Bleach Hereafter RPG

”Shinigami Cole Alexander, please report to the eighth division barracks at your earliest convenience.”

Cole glanced down at his phone, the text message sitting patiently in his alerts. He gave a small shrug, it seemed like every squad except his own wanted him for something. Today was just going to be more research and practice, nothing worth keeping the eighth squad waiting. The tall Shinigami turned from his path towards the eighth division barracks, and as he arrived he was waved inside.

He was ushered to an office, where the fifth seat of the division gave him a bow, and gestured to for Cole to take a seat, the small clink of a bottle coming from under his desk as he pulled in his own chair, ”Oh, thank you for coming on such short notice, Doctor Alexander. We have a request for you.”

Cole smiled instinctively, he had heard that eighth division was a bit more of a party house than the others, he hadn’t interacted much with the squad. But being referred to as a doctor instead of ‘unseated Shinigami’ just felt better. He inclined his head back to the man as he took a seat, ”Just Cole is fine, sir.”

The man smiled back, ”Well, Cole, they tell me that before you died you were an expert on world religions.” Cole nodded in confirmation, ”There’s a Shrine in Ghana we’d like you to go take a look at. There’ve been some hollow attacks nearby and it’s not entirely clear why. It seems centered on the shrine, so we’d like you to go take a look and, at the very least, help us figure out which religion it belongs to. Maybe that’s what’s been setting off the hollows.”

Giving a quick nod, Cole took the folder that the fifth seat offered him ”Sure thing.” He flipped through the pamphlet, it looked somewhat familiar, but he wasn’t entirely sure, ”When do you want me to head out?”

The man shrugged, pulling a small flask from his robe and offering it to Cole, ”Whenever, it’s not urgent.”

He shook his head, and the man took a sip from his flask, ”Thanks, but it’s a slow day for me; I’ll just go check it out now.”

The fifth seat nodded, and a hell butterfly flapped in through the window to guide Cole through the Senkaimon, ’Thanks man, give us a call if hollows show up.”

There didn't appear to be anyone here currently, a convenience Lazarus wouldn't take for granted as he set down a bag he had slung over his shoulder, the contents sounding like am mixture of plastic bottles and smaller sealed bags of some sort. Reaching into it he puled out one of many bottles of water, screwing the cap off before taking a healthy gulp or two. While it wasn't the warmest of weather this time of year, anyone would get dehydrated traveling through a forest, not to mention the trip just to get to this part of the world. Recapping the bottle, he'd put it in his back pocket before rolling up his sleeves, his reiatsu drawn close to himself to avoid any unwanted visitors. Pushing the doors to the main part of the shrine open, Lazarus was met with the sight of a mostly empty entranceway, the loud creaking of the doors as they swung open echoing throughout the building. His footsteps punctuated his stride as he explored the interior a bit, the old tiles lining the floor looking fairly clean and well kept.



Nothing was out in the open for him to parous, though given the structure of the building and it's possible relation to his people, he was sure there were ways of finding things that a normal human couldn't. Just as he was going to start working on pursuing that avenue of thought, Lazarus was pulled form his thoughts by a sensation he hadn't felt in some time. Walking back out to the courtyard of the shrine, his eyes cast themselves skyward, landing on the gate like portal above. His shoulders sagged a bit as he watched the doors open, and a shinigami, or what he assumed would be one, exited the dimensional rift.


"Here of all places, are you kidding me..."

Cole wasted no time in hopping down to ground level, but the shrine seemed mostly empty. The Shinigami reached out with his senses, there were no hollows nearby at the moment, and it seemed like a mortal was inside the building. Time to get his investigation done. He started with a casual walk around the air, observing the shrine from above; he wasn’t familiar with the structure. It didn’t look like an Akan shrine house; which was going to be his initial guess, given that he assumed the Shinigami would recognize a religious building from a mainstream religion.  It certainly didn't seem to belong to one of the Abrahamic faiths, but there were numerous minor religious practices in this part of the world.

