BLEACH: Rise of the Privaron (PG-16)

[Scarlet Weather]

Still smiling, Ryouta turned to the black-haired shinigami who had just leaped up the building, carrying an unconscious girl. Before he could even begin to wonder who she was, however, a dense mass of reiatsu appeared, followed by what he could in all honesty describe as the ugliest looking arrancar he had ever seen- granted, he had only seen a few arrancar, and most of those from a distance. He barely waited to hear the orders of the girl beside him- now wasn't the time to make plans or draw up strategy anyway, now was the time to fight, and hopefully terminate with extreme prejudice. With a graceful, fluid motion, the cat-like shinigami slipped his arm beneath his uniform, grasping his zanpaku-to. Against an enemy of this size, he had learned, the best way to get yourself injured was to make the first move. As his eyes narrowed to feral slits, he tightened his grip, just as he heard the two shinigami of the group who seemed to be the leaders draw their blades and activate their initial releases. "Don't want to be left out of the fun, now do we?" he muttered, before leaping towards the arrancar in what he hoped to be a surprise move, pulling his blade from its sheath as he did so.

The gamble, however, did not pay off this time. Hissing angrily, the snake like beast swung its arm at Ryouta's gut, neatly knocking him several feet into the air. Wincing in pain, the shinigami pulled himself out of his fall, neatly executing a quick backflip that returned him to his original position on the skyscraper. "He's... strong." he muttered, as he dropped to one knee, panting. With noticeable effort, he pulled himself to his feet, as his smile narrowed to a near-glower. "Looks like I've got to make an adjustment..." he muttered, before grabbing the folds of his shinigami uniform and throwing them aside, revealing the tattered sweats and sleeveless shirt beneath. "Heh, didn't expect to have to go all out against my first opponent- guess I underestimated arrancar, nya?" He asked.

The arrancar was circling him slowly now, sizing him up as if Ryouta were a mouse, and he was some kind of barnsnake, preparing to strike and swallow his prey whole. "Die!" the monster hissed, lunging forward at speed that seemed nearly impossible, one massive arm poised to pound the gunk out of its target. As it landed however, expecting to feel its fist pounding into flesh, it instead felt the bite of concrete. Confused, it turned its head upward, only to see a still wincing Ryouta drop down, sword in hand, and use its head as a springboard to leap over the edge of the building.

Ryouta's move, however, was far from suicidal. As he fell, he muttered to himself, "Extend your blade to the heavens, and tear apart the cosmos! Come out," he muttered, as he reversed his head first dive and drove his sword into the wall, "Natsuhiboshi!"

Instantly, the blade of the long, keenly sharp katana Natsuhiboshi had been until that point transformed, instead becoming a yard-long, double-hand-width broadsword. Along with this change, a small stream of glowing, blue sparks shot from the blade's handle as it began to draw energy from the earth. The particles themselves immediately began flowing into Ryouta's body, replacing his lost vigor and slowing his rate of injury. With a toothy grin, the shinigami planted his feet on the skyscraper's wall, pulled out the blade, and at the same time leaped, propelling himself back towards the top of the skyscraper with mighty bounds, just as the arrancar turned away from the edge.

Because of the arrancar's rash choice to count Ryouta out of the fight, it suffered its first injury. Turning away from the edge, it left its back exposed to the returning shinigami. It was too good an oppurtunity to miss. As Ryouta leapt over, he swung his blade in a quick arc, cutting a shallow gash along the arrancar's shoulder. Hissing, the beast lashed its tail at Ryouta, which he narrowly dodged.

Jeez, this thing moves faster then I thought... the shinigami thought to himself, I really might die if I don't shape up. My only hit so far has been a lucky shot!

OOC: Yes, sorry for being an arrancar hog, and also sorry for changing the name of Ryouta's Zanpaku-to without posting, but I did change the blade's name on the sign-up sheet, and, well, since I didn't actually give a roleplay sample I thought I might as well add some flair to my first action post.

 

[Jack O'Neill]

Sarah reflexively brought up her rifle in response to the arrancar's assault on her would-be comrades in arms. "Okay, don't bother telling me my orders," she said. "I believe our job here's self-explanatory."

"So what if that pipsqueak Hitsugaya had problems battling the first arrancar he encountered? I've been fighting these abominations ever since they first started popping up in this city! Sure, they're an order of magnitude more powerful than a normal Hollow, but once you get past that..." Sarah muttered to herself as she got into fighting position and set the arrancar in her sights. By the time the arrancar had lashed out its tail at Ryouta, she had a clear shot at the monstrosity's head. Without hesitation, Sarah pulled the trigger, smashing the arrancar's mask into pieces with a well-placed spirit energy bolt; after pulling the bolt, she adjusted her aim slightly and opened fire a second time, knocking the arrancar back with another headshot and almost causing it to fall off the roof of the skyscraper.

