Manhattan Project [Open-ish]

Retreated deep within himself sat the fatigued, though pleased, Academy Instructor, Monsieur Katsu Namari! Within the new jungle-realm Inner World of his own, he sat conversing with his two intrinsically different Zanpakutō Spirits, Arashi and Tsuru, the old and the new respectively. Arashi, his old Zanpakutō Spirit whose powers lied along the lines of stormcalling, was bitter and nasty in recent times whereas he was once a kind and noteworthy friend. His appearance, Katsu had before noted, had changed to accommodate the difference in his personality, as though something literally latched onto and into his former Zanpakutō-of-choice and literally forced changed upon him. Tsuru, his new Zanpakutō – the product of his endeavors with another Asauchi – was kind and very different compared to either the Arashi of the past and the present. She was a feminine construct whose visage was that of humanoid plant materials; somewhat anthropomorphic. At Katsu's side she sat, defending him from verbal lashings from his old Zanpakutō Spirit, Arashi.
 
“You'll learn, plant thing. He's a devilish liar and he'll use you like he used me!” Arashi spat, his eyes narrow slits.
“I've heard the stories, monsieur!” Tsuru retorted in her own French accent, much like Katsu's, “and it is you who is nothing more than a liar. I'm quite positive that if he had the ability to, you'd be long gone from the both of us. Do not fault him that which he cannot control, s'il te plait,” she said, emphasizing the ,“te,” – French for an informal, “you,” over saying, “vos.”
“Mademoiselle, arret, s'il vous plait? Ce n'est pas grave, je suis sûr! Il n'y a rien qui peut être fait...” Katsu interjected in French – a language that from the beginning, Arashi was not able to grasp but for tiny pieces.
 
Much to his displeasure, the argument continued and he took this unfortunate time to see the verbal abilities of his new Zanpakutō Spirit, Tsuru. As of yet, he had not used her in an actual fight, as he was unsure of their bond. Evidently, she cared deeply for Katsu, even if only just having met him as she continued a battle that was most assuredly not hers in Katsu's place. So there he sat, emotionally distancing himself further and further from Arashi.
 
Yes, he was right, Katsu guessed. This one time, Arashi was right. He had promised that if obtaining a new Zanpakutō was possible and a success, that he would rid himself of Arashi so that they both could be free from one another. Yet here Arashi sat, still trapped within the Inner World of Katsu, which was no longer Arashi's own. Katsu didn't quite understand; the bond between Arashi and him should surely be severed by now, and not partially: fully, completely and one-hundred percent totally severed, yet it wasn't? What could the problem be, exactly? What was keeping Arashi and Katsu bonded, even on a small, minute level? Could it actually be that something was keeping Arashi bound to him?
 
Katsu's mind flickered back to his incident with the Hollow, Pit.
What?
…
Why?
Why Pit?
 
Why was it that any time he thought too hard or too long on the subject of Arashi, his mind – seemingly instinctually – flickered back to his humiliating incident with the Hollow, Pit? Could it be that Pit had something to do with the change in Arashi's personality and appearance? How, though? How could that be possible? After that brilliant shower of light, Pit the Hollow disappeared! Nowhere could Katsu find or detect even the smallest amounts of Reiatsu that belonged to the powerful Hollow. So, why? It boggled his mind and, quite frankly made him cross that even after as long as it'd been, Pit still had some sort of effect on Ka–
 
What was that?
“You two will have to excuse me” Katsu offered in a hurried tone before returning to his physical body.
 
Whaaaaat was that?
No, no. What is that?
 
Somewhere far off, Katsu felt, was something with power beyond his imagination. Something was going off. Something was happening. Whatever it was that Katsu felt – thanks to his spiritual senses – was far greater than anything Katsu had ever personally experienced. Granted, he hadn't experienced much, he knew of powerful beings and creatures in this world. Yet he'd never felt anything quite like what he was feeling now.
 
It seemed to attack his body, to be frank. He felt that just by sensing it – which he now found he couldn't unfocus his mind from it no matter how hard he tried – it was coursing through his body, bringing weight to every fiber of his being. His bones grew heavy and his muscles turned to wet noodles. His breathing quickened and his chest heaved in stress. His eyes were squinted in an attempt to bear through the strain and pain of the situation.
 
The power was still increasing, though...
 
He hobbled out of the room he was staying in and prepared his body and uniform for what he imagined would be an impossible defense on the Seireitei. The power, despite Katsu's advanced perception for an unseated officer, was far too vast and advanced for Katsu to even attempt to decipher. His mind kept leaping to a grueling and frightening extreme: this monster he'd heard so much about, Tova the Arrancar, had invaded the Soul Society and was wreaking true destruction upon its inhabitants.
 
He did his best to compose himself and resist the effects of this vast power – somewhat successfully – and took to the rooftops and charging in the general direction of the power as were many other Shinigami from the First Division who had also felt it; at least, those that could move were.
 
Nope.
That wasn't in the plan for today, now was it?
 
Almost in unison, all the charging Shinigami came to a halt. Their eyes took to the sky, scrutinizing a spinning, colored object. Of course, from how far they were from the object, no noise could be heard, but they could definitely see this anomaly. And now that they thought about it, it was probably best to remain in the Seireitei where the protection of the Shakonmaku was absolute.
 
What wa –
 
The thing came falling to the ground. It only took seconds for it to make touchdown.
And when it did, what happened?
 
Well...
Light. Lots of light.
 
A deafening roar.
Fire.
 
Destruction.
 
Not any to the Rukongai or the Soul Society, but the effects, both visual and auditory could certainly be heard from the Seireitei itself. It could be felt from the Seireitei itself. The ground quaked and morale seemed to unanimously fall from each and every person in Katsu's field of vision.
 
Including his own.

She moved, calm deft gestures that split the very air in two. Fists flying, legs pumping, Kiriko danced across the earthen floor that had become her hall. Her dojo of nature. Sliding from one position into the next she unleashed a flurry of attacks, all while wreathed in the protective and enhancing flames of her Shunko aura. The air around her crackled and snapped, the reiatsu biting into the sky and tearing free bits of cloud and sunlight as the Captain pivoted on one heel and dropped into a roll. Slamming into the ground she felt the earth crack as her aura lashed out, inadvertent momentum unleashing devastating damage.

