Explosive Errors and Fiery Friendships

[Gaz]

Shiro #1

---

Today was a day just like any other for the members of the twelfth squad of the Gotei 13, the morning meeting ended with the newest seated member being handed a small pile of items and told to test them, though today was different as his usual assistant was visiting squad four for one of her older ailments. So today was the day Hatsumeika Nene was assigned to help. Not just because the member was the first person available, but because she was a specialist in recording Reiryoku… which happened to be the output of one of the bigger items on today’s agenda.

The young officer was tugging the cart of prototypes out of the gate to their barracks without looking back, trusting that his squad mate was following. “Oh, before we really go on, I should actually properly introduce myself, huh?” Shiro asked awkwardly, somehow, he got the impression that squad twelve was mostly women at this point seeing as the only people he seemed to interact with were female. If Lenalee learned that he was working with yet another woman she was going to either start getting jealous or start teasing him.

That thought brought a sigh out of him as he continued to tug the cart along. With a bright smile and an air of electricity in his eyes he looked over to his squad member, not stopping his movement because if he did, he knew it was going to be a pain to get this cart moving again.

“Call me Shiro, no need for all of that Sir or higher up crap.” He said, it was how he preferred everyone to speak to him… like a regular person. His actual assistant Shizu took to calling him by his first name really quick… Hopefully, Miss Hatsumeika would too. 

---

Shiro: 7319e6

[Reflux]

Perhaps, through an assignment by her very own lieutenant that the newest member of Squad 8 was assigned to explore Soul Society instead of staying in the barracks all day in order to train or potentially fight against their lieutenant for the third time in a row. Fiery orange and red hair sailed across that of the Sereitei in search of something interesting to do. Normally Squads would intermingle here or there in order to talk with each other. Yet perhaps it was for this reason that Sukiba had found herself directly in front of the gates of the 12th divisions front gate. The wooden planks all neatly held together, along with that the smell of lemons and glue placated the entire front entrance. It smelled of machinery and that science stuff that Karo always liked to see.


Noticing that someone was tugging along some pretty valuable items along a cart of sorts, Sukiba peaked her little head over towards the group of two that were seemingly struggling to get their cart towards the other side where the barracks were. Striding over towards where Shiro and Hatsumeika were. She'd give them a loud greeting towards the pair.


"Heya! I see you're struggling with all that stuff-" She'd immediately attempt to help with pushing the cart along with Shiro. The added help and strength of the other shinigami would lighten the load considerably. Bracing her arms before looking back towards Shiro.


"Name's Sukiba! It's a pleasure to meetcha!"  

[Vio]

^{Nene #1}

---

“I already know your name, Tagachi-san,” replied Nene, her voice emanating from… somewhere. Behind the seated Shinigami for sure, but not from anywhere within line of sight. Actually, her voice sounded somewhat muffled, probably due to the fact that she had added herself to the payload currently being pulled along by Shiro by stuffing herself underneath the prototype armament to do some last minute inspection before the actual test. Better to be certain everything was in place, than to create mishap through negligence.

^{“Call me Shiro,” he replied:
“No need for all of that…”}

“Shiro-san, then!” she chirped, having finished her assessment and—happy that everything was fine—disembarking from the cart. A fair deal shorter than Shiro at a more modest five-and-a-half feet tall, her apricot hair curled into a tight mesh about her head, aside from the bundle of straighter lengths that hung over it all. Her Captain had once compared her to a pineapple, though whether or not that was due to more than just her aesthetic was up for debate.

^“Heya!”

Another voice caught Miss Hatsumeika’s attention, this one unfamiliar. Silvery eyes lit up with the energy of a child in a toy shop. O, how the prospect of a new test subject sparked her intrigue. As introductions were made, she quickly rummaged through a collection of tools and gadgets stowed in a pack she’d been carrying, pulling out something that vaguely resembled a Geiger counter—a box with a tube attached to it via a cable—before walking up alongside the newcomer.

