Just Another Day in the Rukongai

[Deleted]

Sometimes news travelled fast in the Seireitei. Unlike Soul Food, which was known by only a few with tastes in humor, the disturbing report surrounding Angel Kuchiki reached nearly every Shinigamis ears in a very short time. When a member of a family as prestiged and privileged as the Kuchikis goes missing it was sure to raise some brows. But the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Angel Kuchiki was what got heads to turn. According to other Shinigami who had been there at the time, when they were recovered enough to talk, they spoke of a disgusting abomination of a Hollow that had tuned Angel on their comrades. It compelled her to attack them in order to help them, at least as the stories went. Some of the Shinigami, obviously, held some disgust for Angels actions...but regardless of personal feelings a search warrant was issued and parties were sent out.

The Rukongai was bustling with black robed activity. Shinigami danced through the air as they travelled between roof tops, all on the search for the missing Kuchiki. She had to still be in the Rukongai right? There was no way the Hollow could have taken her to Hueco Mundo. At least that's what Raygin believed. The young, adopted Kawada had only recently been returned to service, now a member of the Kido Corps on accounts of his bodies strange condition. A Zanpakuto-less Shinigami, serving only as backup and support to the other warriors and devoting himself purely to the study and creation of more Kido for the Gotei (and he loved it). There was no room for any sort of royal family rivalries on this case (not that Raygin had any royal pride to begin with). Kawada, Kasumi'Oji, Shihion, all of them who had active Shinigami could have accepted this mission to go find the missing Angel.

Raygin only accepted because of a few things. One. He wanted to get back into the field if even a little bit. Two. He wanted to be able to help. Three. He figured if his patrol unit ran into any trouble then perhaps his Kido abilities would be of some help. Raygin wasn't strong by any means, but he could at least throw a few spells. In fact, his time spent in the Kido Corps hadn't really been spent on training to be honest. It'd been spent on studying Kido. He'd spend all day reading and practicing spells instead of actually training. He had more interest in creating magic than using it for fighting. After all, with the way his body was right now he couldn't imagine fighting seriously. Using too much reiatsu resulted in him suffering a lot of pain.

Blond hair danced as the wind pushed through them as Raygin flew across the rooftops, hoping to reach the spot he was supposed to meeting his partner at. The Shinigami searching the outer Rukongai were instructed to split into teams of two, unless you were going out into the Wilderness which in that case meant you were to be in teams of five each. The Rukongais Wilderness was a dark, dangerous, mysterious place that housed creatures so unlike either Shinigami or Hollow. It had to be the birthplace of Ajraka Kuchiki, and that bird Raygin met some time ago. Blue eyes widened for a moment as Raygin spotted the spot he was supposed to be meeting at. A dumpling shop. Landing on the dirt road and surprising the Rukongai spirits walking by, those bright eyes blinked when he saw the other pair of black robes waiting for him.

Quickly he bowed his head. "Raygin Kawada. Third seat of the Kido Corps. Please excuse my tardiness I did not mean to oversleep." He explained rather hurriedly, lifting his head once his greeting and apology was over with. He'd been up all night reading about various types of Hado varieties again.

[Chiku Unoji]

Another day... Another scrounge.

Chiku shifted her way through the ground, making her way toward the rukongai before finally surfacing, her hulking mass dripping sand as she began to scrounge about. Most of the others did not dare look her way. Plenty of the impoverished in area 80 knew about the scorpion, and as it were, most of them had hoped to earn favor. The blind arthropod was a terror, and as of late had only been getting stronger. As she made her way into the village, she paused, her head tilting when she noticed a small pile of food. It took just a moment for her to turn in the direction of the nearest villagers, all of them looking at her nervously.

The offerings had started a week ago. She didn't understand, but she didn't have to. Leaning down, she picked up the mass of food and simply gave a nod in the villagers direction before she turned and walked back to her tunnel, holding the food to her body as she headed back, sinking into the earth before, eventually... she came to them. Her family. Past the twists and turns of the maze she had dug to hide them, eventually she came to the deepest part of their home, and she slid into view, and looked around at what was left.

Most of them had died. All that was left, were just those that were strong. Ariugrette and Echnidae were the roughest. The two girls often stuck together, doing their best to help cook or clean, even sometimes convincing Chiku to go foraging with her. Generally speaking though, they remained in the den. Echnidae had suffered a blow to her head during the raid, and one of her eyes was still shut, a slash across the organ, and Chiku feared that she had lost function. Ariugrette, thankfully, had had much less severe injuries. Originally she had been infected from a long slash across her chest, but with time, it had been treated with herbs, and she had managed.

