Remontancy

It was a quiet night, all things considered. The full moon blessed Soul Society with bright darkness, not enough to bother the sleepers but enough to entice the awakened. Under moonlight this full, nothing was hidden, nothing was stealthy. Everything could be seen as if it were still daylight, at least by those who had grown accustomed to such darkness.

Atop the Sogyoku Hill, shielded from most eyes, tore a Garganta. It seemed that this peaceful night was over, but out of the Garganta stepped a feminine figure wearing a Captain's Haori. It closed behind her, and she took a moment to glance upward at the full moon, a sly smile appearing on her face that everything was going according to plan.

Making it to Hueco Mundo was easy. Irrelevant, even. Making it back, however, proved to be slightly more challenging than Mizuki had intended it to be. She had tried several different methods to return, but eventually settled on torturing a singular Hollow until he eventually bowed to her whim and opened a Garganta back to Soul Society simple so she'd leave him alone.

She had intended to leave for a 3 month excursion into Hueco Mundo, gathering information on the Hollows and such, at least publicly. Privately, it was more about their blood. Mizuki had spent over five years building a container that could store the blood of a Hollow even after they'd been killed and purified by a Zanpakutou, which would ordinarily remove all traces of the Hollow's previous existence.

Unfortunately for Mizuki, after just half the time of her expected vacation, she noticed things were no longer making sense. Hollows had begun acting erratically, Arrancar were appearing far more often than they had any right to appear, and while Mizuki could have easily managed regardless of what she found, she didn't feel comfortable staying in Hueco Mundo any longer. Luckily, she'd managed to achieve her other goals.

Now that she'd finished gathering several hundred vials of blood, and managed to return to Soul Society, all that was left was to return to her lab. It took no effort on Mizuki's behalf to figure out where she currently was, mostly because it was a prominent location within Soul Society, but she was slightly impressed the Hollow had managed to be so accurate with his Garganta.

Considering the fact that she was supposed to be gone another month and a half, Mizuki decided to not flaunt her return, and instead opted for a more stealthy approach. She was sure that eventually someone would come to investigate the Garganta opening in the god damned middle of Seireitei, so she decided to make herself scarce. Lo and behold, a few Shinigami approached from different sides in an attempt to entrap what they could only predict was a Hollow brave enough to come to Soul Society alone.

She could hear them speaking, though muffled due to the distance, about how they didn't sense any Hollow energy in the vicinity, so Mizuki sealed as much of her reiatsu as she could and used Shunpo to disappear before they ever managed to approach her location.

Far away, near the base of Sogyoku Hill, Mizuki decided she deserved a break considering the past month and a half, and went into a nearby shop where she bought a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, then sat on the ground outside of the store and lit one up. She leaned back and stared up as she exhaled, wondering how things had changed in her absence.

The shifting of the Hollow's actions and ideaologies could be rationed due to Mizuki's mere existence, as if they'd caught on to what she was doing and had adapted to it. However, that didn't help to explain the Arrancar. There was a surprisingly limited amount of information available about Arrancar, and Mizuki didn't like that she didn't know how the process occurred naturally, but she knew that it was rare and most Hollows were incapable of performing it. The sheer number of Arrancar that she had run into, however, didn't stack with that supposed rarity.

She dropped the cigarette to the ground and lit up another one, as she began to wonder about circumstances. There was a single explanation she could come up with so far, which would answer the majority of the conundrum. While she was gone, someone must have taken that from her office... there were only seven individuals who even knew of its existence, but that meant there were over six and a half quadrillion people who could feasibly know about it by now. Where was Captain Commander Bashira? Maybe Mizuki needed to go visit the Captain Commander in order to get to the bottom of the situation, but returning to her lab was also very important.

A young looking Shinigami wearing a Captain's Haori with white hair walked up towards her. Mizuki of course recognized the woman instinctively, only amplified once she saw the clothes befitting a lawyer underneath the Haori of a Captain. As she couldn't see the back of it, Mizuki couldn't be certain what Division that her new compadre was the Captain of, but she inherently knew that something was different.

