The Way of the Soul [Kyomei Kuchiki]

[Munemasa Iroka]

Having spent a bit of time as a newly graduated Shinigami fresh from the Shin'ou Academy, Iroka felt she was not improving as quickly as she wanted to. She had read some of her parent's notes, and had heard what the intentions of her creation had been, but it seemed that perhaps Kimyou had been quite right after all, and she was a defect. After all, her parent had always said something was wrong with her, and Iroka suspected that it was this flaw of hers that made her progress tardy. Since that seemed to sadly be the case, Iroka decided, after long deliberation, to seek out someone to help her grow.

Truth be told, she did not want to ask anyone for help. It was not because she felt sufficient and capable of doing things herself, but the other way around. The orange-haired Shinigami was worried that she was too useless to be worth anybody's time, and as such, asking them for help would be their time wasted on a hopeless venture. But she had to be sure that she was absolutely incapable of growth, at which point she would figure out what to do with herself. She did hope that it would not come to that, though. She had to be useful for something... aside being cannon fodder.

That being said, the next thing was exactly what she needed help with. Seireitei's Gotei 13 was quite specialized, and although there could be found people who were generalists, most of the Divisions had their places of expertise. It would be quite stupid to be going to the 2nd Division to ask for information on Seireitei's fiscal policies. So she decided to narrow things down to what she needed help with. It would definitely have to be combat. So she would be looking at kidou, hakuda or hohou, in the order of importance. Zanjutsu was a mistake, as far as Iroka was concerned. She knew what a sword was, and where its handle was, but that was it.

Well, having figured that she needed help, the next question was whom to ask for help. She was unwilling to go back to the Academy; she had given her instructors a lot of pain, due to her rather quirky nature and unconventional behavior, and she was sure they would not be too pleased to see her again. Someone in one of the Division barracks would probably be helpful. If she just asked very nicely, hopefully they would not know she was a lost cause and attempt to teach her. And she would try her best not to make them realize her ineptitude.

She would start with the least important (in her opinion) field: hohou. That would be the 2nd Division, known for their speed and secrecy. But she was scared of all the ninja-esque things they did. What of they decided to practice assassination techniques on her? Maybe she would try to train hakuda instead. That would be the 11th Division, with their huge brutes that often swaggered all over the place, bullying the 4th Division. Another scary bunch. She could not afford to try them either. Kidou it would be then.

For kidou, Iroka had two options: the Kidou Corps, and the 5th Division. She would most likely try the Kidou Corps; they would surely know all that there was to know about the execution of kidou spells. But there were rumors that they were not officially part of the Gotei 13. If something happened while she was training with them, and the entire Kidou Corps were branded fugitives, would she not be castigated alongside them? That was too scary to think about. It would have to be the 5th Division. There didn't seem to be anything shady about them, and their Division was close enough to hers. A perfect choice.

Iroka realized that if she tried to iron out all the discrepancies before making her move, she would not get anything done. So she rose at a rather odd hour (a little past 4 am), and headed out for the 5th. On her way there, the Shinigami noted that the streets were practically empty. Yes, that was because she had chosen to come at a time when as few people as possible would be witness to her going to another Division to seek help. It felt a bit like unfaithfulness, and she was ashamed of herself, for reasons she did not know. As such, the less people saw her, the better. But if there were so few people around, would that not mean she would meet an empty building when she arrived?

While agonizing over these apparently large details, Iroka did not realize she had walked past the 5th Division building, snapping out of her reverie once she noticed a large building before her and just assuming it was the 5th. Walking into the 6th Division HQ, while being absolutely oblivious of where she was, Iroka called out: "Hello! Is anyone available? I have an enquiry to make...." Whatever calling out she was doing was sure to not catch anyone's attention, giving the softness of her voice, unless someone was awake and nearby.

Kyomei Kuchiki

[Kyomei Kuchiki]

Paperwork in the morning, manual labor in the evening, and more paperwork all night long: such was the life for Squad six following the massive invasion of millions of creatures and denizens of Hell. The paperwork in the morning was mostly a shift of squad members organizing the transfer of materials from the Wilderness into the most damaged Rukongai districts. As the brunt of the damage was in the poorer areas, it had been incredibly difficult to acquire funding from Squad eight despite the honest to the Soul King FACTS that there had been SIX MILLION DEMONS that broke a Hell of a lot of things, pun intended. Squad eight was being very stingy, so Squad six had been fundraising in alternative ways. The Kuchiki Clan had obviously fronted as much cash as could be expected from a noble house that had themselves to maintain, but their Head of House being the Squad Six Captain did help grease the palms of the elders for the reconstruction of the farther Soul Society areas.

If only to maintain their social standing...

