Forging Ahead (Open Social to Captains and Vice-Captains)

[Col Arana]

Ningen nodded to Senshi as she entered his office in greeting. "Good of you to join us, Captain Odayakama. I understand you suffered severe injuries during the battle in an attempt to defeat the leader of the invaders. Such self-sacrifice is to be applauded, even if you were unsuccessful. Many of the Seireitei could learn from such determination and dedication." He stated to the red-haired Shinigami. And took a moment to respond to Senshi's assessment. "Hrm." Ningen closed his eyes in thought, also absorbing Celes and Kimiko's counterarguments. He was silent for a moment, as he contemplated. Then his eyes opened.

"Very well. If three of our most esteemed officers would rather pull those from the Rukongai, so be it. I will advise the Central 46 of this after our meeting today, to distribute funds towards scouring the Rukongai for any passable survivors of this calamity. I will leave it in the hands of you and the capable instructors of the Academy to turn these degraded whelps into full-fledged, honorable Shinigami worthy of the name." He stated. This too was Ningen Kyousou. A lesser man might still have tried to sell their case, or throw in a last minute barb. Not the Captain Commander. When he set out upon a course of action, he was resolute. Already his preference towards pulling from the noble class of the Seireitei was forgotten in favor of the plan of action these three had set out.

But Celes and Senshi had also both had more to say than that. "Firstly, Captain Odayakama, yes, you may share your further thoughts. As for your second suggestion, Captain Shindazu--" Ningen paused as Aramis entered the room and took his seat. His face was as still as clay, and it was apparent he was not overly thrilled at the 12th Division Captain's lack of decorum. It may not have been important enough to make note of in this instance, but Kyousou Ningen was still less than pleased about it. Today though, they were discussing matters more important than Aramis's short and scattered nature, and Ningen did not discriminate, hearing out Aramis just as much as he had the other four present.

"What you propose is dangerous Captain Tezuka. The Central 46 restricted knowledge and research on Hell for good reason. There is much we do not know, it is true, but the process of learning this knowledge is potentially hazardous. That day, we suffered great losses when so many gates into Hell broke open in the Rukongai. We cannot risk a catastrophe like that happening within our own walls because one of your division accidentally opened such a gate in the heart of our own power."[/color] He stated, but still his eyes scanned the others present for their thoughts as well. This was an open forum for discussion afterall.

[Nakajima Kimiko]

Kimiko waited to see what the others had to say about her little speech. Quite frankly, for the first minute or so following its very end, she wasn't quite sure that everything she had was going to land. For all intents and purposes, she was not a Captain; in fact, she wasn't even a Vice-Captain. All she was at this point in time was the Third Seat of the Eleventh Division, which - while not a position to be underestimated or undervalued in the least - definitely did not have as much authority as the two previous ranks did within the Gotei 13. It was shocking that she was even allowed to come and stay here. Even if the Captain Commander assured her that he would listen to her regardless of her rank, it indeed seemed quite out of line for her to be so upfront with the old man, or it was such in her mind, at the very least. She should've maybe waited for Tsukuyomi to come to the meeting first before actually voicing her opinion so openly.

But to her surprise, no one in the meeting appeared to be critical towards her suggestion. Tsuyoshi, the new dopey arrival, hadn't said a thing that suggested negativity towards its regards for the time being, and Celes was overall quite supportive. Well, that last one was probably not all that surprising; after all, her mentor has never really not supported her, not even when they first met. Even so, it was something, and if anything, the Captain of the Tenth made sure to add quite a fair bit to her own words, going as far as to say that her division would go on to assist the Eleventh in their recruitment efforts. The thought was enough to make the swordswoman smile a bit, comforted.  I guess I should've expected that... but thanks, Celes,  her thoughts concluded as she took another sip from her tea. Already, she could feel the stress and the exhaustion which came with the deliverance of her speech to the Captain Commander slowly slip away bit by bit.

For a moment, the scarlet-eyed officer would await the ultimate officer's verdict. As much as she enjoyed the fact that no one was criticizing her too harshly, she did want to hear what Ningen had to say about this now that two Captains had expressed a willingness to recruit more officers. However, before he was able to formulate a response, someone else would enter the room, causing Kimiko to look up and blink. It did not take long for her to understand  who the woman was. Her red hair and blue eyes were recognizable enough.  Oh, it's her. Odayakama-hachibantaitaichou... was it?  She guessed as she quietly took another sip of her tea. It had been some time ago since they had met one another, and they hadn't really greeted each other in a proper conversation, but they had briefly fought together to fight off the undead who had attempted to breach through the gates of Seireitei. Well, rather, she had seen her from afar, but there was that, at least.

With this in mind, she didn't expect the woman to be able to recognize her in the slightest. Kimiko couldn't quite remember her rank back then, but to her, she might as well have just been another plain Shinigami officer, especially in the middle of a very intense battle. What she did expect, however, was for her to at least recognize Celes, as the two of them had fought side-by-side back then. Moreover, they appeared to know each other too. Yet, as the redhead presented herself, this... did not happen. There was no familiarity in her introduction nor was there any acquaintanceship. In fact, she was acting as though this was her very first time both meeting the people in this room as well as... entering the room itself. That was strange. What was even stranger, at least to Kimiko, was her behavior. At first sight, it almost appeared as though she was taking none of this seriously, appearing all happy with a smile, as though this was all an activity being held in a school club. In usual circumstances, this would perhaps be just odd, but at this very moment, it instead appeared somewhat... disturbing.

