Declaration of War [Open]

Nobles. A vile lot by any metric. Kanae could remember hating those arrogant wretches at a young age. Having come from an outer District, by the time she made it to the Seireitei as a newly-recruited Captain Kanae had believed she saw the worst people could offer. In retrospect, at least the violence she had participated in for over a century by that point was honest. There was nothing honest about so-called nobles.

These days the distinction between a noble and commoner was of little consequence to Kanae, who knew they all die the same. Special blood or birthright didn't change that. But it was different now, noble pressure had apparently convinced that fake Captain Commander to dissolve the Gotei, throwing a Seireitei-sized wrench into al of her plans, and that just could not be allowed to stand.

A pained groaning drew Kanae's attention and ire as she was shaken from her thoughts, her gaze drawn to the pathetic man lying in a pool of blood in front of her. As Shinigami gathered around them, over a hundred from her Division so far, Kanae contemplated the situation she had manufactured. Would it work? Possibly. She couldn't be sure given the number of cowardly seated officers who had already fled the Fourth Division barracks over that little message from Masamune, apparently as gutless as they are stupid. An order on a piece of paper is just ink, whether the Gotei was dissolved or not was up to the people who make it up.

The gathered Shinigami would be afforded an opportunity to survey the bloody scene before them. Lying on the ground was a man dressed in expensive fabrics, a black Zanpakuto pierced through his abdomen and the ground beneath so that he could not move. Standing a few paces away was their esteemed Captain, a dark look upon her face.

"You have all heard the news. Supposedly, the Gotei is finished. Erika Masamune did not want to share her toy so she smashed it. Now the righteous nobles of Soul Society have invented the power to crown the next Captain Commander, a man named Byakuya Kuchiki. Not a current Captain, not someone even tangentially associated with the Gotei. There is a problem with that, and our guest speaker can explain."

With a swift kick to the bleeding man's side, Kanae elicited more groans from him before he began to speak his carefully rehearsed lines.

"M-my name is Eisaku Kuchiki, cousin to Byakuya Kuchiki. He t-told me Central 46 o-nly wants power, and that they will sub...subjugate anyone who stands in their way. They plan on...purging many of the Gotei's old members...and replacing them with loyal retainers."

To prove he was who he said he was, Kanae tossed a torn piece of fabric with the Kuchiki family insignia on it onto the ground near Eisaku. She looked out at the shocked faces within the crowd of Shinigami. Whether they believed their eyes and ears or not was up to them, but Kanae would not give little actor an opportunity to recant.

"They see us as potential slaves, either to be subjugated or killed. What they do not seem to realize is they can be killed just as easily." Kanae's hand shot to her Zanpakuto still embedded in Eisaku's stomach, and despite not moving the blade bloodcurdling screams erupted from him. It would quickly become apparent why as virulent green acid began eating away at his flesh, organs, and bones until he finally died.

"The Fourth Division will not roll over or swear fealty to nobles."

Moe had been in the infirmary when this madness had begun, still recovering from her latest bout of 'tough love training', but when their position had come under attack she had leapt into action alongside the other walking wounded. Her shihakusho hung open at the top, resting more on her shoulders than clinging to her frame, the bandages that were wrapped around her chest now stained with blood though most of it was not her own. It had been a messy fight too, fought more with her bare hands than anything else as she had left her Zanpakuto at the barracks and the makeshift weapons she had been able to scrounge together had not held up to the strain of battle.

She wore an uncharacteristic frown, her pink hair stuck in clumps like it was actually made of bubblegum, as she stood amongst her peers. The decision to suddenly disband the Gotei had not been one that she could rationalise, but nor was she thrilled with the sudden appointment of Lord Kuchiki by Central 46. Her dad had sent her a message about it, that she had scrunched up into a tiny little ball and thrown it in the bin alongside all the other useless junk she didn't need any more. Moe liked it here in the fourth division, it was a dog-eat-dog world but she knew she would fight her way to the top of it, and the thought that it was all going to fall apart made her tiny little tummy turn upside down.

