Business As Usual [Lucas]

Quincy existed in all shapes, sizes, and walks of life. Lucas, just in Japan so far, had found Quincy that were homeless and refused to use their powers to get ahead. He had also found Quincy that were wealthy and lived off inherited money. Most commonly, though, were Quincy that chose a middle road with their head down, hood up, in order to blend into the rest of the masses of humanity. Many worked, some owned their own businesses, and others yet appeared to be simply very physically fit office works doing the usual “nine to five”. Or, in the case of the Japanese, the “nine to nine”.

On a good day.

Even more commonly, they were usually on the move. Lucas’ plan to draw in Quincy to him on the rooftops of Tokyo skyscrapers had worked out for the best, more or less, but there were simply too many that weren’t going to bite, no matter how much the spell drew them. It was just too suspicious, and it left Lucas to hunt down the last Quincy in the area on his own.

Made more difficult by how endless they seemed. It was late afternoon by the time Lucas found himself standing at one end of a crosswalk, awaiting the ever-vigilant pedestrian traffic light to switch to green and give him permission to cross with its absolute authority. A single dot on his compass, a rather large one compared to some of the others, had been moving in the distance and finally came to a stop at a place that seemed to be a light commercial district. Some restaurants, a general repair shop, and a specialty store.

Coming from a country where large chains had overtaken most all of that, the last two very much surprised him.

But he pursued it anyway. And as he started to walk in front of the various stores, the dot grew closer and closer until Lucas found himself face-to-face with the closed garage door of a repair business.

At first glance, and to any regular human, it was just a normal place. Not the best-kept building on the street—though the standards were still much higher, given Japan’s addiction to public cleanliness—but hardly run-down. From the looks of the clean windows and the tidy interior of the thin, front lobby with its counter, Lucas knew that whoever ran this place very much enjoyed what they did.

He also knew that they did it well enough to be able to afford excellent presentation.

Another glance to his compass revealed that the Quincy was right in front of him. Since Lucas didn’t see anyone through the window or the door behind the counter, that meant he was most likely in the small, two or three car garage with the shining, metal door. Even if he wasn’t, Lucas was sure he could get the man’s attention.

Or woman’s, he didn’t judge.

He took a few steps forward and stopped right in front of the door, then drew his hand back to rasp his knuckles against the cold, hard metal and listened as it echoed loudly through the street.

“Excuse me,” Lucas started. “My name is Lucas Lightner, and I’m looking for the Quincy who works here?”

That should get his attention.

*****

546 Words

A knock on the door, how original. For starters, whoever that was, they could of just as easily ring the buzzer. Even though that would be more convenient, the annoying sound of Rick's bell would of probably put him in a grumpy mood, so maybe it was all based upon the strategy of catching Rick at a good time. "Hmmm..." Rick exhaled a little bit of smoke through his nose as he focused on his reiatsu perception, getting a feel of the individual as soon as he decided to exercise his knowledge about a Quincy working in this area. Who else could it be but Rick? "Ok.....decent, but who am I to complain?" So the individual in question was just as strong as Rick, which made the scruffy Quincy miss the good old days of being a little higher at the food chain. Rick felt like he gotten a bit more squishy, a problem that he thought he was able to polish throughout his Quincy career, which probably didn't mean shit at this point. "Oh well..." Slowly getting up from his comfortable smoking position, Rick got up and raised the garage hanger with one hand before opening the door. "A grand entrance for a special visitor, I guess? " Rick would say sarcastically as he invited the man inside. If and when the man did actually enter Rick's humble abode, he would close the garage door in the same instance and sit back on his couch, looking to the more dapper male with a mischevious grin.

