[BitPR²] Mortal World V

[Kuroimaken]

"Do you one better." Toki replied, sensing the urgency of the situation.

"I traced a route there with Reiraku. You go on ahead. I'll grab Tobioka and meet you there. I won't be able to open the door on my own, anyway, and he can help stabilize her. Go."

[Dorizzit]

Naito nods in appreciation and follows the traced route.

[Kuroimaken]

Tobioka soon arrives surrounded by robotic-looking Shikigami. They promptly set up a field acting as a gurney that Naito can lay Alpha-1 upon for ease of transport.

"Alright, give me everything you know based on her current condition. Don't skip out any detail. I'm measuring her vitals now."

[Dorizzit]

Naoto makes use of the field.

"The body was designed around a blood sample from the cross. It amplifies and enhances that power, but it's set up in such a way that it doesn't function properly without the very specific Quincy reiryoku from the cross. It keeps her Hollow flesh in check, among other things. When her body was copied, the blood wasn't perfectly replicated, and the effects are manifesting."

[Kuroimaken]

"Alright. Way I see it, we have three options for treatment. We can try a transfusion with blood from the cross, see if that stabilizes her. We can try a bone marrow transplant with you as a donor.

I'd really rather try out options one and two before we even talk about option three, though. I'm not an expert on Hollow and Quincy spiritual physiology. I'd need to call in an expert.

This being an emergency, we can forego the usual safety protocols for entering this place, shielding you from the Cross' influence. Just understand this is a one-time deal."

[Dorizzit]

A shake of the head.

"Doesn't even need to be a transfusion, she just needs to ingest it. The body will handle it from there."

Convenient, if true.

[KnightDisciple]

[Tokyo, Japan]
[Von Geister Manor - 25th Floor, ???]

[Tokyo, Japan]
(Von Geister Manor - Halls)

Katsuo grits his teeth and clenches a fist. There was nothing more to do. He pushes through the door and braces himself...

(Von Geister Manor - 25th Floor, ???)

What awaits both parties is...

A room far grander than it has any right to be, modeled after the motif of a Gothic cathedral. The ceiling reaches up into curved stone arches, with horrific stained glass reliefs. The room is lit with candlelight, what little (if any) daylight being let in not being enough to penetrate the darkness. The brightest part of the room is the center, where a great chandelier hangs... and from it, chained by the wrists, is an unconscious woman. Atsuko. She's... unharmed, and seems to be alive, but who knows how long that could hold true...

Katsuo dashes into the room from the opposite side of Chuck and Shinji's point of entry, eyes scanning the room. When he spots his aunt, he jumps almost immediately.

Something hits him, a great glob of blackness. It doesn't stop him, but it's forceful enough to throw off his trajectory, and he crashes into the wall.

"Tsk, tsk... Do you look before you leap, pretty boy?" Katsuo rolls to the ground, a pulsating mass of blackness covering his upper body... but he breaks free with a yell, unharmed. But the mass spreads, and appears to have consumed his shirt as it falls to tatters.

More of the black mass leaks from the walls, pooling to the ground. Even the elevator door behind Shinji and Chuck, bubbling and... laughing. "I feel like I've been rude. Let's start over, shall we? We haven't had the pleasure of meeting before, but allow me to introduce myself." A bit of the slime forms into a humanoid shape, vicious teeth and cruel, merciless yellow-irised eyes manifesting to give the thing some resemblance to a face.

"I'm Felicia Von Geister-Lucaster. And I'd like to welcome you to my parlor." She puts a finger to her chin with a thoughtful air. "Or maybe... it's more like my stomach." More ooze pours from the walls, and even starts to seep through the floors, chewing at the grand red carpet set upon the marble surface. Or... even the soles of shoes or feet if one doesn't react enough.

((Sorry for the wait, let's move this along.))

Chuck takes stock of the situation for several moments. Then, he crouches slightly, the ribbon-wings on his back beginning to flutter madly in a non-existent breeze. Black energy crackles around his hands, building up more and more, the air filling with miniature thunderclaps and the smell of ozone. He rises into the air, touching no surface. His hooded head turns slightly to Shinji.

"Shinji. Protect them. Help get them out."

His attention turns to Felicia's manifestation, twin points of black energy glowing inside the armored hood.

"I am Charles Leonard Anderson. I am your path to Oblivion through Purification."

He shoves his hands forward, and bolts of black lightning almost 10 inches thick roar forward, lashing toward the vaguely humanoid shape, with branching bolts that were themselves a few inches thick lashing out from the main bolts. These might sting a bit?

