A Fatally Unamusing Affair — [One-shot, featuring Arashi]

It’s been helluva long time since I wrote a one-shot OFFICIALLY featuringall of the boys. D:
Oh, and this was written five months ago. Only recently did I force myself to complete it… OTZ

Featuring: Arashi, a.k.a. Ohno Satoshi, Sakurai Sho, Aiba Masaki, Ninomiya Kazunari aaaand Matsumoto Jun.
Genre: Horror, Suspense, Comedy
Rating: G
Summary: Horror games are all the rage now! Aiba, having acquired an awesome horror game from his brother, gets Jun and Sho to play with him… but the horror game doesn’t turn out to be harmless as they thought.

Notes: The horror game is based on Fatal Frame/Project Zero (which is really awesome, btw!). The game scene in the beginning is adapted from the Rope Hallway (you can watch in this video here, from 1:33 to 2:30, for a clear visual), and the scene later on is the Hearth Room (in the same video, 2:49 to 3:28).

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A Fatally Unamusing Affair
you’d think Arashi can handle a horror game.

The female character trotted slowly down a narrow hallway, edging around cracked holes in the floorboards and bending slightly to avoid the numerous ropes hanging ominously from the ceiling beams. The eerie whispers in the background were barely audible and yet so distinct that it drew a chilly atmosphere in the long abandoned and old mansion. In uncertainty, the girl slowed her pace and shone her torchlight further ahead, the light revealing a full-length mirror at the end of the corridor.

She blinked at the glaring light reflecting back at her. When her eyes had adjusted to the unnatural brightness, she caught her reflection. She noticed the fair complexion of her face and the unusual paleness to its colour, her brown eyes rounded with hidden fear and wariness of any unwelcome presence around her.

She edged closer and closer to the mirror, and suddenly –

Creak.

Instinctively she turned around and shone her torchlight down the hallway. There was no one there. Her chest heaved with loud and quickened breathing; she was very sure she heard that soft creak on the decaying floorboards directly behind her. Could her mind be playing tricks on her?

She inhaled deep to regain her composure, and she turned back to further examine the mirror. But the moment she looked into the mirror… she saw, hovering behind her, a ghostly woman dressed in a blood-splattered kimono.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!” came the chorus of two very manly screams while pointing at the TV screen.

“YABAIIIIIIIIIII!” the taller of the two screamed in his pitchy voice, clutching a pillow over his eyes.

“RUN! RUN NOOOOOW!” the other, a much deeper voice, shrieked.

“Shut up! Both of you!” snapped the player, pale and breathing heavily from the shock of the ghost’s sudden appearance but nevertheless glaring at his audience, who were so incredibly and stupendously terrified that even a little girl would be snickering at them.

“Matsujun, the cutscene’s ov—OHMIGOD THE GHOST IS COMING FOR YOU!”

“Dammit, I gotta fight her,” Jun cursed, and pressed the X button on the controller to whip out the Camera Obscura.

It seemed very unlikely that these three guys – three-fifth of an idol group – would spend a bright and positively sunny day, one of the few days of break from work, locked up in the TV room with the curtains drawn and the lights turned off, and scaring the bejeezus out of themselves by playing a horror game in sheer darkness. It was all Aiba’s damned fault, Matsujun would say.

In fact, it started with Aiba, who got this new game from his younger brother and was told that it was soooo awesome he would pee in his pants. Typical Aiba, not wanting to pee in his pants alone, called Sho to share the pants-wetting joy. Sho, poor, poor scaredy-cat Sho-chan, completely oblivious to what he was getting into, enthusiastically suggested they played at his house because his parents had just installed really awesome surround sound system in the TV room. And Matsujun, poor, poor, unfortunate Jun-tan, didn’t even know what he was getting into. In actuality, he appeared at the Sakurai house’s doorstep hoping to surprise Sho with homemade pasta carbonara, because 1) Sho’s house was the nearest, and 2) he was bored. And because he was bored, he willingly agreed to stay for the horror game entertainment – this coming from the guy who was unfailingly disapproving of a certain otaku’s obsession with his beloved Nintendo DS.

