The Woods Whisper [DP, Hard]

[Kaen Youji]

Name: [The Woods Whisper] - The Adventure Name

Participants: [Yun Feng, Aldwin Blackwood] - Who can participate?

Location: - Where does this take place?

Difficulty Level: [Hard]

Setting: [Damage Permanent]

Plotline: [Something strange is happening in a small outback town in the Southwest. Strange spiritual readings have been reported to Soul Society from a forest near the town, and a lone Shinigami has been dispatched to investigate the occurrence. Meanwhile, Aldwin Blackwood is drawn to the town to investigate unusual rumors of an unsolvable group of murders that reports say couldn't have been accomplished by human hands.] - Explain the plot of your adventure.

Estimated Enemy Strength: [Class 8-6] Estimate the strength of the NPC's people will fight in this adventure. Class 7-1, what is their strength on average?

Estimated Time Until Completion: [5 pages] - How many pages do you think this adventure will run for until it is over?

Starts: [As soon as the first post is done] - When does the adventure begin?

Special Conditions: [None - Any special conditions, limitations, or other things.

[Kaen Youji]

The world was quiet today. No winds blew about, and the birds were quiet. Nobody came out to a place like this without a good reason. A quiet little rural community out in the middle of nowhere, with a total population of less than two hundred people. Few established shops or businesses beyond the bare essentials. A corner store here and there, a supply shop, a medical clinic and a gas station. There wasn't even a local police station. If you wanted anything else, it was many long miles to the next established bit of civilization. The area was mostly farmland, with dirt roads. It was really less of a town, and more of a gathering of people who just wanted to go back to something simpler than the big city life. The town didn't even really have a name, or at least none that anyone could agree on. Simple people living simple lives in the shadow of the great woods that just barely encroached on the edge of town. A great place to go out to be forgotten by the greater world. Completely isolated.

But this little town was receiving a surprising amount of activity and feedback in the news lately, ever since one of the community had been killed. Murdered was really the operative word for there was no way this had been an accident. And what a murder it was. A man had been found in the streets, near the entrance to the woods. It had been said that he had been impaled on a street sign. Not lifted and thrown upon the sign, as might have been barely understandable as a suicide. No, the street sign had been found, snapped in half, one broken half used to run the man through, pinning him to a tree. That had been the first day. The second day, a second murder had been announced, in the same approximate area. A woman in her 20's found at the doorstop of one of her neighbors' homes, with her torso having been twisted around at a 180 degree angle. Both murders had occurred at night. It was now closing in on the end of the third day, and though the sun had not yet set, it was growing low in the sky.

Soul Society, for their part, had also identified a pattern. A strange reading had been picked up, coming from the woods on both of the nights. A fluctuation in spiritual activity that even Squad 12 had not yet found a comparison for in their vast databanks. Whatever was happening there, it was rare enough that Squad 12 had to do some actual digging to find out if they had information on it. Whatever it was though, it had been consistent, and had happened, both nights, at exactly 10:00 on both nights. The fluctuation had then disappeared just as quickly on both nights at exactly 6:00 in the morning. It was presently 6:00 in the evening, and people were just beginning to wind down for the day. How the Shinigami representative opted to go about their investigation had been left entirely in their hands. The option of using a Gigai to interact with the populace had been presented, but had not been made mandatory.

Strange things were afoot, and only two people had come to town, capable of solving this mystery.

[Deleted]

Road trip~!

After a bit of research in seeing the news about what kind of wild shit was going on in the midwest, how could he pass up the opportunity for a cross-country road trip?? As such, he grabbed about ten or twelve of the Selee Schneides he had - Raioh told him the weren't just "light swords" - and threw them in the back of his truck. Gas costs wouldn't be fun to deal with, but he'd have to manage. Either way, he was taking one hell of a road trip~! It took him a few hours to make the absolute perfect playlist, consisting of mostly metalcore, occasional classical, some alt-pop, and even a few meme-worthy songs! All in all, he was pretty content with it all.

