Rescue! Into the Scorpion's Den! [DP, R]

[Chiku Unoji]

Thread Title: Rescue! Into the Scorpion's Den!
Participants: Chikusho Unoki and Shokan Kawada
World: Soul Society
Death Setting: Permanent Injuries Enabled
Rating: R
Location: Soul Society Wilderness, at the very edge of the Rukongai's territories and in the area where beasts reside. The battlefield itself is an absolutely desolated area of destroyed village. Wiped out so very very long ago, it does however serve as the territory for Chiku. Nothing but dirt and ruined buildings as far as the eye can see. Structural remains to not exceed 3 meters high and will not hold more than 20 pounds of weight.
Special Conditions: None
Circumstances: A Patrol to the outmost Rukongai has not returned. Intel from Squad 2 has verified that the squad members have been captured and seemingly taken into the den of a Beast Clan in the area. The exact location of the den is unknown, butit is known that it is underground.
The den in particular belongs to Chikusho Unoji. Weak from old injuries, as well as fresher injuries from having fought the shinigami, she is patroling the area and protecting her territory.

[Chiku Unoji]

It had been a while since Chiku had dragged those shinigami off. She had put on a brave face for the others, but she was hurt. She had never healed her chest, not to mention the stab wound in her side. And now she had another stab wound from dealing with those shinigami. One going directly into her medial left forearm. She was not still bleeding, but she was still in pain, even as she dug her way back to the area where she had beat them. She grumbled softly, limping about before she spotted the massive clearing. At the very center were three zanpaku'to. One of them still with her blood on it.

She growled, gritting her teeth as she emerged from the ground and walked toward those discarded blades, thankfully not so injured that she was unable to walk or fight if need be. Supposedly these blades were fairly valuable, so it stood to reason that she should retrieve them as well. Her attention was drawn to the one she remembered stabbing her, and though she was blind she could still SMELL the scent of her own blood on it's blade.

A frown crossed her features as she let out a soft chitter, her mandibles clicking along the sides of her face as she remembered the brief little battle. She still was not feeling too well. And what was worse was the fact that she knew she wasn't safe. Shinigami rarely abandoned their own. She didn't know how long, but no doubt within the next few days someone would be deployed. Maybe sooner if it just so happened that one of the shinigami was already nearby. It didn't give her a lot of time to lick her wounds.

Off in the distance, she could feel the tremors of a few nearby vllages having little clashes. They always had those these days. It seemed that just about every time she went around the area that some random group of pluses was fighting or pillaging one another. It was disgusting. But at the very least they all knew better than to try and challenge her. They treated her with a fearful respect, and knew better than to try going into her territory, a fact that no doubt they had not bothered to inform the shinigami of. Not their problem right?

Even so, she reached down and collected the blades, taking just a moment to click her mandibles together, the sharp taps giving her an incredibly detailed mental image of them. It was so interesting to notice these, that they had such well crafted and smooth surfaces. Normally she could tell how much love went into a blade, the stronger ones usually had a texture to them. But zanpaku'to, no matter how strong or weak, always were flawless in the shape and smoothness of the metal, as if they had never actually seen a forge and hammer.

It made her wonder...

SPOILER: Click to show

{Chiku's Stats}
Strength: 280 Points
Speed: 325 Points

Spiritual Pressure: 200 Points
Reiatsu Strength: 200 Points

Light Aura: 90
Dark Aura: 10

Instinct: 200 Points
Senses: 95 Points (285 Points)
Energy Senses: 50 Points

Healing Expertise: 0 Points

SP: 1350 (800 from class, 550 from Training)

Calm Mind 2
Strength of Will 1
Stealth 2
Charisma 1
Damage Recovery 2
Anti-Stealth 2
Learning 1

[Shōkan Kawada Ⅺ]

Shōkan walked into the Squad 11 barracks, and was instantly given a mission. This day had been fairly boring thus far, training in the morning, working on his skills, followed by breakfast. A standard routine that, while necessary, was still missing something, a challenge. The stronger he became, the more he realized he couldn't bide his time as an unseated officer much longer. With his level of strength, he could possibly fight on par with the weaker vice-captains, and the assignments he was given had been lacking thus far. So when he was given this particular assignment, he felt a flutter of excitement in his stomach.

