CaughtInTheRiddle — Roleplayer Guild

Collaborative Post between Yoshua and Riddle

She watched her opponents hand carefully, analysing every move he made. She was tense; if she didn’t do something soon, she was going to lose. Her brow furrowed as one of her soldiers was taken down, that so wasn’t fair. Her fingers twitched as she raised her hand to finally make her move, her eyes scanned the area, looking for an opening, but she found none - there was death in every turn,

“So, how’s the Punishment Force going?” her opponent asked in a deep voice, as smooth as silk - her blue eyes flickered up to his for a split second, before looking back down,

“No different to any other specialised division, I guess.” she sighed, moving her piece as she spoke; Romiel smirked,

“Will you be entering the tournament?” he asked as he slowly made his move, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied smirk on his features. Arina huffed a sigh before throwing herself back in her chair, a childish pout on her features as she sulked over her loss - he chuckled slightly,

“You’re such a sore loser,” he proclaimed, which caused her blue eyes to narrow on him,

“I hate Shogi,” she muttered, her immaturity seeping through - but within a split second, her face was scrunched up, as she pondered over his question,

“Pfft, no,” she scoffed, “that’s not my thing,” she mused - a glint in Romiel’s blue eyes hinted that it was not what he was asking, and she frowned – “I’ll be off to the side with Pachid – watching… that’s what I do,”

He smirked, as he folded his arms over his chest, “Sitting on the fence… I suppose it’s what you do best, really.” he mused, and her eyes narrowed on him,

“Like you can talk,” she replied in a snarky tone; they both knew what she was referring to – and the underlying tension of their predicament seemed to seep through their simple conversation. “At least I’m sitting on one side of the fence,” she mused, and Romiel raised an eyebrow at her vague metaphor… the question he had to ask was, whose side of the fence was she sitting on? For once he couldn’t tell.

Managing the tumultuous 2nd division in the stead of its captain was a tough job, this was surely true, but she was diligent as any good lieutenant could be. It also helped that a good portion of the division was infatuated with her and so would meet every command or order with a dreamy smile before vanishing in a shunpo. They'd never run off, it was always a shunpo or a sudden disappearance, almost like they were vying to see who could best please her in order to earn her favor. Stopping a moment at that thought, the woman glanced upwards a bit as if peering at the contents of her own mind, her head slightly tilted, and her lips arranged a look of frowning concentration. "Well...that's probably exactly what's going on," she said a bit ruefully, almost rolling her eyes.

As if on cue one of the shinigami she had sent off to deliver messages and keep an eye on the Jigokucho that passed through the area. Apparently he had intercepted one, which had given him some message. Still, as he relayed to her the contents of said message she gave him a gentle, and in actuality fake, smile to sate his boyish lust for attention and approval from the object of his affection. Even though it was a fake smile, she did it out of kindness...in more ways than one. As if to accentuate this, Hana felt a stirring at her left hip causing her to nod slightly and send him off with another set of instructions, making sure he informed the entire division and with haste. "Now do be on your way, I'm quite busy today, plenty to arrange," she said with somewhat mock cheer.

He nodded, doe eyes, and vanished, his speed even greater than when he'd arrived. After several seconds she released a deep sigh and leaned on the wall of the hallway slightly. "That was close..." she stated as she felt her zanpakuto begin to settle down once more. Yes, that was the other reason she did her utmost to never show any sign of displeasure with most individuals with whom she interacted, for if she did Shingai-sha would reer her ugly head and there'd be another member of their division heading off to either the psyche ward or counciling to help them get over the intense trauma that was induced by nigh any interaction with her sword spirit.

Frowning as she felt her zanpakuto stirr slightly, Hana noticed the fourth seat, who was a small middle woman --much to her relief-- rushing towards her. However, before she could even open her mouth to report, Hana spoke, shushing her. "You are to manage the division in my absence," she said sternly, but with an apologetic look in her eyes. "What ever for?" Chiho queried, frowning at Hana and putting her hands on her hips. Hana gave her an apologetic smile and then glared in the direction of the 6th division's barracks. "I need to retrieve our captain..." she replied curtly, causing Chiho to release a sigh of relief and gently put her hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "Good luck, child," Hana smiled at her thankfully, bowed her head respectfully for a moment, and then turned to depart. "Thanks Chiho, I'll need it, Arina can be quite the difficult little bitch," Chiho covered her mouth and then laughed, unable to withold the amusement that bubbled in her from her superior's playful insult. Waving, Chiho turned around and began to deal with those who approached her...well, at least till she could find Saru feng, the 3rd seat, and oust her responsibilities onto him.

