Falling Leaves

[Nakajima Kimiko]

After the newcomer and Kaen introduced themselves to one another in their own fashion, the bothered expression the former warrior had developed throughout her entrance had completed its transformation into an iron scowl. It was turned ahead towards her opponent, with her eyes dangerously sharp as they attempted to convey a willingness to finish an incoming fight that had, at the very least, caught her attention. Even though she had not actually done anything as of this moment, and even though it was very clear that this person was not at all a real person, but rather a video game character come to fruition through the aid of Kimiko's memories, she remained intimidating by default. The same could be said for the rest of her design. Even her blade - which really appeared to be nothing more than a normal sword bearing no particular powers at all - appeared to become more and more fearsome the longer he would stare at it. Those designers sure made a good job at making a powerful-looking character.

She, of course, wasn't the only one who sported such looks; after all, she wasn't the only person around here who had finished forming themselves into a proper being rather than a shade. As she stood between Kaen and the Ultra Ban arcade parlor, several of the blurred things behind her had finally become something that was perhaps worthier of the Vice-Captain's while. It was akin to a wall of fighting game-inspired characters beginning to stretch into the darkness. Street Fighter characters, Steel Fist characters, BurnRed characters... Hell, there even appeared to be other characters from the Justice Cog franchise just like the swordswoman herself. Among them was this bulky giant of a man wearing a suit of armor from the far future, this pirate-looking woman with a hat that was much bigger than the rest of her body, and a strange sofa-like machine connected to a mechanical head. That last one was... unconventional, to say the least, but there was one thing that Kaen could confirm in the moment the longer he stared at them all.

In spite of the fact that the characters remained there at the ready, they did not actually decide to attack all at once after they had finished their transformation. They stood in idle positions, with a few of them being completely immobile, but they did not bring themselves onward to come to the woman's aid or try to ambush the Vice-Captain all at once. It was an odd sight for sure, as it was not normal for an army to remain idle before a very legitimate threat, especially this army out of all the armies one could sprung up from practically out of nowhere. But then again, perhaps there was some sense to be made from this. All of those characters were beings that Kimiko had primarily witnessed during one-on-one battles. Sure, there were some exceptions here and there, but that was the general rule. So, with that in mind, perhaps it was quite simply physically impossible for them to actually fight all at once. A curious theory to perhaps be made. Maybe Yume would have more answers in that regard. 

That is, if she was actually around. 

Indeed, if Kaen attempted to quickly find her before the battle with the new swordswoman began, he would quickly realize that the Inner Hollow had somehow completely disappeared from his sight. There were no hints that suggested that she could have moved in a particular fashion while he was looking away from her, not even a sound. It was as though she had never been here to begin with. Considering the conversation that he just had with the wicked spirit only a few seconds ago as well as the plan that they had very rapidly fashioned in order to potentially liberate Kimiko from this mess, it was needless to say that seeing her vanish so suddenly without any warning whatsoever was not a good thing in the slightest. For all Kaen knew, she could have quite simply abandoned him right then and there so that he could be used as bait for the shades, or worse, that "bitch" she was talking about suddenly attacked her without his knowledge.

Unfortunately, he would have no time to ponder about such things, for the woman would eventually attack, prompting the Vice-Captain to retaliate in kind. Once again, her speed was impeccable. However, as Kaen accurately understood as he studied her work with the blade, her swordsmanship was nothing to write him about. Maybe she was treated as this powerful swordswoman in Justice Cog, but she nevertheless remained a being who was fashioned by a game designer in a couple of months and perhaps a year at best. In the real world, there was no way that she could properly compare to a Shinigami who fought for several decades, if not centuries. If anything, the way she fought was even less impressive in comparison the kind of work Kaen had observed from Kimiko herself! So, once an advantage was found amidst her slew of sword strikes and sword slashes, the Vice-Captain would quickly send his palm straight into her weapon in a proper counter-attack, and from there on out, his "turn" could finally begin.

The great flames of Hachiryuu pulsed about the area, causing the darkness to brighten with fire as the swordswoman would appear to find herself reeling for quite a while from the aforementioned palm strike. It was an unnatural jolt, one which was followed by a notable expression of pain as well as a notable "hit" sound that emanated from her body. In other words, with only but a single strike, Kaen appeared to have dished out a considerable amount of damage to the woman with nothing but a single blow. Not only that, but he also left her in the perfect position for a following strike. It should have been the perfect opportunity for him to follow up his previous attack, and so naturally, he prepared what would be a most deadly Shattering Palm. But then, just as the Vice-Captain was about to thrust his fist onward towards the woman, victory would not quite be the thing that he would receive. Instead, he would find himself in a situation that only a memory such as the woman could potentially conjure.

Just before the man would unleashing his Shattering Palm onto the woman, her body would suddenly finish jolting back from the previous hit and return to normal. In a way, it was as though she had finished "being hit" in-between Kaen's attacks, and so she was consequently allowed to return to her normal state. Then, just before the man would land his Shattering Palm, the woman raised her free hand with its open palm in full view. "Come on," she uttered as she prepared herself for what's to come. At a glance, it appeared inconspicuous, as though she was merely attempting to block the incoming attack that she was going to receive head-on. Yet, in the moment that Kaen would send his reverse punch onward towards the woman, he would be able to very quickly realize that the palm that was open towards him was not a typical defensive position. It was something that was so, so much worse, something that could allow the woman to return hit him back with just as much power as he dealt onto her.

Should he be unable to properly react to this move, Kaen's fist would suddenly find itself effortlessly grabbed by the woman's hand as a loud ring resonated throughout the area. She did not look hurt by the fact that she caught such a powerful attack nor even so much as a little bit bothered. Instead, she was clenching her teeth with utmost effort as, suddenly, she attempted to pull Kaen's entire body under her shoulder. "You... IDIOT!" As she pulled him, the woman would then bring the Vice-Captain over said shoulder before, with wide eyes of fury, she would let out a loud scuff before slamming his back straight onto the ground below. It was an absolutely merciless counter attack, a parry that only a memory such as she could actually properly dish out onto a man such as Kaen with such a surprising amount of damage dealt to his back. However, and perhaps the worst of the entirety of this defensive, this was only the beginning of her retaliation.

Just after Kaen's back would hit the ground, the woman would hop in the air before suddenly extending her arms and legs as far as she could. This motion, albeit simple, would cause her body to release some kind of energy wave that would forcefully bring the man upward towards the woman. Just as his body would finish approaching his opponent, said opponent would then begin to dish out what could only be described as an airborne combo as she delivered several sword slashes onto him. The slashes were simple and inelegant again, but the fact that she could parry him in such a powerful fashion and unleash this strange energy would confirm her ability to fight him well in spite of her lacking sword skill. No. Not just her. If anything, this confirmed that every single Justice Cog characters in this area would be able to fight like her, and in so doing, they could fight him with very notable advantages.

[Kaen Youji]

Something was strange about how the woman countered him. In concept the move looked like a simple seioi nage. Competently executed, expertly even, but not indefensible. Kaen knew several ways to block, counter or otherwise mitigate the move, but somehow he was unable to use any of them in this moment, as the throw slammed him to the ground, and then followed up by the energy blast that blew Kaen upwards toward her. I see.... That's annoying. Kaen was starting to figure out the rules of the fight, and it was certainly frustrating, but he'd work something out!

