New Site of Infection (Medium-NDE-Karakura)

[Rafael]

Getting away from it was the only thing that mattered that had been too strong, too cruel, unnatural were the thoughts of the turtle Hollow as it slowly moved across the bridge. It moved like anyone else that’d been beaten to the point of danger. Limping wasn’t the only thing that everyone in the bridge would notice along with the blood leaking out from its mouth; this Hollow just looked like a beaten animal. Despite all that Caba didn’t waste any time making sure this other Hollow knew it wasn’t welcome in Karakura.

The sword that Caba made from his own body literally stripped away the attention of the turtle Hollow. The fear it had been experiencing from whatever was in the forest had left it in a state unaware of even the humans nearby. Escaping was the only thing that mattered even above eating others. Then came the bright words of the Mod Soul as she played with her toy. It wouldn’t be until she pointed out there were two of them that the turtle noticed the Failure standing nearby the Hollow.

Why they’d want to spend time finishing him off though when there was something far more dangerous out in the forest, that the turtle couldn’t comprehend. He’d seen this sort of thing a lot during his time surviving although witnessing another Hollow act like a Shinigami was something new he didn’t like. Either way he was finished and just accepted it, now dropping into the bridge like an exhausted dog. A heavy thud followed by a pool of blood now forming below him the Hollow stared at these naive protectors.

“You’ve no chance, it’ll kill you all then the town.”


Kazuhiko wouldn’t gain much by focusing his senses although it would make the howling of the Hollow seem even more different than typical. What was normally ferocious came off like the screams of a kid or small animal. These weren’t the noises that a predator would make without something even worse hunting them. Kazuhiko would be able to pick up one detail with his eyesight that even the police hadn’t noticed yet. Something he’d catch perhaps by luck just by looking down at the mutilated corpses, the bones had been crushed. Despite being torn apart they’d all been smashed like something hit by a massive hammer.

Getting to the scene of the screams wouldn’t take Kazuhiko long due to his usage of the tree branches only needing about ten seconds to maneuver throughout the forest. Getting there though he’d spot a corpse or rather what looked like one. Another Hollow, one that resembled a bird with black wings and a white mask in the shape of a beak. Blood leaking from its body as it lay on the ground with a thick tree branch shoved through its torso and a heavy stone atop one of its wings. Something was out here killling everything in a brutal way even other hunters.

[Deleted]

Caballero lowered their blade the moment they saw the creature just... collapse under its own weight. Crystal's words were true: they would not hesitate in slaying a Hollow, and in fact had only waited because of the words they had heard it mutter. Once again, the not-so tiny and in fact eight feet tall knight would listen to the last throes of the monster, if only to heed its warning.

“You’ve no chance, it’ll kill you all then the town.”

It would kill all of them, huh? Caballero had no intentions on letting any monster destroy any part of Karakura Town if they could help it. Whoever tried that would see their bodies chopped into teeny tiny pieces by the Menos Grande, at least as far as they were punching on the same weight class. Not that Caballero would not stand in the way of a much stronger creature if they knew it was going to try and cause destruction; that was how devoted they were to their cause.

But all in all, that was alright. Using class 8 Tendón, Caballero would rip and consume a small chunk off the Hollow to integrate it into their being. If the monster's words were true, then they would need all the power they could muster, and they had found out very recently that eating made Hollows stronger, even if what they devoured was not spiritually strong. However, Caballero was on a strict no-human diet, and planned on remaining like that for a long, long time. The incorporation of this wretch's soul pushed down on the maelstrom of souls that was kept at bay by Caballero's strength of will, and unbeknownst to them, brought them just a step closer toward becoming an Adjuchas.

Since they had never been fit to lead, Caballero turned to the Failure and the Mod Soul before them. They were unsure on how to proceed, but their best bet was try to follow the blood trail that this monster should have left, given how it had been dribbling red liquid from the mouth, and get to wherever the late Hollow had met 'it'. Caballero pointed at the trail with one of its pitch black hands, so unlike a normal Gillian's, and waited to see whether the two companions would join them.

In any case, they would dart off mere moments later, trying to find out the root cause behind the turtle-like creature's awful state. If it was as dangerous, then they would need to nip it in the bud as quickly as they could. With Filo still on hand, they didn't know how long it would take, but they would be ready to fight.


OOC: Caballero has consumed the turtle Hollow. I take it it's a Tier 1 Hollow, so 50TP.

[Ren Akasawa]

So much for those fleeting dreams of playing dragonslayer, they'd been nice while they lasted. The turtlesque hollow's acceptance had been a mortal wound to Ren's interest, the delusional failure refused to draw his sword for an opponent that laid down to die, and he certainly couldn't offer it the quest like he'd done for Caballero with a lack of conviction on display. At the same time, Blood Drive had lost its usual manic reaction to strangers in favor of a bare minimum of attention, as the flood seemed to approach anyone who was already bleeding without its usual harmlessly rabid demeanor. Maybe the flood could tell this hollow wouldn't be the one it wanted, but it was still obligated to keep searching despite whatever foreknowledge the hollow's wounds gave? Or maybe it was just greedy enough to not care if this wouldn't be the one as long as it got a consolation prize out of this? Not like he'd ever been able to tell what the flood thought of anything, or that the flood had ever cared what he was.

Thankfully the hollow had given his lost interest something to displace onto, a mysterious enemy or force that that could kill all of them and then the town sounded like a worthwhile challenge to make up for the initial disappointment. And so the vagabond failure started walking forwards, not even realizing there had been a blood trail to follow until the gillian he still thought of as a fellow knight pointed at the ground. Even then it took several more paces before he'd actually started following that trail, he'd needed extra time to realize it could actually lead somewhere. He found the tail difficult to flow even after that understanding had reached him as his mind still considered it a form of visual white noise. As he walked a path of hollow blood that he strained not to tune out from his senses, all he asked was that this threat to Karakura was something he could reach with his sword when he got there.