Having traveled quite a ways to get to the 6th division, Hana arrived a few minutes after the two captains had concluded their game of shogi, and while she wasn't out of breath she couldn't say she wasn't at least a bit tired from the trekk. As such, she made sure not to arrive exactly at 6th division, but instead to hide behind one of the nearby buildings and catch her breath a bit. After half a minute she walked around the corner and into sight of the members of Romiel's squad. Doing her best, she made sure to dart out of sight again, concealing her reiatsu as she did so. She wanted to avoid the large throngs of men who might drool over her. Mostly for their sake, ironically...she really could use a bit of drooling in that moment. She shivered a bit, thinking of something related to that activity that was far less...acceptable in public. Turning her mind away from such things, Arina finally shunpo'd onto the small hill near the 6th division, which housed a gazebo, in which the two captains were sitting. As she got there she respectfully bowed her head to Romiel, and then turned her venemous gaze onto her own captain and spouted out, "Why the hell are you here slacking off while I work my butt off running your division?!" Her hands, like Chiho's had been, were now on her hips, one of said hips jutting to the side indignantly even as Hana's lips moved into a small frown, which looked a bit like a cute pout at the same time. She then waited for Arina's response, and she hoped it was good because Shingai-sha was getting restless and that was never fun for anyone....

“The truth of the matter is we both live on the fence Arina, and you can’t deny that; those you’re loyal to even question where your allegiance truly lies,” Romiel mused, knowing full well what most people thought of her.

“The difference between us is that yours don’t lie anywhere,” she shot back,

“They lie with me,”

Arina opened her mouth to say something, but was instantly silenced when she found herself on the receiving end of a lecture from Hana. She raised an eyebrow at her Lieutenant's curt tone, and Romiel simply smirked, leaning forward on the table and resting his chin on his clasped hands as they both eyed the girl. This wasn't uncomon for her – Arina was usually skiving off somewhere; to be honest, the Second Division was renowned for passing work down the chain of command.

“Now, now Hana, no need for that kind of attitude – you’re working your butt off because you’re a good Lieutenant and do what you’re told,” Arina stated with an amused tone, to which Romiel chuckled, “Besides, it’s not like you can’t delegate your workload to the other seated members,”

Hana glared at Arina a moment, before Romiel opened his mouth, and then she realized what she was doing...a moment too late. Her zanpakuto, which had been fastened at her hip, sprung out from her reach, liquifying, but not into metal. Instead, it turned into a mass of flesh, permeating the hill with the smell of death and rotting meat. The mass had lunged through the air at Romiel, taking form as it did so sot hat by the time it was about to slam into him, it was in the shape of a fully grown woman, with unnaturally purple eyes, elongated eyes, and a wicked snarl across her lips, sharp teeth could be seen within. "I oughta snap your little mind for giving my Hana trouble, you dirty disgusting little man," There was a terrible aura of hostility and instability that began to eat at the minds of all within a mile or so's distance.

Hana swore under her breath, trying to get a handle on her reiatsu to suppress the effect, but to no avail. "Dammit Shingai-sha, why can't you ever just stay out of it!?" The spirit didn't even turn to regard her master, instead, her body split in two, a copy of the previously described woman flowing out from the back of the first to stalk over to Arina, claws forming on her hand instead of fingernails. "And you! I oughta gut you for forcing poor Hana to overwork herself! She might lose her beautiful complexion from all the sun, or become to bulky from all the running around. We wouldn't want her to become self conscious of her thighs, now would we. Oh wait, you wouldn't understand that now would you? You've alreayd been ruined by all those men I know you've been sleeping with."[I] Shingai-sha spat in front of Arina, her purple eyes glowing even more fiercely as the shrill tones of Hana's shikai became [I]almost audible from the zanpakuto's sheer rage, which fueled it.

