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The day after the afternoon and subsequent night she'd spent in the company of Kumori Raizen, Benihime could be found skipping into the 11th Division. She had a bright smile on her face, her zanpakuto strapped back on her lower back with its hilt sticking out on the left hand side. She was wrapped as usual in bandages around her chest, feet and wrists, wearing over-sized black hakama which were uniform code at her approach. This girl, had already reported back to her Captain after being on an excursion to the Human World, and seemed to be in the best mood she would ever be seen in. As she stopped she was in search of a particular individual, one whom she'd been meeting up with at least once a week since the Tournament of Power, but she'd skipped the previous week due to her own bad feelings. This week seemed to be the complete opposite of that. "Oi!~ Ryo-kun!~" she chimed seemingly a shining gem of personality at this hour when she was normally much more reserved, as her crimson ponytail swayed in the breeze.
On her path, this redhead was viewed strangely by various members of the 11th Division. Never had they seen an outsider simply saunter into the barracks while looking pleased about the trip, bar the few who'd been around long enough to recall the days of Inuzuri Kenpachi's previous reign during visits from a particularly battle-savvy challenging Captain. Even these individuals considered this skipping 5th Seat to be a strange occurrence, though. One specific member of the Division had no... or rather, less issues with these antics. It was none other than Koiso Ryohei, the man who'd been named 3rd Seat of the Division some months prior due in part to a fight with this particular woman. He stood just outside the office of the Vice-Captain, whom he'd been aiming to speak with before hearing his name called. Turning to find the culprit, he noted the strange state she was in. "... Yo. Who tickled your tits?"
If the young redhead was being strangely viewed by everyone, it seemed she didn't notice or care. Soon enough, she'd found the young man she was looking for who seemed to have a very acute sense of the happiness in this young woman. Even so, nothing about her face changed and she simply feigned ignorance over what he could have been talking about. "No idea what you mean by that, Ryo-kun," she said as she came to a complete rest at his side, that same glowing serene smile on her face, her left elbow resting on the hilt of her blade. "Anyway, I skipped out last week, I wasn't feeling up to it," she stated plainly making her reason for being here known.
Of course, she'd skipped out on this for multiple reasons, the first of which being her own depressed mental state. And beyond that the matter of avoiding the new Kenpachi as the man was rather intimidating to the young woman, but she was feeling particularly pleased today and given this she had no problem showing up here. Her only thoughts were about her potential physical match up. "I wouldn't wanna get rusty or anything..." the girl started, seemingly the same amount of pleased by what she was about to say. "So you up for the usual, maybe a bit more? I got some new stuff and I need a proper fight to try it out~" Benihime mentioned not seeming to have a care in the world. Of course, the Vice-Captain of the 11th Division was indeed in her office if the young man still needed to speak with her. She'd been working on various transfer forms and paperwork since the return of one Inuzuri Kenpachi.
"... Hmm," Ryohei muttered after hearing the words spoken by Benihime; he'd actually been seeking his Vice-Captain for a sparring match, but it seemed Benihime had come to face him this week. She even claimed there were some new things she intended to test out, and she sought to use a fight with him to do so. He hadn't tasted combat with this woman in some time, and he was keen to have an entertaining fight. "I happened to be looking for a fight. I'll take you on."
It seemed that the young man she'd come to was at least willing to face her. Of course, Benihime fully expected this regardless of whatever else he had on his plate. One thing she'd learned over the course of her stay as a Shinigami was that an 11th Division member, one who was really one all the way down to their core, couldn't resist a good fight. She'd had a happy smile across her face the entire time, it now morphed into a bit of a grin as she chuckled out a reply to Ryohei's statement. "Oh? Looking for a fight and one comes to find you, must be your lucky day, Ryo-kun~" she chimed seemingly pleased with the knowledge that she was going to get the fight she was looking for. "Did you already have a venue in mind for the fight you were looking for? I'm ready to get started!"
"Same place we always have fights around here. Right in the courtyard," Ryohei said as he simply walked into a more open area nearby, choosing this spot to immediately unsheathe his katana. He stood with the same relaxed posture he always had, showing no sign whatsoever of any formal training or refinement in his abilities. "So, what's this new shit you've got goin' on?" By sheer coincidence, the battle that was about to begin was visited by someone a bit higher on the proverbial totem pole than the common folk of the 11th Division. Approaching at this point was none other than the Division's Captain, who stopped several meters away from the ensuing combat to look upon these young Shinigami.