He called out of work for the next week, saying it was due to some familial issues, and got the a-ok in order to leave from his employer. Once he hung up the phone, he grabbed that CD with music, and hopped into his truck. New York to the Southwest states was quite the trip, though. He was certainly going to need to take multiple stops in different states, so why not make a scenic trip out of it? He booked three hotels; one in Memphis, one in Oklahoma City, and another in Albuquerque. From there, he could easily make a day-long trip in order to make it to this apparent ghost town. Either way, he'd be there soon enough. Three days wasn't too bad.

After eventually arriving, He quickly pulled out the makeshift velcro "vest" he had thrown together, put it around his thighs, and slid all of the Selee Schneide hilts into the slots for them. Sure, having ten of these long-ass hilts on his thighs would limit his movement a bit, but that was neither here nor there. He was very much willing to limit some movement in order to provide both defensive and offensive capabilities for himself. He was more than ready to fight, should that need to happen, but for now he was just going to take things slowly. There was no need to rush into combat if he didn't need to, but either way he'd need to be prepared in case shit truly did hit the fan.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Stats & Skills}Type: Gadgeteer

Strength: 50
Speed: 50
Spiritual Pressure: 60
Reiatsu Strength: 20
Instinct: 50
Senses: 50
Energy Sensory: 0
Healing Expertise: 0

Light Aura: 100
Dark Aura: 0

Pain Tolerance : 1
Weapons - Polearms: 1
Strength of Will: 1
Crafting: 1

[Kaen Youji]

Aldwin's journey to the town would have been relatively uneventful. A long drive, with plenty of time to enjoy the trip. Upon arrival, however, he would be greeted by something a little bit unusual right away. A balding, middle aged man was walking alongside the dirt road, that Aldwin had driven along, covered in dust and dirt. Tanned, weathered skin, a sleeveless shirt, reflective vest and a hard hat under his arm indicated he was a laborer of some kind. He gave Aldwin and his truck a long, tired look. It was a look that suggested that Aldwin was hardly the first person to come by this quiet little town in recent days, and that this man was guessing exactly why he was here.

The man wasn't the strange, or unusual greeting however. It was the person traveling behind the man that was weird. Well. Traveling was not quite the right word for it. Following might have been the better word. Berating would have been a better one still. A woman with short-cut red hair, and vibrant green eyes was screaming at the man. "STOP IGNORING ME YOU ASSHOLE AND TELL ME IF YOU'VE SEEN ANYTHING WEIRD AROUND HERE LATELY!" She screamed trying to outright get right up in his face, waving her arms angrily. She was wearing a black shihakusho with a white belt, along with white tabi socks and straw sandals. The textbook apparel of a Shinigami. If that wasn't enough, there was a sheathed katana on her hip. A long, standard length blade with a uniform black sheath. She was wearing a badge with the kanji for the number "12" on her lapel, above the symbol of what looked to be a thistle. Despite her screaming and ranting, the man didn't appear to notice her presence in any way, shape or form and he simply kept on walking.

The woman stamped her foot angrily, glaring at the man as he moved along, without answering her or approaching Aldwin. She then spun on her heel to glare at Aldwin. "What are you looking at!?" She growled at him. "You planning to just go ignoring me too!? Is everyone in this world so rude!?" She growled at him, crossing her arms, the glare never leaving her face.

[Deleted]

Upon seeing the man, Aldwin simply waved with a nervous chuckle. He looked back to his truck, making sure he wasn't parked in a bad spot. It was off to the side of the road, so there was still the ability for people to get in and out of the town if they needed to. He nodded to himself and began to turn toward the town itself, but something had caught his attention. He noticed the woman before him, and furrowed his brow in a look of confusion.

He took her somewhat surprising outfit into consideration. He'd only heard about those robes before, never actually having the ability to see them in person. This woman was a Shinigami, right? She seemed to fill all of the ideas he had about them. "Huh," he said to himself before realizing she was looking directly at him. He wasn't really sure what to do; from what he had been told, there was a likelihood that he wasn't going to get along with these Soul Reapers.

