You didn't see anything! [closed JT/William]

[Raphael Laurent]

Uzaki Enterprises, Xcution, Shinigami, hollows, quincy; so much had been changing radically due to everything that he’d been doing. Xcution was, perhaps, the most dangerous of the groups simply due to the unpredictable nature that they represented. Assassins? Probably. A shadowy army? Most definitely. They were like spiritual mercenaries, and that was something that Raphael didn’t exactly like. He could predict Uzaki Enterprises, Shinigami, and hollows, even quincy most of the time, but Xcution was something else. Worse still, what they did could have potentially devastating consequences.

He hadn’t gone to Uzaki Enterprises today, and he’d called in sick for the day at Amazon so that he could just ignore the world for the day. Yet, everywhere that he went he kept seeing more ghosts, what he could only assume were the souls of those that had died. He stopped along the way and talked to one or two, got some chocolate for one of them, though he was pretty sure that most people that saw him thought he was a bit crazy but it wasn’t that important, as far as he was concerned. How many times had people seen himself and Brian while his brother had run around fighting hollows? How often had Jennifer just talked randomly about hollows and quincy and Shinigami in the middle of restaurants? He was surprised that no one had called the cops on them, sometimes.

Raphael took another left as he walked through the center of Tokyo, marveling at the buildings that towered over the area keeping a silent vigil. It was a wonderful city, a blending of technological advances and the traditions of old Japan. He got a very different feel from it than cities like Chicago and New York where there was a lack of unifying traditions and that was the biggest difference between America and Japan, to Raphael. Japan had unifying traditions, where America had diverse racial conglomeration. There were strengths and weaknesses to both but Raphael was happy to just be away from Chicago for the time being.

Yet, as the day wore on, he couldn’t help but begin to feel a bit overwhelmed by the number of people and the buildings. Looking around he saw a place that was a bit removed…and empty, perfect for a fullbringer wanting to practice but wanting to avoid being seen. He watched a bit, trying to make sure that no one saw him and then he turned down into the construction zone. Thankfully, no one was around, they were already gone home for the day, so he began to slowly pull on the souls of the some of the steel beams, pulling them towards him and then pushing them away from him, picking up the speed. Eventually, getting tired, he started putting them together to make different shapes, a fun way to practice while entertaining himself at the same time.

[William O, Creed]

Well today definitely wasn’t one that William would be remembering that much he was sure about now that the end of his shift was nearing. Soon he’d have to return to his station, do a bit of paperwork and then punch out for the night. Nothing had really happened today and although that wasn’t really a bad thing it also was just plain boring. William hated when this happened and most of the time it made him question if he really had the moral aptitude to do a job like being a cop. He wanted to help people and keep them safe from not just the threats of the spiritual world, but the human one as well, yet all the same his own need for stimulation was frustrating.

Days like this he couldn’t help himself from for even just a moment hoping that a Hollow might appear. At least then he could face off against it and get some excitement. It would hopefully be enough to hold him over for a few days. Wishing that though was a dangerous game and he realized this. If that were ever to actually happen and he couldn’t defeat the Hollow. . . Well William knew that he would blame himself regardless after that for anything the Hollow managed to do. No such thing had happened today though. It had just been a bland boring sunny side up with not even a shoplifter to wake his staggered attention.

Just then though William thought that he heard the sound of metal scraping against metal. He was on another different patrol route and had been all day so he knew where he was now. He’d heard this sound throughout the day while the construction workers had actually been doing their jobs, they’d all gone home at least an hour earlier though, so who was causing the noise? William hadn’t been very far from the construction zone and now approached through the closest entrance/exit. What he saw wasn’t something that he had really been expecting, although in all fairness he wasn;’t quite sure what he had been expecting.

There was a male, caucasion based on what William could see in the construction site by some of the steel beams. He wasn’t quite as short as many of the asian citizens that William saw throughout the day, but he certainly wasn’t as tall which meant if he made a run for it, height wouldn’t be something to help William. “Jeans, hoodie white boots.” William made a mental note about what he could see this individual wearing just in case. Although something else caught his attention. The hoodie. “That might be an issue.” William knew what that cross on the hoodie meant and although he didn’t have an issue with Quincy, he did with the Vandenreich. The fact he was moving the steel beams though made William think this guy was a Fullbringer so clarification if at all possible may be best. “You know if you make enough noise someone else will come and find you.”