As he was taking a few aerial shots with his phone, Cole noticed the person he had sensed in the building earlier had emerged. He was much whiter than Cole was expecting for this part of the world. And with hair that would make him stick out like a sore thumb.  Probably someone that wasn’t really supposed to be here.  Well, if he was spiritually aware, there was an easy way to find out.

Cole vanished from where he was standing in the air, flash stepping to a few meters in front of the red-haired man.  He offered a casual wave, ”Howdy. I’m Cole Alexander, can you see me?”

Either the Shinigami weren't as bad as he was lead to believe, or his luck for finding the nicer ones was just outstanding, because he wasn't immediately attacked on sight. While it did stand to reason that he was suppressing his reiatsu to human like levels, he was completely out of place for anyone in the area, and not at all in any form of traditional garb. That all taken into account, he'd raise his hand to return the wave, raising a brow at the nonchalant manner of greeting.

"I can in fact see you, though I do wonder why you're out here to begin with, then again I shouldn't even be out here..."

He hadn't sensed any hollows in the immediate vicinity since this mans arrival, though if he didn't reign in his reiatsu that could very well change. For the time being, Lazarus would try and see what this individual was doing here, he already had an idea of what the possible reasoning might be, but it seemed far removed from the normal shinigami jurisdictions. His senses were constantly open and searching, similar to a submarines sonar, he'd do sweeps in a radius around himself to make sure they didn't get ambushed by anything while they spoke.

Cole smiled warmly, scanning the area around them, noting the landscape, construction, and general vibe of the shrine. He seemed calm, but was clearly somewhat excited, speaking rapidly as he continued, ’Great, well; provided you’re not some sort of robber, you might be able to make my job pretty easy. There’s been an increase in hollow, you know what hollows are, yeah? Okay, good, there’s been an increase in hollow activity in the area, and it seems centered on this shrine.”

He didn’t push his way past the man into the shrine, but did unsubtly peer over the man’s head into the building. Even from ground level, he wasn’t immediately catching anything that would help to ID the faith of the building, ”Do you know what religion this shrine belongs to? Some practices that are designed to summon evil spirits manage to attract hollows, so I’m wondering if we might have some of that going on here.”

It was true, he had used some of these effects as a basis for his hollow-calling spell he had used during his brief hunt with Enfermizo and Leonina.  Rituals that were rumored to draw evil spirits had a greater than even shot, at least from what he'd tested, of actually having some effectiveness on Hollows.  If one of these rituals had been performed here, he could probably disrupt it and report back within an hour or so.

Lazarus would retrieve the water bottle from his back pocket and take another sip, looking this man over with a mild confusion, as there hadn't been anything in his report to deal with this scenario. He'd return the bottle to its home before clearing his throat, looking over his shoulder at the open doors behind him, following the line of sight of the Shinigami before him.


"As far as I can tell it's a nondescript shrine, but I've done some digging on my own and it holds rumors of possibly at one point being linked to a group of Quincy who might have been in the region long ago. I haven't gotten any strange vibes from the shrine yet, though I've only just gotten here myself. They did have practices of luring hollows out and picking them off to cull their numbers, possibly something to do with that?"


Turning his head, his senses picked upon something just on the edge of his range of spiritual sense, the hinting's of hollow activity somewhere deep within the forest surrounding the shrine. Amber eyes scanned the landscape outside the shrine, brows coming together slightly as he tried to see if anyone or anything was creeping about.


"I'm Lazarus by the way, figured it would be rude not to return the introduction. We can go inside and lo-"


Before he could finish his sentence a dozen or so individual hollow signatures popped up around the shrine at varying distances, his eyes widening as he turned to get a view of any of them. They were rapidly approaching the shrines location, another half dozen following not far behind. Unfortunately he couldn't hide his identity much longer, opting to summon a blade of condensed reishi in his left hand, gripping the handle with both hands as he got into a readied stance.

Cole listened intently; a link to the Quincy, huh? That would explain some of the odd spiritual activity around it. Most normal religions didn’t really attract hollows. There’d be a lot for him to learn from a Quincy shrine. It did raise some further questions, but as he sensed the arrival of hollows, he supposed that would have to wait.

