The Balance of Deliberation and Action [Closed/Watari & Nao]

Kaido really was a fantastic thing. Nao was happy to be out of the hospital bed she’d been confined to for the last few days, but a part of her was sad to leave the halls of Third Division. It had served as a wonderful reminder of just what masters of the healing arts were capable of, and her inquisitive mind had reveled in the ability to see them act first-hand. It didn’t help that most of her recent talks with Zenji had stirred up memories of her time with Tetsuya. Though she’d never admit it, especially now that she was the Third Seat in an entirely other Division, the dreams that she’d had where Murat hadn’t seen fit to invade and start pitching office décor suggestions since her first waking moments in the beautifully pristine recovery room had been overwhelmed by relived fantasies from her Academy days.

The actual waking hours had done wonders for helping to keep her grounded, though. Despite the fact that her left arm had to essentially be regrown from scratch in order to heal the horrendous injury she’d managed to inflict upon herself, she’d started reviewing reports and issuing assignment changes within a few hours of being able to maintain consciousness. They suspected the damage would not be permanent, though the digits on her left hand would likely forever bear a scar where the flames cauterized the stumps. She was lucky, though. Her old supervisor was in a worse state than her, as was her opponent Mimasaka.

She’d given her rotund foe however much time he needed to recover. He might have been a lackluster Chief Administrator, but the man fought well and was well liked by his subordinates. She wasn’t in any hurry to make new enemies, and she estimated that showing compassion to him would serve her well. She wanted her old boss back to work as soon as he was capable of holding a quill, though. She was seeing to it that he took over her work where she had left off. I she had been as incompetent at her job as he had said, he wouldn’t have any problem meeting her old metrics, even with an injury.

The rest of the office, the colleagues who had been coasting by on her hard work at his insistence, didn’t need punishing. No, what they needed was cross-training. Tragically, this training was going to cut into their already assigned vacation, so she’d have to give that out to other more deserving staff. As such, her first real action had been to write up orders for a slew of lower ranking First Division members to shuffle about for the next month.

Murat had wanted her, nay, pestered her to solicit some kind of reward from the people she was giving the vacation and choice assignments to, but she wouldn’t stoop so low. It had to be purely performance based, and she was making damn sure the supervising officers knew what happened to people who falsified their reporting on performance by how she was treating her old boss.

The one thing they did agree on was Zenji Hatayama. The man had been an indispensible second from what she’d heard. Nao had picked up snippets of what he said and did in her defense, albeit in a hazy dreamlike state as the healers had tended to her injuries on the challenge field. She already knew his metrics to be good, and he had the bravery necessary to own up to his team’s shortcomings when he brought outdated files that most other Shinigami would have set to light. Plus, he’d demonstrated himself to be an exceptionally skilled Kido specialist.

The idea for his reward had come to her from her hospital bed. Surely, a master of the demon arts like him would excel in Third Division. She wouldn’t want him to transfer out, not unless he wanted to, but some time spent uninterrupted in the library honing his incantations and studying without the pressures of needing to stay on top of his day to day work could help him become a truly wonderful asset to the Gotei.

There were others she knew who could benefit from the same type of exercise. Particularly efficient couriers who could learn much from time in Second or Sixth Division, unrecognized general administrative Kido masters who could probably teach Fourth Division a few tricks, as well as competent managers to help reign in the more unruly members of Fifth Division. It was the job of First Division to lead, and yet it often felt like they only led themselves. If some of them transferred out, it would make the Gotei stronger. If they came back with new ideas to better First and left improvement in the units they had been temporarily assigned to elsewhere, even better.

It was as Nao was back in her office penning the first set of cross-Divisional transfers, when the messenger arrived with a formal invitation to the Hatayama estate. She had to re-read it several times to be sure. A private meeting with Zenji and a mysterious unnamed officer of the Sixth, but she was to see his personal tailor beforehand? Nao clutched the letter to her chest and signed, no doubt confusing the courier she totally forgot had been in the room awaiting her reply.

He’d done it. Zenji had actually done it. An officer of Sixth? What a boring and mundane way to cover the plan up. Forget his transfer, she might have to give in to Murat’s insistence and find a way to elevate Zenji to Fourth Seat for this. To think that, right after she was presentable again, he would have her meeting with Tetsuya arranged.

Nao wasted no time getting ready, seeing the tailor and getting her new clothes immediately. Zenji had set aside for her to have three fine silk uniforms made for her, as well as a new combat-friendly office uniform in honor of her station.

She arrived early to the meeting, unable to suppress her nerves. She selected her favorite of the silk pieces for the occasion, a soft and smooth number that soothed her skin and made her forget the horrible pains from her hand. She ought to marvel at the beautiful woodwork, marvelous craftsmanship, and rich history of the home, but her mind was focused on one thing.

She was going to see Tetsuya again. She was so happy, she could almost kiss Zenji for this gift. Obviously, she wouldn’t. To wait 8 decades to see him again only to kiss another man in front of him would be beyond heartless, even if it was just as a show of appreciation for having reunited the pair. Unable to put a spring in her step without causing a twinge of pain to shoot through her still mending hand, Nao beamed broadly as the servant brought her to Zenji’s meeting room. She exchanged a polite bow with them and, opening the door herself, stepped in.

”Zenji!” she cried out excitedly as she made her way toward him, any semblance of formality thrown aside, ”I’m so happy to see you. I really must thank you, for everything.” She wanted to do something to show the man her appreciation even more now that she saw him. A kiss would be too far, but there was nothing wrong with a hug, surely. Smiling, she skipped over the bow and pulled him in for a friendly, yet delicate hug, still remaining mindful of her injury.

