A Cheap Ploy

The Optimal Assignment Parameters were supposed to have kept her from field work according to what her supervising officer had told Nao Aoki, but they had somehow failed. A not insignificant part of her suspected that Lady Akimoto told someone of how they were being employed in her unit which had in turn resulted in her being sent to Earth for the first time in five years. Whether it was her boss retaliating against her for blabbing or if it was someone higher up the food chain forcing his hand, she didn’t know. She just knew how angry he looked after he handed over the papers announcing her orders. While she dreaded having to make the trip due to her lack of practice, she dreaded coming back and facing her supervisor even more.

It was thus that she had dusted off her old gigai in an attempt to blend in and get a feel for the town first. So much had changed in the years since she had been gone, yet so much had also remained the same. She found something inside of her just begging her to stop being so mission-focused with each cinema or bright display she passed. Some of these fashions would look amazing on her. She’d never have the guts to buy them or have facsimiles made back home, but it was nice to have a little daydream to occupy her mind as she strolled around and kept on the lookout for Hollows.

Daydreams, especially particularly immersive ones, can have unforeseen consequences if you don’t take the proper precautions. While her head danced around imagining her in a cute pastel dress she spotted lit up in a nighttime display at a high end boutique, she failed to notice the watching eyes from a nearby street corner. It wouldn’t have been an issue had those eyes not followed her around a corner and reappeared further on in her patrol. Someone was stalking her, and she was completely oblivious to the danger she had accidentally wandered into.

"Hello there young lady," could suddenly be heard, just as a strange man would finally show himself in front of the young girl. Since the girl had noticed his presence, he had decided to come into the open as there was no point in him staying hidden anymore. He had to approach her sooner or later and now was better than later. After all, he couldn't let her try and get out of his sight or worse, actually escape before he could have a chance to do what he had intended to do from the moment he noticed her.

So, who was this strange man, stalking young girls under the guise of the night? Well, apparently the girl was about to find out as he decided that he was going to share this little bit of info right away. With the same cold, yet rather polite, tone and a broken accent the man would usher "I do apologize if my sudden appearance has scared you, that was not my intention. My name is Anatoly and I was wondering if I could have a word with someone as particular as you." Immediately after offering a slight bow just as it was apparently custom in this part of the world, or so he heard. Then again, despite the girls guise the man could tell that she was not from around here so perhaps such mannerism was not needed. But, albeit, when in Rome do as the Romans do?

Now that he did what he could, it was up to the girl on how she wanted to continue this little encounter. Anatoly had did his best to ease her suspicions, his sudden reveal even had him stopping underneath the street lights fully letting the girl see who she was dealing with. Seemingly looking like a regular man, the young Russian wore a simple business-casual outfit, lower part of a suit and a simple white short sleeved shirt. There was nothing strange about him, except the fact that he was obviously not from around here. He did have traces of belonging to this part of the world but they were slight and less noticeable over his Slavic descent.

Hoping that this was enough, the man stud patiently as he awaited for the girl to give him a reply.

The sudden appearance did very much startle Nao, causing her to let out a small shriek as the man made himself visible. She had allowed herself to space out enough that the sound of speech made her mind immediately jump to horror stories she’d heard of particularly sadistic Hollow. Her hand jumped to her side and whiffed at the air as she tried to grab the Zanpakuto that her Gigai didn’t have. Thankfully, it was just a man, and she had no need to draw her tanto on a random man who was no doubt mistaken about who she was.

Or at least that’s what she thought until he opened his mouth and told her that he wanted to speak with someone as particular as her. Despite hoping for the first time in her life that the man was propositioning her and not recognizing her as a Shinigami, she was unable to suppress an initial stammer of worry. A quick breathing exercise later and she could finally get her words out. ”I’m sorry, Mister Anatoly, but I don’t know what you mean by particular. I’m just a normal girl out shopping for clothes,” she lied, completely ignoring the fact that she had no purse or bags swelling with clothing.

Indeed, her Gigai was horrendously unequipped for this ruse. Aside from lacking anything that would make her look like she might be shopping, she had gone with the professional businesswoman look that her supervisor insisted upon. “Even in a false body, you are supposed to represent First Division,” he had insisted, and she had sadly complied. She missed the vibrant and pretty colors she used to be able to wear, as well as the badass biker getup she put in a request for after she saw a motorcycle gang a few trips back. There was something about the leather and straps that made her feel stronger than she actually was, and the stares she got from men while wearing the false body hadn’t failed to put some extra energy in her steps. She didn’t have to feel embarrassed in that body since it wasn’t actually her. This one, however, very much was her down to the slightest detail. Every ounce of weakness, timidity, and the utter inability to walk away from the man who had cornered her, they were all there.

Releasing a bit of a chuckle the man would laughingly look at the young girl spouting lies probably unaware of the fact that he could tell what she really was. Then again, the way he addressed her and spoke should have been a giveaway right from the start. Perhaps she thought that she could try and deceive him despite this. It was a bold attempt but Anatoly was not having it. He had stuff to do and now was not the time to be dealing with such tricks, he needed to finish things up here and move on. After all, she wasn't the only person of interest in his books, there were plenty of other targets that he found in Karakura alone, this little town truly was a gold mine for what he had in mind.

"I'm sorry but despite your seemingly human appearance, I am fully aware of what you are. After all, I wouldn't be much of a Shaman if I couldn't tell regular folk from spirits wearing fake skin." The male would finally speak, transitioning from slightly amused to somewhat serious in between those two sentences. By now she should have been able to tell that he wanted to move from this little game of cat and mouse and move on to the important stuff. Well, at least to him. And if his words were not enough and the girl wanted to continue to pretend a little bit of a display was in order to fully prove the point across.

Out of a sudden the man's pupils would suddenly move beyond his upper eye lid and all that would remain were a pair of white and lifeless sclera. Within a few moments the Shaman would enter a trance right in front of the young girl, showing her that he was not joking around when he addressed himself as a Shaman. The air around them would quickly change as Anatoly entered a state in which he was the one running the show, the space around them was his to command. Now that he was in this state, the girl wasn't left with many options.

"If you like that fake skin of yours I could make sure you stay in it for quite the while," he added displaying a bit of his power over spirits, applying a mild binding that would make it seem as if a sense of claustrophobia had sent her body into a panic, making it seem like she could not leave her artificial body.

Her attempts to act the part shattered shortly after he spoke. Shamans? She’d heard stories about humans who could see Shinigami, but had never come close to witnessing one with her own eyes. In a panic, she started to shift out of her body, but found herself restrained by some strange force as her spirit strained to leave its prison. She could see her true form shifting around underneath the false body, threatening to break his binding magic. Whatever he was doing, it was strong, too strong for her to have any chance of getting out of quickly.