Unfortunately for all shinigami involved, however, the arrancar managed to regain its footing. While taking a moment to regain its composure before rejoining the fray, it was snapped back to reality by a blade in its neck; Sarah had detached the bayonet from her rifle and used it as a ballistic knife, firing the blade from the handle with the simple flick of a switch. "You actually let your guard down like that?" she taunted in that irreverent, nonchalant tone of hers as she reattached the now-bladeless bayonet to her rifle; a new blade sprouted from the handle upon reattachment. "You obviously haven't been in the business that long. You're quite obviously pissed that Aizen didn't choose you to be part of his own personal army of the damned, so you're taking out your frustration by tossing in your lot with the Privaron, going into people's houses, and wrecking up the place. Pitiful."

The arrancar glared disdainfully at Sarah; unmasked, it bore an uncanny resemblance to Orochimaru from Naruto, right down to the long black hair and sickly complexion. "I did not come here to be lectured by sssome wannabe army girl with a sssuperiority complex!" it hissed angrily. "Hand over the girl and sssurrender peacefully, and maybe I'll consssider sssparing your livesss." With that, it unsheathed its zanpakuto, which more closely resembled a talwar than the standard-issue katana. "You ssseverely underessstimate the extent of my powersss, army girl!" the arrancar cried out as it grasped its sword in both hands and brought it down on Sarah, intending to cleave her in half for her insolence.

In response, Sarah brought up her rifle and used its barrel to parry the oncoming blade; she then lashed out with a vicious strike to the arrancar's forearms using the butt of the rifle. "None of you 11th Division people are helping out here!" Sarah cried out as she ducked under the arrancar's arms, stabbed it in the stomach with her bayonet, and fired off an energy blast at point-blank range; the force of the resulting explosion was sufficient enough to launch both Sarah and the arrancar several feet into the air in opposite directions, with the latter being launched off the roof and left to tumble many stories down to the cold, hard ground.

Sarah unceremoniously landed in a heap on the roof, her hands still on her firearm. She looked at Akemi and Kuro. "Well, are you two fine people gonna go pursue that arrancar or not?" she asked nonchalantly as she got back up and dusted off her uniform. "I'll look after the girl while you guys are gone. Now, go kick some arrancar ass already."

 

[parallelzero]

OOC: Sorry to speed things along, but I'm going to be in Europe from the 2nd until the 12th, so I want to get you guys to a point where you can act on your own devices before I leave.

"Oh, but I thought your firearms were so much better than our run of the mill zanpakuto." Akemi said in a very mocking voice as she shot a glance at her 'brother'. "I'm surprised you haven't noticed. The real Kuro has been gone for a while now. What you're looking at is Tentougokuin's special ability. Note the fact that the illusion isn't carrying a zanpakuto. I haven't exactly mastered the ability yet, but it was enough to fool this stupid arrancar." She paused her explanation for a moment as a blade like object shot out of her shadow. The illusion of Kuro dissipated as she brought Tentougokuin's white blade to her side, and she jumped over the buildings edge towards the fallen arrancar. "Looks like he's ready!"

As Akemi rapidly approached the fallen arrancar, it was regaining it's footing in the fresh, wide hole in the ground. As she fell closer and closer, she took note of all of the large chunks of concrete taken out of the building and surrounding buildings, all angled to a specific point in the air. It didn't take long for the arrancar to notice Akemi closing in before it prepared a counter attack. As Akemi thrusted her blade at the arrancar, even with the added velocity of the fall, the arrancar grabbed it, forcing Akemi to let go of the blade and grasp onto the staff. Not giving any notification other than an obnoxious grin, the arrancar began spinning the zanpakuto, along with Akemi, around and around, eventually letting go so that Akemi through straight up, screaming and completely dizzy. The arrancar followed suite, and that was enough of a reason for Akemi to shout, "NOW!"

Atop a nearby building, Kuro finally got the signal he had been waiting for, and thrusted Narakugokuin into his shadow. At the exact same time, all of the shadows formed by the nicks in the walls suddenly produced blade projectiles, all focused on the arrancars position, and all hitting their mark. The arrancar fell to the ground, disintegrating as it drew closer to the ground.

"Phew... that would have been impossible if you guys hadn't have weakened it first..." Akemi panted, as she stumbled along the top of the skyscraper, still dizzy. As she went to fall, Kuro caught her.

"It's... not gone. It'll... be back." An unfamiliar voice spoke to the group, causing Kuro and Akemi to turn to the injured girl. She appeared to barely be concious, and her breathing was still deep. "There's... no time... take me to this address, or I could die..." She dropped a piece of paper onto the ground, and Akemi picked it up.

"Hey, you shouldn't be talking! You're hurt! But guys... what should we do? It could be a trap."

 

[Jack O'Neill]

Sarah shot a disdainful glare at Akemi as she picked up the dropped piece of paper. "You should take into consideration that this is only the initial release of my zanpakuto, as well as the fact that it only took three shots and two stabs from it to suitably soften up that arrancar," she lectured. "Besides, you even admitted that it was impossible for you and Kuro to finish off the arrancar like you did without me and that Ryouta fellow weakening it for you. All he got in was a single lucky swipe that barely gashed its shoulder; as mentioned previously, I shot it three times and knifed it with my bayonet twice. Do the math."

