The Affairs of Dragons (nm/nd combat, Tina )

There she sat, gazing at the space between her feet, the warm grass between her scaled toes brushing lightly into gaps between the outstretched scales. The sun was shining, and the forest was silent, save for the labored breaths escaping from her body. For five days she had been here in this forest, training her mind and body, trying to unlock secrets hidden within her own mind and body. She was now looking into the scroll that had put her on this path. It was rather large for a scroll, it extended two feet or more in length and was as wide at least six inches. Neya sat there, reading it over and over, memorizing the skills and abilities and spells .

Her chest heaved with exhaustion. An angry snarl had come across her face, and she slowly roled the scroll up and set it aside.

"Ive been at this for five days. and I've accomplished nothing. Why can i not do this!?"

The frustration was heavy in her voice. obviously, Neya was past frustrated. With a yawn, she rolled and retied the scroll and tucked it away into her bag, which was laying at her side. Then, with caution, tucked the bag behind her back and leaned against the tree. Her eyes grew heavy, and her breathing slows down and her body relaxes. With a last gentle sigh, She fell into slumber.

Screams. Thousands, hundreds of screams. Bodies piled upon bodies. All around herself, Neya bore witness to the carnage and savagery of war. A young person stood in front of her, a bow of energy formed. It was kill or be killed. The young woman had green eyes, and white hair. Her white clothes were stained in the blood of other shinigami, people that Neya had trained with and grown close to. There was no doubt, this woman had to die. If not for her orders, then for her friends. But Neya questioned the orders given to her.

“You are to kill all quincy you contact. Men, Women, and children. They all must die, for the preservation of the Soul Society and of the balance of the World!!”

These were the orders she, alongside all members of the Gotei Thirteen had been given by the Captain Commander. However, Neya did not follow them to the letter. She refused to kill children, and women who were with child. Her counterparts however, were not as merciful. They killed anyone marked, dressed, or appearing as a quincy. Had this one not confronted her, Neya would have let this one go. She appeared sickly, and Neya had seen her with a child before hand. She ahd no wish to kill her if the child was still around.

“I saw you with the child. We do not have to do this. We do not have to fight! Just turn and run away, and you can live!! “

There was nothing but a cold glare from the woman. Her eyes weren’t staring at Neya. They were staring through her. She had already made up her mind. She was going to kill this shinigami that stood before her, to protect what was left of her family. Neya knew from the look on her face that she was wiling to give her life for her family. Neya understood that. Despite her dislike of the male shinigami, Neya felt that some of them were her family. And she understood fully the want to protect.

The want for vengeance was now seeping into her as well. Those slain were friends, allies, comrades...family. They had to be avenged, if only for their memory. Neya raised her Zanpakto, a sakabato in sealed state and sighed with a weighted heart.

“You have killed members of my “family”. And I most likely yours. We both want the same thing, to kill the other. Our survival depends on one or the other dying. So just know: I shall not let you kill me!”

The quincy said nothing, and drew her bow. Neya rushed forward, and the quincy released an arrow. Using her wings, Neya pushed herself in the air before the arrow hit, and with a stroke of the sword in her hands, released a bolt of ice, and the quincy quickly dodged to the left.

Spoiler:

Her foe then, unexpectedly waited for Neya to land, and then with a sword like weapon stabbed her in the stomach. As the pain wracked her body, she released a scream.

And then neya awoke, screaming in pain and holding her side, the scar of her injury burning. And tears streamed down her face, and she wept, for the memory had brought back her greatest regret.

Tessa Morrowend glided over the forest below her, sun beating against the upper side of her bright red dragon wings. Vibrant red hair swirled around her in the wind, her horns sometimes poking through the strands. Red eyes stared outwards as she soared towards a sparkling lake, her thick scaled tail swishing lightly behind her. She was wearing a spare shihaksho, the emblem that would normally adorn her outfit not on this one. Today was her day to relax, to have time to herself, and so she did not have her zanpakto strapped to her waist. A smile graced her lips as she soared onwards, she had always loved flying and so it was now what she was doing to relax.

A scream from below had her head look down towards the forest below. Her senses were above what could be expected of a purely human shinigami due to her draconic heritage, and so it was easy for her to pinpoint the area from which the scream had originated. Her body dipped downwards, heading towards the source of the scream in order to make sure that everything was alright nearby. It wasn’t like she was defenseless without her zanpakto, she had other weapons beyond that. With a gently rustling sound her body pierced the treetops and her feet gripped at a sturdy branch.

Looking at the figure below her, Tessa smiled sadly. It would do no good attempting to hide the tears from her, she already knew they were there. Taking a soft breath, she prepared herself before dropping off and landing softly next to what was obviously another shinigami.

