New Bleach IC: Road Trip!

[Vahnavoi]

Thorne grimaces and sighs. "... well, this will be a learning experience for both of you, then." He holds his hand out toward Shiroihako, one finger up. "First, Beatrix. I have a good reason to think she can't be destroyed without unacceptable levels of collateral damage. So, going forward, it's best to operate as if none of us here can kill her. Fortunately, she seems to be good enough at passing as a human, as long as she has an incentive to play nice. She already finds you interesting, so just pandering to her curiosity could be enough to get her to tag along."

He lifts up a second finger. "Two, Balthazar. I think the reason why he approached you in the first place is because, on some level, he realizes he needs help. He sees you as a neutral professional, an adult figure who maybe could help him make sense of his situation. As long as you appear non-hostile, it should be easy to gain his trust, even if only temporarily."

He pulls out his phone with his other hand. "My associate gave his phone to Balthazar last night. It's connected to an application that lets me track it. If we're lucky, he still has it. Even if not, I can at least point to where he was and you can see if you can find a trail from here. I suspect he and his 'sister' are lodging in one of the nearby hotels. It's possible mundane authorities don't know their parents are dead yet, and Beatrix is using their credentials to pay their expenses."

"Once you find where they are and what they're up to, maybe offer to serve as their... tour guide?" Thorne shrugs. "I don't know, come up with something. If you can get them to play along, call me. I can try to arrange a longer term place for you - all four of you - to stay in. If everything goes fine, then it's just return to daily routine until we find out if they're really being followed."

He lets his hands down and gives Shiroihako time to think of it, turning to Sarah. "As for this 'fullbringing' thing, if it's supposed to be an inborn trait, then it's too early to draw any conclusions. We have no reason to believe Balthazar was anything special before being victimized. There are more ways to seal or remove spiritual powers, but we can cross that bridge if we get there. However..."

He points an accusing finger at Sarah. "... whoever told you all this should've taught you to not flaunt your powers. If there is someone coming for the Barhams, we don't want you to accidentally draw them to yourself. If your associate almost attacked you, you don't want to push your luck with a Reaper or a 'witch'."

[Rater202]

"It's not an inborn trait. Apparently, most fullbringers get their powers from left-over Hollow energy in their mother's body after she was attacked and are either born with their powers or awaken them in response to stress or exposure to the spirit world."

"Since we know his parents and sister were attacked and killed by a 'dragon' and we know that dragons are fairy tail nonsense, obviously his family has been attacked by Hollow's before. An encounter during or shortly before the mother became pregnant with the twins leads to the twins having latent power that, later in life, attracts a group of hollows. Probably parasites, based on the girl sign possessed and replaced, who targeted the parents to get to the children... Which, naturally, means they parasite is a very young hollow, probably someone that the twin's family knew in life, or else they were a homicidal sociopath who might like their new existence. Those are the only ways I know if that a Hollow can still be able to think."

"Most likely, as soon as every last scrap of power is drained from the girl's body and her soul is completely digested, she'll jump into the boy. Since I've been all over this country using my powers regularly and occasionally killing hollows without ever encountering a Reaper, there probably aren't any reapers activating regularly. From what I've been told they almost never leave the spirit world and when they do they most sick around Japan. Whatever they think is after them is probably a lie that the parasite that hollowed out his sister told him to manipulate him."

[Vahnavoi]

Thorne shakes his head. "Too many conjectures there. I'd hold off theorizing further for now." He pokes the air, still pointing at Sarah. "... and attracting Hollows is not better than attracting a Reaper. Guess how many Hollows I've had to deal with in four years?"

[Lord Raziere]

Shiroihako:
"Wait, why only Japan? That makes no sense. Thats most of the world the Reapers are ignoring. Who is dealing with the rest of it? Surely they can't be the only ones doing things about this and even then only rarely? The world is wider than that. Japan isn't special. But whatever....I'll go try and find Balthazar, try and....do the social thing and kill Beatrix if this goes south."
She turns and begin away to do so.

[Vahnavoi]

Thorne looks at Shiroihako and notes she's already shuffling away. "... that' a story for another time. But don't go just yet. Let me show you the map..." He gestures towards his phone and if Shiroihako can be bothered to wait for a minute, he shows her where the gym is on the map and where the tracker app claims the other phone is. Then he lets her go on her way.