Sarah focused her attention towards the piece of paper in Akemi's hands. "If that girl really is gonna die, we should get her to that address ASAP. We obviously don't have any time to waste," she ordered, glancing briefly towards the gravely injured girl. "We'll deal with any traps as we encounter them."

Sarah's attention was then brought to the boy who had made a rather ungraceful entrance on the roof and was now demanding answers from her and the other shinigami. "Our business here? We've got a Privaron infestation in this city, and we're here to clean it up. Feel free to help out if you want," she stated matter-of-factly. With that, she hefted the unconscious girl's body over her shoulder and turned to Akemi. "Now, what was that address again?"

 

[Loki]

Ack, I'm sorry! xP I meant to delete that post, I don't know why it came back from the dead. Sorry!

 

[Scarlet Weather]

"Hey, the only reason I got in one shot is because you rushed in first! If any of us had attacked, we might have gotten in the way of your line of fire, army-girl." Ryouta pointed out, resealing his zanpaku-to and returning it to its sheath. "Besides, for all we know, if Kuro hadn't finished that arrancar off when he did, it might have unleashed its full power, and then where would we be?"

Ryouta's ears flicked as he heard the unfamiliar voice and stepped back in surprise. The girl in the black-haired shinigami's arms was stirring, and gave a start as the girl dropped a sheet of paper. After a short discourse, army-girl matter-of-factly slung the unconscious girl over her shoulder, and asked where the address was. Ryouta decided immediately that now would be a good time to add his opinion to the matter. "Hate to say it, but army-girl is right. Our main objective is to gather as many shinigami and local vaizard, if any, as we can, and take out the privaron. That girl can see us, and she doesn't have a soul chain or a hollow hole, plus the arrancar are after her, so she must be either a shinigami or a vaizard. Since she seems to be here in the real world on something other then a vacation, I'm leaning in favor of the latter. And we're supposed to be tracking them down, so..." he nodded to his superior officer, "Let's go. In fact, why don't the two of us head out alone? That's all we really need. You all," he continued, nodding to the other shinigami, "Can stay behind for a while. We can rendezvous on this building later. Sound good?"

 

[parallelzero]

"What good would that do us?" Kuro asked, finally saying something to someone other than Akemi. "We have evidence that there are arrancar here, so I don't believe it wise to separate. Not to mention that for some reason, they can hide their reiatsu. Any of us could be attacked at any time, so going solo will probably lead to a higher amount of casualties."

"And besides, whooo has the paper? That's right! The great, beautiful, totally awesome Akemi!" Kuro's sister obnoxiously announced as she held the sheet into the air for everyone to see. This was her own way of trying to accomplish what Kuro had been attempting. "And besides, Kuro is the one who saved her, so does he not have an obligation to help take her there? But I digress, we should hurry before something serious happens to her! 1276 Cellon Street... Hey, isn't that the shop that provides goods to Shinigami in this area? If this girl is a vaizard, why would she have dealings with a Shinigami shop? Ah well, let's go!" And, as per her character, Akemi leapt off in the direction of the shop, with little time for arguments from the others pertaining to the splitting up idea.

Kuro let out a loud sigh as he placed his zanpakuto back into his scabbard. "Sorry, she can be a little bit... hard to deal with. The name is Kuro, by the way. 11th squad. I don't believe me nor Akemi have introduced ourselves yet, but we can save that for later." He murmered shyly as he jumped off the building after his twin sister.

 

[Loki]

"I haven't the slightest idea as to why there are shinigami here."

Hibiki sighed, resisting the urge to slap it out of the stupid man. His mind games never ceased to give the young shinigami and human-in-training a headache. Or a migrane, depending on the day and mood of the arrogant shop-keeper. In fact, he even refused to tell Hibiki his name, mostly since Hibiki wouldn't tell him his real name either.

So, Hibiki settled on calling him by his fake name, Ibu. The man was certainly not one to sit on ceremony, covered with simply a gray colored haori and hakama, not usually without an unlighted cigarette hanging in his mouth. For what reason it was there, he claimed, 'Decoraction'.

"Ehh?" Hibiki snapped, unconvinced, "Don't give me that. You know everything that has to do with spirit-anything here."

He stretched out across the tatami floors of the backroom, "Errr, well, when you put it that way... No, still nothing."

Hibiki sighed, "Best shopkeeper, greatest dresser, and unsurpassable knowledge on the intricate workings of the spirit world and senses."

"No idea what you just said, but it sounded flattering. They're here on something related to hollows."

Hibiki jumped to his feet, yelling, "NO, I would've NEVER guessed."

"Ahh, calm down, I was just kidding! Jesus christ. I heard they're here on something related to Aizen, or the Arrancar or whatever." Ibu scratched the back of his prickly hair, raising an eyebrow, "How'dja know they're here anyway?"

"It's kind of hard to confuse a dead soul with a living one." Hibiki sighed, sitting back down, "Well, as long as they're not here to drag me back kicking and screaming, I guess it doesn't really concern me."

