Skinwalker Apocalypse

An entrance

The room was a chaotic mess. It had been hours since the return flight from Japan which was successfully pulled off next two days ago, the journey to Deathmoore was about to begin.

The last two days had been a whirlwind for Darren. During that time, Darren had had to share his penthouse with the other members of the crew for their meetings which took place almost all day. This was due to all the elaborate plans and precaution lectures they had to go through.

Mr Boyd and Mr Yiska had a myth versus facts lecture. Johnson went through weapons and safety tips .

Emma Jobs went through the more technical part of things aka the actual stealing.

Nate, however, taught them a lot of must-know jungle DIY from how to open a parachute to the best locations to build an emergency hut if lost in the jungle. Darren was more than impressed by the amount of knowledge his favorite influencer was spewing.

It was the whole reason that he took this deal. A chance to meet Nate was not one he would ever pass up. It was a life changing moment for Darren... Or at least, he thought it was.

Every other member of the group seemed to bring a new shade of chaos to Darren's otherwise perfectly routined life.

Since he had the most spacious place available to them, he had to host their more secret detailed meetings in his penthouse.

To say that the male was displeased would be a major understatement. He did not like the current arrangement one bit.

Things all seemed to go missing from the spots he kept them all over his house and did not stop even though he clearly told Elle Jobs that she was the only one in the house with a penchance for stealing and that she should put them back. She would, ...only to steal something else again. It was infuriating to say the least.

At least, he didn't have to share his abode with the two old men but he might as well have with the Hina Tanaka character. She was supposed to live in his penthouse since it was considered the safest place to put her.

They could not check her into a hotel with the absence of a working or viable national identity and neither could she be left on her own since she was kind of inexperienced about this century and a walking minefield of harm and danger.

And goodness, she WAS a minefield of danger!

She had broken so much things in his home, the alarm clock he put in her room,

and last but definitely not the least, his precious........ TV.

Basically, any thing that made any sound or movement that she was not familiar with. Which would at some point be every gadget in his state of the art apartment suite.

Earlier that afternoon, he had caught her chasing after the vacuum cleaner with some chopsticks, which she insisted on eating with rather than cutleries, while the house was cleaning itself.

At first, he had watched bemused, wondering what the crazy looking character he was now sharing his apartment with, could hope to see to a vacuum cleaner with just chopsticks.

He learned the hard way that even the feather of a chicken could be a weapon in the hands of this century old, young lady, but by then, his cleaning system was coughing out smoke with his housemate standing over it.

Darren had snapped when that happened. He had finally reached his limits. Hina Tanaka had to be transformed or she would drive him loco... He was sure of that.

Her crazy banshee look was the first thing that he tackled, mostly because it was what seemed accomplishable at that moment. It was not easily achieved... No, it was expensive and time consuming, but Darren got it done. For the sake of his sanity.

Thankfully, he was well versed in foreign languages and spoke the Japanese pretty well so, he was able to convince her to come with him to the "Market".

They got to the mall to shop first. Darren got into his favorite store to shop and handed over his black card to the shop assistant as well as Hina who was looking around in awe.

Many minutes later, close to two hours, they walked out of the store with several bags. Those bags were taken to the car before they moved on to a hair salon.

This was much harder to get through. Hina had cooperated with the clothes store shop attendants because she was really fascinated by all the colors, styles and texture of the clothes she had been made to try on for them. Someone messing with her bird nest mess of a hair was a completely different ball game.

The entire encounter was dramatic, from the introduction, to the moment that Darren took off the big hat he had used to cover her hair which made the stylist flinch.

"Is it possible to save this mess? To maybe... Cut? And... Just rejuvenate this?"

The stylist had nodded and pulled Hina into a seat but he saw on her face the words on her mind that she hadn't said by her mouth and he suspected it went a little like this.

"Under what rock did this lady crawl out from?"

Darren thought that, "Under what monastery had this lady been brought out from?" would be more accurate.

To keep Hina from freaking out, Darren had tried to explain what was about to be done to her as well as he could in Nihongo.

Why, you may ask was Darren doing this? Was he a saint with a penchance for helping poor unfortunate souls at random or just the ones that end up in his home?

Well, those would be really incorrect... Darren was not a saint and was not really into charity but, he knew some parts of this event was going to be recorded and aired.

If they were successful, they would be shown on the television and internet and popular in the world of collectibles.

They might maybe win some awards or record of some sort. Also, Nate was going to put up clips of their adventures on his YouTube channel.

Darren would be noted and recognize for partly funding the adventure alongside the company, he would have to see pictures and videos of them constantly and everywhere... Especially when he was binge watching "Nate's Video Journal". He could not have one of their team mates looking like a slob then.

Besides this was a small price to pay because, once they hit the artifact jackpot, as a sponsor, he was going to get a huge cut of the spoil.

After the salon, they went to a spa where Hina had opted for a sauna experience and he booked a manicure and pedicure appointment and a full body massage for himself.

He also booked Hina a full body waxing and a massage simply because he had a heart and needed her in pristine conditions when she fought mysterious creatures to save both their heads in the Deathmoore.

And that, my friends, is how you kill two birds with a stone. Oil up his human ...well, 'meta human defense being' while looking like a caring angel. He was sure, at the end of a well done massage and after looking at herself in the mirror, Hina would be just as well wrapped around his little finger.

Just like he had thought, Hina had been full of thanks the whole drive back home. They visited some other store for effects such as perfume, shoes and accessories. It was evening by the time they were done.

Fortunately, they were home in time to prepare for the final meeting that evening which was supposed to be more of a review than informative.

Once back at home, Darren handed Hina over to his two maids and had them dress her and have the girl talk with her. You know, bring her up to speed with the current trends and such.

By the time he came downstairs from a fresh shower, and got into his living room, he met the chaos that was his team mates. Or at least the more liberated ones which was excusing Mr Boyd, Mr Yiska, and their secretary who sat close to each other, away from the noise and seemed to be having a serious discussion.

Darren cleared his throat loudly to make them all turn towards him. "May I have your attentions please?"

The room surprisingly went silent as they all waited for him to continue talking. "Well, after a lot of effort, money and time spent today by yours truly, allow me to present... " He moved towards the door he had just come in through earlier and grasped the handle poised to pull it open. "...the new and improved... " He paused for added dramatic effect. His small audience seemed to be eating it up.

"Hina Tanaka!" And then he pulled the door open.

There was pin drop silence as the said lady walked into the room, shocking everyone including Darren himself by her beauty and poise.

She was completely transformed, like unrecognizably transformed. A complete makeover.

Hina stood in front of the room with a grin, pulling her feet apart a bit and putting one hand on her hip in the pose that Sarah, one of the maids had taught her.

"Can I get a double sword, please." She said to the room with an heavily accented English but enough to pass the message that she was a fast learner and was not without an understanding of their language.

Going by the look of awe on everyone's face, she believed that she really was nailing this foreign country thing.

A/N: I'm terribly sorry for the long wait. Had a terrible case of writer's block, a shadow effect of juggling two books on different platforms. I am back on track now and would like to push out more chapters soon. Thanks for reading. Let me know your thoughts.