[BSD-RP] Soul Society: Northeast Seireitei

[Yua Munetoshi]

Yua nodded in silence, leaning forward in her seat slightly, allowing her eyes to remain on Signy as her hand moved effortlessly by invisible strings, writing down every little detail her ears had taken in from the memo pad. She also wrote every little train of thought and every tiny little signal of body language or change in the room just from her observation and listening.

"All we really know is that it was supposedly someone in the Rukongai that killed him. Though Lt. Ise's lack of composure after we found the body was bizarre for her. Granted, that could be due to the nature of their relationship, but with her sudden departure, it does make me wonder if she had some sort of hand in the matter. However, if it was truly just someone from the Rukongai, they would have to be powerful indeed and for someone that powerful to go unnoticed is rare. There is that gentleman that partook in the Kenpachi games. Captain Oda himself fought him. Perhaps he is worthy of some investigation.

However, for all we know, it could have been me or even Sanyu."

Yua swiftly adjusted her uniform while lifting her tea, bringing it with her as she found it might be rude not to finish the tea that Signy took her time to prepare. Her notes were neat and organized as even through the small talk, Yua went through Five sheets, front and back of notes, before quickly shutting her notepad once Signy had spoken her thoughts and decided to get up. Yua slipped her pencil and pad back into her sleeve before standing up, retrieving her blade from resting against her leg, before resting it back into her belt, resting comfortably under her left arm.

She smiled, nodding towards Signy lifting a hand to allow her to lead out of the dinning hall. She followed shortly behind the follow Shinigami taking more mental notes of the layout, what she was hearing, seeing, and what she smelled. Anything to assist in keeping her mind in check and on the task at hand. Yua followed Signy to a room that stood a bit detached from the rest of the living quarters. She watched Signy produce a key from her obi, hearing the padlock click, allowing Signy to slide the door open.

She blinked some to the sight of the Captain's office and an open doorway to his sleeping quarters. Yua could tell from the smell, and the unsightly fine layer of dust coated everything in sight. She took note of the tracks of footprints. Getting confirmation from Signy that they belong to the woman. Yua watched the tracks head to the desk and then away from it. Amongst all the dust in the room, she noted the folder that seemed to be the most recently placed item on the desk.

" Those are mine from when I put the autopsy results, that folder there on the desk, in here. While I would prefer not to leave you be in here, I will do so, but I ask you to leave the door open. I will be in the courtyard if you need anything."

Yua took a few seconds to collect her thoughts before turning to Signy, nodding before bowing quickly.

"I know it is hard to allow a complete stranger to enter your Captain's private quarters and office, but I hope I can help shed some light upon your Captain's unsuspected death. I will do my best to honor your Captain and keep it all the way it was left."

She spoke before standing back up, watching Signy take her lead.

Yua took a deep breath turning back to the room, remaining outside it before she kneeled down, resting on both knees, setting the tea to the side of the door. She placed her hands together before closing her eyes, speaking a silent prayer and paying her respects to the room and all it had to hold.

Captain Itsuki Asakura, I may have not known the man you were or the Captain you were when you were alive. This squad truly has a strong bond of family and hardships and still holds you in high regard. I am honored to have met them and can only guess the lost knowledge you once held and all the stories you have lived and seen. I hope that somewhere, somehow, I may help your squad find some sense of peace that can lead to what had happened to you so they may rest along with you. Thank you for allowing me to find your story's end.

she thought in silent prayer before standing back up in one fluid motion.

Yua stepped into the room, retrieving her notepad and pen from her sleeve, taking notes of every little detail of the room, from the trails of dust to Signy's barefoot to how the top of the desk was arranged. If there was one thing the girl was good at, it was observation and her photographic memory. However, one thing she silently wished she had was a better method of assisting her photographic memory than just a notepad and pen.

Yua followed in Signy's tracks, peering into Captain Itsuki's private quarters, taking her mental notes and observations of that well before placing her notepad back in her sleeve.

"Observation analysis is complete."

She spoke to herself before lifting a hand to her chin and closing her eyes. She collected her thoughts and all she observed, taking a few moments to create a game plan of finding every little bit of information she could find while waiting for her Captain's arrival. She opened her eyes before clapping her hands together, gaining a boost of confidence.

"I got this. "

She spoke to herself, deciding the first course of action to read the autopsy report. It was the most apparent and newest thing she could find.

