That Nostalgic Summer Rain (Bleach/Kara no Kyoukai)

[X] -A small girl, who stumbled away from the Hollow with an alarmed expression.

The backwards facing monster stumbled forward, towards the girl, and Fujino took a moment to observe the situation.

The girl was looking up in fear, directly at the monster. She didn't look hurt, so was she looking at it, and actually seeing it?

That was...

Well, it might be relevant, but for now, the girl was looking in fear as she crawled back, moving to get on her feet while keeping as much distance as she could. She was obviously in danger, right now. And-

Fujino hesitated, as she began to focus her sight.

That Hollow used to be human, didn't it?

It was a double standard, since she'd killed them before. But still, Fujino didn't want to move straight to the murder.

Well, that wasn't true. She wanted to kill it. Her sight had already focused around the Hollow's head, even if it didn't seem to have a neck. But that wasn't really what Fujino wanted, was it? It was the shift in her mindset because of her psychic powers.

It had been a human at some point. Urahara had said that this existence was one of suffering, and Fujino had used that to put the issue out of mind at the time, but that didn't change the fact that this was a human soul. Once she killed it, Fujino would have killed another human soul and taken enjoyment out of it.

The fact that it was a monster wasn't all that relevant. Fujino had killed rapists and innocent strangers alike, and she had enjoyed it all the same either way. If it was a human soul, and if it was sentient enough to go mad in the first place, it was still sentient. Fujino would enjoy the murder for the fact that she had the power and had used it.

The Hollow moved closer to the girl, and Fujino forced that train of thought to an end.

She didn't have time for this, right now. But at the same time, she didn't want to regret a decision she made in the spur of the second again.

Shifting her clairvoyant gaze downwards, Fujino focused on the creatures backwards leg.

Repeat the phrase enough, and it became a curse.

"Bend."

The creatures leg splintered and twisted, and Fujino felt a smile come to her face before she forced herself to stop. Even this much, she was enjoying. For now, at least, she just wanted to buy time for the girl before she made a decision of whether or not to kill the Hollow.

"Did you say something, Asagami?" Arisawa asked, and Fujino took a moment to realise that she had spoken aloud with her curse.

It had felt natural to do it, but she had forgotten that Arisawa would hear it.

"There's a Hollow nearby, Arisawa." Fujino explained. "It was approaching a girl. I'm slowing it down."

"...Ah." Arisawa noted. "You took it out?"

"I slowed it down." Fujino confessed. "It's... More difficult, to simply behead it, now that I know what it actually is."

Arisawa probably reacted, but Fujino was looking around to the black-haired girl. She was looking at the Hollow, confused and somewhat sickened by the spray of blood, but for the second the Hollow was looking around confused, she got to her feet. She looked around, and the Hollow jumped at her. She ran out of the way before it landed on her, and the Hollow took a moment to push itself to its feet, before turning back towards her.

"The girl can see the Hollow." Fujino noted. "Perhaps we should have a talk with her? She's not far from here, and she may be involved."

"She can see-" Arisawa began, before cutting herself off. "Alright, let's go. Which way?"

Fujino took a moment to shift her gaze to cover more ground, so as to see both herself and the Hollow at the same time.

"That way." Fujino answered, pointing her cane. There was a building between her and the Hollow, but it gave the direction away. "The girl is running, but if we follow this street and turn right... Well, if you run ahead, you can catch her."

Pausing for a moment, Fujino considered whether or not to ask it of Arisawa, before reaching a decision.

"Could you try talking to her by yourself first? She asked. "I'd prefer that my secret spread as little as possible. If she doesn't need to know about me, I'd prefer if she didn't."

"That's fine." Arisawa responded. She sounded confused, but from her posture, it was clear she wanted to run off and talk to the girl about the Hollow.

Fujino nodded at her, and Arisawa ran off. Viewing the situation through her clairvoyance, Asagami noticed that the Hollow wasn't limping towards the girl anymore. Rather, it was coming towards her now.

Urahara had mentioned that Asagami would be a beacon to Hollows when her ESP was active, she supposed.

Well, as it was now, the Hollow wasn't putting the girl in any more danger. On the other hand, now Asagami herself was in danger. Killing it and ending that danger would be so easy, but still, she hesitated.

