[Private] Underground Meeting. [Ika/Hagane]

Kat had been summoned to a rather unexpected location that she along with most other shinigami were informed to stay away from. However, it appeared this time that she was given special permission by none other than the Warden himself. Why? What reason could he possibly summon her to the maggots nest for? Turns out she had a long forgotten uncle rotting away in the pits of despair for an unknown number of years to her and he requested to meet her. Kat had to admit that it was eerie thought and the idea of doing so didn't settle well with her. She was unaware of what her father would think of this scheme considering he had never even mentioned having a brother before. The teen assumed that he wouldn't be too impressed with the thought, but she was a curious girl. Katana Mazi certainly wasn't a coward either. Plus, she had always wanted to see what the place looked like and this might be her only chance.

As Kat arrived, she was expecting to meet with Demise to be guided to where she needed to go. Honestly, the closer she came the more nervous she felt, yet she still continued. She wondered what he would say or what was going to happen while she was there. The more she thought about it the less worried she became at the thought of having Demise around as odd as that sounded. The old man was normally rather intimidating, but she didn't mind it so much now.

As she had thought, Kat would meet with Demise given a whole "one time deal" speech that she could care less about. Then, she would be led into an elevator before being promptly blindfolded as the doors would close. Before she could debate the issue, She would be cut off by the big guy himself telling her to leave it on and she knew better not to resist. The ride down probably wasn't as long as it seemed to be, but Kat was a bit unsettled by the sounds of the occasional screams of terror or madness. At one point, Kat would begin humming to herself giving off a presence of awkwardness from the situation.

Finally, the elevator would cease and she would be pushed forward before having the blindfold ripped off of her head. She would be met with a large, metal door and uneasy darkness. The light was dim, but enough for the girl to be able to see. As the door opened, she would once again be pushed in before she would turn and shake her fist at Demise, who would take his place stationed against the wall unmoving. "Yeah yeah. I get it. I get it. I can walk. You didn't have to shove me," Kat would mumble to herself as she would turn and face the cells. Apprehensively, the teen would begin to wander towards the cells wondering just who was going to greet her and how this experience was truly going to be.

So the prisoners were certainly more wound up than one might be accustomed to..

Having spent years down in this shit hole, the smell of an outsider, particularly a woman, was enough to drive the entire cell block mad by this point. Simply put, such a rare sensation was enough to place even your more hardened criminals in a frenzy, as memories of the life they were forced to leave behind became that much more painful. Frankly, some of them probably just really needed to get laid, but that was an entirely separate matter entirely and Elvis already wrote that song.

Demise began to speak, notifying Sano of his guest and almost on cue his mind went haywire. "A guest?.. Well well Ishii, who knew we were on such great terms these days!"

Seemingly on cue, Ishii would bash him in the chest forcing him against the wall, and then his guest would have her blind-fold removed and well, that was where it would all begin.

"Well.. either you're Ika's daughter or I've got a fan-club brewing on the surface. Selfishly, I'm hoping for the latter." Sano would step forward, keeping his eyes on Ishii as he looked the girl over, circling her as best he could from behind a set of bars. "Well you are.. beautiful."

Sano leaned forward, pressing his face to the bars while casting a wry wink in Ishii's direction. "Well you look nervous, the big guy didn't scare you did he? Ishii what'd I tell you abut scaring young women, it was bad enough when it was your wife.."

For those of you unaware, this was absolutely the wrong answer and Ishii immediately launched his fist across the cell, the impact alone was enough to propel Sano back against the wall and break his nose. "You were always a little touchy on that subject Ishii.. but how about you give me and the girl some alone time yeah? We've never.. properly been introduced."

An unfamiliar voice would pierce her ears mocking someone named Ishii in an oddly confident tone. From the context clues and the eerie assumption that there weren't any other individuals down here, Kat had to assume that Ishii was actually Demise. So, his true name was Ishii? Why didn't he use it? Well, Ishii wasn't quite as intimidating as Demise meaning he wouldn't really have much of that element on his side. However, Kat thought twice hearing the sound of flesh hitting flesh and a body crashing into a wall. Was this guy some sort of masochist? Just what had she gotten herself in to?

Immediately after her blindfold was removed, Kat would see the man she was brought here to meet and he would indeed confirm it was her standing before him. Why her? What did he want? She would watch as he looked at her as closely as he possibly could before stating that she was beautiful, which wasn't a compliment she normally got. The teen would cross her arms in front of her annoyed while also attempting to cover her nervousness. However, he would bluntly call her out while poking fun at Ishii again. As before, it wasn't taken lightly and Sano was thrown again into the wall this time with blood dripping from his face. Kat didn't know Demise was married before, even though she did know he had a son or two. What happened to his wife? Well, she wasn't sure she would ever know after that reaction.

