Forging the spear (Kimiko)

[Aramis Tezuka]

Time... there was never enough of it. Not in a work day, not in a week, not in a year, not in a lifetime. No matter how you measured it there would always be things left undone. Words left unsaid. Experiences missed. For Aramis Tezuka, Captain of the 12th Division, he was acutely aware of the ticking clock that formed the backdrop to his life. Every agonizing click of wasted seconds, every grain of sand in the hour glass, slowly, surely, inexorably towards the hour of his demise, and his condemnation to the flames. There were measures to be taken to safeguard his life for a time. Ways to extend the clock. But he had yet to devise a way to subvert it entirely. Immortality was a sham. Longevity was already his birthright by virtue of his Shinigami blood, but longevity would not spare him when blade, illness or accident struck. Each day, Aramis lived in the dull terror of his unavoidable fate, buried in his research in the hopes of finding a way to avoid the fires below.

But even now Aramis's life was a careful balancing act. He could not neglect his duties, for the very acts that took him away from his research were the acts that gave him the resources to carry that research out in the first place. He had duties as a Captain of the Gotei 13. Responsibilities. And, courtesy of the Captain Commander, this included now, a meeting with the Captain of the 11th Division, Kimiko Nakajima to discuss means by which Aramis could help her division take the battle to the enemy.

On top of this, it presented Aramis an opportunity to go over some findings in the Rukongai districts. Strange incongruencies that required answers. Answers that could be beneficial to the 12th if theory could be proven fact.

Since Kimiko had not yet invited Aramis to a meeting, Aramis had taken the initiative to meet with Kimiko on his own terms, sending a summons to the Captain, calling the 11th Division Captain to his division via Hell Butterfly. He had picked up, via the occasional rumors, that Kimiko Nakajima was fond of video games, and so Aramis had decided to make one of the 12th divisions' numerous break rooms into the room in which he would be meeting Kimiko. A room in which a classical video arcade had been requested and set up by one of his officers-- a young American Shinigami who had died in the late nineties and had wanted to pursue the project as a means of nostalgia. The entire room was set in two parts, half-video arcade, and half lounge. Contrary to the deeply traditional Japanese apparel of many of the Soul Society barracks' Aramis sought to make accommodations for many of his officers, and this break room was arranged in a more modern manner, complete with a couch, coffee table, and numerous comfortable chairs. The other half of the room was set up much like said video arcade, including some particular classics as Tekken, Gauntlet Legends and Street Fighter. Aramis permitted this, not only to help his division relax their minds, but also because he had long since learned that research sprang from the most unusual sources. At least one researcher had taken a particular shine to Street Fighter, and had been trying to create a practical, live variation of Ansatsuken, utilizing reiatsu and kido in place of Ki. Actually, Aramis had a report on that particular research somewhere in the stack of reports next to him....

Aramis, for his part, currently sat at the center of the couch, sipping from a cup of coffee, while reviewing reports. He did not believe in idle time. Even his resting time was time to get work done. Aramis did not wait. If he arrived early, he found work to do. If you were late, he would work until you arrived. Time was precious. And he would not let the sand in his hourglass run without purpose.

But really. He thought. Captain Nakajima could be more respectful of my time.

[Nakajima Kimiko]

Time. In theory, it is the first component keeping the realms afloat, one of the two primordial elements alongside space which allows for the formation and the existence of everything. Much like how the same could be said should there be no space to speak of within a world, there would be nothing without time, for if time does not exist, neither will space. At the very least, that was how Kimiko - someone who could not really describe herself as being a woman with much scientific knowledge - and perhaps many others understood the concept. For that perspective, it should then be easy for her to assume that time was a consistent and immovable matter across every realm, something that could not be changed in any significant way. However, as time went on and on within the Soul Society, she couldn't help but feel as though she wasn't even sure if time within the heavenly realm was consistent at all. In fact... she couldn't even tell if it really existed.

As of the beginning of the next year, the officer is supposed to turn 62 years old. Sixty-two. While she was Human, the swordswoman's only reference for that age was one or two elderly couple that lived near the Tokyo apartment where she lived in alongside her parents. It has been a while since she has last seen them, but by all accounts, they were beginning to become somewhat frail and weak, as to be expected from people of that age. Yet, in comparison to them, it felt like she - who was more or less just about as old as they were - hadn't aged a bit. Even after every year that has passed since she became a Plus, even after all that she has gone through, she still looked the same as she ever did since she first died: a young woman at the very beginning of her twenties. The only marks of time there were on her body were the scars... but those could have been removed at any given time. The only reason why they were still there was because she had asked Shizukakane to not heal them while she used his powers.

She liked to think that this was nothing to worry about, that this was just some odd thing to consider while she remained as a soul of the afterlife. The supernatural world was supernatural, and that was the end of that. However, much like many other things in her life, she couldn't help but sometimes let it gnaw at her thoughts as it created more and more questions that she knew would be left unanswered. Was this strange effect of time simply a factor of the Soul Society? Was it something that could be felt in other worlds? After all, it did seem as though only just a few years have passed in the Living World since her demise. Did she age differently in comparison to everyone because of her Inner Hollow or the amount of spiritual energy within her body? Better yet, does everyone age differently regardless of who and what they are? Frankly, considering that there were souls around who were older than her despite looking much younger than her, and others who appeared to be older despite being younger than her... maybe that last question could actually be answered. Even so, she wasn't sure.

There was, however, one thing that was certain. In spite of the strangeness of time and of the inconsistencies it presents, it still appeared to move forward. If it hadn't, she wouldn't have witnessed the founding and then-evolution of her dojos, and of course, she would not have become the Captain of the Eleventh Division. She also would not have had to carry on the duties that specifically came with the latter position, which were the main reason behind her non-presence from her schools today. Earlier today, roughly during the first hours of the afternoon, a Hell Butterfly was sent to her in order to deliver a message from the head of the Twelfth Division, Aramis Tezuka. Apparently, the man wanted to meet her so as to talk about how the Research and Development Squad could help the Attack Squad in order for the latter to better execute its offensives. This was also meant to be on behalf of the Captain Commander, which made it quite the important thing to complete as soon as possible.

While Kimiko found it rather strange that it was Aramis of all people who had contacted her about this matter first and foremost, she held no objections about the meeting that he had planned for the both of them. Ever since the latest attacks that have been recently committed against the Soul Society, the Captain of the Eleventh had become further and further annoyed by overabundance of threats against the heavenly realm. The direct attack against Central 46, the destruction of the Tenth Division's barracks and countless other edifices within Seireitei, the presence of the Vandenreich scouts within the Wilderness, and then that lupine Arrancar who laid waste to the 30th western district of Rukongai... Hell, one could even count the entrance of the little Hollow knight, Kishi, as an attack too. While the Hakabe had proven itself to be quite the powerful force in that last attack, it nevertheless remained that the enemy had now begun to consider the Soul Society as being in a position of weakness, and now, they were constantly targeting it for easy pickings. This needed to stop. Immediately.

Thus, as soon as she received her invitation, Kimiko decided to leave her western school and then head towards Seireitei as quickly as she possibly could. For a normal individual, this would have been nothing short of an impossible task to accomplish in a day, as the distance between of the Nijūkan schools and the holy city was nothing short of colossal. However, for someone like the swordswoman who was practically doing this trek almost everyday, this had become nothing more than a daily task, a mere trip from A to B. With shocking speed, the Shinigami went from mountain to mountain, from tree to tree, and then from rooftop to rooftop as she blitzed past the many districts between the 40th and the 1st, accomplishing this with the use of several Shunpo jumps. She would not stop once, putting her pool of spiritual energy as well as her stamina up to test, until she would then reach Seireitei. Once there, she would briefly stop on a rooftop nearest to the Tenth Division's barracks to note the progress of its repair, and then continue moving once again. It appeared as though the repairs were going well-enough. Good.

Finally, the officer would reach the barracks of the Twelfth. In total, around fifteen to twenty minutes had passed since Kimiko had received her invitation. All in all, considering the sheer distance that she had to cross in order to get to the Twelfth, she believed these numbers to be acceptable and did not really believe that Aramis would be bothered by them. Well, at least she doubted that he would, since he most likely knew about the distance between her dojos and the headquarters of his division. In any case, once she arrived before the gates of this aforementioned headquarters, the Captain would briefly stop again to gaze upon them. From where she stood, nothing really seemed to be out of the ordinary. Really, the gates just looked like any of the other gates seen in front of each squad's headquarters, bearing a traditional yet sturdy design. While she would do so, however, a thought would come to mind.  Huh... Come to think of it... I don't think I ever came here before, she'd find herself noticing as she moved forward passed the gates.

Something about that realization was already somewhat putting her on edge. She had heard a lot of rumors about the Twelfth, and the fact that she had no idea whether these rumors were true or false was making her unsure of what to expect from their very own headquarters. It was thus unsurprising that, upon passing through its main gates, she would find herself somewhat bewildered by what she would find herself witnessing. Inside, in contrast to everything that she had witnessed thus far within the Soul Society, was steel. There was no wood, no stone, no tiles or anything that seemed to coincide with the rest of even the Seireitei's architecture. Taken aback, the Captain of the Eleventh could only blink as she walked forward down the corridors. She would witness the presence of many desks which bore computers that looked like nothing from the Living World. There were a few terminals that even projected what appeared to be... holograms?  What is this? Where... am I?  The words echoed in her head as she proceeded, shocked by the technology at display. This architecture... It was both so familiar, yet so unfamiliar at once. It was almost dizzying.

It would not take long for an officer of the Twelfth to eventually come speak to her. The officer in question appeared to be a male researcher here. He had a coffee cup in one hand and what appeared to be a tablet in the other. Aside from his clothes, nothing about him seemed to suggest that he was even a Shinigami, as he didn't even have a Zanpakuto with him. For all Kimiko knew, he was just some random civilian that the Twelfth had decided to hire from Seireitei. Regardless, the researcher would quickly understand the reasoning behind Kimiko's presence here and would give her the directions that she needed to follow in order to reach the room his own Captain was located in. The swordswoman thanked him politely after the fact, but if it were not her own public image, she would have probably thanked him ten more times. Without him, she would have most likely gotten lost in the overabundance of futuristic and downright alien technology on display.