It seemed that multiple Shinigami had not returned from their last assignment. Something had prevented them from returning, that meant that something capable of taking down no less than three trained Shinigami at once was residing within Rukongai. Hopefully, this would present considerably more of a challenge than he had presented wiith the past few days. His assignment was to find the Shinigami, dead or alive, and exterminate whatever had attacked them. Extermination after all, was Squad 11's specialty. Grabbing his zanpakuto, Shōkan quickly headed out towards the area.

Upon arriving near the location they had last been heard from, Shōkan couldn't find much, it had been more than 2 days since the event occurred. With his analytical mind however, he was able to make out the details of a battle occurring in the clearing. bits of old blood scattered about, scuffles in the dirt. If he had to wager a guess, he would say that something had ambushed the Shinigami and taken them down with swift speed and power. Shōkan grinned to himself, from the looks of it, no visible spiritual abilities had been used, no kidou had left burns or marks in the area at any rate.

It would seem that his enemy relied on physical might, what a coincidence. He was confident he could overcome anyone near his level with raw power. Even if only for a short time. Taking a closer look, Shōkan determined from the tracks that this wasn't the work of a person, rather, it seemed to be the work of some creature. Unfortunately, it seemed versed in covering it's tracks, as he couldn't find out where it went anywhere... That could be a problem. Well, judging by the creatures actions, it seemed highly territorial, so there was one sure way to draw it out.

He looked around the clearing, it was large, but it could definitely get larger, he set about demolishing the clearing with his massive strength. Slashing trees apart, breaking the earth, causing the once beautiful terrain to become destroyed... This ought to do the trick.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Stats}Strength - 400 [450] > [787.5]
Speed - 300 [350] > [612.5]
Spiritual Pressure – 100
Reiatsu Strength – 100 [150] > [262.5]
Light Aura - [100]
Dark Aura - [0]
Instinct - 125
Senses - 75
Energy sensory - 0
Healing Expertise - 0

SPOILER: Click to show

{Skills}Swordsmanship: 2
Hakuda: 2
Strength of Will: 2
Battle Analysis: 2
Analysis: 2
Charisma: 1

[Chiku Unoji]

Chiku paused when she noticed a racket off in the distance, a place off where the battle with the shinigami had started as opposed to where it had ended. In the distance she could notice the man, shorter than her...armed. A zanpaku'to. A shinigami? His clothing was hard to make out from this distance, but it certainly seemed to be. And as he began destroying the area he would find himself constantly getting very close to a number of holes in the ground, incredibly deep and very wide as well. In fact, if he were to spot Chiku in the distance, holding those swords, he would likely realize they were the perfect size for her.

A towering thirteen feet, eight inches in height, she was a tremendous creature, though surprisingly stealthy. As he began destroying his surroundings, she dropped down to the ground and kept her attention on him, slowly sinking into the earth, her monsterous strength allowing her to dig down, only a small ammount of earth until she found one of her tunnels from the last fight. She then began making her way closer, approaching the man as she kept tabs on him through her sense of touch and hearing through those sensitive hair in her carapace.

Using both her stealth skills and a slow speed, she closed in on the shinigami curiously, taking the time to note just how strong those tremors were and using her own fast mind to process just how strong that would make him. So many individuals were able to make strong tremors, and it usually correlated rather directly to their full strength. And she found that surprisingly, he was actually stronger than her. This did not scare her too much, but it did make her cautious. She had left the zanpaku'to up on the surface. She didn't care THAT much about them, after all.

[Shōkan Kawada Ⅺ]

Shōkan, as he continued demolishing the area, noticed various holes on the surface, rather large ones, and when he broke areas around them, he noticed that they seemed to be tunnels. That was rather enlightening. It showed that this was how it ambushed his fellow Shinigami earlier, judging by the size of the holes, it also indicated that this was a rather large creature, further affirming his judgement of a physical specimen. Seeing as how he had caused enough of a ruckus to capture whatever it was' attention, Shōkan stopped, and peered around.

