A Noble Guest? [Closed/Watari]

Loose ends were a pain. Burning warehouse, check,  promises to the right people, check and finally all those pesky little nobles that he thought were at the party but then turned out that going to a party was too against their religious and worship of the soul king for them to actually want to attend. Loose ends. Hated them. Easy to fix however, it just took small detours in the right places and making sure he visited the right people.

So loose ends brought Watari to here of all places, the shrines and gardens of the Hatayama clan, self imposed most religious do-gooders of Soul Society. You know the problem with religious folk? They got in the way, it wasn't really their own problem, the problem was religious folk collected relics and Watari had already promised relics to Memnoch. So really this meeting was going to go two ways.

He killed everyone.

Or he didn’t!

Thankfully for the Hatayama Clan head Yuki Kameko had at least shifted Watari’s view on the world to be a little less - burn them while they slept. To being a more talk to them and then set them on fire. Lovely. He blamed Meili Baozhai as well, both of them seemed to have this idea that when you ran somebody through with a Zanpakuto you should do it from the front.

Eh,

Plans changed.

So as Watari was guided through the lovely scented candles and shaking of prayer beads to announce his arrival and all the good blessings and prayers to come his way as a prestigious lord visiting their house - yadda yadda. Watari had to remind himself that it wasn’t that he hated or even disliked the Hatayama, he actually very much liked the way the name sounded - it just that religion and business didn’t mix.

“Hatayama-san, a pleasure to see you again, you missed the party! - well actually I’m glad you missed the party” Watari greeted his fellow head and observed he was reading some sort of scroll. Probably a religious text, this clan went absolutely mad for those. Unfortunately for Watari the room only had a tatami mat and a table ah so he’d have to kneel, well that was fine, the Shimazu had a similar arrangement.

Be better.

Ehhhh ignore the pleasantries on the pursuit of being better.

“Tell me Hatayama-san, how aware of the Noble families are you?”

Watari took his place kneeling on the opposite side of the table to the scholar, the customs were fine because the sake was free and the Head of the Suzumei was never going to say no to good sake. Especially sake that he suspected wasn’t drunk very much in this most pious of Shinigami houses.

Hayayama’s comment of humble was probably an understatement: the shrines of the Hatayama Clan and their archives were said to rival the Gotei 6. Their records stretched back to the dawn of the Gotei Six itself - it was even said that the Hatayama knew what the forbidden kido were but chose not to speak the ancient texts for fear of being executed by the Gotei 6.

“Ah, I respect your honesty Hatayama-san it’s refreshing among the nobility,” Watari said, nodding and taking a sip of sake.

“You sure it’s not poisoned?” a sneering voice asked from Watari’s back but the Shinigami ignored the snide comment of his Zanpakuto, of course it wasn’t. The Hatayama weren’t monsters like himself. They at least had a modicum of respect.

“I ask, because if you were like the rest, you’d be dead already” Watari smiled happily. The Shinigami took this moment to let just a tiny bit of his spiritual pressure wash over his compatriot, just a tiny bit to really add oomph to his words. The asphyxiating nature of his spiritual pressure would do the rest for him, that was why he kept it sealed under lock and key so tightly.

“The truth is Hatayama-san, I am not a religious man nor am I a murderer. I am a man of means” at this Watari drained the last of his cup of Sake and proceeded to pull a cigarette out of his suit and light it with his thumb. He took a long drag of it and let the words sink into the quiet docile man across from him. He had always liked Zenji Hatayama, a nice guy, the type of guy that was equally likely to plot your downfall as he was to respect you. That's why you had to lay it all on the table and then get him to make his own decisions.

“So tell me Hatayama, Head to Family Head. Can I trust you?”

“Rest assured dear Hatayama-san, your honesty is why we are friends” Watari said, slipping a small flask out of his pocket and pouring the whiskey into the sake cup. The good thing about having deep pockets was you always had something to drink amongst something to smoke. So as he took a long drag from his cigarette he watched the pious man across from him carefully.

“What am I? A Lord, well actually one of four” Watari pulled from another pocket a small scroll of paper and slid it across the table to Zenji, inside it detailed the establishment of the “four major noble powers” in the Soul Society. The Suzumei, the Akimoto, the Shimazu and finally the Baozhai. The four had decreed they were in alliance and because of the deaths of most of the nobility they were the only ones fit to make the decisions necessary to push noble society forward.

“What have I done? Well, I think it speaks for itself don’t you?” Watari said with a wink, no need to say what didn’t need to be said. Also Watari still wasn’t sure which side of the coin Zenji sat, so saying anything too incriminating might prove painful later on. No he’d play this as honestly and as slowly as he could manage but, he was pretty sure Zenji would understand.

“We’re moving towards a brighter Soul Society, one that isn’t under the yolk of corruption and laziness. So simply put, I would like you to join us. The support of the most religious minor house in Soul Society would make our dear people be more accepting of these radical changes” Yes, that was the real reason Watari was here, he was trying to be better! So instead of just removing everybody that got in the way, he was going to try to convince them. Zenji Hatayama was one of the minor families left with any actual political sway, gaining his voice and inviting him in on councils would probably quell a rebellion before it even began.

“Nothing - well, keep doing what you are doing Hatayama-san the court appreciates the work your family does at retaining the noble knowledge of the Soul Society” at this Watari took another drag finishing his cigarette and ground it against the side of the sake cup before putting it in his pocket. It was a shame no ashtray was provided but he assumed that Zenji’s servants would just clean it up later. Anyway Watari preferred to keep this man in his good books, with knowledge came power and Watari was pretty sure that Zenji preferring him was in the long run a lesser of many evils.

