Progress (JT/Hotaru)

[Miranda Frost]

The walk back to the squad 10 barracks from the 4th division facilities was interesting. Though now healed completely, the wounds she had sustained left her with a dull, phantom pain stretching out over the length of her limbs. As she drifted in and out of consciousness during her time in the squad 4 facilities, the one thing she could remember was the horrified looks of junior medics attending to her until more seasoned officers could be assigned. In the end, their quickness to act had saved her life. Miranda would pay them back, eventually, she staked her blood on it.

As she entered the gates of the tenth division’s facilities, her eyes fell upon the main administration building. Her hand clenched the reports and paperwork she was tasked to give her captain. How would she take this? Miranda trained with her blade in secrecy and kept the effects of which hidden. Already she was receiving looks from the officers that passed her by. She walked with a brisk pace, her arms carrying the small stack of reports to her chest. The sooner Miranda reported back in, the better. No doubt people have been talking about her extended absence.

Miranda sped up the steps, the jumbled mess of papers just barely held together in her grasp. Her brow dripped with sweat and she couldn’t tell if that was the result of the mass of bandages that lined beneath her clothing, or the overwhelming nervousness she felt as she neared her captain’s door. She stopped mere inches from it, debating on whether or not she could bring herself to report, but that didn’t matter did it? There was no way Hotaru-sama didn’t know she was there.

Frost swallowed and knocked thrice upon the door before sliding it open, stepping inside, and closing the door behind her. She turned and stepped towards her captain. The woman bowed low, Her hands extending the mish-mashed pile of reports and release forms. “I’ve just been released from the fourth division’s medical facilities. My apologies for the mess, I came as quickly as I could.”, she explained. “And I know what i’ve done is a punishable offense, but… erm… I succeeded.” The words themselves flowed as awkward as they could have. Miranda wasn't good at this sort of thing. To tell a superior, "Yeah I abandoned my post for a few days, but hey... I got stronger~" wasn't in her repertoire of skills. 

[Hotaru Kuchiki-Masurao]

Hotaru was pleased with how the division training had went. Shinigami got to see a Quincy in action and to see a shinigami start to learn about their own zanpaktou. It ended only when she noticed that Frost was getting a little worse for wear, since she refused to leave the training ground, and the fact that training had stopped when she was in her spar. It was good to see a Quincy in action, true. But, if it completely stopped an afternoon training, it wasn't really helping anyone. She had made the decision to invite her husband back and invite the division to watch their next spar.

Thinking on logistics for that, she had been given updates on the patrols that the division were supposed to do around the Seireitei to keep an eye out for any unmentionables and to keep an eye on the gates. Reading one report in particular, it seems that Frost had gained her power in an unhonorable way. It seems that she had been missing from her patrol route, without checking in, for a few days before she magically reappeared. This didn't sit well with the Captain. When you are assigned a division, you do the tasks that are given by the Captain and talk to the Captain or the officers if you have issues, not leave your post.

Her door was opened, as was customary for her, while she thought about what to do to get her to understand a chain of command. She didn't know how long she was thinking about it until she felt a familiar presence come towards her office. Well, speak of the devil... She sat in her chair, staring at the door and waiting for the girl to walk in. Instead of walking in, she saw a hand extend to knock on the opened door. Hotaru was slightly perplexed that the she was knocking on an open door. Everyone in the division knew of her open door policy, but maybe she hadn't heard about it?

Taking a breath to start to speak, she watched her come in and then shut the door behind her. Before Hotaru could do anything, she walked in front of her, bowing low and handing over a jumble of papers. 'I’ve just been released from the fourth division’s medical facilities. My apologies for the mess, I came as quickly as I could. And I know what i’ve done is a punishable offense, but… erm… I succeeded.' She looked at the woman and took the papers out of her hands, skimming through them. It was just normal release papers, so she straightened the papers and set them slightly aside to deal with them later.

