Tian-Mei grumbled irritably at how weak she felt in the gigai. It was a common gigai, nothing extra to it. Which meant it could get no where near as strong as her old body had been.
Besides, no gigai, advanced or otherwise, could use chi the same way she had when she was alive. She would be stuck with kido and raw physical skills regardless.
She did have some soul candy, but other than that, she had no equipment.
Couldn't have the spy show up too well equipped after all, that would scream out that she was an informant to whoever was out there using Soul Reaper power for nefarious means.
The first step, of course, was to get noticed.
When she'd first entered the academy and found herself being personally taught by Rukia Kurosaki after hours, she'd thought it was just because of the happenstance of having the woman's husband introduce her to the Seireitei.
Ichigo had involved himself as well, when he wasn't performing tasks for the Soul Society himself.
Tian-Mei wasn't sure what Ichigo's duties entailed, she knew he had a captain's power, perhaps more, but not a captain's rank or even a lieutenant's. Still, it was obvious that he was too easily recognized to do this assignment, hence her being called in.
It made her wonder how long the assignment had been planned.
Still, while she didn't have a combat gigai, she did have files on the active Soul Reapers in the living world as well as the missing ones. Easily called up with a simple Kido created just for this mission.
And, of course, her soul candy was in on the whole thing.
Now, the soul reaper assigned to her parent's neck of the woods should have been able to keep up with a raw graduate, but given the extra training she'd had from the Kurosakis, he had no chance of stopping her.
But he had enough power to make a good show against her, something that would bring attention.
And her reward in all this...she got to speak to her parents and her younger brother.
And all she had to do was cross a few blocks to get there.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped out into the street, staying alert for any sign of spiritual pressure...though that was partially as a way of stealing herself for what was coming.
The dojo was as she remembered it, still maintained in perfect order. The other students glanced toward her curiously as she walked in, but for the most part they seemed return to their training.
Thankful for the lack of attention she was getting, she walked to the wall of achievements. Her picture was still there, beneath her parents', with black ribbons at the corners, showing her fight record.
Tian-Mei looked from that record to the other pictures, many of whom showed more matches than her. They were, for the most part, faces she recognized.
Classmates, comrades, training partners.
Her brother's picture was there, next to hers, but he must have just barely started: his fight record was small.
She was pleased to note, however, that he hadn't yet had a loss.
Her parents had rarely lost, she didn't think her father had ever lost a match, and they'd each only come to a draw once: against each other.
"May I help you?" a familar voice asked.
Junta, he was one of her frequent sparring partners growing up. Turning about cautiously, knowing that standing by her picture like this was a bit of a risk.
Then again...this is what she was here for, for multiple reasons.
The man, he'd grown up a lot in the last six-years, flinched as he looked at her, but recovered himself quickly.
"Do I...know you?" he asked.
"I don't believe so," Tian-Mei said firmly. "I just have one of those faces."
"Yeah..." the man said slowly. "What were you here to do? Did you want to take classes?"
"No," she said. "I was just wanting...to speak to Master Ryu and Mistress Chun-Li...I'm a historian and...I want to ask about their lives."
"Oh," the man said. "I see, you're a little young, though I've seen younger scholars. I would introduce you, but..."
"But?" she asked, grimacing.
"They will not be back for some weeks," Junta said apologetically.
"What?" Tian-Mei asked in a shocked and dismayed tone.
Had the Soul-Reapers lied to her about...no, no Rukia wouldn't do that. They merely hadn't taken her families tendency to wander into calculations.
Junta nodded and looked up toward the picture...her picture.
"Does she have something to do with this," the soul reaper asked, obviously disappointed. "Who i..was she?"
"That was their eldest daughter," Junta said. "You look a bit like her, I must say. She was killed in a match against a monster of a man six years ago."
"They went after him?" she asked.
Junta nodded.
"Any time Akuma pops his head out," the karateka said. "He's been killing other young martial artists. They say he used to look for challenges, but it seems now that he's nothing but a rogue murderer."
"What about their son," she asked, pointing to the other picture.
"Attending a tournament in Suna," the man said shaking his head to show how sorry he was that he couldn't help her.
Tian-Mei was about to ask another question when she felt a tremor of spiritual pressure.
The local soul reaper was getting close to finding her.
"Thank you," she said, turning to walk out toward the entrance. "I'll try again in a few weeks."
"Well, would you like to at least leave your name?" Junta called out as Tian-Mei turned about and stepped out of the dojo.
Between the entranceway and the street she swallowed the soul candy and winced as her soul was pushed out of the gigai.
"You know what to do," Tian-Mei said. "I'll meet you were we agreed to."
"Righto, ma'am," the soul-candy said, giving a sharp salute much to Tian-Mei's chagrin.
Why were all the substitute souls crazy?
The gigai and her substitute soul walked out onto the street and started to move with obvious caution and wariness.
