"Come on, come on, come on..." Atsuko muttered as she struggled with the computer. "Don't do this to me now... Yes!"
The red-haired reaper raised her arms in victory when the terminal finally responded, spinning in her chair once to grin at her partners. Then, he went back to work. In an instant, Atsuko opened the archives and went back to browsing for similar peaks. Still, she was just as lost as she was before the blackout. Just then, she thought of something.
"Hey, you… What’s your name..? Serizawa!" Atsuko said as she grabbed the sleeve of the scientist’s kosode. "You said you've seen peaks like that before, right? How long ago was it? Maybe I can find it in the records."
Serizawa instantly stopped typing the moment she heard her name called improperly.
"Excuse me?" the officer said holding a hand to the ear facing the redhead. "I hope I am have some hearing problems this afternoon as I am sure I heard the words Tenth Seat somewhere in that sentence.
"Or am I wrong?" she inquired as she turned to face the one known as Atsuko.
"You hope you have hearing problems?" Atsuko asked. "Okay, the ninth division has gotten a lot weirder since I left..."
The Gushiken family has a certain quirk that no one has been able to explain. After listening to a sentence or speech, they tend to process the information part by part. Therefore, they tend to react to the first part of the speech, before the rest of it can be processed. That was exactly what was happening to Atsuko right there.
"Oh, wait," Atsuko looked at the reaper. "You're the tenth seat? Oh, sorry. I've just came back to the ninth some time ago and I haven't had time to meet all the officers. Anyways... do you remember when did you saw a peak like that, Tenth Seat?
Extra bit, not included in WC
"Also," Atsuko said in an obvious breaking of the fourth wall, "you missed the little " thing at the end of your second paragraph.
"Cute," she added and approached the fiery female. The emerald scientist grasped a few locks of Atsuko's silky hair. Fine red threads slid through her fingertips. Just as the last strand of hair fell from her index finger, Serizawa back-handed the young girl into the desk beside her. The whole time her smile never faded, nor changed, for better or worse.
"Unless you are a seated officer or higher rank, you have no authority to even speak to me in such a fashion, little girl.
"Now, get back to work!"
With a single motion Serizawa whipped around, her lab coat and long silky green hair followed in suit, as she calmly walked back to her station.
Astuko sat still, right where the officer had left her. Ahe didn't let out a sound and for a moment, she remained that way. Seconds after, she stood, her smile now completely gone and replaced by the mark from Serizawa's hit. The your haired girl slowly made her way to the reaper. Then, she spoke.
"I was expecting a much stronger hit," she said with what could technically be called a smile, though no sign of happiness was behind it. "But then I noticed that you were not wearing your Ascalon gauntlets. Aren't you suposed to carry those everywhere, Tenth Seat?"
The woman turned around and darted a glare at the fellow female. "Seriously haven't you had enough of a whooping for one evening?
"This coat is not for show, you know. Not that I have to answer to the likes of you anyway. If you like those teeth of yours, I suggest you keep your mouth shut!
"Oh, but of course," Atsuko said with that same emotionless smile. "Why would the Tenth Seat of the Blood Templars bother with scientific affairs? You are a true warrior after all, Tenth Seat Serizawa."
“Ooh, somebody’s got anger issues.” Takashi looked up from his monitor again. “Just so you know, Serizawa, manhandling your coworkers is not proper conduct in the workplace.” He clicked his tongue at her. “As Eighth Seat, I think I’m going to have to write you up for that.” The scientist’s narrow face lost its habitual humor. “I don’t care what the fuck she says to you, hit her again and you’ll be my next test subject. Write her up after this is all over if you're that pissed. Now get back to work.”
Swiveling around in his chair, he pointed at Atsuko. “Nice comeback there, I gotta admire that. But do it while you work.”
"Huh?" Atsuko blinked once before she could regain some self control. "Oh, thank you, Eighth Seat Takashi. I just want to ask Tenth Seat Serizawa about some information she claimed she had."
Now with her usual smile on her bruised face, she turned back to the woman who had hit her.
"Tenth Seat Serizawa," she began, "a few minutes ago you mentioned having seen other peaks similar to the one we have seen today. Would you please tell me the approximate date of those events, so I can find those peaks in the records and compare them to this one?"
The young girl spoke to her with an obviously forced formal tone. Whether she did it on purpose just to piss her off, she herself wasn't sure. The only thing she was certain of was that she was really enjoying having the chance to do what she was doing to that pseudo-scientist psycho bitch.
This bitch! Serizawa said furiously amongst herself. She then turned to face the woman once more with a very familiar smile on her face. The scene grew quiet. Several unseated officers knew the redhead had something coming to her, but they did not know what.