Picking up his teacup and lazily taking a sip, Ibu rummaged through one of the boxes that were concealed behind a sliding door. Ibu was the one person who supplied Hibiki with his need for a large amount of items that keep him bound to his gigai. The appearance of the shinigami had been convinient, as he was down to his last block of battery for his black mobile phone, though it was only used as a Hollow detector when he couldn't walk about the way he usually did. Blowing on his tea so it would cool down faster, Ibu placed a medium sized box on the table between Hibiki and his own teacups.

"That's all the stuff you wanted." The man said, shooting the cigarette from his mouth into the trash can in the corner of the room, "¥8,540 thanks."

Hibiki cringed. Eeking out just enough for all the stuff he needed by fighting hollows was no easy ordeal, since most hollows around the town were weaker then weak. No less, it was a pain getting the money since he technically wasn't a registered shinigami anymore, and always had huge issues with choosing a random pattern of cities to appear in. Taking his time to count out the money, he continued the conversation.

"So what's with this Aizen?"

"You really don't know anything about Soul Society anymore, do you?"

"I know he's the 5th Division Captain." Hibiki replied irritably.

"Not anymore he ain't. He's the Arrancar captain." Ibu shook his finger, "You need to read the paper."

"Pft. So tell me what's going on."

"I'll think about it. How about, a 1,000 extra fee?" Ibu smiled his widest, whitest smile at Hibiki, who glared at him as he slapped the bill down on the table.

"Spill it."

 

[Jack O'Neill]

"'Great, beautiful, and totally awesome.' Right. Greatly, totally, and awesomely irritating, more accurately," Sarah muttered sarcastically under her breath as Akemi leapt off the skyscraper, with Kuro following shortly afterwards. "Looks like I've got no choice than to follow those two. I've got the girl, after all." With that, Sarah took her own leap off the roof, with the unconscious girl safely in tow.

"1276 Cellon Street. Yup, that's the old shop, all right. I wonder if those M1911s I ordered are already in stock," Sarah said to herself as she followed Akemi and Kuro through the city. No reiatsu other than those of herself and her comrades. She hoped that there weren't any arrancar lurking, waiting to ambush her and claim the unconscious girl as their quarry; the Privaron were naturally crafty foes.

 

[Scarlet Weather]

Ryouta smiled as Kuro and Akemi, who he now vaguely recognized from somewhere in Soul Society, leaping over the building's edge. Licking his lips he nodded to army-girl as she muttered her opinion of Akemi, then followed her in the steep descent over the tower. As he landed, he straightened up, preparing to break into a quick run, however, he was interrupted by a slight hissing.

Turning slowly, hand Natsuhiboshi's hilt, Ryouta faced what was behind him. His gaze immediately met a large, imposing-looking hollow, though one of the usual variety, who was staring at a quaking girl, who was backing away slowly, preparing to break into a run. It didn't escape Ryouta's notice that the girl had a chain hanging from her chest- she was a plus, a benevolent spirit awaiting konso. And this hollow was about to eat her.

Ryouta glanced behind him as his companions raced ahead, not noticing the girl's plight. Not surprising- this hollow was definitely weak. He barely had a discernable reiatsu. But nonetheless, there wasn't much a normal ghost could do against him. Ryouta debated for a moment on whether to call for the others, before cursing and running back to save the girl. It took only a moment- one swing, and Natsuhiboshi had cut through the hollow's back. Two swings, and the entire hollow was completely decimated. Licking his lips and smiling slightly, the cat-eared shinigami turned to race back towards his companions- if he used shunpo, he might still catch up. As he stepped forward, however, he felt a tug on the back of his shirt. He turned once again, and met the eyes of the plus.

She was around twelve or thirteen years old, and wearing a formal kimono, black, decorated with vivid embroidered cranes. She had brown hair, neatly curled into a bun, and a wide, innocent face. She pulled herself close to him, and whispered "Thank You", before racing off.

"Nya... that was weird. Wonder what else- oh, cripes!" Ryouta muttered, realizing that the entire adventure had cut him off from the rest of the group. Racking his brains, the shinigami tried to remember the adress. "1276 Cellon street? Okay..." he muttered, before racing down the road. He had no idea which way Cellon street was, so he decided to choose a path at random, hoping to decide by guesswork where the actual place was.

He nearly chose wrong. After a quick blunder, he recognized army-girl's reiatsu, and forged ahead, not concentrating on or caring about anything else.

Including the Gillian class hollow observing him.

 

[parallelzero]

OOC: Sorry, slipped my mind. XD;; ACC, lets not throw too many foes out there. I have 3 days to cover a few things, so more combat is a no-no for just now. Unless all it was doing is watching, then that's fine. ^^;


"Kuro~?"

"Yeah."

