Children of Izanami: Initialization

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"What is Paradise?"

"Paradise, as it is defined, is a place where existence is positive and harmonious. The after-life.... this afterlife... is supposed to represent that paradise, somewhere souls can finally find peace after their miserable lives are extinguished and their pain is cast aside. It is a place where everything is good, and the people hold no anguish or negativity against each other. It is a place without violence, hatred, or death. Everyone is safe.... and everyone is grateful as they enjoy the peace of being within the after-life."

Kenta Sonoda lay against the bird he was riding on as it flew through the skies, arms folded behind his head, and his eyes closed. However, he wasn't asleep. Obviously, the wind currents slapping against his body was enough to keep him awake, and fellow rider Rukia Kuchiki would pester him if he did. The bird knew where it was headed pre-, towards police headquarters. His hair whipped around him, yet he remained resistant to nature, resistant to the sound of the beast flapping its wings as it soared, but not resistant to whatever his companion was about to say.

"However, if that is the case, then why do we have a government? Why do we need someone to keep us in line? Why do we need these weapons, all of these guns, swords, and firearms? Even after death, souls will never give up their hatred for one another, and continue to attack each other in ways that they would in their previous life. We still compete. We still fight. We still kill... and, thanks to the existence of the Soul Societies, it will never cease to exist. It will be nothing but an endless cycle of murder, death, and life."

His eyes slowly opened, his pupils feasting themselves onto the clouds.

"What, then, is this world we live in? Surely, this cannot be paradise..."

"Not now...."

"Not ever..."

His eyes drifted towards Rukia, and his mouth moved to speak in a rather dry tone.

"If you ask me, that haircut makes you look terrible."

Rukia suppressed a chuckle. "You've been sitting there for half an hour staring into space, and that is the best way you decide to break the ice?"

"Can you blame me? I have a bad habit of being honest at the worst times." Slowly, Kenta allowed himself to get into a sitting position, hair blowing around him as he looked over off to the side in order to get a better view of the city below. The lighting in the afternoon made it all the more brilliant and more beautiful to see. "Can't believe we had to move the HQ someplace far away from the capital while the military bozos get to stay close to home. What a load of bull...." He muttered in irritation, scowling. He was inwardly relieved that they were close, as the bird started flying lower and lower.

"I don't get why you're complaining. It's not as if we spent the last three hours walking there." Rukia replied, looking over the side of the bird as well. The scenery was beautiful. She amused herself imagining Ahatake's frustration at having to cover her paperwork at the office.

"Oh...right." Immediately, Kenta pushed himself back into a sitting position, arms folded across his chest as the bird began its final descent. "You're not even that involved with the police or the military anymore. You wouldn't care much for the favoritism the king shows towards his troops rather than the law enforcement." He dangled his legs off the bird's side as it descended to the ground in a massively open area, where there were other birds within. What appeared to be a mixture of civilian workers and officers were tending to them, the ones giving instructions having the appearance of someone of high command. The doors to the HQ were just a short distance away.

Kenta was the first to hop off of the bird. A rather polite and what could be described as "classy" behavior was showing; once Rukia was close enough, he extended one of his hand, took hers, and helped her off.

"Thank you." Rukia replied. "And, favoritism, that's common anywhere I'm sure. It's something you'll probably have to bear with for the rest of your career." He was right, she hadn't been as involved with the police or military, but her new job was one she had been ordered to take. Not exactly her choice.

Stuffing his hands within his pockets, Kenta gave her a rather sardonic look and a sarcastic smile. "Thanks. That really bumps up the confidence level, you know?" He started his walk down the path, ignoring the bustle of sound chatting that was going on all around him.

As Rukia walked alongside him, she looked like she was taking in the scenery, but she was thinking to herself. Thinking about why they were here. The most she knew was that it was about the recent painting found on one of the buildings in the main city. She hadn't seen the painting itself, only the image Kenta had showed her, but she could tell nothing about it was friendly.

As the two made their way through the populated lobby, Kenta raised an eyebrow and kept his pace steady. "So.... how is being the ambassador working out for you?" He questioned.

