A Lovely Day (Takara/Miruka/Tora/Babette)

[freshstrawberries]

It was a very nice day in Japan.  Not beautiful, there was a bit of wind and juuust enough clouds to cross that boundary from idyllic to just plain cloudy without being so dense that they blanketed the sky.  As such it was a fine enough day to do some shopping, and still fair enough weather for a little outdoor fun.  Which was why Takara and her ward Miruka had headed from their home for exactly that.  While Takara would see about picking up a few things for dinner the next few days, Miruka was given free reign to go run about in the nearby park.  Not unusual for kids to have plenty of independence in Japan.

Granted they weren't usually dressed up in so intricate a gothic lolita dress.  She was humming as she pranced down the path past the trees.  She didn't pay any mind to the people around her, none of them could see the spirits and that meant they were beneath her anyways.  What she needed to do was find a nice, quiet shaded corner to try and contact the spirit world again!  Failing that, a nice quiet corner would let her feel out and see if there were any ghosts just naturally nearby, or even someone else with the same Sight as herself and big sis Takara! 

As she headed off the park path though she'd notice something without needing to stop.  There was something odd nearby, not a ghost or a Seeing person, but something...else.  Her head tilted curiously as she looked in its direction before heading that way.  Miruka had a keen sense for the spiritual and if she was close enough, she could easily pick up on even a small lingering trace.  Maybe it would lead her to a Shinigami!

Meanwhile at the street of small local shops, Takara was doing as she always did.  Cheerfully chatting with the locals.  She'd been here long enough that they were finally starting to warm up and cease being so intimidated by her incredible height.  Some garlic, some onions, a few assorted seasonings, some fish and stock.  She had tonight's dinner all planned out.  Fish and pilaf.  Tomorrow she was thinking of attempting an american style 'fried steak'.  Fried foods weren't good to eat too often but they could be pretty fun when not overused! 

Occasionally her gaze would shift towards the park Miruka was playing in.  Really she wasn't worried about the girl she was guardian of.  In fact her small concerns were more for anyone that might try to start something with her.  Still things were fine, she'd go get the girl after she finished her shopping.

Miruka: 1 post

Takara: 1 post

[avidelmv2]

The comforts of the day were a charm wasted on Babette. She didn't want to be sight-seeing or shopping, she wanted to be hunting. But she couldn't hunt in half a uniform with half a fighting stance, so with one arm bound in a sling and her Quincy regalia being professionally repaired...

Quincy tailors, Quincy grocers, Quincy doctors. Babette had met with plenty of civilian Quincy since coming to Tokyo. Men and women wearing their auspicious silver cross tucked into their shirts, praising her work as a hunter or just expressing surprise that there were any left who did the job so openly. Babette had to bite her tongue in telling a few of them to just melt their crosses into something more meaningful to them if the reason their clan ever existed was such a novelty now. She reminded herself that their role was still useful, if not just to her, than to the Quincy clans public image and coffers. And their supplies and specialized assistance were key to continuing this war. But... If she was asked again if she couldn't take a short break from hunting, someone was going to get it.

Well, that's exactly what the doctor Babette went to said. They were Quincy, with their own medical facilities and drug stores, but their clinic wasn't a hospital or a non-profit for hunters who got themselves hurt in battle, nor did the proprietor or any of its staff have the capabilities to tend to the insidious spiritual wounds fighting Hollows so often left Quincy with. So they held Babette for an evening for observation, gave her pain relievers and a brace, and advised rest. Preferably for one to two weeks. It had been two days of actually staring at a wall, and Babette was considering how much they really knew.

Today, though, she was out and about, wearing a tracksuit in Quincy colors to collect ration meals so she didn't starve, while the last of the repairs of her uniform were being done. With the former errand done, she sat across from the seamstress' office in Karakura Town's local commercial stretch, and just waited, with the world passing by her point of focus unnoticed. 

[manic]

Tora #1

---

Miruka had indeed found something in the park to catch her awakened eye, the faintest sniff of spiritual energy radiating around the corner taking her up to a wooden deck nestled amongst the trees. There on a lamp post she would find it: the energy radiating from a faded sticker of a Chibi Tiger holding on to the metal tightly despite its age. It wasn't the only one like it either: the park held a number in various places, some reduced to mere residue with the slightest spark to lure in the young ward, others like the one by the Shogi tables seemed relatively new, but the strongest source she could sense would take her out of the park completely and towards a nearby arcade. If the stickers had glowed then this source was a full fireworks display, shifting too as if it were alive. 

