Finals Week is Literally Murder ( R | JT | Blair | Hibiki )

[Kamikawa Hibiki]

((Training for CTP.))

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{Play This - NCIS Soundtrack - 03 Bag and Tag}

Today’s story starts with a different day than usual for Hibiki. He had been given special permission to stay in the Human World for an extended period of time. The reason had been a simple one. He felt like some of his old skills had returned, and he needed an unusual situation to test them out in. It’s not like he could order a bunch of Shinigami to go get wounded just so he could practice surgery, so if was off to the World of the Living to find some interesting challenges to see how far he had come. In this particular story, he had managed to get himself stuck into the role of a coroner with the local police in Karakura.

Now you’re probably wondering how in the world Hibiki had managed to get into this role. That in and of itself is a bit of a tale. You see, Hibiki already had some experience with being attached to the military in the world of the living, and he had plenty of skills as a doctor, so all he had to do was figure out a way to make some fake credentials that would hold up well enough to at least be hired. And now you’re probably wondering how the hell he managed to forge an entire transcript, curriculum vitae, three letters of recommendation, and a resume. Believe it or not, but none of those were actually that hard if you didn’t mind about lying.

From the first thing on the list, the transcript, he just looked up a random medical university, called their records department, and pretended he was an employer that needed a copy. For some reason this was good enough for them and they faxed a copy over to him. The CV was even easier. People just post those on LinkedIn, so he looked up someone whose publications were fairly recent, but in journals that weren’t widely circulated so it would be impossible to check them. Of course both of these just got the names changed on them. The letters of recommendation were print copies from professors that had died recently at the university, all of which talked about nothing but extra curricular work and how bright he was. Last but not least, the resume was just a combination of all these lies that held it all together.

Combined, that all been enough to land him an interview, and that’s where his charisma and actual skill took over. He was offered the job on a provisionary basis, so long as he made it through a 90 day probationary period. Hibiki felt kinda bad about doing all of this, but that process itself had been a thoroughly exhausting mental challenge. The fact that he had managed to cheat his way that far meant that his smarts had begun to come back to where they used to be. He still wasn’t anywhere near his A game, but he was pretty happy with having been able to pull that much off.

Then came the actual goal of this whole sequence of events, the work as a coroner. This job, though different than his normal role, offered several unique obstacles for him to overcome. His role was one half detective and one half doctor. He was alerted to his first assignment by his team’s lead detective, very special field agent Jericho Denali. With a slap on the back of the head, Hibiki was sent off into the field. Apparently a kid had just been murdered at Karakura High in broad daylight. The strange thing was that no one had any clue how it happened. It seemed like the kid had been shot, but the hole was way too big.

And so Hibiki had donned the uniform that fitted his temporary assignment. The slender blonde man was dressed in a navy blue jumpsuit over top of a lighter blue button-up shirt. He wore a comfortable brown pair of doc martens on his feet, and his hands were covered in white neoprene gloves. The outfit was completed with a wonderful little tan safari hat. Dressed like that, the Shinigami had made his way over to Karakura High. As the police department was a bit short-staffed at the moment, they had him doing both the medical examination as well as anything else he could to help out. He figured the corpse wouldn’t go anywhere, so his first move was to introduce himself to a student he found near the classroom.

”Hey there. I’m with the police. We’re trying to figure out what all went on here. Do you know anything about what happened?”

SPOILER: Click to show

{Outfit Reference}

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{Stats and Skills}
Stats
Strength - [100{50)] Points
Speed - [90] Points
Spiritual Pressure - [50] Points
Reiatsu Strength - [90(135)] Points
Light Aura - [100] Points
Dark Aura - [0] Points
Instinct - [50] Points
Senses [100(50)] Points
Energy sensory - [0] Points
Healing Expertise - [100(150)] Points
Total SP: [580] Points

Skills

• [Kido] {1}
  
• [Battle Analysis] {1}
  
• [Hakuda] {1}
  
• [Mental Incantation] {1}
  
• [Calm Mind] {1}
  
• [Pain Tolerance] {1}

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

Every day was such a bore! High school didn't seem to ever end, and not because a band made a song about it. The days just went on and on forever and it seemed like time with friends was dwindling away. The classes weren't challenging but they were also hardly fun. Gym may have been every day in some cases, but that felt like a waste. And to a teenager like Blair, a lot of that mattered. She was impressionable and none of these were leaving a lasting impression at all. Blair was a studier, so she definitely still need to crack open a book or two to do well, but at this point, she felt like it was almost useless.

One of her teachers was droning on and on about some nonsense. He had been talking about historical figures in Europe and why they mattered. The class was European History. The teacher was hot, so that was okay, but his being married and having a kid made Blair pause. Kids were gross. She was resting her right hand on her face and fighting sleep. Her left hand was playing with the hair she had pulled up in a side ponytail, causing it to curl a little bit in the process. It felt soft and somehow kept her eyes open, so that was at least helping. Aside from that, she shifted her weight frequently and crossed her legs over and over to force her body to move. When she looked at the clock, she noticed only five minutes out of their class's hour had passed.

Obviously that just meant this was going to be a long day. She blinked slowly and looked out the window in an attempt to get her eyelids to lift higher than the halfway down position they were in. They felt so heavy. Sleep was inevitable at this point. Her teacher was trying to hard to hold everyone's attention, and he was actually probably doing a good job when it came to anyone but her. Unfortunately for him, Blair didn't like history of any kind. She didn't mind learning about what happened in the past, but that was just it. The past. And if she had to learn about the Holocaust one more time, she was going to gas herself. She heard about it every year. Every. Year.

Okay, so even if that thought was in bad taste, that was how she felt. The constant reminder that Jewish people were killed in that way was certainly a decent tactic in trying to avoid the repetition of that event, but she got the picture. She didn't have to hear about it sixty million other times. So with that, as she was fighting sleep, she decided it was a good time to go use the bathroom. She calmly and quietly got up after motioning towards the door. Her teacher nodded his head as he granted permission, so off she went. She wandered the halls for just a few minutes because she knew it'd be rude if he asked why she took so long anyway. Might as well make the most of it!