Regardless, the money helped. The Kuchiki Clan had donated two million ryo to reconstruction, a quarter of their on hand funds. The massive amount only went so far though. Sure, a million or two could feed a noble house well for multiple lifetimes, but this was the near entirety of the Rukongai that needed restored. Houses, Businesses, Infrastructure. Everything needed restored. So, once the contracts, negotiations, and work orders were complete for the morning/midday, the squad went out and actually performed the manual labor in the cooler evenings when it was less of a hassle for shinigami to be in the citizen's way. They'd get their shift done as night fell and then the relief would come in and work until about 3 am. The night shift would then return to the Squad Barracks and do more paperwork while the day crew slept. And then they'd rotate and repeat.

So, it wasn't unusual to have people milling about Squad 6 at 4 am. Most of the night crew were just getting back after a late dinner and getting started on paperwork. But Iroka wouldn't walk into the barracks and meet just any old squad member. Captain Kyomei Kuchiki, Thirtieth Head of the Kuchiki Family, was getting ready for his night shift of paperwork. While it was his least favorite part of the job, at least it was something to do. He had mostly holed himself up in his squad after the invasion, growing used to the feeling of being able to cast Kidou freely again, albeit not too strenuous ones. To really understand the journey that he went through to get to this point, a quick history is necessary.

Kyomei's story starts as one would imagine for a Shinigami. Fresh into the Academy, made some rookie errors that almost got himself killed but ended up impressing the instructors enough to pass. Before that, though, earning his Asauchi, fighting with it against more than one student, especially his Rival Akeru Kurohi. The two of them had nearly killed each other on more than one occasion in their rivalry and in the midst of it Akeru unlocked his Shikai and used it against Kyomei to try and humiliate him. Destroy him. Kyomei tried to do the same, to unlock Shikai, only to find that what he thought was a Zanpakutou had been a lead pipe with the words "Zanpakutou -property of Kyomei" etched into it that he had fought with by infusing his reiatsu into it. When that delusion broke, he found immense power in his Soul, the ability to see and understand Kidou on a metaphysical level.

The student became fourth seat of Squad 6 under Sozen Kuchiki, who adopted Kyomei into the family after seeing his potential. Oh, right, Kyomei hadn't always been a Kuchiki. He was formerly of the surname "Mitsukaru". Under the tutelage of Sozen and a peer, Taien Hadohou, Kyomei grew in skill with Kidou to the point of mastering fusing them together for unique effects, a skill invented by Taien. Upon reaching his greatest level of power, he took the Exam to become Kidou Corps Commander and passed with flying colors, avoiding a simulation of the greatest of Hell Guardians and a simulation of the former Kidou Corps Commander as well as passing other tests. There he stayed until a fateful day when Las Noches was invaded by the Soul Society.

Against an Arrancar known only as "the Chef", Kyo suffered a great wound not only just to his body, but to his core. His Soul chain and soul sleep had suffered a blow that caused him great pain every time he performed the simplest of Kidou. Even Hado #1: Sho caused him to feel like a knife had pierced his chest. Higher level techniques only increased the pain in his chest and made it radiate outwards to the rest of his body. After a run in with the literal Ruler of Hell, he-whos-name-will-never-be-said-out-loud-again-under-any-circumstance (the first time was Hell enough) he had developed synesthesia and could see sounds as colors floating from the source of the sound. He lived like this for years, going through many adventures and hardships that could take a long time to fully write out. And I said this would be a quick history. Just a few months ago, the Kuchiki Captain had been offered a test by Squad 12 to see if they could restore his spiritual wound to its former state, even if his brain-damage-induced synesthesia was permanent.

They called it a "Refocuser Device" and it sat in his chest like a pacemaker, bound up in strips of cloth across his entire torso. When he first used its power against the Hell invasion, he found that he could once again use Kidou without immense pain, but was warned that using too high potency Kidou would short it out and prevent him from using that level of technique at all until he could rest and get it repaired by Squad 12. Right now he could handle up to a mid-60s level Hado without damaging the device, but exceeding that would cause it to wear down until it shorted out. He could handle about eight Kidou numbered 66 through 80, seven Kidou above 80, and could overdrive the refocuser a total of six more times on kidou numbered 66-99 before the entire thing burnt out completely and he could only use kidou below 66.

All that to say, Kyomei was a perfect person to help Iroka train in Kidou, and loved to be of help. So when the Squad 4 Shinigami walked into his barracks, he offered a polite smile, a wave, and called her over to the desk he was leaned over, map of the Seireitei and Rukongai reconstruction laid out. The pink color of Iroka's voice waves made the Captain feel slightly uncomfortable as he remembered horrors that he had witnessed in the past, but he smiled through it and offered the other shinigami a seat with a pot of tea and a bowl of pistachios nearby. "Please, enjoy. I just put the kettle on recently, so it should still be quite hot. What sort of enquiry would you like to make?" Not wearing his Captain's haori at this time, if Iroka didn't recognize him he very well could have passed for a normal squad member. His spiritual presence was large, but he was keeping it bottled up as much as possible due to his tendency to overwhelm his subordinates with it...