By far, Ajora had been hit the hardest. Missing her left arm, she had been taking the most time to re-acclimate to her new role, and most days she just stayed in her corner of the den, staring off into the distance, as if trying to think of more pleasant days. Chiku had been worried, but eventually, she had come to accept there was nothing she could do for the woman. And then there was Subida.

Along with Chiku, she was the least effected by the raid. With only minor wounds, all of which had regenerated, she and the scorpion had been the most active, and Subida was usually the only one that Chiku allowed to leave the burrow with her. at times, she almost felt like she wouldn't be able to do this without Subida, and from time to time, the woman even vanished to come back with food or clothing. She was an angel, and really Chiku wondered if they might have survived without her.

Jice had originally stuck around, talking about leaving and maybe joining back with 'her old friends', but ultimately she stuck around. Along with Subida, she was also one of the few to leave the den, though far less frequently. And lastly Umi. The woman was doing her best to keep things together. Generally speaking she was the most motherly of all the woman, even compared to Chiku. While she was not able to cook, she was able to clean and do her best to keep their clothes in working order.

All in all, she supposed that it was not a bad life. Were they not so injured she might even have enjoyed it. But as the days went by, she worried more and more. About Ajora especially. Dropping off the food, she turned and headed back out, unable to face the majority of them. She had been growing more and more depressed. So she returned to the surface, and though she could not see the sun, she could feel it. and she turned in it's direction, closing her eyes and sighing softly, relaxing as she did her best to believe..... believe that one day.... it would be better.

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

Large deployments were underway in the gotei, way larger then almost anyone would consider normal, and this included herself as well. From what information she had been able to glean from the courier and the rumor mill apparently there was a missing noble girl, allegedly taken by some hollow just before turning on her own team in some misguided attempt to "help them", whatever the hell that meant. A missing shinigami wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence, a missing shinigami noble was a lot rarer, but still not unheard of, someone, likely the head of the family or someone high on the food chain, was pulling some major strings to have this girl found.

Yetsuna was a result of the unknown person's labor. Large numbers of shinigami of ever rank were already combing through the rukongai, some of the stronger ones were being deployed in teams to search the wilderness, and she was one of them. Her orders were to meet up with some 3rd seat from the kido corps before heading out into the tree line to start their search. Matching her with someone from the kido corp was a an interestingly stupid decision in her opinion, on one hand, while she was far from the strongest, her physical combat skills were well respected in the gotei, but her lack of ability to use kido was also well know. By putting her with someone from the kido corp they covered a large area of weakness for her and they also gave the spell caster a physical speed to defend them, strategically speaking it was a sound choice.

The thing she couldn't figure out though, was why they had paired her with someone in the first place, The Wildereness wasn't a danger to her, she had handled several solo missions out there in the past with no issue. Her main guess was that there was some concern about potentially running into the hollow that had taken Angel, there wasn't a lot of intel on it so they might have just been trying to play it safe over sorry, but if that was the case, if a vice captain needed a partner was it really a smart idea to send lower seats into the forest? Even in groups that might not be enough.....

The Earth Queen pushed the thought from her head, the seated shinigami would be fine, there was nothing in those woods they wouldn't be unable to handle. As she gave herself some reassurance a voice caught her ear, someone introducing him, someone from the kido corps to be specific, but he wasn't talking to her, no, the kid managed to find the only other shinigami in the area. The shinigami the caster was talking to turned around and gave him a weird, somewhat distasteful look, and threw his thumb over his shoulder a towards her direction, "I think she's the one you're looking for," he said with the slightest hint of distain, she was willing to be he was a seated member of 11, likely a bit bitter that he wasn't in the wilderness with most the others.

If the kid was trying to find someone dressed in a deep black, full bodied robe he wouldn't find one, no, Yetsuna's outfit was about as far from the standard issue uniform as she could decently get. She wore a pleated white, partially armored skirt with a piece of chest armor to match that ended just below her bust and left her midriff exposed,s he wore a set of armored gauntlets and boots to complete her ensemble. Her outfit obviously wasn't they type you'd find in the rukon area so it likely wouldn't be too hard for Raygin to figure out who he was looking for, fail there there was a large, european-style great sword propped up on the well next to her.