Everything was quiet, too. Blair peered out the large windows that lined the hallways and saw no one outside since they were in the middle of a class period. She assumed no one had gym, and if they did, they must have been in another area. She was jealous of those students. She actually liked gym! She was just a little faster than most of the other kids so she felt good about running the mile and all that fun stuff. Her stamina was also exceptional. A few of the coaches tried to get her to join sports, but she was more of a math person. She may be athletic, but she wasn't going to make a habit out of it.

But as she allowed herself the chance to explore the school she'd come to know quite well, she heard something strange. She couldn't possibly describe it, but something was odd. She quickly ran up a flight of stairs and turned the corner just in time to see another student shot. Well, were they shot? That was definitely a hole but it was huge. It hardly made sense. Blood was splattered over the walls and Blair's eyes subconsciously reflected the light in such a way that made them glow. This was something that came with the territory of her strange eye color. She also tried to avoid the fact that she could smell the blood and something about it smelled good. She was able to break the brief trance she was in after a moment.

It didn't take long for some authority officials to show up, too. Well, a single official. This one guy randomly showed up dressed like he was about to take down Mufasa and study the body parts for science. Blair's eyes got wide as she started to walk away because he didn't seem to notice her at first, but he was quick to stop her. She flinched and didn't want to turn around when he called out to her, but she knew she probably should. Stiffly, Blair turned around to face him and put on her best smile. She wasn't even trying to hide her pointed canines. Normally that feature of hers made her a bit shy about smiling, but she wanted to seem friendly. And innocent.

”Hey there. I’m with the police. We’re trying to figure out what all went on here. Do you know anything about what happened?”

"Oh, gosh. Nope! In fact, I was just heading back to class! So if you'll excuse me, I gotta go!"

She had started to turn around to run away. If he didn't end up stopping her, then she was absolutely going to make a break for it. Her intention was to go back to class and pretend as if this never happened. She didn't want to have anything to do with a dead body, especially not when they were a complete stranger. She had never seen this guy before in her entire life and, frankly, didn't care that he was dead. For some reason it just didn't seem to bother her. She assumed it was likely because of the lack of familiarity, but there was also something strange about the hole in his body. That wasn't normal.

At any other time, she actually would have loved to have inspected this guy. She'd seen cases like this before on TV and even once or twice in the past when she walked in unforgiving parts of town, but for something like this to happen in her high school was unusual. She was curious about if it was because of one of those ghosts she had claimed to have seen in the past, but she couldn't be sure. She also wasn't a detective. Staying here was going to do her no benefit and she would likely only get in trouble. Not only that, but this guy was with the police. She watched those shows. She was going to be questioned.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Blair's Stats}

Strength - 50 Points

Speed - [100] = 70 Points

Spiritual Pressure - [100] = 150 Points

Reiatsu Strength - 50 Points

Light Aura - 50 Points

Dark Aura - 50 Points

Instinct - 50 Points

Senses - 50 Points

Energy sensory - 0 Points

Healing Expertise - 0 Points

Total SP: 450 Points

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{Blair's Skills}

[Weapon: Explosives] {1}

[Martial Arts: MMA] {1}

[Analyzing] {1}

[Strength of Will] {1}

[Acrobatics] {1}

[Kamikawa Hibiki]

Okay, so maybe Hibiki’s awareness wasn’t exactly his best feature. Sure he was good looking, talented with Kido, a skilled medic, charismatic… wait, where was I going with this? Oh right, him having awful situational awareness. Yeah, apparently the dead guy was right in front of him. How had he missed that one so obviously? Like seriously, the entire hallway smelled like it belonged on a battlefield with how much blood was everywhere, and his eye had been drawn to a student instead? It’s a good thing that being a medical examiner wasn’t actually his day job, because let’s face it, the dude was pretty awful at it. Honestly it was impressive how badly he’d missed that one at first.

It was only at first that he had missed it though. As the student tried to get out of there, Hibiki stopped her not by force, but with his words. ”You know being right next to the body makes you either a murderer or a witness right?” Now he wasn’t accusing her of anything just yet, but he had a feeling that just mentioning there was a chance of her being the murderer would get her to stop in her tracks. Though Hibiki wasn’t back at his prime by any stretch of the imagination, he was certainly imposing enough to command a schoolgirl, right? He hoped that he still had enough authority in his voice to accomplish at least that much.

”I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to not move, and put your hands above your head where I can see them. Fleeing the scene of a crime is a crime itself you know?” From there, he’d have to wait and see how she would respond. Though he hadn’t been on the scene for very long, Hibiki had gotten a decent chance to observe everything around him. This wasn’t the kind of stuff he was used to or anything, but his skill set did actually make him a good fit. Between his experience making snap decisions on a battlefield, and his talent for medical analysis, he actually didn’t feel out of place at all.

Obviously the first thing he had noticed on the scene was the student in front of him. She, honestly, rather unremarkable in his eyes. A quick assessment of her physique indicated that she was in relatively good shape, but the difference in height meant he could probably catch her if she tried to run. Besides, Hibiki’s speed had improved a good deal thanks to all his training lately. He was nearly at peak human levels, so he was pretty confident he could catch her if he had to. But that wasn’t all that he noted about this human. A pointed pair of canines, more so than were usual, were featured prominently in her smile.

Was she a Bount? Hibiki had heard talk of the true vampires that lived in this world, though he couldn’t remember whether or not they shared that characteristic with the mythical version of the vampires that every knew. Oh God please no. Don’t let it be the thought he just had. Hibiki had just had a memory surface from right before he died. Twilight. That god awful book series that was popular with girls this age. Please, please, please don’t let it be the case. There had been a trend back then, almost as dumb as the Tide Pod challenge, to have cosmetic surgery done to get “vampire fangs.” He really hoped that that wasn’t the case.

That trend should have died out years ago… but she could have had it done back then. Compared to that option, he hoped that the student was a Bount ready to kill him. That was far more preferable. Really though, he doubted that was the case. After all, if she was a Bount, then surely she would have reacted to the plus soul that just popped out of the corpse, right? The healer never did really enjoy this part of his job, but he did it nonetheless. A hand was raised to his mouth as he popped a soul candy in. Curse that damnable shopkeeper for only having Chappy in stock. He would get him for that one day.

