"Oh, yes." The Arrancar provides whatever identification is necessary.
After the Arrancar follows as normal.
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"Oh, yes." The Arrancar provides whatever identification is necessary.
After the Arrancar follows as normal.
Ironically, 'Nanashi' was from Las Noches. Maybe they should instead not assume any Arrancar from Las Noches is non-hostile.
[Somewhere in Seireitei]
"What do you mean, you won't let me in? I am a seated officer, I can grant a permission to myself."
"Dude, you're supposed to be on sick leave. Says so right here."
"But I feel fine! I was part of the hospital rescue crew!"
"Yeah, but that was an emergency."
"But I was here yesterday!"
"Yeah, and the day before that, and the day before that. You've been burned, poisoned, electrocuted, buried under rocks, drowned in water, frozen and mauled by man-eating plants. How the Hell are you even standing? Take a break, man!"
"But I need to prepare myself for the Hellpath!"
"Yeah, well, I don't think Hiraku-taichou will actually grant you permission to through that untill you've had some damn rest."
"Oh come on, don't do this to me, man!"
"You're acting like a needy teenage girl, Hoshigaki. Take a hike. Unlike you, I have work to do."
After this woefully unprofessional argument with his fellow seated officer, Senshi Hoshigaki has no choice but to turn his back on the fenced area containing the Thousand Deaths. He casts few longing glances over the fence, towards the mountain where the Hellpath lies. A distant scream of horror echoes from the slopes, causing Senshi to smile for a moment before he resumes walking the streets of Seireitei.
What should he do?
---
[Earth; Southern Finland]
In Finland, Spring is slowly inching towards Summer. Birds are singing and building their nests, birches are budding their first leaves and coltsfoots are blooming along the streets. Sunshine greets them when Sarah and Svetlana step out from the Void.
What are they doing here?
Southern Finland
Why, they're trying to verify that the city from their dreams is real. Is it anywhere around here?
They didn't stop to checks its name, so if they don't want to airwalk all day looking for familiar landmarks, maybe they should stop at a public library and look up a map, or use a public computer to look up some satellite images.
But whatever they choose to do, they'll find it, eventually. The lake is almost exactly like they saw it. They can even find the rock, sticking slightly out of the water, and the spot where it used to rest, and the camping site, so on and so forth.
They can even find their way to a familiar apartment building, but... there are different names on the plaque next to the doorbells, now. Whoever they're looking for, they don't live in the same place anymore.
[Finland]
They, or rather, Sarah as far as any mortals looking could tell, do check libraries or whatever to double check.
Mikael doesn't live here anymore, they didn't expect he would, but it'sa start.
Now, they're on the lookout for signs of... spiritual activity.
fluctuations in spiritual pressure. Spirit ribbons. Particularly anything that feels like Mikael, the Sin Rostra, or Arrancar in general.
The spiritual search turns up nothing out of the usual. But... checking in the local library, Sarah stumbles on a news article from few weeks back. It's about a man who'd disappeared for over four years after his house burned down and then returned just as suddenly.
The man they're looking for might still live in the town.
Finland
Well, assuming the Ghost reading over her shoulder translates the article.:smalltongue:
What kind of details are in this article?
Even if neither Sarah nor Svetlana can read Finnish, it's not hard to find a dictionary in a library. With the help of that and Google, getting the gist of what it has to say isn't hard. It has a picture of Mikael the way he was four and half years ago. Unfortunately, it has no additional details that'd help find the man. They could try a number service to see if someone with his name has a public cellphone number, or they could try walking around, checking mailboxes and door plaques for his surname.
Well, rudimentary searches can help.
They do their best to get what information they can to narrow down search areas and then go checking for addresses and names manually--ofcourse, keeping eyes open for signs of spirit stuff.
There's about five people in the whole town who share a surname, but based on just that it's hard to say if they're related. However, one of them, Sakarias Rautiainen, lives just a mile away. They might as well start there.
The guy lives at the endmost apartment of a white rowhouse. There's an old Lada Samara parked on the yard.
"I don't think we thought this through."
"Too late to turn back now."
Sarah slowly approaches the apartment and knocks or rings or whatever.
It's not long before he finds himself in a waiting room outside the Commander-General's office.
"Please wait here. We'll contact the Commander-General shortly."
Where, in fact, has the Commander-General gone?
=================
[The hospital]
Koutarou sits beside a currently resting Katsuo. He hesitates to reach for the boy's hand, but somehow he wishes he could give him some more comfort. Katsuo isn't physically hurt, but his exhaustion was beyond compare when he was first brought in, and he needs his rest.
