In The Air Tonight (Shinku X Drake X Sora)[CLOSED]

Shinku was not at her home, much to Ichigo's discontent. Instead, her meeting with the Arrancar known as Drake the other day somewhat emboldened her to the point of wanting to leave her home to acquire extra supplies. So far, no one had bothered her. The whole two people she had actually talked to had seen how timid she was and immediately left her alone. Now that she was safely within the forest, she had come across a glade that had many indigenous berries in it, making her rather happy.

So she began collecting with the basket she had brought. She had wanted to go to a store of some kind, but she wasn't ready for that. Far too many people that could harm her. For now, she was just collected the berries, humming softly and quite enjoying the silence of her solitude. She sighed softly after a while, her basket nearly full, and her thoughts flew to that of the Arrancar once more. She was wondering if he was okay, and if there hadn't been something stronger than him out there. She shivered with the thought of Drake being hurt, and her instincts to help those she loved cause her unused reiatsu to spike gently. It wasn't much, but it would be a dead giveaway to anything around where she was.

Much as he intended to go straight to the home he'd promised to return to, there were things feeling a little... off about it. Specifically the lightly defined presences of those two he'd come upon not long ago during the little incident in Karakura... and a lack of the presence of the one he was looking for. Odd though it was, it didn't take long to find said presence since he was familiar enough with it, and it was toward that that the Arrancar lightly diverted his path, two passengers still in tow (willing to be carried or otherwise). The boost in that presence helped further with his... somewhat lower-grade spiritual sense, when it came to it, and he could more accurately glide down toward the source, setting Sora down first before he himself landed.

"Sorry I took a bit.. but I found someone to possibly teach you. Oh, and the one on my back is harmless at the moment; I'd do something about it even if she did try something," he spoke, insofar as his series of little growls and such sounds could be identified by most as speaking. Still, he did so in full confidence that the one he was speaking to would understand, and that was all he needed. With that, he steadily shifted himself until the Arrancar on his back would slip carefully and harmlessly to the grassy ground below, wandering over to contently take a spot nearer Shinku, as complete and undamaged as when she'd last seen him despite what had happened since. In his curiosity, he even allowed himself a quick sniff of that which was in her basket, his head tilting slightly to the side in curiosity as he looked over the items he could barely identify as 'normal food.'

Sora watched as they soared through the air; this would definitely make beautiful scenery for his next painting. Although he didn't appreciate the forcefulness of the Arrancar, frankly, he didn't care. He was set down rather softly, as opposed to how he had been snatched up. He walked a bit away, looking at the small grove they were in . It, too, was rather beautiful; he was just getting all kinds of ideas for his next painting! He turned, seeing Drake deposit Lilly, walking next to her. He took the jacket he had picked up from the gun range, taking it over to her and wrapping her in it, figuring it would be fine since all of her wounds were about covered by now.

"So, this is who I'm going to train?" He asked, looking at Shinku, eyeing her, judging her skill in anything she might be trained. It was obviously some kind of fighting; otherwise, most likely a normal human would have been found for anything else. "What exactly do you want me to train her to do?" He asked, as he adjusted his beanie and eyepatch with his hands, the flight nearly taking off his beanie, and pulling his eyepatch up a little bit.

Shinku doesn't even notice Drake landing, as her back is turned and she's in her own little world at the moment. However, the soft thump of the sleeping Arrancar on the ground curled into an adorable fetal position got her attention, making Shinku spin around. Instantly, she gasped and ran to Drake, wrapping her hands around his neck tightly and whimpering softly. "Oh, I'm so glad you were alright. When I awoke and you were no longer there, I feared the worst..." She blushed and released him, clearing her throat. "So... I'm... I'm happy to see you again, Drake..."

She hums and gives Sora a nervous look, literally tugging one of Drake's wings in front of her to somewhat hide herself. "T-Teach? You want him to teach me?" Her look on Sora softens slightly as she tries her best to calm herself enough to look at him. For some reason, Shinku was differently dressed than she usually was. Instead of dressing herself just to have clothes on her, she was wearing a miko priestess's outfit, complete with a small pad of spell tags. One would almost assume she was going to an anime convention or something. The outfit seemed to compliment her figure nicely, despite the looseness of the general outfit, like it was a couple sizes too small. The most notable of her appearance, however, had to be the massive, luxurious ribbon in her hair, holding it back in one long ponytail. It looked like it would cover her entire head if it was unwrapped, then wrapped around it.

