In the Cat’s Ear Ch4 Ficbit – Invisible Monsters

~ crossovercreativechaos

“So you’re letting BK-201 run around loose in Karakura because there are invisible monsters stalking the citizens, and the cops want the help.” Folder in hand, Ishizaki Kanami leaned back in Misaki’s guest chair, curls more frazzled than usual. “If it were anyone else, Misaki….”

“I’m not letting him run around loose,” Misaki said primly, toying with her cold lemonade. Even ice didn’t seem to cut the heat today. Though maybe that was having taken the past few days to think through what she’d asked Kanami to do, and what the consequences were likely to be. “If he leaves that radius he’s back on the list. I’m just advising you that Doll analysis of the Karakura area is not cost-effective if you’re likely to lose the Dolls in the process.” She glanced at the file Kanami was looking through, copies of some of the most relevant Karakura cases, and shuddered. “And you just might. The creatures – the Hollows – apparently will target coma victims that catch their attention.”

“I see that-” Kanami stopped. Swallowed.

Misaki eyed how far she was through the file, and made a guess. “The Yanase house?”

“…Whoa boy.” Kanami sagged back, a little pale. “That kind of damage to the bodies, and no other Contractor there besides BK-201?”

Misaki nodded.

“Okay, they’ve got a problem,” the Astronomics researcher stated. “And no, I don’t want my boys and girls scanning anywhere near it if it might come looking for them. We’ve got defenses against Contractors. How can we protect them against things we can’t see coming?” She looked up, gaze intent. “And why would BK-201 stay where these creatures are, even if you are giving him a safe spot from scans? It’s not rational.”

Misaki had been thinking that through, too. “No, it’s very rational. First,” she held up a finger, “think about who we’ve caught in the Syndicate so far. The power and influence they have, the people in other countries they’ve implicated… the Syndicate reaches worldwide. Any move he makes, he has to calculate how likely it is they’ll have a kill team in place to catch him. Odds are he can’t leave Japan without someone picking up his trail. BK-201 is good, but the Syndicate can hire dozens of Contractors.”

“But if he stays here, anyone they hire has to get into Japan – and past Section Four,” Kanami realized. “Wow. That’s….”

“Ruthless? Rational? A perfect Contractor?” Misaki suggested.

Kanami gave her a mischievous grin. “I was going to say, sounds like he thinks you’re really good at your job.”

21 thoughts on “In the Cat’s Ear Ch4 Ficbit – Invisible Monsters”

  3. Hollows don’t just appear in Karakura, and not just recently.

    In the Bleach-verse, all places would have records of a pattern where one person dies and the rest of the family dies a few weeks/months later… if they knew what they were looking at.

    Karakura would be remarkable for how often it stops halfway.

    “We need to figure out how they are stopping it.”

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    2. Remember that part of the reason Aizen planned to use Karakura to create his Key was because not every place had the same incidence of spirits/hollows/etc or the same amount of spirit particles. Karakura was noted to have several orders of magnitude greater density of spirit particles than most everywhere else in the living world, coming close to the level of the thinner areas of soul society.

      From the way it was discussed, there should reasonably be some records like you say everywhere, with some places having more and others having less… but in most places the incidence should be low enough they might not actually put together “these things are related” (not even in the “odd collection of coincidences” fashion), and might just have separate records of all the deaths and other odd things kept as separate records because they didn’t even spot that there was any connection. In Karakura, however, it’s “this happens regularly enough they’ve got the paperwork for it, even if the pattern does frequently get interrupted halfway through.”

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  4. I was under the impression that it wasn’t the Section 4 that 201 was using as third party between himself and Syndicate contractors, but hollows, who will be bigger issue for any such force.

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    3. Building off of what Beth said, you also have to consider what Misaki knows and her likely conclusions. From the point of view of Section 4: what’s the chances that BK-201 knew about Hollows before going to ground in Karakura?

      Further, what’re the chances he’ll stay in Karakura and not go to any one of a dozen other towns near enough to Tokyo to still hide behind/under Section 4 now that BK-201’s fought a Hollow and definitely knows they’re there?