In the month and a half that she had been gone, Mizuki was accutely aware of exactly how much more powerful Tina Almenor had grown, much like she was all other Shinigami due to the power of her Shikai. All Shinigami in Soul Society were permanently recorded within her Bingo Book as part of the exams so she could test them for Spirit Cancer and other such diseases. But now, seeing her in the flesh, and feeling the full brunt of her, admittedly suppressed reiatsu, Mizuki couldn't help but smile.

"You've grown up into a fine Captain, Almenor. What brings you out tonight?" She took a final drag off her cigarette, dropping it to the ground and stepping on it, pulling out two more and offering one to Captain Almenor alongside a lighter, since her own cigarette was already lit anyway. Mizuki didn't normally smoke, but she did chain smoke a few in a row during high stress situations, severely boring ones, or any other circumstance she could come up with. Being 'on break' counted, and thus she was on break until she got up.

Tina had been, as usual, in the Great Archives trying to figure out more of the crap going on and more about the "Secretive" details regarding how to do her job. She was getting nowhere on the former, but had for the most part finished stitching together the weave of history concerning Soul Society, everything it cares about, and what her job as Captain-Commander actually meant and required of her.

Good shit. Considering she'd been captain commander for a month and had not been briefed or prepped for the position before being told she had it. This was suddenly interrupted by a mass of energy in the skies of Soul Society, created by the sudden appearance of a Garganta, which was just as quickly gone as it was there in the first place. While Tina had already started leaving the Archive and had mostly made it outside by the time it was closed, she was bombarded by people looking everywhere for her as they proceeded to try and figure out what had happened.

Given that there were three reasons a garganta would open in Soul Society, and no one was dying yet, Tina crossed Hollow Invasion off the list. That left two reasons. Bashira doing a sneak, or Mizuki de Grey returning from Hueco Mundo as per her last request for work related leave. Something Tina was made aware of, but not necessarily given the details to, when she was put in office.

With the consideration that Bashira likely would be too busy doing whatever the hell she had run off to do, considering she was willing to betray Soul Society to do it, because it had only been a single month..

That meant it was far more likely that Mizuki had returned and did not intend to startle anyone upon doing so. Tina calmed down each individual that found her as she searched Soul Society on her own and told them to just return to normal duty and that she was handling the situation personally. After about an hour of this, she made it down where Mizuki physically was, not because Tina had found her already, but because it was one of the last spots in this area that Tina had tried to search so far.

Sure enough there was the head of research and developement though now that Tina had actually gotten here and noticed Mizuki was indeed the one who had showed up in the garganta. Mizuki noticed Tina as well, making a comment about Tina being a captain now and offering her a cigarette and a lighter. Tina was well aware that Mizuki had information regarding every shinigami, but she had forgotten that it updated. However it didn't seem to be.....infallible. Neat. Note for later.

"Captain-Commander Almenor" Tina replied casually, taking the lighter and the cigarette but only using the lighter as she pulled a blunt out of her pocket and lit that instead of the cigarette, "Welcome back Captain de Grey. I was not expecting you for at least another month. Did you expedition go well then?" Tina was well aware that the gap between Tina and Mizuki's intelligence was the SAME gap between Tina and everyone else in Soul Society except in Mizuki's favor. Which meant Mizuki had already pieced together that Tina's statement was both an update of the situation and a confirmation that shit has gone wrong at the same time.

"Former Shinigami Bashira Kinoshita fled upon being removed from her position by force during an attempt on her part to overthrow Soul Society."

Tina would let a moment pass so Mizuki could finish finalizing her thoughts on the entire matter before continuing, "You missed a hell of a lot Captain. Seems we have some things to bring you up to speed about. We've lost four captains to this situation and are currently in the process of rectifying that."

Mizuki was corrected by Captain Commander Almenor, who was by her knowledge previously Captain of the Seventh Division. That explained the jump in her power, likely through intense training, a deeper understanding of what she was capable of, or an evolution in her way of thinking... regardless, it meant that formerly Captain Tina Almenor was now Captain Commander Almenor. Which of course only left Mizuki with further questions, such as what had happened to Bashira Kinoshita, if Ika Mazi had been involved, where that was, why the Hollows had acted different, and why there were so many Arrancar lately.

