Picnicking in Sengoku // Life of a Stranger (Open)

Nira stood atop the lamppost overlooking the boundary between where the concrete and metal city ended and nature began. Her knuckles white with tension, she lowered herself down and grasped the pole with her knees and slid down to the ground, her shoes making a soft thwap on the concrete sidewalk.

She straightened herself out and ran her fingers through her hair, and brushing against the large headphones she had on that covered her ears. Today she wore her adventuring clothes, a black sports bra by gear with their logo on her left breast in reflective silver, with a satin-and-sheer halter top by American Wolf, which was satin around the bust and sheer everywhere else, but sported an embossed geometrical figure of a wolf’s head at the right hip. Her black jean-shorts, with their loose fit, were also by gear, and featured their logo on her left thigh. Her shoes were atypical runners with a thicker heel for support, but their manufacturer logo had worn off, and she had her swords, the kris and dha, tucked into a black silken sash from a local vender, both holstered in sheaths she had made for them. She carried her haversack as well, a smaller one in this case than her usual one, which carried an insulated thermos of tea, and a couple of tuna sandwiches with lettuce. It also had bundled up inside of it a small tarp and blanket. The cables from her headphones lazily hung down from her head and went down her shirt, between her chest and her bra, and continued until they terminated in the jack of her music player in her right hip pocket.

The smell of the city during the day washed over her; it stank of sweat, fear, anger, oil, filth, and decay. But at the border of the city, the smell of fresher, cleaner air and trees wafted seductively to her nose, calling her away from the city. Somewhere, nearby, she could feel the presence of something stronger than a normal person. All around her, she could feel the minute spiritual pressures and powers of the people here and there. But from a greater distance, she could feel minute spiritual pressures. These would likely be stronger, if they were closer to her, but they had to be at least a block away, and there were only three of them. She hesitated before shrugging and took her steps into the natural world beyond the city.

Vikas looked at the corpse lying in front of him, it was badly mauled all over with a few of his bone spikes in it, it had not given him nearly as much enjoyment as he thought it would have, given it's spiritual presence. He looked around him at the forest and the trees, there was blood everywhere around here, splattered all over the trees from when the human had fled, bleeding all over. He watched as the soul rose from the body then quickly consumed it.

He stared at the body before him, the 3rd one he had killed this morning, he was having to kill a lot more in general now that he had developed an immunity to his pain venom. He used to just grow bone spikes and inject himself and enjoy the pain, but now he couldn't do that anymore and the bone spikes alone just didn't cut it pain wise so he had to turn to killing others and causing pain, however the pain in them and his enjoyment of it was so fleeting now... he needed another one to enjoy.

He sensed around for a nearby spiritual power and sensed a few nearby, he knew that he could have fun all day long with this many, quickly pinpointing the closest he began to run directly towards it. Bone spikes started to rip out of his skin in preparation for the ensuing battle, he shuddered in both pain and pleasure. After a few short seconds he was covered in bone spikes, and eager to meet this new enemy in combat. He flicked his tail back and forth in anticipation as blood from his previous kill splattered onto the surrounding area. Maybe this one would last longer than a few minutes...

She was only ten minutes into walking down the path towards the woods, which was sparsely populated with a few others, when a new pressure quickly blipped into her own range. It grew fast, and before she could even determine a course of action about it, a young woman not thirty or forty feet in front of her was downed by a dark mass. She stared horror-struck as a Demon lumbered over the poor woman, killing her and staining the path red with gore.

A scream erupted. Not from her, but from a couple further down. The sight of the demon likely frightened them more than the death of the woman, and suddenly people were running about like mad. Some, like her, dashed for the woods, hoping to escape the creature. The only thing she wasn't really aware of was that no one else but her actually saw the monster.

It looked like...she wasn't sure. It had moved to fast. It was large like a dog, but had...something abnormal about it. She cursed herself for running and panted against a young tree which barely concealed her presence. She gauged the creature, feeling its pressure and trying to decide what to do. It was stronger than she was, and it moved fast, maybe even fast enough to keep pace with her, or faster still even. Her mind spun. She needed to concentrate. Checking her surroundings, she bolted into the woods. Deeper, her heart pounding, she made her way to an inner path in the woods themselves, her foot splashing in a puddle. She paused to catch her breath and closed her eyes. With haste, she pulled the jack from its plug in her headphones and the pushed the cable into her bra. She pulled her headphones off and unzipped her haversack and shoved her headphones into it before zipping it back up.

