settling in [closed, w/ hazuki]

Work on all fronts was proceeding according to schedule: down in the labs her staff was making excellent progress on Amaterasu, her personal study had yielded some very interesting results thus far, and even her office was starting to shape up nicely.

None of it was complete just yet, of course, but all in all, Hazuki was pleased with where it all stood. She had given the team working on her office the day off to give her some peace and quiet while she sorted out some administrative work, and for once her schedule was filled with official business.

It was early still, and so she found herself among the potted plants in one corner of her office, away from the tumultuous mess of piles upon piles of books, documents, and files. When she had met with her liaison in the Third, Enyo, it had been bad enough. Since then, the situation had somehow worsened: the stacks were higher, the mess more complete. It would take a week to get everything squared away once her desk and cabinets arrived, and she wondered just what Shun’s father was doing. She had told him specifically that she valued practicality over beauty in her furniture, but she suspected Shou Minamoto hadn’t been listening to anything but the specifications she had asked for.

She moved from plant to plant, watering each with care and checking the leaves gently for damages in much the same way a painter might inspect his paints and brushes; her interest wasn’t in gardening itself but what came after—she used parts of these plants in her ikebana, and it was important that their aesthetic qualities were preserved.

In a particularly grim sense, she supposed, she was a lot like a leatherworker tending to a herd of cows.

A muted sound outside in the hallway caught her attention and she paused, lowering the watering can and probing outwards with her mind. An unexpected side effect of her study of the composition of spiritual matter—something she fully intended to weaponize, of course—had been a slightly enhanced ability to discern things with her sixth sense. It was nothing prodigious, of course, but it was an improvement.

The figure outside appeared to be Hazuki’s first appointment for the day, and she listened intently as the girl muttered to herself, trying—and apparently failing—to calm her nerves. Hazuki had been used to a certain level of unease in people around her before, of course, but it certainly felt as though it had intensified since her promotion to executive officer. Power itself was intimidating enough, she supposed, but coupled with authority it could be truly terrifying. For Hazuki in particular, her attitude and reputation hardly helped. Most people in Seireitei, she was convinced, thought of her as a bully, and that was testament to their short-sightedness. What they couldn’t comprehend was her motivation for acting the way she did, and she doubted they ever would.

Finally, the girl outside gathered enough courage to knock, and she entered, immediately blurting out an introduction and what could most certainly be interpreted as a most embarrassing confession. Hazuki sighed, and put the watering can back on the shelf where it belonged, then turned to her subordinate.

‘What you do in your free time is none of my business, Kira, so long as you don’t break any laws. Who you fight with and whose bedroom you end up in doesn’t concern me in the slightest, and as such I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that, just as I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you muttering to yourself outside.’

Odds were Hazuki’s idea of treason differed a great deal from this girl’s.

‘But you are right in one thing. I did summon you. Close the door.’ She crossed the room and started rummaging around in one of the piles until she found what she was looking for. The personnel file she dug out was thinner than most, a testament to just how new Chie Kira was to her job, and Hazuki opened it to jog her memory. Fresh out of the Academy, already deployed to Earth once or twice, but not yet assigned to any particular department within the Fourth.

That was why she was here.

‘The Engineering department wants more people, Kira, and I’ve decided to give them you. They’re in the middle of a fairly large project at the moment and some of their long-term endeavors are finding themselves short-staffed. It’s the perfect opportunity for someone new to get their feet wet.’ She closed the file again and put it back on top of the pile she had pulled it from.

‘Unfortunately, you don’t have much choice in the matter, but in the interest of fairness, I’m going to allow you to pick which project you choose to attach yourself to, and we’re going to go down there now so you can get an idea of what you can choose from. Before we do, however, I’d like to ask you how you’re faring in the Fourth. Are you settling in?’


°847

‘You’re right,’ replied Hazuki, her gaze unflinching, ‘you are rambling.’

She was unsure whether it was because of an underlying fear of authority in general or Hazuki herself that made Kira so uneasy, but she knew full well there was very little she could do about it other than stay calm and keep her voice level. This was the Fourth, after all, and while its members were brilliant in more ways than one, they often lacked the killer instinct that one might otherwise have found in the Second or the Fifth. They were best left to their own devices, delving into the mysteries of universe from some cluttered desk. They were productive, but not in what one would call a typical soldierly way.

