Nostalgia on the Wind (Invite Only)

The air was heavy and sweltering, summer was in full wing and the humidity had already started getting to the citizens of the city. The city in question was known as Karakura as far as Kvothe could tell; it wasn't his native town but it felt familiar, had a certain sense of home. Kvothe took a deep breath and continued looking for the bakery he'd heard so much about; he wanted to stop and ask someone for directions, but every time he'd decide to his eye would wander to a passing lady. This town was abundant with people and out of those that were the opposite gender, the vast majority was attractive; it was a character flaw, Kvothe would admit to that much, but it had never hindered him in such a way. He chalked it up to the town and it's ever present air of nostalgia; it was hard to not feel at ease here, even with the hustle and bustle that was surrounding him.

Kvothe started to yawn but stifled it when something caught his eye; the figure seemed above average height but that wasn't what struck Kvothe as odd: the figure wore a cloak the like of which Kvothe had never seen. Kvothe watched the figure carefully while moving towards it, activating his Fullbring at the same time. If anyone was watching they'd see his tattoos change shape, but Kvothe wasn't worried about anonymity. The figure moved, fast and Kvothe tracked it. 'Was that bringer's light or is this a Hollow of some sort?' Kvothe let the question roll over in his mind as opened his eyes to the possibilities of color. Light hit arced off of his eyes and to the figure moving back and forth at a rapid rate until eventually the figure began to give off an aura. 'Sub-red huh?' Kvothe chuckled to himself and followed the colored trail that the figure gave off. 'This new ability is pretty handy after all.'

If Kvothe had been a normal human the pace at which he was running would have tired him, but his relentless pursuits of Hollows and the fact that he'd drawn a bead on this...figure allowed him to stay on his tail. Keeping pace was a different story altogether; Kvothe could not move that effortlessly without his Fullbring if his life depended on it. The figure was faster than him no matter how you looked at, but he couldn't understand why; from what he could see, the thing was not a Hollow, which meant it had to be a human of some sort. It's movements suggested Bringer's light, but from what he could see there was no green glow. His strange garb was the next point of intrigue: he wore a black cloak, very nondescript from what Kvothe could see.

"Just what are you," Kvothe mumbled, struggling to keep up with him, "screw this." Kvothe jumped in the air, snapping at the same time. A sphere with what looked to be rainfall appeared ahead of him and Kvothe accelerated as he jumped through it; he was in the now, but not fast enough to keep up with the figure. He snapped again as he fell, allowing his momentum to stack onto the burst of speed he'd already received. Each time Kvothe arced he snapped allowing him to gain speed as he fell and as he was about to hit the ground he'd collect water under his feet and bound upwards as he began to hit his top speed he stopped arcing and shot water in front of him, essentially surfing his terminal velocity. Kvothe watched from afar as the figure drew a blade; it wasn't until then that Kvothe noticed the destination: a Hollow, fresh kill in it's hands roared, but in the time it took Kvothe to realize that he needed to fight the figure had already downed his opponent. Kvothe waited a beat before shouting from afar "So...you're a good guy then?"

If Kvothe was intrigued before you could call his current state baffled; as the figure strode up to him he could see that they very clearly weren't a Hollow, in fact, they looked very human. Moreover, the figure carried more than one sword a fact Kvothe had not stumbled upon earlier.

"Shini...gami," Kvothe broke the word down in his head trying to find some meaning, "Death God? What the hell is that? Are you that conceited...." Kvothe trailed off, remembering something from earlier. The way this Shinigami moved through the crowd, as though he were invisible, moreover, it seemed to come as a surprise to the man that Kvothe could see him at all. "You're not conceited are you? People really can't see you...." Kvothe let himself drop from the platform he'd made and stood to face the man. "Name's R. Kote Bennett, most just call me Kvothe. To answer your question; the reason I can see you is the same reason I could see that Hollow. I'm a Fullbringer I'd go into details, but I don't really enjoy explaining. To make a long story short: I have superpowers. I can see ghosts and shoot bullets without a gun...and when I'm chasing a suspicious man," Kvothe looked the Shinigami up and down, "fly. So, now it's your turn. I've already deduced that you're a spiritual being of some sort...care to elaborate on that?"

Kvothe looked the man up and down, a curious eyebrow arching it's way up his forehead. Kvothe exhaled, keeping his emotions in check; there was no point in taking what the man had said as an insult. He didn't know what a Fullbringer was first off and secondly he must come from a line or race of people who were similar to him. If Kvothe had to guess, he'd say the name of Shinigami didn't stick easily; this man was doing the same kind of work he was and with relative ease. In the grand scheme of things this guy was probably a grunt doing leg work at the beck and call of some all powerful Death God. It would be stupid to try and fight someone who clearly outclassed him.

"You're right...human's are a relatively weak race. The vast majority of us can't even see ghosts let alone Hollows and things like you. I'm most likely not as strong as you, but despite all that power you all still do a crap job of protecting those weaker than you. People wouldn't need to hire Hunters from a place like Polarity if you all were decent at using that power of yours," Kvothe chuckled to himself, "but look at me getting ahead of myself...shouldn't you worry about the Hollow that's pulling itself back together behind you?" Kvothe finished his sentence and fired 7 bullets in quick succession taking out the Hollow's limbs and puncturing it's mask. "High speed regeneration...you shouldn't underestimate your opponent's Mr. Shinigami." Kvothe said turning to walk away.

