This is a TITLE(Stratus, Taka)

Junko returned here on medical leave, but it was towards the end of it now. She had to leave in 3 days. 3 days of True R&R. That might have been true if she was a normal human being, if she was a human being at all. Nope the life of a shinigami was never so subtle. Of all places for the Military hospital to be, it was this city. Karakura town, a quiet little suburb that hardly had a building higher than 5 stories tall. Junko knew of two, the school, and the hospital.

She stood on the roof of the hospital, fences rounded it, Junko sat on top of the fence, the sun setting in the horizon... She didn't have a gigai, that was being occupied by a blank mod soul, essentially a comatose body...

The sun set, and the horizon was darkened, she jumped off the fence, toward the city, using reshi under her feet to slow her decent... It took near 45 seconds for her to reach the ground, and she hit the ground walking. Limping more, the shrapenel that hit her gigai in Iraq translates to wounds on her Spiritual body as well... and the wounds from her battle with Tatsuya... Damn him...

Junko limped down the street, the wound causing her little pain at this point, thats when she heard the hollow scream... And Junko dissappeared, flash stepping away to see the hollow, to study how it behaves, and if nessicary kill it before it hurt anyone else...

Tatsu had been walking in the city for quite a while, he had sensed a spiritual energy that belonged to a hollow for sure but where was it, he had no clue. He had been walking on rooftops and flash stepping from building to building, just in case some human's had the ability to see invisible beings, he didn't want to start a comotion about ghosts and trouble the human world.

The day was clouded and windy, specially chilly for people who were used to live in hot places or micro climates such as Tatsu. Goosebumps on his skin, his thoughts about the weather were mediocre but he knew he needed to get rid of such thinkings, because it was those kind of thinkings that led him to where he is and altered his train of logical thoughts when he actually deserted the soul Society, a grave mistake he wish he had never done.

The wind rolled through the shinigami's hair, making them somewhat float in the wind, the red bandanna still tied in his hair untouched uncared by anything, unlike his skin and his clothing which had been ripped through his Ryoka experience and many battles against the squad two strike teams.

Tatsu made his way to the middle of the city and waited, not really hiding is obvious spiritual energy around him, he was trying to bait the hollow in his general direction, so it wouldn't attack mere humans, afterall he was a tasty shinigami that had nothing else to do than wait there. A brief look at the sky told him it was about to rain, or atleast it would happen soon, thunder rolled without lighting and he waited.

The air trembled above the middle of the street, but the cars and people passed without even a second look. The second pulse made the empty sky ripple like water. It was if someone had cast a stone into the sky and disturbed the tranquil night. The third ripple was punctuated by clawed hand ripping through the air out of nowhere. Spiritual power flooded the area and still the people didn't notice. None of them saw as the hand was joined by a second claw that latched onto the air itself. Together the hands pushed in opposite directions and the sky parted. There was a loud ripping sound as the fabric of reality was torn asunder and dark portal was revealed. A moment later the owner of the two clawed hands stepped through the crude opening and landed on the street. His spiritual power flared violently as he stood there for a moment examining his surroundings. Realizing he had arrived he reeled in his power. Already the jagged black hole behind him was closing. Stratus sighed. Ever since his transformation he could now open portals to the human world, but it was nothing like he expected. For one thing he couldn't control where they took him. It seemed he was only capable of opening portals others had made before. It was barely one step above piggybacking on another hollow's gateway. Just barely better.

Not knowing where he going was a small problem at best. The real problem was that it made him very hungry. Lucky for him there was plenty of food before him. He had landed in the middle of the intersection the light had just turned red for the north to south road. He hopped sideways as a car cam barreling at him ignorant of his existence. It was odd that although invisible he had an effect on physical bodies and they him to some extent. The small hop brought him closer to a car waiting at the light. A green pick up with dark tented windows. Even from outside the car the loud music from within could be heard. Stratus grinned and pulled back his fist. His hand shot forward and shattered the treated glass sending shards flying all over the driver. The clawed hand grabbed him and yanked him out of through the broken window. The seat belt was no match for the hollows strength. Bloodied and screaming the man emerged from the vehicle. With his foot no longer on the brake the car rolled forward. A car crossing the small section swerved to miss and crashed into the building, the next car wasn't so lucky it hit the drifting car and sending it in the spinning into another car. It was like watching dominoes the simple action led to a massive reaction. Within seconds the intersection was a mess of cars and filled with screams of injured people. Ten cars were totaled, six of which were in the middle of the intersection and the rest scattered into the buildings. The other four avoided the pile up only to crash into the buildings on either side. Everyone was in such a rush the didn't have time to stop properly. All the while this happened Stratus stood and ate the truck's driver. So great the caranage that no one paid any attention to the sudden bloody mess where the hollow consumed the unfortunate man. A meal was always better with a small show. He was chewing on the man's femur when a soul emerged from one of the cars that had crashed.