Watari stood in the Sixth Squad training ground, across from him was the third seat of the Sixth Squad, a lovely woman everybody admired. Apparently she actually cared for her subordinates and always wanted to help, according to his reports Watari had ascertained that on her current trajectory she was the next closest thing to a Lieutenant that the Sixth Squad had, she was also coincidentally the only Shinigami, Sabitsura Rei would be comfortable in talking to about Watari’s plans.

Unfortunately for her, due to Hatayama’s urgent message, Watari had assumed the worst. He was going to need to move his hand sooner than he had wanted to. Zenji wouldn’t be contacting him with such an important missive unless he intended to somehow shake up the Gotei Six, to actually be in a position to influence his squad in any way, Watari would also need to essentially step off the benches of the seated ranks and actually take a seat.

“Ah, Kunieda-san, a pleasure to see you on this fine afternoon. Tell me, did you read the document about Sabitsura Rei” a smile on Watari’s face as he watched her turn to look at him. As the crowd of Shinigami around her grew silent as her lesson faltered. Would Yuki Kameko understand? After all, this was her definition of ‘fair’.

BA-DUM

BA-DUM

BA-DUM

Her face. She knew. Of course she knew, she was the sharpest knife the Sixth Squad had currently with the state of the leadership of the current Gotei 6. He saw it on her face, the way her mouth curled, the way her eyes sharpened, it was like some missing piece falling into place. You see, this was the problem with Sixth Squad Members, they were so intent on delivering their own justice it blinded them from the consequences.

She flickered, shunpo carrying her Zanpakuto forward.


“Hitotsume” Watari whispered his hand already on the hilt of Bezaliel. That foolish look of realisation on her face the moment she realised how powerful Watari Suzumei was. That small flicker of realisation as she realised that she too had been played. How sweet. How savory. He only had one thought for it as his spiritual pressure flared and his battle fervor pumped through his veins. Delicious.

“Nadegiri”

Watari vanished as she appeared swinging her Zanpakuto where he’d just been.

And just like that she was cast to the wind.

Watari flicked blood from the tip of his Zanpakuto as her two halves fell to the ground behind him.

Screams? Gasps? Blood. The new third seat of Sixth Squad had risen.

---

Moments later the now third seat of the Sixth Squad would appear in his shihakusho on the grounds of the Hatayama estate, a servant of the Hatayama clan greeted him and offered him a warm sake, he accepted it. Taking a quiet sip as he made his way through the grounds. Probably the most efficient kill he’d ever done, he should really be patting himself on the ba-

Bezaliel flickered by the door to Zenji’s sitting room. Only Watari could see him of course, but once again it put him on edge. The spirit demanded penance but Watari would not - could not. He hadn’t taken smoking up again though, so that was strangely peaceful in amongst his sea of thoughts.

Had he lost his edge? Really? There was still something off, something missing. He’d go to Yuki soon and ask her, maybe she knew? His scars still itched like anything and he was sure it was something to do with her.

“Oh, am I interrupting something? Hatayama-san you didn’t tell me you were engaged?! Congratulations” Watari said as he entered the sitting room to see Zenji being hugged? For a pious man this made Watari smile. For all the sights he’d expected to see in this holy of holy places, Zenji being embraced wasn’t one of them.

Watari would move pass by the two and take his place at the table tipping the cup of sake in their direction.

“I’ll drink to that”

She felt a spike driven into her heart by a voice most assuredly not belonging to her lost Tetsuya, and Zenji’s addressing of him as Lord Suzumei hammered it even further. She’d heard of their new guest, of course, though he was about the last person she would have expected to be summoned to a meeting with her, at least before Zenji followed up with the revelation that this man was also a recent Third Seat.

Anxiously and with her face rapidly regaining the color and then some it had lost from her sad discovery, Nao broke away from the hug and bowed down, bumping her healing hand against her side slightly and letting a slight gasp of pain escape her lips before she finally addressed their new guest in a curt ”Suzumei-sama.”

Mumbling apologies under her breath to Zenji about Tetsuya and not knowing things once she got a visual cue of recognition, she made her way to the table. Still obviously favoring her left arm, Nao slid up to the table with a horrendously informal posture by contrast to that of her noble counterpart in First as she was unable to brace herself without causing considerable pain.

She was relieved to see Zenji anticipated her request for tea, more than happy to shy away from the sake lest it complicate her recovery. She’d heard too many horror stories during her Kaido training of patients who did not adhere to their regimens, and she was in no hurry to prolong her suffering because she decided to have a few drinks.

She joined her host in taking a calming sip, wishing she could hold the cup in both hands to enjoy its warmth. As she could not, she settled for keeping her working palm on the cup after she set it back down on the table.

”Congratulations, Suzumei-sama,” Nao said with a respectful nod to the man. It seemed that sizable promotions were becoming all the rage in the Seireitei. Was this why Zenji had invited the man? This would certainly prove a valuable opportunity to build a strong working relationship! ”It is my understanding that we recently delivered a draft of some new letterhead for your predecessor. I’ll have our printing department start work on revised forms and papers to reflect your name instead once I return.”


”Ze-“ she started, cutting herself off an remembering her formalities in the presence of Lord Suzumei. It was only narrowly that she avoided using a matching honorific for her new subordinate Zenji on her second go around. “”Hatayama-san proved quite helpful after my own challenge, dealing with a rather aggressive carrion bird who chose to swoop in after I was injured. We are not betrothed,” she explained, not getting that the man had likely been joking, ”I was merely expressing my sincere appreciation for a job well done as my second. It is good to see you exited your challenge in better health than I.”

“News travels fast, but I guess the circumstances would carry the words further than usual” Watari observed. He noted the lack of disdain in the man’s tone, either he was being subservient or respected that Watari had struck down his foe in single combat. There was just something about that prospect that really itched Watari the wrong way. Wasn’t it ridiculous? How was running somebody clean through anything better than poison. Soul King be damned.

