Try-Out; Mazra Fuchi Akros; The Librarian

[Joachim Armster]

Try-out Role-Player: GentleBreeze
Try-out Character's Name: Mazra Fuchi Akros
Try-out Character's Race: Shinigami

[GentleBreeze]

It was HERE!!!!! The day had finally arrived, after weeks and weeks of working in the clinic and slaving away on patrols in the human world it had come. The moment that Mazra had been waiting for . . . his . . . day . . .OFF!!!! As the sun burst through the paper screen the covered the only window in Mazra’s small cluttered apartment, the young Shinigami rolled out of bed and was forced to do a delicate dance around the towers of books, old and new, that had been accumulating in his apartment for decades. After writhing and bending and preforming feats of contortionism that would make even a carny jealous, Mazra finally managed to get across the room and to the small trunk that kept his uniform and personal belongings. Donning the traditional black shihakusho and hakama of the Shinigami, Mazra quickly slid his kiseru and donned the small taboos pouch before grabbing his glasses. Once fully clothed he turned to survey his small city of books and sighed before doing the intricate dance across the room again to get to the door where his Zanpaktou rested against the door frame. Once properly clothed and armed he did a final check of his belongings before striding out of the barracks and out into the bright sunlight.

Rejuvenated by a good night’s sleep Mazra was ready to take full advantage of his first day off in months and most likely his only day in the whole year. His rampant book addiction forced Mazra to spend untold hours within the Squad 4 clinic as well as running countless patrols in the human world to hunt for hollows and to ferry the dead to their next life. Of course, all this running around and working meant there was very little time that Mazra could take for himself and so when he did get a day off he used it to the fullest. On today’s agenda was a visit to his favorite restaurant for breakfast, then a trip to a book store in the 1st District of the Rukongai, after his shopping Mazra intended to go to one of his favorite food stands in of the lower districts before then taking a quick stop at the apartment to drop off his purchases before spending the rest of his day in the library. With this plan in mind Mazra headed to the first restaurant of the day!

Enjoying the empty streets of the Rukongai, Mazra dawdled; enjoying the beauty of the buildings and art that was displayed at every corner. The few people who he met upon the street greeted him cheerfully and promptly. Enjoying the cool morning air and the way the sky looked with the sun rising Mazra fully enjoyed his stroll to the restaurant. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end. Upon his arrival Mazra was met with a rather . . . telling portent of the day, the restaurant had a large read sign tacked to the front door that read “CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS”. Sighing in disappointment Mazra quickly readjusted his schedule and decided that he might as well head into the 1st District to visit the book shop he frequented when he had the time and money. Of course, in an almost predictable fashion the bookshop had failed and been shut down. Starting to get shaken by this turn of rather bad events, Mazra instantly turned from the building and headed to the little pork stand in the hopes that maybe it would be open. Once again, fate pulled a cruel trick on Mazra and the little stand had moved and none of the locals seemed to know where it had gone. Beginning to truly panic now Mazra gave a little shout of dismay and sprinted back to the Soul Society and right back to the barracks.

Once arriving back at the barracks Mazra quickly realized it was only 7 in the morning and the library wouldn’t open till 9. “Bah, figures . . . I spend weeks planning this whole day and everything is shot to ruin in the first hour I’m awake . . . “ Mazra wandered into the courtyard in front of the barracks that were often used by the Shinigami as a sparring ground and crouched down in the middle of the courtyard, “I wonder how much worse it can get?” As he crouched down his eyes took on a faraway look as Mazra became wrapped in his thought and his eyes subconsciously scanned the ground, not really fixing on any particular thing when all of sudden they saw an abnormally shaped rock. Knocked out of his reverie by the interesting little rock; Mazra, still crouching, hopped his way over to look at it. Roughly the size of a baby’s fist the stone was at once both jagged and smooth. It looked as if someone had taken a big old jagged rock and drawn on it with a smoothing thingy in a swirly pattern. “Well aren’t you just quite unique,” Mazra reached down and picked up the little rock, “My name is Mazra. It’s a pleasure to meet you!” For a moment the young Shinigami merely stared at the rock before bringing it close enough to his face it could touch the tip of his nose, “Well Mr. Rock it’s nice to meet you! How are you today?” Once again Mazra lapsed into silence and began to nod his head towards the rock, “Yes I quite understand, today was supposed to be an amazing day for me but it seems that the universe had other plans . . . “ lapsing into silence once again Mazra smiled at the rock, “Oh, no there is nothing you could do, but thank you so much for asking. Perhaps there is something I could do for you?” Entering into another part of the silent conversation with the inanimate rock, the smile on Mazra’s face slowly fell and the look in his eyes became more and more serious, “I suppose I could do that, but are you sure? Everything you know would be gone.” Pausing for only a moment Mazra nodded his head firmly at the rock and stood, “Very well! I shall help you.” With those words Mazra took the stone in his hand and hauled backwards before beginning to run towards the wall of the courtyard. As he approached the wall he slung the stone forward and it flew into the air, the stone soared over the wall and out of site, “GOOD LUCK MR. STONE!!!” Mazra hopped up and down waving at the rock even though it had long since stopped being able to see him.