      Finally, what are the chances Hei has access to reliable intelligence on the area, and realizes the Hollows are a frequent danger rather than a single freak occurance he had the bad luck to encounter?

      Depending on what Ichigo said she might guess that Li’s going to be getting good info on the area if he hasn’t already, and how frequent these attacks are. On the other hand she’s also going to know that – even if it did require his Contract – he can kill them.

      Between his victory and that now/soon Karakura is gonna suddenly drop off in it’s population of Doll spectres, it may still make ‘rational’ sense to stick around.

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  5. “That kind of damage to the bodies

    And that was weak evil spirit. Stronger than most newborn Hollows because it started eating souls even before it transformed but still . . . Ichigo with his full powers could probably have taken down that one with his eyes closed.

    Think Hei and them will eventually get a new sense for how weak Ichigo felt when they are either informed or get to see one day what Ichigo could do / can with his full power intact.

    Not saying Ichigo IS weak but he has probably felt that way. Not helped by people treating him as such. Just that the team might have the same though that Urahara had when Ichigo got his zanpakuto “That is one scary kid.”

    Odds are he can’t leave Japan without someone picking up his trail.

    If he was alone, Hei could probably manage to avoid them. After all, HE was the one they sent after defecters – he knows their methods. And as Mao noted, Hei has gone in, done a thing, and gotten out of places when people were expecting to someone to show up / looking for him.

    But he isn’t alone. He has a Doll, a Contractor Cat, and an former cop depending on him.

    Of course, you don’t know that. It should be amusing once you learn it.

    Kanami gave her a mischievous grin. “I was going to say, sounds like he thinks you’re really good at your job.”

    He does.

    He also knows that if they do manage to make it to Karakura . . . they just might get eaten. Or have the bad luck to run into certain parties in Karakura.

    They might prefer the Hollows or Hei in some cases. Because Urahara is going to be back in town eventually and he is curious about the whole Gate / Contractor / Doll thing. And no longer as a psycho bent on world domination to distract him.

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    1. *Nod* A relatively weak spirit, but more than mean enough. And heh. Bunnies are hoping to set up a scenario where Ichigo gets to bust out a few moves, eventually. 😉

      Though Hei already thinks Ichigo qualifies as scary, if only because he’s a teenager with enough sense to keep his head when attacked by soul-devouring monsters. Hei approves.

      Misaki doesn’t know all of Hei’s team, no. But she’s made a few educated guesses. 😉

      Syndicate Contractor comes for Hei, runs into an odd blond shopkeeper… I’ve got to have that happen eventually. *EG*

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      1. Bunnies are hoping to set up a scenario where Ichigo gets to bust out a few moves, eventually.

        Good. Ichigo should get the chance to show off some of his super moves too. Equal Opportunity Awesome and all that jazz.

        Hei approves

        He knows just how rare that kind of level-head is.

        . . . Hei and Ichigo are very similar in many regards. It’s almost eerie.

        Syndicate Contractor comes for Hei, runs into an odd blond shopkeeper… I’ve got to have that happen eventually.

        That should be interesting . . . in a very Murphy sort of way.

        Especially if said Syndicate Contractor totally underestimates the odd shopkeeper. Which, let’s face it, they probably will. Urahara is very good at looking odd but harmless. Urahara Kisuke is many things. Harmless is not one of them.

        (Think while Ichigo knew there was a lot to Urahara that he didn’t know and that the man was more dangerous than he acted, it was hearing Ikkaku saying that if Ichigo was HIS student, then killing him without going all out would be a serious insult, really drove that point home?)

        (Second note: It’s interesting how many different variation of the “I’m clueless and totally harmless” act there is. Urahara’s has a strong stamp of Weird, Hei has the Nice Guy . . . they are both effective because they are both more or less true. Urahara IS weird and Hei is the Nice Guy when he can be. The clueless act is also probably why the bunnies keep thinking of a certain rurouni who has also a former assassin with a very good harmless act.)

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      3. *blink blink*

        Urahara has new project: Playing with/annoying/finding out more about the Syndicate? After all, they have all //sorts// of nifty information on file.

        …note to self, go prep the moon bunker.

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