It was not enough. It could not be enough. Not until she had completed her task and bested the only other person who had been there at the inception of Shunko.

A hand sheathed in purple rose to brush the sweaty hair back off her forehead, tucking it behind one ear as Kiriko panted into the cool air. She had escaped the confined of Seireitei early in the night, unable to sleep, unable to sit and do paperwork or meditate. Movement was the only thing that kept her awake, the flutter of her inner fire growing weaker with each passing day she refused to sleep. It was getting to the point where she would nod off at her desk, eyes drooping closed when no one was looking, only for the worst to happen. Aneue, and she was certain now it really was Aneue, lay in wait. Hiding herself away until Kiriko was asleep, before laying waste to her sanity. The mocking laughter of her Zanpakutou Spirit had cut a furrow into her soul, and she felt as if she was being torn in two. Hahaue's soothing murmurs whenever she awoke were no longer a strong enough balm to sooth her fears.

Could she really be losing it? Going crazy over her own sword spirit?

Kiriko didn't want to think about that, to confront it. So she worked. She threw herself into physical exertion, hoping to sweat out the pain and confusion. When she was in movement, she was nothing. Just air, just muscle, just bone. Motion and balance and the swish of action. All that existed was inhaling and exhaling, ebb and tide, push and pull. Training was her release, a time for peace. It would never be the same as combat, that ultimate submission to time, to thought, but it was as close as she could get without endangering herself. Without taking needless risks.

She pushed off the ground, body flowing upward like water rushing over a rock wall, and suddenly she was standing and spinning into an axle kick, eyes on the horizon for the next opponent. Only it wasn't a physical target that she was looking at, but a swiftly darkening sky and an orbiting globe of wild-bright energy. Halting, she lowered her leg, and shaded both eyes with her hands. Probing the area several miles to the eastern quadrant with her senses she picked up heavy traces of pooling reiatsu and a pinprick of familiarity. Fujikagi?

What the hell?

Unsure of what was happening, but knowing a danger when she sensed one, Kiriko spurred into action without thought. Surging forward across the planes, she pushed her body to top speeds as she Shunpoed towards the meteor of light that was only now beginning to glide earthward. A tenth of a second slipped by. Then a fourth. Then a half. Finally she was there, cresting a hill to spot her Lieutenant and the descending orb of light.

Lunging, she grabbed him around the torso and threw her legs down into the earth. Using her forward momentum and her feet as a kicking board Kiriko flung her body backwards working against inertia to waste no time in moving away from ground zero. She had no time though, none at all, and as soon as she put a gap between her and her Lieutenant she dropped to the ground in a crouch and shoved him beneath her stockier body. Hands up towards the sky Kiriko felt the shudder as the orb struck earth, and as the light expanded outward in concentric circles towards her location she threw up as strong a Bakudo barrier as she had ever managed before. Utilizing every last ounce of withheld reiatsu and concentrating it just over their body to minimize lag time. If she was lucky, it would hold. If not... She wouldn't live to remember otherwise.  

WC: 752 | GP: 15 | Total GP: 15

Get it together, Katsu the young swain of the First Division reminded himself apprehensively. A second and third peek around his general vicinity seemed to reveal the true depth of these unseated officers dread; like Katsu, these men had never lived through such an advent.

Shaken, he'd have to do what it was that he's always done in the past: in the absence of his Captain, he'd have to act to round those up who lacked the wits of bravery to steady themselves. A steadying breath penetrated Katsu's frame, pushing all thoughts of fear far into the back of his mind. Audibly, he cleared his throat, catching the attention of a few soldiers in his vicinity whose eyes bore into him with various different crazed and frightened expressions. It was sure good for Katsu that he was well known in the First Division thanks to his unofficial leadership position before Captain Kenshou Ine entered the picture, else what was about to take place would seem entirely inappropriate and out of place for an ordinary and unseated soldier. Fighting the fear lodged in his stomach and throat, Katsu began.

“Stand your ground, men!” Something so simple. Something so stupid. Why? Why was that what he chose to say? Of course they'd stand their ground! It wasn't in any of their minds to advance another ten feet in the direction of that terrifying explosion. Yet, remaining still and an eventual retreat was simply out of the question; these men and women were soldiers of the Gotei who had taken an oath to protect its citizens and creed with their very lives if necessary. Unfortunately, whatever that blast was, it was certainly necessary for intervention from any and all available soldiers. It wasn't in Katsu's agenda to take control of the men and women before him and lead them into battle – which, judging from that blast meant certain demise – but rather, in his agenda was steadying these soldiers and renewing their morale: to remind them of who and what they are and what it is they must do.

“Take a breath, please,” he said softer, though still loud enough for all around him to hear. He'd opted to remove any French from his vocabulary at the moment for the simple fact that injecting any additional confusion into the situation was far from what could possibly help. “Close your eyes just for a moment and think, my friends, just think,” he continued. A few complied while others seemed to ignore him and resolved to quiver in their clothes, possibly soiling themselves. “We don't want to, but we must...” he said, refraining from details intentionally; everyone, though, caught on and not a single person misunderstood what it was that he was hinting at. Some nodded, others shook their head and others continued to refuse to acknowledge him. “We are soldiers of the First Division, keepers of organization and order in the whole of Seireitei. On top of our duties as First Division members, we are before all else, Shinigami. Our very job is to protect our home and the lives of those who cannot defend themselves, giving up our very lives to do so if necessary. Please, my friends and peers, don't mistake me: I do not wish to die, but I'd be as good as dead if I chose to ignore a situation like this for any longer than necessary. As I lack an authoratative position, I cannot force anyone to continue, though I will say this: I am indeed going and anyone who wants to as well may follow that they may not be alone,” and on he went.

