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.
It was an overcast day, and Szayel had murder in his eyes. He was going to hunt down and kill Adan - and retrieve that vizard. Killing Adan could always wait for another day, after all, the Exequias could be sent on it again. He wanted the boy alive though - he would prefer to kill Adan personally.
The scientist stood over a shop, wondering why it felt like a few reiatsu-leaking beings dwelled within. He strolled down, hands in the pockets of his hakama, and peered inside.
"Helloooooo~!" a jovial man in a black haori and a green and white hat announced, popping up directly in front of Szayel.
"Nani-" Szayel started before the man hooked an arm around his shoulder and leaned in closely.
"I don't suppose I could get you anything, arrancar-san? Gigai?"
"A false body?" Szayel said, pulling away from Urahara with a cool glare. "I don't need one."
"Ahahaha, but you haven't tried mine," the man insisted, pulling a large, bare body out from under his haori. How the man managed to fit a body under there, Szayel would never know. "This gigai is far more comfortable than the ordinary gigai - and it comes with SPF 50 sunblock!"
Either the man had no idea who Szayel was, or didn't care. But before Szayel could really protest, the blond shopkeeper had forced it on him. Quite literally.
"Try it out! If you don't like it, I'll take it back~! If you do, it's yours for only--"
Szayel didn't listen to whatever the man was charging, all he knew is that he was wearing a false body and walking away so that he wouldn't hear from this man again.
He felt the little vizard, trailing someone else, and would surprise them there. ------ Kaki followed Hotaru, frowning. "Onee-chan, I don't want to get new clothes."
"You can't wear that," Hotaru said, smiling. Kaki stuck out her tongue - she knew Hotaru liked shopping, but she always forced the most obnoxious, uncomfortable clothes onto Kaki as she could find. "It doesn't fit you."
"Why does that matter?" Kaki asked in protest. "I can just cut the sleeves short."
The pair entered a department store, unseen by the general populace. "You need to wear some sort of pants or a skirt."
Kaki stuck out her tongue as they moved to the children's section. All of the clothes were bright and colorful, and she'd rather wear brown or gray or something that matched the mountain. She'd tolerated some of the clothed before. As Hotaru held out a pink, knee-length skirt, Kaki sniffed. "Pants. And my scarf."
"I don't know why you hold onto that thing," mumbled the older sister. Kaki looked down at her scarf, and then she pulled it over her nose. "It's old and frayed and too big for you."
Yugito tugged at her collar, muttering Polish profanities under her breath. While it was true that Clan Kowalczyk had more than enough money to support both her and her mother, she had been persuaded into getting a part-time job. For experience, her mother said, and responsibility. She thought it was idiotic. She had plenty of experience volunteering at the hospital, and she was plenty responsible with her money. In fact, she had just recently purchased a brand new tablet...and it wasn't even an Apple product! See? Responsible spending.
Nevertheless, she somehow found herself applying for a cashier/sales associate position at Karakura Department Store, and she somehow found herself being offered the position. How she did that, she would never know. Maybe had something to do with her not threatening the store manager and actually doing a good interview.
The store was busy, as usual. It always was. She had been pulled out of cashier duty and put on the floor, walking up and down the isles, putting the merchandise back onto the shelves and helping the incredibly needy and moronic customers find what they were looking for. She wasn't a people-person, oh god, she wasn't. Performing up on stage with a Grand Piano far away from the audience, she could do. But actually having to interact with them? Ugh. There were lots of idiots in Karakura Town.
As she walked past the children's section, something caught her eye. Her foot stopped mid-step as she turned her head towards the various racks and shelves of brightly coloured clothes and raised an eyebrow. Two little children were browsing through the clothing, one looking much happier to be there than the other. Two children? Alone? Yugito was pretty sure that there was something in the Employee Manual about dealing with unattended children. But as she approached them, she noticed something strange.
Swords.
The two girls had swords on their persons.
Wasn't that illegal or something? Giving a weapon to minors. Really, who does that?
Unless...
She dived behind one of the displays like a ninja and poked her head out, watching the two girls. If they were really what she thought they were, she would have do do something about that. And considering that no one had even approached the two girls yet, then there was a good chance she was the only one that could see them.
And, most importantly, shinigami or not, they still needed to pay for those clothes.
The smaller sister made faces each time her sister turned around, and pulled on her neutral, sad and apologetic-looking expression each time Hotaru turned around with a new piece of clothing. Most of the clothes were pink, or yellow, and sometimes orange or purple. Kaki especially would not wear pink.
"I like brown better," she protested, folding her arms as Hotaru held out a new, sky-blue t-shirt. "Like my old clothes. I wanna wear stuff like that."
Hotaru frowned. "Nee-san, they don't have things like your old clothes. They just have what's on the shelves."
"But they have to have just plain shirts around here somewhere."
"Then start looking for stuff that you'll like."
