A Recurring Nightmare (DP-All Races-Medium)

[William O, Creed]

Name: A Recurring Nightmare
Participants: All Races
Location: Karakura Town
Difficulty Level: Easy - Medium
Setting: Damage Permanent

Plotline: A strange amount of disappearances have been occurring across Karakura Town in the last week. What started as a missing person turned into multiple people suddenly disappearing in the middle of the night. The previous morning a strange reiatsu could be felt throughout Karakura Town for only a few minutes. It's now up to this group of individuals to locate whatever has been causing the disappearances and eliminate it. Here

That was the report of an assignment just over six years ago. It had turned out that some sort of small fly like Hollow had been infecting humans and turning them into monstrous murder machines. Over the last several days it started to happen again just like before. Although reports from last time suggest the Hollow had been terminated there’s a strong belief it must have survived. Citizens of Karakura are at danger, the threat will surface in just a few hours that’s expected so do whatever you can to find this Hollow again and put it down permanently.

Estimated Enemy Strength: Class 7 - 3
Estimated Time Until Completion: 3-4 Pages
Starts: Now
Special Conditions:

[Raphael Laurent]

Put me in coach!

[Kuro Adachihara]

Who's ready to party? I'm ready to party, with a scowl of course.

[Akira Hinosai]

Damn, I must have missed this one. Sure, I'm game if you'll have me. If it's too late, that's fine.

[William O, Creed]

“Oh hey honey how was the market anything good on sale?”

A young wife happily sitting on the bed in the bedroom of the apartment she shared with her husband questions just after she heard the sound of the front door opening. However, no reply came even after several moments had past. Although unnormal it wasn’t eyebrow raising for he probably just didn’t hear her. That or maybe he was putting things away that he had picked up first. Either way the young woman continued to lay down on her bed gazing into the screen on her phone scrolling through various stories about the on goings of Japan. Just another morning where the young seek entertainment only to ignore options in front of them.

Regardless, after another minute or two passed, the woman got out of the bed to go check on her husband who stranger still hadn’t come back into the bedroom. Normally he was right back in with her just enjoying the company of each other. Now though as she walked through into the living room she saw no one just that the front door to the apartment had remained open. Walking over while looking around she stepped out searching for her husband yet finding no signs of him. Confused yet not worried she returned to the apartment closing the door behind her now.

“Hey babe you here?” fear creeping into her now as she wondered just who had come into the apartment if it wasn’t her husband. If it was though why wasn’t he answering her? It only lasted a moment though as she turned into the small kitchen and saw him standing over by the window looking out at the street below. “Babe you ok?” He looked totally normal, but he didn’t have headphones in or anything like that to keep him from hearing her. Did she do something to anger him, was he ignoring her or was he just stuck in a very heavy daydream? No way for her to tell, but she could get his attention by hugging him from behind.

Her fate was sealed as his body tensed, giving no heed to the strange actions now she began to scream in pain a moment later as he right hand was bitten into and blood poured from the wound. The phalanges of her right hand suffered immense damage although her thumb was completely gone. More pain than she had ever experienced throughout her life now flooded her mind as she fell backwards away from her husband. Turning around to finish his meal was the form of her husband yet with dark grey lines spread across his body yet with no pattern nor indication of their meaning. She wouldn’t learn anything else as her short story was ended and the second chapter towards Karakura began by an author seeking revenge.

[Raphael Laurent]

Something doesn’t feel right, tonight… Raphael thought to himself, as he stepped off the train from a day out in Tokyo. There was something peculiar with the air that night, something that he couldn’t quite place, but the energy that drifted through the air felt heavy and almost dark, somehow. That was when he saw a police car speeding towards a residential district. Not that crime was uncommon in Japan, hell Yakuza saw to that, but the feeling that he had combined with a police car speeding away? That made him suspicious, and also made his stomach sink, just a bit.