Yua took her time looking through the desk and other surrounding objects.​

 

[Kuu]

Noi's nose wrinkled as she listened to the two women speak. Signy's mention of squad members being potential suspects not sitting right with the young woman; She didn't want to even have the thought of accusing her squadmates, even if she knew it was entirely possible. Noi saw the good in people, no matter what. Some may call it part of her idealization, while Noi herself would chalk it up to her optimism. The truth was the former, her rose-tinted glasses making everything, everyone, seem better than they actually were, including her own squadmates. Even if Signy laughed at her own notion, Noi just sniffled indignantly.

As Signy and Yua left, Noi laid her head to the table, staring out the nearest window as she watched the peaceful orange tinted sky, her thoughts scattering as she distracted herself from her nausea.

The day seemed to last so long, so much packed into what was going to be her spending her time cheering for men at the kenpachi games, yet it also felt all too short. She didn't actually accomplish anything, simply tagging along behind whoever was willing to lead her along by an invisible leash, and she wasn't especially tired either. Were it not for her own inability to stand shunpo, she'd happily be on her feet, cleaning or bothering someone or picking a sparring match, but she stomach grumbles under her, reminding her to stay put.

Once she feels better, she'll get up, go do something, until then she'll busy herself with thoughts of handsome nobles coming to whisk her off her feet.

 

[DioNaraka]

From 5th Division

The Investigation Continues

”What have you discovered?”

The voice of her Captain is heard behind her out of nowhere as he then walks past her, examining the former residence of Captain Asakura. Being friends he had known the exact location of the place, furthermore, he had not planned on asking permission from anyone to be let in. Yua had gone through such formalities it seems, that was a good move for her, establishing some form of connection with those who patrol the Rukongai.

Tenzen had begun removing books and scrolls from shelves to look through them, some reports being rather old and irrelevant to the investigation. What Tenzen had really wanted was a personal journal from the man, something that details his thoughts in a more personal way. It could help narrow down who killed him. While scanning these old reports he stops and catches a name that was familiar to him, White Death. The report is written like a baseless rumor as it seemed like Itsuki had stumbled upon multiple dead swordsmen. The report refers to White death in a joking way, speaking as if he were some sort of urban legend of myth that Captain Asakura himself did not believe in. Tenzen at least had a grasp of something here, tearing the report out of the book and placing it on a small desk before looking through more.

”Munetoshi-san, be on the lookout for keywords such as White Death or Sword Saint. Also be on the lookout for any information pertaining to dead swordsmen in the Rukongai, even if it sounds like a tall tale.”

He tears another page out of a different report book and sets it on a growing pile. Each one referencing White Death or a Sword Saint or even a drunken swordsman from eyewitness reports. Again these are all baseless as they are referred to as a myth, nothing that is solid or any form of proof. He closes the book in his hand and places it back on the shelf, grabbing the one next to it to begin flipping through the pages.

”That autopsy report, tell me the sort of injuries the body received. Based on that I could potentially narrow down what we need to look for, or if we even need to waste our time here any longer.”

The following reports Tenzen started to read were things he already knew, the massive labor camp that existed in the rukongai along with a detailed report concerning the explosion that Tenzen himself was there for. The report has mentions of the Fifth Division Lieutenant behaving strangely, considering this report is over one hundred years old it’s safe to say it is meaningless now. All the reports he has been looking over were personal copies, and it is unknown if Itsuki himself wrote them or if it was Lieutenant Ise. He closes the book and grabs the last one on the shelf, he places his thumbs on the pages and lets the pages flip until he begins to see blank pages. He stops and flips back until he sees the final report filed by the Captain before his death, it was nothing substantial, a string of murders performed by a gang he ended up stopping.

Placing the book back on the shelf he collects the pages he removed and spreads them out and begins looking over them. He was looking for patterns, more than just mentions of White Death or dead swordsmen but hints towards the deaths of prominent swordsmen in the Rukongai. While not every soul has enough Reiryoku to become a Shinigami it does not stop them from taking up a blade and making a name for themselves out in the districts. Some swordsmen are name dropped repeatedly in these reports either working with Itsuki or providing information to him. He began organizing these pages with reports about these swordsmen from first interactions until their deaths. There were numerous stacks like this and for some reason the Mad Dog of the Rukongai never linked it to anything. Tenzen rubs his chin thinking for a moment and despite the glow in his eyes his pupils are still there and they shift to look down at the stacks of organized reports. This man references White Death too often to think it's a fairy tale, it's as if he believed in it and constantly mentioned the man in order to get someone's attention. While there were numerous stacks of these reports, they are spread out through hundreds of years, no one reading this would have been able to piece them together through all that time unless they looked at them directly, as Tenzen is doing now.

