#kvopen

[One would imagine that a cake store would have a pleasant and calming area where people could eat their sweets and desserts without being bothered by others out in the open and that would be the case if it wasn't for the fact that this single particular being was among the guests clients was drawing everyone's attention to himself by reading out loud.]

It was then that the boy couldn't resist the urge to tighten his embrace on the lady in front of him, their bodies soaked in sweat as he moved rhythmically to match her pace. "Ah, that hurts!" Exclaimed the lady as she felt his grip tighten and her senses overflow!

[Here he was, reading his erotic novels out loud for everyone around to listen as if it was nothing wrong to do. However, the clerks of the shop were troubled as to how to approach him since something about him made them want to stay away from him. It was then that someone seemed to approach Heike for an unknown reason and then his attention shifted from his book towards this new person.]

Is something the matter? Would you like to join me for some tea?

[So far, the search for enemy Servants and Masters had gone fairly well and he had spotted some people that were related to the war one way or another and had weighed them a bit so it was time to take a further step to find out more critical information.

Watching from far away, Death started to summon walking corpses into his control with his necromancy magic. It was the weaker souls that answered Death's call the fastest and the strongest souls were usually the hardest ones to summon that took Death both time and effort, but given the current cap in his power, he would only be able to summon a couple of strong souls so instead he wanted to see his enemies abilities by summoning as many lesser skeletons and corpses.

One would think that with some spending money at his disposal after three months of the zombie apocalypse, the first thing Andrew St. John would head for would be food. And they'd be right. But what Andy found was that while store bought goods were a lot more convenient to obtain, everything was marked up and hellishly expensive, and he was beginning to fall back into terrible habits.

The one difficulty was having to work at a much quicker pace. He'd been lucky that med school in Arkansas had managed to give him a few backdoor connections. With pre-filled IV bags so expensive on the market, it was a blessing in disguise to get them dirt cheap. But now he was out of America, so he was just going to have to work within a thirty minute or so time window to get the cuts he needed.

This one had been particularly tricky. Rather than the mostly dead Andy'd been hoping for when he encountered the mangled corpse, the bloody old man had only been halfway dead and still clinging to life. Trying to wrestle him down in that alley had been tricky, leaving the farmer with a lot of bruises and a very sore ego. At least he hadn't been too wiry. Lots of good meat that was frying up as newly made burger patties were making the apartment smell a lot more like home.

"Damn... if only Mama were here. Can't exactly make the barbecue m'self." Shrugging to himself, Andy took the patties out of the pan (would have been nice to have a grill, but the apartment was a little small for that) and began preparing his dinner. It was annoying to work this way. None of the nice tools he'd had back home. No, now it was get in the alley, painkillers and duct tape, then cut off as much as possible and bag it for the idiot dies. Luckily, most of what he found was pre-ground and impossible to identify. Seemed like there were a lot of psychos in Fuyuki City nowadays. How terrible.

Darkness.

A vast, endless, suffocating darkness.

For a moment, Kat thought she had fallen into a Gravity Storm.  Nobody, not even the two Creators -- Gade and Cyanea -- knew what lay beyond them, or at least if they did, they never let on.  Perhaps that was how she had arrived here in Fuyuki, and maybe now she was on her way out.

  But something was off.

This darkness didn't feel like what Kat was used to, a strong physical pull in all directions.

No.

No, this darkness seemed alive.

Alive, and hostile.

Whatever this was, it felt like it was seeping into every pore of Kat's skin, permeating every fiber of her being.

It was NOT a good feeling.

  Being torn apart by a Gravity Storm might actually be preferable to this, she thought.  Or did she think?  She couldn't even tell if she was capable of conscious thought anymore.  This... force, she decided, was seeping into her like a sponge soaking up water, except this was no ordinary water.

And once every last drop had seeped in, she knew -- or rather, she felt -- that she would no longer be the same afterwards.

Kat seemed to remember reading something like this in her comic books.  Doesn't the hero get more powerful when he's possessed by the darkness? she thought.  Indeed, Kat could feel her power growing stronger, her connection with gravity itself becoming more and more clear and solid.

Oh, she realized, but isn't there usually a catch to thi--

That was the last she could manage to think before the last wave of darkness overcame her.  But surprisingly, what awaited her under its murky surface was hardly oblivion, but rather...