"So, what's this about? Did the IRS finally catch on? I mean, I was asleep for three years after all. "How the hell does one pay taxes in a coma? "Wait, that's actually a good question...." It probably doesn't matter, for now, Rick would have hoped to make a beautiful friendship with a Quincy that can give him a tax write-off if needed be. "Though, enough jokes. I'm pretty sure you are looking for me for whatever reason, on top of the fact that you are a Quincy, it's had to tell what that reason is. I mean, now that you think about it, besides the fact that our powers do the same thing of wiping out the hollow scum off the face of the earth, the other thing that we have in common is that the majority of our reiatsu looks blue, and our ethnicity....mostly white. " Another jest, Rick had a charm to him, being serious without sucking the fun out of it. "So, I'm going to figure that it has something to do with a job that you need manpower for, so what's this about? What do you need help with? Or are you looking for a fight or something? Here to mess up my second-hand furniture?" Rick would say as he took in another drag of his cigar and blown the smoke in the opposite direction of the male. Rick was pretty much content with anything for the moment, his cigar was keeping him relaxed.

WC 505 GP 10

Total Wc 1006, Total GP 20

Metal chains rattled on the other side of the metal garage door after Lucas introduced himself. Much to his relief, he didn’t feel any surge of spiritual energy, either. It wouldn’t be the first time that a Tokyo or Karakura Quincy got the wrong idea and introduced themselves with violence before anything else. All things considered, it made sense. Quincy were scattered and frequently hostile to one another and how they treated another Quincy.

After the door lifted and clattered against the rails it rolled on, Lucas finally got a good look at him. He was decently tall, well built, blonde and shaggy, not to mention he didn’t seem all that Japanese. Maybe it was the comment about the IRS—funny, but unexpected—the comments about Quincy, or his general lackadaisical attitude, but Lucas found himself smiling. At least, smiling just a little bit. If nothing else, this man had a good personality, a good attitude, and that was something he could expect.

“Oh no, no,” Lucas chuckled. “Not here to fight you, hurt you, smash anything up, nothing like that. I mean, if I was, would I knock on your front door?”

Rhetorical question. After all, he might have. It could be a great way to throw a soon-to-be enemy off guard and make them feel safe. Something akin to hiding your intentions in plain sight.

“I’ve just got some news, something I want to talk to you about,” he went on. “And if you don’t like what I have to say, I won’t bug you again—that’s all. I know it’s rare that we get news that’s not so…intrusive, let’s say. But I hope my actions prove that it’s not all too good to be true.”

Lucas knew that feeling a little too well. When he met Freyleif, that’s exactly what it felt like. This entire time, he kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. He kept waiting to be told to do something horrible, to see the other side of this coin, but nothing terrible happened at all. In fact, the only thing “bad” that happened was that the Shinigami reinforced their positions as his enemies. He would have to deal with them, and he put himself right in their crosshairs when it came to doing so.

For just a moment, Lucas looked around the somewhat messy garage, but didn’t take his attention away from the man too long. It didn’t look that bad, just some tools here and there, an overflowing trash can, a floor in desperate need of steam cleaning, the usual. It definitely did not have that usual, Japanese air of cleanliness to it that Lucas had almost gotten to used ever since he got to this country.

“The Quincy have unified under a new Queen,” Lucas finally let the cat out of the bag. “And serving as a Knight in her new Order, I’m here to tell every Quincy I can find about the news—and to offer them a place with us.

“To start, I was wondering if you’d tell me your name?”

*****

512 Words

“Rick Rogers, current head of the Ashia clan. Ancestor of Hi Randi Ashia, inventor of the hollow bait holy relic. As a matter of fact, Holy Relics seem to be my favorite thing to tinker with. “ Rick opened a drawer and took out a pair of goggle-like vizards. “Ever reconstructed something you saw into its' soul synthesized counterpart before?” Rick would say as he fiddled with the goggles and shifted his hand over to the space of where Lucas was standing, creating the same couch that Rick was sitting on. It was formed right behind Lucas, though it looked alt lighter and a took on a slight bluish and chrome color. “Color’s tacky, but I’m working on it. For now, with these goggles, anything you look at and scan, it kind of adds instructions to your soul synthesis in terms of spiritual alchemy. Anything you don’t know of or have information to create, these goggles feed the information to you through reiatsu perception. You can always freestyle without it, but more potent and specified constructions require details that you probably didn’t go to college to study for. So instead of pretending to be smart, here it is….at least you can live out your fantasy of being capable of beating a hollow to death with nearby furniture.” Rick let the man test the couch as he took off the goggles and mulled over what Lucas said.



