Bleach Hereafter RPG

The constant scenery of the vast emptiness of the vast desolate desert of Hueco Mundo was a momentary solace to the lavender haired Arrancar. Her long hair is blown by the occasional breeze, swaying and luminous from the pale ambiance of the area. Milo had been taking solitary walks on a now regular occurrence when Nezuel was away doing his own shenanigans. Her golden eyes always keep a gentle gaze when she found anything of interest. Her curiosity like that of a child, was never satiated by the simplest of answers. It was a wonder how Nezuel never grew tired of her presence when she behaved as such. Her eyes always scanning her surroundings and never growing bored with every little thing Nezuel shared with her.

Milo needed to find her own pass time while Nezuel was away. She behaved like a lost puppy if he wasn't around, but then again she's only ever known Nezuel from what she can remember from her blurry memories. A mystery for another time of course.

While her legs took her nowhere in particular, her head turned to see something that caught her eye. Milo wasn't too sure what exactly it was that she was looking at from the distance, but it was a figure. A body frame like that of...a man's? She looked around to see if any others of her kind were around, but it seemed like the usual devoid desert she had grown accustomed to. With careful steps and the curious drive to see just what that mysterious figure was.

As she came closer to the figure, her assumptions that it had the frame of a man was accurate. Well that was one part of the mystery solved, but who was this man? He was obviously not an Arrancar, so just who was this? Should she approach him? He didn't seem hostile, especially with his back turned to her direction and having been preoccupied with whatever it was he had the tools for laid out.

"Who are you?"

It had been several hours before Cole first sensed the Arrancar in the distance. This was getting to be very unusual; every time he tried to develop his teleportation magicks, he encountered one of the theoretically rare beings. First Enfermizo on earth, then Nezuel less than a week ago, and now yet another. Three Arrancar in as many weeks.  The evolved Hollows were definitely either more common than Seireitei realized, or Cole was just particularly unlucky.

Well, they had all been relatively friendly, so maybe that was lucky? Some sort of unlucky luck? Was there a term for that? He realized he was still thinking out loud in order to hear his own thoughts over the unintelligible rabble of his Zanpakuto spirit. Better that the new arrival didn’t think he was insane…or did that make him seem more dangerous? His particularly long Zanpakuto on the back-scabbard identified him as a Shinigami; anyone who wasn’t put off by the blade wouldn’t be too worried about some muttering.  Still, better to try and appear reasonable.

The being approached slowly, and Cole took the opportunity to review his work. The initial major sigils were marked out for chiseling, but he still had to get the lesser runes to make this any sort of helpful long term operation. Things that would make even weaker Arrancars overlook this place; obscuration, distraction, illusions. Relatively unique as far as kidō went, but his research had given him quite a few little tricks that other Shinigami didn’t have by picking off the numbered list of spells.

At the question, he stood up, making a show of stretching (though, having been hunched over for a pretty long time, it wasn’t entirely for show) before he turned around. He slid a hand into his pocket, confirming the presence of his return ticket if things turned bad. The voice was much softer than he was expecting from an Arrancar, so he wasn’t particularly shocked to see a beautiful woman standing nearby. Most spiritual beings seemed to have some level of control over their appearance, and looks could be deceiving.

Nonetheless, she wasn't attacking him, and she seemed polite enough about her question. He gave her a small bow in the Japanese style, then straightened up to his considerable height. ”Good evening, miss.  I'm Cole.  How can I help you?”

Now this was a pleasant surprise. The individual answered her question and most likely already sensed her presence from the calm tone. She couldn't sense any sort of threatening energy from the man as he spoke. Milo tilted her head and approached him with the curiosity of an energetic puppy as she walked around him, nodding and looking him over. Seeing someone else, someone NOT Nezuel and who could speak was like a pleasant gift for her. The Arrancar had been very nervous of her own kind so she kept herself at a safe distance from them. Perhaps she should take more casual strolls in the vast sandy desert if it meant meeting a possibly friendly face.

As for help, well...

"Is it evening now? Time has been quite a nonexistent concept for me these days." Her tone taking a lonely and melancholic sound, her golden orbs somber at the very thought of keeping up with the time of day. Something she had willingly chosen to ignore while Nezuel was away. Her lavender hair swayed as she crossed her arms and sighed tiredly. "I was just curious as to who would be out here so far away. Although...I don't think you're like me, from the look of it. Mind if I just watch your work? I'm...Milo. If you would like to call me by another name, that is fine as well."

She was feeling quite lonely nowadays, not like she would tell a total stranger about that and how much over thinking she does on a day to day basis, but if it meant not having to feel quite so alone then she wouldn't mind entertaining him.