As Kaen was blown upwards, he twisted in midair as she began her rapid slash attacks at Kaen. Were these the attacks of Kimiko herself, let alone Rin, Kaen would have likely been sliced to ribbons in this situation, but instead he brought Hachiryuu into the path, the sound of metal clashing against metal ringing out as the arm guard caught the first blow, second, third, before the relentless strikes pushed Kaen out of the reach of further strikes and the Shinigami touched down on the ground.

"Okay then. Time to be that guy." He grunted and flashed Hachiryuu up, launching a blast of flames at his opponent. Yep. Projectile spam time, until he could find a way to get his own combos in there. Kaen didn't know the rules of Justice Cog, if damage was still taken through blocks, or if blocking was absolute except against throws or specific guard-breaker moves. Come to think of it, what were his Justice Cog moves, if that was the case? Kaen's inability to defend against the seioi nage proved to the Shinigami that this fight was not running on conventional logic, but rather based on Kimiko's cognition of video games. As such his usual tactics of simply outskilling his opponent were not going to work. He'd have to focus on his adaptability and ability to adjust to his opponent's tactics instead. Use Hachiryuu's flame blasts to keep her at bay. Of course projectile spamming always had its limits and no doubt his opponent would find a way through.... That's when he'd need to figure out a counter. Basic punches were no good apparently, unless of course he could somehow catch her before she initiated her own attack? Agh... Figuring out the rules mid-battle was going to be a real pain!

[Nakajima Kimiko]

The mid-air battle which began shortly after the woman released that energy from her body to launch Kaen upward would be a strange sight to behold for those who could have witnessed it. As they moved further and further up with every hit, guided by an odd sense of momentum that didn't appear to coincide with basic laws of physics, their blades would clash against one another as she tried to strike him several times over with various swings. The way she moved, while simple in hindsight, would be nothing short of uncanny the further the man would find himself observing it in action, as although she appeared to be fast, it couldn't quite be described as such. In a way, it was as though every time he successfully blocked an attack - or rather, every time she landed an attack - her body would immediately prepare itself for its very next attack. It was as though she was switching to her next animation upon the success of its predecessor.

In normal circumstances, this would have been a terrible situation for the Vice-Captain. However, after a time, the momentum of his body would lead him further and further away from the woman until she was no longer capable of actually hitting him with her sword. This would cause her to simply stop her aerial assault and allow herself to drop onto the darkened ground below. With a light grunt, she would land on her two feet with such weight that it would cause a bit of dust to raise around her, or well, what appeared to be dust; after all, it looked closer to what one would refer to as a dust cloud when attempting to draw it. Then, she would rapidly return to her previous "neutral" stance and look up towards Kaen again with her sword at the ready. Needless to say, it did not seem as though she was left particularly winded by all that's happened so far between herself and the fire-bender. Either that, or the logic of the game she comes from prevents her from appearing winded altogether.

At first, it appeared as though she was about to sprint towards him as soon as she possibly could in order to reach him and continue her unending assault of bladed fury. Considering what kind of fighter she has made sure to present herself as so far, this would have been the logical next step in her strategy thus far. But right before she could even take her first step towards the man, she would stop herself in her tracks as swiftly as possible once she realized what was ahead of her: a great burst of flames aiming to turn her into ash. As she remained immobile, her body would briefly jolt forward and backward, almost as though she wasn't quite sure of what exactly she needed to do as she reconsidered her aggressive tactic. Each jolt would be accompanied by other clouds of dust flying about around her body as she kept switching between a running stance, a retreating stance and her idle stance. Ultimately, though, she would eventually decided to simply stand still, raise her sword up and... block the blast with her weapon.

As the fire struck her sword, Kaen would be able to notice that the woman's face turned from its previous serious expression to something that was more akin to struggle. She would bare her teeth and close her left eye in pain, huffing with effort while she tried to withstand what was very clearly being damaged received to a certain extent. A noise that was akin to a "thud" would also resonate from her body every time a hit would be officially registered, one which would precede the grinding of the darkened ground below as she was pushed ever-so-slightly back towards Ultra Ban. This would go on for some time, during which Kaen would be able to hear something notable echo from the dark above.  Another zoner, huh...? CreSys sure likes adding those. I guess Happy Chaotic and Asura weren't enough...  spoke a voice that would be very familiar to the Vice-Captain. Despite this, however, it sounded less experienced and wise, like the words came from a time before.  Heh, well... I've got just the thing to deal with them!

Should Kaen continue to send several blasts towards the swordswoman in an attempt to further understand her and her antics, she would keep blocking the flames for a time. However, after a certain a point, she would begin to do something while she maintained her defensive strategy. In-between her blocking, her body would suddenly jolt upward and do something even more uncanny from an outsider's perspective. At times, she would be holding onto what appeared to be some kind of antique cigar, taking her time to inhale some of its smoke before expelling some from her mouth and letting out a bored  "So boring... Don't you have anything else better to do than waste my time?" shortly thereafter. At other times, she would plant her sword into the ground and suddenly laugh before exclaiming a hearty  "Alright! Now that's what I'm talking about!"  There didn't seem to be a clear pattern between these two sequences, as they would sometimes repeat one another. Either way, their intent was clear: she was using them to taunt Kaen.

This taunting would occur several times over, almost as if the woman wasn't worried about her physical condition nor her adversary's as she would keep being pelted by the flames. Then, without warning, she would finally decide to do something different after her very last taunt. In an instant, as light brightly shone from her body, she would reach for something which apparently rested underneath her robes. Realistically, there should not have been much else underneath those clothes, as there didn't seem to be much space to fit any kind of grand weaponry in there. And yet, somehow, she would pull out what appeared to be a literal rifle. Its design was antique and seemingly conceptualized around the use of somewhat-outdated ammunition, judging by the sprawled appearance of its cannon, but there was no mistaking it for anything else other than a firearm. Once it was fully out of the woman's robes and aimed straight at Kaen, she would let out a roaring "Gotcha!", then squeeze the trigger.

With a loud bang, the rifle would expel out of its cannon a great cannonball which would whizz forward in the air with shocking speed. Any projectile that Kaen may have launched in that moment would immediately be pushed away by the cannonball as it headed towards him, and for all intents and purposes, it would be quite clear in this moment that he would have no other choice but to block the attack like she was blocking his flames only moments prior, assuming that he even can. It was either that or jump over the projectile, all the while assuming that she would not be able to reach him first during that time and hoping that the projectile wouldn't somehow explode behind him in the process. Then again, that was as if he even bothered respecting the rules of the game this woman was coming from to begin with. There were maybe other options he could take here, options that would allow him to beat this woman up and get it over with as quickly as she appeared.

Meanwhile, as the Vice-Captain would battle the odd woman, a single man would appear from the dark. At a glance, he looked like a standard Japanese man from the Living World. Well, standard in the sense that he did not seem to hold any particular spiritual ability of his own, in spite of being somewhat unsettling to look at. He appeared somewhat exhausted, disheveled and unkempt, almost as if he hadn't taken a shower in a long time. Even his clothes seemed to reflect this, as he was wearing a heavy jacket and pants that had been ripped up and destroyed in several places. Meanwhile, his expression was intensely focused, with bloodshot eyes so wide open that they almost seemed like they were about to pop out of their sockets. The more he would approach the Ultra Ban parlor, the more hesitant he would appear to become as his hand shook ever-so-slightly. Then, with a deep breath, he would nod several times over before pushing himself forward into the parlor, more specifically the bathrooms located at the far end of the building.

What was that about?

