New Bleach IC: Road Trip!

[Lord Raziere]

It is a seemingly normal day on Earth. In all its modern conveniences and troubles. However underneath, is a world of supernatural. A world of the dead, where restless spirits have not yet passed on, and those that put them to rest- one way or another. These are their stories.

Shiroihako:
Shiroihako steps into the park, determined. She had been passing through this city, looking for hollow activity as usual when she gotten a call from some teens who get her cell phone number from her occult detective website. Thankfully she was in the same city and they apparently had money so she agreed to meet them in a neutral place. Something about some creepy girl named Susan arousing suspicions that she might be paranormal. Shiroihako, admittedly doesn't know much. Having no memory sucks like that. But she knows that she is a modern ronin, a hero who fights the evil hollows with her blade to save people from their cruelties and their own hollow hearts! It was her job to make sure whatever was happening wasn't a threat, and if a hollow was behind it, get rid of it.

That and she had debts to pay. Stupid cellphone and false body charges. The guy who gave her these for a loan simply called himself The Merchant and refused to go by anything more specific or show his face much. Or give her anything other than a number to contact him with, as he was constantly moving and she had move as well. He refused to tell her anything or why either, saying he "doesn't do knowledge brokering". Whatever that meant.

Also apparently some other people wanted to helped investigate occult stuff with her and contacted her for that also with her number from her website- its pretty basic, has a picture of her smiling foolishly and white text on a background with her contact information-, and she responded with saying what he current job is and where she is going and if they want to join up with her she would see how they would do, but she hasn't actually met them yet. She doesn't know if they will be any help if she finds a hollow, but a few extra eyes and ears might help. She honestly, did not know what she was doing and people who did might actually help with that. Only problem was splitting the money, but she figured by working together they could take more jobs more often, and thus get more money faster that way. and that since she was the one with the actual Occult Detective Agency- currently with only her as a member and thus the Boss, with said agency named "White Blade Occult Investigations"- she would get a cut from each job. In theory.

She of course, sits on a bench by the fountain, her pure white clothes, long back hair, grey eyes making her stand out. Luckily the false body lacked her strange white mask on the side of her head or the white katana she wielded at her side. Somehow she got the impression that those weren't in fashion right now. She waits, for either the teens or the potential new hires to come.

[igordragonian]

The Barham Twins

A pair of twins, brother and sister, ginger haired, freckled, a bit overweight and with general hipster-ish look.
Balthazar, has radiated how forigener he was- he looked around with anxiety, his hand squeazing his notebook as guarding talisman.
Beatrix, how ever walked around, as if she owned the world. A member of a superior specie, which nothing could hurt her.
She stopped by the wierd bright girl. She had a curiouse smell. Balthazar also stopped, but only after a short moment, where he akwardly walked alone.
"Beatrix?' He wishpered anxiously and loudly with a british accent.
Beatrix didn't answered him. She looked over the sitting girl, with a bit creepy smile.
With confidence, she took a seat by her.
"Good morning." She said with a smile. "My name is Beatrix. We are tourists, but we want to see something more intresting then a tourist trap. Something... dangerouse, if possible."

Balthazar. "Beatrix! You can't just ask such things on people in random!"
"Why?" Beatrix blinked. "I didn't bitten her or anything."

[Vahnavoi]

In the park:

Meanwhile, a gaggle of teenage schoolgirls are walking by. To a casually disinterested person, it might seem they are all fixated on their phones, but a more perceptive observer might notice them casting glances at Shiroihako's direction. They seem hesitant to approach with the Barhams close by.

Elsewhere in town:

Little Timmy is playing ball on his home yard. However, a careless kick sends his ball flying over the fence. "Rats", he mutters to himself and hurries after his toy, climbing over the fence and running to the middle of the street where the ball stopped.

But, just as he's reaching to pick it up, he feels someone push him behind, making him fall flat on his face. After the initial shock wears off, he rolls around and sits up to see who shoved him. "Hey! That wasn't very..."

The sentence dies on his tongue when he finds himself staring at his own body. A chill runs down his spine as his body looks at him condescendingly, then takes few hurried takes backward.

