[All 10th] Week 306: Point of the Spear

[Time Lady Katie]

“Apphia should return shortly. When she arrives, she can teach the ability to travel to Adele,” it was said dismissively, as if Satoru should’ve known better. He should’ve, it was silly for him not to. He always thought he was the smartest person in the room, and he made such a glaring oversight. But Iha was occupying her attention too much for her to dwell.


Yuurei, come home. A decision had been reached and she would need her highest ranked officer to carry out her final orders to her people. I’d like to have you there for moral support, but you need to enforce my orders here. It was time to take this chaos and bring it to order.


“Material Summon,” Adelaide reached out and her haori manifested in her hand, “Here are the standing orders for the Tenth Division. Once our troops are home, all activity is suspended. I do want enhanced patrols and guards for a few days still in case anything tries to take advantage of our crippling. Keep your normal training programs, but until further notice any long-range missions are suspended. You’re not on your best, don’t pretend you are. Don’t take risks. If any of you gets hurt, I won’t ever forgive myself.”


Satoru was shortsighted and he believed in the rationality of Yin Feng, something Adelaide did not believe in. He saw reason as a possibility, Adelaide knew that there was only one point to negotiate about and she was holding it in her hand. She wanted to see it, to know what it was she was fighting for. “The truth of the matter is, if I were worthy of this, we wouldn’t be here right now,” she admitted, “and I’m not. If I threw this down on Feng’s desk, this would be over right now. Everyone would walk away from this except me. We wouldn’t need to shut down, we wouldn’t need to ferry everyone home. If I was a good leader, this would’ve ended the moment it started.


“But honestly? There is only one person in this entire division who could even be considered for it’s leadership. I looked for other options, there aren’t any. The only one who can shepherd you into the future right now is me. And that should scare the living hell out of you, and you should all be inspired to take this out of my hands. As inspired as Feng is. You should seek greatness so you can protect the Tenth from this moment when it comes again.” Without Lilith’s help, there was options were limited. Extremely limited. Either give Iha the most dangerous knowledge or leave the Tenth to whatever fate made of it. No third, cleverer option existed.


So, she glance down at the scientist. “You get them through this, sir, and I’ll show you the world like you can’t even imagine seeing it today. I’ll buy a tomorrow with what amounts to my biggest mistake since being given this coat. But you don’t get a spell until this is over.” That was her little way of keeping an ounce of dignity. Her bad day could’ve become a bad day for a lot more people if he used what she was giving him. “Resolve this, and meet me in Arimanthium.”


To the rest of the division? “The moment your colleagues mae it home, consider yourselves shut down. It is so ordered.”

567 Words
2710 Total​

 

[Several Zombies]

"My my, Captain," the diminutive Souchou cooed, his horned head still uncomfortably close to Adelaide's. "...Such resolve is befitting of a woman in your position, ah?"

For a moment, the scientist's facade faltered, his pale and childlike face showing something akin to excitement for but a heartbeat before returning to it's usual, plastic grin.

"Speak of this to no one," he breathed in a deep and authoritative tone ill-fitting of his youthful form. "...and know what awaits you should you not uphold your end of the bargain, ah?"

Finally pulling away from the Mystic Captain, Iha ran a hand absent-mindedly down one of his horns, letting out a soft chuckle as he turned his back to the woman. Reaching into his lab coat, the tiny man retrieved a small, tablet-like device and began tapping away. The collaboration between the Ninth Division and the Spiritual Research and Development Institute had wrought a number of benefits for Oudoutai and his colleagues; including unhindered access to the databases and networks responsible for the services the group provided to the Gotei. Restoring those services to the Tenth would be simple for the diminutive scientist.

Too simple.

With a few more keystrokes, the device in Iha's hands issued an affirmative beep, signalling that his intervention had been successful. His grin widened as he slid the pad back into his lab coat and headed for the door, offering the Mystic Captain a short wave over his shoulder as he neared the exit.

"It is done."

A few Shinigami near to him let out shocked and hopeful cries, reaching for their various electronics to verify the scientist's wondrous claim. Slowly, the excited coos turned to confused murmurs. Nothing had changed.

Not for the Tenth Division, anyway.

However, across the expanse of Soul Society and Earth, one by one, each and every member of the Ninth division began to experience the same disruption their Captain had bestowed upon the Mystics.

"Let's see which of you has more resolve, ah?"


1116
FINAL

racoonhands

Iha, in exchange for Adelaide's assistance, has linked the services of the Ninth to those of the Tenth. As long as Feng refuses those services to the Tenth, he and his own division will suffer the fallout, too. It's officially a battle of attrition. Let's see who's got more gusto.

 

[Nutella]

With haste, the disguised mystic started to make her way out of the halls, quietly slipping past the throng of researchers that simply whizzed past her, perhaps dismissing her as one of those who inevitably hurried to her duties. They weren't mistaken though. She hurried past their prying eyes so that she could simply revert back to her old form, when something--- something curious stopped her from her tracks. The sound of frustrated cries and furious complaints from the researchers. Some whines and angry outbursts.

