The incident with the ruined dojo had brought two very distinct questions and one rather peculiar person to mind. Obviously, the first and foremost question was definitely, “Why?” and it was truthfully a question that she found herself repeating over and over again. Just what went on in the minds of both her newest member, the Walker Yoshinaga Gorou, and her Herald Kagetoki Manzou when they decided that it was a good idea to just wreck havoc on her division’s grounds?
What was the purpose behind it all? Was it so that her Herald could show how much of a badass he thought he was? Was it to show her that he deserved a better treatment? That he wasn’t as helpless as he thought she might think of him? If that were truly the case the man obviously didn’t know her well enough.
And Gorou, what was the reason behind is actions? Why had he decided to just casually continue their bout... even though they should’ve done the sensible thing and just quit and report the incident right away?
Instead, neither of them did anything of the sort and she had to hear it second hand from her Seventeenth Seat. What was worse was that her raven-haired subordinate had apparently declared his intent on elevating Gorou Yoshinaga to his very own seat.
He declared that they were to be co-Heralds.
Preposterous, Nana thought to herself as she gazed outside, her eyes drifting off towards the broken image of an otherwise bustling dojo. If I wasn’t in such dire need of good men and women beside me, I would’ve stripped that kid of his status a long time ago...
Their relationship had started out on such a decent note, he had helped her – still was – with certain family business, and she rather enjoyed his company, but ever since the man had elevated himself to the rank of Herald he had turned into such an insufferable prick.
It probably didn’t help that she was now his superior, no longer his equal, but his better in terms of rank... and if she had to be completely honest, as a person as well.
Just then, as she breathed out a sigh of contemplation, three knocks on her door were followed by the rather sudden entrance of a woman whom she had only scarcely had the displeasure of conversing with a few times.
“Ah,” the deep-purple haired vice-captain of the Third began as she continued to stare outside, “Kameko Miyagi, to what do I owe this interruption?”
“I think you know very well while I am here, Amaterasu-fukutaichou,” the Gotei inspector spat rather nonsensically.
“Must you always retort to these little games of yours, Miyagi-san?” Nana continued as she lifted her elbows off the windowsill, turned around and, as she took a hold of her chair, sat down in front of Kameko. “Please, take a seat.”
“I think I’ll pass,” was the short reply.
“Are you sure?” the Amaterasu heir posed softly as she raised a single eyebrow. “I can say with serene certainty that these chairs I had hand-made are blissful to reside within, so I must insist: please, take a seat.” Folding her hands together she placed two fingers against her lips as a somewhat dark look befell her visage.
Unable to decline the death god’s second offer – it had something to do with the woman in front of her suddenly exerting a bit too much of her spiritual prowess for her to feel comfortable -, Kameko said down opposite Nana and looked around somewhat nervously.
This wasn’t quite like her, though. Didn’t she come here to lecture this failure of a vice-captain? This woman who’s name she didn’t even care to remember? Then why was it that it was not she, but her who was pressed against a wall?
“Tell me, Miyagi-san,” Nana continued as she snapped her fingers once and Fia appeared in a burst of fire. “Do you have any particular flavour in mind, or are you more of an adventurous type?”
“I... sorry, what do you mean?” the blonde-haired inspector asked as a rather confused look could be seen on her face.
“Tea,” Nana replied stoically as Fia poured a cup for her, “what flavour did you want?”
Visibly confused as to just what was going on right now, Kameko picked an unknown flavour and hoped for the best as she locked eyes with Nana once more.
As the vice-captain motioned for Fia to leave them be, she took a sip of her tea and sighed somewhat blissfully. “Nothing beats a good cup of tea,” she said as she put her cup down again. “Now tell me, Miyagi-san... what did you come here for?”
Feeling her earlier strength returning to her as she too took a sip of her tea, the Gotei inspector said, “I thought I told you already...” but before she could finish she was interrupted.
“I know what you told me already, but I want to hear it from you directly,” the crimson-eyed vice-captain continued as a dark grimace showed on her face, “I am not in the mood for your games, I think I already mentioned that a while ago. So, you either tell me why you are interrupting my duties as a vice-captain, or you will leave, am I making myself clear, Miyagi-san?”
