A REAL Diplomatic Mission (Ulv/Private)

Diplomacy. One of the main jobs of the seventh division..and a job that Croisima wasn't often sent to perform alone. Sure, she was good at keeping a level head..but she still had the very poor habit of getting bored in the middle of discussions, and starting to lose focus. Still, orders were orders. As such, Croisima had arrived in Okinawa. That was something that had piqued her curiosity, actually. Her orders said she was to go to a place called Minatumi Harbour and speak to a woman named Ulv. And yet, the Senkaimon had taken her to Okinawa, along with the fact that she had been supplied with a Gigai that would allow for purchase of two one way tickets. One there, and one back.

Something about that in and of itself seemed a little sketchy to the pink haired shinigami. But she had no real way to question the orders she had been given, nor the method in which she was to get to where she was supposed to be going. And after a trip of about an hour, she had arrived. Just like many people who were walking off the train, Croisima reached into a pocket of the overcoat that she was wearing and dragged out a smartphone. A few taps of the screen, and she had pulled up her orders.

Yep. Take the train to Minatumi Harbour, and search throughout the city for a woman named Ulv. But there was something else in her orders. A little side note, really. What it said was simple. "Any attempt to find her through spiritual sensing will result in sensory overload due to the sheer diversity in spiritual signatures within the Harbour, along with reports that the entire city supposedly gives off a signature similar to her own." That made Crow click her tongue and shove the smartphone back into the pocket of her overcoat.

"Well shit..that's gonna make this several dozen degrees more tedious.." She muttered as she walked over to a sign that showed the layout of the city she was now in. It was..interestingly designed. The city was built to be circular, and was connected only by trains and trams. While it was all interesting, Croisima had to sigh. Sure, she could move relatively quickly in her Gigai. But if she was gonna be searching the ENTIRE city for this one woman, searching in it was going to be a hell of a time.

Thankfully, she had arrived rather close to sundown. So without a second thought, she made her way towards the fourth district. A half hour or so later, and she was set up in a room on the second floor of an inn for the night, one with a rather large window. Good. Leaving her Gigai was simple enough. Right palm, meet face. And just like that, the Gigai was collapsed on the bed, almost as if she had passed out upon her head hitting the pillow.

As she peered out the window, she found herself smiling a bit. There were still people here and there..but for the most part, she would be able to walk around without being bugged, as long as she stuck to rooftops. So with that in mind, she opened up the window, and started her searching. First stop, the second district. If she lived here on this island, she was probably set up in a really nice place..right?

Even without fully opening her spiritual senses, Croisima felt the newcomer approaching before she even heard the Garganta opening. Though really, that wasn't saying much. She sensed the presence of an Arrancar about a split second before she stepped out in front of her. Of course, now that she was close, Croisima could tell that they were about the same level. With orders being what they were, she hadn't even bothered to try stopping herself..at least until the other woman spoke up.

Now, she thought she was plenty patient, as people went. She couldn't remember the last time she had legitimately snapped at someone. But even for her, there were limits. Sure, these limits could be rather blurry, and hard to make out..but they were there. This woman had crossed several of those lines with what she had just said. Now, being talked down to was nothing new. There were plenty of people walking around the Seireitei who had their heads so far up their own asses that they probably stopped recognizing the scent of the bullshit they were constantly spewing.

So yeah, she could deal with being talked down to. That was nothing new. The overbearing and haughty tone? Nah. That didn't bug her either. That was all too bog standard with the kind of people who claimed they were the ones 'really running things'. So what was it that had crossed her lines? Well, it was two things. The fact that this woman thought she could just do whatever she pleased without any resistance from her, and the fact that she was assuming that the pink haired girl in front of her was just a pretty face.

"You know. If you had just said that I needed to give you some cash or something, I wouldn't have cared." Croisima said as she came to a stop in midair, her feet finding purchase where there should have been absolutely none. Of course, she had to tilt her head upwards to look the rude woman in front of her in the eyes.

And of course, her eyes hid none of her contempt for what this 'arrancar' had just said. "After all. My job was just to come here and talk to the person that my bosses actually deem important enough to try and keep tabs on." She continued, making sure to emphasize the fact that even if she thought she actually ran things, nobody had said a word to Croisima about this woman.

"That being said though..I don't think anyone would complain if I put some time aside to correct an absolutely egregious attitude." She said as she put a hand on the handle of her Zanpakuto, which was currently pointed at this woman's waist. There was a slight clicking noise as she did so. However, that slight click was all that was needed, as it had hidden the fact that she had ever so slightly drawn the weapon. Within seconds, a sudden high pressure burst of water was launched at this woman's waist, and Croisima's location changed. It wasn't quite at the level of Shunpo, but it was rather close.

This single burst of speed would have been untraceable by many who were at her level of power. And the movement itself wasn't the only thing she did. In fact, as she was moving, Croisima grabbed the entirety of her zanpakuto, and swung the thing--sheath and all--straight for this woman's face.