Thankfully the source wasn't just a mysterious aura of power but a young schoolgirl trying to enjoy her day off... to no avail "AHHGHGHH Come on!" The owner of the stickers roared as she smashed her hand down on the plastic buttons that taunted her. That Bun-chan plushie was hers if the claw didn't decide to give up holding onto it half way to the prize chute. These UFO catcher machines were super rigged and Tora was not having it today.

[freshstrawberries]

It was...a sticker!  A little tiger sticker adorably clinging to a lamppost!  Miruka stared at it, tilting her head curiously, arms wrapped around a little stuffed mouse.  "How curious."  Why would someone leave something like this here?  Why would it be imbued with power?  Was it a prized possession of a girl who disappeared in this very park perhaps?

Humming to herself, the girl rocked back on her heels as she closed her eyes and focused.  Perhaps it wasn't a singular thing, but...ahah!  Her eyes snapped open and without concern for if someone was near enough to see her through the trees and up on that wooden deck...she'd vanish.  Off to the next little sticker she could find, this one more faded.  Then off to another, where a couple of old men at the shogi tables were given a start as the girl seemed to appear from nowhere to squat down and look at the sticker. 

"Hello young miss, do you need something?"  One of them asked.

"A trail of breadcrumbs~!  But does it lead to home, or to the Witch?"  She'd stand up and turn to start skipping away, almost brightstepping away before remembering what her big sis always said when people could see her.  She'd keep up the pursuit until she was walking into the arcade, completely forgetting that she was supposed to stay in the park and wait for Takara.  Heedless of the angry outburst the other girl made, all Miruka cared about was walking right up behind her and staring, eyes a little too wide, smile a little unsettling and...

Tora would have the eeriest feeling that someone was watching her. In fact everyone in the arcade was going to get that unnerving, itchy feeling between their shoulder blades, Miruka never the best at keeping her reiatsu controlled, especially when excited.

All the while, Takara did her shopping.  She finally finished up around the time that Miruka had completely abandoned the park to pursue the mysterious trail of stickers.  With a few bags in her hands she'd walk out, relaxed and unconcerned.  "Mirukaaaa?  Where are you? It's time to go home!  Mirukaaa!" 

She wasn't all that concerned, at least not at first.  Miruka might not hear her, but as the tall blonde continued to walk through the park she'd start getting nervous.  Really Miruka was probably fine, but...if she'd wandered off, someone else might be about to have a real bad time.

Miruka: 2

Takara: 2

[manic]

Tora #2

---

Gritting her teeth in determination and reaching for the coins in her pocket, Tora was determined not to be defeated by this stupid crane game and tried to channel her rage into pure focus as she mentally blocked out the cheerful jingle playing as she slid the crane along "There." She breathed as her hand moved away from the button. 

The second part, the Z axis movement was a lot trickier but that was only if you were trying to judge it just from the front but that was where her training came in handy! Most people couldn't look in from the side & touch the controls on their own bit with balance and flexibility, she was able to get her head around the case in such a position to more accurately judge the crane's position and keep one hand on the controls pressing the button. Everything was going smoothly until it wasn't. Something was close, a Reiatsu had suddenly snuck up on her, but she couldn't turn her head now when she was like this! She needed to focus! Even if something was seriously giving her the jeebies 

"Wah!" She let out as she stumbled off-balance, her hand slipping off the controls and letting the claw whiff the toy she wanted with a despairing "Nooo..." from the Tiny Tiger. She was so close! If something hadn't triggered her Soul sense that would have been hers. This was 100% the fault of the... gothic dressed girl just smiling at her. "Uh... hi?" She let out in lieu of an introduction "Do you wanna give this a go? It kinda sucks."

[avidelmv2]

The minutes seemed to tick slower and slower as Babette waited still. Her impatient loiter ended with her eventually wandering inside, still just dawdling in the lobby to listen to the whirr of a sewing machine. Knowing her face and that she wouldn't leave unless made to, it wasn't long before Babbete was kicked out by the still kind-eyed proprietor and her staff, told off to the nearby park for a sure cure to her insistent pouting.

As Babette walked the tiled path in, finding herself a bench seat to continue her staring at nothing particularly interesting, she mused over one, persistent thought: "I pout?"