He couldn't detect anything, but that didn't say much considering he had absolute zero skill in sensing things spiritually, and his normal senses were only a bit better than your average human. From his conclusions about the creature thus far, he knew it was stealthy, to be so large and still catch those Shinigami off guard, and he knew it would probably attack from underground when it finally came. This was a dangerous predator indeed, and there wasn't much that he could do to stop it from ambushing him.

Although... Shōkan looked at the trunks of several of the trees he had torn up. Choosing a medium sized one, Shōkan took it, and thrust it into the ground, straining to push it deeper, before he jumped a great height and slammed down on it, thouroughly planting it into the ground. It was just the right size for him to stand on, barely. If he kept his feet together. Having a way to avoid the creature coming from directly under him, Shōkan decided to crouch on top of the tree trunk, and surveyed his surroundings, keeping watch for the deadly beast.

[Chiku Unoji]

She was not all that surprised that it took him a while, however when he suddenly froze she began closing in, slowly, cautiously as she relaxed and listened to his noises. He was thinking, considering. She made note of the subtle sounds of his weight shifting, giving her a round-about mental image of what he might be doing in her head. However this was not unusual. So many shinigami always took time to try and think their way out of these things. It just meant that they were easier to come up on.

However she WAS surprised at the sudden PLOW of a massive tree was slammed into the ground like a post, causing her to stop in her tracks, taking just a moment to listen as she could hear him, but through the wood instead of the ground. That was definitely something new. She had expected him to try and find ground on the rubble, but this was...innovative. But she usually was used to shinigami trying to hide on buildings. This was even less of a problem. However.....being sloppy meant being injured. She would be safe and use the same plan she always did.

She began digging around in circles, staying away from the surface to ensure that nothing would reach the shinigami above as she began creating a network. She was a VERY fast digger, in fact she was able to dig faster than she could run given that her body was much more built for digging than walking around with her heavy limbs. In the matter of minutes she had dug a sort of honeycombed inverse pyramid underneath the shinigami, a slowly shrinking spiral of downward tunnel, all culminating to a single poitn at the very bottom. With a single column of undisturbed dirt in the middle that held up each level of dirt between the bottom level and each level above. She dug a little side tunnel at the very bottom, ensuring that she wouldn't be injured, before she promptly crushed the support section against her feet, and then snuck into her side tunnel.

The result was almost instantanious, suddenly everything on the surface in a twenty meter radius caved in, suddenly dropping down as the ground gave out from under it, and within seconds, everything would be forced down a narrowing sinkhole, the centermost sections falling first, while the outter ring of earth collapsed and then dropped in ontop of whatever had been in the center.

If everything worked correctly, her prey would slam into the bottom of the pit before piles and piles of dirt piled in ontop of them, and then? Numerous feet underground? she would have him. So many were stronger than her, but that was up on the surface. You could punch and kick underground all one wanted, but when it packed in, one lost their sense up up and down, they had no ability to move earth without more just crumbling in around them.

It was a simple plan, and admittedly she had discovered the concept on accident with a particularly strong opponent that had collapsed the roof of one of her tunnels wen she had been sneaking up on them. She had begun doing it on purpose and adjusting the design. She hadn't had to use it against the shinigami before, but then again they had not seen her coming. One of the benefits of her annoying new habit of being able to think. At least SOMETHING good had come out of the hell that thinking had brought her.

For the time being she simply waited, sensing through the earth to see how the man had taken the sudden move, she had guestimated that the trap would bury him with about ten feet of earth over his head, but it was always hard to guess just about where it would end up. Even so, if all went well, she would be able to start closing in from beneath him. Another little trick. Many assumed that when something came to them from a direction, she was coming down from the surface. Excperience... and a scar on her thigh, had taught her that was a bad idea. So for now, she waited.

[Shōkan Kawada Ⅺ]

Everything seemed rather calm as Shōkan waited, that is, until the ground suddenly collapsed around him. It was so sudden that it caught Shōkan off guard. Thinking quickly, he used his monstrous strength to leap from the top of the log outside of the range of the sink pit. Fortunately, he was already in a crouching position, and on alert, otherwise he would have been buried. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to look where he was jumping, so he ended up landing into a dilapidated wall. Thankfully, it seemed to already be rotting and falling apart, so it just crumbled.

