“Halt.” The elegant echo of the Mystic captain resounded in the minds of all the members of the Tenth Division, as well as the First Division Vice-Captain, Maruyama Ilsa. The stampede of feet had stopped immediately as each mystic heard and felt the strings of reiatsu that connected them with their captain and allowed her to penetrate their minds.
“Alpha and Charlie teams, you are closest together. I want all of you to meet at the Eastern edge of the Tenth Division.” Those teams, excited and nervous, included Lucas, Yuurei, Sekka, and Celly.
Meanwhile, the captain also spoke to the other groupings of members. “Beta and Delta teams, gather together at the Northwest corner of the division.” Now she spoke directly to Adelaide, Hisoka, and Creed. Each of them was equally frenzied or razzled by other emotions.
“All others that are not assigned to a team, go to the closest meeting ground. We need to discuss specifics on the current mission.” Although Lucas' tactics were solid, they would need better preparations to act most effectively. Their current methods were still inefficient without more detailed information. “I will meet with you there. Be expedient.”
Dribbles of blood spattered over Lilith’s body and tarnished the captain’s ivory robe, while her hair wore an uncharacteristic disheveled appearance. At that point, four copies of the dark-haired woman were prepared. Each of them bore the same haori while glaring into the distance with identical, harsh orchid glares. Two sped off to the division’s Eastern edge, while the other two hurried to the Northwest corner.
(word count for this turn is only included in the Alpha Charlie thread)
It wasn’t that she had to almost immediately pack up her division that upset her. Adelaide was upset that she had been not only ordered around by her equal, but she had been given bad orders. And not just bad orders, ones that were revoked almost immediately. Honestly, there was no reason for her brief command before she had ordered her tem back to where Lilith had summoned her.
At the very least, when Adelaide led her team back on to the Tenth’s grounds, the rather unhappy third seat did see another cloned Ilsa, with a second team. Oddly, the fact that it wasn’t just Adelaide who was inconvenienced by the terrible orders of Lucas made her feel better, and seeing another adorable Ilsa made her feel even better than that.
“Reporting as ordered,” Adelaide announced as she and her eleven team members arrived. Hopefully, the Captain would be more willing than her colleague to provide some information as to what they were looking for, although she did feel a little irritated that her efforts to this point had been an utter waste of time.
One of Lilith’s copies eyed Adelaide, sensing the redhead’s obvious irritation at her orders. The orchid-eyed woman raised an eyebrow, reading the frustrated expression on her face but said nothing.
As the rest of the Bravo team appeared before the captain, Lilith glanced at each of their faces. Many were weary, unaccustomed to running around the division with changing orders. Most appeared confused, not knowing how or what they were supposed to do in order to find this mysterious Tentei Kuura user. The Mystics were not Arcanists, and thus, most were not familiar with a spell as high as Kakushi Tsuijyaku. And even less were familiar with an even higher spell, Bakudou Number Seventy-Seven, Tentei Kuura. Still others were, like Adelaide, angry.
“I apologize for making you all backtrack. However, in order to accomplish this mission most effectively, I need both teams here together. This spot is the closest meeting point between the Bravo and Delta squads.” The second, silent clone stepped forward to stand beside the speaking woman. “We are already short on time. I will not give the Delta team any more than two minutes to regroup here with us. We must be expedient if we intend to find one of the two Tentei Kuura users that communicated with the captains and vice-captains.”
Lilith glanced to the West and quickly deduced that she had a few spare seconds before the Delta team arrived. While one copy of Lilith remained with the group, the other walked up to Adelaide and tapped her on the shoulder. Mouthing the words, “Come with me,” she led the spellsword Mystic away from the group.
Adelaide couldn’t help but wince. She knew Lilith was quite adept at emotions and likely knew what Adelaide felt. In the interest of fairness, it wasn’t that Adelaide was upset with the Captain herself, she was irritated that Lucas had wasted her time, but she knew that given the situation there wasn’t a whole lot of distinction in the matter. She hesitated only a second.
“At ease,” she addressed her team, as if they weren’t already at ease. She just felt a need to say something to them. And then she was off, wandering after one of the Lilith Maikeru kidou clones.