[Kuroimaken]

"No wonder you look pudgy." Shinji thinks to throw in a last-minute insult to gain a little time before going to work.

First, he needed to free Atsuko. He hurried up to her location, the myriad tails at his back flaring with power. They needed a way out of here, and fast.

"Katsuo, are you okay? I need your help to get your aunt out of here!"

- - - Updated - - -

A shake of the head.

"Doesn't even need to be a transfusion, she just needs to ingest it. The body will handle it from there."

Convenient, if true.

"Fine. Suppose it's less risky that way, in any case.

How do you know about this?" Tobioka asked as he unlocked the wards.

[Dorizzit]

Naito is just behind Tobioka.

"Data records hard-coded into her soul. The body itself has a...user's manual, of sorts, built in, but her spiritual makeup has a lot of build process information archived in order to make sure that information wasn't lost."

[Kuroimaken]

"Thank goodness for people being thorough.

I'll still want any information you can get me so we can keep up with her condition, mind. Just in case this doesn't work out for whatever reason." Tobioka replied. There were a lot of wards here... Shinji sure didn't want anybody taking this away without good reason.

[Dorizzit]

Naito's mouth compresses in irritation, but the Quincy doesn't complain.

"Not a whole lot else to say. We know the problem, we know the solution. She's not in immediate danger until she runs out of reiryoku, which is still hours off at the very earliest."

[Kuroimaken]

Finally, the last ward visibly unlocked as the doors to the chamber, hilariously frail by comparison, slid open and Tobioka carried Alpha-1 in the "gurney".

"The point of knowing the details is avoiding a repeat. We can't know for sure if there isn't going to be a rejection or something. If there is, we'll have to think of a different solution.

Even spirit-based medicine isn't clear-cut, Naito. You gotta hope for the best and prepare for the worst."

[Dorizzit]

Naito only snorts in response, but doesn't argue the point. Instead, Naito moves straight for the cross and gouges a thin line down it, which quickly begins to well up with blood.

[Kuroimaken]

One of the Shikigami produces a "cup" to make it easier to collect the blood.

Tobioka helps prop Alpha-1 up to make drinking it easier.

[King539]

Spoiler

Show

Sēji smiles as he closes the door."Thank you, Koutarou-kama."

Downstairs, he hands a note to the receptionist, probably informing Lucita of her short-term promotion. Once outside, he happily inhales the fresh air before opening a Senkaimon to the mortal world, and stepping through.

Small tropical island in the Pacific Ocean

A Senkaimon opens a few feet in the air, Sēji stepping through it and immediately tumbling to the ground. After standing up and brushing himself off, he summons, his Zanpakuto spirit in a puff of smoke. He then proceeds to level his sword at it.

Cue training montage.

[Dorizzit]

Naito takes the cup, filling it up close to half way before plugging the scratch up and taking the container away. After a moment, Naito brings the cup over to Alpha-1 and puts it to her lips, tilting her head back until most of the viscous liquid has been swallowed.

[Kuroimaken]

In the meantime, Tobioka keeps a close eye to her vitals as monitored by his assistant Shikigami.

[Dorizzit]

After Alpha-1 finishes drinking, Naito eyes the bottom of the cup momentarily before draining the last of the cup themself.

"Can't hurt."

For a moment, nothing seems to be happening. Alpha-1's vitals remain as they've been: abnormally slow, but not enough to put up any red flags. Naito just wipes the blood away from their mouth, then begins to do the same for Alpha-1 before staggering back, grabbing their head with one hand.

"I may have been-"

Alpha-1 sits up and her eyes shoot open, glowing in tandem with Naito's. Both Quincies arch their backs, gasping as convulsions rock their bodies and their reiatsu flares. The immediate area is going to be extremely uncomfortable for anyone with an insufficient supply of reiryoku to protect them from the unleashed pressure. After a few seconds, a glowing "E" appears in midair in front of Alpha-1 before warping and extending into a "B." At the same time, in front of Naito an "S" of comparable dimensions manifests. The two hold still for several more seconds as the power is channeled through them, before both collapse. Alpha-1 simply drops back onto the gurney, but Naito falls down onto the ground itself.

[Kuroimaken]

Tobioka sighed.

"This is the last goddamn time I let a kid talk me into administering treatment. Toki, help me with Naito, would you?"

______________

However long it takes later, the two of them wake up in the Sanctuary's infirmary.

[Dorizzit]

Naito is actually up almost immediately; although the process itself was unexpected, it wasn't terribly traumatic. Maybe a little draining. Alpha-1, on the other hand, seems to be out cold, although that's not anything new. Naito pushes away any attempt to pick them up.

