Oh Captain My Not-Captain ( R | JT | Matt | Hibiki )

[Kamikawa Hibiki]

((Training for CTP))

It was a day like any other in the life of Kamikawa Hibiki. Well, like any of the recent ones at least. His life had been on a different trajectory then it had in the past, given that his past mostly involved him being dead, but then again so was everyone in Soul Society. Hah. But seriously, for most of the last five years or so, Kamikawa Hibiki, or Kuchiki Hibiki depending on who you asked, had been considered capital D Dead. It wasn’t that he was just a soul spending his days in the afterlife, but was completely and utterly gone as far as most people knew. He had been seen slain on the battlefield.

There were a select few who had seen that he wasn’t entirely gone though. A successor had risen through the ranks of Soul Society who bore his names, not as her last name, but as the name of her power. It had been one nearly the same as the power possessed by Hibiki when he was “alive.” This successor had been, unbeknownst to anyone for quite some time, the daughter of Hibiki, Amaya Azarola. Of course the main reason it was largely unknown was not because it was a secret, but because Hibiki hadn’t actually realized it himself for some time, and didn’t know he had been successful on any of his attempts. What a jerk. But her connection to HIbiki was stronger than mere blood, names, or powers.

Back at the time when Amaya had been conceived, Hibiki had been working on a top-secret research project. He had been working on the Kaido known as rebirth, which involved transferring some of your soul into another being to revive the recently dead. While he wasn’t sure it worked until after his death, or even for quite some time after, he was eventually awakened within Amaya and saw that his failsafe plan had come to fruition. Long story short, he had effectively forced part of his soul inside her, and had become something akin to her zanpakuto spirit. When Amaya called for her powers, she called out the name of her father, and borrowed his power that had been implanted in her.

And now you probably realize why all of this was largely kept a secret. The whole thing was suuuuuuper fucked up. A lot of people saw Hibiki as typically a pretty decent guy, if a bit of a womanizer, before his death. The fact that he’d been effectively running experimenting on unborn children in attempts to become nearly immortal wasn’t the kind of thing that tended to go over well with the ratings. But those who saw Amaya during her short tenure in Squad Four made the connection if they had been around for the previous Vice-Captain. She had his powers. She had his name. She had his libido. Amaya Azarola had definitely sent some shivers down the spines of a few members of the Fourth, and caused some rumors.

But just as fast as she had arrived, she had vanished. There had been no signs of her being different, and then she just outright disappeared off the face of Soul Society. There was no explanation, even to her then “boyfriend” Hokori. She was just gone. It had taken a long time for the outcome of her absence to truly take effect. Amaya was still gone, with no explanation, and suddenly Hibiki was back. No matter how you tried to slice or dice it, hide it, or disguise it, a Vice Captain going awol and a different known-dead one reappearing out of the ether made no sense. Basically everyone in the Fourth who had been alive for a few years only had one question on their minds.

WHAT THE FUCK?

So yeah, it was a normal day for Hibiki. He was avoiding questions about where he had been. He was ignoring questions about reports of his own death. He’d been ignoring questions about this Amaya lady that he’d definitely never heard of, and he’d most certainly been avoiding questions about why he was suddenly so weak. Well, it’s not true that he’d been avoiding them, but he’d been telling an awful lot of lies since he got back. He knew the truthful answers to all of them, and he only gave out fragments at best. For the time being, his focus was singular. He needed to get strong enough to regain the power that he used to have so that he could protect the next generation of Soul Society. To that end, he was sitting in the barracks of Squad Four working on some research to help him regain his strength.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Stats and Skills}
Stats
Strength - [100{50)] Points
Speed - [90] Points
Spiritual Pressure - [50] Points
Reiatsu Strength - [90(135)] Points
Light Aura - [100] Points
Dark Aura - [0] Points
Instinct - [50] Points
Senses [100(50)] Points
Energy sensory - [0] Points
Healing Expertise - [100(150)] Points
Total SP: [580] Points

Skills

• [Kido] {1}
  
• [Battle Analysis] {1}
  
• [Hakuda] {1}
  
• [Mental Incantation] {1}
  
• [Calm Mind] {1}
  
• [Pain Tolerance] {1}

[Matthew Hazeman]

OOC: Training for CTP

One of the many people in Squad 4 wondering just what had happened to Hibiki was Matt. When he had first heard that the Squad would finally be getting a Captain after the loss of both Lorilad and Rose, the unseated officer had been overjoyed. It would be an opportunity to finally have their squad directed and used to its best effect, to really be able to make a difference in the ongoing efforts to stabilize the spiritual realms. That sense of hope had only lasted a few hours though. Then there was an announcement that they would, in fact, not be getting a new Captain. The entire ordeal was incredibly strange, and more to the point, incredibly worrying.

