The Witch Climbed from the Ditch (Open-Medium-Karakura)

[Shawn Rabuburēdo]

Listening very carefully, Shawn was able to pick up some heavy movements in the hall. Thankfully he decided to place his ear against the door, otherwise they both might have just walked into a situation they wouldn't have been prepared for. Wynne whispered to him that she was ready for whatever he planned on doing, in this case they might as well leave the stairwell. Worst case scenario was a fight ensuing, however, they were prepared thanks to them being cautious.



Quickly exiting the stairwell Shawn readies himself for whatever met be there with them. It looked to be like some strange human who was currently holding a woman by the hair, this might have been the one they heard scream earlier. Unsheathing his Zanpakuto, Shawn raised it up to point at the dangerous individual. "Ho-Hold it right there! What do you think you're doing? Drop the woman or else we will have to fight you." Hoping for a more peaceful outcome and unsure of what this person even was, Shawn would have to wait to find out and see what this thing does next.

[Akio Naito]

Akio quietly stepped out into an empty hall, then casually glanced to either end of it in a failed search of any sign of a source for the prior screaming. They weren't disappointed by the failure; Overshooting the distance hadn't been an unexpected outcome on the spurious quincy's part. They had been entirely aware that neither their mundane nor supernatural senses were enough to pinpoint a sound from that distance, and that was why they tried to make it through on endurance, letting loosely coiled determination fill in for the difference for as long as it would hold out.

He awkwardly walked over to the closest door that led into a stairwell, and from there started climbing his way down, stopping at every floor to check for the pair of shinigami or anything that looked like might have been shrieking some minute or two ago. They tried not to dwell on the chance to reconsider that search between floors, quietly continuing past any floor he didn't find anything on. Having already ruled out the ground and top floors, there were only four left to check, making it unclear when they would actually find anything, but unlikely they would miss the ongoing events entirely. Just the price of not stalking directly behind dangerous people with swords, as it were.

[✠Asmoskon Masurao✠]

Wynne and Shawn weren’t the sort to just sit and wait; it seemed as Shawn made the choice to leave the stairwell with Wynne backing him up. Both of them would be able to spot the strange spiritual Husk dragging the woman by her hair. Shawn being the one to speak up directing his attention at the Husk in turn brought its own attention from the woman right to him. It’s decrypted wood like hand releasing the tension allowing the unconscious woman to completely be embraced by the floor. The top half of the Husk’s skull is gone with only a small amount of green fire like that of a candle in the actual open space.

It wouldn’t take more than a moment to figure out that this thing didn’t just look like something from a crack addict's nightmares. Rushing both of the Shinigami with no word nor verbal remark. Charging with its upper body slanted downwards similar to a football player, the Shinigami would be able to see the small free fire more clearly as it grows immensely and then encloses on them. Launching off a ball of flames about twice the size of a basketball towards Shawn yet close enough to burn Wynne as well if neither does anything to handle the situation that had just unfolded.

As for the third uninvited guest in the apartment complex. Checking on each floor wasn’t the safest of choices although he stayed out of danger longer than the Shinigami. He wouldn’t find anything until the fighting on the second floor started with the Shinigami. At that point suddenly doors would begin to fling open as Husks on every floor begin to hurry back towards the stairwell. Some of them leaving the victims they’d managed to capture and others carrying them in such a way that the victims would rather be dead already. What was Akio going to do though since none had noticed him yet? Would he follow the Husks or try to help the Shinigami when he could hear the fight had started?

[Wynne Kuchiki]

As Shawn ordered the vaguely humanoid figure to let go of the woman, Wynne already had her arm raised at the culprit. Judging from its stance, she highly doubted it was going to let go just from her partner’s words. She knew from experience that situations such as this rarely tended to work in their favor. And sure enough, she was proven correct a moment later when the creature charged towards the two.

She called it a creature because judging from the green fire flickering in its skull, there was nothing else it could be called. Without a brain, how was such a thing even functioning? Thoughts for another time seeing as she currently had other more pressing concerns. Such as the approaching monster that was closing in on the two quite fast.

