Welcome to Gaia! ::

The vice captain's office is quite the antithesis of Rhia's neatness and obsessive organization. The desk, a handsome maple affair, is clean as a whistle. Not a scratch mars its gleaming, varnished surface. A private store of fine saki is safely stashed in a lower cabinet, complete with a delicate beverage service.

The floor is quite another matter.Files, papers, reports, the odd crumpled memo--all are strewn about in piles that line the walls. The towering stacks of paper lean precariously against each other. If there is adornment on the walls, any signs of pictures or posters are lost behind the towering paper skyline.

Yet, somehow, there is a system to this clutter. Perhaps the pens and pencil stubs that litter the sea of papers indicate to the owner which stacks contain which pieces of information. Though, if there is a filing system to this mess, it is known only to Nico. A spy could spend years sorting through the papers and not come across the information they desired. Perhaps this is Nico's aim. Or maybe she's just disorganized.

Buried at the very back of the office is a door leading to Nico's private quarters. Past the door lies a somewhat more tranquil setting. Certainly the tatami-mat floor is visible, though the bed that dominates the main room is unkempt. A stand sits next to the bed, ready to recieve Nico's zanpaku-to when she sleeps. Posters boasting advertisements for Second Squad are tacked up haphazardly, clashing somewhat with the whispering silk hangings that adorn the walls. Extra shuhakusho hang in a somewhat-tidy closet.

Outside Nico's cluttered office a beautiful lake sits ouside. Bordering the lake a vast forest surronds it. Nico calls this area her private training grounds. It is free to use for those whom she has chosen.

On a whim, Kurai decided to visit her new vice captain. She hadn't formally introduced herself to either her vice or her captain, but she had to start somewhere.

As she approached, her heightened senses allowed her to detect an inordinate amount of clutter behind Nico's closed door. She knocked politely, trying to keep the taps light. Jarring raps would certainly collapse the paper towers that she felt lining the walls of the office..

Kurai opened the door carefully and stepped inside. Her face didn't register surprise at her surroundings, but then she had known the contents of the office before she had knocked. Sounds and feelings told her all she needed to know of the stacks of papers that lined the walls. She did not need her eyes.

In any case, she couldn't use them. She was blind, though there was no need for Nico to know. Kurai's 'sight' consisted of reflected vibrations, much like a bat's sonar, but she need not emit any sound, and her other three senses worked in concert to create pictures in her mind.

Her senses were so refined that she could discern a person's appearance, right down to the color of their eyes. To maintain her illusion of sight, she looked directly into Nico's eyes as she addressed her.

"Forgive the intrusion," She said with a crooked smile. "My name is Kuraime Shihouin, and I've just joined the squad. I felt it might be prudent to present myself to the vice captain,"

Kurai smiled. The hand on her head made her feel like a child instead of the seventeen years she appeared to be. She didn't mind it. In fact, she was strongly reminded of the way Yoruichi used to treat her. Her heart gave an inadvertant pang of longing.

It had been at least a hundred years since she'd seen the sister she so much resembled. That was another point of interest for her. People's reactions to her appearance. The older shinigami in Soul Society remembered Yoruichi. There were few who did not at least know the famous Shihouin's name.

Kurai looked exactly like Yoruichi, albeit younger, face softer and untried.

"What have you got against Hayashi?" She asked, skating over the revelation of her disability.

Kurai followed Nico's shunpo easily, though she could not hope to match that speed, currently. This was her second sense. Her 'second sight' so to speak. It was a refined reiatsu sense. She could see reiatsus and aura's. This sight could tell her much more about a person. She could 'see' emotions, feelings, relationships, and more.

This second sight was gift of sorts from Kurai's older sister. It was Yoruichi who had taught her to cast out her senses and use them as she did now.

She smiled as she watched Nico's orangey-red aura. The vice captain was clearly interested in a fight, and Kurai would not deny her. She had wanted to practice.

"Of course," Kurai said with a smile. Let's see if Kazi's training has paid off..

[good night ^^]

Kurai smiled crookedly, strengthening her already carbon-copy appearance to Yoruichi. She lept after Nico, bounding through the trees with surprising agility and a type of savage grace. It was hard to believe she could not use her eyes.

She had lost sight of Nico after the vice had performed a shunpo, but she could easily follow the trail her aura left. Darting from tree to tree, using the springy bamboo to catapult her further, Kurai appeared in the clearing not a minute after Nico.

She slid lightly down a stalk of black bamboo, coming to rest with a cocky grin on the floor of the clearing. Her sister was the God of Flash. It only stood to reason Kurai would emulate her.

"Nice place,"

((you do know that no one can use the shunpo but captains and vice captains))

((haha! it's a part of the new rules... they developed them long after you had started using it, I think. anyway, i'm not one to break the rules...how about a normal sparring match? Kurai's very fast, anyway, being Yoruichi's sister, and all))