"Alright, but no blame goes to me for anything that happens~" she said, knowing that they were a bit above the normal level of people who'd take to a fight in a courtyard. Even so, the girl bounded outdoors still with the lightest of skips in her step as she prepared to take on this particular combatant. Even with the seriousness of the impending situation the girl didn't seem to have an ounce of anything resembling a negative emotion in her person. The boy before her, still maintained his most relaxed posture, which made her think he still didn't have any formal training, but that was what she was looking for anyways. "I can't really tell you. You'll have to see it... I need an instinctual reaction, it's why I'm here~" the redhead bounced on her toes, a couple of times, and once she was sure she was ready her left hand rested over the hilt of her blade, her intention to draw it in the reverse grip she tended to favor.
She counted the taps of her foot feeling the rhythm to get ready to move and on the fifth bounce as soon as her foot touched the ground she'd vanish. A quick use of Shunpo would bring her to Ryohei's fore her body low to the ground as she aimed to spring up while she drew her weapon. The ebony blade would gleam as it spun in the air right above her hand only once before she caught it in that reverse grip, aiming to immediately bring it up the young man's torso from his right up to his left shoulder before bringing it immediately back down from the left shoulder to his right hip. This was done as if she intended to apply a double wound to this specific area mere millimeters apart. The force of this girl's swings if they were blocked would be noted to be markedly improved as if she'd been committed to a bit of physical training in her absence. While this happened the girl took note of appearance of a certain Captain of this Division, but it didn't change her initial goal. 'Great, the only audience member I was hoping to avoid shows up... I'd think I was unlucky normally but maybe, I've been considering luck wrong~'
The moment Benihime's hand began moving in the direction of her Zanpakutou, Ryohei's eyes narrowed. He'd come to anticipate the advantage in mobility this redhead had against him, and by now, he also had a good measure of his own ability to deal with said mobility. When Shunpo was utilized, Ryohei made no effort to track her movements for the duration. Had he done so, he surely would have been caught off guard while still trying to pinpoint the moving target.
Benihime's emergence from Shunpo came directly in front of the 3rd Seat, and when it did, her Zanpakutou was drawn in its usual flashy manner. When her upward slash began, the positioning of Ryohei's Zanpakutou allowed him an easy transition to clash against her blade where it would have met his right hip, thereby allowing nothing more than a shallow wound from the middle of his torso to his left shoulder as it continued past his own katana. The secondary slash would meet no resistance at all, but this was not to be attributed to a lack of movement from Ryohei. Instead, he'd chosen to immediately follow the first slash against him with an attack of his own. Said attack would see the tip of his blade aiming to penetrate the left side of Benihime's abdominal region at precisely the same time her secondary attack began, just as her arm would be obscuring the view of his weapon.
In the meantime, the resident Captain settled into his observation of this battle. He stood closer to this pair than any of the other spectators, crossing his arms and watching intently as things began. At this time, he had only one thing to say to anyone, and he yelled it loudly enough for his words to reach their intended target. "Satsuki!"
The battle began. It seemed that her opponent had become a bit too used to the amount of speed which Benihime maintained. Given this, he was prepared not to visually follow the girl, and instead wait for her appearance. Such was expected by the redhead, which is why she'd gone along with her attack even knowing such a response was coming. All was done in preparation for something new. She'd managed a shallow wound against the lad as she brought her sword up, but while her arm blocked view it would appear that she was being stabbed through the left side of her abdomen, as her own sword came down. The girl's face managed to look shocked by the attack, if only for a moment before the semi-tangible clone dispersed as the lad finished his own slash. Benihime herself had shifted to the boy's right hand side and was launching a sweeping spin kick into his stomach from that side with her left leg, and enough strength with the additional rotation to knock him backward and away from her while she mentally analyzed the usefulness of technique against something capable of properly thinking and reacting. 'Sou ka, that's surprisingly a bit easier to pull off than I thought it would be...' she thought absently.
Meanwhile, the battle was being properly observed by the Captain of this Division and at the calling of a single name the Vice-Captain, Kiryuuin Satsuki emerged from her office to use Shunpo to appear at the man's side. Wearing her standard Shinigami uniform with her badge attached to her left arm, she had her Zanpakuto on her right side equipped as if she intended to be ready for battle at a moment's notice. Short locks of black hair with underside red highlights seemed to contrast with blue eyes alight with a bit of fire behind them and narrowed always. She looked up to see the ongoing battle and raised a brow. These two people had come to fight a couple of times over the last few months, and it was always random and interesting to see by her own standards. "Hai, Inuzuri-taichou," she answered her captain wondering what he could need with her.
Much to his own expectation, Ryohei's blade felt the sweet sensation of penetrating flesh during his retaliation attack. As he drove the sword forward, though, his eyes were forced to widen by the disappearance of his opponent. This was entirely unreasonable; there was no way even the fastest Shunpo could be used while one's blade was within the user's body, without being noticeable. This was something entirely different, and its existence was bothersome. Before he could even rationalize what had occurred, something struck Ryohei's side and launched him to his immediate left while both winding and shocking him. He came to a skidding, spinning stop to let himself look toward where Benihime now stood, and without the wound from his sword, to boot. "I felt my sword hit you. What the hell kinda trick was that?" he asked immediately prior to spitting upon the ground next to him.
