A heavy musty odor perfumed it’s way throughout the sewer corridor, a steady drip trickled in from above as condensation found its way back down to the stone floor. Something seemed to scurry away into the darkness. A small rope ladder and pillar of light cut out against the darkness. Along the stone wall a small rectangle appeared to be cut out, its color still matching the darkened pathway. Some strange tropical scent perfumed its way vaguely through the mingled refuse. In another moment, there was only the sound of rushing water as the depths awaited their prey.
----
The rather unpleasant mix of smells seemed particularly odorous directly below the Ninth Division. As the gathered group began to open their eyes, still dazed from the potent mix of tranquilizers Lucia had cooked up, the ever excited face of Lucia Frey caught their attention immediately. She stood in front of them, arms crossed and a perpetual smirk on the face.
“Wake up sleepy heads,” she muttered in a playful tone of voice. Haori draped behind her, the girl was ready to see how the most promising researchers and healers would fare against the mechanisms the their respectives Captains had created.
Without waiting for the shinigami to gather their thoughts, she began the explanation. “Welcome, though I’m sure some of you have been here before, to the Seireitei Sewer System. Even though these have lasted for centuries, very few attempts to record the twisting labyrinth have been made. Throughout the Sewers you will face challenges that will test all skills that members of the Fourth and Ninth should have!”
Lucia gestured to their wrist, metal bracelets around each. Each was colored a polished silver, a tiny LED monitor embedded along the front facing edge. The ticker seemed to be idle, waiting for new information to be passed in. “Senkurokawa Okita and Ryuku Keiji, you have a bracelet provided by the Ninth. Here you will find information provided by Feng about your challenges and access to the Ninth database, as your Apollo devices have been limited. Echo LaSalle, Kasumi, and Ilda Allen, you wear a bracelet provided by the Fourth. Readouts on the physical and mental status of each group member will ticker across.”
The lavender-haired girl pointed in a random direction, “As this is a test to evaluate both your problem solving and ability to function as a group under a combat scenario, you won’t be able to contact us for additional information. As of now, you all are cleared for shikai usage! Your job is simple. Find the exit and try your best!”
With little fanfare after, a bloom of white light engulfed Lucia, as she disappeared in a manner most perplexing.
“Ugh,” Iida muttered more to herself than anyone, “who drove the car that hit me?”
Reaching up to prod at her skull, the diminutive woman squinted through the haze and down at her bracer. Sure enough, the status of everyone was there. Green for health and blue for mental with smiley faces even. At that moment they were fine, though everyone’s smiley looked dazed.
“When we get out of here, I want to get my hands on whatever they used on us.” Rising to her feet, Iida Not-Yet-Miss-Uchiharu Ailen looked over her shanghai’d compatriots. There was one fellow - the captain said his name was Okita? - who reminded her of Hare if he was shorter, less fit, and wore yellow contacts.
There was the LaSalle girl who was on par with Iida for height, and -- great God. Did she actually have gold for hair? If Iida wasn’t too afraid that the girl was going to break from the weight of gravity she’d ask her how she managed to get her hair that fine.
The last of their party didn’t make Iida feel much better either, as she found a boy who couldn’t have been physically over twelve. He was wearing an actual lab coat and looked as if he hadn’t seen good sleep in years.
And then there was her. Miss Short-tempered with the fiery-red hair. She rubbed at her eyes and grumbled, “Welcome one and all to the worst nightmare any good laundry shop has.”
“I don’t know about that,” Kasumi sat up checking through her extremities methodically. Her tally ended with her thumbs dancing across each finger. An act that she repeated to soothe the tension she could feel. What ever had been used on them was surely potent. Perhaps it would make a good anesthetic.
“Really, any laundry worth their salt would love to get our uniforms after this,” everything seemed in order, “I mean they get to charge extra to clean up this sort of thing.”
Her sky blue eyes scanned among the group. Hopefully if the combat that was mentioned came to be there would be those among them that could make up for her pacifism. Her zanpakutou, Heisei, hung in its usual place from a silver cord around her neck. The short wakizashi’s blade connected to the cord in a web that permanently peace bound it. If fighting was too much, she would stop it. They all listened to reason eventually.
For now, they had a mission. Vague, for certain, but this was a mission. She glanced over the bracelet fitted to her wrist and marveled at the way the information was provided. Hopping up to her feet Kasumi smiled lightly as she waited patiently for the rest of their group to rise.
[213/213]
Stats and such!
Kasumi looks like a younger version of her mother, minus the throat scar, and with brilliant blue eyes. Black hair, normally kept short and in a bob.
Kasumi - Unseated, 4th Division
Knowing Mingzhu had introduced the Lily to a series of... interesting... smells, but damn this collection of scents overtook her almost completely. She heard her commander talking to her, the words floated through her mind and some of them actually managed to be retained. So did something about laundry? It probably wasn’t worth asking questions about.