“You'll have all the time in the world to think about those dates as you spend several weeks in the Fourth.
“Takashi, do as you will as I foresee when this day is over I might be a part of the Seventh Division for a while,” she said tossing her lab coat aside and drawing her zanpakutou.
The door opened with a bang though no one appeared in the doorway. There was a rush of air before Feng appeared just before the tenth seat. With blistering speed he had undone his zanpakutou from his belt, drew his blade and place his scabbard over Serizawa’s own blade. “If you are so apt to join the seventh division,” the bandaged assassin began dryly, “I would suggest requesting a transfer and not cutting down others in this division. That’s my job.” He said adding a small chuckle.
“I really don’t like playing the bad cop here but it seems your time with Saika has make you forget how to treat seated officers. I will make you remember.” The former assassin said turning around the room. “I do not care if you like me, nor do I give a shit if you fear me. You all, however, will respect me.” He turned settling his eye on the seated officer before him. “This is your only warning I hope that next time you handle yourself with the tact your rank requires. Do I make myself clear?” Not waiting for an answer the boy dislodged the sheath and returned his blade into it with the same deadly efficiency. “As for you,” he began turning towards Atsuko, “you seem to have forgotten respect. I’m assuming a month working in the seventh division will help remind you of it.
Before anyone could comprehend what was going on, Feng had already pulled his Hecate device from his pocket and punched in a few keys. After a few seconds the portal opened before the bandaged man grabbed and then unceremoniously tossed the insubordinate scientist through. “I want her own Hecate offline immediately and word sent to the Seventh as to why I sent her. Now then, please get back to work.” With nothing more the boy turned and walked out his sword still clutched in his hand.
[102] [320/1399] Now Feng be out… hopefully for good. Gosh.
Everything seemed to be moving at something fairly different from a snail’s pace. Which, normally, would be a good thing, but in this case…? Not so much. Her mother had assigned a draw-lucky, former assassin as vice-captain and already things had started to run out of hand. It wasn’t her problem, though. She was just stationed here to give pointers, and help wherever needed.
She wasn’t set to help with worker related problems, internal disputes. That was Mama-tama’s job. Oh, and that bandaged guy’s now it seemed. As a soft sight – although Mari wasn’t entirely sure if that was a genuine sigh or something artificial – she looked up at Takashi’s monitor once more and saw what she had feared.
It was another spike.
[123/573]
Ya'll didn't think it'd be over, right?
Also, Lin, I tried to contact you yesterday, but I think the spikes are on Earth, not HM.
Nakamura heaved a heavy sigh in response to all of the nonsensical drama that the scientists of the Research Bureau managed to occupy themselves during a time that required cooperation and, perhaps most importantly, being fucking mature. Serizawa wasn't on a high horse; her ego was so over-inflated it was a wonder working with sharp objects didn't see her popping like a balloon. Once again there was another death threat.
Was that two or three, now?
Regardless, Nakamura followed the orders issued by the android and began re-routing his monitor's auxiliary power to Takashi's. In theory the plan would work, so long as the next fluctuation wasn't massive enough to crash the system even after precautions were taken in response to the first. Nakamura was just about to comment on how sickening the Tenth Seat made him when there was a second spike of energy.
"Hopefully this shit won't fucking blow up our system again..."
The young scientist stopped in middle of the road painting. After sitting on its side he pulls off a pair of oversized boots. When they were on place Takeshi press the button on them and stand up.
So let see it that invention work, he thought preparing to run using shunpo.
“Well it didn’t work too good but,” he stopped hearing familiar sound. “Looks like it passed thirty minutes.”
“Hmm I hope nothing important happened in the division,” Hanabusa said preparing to use Hekate.
After return to the computer room everything was looking quite not counting few people keep staring for their monitors like something was suppose to jump out of them.
“Damn looks like I missed something,” he mumbled and sat on his place.
Atsuko was about to say something about how the Tenth Seat still hadn't said anything about the peaks she claimed having seen, but whatever common sense was in her made her keep her mouth shut. Sometime later, she was pouncing on a very surprised Uechi Sora.
Thoughts of crazy women and death threats were pushed aside the moment the next spike registered. "Come on, baby, you can do it...” Takashi muttered. Sure enough, it looked like Mari’s suggestion had been right on the money; the lights and screens didn’t even flicker as the enormous energy spike flashed across the monitor and died down.
The thin scientist let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. "Whew. Okay, another data point, let’s see what we can do with this.” He was just about to institute a search through the computer archives when it occurred to him that that kind of activity might have contributed to the system overload last time.
Damn. Takashi grimaced. The other consoles were already making separate copies of the data. All he could really do at this point was sit back and wait.