Tina took the cigarette and lighter, but lit one of her own joints and pocketed the cigarette for later. Mizuki was welcomed back, made aware that Tina knew of her excursion to Hueco Mundo which was expected to last for Three Months. Mizuki was well aware that Tina was one of the smartest minds the Gotei had ever bore witness to. She had graduated top of her class in record time, was apparently the youngest Captain Commander of all time, and was currently living her existence as a reincarnated soul which was born as an artificial life form. She wasn't even technically a normal spirit, as she was purely artificial in nature, and developed her own soul, which has allowed her to apparently become Captain Commander.

Initially however, Tina was the product of a Computer Program developed by Tima Ingrez which would go on to become a genetic backup of its maker, with the sole purpose of creating a single life form. Altima (Artificial Life-form: Tima Ingrez - Mechanized Advocate) was born, and took on the name Tina Almenor which became her name when she was sent to Soul Society, and thus she has been ever since. Mizuki had never met anyone else who had been remotely as intelligent as Tina Almenor except Mizuki herself. It was a rare opportunity to speak with a true intellectual, who rarely misunderstood the point. Tina continued to explain the situation, as despite asking a question, she already knew the answer; the expedition obviously hadn't gone according to plan if Mizuki was back already. Bashira had apparently ditched as Captain Commander, having fled upon Central 46's orders to relieve her of duty.

Mizuki was surprised that Bashira had attempted such a coup de grace, but was not entirely shocked that she had done so while Mizuki was distinctly away. Bashira having attempting to overthrow Soul Society and the Central 46 wasn't altogether too out of place, as the woman had previously expressed disdain for how things were run in the current regime of Soul Society, and her apparently being mad with power is a thing that happened and Mizuki has no choice but to get over it. It did however remind Mizuki of that.

Tina finished off her update with stating that Mizuki had missed a lot in her absence, and that the two of them had a talk that was necessary. It was pure fortune that they happened to stumble across each other on this moonlit night. Apparently four entire Captains had been lost to the situation.

She had appeared a few hundred years back, as an apparent victim of the Dangai Precipice World's Sweeper Kototsu. The Kototsu had a tendency to send people hurtling through time in whichever direction it wanted to at no discernible reasoning, and had apparently sent her into the past from a future that has yet to come full circle. Through great luck, much like the luck required for Tina to find her here in the random place she happened to be killing time at, Mizuki had been one of the first Shinigami to find Tina. She had brought her in, guided her through the Academy, situated her in the Seventh Division as a proud upstanding member of justice and honor because she was very good at playing by the rules. Mizuki even pulled some strings to get Tina promoted to Captain despite her young age, and apparently those strings had ripple effects that made Tina now be Captain Commander.

Mizuki was pleased with the results. This meant that Tina was being acknowledged as one of the greatest minds the Gotei had ever seen, despite being an artificial being created from an unknown origin who could technically speaking at any time betray the Gotei. Mizuki however, did not think that was likely due to Tima Ingrez. As far as she has comparmentalized the situation, Tina has accepted that the Gotei and Central 46 are the penultimate goal of her original intentions, which were to protect humanity and give every soul a fair chance. Tina was known for giving anyone at least one fair shot regardless of who they are or where they came from, and has never been known to attack without warning. "Everyone Gets One." she would say, and everyone would laugh.

Mizuki wondered if anyone laughed anymore. Now that she was Captain Commander. Had her Aura changed? Was she trying to be intimidating? Probably not towards Mizuki herself at least. Tina was fully aware that Mizuki was, somehow, even more intelligent than she was, and seemed to always know how everything fit into place, and had never been known to hide things from Tina in the past. So she apparently had some things she needed to inform Tina of anyway, and some things she needed to keep secret.

She finished the cigarette she was smoking, dropping it to the ground and stepping on it as she stood up before motioning for Tina to follow her as the two went off towards Division Three's Headquarters, the Research and Development Institution.