Forcing her face up was a strain, but at least she could bring herself to look at the man as her spiritual energy surged in effort. A low, discordant hum accompanied the frantic pink and orange light escaping from the spiritual seams of her gigai. ”Please, sir. I’m not here to cause any trouble. I’m here to protect you from the bad spirits.” she begged pathetically, gritting her teeth under the strain of trying to move.

She looked into his eyes pleadingly, not sure what he was doing. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She was supposed to come here, maybe send a Hollow or two on, and be back in time to review the new admissions forms that were being discussed in a Division meeting. This wasn’t the plan, this was about as far away from the plan as she could get.

She’d expected to be able to work a Hado at any Hollow she found from a distance. That was the whole point of the Shinigami support system. Had her handlers not noticed the man’s signature? Was he able to mask it somehow, or had they deliberately let him close in on her? Why would they have done that? These and a thousand other thoughts raced through her mind as Nao felt her knees buckle and she again pleaded with the man. ”I’m just here to help,” she cried, a single tear falling down her cheek from the dangerous coldness of Anatoly.

The reactions from the girl were all but expected on Anatoly's side. He had figured that this little display would make her react and attempt to do something, displaying some of her abilities. But, instead, she was quite so easily caught. By the looks of it she wasn't quite familiar with the fact that there are humans out there who have such abilities. Perhaps she was still quite new to the whole Shinigami shtick. Either way, she was still worthy enough of being chosen as the first test subject for what he had planned. Her weakness might even make it much easier for Anatoly to do what he had intended as it meant that there was less resistance for him to deal with.

However, what followed did come as an surprise to the man. Faced with something seemingly quite dangers had apparently had a mental toll on the girl and it seemed as if she had began to beg. Actually, it did not seem like it, she was most certainly doing it. Saying how she was just there to help and crying? Well, that was not something Anatoly expected to happen, he expected at least some fighting spirit or at least an attempt to negotiate. He got neither, he got a sad little girl crying. How could someone like her even get to this stage of her training, did she not know how much of a dangerous place the outside world was? If something like this could shake her up then who knows how would she react if her life was truly in danger.

Somewhat disappointed, the man would finally approach the bound girl and as he did, with a bit of a fake smile he would speak: "Well, if you insist, I will let you help me with something. I was planning to let you do this even if you didn't want to help me, but I guess it will be much easier for me if you do." With those words spoken, it was finally time to begin. Hopefully this wouldn't hurt the girl too much, she was already in such a terrible state to begin with. However, even if it did, it didn't really matter as she was probably not going to be the same person or the same creature. Who knows what the result would be, this was the first time for Anatoly to attempt to do something like this and even he didn't know what the result would be.

"You see, some Shaman's have what we call a spirit guardian with whom they form a contract and said guardian helps them to fulfill their duties. Since I have quite the plans I figured that I needed quite the guardian for myself and that's where it hit me, I should pick a Shinigami and form a contract with them. And you seem like the perfect candidate for that." He figured that he at least owed her an explanation just in case that this was the last time they got to talk, as this could end up very badly for her. Even forming a regular contract with wandering spirits was not an easy process, doing something like this to a Shinigami was quite risky and unprecedented. Anatoly was pretty sure he was the first one to attempt something like this.

"Now, I can't promise that this won't hurt and that you will be the same but, just so you know, your sacrifice here will be for the greater good of mankind. Spirits such as yourself should be grateful to be given a chance like this and help out the living."

Nao’s tears turned from a trickle to a stream as she fought fruitlessly against the bonds. If only she had more time, she could escape her fake body and fire any number of Kido at this man to stop him. Time was a luxury she didn’t have. The tap of his shoes on the deserted sidewalk were like the ticking of some twisted grandfather clock, their pace slowing down as the end of her years of service approached.

A million disjointed thoughts flashed through her mind as she fought. All of the time she’d wasted in safety behind her desk, the decades she’d gone without even attempting to progress as a Shinigami, every opportunity she’d turned down because she was too scared of what it might mean if she screwed something up. She’d been too scared to train herself, too scared to try to talk to her Zanpakuto, too scared to even go on a date. Had she truly lived an entire unlife of meekness and fear only to have it taken away in the same fashion?

It should have sickened her. If she were a real Shinigami like that aspirant for Fifth she recently interviewed, she’d have been able to force her way past the shaman’s foul magic. He’d have her tanto buried in his wicked heart and she’d have saved countless other Shinigami from the torture this man seemed so keen on inflicting with whatever her sacrifice would entail.

What he was speaking of, it didn’t seem possible. She’d never even spoken to her spirit. She had sometimes daydreamed about it, but the spirit’s form was always changing in those musings, its purpose always antithetical to what she’d been told it was supposed to be. It was usually a pretty woman who told her that she was doing a good job, helped boost her confidence, and picked her up when she was feeling down, but that sort of a spirit would have made itself visible by now in order to help her through her hard times. That kind of a spirit wouldn’t let her fall victim to this evil man.

”Please don’t,” she begged, straining her throat as she continued to struggle against her bonds. She had made some leeway. She could see her sword hand breaking free from the false body in her peripheral vision. Just a few moments more and she’d be out and actually able to defend herself. ”I can’t serve you and what you're talking about is impossible. You have to let me go. There has to be another way.”

Faced with an impeding doom, or at least in her eyes, the girl finally decided to show some backbone. Apparently she managed to somewhat free herself from the binding just while she was begging for him to let her go. But, it was too late and too little. Anatoly was now right in front of her and that meant that he could do much more than a simple binding. In a moments notice his right arm would stretch out and go for her neck, gently grasping it, not putting much pressure on it at all. He wasn't trying to choke her after all, he just needed a little bit of physical contact to do what was about to follow. Only one word was needed to put things into motion and the man spoke it without a moment of hesitation. "Freeze."

Within moments the nearby moisture would flash freeze from underneath the mans's palm and it would rapidly spread. First her neck, then her mouth and upper torso and finally the reminder of her lower body. Everything would be encased in a seemingly thin and almost completely see through layer of ice. It was as if she was turned into a perfect ice sculpture. Well, a few parts remained outside the icy imprisonment. The upper part of her head from the nose onward and a single hole over the location of her heart remained. Even her tears were left untouched by this odd phenomenon, they too were allowed to freely flow and wash over the reminder of her imprisoned body.

"You see, we Shamans are one with the nature, as someone who is from the Siberian Tungusic tribe I am naturally well versed with ice and snow. I can't have you move around too much as what follows will require a bit of concentration so I am afraid you will have to remain silent and still." Now that he had made sure that she would be unable to move or continue her begging, Anatoly was finally ready to attempt and form a contract with her and make her his spirit guardian. He was rather excited to be actually giving this an attempt, if it worked he would gain possession of quite a powerful guardian even if she was just a low level Shinigami. Hopefully it would work, but even if it didn't, it would provide some quite valuable information.