"Uh..." a very quiet noise escaped her lips as she briefly gave an inquisitive glance towards Celes, as though she was trying to understand what was happening. Needless to say, she had a few questions to ask. However, these questions would need to be kept for later, as it would not take long for the girl to then explain what she has been doing since the end of the invasion. As to be expected from the Captain of the Gotei 13's financial branch, her opinion centered around the monetary side of things, which was rather annoying to Kimiko, as she ironically believed it made Senshi's view appear to be rather cold and quite insensitive. If anything, it almost seemed as though she wasn't really focusing all that much on the damage the Soul Society had taken from this invasion, but rather only for the repair costs. However, Kimiko was somewhat glad to hear that she too believed that more officers needed to be recruited in order to fill the gaps of the losses. The more support, the merrier... right? 

Well, at least it appeared this way from the Captain Commander's side of things, for not long after Senshi finished speaking, the old man would go on to make his decision shortly after congratulating her for her efforts in the invasion, even if they were apparently unsuccessful. From there on out, the Rukongai will become a recruitment center for the Gotei 13. Hearing this from Ningen himself was enough to make Kimiko sport a brighter smile. "Thank you, Ningen-taichou! I'll see if we can begin the recruitment efforts this very afternoon!" She would first declare enthusiastically with the kind of energy that she could have only mustered from a newcomer's pride in being acknowledged by the literal leader of said newcomer's organization. However, eventually, she would realize that she had just put herself on a pedestal equal to both Celes' and Senshi's, and find herself slowly sinking back down awkwardly and somewhat nervously. "That is, uh... if Odayakama-taichou and Celes-taichou are okay with that, of course..."

It did not take long for Kimiko to settle her lips right back onto her tea cup as she made herself quiet again. The girl, in spite of her best efforts to remain as stable as possible in front of everyone, was visibly embarrassed. She had very clearly forgotten in her little moment that she was not a Captain, and now, she was feeling rather bad about it. Quite frankly, by the looks of things, it didn't seem as though anyone would need to scold her about this if they wanted to. But, hey, at least she had showed enthusiasm, right? That's what mattered, right? She didn't look like a complete feel in front of everyone who wasn't even wearing the haori, right? Right?  Why can't I keep my mouth shut when I need to...?  Her thoughts bemoaned with a comically-dramatic flair as she rested in her mental pool of embarrassment.  Ugh... Now everyone's going to think that I'm weird... I hope the Captain Commander won't think that was out of line....  

Fortunately for her, there would be no time for her to be in the spotlight anymore, as then, somebody else joined the meeting. For a brief moment, Kimiko was almost happy to see that no one would have the time to comment on what she believed to be a mishap... but then, she found herself listening to what might as well be a machine. The person in question - a tired-looking man with pale skin and messy green hair - made no attempts to introduce himself or acknowledge the people in the room aside from Celes. Instead, he simply focused on the matter at hand, presenting a ton of information all at once in short bursts. It was... a lot, to say the least, and during that brief moment, Kimiko simply remained there, looking at the man with a bit of a bewildered look. And she thought she was unprofessional back there... This was worse. Way worse. It almost made her wonder if this guy even became a Captain in the first place.

Evidently, if his stone-cold expression was anything to go by, Ningen wasn't too pleased about the man's behavior either. Even so, he made sure to take into account what the man had to say, and responded in kind. As he spoke to the tired man, it was only then that Kimiko paired two and two, and realized who that person was supposed to be.  Ah, he's from the Twelfth. Everything makes sense now,  her thoughts hummed. No wonder the man was so awkward: it seemed like weird speech patterns was sort of a thing to expect from that division. Well, at least that was what Kimiko understood from the brief times she's interacted with them. With that out of the way, however, she would eventually find herself considering the man's comments, and bring her own opinion to the table. "I can't... disagree with Ningen-taichou here. We don't know what's going to happen if we open another gate, and we've already lost a lot of people as is." she sighed before she then bit her lip. Eventually, she continued. "With that said, as an officer of the Attack Squad, I feel like we will need to eventually figure out how Hell works so that we can shut them down before they can even start attacking us."

In her case, she was fully prepared to fend off another demonic invasion. In spite of the losses and the regret she felt about not feeling any kind of sorrow for them, she did greatly enjoy her time slaying Hellions, as her mind made her recall several times over during this meeting. Yet she very much knew that such an attack could not be allowed again. It was just too risky for the safety of the Soul Society and the cycle of souls. Being knowledgeable of these parts of herself, the Third Seat would brainstorm on the matter, trying to figure something out. "I feel like the minimum that we can do is at least create some kind of simulation. Not a simulation that's, uh... completely generated with a computer or whatever Jūunibantai has, but with real people. That way, we can get some of our officers ready for another attack," she eventually suggested before she then crossed her arms, "but I gotta admit that I don't know how we could do that. Training dummies and military exercises definitely won't be enough..."