By the time she reached the room, the superior officer would stand still for a time before taking a quiet breath so as to tense down. As embarrassed as she was about the ordeal, she didn't want to appear as such in front of Aramis. Weakness was the last thing that she wanted to show here. With this in mind, she would wait a few seconds before, eventually, she would knock on the door and enter. Due to the positioning of the door, she was not able to realize what the room was at first, and so she simply focused on trying to find Aramis first and foremost. Fortunately, it did not take very long for her to find him, as he was practically the only other person in the room for the time being. "Ah, there you are! Good afternoon," she would rapidly greet with the energetic smile that she's used to carrying around her dojo. At this point, this attitude of hers was starting to become an integral part of her. Nodding at the man, she would enter the room, close the door behind her, then take a few steps towards him. "I'm sorry for being a little late. I was at Nijūkan West when I... I...."

The woman would progressively begin to lose her words for a moment as her scarlet eyes wandered around the room and eventually fell upon the other side of room which appeared to be filled with arcade machines. No, more than that: it was as though the room had been effectively designed to both look like an old-school arcade altogether. Upon gazing at the machines, Kimiko almost immediately went against her words of appearing strong in front of Aramis as she visibly became completely stunned. Her eyes had widened and, for a brief moment, the only thing she could do was just stare at the machines in silence. Those machines... She had played with them. Every single one of them. It had been so, so long since she had lost even seen them. She had not even gone to the arcades in the Living World during her last vacation there. And yet... here they were, functioning in spite of being in such an alien environment, beaming and booming with life that was once so important to her.

It would take a bit of a time for the Captain to look away from the machines. She wasn't sure of why they were there. Perhaps this was something Aramis had done in order to establish some kind of friendly environment where they could chat. Either way, the memories that they brought to her were more powerful than she thought they would have been upon seeing them again, and she wasn't quite sure how to feel. "... Right, uh..." Something would eventually come out of her mouth, though it appeared to be something that she needed to tell to herself rather than Aramis. Slowly, she would recover from the slew of memories that she had just gone through, and with a deep breath, she would try to focus again. "I'm... glad to hear that the Captain Commander has taken into consideration the attacks that we've been receiving lately. I'm gonna admit that I would have preferred a meeting with everybody else, but that's more on me than anybody else. I should have called that one."

As she recovered, she would eventually find herself sitting down onto one of the free couches of the lounge area, more specifically one that was positioned in a way so that it was showing its back to the arcade area so that she wouldn't have to look at it. This discussion required the least amount of distractions as possible, and quite sadly, the arcades were quite the immense distraction. It was already taking much of her focus to ignore the many screams of various attack names being blasted from the machines as well as various announcers calling out the shots of the ongoing matches between the computer-controlled characters on the screens.

[Aramis Tezuka]

Mmm. So here she was. Dark ringed, bespectacled eyes looked up to Kimiko as she arrived, and Aramis gestured for her to take any of the seats in the lounge. Her shock, and even... wonder at the arcade machines behind him was not missed by the Captain. This, it seemed, was a good meeting place afterall. Distractions worked to his advantage in meetings, it allowed slips of the tongue not normally intended, and it made others less perceptive of Aramis himself during the meetings. It wasn't a secret that Aramis was a recluse of which little was known, and he liked to keep it that way. Even during meetings, he preferred as little scrutiny as possible.

He disregarded Kimiko's apologies as Kimiko took her seat. Apologies were wasted breathe. As was stating that he had little choice in the matter of their meeting. "During meeting with Captain Commander, suggested means by which to prepare for Hell attacks." Aramis stated abruptly, clearly starting their meeting. "11th Division requested known data on Hell. However. Hell research restricted. Results, consequently, limited." Aramis reached into his Shihakusho and procured a clipboard with what looked to be around fifty to sixty pages of notes attached and placed it on the coffee table in front of Kimiko. Contained within those pages was all the official data Squad 12 had on Hell. Or at least information Aramis considered relevant. Identifying signatures of Hellion reiatsu, commonly witnessed abilities, and known Hellions in the world. It also contained a list of recorded conflicts against Hellions in the last century, not including the recent invasion, as data was still being compiled. It also contained key pieces of information discovered during these encounters. Hellions, when slain, did not return to the Soul Cycle, nor were their souls destroyed, but all evidence found determined that the reishi that comprised their forms returned back to the infernal pits from whence they came, and it was theorized (actually confirmed by the 12th, not that this was mentioned in the reports), that slain Hellions would revive in Hell to begin their suffering anew. Additional notes advised that based on the battle in the Rukongai, Squad 12's Silver Weapons had proven effective against Hellions, suggesting the division's capabilities to produce anti-Hell weaponry.

This was, of course, the barest tip of the iceberg of what Squad 12 really knew about Hell, but to provide that information would be to admit to the highly illegal research that Aramis had permitted to be conducted under his command. It also would have likely raised some very notable red flags around the Captain himself, and Aramis was all too happy not to disclose the information.

"All that can be provided. Current regulations restrict information for Hell project. Suggested simulation exercises during meeting with Captain Commander. Presently not allocating resources to project. While data attainable, doing so, violates regulations regarding study of Hell. With regulated, limited data compiled.... inaccurate simulations. Inaccurate simulations, dangerous for training purposes. Improperly prepares Shinigami. Abilities. Strengths. Weaknesses. Tendencies. Tactics. Require all of the above for accurate simulation, for acceptable training purposes." Aramis stated pointedly. After-all, Kimiko had lent her support to maintaining the strict regulations around the study of Hell, when Aramis had brought it up with that meeting, she could therefore entitled to knowing the consequences of that support.

"Individual discussion between Division heads. More productive. No one to interfere. Feedback is useful." Aramis added.

[Nakajima Kimiko]

Kimiko knew that the Twelfth Division was one of technology and research. She was aware that things beyond her logical comprehension were probably to be expected here prior to her visit, and she was aware that there probably would have been things that would have been a bit shocking to her. The fact that she was so surprised to even witness holographic screens in some of the areas of the headquarters as well as computers that looked downright otherworldly was the one thing that made these two aforementioned facts quite apparent. But out of everything that she could have possibly witnessed from this place, the one last thing that she thought she would have stumbled onto was an arcade machine. So to see a whole row of the things sitting right there, beeping and bopping and booming to their heart's content just like the last time she has witnessed them as a Human so long ago... It was nothing short of surreal.

The area appeared to be some kind of lounge, so perhaps their presence wasn't all too surprising. She had heard of a few Human companies putting these machines in their offices as a way to offer employees a means to relax. Well, such was what she heard from a few of her most recent Shinigami officers, more specifically the ones who happened to have lived in Canada or the United States prior to their deaths. That, and the Twelfth Division was a squad dedicated to technology, so one kind of video game was bound to be found somewhere. However... why were they here? Or rather, why had Aramis invited her here, specifically where these machines were? These machines made a fair bit of noise and were pretty distracting, so surely, this area couldn't have been chosen deliberately. Surely, it couldn't have, as that would have made no sense whatsoever from the part of perhaps one of the brightest Captains in the entire Soul Society. 

As she thought about this, the swordswoman then attempted to engage the conversation as quickly as possible. Even if the machines were distracting, she needed to remove her attention from them as quickly as possible, lest they consume her right then and there. Whatever the reason for their presence here, she could not allow them to bring her astray. So, she spoke, letting out a few words that would attempt to battle the noise of the arcade machines. The words themselves were not particularly important or even valuable at a glance. Frankly, at first hearing, one may easily recognize it as nothing more than small talk. Despite this, they did their job well-enough, as they gave Kimiko enough time to look away from the machines, sit down, and focus solely on Aramis. More importantly, they also gave enough time for the Captain of the Twelfth to respond to her words, allowing the meeting to truly begin and thus overpower the machines in the background. For the time being, at least.

To Kimiko's surprise, it would appear as though this meeting was not really about the massive upsurge of attacks on the Soul Society as of late, but rather about the demonic invasion. In fact, it appeared as though it concerned a suggestion that she had given to both the Captain-Commander and the scientist during the meeting that was organized shortly after that attack... back when she was not even the Captain of the Eleventh Division, but rather only its Third Seat. Hadn't that meeting happened years and years ago? Surely, it must not have happened recently. So many things have occurred since then, many events that were each of equal or greater importance, and yet this random suggestion that she had proposed back then had been what Aramis had focused on during all this time? What about the latest attack orchestrated by the newest Septima Espada? What about the soldiers of the Vandenreich who were present in the Wilderness? What about the assault against Central 46 and the Tenth Division?

In that moment, the arcade machines faded in the dojo master's mind to instead be replaced with impatience and prejudice. She wanted to bring this conversation elsewhere immediately, to put more importance on what's happened recently for the betterment of Rukongai and the rest of the Soul Society, and the more pressing she felt this subject become within her thoughts, the more bothered she became. This bother was such that, eventually, she began to hear a constant ringing within her head.  I have just lost some of my students and many people from the 30th district... I have lost many acquaintances from Jūbantai... and we almost lost much more than that due to some loser working for Las Noches... and all you care about is something I suggested when I wasn't even a Captain...?  Her thoughts would iterate as the ringing continued in her mind. She could feel a familiar rush of adrenaline coursing through her veins.  Is... Is this a joke? Is the Twelfth Division actually that slow?

Her thoughts were beginning to feel as though they were burning her brain. They were setting fire to her soul, causing her to almost clench her teeth behind her closed lips. Fortunately for her, before she would allow herself to give in to that same supernatural force that has caused her so many woes for so long, Aramis would suddenly put a clipboard on the table nearby. The noise it made was enough to cause Kimiko's rising rage to abruptly stop and for her to look down to look down towards it. The swordswoman gazed at the thing for a moment, blinking quietly as the arcade machines continued to let out their typical noises behind her and the adrenaline that was previously beginning to overwhelm her simply began to disappear entirely. It took some time for her to do so, but eventually, she would pick it up and verify the contents of the papers the clipboard contained. Once again, she needed to put her mind elsewhere, anywhere else. This would be the only way for her to further discourage the actions of her Inner Hollow.