Not wasting any time since this little ice spell did have a limited duration, he would remove his right palm from the girls neck with haste and right away place it over her forehead. At the same time, his left hand would find its place over the hole where the girl's heart was supposed to be. That was all the set up he needed and now the show was about to begin.

From Anatoly's left hand a light blue hue would suddenly begin to appear and as it did, the same would happen with his left one as well. Faint and barely noticeable, nor cold nor warm. However, slowly it would begin to diminish and reduce in size, eventually only a pair of small dots would remain. And that was what Anatoly was waiting for. With a swift movement he would begin to remove his palms from the girl's body and by doing so he would also pull the lights away. By doing so, the two dots that were stuck to the gigai of the young Shinigami would seemingly stretch her fake skin as they drew parts of her soul from it. This was probably painful as hell to the girl and if she could open her mouth, she would probably scream as loudly as she could. But, albeit, the man made sure that would not happen as that was not something he wanted to experience.

Not even stopping for a second, he would pull parts of the girl's soul in what seemed to be a pair of strings and as he did, he would place his palms on himself the same way he did previously with her, placing the two dot shaped lights onto his own body. By doing so he would connect the two of them two his own soul and with that the conditions for the contract were fulfilled. After all, there needed to be some sort of a connection between the master and the familiar. Usually, one connection was enough but Anatoly figured that he needed both if he were to gain control of whatever form the girl would take. Hopefully this was enough.

"Encased in ice, I now bind our souls in a contract. Soul with soul, mind with mind." With those words the contract would be cast and what that meant, not even Anatoly knew.

She twitched and spasmed as best she could as the ice spread across the false body, binding her fully in the limited areas she’d managed to break free. As Nao opened her mouth to continue to plea, it snaked up her jaw, crackling and freezing as it moved. Try as she might, she could only get out an incomprehensible gurgle as the frozen invader continued to press onward, coating the inside of her mouth in the same painful freeze. It took a split second for her to clench down with her tongue reflexively, thankfully stopping the ice from traveling down her throat for all the good that would do her.

She could hear him dully through her prison, the frosty sheen having encased her ears. Was this really it for her? The end of over 80 years of service to the Gotei and its institutions? The culmination of an entire human lifetime of processing forms and documents so their society could function? She could see her desk now, its mess of papers sitting just as she’d left it. It would take one of her colleagues weeks, if not months to figure out where everything she had in her system was stored.

A twinge of guilt pushed its way through her panicked despair for a moment at the thought, though it was quickly overwritten by a renewed horror as the shaman did something to her chest. She couldn’t tilt her head to see, but it hurt worse than the ice, and was soon followed up by a similar tortured agony to her brow.

She felt her vision fading as he twisted the very essence of her being, her limited field of view contorting and warping underneath the ice. It was darkening, but not to the black she would have anticipated. No, it was turning purple. A gray haze overtook her vision and, in a few moments, she found herself sitting down at an ornate desk in a spacious Western office. The air smelled strangely sweet and, on a laptop screen on the desk, she could see an over-the-shoulder view of the shaman standing in front of a frozen form.

As he spoke the final words to his incantation, something happened in her prison. A thick purple smoke billowed out from the small holes he had left as an intense pressure swelled within the ice. Moments later, the entrapment shattered, coating the street in the remnants of the now rapidly melting shell and the meat that had made up Nao’s gigai. In its place stood a man she had never seen before.

He wasn’t particularly tall, maybe having thirty centimeters of height less than Russian, but this new figure was nonetheless imposing. Dressed in a black, tailor-fitted, two piece suit and tie, he brushed one clump of his medium-length black hair back to reveal a dark brown pupil fixed squarely in her would-be killer’s eyes. He had no weapon, carrying a briefcase in his left hand. As she watched the strange scene on the computer, she witnessed him reach into his pocket, withdraw a cigarette, and light it with what seemed to be a variation on a general administrative kido she had learned as a means to safely burn improperly filled out forms.

”I sure hope you retained a good attorney for that contract,” the strange man said in a thick baritone voice as he popped the lit cigarette into his mouth, ”Because bullshit like this isn’t going to hold up in court.”

Video rendition of her Inner Spirit, showing up around 35 seconds in. He’s the one with the cigar. Yes, I’m serious. This is happening. I’m doing it.:

The sudden reaction within the icy imprisonment came as a bit of an surprise for the Shaman, forcing him to take a few steps back and even quickly cover his face with his hands thus blocking his own vision of what was happening in front of him. The distraction even made him leave his trans and his eyes once again returned to normal. Something like this should have been within his expectations, but he did hope that two bindings were enough to keep whatever came out from leaving the imprisonment of the fake body that the young girl used to walk among the regular folk. Did he miscalculate? Did he actually destroy her and her fake body?

Before he could evaluate what had happened, words were spoken directed at him and from the explosion of ice and flesh a rather officially looking man showed up. Well, this was a surprise. The young Shinigami girl that he had trapped turned into a man? Or was she perhaps a man all along and this was his or her true form that was hidden in a female body? Nothing here was going along as Anatoly had planned and instead of getting answers he was getting even more questions. The two souls string that bound them were still there and they were connecting Anatoly to this man that had just showed up so he couldn't have been mistaken, this man really was that girl.

But, then, did the experiment succeed? Was this man his new guardian spirit? He certainly did not sound like he was ready to serve him, the remarks about the contracts and the need for lawyers most certainly were screaming disobedience, that much was certain. Well, either way thinking about it was probably not going to get him anywhere, he needed to get some answers. Ignoring the snarky remarks, the Shaman would reply: "Was the girl before, you? Did you use the body of a female to trick others into thinking you were a young girl?" Finding out who this person was seemed like a good place to start at, more complicated details could be addressed a bit later.

However, once more considering the fact that they were still connected, Anatoly figured he could at least force this person to be truthful. After all, the contract should have been completed. With nothing but a single thought he sent a command to the man in front of him. Nothing too complicated, merely conveying to him that he needs to answer those questions truthfully.

”Nobody’s used that young girl’s body in decades,” he said with a sneer, breathing deeply of his cigarette and exhaling a thick cloud of smoke. He surveyed the splatter of meat left over from the fake body and gave a shake of his head. ”I’d say you’re welcome to it, but the paperwork on losing one of those things is a bitch, and Little Miss Aoki is the kind of idiot who’d fill it all out in triplicate.”

Nao sat in her strange smoky room completely and utterly confused. Who was this man, and why did he know her name? More importantly, where had he put her? She got up and frantically looked around the room, spotting a door. Taking the laptop in hand, she moved toward the door and opened it, coming out into a seemingly endless hallway full of rooms.

