[Bleachitp:Reborn] Mortal World IV

[Terry576]

Sora's eye twitched.

"So you tracked us down and brought your friends now instead of then because...?"

[Draken]

"Because I would rather waste these few minutes now than later. Plus, you two went and dodged the call, which could very well have happened if I had called you straight to the training."

It just said Sora and Valeria are unreliable.

[tgva8889]

Izumi nods. "Something to do during the training camp, then?"

Kina looks nervously around. "Uh, I guess." She bows her head a bit. "I, um, apologize. For, um, withholding what I knew. I didn't...mean to put anyone in danger."

[Terry576]

"Because I would rather waste these few minutes now than later. Plus, you two went and dodged the call, which could very well have happened if I had called you straight to the training."

It just said Sora and Valeria are unreliable.

"I find you statement incredibly rude and quite offensive."

And not accurate at all right o-n-ii-chaaan?

He couldn't take it anymore.

"SHUT! UP!"

Aaaand he said that out loud.

[Draken]

"Well, you can't argue with the tru-"

Big shut up shout interrupts Gabi.

"... Is that how it is going to be with you?"

Gabi flies off, growling minor obscenities in spanish.

Helena and Oscar stay, watching the bird fly off.

[Terry576]

Sora watches, mouth open.

"I-I wasn't t-talking to y..." His gaze drops, and he turns bright red.

He'd just insulted Valeria-san's bird. In front of her. And the bird was rather annoyed by it.

"I can't do anything right..."

[strawberryman]

Valeria turns to Sora in surprise and shock... then, turns back to Helena and Oscar for a moment. "...Could you give us some space, please?" When they leave, she turns back.

"...Sora? What's going on with you?"

[Draken]

Helena nods and sonidos away with Oscar.

[KnightDisciple]

Kina looks nervously around. "Uh, I guess." She bows her head a bit. "I, um, apologize. For, um, withholding what I knew. I didn't...mean to put anyone in danger."

Kaito looked around the table.

"So...to recap, we're going to train for defense purposes, as well as trying to figure out what makes our powers different thank Izumi's, and maybe if we can make them more like Izumi's powers.

Was there anything else major? We can probably just text Val and Sora, and I could maybe meet up with them and give them the Cliff's notes..."

[Terry576]

Valeria turns to Sora in surprise and shock... then, turns back to Helena and Oscar for a moment. "...Could you give us some space, please?" When they leave, she turns back.

"...Sora? What's going on with you?"

"Hmm? Nothing. Nothing at all."

Liar~

"Stop that."

[strawberryman]

Valeria stares straight at Sora. "Sora. You are a terrible liar. Please, tell me what's going on. I won't judge you."

[Dorizzit]

Spoiler

Show

Kaito looked around the table.

"So...to recap, we're going to train for defense purposes, as well as trying to figure out what makes our powers different thank Izumi's, and maybe if we can make them more like Izumi's powers.

Was there anything else major? We can probably just text Val and Sora, and I could maybe meet up with them and give them the Cliff's notes..."

Nakahiro nods.

"There is one more thing. I think that we should elect a leader for the...'NATO' thing, but we should probably wait until we have Valeria and Sora with us."

[Terry576]

Sora flushes, indignant, and looks away. "I-I-I'm not a bad liar! Y-y-you're the one who can't l-lie very well!"

Jeez onii-chan, you are a terrible liar~

[strawberryman]

"...forget it." Giving Sora a disappointed look, Valeria turns around and walks off. "See you at school tomorrow." She doesn't run, she just... walks.

Until she's out of sight, anyway. Then she starts running. And... crying?

[Terry576]

Sora groans. "You ruin everything."

I don't ruin everything nii-chan! You should stop being so terrible at everything!

Sora doesn't see her run off crying, because he's busy walking off and arguing with the voice in his head.

[Steilos]

Bottom of the Channel

After training and self-reflection, after pointless murder of a boatful of people, Apolinar opened a Garganta and stamped back to Hueco Mundo. As he was doing so, a rather Apolinar thought struck him.

Soon after, some objects and bones started floating up on the shores of France. It looked like it had been on the sea for a while, evidenced by the barely-recognisable APOLINAR RODRIGUEZ embossed on the handle of the rusty old sword.

Pride, indeed.

Henry's Worst Day Ever

Welp, now he knew everything at least, the dishevelled wreck staggering up the path consoled itself. How was he going to explain this to the chief? Or to anyone?

Or, most importantly, to himself?

[KnightDisciple]

Nakahiro nods.

"There is one more thing. I think that we should elect a leader for the...'NATO' thing, but we should probably wait until we have Valeria and Sora with us."

Kaito nodded.

"Perhaps we can work that out when we all gather for training? Perhaps at the location our teacher provided? Perhaps by then we can discuss any new ideas that we've had come forward..."

