Empath — Roleplayer Guild

The sun and the gentle breeze made the dark shadows of the leafs above dance lazily across Akira’s fair skin, he was resting his back against one of the many arms of the tall tree he had claimed as his own personal ‘procrastinating castle’ - of which he, of course, was the captain of. His gaze shifted focus from the lazy, yet enthralling dance of the green leaves to the blue canvas that bled through the spaces between the dancers. For some reason he had always had a fascination with a clear blue sky - there was something innocent, yet mystical and alarming about a clear blue sky that had captured his attention from an early stage. In fact, he couldn’t remember a time when the blue sky above him, no matter what dimension he had been in, that hadn’t filled him with a sense of vastness and wonder, yet at the same time he couldn’t deny that he also felt a sting of sadness as well - a feeling that he had never been able to convey to others, and had therefore given up trying a long time ago.

“huh,” he grunted suddenly in mid-thought, “perhaps that is why I have never liked Huecho Mundo…?”

This possible self-realization didn’t linger for long however - in fact in Akira’s mind barely anything did - because his focus shifted to a single lonely little cloud that had dared drift into his perfect picture of dancing greens and the ocean of blue. It didn’t seem like it cared one bit that it had drifted into Akira’s perfect picture, instead it seemed to carelessly drift wherever the wind took it - something that birthed a sense of envy within Akira.

“What a life,” he mumbled lazily to himself, “if only I could live like that, not having to do anything, must be so nice…”

He lazily lifted the cup he had held in his hand since he had placed himself in the tree, the warm tea poured into his mouth, it’s refreshing taste clearing his throat, clearing the path of a heavy sigh to make make its escape through his lips. It was actually quite a nice life he had, if he had to be honest with himself: he had a high ranking job, he didn’t have a girl to drag him down with her endless blabbering and he had this lovely tree to hide in from his daily tasks. If only the rest of his division didn’t interrupt him when he was relaxing with endless official tasks he ‘had’ to do as the lieutenant of the third division.

Yet the universe didn’t want him to relax either. A black butterfly announced its arrival in the voice of Captain Commander Goken Kuribayashi.

„Gotei 13 - my brothers and sisters,” his voice barreled, “in an hour time, the annual Hakuda tournament - courtesy of our own Captain Masumata and his Seventh Division, is going to take place. I, Goken Kuribayashi, invite you to register if you haven’t already. All entries are open until five minutes before the first match, which means you have enough time to reach their barracks and enter the competition. It is a great honor for your Squad, but even more so, for you - should you win such a prestigious contest. Last year, Second Squad took the trophy to their barracks. This year, it is again, up for grabs. And remember, Hakuda is not about how hard you hit – it is about how hard you can get hit and keep pushing on.”

“It’s that time again, huh?” Akira spoke out loud to no one but himself,the leaves and the lonely cloud above him. He really had never cared for this tournament, the reason being that he really wasn’t that skilled in the art of Hakuda. Instead he prefered the way of the sword - or simply straight up fighting, with no rules and no handicaps but your own lack of skill. It was the survival of the fittest and nothing else - a code he actually found himself missing more often than not from his time in the 11th division. Well it wasn’t like he didn’t like it in the 3rd division, he was a lieutenant after all and captain Genji wasn’t th-

“There you are!” A high pitched voice pierced the calming songs of the nature, and at the same time sending a bolt of electricity up his spine as it interrupted his line of thought. “What are you doing up there! Do you have any idea how long I have been looking for you!? Do you really think you can escape from your duties…”

The rest of her voice was blocked out by Akira, a skill he had obtained through the many years as a shinigami - if you didn’t hear anything, you didn’t have to do anything. It really was as simple as that, or at least that was the code Akira lived by, much to the annoyance of those that needed him for official business.

“Are you even listening to me you lazy idiot!?” the girl below screamed, having noticed that Akira was lost in his thoughts again.

“Yea yea…” Akira mumbled quietly to himself, but just loud enough for the shinigami below to hear. Jumping down from the tree he had been procrastinating in he skillfully landed on his feet, taking another sip of the tea, only to realise that it had become rather cool in the time he had lazily enjoyed in the tree. Tossing the rest of the liquid in his cup aside he turned towards the woman who had yelled at him just moments ago: she was now standing a few feet in front of him, coldly staring at him with her arms crossed over her chest.