“Is everything alright Miss? Can I help you in any way?”

Her voice was soft and kind, her lips formed in to a gentle smile. Slowly she sat down next to her fellow shinigami, folding her legs underneath her. Staring outwards, she took in the beauty of nature as she waited for the shinigami to speak in response to her questions.

Neya looked up at the voice she had heard. A young female, with the wings of a dragon, and horns of one too. Tears still streaming down her face, Neya made no point to hide her scales,. There was no point in it. She nodded, and sobbed softly.

"IF you could...please....look at my wound, to see if it has reopened."

She realized then she was asking a complete stranger, to watch herself at least slightly disrobe to reveal a wound. she shook her head, and released a small huff of flame, and sobbed softly again.

"actually...i dont know....i dont..i dont seem to know much of anything anymore. which is improper for a seated officer....even if i am only a 5th seat, is hould have dignity and self control..not be crying and sobbing over an old war wound and past atrocities i can never fix."

She gazed into the eyes of the one sitting before her. She had offered help. She didnt know who she was, or what squad she belonged to. Neya scanned over her for equipment, a seal, a sign of her squad. But none was found. Neya internally sighed and shook her head, the small nubs of her horns showing on the top of her head.

"i cna see you are off duty...what is your name and squad? I am fifth seat Neyavaenya Suzume of squad five,"

Tessa blinked in surprise when she spotted the scales upon the other woman, it hadn’t been something she expected. However, it was a pleasant surprise to her as she had always felt somewhat lonely due to her draconic heritage. Knowing that there might be another that could understand her made her quite happy, she wished she had met the other woman under better condition but she wouldn’t be choosy. Tilting her head slightly to the side, Tessa prepared to inspect her wounds as requested. Despite not being a fourth squad member she was quite talented in kido, and so she had ended up picking up some healing kido as she learned.

It wouldn’t be necessary though as the woman seemed to have a small change of thought, breaking down in to sobs as she spoke. Tessa wished she knew how to comfort the other woman, she didn’t like seeing people upset, however she didn’t really know too much about interacting with others outside of combat and she had to consider the fact that her instincts could be the wrong way to go. Biting softly on her lower lip, she just lowered her head to look at her lap until she felt the eyes of the other female on her. Turning to look in to the woman’s eyes, she was surprised by what was spoken. A smile played on her lips as she heard the woman’s name and that she was a member of squad five. She had been meaning to transfer to squad five for a while, ever since what had kept her in her current squad was gone. She had been holding out somewhat as she was training for bankai, but it might be a good time to learn about the kido based squad she really wished to join.

“Yes, I am off duty at the moment. I’m Tessa Morrowend, of squad seven. It’s nice to meet you Neyavaenya Suzume, and if you have a wound that is bothering you why don’t you go see squad four? I have some rudimentary training in healing kido, but I’m an amateur compared to the people from squad four. I guess I’m somewhat lucky that people considered me a prodigy of kido or I’d probably not know what I do of healing.”

Neya's eyes quickly breezed over the female before her. The first thing to catch her attention, were the scales that she could see on Tessa's body. They were the scales of a dragon. Neya inside herself, gasped. She was no longer alone as a dragon. Neya sighed at the mention of squad four. She already knew they would turn her aside for a pain that only activated when she had a nightmare. Neya decided she might as well tell this Tessa about her wound...and to ensure she wasnt crazy, show it to her.

"The wound i have, is older probably than you, young one. It is a wound from the Quincy Annihilation. I was injured with a Seele Schnider, stabbed in the side..it destroyed my left kidney, and damaged my liver and bladder and stomach...it missed my spine by a few centimeters.......The damage was healed there on the battlefield. but i was left with a scar....and despite my best efforts, it is burned into my scales and flesh...."

After she finished giving her explanation, She simply showed her scar.It looked more like a burn than a stab wound. The edges were jagged, and the scales the wound were on, were burnt white. The scar itself was longer than it was wide, as if she were stabbed with a double edged vertically oriented blade, but one that was disproportionate.

"As you can see...this is a very old wound...that for some reason still gives me trouble...."

She gave a hefty and brief sigh and lowered her garb. She looked into Tessa's eyes, and then looked away. She then began to think. Maybe tessa could help her. Maybe, she would know something about the scroll she had obtained.

'I actually think , you could help me today...and in return i would be more than happy to help you get into the 5th squad. Is this an agreeable bargain?"

Tessa listened to Neya’s explanation of the wound, it did worry her somewhat. Could the fourth squad, one which specializes in healing, really not help with the wound? Seeing the wound caused another reaction from her. Eyes wide, she noticed the whitened scales around the wound. What could have done such a destructive act? It must have been one formidable weapon, that she was sure of. Looking up at the mention of the fact that the wound was old, Tessa frowned and thought. If the wound was indeed so old, perhaps there was something she could do. It was a long shot, and something she had never tried before, but if it worked it could possibly heal the wound.

