Villains Out Shopping? [Private]

Sometimes, it was hard to tell if a human could see a soul such as Victor... And sometimes, it was even harder to tell if they knew. All the Arrancar was certain of, though, was that the man running the convenience store in this back alley could see him and didn't flinch once at him entering the store, buying groceries, and walking out without making a fuss. They had both been polite, pleasant, and all around, the experience made the hollow almost feel like a human of the 21st century. He almost ran into someone who could evidently NOT see him by accident simply because of how natural being seen had felt right there, actually, and the man in the black suit only barely twirled out of the way of the young man jogging through the alleyway. With a sigh, the arrancar continued, a plastic bag with his groceries in his left hand.

Getting back home was the tricky part. Traveling per Garganta was the fastest way to do so, but ripping open space in a spiritual hotspot like this seemed like a perfect way to get at least six different Shinigami kill squads laying in wait the next time he went shopping. And even the damned ghosts of Hueco Mundo needed to eat, even if it wasn't souls on the menu for him and his daughter. So now he'd have to take the long way back to Karakura Forest, in which he had a small, hidden house. Living right under the noses of the Shinigami was actually easy if he just kept his Reiatsu hidden.

The black haired man stopped dead in his tracks, though, when he was passing by an abandoned church. A tinge in his very core, drawing him to the building... What was that? A lost soul? Those usually didn't feel like this. It wasn't a Shinigami, either, but also not a Hollow. Deciding to go investigate, because it really couldn't hurt to actually know the neighborhood, the Arrancar jumped over the rusted gates and walked towards the doors, which still seemed to be quite solid. Pushing them open and wandering inside, it took him a moment to recognize the reason he had felt a strange aura coming from this place.

Chained to the rotting altar, with what was obviously the chain of fate itself, was a plus, staring with empty eyes into nothingness, his lips moving without making a sound. A demi-Hollow, the ones who had it the worst in the afterlife - their signal wasn't picked up by anything, so they just sat in isolation until their chain finally ripped out their heart and left them Hollows to be exterminated eventually. Victor felt pity for the poor sap, who seemed to be wearing a priests gown... and judging from the fact that under a broken off, large wooden cross, he saw something that reminded him a lot of a dead, long since rotten body, he wondered what had happened to him to cause nobody to ever check up on him, for nobody to find the corpse. He had heard of places that slipped human minds, that the authorities seemingly forgot existed... Was this church one of those places, that quickly slipped from the mind? A haunted, "evil" place... And had it always been one, or did the death of the priest and his imprisonment cause it?

Regardless of the chain of events, the demi-Hollow here seemed to far gone to even recognize the presence of someone else. And judging from his chain, he'd soon become a monster. With a sigh, Victor sent the only signal he could to any nearby Shinigami, and released all of his Reiatsu for just a split second before suppressing it in full. For just that brief moment, the sky outside seemed to darken a bit, as if a black mist had covered everything with a fine spray, and a gust of cold wind blew outward from the Arrancar's body. Turning around to leave quickly, he couldn't know how close to this place someone with spiritual power was...

"Seriously?  How much?!"  Snopy shouted in utter shock.  The very thought leaving just a generally bad taste in his mouth.  If that was true, then it was more serious than he thought.  "Your prices are ludicrous!  And you think I'll spend that money again?!?  You should be giving me a free replacement with how cold the last order was!  It wasn't even cooked properly!"  Snopy's eye twitched.  Normally he was lenient on people making mistakes, but under-cooking meat and then charging if he wanted it replaced?  I'm sorry, did people now have to PAY to not get some horrible disease from their food.  "Let me talk to your manager."  The phone abruptly went silent, they hung up.  Normally he didn't care.  Part of him shouldn't have since human ailments were far less a problem for him, with how easily they could be remedied.  Yet these people could be giving normal humans horrible diseases by giving them tainted food, and then charging them to have "possibly" untainted food.  He was gonna go over some heads and talk to whomever ran the place.  Was someone liable to get fired?  Yes, but he didn't give a fuck.  ...what?  Did you think he was reacting to the spike of spiritual power over by the abandoned church?  Well of course not, that's silly.  There was no...  That is when his gaze shot up and he casually clicked the end call button on the phone.  Wait, what was that spike of spiritual energy?  It felt...  "Feels familiar doesn't it?"  Yeah, his inner hollow wasn't wrong.  It felt like an Arrancar.