Perhaps it would do her some good to speak to it, and see how far it had degraded. It wasn't as if it could get close to her without losing all of it's limbs anyway, and that extra surety that the Hollow was too far gone to be considered human anymore may make it easier to just kill it.

Walking towards it slowly, with her gaze still focused away from her, Asagami took a moment to reflect about how the sensation of feeling had returned to her again.

She had a rock stuck in her shoe, she noticed suddenly. It was pressing against her heel when she walked. It was slightly painful, but didn't seem sharp, so she left it for now. The sensation may not be inherently enjoyable, but this was something that she rarely got to feel, that normal people would get annoyed about constantly. She wouldn't be feeling it anymore soon anyway, so there was no point making a point of fixing it now.

For a brief second, Fujino shifted her gaze towards Arisawa and the girl, who had met, and were talking. The girl seemed panicked, but the two did see, to be familiar with each other. Or perhaps Asagami was merely leaping to a conclusion, and the girl was simply acting less guarded than Fujino would expect of someone who had just been attacked by a ghost monster.

But that was something that could be dealt with later. The Hollow was shambling towards Fujino now, and as the girl shifted her faze to focus only on it and herself, she spoke.

"Please don't move any further." She began. "I wish to-"

The eyes on the Hollow's mask widened as it looked at her, and it's head started to shake independently of it's body. Then, it began to rotate, with a painful and familiar bending sound, as it's head shifted to a proper orientation facing away from Fujino, and then continued to face backwards again.

As it twisted, it's neck started to emerge upwards, more clearly defining the separation between the body and the head. But more importantly, Fujino noticed something that gave her pause.

The pattern of the twisted neck was reminiscent of her own work.

"Asa... Gami..."

Repeat the phrase enough, and it became a curse.

"Bend."

The Hollow screamed as Fujino focused her power around it's neck, putting her full psychic force behind it. It spun around once, twice, three times, with no apparent harm, before she focused her power downwards.

"Bend!"

The torso on the Hollow was torn in two, and it fell apart.

It knew her name.

The Hollow with the twisted neck, which didn't seem effected by any further twisted to it's neck, knew her name.

Was this one of her victims? How did they get here? Why would they be here? If it's neck was twisted because of her own acts, and it's limbs were fine, that would make it the truck driver, wouldn't it? He wouldn't have known who she was, he only saw her for a brief second before Fujino acted on instinct to kill him.

It knew too much.

"Bend!" She repeated, louder. The Hollow's mask tore in half, as the centre of it's head began to rotate. It's neck didn't seem to be effected, but the rest of it was under no such restriction. It knew too much, and Fujino was strong enough to make sure nothing came of this.

She felt herself smiling, felt the crawling euphoria at the bloody act, and for a moment, she was tempted to let herself enjoy this. She would be panicking later about trying to figure out how the Hollow knew her name, if she was jumping to conclusions, if this was somehow related to the Fairies, if this was somehow related to the man who had healed her spin, for now she could just-

No, she forced herself to calm down. The Hollow was already fading away, anyway. She deactivated her ESP, and ensured she was properly sane before she thought any more on the issue.

She felt the sensation of the rock in her shoes fade away, and began missing the feeling instantly. But she could think more about that later.

So much for convincing herself that the Hollow was too far gone to be considered human. It had talked to her, rather than roaring and screeching. It had recognised her, or at least knew of her. If anything, now she knew more about Hollows and their humanity than anything prior to this point.

And she'd killed it in a blind panic. No, that was not right. She had panicked, yes, but it was hardly blind. It was just enough to give her an excuse, and she enjoyed it for some time before she had restrained herself.

Asagami Fujino was a murderer who loved the thrill. She knew it, and she had thought it before, but now seemed like a fitting point to ensure that she remembered the point. She was a monster who was enjoyed killing people, regardless of the excuse she would use to justify it. She needed to be aware of her this, and her excuses, before she goes as far as she had been going when Ryougi Shiki had hunted her down.

Stop. Take a moment to think about this. Breathe in, breathe out.

The Hollow knew her name, and it's neck was twisted. If the twisted neck had any connection to Fujino's own murders, than it could only be the truck driver. Unless Hollows only bore marks of what had killed them, in which case it could be any of Fujino's murders, assuming that none of them had died of blood loss before she reached their necks.