With the Soul Candy swallowed, Hibiki popped out of his gigai and appeared in his astral form, dressed in the godawful Shinigami uniform, with his Zanpakuto on his left hip. He couldn’t hear its voice anymore, but it still let him perform the core duty of a Shinigami. ”Hey there buddy, I’m just your friendly neighborhood angel, here to send you off to Heaven.” This Shinigami preferred not to tell people he was a God of Death. Most people got scared at that name, and who could really blame them. Of course there was a bit of another thing that he could be scared off. The ghost turned around, saw his own corpse behind him, and screamed.

”AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!’

Sure, Hibiki could probably interrogate the plus soul for some useful information about his killer, but his gut told him that it wouldn’t actually get him anything useful. ”Yeah, sorry buddy, you’re a bit on the dead side… so I’m just gonna go ahead and send you off to heaven now okay?” His truly kind offer was met with nothing more than more screaming. Poor little guy didn’t know how to handle seeing his own corpse. If for no other reason than to get back some silence, Hibiki drew his sword and bopped the guy on the head with the hilt, performing arguably the least elegant Konsou in the history of Soul Society.

All he could be thankful for at this moment was that Chappy hadn’t started talking in his body yet.

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

”You know being right next to the body makes you either a murderer or a witness right?”

This comment made Blair quit any attempts to get away. She wasn't sure if she would get in trouble for what she'd tried to do, especially since this really was a crime scene. But she was innocent and had nothing to do with this. If she hadn't walked up this way, none of it would even matter. She would be nothing but another bystander. If being present at the scene of a crime automatically makes her a suspect, that was hardly fair. She didn't want to have to sit around and wait for questioning or anything stupid like that. She had more important things to do like sleep in class or something! But by that logic...

"If that's the case, doesn't that make you one, too? How do I know you're not faking this and you actually killed him?"

”I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to not move, and put your hands above your head where I can see them. Fleeing the scene of a crime is a crime itself you know?”

Blair grumbled underneath her breath. She didn't like being accused of things she had no part of. She really preferred to leave and go home after witnessing all of this, and she was shocked that this murder didn't bother her as much as it probably should have. Something about it just seemed pretty weird, so there wasn't a whole lot to think about in regards to this random dead man. Was it even worth her getting upset over it? She had no real reason to be. She didn't know him and never remembered seeing him, so it probably didn't even matter what she thought about it. All she knew was that she had expected it to get rather scary and it never did. She was amazed at her personal tolerance for this.

She also didn't know what this detective guy was going to do to her. She knew nothing about him and he didn't even introduce himself. It wasn't like she could read minds, so the likelihood that she was going to know his name without him saying anything was zero. That much was given. She could also kind of guess he had given her a look-over when she realized he wasn't paying direct attention to her as much. The problem was that she already knew she wasn't going to be able to run away. He was a guy and probably faster than her on average, so she expected to be caught if she tried.

That didn't matter, though. She could figure something out if she really needed to, right? She was pretty smart. It didn't take a genius to talk their way out of an issue, so perhaps there was still a chance here. She was a good talker. She had convinced her teacher that she wasn't late and had actually gotten to class even before they did despite walking in after them. She had some talents there, though not as developed as she would like. She was just able to make them think they remembered something the way she wanted them to remember it. Anyone could do that, though. That also didn't take a rocket scientist.

Despite all of that consideration, she actually stuck around. It was pointless for her to flee now. She wasn't the type who liked getting in trouble and preferred to avoid it. If staying here next to a dead person was going to keep her out of trouble, she assumed that was her best bet. This mystery man was also way too strange for her tastes. He must've been stressed or something because he took a small pill and swallowed it. Blair didn't think she was that irritating to be around, but if this guy really needed to rely on drugs, there was nothing she could do about that. This was not her life or her choices.

"Wait what the f--"

And he popped out of his flipping body?! What the hell was this?? An angel? And Blair didn't even notice that there was a soul right in front of her so she must have been seriously distracted by literally anything else to have missed that. She could not believe what was happening right in front of her eyes. None of this was making sense! So the guy had a body that he could just toss away like some kind of human costume or something and now he was dressed in a uniform that she had never seen in her entire life! On top of that, this dead person's soul was screaming so bad that it was about to make Blair's ears bleed. She couldn't think with all this noise. But before she knew it, he was gone.

Blair couldn't even make words. Her mouth was basically touching the floor via the bottom of her chin for some time now. She was staring in the direction of the corpse but wasn't exactly sure how to handle what just happened. This stranger was no longer a detective, but an angel? Was he for real? After closing her eyes and forcing her mouth shut, Blair took a deep breath before trying to speak. She feared what would come out would be a horrendous mess of words unrecognizable to humans. She didn't think she would be able to sound coherent at all, but she tried. After opening her eyes once again, she spoke.

"What the ever-loving Christ did you just do? Actually, what are you? If I'm about to die right now, just make it painless. Wait, don't kill me. I have another body to offer you," Blair said, briefly remembering the boy in her Calculus class she hated so much. "Start talking."

[Kamikawa Hibiki]

Oh shit. Oh shit, oh shit, oh SHIIIIT. This girl was spiritually aware. God dammit Hibiki had just fucked up so hard and in so many ways he couldn’t even keep track of them all. Like seriously, he had put chappy in charge of someone who would probably resist having their memories altered, materialized his astral form in front of them, shown his weapon, and performed a soul burial. Oh God he was going to have to do so much paperwork for this one. There was basically no way he was going to get out of this mess without being buried alive by the forms he’d have to do. They were never going to let him out of Soul Society again!

After he had been told to start talking, the medic took a few moments to gather himself. At first he tried to play it off as something funny. ”WoooOOOoooOOooo!I’m just a halluuuuciiinaaaaaaatioooon! This is just your stress making you seeeeeeee things!” Fuck. She wasn’t gonna buy a line that weak. He needed to think, and he needed to think fast. What was protocol in a situation like this? Blank their memories and move on. Had he brought any of memory altering stuff with him? Nope. Was he going to radio in and request some when that would get him in a load of trouble? Also nope. Besides, that stuff never worked well on spiritually aware people anyway.

