Doc
New Member
Baseless Conjecture
WC : 4385
Yamamura Eiji : Drag
Ryuku Keiji : Doc
Ryuku Keiji : Doc
His visit to the Fourth had been a short one. The one who had examined him had found no wounds at all – even his wrist had healed to the point where he felt no pain from it anymore. The pill that had been given to him worked wonders with his wounds and the broken hand. The healers had not asked any question about why he had gone there but they seemed curious.
The officer that had given him the examination had been kind enough to show him the shortest route that led to the Ninth division. Fortunately for him, the divisions were almost next to each other and it was only slightly more than an hour long trip for him to make.
He moved quickly; flash stepping between the buildings while keeping his direction west. He held the bangle in his hand still, trying to figure out what it was. Both the three-headed dog and the lyre were icons that he had not laid his eyes on before. They seemed a little odd, especially to be on a hollow. He wanted to know more about the mysterious man who had saved him as well but that was not important at the moment.
* * *
The reaper passed the gate that connected the two divisions. It was not more than a simple arch standing perhaps twice the height of the scarred reaper. His pace had slowed down do a walk and just about an hour and a half had passed since he started moving. He walked up to the first person he saw and grabbed him by his garb.
“Excuse me.” He let go as the man turned to him. “Where can I find a researcher?”
The man looked at him a little curiously, probably wondering why someone entered their division. He had not met many reapers that did not belong on the Research and Developers grounds and for a good reason probably. Rumors had been going around about turning people into test subjects but those were probably just rumors.
“That depends on what you need.” His reply was cold, yet honest. The shinigami of the Ninth did not usually make assumptions but rather made sure that they had all the facts.
“I have an item I need investigated. I got it from earth and there are a few things that I need to check up.”
“You should probably try with one of the officers then.” With that, the man left, leaving Eiji all alone in the division.
That was not really much help... He tried thinking of anyone he knew from the division, and there was one guy. Eiji could not remember his name, the one Marie had introduced him too so that was out of the questions. All out of ideas, he did the only thing he could think of.
“Is there anyone here who can help me?!” he yelled out loud, hoping someone would come to his aid.
Had Keiji decided to visit the entrance area at any other time he may have missed his chance. Even though he was in the midst of working on a project given explicit permission by Feng himself, he could not possibly resist the call of duty.
“Look no further, Yamamura Eiji,” he recalled the former convict from their last encounter, “help has arrived!”
Triumphantly as somebody his size could, he stepped forth with a big proud grin on his face.
The assassin stood there, a little surprised to see the man who stood a few yards away from him. He remembered the face clearly, after what had happened between the two of them. Eiji had barely been able to step away with his life intact, after the enormous lightning current had hit him. A huge electrical force had struck him in his shield, with enough power packed in it to knock him out and probably even kill him. I remember this guy... He’s dangerous...
“Ah, Keiji-san was it?” He smiled at the small boy, somewhat afraid of him. Children did not usually scare him but a shinigami, a strong one at that, could frighten even the best warrior. This child was definitely one of those.
“I have something I need to show you. Do you know a place where we could go undisturbed?”
For a moment Keiji’s eyes flashed a brighter blue than their usual setting. Surely Eiji’s quandary was something important that only he could assist with. Excited at the prospect of discovering something brand new, he spread out his arms for emphasis.
“Of course! Follow me, Yamamura Eiji!” Keiji exclaimed with great exuberance.
Without letting even a second pass he immediately began towards the elevators. In some fashion he thought he’d notice some trepidation in Eiji’s face upon reflection. In fairness to the assassin their last encounter had been somewhat violent. To make up for that the youngster could think of no better way than to show Eiji the wonders of science from a brand new angle.
As they entered the elevator, the scarred reaper did what he was told to do and pressed the button at which Keiji pointed. The mass of metal started rapidly going downwards as they were the only ones inside.
“I guess this is safe enough.” He pulled out the bangle that sat safely inside of his chest pocket and handed it to the researcher.
