The White Hearse: a KHR fanfic

Tsuna, the Friendly Exorcist And His Ghost Friends: 1

The room was completely different from the decor of the bar. In the middle of the room was a round table covered in a dark cloth with papers strewn over the surface. Three chairs were pushed underneath the tabletop, but one was pushed out. The right corner of the room held a long, black desk and a swiveling chair. Miscellaneous objects sat on the desk. Hana noticed a few open notebooks with weird scribbling in them, a small black box, and a silver pocketknife. She tried her best to ignore the last one. Across the room from the desk were a couple of armchairs. The room was the size of a standard living room, but seemed smaller with all the furniture inside. Tsuna gestured to the seats around the table to which Hana and Kyoko hesitantly sat at. He quickly gathered the papers and threw them on the desk before sitting down himself.

"What seems to be the problem Kyoko-san?" Hana took note of Tsuna's change in demeanor and Kyoko's honorific. He really was treating them like clients. Kyoko fiddled with the paper in her hand nervously. "Well, I-I'm not so sure exactly what's happening, but there... there's something in my house," she stammered out. Her eyes dropped to her clenched hands in her lap. "Sometimes I find things misplaced or knocked over when I know that they hadn't been messed with by my family. I hear noises at night. It sounds like someone is scratching at my bedpost or knocking at my door. When I mentioned it to my brother, he said he heard them too. Him and I checked behind the bed and found scratch marks on the wood of the bed and my door. We told our parents about it, and they thought it was someone trying to break in. My dad is a police officer, so he borrowed some surveillance cameras from a coworker and set them up around the house." Kyoko's complexion was extremely pale now and her voice quivered softly. "We checked in the morning and-" her voice faltered. Hana took up the story from there. "They saw a video of the scratching, but there was nothing there. It was like the scratches were just etching themselves in," she finished. "It sounds outlandish- I know, but-!" Kyoko began to ramble, but Tsuna held up a hand. He wore a calm expression, not at all perturbed at what Kyoko had recounted.

"Have you noticed any cold spots in your home? Or any particular area of the house you feel uneasy or scared?" he asked. Kyoko bit her lip. "The dining room. When I'm eating there I feeling someone's watching me and I get really cold even when the AC isn't on. One time my brother said his shoulders felt really heavy when we were eating dinner a few nights ago." Tsuna nodded and leaned back in his chair. "Sounds like you have a poltergeist in your home," the brunet stated. Kyoko and Hana stared at him. "A poltergeist?" Kyoko said slowly. Tsuna nodded, leaning forward again. "An angry spirit that often causes loud noises and physical disturbances. The one your home sounds pretty tame, for now anyways." Hana wanted to laugh if what he had said wasn't so absurd. "Ghosts don't exist!" she snorted. Tsuna didn't even bat an eye. "To you, yeah." And there was something behind his words that left Hana a little hesitant to deny the existence of ghosts again.

He got up from his chair and dug through one of the drawers in his desk. Tsuna pulled out a jar of... salt? "I'd like to stop by your house to confirm if that's alright with you." Now that set off red alarms in Hana's head. She quickly stood up, causing the chair to screech against the floor harshly. "Now hold on a minute! Kyoko may have known you since kindergarten, but you can't just invite yourself in!" Tsuna looked at her with his eyebrows raised. "That's up to Kyoko, isn't it? I can't help much if I don't visit the site of the haunting," he pointed out before turning to Kyoko. "So what will it be?" Kyoko stared intently at her lap before meeting Tsuna's eyes.

"What time?"

Kyoko answered the door as quickly as she could. Tsuna stood patiently on the other side carrying a small duffle bag on his shoulder and an iron poker in his other hand. He wore a plain gray hoodie with a cartoonish ghost over his heart. His jeans were folded slightly above his ankles and his shoes were regular sneakers. "Sorry I'm a bit late. I got caught up on some research," he said through deep breaths. It seemed he had run all the way there. Kyoka smiled. "It's fine. Come on in." Tsuna stepped inside and slipped his shoes off. "Pardon the intrusion," he muttered and awkwardly waited for Kyoko to lead him to the kitchen. Hana sat at the table, glaring up at Tsuna suspiciously. "You better not try anything funny," she warned. Tsuna looked back at her blandly. "Um, I'll try?"

