Vacation (Marly)

England, London

After endless weeks of being flooded with a hell of a lot of tedious tasks, such as routine patrols around Karakura, Rukongai, and running around the seireitei, giving pointless reports to every Captain ranked shinigami in the soul society; and as nothing, at all was currently going on in the Soul Society, the reports generally consisted of budget cuts, and the number of squad members in each squad, and a detailed report about each of them. But now all that pointless work had finished, for now, and he was given permission to take a few days off, and enjoy his time off, in the world of the living. Any destination he wanted to go he could, a fair reward the people back at the soul society would say, but Bishamon wasn’t to fond of vacations, but it wasn't his nature to complain, so he took them up on their offer, and he choose to visit, the capital of England, London, he wanted to visit this place, beacuse he wasn't a fan of places, which had the sun beating down on you all day, it was also nice change from the soul society, and now he was here. Being typical English whether, it was cold, damp and gloomy, luckily, he just managed to miss the downpour of rain.

He didn't really know what to do with himself, there weren’t many places he could just take a seat and admire the scenery, so he just walked around for a while, he stuck out like a sore thumb, he was in a gigai, for only the second time, and he didn't take the whether into account when he planned for this trip, so he was dressed in a orange short sleeve top and dark blue jeans. He looked around and saw a lot of people, in coats, wearing scarf’s and gloves; anything to keep them warm really, as Bishamon walked around in his bright orange short sleeve top, crossing his arms for warmth. He knew that he would probably have to take cover somewhere, he didn't have much interest in catching a cold, so he eyed up a small bar, just one hundred metres or so down the road, so he headed for that, although he only had enough money for one or two drinks max.

He entered the bar, and instantly smelt the fumes of cheap cigarettes and the strong smell alcohol. There seemed to be a lot of questionable characters in this place, but Bishamon wasn’t one to judge, so he sat on a bar stool, he looked up at the large barman "what will it be?" the man asked in a deep voice, Bishamon smiled at the man, who showed no emotion back to him "i will have sak..." he remembered that he wasn't in Japan and they don't serve sake here, he stopped for a moment to think, the barman gave him an impatient look, Bishamon rubbed the back o his head nervously "a pint of lager?" He thought that they served that here, the barman gave him a nod, and went to get his drink, he placed the drink clumsily on the bar, spilling a fair bit of it in the process, Bishamon paid the man and took a large gulp of his drink.

Kurama, having just lost his gigai, had to resort to using suppression and invisibility kidos to keep himself from being spotted on his way south way. He wasn't exactly sure what the ruddy fuck had happened back at the bar in Glasgow but he wasn't staying long enough to find out. Kurama had told the others where to find him after he'd been given enough time to fall off the radar, in the meantime they were free to do as they wished...

The rogue captain now found himself standing in front of yet another bar. He could sense some one spiritually aware inside but they didn't seem to be very powerful, else they were just suppressing their spiritual pressure. Despite the fact he was trying not to make himself known to the world, Kurama walked in anyway. He needed to find himself another gigai and chances were that whoever was inside would be wearing one. All he'd really have to do would be to get him or her to jump out of it, defeat them in combat, and take their gigai... except... he wasn't allowed to randomly attack people, else Kurounin Aisu would strip him of his powers... He really should have figured his plan out first.

Kurama was about to turn around and walk out when a guy at the bar seemed to notice him. Well shit, guess I'll have to see how this plays out now... "Uh... hi?"

As he continued to drink his pint until only a small amount remained, he caught a glimpse of someone in the corner of his eye, he turned his head slightly to get a clear look at the man, the white haired man approached him, and he could tell that he noticed him looking, do i know this man? Although he couldn't sense anything from the man, there was something off, about him, he wasn’t wearing a standard shinigami uniform, but he didn't get a good chance to check if he was carrying a zanpakuto, but he thought he was being paranoid, so he just finished off his drink. He sighed, why do people always feel the need to talk to me, am i that approachable

He was about to get another drink, until the white haired man stood only a few yards away from him and said hi, Bishamon paused for a moment, he wasn't good with faces, or remembering names, but he was pretty sure he didn't know this man, he gave an awkward smile to the man "...hi" he was at a loss for words, what is he? I can't ask him if he is a shinigami can i? What if he's not, he opened his mouth about to speak but then stopped for a second "errm, sorry, do i know you?" He asked, as nice and calmly as possible.

"What?" Did this guy really not recognize him? Kurama looked down and noticed he was still wearing the brown poncho he'd picked up to keep himself from getting drenched in the rain. 'Really? What luck!' he thought. "No, I don't suppose so but I was hoping we could chat for a bit. Let's take a walk, unless you want to keep talking to yourself in here." He pointed at the bartender who had taken notice that the guy was talking to someone he couldn't see. The man shook his head and went back to work without saying anything. As the shinigami turned back around, he noticed that Kurama had begun walking towards the door, proceeding to phase through it.

