Gloomy Days (Arawn please)

Tatsuya walked through the gates of the Shihoin Estate. For some weird reason he had been summoned. Tatsuya didn't feel like being here though, his last visit didn't leave a good impression on him. In fact it left him with many bad impressions all over his body. When Tatsuya entered the main building, he was escorted to the Head Guard's office. Tatsuya remembered the Head Guard, Raiden. Another meeting that didn't go so well. Tatsuya walked into the office while Raiden was working on paperwork.

"Tatsuya Okibi is it?" He asked before looking up. He wasn't wearing a mask so his face was visible. He had a full head of black hair, with thick side burns and eyebrows, and a generally evil gaze in his eyes. "Sir." Tatsuya stated in a respectful tone, only because of his rank. He wouldn't forget how he was treated by him the last time they met. "Okibi-san, you were brought here for a mission we need handled. Seeing as you showed impressive skill infiltrating the estate, aside from some mishaps." Raiden spoke before getting interrupted.

"Mishaps?! You and your goons practically put me in a coma." Tatsuya stated with anger in his eyes, only to be ignored. "As I was saying. You were brought here for a mission. You will be sent to Los Angeles, California, where we have lost 3 members for unknown reasons. You are to find and eliminate the thing behind it. I say 'thing' because we don't know any details." Raiden stated while looking back and forth between Tatsuya and his paperwork. "And what about back-up?" Tatsuya asked in a frustrated tone.

"I didn't think you would need it, but if you want, just take the 12th squad member that's bringing equipment you might need. I'm sure between the two of you, you will be just fine." Raiden stated with an unemotional look and tone. "Sir, with 3 members lost, I don't find it logical to send just a two person squad." Tatsuya stated, getting more frustrated. "I didn't ask whether you thought it was logical or not. Just follow the other member's examples. They followed their orders and didn't ask questions." Raiden stated not changing his expression. "And look what happen to them. I plan on coming back alive." Tatsuya stated bluntly.

"Then you can leave with that attitude." Raiden stated as an order with a tone of anger in his voice. Tatsuya just stared back in anger before turning to leave without acknowledging him. Tatsuya made his way through the halls until he came to the main building and seeing a familiar face.

Arawn stopped his cart right before the Shihoin Estate. He rarely had come to this section, the security was awful tight. He had to show his work papers three times already. Each time he identified himself as part of squad 12 people did act a little nicer if not frightened. Arawn often worried if the bad rep was a blessing or curse. That aside he was more than happy to have the task almost done. He had nearly perfected his new item, and couldn't wait to test them. He held a knapsack over his shoulder holding his creation. But he was given a rather odd order for a gigai delivery. He looked down at the nearly empty cart; there were two coffin like black boxes. Only two bodies was odd. A special order perhaps? But even shinigami had to wait til at least five or more bodies before a delivery was made. Just went to show how much special treatment nobles got compared to the rest of the people. It was much like the Earth saying; "With power comes privilege. Money is power." He wondered how much the whole place cost as he neared the gate guards.
"I'm here for delivery." He pulled out his papers and showed them to the guard. He half hoped he wouldn't have to wheel them inside. The testing grounds would be closing soon, he could take the empty cart with him rather than take it back to the lab. One of the guards pulled out a small radio unit, and spoke into it, the receiver was in his ear. He spoke softly while holding the papers, Arawn couldn't hear what he was saying nor did he care. He just wanted them to hurry up. "Well where do you want them?" the impatience growing.
The guard with the microphone stopped talking on the phone and spoke aloud. "Leave them on the cart." Arawn let out a sigh of relief, it was odd for them to keep the cart, but he wasn't about to try to talk them out of it. Maybe the nobles didn't want to even bother carrying them in with their own tools?
"Okay, if you'll stamp the papers, I'll be on my way." he stepped away from the cart.
"You are to take them to the Senkaimon for your departure." the man finishes. Arawn's jaw drops. Perhaps he had heard the man incorrectly.
"Ummmm, excuse me? I'm taking them to the gate FOR departure?" he looked at the man "I'm not going anywhere, I'm just here to deliver them."
"Yes you're accompanying someone on special assignment. It was part of the request we made to squad 12." he said plainly. Arawn's mind reeled, how can this be? He tried to recall the tone when he received the paperwork. Actually it was just on his desk just after coming back from the bathroom. He hadn't seen who dropped it off. "THOSE BASTARDS!" he said aloud, how long would he have to be a 'gopher'?

