Mission: Seek and Apprehend Shiori Sasaki

Already on Earth, Mana stood at the staging region (and designated Senkaimon access point) with a patience born of long practice. Disdaining the idea of wasting otherwise unoccupied time, she began running over preliminary plans for the operation silently, along with the data she'd recieved on their target. Shiori Sasaki. Traitor. Rogue.

Vaizard.

The thought of facing off against one of the Tainted struck a very real thread of fear in the librarian's heart. She'd read every bit of available information on them (and, given her position within the Great Spirit Archive, no small amount of classified detail), and none of it was good. Tendency toward immense spirit power, corrupted personality traits, sudden resurgences, none of it was predictable and what was, would hurt. What made it even worse was that Shiori was former Kidoushu, just like Mana (sans the "former" part, of course). Mana despised treachery, and her own experience with rogues was...unpleasant. The fact that she'd survived contact with a bankai-capable rogue, mixed with her own interest in hunting them down, had given Mana an unusual number of seeking missions. Most were much simpler than this one. Rogues rarely possessed any great deal of power, knowledge or support. This one though...Mana was utterly certain that she'd fail the mission if she'd gone alone. While proud to the point of arrogance at times, she refused to let that overcome her intelligence. So, when the initial reports had come in, she'd made a few personnel recommendations, in particular for a shikai-capable field medic. Getting caught without healing support was bad enough, but the thought that this mission wouldn't end with some blood was laughable. It would have been better to know who it was ahead of time, but since the request wasn't approved until last minute, she'd make due. Her kidou, the 4th's healing, Calvin's tech and Akatsuki's all-rounder would, hopefully, give a broad enough set of talents to make the mission a success.

The old-fashioned door to the Seireitei opened next to her in the darkened alleyway, and out walked a familiar face. Mana's eyes, which was about all one could make of her face, given the veil, raised in surprise. She'd worked with him briefly before. Perhaps the background check had noted it?

Hello again, Gaen. She gave a brief, polite nod as the 4th Division member arrived.

"Ninth squad-," a loud and hurtful coughing, a hesitant and pained swallow and a pained grunt. "Akatsuki.. Out for the human world-.. Seek and Apprehend unit," the guardians nodded, still wondering why this man bothered to talk. They all knew he had a signed document he could use for passage, they all knew how much Akatsuki struggled to speak. But yet, here he was. unwilling to swallow his pride and bear the scars inflicted on him. He wouldn't let the pain stop him even once. The dangai was opened and Akatsuki pushed through the gate, simultaneously into a gigai that was prepared for him.

And he moved through the dangai quickly. An uneventful journey, surfacing ontop of the small building bordering the dark alleyway that was their rendez-vous.

With a soft breath, he moved his way down the fire ladder, before flicking over the side and slowly lowering down. Hanging upside down infront of the group, raising his hand in greeting. Before he flipped around and landed on the ground with a soft-.. Nothing? Not even a noise made. Not even his footsteps had resounded at all. "Akatsuki, Ninth squad," he introduced himself with the deep, gritty and most of all, damaged voice. Struggling to speak properly once more.

Gaen was both happy and sad to hear that this was the sum total of the mission group. It meant they could get started, and while Gaen was in no means eager to start a mission of this variety, the anticipation was worse. He was a little sad though that they didn't have more back-up in this mission, he figured many hands made light work, one person out of this team seemed to exemplify that very ideal. His concern in that matter was exacerbated when Mana had mentioned that holding back, regardless of the preference for capturing the target alive, was not advisable due to the supposed strength of the target. Gaen didn't think he had anything to worry about, if all things went well, he could go all out regardless because his targets were his compatriots. His most powerful techniques were aimed towards restoring life and keeping others healthy, so he didn't have any issue putting everything he had into the mission. He was more worried about his team mates who would be substantially less removed from the task of subduing a dangerous and powerful target. He doubted Akatsuki would have much issue attacking to kill, their previous mission together showing how far the masked man was willing to go in the name of his duty. The very well armed fellow who had, at this point, not introduced himself, Gaen didn't know enough about to say whether or not he took issue with attacking with the intent to kill. He seemed to be from 12th division, and much like Gaen, may not have the combat capacity to actually kill if he DID go all out. Mana... she seemed almost enthused about the idea of forgoing the 'capture' part of the mission, and while Gaen appreciated that his life was valued by the kidoshuu member above the mission objectives, he didn't like how tenable murder was as an option.