There was no other choice but the truth. Maybe, just maybe, that would let him get out of this mess. What harm was there in one more spiritually aware person in Karakura knowing that God was actually called the Soul King anyway? ”Okay, look, this is super awkward for me right now. You’re not gonna believe me, but here’s the truth. That” he pointed at his gigai, ”is a fake body that I inhabit to let me interact with normal humans, and that” he pointed at the corpse, ”is a dead guy whose soul just popped out. I sent him along to the afterlife. That’s what I do for a living.”

He gave her a moment to process everything, as it was surely a lot to take in all at once. ”If you can see and hear me, then congrats! That means you can see ghosts. That also means I’ve got a lot to teach you, because unfortunately it means that you’re one of the lucky few people out there that are inevitably going to end up dealing with a lot of people like me in your life.” He’d said all that, but it occurred to the man that he’d not even given his name yet. ”Ah, and you can call me Hibiki. Kamikawa Hibiki, medical Shinigami from Squad Four of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, at your service.”

The Shinigami offered a hand to this young girl for a handshake, unsure if she would take it or not. Honestly, he had been keeping a very close eye on her as she spoke. Though his eyesight wasn’t remarkably sharp or anything, his talent for medicine meant that he had a different way of looking at people compared to most others. He watched her body posture, stance, and eyes for signs of various automatic reactions that he could tie back to emotions. Given all that she had just been through, and all that he had just said, it was entirely possible that she could experience a number of negative reactions in those moments.

Most of all, he was concerned about the possibility of her going into shock and passing out. The simple fact of the matter was that she’d just had a dude get killed in front of her, seen two ghosts, and had one of those ghosts explain that that he was in fact a “God of Death.” It would be perfectly normal for her to simply pass out from the stress of all she had just experienced. Surely this qualified as a traumatic event by normal medical standards. If nothing else, it was quite likely that she would need a good deal of therapy after an encounter like this. Shame that Hibiki couldn't cast that Kaido anymore.

So instead he was stuck with trying to fix everything through simple dialogue. That was a much harder task, but he did his best to do so. He had missed one point that he needed to make though. Thankfully he rectified it eventually. ”Oh, right, and despite the job title we’re the good guys. Not here to kill anybody. We escort souls of the recently departed to the afterlife, so there’s no need to feel threatened by me. I’m a medic after all!” He tried to be reassuring, really he did, but there was only so much that he could do when dealing with a situation like this. Hopefully the girl took everything well, and he didn’t end up being the thing that ruined her entire life.

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

Any normal person would probably just think nothing of this and walk away. In fact, any normal person probably couldn't see any of what was going on right now. But Blair could. Blair could see everything and it was a little bit startling to witness. This ghost guy was screaming nonsense at her in an attempt to cover up what was likely a mistake, and she was stuck standing there wondering what on Earth was going on because none of this was really coming together in her mind! Every piece she tried to put together was proving to be more and more challenging. The worst part of it was she kind of hoped he was right and she really was just hallucinating.

Actually, maybe this was a good thing! It meant that this murder could be solved more easily, right? Perhaps all of this was some kind of supernatural misunderstanding. That could also be the understatement of the century. Blair didn't want to get caught in the middle of this ridiculous mess and she couldn't believe she had come this far just because she wanted to wake up a little bit. The only reason she ever left that stupid classroom was so that she could move her body a bit and get some energy flowing. Her eyes would have never stayed open otherwise and she was suffering fairly badly. This was far worse than she could have ever imagined.

But even when the ghost tried to tell her what was going on, Blair sat there even more stunned than before. She didn't believe a single word coming out of this guy's mouth and was reluctant to try, but he actually seemed pretty genuine. Ugh, of course he would. Of course he would actually be telling the truth when it made the least amount of sense. Blair tried to close her gaping mouth by picking her chin up off the floor, but that was proving to be difficult. The more he spoke, the less sane she felt. Her entire world seemed to be crumbling down and all she could do was stand there looking like an idiot.

"Um, okay, Hibiki. I have no idea what anything you just said even means. I'm a teenager so I'm very impressionable. If this is some sick joke and you're about to give me drugs or something, I have a cell phone and I will call the police. The real police. Not whatever fake thing this is." Blair gestured to all of him.

Even if what he was saying was true, she didn't want to play a part in it. He claims more people like him are going to be coming after her, but they wouldn't dare if they had no idea she could even see these things. If she kept it hidden the way she had for so many years, everything would turn out just fine. There would be no problems. Well, if it could actually be that easy. Blair had a terrible feeling that Hibiki was right. He was here investigating the murder of this random boy because it probably had something to do with him. Otherwise, she highly doubted there would be any reason for a ghost to come back to the World of the Living.

When the ghost offered his hand, Blair couldn't resist touching it. Honestly, it was all because she wanted to see if he was tangible. If he could just fly through random solid objects then she wouldn't be surprised by that, either, but she was super curious about this one detail. As she slowly closed the gap of space between the two of them and took his hand, careful to avoid the body that was awkwardly third-wheeling there, she was disappointed to feel legitimate skin without her own hand falling through it. She gripped it well and tugged on it a bit in a few different directions to get a good look from other angles. He looked absolutely normal.

"Hmm. Good guys or not, I don't know how I feel about you yet. I just met you so I need some time to adjust. Anyone could tell me they were good and be lying."

Blair had let go of Hibiki's hand. She paused for a moment to take in what he was saying. If they were the good guys, if that was really true, then that meant there were also bad guys. Did it matter where the bad guys came from? Was it a specific group or something? She imagined it may be similar to a gang or other kind of organization of people who were out to cause trouble for those around them. These were the types that Blair actively tried to avoid. That, and they didn't always even treat their own members nicely. A lot of times, it seemed like they were willing to torture just about anybody no matter who they were. Was Hibiki talking about them?

"Oh, and my name is Blair Aldaine. I go to school here if you couldn't already tell."