She would do so with the speed and precision to expect from warrior of her caliber, with her hands and eyes moving quickly as she read the most of them. While this process was achieved rather quickly, she could tell that the information that the Twelfth Division had on Hell was just about as limited as Aramis indeed believed it to be. Most of what was contained in the papers were nothing more than scientific confirmations of common theories related to Hellions, such as how to detect the spiritual signatures of demonic entities, how some of their abilities worked, and the general ability their energy appeared to share, as in its capability to somehow return to the underworld should they ever be slain. There was at least a mention of anti-Hell weaponry, which did catch some of her interest, but from her point of view, the rest was inconclusive at best and somewhat useless at worst. At this point, she almost wanted to be angry about this, especially given the time that was spent on this matter. However, at this point, she was just disappointed.

After Kimiko was done skimming through most of the document, Aramis would ironically go on to explain that what she had suggested during their meeting with the Captain-Commander was not going to be something that could be possibly achieved by the Twelfth. To put it bluntly, since there was not enough information available about it, any kind of simulation would simply bring no good results whatsoever. So then... not only did the Twelfth nor the Captain-Commander take the latest attacks into account, but her suggestion was also downright ignored by the former of these two. This caused her to frown and simply stare at Aramis for a moment, as though judging him. With that said, she would eventually let out a sigh and stare back at the clipboard she held. "So, no progress has been made since our meeting with Ningen-taichou. All we know is that we can use silver against them. We still don't know how to prevent them from coming back," she summarized her understanding of the document. "Right."

 

Ignoring the latest attacks altogether and focusing on the subject of the conversation at hand, she had a bit of a feeling of where this was going. Aramis mentioned that the data that the Twelfth can currently find about Hell - the information that was listed in the document - was the only data that they were in accordance with the regulations set by the Gotei 13. In other words, they were not allowed to go any further, which prevented them from actually finding anything more about Hell. During the meeting with the Captain Commander, back before her Captaincy, Kimiko had voiced her support of these regulations because she believed that it was best for the Soul Society to not meddle in demonic affairs. With that said, now that these limitations were rearing their ugly heads and were actively preventing the Twelfth from figuring out how to prevent another demonic attack altogether, she couldn't help but find herself reconsidering that decision of hers.

A part of Kimiko felt as though this was really the point of that meeting altogether. If anything, the last words Aramis told her then only made that more apparent. The presence of the arcade machines, this sudden focus on the Hell research... It didn't take much to realize what was going on. Even so, she did not lash out. At least, she tried her best not to. Instead, she took a deep breath and found herself looking at the clipboard again. Then, she would put it on the table and raise her head towards Aramis as she took on a more serious look. "Well, if you want my feedback on this, I can tell that this document isn't really gonna do us any good. Even if we use those special weapons mentioned in there, a silver sword won't be better than a Zanpakuto for a single one of my soldiers fighting a hundred Hellions at once..." She would go on to think for a moment after she spoke her words, frowning as she considered what she was about to say next. Then, she stared at Aramis once more. "We just lost the barracks of the Tenth and a good chunk of the guards at Central 46. We also just lost the 30th western district. If this goes on, it's only a matter of time before Hell breaks loose again... or the Vandenreich decides to operate a full-front assault against Seireitei." 

Another moment of silence came. She didn't care if these moments bothered someone like Aramis. Unlike him, she needed time to think before saying something, mainly because she wanted to use more than just data before arriving to a conclusion. She wasn't a scientist, and she was even less so a machine, unlike how the green-haired man appeared to be in her eyes. Even so, it was hard for her to not side with him here. They needed more information on Hell. They needed to do something before everyone realizes that the Soul Society is an even greater position of weakness. Thus, eventually, she would cross her arms, turn her head towards the door for a moment, then declare: "... I'm ready to do whatever it takes to protect the Soul Society and the cycle of souls. If that requires us to do things that the Captain Commander would not like, then I guess we'll just have to take responsibility for them. I'd rather see a powerful Soul Society than one who simply suffers time and time again for no reason at all."

[Aramis Tezuka]

Aramis wasn't bothered by the noises, the Captain long since having learned to block that sort of thing out. Labs in the 12th Division could be incredibly noisy, between machinery, or uncooperative test subjects, so as a rule of necessity, one learned to ignore the background noises. He could tell Kimiko was less than pleased with his initial report. That was to be expected, though it had not been nearly so long as she suspected. That being said, there were a great many other duties of the 12th, not that Aramis was going to care to make a defense. It would be a waste of time and breath. These were the results, as per official mandate, and this was the time it had taken to bring them to the 11th Division Captain. Those were the facts of the matter, whether Kimiko was satisfied with them or not was her own prerogative.

"So, no progress has been made since our meeting with Ningen-taichou. All we know is that we can use silver against them. We still don't know how to prevent them from coming back,"

"Incorrect. Destruction by Quincy arrow seems to prevent restoration, via absolute destruction of the soul." Aramis replied to Kimiko. "Impractical solution, given risk to balance of Soul Cycle." He added. Of course the Central 46 would never willingly request research into the very methods that had led to the attempted extermination of the Quincy. "Possible other means exist. However. Nothing less than complete destruction of Hellion soul leads to return."

"As for progress, results returned on individual Hellion abilities, considered unimportant for this report. Restrictions on research on Hell prevents Division from analyzing nature of Hellions, or attempts to analyze source. Forced to rely on external observation. Limited method. Impossible to predict results in advance. Death of test subject, common." He replied.

"Regarding Las Noches attack, surveillance limited. During attack, invader attempted cyberstrike on 12th Division. Prevented it, but. Lost some data, and was not able to surveil attack. Only information provided by eye witness reports. Still analyzing means by which invaders entered. Teleportation most likely, but Seki Seki field around Seireitei should prevent. Different means of entry than conventional teleportation. Without sensor data from invasion, difficult to say. Current standing, four hundred, thirty two theories on possibilities still to be determined." Aramis added, addressing Kimiko's concerns regarding the recent attack on the Central 46. However, the Captain reached into his stack of paperwork and procured another clipboard and handed it to Kimiko. Some mere twenty pages, detailed Squad 12's information regarding the attack, the identities and abilities of those that had engaged Soul Society. The remaining fifty seven pages, were presumably discourse and notes on the theories of the invasion, but were written in such confusing jargon as to be almost incomprehensible to any but those who had written them.

"Regarding Vandenreich. Obvious threat, currently lower priority than Hell and Las Noches. Raids on 30th District noted, but no evidence of forces that can penetrate Seireitei walls. Hell and Las Noches.... evidence of forces that can penetrate Seireitei walls." A third clipboard materialized, this time from inside Aramis's Shihakusho-- evidently he had expected this topic to come up in the meeting, and he flipped through it. "Vandenreich of Sternritter rank not seen lately. Most Sternritter noted for direct attacks and operations. Given lack of Sternritter, theorize Vandenreich is currently weakened. Possibly suffered losses to other organizations. Thorough analysis of Quincy reiatsu make-up confirmed, programmed into early warning sensors. Data on four hundred members available, in-depth information on abilities available for thirty nine members of Vandenreich including two Sternritters, Amalia Volbrecht, and Edward Konig, both MIA, suspected dead." Aramis flipped the page.

"Data available on various techniques of the Vandenreich, flaws and advantages. Psychological profiles on twelve Vandenreich officers." At nearly two hundred pages, this clipboard held a lot of notes, many from well before Aramis had taken the position of Captain. Study of Quincy was well documented and there were several articles (written in similarly confusing jargon) on differences between Vandenreich Quincy and so-called "Free" Quincy.

"Pleased you brought subject up. Recently repaired sensor towers in 30th district, and found unusual reading. Quincy reiatsu in vicinity of facility owned by you." He stated calmly, collectedly, but his dull eyes boring through his glasses as if staring into Kimiko's soul. "Theorize Vandenreich straggler from raid. Question. Why still here? And why so close to facility? Determining if threat to be immediately addressed. Given your property, willing to hear response first." Aramis stated, with a long stare at Kimiko. It was hard to tell if this was a hard, suspicious stare, a judging stare, or just the sort of look that Aramis usually gave. His face was nearly robotic in its passivity, a face that gave away nothing of the inner thoughts behind it.

[Nakajima Kimiko]

Kimiko quietly listened to Aramis as he went on to lay down the extent of his research, or rather, the research that he was authorized to accomplish in regards to demonic entities in general. Most of what he said was a repeat of what he told her before and what was written down in the clipboard that was currently sitting on the table. While the Twelfth Division did know a few things about demons and was able to formulate theories in regards to how properly take them down or at least subdue them, these theories were most often inconclusive or simply useless. This was made apparent by how the scientist treated his knowledge of demonic abilities. It was either that, or these theories instead led to conclusions that were ultimately unacceptable. One of these unacceptable conclusions was the complete destruction of the demons' souls by employing abilities that were similar in nature to those of the Quincy, which was never something that even Kimiko would be able to approve, but also something that unfortunately appeared to be the only true way to kill a demon without sending them back to the depths below.

All of this were obviously not things that the Captain of the Eleventh was happy to hear. As much as she believed her support of Ningen's decision regarding this matter was not wrong when she last spoke it, she had to admit that the limitations set onto the Twelfth's access to demonic knowledge was beginning to turn into quite the annoying problem. The knowledge they had now was simply not enough. They needed more information, more ways to take down the demons and protect themselves from them. If they simply continued to run around blindly in the darkness that is Hell as a whole, it really is only a matter of time before another Hellion decides to bring another army to the steps of the heavenly realm. They've already gone through several attacks in a row just recently. If yet another demonic assault is brought onto their heads... the battle would most likely be glorious, but the losses would be once again plainly imaginable.

While she thought about this, Kimiko would attempt to continue listening to his fellow Captain as he went on to speak of the other attacks. Fortunately, in spite of his apparent focus onto Hell itself, it appeared as though he had not ignored the other attacks; in fact, he made sure to lay down everything that he and his officers knew about them. He even had the paperwork associated to each of them. Well, somehow, that is. It looked like he was just bringing clipboard after clipboard out of his robes like there was nothing underneath them but some kind of containment unit. Kimiko wasn't quite sure of how that was even possible, and seeing so many documents and papers coming out of the man was a bit of a surreal thing to behold, but ironically, this caused her frustration of the previous affair to go away bit by bit. At the very least, these attacks were not entirely set aside by the Gotei 13. That was good, even if she had expected the general response to all of these threats to be more reasonably intense.

