A Cold Night [Crowe | London | Private]

For those brief, tense moments, absolute darkness enveloped Crowe. Hundreds of times in the five years since he arrived at Los Noches, had he seen his fellow Arrancar open the portals... but Crowe had never felt the urge, nor the courage to take the step into the world of the Living. He was content with his life at Los Noches, rebuilding the mighty fortress. But day by day, month by month, the grunt work that made up his livelihood gave him the time to think of his fractured past.

To think of Rome.

The darkness that pressed on him from every side felt like a vice. Step by step, Crowe pushed through, feeling as if his very soul was being pressed. He gripped the blade beneath his overcoat tightly, breathing out as some kind of energy flowed from the blade into his very self. "...Does it never end?" Crowe thought to himself as the world between worlds flashed by. Then, the light spread forth and the 'young' Arrancar stepped from the world of the dead to the one of the living.

The world... had changed. Those in Los Noches had vaguely figured over four hundred years had passed since Crowe had died, but even then... Crowe was shocked at how the world had changed. As he stood atop one of the great monuments to the sky - which he remembered being described as a 'skyscraper' - Crowe pulled his overcoat tightly over his body, as the howling, freezing wind tore through him like a knife. Despite it's icy bite... the cold wind felt nice. It wasn't harsh as Hueco Mundo's was - Crowe ran a hand through his pale red hair, letting the breeze run over him like a shower.

"The real question is..." Crowe wondered, looking down at the sea of lights a hundred metres below. "What part of this brave new world I'm in". It filled him with anxiety, this modern world that he knew nothing of - at the same time, his curiosity drew him forward. A thousand thousand precences flooded his senses, humans of every walk of life that called out to all five senses.

He ignored the deep hunger that rang out from his belly, despite the minor feast of Hollows he had consumed prior to his incursion into the human world.

Within that immense throng of humans, Crowe felt the spiritual signitures of several Hollows. As disgusted as he was with his own nature, Crowe did not judge those Hollows who hunted and consumed the living - they were them, and he was him. That was not his place. "Wherever I have found myself, it is not Rome. But regardless... the amount of people here, it's prime hunting territory." 

As if it was the most natural thing in the world, Crowe stepped off the skyscraper, beginning to hurtle to the ground. He flung his limbs wide, letting the wind strike him as if he was a diving bird. Mere metres from the ground, Crowe kicked his Sonido into drive, planting him on a much smaller building. A feeling of wonderment ran through his chest, exploring a world that he never knew, even in life. A half dozen more in a random direction, and he found himself in a much less built-up section of the great super-city. A few signs along the way identified the great city as London.


"London." Crowe recalled the name. "I remember. The grand city to the west of Italy. A few requests came from there, but nothing serious. At least... of what I remember. It is not Rome... but I would not call this bad."
As he sat perched on a small building's roof, a very different spiritual signature ran across his sensor. It wasn't human - already he had tuned them out, for the most part, sans the growing hunger. Nor was it Holow - he had spent so much time among them, it was like second nature.

There was only one other thing it could be, and the feeling filled him with dread. His head darted around, searching for it's source, as panic began to rise in his chest.
"That's not right." Crowe murmured under his breath, panicking. "The P-Plague the Espada spoke of... It ruined them."

"Shinigami. Where could you be?"

---

WC: 706

Sofia stared down at the slowly dissolving corpse of the Hollow with cold, dispassionate eyes, grip tight against her Zanpakuto’s hilt. Despite her initial misgivings it hadn’t taken long for the woman to locate the source of the killings; a pack of Hollows, some thirty strong, organized around an alpha that, by all accounts, was far too intelligent to be the mere fledgling it claimed to be. She’d kept her distance from the beasts, muting her spiritual presence as best she could until the impromptu gathering had dispersed- and then, when only the leader herself remained, she struck.

It was a quick fight, all things considered. She’d caught the Hollow off guard and, while it was obviously more clever than most of its kin, the element of surprise and her clearly superior skill gave her an advantage that could not be overcome. Together with it’s pack the beast might have proved a significant threat even to a seasoned Officer- but caught out alone and unawares, with nothing and no one to assist it? It had been easy pickings. Yeah, right. Easy. A breath, long and shaky, left the Shinigami’s lips as she sheathed her Zanpakuto with slow, deliberate motions, intent on keeping the mass of nervous energy contained within her chest.

Bringing a hand up to brush her hair back into place, Sofia frowned, the last bits of the Hollow melting away before her eyes as she turned to face the rest of the sprawling city. With the death of its leader, the pack would likely fall into disarray- infighting, both for dominance and resources, would make the creatures easy pickings for any future patrols that came through and, so long as another alpha wasn’t chosen from amidst the group, they wouldn’t have the leadership to organize a proper resistance.

