Mother of Invention [Oshime, Closed]

Watari Suzumei stood in the fourth division barracks quite curious as to why there was what looked to be a frog floating up and down in a large tank. The frog itself was pure white and a hole in the middle so it was clearly Hollow, what was more curious was why Hollow Frog hadn’t attempted to escape. Suspended animation? Asleep? Dead? These were all guesses but he had no answers.

He tapped the glass but there was no response. Watari turned and looked around as various laboratory setups criss-crossed the length of the scientific facility he had entered. Here Shinigami invented the latest and greatest in new technology! Here Soul Society was brought to the pinnacle of modern invention! Here they slept. Watari tilted his head at the third scientist he’d seen today napping.

Why was it whenever he went deep into the Gotei 6 he found somebody painfully complacent? It was as if the rot that had penetrated into the depths of the nobility also spread like a cancer through the veins of the Gotei 6. It was disappointing. Watari sighed and turned away from the Fourth Division out onto the main streets of the Soul Society. He doubted the person he would need for his plans would be found here.

With that the Head of the Suzumei Family took out a cigarette and took a long drag of it. How hard was it to find somebody to make him a portal? The regular senkaimon were great but he wanted something that cut a little bit deeper and was a little bit more private. Watari wanted an excursion to Hueco Mundo.

"Maybe the academy is actually a better place"

As Watari stood there taking a peaceful drag of his cigarette and exhaling into the alley as he plotted his next move. He was interrupted by a woman with orange and blue hair - not particularly out of place for Soul Society - well usually people kept to one color. What really stood out about this woman was her eyes, one was grey and the other yellow. Watari had never seen heterochromia before and it fascinated him.

“Eh? I’m not. You’re telling me the burning of whatever they do in there is okay, but smoking tobacco isn’t? Seems like hypocrisy to me” Watari sighed and drew in what was left of the cigarette before letting the rest fall as ash onto the ground below him. He dropped the cigarette butt and ground it out with his heel as he looked the woman up and down. Did she work here? Was she perhaps a scientist? Better yet, she actually seemed switched on, which was more than Watari had hoped for.

“Are you a scientist by any chance? I was looking for one to well - science for me, but unfortunately your comrades in there seem more preoccupied with sleeping and drinking coffee” Watari cringed at that last part, everybody knew the best coffee in Soul Society was located at a tiny stall just by the Baozhai estate in the Rukongai in a fit to be the best coffee brewers in the area the sellers at that stall had been influenced by Baozhai pomp, what followed was the best brew in all of Soul Society.

“Science isn’t eloquent enough. I need somebody to do what nobody else has done . . . ” Watari screwed up his face, well done well. The problem with travelling to Hueco Mundo was it was technically possible but you had to follow a Hollow and as much as Watari loved fighting Hollow, following one to Hueco Mundo seemed to be a death sentence for the unprepared.

“We’re dead” Watari snapped back at the woman. Soul King be damned, why was everyone so judgemental about his addiction? Shinigami couldn’t actually have their lungs rot, least of all by cigarettes, had you heard of a Shinigami with cancer? No, Watari was fine. If anything all he suffered from was smelling of tobacco. Geez, she was one to speak with her orange, blue and black hair - he hadn’t noticed the black until now. Soul King, it was bright.

“You’re a bit judgmental for a scientist, are you sure you are one? I thought you were all meant to be for the “glory of science” and some rhetoric in between” Watari was actually stumped for once, he was sure that he would find at least one fourth division scientist that was keen to go ahead with his wacky scheme. Wacky was definitely what it was, it probably wouldn’t work but most importantly if he didn’t try to breach the veil to Hueco Mundo nobody would!

“Sure thing, walk away” Watari sighed and began to walk up the road. Academy? Yeah, Watari was sure he could find one student that would probably go along with his plans. Being a noble had its benefits, for one he had funds so that he could buy whatever ridiculous things a scientist need- wait.

Watari spun on his heel and jogged up to the bizarre woman.

“You wouldn’t know that burning of chemicals was for scientific purposes unless you were in fact a scientist!” Watari pointed accusingly.

