Where or where has my little dog gone? [Kyojin]

Silently the wings of the small black butterfly flapped, as it danced of into the night sky. A snapping sound behind him, and the gateway to the Soul Society was closed. The senkaimon faded away quickly until only the gray shade of the riverbank remained. Kyojin took a few moments to let his gaze wander around. Next to him the river, that flowed through Karakura Town, murmured his eternal song into the night. And up the embankment, there was a completely different song. And it couldn't really be described as a murmur anymore. There was the town. The town which to protect his duty was. At least in part and only as long as his patrol duty lasted, but still: he was here and his sword could well make a difference.

He started to walk. There was no rush. His soulpager remained silent and no high Hollow activities were expected. Of course these forecasts were seldom reliable but whatever. No use in running around without any target. So Kyojin just walked through the streets of the town, watched the humans going on with their lives and held his eyes, ears and other senses open.

Not much interesting happened. The most action he got was a ghost that was attached to a lovely rose garden. At least Kyojin thought it would be called lovely. He had not much of a sense for these kind of things. But the ghost was just staring into the flowers and didn't move or even react as Kyojin approached him. Without a word he drew his sword and pressed the pommel quick and gentle onto the forehead of the ghost. He began to glow in that blue light and slowly faded away into a small spark, that got carried away by a hell butterfly. Not much action, but duty was duty.

As he continued his round through Karakura he began to sense a presence that was different from all the humans around him. Didn't feel like a Hollow but what was it.
Just now Kyojin was crossing through a small park as something weird happened. A soul appeared in front of him. Normally that wouldn't have been strange, but there was still a whole, unbroken chain attached at the chest. And on this chain, a human got pulled until soul and body where reunited. All that took place in an instant, like a flash step, but one Kyojin had never heard of.
He couldn't mask his surprise completely and took half a step backwards as a precaution. But otherwise he remained unmoved.

"Patrolling mister black robes?" The human asked.

The human...a better description wouldn't come to Kyojin's mind. It was hard to tell what it was. He or she? As strange as this technique.

"Apparently." Kyojin answered, his deep voice showing not much of emotion. Unspoken was the question who or what this human was and what he knew about the shinigami. Or she. Or...whatever, the human. Faszinating enough to meet a human that could see him. Thise were rare enough.

"Nice technique you demonstrated there." He said. And after a few seconds: "Who are you?"

---

521

Janus nodded.  "I like my weird technique, I can do it like black robes if it's less confusing to you." She said as she activated her after-images everywhere.  "See?" They all said and she let them all fade away.  Janus then walked around the rather large and well-built black robe as she ran her thumb and forefinger along her chin as she wondered how the hell people got as big as he was.  Do black robes take steroids, between this guy and the doc, Janus could literally see them also making a female fan service movie and making a lot of money out of girls who liked their men more ripped than the president of the lift club.  

On the other side, even blue mages were ripped.  What was it with spiritual beings and rippling muscles?  She thought about it for a second before falling back into the current point.  "Oh right, my name. I'm Janus DiNapoli.  No, I'm not Japanese." She said as she rolled her shoulders at the big buff black robed man.  It was mainly to show that she wasn't scared, or that she wasn't exactly sure how to approach a guy, since she was pretending to be one.  Janus went with the puffed out chest bro thing, but could not be bothered to keep up the appearance for longer than a few moments.  "So, monster patrol or are you a heal bot like doc?" Janus asked the black robed man.  "And what's your name, oh oh, what does your sword do?  Can you turn the city into cinder blocks like that one guy?" She asked with her rapid fire questions.  

It had obviously been a while since Janus had something to probe her curiosity for information.  She liked doing that.  Janus was the epitome of pushing the little red button that says do not push.  That had never and probably would never be something she learned over the course of her life.

---

325

It was impressive. Afterimages and they could talk! Kyojin knew that a certain level of skill was necessary to achieve this and that it proved challenging even for some.of the spiritual beings. But in a body  of flesh and bone? This human was a lot stronger than he seemed at first. Or she. Or he..her..hershe? This part was confusing. It didn't really matter, but the blonde Shinigami always tried to use a fitting pronoun in his mind, when he thought about that human. And every time he tried he failed and it was a little...annoying.

At least, now it had a Name. Janus. 

