White Knight Wanted // Life of a Stranger (Takatsumaru)

The driver of the jeep was compliant, though confused. He couldn't figure out why a bloodied girl and two paratroopers had burst out of the forest and requested he drive. He accepted their story of them practicing war games and having the girl, a civilian, accidentally stumble into the midst of things, but it was still unlikely.

The drive was more or less quiet, until the two soldiers shouted a warning that he couldn't quite grasp. Then the jeep was blindsided by a force unseen to its driver. The vehicle rolled a few, though the driver's side was crumpled, and the driver himself was more or less dead from the impact. His soul floated over the wreckage before it was gobbled up by the hollow.

Still attacking the jeep with its tasty contents was Hand, a uniquely shaped hollow that looked like a scaly hand. He was greenish in hue, and had four limbs on one side of his body that articulated like fingers. His neck and head formed a sort of thumb to the final appearance, and his mask was a plain white noh mask with a sad expression. He had wrapped himself around the jeep and was currently penetrating its windows with his head, his mouth snapping open and shut, trying to get the tasty souls inside.

"BAM! Motherfucker!" Biggs howled happily as he managed to unload his gun's hot payload into the creature's face.

Hand suddenly flipped over itself and coiled up in agony. It wasn't dead, but having just swallowed the Anti-Spiritual Matter round of Bigg's gun, it felt like it was melting from the inside out. Maggot, above him, snickered to itself before coiling up and around to the front of the jeep and then repeatedly smashing its own head into the jeep to crush the contents within. This rendered those inside trapped, and sent Wedge unconscious.

If someone didn't come soon, there would be nothing left of them after the hollow attack.

Maggot was perhaps an apt name, as the thing was as long as two school buses, and had a single, thick head that had a massive mask of curved bone that protected much of it. The mask even extended down the creature's back to a point, and was forked into two long horns. Out in the forest, under Maggot's control, were another three hollow's, each looking like Hand, waiting for something pr someone to take the bait.

(OOC: Each hand is a Rank 1 hollow with no abilities, 15/15/15/15. Maggot is a Rank 3 Hollow, 30/10/10/20, see here for more about Maggot.)

The moonless night was dark, and a jeep was rolling down a dangerous road, on one side a hundred food drop, and on the other a mountain forest, and to Tatsu's eyes it seemed like spiritual energy crawled everywhere in the forest, but more importantly, it was after the what looked like humans. The samurai was going as fast as he could, he had been following these hollows for days ever since they attempted to attack him at his own personal shack on a nearby mountaintop. Tatsu was only aware of the first 4 lesser hollows and he never thought he was charging within a trap, nonetheless he would've done it anyway.

Tatsu made his spiritual energy flare high and strong trying to catch the hollow's attention. The copper taste of blood, most likely the drivers came to his mouth. He looked at the hand like creature and saw that it was writhing in pain, but the hand creature wasn't the main meal it seemed, there was a huge creature in front of the jeep that seemed all the more powerful. Without any hesitation Tatsu charged forward towards the huge sized creature unsheathing his sword.

Tatsu himself was tall, towering for his 6 foot. The feature that most people recognize him bu has to be his hair, which falls below his ass, held firm by a blue ribbon at neck level helps prevent it flapping all over the place. On his shoulder lays a red haori, showing his previous status within soul society and underneath a kimono can be seen. His sword looks like a traditional zanpakuto. Most of facts taken he jumped in between the jeep and the monsters head, attempting a block with his sword. Of course the sheer weight of the creature almost made the samurai falter, he looked behind himself and told whoever was still alive and in the jeep. ''Get away'' Of course that was just Tatsu, as self sacrificing as ever, he would probably attempt to suicide himself for a flying seagle in perril, but that's just how he is.

His attention wasn't on the hand like creature, he just hopped it was still on the ground writhing in pain while he attempted to counter attack the hollow that was crushing his defence in each and every hit.

Ah, thought both the hollow and the remaining conscious soldier, a Soul Reaper.

Maggot didn't really care. It was having too much fun pounding its head against the jeep at the moment, and barely noticed when the Shinigami had transposed itself between it and the vehicle. When it did notice that the head-bashing fun was no longer rocking the jeep, it reared up and wailed, signaling the lesser hollows to sort of strafe their way through the woods towards him. Then Maggot leered down at the Shinigami and opened its giant head to speak.