She opened her eyes and unwittingly dropped her haversack into the puddle at her feet, and quickly cursed herself for doing so. But she was paralyzed with fear for what she saw. Blood splattered across trees, and body parts were on the path. The puddle beneath her feet wasn't one of water, but blood instead. She was alarmed, confused, afraid, and angry. She'd seen the demons chase and kill their prey, but they appeared to do so out of a hunger, devouring everything and not leaving anything behind.

"This is a...a..." She couldn't find the words, and her voice was low, halted and fleeting.

Sensing that something powerful was near, she grabbed at her swords, her kris in her right, and her dha in her left.

Instinct told her to run, but experience reminded her to remain armed.


Jane, a reporter for the news in Sanagu City, quickly rushed over to the helicopter, her heels clicking furiously against the hard concrete path to the pad atop the building. Her pink blazer blowing away from her petite frame and pushing down her half-open blouse, exposing her cleavage more than she normally would.

This was her chance. Someone had reported that a murder had occurred in Sengoku Forest. She had to admit, a lot of strange things had been happening there, but this was something good. She would catch herself a good piece of news to report on tonight.

She pulled herself into the vehicle and smiled, closing the door behind her with a strong pull and moving to the passenger seat, her cameraman already inside. Already in the air not too far away was a helicopter belonging to the Sanagu Police Department. She could see three bodies hanging out of the open sides of it, two with large weapons, and the third simply holding the railing above his head and a cone in his hand. They were armed with a megaphone and two grenade launchers, likely filled with smoke grenades which contained gases to slow or immobilize hostiles and provide cover for ground forces.

As he ran neared the spirital power he spotted a woman and lept at her from behind chomping straight into her neck, instantly realizing that he missed his target and stared at her for a second. He looked over as a couple screamed and pointed in his direction, chaos broke loose as people screamed and fled all over the place.

Vikaz bit down hard and severed the woman's head from her body and released all the bone spikes he had grown on the way here, the area became filled with agonized screams as people were impaled by his bone spikes and the pain venom took effect. He relished in the chorus of agony as people screamed and cried in pain, But suddenly a sound intruded into the chorus, he looked around quickly spotting some flying metal thing in the air, he grew about 20 bone spikes out of his tail and shot them at the contraption in annoyance. He looked around trying to find the spiritual power, once he got a lock on it he started to give chase. He would have loved to enjoy the screams but the people were already dying or passing out from pain outright.

He grew some bone spikes out of his shoulders facing forward and some on the end of his tail, until it looked like a spiked mace rather than a tail. He felt her getting closer and closer as he ran, he burst out of the bushes and there she was in the clearing, ready for battle with weapons drawn. Keeping his momentum he shot the bone spikes out of his shoulders at her and spun around trying to smash her in the side with his now spiked tail.

An Garganta opened just above the forest in Sengoku forest revealing a cat like hollow. Stepping out of the black protal she looked around seeing splashes of red along the usual green this was her first time being in this place. She felt as the wind blew through her siver-white fur ruffle. This is so nice. she thought as the thoughts were interupted by screams. She quickly opened her eyes and looked down in confusion.


As she looked down she saw a girl running deeper into the forest and right behind her was a... dog like creature with spike all over its body?Must be a new hollow, Ren shrugged not thinking much of it as she turned around to see if there were any souls to devoure.Soon the wind started to pick up as she was two metal flying things racing towards her. Eyes wide in shock and some fear she created her Aura Wings and raced for the ground. At the last second she opened her wings and landed safly on her four paws. Once again she looked around and saw the same dog like creature and the girl faceing off.

