It's a Montage!

Mia's body mimicked a gasp, her mouth opening and hand coming up. They were so pretty... She glanced up, not that Hideki could see her eyes, but it was obvious from the movements... Taking the note with a frown, it broke into a happy grin. Her present would be ready soon... but until then it was nice to know he was thinking nicely of her.

Setting the box down, she reached into her cloak and pulled out a large mirror. It had stands and she set it up in front of Hideki's entirely line of sight (half the desk), and pulled down the hood to put them on.

Hideki could have died. How could she fit THAT in there. He adjusted his glasses, REALLY tempted to scan the girl just to see how that cloak worked, much less see her... but... He sighed, putting them away. Breach of privacy, immoral... etc... grumble... He 'hm?'d quietly and leaned slightly to see the open window again. Oh yeah, what was all that about? Without saying anything he stood up and, making sure (because he was nicer than he should be, really) not to look away from the window, he walked over towards it. "So... What are you doing down in the clearing?" He asked, figuring the scrambling and the open window had to be related. Only once he had asked the question and she would be responding, if she chose to, did he look over. After all, since she could not speak, he would have to look to see what she was saying.

Yes. That seemed fair.

Mia had attached the hair ornaments and was looking at herself in the mirror. It looked... so nice. Yes, very nice! She admired it for a few seconds, before Hideki moved to the window. As he turned around, he would see



but with the hairpins in her hair.

She stood up and pulled the hood over, as she then poofed away. She didn't have time for the mirror.

Hideki did not have the good fortune to find his lieutenant wearing something as innocent as a gas mask today.  No... Today it was something truly terrifying.  "AAHHH!" He cried out in shock before tumbling over backwards.  "Wh...What the hell was THAT thing?"  He asked to essentially nobody.  Jeez  louise... Did she have a face?  Was she missing part of her skull?  What could possibly be going on under that hood that she didn't want anyone to see so bad she was willing to wear THAT thing...  Once he'd regained his composure, he got to his feet before, on a whim, deciding to look out the window anyway.

A...Ladder? He looked around... The clearing could be walked to... Unless... well, with her condition...

----

It would be sometime a day or so later, when she had gone out for some task, that Hideki's next plan would spring into motion. Whenever she returned to her office, she would find the door shut and everything fine. It would only be once she opened the door that she would hear it. Some odd noise. Coming from... Was it outside?

The window would be open too. It would only be once she looked outside that she would see. A metal rod, not much sturdier looking then that of a shower curtain was affixed to the library some distance out from the castle and seemed to circle... Just about the whole clearing. And circling this rod all the way around, was a massive curtain. Several vertical poles inside the curtain were affixed to the rod to keep it sturdy. The noise would be Hideki, atop a st of mobile library stairs, grumbling and trying to set up the last of the poles.

Mia came back from her delivery of cake, deciding even if it wasn't her job to deal with the unseated members cakes that she should get out and do it if she had time. Of course the cake wouldn't be as delicious without her having made it. Still, it was in a cheerful mood that she found herself back at her office.

However once she opened the door that changed. What...what was that SOUND!? Her window was open too... had someone snuck in?! She rushed over to the window in time to see Hideki doing... something with curtains and hiding her clearing from...view. She had intended to build a wall over time! What... Was that RIDICULOUS CAPTAIN DOING?! It was the nicest thing...anyone had ever done...

She turned bright red and fled from her office. She'd hide in the library....doing things. Things that needed doing.

He thought he'd heard something but looked up and saw nobody. Was that her? He wheeled the stairs over and climbed up them, before peeking in the window. Huh. Nobody.. wait... The door.. He'd left it locked. So she'd come and ghosted off? He frowned. Damn it.. He didn't think this would catch her... but, well... If it had, it would have been nice to see the smile on the lieutenant's face. Or at least best see her try to express it via magazines. He found himself forcing the frown to stay as he climbed up and locked the door and walked back out into the clearing. He looked around. Now how the hell was he going to build walls out here? Wait... He pulled out his book. Hrm. Well he DID need some practice...

---

The next day, whenever the lieutenant would be coming in to her office, she would maybe hear an odd noise, or perhaps see a shimmering light coming from the, still open in fact, window. When she looked outside this time, she would see a much different sight. The curtain rods, and the curtains themselves, were gone. In fact, a small portion of the trees were gone too, to make the clearing bigger, although the smoldered remains of stumps were still visible. A keen enough eye might spot the telltale markings of Hado # 4 singed into the persistent roots.

That keen eye would be far more distracted by the large concrete wall surrounding the larger clearing. The wall was made of three solid pieces, the ground around it on either side was scorched, perhaps as if some foolish captain were unable to dig foundation trenches and instead chose to blast the dirt with Kido. The joints likewise were haphazardly fused together at the two corners and the wall of the library, as if by some great heat source. The wall stood between fifteen and twenty feet high and, though the shape was a tad wonky in spots, it looked rather solid.