"You can call me Kyojin." He said, letting his real name slide. Nobody had called him by that name in a millenium, anyway.
"And I'm also not japanese, I guess."

It was some irony in that last comment, but only half-assed. Kyojin's voice still stayed calm and deep. He still didn't know who this person was, although knowing a name had to count as something. So he wouldn't wear his thoughts and feelings on his collar anytime soon. And certainly not these cloudy memories, remnants of a lifetime, so far away that it was hard to hold on to them. Harsh seas and windswept lands...

"No, just patrol, as you said. It's our duty. Not many monsters around, though."

He shrugged his big shoulders. A Hollow would have been an exercise, but a night without incidents, only a few Konsos...it could be worse. Anyway, he wouldn't break his back on patrol, duty or not, just because some seated bloke had told him. If there was a Hollow, he would eliminate it. If not, so what?

The pretty direct question about his Zanpakuto was anlittle irritating. Janus knew even about that. 

"My Zanpakuto? It cuts...monsters. I guess I could. Never tried. But why should I? I'm send to protect, not to destroy."

He didn't go into any details intentionally. Who could know what this Janus was up to. And even if she/he/whatever was strong, if she wanted a fight...she only had that body. That one body, and it was fragile. And Gekido did cut deep.

"Why are you so curious? Why do you want to know what my Gekido can do? I could ask you the same thing. You are quite strong, that much is clear to me. But I never knew any humans that had spiritual abilities. You, on the other hand, seem to know.much about Shinigami."

---

413

Janus listened as she shrugged. "I get saved by black robes all the time, I'm kind of bad at fighting in general."  She mentioned as she looked him over.   She relaxed a bit and wondered what to do.  Janus always liked asking questions, she was extremely curious.  Thing and stuff were good and so on.  "But I do run away.  Not bad at that." She stated to the man as she rotated her shoulders to make sure she was feeling alright.  Janus was used to being relaxed, it kept her limber, and honestly made for better information for the moment.  She wondered what kind of job this black robe had.  She knew some of them were from different divisions but she had not thought to ask him about that yet.

"So your sword doesn't turn into something that burns the entire world around you to cinders?"  She asked and pursed her lips a bit.   "I've always been curious, kind of my thing.  Pretty sure I died pushing a lot of do not touch buttons in past lives."  Janus mentioned to the black robe.  "Nice to meet you Kyojin."   She said in a politely, more feminine tone than the one she had used before.  "Havent seen black robes patrolling in a while, must be busy these days." Janus mentioned.  "Also haven't seen many monsters, which isn't a bad thing at all.  So can you hurl lightning bolts and such as well?"

---

240

As Janus continued to speak Kyojin actually couldn't prevent a smile curling his lips. Whatever this humanwas, it was kind of adorable, this thirst for knowledge. He himself didn't found it particularly hard to restrain himself from bombarding janus with questions, although there were some. For example what the true powers of Janus were. Normally it wouldn't concern him, as long as Janus didn't decide to attack. But her remark about herself getting rescued by Shinigami had sparked his interest. He didn't really believe it. It was not reall likely to him that someone that fast couldn't protect herself/himself. At least he hoped he was right in this matter. It would have been nice to meet someone strong enough to stand their own. Someone that hat a little strength in him.

With a little smile on his face he leaned with his shoulder against a nearby tree, as he was still standing like a tree himself on the very spot where Janus had "intercepted" him.

"You meant it literally. Cinder blocks, I mean. No, Gekido doesn't work that way. It cuts, and it cuts deep. So no, no lightning bolts."

He surely wans't going to tell her what Gekido really did for him. As she hold back a flood that had drow ned the mind of the big man too often, and sealed it in herself. That was something too personal to tell someone you just met.

"Well, the patrol duty can become a little teadious without Hollows to fight, but on the other hand it means we were doing our job right."

For some Moments he eyeballed Janus, as he/she/it observed Kyojin in return. Just now Janus had sounded a little female. Although that had nothing to say nowadays -really, there were some trends in the modern world of the living...- it started to make sense. At least a little bit. And then again not.

