No Guardian Angel (Ika/Sano/Johan)

"Ahhhh..." Johan smiled to himself while sitting down and kneeling in front of the small coffee table in his living room. His suit jacket had been stylish, but wearing it all day was a little stifling. Alas, he worked to always look clean-cut and smartly dressed so there were some minor discomforts he had to put up with. He'd changed into more comfortable indoor clothes, and was currently cracking open a bottle of Asahi as he scrolled through his Netflix catalogue. Such was the life of a professor. Leaving his students' papers to his beleaguered TA while he went home to relax and unwind was his own privilege as a professor at Tokyo University.

Johan frowned after scrolling through the Netflix catalogue for a good few minutes, not finding anything particularly interesting to watch. Sighing with the voice of someone who expected this outcome, Johan grabbed his beer and stepped out onto his balcony before closing the sliding glass door behind him. There were two weather-beaten chairs who's coverings he needed to replace and an unused ashtray for smoking guests. Not that he ever had anyone over to his apartment. Letting out a content sigh, Johan sullenly sipped his drink as he closed his eyes, feeling the thrum of the city's heartbeat as it pounded against his soul. Millions of tiny, flickering lights all gently pulsing with life. The waves and crests all resonating together to form an even, measured beat. Collective order emergent from the chaos of each individual. Suddenly, Johan frowned as he felt something against his senses. It was incredibly spiritually dense, radiating pressure like a nuclear reactor's core which burned like a star in Johan's vision. Drawing his bow, Johan pulled back the string as a few arrows of light materialized on the glassy ranged weapon. Whoever, or whatever they were, they wouldn't escape his perception.

Blood, god there was a lot of blood.

Ika's escape to this point had been more successful than the Gotei wanted, and less successful than he wanted. The blood dripping from his chest and upper brow seemed to grow more dense with every passing heartbeat, his eyes were glassy and while he'd managed to find his way to the Human World, he'd spent the majority of his energy fighting his way there. Tired, so tired..

Ika's fingers were caked with a mixture of blood, some his own and some belonging to the unfortunate souls that had tried to stop him along his path to this particular location. His own people had turned against him, his brother had been released like a bloodhound to hunt him down, and he came stumbling for the only friend he knew to be his own. "Johan.."

Ika stumbled through the door and fell down, his breathing labored as he became increasingly aware of yet another wound he'd failed to inventory, this one having knocked one of his lungs offline. His eyes searched for something, a humanoid figure to provide him some form of reassurance, but he couldn't be sure that there was any to find. "Help.."

Johan's intense focus turned to confusion and disquiet as his old buddy old pal Ika Mazi came stumbling into his abode from the balcony while caked in blood before collapsing on his living room floor. While Johan usually made it a point to hide from the prying eyes of any local Shinigami who might detect his presence, Ika was one of the few good one's he'd come to trust over the years. The tale was as old as time: two men on opposite sides find themselves teaming up more and more often as time passes. It would seem this was the big twist reveal where on of the characters' organizations betrays them... Had he been watching too many spy films?

While those idle thoughts where playing in some small part of the background, Johan knew he couldn't afford to waste precious seconds. The two of them had a good grasp of each other's abilities, meaning Ika hadn't come here to hide... He'd been followed and needed an intercept. Johan focused himself, gathering power at his fingertips as he activated Blut Vene. He didn't know what the enemy was capable of, but he damn well knew Ika couldn't remain out here exposed.

Cursing to himself in German, Johan quickly scrambled backwards before dragging Ika further inside and jumping to stand in front of him with his bow drawn and ready. There was another ping on his senses, another roiling sphere of power was heading this way. Glancing at Ika, Johan clicked his tongue before whispering to the man. "Remain here and conserve your strength, my friend. I will intercept your pursuer." With no further delay, Johan hopped up out of his apartment and made a beeline towards the new approaching threat while firing several arrows in it's direction as a warning shot.

This world seemed.. foreign to Sano. All these lights, the fucking luminesence of the world around him was enough to make him sick but he'd only come here with one goal.

Ika needed to die.

Sano pressed forward through the streets, doing his best to shield his eyes until an oncoming arrow brought forth a mixture of feelings within him he hadn't felt in many years. A fucking Quincy? Now, of all times? It was a spit in Sano's face from God but he couldn't focus on that now, as the oncoming arrows seemed to be steadily increasing in both volume and power. The first two pelted off of him, seemingly finding their mark but doing little to split Sano's innate Reiatsu armor but the third one had done enough to cut his cheek open. The feeling of blood running down Sano's face felt almost new, it wasn't truly unfamiliar to him but it had been so long that it may as well have been. It had been 500 years since he'd last shed a drop of blood, and he wasn't really sure how to take it.

The next volley of arrows was parried with his sword and a snarl as he peered forth. "Quincy, I thought I'd killed the lot of you... I'm not here for you today, leave and let your pathetic mongrel lineage live on another day. Get in my way and I'll gut you like every other miserable warrior your kind ever produced."

Another Shinigami. Great. One that held a striking resemblance to Ika. What would it take for the universe at large to stop throwing him curveballs on his nice, quiet nights? Nevertheless, this posed a pretty big problem as the one before him was thrumming with power, the ambient Reishi practically squalling in his senses. "Threatening death and destruction right from the outset," Johan said aloud in a dry and questioning tone, "Wow, how original." The Quincy's skin alit with crisscrossing blue lines which traced across his body as Johan activated his Blut Vene for some extra defense.

