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| - ‘The answer is no.’ He sighed. Miria had consented when he asked her to accompany him. But did she have to act like she could read his mind? ‘That is so weird!’ He replied. ‘Stop doing that!’ ‘Maybe later,’ Miria grinned at him deviously. Why had he asked her to come again? Oh, yeah. Now he remembered: ‘We have a problem.’ Sōritsu went on to say. ‘So,’ Miria began to say, dragging him back to the present, ‘how are we approaching this?’ Ryan wasn’t rightly sure himself. He could go in and rough the students up a bit but would likely pay for it in some way or another later. On another hand he could interview them separately so he could judge their reactions and mannerisms, though keeping them quiet afterwards would be next to impossible. He could end up alerting his target instead of getting the drop on him. ‘I have no idea.’ Ryan replied. Miria rolled her eyes in exasperation. She then began twirling her long blond hair about her right index finger: a sign that she was lost in thought. When she was thinking she also had a habit of muttering to herself. Some had thought she talked to herself when she was really only running through plans or ideas. ‘Okay!’ She exclaimed suddenly. ‘I’ve got it! The academy curriculum still doesn’t cover much on the Quincy beyond simple facts.’ ‘By simple facts you mean the whole “they destroy the balance thing” right?’ Miria grinned wide and Ryan couldn’t help but grin back at her. ‘The Head Instructor owes me a favour anyhow.’ She went on to say. ‘We’ve both fought against the Quincy, so we know a lot about their abilities and the like. I’ll get him to schedule a special compulsory class with us as instructors.’ Ryan liked where this was going… ‘I’m gonna throw in a lot of personal believes,’ he said with delight. ‘I’m gonna make our Quincy so mad that he’ll end up blowing his own cover.’ ‘What will you do in the meantime?’ ‘Get some insurance. Go ahead and visit the Head Instructor.’ Ryan began walking as he spoke and finally turned to look at Miria over his shoulder. ‘You’ll find me at the Twelfth Division Barracks.’ The Twelfth Division of the Gotei 13 was home to the eccentrics and oddities and the man Ryan was here to see was no different. The Lieutenant of the Twelfth Division was known simply as Sakata. He sported messy dark blue hair which was usually slicked back, a white lab coat, and his Lieutenants badge on his left shoulder above the elbow and always managed to look like everyone belonging to him had just died. He was shorter than Ryan but shared the same bold brown eyes, though Sakata’s always seemed to be glued to the nearest computer monitor while Ryan’s seemed to have more life in them. ‘Have you any idea how difficult it is getting through what you call an office? It’s chaos in here!’ A single desk occupied the rooms centre. Sakata himself was seated at the end of the table opposite the door Ryan just entered through, though he had yet to lift his head to acknowledge his friend and colleague. Spread across the floor haphazardly where multiple sheets of paper with numerical data, graphs and notes all written in Sakata’s neat and tidy handwriting. On a table set against the leftmost wall where many small vials, bottles and tubes. On the rightmost wall was something Ryan truly hated. Hanging from reinforced brackets was a mechanical humanoid entity with polished synthetic features that eyed Ryan mechanically. The sight of Sakata’s Bakkōtō always sent a shiver up his spine. ‘It is not “chaos”.’ Sakata said without lifting his head. ‘I prefer to call it “organized chaos”.’ ‘So you admit that it’s still chaos? Huh. You must be having an off-day or something.’ Ryan said with disbelieving tones. ‘What are you working on?’ Sakata was tinkering with some mechanical device Ryan knew nothing about: origin, who made it or what it was originally (he could at least tell it had been taken apart a few times and reassembled). The device was small and circular with a hollow centre. Was it a wristband of some sort? No… the thickness wasn’t right. The perimeter was segmented and inlaid with symbols Ryan couldn’t read so he stopped trying. No need to make himself look stupid. ‘A reishi restrictor,’ Sakata replied. ‘It repels reishi away from the person you attach it to. Think of it as Quincy bane. And… there! Finished,’ Maybe Sakata could read minds too? It was too much of a coincidence for Ryan to pass it up. ‘We could have done with one of them during the Vandenreich Invasion.’ Ryan mused. ‘But, I was wondering if you’d do me a favour?’ Sakata finally lifted his head. ‘What? Okay, this is just wrong: me asking you for a favour is what gets your attention? Pfft.’ So he told him: all of it. The mission Sōritsu set him, the worries he and Garian probably shared and how the person he was hoping to flush out was a Quincy masquerading as a Shinigami. Suffice to say Sakata barely blinked. Most men and women of the Gotei 13 would have responded with shock, surprise or at least a frown! From Sakata you were lucky if you got his eyebrows to move. He was as cool as a cucumber. The only signal he gave that he was even interested was the fact his fingers were interlocked on the desk of the table. He was even leaning forward as Ryan spoke. ‘What I need from you is a lesson plan: some trivial points about the Quincy, their nature and finally their powers. Miria and I are gonna flush this person out by being derogatory a little.’ ‘Mingle for an hour.’ Sakata said as he turned towards his computer monitor. ‘I’ll have your points by then.’ So Ryan turned to mingle -- Mingle! -- with the eccentrics and the oddities and for the second time since coming to the Twelfth Division Barracks he felt a very annoying chill run up his spine. Somehow this was all going to go pear-shaped. Next Story > Defeat and Robbery.
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