Sweet Peach Cinnamon Bun (JTT)

[Matthew Hazeman]

OOC: Matt is training for CTP

Matt liked his work in Squad 4. Sure, other Shinigami may have looked down on it, but the pacifist quite enjoyed it. This small day-to-day work, the dirty jobs... All of it helped ensure that the Thirteen Court Guard Squads were able to function as a collective unit, no matter how mundane it seemed. And so Matt was happy, able to help people out without sacrificing his principles. Of course, some days were better than others, as were some jobs. Today was one of those jobs that left some to be desired.

Apparently, another Shinigami had gotten into quite a dangerous battle with a member of the Vandenreich, and had lost significant chunks of themselves during the process. Spritual healing being what it was, missing parts were an extremely bad thing when it came to the overall process. As such, it was often necessary to send out Squad 4 members to search for these missing pieces, and bring them back so that the person could be more successfully and easily healed. So Matt had been one of the workers assigned to this task.

Unfortunately, it wasn't going that great so far. Matt was operating with a bit of a handicap in comparison to most of his squadmates when it came to this task, on account of having roughly half the visual capability of the rest of them. Add in his own natural ineptitude at figuring out puzzles, and it was starting to become somewhat frustrating for the medic. However, he couldn't just give up at it. That poor girl would be in Squad 4 longer then, and it'd be wrong to keep her off active duty just because he wanted to give up. So he kept at it, hunched over the ground, and performing a basic grid search in the alleyway.

[Morgan Reiniger]

-Training for 100 TTP, the rest CTP-

Why was it hat every time Morgan left her house to do anything nowadays, she ran into situations like this? The young quincy peered cautiously around the corer of a building, on edge as she attempted to suppress the meager reiatsu she had down even even further, scanning the streets for something. Her lips pulled into a small frown as she spotted yet another one: a shinigami, the third one in the past fifteen minutes in fact. Morgan's eyes quickly turned downcast as the shinigami turned in her general direction, and she subtly slipped back behind the building, aiming to try to find another way home.

All of the ones she had seen so far looked as if they were searching intently for something, and not caring to be found by them in place of whatever was their true goal, Morgan was doing her best to avoid them and keep a low profile. Easier said than done, however, when they blocked off every road to escape she had tried so far, and the quincy girl really didn't feel like pushing her luck by trying to sneak past so close to them. The risk of being discovered and a fight breaking out was too high, and Morgan knew she wouldn't stand much of a chance at all against one decently trained fighter, let alone three.

She didn't harbor any ill will or particular dislike for shinigami like many other quincy did. On the contrary, Morgan had rather pleasant interactions with a small few that her father had worked with during her childhood. She understood enough to know that those shinigami were of a a rare, particularly understanding sort to interact so casually with quincy, and that most were at best tense and distrusting around her kind and at worst, actively sought to exterminate them. Morgan had good reason to be as cautious as she was around these shinigami now.

The young lady wanted to try to avoid any unnecessary conflict with them, out of respect for the ones that worked alongside her family in the past if for no other reason, but as rounded the corner to try another road only to be blocked off for a fourth time by the familiar black clothes and blade, the possibility of that slipping away quietly shrank more and more. Morgan cursed herself and her abysmal luck as she realized that according to the mental map in her head, she was blocked in on all sides now. "Well, isn't this just a lovely mess...", she internally snapped at no one but herself as she retreated back towards a nearby convenience store to rethink her plan and hopefully blend in.

At least Morgan was well practiced at hiding her emotions; so long as she didn't make direct eye contact with any of the shinigami in the streets, she would have passed off as any other normal human. Or at least she hoped so. A soft sigh escaped her lips as she walked a slow, natural pace, forcing the tension from her shoulders as she tried to think how to get out of this jam she was in. Her bright eyes reflected the sky above as Morgan gave a quick scan of her surroundings, pausing for a moment as they rested on the shaded, narrow entrance to a back alley.

Normally, Morgan would avoid dark, dodgy alleyways like the plague, especially here in Karakura where literally anything could be lurking, but for slipping past all these shinigami, it would be perfect. At this point, she didn't have much choice anyways. The quincy wasted no time in slipping through to the weaving maze of back streets, rounding corner after corner to try to find a point to get back on the main roads past all the shinigami. Her eyes were near constantly checking behind her, still not entirely comfortable in the murky confined space and slightly worried that one of the Squad 4 medics she had been trying to avoid may have taken noticed and followed her.

In reality, she should have been more concerned with the one she had failed to see right in front of her knelt down to the ground. "Ah!", Morgan gasped quietly in shock has her leg hit the kneeling shinigami, nearly sending her completely toppling over him. Thankfully, she reacted quickly enough to stumble backwards away from him akwardly rather than landing straight on top of him. Genuine surprise and several concerns flashed through Morgan's expressions as she recovered her footing and righted herself, re-assuming her stiff posture and polite mask after clearing her throat.

She got her first look at the man she had just stupidly tripped over and felt her heart sink in her chest. Oh good, another Shinigami. "You Idiot", Morgan scolded herself mentally as she turned her eyes to the ground in front of her, bowing her head apologetically. She was so close to avoiding all this, and now there was no telling how he was going to react or assume about her thanks to her stupid mistake. "I'm sorry. I should have paid more attention to where I was going", she spoke softly, hands folded elegantly in front of her as the navy locks of her hair spilled over her shoulders from her lowered position, just barely hiding the red of her ears from the embarrassment.

Morgan's body was visibly tense tense as she straightened to look Matt in the eye, or rather the eyes of his mask. Her heart rate was starting to pick up in suspense and dread, but other than that her expression was well controlled; she just hoped he wouldn't call for his friends. Mouth held straight as she beat back the urge to bite her lip, Morgan's eyebrows knitted together ever so slightly in concern as the blue orbs that were her eyes flit across the features of Matt's mask, as if she was trying to read his face behind it. "Are you alright..?", she asked after his condition in a light tone, although the angry expression and horns of the red and white oni staring back at her did nothing to the girl. She only hoped that expression didn't match the one hidden behind it.

[Matthew Hazeman]

To say that Matt was surprised when he was suddenly kneed in the stomach would be an understatement. Matt reeled back, starting to scream in abject terror before the sound caught completely in his throat. He thrashed wildly for a second, leaping backwards in a frenzy of motion. He quickly settled into a somewhat haphazard stance, clearly recoiling away from the individual who had impacted him. Even for someone as nervous around Shinigami as Morgan, it was clear that this man was more afraid of her than she was of him, as he was literally trying to hide behind his arms.

It was only as Morgan spoke that Matt finally opened his arms, peeking out of the gap to look the woman in the eyes. He would simply stand there awkwardly for a second, staying very still. Finally, he cleared his throat, settling into a wary stance with his arms loosely at his sides. He seemed to try and speak a few times, but seemed to sputter out before saying anything with each attempt. He took one deep breath after his third try, holding it in for a moment before slowly exhaling.

"I-i-i'm just fine," he responded, his tone uncertain and hesitant. "You, uh... really surprised me. I.... errr, hope I didn't scare you, or anything like that. I mean, you're probably used to seeing ghosts already, as you're reacting to me. Errrr... Oh, and the others too. They're around. I didn't hurt you, right?"