There's so much Koutarou wants to talk to the boy about. He wanted to be here when he woke up.
Alas, duty calls...
The Arrancar, of course, waits patiently.
[Earth; Southern Finland]
There's a doorbell next to the door. When Sarah presses it, she can faintly hear it buzz through the door. It is followed by sounds of someone shuffling through stuff to get to the door. Soon, Sarah hears a low male voice through the door. "Kuka siellä?"
Sarah blinks, then pinches her nose.
"I did not think this through"
"I'm sorry, look, if you speak English this will go a lot smoother... If you don't, I'll just leave you alone, sorry..."
Awkward Sarah is Awkward.
"The recently appointed Sexta Espada Svetlana Svetellegavanette has learned of what may be a mutual threat, or at least a mutual security risk, to both Las Noches and Soul Society. The details are in this...bundle, and I have been given instructions to deliver it to you specifically and wait for any such reply, scheduling a meeting between you and her if. I'm afraid I don't know the contents... Though, I was instructed to ask if you've been sleeping well or have had any odd dreams lately... I don't know why."
The Arrancar who isn't-important enough for Rater to name hands over the documents.
If Koutarou opens the bundle, he finds that it's mostly stuff that's clearly recently drawn or written. Sketches of several hollow masks(they appear to have been drawn by a child but they're clear enough--especially that wolf one.)
A written description of a group of Arrancar called Los Sin Rostras and... Hey, that description matches Nanashi, the Arrancar that caused some trouble not long ago.
Finally, there's a letter in two distinct handwritings, from the newly appointed Sexta and her Francione.
It's a description about a supposed adventure into an alternate reality the two went on, apparently a few weeks ago but only recalled this past night, with that lining up with the length of the 'adventure.'
Something about being sealed powerless in Finland at the apparent doing of Mikael Esaja Rautiainen or a group of Arrancar known as the Awakened Sin Rostra.
And how there had been an Ishinomori Koutarou seemingly in the same situation, but that he'd chosen to stay behind in the dream-world when the current Sexta's now-Fraccione found a method of escape.
Essentially, the bundle is both a warning against such potential dream assaults and a request for any information Soul Society might have regarding the Sin Rostras. Included is a detailed description of them and sketches of the maks of known--oh, it seems this letter was supposed to be on the top of the bundle--and if the Captain Commander recalls any such dream excursions.
It's certainly one of the most unusual communiqués that Koutarou has ever received in his life.
Of course, the Sin Rostro had been on their watchlist for some time now, ever since Nanashi's assault (as was Mikael for different reasons, based on a recommendation from the Kuzunohas). Information on them had been scarce, as had been their encounters. At this point the chosen course action for Gotei would be to arrest on sight, with a similar recommendation for Las Noches.
Them being able to invade dreams or somehow assault them was... new. Disturbing in some ways, but new. Of course, Koutarou has no recollection of such adventures, and he can't exactly plumb their meaning.
He doesn't fail to take it seriously, but it takes him a good three minutes to ponder what to do with this information.
"We've had relatively few incidents involving the Sin Rostro, but they've certainly proven dangerous. Our main issue has been a lack of a discernible objective from them - intel has been incredibly sparse.
I'll have an aide compile the information we do have for her perusal. I would also like you to communicate to the Sexta Espada that I am at her disposal if she wishes to inquire further on the matter - and that perhaps it would be to both our benefits to arrange for a communications system between Las Noches and Seireitei. Sending messengers on foot is incredibly inefficient, and we could stand to coordinate our efforts more. I'll pass that along to Hishikawa-taichou as well as Koutetsu-taichou, in their roles as ambassador and head of Engineering respectively."
[Earth; Southern Finland]
There's a moment of silence, followed by sound of the door unlocking. The door is pushed open and in the doorframe stands a stout man, half a foot taller than Sarah. He has light brown hair and greenish-blue eyes with a tinge of brown just around the pupils. He looks like he's somewhere in his mid-twenties.
He looks down on Sarah with his brow furrowed. "You English, girl?"
"I don't want to engage in rumor mongering," the Arrancar says, "but not long ago a human-child who smelled of hollows was brought into Las Noches by the Primera himself, having apparently found her while dealing with the remnants of those damned Quincy. Several days later, an encounter with Los Sin Rostra results in, well... that's a bit too much to be sharing, but they seemed interested in the girl. Something about trying to give her a sword. Then Lord Segunda assigns the girl into the care of one of the Numeros... Has her studied a little bit before everything goes quiet... If you ask me, what's there to be gained by giving a mortal with powers an Arrancar's Zanpakuto?"