[igordragonian]

from the app, it seems the twins are getting lost, while looking for the gym.

[Lord Raziere]

Shiroihako:
She will find the twins and says awkwardly.
"Hey....uh....still want a tour? I can like totally give you one."
She says, not sure if any of this was a good idea.

[igordragonian]

Shiroihako:
She will find the twins and says awkwardly.
"Hey....uh....still want a tour? I can like totally give you one."
She says, not sure if any of this was a good idea.

Balthazar seems to have the same expression.
Beatrix was about to bully information out of a taxi driver-
she seemed like she was about to jump into the road, and block with her body a driving taxi-
But this girl has stopped that.
'Ah! Shirley Holmes! Sure thing! I was getting bored already!'

[Rater202]

While Shiroi goes after the twins, Sarah stays with Thorne for a time...

"So, what's your story?"

[Vahnavoi]

Mister Thorne raises an eyebrow. "What, you're still here? Aren't you supposed to go and help your associate?" He gestures towards the direction where Shiroihako left to. "Run along now." Question poignantly not answered.

[Rater202]

Mister Thorne raises an eyebrow. "What, you're still here? Aren't you supposed to go and help your associate?" He gestures towards the direction where Shiroihako left to. "Run along now." Question poignantly not answered.

"Don't forget, we met you investigating an alleged haunting connected to your kid and you're not above suspicion. As is, your behavior's a bit... Funky. You're helping now, but you also tried to undermine my associate's faith in her contacts... Isolating a mark is suspicious behavior, yeah."

"Miss Ronin can probably handle herself, and if she can't it'll be really obvious long before she's in danger. But you... I don't trust you yet."

[Vahnavoi]

Mister Thorne looks at Sarah skeptically. "And did you think I trust you? If anything, you're even more suspicious than 'Miss Ronin'. For the record, I don't think you told me the truth of your parents. If only because, as a parent, I find it hard to believe they'd allow you to play around at a job with a high chance of mortal combat."

[Rater202]

"They're not the one who let their kid use her powers to bully other kids, so..."

"You're the suspect here, not me. You're the one that has to prove he's trustworthy to us, yeah?

"As for Mortal combat?"

Sarah holds up a hand and for a brief moment, a silver bracelet with a stylized skull pendant is visible before it somehow glows black. Energy and black as night flows around her forearm up to the elbow and forms a gauntlet and bracer made of some well polished black metal with silver ornamentation resembling artistically stylized bones.

"Right now, it's just my arm, but I can call up a full set of full plate. I haven't run into a hollow that can so much as scuff my armor. That's the thing about fullbring, it works on the intersection of the physical and the spiritual. Down to the teeniest, tiniest level. The individual quarks and gluons and the make up the protons and electrons in the iron atoms in your blood cells have souls, and my power is to talk to and control them. In short, I'm basically a reality warper. The only limits are my raw power, I'm not exactly a two-bit medium who isn't strong enough to understand how powers work, ya dig?"

"Powers like mine, the intersection of human power and hollow power, are conceptual. A sword that cuts anything. An armor that can't be pierced. A car that travels anywhere. and more esoteric stuff besides."

"So I can assure you," she says as the armor she summoned returns from whence it came, "I'm more than able to take care of myself in a fight."

[Vahnavoi]

Mister Thorne doesn't look impressed. "Are you done bragging?", he asks. "You seem to be fond of that. Trying to look like you know everything. Oh well. I suppose that's normal of a teenager. "

[Rater202]

"What kind of nihilist would I be if I didn't take pride in being my best possible self?" Sarah replies. "It's only bragging if you're wrong."

"But, since you're not talking... This isn't over."

Sarah jumps off and then vanishes in a flash of green light.

Something to note: The ground beneath her feet very clearly moved like it was some kind of rubber or plastic. Elastic, bouncy.

But touching it after and it's just normal ground.

[Vahnavoi]

Mister Thorne has seen his share of high speed movement techniques and isn't that interested in how this particular magic trick works. Instead, he writes down what Sarah said on his phone. Maybe she was being truthful, maybe she wasn't; either way, it could be useful later. After that, Mister Thorne returns to his daily routine. He can only hope Shiroihako doesn't screw this up.

[Rater202]

A short while after leaving Mr. Lock, Sarah arrives not too far from where the Twins and the Ronin.

She doesn't rejoin them immediately, but Shiro should know full well that she is there.