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Post by Takano Hirai on May 6, 2019 0:42:12 GMT
Takano straightened the tie on his Gigai’s shirt as he entered into the suspected location. It was a coffee shop which the target frequented often, mentioned in Vayle’s report. If this Human had almost managed to take her down so quickly...well, he just hoped this encounter would remain peaceful. As he closed the door behind him, the sky darkened, perhaps getting ready to rain. The shop had the rich aroma of ground coffee and various herbal spices for tea. There didn’t seem to be a large amount of customers today, expected given the time of day. Takano would saunter over to the first empty seat he saw, close enough to keep a good sight on the entrance. After a few minutes, a young server would come by to take his order. That...was a good question actually. Though he had spent almost half a year in the human world, he had never really eaten or drank any of their foods and drinks. He doubted they had any white dragon tea. Takano would quicky look to the menu to see what they had. “Taki, I want hot chocolate…” Hot chocolate? Like melted chocolate? Well, it sounded simple enough. “I’ll just take a hot chocolate” He’d state before handing the menu to the server. He would lay his head on the table, waiting for the girl to enter the establishment. According to the debrief, she was a High Spec Human with some sort of strange tech. Possibly hispanic, short hair, short herself. Vayle probably wouldn’t be thrilled to know Soul Society wanted her observed, but with the higher number of High Specs coming in lately, it was a necessary evil. He just wished it wasn’t him stuck with the job. There were plenty of other things which required his attention, like… Hollow watching? Yeah, hollow watching. Much more important. Lady Arcadia
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Post by Lady Arcadia on May 6, 2019 9:34:31 GMT
"...Oh dear."
Estrella stopped in the middle of the sidewalk upon taking a look to the skies above the street. The previous blue and clear skies were all but gone, replaced by looming and darkening clouds. Well that's a sudden change if she's ever seen one. The woman took off her sunglasses and placed them in their tray, folded her parasol, both of whom she wasn't going to use anymore, then rubbed the bracelet on her left wrist to summon a holographic display. After going through a few screens, she checked the weather - and the information collected by her bracelet on the humidity of the air, wind speed, and previous synoptic broadcasts did not lie. Rain was coming.
Estrella's parasol was not suited to deflecting rain, so she opted to leap into the first building which had the sign "Open" - which, in a fit of luck, also turned out to be one of the few cafes she loved to visit around this city. A surge of relief rushed into her body and the Marquise sat down next to one of the tables with a window to outside, watching the first drops of rain fall to the glass as she awaited a server.
"Just a cup of hot chocolate, please." she stated clearly as soon as the handsome waiter arrived to take her order.
(225 words)
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Post by Takano Hirai on May 6, 2019 23:36:51 GMT
As Takano leaned back in his seat, he would notice the door opening. The person who entered through almost made him fall back in his seat. She was here already? He was honestly expecting to sit here for hours until the girl arrived, but it seems the info Vayle gave was extremely accurate. The girl was almost exactly as described, though without any of the fancy tech. That was definitely something he’d need to ask her about. Human tech taking down hollows seemed a bit unbelievable, but it wasn’t out of the question. Well, it was time to enact plan A. Whatever plan A was. Takano wasn’t really used to interacting with humans aside from healing and the occasional pat on the back for not dying. “Chiyu” Takano would whisper softly to no one in particular. “Any ideas?” “She likes hot chocolate too…” “Not helpful” “Can we wait until the hot-” “No” Chiyu would stay silent. Takano gave an exasperated sigh. “Fine, but I need help here” “Go talk to her…”
“About?” “Uh...Hot Chocolate…” As the server came over and handed Takano his drink, he would give a nod before picking it up and walking over to the target. The shinigami would take a sip of the hot chocolate before glancing to the girl. “Weather’s looking pretty bad right now. Hope you weren’t planning on going hunting today” Takano would say as cool as he could. There we go, straight to the point. He would continue to stare out the window, awaiting a response from the girl.
“Taaaki-” Takano would take another sip of the hot chocolate. Lady Arcadia
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Post by Lady Arcadia on May 7, 2019 10:25:49 GMT
Oh dear. It didn't take long from the moment when Estrella took her seat in the cafe for boys to start flocking her way. Sipping from her cup of chocolate while crossing her fingers and hoping for the rain to subside, the woman caught a glimpse of someone heading her way with the corner of her eyes - and no, they weren't passing through. The man, who looked slightly older than Estrella herself, stopped next to her table and started drinking from his own cup.
Huh. She hasn't actually gotten hit on ever since arriving here, but there's a first time for anything, isn't there? And then suddenly, the man spoke, confirming the fact that the weather was, indeed, pretty shit, and promptly stated that he hoped she wasn't planning on going hunting today.
