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[PM] [1st/3rd/8th/10th/11th/Open] Week 196: Picking Teams

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The woman left just as quickly as she had arrived. She vanished so abruptly that none of them could even question the meaning behind her cryptic words. As Kyuketsu watched the Captain make off, he couldn’t help but wonder just what caused her to give such a... grim and foreboding farewell. She was the type to give ambiguous remarks whenever a situation proved dire. By this time, the Vice-Captain should have been used to it by now, but still...

Opening the note, he began to read quietly to himself. The letter itself was short and precise, yet by its subtle intent alone, the young man’s heart was moved. Lifting his head, he gave one last glance to the doorway in which Tsubaki had entered and exited not too long ago.

People do pressure me far too much these days, it’s insane. She’s already the second woman who made me promise to come back alive. Rest assured though, with these two blades in my possession, I’ll lead our allies through this inferno and come back alive... I swear to you.

Kyuketsu closed the parchment as he slid it within his shihakushou. Hearing the proposal ring out from one of the soldiers, he poised his attention to the lieutenant from the First and spoke up, "He’s right. We best begin discussing the mission now so all of us can get better grasp on what’s about to happen. I’ll personally inform the details to the absentees myself if I have to. So... what say you, Vice-Captain?” ​


876​
 
Reijuu was right, much as Ilsa hated to admit it. She had been spinning this out as long as she could, hoping that a certain shinigami would show up. He hadn’t actually said he would be here, and she didn’t have the authority to order him. But she had asked, putting forth her argument as logically as she could… and it didn’t look like he had been convinced.

The blonde vice-captain nodded to Reijuu, standing up. “You’re right; we have waited long enough.” The room went silent (mostly) at this sign that the meeting was finally starting.

“The Soutaichou has ordered a scouting mission to Hueco Mundo. The Ninth Division’s sensors in that realm have detected extremely large reiatsu anomalies of unknown origin. Since they can’t figure out what’s going on, that job has been passed to us.”

Ilsa took a piece of paper out of the rectangular black pouch that hung on her obi and turned to the blackboard behind her, copying the shape on the paper as best she could. It was an irregular ovoid, a blob longer than it was tall. The vice-captain put the paper away and turned back to her audience, stepping aside so they could see what she had drawn. “This is the shape of the area from which the anomalies are coming. We will divide into two teams, one working inward from the west and one working from the east.

“I will command one of these teams. Reijuu-fukutaichou of the Eleventh will command the other.” Given her way, Ilsa would have put the vice-captain of the Eighth in charge of the second team. The Eleventh Division tended to be… enthusiastic. But Sayis-soutaichou had specifically said who would be in charge on this mission. “Everyone, keep in mind that this is a scouting mission. We are not to go looking for trouble. If trouble finds us, we will deal with it, but our chief responsibility is to cover our assigned areas.

“As it turns out, we have some unique abilities available for that.” The tall shinigami smiled. “Fourth Seat Lilli, please step forward.” She beckoned to the one-eyed woman.

355/1533​
 
Shingo dipped his head to the side a bit in anguish, a short and silent laugh following it with the lieutenant’s words.

"Trouble will find us. There’s no doubt about that,” the young officer said within himself, his extended finger rubbing against the bottom of his chin as he continued to listen in. "And exactly what kind of trouble isn’t hard to imagine.”

The news coming from the research institute had probably been new news to all in the room excluding Shingo and Kurohashi. The air in Hueco Mundo had been especially dense and ominous during his last visit into the Hollow labyrinth, something he was sure that even his immovable division mate had noticed and took caution to.

His eyes moved from the speaking superior in the room to the one called forth. Not bothering with any immediate inquires or trying to gather an opinion from the typically unresponsive Kurohashi, Shingo’s rested his hand over his mouth and his elbows on the table patiently.