Taking a few steps backwards from Shawn, Wynne dove towards the left as a ball of flames launched towards her partner. Unfortunately as much as she wanted to help him, she didn’t have anything defensive in her repertoire, forcing her to only take evasive measures. Still, she could make the creature regret taking such an action against her friend!

Raising her arm once more at the charging creature, Wynne began her chant for her Kido. "Arise god of thunder! Awake mother of storms! Unleash the lighting on the sinners!" Launching the bolt of lightning at the creature’s glowing head, Wynne hoped that Shawn made it out of the fire all right. Due to him being in the front, he was forced to deal with the majority of the attack while she was able to more easily avoid it due to being further in the back. These close quarters were an annoyance for ranged users such as themselves, but there wasn’t much they could do about it.

~~~

Reiatsu: 475/500 Remaining
Reiatsu Strength of Byakurai: 83

SPOILER: Click to show

{Byakurai}Technique Name: Hado #4: Byakurai (Pale Lightning)

Class: 7

Technique Type: Kido

Technique Element: Thunder

Technique Description and Effects: The user fires a concentrated, powerful lightning bolt from their finger that pierces a target.

How to use technique: Speak the spell and point hand at the target.

Incantation and Effect: "Arise god of thunder! Awake mother of storms! Unleash the lighting on the sinners!" When the incantation is spoken, the Reiatsu Strength used to determine the power of Byakurai is increased by 10%. (i.e. 100 Reiatsu Strength is treated as 110.)

[Shawn Rabuburēdo]

This thing barely seemed to act concious, turning to register Shawn and Wynne even existed after the order was given to it. With it's attention on the two Shinigami it was clear this thing had no mind of it's own. With half it's head gone what should have been in the area of it's brain was nothing more than a flickering green flame. Well, it's pretty clear this thing is spiritual in nature, probably being ordered by something in fact because there's no way this thing would have survived long in the world without some help, with this thought going through his mind, Shawn watched as the thing dropped the women and started rushing the two.



As this thing was charging toward them Shawn would witness the small green flame burst forward and launch a decent sized ball of fire at the two. Unsure of what to do he knows there's not much time to react, giving a glance around his immediate position for anything small enough he could grab and toss but big enough to stop the attack from reaching them. If he can't he would also give a quick glance at Wynne behind him, noticing she herself decided to avoid the oncoming ball of flame by moving to the side. Following her initiative he would do the same, although instead of dodging to the left he will try to press himself up against the right side wall.



If this was enough to avoid the attack Shawn would let out a little sigh of relief, however, that was only part of the problem as now he must deal with the husk man getting closer. With little time to think about himself he quickly points his left hand at the creature and silently casting with his thoughts, Bakudo #4: Hainawa, sending a glowing rope of pure white soaring at the Husk. If it hits then the thing would find itself being tied up and restrained by the weird rope, this would also make the Husk a much easier target for Wynne to hit with Byakurai.



Not wasting any time he would also flick his left hand up, down, left and right causing thin strands of string to fly towards the walls, ceiling and floor. Doing this Shawn would create a very fragile net between him and this thing. Why would he do this one might wonder? Thanks to their previous day of practicing and sparing Wynne might pick up on what Shawn was preparing for. If for some reason the Husk would have continued moving towards him, either by breaking through his Hainawa or jus somehow moving while entangled, the husk would find a nasty surprise if it touched the weak looking string. In fact there was a very significant chance that the Husk wouldn't even notice the string before it becomes to late, for if it touches the string Shawn would silently cast with his thoughts Hado #11: Tsuzuri Raiden, this would create lightning that would travel across each strand of string and give the Husk quite a shock with the full power of his 115 Reiatsu Strength.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Reiatsu}Remaining: 475/500 (450/500 if Tsuzuri Raiden was used)
Bakudo #4: Hainawa- 25
Class 8 Advanced Air Arsenal: Air String- 0
If Hado #11: Tsuzuri Raiden was used- 25

[Akio Naito]