Her next objective, then, was obvious; locate and eliminate any potential successors, preferably with minimal effort on her part, and ensure that the next rotation to come through the city had proper reconnaissance data for clean-up. Of course, knowing what needed to be done and actually being able to do it were very different matters. It was unlikely she would be able to locate even half those she would need to kill, let alone deal with the ones she found. Strategy, and a fair bit of luck, had let her kill the alpha, but she could not assume things would be the same for the others, especially not once they-

The thought froze in the woman’s head as her spiritual senses came alive, danger alarms blaring at the wrongness that filled the air. She had felt something like this just after she’d awoken during the Massacre; Hollow yet not, wrong and twisted in all the right ways, yet with an edge of control the beasts lacked. Arrancar. A chill crept up Sofia’s spine at the word, her limbs shaking as she took in a breath, fingers running through her hair with nervous abandon. If there was an Arrancar here, it had to be the leader of the pack, or at least its sponsor. There was no other reason for it to even be in London, let alone close enough for her to sense it. It had to be checking up on their progress, which meant…

I can get the drop on it. If she could sneak up to it, catch it off guard like she had the alpha, then maybe, just maybe, she might be able to bring it down, or at the very least injure it enough to make it leave. It would have to be quick though; any kind of extended confrontation would only draw attention to their location, and without backup she’d be a sitting duck if the pack showed up looking for a meal.

Letting loose a long, slow breath, the Shinigami closed her eyes, fingers tightening against the hilt of her Zanpakuto as she drew it from its sheath once more and held it at her side, ready and waiting. She didn’t have an exact location on the Arrancar, just a general direction, but that would have to be enough. She couldn’t risk standing around looking for the thing while it roamed the city, not if it might end up finding her before she found it. No, she had to make the first move- no matter how much she didn’t want to. It’s ok; I can do this. Everything will be alright. Just go in, surprise it, kill it, then get out. Easy.

“Yeah, right. Easy.” She moved in a flash of Shunpo, body blurring across the rooftops towards her intended target, steel at the ready. It was time to put that confidence to the test.

---

WC: 781/1188

As quickly as Crowe had noticed the signature of the Shinigami, one of the Hollow signs (from what Crowe had felt, the strongest of them) vanished entirely. He bit his tongue, scratching somewhat madly at the back of his neck, pacing slightly in his spot. The cold air was blowing again, making the Arrancar's coat flap in it's breeze. Whatever his decision was to be, he had to make it in the next few moments; every urge in his body was to retreat, clamber through that haunting dark passageway to Hueco Mundo. He had no idea what the power of this Shinigami was - he'd never met one, and he knew little of what the great Plague had done to them as whole, besides slaughtering their numbers.

But that little voice in his head, that tiny part of him, urged him the opposite. To find the Shinigami, to gauge their power. Even if he was to never return to Los Noches of his own volition, knowing thy enemy was one of combat's greatest tenants. It could be suicide... but it could also be valuable information. With growing anxiety, he ran a hand through his red hair, 
"What are you thinking, Crowe?" The Arrancar thought to himself. "You've never fought anything more intelligent then a Gillan?" The urge to retreat back to that maddening desert, to it's relative safety, grew overwhelming. Almost without thinking, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, Crowe slipped his hand beneath his overcoat to grip his blade, letting the touch of it soothe him, as it always did.

"When was the last time you've ever given up on a job?"

If there was one thing, just one thing, that Crowe held pride in after all those years wandering that damned desert, was his skills as a tracker. He placed his other hand over his missing eye, letting his anxious, uneven breathing finally growing steady. And here he was, thinking of turning tail to flee. No... not this time. He chuckled to himself.
"If I were to turn heel on this matter... I really wouldn't be Crowe Starazo anymore." Never letting go of the short blade at his hip, Crowe turned 180 degrees, and stepped forward with his Sonido, almost instantaneously appearing on the next scraper of the sky, letting his inner eye seek out his target. 

"Find the target. Ascertain it's power. Decide then. Decide then." 

Much like the Arrancar, the Shinigami was on the move - and if he trusted his skills, they were coming towards him. "Where are you? What are you made of?" Crowe murmured, eye searching the horizon for a visual confirmation. A few more steps of Sonido and he'd travelled a kilometre, seeking out his target. The weather was growing colder; dark clouds were growing in the sky, threatening to unleash a torrent of rain upon the bustling city. "In these conditions, assuming their skills are on a similar level to mine..." Crowe mused, taking a few more steps of Sonido. "An ambush could give me the edge I need." The anxiety in the back of his mind was growing once more, but he pushed it away - he had to prove to himself that he wasn't just a mindless monster. That he wasn't just an Arrancar.

