right through them. It's not really an easy kind of thing to deal with..."
Oh. Oh. Relief hits her like a blast. Of course, he's just a magic user - in tune with earth, no less! Somehow, that makes his big size make sense. Certainly it's one of those things that seems to really match its user. "It must really be hard for you, then," Haru says, a little more cheerful now as she corrects her course to go down one of the many hallways in her massive little emporium. "But so handy in everything else! I know a lot of earth users go into construction or gardening - ah, not to stereotype or anything!"
When he smiles, it's actually quite a sweet smile - the kind that makes her feel warm and comfortable inside. Tsuna has the same kind sometimes. "Don't worry. It just makes sense, right? But the market can get kind of oversaturated that way."
"Maaaaaaah, tell me about it!" Haru sighs, pausing to adjust a display so that it's not out of place. Someone must have disrupted it when they came in earlier. "My friends tell me about that kind of thing all the time.... It makes me glad that I decided to go with this instead of leaning really hard into what people say my attunement is. I like it a lot more, too!" Interesting people, interesting events, interesting things. It feeds someone like her, really. "So what are you using wraith dust for, if I can ask? Oh, I'm sorry, I haven't even asked your name yet, have I? I'm Haru!"
The man tears his attention away from some books that have started to levitate in a wobbly and inconsistent pattern - oh right, it would be around that time, huh? "I'm Ooyama Rauji," he says politely, with a slight bow of his head. "And it's fine. It's just for a personal project."
A personal project, huh? Well, she sort of figured it was personal. The professional stuff usually comes to her through different channels, ahead of time, just to make sure that everything is available and ready before anyone shows up in person. A random guy just showing and inquiring in person about the availability of something? Definitely personal. "You can tell me," Haru promises. "I see all sorts of weird things running this place!"
Speaking of which, there's the wraith dust, locked behind a transparent but unbreakable case. She skips up to it, pressing her hand to it and concentrating.
There are a few different ways to keep something locked to just one person. There are keys, obviously, but those can be copied, or the lock can be picked unless it's a really fancy enchanted one. Some require a fingerprint, and yet the problem with that is that there are shapeshifters, and also definitely the kind of people who would cut off body parts to get what they wanted. Others are tuned to the owner's own soul, but that can be a problem if an actual necromancer gets involved, of course. Haru prefers this: something that follows the specific wavelength of her, mingled magical power and unique soul alike.
Of course, as she's concentrating, that's right when Rauji goes, "Well, if you're sure then, but it's for a ghost project."
Electricity - or some form of energy, but electricity has a sting to it - goes off in her left ear. Haru jerks a little bit, but it's too late. The case slides open, and, oh boy, well! There is certainly an actual necromancer right behind her in front of all the materials that shouldn't be sold to people who recklessly use the dead for hteir own means! Yet somehow, the crashing in her brain does not clog up her voicebox, and she echoes, "Oh, a ghost project?"
"Yeah," Rauji says, and how can he sound so casual about this. Necromancy isn't inherently a crime, she knows, but the kind of people who get mixed up in that often have bad intentions or are so stricken by grief that the end result never ends well. It's a really, really, really tricky magical field to even vaguely dabble in.
Haru isn't entirely sure what she's thinking when she takes the wraith dust and says, "Well, as you know, necromancy like that has some laws around it, so I'll have to be present when you set this personal ghost project of yours going."
That is a lie. It is a lie she does not even mean to say. It just happens.
While Haru is still incoherently screaming in the mental safespace that is her skull, Rauji just pauses, and then looks sheepish. "Is that how it is...? I apologize, I didn't know. Still, if that's how it is, then it is how it is. I don't plan on doing it today, however. Sorry for making you do all of this right away..."
Oh jeez. Oh jeez. Okay! Right, she just has to roll with this. She can do that. "No problem!" she says, in full customer service mode. She quickly draws the case shut again, which is one worry that's out of her mind. "Why don't you come back with me to the counter, and we can arrange a good date for the two of us? You can pay now if you would like to make sure that it's done and off of your plate, or you can save it until the day of!"