Tatsuya recognized the man pulling the cart, an old sparring partner from the academy, Arawn. "Glad to see you're doing well Arawn-san," He stated while waiting for Arawn to catch up and shake his hand before making way to the Senkaimon. He quickly recognized the look of frustration upon Arawn and knew he wasn't happy about the situation either. "I think I know how you feel Arawn-san. Let's just try and get this over with as fast as possible." Tatsuya stated before looking at what he was pulling. "I assume those are gigai in the boxes. Not exactly a good sign." Tatsuya stated.

The greeting from the tall man shakes Arawn from his deep thoughts of revenge only for the moment. The rage subsides just enough for him to recall the man.
"Ah Tatsuya? Was it?" He tries to remember the last name, but it escapes him. "So you go roped into this too!? I don't even know what we're doing!"
He grabs the papers from the guard's hands, too furious to be intimidated at this point. He skims the page, "See it says delivery of gigai to Shihoin Estate for....." he stops reading aloud as he reads the words off the page. Arawn looks up at his giant companion, then back at the page, he flips the paper to the next page, then looks up again.
"Your name is Tatsuya Okibi right?" he asks softly, his eyebrows arched, and eyes slightly wide.

Tatsuya smiled as Arawn flipped through the paper and found his name. "That's correct Arawn-san. Though you must forgive me as I can't remember your surname." Tatsuya replied to Arawn. "Well I can say that I don't know much as well. I only know that we are headed to Los Angeles, California where we've lost 3 omnitsukido members already." Tatsuya stated as he walked towards the Senkaimon. "We don't know what's over there. Not too mention Dumb Ass Raiden, the Head Guard of this place decided just to send us along without back-up." Tatsuya frustratedly stated. "Well let's get going." Tatsuya stated as they arrived at the already open Senkaimon.

"It's funny you mention the Head Chief Raiden." Arawn begins, he walks to the back of the cart. "It seems he made the request for a single gigai." He explains as he opens the lock and moves to the larger of the two coffin boxes. "Apparently it was a special order." Arawn opened the box wide, inside was large body shrouded in bandages. He dug in and tore the bandages off the face, it looked very much like Tatsuya, but the features were unmistakeably female. He eyed the chest region of the gigai bulging and covered in bandages still. He coughed. "What kind of mission was this again?"

"RAIDEN, YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS PIECE OF SHIT?!?!?!" Tatsuya yelled out in anger, shock, and embarrassment, towards the estate after seeing the gigai he was to take on the mission. "How in...What am...ARGH...THIS IS BULLSHIT!!!!" Tatsuya's face was red with anger as he struggled to put words to his emotions. "If Raiden thinks I'm taking that thing with me, he's dead wrong. Leave it behind Arawn-san" Tatsuya stated trying to come down as he started to walk through the senkaimon. He was quickly stopped by one of the nearby guards before he could enter it. "Sir, Raiden ordered that you are to take all equipment provided to you for your mission." The guard stated to Tatsuya in a serious tone. "Oh really?" Tatsuya stated quietly before turning around to face the gigai. "HADO NO. 4 - BYAKURAI!!!" Tatsuya shouted as he pointed towards the gigai without giving Arawn any warning to move out of the way. The white bolt of lightning shot forward from his fingers and sliced the gigai in half. "That's what I think of Raiden's order." Tatsuya stated to a shocked guard before walking through the senkaimon. "Let's go Arawn-san." He stated in a calmer tone.

Arawn was more than happy to see the gigai destroyed. Honestly they kinda creepy. And once animated by a replacement soul, it was down right weird. That aside he knew that he would catch hell later for the destruction of the gigai. Thankfully the guard at the estate had had signed for the delivery. He smiled to himself. Well that was one part complete. He nodded silent approval to Tatsuya's actions, while outwardly a face of complete shock and disbelief.
"Yes we should get going." Was all he replied. He put his arms though his backpack and stepped through the gate.

Tatsuya didn't say anything the entire time they traveled through the senkaimon. He was still a bit agitated and wanted to calm down before getting to the Living World. He needed to have a clear mind if he wanted to get through this mission. As he made his way through, he saw the gate at the other end. "Good we're here." Tatsuya stated out loud as the gate opened. When he stepped into the living world it was raining hard. "Hmm, and here I thought it was called the 'Sunshine State.'" He stated to Arawn. By now he was already calm and ready to finish the mission as soon as possible.

It had been awhile since Arawn had seen rain. It was refreshing in a way. Still he jumped to a nearby building for cover. Once there he checked his backpack to make sure nothing got wet. He wasn't sure what effect water would have, and didn't want to test it. He forgot about weather effects when in Soul Society. It was either sunny or dark, rarely anything else. Otherwise he spent time inside working. He looked out over the city. The rain set an atmosphere. It seemed quiet and sad at the same time. The usual shouts of people below drowned out by the hiss as the water fell through the air. The weather might interfere with their mission. But there wasn't anything they could do about it.

