Saffron Roofs and Marble Skies [OPEN]

This site was perfect. It had everything Iroka wanted, from the large ground space to the nearby tall buildings that would serve as points of observation. Removing the large sack which she had carried all the way from the 12th Division's HQ, the golden-haired Shinigami placed it down gently and heaved a sigh. Even with her above-normal strength, the contents of the bag were tasking by weight. Ignoring the people who had stopped to watch her, Iroka began pulling out the contents of the bag and setting them down. In time, she had arranged an interesting-looking gizmo, about the size of an average-heighted man, and stashed it inconspicuously away under a shed roof.

Her mission was simple: Iroka was trying to create a reiatsu radar of sorts, that could pick up even remote signatures of reiatsu from very long distances. As it were, she had managed to complete it. Now all that was left was to test it out. She had brought her paraphernalia far out into Rukongai, into Northern Sector 70. Although it was quite the rowdy place, the chaotic nature of the place would help Iroka test the ability of her device, even in a chaotic situation... like the one that was about to brew.

A giant of about 7 feet, as muscular as he was tall, was headed her way. With him were about a dozen lackeys, all giving Iroka an unfriendly look whose most benign message was probably "We want to eat you". She, for her part, put up her most charming smile and said, "Hello, boys. A fine day for strolling, isn't it?" The giant showed her a set of discolored teeth. "No strolling in my lane unless ya git pay." "How much would that be?" the Shinigami asked. The men sized her up and down lecherously. "In your case, Pretty, you don't need money," the giant said, licking his lips and taking a menacing step towards her.

"I might just be married," Iroka riposted easily, apparently not worried that she might be in trouble. "And my husband may not like people who look at me that way."

A small petite shinigami strolled along the sites on her "patrol" over the small landscapes of the soul society where desolate beings wondered about. But quite frankly she just barely managed to escape an over bearing amount of paper work that was left on her desk this morning. She carried an umbrella on her back though not a single cloud seemed to be floating above. Within a couple more feet she ran into some strange spirits. One of them especially stronger then the others. She walked over wondering what they were doing. Curiosity leads her to adventure as one might say.

She stopped only a couple yards away with her pressure kept hidden within her. Her haori and regular shinigami outfits non-exsistent. Just a simple hakama, goggles, tabi shoes, gloves and an umbrella on her back. "Hey it's rude to bother such a lady you know" Rang a very child like voice from her sly grin. "I work for the spirit police. What you crooks doing out here?" She jokingly said while pointing her finger at the brutes.

The hulking brute stopped momentarily and turned to look at the newcomer. Then he grunted. "My business don't mean nothing to you, brat," he said in a nonchalant tone, although he seemed a little bit on guard since the silver-haired newcomer had announced that she was with the spirit police. Whether such an organization existed or not was obviously unknown to the man, but he reassured himself with the fact that the two girls were on his turf, and he was the law here.

Iroka, for her part, was a little grateful for the presence of the newcomer. Even though she wasn't too concerned about taking on the thugs before her, it was always better to have a friendly face around, just in case something beyond her capabilities showed up. The machine resting under the eaves of the nearby shed beeped softly, drawing quite a number of eyes to it. Iroka was probably the only one who knew what that beep meant: Shinigami. The machine could read reiatsu finely, and over long distances, but that was all that it could do. Whoever the newcomer was, she was either very weak or very talented, because the reiatsu emanating from her was negligible.

Iroka opened her mouth to speak, when the knave closest to the machine walked over to it and kicked it roughly. That wouldn't do at all. If the device got spoilt, she would have to spend long hours in the 12th's labs fixing it up again. So she would have to dissuade anyone else from tampering with the device. "Show respect for what you don't understand, illiterate!" the golden-haired Shinigami yelled, planting her foot in his face. He crashed into the wall of the shed. The leader or the pack stared at his downed comrade, then without a word, charged at Iroka, his head down like a bull. Two of his lackeys, concluding that the newcomer would interfere, drew knives and advanced on her.

Things were beginning to get messy rather quickly.