"What are you looking at!?" To say these words caught him off-guard, even after the shouting she had just finished, would be an understatement. It immediately threw him into a state of both shock and panic. He wasn't sure how to respond, and pretty much forced out whatever words he could at the time. "I, uh..." he began, before being interrupted by the girl. "You planning to just go ignoring me too!? Is everyone in this world so rude!?" A look of visible confusion still on his face, he began to speak again, thinking through his words this time.

"You're a Shinigami, no?" he asked, slowly approaching her, as to avoid setting her off, "please, do correct me if I'm wrong, but most people can't exactly... y'know, see you, right?" He chuckled once again, holding out a hand to the girl. "Don't worry, I don't plan on ignoring you. Aldwin Blackwood, it's a pleasure to meet you." Whether or not the girl would actually shake his hand wasn't a huge concern to him, as he'd still do what he could to be friendly either way. Someone like her could easily take his life, right? Messing with her would be dangerous, to say the least, so he needed to do what he could to stay on her good side.

[Kaen Youji]

"Ugh! Finally someone who's willing to pay attention to me! Can you believe how rude these people are! I'm literally up in their face asking them a question and they just look on like dumbasses who don't even realize I'm there! Like helloooooooo." The Shinigami ranted at Aldwin. Aldwin's own polite question made the woman grin in answer. "That's right! Division Twelve officer, Erina Sawamura! I just graduated from the Academy last month, but once I get some experience, I'm going to revolutionize Soul Society with my genius!" She boasted proudly. Aldwin continued then, and he finally stated the obvious. The woman, who called herself Erina paused for a moment and looked at herself. "Wait, but hold on, I thought...." She began patting herself down. "AH! I forgot the Gigai back at Soul Society!" She exclaimed in shock. "Damnit! Someone should have reminded me! How the hell am I supposed to carry out my mission now when I can't interrogate people!??" She exclaimed, stamping in frustration.

Aldwin's polite introduction was clearly acknowledged, and then Erina took a moment of contemplation. "But hold on. You can see me?" She asked, suddenly puzzled. "But you're not a Shinigami." She stared closely. "Are you one of those Fullbringers or something? ...Well. As long as you're not one of the Vandenreich, I guess it's okay...." She walked over and completely ignored the handshake, but instead, clapped Aldwin on the shoulder. "Alright Aldwin! You're going to help me solve the assignment I was given here!" She stated affirmatively as if there was no room for Aldwin to object. "Are you from around here? Do you know of anything weird happening around this town lately? Soul Society's been getting some strange readings from this area. I'm pretty sure there's some spiritual activity going on around here, but it's not the good kind. My Division's Captain warned me before I left that he doesn't think it's a Hollow or an Arrancar. But he doesn't think it's Vandenreich either. It's something else." She postulated. "Wait, are you familiar with Hollows, Arrancar and stuff like that? How much do you know about our world?"

Erina shook her head a moment as she looked out along several street lamps which were lighting up as the world grew a little bit dimmer. The sun continued to slowly dip down in the sky. "Well then. If you can see me Aldwin Blackwood, can you be my translator? You've got a body of flesh and blood so these people can at least see you, and you can talk to them, right? You don't mind helping out a Shinigami do you?" She asked, as she assertively started striding down the road, towards a small collection of one-story buildings.

[Deleted]

Aldwin laughed toward the girl, and listened to what she had to say. It seemed like she's been having it kind of rough from what she'd said about her limited time in the World of the Living she's spent there. How did she end up forgetting something like a gigai, anyway? That was neither here nor there, though, and was far from a priority of his to figure out. He wanted to know more of what the girl was doing here, and what her goals were.

Thankfully enough, she'd decided to tell him just that! Much like what he'd known, she'd been informed of some strange happenings occurring within the town, much to his surprise. He didn't expect her to be nearly as informed as she was, considering she wasn't actually from the World of the Living. That being said, he hadn't known what went on in the Soul Society, and didn't really have a way of accurately knowing what happened. That being said, though, he could make assumptions.

She had asked a question moments later that had piqued his interest, though. "Wait, are you familiar with Hollows, Arrancar and stuff like that? How much do you know about our world?" A slight smile rose to his face. "Oh! Well, I'm fairly familiar with all of those things," he said, "I'd learned about most of those kinds of people from my mentor. Hollows are like, angered spirits, right? And Arrancar are just superpowered versions of those same spirits that look more like people?"