‘You’re not entirely inaccurate, though. At least one of those will get you in trouble with the kind of people you don’t want to get in trouble with, but I wouldn’t worry. As long as you don’t make it a habit, I’m sure nobody will mind too much.’

For a brief moment her eyes hardened, and there was a slight edge in her voice. ‘And I trust you won’t be making it a habit, Kira.’

There was no doubt as to what exactly it was Hazuki was implying, but just as she had told Rania that night in the Academy, she wasn’t in the Second. Enforcing the law wasn’t her job, and as long as no harm came of it—and Hazuki was certain a chance conversation between a mortal and a low-ranking Shinigami wouldn’t amount to anything noteworthy—there was no point in making a fuss. For now, a vague warning would suffice.

‘However, I’m pleased to hear that you’ve taken an active interest in your combat readiness. You could do a lot worse than a sparring partner from the Fifth, but these things take time. Don’t push yourself.’

The rest, Hazuki felt, she was comfortable enough to put down as harmless idiosyncrasy. Kira was a nervous girl and Hazuki could be more than a little intimidating, but there was little either of them could do about that. Hazuki’s job wasn’t to provide therapy, it was to make sure her subordinates were squared away—and squared away they would be.

‘But I’m glad to hear that your experience thus far isn’t too different from most other Shinigami. Adjusting is a process, and taking your mind off it should help a great deal.’ Kira struck Hazuki as precisely the type that would fare best in a laboratory, so in a sense this assignment was a bit of a blessing.

She paused for just a moment, then swept past the recruit and opened the door. ‘Come with me,’ she said, and set off down the hall in the direction of the labs with Kira in tow.

‘As I mentioned, you’ll be free to choose which project you attach yourself to. Do you have any particular preferences I should be aware of?’


°493

Chie followed her vice-captain, still nervous, as Hazuki struck her as someone she should probably be constantly aware of. Chie felt that if she gets on her bad side she might want to sleep holding her zanpakuto for the rest of her existence. She carefully examined the question presented to her by the lieutenant, she ran through as many details as possible in her mind. "So... engineering department, that consists of tech support, artificial souls, and Gigai's. I suppose tech support is not my cup of tea, given how I hear it is treated at times. I am afraid one mistake with an artificial soul will kill me. But what about gigai, that field has much room for improvement... but what could i do?".


Chie looked down at her wrist for a second, looking at the silver bracelet on her wrist, pondering the option, and considered her next words carefully. She looked her Lieuntenant in the eyes, and tried to muster some shred of confidence "Lieutenant Hazuki, I have to admit, my preference lies with the development and advancement of Gigai technology" and while her expression tried to be strict and confidant, her nerves were practically out of the seireitei by this point. She saw the cold, strict, and sharply intimidating gaze of Hazuki, she pondered if Hazuki's gaze could actually be qualified as a lethal weapon. 

As they were walking, Chie decided to take the opportunity to ask questions. But what she really wanted to find out why such a strong shinigami worked with the fourth division. "If I may ask a question, you seem to be a strong fighter, what made you come to the fourth division? You seem like an expert on the battlefield.". She hoped that breaking the ice and learning a bit of the Lieutenant might help her calm her nerves, even though she is managing to maintain her calmness fairly well for her at the moment. Chie always was nervous around higher authority figures, but someone of Hazuki's place was almost terrifying alone let alone how intimidating she can be regardless. 

But what really allowed Chie to keep up this charade of false confidence was imagining the labratory, she always felt comfertable being left alone to work, being able to focus on her tasks. Although she had no intent to socialize with the Lieutenant regularly, she figured that the Lieutenant felt the same way, practically the only common ground between them at this point. She knew that even if she avoided the past few issues she's had, this was by far unavoidable.


word count 428
gp earned 8
total gp earned 27 

‘Gigai development is an good place to start,’ she replied as she led the way through the network of corridors. ‘It’s an established technology with plenty of room for improvement, so you’ll have solid ground to stand on while you reach for the sky.’

Hazuki was pleased. ‘It’s an excellent choice. You’ll do well there, I think, but I’ll introduce you to some of the other projects anyway—you may end up working with any number of them during your time here.’