As soon as they were out of earshot of her team, Adelaide offered a simple; “I’m sorry I was brash, I know this isn’t the time for that.” Still, what it was the time for was acting wisely, and Lucas had sent her off to do something with no information as to what that something was. Maybe she was wrong, but she also felt justified in her wrongness.
The captain suddenly spun on her heel before looking directly into the redhead’s eyes. “You are my Third Seat. Know that. Trust that.”
The dark-haired woman spoke rapidly, driving away Adelaide’s attempts to explain herself. Lilith normally would have listened, but now was not the time.
“I intended that message to be relayed to both of you.” She took a step forward, closing the distance between the two women. “But given the havoc at Central, and because I am more familiar with Lucas’ reiatsu signature, he was easier to access.” She turned her head to glance back at the others, checking to make sure that the second team had not yet arrived.
“But I want you to know that currently, during this mission, you outrank even Lucas.” Her words were unexpected, but emerged from her lips with clear sincerity. “Do not be afraid to speak up when necessary. I trust you. And now – at this dire time of war – I need you to trust yourself, Adelaide. Is that understood?”
Adelaide felt the color drain from her face for reasons other than those she expected to drain color from her face. Well, that’s something completely different, she responded mentally. She wasn’t sure if the ringing in her ears was the sudden shift in her own emotional state or from Lucas’ head exploding somewhere. But despite her internal attitude about the matter, she had a situation that was way more important than her own personal feelings on outranking Lucas.
It was a couple seconds before Adelaide was able to open her mouth again, and a couple more before words came out, but given the situation the entire process was quite truncated. She practically leapt into action. “Then I need to know what happened. I need to know who we’re fighting, what we’re up against. Hell’s bells, I felt what I can only assume were hundreds of people dying – I really hope I’m wrong about what could do that being a short list.”
She had only ever met one person who had both the power and callousness to simply end hundreds of lives, and it had been her operating theory the entire day so far that he was the cause. But she hoped against all odds that there weren’t swaths of the Gotei that had been far more convinced by him than Adelaide had.
The captain raised an eyebrow and smirked, somewhat amused and yet very proud of Adelaide’s new jolt of enthusiasm. Lilith was still looking for a promising Mystic to fill the role of lieutenant, and though Adelaide was still new to the Tenth, Lilith began to wonder if this spellswordstress was exactly what she was looking for.
Turning around, the dark-haired captain began the return trek to the larger group of men and women. She turned back for a moment and spoke over her shoulder, “You’ll learn as much as I can tell you. Let’s return to the others so I can explain the situation best to everyone at once.”
Together, the two women walked as the clicking of their heels matched in tandem, step by step.
Lilith grumbled to herself as she stared into the West, hoping to see some activity from the Delta team. She had given them their warnings, expecting them to arrive as quickly as possible. Although it was a burden to re-gather at this meeting, the captain had selected an area that they would be able to reach quickly and easily.
But despite those orders, the seconds were ticking by, closing in on the two-minute mark. Hurry, Hisoka.
4, 3...
Your team needs to be here.
2...
There's no time left.
1...
"Everyone, gather round!" Lilith cried to the Beta team. The men and women formed in a circle around her, waiting on the orders. "Sadly, we don't have more time to wait for your comrades. We will have to continue the rest of this mission without them."
The group all nodded in understanding.
She placed one hand over her chest and began, "You should know that I am only a clone version of myself." There was a slight clamor in hearing those words. Some mystics were taken completely off-guard, while others remained relatively calm. "However during the attack at Central, I was able to tag the reiatsu signatures of the two spellcasters that communicated with me and the other captains. It is stored here in this other clone beside me."
The second version of Lilith stepped forward, nodding to the rest of the group.
"I know that you were ordered to try to hunt down this target via Kakushi Tsuijyaku. It is a task that requires knowledge on a specific reiatsu signature, and hunting down one of billions is impossible under these circumstances. Furthermore, many of you had never learned the spell, and for some, this may be your first time hearing about it." Some of the members agreed with solemn nods. "However, you are Mystics, and as Mystics, you have a duty to understand and read energy fluctuations.
