Raise Your Spirits [Murasaki, Erika]

Well, there were a lot of things Murasaki needed to handle now that she'd taken her new position up, but first things first she needed a Vice Captain. She'd had quite a few people in mind, honestly, but none of them were really what she was looking for.

So, instead, she'd sent a text to someone she hadn't seen in quite a while, asking to meet up. Sitting in a small tea shop in rural Japan, Murasaki just watched the horizon as she enjoyed a dango. She knew that peaceful little days like this would definitely be a luxury soon, so she was totally willing to just enjoy it while it lasted.

For now, there wasn't much else to do but wait for Erika to arrive.

It was something a little out of her way, the short-blonde surprised that someone of her past would try and reach out to her, while she was tempted to simply refuse to show up and continue her own little bitter exile. Erika did find it harder than she wanted it to be to leave the green-haired woman alone and disappointed, maybe it'd feel too much like how Tsubaki vanished and left her alone to ignore Murasaki.

So she showed up. Empty-handed as always given that Erika was a walking armory of blades and weapons, nothing but a mercenary leading an unfulfilling life which showed with her scowl and guarded look as she sat opposite. Closing her eyes a moment to think before her voice formed the simple start to the discussion.

"What do you want, Murasaki?"

"Ya sure haven't changed much at all, huh?"

Murasaki meant it, but she said it with a lighthearted tone, not wanting it to seem meanspirited. Honestly, she'd always liked Erika, even if it didn't really seem to be a mutual thing. That was fine, though, because this wasn't something just about having friends.

"Well, I know ya don't like it when your time gets wasted. The news still hasn't really gotten out quite yet, but I'm Captain Commander now."

It still felt really weird for her to say, actually. Murasaki simply studied another of the dango she'd ordered, before offering another set of skewered dango to Erika.

"I was hoping you'd think about being my Vice Captain. I want someone I know I can rely on."

She bit her lip a little as the question hung in the air, wishing that she had ordered something to eat or sip on before she had gotten that little question thrown at her. Erika's golden eyes narrowing while she thought about the heavy question that she asked. The last time that she'd been an officer in the Gotei, she had Tsubaki there. No, she'd been her subordinate for so long in the organisation and in some strange way continued to be when she was in the Zero Division.

"No."

Erika said with a breath afterwards, her own small figure getting up like she was ready to leave after giving her an answer.

"I don't care about the Gotei anymore and its new incarnation looks weak and shallow compared to what it once was. I don't want to rejoin something full of weaklings who don't match up to their predecessors. Is that all?"

It didn't take much for anyone who knew her to decipher that it was an excuse, that it was easier to say something awful like this about them rather than admit that she was just scared of going back there.

"Aw. Well, I guess you aren't wrong about that. It's been in bad shape for a while."

Murasaki knew Erika better than most did, and she was certainly aware of how the woman typically carried herself. This wasn't just a matter of weakness, or she'd have expected a far more curt response than all that. She was trying to justify it.

"But you know me. I'm not going to let it stay that way. It's been hanging around in Soul Society without wanting to step in, without trying to accept that there'll be conflict. I don't wanna go right to war, but I can't pretend it won't happen if we do our jobs."

Another dango, down the hatch, and Murasaki looked up at the sky. Yeah, this was going to be a pretty rough job, but she'd manage just fine.

"If I'm gonna make it strong again, something that can really carry the Gotei name and be proud of it, I need people who know what it should be like. Someone I know I can trust without even thinking about it."

She didn't want to call Erika out on her insecurities, her worry about going back. Murasaki wasn't that kind of person, no matter how many people around her might have been.

"I served the Gotei under Yamamoto and Tsubaki, do you think that you can match-up to them?"

Erika skimmed over the intentions of Murasaki, while she agreed with her that they had become complacent, senile even. It was jarring, for all the faults of the Shunsui Kyoraku she knew in the past his choice of successor left a lot to be desired. She was weak in power, relied on others and did nothing to serve the Gotei besides dangle them around on pointless endeavours. Murasaki's position was far greater than her predecessor's but it still came around to her point.

"My last captain commander screwed me over. You have a lot of faith in me for someone that doesn't trust people anymore. Why?"

It was the closest that she came to admitting how insecure she was and how the scar of Tsubaki had done nothing to go away. If anything her exile had only given her time to become more bitter and jaded towards her and everything that reminded her of that woman.

"I'll try. That's all I can do, you know? I'm not as experienced as them, but I will be eventually."

Murasaki took that weighty question in stride, if only because she knew there was no other answer she could give. It would have been laughably overconfident of her to just say that she could be as good as them, but she believed she could make it there one day.

"You get me like a lot of people don't, ya know? The Gotei's done a lot to hurt me, hurt my mom. I'm still not really ready to accept that Tsubasa did everything he did, either, but I don't really have any other choice."

Of course, Murasaki also knew Erika was far more jaded than she was, but she would never admit that was also part of why she wanted Erika specifically. Murasaki wasn't nearly stupid enough to think that her own optimistic worldview was always right. She wanted someone who saw things in far less favorable ways, who was willing to expect the worst.

"I don't think there's many people who understand what it feels like to have the Gotei burn them like that. If I want to make things better, I can't just rely on people who already think the Gotei will always do fine."

From her standing position which honestly didn't elevate her that high over Murasaki while seated given just how large the disparity was between their heights. She scowled as it was becoming more and more clear to her that she had no actual leg to stand on besides the fact to admit that she just didn't want to go back to the Gotei with her tail between her legs, a genuine fear towards it that she would be confronted with all of her history and the pain that the Gotei brought up.

She refused to accept it and she was willing to fight to avoid it.

"I won't serve any captain that can't beat me in a fight."

Erika finally said and let it hang in the air. Her eyes full of resolve now that she'd made her declaration, she would not go back on it since it had been said and there was a level of confidence that she had in her own abilities. Even if she had no zanpakuto of her own, the fact that she had any number of 'shikai' and centuries of experience made her assured of her ability to hold her own against some captain-tier threats on merit of that.

Ah, well, that'd been something Murasaki expected from Erika. And honestly, she didn't even really mind it. She couldn't say that she was the kind of girl who loved violence or anything, but she was still a sword, and a sword was made to cut. She stood up herself, but she made a point not to simply look down on Erika. Despite their differences in height, in power, in position, Murasaki very decidedly still saw Erika as her equal, as a friend.

"Alrighty. I guess that's fair, I wouldn't want to get a vice captain without making sure she can keep up."

Grinning as she drew both of her zanpakuto, Murasaki took up her stance, confident and quite certain. She hadn't run into Erika in a while now, and she knew she'd grown a great deal since then. Of course, she assumed Erika had too, but that was what made this whole thing interesting. She was certainly glad she'd picked somewhere so out of the way for this meeting, at least.

"Ready when you are. They say the challenger has the right to the first attack."

Erika waited and no sooner had Murasaki said she had the first move, Erika didn't bother even going to draw a sword and instead that she grasped at a handle of nothing before a sword appeared in her hand. The simple katana not being anything special but like an asauchi it could be anything in the hands of her and katanakaji.

Yōkujakuryū - Kyokkōken.

"If you say so."

Her blade disappeared and she extended its length by a few inches, intending to make Murasaki's recollection of its true size to be incorrect while she swung the blade and exerted her spiritual pressure to send a shockwave of force into Murasaki and send her as far away as possible from this little place that they had met at with the full extent of her strength. Ideally it'd get a couple of kilometres and throw her through whatever landscape in the process.