[BSD-RP] Soul Society: Southeast Seireitei

[BSD]

It started with the nightmares.
Permitted downtime while awaiting to hear any news or further instruction from the Captain. Back to the barracks. Rest.
Within the first week Kazumi would awaken every night, filled with dread but unable to remember the dreams. Remembering the dream, it turned out, would cause her even more pain. As her recollection of the nightmares grew, the more intense they became and the wilder her reaction would be. It was the face of the last man she has “interrogated”. So focused, so sleep deprived, she had allowed herself to commit such actions without a second thought. When he died, his head drooped downward. No time was wasted in her departure, not even taking a second glance to the man who died because of her. In her nightmare, his head would not fully droop. It would instead lull for a few moments. Bobbing around as he struggled to lift his head. It was her husband’s face. From her living life. Eyes and mouth hollow, simply blank voids where they should have been. The darkness in him reflected what he had spread to her.

It was a major conflict. The reasons for her actions were justified and potentially saved many lives. She believed in this cause. But she was not a violent person. Somewhere beneath the surface was a rage she’d called upon. Could she do that again? Did she want to?
The nightmares reached a breaking point. Standing in the hallway still asleep, piercing screams echoing throughout the barracks. Some kind soul approached her, waking her up and returning her to her senses. It was that night she had submitted her application for a transfer. She couldn’t handle it any longer. Ninth seemed the most logical. Shinobu was there. She would feel safer and more content in her presence. At the time, she had considered her options were limited to running away. That was all she knew. Endure or run. Her endurance waned; she ran.
Two months now from that awful day. She had seen neither her Captain nor Lieutenant since then. Today was the day she walked into her new life within a new Division. Packing clumsily, her remaining items shoved carelessly into a bag. A knot formed in her throat. I don’t… A sharp sound escaped her lips unbidden, bringing her right hand to her mouth. The copper taste of the blood was suddenly present in her mouth; however, it was little and only two of them were cut. Her eyes sought out the object that had harmed her, carefully plucking it from under a shirt.

Oh. That. As she had searched for a way to help her remain within Second and came up with no useful solutions, she had given up. Two days previously she had received the strange looking item. The orb in the center was glowing, pulsing. It seemed like It wished to pull her in. Shaking her head, she tossed it into her bag, though as it left her hand the feeling of a note attached to the back of the item. It doesn’t matter anymore. She was leaving and she had to accept that there was no way to aid her and allow her to stay.
’I…don’t…’
Images of her squad flashed before her. The glares and the smiles. Everything. She bit down on her lip harshly, staring down at her hands.

With a sweep of her arm she slapped the bag away. Various items falling out as it arced through the air until hitting the wall. Breathing deep she closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. She had made this decision. It was best for everyone. Her voice betrayed her, speaking her thoughts aloud, unbidden by her.
”I don’t…I don’t want to go.”

Wiping away the tears as she fought to control them, she felt a calming sense of relief as she understood. This was what she needed to do. No running away this time. A quick search of the floor and she found the gift again. Assuming she would have some down time, perhaps she would be able to discover if the thing could do anything and what it claimed it could. For now, she needed to talk to Kyomu. It wasn’t difficult to know where he was, with Lieutenant Yugure. Again, something many of them know. Her location was not a mystery to most if not all the squad members. So diligent of keeping track of them.
[From Southeast Seireitei to Northwest Seireitei]

 

[BSD]