“Hi there! I’m Nene! Great to meet you! Thanks for the help! Now… Hang on a sec,” Miss Hatsumeika rattled, barely taking a moment to breathe as she studiously and curiously took in the aesthetic of the unknown Shinigami. The strange tube was pointed at Sukiba, raised up to the head and back down to the feet as they walked, causing the box itself to give off a strange, crackling noise. “Huh… It’s never made that noise before! I’m gonna just write that down, don’t mind me~!” With that, she tossed the gadget into the cart, pulled out a clipboard and pencil, and started annotating…

[Gaz]

Shiro #2

---

“Shiro-san,” Nene had replied, causing his eye to twitch… it was a step in the right direction but the honorific wasn’t needed. He let out a sigh and carried on pulling the cart as a new voice called out in a bright and enthusiastic tone and then offered to help him with the moving of the cart.

“Call me Shiro, and thanks for the help.” He spoke as moving the kart get just that bit easier to manage as the small group were making their way around the maze-like streets and alleys of the Seiretei. It was quite quiet as the trio moved, the only thing making any noise besides the wheels being the beeping of Nene’s contraption.

“Nene! At least ask for permission before you begin experimenting on people outside of the squad.” Shiro spoke, having been told by some of the other members, both seated and not about Nene’s tendency to greet people with a scanner. This was going to be another headache of a day… at least he wasn’t being shot at by heavy balls whilst wearing an armour supposedly designed to stop the pain when they impacted.

“What’s your squad Sukiba? I think you can guess we are Twelve.” He said with a slight chuckle, tyring to ignore the scratchings from behind as Nene was writing her notes on the notepad. “Just testing some of the captain’s prototypes out so we’re heading behind the squad eleven Barracks… Captain Saeki said… ’To get back at that Yorutatsu’.” He said, knowing that the pair of captains had it in for each other… Shiro personally did not like the squad eleven captain due to the incident in his squad selection exam. His Captain Saeki impression was good, voice deadpan and cold, if it wasnt for the fact his voice was too deep it would have been nearly perfect.

---

Shiro: 7319e6

[Reflux]

Sukiba #2

---

"Well it's nice to meetcha Shiro! And also you-"  She would have asked for the name of the girl who was right beside him. The silvery eyed women seemed a bit too keen on doing something in regards to whatever these experiments were. Yet Sukiba didn't really mind it when she had some kind of contraption around herself. The strange box and tube creation had made a small crackling sound when it finally had seemingly completed it's own research, a feint chuckle escaping out of the girl before nodding her head towards Nene.

"It's a pleasure all the same, and it's alright Shiro, I mean she didn't hurt me or anything so all's well that ends well right?"  Giving a small grin towards the shinigami from the twelve divison. Sukiba continued to push the cart along, doing her best to try and take on the heavy amount of items within the cart as Nene seemed content to just watch the both of them push the cart until someone attempted to stop them. 

At the sighting of the squad eleven barracks, she realized this was going to have to do with Squad 12 and 11's borderline hatred towards each other in recent years. Her captain had warned her about this, yet now she was helping squad 12 get revenge on the Squad that had asked her to join. Yet the sudden question of what Squad she was in fully registered... Sukiba could only give a nervous grin.

"Oh me! I'm in Squad 8! Home of the most fashionable!" She said with a bit of excitement. Not many people were that interested in her squad, only that she was the one in awhile to have lost a teammate just a few years after graduating the academy. Yet for now she'd focus on helping Squad 12 with their little prank regarding the captain of Squad 11. Hopefully the trio wouldn't be added towards the Captains growing army.

[Vio]

^{Nene #2}

---

“Hm? It’s only a Reiatsu scanner! …Probably didn’t even get a proper read,” she muttered, mostly absorbed in recording the results of the fleeting analysis and adding them to her documentation. An effective system for measuring the spiritual pressure outputs of beings would have been a godsend for the squads, if only because the bulk of Shinigami relied on arbitrary comparisons through sensing, rather than a consistent method. Of course, it still needed some tweaks.

