making progress (Arawn)

Lavi returned to his hideout after been out having a somewhat strange meeting with the past, and he had a feeling that it would not become any easier further ahead of them, but who knew, maybe tomorow they would be able to get a bit closer to one of the gangs and get leads on the necklace, if it even existed at all, he was slowly losing fate in all this.
Unless Arawn was awake when he returned, he would go to sleep, after that episode he just wanted to get some sleep to regain his energy and get his thoughts together again.

For all intents and purposes Arawn was asleep. The fatigue of the day was melting away. While his body rested his mind was submerged in his inner world. His is own snores mirrored that of the golden dragon. Huang Long suddenly perked up and his eyes snapped open was he observed something beyond the boundaries of his realm.
He gave a toothed grin. A fearsome sight that was. Rows upon rows of large fangs larger than Arawn himself.
"Wake up!" The dragon boomed, a shockwave of force shot forth expelling Arawn's corporeal form and stirring him from sleep in the same instant. The shinigami's eyes snapped open and his hand grabbed his blade. It was then he felt the foreign energy he turned his weapon in that direction only to see Lavi. Lavi? He felt with his senses again. There was no mistaken what he saw, but what he felt was different. True his skills with detecting spiritual power was terrible. But this was something else. Lavi's signal had changed, it had gotten more defined. Had something happened while he slept. He could hear Huang Long snicker in his head.
"What happened Lavi? You seem......different." he stated as he wiped the sleep from his eyes.

Lavi was surprised when Arawn turned his blade on him, but it was not unexpected as he was entering a building in a place foreign to Arawn "Well I could not sleep, so I went for a stroll and--" Yoru the little cat human familiar that had appeared after his encounter with the robed man "and then he meet this strange guy that attacked and Lavi kicked his ass!" Yoru had clearly misunderstood the situation at the time, and was just shouting up like an over excited child.
Lavi quickly took hold of Yoru and held the hand in front of his mouth "Well this happened" Lavi had so far been able to trust Arawn, so no reason to hide anything now.
Lavi sat down "I meet a man, it is not the first time either, I figure you should get the whole story now, and why I am searching for this necklace" Lavi gave a small sigh and waited a little for Arawn's reaction

Arawn scuttled backwards across the floor at the appearance of the strange cat creature. Not only was it odd looking, but it talked. Seeing something like that after waking up wasn't the best of things for one's nerves. Luckily Arawn had enough frame of mind to prevent himself from screaming like a girl at the shocking sight.
"What the hell is that!" he asked waving his sword. The words were lost on him the creature's appearance to president over all other matters. While true Arawn had faced and seen many strange things, a small talking feline was beyond the scope of his imagination at the moment. Again he could hear the dragon's mocking laughter in his head "You shut up!" he bellowed at his weapon. Not realizing that the action made him seem a tab bit crazy in anyone's eyes. Lavi seemed calm about it, but Arawn found it even more frustrating that the man was taking things so easily. It could be some kind of hollow controlling his mind.

Lavi was very easy about it, but of course he was also a bit freaked out at first when this little guy first appeared "take it easy" Yoru broke free from Lavi and flew down on the ground in front of Arawn "Hah of course you will be frightend by me, I am a dangerous being after all" Lavi made a small sigh "Well... yea meet Yoru, he is a small spirit that have been following me around for the last few weeks, but this is the first time anyone else than me have been able to see him though" Yoru was just standing on the ground self confident "Thats because Lavi released his Shikai, it made me able to appear so others can see me too" Lavi looked over at Arawn again, hopefully now he had calmed down a bit, but he could not blame him for being a little freaked out by all this, this was by no means normal after all, but neither was most of the things he had been doing lately.

His mind reeled. In all his studies he had never heard of a shinigami manifesting anything other than his blade. A shikai was the halfway point. One could access additional power usually by transforming the weapon into another shape aside from a katana. He looked at his own sealed weapon. But when a weapon physically manifested it was through Bankai. An in all the cases he had read, no one had a bankai such as the feline before him. Something was definitely wrong if the man was accepting this.
"I'm sorry Lavi, this is for your own good." Arawn raised his sword and brought the blade down on the strange cat.