With the appearance of the 11th Division's Vice-Captain, Inuzuri Kenpachi shifted his gaze away from the ongoing fight. Of course, this only came after the further narrowing of his eyes, due in part to the tricky maneuver performed by this redhead. The woman named Satsuki appeared ready for combat during her arrival, but for once, he had not summoned her for such reasons. Instead, he needed her long-standing presence in the Division's leadership to sate his curiosity. "Who's that fighting Koiso? Is that one of ours?"
Her attack had gone off without a hitch, and this caused Benihime to grin at Ryohei as he spit after being hit. She knew for certain that if he was questioning the technique she'd pulled it off properly. She shook off the feeling and hopped from left to right with a chuckle. "Ryo-kun, it was a high speed movement technique. One that I admittedly am not supposed to know, probably. But... shush, that'll be our little secret~" she said with a smirk. "I needed to know if that was actually viable for me before I wasted time on it... seems like it could work out pretty well though," the young woman said as she bounced on her toes, tossing her sword back and forth between her right and left hands as if thinking about something. "Oh, I had a whole list in my head, but I lost it... oh well, making shit up now~" she caught her sword in her right hand and charged forward again slashing at the young man before her with the sword from her right, aiming to slash across his chest once more, if it made contact the wound caused by it would only be superficial and intentionally so. Only for the redhead to immediately follow up with a left hook to the right side of his jaw, both delivered with more than a little force. She was once again preparing for another technique, but before she enacted it, she had to get a feel for the strength of her swings.
While this fight carried on Satsuki soon learned why she was being summoned. A bit of a smirk came to her face, the curiosity about this girl was always rather high, but she had at least basic information about her, because of a few factors. "That girl is Niwatoko Benihime, and she isn't one of ours, but not for lack of trying," she said of the red haired fighter whose combat skills Satsuki respected. "She's the top graduate out of last year's Academy Class, graduated the whole course in just a year. Upon leaving she entered the 12th Division as 5th seat. She also topped the Tournament of Power seated officer bracket, beating out Koiso-kun, in the final match." the young woman finished this speech as she continued to watch the fight, she'd noticed the outrageous skills of the still developing Shinigami who fought like she'd been at it for several centuries already.
Ryohei readied himself again while awaiting the retort of Benihime. Apparently, it was not Shunpo she'd used, but a different type of Hohou technique he'd never known about. Now that he thought about it, he'd seen something like this before. "Ah... that guy used that against you in the tournament. You an understudy or something now?" he asked. With that, Benihime was once again approaching him to attack. This time, Ryohei charged at her as well. He now wore a small form of the grin he'd come to be recognizable by, and as Benihime's sword swept through the air, his sword followed the opposite path. This normally would have resulted in a clash of blades to parry Benihime's sword, but this was not the case. Instead, Ryohei performed a quick hop-step back at the end of his dash, leaving both Benihime's sword, and his own, to cut through thin air. Ryohei followed this with another dash forward from close range, ducking beneath the redhead's fist while his blade aimed to slash through her lower abdomen.
"Niwatoko, hm?" said Kenpachi, who seemed to find this name somewhat familiar. He couldn't quite place why this was the case, but that didn't very much matter at the moment. What did matter, was the fact that this individual could face his 3rd Seat in such a way, but was not among their ranks. "That tournament was one of those climbing style bracket things, wasn't it? So, she fought someone stronger after that, right?"
There would soon be a reply from Ryohei about where she'd picked up this particular technique. It seemed that there was something of this ones observational skills which made a small smirk come to the young woman's face as she attempted her maneuvers. "I wouldn't fight someone who couldn't show me something new, but I don't think I'd classify as an understudy," she said with a chuckle. Soon her eyes widened just slightly, as there was something completely new and shocking happening here. Her sword went through nothing, making her reflexively let go of it, as the boy before her randomly decided to stop short before closing the distance between them. His duck came under her fist which also hit nothing, but instead opened to catch her sword in a reversed grip in time to have it in place to block the slash coming for her lower abdomen but it still had enough force to push her away. The smile on her face didn't seem to waver at all, in fact she was laughing just a little. "Kukuku~, like that... that's new and why I still come here," she said of the boy's rather unorthodox fighting style as she readied herself, charging Reiryoku up the blackened blade of her Zanpakuto in a very strange way, she wasn't preparing a regular attack.