In any case, to summarize the man's briefings, it appeared as though the attack against Central 46 was still being analyzed. Apparently, the people who had invaded Seireitei had not simply traveled into the holy city, but downright appeared inside of it in some way or another that differed from the general methods of trans-dimensional travel, which allowed them to bypass the Sekkiseki walls altogether. Kimiko attempted the same reading process she used in order to pass through the first clipboard so as to go through the clipboard associated to this incident, and for the most part, she could understand what was written down. They spoke of those who attacked Seireitei, and then those of focused their efforts onto Central 46 itself, namely a certain Rizer and his abilities to create blades which apparently proved to be useless against the Captain Commander's Ryujin Jakka. However, as she continued to rapidly read through the document at super-speed, she would find herself abruptly slowing down for a moment as she reached the later pages, then squint confusingly as she tried to understand what was written down.  What the hell...? What are those symbols? I...  her thoughts went on as her attempts to decipher the notes appeared to be going rather poorly.

Unfortunately for her, Aramis had yet another clipboard to give to her. Not only did its pages appear to be written just as confusingly, but it was also at least three times bigger than the last clipboard. If anything, at a glance, it barely looked like a clipboard. Anyone could have easily confused it for a book, and its sight was almost enough to cause Kimiko to just stare at it in complete disbelief. Even so, the subject that it covered - data about members of the Vandenreich - as well as the nature of this meeting was enough to push her to at least take a look at some of the pages contained within it. As to be expected, she couldn't understand much of it, but she could at least catch a few names here and there. One of these names was Lucien Dantes, the very same who Kimiko had met not too long ago. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be much data on him. Not like she would have understood much of it, anyway. Apart from him, she did not recognize the other names that were in the clipboard, which somewhat relieved her. At the very least, Ruhe didn't appear to be known by the Twelfth.

With this in mind, the swordswoman would eventually settle the greater clipboard down near the others on the table with a frown before she analyzed the situation. "I can't say I disagree with you on that. It does seem like there's not a lot of Sternritters out there. Maybe that Emperor of theirs got fed up with them and decided to kill them off for sport... " she noted rather disrespectfully as she considered the readable information at her disposal. In spite of the latest reconnaissance operation of the Vandenreich, it did appear as though it would not make any sense for them to attack the Soul Society for the time being. If they really were weak, an assault on even the smallest district of Rukongai would cause them to lose their soldiers, potentially anger the Gotei 13, and then start a full-blown war that would wipe them out. Even so... "but I don't know. The fact that they were just outside of the Soul Society not that long ago makes me think they've grown bolder. I'm guessing it's because of the recent attacks, but it's possible that they are hiding something from us."

Coincidentally, just as Kimiko finished explaining her observation to Aramis, the latter would go on to explain that the sensor that was destroyed by the Septima Espada during her latest attack within Rukongai has been reestablished. In that moment, the swordswoman grew tense and stared back at the scientist with widened eyes as he pointed out that Quincy reiatsu has been spotted near one of her dojos. At first, there was surprise, maybe even shock. That signature... It could really only be Ruhe. There was no doubt about it. However, quickly enough, she realized that to only show shock would be to admit that she was hiding a member of the Quincy there. Thus, soon, a fire would begin to burn wildly within Kimiko's gaze. The flame of the great lie, of trickery. "... There were... survivors...?" she muttered as her anger grew and her fist began to shake. Meanwhile, the spiritual pressure around her began to grow, enough so that a small crack would begin to form onto the table.

Eventually, just as the pressure almost reached the arcade machines, Kimiko would notice what was going on and take a deep breath before the pressure vanished. With that said, by then, the spiritual energy surrounding her being had sharply arisen, enough so that it almost beamed around her. In time, the energy would continue to decrease, and eventually, she would stare at Aramis again, this time with a much more serious gaze than ever before. "Aramis, you of all people must know that I'm not as good at detecting reishi than some of the other Captains! Why was I not told about this the moment it was detected by your sensors?" She asked with fervor, outraged as she then looked down towards the clipboard tied to the officers of the Vandenreich known by the Twelfth. "My soldiers and I just slaughtered some of their comrades! I've even had one of them brought to Shichibantai for interrogation! If even one of them was a survivor of that battle, they will most likely want revenge by assassinating my students!"

The Captain of the Eleventh's scarlet eyes would almost appear to shoot daggers at Aramis. For a very brief moment, they would even almost appear to have a bit of a silvery gleam to them. However, after a time, she would close these eyes and then start calming down a bit further until her deep-seethed anger would be firmly put under control. "You... You said that your tower detected the reishi recently. When was that, exactly? Was it this morning?" Her questions were a bit more patient, though it was very clear that she was still shaken by the information. This was made apparent by her complete lack of apology for her outburst. In reality, she was more so angry by the fact that that Ruhe had already been detected, and by the other fact that - out of everything that has happened recently - this was the one thing Aramis wanted to point out to her. Then again, he was probably only informing her because her dojo was indeed her property. "Judging from where their last scouting party was, I'm guessing that survivor must be hiding near Nijūkan North... Tch... I can't believe I've let one of them slip through."

[Aramis Tezuka]

Aramis allowed Kimiko a few moments to collect herself, and review the reports he was providing her. He was more than prepared to address concerns. And if, by chance, she stumbled upon an answer he did not consider, would give it due attention. "Vandenreich raids, known factor. Gathering strength? Potentially." The Captain folded his hands, right hand over left, and rested them on his chin. "Las Noches. Confirmed strength. Confirmed means of attacking Seireitei directly. Hell. Unconfirmed strength. Confirmed means of attacking Seireitei directly. Vandenreich. Unconfirmed strength. Unconfirmed means of attacking Seireitei directly." Aramis closed his eyes in contemplation. Based on the information he had, it would make sense to him to prioritize Las Noches as the most notable threat, followed by Hell. Whatever the Vandenreich were planning, of the four major enemies of Soul Society, they, along with XCution, had thus far failed to prove they could pierce the Seireitei's inner defenses. Therefore in his mind, it was imperative to prioritize the enemies that had proven that they could.

"Verifying Vandenreich strength, important. Means to do so. Difficult. Cannot capture alive." He referenced the reports. "All cases of attempted capture of Vandenreich, resulted in death of Vandenreich. Even incapacitated. Vandenreich are destroyed by immense spiritual force. Theory. Difference between Vandenreich Quincy and Free Quincy, connection to Emperor fundamentally changes spiritual signature. Emperor can execute any Vandenreich at will. Any distance." Aramis stated. He gave Kimiko a moment to absorb his theory, but raised a hand to stop her commenting immediately.

"If could identify connection, theoretically could prevent. But without test subject to study, cannot devise means to stop connection. Human terminology; "Catch 22"." The Captain stated, before he brought up the other statement and all hell broke loose. Aramis had a psychological profile on Kimiko of course, so an angry outburst wasn't completely unexpected. Even if it had been, he maintained his usual stoic demeanor, as she ranted at him. He did not answer immediately. He waited for Kimiko to conclude her rant at him, contemplating his reply as she shouted at him.

"Signature noted once sensor was back online. Given heavy damage, had to verify was not an error in system. Not prepared to put all Seireitei on red alert over false alarm. However. Have confirmed sensors are working to standard. Used Free Quincy under Asmoskon Masarao to confirm. Not error. Quincy in Rukongai, near your facility. Confirmation of veracity, two days ago. Communications officer made judgement call. Monitor situation, but not set red alert. Rationale: If the Quincy had not yet attacked in the time between present and prior raid, unlikely to engage in immediate activity. Theory: Quincy is gathering information, unwilling to strike alone, given failure of previous raid. Monitoring movements of Quincy since." Aramis stated.

"Advising 11th now, was brought to attention this morning." Aramis stated. "Sent Hell Butterfly to arrange meeting once learned." Whatever Kimiko's opinion on his officer's decision may have been, Aramis was continued to move forward with business, now that he had brought her up to speed.

"Distress apparent. Prefer to handle this yourself? Or should I notify 7th Division. Your facility. Your choice." Aramis stated.

[Nakajima Kimiko]

The observations Aramis made in regards to the strength of the Soul Society's enemies seemed to be sound to Kimiko. While she still believed that the Vandenreich's recent activities were strange at best and overconfident at worst, there was nothing that really suggested that they were preparing for some kind of military operation against the Soul Society. Even if they were planning anything, they - unlike both the forces of Las Noches and of Hell - also did not seem to be powerful or motivated enough for the time being to find a way around the Sekkiseki wall, thus rendering their ability to attack the seat of the Gotei 13 somewhat null. In other words, if one solely referred  themselves to the data at hand, there was no real way for those of the cross to so much as put a dent into the great gates surrounding the holy city. To an extent, this was somewhat of a relief to the Captain of the Eleventh. However, she couldn't help but frown as she realized something shortly after the scientist was done.

In spite of the admittedly-extensive analysis the man had made in regards to the attacks as well as the ones responsible for them, there did not seem to be any concern for the people of Rukongai. In fact, the man hadn't spoken of Rukongai at all right then and there as he concluded his final observations of the matter. It appeared as though his only real concern was Seireitei and Seireitei only. While Kimiko could understand where he was coming from with this complete focus onto the holy city, she could not help but believe that there was something awfully selfish about that. "They can't attack Seireitei, but they sure can attack Rukongai whenever they wanna. So can anyone, if the latest attacks are anything to go by," she thus decided to call out then with a bit of a bothered groan. "Each and every district we lose to the enemy and then have to rebuild are filled with Pluses, and so far, two threats have decided to take advantage of that by turning our own people against us. Losing Seireitei would be a huge hit, but losing too much of Rukongai is going to be just as bad, both for us and the cycle of souls. It's why I built my dojos and the Hakabe." As she thought about this, a sigh would then leave her lips before she shook her head. "Eventually, one asshole will just focus on destroying the Rukongai instead of Seireitei, and it's gonna be a whole other mess for us to fix."