As Mana went on with the briefing, Gaen grew less hopeful that capture was the most achievable option. Their target could disrupt their bodies with her shikia abilities, knew potent kido, and could draw on the standard play book for hollows. And other stuff they may not even know about. While Mana certainly seemed off-put by the fact that their target was a Vizard, Gaen had no opinion on them one way or the other. The academy had not covered them in depth, and from what Gaen understood, they were somewhere between a victim of some kind of spiritual infection and a delusional militant bent on the destruction of Soul Society. Either way they were quite dangerous, but he felt an insufficient amount of study had been put to the matter. Could they be cured? Was the Central 46 blanket policy of hunt and capture strictly necessary if these people didn't seek out this disease? He even thought of bringing up the idea of opening a dialogue with this... Shiori lady, ask if she would like to return to Seireitei and plead her case. He decided to keep that idea to himself until after the briefing though.

As their leader was going over her own abilities (some of which Gaen had seen first hand) the one armed medic was suddenly faced with how few ranged options he had available to him. He would have quite enjoyed working from the side-lines, firing in healing kido to help his allies, but all of his abilities required a fairly close proximity. His shikai could heal at a distance if they were connected by something living, but barring the eventual confrontation occurring barefoot in a grassy field, he'd have to get more inventive. When Mana had finished listing off her capabilities, she offered it to everybody else to go into their own. It made sense to know what everybody else could do of course, best way to make up a battle plan, though nobody really seemed to be jumping at the bit to be centre stage.

Uh, I uh, I know the fairly standard, you know, healing kido, and uh, I recently got my shikai. Her name's Holla, she turns into a new arm for me. He said, pointing to his shortened stump of a right arm. She allows me to heal more efficiently than standard kido, I can heal anybody I touch, either personally or through a living conduit like a tree or another person. I uh, I may also be able to help with the body disrupting powers. Holla lets me make chemical cures and inoculants for poisons and other ailments. I don't know if that will help, but, uh, I'll try if it comes up. He said, looking over to either of the other men with him to start up.

What about when I take the drivers seat? I turn your whimpy little body into a damned tank! Didn't think to mention that? Holla said, sounding a little indignant.

I'd rather we didn't do that if we can help it. I can't heal anybody in that form, and that's my job here. He thought back to her, though he didn't expand on the fact that he was a little more than nervous to use that particular power. It was uncomfortable, invasive, and he felt it was a perversion of his healing powers, focusing everything that made his shikai a potent healing tool into a weapon. He didn't like it.

Oh, uh, is there any chance we can just, you know, talk to - Gaen was about to put forward his somewhat naive idea of opening a friendly discussion with their target when somebody with long dark hair in a martial art's outfit appeared in their midst. She said something about 'watching out' before vanishing as soon as she had arrived. The alleyway lit up with the red light of a fired off cero and Gaen suddenly realized what she had been talking about. He vanished as well, jumping up to the top of one of the buildings that made up the alleyway, dust and debris flying up from where the cero had hit. He was concerned for his team mates, but he considered himself rather slow, so if he was able to vacate quickly enough, he doubted anybody else would have had an issue. He looked up to see the mystery woman dispatch the hollow with relative ease before asking if they were ok.

I'm okay, thanks for the heads up! Gaen shouted up to her, waving happily before hopping into the air to introduce himself properly. I'm Gaen, it's nice to meet you! He said, coming up level with her, putting his hand out in greeting.

Gaen... uh, that's her. Holla said, a little surprise and concern in her voice. Gaen was actually a bit confused by what she said.

Her who? He thought back at his avatar before he finally actually bothered to take in the face of the person he was looking at. Honestly, Gaen was horrible with faces, but it was kind of hard to miss the eye-patch. It took what felt like a full minute before Gaen reasoned that their weren't likely to be many shinigami wandering around in human clothes with an eye-patch in the area they were looking for a human clothed shinigami/hollow hybrid with an eye-patch. To the young medic's credit, he handled the sudden realization with a very fluid and simple response of passing out and falling from the sky.

"Akatsuki, assassin, duelist," he managed to say with fractured voice towards the newcomer, another shinigami. Before letting out a soft, hoarse cough and shaking his head, turning on his heels slightly as he felt reiatsu flaring, the sensation of a high powered hollow discharge closeby. He ducked through his knees slightly, hand resting on the hilt of his blade, before he flickered out of existence. Being the only one who seemed to decide going for the adjuchas was the wisest idea. With a soft click, the wakizashi slowly slid from it's sheathe. And Akatsuki reappeared again behind the Adjuchas. His movements swift and price as he caused a rather agressive move for the hollow-.. 

Only to have it stolen from underneath him by someone that was swift and stronger than him. Yet, she fit the description. Eyes behind the mask went wide. Lips pressed down in a thin line. And Akatsuki flicked forward with the same momentum, aiming to slam his wakizashi down into Shiori's shoulder and impair her before a proper battle even started. With a soft sizzle, the blade came whirling down. No questions asked, no respite or breaks given. This was the only chance he had at this time. While it was not a killing blow, he presumed it'd cause enough damage to cause shock and relay the message that if she didn't comply, there could be serious harm in it.