Picking Up the Good [Gage]

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She started slightly as the door began to rattle open. This place was kinda ratchet huh? Still, that might mean that the guy was better at fixing and making stuff, not worse. She bowed slightly at his welcome, her gauntlets clanking as she touched them together. It was then that she saw that he only had one arm. Jeez, she bet that that made it difficult for him to fix crap. Then again, he had reiatsu, she had no idea what level, but definitely stronger than herself pre-hollowfication. Damn, she had no idea that humans were so spiritually potent these days. Or some of them, anyway. She'd gone and examined the reiatsu of all of her human acquaintances since she regained her powers, and nothing. One person she hadn't seen was Alex, however. She had no idea how she would ever face him.

She shook his hand a little less firmly than usual, as her large metal gauntlet might have hurt him or been uncomfortable. As she walked in, she just about managed to look up to catch Gage checking her out, to which she responded with a wink full of implications. She looked around the workshop and spotted the bike and gave a short sound of approval. This guy was the real deal, it seemed.

"You're a bit out of the way. Do you get many spiritual clients?" she asked, before turning round to face him. She wore her eyepatch, which she had changed to be the colour of her hair adornments, and stitched the Kido Corps logo into.

heavy is the Hole in my heart

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She nodded. Yes, it was likely the case if you were an independent "spiritual serviceperson" that work was probably pretty here and there. Hence the mechanic business. And the bikes. As she could see from the one standing before her. She wasn't entirely sure what he meant by "unusual activity", on the other hand. She had only just rejoined the spiritual world. She regretted not asking Hidane to catch her up to speed when she had had the chance, but perhaps Gage could be a source of information on what was going on. He went and retrieved a white mask. She tutted. Nessa had just about had enough of masks for the moment. She still hadn't masked up and utilized her Visored powers since she had attained them. There was a part of her that was still terrified of the prospect of totally losing control to her inner hollow once more. But then again, her inner hollow didn't even truly exist in its own right.

"What kind of weird goings on have there been anyway?" she asked, just before he handed her the mask. She looked it over. It appeared to do what he said it would, not that Nessa had any idea about science and engineering and that stuff. Nor could she really scan it with her reiatsu to see what it did. Still, she had no reason to mistrust Gage. She put the mask on her face after removing her eyepatch, conscious not to let Gage see. Same old Nessa, vain as ever.

"I'd rather avoid the surgery, if at all possible. It makes it messy if someone takes it out. And as discussed, some kind of beam weapon would be nice, for emergencies. A recording function. Maybe tracking; since my reiatsu sense is so bad. It would be cool to be able to see through things too, like Mad-Eye Moody from Harry Potter." Kyuri had made Nessa watch all of the films through with her, so it was the first comparison that came to her mind. "Oh and..." she paused, smiling underneath the mask. "Something to record everything I see and play it back, and maybe project it too. Not for kinky purposes. I promise." she said with a giggle.

heavy is the Hole in my heart

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Nessa's good eye widened, her pupil shrinking to a point. The power distribution centre; that had been hollows and arrancar? She wondered if any shinigami had come to chase them away. Of course the "interesting" things happen when she leaves. Well, she said interesting... As far as they were aware it had been a huge natural gas leak, and an awful tragedy that the local authority and Japanese government took a lot of flack for. At least this time, it wasn't actually their fault. In hindsight, Nessa could completely see how it was a hollow attack. She had been so deep in whatever spell Blodeuwen had placed upon her gigai, that she had been in denial but just then all the pieces clicked together, like another memory returning. Then Gage talked about the hollow holes. So even the humans had noticed. Wow. They were terribly understaffed. It had been so hard to do anything about that. In fact, Nessa had forgotten all about the Holes; the Holes which were responsible for her current condition. But Gage seemed to be saying that it was over now.

"There was?" she asked, her voice muffled by the mask. "You mean to say that... The Holes have closed now? They've stopped appearing?" she sounded terse, hopeful that Blodeuwen had at the very least been able to solve the problem. It would almost make it worth it, if that were the case. When he said he had the readings, she swiftly plucked the mask from her face, and replaced her eyepatch. Though he would be able to see a model on his laptop, it still felt important to Nessa. She tutted bitterly as he made small talk about what exactly had taken out her eye. Yeah, it was a huge-ass splinter in her side.

She looked at him sharply, before coming to sit close to him, her pretty lips a thin frown. She looked down at his arm. If he could make her a prosthetic eyeball, why hadn't he made himself a prosthetic arm? Even if arms were hard to do, surely he would have something? Unless it was a very recent injury. Perhaps that was the case. She decided she would reflect his question with another of her own. She didn't fancy explaining what a visored was to a human. Best she didn't have him thinking that she was a monster.

