Bleach Hereafter RPG

Cole smiled slightly and shook his head at the eager Quincy, "I mean, there's still a lot more to refine, obviously.  I couldn't even utilize reiryoku until a few years back; it's a pretty steep learning curve."

While he wasn't a particular fan of following an Arrancar to a second location in what could be a trap; there wasn't much of another option at the moment. When they heard the roars, something unfortunate occurred to him; one of the only things it really could be was a hollow. He reached out with his spiritual senses, trying to detect where the creatures were and what they might be.

He glanced at the Arrancar, then at the Quincy. Hollows could present a pretty large issue.

But, it had to be addressed now, before any last minute potential backstabbery could happen, "At the risk of ruining our blossoming friendship; if these are hollows, that's basically the source of the conflict between our groups.  My job is to purify the souls of hollows and send their spirits and the souls they've consumed to Soul Society. " He gestured to the young girl, "My understanding is the Quincy fully destroy a hollow, which has the potential to lead to issues with the balance of souls. Not enough that this group would do it alone or anything." Finally, he nodded to Enfermizo, "And, obviously; you'd like dinner."

Leonina saw little choice beyond following her newfound companions deeper into the forest, where she encountered a bizarre landscape of jungle that definitely seemed out of place in rural Mississipi. It kind of made her want to use the sarcastic phrase about discovering America, but unironically.

"What on earth is this place? Do Hollow lairs really look like this?" she said, a video camera popping out of her backpack on its own personal boom arm. After which, she began mumbling in Italian scientific jargon.

“Well since you two seem to have such fine heads on ya shoulda’s then I must ask, how should we take care of this quarry? He ain’t exactly the bold type – maybe go in after him?”

Her musings were interrupted by Mizo asking her for strategy, so Leonina gave the best answer she could think of at the moment. "If it won't come out, then we could launch a bombardment into the lair and ambush it when it comes out."

"At the risk of ruining our blossoming friendship; if these are hollows, that's basically the source of the conflict between our groups. My job is to purify the souls of hollows and send their spirits and the souls they've consumed to Soul Society. "

"My understanding is the Quincy fully destroy a hollow, which has the potential to lead to issues with the balance of souls. Not enough that this group would do it alone or anything."

"And, obviously; you'd like dinner."

Cole's pointing out the fundamental issue underlying their mixed-race party was to be expected, and of course it had to be addressed.

"It's probably okay as long as I don't deal the finishing blow," Leonina reasoned. "The two of you would have to decide what to do with the Hollow once we kill it."

“Why lil’ lady that is a fine idea! I always did like to smoke out the meat for a meal.” Mizo chortled.

Bingo Bango.

It sounds like Leonina had suggested the very thing that Mizo was driving towards. Now that the suggestion was on the table then it was now just the matter of getting both the Quincy and Soul Reaper to execute that idea.

Cole, however, was proving to be he was much smarter than he let on as demonstrated when he brought up the matter of who will actually dispose of the Hollows. Even if that topic was little more than a small detail in a bigger scheme to the Gnollson, it showed just how well this Soul Reaper was at being a thinker.

So with that in mind, Mizo felt as if he shouldn’t be agreeing on not wanting to eat the Hollow too easily lest Cole ends up getting suspicious of some other factors in play. Leonina had opted out of being the one to end up just plain ol’ popping the Gnollson’s wild kin, which left the task of who get’s to give the killing blow to the Soul Reaper and the Arrancar.

“Now as much as I commend that head of yours Cole ol’ boy, I had gotten my taste buds all riled up for some good eatin’. There might be more than one hollow out ‘ere so how about we split whatever we find fifteh’/fifteh’ unless there is just the one rascal than I’ll just let you handle it as a show of good faith.” He reasoned but in truth the Arrancar didn’t really care about just devouring any soul he comes across – his palette was a bit more refined than that.

“Oh and while we are ‘ere to airin’ out a few concerns, mine would be just how are we going to smoke those Hollow boys out? Do you and Cole got like some sort of laza’ or somethin’?” Enfermizo inquired as a follow up to his deal.

Cole gave a small shrug, it was probably the most reasonable agreement he was going to get with a Quincy and an Arrancar. ”Best I can hope for, I suppose. Appreciate your understanding, Enfermizo.”

He nodded at the Arrancar’s second comment, ”I’ve uh…been working on a little something for things like this. As long as this is just a normal hollow, and not a fully sapient being like you. It’s not quite a bombardment, but it should work to lure it out.”

