Lost in the Rain - Joint Training Thread - R

[Deleted]

Such a heavy rain, so much so it easily washed away the blood. It was cool to the skin, lowering the swordsman's temperature as it struck his body. The mans head was pointed towards the sky, mouth open wide as loud animal like gasps for breath escaped from his agape mouth. The mans body was covered in a mixture of red and purple blood, streaking down the mountain of meat in various little streams. Held in his right hand was a sword of gargantuan size, it too being washed clean of the grim and filth of the battle. Lowering his head the mans single eye focused on what stood before him, an intense flame of anger clearly visible in that single eye. His teeth grit together with such force it created a clearly audible sound.

Surrounding the swordsman were the corpses of monsters of various shapes and sizes. Each of their faces were adorned with a unique white mask, though now those masks had massive wound within them. These Hollows were the ones that came for this man the night before and had suffered the same fate their kind suffered all the past nights. The night had ended, therefore the battle should have been over. But, standing before Garret, was a single Hollow that he had yet slain. The swordsman growled, gripping his greatsword in both his hands yet again and raising it.

The Hollow across from him returned the growl, raising its second pair of arms above its head. The creatures shape was that of some ape, walking upon its knuckles with its first set of arms and attacking with the second. It was an interesting tactic, one that had allowed it to remain alive for so long while Garret had been preoccupied with the others. But now that it was the only one remaining, how long could it survive? Garret slid his left leg forward, bringing his sword to abdomen level and pointing it behind him.

"Your smell is gone...why is it gone...where did it go? Why don't you smell delicious anymore? Where did the smell go??" The Hollow screeched, slamming one fist after another into the ground as it rapidly approached Garret. The swordsman stood his ground, taking in a sharp breath through his nose and focusing his strength into his arms. The muscles beneath his skin increased in size, bulging outwards and pushing the veins against the skin. Focusing his power into his arms he prepared as the Hollow approached, its screeching filling the air as it began to reach for Garret.

The man roared as well. As his roar drowned the Hollows out he swung, releasing an unseeable force from his sword which flew through the air separating the man and beast. The force collided with the Hollows right arm, above the elbow slightly, and exploded. The Hollow howled in pain as its arm was blown off from Garrets shockwave, stumbling to its left as it was overcome with pain. Not yet! Garret rushed forward as the Hollow was distracted, sword brought back to his left. His goal was to get beneath it, carve out its left arm and leave it with the two arms sprouting from its back.

The Hollow noticed him as he approached, quickly opening its mouth and pointing it towards the swordsman. At first a gurgling sounds escaped its throat, quickly followed by a explosion of yellow liquid being sprayed into the air. Garrets eye widened, jumping to the side as the liquid collided with where he had been. He didn't stay to watch, but the liquid was in fact a powerful acid that began to eat into the earth. Garret, having jumped to the left, was approaching now from the Hollows injured side. The creature quickly turned, bringing down its upper right arm in an attempt to crush the swordsman.

However, the Hollow didn't realize how bad of an idea this was. The man swung upwards towards the oncoming fist, his sword ripping through the fist and spraying the beasts purple blood into the rain. No, not just blood, but thick fingers as well. The Hollow roared once more, jumping backwards in an attempt to gain distance. "You!! I'll melt you!! It hollered in defiance, its throat bulging suddenly as it began to prepare a much large spray of acid. Garret made a "tch" sound as he began to prepare yet another swing. If this thing was spraying liquid, then it meant Garret could blow it away.

"Do it then!" Garret roared. The flames demanded more. They demanded more food. Garret would feed those flames This Hollow would be their food. It made that gurgling sound, signaling it was preparing to spray. Garret roared once more, the muscles in his arms bulging as he prepared yet another shockwave. It spewed its acid once again, to which Garret responded by swinging his sword overhead. The force released from his blade flew true, striking the acidic vomit and exploding. It was pushed away from the swordsman, much to the Hollows surprise. Garret dashed forward, sword held over his head and pointed behind him.

The Hollow noticed too late, for using such a large amount of fluid had stunned it temporarily. Garret roared as he swung downwards, his blade carving directly into its mask and body. Ripping through its body it slammed into the earth, creating a crater which was soon filled with the monsters blood and guts. Breathing heavily, Garret stared into the gore, his eye trembling as the flames demanded more. It's not enough closing his eye he took a breath, pulling his sword from the puddle of gore and swinging it, splattering what remained on his sword against the rocks.