He continued to listen to what she had to say, and nodded in affirmation. "I'd be quite interested in aiding you, Erina! If nothing else, it's certainly an interesting option to interact with a Shinigami, and if nothing else it'll be a good way to hone whatever skills I've got! I'd just need to check to see if I've got any sales or anything at the moment..." He pulled a smartphone, and checked a few things, before tucking it away further. "Alrighty! We're good to go!"

[Kaen Youji]

Another foot stamp. "Don't laugh at me! It could happen to anyone! Besides! I've got more important things to think about than remembering a stupid Gigai! I've got big things ahead and big projects!" She exclaimed defensively. Things safely moved on however, and as Aldwin explained his own understanding she seemed to pause, and then give a half-hearted sigh. "Well that's close enough I guess. It's enough to get by. You might want to brush up a bit more on your spirit lore though, if you plan to be dealing with us more often, that's barely scratching the surface." She replied, shaking her head almost disappointingly. "But you know what Shinigami are, so that's fine. You know we're the good guys and that's enough for today!"

When he agreed to assist her, she did give him a smile, but it was not unlike a smile that just said she already knew he'd agree. "Well of course you will! This has gotta be the best day of your life to assist a genius like me!" She exclaimed. Aldwin brought out her phone and she tilted her head. "Sales? Are you a salesman of some kind, Fullbringer?" She asked. "Anyways! You've got more important things to think about than sales right now, you know! We've got some weird stuff going on here! Even by Shinigami standards!" She exclaimed.

"Anyways, what do you know about stuff going on around town? The only thing I've heard is what was reported. We were getting some weird readings from the forest over there." She said, pointing ahead. Far down the road, a vast forest stretched out at the edge of town, the twinkling yellow lights of houses just within the tree line flickering and gleaming. "All we know so far is it doesn't match up with any readings we usually get for Hollows, Arrancar or Quincy." She continued. "That's why they sent someone from the Research and Development unit. The signal wasn't very strong though." She crossed her arms as she walked.

"Anyways, what do you figure big guy? Where should we start out? I was just trying to talk to anyone I ran into, see if they knew anything. What're you here for?" She asked. They were currently at a street corner. A corner store was across the street, with the sign still saying it was open, though the staff inside clearly looked like they were closing down the shop. The two also found themselves near the medical clinic on the opposite side of the street to the store. A one floor building with a large set of glass double doors. Lights were on indicating that people were inside. Alternatively, there was a number of small rancher style houses also intermittently lining the streets if someone wanted to try asking the locals directly. The last option that lay available to them, of course, was heading directly for the woods. Or perhaps Aldwin would be clever and come up with another option still?

[Deleted]

Aldwin gave Erina a smile when she brought up the fact that they were "the good guys". He certainly agreed in this specific situation, but wasn't something like that somewhat subjective? Either way, he didn't spend the time required to ponder on it. It wasn't worth it, and didn't really help their current situation at all. Instead, he decided to comment on what she had said about his lore. "You think so?" he asked, "I always thought I was pretty accurate. Ah well, I'll learn more as I go, I guess." And with that, he chuckled to himself.

He put his hand to his chin, once again listening to what the girl had to say. Once the topic of sales came up, his eyes widened in surprise. "Oh! That's my bad, I didn't realize I said that aloud..." he said, scratching the back of his head, "but, yeah. I've got some... items, up online right now that I'm trying to sell. A friend of mine is telling me to manage them for her, so I just wanted to make sure that there's nothing going on with them as I won't be able to check them for some time with all of this going on. Anyways, though, I do look forward to working with you, especially if you're as bright as you say! Also, I'm not exactly a Fullbringer. My mother was a Quincy, and my father, well, he was some kind of monster, both figuratively and literally."