In an instant Lavi drew his sword and blocked Arawn, Yoru hurried behind Lavi and looked over his shoulder very frightened "do not try to hurt him" Lavi was not sure why Arawn attacked Yoru, but he did not like it, not one bit, and how should that be to his own good "how can it be that you attack like that out of nowhere, he is not of any danger to anyone" looking over Lavis shoulder Yoru was looking scared to death by the sudden attack as well.
Lavi could fell just how scared Yoru was, and he felt his anger rise because of that.
"why did you attack?" Yoru asked out with a steamering and very scared voice

"I don't think that creature is what you think, or what he says he is." Arawn said flatly. "What ever that creature is, we better get rid of it before it cause you more trouble." It was unfortunate that they weren't in Seriretei. There were several tests they could preform to find out what it was, but in their current situation it only posed a possible problem. "Get rid of it now before it's too late Lavi." he was worried he had formed a rather quick connection with the strange creature. "Have you ever heard of anyone seeing spirits other than it's owner? Has any creature like this existed anywhere in Soul Society?" Arawn knew the answer to both was a definite no. Sure there were strange creatures, but those where hollows. Despite the fantasy like nature of their world there were limits. There were no fairies, gnomes, or gremlins. If Lavi failed to see that something was amiss he would have take the creature by force. Arawn stood hold his sword steady. "Lavi, please hand me that creature."

"Even if you are right about that, I am not ready to simply let you attack him like that, he shows no hollow signature, and try feeling the spiritual pressure, he and I give out the same, if you want to lay a hand on him, then you need to go trough me first" Yoru was trembling "Please don't hurt me, I promise I wont get in the way" Lavi got up standing straight "I would really want to avoid fighting you over something like this" things could be off, but Arawn had it wrong here, he was taking things way too rash, Lavi was sure of it, he just had to talk him to his senses, and quick before their cover was blown and everything went down the drain.

With a sigh he sheathed his sword. There was no point in pushing the matter, but at the same time he couldn't just let the issue sit.
"Fine." he sighed. "But you keep that THING away from me. If I see it doing anything strange I won't hesitate from cutting it down the middle." he was quite serious. As much as Arawn liked animal something about the creature didn't seem right. But he wasn't about to jeopardize their mission over some strange animal. He took his bed roll and moved it shook himself off and lay back down.
"I'm getting some sleep." he muttered his back to the two.

Lavi did not like how things was turning out, it was okay for Arawn to be suspicious, but this was maybe a bit too much, that was what Lavi was thinking, but nothing could change that right now, hopefully Arawn would come around soon enough. Lavi decided to get some sleep again, letting Yoru free like that had apparently been a very bad idea, but even worse, when they returned to seretei, would Arawn tell anyone about this, and would people be just as suspicious as Arawn and try and force him to let go of Yoru.
Lavi lies down on his own bedroll with his back to Arawn, and Yoru found his place next to Lavi.
They had a long day ahead of them though, maybe there Yoru could show useful to make Arawn more accepting towards Yoru.

Arawn was first to wake the next day. Lavi was still curled up in his bedroll with the strange creature. He could quite easily dispose of the strange monster then and there. But decided it was best to keep his distance. He wasn't about to cause trouble now. As he thought about it he recalled that Huang Long was laughing. Apparently the sword had knew something, but as usual wasn't forthcoming with information. He sighed and shook his head. Move off to the side and began some stretching. His body felt sour from sleeping on the floor. Arawn thought it best to get his blood flowing. A few leg bends, toe touches, sit ups and push ups later he felt much better. He was sure to keep his efforts quiet as to not disturb Lavi's slumber.

Yoru was the first to wake up that morning, he could hear someone moving, and he stood up looking a bit around before crawling up on Lavis side to see what it was, thats when he saw Arawn doing some work out, most likely to get ready for the day ahead, there was a little flame figuratively speaking in Yorus eyes, he was going to get ready as well, He was going to help Lavi the best he could, he began doing push ups and sit ups, though it would most likely look a little awkward to anyone looking, not only because he was what he was, but also because he was really bad at it, he did not have much in the way of physical proves.

Arawn did his best to ignore the creature's attempts to emulate him. He finished his light workout and then grabbed his sword. Crossing his legs he laid the zanpukto by his side. He wasn't attempting to contact his blade, he was just meditating. Hopefully the creature would see the weapon beside him and get the message to stay clear of him. Closing his eyes he shut out the world and fell into the darkness of his own mind. He was processing the events of the previous day, and trying to plan for the ones to follow. There was much he knew and didn't know. Frustrated he pushed the thoughts aside and just tried to relax. His body had rested, and now he had it primed. Now his mind needed to be warmed up as well. Arawn thought about the lab. What the others could be doing at this time, crossed his mind several times. While true Arawn wasn't of great importance, he still enjoyed the strange people that populated the research division. Although most of their names he forgotten one easily gets accustomed to seeing certain people daily. He guessed it was something akin to home sickness. He smiled mentally and physically. There wasn't much to do about that. After this mission was over he could go home. Hopefully that wouldn't be long. But how long that would be was anyone's guess infiltration could take days, weeks, even months. He pushed the thought aside. "Relax." he said to himself "Don't think about it and just relax"

