Up for the Challenge [Meili/closed]

The moon bathed over the forest giving its full splendid of light. Rubedo enjoyed going out in nights like this around the forest to either campout or take a stroll on his lonesome. There were no Hollow out to hunt this time around, thankfully, and the redhead could once relax and reflect on the past few days. He felt like a burden to his friend and he had been avoiding answering calls from his wife after being attacked by a flock of crow Hollow, he didn't want to worry the woman any more than she needed and he knew she would drop everything to come to his aid. No, he had to take care of himself for once and get stronger so he didn't have to lean on his friends all the time. What kind of Glaive would he be if he slowed everyone down with his bumbling around and lack of leadership skills.

Letting out an exhale, the young man took a seat by a bench in a more secluded area surrounded by bushes and cherry trees. The leaves shuffled softly from what little wind breeze coursed through the resting area.

Rubedo stretched out his arms above his head then moved his head side to side giving low audible cracks as he got the stiffness out. "Yeesh, it's been one hell of a week," he said out-loud to himself. Since there was no Hollow around he did not feel so inclined to head deeper into town where more souls gathered about. Maybe if he lingered in one spot one would surely show up while on his lonesome but for now, he could enjoy the peace.

The young girl gave a deep and heavy sigh. She was lost. Her and a group of students had come to the World of the Living in their gigai for a training exercise, to try to blend in with the Living. While the others had been much older than Meili, and could blend in easily with the older crowd of the Living, Meili had been stuck in her young form for the day, her light pink school uniform, as she had learned it to be called, being a stark contrast to her caramel colored skin and light brown hair.

During the day, she had wound up being taken to a school, enrolled in the school, and been stuck there all day with other middle schoolers. The worst of it being that she couldn't sneak away when she'd detected a Hollow, having heard later that the older students had grouped up to take it out, leaving Meili alone to pout. This had caused a divide in the group, causing Meili to run off and try to explore now that she wasn't stuck in a school setting.

She'd spend the day running around, having fun, then next thing she knew, it had gotten dark. She wasn't afraid of the dark, but she knew that the meeting time to head back had long since passed, and she doubted that the other students would have waited long for her, even if she was a noble. She wound up in a small forested park. She'd spotted a man sitting on a bench, hearing him exclaim something, but not being close enough to actually hear what he'd said. Taking another deep breath, she decided it was better than nothing, and he might know where she had to go.

She would casually walk up to the man and gently tug on his sleeve.

"Excuse me...but...can you tell me how I can get to here?"

She pulled a piece of paper out from her pocket and handed it to the man, the piece of paper being a hand drawn map pointing to a local shop with some lettering off to the side. The kanji on the map read "Meet here no later than 5 PM, or get left behind."

Surprised would be the word Rubedo had on his face. He wasn’t expecting someone young to happen by this area, it looked like she was still in school uniform, too. She had cute pigtails and her caramel skin looked adorable with the outfit she wore. Maybe she was a transfer student way out here, he had assumed. She tugged on his sleeve and he tilted his head then took a look at the map she showed him. It seemed she was lost.

“Ah, I know this area,” he said, looking over the map he was somewhat familiar with the area. “If you need, I can escort you there or just give you directions.” he squinted at the kanji then blinked a few times. Though it was none of his business, he was a bit concerned on that note; though he gave her the option to take the directions or have him escort her. It would take away from his peaceful meditation but helping someone in need was more important than his brooding around.

“My name is Rubedo,” he introduced himself and stood up. There was no point in being impolite and asking if she was lost. “May I have your name, miss?” Perhaps tonight would become interesting.

Meili smiled up at the man. He seemed nice, even if he did look like a foreigner with his red hair. Not that she had any room to talk with her caramel skin.

"Um, thank you."

She gave a polite bow to the man, who introduced himself as Rubedo and offered to escort her to the shop.

"Um, if you have the time, an escort wouldn't hurt. I'm new to the area and don't know it very well."