She looked to Sora softly and gulps. "So... You... You want to train me, Sir?" She was still holding onto Drake wing possessively, as if he were the only thing keeping her from diving into the shrubbery and concealing herself that way.

The contact was still... a little strange to him, to be certain, but nonetheless the Arrancar reacted in stride. "Good to see you again, too. Sorry for leaving without much warning," he replied to the woman with a little grin. He blinked once when his wing was suddenly tugged, but quickly loosened the appendage so that Shinku could easily hide herself behind it. The 'why' he wasn't certain about, since the man was clearly human and wouldn't be near as likely to hurt her as demons, but... well, who knew. The girl did seem fairly shy in general, that much at least he could tell, lack of much social ability on his part notwithstanding.

The problem now, however, was a single thing: how to communicate to anyone besides Shinku?

Failing being able to think of anything else, he pointedly cast his gaze to Sora before letting his power rise for a few moments, not to the level of anything uncomfortable, even for the woman next to him. With his power faded again, he tilted his head slightly to the side, hoping the man would be able to take the hint... and recall that Drake's request had been to teach her how to use a power.

Sora looked to Lilly, seeing she was asleep. As he inspected Lilly's condition, he felt the reiatsu spike from Lance; the answer to his question. Right, so he needed to make her more powerful in general. He turned, giving Shinku an odd look when he heard the formal tone. He smiled gently after a second, straightening up after assessing Lilly's wounds. "Now now, there's no need for formalities. My name's Sora." He said, as he put a hand in his pockets. "And yeah, I guess I'm here to train you." He said, as he walked out into the open, before plopping down onto the ground, crossing his legs as he watched the two. "Before we start, though, we should get to know each other so I know best how to go about it. Why am I supposed to train you? What do you need power for?" He asked the girl, curiosity showing through his visible eye.

Truth be told, he already had an idea on how to train Shinku. It seemed she had power; although a small amount, for the moment. Perhaps it was a matter of awakening it? If so, then he had an excellent idea, judging from what he had seen of her personality type. He couldn't do it alone, though. He would need the Arrancar's help if he was to pull it off; the Arrancar, or someone else she cared about. If it was a simple matter of making her already-released power stronger, then he could just as easily abandon that plan and teach her forms of control.

"S-Sora?" She looked to him and softly nodded. "Right... I... I understand... Drake said that I could be trained... But I don't know how... I mean... I dislike the idea of fighting..." She hums and looks to Drake. "I want to be able to help others... I wouldn't be able to fight, but... Well... Not like Ichigo..." She looked to the plants distantly. "Ichigo would always protect me... But without her... I just don't know anymore... She was killed by a car accident about two years ago, now..." Shinku shook her head to keep herself from crying. "I'm sorry, just... I want to be able to help people like she was... She was so strong and reliable, and... I'll never be as strong, but... I can still be counted upon."

More of that shyness and lack of confidence from the girl, it seemed; though he'd only known her a rather short amount of time, Drake had come to sort of expect it. Still, he intended to be there for her all the same, and... perhaps now was not the time to say that he probably saw said sister not long ago. She was not someone he preferred to deal with again that soon.

Ah well, the situation with the sister didn't matter right now; rather, it was having Shinku awaken some sort of power so she could perhaps build confidence in herself, and otherwise just be able to do more. Whatever he could do, he would, though he wasn't exactly the one in charge of how to go about this right now. For now, what he could do was shift a little closer to the woman, rubbing his head a little against one of her hands and generally trying to offer some comfort as one who hadn't a clue how to go about just that. Sure, he was only going off what he'd seen from some dogs and cats, but... well, he was also quadrupedal, and it was something, was it not?

"You'll be alright... you'll have me around, at least," the Arrancar assured, purely for Shinku's benefit since Drake was certain the man now identified as Sora couldn't understand him in this form.