"Cole, was it? How often do you come here?"

Not only would Milo not sense any particularly threatening energy from Cole, the man’s energy would feel different than anything she had felt. Generally, spirituality powerful entities gave off a distinct sense of spiritual pressure; literally, you could feel it weighing on your shoulders. The Shinigami seemed to absorb the ambient energy, not so much reducing this pressure as causing a vacuum that pulled towards, rather than pushed out from him. And while this unusual effect was enough to encourage normal hollows to not pursue him as a snack, it had no such effect on the sentient ones, whom, so far, it had prompted curiosity.

And, like those previous encounters, the woman seemed curious, though she did not seem aggressive or up to something. Probably no impromptu spar, then; good. He nodded, giving Milo a slight smile, ”That’s fair; I’ve actually only ever seen it be night here. Good night just seems more like a farewell than a greeting, but I’m not sure if other times of day exist in this realm. How do Arrancar tend to greet each other, anyway?"

The voices from his blade were rambling incoherently, but they didn’t seem particularly worked up or anxious at the moment, unlike when the other Arrancars were up to something. "I’ve only been here a few times. I might be here more often depending on how my work goes today.” He spun a black piece of chalk through his fingers absentmindedly, ”As to watching me, I uh…I guess that’s fine.  It’s not going to be particularly exciting, though.  I’ll probably be mostly marking lines for a good while, then the process of chiseling them out will take even longer.”

Granted, if a random Arrancar stumbled upon him while he was working, this might be some sort of well traveled area; that would be unfortunate. The obfuscation and diversion magicks were useful, but they wouldn’t change a well trafficked area to an empty one. ”How about you, Milo, are you out this particular way much?”

Having someone to talk to was pleasant and a momentary satisfaction to fill in her loneliness. Milo hummed before taking the time to respond to Cole. She was still a fairly new Arrancar, it felt like it and was confirmed as much by her only friend, Nezuel. Her golden eyes would look to the side before taking the time to choose her words. This was her first time interacting with someone other than Nezuel, and she hoped to be of good company for the other. If anything, to help pass the time.

"My kind rarely greet one another in friendly terms. If I so much as look at anyone the wrong way, I might as well accept my death. Hmm, but when my friend greets me it's usually a friendly hello. I don't think he ever mentions the time of day, now that I think about it." Her lips pouted as she really did think of every time he had greeted her. Not a moment in between had he ever mentioned the time of day, perhaps it was intentional or just that their kind really didn't care about the time. Who really knew?

"It's ok, Cole. Most things that are out of my usual norm are interesting to me, I'm just that easily entertained. Hmm, I guess leaving a little further away from my quarters was worth it. I'm usually not out here, not this far from my living quarters since my friend wants me to be safe from harm. You're safe, don't worry. This area isn't heavily trafficked and no one really goes this far unless they deliberately want to be left alone with their thoughts."

Cole nodded slowly, unsure of if it was reasonable to take the woman at her word. It was almost too innocent; with a friend that kept her safe, and easily entertained by a stranger drawing strange symbols on the ground. And while there was no denying the woman was beautiful, they contrasted with the unique features that made clear her nature as a predator. The fanged remnants of a mask on her neck along with the hole made it hard to forget that bit.

The Shinigami pulled a small bell out of his bag, and gave it a light ring. He collected his energy for a spell he’d used a few times, if there was a change in the reishi of someone nearby, it would basically blare in his mind.  Functionally, it let him focus on other tasks, and the spell would alert him if someone nearby appeared to be preparing an attack. As the chime began to fade, he softly intoned, ”Erectus.”

There was a chorus of laughter in his head from his blade, and Cole blinked in confusion for a moment. Then he realized someone who didn’t know what he was up to might have been confused. ”Uh…not me.  It’s a just some basic magick to let me know if a threat is approaching. Erectus is just Latin for alert. It’s nothing wei–”

Cole stopped himself and sighed, putting the bell away as he felt the spell settle into his mind, ”ANYWAY. It’s good you have friends here you can rely on. I understand Hueco Mundo is pretty dangerous even for the locals.”

He gave her a small nod, then looked at his markings; he needed to remember exactly where he had been before he had first sensed the woman’s arrival.

Milo kept her kind and gentle smile towards Cole, innocence her very appearance and unaware of her beauty. She wouldn't really think too hard on the reasoning for the odd name of the spell. It did sound quite familiar to a word Nezuel would either joke or tease her with on occassions, or something she had heard him use on someone else. It wasn't her business to question whatever that word meant, it was probably something funny.