[Kaen Youji]

Kaen saw the grimace on the woman's face. Got it. So blocking still inflicts damage. Though that probably meant he'd also sustained some minor level on injury from blocking her barrage of cuts earlier as well. This wasn't good. He was starting to understand the rules, but he was, being as charitable as could be, an intuitive and talented greenhorn, clearly taking on a veteran. His opponent (an opponent that, if the banter from Ultra Ban was to be believed, may in fact be Kimiko herself) knew the rules inside and out, while Kaen was forced to fish for tactics on what was likely a rapidly shortening timer. Ordinarily in such a situation he'd like to take his time and work out the situation. Ordinarily, he had a basic understanding of physics and how things interacted with one another, something that very clearly wasn't the case here.

And since he was fighting a veteran, he knew full well his projectile spamming wouldn't keep his opponent at bay for long. But her responses.... Kaen knew what a taunt was, he'd played a little Street Fighter. Why was she doing that here? While Kaen had passing familiarity with a few Human World video games, and even enjoyed them to an extent, he was very very much a casual gamer at best, and would not know the advanced strategies. But. He was good enough to know that when a competent opponent started doing something weird, it was because you were getting played. The problem is, he didn't know how he was getting played here! All he could do was keep his distance and hope that when the attack came, he'd be ready for it.

And there it was. The cannonball shot. Some manner of special attack! Charging the super gauge with taunts? Something to that effect. Kaen wondered if he could do something similar? But no time to think about that, the present was what was important, and Kaen had to keep two things in mind. Number one? Try not to get killed. Number two? A good fighter, and a good player, always has a follow-up. Kaen had managed to hold the vor; the initiative, and his opponent in the nacht; reacting rather than acting. Now this attack reversed that, and a skilled opponent always aimed to keep the initiative. There would be a follow-up to the cannonball but first Kaen had to deal with the cannonball!

Kaen still needed to test the limits of this system, so he opted to try to avoid the attack. Super moves like this often couldn't be blocked afterall. He attempted to launch himself off the ground in reaction, though it was time to test something. Kaen wanted to see if evading up and to the left would have any benefit. If this was a 3-D arena fighter then he'd probably be free to do so, and it would mean that future linear attacks could be answered with quick and easy side-steps. If this was a 2-D fighter, did he just break the system? Would he be unable to move to the side like that? Or maybe the battlefield would automatically reorient itself? He was sure that he'd know by the reaction he heard.

As soon as he was airborne, and hopefully above the cannonball blast, he swung his arm out with a blade-like sweep of flames coming down at an angle from above at his samurai opponent. Had he been predicted he wondered? Well, no time to think about that, he had to keep focused on the fight. Hell, could he even use his full moveset? ....One way to find out. Games like this often allowed double jumping, so Kaen attempted to use both advanced air ground in combination with Shunpo to hopefully catch his opponent off-guard, using the step technique to immediately flash from his airborne position with the flame flying at her to immediately behind her, twisting his hip to throw a snapping wheel kick with minimal startup, and hopefully slamming the woman in the back while she was still focused on his attack from the front.

He noticed the strange man out of the corner of his eye and grimaced. That's almost certainly the Inner Hollow's doing.... Shit, I'm sorry Kimiko....

Shikai: 4/10
Reiatsu Remaining: 1300/1500 (-50 for Shunpo)

[Nakajima Kimiko]

As the cannonball traversed the battlefield from its point of origin towards its intended destination, its owner would find herself staring at Kaen with a serious, perhaps slightly-pained expression. Her eyes had become sharper as they considered the possible outcomes of the next moments that will soon unfold between them and she began to clench her teeth against one another as she bore not only the burns left by Kaen's flames, but also the weight of the great firearm that she was holding onto even after she fired it. Clearly, "battle damage" was to be considered during this battle and she was not doing anything to hide it, or rather, there was no real way for her to be able to do so if the rules of her game were to be considered in any fashion. However, at a glance, it would be difficult for one to believe that this woman wasn't actually real, but simply a recreation of a virtual character. Kimiko must have really enjoyed playing with this character, huh?

In any case, once the cannonball was fired, the swordswoman would not attempt to return to her neutral stance very quickly. Instead, she would appear to wait for the cannonball to finish the journey it had begun towards the fiery Vice-Captain. Perhaps the rules of the game also stated that she could not do anything while this super projectile was on the field. Ironically, this would give Kaen plenty of time to further evaluate these rules, as without any warning, the man would simply move aside to his upper left. It was a simple move. In fact, it could barely really be called a move at all, as all he did was nothing more than a sideways jump. However, in theory, this should have been quite the conundrum for her opponent. From its inception, Justice Cog has always been a series which revolved around the use of 2D stages by its roster, and so it is easy for anyone to assume that every character cannot move from left to right at all. This woman should not have been an exception to that...

... and indeed, she was not. The woman made no attempts to turn towards the man in that moment. She would remain as she was, still affected by the recoil of her weapon as its projectile continued its trajectory towards Kaen. But as Kaen began jumping, he would very rapidly realize that his surroundings had changed. Somehow, the woman and the cannonball had slid to the right in a way that would allow them to remain on the same horizontal plane as he was. It was not exactly clear how they were able to do, mostly because the darkness which surrounded them made any attempt at retracing footprints or so much as dust particles practically impossible, but considering that Kaen's opponent was still recovering from the recoil of her weapon in that time, it was easy to assume that the aforementioned darkness was somehow responsible for this. On one hand, this was not something that was particularly pleasant to come up to... but this also meant that Kaen's movement was not at all restricted in any shape or form.

Such would be made most evident once he attempted to avoid the cannonball's trajectory. While the movement to the left proved to be ineffective, the fact that he jumped at all was much more so in comparison, as it allowed to effectively avoid getting it head-on by the projectile all the while preparing a counter-attack of his own making. The swordswoman would not react to the jumping quite just yet, but the sight of the flames were seemingly enough to surprise her to an extent that it would cause her to suddenly repeat the same energetic process from a few seconds prior in the very middle of her recovery process. Just like before, she would hop in the air, extend her arms and legs as far as she could in order to release a wave of her energy from her body, then land on the ground in her neutral stance. Then, she began to bolt towards his position and jump forward towards him in an odd stance, as though she was about to hit him with something before his flames could hit her. Coincidentally, this would occur at the very same time the cannonball she shot would pass right underneath Kaen and emit a loud whistling noise, almost as though it was about to blow up.

This, however, would all be for naught for the woman, as just before she could finish her attack, Kaen disappeared in a flash. This would leave her unleashing what appeared to be a great crescent slash towards the darkest heavens above, one which would allow her to cleave right through the man's flames just as the cannonball unleashed a mighty explosion not that far onward. It was admittedly quite the view, especially from Kaen's new perspective as he now stood behind her just as her technique came to an end. Even though the woman was nothing more than a video game character with very limited logic behind the way she moved and handled her blade, seeing her in action was nevertheless enjoyable, especially when she remained in frame in front of that explosion. But of course, as pretty as it all was, the woman now found herself trailing down towards the ground in quite the powerless position she found herself in, leaving her wide open.

The kick that was delivered to the woman did not hold the same kind of power the flames held, but it was more than enough to cause the woman to let out a swift  "Gngh!"  as her body was suddenly felt flying in the air. Unlike Kaen, she could not walk on air or move at superhuman speeds: the best she could do was a double jump or an aerial dash, like the majority of Justice Cog characters could. In other words, she was now not only powerless before the fiery Vice-Captain, but also now completely defenseless for as long as she remained in the air. One final aerial assault against this woman and she will most likely be unable to come back up! Yes, this would be considered as cheating and the shadows may intervene once again. However, considering the stakes at hand, this was perhaps for the best. After all, judging by how Kimiko was faring in that arcade earlier, it's unclear if she's going to be able to last for much longer. For all Kaen knows, she may already be lost either to the masses of figures still in the Ultra Ban parlor.