"Busy...hm, you could say that." Kyojin said, with the situation in the Sould Society in mind. Not really peachy...but that also was something you couldn't discuss with a complete stranger. 
For a moment he listened to the night, felt the energies surrounding him. The night was quiet, at least for now. He couldn't feel anything threatening in the vicinity and his soul pager also kept quiet. Pretty much nothing to do at the moment. Maybe some Konsos, but the souls wouldn't run away.

"What does a human do these days? For a living, I mean." Kyojin suddenly asked. "It has been a while since I...frequented the world of the living."

If he had known that this night would be this uneventful, he maybe would have brought his Gigai. He could have mingled with the humans, observe and learn how their worl was now. It was so long since he walked among mortals. Ironically in more than a thousand years, it was now that he belonged to the 'Gods of Death' that he again had a chance to interact with them again. Not that he missed being a mortal. He just has been one. A long time ago. And he rembembered so little. It was just the thought that kind of amused him.

---

532

Janus thought about it and walked around to the side of the tree and leaned back on it.  "I used to own a nice little bed and breakfast, called it Tokei Aruki.  Got blown the hell up by a lizard, visard, viazard?  Dude with a hollow possessing him turned the entire thing into a telekinetic fireball and shot a super laser with me through it.  Now I run a small supernatural information service that is hidden by a restaurant." The diviner pointed out as she knelt down and started fidgeting with the grass.  "Seen Kalen or Takeshi, how are they doing? It's been a while." Janus asked as she fidgeted looking up at the sky.  Janus was weird and crazy, but she didn't lie, she never felt the real need to.    

Janus rolled her shoulders as she pushed back up to a standing position and brushed herself off.  She looked around to see if there was anyone who understood how she was talking to an invisible.  "Cooking is kind of my forte aside from doing not much and not often.  So trading information seemed a logical choice aside from cooking.  I was probably better when I was running my Bed and Breakfast but if I can't protect anything it's just not a good idea.  There are too many people like Raphael and the Nightmare, who can just wipe things off the face off the earth like it's absolutely nothing."  The diviner remarked to the black robe. "Doc finally get to be a captain yet?"  Janus asked looking back to Kyojin.  She did not actually know doc's name so she had just called him doc.  He had saved her more than once so asking after him seemed like the a decent point. 

"All in all I'm just another brick in the wall." The woman joked as she shrugged.  "So, are you fast like me or a walking bulwark like the nightmare?"

---

320

Kyojin frowned upon the description of the "Dude" that destroyed her Bed and Breakfast -as far as he knew a sort of tavern- and his powers.

"A Vaizard. Every Shinigami knows about them. At least the stories and what they teach at the academy. Shinigami that somehow have gaines hollow-powers. They are said to be very dangerous. Your encounter seems to prove this point. But besides the theory I know nothing about them. I never met one. They are either very rare or conceal their true identity because most Shinigami would attack them on sight."

He spoke very serious and something thoughtful mixed into his voice. To him it was weak to condemn a whole species because of some individuals. Weak and lazy. A damnation declared by people to weak to approach the true problem and to lazy to differentiate between the deeds of one or of many. Why should someone kill the man, that wanted to defend his home, because his brother was a murderer and a thief? There was no honor in such things.
Nonetheless, Kyojin understood and accepted that these Vaizards had huge powers at their disposal that could be used to inflict immeasurable suffering, should even one individuum misuse it. As apparently had happened with Janus' tavern.

"Information? So this is why you know so many things that extend beyond your world?"

He made a mental note. Information could come in handy. Maybe one day he could make use of Janus' services 

"I heard the name Kalen. He's in the Fifth Division, like me. But I don't know him personally. Takeshi or Doc...these names don't ring any bell. I don't have many personal contacts, I wasn't much of a sociable person in the past."

It was only after the words had left his mouth that he seriously wondered why he even spoke them. Why would he have told Janus this? It wasn't much information, you could hardly make anything of it. But it was still personal and a hint at a weakness that had taken Kyojin too long to overcome.

"Yes, some powers are far to great for the mortal world. I have heard of Hollow creatures that posess strength that couldnrival even the greatest among us. It is hard to believe, for all Hollows I encountered so far were mere animals. Monsters, like you said, rabid dogs, and they were put down like animals."