True as it was he said nothing inspiring, his words did seem to have a positive effect of members of the First. Perhaps it was that the blast snapped them out of reality (or perhaps pulled them closer to a more abstract idea thereof, as an event such as this is most definitely sobering to the max), but Katsu's words seemed to sooth the minds and shaking bones of those around him. They were reminded of who and what they are. They were reminded that it was not in their profession to be or act cowardly, even if they wanted nothing more than to do just that. For the citizens of Rukongai who could not defend themselves, they had to act brave. They had to investigate and have their swords at the ready with absolutely no exceptions. Events such as this were exactly what they were trained to handle – or, perhaps not handle, but involve themselves in – and Katsu would be damned if he let his nerves get the better of him for any longer.

One by one, the motor systems of his peers seemed to reactivate and they were, alongside Katsu Namari of the First Division, on the run once more to what could very well be their demise. It would be incorrect to say that Katsu was “leading,” his peers into a potential fray, though it would be incorrect to say they lacked leadership and guidance thanks to Katsu. He only hoped his Captain – Kenshou Ine – would arrive in the near future and help settle things, whatever may need settling.

On his way, he kept his spiritual senses tuned outward, trying to sense whatever might be out in the distance. Lingering energies, however, prevented him from scrying very successfully at all. In fact, the only other thing the man felt was the undeniably powerful pressure of Madam Kiriko and only because her signature was practically on par with the leftover residue from the blast. He couldn't see her, though he knew she would make it there long, long before Katsu and his allies did.

In fact, it was quite frankly true that Katsu and his peers would never make it to or around the blast site at all. Their little legs simply couldn't carry them fast enough. Instead, Katsu had opted to convince his men to bring structure and order back to the men and women who lived in the Rukongai, outside of the protection zone of the Shakonmaku.

                Koudai had returned from another of his frequent trips to the human world, this time bearing no more than himself and a few human devices.  He wasn't at all pleased with the fact that his discoveries were becoming less frequent.  But right now, that had no bearing to him.  He'd been worried about being seen as a traitor for days now.  Or was it weeks?  He'd lost track, and the fear that a few rumors circulating about concerning one of the Captains had left him too scattered to honestly make sense of the span of time in question.

                To mitigate his concerns, he'd been desperately trying to acquire work from other Shinigami, and using whatever free time he had in-between jobs to start hashing out plans and prototype devices meant to protect and hide his lab in the human world.  He knew that whatever he'd made would probably never be enough, but that made no difference: all the defenses would be no more than security for the sole purpose of stalling any intruders strong enough to find his lab without his permission.

                Back on the subject of who he'd been contracted with lately, Koudai remembered that another Shinigami, a fellow he'd met some time back by the name of Tokiyo, had recently contacted him for an experiment.  What that could be, Koudai had no idea.  It was fascinating, though, given that Tokiyo had intentionally called upon him for this.  It might even be dangerous.  At that thought, Koudai salivated and bore a wicked, wide-open smile.  This almost hungry expression concerned his only lab partner there, but the man did nothing to stop Koudai's train of thought.

                After waiting for Koudai to settle down, the man spoke up.  "Makkura-san, is there something on your mind?"  The old man grinned at his compatriot, who sat up in preparation for anything Koudai might do.  "Or are you simply having another idea come to mind?"

                The elder scientist laughed quietly and cleared his throat before responding.  "Just remembering that I'm supposed to have a big task lined up with a...'friend' I made here some time back."  At that moment, he realized something and sighed.  "Damn it.  I believe I was supposed to meet him today for that very job."  Koudai groaned quietly and set his face in his hand.  "Tokiyo will be quite sore with me, I fear."

                As he gathered up a few devices he'd been working on in the lab, the ground shook slightly, surprising both Koudai and his companion.  "Makkura-san, did you feel that?"  Following the gentle-yet-noticeable quake, something with either power or reiatsu that made even his sort-of "business partner" seem like nothing but a fly radiated through the area, forcing even the normally-placid Shinigami lab worker to leap to his feet.  "What the hell was that?!"

                Koudai's face twitched in concern as he opened up his sleeveless "jacket" and set his hand on his zanpakuto.  "I don't rightly know."  The old man's frank admission worried the other Shinigami.  "But I need to leave now to see to this."  As Koudai turned to leave, he looked over to his partner.  "I know I don't have any real power here, but do me a favor and try to keep the rest of our little Division calm.  This isn't a time for any of us to panic."  Unfortunately for the other Shinigami, Koudai continued as he left.  "Unless I return with a reason to panic, that is."

                With that, Koudai left in a hurry, leaving the other Shinigami to feel nothing but fear given Koudai's lack of humor in his statement.

***

                The old man wasn't about to admit to his lab partner that he was outright terrified by what they'd both felt.  He was running out to look at what felt like would be his death.  As he began to lament the situation, not to mention draw his zanpakuto, he stopped dead in his tracks, meeting up with a rather large group of Shinigami.  Among their numbers was a face he'd recognized, but rather than call the younger man over, Koudai opted instead to hold his zanpakuto at the ready and wait out this unusual, fear-inducing threat.  The object spinning in the air, while itself not that grand in scale, was putting out power that far exceeded Koudai's expectations.

                As he scrutinized the spinning object -was it a disc?  A sphere, possibly?-, Koudai was terrified to watch it come down to the ground off in the distance.  This was already frightening to him, but then the object detonated.  A blinding flash precluded any sort of noise, which was deafening in the extreme.  Fire racing across the country side, well off in the distance, worried him.  It was only then that something else regarding his meeting with Tokiyo came to mind: he was to meet his compatriot in the Rukongai.

                Despite the fact that everyone in the area, himself included, lost hope upon witnessing this, Koudai couldn't help but force himself to move.  He went racing headlong in the direction of the explosion, caring none if any followed him, and honestly very little if he survived.  What the hell did some idiot do?!  Are they trying to kill us all?!  Koudai momentarily freaked out as he realized that what's going on had no bearing on what he was meant to meet with Tokiyo for.  Damn it to hell!  What's going on here?!

Word Count: 900

GP Earned: 18

OOC: My apologies for being so late with this.  Unfortunately, my recent diagnosis with a concussion kind of threw a crimp in my ideas.  However, while I forgot what I'd originally conceptualized, I'm at least confirming my presence with this post.  Once I regain some semblance of what was supposed to originally have done, things will pick up appropriately.

