"What's the solution?" You answer with a question, "I might have to think about it, depending on what it is."
"The solution," Kori Kagami deliberately reaches into one of the drawers behind her, pulling out an unmarked manila envelope. She then dumps a pair of bracelets out onto the desk, you're kind of impressed that she managed to do all that while maintaining her gaze on you. "Is repressing
your spiritual pressure by separating it from Koukin-chan's. You'll still be able to use whatever part of her spiritual power you actually have, and draw as much from your own as you would have been able to normally."
You resist the urge to chew on your cheek while thinking, it was a bad habit you'd broken a few years ago. It's hard not to though, it's a tough choice.
"I," you glance back at Mai, roughly exhaling, "I need some time to think on it," you finally admit.
"Oh, th-that's al- it's okay Chiyu. I um, it's, I trust your best judgment," she still has your body, which she's using to obscure her expression from you. That's… not a visual you wanted to think about, much less one you wanted to see.
The shop owner who's put you in this situation slides the bangles back into the envelope, though she leaves it on the desk. "That's understandable," her tone is notably colder, though she quickly switches to her more normal, upbeat tone before you can say anything. "So how does a field test sound tomorrow? You can spend the whole day at school, don't worry about Hollows,
we'll clean them up." As she speaks she urges you and Mai to the door her desk faces, the one to the sales floor.
Mai holds up your body to allow you to enter it, which you do before you leave. It's probably a less awkward view to anyone in the shop.
When Kori opens the door for you and Mai, and you see that there isn't anyone
in the shop. Anyone besides the college-aged tanned redhead sitting on a stool behind the register with her feet up on the counter. She doesn't even look up from her phone to acknowledge the door to her boss's office opening.
"Ui! Why aren't you watching the door?" Kori seemingly switches into business-owner mode when she sees her employee kicking back.
"Nobody was here," Ui, apparently, says without looking up from her game, "so I closed up early. Figured it would save you money."
"I'm still paying you till eight!"
"Yup."
"You two run along," Kori guides you toward the door, and you see a pair of youths ducking behind shelves as you pass. "I'll meet you in the woods on the outskirts of town tomorrow at six, alright?" You can hear her yelling at, seemingly, her only employee.
You appreciate the extra time to attend your club, but can't help but feel apprehension towards whatever test the shady shop owner has in store for you.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Geez Shu, something going on? Besides the whole truck incident?" Mio prods you at lunch the next day.
"And your older bro's whole delinquent deal," Ryo adds. Naoto smacks him upside the head on your behalf.
"Thanks, Nao," you exchange a fist-bump with him, before explaining yourself. "Not really, I'm just… busy, that's all." You hate lying to your friends.
"C'mon Shu," Mio whines, "we're schoolkids and you don't even have a joooob." She draws out the last syllable to emphasize it, giving you puppy dog eyes. That won't be enough to melt your heart, she burned that trick out in the first month you knew her.
"Yeah let's do something this weekend, it's supposed to be super nice," Naoto suggests, as if he has a plan in mind. If it's Nao's idea it can't be all bad…
This is an Activity Vote, in these votes, you'll have to balance your studies, social life, and Soul Reaper duties. You have SEVEN (7) action slots, with Hollow Hunting (1), School (2), and Clubs (1) each taking up a certain number of actions. You'll have to fill out the remaining balance of actions to a total of 7, with the number of action slots each action takes up shown next to the action. Hollow Hunting, School, and Clubs take up FOUR (4) slots, so pick three:
[] Hang out with your friends this weekend (1): Naoto has some idea, and he's never led your group wrong in the past. You can't even say that (as Ryo and Mio like to remind you).
[] Put some time aside to study (1): You do have exams coming up in a few weeks, you need some time to study.
[] Take on extra duties in Karate Club (1): There are a few students in the dojo which runs the Club coming up for tests soon, and you'd like to give some of them a hand.
[] Put some time aside for your family (1): You don't want to end up like Soichiro. Wait, that came off wrong. But ever since this Soul Reaper thing, and maybe just before it too, you feel like you've been drifting away from your Dad and younger siblings.
[] Train your Soul Reaper powers (1): If Kori seals all but the base portions of your powers, you'd like to increase those base stats so that you're better able to hunt Hollows. Even if you tell her you
don't want to be sealed, being stronger never hurt anybody.
