Neji kept his eyes on Suzume who was on Kiyone's back. He was currently on Yumichika's shoulders, and he was gripping the Shinigami's shirt rather tensely in his fists.
There was a click of Yumichika's tongue as he scolded him, "If you tear the fabric-"
Neji was at his wit's end with the man as he snapped, "you try hitching a ride on someone's shoulders while they run like this! I keep feeling like I'm gonna fall off and splat on the ground below. You'd probably let me."
"Nonsense, we need you alive," Yumichika answered as he continued to flash step. Suzume observed Yumichika before posing the question, "Neji, didn't you move like this before?"
The two shinigami stopped flash stepping and glanced at the brunette man, Yumichika looked as if he was ready to decapitate the barefooted man as he growled out, "is that true?"
"M-ma-maybe? I don't know! It was the first day I got here. This creep was threatening to hurt Suzume and I remember thinking there's no way I could get to them quick enough to stop them, but—then I did," Neji stuttered out his answer.
"You said that you remembered some things from your past life—that's rare—in fact you're the first case I've ever heard of experiencing that. What's more—if I remember correctly Yamada said something about Shinobi from your former world using something called Chakra which used the same internal networking as the reiatsu network," Kiyone recalled.
"Which would mean it's possible that when you were alive you used something similar to flash step, however form what I recall it was still distinctly slower than the flash step we're capable of. Perhaps the kind you'd expect from a seventh seat," Yumichika surmised.
He let out a heavy sigh as he continued to flash step. Neji almost felt nauseaous, sure he loved birds. He enjoyed watching them soaring through the sky, wild, and free. He'd always wondered how birds actually felt, but right now he felt like he'd kiss the ground as soon as this Yumichika would let him off his shoulders.
Neji caught sight of his newly adopted sister as Kiyone caught up to Yumichika and kept moving along side them. Her arms were securely hooking under Suzume's legs, the child's arms wrapped around Kiyone's neck while her legs were locked around her waist.
'At least she won't fall,' Neji thought to himself, the thought put him a little at ease. One more leap from Yumichika and they landed on solid ground.
"If anyone cares I feel sweaty and disgusting. I would like to wash up and change my uniform, Lieutenant," he requested of Kiyone when the dark blonde woman landed next to him.
"I doubt I'll have any trouble," Kiyone agreed with a slight nod of her head.
Yumichika seemed to vanish from thin air, and Neji blinked a bit at the disappearance.
"That's flashstep," Kiyone advised him as she grasped his arm and lead him up the steps towards the twelfth division's shinigami research and development labs. Once at the top step, Neji opened the doors and gasped at the sight. For a moment he thought he was looking into a cave rather than a building, the room was dark. There were large test tubes, large enough to fit an entire person within it. He wondered if this division created clones.
What's more he saw various large machines and people making motions with their hands on what looked like some kind of electronic typewriter, but more flat. That was the only way he could describe it. Looking up from the screens they were facing, the occupants stared at them until a dark haired girl, her hair pulled into what appeared to be braided pig tails, with round glasses and green eyes approached them.
Kiyone gained a soft smile as she greeted the girl, "Hello Niko, this is Neji Hyuga."
"Ah, the one that the Head Captain wanted us to test to see if Chiaki's condition was in fact as accidental as it seems," she elaborated.
"Yes, that's correct," Kiyone replied with a smile.
"Well alright, come on daddy-to-be," she coaxed as she grasped Neji's hand and attempted to lead him towards some equipment. He froze in place, his eyes went wide and his mouth felt as if he'd swallowed a bucket of sand. His stomach tensed and he felt as if his throat had suddenly closed up on him. What had she just called him?
Niko raised a brow at his expression, and noted that his skin had paled several shades. She inquired, "What's wrong with you?"
Kiyone's face deadpanned as she mockingly praised her, "way to give a man the shock of his life. He barely remembers anything and you dropped a bomb on him. Could you get the poor guy some water?"
Niko blinked before hurrying off into the barracks. A man stood up from his station and grasped a glass that was off to the side of his work station. He gripped Niko's shoulder giving it a light squeeze before walking over to Neji with the glass and held it out to him while coaxing him, "here, drink it."
Neji stood still, his breathing becoming deeper and heavier and his eyes weren't blinking, and he didn't acknowledge the man offering him the glass.
The guy snapped his fingers in front of Neji's face, but there was no change in his behaviour. Suzume climbed off of Kiyone's back and half ran over to Neji, taking his larger hand into both of hers and squeezing it. He blinked before glancing at the girl and smiling at her.
The glass was shoved into his face with the command, "drink."
Neji blinked again but accepted the glass, and brought it to his lips, tilting it enough to consume the contents. Once he did he looked at the man who'd given him the water. He'd never seen anyone so strange in his life. The man was tall, with spiky black hair which flared out from the sides. He had a distinguished hairline running through it, and three small horns protruding from his forehead, he wore what Neji was now considering to be the standard Shinigami uniform, but had a green and gold sash around his neck adorned with various vials of liquid, and also his lieutenant's badge.
Neji blinked as he thought to himself, 'he not only looks weird. That's a strange fashion choice!'
"Thank you Akon," Kiyone spoke.
"Yes, thank you," Neji agreed. He shook his head and realized he was slightly trembling from the shock of the news. He openly admitted, "she's pregnant—and it's suspected that it's mine. I—I don't understand."
"Neither do we. We've examined the gigai that she made for herself in your world, it lacked certain internal components that would be necessary to achieve pregnancy, but it's not the gigai where the pregnancy took root. This kind of impregnation between a human and shinigami isn't something we've ever come across before," Akon revealed.
"Well, let's see if somehow I'm the cause then," Neji decided.