Oh, if only she knew what she was getting herself into..

It wasn't often that Croisima was given a chance to test how her water abilities worked against actually clever targets. She was indeed supposed to be a diplomat. Her skill with a sword was something she had honed on her own. Of course, her occasional anger issues did get her in troublesome situations like this one. However, as her collar was grabbed, and this arrancar started to point at her to charge up a Cero, Croisima suddenly was very glad that she had held onto her sword in a way that kept her hand close enough to the top of the handle.

As the other woman smirked, Croisima moved her hand with a rather deft amount of speed. This was very irritating. Not the battle, no. That was really to be expected whenever a Shinigami would run into an Arrancar. What was annoying was the arrogance and cockiness of this woman. Of course, Croisima had a rather prominent scowl on her face at this point. What she had planned was simple enough. Disrupt her focus with a rather unexpected attack.

She wouldn't need to reach for her sword, or do much of anything. She simply rotated her wrist ever so slightly. What Croisima hadn't noticed however, was the very faint spark of electricity that ran over the length of the handle as she tightened her grip on the sheath of her Zanpakuto. Two seconds. That was all it took. A buildup of pressure at the bottom of the sheath, combined with the fact that her sword fit snugly in the sheath.

Not a word was said, and the Zanpakuto was launched handle first directly at her opponent's face. Should the attack hit, or even miss, Croisima's other hand shot out and grabbed it, quickly utilizing the momentum that was created in a sort of slash that was aimed for the face of her opponent.

Another sort of flick of the wrist moment, circling a blade that had been launched at a rather high speed back towards an opponent, utilizing the speed of the two forces to their fullest here. "And that's where you fail. You assume that anyone has the power to actually take respect that isn't earned." She said, her voice level, but the tone of it deadly as she finally used her flash step. She had gotten lucky, and the grab that had been made at her had really only ended up grabbing hold of part of her uniform.

So as her standing suddenly gave way to high speed movement, the part that her opponent was holding merely ripped away, had she still been holding on, and croisima was a decent distance back again, holding her blade in both hands. The stance was familiar to any swordsman. A basic Kendo stance. Her form was impeccable, but that was nothing to really brag about. She was using the second most basic of the five stances: Gedan.

A stance that most new shinigami would be seen using. Normally, she preferred to be in Hasso or or Jodan, as the first was useful for defending and attacking from any direction, while the second allowed for a fast initial strike. For now though, she needed Gedan's advantage: the focus on deflection of blows. As such, the blade was pointed low. If one were to draw a straight line between the tip of her blade and her opponent, the line would connect with her opponent's ankle.

A strange looking stance, true. But it was one that focused on her strengths in terms of defense. And right now, she needed to defend and gauge what would be most useful. Had she not had access to the power of her sword, she would have been killed just then, most likely. She needed to focus. As such, she was finally taking this more seriously than she was mere moments ago, when this was more about taking an arrogant cunt down a peg. Now it was a real battle, with real stakes. She wasn't going to slip up like that again.

By no means was Croisima the brightest person around. She knew of her tendency towards reckless bravery. But even she could tell that something was off with the fact that this woman had been thrown backwards by the pommel strike. Especially given how convenient it was that it allowed her to avoid the speedy follow up attack that had been sent her way. It was a little suspicious, really. She had heard of lucky moments in a battle..but this was starting to err a little too close to the side of being toyed with.

Of course, that was just a thought bouncing around in the back of her head as she kept an eye on this opponent. She had pointed forwards, so that meant that it was likely either a Cero or Bala being launched her way. But when she raised her hand skywards, that was when Croisima saw her chance. Her flash step was fast, sure. But it was also something she wasn't fully trained to be the best in. She couldn't do it again. So as the energy charged around her opponent's finger, Croisima pushed as hard as she could off of the makeshift ground beneath the two of them, propelling herself forward at a speed that would be able to confuse most people lower in rank than her for a flash step.

She had one opening, and it was very much made obvious. So she took that chance, and had put a lot of force into the initial kick off as she sprinted towards her opponent. Her form was a blur, as she was moving at a rather supernatural speed. The distance was closed in less than a second as she moved for a quite literal disarming stroke, bringing the blade of her zanpakuto up from its original position to attempt to cleave through her arm, removing it from play. The sword itself was even giving off a rather intense amount of steam, and the glint of the blade revealed that water was condensing and evaporating off of the entire blade, enhancing the heat of the weapon, and its cutting power along with it.

She didn't exactly have the most stamina either, and she knew it. If she had to, she could probably achieve this level of speed one more time before she would be forced to slow down. But for now, she didn't bother with any of that. The attempt to cleave through this woman's arm was a test, trying to force her to tip her hand. She indeed felt like she was being toyed with, and she did not appreciate that. She would be taken seriously. She had worked her ass off to get to her current point in life. She wasn't going to let anyone treat her like her job was just to be eye candy, like this woman had been.