Introductions were hard. Standing there talking to a ghost when she knew no one else could see him was harder. Knowing that they were both exposed to a dead body was even harder yet. Blair quickly looked around at the empty halls surrounding them and motioned for the two of them to leave. She didn't know what to do about the body, though. If Hibiki was okay with answering some questions elsewhere, Blair was totally for that. But if he wasn't, she was going to go straight back to class and claim she never saw anything. If that's what it took for her to get her life back to normal, it was pretty worth it.

"So what do we do with this sack of spoiled meat?"

[Kamikawa Hibiki]

Well, that had gone about as well as it could have gone. Blair had avoided going into shock and either passing out or dying, so that counted as a win in Hibiki’s book. Well, maybe a win was a bit of a strong choice of words. It wasn’t a complete loss. Hell, Blair wasn’t even at a complete loss for words. She seemed to be handling this whole thing pretty well all things considered. She was coherent, rational, and able to make informed judgments. Weird. It was almost like this wasn’t the first time she’d been through something like this. Hibiki wondered to himself about what other kinds of encounters with the occult this girl had gone through.

He had to admit though, he got a good laugh out of her thinking he was going to try to sell her drugs, and her threat to call the police. Technically speaking, he was actually employed by the police right now, and none of them could see his real body, so any hopes of getting him arrested were basically squat. Selling drugs was also, technically, kinda his job. He usually did sell them since Shinigami had socialized healthcare… but he did write an awful lot of prescriptions. In a twisted kind of way, you could argue that he was in fact a drug dealer, just not the kind that sold things like heroin. Then again… Cloud Nine was a thing, but that was neither here nor there.

Once more he got a bit of a chuckle out of how she interacted with him. He had offered a handshake, and she took it, but she also played with his hand a bit in a way that didn’t go unnoticed to him. She pinched and pulled at it, as if she had struggled to believe it was actually real flesh and blood. Well, even if this wasn’t her first experience with the afterlife at all, it did appear to be her first time reaching out and touching it. Honestly, the whole thing was a bit awkward for him, but at this point he just had to do his duty. The medical examinering could wait for later.

Right now he had a more important duty to take care of. Now that he’d confirmed this human had spiritual potential, he had to ensure she was given the proper tools to fight off the inevitable threats that would come after her. Reiatsu attracted all sorts of nasty characters. Hollows wanted to eat you. Vandenreich wanted to recruit you. Xcution wanted to recruit you too. Basically it meant that sooner or later, this kid was going to have to deal with what she was, and Hibiki wanted her to be prepared in case the next encounter she had was with someone or something that decided she was better off dead.

Most of what she had said and did hadn’t really left and major impact on Hibiki, but then she referred to the corpse as a spoiled sack of meat, and that rubbed him the wrong way. ”That’s no way to talk about the recently deceased. Until a moment ago, that was one of your classmates. Chappy there,” he pointed to his gigai, ”Will take care of securing the area, documenting everything, and getting the body back to HQ. In a slightly exasperated tone, Hibiki continued on. ”And we will go somewhere more private to continue this conversation Blair.” He let the student take the lead, as she obviously knew the building better than he did.

Once they were wherever Blair had decided to lead them to, Hibiki just kinda kicked back and waited for her questioning to start. Obviously she was going to be full of them, given everything that had just happened, and she’d wanted to move to a more private location to have a conversation with a ghost. That all made perfect sense to him. This wasn’t his first time that he’d have to have a conversation about the afterlife with someone, though the number of times he’d done that with someone still alive was certainly far lower than the number of times he’d had to tell people they were dead. Both of them were awkward conversations for sure, but this one was probably the worse of the two.

What kind of questions would she have for him? Would she ask about the spiritual worlds and what he did on a day to day basis? Did she even care about the mundane details of the afterlife? Would she ask him what God was like, or if the devil was the real deal? Maybe she’d just want to know about the monsters that lived under her bed, in her closet, or in her head? Metallica lyrics aside, he didn’t actually know what all she’d want to know, but she seemed to be pretty determined, so if he just sat back and let her interrogate him, then he could at least supply the answers she wanted.

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

Blair glanced down at the body. Hibiki wasn't wrong. This guy definitely was a classmate until recently, though she shared no classes with him. In fact, she didn't even know his name. For the most part, she kept to herself. She had a few friends here and there but she didn't really interact with that many people. She preferred to stay at home and be lazy, if she had to be honest. Nothing was more fun than sitting on her couch playing games or staying in her room on her computer. She had some family time and was willing to go out and do things, like maybe shop or whatever, but she wasn't super talkative for the most part.

Still, that didn't necessarily mean she needed to be disrespectful. Hibiki had a point there and it made Blair feel bad. The only reason she was even handling this so well was because she kind of pushed the fact that he was dead aside. At first, yes, she was relatively freaked out. But she was more concerned with trying to get out of there. She wanted to save her own skin and get away from Hibiki because she didn't know him. Unfortunately, she was stuck there. Then once he was split from his body and sent the boy's soul away, all she became was curious. She'd never seen that before in her life.

She was also probably messing things up for him. If this was his actual job, she wasn't helping very much. In fact, she was likely ruining it for him. Blair's gaze reached the floor as her head lowered a bit submissively. She was sorry about this whole mess. She wasn't going to be very helpful to this guy either way because she was nothing special, and he likely knew that. What she was to him, though, was a burden. She was just blocking him from finishing up here and going home. And, worst of all, she probably got him in trouble. Even if he wasn't yet, she assumed he'd just get yelled at in the end. That wasn't fun.

Blair sighed a bit and nodded. She felt guilty but there wasn't much she could do about that anymore. She motioned for Hibiki to follow her as she led him to an empty clubroom. They had to go down two flights of stairs to reach it, but no one ever used it. Once they got to the door, Blair opened it and showed him the piles of boxes on shelves. Since it wasn't used for clubs, it was basically a storage unit for the rest of the school. It was private, too. Blair never saw anyone come in here even once unless they were grabbing a box, which was never. Well, maybe once or twice, but only ever during festivals, and basically not very often.

"Okay. I guess what my question is might be... Does death hurt? Is there a heaven? Why don't we know about this? Is God real? Is everything in the bible true? Why do Catholics hate gays? Why do a lot of religions hate gays? Why would God hate gays if he supposedly made them? Did you die? Did it hurt? Do you know when I'll die? Will I have my memories of my current life? This is both scary and somewhat relieving. I can feel my fear of death withering away. How old are you?" She asked.

