Silent And Colorless [Jimen and Akio]

[Akio Naito]

The tunnel was impressive work, to Akio. In size, at least. All that in a single blast had cemented the situation as far beyond his own standing. No reason to do anything but run. And besides, tearing into the earth like that would probably effect the accuracy of anything he could still have done, even more-so given that he had no impression of how stable the path was at that point. For all he knew it would collapse before he got to the end.

Besides the stranger just ahead of him, he watched the path, he couldn't afford to lose any footing. His other senses were paying attention to the newly minted cave floor, as well. Inaccurate or not, gauging if he could reach a stream would at least let him know if he could, if that became necessary at any point later on. All that mattered right now was getting away from the immediate threat. Best case, the hollow would fall far enough behind he could place a small amount of stone between it and them, lose the line of sight it had.

He pulled his field of view back upwards, having seen the strange archer stumbling, nearly falling. And despite that, he still didn't dare slow down, or reach towards them. Saving others could wait until there was a better chance of success with it, as it was, he was the more vulnerable, physically and spiritually. That fact severely limited any intervention he could accomplish. It seemed that protecting others was firmly affixed to a list of things he couldn't accomplish in the state he was in.

Of course, as it turned out, they both needed the help. Something that dawned on the counterfeit quincy as the real one had tumbled back into him, knocking him to the ground in time to match the sound of the next arrow's explosion. "Is something wrong?" He asked reflexively. Without waiting for a reply, he ran a mental inventory of his own state. Not really harmed, but set back quite a bit.

Of course, he had gained an advantage from being on the ground. "Earthly-serpent-flow-to-the-mountain-peak." An incantation he had gotten into the habit of rushing, words slammed together to save whatever time would have gone into the spaces between them. Reishi sank into the earth, found a far greater source, and waited for the signal. He raised his arm slightly, pushing up against the person still on top of him until the seal between his palm and the soil broke.

Exhaling heavily, he looked back towards the hollow while wriggling himself free of Jimen's weight. The few seconds it would take for a stone spire to extend into place unbearably slow. He hadn't registered the situation with the river water at that point, entirely concerned with his plan of partially blocking off the path behind the two of them. That was exactly the amount of interference he was capable of, and he'd had the chance to cast it without having to stop and drop to his knees for the somantics portion of it. The best he could hope for was buying more time that they were losing standing back up.

[jimbureka]

The smell of earth was suffocating for Jim. She felt like she was breathing in mud, feeling it only because of the trauma of being buried alive all those years ago. She hated being in the underground, 'cause it felt rawfully familiar, and she coughed, more out of reacting to memories of feeling dirt in her mouth. She was still reeling, but she was becoming aware of her liable nature, as she wiped the tears off her face and found out she was no longer staring into the abyss, but a curvature of ceiling made from her bolt. She also realized how she made the unfortunate young man fall over with her, who was underneath her, and after wriggling himself free, the sudden vibrations told her he was doing something to the ground. The new tremors made her tense, but she fought her debilitating knee-jerk reaction. She is not at the mines dammit, she is not in the mines!

She felt various vibrations all around, the Hollow thrashing about, trying to claw his way in the hole. Its arms banged around the sides of the wall, and Jim felt that. She also felt the cave grow unstable, more parts of the ground starting to fall away from too much violent activity. Shit, not another cave in. She could feel herself shaking she could barely get up---

And then she felt it. The tremors at the end where her last bolt stopped. It was a tremor of a broken wall that was falling apart. Something, was pushing what was left of the ground material to a breaking point. She tilted her head to look at the man, while she tried to keep a straight face, tears were welling up in her eyes, "D-Don't... cave... in..."

Her voice cracked, the pitch in her voice uncontrolled due to obvious signs of stress. She also could not hide the odd slur in her speech, her words sounding off. Speaking was already difficult for her, but in a situation that triggered her trauma, it was more muffled, constricted, the syllables meshed together. One would clearly see she had an impairment of sorts.

Taking a rattled breath, She points her bowgun at the ceiling. The desire to go up to the surface was a priority. She still had her back on the floor, making her next shot shoot upwards, a hard beeline through the part of the forest terrain. Her bowgun shook, taking in the tremors in their claustrophobic space and fired, the kickback slamming the butt of her bowgun to the ground, creating a small crater from where the impact was made. The bolt shot through, and immediately there was falling parts of soil pouring over Jim. She instinctively shielded her face. They were only 20 feet down the ground, so the shot was enough to have flecks of sunlight pour in. There was an opening.