[165/864]​
 
Zak rolled the cigar from one side of his mouth to the other, the captain had made a quick visit and spoken some ominous words. His seniors among the division had been to the hollow dimension before which gave them a leg up on him. He was about to ask them what it was like there when Ilsa stood up and began addressing the gathered shinigami. Strange signatures and a scouting mission, this wasn't something he liked the smell of. Should they come across an Espada in that place he did not imagine they would make it back to Seireitei to tell anyone about it. Then again, actually facing an Espada might give him some insight into the master and if she indeed was one of these legendary hollows.

He couldn't help but lean forward in his chair slightly as she began explaining the plan and exhaled another stream of smoke into the room. Regardless there would be hollows, hollows to test him, hollows for him to kill. That alone was enough to make him all tingly.

[177/428]
 
“Hold that thought,” Adelaide stopped the person she had been not-talking to from not-responding. She was pretty convinced that the one-armed Shinigami did not know it was her that Adelaide had been addressing. Still, that didn’t stop Adelaide from trying to hold a conversation. She found a place to sit and sat, attentive for the briefing.

Udo had been an example of what an Eighth shouldn’t be. Adelaide was going to be a darling of her Division; she was going to be precisely what she ought to be. And what she ought to do at the moment was sit at her table and be attentive. Which was easy at the moment because she was really interested in what was being said. A major source of Reiatsu in the home of all Hollows seemed pretty worth being here for. The unsettling thought, though, in Adelaide’s mind, was what if the source of Reiatsu was a new Hollow or Hollow-weapon or something? Something that would waste a platoon of Shinigami sent to find out what it was.

There was no way to know what she was going to encounter there, but there’s no way she was going to walk away. Not only because of the level of crap Udo got for suggesting that or the fact that Adelaide wanted to be part of an operation to do the right thing, but also because an Eighth wouldn’t walk away. She presumed an Eighth wouldn’t walk away, at any rate.
248 Words, 1248 Total​
 
Picca looked up, then down, then left, then right, all without moving her head. It felt strange getting called on in front of everyone and honestly, it made her nervous. The fourth seat of the First took a step forward with her right leg. The prosthetic followed silently afterward. "Yes," she said and briefly raised one hand before clasping both of them behind her back.

[207]
 
A blob. The greatest amount of information these people could provide is a blob. Oh, but it’s an irregular ovoid blob! And that great piece of information means squat! How could the combined power of all of the equipment and expertise in the Ninth Division give us nothing but a blob?! Was this some kind of a joke? What the hell?

Tabawara Udo, former item specialist of the Ninth Division, was very, very disappointed. He could get more detailed information out of a toddler. The reaper scowled, waiting for the next piece of useless news. How could “unique abilities” help them against a blob? Does the next speaker have magical irregular ovoid blob powers?

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Ilsa gestured to Picca as she stepped forward. "Both Lilli-san and I have shikai abilities that let us see much farther, and in much more detail than we otherwise could.” She looked at the vice-captain of the Eleventh. "Reijuu-fukutaichou, I am assigning Lilli-san to your team.” Turning back toward the rest of the room, she continued. "With this kind of surveillance ability on both teams, we should be able to cover our assigned areas much faster.”

Where was her representative from the Ninth? She needed him to help explain this next part. "The Ninth Division will be providing us with-"

The door slid open, revealing a short, thin shinigami with wire-framed oval glasses and shaggy black hair held out of his face by a faded red bandana. Two shiny black objects approximately the size and shape of bricks hung from his obi along with two loops of cord, and two black cloth bandoliers over his skinny chest held two wire contraptions onto his back. "Hey, Maruyama-san! Sorry I’m late.” He walked up to the front of the room as if he belonged there.

"Ah, Sakamoto-san. So glad you could join us.” Ilsa shot the other shinigami a look that should have fried him on the spot.

He shrugged up at her. "Hey, I got orders from the brass to recalibrate these things at the last minute. I can do fast or good, but you try to do both and you end up with crap.”

There wasn’t much she could say to that. Instead, Ilsa turned back to her audience. "This is Eighth Seat Sakamoto Takashi from the Ninth Division. As I was about to say earlier, the Ninth will be providing us with communication devices capable of reaching Soul Society from Hueco Mundo.” Stepping back slightly, the vice-captain gestured Takashi forward.