Sora listened to Drake's odd sounds. He realized after a moment he was speaking. How was it that the woman before him could make out the Arrancar's voice? If Sora strained a little bit, what Drake spoke did seem to be words; though he could only make out a few; "around" and "least" being the two most prominent. He turned his head back to Shinku, seeing her on the brink of tears. "It's okay, it's okay. If you don't want to talk about something, you don't have to. That's all I needed." Sora said, as he stood up. "I assume Drake is one of thsoe people you want to protect?" he asked, looking to the Arrancar, wondering if he realized where Sora was going with this.

They seemed to be close, so it would benefit Sora more to have Drake help, unless he were able to magically find Shinku's sister. He needed a loved one; someone close to Shinku. He turned to Shinku, her last statement resounding in his ears. "You just want to be strong and reliable? I can't speak for reliability, but you seem to be strong enough, already. You are coping with your sister's death, and you befriend a man who's kind is known for consuming the souls of the living, damning them to the fate of the monster." he said, turning to Drake. "No offense to yourself, of course. I was speaking of general Hollow's and Arrancar'." He said, before turning back to Shinku, still internally debating on what he was going to do. He had the main idea, but how exactly, was another problem.

Shinku just gave Sora a very confused look. "Huh? Drake is not a mindless beast like most of them are... He saved me from one of them, and has been protecting him... I owe my continued existence to him." She shakes her head. "I'm the furthest thing from strong. I try to be more like Ichigo, and even the one from the school they call Ichigo..." She hums and closes her eyes.

"Bravely fighting for the ones close to them, and vanquishing foe after foe to protect them..." She sighs and smiles. "Thinking about people like that just makes me happy that I'm still alive..." She gives Drake a soft look and smiles, rubbing his head affectionately. She didn't really understand what he was doing, but maybe he wanted his head rubbed? It certainly made her feel better. She even leaned over slowly and kissed the Hollow's cheek like one would a pet. However, for Shinku, there was a lot more gratitude behind it than a mere housepet.

As was possibly expected, the Arrancar didn't appear bothered in the slightest by Sora's comment regarding his... kin, for lack of any better term he could come up with. He'd no illusions about their motives, thus why he'd set his path to eliminate them. He was an oddity amongst them, no doubt, and had no place in their numbers... that was just how it was.

Now if only communication with non-demons wasn't such a general problem... and if only he knew more human expressions and actions, particularly that odd touch of the woman's lips...

Still, he reacted accordingly by shifting up close to her, his eyes shortly returning to Sora in curiosity of what the man had in mind. It was sounding like he himself would have to do something; whatever it was, he doubted he'd object at this point. If nothing else, it would be fairly obvious that the two were close enough, despite not knowing each other for long. "You're strong enough, so... you should be able to awaken something without much of an issue, I'm sure," the Arrancar suggested, glancing up momentarily to Shinku.

Sora nodded as he listened. "I need to speak with Drake for a moment, then." He said, as he walked towards the opposite side of Drake. He leaned down, close to what looked like Drake's ear, though being reptilian, he couldn't quite be sure if that was it or not. Regardless, he began whispering anyway, in a low enough tone that Shinku wouldn't hear. "I think... the best way to go about this, would be to awaken her abilities through desperation and her own feelings of helplessness. To do this, we will have to pretend fight. I will need to be beating you. It will have to look as if I'm on the verge of killing you. I won't inflict any actual damage if I can help it. But her abilities, if she has some, should be awakened through her innate desire to help you and prevent you from dying." He said. "Now, pretend as if I've just threatened you or her, and become protective." He said, as he stood up, his face taking on an entirely different look than earlier.

He walked back a few feet, malice and evil seeming to be evident in his face. "That's right, Arrancar. The only way to make her strong.... is to kill her." He said, his voice dripping with evil that seemed to not be there earlier. He put every ounce of acting he had learned while in college to this moment. It took all of his willpower to keep the evil act up, but he was able to successfully do it. For added emphasis, he pulled out his paintbrush. It elongated, becoming roughly spear-like in its physical form, black ink leaking off the tip, floating in the air where it would disappear. He imagined, if Drake were to seem to almost die while protecting Shinku, the desire to help Drake, since he would seem to be near death while protecting HER, the desire to help Drake would overcome anything that might hinder her progress to achieving her power.