Whilst Kimiko was fairly into discussing that matter with Aramis so as to understood where he stood in that matter, it would not take long for her attention be brought elsewhere as the scientist spoke of the meager ease of access to information about the Vandenreich. As the man spoke, her gaze would go from simply interested to shocked as she was plainly told that most of the captured worshipers of the so-called Emperor would be immediately, as spoken by Aramis, "destroyed by immense spiritual force" by the very same Emperor. It appeared to only be a theory for the time being, but Aramis seemed to be quite confident about it. Well, as confident as he appeared to be, at the very least; after all, it was a bit difficult to discern any emotion on that robotic face of his. In that moment, the swordswoman simply went quiet and she stared down back at the table, more specifically the massive clipboard related to the soldiers of the Vandenreich.

In usual circumstances, she would have usually found that information to be rather annoying, as it meant that no one from the Vandenreich could ever be interrogated and that, therefore, it would be downright impossible to find out more about their inner workings without outright observing them from afar. Moreover, she would have also found it to be downright ironic, as it only affirmed to her that the Vandenreich was indeed just a band of slaves working for a despot, and not the organization that Lucien oh-so-preached and idolized in spite of its mistakes. However, in this moment, she was instead taken aback by this information as she was quickly reminded of Ruhe and the man who was once her commanding officer. That man... She could remember telling Ruhe a strange word back then, not long before he stabbed her. Kimiko could not quite remember it, but now, she was beginning to believe that it had something to do with this execution process.

No. No, that was definitely not the problem here. The problem was instead Ruhe herself. If the officers of the Vandenreich are indeed executed should they be captured or considered as being no longer useful for their Emperor, then why was Ruhe allowed to live? Though her commanding officer was a despicable man, the lowest of the low who seemingly bore no regrets about his attempt to murder the little girl, he unfortunately remained her superior at the time of his incapacitation and he had given her orders that she was unable to follow. Furthermore, Ruhe then regressed into some kind of childish state that still prevents her from acting rationally to this day. Were these reasons not enough for the Emperor - a seemingly-cruel man who so far seems willing to do anything and everything to make sure his organization's operations remain as secretive as possible - to execute her without impunity? If not, why? Was it because of her age? Was it instead because of the fact she should have died by the hands of his commanding officer?

Whatever the answer to those questions was, it would most likely not be satisfactory to Kimiko. Something just felt off about Ruhe now, and she was not quite sure of how to feel about it. Well, whatever. For now, she would ignore this matter and instead focus on getting the little girl out of here. Whether the Emperor can execute her or not, she remains a child for the time being, and a child remains a being who should not at all be in a battlefield and involved in military matters, whether these matters be the Gotei's or the Vandenreich's. Thus, frustrated by this matter, she would let out a scoff and address the information right away. "So the Emperor does kill them off for sport... Ugh. All that effort and all that dedication just to serve someone who can end your life whenever he wants to. What a joke." Her disrespect of the Vandenreich seemed to have reached a new high in the moment. "Well, thanks for telling me this. Next time, I won't bother capturing any of them."  

Then came what appeared to be one of the main reasons why she was called in to this meeting by Aramis. Kimiko's outburst didn't seem to phase the scientist, or at least not visibly. This, in a way, bothered her more, but he at least allowed her to express herself before going on further so as to answer the questions that she then asked him. To summarize, while he first deducted that the detection of Quincy reishi could have been an error or false flag from the sensors, it appeared as though he had other means to confirm that it was indeed true and nearby Nijūkan North. The detection was accomplished two days ago after the repairs of the sensors were completed, but Aramis was only informed about it this morning. This explained why it took so long for Kimiko to be informed. Upon hearing this, the swordswoman's heavy glare would lessen in intensity as she further calmed down. "Right... I still would've preferred to know about this right away, but I guess it couldn't be helped." 

Her concern for her students - well, one student, really - was apparent as she spoke. Despite having become less tense during their conversation, she was still visibly angry and ready to head directly towards her northern dojo as soon as possible. Regardless, she remained patient enough to remain a part of this meeting, as made evident by the way she then responded to Aramis' last statement. "I don't want help for this. Nijūkan is my responsibility. If I don't take care of it myself, my students will lose faith in me," she would sigh as she considered what to do. "The evening classes are about to start in a bit. It's during those classes that the greatest amount of my students decide to come and learn, so I will start my investigation then and there. If that sensor is right about that reishi, then it's possible that that Quincy is hiding amongst my pupils." She would appear to think about how she would sort this out a little bit further. "Some of the teachers who work with me are able to detect spiritual energy better than I can, though if they can't detect a Quincy... If I can't find them tonight, then I'll have to contact Shichibantai for help." 

Hopefully, this would be enough to get Aramis off of her. However, she had to admit that this put her into quite the tight spot. For a few days now, Kimiko has been attempting to execute a technique that could potentially allow Ruhe to be escorted out of the Soul Society without the need of the Senkaimon. With that said, she had never used this technique properly as of yet; in fact, she had only been theorizing how to properly use it. To go from theoretical execution to proper execution was usually not something that could be done in a matter of hours... but unfortunately, it did not seem as though she would have a choice today. Either she takes the risk of the technique potentially messing up and potentially leading both she and Ruhe to quite a risky situation, or she does nothing and tries to deal even further with the looming eye of the Twelfth Division. It wasn't a great situation, all things considered, but the potential reward of one of these choices outweighed the potential consequences of the other.

As her plan quickly was put into motion in her mind, the Captain would eventually find herself clenching her fists as she tried to deal with the situation at hand. The spiritual energy around her body had lessened, but its power could be seen pressing down against the material of the furniture. After a time, she would look back towards Aramis. "Is there anything else you wanna talk about? I'd now rather we finish this quick," she asked then with an iron tone, trying her best to remain as composed as possible in spite of her anger. "Earlier, you mentioned something about access to information about Hell. I just gave you my support. Do you have anything in mind about that?" 

[Col Arana]

Aramis tapped the index finger of his right hand against the back of his left, hands still tented beneath his chin. ”Unfortunate. Unavoidable with present resources.” Aramis replied. ”Attacks on Rukongai, not ideal. Recoverable. Destruction of Seireitei. Not recoverable.” Came his response. ”Captain Wycliff funded Rukongai rapid redeployment project, have to review with successor if funding continues.” He added.



”Fact of matter; Rukongai’s size problematic. Cannot protect all districts, all times. Defenses concentrated, or too diffused.” He stated. ”Sensor towers serve faster warnings, earlier responses.” He added, making it clear that it was not that he was disregarding the Rukongai entirely, but that there were a lot more complications in protecting the Rukongai than the central Seireitei, and that the Rukongai was ultimately lower priority than protecting the heart of Soul Society. These two factors combined to make proper defense of the Rukongai against a committed strike force exceedingly difficult.



The woman seemed perturbed about the news of the Vandenreich though, a fact Aramis took into account. He did not add further—afterall she had his division’s shorthand notes (there were of course, further specifics not included in his report, but many of them were overly specific to the point of being largely useless outside of scientific curiosity or unless someone had a specific idea in mind). He was beginning to consider there might be more than Kimiko was letting on. The Nakabakki pondered this for a moment, and closed his eyes in a slow blink. He’d consider that nugget more later, it may be important, but not for this precise moment. Kimiko was volatile, and evidently stressed and this was the wrong time to poke the bear.



”Not unexpected.” Aramis answered in response to Kimiko’s comments about the Emperor. ” Cyanide capsules. Onmitsukido. Execution of own agents, protect intel. Very human.” He replied, as if to remind Kimiko that the Vandenreich were hardly the only organization that executed their own when they became inconvenient.



Aramis was unsurprised that Kimiko wanted to address this herself, but he felt the need to add an additional note. ”Even if cannot capture alive, capable of studying remains. Information still plausible. Unlike Hell, research on Quincy’s permissible. Much already known. Much still unknown.” Aramis closed his eyes in contemplation.



”Respect Captain Nakajima’s abilities. Trust she will resolve quickly. However. Duties require response. If still detecting Quincy reiatsu in three days, will notify you. If still detecting in one week, will notify Captain Commander, place matters in his hands.” Aramis stated. This didn’t sound like a threat, it sounded an assurance. Aramis was covering his butt, and making sure that Kimiko understood he was giving her slack to resolve this situation herself in a reasonable time. But only to a point.



As for Kimiko’s final comments….



”No further topics. Regarding Hell. Reviewed reports available from division. …Need to pressure Central 46. Need additional support. Captain support to loosen restrictions, valuable. Next meeting, request assistance.” Aramis stated to her, simply and surely.

[Nakajima Kimiko]

Kimiko had expected Aramis' response to her concerns about Rukongai to a certain extent. Even from her own perspective as someone who tries her best to better the lives of those who remained within drifting spirit town, she could not disagree with the scientist when it came to the sheer size of the damned thing. Seireitei itself couldn't really be described as something that was very small, as it was quite the city on its own, but Rukongai was different. In comparison to the holy city, it was a hundred times, no, perhaps a thousand times bigger than it, and this size was reflected by the fact that even some of the most perceptive Shinigami in the Soul Society could not see beyond the four horizons it stretched onto. With this in mind, it was unfortunately rather difficult to secure the area from external threats. Hell, quite frankly, it was just as difficult to secure it from internal threats, as made evident by the presence of various criminals across some of its lower districts.

But despite this, the Captain of the Eleventh still found this conclusion to be rather disappointing. She agreed with his fellow Captain's conclusion regarding Seireitei in that, unlike Rukongai, it was not recoverable. In fact, if the holy city is lost altogether, the entire Gotei 13 is at risk of being completely destroyed; after all, it was practically the Shinigami's headquarters, and without it, they would have nowhere to really call home. The destruction of the barracks of the Tenth Division made that rather clear, as Kimiko had to grant them shelter within her dojos for the time being. Yet, that agreement was not total. The very latest attack conducted by the Septima Espada proved that Rukongai could be used as a weapon to be turned right against Seireitei by an enemy who had the skills to do so, and thus, she knew that it was really only a matter of time before, one day, the entire holy city will be swarmed by the people of the drifting spirit town. The method with which these people will come to the holy city is unclear for the time being, but she nevertheless knew.

