Transform, and Roll Out [Makoto, Elyss, Julian]

Well, it appeared that the time for departure had come. Julian naturally had said his farewells to Minerva and the children, and he had to admit that he was a tad sore still from Minerva's attentions last night. Well, that was neither here nor there. He simply stood by the senkaimon, waiting for his two accomplices in Special Squad 17 to arrive as he looked over a bit of paperwork.

Florida would be their first destination, then, though he did not entirely know where would be the ideal starting place beyond the state. It was a fairly large area, after all, but he supposed it was fairly likely that the furthest south they could go would be ideal. Fighting had come from the Bahamas northward, and much of the fighting had been in southern Florida before moving to Louisiana. Hm...

Well, he would discuss it with the other two when they arrived.

She yawned as she made her way towards the senkaimon and notice that Julian was here early, how strange. Very rarely was she not the first one to the party but given her evening last night it made sense. A lot was offloaded and she slept pretty heavily afterwards, it hadn't even been cut short. A full night's sleep alluded her for a while until now.

"Good morning, Julian. Have you acquired the gigais?"

Makoto asked promptly to verify the matter and pull her hair up into a ponytail. She thought it looked better down but this wasn't a time for looking nice. Function over form. There wasn't anyone she wanted to impress either. Dolling herself up did nothing for her.

"Where's the other one?"

"Ah, good morning to you both. I've acquired the specialized gigai, yes. Our presence as shinigami should be entirely masked to all but the most advanced possible sensors. To anyone looking, we should appear as nothing more than everyday humans. Let's try to maintain that ruse for as long as possible, yes?"

While Julian knew that message would mostly need to be directed toward Elyss, he considered it important for the both of them. He was the only one of the three with any significant undercover work done, so far as he knew, and it was fairly easy to forget one's cover if they were unfamiliar with this line of work.

"Are there any questions before we depart? We'll be starting in the south of Florida, likely in the Keys. There is still some Gotei presence there on account of our work against Shadow Fall, and the Vandenreich has yet to secure the area. There is still some Vastime presence as well, but we will not need to interact with them."

He knew who she was. There was no reason to reference her name in speech unless she was actually intending to get her attention. If there wasn't then she might as well just refer to her as less specific terms so it didn't get her attention unnecessarily.

"Of course. Without being provoked, we should be fine to maintain our covers for as long as possible. You and I might pass for siblings for a cover story with our features."

The thing called family shot back into her mind before dissolving again, she was an only child. The idea of siblings was distant enough that it didn't evoke a painful memory from her mind. It didn't stay long in her head when she considered the situation they would be going into shortly.

"Understood. I'm ready whenever you wish for us to depart."

"If we're to pass as siblings, we ought to come up with a family history, at least something sufficient enough to make the story believable."

Handing over small packages to his two companions, Julian gestured for them to follow him through the Senkaimon. There was no point in entering into the gigai just yet, so far as he could see. After all, they would need to discern an ideal place to begin the search beyond merely "the Keys," and that might have been easier without any disguise.

"Ideally, we'll be able to speak with our compatriots for intelligence, but if we can avoid it, that's just as well. Best not to inform any more than absolutely necessary about our presence."

And then he was through, the Senkaimon leading them into the sunny shores of the Florida Keys. Thankfully, they'd been deposited on one of the small, unremarkable islands in the long chain, not a soul in sight. That was nice, though Julian noted a few large ruined bridges that suggested even this small island had once been connected to something.

"I'm afraid I did not prepare documents, regardless given the war torn nature. I'm sure we could create a basic story fairly simple."

The changing of her eyes and actions of Elyss were just put down to her antics in Makoto's head. It was hard to track when she was serious and even when she was serious, whether or not it was even worthwhile to consider. Puzzling herself over these things would only get on her nerves so she was doing her best to be really stoic in particular so they could function as a cohesive group.

It had been a while since she had been to the living realm, Makoto hadn't been here since World War 4 and it took her a moment to adjust when she came out of the senkaimon and looked around carefully. Last time it was a warzone, this time it was just a mess but it still made her feel uneasy about those memories coming back up to the surface of her mind.

"We should track down where her lingering reiatsu is present and strongest in the region and investigate there. Theoretically, it would've spent the most time there and might have left the biggest impression on the locals in the area."

"I agree, yes. We're a bit removed from society currently, which is just as well for preparations. I'm afraid our only particular estimate for any strong presence of Abalia's reiatsu would be a broad direction at the moment, though there is some benefit in the fact that there is only so much land to traverse in this area."

Julian was quite aware that their actual leads were fairly miniscule, but he had never expected this to be an easy assignment. It was, however, something that only they could do, and so he would commit himself to it regardless of how daunting a task it was.

"I can begin a preliminary search with kido, but I suspect that we will indeed need to do a great deal of footwork once we locate something more specific."

It wasn't an especially difficult incantation, or a complicated kido, but Julian still focused intently on the spell as he cast it. It would give the two ladies a bit more time to discuss, if they so chose. Julian somehow doubted they would so choose.