Quickly shifting into his proper Shinigami form, he grabbed the portable gigai and tucked it away in his pocket.  The blond Vizard adjusted the end of his sleeves slightly.  He was most certainly not dressed as a Shinigami that was for sure.  His soul was dressed in rather casual clothing as usual.  His only reason for differentiating with soul and gigai was for the situation, whether he was interacting with normal humans or not usually.  He quickly dashed out of his house.  This could kill quite a few more people than some food poisoning, so he figured he'd make sure whatever it was wasn't causing trouble.  With his speed it didn't take long to reach the abandoned church, he skidded to a halt.  Looking around, he couldn't find a physical trace of what created such a powerful force.  Granted, that was because the culprit was clearly still in the church.  "Attō, Futago Megami."  He spoke, clear as day as one blade became enveloped in energy, while the other morphed into a gun.  This left him armed with 2 revolvers, an energy blade, and a rather intricate pistol.  Dangling his Shikai pistol on his middle finder, rocking it back and forth lightly, he spoke up.  "I don't know who you are.  We can do this the civilized way and talk this out, or we can do this the messy way."  Perhaps not menacing in stature, Snopy made sure to get his point across.  He unleashed the FULL brunt of his Reiatsu before quickly pulling back again, causing the entire area to shake for a moment.  He tightened the grip on his pistol.  "You'd do well to show yourself.  After all, hard to do such a show of force and expect no one to notice."

Victor was still hidden in the shadows of the rotten doorway when someone virtually appeared out of nowhere. Well, that was... unexpectedly fast. Was this person a Shinigami? Certainly didn't look the part, from what Victor could see. No black garb, no sandals... He had not expected anyone to show up this fast at all, but he certainly had not thought it would be such a strange man.

Then, something shook the world itself, enough to make Victor almost raise his own Reiatsu to counteract it. He held back his natural desire to fight down the strangers presence pushing down on him, otherwise this entire scene could become VERY messy - whoever this person was, his Reiatsu was, quite simply, INSANE. That, coupled with his words, surely made Victor's hairs stand on end. The Reiatsu felt like that of a Shinigami... but not exactly. Something was off, different... The only reason he noticed was probably the fact that he had eaten his fair share of Shinigami back when his mask still controlled him, and their Reiatsu had not felt like this one, not only in power, also in... consistency. There was a hunger, a darkness to it that he could not place.

"I hoped someone would notice. I did not expect such a fast reaction, though." Speaking up with a clear, strong voice, Victor stepped out from the shadows, still holding his bag of groceries in the left hand. That, together with his black suit and mask hiding his face, gave quite the stark contrast here. His right hand was tucked away in the pocket of his jacket - his posture indifferent, relaxed. He wasn't about to show this person that he was actually quite worried right now. However, this person had suggested talking it out... And that's what he planned on doing, then. "I hoped to alert whatever Shinigami has been assigned to this town, so they take a look inside of this place. I planned on being long gone by that point." Victor narrowed his eyes behind his mask. If his words didn't satisfy this man, would he attack? If so, he had to be ready... Though 'being ready' in the middle of town would probably create a rather big crater between him and this Shinigami-like being, and he'd rather avoid killing hundreds if not thousands of people. "Though, considering how close your Reiatsu is to one... Perhaps you should just take a look instead."

Snopy watched silently, eyes locked on the figure, as the Arrancar stepped out of the shadows.  The voice seemed undaunted by Snopy's warning of force.  In his hand was...was...were those groceries?  Snopy mused over various possibilities in his head.  The Arrancar COULD have killed someone and stolen the groceries...but, why the fuck would he want to do that?  If an Arrancar was gonna do that he'd probably just eat the person's soul.  If the Arrancar wanted the groceries...a very human thing, then maybe...  He didn't rule out the alternate, more violent possibilities, as even the strongest could fall if they let their guard down.  "Most people don't."  He said simply in response to the comment on his speed of arrival.  This Arrancar wanted to...alert a Shinigami?  This sounded like the setup to a trap. Still, looking on past this Arrancar, something was eerie about this place, and not the kind of eerie that comes from an ambush.  Snopy wanted to believe this Arrancar wasn't the type to cause death and destruction, but he needed to know for sure before he let him go, or let his own guard down.  Snopy kept his gun trained on the Arrancar as he slowly approached.  