Reima had been out on one of his rare sojourns to the Rukongai districts when he saw the ball hanging in the sky, and knew what it was... or, rather, he knew that it was kido. He could sense it in his bones, but he didn't know exactly what kind it was. He tried to keep away from it as much as possible during the time that it was up there, and only kept it in the back of his mind. He was sure that it was something being tested by his comrades in the third division and he didn't want to be anywhere near it when it went off. However, when he heard the cries of people behind him, he turned back to look at it, and felt something click in the back of his head. It was...sinking. This wasn't controlled, there was no elegance to the way that it was going down, it was... out of control. It was like someone had thrown it, but as the gigantic ball of energy shone down over a nearby district, he suddenly decided that standing where he was was probably a bad idea.

"Get off the streets!" he called out to the people that were still out there shopping. Many of them followed his instructions and ran back to their homes, some even leaving the streets for some safety in the alleyway, but for him... he merely jumped behind the counter of one of the nearby stalls as the blast hit. The buildings that were between him the crash itself blinded his view of what actually happened, he didn't know what was going on, but he could hear blasting wind all the way down the high-street. Looking around the corner from his makeshift defense, he could see baskets that people had dropped in their hurry to get home flying down the street. That might have sounded like it was nothing, but they were over five districts away from the damned thing. That was like a city and a half away from it... he had a bad feeling about what was going on.

Nonetheless, he concentrated his spirit energy and felt the world around him fade away before it was finally reasserted, his position secured on the edge of the area of effect... or, as best explained, the blast crater. His eyes opened in shock and horror as he saw what had happened... it felt like being on Pompeii after the lava was gone. He couldn't understand, he didn't understand, THAT WASN'T FUCKING POSSIBLE! He knew Kido when he saw it, he was in Division Three for fuck's sake, he knew kido better than almost anyone else, and that belonged to a Shinigami.

Tasting the air that still quaked with spirit energy, he knew that taste. He'd only seen it a few times, but it was from one of his patients so it wasn't like he was going to forget. He felt a certain amount of bile rise up in his throat in protest to what was going on. Tokiyo, you... what did you do?! This wasn't how it was supposed to be, this wasn't how things were supposed to be, this wasn't how everything was supposed to be... An empty, mirthless laughter seemed to force itself out of his throat, this was a full on fucking massacre!!! 

---

"Don't you think this would be a more appropriate atmosphere to discuss the social change you wish for? I'm offering to give you the keys. You'll be the man who handled the traffic, you will know best what to do with the Rukongai as you will be the expert. You won't need military force, you won't need to spill a single drop of blood, you'll just need to be there. This world. All yours. I'll hand it over to you...with butterflies. Now, doesn't that sound like something agreeable to you?...or are you going to ask 'why me'? I told you. I'm a travesty but I'm a very powerful travesty. I handle the dirty work, you get the prize." This wasn't just the Rukongai, this was his! He was supposed to be the guardian of these streets, of these people that.. that... how many people died here? He was asked by Jomyaku to look after it, he was one of the nobles that were supposed to rule over it, he was their leader by right! 

"It's not an exaggeration to say that we might, eventually, have a full scale massacre on our hands." He'd... he'd seen it coming! He didn't want to admit it, but he had! That entire conversation with Hareyakana... Hareyakana! The council!! This was horrific, this was disgusting, but in a sick and twisted way it was also absolutely perfect! This was the best way that this could have happened - people were going to die eventually anyway, the more insubordination that the villagers were allowed to get away with, the more that people were going to assume they could just do anything they wanted and the more they'd attack the Reapers out of blind fear that they were one of the corrupt ones.

Eventually they'd have had to do a massacre to put down any feelings of rebellion, but now.. now it was proven that the Soul Reapers were able to do this much destruction by accident, nobody was ever going to have to spill another drop of blood! They had to handle this perfectly, or this opportunity was going to be wasted. He could mourn the pointless loss of such a large amount of lives later, now he had to save twice as many people died here or it would have all been for nothing! This was a stupid accident now, a modern-day chernobyl, but with the right spin doctor... this could be what saved the Rukongai from its own humanity. Looking around for a moment to check that nobody was looking at him as he displayed his power, he vanished in a small puff of reiatsu, buried underneath the mountain of Tokiyo's own, like a smoke-screen masking his entrance and exit.

---

When someone appears in front of someone when they're in the middle of their office, you might expect them to have the common decency to knock first. Reima, on any other day, might have done the usual thing and preserved at least a little bit of the niceties that nobles were expected to regard each other with. Except, the fact of the matter was that now was not the time for niceties. The time for niceties had long since passed, now this was the time for making sure that everyone didn't use this as a chance to rise up against the Soul Reapers as a bunch of clumsy idiots. So, with a puff of energy, he appeared in her quarters.

Since it was afternoon, he had assumed that she wouldn't be that busy. It might have been somewhat of a selfish assumption, but he wasn't currently in the mood to think about other people, now he was just trying to get through this without making any more major fuck ups. As he appeared in the middle of the office, his outward appearance in no way matched his interior turmoil right now. He had been caught on a day that he was out of uniform, wearing a green military long-coat and a white shirt and jeans combination underneath that made him look entirely unprofessional. Still, the time that he had spent away from her had put almost three years on his face, giving him a slightly older, more debonair look than when they had last seen each other. 

As he tried to explain what was going on, he felt the words come out without him being able to control their speed. It was almost like verbal diarrhea."Yakana, everyone is dead. Everyone is fucking dead. There is a massacre, an entire district just got slaughtered by some clumsy bastard who wasn't watching what he was doing with a kido. I still can't quite believe what's going on, but those are the facts.  Everyone is fucking dead, and we're going to miss this if you don't get up!" With that, not caring whether or not she was interested in this new venture, he grabbed her hand in a way that was as unromantic as it could possibly be, connecting a bridge of body contact, before they both disappeared, reappearing on the edge of the blast zone once more. 

