Cut Your T's and Stab Your I's [Lukas/Stella]

THE CITY OF LIGHTS
Despite having ample medical leave, the questionable mental effects of large scale combat - Lukas was eager to get back to work. Perhaps not eager; vindictive, driven, impatient. Impatient to make good of what was becoming more endemic of the Vandenreich's failings, day by day, death by death. A smoldering resentment languished at the bottom of his heart, dying to burn again in the face of his detractors. Too many dead. Too many dying.

"Alright, recruits, attention." Lukas' voiced growled across the intercom, microphone nestled against his shirt. A tank top covered by a blue quincy cross, the bandaged stump of his right shoulder staring out. Opposite, the leiden hant encroaching towards his neck doing well to hide fresh scars. Unkempt, incredibly short hair cropped his face, a faint shadow of stubble almost reflective underneath the lights.

"This is usually where you get the spiel about 'thank you for joining', or some other pointless coddling. As a form of respect, we'll be skipping that. All of you have made it here, which means you're not children, so you will not be treated as children." Lukas paced as he walked, the unending intensity of his glare pouring over the group of recruits.

Ten in total, shoulder to shoulder, the latest wave of signups following Africa, Ichigo... It had been a rough year, and the Vandenreich wasn't going to be turning anyone away. Maybe his hint of 'respect' would be an overestimation; a consideration he wasn't going to make.

"I am going to be your combat instructor, Lukas. Today is the most important day of your training, because you will sink, or swim. And I assure you," The assassin's glare threatened, and for a heartbeat his reiatsu surged, visible on the air - "Some of you will sink. I ask that you don't take it personally."

Stopping, his gaze shifted back and forth, across the students. a mirror to their emotion in silver pools. "A desk worker on the battlefield is a dead one."

THE CITY OF LIGHTS
"Then let's start." Stepping back, Lukas waved his arm, a series of pedestals rising from the floor. One by one they thrummed to the surface, erecting to roughly waist high in front of each recruit. Static hung in the air around them, sloshing with liquid reishi as their rise came to a halt. Screens flickered to life, a digital handprint facing them.

"As quincy, the lifeblood of anything, everything, you do - is the ability to manipulate reishi. This is a test of your ability to do just that, and it gives us a hint at your compatibility. Placing your hands on the consoles in front of you will open the canister, and you will attempt to utilize within." Pointing at one of the cylinders, his eyes cut across the group.

"This is dense, liquid reishi. More stable in a lot of ways, but, it hurts like a bitch to touch. How you choose to handle this information is part of your examination." Snapping as he drew his arm back, a holographic timer shot from the floor in front of him, changing as he spoke. "You'll have five minutes to think - " a five flashed on the air " - and then one to see how far you get." A thirty flickered, and then the countdown started.

4:59, 4:58 -

"Show that you know how to use your abilities - and good luck, everyone." Lukas' voice booming over the intercom, he slid down onto the floor, watching with arm tented across his knees.

THE CITY OF LIGHTS
0:03, 0:02, 0:01 - The numbers vanished, and a klaxon whooped through the air, suffocating under silence a split second after.

Where he commanded, the students began, although not all of them showed promise.

A younger man, close knit brow atop dark green eyes, barely visible behind long golden bangs - foolhardy, reckless, as he plunged his arm fist first into the solution. Bravado in the face of a warning - his immediate recoil and ear splitting scream proving the need for safety labels all across the stadt.

"Tsk." Air spit from between his teeth as Lukas stepped to him, a blink before the man dissapeared, dropped by the entrance. Rounding back to the remainder of the students, he glanced over their attempts; steel in his eyes.

One had attempted a long, mumbled chant, only resulting in turning half of her liquid to mush. A promising resullt from a blonde man on the far end, his skin flaring with deep veins of blut, and his canister nearly empty. Next to him was a far more timid subject, by presentation. A stutter escaped her with the majority of the tank empty, forming into her spirit weapon.

Turning his head, the remaining half hadn't managed much more - a mismanaged mix of half appropriate attempts and outright failures, the most eye drawing being a try at simply removing the canister from the floor.

"You." Lukas' finger accused the man, his back strained with rigor. "Out." Whether or not he complied in a timely matter, the quincy did not care, and he turned his attention back to the rest.

"Yes, miss. Like that. His head tilted towards the axe, Lukas moving by the abandoned canister. As his hand slid over the top, the reishi within seized, dissapearing, and with a flourish Ahnengeist danced against his palm.

"Your spirit weapon is the most important tool at disposal. Blut," The blade swiveled, pointing at the young man's glowing veins. "Is simpler in comparison, but direct. Where you could consider a spirit weapon vital, most think of blut as supplementary." He circled past the group as he spoke, returning to stand in front of them as Ahnengeist dissapeared into thin air.

"Gebet can be a mess if not prepared properly, frau." his comment directed to the woman and her canister of sludge, a bite to the words. "But all of it, every building block, is reishi. Reishi, and your ability to control it."

Pausing, the man glanced across the remaining eight, ready to move on. "Now, questions before we proceed?"

THE CITY OF LIGHTS
A mixed chorus of 'no', 'no sir', varying in tone and confidence, short and sweet. Lukas, despite his outward intensity, appreciated it at the least.

"Alright," his voice rattling over the speakers as the canisters sank back into the floor, "Considering that you're all at various levels of reishi control, I'd be an idiot to assume it's not the same for your ability to fight. First, I want a show of hands." Lifting his own up, his voice rattled the walls, darker in tone.

"Have you fought before?" A mismanaged group of hands lifted up, a few side eyes granted to their peers. If they were sizing each other up, Lukas could almost find it admirable; but that was far from the point of today. Nodding, the quincy spoke again, spreading the fingers on his raised hand.

"Alright, next - have you killed before?" The mood in the room shifted suddenly, an immediate apprehension from many of the would-be students. Lukas' gaze sliced across the group, a sterness present in his voice that was absent prior. Hands staying by their sides, with a nervous fever in the odd eye. "I am not here to punish you for any crimes. But this is something I need to know. Man, beast, soul or flesh - have you killed?

THE CITY OF LIGHTS
Some of them kept quiet; the majority kept their hands high, chiming in with their subjects of choice. A host of fighters, but not as many killers. That's recruits, all right.

'Hollows' the most common answer, although one admitted to hunting game. Nothing particularly worrying, and enough promise for Lukas to work with. Assuming they weren't lying - at least one had to be, from his experience.

"Good. Those of you who haven't killed, we'll try and put you on the course to make that happen." His gaze flicked across the group again, a faint air of disdain. "For those of you that have, you should be aware - it's harder, and easier, than you think it would be. Hollows in particular, they can be tough to take down. As part of the Vandenreich, handling hollow extermination will be part of your job here. Exterminate, is the key word. Efficient. The last thing we need is recruits dying by way of pest."

Jutting a finger forward, it landed firmly on the red headed farmgirl - Stella. Threatening, even if not intended. "Walk me through a hollow you've killed."