They continued in silence, then Kira—unexpectedly—was the one to break it. Nobody had ever asked Hazuki why she had picked the Fourth; she had told people, of course, but only after vague questions about the nature of the division itself. She had never been asked to divulge her own reasons for coming here. It was a simple question with a complicated answer—one that she would be unable to give a complete version of—and Hazuki stopped outside the laboratory airlock, turning to Kira with a pensive look on her face.

‘If you’re implying that I don’t fit the mold of the traditional Fourth Division researcher, Kira, then you’d be completely right. Our captain once asked me what I could bring to the Fourth, and I told him that there was nothing I could do that nobody else could. The only difference was that I would do it better.’

She fixed her cold grey eyes on the recruit, intent on making sure she followed what Hazuki was saying.

‘What’s important to understand is that you and I,’ she continued, ‘we’re no less Shinigami than the members of the Second, Fifth, or any other division. We carry swords, same as them, and we purify Hollows, same as them. Every single Shinigami in Seireitei is a soldier; the division we choose to join will never change that. In the Gotei, the strong lead and the weak follow. I’m strong’—but clearly not strong enough, she thought, uncomfortably reminded of what had happened out in Rukongai—‘and so I lead. The Fourth had room for me, and I found that my views aligned with those of Captain Minamoto. We’re in this for the long haul, Kira, and we may as well do what we can do build a better Gotei. That’s our division motto, and they’re good words to live by.’

More and more it was dawning on Hazuki just how long her haul in particular might end up being. She had expected her ordeal to be over quickly, but she had been unable to predict just how... Elusive her goal would be. Home was slipping from her fingers just like sand in an hourglass, but if that was the price she ultimately had to pay, then so be it.

‘That’s why I’m here,’ she concluded, a note of finality in her voice. It was all she had to say on the matter.

She turned to the security console and put her palm on it, and a low mechanical buzzing filled the air as it scanned her palm print and her spiritual signature. The labs were off-limits for non-Fourth personnel much like the vast majority of the Fourth Division’s facilities, and only those with the proper clearance could gain access. To that end, there were similar consoles scattered throughout the compound at various checkpoints. The way Hazuki understood it, the palm print alone wasn’t enough: whatever the machine scanned had to be alive, too—as far as Shinigami standards went, of course. Rumor had it that the popular severed hand trick had been tried multiple times in the past, though never with any success.

The console chirped in recognition and the door unlocked, letting the two women enter the airlock where they were briefly checked for contaminants, and then allowed to pass through. This time, Hazuki let Kira go first.

‘Welcome to the labs, Kira,’ she said as the recruit drank in the bright white surfaces and the bustling activity. ‘You’re going to like it here.’


°667

As Chie was led into the laboratory, she was in awe as she looked around, seeing such technological innovations in the works. Her eyes practically lit up as she walked into the laboratory, her posture calmed down from its usual tensed state, appearing more relaxed and natural. She noted the various expirements going on, "wow... there are plenty of experiments and innovations... guess the Lieutenant was right, plenty of room to shoot for the top.... " as she examined the nature of the room, she felt like she herself had a plethora of questions. "wow, Lieutenant, I think I am starting to see what you mean by reaching for the sky, there must be what, at least a few dozen tests and experiments going on. what hasn't been experimented here?"

That last remark slightly scared her, she knew what the obvious answer was, 'hollowfication'  or other similar hollow based experiments but she had a feeling that was not the only limit. She predicted a few obvious limits ahead of time, such as forced experiments on other Shinigami, or unauthorized experiments on humans. She felt a cold draft as soon as the words left her tongue, wondering what sort of answer she would receive, an answer about the potential future, or an answer of the illegal crimes of the soul society.

As she awaited an answer, she took a few seconds to gaze around the laboratory, noting everything locations of terminals, tools, and anything else she might require to know first hand. But what caught her eyes were the bodies stored in the shelves or hanging from a rack, a false body, designed for the Shinigami to interact with living humans or hide from hollows in some cases, not even looking at one up close she was already thinking of improvements "maybe a gigai that can fold up into a smaller mold.... a foldable Gigai so to speak, but how practical would that serve, given the requirements...." .

