Bleach Hereafter RPG

Well, the Shinigami's explanation was sorely lacking in detail and explanation of anything beyond the bare basics. Vaera frowned a little, openly showing her displeasure with his answer even as a third figure appeared far too quickly just beside her. In fact, as her amber eyes swiveled to take in and assess this newcomer, he'd already had his hand on his sword! A sharp squeak escaped her throat, and too many things happened at once to recount them all as any more than a panicked flinch.

The bangle around Vaera's wrist came to life, emanating a soft glow as she rebuilt the small crossbow in her free hand, and a faint wind whipped around them both as she pulled a cloud of reishi in close to defend herself... from the sword that never left its sheathe.

Vaera released the breath she realized she had been holding for several seconds, but kept her bow in hand for a little while longer. While the two men talked back and forth briefly, she tried and failed to steady the subtle shaking in her left hand, not to mention unclench her jaw and slow her racing heart; the latter which seemed to have moved to its new home in her throat.

All those things seemed to come with time, after the masked woman had properly explained what had happened with the hounds before offering a ride in her car. Vaera, still shaken by the experience, could only manage to squeak out a soft "Ja bitte" while she let her feet carry her to the woman's vehicle.

"Oh! Um," she stammered, still finding it difficult to speak with her heart racing inside of her throat. Finally, just about the time her now emptied left hand reached the door handle, she managed, "My name's Vaera." She probably should have been a little more wary of the stranger whose car she was now climbing into, but her shaken nerves could only think about the Shinigami and his sword that had almost been drawn against her. Her Mama had said to be careful around them, but she never had much reason to listen.

Now, she did, she supposed.

"I, um... I'm staying at a motel just off the highway." She was recovering, slowly, but clutched the plastic bag in her lap a little more closely while she tried to force a smile. "I can give directions, if you need them."

Despite the frozen mask covering the top half of her face, the woman still gave Vaera a soft smile as she fastened her seatbelt. She pulled out her phone and set it into the dashboard mount, ”Just the motel would be sufficient, Miss Vaera. The GPS can get us the rest of the way.”

The Quincy provided her with the motel name, and the phone began providing the directions in turn. Niji pulled out from where she had pulled the car over and made her way onto the highway. The Fullbringers voice was soft and kind, but also held a faint hint of gentle reproach, ”I do appreciate you coming to my rescue. It was kind and brave, but also incredibly dangerous. If the second one had not been trying to counter the accusation of a late arrival he might have been paying enough attention to notice you were a Quincy.”

Her voice grew colder, briefly matching the unmelting mask on her face, ”I have encountered Shinigami that would try to cut you down merely due to your heritage. I imagine you saw the arrogance in both of them, and many Shinigami are cut from the same cloth. Convinced they are the sole arbiters of what is right in the realms of the living and the dead. I am glad they left without incident.”

She shook her head as she passed a slow moving car, ”It is possible you will not be so lucky next time. So please; be more careful in the future.”

No sooner had she given the name of the motel that the GPS spat out directions, and they were off. Vaera fell quiet for a few moments, thinking on the last couple of minutes or so and processing what had happened. Meanwhile, however, the stranger kept talking. Vaera nodded along and hummed in agreement at the mention of the men's arrogance, and the insinuation that they would've attacked had they not been so preoccupied with themselves. She didn't like to think that way, but it was hard not to after seeing it for herself.

"I will." She nodded again, and swallowed what remained of the lump in her throat. She took another breath as she looked out the window at the slow moving car beside them, then turned her attention back to the driver. Now that things were quiet and slow again, her mind was beginning to catch up to the situation, and she was growing a little curious.

"So, um... Excuse me, but what are you?" Perhaps not the most tactful of phrases, but it had been uttered. Her amber eyes looked the woman over carefully, spending a lot of time analyzing the frozen half-mask covering her eyes but not her mouth. She had sworn the woman had felt like a Hollow before, but nothing she had done was like any Hollow she'd fought with, and she certainly wasn't acting like one now. Hence, the young woman's confusion on the subject.

If the woman had looked her way, she would even go so far as to gesture to her own face around the edges of where the woman's mask would fit on herself.

Niji kept her eyes on the road, because she was a good driver; but she could hear the woman’s concern in her voice. It was a harmless enough question, and there was no sense in hiding the information; she’d probably find out from someone eventually, might as well get it from a source that wouldn’t try to deceive her; ”There have been many names for people like me throughout history. The current term in vogue for the spiritual world is ‘Fullbringer.’”

The GPS indicated the exit was coming up, and Niji started switching lanes, ”Fullbringers, like Quincy, are fully mortal; bodies of flesh and bone, not reishi. Unlike Quincy, it has nothing to do with our bloodline or heritage. Current understanding is that Fullbringers were exposed to a significant amount of spiritual energy while in the womb. Hollow, Quincy, Shinigami, or even another Fullbringer, it does not have any impact on their abilities, every Fullbringer has different abilities. My mother was near a hollow attack while pregnant, and I started developing my abilities about a decade ago.”

The woman flicked on her turn signal as she started onto the exit towards the motel. She had not made any reference to the ice mask, and it didn't seem to bother her at all.

"Makes sense." Vaera mumbled aloud, though it most certainly did not make any sense to her. If Just being around spiritual energy was enough to give humans powers, then wouldn't there have been a lot more of them to begin with? At least, she should've met other Fullbringers like the masked woman -did she call herself Gaia before?

Oh well. Either way, it did help to take her mind off the Shinigami for a little while.

"So, your power is to make ice, then?" She continued to think aloud as the driver navigated their exit. "Cool!" A small grin curved her mouth, and she punctuated her openly given opinion with a giggle. It was kind of similar to her own abilities as a Quincy, she supposed; only, Gaia made things from ice instead of reishi. She wondered briefly how much ice the woman could make at once, and if she was as versatile with it as a Quincy.

By now, the Shinigami had been pushed to the back of her mind in favor of this new information.

"That doesn't quite explain the ma- Wait." Her thoughts answered her own question as she was in the middle of asking it. "If your powers come from a Hollow, then do you need the mask to use them?" Of course, there was also the simpler explanation that Gaia didn't want her identity found out, hence the mask, but that was much less of a fun answer.

Clearly, Vaera was not particularly familiar with the spiritual world; true, Fullbringers were not particularly common, but they weren’t unheard of. She had been in that situation not too long ago, and Niji was familiar with the veritable deluge of information. The woman gave the young lady an enigmatic smile regarding her powers, Keeping to a simple angle of attack, ice, wind, stone, spirits; it made her harder to identify in any sort of pattern encounters with spiritual beings. If this young lady thought her power revolved around ice, if she was comparing notes that had seen her fight solely with fire would be less likely to connect them.

As they pulled into the motel parking lot, Niji shook her head, ”No, the mask is just for my protection. I generally prefer not to be recognized, Gaia is the alias I use in the spiritual world, not my real identity. Keeping my mortal life and spiritual life separated is just simpler.”

As she parked, the woman reached into the back seat, pulled her purse forward, and rummaged through it for a moment. She pulled out a thin white rectangle, and handed it to the young lady. It was a business card, with GAIA in big block letters, and a phone number and an e-mail address from a popular temporary e-mail site. ”Feel free to call if you get into trouble, or shoot me an e-mail if you have questions that I can help you with.”