Happy New Year!
This chapter has come out a wee bit later than I would have liked, but between the Deadman Wonderland manga, Dark Souls lll (finally) and the Lookism webtoon (so fucking great), I've been pretty distracted. But I managed to get this one out in time for the New Year, so I guess that's something to be proud of?
Many thanks to Zaralann for doing the beta work for this chapter, it wouldn't have been the same without him.
Disclaimer - I do not own Bleach of Worm. They belong to Tite Kubo and Wildbow respectively.
As we walked through stainless steel hallways illuminated by bright white lights, I couldn't help but feel exceedingly skittish. It wasn't just my horrific social anxiety speaking, but also the fact that I was slowly but surely building a plan to deceive the Protectorate, the heroes, all because of a wild, barely feasible theory of mine that could easily be completely wrong. After all, these guys were the good guys, the heroes that fought people like Lung and Kaiser on an almost daily basis. By tricking and deceiving them, wouldn't that make me the villain?
I felt Benihime soothe me, quieting my silent doubts with an almost playful touch. Whatever I did in life, I wasn't ever going to be alone. Even if I one day decided that I wanted to commit complete planetary genocide, my Zanpakuto would be by my side, ever loyal. Tricking the heroes barely even registered on their moral compasses, hell, I was pretty sure that Benihime would enjoy it.
The plan was pretty basic. I would talk to the Wards and Miss Militia, politely refuse their request that I join, then ask that I be allowed to see Tattletale. I reckoned that they'd probably allow it, seeing as I had been the one to catch her. From there, I didn't really know what to do. I guess I'd just have to improvise.
At the end of the hallway we neared a large, thick door that I would have mistaken for being part of the wall if not for the complicated security system attached to the wall next to it.
Miss Militia leaned forward and tugged her scarf down slightly, letting the small circular camera on the wall have unimpeded access to her eye. As the steel door started to open with a faint hiss of air, I started to drum my fingers along Benihime's cane unconsciously. I forced my fingers to stop, showing some sort of nervous tick might display me as weak or untrained.
The Wards were all amassed together inside a large, windowless, dome shaped room with multiple doors leading out through the walls, dressed in their full costumes and masks. They were facing me and Miss Militia in a vaguely defined semi-circle, some leaning against walls or sitting in chairs, others simply standing straight and tall. All of the Wards were here, including Shadow Stalker, who hadn't been at the bank robbery for whatever reason.
"Hello Regalia. It's good to see you again," said Aegis, dressed this time in his own personal costume and not Clockblocker's, a rust red ensemble with a silvery emblem shaped like replesendent on his chest.
I nodded my head slightly as a greeting. "Aegis." I left it at that, seeing as I didn't really know what else to say without sounding too commanding, like I was trying to pry, or just sounding like an uptight bitch.
"Hey," said Gallant with a hint of… was he nervous? "I'd just like to apologise for hitting you with that emotion blast at the bank robbery. I forced you into wounding Hellhound when you didn't want to." He smiled guiltily at me. "I'm sorry about that."
Staring right at Gallant with half-lidded eyes, I contemplated his apology. I had forgotten that I had more or less cut down Bitch, which had been more or less Gallant's fault. It didn't bother me in the slightest, but I suppose it might have been a pretty big issue for Gallant himself, especially if he was unused to seeing violence like that. I was pretty sure a part of my power desensitized myself to violence and blood, otherwise I doubted I would even dream of using Senbonzakura's shikai.
"I won't hold you accountable for your mistake, Gallant," I reassured after around a dozen seconds of contemplation. It was only after I finished my sentence that I realised I had spoken to Gallant as if I was his superior, reprimanding him while reassuring him.
Honestly, fuck the Trio for ruining my social skills.
He nodded to me, seemingly unoffended. Someone scoffed in derision, but I didn't have time to register the derisive sound before Kid Win asked a question.
