Bleach Hereafter RPG

"Zanpakuto parasites? Weird healing water? And the 12th needs help again?"

"Evidently so, Senpai. It's supposedly a different type of water than that of Grandmother's springs as well," Ran replied to her superior, one Hageshi Rekka of the 9th Division.

"Well, I'll be off then. Just need to finish up this text to Gaia-san, assuming she even still has my phone," Rekka replied.

Hello, Gaia-san. Hope you're doing well. 

I'm not even sure if you still have my phone or number, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm fine now.

I went to get healed, and got my Bankai too! It's at your service if you ever need help!

That's all for now, I guess. Take care!

After pressing send, Rekka cut a portal into the lab of whoever had led this project. They were quite easy to find, as they had one of the strongest Reiatsu signatures in the whole 12th besides Captain Daisho himself and perhaps Hibana. The man's back was turned to him, and Rekka recognized that spiky green hair from not only officer meetings but also the footage of the battle with the Demons on the day the sky cracked. There was also an egg on the table, presumably the infant stage of those parasite-things.

"That thing's been temporally regressed, by the water if I had to guess," Rekka said. "You can say I'm familiar with spacetime shenanigans."

"And you must be the famous Tensai Toshiaki, Demon Slayer, one of the Heroes of the Broken Skies. We haven't gotten to talk yet, but I hear you're into Earth media like me. In other words..."

"Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well."

Cole felt a little ridiculous heading to help guard the senkaimon gate; but it couldn’t be helped. He walked through Seireitei to the gate, a black cloth covering half his face; it laid diagonally above his nose, covering his left ear and eye. The cloth had blue markings covering most of it, emphasizing stylized images of the sensory organs it covered.

Someone had learned about his little trick to ‘attend’ the retirement ceremony, and it turns out being able to invisibly watch and listen from two places at once had him on all sorts of extra guarding and scouting missions. It sucked, but the traditional shinigami didn’t like the idea of using tools and artifice to create new and unique effects. He made it, so he knew how it was supposed to work, but other members of his squad weren’t even willing to get a walkthrough for how to make their own, much less use the ones he made.

But, that also meant that he had a lot more practice with it, and had managed to overcome the vertigo that came with the first use of the implement. Some shinigami were milling about in lab coats, probably members of the 12th squad he was supposed to help guard. They were assembling some equipment, but he seemed to be the first of the guard coterie to arrive at the gate. He was somewhat hopeful, this would be the first time he would show off his creation outside of 5th squad. Other squads might see the value, and hopefully it would catch on. Despite the traditional mindset of the Gotei 13, you can’t stop progress.

Takano Hirai tensai toshiaki Hageshi Rekka

A distinct and familiar dreariness filled Takano down to his bones. Had he hoped for the slightest moment this was a bad dream, the aches of a cheap futon would serve to dash it. Haven had come under scrutiny. From one of the few people he had truly sought to keep it from. Irisa had gone searching for him after his atypical absence of several weeks. Now he was stuck here until Irisa and her damndable worries were satisfied. The second he had returned, they had slapped him with a menial assignment. Quite the far cry from his intensive work down in Haven, but so much more soul crushing…

Takano sighed as he slipped on a Lab coat and grabbed his pot of coffee. Before he had left, Takano had overheard Gaia mention something called a “Thermus”. He went searching and found one, a convenient metal container that kept drinks hot. It gave him a bit more time to laze about and drag his feet. With a final mental push, he’d force himself out the door and towards the Senkaimon.

The mission, or what little he skimmed of it, was fairly simple. They were to set up several pieces of equipment around some kind of spring. What for or why, he didn’t know nor did he particularly care. Part of him hoped Irisia would catch a glimpse of him so he could scutter back to Haven. His own role in the procedure was menial, as he had expected. Carry the equipment alongside the other 12th Division dolts who couldn’t twist their research into a combat boon of some kind, then set it up. It would begin pumping water back towards Soul Society.