The shinigami swept one foot behind him and lowered his center of balance slightly while holding out his hands as if he was cupping water. Rather than flaring up in a blaze of spiritual light, the light around him dimmed, as if the immediate area had been covered with a dark shroud. His reiatsu did not flow out of him, but rather seemed to fall inward like a yawning abyss.

His voice took on a strange cadence, and as he spoke, a ball of white spiritual energy began to form in his palms. ”White to white, then charred to black. Find the masks, and draw them back.”

While it didn’t sound like any normal incantation for a kidō, but the effect was instantaneous. The ball of white spiritual energy shot off in several directions, including into the hole. He stood straight again and looked at the other two, ”Theoretically, those will find any nearby hollows, attach to their masks, and detonate. Not a strong powerful detonation, but it will give them a sense that the attack came from where the spell was cast.”

He gestured away from the hole, ”So if we’re aiming to ambush, we should probably hide.”

Leonina noted with satisfaction that Cole and Mizo had come to an agreement regarding the division of spoils from the coming battle and approved of her proposed battle plan. Mizo would then ask if his companions had any form of ranged attack with them.

“Oh and while we are ‘ere to airin’ out a few concerns, mine would be just how are we going to smoke those Hollow boys out? Do you and Cole got like some sort of laza’ or somethin’?”

"As a matter of fact I do," the teen replied in her typical smug demeanor. She lifted her mechanical left arm palm outward, which reconfigured into a repulsor ray seemingly taken from superhero movies. This was followed up by her backpack appendages emerging once more, this time with a laser cannon mounted on each limb. However, in the time it took her machinery to unfurl, Cole was able to prepare and cast what appeared to be a completely personalized Kido spell, which entered the hole in the form of a glowing orb to seek out the Hollow within. Not only that, Cole's unusual Reiatsu signature seemed to drain power from his surroundings instead of the opposite which would be true for a regular spiritually-aware being. As a result, Leonina's laser cannons sputtered out briefly, and even her left arm went limp and numb for a moment.

"What kind of Soul Reaper are you--" she started, equal parts excited, suspicious, and intrigued. Her arm and gadgets seemed to be working now.

”So if we’re aiming to ambush, we should probably hide.”

"Right." Leonina took position atop one of the larger trees that overlooked the hole, one of her backpack-limbs grappling and the other transformed into a spirit crossbow that looked more like a ballista.

"Roger that chief!"

It was with Cole’s initiative that Mizo felt a slight push out from his own body like a passing breeze, as the Soul Reaper would site his incantations. Like Leonina, the Gnollson would hop into the shadow of a nearby tree coated in moss away from the hole upon Cole’s spell being unleashed into the dark tunnel below.

All that was left to do now was to wait. Seconds would turn to minutes and then into hours before finally a thunderous rumble shuddered the earth causing a cacophony of caws from the wild life around the area to ring out for the trio. What followed was but a few passing seconds of unnaturally stillness before it hits everyone; the stench of rot and decay.

Even with his nose wrinkled, Mizo did not move from his spot and simply kept a keen eye on the hole itself. After all, there was still a decent chance this Hollow didn’t have the instinct to know when it was being led into a trap and thus ruin the Gnollson’s scheme. Away from the hole however was a faint rustle that caused the Arrancar’s ears to twitch.

No doubt his “partners” could hear it too but in the scenario they can’t Mizo wished to play the fool. A heap of fallen leaves and thick vegetation would move behind the trio. Crunching and snapping, dark green vines slither and twist in on them forming something that resembled a head – conical and faceless – two yellow orbs peering out the moving lump of dead plant matter.

Suddenly, decaying leaves began to rain down above the heads of the Quincy, Shinigami and Arrancar before the mound would burrow it’s way through the forest floor in a rush to get further away from it’s would- be predators. The putrid smell from the falling leaves would only intend to baffle and confuse the trio with the odious, sickly heat then emanated from the falling heaps.

He just offered the Quincy girl a faint shrug as they moved to ambush positions for whatever his spell might have drawn forth.  It didn't happen quickly.  Frankly, the fact that the other two were willing to wait so long on his admittedly experimental spell was surprising, but it wasn't like any of them wanted to go into the lair of an unknown beast with unknown and temporary allies. The silence remained unbroken for the other two, but the voices of his zanpakuto grew increasingly agitated as they waited.  Not that he could understand the wordless babbling.  He tried to tune it out and listen to the world around him, trying to sense any indication that his spell had been successful.  Right before Cole was going to admit his spell probably failed, the ground began to rumble.

Well; give that little experimental spell a check.  That's nice. 