"That girl is a vaizard, right?" Akemi asked as the finally reached the building specified on the note given to them by the girl dressed in almost Gothic Lolita attire. It was a... dojo?, designed much differently from the Urahara shop. Also unlike the Urahara shop, it was located in plain sight on the middle of a busy street, not secluded like it's Karakura counterpart. The two began walking down the long stone path, surrounded by lush green grass, shrubs, and trees. They even crossed a little wooden bridge overtop a small creek filled with koi in a variety of beautiful colours. As they approached the building, the felt a sudden burt of reiatsu for a short moment. It was a security device, once that made it so only those of shinigami descent could pass through. Smart, although it wouldn't be much use if a shinigami or vaizard decided to turn on the shop.

Kuro finally nodded, his arms crossed in a strict manner. "Yes, I can't imagine her being anything else." They began walking up the steps towards the building, a variety of weird reiatsu beginning to surface. That was to be expected at such a place, however. "The chance of an ordinary human seeing us is slim to none, and I could tell by the little reiatsu she was exerting that she isn't an ordinary shinigami, either." Akemi opened the door, and the two walked in, only to find themselves confronted by a somewhat easygoing looking individual. He was young, maybe around the age of twenty, and he had dirty blond hair that he wore in a ponytail that went down to his neckline, the front covered by a red bandana. A closer look would show that he had blue eyes. Dressed in a white dress shirt and a pair of jeans, he glanced the group over through his circular glasses with very small lenses.

"Ah, I see. You brought Shiori home! She gave us quite a scare when she just ran off last night in the condition she was in! Ah, but I digress, we need to get her well again!" The man said positively as he began walking down the wooden hallway, turning into a room. Akemi and Kuro followed, expecting the rest of the happy band to do the same. When the entered the room, they found the man making a bed with white sheets, with a kit including supplies found commonly with the fourth division off on a table to the side. On the opposite side of the room, there was another bed, but there was a body buried under the sheets, exerting a weird reiatsu. "Ah, my apologies." The boy began. "My name is Kazumi Shiwatori, I work here as the owner's apprentice. I was originally from the fourth squad, you see, so I deal with health related issues... But I digress once more! Just leave Shiori here, and I'll have my master explain everything about this shop! IBU! WE HAVE COMPANY!"

OOC: Sorry, kind of assuming you were all there. XD

 

[Loki]

"Ehhh?!" Ibu called in a very annoyed and stupid sounding voice, "Yeah I know he's already in here!!"

Hibiki raised an eyebrow, "Think for a minute old man. It's been at least ten minutes since I came here, honestly, is your assistant really that incompetant to inform you of my prescence after ten whole frickin' minutes? You have more visitors, dimwit."

Ibu stared at Hibiki for a few seconds before standing up and stuffing his right hand into the folds of his haori, "You think I'm really stupid, don't you?"

"Yes." Hibiki replied, staying put on his cushion, "Yes I do."

"Ehhh," Ibu scratched the back of his head with his free hand before pushing the sliding door aside to see the shinigami that Hibiki had witnessed earlier with a bloodied girl dressed as strangely as possible in tow. The gigai-clad Toya stared at the girl and narrowed an eye at both Ibu, then the assisstant.

"You never told me you were housing a Vaizard."

"You never asked, nor endorsed me to say so. Besides, not jumping to conclusions is the first step in becoming wise. Nobody said I was 'housing' her." Ibu waggled his finger, before he pulled out another cigarette, "But other, and unwelcome, visitor aside, what brings you shinigami here- Shiori-chwan!!" The cigarette he'd just put into his mouth fell out as he dramatically 'just-realized' the bloody girl was an accquaintence of his. (Even though he'd just countered Hibiki's sarcastic statement showing he knew that she was indeed within the shop, and within view.)

If Hibiki could say anything about the two shinigami before him, he would say that he knew exactly who they were. Yokoai-san and Yokoai-san of the 11th division. Both of them he'd seen when he'd spent the few days of employment under that division, but he'd never actually spoke to them before. Being observant of his surroundings then however, seemed to have paid off. Well. Kind of. That depended on whether they would take the liberty of catching a rogue shinigami on the side of their assigned mission. Probably, if they really were 11th division true members. The fight would be enthralling. Hibiki sighed and silently took another sip of his tea, slightly shaking the cup to shift the tea leaves. Aizen, huh? He would've been the last one Toya would've pinned to betray. If anyone, Kurotsuchi was crazy enough to step out the boundries for something like this, not Aizen. But, who knew that Aizen was the mad scientist, not Kurotsuchi? Well. They were both mad scientists, but each more mad then the other in their own way...

Arrancar. Hibiki scoffed. So why here, of all places?

"I was sooo worried about you! Running off like that is a no-no!" Ibu cried in his freaky-very-creepy voice that was one octave higher then his usual voice. Reserved only when he wanted to be annoying, or was talking to very very cute animal's.

"So anyway." Ibu quickly recovered from his bout of worry for the vaizard, "What brings you shinigami here? Would you like to buy anything? Gikongan? Kikanshinki? A brand smackin' new gigai? Or maybe a new battery for that important phone of yours?? Everything here is a heck of a lot cheaper then it is in Soul Society!"

Hibiki's loud "HMPH" at the last sentence, earned himself a death glare from Ibu, who muttered darkly, "You got a problem with my prices, kid??"

Hibiki simply sipped his tea extremely loudly in response.