"That's your new sword?" He questioned with an almost eager tone to his voice. I glanced down at Benihime's caned form in contemplation.
Although it would have been ideal if I had managed to only use Senbonzakura during my fight with the Undersiders, they had forced my hand at the very beginning of the match, obliterating any chance I may have had to conceal my own ability to use multiple Zanpakuto. Any opponents I would be facing in the future would most likely be wary of any tricks I might try to pull, instead of believing that I only had access to Senbonzakura. It would have been a useful secret to possess for my eventual fight against Coil, but winning against the Undersiders had been more important than concealing my blade for an advantage that I might or might not get.
I decided to respond obscurely to his probing question.
"It is." I admitted, but didn't explain my powers any further.
The Wards knowing that I had more than one Zanpakuto was an irritation, but letting them know that I could create an almost endless amount of Zanpakuto if I so pleased, putting me at a potential power level potentially above even the Triumvirate was a definite no go.
The room fell into an awkward silence, the only sound in the room being my index finger tapping a slow beat on the head of Benihime, the quiet sound seeming almost deafening in the clumsy quiet that had followed my statement. Vista hopped of her chair and walked up to me with a smile.
"It's nice to talk to you outside of a fight," she said, raising her hand up for a handshake.
Taking one of my hands off Benihime, I gripped her hand with moderate strength.
"And you too," I said. Her greeting was like the first small trickles of a flash flood, all of the Wards suddenly decided to greet me with their own cute little introductions, even though none of them actually moved from their positions, whether they were standing, sitting or leaning against a wall.
"I'm Kid Win. Resident tinker of the Ward's."
"Gallant. It's nice to meet you."
"The names Clockblocker. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue."
"Shadow Stalker." The crossbow wielding Ward's voice sounded familiar, angry, terse and irritable, but I put those thoughts to the back of my mind as Clockblocker spoke once again.
"So. How'd you get injured that badly if you kicked The Undersiders collective asses so easily?"
I clicked my tongue in irritation, more at myself than at Clockblocker. After all, I would have come out of the fight with only a bullet wound If I had just been paying a bit more attention to my surroundings.
"I was careless," I replied tersely.
Someone snickered. I turned my head to look at Shadow Stalker, the here was shaking her head mockingly, chuckling derisively to herself.
"You got taken out by one of those weak fucks because you were careless?" She stopped laughing and met my eyes from behind her mask. "Weak little bitch."
I heard Miss Militia reprimand Shadow Stalker sternly from behind me, saw Shadow Stalker raise herself from her slouched position and growl out a threat. But the world felt like it was underwater, everything was moving so slowly and everything sounded like it was being said miles and miles away, I was barely registering the world around me, too stunned, too completely and utterly horrified for my sluggish mind to comprehend.
Sophia Hess was Shadow Stalker. Sophia Hess was a Ward. Sophia Hess was a fucking hero.
My very soul roared in fury. The energy that flowed through my veins rapidly swelled with a a cacophonous crescendo, rising to the surface of my skin tainted with such unfathomable wrath that my body itself started to glow with a dark, bloody crimson.
My vision started to shake violently, the air taking on a grainy tint as my power flooded through the space surrounding me. Bloody crimson energy flickered around my skin, dancing gracefully around my body in complete opposition to the rage I was feeling.
The Wards and Miss Militia were pressing their backs against the walls of the room, bodies and faces laced with stark terror in the face of the furious pressure I was unleashing from my body. Sophia herself was on her backside and pressed up against the wall, she had fallen backwards and scrambled away from me as soon as my energy was unleashed.
"Sophia Hess." The black-clad bitch choked in both shock and fear. The words I spoke didn't feel like my own, they were too flat, too emotionless, too fucking uncaring to truly be coming from my own throat. But I was so outraged, so furious by the fact that Sophia Hess is a fucking hero that I didn't even care.
