damned_institute | Day 26 Nightshift: F11-20 Hallway

Momo smiled softly as Hokuto assumed the cymbal was to be used as a projectile. It certainly could but that wasn't its best purpose here. "I meant for it to be used as a melee weapon, Sumeragi-san."

The shinigami drew in a deep breath and brought Hokuto's spirit threads into view. She nodded to herself as they clearly spoke of Hokuto as a living human girl. She memorized their pattern and how they felt in case she needed to track the girl at a later date. She then let the threads drift out of focus.

"Thank you," Momo said, switching to her native Japanese language with the girl. "And yes, I am the HM from the boards. Though, my dear, you may have died, but here you are very much alive. If you were dead, I'd be able to see it."

"Either way, I'd feel better if it was sharpened!" She'd seen stranger things used in movies, but that was a little different.

Being informed yet again that she was still alive here made her smile, just a little sadly. "Yeah... I just thought something that major would leave a mark," she said dryly. Finding none on her body and none on her soul confused her a little.

Momo put a warm hand on Hokuto's shoulder and met the sad smile with one of her own. She knew she should be sporting a scar from Aizen's sword but unless she could extract herself from the damnable gigai she was trapped in, she wouldn't be able to tell.

"This place does not follow any form of real structure and our captors are powerful," she said quietly. "I am shinigami and they have managed to trap me in a body of flesh and limited my reiatsu to less than 10%. What you have known cannot really apply here. I am sorry you awoke here after experiencing your death." She rubbed the girl's arm a little. "I wish your konso had been pleasant."

Hokuto tried to brighten her smile a little; she didn't want to worry anyone, and she was okay, really. "I told you--at least I get to hold onto myself here, and I don't think it's the same hell everyone else does. I miss my brother, but..." Okay, no more of that topic. Nighttime was not the time to give into the tears she did still want to shed.

Especially since if she really got going, she was kind of afraid she'd never stop crying.

"So, I know we're not from the same world, but--once we're out of here, how could I became a shinigami?" Of course she wasn't just changing the subject! "I was planning on something else, but that's probably going to have to wait." If she was a shinigami, she could wait for Subaru instead of moving on before he could join her. And after he did--if he wasn't too powerful for it to work, maybe they could be partners. It wouldn't be peaceful, but it would give them more time together. She wanted that more than anything.

"Shh..." Momo said, her caring nature coming out as it was clear Hokuto needed someone. The shinigami may be young by the standards of Soul Society, but she was practically ancient to the wonderful short-lived humans. She put a hand to Hokuto's cheek and stroked her thumb gently across it as the girl seemed like she was going to cry.

So young and human, yet so much like the broken shinigami that cared too much.

"Should you find yourself in Rukongai, you can apply to the shinigami academy once your reiatsu reaches a certain strength. The time that takes varies for each spirit. The academy lasts six years and once you graduate, you are placed in one of the divisions of the Gotei 13. I am vice captain of the 5th Division," she replied. "The shinigami academy is very, very hard. Few ever reach their fourth year."

The shinigami gave Hokuto a smile. "When this place has finally been destroyed, I will venture to Rukongai and look for you."

Hokuto closed her eyes for a second, clearing her mind as best she could while staying alert, to keep herself calm. "I'm not afraid of hard work," she said softly. Learning all she had about the Sakurazukamori to track Sei-chan down had taken a lot of effort, and for reasons beyond that was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do--or ever would do.

Looking at Momo again, she said lightly, "Then I'll have to prepare as much as I can while I wait. If any library on Earth would have anything to study..." While she was here, she could keep studying martial arts, at least, and gain at least some kind of power that way.

She needed to keep busy, and she could at least occupy herself with things that would help her along the path she was on now.

Momo's smiled fondly; she liked the girl. "Libraries will not help you, Hokuto-chan. Meditation, self-awareness and knowing your heart," the shinigami said as she moved her hand from the girl's cheek to lightly point to the girl's heart, "are what you need. Find a sense of balance and you will be all the more stronger for it."

Momo dropped her hand and smiled. "But have fun while you're at it. Experience all you can. No matter what anyone tells you, emotion should never be curbed. It just needs to be directed where it is useful."

Hokuto smiled back, more genuinely this time. "I know. I couldn't meditate all the time, anyway--being completely and utterly at peace gets boring after a few days. Give me a mall any day." She shook her head ruefully. "I'm gonna go crazy for real just staring at the same walls day after day for months or years on end!"

She really did feel better--it sounded like the path to her new goal was pretty much the one she was already on. Reading up on various legends might not even help; who knew how much got distorted over the centuries?