There wasn’t too much that Rick could tell from this man Lucas, but one thing was for sure, he wasn’t here to pay Rick for his services. However, Rick didn’t mind having visitors, so a small hand gesture directed to Lucas was to indicate that the man had the floor to explain whatever it is that he wanted to explain to Rick. Non-Verbal communication definitely played a role when meeting someone for the first time, it’s easy to judge someone of their intentions, or even make a good guess by watching how they move and respond to you within the same vicinity. Sure, it might sound like bullshit, and Rick wasn’t psychic, but it helped. Wait, did he say “We?”


You said “We” just now, and considering that you are a Quincy, “We” just might mean this all concerns us as Quincy, correct?” At least Rick was quick on the uptake, something that involved all Quincy?  Soon after, the big news was dropped. The Quincy unified under a new queen, this news actually made Rick sit back into his seat. Alot of questions started to rise in his head, like the fact that a seat that he thought belonged to Weylin was easily taken by someone of equivalent strength or stronger. Though. The sense of “unification”, that was a word that you hardly hear. With the amount of Quincy going off and doing their own thing, its hard to be certain of their unification nowadays.


“I see, well, that’s definitely a surprise. For starters, not all Quincy believe in the same rhetoric of destroying the souls of hollows, I hope this new queen doesn’t intend to make some sort of social “Safe space” to compensate for these people? If you’re here to meet with me , I’ll have you know that I am not one of those people. Hollows are nothing more than shameless brutes with endless hunger, no point in being friends with them or reasoning with them. So, if she doesn’t believe in the same values of using our power against the hollows with great prejudice instead of taking a pacifist option and trying to be like the Shinigami, I’ll stop you from wasting your time any further. “


WC 604- 12 GP
Total GP- 32,  WC 1608

Wait, the Ashia? Lucas blinked once, twice, and then remembered what his father had mentioned. He knew it before Rogers said anything at all: His relatives had created the Hollow Bait that was so famously used nowadays.

“That’s quite the pedigree,” Lucas commented. “And I’d like to see just what the pedigree makes you capable of, bu—”

Lucas never got the chance to finish his words.

With a simple wave of his hand, a rush of spiritual particles flew by Lucas and whipped his hair around. When he snapped his head back to look behind him, he was greeted by another couch added to the middle of the office—perfectly solid and identical to the one that Rick was sitting on. Lucas could only blink at it once, twice, before he turned his attention back to Rogers.

“Tacky?” He laughed at Rick’s self-admonishment. “Goggles or not, you’ve just recreated an entire object out of spiritual particles, stabilized them, with a wave of your hand and a glance. That’s an incredible achievement, Mr. Rogers, and I can’t claim to have seen any Quincy in the Alliance capable of that.”

That said, Lucas had never seen just what Freyleif herself could do. If Rick was this good, how capable might the Queen be with spiritual particles? It had always been more difficult for Lucas, and he wondered if he’d ever reach the kind of level that Rick had. His interests laid elsewhere, and as incredible as the abilities could be, he never cared all too much for that most basic application of Quincy power.

Regardless, he took a seat on the new couch. When he did, he genuinely couldn’t tell the difference between it and the original article. It felt like a completely normal couch and, unless he paid close attention to it with his spiritual sense, might not have even noticed that it was made of spiritual particles.

“Well, to answer your first question,” Lucas started. He was excited to hear that Rick wasn’t one of the Hollow-accepting Quincy that Lucas had heard about. He even ran across two of them already. “Yes, there is a ‘we’. The Order is growing quickly and I’ve personally inducted several of our newest Quincy. That we will, hopefully, end up including nearly three thousand Quincy from all over the world.”

Quite the boast to make, Lucas understood, but it wasn’t without merit. He had no doubt that they could win the hearts and minds of most the Quincy in the world, by far. With them, they’d be able to stand up against even the Seireitei with their might. It would be the first time, perhaps ever, that the Quincy would have that kind of strength.

What happened after that was anyone’s guess.

“And I can personally assure you,” Lucas continued, his tone sharpened with the seriousness of the topic. “We understand that the best Hollow is a dead Hollow, and they’ll find no welcome or quarter with us. It’s my understanding that other, non-Quincy spiritualists feel the same way as you mention—but we won’t let them stop us, either. We’re Quincy, and we’re not going to dilute ourselves for the sake of monsters.”

