A Pleasant Stroll in the Forest [Niji/Murat]

To Murat's surprise, he had no difficulty locating his target. Niji's deep lavender hair stood out like a sore thumb amidst the crowds. Doing his best to focus on suppressing his Reiatsu, Murat lit a cigarette and started trailing Niji from a distance. A few times, he was worried she might have sensed or spotted him, but she made no overt indication of having done so.

As they passed from district to district, Murat realized that his attire was quickly setting him apart from the crowd. To Murat's relief, Niji entered a storefront around the midway point in their journey. Frantically searching around, aware of the fact that he likely had precious few minutes to find some sort of disguise, Murat saw a large man with a sizable, scraggly beard walking down a side alley, his back to the main road. Hurrying after him with only a passing regard for stealth, Murat prepared himself as the man turned to face him.

Maybe he read hostility in Murat's eyes or maybe it was just the way things went in the outer districts, but the man did not waste time readying himself. He reached to his side and drew a blade that looked at least twice as large as Murat's Zanpakuto, though it appeared to be in severe disrepair. As Murat drew closer, he saw several scars and distinctive tattoos on the man's face and arms.

Murat had hoped that he could have been able to quietly work out a deal to buy the man's clothing. That option looked to be out of the picture now, though. Breathing deeply and remembering his training, Murat changed his run into a charge while watching the man's stance carefully. He had never had to use any of his Systema training in a practical situation before, an unwelcome thought that he hastened to put to the back of his mind.

The man's attack was predictable and sloppy, but so was Murat's defense. A more capable martial artist would have no doubt been able to sidestep the blow and deliver an efficient knockout punch, but Murat was nowhere near that talented. As he shifted his weight to dodge, Murat lost his balance and careened into the man's midsection, clumsily tackling him to the ground. As they barreled to the alley floor, Murat could hear the blade falling from his opponent's hand and landing in the dirt. Grunting in pain from his sore shoulder, Murat straddled the man's waist and aimed a strike at his throat. Murat's blow connected, causing the man to let out a sickening gag while attempting to roll away in agony. Straining his thigh muscles to maintain his positioning, Murat delivered two quick blows to the man's head. The first shot was off target, landing on his bearded cheek. The second, however, hit him square in the nose. With a crunching sound, the man stopped struggling and rolled up into a ball, clutching at his face.

Exhaling deeply, Murat got off the man and flipped him over. Unceremoniously, Murat stripped the man, looking back down the alleyway to make sure nobody had seen the scuffle. His robes were much larger than Murat would have needed, but this made it so Murat could put them on over his own clothing. Glancing back down at his disrobed opponent, Murat's eyes lingered briefly as he took in his figure. He had a rugged handsomeness about him, but this was neither the time nor the place for that. Realizing the need to deflect any suspicion the man might have as to the motive for this attack, Murat knelt down and placed his mouth next to the man's ear, thinking up a plausible lie as he resisted his more base urges.

"This is our turf now. Go tell your boss that we'll be running this block from now on."

The man looked up to Murat with a look of confusion intermingled with the pain on his face. Satisfied that whatever he had done would be chalked up to gang violence, Murat walked out of the alley and rounded the corner, lighting a cigar as he stepped back into the street. It took a minute or two, but Niji finally reemerged from the storefront she had entered. Confident his disguise would allow him to get blend in, Murat continued to follow Niji as she walked. Soon, he had to give her a much larger lead due to an increasingly sparse population until, finally, she reached the end of the road and walked off into the forest in front of her. Bracing himself, Murat followed her in after giving her a slight head start, sticking to the trees and bushes as he walked deeper in. Reaching out mentally, Murat was able to sense Niji ahead of him, as well as two Hollows that she seemed to be heading towards.

Great, Hollows. This day just keeps getting worse, and there's no way they'll accept my report if I don't look into this.

Warily, Murat trudged off into the forest after Niji, his nerves and focus on external stimuli overpowering his attempts to conceal his own spiritual energy. As he abandoned his disguise at the forest edge, Murat couldn't help shake the feeling that this whole thing was a bad idea. Going against his previous statement that she wasn't going to be getting out, Murat pulled Nesim from her sheath and adjusted his knuckles into her grip.