And another opening was made as well, as the wall broke, the rush of the water from the river current diverting towards this makeshift tunnel. It won't be long before the rush would get to them, and if they didn't get out in time, they would be taken and shoved right into the arms of the Hollow at the end.

| West Karakura, in a makeshift tunnel. | → | A mysterious man. | → | Panicked. | → | Struggles through a trauma induced panic attack, and makes another shot aimed for the surface. Gets a barrage of dirt to the face.  |

SPOILER: Click to show

{OOC}

[Akio Naito]

Akio was overwhelmed. A stranger who looked to be on the verge of a meltdown, a shrieking monster he saw fit to put a stone slab in front of to keep it away, and an unpleasant sound from the far end of the tunnel. Too much going on at the same time. This was worse than just confronting them earlier would have been, by far. He shifted his weight, and rolled to his hands and knees. Prime position to stand or cast as needed, and by that point, he honestly could not tell which would be needed.

Shaking his head to clear off the newest layer of sediment to fall upon him, he considered a second Hashira right that moment, the possibility of pinning the hollow between two pieces of rock and leaving them there from then on. He can hear his panicking companion speak, and assumed the impediment to be the emotional episode they were going through. Would it really be safe to take his attention off of them in that condition?

He saw Jimen shoot another projectile, and could feel the sudden upraft of air rushing to fill the void that had just opened in the ceiling, the downdraft of air from above sinking in to aid in equalizing pressure. The sudden, yet dim spotlight of the night sky had opened above. That would've made for a decent escape route if he could only climb it. And if that was the case, he knew were to put the next stone...

"Earthly serpent...." He took a deep breath, starting with this one, he'd be pushing things a bit too hard for comfort. "Flow to the mountain peak." Clearly intoned, as he repeated the process of guiding a fragment of those pure depths he studied back up to the surface world. Slowly, slowly, it had to be more finely tuned this time. Placed specifically to have any chance of getting what he wanted out of it.

Pressing himself off the cave floor with one of his hands, he managed to stand in time for the stone to begin rising beneath him. "Can you climb?" He asked the panicking girl. By that point he had to stand with his feet together just to stay on the makeshift stone platform pushing him up towards the hole. It would come to a stop at about a meter in height a moment later, just that much closer to the surface. "I could try and help you, if not." He continued, looking up to see just how deep they had actually gone some mere moments earlier.

Truly a ridiculous situation, to stand over someone and offer anything at all. Even more-so with that monster behind him, but there it had happened. That was the first time the shaking young man had actually bothered to protect anyone else, and he felt... Out of place. With no expectations for anything that could happen from there. Perhaps they would accept him, reject him, or cast him aside and climb up the the outside on their own. And all he could think, with his hand reaching out for the one beneath him, was that someone else could have done it better.

[jimbureka]

The Hollow let out a howl, its movement more erratic and desperate as its suspicions of high reiatsu souls he'd love to gorge as food was now a reality. It had its arms smack at the walls of the tunnel, shaking the earth at its wake. But formations created by the young man barricaded its reach, making the creature more manic.

Jim, if left in the dark for much longer, would've lost it. But then, the tightness in her chest was alleviated at the sight of the gaping hole and the night sky above them. She wasn't going to be buried alive. She was going to break through. There was so much tremors felt, making her hands twitch involuntarily, reacting to the vibrations around her. She was starting to come to, remembering the threat of the monster, and---

The young man. She looks up, her tear-streaked face mixed with dirt now facing his own. She could barely make out what he said, but there was something about the word climb... The amount of tremors created from the man's ability was something she could sense coming from his own reiatsu fusing with the soil as it rose. She could see the mound he created rising towards the surface, and her mind was locked on survival mode. She didn't want to stay down here.

Getting to her feet, she glanced at her surroundings, her eyes making a mad dart at everything, her mind buzzing on how to get to the rising platform of the young man. The walls were curved in a convex, difficult for leverage. She looks behind her. The darkness was there, and she quickly turned her head away, not wanting to lose her composure. Looking again at the young man, she inhales, and takes a few steps back, putting her hand down, and from her sleeve, a Ginto tube slips into her hand. She then makes hand signs, an indication of her knowledge to ASL, and a reveal of her deafness. She could not speak the incantations well, and this was the best she could do to guide her syllables. "Tilt the goblet to the west..."

Just then, a violent tremor behind her came as the wall crashed, sending the torrent rush of water into the makeshift tunnel. She makes a run for it, her flat voice muttering the last word of the incantation for her Ginto tube. "Wolke!"