Finally, he would ask for alone time for the two to meet properly. Kat would wait for Demise's response before she would begin to speak to Sano, "So, you're supposed to be some uncle of mine, huh? Why didn't my dad mention you? Why are you down here? What even is your name? Why am I here?"

Demise had by this point done his usual gimmick of staring with silent blind rage, enough that Sano had taken the hint well enough to drop the topic as Kat slowly but surely stepped forwards. Sano yet again leapt forward, seemingly unaware of the concept of boundaries as he jerked her around by her shirt, looking her over eagerly as if he'd just been handed a new toy. "Well supposed to be is an odd choice of words, I was never really asked to be your uncle I was a bit busy down here. Someone's gotta keep your old pal Ishii over there company after-all, and let me tell ya, the job is a real fucking kick in the teeth."

Sano figured he should go point by point, even as he continued to analyze the presumably related mound of flesh in front of him. "I'm sure your daddy failed to tell you a lot of things in fairness, Ika and I were never exactly.. close. Difference in philosophies really, damned shame to. We could've really shook this place up a bit if he ever took my fucking side."

Having analyzed the woman to his satisfaction, Sano would push her back a gently before continuing to speak. "Me and your father were never meant to work out. We just weren't cut from the same cloth, two bastards born out of Doku's worst choices in life, yet Ika held the proud distinction of being his second worst decision, and so he got priority over me, his worst decision. Your father, my brother, never really liked to claim me as his own and that was almost certainly amplified when I.. well.."

Sano had flashbacks briefly, he found himself for just a moment enveloped in the blood of his opposition, the bodies of Quincies laid around him motionless. He found a young girl in his hands, her body quivering as he buried his blade in her soft and malleable underbelly, the fear that had struck her eyes by this point in time was intoxicating, even in a daydream such as this Sano's excitement was apparent. His eyes drifted upwards, closed off from viewing, and then he was brought back to reality by the same thing that had brought him here. Another one of Ika's mistakes.

"Let's.. just say I had a unique penchant for going overboard, and your father had some ethical objections to my less than sound methods of dealing with those I didn't like."

Sano's face was stricken by a smile as he got to the end of his tangent. "Oh yes, and my name is Sano. You see I'd been pining to meet my beloved niece and, well.. here we are! Hope it wasn't too much of a trip..~"

Sano spoke with equal measures of sarcasm and venom, yet this almost felt as though it was his natural tone. "The real question is, what brings you here, girl?"

As she grew closer, the crazy criminal jumped at Kat grabbing her by the shirt dragging her around like some sort of doll. “Hey!” The teen would shout angrily as heat began to emit from her body as a self defense mechanism. The normal reaction to sensing heat near the hands is for an individual to let go, but this guy did just get slammed into the wall just to get up and do it again. He would begin answering her questions as he continued to look her over. ”Keep Ish- I mean. Demise company? He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy that would want company much less yours,” Kat would say swatting at Sano’s hand. She was becoming more and more annoyed that he was treating her like some sort of object that he had just been given. She was also highly uneasy about him handling her the way he was.

He would begin to speak about her father and his relationship with this uncle of hers as he continued to look her over. What did he mean difference in philosophy? What exactly was it that was different about them? So far, it was obvious Sano was much crazier and lacked any sort of manners whatsoever. Kat could admit that her father was, at least, slightly more stable than her uncle and knew what manners were if he wanted to use them. How did he want to shake it up anyway? She couldn’t keep up with his thought process because she didn’t have the slightest clue about his history or why he was down here in the first place. “I mean it. I will burn you, if you don’t let go,” Kat would say as she tugged at her shirt. Moments after, Sano would push her away, but she had a feeling it wasn’t because of her threat.

“None of this makes sense. So, my father didn’t like you because my grandfather didn’t like you? On second thought, I don’t think my father likes any of us very much either,” Kat would say dusting off her shirt that was now covered in wrinkles where it had been grasped and yanked at. Well, whatever. Kat wasn’t one to care about how people thought of her and she certainly wasn’t going to start with a wrinkled shirt. As she looked over her shirt, Kat would continue to listen as the man spoke about how he liked to go overboard against his enemies. “So, like what? You killed people?” Kat would say looking at Sano with a confused expression. “Don’t shinigami kill people too? Why is that so different if they’re enemies?”

