Paranormal Sector - Karakura Town

    Truth be told, this town looks as one might expect of a modern Japanese suburb. The streets are clean here, and the homes usually look neat and tidy. It has a sort of small town charm, with its small, locally-owned businesses - some of which operate out of houses. The local landmarks include a large open market on the end of town close to Tokyo, a large high school, and the family-owned Kurosaki Clinic.
    Indeed, if one cannot see ghosts, Karakura Town seems normal. However, those with supernatural senses may realize this place is out of the ordinary. Hollows, ghosts infused with evil energy, are sometimes on the prowl here, and they are combated by the Death Gods - invisible warriors fighting against these accursed ghosts.
    For those who know better, this place may idyllic, but it is still a battleground.

Looks like rain... or rather, rain moving off. Just an hour ago Karakura was in the middle of a downpour, but now it is clearing up. The evening sun breaking through the clouds, and while some puddles remain around the streets the only other sign that the rain was just here are the dark clouds moving off.

Good thing for Chad he was finishing up his 'shift' at Urahara's. He was supposed to be outside sweeping the dirt for Ginta, but considering that mud isn't all that plausible to sweep (and dirt is?) Urahara had him moving boxes inside instead. So with that over with for the day Chad begins the walk back to his apartment.

Still wearing the apron.

Gah, stupid, stupid rain. It's like it /follows/ him. The clouds are clearing up and drifting away, so Ranma Saotome can /finally/ duck out of the random building he'd hid in. He's hopeful that he can hide his curse from people now that he's out of Nerima; people treat him a lot differently when they find out.

But at the moment, things are alright. He's male, he's made it back to Karakura, and he knows how to get around the Hub a bit better. Ranma grins as he sees Chad approaching. "Yo, Yasutora," he calls. "What's up, just get outta home ec?"

As Ranma approaches him Chad gives his standard silent wave as greeting. "Mm." He then blinks and looks down, remembering the apron he never bothered to take off when he left the shop. "Oh, no. Just a part-time job." He says, taking it off and folding it on his arm. "Long story."

That seems to be all he'll say on the matter, as he resumes walking. "By the way, thanks for your help the other day. I haven't seen you since then so I couldn't thank you properly. The whole thing turned out to be quite a mess." He STILL hasn't gotten all the details regarding Inoue yet, he just knows that she's safe right now, so he figures the rest of the info can wait. "Wasn't too much for you, I hope?" He says, smirking just a bit. May as well try and lighten the mood a bit, rain tends to make EVERYTHING dreary.

"Oh, yeah? D'ya think it'd be a good place for me to work? I'm lookin' for a way to earn some cash." Hopefully Ranma has not just sealed his own fate.
He chuckles and follows Chad, on the way to the larger boy's apartment. "Hey, no problem," he responds. "Martial artist's duty an' all. ... Is that short-haired girl alright?" Not the best with names, Ranma is. "Too /much/? Hah, hardly. If that chick with the claws hadn't run off, I'd'a showed her a thing or two about pickin' fights."

Chad blinks. "Work there?" At Urahara's? Pause. "Probably... not your type of place. The circumstances that have me working there are unique anyway, I don't think he hires off the streets." Total balony, and he knows it, but he doesn't want to be responsible for anything 'bad' happening to Ranma. As if things weren't complicated enough for the martial artist.

As the topic changes back to the fight Chad has to think for a moment. "Girl with short hair?" Ranma may not be good with names, but Chad's even worse with descriptions. Short hair.... short..... hair.... Chad thinks about this for a lot longer than he HAS to before it comes to him. "Oh, Arisawa." Hey, there are a LOT of short-haired girls around Karakura. "Yeah, she's fine. I mean, I think she got hurt a bit, but she recovered." Chad realizes he STILL needs to catch up with her. Events are happening at a much faster pace than he is used to.

The giant grins again as Ranma boasts. "Yeah, you're probably right. Thanks all the same, though. I owe you one." Girl with the claws, one of those Homunculus Elric mentioned. He'll have to keep his eyes open for them in the future.

"Alright," Ranma responds easily. "Lemme know if ya see anything that looks good, okay?" One of his plans for exploring the Hub /is/ to make some money, after all. Money that Nabiki won't know about until it's too late for her to start chipping away at it.

He nods with relief. "OK, that's good. She looked pretty torn up by the end of it all, before that pink blur ran off with her." Arisawa, huh? Girl reminded him a /lot/ of Akane. He's still annoyed he wasn't able to help her out more.

