Bleach Hereafter RPG

Jobs were a rather annoying necessity. You put in work for somebody else, they get to lord over you if they pleased, and you would be given just enough money to need to continue relying on their payments. Living in New York didn't do anything to really help that situation, though. If only he didn't need to remain here to protect the people from the Demons lurking in the shadows...

At this current time Nicholas was out of work, fired from his last job for taking too long to deliver packages due to needing to stop to catch any Demon he came across, so as usual he had sent out dozens of applications to any business he could and putting up job profiles. The latter usually never amounted to such, but occasionally he could get called out for small jobs.

Today it seemed like one of those days where he would get called out. Whether that could be called lucky or unlucky was up to interpretation, but the money usually was worthwhile. The text he was sent was a bit odd, though. After all, who would get called out for delivering pizzas as a one-off deal? Well, these people were, but it didn't make it any less bizarre.

---

Pushing open the glass door to Joe's Pizza, Nicholas would glance around the small customer area, noting how quiet it was at the moment. Unsurprising, given how remote the pizzeria was and what time it was. People haven't gotten off work yet and tired, hungry businessmen were probably the only kind of people who would get food from here. And yet, of the few people milling about inside, there was the person he was told to meet. A woman with silver hair and in a blue coat. Definitely an odd choice of attire, but whatever. Nicholas' job wasn't to give fashion advice.

"Yo, I'm the person that you've hired. When are we getting started?" he asks as he steps inside and walks towards her, his bored expression only undercut by a curious glint in his eyes.

---

Diana

As there was still some time before the meeting, Diana had decided to spend the time away playing games on her mobile. The pizza that was meant to be delivered took about 15 minutes to prepare, the exact time she assigned their meeting as to be precise. So when she heard the lazy gait of footstep followed by the masculine voice, her lips curled into a smirk as she finally tear off her eyes from the screen of her mobile.

"Punctual huh? I like that."

Pulling herself up to full height, which admittedly still much shorter than the one that stand before her she give him a once over. Casual, the kind of person who'd show up in front of her door house whenever she order uber eats. His inquiry would soon be answered as one of the waitress walked to their side with the pizza she ordered. Taking out her wallet, she handed over the cash but subtly made sure to it's at an angle to show off the slightly thick wad of cash stashed inside in a way that Nicholson got a peek to see if that would get a reaction from him.

"We or rather you are heading out now. It's an easy gig, put on the earpiece and deliver this pizza to the warehouse of which address I'll be giving you the direction on how to get there. And before you get any ideas, I got my eyes on you so don't even think of sneaking even a bite the pizza inside. Just get to the delivery address as quick as possible and make sure nobody else follow you. Comprende?"

With that she would push pizza box and the earpiece towards him.

"If there's no other question, you should get going."

WC: 295
nicholas

Well, being looked over by a new employer wasn't really all that odd, but when you consider that this is just an odd job for what's apparently a pizza delivery it would make one be slightly suspicious of the situation. It was probably nothing to worry about, though.

Soon thereafter a waitress dropped off a pizza for them, his employer quickly paying her with cash, with plenty still stored away after the transaction. An attempt at keeping him enticed by the sight of money? Well at least they knew how to keep his attention. Not needing to walk by the bank and cash in a check was just fine by him.

Then he was given his instructions. While he remained stone-faced as it was explained, he couldn't help but feel just that little bit more skeptical now. He was to deliver this pizza, but he wasn't given a location yet. No, he was provided an earpiece and he would be told where to go. They also warned him against trying to eat the pizza, at which he could only wonder if people had such little willpower at their job that they try to eat what they're delivering or if it was another potentially point to worry over.

With that out of the way his employer handed him the pizza and his earpiece. He would put in the device right after and holds the pizza box with both hands, noting how greasy and warm the cardboard felt. So there probably was a pizza in here, then, and not some illegal contraband they're trying to have him work as the fence for. It was still a bit odd they'd act this cautious for just some delivery so it wasn't as if there wasn't the possibility that that was what was happening, but Nicholas cared a lot more about getting paid than trying to be a good Samaritan. If they told him to not get any weird ideas about the delivery, he'd do just that.

"Alright, just deliver the pizza and try to not have druggies steal it from me. You'd think that would be common sense here by this point," he complains as he starts leaving the building, bumping the door open with his hip. Standing outdoors, he'd move away from the doorway then await further instruction.

