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.
The night was quiet. Well, actually, no, it wasn't. In fact, rain pounded on the world, the sidewalk, the sand, the water, and everything was just drowning in the chaos that was to come. The rocks were soaked, beaten around by the ocean waves, slowly eroding them, though, that didn't happen quite so immediately.
Crimson eyes watched from a safer place, from beneath an awning that overlooked the beach. They held no fear, only curiosity and amusement. Why should they fear the rain? The storm? Not only was the rain beginning to slow, but the clouds were breaking apart, separating from one another.
Violet eyes observed the storm from within a coffee shop, though they were slightly blocked from veiw by her crowned bangs. A nervous habit, she was tapping on the table before her. While the storm had been rather unnerving, she was rather stuck between the options of walking home through it or staying in place.
The crimson eyes belonged to a girl, seeming to appear between the ages of eight and seven. She was rather tall for her apparent age, standing at four foot one. She stepped out into the rain, feeling the cool drops on her skin. It was a refreshing change from the mountain air, from what she was used to. Her green hair soon grew soaked in the rain, as did her entire self. Her arms were soaked, her face was soaked, her clothes were soaked, and she walked out, further still.
Akaharu could have sworn she just saw a small girl walk out into the rain, but, she didn't say anything. She continued to drum her fingers nervously on the table before her, reaching out to grab the soda she was left with. She'd have bought something else if she felt like spending the extra money, but, it didn't seem worth the effort.
Kaki was that girl Akaharu saw, her senses were not fooling her. But did that really matter? In this world, did any of that really matter? It didn't seem like it did. No, to Kaki, to the restless girl that she was, it didn't seem anything even close to something of vast importance. Nay, it didn't seem like anything of any importance. In Kaki's world, what may have seemed of dire urgence to others was nothing. What may have seen like a problem of the tiniest proportions may have been enormous to Kaki.
She looked, she watched, she waited none-to-patiently. Akaharu wanted this stupid rain to stop so she could go home and do something destructive: hacking. Then--did her eyes decieve her?-- she saw that same, tiny, lanky figure that she had seen before. No, this was nothing created by Akaharu's mind, it was what her eyes were picking up, and she could feel the reiatsu. She hadn't been aware that there were spiritual beings so small. Not before at least. She glanced around; the rain was letting up. Slowly she pushed herself up from her seat, her hands pressed against the table.
Kaki spun in the rain, humming an unfamiliar tune. She frowned as the rain stopped coming altogether, as the clouds broke apart even more than they had been doing. Her bare feet had the wet sand sticking to them, and although the feeling was alien to Kaki, it was far from unpleasant. She looked over the water as the wind tore apart the clouds, shaking each one in a different direction. She smiled at what she saw; the waves silver in the brilliant light of the moon.
Akaharu walked onto the beach, tilting her head at the girl she saw; smaller than her, though not nessacarily younger. The reiatsu she radiated was stronger than Akaharu's, that was certain, and it led her to believe that Kaki was something along the lines of a shinigami, or arrancar, based on the hollow-like reiatsu. She didn't trust them at this point.
Kaki turned her head to see Akaharu, and she smiled lightly. Humans. Humans had no reason to bring harm to her; especially not a lone adolescent. She saw no danger here, though, one could always say the wakizashi-carrying Kaki was always on her toes. "Well hiya."
Akaharu frowned, and she turned around, heading back for the coffee shop. She didn't need to deal with this; not again. Never again if she could avoid it. Never again would she interact with these creatures called spiritual beings. Even if one didn't seem violent, she didn't trust them. People who saw ghosts too. She didn't trust them.
She didn't trust anyone.
The silver moonlight lit up Kaki's face as she stared, unaware to anything but the strange girl who walked before her. She looked to her side, only to see that her zanpakuto, sheath and guard, was reflecting the light from the ivory moon.
Then, something seemed slightly off. "Nani?"
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.
"Looks like a full meal walked right into my lap," Said a rather calm, light voice, almost soothing to hear when parted from the harsh rain, and the rather cold words truly spoken. A man walked through the haze of the rain, his left hand looped around a chain at his waist, his right up at his neck, his nails running along his skin, up to his cheeks, then repeating their cycle, as if he were thinking.
Perhaps he was. Or maybe his mind was made up. He wasn't easy to read. Well, people with blank expressions, or who smile at odd times are rarely the easiest to read. "What are the odds of two delicious beings strolling right into my lap?" He asked, looking right past the two of them, apparently staring intently at something else. "Well," he began to add, his head tilting as he looked to the sky, apparently lost in thought and speaking half of them out loud, in a way to keep track of two ideas. "I don't really think spending time here is a waste after all. Perhaps it has.... benefits."
He finally made eye contact with the younger-looking one. The smile that crossed his face was gone in a flash. She had an interesting smell. Not quite... anything. But a little of everything. He looked towards the other girl, and winked at her, a rather perverted off-kilter wink. Perhaps hinting he would enjoy toying with her. She seemed... Like a fighter.
