Bleach Hereafter RPG

Niji sat across from the nervous looking man; they were seated in To Araliki, a popular restaurant in Kavala that was fairly well reviewed.  He was nervously picking at the shared appetizer of dolmades she had ordered for them.  According to her contacts, this man was a scholar with the Vatican, involved in the more esoteric aspects of the faith.  She had been able to further narrow down that those 'esoteric aspects' were in regard to the spiritual world; the actual spiritual world, not the faith preached by the Catholic church.  Her visit was not on any flight logs, as she had moved instantly through the earth to get here; she was dressed casually, with makeup to emphasize her more European features; unless closely scrutinized, she could easily be mistaken for a normal, if a bit tall, Irish girl.  

She smiled warmly, doing her best to put the man at ease; basic greetings and small talk were out of the way.  They were going to get to the meat of the conversation, and that made the man nervous. She spoke quietly and soothingly in fluent Greek, "Our friend told you that I speak many languages, that is partially true.  I can speak every language. This includes languages not common to this place.  I am still fairly new this aspect of my life, but I think an exchange of information between us could be useful."

The implications of her words were clear, even if her language was obscured, and the man stammered a nervous reply. He was interested, making his own implications that, as Niji suspected, they were interested in the languages of hell. But he did not want to make any commitment.

She nodded, if they were going to go into detail, they would have to switch to Latin, which might stick out as well, she kept to Greek for the moment, "I am not your enemy; I am merely trying to figure out what I have gotten myself into.  I have talked to a lady of questionable sanity, and one of your special soldiers. Their knowledge about the world was questionable, at best."

Yael thought hard for a moment, carefully laying out his plans to make this mission a success. First, he had to review the list of the current members of their affiliate, do a background check on the recent members, and then track and capture them. Although there was also a probability that an old member could be a spy, in the meantime, he stuck with his own hypothesis.

At once, he continued to drive to his destination, and after a few more hours, he reached the Port of Kavala where the hidden base was.

Unlike the Swiss Guard Army who lived comfortably in the four corners of the Vatican, this other association was not sheltered in the Churches where they operated, instead, they had a separate base which was either far or adjacent near the religious establishment they were protecting, depending on the situation in their area. Its condition also relied on the wages they got from their work, although Benedictus made sure to support them financially quite well enough; and to keep their identity unknown, they maintained their numbers to a minimum, lesser than the members of the Special Force of Quincy.

As for the situation in Kavala, for so long there have only been three members and a recently hired fullbringer was just about to get briefed. The headquarters lay under the docks in the Port. Yael had to walk inside a long dark tunnel; he followed the path until it turned to its right and was welcomed by a weathertight door similar to those inside a ship, knocking with a secret code, the door opened after a few seconds of waiting.

A small white-haired girl wearing a peaked cap greeted him.




“Welcome to the Order, Gabriele. Do you want to rest for a while? You can make yourself comfortable on the seats inside.”

“No, thanks, I have to work on this as soon as possible. Are these all the documents?” the blonde teen inquired, surprised that the information was just a two-page document.

“Yes,” Athena answered plainly, before leaning close to Yael’s ears to whisper, “Although, I doubt he’s the one you’re looking for. Our branch was not going well these previous days, so I hope you capture the real threat.”

“He’s meeting with Zoren in a restaurant near this port, To Araliki. Be careful.”

“Alright, I’ll be on my way then, thanks.”

---

At the restaurant, the blonde quincy sat at a table near the window, scanning the area for the teenage boy who looked the same age as him, wearing glasses, with ash blonde hair and emerald eyes. According to the document, the guy was a fullbringer, who uses a book as his fullbring. There was no other information about him except that his parents were killed in a hollow incident during their medical mission trip in Africa, and that he was pursuing medicine before the incident happened.

While the information was brief, as much as Athena had mentioned, the blonde emissary also doubted this person was the spy, since it was not evident in his looks. However, he couldn’t be too confident, as most people say, “Do not judge a book by its cover.”



[535] Niji

At a small table towards the back, partially obscured by the staircase to the second floor, Niji was getting mildly frustrated after several more minutes of obfuscated discussion.  The man from the Vatican seemed more comfortable and willing to share information after Niji had provided reassurances that she was basically just trying to figure out what she was getting into.  She was usually great at saying things without saying them, but she simply didn't have enough knowledge of the subject to have an innuendo laced conversation.  In Greek, she asked quietly, slightly exasperated, "What language do you speak that is the least likely to be understood by the people in this restaurant?"

Her informant glanced around the room quickly, seemingly more for show than actually taking anything in, "Aramaic?"

Niji nodded and effortlessly switched to the language, "Great, thank you.  We should not need to speak in innuendos."