”So, I think you said something about a contract?” the stranger asked him as she took off down the hall at a reasonable jog, ”Where is it? Let’s talk terms. What all are you looking for here, and what’s in it for me?”

Running down the corridor to try and find an exit, she quickly noticed that the numbers on the frosted glass cycled between the same digits. Even more confused, she stopped and turned around, finding herself standing only a few door down from the room she’d first arrived in, despite the fact that she ought to have put a few dozen doors behind her. This whole thing was so confusing to her. Had that shaman drugged her? Was this all an elaborate hallucination? Just what was he trying to accomplish?

That was definitely not the reply Anatoly was looking for.

Snarky remarks and a bit of a bravado ended up being all that he was given, leaving him with the same amount of questions as he had before this man spoke. Well, not quite actually, the way he addressed the girl meant that she was an actual person and that there was some sort of a connection between them. But, by knowing this, Anatoly now had a few more questions that surfaced from just finding that bit of information so technically he did have the same amount of questions as prior. Well, this whole situation was most certainly not developing the way he wanted to.

Not only that, this person figured he could do some questioning of his own. Apparently the way he saw it, he had some say in the way the contract was handled. Did he really think they were on even terms? That was most certainly not how this whole thing worked and they way Anatoly figured, it was time to actually see how it did work. Whoever this person was, he was now the Shaman's Spirit Guardian and that meant obedience in a servant and master kind of a way. Well, more like master and slave, servants actually did get some payment and a bit of an say in some matters. He most certainly was not going to be given the leeway to make demands, that much was certain.

"I don't think you realize how this whole thing works. I did explain it to the girl who's place you apparently took, but it seems she didn't get a moment to convey it to you. Whoever or whatever you are, this is a one way contract where you don't have a choice in the matter and I decide everything. So, for starters do tell me who you are, name and everything. And also what happened to this Miss Aoki with whom I spoke a moment ago?" Commanding but still keeping his calm, the Shaman would speak what was on his mind. He was done playing games with whoever this person was, it was time to take this to the next level.

In a moments notice, he would go back into a state of trance once more, prepared to issue commands if needed.

”I don’t think you realize how this whole thing works. I’ve been waiting for our mutual friend to actually do her fucking job right for longer than your parents have been alive, I’d be willing to bet,” the spirit said with that same bite and irritation, ”You don’t know the power of the things you trifle with, Anatoly. I could cut you down where you stand, but I’m in a giving mood. My name is Murat, and I’m bound to the lovely Miss Aoki you were so hilariously torturing a moment ago.”

Nao’s jaw dropped. He was bound to her? This man, this Murat, he was supposed to be her Zanpakuto spirit? He looked, sounded, and acted nothing like the lovely woman she’d dreamed of. If anything, he was the antithesis of what she’d wanted. He wasn’t trying to save her, he was trying to cut a deal with the man who had imprisoned her in ice and shattered her gigai. Had he, after over 8 decades of waiting, decided to take her form for his own? Was she going to be relegated to being his spirit? It didn’t seem possible, but none of what was going on seemed possible.

She walked back into the room she’d first appeared in. If that was her spirit, then she reasoned out that this must be where it lived. It was nice, she’d give it that. The chairs looked as expensive as they were comfortable, everything looked ordered, and she could make out several comforts that the spirit had in his office, including an expansive liquor cabinet and a walk-in humidor loaded with cigars. Whoever her spirit was, he clearly felt himself important to have so many nice things on hand. She wouldn’t have dreamed of having anything like this in her office. Her supervisor would have her head over this kind of misappropriation.

She settled in to the comfortable desk chair, resigned to the fact that she wasn’t going to escape and that she wanted to see what all was going to happen on the screen. As she sat, her eyes fell on a half-empty tumbler glass containing a dark liquid and a large ice cube. Throwing caution to the wind in order to have something to take the edge off, she wrapped her hands around the chilled glass and had a sip of what was inside. She wasn’t a connoisseur or liquor, but whatever was in the glass was good. It tasted almost like an alcoholic iced coffee and, as she pulled it back from her lips, she noticed little swirls of cream floating through the drink.

Her rumination on the strange beverage her spirit had left behind ceased as a sound came from the laptop, jerking her attention back. The man who called himself Murat had walked a hair closer to Anatoly. ”As for Miss Aoki, I suspect that she’s currently where I was before you did that little trick. She’s still very much alive. Oh, if you could hear the things she was thinking about you,” he said, cutting himself off with a full-bodied laugh.

"The place where you were before? Bound to her? Are you saying that all Shinigami have another spirit that dwells inside of them, or is that just something that your Miss Nao has?" Disregarding the obvious threat and the remarks about how he was unaware of what he was dealing with, Anatoly would first and foremost focus on the reminder of what was said by the man. He shared quite a few details about his relationship with the girl that was here before him and that intrigued the Shaman as this was the first time he heard about something like this. He was aware of the existence of Hollows and Shinigami before coming here but nothing was mentioned about how they had another soul living inside of them. Was this Nao girl unique in a way from the rest of them, or was this a thing they all shared?

This was quite the discovery and it somewhat did shed some light on why he felt like this man was out of his control. His attempts at giving out orders seemed to have met a dead end while on their way to Murat. Did the formation of this contract force the two of them to switch places and thus nullify the contract? That couldn't be, the heart and mind strings were still connecting them and Anatoly could feel as Murat spoke that he was telling the truth despite his remarks. Could it be possible that this Nao girl had some sort of a spirit that served as her guard of some sort and that this forced him to come out? Despite the amount of information that Murat provided was helpful, it still wasn't enough for Anatoly to tie things together.

Either way, continuing from what he had said, the Shaman would also add: "Also, how is it that I cannot control you? Despite us being connected with these two strings, I seem to be unable to issue any orders. Surely you have noticed it? Am I just not using enough force with you?"

”You can’t control me because your contract doesn’t have any standing. Have you even gotten it notarized?” he asked mockingly, ”There are stronger spiritual entities than you, Shaman, and appearances can be deceiving. If Miss Aoki had the courage to do so, these poor shop owners would be scraping borscht off their storefronts for weeks.”

Nao gritted her teeth at the insult on her courage. Sure, she was a coward, but that wasn’t what had held her back from fighting against him. He had frozen her in ice! It’s not like she could have worked any kido while so completely restrained, now could she?

In a furious self-righteousness, she shook her finger at the screen. She’d had it with his rudeness. ”Now look here, you-you-you-you Murat, you!” she called to the screen, stammering on her indignation, ”I tried to fight back. You have no idea wh-“

”Shut up!” a loud voice similar to Murat’s boomed through the room. She couldn’t see his lips move on the laptop. Could he hear her? ”Let me handle this. We just need to see the words to this deal and I’ll be able to spin them against him.”