Hanayaka, on the other hand, had placed her hands on her head, trying to beat the spirit down from within so that she could regain control of the situation, but so far to no avail. Meanwhile two enraged copies of Shingai-sha attempted to kill, or at least berate, two captains. One of the two straddling Romiel, her teeth becoming sharper and sharper even as her venemous words attempted to cut through the hide of Romiel's mind so the horrible being could drive him mad; the other stalking towards Arina, an aura of killing intent emitting from her form as claws formed on both her hands as well as small amounts of carbon based armor up her arms. Overall it wasn't looking too great....

Romiel hadn’t really been expecting it – he had thought she’d go for Arina, but apparently he was “a dirty disgusting little man”. By the time he realised where Shinhai-sha was headed, he simply decided to let it happen; he hit the ground with a sigh and a bored expression as he stared up at the clouds, trying to block the psychotic Zanpakuto out. His eyes flickered from the soft fluffy clouds, to the evil purple gaze of the spirit. Arina on the other hand, had to cover her mouth in order to silence a giggle as she watched Romiel be pinned down.

“It’s funny how he’s the dirty one, but you’re the one on top, Shingai,” Arina mused, watching the spirit's body split into two. Arina sighed at this, as a clone advanced on her, menacing claws growing, “Don’t make me release,” she warned, her blunt gaze staring at the horrifying creature as it pressed forward – Arina glanced to Hana for a moment, watching the girl clutch her head… for a second, she hated Romiel for taking Tamashi from her.

With a small sigh, she wrapped her hand around the hilt of her sword, murmuring the words, “Hikisaku, Hinazuka” – she ripped her sword from its sheath, ready to attack, but nothing happened. She groaned slightly, shaking the blade, “Come on, don’t do this now!” she hissed at the dormant Zanpakuto. But there was nothing, not even a peep from Hinazuka. Arina shot a dark glare at it, before lifting the sword to the spirit,

“Fine, be that way,” she muttered, looking past her and to Romiel who was frowning slightly,

Romiel lifted his head towards the horrid smelling heap of flesh, arching his back as he did so, giving him the leverage he would need to be able to move her. If this helped lift Shingai, he would yank his arms down, gripping his sword and muttering “Kurayami no naka ni dete iku” – that would be all he needed for his Zanpakuto to release and plenty of small shadow creatures to crawl out from the darkest areas of the garden.

Their disjointed bodies would curve into an animalistic shape as they charged for all those who posed a potential threat, which was everyone save for Hana. Arina would be spear tackled to the ground and land on her back with a creature ripping its mouth open and screaming in her face. While two groups would go for Shingai-sha and her duplicate.

Not one to ignore her surroundings, Shingai-sha seemed to almost growl as she noted the release of the two zanpakuto into their shikai state. However, one proved useless, causing the clone to smirk, the smile spreading and spreading till her cheeks tore widdening the smile into a horrifying cheshire grin. Her eyes glowed even more fiercely and her iris began to widen to fill her eyes. While the captains were doing well to resist her influence, there still seemed to be a strange quivering aura around the two Shingai-sha bodies, as if there were gas in the air around her.

Before the shadow creatures could reach Arina's clone, her mouth opened and she spoke, "Get back to work, or I'll come back." The body then shrunk, moving under the shadowy beastlings as they lunged at her, causing them to miss. The flesh then crept back towards Hana and formed the sheath of Misute's weaponized form. The other clone drew an extremely shallow bloody line from Romiel's cheek and neck, causing little to no real damage, and then she too melted and then reformed just as her other half had done.

A few moments after this, Hana stopped clutching her head with both hands, instead rubbing her temples with one hand and sighing, a small frown plastered across her face. "Well...that wasn't how I intended this to go at all," she said with quite notable irritation, Hana then turned to Romiel and walked over, offerring a hand to him with a slightly worried frown on her features. "Sorry Romiel, I can heal those scratches if it'd help..." she knew enough kido to do at least that much, plus one had to when their sword spirit was so damned insistent on terrorizing people around her.