That he was still Crowe Starazo.

Coming to a stop on a building, a knot formed in his stomach, bringing his plans to a stop. Every job he'd ever taken, every single task, he'd had this moment. The moment his objective was in sight, clear as day. Every single time, he'd faltered.  Every time, he'd pushed through.
But this time was different.
The figure, dressed in such a way that called back to the other Arrancar descriptions of the dreaded Shinigami, was barrelling towards him. For the briefest fraction of a moment, Crowe thought of opening, and leaping through a portal home. But that moment passed, and he had choice.

As the Shinigami across the rooftops towards him, who was without a doubt the target, Crowe leapt high in the air, right over her, reaching his arm out to call to his one unique ability.
"Track." He muttered, shutting his eyes for the briefest of moments. For a singular second, there was nothing, but then the information flooded into his brain. Her heart rate, her distance, and her rate of movement was all known to him, without even glancing at her. Sailing past her with a Sonido, Crowe landed on a nearby rooftop, gritting his teeth, drawing the short blade from his coat and taking a fighting stance, also raising his non-dominant hand to defend himself.

And now, the game began.

WC: 707
TWC: 1483

Sofia frowned, her gaze cold and dispassionate as she hurtled across the wind swept rooftops, Zanpakuto at her side. The Arrancar was moving, and in the blink of an eye she felt its presence draw closer, a dull throb in the back of her mind that suddenly screamed with intensity. It had to have sensed her; there was no other reason for it to head in her direction with such speed, such intent laced in its Spiritual Pressure. Dammit. An ambush had been her only real chance at defeating the beast- its Reiatsu was quite a bit stronger than hers, and without a way to throw the thing off balance, there was little chance she’d managed a victory without some sort of outside interference.

A breath, low and soft, left the Shinigami, her feet skidding along the concrete roof of a tenement building as she came to an abrupt halt. She had to retreat; charging at the beast now, without the element of surprise, would be beyond stupid. With no way to catch it off guard, the fight would come down to their own respective strengths, a matchup that was almost certainly weighted in the Arrancar’s favor. The creature was still a ways off- if she could fall back, bunker down and escape its notice, then maybe…

Fast! It was on her in an instant; before she could blink, the creature had moved, the air buzzing with its Sonido as it leapt over her head, body a blur of motion she couldn’t quite follow. She felt something shift around her, but before she could think she had already moved, instinct and fear whipping her torso around to face the Arrancar, Zanpakuto held up in a loose, defensive stance.

He was… not what she had expected. Built relatively similar to herself (but with a noticeable gauntness to his face the reeked of malnutrition), the man did not appear to be much of a threat physically speaking, but that only served to put the woman even more on edge. She could feel the strength radiating from him- he was stronger than her by a fair margin, though exactly how much was unclear. A moment passed, then another, the silence stretching between them like a cloud as the wind picked up, blowing her chestnut locks every which way.

She had to act, had to do something to get away from the beast. Sofia knew better than to think she stood a chance in a direct confrontation, let alone one where she was the surprised party, which left her with one real option. He was too fast for her to run from, and too strong to fight head on, but if she could distract him, hurt him just enough to dissuade him from following her… Maybe. It was risky, too risky, but it was the only choice she had.

Moving with the distinctive swish of Shunpo the Shinigami barrelled forwards, Zanpakuto held in a two-handed grip as she ducked low, hoping to get around the Arrancar’s guard by bringing the weapon up and across his lower half in a textbook diagonal cut. It was a simple move, easily avoided or blocked, but it was the first overt attack, and that was what mattered. If she could get him to react to her attacks, keep him from acting of his own accord, make him follow her rhythm instead of setting his own… Then she stood a chance. A slim one, but slim odds were better than none- and right now, she needed every inch she could get.

---

WC: 592/1780

Had he made a mistake?

For the briefest moment, Crowe got a good look at the Shinigami. She had the appearance of a young woman, her light auburn hair blowing in the rapidly mounting wind. Her gaze, seemingly some controlled mix of determination, cut through to him like a knife. But... now that the Tracking Pulse was upon her, and Crowe had finally gotten control of his senses... he realised he had not lost his gamble. She wasn't powerful, and she carried none of the signs that implied she was a high ranking officer of the infamous Soul Society. Crowe brushed his hair out of his face, shutting his eye for a split second. For most, that would've been the most foolish action of all, turning away at the most crucial moment.