With all of that being said, she was at least glad to see that Aramis did not really treat Rukongai too differently in comparison to Seireitei. His lack of attention in regards to the town was not that, but rather him simply not bringing it up during the conversation, and so she felt that there was nothing more to really say on the matter. The man was unusual, to say the least, but he was also busy and was evidently dealing with a lot of information on a daily basis; thus, moments like these are perhaps to be expected. She was also glad to hear about Wycliff's involvement in the repairs of Rukongai, though the mention of his name was enough to make her showcase a comically-bothered smile. "Hmph, I hope he is. He almost froze me over when he turned a whole bunch of districts into ice with that magical Bankai of his," she commented, visibly annoyed by what almost happened to her back then. She will not remain as such for too long, though, as Aramis' following comment about a successor made her blink. "Ah? Is he retiring from Gobantai? I haven't heard about that."

The swordswoman didn't know much about Wycliff. All she really knew about him was that he was a wizard of sorts, as he was part of the Kidō Development Squad, and that his Bankai - and perhaps the rest of the abilities granted to him by his Zanpakuto - were based around the use of ice and snow as natural weaponry. However, she could tell that he was a man dedicated to the defense of Seireitei, given that if it were not the case, he would have most certainly not used his Bankai within Rukongai back then to eliminate as many Hellions as possible without regard for civilian or Shinigami life in the area. So then, why this sudden talk of him being potentially succeeded by another officer? Has something happened to him while she was distracted with everything that she has been dealing with recently? Has he simply been deemed outclassed by this other officer and thus relegated by the First Division to another role within the Gotei 13?

Whatever the case may be in that regard, both Kimiko and Aramis eventually moved on to the matter of Quincies as they tackled the subject of the supposed intruder. The scientist appeared unfazed by the fact that the Emperor of the Vandenreich could apparently kill his own officers from wherever they may be at any given time, but his words were not enough to quell Kimiko's opinion on the matter as she sighed disapprovingly. "Oh, please. As far as I know about them, the Onmitsukidō can't just kill from wherever they want, unless they have some kind of spell or weapon that somehow lets them do that. Cyanide capsules can't do that either. You need to want to kill yourself in order to bite onto those," she explained her view on this with a light wave at first, though as she further went on, a deepening frown would appear on her face as she recalled the loyalty of each and every officer she slew in that battle. "Then again, one of them did try to stab me in the back after I cut his arm off... Maybe you're right."

That is, he was right about those who were willing to serve their Emperor. Kimiko ultimately didn't really care about those who wished, on their own and their own alone, to go as far as they possibly could in order to carry their Emperor's will. For all she knew, they actually did want to be brutally murdered by their idol. That is how cult of personalities usually work. With that said, she thought that the mere idea of this Emperor watching over those who had been unwillingly brought into the fold with his hands ready to snap their necks at any given time was absolutely repulsive. It was doubtful that each and every soldier of the Vandenreich wanted to work for the organization. Ruhe proved that by going against the orders of her commanding officer. Considering that, it would not be shocking to her if she eventually learned that the greatest motivational factor behind the soldiers of the cross was quite simply not idolization of their Emperor, but rather outright fear of being executed by him. 

Fear every once in a while is good. Out of everyone within the Soul Society, Kimiko was the one who could actually agree with that, as she experienced it time and time again both in reality and in her dreams. In fact, it is very good, as it allows for the mind and body to operate at its optimal capacity. It is also one of the main sources of adrenaline, which is the main thing that pushes people to do something in battle, and so she tends to encourage her soldiers and even some of her students to experience it during spars. However, there is a difference between occasional fear - more precisely in her case, fear during battle and the fear that she once felt while facing her Inner Hollow - and eternal fear. Eternal fear does not create good soldiers, or even motivated soldiers. It does not shape them into proper weapons that will eventually stab through any defense, no matter how blunt they may be. No, instead, it creates cowards and madmen who will do anything in their power to survive. In other words, occasional fear is an unusual blessing, while eternal fear is nothing more than a curse.

With that in mind, the conversation eventually moved along. It would appear as though the both of them would reach a conclusion regarding the intruder. In short, Aramis gave Kimiko a maximum of a week to solve this out before he would notify the Captain Commander. The swordswoman saw this as an opportunity. A week did not sound like a lot, and frankly, it wasn't. However, if she puts Nijūkan North on a sort of lock down, she'll have a good excuse to begin putting her trans-dimensional travel theory into practice and also convince Ruhe to prepare herself to leave. She doubted that this was going to go down absolutely perfectly, especially given that this might attract the attention of Celes or Kaen, but it was worth a shot. "If this is not resolved in the next three days, I'll send you a report of our progress on the matter, but this shouldn't take a week. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes," she responded as she stared back at the clipboard containing information of various Vandenreich officers once again with a frown. Hopefully, that will be enough to fully get Aramis' trust.

As this part of the meeting appeared to reach its end, Kimiko attempted to move on from the previous subject by returning to the matter of research on Hell. While Aramis believed her support of his endeavor was advantageous, he also believed it to not be enough to push this matter forward on his own. "I'll try to work something out once we get there. I'm not sure when the next meeting will happen, but I imagine Ningen-taichou will want to know about your research eventually. Besides, this is something that pairs well with what I wanna tell him," she pointed out before leaving out a brief sigh as she tried her best to ignore the fact that Aramis now sort of knew about Ruhe. It was a good thing that her stress was apparent; at least, it led him astray to an extent. "This cycle of attacks from all over needs to end. I refuse to see it continue and watch our enemies think that we're just weak cattle to slaughter whenever they want to."  

After that, the Captain remained silent for a moment as she recollected herself from the tension of the meeting. She hadn't expected that it would be so tense nor that it would imply so many heavy topics, and admittedly, it was more exhausting than she thought it would have ever been. Unfortunately, now that she was here and that she was talking to Aramis, she felt that it was a good time to bring up one last topic before they could properly finish this in its entirety. So, with one breath, she would try her best to tense down. "I'm feeling like this meeting's almost done, but I wanna ask you something before I go," she started before she pushed herself a little bit forward on her seat, growing more serious. "About a few months ago, I asked some of your officers to bring a corpse here for study. It wasn't a normal corpse, and it was a Human's, so I thought sending it here to find out more about it was the best thing I could do then. Have you been able to find out more about it? It looked really weird to me." 

[Aramis Tezuka]

Aramis shrugged his shoulders. A slightly more efficient way of saying he didn't know what had transpired with regards to the Fifth Division. He could probably find out, and someone as powerful as Wycliff was worth keeping tabs on, but with the eight hundred other things Aramis needed to track... Well. In any case, something to address later today maybe. But enough about the past, the present and future awaited.

While Aramis wasn't interested in a prolonged debate regarding the morality and ethics of executed one's own soldiers, he did want to correct Kimiko's misunderstanding of his point regarding the Auswählen, it did not do to send her off with the wrong impression. At least not on this matter. "Principle... the same. Difference in efficiency. Point of matter. Elimination of own soldiers to protect information... Prevent organization interests, common practice. Not only Vandenreich." Aramis stated. All the Emperor had done is perfected the art. Aramis would leave the ethics and morality debate to others, that was not his place to pontificate. "Vandenreich's fanatics. Willing to die, if compromised. Better die, than fail." Aramis added when Kimiko took a moment to consider things.

At any rate, Aramis let Kimiko's further comments of how she would appraise him of the situation pass without comment. There was no point in answering really. "Then propose solution." He stated, when Kimiko stated her frustration with Soul Society being weak cattle to be slaughtered. "Best defense. Good offense. Overly simplistic, but, some merit. Normal circumstances, attacking draws aggression. But, aggression already drawn. Die is cast. Will not win war through defense alone." Aramis stated. "Especially since shield is feeble." Aramis was proposing Soul Society launch its own attack. And well.... Kimiko would certainly be the one to suggest it to.

But before the meeting completely adjourned, Aramis was brought to one final project. Aramis tapped a finger on his sleeve contemplatively. He hadn't brought the reports about that thing. Not that there was much to say. "Failed product." He stated. "Base is human. Experimented on. Sloppy work. Similarities to Failures. Also similarities to Hollows. Likely attempt at combining Human with Hollow Reiatsu. Various purposes. Enhanced individuals.... wide variety of uses. Project evidently failure." He paused, and the finger tapping accelerated.

"Hope project is failure. Disappointing possibilities if subject was intended result. Messy. Incomplete. Fourth rate product." Aramis stated. The twelfth could do much better than they did. That corpse wasn't even useful for basic data on the procedure they bungled it so much.

[Nakajima Kimiko]

It appeared that Aramis felt a need to expand upon his observations regarding the matter of the Emperor's remote surveillance and punishments. At least, that is what Kimiko understood when he developed his opinion and further explained his views on the whole thing. Perhaps he believed that she had misunderstood him in one way or another, as he didn't seem to give much care for her own opinion. In fact, with the way he went on about the Vandenreich and their ideals, it almost seemed as though he believed this method of execution to actually be sensible. It got the job done, so to speak. If there is no life left behind in a Vandenreich officer's body upon the defeat of their previous owner, then there is no chance for any one of them to be able to betray the Emperor. All that would remain from it would be nothing more than spiritual ash. It was a practical solution, and a very useful one at that, as it allowed the empire to remain invisible, so to speak.

Kimiko should have expected this kind of view from Aramis. He had proven himself to not at all be a man of morals, after all, and so none of this should have been surprising to her. Even so, she had expected better of him. She wasn't quite sure of why that was, really: the man was one of science and, in science, nothing matters but the result. In spite of this, she thought that he could have at least shown a bit of care for those who fell. To simply generalize the people of the Vandenreich in such a way, and to simply disregard the debacle altogether in favor of merely considering the final outcome of this entire process... Ugh. It was all so repulsive to the Captain of the Eleventh, so revolting. If someone like Aramis could lead an entire squad with such a mechanical mind, she could not even imagine how the Twelfth Division would proceed should something terrible arise within the people of Rukongai or Seireitei. Someone like him would probably be among the first to immediately execute innocent people in order to mitigate certain problems.