What.
Estrella raised her eyebrow, but managed to avoid physically recoiling from the statement. That... That was probably the last thing she expected a random stranger to tell her. She's been able to keep her identity under wraps so far, right? The wide goggles on her face and light armor across her body are probably difficult to pinpoint to her... at the very least, the news weren't buzzing with stories about a wealthy Spanish marquise shooting thin air across Japanese towns. Yet.
"I was..." Estrella muttered and took a sip from her cup. "Pray tell, we're not thinking of the same type of hunting, are we?"
(246 words)
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Post by Takano Hirai on May 8, 2019 0:49:00 GMT
That got her attention! Takano would give a slight smirk, almost basking in his minor social victory. He sat the cup of Hot Chocolate down, much to the dismay of Chiyu, and looked at Estrella. “I’m pretty sure you know what kind of hunting I’m talking about. I’m Takano, by the way. A Shinigami just like Vayle, though my job is more about research than fighting. The higher ups wanted me to come here and speak with you about a few things. Namely, to stop hunting Hollows or at least cut back a bit. Everytime you put a round through one of those “monsters”, you’re sending them straight back to Hueco Mundo where they simply reform and come back here. There’s been several occasions where we successfully tracked a Hollow, only for it to disappear because people like you take it down. You aren’t a Shinigami, don’t try to be one” Hopefully Takano made himself clear on that. Personally he doubted the girl would heed his warning, but at least there had been a warning. Takano would reach into his pocket and produce a small device, placing it on the table and sliding it over. “If you see a Hollow, just use this device. It’ll alert the nearest Shinigami to take care of it” He would pick up the cup of hot chocolate and take a sip, leaning back in his chair. “I know you probably have questions about all this crap. If you want to ask any, now would be the time. I’ll try to answer things to the best of my ability” That was...painless. Well, relatively painless. Hopefully it remained that way, he really didn’t wish to fight this girl. Lady Arcadia
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Post by Lady Arcadia on May 8, 2019 7:01:12 GMT
Okay, so, the worse option just unfolded before her eyes. Not this being some random guy with greenish here with an interest in hunting for sport who happened to ask out the wrong girl, but Takano, a Shinigami in disguise, much like Vayle, who suddenly started lecturing her on how she should stop, or at least cut back, on hunting Hollows, let the Shinigami do their job and stop trying to be one. He even went as far as to place a device on the table which, according to him, would allow her to alert the nearest Shinigami to take care of the problem, instead of fighting it herself.
Really? She's reached a high enough profile that his higher ups are concerned about her? If anything, Estrella took that as an achievement. The woman snickered, placed her finger on the device and pushed it to Takano's side of the table.
"Nah." she muttered and folded her arms behind her head, lazily leaning back to her seat. "Science isn't going to throw its hands and go back home just because an origami with a green haircut told it that it's doing a no-no. Especially since it's pretty rich that you're demanding me to back off when you could, you know, be doing your job better."
(221 words)
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Post by Takano Hirai on May 8, 2019 22:51:23 GMT
She was certainly a headstrong girl, Takano could respect that. Hell, she wasn’t wrong about them not doing their jobs. With the Kousengiri, numerous criminal activities and inter captain drama, it was surprising they even had time for purifying Hollows. But that didn’t invalidate Takano’s main point: She isn’t helping anything. Takano would take another sip of his hot chocolate before sighing, really wanting to light up a cigarette. “Science? I am a scientist, ya know. Just cause we wear different clothes and live in different worlds doesn’t mean we don’t have scientists too. Listen, I personally wouldn’t have an issue with you fighting Hollows. We aren’t able to be everywhere at once, and our priorities are spread thin as is. But ‘killing’ them isn’t helping anyone” Takano would pause, glancing out the window to think over his next words carefully. "When a Non-Shinigami ‘kills’ a hollow, they don’t actually die. What they do, is disappear for a bit before reforming and returning back to the living world. Sometimes stronger than before. Do you even understand what a Hollow actually is? It’s a soul which has been trapped on the world for so long that it’s lost its will to go on. It turns into a hollow, and as I’m sure you’ve seen, hunger for souls. What we do is get rid of all the sins they committed as a Hollow and turn them back to a human. If they were good people before being a hollow, they go to soul society. If they were assholes, they go to hell. What you’re doing is prolonging our ability to purify these souls, keeping them trapped as Hollows for that much longer. And if they stay hollows for too long, they go somewhere we can’t really follow. Forever trapped as a Hollow” Takano would glance back to Estrella, resting his head on his hand. “You’re not a bad person. I would of known that. But you don’t know enough of all this stuff to make any helpful impact. I’m only asking that you think about what you’re doing, not to stop fighting. Keep the device and help us fight hollows, instead of killing them yourself” Hopefully Takano made his point very clear. He was really getting tired of all this social interaction stuff. Lady Arcadia
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Post by Lady Arcadia on May 9, 2019 13:32:42 GMT
Huh, this Takano guy is still not done? Estrella explained her point to him, and yet the Shinigami sighed and went on a tirade how her actions are not helping anyone and that she should think about what she is doing and help the Shinigami instead of going off on her own. At least he made one interesting point which Vayle had not mentioned to her earlier - that riddling Hollows with bullets and making them vanish was not actually killing them, only sending them somewhere where they rebuild and return. Not that Estrella had much of a problem with that. As long as it got the bastards off her coattails, she couldn't care where they went.
