Bleach Hereafter RPG

Niji threw up her hands in frustration, not taking the Shingiami’s outstretched hand, ”Virgil has people under him that are a match for me by themselves, and they are terrified of what he can do! The power of friendship is not going to beat taking the time to make a godsdamned plan! Your insistence on impatience is going to get you killed, and I have no interest in a suicide mission. If Sadaharu Tendo told the truth, the Gotei 13 has plans in motion. This is because simply sending a few Captains and Vice Captains to deal with him will not be sufficient. And you are going to die because you will not listen.”

She shook her head, turning from Maria, ”Does the Gotei 13 even know how the Red Lotus is organized? Do they know Virgil’s abilities, the abilities of any of the Zodiac?  Do they even know what the Zodiac are?  I will not tell you what I went through to get my knowledge of the Red Lotus, but the fact that they do not even know I exist is my biggest advantage.”

The woman continued, frustration bubbling into her words, ”An advantage that I might have lost today, because I have no idea where Sadaharu Tendo’s loyalty really lies.  It just pushes back my own plans while I have to wait and find out if the Red Lotus suddenly becomes aware of me.”

She sighed, ”Maria, nothing that man told me about Virgil was new, but I could not let him know that. Other than saying a plan “may or may not be in motion,” I learned nothing from him. Finding out if his insinuations of a Gotei 13 were accurate or not is the most important thing for me to continue development of my own plan.”

A growl entered her voice, ”Because then I can at least incorporate their potential failure into a decapitating strike.”

Hequita

Niji could get... scary. Fuelled by her apparent frustration with Maria's proposal, she went deeper and deeper down, once again declaring that the Shinigami's death was inevitable on her route. Her frustration was genuine, and intimidating - she even dropped the diminutive, for once.

Maria had held out hope that Niji would agree, as if this were some fantasy book with cookie cutter morals about friendship. Niji didn't seem like a bad person. Rather intense, perhaps with a tinge of paranoia, at least towards the Shinigami, and definitely a little too controlling than Maria was comfortable with, but at least they seemed to be on the same side. This rant, however... it offered a different perspective.

Especially its end. Niji had mentioned her desire to know if there was a plan made by the Gotei 13 for fighting Virgil to Maria before, but it was in vague terms, something about "making it truly decapitating". Now, she made it clear what she needed it for. Their failure and death would tell her what she has to do in order to finish Virgil off.

"You..."

Knowing how suspicious she was of the Gotei 13 before, it seemed unlikely that she meant joining her forces with a Gotei 13 attack and so rescue it from a certain death. Hell, she made it clear to Maria that ideally she would deal with Virgil without a fight, completely at odds with the Shinigami style of dueling enemies. Yet, the alternative was... a lot more troubling.

"You want to use the Shinigami and their plan to fight Virgil for your own purposes."

Maria's eye was staring straight at Niji, unblinking.

"You need them to deal with Virgil for you, and you'll be fine whether or not the Shinigami win or lose, because either Virgil dies without you getting in danger, or you learn more about he and the Red Lotus can do and so can destroy him with your plan. And you couldn't care less about Shinigami dying in the process."

If there were a Gotei 13 mission to destroy the Red Lotus, surely, it would not just be her who would be on the front lines. If Virgil and his "Zodiac" are truly as powerful as Niji claimed, then at least a few Captains and Vice-Captains would be there, too. Just like she said. And of the Captains and Vice-Captains, the two who were most active in going out and fighting evil were also the two she personally knew. Thus the two most likely to perish if they were sent off.

"And you want for me to go back to Soul Society, and get the Shinigami to organize this venture for you. Did I understand your thought process correctly?"

Niji growled, whirling back to Maria, ”No, you clearly have no idea what I am saying.”

The Fullbringer locked eye(s) with the woman, ”Ideally, the Shinigami would have never learned about Virgil, and I could eliminate him before he even realizes there is a threat.  The Red Lotus is a secret organization, and the Gotei 13 is about as subtle as a wrecking ball; if they fail, which they very well might, things will change.”

She shook her head, ”If the Shinigami make an assault on the Red Lotus that does not eliminate the right people, not just Virgil, their reason for remaining secret goes away. Fullbringers hide to protect themselves from your people; the spiritual world knows what happened to the Quincy, and I am sure that Red Lotus is telling new recruits that is exactly what will happen to Fullbringers if the Shinigami discover them.”

Niji pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to gather her thoughts, ”And I am not even sure if that is incorrect. Do you think any plan by the Gotei 13 assault is going to be anything but ‘wipe out all opposition?’ Hell, even if the Shinigami succeed at killing Virgil, his followers might reform and point to the attack as evidence that Shinigami will kill Fullbringers on sight. They might very well start using their power openly to affect the world.”

That in particular might not be a bad thing; Niji wished she could do it herself. But a change like that that came under the fear of a Shinigami attack would not lead to a better world. ”No, my plan was to decapitate the organization quietly and without an obvious culprit, and ensure the right person takes over.  Shinigami getting involved at all is already a bad scenario.”

Hequita

Niji immediately went on the defensive, declaring that Maria misunderstood her completely. Yet, as factual as she aimed to make her response, it did not seem all that convincing to the Shinigami. All the backhanding towards the Gotei 13, as opposed to her presumably flawless plan, hardly resonated well with her either.

