The Deal [Closed]

The First Division was as bustling as ever. Many people liked to disparage the Shinigami who ended up in these hallowed halls. Half-wits. Undisciplined. Unfocused. It was true that they tended to be well rounded instead of focused on a singular trait to perfection, but Kiriko had never been deluded into thinking that that was any less worthy of the title Shinigami then the other divisions. Not every battle could be won with the same shape of tool, and sometimes it took various types of abilities and skills to come to the best conclusion. Interdisciplinary skill sets should be encouraged when possible.

Eying the pristine white walls, she took another turn and worked her way unerringly towards her target. If only the secretary scurrying in her wake realized how well Kiriko really knew these hallways, she wouldn't be so timidly giving directions. Kiriko didn't have time for nerves though, or for kindness, so she merely nodded towards the harried recruit and stepped into the training yard.

Ine intercepted her the moment she set foot in the filtered sunlight, his casual walk curving alongside her before heading deeper into the compound. Without a word Kiriko tucked herself into his shadow, ignoring the gathered Shinigami or their startled whispers. She had a prickly reputation, it stood to reason that they were somewhat surprised for her to seek their leader out of her own free will. Little did they know that someone like herself would never allow her personal feelings of like or dislike to effect her job or duties.

They walked for only a short while before entering a slender and unoccupied hall. Whatever nerves she had originally harbored seemed to find her stomach an inhospitable place because Kiriko straightened at her Captain Commander's words and launched directly into her reason for coming. “I have intelligence that Miyazawa Ai is currently residing within Karakura Town. I am here to ask for your permission to lift the ban on her return to Soul Society and to redact her status as a rebel.”

No use throwing in her cards when she didn't even know what his response would be. Kiriko left it at that and waited patiently. She knew that Ine was involved personally in the whole Mitsutaka take over, but would he hold that against Miyazawa or would he see reason and understand that her expertise was the most important thing right now?

WC: 400 | GP: 8 | Total GP: 19

Kenshou was surprised to hear that Kiriko had such an interest in the former Captain Commander, Ai Miyazawa. The woman had fled to Karakura and been there ever since Lancelot had forced her from her position as Captain Commander. While he disliked that she gave up so simply he understood it had been to avoid the bloodshed of many in the Gotei, a civil war would have been devastating.
 
"Awwww, Ai Miyazawa. I haven't seen her since my time in Karakura." The thought that she had been seen again and after taking such pains to hide herself, either she was slipping or wanted to be found. He had forgotten that Ai was considered a rebel still and to be brought in if possible. Then again he doubted that anyone could bring her in besides himself and he had no desire. Kenshou felt she had deserved her time away and that when she decided to come back she would. He would not force the woman to come back any sooner.
 
"Last time we spoke, you commented on my personal demons. Ironically it's quite close to the truth. I wore a mask for so long, to keep myself from knowing what I was capable but it was fragile. Enough so that a single prick in the wall that blocked out what I was and cracks appeared throughout, small bits of the truth sliding through and grasping hold." It was time to at least come clean about who he really was, if it was in the open he would no longer wish to hide the truth of who he was.
 
Kenshou was no longer the same easy going, eternally happy man he was not so long ago. The man who would constantly genuinely laugh and enjoy the tit and tat that often happened between him and those he knew. It was time he move on and ensure that he did not end up like Artix and Hikari, he had to plan for the event that he ended up like his brother and sister. Kenshou stepped towards the door and opened it up. "Suiren I know you're there, so make yourself useful and go fetch a set of sealed folders from my desk."
 
Kenshou heard the light thud of feet hitting the ground and then the rapid pitter patter of the small girl moving to fulfill his request. On her return he grabbed the folders and motioned for her to leave him alone with Kiriko. He turned around and shut the door behind him, walking towards Kiriko he handed her the sealed folders. "I've made these specifically for you and these are in part why you were chosen to replace me. In the first folder is the undoctored account of what really happened to Artix Von Craig. He did die, yes, but not in the way that was given as the official account. Artix is what has been coined as a Vaizard, better known as a half-breed. A Vaizard is the flip side to the coin that is the Arrancar, a being that is infested with a hollow soul. In short Artix was consumed by this soul and became the monster Erasmus."
 
"The second folder contains the details on a project conducted by the Central-46 before they were slaughtered. Project V was used to create what I can only guess was the first set of half breeds. The project had a goal of creating something similar to Arrancar that would be able to be ruthless in their desire to exterminate all hollow breeds. Artix was the initial point of infection and from there it spread infecting three individuals. The second infected individual is dead and no longer poses a threat. The third and final individual is the most dangerous threat to the Seireitei that I currently know of. Each of these three individuals was and are prone to bouts of insanity, delusion, violent tendencies, and depression."
 
Kenshou paused letting the wealth of information settle in her mind, up until now something of this nature had to be impossible in her mind.  Now not only was she being told it was true and possible, but she had even served with one of these monsters herself. Now Kenshou planned on explaining the last bit of information and letting her know her own part in all of this.
 
"The final individual, the one who poses the most danger is myself. Maybe three to four people in all the Gotei know this secret. The reason I tell you is those who do know would not be able to do anything about it should I follow the same path as those before me. I can't say for certain that I will become a danger, but the possibility exists. I chose you to succeed me, because you will have to determine if I become a threat to the Gotei. If that happens you will need to do your duty to the Gotei and kill me, I don't doubt you won't hesitate if the need arises. You should know that if you don't come with the intent to kill me then you will die. That side of me is based on the pure natural instinct of a hollow."
 