Pulling it behind him he attached the chain link on his sword to the hook on the back of clothes. Draping his cloak around him to keep warm he began to walk. Away he walked from that battlefield, not looking back to see what he had done. Fourteen Hollows lay there in that field, disintegrating into black particles that rose up into the air slowly. Pulling the hood over his head he resumed his walking, aiming to find some shelter from the rain if even temporary. It was coming down hard, incredibly hard. So much so it was getting difficult to see through the curtain. It was getting cold as well, so much so Garret could possibly get ill.

So he resumed walking, hoping to find something or anything. He had been fighting in a field, as he always had been, near the base of a mountain. Garret was heading up that mountain now, hoping to find some sort of refuge from the rain. The ear piercing cry of thunder roared through the sky, signaling that this storm was going to get worse. Garret hurried his pace, not wanting to be caught out in a thunderstorm. But as he walked he also thought. He was thinking of the last couple nights, of the Hollows he fought in particular.

They can talk...and have powers of their own... It had been something he had been noticing of recent. Hollows with powers as unique as their masks. It had been why the recent nights had been hard, as Garret was often taken by surprise by these powers. They were still weak, but had enough strength to injure him. This night had been easier, but none the less it meant a couple of things. Garrets curse, his Osen, was getting stronger. And so where the Hollows. It meant that his Curse was getting stronger while he was only struggling along behind it. How could he get stronger?

Garrets feet touched even ground, though he noticed that ground here was different than before. It was black, with a yellow line running through its center. It took him a moment to realize this was a road of sorts, one he had seen before. The one that the horseless chariots road upon, the ones with lights and produced sounds. Looking to his right and left Garret spotted something. It wasn't a cozy cabin with warm food, but it looked dry. Walking across the road Garret stepped into the cave. It was rather spacious, actually.

Garret walked a few feet into it, noting how dry it was. Dropping his travel bag onto the ground he unhooked his sword, resting himself against it as he laid it down horizontally. He wrapped himself in his cloak, content to spend some time here while he rested from his battle. A lone swordsman in a cave, it seemed to be the beginning of some story almost. He closed his eye, content to get some rest and allowing the sound of rain and thunder to lull him to sleep. He was able to rest his eyes for a few moments until the sounds of footsteps caught his attention. Opening his eye the hooded individual turned his head slightly, getting a glimpse at whoever it was approaching him.

"Go away."

[Jo Veil]

Rainy nights like this one could often be considered peaceful, and in their own way beautiful. Indeed, there was probably a significant portion of people who had warm, happy memories of storms like this one. The soft patter of rain on a rooftop, the inevitable smell of wet leaves the following morning, the blooms that would eventually appear.... Yes, all of these were things to like about the rain.

"Fuck those stupid incompetent half-breeds, fuck the Hollows, and most of all, fuck this rain! This mud is going to take ages to clean out of my outfit! And I don't even want to think about how much I'll be sloshing around later. I will fucking flatten whatever idiot who though it was a good idea to send the cyborg into the god-damn deluge to track down some idiot who can't even bait Hollows properly!"

.... So long as you weren't out in it, like one particularly ill-tempered Vandenreich Lieutenant. Jo was clomping through the mud and muck brought on by the storm, audibly complaining about the storm. She knew that the only reason she had been sent out here was because the half-breed in charge of her detail, who was and utter moron, had decided to send her out to check in on the unexpected trail of Hollow Bait that was appearing throughout the wilderness. After all, it wasn't like anyone who wasn't a Quincy would even think to use the stuff, what with the bleeding hearts among Shinigami, the lack of ability to make it among Fullbringers, and... Well, Arrancar just didn't need to.

It was while she was complaining that the woman felt the Hollow energy. It was like getting a mouthful of acid, marinated in shit and seasoned with motor oil. In other words, slimy and putrid, with just a little bit of hurtful tang. This only prompted another string of swears from the woman before she focused her mind and concealed her energy. After all, no point in closing in while constantly ringing the dinner bell.