“Now we have some pressing matters to attend to about said arrangement. You see our dear Shimazu Family has interest in all of the relics of Soul Society. Of course, I’m not letting him have any of yours as you are still one of our most respected allies” the Head of the Suzumei said with a nod. There was an untold language being spoken here, a simple threat, the Shimazu Family wants to pillage everything you hold dear. Business was business. Watari wasn’t a part of the game, he was far above it now but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still influence the board. These two houses would inevitably clash and the Suzumei Head wasn’t interested in infighting.

“Further, I have interest in certain Shinigami around the Soul Society, they will come to you in many ways, many shapes and be from different backgrounds. Assume if they know ‘of’ me, then they are already playing on the board. I trust that you will show them the same kindness you’ve shown me” Watari added another document to Zenji Hatayama’s pile, he had no doubt that the monk understood discretion and he would treat these people like he’d just met them for the first time as if he’d never even had this conversation.

All of this was just simply Suzumei kindness.

“Finally, my dear friend. What do you know of binding Kido to weaponry”

So the Hatayama weren’t as mysterious and pious as was let on, they were actually very educated. Well, it was ignorant of Watari to think otherwise about their education, the real part that surprised him was the depth of the knowledge, the sheer lore of the Demon Arts was astounding. He somehow doubted even the Gotei 6 had such detailed records as what Zenji was describing.

“Ah, I see my intent was misconveyed and I am at fault. I know dabbling in the soul and very essence of Zanpakuto is possible, my father himself spent far too many years -” Watari took a sip of his whiskey as the thought of his father brought on his battle fervor. It probably wouldn’t be the best idea to grab Zenji by the throat, especially since the man was playing fair and Watari’s Suzumei Kindness always respected fairness.

“I’m not interested in deep modification of my Zanpakuto, I’m interested in enhancing it” with that Watari drew his blade and laid it flat across the table. As if to demonstrate what he was meaning to do he gathered the smoke that he’d practiced on the training ground with the mute onto his index finger and ran it along the length of the blade. The energy stuck but quickly dispersed after a time because it wasn’t properly temporarily bonded to the steel, in short Watari sought to make the smoke feed off the Zanpakuto’s spiritual powers essentially self-generating the soot.

“In small applications, I can make fire at the tips of my thumbs. I thought to myself, there’s been styles in the past of people who can literally throw punches of flame, or walls of water, so why not weapons of these elements?” as if to demonstrate Watari snapped his fingers and a single flame sparked to life at the tip only to turn to smoke when the Shinigami attempted to glide it across the steel surface.

“I’m missing a step where the smoke feeds off the properties of the blade, literally setting itself on fire if you will.Then with that flaming Zanpakuto I will seek to train with it. I’ve hit my cap with Zanjutsu, I want to learn the way of the flaming blade, the way of the Dragon” Watari leant backwards after he finished his explanation and then contemplated what Zenji had said earlier. Well not immediately wanting to use an array for a permanent effect that would permanently alter the weapon, maybe he could generate a temporary array to lead to his desired effects.

Fantastic the Hatayama were already proving to be highly valuable allies. As soon as Watari had begun mentioning the necessary texts he required the Head of the Hatayama had vanished to tell one of his men to fetch the texts. Translating would take time but Watari felt he already had the baseline for it down. The mention of blood was interesting, maybe that was what he was missing? A pound of flesh, ah it could be arranged. He’d bled for Yuki, he could bleed for his desires of a burning blade.

“One good turn deserves another, my friend of the Hatayama, what can I do for you? A Suzumei Kindness?” It was an interesting term “Suzumei Kindness” . Watari used it alot and only a few people actually understood the impact of the phrase. In simple man’s terms it means “what would you pay for a life?” so to offer a Suzumei Kindness was to essentially offer somebody's death at a word, or something to the equivalent of. “Suzumei Mercy” is often associated with kindness, Suzumei mercy is “Death because you have nothing else left to give”

The Head of Suzumei was pretty much done here but he had a few loose ends to tie, might as well drop the offer and then leave, he was completely fine with that. Watari had established himself a powerful ally, gained access to the knowledge he needed. Now it was just about seeing if Zenji was interested in playing the game or if the Hatayama were content in their neutrality.

“None at all, I’ll take my leave then Hatayama-san, the Suzumei and the Noble Houses thank you for your service” Watari stood up and bowed to the monk. Better to obey customs then to disrespect him blatantly. The Shinigami picked up his Zanpakuto and resheathed it before bowing again and taking his leave.

The gears were already in motion, the list he’d given Zenji contained a few certain names that would soon become well known in the Soul Society. The first was a relatively common name in a certain circle, Watari himself was becoming intoxicated by it - Yuki Kameko, the second was a less known name. In fact Watari himself hadn’t even met the certain individual yet, but he had big plans for him - Sabitsura Rei. There were others on the list, less significant individuals but Watari was sure it was always useful to include more names.

As he exited the estates of the Hatayama, Watari drew his finger along the edge of Bezaliel and watched his blood gleam across the edge. Using the blood as a catalyst he gathered spiritual energy into smoke and watched in anticipation as the smoke began to glow ... and burn .. . and ignite. The edge glimmered for a moment, as if caught a flame and then it went out.

“Perfect”

The dragon was one step closer to his goals.

/EXIT