Of Monsters and Men (Open)

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He smiled as Mihri gave the girls a thumbs up, laughing as she did so. Somehow Mihri seemed like a different person. She was so much less cold now, she seemed to much more warm and welcoming. He almost wanted to say something when he noticed Kanaboshi and Kasei greet yet another being. Toshi's eyes widened, his pupils contracting to points. So it really was true!? He had not anticipated that the shinigami's Soul-cutter Sword Spirit would appear here, inside his... Well his Hyperbola now, he guessed it was. He stared at the spirit with wide, incredulous eyes. He was quite small, a bit shorter than Kanaboshi but he looked fierce with those antlers of his. Toshi bowed deeply to Moukin, but the owl seemed more preoccupied with his grumbling. His feathers were wet!? What did he expect, there was snow everywhere! Toshi laughed as he plucked some of his feathers out.

Though that was nothing compared to the laugh when Mihri, in true slapstick fashion, gave him a good old fashioned "clip around the earhole", causing the owl to fall flat on its face. Toshi was a sucker for that kind of thing. Kanaboshi laughed loudly too, but Kasei, who was more sensitive, frowned and looked down at the ground.

"A complainer? I wouldn't know anything about that..." he laughed, and Kanaboshi scowled at him. The owl got back up, shaking the snow from his body kind of like a dog, and introduced himself. Toshi nodded as Moukin he lamented the snow and the ice.

"Ahh it's a good point, Moukin-sama." Toshi said. He walked back towards the edge, looking out over the world. Far off in the distance, he saw a fire burning somewhere. The dazzling gleam of sunset was upon them. Indeed he was surprised that it had been evening here in this world. The snow was lit up like fire across the landscape but the last rays of the sun were finally vanishing. Ordinarily it was just before midday, but clearly things did not work the same in the Hyperbola. In fact, he could already see the moon high overhead; it wouldn't be long, he supposed, before it got totally dark.

"Usually this place is quite arid, yanno? Full of big sandstone mesas and crap." he eyes the fire down below. That could only be one person. He recalled the last time the weather had changed unexpectedly; that had been when Ianto had taken control of his body, and he had had to fight the spirit for dominance. He looked back over at Mihri and Moukin. "I just passed out from fighting a hollow once and kind of woke up here. Kanaboshi was here. Do you have an inner world too, Mihri-san?" he asked. He had thought it was something unique to him. Though Toshi was more happy that he had experiences to share with others. He didn't want to be unique and isolated and alone any more.

"Yeah and we have to be here the whole time we're not with you, would it really hurt to get some utilities installed or something!?" Kanaboshi complained from where she was stood, eyeing up the owl. Toshi could tell she wanted to stroke him. He could also tell that that would more than likely end very badly for her.

"Kanaboshi, p- please don't be so rude..." Kasei stammered nervously, glancing sideways at Mihri and Moukin. Toshi merely rolled his eyes, and walked back to the rest of the group.

"It's weird. I think it's because you're here that this place is so snowy, Mihri-san." He said as the sun finally slid below the horizon. The whole world was instantly blanketed in darkness. "Ahh well, at least it's snow, and no other... Weird stuff happened." he said, pulling a sour face. Once he had entered his Parabola and had been totally naked, a dumb trick played on him by his Hogo-Sha. Kanaboshi had taken to making a snow angel in a patch of snow. At least she was enjoying herself, Toshi considered.

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Hmm, so Mihri's inner world was a big forest, huh? Toshi wondered what each of their "inner worlds" meant. Did it say something about them? And if so, what? He considered all of the ancient mythologies he had studied that told of worlds inside of people and of their spirits manifesting in some kind of animal or humanoid form. It all seemed to be grappling at the same notion; what is a human soul. He didn't feel like he was any closer to the answer than any of those old guys had been, despite his access to better information than they had been.

Somewhere behind Toshi, deep in the valley, the fire went out. Mihri's method of entering her inner world sounded kind of like Toshi's. Just a deep enough meditative trance. He really wanted to see inside, he wondered if there would be something different about a shinigami's world. Though...