The truth was told and now he would see how she would react. She could run with such information and tell the rest of the captains and they could band together against him. He had a feeling she would not do such a thing, but it was possible and it was a risk he had been willing to take. One that he had determined when he had first chosen her to replace him, Kenshou waited to see what kind of response all of this garnered. It had been quite some time he had put something like this in the hands of someone else. It was almost ironic that he was unsure of his fate for once, for so long he had been sure of everything that had happened. It felt refreshing to know that if he ended up like Artix or Hikari that there was someone who would be able to make the tough decision and ensure he was taken care of. 
 
1,029 Words - 20 GP
1,681 Total Words - 33 GP 

Kiriko frowned, a furrow appearing on her forehead as she slowly looked towards the nearest door. His office, how clumsy of her to not realize where they had been going. The pitter-patter of feet from inside was even more irksome as she realized her words had not been private at all. The only soothing balm the woman received was the folder thrust in her hands and the back of that girl, Suiren, as the Shinigami strode away from the two Captains.

Kiriko remained tense, emotions coiled tightly within her, until at last she was certain that the underling was well and truly gone. With that assured, she turned her gaze sideways and up, taking in Ine's profile and his sudden sharp loss of gaiety. As much as Kiriko had wished her previous words to have weight, and as bitterly as she'd felt leaving him after their last meeting, she had never really believed herself successful in throwing in the Captain Commander's face his own ineptitude.

Not until now that was, as the man turned to look her in the eye and spoke simply of what he was going through. He had never been more honest with her before and Kiriko felt a shiver of apprehension. There had to be a hidden meaning. A justification for this truthfulness. Ine didn't trust her. She had felt as if that was the bedrock of their relationship. And yet here he was acting as if they were old friends? Admitting to his own mistakes? What was the catch?

Slowly she turned her gaze down to the folder in her hands, flicking open the manilla edge. A sudden stillness took over her body as Kiriko froze in place, her eyes flashing with poorly concealed fire. This couldn't be what she thought it was... but indeed, the first few sentences laid out a story that she had only gleaned the edges of in her entire time as head of the best intelligence network in all three worlds. Central 46 and the Vaizard catastrophe.

Before Kiriko could comment on what Ine had just placed in her hands he dove straight in himself, and she straightened almost imperceptibly as the man approached his words with a forthright sort of grim determination. As if he was speaking of the end of the world. She was no longer worried about what he was hiding. The answer was obvious. Kiriko just wished she had been aware of his feelings earlier, it would have spared her a lot of misgivings. Damn her pride to hell and back.

Maybe she should act surprised. Most people didn't know about Vaizards, the name at least, and no one had had any inkling about Central 46 doing experiments. Or Captain Artix. But somehow it wasn't all that shocking, and her shared memories with Tsukimiya-taichou had given her all of his own suspicions about Ine. Unlike the Captain Commander, she had never doubted Tsukimiya. And she hadn't doubted Kohara when he had seconded the knowledge.

Kiriko had never really considered what it meant to have a Vaizard as the leader of the Shinigami. Not on the level that Ine was proposing she evaluate. For Kiriko there had always been a disconnect between herself and her “brethren.” Maybe it was the way in which she had been turned, or perhaps the nature of her own broken soul, but control had never seemed far away for her. Was it really so hard to house a normal Inner Hollow? To defeat them? To be the master of your own body? If she was in Ine's place, would she be worried too?

Because of all of these thoughts Kiriko didn't even look up at Ine as he revealed his greatest secret, and instead continued to read the file in her hands. Snapping it shut at the end, she tucked it under one arm and slowly raised her eyes towards his face, expression as deadpan as normal. “I see. I appreciate you telling me this, Ine-soutaichou. Rest assured, if I ever need to kill you, I will not fail in the task.”

There was an ugly arrogance in her words but she was not speaking from any sort of confidence in her own strength being more then his. It was something different. The thing that set her apart from him. The thing that set the Second apart from every other division. She might not be more powerful, might even lack the outright strength needed to destroy Ine-taichou were they to come to blows. But she had more discipline, and far more determination. If he lost himself to the beast inside there would be no beast holding her back. Kiriko didn't need that sort of thing to be strong herself. She was what she was at all moments and instances in time, anything less and it would be unacceptable. It was control that made her into the type of person she was, and her control was such that Kiriko refused to bend to any laws of the universe or any unseen lines in the sand.

If she was not strong enough to kill him on her first strike, she would make sure the second sufficed.

Perhaps he had been expecting some sort of blow-out, or a big upset, but the information Ine gave her settled almost neatly into the shelves of her mind and Kiriko found herself putting it away easily. She was more surprised at him telling her this then at hearing what he had to say, and if anything that was her own fault for letting her dislike of the man cloud her ability to see the truth beneath it. Ine was dedicated to the job. He might not give his all with the consistency that she would have wished for, but when it counted he was there. And that was enough for her.

“I take it from your earlier words that you have no qualms with me seeking Miyazawa-san out?” And that was it. The issue was no more. Just another tidbit of information she would keep safe and evaluate as part of the larger picture of their lives.  

WC: 1019 | GP: 10 | Total GP: 29