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Post by Itsuki Hasegawa on Mar 11, 2023 15:46:09 GMT -5
Itsuki walked wearily down the street, heavy winter coat pulled tight in, closed. No sound save the wind and his footsteps through his empty street. A police car passed the opposite end of the street, screaming by with siren blaring. The researcher's eyes drifted in caution, frozen in place at the crossing.. Was it him they were looking for? No. Too obvious. The chances were nobody who hadn't been there to overhear him seemingly talking to himself in Oxford could have even begun to figure out what it was he was researching. That and anyone who might have seen him pull one deceased Professor Cole Alexander's research.
Only someone with those four pieces would be able to divine his purpose. Pale lips released a breath they had never known they were holding. It was incredibly unlikely someone could easily acquire those four keys of information outside of coincidence, even with those supposed shadows in the shape of companies or organisations the reaping ghost of his Professor had warned him of.
Traffic lights sounded, he, the lone pedestrian strode across in a pace consciously held as casually steady as possible.
Beneath the fabrics nestled a leather satchel, worn and battered. Within it housed the finished manuscript of the truth of the afterlife, as best he could divine it. Arrangements had been made to publish it as both a research piece and a theological document even with as little weight as his name carried. These official methods would hopefully mean that even if nobody believed it, the thing would exist in an open and easy to access method for anyone to consider.
A quiet sigh and crease of his brow came and left upon the thought that it might be labelled the mad ravings of the dying.
Of course, it wasn't the only copy.
Yes, It is the only physical copy. There were still the rough notes in his apartment, a digital type-up existing solely on a half-borken old laptop. No digital copy existed with a network, full air gap security.
At last he made it across the road, louder footfalls matching the quick-step down the street and away. Good caution was even being taken to take the most direct path.
A restless mind combed the itinerary to quiet pains heightened alert strained on his diseased heart.
First, to the library to make copies. He'd have to subtly delete the copies saved to the machine itself.
Then, to send a copy to his university back in the UK. There was, naturally, a chance of interception, so his paranoia had guided him to setting up a P.O box with a forwarding address in the hopes it might do something.
After that, the temple. Naturally it carried a risk of being a source of prolonged conflict with the local priests but the baldyheaded head monk had accepted this was him calling in any favours related to his mother serving as a miko at the shrine could get him.
From there, he just had to make it home. Hell, he could drop dead happy if not for that magical trinket and the desire to find that bear-face boiling down to the very core of his soul. At least it was one step towards peace.
About the corner he went, library in sight.
The first step was almost within reach.
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Post by vance on Mar 11, 2023 19:01:28 GMT -5
The university, never got the copy, M had made sure of that the second it had learned about the idea. M had done it time and time again to people that learned the truth, and honestly they could not allow it to spread. There were things that the world just was not ready for and the OGA made sure that those words never saw the light of day.
The apartment suffered a catastrophic fire, though no one had died in it. Prometheus had gotten everyone out a few minutes before it had gone "out of control". That was enough, someone in some paper might say that someone had known it or that a figure that looked like frankenstein's monster had saved people but no one would believe it.
The monks, would be the only ones that would believe it, after all they knew, they just weren't stupid enough to go telling everyone about it
Vance had a bad look on his face as he hiked his man in black suit up. He missed wearing gunfighter dusters, but had grown accustomed to suits in any weather, after all, he was a Man in Black. An agent of the OGA, a monster, that went bump in the night. Today, he had to stop someone from talking. Vance was not the kind of person who enjoyed telling people to shut the hell up but the truth was that it had to happen. In this case, a fullbringer with too much knowledge for their own eyes.
He sat on the corner, as he sipped a flask. A sharp look down the street as he stared at his phone looking at everyone coming and going, eventually a young man approached him. He stumbled in front of him and held up his badge. "Excuse me kind sir, I am going to need you to step away with me." He stated, politely as his soul flared and gave the man power beyond his wildest dreams.
