[10th Division] Headquarters & Barracks

[Bloodedge]

"Basically, yes," he replied. Saya's explanation thereafter seemed a little strange. Any explanation as to why she only possessed as much power as she did had been thrown out the proverbial window, but suddenly... Raizen realized what the reason was. His eyes widened when he did, and his teacup lowered from his mouth as he stared over it at the Vice-Captain. "Bakana... you never reached Bankai. All this time, I never even considered the possibility that Shikai was the limit of one who'd gone on to master Zankensoki. That's rather underwhelming, Kisaragi-san."

[Apollymi]

Saya found herself sucking her teeth creating an annoyed clicking noise as she did. After all, it was a bit of an understatement that she found this man's speech along with that of her former student to be a bit more annoying than she normally liked. Of course, this annoyance didn't simply get to end and drift off into nothing in these moments. Instead the Captain of the 10th Division went on to say something as if he'd cracked some centuries long case. The raven haired woman's eyes widened as the man came to this conclusion and she managed to look at him as if confused. "Of course, I don't have Bankai, why would I?" she said seeming to find the assumption a bit outlandish if it was based solely upon the fact that she'd learned the rest of the skills of a Shinigami but not that one. Benihime, had already moved on from tea and was now eating looking up from her snack to frown gently. "Because you spent all that time, learning and mastering skills. Why wouldn't you have mastered the thing that embodies you?" she murmured after a long silence. This caused Saya's attention to move to Benihime and the look in the other woman's face let the redhead know everything she needed to. "Sou ka, I'm not the only one with trust issues~" Benihime finished, but this just seemed to upset Saya in some what. "Look it isn't about me having trust issues. Literally no one has more trust issues than you, but... it isn't like I hadn't tried to achieve Bankai, my Zanpakuto and I don't really get along like that... so more skills practice, less Zanpakuto use," Saya finished up, with her normal demeanor but something else right behind it, like that of a petualent child tired of trying to explain.

[Bloodedge]

When Benihime responded to Saya's query, Raizen pointed at the redhead to make his agreement known. Further explanation by the Vice-Captain only made things more complex in nature, as it was unheard of for a Shinigami to so brazenly ignore their Zanpakutou. It seemed to Raizen that the woman had led herself into a catch 22 of sorts, which he imagined would make her a very formidable Shinigami to deal with, should she be able to get out of it. "That's... interesting. Forgive any rudeness, but did you ever consider that being the problem? If you rely more on yourself than your Zanpakutou, I'd say you're basically trading your Zanpakutou's power for that of your physical self. At the very least, now that you have reached the limits of your soul's ability to master Zankensoki... do you intend to return to Jinzen? Trust me when I say, Bankai alone opens a lot of doors for your own development. You could become even more of a master than you are now. I could even give you a jump-start."

[Apollymi]

Saya saw Raizen's point to Benihime, as if the pair simply shared the same wavelength, which only furthered the point of exacerbation. It seemed the pair though it was a rather easy jump to make, from master of skills to Bankai, but Saya saw it as no easy task. Her Zanpakuto was disagreeable and that meant Jinzen never really worked out when she tried it. Aside from achieving Shikai she'd never gotten much use out of it. Soon enough Raizen was speaking up again, this time aiming to clarify what he thought was her problem and maybe even a potential way of sorting it out. Saya's brow rose with the idea that maybe she'd been relying too much on herself and not enough on her Zanpakuto. But given the issues she had, that didn't seem like it was that much of a problem, a sigh escaped the woman as Benihime watched her face intently. "I've been considering Jinzen, wondering if it'd be worth a try now. I don't see it going much different or anything... though to be honest, I never really considered that self-reliance in any case could be a 'bad' thing," she said frowning slightly. Benihime chuckled as this woman's hypocrisy came to light but said nothing on the subject. This seemed like something a bit more annoying than Saya had in mind for an afternoon tea. "Though I have to wonder what kind of 'jump-start' you say you can offer, because last I checked, Jinzen was a solo activity," the Vice-Captain of the 10th Division said.

[Bloodedge]

"I'm not saying there's anything wrong with self-reliance. In no way is it a bad thing; look how far you've come by being the way you are. On the other hand, though... there are limits to everything, and at a certain point, there is no way to surpass some limitations alone. Zanpakutou are a catalyst to become stronger than a Shinigami can alone, by channeling their normally innate powers into an external source. It's all in my family's archives." With that said, Raizen raised his teacup once more, and began to sip again. He was quite relaxed here and now. The conversation progressed with the Captain retaining absolute nonchalance, even as Saya went on to question how he intended to offer her assistance with her Jinzen. When she posed this query, his eyes closed. "Jinzen is a solo activity, but the materialization of a Zanpakutou spirit is something I find myself easily capable of doing for myself and others. I can even manage a physical form that will be tangible to others. If your Zanpakutou won't materialize for you, I can make it do so."