Hana resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Man, Dame-Tsuna was so weird. She was still against inviting the class weirdo to her best friend's home, but Kyoko was desperate for help. She didn't particularly trust a business run by the creepy kid in her class. Tsuna was, as she very much emphasized to Kyoko earlier, weird. Not only was a complete failure in all his subjects and sports, but a really spacey kid. He always had this glassy eyed look, like he was seeing something that wasn't there. Sometimes Tsuna would mutter to himself or something, which was also really unnerving. No one really liked to hang around him that much, save for the few bullies who chose to deal with Tsuna's presence by harassing him. Honestly, they had better things to do. Tsuna was a weird guy, but he wasn't a particularly bad one. He was polite when he wasn't spacing off and pretty nice when it came to doing small favors. Scratch the last part, Tsuna was more compliant than nice. Hana found it surreal that out of all people to ask for help, Kyoko turned to a sketchy poster on the school bulletin that was put up by Dame-Tsuna. Though, she supposed they couldn't just ask anyone about walls scratching themselves.

"Would you like something to drink?" Kyoko asked, moving towards the fridge. Tsuna shook his head. "No thanks I'm good. Could you show me the scratch marks first?" Kyoko nodded and went up the stairs. Tsuna followed and Hana trailed behind him with sharp eyes. Hanging on Kyoko's door was a flowery sign with her name on it in fine print. Underneath it was something not as cute. There were deep indentations of something akin to human sized claw marks. Tsuna's fingertips ghosted over them. "Too tall for an animal that's for sure," he murmured. "What do you think?" Kyoko blinked. "Uh, a human?" she replied uncertainly. Tsuna didn't seem to hear her or wasn't listening at all. "I'd say it's a poltergeist. I can feel some sort of angry presence, but it's pretty distant," Tsuna continued to mutter. He turned back to Kyoko and Hana. "How long ago did you move into this house?" The auburn haired girl startled slightly at the sudden question. "Erm, not that long ago I think. We moved here probably five years ago?"

Tsuna looked at the door thoughtfully. "This house was built about a good 15 years ago, so unless any major incident happened on this property that should narrow the possibilities as to why the poltergeist is here down." Kyoko and Hana stared at him. "Wait a minute, how the hell did you know when this house was built?" the latter demanded. Tsuna looked up at her with blank eyes. "I did research. I need to know where I'm going and what I should be prepared for, right?" Hana gave him an incredulous look. He was right but man was it weird to hear a person was researching Kyoko's house.

"Do you or any of your family members have any enemies or any one who'd want to harm any of you?" Tsuna asked. Kyoko shook her head. "Not that I know of..." Hana nodded. "The Sasagawas are really well liked," she chimed in. Tsuna hummed as he examined the door again. "Can we go back to the kitchen?" Kyoko complied and all three of them sat around the dinner table. "When do the-" Tsuna made a vague motion. "-happen usually?"

"Late at night usually."

Tsuna fiddled with the string of his hoodie. "Explains the lack of activity," he remarked. The brunet sighed before getting up. "I can't do much if there's nothing here at the moment. Is there any other day I can come at a later time, preferably at night?" Hana squinted at him, while Kyoko thought about it. "My parents are usually home for the night, so unless you don't mind them watching you work Saturday night would be good." Tsuna stiffened a little at her suggestion.

"....Saturday is good then. Sorry for the inconvenience," he answered reluctantly. Suspicious that he didn't want any adults present, Hana thought. Kyoko smiled at Tsuna. "It's fine. I asked for help after all." Tsuna bowed awkwardly and retrieved his duffel bag. Before he could even reach the front door, it opened. "I'm home!" Ryohei boomed, busting into the kitchen and almost smacking into Tsuna. He stared down at Tsuna. "Oh? One of your friends, Kyoko?" Kyoko nodded. "Yeah, it's Tsuna-kun!" Ryohei blinked before realization hit. "Oh! Nice to see you again, Sawada!" Tsuna seemed to shy away from the older boy's intense stare. "N-Nice to see you again too, Sasagawa-san," he stuttered. Ryohei let out a bellowing laugh. "Don't be a stranger, Sawada! Call me Onii-san!"

"Ah.... O-Onii-san then."

Hana internally winced. She couldn't really blame Tsuna for complying. Ryohei was rather... loud. "Then, I'll go now. See you Saturday, Kyoko-san, Onii-san, Kurokawa-san," Tsuna said awkwardly with a slight bow. "Going already?" Ryohei asked with a frown. Tsuna nodded. "I was about to leave and I have to get home before my aunt gets worried," the brunet replied as Kyoko walked him to the door with Ryohei watching them. "Oh, you mean the lady with the tattoos?" Kyoko exclaimed. Tsuna nodded with a small smile. "Yeah, she owns the bar."

They watched him go down the sidewalk. Tsuna disappeared down the street like a wandering specter in the night.