Arina cocked her head to the side in a small glare as the spirit ordered her to get back to work; she’d seen that horrific face far too many times to count, and that malice was still suffocating. She didn’t return her sword as the womanly thing started to shrink, and she most certainly wasn’t expecting it when a force ran at her, launching her to the ground and pinning her down. She let out a small yelp as her blue eyes snapped up to look at the disjointed creature as it ripped its face open and let out a shrill, scratchy scream.

Pachid had always been the kind to avoid conflict, and his visits to Romiel were regular, especially when he needed to pass paperwork onto the sixth division captain. But when he found himself walking into quite the scene, he rose an eyebrow, watching the scene. He cocked his head to the side as he looked At Romiel who was pinned to the ground by Hana’s Zanpakuto spirit, he then looked to Hana who was obviously trying to supress the spirit… and was obviously failing. He sighed and his eyes flickered to Arina as she had a stand off with a duplicate of the spirit, and after a threat, Arina was spear tackled by Romiel’s shikai.

He didn’t question it, nor did he bother to help them – this wasn’t his problem. “Hey Hana... Romiel, I have that report for you,” he stated, holding the pile of papers up in the air, “But I can see you’ve got your hands tied, so I’m just going to leave this here…” he placed the paper on the shogi board before raising an eyebrow at the female captain wrestling with the shadow figure.

Romiel sighed as Shingai-sha disappeared, leaving him lying on the ground staring up at the sky with a bleeding face… he really didn’t like that Zanpakuto. He sat up and put his sword away, in turn forcing the demonic entities to disappear. His eyes were drawn to a bright flash as Arina’s sword released far too late, and out of frustration she threw it across the yard.

With another sigh, he took Hana’s hand and allowed her to pull him up with ease. “Not at all Hana, these things… happen,”

Arina stared at her Zanpakuto with a glare as she stalked over to it, looking to Hana with a small raise of the eyebrows, “You really need to control that horrifying bitch, Hana,” she mused carelessly, picking up the sword and shoving it back in its sheath.

“Perhaps you shouldn’t aggravate it so much, Arina,” Pachid suggested from one of the chairs Arina and Romiel had been sitting in before.

Hana gave Pachid a sidelong glance and then smiled almost gratefully at him. While his statement may have very well been out of laziness, it was certainly true. "He's right, she doesn't come out as much when she's not provoked, though I'll admit that it is very easy to provoke her," she then glared at her the more dilapidated of her two sheaths before looking back to Romiel to check if he was okay. Her eyes peering up at the much taller shinigami, Hana noticed the claw marks across his face once more and frowned. It really bothered her that she couldn't do anything to stop Shingai-sha from hurting people...it really did. She felt herself tearing up a little and so she turned away from all three of them, gesturing towards the Shogi table that was now somewher behind her she spoke, "There are some documents there for us," the girl glanced at Arina, the tears not as apparent in her eyes now as she bit the inside of her cheek.

She looked at Pachid briefly, then looked away, scooping up the documents, sorting out which ones she'd do, and then set them back down before turning around and walking out of the gazebo and back onto the grassy hill. "Come back soon, okay Arina? I can't handle all the work myself, it's t-too busy today..." her voice trailed off as she realized she had stuttured, "...bye." She looked back, waving at Romiel, and then turned away and vanished in a shunpo, mostly to get out of sight of the division and the captains.

When she reappeared there were tears lightly running down her cheeks. She continued heading back to her division, where she would coop herself up in her office and fill out the documents or pass them out as necessary till it was time to go to the tournament. Maybe seeing everyone would cheer her up...then again maybe it was better for them that she didn't go.

Arina sighed as she saw the tears well up in Hana’s eyes – and before she knew it, her Lieutenant had disappeared, back to her office, she presumed. She turned back to Pachid and Romiel who were staring after Hana, Romiel with an empathetic gaze and Pachid with his usual bored one. “I suppose I don’t need to ask you guys to keep this to yourself,”

Pachid looked up at her with a small frown, “Relaying these events take so much effort,” he stated, but the subtext was an agreement. They both looked at Romiel who clasped his hands behind his back and turned at Arina,

“The Captain Commander wouldn’t like to hear of this incident,” he mused, “It’s safe with me… but Arina, you should train her to keep that sword under control,”

Arina sighed at his words, “Trust me, I’ve tried, but Shingai-sha hates me – every time I try any kind of training session, we end up in an incident like that,”

“Why not take her to Zume?”