She stood, putting on her Captain's Haori, to talk about what had happened with her. "You know I have an open door policy right? You knocked on an open door, which was slightly funny, but just remember that in the future so you don't make the same mistake again. Thank you as well for bringing over all the paperwork for your release back to the division, Miranda-san. The mess is also not a big deal. The training grounds have seen worse, believe me. But, there is a matter that we do need to discuss. I just looked over the patrol reports and notice that you were absent for a few days from patrol.

You can't leave responsibilities like that. It's an act that's unbecoming of a member of the Gotei Thirteen, a member of my division, and in another sense, a member of a Kuchiki Division. We do guard Soul Society from its enemies, but when a member leaves the patrol, it leaves an opening for our enemies. What would've happened if a strong Hollow would've come in while you were gone? The blood of the innocent people would be on your hands for leaving. Also, because I am also a member of the Kuchiki Clan, I feel like the Kuchiki Divisions are viewed differently than others. Having a member leave for no given reason doesn't look good on the family or the division as a whole.

I'm not happy with what you've done, so for your punishment, you are off active duty. No more patrols, no nothing. For one month, you are stuck in the barracks cleaning, helping with meals and running errands for the officers. Hopefully after this month, you will learn to talk to your superiors if you need a leave of absence so that you can do anything personal. Their is a chain of command in place for a reason. Use it." She glared at her when she said the last two words but something else was going on. When she started to talk about her leaving responsibilities, she was slowly starting to exert her spiritual pressure. By the time she glared at the woman, it was almost full force.

When it got full force, it lasted only for a second before she recoiled it back in on herself. She didn't want to hurt her but she hoped that she got the point. Though, with another member of the division gaining Shikai was a boon for the division to be sure, no matter how she got it. She was curious as to how it worked. "Let's move on to a happier note. You say you've succeeded. Does that mean you have finally heard the voice in your Zanpaktou? Does it work the same as it did when you showed it uncontrolled during the division wide training?"

[Miranda Frost]

Hotaru-sama was no saint, but she could have fooled Miranda at times. One by one the captain had flipped through every subject Miranda could bring up or have brought up and addressed them honestly and accordingly. The captain had been specifically clear on the sheer dissatisfaction her action had caused her captain. Miranda had let her fear of her Captain's opinion on her shikai turn her in the direction of wrongdoing. Though there were good intentions behind Miranda's actions, all the good intent in the world will do no one any favors when it gets another killed.

The gravity of this weighed heavily on her mind, just as the pressure of her captain's presence crushed down upon her. It lasted only for a moment, but even then it was enough to nearly flatten her to the ground. Miranda had to force herself to look into those fierce eyes. After all, this was, as Hotaru-taichou put it, a discussion and in such things, the junior should always hold the superior's gaze, or at least that was what her adoptive family had taught her. The eyes were gateways into another's soul. Within them, you can find understanding.", her adoptive father had said.

Miranda knew the gravity of what she had done and had come back to her captain willingly. By the military code of law they followed, Miranda could be tried for desertion. She had heard of those put to death for lesser offenses and yet here she was. When her captain gave Miranda her punishment, she was taken aback. What was Captain-sama doing? Frost could feel the tears welling in her eyes not from the punishment, but how little the punishment was. Hotaru-sama was taking it easy on Miranda; a slap on the wrist.

Her eyes fell to the stack of papers. Although Miranda was cleared for her duties, she was restricted from anything too strenuous. Her wounds were healed completely, but they couldn't explain the pain she still felt. They seemingly checked everything, but every cell was reconstructed nearly perfectly. There was something wrong with Miranda, or so they say, but the doctors could not figure out what. Miranda knew her captain read those papers. The unseated soldier fell to her knees, breaking the gaze to bow once again. As neat as Miranda normally kept herself, the etiquette those of squad 10 followed was still fresh on the platinum-haired woman. Knowing when to bow and when not to was something that she had always understood. Frankly, she had always gone with her gut.

