For Gin, the past week or so had certainly been an interesting one.
Between the murder of one of Clan Khamja's foremost members at the hands of a subordinate and a relative neophyte and the fall of Midgar, there had been a lot of interesting chatter and conspiracy talk both within and outside the walls of the Palace. Gin hadn't had much of a chance to listen to what was being said in the case of the former, for he had left the Palace for Rabanastre shortly after giving his statement on the subject to Illua, but he had been in the perfect place to pick up plenty of the latter.
He had arrived back in the hub of his Division's jurisdiction scant hours before the news of Midgar broke. Shock had been the initial reaction. After that, blame had flown in all directions. The Archadian Empire had ended up being singled out as the most likely culprit, but there had been plenty of fingers pointed at the Shinra Government, those in charge of Midgar themselves, for the accident. Half of the world seemed convinced that it was a precision strike at the capital of the enemy nation on the part of the Empire's military, and most of the other half seemed dead set on it being an industrial accident and an 'inevitability' due to the sheer number of Mako Reactors bunched within the city limits. Hushed whispers of 'Gongaga' and 'terrorists' could also be heard within the headquarters of the Gotei 13's Third Division and Gin, amused, had done little to quell the wild theories of his men.
Gin ... well, Gin thought it all felt rather more like Nabudis than Gongaga. An entire city had been mysteriously wiped out in a matter of moments and, like Nabudis, nobody could get close enough to the centre of the devastation to ascertain whether there were any trapped survivors, what had happened or how extensive the damage was. Word was, it had not yet devolved into a Necrohol, but the Mako leaks from the destroyed reactors were so numerous that extensive portions of the city were off-limits due to dangerously high levels of radiation. Not even Mistants clad in protective clothing were said to be safe from the high likelihood of poisoning.
The reaction of the public to the dangers of investigation had been mixed. While the majority considered the amount of Mist and Mako a very good reason to steer clear of the city, some considered it lazy and others thought that Shinra simply didn't want to face up to what their Reactors and insane city design had caused.
Such opinions on both the cause and the ongoing investigation had not been unexpected, however. That type of thing was bound to be all over the news following an incident of that scale. Groups of Shinigami from various Divisions had been dispatched to help keep the Hollow population down in the wake of the disaster and a few of them, most notably Captain Yamamoto, the overall head of the organization, and Captain Komamura, the Bancour region's own Captain, had given short, clipped interviews as to their progress and the state of affairs on the radio. Other individuals, such as both Archadian and Bancouri military and government personnel had done the same. Rufus Shinra, the son of the President, had survived the incident thanks to his absence from the Capital at the time and a personal message from him had been broadcast reassuring the people of Bancour that they would be doing all in their power to find out what had happened.
It was all rather exciting, Gin thought, especially since he knew that the cause was absolutely nothing like what was being put forward. Watching public officials scramble around in the dark was certainly rather entertaining. Still, one thing had put a damper the entire affair, and that was the Ryoka. Gin tended to spend some time in what he considered his 'local' pub in Rabanastre. The very same pub, coincidentally, seemed to be the loose headquarters of the biggest Ryoka group on Khamja's radar. How curious. Gin had been very sparse with information concerning them, and had shared little with the Clan at large. He gave away enough to allay any suspicion as to his loyalties and motives, but had kept the fact that they had a relatively new addition to their little team entirely to himself. Not long after the Ryoka boy who had been forced into Khamja's ranks (and subsequently made to destroy Midgar at Aizen's whim) had left them, someone new had popped up in his place. This 'someone new' was called Axel, to the best of Gin's knowledge.
Gin had been very careful to keep the information surrounding his joining the group from Khamja. He was interesting, and quite the unknown quantity. Gin knew that L had operatives stationed in the city to keep an eye on The Order and he had been quietly making them disappear since Axel's arrival. It was a dangerous game he played. Of course, when the newcomer and Grimmjow's favourite playmate had left shortly before Midgar fell to Aizen's scheme, Gin became acutely aware that the good ship Khamja had sprung an information leak that L clearly had no idea about. Gin had already resumed his duties in Rabanastre by the time those two, together with a new and rather interesting girl, returned to their base of operations.