“I found this last night, in Tokyo.” Just a random item in a city on earth did not really stand out but this was different. “I know it might not seem special at first but there was one thing that bothered me. First of all, I did not find it on a street. It was all that was left from a hollow that was slain. The hollow in questions seems to be one name Hougo.”
Eiji paused for a second before continuing. The assassin wanted to give him the full story but there were some pieces he meant to leave out, at least for the time being. There is no need to tell him about that mysterious human. Not right now.
“There are two markings on it that are a little odd as well. Do you have any idea of what it could be?”
Eagerly, Keiji took the bangle with both hands. With great interest he scanned the item while Eiji explained the circumstances by which he’d attained the item. Nothing immediately tripped his limited sensors, but he’d be giving it a better review in a moment.
“Interesting,” he admired the object attached to it, “very interesting!” Without warning the boy whipped his head back at Eiji.
“Hougo? That’s fascinating. The hunters are always giving their prey pet names, aren’t they?” Bemused, he stepped off the elevator when it landed.
“This way, Yamamura Eiji.” Keiji pointed down the hall towards the workshop at the end. “Ah, yes, but first - Surveillance Clone!”
Four additional Keijis popped into existence in an instant. The quarter of clones followed the two of them on their journey. Before arriving at the workstation, the original Keiji tossed the bangle back towards his doppelgangers.
“Aha! Got it!” One of the clones shouted triumphantly. As if they already had their orders they immediately rushed into the workshop with the express purpose of getting it ready.
The scarred reaper ignored most of the comments and just admired the scientist work. There were a few things that could surprise him but this was one of those. His work seemed to be sufficient enough for him to do it alone, especially with a few clones hanging around him. Eiji followed him silently for a moment, only observing as he worked.
“Those clones seem to come in handy.” He commented just as he threw the bangle and kept following Keiji.
“Do you have any idea of what it could be? Those markings... I’ve never seen those before.”
Once the clones had entered, the workshop door slammed shut. Numerous mechanical apparati came together as the four worked together without uttering so much as a word.
“Haven’t you ever thought you could do more if there was more than one of you? They’re good for more than battle distractions, you know!” Keiji beamed proudly.
“I digress. As for the markings,” he paused. For a moment he seemed ready to speak but forcibly stopped himself. Some information was more important to confirm rather than go on conjecture.
“There’s a myriad of possibilities. I’ve begun a search through the Ninth’s entire database for any images that match them.
“Until that’s done we’ll have some tests performed on the item to ensure you didn’t bring a weapon of mass destruction into the Gotei.” In spite of the subject matter Keiji’s tone was rather flat.
A large arm-liked mechanism attached to a series of panels similar to stereo speakers had been setup in the middle of the room. The item itself had been placed on a metal stand with clamps and electrodes attached to it.
A low, bassy tone began to emit from the speak panels as more devices were placed next to the bracelet. A device similar to a tesla coil, as well as an item strikingly similar to a flamethrower were all aimed directly at the item.
“Oh, of course.” Keiji had come to a sudden realization. “Material Summon!”
An object appeared in the boy’s hands that seemed like a set of protective goggles attached to protective earmuffs.
“You may want to wear this.” He handed the headset to Eiji.
The assassin was in awe, after seeing all the equipment Keiji had managed to bring forth. To him, it seemed as if there was enough technology in the room to run a whole country. There were weapons, means of preservation, cords, electric gizmos, you name it. He was unsure if he ought to be scared or glad that the Gotei had such a grand Research and Development division.
He could tell how most of the gadgets worked simply by looking at them, although there seemed to be more than met the eye to some of them. The setup that the scientist had managed to gather around the bangle itself was incredible. And it seemed as if he had done it in no time.
Eiji grabbed the protective gear that was given to him and placed it carefully over both of his ears. Pressing them onto his head, he made sure that they were sitting there tightly and in the next moment, it seemed as if he had gone deaf. He could not hear anything other than his own thoughts and it was quite obvious that Keiji was in the same situation.