Then again, the figures themselves didn't seem to be the ones who were about to do anything to Kimiko. The man from before had not made his presence known since he had directed himself towards the bathrooms, but ever since he had stepped foot into the parlor, the latter slowly began to change. The bright lights that shone so powerfully minutes prior progressively took on dimmer shades, the text on the many posters covering the walls became blurrier, and the screens of the arcade machines surrounding the one the Captain was currently occupying began to flicker. Even the electronic music which blared from the speakers began to sound strange, as though it was being played according to an incomplete partition. It was as though the longer the man remained in the bathroom and the more Kaen kept on winning against this swordswoman, the more distant the image of Ultra Ban became. Something was going to happen at some point. The question now was: When?

[Kaen Youji]

Alright! So the world would reorient itself to accommodate Kaen's lateral movement. That was fine though. He understood that much now, and it suited him just fine. Karate, although it did have numerous techniques for side-stepping blows was a largely linear fighting style, that emphasized head on direct combat, and far less circular movements than other styles. Not that it had none, but it was much less emphasized then head to head clashes (indeed, much of Kaen's non-linear fighting techniques often was derived from his Hakuda and Jiujitsu skills instead).

But it might not come to that. Kaen's kick sent the woman into the air, and he immediately followed up. He hadn't been sure if his move would succeed, so he hadn't had anything in mind, when he'd thrown that wheel kick. But muscle memory carried him a long way. The moment his foot touched ground from the wheel kick, he pushed off with his lead leg, pursuing his opponent into the air, trying to follow-up before she could recover with an aerial one-two combination attack, throwing his oizuki front first jab, followed by a gyakuzuki reverse punch straight into her. This was in turn followed up by his mawashi roundhouse kick, and-- suspecting that as with his blocks before, these blows would push her out of range for future attacks, Kaen finished with another fire blast, extending his left arm and unleashing a wave of fire at his opponent's back, the force of the blast pushing him back in the air slightly!

However. All was not well. The Ultra Ban was starting to fade out... Shit. Kimiko. Kaen did not want to become completely separated from her. Something was happening, something was drawing the Ultra Ban away. Still in the air, Kaen decided to try to cheat things a little bit, and launched into another Shunpo, attempting to launch himself above the heads of the shadows toward the Ultra Ban parlour to keep contact with the Captain inside. A few degrees of separation was one thing, but at least he knew where she was. He wasn't prepared to abandon her to that thing inside of her. Especially since, if the Hollow wasn't lying, it was about to try to traumatize her in order to break the spell.

Something in Kaen told him it wouldn't work. Even if his combination had defeated the swordswoman he wasn't sure this world would allow him to cheat like this. And if he hadn't defeated her, he expected that he'd meet some kind of barrier or another that would stop him too. Still. He refused to simply accept that he couldn't do anything. He was going to try. He was going to find a way. Because Kaen was so goddamn tired of watching people get hurt right in front of him and not being able to stop it. Fuck that goddamn noise. He mentally growled.

Shikai: 5/10
Reiatsu Remaining: 1250/1500 (-50 for Shunpo)

[Nakajima Kimiko]

It is not atypical for a fighting game character to be ridden of any sort of agency when they are stricken in the air. Without any access to to the ground nor any options for mobility, they are locked in a state that forced them to take their opponents' every move until it comes to an end. Depending on the game that is played, this can lead to three particular outcome. The first is the airborne assault of their opponent simply coming to an end as they reach either the ground or the nearest wall. They fall to the ground, and from there on, they can take their turn again, albeit with the notable disadvantage of having to raise themselves from the ground prior to being able to do anything else. The second outcome is the airborne assault turning into a very long or even an infinite assault that never allows them to reach that aforementioned recovery process, leading them to an instant defeat. Then, finally, there is the third outcome, which is the interruption of the assault with the aid of a specific pushing mechanic.

While there is not a great amount of fighting games which allow that final outcome to occur, Justice Cog did possess one such mechanic: the "Blast". Whenever one is in danger, a character from the game can use the Blast to unleash a wave of energy that explodes from their body, sending forth their opponent as far away from them as possible. It is not the best way to defend one's self against their opponent's assault; after all, there are still parries - as the swordswoman demonstrated only moments prior - and there are other defensive strategies that can be employed to make sure the opponent cannot continue their attack so freely, such as "reversal supers" and "dragon punches". However, unlike those options, the Blast can be used at any given moment, no matter the time or place. Its only limit to its use was a gauge that the player needed to fill over the course of the battle after having used the Blast for the first time in the fight.

Considering this, the swordswoman should have responded to Kaen's many blows with her own Blast as soon as she was hit by his first kick. That way, she would have been safe. That way, she would have been able to send him far away, get her bearings and then try to fight back against him. But no such thing would come. She would take the first kick, then the two powerful punches that followed closely after, and finally, the roundhouse blow that sent her flying straight down towards the darkened ground. Her body bounced onto the black with a thud and another groan, and soon after, she was hit by a wave of fire that finished her off promptly. A loud cry would leave her mouth as what appeared to be visual effects mimicking fire would every part of her being, then followed by a weak  "A-Argh... Damn... it..."  before she eventually remained motionless on the ground. The result of this battle was clear: Kaen was the winner.

And yet, there was no fanfare. All there was instead was the sound of a brief sigh escaping Kimiko's lips permeating throughout the darkness. It would be difficult for the Vice-Captain to see what his superior was up to even while he remained above the shadows, but if he looked hard enough, he would be able to see her stand up from the arcade machine she was at and chuckle quietly before she turned towards the shades.  "Alright, good games! You can take my place! I'll be back in a minute!"  In spite of her loss, she still seemed to be just as excited and plainly lost in the memory as she previously was as she turned towards what appeared to be the direction towards the bathrooms. Yet, as she began to step towards these bathrooms, the shape of the Ultra Ban parlor continued to worsen and worsen all around her. The words on every poster and every arcade machine had by now become blurrier and blurrier, and the music of the speakers became even more corrupted. At one point, it could not even be heard anymore. It was too far gone. Everything was. Well, everything except the path towards the bathrooms.

When Kaen was able to reach the insides of the arcade, the fighting game characters that had appeared prior had vanished and the indistinct shapes of the players inside the parlor had become completely immobile. It was as if they had been frozen in time, unable to interact with the parlor any longer as it continued to lose its shape. Meanwhile, while he could not see Kimiko as she had already entered the bathrooms, the path towards them remained clear, as though it was unaffected by what was happening to the parlor. There didn't seem to be any particular explanation as to why this was the case, or at least not in hindsight. However, one thing was clear: the air had become heavy. Very heavy. It would worsen Kaen's movements, make him slower and slower as he would try to reach the door. Then, just as he was about to reach the door, the air lost its weight and the man from before left the room. His eyes remained fixated onto the Vice-Captain for a brief moment, wide as ever. Not before long, he approached the Shinigami and stood before him. Yet, somehow... from up close... his face could not be described properly.

