[10th Division] Headquarters & Barracks

[Bloodedge]

It seemed like an eternity had passed since Raizen last set foot in the barracks of his own Division. After a reasonably long period spent researching his own lineage, he'd ended up working toward the conclusion of an issue that plagued the Gotei for centuries, at the fault of his own grandfather even. With everything finally coming to a close, and with his own personal life mostly sorted for the moment, Raizen was actually content to take a break in the place that had become something of a comfort zone. Various members of the Kidou Corps seemed to have settled into the area, while others remained in their usual headquarters. This was to Raizen's expectations; he only cared to have the corps under his belt, so to speak. "Huu~" he exhaled, finally having a moment to take a breather. "Tadaima."

[Apollymi]

Within the barracks of the 10th Division many people could be see moving around. In a common area the Vice-Captain was currently sitting in a chair with a redhead across from her having cups of tea. Vice-Captain, Kisaragi Saya had kept the Division running smoothly, but there was a small mountain of paperwork in the Captain's Office. Still the pair seemed to be having a pleasant conversation before the Captain made himself known. "Really, I didn't do anything I swear..." Benihime said seeming to have been chastised for making her Captain upset with her. "Yeah yeah, I don't believe you. You, the one student who would routinely sneak out every other week and take the others with you..." Saya said which only made the girl chuckle. "Oh it wasn't that bad. And combat experience is good for everyone, you taught me that~" Benihme said. Still the announcement of the arrival of the Captain shifted both of the women's attentions. "Okaerinasai, Kumori-taichou," said Saya who seemed to find his arrival surprising. "Okaeri, Kumori-taichou~" Benihime chimed in though she didn't move from enjoying her tea, leaving the pair to talk. She also hadn't actually told Saya why she was here or what she'd been up to in the past week. "I am guessing you had something to do with everything that happened near the 8th Division and that everything should be okay now?" she said mostly rhetorically.

[Bloodedge]

"Konbanwa," Raizen said to the pair of women as he encroached upon their current place of rest. With every step he took, Raizen seemed to become more relaxed. It was as if all the tension of the past few weeks was now leaving through his moving feet. With a deep inhale, he breathed in the bouquet of the tea these two were enjoying. A grin passed his lips as his eyes closed, and his head leaned back. "Sugoi~. Kisaragi-san, tell me there's more tea," he spoke, choosing not to seat himself until he'd received an answer and, potentially, a cup for himself. "Yes, everything should be in order now, bar the annoyance Ayatsuki-taichou and I may have to deal with for what happened. It was relatively entertaining, though. I even met my grandfather."

[Apollymi]

"Hai, there is more tea, and even a cup for you... I always save one since I never know when you're coming back," Saya mentioned as she retook her seat across from Benihime who hadn't bothered moving in the first place. Her eyes cut to the redhead as she wondered how long she actually intended to hang around, but since she hadn't moved she continued hearing out Raizen's story of what he'd been up to, likely while he prepared his own tea. She heard out his tale and nodded seeming to appreciate it. "It wouldn't be the first time Ayatsuki-taichou got a stern talking to from the Captain Commander. If you don't make a habit out of it, I'm sure it will all be fine..." said the pig-tailed lass. She decided to sip her tea in that moment but it seemed she hadn't fully thought about everything Raizen had said. Benihime watched the woman's face intently. 'Wait for it...' she thought with a happy smirk appearing across her lips. Saya then almost choked before turning to view Raizen. "Wait, you met your grandfather, Juuniibantai Taichou, Kumori Mōryōmaru?!" she said seemingly surprised. She thought she'd felt something familiar out in the Seireitei earlier but she'd brushed it aside as an impossibility assuming instead that Raizen might have been getting into something. Saya was old enough to have known the prior Captain of the 12th Division and found it hard to believe that Raizen had met the man and it wasn't a bigger deal. If anyone bothered looking in Benihime's direction she was grinning over her tea cup. Not saying a word, but appreciating the random shock Raizen seemed to have caused his Vice-Captain.

[Bloodedge]

"Arigatou gozaimasu," he said sincerely while moving toward the tea cup set aside for him. In a matter of moments, he managed to pour his cup and join the others in sitting. He nodded when Saya stated that all would be fine so long as he avoided making a habit of such things, and he immediately went on to begin sipping his tea. He was quite a fan of tea prepared by his present Vice-Captain, so he sipped quite slowly to savor it. As he did, though, Saya expressed her shock at Raizen's claim of meeting his grandfather. "Hai," he said, retaining utmost nonchalance while speaking between sips. "The parasite Hollow incidents that have been occurring in greater magnitudes recently were actually Kumori Mōryōmaru. His disappearance centuries ago was, in fact, due to an experimentation with Bakkoutou that resulted in him becoming a primitive form of Hollow-Shinigami hybrid... if it could be called that."

[Apollymi]

"Hai hai," Saya said seeming to not require thanks for something she was going to do anyways. Moving right along, Raizen soon confirmed that it was the man she thought it was that he'd confronted. He went on to explain that Kumori Mōryōmaru had become Hollow like in his search for power and had become an enemy of the Gotei in the meantime. "That's a shame, Mōryōmaru-jii was a nice guy, and an absolute legend. We always wondered what happened to him, it's kinda sad actually," she said seeming to have had at one point, a great deal of respect for the former Captain of the 12th Division. "Anyway, it is good that's all cleaned up now. I heard a bit about the parasite Hollows from some of the members and it didn't seem like something that should have been allowed to fester," she said as she went on about her tea. But when Saya spoke of him, she spoke as if she'd known him a great deal of time, which made Benihime curious, so when the young woman spoke up after lowering her tea cup it was something which one might have thought to be a bit rude. "Saya-sama, I'm going to need to know how old you actually are now..." said the redhead which made Saya look over at her, eyes narrowing as a glint was created over the frames of her glasses. "Hime-chan are you trying to pick a fight with me?" she asked the girl but the red head only smiled. "Nope, I'm not... just legitimately curious at this point. You've had time to master all forms of Shinigami combat without the instinct to specialize in anything... that's just focus and time, now I am just wondering how much time such a thing would take," she said most genuinely. "Fine then, I'll sate your curiosity since you finally stopped by for a visit. I'm nine hundred and fifty."