---

Diana

Diana combed the hair covering her ear slightly before putting her own earpiece. Nicholas appeared to be an easy person to work with as he didn't ask too many questions even if she could pick up a few quizzical ques from his expression. Then again who wouldn't be after having received such a suspicious request. Once she's sure that the earpiece connected to each other she took the side entrance towards her car.

"Alright Mr Landolfi, for now go along the main road until you reach Carmine Street. Once you get there, take a left and keep moving until you get to Charlton. The warehouse which you're supposed to be delivering at is right round the corner, behind the book store. Let me know when you get there."

With that she turned on the engine of the car she left earlier before stepping on the gas. Should Nichols not deviated from his course he would likely feel something strange in the area. The temperature had dropped slightly without any explicable reason despite being summer season and should one be spritually sensitive to the surrounding they would definitely sensed as if they're being watched. However even if one were to try and look around their surroundings they would see nothing so far.

That was until he reached Charlton Street. In an alley directly to the left of Charlton street was a monster the size of a gorilla with a skull mask on where the face should be. A huge hole could be seen where it's heart should be. Yet despite the appearance of such a creature, nobody else on the street seem to have noticed safe for the spiritually aware of which there is none as at the moment.

The whole time, she would shadow Nicholas from afar from within her car. The big wigs have told her that Nichols proved to be promising and in fact is one of the candidate for Red Lotus. It was also part of why she decided to shadow from a distance so that she could get a sense of their reiryoku without him feeling guarded against her.

WC: 350
nicholas

Nicholas didn't need to wait for very long before he got a voice calling into his ear, instructing him to go down the main road to Carmine then head to Charlton. Not all that long of a walk, then. For such a relatively short walk, all of this extra stuff on top of the delivery felt just very excessive, but it can't be for no reason. Why go through all of this effort?

"It's useless to ponder. The sooner I'm done, the sooner it's not a concern," he mutters, reassuring himself. With a sigh he begins making his way down main street, blending into the crowd as he follows their natural flow. The streets always were more crowded than he'd like, but one does get used to it over time. It was always especially bad during the summer, such as it was now, what with the heat and close proximity between people while walking down the street. For some reason, though, it didn't really feel all that bad. It almost felt pleasant.

Pulling out his phone, Nicholas quickly checks his weather app and finds that today was supposed to actually be the hottest day of this week. One can only trust this stuff so much, but even with it reading out a temperature of 90 it just didn't feel like it. With a shrug, he pockets his device and continues on his way, not thinking about it too heavily.

The trek along Carmine street came and went without much of anything happening, and finally he stood at the corner of Charlton. Once there, though, Nicholas felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand upright and a familiar sensation returning to him. One of those Hollows was close; they were really close.

One of them at a time like this? I want to go eliminate it...but would my employer notice me going on a detour? And am I sure that I could kill it quickly and without any hassle? I'd rather avoid getting a blemish on my online portfolio...

This job was just important enough and oddly set up enough for him to decide to just walk past for now. If it pursued him that could be a problem, but it would be better than chasing it down at least. With his shoulders tensed and eyes alert to try and spot it, he starts to walk down Charlton. It could be anywhere given how nobody could normally see a Hollow so he just needed to remain ready to act at a moment's notice.

It didn't take long to find the danger, though. Right at the first alley he came across, Nicholas would briefly freeze in place as he sees the towering, shadowy figure of the demonic being standing ominously in the alleyway. They were already this close to him, and it was too far of a distance from here to the warehouse off in the distance.

This is bad...

---

Diana

When Diana first accepted this job it was with the intention to check out Nicholas's ability to see spirits. Human souls don't immediately leave for the Pearly gates when their time had come for some reason. But most of these spirits tend to be on the harmless side, not bothering with the living except maybe photobombing certain selfies. She had seen a few earlier on her way towards the Pizza place and thought that would be sufficient enough to pass the test and call it a day.

But instead of completely harmless pluses, a particular Hollow decided to make an entrance. Was it drawn here by the scent of highly concentrated soul? Or was there a particular nasty incident transpired in this place not too long ago? These thoughts raced through her head but first she needed to get to where Nicholas was. It wasn't until she took a turn at the Charlton street when she saw Nicholas stood extremely close to one.

"Godfucking dammit..."

