A Spot Of Late Night Team Building Exercises

[Bobbie]

Lenalee #8

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Lenalee sighed as she stood in the water, pulling at her dress that was all soaked now. “Yes, you very much are allowed.” She grumbled in response, but then smiled and rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay, riddles… Good, this should be easy then, because I really want to get out of here quickly.” The short and very clearly unhappy girl muttered and listened to the first riddle while she scanned the area she was in.

Shiro had already stated that there were three riddles, so it made sense that there were three chambers for her to enter and presumably complete whatever task must be hidden inside or perhaps retrieve something. Whatever the challenge was, surely it depended on answering the riddle correctly, and the water that was down here had to be here for a reason. The thought of the space filling with water crossed Lena’s mind but she quickly shook the terrifying thought away to focus and not let her fears overcome her. Still, things could be worse… at least there seemed to be no other living creatures down here apart from her, so she didn’t need to worry about that.

“Restrictive, red, deceptive, uhhh, Geki! That one’s obvious, it paralyses, it’s red energy, and the name literally means strike. This is the blue one, right?” she asked as her eyes fixed on the sign at the top of one of the three entrances. A gentle blue glow seemed to come from the stone corridor with the label to match her answer.

Taking a deep breath, she walked into the little alcove, her legs splashing through the water as her tiny little toes gripped the wet, mossy floor beneath her feet. “Okay, but what do I… is it just the spell?” she thought out loud until she suddenly came to a stop as she was staring at a six by six grid with a couple of numbers filled in while other spots had their number tiles taken out. Her confusion was only momentary as she soon realised that each row and column did not have any repeated numbers from one to six and after softly murmuring numbers seemingly at random, the tiles were all fitted in perfectly and the board sank into the pedestal it was placed in. “Done! That should be the blue one… next.”

Emerging from the cave, she listened to the next riddle and easily figured out that was Byakurai, entering the corridor more confidently to solve whatever puzzle was in there, but when the third riddle came, she paused. “What? That’s either Keikatsu or Meiyu, I presume Keikatsu since Meiyu is the superior cousin to it… but they’re both well ahead of our level. They’ve barely even been mentioned to us in the academy, how were you even supposed to figure this one out?” Without even realising what it was, Lenalee’s vicious defence of Shiro, so very different from the usual mockery or insults that came from her mouth, was finished with an irritated huff.

“This better not be something ridiculous.” Entering the last chamber, she was quite pleased to find that she was not expected to carry out any ambitious spells. Instead, she simply needed to pick up a piece of paper. “Healing comes in many forms, without spells and after storms…” she read out loud, “I don’t understand what this means.”

Frustrated, she crumpled the paper and turned to leave, just as there was suddenly a loud rumbling sound to stop her in her tracks and a few little stones came loose from the ceiling. A mere second later, the walls gave way to little openings and loud splashing could be heard, but it wasn’t only water that came pouring through the holes and causing the pond’s water level to rise. No, it was something far worse - along with the water, in came a flowing river of snakes.

With a shrill scream, Lenalee bolted toward the opening from where she originally came, nearly slipping several times on the moss that had formed on the wet stone. “Shiro!” Moving as quickly as she could in the water, she hastily climbed into the tunnel, dragging herself through the impossibly tight space, but she only made it so far before she found that she was stuck. “Snakes! Shiro there are snakes!” This was a fear that she simply couldn’t brush aside as little Lena cried out, hysterically. “I’m stuck! The tunnel became narrower and I can’t get through!” she clawed at the dirt that came loose and caused the enclosure to narrow, desperately trying to drag herself forward as she knew the rising water level reached the entrance of the tunnel when the cold water touched her toes and was rapidly getting deeper. “Shiro, please help me, I can’t get out! I can feel the water, they're going to reach me!”

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Lenalee: #54d5e3

[Gaz]

Shiro #9

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As Lenalee worked on the riddles that he had read to her and noticed the lights flickering on after completing the trials associated with those tests he smiled. He looked around the room trying to find the last test, the one that would unlock the door and get the pair their freedom. Hardly any time had passed since they had started and if they were quick, they could get back to their beds and have a nice long night’s rest before the exam in the morning.

“I’m just going to check something out the door is going to close for a minute, okay? I think I spotted the last puzzle.” Shiro announced confidently as he let go of the shelf and started to move to the other side of the room by the TV. There had to be something to do with this contraption, there were nobs and dials on it there must be a form of logic to it.