Only that they weren't killed. That was the duty. Like the Konsl sent Pluses to Soul Society, so did the strike of a Zanpakuto to a Hollow. It stripped all the evil and the innocent soul underneath was cleansed.
Calmly Kyojin raised his right hand beforde his eyes and clenched and opened his fist a few times. Big hands. Strong hands. They could make a difference.

"I am fast, if speed is needed." Kyojin said simply. Only in his thoughts he added 'but not as fast as you are, little human'. It was hard to admit, but his speed was far drom sufficient for creating one afterimage, let alone dozens.

"Say if you gather Information suoernaturally...don't you use some kind of power? Can't you use that to defend yourself?"

---

529

Janus thought about the questions and shrugged her shoulders.   "I guess I just sort of kept learning and asking questions, pretty easy to get people to open up if you annoy them enough.  Plus for a while I had a lot of different beings pass through my old place.  Including some I'm told were famous back in their day.  But, that's always the drawback isn't it?   Time keeps on slipping forward no matter what we do."  Janus said as she rolled her shoulders.  Her eyes roamed over the skyline for a minute as she thought of how best to answer the second one.   She ignored his comment around dogs and rabies, mainly because spiritual racism didn't really matter to her.  She had met broke masks and monsters that had saved her life, and broke masks and monsters that had tried to kill her. 

Janus shrugged at the point and yawned, she wondered why black robes were so adamant about different things.  Obviously black robes were behind her in the varying degree of information collection, then again, aside from doc they all seemed like the were pretty weak anyway, or at least on par with her.  Janus shifted her feet and looked at the old footprints in the grass.  "I have powers, they're pretty worthless, so I stick to just using my fist to punch stuff and then running fast.  Though, that's pretty worthless too, I've lost a fight to a wall before."    Janus said nodding approvingly at her statement.  She wasn't lying, she broke her hand on a wall and lost miserably against the thing for almost a day.  Janus wasn't exactly a good fighter.  However, Janus had quite the natural set of damsel in distress skills.  Like, seriously, Janus had mastered that skill set more than once.  Probably could teach a class to princess peach if she wanted to really learn some moves.

"Extended mission or just here to do a few random things then head back home?"  She asked Kyojin a second later.

---

335

"No, no extended mission. Just a routine ... What?"

Kyojin stopped mid-sentence as his pocket began chiming. He took out his soulpager -the only technical ininstrument he was carrying- and took a look. And a second one.

"Well ... It seems this night won't stay as quiet as I thought. Hollow-alert."

He held up the pager so that Janus could see the two dots on the display. 

"Seems like this thing sees two Hollows, about a mile in that direction, on the edge of a residential area. I should be able to read their registered strength here, but I forgot how."

A little bit frustrated he gave up after only a few moments and lowered his pager. Technology Technology wasn't his strong side. When he lived, the heights of technology was folded weapons steel and longboats with lttle enough draught that they could be sailed on a river, but enough stability to be also fit for open sea. He had overcome much in the past centuries but this technology was something utter alien to him.
Well, so he couldn't read the strength of these the masks out there ... But it didn't make any difference. It was his duty to eliminate them before they could do do m to mortals. Normal mortals, that was. He could guess that someone with the ability to create afterimages, like Janus, wasn't such an easy meal.

As he drew Gekido, the polished metal metal made a dry sound on the wooden sheath. For a heartbeat he looked at his Zanpakuto which meant so much to him without it being visible to anyone but him. But only for a heartbeat. Then he shot a glance at Janus.

"Coming?"

With a rush of air he vanished as he catapulted himself to a flying start with a flash step. Then he began running. Better not expelling too much energy. Even if he didn't believe that Janus was so weak in battle he just had to assume that he would be up against the Hollows alone.

When he was only a couple of meters away he hid fast behind a moss covered boulder via another flash step. A quick glance around the boulder to assess the situation. There were two of them, alright. One lookes like a centipede with a horned mask. The other one resembled an oversized gorilla with an oni-style mask. For now they were were picking at one another and obviously hadn't noticed Kyojin. So he had a few moments to work out a strategie to eliminate these two in the most efficient way.

---

427

"You have a tracker? That's Overpowered!" Janus exclaimed as the annoying hollow alert came off and followed at a slow pace.  She was behind the shinigami because she honestly had been near hollows before, and she had never actually fought one and won.  So, needless to say Janus waited nearby as the shinigami flew into battle.  