Ranma waves his hand dismissively. "Nah, don't worry 'bout it. Yer already payin' me back by lettin' me hang out at your place."

"Pink blur?" Oh here we go again. Chad trying to place descriptive features on someone again. At least 'pink' draws on one concrete image, anyway. "Oh... Vice-Captain Yachiru, probably her." Considering she went and made Tatsuki an 'honorary member' of the 11th division it's not too surprising she'd save her. "Well, Arisawa may not have been in a fight like that before, but she's still a tough girl. People with a lot of stamina like that tend to recover quickly."

Speaking of the apartment they're both slowly approaching it. Similar to Orihime's apartment in that he has it to himself (though not currently demolished). "I don't normally have guests, so it might be a little sloppy. Enough food in the fridge though." Poor Chad. He does not realize what he's unleashing upon himself and his budget by allowing Ranma unrestricted access to his fridge.

Ranma decides to take Chad's word on that one. "Yeah, that's true. Some people I know could practically shake off a boulder slammin' inta them." He chuckles at that particular memory.

"That's alright," he says, as they get closer to the apartment. "An' I ain't got much except what fits in the pack, so I won't make it any messier." And hey, did he just say something about food? Excellent! Ranma's conscience kicks him in the leg, though. He really ought to have /something/ to contribute before he goes fridge-raiding. Just eating up Chad's food is something /Genma/ would do.

Before they get too close to the apartment, though, Chad slows in his pace and turns to enter a convenience store. "I just need to grab a couple of things in here." Stocking up? Nah, must be a coincidence, right? "Won't take long. If you want, you can go on ahead and meet me at the door." He says, pointing up to the second level of the apartment complex.

"Watch out for the puddles by the street." No, he totally doesn't know about the curse. That's the beauty of the irony here. He was really saying it because he doesn't have any laundry facilities in his apartment directly, and has to go elsewhere with his clothes. But Ranma, well, can take it however he wishes.

"Ah, sure, no problem," Ranma says, turning to go. And then he /tenses/ up at Chad's offhand comment. "Gh -- ah -- right, thanks." He hops carefully over each puddle, making sure no cars or bikes are anywhere near enough to splash him... and makes it, thankfully. He goes up to the second level and leans against the wall. "I can do this," he says to himself, confidence back up to normal.

A few moments go by before Chad finally exits the store, carrying a few containers of instant Ramen, some bottled water, and some fresh tomatoes. Slightly more normal eating habits than Inoue, anyway.

Climbing the stairs to the second floor, Chad tosses one of the bottles of water at Ranma. "Catch." Then he goes to open the door. Behold Chad's apartment! Incredibly unassuming, considering who lives there. The only things that stand out are the general disorganization, and the guitar leaning up against the wall.

Ranma fumbles the catch and barely keeps from squeezing the bottle all over himself. He rolls his eyes and follows Chad inside. "Nice place ya got here." He sets his backpack down (with a pretty loud thump) next to the guitar, then opens the bottle and /carefully/ takes a drink.

"It's not bad, considering I'm just a student." Just HOW is he affording to live on his own like this anyway? Good question. Let's ambush Kubo Tite one of these days to figure out where Inoue and Chad's incomes are coming from.

He puts the rest of the water and the tomatoes in the fridge, and the instant ramen containers on some shelves. Then he disappears into one of the smaller rooms to get the apron off his hands.

"Yeah, no kidding. I'd love ta get a place like this myself. Prob'ly get wrecked in a week, though." Good question. Perhaps he has an inheritance from his grandfather? The world may never know for certain.

Ranma hangs around in the front room while Chad does this, finishing the water bottle off (so it can't jump out at him unexpectedly). "Want any help?" he asks casually, as he looks around at the room.

"Now that's alright." Comes' Chad's voice from inside the other room. And now, Ranma could probably see what Kon was getting on about, regarding Chad wasting air time. If something's going on, partiuclarly a fight, he's hard to miss. But during 'off time' in the apartment, well, he's just not used to being all that chatty here.

The room doesn't offer a whole lot more than what's been described already. A few books are scattered on the floor around a small table, likely where Chad does his studying. Near the door of the room Chad just entered are some articles of clothes. Clean clothes, mind you. The guitar leans against the wall, unrattled by Ranma throwing his bag next to it. And of course, the sink is full of dishes.

