Old Friends(Nanami)

It was almost time for her evening meeting with Victoria, she was sure the woman would produce herself in a timely fashion, if there was anything she'd come to expect from her it was predictability, reliability, a sense of duty. She was an anchor for the Fifth Division, an unchanging fixture in the swirl of chaos that has shook their stability since their previous Captain's departure. Scandal and uncertainty seemed to mark the Fifth Division, and while it went as it ever did, climbing ever higher, testing its might and overcoming adversity it had to be said that there was some of that owed to the continuity and constancy that their Fourth Seat provided.

She could be cleared of any sort of impropriety by arranging the meeting, as temporary stand in for the Fifth's captaincy, as the Third Seat alone she had more than enough reason to meet with a woman who had no right or justified purpose in being such a stranger to Nanami. They were comrades first, officers second, and beyond that there was a shared heritage in their age, who within the Gotei came closer to Nanami's experience than Victoria herself? She would admit that there was more to it than a mere meeting of chance, that she wanted to do more than simply to 'get to know' the woman but she earnestly felt, or at least pretended to, that they came second above all.

Nanami's office was in order, all loose papers filed and placed away leaving a mostly bare yet sizable desk, a small corner arrangement of shelves for her various refreshments offered to guests which she entertained infrequently and around its perimeter a sea of flower and fauna that she had taken to caring for as a simple hobby. The fresh smell of nature and life were a sobering reminder as she toiled away in her office that there was more to life, and her position, than paperwork.

A sharp yet polite rap fell upon the door and Nanami rose at once from her seat, pushing back her chair and setting it in again, content to not be seated once more. She called, as she moved around the desk, "Come in," and moved to receive her guest at the center of the room.

As Victoria entered Nanami waited for the bow and returned one of her own of equal depth. Decorum dictated the order of their greeting, but not the depth of the respect she was allowed to convey. In truth, she afford as much as she felt she could while remaining appropriate. Upon rising up she nodded in her direction. "Victoria, welcome. Thank you for coming to see me in such a timely manner. I apologize for the delays in arranging this meeting, it has been a long time coming. I hope, that in the wake of all the chaos our division has endured that it can be forgiven in time." She smiled and bowed her head slightly to complete the apology.

She gestured a hand to the corner of the room where refreshments lay. "Would you mind if I were to fix you a drink? I'm sure you must be wondering why I have summoned you here?"

535/535

Decorum. The two women bowed with the measured respect and fluidity that centuries of service afforded them. Interesting how the division's third seat and acting captain matched her bow in depth. In all standards, Nanami had simply needed to bow slightly as the superior officer. Even more interesting was the fact that when they rose from their bows the white-haired woman bowed her head again in apology. An apology for not meeting sooner? How strange it was to the long served warrior that a superior should apologize for not meeting one of their comrades when the division was so large and one had only recently become anything of note recently. With near constant deployments, an extended stay in Hueco Mundo and the recent hell storm that had been the hollow invasion it made complete sense that they'd not managed to cross paths yet. That and it wasn't like the former captain, Chinda Nagisa, had been known for holding officers meetings to assess the division performance. 

"If you have a strong wine that would be fine. If not tea is also good," Victoria found herself saying in a measured tone. Recently she'd found herself slipping back to the so comfortable twang of the Celtic people as they spoke in tounges not their own. She, however, found it to be something that perhaps some would struggle to understand. Something about that meeting with him had broken so many things inside her. Things long established. Long put into place to keep everything she was in check to allow her to do as she needed. Now so many things were in tatters and disheveled. She'd not spoken with this twang since her earliest days within the division and now it was rearing its head again. 

"Indeed I am Nanami. I've been considering the reasons since your request crossed my desk this morning and I could think of no infractions I've committed recently that would need remediation," Victoria posed. Perhaps she had but wasn't aware of it. Mostly likely she hadn't. Though considering the turmoil the division had dealt with in the recent weeks and months it was possible something had slipped her notice. For now she'd simply see what it was the equally veteran shinigami had to say in regards to her visit to her office today. One could only hope it wasn't a 'You're being demoted for this reason...' type of meeting.

