Red-Letter Day [PRIVATE]

Kaminari was the one who received the mission for Hueco Mundo. She figured that she would be the one to make the journey, but was instructed otherwise. It was just a reconnaissance mission, so a Captain did not need to go along. Even so, there weren't many people that she wanted to send to Hueco Mundo. In fact, she didn't want to have to send anyone to that place. Too many times had Shinigami wandered into the depths of Hueco Mundo to never been seen again, to be lost for years, or to only encounter the most fearsome of creatures and hollow. The fact that she was now going to have to send her own troops into that horrible place bothered her, especially since she was instructed to stay behind. In this instance, there was only one person that she felt she could trust with this mission. There was only one that she felt would both have the skills and follow her orders to the t, without messing up or doing their own thing.

"Send for Lieutenant Kei Makabe."

Yes, that is exactly who she'll send on this mission. Her Lieutenant had the best chance of survival, the best chance of doing things right, and the best chance of coming back with the most information uninjured. Kaminari had the most faith in her Lieutenant, probably more than any other Captain had in their Lieutenants. The messenger was sent and Kaminari would now just sit at her desk, waiting for her Lieutenant to arrive. Kei was always on time, rarely ever keeping Kaminari waiting for more than a few minutes. As usual, Kei came in only a few minutes later. The messenger was fast, but Kei was always faster. "Captain... it's Kei Makabe. Reporting as requested." Kaminari glanced up toward the door with a smirk. She shook her head; was Kei ever at anything but 150%? Before she spoke up, Kaminari pulled out the paperwork needed for the assignment briefing. Once she had it placed on the desk in front of her, she sat back in her chair, and composed herself "You can come in."

Once Kei entered, Kaminari would keep her normal, serious, and professional demeanor. She was rarely anything else when it came to assignments. "Good afternoon, Lieutenant." she said and gave a short smile before picking up the paperwork again. Leaning forward in her chair, she placed it on the opposite side of the desk for Kei to pick up. "You are being given an assignment." she said and then leaned back in her chair again, "It seems that there has been some interesting activity within Hueco Mundo lately. They're not sure what it is, but it seems like a few power spikes. From what I understand, it shouldn't be anything to worry about, but we need to make sure. You are to take five members of your choice, excluding our third seat, understood?" Kaminari paused for a moment and waited for confirmation, "Alright. You will go and gather as much intel as you can and then report back to me. I am sending you with a team, yes, but this is still only a recon mission, understood? The team is for just in case circumstances, nothing more or less."

Kaminari took a deep breath and sighed, "Speaking off the record, Lieutenant Makabe... just be careful. I am not supposed to say anything to hint otherwise, but something about this... feels off. Don't come back to me injured." Kaminari stood up and returned to her professional demeanor as she stepped around the desk and toward Kei. She held out her hand and smiled, "Good luck Lieutenant. You may go."

The moment Kei left her office, Kaminari's stomach turned. There was something about this mission that made her feel uneasy, and that didn't change over the next three days. It was coming to the end of the third day when Kaminari was packing up her office. She had heard nothing from Kei and the members of her squad that went into Hueco Mundo, but that was to be expected. Thinking about it now, she felt that there should have been a maximum amount of time that they went without contacting the Gotei. With a two day break of contact, at least the people left in the Seireitei would know their friends were alright. Unfortunately, Kaminari hadn't even thought of doing that, so there was still no contact. Kaminari stepped out of her office, her Zanpakutō laying safely at her left side as usual. She locked up her office and began her way back toward her quarters. Kaminari didn't understand why, but she felt like something was off, so Kaminari went back into her office.

Everything was quiet as she searched through her desk, so Kaminari jumped when she heard the sudden scream. "CAPTAIN!" Kaminari hurried toward the door and went to open it, but before her hand made contact, her roughed up squad members ran into her. She took a step back and caught them before the first fully fell, the other's stopped behind him. "What is going on?!" she questioned hurriedly. "CAPTAIN, THERE'S AN EMERGENCY!" "What is it?!" she asked. She recognized these people as the one's who went with Kei, so she feared the worst. "It's Lieutenant Makabe..." Kaminari's eyes widened, "Explain! Quickly!" "She needs... your help. There was a Hollow... even the Lieutenant is having trouble with it... We were sent away by her so the information we got would still get back... but she stayed behind to cover our retreat." Kaminari felt a new anger rise in her stomach when she realized she was actually right about the entire mission. Kei better be okay.