Yet again, without realization, she started mumbling her thoughts while staring intently at the Gigai's "360 joints in the body, at least 100 would need to be retractable, while 200 folding inwards, the remaining 60 could possibly serve some purpose in alternate form, or possibly in use depending on the size of the body. Body mass would possibly need to be able to retract inwards and most likely condense, about 300 locking mechanisms for the joints, run several for the body mass itself, amount dependent on body mass." and realized that she both spaced out in front of her superior and rambled her thoughts out loud, yet again.

She turned to Hazuki and bowed in shame, she said "Sorry Lieutenant, I got a bit ahead of myself... this is just an amazing laboratory, never really saw anything like this growing up as a stray in the Rukongai" and although she was bowing in shame, she felt at ease, as if she finally found a place to be comfortable.

word count 493
gp earned 9
total gp earned 36

Hazuki smiled, her eyes not leaving her subordinate. It wasn’t often she got to see a member of the Fourth enter the laboratory for the first time, and she made a point of taking careful note of how they reacted each time she did. It was a rather rewarding experience, seeing someone lose themselves in the light and sound of men and women working together on something that was bigger than themselves. Even Hazuki, whose interest in this sort of thing was limited to how she best could use it to her own advantage, had been awed by the sight. She had eventually become used to it, but she could understand now why some people found it so intoxicating.

‘I think you’ll find they’ve done almost everything down here at one point or another,’ she said, raising her voice over the cacophony of tools and voices shouting to one another. Engineering dominated the spaces immediately inside the entrance whereas Research squirreled its way into soundproofed chambers further inside; there were less things for them to carry and logistically speaking it was sound to have all the big things near the entrance and the service access points.

She could tell even now that Kira’s mind was racing, fed by the infectious enthusiasm that permeated the air, and Hazuki gently probed her subordinate’s mind, pleased to see that the hesitancy and nervousness from before had almost entirely dissipated. That pleased her greatly—someone afraid of their job and their surroundings couldn’t be productive, and productivity was paramount in the Fourth.

‘I’ll show you the Gigai project in a moment, but for now I’d like to show you the project I have most teams working on. It’s the reason the project leads clamored for more hands, after all, so in a way my brainchild is your benefactor. Come,’ she said, motioning for her subordinate to follow.

‘Over there, in the offices, you’ll see some of the Research teams working hard at unravelling the mysteries of the universe. A lot of what you’ll be doing in Engineering is putting their theories into practice, so get on their good side and make it a habit of letting them talk you through their work. It can be extremely rewarding, both personally and professionally.’

She pointed at one of the areas to their left where a group of Shinigami were huddled around what appeared to be a monitor hooked up to some sort of holographic projector and a miniature manufacturing plant. ‘That’s the mod soul project,’ she called, stopping to gently yank Kira out of the way of a passing cargo loader, the driver of which offering a jovial wave as he buzzed past toward an area of the lab that had been cordoned off with semitransparent sheets of plastic.

‘Watch your step in here, a lot of these guys drive like maniacs,’ she called, smiling wanly. ‘Anyway, the current iteration of the mod soul project is actually something Captain Minamoto pioneered, he’d love to tell you all about it if you ask.’

He’s certainly talked my ears off about it on more than one occasion, she thought to herself, rolling her eyes as she guided her charge in the same direction the cargo loader had been heading.

‘And this is the big deal everyone’s currently so busy with.’ She pulled aside one of the improvised walls and entered, her face lit up by a sudden shower of sparks from someone’s welding on the far end. There were fat conduits snaking around on the ground haphazardly, all linked up to a central unit that seemed made up of equal parts biological and mechanical pieces. There were more people here packed into a smaller space, but everyone seemed very, very busy. Countless workbenches had been erected around the perimeter, each one covered in tools and what looked like large panes of thick glass with circuitry embedded under the surface.

She approached one and rested her hand on it almost affectionately. ‘Just over four thousand of these have been manufactured, each one an engineering marvel worth more than—’ she considered it for a moment. ‘Well, a small house in some of the better districts of Seireitei. It’s mostly silver and spiritually resonant glass, a trick we stole from the Quincy on Earth. Here, feel it,’ she said, beckoning Kira to come closer.

