Cleanup (INV)

Well now. That made things a bit more difficult. Din hadn't really had a great deal of time to react to the sudden intrusion, slaughter and interrogation, but after the dust and bodies had settled, it was perhaps curious that her first thought was whether she'd have to deal with these as well. Physically speaking, of course. She'd deal with the spirits regardless. Even as they were rising from their bodies, she could feel her aura disentangling them from being worldbound. Those subjected to violent deaths often proved either extremely willing to move on at once, confused as to their situation, or would stick around deliberately to find out what was going on. This batch appeared to be the former. Their souls didn't even finish materializing before passing through the Veil, leaving Din and the intruder quite alone.

Din. She responded to the first question with a slightly tilted head, as if she'd just witnessed an odd bird flying away rather than the swift and brutal murder of three hardened killers. The second response was a touch less monosyllabic.I can't say who ordered this. Whether you mean the death or the removal of the body. Can't, not won't, to be clear. Names weren't exchanged, merely orders. Well, those weren't exchanged, merely given. We all have our debts to pay. The whole time, Din's voice never really wavered or varied, conversing with the ease of someone noting the weather. Lacking a heartbeat did a surprising amount of good to keep someone calm.

I take it from your actions, so did they. Now that her awareness was properly on the attacker, Din began to try and make heads or tails of her. That was a spiritual signature all right, not unlike her own actually. She actually noted the souls of the rooms objects seem to move back and forth between them. She could commune as well. Curious. Also, dangerous. Din's defenses were significantly less efficacious against such. She sighed very slightly. Getting to this before more intervention was looking less and less likely, and she'd have to explain to her very polite caller that, no, she hadn't butchered his men in a fit of dark magic. Perhaps it would be better if they walked out of here themselves before collapsing somewhere else. Not MUCH better, but easier to explain. Yes, that was sensible. Make them drop elsewhere and it would seem far more plausible. Animating them immediately though, less sensible. Hopefully this wouldn't end violently. MORE violently, at any rate.

Taking a moment to consider, Din wasn't quite sure whether to follow immediately, at all, or only after she'd done what she'd come to do. Then again, the loss of additional troops would likely be the matter of greater concern to her supposed employer, and she had very little time before someone came to see what that final shot had been. Not sufficient time to really deal with the body (well, bodies, now) even if that would have helped. And too many to animate and simply walk out of there, even if the noise wasn't an issue that would be difficult to explain. Ah, well. Such was the afterlife. In all likelihood, some degree of retribution was coming her way, and she'd have to deal with it as it came. Even sparing the poor janitor the issue of cleaning up the blood would cause too much attention and take too much time. Instead, she merely Fullbringed all the little bits of herself and the still-living intruder had left behind, skin flakes and whatnot, pulling it into her pocket to remove the extra evidence. For now, time to leave. She followed the assasin out and down.

Until just now, yes. I suspect my employers are now "former employers", if not outright interested in my extermination. Violence was the only real language they spoke, so no doubt they would be very keen to rectify the imbalance here. Even if they didn't blame her, which they would, they would try to re-assert their strength through some showy display of force. It was simply a part of the rules all gangs played by. Perhaps it was time to find a new location and position for a time, if only to prevent needless bloodshed. Din was no passifist, but she also had little desire to walk over a mountain of escalating bodies. Fights were wastes of energy, for the most part.

Importantly, however, there was a new factor in play. This woman had, in the course of thirty seconds, completely adjusted Din's own life (however loosely one chose to define it). She'd proven highly lethal, and brisk, but hadn't attacked her just yet. Din wasn't entirely certain why. True, she had no real loyalty to those she'd just shot, but the cat-eared woman didn't know that. To avoid the noise of a fight, perhaps? Or general interest? Lack of ammo?

And yourself? A messenger, perhaps? That gangs fought frequently was obvious, and each death was a message to someone in such wars. The time, place and nature of the act changed the tone, with context becoming content, in a way. The lethality was merely what gave the message weight.