“But... you can’t...”
“Can’t what? Tell you what I can and cannot do? Might I remind you that while you have a certain position within the Gotei as an observant, and objective outsider, I am the Third’s vice-captain and its de facto leader.
“So, if you’re here to bash my leadership, I’d suggest you either come clean, or get out of my office right now.”
“I never...”
“Then what, Miyagi-san? Then what is it that I can’t do? Interrupt you? Because I sure as hell am if you keep beating around the bush.”
“You... you can’t speak to me like this, you hear me? You can’t! Are you really that thick-headed, do you really believe you hold power over me? Do you think I can’t just report your lousy personality and have you kicked off that godforsaken position you currently find yourself so gleefully in?”
“Oh, I’m sure you can,” Nana called the woman’s bluff as she placed her head on her hands once more. “But do you honestly believe your little government is in any position to punish, or remove those who have a voice of their own?
“Not after the Central Forty-six fiasco of a while back, no they’re not. Your pesthole of a government need able men and women to lead the Gotei Juusantai, lest it falls in the hands of traitors like my very own captain...”
“Aha!” Kameko interjected as she stood up from her chair and pointed an accusing finger at Nana. “So, you admit to having worked under a traitor!”
“Might I remind you,” the vice-captain continued coolly, “that you would be equally as guilty.”
“What do you...”
“Mean?” Nana posed as she raised an eyebrow. “Come now my dear, how long have you been ‘inspecting’ our division for now... a good couple of months, right? And you mean to tell me that you haven’t ‘worked’ under this traitor yourself?”
“But I am here under orders...”
“From the very same men and women who branded Theron a traitor, but not because of your observational skills.” There was an air of silence surrounding the two women as Nana paused for a bit. There was nothing in her tone betraying any form of emotion, they were just cold, hard words.
“You’re a joke, Kameko Miyagi,” she continued equally stoic, “you can’t even admit to the fact that you have zero arguments to back up your little outbursts. You’re as much in the dark as I am, and the only reason why you’re such a hard ass right now is because you want to get in good with whatever is left of that rotten government of ours.”
Slowly, Kameko began to tremble and a single thought popped into Nana’s mind as you looked upon the shaking figure in front of her, Bingo. Finally she had struck the cord she had been looking for, and if the emerald-eyed inspector’s face betrayed any form of emotion she herself knew it too.
“Y...You,” Kameko stuttered as she dropped down into her chair. “H...how dare you insinuate...”
“But I’m right, am I not?”
“I...” But any coherent answer was lost on the woman as she stared sheepishly into Amaterasu’s piercing gaze. She had been bested, she had been outsmarted by woman whom she had not even dared to call her equal not too long ago.
In hindsight she already knew it would end up in this way from the moment she had entered the woman’s office, but to think it actually happened...
“Now,” Nana continued, immediately reeling Kameko’s attention in, “I will ask this one, final time, Kameko Miyagi, what did you come here for?”
And so they sat there for minutes on end, Kameko lost in emotions, and Nana just waiting, staring as the silence that accompanied their sitting figures thickened. The vice-captain didn’t particularly mind her companion’s silence as it gave her some respite. It also gave her the chance to ponder on that other question... the question of why the building had even been torn down in the first place.
It wasn’t like Manzou and Gorou’s combined reiatsu was all that impressive to begin with, so it meant that beside recklessness on their part... there was something else that had been going on with the building at the time, but what could it have been?
“T...that dojo,” Kameko suddenly said, snapping the noblewoman back to her senses. Tracing the inspector’s eyes, Nana too let her gaze fall on the ruined dojo and for some reason she couldn’t help but chuckle a little.
“What of it?” she asked somewhat nonchalantly as she returned her gaze back to Kameko’s.
“What do you plan to do with it? Not to mention... the men who did this?”
It was as if a lot of weights had suddenly dropped from the blonde-haired woman and for some reason she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
“What I will be doing with dojo itself I am not sure of yet,” Nana continued as she waved away the notion of having to explain whatever plans she had to the woman in front of her, “but suffice to say that those who made this happen will be... called out on their behaviour.”