Looking around in a frenzy, taking in as much as he could, he nearly gaped at the sheer size of the destruction, what could have been strong enough to- wait, no, if it was sheer strength he would have felt something beforehand, no he knew the creature made tunnels, so it stood to reason she could somehow weaken the structure of the earth. But the forethought required for this indicated a level of intelligence he wasn't expecting. This changed things. Instead of fighting a mindless beast, Shōkan would be fighting against a creature with intellect.

Stealth, intelligence, and power. This was a deadly combination. Shōkan wouldn't be able to find his enemy, it just wasn't going to happen with his useless skills in detecting. So what could he do. Keep mobile. Traps like that could only work if he kept to one location. Immediately after he had this thought, maybe a few moments after he landed, he began swiftly moving throughout the non damaged area, trying to keep his ears and his eyes peeled in lookout for his strange enemy.

[Chiku Unoji]

FUCK! IT hadn't worked! She silently shook her fist in the air in Shokan's direction. Guhhh, this was fine. She just needed to set it up again. Only this time bigger. She began digging in the man's direction, using that speed of hers combined with her stealth to close in quickly, but just as she was about t start he suddenly began running! She stopped, frowning for a moment as she noticed him run, and of course she was tempted to grab him, or maybe try to start digging trap pits all over the place when she realized just how fast he was going.

She smiled to herself. She dug herself in nice and deep. And she waited. He could run around all he liked. All that meant was the fact that he would tire out even faster. By the time he ran out of breath he would be doomed. There was not another village for miles, well...not one in good enough shape to protect him. She could follow him all the way to around area 50 before tiring out, and even that was many times farther than he was going to be able to run once he began running out of wind.

There was no need to rush. She nestled into that lovely earth and waited. Taking just a moment to gingerly lick her wounds, keeping up the condition of her older ones and being very thorough with those that were larger, thankfully they were no longer bleeding, her ability to recover was fantastic, and in fact was why she was still alive despite the wounds on her chest. She should have a proper doctor look at them, she wasn't in top condition. Not to mention that her eyes were still dead. She had always imagined that she could be better off if she wasn't blind.

She considered perhaps setting at least ONE trap. It wouldn't hurt right? But the more she thought about it the less she liked the idea. Her last trap had been very integral upon the condition that she was on the very bottom, protected by many layers of earth and able to avoid damage. A hastily prepared trap meant she would have to be closer by when he fell in, and if he flailed around or used some sort of explosive attack like some shinigami did (despite the compressed force killing them), she might become injured in the process.

No, it was much better to just settle in, hunker down, and wait for the shinigami to get tired out, letting minutes and even tens of minutes to pass by, only ever moving if he got too far away from her to sense him clearly. She couldn't just let him escape after all, she would need to search for him if he suddenly vanished. Some shinigami were like that, hiding skills in sneaking around until the last minute. She had the ability to track most of them anyway, but every now and then, one came along that even SHE couldn't sense properly.

[Shōkan Kawada Ⅺ]

[OC: Since I didn't state it, Shōkan moves at 275 unless stated otherwise, to give you an idea of how fast he's moving]

For Shōkan, the speed he was moving at wasn't too much, it was fast yes, but he kept himself restrained at all times to begin with. However, as several minutes went by with no attacks whatsoever, Shōkan stopped, there was no point to it, and even if this pace wasn't especially tiring, over time it would fatigue him greatly. Seeing as how there was no way to find his opponent, Shōkan was left with one option, finding the Shinigami. Moving about relatively quickly, so as not to get trapped in once place, Shōkan set about looking for signs of where his fellow Shinigami had gone off to.

Spotting something at the edge of the clearing, Shōkan spotted something shining, he went over. Reaching the area, Shōkan found three zanpakuto lying on the ground. It would appear that these belonged to the Shinigami that had been taken, or killed. So this was indeed the creature that had dealt with them. Looking around, Shōkan decided to try something else. Even though the beast had reverted to pure combat, right off the bat, perhaps he could get it to show itself. going to one of the dilapidated buildings, Shōkan picked up a piece of debris which had fallen, and stood on it.