On the fifth floor, Akio found nothing but an empty hall lined with doors, and they didn't care. On the fourth, they found a similar absence of anything other than the building itself, and continued on with even less concern. He had just searched two-thirds of the building and nothing to show for it, not even another sound to work off of. That was fine, expected even. Most spirit related investigations turned up nothing, for various reasons. It served as a lesson that as much as he'd lost his skill for slinking around in secrecy, it was an absolute basic requirement if he actually wanted to use his second chance at this kind of thing this actively.

The third floor broke that established pattern, with the sudden arrival of multiple creatures into the hall. With their especially sickly and broken seemings, the Husks had provided the fake quincy with an uncomfortable reminder of something that he had been trying not to acknowledge. So it wasn't much of a surprise that he had slipped right back into the stairwell after having seen one of the creatures in full. Hurrying down the next flight of stairs, he reflexively placed a bandaged hand on one of the steps as he came to a stop on the second floor.

"Earthly serpent!" For a moment, he had thought that he would use one of the reishi-stone pillars he'd placed so much faith in to help his situation, thought he that it would block the steps and form a bulwark enough to at least slow any pursuers. "Flow to the mountain-" He cut off the words once he'd realized he couldn't actually do any of that. The fake quincy had been so used to relying on the subterranean flows of the reimyaku to give form and power to his arts that he hadn't developed any combative spells that didn't require a direct connection to them. And that kind of connection wasn't available above ground level, at least not by any methods he knew. Indoors or on asphalt streets? Not beyond him. But without at least standing on ground level, he was unsure that it was even possible to manipulate reishi on that scale. He'd lost time realizing that, the Husks would be closer than before he'd fled downstairs. Maybe even have walked in on the end of his failed spell if they'd started close enough.

The disheartened sales clerk exited the stairwell onto the second floor, the one with the pair of shinigami, and promptly leaned against a wall opposite the door he'd entered from in the faint hope of getting some measure of his breath back. He'd found them not by the sounds of battle, but by default, by virtue of having been on every single floor of the building, he had arrived at every single wrong answer possible just to end up here. Still dealing with the revelation he'd pushed his luck too far so easily. He had, under the assumption there was only a single spiritual entity in the building besides the two violent gods of the dead he'd already accounted for, used up more of his energy than he would have liked. Together with the basic fact that he hadn't been carrying a weapon, it seemed like he would have to rely on the spirits he'd been hiding from just a minute ago to make up for having lost the majority of his options in order to follow them this far.

[✠Asmoskon Masurao✠]

Evading the green fireball by getting into the floor on the right and pressing oneself against the wall managed to protect both Shinigami although once they began to move they’d notice they didn’t get away unscathed. The black of Wynne’s legs and feet would feel sore while Shawn’s side that faced the fireball would feel the same. The soreness would be comparable to a purple bruise, something that causes pain when moved or any pressure is put on them, but not enough to keep one from going about the day. A strange thing to occur from a fireball yet even stranger still this creature didn’t stop.

The bolt of lightning that Wynne casted was small and thin like most Shinigami that had just started fresh from the academy yet it was still potent enough to punch through metal. An attack that should easily pierce through the strangely wooden body of this creature. What happened instead though was the creature lowered its head once again meeting the blue bolt of lightning with its green flame. The lightning seeped into the fire causing it to grow more in size as the kido was absorbed. One cast another cast just before the creature reached the caster Shawn.

Hainawa managed to wrap around the creature, binding it while the Shinigami set up a thin vein of string in the hallway. This was the moment that would seem almost horrific as the stairwell door opens revealing a few more of these creatures right beside Shawn! The two Shinigami hadn’t moved away from the entrance and thus were now cornered with the only escape further down the hallway. Hainawa though wasn’t holding up anymore as the kido like the bolt of lightning was pulled into the green flame. In the moment that followed the creature would touch the string wall.