 

[Jack O'Neill]

Sarah was not far behind Akemi and Kuro when she finally arrived at the shop on 1274 Cellon Street, with her precious cargo intact and in one piece (albeit still out cold). She overheard the remark about the unconscious girl being a vaizard; she had her own suspicions regarding the girl, though she obviously had no way of confirming them.

After encountering the brief surge of reiatsu that represented the shop's only security measure, Sarah followed Akemi and Kuro into the building, where she ran into Ibu's apprentice, Kazumi Shiwatori; not bothering to greet him, she kept on following the two 11th Division personnel in silence all the way to the infirmary. She placed the would-be vaizard's body on the bed, then turned to face Kazumi. "I would believe that the purpose of this shop would be self-explanatory," she deadpanned. "So, the unconscious vaizard's name is Shiori, right?"

"Right," Kazumi replied. "As I mentioned previously, she wasn't exactly in the best of shape when she ran off on us last night."

"Judging by the wounds she's sustained, I'd probably guess she went off and fought one too many Hollows," Sarah mused. "At least it would appear that way."

"Who knows, really?" Kazumi asked. "We didn't have the slightest clue about what happened to her until you brought her back here."

"I must say, it's quite odd to see a vaizard in these parts. Seeing as she tried to do her part to clean out the Privaron infestation, I would assume that this Shiori person's already on our side," Sarah replied. "However, who's to say that she doesn't have ulterior motives, and they just happen to coincide with ours?"

Sarah leaned forward over the bed to have a closer look at Shiori; she had only looked over her for just a few seconds before she was interrupted by Ibu making his own entrance, along with a young male visitor. A startled Sarah simply righted herself and stood off to one side as she bore witness to Ibu's rather bizarre display of concern for the vaizard; once the shopkeeper was done being obnoxious, Sarah immediately confronted him. "You should know why we're here," she said. "Two words: Privaron infestation. What can you do to help us with it?"

 

[Scarlet Weather]

OOC: Just wanted to throw something in there to explain the arrival of any hollows/arrancars who happen to show up later, if thou wantest. So yes, Mr. Gillian is only watching, and watch he will until you tell him to attack.

IC:

"Hey, army-girl, it's not the best idea to just start badgering everyone we meet about this whole Privaron thing. It's going to get really old." Ryouta said, his smile curled into something that resembled a sneer. He had arrived just in time to see Shiori get taken in back, and to hear army-girl get up in the shopkeeper's face. "Anyway, even if he could help us, he'd probably ask for money."

Ibu turned his face to the newly arrived shinigami. "Well, there's another one of you, eh? Well, aren't you the interesting-looking one? Tell you what, I'm not entirely certain I should be doing anything for you... without something in it for me. After all, I'm not exactly on active duty." The shopkeeper leered as he finished the last sentence.

Ryouta hastily dug through his pockets. "Shoot!" he muttered, before facing Ibu again. "Sorry- no cash. I've got a spare bar of chocolate back with my gigai, though- will that count for something?" he asked, praying that the confection was as hard to come by for this shopkeeper as it was for himself.

The leering shinigami shook his head. "Sorry, no dice. Cash or nothing. Besides, I've got more then a little bit of chocolate in the back of the store- you won't believe how it sells."

Ryouta cursed under his breath. "Dang, and I thought I was actually going to find a piece of helpful information without running into it with my zanpaku-to." he muttered, his smile taking on an almost rueful quality. He turned to Sarah. "Alright army-girl, don't mind me. Continue interrogating him, or whatever." he said, just the slightest hint of a commanding tone layered into his voice.

 

[parallelzero]

"...And that's why shinigami should stay away from human drugs." Akemi said in a very quiet, muffled voice, getting a little smirk out of Kuro. There was no denying it. This man was off his rocker, even more so than Urahara Kisuke. Akemi almost picked the girl, Shiori, right up with the intent of leaving after listening to the way the man, Ibu, addressed the vaizard girl. The pair watched attentively as the man's assistant, Shiwatori, pulled some strange long gloves up his arms and began squeezing Shiori's body in a few, non-inappropriate places such as the arms and her neck. He pulled out a small syringe containing a neon pink, translucent liquid, and made haste to inject it into the vaizard's right arm.

"I was afraid of this..." Shiwatori said aloud as he lead the group out of the room, closing the door to the room behind him. "You see, the hollows here that are following the Privaron, they haven't been acting normally." He continued walking, until he lead them to what appeared to be a lounge, four small couches creating a boxed area, with a table in the center. He sat down, and Akemi and Kuro did the same on the couch opposite to him. "For the most part, they're ganging up in groups of twenty to sometimes even one hundred on essentially ANYTHING with an abnormal reiatsu. I'm personally surprised you guys got here without being attacked in that manner. Of course, Shiori, being a vaizard, exerts a strange reiatsu, and she was attacked last night. Somehow, she made it back here with her life, but after I went to get the supplies to treat her, she had run off again. That being said, I'm personally surprised she's alive right now. But..."