If the ground sunk again, hopefully it would enable him to jump or shunpo away once more. Calling out, using his light and comforting aura, as well as his natural charisma, Shōkan spoke "Obviously, you are intelligent, so I won't look down upon you. You attacked several Shinigami, and that can't go unpunished. As it is, I'm not going to be able to find you. However, don't think that means you're safe. Because if I don't bring those Shinigami back with me, you are going to have a lot more trouble than just me."

"We have entire squads of Shinigami who can and WILL be able to find you, and at that point, you will be eradicated out of sheer principle. But if you bring them out, and they are alright, I can say that the threat is dealt with... If I have your promise not to harm anyone. If you don't... I suggest you run, and quickly. The Seireitei does not take kidnapping of their members lightly, and someone much stronger and more skilled than me will be sent out. I'm giving you the choice right here and now. Choose wisely"

After he spoke, Shōkan had a scary thought, what if it couldn't understand him? Well... That would be bad. Hopefully his aura, charisma, and calm tone of voice would impart something. There was nothing else he could do.

[Chiku Unoji]

She was a little disappointed when he stopped without fully tiring himself out. But that was no matter, she began digging toward him, using the tunnels she had already dug to get little bursts of speed as she moved quietly, however just as she approached him, she was surprised that of all things, the man tried to bargain with her. Which frankly was a little amazing. The shinigami almost never tried that. He was quite an interesting man to say the least. Either terrified, or just level-headed.

That said, he did have a fairly ....alright point. She had no qualms, most shinigami who escaped her realm never really did make it back. But usually they just wound up having the rukongai citizens being blamed, and even then it was only solitary shini. This was the first time a large group had been taken in at once. It was reasonable that they might escalate. Even if sereitei didn't give a shit about the run of the mill shinigami, the Captains did care a lot about their men.

She slowly emerged from the ground behind him, her blind eyes not even looking at him as she stared blankly at the floor, the two eyes were the most obvious, but it didn't take long to notice another six, three in a slight curve under her two main ones, and that massive 9 foot long tail behind her. She had a full, large set of pincers, and two sets of normal arms beyond that. Every inch of her body covered up in hard chitinous armor. She was practically a tank.

"I have your shinigami. They are injured, but not too much." Came that gravelly voice, her shoulders lowered like a football player, those claws raised defensively, and that stinger arched up, inCREDIBLY defensive, in case this was just a ploy to get her out into the open. " They are at my Den. If you want to see them. I will take you. But you must leave your Zanpaku'to here, or let me hold it. I have...family. I cannot let you hurt. Too important." She stated firmly, making it very clear that she would not budge on the matter. Especially with an armed man who had been destroying the area.

That stinger slowly lowered, and Chiku drew herself to her full height, almost fourteen feet tall, well over double the size of most shinigami. She stepped closer, her guard still very much up as she made sure to focus very keenly on the shinigami with both her normal senses and her spiritual senses, ready to make a sudden move at a moment's notice. "Promise me this, and you can take your men and I will take you to the rukongai. The heathens around here will not attack you with me around." She offered.

[Shōkan Kawada Ⅺ]

When his opponent finally appeared, Shōkan was startled, she wasn't just large, she was massive. Shōkan was a tall man, but Chiku towered over him at more than double his height. Her features were that of a scorpion, and Shōkan assumed, rightfully so, that she was a beast-clansmember. One thing Shōkan hadn't anticipated however, was that she would be female, obviously so, with delicate features despite her size and appearance. She was even beautiful, in her own way. After taking in her image for a moment, Shōkan responded.

"My name is Shōkan Kawada, of the Kawada Clan, an unseated Shinigami officer of Squad 11" Shōkan knew that any effort of diplomacy, of rapport and trust must first begin with an introduction, having a name instantly humanized someone, and made it that much difficult to do violence towards the. Shōkan planted his zanpakuto into the ground and continued, "I agree to your terms, please, lead the way?" He paused for a moment in askance of her name. That too was important, give and receive.

