Day Trip (Flux)

Like the ocean waves the surge of paperwork had receded for the 12th Division. Most of the joint projects involved the updating of services and all new projects were pending review. With a sigh Arawn swiveled in his desk chair and stared at the ceiling. There wasn't anything for him to do, and it was more bothersome than being busy. He had wanted to go down to the warehouse and work on Rover, but there was a slight problem; he had gotten promoted. Once again he had been given a impersonal email telling him he was now the 5th seated officer of the 12th Division. As such he was required to remain in the lab. With great power, comes great responsibility. And his responsibility demanded that he no longer wander about and do what he wanted. While he could annex the warehouse with the lab, but he'd lose the independence he enjoyed. It seemed that rather silly, but to offset this he could set his own hours. Among other perks was the fact Bryce was now working under him. With his help he had shifted into this leadership role quite easily. It wasn't that tricky; rather reporting to the hunchback daily he was reporting to Arawn instead. Simple, right? But as stated everyone had to report to him, so more people bothering him. The real problem was when there was nothing to do, he had even less to do.

Bryce was laughing at his desk. With nothing to do the hunchback was taking part in his own hobby; voyeurism. The man was fond of watching the various camera feeds to watch the Academy training grounds. Arawn admitted to taking part in the activity from time to time, but Bryce did so daily. The string of giggles finally got the better of him and he stood and approached the other man's desk.
"What exactly is so amusing?" Arawn grunted as he got closer, Bryce was grinning from ear to ear as he stared at the monitor. With a series of key presses and a click of the mouse the screen changed.
"Watch this kid, he's picking a fight with a seated shinigmi." the hunchback spoke as the movie started to play again. Arawn expected to see a scene from the sparring field instead he was shown a fight unfolding at the kido training field. His eyes widened as the younger man fired spells at man in the black robes.
"Is he crazy?" Arawn asked genuinely astonished. He'd seen students attack full fledged shinigami before, but not so viciously. The fight didn't last long, but still it left quite an impact. Bryce just laughed and then went about showing other videos where the student did the same to other academy students. "Definitely not a team player." Arawn muttered sarcastically.
"Want to hear something even funnier?" Bryce asked after the red haired man's comments. "He actually graduated not long ago, and is now officially a shinigami." Would wonders never cease? Was there a shortage on shingami? "Check out the comments on his file." The screen changes once again showing detailed information on the shinigami in question. Arawn wondered if Bryce has authorized access to such things and quickly decided not to ask.

The file proved interesting enough for Arawn to become intrigued in the odd fellow called Hyuei. He wanted to see the young man in action, but even with his elevated rank he had little means to call the man to the 12th Division for study. Instead he came upon a compromise; he would go to him. Low ranking shinigmai often were sent on patrols; with Bryce's help it was easy for Arawn to be added to such a patrol. Along with 2 other people he could observe the young man. Within a weeks time he'd get to see meet Hyuei in person. The time seemed to pass slowly. But in that time Arawn busied himself with as best as possible. The day before the patrol he went to sleep early. It was going to be a rather interesting day.

The day of the patrol

Arawn stood at the North gate exiting Seireitei. Only one of them members of the four man patrol has shown up yet. Hyuei and the other member of the unit has yet to show up. Arawn looked just like any other unseated shinigami in his robes, and he introduced himself as such when asked by Krea, the member of the patrol, asked.
"I'm an unassigned to a squad at the moment." he lied. There were too many unassigned people for the man to know them all. He could only nod and smile at the introduction. They could only wait for the last two people to show up, they didn't even bother with small talk.

"Shut your fat face and give it to me!" An order. An order that would not be denied.
"Bu-But, I need-" That was a sentence that would never have an end as Tataki punched the older, yet weaker, Shinigami right in the mouth. He fell back, rolling on his side as he held his mouth.
"Stay out of my way. You're annoying. Next time I see you-" Tataki would slam his right fist into his left palm, "If you don't get what I ask you to get. Get it?" With a kick to the ribs, Tataki was going to be on his way.

"Annoying! So freaking stupid! I mean, how easy is it to get a single book out of the damned library?" Of course, Tataki couldn't get it because he wasn't in the right squad. In fact, being outside of a squad left him with a graduation status, yet no privileges. He was probably worse than an academy student. However, he received a letter not to long ago about someone looking into his situation. The 1st Division. Sure, the 11th Division had did the same, in fact he was being encouraged to head that way, but Tataki favored Kido and didn't want the brutish, moronic 11th division. He'd rather be a student than an idiot like the rest of those barbarians. So, needless to say, getting research materials to improve himself was a chore. Why was it taking so long anyway? Her Personality? Violent Tendencies? Irresponsibility? Abnormal Spiritual Pressure? Moody and Shifty? What did all that have to do with the shitty Gotei? Tataki was baffled that such lame excuses had him in this circling limbo that was being picked. Obviously, the only reason he wasn't dropped was because he could shoot a kido almost as well as some of these halfassed Vice Captains...Halfassed Vice Captains.

His mind drifted a bit, but he calmed down with a sigh. He'd have to find someone else to beat up to get his information. Maybe a 12th Seat this time. Yeah. A 12th Seat would be absolutely perfect.

