Night Watch [Invite]

Several hours had passed since Shiro began her rounds, scouting the areas she noticed were less patrolled by Shinigami than they probably should have been. It wasn't that they were lacking in their efforts, no it seemed more along the lines of a lack of actual staffing was the cause. There were people assigned but from what Shiro could tell those individuals were either assigned specific areas to patrol, or they patrolled different areas each night. She'd familiarized herself with the movement patterns and decided to assist by patrolling the areas that were less frequented.

”These patrols… do they not assign stronger Shinigami to this area? What happens if something stronger appears here…?” Shiro wondered out loud. Most of the Shinigami she’d seen within the city hadn’t been any stronger than most of the people she’d seen during her visit to the Seireitei. She’d also taken careful note of just how few of the Shinigami patrols were even capable of using Shunpo… It was no wonder they made rounds in different areas each night if the best they could do was run around like any normal person…

Shiro’s Spark Step took her from one rooftop to another roof several removed from the first. An action that would have taken the regular patrol easily five times as long to cover the same distance. The park had been busy with hollow activity lately, she would need to check it out. It was strange to think that a place so often abandoned during the night would be home to so many predators seeking a meal for themselves… Regardless, she was here to help.

”Additional patrols…?” Shiro crouched atop one of the park’s many clock towers, looking down over the park she’d noticed what looked and felt to be a Shinigami. ”Why from down on the ground though? It’s a terrible vantage point and you can hardly see anything around you from there…” Shiro quietly thought out loud to herself. Was he a normal patrol? But then if this area was being scouted then she didn’t really need to be here anymore… Then again if he spotted her he’d immediately make a connection towards her abnormality… She was a human on the top of a clock tower that one couldn’t access without special lifts or equipment… Shiro took another glance around the park, assuring herself that his viewpoint from the swing wouldn’t be all that great. From up here she could see the entire park… From down there? Not so much.

Her eyes met with the Shinigami's. He'd seen her. What followed in his actions were somewhat peculiar. Perhaps keeping her presence low key but not enough to avoid notice had been a mistake? "Sorry... I, didn't mean to startle you..." Shiro bowed in apology to the Shinigami. "I didn't think there would be anyone patrolling this area tonight so I figured since Shinigami would be absent from this area that I could keep an eye on the place instead..." He was cautious, keeping to the other side of the clock tower. Of course she was suspicious to him. A human? Standing on top of an impossible place without any identifiable means with which to accomplish such a feat? Thankfully he didn't look like any of the few who'd spotted her during her carelessly foolish escapade through the Seireitei, but even so she should try not to make enemies, if only for Mitsuoki's sake.

"I haven't seen you around here before, are you new or did you transfer from a different assigned zone?" Shiro asked, attempting to sway the conversation into a more friendly and hospitable situation. "Ah! sorry I shouldn't be rude... My name's Shiro Inazuma, it's a pleasure to meet you." Shiro gave the shinigami her warmest smile. Hopefully her presence here didn't warrant any aggressive action from the other party... She'd hate to be the cause of further Shinigami being injured thanks to her interventions.

Shiro's sincerity in her attempt to warm a pleasant atmosphere was exemplified by the fact that her posture remained casual. She did have on her both the katana and the .44 Automatic Pistol Theocelese had given her but the pistol remained in it's holster, and the Katana remained sheathed even as Shiro explained herself despite being faced with the Shinigami's drawn and pointed blade.

She still dreaded the idea of using a gun but it didn't hurt to make a habit of keeping herself ready for any possible situation in case she might actually need to use it.

Respectable. The shinigami gave not just his name but also his designation. From what Shiro experienced it was a proper and customary greeting for one of Shinigami origins to give. He was about to continue on with conversation when the Hollow made its presence known. Good. By keeping her presence on the down low she'd accomplished the purpose of not scaring away any of these monsters which might approach the human world. It was better that way because otherwise she feared they would simply come to cause problems whenever she wasn't around.

"Don't mention it." Shiro politely excused the Shinigami's rudeness, though she could hardly see it as rude since he was simply answering to his calling. To suppress the Hollows and protect the city was his job after all. Shiro couldn't fault him for that. She felt the ground shaking as the hollow slammed its fists into the ground attempting to crush the Shinigami, yet he evaded. Not surprising.