Rukia thought for a moment. "Thanks for asking. It's working out fine. There's a new building set up, and I work with Ahatake now in the Office of Seireitei-Yūrei Ōkoku Relations."

Kenta's eyes widened in surprise. "You're working with him?" He repeated, clearly in disbelief.

Rukia mimicked his surprised look, but it was due to Kenta's tone. "Yes. Is there something wrong with that at all?"

"Well, no, it's just...." Kenta allowed his eyes to shift forward in the direction in which they were walking. They were approaching a door, with two officers standing guard. "Well... I've never thought of him to be the type to be easily partnered with someone so sophisticated."

Rukia stifled a laugh. "I can see where you're coming from, but Ahatake and I actually get along rather well. Like old friends. I suppose that's why we were partnered in the same department by the Boss."

Kenta would've answered, had they not approached the doors in order to meet the two guards head-on. He raised a hand out, his palm showing towards the two guards. There was a symbol that was seemingly engraved in the skin that took the appearance of an eyeball. One of the guards looked it over for a moment, before giving a nod and stepping aside, his partner following suit.

"Sergeant Sonoda, good to see you. The Captain has been expecting both you and the Kuchiki." He said gruffly.

"So I've noticed...." Kenta muttered, lowering his hand and putting it back into his pocket.

When the doors were opened, he and Rukia stepped inside. It was a rather dark place, with several chairs alligned across and facing towards what looked like a screen. In some of the chairs were police officers, those of high rank like Kenta himself was. There were two empty seats left - obviously reserved for the two that had just arrived.

Rukia silently took her seat, wondering about the mark she'd seen on Kenta's hand. It was seemed to be for the purposes of either identification or admission, but it intrigued her all the same.

At that given moment, Kenta snapped his attention towards someone walking their way, immediately straightening up. A young woman was walking down the alley that Kenta himself was sitting beside. She had long, orange hair that hung in two low ponytails hanging over her shoulders. She was wearing a black tank top with a green coat, as well as a matching-color skirt. She was white-skinned, her blue eyes looking with a calm gaze at the pair (particularly Kenta, of course). "Captain."

"Sergeant...." The police captain murmured, giving an appropriate nod. "It's good to see you could make it, as well as your associate." She gave a nod to Rukia as well, out of politeness. "The meeting'll begin in a few minutes once everyone's situated, so bear with us." Without another word, she turned and walked off again.

"Who was that?" Rukia asked out of curiosity.

"Captain Avaron Setsuko, one of the veterans of this ragtag bunch of law enforcement." Kenta explained, shifting one leg over the other. "She might as well be the boss of the police force when it comes to the capital, at least. Word is it that she has a father who personally served in the Civil War and taught her what she needed to know about this business hands-on, which is why she's at a rank at still a young age." He chuckled a little, shifting his gaze over towards the screen. "Funny, huh? I always would've thought the ones who lead were often old men and snobby old hags."

Rukia let out a chuckle, remembering the former Head Captain Yamamoto. Then she thought of the current Head Captain, Mikami Karasumori. "Age truly can't be used to measure one's qualifications." She said, smiling for a moment as she put her memories on hold.

Before Kenta to answer her, however...

"Attention!" Avaron's loud and sharp voice called over the chatter over the crowd. She was sitting back at what looked like a control panel for the screen, hands folded in front of her face and her elbows on the desk. "I appreciate the ones that were able to come to this meeting today. You should also find yourselves extremely lucky, for if you didn't come, I would've had a fresh f***load of paperwork right and waiting while my more competent workers got a vacation!"

There was an immediate chorus of laughter as a response, and Avaron allowed herself to smirk a little. "Now, onto the topic at hand." She lowered her hand to press a button, and the screen turned on to show footage of the crowd gathering around what looked like red graffiti on the side of a building. "These photos were taken at 4:35 in the morning by security patrols at Sector 3." The screen continued to flicker, showing close-ups of the designs and details. When zoomed in, they could clearly see eyeball like designs as well as what looked like artistic, thick lines curling over any spot that would've otherwise went empty.