As he arrived, he saw the familiar faces of Rekka and 5th Seat Toshiaki. Rekka was an interesting fellow, but reliable to an extent. Toshiaki had been engrossed in his personal work up until Rekka interrupted, the lucky bastard. There was one other person, one without a Lab Coat who he didn’t recognize. A decorated black cloth covered half his face. His uncovered side gave the impression of annoyance. Takano might’ve talked with him if not for the unsettling feeling he garnered from the man.

Taking one final drink from his Thermus, Takano found his way over to the equipment and began wordlessly working. This was meant to be a simple mission. Mingling wasn’t a requirement, and frankly he was too tired and peeved to deal with the oddballs.

tensai toshiaki Hageshi Rekka Cole

As expected of someone whose name literally meant "genius", Tensai let loose no less than three separate lines of thought in a single sentence, simultaneously praising and criticizing the newly-arrived Third Seat. Rekka attempted to sigh, only to end up hiccupping precisely once as ancient runes blinked for an instant around his head. This was gonna be a long day.

"Bolster nerf. Arc theory." he muttered subconsciously before snapping out of it. "Sorry about that, forget I said anything."

Rekka then allowed Tensai to lead him out of the secret lab and down the path to the Senkaimon. While on the way, he wondered just how deep and wide the 12th Division headquarters must be in order to accommodate so many secret labs. And with regards to that, how deep the ground of Soul Society had to be and what exactly lay beneath. For an instant, Rekka had the thought that at the very bottom of Soul Society lay an unbreakable layer of bedrock like a certain sandbox game, and that somehow bypassing that would cause you to fall out of the world and either die or eventually stop thinking.

Before long, they were already out of the Senkaimon and at an unfamiliar hot spring site in the Living World, brought there by the sort of timeskip that only happens when one isn't paying attention. Tensai, for the most part, started heading the operation and lifting heavy equipment into place. The green-haired scientist wasn't exactly the most buff guy in the Gotei 13, but since a Spirit's strength came from their Reiatsu, it made sense that someone capable of surviving against an angry living Hogyoku could do a little heavy lifting. On the other hand, Rekka felt that he could do the same if not better, since not only was he a physical fighter, but his Reiatsu was somewhat stronger than Tensai's as well. 

Tensai took a break to address the team. Among the assembled Shinigami, Rekka could recognize Takano, who had valiantly fought Demons alongside him using nothing more than spells, drugs, and rocks. The guy had even dropped him at the hospital after he was incapacitated by his imperfect usage of Shunko. However, the beleaguered scientist was currently being chewed out for staying on Earth for too long, which prompted Rekka to approach.

"Yo Takano-san! Long time no see!" Then, putting a hand on the man's shoulder, he attempted to reassure him. "Don't mind him, I used to get the same telling-off all the time. Gets old after a while."

Then, he saw Cole, the first Shinigami to know he had Bankai, simply offering a wave as Tensai walked up to him next. If Rekka got his attention, he'd make a series of gestures and expressions that roughly translated to "nice eyepatch".

Cole formed his reiatsu into the twinned spells as he entered the abandoned spring with the rest of the group, ”Clairvoyance, Clairaudience.”  The blue markings along the bandana pulsed and began to glow softly as he sent half his sight and hearing out to explore the area. He was here on watch duty, and with heavy hitters like Rekka here, the odds of him being needed for combat was unlikely at best. So using remote perception to invisibly watch the entryway? Well, he wasn’t a member of the stealth corps, but this was the next best thing.

He gave a slight thumbs up to the said heavy hitter, his heart sinking a little bit. Odds are there wouldn’t have even been a heavy hitter if they weren’t expecting trouble of some sort. Where exactly were they, anyway? With his uncovered eye and ear he observed the proceedings; clearly they were in some sort of underground spring, but that didn’t really establish anything on its own. Holy water, sacred springs, magical fountains; these things were common stories across mythology. The livegiving and purifying properties of water gave it a mysticism all its own. The fact that the random 12th squad scientist was claiming regression and healing properties didn’t seem too off the mark. Granted, the problem with there being so many stories about mystic water sources didn’t really help narrow it down.