Lavi shortly after woke up, he wasen't feeling all too well, he might have gotten a little too used to the luxury of seretei, but atleast this time he did not have some messed up dream about a shopkeeper and the necklace, that dream was still messing with his mind.
Yoru was quick to get up on Lavis lap as he sat up "good morning Lavi" Lavi placed his hand on Yoru "Wrong Yoru, its Xan while we are in Rukongai, remember" Yoru made a nod "Okay!" Yoru then flew up on Lavis shoulder.

Lavi stood up and took a look over at Arawn, he was meditating or just sleeping sitting up, either way it was probably best not to disturb him for now, Lavi made a few short streches before going over towards the exit, and used a small mirror to look around the corners, and as no one was there he stepped outside, and took a look at Yoru "Would you mind just heading around for a while, I have need to talk with him in there for a while, and he still does not really like you being around" Yoru seemed a little sad about the fact, but made a nod "Alright ill be back later then" Yoru set off and flew up over the building leaving the two for now.
Lavi then headed into the building again, he never got to explain the whole situation to Arawn after all.

"Is IT gone?" Arawn asked without opening his eyes making sure to put emphais on the word 'It'. He wasn't fully meditating, he had enough awareness to hear what was going on around him. Plus Lavi was very loud when he moved and talked. Arawn had good ears anyway, so even if Lavi tried he would have heard him. "Good." he said his eyes flashing open he grabbed his sword and stood up. "I was thinking we should split up and check things out. Get a feel for the area." Arawn picked up the backpack from the floor and slung it over his shoulder. Next was the thick gray cloak and bandanas. In a manner of moments he had completed his disguise.
"I know we should work together, but separate we can cover more ground and probably get twice the information." It made sense, but it did increase the danger for either one of them. Should something go wrong they would have no back up.

Arawn was on to something, splitting up would cover more ground, but also increase the dangers, as they would be seperated, but so far Rukongai had not thrown anything at him, that he could not handle, he did not know Arawns strength, but he expected he was not too weak either, else he would never have went along with this "agreed" Lavi had a slight supicion that it was because of Yoru that Arawn wanted to split up, not that he could blame either really.
"Ill go around Kusajishi district, I think I know a few places to get good information and a slight update on the happenings around rukongai" Arawn was in much of a hurry to get started it seemed, so when Arawn wanted an explanation, he would have to ask, until then, Lavi would not raise the subject again.
"Ill meet you around here tonight then" Lavi turned to leave again, unless Arawn stopped him.

Arawn grinned beneath his mask. He already had a course of action planned. It would best to leave the information gathering to Lavi. His own attempts at doing so might compromise the mission. Instead he would focus on making a reputation. An easier task by far. Getting information from strangers was difficult, the requirements varied. Money, trust, fears, etc. Although he didn't want to admit it, Arawn did look forward to seeing how thieves and bandits lived. It would be a quite interesting experience. Making a final check of his gear he slipped out the way he had entered the tiny hideaway. Once on the street he made sure no one had seen him. The coast was clear. He moved silently down the street trying to memorize the area. Arawn took his time scouting the immediate area and then slowly widened his exploration. There were few people here. Using somewhat limited spiritual sense he could feel them approaching and hid before he was seen. Haven gotten a significant feel for the place Arawn took one last look in the direction of the hideout and moved on.