Cole kept his eyes on the hole as the stench of decay hit them, the cacophony of voices from his zanpakuto making it hard to hear clearly.  There was a faint laughter in his head, and a single, understandable word filtered through the wordless noise of his blade, 'Spotted.' The shinigami spun around, spotting the mound with glowing eyes before it disappeared back into the ground and the leaves began to fall.

Reflexively, he thrust his hand upwards and muttered a short incantation and an invisible barrier appeared above him and the falling leaves.  There was the distinct possibility that this creature had some sort of control over plant life and decay, and he peered at the leaves as they began to gather on top of the protective spell.  Were they just normal leaves, rapidly decayed?  Or some sort of attack?  They seemed mostly harmless, and he sensed no potential energy coming from them.

Sure enough, Cole's spell was followed by the ground rumbling as a mound of vegetation with glowing eyes emerged briefly, releasing the smell of rotting plant matter before trying to escape. While Leonina instinctively winced at the smell, she did not lose her focus.

"Oh? It's escaping? Instead of coming right to us it's running away?" Leonina's eyes narrowed into almost slits, and her lips curved ever so slighly upwards in an expression of utter smugness. Never mind that the portal making Shinigami was probably somewhere in Egypt saying the exact opposite of her statement, though this hardly crossed her thoughts as she was not blessed with the same meta knowledge as said Reaper. Instead, she came out of hiding, using Hirenkyaku to step on the air. Her other backpack-arm had reconfigured itself into a harpoon gun.

"You're not getting away!" she yelled, launching the harpoon at the escaping beast before also shooting grappling cables into the surrounding trees for support. "Everyone, now's your chance to bind it!"

As she said this, her ballista arm also reconfigured internally, and also shot a harpoon into the Hollow. Now, with two harpoons attempting to prevent the creature from escaping, Leonina drew what looked like a flare gun from storage, and switched out the flare for a tranquilizer gas canister. This, she also shot at the Hollow, hoping it would actually work.

For all it was worth, the Hollow thought that it was being sneaky. How it shuffled away, half submerged leaving rotting vegetation as it’s attempt at a distraction. A pity that it did not account for yet another set of eyes that dangled from Cole’s hip. Uttering an incantation, Cole was able to erect a shimmering barrier to defend him self from the peculiar matter that befell him.

Bursting forth from her spot with a blinding step in pursuit, it did not aid in keeping at least one of the decaying leaves to grace the Quincy’s skin. When it did, Leonina’s eyes will tingle and twitch as the Hollow’s ability takes hold. Vibrant red line carved into an encroaching darkness that was invading the young Quincy’s vision before consuming it completely. This in turn caused the harpoons that Leonina fired to only find purchase in the forest floor as the Hollow continued to make it further and further away from the trio.

The Gnollson too was also affected by his sight be sundered as his attempt at holding back has put him in a situation he wasn’t expecting from his animalistic cousin. Holding his hands over his eyes, Enfermizo released a low growl as he felt his the blindness irritate his eyes before moving away from the branch he hid on and on to the ground to evade any more rotting leaves that rained down on him. With his partners’ sight impaired, only Cole would be able to see the direction his target was moving was that of the farm they had left.

Thankfully however, the blindness that befell both the Quincy and the Arrancar was a temporary thing and the two would see their vision return to them gradually the further away the Hollow moved from them. “Like I said, he’s a slippery piece of meat!” The Arrancar growled in an eager manner. As his sight returned, the Gnollson would rush off with a wafting burst of sonic speed; pushing forth he’d pull out his whip with a snapping lash to yank a nearby hefty tree branch off it’s park before chucking it out towards the escaping spirit. The launched projectile forcing the Hollow to slow down enough for the branch to just crash down in front of it. Just enough for the others to catch and hopefully follow – up.

The leaves crackled with a spiritual attack as they contacted the skin of the other two.  The little bastard was heading back to the farm, and he had no idea the blindness would last on his coterie. He spun off a fragment of his barrier and put a piece of leaf between it; that slipped into his satchel, blocking off whatever other effects the thing might have.  It could be useful for a tracking spell if the thing gave them the slip.

Cole was already following the thing by way of flash steps, his aura continuing to draw from the surroundings as he rushed after the creature.  As he pursued, he began another of his incantations.

"Creature of decay, I see your aim.  But you are harmless when bound by flame."

As the branch crashed down in front of the thing, two whips of flame erupted from Cole's outstretched hands, there was not much of a form that was clear, but perhaps there would be as the vegetation that cloaked the figure was incinerated by the entangling spell.  With the combination of the branch forcing the hollow to slow down, and Cole managing to avoid the temporary blindness, it seemed like they were gaining the upper hand on the creature.