Still, that was nothing compared to the sight and the stench of her Captain's blade melting that poor Kuchiki kid into little more than a puddle. The words that were spoken before and afterwards might have been a rallying call, and it wasn't like she knew what the Kuchiki had planned, but she was a noble too, even if she didn't really care much about that stuff, and now it felt like there was a target on her back

It took a lot for Moe to not just hurl right there and then, and that was only because she had only recently seen scenes of similar horror play out on the battlefield. It was a shocking display, and suddenly the little pink ball of bubblegum felt quite certainly isolated. Kanae did not look like she was playing around, not that Moe had ever thought her Captain was one to mess with, so what was the plan now? Get rid of the other nobles still among them? What about her family too, what would Kanae want to do to them? A quiet little panic set in as she waited for the next announcement.

Moe's eyes went to the crowd around her, as her hand began to slink up to grasp the handle of the zanpakuto on her back. Slowly but surely, she tried to slink back through the gathering throng until there wasn't anyone at her back. She wasn't going to announce herself and make some insane statement decrying what had been said, but if her Captain wanted to turn her into another acidic puddle too then she'd go down fighting if she couldn't slip away.

"Machihara."

That singular word, a name, rang out loudly across the Fourth Division. It was said plainly, without any amount of emotion, but was enough to get the attention of the gathered Shinigami. Many recognized it as the last name of one of their peers, one who stands out in a crowd with her short stature and bright pink hair. Once those around her realized where she was, they stepped away so as to not get in their Captain's way. The circle of empty space grew around Moe until eventually it was just her and Kanae surrounded by a crowd.

"Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Machihara is a Noble name, yes?" As Kanae's attention fell upon Moe, her eyes were colder and unfriendlier than normal, as if she were staring down an enemy on the battlefield. "Upon first hearing this terrible fate Central 46 has planned for us all, I did a little bit of research into the Fourth Division. As it turns out there were a few Nobles amongst us disgusting Rukongai rabble. I am sure you all knew your supposedly esteemed Vice Captain, now nowhere to be seen, belonged to one of the "Great" Noble houses. Then there is little Machihara Moe, a Noble in her own right. Tsk."

As Kanae spoke a bit of commotion broke out to her left, somewhere deep within the crowd of gathered Shinigami. Though her violet eyes had turned away from Moe, the bubblegum oni was no less within the scope of her attention. As she spoke once more she spoke to the crowd, but mainly to Moe "There is another Noble hiding among us. Kasumiōji is also a Noble name." Her gaze swung back to Moe as a young man almost fresh out of the Academy was thrown to the ground between the two, the one responsible another black and violet haired woman Moe may recognize as the Division's Sixth Seat, Mara Hirata.

"Are you afraid, Machihara Moe? Worried about something? Do not fret, little one. I have no intention of killing all Nobles." Then, Kanae's voice came from behind Moe, quieter this time. "That is why I have you all." A firm grip held Moe's hand in place on her Zanpakuto, helping the shorter woman to draw her weapon, after which the slender fingers left her own and Kanae's voice grew loud again. "Wanton slaughter would make us no different than them after all. They deserve a chance to live...to choose."

Moe would feel a shove in the center of her back, forcing her closer to the now-unarmed man kneeling a few feet in front of her. The choice before her was obvious, and the entire Division waited to see her decision.

A little pit opened up in the bottom of her tummy as Moe heard him name ring out across the yard. There was no hiding any more, little chance to do anything really, as she watched the crowd part around her and leave her to her fate. So her vibrant pink gaze locked upon the woman whom she had long since thrown her lot in with, waiting to see if there would be even the slightest indication of where the attack was coming from.

Only, no such attack came. Instead another kid was pushed through the throng, she had the vaguest recollection of him when the name Kasumiōji was mentioned but it was not a familiarity that she knew more about him than that. In that momentary lapse of concentration, though, Kanae had vanished. Her hand went to draw and yet it found itself assisted in doing so, prompting a jolt of terror to run down her spine before she was pushed towards the downed man. Abject fear perhaps the only motivator as her blade slid free from its sheath on her back and drank in the sunlight.