The tall Shinigami had a smile on his face as he heard Lenalee working through the final trial, it was to do with healing or something… it was well out of Shiro’s league and even Lenalee seemed to struggle. As she backhand defended him, he chuckled. “Selling me short Lena?”

The sounds of rumbling and rushing water could be heard without even the speakers playing them, the microphone cut off and the piercing scream could still be heard as Lenalee was faced by a nightmare worthy scenario. He heard his name called as adrenaline took over him and heightened his senses the tiny sounds of splashes as she panicked below and moved to escape. Shiro vanished and in a moment appeared to yank down the shelf with all his strength. It moved down hard and fast to the point it clicked then ripped out of the wall. In the next breath he moved to get to the trapdoor.

A second shout, there were snakes, and the fear could be heard in it. The trapdoor slammed shut due to the shelf being ripped off. Though it appeared that the clicking was the water stopping its flow into the subterranean room. “Crap!” He swore, the trapdoor was metal there was no way he was cutting through it.

The third shout made thought leave the young Shinigami as his hand reached for his zanpakuto and drew it in a rapid motion. The floor below him was wood and the fact he could hear Lenalee struggle beneath meant that the ceiling to the tunnel was close. With the fourth shout and the call for genuine help he focussed his Reiatsu along his blade and sliced once, twice… no three times as he nimbly cut a long triangle out of the floor. He pointed the blade into one spot and with a wordless yell focussed all of his Reiatsu down the blade to press the tip of the triangle of floor down making the opposite side rise into the air and revealing Lenalee.

His blade stayed in one hand as the Shinigami went to one knee and offered the other to his companion in this. “I got you! Don’t worry. It’s over now.” He said, doing his best to replace his composure and failing as his eyes kept the stormy severity.

“Now that WAS flashy my boy. You can call me. #@&*’:$!” The formless voice spoke, then stopped. “It seems you’re just not able to hear it yet… Don’t worry you’ll know my name when you need it.”

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Shiro: 7319e6

[Bobbie]

Lenalee #9

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Before Shiro reached her, Lenalee was in complete panic as she felt the water pass her ankles, and with it, several snakes crawl up along her feet and legs. Frantically kicking, she tried to look back and see the vicious creatures, but the limited space prevented her from twisting around enough to get a good view. Nevertheless, whether she could see the slithering snakes or not, she was sure that she could feel them and hear them in the water.

When the ceiling above her suddenly cracked open and Shiro’s hand reached for her, she forced her body to move and take his hand, pulling herself up with his help and out of the dreadful snake-infested water.

The second she was out of the narrow passageway, she immediately swatted at her ankles despite there being nothing on them, before she threw herself at her companion and wrapped her arms around him. Completely petrified of snakes, she was so desperate to get away from them that she didn’t even want the ground to be a channel for them to reach her, so her tiny little toes were pressed into Shiro’s feet instead as she stood on tiptoes and buried her face into him. “They’re crawling on my legs, get them off me! Get them off me!” She cried into his chest as she just barely reached it. While her words were muffled into his clothing, they were clear repetition of the same phrase over and over again, pleading with her friend to get the snakes off her - although there seemed to be none anywhere near the opening that he had just made, let alone on her body.

Perhaps the irony in her repeated request was that she was squeezing Shiro so tightly that it might have been quite difficult for him to move, but the girl was so tense that her arms were locked around him and there was no letting go. The only movement that she dared to make was of her shoulders as she continued to cry hysterically, overwhelmed by fear, and the trembling and twitching of her muscles.

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Lenalee: #54d5e3

[Gaz]

Shiro #10

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The young Shinigami stood tall as he felt the full weight of Lenalee press into his side, her arms wrapping around his body as tight as they could. It was as if she was trying to climb him to get away from the snakes that weren’t slithering up her. The sniffling and tears coming from the young woman that was broken by the incident shook him. Lenalee was meant to be the hot tempered cold hearted one of the group… here she was nothing more than a scared child and it hurt to see her like this.

