Neither here Norway [Joint Training, NDE, Shiho, Kane]

[Shiho Matsuri]

The Senkaimon closed behind Shiho and she adjusted her glasses as she steadied a somewhat ragged breath. It was just nerves, she could handle the job she was given just fine. They wouldn’t send her out without anyone accompanying her if she couldn’t. That’s what the rational part of her assured the part that was worried she hadn’t done enough to prepare for a solo mission. She took a look around the foreign city, why had she thought it was a good idea to say she knew Norway when she had only passingly remembered reading a bit about it years ago. She shoved the negativity down to the quietest part of her thoughts on the matter, she could go back after resolving the case she had come to deal with. She wrote down the basic details, she wasn’t familiar with the language that much so at least she could navigate to the correct street.


She was looking for a single Hollow, not that in particular was out of the ordinary for a soul reaper to deal with, even one that had just come from the academy. No, the thing that bothered her is the location and number of casualties. Supposedly only a single living human had been killed before the Hollow retreated, it spoke to either more intelligence or some other part she wasn’t seeing. She started repeating the street name to herself. ”A-cur-saga-ta, A-cur-saga-ta.” She wasn’t saying it correctly but she couldn’t help the accent as she tracked down Akersgata, near the parliament building. Nothing was amiss of course, but that’s because the site had already been cleaned up by squad six. She tried to look for some spiritual presence but… there obviously wouldn’t be anything strong enough for her to detect with how little experience she had trying to do just that.

She bit down on her thumb nail, of course the Hollow wasn’t just going to be lingering around after it had already been chased off once. She could try looking for other spirit beings that knew something, if there was a Plus somewhere in the city that’d be a good way to start. She shivered a little bit, starting that conversation was going to be difficult even if she did find one, and she wondered if it would even be possible to communicate correctly with anything that lived around here in the first place. She sighed to let the tension out, she’d just have to be patrolling town then and hoping she was in the right place at the right time. She started down the street, it wasn’t going to be as easy as she had wanted it. She could at least repeat those kido chants to herself and she’d get the hang of one eventually.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Stats and Skills}Stats: Before Type/After Type
Strength: 40 / 30
Speed: 50
Riatsu Strength: 40 / 30
Spiritual Pressure: 50 /62
Instinct: 50 / 75
Senses: 25
Energy Sense: 25
Light Aura: 0
Dark Aura: 100
Healing Expertise: 0

Skills 7/15

Mental
Analyzing (Free) 1
Learning 1
Strength of Will 1
Memory 1

Battle
Battle Analysis 1


Body
Focused Eye 1
Mental Incantation 1

Utility
Animal Handling 1

[Kane Coo]

Kane found himself in a town that was more dangerous than the average Norwegian town. Not only had there been a hollow attack, but a group of shinigami had come to clean up the mess and replace human memories. The former Beast clansman turned rogue through violent experimentation avoided the worst of it, not being attacked by the hollow or found by squad 6. But he was the tastiest target for the hollow in the area, having much more spirit energy than the average plus. Having no special ability to sense energy, Kane could only hope for a warning before he was attacked. Or something else to lure the creature out. The latter seemed to be more attainable as a Senkaimon opened up to let out a singular Shinigami.

Stalking her silently with his Stealth skills, Kane watched as she talked to herself. He didn't understand the meaning of the word she used, the landmark she was looking for, so he'd be no help there. But from his vantage point behind her, he did catch out of the corner of his eye something that caught his attention. Something shiny. Unable to help himself, he left his hiding place to go for the shiny thing, whatever it was. It was a pesky shiny thing that kept moving on him, darting between alleys and buildings like a diamond ring on a string. When he finally caught up with it, his cover completely blown by knocking over a cafe table along the way, he grabbed the basketball sized shiny crystal rock. It was a mistake though, as that same rock was the tail of the hollow that Shiho was tracking.

This hollow was tall, at least eight feet tall, with crystal orbs all down its spine culminating in the tail orb much bigger than the rest. The tail flicked outward at the birdman grabbing it, sending him backwards and towards a wall. Unable to recover fast enough, Kane hit the wall with enough force to cause the parasite in his shoulder to eat at his Life Force. He was getting used to this draining all too familiarly. Rubbing at his leather cloak which hid his shoulder bakkoto parasite, he readied himself for the fight against the hollow. Hopefully Shiho would notice the interaction and come help, but there was always the possibility that she'd attack Kane too. He never could fully trust those black garbed sword wielders...