“And...?” Kameko pressed, clearly not quite satisfied with the woman’s answer.
“And they will be dealt with accordingly,” the deep-purple haired vice-captain replied coolly as she took another sip of her tea. “But, surely you already knew this, Miyagi-san? Surely this is not the sole reason as to why you interrupted my work today?”
“I... no, you are right, I was just wondering...”
“Do not worry about things out of your jurisdiction, Miyagi-san; I will be dealing with these two men shortly. In the meantime, what is the other reason for your visit... the real reason?”
Reaching into her clothing for a moment, the Gotei inspector took out a piece of paper and handed it to Nana. “There have been more than a few ‘harmless’ incidents involving a member of the Third, or someone posing as a member of the Third in one of the lower districts.
“I thought you might want to check up on that.”
Skimming through the file, Nana blinked a few times before averting her gaze back to Kameko. “And how come I hear of this only just now?”
There was no reply, but that was all the response she needed and a devilish grin formed on Amaterasu’s face. “You sly woman,” she said coyly as she softly tapped her fingers on her desk, “Oh the irony.”
“Shut up.”
“Barging into my office all high and mighty, and now this...”
“Shut. Up.”
“What did you hope to accomplish with this... to rise to nobility with your family, Miyagi-san?” Though unlike her, she revelled in pressing the woman’s buttons one at a time, trying to get as much of an emotional reaction out of her as she could.
Plus, she viewed it as payback for the slander she had been spewing just mere minutes ago.
“I SAID SHUT UP!” Kameko shouted as she rushed to Nana’s image and grabbed the vice-captain’s throat. “YOU WILL NOT LET ANYONE KNOW OF THIS, YOU HEAR ME?”
“Or what?” Nana asked darkly as she began to let her reiatsu leak out, making the woman in front of her tremble.
“I...”
“You will do... what, exactly?” Nana continued as the inspector let go of her throat due to the enormous amount of reiatsu weighing her down, “I’m not the one asking for a favour here, Miyagi-san. So help me help you. Be a good girl and leave me and my men alone and I will take care of this little problem of yours.
“Deal?”
Reluctantly Kameko nodded in Nana’s direction and removed herself from the vice-captain’s office. As the door closed behind her, the crimson-eyed woman could’ve sworn she heard the woman whisper a faint, “Thank you,” but decided not to think either too much on it, or of it.
It wasn’t worth fretting over.
What she had in her possession now, though... now that was worth looking into, but she couldn’t handle this herself because if she made even one mistake it would mean her entire family would be taken asunder as well alongside Kameko’s.
No, she needed someone to do this for her in her stead, but it couldn’t be just any brainless wonder, it couldn’t be just any soldier, or Third Division member... it had to be someone she could call upon whenever need be.
What she needed was a samurai of sorts, a person who could enforce her will for her wherever she could not do it directly. The question was... who, though? Fia was kind of out of the question since she didn’t seem particularly suited for this type of work... and she really wanted to keep her out of trouble if at all possible.
Manzou wasn’t going to work either, but that was for a more personal matter. Plus, the Herald wasn’t exactly the ‘enforcer’ type. More of a whiny, little prick who wanted to be praised by everyone around him so hard it hurt. Maybe she was just being bitter, but truth of the matter remained that her Third Seat just wasn’t the right type of person for this sort of mission.
As she rummaged through the various personnel files, her attention was caught by a particular newcomer’s file. Of course, the vice-captain thought to herself as she traced her hand across Gorou Yoshinaga’s file. Instead of finding a suitable samurai, I should just pick the one that never really stopped being one...
A faint smile appeared on her face as she stretched her arms behind her back and made herself comfortable.
Has nothing to do with
the previous two chapters
Tick. Tack.
Time and again the clock strutted on towards a new second, a new minute, a new hour.
Tick. Tack.
Eventually it would reach the dawn of a new day, and the cycle would begin anew. Yet why was it then that she felt so timeless right now? Why did it feel as though she had all the time in the world, as if the entire life she had been living up to now had been but a fraction of a picture larger than her mind could cope with right now?
Tick. Tack.