Southeast ———————————— traveling from ———————————— Northwest
“Mm?”
The gentle touch against her shoulder caused Yasu to meet her captain’s gaze and followed it as it pointed to the outside world. Her mouth full of sweets, she trails quietly behind her captain without sparing a glance to the others within the area. The closer they grew to the doors, she was less than hesitant on stepping outside since her forced rehabilitation. Sun rays graced her face and she basked in the warmth of the light, and her clothes rustled in the gentle breeze. Even as she walked, the sense of uneasiness was far too palpable for her to ignore. Peering out of her peripherals in her captain’s direction, she could hear the gears turning in his head, nonstop.
It wasn’t until he had called out her name that she lifted her head up, waiting. The way her name rolled off his tongue, it felt unnatural, but he soon followed up with her title. As low as his voice was, even she knew better to follow suit. A report is what he had asked for, and she’d give him what she could remember from those distant months ago. The vice-captain stared at the ground as she walked, her head tilting from side to side as she dug deep into the beginning of the whole fiasco.
Mimicking her captain’s low tone, she started.
“It was after you issued an order to find Xiaolin; I picked one person out of the crowd to give me details on what had occurred during our three months away.”
Her fingers tangled away with one another, a suddenly new habit beginning for the recently released patient.
“In their recap, they said that the Sixth Division acted in complete silence since the Kokōtsu, and the Kuchiki Clan was being led by Shirogane Kuchiki, even after his multiple failures. No reports of activity of any kind and money seemed to be the main factor in their silence around the entire Gotei. None of our members observing were able to catch sight of a Kuchiki until that day, and it was Shirogane they saw, with the scarf and clips.”
But no one could tell that it wasn’t truly him until the end…
She continued fiddling away with her hands. As she goes deeper into her memories, flashes of seeing a monster emerging from that ominous purple pillar of light were beginning to take a toll on Yasu, but he needed to know.
“I thought I could fix it myself, and expose Shirogane before he intercepted the artifact, but I was in over my head and got arrested for interfering noble affairs.”
A shaky breath escaped.
“He took me in and tried to imprison me, but I just knew that something wasn’t right. I managed to find a way out and gave little notes to those on the look-out. I got what I needed to go against Shirogane, and I went back inside to stop them but…”
She trailed off. How far had they walked? Glancing around, She could see that they were far into the territory of the Southeast Quadrant, and close to reaching the Second Division barracks…
Home.
“I didn’t make it, and everything--”
Yasu stumbled slightly, her legs beginning to feel weaker. Even if she was strong, those two long months of her body reforming back into something capable of moving was hard, and being unable to move until no more than… How long was it ago that she woke to that strange room with the other two victims? And further, without eating, it was a miracle she managed to have gone this long without passing out.
“Everything went to hell. Shirogane didn’t exist anymore; he became a monster and attacked Oda-taichou, and I hesitated; I tried to help, but got restricted. I thought I was going to die, but then I- She- This voice told me she’d finish it all. I heard her so clearly it was like she was in the room.”
Yasu swore that she had come to peace with what had happened, but it looked to be far from that. Inside that mindscape of hers, she felt so calm and okay with this new entity, so why was she feeling like this now? Her head was pounding. Face scrunched into a grimace, her hands reached up and covered it, stopping in her tracks altogether, forcing her captain to cease his movements as well. The lieutenant’s body was burning. It burned at her throat the worst, asking for some sort of release, but she couldn’t dare to go on any longer with her report, and so Yasu forced away from those thoughts, repressing them back to the deepest depths that her mind went. Had Kyomu asked her to continue, she’d shake her head furiously. Luckily for the both of them, they’d managed to stop right before the gates that lead into their barracks.
Would Kyomu continue to pester her about what happened or let it go?
Flashes of that white entity echoed in her head.
“Just as I thought. You’ll never be anything more than what you are now.”
There was a presence that loomed over her, looping its porcelain white arms around her neck in what may have looked like a warm embrace, but it was far from that. Cold, and stifling, heavy against her back, this being held such a suffocating air around it that Yasu felt as if she were back in that inner world. But she knew better, feeling the solid earthen tiles beneath her feet, being one of the only things that kept her grounded, quite literally. Even with her face covered, there were beady eyes burning their way through the skin, muscle, and bones of her hand.
“Just let go, just like you did last time. Let go and go wild.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
Hearing her own voice, Yasu snapped out of that vicious trance, realizing that she'd spoken that last bit out loud, the result of her captain's response quite possibly changing after hearing such profanity escape her.

 

[BSD]

[From Northwest Seireitei to Southeast Seireitei]
Her mind was a blank as she returned to Second division. So many things to consider. What she would say. How to explain herself. She even wondered if she would be killed right there on the spot when he saw her. Her mind cleared as the revelation came to her that it truly did not matter what she planned for in this moment. She could not predict what he would do or how he would react. The situation was awful enough with Yasu injured. Now he would have to deal with Kazumi groveling and giving explanations not even she fully understood. Attempting to prepare for one scenario was impossible.
So she prepared for the worst. Arriving at the gates it was immediately clear she had beaten them both back. It was something she had hoped for considering Yasu would be too injured to move as quickly as normal. It gave her more time to ready herself.
She was allowed within the gates with little scrutiny which was a relief. However she was surrounded by many guards when she had entered. The sound of the gates closing behind her for just a brief moment reminded her of the sound of a closing cell door. Explaining her purpose without revealing the nature of the content, she was received by skeptical as well as angry looks. That was fine. After some arguing among themselves she was permitted to stay and wait. Just within the gates, inside of a small building she assumed was meant to be something similar to a small police station.
This arrangement kept her trapped. Unable to leave now. Unable to charge at Kyomu. And unable to escape his wrath. She held her head down as she sat and awaited her possible audience. The guards would inform him of her waiting though there was no guarantee when he would arrive if at all. Whatever happened to her now was in his hands. She awaited her death, accepted and at peace with such, though she hoped she would at least be allowed the chance to speak to her Captain personally and die by his hand.
The thought of dying in that small cement room, murdered by a stranger and buried in the ground and history... it was unbearable. Death by his hand would at least be honorable.