Nao watched in shock as Murat sighed out some smoke. Anatoly truly hadn’t heard what he said, then? Just what was her spirit trying to play at? With a sure hand, he reached into his briefcase, withdrawing a silver quill with ornate etchings leading up from the pen point to a hawk feather. ”Now, if you’d be willing to negotiate this contract properly, we might be able to come to some sort of mutually beneficial understanding. Most Shinigami worth their salt will have contacted their spirit sometime before they’ve gotten as far as she has, and I must say the offer of partnering with someone who will actually make use of me is a tempting one. I’d just need to see this all in writing before I sign off of anything.”

Despite some rather interesting information that he was being given by Murat, those remarks of his were starting to affect Anatoly till the point where he could not just ignore them. He wasn't sure where this man was going with them but he did not like being discredited like this. Even though the contract was apparently flawed, this person was seriously underestimating what the Shaman could do. Considering he had apparently been watching and listening to what was going on before he showed up, he should have ben aware that Anatoly was quite capable of restraining others even without the influence of a binding contract. The only reason why he wasn't doing anything was because he considered Murat and Nao special and that much warranted them some leeway.

However, then Murat decided to mention how every Shinigami had a spirit inside of them and that they were even capable of communication among each other. That pretty much changed things. It was an interesting piece of information but it also meant that these two were nothing out of ordinary. The only mystery was how did his contract drag out the spirit that dwelt inside a Shinigami outside instead of making them into his loyal guardian spirit. The Spirit Guardian was usually a beast of some sort, a personification of a souls true nature. Perhaps this spirit was actually a sort of a guardian for a Shinigami, showing up when they needed him the most. In that sense, Murat did sort of fulfill a role similar to that of a Spirit Guardian. Not quite the same, but similar.

In other words, this sort of a contract might have been doomed to fail right from the start but maybe with some adjustments something could be done. In this state Murat was definitely not suitable for this, Anatoly had enough of his jokes. If he wanted to continue with this experiment, he had to shut that man up. And that was exactly what he was going to do. With a smirk appearing on his face, he would glance at the other man and add: "Alright, I will give you a contract that you cannot refuse." Just as he spoke that a cold breeze flew across them, out of one of the small alleys into another. Quite chilly despite the fact that it was summer. But that was just the beginning.

Out of a sudden, from the alleyways behind the Shaman rather dangerous gusts of wind started picking up, passing him by and heading straight for Murat. These weren't any ordinary winds however and the spirit was about to soon find out why. As their force grew, snowflakes started to form and the temperature started to quickly drop. "You remember this trick from before. Well, allow me to show you it's true form and power, Cold Wave." From a smirk to a grin, Anatoly would finally pay the other man back for the mockery. It was time to get this spirit back into the icy imprisonment from which he came out.

The howl of the wind was low at first, a mere curiosity amidst an already strange meeting. As the first gusts hit Murat, Nao felt a chill run up her spine. It wasn’t at the surprising revelation that the man was concealing a hollowed-out eye socket underneath the hair he had let dangle in front of him that caused this shiver, though. It was the familiarity. The same crushing sense of terror pressed in on her. This was just like before, only the Shaman was building up to it. That could only mean something stronger was coming his way.

”Do something! He’s going to freeze you if you don’t stop him from talking!” she cried out in a panic. The Shaman’s binding spell had been powerful when he’d used it on her, but he had clearly used some kind of speech-based magic to work the most devious parts of his plan.

”Do you have the will to actually do that something yourself?” the loud voice asked again, booming throughout the room as the display on the laptop slowed down to the speed of her thought.

She didn’t know what she could do against him, but all Murat was doing was readying the pen in his hand as if he were about to sign his name on the air. She could try any number of Bakudo she knew to restrain him or protect against the oncoming storm, but would that be enough to actually beat him back?

Responding to her dilemma, Murat’s voice reverberated through her again. ”Tick tock, what’s it gonna be Miss Aoki?”

On the monitor, she could see the beginnings of frost creeping up the street poles. This was going to be a stronger blast than she’d faced before, yet she had no idea how to stop it. The wind was closing in from all directions, and it had been enough to overwhelm her before. What chance did she have against it now?

”Insolent shaman!” an angered voice cried out on the monitor, flashing the pen across the sky in front of himself and scribbling the words ‘shield me’ in a glowing script. She’d been so paralyzed with indecision that she hadn’t realized how far the frost had crept in. ”You will now learn the true power of the letter of the law!”

As she watched, her jaw slightly agape, she saw the storefronts, street signs, and awnings bend inward. No, it wasn’t the items themselves that were bending in, it was the writing on them! Kanji ripped itself from the area around her, with neon lights, books, sidewalk instructions, and even the logos from the shredded clothes her gigai had been wearing flying in to surround Murat in a protective wall of text.

The chill wind buffeted against the word wall with the text quickly taking on the same frozen appearance she had moments before. From her vantage point, she could see her spirit grinning behind his barrier, the pen quivering slightly in his hand as the force of the blow was diverted into the nearby store fronts. As they flash froze, the weak glass protecting them shattered and covered the streets, setting off several automated alarms that lingered long after the gale force winds had quieted down.

The grin that Anatoly had would suddenly fade away as he watched street signs and all sorts of other logos fly out and form a wall in front of the other man, quickly protecting him from the cold winds. Well that was a rather interesting power, writing something with a pen and causing all sorts of objects to fulfill the written instructions. However, if that was all it could do, it wasn't actually much of a threat. At least not in Anatoly's eyes, that is. He didn't fear being attacked by everyday ordinary objects and that sounded like the worst thing such a power could do. It would be problematic if that wasn't all it could do but the Shaman hoped that he would be able to end this before that could happen. After all, he had more spells in his arsenal.

"If that's the best the letter of the law can do then I guess there really isn't much to be worried about. Let's see who wins, a natural disaster or that little pen of yours." Regaining his confidence now that he knew that he figured that there was nothing to fear, Anatoly would quickly prepare another spell just as the initial one subsided. He would stretch his right arm with an open palm aimed to the ground next to him and within a moments notice additional gusts of win would start to form. But, unlike the previous ones, these would begin to circle around and suck in everything around them. At this point a specific and easily recognizable form would begin to form and rise up, and it was not something that mere ruble and street signs were going to help guard against. Yes, it was a tornado, albeit a relatively smaller one for now.