“Squad Eight, huh? That’s cool, Sukiba-san! You’re super lucky,” Nene said, neatly pocketing the pencil she’d been scratching away with—an action that starkly contradicted the way in which she tossed the clipboard into the cart. “My Captain doesn’t let me do field work in the human world very often, which is a shame because I really want to examine Plus-Hollow relationships in their natural habitat… But, hey! Maybe you can help us test out some of these! It’ll be fun~!”

She paused for a moment.

“Hmm… Actually, that’s a point,” Miss Hatsumeika added, scratching her chin in thought before moving to the front of the cart where Shiro was pulling it along. “Sooner we get to our destination, sooner I can show you the fun stuff!” It wasn’t violent or aggressive, but the action she took was certainly unexpected as she made to grab the cart’s handles from Mister Tagachi and run ahead with it in tow…

[Gaz]

Shiro #3

---

The seated officer sighed with the reply that he got from Nene, that is fine and all but it was still nice to get permission. He let his eyebrow raise when the other Shinigami replied with the information of what squad she was in, it made him smile. ”When I get a human world assignment you can tag along Nene. The captain has been planning a new invention to capture hollows but hasn’t finished her prototype yet.” He spoke in the pause after her offering to let Sukiba join them.

As the woman climbed out of the cart and grabbed the handle to pull it up Shiro could feel the weight of the load leave his arms as Nene began to run with it forward. He moved and kept pace, doing his best to not start laughing at the outburst from the scientist to his side.

“Calm down Nene!” He laughed; his own grin not being hidden at all as he joined in the mad dash to get to the testing site. With the three of them and the mad dashing it was a quick trip in the end. They approached the rubble strewn area with such a pace that Shiro had to put all his weight in to pushing the cart to a standstill.

“Stop! We’re here!” He called with that same laugh as his feet slide across the floor beneath him. Once the trio and cart of dangerous materials had come to a standstill he ducked to the side. “Perfect! We can blow up and not hurt anyone but ourselves for a good distance.” He joked, remembering the fact that this was the place where he had his entrance exam… the one that went so disastrously bad that he had to fight an Arrancar.

The thousand-yard stare he bore in that realisation left him zoned out, his hand reaching up to the point on his shoulder where a sword impaled him. Then it trailed down to the other stab wound in his gut. He had scars and he’d only been a Shinigami a few weeks.

---

Shiro: 7319e6

[Reflux]

A Reiatsu scanner, that was certainly a neat invention of Squad 12. She was surprised by the thought that they had somehow made a scanner that could get up close and study someone's own reiatsu and measure it out in quantities. She wondered how big Karo's would have been if he was alive now... Would she even be talking to the two of the Squad 12 members if Karo had not gone out on that mission with her. Her head snapped to attention, like she had been distracted by her thoughts about that day, shaking off the feeling before giving a small smile towards Nene.

"I mean yeah, I can dress almost however I want inside of the barracks without getting chewed out... Tooo hard by our Captain." A small smirk escaped her lips at the thought of her captain commenting on how she looked inside of the jeans she sometimes wore.

"I don't think I'm use to doing field work just yet, although I do kinda wanna go towards the human world. I wonder if they have inventions like ours back here. Maybe all of them are a bunch of fighters as well! But I'm sure I can help with this, besides, what's the worse that happens!"

She already knew the worst, but they could run... Somewhat, also that she just hoped that her captain was nearby so that way there was no actual issues with them making out of here alive at least. Small smirk etched on her cheek at Shiro's own comments regarding that their safety was practically about to become none existent in a few moments.

"You scared of a little bit of explosive power, come on I thought you guys dealt with that on the regular?"

She glanced at Shiro for a brief moment, taking in his features as she noticed he held his shoulder slightly off. It reminded her of how she had her shoulder nearly broken in that fight with the hollow... Shaking her head from the thoughts, focusing mainly on dealing with the explosive material right in front of them.

"Let's hope we can get out of here fast enough before we're turned into bits by Squad 11's captain!"