The Arrancar doesn't seem to be opposed to anything else Koutarou has said he plans to do.
"As for better communication, I'm just a courier, you'd have to speak with one of the Espada--I can inform the Sexta once she's back from her own investigation."
"...Yeah, close enough. I'm terribly sorry, sir, this is a bit awkward and you'd never believe me if I tried to explain why, but I'm looking for a man by the name of ''Mikael Rautiainen" and I can't find any hide or hair of where he might be. My research said that someone by the same surname lived in this apartment... It's a longshot, but...
So very, very awkward.
[Command Division Office]
"Of course, I was musing aloud, though that is still a small part of my reply." Koutarou says with a smile. "The child. I take it she's in good health now?"
[Earth; Southern Finland]
The man blinks a few times, a focused look on his face, as if he's struggling to understand. A while after Sarah stops, comes a slow and ponderous reply: "Mika is my brother. Why?"
"I honestly have no idea how to judge the health of humans. She's alive... alive-alive, not dead-alive. Unless there's more than one human child in the city she's in a pretty sweet position right now"
Sarah's gonna go out on a limb.
"...Has uh, 'Mika,' ever said or done anything... Weird? Maybe looked at something that wasn't there? Maybe picked up something that you're sure should have been too heavy for him?"
Sarah remembers Dream-Mikael claiming to have Superstrength and saw that the incident with the rock did happen for real.
The man stares at Sarah. "Mika does all kinds of weird things. Like go away for four years without telling. But that kind of weird? Nah." It might not have occurred to Sarah that the man he's looking for has never used, or even had the reason to use, his powers where his brother could awe.
The man shrugs. "Maybe sometimes, hear something others don't. You know, like dog? A dog tilt its head and bark at something, humans not know what it is. But that was when we were kids." The man scratches his head. "Why you ask, girl?"
[Command Division Offices]
"I suppose that's as good as can be expected, provided she arrived of her own volition somehow. Must be quite the story behind that..." Koutarou muses to himself. "Is there anything else to discuss? If you're not in a hurry you're welcome to get a little rest before you return."
Sarah fishes something out of her pocket.
It's an empty single-serving chip bag. Sarah at it weeks ago never got a chance to throw it away, and it just kind of sat there in her pocket until she put these clothes back on.
She checks for witnesses, then crumples it into a ball and uses fullbring to make it levitate between her hands.
I have powers--your brother does too, the same kind. And I think his are involved in something freaky that happened to me and my... Mother. I'm not here to cause trouble, I'm just trying to find some answers.
"Any of the Espada would know the story of the girl's arrival better than I. If there's nothing else, it'd be best if I return post-haste so that I may inform Lady Sexta of what's transpired here upon her return from her own investigation."
[Earth; Southern Finland]
The man raises an eyebrow at the levitating object, but doesn't look all that interested in it. He has no spiritual awareness to speak of, so there's little to set Sarah's stunt apart from ordinary sleight of hand. "Nice magic trick" , he says, "but my brother is no magician. But..." He seems ponderous and a little worried. "... if this is something that happened in four years, maybe your mother should call. With phone, I mean. You need a number?"
Sarah repockets the bag, and then she roles up one of her sleaves.
The main can now see the silver chain embedded in her flesh without seems or scars. At firstit would seem like a tatoo, but it gleems in the light like real polished silver.
And then it paradoxically glows black. That black glow expansa until Sarah's hand is covered in a black-metal guantlet with stylized silver finger-bones decorating it, with silver claws at the tips of each finger.
"I assure you, it's more than a magic trick. And a phone number would work, I guess, but talking to him in person would be better."
The man looks puzzled. "Uh, nice tattoo, girl." Could it be... that he can't see the gauntlet?
The man looks at loss for a moment, glancing over his shoulder. "Need to find pen and paper. Stay there, girl."
Sarah is actually legitimately concerned that this man can't see her armor.
Or tell that what is obviously actual silver embedded in her flesh isn't a tattoo.
Either this guy's blind or there's something fundamentally different about her Fullbring now.
She's also kind of frustrated because that simple 'magic trick' was all it took to make her foster-parents jump from "she's delusional" to "she's possessed by Satan."
She dismisses the gauntlet and waits for the man to return
Sarah's foster parents may have been more perceptive than this man. Or what Sarah's ever willing to give them credit for.
The man closes the door for a moment, there's sound of him shuffling through his apartment, and then he returns two minutes later, with a piece of paper with a phone number penciled on it. "There you go. Mika told to give this number if anyone asks while he is gone. Is that, uh, is that all, girl?" He offers the paper to Sarah.