He kept himself from turning his back, his front always facing the potential foe as he passed him.  Upon passing through the doorway, with a mere flick of his wrist he put up a barrier that would at least stall the Arrancar if it was a trap.  He didn't sense anything else in there, except...something faint.  He finally turned from the Arrancar and looked inward.  There he saw it...the demi-hollow.  Below it...a corpse.  That man, whomever he was, was long forgotten.  "To be forgotten...is far worse than death."  Snopy spoke.  "Poor guy, at best he has only a day or so left.  Worst case...he has 5 hours."  This man was dangerously close to hollowfying.  He could gurantee that the man had 5 hours, but 5 hours was still really short.  Had Snopy's attention not been brought here...  The Vizard turned towards the Arrancar in the doorway.  Snopy took his chances and lowered the weapon slightly, still near ready in case the Arrancar did attack, but it was at a far less intimidating level.  "Well...you got my attention. For what purpose...did you draw attention to this place?" His eyes narrowed, ever cautious to what he might not be able to detect.

The tension in the air was almost strong enough to cut it with a knife, but Victor resisted the urge to try just that. Having a gun pointed right at him wasn't exactly nice, so he just stared down the man holding it from behind his mask. A good amount of caution towards the Arrancar was always appropriate, and at least he had not started shooting yet... So Victor didn't have to try to dodge bullets just yet. Good, he'd like to keep things that way - getting shot at would probably ruin his groceries.

Much like the Shinigami-like man did not leave him out of his vision, so followed Victor him with his head, finally also turning slightly to keep him within his field of vision. He didn't expect someone that powerful to do a sneak-attack on him, but you never knew... And he was still weary of the unknown type of Reiatsu he felt from the man. Once again, his spiritual sense tingled a bit when the man entered the church... Was that 'Kidō'? That was the first time Victor had felt something like it so up close. It really WAS similar to his own healing powers... Interesting. The line between Arrancar, and whatever this man was, seemed to be quite thin... But he didn't seem to be a Hollow. There was a clear lack of mask fragments, after all - and raw Hollow Reiatsu felt completely different from this man.

And finally, the man lowered his gun, together with a comment about being forgotten. The Arrancar couldn't really relate to it - his fears were a lot simpler, most of the time. Fearing being forgotten wasn't big to him, but to mortals who wanted to make something of themselves? Yeah, it would probably be quite disheartening, the chance to be forgotten and left to rot in an old church.
"You're far better at examining human souls than me, it seems. I figured he didn't have long, but I did not expect it to be this close." commenting on the state of that poor soul, Victor adjusted his mask slightly. "The reason is simple. I wanted to make sure this man would not be forced into becoming a monster." Stating his intention plainly, Victor removed the mask fully for the moment - revealing that half of his face had black marks embedded into it, together with a glowing red eye. "No soul should become a Hollow, after all. My blades can't save a soul trapped in this world - the differences between our Zanpakutō are too great. And... that is not all. This place, something about it... seemed out of place. Perhaps the long presence of the Demi-Hollow, perhaps a lot of actual Hollows came through this place... I do not know, but it seems to get ignored by most. Quite strange, wouldn't you agree?"

The man kept his eyes locked on Snopy as well, the distrust was palpable. Snopy turned, looking onto the poor demi-hollow. The soul's body wasn't the only thing that was dead. Demi-hollow sometimes got like this towards their final moments. Some got angry, some ended up sad, while some just seemed to die inside. Empty. Though, there was no way of knowing if he was dead inside prior to becoming this. "Comes with the territory. The chain of fate is almost entirely corroded, a single link left and even that is barely holding. Some kind of trauma could speed up the process...but looking at those eyes, I don't even think it's capable of feeling trauma at the moment." Snopy listened as the man explained his reasoning. This was...strange. The man was an Arrancar, yet referred to hollow simply as monsters. Snopy raised an eyebrow as the man removed his mask, revealing what lay beneath. The sight might have left most feeling quite uneasy, but a glowing red eye and some black marks were not enough for someone who has stared death in the eye as many times as he has.

He chose not to speak as the Arrancar explained itself. He turned and looked not just at the Demi-hollow, but around at the church itself. The church itself did feel strangely unnerving. He half wondered if there was something more to how this man died. It could have been an accident easily, but he was curious as to whether or not it was an unclean death. "Humans are surprisingly sensitive to the spiritual world. Unless their attention is specifically drawn to a place like this, the presence of a hollow or demi-hollow would probably leave an unsettling feeling in them whenever they did draw near, and drive them away. Though." He looked around as if expecting SOMETHING to happen. "I do have to wonder if there is more to it." Snopy walked towards the demi-hollow, snapping his fingers to shatter the barrier separating him and the Arrancar. Snopy sealed his Zanpakutō, his blade losing the film of energy, and his gun reverting to a blade, as he stamped the pommel of his blade onto the Demi-hollow's head. He turned back to the Arrancar, taking a few steps away. "You are a rather...strange Arrancar. You specifically went to call a Shinigami, who might try to kill you, so they could purify a demi-hollow." Snopy began to trail off. "You say no soul should become a hollow...then where does that leave you I wonder." Snopy crossed his arms low on his torso, as he looked toward Victor. He was definitely not in a battle ready pose, which shouldn't be too threatening. Granted if anything attacked, he'd be deceptively quick on the draw.