But she felt something else odd while she was approaching. The Hollows were winking out, one by one. Something was killing them, of that there was no doubt. Probably another Quincy, more likely than not. Welp, if he was so intent on killing Hollows, good on them! Maybe they'd be open to a Vandenreich invitation as well. Or, you know, an "invitation." All that was left was to simply track down this mystery Quincy, and have a little chat.

And so the cyborg followed the last remaining energy signature when all was said and done, eventually coming to a garage. Inside was a hooded man with a sword that practically screamed "I AM COMPENSATING FOR A SMALL PENIS." It seemed he was trying to go to sleep, but Jo's clunky footsteps had interrupted that process. She would put her hands on her hips and strike an indignant pose when the man uttered his "go away."

"Well fine then! I'll just take my random solicitation for garage sex elsewhere!" the Quincy would say, her slightly mechanical voice reverberating within the garage. "I mean, you don't even have the courtesy to let someone stand in here to get out of the rain for a bit. Rude much?"

[Deleted]

Garret blinked, not one hundred percent sure how to respond to what was just said to him. During his time alive Garret had not spent much time in or around the brothels, unlike his Uncle. During that time sex was a leisure that Garret couldn't afford, needing all the time that wasn't occupied with battle for training. Life as a mercenary wasn't easy, that was for sure. His body still bore the scars of the multiple weapons that had impaled his back, the ones that ended his life. The night that Garret slain all those men in rage over his Uncles death. Where was his Uncle anyways? Garret had not seen nor heard of Daurth in all his time in the Rukongai, searches for him provided no results. It saddened the warrior to think of the man who had taken him in after his parents passing.

But back to the matter at hand, Garret simply looked at the woman, the voice and speech giving it away, who was in the cave with him. One thing she said was true, Garret was being rude. He didn't own this cave, nor did he have any authority to simply tell someone to leave. His eye moved past the woman and to the mouth, looking at the gray wall that was the rain outside. She must have been like him, a wanderer who was simply seeking some refuge from the deluge outside. A cold breeze made its way into the cave, stinging at the mans partially exposed face.

"Sorry, I haven't had much rest, but you don't need my permission to stay here." Garret replied, not making any comment on what she had said earlier. It was not a topic Garret wished to touch. Him and sex, well that was just something he hadn't had in a long time. The swordsman closed his eye assuming the woman was simply going to find a seat, away from him, in the cave and let him rest. If he was going to be stuck in this cave with such a storm going on outside the best use of his time was going to be getting some sleep. The robe he wore would make for an excellent blanket to keep the warm in and the cold out.

The Rogue was unaware, though, of who and what he shared a cave with. The man knew nothing of Quincy or Vandenreich, or of most anything related to spirituality. The only things he knew were how to swing his sword and what to swing it at, that being Hollows of course. The source of the Hollow Bait that Jo had been searching for was, if she knew it, sitting right in front of her. He had nothing more to say to her right now, having spoken what was needed to be said and so was going to go to sleep.

The lullaby of the rain and the explosion of thunder was going to make excellent music for lulling the mountain of meat to sleep. For Garret, sleep was like a dish of the most delicious food that could ever be put in his mouth. It was addicting, the feeling of having a refreshed body and mind. He loved to sleep, but it was not something that came easy for him. What caused pause in his attempt to sleep was often the stress and anxiety, forcing him to stay awake or not acquire the amount of sleep he wanted. Not only that, his dreams often haunted him. Things he did not wish to remember plagued his mind, tormenting him and forcing him to be awoken once more. Plus, the fear of waking up to find himself being devoured was another fear.

His mind was also wrapped around particular thoughts right now, particularly what had happened during the night and early morning. The Hollows he had fought had powers unique to them, such so that this had been a more difficult night for the warrior. The one that regurgitated it's fluids, one that spat webbing from its legs, another that grew spikes from its body. If Hollows were capable of possessing such powers, why was it that Garret was unable to possess any as well? His fate was tied to those creatures, so what sense did it make that he would be left with no supernatural aid against them? Or, perhaps, Garrets strength came from his own physical abilities. The ability to release waves of his own strength was proof enough that Garret had something, something that he needed to develop.

[Jo Veil]

"Damn straight I don't need your permission to stay here," the Quincy would say, snorting derisively as she did so. "But getting on the good side of a man with chiseled good looks never hurts either, now does it handsome~? I mean, I bet the sword's just there to match the package..." The cyborg would giggle at that, the tittering sound eventually giving way to a hacking, phlegm-filled cough. She would eventually spit out an oily discharge at the end of the cough, and wipe her mouth off with her sleeve, grumbling as she did so.