As the word 'brat' escaped out of the brutes mouth a little angry vein appeared on her head. Her smile remained but in the most creepy way. She stared at the machine a bit and the design and make of it was familiar. But the girl in question was unknown to her at all. A shinigami? A vizard? All before her thoughts could even be finished a little beep was heard. A little voice rang in her head 'how cute a beep!' at the same time, what is beeping? What piece of technology could even be out here.

The girl kicked one of them into the shed. And without missing a beat he attacked back. She remained calm but noticed the other two coming toward her with knives. The site only made her laugh. She walked toward them. And without even breaking a sweat ice formed around their feet, freezing them to the ground, and as well ice around there hands where they held their knives. She walked passed them easily toward the mysterious girl while whispering. "Hold on to those knives, you don't want to lose them now" she said chuckling.

The question that had posed itself before in the form of whether the silver-haired one was actually very strong or inexperienced answered itself when ice suddenly seemed to appear from nowhere and freeze enough to make the charging thugs immobile. "Whoa! If that's a kidou, I really need to learn it..." Iroka mused aloud as she twisted to the left, and out of the way of the charging brute. He smashed into the wall of the wooden shed, a cloud of wood dust temporarily obscuring the area. Iroka suddenly realized that the hulk might have well plowed into the reiatsu-sensing machine, as delicate as it was. Temporarily forgetting the other goons, she ran for the cloud of smoke that had been raised by the impact of the brute and the wood shed.

While all that was happening, the increasing panic on the faces of the two immobilized men was enough to keep their comrades away from the strange newcomer. All the same, most likely out of loyalty to the huge brute, the remaining 10 goons split into two groups. The first group, consisting of 8 of them, flung their knives in a disconcerted fashion at the silver-haired girl, while the other two charged to intercept Iroka from reaching whatever destination she had in mind.

A little light lit up in the young girls head. The one in front of her knew of kidou and needed to learn it? And resides in the soul society? She was defiantly a shinigami. But what division was she from that she was so high strong and out here. "Sorry to say but that wasn't kidou, just my natural pow-" Before finishing her sentence more idiots appeared to back the other 3 into fight 2 little girls. She only shrugged and sigh as 8 of them came toward her. This was getting ridiculous.

A escape from work turned into a meaningless fight. "Those precious knives are wasted on you." She didn't concern her self with the other 2 as the mysterious lady seemed to know how to fight. Grabbing the paper umbrella from her back she jumped in the air and swung it toward the 8 brutes. Freezing them from head to toe. She landed next to one of them and tapped on the ice. "Keep it cool ya idiots "

It seemed that the silver-haired girl was more than a handful. Iroka's eyes widened as the girl said that the ice was her natural power. But any retrospection on the subject was temporarily halted by Iroka's reiatsu sense warning her of the two grunts who came in from behind her, pincer-style. Pretending as if she was unaware of their presence, Iroka waited until the right moment and then jumped into the air. The goons almost collided clumsily, as the Division 12 Shinigami gave them no room to maneuver when she dodged. Taking advantage of their confusion, Iroka spun gracefully in the air as she came down, catching the first goon on the side of his head with an aerial spinkick. The second was trying to slash at her, but he was just a mere brawler, and Iroka's superior Hakuda skill easily outmatched his. She danced to the right, out of reach of his knife, then danced back in with a jab to the man's stomach. He doubled over as Iroka drew back her hand for another blow...

...and then all went black.

No reiatsu warning, no indication of what had happened, not even a sensation of pain. Iroka found herself in a black void, floating... or was she standing?

In the real world, Iroka had drawn back her hand, then suddenly ceased to move. Her opponent stared at her with numbed shock, but before he could gather his wits together, there was an explosion of dust and wood splinters from the collapsed shed, as the hulking ape suddenly charged his way out of the debris that had collapsed on him, and plowed into Shinigami and ruffian alike. Robbed of its motor functions, Iroka's small body was tossed away from the impact of the tackle like a rag doll. With a speed almost equal to that of a Vice Captain, the brute charged again, grabbing Iroka's head with a hand whose palm was big enough for her head to fit in easily, and smashed her viciously into the dusty earth. Through it all, the Shinigami seemed to be asleep, not noticing the abuse her body was undergoing. Of course, a more astute foe would have wondered why Iroka suddenly stopped moving, but the huge criminal wasn't one to think.