Shinku smiled to Drake warmly, then looked to Sora with a soft uncertainty in her eyes. "Ahhh... Alright?" She hummed and kindly stepped away from the pair, not wishing to put Sora out by hearing something she was not supposed to. She had to repay him somehow, and she would by being a particularly studious pupil. She wouldn't skimp on anything, she mentally steeled herself. No shirking responsibilities!

She came back out of her mind just as Sora spoke, making her freeze and cough through her holding a sharp breath. "Ahhh... Pardon?" She turned back to Sora and Drake slowly, a terrified look on her face. Then she saw the spear and jumped, falling back onto her butt and crawling back quickly. "I... I don't think this is a good idea! I don't want this anymore! I'll just go back to my home! I wont bother anyone ever again! I promise! Don't kill me!" She was, quite literally, freaking right the hell out, but with good reason. He had just said he had to kill her. In all rights, however, Sora really didn't have to add on any acting at all. She didn't have time to look at his face or catch subtle tones.

She gasped when her back bumped against a tree, immediately curling into a ball and shaking, sobbing softly. "Ichigo... Help me... Don't let him kill me..." Even though she had no idea whether or not Ichigo even existed anymore, she still cried out for her sister. One had to wonder if Sora was going a little overboard for this. then again, his idea made a strange but clever sort of sense.

Somehow... he knew something like this was coming. But whatever he had to do, the Arrancar would; that was just how it was. Still, he couldn't very well let Shinku keep panicking that much.

"You're not going to die... I won't let anything happen to you if I can help it," he assured, glancing back to Shinku with a slight grin, which was about as much as he could manage. Now... how to go about this. He certainly couldn't use his altered form; that would make the plan too difficult, all things considered. He'd just have to resort to what he could do in this form; which, ultimately, wasn't very much more than one thing: cero. However it looked from the outside, though, the quickly-fired, white ray was not full power. And as soon as it fired off, he moved himself into a position directly between Sora and Shinku, charging up his reiatsu and standing at defense. If this was how it was, then... for now, at least, he'd take what hits came. He didn't have much choice, considering actually moving around and seeming to fight back would be problematic, especially with not wanting to hurt a human...

Sora turned to Drake, his head tilted, an eye twitching in an odd manner. Boy, he sure did put himself into everything he did. "Oh, fine then. I'll kill the Protector first, then take care of the defenseless girl." he said, as he watched the cero come at him. He made no move to avoid it until at the seemingly last second, where he used the advanced method of quickspeed that Fullbringer's had access to, much like a shunpo. He flung the tip of his paintbrush, green paint quickly flying to Drake. Sora winked with the opposite eye than the one Shinku could see, hoping Drake would understand it was a sham. As he winked, he spoke. "Don't let my acidic paint touch you. The acid might leave you feeling as if you're missing part of yourself." He said, using a lame evil villain pun.

Internally, Sora grimaced. He'd gone too far already. Now he just seemed like some villain from a kid's cartoon, like Power Ranger's or something. Or perhaps mentally deranged. Yeah, he'd have to go with the latter, seeing as Power Ranger's enemies weren't usually that scary. Anyway, back to the fight. The moment the paint would land on Drake, it'd begin to turn from a green color, to a red color, looking as if blood were mixing with the acid, turning a murky red color. The paint wouldn't actually burn, nor would it even sizzle, but the red was enough to make it convincing that it was doing some sort of damage.

Shinku kept her head between her knees, terrified. However, as Drake mentioned protecting her, she seemed to perk up a bit. Ichigo wasn't the only one that could protect her anymore. She had Drake now. Her energy rose as she watched Drake supposedly fighting off her assailant, a spark of hope welling up in her chest.

Then she paled as she heard Sora speaking of the acid. "Acid?!?!" She began to think quickly and look around herself. She couldn't let Drake melt away like that! She reached into her basket and grabbed a carton of milk, thinking a base would nullify the acid and threw it. Of course, instead of throwing it at Drake, she threw it at Sora. So instead of nullifying the 'acid' with a base, she soaks Sora with a pint's worth of milk to the chest.

An energy rise from Shinku, he felt that much... 'twas a start, at least. An actor the Arrancar was not exactly, however, and he could at best pretend to be in mild pain from the 'acid.' His own power, meanwhile, made a mild spike as if in an effort to stave off what supposedly should have been assailing him. There needed to be more, however; some sort of trigger to actually draw the woman's power properly to the surface.