[tgva8889]

"Besides, um, we don't have that much experience, um, working together. Maybe after training it'll, um, be clearer. Who should lead, I mean." Kina takes another bite out of her cheese bun and sips her cola.

[Steilos]

Somewhere in Pheonix Town

Henry limps along the street. From a distance, he seems to move like a drunk. As you get closer, the form of Henry reveals itself - muddied, dirtied, bedraggled, burned and miserable.

...

Wait, burned?

As he continued his really-rather-quite-stoppable advance down the street, Henry saw a girl hurrying and... crying? It was hard to tell from here. About half of his brain told him that he recognised her but the other half was kind of busy sizzling right now so Henry just continued to lurch along.

In his current state he may well look like some kind of mud and treebranch monster to passersby. This is not improved when Henry, feeling that his chances may be improved if he was seen to actually be doing his job, called out to the running girl. Well, croaked.

"Ey... Do y' need 'elp?"

[strawberryman]

Somewhere in Pheonix Town

Henry limps along the street. From a distance, he seems to move like a drunk. As you get closer, the form of Henry reveals itself - muddied, dirtied, bedraggled, burned and miserable.

...

Wait, burned?

As he continued his really-rather-quite-stoppable advance down the street, Henry saw a girl hurrying and... crying? It was hard to tell from here. About half of his brain told him that he recognised her but the other half was kind of busy sizzling right now so Henry just continued to lurch along.

In his current state he may well look like some kind of mud and treebranch monster to passersby. This is not improved when Henry, feeling that his chances may be improved if he was seen to actually be doing his job, called out to the running girl. Well, croaked.

"Ey... Do y' need 'elp?"

Valeria stops at the inquiry, turning and... staring. She... is just about shocked out of crying. Or anything.

She's just staring at the husk of a man.

[Steilos]

At least he wasn't being killed. That is, if he wasn't already. Coughing to try and restore some normality to his voice (and failing miserably) Henry takes a shaky step forward.

"'m I really that scary? Figures. Feel lik've been t' hell n' back. Kinda h've tho'. Heh heh heegoohh it hurts to laugh... and think... think I'm gonna..."

And then he flops down unconscious.

[KnightDisciple]

"Besides, um, we don't have that much experience, um, working together. Maybe after training it'll, um, be clearer. Who should lead, I mean." Kina takes another bite out of her cheese bun and sips her cola.

Kaito nodded as he finished off his food and drink.

"Exactly. Once we get some training down, things may well "click" into place."

He glanced at his watch and frowned.

"I better get home. Between people Swiss-cheesing my house, and Hollow parent-napping, my family's understandably a bit tenser these days. I'll see you all later."

With a smile and quick wave, Kaito stood and walked toward the exit. In short order, he was outside and (per a "request" from his parents) making a call to Mr. Reiji's aide to come pick him up.

[strawberryman]

At least he wasn't being killed. That is, if he wasn't already. Coughing to try and restore some normality to his voice (and failing miserably) Henry takes a shaky step forward.

"'m I really that scary? Figures. Feel lik've been t' hell n' back. Kinda h've tho'. Heh heh heegoohh it hurts to laugh... and think... think I'm gonna..."

And then he flops down unconscious.

Valeria shakes off the initial shock and then frantically grabs her cell-phone, dialing an emergency line.

"Hello, there's a unconscious man here, he's burned badly and..."

[/Skipping details]

After she is sure an ambulance is on the way, Val sees to the injured man's well-being. Looking around, she curses, pulling up her mask, her eyes glowing green as she puts her hands on Henry's torso.

Imbuing her palms with the healing energy that Doompine displayed, the girl somehow manages to pass what regenerative power she had onto the detective.

Spoiler

Show

It's one of her abilities, Photosynthesis, slowly regenerates while in sunlight. Which I assume they are at least somewhat in.

[KnightDisciple]

Somewhere in the city, far from any of the children

Some criminals were the type to meet in dark alleys, abandoned warehouses, or, if they were really feeling high-scale, a seedy backroom bar.

Others met in unassuming office buildings, wearing finely tailored suits and sipping oolong tea. These men did not talk about what the best sort of target for a mugging was. Instead, they dealt in much greater amounts of money and misery. Trades of drugs, flesh, and gambling were their forte, though violence was not unknown to them.

And they were nervous.

"I'm telling you, this crazy guy's dangerous, but those cops and this Ghost Mask are worse! The crazy guy's just killing people at the bottom of our organization, in ones or twos. The cops, that DA, and that freaking vigilante? They're sniffing in all the wrong places!"

"Yeah, but we at least can predict how they'll operate. This other guy, how do we even know what he'll try next?"

"What everybody least expects, that's what!"

