The Inevitable Rain

Arteran looked out over the sprawling cityscape of Tokyo. Even under the absolute deluge that the area was currently experiencing people still raced to and fro in frantic efforts to take care of whatever tasks were consuming their attention. The only noticeable effect that the rain had on the living seemed to be to encourage them to move all the faster and seek shelter under whatever cover they could find. Absently Arteran compared this scene to the regular occurences within the Soul Society. So many people thought of the after life as some sort of paradise, at least for the 'good' souls, where life would be nothing but relaxation, happiness, and wish fulfillment. Yet in truth nothing really changed, for the majority of souls who escaped the gates of Hell, life was no different, if not worse, in the Soul Society than it was in the living world. People still raced from task to task without looking at the world around them, and only a very few of them ever found themselves gifted with the chance to make any kind of lasting difference. Even the Shinigami and Hollow were no different, consumed as they were with their own conflicts.

"Are you done being melodramatic?"

"What, because I chose to consider a larger picture?"

"No, because you sound like an angsty teen, and before you mention it, yes you might have a reason to wonder about these things after Balleyboley, but you do have a job to do."

"Bah, fine."

Arteran's attention was drawn from his musings and his internal conversation by the feeling of something vibrating within his robe. Suppressing a sigh he reached into the folds of his clothing and pulled out a small black tablet. The device bore a superficial resemblance to a human phone, but it didn't allow for communication. The small machine was used to detect localized reiatsu concentrations and determine what the source was, and even though that was something that a sufficiently skilled spiritually aware individual could do themselves these devices had exceptionally larger ranges and allowed the user to focus their attention elsewhere. The tablet displayed a map of Tokyo with several colored dots on it that corresponded to detected entities. Arteran ignored the black dots that represented himself and the thin scattering of his fellow shinigami, they all had their own areas to worry about and were under strict orders not to interfere with each other for anything less than an espada level arrancar's arrival unless they were specifically called. He also ignored the blue dot that was placed some distance away from him, he was already aware that there was a quincy, but as he had no reason to investigate them and no reason to suspect that they were doing anything more suspicious than working a desk job that kept them in one place. He was keeping a discrete 'eye' on their presence, but other than that he was content to let them be.

The dot that had activated the alert function on the tablet, and therefore the one that had his attention, was white, denoting the presence of a hollow. After noting the location on the map Arteran put the tablet away and focused his senses, he had already detected the presence of the Hollow, but by focusing on it he was able to tell that the creature's reiatsu was flagging, and beyond that it's presence wasn't strong enough to imply that it wouldn't be of any kind of threat even if it weren't exhausted. Arteran entertained the idea that the creature was disguising it's reiatsu to try and lure spiritually awakened beings to itself, but he also was aware that it was much more likely that the beast was simply a very low class Hollow, one only just barely able to push its way into the living world, still unable to make a garganta. That would explain it's apparent state of fatigue, and the fact that it wasn't moving, likely because it was trying to regain its strength. 

In a flicker of flash step Arteran left the building he was standing on only to reappear nearly instantaneously on a roof a few buildings closer to the Hollows location. This repeated three more times before Arteran found himself looking down at the Hollow in question. His suspiciouns about the Hollows strength was confirmed. The monster wasn't much bigger than a medium sized dog, and looked like some kind of a cross between a centipede and  a fish, covered in fins and with far to many legs. The beast didn't even get a chance to react before Arteran was behind it and had his blade through it's mask, but as the Hollow faded away to rejoin the cycle something far more pressing came to Arteran's attention. The Quincy from before had moved, and it had followed him.

Word Count/Total Word Count:806
GP gain/Total GP gain:16

He moved and she followed. Down the stairs, sliding across the wet pavement. She pushed the camera into her backpack, tightened the straps and followed the direction he had disappeared in. After two streets she thought to have lost him entirely. Unable to keep up with his technique of crossing the roofs made it so much harder to track him down, but then a signature of a Hollow crossed her senses. The same area, nearby - he was probably heading there. It was worth trying because she had no other lead.

