((Intel for this post please ))

Himawari looked out the window of the second floor of the Library, before looking around to see if anyone was watching. Satisfied that no-one would see her, she climbed up on to the window ledge, before leaping out into the bowers of the near buy tree.

A favourite reading spot of hers, the tree was high enough to hide her from the Academy students sitting in its shade, but also high enough to catch the cooling breeze that was blowing through Seireitei that particular day. Settled into the right spot on the tree, she looked down at the book she’d selected, The Complete Anatomy of the Body. A bore of a read in Himawari’s mind, but she knew she would have to know eventually. It would most likely help her in the long run; she knew that, so giving it a go could do little to no harm.

Skeletal structure

The human skeleton consists of approximately 200 bones, both of the fused variety and of the individual variety, all supported and supplemented by a system of ligaments, tendons, muscles and cartilage. It works as a structural support for organs and anchor muscles, and also protects the vital organs such as the heart, lungs and brain. In an adult body, the skeleton accounts for approximately 13% of the body weight, and almost half of that weight is made up by water.
Fused bones include those of the pelvis and the cranium. Not all bones are interconnected directly: There are three bones in each middle ear called the ossicles that articulate only with each other. There is also the hyoid bone, which is located in the neck and serves as the place of attachment for the tongue, does not articulate with any other bones in the body, being completely supported by muscles and ligaments.

Much of the human skeleton maintains the primordial segmental pattern present in all vertebrates (mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians) with rudimentary units being repeated. This segmental configuration is particularly identifiable in the vertebral column and in the ribcage. There are 206 bones in the adult human skeleton, a number which varies between individuals and with age - newborn babies have approximately 231 bones some of which will fuse together as the child grows older. These bones are structured into a longitudinal axis, the axial skeleton, to which the appendicular skeleton is joined.

Himawari sighed as she looked upwards, her eyes following the rays of dappled sunlight that drifted between the leaves of the tree. So many times she’d spied other shinigami coming in and out of this building, most of them the new lieutenants, all carrying massive piles of massive books. She would never be able to comprehend how they could read these things, and still manage to get all their lieutenant duties done.

The adult skull is made up of approximately 22 bones. The skull is a complex structure; its bones are formed both by intramembranous and endochondral ossification. The bones of the face and the sides and roof of the neurocranium are formed by intramembranous ossification, while the bones supporting the brain (the occipital, sphenoid, temporal, and ethmoid) are largely formed by endochondral ossification. Thus frontal and parietal bones are purely membranous.

“Urgh,” Himawari exclaimed, resisting hard to toss the book away, “I can’t even understand half these words. How am I supposed to do this?” She lay back against the trunk of the tree, closing her eyes. She’d never thought of herself as unintelligent, but this book was beginning to convince her otherwise. She was precise with her attacks, but she could never understand half of the mechanics behind her own attacks. All she knew that a jab here, a kick there, or an elbow forced in at the right place could get the reaction she wanted. If there was a whole lot of scientific jargon behind that; well, that had never really meant much to her.

“Having problems?” Himawari’s eyes shot open at the sound of a voice below, nearly falling out of the branches in surprise. She scrambled back up, relieved at that the prospect of another Squad 4 trip was gone. She looked down, ready to throw something-anything- at the person who had nearly caused her an unfortunate accident. Wow...speak of the devil...

Below her stood a tall man, approximately in his mid to late 20s. His long dark hair was tied back in a ponytail, falling back over his shoulders down over his long white captain’s Hoari. Himawari’s eyes widened in surprise; she’d never seen him apart from inside his barracks. He was a quiet yet pleasant man, never seen without a smile on his face. The emblem of the 4th squad was printed upon the bag he led in his hands. Himawari leapt down from the tree, bowing in respect.

“Good morning Taicho-sama,” she smiled, looking up at him.

“And good morning to you,” he replied, “Doing some research?” He indicated the book in her hands, to which she responded by quickly hiding it behind her back, a blush upon her face.

“Um, no sir,” she muttered, “Just some studying. I’m... well trying to get better I guess.” The Captain laughed, reaching out to pat her on the head affectionately. He turned and walked away, indicating for her to follow him. Himawari jogged after him, clutching the heavy book to her chest as she fell into step with him. He looked down at her as they walked. He reached over and took the book out of her hands. He flipped it open.