For this, it was so she could hide the proud tears of joy over her verdict. Miranda would continue her service. She had messed up, but then again who didn't? From here she could repair her foundation and continue building upwards into a better future. She wiped her eyes on the bandages wrapping her forearm prior to rising, the grin on her face unable to be hidden. "Aye, Hotaru-sama.", she answered, her hands folding gently in front of her. "The blade's name is Towairaito."

Miranda remembered back when she had first called it in that sparring session with Dragon-sama, and how it nearly killed her. "I can control it now, but I am still learning the full extent of its range of abilities." Miranda sighed and squeezed her hands together, the scars on her palms pulsing at the subject. "My sword is cruel. Initially only hear my voice through the spilling of my blood." She glanced to her captain, attempting to hide her worried expression. Truly she was afraid of the next time she'd have to speak with it. "Which is why I was hospitalized."

[Hotaru Kuchiki-Masurao]

Hotaru spoke and was thinking to herself how much she was going to clean while Miranda answered. Towairaito. An interesting name for a Zanpaktou to take. From what she had seen of the girl's powers, they were more ice focused than what the name meant, Twilight. Unless the cold was some sort of twist on the name, which is possible. She was then told that she was only able to hear her when she spilled her own blood, which was the main reason that she was hospitalized. It brought her back to Nola and how her powers worked. Her Zanpaktou worked through her blood and pain as well, which was interesting that she now knew of two people whose Zanpaktous made them bleed to work correctly.

She never knew that a Zanpaktou would do that, but each Zanpaktou was different. She was just happy that hers seemed to be more level headed than a lot of the spirits that she had heard about. She nodded towards the woman and then held up a hand. "Give me one moment, Frost-san." She slightly bowed towards her as she went back to her desk. She wrote down the name of the Zanpaktou, along with her name, putting that slip of paper into her desk. She would put that into her personnel file later, updating the information there. The more that she knew about her division members, the more she could help them out when needed.

Then, she wrote out the length of her punishment and then what she had said the punishment would be. Later on that day, she would look around the division to see what needed to be cleaned and give her an extensive list of duties. She would be worked hard, everyday, for the entire month, with the officers adding more duties as were needed. She would make sure that she would remember this and NEVER do it again. It was a blemish on her division that she didn't appreciate or need. She folded up the paper and put it near the back of her desk, so Miranda wouldn't see what she wrote. But, the awakening of her Zanpaktou is interesting. She knew that she couldn't do anything strenuous, but the reports seemed rather odd.

"Sorry about that Frost-san. I wanted to write my thought down before I forget. It's one of the reasons I have lots of paper at my desk, so I don't forget anything important. The medical report says that you're cleared for duty, but can't do anything too strenuous. It is also mentioned that you're back to 100%, but I'm curious as to why they have restrictions for you. If you're fully healed, why be limited? Do you have any idea as to why you would be limited like that?" She knew what the report said, but she wanted to hear directly from her why she thinks that they limited her.

"Also, since your Zanpaktou has awoken, did you think you need help to reach out to it? I've helped a member with something like this before. It wasn't that successful sadly, but I think that has more to do with the Zanpaktou's power than what happened with them. I would be more than ready to help in that regard." She stood up, wanting to talk to her eye to eye. "I also have another quick question. I know that you left your post, but did anyone follow you when you left? I know the report is only you, but you never know what can happen out there."

[Miranda Frost]

As Miranda watched her captain’s feverish writing, she couldn’t help but wonder what it was that was being written down. Perhaps it was noted to remind her of this particular meeting later on? Frost had seen how much paperwork her old captain would get on a daily basis. She couldn’t imagine Hotaru-sama being much to different in this regard. There are only so much time in the day to dedicate to such things. Whether she delegates them out to her seated officers or does it all herself, it is still an enormous amount, especially with how active the captain is when dealing with her Division.

And then she was married, to that human. Initially, she held a bit of disdain for the man, but during the first months of being in squad 10, the things she has seen had changed her outlook on him. Although they had never spoken, the sheer guts the captain and that man must have had to become linked together through marriage must have been high. All Miranda knew was that there was some respect for the shinigami as a whole if he were to marry the Captain or at least a level of indifference. From what she saw and what she learned, there was no reason to hold such disdain for someone she barely knew, especially if he didn’t stand in the way of the organization in which she served.