"We want the girl, Soul Reaper." Its voice echoed out of its mouth. "Leave now and we'll let you live."

In the meanwhile, Biggs was having a hard time not choking back a laugh.

"Man, if I could get away, I would have." He cackled. "I've got casualties in here. Help me kill these sons of bitches and I'll be happy to get away."

He managed to put another canister into his gun and pointed it out the remaining opening he could and pulled the trigger, blowing up Hand's head and forcing it to dissolve into a fine white sand.

"Back to Dust, and Dust to Life." Biggs cheered. With that, the pile of sand rose up and scattered to the winds, Biggs using his spiritual powers to rid the area of its trace. His hand was pressed to his throat, pushing the talisman to his skin.

Then he listened, with the Shinigami to the Hollow's words. He had heard that some of these things could talk, but never had seen, or in this fun case, heard them do it.

"The girl?" he said to himself quizzically. "What's so special about her?"

More of the Hands came from the forest, rushing towards the overturned jeep that seemed to be the stand-off point for the Hollows and the Shinigami and the survivors. Biggs loaded his gun, but the vehicle was facing the wrong way to deal with them, and if they hit the jeep too hard, they'd possibly send it over the cliff. He hoped the man above would be kind and spare their lives, both literally for the Soul Reaper above him, and figuratively to Jesus Christ.

Maggot reared up to its full height and sneered down at the Soul Reaper, smiling and wondering what the man would do. There were plenty of options. If the man was strong and fast enough, he could finish off the lesser Hollows in no time and be back soon enough to prevent him from swallowing up the vehicle. Of course, if the man did that, he would probably run away. It was what he did best, seeing as he never had won a fight fairly yet to this point, and his inner mask bore the scar from a fight years before against a Shinigami.

Tatsu had been taking half a dozen hits before the hollow actually noticed he was there, he never actually thought of how stupid a hollow could be, but what was the difference between hitting a jeep and hitting a shinigami. The creature seemed to finally notice it wasn't hitting a jeep anymore, it reeled on itself and roared at him trying to intimidate him. Tatsu could already feel the other hollows rushing in from the forest, this would be dangerous.

The last thing Tatsu would expect, was that this ugly thing could actually talk, it seemed like it wanted the girl. ''As if'' Tatsu said with a tone that could be as cold as his sword. The creature kept on babbling about letting him leave but Tatsu had already started rushing words. "Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!" The red energy rushed out of Tatsu's arm, it even fitted with his red coat, it quickly rushed at the hollows face.

Hearing the reply that Biggs gave him, Tatsu understood that his self sacrifice personality would have to be put aside for a little while, he had this guy with him, Tatsu hoped he was good enough to be teamed up with. ''Gladly'' He replied to him. Soon after another hollow was turned to sand.

Tatsu didn't share the same concern for the girl, for the moment his main goal was merely to slaughter these hollows, if he was lucky, these person would allow him to remain with them for a while, of course he had his reasons. The multiple hands charged towards the jeep, Tatsu needed to find a solution, they'd either pierce through the jeep and send the survivors down a cliff and or the big assed one would simple squash it on the asphalt.

The imminent contact between the hands and the jeep forced Tatsu into reckless action, he didn't think things through. One word could be heard out of Tatsu's mouth before he jumped down the hood of the jeep. ''Awaken...'' The rest was muffled down by a loud bang, Tatsu had slashed a hand straight in the face, making it melt while the other two pierced him mid stomach level and shoulder level. Using the fact they couldn't move, he used the opportunity to slay both hands making them vanish. The injured Tatsu looked towards the massive maggot, it was just about to eat the jeep whole, and the actual terrain around it. ''Shit!'' Tatsu said out loud as he shunpo'd right in between the mouth and the jeep holding it for a brief, but the sheer weight of the creature overwhelmed him. He held it back a good three seconds before seemingly being swallowed whole.


Meanwhile, inside a monsters mouth. ''SHAKKAHO''

The hands withered and died easily, though Maggot proved more of a challenge. Biggs was worried about what was going to happen as he heard the fighting outside. He felt like shit for not being able to do anything while in the vehicle. He turned his intercomm onto a private channel while he waited and issued his situation to headquarters.

"This is Operative Seven-seven-nine-two with operative nine-four-one-one and the package. Situation is snafu. I repeat situation is snafu." He said, as calmly as he could.