It took a little while for them to arrive, during which Mizuki discussed the reason for her travel, which was apparently research on the way Hollows think and fight, as Mizuki possesses the ability to know why people think the way they do, and to research why and how Hollows had been attacking Soul Society. She left out entirely the fact that she had collected hundreds of vials of blood from the Hollows which were currently stored somehow in her Haori and Robe and were not visible to Tina, and would go on to explain that things had seemed too dangerous to continue with the shift in behavior from the Hollow and the drastic increase in Arrancar. This leads to the two of them entering Mizuki de Grey's office, which is marked as such, at the Research and Development Building as the next scene.

"....increase in Arrancar. I think I've figured out exactly what's going on, but first I have to take you back a few hundred years and explain things. On the bright side, you're one of the few I think can keep up." As she spoke, Mizuki took off her black gloves that she typically wore and draped them over her chair as she walked by it, sighing heavily as she finished and arrived at the very obviously broken into jar standing proudly at the center of her desk.

"Several hundred years ago, I created an object that I didn't fully understand. Shocking, slightly, I know," she couldn't help but laugh slightly as she continued, walking over towards her chair and pulling it out, plopping herself down as she continued. "Essentially, this object was more powerful than even I could comprehend, and when used in the few experiments I DID conduct, resulted in a few abominations that Central 46 decided to sweep under the rug. At the time, the Captain Commander was Bashira, of course, but I had already discussed the existence of the object with a few other people and was simply told to never mention it again." She had by now turned on the computer, and pulled up the files labeled [Hogyoku]; it was a spherical object that apparently contained living soul matter and was on par with a nuclear reactor. There were documents on screen regarding Central 46 authorizing the research, as well as other documents explaining more details about each individual experiment, of which there were apparently five.

"Of the people I told, most of them never gave a shit. Most of them considered it a wild, crazy idea anyway; a 'god rock', or 'wish granting magic pebble' as some called it was absurd. Central 46 wanted it buried, so I buried it. All research of it and all notes of it were locked behind Level 7 Access." Tina would, of course, know that Level 7 Access was locked to the Central 46 Archives and couldn't be opened without already knowing the contents. Tina herself was Level 6, even as the Captain Commander, in terms of overarching access to whatever documents she wanted. Mizuki wasn't Level 7 everywhere, she just had certain Documents that were a level of classified only she could open essentially.

"What I didn't do was destroy the object. Central 46 neglected to specify that it was entirely necessary, so I deemed it optional. I kept the object in that jar over there," she pointed lazily to the clearly broken jar above her desk and continued. "It very unfortunately explains everything from Bashira's betrayal to the shift in Hollow Thought Patterns and Increase in Arrancars. The "big issue" with the object was that whoever used it seemed to show characteristics unbecoming of their normal behavior. If Bashira stole it the day I left on my venture into Hueco Mundo, or admittedly any time after but at best it was the day I left, then it probably amplified her negative emotions and caused her to betray Soul Society. This would materialize as a war against Soul Society with her trying to take it over, followed by her ditching it entirely and going elsewhere. If, and I am fully aware I could be wrong, but IF Bashira has fled to Hueco Mundo, and has begun to use the object to accelerate the natural development of Hollows into Arrancar, that could mean trouble for us."

For a moment, Mizuki would let Tina make her own conclusions, but would then continue on her own tirade of words and explanations.

"The Object was never meant to be wielded with any intention at all, and was made to be a power source for a new type of technology. If I was correct, it would power hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of devices simultaneously; it was never meant to be used like an actual object, it was just never finished and was left there as a relic of the days I got close to understanding more." She sounded disappointed, as if she truly didn't expect this outcome, but not entirely or at all surprised about the outcome. Like all things, this was a possibility, just not one that she was hoping for, it would seem.

"Well, Captain-Commander Almenor," Mizuki stated with a smirk, sounding polite and ever so slightly teasing at her easlier mistake, "What's your take on all of this?"

Tina kept pace with Mizuki as Mizuki and her proceeded to basically use telepathy because none of the other people who heard either woman speak until they reached her lab, could understand anything because they were talking so god damn fast. Mizuki had the upper hand, had this been a contest of talk speed, but Tina kept pace just fine and they reached their destination, Mizuki's office within Division 3, regardless.

