The Pet's Playground [Open]

She was often left to herself, left to entertain herself with low-level hollows while the Espada and their Fraccion worked or trained themselves. That was fine though, as long as she could sense them, as long as she knew they were around, she was perfectly content with playing with these smaller, animal-like beings.

"Mm..." She sighed, prodding the skeletal frame of the lizard-like hollow before her as it scurried around in front of her small, seated form.

They weren't that different. While it lacked the intelligence she possessed, both were in the same boat when it came to their place in this world. Not strong enough to stand among the Espada, nor the Fraccion -- they instead were like pets.

Pets, while loyal and strong in their own way would always be under the ruling of their masters. Never strong enough to stand beside them in equal terms.

She was fine with that though, she wasn't alone anymore.

She'd been given a home, other lifeforms to be around, a name even...

She was Ikki, the loyal pet of the Espada.

Michi was play-marching in the pet's playground, listening to his surroundings the various sounds that the creatures made, primarily to guage their size. He was currently looking for a 'steed' in order to embark on his 'noble quest to save the princess', a derivative but familiar story that Michi felt like playing today.

He knelt by a caterpillar-thing, and felt it crawl in his hand, pouting. "Why isn't anything here big?" But then he gently started to pet it with his finger "I'm sorry." He was a noble knight after all, etiquette was key, even to animals. "Maybe you will be big someday and someone else will need you. I'll be on my way."

It was then he sense the presence of Ikki, stood, and 'stared' through closed eyes directly at her.

All the quickly, the little lizard hollow scurried away; leaving Ikki to herself.

"Hrm...Don't go." She muttered quietly, reaching out slightly in the direction it had run. It was too late though, it was already too far away from her. Her arm fell limp at her side as she gave a sigh. She'd have to find a new friend to play with.

Just as that thought crossed her mind, she felt the familiar presence of another friend.

"Michi?" She looked over, noticing him a little ways away and smiled. She stood and made her way over to him, stopping only a few feet from him.

Michi easily recognized the voice.

"Ikki!" he exclaimed. Michi skipped towards her, but it looked a bit burdened and heavy. Fatigue seemed to plague him at all times. He then made a small noble bow towards her (or at least the last source of the sound) "What brings you here, milady?" It was an odd question, since subliminally he knew that this was a spot that Ikki also frequented, but it was to conform with his imagination that this was unexplored wilderness.

Ikki's smile grew slightly, she knew what role he was playing now.

"Everyone was busy today, sir knight. So I came here to play." She responded, playing along with him. She'd never played these types of games before she met Michi, she'd always stuck to what she'd been doing earlier such as playing with roaming hollows.

"No doubt they are planning on how to best expand the kingdom."

Which, in actuality, had an element of real truth. The more territory that was claimed by the Espada the more ground to freely feed. Michi straightened his posture by clanking his heels together and pounded at his own breast, which made sharp clanking sounds of metal striking metal. It was one of Michi's latent abilities that he could produce 'ghost sounds' with his reitsu, adding to his fantasies. It was as though he were wearing heavy armor now.

"Have you seen any larger creatures while you were playing here? I need to rally allies to fight against the dragon."

"Owaaa~, the dragon, he's gonna be tough. Hmm, earlier I saw a couple of big guys but they were playing with each other, so I didn't bother them." She replied, though that playing had probably been fighting.

"They might still be where I saw them, or maybe farther away...They might still be playing though." She added, hoping they would still be there.

"Wow, two big guys!" Michi's eyebrows raised, stretching the closed eyelids more and making the lack of anything behind them obvious.

He took her hand into his. "Please, show me."

Michi had never seen what Ikki actually looked like, but imagined her to not look like a princess, but someone more accessible than that. She had the looks of a long lasting friend. In this world, he imagined 'milady' in regal attire, not in a princess dress or tiara.

"Okay. It's this way." She said just before she began to guide Michi in the direction she'd seen them. If they were still there, they'd sense them before they'd be in sight. Ikki looked around as they walked, looking in each direction just in case something were to catch her eye.