Drawing his bowstring in one swift motion, Johan shifted backwards to disengage with Hirenkyaku before firing off another shot at Ika's Evil Twin (Trademark Pending) and thinking quickly. He just needed to buy time, and watch for the opportune moment to strike and turn the tables. Because as things stood now? He was horribly outmatched. Johan focused on his sensory capabilities, trusting their detection abilities to help him react in time even above his own eyes. With that, Johan's hand blurred as he fired two more arrows followed by a Seele Schneider, the bane of all spiritual beings.

Rust. Every arrow that made it's mark seemed to say the same thing, Sano was rusty and time had dulled his senses and reflexes. The two first arrows had hit their mark, loding themselves in Sano's chest as he lazily plucked them, though this time the damage they'd done wasn't nearly as deep. With every passing moment, the density of Sano's Reiatsu was increasing to such a point that the arrows themselves would soon struggle to pierce his skin. The Seele Schneider however, that was a different ball game entirely..

Sano Shunpo'd forward and to the left, finding his feet in one swift motion as the chainsaw esque blade shredded the flesh on his left arm. Sano's face was unmoved, but the blood running down his arm was hard to ignore. He couldn't keep fighting like this, and if he tried he was going to die before he ever found his way back to Ika.

Thoughts for another time, one more Shunpo forward and Sano's blade lurched for the sky before descending down over Johan's body like a gulliotine. There was no time to chat, he needed to put this Quincy on the defensive, and fast.

Johan allowed himself a brief blip of satisfaction as the Seele Schneider, while not finding it's way into this Shinigami's black heart, did still manage to get him good in the arm. A small victory, but against an opponent like this Johan knew that he'd need to get a lot more of those 'small victories' if he wanted to survive this. He wasn't one much for immense firepower, precision and perception were the name of his game. In that moment, the assassin after his friend Shunpo'd forward as Johan felt an innate sense of suppression bearing down upon him as the man swung his sword.

Even with Blut Vene up, he couldn't take that in his current state. Johan managed to Hirenkyaku backwards while fighting the sheer unfiltered mass of killing intent bearing down on him, but he wasn't able to evade the strike completely as was evident in the large gash across his chest. Based on the slight crackle of Reishi wisping back out into the atmosphere along the wound and the strange tingling on his ribs, any slower and he'd probably have been bisected. Unfortunately, his opponent now had the momentum and Johan found himself on the back foot as the bloody swordsman was bearing down upon him. Johan called upon the transcendent power of his Quincy bloodline, enveloping him in a silvery glow before Johan's body was covered in glassy silver armor.

"To have pushed me so rapidly," Johan began while drawing his bow and forming an arrow with a very wide arrowhead before firing it as it split into 20 smaller copies as they made their way towards the swordsman. Reaching back to his pocket for his secret Ginto compartment, Johan then remembered he was currently in his pajamas and left his Ginto at home. "Might I be speaking to Sano the Slayer?" Johan spoke with his usual dry and unaffected tone as his hands quickly moved while he fired off five more arrows in rapid succession.

Techniques Used:

It seemed that Sano had roused the Quincy into a more pronounced offensive. The blood painting the ground beneath their feet was indicator enough that this offensive had been successful, but the fact that he'd decided to ascend into his final form so quickly was.. "Flattering. I suppose I won't have much time to shake loose these cobwebs of mine.. 500 years does crazy damage to a manbut I think this will serve me well.."

Sano smiled sheepishly as he walked forward, the arrows continued to pierce his skin to varying levels of efficacy, but despite the newly formed pools of blood on his form he would nonetheless continue to walk forwards. It was one arrow, then another, then another, 8 arrows in total marred Sano's form but did nothing to stop him marching forwards. "I'm afraid it'd take more than you can muster to put me down.. But I can at least knock the rust off."

Sano smirked, revealing blood beginning to pool between his teeth as he held his blade out in front of him. "Melt Away.. Sansei Kain."

In that moment, a ball of acid would appear on the tip of his finger, launching itself into orbit as Sano's wounds slowly began to patch themselves back together. "Quincy.. you asked for my name, I don't bother giving my name to dead men. The living curse me enough as is, I want a peaceful rest when this is all over."

Sano's body lurched forward, his blade once again poised and ready but this time he would pivot, lunging forward with a horizontal slash at the mans midsection as he waited to see what other offense the boyu could muster. "Try not to bore me Quincy.."

Johan growled as the Shinigami walked forward, seemingly unabated by his scatter-arrow before suddenly bearing down upon him with a slash at his abdomen. Johan felt a fierce sense of gratefulness that he'd at least had the sense to grab his Seele Schneider before galivanting out of his apartment as he drew one and attempted (keyword being 'attempted') a one-handed parry with rather limited success. The blade dug into Johan's armor but the extra layer of protection allowed him to minimize the damage to a gash in his side.

With a cry of pain, Johan pulled the Seele Schneider in his right hand up while holding his bow in his left before stepping forward into a series of three quick thrusts aimed at center mass. Now, Johan was a middling swordsman at best and he knew it. The bow was, as always, his first love. However, one often didn't fight in the most optimal of conditions. For an example, see above. All that to say that Johan had pushed forward into the melee, attempting to grab back some momentum with his weapon before quickly bringing it up to his bow and firing it at his opponent at point blank range. All the while, Johan's torn and cut muscles burned with every exertion. How long could he keep this up? The Quincy had no clue, but he was damn sure going to give Ika a stern talking to when this was over. Something to cling on to, that.