A/N WoT: Somehow I can't really work up the effort to be that bothered about all the original bits of the story that I'm leaving more or less intact, it's just... eeh. Also, I appreciate the magic cupcakes and cookies. Tastes great, less filling though. :B Went to check on what East of Eden was... I swear I didn't watch it before writing this.
(And yes, there's an app for everything. Well, maybe that's a minor exaggeration, but still.)
Mizuiro's operator has a kind of delicious creepiness to it... I think I'll call it GlaDOS. More options will become available for him eventually, it's just that his reiatsu reserves are insufficient right now for all of them to be available, hence GlaDOS's message when he attempted to vaporize the hollow. Most of his abilities will be psychic-flavoured though, since I felt that as a highly manipulative person (he picks up girls just to have them cook for him) these particular abilities would suit him best. I tried to get his operator's personality to match his own in the same way that Orihime's Shun Shun Rikka are mostly innocent and carefree. (The alternative name choice was SHODAN.)
Keigo's spiffy magic Converse aren't really designed for combat, since he's something of a coward in canon and would seek any means possible to avoid a fight (hence the 'chameleon' ability and extreme speed). Like Mizuiro and everyone else, his powers will get better eventually, but he will never be a heavy hitter since it really isn't his nature. And no, they're not actually called spiffy magic Converse. That would be a terrible name. (I did briefly consider calling them Flash Steps, but that would be a truly awful pun.)
Tatsuki's ability is terribly appropriate. Orihime's, of course, you are already aware of.
All currently known (and undescribed) abilities will be added to the encyclopaedia at the end of this chapter.
Also, I have a hell of a lot of correcting to do now. e.e Thanks to Love Psycho for pointing out the errors that I missed earlier... they will be corrected shortly, as well as a whole slew of other minor mishaps I missed. Finally... my real life (yeah, it exists) is in a FUBAR state right now. Please forgive me if I have problems updating - I haven't given up just yet.
The scene that greeted Tessai was not quite as bad as he had been expecting. He took advantage of the momentary distraction of the various hollows to fire off a series of Hado #31: Shakkahou, effectively obliterating the hollows in a controlled fashion.
There was a boy clinging onto another teenager as if his life depended on it. He frantically waved what seemed to be a mobile phone in Tessai's face, before realizing that the man was not here to attack him and lowering the device cautiously.
"Can you do anything for Miz?"
Tessai gave the apparently unconscious teenager a cursory glance. He seemed well enough on the outside, although his reiatsu was at a dangerously low level. That didn't necessarily mean he was fine, though, and both of them would want answers later. Besides, it was hardly as if Urahara would be protesting over looking out for what was probably one of Uryuu's friends.
"Probably," he replied. "But I think both of you should come with me first."
Orihime had also noticed the yawning crevasses in the sky, and the creatures that were slipping out of them. Strangely enough, most of the other people seemed to be entirely oblivious to it, and she swore that she'd seen Uryuu flying overhead like some kind of superhero for a brief second. She didn't mention this, though. If Ishida-kun is a ninja superhero, he probably wants to keep his identity secret so nobody can use it against him... and besides... Would that make Kuchiki-chan Lois Lane to Ishida-kun's Clark Kent? Or maybe, she thought in a sudden burst of inspiration, that little bracelet of his that I always see him wearing is his transforming artefact like Sailor Moon -
Suddenly she was ambushed from behind, arms wrapping around her chest as she yelped, lashing out at her captor with an elbow.
Chizuru Honsho's grip loosened immediately as she started sobbing, massaging her wounded stomach. "Why, my precious Hiiiime..."
"Ah! Chizuru-chan... I thought you might be a pervert attacker trying to do something terrible to me..."
Tatsuki approached, staring at the scene as Chizuru turned to face her, weeping.
"How can you do this to me?! You've corrupted my precious flower of innocence with your terrible boyishness! Curse you, my terrible foe..." She shook her fist at Tatsuki. "Do not worry, Hime! I'll save you from this - "
At this point, Chizuru was interrupted by a fist to the stomach, this time from Tatsuki.
"Romance... will prevail..."
"Chizuru-chan, are you alright?" Orihime bent over in her concern to help up Chizuru, who gratefully accepted the assistance in getting up.
"Come on, she'll be fine. We need to get going, or we'll gonna miss the movie," Tatsuki commented, with a cursory glance at the sky.
Orihime almost asked What movie? before realizing something vitally important: her friend had looked upwards when saying that.