I adjusted my grip on Benihime and drew the blade from the cane sluggishly, letting the unnatural shrieking that the silvery metal released echo through the room. The blade itself was wreathed in bloody red energy, the formless colour writhing around the blade and oozing murderous intent.
"Regalia!" Miss Militia's voice was weak, fraught with anxiety and fear, but she reached over to me anyway and put her hand on my shoulder, gripping it tightly. "Please stop whatever you're doing! I'm certain that we can resolve this calmly, if you'd just calm down a bit!"
"She," I narrowed my eyes at the bitch, "was the cause of my trigger event,"
Miss Militia inhaled sharply, but didn't take her hand off my shoulder.
"We can still talk this out, please don't do anything that you'll regret later." she pleaded.
I hesitated then, my roaring anger subsiding slowly, the pressure that I had been exerting on the very air itself gradually receding. I looked around the room, taking in the Wards, gasping for breath and pressing themselves into the wall. As far away from me as possible. I had scared, no, terrified them. Heroes that had fearlessly gone up against blood-stained villains on countless occasions, scared of me.
Sophia launched herself at me, her clenched fist colliding with my face as she snarled furiously. I staggered backwards, Benihime's blade blurring upward even as Sophia launched another fist at me.
Blood spurted.
Sophia Hess, the bitch who had tormented me for over a year, wailed in agony as she pawed at her blood covered stump, her gloved hand lying splayed on the floor in a grotesque of blood. My eyes widened in horror as the Wards yelled and ran towards us, to take me out or help Sophia, I didn't know. I disappeared into a Shunpo even as Miss Militia turned to face me in distress.
My form blurred through the Wards headquarters, flashing through dozens of identical hallways in the space of half a minute. I came to a rest in a hallway that overlooked the ocean, large glass windows making up most of the wall, and started to slow down and think, trying to quell my rapidly rising panic. I had just cut off Sophia's hand.
Boom.
Snap.
One moment her hand was attached, the next it was lying on the floor, covered in blood. I had panicked, reacted on instinct, and permanently crippled one of the Wards. Fuck, I could very well have just permanently removed any chances she had of being a hero, seeing as she used crossbows as her primary weapon.
But didn't she deserve it? What I had just done to her was terrible, but was it really worse than a year of unrelenting, merciless torture? Sure I may have just destroyed her hero career, but didn't she fucking deserve it?!
Morality aside, I had certainly just ruined any chances of being accepted into the Wards. Not that I would have joined if they had accepted Sophia Hess of all people, but still. I hadn't only ruined my potential place in the Wards, but I had also most likely ruined any chance of having a good relationship with the Protectorate.
Fuck.
Fuck.
I had to get out of here. Sooner than later. But I needed to retrieve Tattletale, I couldn't very well leave her here now, there was no way in hell the Protectorate would trust me after what I had just done, and I sure as hell didn't trust them after seeing who they let into their hero teams. But how to do it? I had no clue where Tattletale might be right now, and even If I did? How would I manage to communicate with her without being seen by the Protectorate? How would I not get thrown in prison for crippling a hero?
Fuckedy Fuckedy Fuck.
"Hey." I jumped in fright, spinning around with Benihime's shikai in hand. Velocity was leaning casually against the wall, the speedster clad in his blindingly red costume. "We need to have a little chat about what happened back there." He held his hands up when I raised Benihime in wariness. "Nothing bad. We just want to talk. We saw what happened during your visit to the Ward Quarters and, if you ask me, it was self defense on your part."
I lowered Benihime slowly, letting the blade transform into it's cane form once it was clear to me that Velocity was not, in fact, hostile. But I keep my right hand open and outstretched slightly, ready for any sort of hostility, even though that readiness was what had gotten me into this mess in the first place. "Very well then," I replied. "Lead the way."
Director Piggot was very close to being morbidly obese.