For all intents and purposes she should have been in the labs or at her desk taking notes and annotating books, that was what one did when they were at their Division headquarters. Or perhaps she ought to have been training, covered in sweat and barely clothed so as to better her physical abilities. Maybe she would have been if she didn't firmly believe that honing the spiritual aspect of things was equally important to both of the aforementioned activities. So, as Reima Tanaka's eventual luck would have it, she was in her room in the Fourth Division, her legs crossed and her wrists resting easily on her knees while her eyes remained closed.

She was not dressed fancy, no, not by any means. Today Hareyakana wore her black, somewhat stretchy, pants, a tight scarlet t-shirt that had a neckline resting just beneath her collar bone, and her thin, black trench coat that hung all the way to her ankles while the sleeves went to mid-bicep. Despite the fact that she was inside, she did have on her  Her pure white hair lay flat down her back, as she never did anything with it. Had her eyes been opened, they would have shown the river-like grey-blue quality of her gaze, with it's frozen appearance. Then again, had her icy eyes been open she wouldn't have been meditating.

Thereby, she wouldn't have been in the midst of a snowy forest, with icicles hanging from leaf-less tree branches and in the presence of a woman who thoroughly terrified her. Which was a feat. The girl was only an inch taller than her and yet was wholly more intimidating, the ferocity in her pastel purple eyes something that made Kana's heart skip a beat. Right at that moment, the short, tan woman was wearing a black band-like bra and a pair of low rise blue jeans. What sort of inner spirit wore blue jeans? Touketsu of course... her wildly electric blue hair fluttered around her torso as if to make up for the fact that she was in such mundane clothing. Nothing was less mundane than that stare, though.

"you're a fucking idiot..." The exotic woman said, despite the fact that Kana had done nothing to offend her. In fact they had only been conversing about the power of her Shikai. The pros and cons of course. Because talking to the Zan spirit about the weaknesses of the blade and the power it contained was the smart thing to do?

"I am not, it'd be great if you could not call me an idiot for once? Honestly... we've had this conversation a thousand times..." Was Kana's response, her eyes narrowing at the other woman.

"what does it matter? We've had the other conversation a thousand times too, you know full well what the extent of the power is and yet you insist on arguing this point, hence, you're a fucking idiot." The spirit's response came easily, every word and bored sort of bite. Touketsu hated repetitive conversations.

Kana opened her mouth again to speak but didn't get a single syllable out, her physical body felt a shaking rumble, sensed something off. It had her slipping back to her body, leaving behind the freezing forest and its exotic inhabitant. The spirit didn't protest, thankfully, she wasn't sure she'd have enjoyed Touketsu's protests echoing through her head as she attempted to figure out what had happened. However, even as her eyelids fluttered open, the Tanaka boy was there. There was no knock at the door, no sort of announcement of his presence, there wasn't even any action of the door... he just appeared before her eyes. He didn't even say hello, simply spouting off the reason for his sudden appearance.

"Yakana, everyone is dead. Everyone is fucking dead. There is a massacre, an entire district just got slaughtered by some clumsy bastard who wasn't watching what he was doing with a kido. I still can't quite believe what's going on, but those are the facts.  Everyone is fucking dead, and we're going to miss this if you don't get up!"

Dead people? There were dead people? A massacre? Hadn't he mentioned the possibility of a massacre not horridly long ago? Hadn't they both mentioned the necessity of fear and respect? Her curiosity piqued and she was rising even before he finished his statement, the movement swift and yet entirely graceful. She didn't get to move from her spot, though, as he suddenly was grabbing her hand, catching her by surprise. She wasn't surprised often but the unexpected presence of his hand had her blinking before her room disappeared, her breath catching in her chest as she was caught at by the way it felt to be teleported. She had never been teleported before so it was a first and it was an incredibly dizzying experience. Nothing could have prepared her for the way it felt to be caught up by space and then suddenly be somewhere else.

What she saw when they appeared at this other destination was, for lack of better word, desolation. It was a crater. The earth was blackened and dusty and the Rukongai was... ruined. It was horrifying. Utterly horrifying. How many had died here? How many lives had been lost in this blast? It had been a Shinigami who'd caused this destruction, Kido, she'd been informed. Her brain, her wonderful brain, the part of her body that she prided herself on the very most... stalled. For a minute, no more, but it stalled. Her processing abilities simply couldn't encompass the destruction present. The way her eyes were wide made this fact fairly evident, whether Reima was there or not, she couldn't have made her brain work any faster.

When it finally kick-started, that crucial just- before- a- minute mark, she blinked multiple times and turned towards Reima. "A Shinigami did this? All of this? It's a massacre..." Her voice never rose above that cool level she maintained, but now that her brain was working again it was going a hundred million miles an hour. It was a massacre! This was their perfect opportunity, as terrible as the destruction was. They hadn't had to kill people, injure them even. No. They got to be the saints and only the saints, those wise people that came down from the hill and helped the common folk. This was their moment. It was a terrible, horrible event... but this... she and Reima could work with this. No doubt.

"Reima, we need to see how the people at the edges of the blast zone fared. You're the one who practically lives in a Hospital, lead and I'll follow. It's time to play Saint Noble," her gaze darted from his towards the destruction, wondering how anybody could live if they were even a little close to this. When her gaze fixed on his again there was a set sort of determination.

Word Count: 1,155

GP Gained: 23

Total GP: 23

As much as he didn't plan to be, the young Shinigami of the First Division ended up, “leading,” his peers in their expedition to bring order back to the Rukon districts. On his own call, order in the districts closer to the Seireitei had been momentarily put on the back burner so that the districts that needed it most could benefit from whatever order the Shinigami of the First Division could bring.

With that in mind, a wide swath of Shinigami stormed throughout Rukongai using the very roofs of the buildings as their personal stepping stones. Fanning out, a Shinigami here or there would be dispatched to tend to someone who had been wounded in the chaos while others dropped out to, “oversee,” the affairs of a local area until more official help could make it. To Katsu, this whole scene was fairly gruesome and downright scary, despite its specific lack of combat for he and his men.