It seemed Satsuki was currently destined to keep chatting about the girl fighting, but she didn't seem to have much of a problem with this. The young ones out of the most recent classes of graduates of the Academy were always a topic of conversation for more veteran members who had nothing else to talk about. It seemed that the Captain of the 11th Division was at least a little bit familiar with the idea behind the Tournament though he'd still be incarcerated at the time that it was taking place. She simply nodded pushing locks of hair out of her face. "Yeah it was like that. The winner of the seated officer bracket, got to interject themselves after one of the other fights, in the Vice-Captains bracket. This girl, chose to fight then Vice-Captain of the 10th Division Kumori Raizen, after watching him beat, Yoshitsune-fukutaichou," she said thinking about it that match was one of the more exciting to see. "She lost that one. But... Kumori-taichou was a monster of a Vice-Captain," said Satsuki, who'd lost in the semi-finals round as well.
Ryohei's blade was not destined to draw blood just yet, but that was all fine. At the very least, he'd managed to push Benihime away from himself with his attack, and that was progress toward him getting a proper bout of exercise out of this fight sooner than he'd expected. Of course, this was followed by Benihime preparing something else. Ryohei stood across from the woman, pointing his blade in her direction as he, too, channeled his energy through his Zanpakutou. "Not an understudy. Just a member of the fan club, huh?"
Kenpachi's arms were crossed as he heard what Satsuki had to say. Her words should have been distressing, but in the case of Kenpachi being the listener, a grin was brought to his face instead. "Kumori? He's that fresh as a Captain, then? Damn shame. I thought I'd get a fight outta that one, but... if this girl's already fighting almost Captains, she'll be something to look forward to just as soon as that Kumori kid might be."
"There's a fan club?!" she questioned as if serious. To be honest, if there was such a thing and she wasn't the president of it, she had a problem with it existing, but this wasn't a problem for now. No, she'd log that one away for much later, instead she ran her right hand over the blade of her Zanpakuto, her eyes glowing a fierce shade of crimson as the wind blew her bangs out of her face for just a moment. She still owed this young man a courtesy and beyond that she needed to do what was next in order to test her newest technique. "Tenchikaimei..." she said as her blade transformed into a longer more hollowed out version of the same sword and her own shadow darkened just a bit. She soon held a red hilt in her hand and a blade swirling with energy, seeming to have fixed itself since the incident yesterday. "Yakouboku." This release gave the girl a bit more power, and seemed to feed into a proper battle feeling. "I meant to show you this, it's ready for use now~" the girl said.
Meanwhile Satsuki noted the words used by her Captain to consider the information about this young woman, and the young Captain of the 10th Division. His reaction would have distressed a normal person, but as a true member of the 11th Satsuki had a bit of a chuckle at it. "Hai, Kumori-taichou, became Captain the same day you did, technically speaking... And he was an early graduate of the Academy the year before Niwatoko-chan, like I said, a monster of a Vice-Captain," she said of Kumori Raizen. It seemed that her Captain was one of a few who didn't mind the apparent strange amount of power and wit coming out of more recent academy students, his reaction seemed to make Satsuki laugh just a little. "I missed you Inuzuri-taichou, no pansy reaction from you, looking forward to the fight!" she said seemingly excited by the prospect herself. She then thought of something the man beside her might find interesting. "Kumori-taichou, won the Vice-Captain's bracket, he moved on to fight Tamamura-taichou, and... injured her getting himself arrested in the process... so it might not be that long a wait."
"Lemme see... pretty much all the records in the academy broken, including graduation time... stupid strong... white hair... gold eyes. Yeah, there's a damn fan club. That Ikaruga from the 9th is head of it. The... the 5th Seat; not the Captain. Anyway... Buttegire." With his command delivered, Ryohei slashed outward, and his sword quickly took the form of a large cleaver. "So, what'cha got for me this time?"
"Looking forward to it ain't what I'd say. I need a good fight after all this time," said Kenpachi. He now considered the idea of facing this redhead himself, but a pause came to his train of thought when Satsuki mentioned an injury being delivered to one Tamamura Tamao during a fight with the new Captain of the 10th Division. His eyes widened, and he immediately looked toward his Vice-Captain again. "What!? Don't tell me she's gotten weak after all this time!"
Benihime managed to actually look genuinely shocked by the revelation that there was indeed a fan club for one Kumori Raizen. She supposed given all she knew about the man, it wasn't really that surprising to know that others had taken a liking to him, though the idea of a fan club seemed a bit creepy. "Ano, I didn't expect that sort of answer. Also I don't know who that is at all..." she said. She was slightly relieved that her own habits let her fly a bit under the radar, she wouldn't have liked to find out she had a fan club or anything of the sort, but she supposed people like Raizen might enjoy such things. Moving right along the transformation of Ryohei's weapon came as well, and when it did a small smirk came to the girl's face as she began twisting her sword around in her fingers, making it so that the blade touched her shadow when the sword spun but didn't actually touch the ground. "Oh, just a little something~" she said as she stopped the spinning of her blade and drew her sword arm across her chest, the entire time it was collecting energy and she soon enough launched an attack though it wasn't at all what one would expect. She didn't aim to close the distance between them and instead launched a blast of energy in the boy's direction by way of a fairly powerful kidou spell. "Hadou no Nanajuuhachi, Zangerin." the launch of this spell seemed to be quite powerful indeed, having enough strength behind it to completely blow over the weak and likely cut clean through anything unprepared to deal with it. But the girl wouldn't stop there, she followed the path of this spell as she moved forward aiming to be right behind it as she tried to stab through Ryohei's abdomen from close range.