The vandenreich exile gestured for the others to follow as he wandered a bit faster than before, still not a full run. Between the way his flood's mental influence made following the blood trail convoluted at best and a need to conserve stamina for whatever enemy they were looking for, top speed just hadn't been an option at the time. At least until one of the others pulled ahead and he could follow them without the headache of looking at the trail, at which point he'd be able to settle into a more comfortable run. He still hadn't drawn his sword, still couldn't until he saw an enemy now that pressurized gravitation was costing more than it used to. And he had to conserve it, because he had no other weapons or techniques that could replace it. He wasn't about to admit it but if the technique became too ravenous to support, then the dream of earning his all way back to the ice castle that he'd once been rejected from might end simply for that reason.

[Satoshi Kazuhiko]

Kazuhiko was already on the move as he began to process the information he'd gathered from the crime scene. The bones had been crushed. Smashed by some great, blunt force. There wasn't anything natural in this forest that would have perpetrated such a thing. A bear would have left gouges and claw marks. He made note of this. Whatever he was hunting had great physical strength.

It didn't take long for him to arrive at the next scene. This time, it was a hollow. It had been brutalized. It's body had been impaled and one of its wings pinned by a rock. They'd created a tableau of the body. And further, the hollow was intact. It hadn't been consumed in any way. This was a murder. An act of violent malevolence. "Tch... How horrible." He lamented from his perch in the trees.

Then something occurred to him... Perhaps that hollow was actually still alive. Every hollow he'd seen die in the human world had dissipated. Without waiting, Kazuhiko jumped down onto the forest floor to investigate further. If the thing was alive, then Kazuhiko felt compelled to do everything he could to save it.

"H-hey... Are you okay?" It was a stupid question. Of course, it wasn't. There was a branch sticking out of its body. Even if it wasn't dead. It was dying. It only then occurred to him that this might have been a trap!

[Rafael]

(Alright since quite a few participants are MIA it’s been awhile, but let’s get this ball rolling again)

The turtle Hollow on the bridge had been the first and perhaps the final warning to anyone that was going to approach the problem in the forest by going over the bridge. The Hollow knight wasted no time though devouring its fellow Hollow and then for some reason disappearing himself although he didn’t seem the sort to listen to the warning it mattered little now that he wasn’t present. That left a massive problem Ren was left to handle the situation alone from what he could tell. Starting to run across the bridge to get to the forest though thankfully it wouldn’t take long for an expensive black car to drive up alongside Ren only for it to pass him and then after getting more than twenty feet ahead turning in a way that would signal to Ren he had to wait. Who was inside the car though and what was going on that someone was stopping him from seeking out whatever was a threat in the forest?

The driver stepping out looked at Ren yet held up his dominant hand signally in a universal manner to wait a moment. Walking back he opened up the back door and out stepped a single very broad man with a large almost afro hair style. Dressed in a nice suit and tie it was more than apparent that he was muscular and yet he would look familiar to everyone although perhaps not Ren who kept to himself. Constantly thinking of the Vandenreich and getting back to them instead of what goes on in the human world and Karakura. “Why thank you Naru. You there! I see you’re going to try and resolve the situation . . Good! You’re going to need some help though. Come on out everyone.” A loud very unique voice that didn’t really match what he was wearing. Ren and likely many others wouldn’t realize the man that had just arrived on the scene was in fact the new Mayor of Karakura, who’d on such short notice gathered up some of the spiritually aware citizens to help with the current problem.

(Alright if you want to join the adventure now you can either write your character coming out of the car or arriving at the bridge separate from the Mayor, but come on who doesn’t want to ride with everyone’s hero!)

SPOILER: Click to show

[Ren Akasawa]

((I had wanted to wait for someone else to join before replying, but let's kick the tires one more time.))

The failure-knight stopped where he stood, his head tilted in confusion. Confused not only by how the massive gillian that had once been a tiny squire ever managed to slip away while he wasn't looking, but also by the arrival of... had he seen that man somewhere? He had, but only ever on campaign posters, and he certainly hadn't been invested in the election at the time. They didn't exactly let his kind vote, and really shouldn't local officials be appointed by their superiors? Who should have been appointed by their own superiors? The chain continued upwards to the sun king, around whom the Vandenreich would unite the living. But their look was certainly unique enough for Ren to put the pieces together after the initial wave of confusion had passed. "The Mayor‽" He said it out loud as if he were testing the reality of the situation, to the point at which he needed to poke the world with a stick to make sure it wasn't just painted set dressing. Was this, the world, collapsing in on itself? Apparently not, and the past minute had been all the more surreal for that.
 
As for those getting out of the car, well, he had to give them a good first impression. "Hail, strangers. Beyond this bridge, a glorious battle awaits us. Although some of you may not be seeking the Saint Emperor's blessing, know it is with us in this undertaking!" He wasn't quite as impressive a sight as he desired to be, but he was certainly making an effort with the heroic pose and dramatic pointing towards the end of the bridge. He was still an ashen-skinned ghost, marked with glowing brands of reishi and clad in white jeans and a ragged vandenreich cloak. But that couldn't be helped; new clothes had been a lower priority when there were a number of other basic necessities he lacked entirely for the time being. Like a sword that didn't break from the rough life of a hedge knight or a way of actually finding worthy opponents without walking around aimlessly for hours.