 

[BSD]

[Southeast —— traveling from ——— Northwest]
The two walk side by side, their steps perfectly aligned — Kyomu’s...like air, silent. Completely, utterly. He stares ahead, though his Lieutenant is still within the scope of his vision. He notes her hesitation, her downcast gaze. He can tell the topic is a heavy one, not unexpected, all things considering. Still he needed to know, so she’d tell him...regardless of whether she wanted to or not.
“It was after you issued an order to find Xiaolin; I picked one person out of the crowd to give me details on what had occurred during our three months away.”
She speaks, and he listens. He assumes this all transpired while his time was being otherwise wasted in that exam. He pushes aside the memories of the clash between him and Twelfth Division’s insufferable Lieutenant. His mind focuses on the here and now, giving Yasu his undivided attention. He catches the fidgeting of her fingers, odd.
“In their recap, they said that the Sixth Division acted in complete silence since the Kokōtsu, and the Kuchiki Clan was being led by Shirogane Kuchiki, even after his multiple failures. No reports of activity of any kind and money seemed to be the main factor in their silence around the entire Gotei. None of our members observing were able to catch sight of a Kuchiki until that day, and it was Shirogane they saw, with the scarf and clips.”
”Hnn”
That information was rather odd indeed. He was familiar with the pride of the Kuchiki, and Shirogane’s arrogance and pride was certainly top tier, unlike his ability.Even if the Kuchiki aren’t entirely a reflection of what Shirogane portrarys, even they wouldn’t have Shirogane as their representative. Then none of their subordinates were able to catch anything between then?
“I thought I could fix it myself, and expose Shirogane before he intercepted the artifact, but I was in over my head and got arrested for interfering noble affairs.”
Listening up to this point he tightens his grip. He recalls the news brought to him by one of Yasu’s subordinates in the Patrol Corps.
“He took me in and tried to imprison me, but I just knew that something wasn’t right. I managed to find a way out and gave little notes to those on the look-out. I got what I needed to go against Shirogane, and I went back inside to stop them but…”
They continue to stroll through the seireitei’s streets, rounding corner after corner. Their voices still low, Kyomu noting every shadow, every lingering and roaming spirit.
“I didn’t make it, and everything--”
Her voice trails off, and she stumbles, losing her footing. He reaches out, grabbing the back of her kimono, keeping her from truly falling over. Was something wrong? Was this the doing of that deformed scientist? Or...was she weaker than he had wanted to believe? Still, she pressed on to divulge all she could to her Captain.
“Everything went to hell. Shirogane didn’t exist anymore; he became a monster and attacked Oda-taichou, and I hesitated; I tried to help, but got restricted. I thought I was going to die, but then I- She- This voice told me she’d finish it all. I heard her so clearly it was like she was in the room.”
MONSTER
His mind blinks back to that moment in the Sixth Barracks, the massive barrier he was barred from entering, the severing of Yasu’s bankai stalks, unveiling the mutated forms of Arashi, Tenzen, and…..
He shifts his gaze to Yasu momentarily.
She comes to a halt, her face twisted in a grimace. His own movements come to a stop, studying her expression, demeanor. Yasu was definitely not well. He studies her, his grip still firm on the cloth captured between his fingers. He feels her body tense and trembling. Exactly what was going on with her?
“Shut the fuck up.”
Again he’s reminded of that moment, standing before the barrier, lost...helpless unable to do anything. He recalls Captain Kojima, his smoke wafting in the air further irritating the Phantom. It was then that everything he held in, every bottled up emotion erupted — revealing his vulnerability. A defining moment for the Captain.
A moment of weakness, bared for everyone to see.
”Yas-”
He pauses just as his Lieutenant is stirred from her stupor. His head shifts towards the direction of their barracks. His eyes narrow as his mind stretches, then focuses and trains on a familiar reiatsu. Its color, shape and softness of its glow. He hoists Yasu up and in that same moment, as her feet leave the ground the two of them are gone.
The moment the gates close, a shadow casts itself over Kazumi from behind.
THUD
The doors shut with a heavy thud. The Omnitsukido turn to escort Kazumi and are startled to find their Captain standing before them, with Yasu in tow. He scrutinizes her, and wonders what she’s doing here, now. He was sure he hadn’t imagined the paper, positive he hadn’t misinterpreted its contents so...what then?
Fingers uncoil, dropping Yasu to the ground, seemingly dismissive of rather she landed on her feet, or her ass.
”What are you doing here?”
He asks, his voice barely masking what could possibly be perceived as venom in his tone. Had she returned on the orders of her new Captain, Captain Kojima? Perhaps he believed that he’d have an easier time gleaning secrets and intel for his paper if he sent Kazumi.
His mind plays through scenario after scenario, running through every single conceivable possibility, every possibility but one.
He stands, his emotions much like his reiatsu, masked, his thoughts to her like his movements, silent...unreadable.
Those present take several steps back, silent and nervous about what would happen. The situation seemed extremely volatile. Ignorant to Kazumi’s own thoughts and inner turmoil, would she regain the Phantom’s favor — or earn his murderous ire?