“You and you,” Katsu said to the Shinigami flanking him – one male and one female – while gesturing to a pile of downed houses. They weren't downed as a result of the explosion, as it was still quite a ways away from their current location. Rather, it seemed they were downed by an opportunist of sorts. A crooked and twisted individual who used the panic and confusion to their advantage. Perhaps someone had plundered the home and rent it asunder after they got what they felt they were, “entitled,” to? Considering their current location – the bowels of Rukongai where houses were simpler and simpler – it wouldn't be too difficult of a fear. Kick a support or two down and the entire thing'd come toppling down.

“I'll continue forward; investigate the rubble,” he ordered. Or whatever it was that someone of equal rank did to their peers. Delegated, perhaps? They didn't have to listen, but they did without question. And so the group of ever shrinking men and women of the First continued their expedition deeper still into the intestines of the Wandering Soul City.

Tasks had been delegated left and right and before long, the group of Shinigami that had once easily numbered a single hundred had been depleted to just a handful; four, including Katsu. The four of them had a lot of work to do, too, it seemed, for they were only a few short miles from where the blast had a physical impact. True as it was the blast itself hadn't touched where Katsu and his allies were standing, the aftermath itself – the wind and residual energies – had, unfortunately, laid claim to this territory. It was here where people had been harmed as a direct result of what had happened. It was here people laid about with scorch marks dressing their near naked bodies. It was here trees had fallen on houses and crushed young men, women and children. It was here where the pained moans of those who still lived would echo through the very souls of any sane man who just happened to have their ears invaded by the depressing chorus.

It was here he was needed.
And so, without words... without delegation... without thinking, the remaining men and women of the First Division began to restore order. To do so in such an area wasn't simple in the least: rescue those who need rescuing before all else and get them to safety and begin a brief cleanup. It would be hard, taxing work both physically and emotionally. As the efforts went underway, the young Shinigami silently cursed himself for neglecting his Kaidō all these years. It was a skill he could definitely put to use at this very moment. Instead, he was forced to rely on more rudimentary forms of doctoring someone up: laborous work with splints and uncertainty.

As the four of them worked, Katsu's spiritual senses became attuned to two pressures, neither of which he recognized. One was quite vast indeed – on par, perhaps, with the Captains themselves though whom it belonged to was not one of such a rank (as Katsu would recognize the pressure) – while the other seemed to be greatly diminished by the other. Difficult to detect and accurately judge, though Katsu suspected they were around his own level.

They seemed to be heading in his direction, too.
That was a good thing, right?

It was so bizarre, a weirdness that could not be attached to words, to be running towards the sun with a brighter one shining at your back.  His shadow was in front of him as he faced East and the waves of reiatsu were buffeting him as his geta clopped against the dried earth.

The energy was...more glorious than he ever could have imagined, flooding the countryside in alternating shades of iridescent crimsons, greens, blues, and purples.

Silence.

A moment of terror gripped Tokiyo as the tide of reiatsu stopped and the rays of light had come almost even with the ground.  Detonation.

He heard nothing.  Saw only light.  He could already feel the soul-searing consumption of energy at the blast’s source and knew it was only a matter of milliseconds before his debt to hubris would come due.

Up ahead, one island in the stream of power stood out.  His Captain?
 

She was racing towards the blast as an unrecognizable blur ; she must have been flooding her legs with every ounce of energy she could muster.  But why?  To try to stop the blast?  Surely she had to know that it was a fool’s errand to try to reach ground zero before it went off.

He drew breath to warn her.  To stop her.  Anything he could do to get her attention and prevent her from walking into the madness he had unleashed behind him but-

She came for him instead.

“Ca-...” he no sooner formed the word in his mouth then she grabbed him by the waist and covered him.

Had he passed out?

Tokiyo remembered nothing of the next few minutes.  Ultimately, it might have been merciful, but he wanted to see his mistake.  To know how badly he had misconstrued and miscalculated.  To witness the order of magnitude that was his failure.  Instead there was his Captain’s face, standing staunchly over him, as close to an angel from Heaven as Tokiyo was ever likely to see.

She saved him.  And aside from a few sunburns and some sun-bleached clothing, perhaps just a little crispy around the edges, she appeared mostly unharmed.

Everything still moved ; he was conscious and alive, and his Captain appeared to be as well.  Silence filled the air around them, aside from the bitter reply of the wind that had been displaced, returning with a dry howl to assert its ownership over the air he had dared to push around.

He imagined he would have some explaining to do.  Thankfully, Kiriko would be the first person he should expect to want answers.

“Are you alright, Captain?”  He spoke his sternly concerned whisper, almost afraid for the answer, like asking the question might shatter them both.  “Please tell me you’re okay?”

Word count // 458 = 9 || 35

((Timeline-wise, I had imagined Koudai to arrive on the scene at the end of Kiriko's next reply, and any other subsequent arrivals to the scene would occur after Koudai's entry.  Please go to the meta-game thread if you need to discuss post order)

She had no time for prayers, even if Kiriko had been the spiritual sort. She'd given up on that kind of thing anyway, it wasted breath when you needed all the oxygen you could get in a life or death situation. Instead she utilized her body, curling her arms around Fujikagi and shoving his head beneath her shoulder. She was a lot more durable then he was, and even so she couldn't be sure that would be enough. Those were the only thoughts that rattled through her head, calm and calculated despite their impending doom – before the explosion rocketed everything around her and her vision went white.

Coming to a mere second and a half later, Kiriko blinked repeatedly as the sunburst began to fade from the edges of her sight. She could feel the firmness of her Lieutenant beneath her, intact, and the rest of her body seemed to tingle with sensation. Whether that was real or the aftereffects of being blasted into bits though she couldn't ascertain, shock tended to do that to a body losing too much blood. Luckily Kiriko's sight returned at about the same time as her legs and arms unlocked themselves from their iron grip as she pulled upward slightly to survey both herself and her subordinate.