That number just hung in the air and Benihime's eyes widened drastically. Aside from the fact that this woman almost a thousand years old, which was wonderous especially considering Benihime's own age had her less than two hundred. There was something else which bothered the redhead about this woman's age, and that was the lack of power she displayed despite having lived so long. She didn't say this aloud but instead just stared at the woman as if she'd grown another head.

[Bloodedge]

"Hai. They had plenty of reason to be distressed, though none among our ranks were affected at all. I find that rather... strange, to say the least. I didn't consider it anything worth looking into, considering how we chose to solve the issue, but... us, and perhaps a few other Divisions, were completely untouched by this event," Raizen said. He did consider this realization very strange, but it didn't particularly matter now that the former Captain had been dealt with. In the midst of this light chat, Benihime questioned the age of the raven-haired Lieutenant due to her general knowledge and combat experience, which had to take some great deal of time to reach her present level. The answer given was quite the high number when one considered the relative age of the others present in this conversation, but Raizen actually found it to be rather low for the skill this woman possessed. "That is a very short amount of time for such Zankensoki. There are seasoned Captains who've yet to achieve such a feat. Am I to take this as a common trait among the members of the Kisaragi family?"

[Apollymi]

"Hm..." Saya thought about it for a moment and wondered if the elder Kumori still held some sort of soft spot for the Divisions that were previously run by himself and his progeny. Though given Raizen's lack of general concern she didn't see any reason to stress the matter and ask more questions. No instead she got to look up and see the rather dumbfounded look on Benihime's face as it was made obvious that the woman was older than maybe the girl had thought. But this wasn't really Benihime's issue with the woman's age. But that didn't matter soon enough she allowed her face to go back to normal and found herself whispering into her tea. "Yare yare..." was all that she said before she went back to drinking it as if nothing was amiss.

"Arigatou, Kumori-taichou." she said in response to the compliment of her skills, about her family she could only nod. "All of us who have shown any skill are like that, my brother was also a master of Zankensoki. I don't know if I should say it's a trait of the whole family but I hear, Obaa-san was pretty scary a long time ago too.. And Shusuke, if he hasn't gotten too lazy with no one else around should be pretty good too." she concluded. Such an idea made the assumption that at least 3 generations of this family showed mastery of the Shinigami Arts and as such they had at the very least a respectable legacy. "If Shu-kun wasn't lazy he would have been in the same graduating class I was... all of that for him to leave me bored attending classes. I blame him for being rusty..." said Benihime who hadn't put in much physical practice aside from slaying Hollows while being in the Academy because she lacked what she considered a proper partner for the practice. "Uh-huh, well, I'd feel bad for you and all but it seems like you aren't rusty at all. So obviously you found yourself another training partner..." said Saya who knew the girl's abilities had carried her through a tournament, and thus she couldn't have actually been too rusty to begin with. While this happy conversation took place a messenger appeared with the signed paper work from the 12th Division officiating Benihime's transfer to the 10th Division. This person would aim to deliver the message to Raizen before disappearing from sight.

[Bloodedge]

"Sou ka," he said between sips of tea while Saya explained her family's abilities. He recalled his mother once mentioning some form of connection between this clan and his own, but it was interesting to think of the Kisaragi family being a band of generally skilled individuals. What he did have a problem with, was something involving Saya's very existence as a member of this esteemed family. "So then, was this to make up for a certain shortage of Reiryoku, or do the Kisaragi have a habit of abandoning their spiritual selves to further their bodies?" he asked outright. With that out of the way, Raizen nonchalantly extended his free hand to accept the letter from the member of the Onmitsukidou who'd entered the barracks. Prior to this individual's departure, he spoke to them. "Oi. Send my message to Han-taichou. Tell her to meet me at our old playpen tomorrow. She'll understand."

[Apollymi]

"Hai!" said the messenger before they disappeared back into obscurity. Soon after the departure of the messenger, there was another rather blunt question being asked of Saya this day. It was so startling she could have almost sworn Benihime was the one who asked it, except the male voice that accompanied it, made her realize it wasn't. "So... we are just asking blunt, borderline inappropriate questions today... alright," she said thinking about how best to answer the man's question. To be best of her approximation, no one else in her family was underdeveloped in anyway, and her own shortcomings were specifically her own. "Assuming that reference is to my Zanpakuto, I just don't use it that much. I tend to rely on my own skills more... it's never really been a problem of my family. My brother was a proper Captain... Though I suppose it is fair to say I don't have a lot of Reiryoku and using my Zanpakuto is a bit of a strain," she concluded. Such a thing made Benihime look at the woman and think about her. If Zanpakuto were a reflection of ones self she could imagine Saya's not taking very kindly to being abandoned in such a way. It was probably being stifled by the woman's skills but the redhead didn't say anything about it. Instead, she was content to watch to see how Raizen chose to deal with this particular issue.