"I knew I should have gone..." she muttered and then hurried out of her office with them following, "I want you all to go to the Fourth. Those that are seriously injured get treatment and have them send a squad over toward the Senkaimon." With a wave of her hand, a hell butterfly appeared on the tip of her finger. "Keep the Senkaimon open. Captain Hatakeyama is bringing her Lieutenant back and needs that done." she sent the message through the hell butterfly and then looked back to her squad. "I'm sorry..." she said worriedly and then shunpo'd away from them all. Kaminari felt like she had been messing up a lot as Captain lately, so this didn't help. Too much was happening in her life; this shit was stressful. With how fast she was moving, it did not take long for her to get to the Senkaimon closest to her Division. She didn't even speak to the gate keepers and just darted through the Senkaimon without any hesitation at all.

The journey through the Senkaimon was normal. She rushed through, doing her best to get to the other side before something bad happened to her Lieutenant. Finally, the end of the line came and the door opened on the other side. She shunpo'd again, rushing through until she arrived in Hueco Mundo. Upon arrival, she slid to a quick stop and looked around until she saw Kei. She was a live. Kaminari sighed in relief. Well, she was alive for the moment! "PAY ATTENTION!" Kaminari yelled at her when she noticed the hollow moving in for the attack. Apparently her arrival in Hueco Mundo momentarily distracted Kei from the battle. The creature was very tunnel visioned on Kei, so he didn't even seem to notice Kaminari's arrival. She stood there and assessed the situation, getting a quick layout of the battlefield imprinted in her mind. She sensed around, making sure that she and Kei were the only one's here, so they wouldn't have to watch for a sneak attack. Kaminari shunpo'd forward toward Kei and appeared ten feet behind her. She looked up to this hollow and narrowed her eyes at it. It was odd and she couldn't tell exactly what this creature was supposed to be made of. It was large and had enough spiritual pressure to rival low level Captains. Kaminari understood why the group had such a hard time with it. "Are you alright?" Kaminari asked, but kept her eyes on the monster at hand.

"Yes. Everyone returned safely. I instructed them to Squad Four to be healed." Kaminari was probably the one Captain out of all that would never step into the middle of a battle as meaningless as the one that was happening before her. Even with the danger of Kei's condition, Kaminari kept her distance to let her Lieutenant fight. She was not planning to get into the middle of it unless it was absolutely necessary. This was how she was and how she always will be. There was no changing that. Of course, she was not expecting what happened next. The battle took an odd turn. The red faded from Kei's hair. Kaminari narrowed her eyes at this. She knew her Lieutenant was absolutely exhausted, but her stubbornness was getting in the way. If there was one thing she knew about Kei, it was that Kei was prideful and would not want to rely on Kaminari's help. This only made Kaminari continue to stand back and watch the battle, but she would die before she let Kei fall. This would not be her Lieutenants death bed, not while she was alive. Kaminari watched the battle intently, wondering what Kei would do without shikai.

And then the most unexpected happened. Kaminari's eyes widened. Kei wasn't dodging this next one. She'd block it then? No, she wasn't blocking this next one either. Instead, Kei took the punch. Kaminari felt a wave of electricity like spasms flow from the front of her body and through to her back as Kei was punched. Why!? Why would Kei just take the punch!? Kaminari moved forward to fight before Kei had a chance to speak. As Kaminari made it into range, she heard Kei's request, "CAPTAIN! USE KIDŌ, NOW!" Unlike Kei, Kaminari had not observed the weaknesses, strengths, and patterns of this hollow, so she was unaware of the reason for the moment. She would not doubt Kei's request though, and immediately raised the palm of her hand. "Hado 63, Raikoho." Kaminari said as she placed her palm on the torso of the hollow. That choice of Kidō would probably express quite easily how pissed off Kaminari was at the moment. It really wasn't every day that Kaminari would choose such a high level Kidō on a hollow.

As the Kidō was cast, at first it seemed like nothing happened. The hollow froze in place and suddenly it's back began to glow a bright yellow. A moment later, an extremely large burst of lightning that made it seem like over kill shot out the hollows entire back, leaving a gaping hole there with the sides of the hole melting down because of the amount of heat the lightning caused. A moment later, the hollow would fall back away from Kaminari's palm and to the ground, only to fade away from existence like hollows normally did. Dropping her arm back down to her side, Kaminari returned to her normal demeanor and looked over to Kei to see if she was alright. After such a long battle, there was no way this woman wasn't going to be needing a large amount of rest. "Come. Let's get you back." Kaminari said, wrapping an arm around Kei's waist and placing Kei's arm over her shoulders to help her walk, though Kei wouldn't need to put much energy into that. Kaminari would shunpo back into the Senkaimon, since she intentionally had it left open, and hurry back to the Seireitei with Kei, doing her best to make it a gentle run when she knew Kei was hurt.