Coaxed by a chilled breeze, and the cheering of children as they raced, unseen, around her through the park, Babette like her gaze slip from the horizon. Tracing her eyes along the tree line on either side of the walking path, then out to the almost borderless open plain of grass right of her, dotted by walking couples and children's playsets. Beyond that, a small pond bridged by a garden arch, where even more people seemed to be gathering. Babette turned herself to see what more lay just in front of her, that object of focus turning out to be a women, newly stepped into her vision. Noticed first by her stature, then the urgency she moved with, and finally that she was calling out to someone.

Babette watched a short time longer, sweeping her head to see if anyone else noticed and was going, before she stood herself. "Who are you calling for?" She asked with her approach, hands moving to pin back her missing bangs and only disturbing the prickling fuzz of her shaved scalp. "Do you need help looking?"

[freshstrawberries]

Miruka's smile widened further as Tora spoke to her, the girl seeming bizarrely pleased with something.  "I followed the breadcrumb trail here, but you don't look like a witch."  She leaned to the side staring at the claw machine briefly as if considering the offer. "Mmmm, no they're to easy to win, I don't even have to pay to get a prize from those."  Her attention turned right back to Tora and fixed on her.

"How did you put little pieces of your spirit into those stickers?  Are you a Kami?  Did you divide yourself into a bunch of little shrines?  I think you might need to visit some of them, some of your other selves were really weak, and none of them could talk."

"I really hope she hasn't started scaring anyone..."  Takara muttered under her breath as she walked through the park.  "Mirukaaa?" It was becoming increasingly clear that the girl had found something to distract her with.  Fantastic.  She let out a small sigh before someone approached her, speaking very...boldly.

"Huh?  Oh, I'm just looking for my little sister.  She went to play in the park while I was doing a little shopping." Takara would shrug ruefully, still holding the bags of groceries.  "I suppose she must have just gotten distracted and forgot she was waiting for me."  It wasn't uncommon for young children to be about on their own after all.  Takara would turn to look out over the park, brow furrowing slightly.  She clearly was worried, although most wouldn't guess that it wasn't for Miruka's well being exactly...

"I hope she hasn't gone too far..."

Miruka: 3 posts

Takara: 3 posts

[manic]

Tora #3

---

Tora wasn't exactly where Miruka was at as the girl in the poofy black dress told her how she had encountered the Tiny Tiger, but she was more put off by what she said about the crane game that she was struggling with being 'too easy' for her "What? That's dumb," She scowled at Miruka "Unless you're cheating you still have to put money into thing to get the stuff." she huffed defensively. How old was this girl? Yeah she was the same size as Tora but that didn't mean anything, the highschooler was just short.

"Spirit in the stickers?" Tora blinked, did that mean this girl was awakened too? She'd already met  a bunch of people who were so another girl who could sense spiritual energy had kind of stopped being new. The stickers were new however.

"Oh crap!" She mumbled as she dashed over to the well worn mark on the side of the Kart Racing cabinets, sure enough she could feel the power in, if she wanted she could probably even harness it right now. She'd been leaving these all over the City too "Yeah, some power is in all of them now? I don't think its soul soul stuff, it just means I can use even the old ones now. Huh." She let out, this was as new to Tora as anyone else, her powers awakening and being related to the stickers she'd been slapping in places for years sure was something. 

[avidelmv2]

Babette didn't budge or flinch from offering her aid. It wasn't a skill she had been taught. "I will help you," she plainly stated, stepping a bit more forward now. This was just the kind of activity she needed to keep herself sane at the moment. Before she slipped any more into maddening boredom. Which is what the sensation before had been, right? She wanted to move, wanted to feel she was helping somebody in need. This wasn't exactly that - she didn't feel the hairs on her back bristling with fear of danger, and couldn't quite vanquish childhood wanderlust - but she saw the concern in this persons eyes. That was a feeling she could help to eliminate.

"Is there any where in the area where she could have wandered off too?" Babette herself stopped to think about her words. What exactly was she getting at? "Kids like... Candy, and games. Right? Where could you find that near this park?"

[freshstrawberries]

The girl tilted her head to the other side, still giving a cute, fixed smile...which seemed kind of eerie for some reason, potentially because of the feeling her reiatsu gave off.  Everyone in the arcade was getting more skeeved out with every second.  She stepped up to the claw machine as Tora rushed to check a nearby sticker she'd set up.  Miruka peered in and looked at the one she was pretty sure she'd seen the girl trying to grab.