"Thus, when the clone beside me explodes, Kakushi Tsuijyaku will be cast, directly tailing the reiatsu signature of our target. You will follow one, while the Alpha and Charlie teams will follow the other." She lifted her gaze and stared into the eyes of each individual man and woman in the team. "Your job is to follow this energy, read it, harness it. Grasp onto it as if your life depended on it, and if you are successful, you will know the exact reiatsu signature of our target."
A slight strike of worry swept across the side of her temple. "You should know that this will be difficult. The spell will come quickly like a sudden tidal wave. There is no incantation – no buildup of reiatsu before the spell is cast. For those of you with Hitomane..." She glanced at Adelaide and gave a knowing nod. "...This will be easy. But for those of you that have not yet learned the technique, do your best! And remember, regardless of what happens here, the most current longitude and latitude of our target will be shown on the ground.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes, taichou!" they cried with enthusiasm. There was a wild flurry of nervousness and excitement in the crowd, but the team would try their hardest to accomplish what needed to be done.
"Let's begin."
The clone suddenly puffed apart in a cloud of smoke, and immediately bursting forth from where it once stood. Reiatsu burst out on soaring, arcane wings that followed a reiatsu signature West. The members strained to follow the energy, hoping to catch a hold of where the kidou would lead them.
When the spell eventually faded, Lilith looked to each of the members, waiting to see who successfully sensed the reiatsu signature. Some faces appeared forlorn and dispirited. Others, however, appeared victorious, clearly accomplishing their task. Nonetheless, despite the outcomes, the target's location was still written upon the grounds showing the westward longitude and latitude.
Lilith then turned to one azure-haired woman and asked, "Apphia, did you catch the signature?"
She nodded slightly and humbly responded, "Not completely, ma'am. But I think I sensed it well enough that, I could re-familiarize with it at closer range."
"Good. You are the only one among us that can use Sora Harukani. What is the maximum number of people you can take with you?"
"Only two."
Lilith sighed, momentarily thinking that she had sent the clone to the wrong group. Nevertheless, they needed to be expedient.
"Two will do. Take Adelaide and Creed with you to the target's location."
"Yes, ma'am." Apphia then turned to the man and woman she was ordered to transport and held her hands out for them to take. "Adelaide-san, Creed, please come with me."
Lilith, meanwhile, then shifted her attention to the rest of the group. With a quick glance to the Ilsa clone, they shared a nod of understanding. "The rest of you... Follow Ilsa and me. We will have to go by foot."
Without any comment of a witty or flirtatious nature, Adelaide took Apphia’s hand. This is not for lack of those comments or desire to make them, in fact Adelaide had quite a list of things she wanted to say, but for once she let her wisdom silence her. Not only was she seeing someone, Adelaide was now Apphia’s superior officer, and so soon after being complimented by her Captain, to do something as profoundly unwise as to be flirtatious was just not acceptable.
Though, she had to admit that odds were good that she wasn’t going to be that wise on a regular basis. For now, at least, the Third Seat was not being awful.
Adelaide still wanted to know more, but at the very least, there was someone on the other end of this little jump that could fill that request for her. In the meantime, Adelaide was about to feel the really odd sensation of the one Mystic art she didn’t know. “Allons’y,” she remarked to Apphia with a smile, hoping that this Creed fellow was as prepared for this mission as she felt.
Or that she was as prepared as she felt, for that matter.
It wasn't anger, it wasn't a sense of feeling jostled that boiled inside of the golden-eyed youth as he reached up to do as bid, taking the woman's hand. Although he looked to be a mere young man just entering his prime, Creed has been alive for seventy years, and in a time like this, all those years were telling him just one thing: go forward.
He wanted to run, to chase. His legs were screaming at him: why won't you go?
And so, it was neither ill will or a juvenile heart that caused Creed to grit his teeth, shooting out a little "Tsch," as he took the blue-haired woman's hand in his own. It was a sign of his own restraint, keeping himself calm and obeying the orders he was given. The time to run would come eventually.
