Home Visit

"It is, actually.  When I was growing up there wasn't much...call for home visits.  I got all of my schooling at home."

The school of Hard Knocks, certainly.  Shio couldn't even drill up the morale to say something to Bea about her insistence on calling him kid; his age was a topic best left undiscussed entirely, in his opinion.  And was it just him, or could he detect the faintest hint of something hiding behind that comment?  Some little barb, some attempt to goad him and get him to react?  Shio honestly didn't know if this was a job he'd been given because his name was picked out of a hat, or if this new woman had specifically called him out, had decided to continue his long-standing tradition of having some sense knocked into him by his comrades, to have his position relative to everyone else yet again solidified.  For a moment, Shio almost wondered if people felt a need to repeat the same lesson so often because they'd found that method working for them, but to Shio that very notion seemed...alien.  To notice something and have to perform it until simple memorization kicked in?  To be unable to just...see through to the relevant details?  He could barely suppress a shudder at that notion, one that ran through his entire form.

"I'm not entirely sure I understand what counts as a criminal act here.  Unless they're a threat to the balance of souls, I can't imagine much that the Soul Society would need to police, is there?  The souls don't experience hunger under normal circumstances, and most of them move back to the human world in a timely manner.  Is there even anything particularly valuable worth stealing in these homes?"

He peered in through one window, his expression scrunched up in distaste at what he saw; a family, living three or four to a room, clearly huddling together for warmth.  And they were here to make sure that one meager recruit wasn't using his powers to perform some unsavory act in this place, this place where unsavoriness was just about the only flavor the people had access to.  He rose a hand slowly, waving at the children inside, trying his best to manage a smile...and then turning away when he noticed the sound of knocking.  He folded his hands over his chest, and spoke slowly, in a voice that seemed almost uncharacteristically brazen, coming from his chest.

"Shinigamis Shio Mora and Beatrice Mari Solange Belrose, here to speak with the aforementioned.  If he's not home, let us know where he is and we'll find him."

Bea scoffed at Shio's words. She was right to peg him as a relative newbie to the division from the looks of it. For someone right from the academy that was pretty much a textbook answer, but there were certain unspoken things that they didn't teach at the academy.

As Nishio rushed about inside getting ready Bea quietly muttered to Shio, "It's precisely because of that which we must be extra vigilant. Around 85 years ago the living world country of Japan engineered an excuse to invade and occupy a region known as Manchuria in the living world country of China. That's not so long ago that the souls of those killed in the fighting on both sides aren't still around here in Soul Society. With no need for food and limited ability for economic, social, or spiritual advancement a lot of souls are just left adrift. A left over grudge like that, well, it's not the best motivation but for many it's better than just drifting. Now, give someone like that a training and an zanpakuto.... Bankai is the worst case scenario, but even with shikai or even a sealed one...."

Bea trailed off, leaving Shio to consider what she said while Nishio opened up the door.

"Heheh, no need to look so tense!" She said with a chuckle at the young man, "We're just from the first division. We just wanted to check in, see how you're doing. We shinigami need to stick together, yeah?"

Nishio was not sure what he was expecting upon opening that door, though it certainly wasn't this. These Shinigami just walked right up to his house, knocked on the door and started acting as if they were his friends. Usually when someone acts that way it would mean that they want something, though Nishio was at a loss as to what they could possible want from a guy like him in the middle of nowhere. Knowing that they probably weren't intending to cause problem for him, Nishio felt a bit more relaxed though he was not much less comfortable about the situation than before.

Nishio scratched his forehead and glared at his two surprise guests. "Well if you didn't come here to kill me or anything like that, I don't suppose you would mind leaving and coming back in about fifteen or twenty minutes? As you may have noticed I am not exactly prepared to receive guests at the moment. If you are looking for hospitality then I'll have you know that its hard enough to get bread and water around here. If you wanted to make sure that I am alright, then I'll have you know that there are plenty of people around here who are much worse off than myself."

Nishio summoned up the nerve to turn his head to the side and accompany his words with a hand gesture that indicated that he wanted them to leave.

Shio glanced back at Bea, his expression remaining neutral as he stared at her.  She was perceptive, there was no denying that; either that or his tongue had gotten a bit too loose, letting slip details he shouldn't have, his defenses crumbling as he entered this all-too-familiar space.  He inhaled slowly, his nostrils flaring as he closed his eyes, saying nothing for several long moments.  The world around him seemed to blur around the edges, growing far less significant...and then the streamers came.  Reiryoku ribbons, floating all about them.  A few stray red bands amongst the white, most of them in places Shio would expect.  And it didn't seem Nishio was heading anywhere specific, simply wandering around his home.  The task of focus kept his attention off of the conversation, gave him just the excuse he needed to formulate a proper response.

"It doesn't matter whether or not I agree.  There are orders, and my opinion on the matter isn't relevant.  The day the Captain Commander calls me into his office and asks for my advice is the day I speak my mind.  Until then, there's nothing to be gained from trying to shout discontent off the rooftops."

He snorted once more, listening to her rather...uninformed statements on how things worked in the Rukongai.  She spoke of how little demand there was for food, as if these people, these decent honest people, wouldn't eat themselves sick if they had the opportunity, just for the novelty of it.  Food brought comfort, and comfort made this dreadful squalor just a little easier to stomach, helped while away the time and make life more bearable.  For his parents, it had been the alcohol.  Always some new bottle, always furtively snuck from some place they were too smashed or too furious to name.  For Shio, it had simply been the comfort of a bright future.  A way out, a hope for something new...

And still that squalor followed him, darkening every room he entered.  The squalor of his barracks seemed little different than the same wretched conditions he'd tried to leave back in the Rukongai.  The same petty cruelty and close-mindedness he'd worked so hard to partition himself off from in the academy.  But they just kept finding a way in.  Everywhere Shio went, they continued to pop in, continued to rear their ugly heads and dirty his life with their ugly thoughts.  And now here he was, in the biggest blemish of them all, the place that no one -ever- should've been forced to set foot in.

Shio wondered sometimes if the squalor had somehow seeped into his soul.  If this was all that was left for him, after so many years of trying to endure.

"Mrr..." Bea growled pouting at Shio's reaction, or rather lack of one.

"Come on kid, what's with that weak response?" She sighed rubbing the back of her head, "Your Zanpakuto has to be crying with that sort of attitude. Ok, so first off, there's like, a thousand things wrong with saying that. Do you know how many tragedies have been performed by men "just following orders"? Not a pretty picture. Hmmm...."

She stopped and looked at Shio, sizing him up, "When was the last time you brushed up on your Living World history & cultures? It's invaluable if you intend to spend any significant amount of time interacting with the citizens of Rukongai but also surprisingly useful out in the field!"

Before she can launch into another speech though, the sight of one of the neighbors nervously glancing out the window at them reminds her that they're kinda still on the clock.

"Hm, anyways, think that's been long enough to clean up?" Bea said nodding back in the direction of Nishio's house. They still needed to go through the whole routine with Nishio; make sure that he wasn't up to any nefarious going-ons and check his potential growth. Hmmmm.... but maybe there might be some way to make this more pleasant for everyone involved...