To Absent Friends And A Fresh Start (Leona, Armina)

Dressed in a casual outfit of green t-shirt, khaki cargo pants, white tennis shoes, and ever-present Zanpakuto at her left side plus an almost completely bandaged left arm that was a souvenir of the recent invasion of Soul Society, Leona casually walked into a bar in the nicest neighborhood in West Rukongai, the First District. Some patrons looked at the sword-carrying blonde with respect, others with barely concealed amusement. She supposed that ever since the dissolution of the Gotei United not too long ago former Shinigami who still carried their swords continued to attract attention everywhere they went. Leona drew plenty of it in her neighborhood in the 58th District of North Rukongai... some people respected her and her siblings for doing what they could to help out in the aftermath of the invasion while others regarded her as a sad individual who refused to get with the times and accept that the organization she had once served was no more.

Leona ignored the critics because being a Shinigami was a large part of her identity. She had been born into a family of them and had been determined to carry on that tradition even if her choice of division was not to her family's liking. Now that the Gotei United was gone the blonde had no idea what to do with her life now. Neither did her parents and older siblings. Leona had considered trying to find a way to go to Earth to do some freelance Hollow hunting and experience the freedom to travel as she pleased, but in the end she did not have what it took to leave everyone and everything she knew behind to go on what might be a one-way trip.

For the time being she would stay in Soul Society and continue to help Leonidas and Lucia patch up their neighborhood. There were still people who needed help and the odd Hollow that needed to be eliminated, so the blonde had plenty to do where she was. Those thoughts were interrupted when she saw an individual with long blue hair seated at the bar and her mind flashed to one thought.

Armina.

Leona casually walked up to the bar and stood to the left of the blue-haired woman, who was busy indulging in the bar's offerings. After a moment to think things through the blonde spoke.

"Hello, Armina." Leona greeted the blue-haired Shinigami.

"I'll take you up on that invitation, Armina." Leona replied casually. She looked for an open seat next to the blue-haired woman and found one to the latter's left. She sat down in it, being careful not to put too much pressure on her left arm because of how sore it was because any slight pressure could make it hurt like a Hollow had slammed into her left side all over again or Armina had used a Hakuda strike on the bandaged limb. Once the blonde was sitting she turned to face Armina before speaking again.

"I'm not sure what to do with my life now that the Gotei United is gone." Leona confessed to Armina that she currently had no direction. That confession might make her sound a little pathetic, but she was being completely truthful. Without the Gotei United to give her life structure and meaning the blonde was at a loss as to what to do with all the time she now had. Right now she and her siblings were working to patch up their neighborhood, but Leona wanted something more, something like a new cause to follow.

"What are you going to do with your life?" Leona asked Armina what the latter had in mind, hoping to learn whether or not the blue-haired woman had a plan for life after service in the Gotei United.

"That's fair, Armina." Leona calmly commented in response to Armina's assertion that the latter had had enough of the politics of the Gotei and wanted to strike out on her own to live without taking orders from anyone. She was not just trying to get on the good side of the other woman. Leona too did not care for the byzantine politics of the organization, but she had kept her mouth shut because when she had become a Shinigami there was an unspoken agreement that she would have to deal with the politics in addition to the other aspects of the job.

"If I didn't have ties here I'd follow you to that place, Armina. But I can't leave here." Leona told Armina what her plan would have been if not for having a family. The Sheridan family could likely take care of itself because all of its members were healthy, able-bodied Shinigami (or ex-Shinigami now) and did not need her to stay at home to help support them, but Leona could not bring herself to leave them behind to go on a trip she might never return from. After saying that the blonde went quiet and thought about ordering a drink that was not coffee, but her attention was diverted from drinks to what her fellow ex-Shinigami said next. Leona focused squarely on Armina.

"I know that it sounds kinda naive, but I admit that I'm looking for a good cause to support. A cause that values and protects concrete things like people." Leona confessed that Armina's suggestion to join one of the potential replacements of the Gotei United was an idea that had drawn her undivided attention and gave the most important criterion for any group she might join if she went down that path. She understood that protecting "order" was important too, but that concept had a lot of definitions, definitions that changed depending on who was talking about it. One person might mean the order of society and a second might mean the overall balance of things... Leona was not smart enough to fully grasp the significance of the second idea, but she knew enough to know that letting that balance be disrupted would be bad for everyone.