"I'm fine."

Staggering up, Naito pushes for the door of the room.

"Gotta find the others. Need my help..."

[Kuroimaken]

"What exactly do you think you can do in your state?" Toki replies as he interposes himself between Naito and the door.

"They're going to be okay. The Grandmaster is with them. You try and reach them now, chances are you'll collapse before you reach them, and when they get back, they're going to be pissed at you for pushing yourself too hard.

Meanwhile, you've got someone unconscious here that can probably use your help when she wakes up, especially because we have no frame of reference on how to deal with her. You do."

[Dorizzit]

Naito growls back at Toki.

"I'm fine! Just wasn't expecting that. I'll be at full when I get there. And she'll be fine too, if she's even up by the time I get back."

Naito stalks forward and seems to be about to shove Toki out of the way, but the sanctuary's restraints prevent them from following through.

[Kuroimaken]

"Yeah? And you know that how, exactly? You remember the whole thing with Mt. Fuji, right?

Naito, I'm not trying to stop you because I don't trust you. I'm trying to stop you because doing things in the spur of the moment like that are a quick and easy way to make things worse. What if we need you here? What if they take someone else outside these walls? Or, worse comes to worse, they capture Chuck or Katsuo?"

[Dorizzit]

Naito starts pushing past Toki, careful to avoid any physical contact.

"That's a whole lot of 'ifs!' What IF they get hurt and I could have helped? They're in danger, we KNOW that."

[strawberryman]

[Tokyo, Japan]
(Von Geister Manor - Chapel?)

Felicia sputters as the bolts of lightning shoot through her form, and she just... falls apart.

...Chuck gets a sense that it can't possibly be that easy. He might see a flash of black and yellow as Shinji approaches Atsuko. He might even have enough time to warn him.

But probably not, as a bee-like hollow speeds towards Shinji, stabbing forth with a wide lance-stinger attached to it's forearm. And yet... something seems wrong about Hell Wasp, there's no light in her eyes. The sockets are black, a bit of black ichor leaking out.

Meanwhile, Katsuo has another great glob lobbed at him, composed of black and curiously, a earthy translucent gold. The source of the glob appears to be... yet another bee hollow. Honey Bee wavers similarly, with blank eyes and a... puppet-like stance.

[Kuroimaken]

Naito starts pushing past Toki, careful to avoid any physical contact.

"That's a whole lot of 'ifs!' What IF they get hurt and I could have helped? They're in danger, we KNOW that."

"If any of them were wobbly on their feet and they tried to go help you, would you let them go? Unless I can make sure you won't just collapse as a side effect of whatever the hell is in that blood, I'm not letting you out of this room!"

Toki moves to block Naito's way. He doesn't have to hold the boy, just make sure he's positioned so Naito would have to move him.

[Dorizzit]

Naito glares, teeth gritting.

"Fine. What do you need to see?"

[Kuroimaken]

"Give us a quick rundown on how that blood was supposed to have affected you. It was supposed to make the girl better too, wasn't it? She hasn't woken up, though.

What's her name, while we're at it?"

Tobioka continues to monitor the girl, while only peripherally keeping tabs on the conversation. For the most part, he's trying to get a sense if she's in any kind of danger, but for one thing, he doesn't know what counts as a baseline for normality in her vital signs.

[Dorizzit]

"Me? I had no idea. Her soul was pre-programmed to guide the blood's empowerment down a specific line. I developed...around it, sort of, so it didn't directly affect me until now. For context, 90% of everything involving both of us is bulls*** and doesn't make any sense. Some very smart people did some very bad things and developed a lot of insanely advanced science. I can explain most of it, at this point, but it's going to sound like a lot of made-up words so I'm using layman's terms. Her name is Aoi, and her body is most likely rebooting itself, she'll wake up...within the next three hours, depending on a bunch of different factors."

Her vitals are speeding up, but only to a normal level for a human at rest.

[Kuroimaken]

"Sounds about right. If you can talk in medical analogies, maybe a bit of computer programming, I can mostly keep up. These little guys don't look like robots for nothing."

Tobioka isn't just the foremost expert on Kuzunoha healing spells. He's also the resident expert on trace-based Shikigami - the ones that summoners do not capture or base on legend or myth, but rather create themselves. Figures if he's making robots, he wanted to know how robot programming worked.

"You said her body was developed around the specific reiryoku from the blood in this cross. Since your body reacted to it, even if it was in a way it wasn't intended to, and you actually decided to drink it 'just in case', that means you expected something to happen to you. I can scan your body for any changes, mind."