“Oh, Hatayama-san helped you? Fascinating. I didn’t know our dear friend was capable of violence behind that staff, maybe he’s changing” the Head of the Suzumei smiled behind his cup as he took another sip, watching the eyes of Zenji Hatayama. He’d heard that the man’s grasp of Kido had grown as if spurred by something. Watari wondered if his growth had been triggered by their encounter and the grandiose plan he envisaged for the Gotei 6. The question that needed to be answered later was Zenji growing stronger to stop Watari or assist him?

“it was a necessity, nothing more. I trust you wouldn’t have assembled us without good reason for it, so I made sure I was in a position where I could be of use, I showed our dear previous third seat a Suzumei Kindness, it seems she was tragically misinformed about who murdered the nobility” the other woman? Who was she? Nao? Was she the one Zenji always referenced in his missives that helped him with the administrative duties he had to attend to, Watari wondered if the woman next to him understood the full implication of half the actions that the other noble made her do, it seemed like Hatayama-san was becoming a deft hand at manipulating information.

Regardless of whatever promise Watari had made to Sabitsura Rei, he was releasing the information at a trickle, the more natural the information was to trickle out the more others could believe it was a Sixth Squad conspiracy to protect Rei from what he’d done. It’d turn the nobles against the Gotei 6 and the Gotei 6 against the nobles, and not one would question if the Shinigami had actually been the perpetrator or not because the evidence that existed was so substantial.

That was until people like the previous third seat saw it for what it was, an elaborate cover-up at his hands.

But people like the third seat were becoming less and less common, it seemed a bad bout of the common cold and sudden death at the hands of Zanpakuto were becoming more and more common.

“Congratulations “Nao”, I’m glad that I am in good company. I trust Hatayama-san has explained what sort of man I am - “ he’d accentuated Nao with displeasure, it wasn’t that he disliked the name but nobility formality demanded he would use her surname to address her, not doing so was a sign of blatant disrespect but it was an affront to Zenji for not introducing them properly. It of course did not bother him at all, but he had to hold up to noble sensibilities.

“- Show me kindness and I’ll show you the kindness of my family in return”

“Ah Hatayama-kun, are you ready to place this piece on the board? Does she even know what sort of game we are playing?”

.... Do I even know what type of game I'm playing anymore?

Waving aside Nao’s formality the nobleman shook his head, even as proper as he liked to conduct himself it didn’t seem right, “Please Zenji will do. After all you’re my superior officer now. If anything it’s I who should be paying deference to you.” Zenji, as always, was quick to lower his perceived status in the eyes of others it seemed. Well if you discounted that one blip that had to be dealt with in the Challenge Hall. But that was just one occasion! Right? Surely he wasn’t so proud of his status. No the Hatayama Lords where humble. The fact that the first real challenge to his social position had been met with such overwhelming retribution was a coincidence.

As Watari spoke he shot the other man with a vexed glance. “I’m sure we all know of the graciousness Clan Suzumei offers its friends.” he stated diplomatically, an undercurrent of irritation in his voice.

'And their mercy towards those who opposed them.'

No it didn't matter. On any other day he would have shown deference towards the High Clan’s position but this wasn’t such a moment. He didn’t have time to worry himself about such petty matters. “I have been learning that, regretfully, sometimes a proper application of force is required to settle a matter.” Was there a threat in Zenji’s words? Not intentionally. He was distracted. He had to move the conversation along.

He looked down at his hands, clutching each other as if he could save himself from what was to come but no, the future wouldn’t wait because of his fear or anxiety. It was okay. He needed to explain why he had brought them here but what if they disagreed? What if they wanted to release the information to everybody? No. No he had prepared. The array was ready and precautions had been made. This was his place of power, his place of strength and his mastery of the Demon Arts would not fail him should it be needed.

Breath in. Breath out.

Suddenly the nobleman’s distracted, anxious, gaze snapped to focus as he looked at the man and woman across from him. Third Seats. They would serve the Balance. They had to. He couldn’t allow terror to conquer him before he even began. Zenji was Lord of the Hatayama, inheritor of thousands of years of tradition and responsibility, the chosen noble to shoulder the Divine Mandate of those ancient Monks all that time ago. The scroll hanging behind him was a reminder.

A sip of tea. Steel the nerves. It was time to take the leap of faith. Soul King help them all.

“Well… let me explain exactly why I have requested your attendance here tonight.” he began. “Third Seat Nao Aoki of the First Division and Third Seat Watari Suzumei of the Sixth. Those positions are important and pertinent to this discussion. You both stand close to the peak of your respective divisions and for that I am thankful for you are both of a small number of Shinigami I really trust well enough to discuss this matter.” he said softly, his stomach rebelled with unease but he forced it down.  “I have recently come across some rather unpleasant information during a trip to the World of the Living.”

Well this was it. No going back now.

“Tell me, have either of you heard of the mortal breed known as the Quincy?”

Nao had nothing to say to the implications of Suzumei Kindness. She immediately felt as though she had not so much fallen in over her head, but that she had fallen beneath several swimming pools worth of water, each stacked up on top of the other. The light at the top was faint enough that it only served to illustrate how far down in the depths she was, not anywhere near strong enough to cast the slightest illumination on the creatures swimming around her.

She could only smile curtly, nod, and hope that she didn’t offend Watari any more than her presence already seemed to have done.

If Watari were the swirling abyss, Zenji was a lone lighthouse. She diverted her attention from the Suzumei head and turned to her colleague, nodding in earnest apology for her attempt at formality with him when she had been, mere seconds ago, abandoning any semblance of formality. Truthfully, that had been under much happier circumstances. She had believed she was finally going to be reunited with Tetsuya, not sharing drinks with a mysterious fellow whose entire aspect and attitude bordered on sinister.

