A Piece of History [Closed]

He'd live, even looked like they had a shared resiliency because he seemed like he'd be back on his feet, at least in a literal sense, without too much delay but in the meanwhile, there were Hollow's in Karakura that needed hunting and she didn't have the luxury of waiting on someone else to do it for her.

The last conflict had sealed her course. The echoing slash dying out in the night as she fought off not one but two of their fatal destructive spells, after listening to their diatribe of how wicked and unworthy their very existence was had put her in a mood far from forgiving, had made her very much uninterested in hiding. Besides, the damage was done. All that was left was to get the word out.

Even Kevin supported her, in his own way. Not that she was surprised, being nearly killed by one of them would have soured anyone's mood. He still had his hesitations, and she was glad for it. Let them hunt in peace, let them coexist, and stay separate. Any Shinigami who had a problem with her activities, well, she'd welcome them to come to tell her themselves.

That brought her here tonight. She patrolled a little lighter right now for his sake, but Hollow activity kept increasing, something she wasn't yet sure was a worldwide or local phenomenon. It was almost odd to go a patrol without encountering something which made her nervous, where there were Hollow there were eventually going to increase in Shinigami. She was okay facing down a threat, but that didn't mean she wanted to go taking on every hornet in the nest she kicked.

Business first, she chided herself for being so distracted but the hunt had gained a sense of familiarity in the last month or so. With a proper weapon in hand, she found it much easier to face down the Hollow. Somehow the prospect of charging in close to them just felt right, they were often in her face anyway. Like this one, big old fellow, hulking brute, looked like scythe for hands? Almost like a praying mantis. She'd have had to run had she encountered it a month ago. But now?

She formed her blade a little bit easier, let the weight of seeming cold steel appear in her hand and pulled the remaining reishi to its edge. She met the force of its attack with her own, took the impact and slid back into the street. The cornered soul took off and the creature, furious at the loss of a meal bore down on Meridith. She held her ground, blade held up and level with the beast daring it to approach.

She waited for the lost moment as it lashed out at her and launched forward, tackling straight into its mass burying the reishi blade into the creature down to its hilt. She shifted out of the seeming and dramatic arterial spray of blood and braced as it fell backward and began to vanish. A soul put to rest. She exhaled and stretched out and collected herself from the ground. She thought about moving after the spirit but...that simply wasn't her domain.

It still had a chance to be free.

This girl was skilled, that much Nyla had been certain of. She had been tracking the Hollow for some time, electing to watch its movements and study its patterns before moving in for the kill. To that effect, she had been witness to two previous feasts that this monstrosity had partaken in. There had been ample time and opportunity for her to intervene and save the misfortunate souls that were the target of the beast's ire, yet Nyla chose inaction. She had forgone the role of savior nearly a century ago, now her only objective was the hunt. Both of Hollows and Shinigami.

Nyla saw the Hollow as it cornered the most recent soul. There was a noticeable sloth in its movements. It had gorged on several groups during the two banquets prior and any celerity that had been present in its actions before had now all but vanished. What remained now was brute strength. In the simplest terms, it was little more than a sluggish but still physically powerful brute. As the Hollow closed in on the soul to add one more to the many, so too did Nyla prepare for her own assault on the Hollow. Billowing darkness permeated her being and began to surround her. It had neared completion only to be interrupted by the red-haired youth below.

"Getting up close and personal, interesting. And with an interesting weapon, too. The children nowadays have curious ways of fighting." She mused with a hushed tone. The vaporous reiatsu around her faltered then dissipated in nigh-perfect synchrony with the fading Hollow. One strike had been enough to dispatch the Hollow, a feat that harkened back to the skill possessed by such a young girl. Or at least, young by Nyla's standards. In hindsight, it was likely anyone short of spiritual beings were children in her eyes; the latter were more so a pestilence.

"Not bad, girl, not bad at all. You've done this before, mm?" Her initial words rang out with the familiar evenness that characterized her speech. The succeeding inquiry, in contrast, carried an intrigued lilt that would likely go unnoticed if the girl was not specifically listening for it. A deft leap carried her down from the house roof she had spectated from to the street below mere feet away from the girl. An even stride brought her within arm's reach of the girl, at which point Nyla took a wide berth around the girl. Steel gray eyes surveyed the crimson-haired girl.