Ranma chuckles. "Okay," he says simply, walking over to the window and pulling it open. He leans out and catches the cool breeze. Ahhh. Nice day, now that the rain's gone. And it's quiet. No screaming, no attacking, no explosions... Ranma knows he'd get bored with it eventually, but for now, it feels nice.

Well... no screaming, attacking, or explosions TODAY. Karakura's had a rough few weeks lately, and that's not even taking into account all of the NATURAL problems which happen around here. Wait around long enough, Ranma, and you'll get caught in the middle of something again.

For now, though, it IS calm and peaceful. Chad exits the back room, shutting the door behind him, then walks over to the table where he silently sits, and picks up one of the books on the floor and begins reading. Despite his appearance he IS one of the smarter kids in his class, he doesn't get like that by neglecting his work.

 When there's a girl in trouble, the Getbackers will always be there to help her out! But today there's only one Getbacker and fortunately (or is that unfortunately?) for everyone, it's Ginji. In his hand he's got a piece of paper with a very crude drawing of a black haired boy with a braid wearing a red shirt and black pants. The drawing looks like male Ranma, if he was having his portrait drawn by an uncoordinated four year old.
 
 "Anoc excuse me!" Ginji asks enthusiastically to a random passerby, "We're looking for the guy in this picture! Have you seen him?"
 
 The passerby just gives Ginji a strange look before shaking his head and moving on.
 
 Ginji pouts, "That was rude. Oh! Hey, she might now! Come on Yuna!" He scampers off to talk to the other lady he saw.

Yuna follows Ginji closely but goes to another person to inquire about the boy with black braided hair. You would think this would be such a easy task! She quickly goes back to Ginji's side. "Any luck, Ginji-chan?" She nods softly and waves her staff in the air. A very large shadow flies over the city. "Should I look by air, Ginji-chan?" She inquires gently as she follows him very closely.

She looks upwards when a small 'I am bored' roar can be heard overhead and mouths out 'Wait'.
Yuna switches armor modes to Bahamut.

Ranma rests his elbows on the windowsill and looks around absently. Nice place, Karakura. He could get used to hanging out here. Yasutora's cool, and that orange-haired kid -- Ichigo, was it? He seems like a kindred spirit. A shadow passes over Ranma's head briefly, and he glances up to see what's going on. Seems big for a plane --

"... Hey, Yasutora. Ya get dragons /often/, 'round here?"

Chad is kind of like Ryouga, only without the horrible direction sense and bad luck, and he's not a total spaz.

 His silent reading is first interupting by the dragon roaring, which he first thinks is a Hollow, but the sound isn't quite the same. Plus he can sense it as being from a physical creature, and not a spiritual one. Then, of course, is Ranma's oh so subtle hint. "....dragons?" He asks, putting the book down and heading to the window himself. Guess Karakura really CAN'T get a break. "Maybe we should go check it out."

 Ginji blinks, "Air?" He looks up and puts his hand behind his head laughing a little, "I don't think searching by air would be such a good idea Yuna-chan. It'd be harder to find him that way. I've never really flown before but I heard that people look like ants from high up! And if this guy we're looking for looks like an ant, how will we find him?"
 
 The Getbacker grins cheerfully, "Don't worry Yuna-chan! We'll find him! I promise!." He puts a thumbs up, "You hired the best after all!" He turns around and flags down another random person, "Hey! Hey! Mister! Have you seen this guy?"
 
 The guy just stares at him blankly for a second, "Huh? No. We've got enough trouble around here with things blowing up and stuff. And all these weird things happening lately." He makes a face and leaves. Ginji pouts, "Wow. Who would have known finding someone was so hard."

Yuna giggles when Ginji laughed. "It depends on how high you are." She looks back towards Ginji and nods softly. "That I did." She follows him closely but then lets out a small squeak as suddenly she was picked up near her scruff and lifted into the air. Bahamut still doesn't really trust the Getbacker with his summoner but still is willing to let him near her... For a little while.

"It looks like Bahamut got another idea." She spoke embarressed.

Ranma frowns and ducks down, lifting a foot onto the windowsill. "Yeah, good idea. It just landed outside. Hup --" And Ranma hops out the window, neatly landing on the concrete two floors down. He straightens up, then promptly backs up a step as he sees Bahamut. "/Geez/, that thing is big." And it just grabbed somebody! "Whoa! Hey, you okay?" Ranma leaps over to where the dragon stands and skids to a halt, staring up at it. Really big.