My my, this was unusual. Din had seen a great deal of oddness throughout her life, but she this was quite atypical even by her standards. Not only was the stranger apparently not interesting in battle, she was offering quite the opposite. Protection, hmm? With a cost, of course, but still. Perhaps she should consider it. In theory, her Phylactery would preserve her from the numerous untimely ends that her former employers might attempt to inflict on her...but that wasn't a perfect solution. Depending on how they disposed her Fullbring, regeneration might be an issue. Oh, she'd likely EVENTUALLY break free, but there were enough interesting things in the world that spending years being broken and repaired was something of a waste. And this woman did seem stronger than her. Certainly more capable with those weapons. Din still felt guns were a bit odd for a weapon. Melee and archery had existed for so many centuries and then suddenly, poof! The "came changed", as they said. Frankly however, the reason why she suspected she'd accept was out of interest, not the self-preservation instinct she barely still possessed. She met so few Fullbringers, after all. And she had always been the type to ride the wave of circumstances. Perhaps she would be the same as the others. She requested the same service and offered the same payment of safety. Unlike the others, however, the offer smacked of truth. Protection from others, rather than simple extortion. Then again, it was her actions that left her in the situation. Din smiled a bit. Well, to see where this went then.


Nanashi. She didn't speak the word as much as sample it. Feel the flow. Almost musical, even if the song was completely foreign. She smiled lightly at the insistence that she wasn't a messenger. Curious. So straightforward in speech, but Din didn't get the slightest hint of a simple person. Very interesting. Very well, Nanashi, it's a pact. Of course, that left what they should do now. If the intent was to avoid direct police attention, that would become significantly more difficult in very short order. Din had a stealth trick or two, but whether both of them could get out wasn't as clear.

Apparently, her new "friend" wasn't really the sort to worry about little details like being covered in blood in public, especially when things like kittens were involved. Din could sympathize. While she didn't get the warm fuzzy feeling of "dawwwwwww" around them, with her biology more or less shut down entirely and thus not terribly receptive to dopamine and the like, cats were one the few animals that didn't have an issue with her. Most found her aura uncomfortable. Cats found it suspicious, but familiar enough after a short time. Din found more kinship with the dead than the living, but it was nonetheless comforting that something with a pulse liked her. Din followed, mildly amused that she wasn't the spookiest one in the crowd for the first time in quite a while.

The bank arrival gave another glimpse into what she'd gotten herself into. Banks made sense for criminal enterprise, as few other places could handle that much money without raising eyebrows. It also meant that, whoever Nanashi was working for, they had no small degree of clout. Had to have SOME legitimate money, and that took no small amount of work. Or even more powerful backers. Most importantly, what the enforcer had said stuck out. Protoge, was it? That was a curious choice of words. Not merely a tool, but someone to teach. Very curious indeed. Din found herself mildly pleased with that revelation. Her new benefactor's attitude was clearly more than she seemed, though she knew it would be foolish to assume that, beneath the gruff exterior, a kindhearted soul lurked. Still, not a simple person. That was good. There was nothing wrong with being straightforward, of course, but too much of that made for a dull eternity. Variety was the spice of post-life.

The safe room was about what one might expect. Simple, secure, stocked, sterile. As you say. Oh, and you needn't worry overmuch on "neccesities". Food or water. She gave a light, dismissive wave at the thought. Best to get that out of the way fairly early on. Anything you need done here, while we're building that trust? No need to simply sit here doing nothing, if it weren't needed. Din might not get bored, technically, but why not be productive when one had the chance?

OOC: Did you want to do a time-skip for a bit?

The next few months passed by with a swiftness Din hadn't come to expect from life. For her, each day had once blurred into the next after a while, and she was perfectly at peace with that. With her introduction to the 'exciting' world of highly organized crime, the blur came mostly from the sheer rate of her new activity. She'd picked up more these past months than she had in decades prior. Had she a pulse, no doubt it would be raised perpetually. Despite all the new information she had to process (her Korean wasn't poor, but still had the hyper-formality of someone new to a language, which suited her just fine), the points of greatest interest came primarily from Yeong. The taciturn "mentor" figure had proven even more curious than Din had first thought. Comfortable with brutality, yet capable of compassion in some form, particularity where children were involved. Capable of pulling together enough firepower to supply an army, yet precise enough with it that she didn't get sloppy and simply throw overwhelming strength at issues, as one might be tempted to. Atypical in many respects, which kept attention. In return, Din executed her own duties as best she could. She lacked the conventional viciousness that made a skilled extortionist, but when businesses held out against offers of protection, she did have a knack for convincing them otherwise. Her aura, her impossible serenity and the careful use of fullbring to tweak the environment's lighting and the like tended to work where threats (even hidden or polite ones) didn't. In only the most extreme cases was a demonstration needed. Some of her new colleagues still whispered about one particularly stubborn shopkeeper who sarcastically pointed out that protection meant little if they weren't able to deal with small upstart gangs nearby. To his surprise, Din had merely politely nodded and left, then returned hours later with just the slightest bits of blood still on her clothes, reiterating her original offer, which had been accepted. After that, most of those she interacted with were at least partially respectful, but they also kept their distance. Very few within Yeong's gang had the slightest clue that Din was more than merely an eerie sort with a hidden talent for violence.