Adelaide and Creed each took one of Apphia's hands in theirs. The Third Seat was cool and confident, preparing herself as leader for the mission. The other man, however, was oddly silent. His clamp around her fingers – perhaps a bit clammy -- was also much tighter than she anticipated it would be. Nonetheless, together they would embark on an important mission. The blue-haired woman then gave a small nod to the captain.
"When you arrive, Adelaide will take point. Follow her command as you approach the target," Lilith ordered.
"Understood."
Apphia then turned back to meet Adelaide's emerald eyes as the two women shared a brief glance of understanding. Then a moment later, a small breeze swept under the trio's feet, curling in a thin whirlwind. Spirit particles fell over their bodies like a cool blanket, enshrouding the three mystics. Then a moment later, they were gone.
As the world seemed to take a deep breath in, hold it, and exhale around her, Adelaide watched her surroundings change. Damn, she thought, that’s a neat trick. For a moment, she almost wondered why she had taken Senrigan. And then she remembered; time and she were becoming fast friends.
She honestly had no clue where they were when they rematerialized; traveling that way made it hard to get her bearings, but where they were didn’t matter so much as why they were there. Casting the spell Lilith had used again would take more time than Adelaide was willing to spend, so she took a different approach.
She had never tried to positively identify a single person with Reiatsu Takan before, but the feeling of this person’s reiatsu signature was fresh in her mind and she could feel people all through a great distance. She gestured in a direction rather quickly, focusing first on reiatsu sources strong enough to 3even cast Teitaikuura and from there trying to compare them to the feeling that she had lingering in her mind from Lilith’s spell.
I have to be confident, she reminded herself. She had someone near them she felt to be a match, though she had her doubts about her abilities. She had to overcome them, though. That’s what came with her new position.
Creed arrived and stepped away from the group quickly, though he only made it a few paces. He had no refined approach to tracking, no tricks or demon arts to assist him in the matter that he knew of. But he possessed two things that might be of value in such a hunt: intuition and vigor.
Rocking back and forth on his heels like a lion paces in a cage, the golden-eyed youth set his burning gaze to wondering the terrain of their arrival point. He had no purpose in the scan, and the rocking was not a conscious effort: instead he was attuning himself to the environment. He tried to draw in the lingering power, emotions, and presence of those who had been here, the strongest of traces.
Something was here. But Creed's mind was blocking it.
Damn, the youth chided himself. He was too eager, framing the experience too much in his own mind.
As she bore down on the reiatsu signature that matched what Lilith had exposed her to, she felt a smile creep across her face. “Creed?” Adelaide decided it was time to let loose the fateful lightning, “Get him.” She could tell there was a lot of energy in the boy, and that it might mean a lot to him to take down a bad guy.
She made a gesture so Creed could know where to go and who to take down, and let the boy take the initiative he seemed so eager to take. “Apphia and I will back you up.” Of course, if it didn’t work, Adelaide could always just try to pull off that time-stoppy thing she had done a couple times before. Catching the fellow wasn’t going to be a problem.
Hearing his own name called, the unseated Mystic closed his eyes. He didn't need the distraction right then, he didn't want to consider who was with him, why they were there, or the implications of failure. Yet, even actively rejecting them would have clouded his attempt to link with the residing impressions in the area. To view the psychic energies one needed to absolutely abandon self.
And so the behavior that may have appeared autistic to outsiders continued, the words never reaching past his ears. Continuing to rock between heels and balls of his feet, he eased his mind into a complacency of emptiness. Then it happened, for just a moment, however brief, he felt it all.
Bringing forth what he had glimpsed in his mind's eye would be impossible, he could only experience undescribed. Now, though, he had what he needed. And just as he grasped it, he heard the second words. Looking over his shoulder with a maniacal grin towards the two women near him was all the confirmation needed.
The motion was fluid, as if some avian were coiling up to launch themselves from the restriction of water into the freedom of the air. Creed's arms curled back even as his knees bent and hips adjusted to throw almost all of his weight forward. And then he embraced the thrill of shuynpo. For someone who was merely unseated, his speed was incredible.