*****

532 Words

Rick whistled when he heard the number of Quincy that this mysterious ruler was getting on board so far. “Wow, would you look at that, three thousand is a lot in my opinion. Many of people might think that they could have us outnumbered and whatnot, but the fact that so many Quincy said yes when I figured that we couldn’t agree on anything, impressive. New generation, all millennials? Technically, I’m still am a millennial myself.” Rick was genuinely impressed at the fact that this person had the ability to convince people to come together, so at least Lucas caught Rick’s attention with the sizable army that they had .

“I’m in…” Rick would say to Lucas after he told Rick what he wanted to help. “As long as you aren’t too afraid to do what you have to do when it comes to other individuals getting in the way of the Quincy, I’ll work hard to contribute. “ Rick got up from his chair and walked over to his miniature refrigerator. After that, Rick pulled out a bud light and tossed it over to Lucas’s direction?” Beer drinker? I have a diet pepsi in here too. Sorry about the bad choices, I don’t have people over as much as you think, maybe more at the Ashia family manor. I mean, who would have thought that we would have this kind of conversation at my workplace? Though, maybe this does count as work. “

Rick then thought of the ways that he could possibly help out the Quincy. “Well, mass producing these googles should take about two weeks with some help, a month if I’m doing it alone. That could possibly help with building the Quincy building with soul synthesized counterparts. I think it’s a bit old school from how structures were built back in the day. The best cover is when they cant sense any sort of spiritual activity from the inside, very discreet. I’ll have a word with your boss about it. “Rick then sat down and opened his own can of beer.

“You might not say that not a lot of people are capable of this, but I beg to differ. It’s the appliance of holy relics, anyone who applied themselves to even study a little bit of what they liked, they could possibly make something unique to themselves. For example, the ginto tubes, are you a ginto user by any chance?” Regardless of the answer, Rick would go on. “ Aren’t the vials made of soul synthesized glass? I don’t know the refilling process, but making more tubes off the fly could be something unique. Also, with the way that we get around naturally, I don’t suppose that the Quincy figured out a way to move around the world the same way that the Vigilance had done back in the day? Cuts travel time short, but I can’t say much about going to different planes like Hueco Mundo. “ Rick then took a few sips of his can, he wanted to know how far off they were in the sense of appliances.


WC- 511- 10 GP

Total GP- 42,  Total wc 2119

All millennials? Well, not quite.

“You might be surprised to hear, actually, that we’re all over the place,” Lucas laughed a little as he relaxed back into the recently constructed sofa. “Our Queen is, I think it’s called Gen Z? Hard to buy, I know, but she’s easily the most powerful Quincy I’ve ever so much as been in the presence of. Difficult to fathom the depths of her raw power.”

Then, of course, there was his own father. Hardly a Millennial or a Gen Z’er, and he’d be insulted if you associated him with either. While Lucas looked inward upon the Quincy themselves to find out why so many seemed apathetic, his father was much more content to simply blame the youth for that. Of course, he held up his own son as an exception to the rule—then, how many parents wouldn’t?

Which only, somehow, reminded him that he had never even seen Freyleif in action. Part of him wanted to, out of a morbid sort of curiosity, while another part of him wanted to stay far, far away from it. After all, what would become of the world around them if a Quincy like that were to let loose? She could devastate an entire city with ease over the course of a single battle.

Not to mention if—he shuddered to imagine it—she had an opponent on her own level.

“You definitely won’t get an argument from me,” Lucas broke into a smile when Rick agreed to join the efforts. “We can’t let threats of violence, or the real deal, stop us from doing what’s best for Quincy. That includes fighting back whenever necessary. You’ll be hard pressed to find someone in the Order who insists that we roll over and do what we’re told—being sick of that is what’s created this level of interest, I think.”

Then, as if this couldn’t possibly go better, Rick proved him wrong again. After all, if he could do this with his little device, why couldn’t others? Just like that, Lucas had the answer to all of their construction woes. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that they’d have to slow it down just so the local populace didn’t get shocked by how quickly the Quincy would build their entire fortress academy.