Lightning coursing through the creature’s body instantly caused something different to happen as the wooden body cracked and crumbled down. Everything happened in little more than a moment as the creature that they’d been dealing with was dealt a lethal blow. The green flame in its skull had grown bigger after absorbing two different kido, the body crumbling down causing the flame to become wild bursting outward in all directions. Wynne would be the one to suffer the least with only the noise of the fiery explosion causing her what one could assume to be a mild headache. Shawn though would be knocked off his feet backwards with bruising across his entire front almost as if he’d been beaten to turn purple on purpose. Thankfully though the other creatures that’d opened the door didn’t survive. Triggering one explosion after another that brought down the stairway eliminating that option from the building.

As for Akio the class Quincy who’s managed to get into the hallway in the confusion of combat well thankfully for him he had positioned himself on the wall right beside Wynne yet further down the hallway. Like Wynne he’d suffer from the noise of the explosions and with some minor bruising to his front, but nothing compared to the Shinigami male. Now all three spiritual entities were together and a good portion of the Husks had been dealt with although each was hurt to varying degrees. They had knowledge now, were they going to be able to figure out what had just happened and use it to their advantage though? Either way the decrypted woman grew stronger and eventually wouldn’t need to sit and gather herself anymore.

[Wynne Kuchiki]

Wynne’s impromptu dodge was semi successful and she managed to get away with only a slight bruise at the edge of her legs. Not too bad considering the other outcomes that could have occurred. Unfortunately her attack was absorbed by the weird flames on the creature's head. Which made them grow in size once her lightning made contact. Before she could follow up with another attack, more reinforcements appeared for their opponents from below, bursting up from behind! They must have been in hiding since Wynne was sure they would have noticed them otherwise. Unfortunate, but there was nothing they could do about it now.

Thankfully Shawn’s string wall quickly remedied the situation, albeit with explosive results. She wasn’t sure if it was because of all the kido the creature absorbed or the damage it sustained, but for some reason, it chose to explode upon death, bombarding the group. Thankfully due to her position, she only suffered from the noise, giving her a mild headache. Judging from what she could see, Shawn was flung backwards and into a wall. Her friend was made of sterner stuff, so Wynne was pretty sure he was okay. Hopefully. The other creatures weren’t. Judging from the remnants that remained of them. Same went for the stairway. Which was now no longer accessible for them. Alas.

They also seemed to have a new arrival. Not like the creatures though. Some sort of spiritual aware human, judging from the way he could see here. “Do you know what’s going on here?” Giving the man a wary look, Wynne headed over to check on Shawn to make sure he was okay. Her partner had taken the brunt of the damage over this course of the fight and she wanted to make sure he was okay. Without his strings, she was sure she’d be the one being flung all over the hallways. “You okay Shawn, that fall looked kind of nasty.”

[Shawn Rabuburēdo]

Pressing up against the wall was enough for Shawn to dodge the strange fireball, the problem though is for some reason the front of his body felt extremely sore. It currently felt like he layed down and allowed someone to keep smacking his front side with a wooden plank. Every movement was painful, but pain had to be pushed through if he wanted to protect people from this creature currently beginning to charge at them.



It was at this time Shawn watched the Byakurai zip pass his left, it would have been a good attack if the monster didn't have some strange ability to absorb reiatsu. Following Wynne's initiative, Shawn let's out a Hainawa which stopped the thing for a moment. Sadly the excitement for this positive outcome was short lived, as this is when multiple of the same creature began funneling out of the staircase. If that wasn't bad enough the Hainawa restraining the first abomination was being absorbed into it's flame just like the Byakurai.



Quickly making a web using Advanced Air Arsenal: Air Strings was probably the best thing he could have done at the moment, for as the creature reached his web and felt the surge of his Tsuzuri Raiden it exploded. If only it exploded father from him though, on the other hand it caused a chain reaction causing the deaths of all of the same creatures coming from the stairwell. Thanks to the explosion Shawn was sent backwards and roughly smacked into the wall, it seems today was not his day to avoid getting hurt. At least he wasn't dead or immobilized, attempting to get up he hears when speak to someone. Of course he was to preoccupied trying to get up after having his entire body essentially bruised to really listen.



Finally getting up Shawn does a few stretches to ensure nothing is broken or out of joint, which lucky for him there wasn't. He then hears Wynne ask if he's ok, "Yeah, if not bruised from my head to my toes, but I'm still able to continue." Looking where the group of enemies were prior he notices the Stairwell is no more in existence, "Well, I guess we have to find another way out, any Ideas?"