Tatsuya stood out in the rain as Arawn took cover by a building. "You can stay here until the rain subsides, Arawn-san. I'm gonna see what I can find." Tatsuya stated while looking in his direction. Tatsuya began to walk off and search the city.

---

Elsewhere a creature hidden in the shadows of an alleyway sensed the arrival of two shinigami. "Ah, more prey to play with." The creature spoke to itself. It then turned its attention to a female soul that was to shocked by its appearance to even scream. "No worries my dear. I promise to make it quick." The creature stated in a soft voice before quickly devouring the female. The creature than began to walk out of the alleyway, only now, it took the appearance of the female soul. An evil smirk crossed its face

The rain seemed relentless, waiting for it to stop would be a true test of patience. Arawn sighed. He really wished it would stop soon. The atmosphere was starting to effect even him. "I'll come with you." He said Tatsuya as he attempted to leave. "I know I'm not much, but if you do run into trouble I'd like to be close by." And if I should run into trouble, you can save my ass. Arawn says to himself. He carefully closes the backpack and puts it back on his shoulders. His glasses begin to fog over from the heat of his body. He slicks his hair backwards out of his face, and pulls his glasses off his face shaking the water off them. After putting them back on he smiles at his large companion "Shall we?"

Tatsuya was glad that Arawn wanted to go with him. "Thanks Arawn-san, I could use any help I can get.". Tatsuya stated and smiled at Arawn. "Let's see if we can get this done today.". He commented as they walked through the down pour. If he could wrap this up in a few hours he'd be happy.

---

The female disguised creature roamed the streets, moving closer to the currently unsuspecting shinigami. It was gonna lure them in and then kill them, just as it had done to the other three. "I'm coming for you." It spoke to it self in a feminine voice.

"No need for the 'San' Tatsuya, I think it's okay for you to call me 'Arawn'." Arawn had trouble with all those titles, it was hard enough remembering people's names. He hope he didn't offend the taller man. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. The screen flashed on and he watched the radar. There was no hollow presence around them at the moment, but he was getting faint reading some distance away. Perhaps that was their target? "I think I have something." he stated as he tried to factor the time it would take to reach that location. With a signal that weak it might be just a small hollow. Why would a noble house have them chase after something so small?

"That's fine with me, Arawn." Tatsuya smiled. He always taught himself to use honorifics unless otherwise allowed. They kept walking until Arawn thought he had something on his soul phone. He looked down at the phone which showed possibly a weak hollow. "That's the only signal for a good distance. I guess we should check it out." Tatsuya stated looking in the direction of the signal and then back down. "Take a look, it seems like its coming our way." He stated when he noticed the signal had moved closer.

"This was most strange." Could he phone be broken? "Well we know it's coming but we don't know what it looks like. Be on guard." Arawn's hand reached for the sword across his back. The other hand held tightly to the phone his knuckles whitening. Weak signal or not a hollow rarely advanced on a shingami unless it was hungry or it was strong enough to overpower them. Arawn desperately hoped it was the former. Suddenly his phone went blank. "CRAP!!!" the battery had died. He had forgotten to charge the phone after his last excursion. This wasn't any better than before, it was actually worse. A hollow as coming, now they didn't know what it looked like or where it was. His eye darted two and fro. "Not good at all."

Tatsuya wasn't too surprised when the phone went dead, though he figured it was just the water causing a short. He was happy the hollow was coming this way, it meant he wouldn't have to go searching for it. Besides, even if it wasn't the creature he was after, it was still a way to pass the time. Tatsuya stood patiently, with his right hand resting on his zanpaktou, waiting to draw at any time. Though what happened next was a bit unexpected. He saw a young female soul running towards their direction at a full sprint with a horrific look on her face.

"Well I guess I know why the hollow is coming this way. He's trying to catch lunch." Tatsuya stated to Arawn with a bit of a chuckle. As young female got closer to them Tatsuya released his zanpaktou and grabbed her on the shoulders to stop her. "Whoa, easy there, where's the fire young miss?" The female looked up at Tatsuya and back down to his comrade, but was still frightened. "You, you can see me?!" The female asked completely surprised. "Yes we can. Don't worry we are here to help" Tatsuya smiled trying to comfort the female.

"If she's here the hollow can't be far." Arawn put his now useless phone away and drew his blade steadying it before him. He moved towards the direction young spirit had just come. He looked left then right, and finally up into the sky. "I don't see him he might be circling around." Arawn kept looking around, he really didn't like this uncertainty. It just went to show how dependent he was on his phone. He made a mental note to himself to take a back up battery with him at all times.