Oh, and then the man summoned a reishi blade, identifying him as a Quincy himself. Cole didn’t draw his blade, but did slip a hand into a small satchel at his belt. ”Before we get into this, just wanna let you know I’m only recently dead. I have modern sensibilities. I’m not down with genocide, we’re cool. That being said, if you can set me up to finish them off; that’d be for the best.”

The roar of hollows echoed in the distance, was there some sort of Quincy security feature built into the shrine that called them? The timing was just too good for mere coincidence. But it’s not like the odds of a Quincy being here when he came to investigate were particularly good either. Fate had a funny way of getting involved with spiritual activity, it seemed.

Having to blow his own cover was a downside, but it also meant he didn't have to keep his reiatsu suppressed any longer, the tightly bound energy flowing freely from his body. The sound of trees and rocks being overturned and uprooted rang out throughout the forest around them, as the first visual of a hollow came into view, the monster charging head long towards the shrine and the two people within it's walls.


"Thanks for the heads up, I'll draw attention and try and immobilize them, just look for any openings to do your thing."


With that said, Lazarus charged forward himself, aiming to meet the hollow just outside of the main gate, another half dozen coming into view just before the tree line. This first hollow stood taller than him by a good three or so feet, and with it's larger size came a much heavier swing, as it clasped it's palms together for an over head slam down towards the Quincy. Practiced footwork and a well timed swing of the reishi blade in his hands and Lazarus would be stepping past the hollow, cutting deeply into it's calf while continuing forward. His right hand would come up with his index and ring finger pointed out, a crackle of electricity sparking at the tips before he fired off two beams of lightning at the legs of two of the approaching smaller hollows. His movements were trained and precise, eyes darting from one target to the next as the remaining four visible hollows surrounded him, poised to strike at the first sign of weakness.

As the man, Lazarus, charged towards the Quincy, Cole pulled out a piece of black chalk from the satchel. With quick, practiced motions he drew a circle on the stone path in front of him, adding a few quick symbols and sigils at key points along the circle. He gathered his reiatsu as he sketched the design, and if his unexpected ally was paying attention, he would notice Cole’s reiatsu didn’t feel anything like a Shinigami. Rather than any sort of pressure upon him, there was more a vague sense of suction from the gathering reiatsu.

By the time he had completed the circle, the Quincy had engaged, and was quickly unbalancing and weakening the hollows. Cole stepped into the circle, and it began to seem to suck in some of the light around it, causing a shadow to form along the ground. The Shinigami pulled a set of razor blades from his satchel, letting them drop to the darkened ground; as the first hollow stumbled from Lazarus’s onslaught, its own shadow suddenly exploded in a flurry of movement, and a burst of black energy quickly bisected the hollows mask and dispersed the beast. The two other hollows met a similar fate as the bolt of lighting ripped the legs off of the smaller hollows.

Cole clasped his hands together around a small shell, muttered a quick incantation, and a protective shield appeared around the back of the man. The hollows were focused on the Quincy, and keeping the man up and fighting was his best way to ensure he had the opportunity to lay down the decisive strikes they needed.

Their immediate coordination was surprising to Lazarus, the shield coming up to protect him just as two of the four hollows lunged to strike at his back, obstructed by what he assumed was a kido or spell of some kind. Whatever the case may be, it gave him ample time to push the offensive on the other hollows around him. A forward lunge brought him within striking range, his blade lancing out to strike true into the thickest part of one of the legs, retraced just as quickly. The other of the two he had charged at had finally decided to make a move, however it was too little too late, as it aimed to land on Lazarus from a jumping attack, the Quincy had sensed it's movements and reacted accordingly. As the beast came down his blade would come up, severing the appendage at the elbow as he spun on his feel to then kick the monster back towards the hollows that had been blocked by the shield.



The remaining five hollow signatures made themselves known by the sound of their wings flapping overhead, the sight of them just above the tree line. Four of them seemed smaller and weaker, the main one leading the group as it started heading towards Lazarus as well. Seeing the new additions and they ability to fly, the Quincy would remove his right hand from the blade, gathering more reishi from the surrounding area. A small hand bow would come to life in his right palm, his thumb working as the draw for the bow itself.