Contrary to popular opinion, she was not a complete ditz, and was capable of thinking extremely fast sometimes.
It meant that Tatsuki had also seen whatever was following them, and was currently trying to get them to leave as fast as possible without causing alarm by using the excuse of a movie. It also raised all sorts of questions about why Chizuru hadn't noticed, but maybe they were all just pretending that it wasn't really there just in case someone else wasn't able to see it. But whatever it was, Tatsuki probably knew something about it, and wanted to get away from it as fast as possible. Not to mention that the creature radiated an aura of malevolence that was tangible, even at such a distance...
"Yes! Let's go early so we can get popcorn to go with it! Chizuru-chan, would you like to join us?" she cried, grabbing her classmate's elbow and steering her towards the school entrance.
Chizuru's demeanour did a complete 180-degree turn as she gave a lecherous grin. "Ohohoho... finally my secret conversion techniques have paid off, then? Of course I would loooove to come with you... maybe afterwards we could even have a 8-hour session of glorious ménage à trois - "
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, don't get any ideas," Tatsuki grumbled, glowering as she accompanied the pair. "If you try anything lewd - "
"Ah, you don't need to worry, you'll be included too if you like. I knew I could persuade you one day~"
"Hmmm... how perfectly disgusting," came a voice from above.
Both Tatsuki and Orihime looked up instinctively for the source. A monstrous tentacled creature hung overhead, its head covered in a series of blunt spines.
"Oh... you can see me as well, can you?" The creature let out a high-pitched giggle, one at odds with its grotesque form. It raised a tentacle to its mask to cover its mouth in a girlish fashion. "Even better! Now I can have fun watching as you rip each other apart!"
"What're you looking a-?"
There was a sharp crack, followed by the sound of shattering glass and something more visceral. All three girls ducked instinctively in an attempt to dodge the missiles.
"Chizuru-chan!"
"Honsho?"
Chizuru gripped her shoulder, grimacing slightly as blood trickled from between her fingers. She forced a smile at the concerned expression on Orihime's face.
"It's alright. Although it's good to see you like this... it's cute, but it doesn't suit you." She lifted her arm up, waving it back and forth. "See? Perfectly fine! Don't worry, it'll all be okay..."
And then her arm shot out to grab Orihime by the neck.
"Wha..."
"Honsho, what the hell are you doing? Let go of her!" Tatsuki delivered a swift karate chop to the arm, causing Chizuru to let go with a cry of pain.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, it wasn't me!" The girl was nearly hysterical now; Orihime could clearly see the projectile half-buried in the shoulder now as she gripped her own arm, holding it in place.
The monster had landed on the ground by now, its tentacles shrouding the main body like hair. "Do you like it? Does it hurt? This is my special ability!"
Tatsuki turned to face the creature. "You bastard! Let her go and fight me like a man!"
"Hmm..." It tapped the side of its mask with the tip of one tentacle in a thoughtful manner. "How about no. I despise conflict utterly... which is why I have others do it for me~ Now I can have the pleasure of watching you ripped to shreds by your former classmates!"
And suddenly, other people came out of the building. Some of them were students from the younger years that Orihime recognised by face, but others were teachers. She could recognise the burly physique of Kajine-sensei standing out amongst the crowd. None of them seemed to be aware of what they were doing in the same way that Chizuru was.
"Shit," Tatsuki cursed as she glanced from side to side, trying to keep every potential threat in view at once. "Where's Uryuu when you need him?"
"You... knew that Ishida-kun is a superhero?"
"Yeah, let's just - " She stopped as Chizuru made a lunge for the pair of them, knocking her out with a precise strike to the skull. "Damn it... fighting like this is a disgusting trick. We can't just kill them, but how the hell are we supposed to make them wake up? Cut it out of them?"
"Aaaah... a shame, I was hoping to see you both torn apart by one of your closest friends."
"There's no way I'm friends with that person," Tatsuki muttered under her breath with a wince.
"Tatsuki-chan... I don't know what it is, but if that thing is controlling the others, if we can kill it - "
"Right." Her friend stood up with a determined air as her karate outfit began to take on a metallic sheen. "In that case... I'll make this bastard hollow pay for trying to hurt you!"
"Not so fast, girl." With a twitch of its tentacle, the zombie-like army lurched forwards. "Or are you forgetting about my pawns-?"