“Shhh shhh.” He whispered, his free hand now around her back and gently patting her. The hand holding his weapon carefully shifted and with the spine of the sword he brushed her legs to trick her tricked mind back into reality. “There’re no snakes, you don’t have to worry now. They are all gone.” He spoke in a soft, practised tone. Having lived in an orphanage all of his life before the academy he knew how to calm those that had a nightmare so terrifying it brought them to real tears.

“That’s not fair Captain.” He announced, shifting his gaze into the TV where they saw Captain Azai Saeki earlier. He was dubious that a woman as smart and thorough as herself wouldn’t install microphones for herself and her team to monitor the pair in these trials. The pair that linked the shelf and the tunnel complex below were all the proof he needed.

“Captain you are a cruel monster for putting your own daughter in this! Why?!” He called, the storm in his eyes now affecting his booming voice as he managed to make spoken words rumble like a shout. “Why did you even make this? Did you just get bored and start throwing it together and no one had the guts to say no? Is your squad full of cowards that won’t stand up to you?” He carried on. Even he heard the rumours that floated around the seireitei about how squad 12 was led by a mad scientist and the people too scared to say no to her. This just proved those all right to Shiro.

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Shiro: 7319e6

[Bobbie]

Lenalee #10

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It wasn’t until Shiro pretended to brush off any snakes that were slithering up Lenalee’s legs that the girl finally calmed down a little bit, but was clearly still very upset as although her grip on him loosened, she still didn’t let go. Her cries stopped, but she would sniffle every now and then, and she refused to raise her head, embarrassed about how she clung to him, and was still clinging to him.

She had to admit, it was a feeling that she wasn’t used to but she quite liked it. It might not have been by choice, but placing her trust in somebody else to keep her safe, even if only for a moment, was a relief. For just that moment, Lenalee felt she could relax and leave things in somebody else’s hands while knowing that she would be kept from harm's way.

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Meanwhile, on the other side of the screen, Captain Azai Saeki watched on, a subtle but proud smile on her face - proud of herself for what she’d accomplished, of Shiro for having the courage to stand up to her, and of her daughter for letting her walls crumble.

Reaching forward to press a button that would turn on the screen in their escape room, the woman suddenly paused and let her finger hover over the switch for a moment.

Of course, he was right. She had microphones in the room. Perhaps he was also right to call her a cruel monster, but if she were to ever let words like that strike her down, then she would have never reached the title she currently held. A woman like her doesn't become a captain with soft kindness, things were never that simple for her. “Yes, perhaps I am, Tagachi... but every cruel monster needs a little imp to sit on their shoulder every now and then and ruin their fun.” Having never pressed the button, her words did not go through. Chuckling, she let her hands glide over what was referred to as a keyboard in the human world, with a wondrous amount of keys on it with letters and symbols. Practiced in the art, she typed something very quickly into the system and the television screen turned on, a brightly coloured background with a message displayed in the centre that read, ‘Please continue with your challenges. Any complaints and concerns can be left in the suggestion box upon your exit from the room, on the left hand side of the door.’

The dreaded suggestion box that humans all seemed to hate, though she could never understand why, was indeed hanging outside the room in the form of a letter box. Feedback is the best - the only - way to improve a system and to improve oneself. A suggestion box sounded excellent to her.

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Lenalee finally pulled away from Shiro, her gaze fixed on the floor, a puddle forming beneath her from her dripping dress and hair. Taking a deep breath and realising that enough was enough, she finally turned to look Shiro dead in the eye. The break was nice, but now it was time for that hot-tempered, fearless girl to return.

“First of all, thank you.” She said in a powerful voice that provided heavy contrast with the behaviour displayed just moments ago and the tear stains that were still present on her cheeks, yet there was a determined look on her face. “Secondly, if you tell anyone that I’m afraid of snakes or about what just happened, I will cut you into little ribbons while you sleep.” Despite her threat, however, the girl had a little smile on her face - of course, she wouldn’t do such a thing, but his silence would be greatly appreciated. Then her smile grew into a smirk, “Thirdly, where’s that last challenge you said you found? We’ve got an exam to ace and we can’t be wasting our time here getting too friendly with each other.”

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Lenalee: #54d5e3
Captain Azai Saeki: #bd9ac4

[Gaz]

Shiro #11

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Shiro could feel Lenalee calming down after his shouts to try and rile the captain that shoved them in this position. This was a horrid position for her to be in, but it seemed that she was easing now and that was good. She had seen a parental side to him he had gained when caring for all of the kids in the orphanage with Sammie.