“This all seems rather complex,” he stated, flipping through pages, “For someone just starting to learn about human anatomy, this would hardly be my first choice of book.” Himawari looked down at the ground, as they continued down the path. The Captain led her over to the shade of another tree, this one much further away from the Library building. He sat down in the grass, patting the ground beside him. She sat down as he flipped to a random page.

“The Pectoralis Major: It arises from the anterior surface of the sternal half of the clavicle; from breadth of the half of the anterior surface of the sternum, as low down as the attachment of the cartilage of the sixth or seventh rib; from the cartilages of all the true ribs, with the omission, frequently, of the first or seventh and from the aponeurosis of the abdominal external oblique muscle. From this extensive origin the fibers converge toward their insertion; those arising from the clavicle pass obliquely downward and outwards, and are usually separated from the rest by a slight interval; those from the lower part of the sternum, and the cartilages of the lower true ribs, proceed upwards and laterally, while the middle fibers pass horizontally,” he looked down at her blank face.

“You didn’t understand anything I just said, did you?” he asked her. Himawari shook her head, knowing there was no point in denying the truth. She could have, and being a rather good liar it would have been easy, but that wasn’t the issue here. She needed to improve mentally, and she knew she would have to study hard in order to do that. But when she couldn’t even understand half the terminology used, there was no real point to studying. And admitting that she was struggling was hard, especially since her friends all seemed to cope quite well with it. It was no real surprise that they were all lieutenants and she wasn’t. The Captain closed the book, and handed it back to her. Himawari looked down at the book now in her hand, I am completely thick.

“You spend a lot of time in my barracks,” he stated, the smile never leaving his face. Himawari’s attention shot back to him as he continued on, “And some of your injuries have been quite substantial, haven’t they?” Himawari blushed again.

“Yes sir,” she muttered, embarrassed by her own inability to walk four feet without causing injury to herself. Since her graduation from the Academy, she had had no less than 27 broken bones, 6 damaged organs, one of which had been damaged twice, substantial blood loss, and been knocked completely unconscious at least twice.

“We often have patients from Squad 11,” he told her, “But you are becoming one of our regulars. We’re thinking of setting a bed permanently aside for you.” Himawari’s face turned from pink to red at this statement, her eyes unable to focus on anything but her own feet. Her fellow squad members often told her she should just move into the Squad 4 wards permanently, but she had never even thought that Squad 4 might actually agree with Squad 11!

“Is Squad 11 a place you really want to stay?” the Captain asked her. Himawari looked up at him. Either this guy had been doing some major research into her, was very observant, or just the luckiest guesser in the world. Or perhaps she’d made her feelings about Squad 11 far clearer than she’d realised. She’d always been open about her desire to join Squad 2, at least to anyone whom had asked, but she’d never thought such words would reach the ears of the Captains. It was probably the fact that she’d been so open about her desire that Squad 2 was having so much trouble deciding whether they actually wanted her. She silently cursed herself for making herself know around the Gotei 13, even if it hadn’t been intentional.

“Oh no sir,” she replied, “I was hoping to be moving to Squad 2 soon. But so far...” she looked back down at the ground, her disappointment very clear on her face. He patted her on the head in sympathy, Himawari looking up at him.

“No luck?” the Captain smiled, “Well, Squad 2 are extremely picky about who they let in amongst their ranks. Assassins and all that right. Don’t be surprised if this sort of thing takes time.” Himawari nodded, her eyes fixated once more on the ground. She had already known that her application to Squad 2 was going to take a rather long time to process. But days had become weeks, and were slowly slipping into months. If it didn’t happen soon, Himawari was really scared that it wasn’t going to happen at all. The Captain was either very good at reading facial expressions, or very empathic, because the next thing she knew, his hand was on his shoulder, and he spun her around to face him properly.

“Ok,” he told her, that smile still sat upon his face. Himawari couldn’t help but wonder if it was permanently glued there. “I’ll make a deal with you. You want to improve; I’ll let you come train with my squad. You can improve on your Kidou, and I’ll help you learn more about anatomy. By the time I’m done with you, you will be able to know your way through the human body backwards.” Himawari looked up at him, her eyes widened in shock. Studying with Squad 4 seemed like such a better prospect than having to go through tonnes and tonnes of books, with words she couldn’t even pronounce, and much less understand. She cocked her eyebrow at him, her arms folding across the book held to her chest.

