Renji was impatient and Rukia was calm. The two of them had been sent on a very important mission. A very important diplomatical mission, so Rukia was half wondering why they had decided to send Renji with her on this mission but she knew they where short on Shinigami they could send. Anyone under a fifth seat would be disrespectful to send and the majority of the higher ranking shinigami were still helping with the last of the clean up after the Winter war. They had probably chosen Renji to go with her because they'd known eachother for a long time.
"When are these people comming?", Renji semi growled next to her and Rukia rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Be patient, they're from the European society, it's probably just the time difference", Rukia admonished. Renji huffed.
This was a mission to strengthen the ties between the European Soul society and the East asian one. They had decided to meet in the human world to be on equal ground where no one would have any significant advantage. They had been informed that there was three people comming to meet them, one lieutenant and two seated officers of the same squad which was appearantly the research and development squad from their society. They were both slightly nervous about that, Renji more so than Rukia, neither of them wanted to meet any more Kurotsuchi Mayuri's or Urahara's. Speaking of which, Urahara had lended them his store to have the meeting in while promising to be absent himself (under threat from the Captain Commander and Shihoin Yoruichi).
They sensed their spiritual pressure a moment before they appeared before them. As expected there were three of them and Rukia immidiately picked out the one in the middle as the lieutenant. Their outfits were similar but different from their own Shihakusho, more like black robes you might imagine europeans in the 16th to 17th century might wear. Their spiritual pressure impressed Rukia, it wasn't unusually big though it wasn't small but she could sense that they had perfect control over it, better control than anyone she knew.
The lieutenant stepped forward and reached out a hand for her to shake. "I'm lieutenant of the research and development squad, Cain Hargreaves", he introduced himself before letting go of her hand and gesturing to the others. "This is third seat Riffael Raffit", the fairhaired tall man, "and fifth seat Merry Weather Hargreaves", the young woman with long blond hair. The rather androgynous lieutenant seemed to be the physically youngest of the Reapers (as they were known in Europé), but that didn't say anything for actual age.
"I'm Rukia Kuchiki, newly appointed lieutenant of the 13th squad and this is Renji Abarai lieutenant of the 6th squad". She smiled at the newly named Cain Hargreaves. "Should we take this inside?"
By the time the negotiations were over Rukia had realised that both Cain and Merry were skilled diplomats while Riffael were more of the silent guardian type watching over the other two like some kind of bodyguard. Cain was undeniably polite with an underlying charm while Merry, also polite, was like a sun lighting up the room with her smile. Rukia understood why they had been chosen as representatives for this meeting, they were a good combination.
Renji had been itching to ask something since they had been introduced and now he couldn't hold it in anymore. "Are you two married?", he asked indicating Cain and Merry. Merry choked on the water she had just been drinking while Cain gave them a flat stare and Riffael had an amused smile on his lips. Rukia elbowed him hard in the ribs for being rude.
Cain answered while Merry recovered. "No, Merry is my little sister", he said.
Renji blushed but couldn't stop the next comment from escaping which earned him another elbow to the ribs from Rukia. "But she looks older than you."
Cain's smile said 'I find your idiocy amusing' before answering. "That's because I died when I was seventeen when Merry was ten and Merry was twenty-seven when she died."
Cain didn't seem bothered by the questions so Renji decided to ask one more. "What about you?", he asked Riffael.
"I was twenty-eight", he answered.
Suddenly Rukia's hollow alarm went off. They all got to their feet while Rukia flipped her phone open. "I suppose it's time for us to take our leave", Cain said. "We have to report back to our commander. And you have to take care of that hollow." He smiled. "Farewell." And they were gone.
"Bye", Renji muttered to thin air before chasing after Rukia who had already taken off.
AN: If anyone's wondering I imagined Cain's zanpakuto to have something to do with poison and Merry's to do with healing or something similar. I imagined Riff's to have something to do with the power he got when they "revived" him.
I've seen Merry's name written as both Mary and Merry so I simply chose the one I prefered.
Hope you enjoy this and please review :)