With a mischievous smile and three points to be made Lenalee asserted herself back to a state of confidence. It was good to see her bounce back so well after that sort of ordeal, she was really resilient. “First, no problem.” He replied gaining a cheeky smirk of his own, looking down as she peeled away and left a large damp patch on his uniform. Wow she really was soaked to the bone because of that.

“Secondly I would never tell a soul, I like sleeping in peace and in one none ribbon piece.” He replied, replacing his sword back into its sheath to reset himself and cool off. The danger had passed and the angry outburst was enough to cool his jets.

“I think the monitor with the words on it is the final puzzle.” He stated before making a move over to the large device that had buttons and twisty nobs on it. “It is so obvious that we would ignore it to look for something that would not be this obvious… if you can understand my logic.” He spoke, twisting one of the nobs until it clicked and made a channel appear playing a animated show from the world of the living. A Buccaneer traversing vast sea looking for a treasure to make himself the Buccaneer Shogun, Singular Item. Another twist and the channel changed after it clicked again. He was putting a lot of effort in to twist it.

The unit itself had a series of numbers faintly printed onto it that no one could see until they were basically right on top of the unit. “We just need to figure this out and then we can go out and to bed…” Shiro explained, patting the TV monitor a few times. “After I give your mum a piece of my mind.”

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Shiro: 7319e6

[Bobbie]

Lenalee #11

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Lenalee was happy to move on, though the wet patch that she left on his uniform brought another giggle forward, which she promptly silenced as she raised a hand to her lips and pretended to cough.

“Right, the monitor,” she followed him to it and watched him twist the knobs with such force that she feared he was going to break them. Sure, Shiro may have displayed a gentler side, revealing that it was possible for him not to destroy anything he touches, but that didn’t make his hands any smaller, and his fingers looked monstrous as they squeezed the mechanism on such a machine that looked comparably robust in her hands, yet so delicate in his.

“How are we supposed to know what position to leave it turned on?” her attention was grasped by the animated show, but Shiro twisted the knob again and just like that the show was gone and she was staring at grainy, meaningless static. She hummed softly as she got down on her knees and sat on her feet right in front of the screen, one hand in her lap while the other was raised to tap her chin.

Suddenly leaning forward as her fellow prisoner patted the monitor, she squinted to shield her eyes from the bright light from the screen while she focused on the knobs and buttons. “There are numbers.”

Pulling her face away from right in front of the monitor, she hummed once more, then smiled, “When you turned it on number three, there was the silly animated show, but while on the other numbers, there was only static.” What that meant, she had no idea, but it had to be that way for a reason. Reaching over to a second knob, she began to turn it, her little fingers straining against its resistance, but as she made it to number three to match the other one and let go, both dials suddenly snapped back to their default position on zero with a loud chink and a click that came from behind them as well as the device as the screen turned off. “Whoops… so I’m guessing it’s some kind of combination.”

The girl’s tone shifted into one of confusion as she tilted her head, her eyes fixed on the screen that was switched off, but she could see writing on what looked like a floating doll with a note that appeared to be written backwards in very messy handwriting:

n3hT 33rHt MoR4 qu TnUo)'
‘!3M bNid bNa 3Mo)

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Lenalee: #54d5e3

[Gaz]

Shiro #12

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Shiro did his best to follow and figure out how to solve this puzzle he even took a step back to really ponder as he stood tall. The dials were stiff and needed some real effort to move, only channel 3 had anything on it and the volume nob did nothing when it was twisted. What could it mean?! His head was whirring away as Lenalee took control to get the animated show back on. Then she shifted the volume dial to 3 as well.

Everything clicked and the TV reset back to how it was with a reflection in it. Shiro shifted and saw the doll that just floated there with the note and smiled an uneasy smile. “The answer is 4.” He said with a confidence and sureness that overflowed from him as he kneeled down behind Lenalee and reached over to twist the channel to 3 and then the volume up to one and then pushed them in.

The clicked worked and the TV shifted channel shifted and started to play a musical beat from the world of the living. Something unsettling and fast paced. It confused Shiro for just a moment as he felt a sharp pain and a heavy thud in his back. As he fell backwards and looked up, he could see the doll moving above. The mouth opened and it let out a blood curdling screech that made the colour drain from his face. This was not real… was it? There was no way Captain Saeki could know of this deep-rooted fear that he had only ever told Sammie.