With a single swipe of his right arm Anatoly would send the raging and swirling winds towards Murat. The speed at which the tornado moved towards the spirit was slower than the previous attack but, the distance between them was mere meters so it didn't really matter. What did matter however the fact that this tornado which was initially a few meters tall would suck in everything and rise up as it moved towards its target. The little wall which he formed would quickly shatter and have its content sucked in as well, making the large wind creation even deadlier. "Dust Tornado," Anatoly would utter, naming the spell that he had just used. It was a quite fitting name for it.

"I'll let you in on a little secret, all of the spells that I have learned are of a binding nature but, like I mentioned I was raised in Sibir where the conditions are rough so all of the spells I use are also rather rough. Despite their purpose, they can harm you." Taunting someone was usually not in Anatoly's nature but he did want to capture this person and without causing him much harm so he had hoped that this little warning and this display of power would hopefully make him give up. Well, he knew that they probably wouldn't but it was worth a shot.

”You wanna dance? Okay, we’ll dance,” Murat taunted, lifting his free hand in the air and writing the words ‘bind us’ in that same flowing penmanship with the other. At his urging, a series of large letters untangled themselves from the wall, floating by his side as he walked with a malicious grin toward Anatoly. The bulk of several awnings tied together with a slew of street signs and the letters from a large painted STOP from the crosswalk to make a sort of rope out of words as the remnants from the wall were blown away by the gathering storm. Instead of shielding himself, Murat seemed to be focusing all of his will into maintaining the cohesion of the letters in this new amalgamation, and they didn't show the slightest sign of budging from the force of the storm.

”What are you doing? You’re going to get yourself killed!” cried Nao, watching from behind the desk. It was a suicidal move, to walk straight into danger like that. Jump away, hunker down in a bigger barrier, do something. What kind of idiot walked calmly into a tornado? She felt the urge to take control rising within her, but she had no idea how she'd do that in order to stop this madman from getting both of them killed.

”He’s not going to kill himself,” the voice echoed back to her throughout the room, ”You’re not worth dying for for him.” It was a gamble, and a risky one at that. Nao could see that much, but she could also see the logic behind it. There was no way she’d ever do something so outrageously stupid, though. Gritting her teeth, she held onto the desk tightly and stared into the monitor, praying desperately that this stupid plan of her spirit's might work.

”Let’s trade secrets, Mister Anatoly. Here's mine, I’m really into rope play,” Murat rasped out in a lascivious tone as the letters tied around the two of them, binding the two men together in an excruciating tightness. No doubt he could smell Anatoly's sweat and cologne at this point, just as he could pick up the reek of cigarettes and liquor on Murat’s breath.

With a cocked eyebrow from his visible eye, he wrapped his leg around the back of Anatoly’s and gave him an entirely unnecessary squeeze in tight. There was a grin on his face as he stared into the eyes of the Russian and, in spite of herself, Nao found a slight redness coming to her cheeks from the inappropriateness of it all. ”So, how far is this dust tornado of yours going to take us? I’d just love to see Paris, darling.”

Out of all the things that that the spirit could come up with, the one with which he decided to go with was most certainly not among the ones that Anatoly has expected. Feeling confident that he had his opponent cornered, he was once more surprised by the crazy idea that Murat had came up with. As the spirit started approaching the raging winds, the Shaman figured his opponent had probably given up as he could not see him accomplishing anything else by doing something like that. Admittedly, Anatoly was rather certain in his victory so he did somewhat get his guard down, not really expecting any sort of an attack in such a situation. Oh boy was he wrong.

Street signs, blocks with graffiti and all sorts of objects that had any sort of writing on them would suddenly grab Anatoly and quickly pull him into the tornado where Murat was just waiting for him. Apparently Murat used that weird pen of his to do something crazy again as both of them were being dragged towards one another. It didn't take it soon for them to finally be stuck with one another for better or worse, in Anatoly's case it wasn't for the better. "You crazy cyka," were the first words he spoke before stopping for a moment and adding: "Did something die here or is this your natural fragrance?"

Well this was not a pleasant situation for the shaman, he most certainly wanted to get from here as soon as possible. It was most certainly the time to end this. He had enough of this man and his unpredictable and wild actions, there was no way for Anatoly to put him under control. He had wished for at least a few more answers to clear things up but apparently that wasn't going to happen. It was time to give miss Nao her body back and end this terrible contract. It certainly did not benefit either of them, she was probably shaking her head at what was going outside, her spirit hitting on a man that was seemingly their enemy. How unsightly.

Luckily, despite the fact that they were bound so tightly together he could still somewhat move his fingers and hands, just not the rest of his arms. But, that was enough for what he was about to do. Twitching his index and middle fingers back and forth as if he was inviting someone, Anatoly would start to pull the strings that were connecting them in this awful contract. It was time for a cancellation. However, before he decided to jerk them out, he would give the other man a few last words: "Well, this was fun, I hope I never see you again. It's now time for miss Nao to come back where she belongs."

And with that he would make the last pull. The mind string would quickly pop out of Murat's forehead without much of a show and quickly vanish. However, as he would pull the soul string, something odd would happen. With it, a part of the young Shinigami and her spirit's soul would be pulled out as well. Taking the form of a small spherical white orb, it would get absorbed into the Shaman together with the string. That most certainly felt strange for Anatoly, he wasn't sure how to describe that feeling but it did seem like an extra burden was added onto him. However, just as that was going on, the contract was cancelled and it was soon about time to deal with the aftereffects.

Nao clutched at the laptop in a frenzy, her eyes wide in fear as the two of them were threatened to be swept away by the storm. To be so flippant with regard to his own safety, was this what her spirit wanted from her? Wanton self-endangerment on a roll of the dice? Through gritted teeth, she cursed the madman who had taken her place, no longer able to remain seated out of a swelling anxiety.

She watched him laugh a deep, throaty laugh at the Russian when he insulted the spirit’s aroma, disgusted to see that the man was turning his mouth to deliberately breathe on her captor’s face. What the hell was he doing? Was he trying to get him to let them go or was he trying to get them both killed? He’d said it was all a ploy and she’d believed it, but where had this disgusting lewdness come from, and just what practical purpose could it possibly have?

”Dasvidaniya, loverboy,” Murat said lecherously as Anatoly started to work his magic again. Nao watched in disgust as he planted a wet kiss on the Shaman’s cheek, ”Until we meet again.”

She almost missed what came next as her vision faded from the corners. The center of her field of view was still on the laptop and she could see a small white dot coming from Murat’s forehead and popping into Anatoly. She didn’t have time to worry about this, though, as everything suddenly popped back into her vision. The deafening roar of the wind, so much louder now that she was no longer watching the laptop, quickly buffeted her and blasted away the smoky poof that had accompanied Murat’s sudden disappearance.

”Let go of me!” she shrieked in panic, trying to push away from the uncomfortable closeness Murat had left her in with Anatoly. She clumsily raised her free fist between the small amount of free space left by her smaller body and pounded it weakly against his chest, her other hand still gripping the pen behind his back.