Upon closing the door Mizuki proceeded to info dump on Tina regarding Hogyoku. Tina, having not considered such an object was even possible, actually took a second to consider what the implications actually were. It, as Mizuki explained, did actually explain every single thing that had been going wrong even before Bashira's actual treachery. It was worth more, by itself, than probably the collective of Soul Society. If Tina had it, Mizuki was likely well aware of what would occur, and thus hadn't told her. Not that that bothered Tina, considering she was probably right. Whatever it was. Since Tina didn't know of it until 10 seconds ago anyways.

Mizuki had turned on her computer by now and flipped it slightly so that Tina could more easily be shown the screen, Tina looked obviously and saw the image of the Hogyoku which until now she only knew words for. Upon seeing the thing she immediately remembered back when Bashira vanished into thin air during her attempted coup. "Oh." Tina said almost disappointed, it was more that she didn't realize how special the fucking stone was until now, and she really wished she had managed to find Bashira before now as well. Mizuki clearly questioned Tina about why she went oh and Tina spoke truthfully, "That's the same thing Bashira held up during her last speech and prompt disappearance."

Mizuki seemed more annoyed than surprised however but Tina let it slide considering what was involved and listened as she continued to monologue about Central 46 hadn't actually demanded she get rid of it, so she sealed it, and then Bashira apparently stole it, which explained her persona shift and the increase in hollow, and probably a few other important things too. She took a small break at this point, which Tina didn't really mind but didn't need yet, but it was appreciated, before continuing to speak of the Hogyoku's "intended" use to be a battery not a gun.

At this point Mizuki asked Tina what she thought of the situation. Tina thought about it for a moment and apparently came to the conclusion that her own want of the object aside, because issues for later, that thing was a huge problem and needed a severe hand for a solution. "I'm not surprised I didn't already get informed of this, I'm more irritated that I couldn't detect the problems that would arise from the object when she showed the damn thing during her escape."

Tina was slightly more annoyed than usual, but it was less about the information she was told and more about who had told her, figuring Mizuki would have guessed something bothered her by now she simply spat it out, "I'm more annoyed by the fact that this might have been avoided had you told me sooner. Regardless of whether or not I was involved in the process or simply informed it was happening, I could have tried harder to press for finding Bashira rather than just now getting the chance to do so "now"."

She crossed her arms at this point, "It does mean that we need to get permission from Central 46 to rally Gotei and march on Hueco Mundo though.. The problem is I'm not sure we have the actual power we'd need to matter.. let alone getting Central 46 to let so many of us leave at once. We also have no idea how many threats would be waiting for us upon arrival. "

She stopped for a second before remembering who she was talking with not that she had actually forgotten, but it triggered something else, "Or do we? You said that things had been increasing for some time yes? You didn't immediately come back without any data? What actual kind of threat do you think we have beyond the power of your project itself? Beyond whatever power it may have given Bashira I did defeat her on my own before. Even if the fight is made harder, if she CAN be slain I would be the only one capable. Yes?"

"That's the same thing Bashira held up during her last speech and prompt disappearance." Mizuki was far more annoyed than she was surprised, mostly because she was annoyed that Bashira would wield it and weaponize it so blatantly and shamelessly. It almost infuriated her, but she managed to retain her calm zen, continuing her explanation.

Mizuki didn't like to interrupt people she respected, so she made no attempt to interrupt Tina while she spoke. She talked about her disappointment in her lack of knowledge, but Mizuki figured she already knew why she hadn't been told and let it slide; Tina went on to explain that it was more about the Bashira situation specifically than her own situation regarding the Object, and Mizuki just shrugged while Tina was crossing her arms. She nodded in agreement as Tina mentioned needing Central 46's permission, and made a dramatic contemplative pose when Tina mentioned the 'problem' of their manpower.

It wasn't that Mizuki was making fun of her, she was simply showing Tina she was following along by responding silently so as to not interrupt the woman, who had so far not stopped talking. Well, she stopped for a moment, but that look in her eyes told Mizuki that she was busy putting the square block in the square hole and would continue to speak, which she did regarding what the actual threat is beyond the object itself.