"...But?" Akemi repeated questionably as she took a sip from a teacup that had been handed to her by another worker in a gigai. "I've studied healing before. I know that serum you injected into her only acts as a method for keeping her alive. Do you not have any Gualin Herb here, or is that what you're going to ask about?" There was a short moment of silence as Shiwatori readjusted his posture so that his arms rested on the small table before them after he shifted his glasses. "I'll take that as a yes. You want us to go back to Soul Society and get some Gualin Herb to treat her?"

"Well, yes. Since you possess a method of traveling to and fro from Soul Society, I would like to ask you to. However, since you apparently know what it is I need, I'd like to ask you to go, Akemi, along with your twin brother." Shiwatori asked as he looked from Akemi to Kuro. Akemi was confused, since this man apparently knew who they were, but Kuro was too busy looking at that shinigami boy that was here when they arrived. he was somehow familiar...

"I'm not going to ask how you know my name, but I guess so. It's part of our mission I suppose..."

"Great! That serum she keep her breathing for at least three days, so feel free to spend the night here, and you two can depart in the morning!"

OOC: Sorry, needed a way to explain the absence of my characters while I'm away. XD

 

[Loki]

OOC: I'm so sorry about the crappy quality of my posts lately. I know, they suck. >.<;

IC: After the strange shinigami who had offered him value-free chocolate for information, (where did this kid come from, Rukonkai 80?) Ibu proceeded to more fully ignore the arrogant army-girl who obviously was unaware of the proper way to ask for information. Walking back into the room where Hibiki sat, and pushing a door aside he peered inside the same stock room he'd pulled the cardboard box of Hibiki's that now sat silently on the table. Taking his time to look around, Ibu finally stepped over a number of boxes and disappeared into the room.

"So anyway Toya!" Ibu yelled, and Hibiki spat out a mouthful of tea, "You got any extra bucks to spare for these handsome and beautiful shinigami?"

Hibiki stood up and threw his now drained teacup at Ibu's back which was hunched over in the storeroom as he hauled a box off the ground, "What the heck was that?!"

"Whaaat??" Ibu pouted very un-cutely when he re-emerged, "I don't care who the money comes from, you should know that!"

Hibiki sat back down. That was far from the problem.

"I can help you like this. That'd be about 18,400 yen from yah for these er..." Ibu looked at a piece of paper produced from the pocket of his haori, "M...1911's. Or whatever. I charge an extra 3,000 yen price for information, and 10,000 for my help in shinigami missions, so if you want me to add that to your tab, I will. Oh, and I added 400 yen for being pigheaded. Discounts come depending on how much I like you." Ibu waved the thousand yen that Hibiki had recently given him.

Hibiki snorted, and stood, "Well whatever, I'm leav-"

"Woooah there!" Ibu's arm flew right into Hibiki's face and sent him tumbling back into the room, "Nobody said you were leaving either! I haven't finished my story yet!!"

"What story?!" Hibiki snapped, cradling his nose, "You finished already!!"

"Ehhhh, you haven't been listening have you?? I didn't tell you about the Privaron yet, that's why you asked in the first place, isn't it??" Ibu waved his hand, "Once I rip people off I give them their merits worth. Usually. But I don't get interuppted during a story kiddo, yah hear?"

"Ehhhh-nehow, you crazy kids get to know each other! I'll be taking count of stock, so Shiwatori will show you where you'll be staying for the night." Ibu took a step back into the storage room, but paused, "Oh, aaand, it's a 2,000 yen price per night!"

"I'm going home." Hibiki stated flatly.

"Ehhhh?! But I already have your old room ready!! It's dust and clutter-free this time!!" Ibu cried from behind the storage room door, faking tears.

"What?!" Hibiki screeched.

"U-Umm..." Alfred's distinct voice said and Hibiki glared death at Ibu, who smiled back, "Could you let me down now??" He said to one of the shopkeepers who had the small gigai in tow on his shoulder like a bag of potatoes. But at the sight of all the shinigami before him, Alfred blinked and cried, "AHHH!! SHINIGAMI! HIBIKI-SAN, THEY'RE AFTER ME!!! NOOOO YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG PERSON!! I'M NOT HIIIMMM!!" Squirming and kicking and yelling and punching, the shopkeeper finally dropped Hibiki's real gigai to the floor and Hibiki sighed.

"Ibu. You owe me 1,000 yen for this. Damage of property."

"WHAAAAT!?"

 

[Rena]

OOC: Kyaaa~ I have a lot to make up, ohohohoh Shinji [ebil Mikuru] --- oh, and YAY FER SUPER DUPER SUCKY MIKI-CHAN POST =].

Neko.

Okay, so blah blabbity blah, it was really odd that Neko was quiet following everyone, she didn't even fight, what...what..eh. What's the word, irony? Yes, irony! Oh the irony, Neko even loved fighting soo much. But what was on Neko's happy-go-lucky mind? Eh, what was on it, it was...the most important thing ever..how kawaii her idol looked on the billboard near the skyscraper! And Neko wondered who does her hair. So, through all the hollow-fighting, vaizard-saving, go-to-places, Neko didn't do anything! Because stupy Miki was on a nice vacation!