[Akio Naito]

Akio shook their head in the aftermath of the explosion, trying to clear out the sudden and disorienting pain it caused. His eyes had welled up with tears when the blastwave washed over him. It hadn't been a severe injury on its own, but the unsightly bruising it caused had overlapped with his preexisting wounds to a serious effect. Given that the night in general seemed to have been a hubris check he'd walked right into; He took that as a reminder he was actually more vulnerable to most attacks than an average human would have been.

"There were more of those, on the upper floors." Body still pressed against the wall for support, and uncomfortable under the shinigami's gaze, he stared into one of his gauze-wrapped hands and experimentally flexed his fingers, unsure how much of a hindrance the bruising would be. "Or there were. It appeared they were rushing to leave." He continued, unsure if the entities had escaped in the time since he'd become aware of them, or if they'd made it out of the building during the last few seconds of chaos. Really he didn't know anything about the creatures other than that they were disturbing and explosive, and even those observations had cost him.

"If you need a way downstairs, start by checking if the elevator still operates." The overwhelmed time castle employee glanced around for any signs of an emergency exit or fire escape separate from the main stairwell that might offer an alternative route back to the ground floor; If such a thing existed, he would try and move towards it without getting too far from a wall to lean on, and especially avoiding coming within arms reach of either of the shinigami in the hall. If not, he would stay in place, unwilling to make sudden movements other than to avoid being reached for or touched.

[✠Asmoskon Masurao✠]

Gathering themselves at a decent rate the small group of spiritual individuals spent the next minute getting ready to take the next step forward towards stopping whatever was causing all this death and destruction in the small apartment complex. While the three of them spoke to one another and tried to figure out the next plan they’d be pleased to find that no new monstrosities came down nor up. The hallway was clear for them to recover as they’d likely find the elevator was still in working order yet nop emergency escape or separate stairwell was available to them. They’d have to make a choice on how to proceed whether they trust each other and use the elevator or find a different way to access the other floors.

As for the decrypted woman she continued to sit on the couch in the first apartment she had managed to access, the only difference now being that she was already starting to look more clean, more aware . . . younger. Something was happening as time went on which only meant that the small group was limited on how much they could plan let alone get to know one another. What would be the next course of action for them to choose while the monstrosities still remaining spread out some even outside the building to find more victims for their lady.

(Sorry for the long wait everyone.)

[Akio Naito]

Without a fire escape in sight, Akio paced over to the elevator and tapped the button with intent to summon it, keeping his back to a wall for both support and to prevent either stranger from getting behind him. "I have not seen creatures of that variety before. Investigating without an understanding of that was somewhat of a mistake on my part." He hadn't considered what he'd do if it came to fighting another of those things when he reached the ground level. The imitation quincy already knew his only options when presented with serious threats were to run away or cast hashira from a safe distance.

When the elevator arrived, he offered a choice. "Would you two prefer to ride down first? Or would you rather that I went ahead?" The offer was clearly built on the premise that he could not, or rather would not, descend to ground level at the same time as the pair. As far as he was concerned, shinigami were genuine gods, and temperamental ones at that. Not beings he would dare bump into while crammed into a standard sized elevator.

[Shawn Rabuburēdo]

The other person in the hall with both Shawn and Wynne currently had their back right up against the wall. Which of course Shawn understood why, he himself was also in a lot of pain. It felt like he had been switched from head to toe, thankfully though that's all it seemed to be. Pain was a lot better to deal with than an actual injury, even if the pain did make it more difficult to move with ease.