So now all three of them were huddled together in the middle of the TV room, with Jun sitting cross-legged on the floor and leaning against the sofa on which Sho and Aiba were sitting on and hiding behind a mountain of fluffy pillows.

“It’s so hard to fight in such a narrow space,” Jun complained.

He adjusted the camera so that the ghost was directly in the middle of the crosshair and waited for it to advance towards his character. The ghost moved in a slow pace, as though mocking them, and out of a sudden, she glided away and out of the camera’s view.

Jun was dumbfounded. “What the—”

He unequipped the Camera (thus taking off the first-person view point) and once the screen emerged in the third-person angle, he saw that the ghost was instead behind his character and advancing with outreached hands.

“THE GHOST CAN FLY?!” Aiba squeaked as he peeked out from behind the pillow.

“Baka, everyone can see that,” Jun retorted in annoyance. Deftly he spun his character around and quickly whipped out his Camera, but the ghost already got to the girl and was strangling her. She screamed in pain and the screen zoomed onto the ghost’s face, which was scarred and bloodied and had black, empty holes in the sockets where her eyes should be.

“QUICK, DO SOMETHING!” Sho yelled.

“I am, I am!” Jun said, feverishly punching the X button on the controller and watching in helplessness as his character’s HP lowered significantly. The ghost laughed maniacally before it finally released her.

“I think you better run…” Aiba whimpered.

“I can’t, it’ll chase me no matter where I go!” Jun exclaimed.

The ghost cackled evilly and started gliding in a circle around the girl again. With his tongue jutting out at the corner of his lips, Jun concentrated on its movement. The moment the ghost stopped behind the girl (he figured it was the ghost’s tactic was repetitive) he swiftly spun the girl around and took out the camera.

“DIEEEEEE!” he roared, and without hesitation he clicked the camera. He caught a clear shot of the ghost, sucking some of the its soul and thus flinging it backwards in recoil.

“YES!” cheered both Sho and Aiba.

“Do that consecutive shot thing!” Sho said.

Jun didn’t need to be told. He was already clicking the camera away in unabashed glee, doing a double shot before the ghost could regain itself. The ghost shrieked at an ear-piercing tone as it staggered away, and without hesitation, Jun zoomed the lenses closer to the ghost and dealt it with the final shot, ultimately defeating the ghost. The ghost screamed once more and then crumbled to the floor; finally its spirit dispersed and vanished into thin air.

The atmosphere regained its eerie stillness and silence.

Sho whistled. “Wow.”

Jun glanced over his shoulder and threw him a superior grin.

“That was awesome!” Aiba squealed in sheer exhilaration. Flailing his arms, he sprang up to his feet (in the process, knocking the pillows all over poor Sho), snatched the controller from Jun’s hands, and tumbled onto the floor unceremoniously. “My turn!”

Jun raised his eyebrows mockingly. “Uh huh… you totally weren’t screaming your head off like a little schoolgirl not two minutes ago,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Playing and watching are two different experiences,” Aiba argued. “Watching is scary yet fun… playing is scarier and… and funner!” He giggled, and without waiting for a reply he unpaused the game and led the female character to the nearest door. Within his fervent, bubbly enthusiasm, Aiba absent-mindedly pressed himself against Jun’s side. In fact, Jun had his arm slung over the sofa seat, so Aiba snuggled deep into the crook of his arm and crouched so low that it appeared as if he was resting his head on Jun’s shoulder.

Jun said nothing – clearly he had no objection to the close proximity – but he rolled his eyes. He tilted his head back and peered at Sho, whose face was half hidden behind a pillow. “It’s your turn after Aiba,” he told him smugly.

Sho’s eyes widened and he shook his head vigorously. “Aiba can play as long as he wants,” he replied quickly. As if to make a point, he jabbed his barefoot at Aiba’s shoulder. “Ne?”

“Ne!” came the childish response.

“Wussy,” Jun smirked.

In the game, the female character had entered a hearth room. It was very dark; the torchlight illuminated a cold hearth in the middle of the room and a couple of wooden cupboards and painted partitions stacked against the wall – everything was old and dusty. Once more, the eerie whispers of the background music gave the room a chilly atmosphere. Across the room was a flight of stairs leading to the upper floor, and next to the stairs was a small door.