Ducking behind a building, he made his way to the top with the air ground technique and started running along the roofs, keeping track of the cop car, and using air-ground when necessary to cross gaps in the buildings. He came to a stop atop a roof when the cop car did, in front of an apartment building. That was definitely weird and he had a bad feeling about what would was going on. He stealthily made his way to the ground and then inside of the building. They got into an elevator and he stood there watching, to see where the elevator stopped and then pulled out his phone and sent a text to Luca.

Hey, Luca? This is Raph. There’s something weird going on at an apartment complex. I’m going to send you the address, just get over here as soon as you can. I’ve got a bad feeling about it. Then, after sending the text with the address, he hurried up the stairs to the fourth floor, where the elevator had finally come to a stop. Kicking opene the door to the stairs, he could feel his heart racing and was, only slightly, afraid that more people were going to die, if they weren’t quick enough. Yet as he turned a corner, he saw the door to one of the apartments open and stopped, as a horrible feeling came over him. He would standby and wait for Luca to get here, hopefully a bit of backup would make this a little less frightening…

[Akira Hinosai]

Wind battered Luca's face. Down streets, up walls, through alleys, Luca ran at full speed. He didn't care who saw him. In that moment, Luca cared only about getting to a certain Raphael Laurent. It wasn't like he was worried about his partner in crime. He could handle himself. Still, they were friends, and that meant Luca was obliged to help. Besides, if Raph was correct about his suspicions, that would mean there was a fight just waiting to happen. Friends they might have been, Luca wasn't about to let Raph have all the fun. They were rivals, after all, whether Raph knew it or not. As if I'm letting that dweeb leave me in the dust!

By the time he arrived on the scene, Luca could see he was too late. The police had already arrived. Before taking action, Luca tried to think for a minute. So, what's going on is spiritual in nature, but left a physical trace strong enough for the cops to get called. Some hollow get a little too messy when eating someone? Another bount serial killer? An arrancar? No, no, I'd have sensed an arrancar. Whatever was going down here, cops would just get in the way. If Luca and Raph wanted to investigate, they'd have to play this smart. Luca ran across the street, careful to keep his head down. A few cops still mulled about outside but he had no idea how many, if any were where Raph wanted Luca to be. He skulked past them into an alley, where he found the fire escape and began running up it, still unnoticed by the cops.

Luca could sense Raph amidst the sea of ordinary people. It was just a matter of climbing stairs until Luca was on the same floor as him. Once they were together, they could discuss how to go about this, and if necessary kill whatever was responsible. Upon meeting Raph, Luca would deliver a specially prepared cool line "Sorry I'm late, traffic was crazy. Anyway, you mind telling me what's going on? The text sounded pretty urgent, but I'm not sensing anything."

[Kuro Adachihara]

Kuro stalked the town at night, making his rounds as the moon shown down on him. The pale light, waning against the jet-black sky made Kuro almost completely invisible except for the white tips of his hair and the pale white skin on his arms and face seeming to almost glow in the light. His eyes scanned the area cautiously, taking his route and instructions to patrol the area very seriously. There were rumors of something, some kind of hollowfied energy wreaking havoc but then mysteriously disappearing from any detection device they had placed in the World of the Living. At least one recent case of it that caught Kuro's eye. He sped through the night, jumping across the building roof tops as he ran with his full speed.

As he arrived at the apartment building, Kuro narrowed his eyes, staring at the scene before him. He was currently in his Soul Reaper form, having not taken a Gigai currently to the World of the Living. He stepped off of the edge of the roof top he was running across, directly opposite of the fire escape to the apartment. As he landed on the fire escape, visibly shaking it with his weight coming down on it and causing a noticeable disturbance in the metal, Kuro easily slipped inside however after jimmying the lock to the window from the outside. His spiritual energy was well under his control and he was busy sensing for the spiritual energy of the hollow itself. It wasn't his best skill, but it was better than the average psychic human. 

From the blood around himself it seemed that there was a violent altercation. However, Kuro could smell and feel the trace amounts of hollow energy in the blood. But that didn't make any sense at all. "How can blood from the living have hollowfied energy within it...." Kuro thought to himself as he stooped low over the scene at the entryway into the apartment via the fire escape. He began scratching his chin with his left hand and looking at the evidence around him as he stood back up while placing his right hand upon his blade's handle, pulling it slowly from his sheath. A man and a woman had recently fought for some reason and it did not end with any sort of peace. The amounts of blood so far made that painfully obvious. But there was definitely more going on.