Blair had to catch her breath for a moment before she sat herself down. She was slightly hysterical because she was genuinely curious about this whole thing, but she also didn't want to overwhelm Hibiki. It was probably too late for that. She was more than likely just causing him more stress. Great! She was stressful towards him and a total mess. Wonderful. Everything was going so well. Maybe he'd be able to answer her questions, maybe not, but she'd see how it went. Until then, she was going to take a deep breath and try to calm down. She eventually found it in her heart to be able to look at Hibiki again.

"What am I?"

[Kamikawa Hibiki]

Sure enough, Blair led him down to a storage room where she could safely talk to a ghost without anyone thinking she needed to go take some antipsychotics. That part went smoothly enough, but then the game of twenty questions began, and it was genuinely close to that many of them. Thankfully, the answers were relatively easy for him on most of them. ”Wooh, that’s a lot of them, so sorry if I miss one. The first one is a rather personal one. It depends on how you die really. They say that you don’t feel anything if you go quickly or if you’re asleep, and that much is true. If you ever see someone suffering on the edge of death, sometimes it’s just nicer to end the suffering.”

He hung his head for a moment after that one, as flashbacks from his time alive came to haunt him. Hibiki had been a soldier in World War Two, and that meant that, believe it or not, he didn’t see a ton of death and suffering. He had only been in one battle before he got himself killed, but he saw flashes of that battlefield in his mind for a brief moment. ”On a brighter note, there is a Heaven, and a Hell. Heaven’s actually called Soul Society, though Hell is in fact called Hell. As God, he prefers the name Soul King. Rather pretentious if you ask me given that he never shows up to do anything, and just sends us minions instead.

As for why you don’t know this, the simple answer is that most people would never believe it, even if there was some kind of worldwide phenomenon that proved our existence logically, people would still deny it. I say this including my comrades, but people are stupid. A person can be start, but people are stupid en masse. No matter how many we tell, the world at large will never believe we exist. It’s better that way though. No sense in them worrying about things they can’t control. The bible, Catholics, and all the rest of the religions are less about a God, and more about a moral code they want to force on others for whatever reason. Sometimes its for the right reason, and sometimes it’s not.

As far as I’m aware, most of the anti-gay shit that they pull is because they actually like little boys, and they’re just projecting their sins outward. As far as the truth goes, the Soul King didn’t make anyone. He’s a king, not an all powerful creator. He is the highest authority we answer to, but he didn’t create all life. That’s what sex is for. Use a condom, not prayer, if you don’t want babies.” He paused to take a breath. There was a lot on her mind, and he couldn’t really blame her, but damn there was a lot of questions to get through. Hopefully he was giving her enough to satisfy her curiosity. If he was lucky, she could get her fill, and then move on to focusing on more important things.

Time to continue he figured. ”As for me, I got myself killed back in World War Two. Barely saw a hint of combat before I got gunned down in an invasion. It didn’t last long enough for me to feel anything. As for you? No clue when you’ll die. Hopefully not for another sixty or seventy years if you’re lucky. The memories question I have to give you a big fat maybe on. Some people keep their memories completely. Some get fragments. Some don’t remember a thing. As of this last March, I’m 96 years old.” Oof. That had been an awful lot for him to get out, but now he was down to one last question that was far harder to answer then the rest.

"What am I?"

”You are a Fullbringer. At some point, your mother likely survived an attack by the monsters that my people fight: Hollows. Some of their energy lingered on your mother, and was transferred into you when you were born. That power has given you the ability to see ghosts, like myself, and it will also, unfortunately, make you a target. Those with power are tastier to Hollows. That’s why I want to teach you enough that you can survive against them. I’m not a Fullbringer, and I never was, but now that I know you exist I don’t want to leave you hanging without at least knowing some of the basics of spiritual self defense. Knowing everything I’ve told you to be the truth as I know it, are you willing to learn? If you would prefer, you can pretend this never happened and leave, but I would feel a lot better if I helped you get some of the skills you’ll need to survive against the Hollows that may come for you one day.”

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

All of this was so much to take it. Blair had no idea what to do with this information. She sat on a chair in the storage room and lowered her head to the desk so quickly that a loud thud was heard. How was she supposed to hear all of this information and then blindly accept it? She knew she wasn't normal, and that much was purely evident. But at the same time, she really hoped that she wasn't a weirdo like how she felt. And she definitely felt weird. She had no idea what a Fullbringer was! And how did she never know that her mother was attacked by a Hollow? This information has never come up in conversation before.

It's possible that it wasn't something she wanted to remember. There were major events that happened to everyone that they didn't want to remember, so those memories were ultimately repressed. She wouldn't be shocked if this was the case for her mother, of course, but it still left questions that needed to be answered. Nothing was making sense. Things were jumbling together in her head and she was starting to feel a headache. What did this word even mean? Fullbringer? That was so strange. So, what? She was like some kind of magical girl? Was that what he was talking about?

"And what do you mean by me being a target? I haven't done anything wrong! I don't want this!"

She got up and started pacing the small room. She was mumbling incomprehensible words to herself that Hibiki likely wouldn't catch. This was her version of coping. All of this was a bit much to take, though she was thankful that he had answered some of her other questions, as well. Unfortunately, her eased soul started to writhe again. She was wondering if this was a dream or if everything he said was a lie. Who knew, really? What mattered more was that this was her reality. Blair pinched her skin and winced a bit when she realized it did actually hurt and she wasn't dreaming.

"Awesome. So now I have a ghost talking to me and I have to try to make sense of it all. This isn't exactly my idea of a perfect day."

Blair didn't know what to do or say. She was kind of stuck. Most of this was interesting, but the rest of it was absolutely terrifying. Hibiki was acting rather calm, so the only assumption Blair could make was that he's seen things like these before. Was he used to a human who was so dreadfully weak like this one? Was she a burden to him at this point? The answers to those questions were likely a big, fat 'yes,' though she didn't want to think about it. She sighed. So now she had to deal with the impending knowledge that she was bound to die because of a pissed off person or Hollow thing that wanted to eat her. Lovely!