Picking up what appear to be a grenade, she tossed it in the direction of the Hollow causing it to explode with a bright light with the intention to distract it from Nicholas temporarily. She then floor the gas turned the steering wheel sharply to the side as she pumped the brakes which left a skidding mark on the road surprising the pedestrians and others alike. The door to the passenger side of the seat opened without prompt in Nichols direction.

"Hey, I'm walking over here!" yelled one of the pedestrian.

"Piss off!" she yelled before turning towards Nichols. "Get inside, now!"

Meanwhile, the Hollow was a bit confused as to what happened. One moment it was about to devour what it felt to be a delicious looking human and another, his senses was blasted by multiple stimulus at once. It was a little stunned at first before it finally shook it off and let out a howl of anger as it gets ready to grab onto Nichols.

WC: 332
Tag: nicholas

Well, this was quite a bad situation. There was a Hollow staring him down when he wasn't prepared to face it yet and he was currently standing amongst a crowd of people shuffling past him and giving him odd glances for freezing in place. Using his powers right in front of all of these people could compromise these abilities of his to the wider world, yet what other options did he have right now?

One of Nicholas' hands would snap into pocket, procuring a small book. Before he could open it, however, a bright flash of light would burst out between himself and the hollow. Shielding his eyes from this, he then hears a car pull in close to him, the loud screech of their tires betraying the suddenness of it all. Turning to look at it, he sees the familiar visage of the woman from the pizza shop, ordering him to enter the car.

It wouldn't take any more convincing for him, and so he'd shove past all of the people in his way, eliciting a wide cacophony of colorful language in his wake before hopping into the vehicle. Placing the pizza he still was miraculously carrying this whole time on the floor, something he only just realized as it sat in his hand when he seated himself, he turns to the woman, slight creases of confusion on his face.

"You're...able to see them, as well? The Hollows, you're able to see the Hollows?"

---

Diana

Fortunately, the distraction went off without a hitch and the grenade she threw earlier manage to slow down the Hollow enough for Nichols to get into the car in time. Had they been somewhere less crowded, she would have entertain the possibility of engaging it right there but doing so now would only attract unwanted problem. Her hand shifted the gear before she put the pedal to the metal causing the car to accelerate away from the area.

"Clear as day. Fuck, this was supposed to be an easy job...."she cursed under her breathe and look at the rear view mirror. Predictably the Hollow gave chase to them and would likely catch up to them at it's current speed. Her brows furrowed slightly as she maneuver the car between the traffic, barely avoiding the ones. Good thing she had taken the defensive driving course otherwise she didn't think she could avoid going at this speed without collision.

"You lived around here for a bit don't cha? Do you know somewhere we can lose that gorilla?"Diana asked.

Hearing another bestial roar, she glanced at the rear view mirror. Even though it's invisible to the norms it's body still possess mass. In it's rush to pursue them, it bumped a couple of unfortunate cars out of the way resulting in confused drivers who wondered what happened. The only clue to the mysterious phenomenon was a dent on their car as if something had just crashed into them.

WC: 247
Post Count: 5
Tag: nicholas

As the pair drove away from the location, the Hollow hot on their heels. In its haste to pursue them, it was smashing past vehicles in its way, causing quite a scene to form in their wake, and despite moving like a lumbering gorilla, it was almost gaining on them. With it keeping up this pace it would be rather difficult to get to a secluded area before it catches them. It didn't really seem like there was any good options presented to them at the moment.

Looking back forwards, Nicholas watches as the woman driving swerves erratically through traffic to try and outpace the monster giving them chase. There's no way they could keep up a wild pace like this all the way through Manhattan, though. They needed a nearby place with lots of roads that would give them a chance to eliminate or escape the Hollow.

"The best place nearby is likely in Greenwich Village to the north from here. Plenty of roads to take there. Though are you sure it should just be left alone there? As soon as we get secluded it'd be no trouble at all to kill it." The smallest hint of a smile came to his face as he spoke those words, his grip on his book tightening all the while. Nicholas would enjoy nothing more than to kill this beast that had interrupted his day job.

---

Diana

"Then Greenwich village it is." she replied

Modern convenience has it's wonderful perks. Even though she had only been here for a few days, thanks to GPS she would be able to navigate wherever she needs like she's a local. Her steering wheel came with a few buttons which allowed her to bring up the screen to lead them to Greenwich village. Sure, she could try and look up on the map on her phone with the Hollow hot on their heels but she rather not chance it.