And then there were more... Four additions in total added themselves to the fight mere seconds after the first Hollow had already lost one of its hands to the Shinigami. Perhaps he was strong enough to face the one beast head on but a total of five? Had she not been here in this moment, such a situation would likely have turned grim very quickly. Even if the Shinigami managed to beat all five hollows on his own, there would be no way to minimize the damages so many foes at once would cause as a result of fighting him here... The circumstances called for swift and decisive action, something Shiro was both prepared for, and willing to provide.

So he was here only temporarily then? Was assigning extra people something the shinigami did whenever the burden of hollows became great enough? Though as large as the Seireitei was, and as likely as hollow attacks were to be all across the globe... Shiro was fairly certain they greatly lacked sufficient manpower to reasonably cover every area in the world. "Only recently... I, figured it was the least I could do for Soul Society to repay the mistakes I've made." Shiro stated. He didn't need to know the details... That she was the reason behind the recent alarms raised within Soul Society. And she even knew what it meant to be designated as a Ryoka... She blushed a little at the remembrance. Thinking back on it, it'd been a stupidly embarrassing idea in the first place. Stupid foolish curiosity. More than anything she'd allowed her strength, her power, to rule over her confidence and misguide her.

"Ah...! It's... nothing!" Shiro stammered, shaking her head and hoping it was enough to dismiss any curiosity or pursuit into the matter the shinigami might take. "I would say it's more like... paying back a favor for someone I know, though I guess if they don't know I'm doing it it doesn't make much of a difference huh..." That's right this could be seen as a favor for when Mitsuoki helped her out. She didn't have to apologize for anything right? Shiro watched the Shinigami work. It was almost painful to watch really... not really the act of killing off the hollows itself but rather how painfully slowly they were being taken care of... But then was that what it meant to be strong? The efforts of those who actually needed to try their best just to accomplish the same level of work... She'd been like that once. Maybe even smaller. As a weak and powerless human. Shiro stuffed the thought to the back of her mind. Thinking about these things in that way was something she should avoid. It was like watching an anthill full of tiny ants and realizing that with a single shovel, one could dig a hundred times faster than a thousand ants together... Sure she was strong now but if she started to think about it like that she might start adopting arrogance, which she really didn't want to do.

And then the gate appeared...! "W-what is that thing!?" Shiro sounded more surprised than she actually was. This was her third time seeing it now since she'd started spending her nights helping to keep the streets clear of hollows. It was rare but when it'd first happened Shiro was afraid some great demon or monster was going to appear! But each time before, it'd done the same thing. Captivating, impaling, and taking with it one of the hollows she'd slain... It didn't really make any sense.

It was as she'd figured. The Seireitei didn't have the manpower to cover all of the planet simultaneously. From what she'd heard from Mitsuoki, The Seireitei was even in a sort of lock-down mode right now. Something to do with a conflict between the Shinigami and Quincy.

"The gates of hell? That's what you call nothing?" So that's what the monolithic structure that popped up was supposed to be? So wait... if it only showed up for those who deserved to go to hell but she'd only seen it twice before, didn't that mean that most of the hollows she'd defeated up until now had been innocent souls? But then it did make sense... She'd heard before that hollows were born of spirits who'd lingered too long within the human world. Just because they'd become hollows didn't necessarily make them guilty of any crimes in life...

"Don't mention it. I would say it's my job but it's really not... It is more of me just meddling isn't it..." Shiro nodded to his acknowledgement before falling into an apologetic stance. She didn't have their approval, hell Shiro wasn't even sure if she needed their approval to do what she'd been doing since it was all happening within the human world anyway... Either way this Shinigami, Fubuki, had acknowledged her right from the start. She wasn't sure if it was because of her overwhelming presence or perhaps the Shinigami's own personality but for the most part even when she had been spotted, none of the shinigami on patrol had actually chosen to approach Shiro willingly, let alone acknowledge her presence or assistance for that matter.

"Isn't this the source of the problem right here though?" Shiro asked, indicating the playground they were currently standing in. Maybe she didn't understand what he'd meant but Shiro had never really considered there to be a source for all of these seemingly random hollow appearances. Sure five at once wasn't really random but that didn't mean there was any specific reason for it was there?