The idea excited him, but he managed to keep himself composed.

“That’d be phenomenal, Rick,” Lucas agreed whole-heartedly and with a sharp nod. “We’re going to need a lot of men on the initial construction efforts, and with what you just demonstrated…we’d be able to move fast.”

The pause in his words was out of sheer need. He didn’t want to smile more than he already was, but this had quickly proven to be one of his most productive introductions yet. Rick Rogers could really change things for the Quincy, and he looked forward to what the man might be able to contribute.

They needed people like him, now more than ever. And Lucas had the honor of bringing him into the fold.

“But, anyway,” Lucas brought himself down from his own excitement with a wave of his hands as the subject changed. “Yes, I am a Gintō man. Kirchengebet is my preferred discipline.”

Refilling Gintō tubes on the fly? World travel? The man thought big, and Lucas liked everything he was hearing. Better than that? He could answer one question right away.

“Well, as far as transportation is concerned?” Lucas started there. “I might have the answer to that, even if I don’t have anything to add on the Gintō front. Allow me to demonstrate.”

At first, Lucas just glanced towards the window into Rick’s front office. The red couch around him then lit up with a faint, navy blue that matched his uniform as he summoned his bound-energy glove. He couldn’t, yet, make solid objects like Rick was capable of—but this would do, he decided. He lifted that very hand and pointed it right at the window.

Just in front of it, a single point of sparkling, blue light appeared. It wiggled in place, or seemed to, only to expand outwards in all directions. As it grew, it revealed a black void within, filled with torrents of what looked like gray dust, almost, and little else. There was even a howl of wind as they ripped around, growing louder and louder until the circle stopped its growth at about the size of the window itself.

“One of my unique abilities is to force open pathways into the Garganta, as I hear the Hollows call it,” Lucas explained, his voice strained somewhat as beads of sweat appeared on his brow. “With a little luck, I can advance my abilities enough to allow direct site-to-site transportation using this method.”

With a deep sigh, he let the portal go. The ring of blue vanished first and, with a sudden snap as the two worlds were cut off, the window appeared again, and the sunset-lit outside world along with it.

Lucas turned his attention back to Rick, “There are a lot of exciting things in our future, and it’s because of men like you and I coming together that we’ll be able to make it work.”

*****

876 Words

“Gen Z? Looks like I’m starting to get old if my people aren’t the talk of the town anymore. “ Rick would say with a depressing sigh, but he would laugh afterwards. Rick wasn’t too concerned with those matters, he just wanted to know of the majority age range that he was dealing with. It’s not like he disliked kids or anything, but Rick didn’t even start killing hollows until he was 20. Perhaps this meant he was a late bloomer? However, he wondered about the choices that these other Quincy made for themselves in the sense of joining the fight? Rick saw it more as a personal choice ti join the organization, he knew they all had the right to defend themselves. “Well, don’t worry about it, once I start getting started, maybe I could think of something for you to use. It’s actually something I lose sleep over, starting a job and obsessing over it. Heh..” Rick took another sip of his beer and then perked up when he observed Lucas doing his thing when he started on the fact that they had no real way of traveling across great distances without using the natural way of going about things. If a base was getting attacked, they couldn’t take a plane ride there, that was something that the old Vigilance had that the current Quincy lacked. However, Lucas surprised him by making up a strange window.


This…..This!” What the? Was this ginto? How could he do this in such a short amount of time? Rick heard of a ginto spell that involves traveling from place to place, but he never seen it in action. However his original hypothesis was tossed aside when Lucas said it was his own special ability. “I see, if we were to somehow replicate the same effects o n a smaller scale, we could possibly create our own kind of holy relic that could allow a Quincy to transport to other realms. “Rick mulled over it a bit more. “One step at a time though, let’s see if Adimus would cooperate. On top of that, we should actually get the structures done first. I’ll run it by your queen sometimes at the end of the week and maybe she would go for the idea. The quicker we get on this, the sooner we could focus our attention to the hollows that threaten us. “Rick then finished his beer and threw the can in a nearby trashcan.