The woman was sitting behind a futuristic glass desk, chubby hands laced together in front of her. The director of Brockton Bay's Protectorate was wearing a navy blue suit that strained to restrain her rotund stomach, accompanied by a remarkably ugly bleached blonde bowl cut. Yet despite her comedic appearance, I couldn't help but feel intimidated. The woman held an unbelievably intimidating presence about her, I didn't doubt that she was a terrifying woman when enraged.
"Regalia. I'd like to apologise personally for any past harms that Shadow Stalker has committed unto you, and I'd like to assure you that Shadow Stalker will be punished severely for her actions." The woman was very nearly glaring at me as she said it, taking away any form of sincerity that the apology may have held. There was also the fact that this was one of the individuals who had let Sophia Hess into the wards, potentially one of the reasons as to why Sophia had been able to get away with everything she did to me, I doubted that I could trust a word that came out of her mouth.
"Tattletale is being held in one of your cells. I want to talk to her." I ignored her apology, as rude as it may have seemed, and decided to get straight to the point.
Piggot's brow furrowed ever so slightly.
"I can't let you do that right now Regalia. There are multiple items that we need to iron out, such as both yours and Shadow Stalker's punishment," she said with a semi-polite tone that didn't really match her eyes.
I recalled what I had done when meeting The Wards, the way I had brought my energy out through my skin into the air, the way that I had pushed down on everything until I was putting pressure on the space around me. I did that now but too a much smaller scale, just barely releasing enough energy through my skin to not disperse harmlessly into the air. I doubted Piggot even noticed, at least I hoped that she didn't notice my subtle use of my powers. I doubted the consequences of such a thing would be very pleasant for me.
I met Piggot's eyes and flared my power slightly, still making sure to keep it as quiet and small as I could without making it weak.
"I could very easily inform the public of Shadow Stalker's involvement in my trigger. Please do remember that, Director," I warned.
Piggot narrowed her eyes at me. We sat there for nearly a minute in a tense silence, long enough that I started to consider simply using Shunpo to escape the room, find Tattletale and get the hell out of dodge. The Director finally responded, giving me a curt nod before pressing a button on her desk and leaning over it.
"Tell Dauntless and Armsmaster to get over here now." I didn't miss the fact that she had chosen her melee based heroes to watch over me. After all, almost all of my powers were far stronger when I had the space to maneuver and use the techniques to their full potential.
"Regalia." I locked eyes with the Director, noting her slight scowl and narrowed eyes. "We will be having words about this later."
I rose from my seat without breaking eye contact, opening the door and leaving the room with a fluttering of white cloth. Armsmaster and Dauntless were both waiting outside the door, respective polearms gripped tightly. Armsmaster nodded to me and turned around, walking up to a door set into the side of the hallway. I followed him, standing next to the imposing blue hero and resting my hands on Benihime's cane.
The doorway opened with a soft ding, revealing a spacious, box-shaped room. An Elevator, then. I was followed inside by both Dauntless and Armsmaster, the two polearm wielding heroes standing on either side of me like a pair of particularly intimidating bodyguards. I couldn't help but fidget slightly, resorting to tapping Benihime's head as a way to quell my nerves. In the next few minutes, I would be breaking the law and assisting in Tattletales escape, even though my intentions were good. In the next few minutes, I could very well have to clash blades with the two of the most prominent heroes in Brockton Bay, unless I magically discovered a way to use instantaneous long-range teleportation as I was talking to Tattletale.
I was surprised when the doors opened once again, had we arrived? I hadn't felt the elevator move. Tinkertech was incredible. The hallway we stepped into was lit by bright, clean white lights set into the ceiling, illuminating a lengthy hallway. Along both walls were the cells. Instead of bars or a door, each cell had three walls, the last which faced into the hallway being made of some kind of transparent light blue energy instead of cement or steel. Only one of them was occupied, although I could only see inside about 6 of the cells.
Tattletale leaned forward on her bunk with a smirk, knitting her hands in front of her.