WC- 399(1014)

It appeared that Victoria didn't fully understand it, it was something that she found...endearing about the woman. For all her time and service there was a simplicity to Victoria that Nanami found admirable. Hopefully, Nanami's intentions would settle in soon enough. "I do have such a wine," she replied turning back towards her table to fish and poke and prod for the right bottle of something or another to offer. When she found a suitably good bottle of a vintage she felt her subordinate would enjoy she'd pop the cork while the woman spoke and poured a reasonably filled glass and offered it.

When it was taken she turned her attention back and fetched a half emptied decanter of a brown but sweet and strong smelling spirit and poured it into a short square glass that held four round ice cubes. She set everything back where it belonged and took a sip, setting it at her desk. She broke into a smile and then quiet light laughter, genuinely amused.

"Victoria. I'm not here to demote you, not that I'd even have a right to without such cause." She laughed again. "Oh heavens, you are rather straight forward aren't you. There's no need to be so formal, at least right now. Truthfully, I'm here to get to know you, to understand who I am serving alongside with. But, if it will help move things along easier." She picked up her glass and took a small sip and continued. "What do you know about me Victoria? What is your impression of me, as a person, as a Shinigami, as presently, your leader? Candidly, mind you. And if it helps? That's an order." She joked, but part of her was concerned that Victoria might take the last bit seriously.

297/832

What an odd reason to have someone in so late in the day. To get to know them? What was the point? What good could possibly come from knowing your soldiers on a personal level. Emotional investment seemed to only lead to difficulty to deal with the death of someone. such things hampered combat operations. Though, Victoria couldn't fault the other woman for her interest in wanting to know another soul better. To the fire burnt blonde knowing the men you served with had only brought pain. 

The subtle order brought a smile to her face though. A smile so wide it threatened to tear open the tight skin on the right half of her face. There wasn't anything she wanted to know she couldn't read in after action reports and personnel files. Again, the interest to know her superior was not within her. For the sake of this meeting she'd humor her. "I suppose it'd be interesting to know if you remember where you were born as a human. Where you lived. How you became a soul," the celtic enunciations coming out in full force as she swirled the bitter wine in her glass. Motioning to a couch she smiles slightly, "Mind if I sit? I feel like our chat will run for a time." 

Sipping the wine carefully she contemplated the other woman. The divisions best swordsmen. Older than her by sometime. A frightful opponent in combat. Clearly a solid fit for the position as third seat. That however, didn't answer some thing. Everyone had a story for why they were here. Most because no other division would take them. Some because they couldn't stand the other divisions. Some sought adventure. Then there were people like Victoria who simply could do nothing else. They lacked the skills and abilities to do the other more specialized divisions tasks. So they came to this division. They played soldier and became warriors. 

But what about when someone came into the division after being in another? Or came from another source? "Actually," the blonde tip toed into the question as it might be a touchy one, "I've noticed on your records you did a stay in the prison. Mind if I ask why you were incarcerated?"

WC-374(1388)

Victoria seemed positively perplexed and there was something rather...adorable about the woman's evident confusion. Perhaps she was as straightlaced 'good' soldier as all the rumors seemed to suggest. The lifeblood of divisions were found in soldiers like that, but Nanami was determined to find what lay underneath the surface of Victoria.

The smile that broke the surface of her somewhat icy expression was warming. Success! she cheered mentally. Nanami motioned for her to take a seat when asked and remained standing, leaning against the side of her rather long office table. She ran her hand along the smooth surface, taking in the fine finished surface while Victoria spoke. Questions told a lot about a person. "I remember little, a young woman, someone important but not ready, dying to a monster she sought to protect her people from..." She trailed off for a moment and turned to Victoria smiling. "But it's possible I may be mixing that up with one of the books that I've read."