"As far as what's going on here, I don't know too too much. The attacks here have been broadcasted all over the country, to my knowledge. I know roughly of what happened, but about as much as anyone else in the country does. My guess is that there's likely more information to be found here, so that's where I wanted to look. I'm more doing this out of my own volition than due to a decree from a higher-up." He continued to glance around the area they were at, taking note that the sky was getting darker with every second that passed. Perhaps they should wait until the morning to begin anything? No, that'd be a terrible idea; whatever it was that was here has only been active at night so far. Not only that, there was a chance he could've been the next victim. That wasn't going to happen if he could help it.

"I'm not entirely sure," he started, "I'd like to think the best option here at the moment would be talking to the people around here, much like you had already tried to do. Maybe we should start here?" He pointed to the medical center. Due to everything that had been going on, while it wasn't likely that someone had survived an attack like the ones that had happened, perhaps somebody had treated an injury they hadn't expected, or perhaps a firsthand witness had seen this all go down, and went to seek out some kind of assistance? There were a large number of possibilities, but through his logic, this would probably be the best place to start.

[Kaen Youji]

Erina gave a sad little headshake. "Listen, listen. Hollows are far more than angered spirits. They're the spirits of those who have not been able to move on to the next life! I know you humans have your stories about ghosts being people who died with unfinished business? That's a Hollow. It's a soul that refused to move on after death, and, over time, becomes corrupted by its own desires. They're not always just "angry" spirits, although anger is common. Once a Soul has become a Hollow it is driven by a desire to fill whatever void was created within it by its unfinished business. It's an instinctual desire that leads a Hollow to often devour the souls of others, usually starting with those that were their loved ones in life." She stated in a very matter-of-fact sort of way. "As for Arrancar, they are highly evolved Hollows. When a Hollow becomes powerful enough, it is possible for it to break its own mask off, and in doing so, is able to gain powers similar to that of us Shinigami. It's less that arrancar are more powerful than Hollows, and more that only a powerful Hollow can survive the transition into an arrancar." She continued.

"There are a lot more specifics than that-- spiritual composition, habits, tendencies, case studies, structure, organization, but we can let that settle for now. It's very Academic." She added, brushing aside Aldwin's comment about selling things for a friend, but zeroing in on his comment about his parents. "A.... monster?" She asked. "What, like a Beast Clan or an Arrancar?" She asked quizzically, now giving him a strange look. "Either way you're a rare breed. Does the name "Vandenreich" mean anything to you?" She asked, now studying Aldwin very closely.

Regardless of his answers though, Erina did continue to accompany him along the street, letting him take the lead in the investigation. "So you're a free-lancer huh? Well that's fine. I can't actually talk to anyone here, or at least nobody can hear me, so you can go ahead and I'll let you do some of the detective work. I'll put all of it together." She bragged, proudly. Erina then went to follow Aldwin inside the medical center.

The center was really more of a clinic, and the glass double doors opened up into a waiting area. It looked sterile, a common enough waiting area. Numerous chairs were arranged along mint-green walls. A bored looking woman with messy brown hair was standing at the desk, resting her head on her palm. She looked up as Aldwin came in and gave a visible sigh as she tried to straighten herself up. "Welcome to our clinic. You don't look like you're from around here, huh? We know pretty much every face in town. I'm guessing you're here to see the bodies? Just like the people before you, and the group that came before them. Due to concerns from the families, we can't let you in to show you them, but the doctor's given me permission to answer any questions you might have about them. I'm guessing you're with some kind of investigative agency or something?" The woman certainly didn't have much professionalism, but then, out here, it was likely that things were pretty informal.

[Deleted]

Aldwin listened intently as the girl continued to explain everything she did about Hollows and Arrancar, genuinely interested in everything that she had to say. To think that the worlds he wasn't involved in were so extensive... he'd never known if it wasn't for her explaining it all to him. Not to mention the fact that he was genuinely interested in it all. He couldn't even begin with how much he wanted to actually know about all of these worlds! Just how many were there? It'd be a question he'd have to eventually ask, but now wasn't exactly the time to do it.

"Vandenreich?" he asked, confused, "can't really say it means anything to me. Should it?" He sighed, still not positive as to the significance of that word. "Though, I'm kind of curious. What exactly do you mean by 'a rare breed'? I don't think I've ever seen a Beast Clan, but taking assumptions into account, he wasn't much like an animal, for lack of better terms. Possibly an Arrancar? They've got some super crazy form that they can turn into, right? Though, it didn't really look like anything hollow-like. It's honestly all kinda confusing, if I'm being honest." He laughed it off.