Hell; this was the second one he had encountered in as many months.

Cole  grinned at Tensai, tracing a finger along the faintly glowing runes on the bandana from his eye to his ear, ”Not quite an eyepatch, Fifth Seat Toshiaki.  But yeah, I made it; I’m using it to watch and listen at the entrance.  It's why 5th squad sent me here, but none of them really care how I made it or how it works.” He gave a slight shrug, "It's not really that complicated, though.  I’ve been expanding my study of kidō to include some various…well, not modern practices, but for Soul Society a few dozen centuries might as well be brand new. Artifice like this is actually pretty simple using some Erilaz and Hermetic traditions.”

The relatively young Shinigami laughed mirthlessly, still splitting his senses between the silent entryway and the green-haired scientist in front of him, ”Sometimes I think I should have gone with 12th squad; you guys don’t seem so married to doing things the traditional way.”

Takano Hirai tensai toshiaki Hageshi Rekka

“With all due respect, Lieutenant,” Takano remarked, slowly twisting a hose into place on one of the many apparatuses. “My own research takes up all my freetime as it stands. Adding more onto that would only serve to distract me from what is truly important.” The hose would finally give a satisfying clink as it locked into place. Takano stood, wiping the steel grease from his hands when Rekka of all people gave him a solid slap on the shoulder. Or, at the very least, attempted to. Takano was almost a half foot taller than the young looking Shinigami.

“I’m not too concerned with a reprimand, Rekka. But I appreciate the reassurances.” Takano said, glancing back at the Shinigami with a feigned smile. “I’m quite good at being forgotten”. Leaning back on the apparatus, Takano pointed over to the odd man with a cloth over his face. Toshiaki had gone over to speak with him, but the sounds of bustling work made it quite difficult to overhear anything. “Whose the one with a mask? I’ve never seen him around the 12th Division before. Is he the guy from 5th?”

A solid silence was the only answer he had received, as Rekka had made his way over to the duo well before Takano had asked his question. With a sigh, Takano rubbed his forehead, with the fatigue, annoyance, and the beating sun of the Living World all bearing down on him. “I wonder if I should just retire now… Fake my own death or something.” Takano jokingly muttered to himself before making his way over to another part of the siphoning machine which needed to be built.

tensai toshiaki Hageshi Rekka Cole

"And what exactly is it that you are researching? And what is it that you find truly important?" Tensai said to Takano.

But before he could get a reply to his question is when he was pulled away by another scientist asking him about the recent findings he discovered earlier today. And after he was done as he turned he saw Rekka approach Takano and was talking to him. That was when he noticed Cole whose strange headgear intrigued him and he approached. Though of course, Takano's absence is still on his mind.

"Now knowing about Takano's lengthy absence makes him highly suspect and likely to be with the Rogue Shinigami, especially the one who created Bakkoto. Having more than one rogue member of the SRDI would benefit such a group when it comes to creating artificial weapons that are able to contend with and counter Zanpakuto." Tensai thought.

Tensai listened to Cole talk about his interesting mask that allows him to hear and see whatever is going on in the entrance. Most impressive but surprisingly not anyone else in his Division seems to be interested.

"That's odd of them, if what I am willing to guess it maybe they have more of a problem with you. Could be because you are from the more modern era. Or maybe due to most of them being Japanese and thus not being fond of Gaijins or westerns like you. It even could just be jealously that is preventing them from appreciating your work," Tensai said to Cole.

And out of the corner of his eye he sees a black crack in space form as it opens and a large hand starts to extend out of the portal to grab a unexpecting Shinigami. Tensai with a quick use of Shunpo grabs the Shinigami out of the way just as the hand clenches its fast and Hollow starts to enlarge the Garganta and gets out of the hole. And more Gargantas open with other Hollows coming out of them. With one more with what appears to be a whip wielding garbed/robed Sinner wearing a mask. Tensai could tell cause of the reiatsu of Hell emanating off of them.