She moved around the desk to the other side opposite Victoria. "I've actually been within all the divisions at one time or the other, with the exception of the third. Never had much of a gift for Kido." She answered, putting off for a moment her incarceration. "To that I'd have to say which time? Though I imagine my first imprisonment has been lost to the ages, and the third was for my execution." She smiled mischievously. "It was during a combat action on Earth. Particularly nasty impromptu invasion, I was forced to engage the enemy, they needed boots on the field but I had long since given up fighting. I didn't like what it turned me into, you see. After once more falling to the temptation I decided enough was enough and told them I was done being their blade. At that point I had been working in the Fourth. Not much to tell after that, I wasn't...terribly polite with my request, I think part of me wanted to be locked away again."

"It's a long road that led me here, suffice to say."

350/1182

The blonde beast nodded as she sipped the wine. An interesting tale none the less. One far different than her own. Her own was filled with nothing close. A good soldier. One that sometimes broke the rules or quarreled with superiors but a good soldier never the less. A service life only in the fifth and no other. A life of war and struggle. She wondered what the other divisions were like in terms of their duties and inter personnel relations. Her experience was limited to being a test subject for the fourth and numerous medical trips to the third. But those didn't give her a true look into the life of those divisions. But she knew this was where she would stay. She lacked the intellect to be a scientist or the spiritual ability to weave spells of even the most simple incantation. She was neither the type to investigate nor to sneak around in the shadows. She could not lead in a division that was built of leaders and example makers. Her place, as had been determined centuries prior, was here in the fifth. On the frontline waging war till her time came.  

She raised and eyebrow slightly when Nanami specified why she had been put in prison for the second time. Insubordination, a charge the wolf would have never imagined the woman across from her would commit. In the many years they had been serving together, yet separately, nothing negative about the white hair female had ever reached Victoria's ears. Perhaps the prospect of losing one's life over their actions had been enough to temper the wildness in the swordswoman? A small thought crept into the Gauls mind as she sat across from Nanami. What was the inside of the prison like? She'd never been in the main unit simply an interrogation cell years prior when Aizawa had commanded their division. That was the precise moment the division had begun to come apart. A rich boy commander with family issues pulling a favor for another rich boy to strengthen some silly political game the nobles were waging against the then captain commander. If Victoria thought more on the subject she became aware of more incidents that had signaled the end decades before. That mattered little though at present. 

"I do believe the road is long for some and longer still for others Nanami. We are but travelers on the road we all share. Some reach their destinations sooner than others. Some..." she sipped her wine as she realized it was growing warm, "will march forward for eternity." A pause as she swirled the burgundy liquid absently as she thought of another question for the other female. "I believe I had heard that this was your second stint with the fifth, is that correct? What years were you here last time if I might ask? I've been with this division since the middle of the fifth century and have never left. I'm curious what fronts you've served on during your time here. Perhaps we can trade war stories if we were on the same front or on deployment at the same time." 

She was perhaps most interested in the other woman's service record. It was rare, ever increasingly rare in fact, for the wolf to meet a soul with anywhere near the number of years she had beneath her. Much less a soul with tours in the combat division and someone she could potentially trade stories with. It was exciting that she was within the same division as someone older than her. The stories they could trade were simply waiting to be told to one another. Yet more so, here across from her, sat a female whom she shared much in common with and could be friends with. Whom she'd feel comfortable being friends with. That is, if Nanami was willing to be friends with the stone faced dog of the fifth. 

WC- 650(2038)

"You look surprised Victoria," Nanami said a playful smile drawn across her face. She swirled the glass and took a short breath through her nose, enjoying the fragrance before taking a short drink, appreciating the faint sensation of the burn as it slid down her throat. She exhaled sharp and set the glass down on the desk. "I am governed by my moral obligations more strongly than my duty. When those two things are in conflict, a rare occurrence, I find that I am bound towards the former." That and it was her out, her chance to run away.

"An eternity is a long time, I don't imagine any of us will ever make it that far," she said. She raised her brow with the rest of the pause and watched as she swirled the glass in thought. Seemed there was more. Ah, swapping old war stories. Nanami gave a quiet chuckle and finished draining her glass. "Fifteen hundred years ago," she noted pulling it from memory. She didn't have anything akin to a perfect recall, she was certain the truth of her past was long lost to her own recollection, what she had now were reconstructed fleeting concepts. She'd written it all down, all of it, during her time on Earth. Those books were safely nestled away. "I first served the fifth around then, a little after you began." She began to move towards the door.