Satsuki continued speaking with her Captain, she was happy much hadn't changed about him over the course of his incarceration. It seemed just like all real members of the 11th Division he was looking for a good fight. Her thoughts on commenting on this were only slightly diverted by the commentary about Tamao which caused the man to look at her making an exclamation about the 6th Division Captain's potential weakness. It was alright though, Satsuki was ready to clear this up. "Iie, nothing like that. Tamamura-taichou and Kumori-taichou had a match in that tournament. Apparently he requested she be able to fight on even terms with him. He went on to get overwhelmed by her and when it happened he changed," she said giving pause. There were only really rumors about the rest of this situation so she could only say what she'd witnessed. "We don't know the details, but apparently whatever else he is, decided to go beast on Tamamura-taichou and ran her through after taking a serious injury. She was okay afterwards, and Kumori-taichou was arrested under suspicion of giving himself the powers of a Hollow," she said explaining the situation as much as she could. "Ugh, that whole thing gives me a headache though, if something like that makes him strong, I don't see why anyone should get in trouble. He spent a few months getting ready for execution and he got sprung and the Central 46 released him back to his duties... still it wasn't any weakness on Tamamura-taichou's part, just that kid's potential."
"You'd probably like her. She's strong, and she's got skill. I'm no fan of that Shikai, though," Ryohei commented, finding the 9th's 5th Seat to have a Zanpakutou he personally disliked. In all other aspects, though, he could respect this individual. It seemed Benihime would be going the extra mile in showcasing her Shikai, which kept Ryohei's interest by simple virtue of retaining the shape of a sword. What she did afterwards, though, was not exactly something belonging to said sword; it was instead a spell to be channeled through one's Zanpakutou. Ryohei's Reiatsu flared as his sword was brought down to cut through this wave, using the added power of his Shikai's iron transference abilities, but he had more to worry about. Benihime had trailed immediately behind this spell of hers, and threatened to run him through with her blade. Immediately following his own slash, Ryohei had to slide to his right to narrowly avoid the sword. As its blade sliced through the left side of his Shihakusho, Ryohei brought his cleaver from the right side of him toward Benihime's back, turning in a way that would leave him directly facing her left side as he did so.
In the meantime, Kenpachi's gaze had returned to the fight yet again. Still, the discussion with his Vice-Captain remained unhindered by where his attention was placed visually. "Powers of a Hollow, huh... So I can beat up on a Captain-level Hollow right here at home? Sounds like the life to me. At least she ain't weak now. I couldn't deal with the Gotei if they let that happen."
"Strong with skills? That's a ringing endorsement from you, Ryo-kun~" said the girl as her blade didn't seem to find its home she pushed forward having the feeling of the coming follow-up attack as she turned her body slightly she planted her sword into the ground, this likely had dual purposes one of which would go unexplored as she used it for leverage after leaning forward, the lifting her right leg to apply a quick jabbing kick to the sword to knock it away from her person and then using a sweeping motion of her left to kick at the man now to her left side from his right shoulder towards the ground, her hope to knock him away and jar him just a bit while she used the momentum of the kick to spin herself around the sword hopefully to land unhindered on the ground where she'd pull it up again with haste.
Satsuki's attention also returned to the battle and she had to say she was always impressed when watching Ryohei fight, even with opponents like this girl before him. In fact, she'd been stunned by his matches in the tournament even when he lost to Benihime because of his fights previous to those. "Right? Seems like you'll have a good time being back, Inuzuri-taichou," she said choosing rather liberally not to comment on whatever interest the Captain had in the maintained strength of one Tamamura Tamao. Instead now spectating the fight she realized that Ryohei and Benihime were both very different kinds of combatants from the norm. "I wonder if it's possible to convince her to transfer here," she said thoughtfully, she'd had the same thought before and thought she had a good chance of convincing the girl to join when she'd run into her at the Recruitment Drive while she was still in the Academy. She also still wanted to face the girl in combat and find out what all the fuss was about.
