With the Captains suffering casualties and heavy injuries on their side, all hope seemed to be lost... until Shinji Hirako appeared, along with the rest of the former Shinigami. Though the aid of the Vizards certainly helped to draw the battle in their favor, it seemed Aizen's power alone proved too much for them.
Post by Rebel Raven on Aug 18, 2009 23:03:43 GMT -5
You know that feeling when the temperature is juuust right, and it makes you really drowsy? When you wanna lay about, yawn, and do nothing but roll around, and stretch, stuff? Maybe nap some? If so, welcome to Nekoruru's mindset right about now. If not... well... sucks to be you! Ha!
This night Nekoruru had ventured somewhere in Karakura, she didn't care where since most left her alone, and she laid on the ledge of a building where she made one of the -greatest- yawns -ever- complete with throaty noises as she stretched her arms, legs, and back all at once, and even wriggled her digits! Got it was a perfect stretch!
Then she rolled! Boy, did she roll! A good roll! Yeaaaah, it was nice! She rolled left, she rolled right, she rolled left... then too much right! "Nyuh?" she scrambled to regain balance, but he flailing only launched her off the ledge, onto an awning, then to the sidewalk. Naturally she landed on her feet!
"Damn, ... that sucked..." she looked up at her lost perch, then looked around and something caught her eye! The reflection of a street light in the window next to her, "Nyaaa, shiny!" she walked over, and pressed her face to the window like a zombie after brains, then saw what was beyond... it was... a BAKERY! "Food!" she said, then breathed on the glass and fogged it up with her breaths, then licked the condensation away with an unusually large tongue that was over a foot long before she resumed staring.
It was a rather prosaic summer evening, nothing of any interest going on. Seimenk had spent the late afternoon reading some manga he'd stolen in the mall's large bookstore. Later at dusk, he was approached by a Shinigami stationed on Earth in her Gigai, Kouseki Lamburth. A young woman who for unnamed reasons hated her name, asking to be called Seki, not even Seki Lamburth, just Seki. She had ideologies diametrically opposed to his own, although considering where she was comming from it wasn't all that surprising. It was quiet out, and there was no one on the streets. It didn't matter to him that he was walking alone, rarely did anyone see him, so he was used to walking alone. He walked. Sometimes he flew, but not nearly as often as other spiritual beings, there was something satisfying in traveling in a terrestrial mode that always put him in a good mood.
Ordinarily, he would have just went home. But now, he was feeling a bit peckish. Not enough to spend the time and the effort offing an adjuchas or ganking some gillian. Instead, he decided he would have human food, which really, was not that different from food in Soul Society from what he had heard. Albeit, their cuisine was limited to traditional cooking styles. Seimenk liked these things, but he liked variety more.
Passing by a bakery, he spotted a girl with long blonde braids and from what he could see of her bare legs, rather tanned skin. He coudn't see any pants of any sort from under her jacket, and so he guessed she must have been wearing a rather short skirt, or short-shorts. For someone in this country, she had to be a foreigner or one of those ganguro girls. She was wearing one of those rediculous outfits 'cosplayers' wore, a yellow jacket with a hood and cat ears, a tail on the back, and overly long sleeves sewn into huge poofy mittens that looked like cats paws. He wondered how she payed for bus fare or did anything with her hands without taking her arms out of her jacket.
Seimenk wondered what she was doing by herself this late at night. He guessed she could have been on the way to a rave or something. It was still odd that she was alone, usually women always traveled in groups of two or three, to do...well, anything whether it was going to the bathroom or shopping for underwear. Seeing her staring into the window of the baked goods store, he supposed she had gotten the munchies. Which only served to remind him, that he like her was getting hungry. Unfortunately for her, the store was already closed -all dark, except for a blue neon light in the window illuminating the cakes on display. Unfortunate for her, perfect for him.
Walking up to the door, he clapped his hands once, before pressing his fingers through the glass panneling. Under his geokinetic power, the glass yeilded like plastic sheeting or the carmelized colored sugar that was stretched or even blown into all kinds of shapes and decorations for cakes. Tearing a hole in the glass without breaking it, he went inside, sealing it behind him.
Looking around in the shop for a moment, he spotted some donuts and helped himself to one before walking up to the cakes in the window. One of them was decorated with pineapples, one of his favorite things form the Earth realm, and completely unavailiable in the Soul Society. If Earth wasn't worth something for its books or its music, it always had pineapples.