"Okay, we got you two interdimensional phones, so to speak, but these things are a lot bulkier and more fragile than your soul phones. Getting a signal through the dimensional barrier between Soul Society and Hueco Mundo is a lot tougher than getting through to the living world, and doing it without attracting every Hollow for miles around? You end up with all this crap that I’m carrying with me. Expensive crap, so try not to break it or lose it.”

Takashi reached up and took one of the bandoliers off, revealing a long pocket on the back that held the thick wires in place. "This here is your signal amplifier. When you want to make a call, you gotta take it off its carrying strap and set it up on the ground, like so.” He pulled out a device that looked something like an old-fashioned Earthly antenna with tripod legs. "Unfold the legs, set it up so the antenna’s pointing as close to vertical as you can, and that’s the first step.” The scientist matched actions to words as he spoke.

"See this bit here?” Takashi lifted up the tripod and pointed to a thicker area with a socket just above the point where the legs came together. "That’s where you plug the cord in.” Unrolling a loop of cord from his obi, he plugged it in. "The big end goes into the amplifier, the little end goes into the phone." He pulled one of the rectangular devices out of its holster and demonstrated.

"The interface is the same as a regular soul phone, not much to explain there. But do not leave it on when you’re done making your call!” Intense, dark eyes swept the room. "There’s a reason this thing is so frigging huge, and that’s because it’s a power hog. You leave it on and you’ll run out of juice in less than an hour.”

The scientist looked down at the contraption and sighed. "Man, this is so... clunky. Can’t be helped, though. This is the kind of thing that happens when you cut R & D’s budget down to practically nothing.”

Ilsa stepped back up beside him, an Amazon beside a pygmy. "We know about the Ninth Division’s budget woes, Sakamoto-san.” She turned to her audience. "Each team will have one of these. Any questions on how to set up and use the communication devices?”


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Note
Will and/or Rob, if you want me to change any aspect of how the dimensional phones work, let me know. This is my interpretation of 'rudimentary communication device that can be set up in a few minutes'.
 
She couldn’t say for sure, but lugging that thing around seemed like something a newbie would be assigned to do, since whoever was carrying it would be of limited-at-best use in combat anyway. Given that, she took pretty detailed mental notes on the set-up process and extrapolated the process for making the apparatus mobile again. It was a lot of work to be able to phone home, but it was kind of what Adelaide had long envisioned human keitai (the only word she had ever used to describe the modern human innovation of portable phones) to function like. And it was certainly worlds above sending messengers back and forth like she would have expected from her own place in history.

The main concerns she had were not about the communication relay itself but the circumstances in which they’d have to do this sort of set-up. She hoped that whoever got the task to operate this was able to spend at least a little time practicing to narrow the timing to the smallest possible window, because odds were pretty good that this wasn’t going to be set up in a board room. Odds were good that the person setting it up would have a nightmare unfolding around them, and shaving seconds off of that might make all the difference in the world. And, on the chance Adelaide herself would have to set this up, she was going to take every opportunity to run through the assembly process in her head. She wanted to be able to do it in her sleep.
260 Words, 1508 Total​
 
He appeared attentive towards the Ninth’s instructions. While it was understandable for a first-generation device of such degree to be bulky and primitive, its downside was more than just its frailty. It was a hazard, as well as a hindrance if ever the one carrying it where to engage in battle. Of course, they were trying to avoid such a conundrum to begin with, but knowing Hueco Mundo… anything could happen. At that point, they just had to make the best of it and try not to get too reckless.

After Maruyama and the scientist finished talking, Kyuketsu began contemplating on Lilli being assigned to his team. As basic as it was, the girl lieutenant was right. They had to divide their strengths whether it was in terms of intelligence, combat, or otherwise.

Eyes glued on the assembly’s speaker, he voiced out, “I see. So it has to be constantly turned on and off with every use. Alright then.”