Kat would make quite a twisted face hearing Sano say she was his beloved niece. It was true that the teen didn’t get shown affection much and this was certainly one of those things she never expected to hear anyone say. “Yeah, you can just call me Kat. I’m sure the whole beloved thing probably left a bitter taste in your mouth. Being a Mazi and all.” It seemed that Sano had finally finished answering her questions when he would then turn around and ask her one as well. Why was she here? “Well, I guess I was informed you wanted to meet me and my father had never mentioned you before. Curiosity maybe? It’s not often that I meet someone in our family. Besides, someone who’s been rotting underground? I knew that the old man could be pretty heartless, but for both him and my father to turn their back on their own family. That’s something I don’t understand,” Kat was honest with her words tapping her chin thinking about why what her uncle did was so different than what anyone else would do. Sure, he seemed a bit off, but he certainly didn’t seem like he belonged down here.

Sano just smiled as she tried to exude heat, as though his long since calloused hands would even begin to care about whatever burns she could muster towards him. His eyes stayed tethered to her form, taking in every inch of what many would consider to be his own flesh and blood. "Well, you certainly took after your mother though.. you still have that bastards eyes. Regardless, Ishii is really a big softy, loves the company if you'll give it to him. Quite the chatterbox, did you know he's actually a big fan of pedicures and nights out on the town? Oh the things I could tell you dear I-"

In an instant, Demise swung his fist at the wall, staring sternly in Sano's direction. "He's a bit bashful on the topic so perhaps we should move on hm?.."

In the meantime, he continued to examine her, seemingly oblivious to her whining and discomfort until she threatened to burn him. The very thought of it, a threat from his own niece was enough to bring a small satisfied smile to his face. "Ah.. you are just like your father. Anti-social, not a fan of being touched, fiery and irritatingly aware of your own disposition.. I suppose it is to be expected." Sano shrugged his shoulders, having already pushed her away by this point and decided it would probably be a good time to prepare to answer questions.

As she finished her thought, he clicked his tongue and leaned his face against the cell, his eyes trained on her, leering in her general direction as much as was possible. "Well admittedly father didn't like either of us very much but he was initially much more fond of me. Truth be told the fact that Ika turned out to be more favorable than I did probably haunted him to his grave, your granddad was a bit of a cunt, frankly speaking." Sano's eyes would flicker up and to the right, his tongue clicking yet again as he seemed to be trying to force his brain into thought. "Ika's contempt for me is something to do with gross irreparable acts of genocide, to be frank I tuned him out, the screams were much more interesting in that given moment. I can still hear them, helps me sleep at night.."

Sano closed his eyes briefly, his smile growing wider still as he prepared to continue on. "Well anyway, I may have killed a few noncombatants, and a few combatants, and a few of their kids, and their wives, and their families, and the witnesses, but it was all for a good cause and I thought, in my own silly mind, that would be enough." Sano would roll his eyes and shake his head, casting a glance towards Ishii before continuing. "But.. daddy has rules, and so here I am, being the best prisoner this shithole has to offer, isn't that right Ishii?"

As many of you might have guessed, Demise wasn't much for small talk and declined to answer beyond huffing angrily in Sano's direction.

In the meantime, he would allow her to soak this newfound information in while continuing to answer the rest of her questions. "Oh sweetheart, saying you are beloved to me doesn't leave a bitter taste at all. You're my own flesh and blood in a weird way, you'll outlive both of us dinosaurs, me and your father will die in this shit infested place, and leave it to you covered in more shit than we found it in. Eventually, the rot and decay of this god awful place will be enough that we're all freed from it, I just don't think it'll be in my lifetime."

Sano snapped his fingers behind his back, another tick meant to stop himself from rambling on to long. "Well, they left me down here under the charge of war crimes if you must know. Again, the whole Quincy genocide thing didn't go quite as well as I had expected but.. well, live and learn. I certainly have. Speaking of crimes, how is your father doing? Did you know he never visits? Doesn't even write me letters! The gall of that man is absurd I tell you, but I do still wonder how he's been.."

Kat knew that she had taken her appearance from her mother, which always left her feeling a small glint of rage flickering somewhere inside of her. The woman she despised more than anything in all of existence continued to come back and haunt her daily. Her only saving grace was the fact that she had been given her father's dark hair and iced eyes, which were certainly her most defining features. Of course, none of that really mattered since it wasn't dwelled on nearly long enough for Kat to care in this moment. Instead, more jabs were made at Demise, as Sano insisted on irritating the man to an endless degree. He would only be met with angry grunts and sound of a solid fist hitting the dark, cold wall beside him.