Remaining Reiatsu: 750/750
Remaining Life Force: 650/750 (-100)

SPOILER: Click to show

{Stats/Skills}

Strength - [50] (x1.25) {63} Points

Speed - [50] Points

Spiritual Pressure - [50] (x1.5) {75} Points

Reiatsu Strength - [50] (x.7) {35} Points

Light Aura - [50] Points

Dark Aura - [50] Points

Instinct - [50] Points

Senses - [100] (x.75) {75} Points

Energy sensory - [0] Points

Healing Expertise - [0] Points


Total SP: [350] Points




Abilities


[Mental: Imitation] {1}
[Utility: Stealing] {1}
[Battle: Weapons: Axe] {1}
[Utility: Other: Guitar] {1}
[Body: Acrobatics] {1}
[Body: Stealth] {1}

[Shiho Matsuri]

She was starting to think that traveling the way she was just had no value, there wasn’t even housing in the way. She turned a corner towards the shopping district, the Hollow had attacked in the day last time too, maybe it liked causing confusion and panic. She hadn’t actually expected to find anything until she heard a crash followed by a crack of something smacking against stone. She got onto the main street, a practical ghost town at this time in the morning, to see the eight foot creature. It was covered in shiny crystals or something similar and it was standing over… She had almost assumed it was another Hollow but the bird man didn’t look like he had a mask. She filed him under ‘something else’ having not seen many Beast Clan she resolved to figure it out later. What she did know right now though was the Hollow was attacking a Tengu of some sort, and she didn’t much like the image it evoked of having it possibly biting into a bird.

She wasn’t quiet but she didn’t need to be either, she just guessed that it would be right handed. She focused the Reiatsu on her feet and took the step, so much faster than she could have managed without. she reappeared right behind it a little to the right trying to swing her sword the way she had been taught, the drawing swing nicked it’s arm slightly as it noticed her as soon as she stopped moving with Shunpo and moved to the side. She dodged to the right before she even checked for a counter, something with a weapon on its tail would obviously use that to attack. She was right, the crystal ball flew past inches away from where her torso had just been. She couldn’t afford to get tunnel vision but she also couldn’t afford to get distracted.

She had landed a few feet from the tengu as the Hollow reassessed it’s chances now that it was faced with the prospect of a two on one. Shiho breathed a little more quickly than she needed to, a real fight was a scary prospect. She didn’t stop looking at the Hollow though, she wanted to make sure it didn’t eat the Tengu either. ”Hey, are you okay Mr. Tengu. You should get away from these things, it’s dangerous.” She basically whispered it, so it was unlikely that he even heard her as she brandished her sword in a rather amateurish way, it was pretty obvious that she didn’t have ‘real’ experience using a sword. Her mind was focused on trying to figure out what it would do next, she twitched a little every moment it didn’t attack, almost commiting to dodging an attack that hadn’t yet been launched.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Reiatsu Pool}Current/Max
570/620

SPOILER: Click to show

{Technique}Shunpo 50 Reiatsu

[Kane Coo]

The Shinigami that Kane had been stalking Flash Stepped to his side, attacking the Hollow and avoiding its tail attack narrowly. The cut to its arm didn't seem to bother it much, but it did grunt in frustration towards the two that had been bothering it. Getting down on all fours, crystal spine orbs arched upwards like a hissing cat, the baseball sized orbs detached and began to float around it like a set of defensive shields. They were so shiny, Kane was determined to get one. But he realized that they were dangerous and the Hollow would likely need to be dead first before he could claim one, if any survived the hollow being purified.

The Shinigami whispered to him, showing to Kane that she was on his side, for now. His hearing was above average than that of the normal human, so he heard her, just barely. ”Hey, are you okay Mr. Tengu. You should get away from these things, it’s dangerous.” His head cocked to the side like a listening bird, he mimicked her voice and echoed out a few words. Some of the words had Shiho's voice, others a deep male voice. "It's okay. Kane Coo are dangerous." The grammar wasn't all there, but his message should come across okay, he hoped. He wanted to let Shiho know his name as well as his confidence in his ability to take care of himself.

Looking around for something that he could use to protect himself, as he didn't have a weapon of his own like the Zanpakutou the Shinigami carried, he settled on a chair. Using his above average strength to snap off a leg of the wooden furniture, he brandished it towards the Hollow surrounding itself with shiny objects. Taking initiative, Kane rushed forwards and took a swing with his "bat" at the swirling orbs around the hollow. He had never played baseball, but the orbs were circling much slower than a standard fastball, so connecting with one of them shouldn't be too troublesome.