Tatsuya stood by the female as Arawn went ahead to search for the hollow. "I think we should get you out of here." Tatsuya spoke softly to the female as he drew his zanpaktou with his right hand. "What are you gonna do with that?" The female frighteningly asked while taking a step back. "No worries miss, I'm just gonna send you to a place where you won't get attacked by anymore monsters." He stated with a sincere face as he lifted his zanpaktou to perform a soul burial. "Oh, thank you. You shinigami are too kind." The female stated, her voice changing from a frightened tone to one of malice.

Tatsuya realized too late that he never mentioned to the female that they were shinigami. He was sent flying back by a punch to his gut from the female. Tatsuya flew past Arawn before skidding to a stop. He looked back at the female while holding his pained gut with his left hand. "You have one hard body shinigami, I was able to punch holes in the other three." The female's voice had changed to a deep masculine tone.

Arawn is startled as Tatsuya flies past him. "What the hell!?" he turns to see what could have knocked the large man so far back. He only sees the frail looking woman, now deep sinister voice. She's the hollow? He kicks himself for missing the obvious. He release his reiatsu and points his left hand at her. "An array of bees sting you with the force of many. Hado #13: Killer bee." From his out stretched fingertips a shower of small yellow bolts spray forth at the woman/hollow.

The hollow grinned before jumping onto the side of the nearby building escaping the kido. The hollow showed amazing agility and dexterity as it crawled along the side of the building while heading towards the Arawn for an attack. Tatsuya followed the hollow intently as it crawled along side of the building. "What the?" Tatsuya thought as the hollow appeared to be getting bigger. The hollow leaped from the the building towards Arawn with its right arm changing from a human hand to a claw. Tatsuya pointed just above Arawn's head hoping to intercept the hollow before it made it to him. "SHO" Tatsuya shouted quickly catching the hollow with his kido and sending it back a few feet. The hollow landed on its feet however, and was quickly revealing its true form.

Tatsuya stared in utter disgust at the true from of the hollow. It was easily two feet taller than Tatsuya and equally as bulky, but its outer appearance was horrifying. The hollow appeared as if it had no skin of its own, with four big claws at the end of its arms. Tatsuya stopped spacing out and quickly charged at the hollow, passing Arawn. Tatsuya slashed left to right and back, but the hollow used its claws on its right hand to block the attacks. The hollow threw his left claw towards Tatsuya, but it was blocked by his zanpaktou. "You know, I don't know if I should feel sorry for the way you look." Tatsuya stated as he was dead locked with the hollow. "Smart ass shinigami. You'd do well not to insult your killer." The hollow stated back. Tatsuya jumped back as quickly as he could, but the hollow gave chase just as fast. Tatsuya prepared to defend against his oncoming attack.

While the hollow's attention was focused on Tatsuya Arawn wanted to though how to get behind the beast. Two on one had it's advantages, but not if they both came from the front. If Tatsuya could keep it occupied Arawn would attempt to strike it from the rear or side. He ran past the hollow and to the left as it charged Tatsuya.

Considering the size of the hollow it showed considerable speed as it charged towards Tatsuya. Luckily for Tatsuya, he knew the draw backs of being big. Tatsuya was so focused on the hollow that he didn't even notice Arawn had ran past him. Tatsuya rotated his body to the right as the hollow extended out its left claws catching Tatsuya's left arm and cutting it fairly deeply. Tatsuya stepped in close to the hollow and threw a left punch to its midsection. The hollow took one step back when the punch connected. When the punch connected the hollow raised its right arm and when it took a step back it swung it down hard towards Tatsuya.

Arawn's reiatsu bursts forth from behind the beast. "Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini!! Look upon yourself with horror and tear out your own throat! Bakudo # 10 Horin!." A bright rope of light ties itself around the descending monster's arm and yanks it backwards before it can strike. On the other end of the rope is Arawn pulling with al his might. Tatsuya was too close to fire a projectile and yet Arawn feared getting too close and get in the way. He was happy to find this compromise of giving Tatsuya an opening.

Tatsuya was sure he was going to get hit when all of a sudden the hollow's arm was yanked back by Arawn's kido. Tatsuya took that second of the hollow's lose of balance and jumped towards the tied arm and slashed towards it to sever it. "FOOLS!!" The hollow yelled out before shrinking and contracting his tied arm, allowing him to escape the kido before it got severed. Tatsuya stared in shock at the hollow's ability before it threw a punch towards Tatsuya with its right arm extending at a high velocity. Tatsuya brought his sword in front of the attack just before getting clawed, however, he kept getting pushed back by the hollow's extending arm.