New girl out on the town

As this day grew longer, the Shinigami the two Quincy had met continued to do effectively nothing to shut down her doubts about him. As the sliding doors opened, it became apparent that Mitsuoki was no stranger here, but the glance and brief comment from the teenager inside towards Alana and herself was more than a little rude. As she walked into the place, it didn’t take long for the man that was seemingly the owner to come out. He looked and acted about as eccentric as he’d heard he would, though she’d never taken the liberty to come here herself before. She knew that he was an outcast from Soul Society, but had heard that he still worked with them, and that meant that she couldn’t be sure he would take kindly to Quincy.

“Keep yer eyes to yourself, bud,” Blu said loudly and unenthusiastically when the shop owner commented on how ‘cute’ they were, “I'm not into... y'know... men.” Well, A for effort on the comeback, anyway. She paused for a moment at being labeled simply as a Quincy. “And our names are Alana and Blu, by the way. Me being the latter.” She wasn’t a fan of feeling unwelcome, but she wasn’t not going to make herself known, either. “I’ll pass, thanks,” she added when asked to sit. She didn’t know much about the situation, but if things turned south, she wanted at least a sliver of a chance at being able to mobilize quickly and escape, so she chose a sturdy-looking table or counter towards the outer edge of the room to lean on as opposed to sitting on the floor.

As it turned out, the man Mitsuoki had brought them to meet was more than she’d known him to be… to think he had held such an important position before. What could have made him leave? She wasn’t sure if this made her trust him less or more.

As she listened to Urahara’s story, she became worried. She hadn’t realized that the conflict could get so much worse again… and if the Quincies were mounting such an operation, it could only be the work of the Vandenreich, or otherwise a new order of Quincies acting in their name. She wasn’t sure if the stories her parents had told her and Un were true or not, but if it was them, then they were going to make any attempts at peace more difficult than they already were. On top of that, if there was a ‘holy army’ of Quincies gathering to fight against the Shinigami, then she had no doubt that Un would join them in a heartbeat… assuming a more bold member didn’t find him and kill him first.

Things were getting more complicated, and concerning.

“I don’t think any of us expected making peace to be easy,” Blu interjected at Mitsuoki’s simple question and Urahara’s answer. She wasn’t one to sit by silently and let other people do all the talking, even if she was so obviously outclassed here. “If it was as simple as asking the Shinigami to make things work, or vice versa, then my family would have done it centuries ago. But having more people on either side that want peace can’t hurt. It might be a bit difficult to gain their trust, but it has to start somewhere.”

Though it would be especially difficult when such a large majority of Quincy would have every reason to have a grudge against the Shinigami, and the Shinigami against them, each for their own reasons.

"Do you think it is possible to make a reishi bow that purifies hollows? And, do you think that this would end the war?”

“Or, ya know, a Reishi, like… mace? Or hammer? Ooh, or a flail? Something more up-close-and-personal like?” The thought got Blu excited. With the rankings that Mitsuoki had labeled Urahara with earlier, she was becoming more confident that if anyone could make such a thing, it might just be this guy. This trip was turning out to be not so bad, even if Mitsuoki had small part in making it so. She still wasn’t sure she could trust the guy.

Then came the time for everyone to lay out what they could contribute to the group. Oh joy, this would go… great. Blu patiently waited for Alana to state her part, somewhat hoping she would be equally as underwhelming as she was about to be. Unfortunately, it turned out that Alana WASN’T part of the extreme minority of Quincy who were actively terrible at inventing things and had utterly zero interest in it, which made Blu even more nervous to go next.

“Well, uhm… I’m… not great at making stuff. I’m more of a field operative type, getting the more hands-on, not-crafty work done. But I’ve got a lot of spirit!” She added in extra pep to the last words, hoping it would alleviate the doubts that her lack of general helpfulness probably just placed in… well, all of them.

Then, next, came the part Blu had been expecting perhaps the least… Urahara offered them to use his facilities, and even to prepare rooms for them to stay in. Alana seemed capable, and like she far more likely than not had a place to go home to. However, to Blu, this was a big deal.

“Mmm, a roof over my head? You are making it incredibly hard to be skeptical of you right now.” Suddenly it became apparent that she had not told either of her traveling companions of her housing arrangements… or lack thereof, anyway. “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, I’d like to take you up on that offer. I’d earn my keep, of course, however I can, for the creation of our weapons and for upkeep for staying here.” It seemed as interesting a place as any to hole up for a while… and if there was anything that was going to ever spark that inner Quincy desire to create stuff, then if a former Shinigami Captain creating things to bridge the gap between the sides of this war wouldn’t, nothing would.