”Oh, he’s not that bad. Seems a lot more your type than that boring old crush of yours, honestly.”

Nao wanted to smack Murat for that offense. How dare he even think to imply something like that? That disgusting pervert acted similarly toward Anatoly, and that was all she needed to know about his taste in men. She shot her tanto a quick look in admonishment, but kept her comments to herself.

Her reprimand delivered, she brought her attention back to Zenji. Something was obviously bothering the man. They hadn’t had many interactions outside of the halls of the First, but she had learned enough about him to have a good read on his neutral state, and this was far from it. Something was wrong, and given how easily he had dispatched the man who had attempted to stop her from rising to her new office, that something was a serious matter.

Zenji’s question came as far from left field as she could have possibly expected. Quincy? Now there was an old term. She’d studied them in her lengthy stay in the Academy, of course, but they were ancient history. The way he prefaced it, though, hinted at one horribly unpleasant possibility. The fact that he felt it necessary to bring in the Third Seats of First and Sixth Division all but screamed what that possibility was, and what he intended to do about it.

She was familiar with protocol in a situation like what his demeanor was hinting at. Reports would need to be sent to Second for reconnaissance, and Fifth and Fourth would need to step up their patrolling and support efforts. To bring in First and Sixth on this, though, suggested something entirely different. This wasn’t about striking. This was about control.

Nao might be scatterbrained, but she wasn’t airheaded. Still, she didn’t want to play her hand so openly around Watari. If it had just been Zenji here, maybe she would have been comfortable letting her guard drop. This was not the time or the place for that, though. She had to tread carefully if she didn’t want to find out just what that Kindness meant.

Nao paused after sipping her tea again, setting the cup back down and running a finger along the rim idly. It really was a nice glass that Zenji had provided, but everything he had seemed nice. She’d been used to such a lackluster existence until now that even the most modest of noble lifestyles were beyond extravagant to her.

”I’m familiar with the legend of the Quincy, yes,” she said, comfortable that a simple statement of fact wouldn’t give up that she’d already started to piece together what he was suggesting.  ”They were wiped out over a thousand years ago. Record-keeping back then was terrible, though, so it’s not easy to find documentation on exactly how many we had to deal with. Why do you ask?”

“Quincy?” Watari’s mind had to reach back to the academy. The Monks of Destruction that were all exterminated like rats hundreds of years prior? To be honest it had never really been a point of interest for Watari, just another threat to the Gotei 6 that was dealt with in it’s Golden Age, now however? They were in an age of lethargy and impedium. So if Zenji was implying what Watari thought he was going to get at, maybe Watari’s feelings for an oncoming war weren’t just in his head but were a little more tangible.

“Elaborate Hatayama-san, but before you do which city did you encounter them in?” Watari already knew the answer, it was the same damned town that seemed to always crop up. Karakura. It seemed lately there was a bigger game then the one they were playing in Soul Society at foot and it had something to do with Karakura and Quincy. What? Honestly Watari had no idea, Zenji would probably be able to fill in the blanks. Watari’s knowledge as far as Karakura went was it was a spiritual hotspot, but there was no spiritual hotspot on Earth that had kept dragging Watari back to the same location over and over like Karakura had.

“If it’s what I think, I may have some pertinent information that may influence where our conversation goes” Watari was brought back to an unrecorded event a couple of weeks prior, where he had retrieved a certain fifth squad shinigami from that same city with unidentifiable injuries and left near death. At the time Watari had foreseen it as some sort of bizarre war declaration but from who it was uncertain - now however? Now he was watching a defining moment in the Gotei 6’s History unfold and surprisingly it wasn’t him that led it.

He preferred that.

Let Zenj have the stage, it’d be good for him in the long run.

“Watari”

His hand twitched for a cigarette and fell on empty air.

Nao listened as Zenji gave his speech, rather impressed with his public speaking abilities. She supposed that must be a trait common to the nobility, and one she’d have to either learn or learn how to fake quickly. Discussing policies and forms in workgroups was one thing, but briefings of this sort were totally foreign to Nao.

Still, she found herself able to pay attention. The subject matter helped quite a bit, as did his presentation of a physical file. She hesitated for a moment before opening it and pulling out several of the items inside, perusing them as she listened to him. Zenji came off quite impressive in the AAR and, if she didn’t know the man’s capabilities, she’d have almost expected him of embellishing. The use of a fake name was a good measure and caused her to silently kick herself for not having thought to do the same in her interactions with the spiritualist humans she encountered while on her brief patrol. Even if this supposed Quincy had no means of tracking him down, it was wise for him to cover his tracks.

His numbers, she suspected, were optimistic. Hundreds was a best case scenario. Given the rate of human breeding, it was highly probable that a single surviving Quincy could have produced several thousand spawn throughout the centuries. Indeed, if this one were authentic, her existence would imply that to be the case. The odds of one like her so casually walking about in Japan, despite having a Western name, were unlikely. Somewhere down the line, one of her ancestors would have had a Japanese family name. The fact that they were not only breeding outside of the spiritual nexus but sending their young there had its own set of alarming implications.

”Where has this woman been all these years?”

'Keep talking like that and I’ll throw you into the hallway' Nao thought back at her blade. He was right, though. She hadn’t thought like this, not in a long time. Maybe it was the recent mentions of Tetsuya, maybe it was her bold action in taking the position, or perhaps it was the simple act of having someone who she might even be able to call a friend again, but something had awoken her more conspiratorial side lately, and she was feeling a bizarre sense of comfort after the information had finally been presented to her that she had not expected to experience.

Shaking her head, Nao sighed and set the papers down on the table, sliding them over to Watari and giving an apologetic nod for having hogged them. ”This is some worrying information you have here, Zenji. I’m glad you brought it to us instead of following the proper procedures. If news of this had made its way to Fifth Division, I suspect that they would have made some valiant yet shortsighted public display of strength which would have forced any other Quincy to go to ground.”

