Wanderers in the Night | NDE | OPEN | PG13

[kara]

Kara observed the Shinigami in her temporarily entranced moment with the flowers. Strange that the things even seemed to have that effect on Shinigami? Kara didn’t get it but it probably had something to do with her having a plush body and not a real one to inhabit… Maybe that’s why the flowers didn’t interest her at all right now?

”Because you guys made Kara this way! Kara has to eat hollows! Hollows make Kara full.” Kara fumed, pointing an accusatory tentacle at the Shinigami while swishing other tentacles towards the horse hollow at the mention of her own need to eat them. ”And Kara can’t eat fries or burgers or fizzy drinks! Do you see Kara!? Kara is a toy!” The plush bounced up and down in frustration. For a moment, Kara had forgotten who she was talking to, not realizing that the Shinigami might put together what she actually was… If this Shinigami reported back about her then surely Kara’s existence would be in imminent danger.

The hollow seemed flustered by the Shinigami’s questions. Kara too thought the Shinigami’s question directed to the hollow was a might bizarre. Why would a Shinigami want a hollow to stab their head with a stinger? Even if the hollow claimed it wouldn’t harm her wouldn’t being stung by that big thing still hurt?

”Muuh! Kara can’t eat those!” Kara complained, pointing tentacles towards the flowers the hollow suggested they eat, ”Kara needs to eat you to feel full! But Kara can’t eat with this body!” Moving her tentacles to then point at the hollow, the modsoul’s words promptly contradicted her own intentions. She’d been attacking the hollow because she wanted to eat him yet at the same time she couldn’t actually consume any of the hollow’s flesh nor any of its byproducts. Logically that would mean she had no reason to do any of what she’d done, however that wasn’t how she’d been programed to behave around hollows… Even with her contradictions, Kara subtly inched closer to the Hollow as she spoke, hoping he wouldn’t notice her advances...

[Munemasa Iroka]

Iroka did not understand what this hollow meant, asking what kind of question she was asking him. It was an absolutely logical question, and one that anyone who saw the hollow's ability should think of first. If your head was a flower, after all, how would you be able to breathe, or talk, or see? She pouted, her expression a mix of sadness and petulance, when the hollow informed her of its obligation to tell her anything. But as soon as she heard the answer to her question, the young Shinigami perked up again, a delighted smile on her face. One would think that her realization that the sting would probably not be fatal if it struck the head was what made her happy, but no, it was merely the joy of gaining new information.

The hollow, to Iroka's surprise, further went on to state that the flowers were actually not only harmless, but edible as well. She stared at them in surprise, her eyes widening, before a look of suspicion crept over her features. "Wait, how do I know you're not lying?" But there was something she noticed. The hollow was telling them to eat the flowers and leave it alone. Why? Didn't hollows come to the human world to prey on people? And that was why Shinigami came to the human world: to protect the humans from hollows. If this creature wasn't here to eat, why was it here then?

And what made Iroka all the more confused was when the Kara pointed accusatorily at Iroka, putting the blame for making Kara 'this way' on her kind. "But-- but I don't get it," she said, the picture of one who has gotten absolutely lost. "If the Kara cannot eat fuzzy drinks, then how will the Kara eat a hollow?" Her eyes widened for the umpteenth time in surprise. "Do human beings make toys that eat hollows? None of this is making sense at all. And please, who are 'we guys'?" A normal person would easily know that Kara was talking about Shinigami, but Iroka was anything but normal.

In any case, even though Iroka was displaying an amazing lack of situational awareness, she did seem to realize something. The hollow, from its words, was simply trying to run from her. The Kara, as well, had labelled her ilk as the source of its woes. She had come to the human world to observe people and things, and had tried to protect what seemed to be someone, or something, in danger. But there was something she was obviously missing, because both the one she was trying to protect, and the one from whom she was trying to protect, seemed to see her as a fundamental issue. Her sword-wielding hand slowly dropped, as a dejected look registered on her face. "Why do I feel like the bad person here?" she asked. And the confusion also apparent on her face was proof that this wasn't a rhetoric question.

[Nemesio Oro Leon]

As the plush went on a small rant about their predicament, an unfamiliar feeling welled up inside of Nemesio. It was a feeling he couldn't name because it had been centuries too many to count since he had last felt it but what the purple chimera felt was nothing less than empathetic pity. If this Kara thing needed to eat Hollows to be satiated but was unable to for whatever reason at the moment, not only was it not a danger to him, but it was him in a sense; they were in the exact same predicament of survival, it seemed. Or at least, that's how he saw it. For a moment he stared silently at the frantically waving octopus and found he could think of nothing to say.