[Kamikawa Hibiki]

Hibiki let out a light sigh when he heard Blair’s reaction to his answers. His policy was to tell the truth whenever he could, but sometimes the truth was painful. That was the case this time. There wasn’t really anything that he could do to make it less so. The life of a spiritually aware human only could go two ways. They could become strong enough to defend themselves, or they could eventually be eaten by a Hollow. Soul Society simply did not have the manpower to protect all of them all of the time. He wished that they did, but especially after the last few invasions, the Gotei 13 was sorely lacking in terms of bodies.

He approached Blair and pulled her into a gentle hug. ”I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I can’t change the hand that fate dealt you. All I can do is try to help you survive it.” he released her from the embrace, and returned to a more appropriate conversational distance. ”I know it’s a lot to take in, but that’s how things are. The power that lets you see the ghosts makes you more attractive to the monsters, but it can also be harnessed to defend yourself against them.” He wasn’t the world’s best when it came to inspiration speeches about “this is how you don’t die.” Last time he tried one, he probably traumatized poor Raygin.

Instead, he tried to share some more positive news. There were plenty of things that Blair didn’t know about, but they weren’t all bad. Hell, a lot of the things about the afterlife were actually downright neat, or at very least they weren’t bad. ”If push comes to shove, there are at least a few safe havens here in Karakura. Us Shinigami patrol the area pretty regularly since there’s a lot that happens in this city, but it’s not just us. I know of at least one other Fullbringer in this town. Yoko Kusanagi. She works at Uzaki Enterprises. I fought her a long time ago, and she’s pretty crazy strong, even compared to me. If you go visit her, she could definitely help keep you safe.

On the other side of town, there’s also my girlfriend. It’s the big manor on the hill on the outskirts of downtown. Only one like it. You can’t miss it. If you ever get in trouble on that side of town, just go ask Asuka for help and she’ll send the bad guys packing.” He had offered Blair the resources that he had available in terms of other people, even at the risk of naming names that he really shouldn’t have. Amaya had been the one to fight with Yoko, not him. If Blair name dropped Hibiki, then Yoko would be near clueless as to who that was. Still though, the healer was confident that Yoko wouldn’t turn down a Fullbringer in need of protection.

Then there was Asuka. The Segunda Espada had taken up a residence in town, and was always eager for more friends. Of course that relationship was probably still a court martial-able offense, but Blair wasn’t exactly the Central 46. She wouldn’t really be able to get him in trouble for that. Besides, protecting innocents was more important than protecting himself on something like this. Asuka was pretty much the strongest person that Hibiki knew was still around too. If she couldn’t keep Blair safe, then no one could. And besides, Asuka always wanted to make new friends! She’d probably love having someone like Blair stop by and hang out. Hibiki really admired that carefree yet compassionate nature of hers.

But still, he couldn’t just pawn her off on his girlfriend or some random human. ”Still though, I know it’s hard, but I really want to make sure you learn some basic self defense. Do you have a place we can go with a bit more room to spread out? A karate club dojo or something maybe? I know it’s hard, and I’ll go as slow as you need me to, but I want to make sure I don’t leave you empty handed in a time of need.” He had tried quite hard to be gentle, but he was quite convinced that Blair needed to at least learn the basics. He couldn’t teach her Fullbringer specific techniques, but he could at least show her the way to utilize reiatsu on a very basic level. It would be enough to prime her towards unlocking her abilities, and maybe enough to keep her safe… he hoped.

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

She was a little shocked by the embrace. It wasn't necessarily unwelcome, but she didn't expect it. She was too concerned about herself and her own inner turmoil to really focus on anything else. He told her that she would eventually develop powers of her own one day. That would be really cool if it wasn't for the fact that she didn't want it. Her childhood had been both wonderful and full of sorrow at the same time. Perhaps it was normal for most kids, but it just hurt her emotionally. If she weren't already enough of an outcast, this just added icing to the cake. Blair wanted to cry. She wanted to shove her face into his shoulder and cry.

But he pulled away. The blonde's heart sank. Too soon did his comforting touch leave her. She knew he was a stranger, yet he calmed her down and helped her understand what was going on. She didn't want to move much at all, but she forced herself to take a few deep breaths. Regulating her breathing was a good first step. She had to be able to overcome the crushing sensation of anxiety that washed over her entire self. This was just a whole new feeling for her. Blair was freaking out with her friends about a test they had next week, but then she comes across a dead body, an even deader person, and now the truth about what she truly was.

All the talk about defending herself just got her more worked up. Blair choked on her breath a little bit when she tried to get some more air. Tears welled up in her eyes and started to fall. A hiccup escaped her lips every now and then as she desperately tried to hide her pain with complete failure. Hibiki would know how crushing this all was for her. She was going to live a safe life away from all of the craziness of those around her, but she got yanked into a spiritual world she never knew about and didn't care to. Within a few seconds, Blair succumbed to her emotions and started bawling.

Through her excessive tears, Hibiki tried to reason. He did everything he could at that moment to comfort her and try to cheer her up, but it wouldn't work the way he wanted it to. She hated the idea of having to be protected by anyone. Blair didn't like the idea of having powers, either, but at least they would give her a chance to fight back if she needed to. She just didn't want to need to fight back. She bowed her head to hide her face from the Shinigami. She didn't want him to see her. Not only was her mascara running, but he was essentially telling her that she would have to meet even more strangers if she wanted to stay safe in town ever again.

Her ears perked up along with her head when she heard his question. "A private place? Uh, no," she said between sniffles. "Not like the kind you want, anyway. But my house has a floor. Um, I mean, like for gymnastics. I practice at home after classes. It's in our basement. I don't think my parents would be able to see you if we went because they never reacted the same way I do when I see monsters. I guess you could also hide. I was probably going to pretend to be sick and go home anyway." She turned around and looked at her reflection in the window. "I sure do look the part."

While she recognized bringing a random man home was probably a mistake, this one had a girlfriend and she had decided a short while back that he probably would have killed her by now if he truly wanted to. She wiped the tears from her face and helped her mascara make even more of a mess than it already had. She didn't care anymore. Blair was trying to accept what fate had dealt her and just couldn't. She felt like she was going to throw up every time it popped into her head again. With a cough and another sniffle, she looked at Hibiki and offered for him to follow her back home.

