Post by Azumi Kasumi'Oji on Jun 30, 2014 5:12:19 GMT -5
Quintessential Sozen. Azumi could see her longtime friend's hand in every aspect of the new Kuchiki Estate, and she hadn't even set foot inside. The pair had shared a bottle of wine the other night to celebrate her return and catch up on immediate business matters, but that had taken place in some small, extraneous Kuchiki property located conveniently close to the Squad 12 Barracks where Azumi spent most of her day. The massive estate - scratch, that, the massive complex (inferiority complex, probably. Kuchikis...) looming before her simply screamed Sozen Kuchiki. Its gaudiness would feel suffocating to a plebian. Azumi just cocked an eyebrow at it.
In fairness, it was rather impressive. The estate bristled with an almost military sense of ostentation, distinctive carvings etched across every inch of the walls which appeared constructed from a special, overwhelmingly expensive alloy of gold, rare earth metals, and other esoteric materials Azumi hadn't seen since her time in the pre-Kouhai Squad 12 Barracks. Those carvings, quite obviously the painstaking work of hundreds of master artisans, positively dripped with more
gold filigree than an art museum. Expensive gems, particularly rubies, studded every distinct point or node on the etchings.
Beneath the surface, Azumi sensed impressive spiritual defenses, perhaps the work of Kyomei Kuchiki and his fellows. It would take all of the Vandenreich to breach these walls without tactical intel, and she wondered what strange and malicious sorts of traps Sozen had thrown in there for the unwary, what secrets he might have lying in wait, how many lies he had sown among his own people to ensure that the spies of other families or factions would dash themselves against the rocks. Not very high-tech, but definitely the ideal of "Shinigami defenses", which is what Sozen would want unless something had seriously changed in Azumi's absence.
Azumi had enjoyed the walk here. She carried a book, of course. Human world literature, "Against the Day", something above Sozen's current readings just to piss him off. Well, 40% to piss him off. 60% it was a pretty fantastic book. Between his inability to keep himself from overscheduling, the duties of clan leadership, and raising his children, she doubted he'd kept up with his reading. The walk from Seireitei proper had taken almost half an hour, with quite a bit of that consumed by crossing the massive open space Sozen had cleared around the Kuchiki Estate for the sake of making it look cool. Sorry, accentuating its magnificence. She stood there outside the main gate, patiently reading, knowing that Sozen Kuchiki would undoubtedly have some sort of overwhelmingly expensive, gaudy, visually spectacular welcome planned for his old friend Azumi Kasumi'Oji.