Junko nearly skidded to a stop when she felt the hollows spiritual pressure... She was on the roofs now, her armor creaking with the sudden stop, a small dust cloud... and then she vanished again. Getting closer than ever, flash stepping to an intersection where a quite powerful hollow stood, devouring a man's bones like a dog.

Souls popped out of a recent car crash, and she wondered, from her rooftop vantage point, "Did this just happen, or did the hollow cause it" Souls started wandering out of the wreckage, and the hollow's eyes turned from the man he had already devoured to his new feast...

Although Junko did nothing to conceal her position before, she called down to the hollow, "You seem strong... But can you take me on..." The stunning familiarity of this reiatsu she was feeling she couldn't place. But perhaps this had been a hollow that got away... Or perhaps it was the other shinigami in the city, who radiated their spiritual presence thought the city, like carrion to crows, something both the Hollow and Junko must have been curious about...

Tatsu had ramained where he was, wondering how many hollows had entered the city, he knew for sure there was already one, when he could feel another pressure come into play...and it was another hollow, coming from a Garganta, in the sky. Still unerved, he could recognize the energy that entered the atmosphere, it was stronger than his but that was no feat, Tatsu wasn't really powerful in spiritual energy, his strength resided within his combat skills.

The samurai could feel another shinigami within the air, and that shinigami was going closer to the intersection. The hollow that had landed from the garganta was already wrecking havoc and chaos had already erupted in the middle of the city, screams could be heard streets away.

Tatsu closed in on the two spiritual pressence and hoped he could be in for a show, he would most likely help the shinigami that was in trouble and then go away. It all depended on how he would be greeted and what the situation was. Tatsu was a man that was trying to find himself in a world of turmoil he didn't know which camp he wanted to help and what would his goal be in either of them, but for sure as long as he didn't know he wouldn't let his former fellows die to a mere hollow.

Finally arriving upon the scene, Tatsu could see the carnage that had happened, Soul's popping here and there, people crying in pain, and someone being eaten. All in all it seemed pretty normal for a shinigami to arrive at a scene like this. The samurai started his action, vanishing from his current point and suddenly making still living human's disapear from the intersection only to reapear somewhere safer. He hoped he wouldn't drag the attention of the hollow, but he really didn't think about it, his main goal was to save the human's that had been brought upon this carnage. In all this chaos Tatsu couldn't even notice the other shinigami that had been watching the scene, oblivious to their reaction or thoughts he was wide open to the shinigami but well alert for the hollow.

So rapt was he in the display before him he had barely sensed the spiritual signal before it was upon him.
"A shinigami already!?" Stratus clicked his tongue in disappointment. This was going to interfere with his meal. He looked up as the voice called out to him. A female shinigami; a rare sight for the hollow. Rare? There was a tickle in the back of his head as a memory struggled to reveal itself. He brushed it off and as the woman's words sunk in. Shinigami were so formal, why couldn't they just jump right into things? Stratus dropped the half eaten femur and let it clatter to the ground. "I'm plenty strong...." he said as he pooled slime into his palms of both his hands. "Way too much for you to handle." A burst of energy and the slime was crystal. Even without looking he could feel it pulsate against his hands. "So why don't you save us both some time and come down here and die like a good little girl?"

Stratus prepared to toss the two baseball sized bombs at the woman's perch when he felt something. His armor rattled and once more Stratus opened his spiritual sense. Soon he realized what his tendrils already knew; once again another spiritual signal had approached him without his notice. He clicked his tongue once again. He could feel it now as the person moved about the area. The signal stopped and Stratus acted. He turned in an instant and threw the glowing crystal in his left hand in the direction of the stopped signal. In the same motion he turned back and tossed the crystal from his right hand at Junko. His hands now empty he swiftly crafted a sword for each hand. One shinigami was bad, two would be alot of trouble. He would need to be on his toes or this might be his last trip to the human world.

Junko smiled, this banter was refreshing, coming from a hollow, disturbing, but refreshing none the less. She didn't notice the other shinigami arrive, not visually, nor spiritually... His aura was dissapointingly small, Junko let hers exude from her body, a wave pulsing out from her, of heat and energy. Junko did notice him when he was the target of the first attack, a little ball of green crystal it seemed flying at dizzying speed at him... The hollow continued the rotation, throwing one to Junko as well...

Time slowed down, Junko's breathing, steady, slow, heavy. Her weight shifting, down, preparing to jump. Her hand moving, too slowly, to her sword hilt, Junko resolved herself to an alternative, her mind searching for something not often used, Kido. "Hado 3, Crimson Strike" Her off hand shot the beam, intercepting the ball halfway, and it exploded, shrapnel flying everywhere, and more importantly at Junko...