The dog-demon burst through the trees in front of her. She was frozen in terror. The power this thing exerted was more than those demons she had viewed previously. It was limber and thin, but had spikes coming from its body in several different places. It had a boney face as well, one that made the creature more disturbing. Her stomach was churning over and over again, her body repulsed at the smells and sights before her. The sounds of metal blades churning the air was coming closer, and without looking, she heard the sound of a helicopter meeting the earth with the sickening cracks of trees and whipping metal.

It hunched and quivered, squeezing spikes from itself and projecting them towards her. She found herself frozen to the spot; frozen by the fear that she would die like all those around her. The spikes came towards her, and she moved to deflect them with her weapons. The act was useless as the spikes ignored the metal and continued through, the blades not capable of deflecting attacks of reishi in their current state. A single spike, leading the others by quite a distance, slipped across her left cheek, cutting through her face with a graze and sending her spinning and reeling to the ground. Her fall was perhaps a saving grace, as other spikes passed overhead. She hit the ground hard, facedown, and with her knuckles seemingly ready to pop from their places at the tension she applied to hold her blades.

A burning sensation flooded her body. It spread across her face and made her feel like she had rubbed in salt, and peppers, and all manner of vicious things into the wound. Unable to control herself, she opened her mouth and let loose a scream of pain as the venoms of the spike quickly overrode her nerves and made everything sensitive. A slice came across her back, rending a scar across her lower back and hitching on a belt loop and lifting her up into the air and making her fly into a nearby tree.

She hit the tree hard, shaking it and sending the wind out of her lungs. She lay on the ground, bleeding from face and back, and finding trouble breathing from the blow and the pain. When she had hit the tree, muscle spasms forced her to drop the blades to the ground, where she lay on top of them. Unable to scream, and winded, she lay there, tear-filled and panicked eyes staring at the demon through a glaze. She needed to move; needed to get up before the demon acted again.

Afraid it would make another sudden attack, she curled her fingers around her weapons and scrabbled her feet against earth to push herself away from the tree. But it didn’t. The demon appeared to be watching her, a sick smile on its face like it was enjoying her agony. Without trying, she felt the pressures of another nearby, and could see that another demon had appeared. She cursed her luck and sucked in a painful breath, shivering at the pain it sent through her.

She could hear shouts, and the scrabble of feet, and then the distinctive ‘pa-thump’ and hiss of a gas grenade. Men, two of them, obstructed by the two demons, rushed towards her. Hopefully they were there to help her and fight the demons.


Somehow, the police helicopter escorting them had suddenly gone down. Her cameraman had filmed the incident, and they watched as it crashed not far from the gory scene below. There were dead bodies everywhere, and a girl with weapons was amidst the forest.

“As you can see now. There is a suspect in the forests who may be responsible for the massacre you see here. She seems to be waiting for-” Jane paused briefly. “It appears that the suspect has been hit. I believe that Police have subdued the armed suspect and are preparing to capture her. It is unknown if she acted alone or if she had accomplices at this time. It appears that the victim count is somewhere in the mid-twenties, but we won’t know for sure until later.”

Though she wouldn’t know it herself, Jane was one of the first people to actually broadcast a live Hollow Encounter across the city of Sanagu, and several other parts of Japan. Those who weren’t spiritually aware would assume it was as Jane thought, a single woman gone on a murder spree in the woods, but to those few who were spiritually aware, and sat in front of a computer or television monitor, they’d see a different story.

“We are reporting to you live from above Sengoku Forest, and I am Janeko Hikiba with Mushiro Ita-Saito.”

Vikaz stared at his wounded prey and heard another sound interrupting him another hollow landed on the ground nearby. He glared at it and switched his sight back and forth. It was his prey, not theirs for the taking. The humans had come closer and had continued to fire mist over the area. the mist started to spread to where they were.

As the mist started to move around him he flicked his tail towards his prey releasing a few spikes towards her legs and then swung his tail and released the others towards the other hollow, which was still some distance off. He dashed into the mist and towards the humans. As he burst out of the mist he heard them scream right before he pounced on one, quickly ripping out his throat then clawing the other one and doing the same. He stopped for a second and sensed around, the hollow and his prey had not moved yet, good. He stared at the corpse, why did he scream? he couldn't see him so why...

