Doc
New Member
Time and Relative Dimension in Japan
Pho as Tabawara Udo
Doc as Yoshinaga Gorou
Another student, another day. What better way to test a new recruit than to bring him against an enemy who warps the fabric of reality itself? After all, since his treatment in Hueco Mundo, Udo figured it would be wise to subject the newbies to unnatural situations as soon as possible, in the hopes that it would at least psychologically prepare them to some degree. The green-haired officer sent an order to Gorou to meet him at his office at 7pm for a special training mission. All Udo had to do now was wait for a knock at his door. Hopefully Gorou would find his way up the right stairs.
Yet again, Gorou had received an order to go and speak to one of his superiors. Late into the evening, after Gorou had finished his daily rituals, he ascended the stairs that would eventually lead him to the office to which he’d been ordered to go. The order had come from a man Gorou had met before: Tabawara Udo. All that the order had specified was that Gorou was to participate in some kind of ‘special mission’, and he’d assumed that the nature of this mission would turn out to be the same as the previous meeting.
By the time that Gorou had reached Udo’s office, he’d already prepared himself to deny any possibility that he’d raised his sword towards another shinigami again. However, the door was closed, and Gorou would have to knock. Gorou exhaled a puff of smoke and knocked lightly on the door, already wearing his trademarked grimace. Even if he was to learn another of the division’s techniques, Gorou didn’t want to have to fight for it yet again.
Udo hurriedly dropped his feet off the table and put the sake away. The reaper straightened his clothes, straightened his papers, and just generally straightened everything to look more like an Eighth Division officer is supposed to. Since it was probably Gorou, Udo got up to stretch his legs and opened the door.
The green-haired man smiled and said, "Good to see you made it, Yoshinaga-san. I won't be teaching you any division-specific techniques today, but this should be an interesting mission. Have you been to the world of the living before?"
At Udo’s guarantee that no techniques would be taught, Gorou fumed a smokey sigh of relief. However, as Udo continued speaking Gorou’s relief turned back to concern. Numerous screens and much gossip had filled Gorou’s mind with as much knowledge about the living world as he’d ever wanted to know. Even though Gorou was aware that travel between Soul Society and Earth was possible, he had no desire to utilize it.
“No,” said Gorou with little concern, not bothering to think about what Udo’s question meant or what his own answer would wreak. When Udo said “special mission” and “living world”, Gorou had devoted as little brain power as possible into what the two might have meant when used in concert.
Geez, he's as talkative as usual. Udo was a bit disappointed at Gorou's lackluster response to his excitement. Like the previous training, the green-haired spellblade decided not to let this attitude stop him. He then said, "Well then, this will be your first time. Let's go, shall we?"
The officer gestured down the hallway, since he needed an unobstructed doorway to walk through.
In wordlessly following Udo through the hall, Gorou realized far too late what the meeting’s true purpose had been, or at least some fraction of the truth. All that Gorou knew of Seireitei’s interactions with Earth was very basic: Shinigami would travel there to expunge the threat of Hollows. Unless Udo planned on arranging a sightseeing tour, Gorou presumed that the evening’s itinerary involved the hunting and cleansing of a Hollow.
As Gorou had learned before, however, presumptions were dangerous. Doing battle with one or more Hollows seemed inevitable, considering Udo’s behavior and the nature of the orders. Gorou was without a clue as to the nature of their opponent, and so he asked, “What on Earth are we going to fight?” Even if Gorou had put his question plainly, he stated it as if Udo had already answered a question he’d never asked, and the smokey query was a follow-up question of sorts.
Udo answered Gorou's question with another question. "Are we going to fight? All that we know for sure is that our equipment tells us that something is wrong with the fabric of spacetime down there. Past experience suggests it might be a hollow, but even if that is the case we don't know for sure where it is. This could be some interesting problem-solving."
The slightly longer-standing spellblade's little exposition of sorts had kept him occupied for the short walk to the world-bridging gate. He stepped through, expecting Gorou to follow.
Promptly arriving on the other side, Udo dropped a foot onto the top of an apartment building.