Kuro followed the blood trail to the source, carefully holding his blade low with the tip just a half inch over the ground and so the edge of the blade pointed upwards. This was so if he did come across something less than human and much more dangerous, he could easily and naturally slice upwards and through it. As he walked, his eyes scanned the walls around him, searching for more clues that might assist him. He was trying to understand what might be causing these blips in hollow spirit energy, but whatever it was definitely had the appetite of a hollow and no restraint.

Kuro grumbled as he sensed the arrival of two more hollow energy signature from down below him, at street level. One after the other too. Was this thing drawing more as well? If it was, this could easily become too much for Kuro to handle with ease and the mission would have to be taken with much more caution. As the first other signature arrived, so did a police car, siren blaring. Who called them? Kuro had yet to see a neighborly presence within the apartment, but then again he was only now approaching down the hallway. Maybe there was a neighbor in this apartment. Hopefully they weren't psychic or they'd face what looked to be a black clothed samurai here to take the souls of the dead, which wasn't entirely wrong either.

[William O, Creed]

Within a matter of just a few minutes three spiritual individuals found themselves inside of the building all converging on the floor of the scene. Kuro was the only one so far though that had seen the proof of some sort of violent altercation. The floor painted red with blood yet no signs of the victim. Raphael and Luca came across one another in the hallway having a few moments to speak with one another before Kuro came across them.

Whether or not Raphael and Luca hid themselves from the police that were arriving on the floor to investigate wouldn’t matter now. Specifically due to the fact that a pair of police were walking through the hallway as the dispatcher came through over the radios. Loud enough that even if they weren’t in sight they’d still be able to hear.

“Officers are on the lookout we have reports of two individuals now in the area attacking people on the street.”

What? This didn’t make sense they’d just been out there and none would have seen anything? How were they outside now when they’d just been in here? Perhaps the biggest question though for all of them was the fact no reiatsu signature could be sensed. Would they investigate outside or continue to search inside the building? Would they stay together or split up? What would these spiritually aware heros do?

Number of Infected: 4

[Raphael Laurent]

Raphael turned as Luca ascended the stairs and smiled. This was one great thing about Luca was that he was quite dependable, at least when it came to things like this. He watched as a pair of police officers started walking through the hall. While they were, at first, prepared to move in, both Luca and Raph heard dispatch over their radios. Raphael didn’t understand it. Both drew their pistols and moved further in, but Raphael looked over at Luca.

“What in the hell is going on? People attacking other people in the street??” He turned his gaze back to the door where the officers seemed to be covering their noses as they went in. One seemed to be staying just at the door, in case they needed backup, but from the way that the first one had been covering his face, it did not seem like a pretty sight, nor was it one that Raphael was all too eager to see. As a matter of fact, he was now a bit more concerned with what had been said on dispatch. “I don’t know what’s going on, Luca, but something happened in that room and there’s something happening out on the street. People are being attacked.” He sighed. “Normally I’d argue against splitting up, but I don’t see any better options to keep people safe.”

He looked at Luca holding up two fingers. “We’ve got two options, the first is we stay here, try to investigate when the police leave. It’s a bit riskier since they might suspect us and impede our investigation.” He put down the middle finger, leaving his index finger up. “Two, we abandon the police to their fates and go see what in the hell is going on down on the street. I’m leaving that choice to you since you’re the acting Uzaki Enterprises representative for this and you’ll get the credit when we solve this. Regardless of the choice, though, we’ve got to act. What do you think?”

[Akira Hinosai]

The plot was thickening by the minute. It wasn't making sense how they were being outmaneuvered like this. Were the attacks in the street caused by whatever attacked the appartment? He wasn't sure but he was going to nip this in the bud before more people were hurt.  Luca liked the sound of representing UE and getting all the credit. As far as he was concerned, that made this entire matter his jurisdiction. "Sounds like we're needed in two places at once. You stay here, do some investigating, find out what the hell did this and how. I'll protect the people on the streets from...whatever's going on. Got me?"