Kvothe listened to the man for a moment, his words were strange almost confusing but he understood the basic message. The Fullbringers like himself and whatever a Quincy was were killing Hollows the wrong way; Kvothe had never believed in a higher being or anything of that nature, but with all of the Hollows and spirits running around it was near impossible not to believe in reincarnation or an afterlife on some level. Kvothe had never taken into account the fact that there might be a way to revert a Hollow to its original state. In his mind they were like zombies: you had to kill them and you had to do it in one fluid motion or you risked getting yourself killed; it no longer mattered who they had been.

"No I've no idea about the logistics behind the weapons you carry. I've never seen or heard of a Shinigami or a Quincy for that matter until this moment in particular. At a guess, I'd say the blade or blades you carry are capable of separating the evil from the good in regard to a soul since you mentioned cleansing them. It would probably work similarly to the concept of giving a vengeful spirit a proper burial," until this moment Kvothe had been facing away from the Shinigami but he turned to face him as he spoke, "I'm guessing you and the others like you are undertakers in a sense and you send souls to that big old graveyard in the sky. My question is...if we're doing things so wrong why don't you help us? Give me one of those soul swords you seem so proud of. I'm sure I'm capable of becoming or at least learning to become a Shinigami. If I'm protecting people the wrong way then why don't you teach me the right way?" Kvothe finished his speech calmly, the only thing betraying that fierce demeanor being the harsh determination in his eyes as he locked gazes with Viktor.

Again Kvothe listened with quiet intensity; the more he talked with this Shinigami the more he learned about the world around him. He still had questions about Shinigami and their mysterious soul swords; if wielding one simply required him to communicate with the soul the resided within the blade then Kvothe believed that he was at a set advantage.

"Soul Communication is the crux of Fullbringing, Viktor. I and those like me can communicate with the soul of near anything and shape it as we see fit," to emphasize Kvothe tugged on the soul of light and shaped a replica of Viktor's swords albeit completely blue, "these are made completely of light and my spiritual energy; it shouldn't be terribly hard to speak with something that would actually talk back..." Kvothe trailed off as Viktor turned to scan his surroundings; Kvothe was oblivious, he felt nothing with his reiatsu and from what he could see there was nothing that required his immediate attention. Kvothe raised an eyebrow before pressing the Shinigami for more answers. "If you don't have the authority to create a...Substitute Shinigami, who does? And what do you mean I'm not dead? Is there some rule saying I can't fight with a cool samurai sword that cleanses Hollows if I'm not a ghost?"

Kvothe closed his eyes and listened to the world around him, felt the vibrations in the air through the water molecules, and sensed his environment in its entirety; Kvothe felt the souls of all nearby things calling to him, speaking with him and he in turn could speak with them, but Kvothe was not attempting to soul communicate he was extending his reiatsu, searching for a sign of the thing Viktor had mentioned. He didn't feel anything, and checking his surroundings with just his eyes yielded nothing. Kvothe relayed the information to Viktor before pausing for a beat: something hit him, hit his senses. It was subtle, not in the way that you'd have to search for it in order to find it, but in the way that a sudden feeling of nostalgia hits you. If you weren't looking for it you'd feel it almost as though it was seeking you out.

"Viktor," Kvothe was discreet and careful in the way he spoke, he stepped close to the Shinigami, "there's something here, definitely...I can't tell what it is or if it's a threat, but I couldn't sense it. It's almost like it won't let you unless you're not looking for it." Kvothe stepped away and resumed talking at normal volume "If you want we can stick around here or we can take off, your choice."

Kvothe was bewildered to say the least, but the Shinigami seemed confident enough in his abilities and his strength was evident in the way he carried himself; furthermore, now that the death god wasn't actively focused Kvothe noticed a few things about him that he had not noticed before. His reiatsu was heavy, Kvothe chalked it up to a difference in power, however. It was common knowledge that your spiritual presence was directly related to how powerful you were. The smell, though, he could not put his finger on. It was earthy, almost dirt like. Kvothe wondered if that had anything to do with the Shinigami's powers; Kvothe's own reiatsu was blue-green and smelled like the ocean, directly relating to his ability to control and generate water. There were most likely more things to be learned, but Kvothe didn't have to time to gather them as the two men came to their destination; Kvothe had been here before on another mission some time ago. The warehouse district was an area of constant investigation. Polarity was always getting calls regarding strange sightings and sounds coming from inside some of the buildings; it was only ever ghosts who couldn't move on, but that was something Kvothe couldn't help with. He simply protected them from Hollows when he could. This building, however, was...new? It certainly didn't look new by any means, but in all of his missions here Kvothe had never seen it before. He relayed the information to Viktor and prompted him to be careful.

Silently and with an air of anxiety, Kvothe took a breath and drew in his spiritual pressure; he doubted it was possible to hide himself completely but maybe that was to their advantage. If Kvothe was unable to mask himself completely then maybe the thing would focus on him and not his Death God companion; that would open an entire realm of possibilities that could easily turn the tide of battle. The only thing that bothered Kvothe was the fact that he had never fought alongside this man before and thus had no idea how he navigated a battlefield or even what abilities he possessed other than the high speed movement he witnessed earlier. Kvothe wanted to grab Viktor and tell him that they needed to strategize, but the man was most likely too prideful or too intrigued to waste even a second now that they had the enemy within their grasp. Kvothe sighed and resigned himself to a support role; with Vortice active Kvothe turned to follow Viktor, snapping every few meters to cover the ground behind the two men. Even if they were overpowered or outnumbered it would be near impossible to flank the two of them without the being in question revealing itself.