This must be the end of the world. I finished this one at just around 3000 words!
I have a poll up on whether you guys will want me to turn this into a story about unlikely friendship or unlikely romance. I know what I'm leaning towards, but hey, I want some input.
I gots a review 3 Thanks to samara28 for being the first :D As a prize, you may create a character and have them cameo in a chapter :3 Message me to talk details if you want to do it~ Sorry for so little Mayuri. He's not in this one much, but he's there XD He'll appear more and more as the story progresses.
On to the chapter!
The sun was setting as Miira left the first division. The rays of fading sunlight bathed the world around the woman in shades of gold and red. Even the stone walls appeared warm. There was a large tree off to Miira's left; its shadow loomed over a small patch of bright magenta flowers off in the corner of the courtyard. A soft smile made its way onto the petite woman's face.
"Sasakibe-san always raises such beautiful flowers." Miira murmured. She stood a moment to take in the sight and then continued on her way out.
xxxxx
Back in the Captain-Commander's office, Sasakibe took a strange paper sitting on the edge of his captain's desk. A chuckle left his mouth as he gazed at the sheet in his hands. Yamamoto looked at his lieutenant and the man held up the paper. It was a simple drawing of what appeared to be one of the academy students. The young woman depicted had her long hair tied up in a high ponytail and it was being blown backwards, most likely from the kido she was shown to be casting. Her arms were held almost relaxed in front of her, with the index and middle fingers of both hands pressed together. The delicate strokes captured the shining power of the kido and the calm, concentrated look on the woman's face wonderfully. Sasakibe sat it on top of a pile his paperwork and nodded respectfully to his captain before bringing the pile into his office.
He noticed a note written on the back the paper once he set it aside so he could work.
Lieutenant Sasakibe-san, if you could please get permission for me to do an extensive background check on the graduate Ritsuka Kamiyari that would be amazing.
Third Seat of the Twelfth, Miira.
The lieutenant narrowed his eyes. He had known Miira for a while now and she rarely asked for anything like this. She followed rules to the dot and never stepped out of line. The Captain-Commander trusted her to be a good role model for those wishing to enter the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. As a matter of fact, they always asked Miira to be the one to represent the twelfth division at the academy because she had a great social personality. She had a good eye for strange happenings and always notified himself or the Captain-Commander if she was able. The fact that she was suspicious of someone set off alarms in Sasakibe's head. He set the note aside and started doing his paperwork immediately. He wanted to finish quickly so he could talk to Yamamoto.
xxxxx
"No, no, no! Do it properly, you imbecile!"
Miira chuckled as she reached her division. She could hear the captain screaming at the lab workers from the entrance. She walked through the large building briskly and entered the main laboratory. Some of the Soul Reapers from the last graduate class had obviously done something differently than how Kurotsuchi would have liked it. A noxious fog was spreading around the room quickly and impairing visibility. Miira brought a violet cloth out of her shihakusho sleeve and pressed it over her face. She made her way to the wall to her left and searched for something along the surface. She found what she was looking for right away, having had to use it many times lately. The woman pushed the large white button firmly until a beep sounded from the panel beside it. Ventilation shafts opened up around the room and soon the gas was pulled out of the room. Miira replaced the cloth back in her shihakusho and surveyed the lab. Chairs were overturned, tables were burnt, and a strange pale green substance was dripping from the ceiling. She furrowed her eyebrows as she watched the newer Soul Reapers being chewed out by their captain. She considered stepping in, but they needed to learn what their captain was like and how to deal with him. He glared at them and they stood stock still, frozen in fear. Kurotsuchi motioned Nemu away from him and she left the room immediately.
"Paging Miira, I repeat, Paging Third Seat Miira." Nemu's voice came over the intercom in her unmistakable monotone. Miira sighed and strode over to her captain. He never seemed to notice when she was in the room. She stepped over bubbling piles of goo and avoided various burning items as she got closer to the source of the mess.
"Third Seat Miira reporting, sir. I will make sure this is all cleared and then head the experiment myself to make sure it does not go wrong this time." Miira stood at attention respectfully and waited for the man to respond. Kurotsuchi turned to her and raised an eyebrow.
"Ah, yes. Do that and get back to me with the results. If I'm not available, input them into the system yourself." Kurotsuchi then waved her off, much like he had done to Nemu, and stepped carefully out of the lab. Miira and the others watched as he left and then sighed in relief once he was gone. Smiling slightly, Miira turned to the lab workers and gave them a look that said, 'What happened here and why was I needed to clean up?' They returned her look with sheepish ones and the leader of the experiment stepped forward.
"I apologize for the mess…We were fooling around while taking a break." Miira raised her eyebrows at this.
"…You were taking a break? On something the captain assigned you to do?" She asked incredulously. "That's worse than messing up an experiment!"