Lifting Iroka by her hair and holding her limp body out in front of him, he said to the silver-haired Shinigami, "If you move, the pretty thing's neck snaps."

This was something unexpected, the strong willed girl in front of her was knocked out in a matter of seconds. Who were these souls in front of her. Her limp body tossed around like a useless ragged doll. Being abused, though in a sadistic sense it was also quite interesting. The Frozen brutes wouldn't interfere now but as of this moment her partner in this small useless fight was now a limp hostage. But no matter, as just as Aki would in any situation a smile formed on her lips.

"You useless idiots, that is not how you treat a lady. It doesn't even matter if I ask you if you know who I am. Cause right now your going to die. Besides in any sense I don't even know the girl, break her neck. I don't care. But you, you will also die with her. A slow and useless death. Cause It's part of my job to get rid of you idiots."

As she drew the umbrella from her back it turned into a sword. And in a matter of seconds she was in front of the brute slicing at the arm that held the girl by her hair, in a good attempt to chop his arm off and let the girl go.

Iroka could hear voices, whispering, apparently in an argument. She could not tell what the subject of the argument was, but then she heard someone calling her name softly. Iroka turned from side to side in an attempt to identify the speaking voice, but all was blackness. Moving was not an option; she was floating in nothing. So Iroka called out, "Who are you, that calls my name?" Suddenly the darkness dissipated, and Iroka found herself lying on a hard glassy ground. She rose to see a figure shrouded in darkness, watching her.

"I wondered when you would stop ignoring us," the figure said, in a voice quite similar to hers, and yet different, because it seemed there were two voices speaking in tandem. Iroka took a step forward, but the perspective did not change; the figure stood no nearer. "Are you-- are you my zanpakutou spirit?" the flaxen-haired Shinigami asked, as she attempted unsuccessfully to approach the mysterious figure. "Yes... and no," came the reply. "But that does not matter now. When you are not about to get killed, find a more quiet place, and maybe we can talk," the figure said as it slowly faded.

The brute's dull eyes widened as the silver-haired Shinigami's umbrella transformed into a sword. Aware that he was now dealing with a Shinigami, he decided to be more cautious. With the slight girl's words, it was evident she wasn't blushing. After all, the ogre of a spirit had been in enough battles to understand such things. He withdrew his arm to throw Iroka at the other Shinigami, when she suddenly appeared before him, slashing at his arm. The brute dropped Iroka and twisted as he moved forward, causing his assailant's weapon to sink into his shoulder. Bringing up his other arm, he swung a massive death-dealing fist at the Shinigami's head.

The presence that formed around the girl was familiar. It wasn't necessarily something that everyone could interpret but helping so many get there the feeling was familiar. "Don't you go awakening you power right now girl!" She yelled as the brute drops the girl and swings his fist at her. Drawing her arm forward Aki released her ice powers to catch Iroka and toss her gently to an area without the enemy. As his fist was about to be smashed into her head she drew her sword and put it over her head to shield herself from the fist. "Ho w much longer do I have to deal with all of you idiots. "

Iroka noticed that the darkness was fading away... and then she suddenly felt like she had been churned in a meat grinder. She opened her eyes and looked round. All the thugs seemed to be immobilized by ice, and the giant brute was in active combat with the silver-haired girl. Iroka made a mental assessment of the whole situation. It seemed that whatever had happened to her that made her black out had placed her at the mercy of the ogre-looking chap. And the silver-haired Shinigami had saved her; how she couldn't tell. Iroka rose to her feet, grimacing more from the realization that she was covered with dirt, rather than the fact that she felt she hurt in places she didn't know existed.

The huge brute had brought down his hammer-fist onto the flat of his opponent's sword, and seeing that she was on the defensive, he hoped to keep her that way. As he drew his other arm backwards in the hope of making an attack, Iroka swung in from nowhere and kicked him hard in the ribs. The sudden shock of the attack forced the giant to double over, creating an opening. Without waiting for the other Shinigami to respond, Iroka jumped onto the brute's shoulders and twisted into a backflip, sending him flying hurricanra-style. Personally, she felt impressed. She managed to execute the move and land in a crouch.