 

[BSD]

“Ah...”
The sound of her captain’s voice registered but oh so faintly. As he hoisted her up from the ground, Yasu felt the sudden shift as he shunpo’d away from their current location to a new one in less than a blink of an eye, but then again Yasu was always a bit slow compared to her captain. At their new stance within the grounds of the Second Division barracks, she was unceremoniously dropped and luckily, landed steadily on her feet. While normally the little brat would’ve begun making trouble, the atmosphere was quite heavy as both captain and lieutenant stared down what Yasu still thinks to be their Fourth Seat, Kazumi Fujioka. Recalling that she hadn’t seen Kazumi in over five months, Yasu had little idea that this girl had placed in a letter of resignation until Kyomu spoke with a hiss.
“What are you doing here?”
Was Kazumi no longer a part of their Division?
It seemed that in those two months, things had transpired, and oddly enough, it had taken a toll on Kazumi enough to make her change divisions. But if she had, then why was she here?
It was a discussion made to be between Captain and Kazumi, so Yasu would stray far away from them. Still, in her loose clothes, the girl figured that she would go and change, and replenish herself properly. It was probably the reason why she was lacking in the first place. Placing a gentle hand against her captain’s shoulder, Yasu then looked at Kazumi and gave a gentle nod as if saying things would be okay. Making her way back to her lodgings within the barracks, A few Onmitsukido members had caught sight of their long-lost lieutenant, and a pair even managed to take a step in to help her.
As much as she wanted to appreciate it, it only caused the pounding in her head to strengthen and the echoing of her inner hollow’s taunting grew louder, and after left alone to deal with it herself, the pain seemed to lessen. Was it just the presence of others that caused her to hurt so badly?
Begrudgingly, she drags her feet across the tatami floors and over to her closet where she could change into proper clothes. Touching once more at her long locks, she feels around at the ones that frame her round face. Two months… She was so used to having short hair, but maybe a new look would give a different perspective of her to others. It made her look… feminine, and softer than her wild, curly mop did. Even looking down her shirt, Yasu couldn’t deny the fact that she was growing. Wrestling through her wardrobe, Yasu managed to pull something out of the norm, dressing rather quickly in case Kyomu had called, and she would need to respond accordingly. No more than seconds later from picking out the clothes, Yasu stepped out of her room and caught sight of those two other members that had helped her. At the sight of their newly formed lieutenant in a rather extravagant choice of wear, they couldn’t hide the shock in their eyes.
With a cropped, skin-tight black long-sleeve, Yasu’s abdomen was open to the world, and it felt a bit refreshing. On top of her shirt and acting as a jacket of sorts was a shihakushō detailed to fit this rather risque look, open and flowing rather freely. A purple garb that held her baggy pants up hung low on her hips, showing off the gentle curves that Yasu possessed beneath all of that cloth from before. Unlike before, where her lieutenant’s badge sat behind her, she wore it proudly on the left side of her hip. Bandages wrapped firmly around her shins, cutting those baggy pants off into a smooth finish that ends with her custom flats since she didn’t take too kindly to socks and sandals.

In the midst of tying her hair up, Yasu Yūgure’s hunger made itself known once more, and she laughed quite sheepishly before pulling a chocolate bar from her pocket, tearing away at the wrapper to begin her careless devouring. She could feel the relief that the two members held, seeing their Lieutenant having not changed her antics when it came to meals. It gave them comfort, but the uneasiness was just as noticeable, for, in the back of their minds, they wondered if that monster lying within would emerge at a moment’s notice. Yasu knew that she would have to learn how to get this newfound power under control so that it wouldn’t hinder her in the future. As a promise to herself, she wanted to become someone capable of not needing to be doted upon.
Her goal remained the same, unspoken, but she would do as she must during her time here within the Second Division. Taking her first rejuvenated steps since finishing her fourth candy bar, Yasu would begin her trek back to her Captain’s side.