Her armor took the brunt of it, her face took a scratch, just below the eye, her neck was grazed, and the rest of her body was miraculously either saved by the armor or unscathed.

Junko's blade cleared its sheath, and she charged, Shouting, "Hado no Go, Kakyuu" A fireball shooting at that hollow, She would have to hope that shinigami didn't recognize her... There were hundreds of shinigami... why would this one know her anyway...

Tatsu had enough time, and battle expertise to notice just how the crystal was fast...but not fast enough, the samurai's greatest strength resided within his speed and his battle expertise, none the less he moved a step aside and the crystal shard pierced another hole within his red enforcer cloak. Tatsu didn't bother with introductions, he already knew this hollow, he had fought it in the past, but it was weaker back then. Tatsu vanished from his current location and leaped at the hollow in the time it launched the crystals and dropped its arm, Tatsu's speed was blinding but his blade was even deadly, it was aiming at the monsters tendon, trying to render it unable to flee this battle.

Tatsu was a proud man, but he really didn't bother attacking from the front, he fought to win and nothing else, if they thought he was weak, they didn't meet his shikai and he knew that, alot of people made that mistake, he had in fact trained with a captain to achieve it.

((Sorry for the short post))

The woman's reaction speed was marvelous. She shot the glowing orb out of the air, but it instantly detonated. Stratus was surprised at such an apt response to his attack. Not letting the orb get close was wise, using kido to do so wasn't. Some of the shrapnel managed to hit the woman. But his focus was directed at the hidden shinigami that now revealed himself. Whoever this warrior was they were fast. Fast enough to dodge the explosive crystal he had launched, and the blast that followed. The man vanished and reappeared faster than Stratus could assume a complete battle stance. Stratus could follow the movement with his eyes, but it took precious seconds for his body to react. Seconds that the man put to good use, or so he thought. There was a slight jolt to his foot as the man's zanpukto met armor instead of tender flesh. This shinigami was clever he knew that hollows shared some physiology of humans. His attack was meant to hobble Stratus, but he had failed to noticed the thick bone that covered his feet similar to his armored hands. Still the man's strike managed to make a small dent in the sturdy armor. A second later Stratus twisted around ready to bring his left sword at the shinigami's head. At least that was what thought about doing. Even as he did he felt the flare of energy as the woman unleashed her fury in the form of a fireball. There was little time to thing about it. Stratus made a weak swipe at the man with his sword only to distract him. He spun and jumped backwards away from the fiery attack. It would seem the woman didn't have complete control of the flame as it continued on it's path to hit the spot he once occupied. Unfortunately the male shinigami was now occupying that space. Stratus jumped further back putting as much space as possible between himself and two shinigami. At least now he could keep both within view.

"Oops..." Junko remarked, the hollow got out of the way of her flames, but only felt it, the blur that was her sight rendered anything moving obscured. That was Junko flashstepping, and having shot a fireball intentionally slowed down, she had hoped to catch both the unknown shinigami off guard and the hollow. A perfect storm for her.

But of course, she wasn't that lucky. Instead, she appeared behind the shinigami in the path of her own fireball, which trickled at her enemy with a seemingly agonizingly slow pace, but in reality, it was still about 40 miles an hour. Slow for a projectile, but it was still a force to be reckoned with.

And then again, so was Junko's blade, which came slicing in, the weight of the broadsword against her calloused hands created an force that the honed blade would surely pierce the man's body if it connected. Pierce, lacerate, and cut him in half. Somehow she doubted this man would be felled by such a petty stroke, and somehow she doubted her choice to leave the hollow alone for the time that she did. If this man was engaging this hollow, he must have been strong. Hopefully these weaklings would prove to be a challenge for Junko.

Before their death.

The man tried to late to move out of the way as Junko's weapon cut through his clothes and slashed his flesh. His motion ended up saving his life, that was before the ball of flame came crashing down at him. The bolt exploded and sent him flying backwards his body aflame. Frantically he tried to put out the fire. His skin was slightly smoking in spots where the flames had touched him. Still he looked rather unharmed after a man that had twice now narrowly avoided death. The cut on his side was bleeding, but he didn't take the to cradle the wound. Instead now made some distance from Junko just as Stratus had made from them both. By lashing out at him the woman had made herself a second enemy. Rather than a possible united front it was now a three sided battle.

Stratus took all this in stride. He was curious why the shingiami weren't working together to capture him, but at the same time was grateful. The woman's fire was rather troublesome. He'd rather they were at each others' throats than his. So he focused his next attack on the woman. In the moments away from the two soul reapers he had crafted himself a emerald spear. In one fluid motion he tossed his weapon at Junko looking to skewer the woman through the back. As it left his head he was already busy crafting a new one. This one he didn't throw instead he jumped forth after his thrown weapon to attempt to strike her from the side.