Crimson Debate (Asami/Elyss)

“I didn’t go to the Academy.”

She stopped her antics, onyx eyes focused on the other woman as that question was asked. Her head tilted, eyes blinked without a care in the world. It’s strange, isn’t it? This redheaded woman, who seemed to lack manners with no education at all, seemingly deeply involved in manners that are kept secretive from the rest of this Organization. What made her so special? How did she end up in the position she’s in? How did she kill a Captain on her own? Why did the Captain Commander pick her?

Those are all good questions to ask, all thoughts that many have probably considered, but the answers to them feel impossible to get ahold of. Elyss, on the other hand, seemed all too unconcerned about things. She’s too relaxed, too impassive. The woman, shifting in her seat as she stared off to the side, just doesn’t feel right.

“How do you know Kyo? Calling him by his first name all of a sudden, eh? I didn’t give you permission to do that, now did I?”

Elyss looked back at the woman, a smug smirk on her face, her eyes slowly lowering to eye the black folder on the woman’s desk. Black, like her eyes.

“Eh? You probably wouldn’t call it lucky if you knew everything.”

Now, that was ominous, but Elyss doesn’t really care for clarifying. She’s more interested in getting a better read on Asami. That was a rather critical way to go about things. The woman even threw in a bit of flame towards Elyss’ situation. Now that warrants a bit of focus, so Elyss decided to sit up a bit and lean forward just a bit.

“You asked about Kyo and I. He’s just a friend. We met in Florida when I was assigned to rendezvous with your squad to handle some documents. You probably know all about that already though. It probably passed your desk.”

She leaned forward a bit more, her cheek caught in the palm of her hand as her elbow rested on her thigh. Elyss doesn’t seem opposed to speaking lightly about that assignment. Besides, that part of her trip to Earth isn’t a secret. It was a coincidence that helped her find a lead on the case she was assigned on. However, she’s not particularly concerned with the specifics. She’s more interested in their talk about divisional differences.

“Now, onto something more important. What do you think about Kyo? What does tight ship mean? You personally trained him or something? I know he’s still in the Academy, so he’s doing some kind of internship, yeah? You help with all the others too? That’s a lot of work for someone so… congested.”

Her eyes idly looked around the room again, making a point to stare each stack of paper down.

She caught that. Asami tried to play it off like she was just talking about another friend, but Elyss saw that little bit of motion in the woman’s eyes. It’s easy to recognize the small things when you’re so used to hiding your emotions and letting only certain things through. Though, she shouldn’t read too much into it because, for all she knows, it could have just been a twitch, irritation even. However, the fact that there was a slight change meant that Kyo did something to this woman. How close are the two? Elyss doesn’t know Kyo by a large margin, so she’s curious.

“Mister Sawachika is pretty cool, huh? He reminds me of a big lug in my division. They both like to run their mouths, but what comes out of it is generally nice and fitting.”

Well, guess it’s time to put out some of her own bait, so, with a sudden sigh, she slumped a bit in her seat, her head falling a bit. Her lips fell a bit as her eyes broke contact with Asami’s, the floor suddenly interesting to the redhead. The mood drop was small but still intense, as if Elyss had become a whole different person.

“Ya know… Maybe I should talk with someone I don’t know about all of this… Kyo probably would look at me with disgust after everything…”

Asami probably knows. It’s public news. Everyone should know the tale of Elyss Kishimoto, so Elyss didn’t bother clarifying her statement.

“Mmm… I don’t know… What do you think about the tradition of killing between Captains?”

She’s not going to ask anything too direct. Elyss’d rather see how Asami sees things about the Gotei and make a guess about what Asami would think about her situation. Elyss is gathering information too, but it’s not the big secret kind. It’s just weird to talk about anything serious.

Though, she doesn’t want to do anything else until she gets her answer. She doesn’t even want to move her head or look up. What if Asami has a disgusted look on her face? It’s a bit of a frightening thought, really. The look isn’t what matters, but it’s the idea that everyone now thinks of Elyss in such a way. The redhead was used to being thought of as scary, but that was just because she was strong. This is like she’s being excommunicated or something.

Her eyes narrowed. Not sure how to really take that answer, Elyss decided to forget about her prior desire to mess with Asami. For right now, she wanted to pick at the woman’s head, understand her words and reasonings. There was a subtle change about Elyss, a small flick of her brow, that made it seem just a tad bit serious about the current topic at hand.

“Why shouldn’t power dictate the land? If you’re not strong enough to keep what’s yours, should it be yours in the first place? The people behind you, if you’re not strong enough to protect them, then shouldn’t someone else protect them?”

Why is power wrong? Why is taking what you’re strong enough to take wrong? What is due process when you don’t have the ability to maintain it, even enforce it? Elyss couldn’t help but challenge Asami, not because she disagreed with the woman’s take on the subject, but because someone had to play devil’s advocate. It’s only right that they dug a hole into this until one of them struck gold, oil, or maybe, just maybe, an agreement.