[BITPR²] Kyuukyoku Gaiden: The Beachdown Apocalypse

[Kuroimaken]

And then later he can drop by the police station and somehow explain that they won't find records of him anywhere, not that they aren't welcome to try. How's that for a morning to look forward to?

[Frozen_Feet]

He can let worry of tomorrow keep him awake for the night, or he can get some shut-eye. He may not have a clock in the room to keep time with, but he isn't getting any more of it.

[Kuroimaken]

A fair point.

Nights out!

For some reason, he dreams about the Japanese version of Mulan's "I'll make a man out of you".

[Frozen_Feet]

He might wake up to the sound of people moving outside his room. They're not here because of him, though. If he peeks out, he might catch a glance of paramedic carrying someone out... in a bag. Turns out, the old geezer from last night suffered a heart attack. Since he was alone in his room, no-one noticed untill the morning, and when they found him, it was already too late for first aid. So tragic.

But Koutarou knew this was coming, didn't he?

[Kuroimaken]

Sort of. It still freaks him out that happened... more to the point, that a supposed Shinigami could 'tell' ahead of time he was going to die.

Perhaps more to the point, he feels strange about how every choice he seems to have made since this debacle started turned out to be wrong. Any other day, he'd have gone out of his mind with self-blame. But this feels just wrong, like he's been pushed into a string of no-win situations.

[Frozen_Feet]

Are they no-win, or is it that he never firmly set on a victory condition himself? And if someone or something is pushing him, who or what is it?

Heavy, heavy questions. He can sit in his room, thinking about them, untill the facility staff get nosy, or he could try to sneak off while they're distracted. Or he could try to find some place to catch breakfast - he doesn't know if the facility offers such, but maybe they can point him somewhere where they hand out food donations.

[Kuroimaken]

See, that, right there. THAT's the kind of mentality that's been bugging him. That he somehow couldn't even picture the situation he's in accurately somehow.

It's an extremely annoying possibility, to be sure.

But hey, stomach's growling. Might as well see if he can get breakfast.

[Frozen_Feet]

To know if he could solve the mystery surrounding him would require him to, well, know the solution to it. In the end, he cannot know if he will solve it untill he solves it or stops trying. All the while the invisible clock keeps ticking and the world keeps turning beneath his feet.

It turns out the shelter does offer a meager breakfast of porridge and juice, since Koutarou is completely without money. There's a radio playing in the dining room, sounding the morning news. It's second of April, local political parties are tangled in a knot due to some healtcare reform, construction has halted due to economic depression, something about a car pile-up on a major highway not far from here but luckily only two people have been confirmed dead, yadda yadda. The weather forecast promises that the sudden winter backlash from yesterday has passed and spring will continue in sunny and warm terms.

[Kuroimaken]

Meager or not, there's nothing Koutarou can do but be thankful.

Next stop, the police force! This isn't going to be awkward at all!

[Rater202]

One Minute, Sarah was in Las Noches.

The next, she was on a beach somewhere, nobody was speaking English, and she was in a grey two-piece bathing suit.

She hid along the edges of the beach, avoiding contact with the revelers as best as she could to try and figure out what happened, but the sun quickly set. Then it got cold. Have you ever been in the snow wearing only a two piece bathing suit? It's not fun. To make matters worse, Sarah couldn't call upon her armor, insulated as it was, to protrect her from the the ice and snow, which kind of pissed her off.

Without even noticing the presence of the Death God on the beach, Sarah fled, using a bit of fullbring to keep from sinking into the snow and freezing her bare feet, until she could find some shelter--eventually landing herself a refrigerator box and a grate with heat coming out of it where she could rest and keep herself warm for the night while she figured out where the hell she was.

Eventually, she concluded that she was in bum**** nowhere, Europe edition. Living in the city of Hollows for a while had... not dulled, but altered her skill at survival, but she was an experianced fullbringer and good at using those skills to survive in an urban environment: It didn't take her long to fall back into old habits and she managed to pilfer a backpack, a couple of apples, and a blanket without being seen. However, the longer she was here the more obvious it became: The spirit world was deader than normal here.

No hollows, no ghosts, barely any background spirit energy if it was there at all, nothing, except or a couple of bursts out a while away.

Then there was a huge spike in spirtual energy in the middle of the night. Sarah was reluctant to arpoch someone else, but as far as she knew this was the only other person in the area with any spirtual power at all. Hopefully they had some idea of what the hell was going on. And spoke english, or maybe badly broken spanish... Svetlana had been trying to teach Sarah the language known to most hollows so that she could read the books she'd taken from the Las Noches library, but Sarah was having trouble grasping it.

She moved through the air, traveling all night via bringer light, until she reached where she felt the spike, then moved towards the city near by in hopes of detecting the energy signature she felt last night, ducking into alleys and proceding by stealth as the sun came up.