[Vio]

^{Nene #3}

---

“Hm! Yup! This is the place!” Eagerness overtaking her, Miss Hatsumeika was quick to set the cart down and clutch at the tarpaulin that covered it, yanking it away with somewhat dramatic effect to reveal an assortment of oddments and anomalous armaments. Everything from the bizarre little scanning device she had used moments before to what seemed to be a large sack of indeterminate wood and metal constructs, right up to the large cylindrical cannon that was anchored down to the wagon’s floor by a number of thick straps.

“Well! Most things aren’t meant to explode,” said Nene as Sukiba tried to shrug it off as something that the Twelfth would have dealt with on the regular. It was a bit of a misconception that anything the Division made had a tendency to detonate spontaneously. The reality was that spontaneous combustion was limited solely to the unstable elements, though what exactly those unstable elements were still seemed to be up for debate both outside of and inside of the squad’s barracks.

“But this puppy,” the scientist said with an almost sinister smile, light grey eyes alight like stars. “It’s the single most explosive thing I’ve had the authorisation to test!” The clicks of straps and belts emerging from the cart’s bed and soon the sound of something hollow and metallic clunking accompanying them, it took only a minute more for her to fully release the ‘main event’—as her Captain had so put it—from its holds.

^{“Here!” Nene chirped:
“Hold this a sec…!”}

A few bits and pieces of unrecognisable junk were tossed out of the cart, including what appeared to be a humanoid arm of plastic colouration that flopped through the air towards Shiro, followed by another, and then a third, all of which appeared to be left arms. Other junk was mostly cast off without care nor consideration for fragility, though fortunately nothing shattered on impact with the ground. After a moment, she stood up and dusted off her hands, then kicked down a functional ramp that was one wall of the cart before grabbing the cylindrical device and starting to wheel it down.

She got about half way, then paused.

^{“Oi, Sukiba-san!” Nene yelled:
“Help me with this, would you…?”}

[Gaz]

Shiro #4

---

“Scared of a little boom? No!” Shiro quipped back at the member of Squad eight that had now officially joined this mission. This was going to add a whole pile to the paperwork that he was going to dump on his assistant to do. Shiro had gotten close to the cart and was helping Nene in moving devices around to allow for the moving of the bolted down metallic cylinder that was now being slid down the ramp that had been pulled free. The fact he had caught all of the left arms was amazing the fact they could only get target dummies with two left arms each was just funny.

“I’ll build the targets.” The officer spoke before tossing all three arms a distance and leaning into the cart to get the rest. After moving some of the other junk and materials needed for the test Shiro found some Torsos, another set of three left arms and only three legs. Two of which were right and a singular left. Then all he had to do was pick up the heads and rush over to where he was designating the target zone… if this test firing missed the targets, it should hit a dilapidated wall… if it missed that by flying over it… well the Squad Eleven barracks was built from hardy stone.

As he moved and worked at speed a cloud of dust flew up around him, in a few moments he was done and the dust started to settle, leaving the man with a massive grin on his face as he walked away from the falling dust cloud. A cloud that once away revealed three singular legged entirely left armed training dummies. “We’re good to go here Nene!” He called before flash stepping away to appear by the girls. “You’re sure the sights are set correct?”

---

Shiro: 7319e6

[Reflux]

She could respect the fact that they were able to brush off her slight jabs at them not being able to handle a few little explosives. She remembered Squad 12 being comparable to a powder keg that was seconds away from exploding. All of those great minds all in one Squad must have been a chore sometimes. Sukiba let out a small chuckle as Nene responded to her jab that things aren’t entirely meant to explode inside of the Squad 12 barracks. Yet Sukiba had a feeling that they had a place that was used specifically for explosives and how to test them. The place was already full of people that she had known during her academy days. People who were, in all terms, absolutely mental in what they wished to do inside of the academy.