“What’s my end of the deal?” she asked warily. She swore the smile on his face changed from a grin to a smirk as he too folded his arms across his chest.

“We’ll discuss that at a later date,” he replied, holding a hand out for her to shake, “Is it a deal?” Himawari looked down at his hand. She had always been told not to enter a contract until she knew all the details. Gramps had told her that over and over again for the past 2 centuries. The Captain could end up asking her to do anything; did she really want to take that risk? But... it was such a tempting offer. She reached out and shook his hand.

“Deal,” she smiled.

+ 2 intel

Himawari slipped through the open Squad 4 door, not wanting anyone to notice her arriving. Too many people here knew her face, and she didn’t want to be rushed off for a check up before she got to the Captain’s office. But the more corridors she was forced to make her way down, the more and more squad members seemed to appear. It was a huge relief for her as she located the Captain’s office, slipping inside.

“Good Morning.” Himawari jumped and span around to face the Captain, sitting at his desk doing paperwork. Why she hadn’t expected him to be there, she didn’t know, but he’d made her jump none the less. He looked up at her, his eyes glinting over his reading glasses. Damm, he was cute....“Good morning Taicho-sama,” she smiled. He returned her smile, before turning back to his paperwork.

“You’re early,” he stated, getting up and moving over to the large book cabinet. He indicated for her to sit down, before starting to rummage through the top shelf, shuffling books along as he searched for the one he was looking for.

“I thought it would be better if I came sooner rather than later,” Himawari said as she sat down, “if me coming so early is too much trouble, I can come back later.”

“No,” the Captain smiled, looking over his shoulder, “It shows enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is good.” He found the book he was looking for, and returned to the desk, dropping the book on the table in front of him.

“Right,” he said, “We’re going to start from the basics up. I know you’re not an idiot, so we’re not going to go through the basic organs and what they do. But we are going to cover two biological systems: the nervous system, and the circulatory system. By the time you leave here today, you will know how both work.” Himawari swallowed hard; this was going to be a long day.”

“Ok,” he started, “The nervous system. The nervous system allows the body to respond to changes in the environment. This is a process usually coordinated by the brain. Reflex actions are extra-rapid responses to stimuli, and this process also involves the nervous system, but bypasses the brain. The central nervous system - CNS - in humans consists of the brain and spinal cord. When a receptor is stimulated, it sends a signal along the nerve cells - neurones - to the brain. The brain then co-ordinates the response.” He looked up at her.

“Do you understand so far?” he asked her. She nodded; it all seemed like a relatively simple process to understand once it was broken down like that. He continued on:
“Neurones are nerve cells. They carry information as tiny electrical signals. There are three different types of neurones, each with a slightly different function.
1. Sensory neurones carry signals from receptors to the spinal cord and brain.
2. Relay neurones carry messages from one part of the central nervous system to another.
3. Motor neurones carry signals from the central nervous system to effectors.
Where two neurones meet, there is a tiny gap called a synapse. Signals cross this gap using chemicals. One neurone releases the chemical into the gap. The chemical diffuses across the gap and makes the next neurone transmit an electrical signal.”

+1 intel ^^

“I don’t really think this is a good idea,” Himawari told the Captain, looking up at him with a look of great scepticism on her face. When he’d suggested to her that she should go and join the new trainees in the practice wards; she had really thought he was joking. The other trainees were trying to hide their interest, failing quite miserably.

It was certainly an odd sight to behold: the Captain of the 4th Division going over medical techniques with a member of the 11th Squad. The whole thing had more senior squad members stopping at the doorway to look. If she wasn’t so desperate to improve, she probably wouldn’t have endured it.

She looked down at the patient she’d been assigned, a young student from the Academy. He smiled up at her as she examined him. The wounds to the guy’s arm was hardly major, a large number of minor bruising and numerous minor cuts; the results of an overly zealous training session most likely. There was no way on in all of Soul Society that this would work... She turned to face the Captain, her doubts written clearly across her face.

“Sir, when I use Kidou, it’s usually to blast my way through, and to hell with the consequences. This is...” she glanced over her shoulder at the guy’s arm, “...refined. There’s no way this is going to work.” The Captain laughed, spinning her around to face the patient.