He turns and looks around the room, his mind focused now on finding a personal journal, he and Yua needed it more than ever now to connect these dots. While this should have been left to Sixth Division to investigate, Tenzen felt as if they were uninterested or believed their current duties to be more important than investigating the death of a Captain. If Tenzen can figure this out then he’ll be able to organize a trip to the Rukongai to find this Captain Killer, whoever they may be.

 

[Yua Munetoshi]

”What have you discovered?”

Yua almost jumped out of her skin with the sudden appearance of the very subject of interest, Captain Tenzen Oda. She had lost track of her surroundings, lost in her thoughts and analyze of the autopsy. She was in awe watching her captain waste no time searching through the various books, taking out seeingly random pages.

"Oh uh yes, This room hasn't been touched since his death the only footprints in here has been my own and signy's own from placing the Autopsy on the desk. If other divisions have attempted an investigation into Captain Asakura's Sudden death, they haven't been in here for whatever reason. I spoke with the various members about the captain and their thoughts. Signy pointed out the obvious that the captain wasn't acting right along with the Lieutenant sudden disappearance the moment I arrived. She also stated that She had no idea who could have taken out the Captain the way he was found. As much as I wish to suspect any of this divison's members, I decline to think any could hold such a power and from the respect of this office and it's holdings."

”Munetoshi-san, be on the lookout for keywords such as White Death or Sword Saint. Also be on the lookout for any information pertaining to dead swordsmen in the Rukongai, even if it sounds like a tall tale.”

She went back to looking through the desk listening to Tenzen's orders of what she was to possibly look for. She found a few more sheets of torn pages speaking of the White death and a rumored sword saint.

She moved down to the bottom most drawer of the desk finding it seemingly empty. Out of curiosity, she felt the bottom and towards the back of the drawer finding the bottom moving slightly

"huh?"

She spoke crouching down feeling the bottom lifting the panel to finding a hidden compartment holding a single journal

"Captain, I may have found something. A journal hidden in a false bottom."

Yua raised the journal up resting it on the desk as she stood back up flipping the journal open finding more speak of the urban legend of the white death and of several mentions of a figure in a Rice hat always being mentioned or rumored around the sightings. The journal spoke of itsuki's attempts to finding this figure, never being able to get an actual description but had found a distinct scent at the various rumored sightings.

She looked up from the journal, moving it to Tenzen after hearing his request for the autopsy report. Yua had always had a knack of being the tattletale or give eye witness statements back home when some sort of dispute amongst the family happened. It was her process of memorizing and processing information into a literal picture in her mind that made her perfect for remembering important things, It was due to this memory that she can almost copy nearly any kido she seen, if only once or recreate what she has seen in pictures.

"The Captain appears to have sustained... roughly thirty stab wounds. It appears there were at least ten blades of varying sizes involved though it is possible there were more assailants with similar sized weapons. At the time of his autopsy, it was difficult for them to tell if there were more or less with the bloating of his body at the time. Junko Izumi of the 4th noted there were some areas where wounds were combined, which suggests multiple assailants not armed with simple knives or daggers. She noted the initial fatal wound perforated the liver, which one of his size could survive. There were several lacerations to other organs, including his intestines. he also appears to have a broken femur though from the surrounding tissue this appears to be postmortem. She suspected it happened while he laid there or through possible transport of his body."

She spoke watching the conspiracy laid out pages of hopefully a possible connections or if it was indeed just a random ambush of a captain in the wrong part of the Rukongai at the wrong time.

​

 

[DioNaraka]

New Details Emerging

"Oh uh yes, This room hasn't been touched since his death the only footprints in here has been my own and signy's own from placing the Autopsy on the desk. If other divisions have attempted an investigation into Captain Asakura's Sudden death, they haven't been in here for whatever reason. I spoke with the various members about the captain and their thoughts. Signy pointed out the obvious that the captain wasn't acting right along with the Lieutenant sudden disappearance the moment I arrived. She also stated that She had no idea who could have taken out the Captain the way he was found. As much as I wish to suspect any of this divison's members, I decline to think any could hold such a power and from the respect of this office and it's holdings."