[Apollymi]

Raizen's explanations made sense, and it seemed beyond this that his research into Zanpakuto was a bit far-reaching, going back into his family knowledge of such things. She imagined that with the Kumori being such an old family within the Seireitei they probably knew a lot about a wide plethora of varied subjects. Even so, she once again found herself choking on tea as the young Captain before her explained that he had no problem making his own or any other Zanpakuto spirit materialize. This was a rather strange thing to say and didn't seem like the sort of power any person should have, she was in awe a bit as she looked at him. "That... um... is kinda scary, Kumori-taichou," she finally managed which made Benihime chuckle. Saya had seen a lot in her days as a seated officer but never had anyone before boasted of such a power in such relaxed tones. "It astounds me how often people mispronounce cool~" she said but this just caused her to shift her gaze to the redhead. "And before you say anything, I don't have any problem with it. I actually think it's cool and likely useful especially for someone like you who would take probably a couple of years of intense trust building exercises to establish it on your own," Benihime finished as she had another of the snacks from this bag which happened to be some sort of shortbread tea cake. Saya looked from her to Raizen and frowned. "Well, I wouldn't turn down the help, still seems extremely invasive."

[Bloodedge]

"It's not as bad as it may sound. I wouldn't worry much about it," he said just before taking his final sip of tea. Raizen then placed his cup on the table and rose from his seat, taking a brief pause to yawn thereafter. "If you ever find yourself wanting that help, just let me know. For now though, I imagine there is plenty of work for me to do since I left. Oh... and speaking of work," he continued. With these words, he held out the transfer papers for Benihime, which listed her as an official standing member of the 10th Division. "We have a new member: Juubantai Sanseki, Niwatoko Benihime."

[Apollymi]

It seemed that Raizen didn't think his abilities were as scary as the black haired woman thought they could be. And Benihime seemed to have a ringing endorsement of this Captain which was a bit out of place considering what the girl was normally like. As they moved right along, it seemed that Raizen thought he might have a considerable amount of work to do, a chuckle escaped Saya as she nodded. "Your desk is covered in paperwork. I would have done it for you... but... I figured you'd want to do something yourself~" she said seeming to find it amusing for some reason. She had a small round of nostalgia thinking about forcing the previous young Captain of the 10th into doing her paperwork as well. But before she could rather happily enjoy that trip she was confronted by information she'd thought she never hear.

"What?! Kumori-taichou," she seemed completely stunned looking at Benihime and then to Raizen. She'd already had this discussion with this man, she simply couldn't agree to it. "Oh? Aya-tai finished it up already? She must have really enjoyed that present I left her. I feel like I should apologize to her, I think my personality triggers her a bit," she said of her previous Captain before looking to Saya. Who was rather obviously waiting for the explanation which Benihime had already failed to provide. "Saya-sama, you should calm down,"

[Bloodedge]

"Hai. I'd rather do it myself than give you the extra work. I had a look at the members on my way in, and they all seem to have much better postures than they had before. Only you can take credit for that, so you deserve as much of a break as you can manage." Raizen was content to leave the discussion there, but he expected more from Saya after his introduction of their new 3rd Seat. Mostly, he expected her to question this ranking after the information she'd shared with him previously. When Saya spoke his name, Raizen turned to face her, his left hand upon his hip and his right brow raised. He knew this was coming, but he wondered to what extreme it would. It was all but another experiment on Raizen's part. "Are you opposed to this in any way, Kisaragi?"

[Apollymi]

"Yes well, I can't take all the credit for that. But... I'll take a break I suppose," said the woman on the matter of the work to be done. Still there was the matter of this introduce of the new third seat, which Benihime was oddly silent about given she was the person being discussed. But, Saya knew enough of the girl to know she'd only speak about it when she was ready and to know already the full reason Saya didn't support this decision. "Kumori-taichou, we had this conversation already. You know I'm opposed to it, and you know why. I'm only thinking about her safety. Her transfer here is fine, I actually miss her bratty company but... don't promote her like that," said the woman who was rubbing her face. She was pleading for this girl's safety which was a very strange thing to do from the perspective of anyone who could see outwardly that the girl was more than capable of taking care of herself. Beyond this point, Benihime herself didn't seem to care one way or another. Saya couldn't believe the redhead had agreed to such things, but she supposed the man before her was one of the few she couldn't outwardly convince or push around. Meaning she had to have accepted this. She looked to Benihime as if questioning the motivations behind accepting this but still the girl remained silent, her face and body language just as unreadable as they'd been for the last 9 months.