No words came out of his throat. He didn't speak. He didn't defend himself or had any visible intentions to do so. He didn't even seem as though he took the chance to breathe. For all the Vice-Captain knew, he was simply waiting to be stricken down by the Shinigami's fiery blade. Instead, he merely looked back at him with that distorted expression, with a smile that looked loose on his pale face and traits that didn't seem quite Human. It would be easy to think that this was the Inner Hollow from before, but he didn't carry the same gait nor the utmost confidence. Hell, there wasn't a trace of spiritual energy coming from him. He was just there, staring, luring... satisfied with something that he had done to Kimiko behind that bathroom door. He was part of the memory associated with this arcade parlor. He, like every single other shade, had come forth into it, became a part of it, and was remembered by the Captain to an extent. The only thing she couldn't quite remember was his face.

Regardless of what Kaen would do to the man, he would find no resistance. However, a lack of action would prompt the man to simply pass by him and leave the hallway to disappear in the blurry mess that the rest of the arcade parlor had become, leaving the Vice-Captain to uncover what was behind that bathroom door. The air had become heavy again, though not in a fashion that was similar to what it previously was. This time, it was not a weight upon his shoulders, but a weight against his throat. It was as though something was preventing him to breathe properly the more he would approach the door. By the time he was standing near it, he would almost be unable to even so much as take an ounce of air from his surroundings. Unfortunately, however, there was no other path but forward. Behind him, the parlor had become to disappear into the dark. He could not escape this. The only thing he could do was open the door and witness...

---

The skies above the Wilderness beyond the western outskirt of Rukongai had begun to become bright again. Far away in the horizon, the sun shone its first rays upon the dark above, chasing away the many celestial bodies it contained. In the meantime, the wind began to blow ever-so-slightly, preparing for what was going to be a breezy day. A few gusts traversed the above first and foremost. Then, they reached the bottom where the grounds and the trees remained. For a time, they mostly confined themselves to the most radiant flora of the Soul Society, the ones whose greens took on the aforementioned first rays with no hesitation as they prepared for yet another day in this realm of the spiritual world. But then, they headed into a more confined territory, one occupied by naught by dead forestry that should never been there. They pushed against the branches, causing a few to fall, and hit a few grey trunks unfitting of these lands. It was only once they had crossed what appeared to be dozens of miles in the middle of the forest that they reached something different.

There, standing between many dead of their dead brethren, they would stand. At a glance, they appeared like any other of the alive trees out there. Their branches were strong and vibrant, with leaves-a-plenty, and their bark was of a healthy brown. And yet, a further look would allow for one to understand that their trunks were not what should have been expected from trees. Instead of a long tower of solid wood, they would find what appeared the shape of people. Their clothes could be determined, both the robes of Shinigami officers, and even their faces could be outlined: those of Nakajima Kimiko, Captain of the Eleventh Division, and Youji Kaen, Vice-Captain of the Seventh Division. No doubt, judging by the casualness of their eternal postures, it appeared as though they had been caught by some kind of spell, or at the very least an ability that caused them to be caught in these wood coffins they had found themselves inside of.

But the trees would not be the only thing that the gusts would find then. What they would find too... was a Hollow who stood in front of them. It was a large being, a beast of grey who might as well have appeared as five trees combined into a single stunning amalgam. It sat immobile before the two frozen officers, breathing in and out as the teeth of its mask clenched against one another in silence. It was unknown how long it had remained this way. Perhaps a few hours. Perhaps the entire night. However, what was clear that it had remained diligent in its task of overseeing these two "trees". It didn't want to break them the way other Hollows would've. It also didn't want to consume them either, or at the very least not in the way a typical creature of Hueco Mundo would. In a way, it could even be described as a serene guardian, one that held a certain kindness to his decision. A twisted guardian, of course, but a guardian nonetheless.

The wind blew onto the gentle giant and the two strange trees for a bit longer, maybe another hour. The surroundings remained quiet during that time with not a single bother in sight. However, as time would proceed a bit further, the giant would move ever-so-slightly. It would wince. Shiver. Tremble. Then, suddenly, an audible shocked gasp followed by a whimper and several thuds as it moved away from the trees. Its bright green eyes shot open, blinking several times as it attempted to understand something that happen. Eventually, its eyes fixated onto the frozen Kimiko before as it noticed that shocked it to its core. There, on the bark that covered her body, was a crack. Terrified by the sight that was granted to him, it would attempt to approach the tree and raise one of its giant arms forward, as though it was going to attempt to mend the damage that had been caused. However, just as rapidly as it approached the tree, it would stand back as the crack multiplied into two cracks, then four, then eight... right up until Kimiko's arm broke right out of the bark.

The movement of her limb was frantic. It moved extremely fast, a sign of clear confusion and panic. Yet once she understood where it was, she immediately reached out for her neck before quickly attempting to scratch the bark off of it. The speed that she embraced in order to accomplish such a thing was such that the wood trembled frantically, and after a time, this allowed the cracks to cause it all to completely collapse and release her. Once this happened, she fell forward right onto the ground below and began to cough violently, gasping for air as she held onto her throat with crying eyes. "Arrgh!! Ugh... ah...!!" She convulsed as her mind seemed to have registered a most terrible pain coming right from her throat. It was an awful sight. So awful, in fact, that it left the giant standing before her in shock and seemingly deeply worried for her safety. It had even raised its arms near its mouth as it stood back, shaking its head in deep horror.

But eventually, it would appear that her mind would register that the source of the pain was gone. Once this happened, she would cough a few times in further confusion... then slowly push herself off the ground, her hands holding tightly onto the scabbard of her white blade. Shaking, she looked left and right, then at the beast before her. In that exact moment, her scarlet eyes opened wide in surprise and she simply stared back at the beast. At first, she did not understand why there was a Hollow before her. The pain from before was simply too great for her to understand that right away. But then, as her brain awakened properly, it began to steadily achieve the work it usually did in these situations. The darkness from before. The infinite forest, the recreation of her past, every single thing that happened just now... It was all that beast's making, wasn't it? It created all of that for her, didn't it? To beat her?

To consume her. To eat her soul and Kaen's.

It was enough.

---

When Kaen would be able to liberate himself from that prison, he would be able to see Kimiko sitting on a nearby rock by the side of the great Hollow whose head had been cut clean off. Judging by the shocking amount of blood that had been spilled behind the beast, it was needless to say that the head would nowhere to be found. It had simply cut into too many smithereens. In the meantime, the Captain remained there on the rock, holding onto her sheathed white blade with one hand as it rested onto her shoulder, and her sheathed black blade with the other as it remained on the stone beside her. Her eyes were fixated to no particular point into the forest, looking dead ahead with an exhausted look on her face. She wouldn't even seem to notice Kaen in the moment. However, should he approach her in one way or another, she would greet him, albeit without looking at him. "Hey. I took care of him." There would be no joy in her voice. Only tiredness.

While they would remain there, the body of the Hollow would slowly begin to erode. This would be the first time she would seem to give any attention to the body and even so much as think about what that Hollow was supposed to be. From her understanding of what had happened to her and Kaen, this was some kind of leech who transformed everyone who remained within this district of Rukongai into trees after luring them into the Wilderness. Then, once that was done, it forced them to experience the euphoria of their happiest memories until their soul would fade away into nothingness, leaving behind nothing more than dead bark. Why it acted so innocently when she slew it, she wasn't really sure. Ultimately, however, it didn't really matter how it acted or not prior to its slaying. It had committed several murders, a massacre true and true, and had possibly murdered an even greater amount of people prior to its coming into the Soul Society. Therefore, it needed to be slain, no matter what.

