To Snare a Mouse [Tokiyo|Closed]

She went stiff, an acrid wash of embarrassment and rage at the implied insult as her hands tightened at her sides. Hanabi wasn’t used to being talked down to like this. At least, not when it wasn’t Kiriko doing the talking. Everyone else in the Second gave her a wide birth and at the Academy she was regarded positively for her work ethic and rising skill set. It reminded her of being a child again, under the gaze of a disapproving parent, and Hanabi ducked her head to escape that judgment even knowing she probably deserved it.

The things she did for Kiriko went well beyond selling her own soul. That woman’s claws invaded even quiet empty rooms, ensuring that there was no moment in which Hanabi didn’t know who the master was in this play. Slowly she let the tension seep away, accepting it as part of her lot in life. She rolled the emotion up tight, pressing it into a tiny square and shoving it deep down where it wouldn’t interfere with her work. Work was more important than any petty slight, especially when it was a Captain who had called her to task for her impertinence. The Captain of the Third might be Kiriko’s sworn enemy, but he was still a Captain, and she only a lowly Academy Student. If what Kiriko had told her was true, then he wouldn’t balk at putting her in jeopardy just to make a point to Kiriko.

“I… I apologize, Fujikagi-taichou. It is only that my orders with this project were very… clear.” She winced, uncomfortable with the memory. Kiriko had a timetable for these sorts of things, and Hanabi had already wasted too much time. She wasn’t eager to find herself giving a report to that monster again anytime soon with nothing but old dusty tomes memorized to show for it, so even if it was merely coincidence that Fujikagi had found her here it wouldn’t hurt to ask his advice. So long as she hid the true purpose of the project, then Kiriko might even be pleased at her subterfuge.

Not that Hanabi had any skills in that area, and just looking up at the imposing man she knew how idiotic that idea had been. She could barely lie to her classmates, let alone an authority figure as well-versed in the arts as Kiriko’s old Lieutenant. A ghostly shiver wracked her spine, but she hid it with a fluid movement forward to pluck the letter from his hands.

Scanning it Hanabi sighed, her expression drooping in visible distress. “She always does this! As if she thinks we can decipher her puzzles when most of them are really just insane…” Hanabi moaned, the complaint slipping out as if she were still in an empty room. Teeth clicking shut, she froze, and tried not to flinch. Great, just great, now he could go tell Kiriko that she was being insubordinate as well as impertinent! Of all the people to say that to!

Trying to find anything to distract from her mistake, Hanabi latched at his comment with a fervor as she folded and refolded the note. “It’s not that she has faith in my skill, I think. Uhm, so much as… I believe the internship does not specify the amount of hours one can be asked to work, you see, so… Well, that is to say, I am top of my class in Bakudo and I have done extensive study in this area, but…” Hanabi smiled weakly, the expression transforming her face from tired and lined with stress to a pale glimmer of beauty, “Honestly it might just be that she believes I have the proper motivation for the task.”

As if anyone wouldn’t when dealing with Kiriko. But Hanabi’s drive went deeper, the idea of her sister afflicted with a monstrous parasite that was slowly leeching away at her mind. It was wretched, truly terrifying, and if helping Nagi-chan meant working with Kiriko then Hanabi would make no complaints.

Hanabi paused, her hands going still on the letter as she pressed it out neat and flat atop her table. Reading it one last time, she bowed in the Captain’s direction. “The letter doesn’t say anything, sir. But I think you are right. There is no such thing as a coincidence here, and you are the foremost expert in the field, sir.” She left unsaid that this was likely a test, maybe even for both of them.

Straightening, some of the fear dropping away as she got down to business, Hanabi pulled the last of her notes free from the tangle on her desk. She smoothed them with a self-conscious hand gesture, before sliding them towards him. “I am to create a new bakudo that works with the mind and the reiatsu of the recipient. This spell, in particular, needs to be able to filter through the reiatsu and block off only parts of it while allowing the rest through, and it needs to be dormant so that it can be activated with a phrase or signal by more than just the binder themselves. Because this is a fringe side of the binding arts I have been studying the classics, but other than spells to lock away the recipient’s spiritual energy entirely or their reiatsu signature I have yet to find a template to work off of. ”

“I am sure you are now aware of Chinda-taichou’s aspirations for the afflicted among us, sir. I mean, the Vaizards… This binding would denude them entirely, cutting them off from the control of their Inner Hollow and placing up barriers in their mind to lock away even their Hollow-based abilities. For that reason, it needs to be something that will last without needing reapplication. I have looked at some of Ptolmac’s spellwork, from the third century, sir, as well as the theory of Tsudon which hypothesized the power of the circle in bakudo that would allow latent reiatsu to fuel a binding in perpetuity.”

“I thought that perhaps if you could find a way of tagging the reiatsu of a Hollow-breed, a smart enough binding would be able to seek out just the Inner Hollow’s signature to lock it away, but all of my proto-type spells have failed to latch on to that signature. I do not know if it is because of the difference between Hollows themselves and these Inner Hollows, or if it is my theory itself.” She handed over another shief of papers, waiting to see what questions the famous Kidou Master would have for her project.

On the outset, she knew it sounded fantastical, impossible even. But her research had carried her far, and Hanabi had the very outlines of an idea. Bakudo was her art, and she lived and breathed theory in the same way that other Shinigami breathed with their blade, this stage of conceptualization was exactly where she shined. But latent talent, even if it was prodigal, did not always equate to a successful binding. And the risk of a broken or flawed spell here was far too great to leave to one mind alone.

WC: 1189 | GP: 23 | Total GP: 49