[Japan] Kagamino City

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Kagamino City (鏡野市 (かがみのし), Kagamino-shi) is a population center of unknown size located in Japan in the Human World. It is situated 22 km east of Karakura Town.

A few hours after dusk, a young male with long and messy black hair stood in the skies above Kagamino City. He wore the garbs of a student within the Soul Society's academy for upcoming Shinigami. He seemed to be surveying the area with his eyes, as well as his ability to sense Reiatsu. Multiple ribbons had materialized around his person. Many of them were white, signifying human souls. About half a dozen of them were red; these were linked to the souls of himself and other Shinigami around the city. What he was specifically looking for, was something he found and traced to its source in due time. Among these threads was a single black thread, belonging to the soul of a Hollow. Upon finding it, the young man grabbed it with his right hand, while using his left fore and middle fingers to point in the direction of its source. Apparently, this individual - with his seemingly high sensory capabilities - was currently acting as a conductor of some sort.

With this young man were several others, including a red haired girl in the red and white themed version of the same outfit he was wearing. She had a single katana tucked into the side of her waistband and unlike others, had slipped her arms out of the sleeves of the top so it hung over her hips and hakama. She had a look at this black haired young man and seemed to understand at least what he was doing. 'Hmm, I'll have to get him to show me how to do that sometime,' thought the redhead, but before she could say anything about it, a small green haired girl dressed in black and white seemed stunned. "Sugoi, Nomura-kun, that's a really advanced technique," said the young woman, who seemed to be really impressed. She had with her a device which would allow her to track the Hollow, but it seemed this group came equipped with someone with high enough sensory capabilities that it was unnecessary. "Alright everyone, it's time to go, be careful," said the green haired young woman, but instead of being anything close to careful the young redhead took off at a run hopping towards the direction the black haired young man had pointed, offering a gentle tap to his left shoulder as she passed him. "Nice job, Dai-kun~"

With the Hollow's location pinpointed, the young man narrowed his eyes to focus on the area it inhabited. It was on its way out of a dark alleyway, chasing down the spirit of a human recently murdered there. As the redhead passed him by and tapped his shoulder, the student named Daiki spoke. "Hai. Ikeike!" he said. After she passed, though, Daiki got a decent look at this human soul's thread. It was tainted, and graying as he watched. This caused the young man's eyes to widen. 'No! How short was his chain!?' Without any hesitation after realizing what this dimming thread meant, Daiki called out to the redhead once more. "Oi! Encroachment is finishing!"

Benihime didn't have to be told twice. Soon she would be on her way to the opening of an alley where a human soul was being chased out and a hollow was following it. There was a smirk on the girl's face, right before her body took off with the initial plan of killing the hollow, there was a comment from Daiki about the nature of the human soul which was being chased down by the beast. Her eyes darted around the area and she made a snap decision, a flip off the top of the building would occur and while she did this she drew her sword with her left hand, landing before the soul in the crouched position. The black blade of her weapon gleamed only for a second as the end of the hilt would tap against the forehead of the individual as she stood. "None of that, to the other side with you," the young woman said. A seal would appear on the forehead of this individual as it was stopped from its hollowfying process and sent to the Soul Society. As the soul disappeared from before her she drew her weapon the rest of the way and rammed it backwards into the hollow before looking up at it and aiming to drag the blade up and through its mask cleansing it of its sins.

Benihime was capable enough to handle the Hollowfying soul, as well as the Hollow itself. As such, Daiki was free to continue as he was. A steady watch on the threads around him kept him aware of other Hollows entering the radius of his sensing ability, which seemed to span the entire city. As they appeared here and there, he called out to the Gotei 13 member among their group, leaving her the ability to dispatch the others as necessary while his work continued. "Midorima-san! Two weaker Hollows fifteen meters west! Strong Hollow twenty-seven meters Southwest!"

A quick flick of Benihime's weapon and she was sheathing it, intending to head back to Daiki as he seemed to be busy sending the rest of the group off. it was mentioned that there were a couple of weaker hollows as well in this area, and as such the young green haired woman named Midorima nodded to the three weaker individuals of the group. "You three handle the weaker hollows, I'll go after the stronger ones. Stay together and remember your training and you'll be fine." she said to the trio who soon jumped off together seeming to need each other. Meanwhile the green haired young woman jumped off as well. "I'll handle the other one, I'll be back soon." she said to Daiki. Soon after Benihime was joining him once more. "Dai-kun got something else for me?" she questioned her hand resting on he hilt of her weapon as she leaned on it apparently a bit bored by this experience.