"I think you misunderstand me, mister." the Marquise replied, smirking. "I don't fight ghosts to help anyone. No, what I need is someone I can safely test my weapons on, in a combat situation, without anyone getting pissy about breaking the law or murdering people or something. And these Hollows are exactly the thing I need for my purposes."
Estrella would take a sip from her cup of hot chocolate, her gaze fixated on Takano's eyes, and continue. "So, I'll take your gizmo, but only so I can disassemble it to see how it works and if it can give me insight into how this 'Reishi' thing works. You received my opinion on what you could do - go back to your superiors and tell them to do their job more effectively. Or you could enchant my Rose pistols to purify Hollows just like how you do - you're magic ghost reapers, I'm sure you could do that. Because clearly, if you're here to complain to me, then I would do a much better job at it."
(298 words)
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Post by Takano Hirai on May 9, 2019 18:25:21 GMT
By the Soul King, why was this girl being so difficult? Did she not understand what kind of damage she was causing? Was he not clear enough? Perhaps she really didn't care… Well, if she wanted to be difficult, Takano could be just as difficult. The Shinigami would lean forward on the table, placing his hands together. "Only a Zanpakuto can purify a Hollow. That's why we get a little miffed when people pull stuff like this. As for disassembling that device, you won't find anything you would understand. Our technology is either too advanced or too foreign for this world" Takano would lean forward with a more serious look on his face. "Alright. How about this, a bit of a wager. If I can beat you in a fight, you will use that device whenever a hollow attacks you. If you beat me, I'll leave you alone. Can't say the same about Soul Society, but it'll certainly buy you some time. I'm not specialized at fighting, I'm a healer and a scientist. If you can't beat me, then you obviously aren't as good as a shinigami" Takano would lean back and take a sip of his hot chocolate. "Unless of course you're too chicken to accept. If that's the case, I'll know you're too cowardly to even fight a nerd. Soul King knows how bad it would be if you fought a hollow with actual strength instead of these peons" "Taaaaki, stop trying to get yourself killed…"
Thanks for the vote of confidence. Takano was getting tired of all these High Specs and Pluses coming in and slaying hollows. First was that Revenant guy, now this chick. Both had crappy and selfish reasons for doing what they were doing. Takano just wanted to do the right thing and release these Hollows from their torment, no matter how interesting he found them. He might get his ass kicked again, but if there was even the slim chance at him stopping it, he had to take it. Lady Arcadia |
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Post by Lady Arcadia on May 10, 2019 15:00:16 GMT
Estrella placed her legs on the table while listening to Takano explain that only a random Japanese word can purify a Hollow and that the technology inside his gizmo is too complicated for her to understand. The second point got the woman to release a loud grin - hell, she might have even laughed if she didn't know how to control herself. What Takano clearly didn't know was that Estrella's high Reiryoku manifested within her as technopathic powers. As soon as she gets her hands on a hi-tech device, she's able to figure out exactly how it works within minutes, if not sooner.
So, threatening her with technology she would be unable to understand only satiated Estrella's thirst for knowledge and improvement.
"You did not need to threaten me with being a chicken for me to accept." the Marquise replied to Takano's following point, narrowing her eyes somewhat, and removed her feet off the table. "Now you just made yourself kind of look like an asshole. But sure, if you want a few unwanted extra nostrils, I'll be able to provide."
The woman placed her finger on her bracelet, activating its holo-pad and pressing a few buttons on the keyboard. The door of the cafe suddenly opened - a small cart carrying what seemed like a metallic orange box autonomously pushed through, sliding next to the table before stopping underneath Estrella's feet. There, she shoved her hand into the box, it immediately opening and spewing out her Red Rose coilgun pistol.
"So are we doing this or what? Just... outside of this cafe, perhaps? 'Cause I actually kinda like it here."
(276 words)
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