Bleach Hereafter RPG

Cole was meditating in the empty courtyard somewhere in seireitei, the spirit of his blade babbling nonsense in the back of his head.

It hadn't started empty, but the man's unsettling reiatsu tended make other unseated Shinigami think up a reason they wanted to be somewhere else.  Most were too polite to say something, but at this point, Cole knew it was him.  The newest unseated member of 5th Division hadn't made many friends among his academy class; it seemed many of his classmates couldn't really bear to be around him any longer than was strictly required.  The only folks that would even be willing to work with him for group projects were either so blind to reiatsu they didn't feel anything strange or so desperate for good marks that they'd put up with it for as long as they could.

Not that he could blame him, one of these teammates had put it into words; most Shinigami felt reinforced in the reiatsu of their compatriots.  His presence felt like the opposite.  It made sense, when they practiced flaring their reiatsu, they all lit up in bonfires of various colors, shades, and shapes.  When he flared, it was the opposite; it sucked in the light, dimming the area around him.  Keeping his eyes closed, and focusing on his own reishi, Cole attempted to flare his reishi again.

His eyes shot open at a small panicked squeak, and saw that he had apparently whammied a rat with his strange flare, temporarily draining the poor thing.  Wait.  He had never seen a rat in seireitei.  He stood up and walked over to the creature, and found it was still breathing, but unconscious.  That's when he noticed the message on its leg.

A message that appeared to be addressed to the freaking Vice Captain of First Squad.  "Shit."  He said to no one in particular, and picked up the small furry mailman.  The new Shinigami probably could have just left the rat there and it would have recovered in a few minutes, but anything going to Vice Captain Muimina was probably somewhat urgent.  He didn't want potential blood on his hands from a delay, and shirking responsibility wasn't his style.  He flash stepped to the rooftop and began rushing towards first division, the most likely location to find the Vice Captain of said division.

The light was on in the man's office, and he knocked on the door, prepared to give a formal Japanese bow along with his apology, "My deepest apologies, Vice Captain Muimina; I inadvertently intercepted a message meant for you."  Eyes still down at the floor, Cole would reach into his robe and pull out an unconscious rat with a message tied to its leg.  "I brought it straight here, and I did not read the contents.  Please accept my apology."

Muimina Hyakuji
tensai toshiaki

The sun was beginning to set at that time, the red orange hues mixed with purplish skies were visible from the Vice Captain’s window.

Hyakuji stretched his limbs, resting his back on the chair as he finished the piles of reports that needed auditing from the different divisions. It was his normal work routine aside from monitoring spiritual activities in the realm of the living, watching out for potential demonic threats and other possible dangers that the holder of the shard may encounter.

It was a very tiring day, but he was already used to it. Letting out a deep sigh, his gaze shifted to the windows overlooking the peaceful city of Seireitei, with the sunset painting a flaming vermillion over the purplish canvas.

For a moment, he wondered what peace would look like; when he finally achieved the utopia where everyone can be free, where there’s no hate nor suffering… when wars against races were no longer necessary, where no one can be judged for whoever they chose to love… Where he could spend the rest of his days with his beloved without fearing for her safety or their future children…

The blissful trip to his fantasies came to a halt when he heard a knock on the door. Normally, the people in his division would enter after they did, but this one stayed there for a while until he instructed the person to come in.

A man with a brown unkempt hair walked into his presence in deep apology; Hyakuji tilted his head a bit, uncertain why the shinigami was suddenly apologetic when he had not done anything yet. Certainly, he was not from the First Division, so he was unsure what exactly was the problem…

Until the shinigami brought out from his pocket an unconscious lab rat tagged with a message on its leg. Still, confused at what was going on, he didn’t take the small creature from his hand, rather asked instead,

“And you are?” The Vice Captain noticed a different reiatsu from him, but he was not bothered in the least. If anything, he was curious, and would have wanted to know more about it, however, it seemed now was not the time since he was trying to communicate about some important matters.

He took the rat from his hand and read the message; apparently it was from the 12th Division officer, Tensai Toshiaki who was with him during their investigation on their missing comrades, which turned out to be related to the experimentation on bakkoto. It was also that time when the researcher revealed his feeling that there was a traitor among their ranks and now, calling for a follow-up rendezvous regarding the matter.