Tatsuki moved in a blur, hands and feet slamming into torsos and skulls as the controlled humans were knocked out of the way.
She slid to a halt in front of the hollow. "Next... was you, wasn't it?"
"I-impossible! How could you defeat them all in that period of time... but nonetheless..." It lifted itself off the ground, its regrown spikes quivering slightly before firing outwards at Tatsuki. She dodged, her form blurring as she evaded the projectiles that seemingly kept coming out of nowhere, preventing her from getting close.
"Dammit! Stay still so I can hit you!"
Tatsuki-chan... she can do something like this...
"Aren't you forgetting something~"
The projectile didn't make a sound until it impacted with flesh, and even then, it wasn't something that most people would have heard unless they were fairly close or had good hearing. A sickening, visceral sort of noise coupled with a crack.
"T-Tatsuki-chan?" Orihime whispered.
Her friend's eyes were dulling over as Tatsuki slumped into her arms. Shaking, Orihime's hands found the seed that had buried itself in the back of the skull, in a last-ditch attempt to stop a killing blow that was meant for her. There was no way it'd ever be right again. Even just looking, she could tell that the injury was fatal.
Useless. I couldn't even do anything to protect myself, so Tatsuki-chan had to get hurt for me instead...
Tatsuki Arisawa fell, her uniform dulling to ordinary white cloth once more as Orihime's vision blurred with tears.
"Ohohoho... how sad... and now that brat's gone, it's just you to play with. Maybe I'll even use her corpse to rip you to shreds as you continue to weep for her death!"
Tatsuki... I'm sorry. Thank you for protecting me... now it's my turn. Even in death.
"I can't forgive you for hurting my friends," Orihime whispered. "For what you did to them." She straightened up, barely paying attention to the whirling creatures now flying around her.
"What is that... her demeanour is totally different..."
Two of the fairies settled down upon Tatsuki, as a golden, luminescent shield sprang up, breaking down the seed and restoring Tatsuki's body to its previous condition. Another dark-clad fairy settled on Orihime's shoulder.
"You want that thing to pay for what happened, right?"
"Yes. He... it..." She swallowed. "It killed Tatsuki-chan. And it made all these other people be hurt as well."
"Then call my name. Tsubaki!"
"Tsubaki..." Orihime hesitated for a fraction of a second, before the rest of the command came to her mind instinctively.
"Koten Zansshun... I reject."
The hollow was taken by surprise, unable to dodge as Tsubaki flashed towards it, splitting it in half.
"Hey. Woman. Why are you still crying?"
"It's just... even if I do that, it still won't bring Tatsuki-chan back..."
"You don't need to worry!" spoke up the larger of the two fairies that had settled on the body. "We're working on healing her. She'll be alright if you give us some more time."
"...What are you? Flying midgets?"
Tsubaki squinted at her, hovering just before her nose. "Eeeh? Who're you calling a midget there?!"
"Be kinder to her, Tsubaki," chided a heavier-built fairy, who was currently perched on Orihime's left shoulder. "She's just had a traumatic experience."
"We're part of your power, Orihime... when you were in danger, you reacted to that, and we were brought into being to help you!"
"Oh." She sat down heavily against the wall. "Somehow, I feel a little tired..."
"That's only natural. It's your first time, after all - " Lily noticed that Orihime had slumped over. "Oh dear... I think we'd better go in. She did use quite a lot of reiatsu trying to heal her friend without the incantation..."
The six flowers vanished without further ceremony.
Tatsuki had a really bad headache as her brain began catching up with recent events.
Oh... I guess I'm not a zombie then. At least that's something.
Wooden sandals clicked against the concrete. She twisted her head, making out a green-clad figure with a bucket hat shadowing his face.
"Ah... this is problematic."
"Who the hell are you?"
"You're awake? That's good! As for me..." The man produced a fan out of nowhere, opening it with a sharp snap. "I'm just a humble shopkeeper."
"Humble shopkeeper my ass..."
"Now, now, it doesn't pay to be rude to someone you don't even know," he chided, fanning himself.
She levered herself off the pavement with a grunt. "What do you want?"
"I'm sure you have a lot of questions right now... Well, I suppose I could help answer some of them, at least. Not to mention help out your friend."
Tatsuki glanced at Orihime, currently unconscious on the concrete.
"Why would you want to do this?"
"Well... you're a friend of Uryuu-kun's, after all. I'm sure he would be terribly mad at me if I didn't help you out in your time of need~"
She stared at him with a renewed curiosity. This guy knows Ishida? How the hell does that work? Not to mention, he looks pretty familiar...