Rauji is surprisingly amiable to the whole thing, with them figuring out a nice sunny noon meeting in just a few days time - "I wouldn't want to keep you waiting for too long, Mr. Ooyama!" - that doesn't seem like it really belongs with the act of necromancy. Then again, Haru supposes that's just an association thing. It's not necessary.
Once he leaves her store, Haru takes a moment to just... sink behind her counter and clutch her head. What was she thinking!? Going up with a necromancer to a strange place, no doubt just FULL of the undead ready to do his bidding, and make her just another bone puppet!
With no small amount of force, she smacks her palms against her cheeks. No! She won't think things are doomed just because of that! She's only panicking because she ran her own dumb mouth off before her brain could catch up with it. This is by far not the most terrifying thing she's ever walked into. All she has to do is be properly prepared on the way into this meeting. Look at her - she has a ton of various magical artifacts and supplies! She knows how to hold back a bit of problem magic, if that's what it comes down to. The kicker is ensuring she's not too obvious about it.
If there's one problem, and one she's kicking herself for, it's that she has no idea what the exact nature of his "personal ghost project" is, because she didn't ask. Ugh! Stupid. But that's fine. She has a rough idea of the kind of undead that normally hang around necromancers, and so she can work off of that.
Wraith dust can be used for a lot of things - it's pretty emotional stuff on a magical and spiritual level. The one good thing is that she's pretty sure it can't be used to trap another wraith into service, although she has to admit that her necromancy knowledge isn't that indepth. So that leaves some grotesque meddling with still fresh corpses, the rising of older ones that could be skeletal servants, forcing the dead to inhabit a material object and make it cursed... Plus a few other things.
And he's someone in tune with the element of earth... Sprinkling some salt on the ground isn't going to cut it any which way.
On the day of, she thinks she's completely prepared as she waits outside of her shop with a bag containing wraith dust in one hand, and a few magical artifacts hidden about on her person. They're all subtle things, but she's quite pleased about them. A pendant hidden underneath her shirt is filled with magical water that isn't compatible with the undead, and should be enough to chase off one singular enemy for at least a minute. Her earring can transform into a sturdy club, and that ought to do good for any of the more physical undead who might come after her. And finally, as a last resort if her Sneakers of Haste can't get her out of a bad situation fast enough, her bracelet can teleport her to Tsuna's side.
This is a last resort because, oftentimes, Tsuna is in just as bad a situation as she is, but at least he's unwillingly equipped to handle it better.
Haru doesn't have to wait long for Rauji to show up. There's the grumble of stone against asphalt, and he comes up on a sturdy scooter that looks little on him but is too big for Haru on her own. The wheels are made out of smooth stone - handy, and no doubt leaves no carbon imprint - and there's a large platform on the back for no doubt carrying all sorts of things. Like corpses! Or maybe groceries. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting long," Rauji says. "Are you fine with riding in the back? There's a seatbelt enchanted to keep people safe back there."
Well, the alternative is riding Rauji's literal back, so... "No worries, you're fine," Haru says, and hops onto the back. The seatbelt fits snugly around her waist. "Over the phone, you said that it would take a little bit to get to the location you need to get to, right?" And look at her, saying that with a totally steady and level voice.
There's a rumble beneath her, not from an engine but from earth magic rolling through the scooter, and then they're off. It's a surprisingly smooth ride; the wheels are made well apparently. Still, it's not really a great position to have casual conversation in, so Haru takes advantage of her placement to enjoy the passing scenery in an attempt to calm her fluttering heart. Their journey takes them through town, to the outskirts, and there they take a small teleportation set up that's been done up beforehand. From there, to another teleportation spot, which means they really must be heading away from town.... And then Rauji sets his little scooter off into some nearby woods and Haru feels her heart smack straight into her ribcage.
"Are we at our stop?" she asks, twirling her hair around one finger so that she has her hand close to her earring. You know. Just in case!
"Not yet," says Rauji. "We need to take another 'port. Sorry about the weight."
Another teleport? So far away from the main ones? While Haru is left to wonder, the scooter starts to slow down, and she looks around them. That's when she notices it: teleportation runes, hidden in the trees. As she cranes her neck around to see what Rauji is doing, she's able to catch a quick glimpse of some sort of light emanating from his hand...