She wasn't all that powerful, but--then again, look at who she'd been comparing herself to. Subaru. Their grandmother. Seishirou. Compared to the average person, she might not have that far to go before she qualified for shinigami training.

I wonder what the student uniform looks like?

Momo tilted her head a moment. "Mall?" What was a mall? Then she thought better of it. "Umm... never mind. It's not important," she added on.

She listened a bit longer to what Hokuto was saying and her smile disappeared. She gently, but firmly, took the girl's chin in her hand to stop her from shaking it. "Look at me," she commanded, leaning forward a little to get a better lock on the girl's eyes, not really noticing the girl being taller than her.

"We will not be here months or years. You will not be staring at the same walls for that long. It will not happen," she said with a powerfully quiet voice. "You will be released from here, even if it brings about my death. Do you understand?"

Hokuto blinked, wondering where exactly that had come from. "That's supposed to be my line," she finally commented. "I already gave up my life once--if I have to, it won't be as hard to do it again." Dying didn't even hurt that much, not really. The hard part was all emotional.

And if they were here for a long time... again, it was okay. There were people here to befriend, people who needed support. She did too, but they could help each other. If she had her moments of hating the building, its grounds, its staff, and everything else, it happened. Somehow or other, she would cope, with the help of her friends.

...it would also be nice if she finally got laid, but that was another matter, and probably not one to bring up right now!

Momo did not let go of the girl, seeming not to notice the small blush on Hokuto's face. "No it's not," she said again in that quiet powerful voice. "You are a living, breathing human here and that places you under my care. it is my duty to protect you and see you safely out of this place, no matter what happens. I am shinigami; I am Death."

Her eyes softened from the determined coals they had been and she smiled. "Besides, I happen to like you. I'd be sad if you died." And with that she finally released the girl's chin and took a step back.

"As long as you are on my team, I am your commanding officer. Trust in the experience you will find in this particular team. If you are told to run, you run and find someplace safe to hide. It doesn't matter where, I will find you." She chuckled a little, trying to lighten things a little. "Do I have to worry about you trying to be all heroic on me and disobey orders?"

Hokuto backed up a step and bowed again, this time trying to keep a straight face. "I am at your command, Hinamori-fukutaicho," she murmured in what was hopefully the properly respectful tone--she was trying not to giggle.

Heroic? Her? ...probably. "That depends on the orders, m'lady," she admitted finally. "I don't leave friends behind like that." Her girlfriend could attest to that--even if Hokuto had left her behind when she died. In life, though, she'd always watched out for her, and would have kept on doing so if she could have.

For a moment, Momo puzzled over the term m'lady, having never heard of it before. Was this another human thing she didn't quite understand? She decided to leave it be and possibly ask Signum if she had any idea what it meant. The woman was three thousand years old - she'd have to have heard it before. Regardless, it was in a respectful tone and that was good enough for her. Except...

"Hey!" The shinigami's semi-strict-ish demeanor abruptly disappeared. "You're laughing at me," she said with incredulity. She pouted slightly and huffed. "Stop making fun of your elders," she finally said, sounding surprisingly a lot like Hitsugaya.

Hokuto looked up, still smiling faintly. "Sorry--I'm not used to having a superior officer. I guess I'll have to get used to it."

Although the thought in itself--that she, Sumeragi Hokuto, even had a superior officer--was a little mind-boggling. Fate had surprised her again, to say the least... from fairly normal high school student with plans to be a housewife, to imprisoned teenager on the path to become a shinigami.

She wondered if she dared ask if many of the gods found the antics of mortals to be nothing short of absolutely hilarious.

Momo attempted a glare at Hokuto and failed miserably. She really couldn't glare at the girl. Not used to having a superior officer... that would take the shinigami a little to get used to dealing with. Yes, she got new shinigami in her division every year, but the discipline and sense of duty is well-ingrained into all graduates by then and she never had to worry about it.

Signum said she was in charge of two cadets back on Midchilda. Maybe she'd have a better sense of how to get Hokuto to listen to orders. Which reminded her that she needed to set the chain of command for the team up properly before Hokuto go the extremely stupid idea of trying to tell Signum what to do.

"Hokuto-chan," Momo said. "The other in out team is Signum. She is taller than us both with very long pink hair. She is a knight and rather stoic at times. Her battle experience and decisions are not to be questioned, either. If something happens to me, she becomes the commander of this team. Treat her with due respect as she is second in command in this team."

Momo then grinned a bit mischievously and leaned toward Hokuto. "But she really is too serious sometimes. Try to get her to stop being all serious-face at some point tonight," she whispered in a conspiring tone. She stood back up and winked at the girl. Unfortunately for Signum, Momo really had taken to the knight.