"Mm..." She listened carefully, trying to hear anything in the distance.

After a moment, just as she was about to start up a conversation with Michi, she felt them. "There."

In the distance, two rather large, in comparison to them, hollows were going head to head with one another, rushing and ramming their skulls into each other.

"There they are." Their groans and roars could be heard easily as they continued. "They're playing just up ahead."

Michi could hear bones crack as they rammed their heads against one another.

He threw up his hands in excitement, hand still joined with Ikki's. "Just like jousters!" Michi moved on, 'armor' clanking, edging his friend to move in closer, just to hear the sounds more clearly. His expression changed with each crunch with mixes of silent oos and aahs.

"What do they look like, milady?" He was hoping for a creative description. "What else is bone? What color are they? Do they have claws or scales?"

"They have big faces and horns and they have long but strong looking legs. Their spines, shoulders, neck and hips are covered in bone and they both have a lot of old scratches on them. They're kind of a blackish green and their tongues are blue." Ikki explained, "They both have claws and they look really sharp too. They have tails too, long, bone-y tails with sharp tips."

Just as she finished explaining, one let out a roar and rammed into it's opponent, it's claws digging into the ground beneath it as it pushed forward while the other resisted.

Michi, startled by the loud roar, clenched Ikki's hand tighter, but his smile was wider than before.

"Do you think demons would help me fight a dragon?"

He wanted to wait to see which one would be victorious in the fight, but as the battle raged on, they seemed to wear each other down. The battle was going slowly after that. Eventually one got a good headbutt underneath the other beasts chin, toppling it, and started to trample and claw at it until it was dead.

The beast panted, looked around uneasily, aware now that it was being watched...

"Owaa...I think it'd be a great ally to fight the dragon." Ikki replied as one hollow finally claimed victory over the other.

"It sees us." It was looking at them now, panting and worn from it's recent battle.

Michi let go of Ikki's hand and walked cautiously towards the beast. The hollow shook its head and tongue slithered out of its mouth, drooling. It was tired, but seemed to underestimate Michi's power.

"Demon, can you speak?"

It started to grunt in disdain and made more snarling noises. Michi's imagination translated it to a deep dark voice.

"Come closer to my mouth so you can have a better listen..." was what the phantom voice that Michi invented was saying.

Ikki watched as Michi approached the hollow and seemingly spoke with it. The hollow seemed to be trying to intimidate the two of them, Michi more so than she as he'd been the one to approach it. This hollow wouldn't last long playing with Michi in it's current state, it was worn and tired but as soon as it got it's energy back he'd be a much more suitable playmate for what Michi had planned.

Michi laughed haughtily with an air of nobility at the beast. The beast grunted in return, trying to regain its strength after its previous fight.

"I may be small, but I'm a look tougher than I look." The ghost sound of clanging his invisible sword and metal shield together rang clearly, as Michi stood tall. "You will help me fight the dragon."

"You humans are all the same!" 'said' the hollow. "Thinking that somehow you are better than the chain. Dragons kills demons and demons kill humans. That's the way it always has been."

"Rest," Michi said coyly, "I can wait."

He smiled at Ikki and whispered. "Although I might need your help."

Ikki tilted her head slightly, "Owaa...? What can I do?"

Her hand went up to finger the collar-like bone around her neck, her mask remnants, as her expression changed to one of deep thought. "Distraction?" She guessed. "Mmm..."

The beast snarled and walked towards the other dead beast. It started to pick at the corpse with its teeth before chowing down on it like a pig from a trough. The beast's muscles started to convulse and grow sporadically, and when the reitsu absorption was complete, the beast was now twice the size.

Meanwhile Michi was trying to discuss basic combat strategy with Ikki.

"What weapon do you think I should use for this one Ikki? I was thinking either sword and strike for the parts unshielded by bone or hammer to smash. Are you good with bows or magic?"