Her opponent wasn't quite a rookie, but he wasn't quite a veteran either. The files she'd studied on him told her that his actions would be predictable.
Indeed, from her vantage point in the shadows of her parents' dojo, she watched the soul reaper land on the street behind her substitute.
He started to shadow Tian-Mei's replacement as she stepped out onto the street to shadow him. His hand was on his zanpakto even as she rushed forward, her own black-robes billowing with the motion, to step in front of him and bring a kick up into the man's face.
"That's the wrong way," she snapped with a smirk as she twisted about and slammed her fists up into the the reaper's chest, throwing him back.
"Woman!" the Soul Repear snapped angrily. "You should have just come in quietly while your offense was still minor. Resisting like this will have you in far greater trouble than you can comprehend."
Tian-Mei smirked as the man stood up and, drawing his sword charged forward, zanpakto still in its sealed form.
Waving her fingers, she invited him to come forward.
"You're about to find out what it means to fight a child of the Xiang and Hoshi combined line," Tian-Mei warned him.
He slashed down at her with his blade, eyes wide as she leaped over it. Her knee flashed out into his face, followed by a heel-kick that sent the man flying down the street.
Tian-Mei noted with satisfaction as a vegetable cart exploded from the man's collision with it. Thank goodness her physical skills still translated over, though she wasn't quite sure why they had. It wasn't like she still had a real body or anything like that.
The Soul-Reaper was up in a flash holding his sword out before him.
"Strike, Enkou!" he shouted as his blade exploded into a curving flame of fire.
Slashing his zanpakto in front of him a cresecent of fire whipped through the square, searing the walls of the street as it passed and striking many onlookers with fear.
Tian-Mei leaped over the fiery projectile and drew her own sword as she took her feet, no longer smirking. This fool was going to endanger onlookers if he kept at it.
"Speak, Aitou," she said firmly as her blade shifted into a slender saber.
Dodging another blast of fire, moving almost before the man unleashed it, she came up within close range of her opponent, bringing Aitou across the other reaper's chest, sending a spray of blood over the street.
Were they human, that would have been enough to kill, but Tian-Mei knew enough of Soul-Reaper resilience to know that while she had just finished the fight against this weak opponent, he would still be able to recover.
Satisfied, she sheathed her sword, letting it return to sealed form and then took off at leap to meet her soul-candy driven gigai.
"Curse you woman," the soul reaper behind her coughed as he tried to stand. "The Soul Reapers will not let you get away with this."
It was only a few minutes later that she landed in front of a small restaurant watching as her gigai was downing a mountainous pile of food.
"What are you doing?" she demanded.
"I'm eating, what does it look like?" the gigai answered, much to the confusion of the man behind the counter.
"If you keep eating like that, I'll get fat," Tian-Mei noted.
The gigai shrugged and continued eating.
"Not my problem," she said.
Rolling her eyes, Tian Mei reached out and jammed her hand down her gigai's throat until she could remove the soul candy, causing the souless body to flop forward onto the counter after what seemed to be some sort of fit.
The counter-man was on the verge of going for help when his customer sat up again and looked down irritably at the food.
"I seem to have over-estimated the size of my stomach," she said, taking some money out and dropping it on the counter.
"No problem," the shopkeeper said nervously as the strange woman stood and started walking away, a mortified expression on her face.
Tian-Mei had traveled much further when she felt another trickle of spiritual pressure. She slowed her steps and turned cautious, wondering if a second soul reaper were in the area regardless of the information she had.
A figure dropped down behind her and, as she turned about, she could tell the figure was a reaper even though he wasn't wearing the characteristic robes.
"They'll track you down," he said. "You can't hide in THAT gigai."
"Aren't you one of them?" she asked. "I can tell you're a spirit."
"No, I'm like you," the man said. "Somebody who isn't quite done with his old life."
"That's some name," Tian-Mei said.
"Oh, name," the man said, snickering. "I can give you a name. Mizuki, and I can give you a gigai that they can't track."
"I've heard about those," Tian-Mei said. "No thanks, I need my power."
"I'm not talking about those flawed gigai's that bind you to them in exchange for leaving you hidden," Mizuki said, smirking. "I'm talking about something that the Soul-Reapers have no knowledge of."
"Oh, and what's the price?" Tian-Mei asked.
"Just a few favors," Mizuki said. "Nothing serious. You'll still be able to kill Hollows. And you'll be able to do whatever you need to do here."
Tian-Mei considered accepting the offer right there, but that would look too suspicious. Besides, this guy was just small fry, from what she could gather, there had to be more to this than one small guy who'd never amounted to much himself.
In life or death according to his file.
"I'll think about it," she said, humphing. "Now, excuse me, I have some walking to do."
"You'll regret this choice," Mizuki said, frowning. "But we'll see what you say after a few more soul-reapers come your way."
"Maybe," Tian-Mei said, shrugging as she walked away.
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(Posted Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:15)
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