Whatever would happen next would probably be up to the silver-haired girl.

The girl seemed to be conscious once again. Seeing she managed to throw him away somewhere. Aki smiled and held her sword tightly as she disappeared into thing air and appeared before the thrown brute. She spun her sword and sliced at his torso hoping to cut him in half and finally bring an end to this fight. And the other followers after the ice melts to follow before him. Or at least let them run. "This is going to cause me a lot more paper work later."

Even before Iroka had risen to an upright position, the other Shinigami had vanished and appeared before the fallen ogre. With a twirl of her blade and a slash, the huge brute's life was truncated in a spray and shower of crimson liquid, gushing forth from previously pressurized arteries. Iroka found herself averting her gaze from the macabre sight. As the other thugs saw their leader's end and bisected corpse in the bloody dust of Rukongai, they set up a clamorous wail of supplication for their lives.

Iroka turned to the silver-haired girl. "Uh, thanks for the save," she began, then paused. "Forgive my lousy manners. I'm Jūnibantai Iroka, 12th Division Shinigami..." Iroka continued, assuming the girl before her was a Shinigami of Seireitei as well. "I was wondering... it would make for less paperwork if you let these other idiots go, right?" she ventured. As it were, with their leader gone, their band would be very likely to disband, and it was most certain that none of the immobilized goons would be a cause for near-future trouble,dead or alive. Iroka hoped the silver-haired girl would see taking the lives of the thugs as a waste.

As the brute was cut a splat of blood splattered on the girls face. The rest of the idiots running and fleeting with no honor. Leaving the dead body there to rot. Wiped the blood of her face and flicked her blade to rid the blood on her sword. As she sheated her sword and placed it back on the holder on her back the blade returned to its umbrella form and rested.

She looked at the the girl that introduced themselves and had a grim look when she mentioned she was from the 12th division. "oh so your from Rio's divsion? I'm Aki of the third." She smiled after. "Well I guess your different then Rio so I like you! Don't worry about the paperwork. I might not even do it. The old man might just yell at me later. No biggie." She stretched before looking at the damage in the area. "So what are you doing out here anyways?"

The silver-haired girl introduced herself simply as Aki. Not very good taste, in Iroka's opinion; she was expecting a name and surname, and if possible, even seat number. But there was no reason to sweat such trivial formalities. As it were, Aki was under no obligation to introduce herself fully to Iroka. The 12th Division Shinigami decided to leave it like that. Funnily, when Iroka had introduced herself, Aki had expressed a rather serious emotion on her face, and she called the 12th Division Captain by his first name. Could that mean the girl before Iroka was of a similar level? Because unless Aki was a general brat, it was never wise to disrespect one's superior, in their presence or not. And judging from Aki's skill with the sword and all that ice stuff, the silver-haired girl was definitely not on Iroka's rank.

"I was trying to test out a modification of a new reiatsu sensor," Iroka replied, walking over to where the remains of her beeping gadget lay unceremoniously in the dust. She gave the wrecked item a displeased stare, then turned to face Aki again. "It's not my design, but I had modified it for long-distance reiatsu tracking, hopefully even between worlds," the blonde Shinigami continued. "We, the 12th Division, that is, were intending to use it as an alternative to the Shinigami tracking cellphone, in the sense that we'd get an inter-planar wireless doodad installed on the cellphone, which will transmit data from Seireitei to Earth. This was a test-run. I was hoping the chaos of this district would serve to prove the fine tracking properties of the device, which was tracking a colleague in far away Seireitei. Seems I'll have to get back to the beginning with re-modifying the damn thing, but no matter. If I might as well be so bold to ask, Aki-dono, what brought you to this cesspit of a place?"