"I'm good at distractions." Ikki replied, speaking honestly and unashamed of her natural abilities. This was a game though, a game of fantasy brought about by the imagination of her friend that she was playing along with. "I'm not very skilled as an archer or with magic, but I can cast weak spells. I'm much more confident in my ability to keep the beast busy though, Sir Knight."

"There is no such thing as weak magic." he whispered, smiling.

The beast was now staring at both intently, baring its teeth. Michi clasped Ikki's shoulder intently and shook it.  To any observer it would appear the Michi was only wearing pajamas, but when he touched Ikki's shoulder, the armor rattled as he shook it and the texture of the glove underneath rubbed against his skin. The phantom things started to gain substance of their own; invisible but to other perceptions, very much real. 

He turned and re-equipped the phantom sword and shield. The beast charged, and Michi ran to face it.

"Mm." Ikki nodded, just as Michi turned to face the hollow, now prepared to break it's will and bend it to his control to defeat the beastly dragon of this game. 

Just as Michi rushed at the hollow, Ikki held her arms in front of her, pretending to cast a binding spell on the hollow, "Palupalu Kou~." She said, although her tone did not change from her usual.

The initial sword swings glanced off the beast's natural bone armor without it noticing. It appeared that Michi was merely swinging his right arm in slashing and thrusting motions. The beast was further confused by the fact that although the beast saw nothing in front of it when charging towards Michi, the fact the Michi had his arm at a right angle in front of him, as if holding a shield stopped the attack.

Whatever Ikki was doing seemed to be working as the beast flailed about to find weak spots, now using its spiked tail to attack in sweeping arcs and from above. Michi was dodging these attacks nimbly despite the armor weighing him down somewhat. Finally the invisible sword struck through a gap in the bone armor; a joint between upper left leg and torso. The beast howled in pain, and when Michi pulled the sword out, there was no perceivable wound. The beast acted wounded regardless.

Raphael Valiencia, the decima espada, had made it his personal duty to patrol the fortress known as Las Noches, maintaining the order and peace within the interior of the fortress; from time to time, he would patrol outside of the walls in case of possible enemy attack. That duty of his appeared to be appreciated by the other arrancar; both normal and espada. Today, like any other day, finished circulating around the fortress for the tenth time, and he would have made his way to the exterior if something had not caught his attention. Raphael had spotted two arrancar whom were... fighting? He was about to dash toward the two to break the fight, though realized that they were fighting an hollow. 

To him, it made no sense; after all what was there to gain from doing such a thing?   Was it something to do to amuse themselves? Regardless, he had decided that he should keep an eye on what they were doing. With that decision in mind, he jumped off of one of the walls of Las Noches, and with his superb control over his reaitsu, slowly and silently fell to the ground. He then proceeded to move toward the younger arrancar; keeping his reaitsu to a level which virtually made him insensible via such methods, perhaps he would scare the both of them as he 'suddenly' appeared behind the one known as Ikki and made his existence aware with a "What are you doing?".

Quote :

"What are you doing?"

"Mmm?" Ikki turned her head to look slightly behind her, keeping her arms raised to continue her imaginary magic spell over the hollow. "Playing." She replied, "Michi wanted to fight the dragon, so he needs allies."

Michi was engaged deeply in his battle with the hollow. Despite being spectrally wounded by his sword, the beast fought with incredible vigor, despite Michi toying with it. After another feint exchange, which appeared more like a dance, Michi landed another stab and bashed it fiercely with his shield. This time the beast stayed down.

Smiling, he knelt by the beast and started to 'pet' it, now that it was prone and weak. It breathed heavily, whimpering. Michi whispered some gibberish which he imagined was a healing spell, and the whimpering stopped; the phantom wounds caused by his 'weapons' were gone. The beast's eyes swam in confusion as it looked around, unable to comprehend what happened. Michi stood, but the beast simply lied there, defeated. 

Michi walked over to Raphael and Ikki, now that the battle was done. He was trying, but failing, to act medieval.

"Sir Raphael, what brings thou here to this part of the wilderness? Dost thou also seek to slay the dragon to claim thy prize?"