”You made valid observations and they line up with my own assumption that no one has bothered investigating this case. Although Ise suddenly leaving like that is odd, it's outside of her normal behavior to abandon her duty so easily.”

Tenzen thinks for a few moments before continuing on.

"Itsuki’s mental health was in rapid decline for some time now; his extended stay in the Rukongai warped his perception, going from protector to mad dog. Him acting unusual was nothing new or out of the norm. I also agree with you that no one in this division could have taken him down and covered it up, not to this extent.”

While going through previous records trying to confirm Suiyo’s identity, and potentially clear him from being the murderer of Itsuki, Yua began her report on what she learned from the autopsy after handing him the mans journal. Tenzen begins flipping through it while listening to her.

"The Captain appears to have sustained... roughly thirty stab wounds. It appears there were at least ten blades of varying sizes involved though it is possible there were more assailants with similar sized weapons.”

Thirty stab wounds, from blades of various sizes, Tenzen thinks back to the way Suiyo fought and wonders if he could have done such a thing using random blades. No, that would involve him having to carry multiple blades and use each one to stab Itsuki and there is an outlier in all this, the stabbing. With a basis for how he fights Tenzen determines that the drunkard prefers to cut with his blade rather than stab. He also had taken a liking to that Zanpakuto, there is doubt he would have swapped it out for other blades of meger quality, blades Itsuki could have easily broken with his own Zanpakuto.

”At the time of his autopsy, it was difficult for them to tell if there were more or less with the bloating of his body at the time. Junko Izumi of the 4th noted there were some areas where wounds were combined, which suggests multiple assailants not armed with simple knives or daggers.”

Multiple assailants sounded about right and after hearing the first part of the report Tenzen was on that train of thought already. The kicker was trying to figure out what group of people could have pulled this off? Itsuki decimated an entire rebel camp so how did a few armed souls manage to pull this off, unless one of them had a Zanpakuto or Kido to counter him. He thinks back to Yua mentioning how Atsuko left without a word, Atsuko possesses enough skill with Kido to immobilize Itsuki long enough to have others run him through. Tenzen is hard pressed to find a reason why she would do that, the Captain was a difficult man to work with but to kill him like that doesn’t fit any sort of M.O. Remnants of the rebels perhaps? Maybe even their leader.

”She noted the initial fatal wound perforated the liver, which one of his size could survive. There were several lacerations to other organs, including his intestines. He also appears to have a broken femur though from the surrounding tissue this appears to be postmortem. She suspected it happened while he laid there or through possible transport of his body."

Things That Are hard to Hear

Tenzen had been flipping through Itsuki’s journal and hadn’t read a single word of it while Yua was reporting. Even while his mind was focused on figuring out who killed him he could not simply ignore the details of his death, how he was injured and how the body was found. Itsuki was his friend, even if their friendship became strained as his mentality worsened. To hear about the passing of a friend is rough, but to hear the grisly details of how they died is much worse. Tenzen closed the book and placed it in a pocket inside his Haori.

”Itsuki and I met in the academy. He graduated before me so he had a headstart on his career. Our friendship was… Odd, probably because he was my senior he viewed me as someone to protect? Not that I needed it, however, I’d like to think he carried that mentality to protect those beneath him into his Captaincy. The Rukongai probably got so bad because he alone was trying to tackle everything and eventually shifted to violence to keep the order. There is a reason why members of this Division are here at the Barrack’s, but with their Captain gone they’re going to have to patrol a lot more often.”

He stands in silence looking over the office, reminiscing about his old friend for a few moments.

”The life of a Shinigami can be harsh, we have no time to mourn the dead. We can only get mad, cry, regret, or break down in the initial moments of someone’s passing. After that it must be business as usual, the gears must continue to turn.”

Tenzen begins walking towards the exit, moving past Yua at this moment. He stops just outside the door and takes a deep breath of fresh air.

”Yua, never forget to mourn your friends. Mourning helps reinforce our memory of them, so we do not forget who or what they were. I’m heading to the Kido Corps Headquarters, feel free to follow at your own pace.”

Tenzen turns and walks alongside the building for a few paces before vanishing from the barracks. His next stop, Kido Corps HQ to investigate the suspicious material brought back by Eizoku.

To Kido Corps HQ​