[Raphael Laurent]

Raphael had nearly begun a training session of Tetris when someone seemed to follow him down into the construction site. Honestly, he’d felt something coming towards him before the man had said anything but at the words, he stopped messing with the scraping metal. A police officer? It wasn’t as surprising, given the fact that he was making a fair bit of noise, and the advice he had to give was fairly sound. Raphael couldn’t deny that he was making more noise than he probably should’ve been, but at the same time, the fact that the man hadn’t been freaked out made Raph realize that he was aware as well. That was certainly quite interesting. He should’ve expected someone as aware as himself noticing and coming to investigate, but that had been the last thing on his mind.

“Maybe I should’ve been more quiet, but I was a little too focused on my game of Tetris, I guess. Though it’s a fair bit harder than it seems. I’m a little surprised that you weren’t more panicked upon seeing what I was doing. Results are rather conclusive, of course. You’re a human that can also see ghosts. Though what kind of…human world dweller are you?” He chuckled just a little bit and gave a dismissive wave of his hand causing the structure to fall back onto the dirt behind him. “Hope you don’t take offense that I don’t know your name. I might come to Tokyo a lot, but I don’t tend to memorize names.” He laughed a bit and took a few steps towards the man, hand held out. “Sorry, dude. Name’s Raphael, or Raph if you please.”

He watched the man a moment. “So are you with? Xcution? Or do you just work with the police? How much do you know about the spiritual world? And don't try pulling the whole 'what are you talking about' thing, I can tell that you see it.”

[William O, Creed]

Well this wa super bald something that William really had been hoping not to find. He didn’t mind that he found another spiritual aware individual in Tokyo. He didn’t even mind that he had found him practicing in public because at least it was in an area that didn’t have many people and was at night. At least the guy wasn’t being stupid about where he practiced even if what he was practicing on wasn’t the greatest of choices. No, the issue was simple. William didn’t really get along with individuals that seemed to like the sound of their own voice.

The fact that this guy features in such a condescending manner causing the steel beams to just fall only irked William more. The noise was loud and would without a doubt be heard by quite a few people nearby. Did he think he was important? Did he hold himself higher than others? What manner of self important did this guy have that he could speak the way he was? William really just couldn’t get it, but swallowing his own emotions he kept himself in check. Shaking Raphael’s hand with a single solid motion. “William, Fullbringer.”

“If you want to speak then follow me. That stunt you pulled is going to put a few eyes on this sight.” William would lead the way out to the front of the construction sight where he’d stop outside the main gate. Now should anyone approach wondering about what they had heard he’d be able to inform them nothing went wrong and the man by him is already a concerned individual of the area giving a statement. “No I’m not with Xcution nor any of the other trigger happy groups. As for the spiritual worlds I know enough. What I want to know though is why you’re practicing in a large city instead of some woods. You could end up leading a Hollow to the city if you’re not careful.”

[Raphael Laurent]

Raph hadn’t exactly figured how loud the damn sound of the beams falling was. The minute details, unfortunately were still lost on him, and unfortunately he’d been so focused on training and practice that the crashing steel beams. Annoyingly, though, the man didn’t really seem to be much in terms of a conversationalist. He also seemed pretty damn abrasive. The hand shake didn’t give Raph very good feelings but whatever. He decided that he’d give the man a chance to talk.

“William.” He nodded. He would do his best to play the man’s game. He would talk as little or as much as the man wanted to. Nodding, when the man said to follow him, he obliged. He couldn’t deny that he was right about practicing out in the woods, but at the same time, even if he practiced out in the woods, a hollow would follow him back into town. It didn’t really matter, in the end. He wondered if the man had thought that far ahead.

“I’m glad that you aren’t with Xcution or anything… I agree that I should be a bit more careful on where I practice, but you need to understand that even still, heading back into town would be a danger.” he was silent as he spoke to the man. “I’m more concerned about people getting injured while I’m practicing. Usually I do practice out far off.” He watched the man, thinking. “Regardless, William, I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful, moving forward. I sometimes have a one track mind.” He put his hands into his pockets. “You seem more well-versed than I am with all of this. I’m guessing that you’re farther along than I am.”