That wasn't the case for the shinigami, however. "You don't," he stated bluntly to her inquiry about him lying. "As far as I'm concerned, you are the bad guy here! I don't know much about shinigami, but I know that they exterminate Hollows, and I want to keep living. Eat my flower or don't, I don't really care one way or the other. I'm too tired and tired of this whole situation to not feel apathetic," he once again said plainly, stepping forward and past the creeping plush as he made his way towards the flower that he had planted for Kara specifically.

Plucking it up from off of the wet roof, leaving no trace of root or stem behind, Nemesio brought the bright pink flower up to his toothed maw and opened wide, throwing the whole thing inside of his mouth and chewing on it, his teeth clacking together like bones being banged against one another. It took a second for the effects to kick in, but once they did they were obvious to everyone who could see. His mane stood up on end, his wings flapped cheerfully, his tail whipped back and forth rapidly and his legs trotted in place on the roof as he tilted his head back up towards the cloudy sky.

"So good!" Nemesio cried, his voice higher pitched than it had been just a moment ago as feelings of endorphins rushing through his body made him tingle all over. He felt lighter, the world seemed brighter and covered in a warm haze all of a sudden. There it was again, that funny feeling he got any time he ate one of his Loto! In truth, the only reason that he was eating one now was to assuage his own hunger for the time being as Kara made him painfully aware of it, but the endorphin rush he received from ingesting it was a nice way to instantly relax from this stressful situation as well.

Lowering his cervine head, the Hollow looked between the two of them for a moment before turning his back and walking towards the far edge of the roof. "Neither of you seem particularly dangerous to me right now, so I'm just gonna go. Head back to Hueco Mundo once you're both out of my sight. Have fun dealing with each other!" he spoke up as he was walking away, his steps almost like little bounces rather than heavy footfalls and his voice still sounding rather relaxed and jovial. He definitely had no intention of fighting either of them and they didn't seem particularly intent on fighting him, so, back to the relative safety of Hueco Mundo he went.

Unless...

[kara]

Kara paused a moment to think about what the Shinigami said to her. She’d never really considered the fact that she couldn’t actually eat or drink, let alone consume the flesh of a hollow in her current form… Lost within her own thoughts, Kara pondered the predicament. This Shinigami could be right, Kara couldn’t hunt Hollows in her current state. For that she would need a better body, a human body, or one of those fake bodies that the Shinigami themselves could make. One tentacle plopped down into another in a motion mimicking an ‘ahah’ moment. Kara had arrived at a realization.

”Kara can’t-“ She’d been about to say she couldn’t eat food or hollows in her current body but became distracted when the hollow put on a display of eating its own product. Interesting… Strange… It wasn’t poop was it? Probably not since it seemed adamant about having them try some of it too before consuming the flower for itself… Poop was different. It looked kinda like burnt hotdogs but smelled way worse… Kara probably wouldn’t try to eat poop though based solely on the fact the stuff didn’t smell edible, and Himiko’s family used toilets to flush the stuff away…

”Kara is jealous… Kara wants to eat the flowers too…” Her interest peaked at seeing the hollow eat its own flower. If those things could sate her hunger then subjugating this Hollow for her later use would be an incredibly important thing to work towards. Maybe she could convince the hollow to stay, or even return to her whenever she needed something to sate her insatiable hunger? At least once she got a normal body that was… It’d be a real problem then and this horse would be able to help her out. A strange thought since she’d have to fight off the urge to just kill him for his flesh.

The plush shook its head at the Shinigami. ”Humans don’t make toys that eat hollows. Most humans can’t even see hollows. How do you expect humans to make things to eat things they can’t even see?” Kara’s beady eyes stared at the Shinigami now. Was she dense? Kara was dense. But even Kara knew that she was the thing making this human-octopus hybrid toy move and talk, not the humans. Only modsouls could do what Kara was doing right now.

”Because you are the bad person. Your people killed us all off, or don’t you remember?” At this point Kara failed to recognize the current Shinigami as a threat to her own safety and freely engaged with her verbally. She’d still keep her distance for fear of being picked up again but the Shinigami hadn’t shown any truly hostile intent as of yet, leading Kara to believe that perhaps there were other friendlies similar to the Shinzue she remembered. This ’trust’ in the Shinigami remained razor thin however and would easily crumble at any sign she might become a threat to Kara’s safety.

”You should stay for Kara. When Kara gets a proper body she will eat you- -er… your flowers. Kara wants to know if these flowers can fill her stomach and make Kara feel full but can’t know right now. Kara wants you to come back if you leave so Kara can try. Okay?” She’d turned to the hollow to make demands, which moderately transformed into a haphazard request. If his flowers could sate her hunger then Kara would befriend this hollow. It would be the only hollow she’d be friends with. Whenever she obtained a living body, hollows incapable of making flowers to satisfy her would still need to die so that she could sate her hunger.