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Post by Itsuki Hasegawa on Mar 12, 2023 13:27:27 GMT -5
Having left his place two streets behind, the bartending monk with supernatural spritz was more than unaware of the kindling made of his home. Luckily, a change of clothes existed at the bar he worked at in town and his years worth of notes, hollow depictions and all were bound tightly 'gainst his breast.
Itsuki had been lost in the world of his own, nerves slowly settling as distance between himself and police car grew. Soft, ignorant certainty had barely begun to make a home in his heart when the glint of a badge and the cut and dry tone of a firm formal request intersected with his life. Slight squinting amber eyes laced with caution took in the g-man before him, straight out of some American drama or another.
Unbelievable, Professor Alexander had been right.
The part-timer had barely opened his mouth before the stranger had flared his soul brazenly.
Thankfully, Itsuki's ordeals over the past few weeks had given him enough to not be startled overmuch. Instead his mouth drew to a close, a thin pursed line. A quiet curse left his mind.
The unseen third eye of the soul he wielded could more clearly see the volume and quality of this shadow suit was in excess of his own. Fighting would be pointless. His own muted energies writhed under his skin in response to the odious flavour of this particular individual too.
Something about the very essence of their powers was upsetting his own, however that may be. More than that, this official of sorts seemed like he wasn't a Fullbringer, Hollow or Arrancar either. He must be something different.
Something about the spiritual makeup of this Quincy was making the torrent inside his soul approach impossible to calm down. The Fullbringer realised he was quivering from his right knee downwards. The thundering of his heart was urging him to run.
"Anomaly 2-C, a Quincy?" The studious graduate asked aloud, voice equally as matter of fact. He didn't expect it to catch the man off guard, this was more of a fishing for confirmation, something solid to wind down the instinct to fight and flee.
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Post by vance on Mar 13, 2023 11:28:54 GMT -5
Vance's useless battery for a soul began distributing about ten seconds after he spoke. Not like it mattered, no one really understood it and neither did he, so when someone called him a Quincy he did not flinch at all, helped that his family was notorious for their poker faces. "A what now?" Vance asked not like he cared much about labels, the OGA had anyone in it, they had all been given the same speech that Vance had. Die or work for them, though he did not need convincing.
He waited patiently for the man to decide if he was going to come or not. Vance was in no hurry, but the man would follow him, or he would be met with a much more discourteous response that may or may not include extreme violence. Not from Vance mind you, but probably someone a lot meaner and stronger than Vance, after all he was a battery. "I am an officer of the OGA, you want to get to gettin or you figuring on trying to high-tail it away. I can deal with either but sitting out here where someone can see us won't do you much good. You're noisy and honestly greener than the grass at Sawgrass the two weeks before the tournament." He stated as he pointed to a nearby door that lead into a building, though they would not be going there, exactly.
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Post by Itsuki Hasegawa on Mar 13, 2023 16:58:58 GMT -5
Such a blunt question had the monk clenching his jaw gently, sweating tenderly under the roadblock to progress. Perhaps this was simply someone sent out on errand, to bring him in? Maybe hye had misjudged the entire affair. His father wasn't wealthy but he got around, maybe something had happened to them and--
The train of thoughts derailed crashed into a wall. The blistering barrage of this man's accent and intonations invaded Itsuki's innocence with implacable idioms. The monk was left squinting against the blunt stick made of words his brain had just been hit with. Well, comparative innocence. He was trying to expose the entire afterlife.
The monk was able to divine that it roughly meant, 'come with me the easy way or the hard way'.
"OGA?" He reflexively inquired.
Nervous eyes darted back and forth, a mind more anxious now than paranoid still holding tight onto the now muted spiritual output this footman had shown. Then again, badges meant official. He wasn't being disappeared just yet.
Itsuki swallowed the ball of tension in his throat and mused on the idea of talking his way out of this. It didn't exactly seem like this was the perfect opportunity, not out here in the open. Memories of whispers of advice in his ear shaped like the voice of his parents warned him to comply, an innocent man would have nothing to hide.
Even if they took his papers, the information was safely tucked away in his mind.