"There'll need to be more than that..." he spoke, feigning a little weakness in his voice; which, naturally, was for Shinku's benefit. He needed her to push her energy out further, but he doubted she would consciously be able to, and it felt like him saying that would ruin the facade. For now, he kept his position between Sora and his protectorate, Shinku, firing off another small, hasty cero toward the former in the meantime. He needed to keep this going and act as if he was offering resistance, at the least.

"Keep staying strong... I won't always be able to handle everything just by myself, as much as I'll try," he offered to Shinku, attempting another little prod for her to awaken the power that was surely there.

Sora felt the slight rise in energy from Shinku, but other than that, nothing. He grimaced, as the milk splashed down the front of his shirt. He quickly jumped out of the way of the cero. Since Drake was only putting up a small fight, it wasn't too hard to dodge; hell, Sora even made it look effortless, as he coolly ran to the side, his face blank and cold now. He stopped, raising his paintbrush to his face, where he drew two quick, curly lines, reminiscent to those you would see in a comic book, depicting wind being blown.

He inhaled, hoping he wasn't going too far with this. After all, a little bit of fake blood wasn't going to seem very realistic now, was it? He exhaled shortly thereafter, gale-strength winds blowing from his mouth directly in Drake's direction. He had only added two lines, so it wouldn't be as bad as it seemed. It still had the strength to pick Drake up off of his feet and knock him back, maybe even crack medium-sized trees and break smaller trees, but it wouldn't cause any direct damage to Drake himself. He kept his mouth in a tight O shape, so it wouldn't go out of control and get Shinku, who was behind him. Rather, the stream was so thin and fine, it might feel as if there was a pressure on one spot on Drake's body. It would be roughly as thick as a fist, with only enough turbulence wind on the outside to maybe lift Shinku's dress/robes or blow some leaves off of the nearby tree's.

Shinku looks on in worry instead of fear, squirming uncertainly. What was he trying to prove by trying to kill her? Did she really need to die just to gain power? This was just... Just... Wrong! IT was wrong that Drake needed to defend her. It was wrong that Sora decided to try and kill her. This entire situation was wrong!

"Stop this!" Shinku stands rather abruptly and outright glares at Sora, her reiatsu picking up more. She walks to Sora and just up and slaps him across his face. "How... How dare you! Don't you have any social etiquette whatsoever? How dare you come in here and just threaten to kill someone you don't even know?" Sora would be able to tell her holding such a level of anger was quite difficult for her, even as her dress shifted in the wind. She was tearing up quickly, as generally when she got angry, she broke into tears which immediately melted into sadness. But not this time. This man was threatening her friend.

Closer, they were certainly getting closer...

...well, probably...

Still... it was different, seeing someone standing up for him of all creatures. He was hurting a little from being pushed back (no thanks at all to his wings catching some of the air even when he tried tucking them tightly to his back. Those, thus, were the main things that were hurting, but he could live with it. Right now, he needed to move, quickly; thus he did, despite that his wings were hurting a little more from pressuring them through a sonido and wishing he could use such movement with his feet in this form. Such was one of the disadvantages of it, but no matter. He still needed to protect Shinku (from anything inclusive of possible accidents), even if it was just pushing Sora away at the moment.

As he recieved the slap from the woman, Sora kept the blank look on his face, though inwardly, he was grinning. If one looked closely, they would notice a faint twitch of the corner's of his mouth. He was getting somewhere! Sora had only taught one person anything in his whole life, and even that was something he wanted to forget about. Worried, he looked to Drake to make sure he was okay. The wind had a rather undesired effect, concerning his wings. It was something Sora had overlooked, but hopefully they weren't broken or injured. He turned to Shinku, mustering the most menacing glare he could direct at her, before turning back to Drake.

"Just a bit longer..." He muttered to himself, as he ignored Shinku's cries for the fight to stop. He couldn't. Not yet, at least. He quickly used his method of transportation once again, "Bringer Light", as it was called, appearing at his feet, being small circles made of green light. In a flash, he had disappeared, only to reappear in front of Drake. He quickly slashed his paintbrush through the air. It was close enough to Drake's throat, to look as if he might have actually hit him, but far enough to where not a single bristle had touched his throat. With that, red paint splattered everywhere, effectively making it look as if Sora had just slashed Drake's throat, despite not touching him at all. "Feign as if you were dying." He quickly said, low enough for Drake to hear, but for Shinku to not. Sora stepped back, bringing his paintbrush, Shirai, into a position that made it look as if he were to deal the final blow by attempting to impale Drake, or make a cut down his throat line. He hesitated, waiting to see if Shinku would do anything. Of course, he wouldn't actually kill Drake. He just wanted to estimate how close Shinku was to releasing.