He reappeared mid air, looking as if he was simply going to swan dive face first into the roof below him. Instead, a quick tuck and roll let his momentum carry forward on the new perch and a heartbeat later sinewy legs were furiously driving him on.
Time to see if these people can catch up. More importantly, if I can find that man before time runs out. If I were him, I know exactly where I'd be headed.
With an expression that strode the line of amazement and terror, Adelaide watched Creed spring into action. “Holy hell,” she remarked, only slightly aware that she was doing so aloud, "I feel like I just unleashed Hyde.” She realized the reference would be lost on those less literate than herself, but she lacked a better standard to compare. Motioning for Apphia to follow, the already small gap between them and where Adelaide sense the reiatsu of their target needed to be traveled quickly, especially considering how fast Creed was moving.
Embracing her own shunpo, the now hurried mystic spellsword wondered if this young, eager fellow was that fast, what kind of strength might he possess? He does know we want this caster alive, I hope, and the possibility of the alternative made her rush all the more.
A bead of sweat rolled down the forehead of the shinigami as he strode along the paths of the Eleventh division. It was not from the stress of his subterfuge, but rather, from the stress of having to use such a powerful kidou. Though in many respects talented, harnessing such a demon art, and to so many, would be a test for any shinigami.
Alonso passed that test with flying colors. And now, as he moved through with the evacuation plan, the brown-haired man knew that he would receive his just desert. The Gotei would be far too concerned with the threat of Armed Diplomacy to concern themselves with a simple agent such as himself, and he blended in well. His pace was neither too fast, nor too slow, and he had no signs of the earlier battle upon his person.
I never expected to succeed so easily, the man thought as a sense of smugness welled up.
Keeping track of a nameless faceless mass of reiatsu took a lot more attention than Adelaide would’ve imagined. So much so that she lost track of Creed. She hoped that the boy was doing well, and imagined he would fall from the sky to level everything in sight rather shortly, but for the moment the mission would need to come first. She couldn’t let her focus waiver for a moment.
“Sir!” Adelaide called out, giving a shunpo her all to come up a yard or so from her target. It was a man, approaching the Eleventh who seemed quite suited to it. Adelaide always imagined the Blood Templars a rather unsavory bunch. He didn’t seem unsavory, per se, but he did match the reiatsu... feeling? It was hard to put into words what she felt from him, but it matched the impression of the Teitaikuura spell related to her by Lilith. If this wasn’t the guy, and she sincerely hoped it was, she’d need to try and mimic the tracking spell Lilith had taught her, though she worried still about the kind of time that would consume.
“As in Dr. Jekyll’s alter ego?” Apphia asked with interest. “Yes, I’d have to agree with that.” The musician was already out of breath, but despite the building pain under her left rib, she couldn’t resist commenting. Although the azure-haired woman was the Twentieth Seat of the Tenth Division, she was less practiced than some of the other members. She spent more time in a desk chair as the headquarters secretary than on the training ground. Nonetheless, with all that time, she also became quite acquainted with the captain’s personal library.
Apphia suddenly winced, realizing that she was slowing down Adelaide. Sora Harukani -- while carrying two others -- followed by a series of shunpo had forced beads of sweat to drip down her skin. Her hair was damp as blue bangs clung to her forehead. “Adelaide-san, you should hurry with Creed. I’ll go with you as quickly as I can.”
The target’s reiatsu signature was still powerful in her mind, and she sensed it nearby. “If I’m correct, I think he’s walking down that alleyway.” She pointed, but as she did so, she suddenly fell to a knee as her ankle twisted under her. As her reiatsu weakened, her coordination and strength began to fail. Her eyesight wavered in and out of blurriness. Although the effort was slow, she managed to pulled herself back up while using a nearby brick wall for support.
“Please go. I’ll do what I can from here. My reiatsu is low, so I want to conserve it where I can. After all, I am better at ranged fighting.€
Turning to look at the new arrival, Alonso merely replied with an arched eyebrow and a "Hmmmm?" He stopped, turning to look at the Mystic squarely and with a calm expression. Not a movement, nor hair out of place, save a faint sheen of perspiration on his forehead, which could be attributed to a long walk.