She put her hand to her lips in thought, mulling what he’d shown them over. This was dangerous intelligence, indeed, and it was only a matter of time before this woman Zenji wrote about was encountered by someone else. They had a stroke of good fortune, and it was critical that they not squander it. ”I trust that we are the first Shinigami other than yourself who have seen this report?” she asked Zenji before turning to Watari, ”You mentioned pertinent information? Is it about this de Loure woman, or have you heard of a second sighting?”

Good god, had somebody lit a fire under Zenji Hatayama’s metaphorical ass? The man was putting on a speech of legends right now and thankfully Watari could follow along between pangs of regret that Yuki had really driven him so far to not having cigarettes anymore. Apparently the religious and pious man that Watari knew as Zenji Hatayama wasn’t holding back any punches, he really saw himself as some keeper of whatever the Soul King was - Soul King help us - and his divine mandate.

Either way, Zenji’s words were ringing true in Watari’s head. They were destroyers of the balance, instantly they were a natural enemy of Shinigami but what Watari found more interesting as he flicked through the folders and listened to Zenji’s words were how the descriptions of the weapons at least partially corroborated with Yuki’s wounds. It was as if he was being given the last crucial pieces of a puzzle-like tapestry, a century old war that had been brewing in the background that nobody knew about.

Further, Zenji’s numbers were staggering but Watari wondered if the monk was getting too caught up in statistics. If Quincy were in-hiding like they thought, Watari severely doubted the Soul Society wouldn’t have detected them before - unless they didn’t care. Unless they didn’t care. They didn’t care. The Gotei 6 was comfortable, there was no other foe that would top them, they’d exterminated the Quincy once? Why couldn’t they do it again?

Watari couldn’t help but laugh at Nao’s comment, how dreadfully unfortunately accurate it was. Of course it had been a fifth division officer who he knew had encountered them! Of course!

The Head of the Suzumei would pause his chuckle and take a distinct sip from the sake cup whilst lifting one finger to halt any question Zenji may have. Of course he was going to answer, but this was deliciously coincidental wasn’t it?

“A mutual acquaintance of Hatayama-sans and I was rescued by myself in Karakura. Yuki Kameko of Fifth Squad was left for dead - damaged by unidentified spiritual weapons and barely stable. I covered it up mainly because I didn’t want Yuki to know I was tracking her movements, but keeping the information quiet was very important as I’m sure we all can see now” Watari would place his sake cup back on the table and leant back to consider the situation to himself. This was all far too coincidental to be comfortable. Was this that Soul King’s work? Or some other entity? There was no reason for so many events to correlate in one spot.

“I thought at the time, if this was a message, it was probably a message of war but Hatayama-san knows I like to move information at opportune times. I guess this is it. Karakura is calling humans to it, for what reason? I don’t know. But if we’re going to find Quincy, we’re going to find their nest there”

It all sounded rather reasonable, Zenji’s suggestion. The Quincy had, apparently, remained undetected for centuries. Yes, they’d done damage, potentially irreparable levels thereof, but even another year or two of waiting while the Gotei quietly got its ducks in a row would be a drop in the bucket compared to the dangers of letting them scatter.

Silencing the information entirely would, of course, be impossible. Reports could be shuffled around and, Nao supposed as she shot a quick glance over to Watari, the Shinigami who made those reports could be made to not speak, but that would only work if the reports and individuals making those reports were intercepted. She was loathe to think of what all that muffling might entail, but surely nobody would be foolish enough to weaken their ranks in a time of such potential crisis.

Suzumei Kindness

She brushed the lingering worry away. Whatever the man’s objectives, surely they could take a back seat to the dangers posed by the Quincy. If, of course, he spotted a way to kill two birds with one stone, Nao would be surprised if he didn’t take it. She would need to keep an eye on him just in case any wayward stones found their trajectories pointing toward First Division, but that was no reason not to trust him with this knowledge. Zenji had decided to read him in, and she had come to trust Zenji a great deal in a short time.

”We’ll need information, first and foremost. The woman you found and the one who attacked Kameko-sama could be the same. For all we know, this de Loure person found some old text and trained herself how to be a Quincy, or she could have stumbled into it by a stroke of misfortune or a natural aptitude on her part. Either myself of Suzumei-sama ought to request all reports on human spiritualists be immediately sent to our offices as part of a general information-gathering measure,” she reasoned out verbally, looking to Watari for confirmation.

She knew next to nothing of the other Third Seat’s work ethic, but this was going to need to be something that they would do themselves, not merely assign to a subordinate. His ambition was clear, as people didn’t normally just jump from an unseated position straight to being their Lieutenant’s right hand.

”Yeah, nobody ever does that.”

She almost excused herself to hide her blade away from the meeting and get some peace. If it had just been her and Zenji, she might have done just that. Still, there were social niceties that had to be observed, especially in front of individuals like the Suzumei head.

Their situations weren’t the same, anyway. She had strove for Third Seat to right the injustices going on in First Division. It wasn’t that she wanted the position. She wanted to fix a problem, and taking Third Seat was the only real way to do that. Sure, her anger had served as a catalyst and set more cautious avenues aside, but she would never call what she had to do to take her position a ‘kindness’ to her opponent, whatever that meant.

”I don’t know how things are for you, but my predecessor seems to have been much more interested in farming out his duties than in actually performing them himself,” she explained to Watari before addressing the table as a whole again, ”It will make all the sense in the world for me to pull some of that back in. I had been planning on doing just that prior to this meeting. A single line in my first set of orders shouldn’t raise any unwanted eyebrows.”