“They seem simple enough to operate, so I suppose it won’t prove too much of a problem,” he paused, glancing at his fellow Templars, “Although if I may, Vice-Captain, by this time I’d like to make a proposal. I realize it’s not our intent to engage the enemy in combat; however, we can’t be too careful when dealing with the realm of Hollows. As you said, by giving us Miss Lilli, surveying the perimeter would become a lot easier. In turn, please take one or two of my men from the Eleventh as sentinel units. If ever a fight becomes inescapable, I can assure you that they will serve as powerful defensive and offensive guards.”
​


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The female shinigami's reaction to Udo and his actions were rather disapproving. At any circumstance she wouldn't like to be working with him, if he was always like that.

Shizuka had sat down and listened carefully as Maruyama-fukutaichou and the scientist of the Ninth Division explained the usage of the communications device. In the female's mind the device had more disadvantages than it had to speak for itself. That seems more bulky than it should be, she mused to herself.

Going by the appearances of the two vice-captains who were going to lead the teams, Shizuka thought about whose teams she would like to be placed. Comparing them in her mind, she wanted to be part of Maruyama-fukutaichou's squad. However, as she did not know either one of them particularly well in person, it didn't matter to her that much.

The female shinigami's reaction to Udo and his actions were rather disapproving. At any circumstance she wouldn't like to be working with him, if he was always like that.

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Aside from her Vice Captain, only two familiar faces came in sight, particularly that of the Templar Queen and Picca Lilli’s, although the former left the hall as swiftly as she came in. She heard the commotion between the Eighth division members, and found it best not to get herself involved, even though she was still quite new herself. After all, if they were to be sent to a high-end combat mission, there was no place for her in this hall either. In the end, she was quite relieved that the new Spellblade gets to stay.

So many things happened in so little time, and Yuurei was simply too happy that the briefing already started. Yuurei listened attentively as it started, so as not to miss any important details. It would be the first time she’d set foot on Hueco Mundo, the residence of the hollows. She only heard of it from tales, and read it in books, but she didn’t imagine that she would actually set foot in its endless plain of white sand early in her career as a shinigami.

Somehow, her curiosity was piqued when Ilsa made mention of their interesting shikais. In fact, she was yet to see one in action, and what she just said made Yuurei want to see it.

An absorbed expression was all over her pallid visage, and such was a shift when the scientist suddenly burst in. Although she found it somewhat rude, at least he came in right on time -- and efficiently fulfilled what he had to do. Yuurei listened intently to the Ninth divisioner as he explained how exactly it should be assembled, and had a clear grasp of how it should be done the first time he demonstrated it. There were no complicated wires, no odd criss-crossing connections, and there weren’t even a ton of buttons to begin with. After all, she worked more efficiently without those written manuals with a ton of complicated arrows and colored numbers -- for her, they just made things more complicated. Besides, his explanation seemed clear enough.

Yuurei’s lips pursed into a smile, short lived though it was. The Templar’s words didn’t seem unreasonable either. Hueco Mundo is Hueco Mundo -- who knows what horrors lie there?
[ 393 | 776 ]​
 
"And what do we have for contingency?" Zak asked. "It seems inevitable that at least one of the teams will lose that contraption or burn out that battery. Do we have some other way to make contact with Seireitei if we need to, or will our soul phones be able to connect us to each other in Hueco Mundo?" He reclined back in his chair and chewed the end of his cinnamon laced cigar. "As my Vice Captain says I am more than proud to do my duty for either squad but in doing so I need to know what our capabilities are in given circumstances." He took the stogie from his mouth and blew another cloud of smoke into the air of the room. "And about how big is this area?" He gestured with the hand that held the cigar. "Are we talking about ten miles or five-hundred?"

[150/578]
 
Udo was a bit less pissed off when he heard of what abilities were available, and his eyes lit up when heard that someone had developed a means of communicating between the two worlds. To his knowledge, it was thought to be impossible without a constantly open Garganta or Senkaimon. So since there were smart people getting things done to deal with this possible threat, what was stopping them from knowing more about it? The swordsman was still frustrated over events so far, but this mission was beginning to pique his curiosity. Were they up against something that could block their scanners? Was this instead some random, natural phenomenon that interfered with equipment, making it look like there was a problem when there nothing? If Udo didn’t need to protect anyone, or stop any threat, at least he would see something new out there.