Since there was no way for him to tell the researcher to start his tests, he simply took a step back from everything and gave him the space he needed. I wonder what we will find. If this truly is a weapon, what have I brought back here..? Hopefully we’ll be able to extract at least something out of it.
Shortly before the devices all came to life, Keiji began shutting down audio processes one by one. Flames, electricity and extreme flashes of light soon blocked the item from view. Beneath the sound of the machinery was the constant rhythm of the speaker panels which were increasing with intensity each second. In mere moments the sound wave had become so powerful the vibrations were leaking beyond the workshop.
In between the increasingly glaring flashes of light a storm of electricity and flame seemed to envelop the bangle. Each flaming gout released more than the previous with an ever-increasing temperature, to the point the it seemed to cover the stand with its blistering grasp. Constant arcs of electricity traveled back and forth between the coil and the stand with increasing frequency.
While the various elements of the experiment continued escalating to their maximum possible output, Keiji’s doppelgangers were still moving about. Occasionally each clone would stop to rub its head - the speakers were too close for protective gear to be of any use. Various switches had been flipped throughout the experiment on the terminal at the far wall.
All four clones then gathered around the singular console, still visibly reeling from the auditory overload. In one synchronized motion they left one ear open just long enough to each input a single command. Every device pointed at the stand shut down at once. Visibly relieved, the quartet of clones continued entering commands until they suddenly froze.
Everything about the room changed as the air was sucked out. In no time at all it had become a sealed, oxygen-deprived environment. In that moment of peace the stand and bangle on top were finally clear. In spite of the marks covering the stand the item was completely unharmed. Low mechanical humming indicated the room was becoming unsealed as air was pushed back into it.
Due to the incredible stress put on them, the clones all vanished at once when the room had normalized.
“That’s unusual.” Keiji suddenly chirped after a moment of reactivating all he’d shut down.
There was nothing to do but watch. Whether it was the clones or the machines that did all the work, he couldn’t make it. But it was incredible. The way they made everything go together, one test after the other, ruling out possibilities and theories. It was just incredible.
Even though he did not understand any of it, there was a gleam in the assassins eyes. He found it amazing that they could make all those machines works with just the touch of a button. Technical matters were not really his forte; he knew almost nothing about how they worked and it even took him a few days to actually find out how to use his denreishiki.
As the tests seemed to come to a conclusion, the light dimmed down and the noise has stopped. He looked over at the real Keiji and waited for an answer. That’s unusual? What...
“What’s wrong?” Eiji asked, as he took off the headset and the goggles the scientist gave him.
Perplexed, Keiji craned his neck to look up at Eiji.
“I’d estimated they’d last half a minute longer than that.” He mused in a concerned tone.
After a moment the boy shook off the notion in favor of determining the results of the experiment. Thinking of things more scientific had him up and brimming with energy once again.
“But I digress! Let’s take a look, shall we?” Keiji guided the assassin through the workshop door to look upon the fruit of their labor.
With some effort he reached up to disconnect and retrieve the bangle. No data of any kind had been recorded by the attached equipment. Yet again he found himself puzzled by what he was seeing.
“I believe,” he paused to show the item to Eiji for emphasis, “that I have come to a conclusion with regard to this item.”
Still unaware of what was happening, the scarred reaper found his comrade somewhat comical. When he reached for the bangle, his expressions, the strange sensation Eiji felt from him, almost everything about him seemed special. From this point of view, there was probably nobody that was much alike him.
As the assassin kept his distance from all the machines, afraid to break or destroy something, he watched the scientist examine the item in question one last time. It was still intact, by some wonder, after all the tests it had endured. All those lights and sounds seemed as if they would completely destroy it but it did not. It made the reaper a little calmer that they still had it and would probably find something from it.
Eiji bent down a bit to watch as Keiji held the item up for him.
“What have you found?”