“Don’t worry about it,” he answered to relieve the man’s worry about reading the message’s content, “At least the message still arrived. Thank you,” the Vice Captain let out a soft chuckle as he prepared to leave, stacking the few papers he just checked over to the rest of the finished documents.

“I’m already about to head out, so I’m afraid I won't be able to entertain any other concerns you might have.. Hmm… but perhaps, we can talk about it along the way if you like…”


[545]

Cole stood back up after the Vice Captain took the rat, and gave a small nod of his head, "Cole Alexander, 5th Division unseated, sir."

Vice Captain Muimina had a lot of stories floating around him, and Cole had no idea how many were true and how many were exaggerations. Some were verified facts, the man completed the academy in record time, even making Cole's two years seem lengthy, and his meteoric rise through the ranks to Vice Captain was the stuff of legends. There were rumblings that he was already on the short list to be the next Captain, leapfrogging the dozen other Vice Captains that had seniority. And the feats they told of him in combat prowess; single handedly stopping an invasion from hell, storming the Quincy realm to avenge a fallen comrade, or that his bankai could destroy an area the size of Rhode Island. But more than that, there was also the general consensus that he was a good man.

The fresh academy graduate was waiting to be dismissed when the Vice Captain invited him to walk with him to whatever meeting the message had been about.  He didn't seem to be rushing, so it seemed like there was no danger he was running towards.  Cole hesitated for just a second, there was another rumor about the Vice Captain, that he swept along other Shinigami in his wake.  Not necessarily in a bad way, mind; but there was the implication that if you got to know the Vice Captain, your afterlife got a hell of a lot more interesting.  

Cole liked interesting, so he fell in behind the younger-looking-but-older Shinigami, "Yes sir, Vice Captain Muimina.  If you will forgive the curiosity, which eccentric Shinigami opted for a rat over an e-mail?"

tensai toshiaki
Muimina Hyakuji

“A pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Alexander-san,” It was out of habit that he addressed his comrades by their last names, being a native Japanese as he was, it was only natural to keep the honorifics no matter the previous lives of his fellow death gods. This man certainly came from the West, be it the United States or United Kingdom, he could only guess.

“From the 5th Division, you say?” He repeated, remembering Asuka, the younger sister to the Kanemi, a minor noble house that adopted him. Since he went back from his vacation in Hawaii, his visits to the mansion became rather less frequent, and even then had not met with the 5th Division Third Seat since their last mission together. Everything just went really fast. And he wondered how Asuka was doing.

There was a brief silence for a moment; only their footsteps made a sound as the pair continued strolling down the main hall, then finally, Hyakuji blurted out “...have you met with the Third Seat? Kanemi Asuka-san?”

He stopped at the intersection where the main hall separated into two corridors, the right and left wing leading to other offices within the 1st Division headquarters; the other side of the passageway would lead to the entrance/exit of the building. Hyakuji shifted his gaze to his left and right, on the lookout for the distractions that might come their way.

Thankfully, it was rather quiet today, and it looked like no one’s going to chase him this time. He sighed in relief. What a nice change of pace then.

However…

In a blink of an eye, they would find themselves already running outside the streets of Seireitei. The Vice Captain was not looking back and he expected that the 5th Division shinigami was following after him.

In all fairness, not all women were that crazy about him, there were just those ladies who formed themselves into his fans club, who could get pretty aggressive most of the time. Other than them, everyone seemed calm and collected whenever they talked or engaged with him, though it would still be obvious that they were mesmerized, one way or another.

It was the least thing he could be proud of; especially now that he was in a relationship. Yet, it was of course beyond his control, he could only wish for these women to stop but they just never did. And so, whoever had the bad luck accompanying him had to suffer the same predicament, running away from this aggressive fans club.

The question about who sent the rat to give him the message flew out of his mind for a brief second as he remained focused on the road; he did not plan to tag the recently graduated shinigami, especially that their agendum was confidential yet it was already too late to dismiss him as he followed him wherever he was supposed to go.

“Well, he did,” Hyakuji pointed to the green-haired death god waiting anxiously in front of his home.

“Konbanwa, Toshiaki-san. Sorry for being late. We’ve run into uh… unnecessary encounters along the way.”