WC: 906/1986

    Niji almost laughed as the third hollow whose presence was already hard to pin point concealed it's presence to nil as it changed direction to go after the weird presence that was following her. Not that she was cruel, but she did love a good challenge and it would be interesting to see how this other presence that was following her handled itself. 

    So ... I kill these two and I can carry them back to where the thirds at. Hopefully, that stalker can fight on its own. Otherwise, I'm going to have to loose a potential meal going to save them. Let's just hope they spotted three hollows when coming here, and spotted that one when it went invisible. It'd suck if they walked into a trap.

    Niji gave an annoyed hum as she took out her Butterfly Swords and waited. If the person got in trouble she'd have to save them, but that person was going to owe her something tasty to make up for things if she lost these two. After all, it was rare to find so many Hollows in Soul Society that the rest of the Shinigami haven't dealt with before she could hunt them. And if Chie was right, then that window of opportunity would keep getting more and more narrow as the system got updated with better software.

    So all I can do now is wait. Either the stalker is good, or I'll need to help. Hey Orropoi! See if that person's a Shini and talk to their sword. Let me know what's up. 

    Uzume reached out to the smoky presence and once connected to Murat yelled, "Hey! Any Zanpakuto there! A somewhat important message from the Shini your stalking. You have about a minute before things go pear shaped. Answer if you want a heads up."

    If Nesim answered Uzume, would relay a quick message, "You have a hollow capable of complete Reiatsu Suppression headed your way. Possible ambush, although little heads up, if Niji has to save you both. You'll both owe her a meal, and you'll owe me a visit to my little Resort. Of course, you can have Niji come anyways for a counter ambush for the same price. Sound fair?"
___________________

WC: 371 (1100)

GP: 22

Murat had barely flexed his fingers when he heard Nesim moaning provocatively. Looking down at his blade incredulously, Murat scoffed. Really?

"I'm sorry, but it has been a long time. You don't even train with me, for crying out loud."

I don't train with you out because you're liable to find some way to make me kill whoever I'm sparring with. Systema is about control, not aggression.

"Like how you 'controlled' that guy in the alley? That seemed pretty aggressive to me. Anyway, are we going to help her kill those Hollows? Please, for me?"

Deciding to put their argument on the table for a later discussion, Murat though about the current situation. They probably should do that, but Murat couldn't help shake the feeling he had. Something wasn't right about this whole situation. He knew that Hollows popped up occasionally in Rukongai, but why had Niji seemingly known exactly where to find them? Could she be meeting them, and for what purpose? If that were the case, Murat may have stumbled upon something far more severe than a few disciplinary infractions.

Was that why the Captain Commander had selected him? Did he know this would happen? Why had he picked Murat anyway? Had he caught on to Murat's role in Kasumi's investigation and, if so, was this mission an attempt to dispose of him? Had they unknowingly stumbled upon something bigger than they had originally suspected?

Fearing the worst, Murat stood still, contemplating running away and getting some backup. If his suspicions were correct, he was walking straight into a trap. But if they weren't, then the Captain Commander would want to know why he fled, which would probably lead to him finding out about the investigation. Unsure of whether to advance or flee, Murat lit a cigarette and leaned his back up against a nearby tree, smoking as he pondered the best course of action.

While Murat dragged on his cigarette and worked his logic in circles, Nesim heard a voice reaching out to her. Delivering a warning, a feminine voice echoed across the arid steppe that made up Murat's Inner World. Wheeling her horse around, unable to locate the source, Nesim stalked around the large open air tent, drawing and knocking an arrow in her cavalry shortbow as she looked for the source. Unable to spot anyone, Nesim dismounted from her steed and made her way to a large rug in the corner of the tent. Lifting it up to reveal a closed cement trapdoor, she sighed. Prying open the cover, she looked down the hole, her eyes adjusting quickly to the change in lighting.

Murat hadn't been down here yet, and Nesim wanted to keep it that way. A large freight elevator stood at the end of a catwalk. She knew that, if she took it down, she would be in the dimly lit warehouse where she filed her copies of whatever Murat had been looking at. From what she knew of Murat, if he ever saw that his Inner World included a place like this, he'd refuse to have their meetings 'upstairs.'

