On the Hunt (JT)

[Raphael Laurent]

Raphael had thought that all had gone as planned, that they could just take care of the hollow and go on about their days. He’d thought that maybe, just maybe, he’d found a Shinigami that he could at least tolerate for a little bit of time. Yet, thankfully, this young Shinigami decided to remind Raphael of why his mother had told them that said creatures were not to be trusted, not to be listened to and that they only thought of their balance. There was no room in their heart, or head, for emotions and that they were long since dead. As the young man’s face contorted into a frown, which then transformed into nigh-hysterical screeching, Raph couldn’t help but stare at the man in disbelief.

“Pride? The fuck do you take me for, a quincy? In case you didn’t notice, I can’t make no bow, and I can’t pull no goddamn reishi in. I’m not out here for pride. I heard there was a problem out here so I came to get it taken care of.” Yet when the Shinigami raised his blade, Raph’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not gonna fight you, kid. I don’t care if you’re lookin’ for a fight, I’m not the one to give it to ya. You all don’t train with, or against, humans. And I’m not hittin’ anyone else tonight. Also, you saying that you’re a mere figure on a graph is as hypocritical as anything else you’ve said. You Shinigami don’t view us humans, fullbringers or otherwise, as much better.”

That was when the Shinigami did something that Raphael didn’t expect a Shinigami to do, but didn’t surprise him that the man did: he charged Raphael. Obviously surprised, he had no time to mount a proper defense and did the only other thing that he could think of and raised his fist to parry the strike. While he was certainly fast enough and strong enough to block the attack, the crashing of spiritual metal against his bones, didn’t do much good for the feeling in his arm. Quickly pushing the shinigami’s bashing strike away from him, he shook out his arm that he’d blocked with, while a purple halberd formed in his left hand. “Ok, dude; what the fuck was that about?! You wanna throw down, asshole? Huh?” While he wasn’t necessarily pissed, he was surprised and annoyed. This douche had attacked him out of the blue after he’d said the word report? What an ass!

[Kuro Adachihara]

"You obviously missed my point." Kuro spoke a bit calmer, keeping his blade raised as the human brought forth his weapon. "Every soul is precious to me. I took this job with the express intent to both defend the living and absolve the corruption of souls. Your life is not worth a piece of paper with stats and figures!" Kuro was obviously passionate about his intent, but he knew words might not be the only way he would be able to get his point across. This human might need to feel his will through a little battle. Plus he needed the either test this human or show him that he wasn't up to the battle. He had been key in fighting the hollow but Kuro felt he would have been able to take the hollow alone if he had to.

"I'm going to show you how I feel with my blade. Noone is worthy of taking up a blade if they cannot take up the will to protect all of the innocent, even the corrupted." With that, Kuro nodded and stepped forward, aiming to clash with the halberd with a horizontal strike to the middle of it's pole and push the human back. If he completed this task he would push the offensive and move even further forward, aiming the flat of his blade to slap across the right cheek of the human. It wouldn't be hard enough to bruise but merely cause a bit of sharp pain to knock some sense into him.

Kuro needed to drive his message home. It was important to him that the human understood his position, job, and feelings on the matter. This wasn't about fun or understanding the hollows for Kuro. This was about the duty he held each time he drew his blade. Every time he took part in battle it might have given him an endorphin burst, but he did not relish the pain that brought the need for his blade to become useful. Every hollow had experienced some awful feeling to bring them to their path of corruption and Kuro knew this personally as he had come very close to being corrupted himself. He might even tell this human about it, but for now this battle was more important than words.

[Raphael Laurent]

“Well, if we fullbringers had the ability to purify the ghosts and remove that corruption, then I’d love to help out, but unfortunately, we do not.” As he replied, he still held the halberd firmly in his hands. Oddly, though he held it, it didn’t seem like he was particularly adept at using it. “A big human saying that life is only worth what you make it worth. If you look at most people? Yeah, they turn their lives into all about paper and graphs. But there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Really? ‘who I am with my blade’? What kind of dumb shit is he talking about? Then again, they are a warrior kind of institution, I suppose. Perhaps he’s been trained for this kind of thing. Raphael held his halberd in front of himself as the Shinigami made to strike and he braced himself for the hit. When it came, he could feel it vibrate up and through his arm, but he didn’t budge. The Shinigami pushed and pushed, kept trying to force him back, but Raphael did not move an inch. He glared at the young man.