"Big sis says it's only cheating if they don't cheat first."  Takara had strong opinions about what she called the 'rigged nature of claw machines.'  "Poltergheist, get up and play~"  The young girl said in a quiet sing song tone, but it wasn't just a word.  Reishi would coalesce around the bun-chan plushie, causing it to stand up and turn and at least attempt to give Miruka a salute before marching over and jumping into the prize chute, where the spell would dissipate leaving the toy inert as Miruka leaned down to pick it up and then turn to present it to her fellow Enlightened.

"See it's easy?  Still, you must be really strong if you can impart part of your spirit into alllll those stickers and not even realize you were doing it!"  She sounded very, very excited about that.

"Oh?  Ahah, that's rather nice of you, well I won't say no in that case..."  But Takara wasn't sure how much help this stranger would be.  Damn but she really should just start working on her own sense of that spirit stuff, it would make tracking the kid down when she did this kind of thing so much easier.

"Mm, most kids maybe, Miruka's interests are a little strange to most people...I don't suppose you know if there's any...local ghost stories around this park?  Or in any business or home nearby?"  Certainly a strange thing for a child to be interested in, but it wasn't completely unheard of.  A young girl could be interested in those things without being able to see ghosts. 

Miruka: 4 posts
Takara: 4 posts

[manic]

Tora #3

---

"Huh?" Tora let out as her 6th sense flared up again, twisting her head to see the little Bun-chan make its way to dive head-first into the prize chute. For anyone else that would have been a moment to freak out but for the young Tiger it was a sign that things were starting to make sense "Oooh, I get it." She nodded as Miruka presented her with the small plush doll "You're kinda like Kin. Only you can make things move instead of setting them on fire," she concluded. Her awareness of the Tokyo Witches making things a lot easier "Kinda like me... only I can't do the magic stuff. Except for... actually..."

"Screw it, watch this!" She hissed as she pressed her palm into the faded sticker and closed her eyes as grass started to cover the arcade carpet and bamboo started to sprout around the machines for a brief moment before the green quickly faded, the corner of the room returning to normal with no-one spiritually unaware even noticing what just happened "I can do that with the stickers," she explained "Other things happen too if I want, but its not a good idea to do it here."

[avidelmv2]

Babette gave a telling blank stare. The only ghost stories she was interested in, were the type she could end at the point of her blade. But, if the girl as a geek for the supernatural, say that her running into something real were the case here? Hollows didn't have compunctions about acting in day over night, or the reverse, and weren't always picky with prey or difficult to instigate. Searching for any hostile spiritual energy wasn't a poor idea... Though it was far from her own specialty. But the potential danger this girl might have put herself in lit a fire under Babette. Now, this was a situation she could make her experience shine in. 

"Actually, I do." A bold-faced lie. Did she know any ghost stories? No. Did she know where in these streets Hollows liked to coagulate like the spiritual slime they were? Yes. Empty lots, back roads, and anywhere the unwitting could be plucked from their pack like feathers from a bird - bloodily, and shrieking all the while. It was her luck the two just so happened to intersect at opportune times like this. It made her realize just how much of that there was in this area, that she would have never given a second thought before seeing how others lived so obliviously in it. 

"In the commercial district," Babette started, heading in that direction already, "Wherever there's more than a handful of closed shops on one street, kids will call it 'haunted'. Because wherever people avoid going, there must be a big, special reason. We can start there, if there are no better ideas."

[freshstrawberries]

"Oooh, you know other people like us?"  Miruka asked brightly, only more excited to hear that, "I can do a lot more than just move things though!"  It seemed that Tora wasn't going to take the doll though, so Miruka just placed it right along her normal doll, clutched to her chest as she tilted her head. 

Her eyes widened in surprise and delight at the way the environment seemed to change.  Chutes of bamboo springing up from the ground, grass overtaking the carpet, like a glimpse into a jungle!  "Oh wow, that's so cool!"  Miruka said, clapping her hands in delight as she walked back up to Tora.  "I can't do anything like that, I've never seen big sis do it either!  You didn't even say any magic words!"

If Takara knew the truth of what her savior was thinking she'd find it hilarious.  She was running a similar train of thought, places where Hollows were likely to attack often drew people, but so too were places where pluses were chained up and haunting and they tended to overlap.  Both were thinking similar things and unaware of it. 

"Oh really?  Great, lead the way then."  Takara replied with a friendly smile.  A handful of closed shops on a street in the commercial district?  Well that would take them near such places so it was a good place to start.  Ugh, she really hoped Miruka hadn't wandered that far off but...it was entirely possible.  Fortunately for her, the path that Babette was leading her along was at least in the direction of the arcade, so they weren't unwittingly getting further away.

Takara: 5

Miruka: 5