Before Gorou could even ponder what in the world “spacetime” meant, or the ramifications of something other than a Hollow causing trouble, they’d stepped through the gate. Perhaps Gorou should have paid more attention before walking through the gate, and less attention to whatever it was that Udo was talking about. Landing on the rooftop, Gorou’s eyes and ears were immediately assaulted and overloaded by the cacophony in the city.
The low rumbling of cars driving by and the subsequent honking of horns, and the massive buildings that dwarfed anything Gorou had ever imagined nearly brought him to his knees. Monitors did not do Earth justice: the place into which Gorou had just ventured was like an alien planet compared to the home he had known. Stricken with awe, Gorou had dropped the cigarette from his mouth. All that the samurai could do was stare, and occasionally glance downward at the cars below.
Finally, Gorou had gathered his thoughts enough to put forth the most pertinent question in his mind, “Wh...wh...where are we?” Nothing about the buildings helped Gorou identify the country, much less the city.
Udo turned back to Gorou and answered, "Kyoto, the former capital of Japan. A relatively old place, by human standards. If you think this is busy, you should see the city at daytime."
The officer paused for a moment to think of what to do next, and said, "So, for your first task, locate our target."
There was no way of knowing if the enemy was easy or hard to find, but it was worth trying. A good excuse to test his student, anyway.
In the past, Gorou had visited Kyoto and the city before him looked nothing like it. However, Udo had brought the mission back up. Evidently there was no more time for Gorou to be stunned and stand in awe. Somewhere in this new version of Kyoto there was a Hollow that had something to do with “spacetime”. The samurai focused his thoughts and reached out, though he could only perceive reiatsu signatures out to a kilometer.
After a moment passed, Gorou quickly realized he hadn’t attempted this before and he wasn’t so capable of differentiating one signature from another. A number of ribbons then materialized, many of them white and just one of them being black. After recovering from the initial shock of seeing that many white ribbons nearby, Gorou was able to focus on the one black ribbon amongst the bunch.
“I’ve found it,” said Gorou, assuming that the ribbon would lead the duo to the Hollow which they would then purify. Even the strangeness of Kyoto couldn’t make fighting Hollows complicated, or so Gorou assumed.
"Where?"
Udo already knew, but he wanted to know how well Gorou had pinpointed its location.
After taking a moment to make sure he was interpreting his senses correctly, Gorou lifted his arm and pointed with an outstretched finger.
“There. To the northeast.”
The area that housed the Hollow didn’t look out of the ordinary, but that’s what the reiatsu signature was telling him.
"Well then, down we go!"
With that enthusiastic proclamation, Udo launched into a series of flash-steps to the location Gorou pointed out - a children's playground in a community park. There, he saw some kind of a frog-like beast with an angler fish-antenna surveying the rides, choosing its first meal. Apparently it was having a hard time choosing which to eat first, because it kept looking around, not paying attention to the reaper at all. The sixth seat clicked the collar of his blade out of the sheath and waited for his charge to arrive.
Without anything even resembling shunpo at his disposal, the samurai took about a minute to make his way over to his insistently-enthusiastic superior. At first, Gorou had forgotten that he could manipulate reiatsu and ignore the force of gravity that he’d once thought to be an immutable fact. Given that the masked ghoul was seemingly hypnotized by the nearby people, the unseated spellblade noted that the element of surprise was on their side.
“What are we to do now?”
Beyond the hollow Gorou looked at the numerous children apparently playing with odd metal contraptions. An all-out battle so close to kids made the ronin nervous. Given that Udo was leading the mission the samurai made the assumption that no danger would be imposed upon civilians.
That assumption was false. Udo's main priority was the element of surprise - collateral damage was the risk that came with it. It was a battle now, despite the fact that neither side had yet raised arms against each other. The beast's calm was a concern, because most hollows would have attacked by now. This one didn't feel especially strong, and yet it showed no concern for the pair of soul reapers right behind it. What secret was the demon hiding?
The frog-beast waited patiently for its true prey to attack, not the least bit interested in the immature souls in front of it. This one liked its delicacies well-aged.
The sixth seat frowned and said, "Something's not right. Ready yourself."