The atmosphere in the bar itself had been rather subdued. The usual upbeat music -- a favourite of the barman -- had been replaced by dreary, droning news broadcasts while the Berserker dutifully listened for updates on the state of commercial Airship travel which had been shut off temporarily due to the incident. That hadn't done much to dampen the conversations, however, and those proved to be very interesting. The girl was from Midgar, that much was certain, and it seemed very likely that Axel knew her. More than that, the three of them had run into one of Aizen's Arrancar groups on the way back from the city. A blue-haired enemy had been mentioned, along with a green-haired woman and two others, undoubtedly Ulquiorra and Luppi, if Aizen had stuck with the groupings he had informed Gin of prior to the mission.
That, as far as Gin was aware, was Clan Khamja's first encounter with the mysterious new Ryoka and that in itself had the capacity to throw Gin's secret foreknowledge of his arrival into a very unfortunate light should any of L's informants still be around with that information. Gin had wasted no time in returning to the Palace to find out whether the fight that he had heard whispers of had actually taken place. His first port of call was Yylfordt Granz. He was, Gin was certain, the easiest one of Grimmjow's associates to squeeze information out while casting the smallest amount of suspicion on himself for doing so. He was easily rattled and Gin didn't hesitate to use his ability to make him squirm to confirm what he had heard. As it turned out, what he had heard from the Ryoka was entirely correct.
That was unfortunate, but it wasn't as though all was lost.
Gin sighed to himself as he made his way from the kitchen where he had accosted Yylfordt, to the library where L was undoubtedly holed up. He felt outwards to pinpoint the position of a certain other resident of the Palace, and smiled to himself before dampening all traces of his own.
Things could be worse.
He silently pushed the library door open and, in a matter of seconds and aided by a certain expertise in high-speed movement, crossed the room to where L was, as expected, seated. He didn't hesitate to reach down and casually pluck one of his little biscuits from the desk beside him, eyes scanning the information on the screen before L had the opportunity to close it down.
"Well, ain't he a scary lookin' character?" Gin said, his words laced with amusement.
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Date: 2013-03-25 09:35 pm (UTC)Between the murder of one of Clan Khamja's foremost members at the hands of a subordinate and a relative neophyte and the fall of Midgar, there had been a lot of interesting chatter and conspiracy talk both within and outside the walls of the Palace. Gin hadn't had much of a chance to listen to what was being said in the case of the former, for he had left the Palace for Rabanastre shortly after giving his statement on the subject to Illua, but he had been in the perfect place to pick up plenty of the latter.
He had arrived back in the hub of his Division's jurisdiction scant hours before the news of Midgar broke. Shock had been the initial reaction. After that, blame had flown in all directions. The Archadian Empire had ended up being singled out as the most likely culprit, but there had been plenty of fingers pointed at the Shinra Government, those in charge of Midgar themselves, for the accident. Half of the world seemed convinced that it was a precision strike at the capital of the enemy nation on the part of the Empire's military, and most of the other half seemed dead set on it being an industrial accident and an 'inevitability' due to the sheer number of Mako Reactors bunched within the city limits. Hushed whispers of 'Gongaga' and 'terrorists' could also be heard within the headquarters of the Gotei 13's Third Division and Gin, amused, had done little to quell the wild theories of his men.
Gin ... well, Gin thought it all felt rather more like Nabudis than Gongaga. An entire city had been mysteriously wiped out in a matter of moments and, like Nabudis, nobody could get close enough to the centre of the devastation to ascertain whether there were any trapped survivors, what had happened or how extensive the damage was. Word was, it had not yet devolved into a Necrohol, but the Mako leaks from the destroyed reactors were so numerous that extensive portions of the city were off-limits due to dangerously high levels of radiation. Not even Mistants clad in protective clothing were said to be safe from the high likelihood of poisoning.
The reaction of the public to the dangers of investigation had been mixed. While the majority considered the amount of Mist and Mako a very good reason to steer clear of the city, some considered it lazy and others thought that Shinra simply didn't want to face up to what their Reactors and insane city design had caused.
