Crossing Paths [Amon]

[Munemasa Iroka]

Rukongai was practically much the same as Iroka remembered it, before she had left her parent's lab to join the Shin'ou Academy and become a Shinigami. Iroka had decided, on this bright and sunny day, to attempt to return to the place of her birth, in the hopes that the place would help her probably gain more knowledge about who she really was. As one moved further away from the gates of Seireitei, it got worse and worse. Why was this so? While Iroka believed that the Shinigami had a responsibility to protect Seireitei, and were probably doing their jobs, based on the appearances of the closest districts to the Court of Pure Souls, she wondered if all of Rukongai could be just as pristine as the first districts. Probably unlikely, due to the size of Rukongai. As things stood, the entirety of the place had not even been mapped out.

It was in times like this that Iroka understood her parent's desire to create a mass-producible soldier for the Gotei 13. With a lot more soldiers, it was very likely that Seireitei would be able to police the places and people of Rukongai more effectively. But would the people themselves want that? Iroka was sure that a good number would, but the pragmatic part of her brain informed her that things were not so simple. If everyone wanted to be under Seireitei management, they would have simply attempted to migrate from the slummier areas. While Iroka was sure that some people desired, but were unable to do so, she also knew that others preferred to live the rough life, with no rules and no laws.

A tug at the hem of her clothes caught her attention, bringing her gaze to that of a dirty little child looking up expectantly at her. Iroka initially wondered why the child had not avoided her, seeing as people seemed to be quite averse to Shinigami from around the forty-somethingth districts upwards. But then the orange-haired Shinigami remembered that she had chosen not to dress as a Shinigami on her foray to Rukongai. She was dressed in a light blue yukata, although she had shortened its hem in order to deal with overheating. She had also not taken her zanpakutou along. Maybe that was not smart... but then she presently didn't have any real use for it, as she relied on hakuda and kidou to fight, and had not even gotten to being able to interact with the spirit which was said to be in the soul of every Shinigami.

Oh yes, the child. "Uh, are you lost?" Iroka asked, wondering how normal people reacted to strange children they met on the road. "Do you want some money?" The child's eyes widened, and she nodded eagerly. Iroka fished for her purse hidden in her obi, and gave the child a few coins. The child looked ecstatic, and ran off, but paused after a while, seemed to ruminate on something, and then turned back to Iroka, beckoning at her to follow. Then the little girl was off running again. "Not so fast," Iroka called out hurrying after her, "these geta aren't meant for running!"

Round a bend, and the child was gone. What a feisty little one. After searching for her to no avail, Iroka turned to return to her journey, when she saw her path blocked by two shady-looking fellows. There were three other people approaching her, and blocking all the exits to the alley in which she was. Being the person she was, Iroka gave no thought to them, and simply tried to walk past one of the two shady people, who pushed her back roughly. "Uh, hajimemashite," she said cheerily. "Do I know you guys?" The approaching men paused, and looked at her like she had two heads. Then they resumed their approach. A second attempt to pass was met with an even rougher push. "Do you want some money?" she asked again. People really did seem to like money a lot, so maybe that would work.


"Yeah," the man who looked to be their leader said, "all your money... and maybe something extra." Why they all seemed to find that last statement funny, Iroka had no idea. But she was not particularly liking this interaction. Presently, her back was to a wall, and the leader of the ruffians was annoyingly close. Suddenly, the man slapped the wall beside her head, keeping his hand on the wall as he leered at the Shinigami. If he was expecting a reaction, he was disappointed. Iroka just stared at him curiously, wondering what he was trying to do. Then she said, "At this distance, did you know I could knee you in the family jewels and you wouldn't have any defense against that?" The man seemed to realize this was true, and tried to adjust himself to not be so open to the called attack. But he and the rest of his gang were now giving her weird looks. "What?" she asked. "Did I say something wrong?"

[Amon]

Rukongai was a place of trauma for all souls who have lived or existed in the most latter numbers of the district. For Amon and Karish, the place represented a new beginning, from the trauma they experienced as a soul. While they would never find themselves venturing to this area much, the pair would come back. They were finally starting their adventure as unseated shinigami. But, Amon felt like he had some sort of connection to the place they came from. And if they were to achieve their goals, they needed to understand the beginning. And for them, the beginning would help them understand their journey to their ultimate goal. 