He then pointed at the abomination and said, "Under the celestial ruby, shall my voice roar like thunder. Hadou no san, Beniikazuchi."
The blast of red lightning struck true, projecting swinging shadows behind the rides and toys... but still, no reaction.
At the officer’s command, Gorou readied his zanpakutou. Udo sent a spell the hollow’s way and yet it had no effect on its demonic target. In the unseated spellblade’s experience most hollows tended to act aggressively - they also were typically affected when spells were cast upon them - but this one simply sat and waited, either oblivious or apathetic towards whatever was happening around it.
“This doesn’t make sense. Perhaps something more direct...”
Still, the samurai defaulted to his superior officer before acting on his own suggestion. If their reiatsu wasn’t enough to attract the aberration's attention and kidou spells were equally insufficient, then the next logical step seemed to be a trial by zanpakutou. No matter how stoic a hollow could act, the ronin was confident that being struck by a blade would get its attention.
Udo still couldn't find any signs of a trap, so he charged ahead, launching into a blur of movement... that sent him straight back towards Gorou. Udo tried what he could to slow down, but the shocked look on his face showed that the trainee had better block or move out of the way quickly.
Much as Gorou tried, he hadn’t been paying enough attention to react in time. As soon as he’d started to move, Udo’s body collided and knocked him back several feet. A belabored and drawn-out groan rumbled in his throat as he stood again. He rubbed the back of his head and tried to get a grip of the situation.
“I don’t understand,” he muttered quietly. As far as he knew, moving in one direction didn’t usually result in instantly turning about-face without warning. The more he thought about it the less sense it made to him.
Udo got up next to Gorou, close enough to hear his mutterings, and said, "That's the point. The reason I'm on this mission is because I'm specifically hunting this group of hollows to see if it leads to anything. The reason you're here is to learn that sometimes, things are confusing. And that sometimes, working together can give a great advantage."
The green-haired man pointed at the hollow and said, "In this example, we see a hollow with a power akin to teleportation. However, with such a great power, there must be a limitation. In this case, it's ability can only be used once at a time. So, if we each attack from different sides, I expect that one of us will be able to hit."
The officer turned to his charge and asked, "You ready?"
Given that Gorou’s forte lay in the spectrum opposite to tactics and strategy, he was content with being handed a plan of attack based on careful thought. Most of the time, tacticians were better at developing battle plans than he was, and given that he’d already seen a sliver of Udo’s talent in combat he had no reason to doubt the green-haired officer’s abilities.
“That,” the quiet samurai began with what might have been a smirk, “I understand,” he tightened up his stance. Fighting a hollow, an enemy from whom he didn’t hold even a modicum of himself back, was just the least bit exhilarating. Finally, he’d be able to cut loose amidst the modern world’s chaotic jungle of steel and smoke.
Udo darted off to the left, setting his path perpendicular to Gorou's, before charging in for the kill. The lean soul reaper slipped through the air, brandishing his blade towards the hollow as convincingly as he could, knowing he probably would not connect. He brought the glistening steel of judgement down upon the beast, and finally found himself bravely trimming a garden hedge. Hopefully this tactic worked.
Not for a moment did Gorou hesitate to move. The flanking maneuver began and as he hurtled towards the amphibious aberration, he began to lose focus on the noise and chaos around him. Some small degree of tunnel vision began to possess his eyes. It was a familiar feeling and had he been any less out of practice, he might have been able to ignore the chaotic city’s pungent stench.
Distractions such as the city’s smell, or the sight of Udo being redirected weren’t enough to take the ronin’s mind off of his target, however. As he approached the hollow moved to defend itself by lashing out with its tongue. In three swipes he cut the beast’s tongue into bits, and by then had come close enough to lower the finishing blow.
A shrill croak rang out as Gunshin was planted deep through the ghoul’s mask and cranium. In that final moment, the old man watched his blade pierce and kill his enemy. Somewhere deep within the darkest corner of his mind, something as old as it was violent stirred and awoke. As if the sealed war god could sense the change, it rumbled violently in place.
WC : 2,536