"I do just love visitors. It gets so boring down here, and you always find a way to spice things up, butterfingers." Her lips parted to reveal her teeth in a predatory grin. "At least your clumsiness served you well this time. How's Shadow Stalker?"
"Don't waste any of my time with your irritating prattling." I wasn't in the mood for any of the thinker's bullshit, especially seeing that I was just about to save her ass.
Tattletale's eyes widened suddenly, before narrowing intensely and focusing in on me. I assumed that her power had just informed her of my makeshift plan, or maybe just the fact that I was about to get her out of prison. Whatever the case, it was time to move.
In a manner that I hoped was out of view of both of the heroes, I held a hand out in front of me and summoned a burning ball of Shakkaho, making certain to keep the energy unstable enough to spark and crackle, but not so unstable that It would actually explode in my face.
Tattletale snickered.
"So. Why'd you come all the way down here just to visit little old me?" I was fairly certain that she had caught on to my impromptu plan and was stalling, but this was Tattletale.
I couldn't be certain of anything around her, her power only added to that unpredictability. I decided to commit to the conversation anyways.
"It should be child's play for a Thinker such as yourself." My voice was calm and collected, concealing the nerves I was feeling within. I tinkered with the energies that made up the throbbing ball of energy, molding the imbalance so that the instability sat on the side facing me.
Tattletale leaned back against the wall and put her hands behind her head.
"I think I've got a pretty good idea," she said with a smug grin.
I made a sound of irritation, then chucked the unstable Shakkaho over my shoulder at the heroes. I ignored their sounds of shock and summoned a Chikasumi No Tate to shield me from the blast using Benihime's rapidly unsealed Shikai. The energy blast exploded tremendously, smoke and flame barely halted by my blood red shield. The smoke covered the hallway, clogging my breath with it's thick, sluggish texture.
I concentrated on the energy shield in front of me, raising Benihime's tip to the surface of the flickering energy and spinning my wrist with a quick motion, carving a basketball sized glowing crimson circle on the transparent surface.
"Tsuppane, Benihime."
The use of Benihime's third technique was a monumental risk on my part. The technique was meant for nullifying the attacks of my opponents, the only skill required for the technique was perfect timing and the ability to recognise what kind of attack it was. It technically could have the ability to disable the energy shield, but it could just as easily fail, hell, it could even backlash and damage me.
Both my luck and the technique held true. The energy shield flickered and died, freeing Tattletale from her cage. The villain grinned triumphantly and pushed herself off the wall.
"I assume that your has informed you of the quickest way to escape?" The purple clad jester looked at the ground beneath our feet.
"Well, we are on the lowest floor of the building…" She said expectantly.
"You're joking."
"Nah."
I put my hand on Tattletales shoulder and used Shunpo, moving as far down the hallway as I could, hoping to put some distance between us and the heroes before I attempted to escape. Tattletale was swaying back and forth, the rapid travel apparently not sitting well with her state of being. I ignored this irrelevant fact and adjusted my grip on the villainess, gripping her arm tightly enough to make it uncomfortable, and brought the slightly shorter girl close to my concealed face. When I spoke, I flooded the room with my energy, only slightly enjoying the way that Tattletale's face paled with fear.
"I'll ask once more. You are certain that this is the best method of escape?"
The blonde-haired villain nodded once.
It would have to do.
My eyes widened suddenly as I looked over Tattletales shoulder.
"Chikasumi No Tate," I whispered harshly, the crimson hexagon coming into existence just barely in time to block the crackling white electricity that had been launched from the smoke. My other hand rose, a roiling red orb coming into existence after a few seconds of concentration.
"Hado 31 - Shakkaho." The red orb rocketed into the smoke and exploded somewhere in the heroes midst, far away enough that I couldn't see how much damage it had done (hopefully very little) to the Protectorate heroes. I lowered my blades tip to the ground, holding it a foot to the right of my foot.