This was only compounded by just who that Captain was supposed to be. It had taken the unseated officer a couple of days to realize it, but the name Hibiki was familiar to him even though he had never actually spoken to the man in person. What was truly alarming about it was that Hibiki was supposed to be dead. Decapitated by some sort of Hellspawn, according to the official paperwork that Matt had been able to dig up. While Shinigami were certainly capable of sustaining far worse wounds than your typical person, taking off their head was still going to kill them.

So while most of the squad seemed to have accepted this and moved on without really looking into things, Matt had not. In fact, Matt had been taking up opportunities he had to find a nice secluded spot, hide himself there, and just watch the former Vice Captain. Matt was no Onmitsukido operative, but years of being a voyeur had given him enough experience to have a good idea on how to watch someone without being easily noticed. He took a few weeks to observe Hibiki, noting the man’s general habits when he wasn’t being sent out on the occasional mission.

From what he could see, there didn’t seem to really be anything outwardly malevolent about the man. He was more interested in poring over stacks of textbooks in his free time, and was making an active effort to stay away from other people. He was also quite skilled at deflecting or ignoring questions that other people asked of him about what exactly what happened, but to Matt it seemed less like he didn’t want people to know than he didn’t want to talk about it. It didn’t answer many questions, but it did start to give Matt an idea of what kind of person he was dealing with. It was this information that finally convinced the unseated officer to make his next move, and led him to his current position.

He was standing in front of the door to Hibiki’s office, taking some quiet breaths in and out to help steel his nerves. Matt was not the best at talking to people, or particularly eager about doing it. But in this case, it was extremely necessary. So here he was, standing outside the door, and working up his nerve to actually knock at it.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Stats and Skills}
Stats

Strength - 50 Points
Speed - 50 Points
Spiritual Pressure - 40 Points
Reiatsu Strength - 50 Points
Light Aura - 100 Points
Dark Aura - 0 Points
Instinct - 45 Points
Senses - 45 Points
Energy sensory - 0 Points
Healing Expertise - 0 Points

Total SP: 280 Points

Skills

Hakuda 1
Stealth 1
Pain Tolerance 1
Lack of Fear 1
Mental Incantation 1
Reiatsu Control 1

[Kamikawa Hibiki]

Today’s topic of research was one that Hibiki had delved down the path of before, but not for a little bit. He had several books piled high on his desk. The tomes were a mix of various topics, but most of them pertained to esoteric illnesses and various medical mysteries. He was in search of any similar cases to is own; he sought examples of a sudden loss of spiritual power. Sadly, he didn’t find much of anything in those books, but he had read through them all at least enough to ensure they were not of use. The one that was more interesting actually had nothing to do with his medical background at all.

Saigo no Houmen: The Pinnacle of Power. It was a book that had caught his eye because he had no clue what the hell it was talking about. That was the book that had his attention wrapped up so well. He had gotten about half way through it at that point. Though it was a purely theoretical discussion, it talked about the possibility of a release beyond Shikai and Bankai, but that came at a great cost. It was the idea that one cold overload their powers to the point that the Shinigami and Zanpakuto became one for a short period of time, but the strain would destroy the spiritual power of the user.

While Hibiki was absolutely aware that he had never obtained or used such a power, the symptoms were similar, and that meant there could be a hint to recovery if it was possible to recover from Saigo no Houmen. Alas, there was no hint of recovery mentioned in the book, and in fact it was explicitly stated to be impossible. As part of his due diligence, Hibiki had dug through the medical records that he had access to, just on the off chance that there was anyone noted as having gone through that process, but it wasn’t anywhere to be found within the records he had access to. Maybe Squad 12 would know more about it? They knew plenty of things.

Lost in thought about Saigo No Houmen and how it could relate to his condition, Hibiki wandered out of his office. It wasn’t the one he was used to, as he had always considered the Vice-Captain’s office to be his own. Unlike that one, this door opened straight into the hallway, rather than into the room. Good for fire safety, but bad for people in the hallway. They really should put windows on these doors to avoid things like what the healer just did. He’d gone and slammed the door right into the face of some pour Shinigami! ”Oh my God I didn’t see you there! Are you okay? Did my decorative tapestry at least cushion the impact somewhat? Oh, no, I hope there isn’t any blood on it. I do like that one…” His thoughts trailed off, now more concerned about whether or not he’d have to figure out how to launder a rug.