On his way to the police station, Koutarou might feel as though he's being watched. He might notice a signature of spiritual energy. Something corrupt,opressive, and maybe a little parasitic, a hint of tragedy. Almost, but not quite like a hollow, coming from an alleyway not too far from his route.

[Frozen_Feet]

Aside from the sense of being followed, nothing hints that this day is anything but another day on Earth. The spring sun is inching upwards on the sky and warming the streets, dispelling cold of the night save for patches of frost hiding in the shadows between buildings. Shops are being opened and a few cars drive by as Koutarou nears the police station.

[Kuroimaken]

First noticeable spiritual pressure not belonging to what he presumes could be a murderess in the last 36 hours. Content to keep her distance.

Koutarou likes having more options at this point, but he's been wreaking enough havoc with his spiritual powers as it is. He doesn't feel the need to be particularly proactive about this one, especially since she seems like a bit of a small fry.

So he decides to go about his business as he originally intended instead. See what this person will do.

[Rater202]

The hollow-like presence is definitely following him, though sticking to back alleys, rooftops, and other places where it's unlikely to be seen.

If Koutarou is paying close enough attention to his surroundings, he might get brief glimpses of a flash of green light, or of a five foot, thin figure(which he might also notice is wearing a beathing suit and a iece of cloth, a towel or blanket drapped over their shoulders,) but only becuase, as a shinigami, his senses are better than a non-spiritual human's

[Frozen_Feet]

The police station turns out to be part of a larger building complex, a multi-story block of bricks standing in the corner of two broad streets. There's a police van and a couple of passenger cars parked outside, but otherwise the area is pretty open, with the river running through the town just a stone's throw away. Once Koutarou is at the entrance, Sarah would have to cross the street in plain view to stay close.

If she stays put, Koutarou will vanish inside the building. Inside the lobby, there's a machine asking him to take a number, with the buttons labeled in three different languages. One is for "passports, licences etc.", two for "reporting crimes", three for "pre-arranged meetings" and fourth for "other". Time for Koutarou to decide exactly what kinds of lies he'll spin, if he hasn't already.

[Rater202]

Sarah takes a small rock, a piece of gravel, or something similar. If Koutarou at no point decides to investigate the presence following him, then by the time he arrives at the police station she will use fullbring to send it to him with the force of a firm but harmless fingerpoke in the hopes of subtly getting his attention.

[Kuroimaken]

Well that's a first. Some people can be so timid.

But first things first.

Koutarou decides to press the button for "other". After all, his case is a mix of all of the above.

[Rater202]

Sarah facepalms. Apparently, some people don't realize when someone's trying to get their attention.

If it was darker, she'd maybe try to bringer light across the street and wait in the complex the man had gone into in hopes of being more readily able to draw his attention when he came out of whatever it was he'd gone into, but it was broad daylight and a flying girl in a bikini would likely be spotted by anyone looking.

...If Sarah knew more code, she'd try to spell out "over here, bastard" in flairs of spirit energy, but she didn't know more and honestly, if the guy wasn't the least bit curious about literally the only other source of spiritual energy for miles when it was following him then he might not be able to sense energy.

As a last-ditch effort, she flairs her energy to her full power for just a brief second to see if the man will sense it and react. Afterward, she tries to position herself somewhere where she's unlikely to be seen but can still see the door the man went through and tries to make herself comfortable while she waits.

For a brief second, Koutarou might feel the hollow like presence expand, developing a spiritual pressure comparable in strength and intensity to that of a Menos Grande, and then it's back to normal. whoever it is doens't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

[Frozen_Feet]

The machine spews out a ticket for Koutarou. It reads "107". There are several digital displays on the wall, above a doorway he's supposed to go through next. None of them are showing his number. If he waits a few minutes, there's a loud "Ping!" and one of the displays changes its number, blinking shortly to catch his attention. Still not his number, though. It's hard to say how long it will take... no other person seems to be present, so the logic by which they call the numbers appears somewhat obscure.

[Kuroimaken]

Between the strangely infantile attempt of this other person to get his attention spiritually and the bizarre number-logic of this police station, Koutarou is a bit at a loss for what to do.

So while he waits, he briefly chants a kidou under his breath. Sarah can see it snake out the window. It's forming words!

"Yes?"

[Rater202]

"Uh, yeah, hello," Sarah says in American accented English, Can you hear me through that?

If Koutarou can and answers yes, she goes on, Okay, the other day I was suddenly on a beach and then there was snow and I have no idea where I am. You are literally the only other person with spiritual power for miles, do you have any idea what's going on?

[Kuroimaken]

Right now - right effin' NOW - there are dozens of tragedies happening around the world. Famine. Sickness. Genocide.

That Koutarou can't actually hear Sarah over the snake-winding Hainawa he wove is maybe a 2 on that scale.

[Rater202]

Sarah grumbles at the lack of response. She's out of ideas.