Her captain stood and approached her with a curious aura about her. Almost inquisitive it was. Miranda sighed. After all, she could almost guess what she’d ask about. She had read the reports herself, but then again there was something different. Her own reports, the reports that detailed her experience during her absence. She cursed herself for not bringing it up before anything else, but the truth of the matter was that there was so much happening all at once. Miranda could barely track it all.

“Captain-sama, your first and last questions may be related.”, she said with a sigh, the steel of her eyes breaking away as she shifted her head to the right. Her right hand dove between her bust and her uniform, pulling out a stack of papers much different than the ones she’d given. The neatness and uniformity of those reports were not present here, even if Miranda had attempted some kind of formality when writing those. Then there was the paper itself. The reports were written on what she had at the time, or what was given to her. Dried hollow skin cut into thin sheets served as her paper, and a makeshift ink crafting using their blood as a base, or even her own in a few of those pages.

“These are the reports dictating what happened during my absence. The day I went missing was also that of my last mission. You may not even be aware of this tasking.”, she glanced to the messy desk behind her captain. “The assignment was given by one of the lower seated officers and I was told that the mission itself was a favor to squad 2. I was to go out into the wilderness where an unidentified being was spotted. I was to spot it, observe it, then leave. I was not to engage.”

She gripped the hilt of her blade, squeezing its pommel. “Alas, the truth of the matter was that I was used as bait. Shinobi were already there with the creature, I was just a distraction. It came to me before I realized what it was, and once I did, the shinobi sprung the trap and died in the process. In a matter of moments, those three lost their lives.” Frost shivered, still remembering the sinister feeling Serrato’s reiatsu sitting heavily on her mind. “I'm not very fast, at least not as fast as this Arrancar. As she began to whittle down my defenses, a lieutenant and another ‘Assisted’ me, but died as well. This Arrancar, this Mariposa Serrato knocked me out and took me to Hueco Mundo.”

Her other hand moved to rub at her temple as if trying to ease the memories from there to come forth. “ I can’t remember much. The time since then blurs together and nothing makes sense. I know this arrancar was a fraccion, but to who I can’t remember right now. I don’t even remember how I made it back.”, she sighed looking to her captain. “Those reports were written by me but I do not remember writing them. The words are either ineligible or they simply don’t make sense.”

The memories she did manage to acquire made her shiver. For the first time since her spar with Dragon-sama, she actually thought her life was at an end. This punishment could be dropped. Her absence was excusable, but she prepared to keep it in place. She was afraid. She wasn’t afraid of hollows, strange reality warping artifacts, or quincies. She was afraid of another mission that would put her in that position again. It seemed she was always healing from some kind of injury, yet she still takes these missions. She could not understand herself.

“As for my Zanpakuto, Captain-sama, I don’t think I should meditate alone. Learning of my power in the first place required a fear of death and to even delve into my inner world requires blood to be shed. Foolish was I to think I could do it alone.” she looked to her blade and released another sigh. “Even though I’ve achieved its release, It still seems to be developing, to be changing.”

[Hotaru Kuchiki-Masurao]

Hotaru stood and listened to what her subordinate had to say. It seemed that during her 'absence' from her duty, she was assigned to help with a mission for the Second Division. She didn't even remember being asked about this mission, so she got pissed. Did the Second Division captain just ask her lieutenants about this, thinking they would ask her, but they didn't and they just told her to do it? She would definitely need to figure out how in the hell this happened without her knowing about it. But, from what she was told, the mission that they had planned didn't work out and she was captured by a Arrancar and taken to their plane.

