The Crooked Young [Social/JT]

[Deleted]

Having spent the last few days in Squad 4's barracks, Albin was ready to make his return back to Squad 13. He still needed to give his report to Ludwig about the matter; that Aldwin guy was interesting, to say the least. Someone that showed more of a drive to help out Soul Society than even some of the Captains. His mind immediately drifted to that of Wycliff. With a shudder, he shut that thought down immediately. He wasn't going to get caught up thinking about that guy; not when he had stuff he had to do.

As far as that stuff went, Albin was headed not only into the Squad 13 barracks, but into his Captain's office; he needed to actually take the time to talk to Captain Ludwig about that guy he'd just encountered. If nothing else, he was going to keep to his word. That much, he'd make sure of. He wasn't the type to just go back on something like that if he didn't have to. With relatively little effort, given the squad was fairly familiar with him, Albin pushed his way into the office with a soft knock to make sure Ludwig knew he was coming.

"Captain?" he asked, "I hope I'm not bothering you or catching you at a bad time." If Ludwig allowed it, he'd see himself in, and take a seat across from the man. He knew that his Captain was likely busy, so he wasn't going to spend too much time on personal matters. "Firstly, though as you can see, I've finished with my medical treatment after that mission I took up. I'm back in good condition. Though, I wanted to talk to you about a bit more of a... pressing matter of sorts. That Hellion I'd been sent to dispatch wasn't an actual hellion, per se. He was a half-breed of sorts, and seemed to be pretty interested in affiliating with us; Soul Society as a whole. I told him I'd talk to you on the matter, and see what you had to say."

[Ludwig Verrlicht]

Another day another pile of paperwork he was dealing with. Seriously at this rate just to catch up with all the paperwork Wycliff had left for the several months, upwards of a year on his desk let alone everything revolving around Camilla Ludwig was constantly dealing with too much of this shit. He needed to get himself an assistant at this point. A genuine secretary at a minimum to help him go through all this. It didn't help however that he was also changing things. Squad goals, training regiments, weeding out individuals who no longer fit the bill for what he envisioned the squad to be. And many other administrative and Gotei matters. However today, if he recalled correctly, was the day Albin would be released. A new recruit that'd joined not too long ago.

He'd stood out apparently even in the academy and even still he was a very vocal member of the squad. . . Though not always for the right reasons given he had. . . anger issues it seemed. Especially considering on the first day the individual got into a fight over someone even mentioning Wycliff in passing. Ludwig couldn't know what had so vehemently pissed off Albin that he'd be willing to do that but he did try to look into him just a bit to get some idea. But to his dismay the man had simply appeared in the Rukongai and been "stronger" than the average soul. And thus had been recruited. The typical story as far as the paperwork for him entailed. Perhaps Wycliff had disrespected him at some point in his past but whatever the case was that was a matter for another time. The person in question was knocking on his door.

Ludwig quickly cleaned up his desk so that while he was piled up on either side with paperwork he could at least look at his guest in question. Once ready he spoke up for them to come in and waited until they were sitting down before speaking. Or well. . he would have had Albin not beaten him to the punch. Ludwig simply chuckled a little to himself, seems whatever he had to say was important. Important enough to get directly to the point. . . And it was. Ludwig's casual smile slowly turned into a neutral expression and his eyes sharpened as Albin spoke. Nothing aggressive or displeased simply a show that he was paying more attention on what was being said. Which reminded Ludwig, he needed to check the report on this so that he speak to him about one particular detail.

Once Albin was done speaking Ludwig took the moment to speak up in turn. "No need to worry Albin, I'm practically looking for reasons to take a break from the volume of paperwork to deal with. A lot of it was late or just not done already. A few more minutes isn't going to make it any worse haha. If you'll give me a moment however I need to find the report on this mission so I can make sure I'm on the same page." Ludwig did have to search for about a minute through his desk drawers, his desk top, and eventually over to his book shelves, one of which actually had a bunch of files on it since he was lacking books or art on that shelf in particular. Once he got it however he simply nodded and walked back to his desk. Not before bapping Albin on the head with said folder. Mind you it was neither hard nor was it thick so it wasn't really about "hurting" him more so part of the punishment to be for his actions during said mission. This was the light-hearted portion.