Comfort breeds complacency, and there was no better embodiment of that motto than Murat. He needed to be thrown off his guard if he was ever going to make something of himself. If he were able to pull up a chair down in the warehouse and knock back a drink or two, then he'd never actually get anything done. Only by forcing him to get off his ass could Nesim hope to be treated as anything more than a glorified letter opener. Murat hadn't tried that in a decade or so after the last verbal lashing she gave him, but he was bound to try it again soon if his history was any indicator. Thankfully, the warehouse seemed empty after a quick glance down the hole. Nesim had worked quickly, though Murat only had around 40 seconds of the original estimate left when she finally addressed him, closing the trapdoor and covering it back up.

Nesim considered asking Murat what he wanted to do, but she had already wasted a lot of time looking for the source of the voice. He would be liable to use up whatever time they had left mulling a decision over. Throwing caution to the wind while maintaining Murat's cover story, Nesim composed herself and responded to the other presence.

"Hello? Where are you? My Shinigami isn't the best tracker. He took his eye... thing out so he wouldn't attract unwanted attention when he was trying to find Niji and forgot that whole looking for someone part of the equation. He's got some papers she needs to sign off on, I think."

Nesim smiled at the news that a Hollow was closing in on them. It had been over four decades since Murat was last in a real one-on-one fight. Not being able to detect his opponent would be a problem, particularly with his diminished eyesight. Nesim wanted to test him, though, and this provided a perfect chance with a nice safety net. He could easily afford the meal and, while Nesim was unnerved by the fact that this other spirit had somehow been able to encroach on Murat's Inner World somehow, the prospect of being allowed to unwind a bit was tempting.

"He's let a bit of rust built up, so a little backup might be a good idea. Hold off for a while, though. He hasn't really let me out for over 40 years, and I'm not going to pass up this opportunity. My name is Nesim, by the way."

Deciding it was time to let Murat know what was going on, Nesim switched her focus back to him. Predictably, he was still smoking and re-running scenarios in his mind about who did what and why. Speaking up, Nesim hoped Murat could sense the urgency in her tone.

"I don't really have the time to explain now, but I think Niji, her Zanpakuto, or something knows we're following her. Whatever it was, it spoke to me and said that a well suppressed Hollow was coming. We've probably got 20 seconds or so before it's within striking range. Get ready!"

Broken from his train of thought, Murat groaned in a healthy mix of frustration and confusion. He had several questions for Nesim, but his train of thought was interrupted by a tree moving slightly in the distance. Tightening his grip, Murat crept toward the movement slowly, his eye darting around as he walked.

He hadn't gotten more than 15 steps forward when he saw a large tall bear-shaped Hollow crawling across the ground, headed directly toward him. The creature's canine teeth were absurdly large, more resembling tusks than actual teeth. Its footfalls were also noticeably quiet, an impressive feat given its size. Without the warning, it would have likely snuck up on him easily. Ducking behind a tree, Murat prepared a defensive shield to cover his front and sides, his back pressed up against the bark.

It would have been so easy to just fill out the damn paperwork and submit it, but he just had to listen to Nesim and go look into this deeper. This was exactly why he didn't like taking her advice. It was Beirut all over again. Here he was, in over his head with a Hollow stalking him in unfamiliar territory, with no easy route of escape. A Hollow that capable of suppressing its presence would have surely been able to give chase, and he sincerely doubted that a few years of half-assed hand-to-hand training was going to elevate his skills to the point they needed to be at to take it out.

None of this was right. He didn't belong here. Murat should have been back at his desk, enjoying a nice drink, looking at some Fourth requisition reports. Instead he was out in the middle of a forest, half-blind, struggling to keep his cigarette in his mouth. Hearing a twig snap to his right, Murat turned and saw an immense glowing green eye glaring at him.

Before he could react, the bear Hollow turned its head and attempted to clamp its jaws around Murat. As the creature's teeth pressed against the barrier, Murat slowly slid down the tree desperately looking for a way out. The Hollow was large, but it had not looked particularly quick as it was plodding through the woods. If Murat wanted to get out, he realized that he would need to be faster than his opponent if he couldn't be stronger.

Channeling his Shunpo and releasing his barrier, Murat quickly pounced on the back of the beast, gripping its neck with his legs as he plunged downward with Nesim. As its jaws clamped shut on the tree, Murat's strike landed on the bear's forehead, glancing down and making a light cut in its mask. If his weapon had been larger or if Murat had had the presence of mind to not try to rely on brute strength that he quite simply didn't have, it would have easily been the Hollow's end. Unfortunately, all it had done was embed Murat's hand in his opponent's face.