With wide eyes a fight or flight sensation overwhelmed him, and a strange mixture came as a reaction. At a blinding speed using Hohō he appeared at the other side of the room with his zanpakuto drawn. “Don’t you dare!” He yelled, looking past the doll and into the TV. “CAPTAIN NO! THIS ISNT FAIR!”

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Shiro: 7319e6

[Bobbie]

Lenalee #12

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Lenalee watched Shiro lean over her and reach for the knob to turn it onto the correct combination of three and one to make a total of four. “What? How did you know?” she asked, confused, and then looked at the screen, which was of course no longer off and the image within it disappeared, being replaced with the silly animated show once more. It was at this point that she realised it was only a reflection that she was staring at and the girl whipped her head around just as Shiro fell back onto the ground.

The doll’s screech gave her a fright as the silence was suddenly filled, but what really startled her the most was Shiro’s reaction, prompting her to quickly rise to her feet. “What? What is it!?” swiftly raising an arm with a hand extended for a kido spell, the shinigami readied herself for an actual threat to make itself known, but all she was met with was a doll that began laughing hysterically and Shiro yelling at the television.

“Then come and bind me…” she quietly read the message attached to it that she could see clearly now, “Oh! It’s Bakudo number 4… We’re finally getting out of here, Shiro! O power that tries souls, shine and show your wrath!” she recited the incantation and a yellow rope materialised in her hands before she flung it at the laughing doll.

However, what Lenalee did not expect was for the little monster to suddenly lunge to the side with a playful wave but a devious chuckle, then it proceeded to chase after Shiro into his corner of the room.

Lenalee’s jaw dropped - for one thing, she never missed. Secondly, it was fast! Shaking her head, she repeated the same incantation and tried again, but the nasty little thing seemed to effortless evade all of her attempts to capture it without even having to try, as its focus was all entirely on tormenting Shiro.

“Okay, you slippery little mouse!” She growled through her teeth and recited the incantation one last time, but this time didn’t throw the rope. She waited for the doll to dart toward Shiro before she would suddenly kick the ground and appear between them, rope in hand. In one swift motion, the rope was wrapped around the doll, binding it and immobilising it as the ugly hand-sewn thing began wailing on the floor. “What the hell?”

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Lenalee: #54d5e3

[Gaz]

Shiro #13

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Shiro dodge, ducked and dived to avoid the sweeping attacks of the crazed flying doll. It was if it was aiming for him specifically! He managed to scramble into a corner and cursed, every time he took a swing at the little nightmare it dodged. “Bakudo?” Shiro replied to Lenalee as she was deducing the final part to this little test. It was good that she was working on the issue in a way that he could not, it just needed to be a little faster.

Vanishing in a burst of speed the young Shinigami appeared standing beside the TV. The horror shifted and moved to strike again, then again as Shiro dodged. It wasn’t just dodging him now but Lenalee’s spells!

“Really!?” He called again before jumping back from another attack and witnessing the small Shinigami woman finally catching their objective. The sounds it was making as it wailed on the floor pierced Shiro like a sharp knife in the back. Now it was still he stepped forward and thrust his blade down and pierced it multiple times. “GO! BACK! TO! HELL!” Each string had a grunt of exertion as he put his all in to making sure it was dead.

On the fourth attack the final lock on the door clicked and it swung open, letting the spiritual pressure in the room finally escape. Shiro didn’t realise how much he was letting out in his anger and fear. To anyone that wasn’t used to it, it must have been suffocating. With face red and eyes full of a raging storm Shiro let out a long sigh to cool himself off. “Never, Ever, do anything with creepy dolls.”

A series of people had entered the room with clipboards and different devices to start scanning and Shiro had not noticed a single one of them… they were avoiding specifically him for some reason, why was that? Before when he was dragged in they looked at him with an air of pity… now they avoided eye contact.

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Shiro: 7319e6

[Bobbie]

Lenalee #13

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Watching Shiro completely lose it and stab a doll with such passion was truly something to remember. Lenalee stared at him for a moment, not out of fear, but rather sympathy, as for him to react in such a way must mean he had been through something traumatic. He didn’t need to tell her twice and she instantly nodded. “I would never,” she replied, with a gentle smile. No matter how badly she ever wished to mess with him, at that moment she made a promise to herself and to him that it would never ever involve any creepy dolls.