Looking down at this Kasumiōji, Moe wondered for a moment if he was involved in this Kuchiki plot or not. It seemed quite unbelievable, but Kanae had not been wrong to point out that several of the noble seated officers were nowhere to be seen. So was that to be it, then? Strike down this man and prove that she was still loyal to her Captain? It would be quite easy to do it, to live to see tomorrow. But that just wasn’t her style.

“Yeah, I guess I’m a noble, but I ain’t ever tried to put myself above any one of you because of that. Plenty of you have kicked me to the dirt, and I ain’t ever minded, because it was just a reason to get stronger. To earn your respect with my own two hands, and nothing more.”

Her eyes danced around the onlookers, wondering how many of them she had sparred with in her time here. Sure, she could be a pain sometimes and overzealous too but she was their pain. When Vice Captain Koizumi had challenged the division, it was Moe that had leapt first to their defence and been put in the infirmary for it. When other divisions had been spreading dirty lies about them, it was Moe that had stood loudest and tallest to decry those foul naysayers. When the Gotei had abandoned them, Moe had stayed where she belonged not fled to concoct some insane coup. This was her home, she thought they were her friends.

So she turned to look back at Kanae again, her hands clutching her weapon though she knew it would likely matter little. She had hoped to one day overcome the Captain, to put herself on top and earn that same respect she had always shown to her, but this was a little too soon.

“So if his only crime is being a noble by blood too then I won’t carry out your sentence. Lord Kuchiki don’t speak for us all, not me for sure, so if you want my choice then it’s no. I joined the Death Division to fight the bad guys, to be a hero like you and the other great Captains, not to beat on someone for the sake of a name they happen to carry.”

Her heart felt like it was about to pop out of her chest, and it certainly didn’t seem unlikely that it soon might, but Moe could not be anything less than true to herself.

So...disappointing.

It would have been so much easier of Moe proved to be not unlike herself and just killed the rat sprawled on the ground. Instead, she rebuffed her, apparently possessing too much of a conscience for a little bit of murder. Maybe Armina would have, but she was nowhere to be seen. Just one of many who vanished the moment that little letter made its way through the Gotei. Moe had remained. Why? She claimed to fight "bad guys", whatever that means Kanae wasn't sure, but that's something she could accomplish joining one of the treacherous weasels making their own fake Gotei's.

Loath as she was to admit it, Moe had proven something by remaining behind while many of the top Seated Officers fled like so many cowardly rodents. She couldn't just spit in the face of such loyalty. Well, Kanae wouldn't have minded doing so; but she also knew things would be a bit easier with subordinates. Unfortunately, this one seemed reluctant to do something she planned on doing a lot of.

"You have made your choice then, Machihara Moe? You will not prove your loyalty lies with the Division instead of the nobility? Shame." As she finished speaking a pitch black blur, about the size of a standard katana, would fly past Moe's peripheral vision, after which a bloodcurdling scream would erupt into the tension-filled air. The scream lasted only a short moment before silence overtook it.

Then...sobbing.

Kanae pushed past Moe's small frame, and after a few steps she reached and pulled her Zanpakuto from where it pierced the young Kasumiōji's Shihakushō's collar and the ground behind him. The man himself appeared entirely unharmed. Physically, at least. The emotional damage he suffered was another story entirely. Then, turning back to Moe, Kanae addressed the pink-haired woman and the rest of the over-one-hundred Shinigami gathered around them.

"You want to "fight the bad guys" and "be a hero"? Right now, the only way to accomplish both of those things is to destroy the Central 46, and any who would plunge Soul Society into darkness for their own selfish machinations. The Gotei was disbanded because the Central 46 voted itself into power in order to install a puppet. All here will need to prove their loyalty to Soul Society. Much will be asked of you. We will likely even raise our blades against other Shinigami, ones willingly or naively convinced to serve Kuchiki Byakuya and his ilk."

Turning back to the Kasumiōji man at her feet, Kanae's violet gaze caused him to break out into a cold sweat. "You are dismissed. Tell your family, and any other Nobles you know, they have a simple choice to make: Surrender or be destroyed. This is a declaration of war against all Nobles desperately and pathetically plotting against Soul Society."