He might only have one eye, but with the Pulse, he barely needed it to see her coming.

She was upon Crowe in an instant, her blade going low. Even with his eyes closed, he could sense her rate of movement, the direction from which she came. It was funny - when his eye was upon, when he could physically see his opponent, panic consumed his mind. But only seeing her in his mind's eye, hurtling towards him with the Pulse attached... It was just like looking over Rome, tracking a target, all those hundreds of years ago. Breathing calmly, he gripped his blade in his hand, letting that familiar sense flow into him.
She was fast, but Crowe was faster. Pushing all of his energy into his legs, he surged into the sky with his Sonido, tilting in the air as he flew above the Shinigami. From what he could gauge, Crowe believed he was more powerful then the girl below him - but he wasn't a fool. He grit his teeth, feeling the panic spread through his body again.

"What am I doing?"

Even that initial strike, as clear as it was, could've cut through the Arrancar like a ribbon, if he'd done nothing. She may be a fledgling, but he was little more - from what he knew of the Shinigami, they had formal training - Crowe had nothing. He had to end this quickly, rather then draw the fight out and make a foolish mistake. Fighting a Shinigami was nothing like a Hollow - Crowe could overwhelm them simply. This was different. "Like all the other times, like all the other times". He thought to himself, reaching out his left arm towards the Shinigami. It had never been efficient to cut down Gillans in the sands of Hueco Mundo - this way was always more economic, if more... violent. He could only hope few lived on the top of the mighty skyscaper.

What had those at the castle had called it? Ah, yes. Cero.

Above the rooftop Crowe had leapt from, where the Shinigami had charged at him, Crowe unleashed the great, scarlet laser, engulfing the rooftop in the powerful blast. The force of the blast carried him that little bit in the air - to one watching from afar, it would appear Crowe was soaring into the skies.

"That should be enough." Crowe murmured to himself, his eye locked on the smouldering rooftop where the Shinigami was situated a moment ago. "I hope that's enough." He doubted that she was dead, he held no power that monstrous, but Crowe prayed that it was enough to put her down. His heart was screaming in his ears, his fingers aching ever so slightly from how hard he gripped the blade. He'd tracked her, he'd met his bounty... so why wasn't he running yet?

Why wasn't he retreating at the first chance he got?

---

WC: 611

TWC:2094

For the briefest of moments, Sofia wondered if she had, perhaps, overestimated her enemy. He was powerful, yes, but his gaze seemed... panicked. A mix of fear and confusion was writ large across the Arrancar’s face, indecision etched into his every move. He was afraid. Of her, of Shinigami, of fighting in general- it wasn’t clear. But it was something, something she hadn’t had just a moment before, and that would do. For now.

The Shinigami was not shocked when her blade cut through the air where the Arrancar had once been. She had expected her attack to miss, be blocked, or be stymied in one way or another, and to have that expectation met was not a surprise. But just because she had known it would happen did not mean she had to like it. Frown deepening, the woman brought her blade back into a defensive stance, gaze glancing from one side to the next, looking for her opponent. Had… had he run away? No. No, his Reiatsu was still close, still there despite his apparent absence. But if he wasn’t on the rooftop then where-

Above! Sofia’s head whipped up, gaze going wide as the telltale glow of a Cero formed in the monster’s outstretched hand, muscles tensing with alarm. He had her; there was no way she could get out of range of the attack in time, nevermind what would happen to the people in the building below if she did. She couldn’t run, not from this. Not if it meant dooming an entire apartment building full of innocent lives to death by spirit laser. And if she couldn’t run…

Her body moved without thought, Zanpakuto flashing in a downwards cut even as she leapt into the air after the Arrancar, blade meeting his Cero in a clash of steel and fire that stopped both her and the beam in its tracks, frozen in mid-air. For a moment her strike held firm, pushing back against the wall of crimson energy that threatened to engulf the building beneath them, but only for a moment- the woman felt the beam shift beneath her blade, the attack splitting in two as it roared past her on either side, close enough to burn but not injure.

And then, as fast it had come, it was gone, the Cero fading in a cloud of smoke and dust that obscured her position, at least for the moment. A breath, shaky and low, left the Shinigami, her limbs loose as she leapt forwards once again in a swish of Shunpo, blade screaming towards the creature’s neck with all the strength and speed she could muster.

She had to hit him. Even if it was just once, she had to hit the monster; if not for her own safety then for wantonly endangering so many innocent lives without a single thought as to the consequences. He had to pay for what he had done, what his kind always did- what they always would do, until they were purified at the edge of a Zanpakuto.

---

WC: 509/2289