Coughing, she managed to wobble to her feet. The LaSalle took a cloth from her pocket and put it over her face, covering her mouth and nose. That only slightly compensated for the assault the smells made on her sensibilities. This was distinctly unpleasant, but then again Echo had died once, and had to assume that meant she had been through worse. After all, she didn’t really remember dying, but she certainly had seen people in the hospital die and it seemed unpleasant. More unpleasant than these smells.
She glanced down at the strange bracelet she had been given and frowned at it. The readout didn’t look particularly detailed, though honestly she wasn’t the most trained medical practitioner, she just had a talent for healing kidou, so she wasn’t sure how useful something more than smiley faces was going to be. And these did fir well with her Captain’s sense of humor. “Well, good morning,” she spoke into her cloth with a hint of sarcasm.
Okita only met eyes with the LaSalle girl, responding to her "good morning" with barely a nod. He was still a bit weak, after all. The new Ninth Division transfer was having trouble discerning whether or not his headache was from the odious smell that permeated and overpowered their senses, or if it was an after effect of the drugs they had been given.
Nonetheless, realizing that he would have to eventually contribute, he tried to take note of his surroundings: dark, dank, damp, and, at this point, entirely unknowable.
"We should find a way forward," he said, garnering one or two of his fellow attendee's attention, "'out' will come after that. Maybe we could try to navigate to places where the smell seems to escape, or lessen? That might help us toward a way out."
That was to say nothing of any "combat scenarios" awaiting them ahead, that having been stated as part of the original goal of the exercise.
The sudden introduction of a soft voice from out of an empty black void shocked Keiji quite a bit. Something felt off in his head, as though he’d accidentally entered perpetual bullet-time. It didn’t help that in spite of the smell of sewage he could see nothing no matter how wide he forced his eyelids.
Still, he was determined to pick himself off of the ground regardless of his eyesight. On his feet the state of his eyes became clear: his new brain was still adjusting. With every intention of listening to Lucia’s explanation, Keiji set about the task of smacking the side of his head until his eyes flickered back to life.
“Aha,” the boy mumbled quietly as his vision returned.
Displays began flashing into Keiji’s vision until an error message popped up. The message was nearly on cue with Lucia’s explanation regarding limited Apollo connectivity. Without so much as a second thought he minimized the message – if it didn’t mean he’d fall into another coma he could tolerate going without persistent use of the database for a little bit.
Another fact then occurred to him just as Lucia made her dramatic exit. In a flurry of anxiety he checked under his right sleeve for the device that kept him going: a small white stimulant injector. From a cursory glance it was acceptable which meant it didn’t warrant further investigation.
Just to be safe, however, he stretched out his arms as one final systems check was made. Other than the fact that he’d been plopped into the sewers with a number of people he didn’t know everything was in order.
“Ah!” He blurted upon noticing his fellow attendees. Everybody seemed to be composing a plan while he’d been absorbed in a cloud of his own making.
“We certainly can’t stay here,” he took a few steps forward, “but we don’t know what lies ahead, and there’s no quick-save key.”
To emphasize the point he hadn’t yet made Keiji raised his signature declaratory index finger.
“If we’re going to get any good data we need to see that every hazard is both activated and mitigated. Are any of you familiar with one of the clone spells?”
Formal niceties such as introductions never once came to the boy’s mind. Ensuring data-gathering took precedence above all else, even personal safety. After all, he thought, the Medics had been brought along for a reason!
Interrupting the multitude of conversations, a large LED monitor seemed to descend from the darkness above. The illumination of the backlight was easily the brightest object in the room, grabbing the attention of the gathered groups. A cursor appeared on the monitor, text slowly being scrawled upon the screen.
YOU WAKE UP IN A DAMP SEWER. THREE EXITS IMMEDIATELY CATCH YOUR ATTENTION.
IT IS PITCH BLACK.
TO THE NORTH, A SWIRLING LIGHT OF BLUE AND WHITE SEEMS TO HOVER IN THE DISTANCE. SOUTH-EASTWARD, YOU FEEL A CALM BREEZE WASH OVER YOU. TO THE SOUTH-WEST, A FOREBODING LAUGH BECKONS YOU TOWARDS IT.
> GO:
On cue, three spotlights shone down towards the three exits, lighting up the darkness for the moment at least.
She broke the silence that had settled in after their options were given to them. Odds were, as it was the most likely location of an exit it was also most likely a trap, but it was their best option at the moment. The other directions were definitely more unsettling.
“Unless one of you scientists knows what that mass of lights is to the north, we should go south-east. It’s probably a trap, but it’s also the most likely exit. Securing a path to the surface would be a good primary objective,” and that was the entirety of her plan.