It was still bright out so his gray clothing stood out. That was good. Standing out made others take notice of him. The new guy on the street. Some looked at him with apprehension, other with veiled glee. Those were the looks he wanted. Thieves thinking the new guy was an easy mark. He wanted to draw in the sharks. Even if he was masquerading as a thieve he couldn't bring himself to prey upon the weak and innocent. He would take on those fed upon them. A hunter of the hunters. He laughed to himself as he walked into an alley and two figures tried to sneak up behind him. There footsteps echoed in the empty side street. Arawn didn't turn, but went into a run. There was a side street to the left and he too it. Once out of view he jumped up. The walls were at least 18ft high. Spreading his legs he stopped his sudden ascent. He could hear the foot steps as the two men rushed behind him and then watched them turn the corner below. After they passed Arawn dropped down. Both men skidded to the stop seeing an empty street, but then turned at the sound of something dropping behind them. The skinny man was the first to complete his spin, a foot to the face was his reward. The blow came before he could bring the short knife to bear. Arawn's kick sent him flying back into the wall the man bounced off the wall then fell face down upon the street. Too much power. he grimaced beneath the mask. He forgot they were fairly weak human souls. The second man exploited his friend's misfortune and stabbed at their attacker. Even if he hesitated Arawn was faster by far. He brought his left hand up and batted the man's wrist. The strike was enough to disarm the man. He was as shocked to say the least, even more shocked when the gray garbed man's other hand collided with his jaw. Everything faded to black for the would be mugger. Arawn glanced down at the two unconscious bodies and then searched them for valuables. He came away with afew coins and took their weapons for good measure.
"Not a bad start." he said flipping the blade in his palm. The day was already fading, come night the fun would really begin.

Lavi went on to see some people in the northern district, they may not be the best informants there, but they could be trusted to some extent, an as far as he knew they held themselves neutral in all the gang wars of Rukongai.
Before he went there Yoru joined up with him once more, and hid away under Lavi's clothes, on the way he felt a few eyes stare him down, the new face in town, or maybe something else, it did not really matter in the end though, he could not do much about it.
He had to think up just what kind of information that could help them, the necklace would not help them very much, as few claimed to have seen it at all, but he might pass in the question at some point.

He passed through a few alleys to get to the door, nothing did really stand out there, just looked like the entrance to a run down building, it was typical for that kind business, either that or use some kind of shop as a front.
Lavi stepped inside the building, not much had changed since his last visit there, was looking quite dirty, no one really cleaned the place, the entrance had to look like it was not used by anyone, but as he went on a little he came to a door that led up to the stairs.
There was guards at the door, they were not so much there to keep people out, more as a way for the information sharks to get some security and stay alive, Lavi passed by as if they were not there, and they simply let him pass by.
When he got up to the top, there was two doors, he knew one was for the guards and the other was the informants room, he went to the informants door and knocked, a voice was heard from within "come in" Lavi opened the door and went inside, then closed the door after him.
He sat down in the chair in the room and looked at the man sitting in front of him, Lavi dropped a pouch of money on the table, and began asking questions, and got answers, at the end Lavi stood up, he was okay with he answers, got him a good idea of the situation here and there of rukongai, but as he got to the door he turned around towards the informant "One more thing" He took out the picture of the necklace, the informant might just know something.
However the informant shook his head, and Lavi then left the informants building in peace, he had spend at least a couple of hours, and he was now heading out towards the streets to see what he could pick up on the streets.
As he was going through a few alleys things became hectic though, a few bandits surronded him, at first it did not seem like so bad, but these guys was stronger than expected, much stronger than any street bandit was, and he knew that it was only a matter time before they would overpower him, and he could not use kido or shikai as that would blow his cover, but if he could get help...
Lavi knew this could go so very wrong, but hopefully Arawn wanted to help Lavi more than he wanted to get rid of Yoru, doing the fight Lavi got whispered to Yoru to get hold of Arawn and lead him there.
Lavi placed his sword on the ground and used the sand to make a cover in which Yoru could escape unoticed, if only he was not surrounded he could escape easily the same way, but it was not possible.
Yoru stormed off into towards where he believed Arawn would be, it would take some time before he saw him, and as luck would have it, he was standing in an alley with someone he beat up.
Yoru dropped quickly, but was too eager to get the and crashed into the ground infront of Arawn and rolled forward a little, but he did not stay down and quickly got up again "L... Xan is in trouble he needs help!" Yoru was not being quite though, he was really panicked and not sure how to handle it at all, and just prayed that Arawn would trust him just this time.

His good mood soured at the sight of the strange cat creature flying at him. He had hoped to have seen the last of it for the day. With a sigh he saw it tumble to the ground and roll to a stop. A bothered as he was the creature's message couldn't be ignored. Trouble so soon? This was hardly good. While he understood the danger of splitting up, he hadn't expected things to go awry so quickly. A shinigami of Lavi's caliber shouldn't have too much trouble with simple bandits. He looked down at the two unconscious bodies at his feet. If he could do this then there was no doubt that someone of the 11th squad would do better. That could only mean that something truly unforeseen had happened or an unnatural opponent had appeared. Both were less than comforting thoughts.
"Well if it was going to be easy, he wouldn't need help." Arawn said to himself. As they moved others moved against them. It would be foolish to think they would wait until they came to them. He had to move quickly and shunpo wasn't an option. He now turned to address the creature. "Hurry and take me to Xan, before it's too late."