It was quite an annoying opponent, to say the least, much more so given that she was caught by it. Even so, she wasn't angry enough at it to feel the need to complain, as made evident by the fact that she did not even bother to actually explain what the beast's abilities were to supposed to be to Kaen. Instead, she just felt exhausted. Exhausted and melancholic... Perhaps even sad, to a certain extent. "How did you get us out of there?" She eventually finally asked to Kaen. She knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it from him, not her own thoughts. "And please... be honest."

[Kaen Youji]

Dreamlike. That was the word. Kaen had been postulating exactly what the experience was like until now. Words like "new reality" or "illusion" weren't bad, but they hadn't still quite captured the nature of the world they were going through. But as he finished his opponent, and moved on without another word-- the way he seemed to get slower and slower the closer he got to his target.... Like the riddle about the grasshopper jumping to a wall. It was like a dream, where events had to play out a certain way. Or perhaps, more accurately, a nightmare. Where no matter how fast or slow you ran, the monster would always be behind you. Where no matter how strong you were, you were never QUITE strong enough. No matter how clever, the problem was always one step further. An impossible scenario. Kaen had been faced with such abilities before and they were infuriating to say the least. "Not to mention, boy... Rage inducing no?" Hachiryuu had of course been there the last time Kaen had to fight through such a power. And it was clear here that the moment was reaching a climax, with how indistinct everything was. The setting didn't matter anymore, all that mattered now was the terror.

And... it looked like the terror had struck already. Kaen didn't respond to the man leaving the bathroom. If this was a dream it didn't matter. He could blast the man to cinders. Rip him in half. Shatter every bone in his body. Kaen expected full well any such damage would be completely ephemeral. Whether his blows would pass through without effect, whether they worked and an identical doppleganger appeared or if they bounced off like water, Kaen had no delusions he could accomplish anything meaningful with violence against the figure right now. But maybe. Just maybe, he could accomplish something beyond him.

He did, however, make sure to give a hard shoulder check to the man as he brushed past him, if for nothing else than to satisfy his own frustration.

"Nngk?!" Kaen suddenly noticed it difficult, almost impossible to breathe. What was this...? No. No choice. The labyrinth had pulled them to the center now. Now there was nothing to do but push forward. No way through but forward....

He awoke in his wooden coffin, with the sunlight piercing through. I was right.... An illusion. And we fell for it. With only a minor amount of strain, Kaen pushed through and splintered his prison with a casual flex and motion, as if pushing through nothing more than a cloth veil. Guess my original guess was on point.... He thought, looking at the trees surrounding them. Still.... To wipe out an entire district in one night.... That was..... That was just....

Kaen walked forwards, seeing the dead Hollow. He supposed Kimiko had probably killed it, and her statement immediately clarified that was indeed the case. He took a seat on the rock beside Kimiko, watching the creature blow away, returning to the Soul Cycle, along with all the souls it had consumed. He said nothing for a bit, his mind focused, as ever, on the challenge. He'd failed to overcome it. Probably would have been killed himself. He'd have to reflect on this challenge, the events of the day. Even now he closed his eyes, trying to crystalize each detail, to be analyzed and picked over. To determine the exact moment they were brought into the illusion and at what point they could have avoided it. Was it when they stepped through the portal? Unlikely.... They'd been caught up in the labyrinth of trees well before that. Had it been then when the trees started to grow dark? Or had it been even sooner, when they'd stepped into the woods in the first place? What kind of ability had it been? Some sort of Bounded Field? An active ability? Could superior vigilance have thwarted the Hollow? Or perhaps it was worth getting one of Squad 12's devices specifically for these moments in the future? Could he have detected the creature in advance with more advance spiritual sensitivity? And once entrapped was there a different way he could have forced himself out of it? Would unleashing more of his spiritual energy have broken the spell? Releasing Hachiryuu? Speaking of which, Kaen almost forgot-- he checked to see if Hachiryuu was still Released or if it had never been released at all.

He'd had this discussion with Kimiko before of course, their whole talk about ranged powers vs melee combat. This was an experience to grow from. One that he very nearly didn't have the chance to. But now that he did, he needed to make sure it didn't happen ever again.

He was drawn out of his contemplation by Kimiko's question. There were a few ways he could answer that. He could take the literal answer of course. Tell her the interaction, the step-by-step of her Inner Hollow's plan. The way he fought the entity inside the dreamscape.... But that wasn't it. No, he figured there was a shorter way to tell Kimiko how he got her out of there.

Kaen's eyes opened, staring straight ahead into the trees. "....I know what you are. And what's inside of you." He finally stated, solemnly. He didn't turn his head to look, just... stated it as a matter of fact. He suspected Kimiko would be able to put the pieces together from there. And if she couldn't he could probably figure it out himself then.

[Nakajima Kimiko]

Long ago, Kimiko had always believed that she had been a person who could remain on her own. She tended to sit in places that didn't allow for others to sit nearby, kept to herself, and generally avoided the likes of other people. It wasn't really because she was necessarily lonely or borderline antisocial. She just didn't think of it at the time, or didn't think of it as something that she required in her life. But as time went on and she further developed connections with other people across the heavenly realm, she learned to accept the presence of others. She allowed them to sit by her, to speak to her, and even to bring her into all sorts of wild conversation. There were many people she could thank for that. Binita, Charles, Dai, and Gideon were among them. Then, there was Addy, Celes, the Satoshi Siblings... Frankly, at a certain point, she began to lose count. There were too many to remember, too many to thank, too many whose company she cherished so dearly.

Still, in spite of that, there were moments during which she believed she was best left alone. Sometimes, it was because she didn't want others to understand that she could see her Inner Hollow now and then. At other times, it was because she simply wanted to take in the damage she had received, both on her body and on her conscience. Case in point, the situation that had unfolded. Right now, the Captain recognized that she had relived memories in a way that she should have perhaps not. She remembered things that she shouldn't have, reexperienced them in ways that she thought that she had long since gone by at this point in time, and it was clear that it had hurt her. The pain in her throat alone... It only happened for a minute. Just a minute. And yet, even now, she could still remember it perfectly well. The gap in her neck, the way it burned so painfully and prevented her to gather any sort of oxygen... It was an unforgettable experience in the worst way imaginable. Then, of course, there was the new knowledge Kaen had gathered too. It was all so worrying, so concerning.

But she accepted the man's presence nonetheless. She allowed him to sit by her and to contemplate the dead woods alongside her, and then tried her best to fully appreciate his presence. It wasn't often that she had someone comfort her in a time of need, if only because she didn't like having to do so, but it was always nice whenever someone actually gave her attention that way. Of course, she knew that it wasn't going to last very long once they were going to conclude things here; after all, the aforementioned knowledge Kaen learned was the kind of stuff that should have forever been left secret to most, even those the woman considered to be the most trustworthy of them all. Yet, in spite of that, she basked in the moment, took it in as granted. It was better than remembering Ultra Ban and its bathrooms again, her slashed throat and the pain that came with it again, and that guy who simply walked away once everything was done again.

Eventually, Kaen would answer Kimiko's question. It was short and to the point, the kind of answers that the Captain deeply appreciated. There was no room for error in judgement or understanding, just a very clear and concise answer that she could work with. Only, there was nothing to really "work with" here. It was just an affirmation of knowledge, nothing more, nothing less, and she could not lie her way through it as she lied her way through her decision of getting Kazuhiko in her division in order to monitor him and through the entire debacle that was Ruhe's presence within the Soul Society. Oh well. Maybe, for once in what felt like an entire lifetime in this blasted year, it was for the best. For once, she couldn't lie to someone just so that she could save her skin or others'. She could speak honestly, even if what it took for her to get there was to indirectly show him the day her life in the Living World came to an abrupt end.