As they left Seireitei and went to Rukongai, Karish guided Amon through the streets as they remembered. Karish seemed to know exactly where they were going, but Amon had no idea. For some reason, Amon knew that if he followed Karish, they would go to the place they are supposed to go. It was this unspoken bond that allowed them to survive in the most dangerous of districts in Rukongai. When Karish appeared, Amon instinctively knew that this was the creature who was going to be with him through thick-and-thin. As such, this was the main reason why Amon followed Karish without question. He felt that their bond was unbreakable. 

While following the tiny shark, Amon saw that Karish pepped up a bit. They were in a dangerous part of Rukongai, of course. Anytime the shark gets angry, Karish felt an inner predatory instinct to kill whatever Karish was angry at. They were at a tiny alleyway when Karish looked down the corridor. The shark momentarily disappeared, swimming through the Rukongai air as fast as it could towards the scene. Amon had no idea what was going on, but he sped forward, rushing to catch the tiny shark. As a shinigami, he did have some standards to uphold, but it seems that Karish forgot those standards... even though they both learned them in the classes they were in at the academy. 

GRRRR could be heard down the alley as the tiny shark started coming closer to what was a group of people and a woman. The situation did seem dire, as the woman was surrounded by the men, but she could not see the tiny shark charging. The men, however, did. And that was of course, the moment Amon stepped onto the scene, with his sword beckoning towards the men, with Karish alongside him.

"Leave..." Amon said, his thick middle eastern accent ringing through the alleyway. The tiny shark next to him kept growling, both trying to force the bad guys away from the woman. To Karish, it was clear this was a gang-up, and having been witness to this as they were both growing up in Rukongai, they both knew the only option here was to fight. Which is why Amon brandished his blade, and Karish... brandished his teeth.

SPOILER: Click to show

[Munemasa Iroka]

Iroka was really hoping these weird guys would specify their reasons for delaying her, when the sound of growling was suddenly heard from down the alley. All eyes turned to behold the newcomer with drawn sword, obviously hostile. But to whom he was being hostile was sadly lost on the orange-haired Shinigami. In any case, the lowlifes refused to heed the stranger's warning, instead preparing themselves to fight. "Ah, shouldn't we be leaving then?" Iroka asked the apparent leader of the toughs. "That fellow did say we should, and it's not safe to antagonize people with swords."

There was another pause, as the men exchanged strange looks. To someone who was used to the nuances of human interaction, the looks spoke a single message: this is a mad one indeed. But to Iroka, she had absolutely no idea what they meant, looking at each other like that. Maybe they were trying to think of how to deal with the stranger with the sword. But what had been making the growling sound, all this while? It was certainly not him. And then Iroka saw the floating shark. Her eyes slowly widened, as a look of excitement registered on her face.

"Ara ara, but what is that interesting specimen?" she asked, apparently forgetting that there were thugs surrounding her, and taking steps towards the growling shark. The leader of the thugs grabbed her hair and pulled her back, pushing her roughly against the wall. "What's the matter? Is it dangerous?" she asked him, obviously confused. He made no answer, turning his hostile gaze back to the sword-wielding man. The girl was obviously mad, according to the thugs, but she was not the danger here.

"Hey, hero wannabe," the thug leader said, trying to look as menacing as possible, as he took a step forward. "You wanna be careful how you go tangoing with us here. And if you think your butter knife or goldfish will be able to--" His words were suddenly cut short, as his face turned purple, before he grabbed at his crotch and crumpled to the dusty ground, a look of pure agony on his face. "See?" Iroka said in a chiding tone, "just as I had warned you. When about getting into a fight, never leave your valuables unprotected."

The thug closest to her turned to look at her, shock and confusion on his face. "You bitch! What did you do?" he asked both angrily and frightened. "What did I do?!" Iroka asked, shock and confusion evident on her face as well. "I didn't kick him that hard... I think...." It would be clear that these thugs were more like pack animals: they looked to their leader for direction and purpose. Once he was taken out, coordinating would be difficult for them. Unless the rest of them still thought they perhaps had a chance to still make profit of their present situation.

"Look, he's only one," another of the thugs said. "That sword is probably just for show. If we throw stones at his fish, it should run away. Three of us can take him. One of us will watch the loony bitch." As the three thugs began trying to circle the sword-wielding stranger, while looking for sticks and stones to wield against him, Iroka softly tapped the fellow supposed to be watching her, who was currently viewing his colleagues' affairs with interest. "Um, excuse me, but I did some counting and the numbers don't seem to add up. Who's the loony bitch?"

[Kitai Yoru]

17 paragraphs, 80 TP awarded