"Wait," she blurted. "Weren't you that guy claiming to be Kaizo's father?"
"Ah, you recognised me! I'm glad."
"What do you have to do with all the hollows that've been turning up?" she asked suspiciously.
"He told you about that, then... well, I suppose that will make things a bit easier." He glanced upwards at the sky. "Nonetheless, I think we should really move this discussion to somewhere safer, don't you?"
"Fine, then." Tatsuki stood up, keeping her gaze fixed on the strange man. But if he tries anything funny...
Quincy Super Awesome Special Shiny Book Of Doom!
(...that's it. You're never allowed to write the titles again.)
GlaDOS: Mizuiro Kojima's abilities are manifested through his mobile phone (currently a touchscreen). As well as possessing all the ordinary features that any phone would, it also has a few extras that would not be found on any ordinary mobile phone, no matter how smart. Being a program, GlaDOS can potentially be transferred from one device to another. It has various different functions and abilities, some of which are more energy-draining than others. While GlaDOS can always be used so long as the user has reiatsu, if the device that GlaDOS is currently running on runs out of battery or other electrical supply, it will drain reiatsu to run, even without any options in use. GlaDOS will always quantify reiatsu values very precisely into its calculated arbitrary units. Whilst downloading GlaDOS onto a battery-operated device will considerably amplify the charging rate and battery life when not in use, as well as permitting reiatsu-based recharging, actual use of the program will eat up the battery like nothing on earth. Attempting to use a function for which one has insufficient reiatsu will cause side effects, varying from mild headache to death.
Register Friend (0): This is a basic function of GlaDOS, requiring no energy other than the electrical charge on the device. Registering a friend permits later communication and monitoring of reiatsu.
Connect Basic (2): This is another basic function of GlaDOS, connecting with one registered friend to form a temporary basic psychic link, permitting near-instantaneous communication. This uses minimal energy to set up (2 arbitrary units) and maintain.
Transfer (8): This is one of the more advanced functions, permitting the transfer of a mind into another body. All abilities, advantages and drawbacks of that body are conferred, but not of the mind of that body. Transfer takes a mediocre amount of energy to maintain after its use, and may be dangerous depending on the target's state of mind and health, particularly with hollows as they have a tendency to be completely insane. Death of the original body will result in the transfer being broken, resulting in either mind-death or worse. Death of the transfer body whilst the mind is still in it may result in mind-shock, mind-death or worse. Transfer is not a function that should be used lightly.
Destroy (?): One of the highest functions of GlaDOS, it does exactly what one would expect - that is to say, causing psychic breakdown of the target at the molecular level. However, this uses a considerable amount of energy to complete and is not a recommended function for normal use. The amount of energy necessary varies considerably from target to target, as an increased amount of reiatsu possessed by a target will render it far more difficult to break down.
Hikaritai (光体t): Light Body. Keigo Asano's abilities are manifested partially through the Converse that he wears, granting various non-combative abilities that may also be bestowed upon others if physical contact is maintained. The shoes are rendered considerably more hardwearing than any other footwear would normally be as a result. Whilst they can also (potentially) be used to kick far harder than anyone would without assistance of a technique such as shunko, they are not especially designed for such a purpose.
Meisai (迷彩): Camouflage. Bends light around the body, and anything reasonably sized which remains in contact with the body. This does not, however, disguise the user from any other sense, such as concealing scent or sound, nor does it render the body immaterial.
Shunpo (瞬歩): Flash Step. Roughly the same as the shinigami version whose name it shares, the user accelerates themselves to a high speed to travel a long distance in a brief period of time. Keigo's Converse, as an inbuilt part of his power, offer rather more control than a shinigami of the same level would have, assist in minimization of air resistance, and decrease of effective weight, easing the process considerably.
Kishi no yoroi (騎士の鎧): Knight Armour. Tatsuki Arisawa's abilities are manifested through her martial arts uniform, causing it to harden into a metallic cloth. While it retains the fluidity of the original clothing, it also possesses the same durability as high-quality steel and is capable of deflecting attacks, making it an excellent protection. It does not hinder movement in the same way as ordinary armour would do, and has extremely smooth surfaces, reducing friction and assisting high-speed movement as well as enhancing natural strength. It also potentially possesses various other special abilities, although these remain unknown as of yet.