The Hollow rolled to its side, taking Murat with it. As it fell, it rolled over onto its back, crushing him underneath its weight. Murat was able to raise a shield to protect himself slightly from the beast's immense size, but it was not strong or quickly formed enough to fully protect him. Murat screamed in pain as his legs were drawn under the bear's body, the bones breaking audibly as the barrier held in the middle of his thighs.

The bear continued to roll, leaving Murat writhing in the dirt. Quickly standing up, it growled as it walked over to its prey, repeatedly clashing its claws on Murat's barrier. Nesim, sensing that Murat had lost his will to do anything but shield himself and worrying about his ability to sustain the shield, reached out to Niji's Zanpakuto.

"Anytime would be good. I don't know how much longer he can keep this up."

WC: 1682/3668

    "Hello? Where are you? My Shinigami isn't the best tracker. He took his eye... thing out so he wouldn't attract unwanted attention when he was trying to find Niji and forgot that whole looking for someone part of the equation. He's got some papers she needs to sign off on, I think." Nesim replied when Uzume hailed her. 

    "Where am I? Well right now I'm simply on the edge of your world's boundaries, simply talking. Kind of like Douji, you know that one Zanpakuto Spirit that likes talking to others? Well this is like that, although if you'd like to meet face to face. We can do that when you have some time to spare, as for the paperwork, I'll let Niji see about that when she's wrapped up." Uzume commented. 

    She listened to Nesim's introductions, and gave a response to Niji, "So we might need to be headed over there. I'd start running just in case things go south, but she wants to let her Shinigami fight a bit. Also apparently there's some paperwork that you need to fill out."

    "He's bringing himself into a potentially dangerous spot simply for some paperwork? I'll look into it," Niji grumbled as she loped steadily through the woods towards her new target. 

    As she neared she drew her Butterfly Swords, the sai hook pointing where the blade would normally be positioned and began the incantation for Shissō, she arrived just as she saw the bear like Hollow use it's weight to crush the stalker with the barrier faltering between them. No time to loose I guess.

    Niji jumped onto the tree's trunk and angled herself as she released Shissō. A shockwave of force erupted from her feet as she was sent rocketing straight to the bears back. Her aim at the neck caused her sai to get stuck in the vertebrae with enough force to send her rolling. 

    She regained her stance and walked over to the wheezing Hollow, it was laying on it's side, from the force moving off the now unconscious and banged up Shinigami. It's eyes gleaming with malice. 

    "Sorry, normally I'd use a lot less force so you could talk while I get you ready to eat. But ... well a rush jobs a rush job. Now let's see if you're a genny or not," Niji pleasantly said as she used her other knife to score a mark across it's cheeks, or at least attempt to, "Oh! You got some tough skin. That'll be great." 

    Taking out her embedded sword with a sickening squelch and rattlling sound as its' broken spine shook around. Niji went to work quartering the Hollow. Jumping up and using her full body weight behind the blows as she separated them from its' body. Kicking them away from it. 

    "Now comes the boring part of this proceeding. I Niji, humbly apologize for the fact that Soul Society isn't heaven yet. And that your life is probably going to suck. At least it'll suck not as horribly as watching me eat you piece by piece. Farewell!" And with that, Niji stabbed the Hollow through it's eyes. It's body dispersing leaving behind it's severed limbs. Great now I have to wait till this get's finished loosing it's acidity before I can eat it. As for this guy, well I have something in store for him.

    Niji cast Suimin (Sleep) so that he wouldn't be bothered by the broken bones while she healed him up. Although it took till after she had cut the limbs into slices, and stored some in a baggie tied to the tree branch for later that she undid the Bakudo. 

    She'd be munching on her kill when he woke up, and she'd give him a raised eye brow while waiting for him to speak first. 


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OOC:



Shissō: Dash. A Bakudo that causes a blast of force that violently propels the user forward in a single direction. Useful for when a burst of speed is needed.



Suimin: A Bakudo useful for Medical Staff. Acts as an analgesic putting the target to sleep to allow them to be operated on without pain interfering with the surgery. Or also useful as both a prank and a tactical maneuver.