"Aaaaaaah, tha's gooo' ", he remarked with his mouth full. Looking up, he noticed the girl was still staring in the window, apparently she hadn't left yet -although, he had only been in the store a hot minute. Ordinarily, his first thought would have been whether or not the girl had seen the pineapples slices dissapear. Instead, he wondered why he was staring into luminous red eyes that were very much like his own in his alternate form. And why she had a footlong tongue lapping at the glass. Using his Pesquisa, he studied her reiatsu , feeling out the wave profile and its general characteristics. She had a strange reiryoku from which he drew no conclusions as he had never felt an energy like this, but from her reatsu he could tell her spiritual power outclassed his own. To be honest, it was the strongest spiritual pressure he had ever sensed in an individual. She had a body too human to be a hollow, but too hollow like to be like any Arrancar he had ever seen. Then again, only Vasto Lorde were said to be guaranteed perfectly humanoid forms, at least thats what they said.
"You can see me, cant you?", he asked. "What kind of Menos are you anyway -if you dont mind me asking?", he added politely. He doubted whether anything like her could only be interested in cakes. The fact that her power was so strong, meant she could put up a hell of a fight, if she wanted to eat a piece of him.
Post by Rebel Raven on Aug 19, 2009 2:59:28 GMT -5
Her breaths fogged the glass around the trails of saliva left behind from her tongue as she stared into the shop, and she seemed to ignore the man completely even as he studied her, rather her eyes were affixed on fish shaped treats on a far rack. Her smile was wide, and filled with sharp teeth, and her eyes glowed like a demons in the darkness of her hood. Her ears twitched a bit.
It wasn't until she saw someone turn to look at her did she bother taking her focus off what she wanted, "Eh?" she turned her head slightly. It didn't look like she turned her eyes to look at him as they were just pinpoints of crimson light. "Wha?" she said, and strangely, her large grin mouthed her words... She literally didn't hear him, so her answer to the question was to tilt her head back, then smash her face into the glass! Smash the obstruction!
THUNK!... "Ow..."Apparently she failed to break the glass, but her face didn't seem to flatten against the glass like flesh and bone might, rather it stayed static.
She tried once more, and smashed through successfully, then rolled over the window pane in one fluid movement. She landed in a crouch on the floor in the midst of broken glass, and seemed to think nothing of it.
She stood, then walked over to to the fish shaped treats with her arms swaying loosely, snatched them up, said "FOOD!" then munched one with all the fluidity one might expect from a feline.
Then those pinpoints of light went out a moment as she, apparently, blinked her eyes, then she looked at the arrancar with her teeth gnashing, and gnawing on the treat for him to see as she seemed to have no lips, or no inclination to use them as she smiled, and ate. "You say sumfin? I forgot... Couldn't hear ya..." she said in rapid bursts, then tilted her head towards the glass to illustrate why. Her words weren't violent, or harsh. She asked as if she didn't know he was talking to her.
Her paw shaped hand threw in another fish shaped pastry even though the first wasn't fully chewed and swallowed as her other arm held the box as she stared at him unwaveringly. Her largely invisible face offered no clues as to what she thought of the person that shared her joy in pastries as there was nothng to read but that large smile, and 2 pinpricks of red light.
She didn't seem violent by any other standards. She just watched him, no that wasn't the right word... she stared at him not so viciously... well, seeing her many sharp teeth, and a somewhat psychotic smile kinda made her seem vicious, probably, but... well she wasn't clawing his face off or anything, so for right now the feline woman didn't seem violent towards him.
The girl err, female whatever-it-was seemed confused at his question. Then, without warning she thre her head into the glass, which didn't break and gaver her a bump on the head.
Well, I can be assured she's not some invincible Vasto Lorde, or at least that she lacks any proper Hierro. I could have put my head through that glass if I'd wanted to, but-
His train of thought was broken, just as the glass did, as she tried again. Ducking and rolling in the front window, she landed on the floor and immediately ran over to a rack of pastries and began stuffing her face.
"You could have aksed me to let you in.", he remarked, putting his hand over his face,"If anyone else wants in on our little soiree, I hope they show more finesse. You know how to make an entrance, but you mustn't draw so much attention.", he said, quickly cleaning up the mesk and putting the glass back in its frame, leaving no trace it had ever been in hundreds of pieces.