The swordswoman remained quiet again for a time once the words were said, then turned her eyes towards the remains of the Hollow. It was clear that there wasn't much time left for the rest of its body. By now, the majority of its bark had turned into spiritual particles. It would not take much longer for the entirety of its soul as well as the ones of those it had consumed throughout the course of its wicked lifetime would return to the cycle. Soon, there would be truly nothing left of its presence but its blood as it remained on the ground behind it. Well, that and the results of its handiwork. For a time, the woman's scarlet eyes would simply stare at the blue stream emanating from the creature's body in further silence, until finally, a small smile was brought out of her. "So she helped you. Of course." An amused grunt left her lips then. There was nothing funny about that in the slightest, yet she just couldn't help but find it so. "Only she can mess with my mind. Nobody else."

She would grow quiet in that moment again as she thought about what to say next. Truthfully, as much as she appreciated the fact that she could be honest with Kaen, she wasn't sure on how to express that honesty. She wanted to talk about her history with her Inner Hollow, about her struggles with her, about everything. But of course, there was always that worry of Kaen simply wanting to take her in for that, regardless of whatever she was about to say to him next. She wouldn't blame him for that, really. Right now, even though she didn't look like at it at this present time, she was most likely now just another threat to the Soul Society in Kaen's eyes. She was yet another Vizard, yet another amongst the millions of monsters and abominations that wish to kill as many as possible all for the sake of some twisted sense of enjoyment. In comparison, she was probably not that much better than your common Arrancar, or hell, some officer from the Vandenreich going on a killing spree for his holy lord.

For a brief moment, the hand holding the white blade itched. She wondered if she would have to protect herself, especially now that the man was so close. Vizards are beings that typically need to be killed on sight, as per the orders laid down by the leaders of the Gotei 13. They are not to be left alive, no matter what. In so doing, Kaen didn't really need any sort of emotional reasoning if he wanted to kill her then and there instead of attempting to arrest her. Still, eventually, she would decide to take the first step, so to speak, and do the thing that she believed was the logical thing to do in this situation. "I didn't think this was going to be how you would find out about this thing, but... what are you gonna do now?" She simply asked as she continued to look onward. There was a notably-lesser amount of tension on her shoulders in that moment, but somehow, she felt more alert, just in case things would somehow go south. "To be honest, I'm not really in the mood for a fight right now. Especially not against you." 

[Kaen Youji]

Kaen kept staring ahead. Even as he told Kimiko what he did, he hadn't taken his eyes off of what was directly ahead of him, as if unwilling to look her in the eyes. Especially while he contemplated what he was supposed to do here. Well. No. He knew what he was supposed to do. The question was not what he was supposed to do. The question was what would he do. And it was difficult. He'd already let Celes off the hook for the same reasoning, it would technically be hypocritical of him to go after Kimiko. And yet it was what was expected of him. Who am I really.... to make these choices? He stopped to think for a second. Why was it his responsibility to decide who lived and who died. ...Maybe he should take more notes from Hikari. That woman never faced a dilemma of faith. She carried out the law. ...It... Moments like this made Kaen understand why. It was easier. Easier to simply accept the ruling of a power above yourself and you just the one carrying it out. Come to think of it, Kaen had hid behind that very shield on occasion, when battling people as part of his duty. "Nothing personal" he would say. "We'll get a drink after if you don't die." .....Well, maybe it wasn't personal. But then how could he just turn around like this and go: "No, this time I won't do my job"? ....How was that okay? How was that not just Kaen being selfish?

He didn't answer Kimiko's immediate response to his statement, but he knew he had to answer the second. Maybe... she could help him come to a conclusion? "....You're a dutiful officer Kimiko Nakajima. ...But you're very, very dangerous. It should go without saying, Soul Society expects me to apprehend you at best here, and execute you at worst." Still not looking anywhere but forward. "It's what I should do. For the greater good of Soul Society. ...You won't be able to control it if it happens. If I let you walk today, and you cause a massacre, when your mask finally manifests, I will be responsible for each and every one of those deaths. Deaths I could have stopped right here. Right now. Today." He folded his left hand over the right, resting his chin on the knuckles of his left hand.

"But you're also a good person. You're a dutiful person. One I know who will do your best to alleviate that risk. ...Am I supposed to kill you because of what you might do? To bring you to justice for a crime you haven't even committed yet, and, by some miracle, you might never?" His cerulean eyes closed again as he concentrated. "Your Inner Hollow mocked me. Claimed that she could do and say whatever she wanted to me, and I wouldn't take action against her, for your sake. She's using you as a shield." He inhaled deeply again, eyes still shut tight.

"Frankly, I'm not sure what I need to do here. There is what I should do, what I want to do, but I don't know what I will do. I'm tired of seeing the dead bodies of friends. ....Even moreso if they're at my hands. But I also know your self-loathing will rival mine if I let you walk and you come to butcher innocents who don't deserve it. You're not Camilla. You take joy in the act of battle, not the act of slaughter." He opened his eyes now and only now he turned to look at Kimiko.

"....What am I supposed to do with this, Kimiko?"

[Nakajima Kimiko]

It's sometimes difficult for Kimiko to really understand how time works. At times, she believes herself to having understood it to a certain extent, if only because she has long since been aware of the differences between the flow of time between every one of the realms. However, there are other times where she simply finds herself wondering if time is even a constant. She would hear the young speak of many events like they were somehow ten times older than her, describing things that she could have sworn occurred several decades prior to her birth. Then, moments after, she would hear the elderly merely speak of the last decade and how they were capable of witnessing the birth of the cellphone when they were teenagers, which was simply impossible. No matter when and no matter how she tends to learn this information, it always feels just a bit surreal, and truthfully, she felt that very same feeling return to her senses when she found herself listening to Kaen.

She never really gave much thought to the Vice-Captain's career prior to this discussion of theirs. That was partly because he wasn't in her division, partly because he wasn't a Captain, and partly because she never really found herself caring about the specifics of it all. To her, the man had always been just a nice person to hang around with, to spar with and to teach things to, and that was about it. But when he began to speak about her, her position as a Vizard within the Soul Society who also happened to be a Captain, and the risk which came with those two things, she felt something that she had only felt when she spoke to the Captain Commander so long ago, back when the Gotei 13 was still handling the great disaster which had been the demonic invasion of the Soul Society. That something was what she herself had begun to exhume over the years, much to the detriments that unfortunately came with it. That something was... experience.

Gone was the martial artist who sparred with her and Celes. Gone was the man she considered as nothing more than a trusted comrade. Now, in his place on that rock they found themselves onto was an officer that had seen it all. Friends lost in the brink of many wars, dangers unable to be stopped in spite of it all, and threats left unattended that inadvertently became much greater in the process. Kimiko could've imagined many more things Kaen saw then, but ultimately, she preferred not to. There was no need to, for she herself had seen plenty on her own. What her Inner Hollow showed to her in her dreams, whether while she was awake or asleep... Those were all perhaps things that Kaen saw himself. However, the difference between them is that the first were nothing more than recreations of potential realities, not reality itself. Maybe Kaen had seen worse, far worse, and he had the unfortunate misfortune to see it all unfold right before his very own eyes again, and again, and again.