In any case, she would try to not pay his opinions with any more of her attention. Quite frankly, that subject had run its course, and she believed that talking about it any further was only going to eventually reveal more than needed to Aramis. So, she allowed this meeting to proceed. The both of them would tackle the matter of the Quincy's presence near her northern school, and she would make sure to tell him that this entire matter was going to be resolved between three days to a week. Once again, she was disappointed that Ruhe was apparently detected so quickly, but she was at least glad that she was being granted some time to deal with this as quickly as possible. The only thing that she now needed at this present time, above all, was a context. She could potentially bring the little girl out of the Soul Society safe and sound, sure, but in order to do so, she'll need something that would help her obfuscate this entire thing. Moreover, she'll also need a destination. Simply dropping the girl right in the middle of Karakura Town, for instance, was out of the question.

But that was a problem for another day. Well, rather, it would preferably be a problem for tomorrow or the day after. For now, once more, she needed to focus on the conversation at hand. Thus, settling all of this aside, the Captain would bring the meeting towards another matter altogether, which was the current state of the Soul Society as a whole. It did not take long for Aramis to lay down his observations after Kimiko made her comments about it. All in all, it appeared as though he believed that the heavenly realm needed to prioritize its defensive capabilities above all else; however, he would go on to clarify that said capabilities were currently meager in face of the threats at work against the realm. It was a notable observation, obviously: Kimiko could not disagree with it. As much as she appreciated Celes' work as the Captain of the Tenth, she had to admit that they are simply overwhelmed for the time being, which causes them to not work as well as usual. To this, she would go on to suggest a path they could take... one that Aramis appeared to be hoping for.

"What we need to do right now is to coordinate an attack," she proposed. It was a very simple goal, one that she wanted to make sure was as clear as the light of day. This was made evident by the more-serious and somewhat-aggressive tone that her voice suddenly adopted. "I agree that having great defenses can be a good way for us to remain strong. As far as I know, that's how the Soul Society has always worked, and aside from a few exceptions here and there, it's worked out pretty well for all this time. But right now, it's clear that those days are over." She would grab onto one of the clipboards that were left on the table before them. She did not pay much attention to the one she had grabbed: she really just wanted to make a point. "The latest attacks against the Soul Society prove that our enemies don't take us seriously anymore. We're almost getting attacked every damn week... so we need a solution. We need a win." 

Now braving a frown, she would keep the clipboard in her hand up for a bit before she eventually put it back on the table. For a moment, she would almost appear distracted by the arcade machines again, though eventually, she would take a deep breath and look back towards Aramis. "The latest attack against us was committed by a member of the Espada. She deliberately targeted the people of Rukongai to turn them into Hollows who would work for her. I suggest, then, that we focus on efforts on some kind of response to that." As she considered this option, she would briefly close her eyes for a moment as she gave it some thought. Eventually, however, she would open them once more. It hadn't been very long, but after this brief moment of pondering, it almost seemed as though her scarlet eyes appeared to burn even brighter. "I don't know how long it took for Kouhai to build that fortress of his. Hell, I don't even know how long it took for him to come up with the Espada to begin with. Still, I think that the least we could do right now is completely destroy a large chunk of that fortress. It's either that, or we find a way to prevent Kouhai from creating more of those Arrancar. Whatever option we take, I believe that'll leave them with an open wound." 

Her gaze then began to lower itself back down towards the clipboards, namely the bigger one which might as well be an encyclopedia covering details about a few Vandenreich officers. "We can also try to find Vandenreich outposts across the Living World and destroy them. That'll force more of them out into the wild," she would go on to also suggest in the moment. "We've been trying to avoid a major conflict with these people for a while now. I get that. But, if they're now confident enough to send scouts in the Soul Society, I'm pretty sure that it's only a matter of time before they start doing something bolder. Exterminating their presence within the Living World will allow us to keep them out of it, and it'll force them to reconsider attacking us again for a long time." Well, perhaps not. That was nothing more than an assumption more than anything, one built upon military knowledge that she has gathered from countless novels she has read over the years. Even then, she believed that it was better to think this way than to assume the worse.

After she finished listing the options that she was able to conjure in the moment in regards to how they could proceed from this point on, Kimiko would then attempt to gain more information about Rider, the strange Hollow that she had slain. What Aramis discovered didn't entirely surprise the swordswoman... or well, it did not do so right away. To summarize, the creature was indeed a Human that had been experimented on, but there appeared to be a certain emphasis from the scientist's end about it being some kind of failure. He theorized that this was the likely result of an attempt to combine Human and Hollow reiatsu together to allow for physical enhancement, which was why he considered it as a failure in the first place. The man even went so far as to consider it as a "product". How morbid... Then again, at this point, there was nothing that really suggested that the Twelfth Division were incapable of accomplishing similar results if Aramis wanted to.

In any case, upon first hearing this analysis, Kimiko couldn't help but give it some credence. Aramis' off-putting product talk aside, physical enhancement has been the goal of scientists in countless works of fiction, so she could definitely believe that there was someone out there that most likely found themselves wanting to achieve a similar goal. Still, it didn't seem entirely right to consider this thing a complete failure. In spite of its terrible condition when she first met it, its combative capabilities were remarkable. If it would have gone out of control in the middle of a populated area, there was nothing that suggested that it would have been unable to consume everything and everyone it would have had the chance to grab onto. "Hm... Well, alright. I was hoping we'd be able to figure out a little bit more about it, but if it's not that big of a deal..." A quiet noise would come out of her as she thought about this. "... Before that thing died, it mentioned a name. I think it was someone called... Chiba Chimon. Do you know who that is? It might give us something to work with before more of those things start showing up." 

Aramis might not be entirely familiar with the name. In fact, Kimiko very much doubted that he did, as it was evidently the name of someone who remained in the Living World. Still, it was worth a shot.

[Aramis Tezuka]

Kimiko's assessment of Aramis was accurate. He was not a man of morals but one of pragmatism. Practicality. While some would call him heartless in many respects that wasn't.... entirely accurate. Certainly his ability to empathize was handicapped by his darkest impulses, but that wasn't the only thing. Aramis found many choices that one might consider "evil" were reprehensible. Not, admittedly, due to any morality, but because they provided no real benefit to doing so. Kimiko might have been surprised, based on this discussion, that Aramis did not agree with silencing Shinigami inherently as the Onmitsukido were deigned to do. It was an external decision. One that would inevitably foster distrust within the Seireitei. There were other, admittedly more difficult and messier, but effective methods to maintaining loyalty and secrecy. The Emperor though. Human world agents and their cyanide capsules.... Those Aramis did intrinsically approve of. For a cyanide capsule it placed the decision in the hands of the initiate. If the human agent determined that their information was more important than their life, if their loyalty was that strong, then there was no harm in providing them the means to make that decision. Perhaps there was implicit pressure to do so, but not a mandate. Meanwhile the Emperor.... He led an army of zealots, and Aramis had yet to hear of a Vandenreich that would sooner cling to life in enemy hands than accept their master's judgement. The Emperor had fostered unconditional loyalty, and so in the case of the Vandenreich it was again, quite practical, and therefore met with Aramis's approval.

Ironically though this same mentality would put Aramis against what Kimiko feared he might do to the innocents in the Rukongai. At least implicitly. While Aramis would certainly not hesitate to do so, if he deemed the action ultimately more beneficial in the long term, the key phrase there was the long term. While Aramis may not have empathized much himself, he did understand people's minds, and that callous murder of innocent lives tended to evoke animosity from the other, more sympathetic members of the Gotei 13. Aramis wanted others to trust him, and as such had no interest in fostering the image of a division of bloodthirsty butchers. Science, by its nature, was neutral. No more evil or good than the force that wielded it, and Aramis hoped to push this mentality upon his Division itself. Science for science sake, and let those who use it sort out matters of morality.

Kimiko pushed on with the discussion of coordination and Aramis let her speak, until she was finished. Or at least until he was reasonably sure she was finished. "Can arrange passage to Hueco Mundo or Human World. Attack on Sillbern, still untenable at this juncture. With some permissions from Central 46, attack on Hell plausible. Theory to open gate to Hell is there. Untested. Do not recommend. Too many unknowns." Aramis stated. "If targeting rival faction, Las Noches, most logical. Only accessible faction with means to attack Seireitei." He stated. Indeed, Aramis considered XCution and Uzaki Enterprises low-level threats as neither possessed the means to launch a wide-scale attack on Soul Society. Meanwhile the Sillbern was yet unassailable and Hell had too many variables to account for.

"Particulars of attack, leave up to you. Advise Twelfth Division of what is required to make attack happen. Will notify if plausible." He added firmly. "As for outposts. Do not possess tactical acumen to make concrete advisement, but. If determent is objective, major decisive strike sends larger message." Aramis replied.

Lastly, came Kimiko's question. Aramis paused as if considering, before finally answering. "No. Unfamiliar name. Will do research. Send officers to Human World to investigate. Suspect behind "Rider" experiment?" He inquired. It seemed now the meeting was coming to a close, so Aramis stood up. "Welcome to use machines." He said, tilting his head in the direction of the arcade machines. "If nothing further, have other duties to attend. Projects need oversight. Offense operation projects need review in accordance with meeting." He added. If Kimiko did not stop the Captain, Aramis would then walk past her and exit the room.

[Nakajima Kimiko]

Kimiko had always enjoyed fighting. She wasn't quite sure for how long she has enjoyed the act, but as far as she could tell, she has liked it ever since she was a child. It was the reason why she eventually found herself brought to the arcades, a place that allowed her to do battle with virtual opponents, and then the Gotei 13 once she became the being that she is now, a soldier part of an organization that granted her access to true opponents made of flesh and blood. But as she fought and fought, and henceforth rose within the ranks of those who remained within the holy city of Seireitei, she would find herself realizing that, to grow stronger, she would need to learn about things that went beyond the simplicity of fighting. There were many such things, of course, most notably the act of dealing with the prestige that came with her new positions as well as the act of tending to her subordinates. However, the most flagrant of them all... was simply the act of differentiating the concept of fighting with the concept of war.