He had looked at her long enough and heard enough of her speaking to understand what kind of girl she was. Anti-social? To a degree. Not a fan of being touched? Certainly. Now, it was his turn to answer some of her own questions and it was time for her to find out just what kind of man her uncle really was. He was leaned against the cold bars of his cell as his eyes stayed glued to her person. He clicked his tongue as if thinking of a way to respond, if he even wanted to respond at all. It seemed that he had decided to answer her as he spoke about her grandfather. He was fonder of her uncle, yet he sat in this dark hole of a cell. How long had he even been down here? He would honestly voice his opinion about her grandfather, which wasn't necessarily wrong. She had heard many times what people thought of him and the views were always certainly unfavorable, although never in a harmful manner. Again, Sano would click his tongue as his eyes would dart away from her. Was he having a hard time with his thoughts? Perhaps it was due to him not having visitors. She couldn't imagine how long it had been since he had a conversation last so long that wasn't a continual attack on Demise.

It was after this moment that Sano would begin to show just what kind of individual he was. "Genocide?" Kat would ask as her uncle would reveal a gruesome fact about his imprisonment. "Was my father there? Did he even try to stop you?" Kat would ask as his short comment would leave her confused. It sounded like Ika had been there, yet Sano spoke so casually. If her father was there, how could so many people have been killed? "You killed them all by yourself? So many people? How? Why? That's insane. What did they do?" She had heard about the destruction of the quincies, but her own family had been their downfall. Why didn't she know about this? How many people knew about this? Kat couldn't wrap her head around something like this or why Sano was being so nonchalant about the whole thing. Sure, he had plenty of time to think about and explain his actions, but maybe he was simply too crazy to care.

As if he didn't just drop a bomb on her, Sano continued to speak calling her sweetheart and telling her she was his family. It left a chill to run down her spine, but she didn't seem to be afraid of him. To her, he was simply a crazy, dangerous man, but he was of no threat to her. Locked behind bars, unable to fight, barely able to move, and being watched by a much more intimidating man was enough to keep her feeling safe where she stood. She also had a feeling he wouldn't harm her after what he had just spoken to her. "My father? That's what you're interested in? He doesn't visit? Shocker. That's nothing new. He's busy. Always busy. Probably busy avoiding his spawns of satan as we are. Captain Commander and all that. Taking care of the whole Gotei isn't exactly cake." Kat would shrug telling Sano the position her father held. "That thing you said about being anti-social. He's definitely that. I guess he does have a fatherly sense sometimes though, in his weird way. I couldn't tell you how many times I've fought him and lost though. Not nearly as many as my brother."

Genocide, that seemed to be the word that garnered the girls attention and this was enough to bring a small yet note-worthy smirk to Sano's still gleaming veneer. "Why yes my dear, that is what happens to enemies of the Gotei. Don't you think if we could've say, wiped the Hollow scourge from the earth we would've already done that? I think we would've, of course your father had all kinds of things to say about balance and something about their right to existence and to be quite honest, I stopped listening about halfway through so the rest of his moralistic diatribe while possibly compelling fell on deaf ears. They were the enemy, and their continued existence was a threat to us as far as I was aware and so.. I decided to deal with it."

Sano glanced over at Demise, his eyes still radiating with a level of rage and contempt most couldn't hope to match. "Maybe if someone else had gotten the fucking job done themselves, I wouldn't have had to. The Quincy waged war on us years ago, a brother of Demise's was a friend of mine and died in the middle of that conflict. Demise, ever the lover, sat on his hands like a puppy and did sweet fuck all to avenge his fallen brother. I wasn't inclined to do the same, he was the closest thing I had to a brother and that's while including my actual brother, and I wasn't willing to just let it blow over. I asked to dispatch the Quincy leaders, I told my father that I could be trusted to do it and come back alive. Frankly, I didn't lie about that I just.. neglected to mention the intentional collateral damage I intended to inflict, that's all."

Sano smiled, his eyes awash with passion as his mind had seemingly shot back to those wonderful moments of mirth and misery, his mind lighting up at the thought of what he had done, the stench of gore and snuff still seemed to cling to his senses with every breathe of air he took. Could also be the mold, this hole in the ground wasn't exactly known for it's ventilation. He listened as best he could, though it never really was his strong suit. Even still, he was caught off guard by one comment in particular. His brother was Captain Commander now?.. What kind of sick fucking joke was that? For the first time in this conversation, Sano's face began to twitch and convulse, his eyes grew wide as his smile slowly faded away. "Your father is.. Captain Commander now?.. So the rumors of my fathers demise are true, and more importantly.. he'd lost his mind before then. Oh this is terrible news."