"Hey! What's the big idea?!" Leonina reacted in frustration to the bizarre leaves' effect on her vision, though her expression seemed to be more of an irritated smile than anything else. However, she had designed her weaponry with consideration for situations just like this, to the extent where her tech could still function even while she was unconscious. So while her manually aimed sleep canister failed, the twin harpoons sprouting from her back still worked as intended.

Maybe too well.

Lodging themselves in the Hollow's back as it escaped, the harpoons unfortunately did not have the steadying guidance of their wielder, and so failed to deploy the grappling cables which would connect themselves to the surrounding trees. And as such, as the creature fled, the unwitting Quincy girl was yanked from her spot and dragged through the forest.

"Ouch! Oof! Aagh! Waaaaaaaaahhhh!!" Leonina yelled as she collided with various trunks, branches, rocks, and shrubs. While her vision was eventually restored, she wished she were still blinded, as very few people, if at all, wish to be dragged through a forest. Fortunately for her, the forest ended at some point as the Hollow headed towards the farm where the three had come from.

"DISENGAAAAGEEE!" Spitting a leaf from her mouth, Leonina commanded her harpoons to release the Hollow, at which point she tumbled roughly to the ground. Standing up on wobbly legs, the Quincy immediately and instinctively brushed off and straightened out her disheveled clothes and hair, to a moderate degree of success. She had a number of minor scrapes, and the front of her dress was rather worse for wear than it had been previously. Still, she had designed that dress to be able to take a decent amount of minor scientific mishaps up to a small chemical explosion, so Mr. Cole and Mr. Mizo would not be getting any fanservice out of her today.

"You're gonna be paying for that," Leonina's eye twitched in significant annoyance as she addressed the Hollow, and her smile was positively creepy now. As if to reflect this, her backpack-arms transformed into heavy machine guns of clearly anti-vehicle make, though still with the elegant Renaissance aesthetic the girl preferred. As soon as they got a clear shot, the guns would unleash an automatic barrage of Reishi bullets at the Hollow.

The Hollow’s head turned in anticipation of the attacks to come. For just because it’s goal was to escape did not invalidate the need to skirmish until another chance to flee presented itself. Cole would then cast red seeds of light that zipped down on to the mound and crashing into it a fiery blast. A glutted howl of pain came from the shambling creature as it’s head would not only be coated in blazing crimson but a spray of blue light would leave holes as the two attacks would leave the shambling vines and decaying plant matter of the spirit withering into a smoldering husk.

Immediately however, something was amiss. Mizo would gaze down from the tree tops, staring maliciously down at the pile of smoke and blackened green. “…Well is that it? Didja kill it?” The Gnollson asked, as he was unsure of the true extent of his bestial kin’s mask abilities. Many of them, as far as Mizo knew, were not as refined and varied like that of a Shinigami or a Quincy.

The former was like a sharpened blade, the latter a precise bow and a Hollow’s natural abilities were like a hammer. It was odd however, that Hollow had a distinct musk on him that was like a corpse baked in the sun for far too long and even through the lingering smell of concentrated spiritual energy and burnt ash, that smell persisted. “No. Somthin’ ain't right.” He muttered. Earlier Cole had taken a leaf that had put a blinding spell on Enfermizo and Leonina earlier but he’d fine that by the time the Hollow mounds pyre subsided, the leaf had all but decayed into dust.

““Any of y’all think it was kinda off that there was no mask on that 'ere corpse veg' platter?”

Cole spun, scanning the area, Enfermizo had realized the same thing he had, "Yeah, and hollows don't leave bodies. Not when purified, destroyed, or consumed." The fact that there was any sort of remains indicated that what they had just attacked was likely yet another distraction. "This was some sort of construct. If it's smart, we're probably dealing with an Adjuchas; its actual form might be somewhere deep underground, given how long it took for my spell to find it."

An adjuchas could be bad news, their power level was highly variable, and could be anywhere from as strong as a low-seated officer to a threat to a Captain. That being said, the fact that the thing hadn't attacked them directly meant it probably was on the lower end of that spectrum. Cole pulled out the invisible brick he had captured the leaf in, and cursed gently as he saw the leaf had turned to dust despite being encased in bakudō. "Dammit, so much for a focused tracking spell.  Though, the fact that it sent this construct towards the farm is probably a good sign that it's not actually heading that way.  Maybe."

He gave a slight shrug and looked from the charred and withered husk back to the Arrancar, "You've got more insight into how this thing might be thinking than either of us. What do you think it's trying to do?"