"Mmh. How about you," she began to ask, motioning at his arm, or rather lack thereof, with her remaining eye, "another case of 'unusual activity' or something?" she asked.

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Nessa felt a sudden tension released from her body. She... Hadn't even know that it was there. But hearing from Gage that Blodeuwen had ended the Holer Crisis was of enormous relief to her. It meant that others would be spared her fate. Did that mean that the arrancar, Llew, had been defeated? So many questions, but she couldn't exactly rely on Gage answering all of them. Vanessa had tried not to think about how she was unable to simply go home. It was an incredibly frustrating exercise. She understood why she had been outcast, and why she would be a pariah. In fact she agreed. She didn't think that someone like Hidane had any business in Soul Society. But this hadn't been her fault. They knew it had been an accident. For all she knew, there were shinigami coming to hunt her down as she spoke.

Regardless, she couldn't help but smile as Gage said he was impressed. As much as Nessa didn't really like Blodeuwen, she respected the soshi immensely. No other person had her extreme prowess in Kido. She stood, towering above everyone she knew, possibly even the Captain-Commander. It was unlikely that something Blodeuwen had done would have failed to impress Gage, as incredible as he was, for a human.

Nessa freaked out for a second when Gage looked at his arm in horror. She thought something had gone wrong and her hackles were immediately raised, the spiritual pressure fluctuated wildly in her panic. he started screaming about his arm and Nessa felt every muscle in her body light up ready to go, before he dropped the pretense, laughing. She could have slapped him. She looked at him angrily for a second, her reiatsu dropping back to its base level of "mildly-chaotic". She was about to shout at him for scaring her like that but then the hilarity suddenly dawned on her and she started giggling uncontrollably. She wasn't able to stop herself as much as she wanted to give him a clip round the ear'ole. This was new; the old Nessa definitely didn't have that kind of humour, she mused to herself as the giggles died off after several moments. It was much more like human!Nessa.

"Lucky break then." she said, the conversation taking a turn for the slightly more sour. "Arrancar used to be rare as fresh hell. Ever since that bastard Aizen betrayed us, they've been running loose like nobody's business. I expect they're all bored now he's locked up in Muken." she said rubbing her pointed chin with the finger of a gauntletted hand. She looked at it. Sadly she didn't know any healing kido. But wait! She had her book of Kido! She was pretty sure that it had a decent amount of Kaido in it.

"Gage, I think maybe, maybe I have a way that we could restore your arm." she said, wondering if he would be interested. Perhaps... Perhaps that could be part of their agreement.

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She paused, the pupil of her one eye contracting to a pinprick. So this guy knew about Aizen, and Shinji and his ilk, eh? And he wanted to get his hands on... A Visored? Nessa shuddered with rage. Did he think this was some kind of game, or competition? Her whole life had been ruined. Twice. What did she care about the limits of a living soul!? That was the talk of someone like Hidane, who had hollowfied himself in search of power. Not even Vanessa's legendary ambition would reach that far. In her brash anger, Nessa instinctively did something that she had never done before.

She masked up.

Quick as a flash, her gauntlets reached up towards her face, and she formed a kind of heart over her face with her forefingers and thumbs. Black reiryoku gathered together, and as she made a motion as if "breaking" the heart, it formed the eerie white mask with spikes and horns, and those two huge yellow eyes. Behind the black pupils in the centre you could just about see Vanessa's own eyes, which had turned completely black but for the bright yellow irises. When she spoke, her voice was oddly doubled, as if a hollow spoke at exactly the same time as she did. There was a sudden flare of reiatsu as well, the terrifying mixture of Shinigami and Hollow washing over the room.

"Maybe a living body's limits could be surpassed Gage, but at what cost? Does this look like it's worth it to you?" she asked him, pain evident in her voice despite its distorted quality. The eyes of the mask would stare piercingly into Gage's soul, Nessa's breathing sounded rattled. Quick as the transformation had come on, however the mask suddenly splintered off of her face, shattering into dust. She dropped to one knee, her breathing suddenly laboured. Holy crow! That had taken an intense amount of spiritual power. She didn't realize how taxing it would be, and she had done it practically by accident.

If he had not reacted too violently to ask his next question, she would respond, not looking up at him, ashamed of her own hollow powers. "The shinigami have a type of magic, called the Demon Arts. That "Librarian" you talked about is the leader of the Kido Corps, and my old master. Before... Before this. There is a branch of Demon Arts called Kaido; these spells have the potential to restore your arm." she said, getting to her feet slowly.

heavy is the Hole in my heart

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She regarded him seriously. Did... Did he seriously expect an answer to that question? If he did, he wasn't going to like it. She considered what he said carefully. So this... This was a pride thing? He wanted to show that he was more than just a bag of meat that housed a soul. Still, he seemed to fundamentally misunderstand Vanessa's reservations on the matter. A matter of fear? Was she afraid of her inner hollow? Not really. In fact she had destroyed it so thoroughly that it had had to take refuge inside her zanpakuto spirit as it didn't even have a body any more. It was something deeper than that. More fundamental. A natural emnity.