"I hate what too much moisture does to my new lungs," she said, her tone obviously aggravated. She would grumble under her breath for a good long while before speaking out loud again. "Gets all caught up in my pumps, turning that lubricant into god-knows-what. It's a pain in my ass, is what it is! Bloody stupid Captains should have sent someone not breathing challenged to look for that damn sloppy Hollow baiter..."

The woman would pause for a moment, then turned to look at Garrett again, her one biological eye narrowing as she looked at the man. Her lips pursed as her mental wheels began to turn. Big sword, gruff demeanor, dirty clothes from maybe a lot of travel, cuts everywhere in said clothes.... The picture would eventually come together after the woman spent a full five minutes just staring at him in silence.

"YOU'RE HIM!!!! YOU'RE THE GOD-DAMN BAITER?! YOU JACKASS, DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO CLEAN UP YOUR FUCKING MESSES AND FIND YOU?!" The cyborg would throw back her hood after that, revealing her half-metal face. "I search all over this muddy dump, doing unspeakable things to my bionics, and I find my mystery bowman in a cave! Get up, and follow me. You have an appointment with Der Kaiser that's long overdue!"

[Deleted]

So it began again, the seemingly endless torrent of words that escaped from the woman's mouth. Garrets eye remained closed, determine to gather some amount of sleep even if she was to continue her ramblings. Her attempts at flirting with him fell on deaf ears, as Garret was just not receptive to flirting at all. The mans will was like a rock, not something that would be swayed by pretty words. Besides, as stated before he and sex just did not match up. The woman began rambling again, something about new lungs and lubricant, but Garret had tuned her out at this point. All the swordsman wanted to do was sleep, was that so hard to ask? Just a couple hours of sleep so that he could be ready for the next night.

But something she said though caused him to open his eye, just slightly. Oh the resistance his eyelids gave him, leaving a sort of burning sensation behind as he opened them. Gaze shifting only slightly to her feet, his face now hidden beneath his hood, Garret simply looked at her. She had mentioned that she was looking for someone. Someone who was a "sloppy Hollow baiter". That single word, Hollow, had caught his attention. Things began to come together, small gears turning in his head as she went quiet. He could grab onto his sword at any moment if he needed to, swing it through the air and carve her in two.

No, wait, he couldn't. Garret realized where he was sitting, how little space there was in this cave for a swing of his sword. Damn it, did he actually just corner himself? The woman was quiet, it seemed that she was beginning to piece things together. What could he do? Actually, there was plenty he could do. Garret was bigger than her, on top of that she looked small and frail. He no doubt had much more physical power than her. If push came to shove he could overpower her, strangle her if he needed to. Man, what was with these thoughts? Garret was suspicious. Here this woman was, broadcasting that she was searching for someone who could bait Hollows.

What did that mean? Was she in league with them? No, she couldn't be. She was human wasn't she? Why would a human align themselves with Hollows? They ate humans, no exceptions. Garrets body was tensed up, ready to spring if necessary. It was then that she started yelling, realizing that Garret was in fact the one she had been looking for. She instantly insulted him, stating that apparently he made messes that needed cleaning up. Did he? Hollows disintegrated after a few minutes of being dead, so what messes did he leave?

It was then that Jo pulled her hood back, prompting a silent intake of air from Garret. What was wrong with her face? It wasn't armor, it looked as if it was built right into her skin. What in Gods name was Garret stuck in this cave with. The swordsman was quiet, muscles tensing beneath that robe as he prepared to jump. She made no attempts at attacking him, rather continuing to shout at him. Searching for him, bionics, bowman? Garret was no archer. Sure, he had used a crossbow once or twice on horseback during his days as a living being, but was never once called a bowmen. The sword behind him should have tipped her off that he was, in fact, not a bowman.

Her last two sentences though caught his attention. Someone wanted to see him? Someone by the name of Der Kaiser? Who was that? A Shinigami? A Hollow? A freak like her? Garret had never heard the name before and sure as hell had no intentions of going with this yahoo. Jo would get to watch as Garret remained sitting, his attention pulling away from her. She didn't seem to be here to attack him, rather to fetch him like some courier. His response should have been obvious, given the fact he made no motion to stand up. He didn't have many words for her, but what he did have were right to the point.