The actual teleportation catches her off guard, and she wobbles in place for a moment as her stomach and mind lurch from the sudden pull of one place to the next. No doubt it's only thanks to the seatbelt on the scooter that she's able to stay in place at all. As her brain catches up with her body, Haru looks around them. The place they're in... It's like a cathedral, almost, except it's not. It's not manmade at all - no elegantly carved pillars, no shimmering stained glass windows.
Instead, it appears that the two of them are inside a massive cave - or maybe an actual mountain? She thinks she can actually see sunlight, filtering in from high above... But what provides most of the light would be what look like brilliant miniature suns that hang in the air and gently shine. They help provide nourishment to the trees that are actually growing inside, rising tall to a massive natural ceiling that could house a church, or something even bigger. Somehow, it doesn't feel like it's underground at all, and Haru marvels at the soft grass and moss spread out beneath them and the scooter.
It's not what she was expecting at all, she reflects as Rauji helps her off the back of the scooter. Definitely not the kind of place she would think a necromancer would set up shop in.
And that's when she sees the graveyard.
Dozens and dozens of headstones, all of them completely different from one another - it's like looking at a crowd of people, seeing the different feelings and personalities they all carried. Some have simple stones. Others have statues curved over their final resting place. She doesn't see many tombs, but there are a few hidden in the shade of a tree or even where a tree is growing out of.
"This is where it's meant to happen," Rauji says, and holds one massive palm out to her. "I should be good for the wraith dust, right?"
"Oh! Sure!" And Haru hands it over. This time, it's not because she's not thinking. Rather, now she's curious. A graveyard like this would definitely give a lot of minions to some diabolical sorcerer, sure, but... It's too well maintained, too kept a careful secret, for it to be used for that so easily. So what's going on?
Rauji gets to work promptly, going over to the hollow of a tree to get out some other things: a few more ingredients, a mortar and pestle, and a... bottle rocket of some sort? Haru can't help but sliding over, peering around his shoulder as he patiently begins to mix together everything that needs to be mixed together. The wraith dust shimmers eerily in the light, like it might disappear in the blink of an eye, but the other ingredients ground it. Haru even thinks she recognizes a few of them. Let's see... There's the down of a roc, what looks like crushed amber...
It's all stirred together quite neatly, and then put into a small container whereupon he adds some sort of dark liquid. That could be any number of things, but Haru would guess chimera blood. "Did you get that from a good dealer?" she asks, frowning a little. "Some people don't think to ask if their blood products are donated or not. All mine are, of course."
Rauji smiles over his shoulder at her. "Don't worry... I'm pretty sure the dealer I went with is legit. But I'll remember that if I have to go looking for it next time."
Her chest swells with pride, glad at nabbing yet another customer who could hopefully become a regular. Then she remembers that this is technically a necromancer, and oh, right. While she grapples with that quandary, Rauji finishes mixing everything together and grabs the bottle rocket. Everything is put into a small compartment there, and he moves over to a large open space in the middle of the cemetery.
"You'll want to stay back there," he warns her, taking a vial of blood out from his jacket pocket. "The aftershocks are a little much."
That just makes her want to take a look at everything more, but she understands that it's best to listen to the practitioner when it comes to the use of a spell. So she hangs back, standing on a root on the tips of her toes while her hands keep sturdy hold on a branch. This is all to watch as Rauji begins to use the vial's contents to draw out some sort of symbol in the open space.
It must be his blood. That's one of the things important to necromancy, and even Haru knows that. The use of one's own blood can do a whole lot of things...
With the symbol finished up, Rauji stands right in the middle, and shoots the rocket up towards the sky at the same time he stamps one foot down against the ground and it rolls.
She feels it, even from her perch on a tree root, but her eyes are rooted on how the rocket shoots up all the way to the very top of the cave. It doesn't explode, like a normal firework might, but instead seems to hit something. Immediately, something shimmers down from the point of impact as the rocket is absorbed, and that translucent light goes all the way down the walls in the form of various symbols that go by too quickly even for her sharp eyes to catch. What she can tell is that it's all incredibly complex, the kind of magical engineering that people gnaw at trying to crack or create.
This isn't just necromancy, is it? Oh, of course it's necromancy at the source, that much is obvious... But it's a learned magic combined with someones innate abilities. That kind of thing is tricky.