Just then, a car drives through between them, running over Timmy's ball. Timmy's body looks after it as it passes.

"Didn't mommy tell you to look left and right before crossing? You should pay attention, 'cause that blockhead sure doesn't", Timmy hears his own voice say. His body lays one last glance at him, and then Timmy sees it slump to the ground, as if losing consciousness. He sits frozen for a while, staring at its inert form, before daring to approach...

... and then he wakes up, right where his bldy fell down. He darts up, looking around, but no-one else is in sight. There's just flattened remains of his ball on the road. Chills still running down his spine, he turns around and runs back home. "Mommy!"

On the ghostly plane, a lone observer watches him go. "And that is today's good deed done!" , she proclaims to herself. "Man, the look on his face! If only do-gooding was this fun every time! Too bad I don't have a ghost camera, Hobbes should've seen this."

The observer is, apparently, a ghost of a blonde girl in her early teens, clad in a red pleated skirt and a white blouse. She is trying to sit on the fence, but is absent-mindedly floating just above it. "I wonder, is school over already? Really need a ghost watch to go with that camera... I hope Susan Prime won't be too upset if I'm late. Hmmm... maybe, if I brough her some candy... of course, by 'her' I mean me... hmmm..."

[Lord Raziere]

Shiroihako
She blinks at the Barham twins and says
"I wouldn't know anything like that, have fun whatever you end up doing. Bye."
Given that Shiroihako has no idea whether these twins have any supernatural connection whatsoever, so she won't tell them what she is doing given that she has tried telling people about hollows before and gotten strange looks at best- in the short time she remembers, people don't seem to know about hollows or ghosts so its best to keep it secret so as to not look crazy. That and she is a modern ronin, why would she put people in danger? Also the guy talking about biting comes off as creepy and potentially a cannibal. Best stay away from the crazy person.

She ignores any further attempt at conversation with the twins and will go over to the girls and says
"Are you my clients? For the case? Don't worry those two aren't with me, we can go elsewhere if we don't want to discuss this with them nearby."

[Rater202]

Meanwhile, of at the edge of the park, a dark brooding presence tried to hide itself close enough to see what's going on but far enough that it, hopefully, won't be noticed.

Sarah'd gotten into town a few days ago, hoping to stock up and move along, but the unusually large number of spiritually aware beings was... Part of her was curious. Especially since none of them felt quite like humans, quiet like hollows, or quite like ghosts... But part of her is also scared.

[Vahnavoi]

In the park:

Shiroihako

She ignores any further attempt at conversation with the twins and will go over to the girls and says
"Are you my clients? For the case? Don't worry those two aren't with me, we can go elsewhere if we don't want to discuss this with them nearby."

The tallest of the teens looks her over when she approaches. "You must spend a fortune on laundry bills, sis" , she remarks, seeing Shiroihako's attire. "You're the occultist we called? I was expecting someone... seedier."

The other girls murmur with each other while looking past Shiroihako, at the Barhams. The tall teen gives them a glance as well. "Here's fine if they stay over there. Thought they were your othee clients, honestly..."

[Lord Raziere]

Shiroihako
"Yes, I use bleach a lot to wash my stuff. As for them, they're just tourists seeking thrills. I don't want them to be involved in a job."
Also they were the only clothes she had. She tilts her head
"....and seedier? Why would you expect me to be untrustworthy? I'm here to help. What is the problem? As much as information I can get will help a lot. Something about something strange happening at your school?"
She is confused by these expectations, but presses on. She needs to remain focused on what she came here for, even if none of the new hires showed up. Probably all prank calls now that she thinks about it.

[Vahnavoi]

The girl waves her hand flippantly. "I meant your appearance, not your persona. I expected less white and more... brown. No offense, sis."

She browses her phone's image gallery while continuing to talk to Shiroihako. "It was last week. I was just minding my own business in class when... I felt like someone knocked my off my chair... but when I got up to shout at whoever it was, I... I saw my own body from the outside. And it... she... looked right at me."

"Yeah, it was super weird. Like, she spaced out and for a moment, it was like someone else was in her skin" , one of the other girls comments from the sidelines.