Aki stood blankly as Iroka explained the beeping machine that has been going off for a while. As expected the 12th members explain there inventions with words only they would understand to be honest. She things just beeped and was a piece of trash to her in her sights. Aki waved her hand in front of her face. "woah woah woah, slow down there. All I got was that you want to send or sense shinigami with that. Don't out cellphones alreadly go from the soul society to earth?" And putting her hands in her pockets she had another grim look. "And none of that -dono stuff. Do I look old to you?"

She walked over closer to the blonde girl and examined the item. "Rio's got some weird things going around in his division. ... oh me? Avoiding work, meetings, papers. I hate the sun out here but if it means I can avoid work I'm good to go. "

"Ooookay... no '-dono'," Iroka said slowly. "But, forgive me for pointing this out, your boldness in calling Urahara Rioshi-sama so casually should put you somewhere close to his level, if not on it. And even if that was not correct, your exceptional skill screams that you are deserving of respect, and a lot at that... but what do I know?" She giggled and shrugged, then put on a very studious look and began a lecture. "Now as regards my little doodad's superiority to the standard Shinigami cellphone, you will observe that the silicon transponding circuits of the celphone's message dispatch protocols are limited to roughly a mile radius. In other words, a Shinigami cannot track a hollow beyond the radius of the cellphone. My device can track for leagues, and identify distinct reiatsu signatures. It can most likely track a specific hollow in Hueco Mundo. I plan on developing a more portable version of this, of course."

Iroka laughed heartily at the fact that Aki had come this far just to avoid whatever meetings or paperwork that the 3rd Division had to offer. "Well, good luck to you then, Aki-chan, in escaping your duties. Who knows, maybe I could make a reiatsu dampener and optic distorter so that you can escape meetings undetected. Of course, the 2nd Division will hate me for taking the mystique out of their hiding ninja techniques, but meh."

Aki laughed a little at being the same as Rioshi and shrugged. "Yeah me and Rio are pretty close I guess. We haven't really sparred or fought actually. We... or I tend to stay away from a person like him. Same with you but your pretty cooler then all the other 12th divisions members so I'll let it slide!" Aki lifted one arm to flex her "muscles" that were composed of a thing limb called an arm and smirked. "But to be honest I think I would win in every battle with him. I'm stronger then I look!"

She stares at the machone again and takes out her phone. It's actually quite beat up and old looking, much different from her style other then the rabbit charm on it. "huh? Well you must be some thinker or something to be able to develop that! Escaping meetings is not so hard. But paperwork. It just... ehhhggggg"

OOC: Sorry for taking so long. Stupid IRL issues, including whack internet connection hindered me from posting earlier.

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Iroka was surprised to hear that Aki was sure she could beat her captain. Iroka had never seen him fight, but she was sure he was going to be damn impressive when he stepped on the battlefield. Aki, to hand it to the slight girl, had not even broken a sweat when handling the Rukongai thugs, though. Iroka decided it was better not to bother with figuring out who was better than who anyway. She was rather amused though by Aki's statement about staying away from Division 12 Shinigami. "I think most of us Division 12's are really rather harmless, though," she said with a smile, as she stooped over her damaged machine for better scrutiny.

"Thinking... fighting, I wonder which one is harder," Iroka said, raising her face to meet the gaze of the other girl, "but I agree with you. Paperwork is much more killing." There was a pause, then Iroka said thoughtfully, "Back then, when I passed out during the fight... has something like that ever happened to you?"

ooc: don't worry about it!
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She sits down a near by rock and stares at her picking up her machine. Then proceeds to look at the sun and clouds feeling the breeze. "But your one of them. Obviously there not harmless though. I think the only dangerous one is yer captain. Besides we're all enemies at times in the soul society. We don't interact much." Aki proceeded to perch her umbrella over herself as the sun was too much for her compared to the rain she's used to.

Sitting and continually listening to Iroka she smiled. "Thinking in relatives to data is pretty hard. Fighting is all in your spirit and experience. It's not something you learn, its something you develop. But paperwork. ugh." She stuck her tongue out in disgust she suddenly was deep in though at her next question but then let out another cheerful smile. "No, I never really faint. But something was calling you out right? That's happened to almost every shinigami. Defiantly."