[144/1392]
 
"Fifty," Kyu grumbled as she walked up, redheaded companion in tow. The petite young Seventh Seat of the First, pushed her way through the crowd toward Ilsa. She had on her sleeveless white jinbaori over her also-sleeveless keikogi, revealing her dual signature tattoos on each bicep. The one on her right bicep had the hitotsudomoe, a single tomoe inside the outer circle. On her left, it had the same outer circle, and the two lines of Izonkankei arcing upwards and downwards from the circle.

A pair of fancy goggles hung around her neck. A frown was on her face, and there was a dark look in her grey-violet eyes. The short-haired brunette stepped up next to Ilsa, addressing the vice-captain directly. "Sai-kun says the search area is about fifty kilometers." Turning to the others, she held up her phone and pointed at a button, "And there's a radio function, you guys. That'll still work between phones in Hueco Mundo. You should know how to work your own phones!"

Sighing, she looked at Mitsu. The Eighth Seat was still conspicuously avoiding her gaze. Now that they had finally gotten together to talk, now they were being sent on another mission. Mitsuyo was really tricked up, almost hard to tell he had some variation of the shihakushou mixed in there. Instead of hakama, he had on black pants, with boots instead of sandals. The kosode was closer-fitting, and his jinbaori had a hood on it. A fancy little half-cape hung from one arm.

There was a pensive look on the boy's face.

Looking to Ilsa, Kyu stated more than asked, "Can you make sure Mi-kun and I are on the same team."

[280/280]
 
Ilsa tried not to scowl at her newly arrived division mates. She really did. Unfortunately, the tall blonde had never been very good at concealing her emotions. "Seventh Seat Tounyuu. Eighth Seat Mineto. I assume you both have a reason for being late.” The words hung in the air like frost on a winter day.

Cold gray eyes focused on Kyuto. "Please take your seats. This is hardly the time for you to be asking a favor, Tounyuu, but I will take it into consideration.” The vice-captain turned back to the rest of the gathered shinigami.

"Thank you for your offer, Reijuu-fukutaichou.” The frost in her voice thawed, and Ilsa smiled at him. "The Soutaichou has always been a big believer in cooperation with other divisions. That’s why we have shinigami from five divisions here, as a matter of fact. I want to mix both teams up as much as possible to maximize the different strengths and abilities that we have here.”

She turned to the dark-skinned man who had asked about the search radius. "Our backup plan is Tenteikuura. For those unfamiliar with kidou, Tenteikuura is a high-level bakudou that allows the caster to communicate with up to thirty people at once. It takes a great deal of reiatsu, though.

"Are there any other questions before Reijuu-fukutaichou and I begin assigning teams?"


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Note
Wayne and I will be assigning teams.
 
This is where Adelaide was going to do something profoundly stupid. Considering the fact that Udo had already done something profoundly stupid, Adelaide’s decision to do so was not a good one for the Eighth Division. But, then again, profoundly stupid things tended to come out of Adelaide’s mouth. She wasn’t sure just how inappropriate it would be to take another division’s member to task, but that was what she was going to do.

She would try to do it politely, which for Adelaide meant something else entirely. “With all due respect to the gentleman from the Eleventh,” she couldn’t help but interject. She was pretty sure interjecting alone would get her in trouble more than she could count. “If the communications device from either team fails, it is the sole responsibility of the Shinigami charged with the care of the device. We just watched a presentation on its operation, power up, power down, and storage. The only reason the machine could come to harm beyond full-scale conflict the likes something dubbed an ‘ explanatory mission’ is probably not going to see is the fact that the devices weren’t properly attended to. Which I would imagine the group of people assembled here are far too wise and serious to allow. Saying that the break-down of these devices is inevitable is just untrue.”