[William O, Creed]

So Raphael was happy that he wasn’t a part of Xcution. William made a mental note on this in case something was made apparent down the road. The idea of this guy pissing off someone in that trigger happy group and causing some sort of battle in Tokyo wasn’t good. William had a feeling if anything like that were too happy the chances that everyone would just be fine were close to zero. Raphael spoke less, but even still what he said wasn’t all that pleasant or agreeable to William, at least at the beginning. “Practicing away from large groups can still bring forth a Hollow yes, but the only danger is yourself. One won’t typically follow you back unless it can pick up on others with higher than average spiritual pressure.”

William kept his eyes open gazing from one side to another, every few moments he could see a different citizen looking over at him and Raphael. Despite this none of them had come over to ask about what they had heard. So far they all had just seen a man speaking to a police officer and assumed that whatever they had heard must be handled at this point. Although it was good for this situation William really didn’t like knowing that so many people would just make an assumption like that. It could potentially cause a lot of issues in a non-spiritual event.

“Nothing bad resulted from this so it wasn’t a big deal. Just try and make sure that you’re prepared in case the worst happens. I doubt it, I haven’t been able to train or improve in the last several months. The only thing that’s kept sharp is my knowledge.” William raised his right hand up and took his uniform hat from his head. The sensation of it being at the peak of his skull was still something that he just couldn’t tolerate when he actually was able to think about it. “Out of curiosity did something with Xcution happen here in Tokyo?”

[Raphael Laurent]

Very few people in the world had a lookout similar to Raph; as William looked around at the people that were staring at the two of them, Raphael simply focused on the man ahead. Realistically he was used to normal civilians staring at him, ever since he’d gone with his mother and brother, well adopted, in hunting hollows. People stared at them and he would just watch his family hunt. At this point he was used to the “you’re a crazy person” looks, though he supposed that they must have bothered William.

“Well, you’re not entirely right about that one, to be honest,” Raph replied, watching him, a hand in his pockets. “My mom and dad didn’t have any spirit powers and they were eaten by hollows, dad first then about a year later my mom. Adopted family, thankfully, were all powered beings. They looked out for me and I did what I could to help them.” Yeah, normal hollows never attacked normal people. It happened more often than most people wanted to believe. Always made him wonder if the church had spirit soldiers or things like Supernatural were more real. But who knew? The police officer had spiritual abilities. Surely he would be able to protect everyone. He did have a good head on his shoulders, though; Raph couldn’t deny that.

“Right. I do my best to make sure that I’m as prepared as I can be. I can use the most basics of my abilities and I’m only experimenting to see what can be done with these basics.” He frowned at the man’s words. “Well, I’m sure that you’ll get better with them when you get to practice some, but knowledge is as good a weapon as any sword that one could make.” Raph tilted his head a bit, but eventually shook it. “Nah. I just met one of their higher ups not too long ago. That or the head honcho… Hard to tell sometimes, ya know?” He frowned a bit. “So, yeah.”

[William O, Creed]

Although this situation wasn’t one that William would really consider pleasant it wasn’t an issue. Finding another Fullbringer wasn’t something very common so whether or not he was making a bit of noise, that much William could handle. Still the Hollow situation was what worried him most although he didn’t hear anything that gave him reason to suspect that a Hollow had in fact been attracted to Tokyo. If one didn’t show itself soon then there was a good chance Raphael hadn’t brought one to the city.

Making sure that the citizens had reason to not investigate further by seeing a police officer at the scene was the best he could do. So far none of them had approached and after about fifteen seconds had carried on, more than likely returning to their homes. A benefit to it being late already William supposed. People were less likely to really push with curiousity while tired. Still it’d be best to learn more about Raphael if he was in the area, even if William wasn’t sure how to feel about the way this guy came off.

What Raphael said next though William understood. Losing ones family to anything from the spiritual aspect of reality wasn’t ever easy. The sort of thing that claimed the lives of ordinary people throughout history. Out of respect though William kept his opinion to himself. He didn’t like when anyone flat out said he was wrong especially when he knew these sorts of things better than most. He wasn’t so engulfed in himself though that he didn’t believe he could be wrong about this, but there was just a better explanation.

Keeping it to himself though William knew that Raphael was likely the cause for his biological parents deaths. Saying that neither of them were spiritual yet had been hunted by hollows. Although it was possible that a stray may have killed them the chances of them both having it happen separate were astronomical. No Raphael likely already had some form of spiritual ability even as a child before he knew it and that’s what had attracted the Hollow. That or his parents hadn’t ever brought him into the world they may have been apart of.