The taller girl glances at her. "Yeah. It kept on for a while and... when it ended... I think, I heard a voice inside my head, briefly. Not sure, but I think it belonged to... this little creep."

She turna her phone around and shows a picture to Shiroihako. It's of a blonde girl, maybe thirteen years old or so, sitting on a fence. She has a white blouse, red pleated skirt and shining black shoes and she's holding a tiger plushie. All perfectly normal and innocent... if she wasn't looking straight at the camera, with a mischievous smirk on her face as if she's plotting taking over the world. And somehow, it feels like the plushie's looking at the camera too...

[Lord Raziere]

Shiroihako
"Something that can push people out of their bodies, interesting. Very well, can you tell me anything else about this girl? Name? Grade? School she goes to? Anything to narrow it down? At least send me the picture so I can reverse search it online."
She pulls out her own phone, also white for some reason, taking notes on it. Its surprising what you can find about a person by looking them up online. This girl is young enough to a social media account of some kind and everyone knows how much information that gives away.
"Any other incidents like it? Has she done anything harmful? Any behaviors seem that cruel, gluttonous, greedy, unusually impulsive?"
She hasn't been doing this long but she can compare this behavior to hollows and know that they're generally pretty base or id-like in their desires.

[igordragonian]

Beatrix doesn't walk away, she sort of akwardly kept standing and listening, wrapping her hands, with an amused smile.
Balthazar tried to drag her from there, but she didn't badged.

Balthazar and Beatrix have exchanged glances, as they heard it.
Beatrix smirked, and Balthazar looked horrified.

"Ex...excuse me, ma'ams.' Balthazar said, with hesitation, his glasses slide a bit.
"I sort of... have experienced similar thing. Though, I was sure, I ran away from it.'
Beatrix shrug
"Eh. It's nothing I can't deal with. But I am here for food and lols, not stealing detective fan work"

[Vahnavoi]

The tall teen answers quickly. "That brat's name is Susan Thorne. She goes to the same school as us... grade seven, so two years younger than us, I think."

"She's not that hard to find. Everyone's heard of her" , the other girl chimes in. "She doesn't have any real friends, but she claims she doesn't need any. Sed that ugly plushie? It goes everywhere she does. And I really mean it that way. It's like... even if she's not paying attention to it, it's somehow always there ..."

"Not always always", the taller teen corrects. "But yeah, it seems to just appear out of nowhere sometimes. Pretty sure teach confiscated it, but at the end of class, it somehow was right next to Susan again."

"She calls it Hobbes for some reason. Acts like it was alive. I'd call that kindergarden stuff normally, but that thing's just off..."

Then the Barhams butt in. The girls give them confused looks.

The tall girl narrows her eyes. "What? A similar thing?"

"Like, an out-of-body experience?" , the other girl wonders idly. Super weird coincidence if that's true. Gives me the creeps that you brought it up right now... "

[Lord Raziere]

Shiroihako:
"Hm. I see. Susan Thorne. Strange plushie. Will look into it, if your here it must not be a school day."
She will search this name and picture, see if there is any social media accounts connected to her or anything that could tell her more as she goes along. Was the bear possibly a hollow? Could hollows possess things? She turns to the twins.
"Huh, you've had one to. In this local area or elsewhere? If it was elsewhere, can you tell me? that might be my next case to follow up on."
Needless to say, she would investigate this at the Thorne's residence, if it involved her family it would still be more secretive than investigating her at school. She'll try to find Susan Thorne's residence online.

[Vahnavoi]

"We just, ah, got out early" , comes an evasive answer with a wave of a hand.

A quick online search comes up with a whole bunch of Susan, Sue and Suzy Thornes across multiple social media platforms, but none with matching pictures and none publicly advertizing that they live nearby. Shiroihako may need to ask her informants for additional clues to narrow it down.

[Rater202]

Sarah comes closer, occasionally using Bringerlight to jump from hiding place to hiding place when she thinks that no-one's looking, when she hears the bit about the stuffed toy.