Sighing, Tessa leaned back as the other woman lowered her garb to cover the wound. What she was thinking of was not only risky but dangerous as well. She could not simply try it without giving good reason. However the woman then surprised her by offering to assist her in transferring to fifth squad. Her face looked on in confusion before she remembered that this woman was the fifth seat in that squad. She most likely came upon the request for a transfer that Tessa had recently filed for. There was nothing left for her in seventh squad after all, so perhaps this would be best after all. Smiling slightly she spoke up to answer the woman.

“Ah, you must have come across my request for a transfer. I was hoping to join fifth squad as soon as possible since my reason for staying in seventh disappeared a while back. I think I would like to take you up on that offer, assuming I can actually be of help to you. Also...”

She paused for a bit, debating mentioning that she might be able to heal her wound, before deciding to do so.

“I might be able to heal that wound for you. Given, it would be quite risky as well as potentially very dangerous should things not go well. Combine that with the fact that I have yet to attempt this before, and I didn’t want to mention this method before. It is up to you whether you wish to attempt what could possibly be painful or dangerous in the hope it might heal your wound.”

Neya nodded at the mention of the aforementioned paperwork. As the fifth seat, neya's general job description was "desk jockey". She went through and sorted all the paper work and processed the work that was easily lost and most usually overlooked. Which in this case was paperwork pertaining to transfers. Sure the captain would actually have to SIGN the paperwork to make it official. But she could do her best to spruce it up nd make sure there were no loose ends in the paper trail. After all, it was this somewhat innate ability to unusually keep track of paper work and make sure it was as ocd-ly organized and kept track of that allowed her the pleasure- for it was just that to her, a pleasure- of doing paperwork for her superior officers.

"Yes I can help with your paperwork. My captain often allows me to help with the paperwork. They say that I am..how is it said..."extremely anal about paperwork and procedures". Which is preposterous because anuses have nothing to do with paperwork."
And there it was, Neya's inability to understand modern language. it had always been a barrier for her. She was still stuck in the 1900s when it came to her understanding of sayings and such. It had always been easy for her to learn languages and dialects but never so easy to understand addages and sayings. Nonetheless, Neya would help her.

Upon the mention of repairing her wound, and the possible danger of it, Neya began to think and ownder about the methods through kido in which it could be done. It could be done thorugh a healing kido that does more deep tissue and nerve repair...but the fourth squad has already tried that. It did not prove to be fruitious. Maybe the problem is my spirit itself...a very powerful kido indeed would be needed to repair something like that..and it would in fact be dangeorus. However i highly doubt that she would suggest something that would outright kill me with a single mis-step. Maybe...even more possibly so, it could be a temporal and healing fusion kido, to manipulate the tissue back into it's origanl state before the injury...That too is risky. Plus, it would be irritating because that particular set of scales would be softer than the others..and thus would be an exploitable weak point....it is already exploitable, but then it would be even more so.

"I would prefer to discuss the procedure by which you would mend the ailment. Ive been running through my head, the various types of kido and situations in which this could be repaired. So far, only three have really presented themselves as true possibilites. The first is that the Seele Schnider, Being a Quincy reishi based weapon, has done to that patch of scalesx and organs what it does to spirits. it has destroyed the spiritual energy and material around them, thus disabling my healing and the inability of others to heal it fully. The method for this as i would imagine would be a kido of sorts to in a way graft my spirit back together in those areas. however that is a very dangerous option. The second is that it is a nervous nand deep tissue problem in which the reishi somehow disrupted my wounds from healing in a natural way. And at the time, we were in the middle of the war and i was treated on the field by combat medics in the heat of battle,and had to keep fighting, and afterwards i was deemed fully treated. and ive been rejected more than once on this issue. the third idea is that the scales are dead, and the organs are slowly healing, their regeneration retarded by the reishi. The third cure that comes to mind is a temporal healing kido, in which you manipulate time to return my body in that section to the point before it was injured. However, that is the MOST dangerous, as it could upset the entire timeline. Those are just my thoughts on the matter...however, i'd love to hear your suggestion."

She hoped the younger shinigami would not think of her as trying to talk down to her or trying to be snide and all knowing.She was merely just providing her own observations. These were provided for her own safety.

Tessa snorted as her companion displayed her inability to understand modern phrases, they were quite an interesting individual. However, she was quite surprised at her fellow’s response to her offer of healing the wound. Looking over at her with slightly narrowed eye’s, Tessa’s opinion on the woman had completely changed. She had completely analyzed the methods she could have used kido for, and had it not been for her unique capabilities she would have been perfectly correct. However, Tessa Morrowend wasn’t thinking in terms of kido, at least not completely. Sighing, she scratched at the back of her neck while she spoke softly.