Arina and Romiel froze at Pachid’s words, they both turned to look at him with slight frowns on their features, “Oh come on, don’t look at me like that – the guy’s a genius; surely there’s something he can do for her….”

Arina and Romiel shared a glance before she stepped towards the direction Hana had taken off in, “Yeah… I’ll… keep that in mind,” she stated, before stepping away in a shunpo.

Romiel chuckled to himself for a moment before taking a seat with Pachid, he reached out for the papers and looked over them, “A game of shogi?”

Pachid simply shrugged his shoulders, in silent acceptance to his comrade's offer – it saved him from doing more work.
It hadn’t taken long for Arina to get back to Hana’s office, and when she arrived, she didn’t bother knocking. She simply waltzed in, plonking herself down on one of the chairs, and staring at the girl.

“You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself…” Arina stated, “it’s not your fault your Zanpakuto is a psychotic, horrifying, narcissitic bitch,”

Looking only slightly surprised as Arina entered, Hana hurriedly wiped away her remaining tears, making sure to focus on the documents again rather than reply right away. It took several moments, but after reading over a page or two, Hana answered, [B]"A zanpakuto is a reflection of its wielder..." she said blankly. It seemed like she was suppressing her emotions so that she didn't have to deal with them, or maybe it was out of pride? Still, while she alone knew what part of her that Shingai-sha reflected, it still made her feel terrible. It made her flinch when she found herself smirking slightly in the shadows when someone was carried off to the 4th division, curled up into the fetal position and raving madly.

However, at the same time it got at her. She wasn't sure which was worse, the fact that a small part of her enjoyed the torment her shikai instilled, or that the pain she'd seen people go through because of her was so great that it felt as a burden almost crushing her at times.

Arina sighed at Hana’s words, “That may be true, but there are exceptions to the rule…” Arina mused, “You’re nothing like Shingai-sha, even if it’s supressed emotions in the form of a Zanpakuto – it doesn’t make her you… she’s a consciousness now, which means, no matter how reflective she may be – she’s formed a personality of her own. Some of it may be you. Perhaps the cruel side you never show… and she’s taken that and morphed it into herself,” Arina explained… god she hated Zanpakuto’s.

“Look at Romiel’s – he’s not a cruel man; he’s actually one of the coolest, nicest captains I know”.

Hana's hand stopped, she'd been signing a document or two while Arina talked...and talked. She was being quite talkative, it was almost a lecture. However, Hana heard the kindness in her words, kindness that Arina tended to only show if she wanted something. In this was unlikely the case, and she knew that. She was right though, a shinigami's zanpakuto did not represent the entirety of their personality, or identity as a person, just a part of it. The spirits were as much a part of the shinigami as the shinigami was a part of them. Still, in a sense both were still distinct individuals, it was strange.

Wiping her tears, feeling her strength and enthusiasm come back a little, Hana continued her paperwork, not giving Arina the satisfaction of a big smile. "I...I suppose you're right. Oh, the tournament is in a little bit, I doubt you're brave enough..." or even close to diligent enough "...to join, but I think you should be there. Maybe you want me to come get you when I'm ready?" She looked up at Arina expectantly as she finished signing another form.

Arina frowned slightly as Hana spoke, but rose her eyebrows in a slight agreement, "Yeah, you're right, I'm definately not participating - but I'll show up, just to make myself look good," Arina mused with a small smirk, rising to her feet, "I'll just chill with Pachid or something - we all know he's definately not going to enter," and with that, she turned to leave, making her way towards the door,

Nodding quietly to herself, Hana bit her lip a bit and then smiled, looking up and calling to Arina once, "hey Arina...thanks". She'd hold the smile, a honest real one mind you, for a moment, and then go back to doing the paperwork. She would head to the tournament grounds in thirty minutes or so, she figured.

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