Still thinking through all the tests that Keiji had run, he studied the object for a moment more. He gave a slight nod when he decided there was no questioning the results. In preparation he kept the item held out, and cleared his throat.
“This item,” he began. “Is not from the future, nor is it alive. It’s neither a weapon of mass destruction, nor a hallucinatory phenomenon. It does not transform itself nor other materials, and it does not house any form of extradimensional space. In short: it appears to be a mundane piece of jewelry.”
As if on cue an alert went off in Keiji’s sight indicating that the database search had completed. In addition to the beep, his eyes flashed a bright blue for a brief moment.
“Ah!” Keiji exclaimed in surprise. After taking a moment to examine the findings he winced somewhat.
“Ah.” He was much less enthusiastic the second time.
It did not seem as if there was anything more than that. There was nothing to the object that Eiji had brought back to the Gotei. Whether it would help them or harm them had been answered. It was nothing more than a regular item; a trinket worn by a hollow. That did not answer all of his questions though. There was still more to be told. As the computer seemed to beep, Eiji walked up to it to see if he could make anything out of it.
All seemed to be gibberish to the assassin. There were words and numbers on the screen, he could tell that much. But they did not mean anything to the boy. He could not make out a pattern or anything, although apparently Keiji could.
“There is something I haven’t told you yet,” the assassin interrupted his colleague. “When I fought this hollow, I had no chance. I had help. A man, who could see the hollow and even fought him. No, that would be an understatement. He literally broke hollow in half, with just his fists. It was a slaughter.
“And he called the hollow by name. Not just its name, but what we call them as well. He called it a hollow.”
All Keiji mustered in response to Eiji’s admission was a raised eyebrow. Facts began connecting in his mind thanks to the new information. Most of the puzzle pieces were still missing but he could at the very least say that what he did have fit together.
“Very, very interesting, Yamamura Eiji. And quite observant, if you don’t mind me saying.” Keiji remarked with a slight nod.
“Let’s review.” He held out his right hand.
Again, Keiji cringed for a moment. Most of his augmented functions were painless when activated - excluding the Hephaestus module housed in his right hand. A soft kerchunk signified his index finger pulling away from his hand. Bit by bit it lengthened, darkened and even thinned out at the tip. Slowly but surely his finger was taking the form of a little USB connector.
Until the transfiguration was complete Keiji winced every bit of the way. With the hard part over he approached one of the terminals, and plugged his finger into it. A small projector pointed directly down lowered from the ceiling a few feet. A display showing two symbols was created by the resulting hologram. Each symbol was reflective of the symbols presented by the bangle - a lyre and a three-headed dog.
“These two are very common symbols.” Keiji withdrew his finger after the transfer was completed.
“The lyre is a Greek instrument. In their pantheon it was invented by Hermes, but popularized by Orpheus. As for the beast - it’s another part of Greek myth. The guardian to Hades is depicted as a three-headed dog, popularly referred to as Cerberus.” Keiji pointed to each symbol as he spoke.
“Are you familiar with either of these figures? Orpheus and Cerberus?” Keiji prodded for information he already had. If Eiji was holding anything else back he was determined to get the rest.
The assassin watched the picture but there was not really anything that stood out. The mythical creatures seemed quite cool but that was all. A lyre and a three-headed dog. What do those have to do with anything?
He could not connect them to anything he knew or had seen recently. If they were something of his past, he could not remember. His memories were still not intact and any information that could be hidden inside of him was long gone.
“Not that I can remember. You say that they are part of Greek myth? Do they have any other affiliations?” Any information at the moment would be good since the bangle had not given them anything other than those icons. “Are they related to any organizations in the Gotei perhaps?”
At the very least Keiji could admit he was impressed by the assassin’s intellectual curiosity. Had he left the Ninth’s campus more often he might not have thought it to be such a rare trait in the Gotei. He approached the images to better emphasize his point.
“There are a number of possibilities with regard to the source of these images and their relation both to the item you discovered, the hollow you fought and the human you met.” Keiji instinctively began to pace back and forth.