She'd call him over to her table, a plate of half eaten dumplings were in the center and in her right hand was a small bowl like those used sake. "You're the Kido Corp guy I've been waiting for?" she asked him rhetorically, despite the sarcasm her voice was still warm and friendly,  "I was wondering when you were gonna get here, been here almost a half hour, decided to get something eat since you were taking forever," she motioned her head towards the half eaten plate as a motion to emphasis her statement and as a go ahead for him to have one if he wanted to. "I'm Yetsuna Yishnir, Vice Captain of squad 3. So what do you know about this missing girl? Any good ideas where we should start?"

[Deleted]

"Eh?" Raygin questioned, looking visibly confused as he saw the disgruntled look appear on the Shinigami's face. Did he say something wrong? Regardless, he was pointed in the right direction. Soft blue eyes turned their attention to the...interestingly dressed woman. She wasn't dressed at all in the traditional Shinigami dress code...but then again the rules on that were usually pretty lax. She certainly seemed to have made herself comfortable, what with a plate of dumplings and drinking so early in the morning. Raygin could already tell this was going to be interesting. Regardless, his positive attitude didn't falter at all. Approaching the table and bowing his head in greeting for a moment, a nervous chuckle couldn't help but escape him.

"Aye. I really do apologize for being late. But I'm relieved to know you were able to find something to keep yourself preoccupied while I took my time." Raygin said with a smile. Blond hair fluttering in the breeze for a moment, that cheerful expression vanished once he was asked some of the details of the mission. "Aye. Let's get down to it then. Please allow me to explain it in detail. We're, and others, are here searching for anything that could lead us to finding, or understanding the disappearance of, Angel Kuchiki," Reaching between the layers of his robes, Raygin revealed a photograph of the girl and handed it over to Yetsuna.

"While details of the incident surrounding her disappearance are..unclear...there are some facts that we know for certain. Angel and thee rest of her patrol encountered a unique Hollow. There were casualties and injuries, but what makes this stand out is two factors. Angel injured her own comrades on request of the Hollow and vanished with it." Raygin explained, kinda wishing he could eat a dumpling. "Central Forty-Six is certainly willing to decree that Angel was killed in action, or turned traitor, but...well...given her heritage they're letting us look for her, I suppose." Raygin explained.

"We're going to head....here." At some point after handing Yetsuna the photograph, Raygin had also removed a map of a portion of the Rukongai from hiss clothing and placed it on the table. His finger pointed towards a red circled area. "The Gotei has received...well...rumors, you could say, of a strange creature sighting in this area. Given the Hollow we're looking for was described as...well...peculiar, I figured this would be the best place to start our search. It's not that far off from where Angel and her group encountered the Hollow as well." Raygin explained, rolling the map back up once Yetsuna was done with it and returning it to its place in his clothes.

[Chiku Unoji]

The area around her was a blur. She'd been having some issue with her senses, and she was beginning to worry. She had been less and less able to rely on her other senses, and she had begun to wonder if there was any way around it. Her body was damaged, from so many fights as of late. Without any proper medical attention, it was becomming harder and harder to keep herself upright. She began to wonder if she would be able to keep going like this for much longer. She hoped so. There was so much she wanted for her group. So much she wanted to do to make their lives better.

It wasn't until she got to the rukongai itself that she began to relax, finding the offerings and sorting through them, sitting down before the pile and idly sifting through the contents. At first a number of offerings had been offered, but after she had left behind the more unsuitable items, such as goats tied to stakes, the locals seemed to hav gotten the idea of what she wanted. She bundled up the fruits, vegetables, meager as they were, and packed them up. Nothing much, she would have to wair before she had enough to bring back anything to the cave.

She glanced off toward the Sereitei, and she let a soft snort escape her nostrils. She wondered if she could have avoided all of this. So many thoughs had been plaguing her as of late. she didn't even know why, but her mind had become more and more active. And it was not exactly a good thing. In the distance, she sensed souls with a bit of an odd smell to them. Something akin to shinigami, but from this distance she could not quite be sure. She did not despair or panic. Shinigami generally did not pose too much of a challenge, but even so, she did keep a mental note of their proximity as she began wandering around, looking for more scraps and little treats hidden by the village.

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

The blonde looking kid produced a photo from within his sleeve and handed it over to her, something that was probably a bit more useful then he realized considering Yetsuna knew next to nothing about this girl or what had happened, she basically had just been handed some orders to come here and wait to meet this kido corps youngling. The girl was decent looking enough, most nobles tended to be fairly attractive, but the fact she WAS a noble was a turn off for her Yetsuna disliked the noble families, to her they were just privileged pricks playing politics and causing problems for everyone else in the souls society, though of course as with everything there were some exceptions. She also disliked how they horded wealth, she knew that if the noble families actually worked together they could easily afford to make living in the higher number rukon districts more pleasant, but they chose to do nothing.