"No. I wouldn't. The reason I fight is to maintain the balance of souls. If something threatened that... Well me killing myself wouldn't exactly be very helpful. Now let me ask you this in return. What if you destroyed the very thing that you loved, and fought to protect, because you had been so concerned with seeking every last bit of power that the power possessed you, instead of the other way around. I am a Visored. Each time I use this power, there is a chance I will lose control and hurt or destroy everything I care about." she warned him, darkly. "It is a shameful power, born of pure evil. And it is not something to be sought after." she said, sadly.

She was pleased to get to move on to lighter topics. It was possible that Vanessa would be able to heal him using Kaido. However, she didn't currently know any and as such it was a bit of a moot point until she got an opportunity to learn some. She glanced anxiously to his computer.

"So... Do you think you'll be able to make me a replacement eye?" she asked him, nervously.

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She was growing increasingly frustrated. She wanted to shake him. Was he an idiot!? How could a human truly understand what it meant to be burdened by the eternal presence of a hollow, the embodiment of everything they fought against!? Not only was he willing to trade his own life and future but he would be willing to gamble others' fates based on the possibility it could help him to save others? He seemed to have some kind of hero complex. How could he be so dense? Nessa swallowed her frustration. Why did she care so much? She was being hyper-sensitive. No, old Nessa would never have been like this. If Gage wanted to fuck his life up, that was no business of hers, as long as she got her damn eye.

"I see..." she paused. She unbuttoned the top of her blue robe, revealing the pale flesh of her neck and upper chest. Her white under-robe preserved her modesty, and covered her cleavage as she scratched absentmindedly at her collarbone. "So," she began to ask, drawing closer to Gage such that the scent of her perfume would fill his nostrils. She brushed an errant lock of hair from her face, and ever so slightly checked to make sure her eyepatch was still in place before moving her hands back to her lap. "about... The payment." she said, breathily, her rose lips parted ever so slightly.

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Nessa removed her gauntlets, and placed them gently on the floor. Her fingers which used to be so calloused and ugly from the constant wear of her zanpakuto, were still neat and pristine with perfect fingernails as she still spent most of her time in a gigai these days. Her nails were painted a garish colour (Nessa's colourblindness prohibited her from making wise colour-coordination decisions), but they made her pretty hands stand out. She leaned over, closer to Gage as he stammered. She cocked her face sideways alluringly that same errant lock of hair falling over her eyepatch and concealing it. She looked down at his laptop, as if to justify having leaned in closer; it was important to play it cool. She looked back up at him, her arms now gripping both hers and his seats in order to support herself, though positioned in a strategic way such that she emphasized her cleavage even though her robes. Nessa had some impressive cleavage, it had to be said.

At this distance, Gage would be able to see her soft, perfect glowing skin, free from all blemishes. The seemingly infinite depth of her alabaster eye sparkling seductively at him and her long dark eyelashes that fluttered each and every time she blinked.

"Oh, if you think... If you're sure that the healing will be sufficient...?" she cooed, biting her lip as she did so. She was so close now, that their faces were only a few inches apart. A soft blush had crept into her cheeks and the bridge of her nose, highlighting her face an intoxicating shade of pink.

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She placed a finger to his lips as he spoke, and helped him unbutton his shirt, her finger moving down his chest and examining the myriad network of scars. It was pretty bad, she wasn't going to lie. But you could perform miracles with the right healing kido. Even so, she wasn't completely certain about some of the scars on him. Eh, it was probably nothing that she couldn't do once she'd learned Keikatsu. She could see him tense as she leaned forward to touch him. He had a pretty good body beneath all the scarring. Not quite as athletic as Vanessa's but still pretty hot. At that moment, he reached out with his remaining arm and hooked it around her waist. She was pulled forward, and she her him draw her closely, gripping the back of his chair, and straddling him, falling into a deep kiss. He was totally ensnared in her spell. She ran her hands over his skin under his jacket, pulling it off of his torse as she continued to kiss him.

She withdrew slightly, smiling at the cute blush on his face. Her own face was now back to being perfectly porcelain, peach lips coming closer to brush at his neck as her fingers drew gentle patterns down his torso, lower and then lower. This would be fun...

-Fade to Black-

heavy is the Hole in my heart