Vikaz looked at himself and laughed, a wicked evil laugh, they couldn't see him... they could see the blood he was covered in. He sensed more humans coming along probably about 30 or 40, but there was a group of 4 that was much closer than came into view, He grew and shot a volley of bone spikes at them and backed off towards his prey, it seemed like everything was determined not to let him have his prey.

He gathered some of his energy and grew as many bone spikes as he could manage, each one about 3 inches tall, then lept in the air and sprayed the area, which they would unwittingly walk into and be stabbed and cut by them. He scanned around and couldn't see the hollow anymore, then realized it was near his prey and dashed straight towards his prey, roaring his claim in rage as he burst through the mist near his prey.

Ren watched as the other hollow killed one of the human solders with a strange sence of bloodlust like she wanted to kill as well. She walked over to the injered girl and looked as the boney hollow was drawing closer, "Can you speak?" she asked in a low tone. Her body flinched a little as he roared in rage. "I don't steal someone elses prey. Why don't we have a small truce?" she asked curling her tail and lashed it out to the right sending an Aura Shard percing one of the solders. The man grunted as he felt something hit him.

Ren chuckled as her body began to glow blue covering herself in a thin armor of Aura shards to protect herself from the hollow incase he decided to attack her. Let's see what you will do. she chalanged the hollow in her mind.

This was…she couldn’t believe it. She coughed in the smoke and began to crawl away, shivering in pain and lungs full of gas. Yet she couldn’t move fast enough to escape the cloud. She had to act, to do something to put distance between herself and the demons, and to clear the smoke from her lungs. She had no choice but to do it, weakened as she was. She held her weapons tightly and began to speak.

“On my mother’s…grave, on my…father’s love, and…on my…grandfather’s honour…” She hissed painfully. “…Combat form.”

Without further words, the reishi she exuded as an aura began to harden into defined shapes, forming a headpiece that was white and black and stretched across the back of her head, ending in two small bumps, and her arms being coated in reishi up to her elbows, and her blades floating from her grip and into places above her wrists. She held her arms crossed in front of her and extended the weapons to their length, forcing them together and straining at the resistance before letting go. A bright flash of light, and the sound of air breaking. She was shot backwards, feet tumbling over her head, she slowed to a stop some seven or so meters away, the cloud of fog dissipating from the force as well. She managed to stand to her feet, getting a small revitalizing kick from unleashing her powers. The pain was beginning to subside to a numbness.

Standing now, she was a slightly different sight. The force of her polarity wave having burned away the front of her shirt and bra, and the tatters of what remained to cover her decency quickly fluttered away as her chest heaved up and down, leaving her naked from the hips up, save for her gauntleted forearms and forehead. The warm air felt nice on her skin. Her hand across her breasts, she retracted her blades and pulled her sash from her hips upwards until it was snuggly around her chest. Her sheaths clattered to the ground. This was not the first time her Polarity Wave had reacted like that. Mostly, it would burn holes into her clothes, but the odd time or two she had let it on long enough to decimate what she was wearing, and had long learned never to cross her blades near her hips. She’d learned long ago that she was never to cross her blades unless prepared.


“The fighting is escalating. Police have…”

There was a large flash and the sound of something exploding. The smoke cleared, and all that could be seen was a massacre of dead officers and the lone culprit some ways away, but without a top on.

“Censor! Censor!” She hissed to her cameraman. “Censor but zoom in. Let’s get a good look at her!”

“As you can see, the suspect has likely ambushed police with an explosive. Again. This is live footage over Sengoku Forest.”

Vikaz glanced over at this new hollow, it looked a bit like him but no spikes, it began to talk to him, asking him if he could speak and if he would be interested in a truce, he couldn't speak but he had no interest in a truce, in fact decided to eat the hollow after he had eaten the human. But how to use this... He grew a few more spikes on his tail and flicked them towards the hollow, forming a little row of spikes in front of the other hollow and walked towards the human slowly while staring at the hollow until he was sure she wouldn't move.

Vikaz grew a few spikes and charged straight at the girl, not even attempting to be subtle or evade, he was through with interruptions and frustrations. He lept at her trying to bite her shoulder and maul her with his spikes and his claws, he wasn't going to let this one get away. Vikaz began to attack her with a flurry of attacks, going on the pure offense, not even attempting to defend himself, just trying to kill her before something new came or the other hollow interfered.