Kat woke up, having passed out on the ground.  There was a rather large crowd of people around, she quickly realized.  Someone must have seen her and made a scene... how fitting that the mighty Gravity Queen should have such a large audience, she thought.  

Wait.

Something was off.

But she couldn't figure out what.

Either way, seeing as how the peasants of this backwater little village had apparently finally come to their senses, Kat rose to her feet.  

  "HEAR ME, SERFS!" she proclaimed, causing quite the hubbub among the crowd at her feet.  She Shifted into the air and flew to the top of a building, standing at the edge and drawing all eyes to her majestic form.  They seemed to be torn between wondering how she managed to fly like that and why she was talking down to them, both figuratively and literally.

At any rate, Kat decided, they clearly weren't focused on her NEARLY enough, so she leaped off the edge of the building, landed on the ground with a SLAM, and, with a sinister expression, lifted up a handful of people around her in her stasis field, tossing them sky-high and watching them hit the ground with a sickening crunch.  That'll teach them manners, she thought, as she physically picked up another two nearby civilians and slammed their heads together, killing them both instantly.

At this point, everyone had begun to flee in terror.  "HALT!" Kat shouted with a royal yell, quite befitting one of her... status.  However, nothing she did seemed to have an effect, so she flew at the nearest innocent, an elderly man who had tripped and was now literally soiling himself in pure terror -- only to stop herself upon hearing something out of place.

A set of footsteps that seemed oddly regular and rhythmic compared to the absolute chaos surrounding her.

"Hmph," she uttered, turning to face the one person who was brave enough to stand up to her.  "So you would stand against me, your Queen?" she asked, lifting a nearby lamppost into the air. 

In the aftermath of that fight, the one he'd lost to Kenpachi, Grimmjow had withdrawn. To lose twice in a row, to mere Shinigami? It had shaken him, more than he'd care to admit, and no amount of destroying pathetic, weak humans had made him feel any better.

Until now.

Psychotic laughter echoed throughout the area as a bala smashed into the side of a building, shattering the fragile glass of the windows. Something had happened, a short while ago, something that was simply perfect for the Arrancar. He couldn't understand how being devoured had done this, but he felt so strong, stronger than he'd felt in so long. It was as if his reserves of Spiritual Pressure were limitless, now, the sheer force of it choking any normal person who dared to approach him.

With this, he'd rule over everyone. A king needed subjects, right? That's what he'd figured out, but there was no point in forcing weak people into line. No, they'd fall when he beat the stronger ones. Crimson light lanced out from a hand, his cero being used almost like a signal, shot up into the sky. He wanted people to know exactly where he was, so they could come and serve, or they could be ground into the dust. Whichever he felt like.

"Come out, dumbass, and let me see ya'."

He could sense the approach of another, yelling out; Pequisa was of great use, now that he understood what the Grail was. Power, and a lot of it, and they were all linked to it. Normally, it took effort to even detect the faintest whisper of another, but now he could feel their approach, despite their painful lack of Reiatsu.

Standing on the bank of a river, Imca readied Var in her hands.

This had been her routine ever since that murderous Valkyrian witch massacred her village and Imca began her quest for power:  ten thousand swings of Var a day.  Every day.  For ten years.  That came out to over three and a half million swings since she began.  And she wasn't about to stop any time soon, especially not now that she was in the middle of a war -- and who knows if her fated foe had made it here with her.

Raising Var over her head, she took a step forward and brought it down hard, stopping her swing inches from the ground.  The young woman took a moment to appreciate how far her level of control had advanced, especially considering how heavy and unwieldy Var was.  Every mechanic she had asked to build it for her had adamantly refused, claiming that a little girl like her would never be able to handle it, let alone lift it off the ground in the first place -- so she'd been left with no choice but to steal the parts to build it herself.  It took months, but at least this way she could build it precisely to her unique specifications.

Imca snapped herself out of her reminiscence and took another swing.  And another.  And another. At her current speed, she figured she could be done by late afternoon at the earliest.  And so she swung.  Again.  AGAIN.  Every swing would bring her closer to the day when she'd finally be powerful enough to face her promised foe in mortal combat, on equal terms.

  She was interrupted, however, by the sound of footsteps approaching.  Immediately taking a battle stance, she quickly loosened up, as she could tell that the one who approached her meant no harm.

"H-hello," she called out.  "Have you come to train with me?"