"What I said might sound childish, but I want to protect people, not just ideas. Ideas are needed because they're the intellectual framework of a society, but I think that people are more important because you can't have any type of organization without them. Lofty ideas alone won't put food on the table, defend homes and borders, give medical treatment, and provide other necessities." Leona explained her stance the best she could despite how simple her thoughts might have sounded. She knew that her unsophisticated way of thinking might cause some people to label her as naive, but she had never claimed to be the most intelligent Shinigami alive. She was a fighter, not a thinker.

Leona's face showed unconcealed surprise when the name "Sajin Komamura" came up. She had heard about the captain and his valiant actions over the centuries, including those in the last conflict he had participated in, one that was way before her time. Leona had a good deal of respect for Captain Komamura and was genuinely surprised to hear that he walked the streets of Soul Society once again... if what Armina had said was true, that was. The blonde appreciated the warning that a good deal of what was being told to her was word on the street with no hard evidence to support or disprove it. Armina's honesty was something Leona could appreciate... the latter could respect people who spoke their mind, even if what they had to say was not necessarily to the blonde's liking.

"If what you say is true, I'm going to look into possibly joining Captain Komamura's group. What he's about sounds like a cause I can support." Leona told Armina that his group endorsed ideas that sounded like something she could throw her full support behind. The blonde did not mention what she thought of the Kuchiki faction because she had a dim suspicion that its leader had eyes and ears everywhere, but truth be told she did not care for it. A large part of that was due to Lord Kuchiki himself. She had heard of the famous Byakuya Kuchiki, who was renowned for his immense power and his prestigious family lineage. She had also heard that he was notoriously aloof and inscrutable.

Even though she had never met Lord Kuchiki in person the blonde did not care for him because it sounded like he valued abstract concepts like "law" far more than he did people. That was not the type of leader she could rally behind. Like she had told Armina earlier Leona understood the value of ideas, but she did not believe that they took priority over people and Captain Komamura seemed to believe that too. Although she did not know everything about the Captain's cause yet Leona had a feeling that it might be the one that she could serve without any reservations.

When the topic of the ties that bound her to Soul Society came up Leona spoke again.

"You're right, Armina. I have family here." Leona confirmed that Armina's guess was right.

Despite her agreement with his goals Leona was not entirely sure if she wanted to enlist in Captain Komamura's group right away. She wanted to get some information first before she put her name on the dotted line and traded her newly gained freedom for service to a would-be successor to the Gotei United. Before she did that Leona would probably talk to her family and see what they were thinking about doing before she made a final decision on the matter. Leona let the matter of her former division's captain pass without comment because she had no idea what the Captain was like. Armina was the only member of her previous division she had met and interacted with to any great extent... their one and only interaction before today's meeting had been a sparring match, but it had been one that Leona would not be forgetting any time soon.

In the meantime Leona focused on the questions about her family and her fighting style.

"My mother and older sister were both in the Second Division. My father and older brother were in the Seventh Division." Leona answered the first question by telling Armina which divisions her family members had served in. Neither the Second nor the Seventh had caught her interest like the Fourth Division had, so the youngest Sheridan had chosen to go her own way. While Leona was by and large content with her decision, there were occasions where she had wondered if she had made the right choice by enlisting in the Fourth. Now she no longer had to worry about that because she was free to choose her own path once again.

"My fighting style isn't anything that's officially passed down in the family, Armina. It's a combination of what I learned at the Shinigami Academy and some things my older siblings taught me." Leona did her best to explain how she had come to learn the style Armina had seen the blonde use during their sparring match.

"For example, the style of Zanjutsu that involved a lot of spinning was something I learned from my older sister." Leona told Armina the source of the most obvious deviation from the Academy's teachings. The blonde was willing to talk about the topic in greater detail... if Armina cared to listen. Leona did not want to bore the other Shinigami to tears by talking about something the latter had little or no interest in.