"I've never hurt a hollow before, I want to warn you."  She said as they moved forward, she made her way towards the dot as her own divination picked up the hollows a large distance in front of them.  She wasn't sure what kinds of things they were doing but it seemed like the usual get some poor unfortunate human killed everywhere.  Janus, however, didn't bother hiding from anything as she looked at the hollows in front of her.  Insect dude and big monster, pretty normal for the way they looked and made Janus want to puke. 

Janus didn't hide from spirituals simply because she was completely unaware that you could.  Her knowledge told her that the monsters were all out to get her and that was just about how it worked in the spiritual community.  After all, if she could sense them, they could sense her, so avoiding them seemed like the best strategy.  She looked at them from a good fifty yards away, already ready to bolt if necessary.  Janus wasn't entirely sure how she could deal with things like that.  "I think they sense energy." She said to the shinigami who was hiding a small distance from her as one of the hollows turned their attention to the delicious looking human.  Janus immediately decided that being where she was was a bad idea and vanished a fair distance away again. 

"Why is it always me!?"  She said as she vanished again with the insectoid hollow after her.

---

306

Whatever plans he had hoped to create simply evaporated when Janus failed to hide his/her spiritual pressure and the Hollows smelled it. The turned and looked directly at Janus. A high pitched scream came from the insectoid beast that was closest to them. Kyojin had just enough time to turn his head and see Janus vanish.

"Janus?"

With a rush of air, leaves and the cracking of wood, the insectoid Hollow threw himself into the chase, swooshing past the Shinigami.

"Janus, what are...?" you doing? Kyojin didn't get to finish his sentence. He had stood up and turned to the direction in which Janus had vanished and the Insectoid was chasing. And there he felt the other presence. A grim energy behind him, a shadow that fell on him, and the strong feeling of immediate danger, along with air hissing. With a fast jump Kyojin catapulted himself to the side. Just a fraction of a second later, the huge fist of the oni-gorilla slammed into the spot of ground where he had been standing.
When he again touched ground, Kyojin wasted no time with orientation. He let himself collapse to the ground, again just in time to avoid another slow but mighty blow, rolled over and again catapulted himself away. This time he brought enough distance between himself and the gorilla. It gave him enough time to get back on his feet and assume a battle stance. 

It angered Kyojin, that he had let his guard down. These Hollows where weak, the lowest evolutionary step, should have been no problem for a trained Shinigami, even without any releases. But if one let's his guard down, even low-class Hollows can become very dangerous. He watched the gorilla turn to him, raise both arms and begin to charge. And there was his opening. Kyojin waited patiently. The fists reached their highest point. When the hollow came into range, two large steps later, the fists sank again, coming down like grey comets, attached to two arms. Kyojin bent his knees a little.
Just before the impact he jumped, summersaulted over the fists, that now impacted only on dirt, directly between the arms of that Hollow. When his feet touched the ground again, he pushed of with force, straight up, and swung his blade in a wide arch. It cut through part of his body and with a dry, cracking noise, it smashed through the mask, splitting it right through the middle.

Half of the Hollow was integrated before Kyojin even landed again. But he didn't waste any time watching it vanish. Instead he looked around, scanning for Janus and the other Hollow. There, over there, away from the city, there was noise. And spiritual pressure.

With a spray of dirt the Shinigami darted of again. He ran as fast as he could but even with several flash steps he didn't seem to gain any ground. Janus was fast, damn fast, and he/she and the Hollow had a good headstart. He couldn't even see them. Gritting his teeth Kyojin raced up a small hill. The land dropped in a steep slope beyond that hill. On top of it he stopped. There they were! He could see Janus running and the Hollow chasing. But there was no chance for him to catch up. He drew a deep breath.

"JANUS!!!" he yelled on top of his lungs. His voice thundered through the air. "LEAD IT BACK TO ME! YOU HEAR? LEAD IT BACK!"

He just hoped Janus had heard him. He didn't have much options to help that human, if he/she continued running away from him with the Hollow on his/her heels. They were well out of his range. But if Janus could lead the beast back to him...

Kyojin started running again. As he ran, he stretched his arm out to his side, holding Gekido out.

"All out attack! Gekido!"