To test, she said the most foul words she could think of in the rarely spoken tongue as she looked around the room.  No one in To Araliki seemed to notice, but man looked slightly shocked, Niji blushed slightly and smiled, "In my experience, if anyone knows the language, vicious cursing tends to illicit a reaction."

The scholar sitting across from her smiled back, "Testing is good.  You sound like native speaker.  You really know language of hell, don't you?"

Niji nodded, continuing in Aramaic, "Yes. I have a gift like some of the more unique individuals in your organization. My gift is that of communication; a few weeks back I encountered creatures from hell and learned not only of their existence but their language. One of your Quincy, Yael, fought the beasts with me and gave me a short rundown. He told me of your organization and their ties to the church, but he is a child soldier, not a scholar.  I wanted to learn more about the nature of things, so I pulled on a few strings, reached out to my contacts at the Vatican, and you know the rest."

Proper nouns or specific terms, like 'quincy', 'Vatican', and Yael's name did not exist in Aramaic, so anyone listening closely might have picked out a few words that they understood.

The man took a sip of his drink and nodded slowly, "I'm sorry, you are much gooder with the language than I.  Could you slow down?"

Niji smiled warmly, "Of course."  She was happy to see that the man appeared to be relaxing, and Niji began to repeat herself, slower this time.

While he was busy on the lookout, subtly spying on the fullbringer in the document, he caught someone speaking of his name and other familiar words such as Vatican and Quincy. After quite a few seconds, all three words were repeated slowly. Blue eyes scanned the area, how did a normal person learn about the secrets of their organization? Was this a work of the mole? Further observation revealed that there was not one fullbringer in the restaurant but two, and following a faint gray spirit ribbon, he realized that an acquaintance back in Chiba was also here, Niji Hikari, the businesswoman who fought the hellhounds alongside him. What was she doing in here anyway? Was she looking for him? The wagyu beef she sent to the Vatican was too much, he even shared it to Arcivescovo, and the supply lasted for one more week. His vain personality suggested that the girl was interested in him, and if that was the case, he could just turn her down blatantly.

Without trying to arouse suspicion, he walked over slowly to the table where Niji was seated and joined them.

"Hi, mind if I join you?"The quincy stated in a fake smile as he sat next to the ginger-haired fullbringer. His eyes were still fixed on the ash blonde teenager from time to time.

---

"Huh? Isn't that different from what was written in the Code? I can't do it, Zoren. I can't betray my comrades as soon as I enter the organization. That's not who I am," the fullbringer nervoulsy remarked, fidgeting his fingers as he tried to refuse his superior.

"Well, what if I told you, you can bring your parents back to life if you get it for me?" the dark tall and long-haired man replied, and continued, "The grail can do anything. Unfortunately, the Church was not able to secure it, and so I am on a quest to find whoever was in current possession of it. You have a talent, little boy. Join the Red Lotus, be a double agent like me."




[345] Niji

The man across from her practically jumped out of his seat at Yael's sudden appearance.  Niji, while internally surprised, did not show it on her face, she briefly reassured the scholar in Aramaic, "Peace, friend, this is the child solider I just mentioned.  I do not know why he is here, but you have done nothing wrong."

Niji turned towards the Quincy with a practiced smile and responded to his query in Latin, which had been his language of choice at their last meeting.  She also noted his fake smile, wondering if he had forgotten how they had finished their last encounter, or if that was an act for her contact. "If you would like.  We are discussing matters better not understood by the public, so unless you speak Aramaic you are not going to get much out of the conversation."

The scholar sitting across from her started once again and stammered in Latin, "L-latin is probably fine too. Most people around here wouldn't understand it fluently enough to follow along."

Niji repressed a frown, apparently the scholars of the Quincy were subservient to the spiritual combatants, even to adolescents like Yael.  She shrugged and flagged down a waitress, and asked, in Greek, for another chair. The woman nodded and dragged a chair over to the small two person table, attracting a few glances from around the room. Niji turned back to Yael, continuing in Latin, "Matthias is assisting me in my research into the spiritual world.   He is one of the scholars in your organization and can answer more philosophical and theoretical questions."

Yael wasn’t sure if he the scholar knew him or not, Gladiis Benedictii operated secretly, only the highest officials in the Vatican were aware of its existence, he was sure, however, that he had not met the man in whatever way, so he concluded that he was just too nervous that the quincy’s sudden arrival caused him to panic.

The only reason why he walked over to their table was that he heard the fullbringer mention confidential matters about himself, yet, as Niji explained, he later realized that the man must truly have possessed a spiritual knowledge unknown to most of the scholars and religious officials in the Vatican.