“You’ll do great,” he told her, gently nudging her forwards towards the bed. She turned to protest, but he’d already headed to the door, ushering the onlookers away as he left. She looked around at the other trainees, who all quickly turned back to their own patients. She sighed before turning back to the student. She carefully lifted his arm, determined not to do anymore damage to it. How only one of his arms had ended up like this after a fight, she would never know.

“Bakudou #3 First Aid,” she muttered. They were simple wounds, barely noticeable in the long run of things, but that still didn’t mean she was going to let herself mess this up. If she didn’t make sure the skin repaired itself properly, there was always the possibility of scarring. And scarring was only really worth it if the wound had been truly spectacular. The skin was slowly knotting back together, and she was pleased to see that there was so far no scar tissue.

“That’s good work,” Himawari jumped at the sound of a voice, looking up at the girl looking over her shoulder.

“Kaede-chan, you made me jump,” she exclaimed. Kaede laughed. She’d seen Kaede around the academy, back when Himawari was still there, really spoke to her before.

“Sorry sugar,” she smiled, “Didn’t mean to. But you’re careful. That’s good.” She guided Himawari’s hands down towards the patient’s wrist, “But it’s important to heal the places that can cause the most damage first.” Himawari nodded, grateful for some help.

+1 Kidou

“The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain. It sits on top of the rest of the brain, in a similar manner to a mushroom cap covering its stalk. It has a heavily folded grey surface, the pattern of which is different from one person to the next. Some of the grooves in its surface mark out different functional regions.

The front section of the cerebrum, the frontal lobe, is involved in speech, thought, emotion, and skilled movements. Behind this is the parietal lobe which perceives and interprets sensations like touch, temperature and pain. Behind this, at the centre back of your cerebrum, there is a region called the occipital lobe which detects and interprets visual images. At either side of the cerebrum are the temporal lobes which are involved in hearing and storing memory. The cerebrum is split down the middle into two halves called hemispheres that communicate with each other,” Himawari read aloud, sitting up in the tree by the library.

Her studies were going well, her healing abilities now equal with her fellow trainees. Some of the longer words were now making more sense to her, though she still could not fathom how to pronounce half of them. She just knew there were people walking past, giggling as she stuttered for about half an hour over the word “spinocerebellar”.

“The cerebellum is at the back of the brain, below the cerebrum. It is smaller in size than the cerebrum at only one eight of its size. It controls balance, movement, and coordination,” she continued on, determined to finish the chapter before she had to report back to her own barracks, “In order to coordinate motor control, there are many neural pathways linking the cerebellum with the cerebral motor cortex (which sends information to the muscles causing them to move) and the spinocerebellar tract (which provides proprioceptive feedback on the position of the body in space). The cerebellum integrates these pathways, like a train conductor, using the constant feedback on body owning to fine-tune motor movements.”

Ok, she’d always known the brain was intricate, but this seemed to really be pushing it. What was the Captain expecting her to do anyway? Heal part of someone’s brain? That was a prospect that really shook her to her stomach. Deciding she’d probably learnt enough about the brain for the day, she flipped back a few chapters, to revise what the Captain had been going over with her just the previous day.

The circulatory system is an organ system that transports nutrients (such as amino acids and electrolytes), gases, hormones, blood cells, nitrogen waste products, etc. to and from cells in the body to help fight diseases and help stabilize body temperature and pH to maintain homeostasis. This system may be seen strictly as a blood distribution network, but some consider the circulatory system as composed of the cardiovascular system, which distributes blood, and the lymphatic system, which distributes lymph. While humans, as well as other vertebrates, have a closed cardiovascular system (meaning that the blood never leaves the network of arteries, veins and capillaries), some invertebrate groups have an open cardiovascular system. The most primitive animal phyla lack circulatory system. The lymphatic system, on the other hand, is an open system.

That was simple enough to understand; the circulatory system was connected to systems that allowed vitalities to be collected for the system, such as the digestive system and respiratory system. The Captain had gone over it over and over again with her; countless diagrams, various dissections; she hadn’t been all that sure how much she could take. She'd never really liked to think all that much about the damage she was doing to someone’s body during a fight, but she was sure beginning to learn. It was giving some satisfaction that next time she was in a fight; she would know exactly where to thrust her elbow so it would crush her opponent’s voice box, as to keep them from monologing in a fashion that frankly bored her stiff.

+2 intel, Kaiyo ain't talking when she fights you anymore