"That's not the impression you were giving all this time," Maria answered to the detailed response simply. As far as she could recall, at no time in the past did Niji mention that she preferred there to be no Shinigami attack on the Red Lotus - if anything, the Fullbringer was dropping hints that she could lend her intelligence to a Gotei 13 attack to make it a "decapitating strike". Now, that idea seemed unbelievable. Niji did not trust in the Shinigami ever being able to pacify the Red Lotus. Only her own strike possibly could, apparently.

It was all problems within problems within problems to her.

"Besides, what I said still holds. You told me that you would have killed me if I was anyone else a minute ago. Any other Shinigami would get zero empathy from you."

Sliding her foot across the dusty ground, she turned her body around, facing away from Niji. "Whatever." Over her shoulder, she glanced back to the Fullbringer. "If that is what you actually want, I can try to convince any plan in the Gotei 13, if it exists, to stand back. I doubt it's a top priority for the Captains, anyway."

Briefly, Maria raised her hand towards Niji as well.

"I'd ask you if you want to join me one more time, or at least provide that "intelligence", but I assume you're just gonna say no again."

Niji rolled her eyes, ”Please, mercy is not something that seems particularly common in the spiritual world. If you had attacked something else you would have been expecting a fight for your life.”

She sighed, that didn’t really matter right now; Maria was making a new offer, and the Fullbringer wasn’t sure what her angle was. Was she really willing to give up on revenge, or was she just saying she’d ask the Shinigami to hold off, go train with Tendo, and then take a shot at Virgil herself? It’d be the same effect, ultimately; a Shinigami openly attacking the organization of Fullbringers.  She didn’t really have much trust in Maria to be subtle; that particular quality didn’t run in their family.

The Fullbringer glanced down at Maria's hand, then shook her head, ”For whatever reason you trust the Shinigami to do the right thing, but I do not. Even your Vice Captain friend said that most of the Shinigami leadership do not believe there can be peace with the other spiritual races. Making peace with Fullbringers will be critical for the survival of Shinigami, and maybe the world as a whole. But that peace can not happen under someone like Virgil. That is the reason I do not think the standard Shinigami approach of ‘kill everything that is not a shinigami’ will work here. I do not trust the Shinigami to manage a surgical strike with no collateral damage.”

Niji had had this train of thought before; Fullbringers and their place in the spiritual world. She wondered how much thought the Shinigami put into things like this, given how focused they were on themselves. She had been thinking about it a lot recently, particularly with her own intentions after marriage. ”It will only get worse, you know.  You know how Fullbringers are made, right?  It is not a genetic line that can be wiped out like the Quincy. People like us can pop up anywhere. The catalyst seems to be exposure to reiatsu while in the womb. It is not an exact science, as far as I am aware, but…”

She paused, mostly for emphasis; ”How many women do you think were pregnant when your sister washed the world in spiritual energy when trying to destroy existence?”

Hequita

Niji's response to Maria's confrontation about her lack of mercy made the Shinigami do a double-take. "Really? So you're a bastard just because everyone else is a bastard?" Everyone had a right to defend themselves, of course - but, come on, Niji was so many times stronger than Maria that it was not even funny. Someone with Maria's level of strength swinging their weapon at her was by no means a threat to her life. And even if they were a threat to her life, that didn't necessitate murder.

How many people were there who turn to violence for the sake of desperation, rather than just because they were evil? Their potential for a second chance would forever be taken away if you simply wipe them off the face of the Earth.

Yet again, the Fullbringer followed by explaining her distrust of the Shinigami and repeating her old talking point of Shinigami being as subtle as Spetsnaz. This time, Maria answered with a frustrated sigh.

"You know, I was assuming you were just being facetious with that. I didn't think you actually thought that that's what all that Shinigami do," Maria answered, stepping to the side. Even if her perspective was flawed, training for a division who were deployed as tactical warheads, she could tell that this was not all that the Shinigami did. You'd be laughed out if you implied that the Second Division was unsubtle in their methods. "Yes, the average Shinigami's a warrior, not a secret agent, and a lot of them are... quite dim. But we've been doing this for millennia. We know how to approach a situation carefully if we have to, we have a whole squad of magic who can handle what muscle cannot do, and just because the two or three Shinigami you've met fall on the median doesn't mean you can just go and assume that that's all we are."

She folded her arms. "You're not the only intelligent person in the Universe, as much as you might try to imply at times. If the Captains were informed they have to deal with a secret society, they'd figure out a way to deal with it - and no, they wouldn't just bust down the door and start slaughtering people. If they were all just simple muscle-heads, all the evil bastards they've had to stop would have killed them long ago. And neither of us would be here."

With a frustrated sigh, Maria turned away. "But, of course, the Shinigami are the mindless, corrupt ones, who only look after themselves, who are easy to blame by every other race as those who refuse a peace between them. Even though we do aim for that - in a way that's equitable, for everyone, rather than just allowing humanity to bow to whatever madman or monster wants to lay waste to our world. Meanwhile, Arrancars kidnap and murder my comrades every day, while Quincies attack us six hundred years ago, aiming to genocide us, and refuse any of our offers to make peace."

Briefly, she glanced over her shoulder. "So yeah, I'd certainly love us to have peace with the Fullbringers. They're my people, too. And yeah, you're right that it can't happen under Virgil. Because, you know, we did offer peace to the Quincies, and they decided they want everything. And he sounds like the type of guy to do the same." Another sigh. "But I'm not going to accept that we can't stop him or the Red Lotus. I'm certain the Captains have learned their mistake since Remus. And if you're still certain that they'll fuck it up and you don't want them involved, then I won't repeat their mistake."

Maria began walking away.

"I'm off to avenge my sister."