Dutifully sprinting through the neon lit streets she dodged some of the umbrella hidden faces and was onto the Hollows hiding place a minute later. However, the creature’s presence faded before she got to see what the hungry animal had looked like. Bits of sand-like matter floated through the night air. The Shinigami’s blade had made an end to the Hollow-breed’s existence, and was looking directly at Sasha now.

Sasha stopped.

Sneakers skidding over the slippery surface. Carried forward by the momentum she felt her backpack press heavily against her spine for a brief moment. The corner of the camera poked her in the kidney, she ignored the uncomfortable feeling.

Sizing up the potential opponent she didn’t get a lot of details from his presence. Physical he looked like many other fit men she had met, but that wasn’t the important part about Shinigami. Their tricks, the magic, their weapons they so lovingly called Zanpakuto, those were all things worthy of attention. Unfortunately they were hard to see until it was already too late.

“What are you looking at?”

The muscles in her neck tensed a bit as she spoke with eyebrows raising in a questioning manner. With fingers itching to form the bow just in case, she wasn’t sure if she wanted this to turn into a fight. Talking would be the better option, if it was possible.

“Don’t you need to be elsewhere for your next Hollow?”


329

"Well. At least I'm not dealing with anyone experienced, otherwise they wouldn't be stupid enough to actually reveal themselves until they had no other choice."

"I'm fairly certain that I should asking you that question as you're the one who was following me, and no, I don't, in case you didn't notice, this hollow only just showed up, and wasn't even strong enough to make a garganta, there aren't any others currently nearby. "

Arteran continued to hold his blade loosely to his side, she had revealed herself before he had sheathed his blade, and he had no intention of sheathing it while there was a potential enemy in the vicinity. Absently he considered what the possible outcomes of this situation might be. The first instinct of many of his peers would have been to immediately initiate combat, and there was still a chance that the situation could devolve into such, though he hoped not. The woman was clearly stronger than he was, though not completely out of his league. It was possible that they could just both go on their way, but that wasn't likely. Arteran wasn't about to let someone who was so clearly tailing him escape that easily, and he doubted that the quincy would be particularly willing to let him be if she had already chosen to follow him.

"I hate taking the direct approach."

Biting back a sigh Arteran spoke again, "Why are you following me? I knew you were near me earlier, but I left you alone, why are you deciding not to just leave well enough alone? For that matter why did you reveal yourself, you have to know how most of my people would react."

Word Count/Total Word Count:282/1088
GP gain/Total gain:5/21

Unsure if he had missed the point she tilted her head slightly to the side. As if doing that would help her understand his way too serious explanation. Not to mention the lecture about Hollow and their portals. Which was interesting in its own way. Now she knew that some of them couldn’t travel in a specific way by the name of ‘garganta’.

Wasn’t that Spanish?

She caught her thinking while frowning at the Shinigami whose mood was beyond sour. There was a warning in the things he said, but the way he said it only pissed Sasha off. She couldn’t understand why he just had to be so annoying.

Was he afraid that she would get herself attacked by one of his kind if she kept on appearing next to them?
Was he similar to the angel who had saved her that fateful night?

No, he couldn’t be. Nothing about his voice was soothing. His eyes spoke not of care and kindness like Shigure’s had. This one was just as arrogant as the majority of his race.

“I want to know if you guys actually do your ‘job’ as you all call it.” Keeping her voice flat she didn’t give him much room to doubt her intentions. With green eyes shining fiercely she crossed her arms in front of her chest and continued. “Frequently you complain about Quincy or other people getting ‘in the way’, meanwhile you don’t always get to the necessary spot on time.”

Now, here half of it was bluff, she knew that she was right, but couldn’t prove it to him. Besides, she hadn’t actually recorded any of it. Rumors came and went, people had seen things go awry because of the Shinigami not being as good as they thought to be.

Sasha believed there never to be any smoke without a fire.

“If you can’t cover the whole area and protect people then you shouldn’t complain when they do it themselves.”