Clearing his throat after the unconscious questions wheeled through, the afterlife doxer made a show of taking a deep breath and carrying the satchel fit to burst readily in hand instead of under his coat. Nothing to hide.
"Where exactly are we going, Officer?" He asked, looking along where that finger pointed to a building he didn't recognise.
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Post by vance on Mar 13, 2023 18:28:16 GMT -5
Vance walked up to the door and pulled out his phone, he pressed the dial button and looked back at the young man as he almost looked bored. Vance liked investigations and not so much throwing his non-existent weight around to someone that would be stronger than him in no less than probably a week? "Agent Vance Holiday Badge ID 44187 Ah'loigehy mgahn'n wgah'n nglui." He said into the phone and waited for a confirmation from the other side before he pressed his badge to the door.
He reached for the handle and opened it, and while it had been the outside of a very brick and mortar shell, the door a weird gloss hue over what looked like a high class business lobby. Vance offered a hand to motion for the other man to go first.
Inside, was a very high-class water feature, a number of black-suited men and women bustling around coming in from a number of doors leading out. If one looked back, the windows showed, nothing. As if all the glass doors just lead to shifting sands or a white place that everyone had seen and no one could remember. Each Agent coming and going was scanning their badges at the doors.
The fountain in the center was multitiered and showed off to the left of the large receptionist desk were a pair of well-dressed and extremely good looking man and women were taking calls and directing foot traffic. The OGA logo, a large SI in a calligraphy circle was behind them on the wall. The founding date under it, a number back from the middle ages. Along with the same plaque that sat in the Bosses office that read. "Shoot it, or Recruit it." Then there was a plaque in the back. It read. "The Knights of Kay." On the next line, "The free Masons." Then again. "The Seekers," "The Knights of Catherine." "Illuminati." "The Protectors." "The Kingsman" "The Special Section." "The Men in Black." "The Rangers." "The Other Government Agency." "The Roswell Rapid Response Team" "The Shadow of the Archmage." "The Carnaki College." And finally, in large letters. "The Spangler Institute, Founded 617."
Vance scratched the back of his head as the door closed behind him. "We're going to Headquarters."
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Post by Itsuki Hasegawa on Mar 13, 2023 21:56:29 GMT -5
Asynchronous footsteps tread across conrete and tarmac. It was halfway up the steps when the taboo violator caught on to the fact it might be a precaution. Loose lips sinks ships. As the old world war surviving addage went.
Itsuki was attentive, fervently almost, as the strange phrase was spoken.
"That sounds distinctly occultish." Began his remarks. This felt like a strange reflection of teenaged memories spent learning antiquated prayers and phrases. "Should I be referring to you as Agent, not Officer?"
Naturally, confusion took hold as the mundane practicality of municipality gave way to the slick black glass of expensive corporate lobby stylings and over-expensed government aesthetics. Vague memories of surreal shows from overseas aired during the 80s and 90s stirred in the depths of memory. Accepting the invitation into the long corridor with a slight inclination of a bow as he entered, reality began to unravel.
It wasn't the exorbitant fountain or the crowd of busybodies efficiently wheeling about the space back and forth. The dramatic slogan and long list of names were penetratively unsettling. Of course, with so many supernaturals coming and going it only made sense some measurable quantity of evidence would remain to be compiled.
Itsuki stood at the logical conclusion to the curiosity of the living and caution against the supernatural dead.
Somehow, it was a fucking brute force licensed government agency.
He clutched that leather satchel filled with documents a little closer.
"...I see."
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Post by vance on Mar 16, 2023 10:46:33 GMT -5
"Saying Officer is helpful out there, in here we're agents. The badge gets most governments out of asking unnecessary questions." Vance stated as he walked towards the front desk where there was a visitor badge with Itsuki's name in Kanji and English written on it. The young woman behind the desk nodded to Vance as he grabbed it and she looked at Itsuki, and if the light was just right, it was as if her hair moved. Swirling in an imaginary wind blowing softly in a multitude of directions. She had on large glasses, the same non-descript black suit as everyone else, not tailored to show off her curves, if she had any.