"You say sumfin? I forgot... Couldn't hear ya..." she said in rapid bursts, then tilted her head towards the glass to illustrate why.
"Oh....well, I just asked what kind of Menos you are. Were you born in Hueco Mundo?", he inquired. Then, seeing what she was eating he asked a very different question. "Does a fish pastry taste like a fish?" and then musing a little more, "Is a fish taco shaped like a fish?" going off on a tangent.
Seeing more of her mouth as she ate, it was clear she had a mask that was fixed to her face and hinged with her jaw. It was a hollow trait, but head never seen anything other than an Arrancar wish such a humanoid body. Exactly what was she? At least it seemed she was only interested in eating pastries. Thinking for a moment, he wondered if she was some sort of Arrancar who had undergone some sort of evolutionary regression.
Post by Rebel Raven on Aug 19, 2009 4:26:04 GMT -5
Luckily she hadn't fully listened to him or else his complex speaking might've gave her a headache. She hated headaches! But so does everyone, right?
The woman stared at him longer in silence, short of the noise made as she munched, then swallowed her mouthful before she spoke, "You're a wordy man," she announced as he finished speaking. Yes, that sounded right to her. He was wordy man!
"I'm not Menos, wordy man,"she used wordy man, not as an insult, but more as his name, "I am Nekoruru!" she said with some pride in her name, apparently unaware of what a menos was. As she introduced herself, her tail waved idly behind her, and she flashed that what seemed to be a permanently white smile at him. Not a crumb, not a stain, nothing marred those perfectly white teeth.
She made a visible frown at the rest of the questions, "These are cookies, not fish! They taste like cookies!" she replied, then flashed a smile that seemed to call him an idiot. His last question was met with a pause... "Whazza taco?"
She sat down where she was, then crossed her legs like a child. Nekoruru followed this up as she put another fish shaped pastry into her mouth. The bit of breaddy goodness was chewed it like she were some crazed demon piranha cat. And as she ate, she watched him as if she expected something him to do more without the realization she needed to offer some input for him to talk about. Well, more than she had.
She really wasn't used to dealing with anyone. Left to her own devices she survived off the radar quite well, so no one tried to exterminate her, or anything... As that realization came to her, she thought it cool. Oh! "Who's Menos?" she asked suddenly, curious as cats can be as her red, glowing eyes practically bored holes into him as they watched, and gave him full attention. She tried to make a mental picture of menos, but her thought bubble remained empty, unfortunately.
"I'm not Menos, wordy man,"she used wordy man, not as an insult, but more as his name, "I am Nekoruru!"
He siged again, putting his face in his palm in slight frustration. Was she hard of hearing? Or did she come out retarted? He had heard of that happening sometimes, a name -Wonderweiss comming to mind, albeit he'd never met or seen them. Oh well, always good to introduce yourself.
"My name is Seimenk.", he said, not bothering to give a last name since she didn't either.
"Oh, you've never eaten one? They're delicious sandwhiches made of special bread, called tortilla. Some are soft, but others are crunchy -you should have some the next time you see them!"
"Who's Menos?"
"So you dont know.....hrmm", he said, trying to think of how to explain it. It was like speaking to a child. "You see people, right, you see them everyday? Most of those people are Humans, the people that own this store are Humans. You and I are very different from those people. Humans cant see us. I am a kind of Menos or Hollow. I'm sure you've seen the black creatures with white masks, like you have a mask? That is called a Hollow", he said speaking slowly, "I am an Arrancar, I'm a Hollow that took their mask off -except, a few pieces are still stuck to me...", he pointed out, mentioning the white crest on the side of his head.
"By taking it off, I got stronger. But I still need these pieces, if I lose them I will lose my memories and become weak again. I had to become strong, because their are people that fly or run around in black clothes with swords who want to kill all Hollows. Those people are called Shinigami. They aren't very good. What I am asking you, is, Are you a Hollow like me?"
Post by Rebel Raven on Aug 19, 2009 19:31:00 GMT -5
"Nice ta meet'cha, wordy man!" Nekoruru said to him with that large smile. She completely ignored the fact he gave his name to her, and set about using his new nickname, which wasn't so much as an insult, but a description of him. "Sammiches are nice," she nodded to the man, "You have one?" she asked curious, and hungry.