[520]

Cole shook his head as they left first division, "No, sir, I've heard a bit about her, but I haven't personally met her."

They walked for a few moments, Cole letting the Vice Captain dally in remembrances of old comrades.  He seemed on edge; like he was waiting for someone to jump out and attack him at any minute.  Then the Vice Captain began to book it, Cole glanced backwards to see a woman pointing at the man and shouting to someone behind them.  Unsure what to do, Cole ran with him, and found himself face to face with the fifth seat of the science division.

The rookie bowed to the green-haired man, "Fifth Seat Tensai; there have been no particular developments with my Zanpakuto, its name still evades me." Said zanpakuto was back to quietly mumbling in the back of his head. "I apologize for intercepting your message, Tesso should be fine though; he happened to run through while I was practicing and got whammied by my reiatsu flare."

He pretended to be interested in the modern day appliances; stuff that wouldn't have even been current when he died two years ago, but was basically high-tech for Soul Society.  There was no reason to intrude on conversation of the two officers.  Surely they would just dismiss him, right?

Muimina Hyakuji
tensai toshiaki

It was the first time he had been to Tensai’s home. Thankfully, the 12th Division Researcher put instructions on where to find him. Being familiar with the streets of Seireitei, it was almost out of instinct that Hyakuji made his way into it as he ran away from the crazy fans club; and just as he expected, the new shinigami followed after him.

After paying respects to their host, the newly arrived death gods were invited inside. The interior was akin to a modern Japanese house, with all the modern appliances and video games the green-haired nerd was able to acquire somehow. It was not new to Hyakuji since he once lived his life as a human, and he also had some collections of games during his childhood which he did not particularly enjoy. It served more of an escape from his unexplainable depression during those times despite having a nearly perfect family.

Recently, Rekka was shoving anime culture into his throat so there’s also that. From what he could observe of Tensai’s home, he recognized he’d go along well with the said teenage-looking death god.

As he continued to wander around, Tensai asked about his pet Tesso, which Hyakuji then gave to him while the 5th division officer filled in the details of how he was caught in this entanglement.Then, the blue-eyed reaper was pulled away to talk in private right after. Cole was left to himself, as Hyakuji glanced briefly to his direction again before listening to what the 12th Squad officer had to say.

Of course, the Vice-Captain figured Tensai would not approve of Cole’s appearance, but even he was left with no choice when he thought the man had something to report or anything. Thus, he responded:

“Yeah.. I apologize for that. I just thought he had some business with me so I entertained him, but it looks like I just dragged him when I was about to head out the office. Well, I don’t sense any ill intent on his part. But if you already encountered him and were suspicious of him, then I have to go along with you, I guess. Just… don’t make an obvious lie, Toshiaki-san.”

[372]

As Tensai was inquiring about his rat who apparently got hit by spiritual pressure that was too much for him. Muimina was able to show Tensai his lab rat is fine. Albeit very startled because of recent events.

Tensai then proceeded to gently pick up Tesso and gently stroke him to calm him down, before putting him back in a small portable rat cage that was themed around a tiny house from the Edo period.

"Tesso may be one of my many lab rats but I assure you I never give them experiments that would endanger their lives or harm them. I make sure to treat them as they would want to treated." Tensai said.

As Muimina agreed to go along with his plan he then spoke to Cole.

"I suppose since you're here you must know that me and Muimina have become acquaintances recently after working together to fight off against the recent Demon incursion. And recently we learned that he and I share a fondness for human media, I actually wanted to start a club for such an interest but I couldn't find enough people interested to form one sadly. So me and Muimina started our only little secret club of sorts. I am sorry that you had to be dragged into this but you don't have to stay if you don't want to," Tensai said.

He didn't actually know about Muimina's past, but he did notice how he seemed to recognize a lot of the items in his home so he must have some form of familiarity. Though it's not a total lie either since Tensai did try to form such a club and does have interest in various media from the World of the Living. From movies and games to manga and anime. Hopefully though his ruse would work and they can get to more important matters. That is unless Cole is interested too and he wants to stay to join this "secret club".

Though honestly Tensai wouldn't mind so much the latter because then he would finally have people to talk about his interests to.