"I refuse and you need to leave."

[Jo Veil]

Jo would stand in front of the man for a moment, a blank look of surprise on her face as she blinked a few times. She seemed genuinely shocked that the man had refused the invitation. After all, what Quincy in their right mind wouldn't want to work under Der Kaiser?! Sure, perhaps he could have some rather extreme rulings at times, and the god-complex could be aggravating, but it was better than just sitting around waiting for a Shinigami to find and kill you. There was just no good reason not to align yourself to the Vandenreich if you were a Quincy!

"What? What do you mean, no?" the Quincy would say, her tone obviously confused. "The plan is solid. He makes sure we can strike back at those Shinigami for the genocide of our people. We take control, exterminate the Hollows, break Los Noches. I don't know why you wouldn't want that! I mean, didn't your parents ever tell you what the Shinigami did to us Quincy? We didn't deserve that! But they do. I'm living proof that they do!"

[Deleted]

There she went again. She began talking again, despite his attempts to get to sleep. Garret grumbled beneath his breath, raising his head to give her a one eyed glare. She sounded confused, he wasn't quite sure why. He watched her as she devolved into rambling, talking about some sort of plan at attacking the Shinigami. His ears perked up when she mentioned exterminating the Hollows, but Garret had no intention on getting help. They were his monsters to kill, nobody else's. She then mentioned his parents, or at least some sort of belief about his parents. She also called him something, a Quincy. What was a Quincy? Garret had allowed this lunacy to go on for too long, he now needed to set this freak straight.

"The only thing about my parents I remember was them dying in a fire. A fire set upon them by our neighbors for carrying the plague."

His voice would break the silent, his eye glaring deeply into hers. He remained unmoving, still sitting there as he took the tide of the conversation. But it was true. The last thing he remembered of his parents was them pushing him from his home. He remembered the villagers surrounding his home, torches held in the air. He remembered his parents begging, explaining that Garret was not sick. He remembered being pulled into the crowd as the torches were flung through the air. He had broken through the lines, rushing towards the flames that held his parents. He would then be pulled back into the mass of bodies. He shook the memory from his head

"My parents died when I was a child, when I was alive. You seem to have me mistaken for someone I am not. I'm not this...Quincy....thing you keep referring me to."

What he had just said should have clued it in for Jo. No, not the part where he said he wasn't a Quincy. The "alive" part. Garret was not a Quincy, he was a wandering spirit. Set upon a path of battle and revenge. He was not Shinigami, simply a cursed Plus. Garret turned away from her, lowering his head again so his face was obscured by his hood. He just wanted to go to sleep, not to deal with this crazy freak anymore. He planned on letting her know this right away.

"Now, go back to fighting Shinigami or whatever it is you do. I don't have the time or the patience to entertain some abomination."

[Jo Veil]

"What?" Jo would say as she blinked a few times at the other man's response, her expression even more shocked than before. That in and of itself was an impressive feat, considering the lack of muscle on her face overall. "The hell are you talking about? Of course you're a Quincy! No one but Quincy use Hollow bait! Hell, we're the only ones who know how to make the stuff!"

She would suddenly stand up, materializing her normal bow in hand in a flash of light blue reiatsu. The bow would flicker, casting wild shadows in the inside of the cave. She then proceeded to wave it around wildly as she spoke, obviously agitated. Most people in the Vandenreich would have been immediately able to tell that this was a telltale sign of the woman's tenuous grip on reality starting to fray. Unless she calmed down soon, things were probably going to get ugly.

"See, we do things like this!" she said, her voice starting to get higher in pitch. "It's OK if you don't know what the real name is, really! Not everyone can be equally educated on how the Spiritual World works, after all! But you and I, we're Quincy! We're humans who can destroy hollows, who hold the line here in the Land of the Living! We are the purest of the pure, who refuse to sully themselves with compromise for those beasts like the Shinigami do! We're beautiful and pure and beautiful, all of us! We're not ugly, or abominations, or anything like that! That's just worthless Shinigami trash propoganda, yup! They want to persecute us for just existing, because they're jealous of how much better we are!"