“You’ve got a lot of heart and you’ve got a lot of conviction. I can appreciate the sense of duty with which you carry your job. But heart and conviction aren’t enough with the strength to carry you objective through.” He gave a quick push with his halberd to push the man away. He opened his mouth, energy suddenly gathering to him the purple core resting just before his tongue, though it disappeared as quickly as it had come. Standing there, the halberd slowly disappeared as well. “One thing you need to understand is that most humans don’t tend to favor Shinigami much. Usually we just kinda put up with you all because there are superiors that say wedo,or we’re trying to be nice. So, keep that in mind, yeah?”

[Kuro Adachihara]

Kuro grunted with his strikes, trying to make a dent. It was obviously futile to attempt any further fighting. He could feel the end of his spiritual energy approaching from having used the shunpo. It was obviously not his strong suit to use such energy based abilities. Kuro took up a quick defensive stance, jumping back and holding his sword up as he saw the glow of the purple energy flash and began culminating in front of the human's tongue. But just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished, dissipating before his eyes. The attack might have been very dangerous to attempt defending against, but Kuro had been ready to try.

With a huff, Kuro stood up straight and turned away from the human, having noticed the end to the attack as a way of saying that this was over. "It seems that this fight is over... And I will become stronger. You Humans may live your lives how you wish, but do not disgrace those of us who have the choice of sacrificing ourselves or enjoying an afterlife." He then sheathed his blade and used his shunpo to disappear off into the distance.

Where Kuro stopped was a block away, on top of a house with a blue roof and made of brick painted white. He summoned the need for the senkaimon by using his cellphone shaped device, signaling it's need with the push of a button. The bright paper doors appeared, shimmering into existence and parting open to a blinding light. Kuro stepped through, giving a sigh. Although he had completed the job, he felt he would need to decide if he should omit the meeting with the human or simply mark the paperwork as a clean and simple job. He wasn't entirely sure, but he would have to decide sooner or later...

[Raphael Laurent]

He watched the Shinigami with a slightly annoyed gaze, ready to continue the fight. If the Shinigami even so much as tried another attack, then Raphael was going to start taking this seriously. He didn’t want to hurt him, but the dumb son of a bitch, just seemed hell bent on a fight. He was trying to warn him with the blast charging up, but he’d been ready to try and block it, as futile as that would’ve been. That’s partially what had worried Raph, was that he WOULD try and block it. Last thing he wanted was some kind of inquest into why he’d injured a Shinigami.

The kid, though, seemed to pout when Raph stopped, as if he’d wanted it to continue. Raph was suddenly relieved that he’d decided to stop it when he did. “No shit the fight is over…” Raph muttered, as Kuro utilized the Shinigami shunpo to leave. “I’m not about to maim and/or injure you for the sake of whatever need you have to prove yourself, kid.” He sighed, shaking his head and stretching a bit. “Make sure that you don’t disgrace those of us that are living, too.”

Had he been alone? Raph couldn’t still handled that, but without knowing what kind of metaphysical hell that would unleash, he wasn’t in a hurry to try it. Still, that Shinigami needed to understand that quantifying data, like the average power of beings that appeared, was typical when trying to predict when what would appear. “But no…” Raph muttered, as he started to walk away from the area. “Just fly off the handle at me cuz I have to be concerned about MY area of reality and the HUMAN people that live here! I…” He sighed heavily and started walking away. “Eh, whatever. He’s a decent enough guy, I guess… Just hope he doesn’t try to fight me again, if we ever meet….”

[Col Arana]

I count 65 paragraphs, which for a JT works out to 325 TP awarded to each of you. Good job.