"Now," He began, looking back past the two, as if the moments of having their figures in sight had never occured, and yawning. "Truly, why are you out here? It's so... Unsafe for such young girls." He had a bit of a smirk on his face, his off-colored eyes darting around the space around the two. He was making an attempt to make them uncomfortable, of course. If worst came to worst, he could at least have a little fun out here...
Our bed becomes a grave before we blow ourselves away!
Akaharu, strange as it was, was the first to respond. She continued to walk onwards, passing the man as she said, "Can it."
Her violet eyes rolled as she walked, hell, she was still pissed. At everyone. It wasn't just her uncle, it wasn't just Kasai, it wasn't just any one person. For every person she took her anger out on, unbeknownst to her, she made a new enemy, for every enemy she made, she found another person to unleash her wrath upon. It was a never-ending cycle, and she didn't even notice.
Or maybe she just didn't care.
Kaki, meanwhile, took a slight step back. The small girl looked upon the man with her crimson eyes, through the rain that cleared up, and decided that she'd pull her hyperactive facade, once again: "Nani? Why would'cha ask that?"
She scratched the back of her head, tilting it upwards. Why was everyone always so much taller than her? She was soaked to the bone, but, she didn't care. She was out here because, well, sometimes her childishness wasn't a facade. But sometimes it was.
She brought a hand up to her neck to fiddle with her scarf. Even though she didn't mind being wet, she did like to breathe. It wasn't necassarily so easy with sagging fabric hanging over one end of the neck.
Akaharu rolled her violet eyes. She was fairly sure this wouldn't end with her walking into the coffee shop and borrowing the phone to call her uncle. Well, for one, they were both still going at each others' throats. Except this time, Akaharu had a reason for being mad. And not something stupid like her laptop being confiscated either. No, she had a logical reason for being mad, which she wasn't about to share. In fact, she pushed the thought from her mind everytime it drifted to the surface. But it wouldn't stop. It lingered in the back of her mind and she had no means of preventing it from resurfacing. All she could do was pretend.
It took Kaki a moment before she came up for her answer, and, having fixed her scarf, she smiled and said, "Cause it's pretty. Why else?"
Stour raised his eyebrows at the first girl. Quite rude. Maybe she should be taught a lesson? But that required so much work... So perhaps not. The smaller girl simply replied with another question, to witch Stour's facial expression gained more complexities, apparently annoyed, as his head began to tilt to his right, his lips being pulled back in an annoyed sneer.
Then, she, after apparently thinking very hard, answered. And the answer was... Lacking. Severely. She even acted as young as she looked. He sighed, rolling his eyes. This was less exiting than even his most meager expectation would have put forth for it.
"Ah, pretty... Yeah, right," Stour dismissed the answer, turning around to the girl who had charged past, using a sonido to pop back right in front of her. "Apologize."
His eyes were narrowed in their disgust, as he stared at her, his mind a melee of annoyance, but his body and face showing no signs of anything of the sort, his body was relaxed, and his voice was light as ever, his face almost looking sad, rather than displaying the near-anger he was feeling.
Our bed becomes a grave before we blow ourselves away!
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you're hard of hearing. I'll say it again: Can. It. Can it, can it, can it, can it, can it," Akaharu replied sarcastically, soon turning and walking around the arrancar with another roll of her violet eyes. The dark-haired girl, still acting rude as ever, still as nonchalant about it as ever, didn't care for any interaction, let alone with an arrancar. Nor this... Shinigami? Arrancar? Whatever? Did it matter?
Not really.
Kaki giggled as the arrancar seemed to find her answer... Well, whatever he found it. Mission accomplished. She returned to her more important matters: spinning in circles on the beach. Except she was getting dizzy.
The problem with her childish antics was that some people found them cute. Luckily, that seemed to not be the case here. So she could act like her inner child wanted her to. Except, the human's reaction the arrancar suddenly made things more interesting.
She tilted her head, stopping her spinning, though the world around her seemed not to stop its spin, and she listened intently. Well, this could either be hilarious or bad. She didn't know which.
"Well, well," Stour said, his eyes flaring, his voice light, despite the newfound incline to his eyebrows, and slight sneer that pulled back just enough for the tips of his teeth to show through. "That's twice you've shamed me. Lucky to be breathing."
He spun and leapt, cutting the girl off again. "I'm feeling generous, so you get another chance to apologize. With feeling. Or I might not be feeling so generous. Maybe I'll even feed you to some younger hollows in Hueco Mundo before you're fully dead," He grinned sadistically at the though, how fun that might be. This girl was obviously oblivious to the fact that he wasn't the usual person. Or she knew, and didn't care. Either way, she was getting on his nerves. A lot less, however, than that little girl would have been. He's fairly certain he'd have killed himself had he had to deal with her for much longer. He reached out the the girl, grabbing her shoulder. She wasn't getting away this time.
Our bed becomes a grave before we blow ourselves away!