”It’s your binding, idiot. You let it go,” that same unpleasant voice chimed in the back of her mind. Was Murat back in his office again? She glanced over her shoulder for verification and, seeing nobody, nodded to herself, remembering what he had done moments before. With a flick of the quill, she felt the text that had bound them tightening, causing her to wince in pain before she moved her wrist the other way.

With a loud clang, the mess of material that had made up the makeshift chain snapped, ricocheting off onto the nearby buildings and embedding in their walls. Nao, thrown backward by the burst, skidded to a halt just in time to feel the pen lose its shape and shift back to her tanto.

It was on uneasy legs that she stood back up, her lip bloodied and her robes scuffed, but otherwise more or less intact. The look she shot Anatoly was one of a panicked deer staring straight into a pair of oncoming headlights, unsure of which way she should bound to best escape the certain death no doubt coming at her soon.

"Gladly," Anatoly would reply with a quite large smile forming all across his face. Oh how glad he was to see Nao once more returned to her true form, leaving that awful man where he belongs. Sadly his attempt to finally gain a spirit guardian had failed but, considering what happened, he was much happier having Nao to deal with than Murat. Even if he did succeed in his intentions, he would have most certainly canceled the contract rather than having to deal with that man. He could not imagine that guy being his spirit guardian, poor Nao, she was actually stuck with that guy for life. Well, at least she did not have to smell him, that was the only good part about him not having a form and living inside of her.

Now that he was free from that annoying ability, the young Shaman would quickly cancel his spell, leaving but a few gusts of wind that would linger underneath his feet. With their help he would slowly descend towards the ground and land safely without much of a fuss. There was no need to have that thing swirling around them as he had nothing else to seal anymore. Murat was gone and all that was left was Nao who now didn't have any merit for him. He didn't need her anymore, the contract was abolished and she was clearly not the right candidate. However, as the contract was being cancelled, Murat and Nao did leave a rather nice present that he could now observe with all the fuss gone.

However, the look that the Shinigami girl sent in his direction left him a bit confused. Did she perhaps think that he had some other business with her? Apparently he had to spell it out to her. "Right, so, I think I we are done here. Clearly I got nothing else to gain from you so feel free to leave. Besides," pausing for a moment as he pulled the small spherically shaped object out of himself, and then following up with: "I feel like if I collect a few more of these I might not need a Shinigami to become my guardian, I could make one myself." The small white flowing orb like object that came out of Murat as the contract was cancelled most certainly felt like the Shinigami in front of him. Due to the nature as to how he got it, he was sure that this was a part of their soul and if he could gather more of this maybe he could do something to make this whole thing a not so failed experiment.

Before he could do that, he most certainly needed to find more Shinigami and see if there really was no way for him to turn one of them into his guardian. Perhaps using force was not the answer, maybe they needed willingly to accept the contract? At this point he wasn't sure, but at least he had a plan B! "So, if you would excuse me, I think it is time for me to go. Unless you need me for something?"

”Go? But we’re only getting started.”

She scowled at the new voice in her head. She was not going to say that. She was lucky to be walking after what he did, and she had no interest in getting hurt by him again. Still, the power he wielded was something to be reckoned with, and she wasn’t about to let the man walk away freely with whatever he had taken from her.

”Wait,” she said nervously. The street was a mess with the aftermath of their battle with alarms going off from within the shattered storefronts, torn up chunks of pavement littering the street, and kinds of random items with text on them strewn about where Murat had abandoned them or the tornado had thrown them. It looked like a disaster zone, conveniently localized entirely within this one block.

She wasn't sure what she was accomplishing by asking him to wait. Perhaps, if the mortal authorities found him, they could take care of the man for her. She'd send his accursed soul on, and nobody would have to fear the name Anatoly again. There were also Fifth Division members on patrol elsewhere in the city. It was entirely possible they might have seen the telltale signs of their battle. With any luck, one of them would be on their way right that instant. Though Nao had no interest in seeing them get hurt by the man either, she couldn’t let him leave and keep doing this in the shadows. If she had to sacrifice herself so his attention would be drawn to her long enough for someone else to intercede, so be it.

”Why are you doing this? Why do you need a guardian?” she asked, weakly getting to her feet and walking forward a few steps, her tanto still drawn in her slightly shaking hand as she tried to pose what little threat she could, ”What could you possibly need protecting from. We’re supposed to be your protection.”

Wait? That was the last word Anatoly expected to hear from that girl and yet it actually escaped her shaking lips. He wasn't serious when he asked her if she needed him for something else and yet apparently she thought he was. How did she even muster the courage to even say that or to approach him shaking like that? She most certainly was out of her mind, Murat wasn't there anymore to bail her out and yet she decided to try and do something on her own. Did she really want what he stole from her back? Even if it meant actually risking her life for it? Apparently she was.

However, what followed was what somewhat irritated the Shaman. She asked a particular question and repeated a statement that warranted a reply from him. He wasn't going to stick around but now that she went there, she was most certainly getting what she asked for. Turning around and facing her once more, he would reply: "After what happened here, do you really think I need protection from you?" Putting the emphasis on the last word he spoke, Anatoly most certainly wasn't sparing the girl, the mere thought of her thinking that she was capable of protecting someone was most certainly an insult to him. But he wouldn't stop there, somewhat rising his voice, he would make a follow up statement. "I don't think you can protect anyone the way you are now. Now that I am done here with you, other Shinigami might get hurt and there is nothing you can do."

Yep, no mercy there. She chose this battle and he was not giving her the win. If she thought that she could provoke him like that, she should have been ready for the incoming heat. However, in all due honesty, from what Anatoly got to know about her, she wasn't the provoking type and all of this was probably because of her naivety. Murat was the provocative one, perhaps he had some influence on it. Either way, whatever the cause, the Shaman did not care, he did not like being sidetracked like this. He had no intention of hurting her, but he also did not want her to follow him so he had to do something. Her role in his plans was done so it was time to say good bye.

Rising his right hand towards the night sky and opening his palm, he would briefly glance towards the sky mumbling a few words before looking back towards her with a smirk. It was time for her farewell gift. "If you manage to escape from this, you might have some potential. So, do your best." And as he said that, droplets of what could be described as rain would begin to fall over and around the young Shinigami girl. In a matter of seconds, their quantity and speed would rapidly increase and if at any point Nao dared to look up she would notice a large stream of water crashing on top of where she was with the force of a waterfall. He had truly done it, using his strongest bind on the poor girl that couldn't even hold her weapon without shaking. Designed to drop large quantities of water on top of it's target, it was a spell that was most certainly going to keep someone from moving or doing much at all, even resulting with the target drowning in some cases.