If they wanted to explore after that, she was fine. Her priority, though, was making sure they could get out if they had to, and right now they couldn’t. Patching people up was certainly doable, but major medical attention couldn’t really be done here. Thankfully, field medicine was Echo’s focus. She’d have to take charge of the doctors in their party if she was going to get any injured person healed; this was her position after all. She was supposed to do exactly this sort of operation.
Considering all three options, and listening to suggestion from the fellow member of the fourth, Kasumi finally spoke up.
“I agree with going to the south-east as our other two options are stranger,” she started, looked around to their group, then to the odd one talking in video game terms, “If we do have a way of scouting the other two while we move out, that would be most excellent. No matter what, we don’t split up. I’ve seen movies from Earth that have that happen, they never end well. And personally I’m more suited to fixing problems with someone’s body, not making entirely new ones.”
The smell of this place was starting to get to her. One particularly foul odor wafted towards her. She fought back a gag reflex as best she could, and blocked her nose with her sleeve, “Regardless of what we choose to do, can we move out please? One reason I like the south-east is that ‘calm breeze’ the message mentioned. Perhaps it will be more pleasant than our current locale.”
Nothing changed on the bracelets yet, that was good. Hopefully the south east would not be the obvious trap it reeked of. Anywhere but here would be good to see next.
He wasn't in a hurry to decide, but then again, he wasn't the only one he had to consider. After his awkward mission with Reshin and Nevada, he was hesitant to rush forward. But the group seemed capable, and he was starting to feel the haze upon his mind clear.
He felt drawn to the dark coaxing of the laugh, and was curious about the northern lights.
Finally conceding though, he ran his fingers though his raven hair and settled them to rub the back of his head.
"South-east is fine with me."
The LaSalle girl was probably right, it probably was a trap. But, taking a step forward toward their intended exit, he positioned himself to be the first through so that the members of the Fourth wouldn't be exposed to any immediate danger from the front. After all, it would be his and Keiji's responsibility to keep them alive, and vice-versa.
Dusting off her shihakushou, the red-head echoed “Yeah, yeah. South-east is about as good as any direction. Though maybe you’re thinking about this whole thing wrong, Miss LaSalle.”
Looking around once more at their party, Iida tried to remember the term she had heard Lucia use often when talking to Hare about his various designs. It eluded her, and she didn’t chase after it. Neither her husband nor Lucia made sense when they got to talking with one another.
“Remember what Lu- I mean the Captain said? Problem solving and capacity to function as a group in combat. Regardless of which way we choose, I’m pretty sure they’re all to be just as dangerous.”
“Combat and problem-solving skills, my Lady,” Echo gently reminded her, almost as if it was a courtesy and not a correction, “Equally problematic, certainly. But I would assume the challenges down each path will be wildly different.” Since no one else was doing it, the Lily decided to take point, leading the team she found herself with toward the breeze. It didn’t really matter if there were things to fight, she expected a trap and told the rest to as well. What mattered was getting moving. It seemed the others would’ve been content to stand there and agree forever without actually taking an action.
She reluctantly took the cloth away from her face and slipped it bak into her pocket, an act that caused her to gag for a moment. Her chosen direction would, she hoped, be at least a less wretched-smelling trap. She placed her now-free hand on the hilt of her rapier – she was taking point and walking into the unknown after all. Preparation was necessary.
Since she seemed to be the de facto commander of her unity, she offered a reminder they shouldn’t have needed as she made her way toward the breeze; “But we should expect something to go wrong. Stay alert.” They were armed with tools to measure themselves and the world around them. Likely whatever they were going to encounter, these tools would be necessary. It was pointless to try and figure it all out, though. The blonde figured that whatever would come at them, it wouldn’t be something with which they were familiar.
Only a few minutes had passed since they had arrived, and yet Okita found himself growing impatient for an opportunity to prove himself.
"Let's go," he said, stepping in front of the LaSalle girl who had managed to once again take the lead.
He knew that two leaders vying for position wasn't cohesive enough to complete the exercises successfully, but it mattered little if neither of them could get their group moving.
Trying to act as nonchalant as possible, he stepped forward through the exit provided, toward the glowing light. Everyone seemed to shuffle behind, not really adhering to his intended pace but he pressed on, managing a good balance on the narrow foot-bridge that was on the other.
Even as the space grew between him and the rest of the group, he had hoped they would eventually come together to complete the trial. Turning, he called back to his fellow Ninth Division peer, whose name he had already forgotten. Though, he had already decided on a nickname fitting to the scientist, or so he thought.
"Hey," he said, voice echoing as he hesitated to admit his own, only slightly above average, technical skills, "Doc, you got anything on the wrist band? I don't really know how to work mine yet."