Ren sighed as the other Hollow did not speak. Reacting quickly she took a few steps back. It seemed to be a warning to her st stay way from his prey, she chuckled, "What you choose to do next is up to you, Onna. I suggest you leave." she said before taking to the skies. Once she was high enough she opened a Garganta and went through it. She had had enough of the Human world, and it was time for her to learn more of what it was like to be a true Hollow. And that would mean that she would have to find the one that she had caused trouble for.

Too far away to hear, Nira, panicked and sore, held a defensive pose while it appeared that the demons took to conversing with each other, though if it went well, she didn’t know, for one demon shot spikes at the other, and that demon had floated into the sky. If it had vanished, or was preparing for an attack, she didn’t know, for at that time, the dog-demon was launching itself at her.

I’m going to die. She thought, I’m going to die and no one will know that I am dead. No one will be able to tell my family what happened to me. There was a scream, followed by a bloody gurgle as someone far away walked into a spike embedded into the ground. The woman, an officer she couldn’t see, quickly died from the venoms of the spike, and hung limply in the air. This death knell sent Nira into a sort of focus, and breaking her short, morbid thoughts.

She held up her arms, to surrender her life, and when the demon began to come closer, she fell to her knees and released her blades, rolling out of the way, hoping to skewer the demon through something important, and feeling as the breeze it made rushed beside her, and the faint pull of her blades from the force as well, though she struggled to keep them from touching, lest she blast herself into the earth or a tree by accident. When the demon had made most of its way by, she had to deal with its tail, which was making for a direct line for her. Fear turning to panic, she swung her swords downwards together, careful not to let them touch, and rolled away while hoping to chop the tail off.

Without bothering to check, she spun on her heel and made as best she could to run through the tree line and flee the demon. The pain coursing through her body was numbed only by the rush of adrenaline she was getting from her survival instincts, though as she ran, perhaps faster now than she ever had before, the pain slowly began to return, making her wince in slight pain as she pounded her feet on the rough and soft earth. And while running, she cut a swathe behind her, having forgotten to retract her blades.


“The suspect seems to have…” Jane paused, not sure of what exactly was going on down there.

The girl had stopped, then an officer had died, and then she seemed to have fallen down and recovered, though why, Jane had no idea. Then she pulled these strange blades from her arms, and then ran into the woods.

“The suspect seems to have fled the scene.” Jane finished. She was about to consider continuing to follow when they received a live broadcast call.

“Jane?” Came the voice of the chief. “I have received a request that you return to see me. Please stop the broadcast and return to our head offices.”

Before much else could be done, her cameraman shrugged his shoulders and made mention that their camera had been remotely shut off to prevent any other recording of the incident. Sighing, Jane waved, and the helicopter turned around and made its way home. But later that night, on the news, Nira’s face would be plastered across the television screens as a wanted suspect in the brutal massacre of several dozen innocents and officers of the law.


Inside of his offices, the chief editor of the station was confronted by two men in suits, and though they made it clear that the broadcast was to be stopped, they did not deny him the privilege to continue broadcasting the suspect’s face and details that she was wanted for questioning by police. But he was red-faced when they shoved him from his desk and confiscated or destroyed most of the materials that displayed the earlier broadcast, leaving him with only the seven-second clip of the girl standing in the woods.

Unfortunately for Vikaz she just dove to the side, one of her blades making a small cut against his front leg as she dove. then she tried slashing his tail and then rolling away again. The blades struck his tail hard, shattering some of the bone spikes on it but unfortunately for the girl, Vikaz's tail was pretty tough and survived the blows. The girl turned a ran as fast as she could.

Vikaz shook off the pain and dashed after her, she seemed to be a bit faster than him, and there were blades swishing back and forth behind her, Vikaz thought quickly and extended the bones in his tail, shooting the tail forward and grew a lot of inch long spikes around the still flexible part of his tail at the end, intending to catch her by her leg and drag her back to him so he could finish her off.