"Hai," Daiki said to the division-member present. He continued to keep watch thereafter, soon being rejoined by the redhead, Benihime. She seemed mildly disinterested in the goings-on of this event, and for all intents and purposes, she had every right to be. He wasn't registering any of these listed Hollows as much of a threat, bar one, which he had actually gone without mentioning in foresight of this very moment. "I saved the best for last, actually. The strongest Hollow is about forty meters east, far from the rest. Go. I'm having enough fun doing this."

After landing, it was explained that Daiki had saved another likely more challenging endeavor for her. A smile crossed the young woman's face as she turned east and prepared for the next jump. "Hai hai, arigatou gozaimasu~" the young woman then jumped away headed east at a fairly fast pace. Soon enough she found a hollow crawling along the ground. It was a bit like a reptile with scales and a sleek body but rather low to the ground. Those short legs made her chuckle. "Aww, couldn't get out as far as the rest of them~" she teased as she hopped down towards the ground and began to draw her weapon. "Foolish shinigami! Soon you'll join the rest~" it said before it opened its mouth and lobbed a bit of poison at the young woman. Benihime immediately shifted her body to the left of the glob and watched as it began to melt through the side of the building a bit shocked.

"Alright, never seen that before... lobbing poison at people. On a scale of things I've seen so far, that is fairly high." she said complimenting the beast as it moved its stout body forward as fast as it could aiming to get a more direct bit of contact it swiped with its fore claws at the young woman who hopped up into the sky. "Points for trying and all but... sorry~" she said, the hop upwards soon turned into a spinning back flip which would allow the young woman to draw her weapon. She then created a reishi platform against the sky, which she used to bounce herself off of, and towards this beast's mask with her now drawn black blade which she aimed to ram directly into this things head. And though it had turned around this seemed to be accounted for as the young woman came down and skewered its face cutting cleaning through the mask she twisted her body bouncing off the top of the beast to land in front of it and begin sheathing her weapon. "Okay, that one wasn't bad~" she said to herself as her weapon clicked back into the sheath.

All the Hollows that had been detected were being dealt with, one by one. Having found no more, Daiki straightened his posture and sighed. He then took off in a quick flash step toward Benihime. He made footfall soon after her target was slain, stopping with his left hand resting atop the hilt of his sheathed Asauchi. "Six months down, still nothing of interest. They really expect people to do this for six years? I couldn't be happier that we've already been nominated for an early graduation."

Benihime's eyes shifted to where Daiki had stopped his hand resting atop the hilt of his weapon. She turned to face him seemingly relaxed. This entire situation was indeed tedious and now that she knew they'd be graduating early she couldn't say she would have enjoyed staying in longer than that. "Well, that isn't entirely true, I've learned that hollows can spit corrosive poison. That's pretty interesting~" she said with a bit of a chuckle. Though admittedly given how far ahead of this class she already was, she couldn't really say that she didn't understand why the length of these classes were necessary. "Well, you have to realize most people aren't as good as you. It will likely take a great number of people the full six years to figure out what you already know. Besides that... everything is a bit slower paced that way, gives everyone a chance to specialize and weed out the particularly bad ones," she said, thinking about it more. "To be honest, I'd intended to coast my way through six years with a bit of amusement right in the middle somewhere, but I also didn't know it was possible to leave early, knowing that, I am also glad. I'd be bored to death otherwise," the girl mentioned.

"Corrosive poison?" he asked, seemingly interested in Benihime's most recent kill. To say the least, this was something he had also yet to see in a Hollow, though he knew many came with acidic touches and the like. As Benihime went on to speak her mind about the length of expected stays in the academy, Daiki could only shrug. As talented as people like himself and Benihime were among their peers, he supposed he could see it taking others longer to develop. Six years, though, was still a bit of a stretch in his mind. "Early graduations happen every once in a while, usually by the influence of the noble families. Even so, they rarely happen within a year, and I believe the first time there were more than one graduates in the first year... was last year, with one of the students finishing their course before the year was even over."