However, when he did connect with the crystal, the chair leg suddenly burst into splinters as the orb glowed red and grew two inch spikes all around it. Dangerous indeed. Left without a weapon, again, Kane hopped backwards to observe a little more. How was he supposed to defeat something he couldn't easily hit? He'd have to rely on Shiho and her sword which wouldn't be so easy to shatter even if the orbs grew spikes again. The sword made the rogue very nervous for reasons he couldn't remember, but he'd have to suck it up and trust her. If only he could find a nice strong axe he'd be of more help...

Remaining Reiatsu: 750/750
Remaining Life Force: 650/750

[Shiho Matsuri]

It was doing something, the crystals on it started moving around it like a defensive shield or little moons. She was worried about it, she could guess that it was some sort of defense but she wasn’t sure what they would do if she got closer. She was so focused she nearly jumped when the Tengu… Kane coo? It talked back to her with her own voice and in the middle distinctly not her voice. That was academic though because what actually broke her focus and made her realize what it had done was that it charged the Hollow. ’Is he holding a chair leg?’ Her confusion over this didn’t matter much when it shattered against the now spiky ball. Her brain caught back up to needing to watch the Hollow rather than the Tengu.

It hadn’t moved when Kane had run up to attack it, but did that mean it couldn’t move or that it hadn’t? Did the orbs have different effects, no they likely all did the same thing as a defense, they were moving as well did they have a pattern? She couldn’t track the movements well enough to figure out if they did or not. She was almost certain that she wouldn’t overpower it if they clashed head on, she just didn’t have the physical strength if it could back up its big height. Could she try Kido? ’It’s worth a shot’ She started to move to the other side of it, even if it wasn’t flanking. Hopefully she’d get its attention off of Kane, she could see its gaze following. She had been repeating the incantation in her head over and over for days, she knew what to say.

She held her hand out and her sword fell out of its defensive position. ”"Arise god of thunder! Awake moth-” She didn’t finish the incantation. Her distraction came in the form of one of the balls actually splitting off and shooting at her. It had also grown spikes all over and she aborted her casting stance to guard at the last second. Rather than intercepting it though her sword knocked into its side as she tried to bring it around to the same defensive posture. The ball got knocked off course and stabbed into her arm instead of her chest. It didn’t actually stick but the gash still hurt like hell, Shiho gripped it with her hand that wasn’t holding the sword. She saw the now smooth ball floating back listlessly towards the Hollow at the same speed they had been floating around it. It couldn’t control them while they were away, possibly at all besides launching them, she didn’t trust that thought though.

The more important information hit her like a truck a moment later, it knew what Kido was, or at least it knew she was doing something dangerous for it. ”I need an opening,” She had been talking to herself but she looked over at Kane when she did. He hadn’t left after his ‘weapon’ shattered. She hated that she even considered trying to use someone else, especially someone so animal-like, to buy herself time. She shook her head, he was jumping into danger anyway and she wouldn’t miss. ”I think it’s scared of Kido, or just knows it’s dangerous for him. I’m pretty sure he’s got me beat physically but if I land one I think I could finish him off.” She couldn’t bring herself to ask for help, lamely attempting to pretend she was just talking to herself. Really she was just worried about legends of tengu giving people bad luck if they angered them somehow, so giving orders was also right out. She’d just adjust what she was doing for however he reacted.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Reiatsu Pool}Current/Max
545/620

SPOILER: Click to show

{Technique}Failed to use Class 7 Kido

[Kane Coo]

Shiho began a chant that prompted a response from the Hollow in the form of it launching one of its spike-mine-crystal-shiny-things mentally at her. Kane was now worried that he'd be completely overwhelmed without a proper defensive tool after seeing that display. The Shinigami looked at the former beast clansman and mentioned needing an opening. She may have been pretending to talk to herself, but Kane didn't pick up on that at all and instead looked around for something to help with. He settled on a traffic sign. The metal should be more durable than a chair leg in terms of protecting him from the Hollow's attacks. He may just be able to use it to give Shiho that opening she was looking for as well.

Pushing and pulling with all of his might, he wiggled it until it loosened at the base, then gave it a firm kick to knock it over. He wasn't supernaturally strong, just stronger than the average human, so this was quite a draining task. The Hollow seemed to be paying more attention to the Shinigami it had wounded, so he thankfully avoided being struck in the back while working on it. The diamond sign on the top of the pole was shaped mostly like an axe if you ignored half of it down the middle vertically, so while it was still an improvised weapon, Kane could use his training to at least some degree with it. Holding it with both clawed hands, point of the diamond held like it was the blade of an axe, the Rogue prepared to give his situational ally an opening.