She watched him as he spoke, and described hollows, and himself... And he did so wordily, but he at least tried to make sense... she thought anyhow. "I'm not hollow!" she said proudly, then motioned to the box of food in her arm, "I'm full!" she pointed at her belly, "I ate!" She smiled at him.
"I like Shinigami... sorta...," her pinprick eyes turn triangular, "One was so nice to me!" she seems to have gotten sad in a hurry as if she remembered something that practically wrenched the heart out of her. "But some masked thingie with a hole killed her," she sniffles, and sobs, "but some of them Shinigami were mean. ... I guess it's a mixed box of chocolates..." she said with a great big frown on her face made of those white, triangular teeth. "Haven't met a friendly masked person with a hole, though..." she rubbed the top of her hood with her mitten clad hand. Her hood didn't seem to move as she did so, but the cloth ears on the hood twitched, "They're always Raaarrr! I'mma eat you!!!"
She went from sad to contemplative "You used to be a dude with a hole, and mask?"... "You're not all 'Raaarrr! I'mma eat youuu!!' and chasing ladies..." she got into a position similar to Rodan's "The Thinker" cept cross legged... "So, is any group of people really completely bad?" she said as if she questioned a lot if life... then unceremoniously crammed another fish cookie into her mouth, "I'unno," she said finally as she sought a conclusion, and failed to find one, but it was only a few seconds of attempted thought.
"Nice ta meet'cha, wordy man!" "Sammiches are nice," she nodded to the man, "You have one?" she asked curious, and hungry.
"Ah no...sorry...", he apologized, "But maybe we can find some later." She certainly did have an appetite for food. Looking at how much she was eating, had to wonder where she was putting it all, or if she somehow managed to warp the laws of volume and density.
"I'm not hollow!" she said proudly, then motioned to the box of food in her arm, "I'm full!" she pointed at her belly, "I ate!" She smiled at him.
"Thats not quite what I meant....", he said, sighing again, listening as she shared a brief story.
"I like Shinigami... sorta...," her pinprick eyes turn triangular, "One was so nice to me!" she seems to have gotten sad in a hurry as if she remembered something that practically wrenched the heart out of her. "But some masked thingie with a hole killed her," she sniffles, and sobs, "but some of them Shinigami were mean. ... I guess it's a mixed box of chocolates..." she said with a great big frown on her face made of those white, triangular teeth. "Haven't met a friendly masked person with a hole, though..." she rubbed the top of her hood with her mitten clad hand. Her hood didn't seem to move as she did so, but the cloth ears on the hood twitched, "They're always Raaarrr! I'mma eat you!!!"
"Yes...", he admitted. He would have said he liked the anology, but decided that 'analogy' was too big of a word for her, even though it was something, among humans at least, was taught in elementary school. "Life is like a box of chocolates. We are all different, each like no other, we all have our own filling so to speak. And it isn't enjoyed by everyone. I have met a few nice Shinigami too. Some of them have tolerated my prescense and we have talked at length", he explained thinking of Kouseki Lamburth. "And others, believed so strongly that they must kill them all, even if they havent hurt anyone.", he finished, thinking of Matsuri Kudo. He would have used the term 'zealot', but then he would propably need a whole side discussion to explain what it was.
She went from sad to contemplative "You used to be a dude with a hole, and mask?"... "You're not all 'Raaarrr! I'mma eat youuu!!' and chasing ladies..." she got into a position similar to Rodan's "The Thinker" cept cross legged... "So, is any group of people really completely bad?" she said as if she questioned a lot if life... then unceremoniously crammed another fish cookie into her mouth, "I'unno," she said finally as she sought a conclusion, and failed to find one, but it was only a few seconds of attempted thought.
Well, her lack of base knowledge and comprehension, it appeared were made up by her curiosity. She's certainly thinking about things.
"About that 'hole'...", he started, "I didn't 'used to be a dude with a hole' ", he explained using her words. Undoing the buttons of his cassock, he opened the coat and revealed his bare chest and abdomen. He was muscular, with the chest and abs of a practiced martial artist, though not of significant 'bulk'. A spiked chain passed around his wasit three times, each loop with a padlock on it. The length of chain continued upwards, dissapearing inside his left sleeve. Right above that, where his navel should have been was a neat fist sized hole that passed right through him, letting anyone see right to the otherside. The inside of the hole was not fleshy like his outer skin, but darker than black.