Her name was Anu Akira recalled - he had, despite his lazy and carefree demeanor, quite the knowledge of not just the other shinigami in his division, but also of most of the shinigami within the Gotei 13. Why you might ask? Its quite simple: Akira had always believed that those with more knowledge of their enemies had the upper hand and while the shinigamis of the Gotei 13 wasn’t technically his ‘enemies’, it was still better to be prepared for what might happen in the future - even if that mean that you had to kill those you you once called comrades.
This specific ‘comrade’ was an unseated member of his own division that had only just joined the 3rd division straight out of the academy a few years back - however she clearly had big ambitions for her future as she, even as an unseated member, took great responsibility in the official duties of the division. This was to such an extend that she even commanded her lieutenant around like she was the captain - which was the characteristic which had meant that Akira had hired her as his unofficial assistant, or rather, it was because he had wrongly believed that he could push all of his workload onto her.

Anu herself was rather ordinary, she was of average height, she wasn’t pretty but she wasn’t ugly either, her light brown hair was kept in place with a ponytail and her clothes consisted of normal shinigami-clothing. In fact she would almost blend into the surrounding shinigamis around her if it wasn’t for one little detail: her shiny ice-blue eyes that seemed to glow behind a pair of sharp glasses - and the fact that she had a fairly amazing breast area, if Akira had to be brutally honest, not that he ever would in public.

“Hey!” Anu suddenly yelled, breaking the trail of thought in Akira’s mind, “where do you think you’re staring!?”

Akira fluttered his eyes, tearing them away from said ‘amazing breast area’ which he had apparently been staring at while his thoughts were lost in the nether of his mind. “Uhh…” Akira spoke slowly, trying to kick his lazy brain into gear, “just… couldn’t shake the thought of those ‘Twins from Heaven’ out of my m-”

He didn’t get a chance to speak further before a fist fiercely connected with his stomach, forcing him to hunch over as all the air inside of his lungs were abruptly forced out. A groan escaped his lips as he clutched his stomach with his hands.

“Haven’t I told you not to call them that!?” Anu yelled from high above his kneeling stature, however it was clear to Akira just from the sounds of her high pitched voice that she was embarrassed more than angry. “Oh come on, Anu” Akira said with a light grin painted on his face as he rose from the ground, still rubbing the pain away from his stomach with his left hand, “I was just joki-”

Once again Akira was interrupted by Anu’s hand that this time connected with his left cheek with a loud SMACK. “I’ve told you not to joke with that!” she added, this time her voice definitely had tones of anger mixed in with embarrassment.

“Okay, perhaps she is a bit angry…” Akira thought sourly while trying to reconnect his jaw with his hand. “You know, you really should start doing something about that habit of hitting people…” He muttered annoyed as he began to follow the path that led to the 3rd Division’s barracks, “it’s definitely not something a lady would do!” With a light laughter he evaded Anu’s third punch by taking a quick step to the side, grinning widely as he added “now now, what did I tell you?”
The only response he received was the angry noise that escaped Anu’s closed lips.

As they finally approached their division’s barracks after a longer walk - Akira specifically picked places furthest away from the barracks as possible when he was procrastinating, that way it decreased the danger of being found (sadly this time that hadn’t been the case..) - Anu spoke for the first time since she had tried to punch Akira for the third time. “Finally,” she said, somehow she sounded rather exhausted Akira noted, “now remember that you have to hand in the final revision of our division’s training schedule that the captain asked for - and don’t you dare try to get out of following up on the newest members of our division, you were supposed to introduce them to our division last week!”

“yada yada…” Akira said, trying to escape the reality of Anu’s voice, “can’t you just do it, you know the drill anyway…”

“Of course I can’t!” Anu erupted, “you’re the lieutenant, it is your job!”

The only response Akira could come up with at that moment was a near silent array of curses and complaints. Luckily for him he didn’t have to come up with a retort as in that specific moment two shinigamis from their division appeared around the corner of one of the wooden hallways of their barracks. They didn’t seem to notice that it was their lieutenant that they walked past as they both were deeply involved in their conversation.

“Did you hear that Miyako Kita won again captain Hiro Masumata in the tournament!? That’s amazing!” One of the two male shinigami exclaimed excited, “can you believe it? A lieutenant beating a captain! Why do we have to have such a useless lieutenant in our division?!”

The other male shinigami laughed deeply before responding, “I know, right? I doubt he could even stand a chance against a 3rd seater! He sure is useless, too bad that captain Genji won’t get rid of him…”

“I know, seems like we are stuck with one of the most use…”

Their voices faded out of range as they turned around another corner, yet the echo of what they had said lingered in the air even after their departure. Anu carefully glanced at said useless lieutenant, did he hear what they had said? Of course he had, he had been right there with her.