[Munemasa Iroka]

Well, the Kara was right, Iroka thought, as she stared nervously at the beady eyes staring back at her. Was it judging her? "But humans make windmills! They're called windmills, ne? Those big things with wheels or fans or stuff that spin and stuff. And they make them to eat wind and make light, even though they can't see the wind.... Wait, I'm not sure that's how windmills work...." Was she dense? It depended. Denseness was less like a spectrum and more like a three-dimensional field. Where Iroka was placed on that field was a difficult thing to contemplate.

Today was certainly very depressing. Iroka had never thought a day like this would come when she would be identified by a hollow and a Kara as a bad person. And she knew she was certainly not the sharpest tool in the box, but she could not figure out why they thought she was a bad person. Hollows killed and ate humans, and so Shinigami purified them to stop the world from going to a sort of hell. And the Kara... what was a Kara again? Whichever the case, the Kara believed that Iroka's people killed off her kind, but that was the problem: Iroka could not remember. She probably hadn't even existed at that time.

The hollow ate its flower, and seemed to be quite exhilarated by it. It would be so cool to perhaps be able to get her hands on such a thing, and carry out some tests. What did it taste like? Were there any chemical or spiritual properties it had asides just tasting so good? It was likely the hollow's flowers elicited some form of behavioral response. Iroka could tell by the change in the timbre of the hollow's voice. The thought of having something unknown to consider scientifically raised the Shinigami's spirits. Maybe she would ask it to make another flower for her. Then Iroka remembered she was the bad person here, and became dismal once more.

In any case, the hollow was leaving. The Kara seemed to want the hollow to stay, so the Kara could eat its flowers, which did not make any sense, seeing as the Kara did not seem to be able to eat anything. For a moment, Iroka was going to let the hollow leave, but then she remembered something an instructor in the Shin'ou Academy had told her. Even if one did not wish to be angry, he had said, one had every right to be angry if wrongly accused. Iroka was sure that she could not be the bad person here; more often than not, she was the one on the receiving end of grievances. If she let this slide, she would be treated like a doormat the next time she met with the hollow or the Kara. And even for someone as Iroka, the thought of being treated like a doormat by the odd creature known as the Kara felt insulting. Suddenly running round the hollow to stand in its path, the young Shinigami stretched out both hands to either side, as though she was, by that gesture, trying to stop it from leaving.

"Wait!" she said, a frown on her face. "You're not allowed to leave. You're a hollow. Hollows come to the human world, kill humans without compunction or consideration, and yet I'm the bad person because Shinigami protect the humans from your greedy kind? And you, the Kara, I don't remember anything about killing weird hungry toys, so why should I be blamed for something I never did, had no part in, or could even influence in any way?" For a moment, she stood glaring at the hollow and the plushie, then her expression wavered. "Wait, is this how people act when they're angry? Sorry, but all this is new to me."

[Nemesio Oro Leon]

"Can't hear you, leaving!" Nemesio called back to Kara as she made her demands of him, effectively ignoring what she was saying. It was clear by his words and mannerisms that he didn't have any interest in whatever it was she was saying. Sounded like servitude, using his ability to make Loto in order to sate her hunger. Yeah, like he'd do that for just anyone and not as a survival mechanism! Of course there was nothing stopping him from making his filling pink flowers for just anyone, granted, but if he stopped to think about that he'd need to put effort into his own suddenly chosen convictions, and who had the time or energy for that?

He was stopped, however, by the shinigami running in front of him and stopping him from leaping over the edge of the building, which effectively put her right on the edge, causing him to flinch and take a step and a half backwards. The orange haired shinigami went off on him and Kara who had both previously ganged up on her by labelling her as the antagonist in this little show, clapping back with what would have been some valid points of discussion if he were interested in having one. Hypocrite that he was, though, he wasn't about to concede to her that, yes, most Hollows that came to the human world were mindless, hungry monsters who ate whatever souls they came across. He wasn't like that, though. He hadn't eaten a human soul in centuries! So obviously her point was invalid and didn't apply to him to begin with. And purifying Hollows? What'd that mean? Sounded like shinigami gobbledygook to him.

She didn't exactly help her own case either by coming off right at the end like she had no idea how to be angry, implying that she was new to all this like a baby or maybe some kind of doll fresh out of it's box. How was anyone supposed to take her seriously like that!? "Ugh! You're both so annoying!" he spat out in retort, rolling his yellow eyes and swinging his head back around to look at Kara. Seeing the wet plush made him remember how creepy she was just a few minutes ago and so subsequently he added, "Annoying and gross! Look I'm not interested in waiting around until you can eat my Loto, whatever that means, or being "purified", whatever THAT means. I didn't even come here to eat! I came here to get away from being eaten and now I wanna go home!"