"Kamisori, Benihime," I said as quietly as possible. The crimson wave that emanated from my blade was practically identical to the Nake attack, writhing blood-red energy oozing from my blade and releasing a truly scary amount of bloodlust.
But although they were identical in appearance, they most certainly were not the same technique. I spun in a circle, drawing Benihime's tip around me and Tattletale as I did so. The crimson wave cleaved straight through meters of steel, leaving behind a line so fine it looked like it had been drawn with a pencil.
The steel circle I had carved in the ground fell succept to the laws of gravity, plummeting down into the sea with us along with it. I glanced upwards to see yellow foam oozing slowly out of the hole we had just left. I had assumed that the containment foam wouldn't be launched with the heroes in the room, but I suppose they had lost their patience and fired away, only for me to escape at the last second. Which meant that Armsmaster and Dauntless would have just been trapped in containment foam, and it hadn't even caught me.
Which meant that Armsmaster and Dauntless would be especially pissed off. At me.
Shit.
"REGALIA!" Screamed Tattletale.
I had been so caught up in my own thoughts that I had forgotten about our location, plummeting heedlessly towards the glowing blue forcefield that encircled the Protectorate headquarters. I hugged Tattletale tight to my body, ignoring the instinctive blush I felt from such an intimate action, and gathered the reishi underneath my feet to form a platform. Tattletale yelped in shock at the sudden stop, bringing a minute smirk to my face. It would seem like our sudden drop had destroyed Tattletales usual cocky composure.
But I now had a problem. Namely, the huge forcefield that surrounded the entire base. None of my techniques had the ability to pierce, break or bypass the forcefield in anyway. Certainly, I could attempt to use the Tsuppane technique once again, but I had serious doubts that I could correctly the precise technique on such a large scale without failing in some way.
I glanced at Tattletale, still clutching into me in an ever so slightly nervous manner, to see if she had anything that I could use. She shook her head in negative. I used Shunpo to appear right next to the forcefield, prepared to attempt to use the Tsuppane technique anyway. I was committed to my scheme now, and I didn't doubt that my consequences would be vicious if I was caught before I could make my escape. Raising Benihime and leaving the tip a few centimetres from the forcefield (I wasn't certain if it would shock me or not), I prepared to try and force tonnes of energy into a technique that only used a small amount
Wait just a second Taylor.
I blinked in surprise - My Zanpakuto didn't usually speak to me when I was out and about - but lowered the blade in spite of that.
Yes Benihime?
I can get you out of this pickle you've found yourself in, but…
But?
It's gonna hurt like a bitch. A big, bad, painful bitch.
Do it.
...Well! I warned ya.
I grunted sharply and brought my free hand to my head, dropping Benihime without even realizing it. An excruciating agony had suddenly appeared, bringing with it waves of fresh, red-hot agony that I couldn't help but liken to the horrific gash I had given myself while fighting Oni Lee. The pain wasn't like a stab or bullet wound though, it was clumped in my head in an obtuse, almost rounded sensation that felt like someone had shrunk one side of my brain and grown the other, causing sluggish waves of pulsing agony that dragged its way through my skull like a pus-oozing slug.
Blood seeped from both my nostrils, dripping down the front of my face, seeping into my mouth and decorating the front of my black shikkahuso in a ghastly rust red. But through the pain, I could feel the technique that Benihime had implanted within my skull, just waiting to be used.
"Jeez. You keep pulling shit like this, you'll kill yourself off before any villains can get a shot at it," snarked Tattletale unhelpfully.
I ignored Tattletales quips and held my hand out to the side, focusing all of my attention on the technique I was about to use. A long, white ribbon shot out from my sleeve, coiling loosely around both me and Tattletale in a large, open, cocoon like shape. The white fabric hung loosely in the air for a second, then started to spin, slowly at first but building to a rapid crescendo.
I focused in on myself, images of locations flashing through my minds at rapid speeds, almost all being discarded as soon as I thought of them. I would need to arrive somewhere hidden, somewhere where the Protectorate wouldn't be able to find me.
