Shin'ō Academy: The place where aspiring souls come to one day become full-fledged Shinigami. Zhou Fēng - A recently made instructor who sought to overcome barriers that he believed he bore due to his previous position – left the second division. He believed answers were shrouded in a tightly knit scarf of mystery in which would unravel itself given time, patience, and hard work. Regardless of his own pursuit of growth, there was always something, or in this case someone, that found it necessary to put him to the test. Regardless of the intention, this was truly a test for Zhou to overcome. There were multiple answers to the equation, but which answer was the
right one? Instructor Fēng eyed the bug-eyed narcissist, the being of high intelligence, but low emotional intelligence. It was more than apparent that the soul had an abundance of potential – having such whims and desires that pushed him to literally do what he wanted without any regard for anything or anyone else. At first glance, one might have assumed that this
pug-eyed goblin’s actions were ineffably drastic.
Not once, but
twice today did Zhou meet someone of unique caliber, acting on what seemed to be their desire without regards to anything or anyone else. Although Nyūraku’s wants were experimentation, and Asahi’s desire was that of a bowl of Yakisoba, Zhou was able to correlate the two’s feelings of true want and desire. Despite what others might have thought, the true idea of, “Bringing about one’s own happiness” rang out abundantly clear. And with this repeated message came the next question: Where did one’s happiness end and where did another’s begin? Should one’s happiness negatively impact others in order to gain one’s own? The abundance of elation in this grotesque abomination of an offspring marveled at his own equally as grotesque creation, but despite his appearance and his immature mindset, Nyūraku had an answer to a question Zhou had been wondering. In a twisted sense, Nyūraku could have been an aspiration with the way his desires came first in his life. With putting his own personal duty to himself over that of the Seireitei’s rules and regulations, Bagu-me was here in order to achieve what he wanted.
Holding his Zanpakutō attached to the massive blob of flesh, Zhou’s ability allowed the being to halt briefly, causing the bulging beast of what appeared to be skin meshed together to stop utterly, visually freezing to a degree to the eyes of those that witnessed it. With the combination of spiritual pressure, it could have been easily foreseen that this power could overpower the simplistic use of Zhou’s Shikai. Purposefully utilizing his ability to cease any further development of the cretin, he fell short of what he originally aimed to do as the assimilation of flesh broke free of the
chains they were originally captivated by. It was no surprise that the being had broken free, but what was truly awe-ing was the fact that the master of sight itself – the being that was able to literally look at two walls that were on the opposite side of the room at the same time – did not even remotely attempt to escape. It was as if he
truly felt what he was doing was right. “The Neanderthal”, absolutely true to his
Fēng heritage, could tell that even if he were to take his blade and sever the male’s neck from his shoulders, not only would this have solved nothing, but it would have been a blemish to his clan, the twelfth division’s potential, and what he was truly trying to achieve for himself. Violence, death, blood, and things thereof were customarily the result of his missions; there was little to no need to be concerned with those whom you worked with. Here, Zhou was protecting the future of the Seireitei along with his comrades.
Upon introspection, the analysis of Zhou Fēng would have been abundantly correct. As someone who was bred and born for the sole purpose of annihilation, protecting youth via less violent means would have been an area he was not proficient in, but given enough time, Zhou was able to analyze a situation and produce some sort of results. In this case, though, this situation was something that he wasn’t familiar with: Experimentation. Although Zhou was subjected to a number of exposed elements himself, Zhou did not have the knowledge to ward off or assist in the recovery of the students. To add insult to injury, it seemed Nyūraku was not going to answer his question. In truth, even if Nyūraku did, it was more than likely that the answer would have been way over Zhou’s head.
There was little time to do much, but something needed to be done.
This was apparent when ..
“Crrrrek.”
Akin to an audible alert only aware to Zhou, his lock had been broken, and with this break, came the movement of the being. One might have found great annoyance, especially with the given individual who had taken a sample, only to quickly scurry off. If Zhou was allotted more time and if the situation didn’t seem as urgent to him as it did, regardless of the lack of urgency that was presented by Nyūraku, he would have chased after the other that was currently involved in the matter. Regardless, there was another problem that needed to be solved.
Soon enough, there was someone else that had arrived at the scene: Lt. Izumi, along with the bunch of others who were there to assist in damage and control. Although she was there now, Nyūraku’s words made some sort of sense, but it could only be validated by those in the medical field. In truth, with someone of higher ranking there, the decision could have and should have been left up to them, but in this instant, Zhou gave this one more try, one more attempt.