That? That sounds like fullbring. Which means this is legit, which means a bunch of amateurs and some rando medium are way out of their depths... Which means she's got a couple of rubes o take advantage of.

Shiroihako: You can feel a hollow coming this way, in short spurts of movement before stopping and going quiet again. It's stronger than most of the random ones you've encountered, but not so much stronger that you can't handle it.

[Lord Raziere]

"We just, ah, got out early" , comes an evasive answer with a wave of a hand.

A quick online search comes up with a whole bunch of Susan, Sue and Suzy Thornes across multiple social media platforms, but none with matching pictures and none publicly advertizing that they live nearby. Shiroihako may need to ask her informants for additional clues to narrow it down.

"....Yeah I'm going to have to ask you give me more information to go upon, nothing online is giving me answers, there is apparently a lot of Susan Thornes? Like, can you tell me what neighborhood she lives in, what school she goes to, what time it gets out?"
She says before this happens:

Shiroihako: You can feel a hollow coming this way, in short spurts of movement before stopping and going quiet again. It's stronger than most of the random ones you've encountered, but not so much stronger that you can't handle it.

Suddenly she tenses. Shiroihako is not trained in Pesquisa or if its a natural ability to arrancar, she doesn't know what it is. She just knows its some bad feeling she has when hollows are near, and suddenly feeling it this precisely? With movement? It makes her drop into a combat ready stance.
"All of you. Run. A real threats coming. There's no time to explain."
She suddenly jumps out of her body, her spirit form the same as her gigai, but with a white generic hollow mask on the side of her head and a white katana belted on her hip, which she unsheathes and charges towards the hollow she senses.

Of course, all the girls see is Shiroihako suddenly falling to the ground still after giving this warning.

[Vahnavoi]

"I suppose it's not that uncommon of a name..." , the tall teen muses.

"Oh! Her dad runs a judo club! I think... " , a third girl shouts from the sidelines.

Others turn to look at her. "How'd you know that?"

"My little brother attends his classes" , she hurries to explain. "He's always gushing about what they do there. He let the instructor's name sli-"

She's cut short by sudden change in Shiroihako demeanor. They all fall silent and then jump back and huddle together, spooked, when her body collapses.

"... didn't you say something like this happened to me when I snapped out of it? ", the tall teen whispers a frightened question to her friends.

"Yeah. Exactly like this" , her friend confirms. They exchange worried looks and then glance at the Barhams.

"You, uh, take care of her or something?" , the tall teen asks of them. "We'll take our leave. Bye." They hurriedly walk away, looking at Shiroihako's inert body for a while, then turn and break into a run, disappearing further into the park.

[igordragonian]

Balthazar has started to explain.
"Well. It didn't happened to me, but to my parents. And.... sister.' He gave a nervouse glance at Beatrix.

Balthazar was the first to run away,when he was told to.
Pale, panting. In complete panic, he doesn't look where is he running to.

Beatrix laugu.
"Oh! Jolly! Finally!' She licked her lips.
"I am surely starving for.... an adventure!" And took a strange combat stance.
She stood open for an attacks, but her hands spread to the sides, and her fingers spread as claws.
If anything, it might resemble tiger punch*, but without any effort into defence.

-----
*https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a8/17...03a0c92fce.jpg
*

[Rater202]

Sarah: Regret your recent life choices.

"Oh crap."

Shiroi can see a silver-haired girl suddenly rush out of a hiding place, jumping from place to place in flashes of green light and fleeing... Yeah, that's the hollow.

In mid-jump, she's surrounded by some kind of black energy which then forms into solid black plate armor with silver decorations that resemble human bones.

[Lord Raziere]

Shiroihako: Express Confusion
"What in the-?"
She chases after the silver-haired girl.
"Hollow! you look like a girl! What's going on? Whats with the armor!?"
Could hollows possess people and form armor around their bodies? Do they wish to live again by playing puppeteer? She keeps her sword at the ready as she runs after.

[igordragonian]

Beatrix laugh and run after the strange local variant dragon thing
"Hollow? Is that how you call dragons around here?' She run with her "claws" spread to the sides.