As Luca would prepare to run towards the nearest window and jump out, he instead saw UE wasn't the only group responding to this threat. "Shinigami." Luca snarled. Of course one would show up. This situation was bad and getting worse. Luca hated it, but he knew he would have to work with whatever smallfry the shinigami sent. He wasn't going to waste time trying to drive the shinigami off, not when he had a sword and a desire to kill whatever was behind this. Worse comes to worse, I'll use him as a human shield. "Look, I'm going down to investigate whatever's attacking people in the streets. He's investigating the appartment. Pick a task and make yourself useful, ghost boy." Luca said coldly. 

With that, he ran towards the nearest window, taking the fast lane to the ground floor. He was past the point of caring about glass cuts or falling from a story or two. He didn't look to see if he was followed. He didn't care. He was willing to deal with the task on his own. Luca created platforms of solid air beneath his feet, jumping down from one to the other, activating his fullbring dramatically  and rushing to fight whatever was attacking people This was his chance, and he wasn't going to waste it.

Air Platform: -25
Fullbring Activation: -200

Luca's Reiatsu: 4275/4500

[Kuro Adachihara]

Kuro raised his head as he watched the gruesome scene unfold before him. The blood made him turn from it, and the lack of bodies made it even more awful to him. He said a silent prayer and heard a voice as someone else entered the area. "Hollow." The feeling of that energy made Kuro turn, remembering that he felt something like this before already. A fullbringer if he remembered correctly. And this time it had been two signatures, one familiar and one foreign. It seemed that Kuro was not the only one to be alerted to this horrific scene. And then he saw Luca, although at this moment he did not know this man's name.

This one was definitely the foreign source he had sensed and it was even more clear that this one had spiritual abilities. They had very obviously seen Kuro and were already on a plan of movement, despite the police presence and their search continuing at that very moment. But it seemed that this one's tasks were very clearly going to be centered around the physical threat going on away from the apartment. Although the added comment of Kuro being a ghost boy made him sniff slightly, the comment causing a bit of a stink in his mind. However, it was clear that something had to be done about the fighting in the street. Letting such a volatile predicament continue would only further cause problems. Kuro turned back to his entrance point of the window to the apartment and ran out.

Kuro leapt from the apartment window, using his speed to his advantage in order to vault himself to the opposite buildings wall with his sword still in hand. As he connected with the wall he then pressed off with his feet, slamming off to a lower point in the apartment building's wall. He continued this jumping between the buildings two more times before reaching the ground below, calming himself while reaching out with his spiritual sense. He could pinpoint four specifically hollowified beings. This certainly didn't make sense.

There were certainly signs of a fight inside of the apartment, but from what he could gather there had only been signs of two individuals inside. Ontop of that, he had distinctly remembered there being only a mention of one hollow causing the trouble, alerting him to the scene. How were these signals multiplying so quickly? Was there something drawing hollows here? He couldn't sense any abnormally spiritually charged individuals in the area besides the two that had shown up at the same time as him. And they had arrived at the scene at the same time he did for all he knew. So what was causing the flood of hollows?


He grumbled with confusion as he stepped out into the street, speaking in his normal voice aloud in order to possibly get the attention of those currently fighting. "That's enough. It's time for you to be cleansed..." Kuro spoke clearly as he swung his sword back down to his side, holding it in his right hand by the handle. He knew this was risky, but he couldn't let them continue attacking innocents. The thought of standing by to gather intel while others suffered was unbearably shameful.

[William O, Creed]

The pieces on the chessboard were moving now, choosing where they would go in order to achieve whatever they viewed as the correct option available to them. Little did any of them realize that none of the options available were correct. This wasn’t the first time that this had happened and this time was worse for them then it had been several years ago. Last time had been the first, last time they had lost, been beaten even though they had the numbers, this time they were stronger, this time they’d devour them all. All three of the spiritual individuals that were on the scene now doing what they could would hear screams in unison yet none from the same location.