Somehow, the madman dressed in white with a red mask was right there, standing amid them. His face wasn't really visible, but those eyes, oh those eyes. They glowed with a terrible purple light, and somehow, everyone there just knew he was smiling.

He was also holding two enormous handguns, and pointing them quite obviously at the seated men.

"Now, my boys and girls are keeping your so-called security busy right now. And I'm going to lay out a simple demand: I'm part of the "Big Boy's Club" now."

One of the men around the table, one sporting a complex tatoo peaking out from his suit's neckline, stood up and slammed his hands against the table.

"That's absurd! There's no way I'll-"

*BANG*

The man was struck in the chest, and bodily flew backwards several feet. The rest of the table was stunned, barely comprehending what had happened.

"Hm. I'll take his operations as well as my own, I think. Now, my lovely assistant Masami will hand you all a packet of information containing my contact information, what operations I have running, and what I expect from this glorious new membership of this august body. Though, I might suggest clearing out. I had a gift basket prepped and brought, but I think it's gone...sour...."

He dissolved into laughter as a beautiful woman who looked like she could snap their necks or balance their checkbooks in an instant passed out sealed manila envelopes, and what looked to be a large bomb was left on the table by two large, muscled men.

"Since no one else objected, you'll have a full 3 minutes to dash out of the room before it goes up! Toodles!"

And in all but the blink of an eye, the intruder and his followers were gone, squealing tires were heard, and hardened criminals rushed to flee the building.

Not quite 3 minutes later, the entire floor was gutted by the explosion, and what sounded like insane laughter echoed over this part of the city...

[Kuroimaken]

"He's making a move again."

Though he didn't live particularly close to the part of town the disturbance was in, Reiji did have a couple of Pluses monitoring radio frequencies around the clock. Some delicate situations required his interference, however subtle, to turn out for the best.

The element of madness to the white-suited nemesis' method made it difficult to guess where he'd be striking next.

Nemesis...?

Had he already started thinking of it like that?

Regardless, there was work to be done and a maniac to maim. Reiji did have to take some extra precautions so the SWORD agents watching his home did not associate his disappearance with the appearance of the Ghost Mask. But he'd prepared this contingency long before, and he knew he'd end up using it eventually.

It was time to hunt.

[tgva8889]

Kaito nodded as he finished off his food and drink.

"Exactly. Once we get some training down, things may well "click" into place."

He glanced at his watch and frowned.

"I better get home. Between people Swiss-cheesing my house, and Hollow parent-napping, my family's understandably a bit tenser these days. I'll see you all later."

With a smile and quick wave, Kaito stood and walked toward the exit. In short order, he was outside and (per a "request" from his parents) making a call to Mr. Reiji's aide to come pick him up.

Kina nods, then offers a wave in response as Kaito heads out. "See you later, Kaito!" He may notice that her smile is brighter than it has been in the past. In general, she seems more comfortable with the situation.

"I, um, am going to check out the training room. Um, this weekend, for sure, but probably earlier. I have some... work to do." She makes a tiny mock motion of pulling back a bowstring. "I, um, better go too. If we're, um, done. My aunt... she's, um, a little protective." She finishes her soda and cheese bun in a few moments.

[horngeek]

Izumi nods. "Fair enough. See you guys soon, then?"

[AnimeKid]

Suzaku Bros

Seeing as their conversation is finished Chase stands up as he says, "They seem to be done, I think that I'll go introduce myself now." "Seriously bro? I don't get you sometimes." It's called being polite to our new classmates you imbecile" Chase walks over to the remaining group and Koga reluctantly gets up as well he and Tali following him.

When he gets over to them he bows and says,"Ohayo, Forgive me but I happened to hear you guys conversing about school assignments. So I have to ask, do you guys go to Fushichou High School? Oh pardon my manners. I am Chase Suzaku, the gentleman over there is my fraternal twin brother Koga." Koga carelessly waves at the group as the spirit girl Tali speaks up and says, "And I'm Tali, hi!"

[Terry576]

Sora flicks his fingernail off his teeth. Once. Twice.

He'd screwed up big time. In his stupid insecurity about Valeria-san, he had horribly misjudged her reaction to his lie. It wasn't a small lie either, that was a damn big cover up he was trying to pull.

Flick. Flick.

He should apologize. He knew that already, it's just... he didn't want to apologize. It would mean admitting he was wrong, and Sora'd never been very good at that part of an apology. And that was the most important part, telling the person that you knew you were in the wrong.

Flick. Flick.

He sighed, and stopped flicking his fingernail. Brushing his hair slightly out of his blind eye, he flipped open his phone, quickly dialing one of the four numbers he had in there. Calling her to apologize was probably the best plan anyway.

[Frozen_Feet]

... it just so happens life has an objection to said "best plan". A split second before Sora presses the call button, his phone starts ringing. It's from an unknown number.