[Joachim Armster]

The silvery glow of fish lighted the river underwater, reflecting the sun's light across the dirty, silt floor of the river and the bricked walls encasing the stream. They were a small breed of tuna, oddly enough, and there were swarms of them... all clustered around one object. It looked as if to be a big rock, or a statue, but it had a metallic gleam to it not unlike the shining scales of the luminous fish. It was actually an old suit of samurai armor, adorned in faded red and crimson rust, half grown over in moss and seaweed. And if one peered into the helmet for a long moment, one would see an old, rotten skull, with rubies filling it's sockets in the absence of eyes.

And yet the fish continued to swarm and gather, forming a large mass around the fallen knight. A jutting, smoothly spiral stone of crude edges floated steadily towards it, guided naturally to the suit of armor by the river's current. The fish, now more than just tuna but also goldfish and generally anything near the old mass of metal, began to slap their tails into the rock and push it towards the armor. 'Yes....' echoed an unearthly voice. It drifted, so gently and slowly, to the waiting mass of metal. 'It is time.' rang a ghostly voice once more, from naught but the armor itself. Crumbling and the smoking of dust could be seen as it's left arm, aged by centuries of rust and decay, broke free of the dirt and stuck outwards like a stick, grasping the stone carefully in it's bone fingers. In an instant the stone gleamed bright red, and a coursing stream of blood-red energy spiraled along the arm, restoring remnants of exposed flesh and muscle and invigorating the unearthly corpse. The memories of the stone became the memories of the armor, and soon, they were united as one.... the fish began to dive into the armor, and blood was seen staining the clear blue waters, and the swarm steadily shrank as it sunk into the bright red armor.

Water blasted high into the air in a massive torrent, as if a torpedo had gone off, as a massive eight foot tall figure leaped from the waters. It landed crudely, one foot smashing through a fence, the other crushing part of a sidewalk as it slowly straightened it's posture. The armor was no longer rusted or grown over by moss, but suddenly clean and vivid blood red, as if it had sucked in the vitality of all the fish... in the small gaps and spaces between the thick, heavy plates of metal and the spines and bladed spikes of the suit, one could see pulsating muscles and overgrown blood vessels spreading across the interior plates, replacing the vegetation that had once been there. A horrid face sat on it's shoulders, it's eye sockets glowing bright red, half-covered in new flesh... Slowly, it set the horned mask of the helmet upon it's head, and looked around at the surrounding crowd curiously.

The bystanders were ignored, as the creature merely extended it's hand towards the river, and a great yellowed tome flew into it's grasp - a book of some forbidden knowledge and power, no doubt responsible for the existence of the horror. Six katanas, three long, two medium, and one short, sat all bound to it's left hip, adorned in beautiful silk strips of cloth ornately decorated in woven images of cherry blossom sakura trees. It remembered where the boy was, and stormed away, pushing the citizens of rukongai out of it's way with rude shoves and hurried steps.

It owed the boy for it's revival, and the reward was clutched tightly in it's hand, bound in the form of an ancient book... it drew close to a barracks, roughly tracing the steps of where it had drifted in stone form, before turning and pushing open the gate doors to the barracks. It stepped in, each heel making loud metallic thuds against the cobble stone path, until it stepped into the grass after mazra. 'You.' It called. And as it addressed Mazra, it extended a skeletal hand forward, offering the book to the shinigami...

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