"I know it doesn't really make sense, I dont undertand how it works either....", he professed. If he were human, he could never have such a anomaly. Even if one were to conjecture that his organs had simply been displaced to accomodate the hole, it passed right through his back. By the standards of human biology, it should have severed his spine and made it impossible to stand upright.
"Do you really not have one, anywhere?", he inquired,"May I see your body?"
Post by Rebel Raven on Aug 20, 2009 4:37:01 GMT -5
"Rar! No sammich? Hmph..." she pouted, well, frowned. That no lips thing makes it hard to pout.
As Seimenk spoke again it was almost like story time to her, but it wasn't much of a story, but regardless, she nodded, "Yeah, some nice, some mean!"
"Nyan? You have hole?" she peered through it as he showed it, but didn't approach... "You tryin' to flirt with me?!" she looked at him, likely skeptically as indicated by the tone of her voice...
His explanation of the workings of the whole, or lack there of, went over her head as she stared at him vacantly.
Those pinpricks went wide, and she turned and guarded her zipper with a pawy hand, "kkkkssss!" she hissed a bit, but not really angrily, just more surprised, "My holes are my business, pervert!"She blinked at him, obviously not interested in having her body inspected.
Of course she has no hole, unless it's the very gap of shadow that is her head, but that'd make little sense, right? Still, no matter what the light source, there was only darkness, her eyes, and her mouth. "I dun gotta hole all the way through," she admitted. As far as she knew it was the truth, but she never thought anything of it. She wasn't eating people, so she never figured she was one of those hole people.
Though the thought did occur to her, she resisted the urge to throw a fish cookie through his thankfully. She didn't know the guy well enough to wanna put her paw through it, and, really, it wouldn't fit, it being greater than the diameter of a person's head.
"Soo..." she tossed him fish shaped cookie before she popped another into her mouth, "Uhh..." her brain lacked the power to figure out what came next. She rubbed her head... "I got nuthin'," she admitted as she ate. What could be seen of her jackolantern like face showed some frustration at this. It'd have been awesome if she were interesting! Ding! Inspiration! "What do you do?" she asked simply, andit was hard to discern what she meant. He could take it most any way, it seemed.
"Nyan? You have hole?" "You tryin' to flirt with me?!" "kkkkssss!" "My holes are my business, pervert!"
Wow. This was one of the few times Seimenk actually felt stupid. He had asked an innocent question, but he had to admit it was easily taken out of context. It was a bit like being the butt of one of those 'Thats What She Said' jokes, and he had walked right into it, but the situation was more serious than that, and he hoped he hadn't offended her. He wasn't flirting certainly, albeit she was the third interesting woman he had met over the last few weeks.
"No, No...", he apologized, "I didn't mean anything by it. I like to think of myself as a gentleman. Certainly compared to hollows that chase ladies and go 'rar!' I'd hope. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable..."
"I dun gotta hole all the way through," "Soo..." she tossed him fish shaped cookie before she popped another into her mouth, "Uhh..." "I got nuthin'," "What do you do?"
"Vague question...but I can roll with that.",he said, eating his cookie. As he leaned back the tiles of the floor pulled themselves up, reorganizing themselves into a hollow chair like structure. The arms forming first which he braced himself against, then the seat which he sat down upon, and finally the back. A similar chair formed right underneath Nekoruru, this one seat first, then back, and the arms last.
"I can do that. I can move a limited amount of any thing thats rock, soil, sand, ceramic, or glass, and the like. Or change their shape, like when I came through glass door and cleaned up the mess you left on the floor when you made your entrance." he explained. "I can also do some of the things typical of hollows...", he demonstrated, forming and harmlessly dispersing a Bala, as well as briefly opening and closing a small Garganta. "I can also fly, move pretty fast, and I fight well.", explained. "In the case of my recreation -thats what someone does for fun, I like listening to Human music and reading their graphic novels or manga. Hueco Mundo doesn't have much for music or literature, books that is. Periodically I come to the Human world and sample things, like you and I are doing in this store right now. I have a place of my own in Hueco Mundo. I dont know if you've been there, but its a huge desert with white sand, where its always night. There is a forest though, but I'm afraid the trees dont have any leaves -they're quite tall though, higher than some buildings in this city.", he explained, trying to put answers to all interpretations of the question, or at least as many as he could think of.