Mizuki went quiet for a moment, turning away from Tina. She knew that Tina would understand she wasn't ignoring the woman as she just now went to the lengths of beginning to pull out the vials upon vials upon vials of blood from her jacket, placing them on a rack in her office unlabelled. When all 427 were placed, Mizuki would turn to Tina and point to them.

"I was in Hueco Mundo for a month and a half. That is the blood of every Hollow I personally encountered on my mission, which you know to have been intelligence gathering." She had by now walked over to a wall where she pressed a switch, and an audible hum could begin to be heard with the air pressure in the room changing as it began to become filtered, with Mizuki lighting a cigarette in her office as she continued after an initial deep puff. "I can safely say that the Hollows are acting more violent, but more focused. They have clear ambition and goals now, instead of just wandering aimlessly looking for their next meal." She began to walk back to her computer, where she tapped a few keys and opened another file labeled [Arrancar].

"You're well aware of Hollows' various stages, ranging from Lesser Creature to Vasto Lorde, as per the usual textbooks. What they don't currently talk about is the ultra rare occurence of a Hollow of sufficient power, usually at least Adjuchas level, decides to take off it's own mask and chooses to instead replicate the Shinigami and compress its energy as a weapon instead of a bodypart. This has an almost infallible backfiring rate, with a mere 0.001% of natural 'Arrancarfication' succeeding." She took another drag of her cigarette, tapping it into the ashtray which appeared with another stroke of the keyboard.

"If I'm right, Bashira is using the Object to accelerate and very likely guarantee the success rate of Arrancarfication, which would absolutely explain why instead of seeing 'Zero' Arrancars, I'm pretty sure I saw 'Dozens' of them." She took yet another drag, continuing as she exhaled this time. "It took some.... convincing, but I eventually extracted some information, yes. Apparently, "The Boss" who I'm now pretty sure is Bashira, but back then I wasn't sure who it was, but The Boss has set up an entire army of Hollow and Arrancar, even some Vasto Lorde." Another few strokes of the keyboard and Mizuki brought up the files of [Lazarus] and [M'runa], both of which were marked in red as outdated information.

"These two are the major muscle. I don't know if any other Vasto Lorde are under her, but I know these two are. It would be stupid of us to assume they're not already Arrancar, which means we don't know what they look like." The pictures on screen right now were fuzzy anyway, and didn't offer much detail to be honest. "Central 46 is... "easy" isn't the right word, but.... "manageable" might be. We don't need to sell them on the idea of a full scale Counterattack, we need to scare them into the idea that Bashira could march in here and take us all out in a single day. With just Ten Vasto Lorde, Bashira could theoretically wipe out Soul Society in twenty hours; if these Arrancar are as strong as they seem to think they are.... I think we're in big trouble, Captain Commander."

Mizuki took another drag off her cigarette, remembering Tina's final question, and thought long and hard about it. Knowing everything she knew and every variable on the table that she knew of, there were only a few possible answers. Tina herself, like she already knew; Sano, technically, could maybe pull it off; Ika might be able to do it, if he weren't stuck with his head up his ass; Yamamoto could technically get lucky, but he's still missing in Hueco Mundo, and despite her best intentions she couldn't find him; Reno Kitsugi could technically do it too, but it would be unlikely, and she hadn't even tried to find him yet- that was next.

"You're the only one who's reliable and has done it before, but it's safe to say she'll probably have weaponized it by your next encounter. If Yamamoto were still here, him and Sano and Ika could technically back you up, but Yamamoto is still lost somewhere in Hueco Mundo and Ika is somewhere else we haven't put any thought into yet." She took another drag, sighing as she exhaled, finishing her grand speech. "I could help, but I'm not really that much of a fighter of course. You know that." She gave a sly smile, which was intentionally pushing the limits of acceptability before reaching official creepy levels. She was more than capable in a fight, and was one of the Gotei's most powerful weapons; her vacation to Hueco Mundo being approved had originally been almost outright shocking to her, but to find out the real reason was to steal the object made everything made much more sense. Regardless, Mizuki was one of the strongest weapons the Gotei Eight had to offer, especially when in Hueco Mundo or Soul Society.