Getting Hard to Hide [closed/Shizuka]

[Akira Nakamura]

Akira walked through downtown Tokyo, smiling to himself as he went. It had been so cold recently that it was a good day to go to be off of work; that is, until he heard his phone go off and he grimaced. Thankfully, it wasn’t work telling him to come in, but it wasn’t much better; Akihiro Sato, the leader of their ghost hunting side venture, wanted everyone to meet at a café. He sighed. It was beginning to be made more and more aware to him that there were strong spiritual presences in this city as well as many spiritually aware beings in it. He’d missed an extremely odd event that had happened in Karakura when he’d been sent to America for a business trip. The café wasn’t too far from where he was now and, in lieu of having anything better to do with his day, he turned around and headed towards the café.



When he arrived, he found that Sato-kun was already there and having a tea while looking over a tablet. Had he prepared an actual check-list?? Or was this another job that he’d gotten lined up that he wanted to look over with everyone first? Akira sighed, hoping that it wasn’t the first one. If so, he’d have to double check over them. Normally, though, Sato was bad at choosing these things and always found ones that weren’t actually haunted by anything, or only had a spirit chained to it that Akira was usually able to talk down. He remembered the last spirit they’d found that kept telling them to leave, hitting all the cliches. They’d had a hell of a time with that once. The spirit of a kid that wanted to play kept messing with his friends and Akira couldn’t help but laugh at the footage later.



“Alright, Sato-kun, I’m here. What’s up? Your text said that it was urgent and that we should all get here as fast as we could.” Akira sat down with a cup of coffee that he’d bought from inside, and looked at his friend. The other man, seeing Akira, quickly smiled and started nodding, while poking at his tablet.



“Yeah! Take a look! I’ve got a bunch of different places that we could check out! Wanna see ‘em?” Akira nodded and took the tablet that Sato offered him. “See, Nakamura-kun?” He jabbed his finger at two different places. Both looked more dilapidated than haunted. “This place, this old house, has a bunch of noises coming from it, at all hours! Doesn’t make any sense, right? Why in the world would any place that looks this crummy have strange sounds at all hours of the day???”



Akira took a drink of his coffee as he looked at the tablet. “All kinds of reasons. I mean, the house looks like its about to fall apart, the roof is probably leaking, which means that the wood is bending as it absorbs too much water. I mean, sure, it could be haunted, but it also might not be.” He scrolled down to the next one. “Hmm… This one seems a bit more promising… Things floating around an old kitchen, voices heard in the dead of night…” That was when he stopped. While he wasn’t amazing at feeling energy, never had been, there was something that seemed to be coming towards them. The power was vast, even more so than his own teacher’s had been.



“You…ok there, Akira?”



“Hm? Oh, yeah. I’m fine. I just realized that my boss is probably gonna have me pull overtime next week… I’m not looking forward to it, but like I was saying…” He decided to ignore it. Maybe whatever, or whoever, it was would simply ignore or even miss him entirely.

[Shizuka Sanamizu ✮]

With arms raised upwards, Shizuka stretched hard enough to pop her own sternum. She sighed and trailed both of her hands down her hair which she'd chosen to wear straight for the day. No ties, no headbands, nothing. Just down. It reached down to her waist in this style and glowed the lovely, bleached-blonde she'd had since she was sixteen. She just couldn't force herself to go back to her natural brunette color anymore. She was known as a blonde now! How could she disappoint all of her zero fans? She couldn't fathom.

It was a lovely day, too. How long had it been since she was last in Tokyo? Time away was menacing for her work. She'd left Xcution in the care of the remaining members, sending them love notes and care packages over the last several months. She wanted her employees to feel appreciated and even promised to up their salaries upon her return. They deserved it after dealing with the lack of a CEO for so long. The Fullbringer sighed and breathed in, enjoying the familiar smell of the town and all the life it had to offer.

Walking down the streets, she seemed to notice that no one was paying as much attention to her as they used to. It's not like she had changed, but Shizuka used to be a pretty big name in Tokyo. Nowadays, after her absence, she didn't have as much clout. If anyone challenged her, they'd soon remember who she was, but she was enjoying the lack of recognition. It was only a matter of time before that backfired, so this would be a welcome thing for the moment until it all went back to how it used to be.