Given that Din's combat ability was obviously unnatural, she didn't play the enforcer very often. Mostly, she was on cleanup, which she liked more anyway. She'd had always possessed a knack for floating through the world while leaving little impact or trace; she'd simply extended that to the impact of others. Here, semi-mundane skill assisted as much as supernatural. Fixing damage, removing biological evidence, disposing of bodies and dealing with the oft-angry spirits of the deceased was all far easier and more thorough with magic involved, but she'd learned how to use a light touch with it. It was all well and good that no evidence was left behind, but that, in and of itself, could be suspicious in some cases. More than once, she'd instead been asked to lay blame at someone else's feet, rather than obfuscate an event entirely.

That experience was called in right now. As always, the timing wasn't predictable, which made Din's lack of sleep a blessing. All she got was a two lines, half of them being directions, before a worrying crunch followed. The fullbringer recognized the sound as well as the inflection; if Yeong was upset enough to destroy any potential means of followup, the situation was likely even more urgent than "now" might imply. The mentor had the admirable ability to keep an extremely even voice regardless of circumstances, but unlike Din, it wasn't due to a serene nature. Both fullbringers might be accused of having a cool personality, but if Din was the cool of freshly fallen snow, Yeong was a winter storm below a restrained surface. The psychopomp therefore wasted little time gathering her things and heading out. Within minutes, she was fast approaching Haru street. Rounding the corner of the alley, she came into view of the scene.

Not all emotions were created equally. Some were higher than others. The lowest were the visceral ones. Shock. Horror. Disgust. All had their uses, but they were tied so strongly to one's guts that they had little to do with thinking beyond not allowing you to think. Beyond that, there were deeper, more abstract ones. Joy, and deeper still, fear. She wouldn't hold it against a person to find a scene like this fear-inducing, once the shock wore off. The deepest though, nearly completely divorced from physicality? Din still felt those just as strong as she had alive. More strongly, perhaps. Sorrow was one of them. The ability to reach out to feel someone else's pain was blessing and curse. Right now, Din refused to see it as the latter. She couldn't save these people, but she could help them. Without a word to Yeong, she stepped into the ally fully, seeking the best place to start. The energy she felt in the air, whatever had caused this abomination, she felt but ignored deliberately. She'd examine that later. First, she had a task to complete. "Cleaning" was normally about the living. The absolution of fear, mostly of discovery. Din's focus was ever on the dead. She cared more about putting them at ease than easing the issues of those alive.

Her simple presence was the start of it. Spirits felt something in her, something that tended to ease. Often times, that was enough. Here, the situation was far beyond that. Still, a start. She strode toward the mass, taking note of tangled chains. She was familiar with those, of course. Pluses had them as a matter of course. But while she'd seen many ghosts tied to the world by such chains, seeing them all strung together like this...There were two possibilities: this was deliberate, or this was accidental. The former was an exercise in genuine cruelty. The later was perhaps worse, as anything that could do this without trying was likely too horrible for words. Undoing this one at a time would take time they didn't have. Days, perhaps. This sort of scene didn't go unnoticed for days. No, she'd have to cut the gordian knot, so to speak. Better that way. Less suffering as they went on. Pulling out her Phylactery, she sent a smooth pulse of reiryoku down its length, which burst out both sides. Without hesitating, she brought down the barely-formed scythe at the epicenter of the tangled chains, shattering the connection forcibly. The pain would follow, but she was ready for it. The alley's dim lighting was as brightest day compared to the gloom that cascaded outward. Din's aura expanded and swallowed the light nearly entirely, enveloping them all in the Sacred Darkness. The moans faded with the pain, but she listened regardless. With pain came confusion, with confusion came fear. She eased the pain, focused the wills, eased their fears. They weren't alone. The Sacred Darkness focused inward, gently, ever more gently, releasing the agony and damage that held them together. One by one, the mass began to shrink as each departed. Gentle Psychopomp Catharsis ensured the process was smooth, and she made a conscious effort to guide the reincarnation, nudging them away from Soul Society and into Earth's stream of souls. Normally, she let the dead decide that, but these...They didn't need to remember this. Let them start again, clean. By the end, only one soul remained, stubbornly clinging to spectral "life". Emir.