Though Kaki would have preferred to find her own clothes, she didn't like the thought of leaving Hotaru. What if they didn't find each other? What if Hotaru was mad at her and was going to leave her alone? She really didn't want to be alone again.
"They have some stuff over there," Kaki said, grabbing Hotaru and dragging her away from the colorful rack. She led her sister across the floor, to a rack with clothes she liked much better.
"Nee-san, this is the adult's section. You're too small."
Kaki hung her head dejectedly.
Szayel was irritated by the strange looks he was shot as he walked down the street. Some were appropriately fearful, but that seemed to be more because of his sword than because of him. He stood outside of the department store, perking a brow when he realized that the two sources - the vizard and the unknown source - were not alone. There was another source - albeit weaker.
Inside of the store, Kaki twitched. "Onee-chan? I want to go."
"Not until we find something," Hotaru said impatiently.
"Nooooo, I mean...Sz...Sz..." Kaki hissed, looking around to see if he was as close as he felt. Her senses had been just a bit off since escaping Szayel, and she was just regaining that sixth sense. "Hide your reiatsu or he'll find us."
Hotaru looked strangely at her sister, but nonetheless lowered her reiatsu. Kaki did the same, and started to walk away before her scarf was grabbed.
"Ow!"
"Find something or we'll have to do this again," Hotaru threatened a little too gleefully for Kaki's liking.
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.
Yugito was not yet done with her ninja-like spying activity on the sisters when she felt a presence behind her. Her spine stiffened as she swallowed a lump in her throat.
Oh no.
The presence was powerful...domineering...deadly. It was the feeling of being stared down by a giant like you were nothing more than an insignificant ant among the grass. It was the glare that could cut through metal and burn holes through concrete. It was...
"Yugito! What are you doing behind that Koko the Bear display!?"
With a squeak, Yugito straightened and turned to face her manager, a tall, heavily-muscled man named Mr. Jinoyama.
"A-ah, Jinoyama-san! I was just...fixing the display!" she explained, "The...um...the customers couldn't see it! So I'm fixing it to make it stand out more!"
Jinoyama narrowed his eyes before giving a small grunt and walking away, cup of coffee in hand. Yugito breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to where the two girls were...only to find them gone.
Ahhh...crap!
Her eyes scanned the area, looking for the two young girls that she couldn't let out of her sight. Who knows what kind of chaos those two spiritual beings would bring. Finally spotting a tuft of green hair a few rows of clothing, Yugito bounded over and decided to screw spying and roll up her sleeves.
"Can...I help you?" she asked nonchalantly, leaning on the shelf as the black-haired girl pulled back the green-haired girl's scarf. She could tell that they were spirits, and because they were spirits, they probably didn't care about customers service. Even if they did, they wouldn't be able to complain to her manager. So, she didn't need to sound like she really cared.
"You're not in the right area. The kids' section is right there. Unless you're looking for weapons, because those are in the outdoor recreation section, which is upstairs between the electronics and the garden gnomes."
Yugito didn't even notice the third spiritual presence of one Espada that just entered the store.
"Can I help you?" a girl asked. Hotaru snapped her head around, looking rightfully confused.
"No thank you, Onee-san," she said softly. "My sister is easily distracted."
"Am not," Kaki hissed into Hotaru's ear. She cocked her head as Yugito explained that weapons were between electronics and garden gnomes. She had absolutely no idea what a garden gnome was. "Huh?"
Szayel entered the store with a scrutinizing eye. On one hand, there was a wayward vizard to collect. On the other, there was another source that was too weak to quite be a shinigami but stronger than the rest of the humans nearby. And, finally...there were clothes.
But as he walked by, a strange urge overtook him. He flipped through a rack as he walked by, eying it for anything of interest. Satisfied that he found nothing, he moved to approach...and then realized that he had lost the vizard and her accomplice. He frowned.
Where are you...
There was nothing stopping him from going after that third being - maybe it wasn't what he came for, but that was the joy of shopping.
"Gotta pee!" Kaki exclaimed hastily, dragging Hotaru off in the direction of a bathroom. Though Hotaru protested, she could feel exactly why. "Sorry!"
Kaki took off at a speed that made Hotaru cringe - her sister vanished, and she behind her, before poking their head out from behind a rack. There, they could see the espada approaching the employee.
"Is that him?"
"Yep," Kaki whispered, cringing. She sank back down behind the rack, and reappeared somewhere further away, still cringing.
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.
"Garden gnomes. Tiny ceramic things that people put on their lawns to make it look ridicu-um, that's besides the point. Look, if you're looking fo-"
"Gotta pee!"
Blinking, she turned her head as she watched the two sisters hastily make their way towards the bathroom. With a slight tilt of her head, she pondered whether she should follow them, or if she should even bother wondering why they were acting like that. In the end, she decided that it would be a waste of time, and shrugged, turning around and returning to her work.
Stopping mid-step, Yugito's brows furrowed as she felt a shill down her spine. What was that feeling?
