Slow Biting

A thousand years ago, Shungi would not have believed that he of all people would bring a prisoner in from the Rukongai. He didn't think that he had it in him to jail anybody. And yet, there he was, representative of the first division attached to the sixth division, and it was his call whether or not to jail this person. It was one of his first actions as a Lieutenant. She had almost been put on a life sentence, but Shungi saw potential. So he let her go, but with a caveat that she would be under careful surveillance.

Three hundred years had past since then, and that girl, Shiori Ashina, had become a lieutenant herself. Just the day before, Shungi had met with her captain. The two of them seemed detached from one another, though Shungi chalked it up to the captain being who he was. Though she was no longer his responsibility, Shungi still saw the girl as such, and so he arranged a meeting between the two of them.

While the rest of the sixth division was training under the strict guidance of their captain, Shungi stood outside their barracks, waiting in about the same spot he did the other day. In his hand, he had a cup of coffee, and it was already half finished.

As of late, invites from Shungi Otsuboshi were a bit sparse. On one hand, this mean that he didn't necessarily see Shiori as his problem or responsibility. On the other hand, she'd since warmed up to the man who's dragged her from the path of delinquency and out her on track to where she was today. Either way, it was a good chance to both get out of the office for once and to catch up with the man. At least as long as he didn't immediately bring up *how much she'd grown* or something like that.

"You do know that you're not obliged to check up on me anymore, right?" Shiori spotted the man, not straying far from where she'd run into him the day before. She took a long puff from her kiseru, blowing the smoke to the side as she approached. Even if she'd mixed a bit of lavender oils into her tobacco, it was still a bit rude to just blow smoke in someone's direction.

"I know," Shungi answered bluntly. The shinigami lieutenant of the first division was an older-looking man. His blonde hair was streaked with gray and his young face held within it centuries-old wisdom. His aged look was aided by his zanpakuto which, while sheathed, had the visage of a walking cane. Taking her smoking as an invitation for himself, Shungi produced his own pipe from under his kimono.

"Recently, I've been teaching my son how to use shunpo," he started. "He's been getting pretty good at it. I think soon enough he'll be better than me." He smiled, then took the first breath out of his newly lit pipe. "What's Kyoshiro been putting you up to? More training, I presume?"

"If he gets any better, hell surpass us both. And then where will we be? Out of the job, that's where." Shiori scoffed, though couldn't help but hold back a smile. "Though with you as his teacher, I'm sure he'll do fine at whatever he puts his mind to."

"And you know Kyoshiro, probably better than I'd do. Lots of training, trying to weed out new members that though this would be an easy division to fool around in." Shiori sighed, taking another drag from her kiseru. Her gaze turned back towards the barracks she'd just left. "You'd be surprised just how little any of these graduates actually know about applying what they learned. Some of them are just flat out useless in some way or another. It's... Frustrating."

"Now now. If I had that mindset with you, where would you be?" Shungi replied, then took another draft of his pipe. When Shiori turned her attention toward the barracks, Shungi tracked her gaze toward the people inside, training. It seemed that even without their leadership around, the division had an ethic of constantly training, and given the current circumstances, such a thing was understandable.

"I'm surprised your captain didn't volunteer for the Hueco Mundo mission. It seemed like precisely the thing he would have wanted to do..." Shungi added. "He's right to want to train his Division so rigorously though." He said, staring again at the training shinigami as they went over another drill inside. "There's something brewing in Hueco Mundo. I don't know what it is yet, but from what I'm getting from Division Two, it doesn't look like it's going to be good for anybody." Shungi stated, then put the pipe back to his lip.

The man's tone seemed to shift as he brought up the Hueco Mundo mission that had been organized recently. While Shiori hadn't been privy to too many details, she knew the operation was a bit of a serious one. Of course Shungi's tone indicated that it had somewhat more grave undertones than initially anticipated.

"Any idea at all what's going on? You've got my attention since whatever happened has you worried." Shiori watched the recruits run through their drills, observing what she could from a distance. A few were either not understanding the drills, or were simply ignoring proper form. She'd have to ream them for that later.

"It's just them going in and getting out. We sent a strike force, but it was more for security than because it was an actual attack. If there was a reason Captain Kyoshiro didn't join the mission, it was that" Shungi stated. The lieutenant took another hit of his pipe. "But," he continued, "the Captain Commander wanted in on the mission last minute. That was my fault. I should've known his impulsive nature from the previous Captain Commander. Now it looks like an inside job and everybody on the mission, the Captain Commander included, has a chance of getting killed. Had I not told him, this wouldn't have happened. We'll have to wait and see if they return." Shungi explained.

Shiori mulled over the information as she listened. In and out missions had a decent chance to go ass up, regardless of who was assigned. Especially missions assigned in Hueco Mundo, a realm of chaos, death, and hostility. However the news regarding the captain commander had caught her attention. Now she was concerned as well. "Wait, you said the Captain Commander actively chose to take part in the mission? What exactly is our objective if he's getting involved?"