When the door opened, she turned around and her attention went to the open passageway, her face lighting up. “We did it!”

However, as people entered the room with their clipboards, she frowned in annoyance as her excitement was quickly lost. If they planned to take any notes, she sure as hell was not going to sit around and be their test subject for an interview - they had been through enough. “Come on.” Without thinking about it, Lenalee’s little hand grabbed Shiro’s larger one and she stomped out of the room while pulling him behind her, small little footprints being left behind her from the wet soles of her feet. Marching right past a hanging metal box on the wall outside the door, on the right hand side, just as Captain Saeki said it would be, she only paused at the end of the corridor when the girl’s mother stepped out into view with a single click of her heels that indicated each step.

“Well done. Out of the total time limit of twelve hours, you both made it out in only thirty-six minutes and forty-two seconds precisely.” The woman who stood tall before them held some device in her hand that beeped as she pressed a button. “Very impressive.” Despite the emotions that had been flying in the room, her demeanour was calm and collected, her own amusement very well hidden behind a rather monotone voice and cool eyes. “As with anything still in development, your feedback will be appreciated after this first trial. You are welcome to write anything down and leave it in the suggestion box that I’ve mentioned earlier.” A skinny finger with a blue painted nail was extended to point back down the corridor behind them.

The woman paused as a cold air seemed to surround her and for just a brief moment, a fraction of a second, her icy facade was broken by a hint of a smirk. Her next words sent a chill down her daughter's spine.

"I hope you found this experience as fruitfully eye-opening as I did."

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Lenalee: #54d5e3
Captain Azai Saeki: #bd9ac4

[Gaz]

Shiro #14

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A little hand grasped at Shiro’s free one, his blade still quivering as his eyes locked on to the eviscerated doll remains, the kido having been broken by the sheer brutality of his attacks. He followed as his arm was pulled gently and didn’t realise that they had left the room properly until the metal box cut off his vision of the horror. Then he shook his head, coming out of his trance. Was that feet in high heels?

Captain Saeki’s voice filled the corridor, and he rounded his gaze in her direction, her monotone teasing of the pair seemed to echo just right to give her an otherworldly air. Shiro frowned at her, the time seemed to be respectable. If that was designed to take twelve hours and they bested it in a little under forty minutes, then she had some real issues. Now she was asking for feedback and stating how eye opening it was with that cruel smirk of hers?!

“Sure, I’ve got some feedback for you. What mad scientist willingly throws their own daughter into a pit of her worst fear and smiles?” He asked, sliding his zanpakuto away. He could never fight a captain, not at this level. She was too strong and could kill him in a flash. No, this entire thing was suicide, but for the true friendship he had made tonight he had to do it. It wasn’t right what she did.

“Your guess on how long it took was so far off it actually makes me happy! You considered Lenalee to be so bad at what she excels at that you thought she could fail at something like this?” He asked rhetorically, he knew he was no good at halve of the puzzles that were there, he just wasn’t smart enough. “Those tunnels it’s almost like you designed this with Lenalee in mind. You are just a cruel mad witch; did anyone stop to question you? Or did you just carry on because everything you do is right?”

As he carried on his sword hand grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil. The scrawling continued for a few moments before the pencil snapped in half and he folded the paper up. He carefully grabbed at his companion’s hand and pulled her past the captain and pushed the paper against her hands. “Here’s your suggestion. If this is how all captains are then I don’t want to be a Shinigami.”

On the paper Shiro had written: “Get someone who can call you out on your stupidity.”

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Shiro: 7319e6

[Bobbie]

Lenalee #14

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Despite everything that the girl had just been put through, Lenalee offered a very gentle smile when her mother read the time on her device, congratulating them for making it out so quickly. She felt proud - she had successfully impressed her mother, the cold Captain Azai Saeki! The one figure in all the world that little Lena would ever want to prove herself to. Looking up at her mother, her hair still wet but no longer dripping, but was only met with the subtle nuance of an unemotional smirk.

