The New Arrival (OPEN!!!)

"So I was thinking today I wanted to try to do something candied."

Please tell me you are not going to candy any bacon...

"Well the way I figure is that if there is a crackling sweet glaze on a ham or even honey baked into it, why not have some kind of candied bacon while we're at it?"

It was a common debate of Andrew and Tetsu about whether something was good for being candied or not. On one hand Tetsu had always believed that a good thing to convert into candy was fruit. More specifically when Andrew had sampled pieces of grapefruit that had been candied. And normally the vizard would agree, at least until he had the chance to try chocolate dipped bacon. At first the very sight of it made him uneasy, but like he had believed before: fortune always favored the bold. When he tried it, it had a good mix of both salty and sweet. As he continued to willingly debate the potential of candied meat through the process of using a dry rub in barbeque however, the vizard stopped in his tracks. He saw the Senkaimon open and wondered what was going on. Despite always keeping an eye out for the shinigami for potential "misunderstandings", he had thought it had been Zetsurin at first that came through the gate. Moving at first at a brisk walk, his speed started to increase when he saw from what he could tell was a male shinigami. He looked like he had seen better days and almost appeared like he had just gotten himself out of a serious fight.

Andrew picked up speed, his desire to provide assistance outweighing the fear of needing to defend himself as he raised his hand to show not just his presence, but his desire to not harm the stranger. Stopping near the edge of the crater, he held his hands up as he spoke. "Okay, before you say anything I mean you no harm. My name is Andrew Takahashi. You look like you just been through a gauntlet of opponents and I am wondering if you need help." His voice was genuine as his desire to help continued to keep up. However, his curiosity had also been working slowly as well. Who was this strange shinigami and why did he look like he needed to fight through an army? Though Tetsu had advised him to be on his guard, he wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt to see what was going on first before going into any conclusions.

He had turned to flee, but the new arrival (along with random onlookers) had already gathered. Akihiko heard the man's words and sure enough, he certainly did look rough. His eyes were wide in a feral, cornered animal sort of way and he whirled back around, looking to the Senkaimon and he couldn't deny the flood of relief he felt as he saw it start to close. At least, he could be lost for a little bit in the crowd around here. All he had to do was avoid Shinigami.

Speaking of which...

He whirled back around, his emeralds narrowing on the man. His sword remained sheathed, but it was obvious he had no qualms about using it.

Despite this, his poor mental state was wearing on him and when he spoke, he found himself rambling.

"I...I...dream. There was this Hollow-thing that posed as me. It tried to kill me in my dream...and I fought back...and when I managed to kill it, I woke up and when I woke up the barracks were destroyed and Tamiko was there and she was scared and there were alarms and..."

Finally seeming to die off with his ranting, he dropped his sword to the ground and grabbed his head in both hands, stumbling somewhat. His head hurt like hell and he wouldn't deny that he was fatigued as anything--as if he had actually been in the fight.

"The Seireitei....they're going to want me dead! I..." He stood at this point, looking to the new man in front of him.

"Hide me, please!"

Uh oh...

I know Tetsu, I know...

Andrew listened to the shinigami's explanation and already knew what had happened to him: he was no longer a shinigami and now he is a vizard. But Andrew knew better when it came to this. Above all else, he saw how freaked out he was. He knew to show no panic and try to keep things calm for him. The only one he had at the time was his spirit keeping him calm, but he didn't know what the relationship for this shingami's zanpaktou spirit was so he couldn't rely on it to keep him level headed. Keeping his hands up to show he wasn't going to go for his zanpaktou, he continued to speak after the shinigami begged him to find a place to hide. "Okay, I need you to listen to me and please do not panic. What you saw was not a dream. If I my theory is correct, then the thing you faced was a hollow. I know this because I too had the same thing happened to me as well."

After saying that, he took the shinigami by the hand before getting his sword and quickly got him away from the Senkaimon in the attempt to help calm his mind and regain some calm as he continued to talk. "The barracks had been destroyed because while you fought your hollow in your mind your body went haywire and started to smash the place apart. I was the same way, only my damage wasn't limited to my barracks. Plus there was also lava involved." Andrew had put the shinigami deep in the forest with him before giving his weapon back to the confused shinigami. He looked the shinigami in his eyes as he shifted his glasses up again. "Stay here, and don't leave okay?" Andrew knew that he was not in a position to fight due to not just fatigue but also confusion, the same confusion he had when he found out. Unfortunately now the luxury of time was not offered to either of them and Andrew needed to think of a quick plan. He wasn't going to kill the shinigami since he knew that it was cause another misunderstanding. But what he could do was distract his pursuer long enough so that the stranger's mind was brought back to a stable level.

As Andrew started to explain things to Akihiko, his eyes only went wider. What he had told him about what had happened wasn't exactly abating his fears, nor causing a environment to not panic. Regardless, before he could do anything else though he was yanked away in a shunpo that made his already spinning head swoon.

When they appeared in the forest, he was sat down and he didn't even look at the man fellow Vizard. He had destroyed the barracks after all....Tamiko, who had been sleeping next to him, had been scared to near delirium. He had wounded, and possibly killed tons of his own friends, squad mates...brothers and sisters in arms.

And it seemed that the dream wasn't a dream after all. He had been confronted by his own Hollow when it chose, and not when he chose. It had been the one to put this into motion--to get him removed from Soul Society, and nearly get him killed. What was more, as that this man was the same way. He had the same powers--Akihiko wasn't surprised though. He had heard tales of Vizards. They had helped with the Winter War, hundreds of years ago. They weren't against Soul Society at all, but he could imagine they weren't for it either. What, with having been abandoned--and possibly hunted as he was. Either way, by the time Andrew had returned, Akihiko was calmed down.

"So...what happens now?"

"Well if you don't mind me asking, do you know what brought this on?"

In his own way Andrew had been trying to keep the shinigami's mind off what had happened during the exposure of being a hollow for only a few moments in time. As he spoke, Andrew had been using his blade as a mirror to look behind themselves. "To be honest it was because of me that I became a vizard...well not me exactly but a former me. Apparently I had been reincarnated with the hollow preset in me. I wasn't able to get all of the details but apparently it was some kind of "insurance policy" that he implemented during the second world war. Apparently he thought he could preserve himself in the likely event that he was to die in Hiroshima. However, it only preserved his powers but none of his original mind so I got all of his strength but none of his memories."

He started to calm down as he kept an eye out on the senkaimon. He figured as long as there was no one trying to openly pursue the shinigami then he could be almost in the free and clear. It was just a matter of finding Colin. "I know a guy who can help you out. He's alright in my book and he is in charge of a team known as the vizard corps. His name is Colin and from my own experiences he seems to be an okay guy. He does want to help out as many vizard as he can so they can understand how to keep our hollows from tearing us apart from the inside out." Satisfied that there was no one else coming, he quickly sheathed his blade and held his hand out again in a friendly gesture. A kind smile was on his face as he spoke. "By the way, I'm Andrew Takahashi. Mind if I ask you what your name is?"