“I see, Well, what is a better teacher than experience? Philosophy and theory won't get you anywhere if you still don't experience the real deal.” The emissary noted her curiosity and hinted to the ginger-haired lady to join him in his mission, his eyes tailing the two other guys on the other end of the restaurant who were also about to leave.

A few seconds passed, the ash-blonde teen and the tall dark guy walked past their table, unsuspecting of the blonde quincy’s movements. Yael, after making sure, the two were not wary of him, slowly stood up and whispered to Niji, “You may tag along if you like,” and then strolled out of the restaurant to continue chasing after the suspected moles, whoever between the two it was, he had to capture him quick.

[247] Niji

Niji could not help but let out a small laugh as Yael stood up and asked her to assist him in whatever shenanigans he was up to.  She waved him off dismissively and quietly responded, reflecting his own words in an intentionally poor imitation of his voice, "Well, as I do very much value 'my life and precious business' I do not think I should be getting involved in your 'spiritual warfare.'"

As Yael began to leave, she turned back to Matthias to see him shaking his head.  Speaking a bit more confidently than he had been previously and nodded to Yael's form walking out the door, he flatly stated, "Prove you are friend to the Quincy.  Actions are truer than words."

Niji sighed, she did not want to deal with the spoiled child soldier again, but it seemed she was at an impasse.  She pushed back from the table and stood up, "I am not a solider, but I will offer yours what aid I can.  If I am not back in fifteen minutes, feel free to leave; we can arrange another meeting."

Matthias nodded before picking up another dolma, obviously pleased with himself.  Niji stalked out of the restaurant to join Yael, catching up with him seconds after he left the restaurant proper, she let out a sound that might have been a growl as she reached him, "What do you need my help with?"

From their previous meeting, the arrogant little brat would never acknowledge that he actually needed help; but a harmless question that would obviously rub him the wrong way was the least she could do for his interruption of her lunch.

The moment Niji dismissed him, Yael was sure the girl didn’t want to have any business with him anymore, that it would be a burned bridged forever, however he was a bit astonished that the fullbringer followed shortly after he walked out of the restaurant, asking him what needs to be done. In truth, he was quite uncertain if he should drag Niji in this mission, this was supposed to be quincy's business. Yet, he figured ginger-haired could help him track down the moles, perhaps using her spirit familiars to spy and eavesdrop on their conversation. After all, recruiting a fullbringer? Why would the Order even do that? Did Benedictus know about this? Did Athena or Glenelg even look at the profile?

“Uh… say, can your familiars track down those two?” the emissary carefully pointed his finger at the teenager and the tall man with him, who was about to ride on their vehicle, “Also, follow-up? Will they be detected?”

Yael motioned for the half-Japanese, half-Irish woman to follow him and ride his car, as he waited for her answer.

---

“What are you planning to do, Zoren? Why are you doing this?” the ash-blonde fullbringer innocently inquired as he followed the tall, dark quincy.

“Hush, young one. The Vatican is a whitewashed tomb, if the grail falls into their hands, the world would be in danger.”

The fullbringer didn’t answer back, for one, he was still new to this organization, and he really had no idea how everyone operates. Who was the real enemy, why were they betraying each other, why was he dragged into this-- it must be his dire need to support his studies. After his parent’s untimely death, he had been working odd jobs to provide for himself, but it wasn’t enough. Not to mention, those part-time jobs were very time-consuming, here he was promised good pay with a low requirement of reporting once every month, after being assigned certain tasks. The boy didn’t know any better. If he was put in a dangerous situation like this, what would be the best thing to do?

[353] Niji

Niji did not look happy to be there, but she nodded.  There was no point in confirming or rejecting the boy's suspicions of her abilities.  The spirits of animals were all around everyone at all times; manifesting them just gave them form.  The spiritual energy that made them up was functionally the spiritual equivalent of background radiation.  The spiritual animals only existed on Yomi, so they were not visible to normal mortals, but for those that were spiritually aware they seemed like normal animals.  Indeed, she had used this exact principle to suss out a few spiritually aware humans.  She held out her hand, a pair of pigeons appeared on her arm and took off, following her mental commands.  "Unless your targets are particularly avid bird-watchers, no; they will not be noticed."

That being said, if this was just an observation mission, it would give Niji more opportunity to learn more about the Quincy organization.  Seeing how they operate, what they were generally up to when not fighting hell hounds on her property.  Perhaps this would not be a complete waste of time; and making Matthias more willing to share his own research could be valuable, even if she had to reschedule their meeting.  She slid into the passenger seat of Yael's car, "Who are they and why are we following them?"