One thing Shōkan noticed right off the bat about Chiku was that she was blind, obviously so. Her unseeing eyes moving listlessly. That made sense, considering her subterranean nature. Shōkan hoped that this situation could be resolved without violence, he detested violence for the sake of violence, and although he enjoyed a good battle, he had honor, and did not like fighting empathetic beings for no reason at all.

[Chiku Unoji]

She paused. That was...interesting. That shift in the man's breathing and pulse. Her "ears" could make it out so very easily. The shift in him. That was odd. Perhaps she reminded him of someone. But she paid no real attention to that, she instead focused on his words, folding her arms as she frowned down at him, and though she was blind, her eyes still focused on him. It served no direct purpose, but in her life, she found that people were intimidated by it. That deep, piercing stare despite the blindness.

"Chikusho." She noted lightly, leering at the man as she watched him put his zanpaku'to down, and she herself retrieved the others belonging to the other soul reapers. She walked toward him and her tail slithered out, not to stab him, but to wrap around him, lifting Shokan off the ground and pulling him in until one of her arms slid around him, tucking him to her body. "Do not panic." She murmured, before she slid into one of her holes and suddenly they were off. Through those twisting, winding tunnels, not only using pre-existing ones, but also digging new ones. In a dizzying maze that was actively being made more and more complicated as Chiku went.

It was a good hour, having to slow down now and then to go to one of the little atriums with a hole in the ceiling, allowing Shokan to get fresh air before going back to the crawl. It was in this way, that they went east, not that Shokan would be able to tell, and then slowly spiraling down, down down down a considerable depth. Until at long last, they came to a massive entrance of a cave. And found an actual door. The tunnel was massive here, almost like some tremendous hallway to a castle.

Chiku would set the man down, brishing herself off before leering at him, those blades pointed for just a moment as she reminded him. "Behave." in that gravely voice, before she opened the latch and went through. And the sight that met Shokan would probably be a bit of a ridiculous surprise. He would see the three shinigami. Being tended to by two women and a young man, and of course a third woman who was off to the corner, staring hateful daggers not only at the shinigami, but at Shokan as well.

Almost immediately one of them blinked, giving Shokan a curious look before putting on a sweet, and rather innocent smile. Almost instantly the cave lit up, as if a wave of happiness had simply burst outward. That pale little face brightening as suddenly Shokan would find the rather short-looking girl beelining straight for him. "Welcome!" she greeted brightly,

Of course he would be able to tell very distinctly who the shinigami were, because like Chiku, they were tattered. Wearing poorly-kept clothing, and almost all of them sporting old wounds similar to Chiku's. Barely cared for, but not quite abandoned completely. They seemed to be in good spirits, but the girls moved with an obvious weakness about them, likely from those wounds not being healed properly. They were, however, despite this, still tending to the shinigami. Food and drink, poor as it was, was in evidence, and the shinigami in question were bandaged up.

Chiku gently ruffled the short pale girl's head, earning a bright little smile from the tiny woman before she set the blades at the feet of those slumbering shinigami. "Here. I can take them along with you when they are better. I need to leave. Not enough food for everyone these days. Thanks to shinigami." She growled, clearly not pleased, but the women that Chiku looked after seemed to be very intent on helping the men. Certainly a very odd group.

[Shōkan Kawada Ⅺ]

Shōkan was, frankly, amazed at the underground system Chikusha had developed. It was incredible, it allowed her to moved safely, and freely without interference from anyone. Although he was somewhat surprised she would even take him to her den, although, Shōkan looked around, it wasn't like he would ever be able to find it again. Shōkan's sense of direction was basic at the best of times, much less blind and underground, moving throughout these twisty tunnels. In perfect honesty, it was making him just a bit motion sick, so he focused on keeping that from becoming a problem. When they reached Chikusha's layer, it would not be a moment too soon.

On the way, he marveled at her tunneling ability, for her massive size, she was able to tunnel out a ridiculous amount of earth. He could only imagine the many, many hours that had gone into creating this tunnel system. She was certainly a fighter unlike any he had met before. Her innate abilities allowed her to use tactics that completely changed a battle, it was both ingenious and extremely frustrating in equal measure. Finally, it appeared the were starting to home in on their destination, as Chikusha slowed down and the entered a spacious cavern.