“Well to be honest, now that you point it out, maybe they are? When was the last time you saw somebody from the healing division practicing new healing kido? Not really world defining now is it?” Wow, she really was a scientist! Looking at how insightful she was about the third squad, Watari was almost entirely convinced at this point that he needed to get this Shinigami to somehow agree with him. He needed somebody as sharp and as intelligent as her - or maybe it was that he found it hilarious how flustered she was getting about the socio-eccentricities of the Gotei 6 divisions?

“Honestly I tried selling contraband once, didn’t work out - apparently Rukongai Citizens don’t take kindly to employment contracts and a living wage at a noble estate. They seemed to think it was some sort of convenient trick - who knows, maybe I am secretly the boogeyman” the Head of the Suzumei said with a wink. Speaking of, what sort of contraband did they sell in back alleys these days anyway? Man, he was so out of touch. He really needed to just get really drunk one of these days and stumble around some back alleys.

“And the only religious nuts I know are the Hatayama Noble Family and their head is the quiet type, so even if I wanted to report you to the Soul King, he probably wouldn’t even know what to do with you! No, I want adventure, I want to see if it’s possible to go to Hueco Mundo without attaching a saddle to a Hollow and yelling 'yee-haw'” that was a good point though, he hadn’t caught up with Zenji Hatayama in a long while. In fact that particular noble was on a long list of loose ends that Watari would need to tie up in due time. Well, first, he had to convince a scientist to open a door to a land of wacky hollows and then maybe pocket it for later.

“Ehh, nice insult I’ll write that in my book of things people have called me in my long life. Right next to “Son of Frankenstein” and “Oh that’s unfortunate”” Watari said with a wink and a smile. It seemed there was some semblance of humor in this woman. All he had to do was breach it first and that had seemed like the tricky part. Of course she thought he was an idiot and to be honest in the case of science he really was, but that was why they had the fourth division right so Watari didn’t have to do all the scientific thinking, he would just get a boffin too.

“Well aren’t you curious what’s out there? I mean I know it’s dangerous but that’s besides the point” Of course the whole dangerous monsters part needed to be glazed over. Of course they were dangerous, that was sort of the point. He wasn’t going to be held down by something as stupid as not being powerful enough that just seemed like some bizarre arbitrary limitation that meant he couldn’t go. Nobody had said you couldn’t go there, in fact there were very little rulings on Hueco Mundo at all, as long as balance was obtained going on suicidal ventures was fine.

“Besides, it’s more the ‘can we’ I don’t actually think anyones ever tried because of it. I mean I’m sure somebody has thought about it at some point but as I said, attaching a saddle to a Hollow it’s unrealistic” Honestly if she didn’t want to help that was fine. The more he mentioned the idea of the saddle the more he began to think if the Hollow was big enough it was probably entirely feasible.

“Also I’m not crazy. I’m quite sane! Really it just boils down to how suicidal I’m feeling on a given day and today I’m quite”

“Well no, you’re the one responsible if I end up in the dangai. I hear that sweeper can be a real pain for those who aren’t allowed in there” Watari absent-mindedly commented. Dangerous? Wasn’t she excited by the thrill of it, a rocket to mars? That would be great - he was definitely sure the humans had yet to develop that technology. Shinigami themselves could technically go out there but apparently your spiritual pressure and bond to the world of the living started to wear thin.

“Besides, nobody needs to know you’re developing it if you don’t want them too. I have numerous locations across the Soul Society where an ingenious inventor could have a lab and do what she wanted outside of the restrictions of the Gotei 6” It turned out it was ridiculously easy to buy up property in the Rukongai, who knew that a neverending district of residences would have so much free real-estate? Not to mention derelict buildings within the Soul Society that people would pretend weren’t there if paid well enough.

“As far as mars goes, if you really wanted to do that I wouldn’t complain. Though I’m not sure there’s much out there. Maybe aliens? That’s what those human world magazines say right, aliens and red sand” Watari had never really had a mind for what was out in the unknown but if that was what floated her boat he wasn’t going to stop her. For all he knew she would appear with a rocketship and a way to get to Hueco Mundo and both of those seemed agreeable to him.