“We’re going Spirit Detective… or in your case, Millionaire Detective.” Yael tried to make a joke when Niji asked the reason why they were going undercover. He realized he got a bit carried away when heard his name and approached the fullbringer. But it was also just the natural thing to do, wasn’t it? After all, their existence was supposed to be a secret.

“This is classified information. And while it is me who dragged you into this… I still need you to do me a favor. Take this…” the blonde quincy then took out a small silver cylinder from his pocket, he took off the lid, and it showed a tiny metal ball of reishi enclosed in a clear pill.

“It’s a spell we use to bind anyone to the secrecy of our kind. If you want to know more, this is the only way,” Yael knew it wouldn’t be favorable for the fullbringer as it may cost her her life but…, “It’s better that you swallow it than to get hunted down by my superiors.”

Yael would then start the engine of his car, and follow the pigeons Niji just released from her hand.

---

Meanwhile, on a rooftop near the famous restaurant, a man stood holding his rifle, quietly observing as the scenes continued to unfold.



[223] Niji

Niji stared at Yael for a second as he held out the pill, then let out a short, mirthless laugh when she realized he was serious.  "Absolutely not.  If your requirement to tell me who we are tracking is I take a strange pill, I will remain unaware of the details.  I am willing to provide you assistance in your detective work, but, per your own advice, I would like to remain out of your spiritual war as much as possible."

She frowned as she looked out the window at her pigeons, "A few days ago I saved a Quincy after she had robbed the shinigami and killed some of them.  They were about to kill her.  Within minutes of me rescuing her and getting us both to a safe location, she tried to kill me."

The fullbringer did not mention that the woman had tricked the shinigami into attacking Niji instead, but the point was still valid.  She shook her head and turned back to Yael, "To be quite clear; I do not trust you, nor the Quincy as a whole at the moment.  Taking some pill or acquiescing to some spell that binds me to your organization are not acceptable terms."

She gave a slight shrug, "I can assure you that I will not talk about the Quincy to anyone that does not already know about them.  My word is my honor; and that will have to be enough for you."

The fullbringer rejected his offer bluntly, arguing that she didn’t trust any quincy at the moment. Looking back at their first encounter, Yael thought she might have a point, and with her story just now, she couldn’t blame the girl for her distrust.

“Oh well, have it your way,” Yael replied. There was no need for him to tell her what was going on anyway, she would have a hint once she overheard the conversation of their target.

Nothing in the supernatural was normal. It was a non-stop battle, if not with the masked monsters, it was between other races, and now… among their peers. The existence of the Hogyoku crystal made everything complicated, even the Vatican was after the magical relic, calling it the Holy Grail. It seemed that even their enemies also wanted to lay their hands on it, who knows who else was tempted to find the mysterious shards, the politicians? Civilians? He wondered. People are pathetic, they would do anything to get what they want, even resorting to depraved and desperate methods just to grab hold of power.

The car they were tailing stopped near an alleyway, meeting another fullbringer who seemed to belong to another organization, perhaps, the Red Lotus. Yael parked at a considerable distance, the birds were nearby anyway, maybe they could transmit the conversation of the moles to the spirit detectives.

---

Zoren concealed his quincy reiryoku before meeting the mysterious woman, got out of the car along the nervous ash-blonde new recruit and walked over to meet the other party.

“This is Zelreicht Maelstrom, he would provide for us the information on how the Order operates under the Quincy organization in the Vatican. He just joined the Order but with his talent, he could rise to ranks with ease, and we would be able to know the secrets of the Holy City.”

Of course, the tall dark quincy would use any sort of methods, preventing himself from getting directly involved thus still securing his position in the Order.

The atmosphere was tense. Something was amiss with the situation, Zelreicht could feel it, but he wouldn’t warn Zoren. The next scenes might turn out in the favor of the teenager.

[370] Niji

Niji shrugged, she was glad that Yael was not planning on pressing the issue; she honestly did not care about whatever intrigue the internal Quincy organization was dealing with.  She was more interested in the philosophical and theoretical aspects of the afterlife and of the spiritual realms.  Her birds were close enough that she could hear the conversation, and she relayed it in a language that the child would understand, “This is Zelreicht Maelstrom, he would provide for us the information on how the Order operates under the Quincy organization in the Vatican. He just joined the Order but with his talent, he could rise to ranks with ease, and we would be able to know the secrets of the Holy City.”

She shook her head, if the Quincy were as manipulative and deceitful as her first few impressions had made her think, it was no surprise they would have enemies both within and without.  Niji saw no particular point in antagonizing Yael about cultures of deceit and lies being fertile ground to create traitors and double agents.  She was, after all, trying to put the Quincy in her debt in a minor way; if they even respected any sort of obligations.  The woman would continue to relay the conversation; there seemed no particular harm in it at the moment.