Inside, Shōkan found the three shinigami he was looking for, injured, but otherwise suprisingly well cared for, he was surprised that they actually treated their wounds, and fed and cared for them. This earned Chikusha and co. quite a bit of trust with him, as it was rather obvious at this point that she wasn't attacking people with murderous intent, and was instead only protecting her home. Since that was the case, Shōkan felt no compunction to exterminate her or her family, as long as he extracted a promise that she would only attack others in self defense, Shōkan was satisfied.

Responding to the warm woman's welcome, Shōkan said "Thank you, I appreciate you welcoming me into your home," he bowed slightly. Walking over to the shinigami, he questioned them briefly, confirming what he already knew, they had not been harmed beyond what was necessary, they had been well taken care of since their defeat. Smiling to himself in relief, Shōkan heard Chikusha's declaration. Turning towards her, Shōkan spoke. "Please allow me, in reparation for our forces encroaching upon your territory. I came here not knowing how long my search would take, so I brought a weeks worth of rations from the Kawada Clan Manor, it's simple food, but should suffice."

Of course, the food was simple to Shōkan's cultured senses. To Chikusha, and even the other shinigami, it would be of the highest quality, and tastefully prepared. The Kawada Clan was such that he didn't really regard it as anything special, simply something to tide him over whilst on his mission. "After all, it's the least that I could do, seeing as how you've cared for these shinigami so well, above and beyond what I would expect from any enemy, and for that, and allowing us to resolve this without bloodshed, I thank you." Shōkan bowed once more.

Even though he was particularly trying to be, Shōkan's naturally bright aura, as well as his charismatic air due to years spent as a leader, caused him to seem quite gregarious and charming, it was difficult not to like him as a person. This was all the more aided that he was completely sincere in his gratitude, and it showed. Shōkan offered up the supplies he had on him to Chikusha and the bright bubbly girl. Hopefully that would aid the small family in getting through the days to come, they were only a weeks rations, but it was very high quality, nutritious food, nutrition it seemed that they sorely lacked.

Right now, Shōkan was content to wait for the shinigami to be suitable for moving, it wouldn't hurt to develop better relations with his hosts', creating a sense of trust now, could save him, and by extension the soul society, a lot of trouble down the line. Chikusha also seemed like a very valuable friend to have, her scouting abilities alone, not even to mention her trapping talent, would make her extremely useful in the future if he could develop a friendship now. So Shōkan relaxed in a bit more comfortable position, and turned towards his hosts', Chikusha and the three girls, introducing himself to those who didn't know him yet.

"My name is Shōkan Kawada by the way ladies, I'm a shinigami unseated officer from Squad 11, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." It always surprised people that Shōkan was from Squad 11, a squad known for its brutish methods. The main assault squad, the vanguard of the Soul Society. It would surprise them to know, that as far as battle prowess went, Shōkan's methods fit perfectly in with his squad, raw, unrelenting brute force and power, the ability to overwhelm any who came before him with ease. Although Shōkan lacked a release, he made up for it in many other ways.

"So, how did you come to reside here Chikusha?"

[Chiku Unoji]

Chiku was...surprised when of all things, the shinigami so offered them, food. The first to make a noise was the bubbly girl, those eyes going wide as so suddenly she found herself staring at the prepared food, those eyes growing glossy for just a moment before an enormous smile struck across her face. The woman promptly pouncing on Shokan, an incredibly happy smile written across her face as she let out a pterodactyl screech of joy. "Thank you so much!" She squealed, promptly looking at the rations and taking one of them, cutting a very small slice and proceeding to devour it.

Of course, the other two that WERENT glaring at Shokan from the corner, though Jice was approaching just a bit closer, noticing the smell of food, the other two women that had remained silent did move forward to look over the food, one in particular towered over Shokan, and even if she wasn't as tall as Chiku by a long shot, she was still quite calm and large. "We thank you for your generous contribution. It may not be much, but it is a tremendous help. Though I confess.... to think that a Shinigami would be interested in helping the Unoji is interesting, don't you think?"