Moe's instinct was to attempt to deflect the projectile, but it was already sailing past her by the time she had even registered its existence. Still, her body twisted as she attempted and failed to stop it, leaving her off-kilter as Kanae pushed past her to retrieve that momentarily discarded blade. She could have struck out at the Captain as she gave her back, perhaps even caught her off guard, but that wasn't Moe's style even when the odds were stacked against her. Fighting her comrades was for the training ground, nowhere else, so it wouldn't be her that struck first.

And no such strike came, instead the Captain found a different way to attack her. One where she couldn't hide behind her steel. Moe did want to be loyal, to believe what Kanae was saying, but she was living proof that this was not as simple as attacking random nobles. Whatever was going on here, it had to run deeper than that.

"I'll kill the enemies of Soul Society dead if that's what it takes, but just simply being a noble ain't proof of anything. If you're planning to put a stop to whatever insanity Lord Kuchiki has fallen prey to then so be it, I'd fight to stop whatever madness that is so that we can pull ourselves back together. Show me someone guilty of following him and I'll prove my loyalty just as much as anyone else!"

It was a simple feat for Kanae to sense notes of uncertainty coming from little Moe. The situation she had been forced into was evidently not one she was fully prepared for, not that Kanae necessarily blamed her for that. She hadn't even been a seated officer, after all...granted she showed more spine than any of those fools who ran at the first sight of chaos. Had things gone differently, had her good mood from slaughtering that Shiba fool not been ruined by that pathetic Captain Commander-wannabe's "order", Kanae would probably have promoted Moe this week. As it is, a wrong step was all it would take to find her Zanpakuto piercing this girl's throat.

"The Central 46 is Soul Society's enemy. Those wretched nobles who jumped at the chance for power. Perhaps you are not overly familiar with Soul Society's history. These cockroaches have always clung to power. They do not care about Soul Society. They do not care about your peers around you, Machihara Moe. A thousand years ago they did not care about us, who defended the Seireitei from invasion then too. Kuchiki, Shihoin, Tsunayashiro, they all believe their name grants them celestial authority over the rest of us. That we exist to serve them merely due to the circumstances of our birth."

Anger filled Kanae as she spoke, her Spiritual Pressure growing wild with wrath and encompassing more and more of the gathered Shinigami. Though there was typically an amount of malevolence in her Reiatsu, this was something else altogether; it was true, bottomless hate that washed over Moe and the others. Cracks had formed in the veneer Kanae had built as she seethed speaking of the people she had nearly slaughtered a millennium ago.

"I will give you enemies to kill. They hide in their castles, believing themselves untouchable, but they will see how easily they can be put to the blade. Kuchiki and his ilk will bleed." Either due to a sense of loyalty, because of the wrathful Reiatsu enveloping them, mob mentality, or for another reason altogether, the gathered Shinigami erupted into cries of war, their blades raised high into the sky as the Death Division found a new purpose.

An uneasy tension settled in Moe's heart as that wave of anger and pent-up frustration washed over her from her Captain. It all struck her as quite odd, Kanae had never much cared for whether any of them were noble or not before - at least not as far as she had ever seen - but suddenly they were all the enemy? Her dad attended some Central 46 sessions recently, but surely he wasn't involved in any of this? Had Kanae wanted her to kill that poor Kasumiōji even if he was innocent? All that inner turmoil combined with the sudden rise in pressure was making her dizzy.

Sheathing her blade, what little purpose it had served now well and truly finished, the diminutive Shinigami focused simply on remaining standing. Her comrades cheered and cried, but she did not. No matter what was true or otherwise, this was a black day for Soul Society. So soon after one had befallen them.

She'd stay and she'd follow, for now. Both to see where this path was going and because attempting to leave now might only further provoke this bloodlust that had seized their hearts. The Death Division was set on living up to its name, but if she could find the truth of this then she would know who were the insane ones. Captain Kanae or the nobles she was declaring war upon.