"Hai, that Hollow looked like a lizard or something. Really short legs, but very sleek body. It spit poison at me, landed on that building right there..." she said pointing to the crumbling wall which had a hole in it now big enough to walk through and was still sizzling. "Probably some sort of development meant to help it out, since it couldn't move as fast as the others," she said, figuring such an idea was the most likely considering what she'd seen of hollows on these little excursions. As their conversation progressed it seemed that they were among rare and curious company made even more interesting by the simple fact that they'd been a pair of people to do it. "Hmm, that is pretty strange. From what I heard, first year graduations by merit were exceedingly rare, which is why I expected to be in it for the long haul, but..." she thought about it a bit more. "It's a bit more exciting this way, plus that makes these last couple of years way more interesting than their predecessors~" she said with a bit of a restlessness. "Though I still haven't thought about what division to join..." she said her bottom lip poking out just a bit. She'd originally planned to be out of here much later than six months from now, so she hadn't even started thinking about what she actually wanted to do.

Daiki's attention was drawn toward a building, which now harbored a hole made from the Hollow's acidic saliva. "Wow. That one probably would have been dangerous after a few more meals," he said. With that, though, he no longer cared much for the Hollow and its abilities. His concern now was a topic raised by Benihime; that being the choice of divisions to apply to after graduation. "I'm in the same boat. I was approached by the Kidou Corps last week, but what Kumori-Fukutaichou had to say about them still has me bothered. Besides, they are incredibly secretive, and I don't know what to expect. Midorima-san seems lovely. I might consider applying to the 13th. Do you have any ideas, at least?"

"Hai, kind of a shame actually, might have been worth the trouble after a few more meals~" she said, it seemed a bit like the girl was looking for something more challenging. But given how she'd spent the last five decades of her life that was likely to be expected. She was used to having both a certain amount of freedom and a certain amount of amusement. She was at least getting the latter dealing with Daiki, but... the other she likely wouldn't have again in a way she was used to. As they moved on to potential divisions, it seemed that Daiki had been approached by the Kidou Corps but wasn't sold on it, and that he thought Midorima-san the person leading their little excursion was nice so he considered joining the thirteenth. "Really I have no idea," said the girl seemingly exasperated. "To be fair, I had intended to run my course at the Academy with Shu-kun and then just let him decide which division we ended up in. I didn't expect him to go complete lazy ass, nor did I expect to be up for graduation," she said frowning just a bit. "I don't know, I might wait. See if I can find a division that will let me do what I want..." she said not being sold on the thirteenth though she'd consider it for the companionship.

"Oh yeah, you mentioned something along those lines before. Kisaragi, right? He was the one with you during the entrance ceremony. He seems to be excelling in the class he's in," Daiki observed. He had seen this individual Benihime mentioned on multiple occasions, all in passing. The male certainly had more than enough potential to be among their class. "At his level, he should have been promoted to our class by now. Perhaps his test scores are keeping him from it. Whatever the case, I can understand wanting to wait on the decision. There's no need to rush into anything."

"Hai that's the one, lazy ass~" she said frowning slightly before her face broke into a smile. "Though he's always been that way, I should have expected it," she said, knowing her childhood friend was always getting himself into those kinds of situations. "If his test scores are keeping him out, then it's because he's falling asleep,which wouldn't surprise me really~" she said of Kisaragi Shusuke. She didn't care too much now, considering she now had a different source of entertainment. Moving right along it seemed that there wasn't much going on and soon enough the girl was nodding her agreement. "Yeah, no need to rush. But is it too much to ask for, to find a division which would let me kinda be lazy, but is still interesting, while not requiring me to do anything?" she asked rhetorically. She knew she was asking a lot, that being said she wanted just a bit of fun.

Soon enough their conversation would be interrupted as the rest of the group came over to join them having finished dispatching their hollows. Midorima would land beside the pair from the rooftop. "You two seem to be all done, and really good by the way. We're finished here if you're ready to go back. Thank you all for the help." the green haired young woman said. As the fourth seat of the thirteenth division she was a pretty good mark for skills among the Shinigami.

"If you want to relax, I doubt the Gotei is the thing you're looking for. From what I hear and see, we're on the easy path now," he replied. He couldn't imagine much room for casual laziness within the Gotei, but he supposed the barracks were more than meets the eye in many cases. As such, anything was possible. With his opinion given, he looked up toward the top of a building that their guide had landed upon. It seemed their job for the day was done. "Hai. Arigatou gozaimashita," he said with a bow. Afterwards, Daiki took the liberty of opening a Senkaimon for the group, stepping through it once the Jigokuchou appeared from within.