The name would definitely strike a chord in Shokan's memory. He probably didn't know the full details, it depended on how well he kept up with Noble news, but a while back a lot of young noble women had been going missing, and it wasn't long until it was discovered that a man by the name of Yasu Unoji was the mastermind behind it. Owning a brothel, the man had employed a number of noble women who had decided to cut themselves from their families. But those that had gone missing were those that refused the job. No less than thirty women, living and dead, had been found under his estate.

Onmitsukido had even been involved as Yasu had been a defected shinigami during the incident, and was even rumored to have been a Rogue at the time. He had escaped during the raid but the Unoji property had been raided, assailed, and controlled. The shinigami had handed over the estate to be divided amongst the noble families effected, but the employees of said facility, most of which had been adopted into the Unoji family, had been displaced to goodness knew where. The investigation had decided that they had been unaware of the activities going on underground, but it had hardly mattered. Both the citizens of the rukongai as well as a few of the lower noble families had ousted them anyway.

And it seemed that Shokan had found out where the survivors were. Pushed to the very edge of the Rukongai, forced to live like...well this.

"Who cares? He's not here for us. Once he has his comrades he'll forget we even existed, if we're lucky." Came the demure mention from the much shorter blonde, even in rags she had an air of sophistication about her. Though the girl off in the corner chose then to pipe up with a growl. "We should have just killed them, and HIM. But we're screwed now aren't we? Soon as he makes his report, the noble houses with shinigami among the higher ups will know where we are. Unless Fancypants here plans on LYING on those reports." She noted with a bit of a sneer in her voice, only to have a massice hand pat her on the head and politely shove her to the side.

Chiku had stepped in, a frown on her features as she squatted down, bringing herself dfown to Shokan's level, though it did nothing to change how ridiculously aggressive she seemed. "It does not matter. He does not know where. I made sure to take a long way. This is a big land. Even for the nobles. And they will not make it to us. You have your men. But... I am still not sure I can trust you. You shinigami come to understand eachother through your sword yes? We finish our fight. If I win, then I want food. Say... twenty times this ammount." She gestured at the rations, then focusing her attention on him.

"But more importantly. I want you to understand who it will be that you send your men after, if at any point you decide that you don't like us. Ajora and Jice will watch and heal the loser. " She explained. "wh-...Don't volunteer me!" Jice objected, only to be silenced by the taller woman picking her up and holding her upside down. Chiku ignore them both. "You will see how strong I am. And we will find out which of us was the most lucky that we came to an agreement. Do you accept?"

[Shōkan Kawada Ⅺ]

As a matter of fact, Shōkan did not know who the Unoji were. You got out of touch after being sealed in a stasis field for a thousand years. It also meant one was less attached to recent events, so when the bubbly girl explained their origins too Shōkan, he just couldn't muster up much emotion of distaste for the Unoji. He didn't really have anything to do with it, it never affected hime, so he didn't have any strong emotions positively or negatively. Although it might have helped that he had met them before finding out their origins.

As they spoke for a small time more, Chikusha made her challenge. Shōkan was surprised, and somewhat eager. He had been disappoint in their fight earlier, Shōkan hadn't been able to do anything to the scorpion, and she in turn hadn't been able to use her traps against him properly, he was intrigued as to her strength level. Shōkan was almost without a doubt the most powerful unseated officer in the soul society, and he seemed rather skilled and tactically gifted, it would be an interesting battle. So, with these thoughts in mind, Shōkan accepted her contract, with an addendum.

"Alright, that sounds rather appropriate, however, if I win, you and your family will become allies of my clan. Essentially meaning that, should either require assistance, the other will aid them." As the future clan head, Shōkan had to find opportunities wherever he could, and the girls, Chikusha especially, would be very useful allies to have for his recovering clan. Shōkan hled out his forearm, for a clasp to seal the deal. This could be very beneficial to the both of them, that was for sure.

With that, Chikusha set about bringing everyone to the surface, this area was nearer, a large clearing with a 50 yard radius, grass growing in the meadow, with a forest of trees surrounding it. The other settled down amongst the trees to watch, while Shōkan prepared himself. He wanted to see just what she could do before he unleashed his full might, so he prepared himself into a defensive stance, his skill in hakuda showing as he stared intently at Chikusha.

"Come"