Sano cast his gaze towards the floor, the slow realization that he was never leaving this shithole began to really hit him at this point. If his own flesh and blood brother had forgotten him in here, if he hadn't even come up in conversation.. He was doomed to die here. He was going to atrophy and decay in this hole in the ground if he couldn't find a way..

Sano immediately sprung against the cage, grabbing the girl by her shirt for a brief moment to pull her close before letting go, his cuffed hands immediately retreating back into the cell. "You've gotta help me get out of here Kat, you're the only one he'll listen to.."

It sounded terribly wrong and unnerving the way he had explained it. However, his thoughts weren't entirely flawed in Kat's eyes aside from the innocents and children part. Wiping out the hollows? That was something Kat always wondered about and had wanted in her own mind. They were monsters and freaks. They were evil. Why did they count in this balance Sano spoke about? Why would her father want them to stay alive when all they ever did was cause mass destruction and hurt innocent people? Was that what Sano had believed the Quincies were like? Still, he didn't have to go so far as to kill the weak and small ones. Honestly, his actions were not entirely justified and there didn't seem to be many repercussions from them, except for the imprisonment bit. Was she just too immature to understand or did she just not have all the information from the other side?

"Why would they wage war on us? What did we do to them?" Kat would ask completely overwhelmed in thought, but increasingly more interested in the story. Sano had lost someone dear to him and the Gotei didn't claim justice. "If the quincies started it and killed people of our own, why was that any different from what you did? Why were you supposed to just sit back and watch the quincies hurt the people here? It seems pretty simple to me. They got what they mostly deserved. Still not so sure about the innocent people though," the teen would speak with a dramatic sigh and a sort of growl from her throat. "None of this makes sense! What am I missing? Why do I feel like something is wrong here? I probably should try to calm down before I catch fire though."

However, while Kat was having her own internal struggle it seemed that Sano was beginning to understand the reality of his prison sentence. He didn't seem as confident as before. It seemed that whatever he was holding onto had slipped away when Kat told him who was truly in charge now. He even seemed to be a bit distressed by the news of his father, which she hadn't expected from him. In an instant, Sano would jump towards Kat grabbing her by the shirt again as his eyes stared at her in horrified desperation. In the next moment, he would release her before retreating his hands into his cell. Unsure of how to respond to what happened, the teen would simply stare at the cell before taking a step back unable t respond for the time being. After listening to his pained and desperate plea, the girl would nod at him. "I-I'll do my best. I'll talk to him. Don't be too disappointed if he doesn't listen to me though." Kat couldn't help it. Her own flesh and blood that she had no idea about until today rotting in a dark cell. Would she be put there too if she did something wrong? Would her father leave her to decompose and be forgotten if he didn't agree with her?

"Why would they wage war, well that's a silly question my dear niece but I will indulge you. Quincy's and Shinigami have similar goals, yet they are not identical. The Quincy's goal is to exterminate Hollows, and as such they aim to destroy them, their souls included. We as Shinigami aim to purify the Hollows, our job is to balance the soul cycle not to eradicate Hollows on principal. We aim to cull and purify, they aim to seek and destroy. Obviously, their methods don't exactly.. mesh with our own. This led to conflict between their army and our own, and the results were.. devastating to say the least. Of course it doesn't surprise me you wouldn't learn much about it, father never really liked reflecting on the past.."

Sano's fingers began to prattle about, twitching with apprehension. "I agree, they got what they deserved and allowing those innocents to live would've only allowed for their cursed fucking clan to repopulate, but I have a hard time convincing the bleeding hearts around here that my work was.. warranted."

Sano yet again cast a glance towards Demise, waiting for the girls response to his request and he found himself pleasantly surprised by her response. "Well.. I will appreciate that. Give my brother my regards, kind or otherwise." Sano winked, backing away from the bars slowly. "I hope to see you again soon."

Eveerything seemed to make sense when he explained it. She could see from his point of view why doing what he did seemed correct at the time, although she still wasn't completely convinced that he had to kill all of those people. Maybe he did? There hadn't been another war since then. It seemed so brutal and heartless to think that she might agree with something like that. No, she couldn't say that she did. She could only accept that he thought he it was right, even if it wasn't to her. Kat could only listen and nod as he told her everything she had sked to know about.

"Yeah. I'll do what I can. See ya," Kat would say expecting Demise to blindfold her again and escort her out. It seemed their conversation was done and now she had a different mission and goal. She needed to talk to her father, although she couldn't say that he was going to be too thrilled to listen.