“Ah… I’m not sure whether I’m comfortable with that, though suffice to say I am not going to attempt to do anything you have stated. In fact, I am not planning on using kido in this, at least not solely kido. Eh... I guess I can tell you, but only if you swear to never tell anyone about this in your life. Promise me and I will tell you how I’m going to attempt this.”

Then she waited, seeing if she would get the promise she desired. If Neya did indeed make the promise then she would simply stand up and close her eyes tightly as she concentrated. Even though her zanpaktou was in her barracks, she still had the capability to manifest her zanpakto spirit before her, such was the bond between the two. With a slight growling sound, Tessa’s body began to shift. Nails lengthened to claws as her horns doubled in length, no longer somewhat hidden beneath her hair. The scales that covered some patches of skin rapidly coverged on each other, the new growth of scales covering her body. Turning back to Neya, the sun glinting off her red metallic scales, Tessa took a deep breath and shouted.

“Gladius Scientia!”

With that, the form of her zanpakto spirit materialized next to her, the white haired man glaring at Tessa. His greens eyes flickered to Neya before turning back to Tessa. His black trench coat covered most of his black slacks and white shirt as her glowered at his weilder, folding the large tomes under his arms. Then her began hissing at Tessa angrily, the voice soft but still loud enough for Neya to hear.

“What do you think you’re doing, summoning me in front of another? Are you insane? Do you not respect just what I am, just what you are?”

Sighing softly, the man then turned towards Neya, eyes unblinking as her began to speak in a soft monotone.

“Neyavaenya Clio Melpomene Suzume, be thankful that my weilder has decided to grace your eyes with my form. If you ever attempt to use my weilder to get to me or harm my weilder in any way, not even the spirit king will be capable of stopping the pain and devastation I will bring down upon you and all those you care about.”

With those words said, he stalked a couple feet away, and stood there while glaring at Tessa. Shaking her head, Tessa began pacing back and forth. After a couple minutes she would start to speak her tone somewhat edgy.

“As you can already see, my father was a western fire dragon, and like some of their kind, he is capable of healing himself by devouring fire. This capability was passed on to me, and thus I too can do so. My plan is three fold. First I will use the knowledge provided by my zanpakto spirit”

At this point she glared at the male, her expression promising horrible things if he didn’t cooperate.

“to infuse the area surrounding your wound with this ability by transplanting it from myself. Then I will mix my own flames with healing kido to directly infused them in to the newly transplanted ability to cause it to start healing the wound. However, the scar tissue and dead scales may resist the healing and could possibly need to be removable. Removal of the scar tissue and scales would be painful, but probably would not involve any long term risks. However… if I fail to infuse the ability in to your cells it will likely kill your or cause major deformities…”

Sighing she sat down, looking at the ground below her feet. It was dangerous, yes, and it didn’t help that he zanpakto spirit hoarded the knowledge he had, even she wasn’t privileged to almost all of it. However, if Neya did not make the promise, Tessa would simply shrug her shoulders and stay silent.

Neya sighed and nodded. It was a lot to consider. The procedure sounded life threatening. very dangerous indeed. but it would remove her scar and the pain that came with it. She pondered it for a while, then consulted with her zanpakto spirit.

"Well Muto, what do you think? should we accept this offer?" Neya intoned.

"It is not a matter of what i think or what i say, Neya. This is about you, and your body. Though we may be two in one, the same soul split, it is truly your body alone. Though i appreciate your asking for my opinion. I say, to take the path you think is right for us. Which is all you have ever done. However...i would suggest that you test her. she may be genuine, and she may be stronger than us. but we must be sure she has the skill and strength to do as she claims. no doubt you can sense her power. she is fr more powerful than we are, but i suggest clashing with her to test our strength." Was the reply from the zan spirit.

Neya sighed and thought on this.

"she does have a point....though she may have the superior ground of more raw power and overall strength....she may not be able to fix me. She may be more skilled than i am as well...But sometimes strength and skill are not enough....."

Neya sighed and looked over Tessa. She couldnt estimate her height and weight. but she was sure they were close. She had no clue what kind of stratagems she would employ in battle or even what her combat style was. but something deep inside her made Neya want to fight her..something primal and furious....something deep inside her was compelling a feeling of begrudging rivalry. She felt her body begininng to warm up. but not as in heat. but as if energy were coursing through her.

"Tessa, something inside me...call it...an instinct..is giving me a feeling that we need to test one another.I recognize that you are far stronger than me....but i just feel as if we should test our skills against one another....before you try to fix me...dont as me why, but i just have this feeling inside me..a primal, nagging feeling."