[] Do extra Konso assignments (1): Even if it doesn't do anything for you, it makes it look like Mai's doing her job and doing it well. That should keep away any other nosy Soul Reapers.
[] Take some time for yourself (1): Everything is just so… overwhelming. You just want to be alone, for a little while at least.
~~~~~~~~~~
"I hope you've made up your mind, Chiyu-kun. This test won't be a pleasant experience," Kori warns, though her tone is oddly cheerful. The store owner is still in her typical heavy getup, despite the almost uncomfortably warm spring evening, and the state of dress her only(?) employee is in.
The redhead, who's sitting on a stump next to the bespectacled woman, chugging a water bottle, looks like she just came from the gym. Her short hair is stuck to her face and neck by sweat, and her breathing is heavy, but it's what she's wearing that gives the impression of a workout. She's in a tight halter and a pair of gym shorts, the outfit complete with bandages wrapped around her fists and feet. She doesn't even have shoes on. For the first time (that you know of) she addresses you and Mai.
"You two sure took your sweet time, huh?" She finishes the bottle, and tosses it aside, where Kori catches it.
"Now now, footprints and photographs," the shop owner chides.
"Bite me, how many trees did we knock over today?" She ignores both her question to you, and her question to Kori. "I'm Ui, yeah I know, I've heard all the jokes. I work for Kori at the shop, Mai knows me, so I guess we'll be seeing each other more often from now on. That's introductions over, I can take off now, right?"
"Uh, Chiyu, but I guess you know-" you try to introduce yourself, but Kori cuts you off.
"Yes, I can handle this if it gets out of hand."
"Awesome," with that, Ui (weird name), rises with a stretch, and heads back for the road. "I get an extra two sides with dinner tonight."
"Su- wait! Hey! Hey!" Kori tries to get Ui's attention, but she's somehow already gone. "Whatever, it wasn't part of the deal but I'll get back at her."
You sigh, "So, what's that test?"
"Ah, before that!" The shop owner claps her hands before tossing what looks like a gumball to Mai.
"O-oh, thanks," the depowered Soul Reaper, who until this point could've been mistaken for a particularly attractive tree, finally speaks up, looking at the object in her hands.
"I will explain, Chiyu-kun," Kori offers. "That," she makes a show of gesturing to the little orb, "is called a Gikon. It's also called an 'artificial soul', it's a pill that's got a personality programmed into it so that Soul Reapers can leave their gigai, or, in your case, body, without having to leave it in an awkward heap!"
"So Mai has to stop hitting me."
"I never said that, but just putting the pill in your mouth is enough to separate your body from your soul, yes."
"Alright, so I'll take that now and then I'll take your test?"
"Exactly!" Kori says with a snap.
Mai tosses you the pill, and you have to steel yourself before taking it.
Interestingly, the sensation is the exact same as leaving your body when Mai hits you, besides the falling that accompanies that.
You have to steel yourself again before looking at your animated body. The expression on your face is totally blank, complete with half-lidded eyes.
"Is uh, is it okay?" You don't want to touch your gikon-inhabited body. Just in case.
"Sometimes it takes them a little while to 'boot up'," Kori informs, "we can leave her here, nobody's going to stumble on her and we don't want her to get hurt where we're going."
"Where um, where would that be?" Mai speaks up again, meekly.
Kori points at a seemingly random point further up Banmuro's outlying hills. "Right up there, poor Ui and I were corralling Hollows there all day."
"A-all day? H-h- just how many Hollows are up there?" Mai's blanched, but you're still confident.
"Just one," Kori gives you a spine-chilling grin.
~~~~~~~~~~
"That's sure a Hollow," you quip when you come to the clearing Kori had pointed out. You would have gotten here a lot faster, but Kori seemed to be taking her time and Mai, obviously, can't use Hoho. Actually, that makes you wonder if Kori
can use Hoho. She probably wouldn't answer you even if you asked.
Your quip was due to the fact that there was
nothing in the clearing. You couldn't even sense a Hollow.
"It sure is, well. It is for you," Kori says with infinite smugness before ripping aside the
thin air to reveal a shimmering red wall with a massive Hollow inside. It might not be more massive than Landlubber, but it's both taller and way more muscular. "I had to keep it in a concealed barrier so as not to alert anyone else, you see."
"K-K-K-K-" Mai stutters so hard that you have to put a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, calm down, what is it?" You try to drag it out of her.
"That's
Sterlingback," she says, barely above a whisper.
