Six String Stride

High overhead in the afternoon sky, the sun's rays beat down upon the barren lands mere inches outside of Karakura Central. The heat radiating from the sun seemed to drive almost every creature away from this desolate place, making the barren landscape that much more empty. Even the hollows that were usually out on the prowl seemed to have taken the day off. Of course, this place wasn't completely void of life. A few meters away from the central dome, a lone figure walked out further into the heat; a six string n his back and a western cowboy hat on his head. In fact, it looked like a scene straight out of a cheesy western cowboy movie; save for the fact that this was Japan. Then again, seeing just who the figure was; that might just have been his goal. Yes, Ravana Ichiro always did love to make a dramatic entrance.

After walking a little further, Ravana decided to stop; finding a small boulder to sit on and take a break. Sitting down, he quickly took his guitar off his back and held it; apparently getting ready to play. Of course, when he actually stopped to think about what he was doing, a laugh escaped Ravana's lips. "Damn, just how corny can I be?" he asked out loud despite the question being directed at himself. With another laugh, he shook his head and began to pluck a few strings on his guitar, before starting to play an old cowboy song. Hell, he had already made the entrance, so why not go all the way. Looking around, Ravana could only imagine how corny he must have looked.

(The song Ravana is playing.)

[Rachel Alucard]



Today was a bad day for humans. The outskirts seemed to be empty - a clear sign for something dangerous around. Normally, Hollows always roamed this area, and only very few things could make them flee out of instinct. Something even more wretched than a Hollow itself... something more sinister, a being that lived off of the life of humans. This being that was currently in this wasteland, however, did not even look slightly monstrous.
As the being that the weak Hollows feared walked down the dusted path, a black dress could be seen on the figure, holding a black umbrella against the burning sun. The girl holding this thing was the demoness Rachel Alucard, one of the original starters of the 'vampire' myths - a demon that had to drink blood to stay alive. Not that she was on the hunt at the moment, though. The Hollows evaded her out of instinct, just like most humans would - if they could fight against her vampiric aura that drew them in closer.
Still, for a random passerby, Rachel Alucard would look like a rather strange gothic lolita - her expression was bored and annoyed, and the red crosses on her clothing didn't really scream 'demon't he moment you saw them.
Being on a random stroll through the wastelands, Rachel let out a small sigh. She had been searching for her number one 'target' - or 'true love', as she herself called him - for quite some time now. Normally, he wasn't able to shake her off for more than one or two days. Not an entire week. Hearing music that sounded just plain out of place didn't really help, either. Twitching for a second before regaining her composure, she walked towards the source of the music. What kind of charade was this? A cowboy-Shinigami in the midst of a wasteland only a few steps away from a highly developed society? This was quite the irritating and annoying sight.
"You play as bad as you look, insect." Rachel said with her bored, superior-sounding voice. Her piercing red eyes spoke a clear message - this girl meant what she said. "Unless you know some real masterpieces, stop this. Or I will make you stop."

Although he had sensed what could be called a "sinister" presence, Ravana continued to play his song until the demon girl came up to him. Ending his song, Ravana took off the cowboy's hat and simply tossed it away as he listened to the girl's criticism on the music he had been playing. "Heh, don't be so cold rabbit ears, that song's a western classic" he said with a little laugh, commenting on how her hair bows looked like rabbit ears. Of course, normally, a comment like her's might have angered him, but today he was somehow just more relaxed. That, and judging by the girl's voice, acting like this to her obvious attempts to aggravate him would get her pissed off instead. Of course, to be honest, Ravana did think that the song he had been playing was a little too corny, given the situation. Despite how lightly he was taking the current situation, Ravana did know to be cautious of this...odd little girl.

"Although, you do know that rock 'n' roll, and by extension the guitar, have become a symbol of nonconformity; meaning I could care less about what you think" Ravana said with another laugh, waiting to see how the girl would react to this. Hopefully, this girl's "plans" to aggravate him would be back firing on her now, and might even provide Ravana with some laughs himself. "And for the record, I really don't care much what a weird little Lolita girl thinks about my looks anyways" he added, a slight smile crossing his face. Although he was a nice guy, he had to admit that this was kinda fun.

[Rachel Alucard]



Wasn't it strange that instead of getting upset, Rachel actually looked a bit amused, as she let out a still superior sounding chuckle, closing the piercing red eyes for a moment? Maybe it was to others, but for Rachel... everything was just to pass the time, as she was timeless herself, seperated from it's flow. Even Shinigami with their long lives, or Sugiura with their even longer ones, couldn't seperate from time completely - and it was a blessing they couldn't even grasp to understand.
"Western classics were mostly created to fit the wide mass of people, dumbing them even more. But I trust a musician knows about what power his art actually has?" the vampire girl said with a slight smile, and it still looked as if she looked down on Ravana, even though she was standing on lower ground. For her, he simply was another one of many. "This 'weird lolita look' once was a sign of royality, and I didn't feel like changing it since then. It's quite convienient... but what about that Kimono all you Shinigami wear? You look like you've been stuck in fashion since 800 or more years, boy. You don't look too convincing with that. And I can tell you are not from Soul Society... why still use their uniform?" How the hell did Ravana end up in a conversation with a vampire about fashion? Nobody would ever be able to tell. Still being in the shadow of her umbrella, the bit of sunlight that reached Rachel still felt itchy and disgusting to the demoness.
"If you're such a good musician... why not show it with something that requires more talent? Maybe you can convince me. Though I should warn you, or else it wouldn't be fair game for this little play... I've heard almost all great musicians of older times until now myself. Time doesn't matter if it lasts forever..." What exactly Rachel meant with that last line remained a strange secret, for now.