Bleach Hereafter RPG

Vaera had jumped at the unexpected sound of the boy's movement, her squeak drowned out by the repeated pops that followed. In her surprise, she had let go of the key she was in the middle of constructing, and turned to see the empty alleyway before going back to the door again. However, instead of finishing making her key, she eyed the slightly misshapen brass for a moment before throwing her head back with an exasperated sigh.

"No harm done..." She muttered under her breath, a small lilt in her voice as she tried to convince herself that the busted lock wasn't as serious as it seemed. So, with a bit less finesse and a lot more brute force, she turned the lock from the inside, wincing at the small pop, and let herself into the fire station with her delivery in tow. Once there, she was quick to find a proper place to leave the bag, then proceeded to hurry back out the door and pull it shut behind her.

Upon testing the door, she found the handle unwilling to turn. She hoped that the men would assume it had been a break-in gone poorly -which... Well, it kind of was.

"Phew!" Vaera sighed, venting her frustrations with a wavering breath as she conjured up her broom in her hand. Upon mounting her chosen transport and flying just a short distance into the air, she turned her large, amber eyes as she scanned for any sign of Nezuel. Of course, it wasn't eyes that caught sight of him first, and she sped off in the direction of his...

She paused for a moment, now that she'd had a chance to think about it. Why did the boy feel this way, exactly? He hadn't had a mask.

Where she found him -not to mention the small, elf-like Hollow- was in a diner just down the street. From the outside, she could see humans fleeing from the restaurant for fear of what must've seemed like spontaneous combustion inside, but was very clearly just Nezuel's attempt to capture the festive creature. Very carefully, lest she be spotted acting strangely, Vaera lowered herself to the ground and made her way in through a back door still swinging on its hinges. From inside, she could get a better picture of what was happening than through the windows or with her other senses.

"Weißes Kriechen." Her voice carried on a soothing tone, following after the smells of herbs and flowers that wafted through the air. The small Hollow, which was undoubtedly much weaker than the horned one from earlier, soon ceased to struggle against the boy's hand as it succumbed to its slumber.

Vaera, if the boy bothered to look her way, merely gave a self-satisfied wave.

Janus was sipping a coffee politely before her divination went off like a firecracker and she looked around at the dinner. "Oh, frak me!" Janus stated as the masked monster slipped into the dinner and a second later she watched the broken mask named Nezuel walk into the place and start turning it upside down. Janus was at a loss of words, as the reiatsu bomb to her was more like having someone comb your brain with sandpaper. Combat lit up on a bunch of her divinations of the future and she wondered if she could just waltz away but it was not to be.

"Why did you lead it here? I was waiting for my food!" She asked Nezuel as the masked monster bit him, and did, no damage at all. She was not in the mood for this and she quickly backed away from the masked creature and hiked up her coat, which was on its way to arguing about the fact that it was as hungry as she was. Though listening to it was a bit hard considering the point. It was then Janus realized that she had spilled her coffee somewhere along the line and she squeaked in anguish at the heat.

She stood up, interestingly her coat had managed to dodge the coffee, even if she had not. A second later one of the other Janus, the cyclops, stepped out of her body to give Nezuel a hand, proceeding to hit the masked monster in the lower back a few times to send shocks up its spine, assuming it had one so that it would release Nezuel.

"What is that thing?!" Prime asked as she tried to summon up more members of the army.

Vaera winced at the sight of the woman -who had only just stepped out of the body of... herself- struck the Hollow several times in its back. She had already put it to sleep, so she thought anything more was just excessive. Then, of course, all that was made to feel inconsequential when Nezuel instead bit its head clean off. She felt sick, and looked away from the gruesome sight with eyes forced shut.

That answered her curiosities about his reiatsu, at least. With or without a mask, he most definitely was something fearful. Whatever spell he had cast went entirely without her notice, as it was over before she opened her eyes again.

"I... don't think her food's coming." Vaera chuckled softly, and uneasily. Nezuel had done nothing but help her thus far, but her Mama's words echoed loudly from the back of her mind all the same. That instinctive fear didn't care for nuances or reason. It only told her that he was bad news, and that even being near him was something to avoid at all costs.