"As for friends I only have one, and he's quite the handful sometimes. I don't mind his shenanigans, really, but I wish he could try and take me serious once in a while instead of teasing me." No matter what, Nezuel has been the reason she had remained safe in Hueco Mundo. She of course owed him her life for that, but sometimes he would treat her like she was something so easy to break. Which did irritate her in some instances, but he meant well, right?

"You aren't wrong about that, friend. Hueco Mundo is better traversed in good company or avoiding unnecessary quarrels. I'm hoping you can do what you need to, those markings look very complicated. Does putting them in a certain order make it some specific type of spell?" Milo asked as she focused on Cole's handiwork.

Well, she either didn’t get the accidental innuendo, or she was being too polite to acknowledge it. Granted, like other spiritual beings, this woman might very well be centuries old, and god only knew they had no idea of modern (or even within the last century) slang. Either way, no sense dwelling on it; the embarrassment would be weirder than just letting it go.

Checked his notes against the markings he had made, and tweaked a few as he made a mumbled sound of commiseration as she spoke of her friend.  Though, he was slightly surprised when the woman addressed him as a friend. Apparently Arrancar were also more quick to declare friendship than anticipated. Enfermizo had acted friendly enough, likely to mask his actual intentions. But Nezuel straight up asked if they were friends after their spar. This woman was assuming the friendship had already happened, possibly because he hadn’t immediately tried to attack or eat her.  Arrancar were certainly a weird bunch, starved for friendship just as much as their other hungers, apparently.

”Well, it depends.” He responded vaguely to her second question, then pointed along the runes on the inner line of the circle, ”Those will put up a persistent illusion that makes this just look like any other stretch of desert. Nothing fancy, the effect itself is basic, the rest are making it more efficient so it can basically run off ambient reishi. Honestly, a vast majority of these sigils are just ways to figure out when to activate and deactivate various spells to operate on the lowest possible reishi while still getting the desired effect.”

He walked over to a line of runes, which repeated in each cardinal direction, ”These are a bit more like computer cod–er…math proofs? Anyway, they start with basic detector runes which respond to the presence of reishi. Then it starts the basic logical sequence, ‘does the reishi belong to Cole? If no, then activate the diversion spell; then check a few minutes later to see if they are still approaching, if no, deactivate the spell, if yes, attempt the next defensive spell', et cetera, et cetera.”

There were quite a few of these chains of sigils and runes around and inside the circle, it seemed Cole had put quite a bit of thought into it. ”Though, I’m not planning on doing a whole lot of traversing Hueco Mundo. It’s more that I’m trying to set up a safe place to experiment with this sort of thing where I won’t risk damage to people or property.  If it works out like I'm planning, I’ll probably hop back here on occasion and reinforce the effects or fix problems that pop up.”

Milo listened intently and followed Cole's directions with the intent to understand the way the runes interact with one another. She tilted her head an interesting start of a word Cole slipped in before catching himself. "Computer? Whatever the case, these are indeed intricate and are a clear sign of someone who's well versed in the art. You must be a genius!" Milo chimed in a cheerful tone, amazed at the talent and brilliant mind the man had if he was able to dumb down the explanation to someone like her. She was, for most of the part, a recluse and only really leaving to find Nezuel when she needed to listen to incoming orders from the Queen. If she learned how to use protective magic like this, would she be able to protect Nezuel when he needed her help?

"I bet I could be helpful to Nezuel if I tried learning something like this!" The lavender haired arrancar was too lost in thought while she spoke out said thoughts, a soft muttering as she nodded approvingly to her idea. This would also help in hiding them if they ever needed to do so, and best part of all, Nezuel would provide head pats of approval if she did so! such were the simple thoughts racing in her head. This was a good idea, she needed to pat herself on the back more often when she was this much of a smart cookie.

Cole continued working, giving a slight shrug at the compliment. He stroked his chin as he looked at another set of runes, he hadn’t shaved in a few days, he’d been too busy since he had figured out the realm teleportation. ”Thanks; and while I appreciate the compliment, it’s hardly an art. I’m mostly making it up as I go along. This isn’t exactly ‘by-the-book’ kidō. For all I know when I try to activate this thing it’ll just fizzle out. If it works properly, not even someone who knows that this place is here will be able to find it."

The shinigami gave a small smirk, half-paying attention to his response as he continued his work; the woman seemed easily lost to her own musings, which meant she didn’t need his full focus on the conversation. Cole started marking a few delicate lines in black chalk as he responded, ”So Nezuel is the friend you mentioned? I met him in my last jaunt into this realm. Small world…multiverse, I guess?”