Seeing the horrors of the spiritual world for the first time can traumatize a person. Kimiko herself witnessed that when she was in India with Fuuko, when the two of them had to escort the Human named Yū throughout an ungodly underground facility. However, seeing them time and time again alongside war, strife and death... After a while, it begins to play on your conscience. It can mold it into something awful, terrible, no-good, even if you try your best to prevent it from doing so. So, when Kaen began openly wondering what he needed to do to her in this moment, she empathized with him. When he began questioning his goals here, began asking to mostly himself if taking her down in any way at all was a good idea just because of crimes she might do was a good idea, she understood him. Those were all things that she herself had gone through in the past. First, there was Ailene. Then, there was Kishi, Kazuhiko, and lately, Ruhe. She should have killed them all, and yet she didn't all for the sake of her own morality.

After the Vice-Captain was finally done laying down his feelings on the matter, she would not look towards him. She would simply keep looking onward towards the dead trees as well as the still-disintegrating corpse of the Hollow that rested not far from there on the blood-stained ground. There was a sense of appreciation about the way she held herself now, even if she did enjoy being compared to Camila yet again, but there was also exhaustion. These questions which lacked answers, these constant thoughts which will never get any proper resolutions, they each did not have sound conclusion. Even if they one day get their answers, they will be just as awful as the questions they are tied to. It's why she herself has tried her hardest to push them all away, to keep them in a place that could allow her to simply forget about them over the course of time. But right now, she couldn't avoid one of those questions. She couldn't Kaen's very last inquiry, not for her sake, but rather for his.

She knew that, no matter what she would say in that moment, the answer would be unsatisfactory. That was just the way things were when it came to beings such as she. Still, she didn't want to let things as is. So, as she continued looking onward, she would allow a light sigh to leave her lips before as she considered what to say. Finally, after a time, her mouth would open and the words would flow thereafter. "I've been thinking about that for a long time. Killing innocent people by accident, that is. I started thinking about it when I was some random rookie who just wanted to fight monsters for the hell of it, and I'm still doing it today, even though I maybe shouldn't." The grip around her white blade's scabbard tightened as she spoke, and her eyes became sharper, more serious. "Every time I'm fighting anything, talking about anything, hell, even considering anything, I think about the amount of things I've fought and the amount of people I couldn't save because I was too focused on the fighting. I'm even doing that as we speak."

Her gaze focused on the dead trees again. She wasn't sure of the exact number of dead flora that currently surrounded them, but judging by the fact they almost got turned into a bunch of branches themselves, it was safe to say that every one of them was a resident of Rukongai they failed to save. She didn't care about the fact that the dead was all around them, as much as she wanted to, as usual. Instead, she cared about the fact that there was now simply no way for her to protect them. These people she once spoke to and even perhaps taught at her school were now all gone without nothing left behind but a bunch of grey bark only good for burning down into needless ash. It was not a good feeling, to say the least. It also didn't feel nice to see her Inner Hollow standing there between the myriad of trees from far away, silent with a face that Kimiko herself not perceive due to the distance between them. A quiet cancer. A quiet killer.

Kimiko would turn her gaze away from her then towards the dead Hollow. She didn't want to see her. However, she wanted to continue talking about her. So, with her gaze fixated on the fallen creature, she would allow her eyes to sharpen in the moment, to become stronger ever-so-slightly so as to chase the exhaustion, after which she would speak again. "Right now, the Soul Society is at its weakest. It can't allow itself to attack its enemies due to our forces being depleted, and it can't defend itself against even the weakest of threats without suffering losses. You've seen it happen several times now in the last few years. Those demons, those assholes who destroyed the barracks of Jūbantai, and all those random threats that keep popping up here and there in Rukongai. It's... embarrassing." A tired scoff escaped her lips at that moment. "It's led so many to just lose faith in us. We should be able to protect them, and yet... we can't. I've tried to fix that with Nijūkan, and I feel like we're doing good progress. Even so, I just..." 

She would pause in that moment. A moment of hesitation, like the subject was too heavy for her to keep talking about it in spite of her current position. Eventually, she would just close her eyes and let a heavier sigh. "I wish I could tell you that taking me out would be a good thing... but that's just going to put us in an even worse position than we already are. We're gonna become even weaker, lose the trust of even more people, and then another bastard will most likely try to take advantage of that for the hell of it. It might be another Hollow. It might also be another one of those Quincy cultist freaks, or another demonic loser who's gonna come back later once Satan has finished torturing them or something along those lines. But it might also be a Shinigami who'll think they are better than everyone else, or worse, just someone from Rukongai who'll decide enough is enough and try to take things in their own hands. It just never ends."

The swordswoman would then slowly begin to stand up from the rock. She'd push herself off of it in a tired fashion, her eyes then heavy-looking and lacking any of the shine they usually possessed nowadays, before she would then take a few steps forward. Her head turned towards the dead Hollow in that moment. Her expression didn't change, but in that moment, she felt a sadness almost overwhelm her. The creature may have wanted to eat her soul, but it allowed her to live the past again, even if it was for nothing but a short time. But the past was the past. She needed to focus on the present. "If you want to arrest me, kill me or whatever else you want to do to me so that I never will be able to do my work again, be my guest. It's your duty as an officer of the law to do it, and frankly, it's what I would want you to do if I ever lose control. But if you do that while I can still hold myself steady, then I'll have to fight back... for the safety of the Soul Society."  

And with that, she began to walk away from the scene, heading towards what she believed to be the path that would allow her to return to the Soul Society.

[Kaen Youji]

Kaen remained quiet as Kimiko answered him. There were things that he could have said to each individual thing but it really would have been missing the forest for the trees. The individual comments weren't important. Exploratory statements to help Kimiko establish her own position. She was making a case that Soul Society couldn't afford to lose a fighter of her caliber. Kaen inhaled and then exhaled. He understood what she was saying. But he felt she was wrong about that. He'd been around enough to know that even Captains were ultimately replaceable. ....Troublesome Captains even moreso. You needed more than strength to be indispensable to the assholes at the Central 46. But he didn't want to say it out loud. He didn't want to give voice to the thoughts in his head.

Ultimately... Kaen couldn't say anything in the end. He had no answers, and nothing Kimiko said changed his mind. One way or the other. It neither condemned her, nor absolved her, nor did it address Kaen's own hypocrisy. Hypocrisy he was starting to recognize. What... is the solution though? He wondered. Was it to become like Hikari? Living only for the rule of law, and making himself an unfeeling agent of it? Or was it to be like Cami, and live only for his own values and morals, and hang what Soul Society told him? ....And if he chose the latter, could he even do that as an officer of the 7th Division? ...His position was important to him. The 7th was important to him. For sentimental reasons of course, rather than professional, but to hold that position and uphold its values, there were certain professional expectations as well. Still he had to carry it.

The burdens of command felt especially heavy on his shoulders today, and Kaen really didn't know how to relieve that weight. ...Nor was he sure he wouldn't be crushed under them today. He watched as Kimiko disappeared from his sight, still just sitting on the stone, thinking. And thinking. And thinking. He'd never really had a plan. Always just run from one adventure to the next, one problem to the next. The closest thing to a plan had been back when he'd intended to assassinate Enma. Everything else was just... reactionary. Dealing with things as they came. Well. Now something had come up. And he had no idea how he was going to react to it. What now?

[Shizuka Sanamizu ✮]

42 posts x 50 TP = 2,100 TP
3+2+4+6+1+3+4+7+1+5+4+1+5+5+1+4+7+1+4+3+4+3+4+3+2+11+1+2+5 = 106 extra paragraphs x 5 TP = 2,630 TP awarded to Kaen only

Kimiko only: 199 paragraphs x 100 Ryo per paragraph = 19,900 Ryo awarded