"We can start there. My parents and sister won't be home for another five hours."

[Kamikawa Hibiki]

Hibiki, for the most part, felt helpless in this situation. He knew that there was no way he could ever do enough for Blair. She had some potential given that she could see him, but there was no way that he could provide enough support or training to actually keep her safe. Hell, he might even make it worse by helping her awaken her spiritual power, yet not having enough control to use it in combat properly. He tried to push the thoughts like that out of his head in hopes that he could forget them. At this point, she had enough power that it would only be a matter of time before the Hollows showed up.

He wanted to give her another hug. A fatherly one, but he didn’t. The healer felt awful for what he had put her through, but he knew it was the right thing at the end of the day. He offered Blair a handkerchief pulled out of one of his many pockets. ”I know it’s not much…” He looked towards the door, and gave her a moment to collect herself. ”Whenever you’re ready, let’s head there then. Take as much time as you need to prepare yourself.” The walk home was mostly silent. He didn’t want to talk in public, as then Blair would get noticed if she felt the need to reply.

Eventually the two of them reached her home, and her let the student guide him do the previously mentioned gymnastics floor. ”Yeah, this will do.” He popped down onto the floor, seiza-style. ”What I’m going to show you is the basic building block of the spiritual world. It’s best to think of this as the ghost equivalent of atoms. This…” he paused, and began to softly glow as a white aura formed around him. Little by little, the aura grew. Slowly and steadily it flowed down until it gathered in an orb in his hands. ”...is reiatsu. This is the energy that makes up my body, and the same thing that lets you see me.”

Given his lack of talent for sustaining it, as he didn’t actually know Reiatsu Orb, the thing flickered and vanished within only a dozen seconds. ”That is the energy that you can harness to keep yourself safe.” He patted the ground in front of him in a clear indication for Blair to take a seat there. ”With your kind, everyone’s power manifests in a different way. I can’t say for sure what your abilities may end up being, but I know you have enough potential in you to achieve them.” The healer took a large breath in and let it back out slowly. He repeated this several times. With each breath in, his aura shrank. With each breath out, it grew.

”Have you ever meditated before?” He waited for an answer. My people see it as an essential step to finding yourself and learning of your power. He didn't dare get into things like Zanpakuto Spirits or any of that yet. That was way too advanced, and would just serve to confuse her. He didn’t even want to use the word Jinzen. ”I want to start with just this simple breathing exercise. Deep breaths, in and out, just as I did. With each breath out, I want you to feel the energy as it naturally leaves your body. With each breath in, I want you to feel the energy, the reiatsu, all around you as you draw it back in.”

For now he was mostly content to just watch Blair, and see how she held up. He didn’t want to push too fast, and he didn’t honestly expect her to make any progress just yet. If anything, he expected her to be frustrated and think this was dumb. That’s what a lot of humans did on the first time… not that he’d been through this all that many times before. Still, he was hopeful that she’d get it. Maybe she’d be some kinda prodigy or something. Either way, the breathing exercises should help her to calm down if nothing else, just by giving her something to focus on. Even if she didn’t achieve the perfect result, it might help her to relax a bit, and that would help with further training.

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

Blair had been crying almost the entire way home. She didn't want to think about what had just been told to her only moments before. She hated thinking about it now. Everything Hibiki was saying just broke her heart. Was she the only one in her entire family who was like this? That may have been the case this entire time. She was the only one for so long who actually saw people like Hibiki. No one else did, to her knowledge. Yet he was saying people did? Where were they? How would she know they existed? Finding them was going to be impossible. As if she didn't feel alone enough before, she did now.

Hibiki sat himself on the floor and Blair soon followed, sitting with her legs crossed just three feet in front of him. She listened and held her breath a couple of times as she tried to subdue her crying. It wasn't helping much, but she couldn't allow herself to keep sobbing. Not in front of Hibiki. It was just embarrassing. But she was upset! How could she not be? Her world was changing. But Hibiki was here trying to teach her. That was okay, at least. He didn't seem to be too bothered by her negativity. So at this point, all she could do was follow his instructions. That, and be amazed at what he could create.

The small ball of white light was fascinating. What did he call it? Reiatsu? That was pretty cool. Wasn't it a fantasy for a lot of kids to have super powers? If that was basically what she had, or would eventually have, then that'd be fine. It's not something she was going to have a super awesome time coping with, but perhaps this would help. If this stuff was truly going to keep her safe, maybe it was worth learning about. All she had was time, apparently. Time and the motivation to live. Those two things were enough to keep her attention and stop her crying. They didn't stop her sadness, but time would at least help with that.

”With your kind, everyone’s power manifests in a different way. I can’t say for sure what your abilities may end up being, but I know you have enough potential in you to achieve them.”

"My kind? So there are more people like me?"

Fascinating. He had probably mentioned something already about this, but Blair probably wasn't listening. Frankly, she didn't want to at the time. She was too focused on her own despair to deal with any other relieving emotions. In regards to his question about meditation, Blair simply nodded. She'd heard about it. She didn't really practice it, though. The most she did was related to yoga, but that was mostly just for fun and she typically used it to rest her eyes rather than actually meditate. She could do deep breaths, though. Or at least try it. What was there to lose, right?

So she followed Hibiki's instructions. She breathed in and out, focusing on whatever spiritual energy she had. She didn't feel any of it at all and had no idea what it looked like, but she was going to try it anyway. All she started feeling was tired. She heard nothing because of where they were, but she tried as much as she could. Despite the effort, nothing happened. Not to her knowledge. She didn't think she was actually very good at this meditating stuff. Trying to focus on her Reiatsu or whatever it was seemed impossible. Blair growled in frustration, shouted angrily to be dramatic, and fell backwards onto the ground with her arms and legs out like a star.

"Hibiki, I can't do this stuff! You make it look so easy! I'm just a useless human who doesn't know how to do anything. I'm not a Fullbringer!"

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

Due to the inactivity, I'm going to go ahead and report this for grading!