"So what exactly is this?" A police commander asked gruffly from the front row. "It seems to me that someone just likes to use our buildings as canvas."

"That's just what it looks like on the outside." Avaron answered. "However, the few things I can point out concerning it don't exactly match up with normal circumstances. For one, the graffiti reaches all the way to the top of the building, and obviously, that would take too much work for it to just not be there in one day and then appear in the next. Not to mention, this side of the street is in broad daylight, and it would've been noticed before it was fully finished. Secondly, there were some drops of the material it was made of that fell off the building, and the stuff was still fresh as if it was painted right then and there. The compounds were analyzed, and...."

She paused, a tense silence filling the room.

"This isn't paint. This is blood. More specifically, the blood of multiple victims mixed in with each other."

"Blood?" Rukia thought, shocked. Even having been listening to this discussion since it started, this was the word that registered most with her. "This wasn't made on a whim, this could be.."

"This is just off the top of my head..." One of the attendants, looking younger than the rest, spoke up. All heads turned. "Perhaps it is a message of sorts. Victims blood, eyeball like designs. To me, it all says 'we're watching you'." He averted everyone's eyes as he spoke. It was obvious he wasn't used to speaking to groups, and possibly didn't even want to voice his opinion.

However, what he said caused a bustle of chatter to rise amongst the group in total. However, it was immediately silenced when Avaron spoke again, shutting off the screen and turning the lights back on. "That's one of the many possibilities this is even existing, and also one of the more obvious." She spoke, slowly stepping down the alley and eyeing the group as she went. "But we're going to have to look a lot deeper than that if we want to get a grasp on what's actually happening. As protocol demands, we also must keep this to a level as minimized as possible. This event, as supernatural as it is, will cause distress to spread throughout the public, and any provocation could give us some disastrous results." At this, she folded her hands behind her back, stopped in front of the screen, and turned around to face the entire crowd.

"I'll have to make sure I pass this onto Ahatake." Rukia thought to herself as she kept her attention on the discussion. "Maybe he and his family can be of some help."

"I entrust the sector commanders in order to keep a close watch on activity and inform me of any more events that could be possibly related to the scenario at hand." She put her hands out, placing the palms on her hips. "I also entrust them...." She added, her eyes narrowing at the crowd in general. "That the policy of minimization be carried out to the limit. I will be damned if I have to deal with those militant punks crawling up our ass. Understood?" There was an immediate retort of agreement amongst the masses.

"Very well. Thanks for your time, and I have faith in you to carry out your tasks as best as possible. You are dismissed." She turned her eagle-eye gaze towards Rukia and Kenta. "Sonoda and the ambassador, I would like a word with you." That immediately caused Kenta himself to straighten up out of shock that she had addressed the two of them so quickly.

Rukia was taken by surprise as much as Kenta, but she masked it better. She waited for everybody to file out, and decided to let the woman speak again.

As everyone filed out, the captain naturally turned her attention towards the only two left. She moved in front of them, eyes studying them for a moment before she allowed her eyes to speak. "It's a pleasure to see you again, Sarge." She said confidently, putting on a smirk to match. "I trust that you're treating our guest well?"

"W-well, yes, of course...." Kenta muttered, looking away for a moment out of slight embarrassment.

The captain switched eyes to Rukia. "And I take it that even with the recent problems, your ride on this trip has been smooth, correct?"

"Yes." Rukia nodded briefly. "I'm enjoying my stay here."

"Good." Avaron smirked. "Then you won't mind it if I borrow you for a little while. As of this particular moment, you're under my jurisdiction."

Rukia was surprised, but she nodded again. "O-of course."

The reaction was rather disappointing.

Avaron's smile faded, and she looked at Rukia with a slightly disapproving look. "Of course? For a Shinigami from the Seireitei, you certainly are a boring one...." She chided. "But enough about that: the reason I'm doing this is because involving issues like this, I'm going to need intel from one who has witnessed supernatural events such as this firsthand. As one of the most popular targets of gossip as well as politics, you're the prime candidate."

"I see. I'll be more than willing to help out in any way possible."