The kid spoke of the circumstances under which the girl went missing, apparently having turned on her comrades and attacked them when the hollow requested it which raised two possibilities in her mind, the hollow had a manipulation ability or the girl had turned traitor. If the hollow was manipulating the girl it was merely just a matter of finding her before the hollow killed her, if she had gone traitor...well that brought with it some big complications that would have to be dealt with on the spot. As she arrived at those conclusions in her mind Raygin mentioned what Central 46 had wanted to do which she had mixed feelings about. The fact that they were willing to just dismiss a shinigami as KIA or traitor without proof didn't sit well with her, but at the same time the special treatment due to the girls heritage also irked her.

Raygin continued to brief her about the situation she noticed his eyes glance towards the dumplings on more then one occasion so when he paused to pull out the map she commented, "If you're hungry you can take one," she said obviously referring to the dumplings as he pulled out another piece of paper and placed it on the table. Regardless of if he took one or not the conversation would continue normally with him giving a rough location of where to begin after which Yetsuna grabbed the sake bottle and quickly downed what little was left in there before grabbed her sword off of the wall and saying, "Alrighty then, Let's get going," 

[Deleted]

"No thank you, I'm fine." Raygin replied when Yetsuna offered one of her snacks to him. In truth he wanted to get to work with this mission. While he himself didn't care much about the Kuchiki girl, he still had to follow the mission. He may be a Kawada, but he had little care for the rivalry between the houses. In truth...could the Kawada have even called themselves the rivals of the Kuchiki? They were but a shadow of what they once were with Shade Kawadas disappearance, and Katrina's own seemingly bipolar personality. Taien was nowhere to be seen. Raygin, sometimes, felt like he was the only one of the family left. Yetsuna seemed ready to go, removing her oversized Zanpakuto from the wall. Though he wasn't very pleased seeing the woman drinking while on the job. He chose to keep that to himself however.

Leaping from rooftop to rooftop was how they got around the Rukongai. Reiatsu made leaping rather easy. The fluttering of the black robes was all Raygin heard as he travelled. He didn't attempt to make much idle chatter with Yetsuna. He was rather focused on what he was doing. Leaping from the roofs though, Raygin spotted something rather peculiar. He blinked as he passed over it, landing a few roofs away before stopping and turning around with a confused look on his face. "Hey. Feel free to go on ahead. Something caught my eye." Raygin said to Yetsuna, before he jumped back the way they had just been coming from.

Robes fluttered as he landed on the ground a good couple of feet away from the strange individual. His blue eyes simply stared at it for a few moments before he smiled. "It isn't often you see Beast-People outside of the wilderness." Raygin commented softly in Chiku's direction. For obvious reasons he was keeping a safe distance from her, not foolishly approaching her like a curious child. He was well aware of what these things could do if cornered or mad. He still had the horrid burn scars on his neck and chin from simply training with Ajraka Kuchiki, another member of the Beast-Clan adopted into the Kuchiki family. Speaking of the Kuchiki family, Raygin found Beast-Clan far more interesting than looking for some no-name Kuchiki kid anyways.

[Chiku Unoji]

The sudden shift in proximity caught her attention. She had been shifting through some offerings of vegetables when she noticed that one of the shinigami had gotten much closer than usual. Immediately she tensed, causing her to wince as one of her old wounds in her chest began to ache, hissing a little in pain as she crouched down onto all six limbs, those massive pincers and her stinger raised up warningly, holding them up and into the air threateningly, making herself seem larger than she already was, which was very damn large.

Over thirteen feet tall, Chiku was a monsterous beast, leering in Raygin's direction, even though her eyes didn't look directly at him ,but did seem to sweep around, as if looking for him. It was very obvious that in addition to old wounds, she was also blind. Even so, she didn't seem any less dangerous, wrapping one set of arms protectively around her food as she leered at the shinigami, and for the first time, her first response to an intruder, in such a long....long time....was verbal.

"What do you want?" Came that low gravelly demand, focusing her hearing on the shinigami as admittedly... she did notice that she didn't notice any hard surfaces on him. Usually sound bounced so crisply off of a shinigami's zanpaku'to. But she didn't sense any such object on the man, and this made her....curious. He smelled like a shinigami. But he didn't carry their swords. This was odd.

"Is that your mate?" She asked, gesturing at Yetsuna with her stinger toward the one that smelled of tiddies and wine.