”We may need to bring others in on this, at least to a small degree. I had a meeting with Helena Akimoto-sama recently and she seemed much less aggressive than the usual sort of recruits we see going to Fifth Division. She may prove helpful in keeping tabs on matters if we do not wish to involve Kameko-sama any more than she already has been. That would leave only Second and Fourth uncovered.”

As she thought on that, something Zenji had said stood out to her. They had nobody in Second, Fourth, or Fifth, but he was seemingly already considering Third Division to be taken care of. She still had the letter she had written for him detailing his new assignment to Third Division in her pocket, the ink barely dry. Had someone in her office been watching her draft the documents? Just how gossipy were the upper echelons of First Division!? ”What is the solution you had in mind for Third Division, Zenji?” she asked, curious just what the rumor mill had managed to kick up.

“Don’t worry about the fourth and second either, the Shimazu House is loyal to me despite how much their leader plots for my downfall in the background . . .  and for the fourth, I have an acquaintance who despite seeing me as a “stalker-pedophile” probably will understand the gravity of the situation” Yes that reminded him, Memnoch Shimazu would need to be put in his place soon enough. His spies reported that the man’s resentment towards Watari had been left to stew and without suitable conflict he would most likely try something stupid. That was the problem with noble lords, they always tried something stupid. Oh well he’d cope. As for Oshime Enshoku, she’d probably agree, or she probably wouldn’t or she would call him a creep and slap him. Either way, good person that Oshime.

At Nao’s mention of information gathering he’d just simply gesture in her direction. After all, she was the third seat of the First Squad, it’d be infinitely easier for her than it would be for him, not to mention Watari had to do his own information gathering behind the scenes and begin pulling certain strings in certain directions. He had no doubt that this woman’s administrative abilities probably rivalled if not surpassed Zenji’s own which made her a great asset for matters such as these.

Was this an opportune time to describe his predecessor as somebody everybody loved? Probably not.

Yuki not being reincarnated though . . . now that was . . . that was . . . his battle fervor raged through his veins. Well there was nothing else to respond to that was there? He'd kill them all. One by one. He'd go to Karakura and - He needed patience, couldn't get roped up in what she'd taken from him or what she would make him do. Watari needed to calm down. Peace. He'll kill them later. The mothers and the fathers, the sisters and the brothers, he'd burn their nests with them in and revel in their screams he would - get far too wrapped up in the battle fervor. Peace. For now. Judgement would come.

Helena was also involved now then? Oh good, this made the strings easier to converge, he could almost visualize the board in front of him. The seeds he’d planted all those weeks ago in the Baozhai Estate were finally starting to bear fruit. It’d be good to see how far everybody had come and whether they were worthy of surviving his poison.

“Hatayama-san the truth is the Quincy Rising actually puts us in a perfect position for a coup against the Gotei 6. We control the information and we control the nobility. It’s time to make good on Kameko-san’s promise I think, it’s time to assemble the great noble houses” even if they wanted to dispatch Quincy covertly if they were as rampant as Zenji seemed to suggest they were, simply going to the Captain’s wouldn’t be enough. They’d just ignore it. They would need to actually turn the Gotei 6 against its leaders.

She felt a strange pit when Zenji mentioned his intentions to transfer away. They’d only really known each other for a brief period of time, but he had many Tetsuya-like qualities to him that had helped her open up quickly. That casual attitude about his nobility, the way he had stood up for her, his impressive Kido, and his willingness to help her reach out to her dear friend from the Akimoto clan had all served Zenji well in endearing himself to her, but she was surprised at how much it hurt to hear that she would not longer get to see him walking about the halls of First.

Nao might have stopped to consider why it was that she felt that way if it hadn’t been for Watari coming out of nowhere and hitting her with a verbal sack full of oranges. She was immediately flustered at the suggestion of a coup and, despite her best efforts to stay calm, she found that she was unable to suppress the early starts of nervous stammering. Getting the Gotei in shape to deal with the Quincy threat was one thing, but a full-blown coup?! That was insane. That was treason on top of treason. She could deal with controlling the information so only the right people knew what was going on. That was all to serve the betterment of the Gotei as a whole. Supplanting the leaders in order to streamline things seemed beyond suicidal, and would guarantee that their efforts to address the Quincy situation sensibly would backfire.

”If they’re planning on taking over the Third and Sixth, where would that leave you? Captain Commander Aoki has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”

The idea was almost too much for her to take. Nao started feeling beyond dizzy, threatening to faint and topple over onto the table. Thankfully, Zenji was there to stop her stammering just as it started, clarifying the terrible phrasing of their other guest. ”Oh, okay,” she said, stabilizing herself at his clarification and getting a grip on what was actually intended.

”As long as we follow the correct procedures, I don’t see any problems with that, Zenji. We need to have intelligent and capable Shinigami across the board, including in the seated positions and especially in our Lieutenants and Captains’ Offices. There is no way the rank and file Shinigami would follow us if we did something so brazen as a coup, though. It would be best to call it a betterment project or something of that sort. Really, anything that doesn’t make us look like insurrectionists for wanting to improve the Gotei. I actually had something that might help your plan with Third,” she said, withdrawing the paper from her robes and sliding it across the table to him. ”I’d hoped to give it to you today or tomorrow originally. I’ve identified several candidates in First who would benefit from cross-Divisional training, as well as temporary assignments elsewhere within First Division. I will miss having you around First, but hopefully this will give you what you need to start strongly in Third and continue to receive the necessary reports from your soon-to-be old unit.“

With a nod, she set to following Zenji and filling her own cup of tea, content to take a moment to herself after the heart-pounding worry Watari had started over his coup talk. Let them talk about noble meetings until they were blue in the face. It’s not like she’d be allowed past the front door, not that it bothered her one bit.