327

Arteran felt a headache begin to grow behind his eyes. This woman, he couldn't tell if she was trying to egg him on or was just naturally insufferable. What inexperience she'd shown so far suggested the latter, and possibly even gave an explanation in the form of false bravado and a naive view of the world at large. It was possible that this was all a facade of course, but for the moment that seemed unlikely, and Arteran could still only act on the information at hand. In the end he decided that it would be best to treat this encounter at face value, but be prepared for the worst.

Unfortunately that still left the question of how to continue this interaction. The woman was clearly hunting for information, and while Arteran could just brush her off, she likely wouldn't take a hint and would keep following him, at which point there would be a real problem. He could also follow in the footsteps of his peers and attack her. While he knew that he was weaker than the woman in terms of raw reiatsu everything he'd seen so far suggested that she was someone who was lacking the skill to use that power, meaning that there was a good chance he could at least chase her off, she did follow him after all, she knew what she was getting into following a shinigami. The final option before Arteran was to attempt to resolve this peacfully by providing her with some knowledge. As long as he kept away from any sensitive topics that wouldn't actually pose any real problems, though it grated on his nerves to share any information at all. With another internal sigh he made his decision.

"Let me ask you a question. Out of all of the living humans on earth, how many of them are quincies? What percentage of the more than seven billion people on this planet are capable of fighting hollows? Don't bother answering, I already know that it's an abysmally small portion. Now I want you to consider how many people die a day. Consider that any human with 'unfinished business' will have their soul remain on the earth until it is reaped or eaten. Of the souls that make it to the afterlife how many of them do you think are capable of using any kind of power? Now consider that every single human soul can become a hollow.

"We do our job, but we have an entire planet to cover. Now personally, I don't particularly care one way or the other about quincy. As far as I'm concerned, you're just defending yourselves against wild animals. However, many of my kind don't think that way, do you know why?"

At this Arteran's gaze sharpened and he looked directly into the woman's eyes, "When we destroy a hollow, not only are their souls purified and allowed to rejoin the cycle, but every soul that they've consumed is released back into existence. However, you and yours utterly destroy not only the soul that has been corrupted and transformed into a hollow, but every single soul within them as well. I put aside my issues with that because I can't blame you for defending yourselves or other souls, especially when we can't be there in time, but do you actually understand just what it is that you do?"

Word Count/Total Word Count:563/1651
GP gain/Total GP gain:15/33

The same old song was being sung. This Shinigami, like the one before him, and the one before that one, thought the Quincy to be ‘dangerous’. Destroyers of souls the Shinigami had labeled them without any evidence whatsoever. By now she felt like they had been taught to think this way. The idea about what her race was and the powers they held must have been implanted in their minds somewhere at the start of their life or career. Because if it had been an undeniable truth then they wouldn’t need to hide it or leave others in a gray area about it. At least, that’s what Sasha thought. In a war, or any type of conflict, one could tempt and sweet talk the weaker minds into joining the other side. She was certain that should the Shinigami show them proof of their actions being bad, some of the Quincy would actually pick up the arms against their own kind.

So, was this myth about them a weak religion?
Deep rooted hatred for something so far in the past that nobody really remembered it?

The idea of the Quincy hitting the Shinigami so hard that they never got over it was amusing to say the least. It would certainly explain the propaganda passed down from one generation to the other. In the end, only some would remain, in this case enough to keep the Shinigami on their toes regarding the gifted mortals.

Standing there in silence she realized that it could be part of history. A lost narrative.

Her eyes focused again, she dropped the thoughts for now, and concentrated on the matter in front of her. The man. The Shinigami. With narrowing eyes she shook her head from side to side. No, she didn’t agree. His gaze didn’t scare her either. Stubbornly raising an eyebrow as if to ask if that was all he had, Sasha crossed her arms in front of her chest. The corner of her lips jerked.

“All of you keep on saying that, but none of you has actual proof of that being the reality. Sometimes it seems that you’re simply using it as an excuse to attack us. If you ask me that might even be the case, some sort of inherited fear that we’re a threat to the world. Meanwhile, we just make you feel less special and that’s why you hate us.”



400