Letting out a heavy huff, Nemesio sat down on his flanks and slapped his eel-like tail against the wet roof. "Man, you guys are seriously killing my buzz..." the cervine hollow grumbled, looking back around to the singular flower remaining on the roof. His hunger was already beginning to return to him and his high was coming down. If neither of them were going to eat it...

[kara]

Maybe it was a young Shinigami? Kara contemplated this idea for a moment. If this Shinigami wasn’t old enough to know what Kara was then perhaps she’d outlasted the need to fear them? Or maybe that only applied to the younger ones. Kara couldn’t tread too carelessly just in case Soul Society hadn’t forgotten their commitment to exterminating ModSouls… ”Windmills don’t eat wind. Humans made windmills so the wind could eat them, and when the wind eats the windmills they give the humans power and light. Like a full belly!” However wrong her correction of the Shinigami’s comparison was Kara was proud of it nonetheless, standing tall on her tentacle plush legs.

Kara became irritated with the Hollow who promptly pretended not to hear her. ”Yes you can! Don’t lie! I know you heard Kara talk!” Accusatory tentacles flailed at the Hollow in an attempt to reprimand him for his rudeness towards her. Hollows couldn’t be rude to her, she wouldn’t allow it. ”Kara exists because you exist! You can’t be rude to Kara! You should be thanking Kara for her existence!” She existed because they existed so they should be thanking her for her existence! Speaking the words in her head came a little late, suddenly Kara didn’t think her statement had made much sense… Perhaps wording it a bit differently would’ve made the statement sound more convincing. Actually the more she rolled the words around in her head the more Kara realized the statement sounded like she’d become dependent on Hollows existing to result in her creation in the first place… Still she couldn’t back down on a statement once she’d voiced it… Maybe she wouldn’t have to explain herself since the Horse hollow claimed to not be listening anyway…

”T-the Shinigami is right” Kara inched as close to the Shinigami as she safely dared to do while simultaneously thrusting several tentacles sideways, presenting the Shinigami to the Hollow. ”You have to stay…” Kara fished for an answer to finish her argument. That’s when the hollow’s own flower caught her eye. ”You haven’t finished your Loto yet.” The plush’s face contorted into an attempt at smiling, rushing the statement towards its conclusion. ”It tastes divine right? You should eat another one. And make more and eat them too. You don’t need to go back to get eaten. Just make more Loto and eat them here where it’s safe.” Maybe if the hollow took the bait and allowed Kara’s suggestion to stall him then she might be able to come up with a way to actually defeat him. Study. That’s what she needed to do! She needed to study him more. Now Kara just needed to find herself a magnifying glass and she could take a closer look...

[Munemasa Iroka]

If the hollow was getting annoyed, Iroka was getting even more confused. She blinked at the Kara when the latter explained that it was the other way round, that it was the wind that did the eating. "I'm not sure I understand..." the Shinigami said to no one in particular. "If the wind eats the windmills, then why are they still there? Unless the wind is eating something we can't see on the windmills. But if that was the case, then why don't hollows eat humans and the humans won't die? My brain hurts... I don't want to think about that anymore."

And then the hollow expressed his irritation at both her and the Kara. "This is highly unfair," she protested, although her expression was more sorrowful than angry now. "Why do people seem to get offended at me for just existing? But then they'll get cross with me again, because I'm whining now. I'll just shut up and stay out of the way now." But even as she spoke, her brain strove to make sense of what this creature meant by its words. It said it came here to escape being eaten, rather than come here to eat. But then the Kara's words derailed her thought process. Why was the hollow supposed to be thanking the Kara?

In any case, Iroka was frankly very surprised when the Kara said she was right. Wasn't she the wrong one here? For some reason, the Kara wanted the hollow to stay. Why exactly, she could not say. The Kara could not eat the hollow, but the Kara had expressed interest in eating the flowers, even though it said it could not. And now the Kara was telling the hollow to eat more flowers. Iroka cast a suspicious look at the plushie; the smile on its face really looked unsettling now. She tried to move away from the tentacled creature, but as discretely as possible, so that no one would notice her attempted action.

The hollow seemed frustrated with the present situation, although Iroka did not get how either she or the Kara would be killing something that probably belonged to it. "Don't be silly," she replied in an almost motherly tone, "you're not a bee. I'd say you were more like a wild goose, though... but then geese don't have scorpion tails. Or is it bees that have tailed stings? No wonder you have a buzz! But I don't see how any of us is killing it. I have, after all, not touched you, and the Kara is... well..." Did the Kara have the ability to kill bees with some hidden telekinetic ability?