Once he sat down he looked Albin dead in the eye and was about as serious as serious could get without being angry. Mind you frustration and irritation was there but they were subdued. "Albin, I'm going to make this point very clear. WE, squad 13 and shinigami in general, do NOT endanger our charges. Humans, allies, other shinigami, whoever we are helping at the time. And you blatantly using humans as a shield, regardless of who your fighting is about as disrespectful and dangerous to them as it can get. Matters were only made that much worse given the fact you mentioned they were a quincy. Meaning if any of them died, they'd simply cease to be. Something I KNOW you understand because you've made it clear to several squad mates your distrust and dislike for quincies."

"You're not the first aggressive person to join the squad. And you're not the first to have an intense bias towards Quincy. Both are likely justified for good reasons. But we are protectors Albin. If we don't do our job someone gets killed and it can be permanent. Things happen. People will be lost in our fights because of what our enemies choose to do. And we all will get blood on our hands anyway due to the nature of this job. Innocent blood however shouldn't be there, especially not the blood of our wards. You will NOT do this again, I'd sooner have you run away than use others like that." Ludwig hadn't realized it, but he was getting a bit more intense than he'd meant to. During this portion of the conversation his energy had started flaring some and weighing down not just on Albin but on those outside as well. However as soon as Ludwig realized it, he'd immediately stopped it and excused himself to walk out.

A couple minutes later and he came in letting out a breath he'd been holding before closing the door. "Thank God no one was harmed or in worse for wear. I'm sorry about that Albin, that wasn't intentional I just. . . It's something I get . . . passionate about. Speaking of others health however, how is yours? You mentioned you're in a good spot now but given you came back battered to hell and back I wanted to make sure for myself." Ludwig in the meantime had walked back to his desk and was looking back over Albin, though as a whole. Looking for any signs of discomfort or any other possible concerns that were still present. He trusted Squad 4 but sometimes it took more than a few days to get back to your feet. He should know after all. . . more often than not it took him a long while to come back to 100% and even that wasn't really 100% for him.

Once Albin was done with his answer Ludwig would nod and move the conversation back to what Albin had wanted to talk about prior. The individual he was sent after, someone the Soul Society had actually managed to find out was a hellion and managed to track down. Truthfully that was impressive in and of itself given that wasn't the norm for them. Even more so to send out Squad 13 after said individual. Still he needed to refocus on what Albin had said about him. "I understand what you're getting at however you'd have a hell of a time, no pun intended, convincing the other captains and shinigami in general that they are not a hellion. They've similar biases to your own with Quincy but more "justified" given hell is unequivocally evil. Regardless of what they are for a moment. . . Why do they want to work with us?"

"Make no mistake we could use more allies but a half hellion individual even on paper is a . . . tenous situation at best. Especially given that formally I couldn't be allowed to have them join because the mere mention would give us an order to kill them on site. Likely sending someone outside our squad to do it. Likely Squad 2 if I'm honest. Putting all that aside what are your thoughts on this situation? You spoke to them face to face after all." Ludwig would look at Albin dead in the eye, though what he'd see might surprise him. A level of empathy, an attempt to remain open minded despite the understanding of how the Soul Society might chastise him. He wasn't giving an immediate answer but he was laying out the reality of the situation. And hopefully Albin understood the difference.

[Deleted]

Entering Ludwig's quarters, Albin listened to what his captain had to say. "No need to worry Albin, I'm practically looking for reasons to take a break from the volume of paperwork to deal with. A lot of it was late or just not done already. A few more minutes isn't going to make it any worse haha. If you'll give me a moment however I need to find the report on this mission so I can make sure I'm on the same page." He smiled. "Well, if nothing else, I'm glad to help give you a break from paperwork."