Limbs shaking from exhaustion, she listed to the left before centering her weight on all fours. Her entire body felt like it had been battered with n iron rod, but other then the contusions she was blessedly whole. And so was Fujikagi, who appeared to be regaining consciousness right about then. Letting her weight pull her body backwards into a crouched seating position, Kiriko scanned the surrounding area with her head low. The damage from the Kido was immense, but she didn't imagine whoever had set it off would have been so stupid as to do so without their own defense. Whatever had done this was still out there, potentially targeting her Lieutenant as well.

He shakily opened his eyes, blurry irises wandering around for a moment before settling on Kiriko's face. Did he have a concussion? There wasn't time for a medical assessment, and she brushed off his concern, more worried about the man's apparent lack of control. “Everything is fine Fujikagi-san, but we need to locate whoever set off that Kido before they do further harm.” Reaching out with her senses she scoured the area, but the air was full of ozone and Fujikagi's reiatsu, an odd mix that made bile rise in her throat. Had he tried to stop the explosion himself? That would explain all of the energy roiling around them. Somehow, she already knew the truth, but Kiriko refused to consider it as she turned back to her downed Lieutenant.  

WC: 458 | GP: 9 | Total GP: 24

OOC - Sorry for the wait!

It had been a very long time since Captain Jomyaku had felt any degree of interest in the Soul Society's denizens as they were all a habitually dull folk. They ran from point to point, task to task, job to job with the sincerity of a unrequited man pursuing the object of his lusts mislabeled as affections; always so energetic as if they had some importance in the scheme of the world or of his. Sometimes he liked to watch the headless chickens from the windows for although they certainly had direction they were still very much lacking in intelligence and autonomy. In his monstrous days he'd suggested that perhaps the Soul Reaper requires orders and a leader to find purpose. As a Captain he no longer suggested and preened his prideful feathers in a nest built entirely soundly of facts. They were chickens and he was a much larger bird of prey directing and observing their flow with rarely anymore interest than a man has for livestock or a critic has for beauty. He recalled a particularly scathing review of his work as a boy in long gone English times...he had experienced the sensation of a butcher trying to cut open the heart of a subject matter he did not comprehend and rather than cleaving out the choice meats was left with a pile of broken organs and bone. He hoped his own sight was not so angled from his mark.
 
The unlikely possibility that it was did very little to persuade him. If this little world did not run solely on leadership and command then it was running of a half pound of pixie dust and the ground feet of a unicorn for all he could discern. In much the same way he disagreed with those high-minded people in their studies, wherein they proved to be not only a waste of soul but also of whatever intellect they have managed to tear out from their tomes, he disagreed with the purposeless soldier or the ideal of such. A mercenary was a useless man who bore a sword because he knew nothing of a soul and its loyalties. So here they were now. Shinigami had become a race of mindless blades or mindless men who wielded them...so much work had to be done before they were ready to be useful to himself and the world at large. He held hope for some of the duller but more talented men in his view, most especially the ones who played the part he gave them with as little protest as possible.
 
Fujikaji was one such person though the previous remark about his intelligence likely meant he was not aware of either part of Umi's opinion of him. Shinigami had an odd habit of coorelating talent with Kido with intelligence and this struck him oddly considering an intelligent man was one who never drew his sword to begin with and could decide a battle without arms...or at least the physical and conventional sort. A man who can find a way to end conflict without bloodshed was truly and sincerely the most intelligent type of man in the whole of creation...because that would make them smarter than himself since he failed to see such an option. Anyone wiser than himself must then, by definition, have been intelligent in a sphere from which he had never taken the train to or even viewed. The world must have looked very funny and dim from within it though for reasons he failed to find or think upon. 
 
The Royals certainly were not so bright.
 
Still, all this talk about ideas and thoughts were not actions. The actions he was currently untaking were much less idyllic of kind. It seemed, although he was not certain, that he was out in the Rukongai and beholding an immense wall of fire...black. His. The whole ring erupted without action or hint from him as he beheld an area of land that had been struck by the blast and was currently getting...what was the phrase...out of control? What a ridiculous thing to say. Humans and their derivative souls were incapable of considering, in an emergency, the idea that things beyond THEIR control were not beyond the very idea itself. So it was that Captain Jomyaku was putting things under his control and corralling the damages and flames beneath a carved out circle of mass many miles larger than any reasonable spirit should've been able to cover or contain. Of course, the idea of reason was comparable to the idea of control he'd put forth only moments before...
 
The signatures of a few actual Shinigami worth any bit of attention were now contained within the thing but he wasn't concerned. If they weren't bright enough to know not to touch a wall of black fire then they weren't worth keeping alive. The wall would come down when he was certain that the spell used had no lasting side effects; the very last thing he wanted to deal with right now was a Hollow outbreak because of Tokiyo's inability to read the fine print on any spell ever written. It was so fine it was actually unwritten and Umi had just come upon it by merit of not lacking a brain stem: proceed with caution. Caution had not been taken here. If he'd wanted to try something like that out he could've taken it to Earth and used one of their bomb testing sites where they had already come up with a perfect and harmless place for testing mass destruction. 
 
The man sighed aloud as he struck a cigarette against the wall, sparks replaced with a thick foggy sort of ember which had the same effect of lighting the thing.
 
He didn't smoke.
 
There was a man in familiar black robes held beneath his feet and he pushed it into the man's temples as he screamed louder than he had been doing prior...what with the blows to the back he'd been giving him.
 
The Captain stepped off of him and snapped his fingers at the air, commanding the space to do exactly what he wanted and take him elsewhere or the consequences would be dire even for an abstract concept...
 
"If you ever tell me what to do again boy I'll come back and rip your tongue out until you've learned to keep hold of it. Damage control. I don't care whose behind the wall now, they'll come out when I'm damn well ready to let them out and if you were so fond of your lady you probably should've taught her basic survival skills. If you go trying to walk through there too screaming nonsense about 'my baby' and 'why didn't you just move the wall of fire AROUND the children' then you're going to find a very similar rest as a pile of nothing but ashes. I'm not in the business of kindness, I'm in the business of efficiency. You would better yourself by leaps and bounds to recall that the next time you open your mouth around me."
 