William wasn’t really sure how to respond to Raphael’s comment about him getting a handle on his own basic abilities again, so he simply shrugged his shoulders. Those sort of abilities were icing on the cake. He’d been trained to use other methods when hunting Hollows and those skills hadn’t dulled much in the last several years. When Raphael said that he had met with one of the leaders of Xcution though or perhaps even the leader, William’s expression visibly shifted. He gave off a look of disbelief knowing that the leader wasn’t the sort to show himself to most. “You got a face to face with Satsujun?”

[Raphael Laurent]

The conversation was…miniscule, really, but at the same time he was gleaning several important pieces of information off of the man. The most important was that the man was much of a conversationalist, but that was ok, it wasn’t nearly as important for him to be so. Secondly, the man seemed to be, understandably, concerned with a hollow coming into town from Raphael practicing his soul command. Despite the fact that he’d been practicing so long, he’d been reaching out with his senses to make sure that no hollow was following him and, unless it was really good at stealth, he couldn’t sense anything.

Raphael frowned slightly as he watched the man, only slightly concerned. What if the guy was someone who was super serious about the whole “hollow thing” to the point that he was willing to attack Raph? Regardless, if one showed up, he’d work with this guy to chase if off. He wasn’t going to wait for the people to get hurt to jump into action. He wasn’t a hero, but he was definitely a deterrent, no matter how little the people that stared at the two of them understood.

That was when the man asked about a name: Satsujun and Raphael stared at him in a bit of confusion. Wasn’t a name he’d ever heard before, and so he shook his head and shrugged a bit. “Unfortunately, I didn’t encounter someone named Satsujun,. I had a meeting, well two, with a woman named Shizuka. I know that she’s in Xcution.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet and then pulled out a black card. On it was printed “Welcome to our Xcution”. “She’s really powerful. Told me originally to use this card and feed energy into it if I wanted to meet her, but I don’t know if it’ll still work, since I used it once before…” He stared down at the card for a second, before returning it to his pocket.

“But yeah, I’ve never heard of Satsujun. Plus, for all I know, Shizuka could be one of their lower level people. But, if she is, then I’m honestly terrified of who else they would have.” He sighed a bit and watched the man, concerned for how he might behave. He was so new to all of this and knew next to nothing about all this spirit world shit, and this guy seemed to understand, or at least know, so much more about it than he did. Even seemed to know quite a bit about Xcution, which concerned him. “So…what can you tell me about Xcution, anyways? All I know is that they’re some kind of…for hire mercenary group, or assassins or something like that.”

[William O, Creed]

Answering his question with a shift in facial expression prior to anything that he said, that was what William gathered from Raphael. From the look on his face William could surmise that the individual from Xcution that he had met at the very least didn’t address himself as Satsujun. If any of the stories that William had heard about that man were true then it even more likely wasn’t him. Learning that he had met someone named Shizuka from Xcution was information William didn’t have to pull on.

Raphael gave proof that he did in fact meet with someone in Xcution that had the authority to give him one of their cards. Based on what he was saying it sounds as if he could have been discovered by one of Xcution’s real threats. William had no way of being certain as he didn’t have any sort of informant on Xcution. His knowledge it seemed was just too incomplete and outdated to be all that useful now. “They’re not weak that’s for sure. Sure you’ll find the average within their ranks, but they’ve also got some of the most powerful people you’ll ever encounter holding onto cards just like that one in your pocket.”

“As for what they do. You’re not wrong they’ve got a hold of assassination here in this world. They can be hired to do virtually any job is my understanding. I’m not sure if something happened within their rankings or not, but it was my understanding before that they have no patience for those that betray them. So if you’re thinking about joining I’d recommend you’re especially certain.”

[Raphael Laurent]

The man’s silence spoke volumes, and it concerned Raphael since from what it seemed like, the man knew as much about Shizuka as Raph did about this Satsujun guy. That wasn’t good. So either Shizuka wasn’t the strongest…or a lot of shit that Raph had no idea about had gone down recently. Neither of the two options were favorable. He hated that. Incomplete information didn’t do either of them any good. He’d have to make a small list of what he knew and bring it to compare notes whenever he met a new fullbringer so that they had all the information available.

The man spoke about them definitely not being weak and that the card he was holding was proof. Raphael idly scratched at the card that was still resting in his pocket. He suddenly felt quite a bit more self-conscious about carrying it around and began to ponder on how smart, or stupid, it was to do so. How many had grudges against the group called Xcution? How many might try to kill him, if he let slip that he had it? He would have to be extremely careful with the card and just the thought made him sigh. He hoped that the Shinigami didn’t have any grudges with the group… It didn’t matter if they did, he’d cross that bridge when he came to it.