Entering the medical center, a slight shiver went down his spine. He'd never liked these places, but he wasn't going to let it get to him. The two of them were on a mission to make sure things in this town would be sorted out. A smile rose to his face as he remembered this. If all went well, his name would go down into history! Well, at the very least, history of the town. The moment he walked in, he went to listening to what the woman behind the counter had to say, and doing what she could to pick out any bit of information from it all that he could. Perhaps he could find something useful from it?

"Well, thank you for the welcome," he said sweetly, "you're right in some regards, though; I'm not from here. I had just taken a trip from the Big Apple, so I'm definitely pretty far from home. That being said, though, I'd like to learn what I can from the attacks; was there any traces of foreign DNA on the bodies? Like, anything at all? What exactly did the wounds look like? I understand some of them were kind of gruesome, but taking out the inhuman circumstances surrounding the murders, how unrealistic are the deaths really?

[Kaen Youji]

Erina studied Aldwin quite closely for a minute or two as he said he didn't know anything about the Vandenreich, strangely quiet and focused. "...No. No it shouldn't." She replied, before regaining her prior bravado. "Anyways, Quincy are really rare nowadays." She said as her nose started growing like Pinocchio's "So rare that a lot of Shinigami thought you were extinct for awhile." At least until the Vandenreich started attacking Soul Society, but if this Quincy didn't know about the Vandenreich, then she wasn't going to go off spouting information that might lead him to them. Technically, she probably should have done something about him being a Quincy, period, buuut if he wasn't around she'd have nobody to brag to able to translate for her, or interact with the people of the town. That made him a little bit essential to her job right now. And not just because she'd screwed up and forgotten her gigai!

Erina seemed perfectly at home in the clinic, while the woman gave a tired nod at Aldwin. "Okay, good enough. Nobody's really going to complain." She sighed, as Aldwin began asking his questions. "One of them was pretty mundane. The wound itself anyways. He bled out after several internal organs were punctured. The thing that got everyone talking about that one, was what did the puncturing. Street sign was broken clear in half, and rammed through him. Whatever did it, did it with enough force to pin him to one of the trees at the forest's edge." She replied to his question about what the wounds looked like. "Emily, now she's a different story. Spine was broken. She was found at the entrance to her home, torso and head facin' one way, legs facin' the other. Like somethin' grabbed her and twisted her around. Couple people think it was a bear that did it, but I ain't seen a bear ever do somethin' like that. So if you're wonderin' how unrealistic they are, you just need to ask yourself how many folk you've seen that can do that." When asked about foreign DNA, she sighed and shook her head. "If you're looking for anything like fancy forensics, we don't have that sort of thing here. I've been hearing talk that they might be sending down some folk with better equipment to help us out, but that won't be for a few days at least, probably longer to actually check." She stated.

"If you're trying to find out more, the sheriff set up some markers around the places we found 'em. Emily lived in a house just at the edge of the woods. Bill lived just a few streets over. He did a lot of huntin' in the woods. If you ask me he was probably comin' home from it when whatever got him did it." She concluded.

While the receptionist had been talking to Aldwin, Erina had been looking one way then the other, seeming to try and take in the information, before she ultimately decided to make a move, walking over to a door that seemed to lead further into the facility, and then slipped through, taking advantage of the fact that nobody could see her. She was going to investigate things more personally, while Aldwin chatted up for the details that normal humans could perceive. "We don't have any suspects in this yet, mostly cause I don't know anyone around here that could do things like that. Machines out here couldn't do it either, but nobody thinks its a wild animal. Couple of people seem to blame the old woman who lives out in the woods, but I don't think she could do something like that. She's a bit odd, but she must be pushin' eighty, and looks the part. No way she'd have the strength to do something like that even if she wanted to."