"Sure is," Kori confirms.
"Chiyu, you can't fight that Hollow," Mai wheels on you, her amber eyes full of fear and worry. "I- it's not even a-a-ab- it's not about my powers…" She rings her hands together, biting her lower lip, "But that Hollow would be a challenge for
me."
"I think I can handle it," you assure her, though you don't like how afraid of it she is.
"Sterlingback," Kori interrupts, approaching the barrier and laying a hand on it, "has a bounty nearly twice as high as Landlubber's, and it's been around a lot longer. It's even started feeding on other Hollows."
"
No," Mai pleads, "No no no no, K-K-Kagami-san
please don't do this, Chiyu can keep her power in check."
"It's not about keeping it in check, Koukin-chan. We both know that," you don't like the two of them talking about you like that, especially while you're right in front of them.
"Whatever, we can talk about this later," you join Kagami, next to the barrier. This close to it, you can see that it has characters in the middle of circles all along it.
Kori looks at you over her glasses, a hard seriousness in her eyes, "If it's too much, I'll step in, don't worry."
"Yeah, you're pretty creepy, but I don't think you'd put me in danger," you tell her, before the barrier opens.
It snaps shut the instant you're inside, and once it does, the Hollow's eyes lock onto you.
The Hollow, Sterlingback, is even bigger close up. It's nearly twenty feet tall at the shoulder, and it's walking on its knuckles. Its skin has the texture of stone, rugged and light gray, with seams at its joints. Besides that, and the mask, it's body is identical to that of a gorilla's, all the way down to its hands and feet-hands. The mask might just be the worst part of the Hollow, it's shaped like a baboon's face, with massive fangs, blue-ringed eyes, and what look like blood stains around its mouth.
"
You," it says. It's only the second time you've heard a Hollow speak, and you've already decided you hate it. "
I can feel your power," it inhales deeply, sniffing at the air, "
you smell good!"
With that, the Hollow charges you, raising a massive fist to pound you into the dirt.
For all its obvious strength and durability, the Hollow isn't all that fast. You're fast enough to get out of the way, but there are no obvious weak points for you to strike at. The Hollow raises the same fist it went to smash you with in the air, blowing rocks and soil in your direction. But you're already gone.
The Hollow spins on a dime, this time attempting to grab you with a person-sized mitt. Again, you're able to dodge without too much effort, but this time you attempt to strike back. Thinking back to your spiritual pressure control lesson with Mai, you try to coat your zanpakuto in your spiritual pressure, to turn it into some kind of hammer.
It
almost works, or at least you think so. The golden power coalesces along the blade, clinging to the crack instead of issuing from it or worsening it. But it doesn't turn it into a smashing implement like you wanted, instead it simply blunts the blade. Maybe it would have increased your striking power, maybe it wouldn't have, but at least it catches the Hollow's next strike so that you don't get smushed.
"Alright," you stand in the remains of a broken tree, "I guess I
can't just do this on what Mai gave me." But that doesn't mean you'll have to tap
too deep into your own powers. Does it?
This time, Sterlingback leaps into the air, intending to smash you with its entire weight.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Kagami-san," Mai eventually manages to work up the confidence to confront the older woman. "You have to put a stop to this, I'm sure Chiyu understands the situation!"
The shop owner sighs, dropping some of her facade momentarily. "I don't think that Chiyu-kun does grasp the gravity of the situation, and I think that your accord with her is clouding your judgment regarding this matter." She turns, glare obscuring her eyes, and focuses on Mai. The shorter Soul Reaper can't help but shrink into herself under the withering, burdened gaze. "Or perhaps, it's an excuse for you not to return to Soul Society."
"N-n-n-n-" Mai continues stuttering, so Kori answers for her.
"Of course not, I know that. I apologize," she sighs deeply. "However, Chiyu-kun has more to get under control than just the mass of spiritual power inside of her. I think it's a deeper struggle than you could understand."
"Oh," Mai deflates now, instead of shrinking.
"It's fine, Koukin-chan. There are plenty of ways you can help her, even after you return to Soul Society," Kori turns back to the barrier.
"Yes," Mai answers, barely above a whisper.
~~~~~~~~~~
'You're sick of the game of cat-and-mouse.
Sick of it. Sick of it. Sick of it. Sick of it.
Sick. Of. It.