"What happened?" Most of them were quick to shriek, perhaps lamenting over their interrupted work and worse, unsaved data. The curious researchers from the halls were equally struck, doubling their pace to see this affair for themselves. Even the mystic too-- consider her intrigued. While most of them ran to their respective officers, she merely leaned back to take a small peek. Their devices froze to its screens, and no matter how hard they bashed the keyboards and pressed on random keys, it still wouldn't budge.

"Ohhhh, now that's interesting," she whispered to herself, eyebrow raised and accompanied by a sly smile.

* * *​

It took quite a while before the Third Seat came to return to their meeting spot, literally missing everything that had transpired within its vicinity-- including the dissent between the members, the existence of the Oudoutai, and Adelaide's order.

"I should say," she started as her form came to view, feet materializing first, "that I've seen nothing of what has been speculated in here. No troops, no preparations, absolutely nothing." It was at that precise moment that the officer's full body came into view, now walking towards Adelaide.

"However, I'm quite happy to say that I did not come empty handed!" she spoke with a grin, seemingly-- and blissfully unaware of the recent events. "I had a short chat with someone, and shortly before I left, there seemed to be a queer phenomenon around the Ninth." She walked closer, until she was mere feet away from the captain. "Sounds like something we're having right now."

The mystic allowed the words to linger, and only silence from them ensued thereafter-- the silence filled in with the frustrated cries and the furious complaints of the other mystics whose devices failed them.
​

1,000

 

[Evergloam]

Ren turned to face Adele, lightly grabbing her hand. "Let's go get started. Apphia-san shouldn't be too far away, so you can start learning Far Skies."

She began to walk out, escorting the Tenth seat with her to find the secretary that could teach Adele. When they left the room, she whispered to her friend. "I don't know who the horned shinigami was, but do you think he really helped us?" Casting a look around the area, she noticed the uproar some Mystics were still creating, fixated on the loss of their internet, any chance of talking to members on the field or elsewhere. Taidans hummed nonstop, but those only helped so much. "It doesn't look like it..."

[118/585]​

 

[Dysney]

Adele let Ren steer her away, her face carefully blank. "No, I don't think he did. He was... he was a shark in a goldfish bowl. Honestly I don't know why he was allowed in before order was restored. If we had at least put up a strong front and not appeared so vulnerable he might have had less room to make mischief. Maybe it wouldn't have made a difference. But whatever he wants, I doubt it's good. He was too much like...." the Tenth Seat let her voice trail off. He was too much like those men Kenshi sometimes dealt with....

A sigh followed the awkward pause as the two women went to find Apphia. "He was far too similar to the type of men my father used to do business with for my liking. I was warned about men like him. But what can we do?" The nekogami shrugged. "We'll just have to trust Taichou-chan to make the right choice."

To Satoru she said one last thing. Mistakes aside, your ideas are useless if you make Onee-chan too angry to want to listen to you. You should try to view her beyond your irritation before trying to advise me on how to treat her objectively. Or set a better example in general. That aside, I don't know enough about what is going on to judge her actions and neither do you. There is obviously more at work than what we could ever hope to see; this is just the tip of the iceberg.

[255/1400]

 

[Time Lady Katie]

She’d made a series of calculated risks today based largely on one central conflict, and it wasn’t really the one with Feng. She had a conflict with herself: she knew that her captaincy was a hindrance on the Tenth Division. She was their weakest link. Maybe this arrangement with Iha would change that? The only thing she knew for sure was that she couldn’t do what she thought was the best option in this situation. She couldn’t give Yin Feng her haori, because no one was ready to fill the position. No one was ready to even be Vice-Captain. No one stood to take the Tenth from its failed Captain.

This impasse was problematic on any given day, but no point more than when someone on the outside pressured her to make the decision she knew needed making eventually, but doing so far too soon. The only option to cover the division was the Onmitsu Kidou, and that was a much worse condition than even Adelaide’s own leadership had proven. Her options were limited, her choice was the only practical one she could make, too bad she couldn’t believe it was right.

She glanced at Iha for a long moment and then slowly began to disappear. Adelaide was a terrible Captain, a mediocre Mystic and the single point of contention between the Ninth and Tenth Divisions. If she didn’t leave the division’s leadership, problems would continue to grow. She knew that. She knew her followers were blinded by some loyalty she hadn’t earned. And she couldn’t do anything but accept this fate.

Maybe, she thought for just a moment, I should hasten the chaos. Maybe it was time for a different change. If Adelaide Pierce couldn’t leave the Mystics, if she couldn’t avoid the nearing disasters and tragedies, maybe it would be better to experience all that pain now. Ripping off a bandage, essentially, that she had placed on the division when she took up the title of Captain.

And then, the redheaded Briton vanished from the courtyard, leaving behind a wake of bad decisions and a faltering, failing division.

350 Words
3060 FINAL​