[Deleted]

Aldwin simply nodded, taking in any information he could from the receptionist. He had noticed Erina slipping through the door, and a slight smile rose to his face. She'd been clever enough to take a more hands-on approach, and he was grateful for that. They needed all the information they could get, and on the off-chance that this receptionist wasn't giving them even the slightest bit of information they could've used, they'd be at a disadvantage when trying to tackle the issues at hand. He directed his eyes back to the receptionist quickly after, once again absorbing himself into the conversation they were currently in the middle of having.

Once she had finished, he chimed in once again. "Old woman, huh? Do you by chance have her name? She could potentially have something to share about all of this that nobody else has. Unless she's already been asked, that is?" He looked around, and leaned in closer to the woman, turning his tone of voice down to something fairly soft, to the point where it'd be fairly hard for anyone else to pick up on what he had to say. "Also, if there's a price that could be paid in order to potentially see those bodies, let me know and I could arrange something for us so that we can both walk out of this place happy when it's our time to leave." With that, he placed his phone down gently on the counter, a familiar payment app open on the screen, prompting the entering of an e-mail address in order to send a payment of $200.

To him, the potential recognition was well worth the money he had to lay out during this little mission of his. Should all go well, he could potentially make more off of just the publicity from this town's problem alone. Not to mention the fact that he had a supernatural force - the shinigami girl he'd met not too long ago - aiding him in this quest, things were looking pretty positive for the outcome. He gave the receptionist a devilish smirk. "If you can get me in there without having anyone bat an eye - perhaps by saying that I'm a member of one of the involved families - there'll be a nice little bonus of sorts before your next paycheck, if I can help with that at all. And trust me, sweetheart, everything going on here is perfectly legal, so there's no reason to worry. Plus, who'll find out?"

He'd hopefully have the woman in an offer she couldn't refuse. She'd be gaining at least a good $200 from this little bribe, and if all went well, the likelihood of someone finding out about any of this was somewhat slim. Yes, he'd more or less be banking on that 'if all went well' chance, but what was there to lose? He wasn't planning on staying in this state for long, say a couple of days or so until all of this was actually sorted out, so should there be legal issues involved he could quite literally run from them and not need to look back. He had ways of getting away with what he needed to, so there was no real reason as to why he couldn't if need be. This was effectively a checkmate over the situation, in his eyes.

[Kaen Youji]

The receptionist smiled. "Well, I don't know her name for certain. Never met her myself. She keeps to herself mostly. I've only seen her come out here once or twice for supplies, but I did hear someone refer to her as Audrey once. So that's probably it, but it's not like I have any paperwork or anything with her name on it." She replied. "If she has been asked, I don't know anything about it." When Aldwin asked for a price to see the bodies, she seemed to hesitate for a moment or two. "......Well.... I shouldn't but.... The doctor is out right now...."

The receptionist looked both ways before entering an address on the phone. "Make it quick, Mr. Detective." She whispered. "And just don't bother the families too much, or tell them you've been in here. They're going through enough right now." She whispered. Two hundred dollars went for a lot in a little place like this, and with the relaxed standards, if Aldwin never said anything nobody would find out. There weren't even any cameras in the reception area, and probably wouldn't be any in the backrooms either.

Once Aldwin finished the payment and went through the doors into the main building, the first room he'd come across would be a quiet little office. It was well maintained and clean, with a standard desk, chair and two tables, one against the back wall, and one in the middle of the room. A scale was in the room, along with several bins of medical equipment, and some basic machinery. A filing cabinet stood on the far side of the room, and there were three possible doors to take. One of which was near the door Aldwin had just entered through, and likely led back behind the receptionists desk. Another was partially open and looked like it led to an empty room, though a plaque above the door read: "X-Ray" (or insert appropriate medical terminology for that if I'm off. Not a doctor ). The third door led to a long hallway, lit currently only be emergency lighting. Three more doors could be found down that hall-- a washroom, a storage room for additional supplies, and an unlabeled room. The door to this last one was partially ajar and the light was on, and if Aldwin approached it, he'd see the telltale black robes of Erina moving about it, and would be able to hear her muttering to herself.