“Well, I’ll make it official then. I’ll work with the Quincy. I don’t know why, but my creative juices are flowing. Hopefully, I can do something that could help. “ Deep down inside, Rick longed to be apart of something once more. It was like Vigilance didn’t exist anymore from the time that he woke up, which made him a little sad. Purpose, it was one of the things that allowed Rick to function. Without it, he would be much more of a loose cannon, with nothing to channel his talents or frustrations into.


WC 505- 10 GP
Total GP 52, Total WC- 2624

Although Lucas always found the unique aspects of his powers somewhat underwhelming, he couldn’t help that he enjoyed the look on Rick’s race and his reaction. For something that felt so incomplete, so imperfect and left wanting, it was nice that at least someone else seemed to be as impressed by it as he wished he was with his own abilities.

“Now if only they were good enough for actual transportation,” Lucas laughed a little after Rick’s more enthusiastic response. “But for now, it makes for a great way to surprise an opponent or have something really dangerous to threaten them with—getting trapped in there would suck, I bet.”

But at the same time, made for a great weapon against particularly aggressive opponents. Although it wouldn’t be nearly as effective on Hollows, who made crossing the Garganta their business, it did work very well on Shinigami or even rogue humans; despite how much Lucas disliked that idea. Even if you couldn’t defeat them in outright combat, if you trapped them in that dimension with no gateway waiting at their destination? That could be a fate worse than dying in combat.

A slow starvation, or going insane from isolation. Neither represented a very pretty way to meet your end.

Even though it was Lucas’ own power, though, he watched as Rick’s mind went immediately to, ‘what can I do with this?’ He wondered aloud if maybe they could dechiper just how Lucas’ spiritual particles pierced the curtain that separated their world from the current of spiritual energy that existed beneath them all. If they could manage that, they’d be able to deploy to any of the three worlds with great accuracy, all but instantly.

They’d have even easier transportation to use than what the Soul Society had, as far as Lucas understood it. His father had mentioned that Senkaimon could only go between Soul Society and Earth, after all. They’d be able to match the superior mobility of Hollows and have an advantage over the interferences of the Soul Society.

“Adimus?” Lucas asked and repeated the unfamiliar name with genuine curiosity. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know anyone by that name? If you trust him, I’m sure it’s not a problem; but if he’s interested, I’d like to get as many Quincy involved in the order as possible.”

But Rick was moving along without hesitation, and Lucas didn’t want to fall behind or keep them latched onto old subjects. If Rick saw fit to introduce him to this Adimus, then it’d happen. If not, well, Lucas had his work cut out for him already. A little less would hardly be the end of the world for the Quincy with a full schedule.

“We’re happy to have you, Rick,” Lucas smiled at the confirmation. “Someone as inventive as you will be very, very welcome. Any Quincy would, of course, but you can imagine why your talents and enthusiasm are a definite cherry on top, so to speak. I’ll give you all the contact information you need, though you shouldn’t feel obligated to do any traveling to Germany. Like I mentioned, we’ll be coming here in short order.”

*****

526 Words

Hm…” Rick reached into his drawer and started to write some things down intensely with a nearby pen. It was almost as if it was a muscle reflex that started as soon as Lucas stopped talking. Afterward, Rick abruptly stopped and looked up at Lucas. Ever thought you could use the people or the hollows that you trap in there as a battery source to fuel your own power? You have some control over one-way trips, but this isn’t the causal way of teleportation like a hollow cavity or the way that the Shinigami get around. This is something that you do own on your own, and the destination could very much be zero. What I want to know is how much control you have over that space, and if that space can be used to siphon the soul of what gets trapped there. To the victor the spoils, and with each victory under your belt, you would potentially grow to be more powerful than you can imagine. “Rick then put the pad away and sighed, he couldn’t get to a quick conclusion as to how that power could be weaponized for a greater purpose. “ Eventually we will find something that can be catered to your great abilities. Once we do, you’ll be a lot more than a pain in the ass, trust me. “ However, there seemed to be a bit of miscommunication about Adimus that Rick felt inclined to clear up.