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WC: 632 (1732)

GP: 34

The pain was simply too much. Murat could feel the will to maintain the barrier draining from his mind as his consciousness faded. Spiritually, mentally, and physically depleted, Murat's eyes closed just as he saw a flash of light shine behind the Hollow.

Nesim scowled at Murat as he came to in his Inner World. Still emotionally empty, Murat broke down in tears as she looked on, falling to his knees on the ground. At least in here, the physical pain seemed to be gone. Sighing, Nesim trotted her horse over to Murat and looked down at him.

"Get up. You're not dead, at least not yet."

Murat looked up to her, tears welling up in his eye as he did so. He should have never agreed to do this. He was nowhere near combat-ready. He should have submitted those damn files to the Captain Commander and been done with it. Blubbering pathetically, he tried to tell her that, but the words wouldn't come out.

"Look, you're not dead. I called out to Niji's Zanpakuto when things started going bad. She probably got here and saved you, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Sniffling, Murat looked up at her. If this was true, then the mission had failed before it had even really started. Any second now, he stood a chance of being killed off by the Hollow, unable to defend himself or even see it coming. Continuing to sob quietly to himself, Murat stood up, looking to Nesim. If he died here, so would she, yet she seemed much calmer.

"How the hell can you be so calm right now?"

"If this is the end, at least we went out fighting. At least you let me out of that damn sheath instead of being the only damn Shinigami in all of Soul Society to let their Zanpakuto rust. What kind of man chooses to die at a desk of old age when there are so many better options? If you actually let me out properly, you probably would have been able to drop it."

Better options? Why did she always go on about this "warrior's death" nonsense? It might appeal to their sense of honor of one of those blockheads in Fifth Division, but Murat wasn't about to throw his life down for a line in a song or some idiot's poetry book. He liked living his life, as lame as most Shinigami might find his existence.

Still, Nesim had a point. He had refused to take her out initially and, if he hadn't sensed the Hollows ahead, he wouldn't have been armed when he had been attacked. Releasing her would have given him the upper hand probably, but what was to say he wouldn't run off and try to kill Niji afterwards? He couldn't trust Nesim when he let her out, and that was all there was to it.

"If I could actually trust you not to escalate a bad situation and make it worse, maybe I would have done that."

Nesim huffed and folded her arms as she looked down at her pathetic wielder. Suddenly, Murat felt a tingling overtaking him, his mind rejuvenating itself as healing energies poured into him back in reality. The tingling rapidly picked up as the unmistakable feeling of Kaido surged through him, healing him all over. Thankfully, it seemed his healer was not proficient enough to begin to heal his eye wound. All he got was the telltale burning pain of the socket damage trying futilely to mend itself.

Awakening back into the forest, Murat sat up. Standing across from him stood his target, Niji Amidasu, her hand holding some large chunk of meat, its juices dripping down her hand and mouth. She looked every bit the savage he had estimated her to be, but he dared not voice that sentiment. Looking up to her and adjusting his sunglasses on the bridge of his nose, Murat propped himself off the ground and half-smiled, half-grimaced at her, his fingers still threaded through the brass knuckles on his trench knife Zanpakuto. Niji's healing wasn't perfect, but he could certainly move better than he had been able to when the bear knocked him out.

"Niji Amidasu, I presume? The name's Murat. Murat Pasha, First Division Records Officer. Has... it... been dealt with? The Hollow? From what my blade tells me, I might have you to thank for taking it out."

Deciding to quickly establish his cover story, Murat shot into a somewhat practiced introduction, hoping the feral creature standing across from him understood normal niceties.

"We did an audit and found a few forms that you hadn't finished signing a while back and, this is somewhat embarrassing, but I simply couldn't resist the opportunity to actually get a little fresh air, so I walked around trying to find you. I guess we got kind of far out here, huh?"

Murat gave a laugh at the last statement, pouring on the charm somewhat heavily in his vocal inflections. Hoping that she would buy his obfuscation, Murat couldn't help but wonder what it was that Niji had in her hand. There's no way she'd be primitive enough to be eating a Hollow, right? Surely they would have taught her not to do that at least somewhere along the line! That must have been some other creature in the forest.

WC: 894/4562