Dashing, her lungs slowly starting to feel the burn of prolonged running, her foot stumbled and she made some awkward steps forwards. Feeling the presence of the Hollow coming from behind, she picked up her pace and hammered her feet forwards, forcing herself to keep running. The canopy had thickened, and eventually begun to thin out again, and she could see that the trees were to break up ahead and become a stretch of open area. If she could just make it.

But no. prickling feelings suddenly turned to agonizing pain once again as she fell to the earth like a tree, dozens of small spikes stuck in the backs of her calves. Her blades withdrew, and she rolled from her chest onto her back to look upwards, her world spinning around and around, and the venom doing its work as well to help disorient her.

"No..." she wheezed, "I can't..........can't die.....so.......I'm so......."

Before she could really get a grasp on things, she felt herself lifted up by her calves and dragged backwards. she curled forwards while half-turned and tried to pry the spikes from her leg, though it was difficult with her ass being dragged across the dirt. She tried around a half a dozen times before giving up and preparing to release a Polarity Wave. She released her blades from their holsters and tried hard to touch them together at the demon's tail, though it was still tough to do, and she needed to maintain them for a short period in hopes to create enough force to repel herself, cut the tail, or do something at least.

Success! He had managed to snare the woman as she tried to flee, and started dragging her back towards him. She flipped over and dug at the spikes embedded in her leg as she was drug towards him. Then she pulled out her blades and started to attempt to repeat that blast she had made earlier, presumably to blow off his tail so she could escape, that woluldn't do.

Vikaz quickly lifted his tail in the air slamming it back against the ground, the woman along with it. He then started to use his tail to smash the woman against any surface he could, intending to beat her into submission and finally consume her.

Her attempted attack failed as she was thrashed around harder. Apparently this demon had guessed her skill, and was attempting to prevent her from using it. Instead she found herself smashed repeatedly into trees and objects, felt the crack of her shoulderblades against a tree, and then her arms and chest burned in severe pain. She was thrown a few more times before she blacked out, her body flailing back and forth, her fullbring rendered useless and her two weapons dropped to the earth.


Warren Wedge was running as fast as he could with his partners, Craschek, Jones and Biggs, to get to the extraction point. He and his team mates had been sent after the ridiculous mess that had been displayed on the television. As they approached the area, a small pinging noise was heard in their ears, telling them the distance of the Hollow from their current running positions.

"Jay-man, Crash," Warren spoke into his intercom, "You two distract the Hollow, Biggy and I will get the package."

"Uh huh" and "Yeah, whatever." were heard on his ear-piece.

Warren paused and loaded a round into his gun before angling it up a bit and firing. A loud howling noise was heard in the area before a small canister imploded on the hollow's flank and coated it in acid. None of them knew that this hollow seemed to be immune to the canister's only effect: pain.

Two of the four moved forwards, and opened fire with their guns on the hollow, while the other two charged up from behind, one grabbing the girl, the other swinging a massive-bayonet attached to his gun at the creature's tail. The blow reflected off, but he tried again another time while his allies rained fire and distracted the hollow. On his third try, he managed to hit the tail hard enough to free the girl, but she had severe damage to her legs. He looked at his friend and shrugged, then spotted the weapons on the ground.

"Leave no evidence of her, right?" Jasen Biggs asked.

"Leave no evidence." Warren replied.

The man picked up the weapons and helped to carry the small woman away from the scene and back to the return point. They were getting close when the helicopter rose to take off without them.

"Sorry boys, but I'm protecting my ass first." Came the voice of a younger man from their intercom.

"You slimy bastard." Warren growled. "You're job is to get us out of here!"

"My ass is worth more than the five of you. Deal with the hollow, it seems to have finished your friends too quickly." The voice continued.

Before either of the two could continue their conversation, spikes rose like hail into the air and penetrated the helicopter, sending it to the ground. And from the lack of voices on the intercom system, it sounded like Hiriki had died in the crash too, the slimy coward.

Pushing on, the two moved faster, leaving the area and the survivors of the wreck to deal with the hollow in the woods. Eventually hitting a road, they hailed down a jeep and took off to the nearest city; Karakura Town. After that, it was back to the base for questioning.

(OOC: End of Thread)