The Boat Graveyard?
Maybe, but it was easy to find, and even if the Protectorate didn't usually monitor it, they would probably be searching the entire city for me, which ruled any areas in the open out. The only place that I knew off that almost certainly wasn't monitored by the Protectorate was my own house.
There were a handful of issues with this situation, namely the small but possible chance that my dad was currently inside my house, but it was the best possible solution that I could come up with right now. But before we vanished, there was one last thing that I wanted to do.
"Tattletale?"
"Yeah? Oh fuck m-" I covered the villains mouth and nose, wasting valuable seconds to send her into firm unconscious. There was no way in hell that I was putting an ounce of trust in Tattletale, and god knows what she would do if she knew not only where I lived, but also what my dad looked like. No, she would be staying unconscious until I knew how to question her safely and secretly. I checked that she was knocked out - she was slumped in my grip and her head was lolling to the side, so I assumed that she was - then set her over my shoulder in a one-handed fireman's carry.
With that done, I decided to invoke the technique and get the hell out of dodge before something else happened to make my life miserable.
"Sentan Hakuja."
We disappeared in a flash of white light.
But author, you may ask, why did Taylor capture Tattletale if she was just going to break her out again? This makes Scream 2.2 seem entirely pointless!
Well I'm glad (kinda) that you asked. First of all, Taylor's original plan was never to capture the Undersiders and put them behind Protectorate bars. All she cared about was trying to fill in the holes in her theory and help to save Dinah, even though she was perfectly happy to go into combat with the Undersiders anyway. It just wasn't her original goal. But even so, Taylor most likely wouldn't have had a problem with questioning Tattletale and attacking Coil with the backing of the Protectorate. That was, of course, until she discovered Shadow Stalker's identity. Taylor has had some unbelievably shitty experiences with authority and 'the system.' Learning that Sophia Hess was a hero of all things, the girl who had literally shoved her into a locker stuffed with enough shit to classify as a natural bio-hazard, really just eradicated any form of faith/trust she had previously held with the heroes, which was already under strain considering her issues with Armsmaster (ignoring my own shitty characterization.) After this, she didn't want the Protectorate to know about her investigation into Dinah, for more of an emotional reason than a logical one, she doesn't trust them. From now on, she's going to want pretty much nothing to do with them, putting it lightly. In a roundabout way, they are responsible for why Sophia and co.'s bullying went on for so long, even if they didn't directly have a hand in things. After all, who are you going to want to punish - the Ward, a pretty, popular girl who's going to grow up to be a hero and helps to keep the gangs in school down, or a plainfaced, depressed teenage loner with seemingly no redeeming/interesting features (even though we all know that's bullshit.)
And there is also, of course, the question, how did she use the Sentan Hakuja if she can only have one kido per sword? Well, after discussing with my beta, I decided that I was more or less going to discard the kido per sword rule. Now please put down the pitchforks and let me explain. In this story, Taylor has the powers of a Shinigami. This means that she can do everything that they can, kido included. But, of course, she has to learn how to perform and use these fancy spells. But she also has a shortcut. Depending on which sword she is using, certain kido are far easier to utilize. For example, Taylor would still be able to use Kurohitsugi without Kyoka Suigetsu, bet she would require the incantation, and the spell would be weaker than if she was using Kyoka Suigetsu as she was performing the kido. If we go back to the bank fight, Taylor used Byakurai without learning it, directly contradicting my own rule. But because Byakurai is such a low level kido, and because it's so closely linked to Byakuya and Senbonzakura, this shortcut applied, and she could use the kido without actually learning it. In this chapter, instead of teaching Taylor the kido, Benihime forced the spell into her head, which had obvious repercussions. That won't be happening again, unless Taylor is caught in a really extreme situation.
Holy shit snacks, that AN was far longer than I expected it to be.
Thank you for reading, and Happy New Year to you all.