Violet eyes rolled for what must have been the hundreth time in a day. It didn't seem humanly possible for one to roll her eyes that many times in a single day, and yet, Akaharu did it. The arrancar had grabbed her shoulder, and she tilted her own head, staring into the man's eyes with her own violet eyes. "Huh. Well, this is only the second or third time this has happened. Am I really that annoying? Well."
Kaki's eyes widened, her sword was in her hand and she held it at the ready. She was fairly sure she would get killed if she tried to fight, hence her staying back where she was and hopefully out of the focus of the other two. She was hoping she'd be able to catch the arrancar off guard and fling her sheath if anything bad happened.
"Noooope. I'm not apologizing. You can go to hell. Or back to it I should say. No internet... What kind of dump doesn't have internet?" Akaharu said, her own hand reaching up to push the arrancar's away.
Kaki could have slapped her forehead. Did this girl really just... That was just... Didn't she... She shook her head. Kaki shook her head, closing her eyes, fearing what she figured was inevitable.
Akaharu, meanwhile, seemed to be resorting to different measures. A thin, nearly invisible web of reiatsu was forming, and lifting a small amount of sand, just enough for a handful. Yeah. She was actually going to fling it at him. And after it reached her own hand and she scooped it up, that's what she did. She flung it right at his face.
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.
Stour's eyes widened just in time for the blast of sand to hit his face, searing pain struck his eyes. Most would scream, some would cry. Stour grinned. "You get a head start then. I highly recommend you use it," he said, a small amount of reiatsu being released, and then slightly more, and more, and more. It wasn't an unbearable amount that he tapered off at, but it was a worthy enough some. He didn't want to kill her that quickly, after all.
He knew the other girl was watching, she must be. She had had a zanpakuto, but was a bit odd for a shinigami. He thought he knew what she was. But she was so far back, Stour knew he could crush this foolish girl here before the other one could even get here. Finally, he ran to the ocean, flooding his eyes with water. It cleared the sand out rather quickly.
He turned to find that girl, his hand tense, his nails digging into his palm. He was gonna fry her when he found her.
Our bed becomes a grave before we blow ourselves away!
Oh shit. That was all that Akaharu could think. Well, she still had no regrets. Akaharu was just so... Well, she was stubborn. Regret? Hah! Like something this small would make her feel even a twinge of regret! Well, that didn't mean she wasn't scared out of her mind though. Oh shit.
Still the same thoughts buzzed through her mind as the arrancar released some reiatsu. It wasn't a huge amount, but it was enough for Akaharu to realize that the appropriate thing to think right now, was in fact, Oh shit.
She didn't move. Akaharu could have moved, she could have run away screaming, but she just didn't. She stood right where she was, a blank expression upon her features. She turned around, that was all she did. Well, I'm officially doomed... Again.
Akaharu froze. Hell, she was probably being stupid at this point, but really, where the hell was she supposed to go? Wet sand, empty beach, she couldn't just hide in a crowd of people!
Kaki bit her lower lip at the mere thought of what she was about to do. She mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I'm about to do this for a random human..."
Before the arrancar had finished washing his eyes, Kaki had lifted her sheathed sword behind her head. Just in time for the arrancar to turn his head, she swung her sword forward and watched as the sheath flew at the arrancar's head. Well, this would be a terrible night to be Kaki.
"Oi! Oi! Chotto matte!" Kaki shouted out urgently. "Hey, don't you think it'd be sorta lame to kill a human for being ignorant?"
Akaharu shot a look at the small girl, one that was meant to be the deathglare. Of course, Akaharu was shooting that glare at every random person she saw at this point.
"They're stupid, you can't expect them to know how to act!" Kaki reasoned, only to find a very angry Akaharu glaring at her.
Finally having gotten his bearings back, Stour turned to find himself hit in the face by an unexpected sheath, knocking his head straight back, where it remained for a few moments as the initial shock subsided into pure rage. "Is it lame to kill someone who hasn't learned their place? I see two of you. You don't even know who I am!"
Stour's head rolled forwards, his usually blank face now with sharp eyebrows curled down over his eyes, and lips pulled back baring his teeth. His animalistic nature only reared up when he got angry, which was a challenge. This was the first time in ages it had happened. Who'd have thought it'd be a teenage girl and a seeming child that would cause it? Probably anybody.
Stour raised his hand displaying his oddly placed hollow hole, normally located where the heart had resided. The chaos that ebbed inside Stour during his early years had cause many strange developments. Small grey particles began to meet at the hollow hole, almost not giving off light as they built into a sphere. His eyes narrowed to the girl with the sword. If she ran off or was knocked away he had all the time in the world for the human. Of course, only a fool wouldn't be expecting retribution. She seemed a fool, but had changed quickly. The grey cero ripped free with an echoing boom, but the near lack of light was odd, and unique to Stour. As far as he knew. In fact, he may kill anyone who tried to steal that.
Our bed becomes a grave before we blow ourselves away!