Shadows in the Night(Ame)

[Kurosawa Ryou]

Oh this was certianly a fun game to be played. If he could do it with his own division he was sure he could do it here too. So he began to look around for some 'vicitims' to play with. Maybe the 5th Division would work well today? Oh yes they most certianly would... he had not played his games with them in so long. The imp like Shinigami cackled softly to himself as he walked towards there patrol areas in an almost bored manner. As he got closer he used a quick flash step to get to the nearest roof top so he could look around. To Ryou the rules were very simple... one :Try to avoid the seated members... Two: Look for unseated especially new recurits... Three and most improtant: Find those who are sleeping. He couldn't stand to see anyone who was trying to lie down on the job. He damn sure did his best to not let anyone get away with it in the 8th Division, and he was certianly going to try and spread that infulance elsewhere. Besides... no one ever found the 'Dark Toymaker' sleeping on the job. Actually if one thought about it. Ryou was rarely seen sleeping, the key word being 'seen'. His habit of mumbling sometimes extended into his sleep pattern, so you couldn't tell if he was sitting somewhere awake or asleep unless you moved his hair over. Even then... he slept with his eyes open.

As he sat there he hoped that he would be able to hide his activities. He mumbled the words for Shikai as it fromed on his hand, but he tried to keep his reiatsu under control. There was the usual spike that came form any such realese, but this was the reason that the young Shinigami waited. He just sat there for a few mintues humming to himself in a very chilling and ghostly tune. He clacked his blades together an in a gentle manner, as though sharping two knifes. "Life isss good... right In'ei." These were words softly spoken as he looked down at his hand. Moving the fingers back and forth to let the knifes touch his wrist. It was not long before he heard some voices nearby and softly said, "Well I guesss it is time to get to work." With that he bent himself over the side of the roof egde were the roof made a shadow and cut gently along it, " Maddo ningyôtsukai no u~ôren"... He loved this one so much, and with a mad sciencest like laugh to himself... he crawled inside.

He knew were he wanted to go and indeed simply came out another roof shadow right above one of the small patrols head. No intention to harm his fellow Shinigami was meant here... slimpy a joke. So that was why he tapped the younger Shinigami on the shoulder, and with a laugh and a grin moved back inside his portal before the other could around. Of course the 4th seat came back out his orginal entrance and found himself sitting on the roof and laughing as he kept himself low. Ryou knew of course that trick was a bit limited, because it would consume to much energy to do it over and over again. So for the two hours around the time of dusk he stuck to simpler things like simply clanking his blades... maybe a rock... and if he though he could get away with it... a small tendirl to steal tea cups. He did love the 5th Division tea. Tasted sweeter when one... 'borrowed' it. Of course he usally left behind some coin with the same tendirl. The man wasn't a theft after all. Soon though his time for fun felt like it was coming to a close, and he decided to make his return trip home much easier with one last, " Maddo ningyôtsukai no u~ôren"... . Yet when no need to hurry he stepped into his portal with a bit more lesuire than his normal pace.

[Tamano Ame]

"Miss Ame! Something strange is going on around the barracks."

She glanced up from her afternoon tea, arching a slim eyebrow questioningly. The unseated officer explained what had happened: for the past hour or two, there had been many complaints about disturbances in their routines. Simple, small things, thrown rocks and the unmistakable sound of clinking blades were disrupting the day's patrols.

Her officers were astute, she had made sure of it. Even silly Hinamori was bright enough when her wits were about her. It was no mere trick of wind, nor were her officers mishearing things, she was sure. It meant only one thing--someone had infiltrated their division. Standing, she nodded and dismissed the officer. "Return to your post and I shall take care of it. Don't worry." She smiled reassuringly at the officer as he left.

She left the tea room and retrieved Shichishitou from her quarters. He was itching for a fight, it seemed. Her tea would calm her down, place another buffer between herself and his toxic influence. She returned to the tea room, and quickly realized that her cup was missing and a faint trace of foreign reiatsu lingered in the nearby air. Her first thought was how ghastly an affront it was, to slip by their guards and then steal her tea. She picked up the coin that had been left behind, rolling it across the backs of her fingertips meditatively. It was the same perpetrator that had been harassing the patrol officers, most likely.

It was not, she concluded, an arrancar or assassin of any sort. Despite the chill that their reiatsu left in the room, it definitely belonged to a shinigami. She doubted an arrancar would have much of an interest in the division's tea anyway, let alone provide compensation for what they took. It had to be one of their own, likely from another division--her officers knew better. Ame walked calmly outdoors, taking in the beauty of the division at sunset: Brilliant golds and reds streaked the horizon and a cool breeze wafted across the grounds as her comrades finished their daily tasks. She smiled, though there was little time to take it in now. She intended to catch the rascal that had filched her tea and decide what to do with them then. She was considering having them pay their penance for disturbing her division as her assistant for a week. Not only would it (hopefully) get her point across, but it would be entertaining for her as well.

Ame quickly pinpointed the reiatsu she had detected before. It was far more sinister up close, which elicited a degree of confusion. Strange indeed. Even stranger was the figure she spotted strolling leisurely into the shadows. So, I was correct. She made use of her shunpo to catch up to the lanky young shinigami, taking him up by the ear and pulling him out of his shadowy portal.

[X]

"You know...If you wanted tea, all you had to do was ask." She held up the coin with her free hand, looking him over with a sweet smile and quietly sizing him up.