"Come, finish that glass and let's take a walk Victoria. I think much better than talking about our old war stories we should show what they taught us, no?" She turned as she reached the door and smiled at her.

276/1458

The marked woman nodded. They were different. Drastically so it appeared. For her duty came before all things. So long as she drew breath and could muster the strength to stand and raise her arms would fight on. Long ago she had accepted that she was little besides a warrior. Who's purpose was to fight for the goals and ideals of her people? Though recently, since the invasion, subsequent fighting and personal turmoil she'd experienced she questioned it all. Several decades of poor leadership. An entirely too fluid leadership. And on the personal level a questioning of what it was beyond the wolf of the fifth. The reevaluating of everything she'd ever thought she'd been. The ticking off of boxes and working past the issues she'd left long behind her that thanks to recent events had all been dragged from the depths of the figurative closet and into the light of day. 

A sip of her wine, more akin to a swig of several mouthfuls, finished the all too shallow glass. Perhaps it wasn't so much that her host was stingy with wine, quite the opposite really, and more so that she simply drank the liquid faster than one should. A hold over from her own time when the water from the streams and rivers couldn't be trusted. Where it was safer to drink various grades of alcohol than to risk sickness or parasites. "Well Nanami, I've served without break since the day I stepped into this division all those centuries ago. Eternity can't feel any longer than all the days I've spent fighting the wars of the gotei though perhaps you are right," she said standing up to follow her fellow ancient.

A practical display of what centuries of war had taught them. It seemed no matter who it was many wanted to take a poke at one of the gotei's longest serving. To see what a one division shinigami of such years knew about combat. Setting her glass on the desk the dog stretched slightly before taking a step towards the other woman, "If that is what you think would let you get to know me best Nanami then I'll gladly oblige. Lead the way if you please."

WC- 368(2406) (Claiming to here)

She slipped her sheathe free from strings attached to her obi as she stepped into the halls. There was something about a moment like this before that first draw that seemed to fill the air with electricity. Nanami knew what she wanted from this, she wanted to understand Victoria, her subordinate in terms the structure of the Shinigami but an equal in their age and experience. Something set her and Victoria apart from one another, something had caught Victoria like it had once caught Nanami leaving her trapped in a directionless fugue.

She wasn't sure she could fix that with a simple night, of course, these things were more complex than that, she simply wanted to understand it. The Fifth was home to those who indulged in violence but it seemed to get those who while they loved fighting had been changed by it in some way, stuck because of it. Perhaps it had something to do with its purpose, violence was a means to an end but some mistook the pleasure of it for satisfaction by itself and she understood that. She knew how easy it was to lose yourself in the thrill of that and to believe it's enough.

She tapped her sheath against the ground with each stride, a tap, tap, tap that echoed down the hall from her office as she made her way through the headquarters of the Fifth division's command with Victoria close behind. She counted them out, an arbitrary number picked from the steps but not long, not more than a minute out the door.

She turned her sheath horizontal and tossed it upward. In the next beat, she began to turn on her left heel. As she pivoted she grasped the hilt with her left hand and pulled with enough force to bring the blade free of the sheath. The metallic ring came moments later but her attack had begun. She kept the blade close, lashing out only as she had turned to face Victoria, saving her momentum and power until the very last moment. A bright white light enveloped the blade as it struck out, casting the halls of the command building with a soft ethereal light.

She held little back, hoping Victoria's instincts were all that she imagined.

378/1837

She had known this would come to blows. Just not this soon. The veterans body reacted while her mind took in the scenario. Nanami had tossed her steel into the air and then drawn it with her left hand allowing the scabbard to fall. The motion of the draw was facilitated by both arm and rotational strength. Largely telegraphed and easily reacted to which lead the wolf to question if this was a trap. It had to be, this woman wasn't known as the "Swordmaster" within the fifth for being sloppy with her blade play. This was obviously a feint to draw the wolf into a trap. And unfortunately Victoria was going to jump into it willingly.