Sitting across from his Captain, Albin took the time to ponder everything that'd happened recently; predominantly, he recalled his fight with Rose. It was... an interesting fight, to say the least. He hadn't expected to meet someone like Elke again, but it seemed that he'd done exactly that. Though, as his thoughts had just started to begin, it seemed as though he'd been hit overtop of the head by Ludwig. Flinching and grabbing his head, Albin immediately made note of what had just happened. Looking toward Ludwig with evident hurt, he listened intently as to what he had to say.

"Albin, I'm going to make this point very clear. WE, squad 13 and Shinigami in general, do NOT endanger our charges. Humans, allies, other Shinigami, whoever we are helping at the time. And you blatantly using humans as a shield, regardless of who your fighting is about as disrespectful and dangerous to them as it can get." As much as he'd hated to admit it, his Captain was right on that matter. He wanted to speak up; to say something to defend himself, but he knew very obviously he'd be out of line for doing exactly that. As such, he was going to keep his mouth shut until Ludwig was finished speaking on the matter.

"...Innocent blood however shouldn't be there, especially not the blood of our wards. You will NOT do this again, I'd sooner have you run away than use others like that." Albin nodded furiously. "U-understood, Captain!" He forced out, finding himself pressed into his seat from Ludwig's own spiritual pressure. Hindsight really was 20/20. Looking back, he'd made an incredibly unintelligent move; something that could've very easily costed him his own position if he wasn't careful. He'd need to be a bit more careful, else he'd end up like Camila all over again. Shivering at the thought, he did what he could to shrug off that possibility.

As his Captain seemed to relax, Albin took a deep breath as he no longer felt like he was supporting weights on his back. With a soft sigh, he continued to listen to what Ludwig had to say. "I'm sorry about that Albin, that wasn't intentional I just. . . It's something I get . . . passionate about. Speaking of others health however, how is yours? You mentioned you're in a good spot now but given you came back battered to hell and back I wanted to make sure for myself." He chuckled softly. Truthfully, he'd been better, but he wasn't about to let his captain worry about him if he could help it.

"Never better, Sir," he said with a smile, "I'm holding up relatively well, all things considered. Nothing's broken - at least, not anymore - so I'm able to get back to drills when appropriate. I'm going to do what I can over the next few days to try to get my muscles back into top shape, but that's mostly just a bit of P.T. that I can get done on my own time. All-in-all? I can't really complain." Technically speaking, he wasn't exactly lying. While he was still pretty sore, getting back into the habit of things wasn't exactly going to be all that difficult for him.

"On that note, though," he said, "I'd like to ask you about something, if you're willing to hear me out. During that fight, I... heard a voice. Two of them, to be specific. I don't exactly think that's all too odd, given I was battered by that Quincy at the time, but a girl back over in the 4th Division put a bit of an idea in my head over what that might've been. So, I wanted to ask you; what was discovering your Zanpakuto's Spirit like? How'd that happen?"

Ever since the fight, Albin had still been trying to figure out what exactly those voices in his head were. They felt almost a little too real; like someone had been directly behind him at the time. He couldn't quite figure it out, and the lack of information on the matter bothered him deeply. So, who better to ask than his own Captain?

As Ludwig turned the topic over to that of Rose, Albin rested his chin in his left hand, and stared down at the Captain's desk. "I'm... not entirely sure, if I'm being honest. He seemed like he meant well, which is certainly a start, but I don't know if I could personally trust someone like that. At least, not without getting another opportunity to see and meet with him again, if that makes sense. I spent maybe a good ten, fifteen minutes around him. I don't really think that's enough to get a solid judge of character on 'em."

[Jeff Franklin]

I count 21 paragraphs, totaling 105 TP to both participants