His remaining wasn't surprising. The boy had always had immense amount of will, in his own way. Din couldn't send the unwilling (or rather, she couldn't without a degree of brutality that simply didn't come naturally to her), so here he stayed. Huddled over himself, curled up. No longer with even the dim comfort of the other souls in the dark with him. Din lay a hand on his shoulder, but let the touch do the talking. Speech at times like this was not just limiting, but insultingly lacking. After a few moments, Din stood up from kneeling, offering a hand. Whether out of acceptance or desperation for someone, anyone to hold on to, he accepted, and rose to his feet shakily. He made a pointed effort to avoid looking at his former body. He aimed his gaze upward, finally speaking. His tone wavered as much as the rest of him, but it came.

It...it was horrible. I couldn't...

I know. You were very brave, holding on so long. Din's voice was still calm and quiet, but she let genuine compassion slip through.

You'll...stop this, right? He managed to look at the enforcer at this point. For all his usual impish attitude, deep down he still looked up to her. Both of you?

We will, rest easy. A subtle gesture, and the pair began to walk down the alley, so deep into the dark that the world seemed to fade away completely. A few moments later, Din returned to Yeong. Alone. The psychopomp couldn't be said to look happy, but there was perhaps a somewhat greater degree of peace visible in her face.

The truck was slow in coming, but it gave Din time for the rest. The Sacred Darkness kept them obscured as she examined the fallen for every bit of evidence she could put together. The enforcer was, of course, correct: these wounds were unnatural. The rot might be possible in time, but the burns and decay...together, it was obviously some form of magic. If nothing else, the psychopomp got an excellent feel for the attacker. As she finished with each one, she did what she could to put the bodies in more presentable state. Fullbringing a corpse directly was tricky, as the soul was much stronger and absent, but the was plenty of inorganic matter in a human body. She eased them into a state fit to be seen, rather than something out of a horror story. Dust, the ground, bits of clothing...she used it all to help hold patch them, give them some touch of dignity. Burning was normally a rather visible affair, but in this supernatural penumbra, Din had no fear of being detected by anyone outside it. Withdrawing a lighter from her pocket, she commanded the tiny flame it produced to grow and cover the deceased like a shroud. With the earlier cleanup she'd done, the result was some measure of decency. Still, it felt limited. Unfair, particularly Emir. Perhaps that was to be expected. Life didn't promise fairness, after all. Only a lifetime.

Still, this was the best that could be done in the time given. There was more to do tonight. A trail to follow. Perhaps some justice done. Just because life wasn't fair didn't mean that they couldn't work to make it that way. Looking back on the memory of the scene, Din found herself in a strange state of mind. Yes, perhaps some emotions were more base than others. Nevertheless, at times like this, she felt she might have some use for fury.

Yeong's question had been on Din's mind very nearly from the start of the cleanup. Who would to this, who could do this, the why...She didn't have any contacts and connections, not the way the enforcer would consider them. Din's way of life didn't lend itself to meeting new people, short of...well, perhaps she shouldn't dismiss the thought so quickly. Din certainly knew plusses that stayed around, those didn't want to be sent onward. Few of them were the type to get around, and they usually tried to stay under the radar in order to avoid the conflicts of stronger spirits. That meant keeping an ear to the ground. Hmm. Still, best to start out with what they knew.

The wounds were unlikely the work of the reapers. No sword cuts. Plenty of other cuts, of course, but nothing matching the profile of a proper edged weapon. And the empty ones would not have left their souls. There are a few options, but most likely...it was one of us.Us being fullbringers. There was a breadth of magical types, but of those Din had encountered, that seemed most able and likely to commit such an attrocity. The binding of the chains in particular. Din might not be clear on the exact specifics, but the ability to command spirits as they did made them the most likely candidates. It was a place to begin searching, if nothing else.

Your rivals fell in part due to the presence of the supernatural. Those most likely to survive are those who employ the same. After all, Yeong's own forces counted at least two fullbringers; was it really so inconceivable that another gang might do likewise? The criminal life could certainly be a call to those with power. The trappings and resources they could gain were far beyond that of the average gangster, and they'd have fewer restrictions than normal on when and how to unleash their potential. And if anyone could do something like this, they likely weren't the sort to balk at criminal enterprise. The few remaining gangs in the area had little obvious pull, but if they were surviving thus far, they might be getting some magical assistance of their own. It fit the scene, and it fit the motive. Who else would go after these specific people, if not someone with a gang affiliation of their own?