At least the guy knows she's here.

...Maybe she can try to fullbring the cord to send a message back?

[Kuroimaken]

The cord is made of energy. The whole point of it being spiritual was that it could get through the nearby windows.

Unfortunately, it makes a very, very poor subject for Fullbringing.

[Frozen_Feet]

"Ping!"

The sound informs Koutarou that a number has changed, and yes, it's his this time. The blinking light beckons him to go through the door.

Once he does, he finds himself in a large room split in half by a long service counter. The counter itselfis divided into small booths for customers to do their business in, with a digital display above each showing which number they're calling for. Koutarou's booth is at the very back.

Once he hauls himself there, and maybe even sits on the chair that's there for that very purpose, a platinum blonde woman wearing a white blazer greets him from behind the counter. "Good morning. How can we be of help today?"

Outside, Sarah hears footsteps coming closer to her hiding spot. Could be just a coincidence, someone walking around normally - but then they stop on the walkway right before her, and a voice addresses her, in English: "Who are you talking to, Little Miss?"

The voice belongs to a man, almost a foot taller than Sarah. He's wearing a black biker jacket and grey jeans and looking at Sarah through a pair of mirror shades. Or at least it feels like he's looking straight at her.

[Rater202]

Sarah pulls her pilfered blanket tighter around her, both to preserve as much of her modesty as she can and to hide the recent... alterations to her body and fullbring focus from normie eyes.

"No one. What are you talking about, mister?"

Sarah tries to subtly look for something she could use to defend herself if this goes bad. She's not so certain that her standard tactic of "punch them in the jaw or kick them in the crotch while using fullbring to removeall friction and thus hit at supersonic speeds" would work without the benifet of her Aegis to keep her from breaking something on the impact.

[Kuroimaken]

"This... is extremely embarrassing for me to say, but I assure you I am being honest.

The fact of the matter is that I woke up in this country a couple of days ago barely only remembering my name, with no ID whatsoever."

Technically, so far, he's not lying.

Strictly speaking.

[Frozen_Feet]

The man on the walkway looks at Sarah with an unreadable face. Or looks through her, feels more like the truth. Then he nods towards the building across the street. "The police station is right across the street, you know? They can speak English if that's what you're worried about." He puts one hand on his hip and leans on one leg. "You look like you could use the help."

Meanwhile, inside, the service person gives Koutarou an equally stone-faced look. "All right. What is your name and country of origin?" There's a click and another as her hand reaches for a computer mouse next to her and fetches the proper form to her screen. Immigrants who claim to have lost their papers are nothing unusual, no matter how outlandish their claims of how they got into that situation happen to get.

[Rater202]

...Police station. that's what this was.

****, was the guy she was following a cop? No, he'd be dressed differant if he was, but still. This was bad. The System was bad enough when she went through it in America, she had no idea what it was like here but the last thing she needed was to have to figure out how to run away from a foster home in a country she didn't even know the name of.

Oh, I really don't think the Police can help me, Mister. My problem isn't really that a crime happened and I'm not lost. I'm just waiting for someone.

But still, what were you talking about? I wasn't talking to anyone.

Sarah was so far still acting cool, but she was kind of wishing that Svetlana was here. The Arrancar Woman was much better at keeping her cool in situations like this.

Is the man wearing laced shoes? If so, she tries to use fullbring to untie them from a distance, similar to the trick of drinking water without touching the glass.

[Kuroimaken]

Well that certainly broke the tension.

"Koutarou Ishinomori." He says, fighting the urge to use the family name first. "And... Japan, I believe." He also barely called it Hinomoto there.

[Frozen_Feet]

Would a human system really be any worse than what Sarah went through in the land of Hollows, her affection towards Svetlana notwithstanding?

The man on the walkway shakes his head. "You could've waited in the lobby instead of out in the cold, you know." He notices the laces of his black leather boots have opened and kneels down to tie to tie them back up. It takes him less time and effort than it took Sarah to use fullbringing to untie them. "This isn't the Americas. No-one's going to shoot you for looking at them funny." He stands up and goes on his way, unless Sarah keeps trying to mess with him.

Inside, the service person inputs Koutarou's name and country of origin on the form and starts asking follow-up questions such as his date of birth, how long he's been in Finland, where he has been staying (if anywhere), where he got his clothes, does he have any money, does he have a picture of himself, etc.. As long as he co-operates and doesn't lose his patience, the process carries on smoothly. Presuming he tells them he's been staying at Sillankorva, they'll tell him to go back there for the time being, after they take a crude photo of him and issue a temporary identification card to him. He's also given a pile of forms and brochures, telling him how to contact the Bureau of immigration to get a visa, how to open a bank account, how to apply for support money, where to use the internet for free, so on and so forth. They tell him to get back at 16:00, to be interviewed by an actual police officer - going by the clock on the wall, that's three hours from now. Then they send him on his way.