In the very same instant he spoke those words, his reiatsu flared up all around him. His right arm was engulfed in blue flame, shooting outwards and washing over the blade, forming the shade of a wolf's head with wide open mouth as if ready for the killing bite. After just a moment, the flames were gone and Gekido was no Katana anymore. It was a great and broad sword, about as long as Kyojin's whole upper body half. It looked old and worn, had no guard and a snarling wolf's head as a pommel. Runes showed on its blade. And it burned in translucent, cold blue flames, that whirled behind it as Kyojin kept on running. Now he could cut even deeper, and Gekidos bite would reach beyond his normal range. Now only Janus would have to turn that Hollow around or stop it long enough for him to catch up.

---

801

"Back to him, back to the strong guy, back to safety.  OH GOOD GOD WHY AM I DOING THIS NONSENE?!" Janus stated as she suddenly spread into a number of different Janus' that all began to spin and bolt back towards Kyojin.  Speed clones, were definitely Janus' most useful skill.  Which was funny cause not much else was.  Though, the reality of the situation was much different than what Janus actually knew.  While she had never hurt a hollow before, she was used to fighting much stronger hollow than this one.  Though, the insect still was creepy enough looking that Janus was in no mood to get close to it or eaten, for that matter.  

The diviner's clones all made their way on different tracks, in an odd formation towards Kyojin, one of them got eaten, but Janus had abandoned the position a few seconds before.  She saw the black robed super-soldier in front of her and noticed that he was being a total bad ass and must be well-versed in saving idiots like her from hollows.  "You are amazing and awesome, DODGE LEFT." Janus said as her divination pinged a weird substance being slung from the insect at Kyojin.  Janus' divination was in full boot for the moment as the other two speed clones vanished and she tried to wave her hands at the insect to give it another look at its tasty morsel.  She succeded and started leading it around Kyojin in a wide circle, to make it easy for him to intercept it at any point.   

The diviner was obviously not the best at fighting, but as far being bait, and running like a coward, that summed up most of her skill set.  Janus obviously had no intention of getting Kyojin hurt if she could avoid it, and she was completely unaware of things that didn't matter or she didn't know.  What she did know was that he was the useful one, and she was once again, bait for a black robe.  Janus wanted to think about how often she found herself in this mess.  The Doc, Yuudai, that other dude, that one buff kid.  Good lord black robes loved using her as bait, well at least it wasn't the nightmare.

---

374

They were coming! Janus led the Hollow directly to him, creating speed clones to distract the monster. Impressive. One had to be really fast to create an afterimage, let alone clones that stayed solid for a short duration. One of these clones met an untimely end between the Hollow's fangs, but it vanished before it could be ripped apart, revealing that Janus had already left this position and was safe. The insectoid let out a frustrated howl that echoed in the night. He was almost in range and Kyojin began to concentrate his energies. Flames rose and enveloped his blade in a blue swirl...

Dodge? Dodge left? Why should he...? 

With a fast flash step Kyojin dodged to his left, as he saw the Hollow spitting something -he rather not know, what exactly it was- at Janus, missing her/him and thus left it flying towards Kyojin. With a sound as if at least a dozen horses had dropped their droppings simultaneously it smacked against a tree. At the same instant Kyojin's flash step ended he slashed blindly with Gekido and a the flames sprung to the tip of the blade and from there out, in the direction if the Hollow. At the wavefront, a vague head of a wolf seemed to form, his jaws wide open, ready for the killing bite. But he missed and the ghostly flame hit a tree and felled it in the process.

Now Janus was leading the hollow in a circle around kyojin. It was smart and dumb at the same time. Janus was smart, she led the monster in an endless path where the Shinigami could end it at any point. And the Hollow was incredibly dump, so controlled by the only instinct he knew -hunger- that he didn't recognize he was about to be killed.

Kyojin started running on the inner side of Janus circle and in the opposite direction. WIth a rush of air Janus passed him. And right before him the Hollow came up. That giant insect with its horned mask. He jumped. Gekido swung around, hard and fast. The motion described a wide circle, from Kyojin's one side to his other. When he landed he spun around, even before he came to a complete halt, and raised Gekido again, in case the Hollow wasn't finsihed. But there it crashed into a tree, wriggling and squirming as it began to desintegrate. After just a few moments it was gone.