"Um, so, Feathery-Bee-Goat-san," the ginger-haired Shinigami said, looking at the hollow, "you were likely running from another hollow in your 'home', ne?" That would very well be the reason the hollow was here, if it wasn't here to eat, and it said it was trying not to get eaten. "If I may ask, what prevents the other hollow from chasing you here?" After all, hollows were always coming to the human world. Unless there was a world of Karas out there that chased hollows and ate them, it would have to be another hollow that this one had been running from. The thought that there were other plushies that somehow ate hollows out there was not very reassuring, even though Iroka suspected that if the Karas ate hollows then they might be roughly on the same side. "Wait! Were you being chased by another Kara before coming here?! Is there a world populated with Karas out there?" The fright in her eyes was real.

[Nemesio Oro Leon]

Man this was annoying. In one ear Nemesio had a weird gross tentacled tiny thing yacking away about windmills and existentialism and how 'safe' it was. Bunch of nonsense, really. In the other ear he had the shinigami who was somehow making even LESS sense. It felt like they were both pressing their faces against him in some sort of competition of who could keep his attention by being the most irritating! They weren't even attacking him or anything which honestly just made it worse! They just wanted to keep him here because... why the hell did they want him to stay!? Weren't they all enemies or whatever!?

Nemesio huffed and shook his head. "Man, whatever," he said flatly, walking back over away from the edge of the roof after turning his back on the shinigami and making his way over towards his remaining Loto. He was officially checking out of this situation. It was too much effort to stay engaged or even to run away at this point. He was just going to vibe until they got bored and left him alone so he could leave, he guessed. The whole situation was weird and frustrating and he'd prefer not to think it through, frankly!

Circling around the vibrant pink flower like a cat for a moment, Nemesio flopped down on the roof on his side after tucking his wings in and reached out to pluck the addicting flower rom it's purchase and pop it into his mouth. He threw his head back and let out a little moan, tail slapping against the wet roof, as he chewed and swallowed his well deserved treat and then basked in the glory that was his full belly and temporary high. Relaxing by the moment, he laid his head down over his forelimbs and finally looked back at the two that were "holding him captive".

"Of course I was being chased by another Hollow! That's how it works in Hueco Mundo, you either eat or get eaten," he explained, choosing to answer the one line of sane questioning that had been presented to him between the two of them in the past couple of minutes. "Not every Hollow has the ability or the wit to come to the World of the Living, as far as I know anyway. Some can, most are too mindless or dead to make the trip..." He paused, giving them another chance to speak as he opened his fanged snout wide and yawned. All this running around and dealing with weird people was really making him tired... Taking a nap was really starting to sound good at this point...

[kara]

”That’s because the windmill is escaping but the wind keeps chasing it.“ Kara pointed out in a matter-of-fact manner, posturing herself to appear the teacher in this instance while she answered the Shinigami’s question. Reality of the situation however had Kara seeking a way in which to BS her way out of explaining the earlier metaphor. ”You see, when the windmill escapes, the wind can’t eat it and the windmill turns in circles. That’s why humans can use the wind eating the windmill as motivation for the windmill to escape so it can give the humans the power they want from it. This is also why the windmill doesn’t die, because the wind can’t actually catch it. If humans could escape the hollows then they would never be killed by the hollows.”

Kara was happy to see the hollow taking her advice by laying down and helping itself to the other flower it’d created. The beady eye plush could see an opportunity here. It meant this one wasn’t altogether incapable of being persuaded to her whims! She could use that to her advantage! Either way Kara shrugged at the Shinigami’s trailing, was it an inquiry from her about whether or not she could kill the hollow’s buzz? Whatever a buzz was. Kara could think of many different kinds of buzzes, one of which included a toy that got itself caught in a big machine full of three-eyed aliens in an arcade but that seemed somewhat irrelevant to the situation…

Ooh this was news to Kara. So not all Hollows could pop in and out of reality like this one did? This was starting to peak the Modsoul’s interests and curiosities about what sort of possibilities Hollow transportation could lead to. ”Kara’s the only Kara!” She reprimanded the Shinigami for suggesting that there were other Karas out populating the world. If that were the case then surely Kara herself would’ve become aware of it a long time ago. Reprimand complete, Kara turned back to the hollow, scuttling over to him where he lay. She had a thought and wanted to voice some curiosity and since this Hollow had been incredibly hospitable thus far, perhaps she could illicit an answer from him.