She had never been there, but she was curious how she dealt with it. Taken by a Fraccion as well, which was very interesting as well. Was it here to do some kind of scouting mission for its Espada so they could try to infiltrate the Seireitei? It was extremely obvious from what had transpired that she definitely needed to talk to the Second Division to figure out EVERYTHING about this mission that she had no idea about. She looked to her desk, which was extremely organized, only the one little scribble note being out of place. Being in the military while she was alive and her own almost OCD, her desk was always neat. She held up a finger after Miranda was done speaking and glanced through the notes to see if anything jumped out at her.

It was as she said, a lot of things that didn't seem to make sense. She put the papers into her 'In' box that was sitting on her desk before she pulled out another note. Updating the original note she had made, she turned towards Miranda with a new, blank piece of paper. "I did not know about this so called 'mission.' Could you please tell me the name of the officer or his seat number if you don't know that. Actually, nevermind, I think I have something better." She then makes the note to summon all of her seated officers for a meeting as soon as she was done with Miranda.

Then, under that note, she writes to make a formal inquiry with the Second Division about this mission, getting all the details and why she wasn't informed on what was going on with it. After she was done with that, she laid it next to her other note, standing back up. "Sorry about that Frost-san. I wanted to write it down before I forgot important details. After we are done, I will figure out how this happened. I'm sorry that this happened to you, getting kidnapped. Please continue with what you were saying."

Miranda continued, saying that she shouldn't work on harnessing her Zanpaktou's power alone, since it could cause her grave injury. Hotaru nodded, grabbing her own blade as she talked about hers. She felt Rivu~aiasan's warmth and heard him. He knew what happened last time she tried this and he didn't want her to hurt that bad again. Smiling, she patted the sheath and looked back up to Miranda. "What would be the best way for you to go forward with your Zanpaktou? I could give some opinion, but this is your Zanpaktou, an extension of yourself. I think you have a good idea of what you need to do next. I'll be here to help and guide as needed, but this is you growing into your power and learning more about yourself. Whenever you're ready."

[Miranda Frost]

Miranda shook her head and silently cursed her own incompetency with the matter. Her training had taught her discipline and that a well oiled military machine was derived by the trust forged between superior and subordinate. Frost had no reason to question the seated member that gave her the mission. She had taken it with a smile upon her face. She remembered that she was indeed given a slip that detailed the mission’s vague details. She bent down and lifted her uniform slightly, revealing the leather boots she chose to wear instead of the standard shoes the normal shinigami wears.

As embarrassing as it were to be caught in the act of potentially breaking uniform regulation, it was indeed confusing what was allowed and what wasn’t, this matter was more important. She loosened its laces and reached inside pulling a small folded sheet of paper detailing the mission details and potentially the name of the one who issued it. She fixed herself and rose up giving the slip over to her Captain. “My apologies, Captain-sama. This was the order sheet given to me. I did not read over the name of who it was, but i can assure you he was a seated member. Of which of the numerous seats there are, I couldn’t say unfortunately.”

Miranda gave a nervous smile and tapped at the sheath of her blade with her gloved hands, letting the false zanpakuto of her creation disintegrate and deposit the reishi composing it back into the air around them. “Towairaito wields manifestations of my memories and mental aspects to help root out my fears and weaknesses. Through interacting with them and overcoming them, Towairaito promises to help in my development.” She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, a subtle chill rising up her spine. “I fear death more than anything, Captain-sama. Death ends all of what plans I may have and the interaction with the world around me. I’ve already died once.” Admitting this was hard, but necessary. Holding anything from her captain would not go over well. If her training had killed Frost, she could only imagine the shock on her captain’s face.

“Towairaito assists me by manifesting them into a single form, but its my responsibility to bring them to the surface to be faced.”, she explained, letting loose a deep exhale in attempt to relax. “I’ve theorized i’ll have to be in the state of risk of death at the moment of confrontation. The battle with the arrancar had brought a sliver of him out, but at the back of my mind I knew the fraccion would not hurt me. What I mean by ‘Not being alone’ when I start this eventual training is that I’ll be forcing myself, when i’m ready, into this dangerous state, I’ll need access to immediate medical care, or my life will be lost.”

[Deleted]

42 paragraphs total counted, so that'll be 210 TP!