Zhou’s “primitive” mind flashed, him thinking of the one bowl of Yakisoba he had with Asahi, that same bowl that bore so much meaning even with being devoured nearly instantly by someone that barely stood to his waist.
“...”
As if he were a monster himself, a dark, navy hue began surrounding his entirety in what seemed to be moments. The amount of power that seemed to swarm him seemed ungodly, the way that the spiritual pressure wrapped his very being should have led others to worry for their safety, Despite how much he released, one could feel there was absolutely no substance to it. One would feel absolutely nothing but the pressure that came with the fourth seat’s power. There was not even an inkling of anything detrimental about his reiatsu – it was purely power. Being near the subject at hand, Zhou swung his Zanpakutō yet again, pressed firmly against the being but slid it down this time, holding it down yet again. Although his face may not have seemed strained, the male was definitely not only using a decent amount of spiritual power for this restraint, but he also began to focus on the very lock itself.
Although it was not visible to anyone but Zhou, it was as if Shujin Kagi herself had made an appearance. Her very being wrapped around the assimilation in what seemed to be a motherly hug, embracing it despite its nauseating appearance. Seeming to take it hostage, Shujin Kagi held it from any further development and impeded the unique creation from any further movement. Despite the amount of strain it put on the seated officer, Shujin Kagi herself seemed to have a smile on her face while embracing the creature, something that truly would have confused anyone that could witness exactly what had transpired. Regardless of this symbolism, this was only the first step in what needed to happen.
Upon analyzing the miscreant, Nyūraku embraced his own intelligence over anyone else. Anything regarding emotional care and concern did not matter. He was a soul that selfishly cared for his own gain in whatever isolated incident he was currently preoccupied with. The way the twelfth division’s face contorted when he saw that the fourth division was there would have been enough to show anyone just how pridefully stubborn this soul was. Despite the incredible amount of intelligence Nyūraku possessed, he lacked in interpersonal areas. With this analysis, despite just how taxed Zhou was, he still held his composure, speaking towards the male that stood there feeling his elation wade due to the arrival of the fourth division.
“I’m not sure what they are here for, but in all honesty, you are right. We are fools. You are definitely more efficient than anyone that decided to come to this scene… who are we to interfere…”
Zhou stopped for a bit, clenching his teeth due to his overwhelming focus of attempting to appease Nyūraku and hold the creation at bay.
“You’re the only one that can stop this, but I know that your experiment is precious to you. The thing is… there has been an infiltrator within the academy and I’m here to stop them. I’m a Fēng.. do you really think that I’d be here to teach mere students… I’m on a mission… and if I can’t carry out this mission, I’d be forced to kill whomever I could within these walls in order for that singular perpetrator to die… That one soul is supposed to be captured alive, but if there were something like this to occur… I’m supposed to act in order to destroy that being so that information cannot be released. There’s a way for both of us to be happy here and now, Nyūraku. I can help with gathering souls for your experiment….Stronger souls. I can get you into the detention unit… at the maggot’s nest. From there, you can have… as much of whatever you’d desire to experiment with. I really don’t want to kill as many people as I can due to your overwhelming talent. I’m only supposed to kill the perpetrator, they may never amount to you, but they can one day assist you in your legacy…I don’t want to interfere with your experiments. You're intelligent. You.. don’t want this experiment to go to waste. Yes, these students may appear to be fine, but if something happens to them? Or let’s say your experiment is successful, then what will happen to the one that’s supposed to be brought down? I can’t… I can’t afford that to happen. As I see it, you’re the only one smart enough for a task of this caliber. What would Captain Nakamoto think in this situation…?”
Zhou was finally able to muster. Although his proposal took a bit of time to squeeze out due to what he was currently dealing with. Despite who would have heard him, Zhou gave off not even a single tell of whether or not he was lying. This was easily the answer to the question regarding the previous second division member – why was he
truly in the third division? Any other reason besides bloodshed would not have been able to be computed. Appealing to Nyūraku’s intelligence and the idea of “duty”, he attempted to see if this experiment could be done in another fashion instead of what was provided. He genuinely hoped that the fourth division caught onto what he was attempting to do, rather than delay the process of proving him wrong, the soul that was definitely older than Zhou, probably knew more about what was going on than the lot of them. The question was, was the member of the twelfth division really willing to risk his experiment going to waste right then and there with what the third division officer threatened to do? Was the twelfth division officer satiated with the deal Zhou provided? There were a number of outcomes.
Today, indeed, is a day of learning.