Soaked pink fluff dared to enter the Hollow’s direct line of view. She was close enough if he wanted to snap a bite off of her he likely could with but a flick of his head. Kara didn’t mind though, this thought she had in her mind was too important to forgo an answer. ”You can move to the hollow world and back to the human world at will yes.” It was less a question and more a statement since the modsoul already knew the answer. What followed would be her real question. ”If Kara can get a real body to move, could Hollow-tan move to the hollow world and back into the human world exactly where he wants to be?” An odd twinkling lit up the beady black eyes of the plush as Kara spoke. ”Could you perhaps take a person with you when you moved to the other world and back?” At this point Kara would become uncomfortably close to the hollow, making certain she had his eyes when she spoke the question. Everything right now benched on the answer because if she could obtain a real body that could actually eat food then she could, in the future, potentially coerce a Hollow into doing her bidding by having it physically transport itself and her into and out of the various shops throughout town. She could become the night bandit, taking food whenever she wanted and no one would ever be able to notice!

If Kara could salivate, her plush body would be drooling in anticipation of the answer to her question…

[Munemasa Iroka]

"I... see..." Iroka said slowly, actually not seeing anything at all. Windmills did stand in a single place, right? How did the wind then eat the windmills? And if the wind could not eat the windmills because the windmills were always escaping it, then how did people know that wind ate windmills? It was the wind that moved, and yet the windmills were the ones that ran, and they somehow turned, by virtue of escaping the wind. And what did the windmills get from the humans who requested power from them? Too many questions; it would be best to just leave the matter of the windmill for another day.

Iroka had by now decided that this Kara was very likely an authority on windmills and such things. After all, how else would someone be able to say such things with absolute certainty? Never mind the fact that nothing the Kara said was making any sense. That probably didn't matter. There were many things that people said that made absolutely no sense to Iroka, and yet they expected her to accept their senseless theories. Well, until she could test said theories, Iroka would have to go with what they said. But one day, when she had time on her side, she would surely find out how the windmills escaped the wind. It would probably have a combat-worthy application.

So she had been right. He had been chased by a hollow. Certainly not a Kara, as the strange octopus plushie announced being the only Kara in a tone that suggested it was offended. "Sumimasen deshita," Iroka apologized, placing her palms together in a placatory gesture. So if there was only one Kara, and the Kara said that Shinigami killed its kind, then where had the Kara come from? The cogs of her mind worked as she watched the strange creature crawl to the hollow, who was now lying on his side, in a rather relaxed position. She did feel thankful that the hollow was unwilling to fight, seeing as he had either the wit, or ability, to traverse worlds, which meant he wasn't just a regular hollow.

As Kara talked to the hollow, Iroka studied the teeth in the creature's mouth when he yawned. Looked like they made for a nasty bite. If this hollow was so equipped to cause harm, why did he prefer to run, rather than fight? While she entertained herself with figuring the solution to the question, Iroka idly listened to the conversation between the Kara and the hollow. And then she did a double take when she heard that the Kara seemed to be able to get a 'real body'. One part of Iroka's mind wondered what exactly the Kara would offer the hollow in return for doing her such a favor, while another part wondered what a 'real' body was to a Kara, as opposed to a fake one, or less real one, or--

The realization struck her, and she suddenly screamed as she arrived at the answer to the Kara problem. The scream would have probably seemed alarming, but they would soon realize that it had been a cry of exultation. "I've figured it out," she said, a happy smile on her face, as she pointed excitedly at the plushie. "The Kara isn't a Kara! The Kara is a modsoul!!" Of course, a normal Shinigami would have made the connection earlier, but Iroka was anything but normal. "That explains a lot of things, Tako-tako!" she crowed happily, slapping the plushie with a new nickname, this one being a childish repetition of the word used to call the eight-legged cephalopod that someone designed a child's toy to look like. And people said she was weird.

If the Kara, now designated Tako-tako, was a mod soul, that would make it somewhat similar to Iroka, wouldn't it? In any case, they were both products of Seireitei's 12th Division. Iroka had read about the modsoul massacre, but that had happened long before she had been made. Still, she now understood the animosity that the plushie had towards her. But since the modsoul massacre was officially over, a Shinigami wouldn't have to kill a modsoul if they came across one, right? Iroka considered herself too useless to even kill a plushie-possessed modsoul, so she made no more statements about Tako-tako, and it would be quite obvious that her exhilaration had quickly drained out, leaving her looking rather dismal, as she waited to hear the hollow's response to Tako-tako.

[Nemesio Oro Leon]

'Joy of joys, there's only one of them,' Nemesio thought to himself as Kara loudly proclaimed that they were the only one of their kind. The thought was laced with sarcasm, of course, because the Hollow could hardly stand the thought of there being a swarm of these weird, eight legged things running around like some kind of squishy pseudo-hollows. He didn't really give the statement much more thought than that, frankly, not even realizing how insensitive it was to be overjoyed by the fact that there was just a single entity like Kara and how lonely that might have been. Empathy on that level was too much effort for him.