Such opinions on both the cause and the ongoing investigation had not been unexpected, however. That type of thing was bound to be all over the news following an incident of that scale. Groups of Shinigami from various Divisions had been dispatched to help keep the Hollow population down in the wake of the disaster and a few of them, most notably Captain Yamamoto, the overall head of the organization, and Captain Komamura, the Bancour region's own Captain, had given short, clipped interviews as to their progress and the state of affairs on the radio. Other individuals, such as both Archadian and Bancouri military and government personnel had done the same. Rufus Shinra, the son of the President, had survived the incident thanks to his absence from the Capital at the time and a personal message from him had been broadcast reassuring the people of Bancour that they would be doing all in their power to find out what had happened.
It was all rather exciting, Gin thought, especially since he knew that the cause was absolutely nothing like what was being put forward. Watching public officials scramble around in the dark was certainly rather entertaining. Still, one thing had put a damper the entire affair, and that was the Ryoka. Gin tended to spend some time in what he considered his 'local' pub in Rabanastre. The very same pub, coincidentally, seemed to be the loose headquarters of the biggest Ryoka group on Khamja's radar. How curious. Gin had been very sparse with information concerning them, and had shared little with the Clan at large. He gave away enough to allay any suspicion as to his loyalties and motives, but had kept the fact that they had a relatively new addition to their little team entirely to himself. Not long after the Ryoka boy who had been forced into Khamja's ranks (and subsequently made to destroy Midgar at Aizen's whim) had left them, someone new had popped up in his place. This 'someone new' was called Axel, to the best of Gin's knowledge.
Gin had been very careful to keep the information surrounding his joining the group from Khamja. He was interesting, and quite the unknown quantity. Gin knew that L had operatives stationed in the city to keep an eye on The Order and he had been quietly making them disappear since Axel's arrival. It was a dangerous game he played. Of course, when the newcomer and Grimmjow's favourite playmate had left shortly before Midgar fell to Aizen's scheme, Gin became acutely aware that the good ship Khamja had sprung an information leak that L clearly had no idea about. Gin had already resumed his duties in Rabanastre by the time those two, together with a new and rather interesting girl, returned to their base of operations.
The atmosphere in the bar itself had been rather subdued. The usual upbeat music -- a favourite of the barman -- had been replaced by dreary, droning news broadcasts while the Berserker dutifully listened for updates on the state of commercial Airship travel which had been shut off temporarily due to the incident. That hadn't done much to dampen the conversations, however, and those proved to be very interesting. The girl was from Midgar, that much was certain, and it seemed very likely that Axel knew her. More than that, the three of them had run into one of Aizen's Arrancar groups on the way back from the city. A blue-haired enemy had been mentioned, along with a green-haired woman and two others, undoubtedly Ulquiorra and Luppi, if Aizen had stuck with the groupings he had informed Gin of prior to the mission.
That, as far as Gin was aware, was Clan Khamja's first encounter with the mysterious new Ryoka and that in itself had the capacity to throw Gin's secret foreknowledge of his arrival into a very unfortunate light should any of L's informants still be around with that information. Gin had wasted no time in returning to the Palace to find out whether the fight that he had heard whispers of had actually taken place. His first port of call was Yylfordt Granz. He was, Gin was certain, the easiest one of Grimmjow's associates to squeeze information out while casting the smallest amount of suspicion on himself for doing so. He was easily rattled and Gin didn't hesitate to use his ability to make him squirm to confirm what he had heard. As it turned out, what he had heard from the Ryoka was entirely correct.
That was unfortunate, but it wasn't as though all was lost.
Gin sighed to himself as he made his way from the kitchen where he had accosted Yylfordt, to the library where L was undoubtedly holed up. He felt outwards to pinpoint the position of a certain other resident of the Palace, and smiled to himself before dampening all traces of his own.
Things could be worse.
He silently pushed the library door open and, in a matter of seconds and aided by a certain expertise in high-speed movement, crossed the room to where L was, as expected, seated. He didn't hesitate to reach down and casually pluck one of his little biscuits from the desk beside him, eyes scanning the information on the screen before L had the opportunity to close it down.
"Well, ain't he a scary lookin' character?" Gin said, his words laced with amusement.