If it had been the words themselves that the Hollow had reacted to, rather than the charging of reiatsu for the Kidou, then Kane could certainly work with that. Now how did that chant go again? If he remembered correctly (he didn't) it went something like this... "Arise god of moth! Awake Thunder!" Even if it was wrong (it was) it did get the Hollow's attention. The first shiny orb that was shot out was one that Kane was prepared for. It was a straight pitch, without any deviation or curve, and it glowed red as the spikes appeared. His improvised axe swung like a bat knocked it aside and into the ground where it faded and stopped even being as shiny as it had been. "Awake Thunder of Moth! Arise god!" He continued being distracting as best he could.

The next attack from the Hollow was two different crystals shot out at the same time. These both still were red in color and covered in spikes, but had a curve to their trajectory. They curved in opposite directions, one spinning clockwise the other counter clockwise. It was a pincer maneuver, one that Kane was unlikely to escape from unscathed. As the orbs closed in on him, he jumped backwards while swinging his "axe" at one of the two. It similarly broke against the force of his improvised weapon but the other one hit him firmly in the good shoulder, staining his leather cloak with blood. He pulled it out only for it to be recalled unlike the two broken ones. "Awake, Moth of god! Arise Thunder!" He could only hope that he had been distracting long enough for Shiho to finish the actual preparation of the Kidou spell...

Remaining Reiatsu: 750/750
Remaining Life Force: 550/750 (-100)

[Shiho Matsuri]

It was watching her now with more attention than it had previously. She assumed that it had a near experience with one of the squad six members that used Kido before. She continued moving so that the creature would need to shift positions to watch her, wiping her hand off of blood as she went to grip her sword better. It worked, and it almost seemed to be trying to time its attack to disrupt her if she were to start. She wasn’t going to get close if it was constantly watching her either. She was getting ready to try and flash step to a blind spot when she heard her own voice from off to the side again, though a bit louder than she had been even.

The hollow’s head snapped in that direction lashing out with its orbs even to what Shiho could tell was obviously just a random assortment of the words she had started with. Kane was ready for it this time though it seemed and he continued to shout gibberish at it and knock away the crystals he could. She wasn’t going to get a better distraction, but she didn’t stop moving like an idiot this time, instead continuing to circle around the opposite direction Kane traveled. She started in a lower voice. ”Arise god of thunder! Awake mother of storms! Unleash the lighting on the sinners! Hado number four: Byakurai” She leveled her finger and shouted at the end. That got its attention, it snapped its whole body into a distinctly alien contortion to only view her with its upper body. The orbs aren't fast enough to protect it even if that was their purpose, the small bolt of lightning struck it through the shoulder at the spot it’s head had been and went straight through.

It screeched as if it had been lit on fire, though being struck by lightning probably wasn’t much better. That actually got it moving though, writhing around and smacking its tail against the ground in a fit of rage. Shiho belatedly remembered that she actually needed to hit the mask if she wanted to kill it. Unless she was already on top of it there was no way she was going to do that with it writhing around now. Did she try again? She wanted to get closer and maybe kill it with her sword, but was that safe? She wasn’t sure and deciding how to best approach was paralyzing her ability to act. Someone stronger would know how to handle this, but she wasn’t someone stronger. ’What do I do? I just, I need to shoot it without it hearing me.’ She decided on a course of action but not how she should execute it. Not to mention she was focusing too hard on the Hollow and forgetting Kane, again.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Reiatsu Pool}Current/Max
520/620

SPOILER: Click to show

{Technique}(Learning)
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.)

[Kane Coo]

The bolt of lightning seared through the Hollow's shoulder, causing it to writhe in pain and seething rage. Its full attention on Shiho, Kane saw an opportunity for a good follow up attack. That lightning thing was pretty cool, and he had heard... about half of the incantation, so he was sure that he could handle it (he can't). For some reason, he had a feeling that this parasite in his shoulder would let him channel reiatsu the same way a Shinigami would (which actually was true, if he could work out the reiatsu control that did not come naturally to him). Why he thought that? Because in his poor memory he could remember torture from a Shinigami. That experimentation must have given him some sort of power besides the ability to bleed life force when attacked.

Kane focused inwards while Shiho stayed the attention of the Hollow. He could feel the circulation of energy through his body coming from the parasite. If only he could draw on that power. He pushed with his lack of spiritual muscles, stretching them and trying to let reiatsu pool in his hand. It was slow, so when the Hollow began to advance on the Shinigami he stopped and moved in to catch it from behind. Moving with all of his stealth skills, he ducked behind the Hollow and rushed in. A strong overhead blow with his makeshift axe would slam into the beast from behind, the road sign getting stuck in its back. He tried to get it free, but the Hollow's thrashing from the lightning bolt to the shoulder and now the axe to the back caused it to come loose from his grip.