[Kurosawa Ryou]

As stept into his portal the Shinigami felt such glee. In his mind he had gotten in and out quite easily. Though did live his defensive mind in a bother, and a little despaired... what if the 5th Divison was caught unware. That would not be good, on no it would not, he would make sure he talked to Tiacho or someone on the spot. Of course he would leave out details on the games he had played, or else he wouldn't be able to play them and have fun another day. Laughing a little to himself, with In'ei's words in his ear... the sword was anxious for training so that she could kick his rear. He must have made an amusing sight, but that have defeated the point of his escape into fading light. Yet today his little game didn't end in it's usal way... oh no poor Ryou forgot that he was still in play. It was before his poor body was all the way inside before he felt the pull, of someone draging him out to possiably put him out on the dunce's stool. The feeling didn't hurt much, Ryou was so used to pain... it just supirsed him was all... and intruppted his game.

As he was pulled out into the light Ryou let out a soft child like laugh, but it was very evil sounding version. Of course in his mind he was hoping for anyone, but Tiacho... and with an audiable sigh that followed his laugh. He noticed indeed that it was not. In fact it was 'Kido Mistress'... Ame-sama. Someone he respected for there work ethic and intellegence, though not as much as the Captian of course. His black hair hung down covering most of his face except for one of his large dark eyes that stared at the Lutenient. The reiastu she had felt eailer was quite worse in that cold ominious nature feeling when Ryou stared at her sliently. Even when he let his hand hang by his side in a relaxed state In'ei clinked away becuase of the ticks of his fingers. In that eye you could though see a certian since of dark delight that at least she wasn't mad... not completely anyway. Looking at the coin in her hand though he just gently reached out with his free hand and if she let him he close her palm around it before pulling the arm back. "I am sssorry Lieutenant, but if I had done that I would have broken the rulesss..."

The sound of that dark childish laugher came form his lips again, "Rule one being to alwaysss pay so tell the men that they keep the coinss I have already sspent all I will on the kidss and I am fine mysself... and number two being to alwaysss take it. Besside In'ei enjoysss itsself more and gets stronger, or at least that is what it tellss me. All three of them..." He seem to just pause in the middle of his sentance to muse a moment as he stared at his weapon. Then as he taped the tip of one of his blades on his chin he suddenly held up three fingers of that bladed hand with his arm in her direction. The suddenish of his gesture could have gotten him in trouble, at this distance... it more of dependance her superiour jugde of distance, "And three... don't get caught. Ssso it ssseem that I have been caught my dear Lutenient. So that meansss I lose... and you win." Laughing a the 4th cheerfully did a hand stand looked up at her with his foot extend, and on it was resting her tea cup that took, "You earn thisss back. Asss well ass the right to pick another game if you want?" Though his actions seemed child like his voice still was cold and sinster. Ryou's two sides were always on display at once... the imp and the devil. Even his eye seem to display a curious and deadly cold nature to it.

[Tamano Ame]

The indomitable Kido Mistress matched his one-eyed gaze with one of her own, tilting her head slyly to reveal (maybe intentionally, maybe not) but a small patch of the extensive scar she bore over her left eye. She considered him; he was in shikai, meaning that the shadows she had plucked him out of must be part of his ability. The bladed glove he bore reminded her ever so slightly of Captain Soi-Fon, with her stinging wasp of a shikai. She was unfamiliar with this one, however, and she wondered what division normally tolerated the boy.

An eyebrow arched in a mixture of interest and dulled surprise as he confirmed her earlier suspicion--he had intended them to keep the coins. He reminded her of a character she had read of once before in a book from the Human World, a sly cat with a broad grin who liked to leave it behind when he vanished from sight. She'd have to see to it that this one took everything with him, and when she willed it. She wasn't willing to be out-foxed by a game-playing young boy, she thought quietly as she nodded her understanding. His zanpakutou was wily, it seemed, and willing to appeal to the boy's nature to satisfy its own fancy. As he thrust a hand forward, she drew back, but it occurred to her that he was just a little farther away than would have warranted it. She felt a bit silly.

He had lost his current game, he intoned with a peculiar snakish enunciation. She felt an almost vindictive satisfaction with having caught him, although it was only a matter of chance that she had reached him before he left. True surprise came when he turned himself upside down, balancing...her tea cup! She took it gingerly, checking it for damage. Fortunately, it had come back to her unharmed. She would have brought wrath down on the boy if he had damaged her favorite cup.

"Why, thank you." Choose another game...at least the child was fair. He was devillishly clever, her perception told her. There was a duality to him...he almost reminded her of herself, even. If she was correct, he could do much harm to their way of life, and yet he had the potential to do much good. She could test him. If he truly was what she thought, she may have something to teach him. Ways to put his nature to use. How to do it, however--that was the question.

She was ready to head to the Rukon for the evening, she thought to herself. All paperwork was finished, and her men were prepared to dismiss to the barracks and their homes. "Well, I seldom play games with strangers. Why not tell me your name first?" She would have asked his division, but it was really superfluous information at the moment. She was finding herself more and more eager to get to the Rukon to begin her own game with the boy.

"I must dismiss my men for the night. ...Why don't you accompany me? I'm sure they will be pleased to know that the disruptions today have been taken care of. Don't worry, I won't allow them to do you any harm, if they would at all. They are a disciplined group." She wasn't letting him out of her sight until she was satisfied that he would be putting his abilities to work for the good of Soul Society. Ambition and a keen mind could work for just as much ill as good, she mused.