“Oh, sorry about that. Adimus is sort of an old boss to me, he is a Nordic god of some sort? At first it wasn’t always like that, he was a very powerful human, but you know what they say about demigods right? Well, I don’t, but maybe you do?” Rick laughed at the small joke. “It’s up in the air, it seems that he was missing for two years. Even if he does show up, and that I do think he’s a good guy, I can’t say that our views are the same right down the middle. Worst case scenario, I might have to steal the technology from the tower and build our own version so that the Quincy can get around a lot quicker. Hueco Mundo and the Soul Society should be second on the list in my opinion, we can’t protect home court if we can’t move around the human realm just as efficiently as they can cross over. “ Rick let that float around as they moved on. “Coming around? Are you setting up base in Karakura town somewhere? I do have the ashia family estate that you could stay at for a while until we can build you your own place. However, I won’t step on any toes if you have everything covered. I should get to work on trying to make more copies of the googles so that anyone should be able to use them. Just because they have a high affinity for construction, doesn’t mean you should neglect them. If you trap off someone in order to face them head on, it’s a durable fighting bit to keep collateral damage to a minimum, giving you a sense of a home field advantage as well.



WC- 523- 10 GP
Total GP 62, total wc 3147

Everything that came out of Lucas’ mouth seemed to be evaluated and weighed for recording in Rick’s mind. When something of particular value happened to pop out in the proverbial field of ideas and conversation between them, he even saw fit to scribble a note or two down if something was of particular importance. And, for good reason, Rick seemed to think that Lucas’ abilities more than qualified.

Naturally, he could understand that. To date, however, Lucas had felt so dissatisfied with his own talents and abilities that he didn’t see much use in pursuing their evolution just yet. His close combat skills were, as he had quickly discovered on this assignment of his, infinitely more crucial to his survival. Not to mention how useful his Gintō skills had proven in even beginning this adventure of his.

“A power source?” Lucas repeated with a low hum. “I’m not so sure. I’ve confirmed that it really is just the ‘Garganta’ that other Hollows use. It’s huge, maybe infinite. There’s no way I can draw on what’s in there. And, well, even if I could, who knows what the results would be of drawing power from a Hollow?”

The mere thought gave him the creeps. He felt a shiver crawl down his spine, but barely managed to contain it and not visibly grimace in front of Rick. Letting something from a Hollow even so much as pass through him really bothered Lucas to his core and, he felt, that was for good reason.

Anyone who didn’t hate the thought would no-doubt have problems of their own later down the line.

“That’s probably not a line of thinking I’d want to pursue,” he smiled, but not because he was happy with it. “After all, those creatures deserve to be put out of their misery. I’d rather the void for them, than living like cursed beasts, honestly.”

Who wouldn’t, Lucas wondered? Why would anyone subject someone else, another human soul at the core, to the life of a suffering savage? That was no way to exist, not when a kinder, more humane option existed instead.

But the subject didn’t linger around to pollute the conversation any further. Instead, Rick realized that he had stumbled onto something that Lucas knew nothing about with the mention of Adimus. Then, when he opened his mouth to explain, one of the first words out of his mouth was that the guy was a Nordic God.

Lucas laughed, “A pretty strong guy, huh? After meeting our Queen, I can’t say that I’m surprised.”

He wasn’t.

What surprised him was that Rick seemed serious.

“You didn’t mean that literally, did you?” He asked, and his tone dipped as the gravity of the words and their potential truth sank in. Rick said things after that, of course, but Lucas couldn’t take his eyes off of the elephant in the room.

How could he talk about lodging when divinity was on the table?

“I’m pretty new to the wider world out there, I admit,” Lucas went on, his words as cautious and uncertain as he felt. “But I’ve never heard anything about literal, omnipotent gods.”