Yet she’d seemingly have come across something that was gonna detonate half of the Squad 11 barracks at this rate if that’s what they meant by Authorized. Nene’s words had Sukiba take a deep breath. Knowing that if the captain of Squad 11 found them, she knew that there wasn’t a person alive, say for her own captain, that would stand up for her at this rate.



The request from nene to help resulted in Sukiba helping with steadying the massive cylinder like contraptions from the ramp. Confused by how exactly this was meant to be a simple detonation device. Her interest peaked as she witnessed Shiro pick up a dust cloud in building up these two armed training dummies.



“Guys, is this a… cannon?!”



Her shock and awe at them building something that was similar to a cannon, yet perhaps it was meant to be a rocket as well made her wonder just where they would be aiming at. There wasn’t a lot to aim for besides some of the Squad 11 barracks. Things were certainly about to get a bit… dicey.

[Vio]

^{Nene #4}

---

What seemed to be an assortment of junk soon revealed its nature as Miss Hatsumeika added the last few connective parts to the main body of their experiment, drawing a few tools from beneath her Shihakushō to tighten bolts and anchor springs that were no doubt used as some form of suspension. All the while, the dust cloud that was Shiro pieced together the practice dummies—spare articles that had survived past tests against all manner of unusual experimental devices and were waiting to go out with a bang.

^{“You’re sure the sights are set correct?”}

^{“Guys,” Sukiba questioned:
“Is this a… cannon?!”}

“Mhm– Well… If you wanna be precise, it’s an ‘A-HA’!” Nene chirped, rotating a crank at the side of the weapon’s base to lower its trajectory by about ten degrees, squinting in the direction of the target models. A finger and thumb formed an unmarked check of distance and height, whose measure she used to adjust the gun by another couple of degrees. “That’s ‘Anti-Hollow Armament’,” she clarified before jumping atop the cylinder and poking her head inside the muzzle in a daringly stupid but completely calculated act of calibration. By the point she spoke again, she was elbow deep, most of her words distorted by a dampened echo.

“In theory, it should be powerful enough to put a sizable dent in even a Gillian-class Menos, which would be really handy for the Squads– Uh,” she paused for a moment to think, wiggling side to side as she slid her way back out. “Not that the likelihood of them attacking Soul Society directly is very high. I’m pretty sure they never leave Hueco Mundo, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, right~?” A mischievous and proud smile upon her visage could either inspire dread or confidence, depending entirely on the individual who witnessed it.

“Everything’s present and correct, Shiro-san,” Nene affirmed, sliding down from the back of the A-HA and to the ground, where she stumbled into position at the weapon’s rear and disengaged some sort of lever, which made a rather coarse noise. Fortunately, it wasn’t the firing mechanism…

[Gaz]

Shiro #5

---

Shiro arrived by the girls as Nene had climbed down from the cannon and positioned herself at the rear. Her affirmation that everything regarding this experiment… this test firing was correct and ready to go brought a smile to his face as he glanced at Sukiba and nodded at her to back away slightly. “Remember the safety goggles Nene, Nanahoshi lost an eye because of the back blast.” Shiro warned, remembering the safety briefing for this particular test and the aftermath of the misfire that had left a hole in what used to be his lab. Captain Saeki scolded him bad for that one. That is why Shizu, his assistant was left behind to clean up the mess and oversee the repair work to the ceiling.

He slipped out a pair of goggles and placed them on his face, this was just a precaution. The development team were sure that they had created a proper venting system for the back blast of the cannon firing now.

“Ready to fire?” He asked, looking down to Nene and grinning. This was his favourite part of the job, watching the Squads inventions work. While Shiro was not very science minded he was a stickler for making sure no one other than himself was in danger. “On my order.” He spoke, looking forward and steeling himself ready for the loud explosive sound that was about to rock them.

“Three.” He spoke, the anticipation rising inside him like a coming storm. “Two.” That same anticipation brought forward a grin that he only ever really showed when he was fighting. “One! FIRE!” He called, thunderous like the aftermath of a lightning strike, his voice comparable to a cannon. This was going to be a good day… all they had to do now as hope that the shot hit the targets and didn’t sail over them and the wall towards the Barracks of Squad Eleven.