The other person behind the desk was a young man currently on the phone, saying something about a waste management company. He was rather gaunt, and had the look of someone half-dead. He wore his black suit half on and half so disheveled he looked like something out of a bad movie. His tie was not under his half-popped collar and he was constantly looking at his up at the ceiling as he spoke. His tone and mannerisms were the most lacking for how it works.
"Come on, we're going to the conference centers. Going to talk about you're little excursion into writing."
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Post by Itsuki Hasegawa on Mar 16, 2023 17:06:09 GMT -5
Itsuki nodded along to his mental note of the correct ways to address this stranger. Since he had picked him up off of the street, the wonderment at the sheer blunt mundanity of making an office to categorise the supernatural had rattled those quaking quivers clean out of the tips of his toes.
Fear had dwindled down into the depths of mere apprehension, mind dancing with dozens of details to delve into and drink deeply. Oh, how the intoxicating draught of secrets stoked the desire to drown in a deluge of deception and underhanded mystery. Still, something inside the priest living by convention told him that the affairs of the supernatural had long belonged in the hands of the clergy and the cradle of the kannushi.
Already Itsuki's golden eyes had found their mischievous glint, scanning about the room for any more juicy details.
The spooky ecretary and the macabre mister jabbering on about janitorial journeys were no exception, a slow-growing appetite for the unrevealed meeting the adrenaline rush inside.
"Say, what kind of categorisation is that person on the phone there, was that lady some sort of elemental?" Rushed whispered words from his mouth. The over-eager monk had spilled out the words just before the directions for a discussion regarding his work was offered.
The snap back to this strange, distorted reflection of reality his world had drifted into and the possiblity of some sort of trouble were enough to straighten out his back. An uncomfortable clearing of his throat and a stern if embarrassed nod punctuated quiet acceptance of the prioritised affair to be attended to.
"Of course." Spoke the visitor with a dulled tone of restraint shackling his voice.
It was important to remember he had been brought in for questioning, not the other way around. Or, at least, he was trying his best.
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Post by vance on Mar 17, 2023 17:42:11 GMT -5
"Kai is an Oni, and Chloe? She's a gorgon. The glasses stop her from turning you into stone." Vance stated as he walked to elevator. He hit a button after scanning his badge as he passed a man in a top hat with sickly glowing green eyes that looked almost like what people thought radiation contamination was depicted was. For just a second, as the man tipped his top hat to Vance, if you counted hard, he had six fingers.
The elevator dinged and a large woman, roughly eight feet tall, not including the iconic hair style she had, with a pair of bolts portruding from her neck, and her little brother, another massive man covered in scars walked out. "Boss wantz you to give mission briefings to the strike team when you're done." The large woman stated as the large man, removed his cigar and nodded.
"Bride, Creation, tell M I will get to it after I finish with this idiot that tried to leak." The large woman looked down at Itsuki with a look that could be sizing up food, her next lay, or just nothing before nodding at him.
"Welcome young man." She stated politely as they walked off. The large man not granting him any speech. Vance got on the elevator and held it for Itsuki.
Let's go."
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Post by Itsuki Hasegawa on Mar 18, 2023 13:09:27 GMT -5
Tasting the sweet morsel of relief that was the possibility of the supernatural he knew as opposed to the beastly truth clad as the afterlife, Itsuki heaved a relieved sigh. A warm flood of self-assured certainty washed over his ailling heart, cleansing waters of faith rewarded. As this and that beeped, more oddities in the silhouettes of humanity passing by in all their measures of politeness and measured professionalism, something gnawed upon the roots of his freshly confused and caressed ego.
Squinting sceptically, behind troubled eyes the monk's mind suffered contradiction slithering amidst the folds of grey matter. Professor Cole had no reason to lie. The afterlife was not a marriage of myth and reality in this fashion, depictions and entities were spawned from the depths of the soul's own arcane output.