Well look at that, little Zenji Hatayama the most frightened Shinigami of the bunch had finally decided he was going to do something, apparently it only took some heretic monks threatening to destroy the balance and pillage Zenji’s relics and he was off to the races. Why was that so delicious and ironic? And sort of hilarious in a way? Why did it take a damn race of monks to piss off the most pious and patient man in the whole of Soul Society. Geez, the Soul King be damned, he really knew how to frame a punchline.

Finally, apparently only took an actual threat to show that Watari wasn’t completely insane about his ideas of the Gotei 6. It took momentum to spur action and apparently the threat of a bunch of pious archers had kicked Zenji hard enough that Watari’s opinions might actually be correct. But why not call it a coup? Be honest, that was what it was after all. They were going to overthrow the Captains - as soon as they had the resources to do it.

“A betterment project, a coup, an educated decision, however you phrase it the current standing Captains and Lieutenants will hate the idea. Do you really think those braggarts and pompadours are going to just let you take their comfort? It’s easier for them to shift everything under the rug - yes sure - but it’s not simple for them to let their positions go easily” Watari sighed, he could already see it now. The moment a betterment project was mentioned, everybody in this room would be in the maggots nest, essentially brushed under the rug by the men and women who called themselves the Gotei 6 and everything Watari had done up to this point would be for nothing.

“We do this the same way we’ve always done things but we’ll use the Kameko Estate, it’s inconspicuous and nobody will suspect a meeting of the greatest minds of our time at a nearly defunct clans’ lands” either way the location didn’t really bother Watari too much but he knew that Yuki was very keen to host the next meeting at her estates as she saw herself as completely neutral - a lot of the others did too considering how she had managed to survive her apparently arranged marriage with the Head of the Suzumei.

“We also keep it to that room, you can extend the invite to those Shinigami you see of interest noble or otherwise, but the moment the plan leaks everything we are working towards goes up in smoke - thankfully no matter where we are, our secrecy will be protected assuming the people in that room can be trusted” at that Watari placed a hand on Bezaliel, whether Zenji had heard the rumors of the apparent effect of his shikai Watari didn’t care. But Bezaliel guaranteed absolute secrecy within that noble gathering.

“If you want to protect the balance and take the Gotei 6, your first step is convincing the people at that party that it is the ‘right’ thing to do”

The Head of the Suzumei had been very specific there, he hadn’t said ‘our’ he’d said ‘your’, Watari doubted anybody would take him seriously if he started talking about magic Quincy destroying the balance, but if they heard it from one of the most religious men in the Gotei 6? Well, that’d shift even the least likely of Watari’s supporters. After all, all he would do is get them together.

Nao could do little more than nod respectfully to the Suzumei head’s attempted clarification. It was painfully clear to her that Zenji and she were of one mind and the new Third of Sixth was of another with regard to the method of improving the Gotei. It seemed as though they all desired a similar end result, though, and they weren’t going to get anywhere by arguing over the how. She’d just have to keep her hands clean.

As the other two started discussing their plans for a grand noble gala, she spaced out slightly and grabbed her tea, letting the calming beverage wash away what it could of her worries.

”You poor fool. They’re going to eat you alive.”

Her eyes flashed open as Nao realized she was no longer seated at the table with Zenji and Watari. She was sitting in that damned room, across from that damned man. Her look of confused irritation only spurred him to open his mouth again, the fat cigar he was smoking shifting to the side so he could speak.

”You’re at a table with two powerful, well connected nobles. If anyone gets caught, who do you think is going to take the fall?”

”I- Zenji wouldn’t do that. He’s been a good friend.”

”For a couple of weeks, sure. You’re nothing to him long term, girl. You can trick yourself into sticking your old boyfriend into his body all you want, but leave that shit for the bedroom and pull your head out of your ass before it ends up on the chopping block.”

She stammered at Murat, starting several half-sentences while the laptop he used to watch in on her life played footage of her peacefully sipping tea during the nobles’ discussion. She didn’t know what made her angrier, the assertion that Zenji would sell her out, the implication that she was doing that with him, or the fact that part of her worried that Murat might be right.

”They want to use you, just like everyone has always done. You realize this, right? You better make yourself useful before they decide-“

“You will  of course be attending the gathering.”

Nao’s eyes raised sharply as she snapped back to the table with the other two, her spirit and the room he lived in having vanished in the blink of an eye as Zenji addressed her. Setting her tea down after managing to somehow not spit it out, she nodded slightly anxiously to his assertion.

” You better make yourself useful.”

Nao adjusted her seating and exhaled deeply, hoping that it just looked like she was content with a good sip of tea. ”Of course. There are a number of officers in First who I’ve identified who seem to have been in similar situations as I was before my advancement, both of noble and common families. I would be happy to vet them. Beyond that,” she smiled and gave a little shake of her head, ”I’m afraid I haven’t gotten out of our Division much.” It was tempting to suggest Tetsuya, but she hadn’t seen the man in nearly a century and she didn’t think whatever would come of that reunion would be best for a party of this sort.

She already knew that this response wasn’t going to be enough, and she quickly interjected to offer up the one thing the others couldn’t possibly emulate, ”I would, of course, be willing to examine any candidates you might have, though. I mean no insult by this, but your elevated stations in our society at large make it second nature for people to defer to you. While I am a Seated Officer now, there are Shinigami who will be more genuine in their interactions with someone like me who spent over six decades before entering the Academy living and working in a single small room out in the Rukongai compared to someone who lived in considerably better circumstances.”