"You're the youngest one I've seen so far, but you're the most experienced. Seems the Quincy are getting younger and younger in the field these days. What's your name, child?" Nyla's hood remained in place to obscure her visage in shadow, yet an emerald glow peered out at Nyla's yet to be named companion.

She pivoted and the blade pressed forward aimed at the shadow who had been following her thus far. She raised her head and hesitated for a moment. She was an unusual sight in Japan, bronzed skin like hers, the cloaked obscured face, pretty emerald eyes. At the very least she was unlikely to be a Shinigami. No robes. No sword. Meridith might have been sheltered but she knew her kind when she was them, well, she thought she might.

She lowered the blade swiftly and inclined her head just so to acknowledge the women and to suggest she didn't have hostile intent, at least not yet. The sword was, after all, still in her hand. She smiled at the faint praise but only just so and remembered her place. Something about the sudden appearance of the woman through her off. It was exciting, to see another one of her kind.

Who you doomed.

The realization of the news she had to share hit her like a freight but she kept herself steady the only outward sign being that her somewhat light demeanour shifted and her mouth formed a tight line nodding back to her.

"Meridith Sheppard, ma'am," she replied formally. All but confirmed that she was a fellow Quincy, or at least not immediately aggressive she held her hand out and let the spiritual weapon vanish, it cascaded into iridescent blue motes of light that soon winked out of sight. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she replied leaving an opening for the woman to share her name. "Are you Quincy as well?" It was easy to assume but better to at least ask.

Like she suspected there was more than her and Kevin in Karakura. Too auspicious to simply be chance, she had a feeling there were more of her kind in this strange city than she ever suspects. A place of auspicious meetings, for reasons she had not as yet discovered. She wondered if she ever would.

Nyla was beginning to like this girl. She was efficient in her hunting and destruction of Hollows, but more than that she displayed a certain level of caution when dealing with strangers, even if said stranger was a potential ally. Nyla had been encountering more Quincy as of late than she had in the past few decades. Perhaps it was a sign that they had in fact began to bolster their ranks in secrecy, away from the hostile gaze of those fascistic Shinigami.

Nyla took a moment to inspect the weapon this girl wielded. A long sword was the basal archetype, though a closer comparison would be to a einhander. It wasn't one of outside creation, and Nyla could sense reishi emanating from it. This coupled with the familiarity which the girl wielded the weapon lead Nyla to the conclusion that this weapon was, in fact, the girl's spirit weapon. Much like her own cannon-dual pistol hybrid, the girl's weapon was of her own design and served as a reflection of the type of fighter she was. In Nyla's case, though, she was capable of and willing to fight from any range.

"Ma'am? You have manners, I like that." With the exception of one, all of the Quincy she had met thus far exhibited good manners and were respectful; it gave her a fair bit of optimism for the state of this current generation's Quincy. Nyla made note of the girl's name and a far off association was made, some link to a person long since passed.

"I am indeed a Quincy. You're perceptive, a good quality to have. And I see you've got good reishi control. You've spent a fair time in combat, mm?" Nyla took a moment to reach up and draw the hood back from her face.

"Nyla, pleased to make your acquaintance. I know your name. Or, I knew one that shared it, but that was some time ago. He was a good man, good hunter, a bit eccentric, though. He favored close combat, just like you." The nostalgia trip forced a scant but genuine smile from the ageless Quincy. It was brief, but the sentiment was there all the same.

"How long have you been here in the city? There are Hollows here, but way more than there should be. Do you know why?"

She let out a little wry grin at the compliment of her manners. She wasn't quite sure but the women seemed like her elder so she offered deference. It wasn't so much a Quincy thing as a...well. It's the way it worked back home.

"It was an easy guess, though, you seemed familiar with my powers and weren't a Shinigami. Most likely meant a fellow Quincy, something altogether growing common in this strange city," she said before quickly adding, "Not that I'm complaining."

She smiled when she saw the woman's face a relief perhaps to have the mystery reveal something pleasant. Perhaps also at the further praise. Still, the note that she'd been in combat was a reminder of the truth she had to reveal to this woman. Not yet, not yet. It's still nice. She could have this for a minute longer, couldn't she? "Yeah, this place seems like a collection of all sorts, most worryingly, Hollows. It's given me ample reason to hunt, against, perhaps better judgement." The woman hadn't scolded her yet for it, perhaps she agreed with the activity. She was here after all.