All these new images, these memories of an age long forgotten, she could only revel in them as she continued to slumber. Despite the fact that she had gone to bed hours ago, though, she had not been able to fall asleep. So much had happened today that she just couldn’t seem to process it all and shut her emotional state down for the night.
It was as if her new inhabitant wanted to show her everything she had lost in just one night’s time, but maybe it was just due to how long they had lived... how many memories they had created of these past few decades, these millennia.
It was, quite literally, mind boggling how many new thoughts, how many memories of the olden times she was forced to process right now... and for some reason or the other she felt as if this was but the tip of an enormous iceberg.
Opening her eyes ever so softly, she stared at her bedroom’s brilliantly painted ceiling and sighed softly at the prospect of having to explain her new appearance yet again to her family. In hindsight, she might’ve had an easier time dealing with her parent’s bickering had she simply kept her hood on all the while going up the stairs.
Of course, this was a ‘what if’ and not so much a ‘let’s do it’ type of deal anymore anyway. Still, she would’ve liked it if her brother hadn’t made such ridiculous remarks, if her mother and sister hadn’t made such... jealous remarks... and if her father hadn’t revelled in her new appearance.
Her father’s reaction was the one she expected the most, though, since he would obviously know just how their family’s first matriarch had looked like when she was younger, when she was her age. Yes, when he had laid his eyes on her she could see the smile on his face growing ever wider.
He could finally see the heir he had been so desperately looking for. It was, by now, common knowledge that her father was thinking of retiring his relinquishing his position to her. At least, to her it was. He hadn’t told the rest of the Amaterasu Household yet since he didn’t want to create some sort of buffer between him announcing it and him actually doing it.
Plus, it hadn’t exactly been a direct announcement to her, but that didn’t mean Nana wasn’t aware of her father’s word’s meaning. They were as clear as day to her, but she wasn’t sure if that made her feel any better about it. Though she wanted this, though she wanted to succeed her father as matriarch... she wasn’t sure if she should already.
Wasn’t sure if she was mentally prepared for such an enormous undertaking of responsibilities. It wasn’t just a fancy title like many another might think; at least to her it didn’t feel like just a fancy title. To her it meant more than that, it meant being in charge of an entire dynasty, of a house itself, the people surrounding it, but also the districts under its supervision.
Tick. Tack.
A few more hours and then it would be dawn again, and that was a good thing since the ticking of her clock was starting to get on her nerves. It only made it all the painstakingly more obvious that her life was going at a snail’s pace right now... even if a lot had happened these past few weeks.
Perhaps too much... and maybe that was also the reason why it felt so slow right now.
Slowly her eyelids began to feel heavier and in no time she found herself finally falling asleep. It wasn’t exactly for long, though, as soon she had to get up again as one of her house’s maids woke her up with two messages.
Apparently she had overslept, which was the first message – though, honestly, she wondered why they ever bothered telling her she overslept – and she was also told that her father wanted to speak with her as soon as she got out of bed and had her breakfast.
Perhaps not entirely unexpected, Nana took extra long to finish her food this morning before finally making her way to her father’s study. The way to his room was dimly lit and when she had knocked three times and entered, she found the space her father found himself in largely dimly lit as well.
His study was, surprisingly, not unlike her own vice-captain’s office, though slightly less related to duties as a shinigami, and more so to duties related to... well, other things.
As opposing as her father looked normally, there was nothing hinting at that very same stature now that he was sitting silently in the back of his study, contemplating as he saw his youngest enter the room.
“Ah,” he spoke softly – which in, and out of itself, was an oddity – as he motioned for Nana to sit down. “Take a seat, we have much to discuss.”
“Good morning to you too, father,” the crimson-eyed heir replied softly, yet slightly sarcastically as she sat down. “I take it there’s a fair reason for my relatively rude awakening this morning?”
There was a soft noise coming from her father’s being and she wondered what type of sigh he was breathing out. Obviously, there were a few she could come up with, but none of them really seemed to fit right now.
It was as if he was being... melanclic about something.
“I...” Her father sounded a lot older for some reason and his tone mostly veiled with sadness. “Yes, it’s about our family’s future.”