'Modsoul?' he again thought as the shinigami stated that that, whatever that was, was in fact what Kara was. He had no idea what a modsoul was and he had no interest in learning either in that moment. As far as he was concerned a modsoul was an animate eight legged plushie and there was only one like it. He didn't even bother to properly react to the orange haired shinigami's scream of affirmation on the matter, his head simply turning in her direction as she did. He was a bit too zen for all of those hysterics at the moment and far too socially awkward to know that screaming like that wasn't exactly normal behavior. Who was he to judge?

Turning his attention back to the matter at hand, though, his yellow eyes zoned in on Kara as she asked her questions and if his mask could make expressions his face would have been one of utter disinterest. It was plain to see what she was really asking anyways. She wanted him to take her to Hueco Mundo, for some reason, so that she could eat her little heart out. The chimeric Hollow huffed in response at first. She obviously had no idea how dangerous Hueco Mundo was. It made her question laughable to him! But he didn't do that. Too much effort to laugh in punctuation.

"No idea, and I'm not obligated to answer even if I did have one. You sure you're not a Hollow trapped in some squishy body?" he asked in turn, his question implying that he saw right through her request. Having sufficiently answered in as short of a hand as possible, Nemesio stretched out on the spot with a warm groan of relaxation, front claws and rear hooves reaching out as far as they could in opposite directions before curling back in on himself. Maybe he'd just hibernate for a little bit and let these two go on their merry way, save himself from making more flowers just to keep himself in a docile mood. Sleeping was just as good as eating flowers to him, after all...

[kara]

Kara jolted, startled by the sudden scream coming from the Shinigami. Tentacle arms flailed up defensively, beady eyes darting over to the Shinigami in the hopes she could glimpse whatever it was that happened to be attacking her in that moment. But the Modsoul noticed it wasn’t a case of being attacked by something that the Shinigami suffered from, in fact she appeared to be exhilarated, maybe even overjoyed? Perplexed, Kara observed the Shinigami with careful consideration. Were Shinigami always prone to random outbursts like this?

And then the word arose from the lips of the Shinigami! Modsoul! So she did know what Kara was! This was bad. Very bad! If she knew then Kara would have no choice but to assume an inevitable situation would follow. Armed with knowledge and reminded of the Shinigami’s hesitation to attack the hollow, Kara’s octopus legs flew into a flurry. The modsoul’s plush body scuttled around and behind the Hollow’s head, promptly putting him between Kara and the Shinigami. ”No! No Tako-tako! You will never take Kara alive!” Kara popped up over the Hollow’s head to point furiously at the Shinigami. ”Or dead! Because Kara will never be dead! So you will never catch Kara!”

”Kara is not a hollow.” The modsoul confidently proclaimed Despite furiously facing down her mortal enemy. She broke character, responding to the Hollow’s inquiry. ”If Kara was a hollow would Kara have asked if you could take Kara with you to your world?” Logic would seem to justify Kara’s statement. If she’d been a hollow without the capacity to traverse dimensional space between worlds then there would’ve been no reason for her to ask if this hollow could take her with him.

”The Shinigami seeks to destroy Kara! You must take Kara with you and bring her back to another place in this world or she might destroy us both!” Even lacking the definitive answer to her own inquiry, Kara’s judgement in the situation grew more panicked now that the Shinigami knew what she was. She even became so bold as to try and give orders to the hollow. ”Shinzue told Kara that all Shinigami are out to destroy Kara!” Recalling her savior's words of warning, Kara’s small plush body became hysterical, hopping up and down on the Hollow’s neck while pointing at the Shinigami and attempting to remain hidden from her all at the same time. Kara didn’t know how she could escape this place without the Hollow’s help. The Shinigami was faster, could use flashy steps to catch up in an instant. Kara couldn’t do that, not with her fabric body!

She didn’t want to rely on the Hollow. He was an unlikely aid to her cause, but right now Kara had little choice in who she could pick to help her survive to see another day.

[Munemasa Iroka]

By now, the chimeric hollow was almost absent, even though he was bodily present in the area, having stretched out himself and become quite comfortable. Unfortunately, no matter how much Iroka stared at his white mask, she could not make out any sort of expression. That was one of her issues with hollows. Those masks. How could one know whether a hollow was smiling, or angry or sad? And the masks were very ugly. Still, Feathery-Bee-Goat-san seemed quite relaxed, almost as though about to sleep, but she couldn't be certain with the ugly mask.

As far as Iroka was concerned, that was for the best. She was not sure she could exactly trust the hollow, even though he seemed so far to be unwilling to cause violence. Unless hollows were subject to rather bloodthirsty bouts of sleepwalking, a somnolent hollow would be of little threat to anyone. Presently, Iroka knew that she probably wouldn't even be able to defeat the hollow if she had to fight it, but she was a Shinigami, and that meant keeping people safe from hollows... or at least, she thought that was what it may have meant. This was where sleeping often in class hadn't paid off, it seemed. Until the hollow decided to leave, she would hang around, just to be sure he wasn't waiting for her to go before eating people. Hollows ate people, after all.