By all rights, these people before him should have been nothing more than distorted dreams bestowed by the sparing sightings of fleeting soul-soldiers seen to be descended from the lands of the gods. This place and all it's contents in the here and now registered as an aberration.
The heart sank, rocking between contradiction and hopes. The best he could muster, trapped betwixt the evidence of his eyes and the words of the departed, was that perhaps others like himself had used their means and magicks to twist and shape the paths of mortalkind to emulate the dreams they had all shared.
...Something like that, anyway.
Finished with his mental projections of mysterious hands in the shadows working fate, he was met now with the visage of a bolt-pierced titan of a woman and an admonishment from Vance. With a toothy, nervous smile and a polite bow in response to the greeting, the monk hurried into the elevator after the officer.
"I see things aren't quite in line with the information I was given." Came his gentle tip-toeing around the edges of the truth. Perhaps being somewhere more secluded might mean he'd have better luck this time.
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Post by vance on Mar 18, 2023 19:33:05 GMT -5
Vance shifted to the elevator music after hitting their destination floor as he sighed. The elevators were rather large, probably to accommodate some of the more unique members of the OGA. He pulled out his revolver and checked it, followed by his FnX as he sighed. Making sure both were loaded before pulling his jacket back over. The floors slowly ticked up and Vance yawned after about twenty before the elevator dinged at twenty six. The door opened into a small lobby. There were a number of glass rooms, that were all hazy when you tried to see who was inside.
Vance walked up the desk and looked over it to see what room he had been assigned too and pointed down the hall before walking down to the room and scanning his badge. He walked in and sat down. The room looked like a basic conference room. Vance sat in one of the chairs and did not care at all where Itsuki decided to sit or stand. "Let's skip the bullshit." He said pulling up one of the monitors on the wall to show off a redacted document covered in black marking. "I get you, you have have questions, and you want to know what's true and what's not blah blah. I'll answer anything you want, before we start threating you."
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Post by Itsuki Hasegawa on Mar 23, 2023 2:45:08 GMT -5
The leaker of secrets stood rather less emotive than his handler against the odourless ditty drifting from the lift's unseen speakers. Something about the man casually fondling his firearms in place of an answer, the click and clack of his fiddling laying bullets naked to the open air tightened his chest.
That slight squint returned, trying to carefully measure the situation through the froth of feelings inside misting his skin in the cold sweat of dread. With conscious effort, the priest remained still. From about the thundering of his heart pounding at his chest to escape, a restrained, semi-stifled breath escaped audibly into the air.
Itsuki fidgeted at the fingers. He felt compelled to make some sort of sign about his acceptance of the display as casually as the gun waver had displayed his 'hardware'. Yet, as the young adult's pale lips parted, the suit clad g-man stepped on out and lead the way along the corridor.
Sheer force of will compelled him forward, a flickering stammer of his own spiritual power burning bright beneath the burden of a fitful mind's flight of fancy at the notion of having to deal with being shot at and hoping to outspeed it.
Somehow, the glass door sliding closed felt as firm as a bank vault.
Even then, it was only half as direct in the theatre of his mind as this man's cut-to-the-heart statement.
The monk's brow raised, lips pursed thin as a stressed mind felt out cogs it had forgotten how to turn.
"Questions?" He asked, the momentary haze behind his eyes clearing as swiftly as he said it. "No, sorry, yes." He managed, voice firming back up from a positively gelatinous tone.
"Have you seen the bear-faced hollow?" Came the reflexive answer. Papers rustled as hands fumbled a clasp, spilling pencil rendered depictions of the hunched, lurching beast with a mask of bone across the table. "And, the hogyoku? It's some kind of crystal." Two pieces more neatly retrieved, descriptions of hollows in more proper spiritual terms and Hibano's rough visual assessment of the crystal, were slid across for the man to study. In the moment following, Itsuki clasped at the stray bits of his research, reconsolidating them back into his bag. He hadn't quite decided if the delusion of escape was one he was willing to give up on yet, apparently.