She snapped off a salute. "Understood!" Hokuto wasn't surprised at all to be told the other person had more experience; she hoped they wouldn't end up feeling like they were baby-sitting the new recruit. Well, she was technically new, but she'd been fighting for years--even if it was never anything as serious as this, until recently.

She knew more than enough to hope they didn't see battle tonight--but if they did, she would prove herself. And they didn't have to worry--she knew better than to question orders, and now she knew better than to try giving them.

Of course, when they finally did have a battle--and it would happen, sooner or later--they'd see how she really reacted under fire. When she'd gone up against Seishirou, she'd been alone, and she had not been intending to walk away afterwards.

Momo giggled and ruffled Hokuto's hair. Anyone in the hallway might ahve found that sight terribly amusing or bizarre, but the thought never crossed the shinigami's mind.

"Signum should be here any moment," she said and leaned back against the wall.

And that's when it happened. The sudden pressure that swept over her. She was thankful she was leaning against the wall as she might have been dropped to her knees when it rolled over her.

"Ichimaru," Momo suddenly said in a barely audible tone that failed to cover for the way she'd said it - pure, unabashed and unchallenged hatred.

She adjusted to the presence of Gin's full reiatsu quickly and immunized herself to the crushing feeling of despair; it was nothing compared to what she'd felt when Aizen's sword pierced her. Ichimaru would die. She'd see him to his death, not caring one bit that her own life would be taken as well. And in here, Kira wasn't around to stop her.

It was as if Hokuto didn't exist anymore - Momo had forgotten about her in the rush of the reiatsu. Her face became that of Death as she drew her katana and looked down the hall where she concentrated on the Ichimaru's spirit threads. She was almost positive he was in the Sun Room, going off of the intercom, but she wanted to be certain.

Hokuto had been in a reasonably good mood, so when the air started pressing down on them so much it was almost hard to breathe, she was almost sure it wasn't her own depression. "What the--?" she muttered, shaking her head and trying to clear it. This was new...

Her first thought when she saw Momo's reaction was to grab her arm, but managed to remember the whole "commanding officer" thing. "Hinamori-fukutaicho! What's going on?" This was bad... she had little doubt the Institute was behind this, and was fully expecting to pass out shortly. Not good.

He was most certainly in the Sun Room. Momo had traced Ichimaru's threads far enough to know that was where they headed. And the intercom's words were so crystal clear now that she knew they meant Gin. How had she not figured it out sooner? Now she knew where their deaths would be.

The shinigami took a step down the hall when Hokuto's voice reached her, calling out to her for guidance and help. She stopped suddenly and turned to look at the girl. Seeing the state she was in shattered the mask of death she'd been wearing.

Her eyes widened and she returned the katana to her side. She moved to support Hokuto who was obviously having a hard time with the spiritual pressure. Momo had forgotten her and that was inexcusable. if it had almost dropped her to her knees and she knew that reiatsu having been in the same division with Gin for many years, she could only imagine what it felt like to a human.

Momo allowed the girl to use her as she needed to keep upright. "I'm so sorry," she said. "I... have no excuse."

She'd just been about to leave the human alone in these halls at night, disregard her duty and orders to go kill Ichimaru, to satisfy her desire to rip his life from him just as her's had been taken. Momo did not normally think thoughts of vengeance and murder, except when it came to Gin.

"Are you alright?" she asked as she shot a look down the hall wondering just where Signum was. As she waited for a response from Hokuto, Momo searched out Hitsugaya's spirit threads as well as Rangiku and Renji. All three were in route to the Sun Room.

With a shuttering breath and the intense desire to beat them there and rend Ichimaru into pieces, tasing sweet, sweet revenge, her muscles coiled and her body shook slightly as she held herself back.

Lead with your head for once, Momo, ad not with your heart, she told herself. Don't be dumb.

[[From F21-F30 Hall. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/186235.html?view=12939387#t12939387)]]

"Hinamori." Signum's voice cut through the tense air as she approached the two. If she'd been cautious leaving her room, the impression was doubled now; her stride was slow and careful and her eyes tracked carefully from side to side. The air itself felt charged, alive... and hostile, like it was trying to tear down her will. It was nothing compared to what had happened last night, but...

"Do you know what that is?" she asked, feeling the 'what' in this case to be completely obvious. The field she was sensing wasn't just affecting her. The other girl with Hinamori- Hokuto, she assumed- looked like she was on the verge of collapse, and Momo...

Looked angry. Signum's eye's sharpened, anticipating the answer to her question.

Hokuto forced herself to be as calm as she could be; no matter how it felt, she was getting plenty of air. She accepted the support from her vice-captain for a moment (what a great first impression I must be giving), but then stepped away to stand on her own; she was okay. She was okay. She had to be. "I'm fine." She was at least glad that her voice came out strong.