Munemasa Iroka

[Munemasa Iroka]

Iroka was a little bit surprised, but not altogether displeased, that the Division appeared to be not as somnolent as she had expected it to be, when a brown-haired fellow in billowing robes gestured her over with a smile. That was fast. Iroka felt she would have been more comfortable if she had had to wait a bit before she had been responded to, although she could not exactly say why she felt this way. In any case, meeting someone immediately meant that she would have less time to waste here. She wanted to ask, out of curiosity, why the Division seemed so awake at this time, but she decided not to waste this fellow's time with frivolities. If only she knew that she was at the 6th, not the 5th.

Iroka walked over, with a nervous but grateful smile, and bowed deeply. "Ohayo gozaimasu, Oji-sama!" she said cheerily. The young Shinigami could sense that his spiritual energy seemed controlled; stable and firm were the words she would use to describe it, if asked. This one seemed quite strong, but she had absolutely no idea that he was the captain. If her intention had been to get to the 6th Division, she would have probably recognized the man, even without his haori of office. But since the thought she was in the 5th, it didn't even register in her head. Someone with a more normal brain would have probably wondered what the 6th Division captain was doing in the supposed 5th Division HQ.

Kyomei would probably note that Iroka had called him "Oji-sama", which would be somewhat weird, given the fact that the Gotei 13 was a military outfit, and being that informal, especially to one who was likely one's superior, would be considered odd. True, there were the oddballs who either did not know, or care, about etiquette of addressing superiors, but they were more fringe than mainstay. Iroka, for good or ill, was one of them. While the address was quite informal, it was also extremely polite, giving an unintentional hint to her personality: unceremonious but reverent. Referring to him as 'uncle' evoked the picture of a highly respected, but much-loved member of her family, which she considered the entire Gotei 13 to be.

The girl settled into a sitting position, taking the traditional 'seiza' posture and placing both hands folded modestly in her lap. "I am very grateful for going to such great inconvenience for me," she answered in response to his offer of tea and... some strange-looking nuts. Pistachios were not supposed to be rare, but Iroka's knowledge of things was quite different from that of the average person's. Her parent, Kimyou, had never considered knowledge of food to be relevant to a being whose purpose was to fight and die for Seireitei. With measured grace, she poured out the tea, making sure to pour the fragrant liquid into two cups, the one for Kyomei being poured first. Then she lifted her cup to her lips and took a sip. It was not the type of tea she was used to drinking; even though there was a subtle difference which a normal person would fail to notice, Iroka took notice of it, though she could not momentarily identify the difference between this and what she was familiar with.

"I came to ask for help," the girl said, setting the cup down beside her. "I have felt that my progress in developing my combat quality is unexpectedly slow, and while someone could argue that it is because I am from the 4th...." She paused, her eyes slowly widening. "Have I introduced myself? Oh this is the height of crudeness, ne? Forgive me." She bowed deeply again. "Munemasa Iroka, unseated member of the 4th Division. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" Straightening up again, her eyes fell on the nuts, and she paused.

Well, since the man had asked her to help herself, Iroka, momentarily forgetting that she had just been in the process of explaining her presence to him, picked one of the pistachios and popped it into her mouth. Her eyes closed slowly as she chewed, and then suddenly burst open again, fixing Kyomei with a gaze of wonder and delight. "Splendid!" she almost screamed. "This thing has an incredible flavor. Its calorie content isn't quite high, but I can see it going well in an experimental dish." She began to soliloquize, lost in her own world for the moment, something that was quite common for her to do. "Hmmm... if I used whipped cream... no, that would be slightly vapid. Shredded prawns might work, but I'll have to make them into puree, so it might be better to use something already liquid. But I need viscosity. I've got it! Motor oil will work, but... but it isn't very digestible, is it? If I crack it, breaking down the complex hydrocarbons, that might do the trick. Yes... yes indeed!" She looked up at Kyomei. "Ah, I was going off by myself again, ne? Sorry, I do that often."

She smiled in mild embarrassment. "So, as I was saying before I foolishly distracted myself, I need some help with regards to combat training. Specifically the use of kidou. I know I was told by the Shin'ou Academy Instructors that I have some talent in kidou, if I have any talent at all, but I don't know whether they were just lying to me to make me feel happy. Seeing as I think I have been progressing woefully in the advancement of my kidou casting, I decided to come humbly to the 5th Division, where the masters of kidou are, in order to seek help." She looked at Kyomei expectantly, still unaware that she was in the 6th Division, never mind that its insignia was boldly emblazoned outside.

Kyomei Kuchiki

[Kitai Yoru]

23 paragraphs, 110 TP awarded