"Oh ho ho ho ho, looks like my pets have already found some tasty treats. Eat up my darlings! There's more where they came from!" the female Sinner said.

One of the Hollows seemed to reach it's hand towards the Sinner before she whipped the hand back as it then forcefully slapped itself as if against it's will and turn it's attention back to the Shinigami. Though there was something off about all of this.

"What is this Sinner's goal here? These Hollows shouldn't be enough to handle me or Rekka and why go all of this trouble just to feed them? Is trying to turn them into Arrancars? Or is there another reason she is attacking us?" Tensai thought.

Nevertheless he kept his guard up. A Hollow tries to strike Tensai from behind before a quick unsheathe of his tanto shaped Zanpakuto, Tensai manages to cut off the arms of the Hollow behind him as it screams in pain. Before he stabs it in the chest as it becomes purified.

---

Post Count: 3

Tags: Hageshi Rekka , Cole , Takano Hirai

"Eyepatch guy?" Rekka wondered aloud at Takano's question, stopping for a moment before heading off. "Yeah, that's Cole Alexander from 5th. To be honest I wonder less about his casting methods than the fact that his last name is also a first name."

Arriving at where Cole and Tensai were, the Third Seat occupied himself with studying the eyepatch as well as listening to the mage's explanation of his surveillance device. What Cole said was true, all of it. Even Living World entertainment and technology was far ahead of Soul Society's Kido at this rate.

"And congratulations to Earth for inventing and mass-producing spy drones before we could even make a Kido-based prototype and not even care about it. Even the Quincy are ahead of us if I'm to believe Sora's story about gadget girl and for the last time that wasn't me there, that was a duplicate summoned by my ability," Rekka said in a tone that suggested genuine admiration for Cole's work as well as exasperation that their bosses weren't too keen on modernizing. "As Third Seat, I can say with 100% certainty that a huge part of the reason why paperwork is such a pain in the butt is that half the force refuses to digitize. Also, we wouldn't be understaffed if we adopted, like, firearms and modern military squad tactics."

Suddenly, a large, monstrous hand emerged from a crack in space and nearly grabbed one of the workers from 12th if not for Tensai coming in clutch and pulling them out of the way. Soon afterwards, more cracks opened up from which hordes of low-level Hollows poured, followed by some weird, masked person with a whip.

"And why am I not surprised." Rekka said. A Hollow leapt at him, but he caught its face in one hand and crushed its head and mask, throwing its rapidly vanishing body aside as he drew his Zanpakuto. "Yaketsuke, Enmado."

"Everyone who can't fight to safety! Use the water if you absolutely have to. Cole, barriers or bombardment if you can, Tensai and I will take the Hollows and the weirdo."

Cole chuckled at Tensai’s comment, ”I mean, you’re probably right, but you don’t have to be quite so blunt about it. I know I stick out like a sore thumb, and it’s not like my reiatsu helps that at all. But you’d still think advancements in the development new methods of utilizing kidō would be appreciated.”

The small talk was cut short as a group of hollows entered the room through numerous gates; they were led by a masked woman with a strange reiatsu. His visible eye went wide with surprise at both the suddenness of the attack as well as the number. ”There are more coming through outside!”

He nodded at Rekka, ripping the bandana off his head as he flash stepped over to the laboratory equipment and the 12th squad members working it. They seemed the least capable of combat and the most needing protection. With his focus no longer divided by his clairvoyance spell, Cole reached into the satchel on his belt and pulled out a smaller pouch filled with white granules.

The Shinigami haphazardly threw the salt in a wide circle around them, then began intoning a brief incantation. Anyone familiar with the list of spells would not recognize it, and in a moment the wide circle of salt began glowing; he finished the incantation and the air seemed to grow thick above the salt, vaguely distorting the view of the other side, ”Phantom Barrier.”