Shinku watched her get completely ignored, Sora walking from her slowly. She cried out in fear as Drake seemingly had his throat slashed, her reiatsu spiking once more. "Drake! No!!" She cried out, dashing to Sora as the same circles of light appeared at her own feet, urging her forward. Unfortunately, as she had never done it before, such speed threw her far off balance, causing her defending hit to Sora to be a defending tackle. She still struck Sora's arm with a soft blow before landing on him on the ground.

Sora would feel a subtle surge of reiatsu shoot into his arm, seemingly doing nothing at first. Then his arm would erupt in shooting pain, the reiatsu having struck his nerves. He was not paralyzed, or even stopped, just his arm would feel like it was on fire. Shinku mumbled, having his her head against the paintbrush and moving slowly. She looked up to him in tears. "Stop this... If you have to kill me... Don't hurt him for protecting me... You can kill me... If anything, I'll be able to see Ichigo again..." She sobbed softly, putting her face in his chest, literally pleading with the man to cease his harming of the Arrancar, however fake it was.

As if he were dying?

Now things were getting more difficult, but... well, all for the cause. If it wasn't for the only person that had yet shown him actual kindness and caring, Drake was certain he'd have given up by this point. Such was just how things went, he supposed. At least it was working, as indicated by the second energy spike from Shinku, else this would be even more problematic. Now what to do, for the Arrancar completely out of his element...

"You're not dying under my watch... even if you do, I'm certainly not gonna leave you..." he spoke in the best weak voice he could manage (made harder still by his 'voice' not coming out in standard words). One more little push, he was certain that was all it would take at this point. His solution? Shift up a little against the woman, letting a little of his own reiatsu leak into hers. It went against some of his better judgement, but he was certain enough that nothing bad would come of it, and perhaps being so introduced to a century-trained energy would help bring out that last bit needed? 'Twas all he could think of after having been 'born' with a natural affinity for power, at least.

Again, Sora could only make out a few words that Drake was saying, but judging by Shinku's reaction throughout the whole thing, he had been playing his part perfectly. He stopped, when he felt something a strange new spiritual pressure. It felt like.. Bringer Light! He was surprised when he was tackled from behind, landing on his back with Shinku on top of him. His hand exploded with pain. It took all he had to not cry out. Even if he could, however, he was not sure if the pain would let him utter even the smallest of noises. When the fire subsided within his arm, he lay his head back, closing his eyes for a moment. He looked up to Drake, nodding.

"We're done here... for the moment, at least..." He said, as he stayed laying down. Gently, he took Shinku by the shoulders, moving her to the side so he could stand up, before extending a hand to her, to help her up. As he did this, all of the paint disappeared from the surrounding area, and his paintbrush had returned to its normal size. Sora picked it up as he held his hand out for Shinku. He put it in his pocket, before pointing to Drake with the same hand. "Look." He said, where his skin/bone/scales were completely clear of any injuries, plus the blood-looking paint. "Thanks for your cooperation." He said, looking to Drake as he nodded his head, his friendly smile back on his face.

Shinku looked to them both with a look of shock, tears still streaming down her face. She couldn't believe it. It was all a ruse, just to pull out her powers? "How... How..." She whimpered softly, then broke out sobbing heavily. "How could you be so cruel... I was actually terrified for my life! You actually had me believing I was going to die! I actually prepared myself to let you kill me!" She prepared herself, getting a few hiccups and sobs out before continuing. "I... How could you do such a thing... Even if it is to train me..." She was knelt on the ground, and it was fairly clear she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Not until she was cried out, at least. Her dress was crumpled underneath her as her head hung low. She was upset at Sora, but she was only surprised that Drake went along with it. Most of her emotion was Sora's fault, but she wouldn't hate him for it. The desired outcome had happened.