With the Zanpakutō sealed again, the air seemed to get a lot lighter, despite the eerie church, and Victor's facial expression softened slightly. This man had compassion in him - enough to take the risk to make his sword capable of sending a soul to the next stage, despite the risk of an Arrancar standing nearby. Of course, Victor was no danger to this man - but how was he supposed to know that?

"Yes, this place... really does have something strange about it. I'd say it feels similar to some places in Hueco Mundo that even the Menos stay away from." With the barrier gone, the black clad Arrancar entered back into the church. It probably didn't feel nearly as eerie to him as it should, to be in this strange place with what was obviously some sort of strange Shinigami... Yet he felt no direct threat. On the remark calling him a 'strange Arrancar', though, Victor just chuckled slightly. "I've been called strange before, yes. I guess I'm not much like others of my kind... I doubt they would pay much attention to this place. If they even noticed it at all. I've learned to follow my hunches, for good reason." Victor took another look around inside of the church. Was there a center to this feeling, an object maybe? Or was it the ground itself that had some darker spiritual energy embedded into it? Maybe someone had died during construction, that sometimes caused what humans referred to as 'bad luck' - a haunting of a Hollow that returned periodically.

"As for me... Well, I did not chose my state of being. But I have to say, the difference between me and a normal Hollow... is quite extreme. Your chain of fate is intact... but for those without it, they feel a constant, gnawing hunger. Monsters by nature, simple as that. Those who get their masks broken, like me... we're only free thanks to these." With a single thought, Victor called his blades - snapping out of the sheathes hidden in his sleeves, the thin daggers slipped into his hands, where he twirled them around a bit before returning them just as fast. He made it a point to differentiate between himself and the feral Hollows as well. "Sealing our Hollow nature means sealing our hunger... And with that, we have our emotions back. Hollows may 'feel' rage, hatred or similar dark impulses, but true emotion? I've never heard of it in any who are still chained to their masks. But I can feel, the same as any living being or spirit, despite my nature of a compressed mass of souls subjugated by the strongest 'ego'." Turning back to the stranger, Victor had a small smile on his face for a brief moment. "Simply put, most Hollows don't get the chance I got. So I took a calculated risk to spare that soul the same pain I felt for... well, for however long I was a beast. I can't say that I remember it too well."

Putting his mask back on, mostly so he wouldn't scare anyone he might meet outside later, Victor asked a question that came to him.
"Though I wonder... You would talk to an Arrancar like me instead of trying to exterminate me. You'd lower your weapon in my presence to help a lost soul... And you carry far more power than anyone I've met before. If I may say so, you're also a rather strange... Shinigami, are you not?"

Snopy merely stood and listened as the soul behind him became engulfed in light.  It was almost how cool guys don't look at explosions, except with light.  The Arrancar mentioned how it felt like some areas in the Hueco Mundo.  Snopy wouldn't know though.  He had been to the Hueco Mundo before, a few times.  Granted his expeditions were more like short research excursions.  He gathered a small bit of data and left.  Not nearly enough to recognize areas such as this.  "Most wouldn't is an understatement.  Fifty percent of Arrancar I have met would have ignored this place, 45% would have eaten him, and the other 5%...well they do show up from time to time."  He had met the rare none-aggressive Arrancar in the past.  Few and far between, but they do exist.  Snopy merely listened as the man explained in surprising detail what an Arrancar was when compared to a hollow.  He had heard most of it before, but getting information from one made it more valid to say the least.  "They do on rare occasion show emotion, or at least Adjuchas and presumably Vasto Lorde do.  Though 1% or less of the population doesn't mean too much."