It was a simple spell, built on a few practices designed to repel malevolent spirits.  If a hollow tried to force their way through, it would slow them down enough that Cole, or one of the other nearby Shinigami, should have enough time to land a clean hit and purify the beasts. He wasn’t sure how well it would hold up versus the strange woman, it was designed for hollows, but hopefully Rekka or Tensai would be able to occupy her attention.

Takano Hirai tensai toshiaki Hageshi Rekka

With the oddballs flocking around Tensai, who had been unable to further inquire about his… extracurricular hobbies, Takano was free to work in peace. And work he did for a solid five minutes. One of the tube-lines he had been working on had unexpectedly burst and had doused him with the lake water. With a bit of panicked work he would manage a rough patch, but opted for caution and walked along the line to check for any further damages.

It was around this time that chaos erupted. As it often did when Takano was forced to work in the field… An oddly dressed woman with a coterie of Hollows had appeared from thin air. A horde had quickly grown across the worksite, with all the 12th Division being safely guarded by Cole Alexander and his odd Kido. All except Takano, who had walked quite some distance whilst checking the tube-lines.

Takano was not defenseless, however! He would reach for his side to utilize one of the many concoctions he had whipped up for this exact occasion. Only to realize said pouch had been left near the equipment, as it got in the way during his work. Well he still had… his Zanpakuto? Takano drew the blade and gripped it tightly, exactly as he had been warned against doing in the academy. It would not be long until a Hollow spotted the meager and undefended scientist. The Hollow in question was scorpion-like in appearance, and impaled its stinger straight through his abdomen.

With a startled grunt, Takano stumbled back and fell onto the tube-line which suddenly burst open once more. The pain slowly subsided as the pressurized water fell onto Takano and his assailant as if rain. Takano took this to mean his time was up. In reality, the water had stabilized his wound.

tensai toshiaki Hageshi Rekka Cole

So far so good. Cole's barrier stalled the Hollows long enough for Tensai to decapitate them, and even though Takano somehow got impaled, he even remembered to use the healing water on top of Tensai's Shikai healing him. On the other hand, Rekka was slashing Hollows left and right while barely breaking a sweat. He impaled one through the mask and broke another over his knee in time to retrieve his sword. A bull like one attempted to ram him, but he slid under it and cut its legs off in one clean stroke before bifurcating it. A smaller winged Hollow tried divebombing him, but he jumped, caught it, and slammed it into the ground with such force that it disintegrated on the spot. Rekka got up just in time to see the crazy woman whip off her robe. The discarded garment was blown up in the wind towards the fiery Shinigami, who promptly got tangled up in it.

"Now you serve me, Semiramis now, be a dear and kill the others okay?"

"ONORE DELIGHTWORKS!! I'LL NEVER FORGIVE ALL THE STHENO SPOOKS I GOT WHILE ROLLING FOR HER!!" The resulting burst of fiery Reiatsu instantly reduced the obstructing robe to ash. But Rekka soon got a closer look at this so-called Semiramis, and his fury died down to sarcastic disappointment. "Nope, you're not her. Be reduced to Rare Prisms. Love the beetle though."

Semiramis attempted to use her smoking hot body and kinky whip powers to seduce Tensai, but she failed. The move was not very effective. Rekka burst out laughing, causing a number of the scientists and Hollows to pause and look at him in puzzlement. "OH MY SOUL KING. AROACE REP FOR THE WIN."

By now, the Third Seat was laughing so hard he was crying. "Like, remember the time Mother tried marrying me off and I couldn't get into any of them? I mean, they're my friends y'know, I just don't see them that way."

He was forced to stop, however, when Semiramis sent five Hollows at him. Rekka swung Enmado in a wide arc, leaving a trail of glowing scarlet across the enemy mobs as they burst into motes of light. He then caught the Sinner's whip with ease, and when she tried to shorten the whip he yanked hard in an attempt to fling her around instead. "Don't you know that rate up is a lie, Assassin of Red? Soon you'll be a lot hotter, LITERALLY!"