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Post by vance on Mar 23, 2023 22:29:57 GMT -5
"It's like playing cards with my brother's kids or something." Vance said turning on the wall panel which showed all of Itsuki's extra sent copies of his report. The OGA probably couldn't have gotten them all but they did most of them. Though most of it was now covered in tons of black line like a normal top secret document. It was all a matter of boredom to Vance, letting this shit get out was basically worldwide panic. It did, just a lot smaller than it should.
"I have not personally seen the bear hollow, no, but I don't go out to find hollow most of the time, my gift near a powerful thing would just cause massive harm. I mostly facilitate and investigate. Things like this are more my style, I get into a fight and some hollow's cero might wipe out the city I was trying to protect." Vance stated. Though the book of monsters or the OGA application could probably bring up info on the hollow, telling that to someone like Itsuki was kind of like offering a 10 year old a handgun. You didn't know how it was going to end but you were pretty sure it would make the papers.
Vance shifted. "Those wish things are just, proof that beings like Tendo and his ilk in other dimensions should be obliterated. They start wars, create reality bending crap that can destroy Earth then when they get called out about it, they sit there and hide behind some bullshit like they keep the balance of some thing no one has ever seen and can't be proven and realistically makes no sense at all. They kill humans and cause damage in droves, hell someone uses their powers and levels a city like certain shittygami asshats, and we are the ones who have to literally fix it.
So, yes we know about the stupid wish orb bullshit, we specifically avoid it cause magic mcguffins are always monkey's paws. Though if another one shows up, I have a feeling we will be dispatching our version of the Justice league to fix that problem."
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Post by Itsuki Hasegawa on Mar 27, 2023 12:14:32 GMT -5
Beneath his slight squint, the rush of adrenaline at what the monk took to be a pseudo-abduction was kicking the cogs of his mind whirring into action. Habit overcame him, a well-wron pencil worn down to a fraction of a thumb procured out from under his coat and a fresh page hastily scribbled upon in his rough, codified shorthand.
Amber eyes gleamed with possibility, this was what he had been waiting for.
Boosting the powers of those around him. What was it the Agent had said earlier? Battery. Yes, a battery. Apparently one with wild wires that connected to the nearest source. Maybe he was even the one that sprung 'the bride' to life downstairs.
"You must be something of a hidden ace when it comes to bigger disasters!" Declared bartender from across the table. Away the graphite tapped and twitched, scoring down the flavours of this delicacy presented to him.
'Tendo' combined with a gendered third-person pronoun. Some key figure. Nodding along with the loose notions, notes spidered out at odd angles into the stray puddles of possibilities. Wish granting orb, now there was a neat turn of phrase for their funky crystal. "Yes, that does sound like just the artifact." And one it sounded like they didn't have even a piece of. Damn it. Itsuki tutted as the words spilled from his fingers across bleached white.
Well, wasn't that antagonistic sentiment a delicious morsel?
The pre and post-mortem governments didn't play nice after all. How very disappointed all those marriages of religion and state would be if they knew.
"It sounds like a lot of battle lines have been drawn over the years. This Tendo guy, is that as in 'Way of Heaven'? Who are they, what do they represent, you mentioned killings?" Up fluttered the first completed page in his grasp against the light filtering through from the window. Itsuki's chest heaved with a sigh of satisfaction. These compiling research notes felt like the corners of some long lost antique map he was recov3ering piece-by-piece, if only it hadn't come so late in his life. Go,d If Mizuki was here, she'd...
...Oh.
Fresh paper stained with forbidden knowledge practically shone in the light, yet suddenly the room itself was a ghost laid over his consciousness. Joy at this precious information of the occult realities uncovered was diluted by the same thing that had been squatting in his mind. Itsuki's plain-faced focus into spiritual academia lapsed into a downturn.
There was more business to turn to. Sitting at last, the monk set down his works and pencil, clapsing hands together upon tabletop with an intent gaze fixed upon the briefing agent.
Perhaps the information they could get was more valuable than what they had. Still, it couldn't hurt to listen to who this Tendo person and their organisation were first.
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