“Through the door or up the stairs?” Aiba asked.

“Try the stairs,” Sho suggested.

Aiba led the character towards the stairs, slowly and carefully, but when she reached the bottom step, a ghost of a kimono-clad man suddenly appeared in front of her, walking up the stairs.

“AAAAHHH KOWAI KOWAI KOWAI!” Aiba screamed, and instinctively he spun the female character around and led her away.

“Oi, you’re supposed to capture a photo of the ghost!” Jun snapped.

“But-but-but-but why?!” Aiba asked in his panicky, high-pitchy voice.

“It’s a wandering ghost – it won’t attack you. And you get points to upgrade the camera lens… baka.”

“I don’t blame him,” Sho piped in, “that ghost popped out of nowhere.”

Jun fixed the terrified duo a piercing stare. “…Wussies.”

Tap. Tap. Tap.

All three of them froze. Simultaneously their heads turned and they stared at the window. It was difficult to see through the drawn curtains… but unmistakably someone – or something – was tapping on the glass.

“Did you guys hear it?” Sho whispered. He barely breathed.

“…Yes,” Jun answered. He seemed outwardly unperturbed by the unusual sound, and he waved his hand in dismissal. “It’s probably a bird or something.”

“Why would a bird tap at the window?” Aiba squeaked.

“How the hell should I know? Let’s just get back to the game.”

But not ten seconds passed when –

Tap tap tap tap tap.

This time it was louder… more insistent, and undeniable.

The three of them exchanged glances; Aiba clutched Jun’s arm tightly and looked as if he was about to cry; Sho seemed ready to bolt out of the door any moment, and imperturbable Jun seemed to have lost his steel wits. Wracked with uneasiness set in his expression, Jun nudged Sho. “Go take a look,” he ordered.

The blood drained from Sho’s face. “Why me?!” Sho exclaimed.

“Because you’re closest to the window, obviously!” Jun replied hotly.

Sho’s face bore an expression of utmost terror and evident reluctance, but Jun was adamant. So, very much unwillingly, Sho stood up – the pillow still clutched to his chest – and hesitantly approached the window. With a shaking hand, he slowly reached for the curtains, took one anxious gulp, and then swiftly he drew the curtains apart. He blinked at the brightness of the afternoon sunlight.

There was no one outside the window.

Sho leaned against the window pane and scanned the empty backyard. “It’s just our imagination playing at us,” he laughed nervously.

And out of a sudden, two faces sprang up from nowhere and thudded noiselessly right against the window, barely two inches from Sho’s face.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

Sho shrieked and fell backwards.

Aiba screamed and hugged Jun, hiding his face in Jun’s jacket.

Jun narrowed his eyes.

“You assholes.”

The two faces belonged to none other than Ohno and Nino, who were positively doubling over and roaring with laughter. Jun, with a murderous glint in his eyes, got onto his feet and went to the window, slid the window open, and smacked both Ohno and Nino on the head.

“That was not funny,” he hissed.

“Hello to you, too,” Nino greeted cheerfully. His eyes were watery from laughing so hard.

Aiba scrambled to Jun’s side and smacked Ohno’s head (he couldn’t reach Nino’s because Nino smartly moved a step away to avoid Aiba’s hand). “WHY DID YOU DO THAT FOR?! THAT WAS CRUEL! CRUEL!” Aiba yelled, very much like a distressed child.

“It was Nino’s idea,” Ohno said as he massaged his head.

“We couldn’t resist it!” Nino grinned devilishly. “We bumped into Sho’s sister on our way in, who told us you guys were playing this cool horror game… and we thought we’d surprise you!”

Jun whacked Nino’s head again. “Don’t mess with us! Something fatal could have happened,” he growled.

Nino rolled his eyes. “How fatal can a scare get?”

“Erm… guys?” came Sho’s voice.

All four of them stared at Sho. He was still sprawled awkwardly on the floor; his face held an expression of absolute dismay, his cheeks reddened to a darker shade.

“I think I leaked a little bit,” Sho moaned.

Silence ensued. Then, Ohno faced Nino with a poker face. “You were saying?”

~