His first glance was towards Janus, to see if he/she was alright. But he could see no injuries, so he took out his soulpager and tried to find out if there were any other Hollows in the vicinity. It didn't seem so but then again he didn't trust this technology. So he tried to concentrate to feel if there was anything. This too told him there was only the human and him. The great greay broadsword still in hand, now burning calmly only with a few blue flames that danced over the blade, he finally turned to Janus.

"Are you okay? With that speed of yours you could have easily outmanoeuvered it completely. Hell, you could easily outmanoeuver me. Anyway: According to my pager and my senses there should be no more of them. Can you sense anything?"

---

548

Janus shook her head as she relaxed.  "No, but sensing anything in this city is difficult as there's too many people with too much power."  Janus said as she relaxed and went back to relaxing, catching her breath.  Whatever was going on was not really her thing.  Score another save me random black robe to her maximum amount of people that save her life.  Janus sighed as she relaxed and looked around.  She was not a fan of all of this.  Janus was still too shaken from the random string of events that lead to a worse week than before.  Everything just seemed terrible and obnoxious.  She relaxed a few moments later as she looked back at the black robed Kyojin.

"Well at least you have saved the good people of earth from the monsters.  Though that's probably a lie anyway."  Janus said and decided she was bored with being a pincushion like usual and started heading somewhere she could eat.  She looked back at Kyojin and waited for him to make up his mind about what he was doing before she remembered invisibles were invisible and rolled her neck.  "Thanks for the save, anyway."   She said with a rather used to being a damsel attitude as she moved her shoulders to make sure everything was still in working condition.  Janus had never actually hurt a hollow.  She was also pretty sure she couldn't and that was just about the size of why she didn't just try to do anything.  As far as she knew you needed a spiritual weapon or something to hurt stuff like that.  Just because she could slam a wall down didn't mean she could harm things that were invincible.   That in and of itself was the biggest issue she had always had.  "So blue flames huh?  That seems extremely dangerous and powerful." She asked Kyojin as she shifted.  Janus' curiosity once again got in her way of just walking away.

---

325

With a look down to his Zanpakuto, Kyojin began to think. In fact he hadn't used his Shikai too often. So he lacked a bit experience in that department. He never really thought about that. What a mistake...
In a slow motion he moved his hand over his blade, only a few centimeters away. Straight through the blue flames which where only burning low now.

"The flames alone are not dangerous...at least not to me."

When he realised that he drifted away a bit he pulled his hand back. With a short mental command he let the flames surge and envelope the sword. Quickly they vanished again and then there was again only the simple Katana. With a practiced move he let it slide back into the sheath on his back. A full and satisfying click sounded as it locked.

"Sorry you got drawn into this. I felt your power and saw your speed. To me it was clear that it would also mean some battle strength. It seems the powers of humans work different than ours."

He walked alongside Janus and looked at the human, still not fully understanding him/her.

"I could understand if your curiosity is satisfied for now and you'd rather not acompany me on the rest of my tour."

Maybe that was best, he couldn't say. It was so long that he himself had be human that it was sometines difficult to understand them fully. And then there was the thing that his duty was to protect the world of the living and it's humans. Not drag them into danger. Maybe he got a little carried away there.
Again he looked at Janus. They had fought Hollows together and still didn't he know what Janus was. He stopped.

"Janus, before we part ways...what are you? It is quite hard avoiding peronal pronouns all the time."

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Janus looked quizzically at Kyojin, as if she really didn't have an answer to the question. "Oh, I'm a dude." She said like it was obvious. Though it was a lie, she had told the last person she met she was a chick and it was better to keep people guessing for the most part. She was definitely not in the mood to continue getting in Kyojin's way and she couldn't really hurt things anyway.

"I'll get out of your hair. If you need help, its easy to find me, I know you can sense me anyway." She said to Kyojin and shifted her weight as she offered a tip of an imaginary hat to Kyojin and began heading off.

"Watch yourself, you're playing with fire. Don't get burned." She said looking into the future and wondering off with her cryptic last words before she turned a corner and vanished, using her movement skills to get out of his hair as fast as possible. She had a few things to think about and she was definitely tired. Stress was getting to her.

~Exit~

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