"Hm." Chad observes Ranma do a daring leap out of the window. He's got spunk. Well there's no reason Chad can't do one too! Just.. that.. it'll take a few moments longer, since he's a heck of a lot taller than Ranma, and it's a short window.

Oop, there he goes. He lands a few feet to the left of Ranma and just stares at the dragon silently. Big dragon. Though it doesn't typically look like how he would have imagined dragons would look like. Doesn't look asian, nor european.
 
 As Yuna gets scooped up by Bahamut, Ginji begins forming a lightning ball between his hands out of instinct. But seeing that it's just the dragon, he lets it dissipate as he pouts, "Bahamut-cha~an! How are we gonna look for this guy Yuna-chan is looking for if you just take her away like that!" Only Ginji would pout at a giant dragon.
 
 Instinct kicks in again and he swings around just as Ranma and Chad approach from out of nowhere. He holds his hands up in a defensive fighting position. Two against one. He's fought against worse odds but Ranma looks vaguely familiar in a not bad way and the fighting tension goes away almost as quickly as it came when he straightens, turns into Tare-Ginji and holds up the drawn picture for the two newcomers. "Have you see him?"

Bahamut makes a muffled growl sound at Ginji. Yuna continues to look embarressed about the whole thing. "It seems like Bahamut still doesn't quite trust you, Ginji-chan." She blinks and points towards Ranma. "That's him! Bahamut put me down!" Bahamut moves a paw to hold Yuna close to him as he lets go of her and gently sets her down.

Bahamut then lets out a loud roar, lowers himself on all fours, spreads out his wings and begins to growl at the newcomers. "I am fine as you can see, good sirs." She then holds up a hand and goes to rest it against Bahamut. "Shh... Easy now... They are friends unless one attacks him. Then defend Ginji and I."

Ranma kind of stares at Tare-Ginji. "Uh..." he squints at the paper. "Hey, that kinda looks like /me/. If, y'know, it was Hinako-sensei drawin' me."

"Whoa, whoa, easy now, buddy," Ranma says nervously, backing away from Bahamut a step and waving his hands defensively. "We ain't here to hurt anybody." Then he gets a closer look at Yuna. "Hey, you're that girl from the Hub, aren't ya? The Summoner with the ice chick an' healin' magic, right?" He tilts his head at Yuna, pointing his thumb at the picture Ginji has. "Are you... lookin' for me?"

"Friends of yours?" Chad asks the obvious, still seemingly unphased by Bahamut's looming presence. Chad's just not easy to scare. For now, he just folds his arms and leans back against the side of the building to watch whatever is about to happen. After all, it appears like Ranma knows these people, dragons aside.
 
 "Yup!" Tare-Ginji chirps as he stands next to Yuna. "Yuna-chan hired me to try and find you! We looked in a lot of places you know." He rubs his head and puts away the picture, turning back into normal Ginji. "Another job complete!" He grins, just happy he finished another job successfully. He watches Chad curiously. He doesn't feel threatening, so it shouldn't be a big deal. Maybe they can be friends! Or maybe not.

Yuna nods softly and goes to cup her elbow, letting her staff hang at her side. "If my memory serves, the last time we met you were looking for a job. I have something to offer..." She then holds out her staff to not only point at Ranma but also Ginji. "... Not only you but also Ginji. Are you willing to listen?" Bahamut then straightens to his full height and spread out his wings. "The rewards for this job will be both big and yet small."

She lets out a small giggle and nods towards Ginji. "Thank you, Ginji-chan." She then takes a few steps away from Bahamut and holds out her hand. "Are you strong enough to listen to what I have to offer?"

Ranma listens curiously. "Big an' small... This some kinda riddle?" he says to himself. But her last line catches his full attention. "You kiddin' me? I'm strong enough for /anything/ that comes my way." He grins, in his customary cocky manner, and reaches out to shake Yuna's hand. "Saotome Ranma, of the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts. Nice ta meet ya officially. So what's this job ya want me for?"

"Hm. Well, if you got things handled down here, I'll get back to my homework." Chad says, before turning to head back to the stairs leading up to his apartment. Conveniently he and Ranma were talking about potential work for him, and it turns out it just lands on his doorstep. Er, Chad's doorstep. Perhaps not EVERYTHING goes wrong for Ranma.

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