Or perhaps it was entirely unrelated. The last Hollow she had seen didn't appear to have any marks of death, after all.

So, there was one explanation which would explain why the dead Hollow knew her name, and two more likely explanations which left how it knew her name a mystery. There was something she didn't understand here.

Had she misunderstood what Urahara had meant, when he had said that this land was good for Hollows? Were their ghosts following Fujino around most of the time, which only truly went Hollow and took a physical form when in Karakura town? Were Fujino's other victims going to appear?

Or was this related to the Fairies somehow? They could consume memories, but was that the limit of what they could do? Had they found someone who knew about Asagami and passed on the relevant information to this Hollow?

But who would even know? If Asagami Fujino was safe from the memory consumption with enough psychic power to destroy a bridge, then Ryougi Shiki, who boasted of being able to kill a god, should be immune as well. The man who had healed her back would only know if he was watching, but it was a possibility. And other than that...

Fujino just didn't know.

"Asagami?"

Fujino blinked at the voice, and turned around.

"Did I keep you waiting, Arisawa?" Fujino asked. "My bad. I was lost in thought."

"I heard you shouting something." Arisawa explained. "Like, not loud enough to make out what it was, but you were saying something."

"Sorry." Fujino stated. "I was dealing with the Hollow. It's gone now."

Arisawa didn't need to know any of Fujino's current inner turmoil, the girl decided.

At that comment, though, another voice spoke up.

"Hey, weren't you the girl who had an appointment with goatface this morning?"

Fujino took a moment to recognise that voice. That was one of the doctor's daughters. She suspected it was Karin, but she hadn't been there for long, and it had been a long day since then. It might have been the other one, and Fujino had just gotten their voices confused.

"Oh, er, right." Arisawa noted. "Asagami, this is Kurosaki Karin. You might've run into her at your appointment earlier. She's the sister of my friend Ichigo. Karin, this is Asagami Fujino."

"You told her about me?" Fujino asked, frowning.

"Er, sorry." Arisawa replied, sounding a bit bashful. "I knew her, and she was investigating something about Yuzu forgetting something, so we started talking about it and I kind of let it slip..."

Asagami sighed.

It's fine. It's fine. As long as she dealt with this without either of them finding out that she was a murderer, Asagami could deal with this. It was frustrating, and more people knew her secret now, but Asagami doubted she was ever return to Karakura once she was done here, so it didn't really matter.

"It's nice to meet you, Kurosaki." Fujino nodded. "I assume you and Arisawa reached some kind of agreement on what to do from here?"

"Not too much." Arisawa replied.

"She mentioned that Ichigo might have remembered things that something else forgot recently." Kurosaki noted. "Which means I'm going to have to try and get him to talk. But with regards to you and your friend, we really didn't talk much. It's your business, so I don't want to intrude until you ask about it."

"You'd be fine staying out of it if that's what I wanted?" Fujino asked.

"I don't really want to get involved in all of this." Kurosaki sighed. "Ghosts and ESPers and fairies... It all seems like a hassle. It'd be easier to just pretend like none of it exists like I've always done. Yuzu saying she feels like she's forgotten something made me wonder. I'd felt like I'd forgotten a few things recently, too. But if people are already handling it, then I just want to make sure I know when it's not going to be a problem, and to know what my brother's dealing with."

That was something Fujino could understand, as she listened to the girl's words. Asagami had also wanted to just sit out this whole supernatural life, and in a simpler world, she would have just pretended that her own ESP and related aspects just didn't exist.

But then, in a simpler world, would she have been motivated to help people like Risu and Misaya in the first place?

Well, that was irrelevant, anyway. The fact of the matter was, Fujino could empathise with a desire to not wanting to be involved in the world of the supernatural. And it wasn't as if Fujino had any leads which she could ask Kurosaki Karin to help her with, anyway.

Thinking it over for a second, Fujino reached a decision.

[X] Kurosaki didn't need to get involved if she didn't want to. Asagami and Arisawa would deal with it.
[X] Fujino didn't have any leads, so really, any helping hand to find one would be of assistance.
[X] Perhaps Karin could help Arisawa get answers from Ichigo? If Karin kept him occupied until Arisawa got to their home and cornered him, perhaps they could all get some answers.