Jo would begin to laugh some at this point. It was downright eerie, too. It wasn't one of those laughs that signalled good things, or a happy time. No, it was the laugh of someone who was starting to break from reality, a nervous laugh of someone trying to avoid thinking about something.

"Now then, handsome. Let's be done with this little game you're playing about not being a Quincy, and come with me. I promise, it's not some trap by those horrible Shinigami, nope. It's just a talk with a man who's pretty much a god, and what he can do to help you!"

[Deleted]

Enough was enough. Garret had told her that he was tired, that he had had enough of her presence. She just kept talking, unable to believe his claims of not being one of the Quincy. Garrets agitation was beginning to grow to a level where he was on the verge of shouting. What he wanted was sleep. What he wanted was for her to shut up. But, he didn't. Something about what she said had just clicked in his ears. It had caught his notice. She referenced Hollow Bait, claiming that it was Quincy who created the substance. A thought crept into his head, one that had no possibility of actually being true but gave him a little hope none the less. If Quincy had created the Hollow Bait, perhaps then they would know how to render Garrets curse obsolete. Or at least slow down it's rampant progression.

Jo's sudden movement caused Garrets eye to return to her, his right arm tensing up as he prepared to slam his fist into her knee. She was a frail woman, and a strike from someone like him could no doubt shatter a kneecap if she became violent. Raising her hand there was a sudden flash of light, followed by the materialization of an object shaped strongly like that of a bow. Garret recognized it immediately, his entire body now tensed up in case of an attack. If she planned to become aggressive she would soon realize the difference in their strengths. The woman would be left beaten and broken. Garret was not one to soften his blows against even women.

But instead of attacking she began talking again. Garret noticed the sudden change in the pitch of her voice. She began to sound desperate, trying to convince him of what she believed him to be. For a moment, Garret actually began to feel sorry for her. Perhaps whatever it was that had caused such deformation of her body had damaged her mind as well. Despite Garret telling her she was wrong she refused that answer, convincing herself that he was right. But, she wasn't. Garret was not a Quincy. The woman continued to ramble how the Quincy were the slayer of Hollows, how the Shinigami despised them. It was the ramblings of a mad woman.

Her laughter, though, sent a slight chill down the warrior's spine. He was a hardened veteran of battle, but that was a laugh that he recognized. It was the laughter of madness. She tried once again to convince him to come with her, to speak to a man who she considered her god. Garret needed to put an end to this. Once Jo had finished her talking, the man was quiet for a moment. The heavy rain outside the cave was the only sound, as Garret sat in silence. He was considering how much he was going to tell her. He sighed, breaking the silence between the two before slowly getting to his feet. Something Jo would instantly notice; this man was a giant.

He towered over Jo by over a foot, looking down on her as he turned to face her. Reaching above his head he grasped the hood of his cloak, pulling it back and revealing his full head to her. A mane of white hair sat upon a one eyed head. An interesting eye patch adorned his head, along with numerous small scars across his skin. "Enough." He said, his deep voice commanding both attention and silence. He was tired, he was irritated, but he was going to at least set her straight as calmly and gently as he could. If she still refused to accept it...well then he was probably going to yell. "I was unclear with what I said before, so I will explain it to you in detail so you are no longer mistaken. I am not of the Quincy. I am a wandering Spirit."

Now that he was standing up Jo would see bits of his body from beneath the cloak. A body ripped with muscle the likes of which that body builders would kill for. Garret was massive in every way. That was also some credibility to his claim. See, the standard fighting style for the Quincy was reliance on the bow. As such, such large muscles would get in the way as they tried to use their own weapon. It was why most Quincy worked towards having a slim body, so that they could move much more freely. But Garrets body? There was no indication that he had ever used a bow in his life. What he had used were instruments just like the one that currently lay at his feet.

"I am just a spirit whose time has long since past. I come from an era where kings would send armies to fight other kings, of lands divided by royalty. A time when the plague ran wild and killed as many as any army could." Garret explained, his single eye locked onto Jo as he spoke. "I'm a spirit who is forced to wander this world, banished from the afterlife he considered his new home. All I want, right now, is to rest until the storm has ended so that I may continue my travels." He had left a few things out. Firstly was the Hollow Bait thing. Garret had only given her safe information about himself, bits and pieces that would finally end the pestering about him being a Quincy. If Jo pushed for an answer regarding the Hollows then he would just have to figure something out.