Triples of a moment in time where the originator suffered at the hands of the unknown. Raphael would hear the sound coming from one of the police officers that had gone to a separate apartment in order to get some sort of information from a neighbor. Kuro would hear the scream coming from behind him down the alleyway near the opposite end where a man was being dragged into the alleyway from behind by what looked like a normal person. As for Luca the scream closest to them came from a young woman that was now getting out of her car after hitting a man that had walked into the road.

All of these events though were connected, by the cause to the effect. The police officer was being attacked via bite on his collar bone while his wrists were restrained, squeezed so hard that his bones were fractured in mere moments. Blood pouring from the bite wound that seemed just a bit deeper than possible. The same was occurring outside in the alleyway where the man being pulled backwards suffered a bite and tear ripping his right ear clean from his head. As for the woman well the man she’d hit with her car got up without issue only to pull her to the ground, roll on top of her and bite her face. Could these humans be saved? What was wrong with all these attacks? Where was the Hollow?

[Raphael Laurent]

It was utter pandemonium. Raphael watched as Luca headed out and towards the street, while at the same time hearing his muttering about Shinigami. He hadn’t, exactly, told Luca that they were both TECHNICALLY employed by Uzaki Enterprises now, but he did enjoy giving Luca the lead on something like this. Even if the kid was, well, a kid he still did good work, most of the time. He had his moments where he had good plans, almost like his plan to infiltrate the Seireitei, though it wasn’t perfect.

Raph felt as though they could’ve tried to stick together, might’ve been able to actually work together to find whatever the fuck was doing this, causing it all. But before he could even so much as speak, Luca was gone and Raph was pretty sure that the Shinigami was as well. He sighed as he rose from his hiding place. He disliked the fact that they’d all split apart as they had. He looked around, first at the apartment that the police had just left and looked in. Blood everywhere, but no other gore…nor any bodies. What in the hell had happened here? He looked around, obviously the police had already searched the area and they’d started moving around, trying to get more information.

He leaned away from the apartment of the damned, and back into the main hallway, looking down the hallway that the officer had come from. That was when he heard it, three screams raising in unison, one from not too far away, while the others were definitely outside. The officer was screaming, in a quasi bloody murder fashion. He was being horribly injured, but by what, Raphael had no idea. Yet, he spun on his heels, heading towards the apartment and glanced, briefly into the room. The moment that he saw it, he held in a scream and pulled his head back out. He had to make a choice. The officer’s collarbone had already been torn through. Raphael knew that the moment it had been ripped through that deeply, the man was effectively dead. He’d have to be ready to vaporize the damn thing. He’d have to hit them both and quickly. He held up his hand, energy only lightly charging as he backed away from the apartment door. If either one came around the corner…he’d vaporize them.

[Akira Hinosai]

It wasn't a fight in the street. It was slaughter. Screams filled the air, but the hollow was nowhere to be seen. That didn't matter. People needed saving. The woman's scream made Luca's instincts take over. She wasn't going to die this day. Luca sprinted as fast as he could to save her. He jammed his spear through the back of her attacker's head and out its mouth. If that failed to kill it Luca would keep attacking, at the very least hoping to draw its attention away. Assuming Luca killed it, he'd pull it off the woman. He wasn't a healer. The best he could have done was stopping her from being eaten.

Luca's attention turned from the woman to the rest of the situation. Luca had yet to seen the true perpetrator. The attackers couldn't be it...could they? These are just zombies, not the necromancer Suddenly, the comparison he made seemed to click more than Luca realized. Biting, attacking people, no mercy, no regret only eating people. He remembered he saw someone dragging a body into the alleyway. He couldn't risk them spreading whatever this was. They came into the streets to contain the situation. Luca hopped over the woman's car. He could have tried bringer light, but he had to pace himself. He didn't know how long this night would be, and he sure as shit wasn't going to be tired out in the first act.

When or if he reached the alley people, he would try and see if one of both were like the monsters in the street. If that was the case, Luca would run at them with his spear ready to impale the monster(s). The situation was getting worse every minute, but Luca wasn't going to fail.