"Call it that if you want," he replied. Benihime had made a decision to continue alternating between sword combat, and use of her body as a weapon. In doing so, she abandoned the use of her blade to use it as leverage and kicked at his sword, sending it through the air to land several meters away from him. Something about this moment was quite familiar, but the time he would have had to reminisce on this was instead spent raising his left hand against the incoming kick toward his person. Though he was still forced back by the power of this attack, he managed to shake his arm a few times to deal with the numbness. "Guess you got me. Maybe next time," he said.
Kenpachi was bothered that one of his strongest subordinates managed to be disarmed in such a way, but he was more intrigued by the potential of this 5th Seat. "Nah. We don't want these types with us. We want them somewhere else so we can have some fun," he commented while stepping toward the pair of combatants. When he next spoke, it would be to Benihime herself. "Oi. You're not bad."
If Benihime had anything else to say, she'd lost it in the moment of the rather critical maneuver she'd committed to in order to disarm the man she was fighting. It seemed she'd succeeded as she pulled her sword up and out of the ground after a spinning landing, the next words from Ryohei were him admitting his loss in this particular match up. "Hai hai, I look forward to it~" she said as she sealed her blade spinning it around in her left hand before sheathing it at her lower back and pausing to take a generous stretch. "Also thanks, I think I am almost back to normal."
While this fight concluded Satsuki got words from her Captain which made her smile. "Uh-huh, at least this one isn't afraid so she actually stops by once in a while," she said of Benihime. But before Benihime could get ready to properly leave this place, their audience seemed to be approaching, Satsuki also followed her Captain over casting a quick narrow eyed glance to Ryohei who'd managed to lose this particular match up. This incarnation of Kenpachi seemed to have nothing but a compliment in mind to give the girl and she could do nothing but accept it in her usual way. She managed to look a bit sheepish knowing that he'd been watching since the beginning she couldn't manage to pretend to play off her own abilities. "Arigatou gozaimasu, Inuzuri-taichou," she mentioned as she palmed the back of her head with her left hand. "Also nice to meet you..." she said recalling that she'd seen this man once before, when he'd all but cleared out the Hollow problem of the previous week single-handedly as well as an expediant handling of the previous Kenpachi.
"Hai. See ya' when it's time for the next one," Ryohei said, moving on from there to retrieve and seal his Zanpakutou. With that out of the way, he waved over his shoulder to the redhead, and continued walking. Shortly afterwards, Kenpachi faced the redhead during her introduction. When he was greeted, the man simply nodded. There were other, more exciting things to go on about here, and none of them involved sharing words of any sort. With this in mind, the next statement would be a leading one. "So, are we fighting, or not?" he asked. As if cued by Kenpachi's words, another member of the 11th Division, who happened to be its 4th Seat, leaped out of the crowd. This 4th Seat was male with a shaved head, and he brandished a nodachi which aimed to stab through Benihime from the rear during this approach. Kenpachi had taken note of these movements, but said and thought nothing special about it.
"Hai!~" Benihime seemed to have reached a state of relaxation as she had her left elbow now resting atop the hilt of her blade at her lower back. It seemed that Ryohei was done for the day and though she could have gone for a bit more, what was being asked of her presently made her a bit antsy. "You mean us?" she asked as if completely confused by the idea. Of course there was the matter of the nodachi brandishing 4th seat of this Division now approaching the young woman from the rear aiming to stab through her person with his blade. Said blade would seem to go forward but it wouldn't actually make contact with Benihime's person, she'd been watching these movements through the play of shadows on the ground and through the look on Inuzuri's face. As such she was more than prepared for the approach of this person. At the precise moment this attack was launched, the girl had shifted... jumping up until she was perched rather precariously upon the extended arm of this particular person. "Rude!" she said while shifting her position so that she could kick this individual in a sweeping spin motion as she balanced on her palms, aimed at his head. If this succeeded this person would be kicked to the side away from Benihime and Kenpachi, with enough force to completely jar their mind, so that she could continue speaking. "Anyway, I shouldn't fight you. No offense intended, but... they are still cleaning up after the last time you swung your sword. I'm a pretty interesting person, but I don't have anything for that~"
"Yep," Kenpachi said in an utmost casual way, as if to continue the conversation regardless of the attack occurring by fault of his 4th Seat. When Benihime avoided the stabbing motion of the man's nodachi, and landed atop his arm, Kenpachi was left with the tip of the blade within reach. Just before Benihime kicked this individual, Kenpachi reached out and grabbed this sword by its blade. As such, the lad being kicked away left the sword in Kenpachi's hand still, at which point he snapped it in half with his fingers. "Satsuki! Is this the kind of Hollow power you were talking about from that kid?" he asked. In fact, the 4th Seat was now showcasing numerous traits belonging to a Hollow, mostly in the nature of his Reiryoku. What's more, the left side of his neck now showed the spider tattoo that had become a sign of certain Hollows in recent times.