She gave a little laugh and scratched at the back of her neck. While it wasn't an outright lie, as she'd come to this area of the World of the Living a few times, once on a training exercise with Watari and Yuki, and another with Yuki on a scouting mission, she'd never really gotten the chance to explore and get herself familiar with the area.

"Oh, my name's Meili. Meili Yan Baozhai."

She gave another polite bow as she introduced herself fully. It was custom to introduce oneself with their full name, at least that's what she'd been taught her entire life.

Rubedo gave a nod to her thanks. “It is no problem.” he said, waving his hand. Any good person would help ones in need. Though it was nice to get a thanks once in a while.

“Of course, I would be happy to escort you.” he said bowing back. He smiled once more from her laugh, though he wondered more if this lass was new to Karakura as an exchange student. And it seemed she had no way in contacting her parents?

“I see, are you new to this Karakura, Meili?” he asked while taking the lead down the small park’s brick road. From where the map indicated, the store was near town, and it would be enough to understand her situation more. Hopefully a Hollow wouldn’t show up but he didn't want to jinx it so soon in that thought.

The Quincy watched the swaying leaves as they slowly made their way out from the park and through the forestry portion. Japan had unique flowers and trees when in bloom, perhaps this is why he and his friend were stuck chasing around one of Lord’s princess; there was a lot of beauty in the country even if she was a damn brat who refused to have bodyguards. Rubedo rubbed his temples just at the thought of his duty here, it was almost laughable in their position, unable to do a simple job.

“May I ask you something, Meili?” he said looking towards the younger girl. “I understand this would be odd to ask, but your map mentioned in getting to this area before five PM. Why is that?”

Meili gave a slight chuckle at the man's questions. The first one she knew how to answer, sort of. But the second...she'd have to come up with a little bit of a white lie, the problem being, when Meili lied, she had a tendency to...well...sneeze. It was an odd trait that apparently she had inherited from her father.

"Well, I'm not exactly entirely new. I've been to Karakura a few times before, but never long enough to explore the surrounding area and get familiar with the town."

Now came the dreaded question of why she had to be at the shop before five. How should she answer? An idea popped into her head.

"Well, I was supposed to meet some classmates there and we were gonna head home together from there."

She felt the inclination to sneeze ebb and flow through her body, but she tried to resist the urge.

"But because it was my first time here being able to actually explore, I got...well...lost."

She gave another light chuckle as the urge to sneeze left her body like water flowing through a stream. It wasn't an outright lie, but it wasn't the full truth either. She'd have to learn to lie if she wanted to be a Shinigami.

The young man chuckled at the sneeze, he wasn’t sure if it was the pollen or the odd questions he was giving her. He didn’t have a handkerchief to give so the only polite thing was to excuse her.

“I see, well let’s not keep them waiting too long,” he said smiling softly. He sympathized with the getting lost bit, honestly, he had a few instances of wandering around with no direction and annoying his friend by not using the wonderful thing called a map.

He almost had the urge to pat her head as she chuckled, a cute thing. Half of him wondered how well he would do as a father figure which he let out a sigh when the surface of his wife began to emerge in his mind again. Dammit, he was here to take a load off, not worry over things.

“Mmm, well I am unsure how safe Karakura is around night time. The folks here like to talk about all kinds of ghost stories to tourists like myself,” he said shaking his head, though it was true with the supernatural beings attracted to this strange town. Regardless, this simple escort seemed to be going swimmingly as they moved out of the park and into the streets towards their destination.

As they got halfway through, coming around a corner, Rubedo swore he saw something of a shadow run down an alleyway the size of a cat. He expanded out his senses to see if anything was nearby but only felt a lingering bit of Hollow - it was far from where they were but it still left him on edge. He started to pick up the pace as they were getting close to the store where supposedly her classmates were waiting at.

She would casually thank him for excusing her for the sneeze, a smile upon her face as she did so. She pulled a small tissue from her pocket and proceeded to casually wipe her nose as her companion talked.