Well, hopefully Nao would find a way out. Anatoly most certainly did not care either way, as soon as he said what he wanted to say, he would turn around and walk away. He was done here.

It hurt more than it should have to hear him say that. Yet somehow, the man who had been literally torturing her mere seconds ago managed to find the words necessary to make her feel more worthless than anything her supervisor had been able to leverage against her over years of belittling and poor performance reviews. She had been talking about Shinigami in general when she told him that he had protection already, but he’d managed to make it personal and remind her of just what a waste of space she was.

He was right, Nao realized. She deserved to be crushed under that water. They could find someone from the Academy to fill her spot. Really, her position should be a rotating one like the rest in her office. What kind of Shinigami was she to have wasted her entire time among the ranks of the Gotei filing paperwork? At least they’d have someone worthy of the office soon enough. She moved her arms apart, welcoming the peaceful oblivion with her eyes closed.

”Giving up so soon?”

Her eyes shot back open and Nao discovered that she wasn’t on the sidewalk in Japan anymore. She was back in that office again, only this time she wasn’t alone. Murat, running a comb through his hair and still smoking that cigarette from before, was seated across from her behind his desk. ”What happened to stopping him?” he asked, sliding the cigarette to the side of his lips so he could continue to smoke and talk at the same time.

”I tried. I can’t stop that,” she replied, dejected. She’d been a failure through and through. She’d let Anatoly deceive her, trap her, and steal something from her. Even her last attempt to get him to stop so someone else could do something was for naught. She held her head in shame, looking down at his desk and feeling tears welling up in her eyes.

”No, you can’t,” her spirit replied bluntly. She looked up from her sadness, a twinge of anger threatening to push its way to the surface. Was this really her spirit? A lazy, lecherous asshole whose provocation had pushed Anatoly to try to kill her just for asking a simply question? Who was the kind woman she’d dreamed of? Where was the loving and guiding hand that was supposed to help her better herself? She wanted to slap that stupid cigarette out of his stupid mouth.

”You can’t stop him alone, I should say,” the man continued, sighing out a puff of smoke into her face and stinging her eyes even more than her tears had. She watched in confusion as he leaned back and looked up at the slow moving ceiling fan, seemingly thinking.

”You know you’re supposed to deserve this, right?" he asked, finally pulling the cigarette out of his mouth with a little smile, ”Didn’t your instructors tell you that? You’re supposed to sit under a tree or a waterfall or mediate on me for months or years or however long it takes to get me to help your sorry ass."

That set her off even more. She had done that. She’d spent countless days following the guidance she’d been given for talking to her spirit. It was an embarrassment to be a Shinigami for so long and to not have heard that voice once, and her supervisor had assigned her strict requirements to show continuous progress to that point. As memories of those exercises came back to her, she snapped back to the reality inside her dream at the sound of Murat cough-laughing.

It took him a moment to calm back down, during which Nao wondered about if the water had already fallen and crushed her and if this was what happened to a Shinigami if they died. Was she trapped with this bastard forever now? It didn’t match up with anything she knew about the cycle, but surely the waterfall must have landed by now. ”Well I guess they fucking lied, didn’t they?” he rudely snorted out as his coughing subsided.

Finally calmed down, he took the cigarette clasped between his index and middle fingers and used it to point across the table to her. ”Inin-jō. that’s what you need to say if you need some extra oomph. Just don’t go telling your boss I handed it over like that unless you’re following it up by giving out one hell of a papercut. That dickweed is bound to shackle you to your desk if it’s possible that you being in danger is how they loses their paperwork bitch. It’s not, by the way. Just use your fucking head and fudge the report for both our sakes.”

”What?” she asked, blinking in disbelief at the man in front of her. He’d just unloaded so much information on her. She shook her head, not sure of what to say. She wasn’t sure if she should thank him, ask him what had changed that he was willing to share this with her, or reprimand him for calling her supervising officer a dickweed and telling her to falsify her reports.

She finally resolved on a mix of all four only to have her vision suddenly shift back to the same upward glance she’d had before she appeared in his office. The statement she had planned died in her throat as her grip tightened on the tanto in her hand. Her motions were clumsy, her speech cracked, her knees barely able to keep her standing, but Nao managed to pull her blade up and call out to the heavens. ”Inin-jō, Murat!”

In a split second, the tanto had transformed itself into the quill again. Thankfully, she’d seen him use it before and, with a nervous flick of her wrist, she scrawled out the word ramp in the air. It took quite a toll on her, way more than Murat had been letting on when he’d been facing Anatoly, but she was able to hold her ground weakly as she watched the remnants of the wall he had used combine with the shed binding that had trapped her with Anatoly moments before, forming a wide incline pointing straight at where Anatoly had been moments before.

Seconds later, a giant thud came from the ramp over her head. She could see it splashing over the sides and slipping through a handful of cracks, but the sounds of rapidly rushing water made it clear that the bulk of the force followed the track she had laid down toward her foe. She held her quill in place until the rushing sound subsided, unsure if she needed to will the ramp into existing or if it hold its own. Finally, confident that the torrent had stopped, she peeked out around the side.

Anatoly was nowhere to be seen. Whether he got away before or was swept away by the water she did not know. A sickening feeling told her that, if he had that kind of command over the elements, he almost certainly had a means to escape his own powers. He was almost certainly still out there somewhere, still planning on attacking other spirits in an attempt to enslave them. For all she knew, that last attack was an attempt by him to test her. He had said that it would demonstrate her potential.

He had also clearly said he was going to hurt other Shinigami and that she couldn’t stop him. Glancing down at the quill, she weighed it in her palm. A tiny smile appeared on her lips as she lifted it again, knowing that she did, in fact, have something she could do. After quickly writing out the word restore, she finally fell to her knees under the spiritual weight of maintaining her newfound power. Still, though she was beaten down by a growing weakness, she kept the quill in the air and watched as everything that she and Murat had used in their fight found its way back to its original place, albeit considerably more damp than it had originally been. Once she had finished making the cleanup team’s job easier, she looked back at her quill just in time to see it shift back to its tanto form.

”You know, if you want to use that to get through your work quickly, no one would be the wiser,” Murat’s voice echoed in her head as she picked herself back up and started trying to get a communication back to the Seireitei requesting extraction. The idea that she would cheat to look better at her job or that that was the first thought on her spirit’s mind as she tried to orchestrate someone to cover for the damages caused, retrieve her broken Gigai, and ensure her safe arrival home brought an immediate irritation back to her mind, almost overpowering the joy she had from finally completing her Shikai after decades of struggling in vain. Thankfully, she had enough things to be busy with to pretend she hadn’t heard him.

It was really the least she could do after he left her waiting so damn long.

\\END