Captain Harai Shibuya.
Oh, how it suits her. Fits her ambition, her pedigree, her very being.
It's another trophy, one with responsibilities, but a display piece nonetheless. Something to bolster her nonexistent resume, filled by achievement after achievement, showing how truly accomplished and
amazing she is. So far above the rest.
Well, it would be better if said title had more groundwork done prior to her inheritance of it. War and continuous strife make not for comfortability, nor for worthwhile scientific advancements.
Needless to say the last few years, give or take two hundred odd, left many of the facilities within Twelfth Division less than well-manned, often abandoned all together simply due to the sheer lack of manpower available to allocate to them. The lack thereof remains, but Shibuya is nothing if not resourceful if it means adding yet more accolades to her ever-growing ego-fueled portfolio.
One of said facilities is the recently revitalized
Zanpakuto Development Facility, a series of labs forgotten years prior once dedicated to the tampering of Zanpakuto, their spirits, and abilities. Its abandoned nature could bring questions of why, the thought process of being able to alter one's Zanpakuto seeming invaluable to the bare eye– The fact of the matter is, however, that in the grand scheme of utility it falls laughably short of serving any purpose beyond the here-and-now. The Z.D.F. stands as a near useless priority when up against the still functioning labs; S.W.M.D., C.R.S., and R.S.A.R.F. And to some lesser extent, the Warehouse Sector.
All a lab truly needs to function is a few no-life losers– Otaku for their area of specialty, if you will-, and at the very least it will become functional again. Not to what it may or may not have been prior to the ever rocky roads present, but baby-steps and all that.
For these smaller, less well-working labs, there exist no titles nor leaders. Alas, this method of running her squad piles more and more paperwork onto her by the day, but it's a sacrifice she is willing to make if only to use her new position to begin mending bridges where they needed to be. At the very least a majority, aside from the Z.D.F, focus on far simpler things. Toys, Clothing, Sweets, Medicine, and the Manufacturing thereof– Small scale it is currently.
With new technology and ideas comes more products stocking shelves, and with more products comes brand competition, leading yet further down to cheaper, more accessible product varieties for those less fortunate.
It sounds so altruistic coming from a woman like Shibuya, to want for the betterment of the weak and poor, for their lives to improve just that little bit with easier access to medicines and luxuries once only accessible by Shinigami and the upper echelon of Seireitei. Her motivations are far from good, however. With cheaper products, and many more of them at that, she can force goodwill into existence from the Rukongai, potential to stabilize the most unruly and least accounted for population within Soul Society.
An added point to her plans is to force other manufacturers not affiliated with Squad 12 to lower their prices through continual pressure and corner cutting in certain places, then to dissolve any branding 12th currently has, and instead bringing the Harai's established
「 Kotei no Hitsugi 」 name recognition in to cater to the wealthy once the economy has evened out enough to allow the sort of wealth she'd like to target.
Garnering appreciation from Rukongai citizens, and cannibalizing the rich. In her thought process it's all win-win, as long as she can keep the gears moving where she needs them to.
Which brings Shibuya to her current pursuit, one of many undefined steps to her ever changing plans: Seeking out
Ōhei Itaku.
Clicking into place, the elevator door slides aside for her to step off, surface light leaking in from newly installed windows in S.R.D.I's reception area. It's quaint, how much friendlier a building could appear when it isn't plagued by the dim buzzing of lightbulbs and the unwashed stink of 12th Division hermits.
She ignores her subordinates' greetings as she makes her way outside, stopping only once she's exited the walls surrounding her division's territory.
Each of her remaining Azamushi show themselves from under her shihakusho, crawling along her neck and face, chittering to themselves, amongst themselves. From the seven that had remained after the Shiba Densagi incident, only three remain now;
One,
Six, and
Nine. The others lost and killed in a variety of ways,
Eights death notably being the only accidental amongst them.
Call it paranoia, but she can't shake the thought of needing them– Or that she
will be needing them. A habit she's picked up since she joined the Gotei 13, for what could be considered obvious reasons. Every moderately '
good' occurrence in her life since then has been followed by…
problems.
That being said, rather than sending them off to distant locations, she opts to keep them close, covering her blindspots.
She sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose, headache blooming as her bugs' sight begins to filter into her head.
Sacrifices, she reminds herself, for peace of mind and stability.
With that, she continues on her trek toward Fourth Division, pace leisurely, slow. For reasons.
Reasons of dreading whatever will come with willingly speaking to Itaku of her own volition. While it may still be for the same reasons as their prior engagements, she truly, completely, and utterly hates the thought of
wanting to speak to him.