Inside the room were... well. The bodies. A middle aged man, with graying black hair. His face had the marks of slight stubble and he had a somewhat prominent nose. He was shirtless (though it was likely the shirt had simply been cut away), and there was a massive puncture wound right through the sternum, at an angle that missed the heart but had gone through the lungs, and countless other major important functions. It had likely not been an instantaneous death, and the faintest marks of tears were visible streaking down his face, and his lips were flecked with blood. His eyes were shut and his mouth slightly ajar. Of the street sign said to have impaled him, there was no sight of it in the room, the sign having likely been taken by the investigators that had come before Aldwin.

The woman had blonde hair, and a pale complexion. Signs of smeared makeup were apparent. Her hands showed signs of minor cuts as though she had struck something particularly hard, with all too much force recently before her death and had split the skin. As the reports indicated, her cause of death was almost certainly due to a broken spine, for although she was face up on the table, the lower half of her body was facing downwards. She almost resembled a mannequin that someone had put together backwards as a joke.

"Good to see you got yourself in here. What have you found?" Erina asked Aldwin as she looked back at him. "Their souls aren't hanging around here. I'm hopeful they've already moved on to Soul Society. Though if it was a Hollow that did this, it might be worse for them..." She mentioned uncomfortably. Erina was holding a strange looking device that looked a little like an iPhone in her hand, but on the screen it looked like she'd switched it to take a photo, as the phone was merely showing the space in front of it. "I checked them for injuries and didn't find any unusual reiatsu hanging around them. I did find a few things that I didn't hear the receptionist talk about. Take a look." Erina walked over to the woman's body and lifted it slightly, turning it towards Aldwin. Two massive bruises were visible on her back. It was noted that in cases of death by strangulation, bruises could be found on the neck in the shape of the fingers that had done the murderous deed. If that was the case, then these two bruises could also be said to resemble human hands. If those hands had been designed by someone who had only heard about what a human hand looked like thirdhand and didn't have a particularly good sense of scale. There was one bruise on the woman's left shoulder, and one on her right hip, but the fingers seemed about three times the length of a human's, and what would have passed for a palm was nearly double the size of Aldwin's.

"Well, I think we can rule out a human or a bear doing this, don't you agree?" Erina stated, a morbid joke to Aldwin.

[Deleted]

Upon just seeing the bodies, Aldwin took a deep breath through his mouth, effectively deciding it would be a better option to hold his nose here. He'd never been one for medical practice, so he wasn't sure if the entire room would just smell like decay, but he wasn't going to risk it. After having smelt that before, it wasn't something he wanted to have to deal with again; the sight of the mangled bodies was more than enough to bring him close to losing whatever it was he had for breakfast that morning, he didn't need to increase the chances of that happening. At the very least, though, he was glad to now be able to analyze the bodies for himself as opposed to just hearing eyewitness accounts.

"Well, I think we can rule out a human or a bear doing this, don't you agree?" Aldwin couldn't help but snicker at the joke Erina had just made. While it was certainly what would've been considered in bad taste, Aldwin ate those kinds of jokes up. His sense of humor was rather dark as it was. "Yeah, I think that's pretty safe to say," he said, his eyes focused on the bodies, circling around them as much as he could in order to see if there was any bit of detail that could've been missed, "and, I haven't found out too much from the woman working the front counter, but what I did hear is... interesting, to say the least. Apparently there's a woman that lives out in the woods, might go by the name of Audrey. She may have some information about what happened, or possibly even an idea of what went on. Might be an interesting source to hit up later on."

"Those marks on the neck are rather interesting, though. Far too big for someone normal to be able to do. If nobody saw anything, perhaps the murderer in question is spiritual in nature? Like, people can't normally see you, right? Maybe it's something like that. You're far more versed in this topic than I am, so if anyone is likely to have an incredible idea in this field, it's going to be you." With that said, he flashed Erina a devilish smile. Surely a little bit of flattery and a compliment on her intelligence would clear any potential detest of having to work with him in order to get this done. If the two of them were to work together to solve a problem like this, he'd like to make sure they were on good terms and not just "business partners", for lack of a better term. Not to mention the fact that if he got in good with her during this time, she'd be less likely to hog any sort of recognition for completing this mission and might even spread his name around.