It was then Nicholas proposed them to lead the Hollow to a more secluded place before taking care of it. Between the two of them, she was sure they could wipe it down together but their current job demand their undivided attention. Shaking her head in response, she did take out her cellphone from her pocket, using speed dial to contact her colleague.

"There's no need for that. I got a crew I can ask help from, we just need to focus on delivering the pizza."

Nichols wasn't kidding when they said they could lose the Hollow in the area. It's like a maze, one they could easily lose themselves in if they weren't careful. With lots of alleys to cut into and this being an American road, it would be easy for her European car to slide into. Now she just hoped that the Hollow didn't have a strong ability to sense their reiatsu to track them down and they would be golden.

Post: 6
Tag: nicholas
WC: 252

With the directions punched into their gps and with their vehicle veering up towards Greenwich, the pair were en route to that area, the many turns in the area surely making it an easy matter to lose the Hollow. Rather than kill it like he had suggested, though, the woman had started calling up other people, stating that they could handle it whilst Nicholas focused on his delivery job, something he'd raise an eyebrow over but wouldn't say anything more on it for now.

So there's more people here that can see the Hollows then? I seem to be caught up in something far more bizarre than I could have anticipated. There's time for questions later, though. No point in conversing until I finish what they want me to do.

As they arrived at the destination Nicholas recommended, the choice of his already seemed to be perfect. Plenty of turns that they could swerve through, not too many people up and about during this time, though a number of the parked cars do seem to be getting caught up in the lumbering Hollow's path, a few shortcuts that their car could take through alleyways, and before too long Nicholas completely lost sight of the monster.

"It seems like this worked out. Alright, just take a bit of a detour to try and avoid running into it again and then we'll head back to deliver this pizza of yours. A bit of a shame that we're leaving it to your allies, though," he sighs, seemingly a bit dejected when mentioning that last point.

---

Diana

Putting the phone on loudspeaker, she place it on mobile holder so that she wouldn't have to handle it while driving. On the screen, one
would be able to read the word Arty. It didn't take long for them to pick up the call. She raised one finger to wordlessly tell him one
moment,

"Hey DC, What's up?"a female voice asked.

"The orientation just went sideways. We got a bogey on our tail, think you can be a darling and take care of it for me?"

"Hmmm....maybe...."the other voice on the phone contemplated.

At this point Diana rolled her eyes but chuckle nonetheless as if she had expected this.

"There's a double cheese burger combo waiting for you if you do."

"Add a milkshake on top of that and you have a deal. Where's the Hollow?" the other voice asked.

"We lost it somewhere in Greenwich village."

"I'll take care of it. Good luck with your date~" she teased.

"Not a date."Diana retorted before hanging up immediately. She would shrug slightly in his direction before she decided to address his statement earlier.

"Sounds like a plan. Why is it a shame though?"she asked, one of her brow cocked slightly. She did enjoy slaying Hollow as much as another person but she's quite interested in Nichol's motivation. Thanks to Nichols knowledge of the area they were able to successfully evade the Hollow as she drove back towards the warehouse.

Word Count: 247
Post Count: 7
Tag: nicholas

As they were driving, the call from the people that Nicholas assumed the woman was referring to earlier came through, the name "Arty" displayed to announce whom she was speaking to. It was a rather casual conversation for one concerning a Hollow that had just tried to eat the pair, some teasing about this being a date continuing to remove the tension from the situation. A sign that such things were not much of a concern for the group? It seemed likely that that was the case.

Following this conversation, the driver would question Nicholas, curious as to why he seemed disappointed by not being able to handle the Hollow himself. Shit, I let my emotions guide my words there. I should not act so comfortably around strangers. No point in acting shy about it now, I suppose, but I will need to be more careful.

Silently cursing himself for responding the way he did, he answers flatly, "Ahh, well I just have a bit of a history with Hollows. Killing them has been a bit of a responsibility of mine here due to the lack of others that are capable of doing such, from what I gathered. I see that I'm not alone now, though, so if you would, I would like introductions. Who are you, and why is there suddenly a group of people who know about these creatures and are able to combat them? It's safe to assume you don't come from here since I would've noticed if others like myself popped up in New York, so I'm also curious about where you come from."

A bit of a hasty answer, but hopefully they answer his questions truthfully before digging deeper. With absolutely no knowledge about this woman and her purpose, erring on the side of caution seemed rather prudent.

---

Diana