"I have not seen creatures of that variety before. Investigating without an understanding of that was somewhat of a mistake on my part." Listening to the new person Shawn would nod to their words. "I also have never encountered creatures like that, I should be glad they only seemed to cause pain instead of killing me outright." Looking around it was clear the stairs were no longer an option. Thankfully he had a way back down to to lower floors, even if it was going out of the way. Though the Human that was currently with them began hitting some kind of button on the wall, which confused he tremendously.



Suddenly the double door next to the buttons opened up showing a small boxed room that might fit 4 or 5 people in it. "Would you two prefer to ride down first? Or would you rather that I went ahead?" Shawn would immediately cock his head to the left questioningly, "Ride down what? I don't see a vehicle of any sort, let alone one that might be in a building to go up and down floors." It was finally now that his age was catching up to him, or should I say his lack of time spent in the Human World since his death over 200 years ago.



"I was just planning on going out that window at the end of the hall, use air ground to walk down to the next floors window." With that said he would already be moving, walking towards the end of the hall were the window was. Thankfully this portion of the hall went unscathed, the window was even still perfectly in tact. Opening it up wide he would climb over and through the opening, using air ground to form solid footing for him to stand in the air. Using air ground he would then make his way downward, almost as if he was on a spiral staircase before stopping at the window on the next floor down and looking in at the hall.

[✠Asmoskon Masurao✠]

Akio wasted no time in going for the elevator making sure that he’d be able to get down off the floor that he’d just entered into, Shawn on the other hand with his lack of current human world knowledge decided to go with what he did have knowledge over and used the reiatsu in the environment to assist his descent. Both of them leaving the hallway where the largest of the damages had taken place so far yet neither of them actually speaking in any important manner to one another or forming any sort of plan. Both of them it seemed would go about finding the cause of this situation alone.

Shawn, currently in the elevator, wouldn't really find any trouble, but when it reached the first floor and the doors opened, he’d hear the noise. The sound these strange creatures gave off like they’re breathing. Although he wouldn’t be able to see one right away it would be obvious that one of them was in the hallway. One of them was close to him so he’d have to make some kind of decision. As for Shawn, well he looked in through the second floor window and would see one more of the creatures walking the hall with virtually all of the doors broken apart. If he didn’t move quickly the creature would spot him and rush towards him as fast as possible jumping through the window in the attempt to grab him in the air.

[Akio Naito]

Not having any form of air-walking technique, Akio took the elevator down out of necessity. The plan was clear enough now that he'd seen the strange souls rushing down the stairs, his own failure to cut them off in a place without any reishi he could draw on, and the explosion that made the thought of actually touching one even less appealing than if it they were just hollows. He had to get to the ground floor, the front entrance would give another bottleneck where he could do-over his plan from the stairs. The downside of the elevator was that he could only wait for it to arrive, but conversely, it had given him the time to catch his breath on the ride down.

The moment the doors finished sliding open, he made a dash for the front door. He wasn't the fastest, especially not with the injuries he'd picked up on the third floor, but Akio only needed to be faster than the creatures he was fighting to make this work. Unless something stopped him on the way there, he would dash his way to the front door, shove it open, and trip in his rush to exit the complex. Tumbling in an awkward and painful roll until he finally came to a stop on his knees, palm pressed to the ground, twisted sideways to watch the door he'd just forced his way past, checking how many enemies he attracted in his loud and admittedly poorly executed hurry to reach this position.

He started a spell by reflex even before he could process how many enemies were following, aiming at whichever threat was closest, or if none . A faint flow of reiatsu flared to life around his hand, a deep red surrounded by pale blue. "Earthly serpent!" He recited the third incantation of his night as if it had been a prayer for protection, let it establish a connection with the flows of reishi that ran through the earth. "Flow to the mountain peak!" He raised his hand from the ground. There was a slight delay as the reiatsu faded from his arm, and reishi built up beneath the target, after which a meter-high pillar of stone would burst from the ground.

SPOILER: Click to show

{OOC}[Reiatsu] - [370/400]

Hashira;
OS Type - RS
OS Value - 40
Cost - 30 units of Reiatsu.