“It doesn’t matter how incompetent the Captain Commander is, if his entire staff is replaced his authority to do anything is limited. If the five other captains of the Gotei 6 follow our word and the Central 46 is . . . .disbanded in favor of the nobility. Then we will have full control of the Soul Society” Watari finished, yes he had most of the noble houses in his pocket but there were going to be inevitable uprisings. Apparently Shimazu’s Memnoch had been muttering in the corners of his halls about Watari’s sudden meteoric rise and had been seeding words of doubt about the Suzumei. It seemed for everything that Watari had done for him, it still wasn’t enough to earn his silence. But, back to the matter at hand. The Central 46 was one of the few things left in Watari’s way with how the Gotei 6 was going, he was going to push to disband it.

“We’ll pick and choose, I’m sure that some will come to light in the coming days before the party. Just be sparing, the less people the less likely our schemes are to leak” He could already see it now, Zenji Hatayama is all his seriousness standing at the corner of the academy handing out fliers to the Kameko estate to invoke a holy change. Off the top of his head, Watari couldn’t even think of anybody he’d be interested in inviting, most of his interactions were either nobility or Raphael and there didn’t even seem to be a middle ground with that. Raphael? Yeah, maybe he could invite the human, having his abilities around could prove useful.

His eyes fell on Nao, was she okay? He wondered if Zenji had invested far too deeply into the woman that sat with them, she seemed almost perturbed by their comments as if the shifting of the world was far out of her paygrade. To be honest, it probably was. She was the first squad third seat aye? You know, Zenji and he needed a puppet captain commander when the time came, she seemed just the right balance of “Self righteousness” and “crippling anxiety” that a puppet captain commander would require when the time came. Watari’s brain whirred as pieces began to shift on an imaginary board in front of him.

Yuki was still an issue, he’d solve that conundrum at the noble ball.

“As for the Quincy, it’s best for our own sanity that you limit your interactions with them to the bare minimum - especially you Hatayama-san I know your zealotry demands you purge every single one of the burning bow wielding rats but we really should keep our movements quiet until the trap snaps”

Would that stop Watari himself from sending a message? No. If what they had done to Yuki was really a war declaration, the Head of the Suzumei would send them a similar message. He just had to find a Quincy first. Watari Suzumei was to everybody a ‘bad man’ but he was also not a race traitor.

Rats hurt Yuki.

Rats needed to be killed.

Every last fucking one.

Disbanding Central 46?! Just what kind of crazy meeting had Zenji dragged her into? Had the new Third Seat of Sixth decided to test for treasonous activity himself by serving as some kind of ludicrous honeypot? If so, he was laying things on horribly thick to go that far.

”Disbanding Central 46 would be impossible in our current state, even as a thought exercise. To accommodate something like that would require the noble families significantly increase the amount of individuals they adopt, saying nothing of the amount of Shinigami we would need to recruit to carry out the new administrative duties,” she said in an exasperated tone, rubbing her temples at the thought of the increase in the bureaucracy, ”First Division alone would need to likely double in size at a bare minimum, and that’s without factoring in a corresponding smaller growth in every other Division aside from maybe Fifth. We would need to increase the number of students being taken in at the Academy to accommodate that, and training all of those new Shinigami would take years.”

She had been willing to extend her rant about the logistical improbabilities of pulling something like that off, eager to prove her innocence in such a crime if the Suzumei head were investigating it or, if he were actually foolish enough to suggest such a thing, to explain the kinds of groundwork that someone wishing to do so would need to undertake in order to make sure such a transition would actually go remotely smoothly, but Zenji’s mention of Tetsuya snapped her out of it.

”Tetsu’s parents," she started, her eyes wide in surprise, ”I mean Lord and Lady Akimoto are dead? When did that happen? How?” Her ignorance of the goings on at the massacre showed plainly in her confused look. Nao’s dedication to her work and isolation from her colleagues had kept her isolated from gossip. She would have no doubt heard some of what was going on if she had been able to work in her new office, but Zenji’s summons had been on her first day back, and she was still going through the process of putting the improvements she’d drawn up during her stay in the medical wing in effect.

She was so taken up by her own internal thoughts that it never occurred to her to voice anything on the matter of the Quincy. They'd had a millennia to rebuild their accursed numbers. They could take another few minutes for all she cared. It was childish, shortsighted, and naive, but she couldn't help but feel that this news about Tetsuya was far more important than anything Zenji had called her here for.

“I’ve been told Nao that anything can be accomplished if you just tell people you’re doing it and then well - stab them in the chest. With that in mind disestablishing the Central 46 and shifting root power to the Nobility should be easy as well . . . stabbing somebody in the chest and shifting power to the nobility” Watari said with a grin as he poured himself more of that delicious sake, Soul King’s left kidney Zenji Hatayama’s staff knew what the best sake was, who knew ol’ Zenji was a closeted alcoholic. Not Watari, that was for sure!

Oh, did Nao know the Akimoto’s ? Oh that was interesting. Deliciously so. Was she perhaps attached to the young head? What sort of cruel twist of fate made her so subservient to the now head of the akimoto? It was like an open wound, Watari felt he just needed to prod it - just needed to know if not a tiny bit. Was she a servant? A lover? A fighter? A brother? Well probably not the last one, but maybe the alcohol was hitting him a tiny bit.

“Oh yes, unfortunately it seems there was a really bad case of food poisoning at the most recent noble gathering at the Baozhai estates. Can’t really tell you too many details but many of our fine nobility died. Some of the noble families want answers so I of course took it upon myself to investigate, would you believe Hatayama-san that I’ve narrowed it down to two candidates!” the Head of the Suzumei said happily as he took another sip of sake and watched Zenji from across the table. It was a dare, c’mon suggest me, you know you want to Zenji Hatayama. How much do you really care for this girl sitting beside me that is so entwined in the Akimoto affairs? Soul King, noble politics were delicious, it was a shame he’d thinned the field a tiny bit.

“Also don’t worry about the inevitable doubling of fifth division. We’ll send them on a Quincy hunt and we’ll solve both of the problems” the Shinigami said with a hand wave.