I would look first to whoever still stands against you, and of them, the most successful ones. I also know a number of plusses who might have some idea of who. Not likely a name, but clues perhaps. They pay attention to such things.

OOC: I got that impression from earlier, yeah, and was hoping for it.


Everyone dealt with grief differently. Some cried openly. Some tried to ignore it and shove it into the darker parts of the mind, out of sight. Some accepted it with as much grace as they could. Others still had to do something. Unsurprisingly, Yeong was of the latter category. Action-oriented was perhaps the most polite way to describe her personality, after all, and for all the tremendous violence she was capable of unleashing, Din couldn't deny the practical upside of working out one's pain that way. And it was pain, without question. Yeong had depths, but just because one couldn't see clearly through dark waters didn't mean turbulence could hide. The core of Din's self-appointed duties to ease the dead ultimately stemmed from a desire to provide release. Catharsis. She'd help here too, gladly.

Two "real" potentials occupied Din's mind, and one other potential. The first was the closest. The plus in question wasn't terribly mobile, so finding him was easy enough. The fact that he was close also made it more likely that he would have spotted something or felt something. Admittedly, the latter was a long shot. Pluses lacked much in the way of spiritual senses, despite being spirits themselves. Still, it wasn't even ten minutes that, in a mid-scale apartment a few blocks away, up on the roof, Din spotted her "contact". Sanchez didn't tear his gaze from the streets below, even as the rattling of the roof's half-rusted door groaned upon opening. He rarely did, frankly. Din knew him by his back more than his face.

Company, Din? Two sets of footsteps. And me without a welcome gift. Or your friend without a welcome gift. Hmm. Sanchez was always willing to talk, but he did have a habit of teasing people. Claimed it was his only joy in the afterlife, which wasn't entirely true, but if it helped him enjoy himself, well enough. Most of the time. Given the time sensitive situation and the volatility of emotions though, Din tried to give an impression of seriousness and hoped it wouldn't backfire. Serious people were more fun to tease, as he'd said before.

The deaths on Haru street. You see much from here. Tension in the shoulders followed. A long pause. A good sign. To Din's mild surprise, the old face turned to look at the pair directly, without the slightest bit of mirth.

I'd say you want nothing to do with that, but you've still alive, and the living never believe it when they hear 'you want nothing to do with it'. Dark business. I didn't see everything, for which I am thankful. Ask your questions. You don't have much time.

Sanchez, to his credit, didn't flinch all that much at Yeong's approach, though that was not to say he didn't recoil ever so slightly. As someone who had known him for a decent amount of time, it wasn't the usual "look in the eye" that gave away his discomfort, but the slight tensing of the spine (which was interesting, since he technically didn't have one). His voice came out clear though.

"Your people" indeed. Not just the victims, I'm afraid. The one who did this, I didn't get a good look at. Felt him though. Hard not to, an aura like that. Aura like yours. In this case, he turned his gaze back and forth to Din and Yeong alike, making it clear it wasn't specifically Yeong's hollow-like magic or the necromatic calm Din possesed. The term "fullbringer" might not mean much to Sanchez, who knew more from his own observations than actual discussions with other spirits, but his senses were sharp for a plus. If he claimed it was a match, Din was inclined to believe him. She gestured for him to continue, though she needn't have bothered. A combination of his own storyteller's flair and simple fear kept him speaking.

He wasn't the first down that alley. Someone running, and him walking after like there was no rush. Others followed after that. There was a fight, could hear it just a bit. Mostly though, it was... The plus halted his tone for half a moment before locking eyes with Yeong. Gone was any hint of humor. His tone was as serious as the grave he refused to rest in.

You see a lot of dark stuff in this city, if you've a mind to. Doesn't take much to uncover human misery. But whatever went down in that place was something else entirely. Not human, certainly. And misery's too soft a word. I couldn't tear my mind's eye from it. At first, nothing else seemed to matter, but as it went on, it felt like nothing mattered at all. He gathered his composure as he finished, which was good, as it was rapidly falling apart.

He didn't come out. I didn't tear my eyes off that alley for a second, and he didn't come out. Make of that what you will.