Umi muttered something to himself about the Kido probably making zombies and that zombie children needed to be purged anyways before walking through one point and entering another where he could see the man who was getting all of the attention at the current moment. Apparently from his Captain as well, how odd. He wouldn't have assumed that the Kinslayer's pet project would've been possessed of any sense of ownership over her subordinates. Perhaps it was genuine affection? All the odder although not too odd. She was, after all, a woman and thus subject to weaknesses of the heart and mind as he had studied extensively in his free time in book stores and coffee shops. One came to expect these sorts of things. It didn't matter to him though what her concern was because he had a very powerful impression that once his spiritual pressure was known to be in such close proximity she would have to address him and not the Fujikaji-shaped thing...
 
Captain Jomyaku was not entirely prepared to rule out zombies yet. Hadou was exceptionally odd.
 
Umi spoke curtly and swiftly. "I have two things to say: a demand and a second, more forceful, demand. The first is that I am billing the Second Division for a PR agent. I burned down an orphanage. No questions. The second..."
 
His tone shifted in a way that would very likely be unsettling to the other Captain but which would be, he hoped, very good at getting someone who had heard it before to do exactly as they were told unless they wanted what followed.
 
Tokiyo Fujikaji did not APPEAR to be a masochist who enjoyed stabbings so he felt safe in the assumption that he would do what he was told.
 
"You're going to repeat the spell in a very short timeframe, the most 'not pushing my patience' time frame you can muster, and you are going to fire it at me and if you open your mouth to say anything that isn't an incantation..."
 
He paused and smiled, "I will be very displeased with you Fujikaji."

[Growth Points | +31]

[Total GP | 31]

A dry cough.  Then another.  A short puff of dust dicked up from under his face where Tokiyo had been ‘pinned’ against the ground.  His eyes fluttered open, remaining squinted, trying to vain to shield themselves from the harsh sunlight boring down on him.

A shadow moved in front of the sun, dark and feminine in shape.

He heard her talking, a concerned voice searching for answers, but it was washed out by the ringing in his ears.  Slowly, he propped himself up and made the arduous climb to his feet, with dust clinging to his robes and tattered patches of partially burnt clothing still smoking faintly.

Tokiyo hadn’t felt another person for...miles, yet here his Captain was.

How the hell did she make it here that quickly?  How in the three world did she close that distance so fast?

The Kido kept every ounce of his attention once it was in motion.  So much of it, in fact, that he had no idea how long the thing actually took to rise into the sky or fall back down to the ground.  It could have been ten minutes, which was plenty of time for someone with a practiced and talented Shunpo to cover miles.  But it felt like it was little more than a blink…

One moment he was reciting that phrase he had practiced one thousand times, the next moment he was running for his life while his rickety bones tried to escape the hammer of fate that they had invoked, directly over his head.

And then Kiriko.

Even though he hadn’t heard her words explicitly, he knew why she was desperately searching the area around them.  Snakebitten might be the way to word it, between the visit from The King, Miki’s brutal exit, and the recent events in Karakura Town, everyone was more than on edge and whatever ability even someone as perceptive as Kiriko might have had to step back and look at the evidence was compromised by the paranoia such loss brings.

The answer was right in front of her.

His heart pounded in his head ; there was no sense in trying to conceal anything from her and he needed to just get it over with.

“It was an accident, Captain.”  He couldn’t even look at her.  He forced himself to meet her eyes as she no doubt braced herself for the shock of what she knew he was about to say.  “It was me.  I did it…”

Tokiyo had no sooner finished exhaling after his confession then the space warped near them and Captain Jomyaku Umi’s overbearing reiatsu emerged from a hole in space.  He froze, if only for a moment, knowing that the arrival of yet another Captain meant that he had so gravely miscalculated the scope of his experiment that it drew the attention of people far beyond his pay grade, well before he was ready for it to.  The cat was out of the bag.  And Tokiyo didn’t know how either Kiriko or Umi felt about cats.

Before Kiriko could react to the commands of the Captain of the Sixth, Tokiyo swallowed the lump in his throat and faced the order.  He dropped to his knees, the sweat already forming on his brow as he immediately felt the pressure of the demand.  Casting that Hado was nothing short of a monumental effort on his part and he never even considered rapid-firing the thing, let alone attempted to practice the act.

He took his middle and index finger and traced the kanji in the dried, cracked dirt before him, muttering the incantation quietly to himself as he dug down into the well inside him, preparing to cast it again.

7太陽の説教

The character surrounded him ; two in front, two behind, and one on each cardinal side.  He eyed Jomyaku and squared up his own body with the Captain’s.  He closed his eyes and once again began reciting the incantation.

"A second sun, o monks,

impermanent, non-eternal.

Vanish, cease to be,

a third sun appears and dry up

the ponds and streams.

Fourth sun with the bayed rivers and lakes,

constituent things!

Emancipate from your surely bonds.

The six fan palms, monarch of mountains,

blow your smoke and fire.

Neither ashes nor soot remains,

shine from the Sixth Sun.

Great Earth, fire and flame

rise and become one mass.

Burn.  Consume.  Perish."

As he pronounced the final words, a small, blue orb of iridescent light seemed to gain mass and appear out of the ether in front of Tokiyo.  It grew in size and became increasingly opaque until it rivaled a beach ball in size and the area began to crackle with with both a literal and figurative energy of anticipation.  He raised his hands and stood up, holding the orb of light in front of him, carefully steadying its bulk as if it may fall off the table and break at any moment.  Small streams of light and miscellaneous dots of energy began to drift inward, towards the sphere, gathering together some of the residual reiatsu from the scene of the first experiment.

The orb had been rotating, but at such a low frequency that it was scarcely noticeable.  It picked up speed.  Its surface began to quiver and bend, flatten and shake, like a giant blob of blue jello.  With one step forward and a push of his hand, Tokiyo released the Kido towards the Captain.

He found himself considering that, when this thing did finally make contact, it might be best if it took him with it. There was no way to be certain which would be worse ; Giving Captain Jomyaku Umi what he wanted, or failing to.  At this distance, it might not matter.

Word count // 954 = 19 || 54