Estimating where the blade would come based on where Nanami's arm was in regards Victoria stepped in hard and stooped low to allow the blade to race over her as she planted her left foot so that when the other ancient finished her turn the wolfs left knee would be perfectly in line with the others. Her right fist flew round in a short arc just beneath the other womans arm. The arc was compact and fast meant to strike in the blind spot the rotation Nanami had performed had caused. This simple arc was a tight hook meant to make contact with both the force of Nanami's spin and her own step in and rotation. With any luck, and this would require a lot of it, she could hit the nerve cluster hidden behind the shoulder hard enough and stun the white haired shinigami's arm and hand hopefully causing her to toss her blade across the room and turn this scrap into a round of fisticuffs. She wasn't foolish enough to think she could break that shoulder blade like in anyone near her in strength or win in a fight against Nanami even if she wasn't trying. There was just too much of a difference between there respective set of abilities and spiritual prowess. What she could do, and she had a hunch that it was why that opening strike had been such a telegraphed one, was tell the story of her many years. Show everything she'd learned with each strike, parry, riposte, advance and withdraw.

She'd learned how to fight blade users. It had been a necessity in the several civil conflicts within her career and the countless rogues that had been brought down in her time. She'd learned to remove the blade from play as fast as possible. Eliminating the bones by breaking them was best. But if that wasn't doable then nerves was enough. They required the subsequent work to be done with a quickness to avoid the blade potentially coming back into play. There was always more to be done to level a fighting field when facing someone with steel at their disposal. 

Twisting off he own left leg again the wolf brought her left racing in at just lower than he own shoulder level in a rising compact hook. Aimed to connect solidly where the sternum ended and push up and in to the diaphragm. Maybe not enough to pop bones and damage organs but perhaps enough to knock wind from the other fighter. Take their wind and you take the fight if only for a brief moment.

For lesser fighters such an assault would normally spell disaster for them. Their sword hand out of the fight and their steel potentially out of hand, lungs devoid of oxygen if but for a few precious moments, violent spasming of the diaphragm making it hard to regain breath and the impact doubling the receiver over the senders fist leaving them vulnerable. An freeing of the right arm on Victoria's part would send a chopping right into the base of the skull or the back of the neck either killing the poor sod out right or leaving them unconscious. That was only if they were a lesser fighter. No, Nanami wouldn't be laid low so easily if at all. No, Victoria could only hope to bare herself to the other woman in a way only soldiers could understand today and she hoped Nanami would like or understand all she saw.

WC- 700(700)

She reacted as wonderfully as Nanami had imagined, not only to defend herself but to respond in turn as well. Her opponent stepped towards the strike the moment she noticed it was coming, fearlessly swooping below it to deliver a sharp right jab. Nanami pivoted in response, shifting her body such that the jabs force would be spent by the time of impact and slid backward using the force to create distance between the pair.

She smiled simply. Her opponent had hoped to turn their close quarters into a more permanent situation, but Nanami wasn't going to allow the formidable fist of the Fifth to disassemble her that easily.

The follow-up strike came quickly and without hesitation, seeking to keep the distance between them minimized to deny Nanami the natural advantage her Zanpakuto granted. "I asked you here so that I might understand you better," Nanami stated as she brought the hilt of her Zanpakuto up and down in a solid strike to block the incoming left hook. Certain the blow itself would do little to nothing to slow Victoria's next blow she instead pivoted with a hardline horizontal slash that forced distance between them, giving Victoria the option of stepping back or being cut in half, were it not for her Shikai.

Nanami smiled softly, blade held aloft, a single hand held up to hold her opponent at bay. "They say you see a person's true colors when they're held against the fire. When they rely on their instincts when they act without thinking that that is who they really are. I don't agree with that. Our instinctual side, like all the others, is just a piece of the puzzle." She lowered her blade only slightly, dared Victoria to press her attack and continued.

"You've served the Soul Society dutifully, longer than even I have. In that time so much has come and passed but you remain a fixture of this place. Static. I wanted a chance to ask you...what is it for? What do you seek with your service, Victoria? What exactly do you want from this place? The ideals of this place you served when you arrived here have changed, have you changed with them? Or are you simply indifferent?"

372/1837