To fight is simply to raise your weapon towards somebody else. That weapon could take many forms, but ultimately, it would lead to a battle between two or more warriors. More often than not, this battle was honorable to an extent, and was an expression of their power, but also their will and even their ideals. In a way, it could be said that fighting was a conversation: the only difference was that the words that one needed to expect from a conversation were instead replaced by the sounds of their weapons clashing against one another. While fighting could lead to terrible ends for one of the parties involved, with one of these ends being grave injury and another one of them being death, it nevertheless allowed each and every party to express themselves, and thus, it was why she enjoyed it most. Moreover, it was one of the many reasons why she always encouraged people to fight and to better their ability to fight, for there was no better way to understand one another than to fight.

War, however... War did not contain any of those things. There was nothing honorable in war. There was no consent, no conversation to be had, nothing that could be described as being respectable in any way. The only thing it contained was insult and injury. That was it. There was a medium of conversation, that, Kimiko could not deny. Yet that medium was not on the battlefield; rather, it was behind closed doors, where military strategists and other kinds of weak individuals who believed themselves to be strong discussed with one another. There, behind those doors, any sort of respect for one another is lost. There, behind all the papers holding all sorts of tactics, there was no engagement or even so much as true care for the act of fighting. All that remained was nothing more than the plain, emotionless objective of winning the battle, if only to put a stop to the war and go back to the life these people once had prior to it all.

The Captain of the Eleventh had learned much about war. Of course, she did. If she hadn't actually learned of it or its details, it would have been unwise for her to continue carrying the name of that position. With that said, the more she learned about war and its effects, the more she found herself hating it. She loathed the bureaucracy behind it all, the cold paperwork, and the minimalist approach to each and every battle carried against the enemy. It left her disconnected, disengaged, and most importantly, even a tad bit disgusted, as she knew that she was engaging in the usual works of weaker beings unfit for true battle. Unfortunately, as she laid down the context that the Soul Society as a whole found itself stuck in, its position of utter weakness in face of the enemy who cared not for anything but the heavenly realm's complete destruction, there was no choice for her but to consider war and to engage in acts of warfare against the enemies of her home. To ignore it would be to betray her duty as the leader of the Attack Squad.

Quite frankly, the strategies that she would go on to suggest to Aramis were nothing more than assumptions. She was a fighter, not a strategist, and so it was to be expected that there could be a few flaws in their plans. Unsurprisingly, the scientist made sure to make those flaws clear to her as he answered them all. For one, between the two main threats she had suggested, the man believed Las Noches to be the most logical target, as both the information surrounding it as well as the fortress itself are both simply more accessible in comparison to any structure related to the Vandenreich. For two, focusing on smaller targets would most likely not achieve a very significant outcome, and so destroying a few Vandenreich outposts here and there was perhaps not the right thing to do. Then, for three, the Silbern - the headquarters of the Vandenreich - remained completely inaccessible. Thus, even if the aforementioned outposts are destroyed, there would ultimately be no way for the Gotei 13 to go any further in their assault against the Quincy zealots.

This logic was not something that was unwelcome to Kimiko. If anything, she considered it in full, and as she expected, it appeared that the man simply believed that attacking Las Noches was what they needed to do first and foremost. As the man said, they had more than enough information on the fortress to conduct a military operation against it, and so it was simply simpler to start there before anywhere else. Then, there was the matter of Hell. Again, before Aramis would conclude his analysis of Kimiko's suggestions, the man made sure to point out the possibility of opening a gate to the underworld as well as the risk that would come with such an operation. For now, he did not recommend that they focus on attacking the underworld... but with this swift inclusion within his explanations, he did emphasize that the option was still there. The swordswoman would consider this for the time being, though for now, she had to admit that it would most likely be best that they remain with more-reasonable targets above all.

With that out of the way, there was not much that remained for the purpose of this meeting. Well, at least not much that Kimiko considered to be synonymous to its main objective. They had discussed every matter that she felt could be discussed at this present time, and so, she would begin to conduct preparations for each and every one of them. But then, there was the case of Rider and the name that came out of its lips as it died. To this, however, she would receive no satisfying answer. "I think so. It's not much, but Rider seemed to be blaming them for what happened to it. Maybe they've got something to do with whatever turned it into... that," she would reply to Aramis' question in that moment. Fortunately, despite the lack of information at hand as well as her disappointment, it appeared as though the scientist was at least willing to find out more about this Chiba Chimon. "Please share me everything you find about them from now on. If we're fast enough, we'll be able to shut what they're doing to people like Rider down before it gets worse."  

Once this was said and done, Aramis would go on to end the meeting right then and there. Kimiko had to admit that she found herself a little bit stumped once he told her that he now had more important things to attend to. It was true that there was nothing more to discuss, yes, but... she didn't think this conversation was going to end this suddenly. Taken off-guard, she would first blink with clear surprise in her eyes, as it was clear that she was rather passionate when it came to the subjects they spoke of only moments prior. Once this moment would pass, however, she would tense down and sigh. "Alright. It sounds good to me anyway. The faster I catch that Quincy you told me about, the better," she agreed, then slowly stood up from the couch she was sitting on. As she rose up from her seat, however, she would find herself briefly looking down towards the table where the scientist had left his clipboards. It appeared as though the man had left the clipboards on the table, not even bothering to take one of them with him as he left. "Uh, hey. You forgot your-" 

Aaaand right as she turned her head back towards the door, Aramis was gone. Stunned by this lack of punctuality, the swordswoman would stand there for a few seconds, once again taken aback by the man's attitude. Eventually, however, just like before, she would recover from her moment of surprise, this time with a light scoff and a shake of the head. "He could've at least said goodbye..." she muttered, annoyed, before she would then turn back towards the clipboards. She wasn't sure of why the man had left them there, but knowing how strict this place was supposed to be, she was simply going to assume that she was not permitted to take them with her. Besides, as they are now, she doubted she was ever going to be able to read them appropriately, as just about half of their entire content was borderline unreadable in her eyes. A shame, really. If that would have not been the case, maybe she could have learned more from them. She could have maybe seen if the Twelfth was aware of Ruhe's existence, somehow.

The Captain would find herself looking down at the clipboards again, debating on whether or not she wanted to even try reading a little bit further to attempt understanding the information contained within them. However, now that Aramis was not in the room with her anymore, she would quickly be reminded of the bleeps and bloops which came from the arcade machines in the corner of the room. Quietly, she found herself briefly glancing at their direction at first, almost as if she was trying to resist their allure. Eventually, though, she would fully turn her head towards them and simply stare in silence. Aramis told her that she could use the machines just before he left, but something, at first, was preventing her from fully going with the idea. Maybe it was the fact that she hadn't seen them for so long. Maybe it was instead the duties that awaited her back at her school. Either way, this hesitation of hers would last for about a minute... until, after a point, she would approach the machines and observe them from up-close.

It didn't take much. All it took was a few steps, and not much else. Yet, the moment she found herself close enough to the machines, memories from a life now long gone flashed before her eyes. If only for a few seconds, she imagined herself standing in the middle of a busy arcade with multiple people passing by her or remaining at the machines. She could remember their excitement, their hype, their laughter. And then... she remembered a single nickname. Naka. It was a small, made-up word, composed of nothing more than the first four letters of her last name. In spite of this, it was a name that once held great importance for the Captain. Back then, while she was a Human, she heard it echo across the arcades time and time again. The clamoring, the sheer and unadulterated support for an up-and-coming newcomer on the scene... It was just... just glorious. Even now, after all these years, it was enough to make Kimiko smile as she kept walking onward in what appeared to be an emotional trance.

Then, suddenly, she would find herself pausing right in front of one of the arcade machines.

The game that was displayed before her was Justice Cog III. Its machine was extremely flashy with bright lights and an aesthetic that fitted well with the game's, and on its sides were two of its titular characters. From the looks of it, it appeared as though the machine had been customized so as to not require any coins. It also appeared as though two players had played with the machine earlier today, as it was now stuck on the character select screen. Usually, the music alone should have been enough to widen the smile Kimiko was displaying up until then. However, once she saw the characters that were selected, she couldn't help but feel her heart skip a beat. The first character was a swordswoman in her early twenties at best with flowing red hair wearing what seemed to be an ancient kimono of red and blue. Meanwhile, the second was a large man clad in a suit of white metal from head to toe holding onto a mighty claymore. Underneath the both of them were displayed their names in big bold letters: "TAIGA" and "THEODORE".

This shouldn't have meant anything. This should have just been two silly fighting game characters on a screen. And yet... just looking at them was enough for Kimiko to be forced to recall other memories of her past. Taiga... She was her favorite character back then. No... Perhaps she still was. She had always used her in every Justice Cog game and even a few of the crossovers she found herself wrapped into. On the other hand, Theodore was the favorite character of another person she knew back then. At this point, she had forgotten his name entirely. It was just too long ago. However, she could recall what he had done to her. She could still remember him storming out of the arcade that one time in absolute anger at his loss. She could remember him not coming back for days after that... and then him appearing while she least expected him. Then, she remembered the knife he held onto after it had been plunged straight into her neck, and the pain she felt right then.

Shaking, the Captain let out a quick cough of confusion before she held onto the machine. She would remain like this for a moment, shocked and very clearly stuck in a position of deep discomfort as she attempted to remain calm. Right. She had been murdered. That was... That was so long ago, and yet she still remembered it. Taking a few deep breaths, she would attempt to overcome the traumatic memory that she just experienced by closing her eyes, then slowly push herself off of the machine. With a few steps back, she would then stare at the machine in silence, frowning deeply. The silence lasted for a while, enough so that it permeated even her own senses. Then, eventually, she simply let out a sigh as she felt a deep sadness rock her core.  No. I... I can't,  her thoughts concluded then before she began walking away from the arcade corner.

Perhaps one day, she will be able to face those memories again. Until then, however, what she has now become will remain as it is now to the person that she once was so many decades ago.

Forever disconnected.

[ E N D ]

[Camila Adaronde]

35 paragraphs from Aramis, 30% bonus to your next thread with Nakajima!
76 paragraphs from Nakajima, 50% bonus to your next thread with Aramis!