Her heels clacked against the cement beneath her feet as she walked down the sidewalk, looking for a cafe to suit her needs. She was in a Spring-y outfit to match her shoe Fullbring so that she could wear them without feeling out of place. It was a blessing and a curse to have her weapon's dormant form be a pair of golden heels. She either had to dress to wear them or carry them in a bag, but either way, she needed to be prepared at all times. So, for the moment, this worked out. At the time, all she was looking for was a chai to sip on as she wandered through the city, and a smile curved its way across her lips as her eyes spotted exactly what she wanted.

Stopping dead in her tracks, Shizuka redirected herself towards the cafe and propelled forwards, ignoring the crowd of people around her. They weren't paying her any attention anyway, but something was pulling her in that direction with such vigor that she could only imagine what it meant. She assumed this was her body telling her that she desperately wanted the chai, especially since her heightened senses could already smell one that another customer had purchased. She was excited. It wasn't often that she was able to relax like this. Her hiatus had definitely come to a close, but this was deserved.

"Excuse me," the Fullbringer spoke softly, so as not to disturb the cafe patrons, "can I please have a medium chai latte? No water. Whole milk is totally fine."

The woman opened up her bag and pulled out her wallet to pay. Once she was finished, she stepped off to the side and felt a sudden burst of energy flow through her body. It was as if something was telling her there was another one similar to herself in this space. It was almost like whatever beckoned her to the cafe in the first place, but way stronger and definitely way more demanding. She observed the patrons, eyeing them one by one until she came across an olive-skinned man with dark hair. He didn't look much older than her.

A woman behind the counter got Shizuka's attention, so the Fullbringer thanked the woman and grabbed her chai. She kept staring at the man and sniffed the air in his direction as if that was what would tell her what his race was. He was spiritually aware. He was a spiritual being. And judging by the familiarity of his Reiatsu signature... He was a Bount. Shizuka felt anxious. The last Bount she had come in any real contact with was... him. And he was nowhere to be found. She took a deep breath, calming her nerves, and walked up to the table with the two men.

"Um, I'm so sorry to interrupt, but I overheard you guys talking about something kind of interesting. Are you into ghosts, too?"

Shizuka was talking much more meekly than she normally did. She was the type to throw herself into conversations and flirt her way into getting some answers, but she was also incredibly adept at reading social situations. Something told her that these two wouldn't appreciate someone with that kind of outspoken nature, so she toned it back significantly. She actually half-expected to be waved off, but she was invested now. She'd just have to wait and see if they would accept her or reject her from their topic.

[Akira Nakamura]

As good a day as it was, the power wasn’t going further away and was, in fact, coming closer. He didn’t like that; for all he knew it could be a shinigami in disguise, or a fullbringer either of which could want to kill him. Though, it had been a long time since such a thing had happened, he still had that fear in his head. Akihiro obviously noticed but instead of saying anything, he simply kept watching Akira, sipping on his drink and nonchalantly gazing at the tablet. Akihiro was the first friend Akira had made, well during this latest iteration of a life, and he knew well enough when Akira was afraid then it wasn’t anything good.

Before he could even blink, the signature was on top of them, and a young woman appeared beside them with a coffee. She asked if they were interested in ghosts. Immediately Akihiro paid no attention to Akira’s discomfort and began to nod and gesture to the tablet.

“Right, so we run a ghost detection show online where we go into haunted houses and try to find evidence of ghosts!” He chuckled as if he didn’t believe what he was saying himself and then threw an arm around Akira’s shoulder. “Akira here helps us find the best places AND tends to be able to keep the ghosts away from us! I don’t know how he does it.” Akihiro might’ve laughed, but it was true, in a way. He tended to force what few demi-hollows they ran into to back off. Normally he would laugh off his friend’s “praise” but in this case he’d wished that Akihiro hadn’t said anything about it… Whoever this was, he wanted her to be thinking about what Akira could do as little as possible.