---

Post Count: 4

Tags: Cole , Muimina Hyakuji

Cole hesitated, the excuse didn't really add up; why send a rat, no matter how cute, for an invite to a club about human media?  Wouldn't it have more fit the theme to send an e-mail or text message?  Was there something contraband about modern media that he wasn't aware of?  Most media and technology he had seen in soul society was still a decade or so old at best; was there an embargo of some sort and the pair of officers had resorted to smuggling new things in here and there?

He scratched the back of his head, somewhat nervously.  The anxious voices bubbling up from his Zanpakuto weren't helping, "I uh..." The rookie Shinigami glanced around nervously, this probably wasn't some elaborate trap for him, right?  Sure, most people didn't talk about their lives in the mortal world, if they even remembered it, but it wasn't like it was forbidden.  "I actually only died a little over two years ago.  If you guys really have a way to get current tech and media, I'm in.  At this point I had assumed I'd never see the final season of The Bad Place.  It had quite an interesting view on morality and the afterlife, though obviously incor--"

Cole cut himself off, he was getting a little ahead of himself.  It was entirely possible that Tensai's statement really was just a ruse to get him to leave.  It's not like the fact that he was so recently dead was widely known, and most Shinigami probably didn't care that much about modern media.  There definitely seemed to be some entrenched traditions in the Gotei 13, and computers and television were both fairly new.

Muimina Hyakuji
tensai toshiaki

A… what? Didn’t he just tell Tensai to not make an obvious lie? If that wasn’t ridiculous enough. Rekka had not even been successful netting him into his weird anime culture stuff… what more this… secret club…

Well, it would be more of a pain if he busted down Tensai’s excuse so he just went along with it…

“Oh, y-yeah… That’s the idea… Thanks to Toshiaki-san, I’ve rekindled my interest in human entertainment. I haven’t been caught up with ‘Church of Sinners’ until lately…” he said in a light chuckle. Of course, it was far from the truth. He never enjoyed any form of media during childhood, and Church of Sinners was the only series of animated movies he saw in his entire human life. Perhaps, somehow, because he could identify with the protagonist, belonging to a happy family, yet living in solitude. Thirty five years later, he still had not seen the last two installations of the film.

Surprisingly, the newly graduated shinigami seemed to believe it. His enthusiasm was pretty much obvious with the way he talked about this particular series called “The Bad Place” which of course, was foreign to the Vice-Captain.

Well, looks like the genius’ plan wouldn’t work out as they hoped for.

But maybe…

“Well, welcome to the club, Alexander-san,” he greeted right after Cole stopped to even realize what the excuse actually meant.

“Uh… you wanted to talk about the traitor, right? In that new series… what’s the title again?”

Was it even right to conceal their topic under the guise of a series? Perhaps, even prodigies can be caught unprepared that they had to resort to dumb excuses sometimes.


[285]

Cole was looking at the setup when the Vice Captain not-so-subtly informed the other Shinigami that he wanted to discuss a traitor.  It was good he wasn't facing them, because his eye roll would have made it obvious he didn't buy that deception for a second.  The secrecy and the use of Tesso made a lot more sense if they were worried about a traitor.  He gave a vague nod as the two left into a separate area, leaving the rookie alone.  Angry whispers began overlapping in the back of his head, echoing up from his Zanpakuto.  Cole grabbed a notepad lying on a nearby table and began writing a note.

I am not an idiot, if you need to discuss a sensitive or classified topic, just dismiss me. If the club was not just a quickly concocted lie, we can discuss it when you are not busy with more important matters.
-Dr. Alexander

It was a bit aggressive, and if they weren't having a meeting that they obviously wanted to keep secret, he would likely be written up for insubordination.  That being said, he hoped the club was true; perhaps one of the reasons most people did not retain their memories is because it made it harder to acclimate to the afterlife.  Maybe keeping media so far behind the modern world prevented people trying to return to their old lives.  Cole didn't really want to leave that connection behind forever.  He glanced back at the rack of DvDs and grabbed one off the shelf, adding a small addendum to his note.

P.S. I've borrowed Professor Ice Season 1.

With that, Cole turned and left the home of the green haired Shinigami.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cole - Exit Thread
Total Cole Posts: 5

Muimina Hyakuji
tensai toshiaki