“However, what’s far more likely is that the images of Cerberus and Orpheus are referring to two organizations of the same names located on Earth. Other than their individual names, my knowledge of the two is fairly limited. I can say with some confidence that their leadership is composed of spiritually-aware humans.” For a moment he stopped to look back at Eiji.
“Is there anything more you can tell me about the circumstances by which you came into possession of this??”
Earth? What do earth organizations have to do with this?
“Like I said previously, it dropped from a hollow. I never noticed it wearing anything around any part of its body. It was just what was left after the hollow disintegrated.” Eiji tried thinking back to the moment when the human had picked up the bangle but there was not really anything out of the ordinary, if you didn’t count the strength of the human. “All I can remember is that the human I met managed to defeat the hollow in a matter of seconds, and that was what remained.
“On that note, about these organizations. You say that they are led by humans? With spiritual powers? Could this person perhaps have been a part of them?”
Nothing immediately stood out to Keiji as the clear connector between each element. He shook his head slightly out of frustration. There wasn’t enough data for him to say anything that wasn’t pure conjecture.
“It’s entirely possible, but if the item originated from the hollow his presence must be circumstantial,” he paused to begin pacing again. “Unless he was nearby to hunt down the hollow himself, which could mean that the item was used as an identifier for the hollow and he was tasked with retrieving or destroying it - as if the it was a test subject or specimen.”
Everything the boy had said nearly made him gag. More and more conjecture in place of facts - it was giving him a headache. Concocting a fantasy in which Hougo was being used as a tagged animal was silly. No facts could be made without data to back them up.
“But there’s no proof of any of this.” Keiji came to a stop just in front of the holographic display.
“Even with the matching symbols I can only guess that this item is in some way related to the two Earth organizations, and if it was left by the hollow then it too may be related to them in some way. The human you encountered may have been involved, but it may have been a coincidence.” His tone was grim.
Sheepishly, Keiji offered the bangle to Eiji with his shoulders sunken. A defeated scientist, he could hardly even look the assassin in the eyes.
“I’m sorry that you’ve come here only to have your time wasted, Yamamura Eiji. I will conduct a final examination of what I’ve found today, but there’s nothing more that I can tell you.”
“That is a good theory, which would fill some of the missing holes.” The scarred reaper grabbed the bangle and inspected it a last time, before shoving it back into his garb. It felt like he had wasted both his and Keiji’s time, trying to pursue this issue. Even so, he had at least some information.
“You’re not at fault, Keiji,” you should not judge yourself my friend, he thought. “You mentioned two organizations back at earth, Orpheus and Cerberus. Do you think they could have any ties to this?”
Eiji thought back to the only person he had met with powers back at earth; Shirihara Zakki. He remembered the flashy appearance of the human, as well as the tremendous power he had shown.
“I think I might have a person I can show this to back on earth. Do you have any other suggestions?”
Even if for a moment Keiji had started moping. Having been stumped by a little collar left him feeling forlorn. However, no little vortex of self-pity could exert enough of a grip on his mind to prevent the constant search for answers. In as much time it took him to start moping he rose out of it like a returning yo-yo.
“There is no such thing as a coincidence.” Keiji looked up at the assassin again.
“If their symbols are on the item, they are or were involved with the hollow it was on, or there is somebody trying very hard to make it seem that way. In either case,” he paused to take a breath. To him admitting the conjecture he was about to give to Eiji as possible fact was as good as lying.
“Take this with a grain of salt,” he raised his right hand with his index finger extended.
“[/COR]Somebody may be using hollows as test subjects. If Cerberus is involved, they may even be using hollows as guinea pigs for bioweapons. If any members of Cerberus or Orpheus are familiar with this item - beyond just the markings, but its true purpose, there is a chance that they are involved.” Keiji retracted his declaratory finger.
“No matter what the case, stay safe the next time you go to Earth.” His concern was genuine.
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