The silver-haired Shinigami answered Iroka's question with a negatory statement. So that was odd. Why the passing out? Whichever the case, Aki was sure that the concept of hearing a voice calling out was normal. Iroka shrugged and tinkered with her machine a little before speaking again. "Okay, I'm guessing that voice was my zanpakutou spirit," she said, as she pulled a hatch on the machine open and began checking a bunch of many-colored wires. "But might you perhaps have an idea as to what caused the blackout? I mean, I've read a lot of stuff about communication with one's zanpakutou spirit, and I've never seen a case like mine."

Iroka was asking, merely because she assumed that one like Aki would have enough experience to perhaps have seen such an instance like Iroka's. But if Aki hadn't, well that would mean that Iroka would have to do some investigation on her own.

Aki scratched her head in thought. To her anything could happen when speaking with an zanpaktou really. She couldn't really think of anything else when it came to something like a shinigami. The only other time if she were to become a vizard but with that it isn't just fainting. She shrugged her shoulder while pulling out a small sack out of her robe. She unwrapped it to reveal onigiri. She handed one to Iroke and smiled.

"I wouldn't worry about it to much really. Anything could happen. I never fainted before, or so that I remember and all my members have their zanpaktou awaken away from me. On their own you know? Your own inner spirit could be more overwhelming then you might imagine. To talk to it you might need to shut your outside self off to have a better hearing of your inner spirit."

She took a bite out of her own onigiri and suggested, "If your really worried ask your seniors or captain. Maybe even the fourth. But if its your inner spirit you'll cross paths again soon. You can ask him... or her."

Iroka gratefully accepted the rice snack with voiced thanks and seated herself on the remains of her reiatsu scanning machine as she listened to Aki's words. It did seem that as each Shinigami was different, so was their zanpakutou experience, and most likely the zanpakutou's power as well. Iroka didn't understand why her zanpakutou would cause her to pass out, but then the though occurred to her that she wasn't what one could call a normal Shinigami. Well, if the fainting wasn't really anything to worry about, Iroka decided she would probably just wait and see how things would turn out concerning her relationship with her inner spirit.

The onigiri tasted wonderful, so Iroka decided not to chomp it, but nibble at the snack in an effort to make it stay as long as possible. "Uh, Aki-san" Iroka said, taking care not to call the silver-haired girl by the '-dono' honorific, yet being unable to use '-san', "why do you suggest the 4th Division?"

Aki leisurely smiled as Iroka ate the riceball. She chewed every rice grain while listening to her question that did make her think. Maybe instead of the 4th she should have said the 1st or even the 12th. She lost her train of thought for a minute or so until she let out an answer.

"Well I guess it could be any division. Just figured since the 4th heals they know more about the body and soul I guess... well medically. Well to be honest the best thing. or person or spirit. or guide?.... anyway the best help will come from yourself. Trust me, your spirit knows more about you then you know about yourself."

She then karate chop the top of her skull while furrowing her thing silver eyebrows and opening her slit eyes slightly revealing a glowing gold hue.

"-san? Ugh, there's no way to stop you lower ranks from using honorifics. I'm a simple shinigami like you... But back to the main topic. Unless Rioshi changed and can handle heart to heart conversation just ask yourself. It's within you.

The idea of a healer understanding more about the body (and soul) processes was quite logical, and it was worth a try. Iroka was still busy listening intently to Aki, and at the same time trying to run things over in her mind when the karate chop landed on top of her head. "Itai!" The golden-haired Shinigami cried out. "You're scary, Aki-s.. chan." It was well and good that Iroka corrected herself. Who knew what the silver-haired girl would do to her if she made the same mistake. Whichever the case, the last sentence that Aki had made was true. And there was likely no chance that Iroka's captain would have time to talk with her. She nodded and smiled.

"Okay, Aki-chan. I'll be sure to do as you've said. I guess I should start returning home. It's rather a long walk home, I guess. Thanks for everything: the food, advice and saving me from that ogre-guy. Hope we'll see again."

So saying, Iroka packed what she could of her wrecked device and hoisted it on her shoulder. Then with a smile at Aki, she turned and began heading back to the Court of Pure Souls.