Shaking her head with a small frown, she turned around once more, walking towards the source of the feeling. Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.
Though there was now a sizeable distance between Szayel and her, Kaki started to shake. There was still a chance that he could see her, and she decided it would be best to just run away. They could get clothes any day, but if they stayed then... she didn't want to think about it.
"Where are you going?" whispered Hotaru as Kaki slunk towards the window. "Let's get something first."
"H-h-huh?" Kaki squeaked, incredulous. "B-but he's right there...and..."
"And distracted. We can grab something quickly and get out."
Kaki's cheeks swelled out, and her eyes narrowed. As she looked at her older sister, she flatly asked, "Are you nuts?"
Hotaru began to look through the clothes on the rack. Apparently they had landed in another women's section...just one with very small clothing. Kaki relented and followed, flipping through and admittedly happier with the choices aside from the option of being killed or dragged back to Los Noches. She grabbed a brown shirt with three stripes at the collar and eight at the hem. "This one's fine."
"Now we just need some pants for you."
The green-haired vizard twitched.
Seeing that the source of the reiatsu was a young human girl, Szayel smirked. So not only would she be easy to fool, she would also be easy to defeat. There was nothing particularly special about humans - even that Orihime girl wasn't much of a fighter. It wouldn't surprise him if this girl was similar.
"Hello," he greeted with a falsely cordial tone which might not have given away his intention to bring her to a lab and cut her open if not for his manic grin. He could have easily brought up that she had higher than normal spiritual pressure - in fact several beings in this place did.
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.
Yugito stiffened as she heard a someone greeting her from behind. Another chill went down her spine, but she forced the feeling away. Above all else, she was an employee at Karakura Department Store, and it was her job to...sell things. Her live body for scientific experience, however, was not one of those things.
But she didn't know that.
Turning around with a small, standard-issue "may I help you?" smile, she turned to face the...strange, pink-haired man. Natural hair color, or a bad dye-job, she'll never know.
Still, there was something creepy about the guy. Whoever he was, she hoped he would leave now as soon as possible. There was only so much creepy pink hair she could take in one day.
“Oh, hello, sir. What can I do for you?” Yugito asked, hoping her voice didn't give her away.
"Oh," Szayel mused, glancing over the store to see if the runaway vizard was there. He didn't see anything, and so he looked back to the girl. Keeping in mind that the surrounding humans could both see and hear him, he decided to keep his questions more subtle and less to the effect of, "Would you like to sit butt-naked on a cold lab table with a scalpel wedged between your ribs?" "I was looking to replace something I've lost recently."
He noticed that the human's reactions seemed forced. Actually, many of the humans' reactions nearby seemed forced. Little did Szayel know, there was this little thing called hating your work.
Kaki was very much hating her current predicament. On one hand, there was a pink-haired freak with glasses who could and would make with the hurt if she didn't hurry up and find pants she didn't mind wearing. On the other hand, the window was right there. She could easily jump out...but then Hotaru wouldn't shunpo off with her and she'd be too slow to get away. Not to mention it was hard to keep her reiatsu in check when she was so scared.
"Try this," Hotaru said, holding out a small skirt with far too many frills. Kaki stuck out her tongue. No matter what, she would not wear that. Her sister scoffed and tucked it away. "Find something unless you want to stay here until the fashions match your lack of tastes."
"Hey, I just wanna get out," Kaki grumbled, glancing in the direction of that sales assistant and Szayel. Come to think of it, that human had to have high reiatsu if she could see the two of them. Neither of them were wearing gigai. Cheeks swelling, the vizard asked, "Do you think she'll be OK?"
"This is a bad time to wonder about a sales assistant."
Rolling her eyes, the younger sister gave up. That human would have to hope for the best, she supposed, though she wouldn't wish Szayel upon anyone. Ever. Except maybe that Sanmaru guy because he really creeped her out with his glasses and greasy hair and trying to kill Hotaru and her.
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.
"I was looking to replace something I've lost recently."
Yugito scratched her head, unsure what to say. The way the man continued to glance around was unnerving, in a way, but she'd been with stranger customers before. One tried to pick her pocket, which was dealt with promptly and painfully for him, and another would not stop talking about the corns on their feet. Being a sales associate at a department store really brought...interesting stories, to say the least. "Umm, well, if you lost it in the store, there's a lost and found box at the front counter. You could check to see if it's there."
She didn't know what his deal was, but she didn't want to spend any more of her time around him than she needed to. But, with a sigh, she had a job to do.
"But if you could tell me what it is that you lost, I could take you to the proper section and maybe you can find something to replace it with."
Yugito took another glance at the strange customer, trying to figure out what it was that he misplaced. While it was true that appearances could be misleading, someone as flamboyantly...pink as this guy shouldn't be that hard to read.
...eh, might as well try it. And who knows, she might get commission for it too.
"There's a sale going on right now for men's formal wear," she added after a moment, "All dress shirts, ties and ascots are 25% off."