Then Shiro’s voice shattered her twisted sense of pride and she turned to look at him as he spoke so aggressively. Her hand was still clasped in his and for a moment she couldn’t understand why he was so angry at her mother. She’s a captain after all, she has to do what’s necessary for the good of progression - her division specifically specialises in that sort of thing, experimenting with all sorts of devices and mechanisms to improve the quality of their own lives and of those that they can save. Sure, she had a twisted way of doing things, as Lenalee herself exclaimed in her recent outburst, but that had passed. On top of that, not only was she a captain, but she was… well… there was no other way to put it, her mother had difficulties in behaving like a caring mother in the conventional way. There were no hugs and kisses, rarely ever any concerns voiced over her safety and wellbeing, little interest in her actual life verbally expressed, and certainly no kind but dishonest words intended to offer support as some mothers sometimes offered. Lenalee had learnt to live with a woman like that without questioning her care for her because she could always see it in her eyes, the cold stare that shocked other lookers had a whole different meaning to the girl. That was not to say that she never felt what Shiro just expressed.

Captain Azai’s smirk gradually faded as she listened to Shiro’s verbal onslaught, though she stared on, unblinking, meeting his gaze as if not a single word that he said had the power to cut through her. Though it did. It was her greatest shortcoming that she couldn’t connect with her own flesh and blood the way most individuals would be able to, as her mother, but all she could do was hope that Lenalee understood her desire to in spite of it being very poorly displayed. She was usually confident that the girl knew this, but at this current moment, the silence that came from her little girl's mouth planted a seed of doubt in the Captain’s mind, and it infuriated her.

Internally, the captain screamed at the arrogance in this young and ungrateful student - a mere insignificant worm whose presence in this academy was nothing short of a luxury, a charity done to him by nobody but herself who dared give him a chance in this cut-throat environment. A dirty little stray who had been picked up along the way and raised to the high standing position in which he currently stood, face to face with a captain! Her blue eyes drifted lower to see his hand wrapped around her daughter’s, and then snapped back to lock with his once more, her lips perfectly still as she didn’t utter a word until he was finished. No, it would be best to keep all of this to herself, she decided.

Watching, her outward appearance remained as uncaring as it seemed at the start, but her inward self was only now calming down as she watched him snatch up a paper and pencil and begin scribbling something down. In spite of his challenging qualities, even somebody like Shiro had useful traits.

Lenalee was speechless through it all and simply avoided looking at her mother or her companion. She couldn’t bear to see the look in the Captain's eyes, in fear of seeing any hurt or disappointment in them, while the latter was so fired up as she was so used to what he was going up against that she feared he would see her as weak or pathetic for not standing for herself. Instead, she simply stood there and stared at the floor.

As her hand was grabbed again, it was Shiro who did all the pulling this time as she had decided to completely dissociate herself from the situation and her body seemed to lag behind for a moment, the jolt taking her by surprise.

Captain Saeki took the paper, read it, and turned to look at him as he stormed off with her daughter. The only response that she gave to his entire outburst was an unreactive, “Thank you for your feedback, it will be taken into consideration.”

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Lenalee: #54d5e3
Captain Azai Saeki: #bd9ac4

[Gaz]

Shiro #15

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The young Shinigami had stormed out of the barracks with Lenalee in tow, he kept on going until the building was out of sight. When he stopped the night air finally touched him and the damp patch that Lenalee had made on his earlier. Wow it was cold tonight, it was a chill air that would put some late autumn nights to shame.

He paused in his step and looked down to Lenalee, finally letting go of her hand, the awkwardness of the situation coming to him. “I’m sorry Lenalee.” He spoke softly, kneeling down a little to be eye level with the young woman before him. “I lost my temper, with everything going on in there I just got overwhelmed.” Shiro started to explain.

“Hearing your calls for help, my Zanpakuto trying to tell me its name but not being able to hear it… The doll.” A long-frustrated sigh left his lips as he remembered how harsh he was to the captain, Lenalee’s own mother. Though despite everything that had just happened he felt that getting to know Lenalee in this high stress environment was a good thing, hell maybe they could actually be friends instead of at each other’s throats the entire time.

“Wait a moment… how did your mum know I was scared of creepy living dolls? There’s only one person who knows that- Sammie.” Shiro cut himself off with an annoyed growl and then a smile at the memory of the mother figure, the woman that raised him after finding him as a baby on the streets of the Rukon. Did the captain actually go and find the matron of the orphanage?