Yoru got off the ground and began flying down the alley as quickly as he could, they had to reach Lavi soon, he would not be able to last for very long without help, as soon as they began reaching the bigger roads Yoru stopped up and looked out at the road, he could not really continue with people there.
Yoru took a second before he would hurry across the road and into an alley, they could not stop, not when Lavi was in danger.
Soon after they would reach the area where Lavi had been fighting, but there was no one there, though there was sign of a battle and blood on the ground.

Nearly out of breath Arawn turned the corner and arrived at destination shortly after Yoru. Moving without shunpo was a pain. But he had to maintain the disguise as a thief. The area was empty. He was about to question if the creature had led him to the right spot, but noticed the blood. There was no mistake that this area had seen signs of battle. A brutal fight had taken place. Arawn took his time to examine the footsteps in the dirt. A multitude of people against one. Most of the dried blood was in the center of the area. Lavi had been overwhelmed. Arawn sighed. Being right had it's downsides. How strong these people had to be to take on trained shinigami from the 11th squad worried him. Against such odds even he might fall. Before he could think about rescue he had to figure out where they took his companion. He looked again a the many footsteps. It was hard to tell which way they had gone. The street showed much use, there were markings of people going in every direction. If he hurried he might get them before they took Lavi to their hideout. The fact they hadn't killed him was proof they wouldn't try until they got whatever it was they wanted from him. They would probably torture the man. Arawn hoped that if worse came to worse he and Lavi would use their full power to subdue bandits. The mission would fail, but they would have their lives which was more important. With a sigh he turned to the cat creature, there was no other way.
"You, we need to find Xan. Can you track him?" he asked the strange being. Lavi had claimed it appeared when his zanpukto released. There was a chance it had a connection to him in some way. "If you can't we're going to have a hard time following their trail." There were only three ways out the alley. He hadn't seen anyone on his way there, so it was one of the other paths. A fifty-fifty chance. Horrible odds.

Yoru floated a bit unsure around the area before he looked in one of the direction "that way" Yoru began flying through the alley in high speed, though after a while he stopped, he had a weird feeling that Lavi did not want to be found, and he could no longer feel what way Lavi was, but how was he now supposed to tell that to Arawn now.
Yoru raised his paw to his head looking around "I... I cant feel the way anymore, it is like he does not want to be found" but what could make Lavi not want to be found after he was hurt.
Lavi floated around trying to catch his trail.

Now things were getting puzzling. Lavi didn't want to be found? That didn't make sense. Why would he send the cat thing to him if he didn't need help. Perhaps the creature was playing a trick on him. It's evil intents quickly revealed. But Arawn was quick to dismiss that thought. The place they had just visited was indeed the site of a battle. One that someone had lost. It was possible Lavi had gotten away and was hiding from his pursuers. In doing so he had hide himself from is strange companion. There were too many unknowns. Arawn sighed and looked at the cat monster.

"Where is the direction you could feel Xan?" he asked calmly. There was another possibility; Lavi was unconscious or dead. Dead was unlikely, as if the creature did have some connection to the man, it would feel something. But if he was dead there was little reason for the attackers to take away the body with them. Arawn had seen no sign of shinigami in this area. It was unlikely they would hide such a crime as murder. He silently cursed his feeble spirit detection abilities. At best he could detect someone within twenty feet of him, but beyond that it was anyone's guess. For too long he relied on his phone for such tasks. Unfortunately he hadn't brought the device with him. He had feared it would be too obvious a clue to his real identity if found. Looking back at it now, he regretted that decision. But it was no time for regrets, he needed to track down Lavi.

Yoru just hang there nervous for a second before he turned to the way they had been going before "I think I know the way to where I last felt his precense, this way" Yoru began flying, he was affraid of what could have happened to Lavi, he knew he was not dead, but he was hurt and gone.
And why was it that he hid his presence from Yoru too, it was so confusing, maybe there was an ambush or maybe he had found something important and did not want to get interupted, it could be so much, and yet there was no answers to be sure of.

After a short while they would arrive outside a small appartment complex, to the normal person it would not stand out, but to the trained eye, it would be easy to see that the place was guarded by thugs.
They would seem randomly standing waiting, but their placement was too strategic for the complex to be random.
Yoru turned to Arawn once more "It is around here I last felt his precense"