"Received Biggs. Consider objective secondary to new directive; survive the encounter and return when possible. Secondary objective is no longer invaluable. Completion is optional." A voice reported in his ear.

"Understood." was all he said afterwards. Now he prayed that he could live to return and complete both directives. He didn't plan for failure.

Outside, Maggot had swallowed the shinigami.

"Ah, now you see my true face." Maggot cackled. His inner mask was perhaps much different from the one his outer face bore, as this was circular and round, and had only a mouth and a rigid edge around it. His head stretched forwards to devour the shinigami, coming close enough to show that his head was half as large as the man was. He opened wide when the man unleashed kido, and he was stunned and hurt. The scar along his face was added too as his mask was burnt brown. He retracted and coughed, his arms parting and dropping the Soul Reaper. He coiled, his outer head split in two and flailing. When he recovered, he raised himself, splitting his tail into two legs, his long outer head split into two parts, making up claws on his long arms. He stood now, standing easily fifteen feet tall, his great outer mask skimming the ground, and the horns reaching up past his shoulders. His head had pulled back, now appearing as a small disc on his great torso. His hollow hole was now exposed too, appearing in the middle of his chest.

"So I've been revealed for the beast I am." Maggot cried out. His head was now visible in its true position. when he had been a wyrm, his mouth had appeared horizontally, but now it was vertical on his chest. "I guess I'll have to honour the code and kill you all now then."

He slammed his fists on the ground and then swung them forwards. Despite the distance, his arms extended to make the thirty-odd feet that separated himself and the shinigami. One hand came clamping down for the soul reaper, while the other grabbed the front of the jeep and pulled it towards himself. He would gladly drop the whole thing down the cliff, if it weren't that he was to bring the soul of the girl back to Hueco Mundo.

Tatsu was glad the the hands died, even though it injured him, the wounds were closing already, it wasn't really obvious what provoked them to close, but it was happening, and slowly the pain faded away but it would still be there for a while, the body remembered what it felt like being pierced. The monster was even uglier now than ever, Tatsu never saw these types of hollows in the past, but they had to be talked about for their cunning and their ability to lead hollows into a battle without much after thought. That kido really saved him back then and he knew that his decision was a little bit unconsidered. The beast atleast twice the size of Tatsu, yet he stayed there unfaltering, he glanced back at the jeep seeing as if they could atleast get out of the death trap. ''Can you get out?''

Tatsu snapped around when the monster began talking, not sure if it was something similar to kido, his experience with talking hollow is very limited. But it seemed it was babbling again about seeing his true form. ''The code?..'' Tatsu didn't quite bother to understand, he just never knew they had a code that they had to abide with.

Tatsu watched the monster shoot his arm forward and was taken off guard, he shunpo'd out of danger's arm only to notice that his spiritual pressure was not as strong as it was, this fight was dragging on and only his ability to push through with determination and his shikai ability ''Reiki Saiseisen'i'' Could help him out in this situation. Slowly but surely people around him could feel the shinigami's spiritual energy start to be stronger once again.

Tatsu jamp on the jeep looking at the people inside, wondering if he could help them out, if it was possible he'd hope to get evereyone out before the monster tried to get another bite at it. If everything went right, he'd shunpo out with everyone who's alive.

All in all, Tatsu was in a stalemate with a huge sized hollow, and the only thing preventing him to fight to the best of his abilities was the people in the jeep, so he tried to get that factor out of the way, and even maybe get a little help from the guy with the guns.

"Uh....Stupid Soul Reaper." Maggot roared. He lifted the Jeep that was still in his claw with the reaper on it and swung it around to try and knock the man off. Biggs, Wedge, and the girl were tossed around violently inside.

"Hey, if you could do something, now would be nice!" Biggs shouted from inside the vehicle. Unfortunately, to keep the girl and his partner from being impaled on the bits of broken metal inside, he had to drop his gun, which fell to the road and was promptly smashed by the shaking jeep. He cursed his luck.

"I'll kill you myself. Without the need of these people." Maggot howled. He grabbed the jeep with his other claw and smashed the thing into the road, flattening it in the hopes that it would kill all of the occupants. Then he flung it behind him, sending it grinding and sparking along the rest of the road.

"Now you'll see the true skills of a Deceiver's Cero!" Maggot's mouth opened wider after saying so, until his head had split into a giant maw and yellow light was gathering in his mouth. But if that wasn't enough, lights had already gathered in its claws, and it had put its hands together to reform the outer mask in front of itself. The Cero from the large mask fired like a beam, issuing forth in a single destructive yellow light from the mouth towards the shinigami, and also issuing upwards through its hollow hole into the sky behind it.