"Nyla, a pleasure," she paused at that notion and studied the look on her face. She knew someone like her? It would stick with her but she didn't bring it up just yet, her next question was enough to push it to the back of her mind.

Timeline. She mused over it a moment. "A little over two months now. A little longer in Japan. And no, though I suspect it's the same reason we're both here right now. Something is bringing us together. Hollow, Quincy..." She frowned. No sense dancing around it. Time to face the music.

"I..." She hesitated trying to find the words, bit her lip and looked away. No no, this wouldn't do. Face it. She raised her gaze and met Nyla's firmly. She had a fire in her eyes. "Shinigami too. One of them attacked me, another my friend. We had to fight and they escaped, narrowly. The Shinigami know we're still kicking around and no doubt they're going to come looking for us. All of us."

As it turned out, Meridith had only just recently arrived in Karakura but Japan in general a fair bit longer. When it came to the second inquiry she had broached to the girl, it had been asked more to see what her opinion on the matter was. Nyla herself had already found out the reason from a previous interaction with another Quincy a few days prior. She had began to respond to inform Meridith of what she knew, but fell silent as the girl continued.

Although at surface level Nyla seemed collected and unaffected, a rising fury at the mention of not only the Shinigami in general, but that they had once again began attacking the Quincy roiled just beneath her seemingly calm exterior. A dull olive sheen shimmered in her eyes and brightened to a nearly blinding jade in conjunction with a thick fog of blackened reiatsu that seeped from her very being.

"Raasclaat Shinigami, mi shudda ded dem back den. Mi nuh mek dat mistake again." The storm of darkness raged around them, black fog actually beginning to eat away at the structures around them. Hearing about the attacks brought to surface memories of the night her Dusklight family had been wiped out. The same day that she became the last surviving Executor.

So consumed with her anger at the Shinigami's transgressions that she hadn't noticed that her power was bordering on running rampant. She had to calm down. Attracting Hollows wouldn't be an issue for them, she reasoned, but Shinigami were another matter. As much as she wanted to make them pay for what they did, there was a time and place for it; that time was not now. Nyla exhaled slowly, tranquility drawing the fog back to her until it dwindled to little more than gradually fading wisps.

"Apologies, child, I have history with those fascists. Apparently they don't change even after all this time." Her expression was still hardened by anger, but it had receded to a dull annoyance for the time being. A moment later she remembered her previous line of thought, that of the reason why so many Hollows were gathering in Karakura.

"I know why the Hollows are gathering in large numbers here. Someone released Hollow bait. And if you're as good of a Quincy as I think you are, then you know that only a Quincy could be responsible because only Quincy have access to that." Her brow furrowed and she met the determination in Meridith's gaze with grim revelation of her own.

"One of our own is up to some dangerous machinations, and it don't bode well for the rest of us." Nyla's jaw tightened, falling silent and giving Meridith time to process the information she had been given. After a moment she circled back to the entire reason her mood had soured moments prior.

"Do the others know they're being targeted? Where's the friend that was attacked with you?"

{Translation: Fucking Shinigami, I should've killed them back then. I won't make that mistake again.}

She was taken aback by the women's fierce anger until at last, it became obvious that it had nothing to do with Meridith herself. She shrank back just slightly as the woman's powered poured forth, it took her a moment to parse the women's thick accent, no, patois? She'd have to ask her about her origin at some point but that was far from her concern right now.

She regained her footing and stepped forward. "We all have history with those fascists," she replied hotly, not in anger of her comment, but because she was inspired by the woman's own anger. At that moment she realized she was not just Meridith talking to a familiar person with a shared background or job. She was talking to a sister, to family. They had a shared heritage, distant as it might be.

The second bit caught her off guard, she stared blankly. Hollow bait. A Quincy invention, a dangerous one but she was taught about how it was to be applied. You were supposed to have people at the ready, it was to be used in remote locations. It was supposed to make areas safer by drawing Hollow's out and then eradicating them. This though...

This was terrorism on a spiritual level. This was a perversion of the Quincy. They weren't there to simply eradicate Hollows, they did it to keep people safe. And bait wasn't meant to draw out Hollow's on this level, was there something else at play?

"Bait shouldn't do that, shouldn't draw chaos like that." She left the unanswered alone, for now. She'd figure it out another time. "I had thought we a shared enemy, I didn't think we'd have to fight our own but,"

She paused for a moment. If a Quincy had betrayed them? "He's safe. I tended to his wounds and he's in good condition. Too good, honestly, he can be a lot to manage."