Worse still William’s explanation of them was even worse, the group had taken up the duty of assassins for the world of the living, huh? Mercenaries, for hire assassins. That was as dangerous as an assassins’ group in either of the other two worlds. People were crazy and they keep trying to kill each other. Why? Raph didn’t know, and didn’t really want to know.

“I see. I hadn’t any plans to join them. I’m still trying to figure out where the fuck that I stand in this world, to be honest with you. You don’t seem like you’re with anyone either.”

[William O, Creed]

Raphael was definitely processing through quite a bit in his mind now that they had been discussing Xcution even if only for a bit. This wasn’t something easy to understand nor deal with that much William understood. So he stayed quiet and would give Raphael the time he needed before eventually the man spoke again. What he said William hadn’t really been expecting yet at the same time he hadn’t really known what to expect in the first place so it wasn’t a big surprise.

William let out a sigh as he thought about where he stood in the world, much like Raphael he didn’t have alignment to any singular group in the spiritual environment. “I’m not under any banner. I spent most of my life similar to how you describe yours. My family traveled throughout America hunting down Hollows and other entities that sought to harm the normal people. Now I’m here in Tokyo and so far everyone has left me alone. If you join a faction, give it a lot of thought, most of them don’t take kindly to someone backing out later on.”

[Raphael Laurent]

Well, not exactly the same… Raphael thought, as he listened to William describe how he’d been living. His quincy mother and brother had been the ones that had gone around hunting things. Raph had either sat on the sidelines or been told to wait in the car. He’d never hunted hollows. But he nodded and listened to William closely and even took such a warning to heart. He didn’t think that Uzaki Enterprises would be necessarily…miffed, but he could definitely assume that for Xcution. The way that Shizuka had explained things to him made it seem like if he decided to renege on joining them, that he would have a nice little target painted on his back.

“Maybe you’re smart to not get involved with any of the groups. I’m guessing you and your family usually operated alone almost exclusively, am I right?” Raphael watched the man, while making sure to try and sense for anything around them, just in case. He preferred to at least be prepared, if nothing else. There was no way of knowing if a hollow was after them and preparing to pounce, if he’d brought one into the city or any number of other possibilities, but it was best to be prepared, if he could.

[William O, Creed]

William took a moment to think about it while making sure that nothing in his field of view was happening that would require his attention. He’d been speaking to Raphael just over perhaps a minute now which meant there likely wasn’t anything new in the area. Still one thing that had been carved into him was always staying alert. “For the most part we kept to ourselves. There are times though when you just need help. Pride isn’t useful to the dead.” William hadn’t even really meant to say that last bit. A simple thing that his father had always recited.

William couldn’t sense reiatsu; it was one thing he knew he’d need to practice if he was really going to start making an impact against anything spiritual. That didn’t mean he was obvious either and could tell based on how Raphael looked that his attention for a moment was elsewhere. What he wouldn’t be able to tell though unless Raphael made some sort of physical response was that there was now a reiatsu signature. Right inside the construction area where Raphael had been practicing, but it wouldn’t feel like a Hollow.

[Raphael Laurent]

Raphael watched the man, nodding as he spoke. There was something about William that resonated with Raph: he seemed extremely pragmatic, and not all too bothered with just dealing with facts. Yet, as much as that was a bonus, it was also a negative; the best way to make decisions, as far as Raph was concerned, was a balance of emotion and logic. But, he also knew that he couldn’t judge. After all, he didn’t know the man well enough to simply say that he did or that he didn’t.

“I agree on that last part, definitely. My brother kept going on and on and ON about his pride and shit and I kept telling him that if it got him killed then his pride wouldn’t mean shit.” He sighed, shaking his head. “Mom still hasn’t heard back from him since he headed to the Vandenreich.” He hadn’t really meant to include that last part. Knowing how they were, he didn’t think such information was either necessary nor was it really good, as the Vandenreich wasn’t exactly well liked around the spiritual side, nor really even the physical world.

But that was when it hit him, an odd feeling back the way that they’d come. His head turned, but his face screwed up a bit in confusion. “That’s… weird.” He looked at William. “You…feel that?” Yet, he kept his gaze fixed from where they’d come. He didn’t know what that thing was that he’d felt, but he hated it when signatures just appeared.