When it came to other spiritual entities and/or spiritually aware entities, he was doing his best to hide. He fed as little as possible, only enough to not be starving, didn’t show off any supernatural abilities, except for to make the show more exciting… There were a lot of variables to take into account when meeting others. What was their experience with previous bounts? How did they feel about bounts in general? And, most importantly, would they want to kill one that was living as normal a human life as possible.

“Indeed. It’s a rather fascinating show, though we don’t have too many followers, so I don’t know if you’ve heard of it.” Akira had finally decided to speak up, despite wanting to avoid attention from this newcomer. Where in the hell were the other two? They still had to finish planning for tonight!

[Shizuka Sanamizu ✮]

Shizuka smiled invitingly, somewhat embracing herself as she wrapped her left arm around her waist with her chai in hand, and rested her chin gently on her right index finger. These two were classic newbies. She'd heard the whole song and dance before. They could see ghosts, blah blah blah, they could somehow fight them off and never knew how, yadda yadda, and the biggest thing she'd always heard from each of them: "What am I?" Yep. It's been ten years since she discovered her own powers. Or rather, since they were forced out of her. With every fiber of her being, she could tell what this person was. Luckily for him, this Fullbringer could control herself.

"No, that's amazing! It's almost as if you're encountering some strange spiritual beings on your journeys! Y'know, Hollows, Fullbringers, Shinigami, those kinds of things. Oh! Ha, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. That's so funny! Let me make it a bit easier."

With a swift movement from her resting right hand, Shizuka used her basic ability of Soul Command and shifted the wind behind her in such a way that inhibited sound from carrying much at all, hiding her conversation with the man in front of her. His friend would likely be confused, but that didn't matter. This was the easiest way to handle him without putting on too much a show, and it was nonchalant enough to where that friend would probably ask questions later but not think about it too hard at the moment. The Fullbringer unwrapped her arms, placed her chai on the table, quietly promised it that she'd finish it later, and leaned down to look directly into the eyes of her new target.

"Akira, right? My name is Shizuka Sanamizu. I'm the CEO of Xcution and a Fullbringer. I know what you are. Your friend can't hear me right now, but I'm going to have to fix that in just a few seconds. I can explain everything to you, but you need to come with me."

She leaned back up without breaking eye contact, grabbed her cup once more, took a few remaining sips, and held it down to her side with her opposite hand on her hip. With a pleased grin plastered back on her face, Shizuka ceased the air manipulation and allowed Akira's friend to hear properly again. With that, she simply stepped back and paused, waiting for some form of acceptance for her offer. The truth was that she always needed new recruits, and he was no exception. Bounts had extreme levels of potential when fully developed. She wanted another one.

"Does that sound good? I know you're probably busy," she started, enjoying being able to play both sides of the fence, "but I would love nothing more than to talk to you all about this stuff! Think you can go?"

[Akira Nakamura]

He watched as she smiled a little warmly, practically holding herself with one arm with her tea in her other hand. She seemed to be analyzing the two of them, himself and Sato-kun. Unfortunately for her, he knew all about fullbringers and their powers but Sato-kun knew absolutely nothing. Worse still, she seemed to be pushing him, knowing that he knew more than he was letting on about. He took a small breath, looking at her. What in the hell did she want…? Worse still, she began going on and on about everything that Sato would have no idea of. Meanwhile, as she spoke, Sato-kun kept staring at her confused. He didn’t need to know…

That was when it happened, there was a sudden shift of the wind that flew in such a way that very little sound moved over Sato-kun. His friend raised his hands, trying to shield himself from the freak wind that had suddenly been brought in. Akira glanced from Sato and then to the woman before the two of them that was causing the wind, and sighed. He didn’t want to drop the charade in front of Sato-kun but it couldn’t be helped. He remembered the many defenses that he had once had prepraed for shit just like this, but now? No. Using up all of his reiatsu to seal away Jestish had made things so much harder. Sometimes he regretted it but, if he was lucky, then he could talk his way out of this.