The workers all looked away. Miira clucked her tongue at them and waved to Rin when she saw him standing to the side. He nodded and left the room, returning shortly with cleaning equipment for them all. The woman took a large mop, something that seemed a bit too long for someone of her size, and pulled a bucket of cleaner over to a stain from the chemicals and got to work cleaning up. The workers just stood there and watched. Miira turned around and blinked at them.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Get to work!" She scolded gently. The workers smiled and did as she said. Her actions and behaviour reminded everyone why Miira was so well-liked within the division. She didn't get angry with them and she actually cared about how her fellow division members felt. Glancing up from scrubbing the floor when she felt someone looking at her, Miira found the other workers stealing glances at her as they cleaned up their mess. She smiled at them and then went back to attempting to get a stain off the floor with a frown.
"Damn you stain, get off the floor…" She muttered.
xxxxx
"Come in." The Captain-Commander called out when he heard the knock on his door. Sasakibe entered and bowed to the higher ranking man. Yamamoto nodded for him to come forward and state his business.
"Captain, Third Seat Miira from the Twelfth has asked for a background check permissions on the graduate Ritsuka Kamiyari." He said, placing the note from earlier on the man's desk. Yamamoto glanced at it and read the words on the paper carefully. He paused for a moment, thinking.
"Give her the permissions, Lieutenant. Go and see what she can find after you finish the paperwork and then report back immediately." He intoned slowly. Sasakibe nodded and left to his own office to complete the permissions papers. He picked up the correct papers from a pile to the right of the room and sat down to fill out the information.
'Permissions Form
Grade: Background Check
Name of Acting Soul Reaper: Third Seat Miira of the Twelfth Division.'
Sasakibe paused there. She should also have her first name down. He got up to get her files and it took a few minutes, but he found them. He looked them over a few times and was confused. Where her given name should have been written, there was nothing there. It had her surname and birthplace, blood type and other important health notes, but no given name. If he thought back, in all the years he's known her, she had never said her name was anything other than Miira. When they first met she was Graduate Miira, then she was Miira of the Twelfth, and so on. He raised an eyebrow and resolved to talk to the woman later when he saw her. He took out the graduate's file and moved on to the next part of the form.
'Division: Twelfth.
Captain: Mayuri Kurotsuchi
Lieutenant: Nemu Kurotsuchi
Rank: Third Seat
Disposition and Mental Health: Sound
Reason for Asking Permissions: (To be filled out by acting person[s])
Permissions Target: Academy Graduate Ritsuka Kamiyari
Division: To Be Determined
Captain: To Be Determined
Lieutenant: To Be Determined
Rank: Graduate/Unranked Soul Reaper
Disposition and Mental Health: Sound
Signature(s) of Acting Person(s): (To be signed by acting person[s])
Signature of Permissions Officer: Chojiro Sasakibe [Chojiro Sasakibe]
Rank of Permissions Officer: Lieutenant of the First Division
The Captain Commander of the First Division and the Thirteen Court Guard Squads hereby gives permissions to Third Seat Miira of the Twelfth division to carry out a background check on Graduate Ritsuka Kamiyari.'
Sasakibe looked it over twice more and nodded to himself. All of it looked correct. He stamped the paper and set it aside for now. He would deliver it later, after he was done the other paperwork of course.
xxxxx
"Ah, finally!" Miira breathed, standing back to view the now clean laboratory. They had worked tirelessly for an hour. Lucky for them the team was pretty big this time, so it didn't take as long as it normally would have. The floor was back to its slightly cleaner surface, the walls were no longer covered in slime, and the ceiling was free of dripping acidic substances. The lab workers all sat down around a table by the wall. Miira sighed in relief and stretched her arms above her head after setting the mop aside. A cracking sound came from her back and startled the workers, but she didn't seem to notice. She readjusted her shihakusho sleeves, them having been rolled up while she was cleaning, and called the others to attention.
"Alright everyone, let's get this experiment started." They all groaned and Miira gave them a mock glare. "Oh come on, it's not that bad. I do experiments the captain assigns my team all the time. It'll be fine. Now what do we have to do?" She finished, smiling. The group leader furrowed his eyebrows and searched around. He found what he was looking for, the assignment instructions, and handed it off to Miira. She blinked at what she read. She checked and double checked all the information.
"That son of a-!" Miira muttered. She put her hand to her forehead in exasperation. "I can't believe that man..."
"Is something wrong, third seat?" One of the workers asked hesitantly. Miira took a breath in and explained.
"The captain has assigned you to create an antidote for a poison." The workers nodded, confused as to why this was a problem.
"More specifically," She continued, "is that he's making you create an antidote for the poison from his Zanpakuto without using the poison sample." Miira shook her head. "He's made sure that no one could possibly make an antidote for the poison but him. He's the only one that knows the contents of his Zanpakuto's poison."
The workers widened their eyes. Miira sighed. She then paused and tilted her head to the side.
