Rio Okotaru Darishimo
Her steps echoed throughout the Squad Six barracks, growing faster and faster as her breathing increased. 'N-No! Please be here! PLEASE STILL BE HERE!' Her own voice screamed in her head minutes before she placed her hand on a door handle, turning it immediately and swinging the door open to reveal... nothing. 'H-he....' As if her wide-eyed, on the edge of becoming distraught, expression had frozen in time, Rio stepped further inwards to further find nothing... She took a few more steps towards the bathroom, also opening that door but then ran to the bath, drawing the curtain. '... gone....' Taking a shaky, deep breath, Rio stood up straight and gently drew the curtain back before turning around, looking through the doorways to the vibrant outside, a huge contrast with the dreary room. 'Kenta... You're really... g-gone' As her bottom lip began to shake, Rio bit it to stop it from moving before closing her eyes. Her eyebrows screwed together as tears tried to force their way out however she stopped them, only releasing a staggering breath before leaning on the edge of the bathtub with her palms gripping the edge of the tub on either side as the curtain crinkled underneath her. After giving herself a moment to calm down, Rio's eyes slowly opened but her vision was to the floor. She still wore an eye-patch so half of her vision was shrouded in darkness. "Huu... Kenta... I remember the first time I saw you, while I was being groped by a women... The first thing I thought was that you looked so strong, you almost scared me.... Then came our first mission, we seemed to of gotten so close since then... then the clone thing happened, and now you're gone...." A soft smile then drifted onto her face. "I thought you were incredibly strong and skilled back then, look at you now... Boy, we've both come so far since our first days but I can't help but miss those days... everything seemed simpler back then.... Heh... look at me... talking to your empty room since I missed the chance to say my goodbyes..." Lifting to her feet, Rio walked back into the main room, closing the bathroom door. All the while she kept her smile, hiding her sadness. "I'll never forget you Kenta... And I hope you won't forget me... So, goodbye best friend... I'll miss you more than you'll ever know...." With that, Rio made a short, sad chuckle noise before taking one last look around the room, taking in every heavy-with-memory inch of it before taking her last steps, leaving the room and closing the door softly behind her.
Once outside, Rio released a deep breath that she held during her last moments within her best friend's room before releasing the handle of Kenta's door and walking away, towards her own room.
"That was... hard" Closing her own door behind her, Rio sighed, closing her eye for a moment before opening it and turning around. She almost instantly spotted a foreign object in her room, causing her to raise an eyebrow in wonder. Walking over to her bed, the closer she got, the more she recognised the object. Standing close to her bed, Rio stared at the object with slightly widened eyes. 'Wha-... What are Kenta's headphones doing here?... He left them for me didn't he...' Carefully and gently scooping her hands under the broken item, Rio took a closer look while finally letting her pent-up tears silently fall from her eyes. "Well thanks buddy... I wish I had the chance to give you something...." Looking down a little, Rio's eye flicked back up to the broken headphones that Kenta would always wear... making her already miss him alot more than she expected. She then walked over to her desk while sniffing a little and wiping her cheeks with her sleeves. Opening the top draw of her desk, Rio took out a small, silk, draw-string pouch which she then proceeded to place the headphones inside before pulling the draw-strings and placing the bag into an inside pocket on the chest of her uniform which she had sewed on herself. 'No need to use this pocket for spare eye-patches, I think this is more important than those' Smiling, Rio patted the outside of the unnoticeable pocket. 'We'll meet again Kenta... some day'
That was three months ago.
'Hmm, I guess a status report would be useful... Members do seem to be training and showing improvements, it's a start atleast...' Shortly after the attack three months ago and learning of Kenta retiring, Rio had a talk with both Kaizo and her Captain since a huge shift came into effect in regards of positions within the Seireitei. Rio had taken the new Captain of Squad Two's offer to become his Lieutenant, after she had a talk with her Captain Kuchiki about the proposition. At first, Rio was reluctant to leave her Captain, but as a little time went by and Kenta's replacement claimed his spot, Rio made the decision with working alongside Captain Kaizo, however she did visit Squad Six often, just to have a chat with her Captain from time to time... No matter what Squad she was in, Captain Kuchiki would always be her Captain... But Captain Kaizo was her higher priority.
Usually one would find it weird to be taking orders from a spouse, but that wasn't the case with Rio. She obeyed Captain Kaizo and would still work to gain his respect, just like she did with Captain Kuchiki. What felt weird for her was the fact that she was in a different barracks with different Squad members... She had a new room and was in an area that was still slightly unfamiliar to her. To others, she'd look comfortable and settled, but really Rio was still trying to get used to things.... Get used to not having her best friend around or sticking closely with her Cap-... with Captain Kuchiki....
Stopping, Rio reached her Captain's door, knocking on it three times to await for Captain Kaizo's voice to grant her entrance.... She waited silently, as patience and professional as usual.