[Jo Veil]

There would be a long moment of silence as Jo processed what Garrett had said. Her organic eye would twitch for a moment as her bow dissipated, and her entire posture seemed to clench in. Her jaw was clamped together hard, and if the Rouge listened, he would be able to hear the audible sound of grinding teeth. What's more, the girl seemed to practically ooze an aura of sheer malice as well.

"Ah," she would say, her tone icy. "I see then. Well, I'm gonna give you the chance to guess two words here now. The first starts with an H, and the next starts with an E. If you can guess them before I count to three, I will not reduce you into a bloody paste all across this god damn cave. One... Two..."

[Deleted]

And there it was. Jos threat was not simply ignored, rather it was responded in kind. She had distracted herself by counting, allowing Garret to make a single move. His close proximity to her, along with the cloak he wore, essentially made this move a success. He swung. From beneath the folds of his cloak a massive, beefy arm swung through the air, connecting with the cyborgs chest and sending her not just off her feet but hurtling her backwards and out the mouth of the cave. He hadn't put all his power into the hit, only using enough to send her flying back, but not enough to really hurt her. His single eye watched her fly, that same arm reaching up and undoing the straps that held that cloak together. It fell to the floor as Garret himself reached down and grasped his weapons hilt.

"So you show your true colors.." the tone in his voice had changed. Before it had been filled with a growing irritation, but now it was something different. Far more vicious than before. The man emerged from the cave, the rain striking his massive body and sliding down across his muscles. Without his cloak on, Jo would have full, unobstructed view of his body. The man wore no shirt for the one he had was now long gone, lost in some unmemorable battle long ago. His abdomen was ripped with thick muscles pushing up against his skin. Actually, his entire body was ripped with muscle. He was massive. His body was a bodybuilders dream. But, there was a flaw.

Every inch of his skin was blemished. Covered in scars, like the man was a housewives cutting board. Scars of various sizes and shaped painted his skin, like the canvas of a mad painter. Stepping forward with his left foot he planted himself firmly, lifting the gargantuan thing he called a sword into the air. But, could it really be called a sword? It was too large, too massive, toot hick. No, it resembled a slab of iron far more than it did a stick of steel. Garret had had enough. She has resorted to violence to his explanation. He wasn't sure why, but he did remember her constant screeching about Shinigami. One last chance. It was all he would give her.

"Is it because I am a spirit that you threatened my life? Do you believe me to be a Shinigami, the same ones that you screamed about moments ago? Let me put your mind at ease, Quincy. I am not, nor have I ever been, a Shinigami. I am just a spirit." Garret explained, giving his words a moment to sink into the abominations head. He didn't want to fight, not right now anyways. He was at a disadvantage, given his tired state from his earlier battle.

"I am going to give you three options, woman. You said something earlier about how the Quincy are the only one who can bait Hollows. If you apologize for your threat, then I will allow you to return to the dryness of the cave and I will satisfy your curiosity. Your other options are to leave, here and now, or die. This is your last warning."

[Jo Veil]

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Garrett was getting ahead of himself if he thought that he was going to land a hit on Jo easily. Even in the confines of the cave, Jo still had plenty of room to maneuver. What's more, Garret's overall lack of training in hand to hand combat, combined with his entirely human speed, made it child's play for Jo to pre-empt the blow. After all, it wasn't like her awareness completely shut off just because she was talking.

So using the fact that she was beyond any mere human in speed to the utmost advantage. She would side-step Garret's punch towards her chest, and quickly settle into a tight stance. There would be a sudden glimmer in the air around each of her hands, and the cyborg Quincy would begin to speak.

"You guessed wrong. Smite the enemy with hollow steel...." she said, her tone icy. The glimmer became virtually tangible in appearance, with an almost metallic quality to it. Then, it congealed together, forming a pair of short swords, one in each of the girl's hands. "Hohle Schneide."

Garret would be able to easily tell that he was now at a clear disadvantage. While his sword wasn't able to function well in these confines, the woman's short swords could. What's more, she was between him and the exit. If he wanted to get outside, where he could use his blade, he would have to go through her.

Reiatsu: 1450/1500

[Amagai Kuchiki]

60 Paragraphs, 300 TP awarded to both parties. Please specify TP type next time.