He was sitting in his private office. Work for the day was finished. On the morrow, he would be returning to the real world to see what Uruhara had discovered - if anything. So far the past two trips had been uneventful. It was starting to seem like whatever was happening with the young woman Erisia, was a fleeting thing. Perhaps they had been wrong about her being the anomaly, perhaps she had only been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Yet some part of him refused to believe that. She could see Hollow, she had provoked one to get it away from children. There had to be something more to what was going on with the girl than a mere fluke and nothing more. He turned and looked at the scroll she had painted. Such clear detail from a moment that should have been lost in the deepest haze of fog and pain. His eyes trailed down to her signature where there was also that symbol - her symbol.
No, to have been dreaming of that symbol from before he'd gone to the real world for this mission had to mean that there was something more going on here. Why else would he dream of it? Still it was becoming difficult to not have doubts when for two weeks now there had been no information in regards to her reiatsu. She had to have impressive reiatsu to see what she saw and to do what she had done. It made no sense. Uruhara was a good scientist, if there was something to find would he not have found it by now? Of course nothing about this situation from the start had been clear or exactly easy so perhaps this was not going to be either.
Still if they did not find anything soon, the Captain Commander would end the research. It would be dismissed as a fluke and nothing more and life would move on. Why did that thought bother him so? That it bothered him at all was worrisome. Still there was something about the young woman. Perhaps it was that warmth paired with actual grace. She was respectful and well spoken... He mentally chided himself, shaking his head and turning his focus back to the papers on his desk.
There was no room for warmth in a noble's world. Besides, the girl was human. Gifted or not, her place was in the real world, not in Soul Society so such thoughts were pointless. He did not indulge in pointless things. He pushed his mind away from any frivolous thoughts and focused on the clan work in front of him. It seemed some days his work was never done. He had this last bit of work to complete and then he could go to the real world without worries of leaving anything unfinished. Loose ends never sat well with him.
Meanwhile in the real world, Uruhara was going through all of the data he had collected. There was quite a great deal of information to go through and a dwindling window of time to go through it in. He had to at least have everything organized into a presentable format by the time Byakuya arrived so that he could return to Soul Society and give it to the Captain Commander. It was the only way they were ever going to get into the next step. Eri-chan needed trained. She would be a sitting duck otherwise.
She was a pleasant enough young woman. There were times when he was sure that her issues stemming from the abuse she'd endured at her father's hand were affecting her, but she had hidden any discomfiture she might have had. She must be well schooled at it. Surely being around Tessai, Byakuya and himself hadn't been entirely easy for her. Well maybe Byakuya hadn't bothered her much - at least in that regard. Mentally he chuckled at that. It seemed to be an interesting situation indeed...
He had observed the sketching and he had heard of the gently asked questions Eri-chan had posed in order to learn more about the man who had saved her life. He had also caught the cautiously measured looks the girl had made in the direction of the Captain of the 6th squad when she thought no one would notice. He was a scientist and in his home very little actually eluded his notice. It would be very amusing if for the fact that it was only likely going to hurt the young woman in the long run.
While he was almost certain that Byakuya had some curiosity in regards to the young woman, he could not allow himself to believe that it would make any difference in the long run. Byakuya Kuchiki was a noble and while he had once been a fiery young man full of life and spirit, that had been tempered and cooled and any remotely emotive response he might have been capable of had died with Hisana. At least that was the way it seemed. Still he did not have the heart to tell the young woman of this. Because there was always the slightest, most remote chance that not all of Byakuya Kuchiki's heart had been killed with the death of his wife.
It was a very complicated situation. Still that the stoic noble had been curious about the young woman at all was anomalous enough that maybe there was hope. He shook his head and focused once more on the task at hand. There was quite a great deal of data to sort through after all. He had been quite impressed with the results. There was quite a lot of potential in the young woman. Hopefully the Captain Commander would recognize this and allow them to train the girl. He would hate to see her fall to the very thing Byakuya had saved her from... at least to fall from it because she had no way herself to prevent it.
Which brought his thoughts to another slightly unpleasant topic. If they were allowed to train her, they were going to have to put her in shinigami form... Getting her there was not going to be an easy or pleasant task. He was going to have to figure out a way to explain that one to Eri-chan and at least mentally prepare her for that eventuality. He was not looking forward to it. After coming to learn what she had endured at the hands of her father, he was somewhat reluctant to put her through more... However it was going to be the only way to ensure that she could protect herself. He was going to have to talk with the shadow panther and convince it to help her more and to possibly allow her to learn its name... it would make the process faster and hopefully less traumatic. Ah well, that was a topic to be broached when it became relevant to do so.
He refocused on the work in front of him. He was deftly sorting and organizing it. From the data he had gathered, while Eri-chan wasn't at the level of Ichigo, she still had a good deal of potential. She would be quite adept if she received the proper training. She seemed to will herself to be adaptable which would help her. Of course he wondered if that would truly hold out. Surely she would break down at some point. Even Byakuya had a breaking point of course he only knew that because Yoruichi prided herself on finding that and instigating him into a game of flash tag. The stories from which were a source of great amusement.
He would have to speak with Yoruichi at some point. She was quite good at training people. It seemed that Eri-chan already had a slightly enhanced speed, considering she'd gotten far enough ahead of the Hollow to not immediately be a snack so it stood to reason that they should hone that. Who better to do so than the goddess of flash? It would be funny to see how Mr. Stoic would react to seeing Eri-chan use shunpo... that would be certain.
He finished up the preliminaries and began making copies that would be released to go with Byakuya to Soul Society. He arranged them in a folder and set the work aside. His thoughts once more turned to the fact that they were going to have to put Eri-chan through a kind of hell in order to fully release her potential... They hadn't really lied to her, they hadn't told her what would happen should the tests prove that she needed training... Still part of him felt almost sick at the thought of putting her through what Ichigo had gone through. Perhaps he would have to discuss this with Byakuya...
At least that way the Captain would be able to present the information in totality to the Captain Commander and maybe there would be some other way to go about this. Of course he doubted there would be, he had after all done a great deal of research into the subject. He was the one that had developed the technique that allowed Ichigo to regain his powers... While there was no danger of Eri-chan becoming a hollow, there was every danger of breaking what remained of her spirit finally and completely.
Well they would have to present all of the information to her when it became relevant to do so. From there it would be her decision. Even if she chose not to go through with it, there were techniques they could teach her that would allow her to mask her reiatsu and protect herself enough. It would of course depend on what the Captain Commander would decide. So for now, all he could do was set the topic aside to be dealt with later. Yet he couldn't help but feel a bit worried about it... but just a little.