The surface was impossibly smooth with an almost ethereal quality to it; it almost felt like it responded to touch, and not like those silly toys that had become so ubiquitous on Earth—no, these seemed to respond almost emotionally. Hazuki could feel the denseness of the material, the care of the workmanship that had been put into creating it. This one in particular was very special: it was the prototype that Hazuki herself had overseen the construction of, and after which all others like it had been modeled. There was a tiny number etched into one of the corners, 0001, and it flickered almost imperceptibly pink as Hazuki stroked a finger softly over it.

‘This is Amaterasu,’ she announced proudly, finally taking her eyes off the pane. ‘Her brain is over there, and this is one of her many, many eyes. She’s going to be watching over us, keeping Seireitei safe.’

Finally, she straightened up and shot a look back out through the semitransparent plastic.

‘So, shall I introduce you to the rest of your team?’


°900

Chie followed her superior, wandering in awe paying attention to what she was learning. As she was staring intently at the mod soul project while slowly walking, she was lost in her own thoughts. She was pondering what the potential of mod souls could have been. She was contemplating the possibilites when she was pulled backwards by Hazuki, shocked at how the cargo loader operators driven their vehicles. Chie soon got over it as she realized that they had places to be, and that thinking about anything petty was not an option right now. As she followed her superior down the same path as the loader, she was awestruck, a huge working facility, all for one project. Surely this takes the cake among all other things she saw today. She observed all the conduits snaking around on the ground haphazardly, all linked up to a central unit that seemed made up of  parts biological and mechanical pieces, Chie was stumped on the purpose of such a machine. 

"wh--- what is this machine? is that thing alive?!" 

Those were the only words Chie could think of, the girl didn't know whether to be amazed or terrified. She tried her best to follow with what Hazuki was telling her, only after  Hazuki mentioned it's function that Chie started to piece things together.

"So.... it is like an organic security system technologically modified? Seriously though, where did the biological parts come from? I think this raises a lot more questions that answers!"

But Chie took a deep breath and noticed how intently Hazuki was with this 'Amaterasu' and figued she'd soon enough know about it, upon hearing the Lieutenant's question, she immediately responded/

"Yes please, I am sort of itching to get to work as soon as possible, so the sooner i meet the team the better I suppose..."

As she followed the Lieutenant, she was running through many scenario's in her mind, How would working in the fourth turn out for her, she just patiently followed the Lieutenant, hoping that this awkward encounter would be closing to an end any time soon.

word count 350
total words 2,236

‘Don’t worry,’ she smiled, ‘all the organics here are vat-grown. This isn’t the Third, we don’t go around chopping people up to use in our experiments.’

A joke in poor taste, perhaps, but a little fun now and then at the expense of others was no crime.

They passed through the cordon once more and headed in the direction of the Gigai team, and Hazuki decided to elaborate. ‘You’ll soon find that the cutting edge in Gigai work right now uses the same principles; organics are leading the field for our faux bodies right now and we’re trying to move away from mechanical cores. Some of the team members have taken to calling them meat puppets but if I were you I wouldn’t spread that particular nickname around outside the labs.’ She looked at Kira meaningfully.

‘People might get the wrong idea.’

She pointed at a few Shinigami in front of computer terminals in the distance and strained her voice to be heard over the sound of a power saw revving up somewhere behind them. ‘Those two are in charge of developing the soul-body neural interfacing,’ she almost shouted over the noise, ‘to make sure that being inside a Gigai is as close to the real thing as possible. Sensory input, reflexive action, that sort of thing. The new models are perfect for that sort of thing, and weaving in our own improvements is proving easier than we thought—toughened skin, stronger bones, that sort of thing. A Gigai will never quite match your own body, but the aim is to eliminate as much of the gap as possible without looking like some sort of mecha from a sci-fi film. Here’s your team leader now.’

She turned to the man approaching them and returned his—rather lazy, in Hazuki’s opinion—salute, and introduced her charge. ‘This is the newest addition to your team, her name’s Chie Kira.’

The power saw stopped, and while the labs were far from quiet, at least Hazuki didn’t have to yell anymore. ‘Her first time in the labs, go easy on her. I trust you’ll take it from here? I’ve got things to do.’

‘I’ve got it, Lieutenant,’ came his reply.

‘Excellent.’ She turned back to Kira. ‘This is where I leave you, then, Kira. Good luck.’

And with that, she left them there, heading back out in to the peace and quiet of the rest of the division compound.


°405

EXIT HAZUKI