(OOC: This Cero is Power 30, on both ends)

The road was torn to pieces from the Cero, and hopefully so too would be the Shinigami. The only problem was the instability of this first Cero, since it sizzled the farther away it got from him and the longer he issued it. But the orb from his mouth had also begun to expand, and was now just balancing on the edge of his face, a sphere that was ten feet in diameter and still growing.

Tatsu was easily shaken off the jeep, he he looked at the nightmarish scene in front of him the samurai was dumbfounded. It tossed the jeep like it was paper carbon and then it smashed it into the road, like it weighted nothing, before hauling it behind him. Tatsu never even thought a hollow with such a strength existed in their lower appearance, never the less it was now a one on one fight. The monster standed in front of him, and Tatsu was infront of it, his wounds still bleeding, but not as much as they used to, but his spiritual energy was still rocket high, as if he never even used it.

Energy was charging in front of him, it seemed like a cero, but many cero's and a normal one, this was new to the samurai, but he faced fear with adamant resolution, he would win this fight, be it alive or not. '' Reiki Naoru'' Of course that meant something to him, but to the hollow it was some empty words. The flesh wounds on Tatsu slowly started regenerating back to healthy status.

Seeing as the Cero was fire, Tatsu bursted into motion and vanished out of the firing spot, straight beside the cero Tatsu charged at the creature's mid portion to attempt at gutting him open, what Tatsu hadn't see was the cero in the monsters mouth, he thought he fired them all at once, before long, Tatsu shunpo'd once again over the enemy, hoping to dodge the blast, while sword diving into the mast, link style.

Tatsu dearly hoped it was over, this fight had lasted long and his body was in pain, he hoped that his Zanpakuto healed him faster, but this wasn't kaiyo, or anyone as strong, his strength was when multiple enemies were assaulting him.

Maggot was too busy charging the Cero to notice that his first attack had been avoided, and by the time he had dropped the now twenty-foot-diameter sphere of Cero, he had removed a massive portion of the road and cliffside, anihilating the very land before him. Then Maggot felt the sting of the sword into his trunk. This enemy was much too fast for him, and even with his most powerful attack, he was still unable to do anything. His head twisted up and extended from his body to leer down at the Shinigami behind him. Before he could speak or even howl, the shinigami swung his sword up, splitting his neck and head into two parts and finishing him off.

"Noooo...." Hissed Maggot. "No. She'll find me again. I can't take it. No!" he wailed frightfully.

"No place is safe from her. She'll get what she wants....." His body began to fade away, ".....in the end...."

"God damned that was rough." Biggs coughed from inside the flattened jeep. "Cut us out of this tin shitbox. I can't take having this pressure on me.

It all ended so quickly, Tatsu was surprised he won that, he looked back at the mountain side, it was mostly covered in dirt everywhere, all the damage was surprising, he was lucky most hollow couldn't be so strong, or atleast he hoped they wouldn't be. The last words of the hollow rang into his head, and were marked there as if by red hot iron.

Tatsu heard the voice of the man behind and shunpo'd over, trying to find way to open it without harming the people inside, he decided to cut a part of the roof with his zanpakuto where it was safe, and peel off part of it with his hand, helping the people out. Once everyone was in the road and safe Tatsu looked at the group, to see in what condition they were, and in his head he tried to understand the situation. ''Make them all touch my zanpakuto, I'll heal them''

Tatsu was pretty much without any injury by now, his own spiritual energy had healed him with the help of his zanpakuto. He hadn't explained how it worked and felt good with that, the less people know about it the better. ''Just why was a hollow that strong after you?'' Tatsu tried to understand every detail in the situation. Tatsu's red coat was even more torn up now and his kimono underneath presented new holes but the ribbon that held his hair was still safe, as if he protected that damn hair more than his life.

Biggs, not exactly sure of what the Shinigami meant, obeyed. He grabbed and removed Wedge's hand from its glove and pressed it against the sword, and then did the same for the girl.

"I don't know much about the girl. It's a surprise to me that she's being chased down by Hollows. My squad was ordered to extract her from another Hollow Attack a way's back in Sengoku Forest. Wedge and I are all that's left of a seven man team. That Hollow was vicious. Then this shit." Biggs sat on the road, unharmed but dazed.