"I didn't want him to go on the mission. His presence there would most certainly stir up a response from Las Noches." Shungi replied. "But that wasn't my decision to make. Like I said, it was a rescue mission." Shungi explained. He took another draft of his cigarette, as if trying to calm down the atmosphere. He wanted to keep a still look, as if such a thing wasn't a big deal, even if he had in his mind that something was going to go awry. "We won't see the consequences immediately. At least, I hope we don't. But with our strongest showing up at their doorstep, it won't be long before the Espada and by extension Hueco Mundo unites under a common threat, and their ranks greatly outnumber ours. You were still quite young when we..." Shungi hesitated. He knew his example was not the best, given the baggage attached to it. Still, it was what he knew and he knew that the both of them were young enough to remember it.

"Wiped out," he choked, "the Quincy. But it was an easy task, and that was because they were far fewer in number than we were. Our captain commander at the time was no slouch either. But now, with a much less experienced commander against what is essentially a force of nature." Shungi fell silent, unsure of how to continue.

When a nation's King strode out onto the field of battle, it tended to catch the enemy's attention for better or worse. It was a fact that Las Noches would take notice of such an act, and would indeed encourage some kind of reaction, either intentionally or otherwise. What did he intend to do with suck a brazen display?

Shiori remained silent as Shungi brought up the Quincy. A grave matter as far as she knew, though her knowledge was entirely based on reports after the fact and hearsay. The trainees before her and their improper technique drifted outside her scope of attention. "I believe I may have missed out on that, for better or worse. I must also admit my experience with the arrancar is embarrassingly... lacking. But I can only agree that angering powerful beings derived from hollows can only lead to trouble."

"If Captain Kyoshiro doesn't do it, I can try to set you up on a mission the next time we have to deal with an arrancar." Shungi offered. He had made offers like these before and Shiori wasn't the first person he had made such offers to before. Naturally, Shungi had been a man of his word though most of these missions he sent other people on were not so eminently dangerous as to involve the arrancar and having a mission involving the quincy did not look like something that could happen any time soon. At least, so it appeared.

"That should give you some first-hand experience. I myself haven't had to deal with an arrancar in... Four hundred years. Before you were around. Frighteningly, they're closer to us than they are to hollow. They use zanpakuto that transform much as we do and unlike conventional hollow, we cannot defeat them simply by cutting their mask." Shungi looked at Shiori. "I trust that if I send you on a mission, you can share the same experience with your underlings." He instructed.

"I suppose it's best to get first hand experience. One can only get so much out of reports and other such documentation." Honestly the thought of engaging one of these things was absolutely horrifying, especially after being stated to be closer to shinigami than the hollows they originated from. Regardless of unrest caused by this information, she figured that there was nothing to it but to do it. "Very well. I'll join you, or whoever ends up being assigned to fight them next time an opportunity arises."

Shungi took the pipe out of his mouth and peered into the bowl to see the small wad of lit tobacco inside of it. "That could be sooner than you think." Shungi said. "So far, we've only been dealing with unaffiliated hollow. Unorganized or alone, in other words easy to deal with. However, with current events, if Las Noches is beginning to make attacks against us. Even more now that we are going to them with a much larger force than I would have liked. What's more, is that my third seat, who was originally organizing the mission who had my contingency plan. With the Captain Commander thrown in, who knows what could happen. I just hope he's good at thinking on his feet." He put the pipe back into his mouth and took another draft from it.

"I'm sure the Captain Commander will be able to keep things under control, though his presence alone is still... It's going to attract attention." Shiori sighed, taking a long drag from her own pipe, slowing exhaling smoke from the lavender blend as she continued to eye trainees. At this point they were just slacking off. The drill had switched to hand to hand practice and she'd never seen such a poor attempt at faking it to make it. The rest of the smoke puffed from her knows as she huffed in irritation. "I'm sorry, I might have to cut this short. Apparently they skipped on hand to hand training in academy. This needs to addressed immediately."

"I'd love to lend my input, but this is your Division. I'm sure you'd prefer to teach them yourself." Shungi offered. Shungi looked into the building following Shiori's line of sight to see the members of the fifth division doing their thing. He crossed his arms. "Your men might just want a break. They've been training since before we started here. I think they deserve ten minutes." Shungi suggested.

"I tend to have some strick standards on their performance, but if you've got any suggestions, I'll listen. It's not easy to drill things into some of their heads." Shiori sighed before bowing and leaving. She turned her head back to Shungi with a smile. "And I'll give them a 10 minute break when they've done at least 10 minutes of training without slacking off or complaining. I'll see you around, alright?"

"What you're having them do right now. Forms, katas, rote learning, these are all things they can do unsupervised and with one another." Shungi started. "As the lieutenant, you should be able to make events out of your training. The construction workers of the Seireitei have too much time on their hands. You can have them build reproductions of the human world and you can drill human world operations. Maybe you can get in contact with the other divisions, such as the 2nd Division that you'd be working closely with. As a matter of fact, if you want to do joint training, the First Division office is always open." He suggested.

"Well. It's been good catching up with you. If you need me, you know how to find me." He offered. Shungi turned over his pipe to tap the tobacco ash from it and onto the dirt before stomping out any of the prevailing embers. He then stuffed the pipe back into his uniform and waved goodbye. Using his tall zanpakuto as a walking stick, Shungi left the barracks area, probably off to do something important.