Back in the barracks a figure dressed in a pale green and flowery yukata stepped from the shadows behind Captain Saeki, a grin plastered on her face. The pale ashen hair that was cropped at her shoulders was pulled away from her face and left loose and a long thin scar that ranged from her forehead down her left eye and stopped just under the high cheekbone was prominent. “My My Avie, I knew he had a sharp tongue on him but ouch. He knows how to get at you.” She spoke with a light tease to her deeper tones.

“If you want him, he will make a good foil for squad 12 and Lenalee by the looks of it. He has really taken to her in that fancy chamber of yours.” The woman spoke as she walked by, patting the captain on the back as she made to move out of the building. “I always make good on a promise Azai. I could never be your second, but I raised just the right kid for the job.” Sammie said before vanishing with a use of Hohō leaving the captain alone.

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Shiro: 7319e6
Sammie: acee8d

[Bobbie]

Lenalee #15

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Lenalee was pulled by Shiro, her little feet smacking onto the hard wooden floor with each step that she made although there wasn’t much weight to them. She was small enough to weigh very little unless she used her spiritual pressure to deceive an opponent down.

Once he let go of her hand and stopped, she also stopped, staring at him for a moment. What was she supposed to say? It seemed he wanted to say something anyway, so she remained silent and let him talk, though the way he knelt down elicited a subtle frown from her. As he made his apology, she let out a soft sigh, “You can’t talk to my mum like that, you know. First of all, she’s a captain, secondly, she’s…” Lenalee paused and her frown shifted over into a look of sadness. She wasn’t quite sure how to word this in a way that would be convincing. “I appreciate what you said, but I don’t think it’s true. She’s not a cruel mad witch…” she paused once more and then let out a giggle, “Maybe just a mad witch.” There was another part of what he said that she disagreed with, very well aware that he was just as crucial in her mother's game as she was, but she decided not to say that part.

Then Shiro went on to talk about her mother’s guess about his fear of dolls. Assuming it was really just a guess, she was about to shrug, but then he mentioned Sammie. Lenalee listened when Shiro spoke in the past and Sammie had been mentioned a few times, but she never asked questions - it was time that changed if this experience were to lead to anywhere positive.

It was time they became friends.

“Sammie, your adoptive mother? Why would she even be talking to my mother? I doubt she would be allowed to just check in as she pleases, unless some kind of exception would be made for her… any reason that might be done?” Perhaps 'friends' was a strong word, but they already proved that they could make good teammates. 


In the barracks, Azai had been given a lot to think about. While she made no show of it, Shiro’s words struck a nerve, and they hurt. They hurt a lot more than she thought they would or that she would ever admit. Her gaze fell on the paper once more, her anger bubbling inside her once more as it seemed the boy had completely failed to understand-

Her old nickname cut through the air behind her and interrupt her thoughts. It was uttered by a voice that she instantly recognised and perhaps even longed to hear again, as she raised her head in surprise. Whipping her head around and then her entire body, she turned to see the face that she knew that voice belonged to. Staring at the woman in disbelief, a friend with whom she went way back, Captain Saeki swallowed down her feelings as usual, though she couldn’t stop her eyes from narrowing at the final comment. “Knows how to get at me?” she repeated with a cold chuckle, “Don’t flatter yourself, Sammie. It will take more than that for your boy to get under my skin… you know.”

It was a tease and she knew it, but her response came out before she could stop it. A rare occurrence to anyone who knew Azai, but perhaps less so to this woman, who knew Avie.

“Yes… Yes, it seems so…” the captain lowered her gaze to look at the paper once more as she thought about what just unfolded in tonight's events. Shiro may have taken it in a very negative way, but she meant it when she said that the results from this test were eye-opening. Listening to Sammie’s reminder of her promise stung, a painful reminder of what could have been but simply never was for reasons that never made any sense to her. Blinking her dry eyes, her lips curled into a soft smile as she looked up to reply, but the genuine expression disappeared as quickly as it formed and the sheer emptiness of the area where she stood perfectly captured what she felt in her heart. That you did... her silent reply was uttered in her own mind.

Captain Saeki straightened and made way through the barracks to reach her own designated room - or office, as she had organised it - where she originally came from before all of this. Where she would sit and wait for her daughter’s exam with confidence that she needn’t worry for a second.

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Lenalee: #54d5e3
Captain Azai Saeki: #bd9ac4