"You purified those things. Sent them to the Soul Society. I don't think monsters like those deserve to go. They should burn in hell for their crimes."

Biggs was unconsciously holding his hand to his throat, pressing on his medallion, a simple silver cross bearing the figure of Christ upon it. He looked at the mountainside and wondered if what he had told headquarters was an apt enough description of the situation.

On the ground, unconscious but slowly healing, was Nira, beside her, Biggs had placed her weapons. He knew how important the items of Fullbringers were, and without those, the girl would be essentially useless.

"This girl is of some importance to us. We're a little late in identifying her, as she's already realized her powers. I don't know how long she's known, but there'll be no training her to company standards." Biggs said offhand to the Soul Reaper. "Do you know how a Fullbringer is born?"

Without waiting for the man's answer, he continued.

"Fullbringers, like her, myself, my friend, and many of those I work with, are the survivors of attacks from Hollows, or the children of survivors. Our lord and saviour Jesus Christ repayed us for our challenges by granting us the gifts of god to fight the evils of this world. It's likely that this girl's parents were attacked or something. The Company I work for takes us in and helps to prepare us to fight these monsters. Now the company has a different take on them from you guys, and we're not quite friends, but you saved me and mine, and I owe you a spot of gratitude.

"I also like to talk, so this is me thanking you. I'm telling you this so you know what we are, and where we stand. On any other day, I'd probably be fighting you so my colleagues could kill the hollow before you purified it. Or I'd be ordered to capture you and take you in for questioning. You bastards happen to be pretty elusive altogether, and there's a lot of questions we'd like to have answered."

He paused to check on the two others. Wedge was stirring, while the girl was still out of it.

"I've got one favour to ask of you. This girl's young, and already realized. There's going to be a world of hurt for her back at the company. I don't think what will happen to her is right, and want you to do something instead. Obviously the good lord sent you to help us, and probably to help her too. Take her with you. I don't want to be on the bad side of our lord, so let me do this good deed. Spare her from the company. There's not but politics and suffering there for her.

"I've no doubt that we'll have to come after you again, for both of you. Just try to make sure she's ready for it, and ready for fighting Hollows."

He turned from the Shinigami and knelt down beside his friend. He slipped his glove back on and hoisted the big man over his shoulder and began to walk away.

"Remember, a Fullbringer's items are important to them." He shouted back as he walked down the road towards Karakura. "Make sure you don't lose them or she's as good as dead."

With that, Jasen Biggs carried off down the road his still-groggy partner, leaving the Soul Reaper and girl behind.

Nira was still in a rough shape. The wounds on her face and back and legs had healed, though scars still remained on her face and back, since those were the only real severe wounds she had sustained. Her sandy brown hair was dirty and tousled, her clothes torn, and her appearance was still covered in dried blood and dirt and plant matter from her chase with the Hollow Vikaz.

The samurai enjoyed the remaining healing he looked towards the small group around them they all seemed to be enjoying the healing activity, the man began talking about the squad of seven people that had been almost decimated by the hollow attack. ''I'm sorry for the loss of your comrades, I know how it feels..'' an untold sadness filled Tatsu as he thought about the blond woman that usually watched over him.

Tatsu let the man keep on talking, it seemed like he was human, and he didn't know the whole situation that surrounded the samurai, which was better for him. ''I understand your point of view, as long as you understand mine we do not have to have a conflict over this.'' Tatsu was almost as cold as steel, but it was his way of giving out the utmost respect.

The man watched as the other spoke, holding dearly his necklace, it was easy to tell that he treasured it. On the ground the healing had progressively slowed down as the active energy in the air slowed down but healing was still being done. ''I've no clue on how-'' The man began speaking and Tatsu decided to listen.

''I take your word of thanks and information gladly, I'll be honest, this wasn't soul society sending me, I'm a renegade and I choose to help you on my free will.'' Tatsu was honest and his words were clear, he smiled a little. ''I'd just probably let you kill the damn thing, I don't really care at this point what happens to hollows.''

Tatsu watched as the man put his glove back on and nodded as he stood and turned away to walk. ''Then I'll look forward for when we meet, she'll be ready. And so should you.''

As the men walked away the samurai took the lady in his arms gently making sure to be careful, he shunpo'd into the night not giving a look behind to what would be his future enemies, this night he had picked a side.