"Once again.... boring." That being said, Avaron abruptly turned on her heel and walked off. Her hands were in the pockets of her coat, and her gait was calm and steady. "I'll see you two whenever."

To Speak
"I didn't know I was supposed to act difficult." Rukia said to Kenta as they left the building. "We're generally taught to respect high ranking officers in the Soul Society. And then she thinks I'm boring for agreeing with what she says." She almost sounded like she was ranting, unusual for Rukia. "Is she always like that?"

Kenta gave a somewhat wry smile to her, cocking one of his eyebrows slightly. "The rather utopian air of the city can be uplifting to some, but it can be rather stale for others." He explained. "The Captain's one of those people who appreciates a challenge to her authority, and she's always looking for someone that's willing to do that. Unfortunately, everyone's pretty intimidated by her presence. Even Ginji won't touch her."

"I see." Rukia said as they reached the bird. "Most normal officers would consider that an accomplishment."

"Yes.... but whoever said she was normal?" This was followed by the subsequent climb onto the bird's back.

As Rukia climbed up and the bird took off, she looked over the city. "I know they said not to tell civilians, but I think Ahatake and his family should know. After we get back ti the main city, I'm going to let them know."

Kenta gave her what appeared to be a weary look, holding onto the bird for support. It was instinctive - he really didn't need to. "You're going to defy orders, just like that?" He questioned her.

"Some orders are meant to be disobeyed, if the reason is right, yes?" She said, looking at him. "Besides, Ahatake and his family can help if this turns out to be something terrible."

For some reason that even he couldn't fathom completely, this statement irked Kenta. He folded his arms across his chest, averting his eyes away from Rukia and back down to the city below. As the bird picked up speed, his hair began to billow around his head once more. However, he was good enough to keep his tone in check. "With all the issues that they've been required to participate in, one might as well should give a job relating to the problems that they deal with." He commented lightly, putting on a small smile.

"Ahatake would enjoy that." Rukia replied, taking the time to enjoy the scenery as well. "He's not fond of his current job, and, with the predicament I have left him in, is probably fuming at this moment."

"Hope he isn't too sore at you after this..."

"Even if he would be over the job, he won't be when I give him this news." She said. "He'll see that as an eventual chance to fight, and that will take his mind off of anything he wants to complain about."

That caused Kenta to go silent for a moment again, eyes half-lidded. "....what would make someone so interested in fighting....?" He asked quietly, tone sullen. "Violence brings blood and death. Why would someone be so interested in that?" He couldn't deny how he felt at that point - it was resentment, disappointment. The slaughter the V-14 had committed against his force had not left his mind, and it wasn't just because it gave the soldiers something to laugh at. It was because of the casualties that had been produced, the carnage left behind.... he honestly couldn't picture someone enjoying such a thing.

"I'm not sure, but I see what you mean." Rukia said, frowning slightly. "In the Seireitei, there is an entire division devoted to people who live to fight, with the Captain generally being the most bloodthirsty of all. Some people are just like that."

"Maybe that is the problem, then...." Kenta mused, closing his eyes for a moment. "I just can't get past that particular fault. People like that would prove to be the death of the spiritual world as we know it."

"Only if they were to turn on those they ally with." Rukia added. "People who enjoy fighting seem to ally themselves with whoever can give them the most thrilling battles and strongest opponents. Ahatake isn't like that, so if you're concerned about him becoming a threat, I don't think you need to worry too much."

Kenta allowed himself to lean back on the bird, arms folded behind his head once again. "And what's keeping us from disappointing that expectation?" He questioned her, finding sudden interest in the talk at hand. "What's keeping him, or his family, from changing his point of view? You speak of them as mercenaries-for-hire, and mercenaries can always change their loyalty just for their own benefit."

"There's honestly nothing I know of that's keeping Ahatake loyal to this region." Rukia admitted. "It's difficult to explain, but it's just how he is. It's rather difficult to explain actually. Perhaps it's his friendship with the King, or maybe he just likes living here. You'd have to actually ask him to learn why, but even he probably doesn't know."