People attacking other people in the 11th Division wasn't technically unusual. It was, however strange that this one managed to feel so much like a Hollow in this moment. Satsuki found herself watching the pair handle this fourth seat with nothing more than minimal effort. On the question of if this was what she was talking about she frowned slightly. "Well, it's Hollow-like, but I don't know, somehow Kumori-taichou's seems different from this... less animal." she said of the fourth seat. "This is more like the Ghost Incident." she said which made the redhead look towards her seemingly curious. "Ghost Incident, what is that?" she asked as she approached the downed boy. "Bakudo no rokujuusan: Sajo Sabaku." she said as she created from the palm of her hands a binding chain with which she aimed to capture the 4th seat of this Division, mostly for her own safety so she could further inspect this individual.
Meanwhile Satsuki managed to look a bit stunned but managed to pull herself together enough to answer the young woman's question. "Oh, you might not know, you were still in the Academy, about 6 months ago, there was a weird Hollow affecting a bunch of individuals. The 12th Division called it Ghost, it was taking over people and making them fight, it even got to Ohka-taichou and Tamamura-taichou ended up having to put him down," she said only having a basic knowledge of the incident. "Oh? It's happened before. Sou ka... I was right then. Sugei!~" there was a different light in the redhead's eyes now, and it was abject curiosity. 'And here, I thought work was just following me home...' she thought with a smirk. "Oi, you... can you speak?" she asked of the Hollow Possessed Shinigami as she inspected the mark on its neck. "Also has he always had this tattoo on his neck?" she asked of the population in general, as if she had no idea that it was related to the symptoms this boy was showing.
"To be more specific, Tamamura-taichou put down the host, only for the parasite itself to consume Ohka-taichou's Reiryoku and escape to Rukongai. That one was certainly destroyed, though, which begs the question... why do they still exist?" spoke the voice of Kumori Raizen, who stepped through the crowd of 11th Division members to enter the fray. He spoke as if he already knew the answer to his own question, and in fact, he did. He'd simply put it out in the open for the general public.
Kenpachi's attention was taken away for a moment due to Raizen's arrival, but he had only one thing to say to the man. "... Kumori," he said as greeting, only to immediately address the matter of his 4th Seat, who no longer seemed capable of speaking. "Spider tattoo... left side of his chest. That's where it was last I saw."
"Sou ka, so this has been happening much longer than I was aware~" the young woman seemed to be most enthused. Soon enough Raizen spoke up emerging from the crowd and correcting minor details of the account given by Satsuki. The Vice-Captain of the 11th Division managed to look stunned but still didn't know what was going on. "Obvious answer is obvious, Kumori-taichou do you know what this means?" said Benihime as she held her recently drawn blade over the spider shaped mark present on the man's neck she was presently binding to the ground. A quick slashing motion would leave the man with a minor flesh cut before she returned her blade to its sheath. "Hourin," the young woman said as she produced from the tips of her fingers a short orange rope which she used the spell Tzusuri Raiden through to try and pull the mark and all of the Hollow which was attached to the young man from the spot where it was on his neck. Using the shock to disconnect it. If she succeeded it would show a tapeworm like Hollow moving about on the boy's body with the spider mark obvious on its back. "Oh? Tattoos that move of their own accord~" the girl said seemingly amused as she intended to pull this hollow from the neck and if she succeeded she'd toss it toward Raizen knowing he'd be able to do something with it. "It's boring that I never find them when they're capable of talking..." she said seemingly unamused by the fact that this particular host was incapable of answering the questions she had for him.
"Of course," Raizen said. In the very next moment, he was holding out his left hand to perfectly conjure a Kidou barrier which surrounded the tossed tapeworm-shaped Hollow. Once he had it within his barrier, he began to visually inspect it. "This is the fifth one I've seen like this, but with a very different visage. Same source, different outcome. Isn't that intriguing?" During this discussion of inquiring minds, Kenpachi scoffed. He wasn't quite worried about the source of these Hollows, but if they were going to provide a decent fight, he was very interested. More importantly, there was the matter of the alleged Ghost Incident. "Something managed to run from Tamamura, and you killed it, didn't you?" he asked. Raizen paid him little mind while giving his response, eyes still focused on the Hollow. "I'll fight you later. For now, there's the simple matter of how long this has been going on within the Seireitei. The marks move, and they seem to gain control over their hosts as they reach the head. I'd imagine this is determined by the power of the host, which means it takes quite some time for a host of Captain caliber to be overtaken. Otherwise, every Captain would be under this army's control by now."