As she got close to the platform, she then drops the Ginto tube at her feet, which exploded, sending an outward force from where the Ginto tube landed. She jumped at that moment, her hand outstretched to reach for the young man's own hand that was reaching out to her. It was enough propulsion to get up to the platform, perhaps too much as it blasted them upwards into the hole, sending them flying up, just moment before the water shot across where they once was.

| West Karakura, in a makeshift tunnel under a forest. | → | A mysterious man. | → | Reeling, on edge. | → | Collects herself and gets on the platform with a Ginto technique, propelling them up the hole. |

SPOILER: Click to show

{OOC}

[Akio Naito]

The pursuing hollow was taking time getting past his makeshift barricade, a good sign. As long as he bought more time than he spent, it was a net gain. On the other hand, the walls were under even more stress now, and he still had to find a way up. Any dwelling on his lack of a particular feeling or mental state could wait until he was back on ground level. It had to.

He kept reaching down, seeing the stranger was more stable, and already up to something new. Was that? Without any actual understanding what the ginto was or the hand movements, the basic assumptions snapped to fit into his own theory of reishi shaping. They did so fairly well. Mantras and mudras, verbal and physical keys to that slotted into particular technique. The thing he was most lacking context for was just what Jimen was attempting to do.

The initial blast of the silver tube detonating confirmed that much, leaving him to flinch as he tried to grab onto the girl's rising arm. The counterfeit's own balance suffering from the same forces that were propelling her into his reach, soon knocking him from his self-made perch and carrying him above ground just as unceremoniously as they handled their creator.

Akio landed with a solid thump, once more on the grassy terrain of the surface world. A cursory gaze registering that he hadn't moved that far from the hole that had been in the tunnel's ceiling, although from his point of view, it was now in the ground. "Thank you?" He offered thanks to the green-haired stranger again, not entirely sure that the current state of affairs was their intended result. "Is it safe now?" It had occurred to him the blast that lifted them up may have done harm to the beast chasing them, but he had no way of gauging it.

The rote motions of standing from having fallen prone were next, dragging his limbs into the correct series of posistions, to be followed by looking over a new situation, as he had for many more instances of this situation. He'd made a habit of being knocked off his feet by sudden spiritual disasters, as well as coming out of them with little more than bruises. Maybe he should have invested in healing techniques, or else warding areas off to prevent hollows from entering? Another one for the to do list, possibly to the top of it, based on the past few nights.

[jimbureka]

Collision. Propulsion. Suspension. Descent. Touchdown. It happened in quick succession, with her hand being able to grab at the young man's outstretched hand, only to overshoot herself and collide her form into his, and then the very platform he created smacking against them as they broke through the underground trench and breathed crisp night air. The suspension of seeing the night sky, their bodies in an awkward press against each other was but a fleeting moment, as gravity took over, and like all things in this world, they fall. Luckily the ground plateau the man made was enough cushion for the drop, smashing into pieces several feet from the hole. However the impact was enough for Jimen to bounce off the man and roll over to the side, lying side by side with her back on the forest ground.

She could not hear the man speak his words of gratitude and his inquiry on safety. She groaned, her body adjusting to getting wind knocked out of it. However, just moments after they were shot out and made their landing, the ground rumbled violently, and the orifice they came from had a surge of rushing water and parts of soil come out like a geyser, the splashes falling on them and soaking them in seconds. The river current was strong and it was good they were able to get out in time from the path of mother nature's bone-crushing power. Jim instinctively shields her face, coughing as she sat up, but then she makes a sharp turn of her head towards the tremors she felt on the ground below. Something, beyond the river's current, was rumbling...

A Hollow's screech rang through the night, shaking everything in existence. It took the unfortunate blow of the current, as evident by its screams, but the ground continued to shake, as the crevice from where the old tree once stood broke apart with mud and water, revealing the Hollow that broke free from the river's grasp. At the sight of the monstrous creature, she turns to the young man, getting up from the sopping muddy terrain. Her eyes returned to the same firmness it had when she dragged the man from earlier, her instincts humming to high gear for a singular goal: survival.

"Move!" She mutters, her pitch off, the word strained from her stunted speech, but with enough stress that says they aren't out of the woods yet.

| West Karakura, forest. | → | A mysterious man. | → | On edge, survival mode. | → | Gets to surface level, senses the Hollow and sees it break through, and she motions the man to move away. |

SPOILER: Click to show

{OOC}

[Akio Naito]

Brushing bits of soil and mud from his clothing, he could listen to the rumble of earth and water, feel it though the soles of his shoes. He understood it well, and then the air-shaking roar that followed had made it even clearer. The Quincy's voice settled it, even though communication seemed to be difficult for both of them, the message made it across intact. That night's supernatural disaster had refused to end so easily as an evasion by way of unpremeditated tunneling and explosions.

More running seemed to be the only solution. A solution that would be less effective than usual, given that he had been caught away from the advantage of street corners once again. Besides that, after the explosion and rough landing, Akio wasn't even in much of a shape to run at his best. The situation brought the usual cynical caveat of only needing to be faster than anyone else fleeing to the counterfeit's mind. Not something he'd actually want to do, but choice didn't factor into situations like he was in. Not actually.