Sterlingback is too strong for you as you are. If Mai had all of her powers and no distraction, she could have taken it. If you had access to the power that Kagami says you have, you would have snapped all four of its arms off and caved its head in.'
The strange, violent thought comes and goes almost so quickly that it doesn't register. It probably wouldn't have registered. If it wasn't so
right.
Sterlingback is a
very strong Hollow. Very strong and very tough. If its body weren't so solid, you would have been able to beat it, if it weren't so dogged, you could have found a way onto its back and rammed your knife through its head. But it
is this solid, and it
is this determined to snuff you out.
Well. If Kori wants to be proven right so badly, you'll prove her right.
With a yell, you release a mass of spiritual pressure, allowing the reservoir inside yourself to spill over and burst into the world. The golden aura that had been flashing when you had exerted yourself limited to Mai's power is snuffed out by an orange pressure which fills the barrier. Sterlingback drops to its knees in the middle of an attack, its hands slipping almost instantly which drives it to its elbows.
You take advantage of its momentary weakness, and grab it by the chin to slam its head into the ground. The Hollow attempts to open its mouth, but you shove a fist into its eye hole, cracking the mask with the force of your grip. The orange power keeps leaking out, now dyed slightly red to match the literal meaning of your nickname. You feel your strength skyrocketing as the power continues to overflow, Kori might have a point about this being a bad thing, but it just feels
so good.
The Hollow's eye hole shatters under your grasp, and the monster screams. That sound is as haunting as ever, but now it also fills you with a rush of both anger and adrenaline. Before Sterlingback can escape, now that you've lost your hold on it, you plunge your zanpakuto into its eye, ignorant of the orange spiritual pressure leaking from the tiny cracks all along the spine of the knife.
The Hollow's head explodes into paste, and its body collapses limply.
You can't help but exhale as deeply as possible.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Do you see my point, Chiyu-kun?" Kori asks as you go back to the place you left your body.
Trudging through the woods, you grimace, "I do," you finally admit, keeping yourself from grumbling.
Mai is completely silent, her eyes have been as wide as dinner plates and her gaze focussed directly at her feet ever since she saw the mess of tiny cracks you had put on your (her) zanpakuto.
"So, will you agree to my solution? To assuage your fears I just want you to know that you and Mai aren't alone, if you're ever in trouble the staff of
Mirror Mirror will give you a hand," the second part almost seems like a sales pitch.
[] Take the bracelets and suppress your power, you don't want to do any lasting damage to Mai's power or keep her here through the summer. With how much emphasis the two of them have put on returning her powers in time, you probably don't want Soul Society finding out what's happening here.
[] Don't take the bracelets or suppress your power, even if you have Kagami and her employee(s?)' help, they could still be all the way across town, and if you fail to defeat a Hollow that means that innocent Souls will be put at risk. You'll keep your power down, unless you need more to defeat a strong Hollow.
~~~~~~~~~~
After receiving your answer, you arrive in the spot you left your body.
It's gone.
Mai had given it a note with instructions to do, and it evidently didn't follow those instructions.
"Where the hell is my body?" You ask, after picking your jaw up off the forest floor, but still aghast at this massive oversight.
"I-I-I, but, it, she-" Mai is, naturally, a blubbering wreck.
"Ah, I'll take the blame for this. Say, Koukin-chan, did the soul candy have a character printed on it?" Kori asks.
"Y-yes," the Soul Reaper answers with a nod, relieved but still in a state of near panic.
"Ah. Damn." Kori sticks her hands in her pockets and shakes her head. "I thought it was an old leftover of the model you had asked for, but it seems that it was a Mod Soul I had left lying around. I need to tell my employees how to catalog better, it seems."
"M-m-" Mai's words catch in her throat. You can't help but feel bad for her sometimes.
"What's that supposed to mean?" You ask in her place.
"It means," Kori turns back towards Banmuro City. "That we have an artificial soul capable of modifying your body loose in town."
"
We have to find it!" You hiss, barely restraining yourself from grabbing the store owner by the collar.
"We sure do, let's-"
[] You all split up to find the Mod Soul, it makes the most sense to be able to cover as much ground as possible.
[] Mai goes to
Mirror Mirror to enlist the help of Kori's employees to find the Mod Soul, while you and the shop owner look for it.
[] You all look for the Mod Soul together, three heads are better than one after all.
A/N: To make this more visible I'll put it here. Please vote in plan format for the first vote, the other two votes can be done normally.