Kara's hysteria on being identified as a modsoul was a bit startling to Iroka. Why was the little phushie so worked up? "I don't understand, Tako-tako-chan, why would I want to take you alive?" Iroka asked, a confused expression on her face. Earlier on, Kara had said she was a toy, and though Iroka knew what toys were, the Shinigami did not understand what they were used for, and at this particular point in time, why she would want a toy. What was the point of never catching Kara, if she didn't even want to chase Kara?

While Iroka had been initially interested in Kara, due to the fact that she had been wondering if a Kara was a strange type of creature, now that she knew Kara was a modsoul, the interest had waned. Iroka had no interest in doing anything to a modsoul, and it wasn't like they'd told them in the Shin'ou Academy that all modsouls had to be killed on sight. The eradication of modsouls had simply been an attempt of Seireitei's Research and Development Institute, to perform a stupid act of damage control. Presently, only fanatically driven Shinigami would go hunting modsouls.

As Kara tried to get the hollow to take her from what she professed as impending death for the two of them, Iroka became even more confused. She had never made an attempt on the Kara's life. But the latest words declared by the modsoul seemed to explain everything, although Iroka had absolutely no idea who this Shinzue of a person was. "Who's Shinzue? The huge Ojii-sama in Seireitei?" That was the 35th Captain Commander Iroka was talking about. Of course, the man's name did not even bear any similarity with the name 'Shinzue'. But the plushie had said it with such conviction that Iroka assumed that this Shinzue was someone known by most, if not all, of Seireitei.

In any case, Kara's hysteria was beginning to get to Iroka. "Stop it, Tako-tako-chan," she said, almost sounding like she was on the verge of tears. "Why do you keep accusing me of something I've never done, nor do I even want to do? What have I done to you before? I'm not planning on killing anyone. I mean, look at me..." that statement by Iroka sounded especially sad, "...what could a failure such as myself do to you?" Truth was, many things, with Kara in that plushie body. But Iroka did not particularly think she was dangerous in the least.

[Nemesio Oro Leon]

Things just kept getting better and better for the Hollow that just wanted to be left alone. Now no longer in front of his face, Kara had made it's way behind his head and was climbing up his mane to get on the back of his neck, jumping and flailing and screaming about danger and being taken places and UGH! He just didn't care about all of that! So it wasn't a Hollow but a Modsoul, fine, that meant he had even less to do with it than before! Especially with whatever beef it was that it was saying was happening between it and the shinigami. "Hey, knock it off! You're making my mane wet, and you're going to fall through my hole!" Nemesio grumbled, referring to the concealed hole in his neck at the base of his mask that the wet plushie was dangerously close to slipping through.

And then there was the shinigami and how she was taking all of this. As far as he could tell through the thinning haze of his high, she was equal parts confused and upset by this whole thing at this point. She certainly sounded like she was about to cry at any rate, and that only served to confuse Nemesio. Why hadn't she attacked him already? He was under the impression that a Shinigami's purpose in existence was to eradicate Hollows. That's what he'd witnessed centuries ago, anyway. Why was she getting so upset at what amounted to nothing? Empty words from a panicking piece of felt? Where was this fighting spirit, this drive to exterminate that he'd been afraid of for so long?

The purple Hollow wasn't really gelling with this whole situation as it stood, and every jump on his neck that Kara made was like a hammer nailing away at his patience. Finally, when his patience had worn thin enough, he threw his antlered head back and opened his toothy maw wide, letting out a Hollow's bone chilling roar up into the night sky in an attempt to get both of them to be quiet! "UGH! FINE! Just STOP jumping on me and we'll GO!" he relented reluctantly, getting back up onto his feet. It wasn't like the wet roof was all that comfortable anyways. He shook his body like a dog to get some of the water (and he hoped Kara) off of him before fanning his feathered wings out wide.

"This is goodbye, I guess. I don't know why you didn't try and kill me but, I can't say I'm not grateful I guess? Whatever, you're weird, I'm tired, I'm out," Nemesio said grumpily before leaping vertically up into the air and beating his wings to take flight! Leaving the shinigami on the roof behind, he flew away at a leisurely pace heading south for no reason in particular. He just wanted to put some distance between himself and the shinigami before dropping Kara off, assuming she was still attached to him. "I'm not taking you to Hueco Mundo! If you can't eat in that body of yours there's no point! You'll just get eaten yourself, destroyed or lost for eternity. So I'm going to drop you off somewhere far away and then you can go about your life and I'll return to mine!" he stated firmly. Man did he not like stressful situations like this...

It always made him hungry.