"Hmm, well usually my body just goes limp. But I'm not sure that's the case this time though. I think we might physically be in here this time." He explained. It would be awkward if they got eaten by a strange hollow while in Toshi's Hyperbola. But usually he could sense reiatsu outside of it. Here he could only sense his own, Mihri's and the subtly different spiritual pressure of Moukin. His own Hogo-Sha felt quite different to him, in those terms.

"I'm a snow angel!" Kanaboshi responded to Mihri, with a large grin. Toshi smiled and shook his head, before turning around. He noticed the fire had gone out. He frowned. If that was Ianto, or Mokusei-san as the girls called him... He wasn't sure he wanted Mihri to meet him. He was a pretty bad-news customer. Kasei seemed to notice as well, as she looked seriously at Toshi. He'd have to wrap this up pretty soon.

"Well that was interesting. It's a bit chilly here, maybe we should go ba-" he began to say, however he was cut off. Toshi's eyes went wide, his pupils contracting to tiny dots, as sillhouetted behind him was the huge, hulking, antlered form of Ianto. Muscles rippling from having seemingly climbed up the cliff, he glared at them, his four eyes glowing red with hate. Toshi turned around, and formed a golden yellow barrier, roughly the size and shape of a katana, in his right hand, which he gripped tightly.

"So hasty..." Ianto laughed, his voice multilayered, as if many people were speaking at once. Kasei stepped in front of Toshi, her hands and eyes glowing. Kanaboshi had got up from the floor and run to stand in front of Mihri and Moukin, a defiant look in her baby blue eyes.

"Go." said Kasei. "Take them with you." she commanded. At precisely that moment, Ianto seemed to throw forth his arm and a stream of crows burst forth from him, headed straight for Kasei. Toshi turned on his heel, the barrier dispelling itself, and ran towards Mihri. If she tried to fight, or face off against Ianto, he would flash step in front of her, using his slightly outlandish and tone-deaf step. He would go in for a tackle, at the same time bursting out of his world. If she'd had any more questions, they'd have to wait until they got out.

If successful, they would emerge, flying sideways onto the top of the building they had been on, landing in a heap, with Toshi's arms wrapped around Mihri from having physically dragged her off the surface of the Hyperbola. No good.

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Toshi relinquished his protective grasp of the shinigami, unwrapping his arms and rolling away. He clutched at his face, yet more blood appearing upon his shirt, this time it was his own. Jee that had been a close one. Mihri had seemingly been unable to summon her zanpakuto, but five of them now clattered to the floor around them. He staggered to his feet, blinking away the blood that was in his eyes, wincing in pain. Right. Moukin had been right there, ready to defend them. Such was the spirit of the shinigami, ready to leap into danger to protect others. In some circumstances, that meant something different to him and them, he had seen tonight. But in this, their response had been uniform. He leaned over, droplets of hot blood splashing to the rooftop, as he panted with exertion.

"Yeah, you noticed, huh." he said bitterly, tearing at one of the sleeves of his shirt. With a crude rip it came free. He could hear the Hogo-Sha arguing in his head. Now Toshi wasn't there, Ianto wasn't much of a threat, and the two girls could deal with him easily. He knew that, of course and so wouldn't attempt to engage them in combat, but they were angry, both with Ianto and with Toshi, too. He had put them all in danger, it seemed. He pulled his sleeve off of his arm and wrapped it tightly around his forehead, so at least his eyes wouldn't be covered in blood. The rest of his face was a little bit of a mess still, however.

"I guess I wouldn't be a real orphan if I didn't have some emotional hangups from it." he was ashamed to have showed her that part of himself, all he wanted now was to sink into the very ground they stood upon. He gingerly dabbed at another of the cuts on his face, the damage the Owl's talons had done to Ianto now reflected upon Toshi. He would usually ask if Mihri was okay, if she needed any help or if she had hurt herself but all he could think of now was that he had to get out of this situation before it got any worse.

"I- I'm so sorry." he said, and with that, he leapt off of the roof, and sprinted off towards the train station using his step, his reiatsu suppressed to imperceptibility. He loudly shouted at the spirits to shut up both in his head and out, he was so frustrated and upset.

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