The man was in fact a shinigami, Bishamon was surprised, even though he did have his suspicions about him, a walk didn't really interest him as he just sat down, but he wasn't going to refuse the shinigami, and he pointed out the fact that humans couldn't see him, so it appeared as though he wasn't talking to anybody, he let out a chuckle, as the barman turned away. Bishamon nodded at the shinigami, as he didn't want to look like he was talking to himself again. He followed the shinigami out, he thought it was a bit strange that someone he didn't know wanted to talk to him, but he didn't appear to be dangerous, well that’s what he hoped.

When he caught up to him, he kept a smile on his face "my name is Bishamon Saitou by the way, so what do you want to talk about?"

Kurama stopped and turned as the man caught up with him. "From your uniform I take it you are in Kaoseu's squad, am I right? My name is Kevin Bates." He didn't think giving out his own name would be a wise idea, so he took on the persona of the wandering psychic detective he used back in Scotland. "I take it you're on vacation leave, so I'm sorry that I'm bothering you but I'm kind of in a tight squeeze right now and I think you may be able to help me. See I'm a member of Squad Ten, the investigation unit, and I'm unable to contact my comrades. I am currently working on an investigation of the utmost importance and I require a disguise in order to continue on. Would you mind terribly if I commandeered your gigai? You can still enjoy the sights without one technically and it'd only be for a day or so..."

Kurama wasn't sure if this story would work for him. He wasn't the best liar so he decided to sprinkle some truth on it to make the whole thing go down easier. Though mentioning his Squad might have been a bad idea... Surely the man would have heard of their confinement to their barracks and their missing captain. If this jogged his memory at all, things may end up going south... Kurama casually pushed back one side of the poncho enough to let the hilt of his zanpakuto stick out, though he was careful to keep the haori from sight. He rested his hand casually on the tip of his hilt and smiled, hoping he'd be able to get away with this without another fight.

Bishamon stopped, as the man could tell what squad he was in, he wasn't to surprised, the uniform was a giveaway, however he did find it a bit odd that someone would refer to his captain by his first name, but he didn't think much of it "heh, yep" he continued walking, and listened to the man talk about a mission he was on, his story was odd to say the least, and he wanted to borrow his gigai, which was a weird request, he didn't really mind too much if he didn't have his gigai or not, the problem was, he didn't want to lend it to someone, who came out of nowhere.

Bishamon thought about what he said, his story was strange, but it was believable. "Errm, well i suppose i could give you my gigai, but do you mind telling me your seat in squad 10 and what happened to your previous gigai" this man would probably have to be a high ranking shinigami if this mission was as important as he said, and therefore, Bishamon would of at least heard his name, and he defiantly has never heard of a Kevin Bates; he isn’t very good with names, but Kevin Bates was an unusual name so he defiantly would of recognised it. The story didn’t seem to add up, but he could of been using an alias, which would make sense if the mission was an undercover one, but that sounded like something for squad 2.

'Shit! This guy was going to make me lie now...' Kurama thought for a second. The 3rd seat in his squad was currently vacant but he might be able to make up a believable lie if he was careful about what he said next...

"Well, you're not to know this, but my need for a replacement gigai currently outweighs my need for secrecy. I am the third seat of Squad Ten, a thought to be absent seat but in truth my identity has been concealed from all but the highest ranking shinigami in the Soul Society." He let that sink in for a moment, studying the shinigami's reaction to see if he believed him. "To answer your question about my previous gigai... let's just say it got a little too hot back there..." Kurama thought about the charred corpse of his last gigai. 'What a shame...' He still wasn't sure exactly how he'd been found but he shook off the thought, right now he needed to focus on the task at hand.

"If you help me, I'll be sure to mention your name in my report when I return... There could be a promotion in it for you..."

3rd seat, eh? I didn't know they had someone in that position in squad 10, but his reason for that does make sense. Bishamon didn't really know what to do, if he was the 3rd seat, he would be pretty much be going against an order from a higher ranked shinigami, even though he's in another squad, but on the other hand, if he was lying about what he said, he would get hell from the people back at the soul society for giving away his gigai, and it would make him look stupid for believing such a lie.

He couldn't think of any more questions to ask the man, he got little information off him, but all of it answered his questions, [i]the only thing he could do now, was make small talk and hope something would slip out that he wasn't suppose to hear. "Well, i guess you can have my gigai, it's a pain anyway, but that promotion stuff doesn't interest me" he smiled at the man, "so, how did you lose contact with your squad? If you don't mind me asking" there wasn't much more he could ask, if the shinigami was lying from the start Bishamon couldn't tell, so if he carried on lying, Bishamon probably would believe it.