[Rater202]

"The woman in the hollow mask is calling me a Hollow and... Dragon, what the..."

The girl keeps running but now she seems confused.

[Lord Raziere]

Shiroihako
She keeps running
"Thats because you FEEL like a hollow! but none of what your doing is making sense! No hollow did any of this before! Come back here and explain yourself before I take it this is all just some ruse!"

[Rater202]

"That's how powers like mine work!" Sarah shouts. "How can you be that powerful but not know that!?"

She stops running, but she's not getting closer, either.

[Lord Raziere]

"That's how powers like mine work!" Sarah shouts. "How can you be that powerful but not know that!?"

She stops running, but she's not getting closer, either.

Shiroihako:
"Well one day I just....woke up? Without any memory of who I was? had this sword though. And could see hollows and they were doing bad things and other people couldn't, so I decided to do something about it. With my sword."
She says, stopping as well.
"What are.....powers like yours?"

[igordragonian]

Beatrix keep walking forward,licking her lips.

'A dragon with a sword? How quirky! Come out Balthazar, she is harmless!' she say with confidence.

Balthazar meekly joining back the scene, his pupils shrinked as of a reptile, but in the presence of much wierder girls,.it's easy to miss.

Balthazar cough akwardly.
'There are... kinds of dragons which feed on emotions and all that. Maybe there could be a type, which fed on her me..memories?'

[Rater202]

"...Dragons don't exist," says the teenager whose powers come from a corrupted, insane cannibal ghost.

[igordragonian]

Beatrix laughed.
Balthazar were offended.
"B-but they are! They have ate my parents! They... they..." he start to mamble.

Beatrix place her hand on her brother.
'Easy, Blatzy. It's a translation and culture thing. Dragons are invisble to normal humans. It make sense, that other cultures will call them Hollow or what ever.'

[Lord Raziere]

Shiroihako
She looks angry, suddenly bursts out
"None of this explains why you feel like a hollow yet clearly aren't one!! I demand the answers! What are you so I can get back to my case- ah damn it, they ran off. Look at what you did, you scared away my clients!"
She walks back to her gigai and gets back into it, standing up again
"I was about to learn where the girl was so I can investigate, but nooo. I was about to earn my keep and get earn some but money but noooo. Now I have to find them to. The least you could do is give me some answers for my trouble, Not-A-Hollow."

[Rater202]

Beatrix laughed.
Balthazar were offended.
"B-but they are! They have ate my parents! They... they..." he start to mamble.

Beatrix place her hand on her brother.
'Easy, Blatzy. It's a translation and culture thing. Dragons are invisible to normal humans. It make sense, that other cultures will call them Hollow or what ever.'

"No. Dragons don't exist. Holows are the souls of Dead humans that remain in the work of the living too long without passing on and become bound to it by the chains that used to bind them to their bodies, which then start decaying until eventually they become too corrupted to remain sane and sacrifice their hearts to gain a mask that protects what's left of their conscious mind from the horror and raw instinct of their new cannibalistic existence. Dragons are made up fairy tales."

Shiroihako
She looks angry, suddenly bursts out
"None of this explains why you feel like a hollow yet clearly aren't one!! I demand the answers! What are you so I can get back to my case- ah damn it, they ran off. Look at what you did, you scared away my clients!"
She walks back to her gigai and gets back into it, standing up again
"I was about to learn where the girl was so I can investigate, but nooo. I was about to earn my keep and get earn some but money but noooo. Now I have to find them to. The least you could do is give me some answers for my trouble, Not-A-Hollow."

"When hollows attack humans, sometimes humans absorb some of the hollow's powers which gives them powers that are like a hollow's. It's basically a benign soul tumor."

[Lord Raziere]

Shiroihako
Her eyes widen in horror a bit.
"Oh. Oh thats....thats terrible! I'm so sorry, it must've been horrible for you! Living through such an attack as a young girl, you must've grown up really fast. I wish I could've been there to save you, obviously I can't get them all but still....do you have a name? I don't want to call you soul tumor girl, thats rude...."
She went from angry to concerned in a split second, her eyes innocent and well-meaning now.