Snopy had nothing else really to add until he was called (asked if he was) a Shinigami.  That's a question he hadn't heard in awhile.  Most people who know what a Shinigami is that he's dealt with were well aware of his "condition".  Those that didn't often didn't even realize he was technically dead in the first place.  Snopy threw up his arms in a way that kinda said "I dunno" while also saying "I actually have the answer". "To some I am a Shinigami.  To the Soul Society I am not.  And as far as I am concerned, I am not.  You say you did not choose your state of being, well no one really does.  And those that try to in most cases are insane, although there are a few that they are not.  And some of us...lets just say we didn't exactly choose when, how, or if we changed.  One minute you're minding your business, and the next your body tries to hollowfy.  Not a very pretty picture.  I guess all that matters here is, I didn't.  At least not totally." He was not exactly direct, but it painted the picture clearly to anyone with at least a modicum of intelligence. At least those who weren't oblivious anyway. He never really answered the question fully, but the pieces of the puzzle were all there. All that needed to happen was for this Arrancar to not try and jam the pieces in the wrong spots. "Sometimes though, things turn out for the better I suppose. Well that answer good enough for ya?" In truth he knew it'd probably be a no. It raised a lot of questions. Still he'd only clarify as much as needed. The Arrancar asked for more details he'd tell him, he had nothing to hide. If he didn't ask he wouldn't say any more on the subject. Snopy hadn't done much. He didn't even flinch when the weapons were drawn from the Arrancar's sheathes. He had merely stood, arms crossed low across the lower half of his torso.

A hollowfied Shinigami. Victor had never heard of such a being - but then, how often did an Arrancar get the chance to chat with Shinigami and learn about them? All he knew was what their blades could do, and that they were the opposing force to the Hollow race in the cosmic balance of things. Well, this man had obviously not turned into an actual Hollow, but he was apparently no longer counted as a Shinigami by the Gotei 13 either. A strange existence, this man.

"Actually, yes. I believe our states of being are quite... similar, despite differing origins. You didn't fully hollowfy, and I was not purified by whatever changed me." Nodding with a certain amount of understanding, Victor slowly walked over to the wooden cross that the poor soul had been chained to. With a testing motion, the Arrancar ran his fingers along the old wood... And there, he could see it, a slight ripple in the air. "As I thought, the veil grows weak here. Opening and closing a Garganta should be enough to make things go back to normal, with time. However, I can't be sure as to what lies on the other side." Turning back to the stranger, Victor decided to ask another question. "How important are this city and the humans that dwell in it to you?"

Well Shinigami were better book keepers, so it was no wonder Snopy seemed to have a better understanding of Arrancar than this man had of Vizard, or Shinigami in general. In terms of general knowledge his hand was much better. "Killed, not purified. Most of the time failed Arrancarizations end up with the hollow and every soul within it destroyed. A hole in the soul cycle that only time can heal." Hollow and Arrancar were already out of the soul cycle so it isn't like the hole didn't exist already, the soul cycle adapts quickly so long as the number of hollow killed without purification doesn't skyrocket for any length of time. Of course Snopy had to chuckle a little. "Well, the biggest difference between you and I has to be at least your Zanpakutō is just a sword. Mine is two women who can't stop bickering with themselves, nor with my inner hollow." Of course then this man said something. Fixing the distortion in this building could be solved by opening or closing a garganta. Yes...that was true...oooooor Snopy could just force the "door" shut and shove things back to normal. And that was assuming that it didn't revert to normal as the demi-hollow's energy dissipated. If Snopy was feeling particularly sneaky, he could just sit around for awhile and wait for hollow to be baited by the spiritual signatures left behind and purify them, but he really wasn't in the mood for some mass pest extermination.

He asked how important the city was to him. "I am gonna take a WILD guess and say you are indifferent to this place being flattened. Either that or you don't want it to be flattened so you want backup if you open a garganta and a giant space squid, or much much more likely, some powerful hollow or Arrancar steps through." True, Snopy could just tell him that this was an easily solved problem without opening a garganta. Yet, as long as a portal straight into Las Noches wasn't opened, Snopy could probably just blast whatever came through and be done with it. "No matter what happens here, this city will remain unharmed and I will be walking out alive. So to answer your question, very important. That fact is irrelevant though because anything that seeks to harm the city or it's people will not be walking out of here alive. And I mean anything. Of course that does mean that you will live too. Or...am I mistaken?" It was spoken not so much as a threat, and most certainly not toned as a threat, but a warning. If he was truly not an enemy this means nothing to him, he would be able to continue living his life. It was actually spoken as a legitimate question to put it simply. "But...while the city and I will remain unharmed, and curious to the other details as to the outcome. Well, like I said, if you aren't a threat yourself then I have no reason to attack you. With all this in mind, it's your move."