---

Shiro: 7319e6

[Vio]

^{Nene #5}

---

“Remember the safety goggles, Nene,” Shiro warned, by which point the mischievous scientist was already in the process of equipping herself with protective gear akin to a welder’s helmet, rather than mere safety goggles. Perhaps it was overkill in terms of safety. Perhaps not. However, the most eager smile burned brightly behind the mask as she stretched protective gloves over her hands and wrapped padded digits around the firing mechanism of the armament, offering a free-handed thumbs up when the best question was asked.

^{“Three…two…one…! FIRE!”
Bww- Fwoom…!!}

“Woo!” Unable to help herself from letting out a yelp of excitement as she pulled the trigger stick, Miss Hatsumeika’s mostly darkened vision was illuminated by the flare of the exhaust and muzzle alike as a condensed shell of reishi was propelled into the open air and towards the haphazardly placed test dummies. The sheer force of the initial blast seemed to silence everything else in the immediate vicinity, by which the scientist wasn’t too fazed, paving the way for the ordnance to unleash its curious payload.

…Here we go…! A weapon based on two very simple principles: The underlying mechanisms of Kidō, specifically the sealing Bakudō sorceries, and the concept of breaching dense defensive fields. This wasn’t a weapon to obliterate Hollows, no. That would disrupt the balance. This was a weapon to sunder the defences of the most durable Hollows and leave them more than vulnerable to purification. Explosive backlash was more a side-effect of such an intent, as proven when the dusty aftermath presented itself to the woman’s eyes as she lifted the helmet and gazed with scientific studiousness upon the scene.

“Well, that’s interesting,” Nene uttered, re-engaging the safety lock and immediately beginning to scribble down notes upon her clipboard. “Not much left of the targets, but a residual reiryoku imprint suggests defensive compromises in Gillian-class Menos are plausible– Eh… Oi, Shiro-san~?” A mildly nervous warble in the woman’s voice could only be seen as a warning for what was likely to follow, and though most of her focus was upon how successful the test had been, it had perhaps become a little too successful. “Wasn’t the base Bakudō meant to be ‘Hainawa’? Because I’m pretty sure that’s,” she said, pointing to the Squad Eleven barracks where several Shinigami were now pinned to the outside wall of the upper floor by luminous yellow triangular forms, “more like ‘Shitotsu Sansen’…”

^{“What the hell are you doing?!”
“‘Course it’s the nerds’ fault…”
“Get us down from here you dumbasses…!!”}

[Gaz]

Shiro #6

---

The roar of the cannon reverberated through Shiro’s soul, sating the zanpakuto spirit who was eagerly awaiting the calamitous racket. It was loud enough to make his ears ring as he coughed a few times to catch his breath from the shockwave of the shot being fired. He was a little closer to the device than he should have been, but he was sure that the build of the invention had been properly built.

The dust started to settle, and the ringing died away as Shiro pulled his goggles off of his eyes and down to rest against his chest. Nene had already started noting the results of the test with but paused, her voice wobbling as she was asking a question, it wasn’t just any question it was a question about Kido. Shiro was notorious for his lack of knowledge and skill with the arts, enough that a lot of the members of Squad Twelve were cautious of the young man when he joined. A scientist not versed well in the magical arts and the science behind finding the words to shape the spells was an unknown.

“Wait… I thought the base bakudo was meant to be ‘Seki’… You know the one that fires an orb that repels what it touches.” He spoke, moving over to lean over her notes. Seki was a low enough level spell that even he had tried to cast it on occasion… that being his academy lessons. “What makes you think it’s ‘Shitosu Sansen’?” He asked, peering down at the note pad.

Then he heard the shouts from a distance, those of squad eleven members who were pinned to a wall? The seated officer sighed and moved forward to get a better look. “Finish the notes later Nene, we’ve gotta pull down squad eleven bozo’s.” He joked softly.

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Shiro: 7319e6