It was good to have some official input from one of the people she believed herself to be assisting. He was right in that it wasn’t her duty to be going around dealing with the roaming hollow menace within the human world. But it was a relief to know that he also didn’t consider her actions to be meddlesome. Had he believed her to be meddling then she might have needed to consider what it was she did exactly which would deem her a meddler… Shiro nodded at Fubuki’s mention of the Zanpakutō and how it was used to purify hollows. Mitsuoki had explained this to her before. That the Shinigami were equipped with a method that did not include destroying a hollow along with its soul. She listened and found out something new. So the Shinigami’s were a type of forgiveness of sorts? But it seemed their effectiveness remained entirely within the events following after a person’s death. So that’s what this Hell Gate was about then. Which meant those souls that were captured by it belonged to a different class of sinner…

Shiro’s heart fell a little. So it wasn’t just Quincy then who destroyed the soul when they killed hollows but other humans as well? Did that also go for Fullbringers then? Perhaps patrolling with the intent of hunting hollows wasn’t for the best of intentions after all… She breathed a sigh of relief at Fubuki’s next statement however. She’d been hunting hollows down, sure, but killing them just because they were here had never been her game plan. If a hollow left well enough alone, Shiro had seen no reason to pursue and kill it. Iiname was one such hollow. She hadn’t seen him in a while now but the creature was a lively fellow, constantly wanting to learn and acting tougher than she figured he ought to.

So that was why Quincy were not appreciated then? It was solely due to the fact that they actively hunted and pursued Hollows that the Shinigami were in conflict with them over it? There were similarities in the explanation, but knowing her own efforts would still snuff out a soul was not a pleasant thought to have to be considering…

”Well… no… I don’t sense anything around here… Not anymore. I just thought that since so many Hollows appeared at once that it might have something to do with this area…” Shiro indicated, watching the Shinigami’s motions. It wasn’t unlikely that this area had something unique going on about it. The playground always seemed to be abuzz with Hollow activity late at night for reasons even Shiro hadn’t been able to figure out yet. It remained as one of few locations within the city where larger numbers of Hollow would appear despite there being no one around…

He seemed dismissive, perhaps a bit disappointed even, in the lack of actual results he must have expected. He didn't say it outright but Shiro suspected its what his words meant even as he continued on to begin a patrol. That too could be an indicator too, Shiro considered. If his original aim wasn't to patrol but to figure out if there was some connection behind this playground and the sudden increase in hollow appearances, then surely she thought he would have wanted to stick around the place and maybe investigate a bit more...

"Do you think there would be a reason behind increased Hollow appearances in specific areas?" Shiro asked, reappearing before him after observing his actions for a little longer even though he likely believed she'd gone another rout by now. In all honesty she was curious about this Shinigami. She didn't know many of his kind who would step out of their usual procedures and actually communicate with her normally, let alone even acknowledge her existence to begin with. Perhaps it was a positive sign? And maybe busting her way into Soul Society hadn't been the best idea or plan she'd ever executed, but maybe if she could find the right connections she might be able to earn herself a pass... At the very least she didn't want to be on the wrong side of an entire race of people just because they lived in entirely different worlds.

”You would think they could just stick to their own world and find food…” Or so Shiro spoke her opinion but she knew better. At least in her experiences the parts of Hueco Mundo she most commonly saw were rather void of life. One would have a long search and a tough time finding food in such an expansive wasteland… Maybe that was the inherent problem then? Lack of food and then finding food that you’d have no choice but to fight against. Perhaps they just targeted the human world because it was easy to pick and choose a meal… ”Like a lion with a sore tooth?” Shiro mumbled to herself. But it did make sense, at least for hollows that seemed to appear most often around this place. The vast majority of them were pretty minor when it came to their overall strength so perhaps there was actually something? Maybe a stronger force driving weaker hollows to desperation?

“A bigger force might be involved? How can you be sure it’s in control though? Couldn’t this just be happening because there’s a stronger Hollow on the other side rampaging and forcing weaker ones to come here instead of hunting for their meals around Hueco Mundo for fear of their own safety?” Shiro spoke, deciding to put forth her thoughts on the matter. Hollows were creatures too. Granted their inherent being and how they acted was completely different to normal creatures, but then couldn’t all creatures be capable of bizarre behavior if pushed too far in the wrong direction?