Kurama grinned as the man agreed to "lend" him his gigai. "My squad? Well I tried to phone in on a line that only the Captain and Lt. have access to but there was no response from either of them. It might just be that they are both in a position that doesn't allow for them to communicate with me. Do you know anything about what they are up to in the Soul Society?" Kurama continued his conversation with this Bishamon character, hoping that he might learn something about the situation his Squad was currently in. Maybe they'd been released? This man didn't seem suspicious about why a member of Squad 10 was still carrying out missions despite the lock down...

Bishamon didn't really concern himself too much with other squads, so he didn't really know too much, "i think there still in lock down..." he stopped for a second, if they are in lock down, shouldn't this shinigami also be there, but i suppose he could of been on this mission for a while, and didn't hear what happened to his squad, but it couldn't hurt to ask. "You do know about the allegation surrounding squad 10 and its captain right, so why aren't you in lock down like your other squad members?" There were a few reasons he could give him, for all Bishamon knew, squad 10 could of been released by now. But any information he could give Bishamon was useful, considering he would have to explain what happened to his gigai, when he got back to the soul society.

"I'm not sure what you mean. I haven't heard of any kind of lock down. It's possible that they looked over me since I'm not a widely known about squad member... Or maybe they see my mission as more important and await my return before including me in this lock down. What allegations did you say surrounded my squad?" Kurama put on a face that looked worried, quizzical, and serious all at once. As if he wanted to know the answer, but at the same time feared it... Though in the depths of his mind he was simply collecting the updated information on his squad, not feeling much emotion at all.

Bishamon was surprised that any shinigami, hadn't heard about this, especially how he was in squad 10, Bishamon didn't really want to be the one to tell him about this, but it couldn't be helped. "Well, you know about captain O'Nocht's death, well captain Kurama killed him, and now he's gone rogue, in the meantime squad 10 have had their zanpakuto's confiscated, and been confined to their barracks, whilst they continue to investigate it. Of course, i'm in the dark about most of the details, so i might be missing a few details here and there" he gave it a chance to sink into the shinigami, "to be honest, i'm surprised there not out looking for you, to at least inform you about this."

Bishamon certainly didn't enjoy, telling him about the misfortunes of his squads, he would hate something like that happening to his squad.

"Well, my mission would be compromised if random shinigami were crawling around looking for me." Kurama didn't seem to react to the new of his supposed captain murdering another captain of the gotei 13. If the careful observer were watching for his reaction they would surely find this odd. "At any rate, I must return before my window of time expires. If you would please exit your gigai I'll be on my way..." Kurama had all the information he felt he was going to derive from this lad, now it was time to make haste and flee the town before he was spotted by a random patrol.

"I suppose you have a point." He was slightly surprised that he didn't show much emotion to what had happened, if this was the first time he heard about it. But Bishamon had met plenty of shinigami's who didn't show their emotions, and just because he's in squad 10, he doesn't necessarily have to like his captain, so that wasn't very suspicious. And now there wasn't any more time for questions, as the shinigami said he had to go, "err, right, sorry for keeping you" he clumsily got out of his gigai, it was a bit of a struggle, but it was always like that, once he got out the lifeless gigai, it fell to the ground, Bishamon looked around to make sure nobody saw it collapse, luckily there was no one around, he let out a sigh of relief.

"Okay, it's all yours, errm good luck with your mission, and, i will see you around i guess" he tilted his hat forward, and gave him a nod, and then began to walk off in the opposite direction.

Kurama waited for the lad to leave before entering the gigai. "That was far too easy..." He smiled to himself as he adjusted the outfit. Once again he was taller in the gigai, making his depth perception fall out of whack, but he'd gotten used to it the past few days so it didn't make him nauseous anymore. "Still much to slow though..." he said to himself.

"There you are you bastard!" Kurama slightly jumped at the sound of the angry voice shouting from behind him. He whirled around to see the bartender from a few minutes ago chasing after him. 'Oh god! He didn't pay his bill!' Kurama began sprinting off to his right, jumping into the only alleyway that was nearby. He ran straight into a dead end and attempted to run up the wall, though not being able to pick up enough speed in this body, began to slip halfway up the ten foot slab of brick. Kurama caught the rim with one hand before falling backwards, though instead of slipping, he found that the strength in his hands was at least halfway decent, enough to climb the rest of the way over at least.

"Dammit, that was too close! I gotta get the hell out of here..."