Now the time came to try this Kidou thing that Shiho had performed. He had... most of the words in his head and it was now or never if he was going to be able to get the spiritual energy into his hand and out through the incantation. Stretching his hand that just had the axe ripped out of it, he tried Shiho's words as best he could remember them. "Arise god of Thunder! Awake moth of storms! Unleash the sinners on the lightning! Hado number four: Be a cure eye!" The resulting explosion of minor static charge did little more than pick Kane up and throw him backwards through a cafe window. Sure, it might distract the Hollow from Shiho again, since it was enough of a blast to make a loud crack of noise like a firecracker going off, followed by the smashing of glass as the Rogue was sent through the window.

Trying to pick himself up off the ground that he had just landed on, with shards of glass poking out of his back, Kane felt weaker than he had ever been. He struggled to stand at the moment, working his best to just stay alive. Hopefully Shiho could hit the mask this time and purify this Hollow for good.

Remaining Reiatsu: 725/750 (-25 Failed Byakurai)
Remaining Life Force 350/750 (-100 Failed Byakurai, -100 Cafe Window)

[Shiho Matsuri]

She was almost paralyzed from not knowing what she should do or how she should do it. The creature moving didn’t help but Kane striking it from behind certainly did. Perhaps he had been hoping to copy her use of kido, but his incantation was wrong, he succeeded in blowing himself up sorta. That galvanized her somehow, she realized that she needed to be the one that killed this thing, Kane might have above average spiritual energy but he didn’t seem to be able to use it in any sort of meaningful way. She formulated a plan of what to do as it decided to ignore Kane and go for her.

She repeated the idea to herself again, she didn’t like it but she would do it. She started the chant, and her breath hitched as she tried to focus Reiatsu in two places at once. She needed to be right on it to hit properly if she couldn’t aim it right. ’Arise god of thunder!’ She just forgot to speak out loud, not that she noticed that she had retreated into herself as she took the step forward. She was right in front of it, it seemed surprised and reeled back swinging its crystal tail at her. ’Awake mother of storms!’ She grunted as she intercepted it with her sword and pointed her finger at the hollows mask. ’Unleash the lightning on the sinners!’ The lightning leapt out of her finger and drilled a hole straight through its forehead. The hollow started dissipating and she collapsed onto the ground panting.

Shiho sucked in a ragged breath as her hand dropped the sword that had made the block for her. It stung, she absolutely sprained it making that block and she winced even through trying to intake as much oxygen as possible. And then she started giggling, despite her lungs burning and her hands shaking, she had done it. The laughter continued to bubble out of her until she looked over at Kane again. She stood back up shakily and put her sword away going over to try and make sure he had made it out alright from his window crash and failed Kido.

Rieatsu Current/Max
455/620

Techniques
Shunpo 50
Byakurai 25

[Kane Coo]

Picking glass out of his back was painful and difficult for the rogue, but he managed to get the biggest chunks free and stumble to the cafe's new opening in order to see Shiho flash step into the Hollow and blast it through the face without a word. Impressed, Kane exited the cafe through the door to see if any of the shiny orbs had survived. Unfortunately, the Hollow had been completely purified including the broken orbs. There was nothing left. Saddened, and weakened, Kane started to head away from the site of the fight. He needed rest in order to recuperate his Life Force that had been so heavily leeched from him.

He seemed to forget about Shiho but stopped after a few steps and turned back towards her. He took a moment to think on what he wanted to say and formed a conglomeration of voices to get his point across. "Kane Coo are okay. The dangerous are gone. Kido. It's worthless but dangerous." The dark voice from before, with his name and the little scraps of words in the sentences only hinted at the tortures Kane had endured. Gone. Worthless. Kane Coo. This deep male voice that was not Shiho's words being echoed back to her, it made the rogue sad to use.

But it was all he had. He pulled from behind his cloak his iPod with the headphones. It didn't have anything on it yet save for the message that he was worthless and unloved. He was getting stronger, but still wasn't strong enough for the focus of his Bakkoto parasite to give up any more power than the message left on it by the Kasumi'Oji creator. He held the device tightly, as it was all he had. The shiny things he sought were always left in piles where he hid them, then forgot where they were or was forced to abandon them as he was driven from a town by Hollows or Shinigami or the like. It was a sad existence, but it was his life right now.

If Shiho didn't stop him, he'd then start to wander out of the town before Squad 6 arrived to clean up.

[Zeich Yajuu]

33 Paragraphs, with enough left over that I'm content bumping it up to 34.

+170 TP to each participant!