"Maybe if we use the sample while he's preoccupied…No, he'll have the cameras on the lab…" She started mumbling to herself. Miira continued to think over possible ways to finish the experiment with successful results while the workers gathered new supplies.
xxxxx
After many hours working in close quarters with noxious chemicals and burning steam, the lab team finally finished the experiment assigned by the captain. They all cheered and then sat down, exhausted after so long. No breaks were taken in order for it to be finished quickly. Miira glanced around at her coworkers and smiled when she saw their happy faces. They all slowly got up and started putting everything away in the proper places. Someone gathered the disposables and got rid of them, one cleaned out the beakers and jars, two more scrubbed down the tables and walls. Miira gathered the information and brought it over to a computer. She opened up a folder and created a new file, entering all data as she read it off the paper. After going back and fixing any spelling mistakes she might have made (she was staring at the paper after all) Miira closed down all files open and set the machine to sleep mode. Before she could do anything else, she heard a sudden shriek ring out behind her. Miira jumped up and turned around, one hand held up and ready to shoot off a Kido spell. She face-faulted when she saw a large black snake sitting calmly on the table one of the women was trying to clean. She sighed and walked over to the reptile, grabbing it by the head and staring into its eyes.
"I thought I told you to stay away from the labs." Miira scolded. The snake stared back, its face unchanging. One man stepped a bit closer.
"Uh…third seat? Why are you talking to that snake?" He asked nervously. She looked at him over her shoulder and blinked.
"Oh, this is Hibiki. He's mine." The snake responded to that by slithering up her arm and resting itself on her shoulders. Hibiki rested his head on Miira's left shoulder. The woman who first saw him was about to say something when she was interrupted by the sound of the door opening.
"Miira! I've checked the database and it says you've successfully completed this experiment. How is that possible? I made sure—"
"Not to offend captain, but it was easy when we used basic logic." Kurotsuchi glared at his third seat and she smiled sweetly back. Narrowing his eyes even more, the man stalked over to the woman. His hands were twitching. The lab workers suddenly feared for the kind woman's well being but were surprised when the captain did nothing. Though it might have had to do with the snake suddenly opening its mouth when he approached.
"Is there something you needed, sir?" Miira asked, tilting her head to the side. Hibiki copied her. With a huff, Kurotsuchi backed away a slight bit and opened his mouth to speak.
"You will assist Sakurano and Nemu with filing away the recent graduates' files." He gave her a glare one last time and then left the room quickly. Miira shook her head with a smile and gathered up the files to put away and readjusted Hibiki on her shoulders. She turned to the confused Soul Reapers and waved.
"Looks like I'm back on filing duty." She laughed. "If you need any help, with work or the captain, just have me paged. I'll try and find my way over to assist you." The team nodded slowly, still wondering why the captain acted less violent than he usually did.
xxxxx
"Excuse me, where is third seat Miira?" Sasakibe asked the first person he encountered once at the Twelfth division. It just happened to be Rin Tsubokura.
"L-Lieutenant Sasakibe! She's with the Lieutenant Nemu in document room seven. Please follow me, I'll bring you there." The young man lead the older man to the said destination and upon arriving in the room, they were bombarded with papers.
"Miira! Take the left! Lieutenant, grab the right! I'll take the middle!" A man's voice yelled out. Sasakibe widened his eyes before a paper landed on in his. He pulled it off and stood there, not knowing what exactly to do. There was Miira jumping to grab papers, Nemu doing the same, and a teal haired man running in circles trying to catch the papers that were flying everywhere around the room. They stood there and watched the craziness go one for five minutes before they had finally gathered all the papers. It took another minute before they noticed the two standing in the doorway. Miira hopped over and greeted them.
"What brings you here today, Sasakibe-san?" She asked with a bright smile. Rin waved before leaving to go back to work. He shuffled down the halls quickly, not wanting to be yelled at by the captain. Again.
"Your permissions form, Miira. You just need to fill out the required information and you can use extensive searches." The lieutenant said, still slightly ruffled from getting a paper in the face and from the snake sitting around the woman's shoulders. Miira looked surprised and thanked the man.
"I didn't think I'd get permission in the same day." She said happily. "Oh, and I apologize about the mess. Something exploded somewhere and knocked everything into the air." He chuckled and bid her goodbye. Even after Sasakibe was long gone, Miira, Nemu, and the man were still cleaning and sorting the room back to its proper order.
"Now, if only we can get this done in at least two hours. Then I can move onto the background check for the night." Miira sighed, stretching her arms out, keeping Hibiki balanced. The man looked up and then at a clock by the door.
"Miira, it's nearly twelve. Are you sure you want to do a background check at two in the morning?" He asked with an eyebrow raised. The small woman glanced at the aforementioned clock and frowned.
"Oh, boo. I wanted to catch up on my sleep tonight. I guess I have to go without proper sleep again." Miira sighed and went back to sorting the mess of files.
How was it? :D Please give me some feedback. All you have to do is click that link right below and type a sentence or two~ ;)
CDN Shiro