"I don't think they'll be waiting for me. It is well past our meeting time, and they're...kind of serious about this kind of stuff."

She had a bit of a sad look upon her face as she spoke. It was true that her classmates were most likely gone already, probably not even leaving her a Hell Butterfly to get back on her own. Good thing the shop in question was a Shinigami outpost, and she could probably get one there.

"Oyo~? What kind of ghost stories? I love ghost stories!"

She had an excited look upon her face. She truly did love ghost stories, of all kinds. However, before she could get an answer, she felt...something in the shadows. As she opened her mouth to speak, she heard it. The unmistakable cry of a Hollow. It sounded close too. She wondered if it was attacking the outpost...or if it had already had its way with the outpost and her classmates were...what if they didn't make it?

"Um...Rubedo, sir. I think I can make it the rest of the way on my own. Thank you again."

There was another sneeze as she spoke. She starting pulling out her pack of Soul Candy, a Chappy model as the Chappy model was already the closest one to her actual personality, she had specifically requested this one and being a Noble, had gotten it as requested. She didn't even care if this person would be able to tell the difference in personality as she popped the Soul Candy into her mouth, popping out of her Gigai into her actual body. She was now clad in a custom-tailored qipao tailored for fighting, a small badge on her shoulder with the kanji for "student".

The Quincy could sense the Hollow getting closer and he began to worry for the both of them and he would have to defend Meili and give off his position as a Quincy. He thought about taking another route but it seemed his companion had other ideas and one that caught him off guard. The moment she pooped in the candy and appeared out of the fake body he gave a double-take and felt his heart racing from the change and there was a spark of blue light from his ring. Of course, it was a Shinigami of all things. He quickly recovered from the shock and focused back on the threat looming.

“Well, you caught me by surprise there,” Rubedo said amusedly. “Let me come along...that is if you don’t mind a Quincy by your side.” the redhead then held up his hand as spiritual particles form into a shimmering crystalline-like short sword which he grabs the hilt. Lowering the weapon to his side, the Quincy leaps into the air and begins to stair walking on up onto the building’s rooftop to get a better view.

A rather large humanoid Hollow roamed nearby, its towering form sniffing about and weaving through buildings looking for a meal. Its tail dragging along in a lazy fashion knocking over some trash can as it turned around a corner and began making its way towards them. It stopped, sniffed the air, then let out another bellow of a roar while rattling the spike-like protrusions along its back.

Meili would turn around and give orders to her Gigai, now inhabited by the Chappy soul candy.

"Get as far away from here as you can."

She then looked sidelong to her companion who outed himself as a Quincy and, through gritted teeth.

"We'll deal with the Hollow..."

She was, for the first time in a while, angry. Truly and rightfully angry. Angry at this Quincy. How dare he exist. Had Meili been around all those years ago, she would have happily voted on the extermination of the Quincy. They all deserved it for what they did to her father.

"You stay here and fight him from range. Use whatever you can to keep him preoccupied. Meanwhile, I'll go around and take him out from the back."

Her childish voice was gone, replaced by one of pure seriousness. There was a fire in her emerald eyes. She hadn't had a fight like this since her fight with Watari.

"And for the sake of my sanity...do not...I repeat...do not kill it...I would like to preserve this guy's soul, or is that too much to ask from a Quincy?"

The way she said Quincy was filled with fire.

Announcing the word Quincy was probably not the best option to say, then again he wasn’t aware he was by a Shinigami. He gave an air of calmness when the tension rose from Meili. He ran a hand through his fiery hair and gave a simple nod to her command to stay put, His partner would not enjoy the report of him running into a Shinigami.

“If it becomes too dangerous to handle, I will do what I must,” Rubedo said nonplussed. She had not turned on him just yet, it was unpredictable what would happen after dealing with this Hollow. He could just leave after wounding the creature but he would try to trust this Shinigami for now.

Rubedo gestured for Mei to go first to make the first attack before summoning his gun in hand and kept a relaxed stance waiting for the beast to come to them.