There was lots and lots of people there, there was Twins-chan, and Army-kun, and Neko Dos-kun, there was other people whom Neko didn't recognize and she didn't care.

It was kind-of chaos, chocolate, which Neko really really wanted, hey doing nothing takes a lot of energy, money, which was also very wanted. But what Neko really noticed was the sucky post that Mikuru did because she had to catch with the ones that Shinji was going to eat very soon. And while all of that was happening, Neko was trying to figure how to hold her teacup only using her pinky, but the tea was good! Neko wished she could just use Jouyouheki to make everyone's attention to her and love her. Oh how Neko wished that so. Because *cough, cough* someone people were ignoring and being very rude to a young girl who was very cute. And one thing that Neko needed:

"HEYYYYY~ DOES ANYONE HAVE SOME EARPLUGS!"

Tomoe.

A figure grinned "This will be fun."

OOC: OH YES, SUCKY FIRST TOMOE POST =].

 

[Loki]

OOC: BUT PERFECT! Iza'bout TIME SOMEBODY POSTED. I COULDN'T GET ANYTHING DONE!!

IC:

"Hnnn." Adelita replied, sitting on one of the higher elevations of the floor, arms pulled back and resting on another elevation where Antonio stood, "Why me?"

"Don't complain Adelita." Antonio said roughly, his arms folded as he glared down at the girl from behind the shadows.

"I'm not complaining Antonio, I was asking a question." Adelita replied in a snippy voice. When nobody but Antonio responded to her question, she sighed, running a hand through her blonde hair. It was true that Adelita had spent most of her time sitting in this very spot for the past few weeks. She'd denied any missions and dumped them all on Antonio, even though he was technically her superior. Finally pulling herself out of the same position she'd been in for the past month or so, her arms cracked, ringing throughout the room. Nobody flinched, not even when her legs cracked as she made a move to stand up.

"Fine." She finally said, stretching a little before her eyes turned a brilliant green, her hair growing out and her normal attire changing to a plain white sundress, "I'll go."

And she crushed the hollow mask around the lower portion of her face as she stared straight forward at a pair of eyes that watched her every move.

Turning from her spot, she hopped off the platforms, her white sandal's making a 'clack' 'clack' sound every time she landed until she was finally on the floor level, far beneath her perch under Antonio.

"Don't forget to count!"

The room shared a soft chuckle and Adelita made no motion back before the door slammed shut behind her.



"One shinigami, two shinigami, three shinigami, four shinigami, five shinigami, six...shinigami... I see nine shinigami, two vaizard." Adelita murmured to herself, standing just outside the barrier, "This seems like a nasty barrier. I don't really like it, because then I can't count for sure, but..."

She placed her palm onto the barrier and immediately withdrew it when the seemingly thin air sparked at her.

"Water and electricity don't mix." She said lazily, looking at her charred hand which was quickly mending itself.

Inside, however, Ibu stopped with his crazy antics and stuck his cigarette on Alfred's gigai, and out of the mouth popped a gikongai, which he threw into Hibiki's unprepared mouth. Struggling for a few second, Hibiki waged war against choking, before Hibiki caught himself, Alfred's voice saying confused, "Err, Ibu-san?"

"I CAN'T GET OUT THAT EASILY YOU OLD FAGGORT." Toya yelled, trying to get his foot away from the gigai, but mostly succeeding in dragging Alfred to his feet.

After a few minutes of struggle, Ibu pointed outside, and Toya scoffed, "You've got about 8 shinigami at your calling and you force me out of my gigai so I can go fight something everyone else is gonna go fight anyway? Right. That makes a lot of sense."

Pushing the door to the shop aside, Toya raised an eyebrow at the sight of a girl who was examining the air, or, more specificially, the barrier. Pulling out his zanpakutou, and not thinking at all about who the girl could be, Toya was just about to lop off her head when he found the head, and her entire body wasn't there anymore.

"Wha-" Toya started, "A ghost??"

"I'm kind of offended. I'm not a ghost, as I'm real as you are. Well, I guess we are ghosts, since we're both dead, you know?" Adelita suddenly stood five feet away from Toya, who raised his zanpakutou again, "You must be an 11th division shinigami. You haven't even tried to reason why I can see you yet. You attacked me head-on without a second thought. I find those shinigami kind of funny, cause they're so stupid, you know?"

"If you can see me," Toya replied, "It means that your not a human!" He swung his zanpakuto into thin air again and spun around, "I don't need to know anything more. And if you were a shinigami, your reiatsu wouldn't feel like it does."

"But you can't find me until I talk. Don't you wonder why?" Adelita asked, pushing her zanpakuto through Toya's back, "But I guess you can't wonder anymore. You're an awfully rusty shinigami. Where are your friends? Why don't you..." Adelita twisted her zanpakutou around, cutting a hole in Toya's back and chest, "Call them out for me?"

Toya let out a yell, as Adelita pulled out her zanpakuto and slashed a deep cut across his back, "That's the spirit, pipsqueak!"