A deep breath of humid air didn't help those thoughts much. Choice was for things on one's own scale. The night he was having, most of the ones he'd been having in general, of late, were overwhelming, that was the word to describe and spirits in general. Things like the hollow in the distance were so far above human strength that the only options in a confrontation were to escape their reach or lose their interest. That seemed to apply to all spirits he'd encountered since the explosion. The increasing frustration and need to lash out at things.

"Are you sure that will be enough?" A few steps, taken as if obligated to. A token beckoning motion, made without even looking back to check if the strange archer would even see the gesture. And so he began running again. Running towards the town, and away from the hollow. It was an awkward run, one of a shoe pressing against the ground with excessive force, and a near fall as the other leg was forced to keep him from falling, repeated on without any intent of stopping soon. One fueled by lack of alternatives, and producing resentment as a byproduct. "Stay safe." Said the counterfeit, as he hit the best speed he could manage in his condition.

[jimbureka]

The man wasn't moving as fast as Jim would've hoped in this situation, but it was apparent that both of them were rather winded with the recent exertions. Jim was audibly catching her breath, and she stops turning to the man as he was trailing further behind her. There seemed to be something wrong with his other leg, and Jim immediately went to his side, and without waiting for a confirmation, grabs one of his bandaged wrists and puts it over her shoulder. She says nothing further, wanting both of them to get out of the woods, out of harm's way.

The speed slowed considerably, and Jim could still feel the strong tremors on the ground, signaling movement from the hollow. Shit, with the way things are going it's going to catch up on them. She turns her head at the back, checking the distance between them and the Hollow, and to her horror, the beast stood now, out of the entrapment it was in. But it was hulking a good 60 feet away from them. And it seemed to have stopped. Jim wondered why---

It was then, she froze, as the beast began to charge a Cero, beating its huge chest and opening its mouth as a blinding beam poured out of it, shooting straight towards them. The Cero was surprisingly fast, and Jim and Akio could only have a few moments of reaction to the attack hurled at them. She quickly lets go of Akio, shoving him in the chest on the opposite direction, and with the shove it gave her enough to fall back, putting them on far ends of each other as a huge beam tore through where they stood.

Jim closed her eyes, the bright light from the Cero blinding her, not realizing her end was a sudden edge, and her misstep of a foot moving back, and stepping on nothing but air, caused her to fall back and find herself rolling down the steep decline, not stopping until she made it to the bottom of it. She was no longer moving.

Where she fell, was rather close to the area where the young man practiced just hours ago; the light spectacle, with one spectator. Her being down there came full circle. Almost. And the Hollow roared as it began to charge its way towards the man who fell on the other side.

| West Karakura, riverbank. | → | A mysterious man and Hollow. | → | On edge, survival mode. | → | Runs but helps young man who seemed to be injured, sees the Hollow shoot a Cero towards them and she pushes both herself and Akio out of the way, only to fall into a gully. |

SPOILER: Click to show

{OOC}

[Akio Naito]

He'd barely noticed how forced his run had been, before Jimen had tried helping him again. Her gesture had forced him to adjust the awkward run to something only slightly less-so, losing a bit of speed as he prioritized not knocking her over. Matching pace without attempting another audible complaint. He'd caught onto the lack of communication by that point, and that was mental space to devote to other patterns of action. Keeping track of his own steps, keeping his breath in rhythm, anything to make the escape that tiny bit easier.

With his focus on other things, he hadn't bothered looking back when the genuine quincy of the pair had, more focused on getting away than on what they were trying to leave behind. And then came the cero, the sudden impact of the helpful stranger's hands knocking him back, and leaving him to fall to the ground once more. Falling, Akio was tired of that, even with the heat that radiated off of the blast that had barely missed the pair to warm him before he hit the ground. Crashing to the earth with a four-to-one blend of resignation and frustration.

A half-moment passed after his landing, he had lost track of where the stranger had gone, it hadn't looked like they were hit by the beam, and he had assumed if they were, there would have been a red or grey smear along the grass to confirm it. "Are you still there?" He asked, not actually expecting a reply. Before he'd even finished asking, the counterfeit had already begun pressing himself back upright, first rising to his knees. And only upon overlooking the situation did he notice the hollow had been moving towards him.

He was already panting for breath, limbs sore and slack. He was in no shape to use either technique he'd had a hand in the creation of, except possibly as a desperate and sacrificial measure. And without them, he couldn't do much of anything. He... theoretically knew how to fight, but that was by making use of a particular weapon he didn't have on his person that night. And that beam had already done a lot to prove all his running up to that point was the correct course of action, even if he had been armed back at the start. That left him with a single course of action in response to a charge, to try and sidestep without running. And if he wasn't fast enough, that was it.