Marveling at the feat so much, Haru almost doesn't notice the grass around some of the graves sinking in or flopping over, hard dirt reduced to something as easy to shift around as sand. Before her eyes, she watches as various skeletons begin to reach out, pull themselves from their graves. That's when it hits her: no wonder Rauji makes a good necromancer. His control over earth allows him to make the journey easier for physical undead entities to leave their spaces.
Yet there doesn't seem to be any particular... rush, to the movements of the skeletons as they pull themselves up onto their feet. Instead, some of them mill around, seeming to test out the curl of their fingers and bend of their bones. Others go to some of the bigger tombs or stone coffins in small groups, helping lift up stone slabs or open doors to welcome out another of their similarly skeletal kin. It all seems like a rather casual affair, honestly. So, even though they're all undead skeletons that have been called forth by a necromancer, Haru hops off of the root and makes her way over to Rauji.
"Excuse me!" she says, sliding between different skeletons, and spinning around them to avoid any head on collisions. Rauji looks over to her as she skips on over. "That was really impressive! What exactly are you doing?" Because it doesn't really look all that dastardly.
Rauji's smile is so pleasant to look at. "Thanks. And we're setting up the next watch for the next while. Which... Actually, do you want to sit down and eat? I made sure to bring some food around here a while earlier, since I figured we'd be hungry after traveling so far." And, well, what is she supposed to do? Lie and say she's not hungry when her stomach decides to rumble just then?
So the two of them go fetch a picnic basket and cooler that was hidden away in one of the grander tombs, and Rauji explains, all while skeletons around them begin to clean up the cemetery.
Ages ago - centuries - "some stuff happened" where his ancestors agreed to go into hiding. This was not only for their living members, but also those who passed away. What if someone tried to rob them? Disrupt the dead? Even years later, dungeons still naturally spawn in some locations that aren't taken care of, or respected, or paid attention to. It's a government job to make sure they don't drag innocent people in, of course, but there are some who still go looking for them for riches of their own. What if someone mistook a hidden gravesite for that? What if a necromancer wanted to disrupt their dead?
"So this is how we do it," he says while they're digging into sandwiches. Some of the skeletons are now hanging around them; Haru thinks one is even scrutinizing the construction of food in the picnic basket to make sure it's up to par. "Every generation, we have someone who comes down here to keep the spell going strong, along with calling up the newest batch of our ancestors who agreed to make up the, uh.... afterlife workforce, I guess you could call it."
Haru claps her hands together. "I see!" she exclaims, shuffling to the side a little without thinking so that a skeleton tapping her shoulder can sit down on one side. "So the wraith's dust was used as a part of a protection spell! And the ring you're always wearing must be attuned to this place as well, so that not just anyone can use teleportation here. That's so interesting!"
Another tap on her shoulder. She looks up, and there's another skeleton. Well, all right... As she moves to the side a little more, Rauji keeps talking. "Right. So long as we know the spell and what goes into it, it's pretty easy.... I was chosen since my affinity for earth magic works really well for everyone here."
"And you're not worried about me knowing all of this?" she asks, shuffling again.... and bumping right into Rauji, which has her pause.
One of the skeletons claps their hands together.
Rauji's face goes a little red, and he glances away, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well... Everyone talks about how well regarded your store is, and how much you can be trusted. Besides... You needed to come here to make sure everything went well, right?"
why is her face heating up? This wasn't in the plan at all. She nods, fast as she can, like that will do anything. "Yup! And it was really interesting. But, well, you know..." She tugs on some of the paper around her sandwich, even though it doesn't need to really go any further. "If you ever do something like this again, I'd love to see it. And you know my store has all the ingredients and items you could ever need!"
The same skeleton from before starts to clap once more, only for another to stride over - with legs that seem to go on for days, those are some impressive tibias - and yank them up by the back of the spine, dragging them off. Rauji snorts out a laugh before he can stop himself entirely, a hand smacking upwards as he watches the spectacle.
Or maybe - and this could be egotistical of her - he's just trying not to look at her too hard and worsen the blush on his face.
"I'll gladly show you whatever magic you'd like, whenever you like."