She wasn’t sure how many lines of inappropriateness she had just crossed, but wagered at least one. She was unsure if she was even permitted to speak at this assembly, being an unseated nobody. But she had taken extensive mental notes during the Ninth Division’s demonstration, and was confident that though complicated the machine would be entirely useable. And if Adelaide Pierce was confident in her abilities to operate this transmitter, so too should the rest of the Shinigami assembled. Though she didn’t add it aloud, she honestly figured the gentleman she had called out hadn’t paid attention during the demonstration and learned the requisite skills to operate the machine.

Ilsa stepped up to answer the remark as well. It was a bad idea to be so far from endearing when she wanted to be on Ilsa’s team and to do so at this point in time, so Adelaide just let herself slink back into her seat and shake her head as a child who expected a scolding might. “No, ma’am.”
392 Words, 1930 Total​
 
Seitaro took a glance at the woman and then recalled he had seen her somewhere before. Perhaps on a picture her file folder? Ah that must be the one the captain told me to keep an eye out for! he excitedly said amongst himself.

His cool blue eyes rolled left and right, surveying the room. The vice-captain walked right by the female officer as he made way to his seat. He reached inside his uwagi and retrieved from it a note and held it with in his tattooed hand. Seitaro looked the woman in her emerald green eyes and asked, "You are Adelaide Pierce, right?"

The officer shook her head in shock that the vice-captain recognized her.

"Good.

"This, is for you," he said. A beaded bracelet rolled down from his mid-forearm to his wrist as he extended his hand with the note between his fingertips,

Adelaide took the paper from the inked man and watched as the vice-captain went back to his seat. She then glanced at the soft document and read the contents within. The note read:

Adelaine's Assignment

Dear Adelaine,

I apologize for my absence but my presence is required elsewhere at the present moment. I specifically requested for you to remain in the Soul Society and not to join the others in Hueco Mundo, for I have another assignment for you.

I would like you to report to Raury Feybrand in the Thirteenth Division and provide whatever assistance he needs.

Captain Anenokoji
Click to expand...
 
Somehow she doubted saying that her name was Adelaide, not Adelaine, would make a whole ton of a difference here. She folded the note back up and offered a small, clearly forced, “I beg your pardon, urgent matters require me elsewhere.” She then gave Udo a death-glare to end all death-glares. She had lost and he had won, even if people were more cross with him than they were with her. And for her to be pulled out of something important for this? Oh, hey, big scary blob thing in the center of all hollows, but let’s send you somewhere and not tell you why? Though likely erroneous, she blamed Udo.

Worse still was the Eleventh fellow. If those Ninth communication machines got broken now, it was on him. Adelaide was confident in the understanding she had of them, and clearly that fellow wasn’t. She had to devote a lot of energy to keeping the illusion that her Captain had called her for something important, though. Because honestly, the reason she was truly called off was embarrassing.
177 Words, 2207 Total
Final​
 
Before the red headed shinigami left Zak chuckled at her response, it lightened his mood instantly. So young and she seemed angry already, maybe she'd be a better Templar than one of the spell swords. "An exploratory mission into what is essentially an enemy compound, a world in which every life form wants to see us dead, is more likely to have a serious conflict than not. It'd be awfully dull if there wasn't." He continued to motion with his cigar toward the fiery-haired young shinigami. "Something big and heavy, requiring setup and tear down time is dangerous in my view."

He held up a hand in quiet surrender toward the scientists. "Not that they are not brilliant inventions and very necessary given the mission." He meant no disrespect as to the time and effort that likely went into their creations.

"It is just important to know our exit plans and backup plans so that if and when something goes wrong we're not all running around trying to pull each other in different directions." He motioned at the crowd. "Everyone here is experienced and capable but in the heat of battle things can go wrong. We have two squads and as Mrs. Isla said, the magic we would use in lieu of the devices is draining. Better the left hand should have an idea what the right is up to if things go wrong."

He had seen the glare she gave the Vice-Captain that handed her the note. "I think I like her." Zak muttered to his division mates with a smile at the corner of his mouth.

[270/848]
 
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