She felt so resolved it was almost worrisome. "If one of us did that, we'll find them out. That brings me to the next point, what I hoped to share. They don't, I'm trying to let everyone who I can know and I'm trying to arrange a gathering. I wanted to let those who knew to go into hiding if they didn't wish to be caught in it. And to find out those who were willing to stand with me."

"I am done hiding, I don't want open war with them, but I'm finished with running away. If they want a fight, I intend to give them one. Using the meeting to weed out which one of us used Hollow bait to endanger an entire city will be a bonus. Are you in?"

Nyla watched carefully as Meridith voiced her disbelief and caution about the release of Hollow Bait in the city. Eyes tempered by decades of experience searched for any kind of discrepancy between her words and her demeanor. Even when someone spoke "truthfully" there were subtle tells that could reveal if someone was being deceitful. Thankfully, that wasn't the case here with Meridith; the idea of Hollow Bait intentionally released into a populated city elicited genuine disgust with the currently unknown culprit.

"A gathering? I see, it's been some time since one of those has happened. And you say there might be those that don't want to reveal themselves? That may be true enough." Nyla regarded the younger Quincy with measured patience as she spoke. The fervor in her words and demeanor gave further validation to her speech. The way this girl carried herself, Nyla found herself thinking that she would have made an acceptable Executor.

"That's all well and good, but I doubt there are enough Quincy now that would want to fight. They lost their nerve after all this time." Nyla thought back on the Quincy she had met so far. Of the three, Meridith excluded, there was only one that she thought might actually welcome combat: Diarmaid. Aine seemed content to watch from the shadows and Vance....well her opinion of him wasn't very high. It wasn't just that he was incapable of performing the one skill that Quincy were known for, there was something about the look in his eyes. There was a certain madness and immorality.

"If this meeting is to work, you'll need a place where people will feel safe. I have an idea for where, but I think we should first find out who the traitor is. The last thing we need is this person telling enemies where we are." She paused to consider her next series of thoughts before continuing.

"Maybe you set up a bait meeting, bring up the incident with the Hollow bait, then watch everyone's reactions. The one who did it will likely react in one of two ways: they will own up to it, or deny it. But, there are certain things that happen when someone lies. There's...a shift in their spirit, a conflict between the soul and their actions. Judging by how blatant this use of Hollow Bait was, I'd guess the person would be proud of their actions." Nyla's expression darkened. While Nyla didn't particularly care for the loss of life the bait's use would bring about and had already caused, the idea of the Quincy name being further disgraced by these actions was what annoyed her.

This person had to be dealt with before they caused even more trouble for the rest of them.

"Set up the meeting, when arrangements are done, contact me." She handed Meridith a slip of paper with both her number as well as the hotel information for where she would be staying while in Karakura. Her gaze lingered a moment longer on the young Quincy, as if considering another thought, before she turned and began walking away. She had only walked a short distance before stopping and gazing over her shoulder at Meridith.

"Stay safe, child, I'll keep watch over you as well. But if you need me, you know how to reach me." Nyla gave a departing nod before her form shifted into a mass of black smoke that darted off into the darkness, off to resume her nighttime hunt once more.

-Thread Exit-

"Maybe all they need is someone to light that fire in them," she said firmly. Who knew, but either way the Quincy deserved a warning for what was to come, and it was going to come. Whether they all hid or faced it head-on. The Quincy hopefully had a sense of prudence regarding this continued existence. If they survived this long hiding, hopefully, they'd be willing to push it a little bit further by fighting. What other choice did they have? The Shinigami made it clear that time had not dulled their desire to exterminate.

She also took to heart the idea Nyla suggested. The meeting would serve a dual purpose, determine who would stand with them, and to weed out the potential monster in their ranks. She was right, they'd likely show some sign of it and it was almost more important to root them out than to do anything else.

She took the paper with a bit of surprise, she pondered a moment and returned to the women a firm nod before slipping it into her pockets. "I will, I look forward to seeing you again Ma'am." Nyla Reybourne. Not a name she knew but considering how deeply her family buried itself she wasn't surprised by that fact. She watched her depart and audibly gasped as she shifted into smoke and vanished before turning her gaze into the distance and back into the night.

She supposed she could trust her in the area for now. As needed as this little break was, there was another who needed her aid. She turned on her heel after putting her warring thoughts in order and returned home.

It was a start.