He consulted his notes as he carefully traced a blocky rune; while he loved teaching, he was not eager to be branded a traitor for training an Arrancar, no matter how innocent the woman was (or was pretending) to be. ”But yeah, I’m not entirely sure how useful it would be to you. Most of this requires knowledge of some fairly advanced kidō theory; more time than I have today, for sure. For example...” The shinigami gestured to the blocky rune drawn in black chalk, The runes themselves don’t have any effect on their own, memorizing and copying them wouldn’t do anything; you have to kind of…"

Cole glanced back to the woman, who seemed particularly pleased with herself at the moment. Very basic kidō theory wasn’t that big a deal, right? ”Well, I mean, you basically have to mentally shape the spell, kind of like throwing an imaginary pot in your mind, then you fill that pottery with your reishi, tempered by your will. These symbols will merely let the spells I’ve prepared be maintained without my continued intervention, save for occasionally topping off the pot.”

He looked back to the runes, scratching the back of his head, ”I mean, in theory.”

Milo nodded as she listened to Cole's explanation of the runes, something that was too out of the norm for her but it did not make the topic lacking. The lavender haired arrancer could only think for a moment, tilt her head as she tried to really let the information stick to her brain and humming as if the noise would help her understand the more...strange(?) comparisons. "So just like Kido but with added steps?...I think?" The poor girl was still struggling to let the already dumbed down explanation make sense even as she spoke her response to Cole.

"Well, I still think this is pretty neat. I'm not much of a kido user but, from what I learned from Nezuel, what you're doing here with these runes are a unique approach. It's like an incantation of a kido, but without the vocal need to do so. Well, that's what I understand now. Just like when one is using regular kido, without an incantation the user must make sure to add the appropriate words to help them manifest the attack. If one doesn't do it correctly then, well, it'll be a rather weak version of the kido...so I think i understand what you mean." She nodded to her words as her hand came to rest over her chin.

Cole nodded slightly, making a few marks as he idly continued the conversation, ”Similar, yes.  Kidō does seem to be the dominant way to practice spellcraft in the afterlife.  I think it’s mostly because tradition is incredibly strong when you have beings that live for millenia.  They get stuck in a routine, and it’s hard to break out of it.  The traditional Shinigami magic is fine, but there are hundreds of mortal traditions of mysticism that all have their own merits as well.”

He completed that set of runes and moved to the next one,  gesturing to the circle without looking back to Milo, ”This particular working combines the practices of the erilaz with hermeticism, though I’ve also had success with shamanistic and wiccan traditions.” Angry and wordless muttering came from his zanpakuto as he finished up this line of runes.  He tuned them out, thinking for a moment on mortal practices, wondering if most of these traditions started with a spiritually aware individual discovering they had powers and finding out ways to control and harness them, and the practices were just passed down between normal folk hoping to get a little luck on their side.

There.  That was most of the markings he needed make on the stone, and he walked over to the tree, beginning to inscribe different sigils. Cole gave a slight smirk as he continued, remembering Nezuel talking about his teacher, ”His girlfriend is teaching him the basics of the Shinigami  spellcasting; though I am a little surprised that there aren’t any mystic practices among the Arrancar; I’d have expected there’d be some brujería or curanderos.”

He paused for a moment, more talking to himself than to the watching Arrancar, ”Though, I suppose kidō only has a mild attachment to the concept of kotodama; if it was truly related, incantations would be required, not just a power-up to the spell.  So it's not like there's any sort of intrinsic tie to Japanese culture and Shinigami magic."

Listening to Cole's descriptions and explanations of other spiritual practices were very interesting and she was inclined to learn more of their uses. "That's very interesting, Cole. I've never heard of those practices before, well, I'm not very well versed in the mortal teachings for such practices, but they're very unique. The usage of these runes as a combination of two practices is remarkable in my eyes." Milo carefully moved herself about but was close enough to the shinigami as to not miss a single detail of his knowledge. The world of the living, a place she wasn't a constant visitor due to circumstances, had been something of a goal to explore more often.

As she looked over the runes and thought about what relation kido had with the concepts Cole was muttering to himself, she paused and finally let a certain word sink in.

"Hold on..." 3, 2, 1...

"NEZUEL HAS A GIRLFRIEND?!" Milo all but screamed in shock, rushing over to Cole and very gently shook his shoulders in disbelief. "What do you mean his 'girlfriend' is teaching him kido?? He never told me this!!" Oh no, what was she going to do?? Did he not tell her because he didn't think they were close enough for such disclosure of intimate information? What was she feeling at this moment??