"Krea, you bitch, you just gonna leave like that?" Tataki demanded, anger flaring up. Though, something distracted him a moment. Arawn. "And you are?" Tataki asked, just before Krea punched him so hard in the head that he almost ate the dirt. Bearly catching himself, kness bent, he stood back up and reared his head up, holding the back of his head.

"Hahaha!" Tataki just laughed it off, genuinely too. This wasn't the first time he'd been under Krea's watchful eye. No. It was probably the 6th or 7th and, after this one task, it was probably going to be the last. Tataki was extra obnoxious to all of them so that they would file a complaint. See, that was the best way to get out of the chores he was running around doing. If being a low seat, or unseated, in a squad was a job full of chores then being out of a squad as a universal helper was just the worst sort of annoying. Pissing off higher ups, while still accomplishing the task, was the best way to get his way. Tataki had thought that far ahead anyway.

So this was the infamous Hyuei? The file Bryce had "acquired" mentioned his violent behavior. It was interesting to behold the man's behavior in person rather than on a computer screen. He was aggressive and overly assertive. Arawn winced as he struck the other man down and berated him about getting a book of all things. It seemed like too much fuss over a small thing, but at this point anything would set him off. It was like he enjoyed being angry and venting said anger on others. When he attempted to do the same to Krea, and received a smack upside his head for his efforts. Arawn did his best to hide his chuckle. It seemed this man had dealt with this man before and knew how to treat him. Being just as assertive was a somewhat effective measure. Hyuei seemed to not press the man further. At his point he was content to be a spectator in this all, but knew he best get involved just enough.

"Arawn; unassigned." he said at length "Well met." Krea gave Arawn a look and then shrugged as he walked to help their final patrol member to his feet. The man was still holding his mouth, the strike to the face has busted his lip. Other than a small trickle of blood he was for the most part fine. Krea examined the wound and then shook his head after giving Hyuei as dark glare.
"You'll be fine, let's head out already before we lose the daylight." he grunted as he adjusted his sword on his hip. "We're going to do a spiral circuit of the 1st district and then come back to Seireitei. " Sounded simple enough, but the district was anything but small. It would be a long trip indeed. That being said Krea began walking not bothering to look back to see if the others were following. Arawn fell into step behind Krea as they started down the road into the street of Rukongai.

OOC: Why is it so dead!?

IC: "Sounds like a freaking chore," Tataki couldn't help but be sightly annoyed. Why were they doing this? A spontaneous hollow attack was going to explode on the surface of Soul Society? Lame. Pointless. If he wasn't told to be here he would have blasted this poor excuse for a squad and went about something productive like training or exercise. This was just a waste of his life. Tataki looked at the new guy a moment before huff of a sigh shot passed his teeth and he was after the others, giving them a bit of a head start.

"Hey, new guy-" Tataki would say, calling over Arawn as the patrol was done. As if Tataki was going to be silent. He hadn't been the passed hours from the last task, why would he be now? "You said unassigned, huh?" Tataki said, his eyes cut half opened in suspicion. "Why does that seem like a shitty lie?" He asked, though mostly just trying to give Arawn a hard time. That was what he did best. To be honest, with Tataki's level of ability, he didn't sense or see anything that made Arawn seem like a liar, but he figured this approach would be at the least entertaining.

"I bet you are some geek'd up nerd looking for a shot at a fast-track, huh? Seen lots of idiots like you. They always die. Have you ever seen anyone die, eh idiot?" Tataki asked, completely provoking. Why not? Tataki felt strong in this group, which was his right. Even over Krea, who out ranked him and, most likely, could run circles around him in kenjutsu and hoho. But, that didn't matter. Even knowing that at the back of his head, Tataki still felt superior.

OOC: Tis the season? This time of year school and work have taken up enough time. But add in the new games that came out and you lose even more people. Skyrim has claimed 3 of my RL friends.

IC: They hadn't traveled very far and the young shinigami began to speak to him. "Quite perceptive of the young man." Arawn said to himself as Hyuei mentioned his weak cover story. It was probably him just being obnoxious, but Arawn had a feeling Krea was already suspicious of him. It didn't take long for an idea to pop into his head; why not come clean?. He slowed down til he was walking next to Hyuei. Looking around as if there was someone watching from the shadows.
"Well the the truth of the matter is I'm a seated officer in the Gotei. I've been secretly watching your exploits via a series of cameras hidden all over Seireitei. I've falsified records to sneak into this patrol to observe you more closely." he said. The other two member of the group stopped walking and stared at Arawn. Suddenly they both broke out in laughter and Arawn joined them. While his cover was quite flimsy the truth was so ridiculous it was unbelievable. As the stood there laughing he took that time to feel out Hyuei's spiritual power. It wasn't spectacular, but still he could seen a rough edge to the power the younger man possessed. The laughing had stopped and Krea started to move again as he wiped the tears from his eyes. They had barely gone a block or more from the gate and people moving past the small group. Some started to stare at the odd group of laughing shinigami. Probably because it was not something they saw often. The rounded a corner onto the next street, it was the first district so there was a multitude of shops lining the way. Between those stores were homes of the people that ran them. One would think this the most peaceful of districts, but all the activity made it a prime target for bandits.