"Hai, it's so different~" the young woman seemed to be more amused by this upcoming Hollow problem than she'd been amused by her previous battle. As they continued to speak to each other, their wit seemed to out range most people, except the Kenpachi who was only really interested in the potential battles of such a thing. Benihime had something to say about this, "This has been going on at least since I was in the Academy, it's the only real explanation for why my class almost ended up dinner to Hollows in the Human World," she said recalling a secondary meeting with Raizen on her first day of school which had almost ended in her death. Moving right along that meant several things. "It's assumable the power of the individuals affected determines how fast such a thing is a problem. Ohka-taichou? Whoever that was, I am assuming was at the bottom of the totem pole. Which means the weaker of the Captains will need to be watched while we avoid alarming them and the strongest should likely be quarantined. But I assume that Aya-tai had done something like that during the 'Ghost Incident', and it obviously didn't work out. Ooh, and we get to figure out where it's coming from~" Benihime said rather easily putting together how the previous incarnation of this problem had worked out. As she walked over to have a look at the Hollow rather easily captured by Kumori Raizen this day.
"I'd say it was going on long before that. Ohka-taichou's Reiryoku was completely absorbed into that Hollow, so I'd say it had taken absolute control. He wasn't exactly the weakest Captain of his time, arguably. All evidence points to him effortlessly killing his own Vice-Captain, and going on to defeat Fayeling-taichou in combat before Tamamura-taichou faced him." When Benihime went on to state how the Captains likely should be divided for the time being, Raizen moved around the barrier which held this Hollow, deciding soon enough to share his own thoughts on the matter. "There's no point. If a Captain were to be affected by this sort of thing, then they've already been latched onto. Unless... there's a more direct method, which I frankly think we'd be better off baiting out. I personally have nothing against being this bait. These things seem interested in me, anyway."
"I was trying not to just assume everyone else's incompetence," Benihime mentioned, seeming to think something negative of the idea that she'd noticed this problem as a relative child in the Academy while Shinigami had been dealing with this likely for decades before she was even concerned with any of this. The idea that something like this had gone completely unnoticed for long enough that a Captain was completely taken over before anyone noticed anything was wrong, made her fear for the safety of the Seireitei as a whole.
Soon enough though this line of thought was interrupted by Raizen who thought it might be a better idea to bait out the Hollow which was the problem in case there was a more direct method of infection. "Volunteering to be victim, you must really like being in the middle of these things," she said as she thought about it more. "Though, one would wonder why they are so interested in you as well. I mean besides the most obvious reason," she said aloud. To be technical he was the best possible candidate as she was already sure he wasn't infected and he likely held at least baseline immunity against being properly infected. Beyond this, it seemed like the best possible outcomes would come from this course of action. "Hai, seems like a good idea. We should tell Aya-tai, and I should... take this one back to my lab," she said pointing to the Hollow in the barrier. Thinking about the boy on the ground if only for a passing second before deciding when he finally woke up he'd probably be fine aside from feeling bad. "Objections?"
"That's the sort of thinking that breeds incompetence of the self. You should avoid the habit," he said with a strangely high amount of interest being paid to the Hollow, for some reason. As for him volunteering to be bait for this investigation, Raizen had already theorized ways his own Hollow powers could override or assimilate the powers of any Hollow that aimed to enter him. While this was only theory, he'd yet to be fully wrong about such things. "Their interest in me from the start is no different from their interest in you. Obviously, it has become a bit... different over time. And... yes, I do have an objection. I suppose, though, I could just... join you in your lab to go through with my own research?"
"So, I get to go back to assuming everyone else is dumber than me, nice~" she commented as if it was the most normal thing in the world. To be fair, she usually assumed other people were dumb, but she'd been trying not to for a while as part of her pitch to blend in better with the general population. Of course, there was little to no point in this now, so the more detached mannerisms of the young woman were sure to return. It seemed that Raizen's issue with these spider baring Hollows wasn't much different from Benihime's own, though she assumed his own Hollow appearing was probably the shift in their interest in him. A snicker came from the young woman as she considered this. But soon enough she'd moved on to the matter of him joining her in her laboratory since she obviously wanted to investigate this Hollow further. "Yes, you can do your research in my lab if you'd like," she said pointing to the Hollow in the barrier. "I do need a shot at that before anything drastic happens to it though," she finished. With that said the girl intended to take off for her lab with the same pace she'd come in with, seemingly equally as amused as she skipped off towards the 12th Division.
"Probably the best idea in this sort of situation," Raizen said while spinning the barrier around his hand, and by virtue of this, moving around the Hollow within it. It had a very interesting appearance, and its mask was likely the strangest looking thing he'd ever seen on a Hollow. Though Benihime agreed to have him within her laboratory in the 12th Division, she stressed wanting to view this Hollow herself before anything drastic occurred with it. "Hai hai," he agreed, after which he followed behind the woman to this lab of hers. As the two walked away, Kenpachi scoffed once more. "Just like that, two fights gone. Maybe this Hollow shit will give me something useful to deal with."