As she introduced herself he felt his stomach drop. While Xcution wasn’t a group that he’d been actively avoiding, but it wasn’t one that he’d been all that excited to meet. He watched Shizuka closely, his gaze never shifting from her eyes as she leaned forward and then pulled back to her full height. Xcution… That’s not good… I know what they tend to do. Though I’m rather surprised that Aura isn’t with them. I suppose she truly wants to lead the bounts to a better tomorrow… a better future. I only wish that I could believe in something like that. Why in the hell does she want to speak with a lowly, powerless, being like myself?

“…very well. But I’ll need to come up with something to get rid of Sato-kun, if you’ll give me a few moments.” The wind died down and Akira turned to Sato, about to tell him a little fib as to why he would have to go with Shizuka when suddenly the man’s phone rang.

“Hello? W… Hold on, Inoue-chan slow down, I can’t understand you! What?! Oh my god, are you ok? What about your husband? Th-the hospital?! Ok, I’ll be there soon.” He shut off the phone and turned to Akira. “Akira, I’ve gotta get going. Inoue-san’s husband apparently got into a wreck and she’s heading to the hospital right now! She’s heading down to the hospital on Tokyo. Whenever you get done with your other friend, meet us there!” Waving at both Akira and Shizuka, Sato-kun turned and started running towards his car.

“Alright, Shizuka,” he muttered, stretching out his shoulders a bit. “I’m ready to go. Whatever you want to talk about.”

[Shizuka Sanamizu ✮]

With a smile on her face, Shizuka grabbed Akira and very quickly gulped down what remained of her chai before throwing the cup away and exiting the cafe. She forced the two of them to walk outside and enjoy the day, thinking about how nice it would be to be able to walk around with her own old Bount friend. Though desperate to try to get those thoughts and memories out of her mind, she realized that was going to be impossible. He left a lasting impression on her in some ways. That wasn't about to change so easily.

"I don't want you to be scared," the Fullbringer started, turning slightly so she could face the man, "I want you to understand that I am here to help you. Judging by how you smell, I would go so far as to say you haven't unlocked the full extent of your powers yet."

Shizuka sniffed the air as if to add a bit of emphasis. She couldn't actually smell anything about how strong he was, but she could somewhat sense it. To focus herself on these details, she'd sniff people. He wasn't about to escape her weird habits that easily. That, and she didn't want to be forced to act so seriously all the time. Shizuka wasn't known for being the serious type in the first place. She was more of a jokester and liked to have fun whenever she could. She didn't want Akira to feel like he had to put up any barriers.

Actually, it would benefit both of them more if he didn't. This was meant to be something casual, and she didn't expect to come across someone like him. Just like everyone else she managed to discover, Akira had potential. He likely knew nothing about it, but it was there. He didn't seem to be as surprised by her earlier antics as she assumed he would be, so he probably knew enough about Fullbringers to get him by. That much was good, at least. It took Shizuka a long time to realize other races existed, and ever since her promotion brought out the ability to sense these people, she was learning more and more.

Upon marching the two of them down the street, the pair were still within eyesight of any passersby in the area. She didn't take him anywhere private, but she did take him outside. The air was nice, the people were all minding their own business, and Shizuka didn't have any reason to fear anyone. Being able to stomp someone into the ground without even touching them came with its perks, and she wanted some answers. If Akira wasn't phased by her yet, then that meant he knew some information she needed to bring to the surface.

She found a small porch table in a cute open area where a fountain maintained the center of beauty. The water was flowing quickly and some of it splashed over in Shizuka's direction. She smiled sweetly once the droplets grazed her skin, enjoying the feeling of being outside and around people again. She had been gone for so long and welcomed this familiarity. Shizuka sat herself down, crossed her legs, and gestured towards the seat across from her so that her date would sit, as well. He probably felt extremely uneasy. They always did when they first met her.

"You know you're a Bount, right? So what all do you know about me? You weren't impressed by my trick earlier. I want to be on the same level of knowledge as you."

[Yuki & Yui Tsumugi]

36 paragraphs counted total, so that'll be 180 TTP for Shizuka~!