She looked over when she heard a new voice; that would be Signum. "Good evening," she said, just a little dryly. "Signum...dono?" She wasn't certain which honorific she should use. Technically none, she supposed, since the woman clearly wasn't Japanese, but even with her magical English fluency she didn't know what other title to use. "I'm Sumeragi Hokuto. Pleased to meet you." She bowed, as politely as she knew how; if she was supposed to go down on one knee instead of this, well, they'd have to tell her that.

The shinigami was glad Hokuto seemed to be adjusting to the reiatsu, finally standing on her own, but Momo kept a hand lightly on the girl just in case and snapped her eyes over at Signum.

"You're late," she said very quietly and very unlike her, the desire to deal death visible in her eyes.

As Hokuto took it upon herself for introductions, Momo's gaze moved to look at the east wall, in the direction of the Sun Room. She was paying attention to the various reiatsu she could sense, so when Renji went down, she felt his disappear. The muscle along Momo's jaw twitched and her eyes hardened with the hatred. He took Renji from her, who would be next?

She decided to finally answer Signum's question since Hokuto had finished speaking. "What you are feeling is the reiatsu of a shinigami no longer bound by the restrictions this prison puts on us," she said in a deadly quiet voice, though her body still quaked with anger. She looked over at Signum.

"It's Ichimaru," she snarled. The shinigami stalked past the knight, heading down the hall, and then forced herself to stop. She clenched her fists and stood there, back to her team, as she tried to control herself.

Lead with your head, idiot.

"My apologies," Signum replied, somewhat less-than-contritely. She hadn't hurried, but she hadn't been dawdling either. She would apologize for the others' inconvenience, but not for her own actions. Besides, she was more interested in the reply.

But Hokuto spoke first, paying her awkward respects. What had Momo told her? "Signum is fine." She had none of her authority as an officer of the TSA here... and as a knight the respect owed to her wasn't one that required titles and obeisances from civilians.

That was all the reply the girl got; Momo's answer took priority. The betrayer she'd mentioned, with all his powers... she was a bit curious to see them, but the source of the oppressive power that filled the air around them wasn't something she wanted to go up against without Laevateinn. Momo though, she became convinced as the girl drove past her and then drew to a rigid halt, wasn't thinking so clearly.

She drew drew up behind the girl and spoke, low enough that Hokuto should not be able to hear. "I won't tell you what to do, but I demand that you decide. I won't follow while you are ruled by indecision. And I expect that you will remember where you are and what you are doing."

"Hinamori-fukutaicho..." Hokuto hesitated, still unsure of her place. She wasn't allowed to give orders, but were suggestions allowed? Well, she didn't see why not. "I don't think we have time for that. The nights are only so long, and we've got supplies to collect. The gardener's shed isn't very close to here, I don't think, and there's probably going to be a lot of monsters in the way."

She stopped just short of saying that they had to remember their priorities, but the implication was probably clear enough. She'd spoken as respectfully as possible, and simply stated her opinion. If Momo insisted on taking a detour... well, she'd have to obey her commanding officer.

She understood why taking a vote was beyond impractical in battle situations, but this was the downside of obeying a single leader...

Momo ignored Hokuto's words as she stared down the hallway. They were things she already knew, but were being overpowered by her want for Ichimaru's blood. Rukia's reiatsu dropped to a dangerous level and the shinigami tensed up even more. They were all being taken down and here she was staying in place while Ichimaru continued what he'd been doing in Soul Society.

Signum's words, though, pushed through the red the shinigami was seeing. She wasn't sure what exactly it was about the knight's words that struck her so. Perhaps it was due to the memory of their first conversation about commanders and soldiers. Maybe it was the implication that if the shinigami went to carry out her vengeance, Signum would be there right beside her. And find her death there.

Slowly, Momo's hands relaxed and she drew in a deep breath. "A commander's personal vendetta does nothing but get him and his men killed," she said in a matching low tone to Signum, reciting words she'd been taught to remember when she'd first become a seated officer. "If I start to lead us to the Sun Room or you see red death in my eyes, please remind me of what I just said."

She took another deep breath. "I'm sorry I snapped at you," she said apologetically.

One moment longer as the shinigami rolled her shoulders to release some of the tension before she turned around. She was collected and under control, barely, and she'd stopped shaking with anger. She tried to soften her expression, achieving it everywhere but her eyes which still held a hard edge though no longer seeking death.

"We are continuing with our mission," she said without a waver in her voice. "First we must make a quick stop in the Men's Block."

Day 26 Nightshift: F11-20 Hallway

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)