*****

523 Words

There’s so many of them that at times, I think of other ways to deal with them besides killing them. Not to say that I’m some nutcase that believes in wanting equality with these hollows, they eat us. Those sort of ideas are out of the question. But how can one make up for the deaths of our livened ones? I thought wiping the slate clean with our powers would be the best way to get back at them, but then I have these thoughts of it not being enough. They continue to take from others without remorse, why not take from them? “”Rick had a twinkle in his eye, thinking of some sort of crazy idea in order to turn the tide. “Well, if the garganta is so infinite, with the connection being towards the hollow race, what happens if you can close off access to a garganta indefinitely? Either that or for a brief period of time, we could stop hollows from using that ability to cross over. If we do that, I think we win. As a race, I think that’s all it takes to end these power struggles as cleanly as possible. The Shinigami would have to travel to Hueco Mundo in order to play their little soul purifier game, fighting hollows in their home turf in order to do whatever they think is right. Collateral damage stays out of the human realm, stragglers of the hollow breed will meet their end by the hands of the Quincy. We would be the first responders to any potential hollow activity here by principle, creating our own system, creating a perfect circle.”


Rick then caught himself talking on and just laughed it off, walking over to his mini fridge again. “I guess I sound crazy to you, but I would have never thought of a possibility like that if you didn’t put the idea in my head. “Moving on, Rick realized that he should try to explain a bit better. “ I don’t understand it myself, humanity’s ascension depends on the person. The background of their power comes from many different places, is it that hard to believe that a human being wasn’t exactly 100% human? A fate to become a god, I didn’t think it was possible until I met the iron knight. You remember Ryder right? She’s an old school cat like me, used to go on these vigilante runs with Adimus a while back. It was around the same time he was called the iron knight, now he’s the hero of Midgard. There was even a mission I was a part of, we had to travel to some place in the islands to stop an evil being from awakening. You tend to get more of a perspective when there exists an enemy besides the hollows.I think the person who caused the incursion, Tova Diablo, he was also a god of some kind. It’s funny right? You thought death gods were the only gods in town, but humans and hollows can do it as well. They can reach that pinnacle, and all it makes you wonder is if there lies some kind of hidden secret of the Quincy that can make you reach that next stage? “


Rick went and got himself another beer. “ Can a Quincy ascend to godhood? Are you just as curious as I am?
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561-11 GP
Total GP 73, Total WC 3708

I’ve gone and done it now, haven’t I? Lucas almost outright regretted asking about Adimus—and talking about his own powers—in the first place, now that Rick was on a roll. It didn’t take long before the man, his eyes twinkling with excitement, fired off a proverbial artillery barrage of speculation at Lucas. Everything from what the Garganta truly was, to its connection to Hollows, and how they could potentially cut the Hollows off from it.

Lucas showed up here today in order to recruit Rick. He needed to remind himself of that, silently, before he could just smile along and nod as his new friend, even when he threw another name in to the mix: Some woman called “rider”. Then, yet another name with the god label attached: Tova Diabló.

“There are certain things I think are worth investigating,” Lucas jumped right back in when Rick gave him a chance. He had a crooked, half-smile on, and had raised his hands to slow the excitable young man down. “For sure. But maybe we should take this one step at a time and start with building our Academy, yeah? As much as I’d love to stop Hollows from ever coming to Earth, we don’t know what kind of impact that blocking off this ‘Garganta’ they use would have.”

Just the honest truth, Lucas reminded himself again. His entire body felt tense as he waited to see Rick’s reaction. The last thing he wanted was to piss on the man’s parade, of course, but this had very quickly gone beyond the scope of his visit.

“Same for all of this god-hood talk,” Lucas tagged that on too, surprised he even really needed to say it at all. “I don’t know Rider, and I don’t know this Tova, either. But if there is some great transformation that Quincy are capable of—and that much I can believe—I think it’s worth seeing. But the only way we’re going to see it is by going there ourselves, am I right? Speculation right now is a bit above our weight-class.”

To build a mountain, you must first start with small stones. Rick’s optimistic gaze looked forward to a future that wasn’t even on their horizon yet, let alone within reach. They’d need to find it out there, however distant it may be, before they could say anything meaningful.

Or even know that they were talking about something that actually existed in the first place.

Lucas stood from the couch that Rick had so kindly manufactured for him, and then flattened the pants of his navy-blue uniform. He reached a hand out to the young man in front of him, ready to welcome him aboard and move on.

“But I think you’d be just the kind of man we want to go along with us, when we do try to find out,” he assured Rick.

“If you’re still in?”

*****

485 Words
4,000 Total Words