"I hate it when things can fly..."

The remaining hollows closing on Lazarus met similar fates to the first three, as they stumbled, their shadows exploded in bursts of dark energy, cleanly bisecting their heads and purifying the beasts. Cole tracked Lazarus’s line of sight to the flying hollows, two of the smaller ones had broken off from formation to dive bomb him, and he had to abandon his circle of power, the gathered energy dispersing the moment the Shinigami left the circle.

As he flash stepped away, he pulled some amber and fur from his satchel, and gave them a rub in his palm; the static energy replacing the need for an incantation for the basic attack spell. While he had flashed stepped into a position he hoped would allow a quick double kill, the first hollow managed to dodge out of the way of the beam of white lightning, but the second wasn’t so lucky and the bolt tore through its chest.

Another flash step to keep his distance and Cole launched another byakurai at the remaining flying hollow, and while it had gotten lucky once, it seemed that lightning did, in fact, strike twice. The creature began to roar as the bolt ripped into its mask, but was cut short as it too was purified. He glanced over to the Quincy to see how he was doing against their new set of foes.

A pair of hollows circling on the ground and a flock of three scouting overhead, he wasn't exactly liking the situation that he was in at the moment, thankfully though Cole had managed to dispatch a few of them without much issue. While he considered taking to the sky to deal with the creatures overhead, the potential damage he might cause if he missed was more than he was willing to chance on it, so for the time being he would have to draw them closer and hope they swooped low. One of the two hollows on the ground with him decided it had had enough of waiting around and charged him, unfortunate for the monster that Lazarus was better experienced in combat than it, as he parried it's claws with ease as it swung down on him. A well aimed rising cut to the calf and hip brought it to it's knees, all the while the sound of flapping above drew his focus to the sky, only hearing two sets of wings.


It was a good thing that he changed his focus of attention, as he looked up he would be met with the sight of a pair of razor sharp claws on the feet of the hollow in question, bringing his reishi blade up just in time to no be blinded by the offending appendages. The strike pushed him back a few feet, but as the leader of the flyers circled back to it's underlings Lazarus raised his hand bow. Steadied aim brought about the precision needed to hit a moving target, and as he exhaled his thumb would loose an arrow headed straight for the beasts wings. A moment passed as the arrow travelled before it struck true to it's intended destination, having gone through both wings on the upbeat of the flap, when they were closest together.


"Oh Shi-"


Unfortunately his attention had not been split, or he might have seen the single remaining ground hollows blitz for him, tossing him off his feet and into a nearby tree. While he managed to brace himself a bit, it was a pretty solid tree, and his back and shoulder throbbed from the impact. He was slow to get back up, now further from the shrine by a dozen or so paces, which allowed him to sense a much more dangerous group of hollows. He counted six in total, but each one held as much strength as all of the hollows they had confronted combined and then some, nothing to scoff at. Righting himself from his spot, he readied himself for the last remaining of the first fleet, wanting to get back to warn Cole of what he sensed lurking out in the thicket.

Cole, however, was perfectly fine with taking to the sky. He couldn’t use circles in the air, but he had already abandoned that practice for this fight. Staying mobile was important in a fight against so many adversaries, and letting the poor Quincy take the brunt of it wasn’t exactly fair. He winced as the man slammed into the tree; he wasn’t exactly sure how Quincy operated, but they were still mortal; that shit had to hurt. The Shinigami unleashed a bolt of lightning at each hollow; but it was more a diversion and distraction; they didn’t have enough power individually to severely injure the creatures, but they didn’t know that. They’d just seen two of their allies taken out in as many bursts.

A few quick flash steps and he was beside Lazarus, muttered a few quick syllables and held a hexagonal piece of steel out front of him. A barrier of translucent interlocking hexagons popped up around them, blocking them from any incoming attacks for a moment. Give the guy that still had a physical body a moment to recover; see if they had to abandon the shrine and make a quick escape.  ”You okay, Laz?”