"Well, this isn't what I thought'd happen!"

One minute he was lying there, dying, almost content with it - there were worse things in life, he was sure, than dying in Rangiku's arms - before he'd been summoned to here. Gin had no ideawhyhe'd been saved from death in such a dramatic way, but it certainly wasn't something he was going to complain about.

So, he was in a 'Grail War', for a wish. The information flooding his mind was enough to cause his smile to drop, for an instant - anything he could want, huh? The reason he'd been so okay with the possibility of dying was that it was the only way he'd be able to truly say he was sorry, to the one person that mattered. The chance to finally finish what he'd set out to do, all those years ago...

Ah, who was he kidding? She'd hate him, by now - whether it was for what he'd done, for dying, or for simply not saying goodbye properly, it didn't matter. Still, if he could win, then maybe, just maybe, he'd finally be able to smile and mean it.

Thoughts for another time. Right now, he had to find out more about this war he was in. A different man might have been more subtle, only alluding to the conflict, but not Gin. Such a move would shock any combatants he came across, and that would give him some indication of who he was up against.

Nor would he bother to hide his power, his spiritual pressure a crucial part of how he acted. Tapping a nearby person on the shoulder, he continued to grin, the combination of his Reiatsu and his almost-sinister smile enough to make him seem quite unsettling. There was a reason for describing himself as a snake, so many times - the narrowed eyes, the lack of reaction to whatever the other person might say all made him seem like one.

"Hey there. I was wondering if you had a minute to talk~?" First, you had to appear polite, then completely ignore that, if you truly wanted to see how a person reacted to sudden questioning. "What's a Grail War? 'Cause I'm kind of in one, and I'm not sure what it means. It's not gonna bother you to help me, right~?"

Fuyuki City -- a prime example of a modern-day bustling metropolis.  Everywhere one looked, a sea of people.  While there were a few parks here and there, most of the area was covered in skyscrapers and asphalt, with people going about their lives.  If there was anything out of the ordinary, you could be sure that SOMEONE would spot it.

Which was why one girl spent most of her time in hiding -- on the steep bank of a river, under a tree, even IN a tree were all viable hiding places, because, as Imca had quickly learned upon her arrival, people here didn't take too kindly to a girl carrying around a weapon in public, much less one that might as well be able to split the very earth asunder.

At this moment, Imca could be found on the roof of a building, napping away.  Not many people usually came up here, to the flat, barren tops of these sleek structures.  The closest she could think of in her native Europa, in EC 1935, were the army barracks, but those didn't have much in the way of windows -- or perhaps the grand Randgriz Castle... although, compared to that, these buildings looked positively lifeless.

  At any rate, no one bothered Imca up here, which is why she made one particular rooftop her daytime hiding place -- it granted her a good view in all directions, so she would always be aware of her surroundings (except when she was asleep, which was something that happened quite a lot when all she did was wait until nightfall), and it was adjacent to an alleyway, so she could climb up, and down, relatively unseen.

Most of her day, though, generally consisted of waiting until nightfall, at which point she would descend from her skyward haven, as it were, and search for the one who was supposed to be her "Master."

That was the other jarring factor about the world she was now part of -- something called the "Holy Grail War," where Masters would partner with powerful "Servants" and fight over some legendary artifact that had the power to grant any wish.  Maybe, Imca thought, maybe this Grail could grant her wish to become powerful enough to defeat that murderous Valkyria bitch that had murdered her family all those years ago.  That was really the one thing keeping her going in this unfamiliar environment:  her eternal desire for revenge.

  Imca was snapped out of her light sleep by a sound from below.  By this time, the sun was setting, and the sky was a beautiful shade of almost otherworldly orange and pink -- a soothing sight that almost made Imca forget that she was in the middle of a war.  At any rate, she had to know what had made that sound.

Grasping the handle of her prized Var in one hand, Imca inched over to the edge of the building and poked her head over.  Sure enough, down below, right where the sound came from, was someone who, like her, clearly stood out amongst the dead-eyed people she had seen throughout the day.  It would be a long way down, but she was used to far more punishing feats than a mere multi-story drop.

The added weight of Var in her hands resulted in an almost deafening impact, causing the stranger to turn around.  "Looks like you're in the same situation as me," she said.  "I don't suppose you knew anything more about what's going on?"