Akira had stopped dead in his track, he hadn’t moved a muscle under the whole conversation that had occurred between the two shinigamis that had now disappeared and it took him a few more seconds to react to what had just happened. When he reacted it was exactly how Anu had feared: with anger.

“Oh now I’ve had it!” He yelled to no one in particular, “those baka-domo dare speak badly of their awesome lieutenant!? I sure hope they are prepared for hell!”

With that he started to run after them, leaving Anu dumbfounded behind. It took her a second to be able to respond to the sudden change in pace - and when she finally understood what had just happened the only thing she could think of doing as a response was to yell at the back of her quickly disappearing lieutenant.

“Hey! Don’t you dare try to use that as an excuse to get out of your duties!”

This actually had the effect she had hoped for: Akira stopped up, turned around with a serious look on his face as he replied. “I put my trust in you to deal with the minor tasks - I know you can do it! Now excuse me I am about to go ‘introduce’ those idiots to how we do things here in the 3rd division!”

A devilish grin had formed on his face as he spoke the words, no doubt this ‘introduction’ was a set of gruelling tasks that would border to downright torture - something that Akira had been known to do to those that really pissed him off. Of course this was just an excuse for Akira to escape his duties and head off to the Hakuda tournament in order to see this ‘great’ lieutenant that was so much better than him...

“Hey!” Akira yelled, “Get back here you blithering idiots! I am going to show you just what an awesome lieutenant you are so lucky to have!”

Melanie grinned encouragingly to Henry, hitting his shoulder that was closest to her lightly in a friendly act of kindness - or at least the closest Melanie could get herself to show her affection. “Don’t worry about that,” she spoke in her usually go-happy tone, “remember we are just going up against a bunch of fanatics to have some sort of hate towards everyone - I bet even a rookie like you could take them out single-handedly!”.
Her grin widened as she winked playfully at him, hoping that her joking could help him get his mind off whatever might happen - after all none of them could actually predict what might happen in the near future, but if one of them was crippled with dark thoughts and uneasiness the whole group might fail.

“Plus,” she spoke after a short break, her eyes now focused on the deeper parts of the fire in front of them, the tone in her voice now filled with a solemn tone, “what happened last time with… Daisy was…” her voice became quieter with each word that escaped her, even breaking as she was uncertain whether or not she should actually speak of this - after all it might bring back the dark memories of the events that had let to a member of Sector V’s death in the hand of the The Omegas. “...Special” she finally got herself to say, letting the word hang in the air for a brief moment before she carried on, her voice this time much brighter: “So don’t worry! This time I am certain that those pesky Omegas won’t show up - and if they do: why don’t you then teach them a lesson with that crowbar of yours!”
This time her grin was back on her face as she let Henry have one more of her famous winks, but it soon became apparent to Melanie that she shouldn’t worry that much about it as Henry spoke to her in a brighter tone.

"How are you holding up?"

“How am I holding up?” Melanie asked, somehow his question threw her off balance. How was she? She felt like grinning widely, accompanying the motion with a reassuring joke about how she was alway ‘just so awesome’ - however this wasn’t the case. Instead of grinning she gazed deep into the fire, memories of her past flashing through her: her time in the ‘streets’ with the other ‘Rats’, the rough life of surviving day to day, constantly on the run - and not the exciting run she took part off with the other Runners - and how she had later been discovered by ‘Father’. Truly she wasn’t ‘O.K’, not even close.

“Oh you know,” she coughed, forcing her voice not to break as she continued, “these parts of New London just brings back a lot of…”
She tried. She really tried, but she couldn’t help it: her voice broke mid-sentence. It took her a little while to get it back, and through sheer determination she forced the word up through her throat. “Memories”.
She tried to smile energetically as she tore eyes away from the fire to look at Henry, but her smile and eyes reflected the sadness in her tone - luckily she was saved by none other than their great leader Churchill Gunner.

"Eat up, gang: Ain't every day we get a hot meal! And afterwards, wrap yourself and get some rest."

“Well looks like it is time to hit the bed,” Melanie spoke once Church had finished, “wouldn’t want to be the target of the great Churchill’s rage, now would we!”
This time her voice had taken on her usual cheery tone, grinning at the others before she finished her food - if that was what you would call it. When she was done forcing the ‘food’ down her throat she once again hit Henry playfully on the shoulder.

“Rest up Henry,” she said, this time looking straight into his eyes, “and don’t worry too much about the past, okay?”

With that she got up and laid herself down on the thin sheet of cloth that was her bed, turning her back to the fire and the others as she stared into the shadow of herself that was reflected onto the granite wall - and before she knew it she had fallen into a restless dream filled with memories of her past.

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