Still, she swallowed those feelings for the sake of something greater.

"I would love some, though." Burying her feelings with sweets probably wasn't the best course of action, but she never could turn down an offer. So, rather than take her seat, Vaera detoured to the now abandoned counter to cut herself a piece of the pie left sitting in its tray. It looked to be apple. Then again, she thought, she shrugged and simply brought the entire tray with her, along with three forks. The more attentive might have even caught her leave a few crumbled bills on the counter as she made her way to the table and sat; where she had been keeping them, she didn't bother to say.

"Help yourselves." She grinned and placed the pie in the middle of the three- er, how many Janus were there now? Three, for simplicity's sake, she shrugged again to herself. She didn't say another word until the first bite of desert, still warm from the oven, had reached her lips, only for it to be forced to follow a delighted hum from her smiling face.

"Okay, so," she started. She swung her fork around as she talked, using it to absentmindedly accentuate her words in place of her hands. "That Hollow has been targeting couriers for a week now, und this one shows up... wearing a Santa hat. Not a coincidence." She looked between Janus and Nezuel for a moment, as though seeking approval for her observation. Another bite of pie entered her mouth before she spoke again.

"What're we dealing with? A Hollow with some obsession with Christmas, enough to attack presents instead of people?" It was a ludicrous idea, sure, but given what she knew of Hollow, it wasn't out of the question, either.

"That is actually disturbing." Janus said as Nezuel bit the head off the masked monster. That must have tasted, pretty terrible, after all who knew where that thing had been and it really was not on her to do anything aside make a face that pretty much was somewhere between confusion, terror, with a healthy side of disgust.

Janus looked around and realized that the blue mage witch girl was right, the place was now quiet, probably because of the ruckus and the fact there were now three of her wandering around. If people were not confused and heading for the hills, chances were they could do something about it. So, Janus followed suit and grabbed the coffee pot, or at least the cyclops did and then found a cup before pouring some for Prime. The other Janus went to look for something in the kitchen and came back munching some other things she had found. Including a stack of pancakes off the service counter.

Prime grabbed some pie as well and put it down as the cyclops walked into Janus Prime as her hand moved up and was then the one with the new cup of coffee and sipping it. Reality seemed to warble and compress as they combined again. "Someone should have warned you not to take jobs from evil candy vendors, or really anyone from the supernatural worlds. It never ends well and usually gets you chased by some monster you rarely can harm. I have a lot of experience, well, the dead mes did." Janus stated avoiding the hollow comment and the christmas one. She constantly tried not to acknowledge the insanity that was things like that. "Assuming it is, actually targeting presents, does that mean you could go buy something and wrap it or is it specifics?"

The pair of utter strangers had their own ideas and questions to add to the conversation, which kept Vaera's attention for the meantime. While she listened, she continued to eat at the slice of pie she'd cut for herself, and stared at each speaker with wide amber eyes. It was kind of funny how the both of them had come to the same conclusion; that being to ask about her employer.

"No," she shooked her head and gestured with her shaking hand at the same time. "Mr. Sullivan didn't seem sketchy." She had only spoken with the man briefly, and thus didn't know him by any other name. "Well, only so sketchy that I got paid under the table, but he wasn't a Hollow." A brief chuckle broke the tension around the table for a moment. "He was just as concerned about the attacks as anyone.

"I can fight." Her next answer came after a small delay, as she'd forgotten that the boy had asked in the time it'd taken her to answer his other question. "I'd, um... rather not, but I can." The smile on her face was a little forced. It was difficult to stay cheerful when the idea of Hollow hunting came up. Nothing good ever came of it; it only ever stopped pain with more pain. That wasn't to say she'd stand by and allow it to continue what it was doing, though.

"That..." From within her own thoughts, Vaera's attention returned with a puzzled look on her face. "Huh! That's not a bad idea." This time, her grin was sincere, as the idea was actually pretty funny. The woman had done it before, and it'd worked, after all, so why wouldn't simply wrapping more presents work again to get the Hollow's attention? "We could draw it out again with more presents..." Her voice trailed off, as she thought about the idea more deeply.