A bit of light might catch her eye. Below, off to one side of the clearing, stood Hideki in front of a sizeable pit in the ground. It was too far to see, but simple deduction could indicate that this too had been formed with the only means of landscaping and construction the captain had available. He was, at the moment, standing on one end of it, the upper parts of his uniform neatly folded over the bottom rungs of the now completed ladder leading down from her window. He was facing the pit with his opened zanpakuto which was, surprisingly enough, spewing out large quantities of water below.

He was humming to himself, blissfully aware of the lieutenant's approach.

Down below in the clearing,

Mia felt like she could return to her office today. Hideki would be gone now that his curtain was installed and she could get some work done before she started on the wall. The cloak was stocked with supplies for such a task. Pleased, Mia unlocked the door and stepped inside only to be shocked once again. The window was open and it looked...odd outside. What was going on now!? Couldn't she have just a few restful days not filled with fleeing from her Captain!?

Stalking to the window, half embarrassed, half upset, the sight that greeted her left her so shocked she just stood there for a few minutes. How... in the world...one day... the trees...what...

She gaped for a while, trying to wrap her mind around the whole... sight. Wall, trees burned, wall burned, there was... just so much more. The ladder was completed, though Mia was too shocked to use it as she jumped out of the window. The cloak flew behind her for a minute, oddly enough not making a loud noise. The water was making too much anyways, as she moved quickly up to Hideki.

...He wasn't wearing a shirt he wasn't WEARING A SHIRT! ABORT ABORT BUT... She was beat red, and the hood she was pulling down so he couldn't see ANYTHING as she moved in close. She had. To. Thank. Him.

With words. Mia stood there, head down...and attempted to speak. She tried, but every time she opened her mouth nothing came out. Her voice had left her! Four more attempts later and the Lieutenant was supremely flustered beyond everything. She closed her eyes, tried one last time and just as "Th-Tha-" came out her hands flew up to try and stop herself.

Instead of covering her mouth though, the man who was probably surprised she was even there was instead hit with her arms. She had moved that much closer in her attempt to be heard?! Mia watched as her gloved hands and arm came up and pressed him... and pushed her away from him in her panic to back up.

The pit... on no!

Hideki was in the middle of pouring water into the pond. Yeah, this would look awesome. He had used some hado to blow open a hole in the ground and had further used some hado to harden the dirt so the water wouldn't absorb right through. Then it was a simple enough matter to simply draw an ocean and let the book do the rest. Of course, once he was done with this, there wouldn't be much left to do. Clean up some of the odds and ends. Maybe make some stone benches? Not that they would be very pretty. He could probably make them hollow, right? So she could get rid of them? And some flowers. They would look like shit, but she could also get rid of those too. Just so that the initial presentation would wow her.

Yeah, it would all -"Huh?" He thought he'd heard something when suddenly a pair of gloved hands pressed to him and pushed. He flailed in the air, only knowing he was falling before he reacted quickly and flung the book, which landed safely some few feet away. Hideki was less fortunate, falling into the water below. He sunk beneath the surface, before coming to his senses and swimming up to the top. "Wh...What was that for?!" He asked, more confused then anything, treading water. How had she even snuck on him like that? And whyyyyy?

Mia's face was horrified, she had run to the edge of the water to try and see if her Captain was okay. He hadn't surfaced... would she had to jump in and get him?! Nope, eh popped up, looking less than pleased. Not angry but rather confused.

"S-Sorry! S-Sorry! I'm sorrysorrysorry!" It was in her copious apologizing that she realized...her hood was back. As she had fallen, it had moved backwards revealing the front of her head and face. Her bangs fell partially across her face as purple eyes widened. She pulled the hood back into place and ran off. She didn't even stop at the ladder, just jumped into the window and was gone.

Hideki opened his mouth to try and say something before she just fell back. He extended an arm. "C-Careful!" he said before she went down. And that's when her hood fell back. He froze, in the brief moment before she scurried back up the ladder and into her office. He dropped his hand and just sort of sat there, before finally his face turned red.

It would be a few more hours before he had finished. If she ever dared to come back into her office, she would find the window shut, with a little card on the interior sill. From there, the poorly drawn bench and flowers wouldn't look too shabby. Not that he didn't intend for her to decorate the place to her own liking. Just for the initial presentation. The stumps were gone, with some hastily drawn grass populating them. Those looked better, but would be discernible up close, with more of a papery look to them. The scorch marks had also been painted over.

The card was a simple one, although she would find it addressed in reverse order.

From: Captain Nishimura.

This is in thanks of all of the unappreciated hard work you have done over the last few hundred years, as well as apologies for all the times I have already inadvertently spooked you. So... yeah. Thank you and I'm sorry!

To: The Best/Prettiest Lieutenant in the World.

The next morning, Mia opened her office carefully. She didn't want ANYMORE surprises. This week had been full of them. There was no sounds, nothing new in the room itself... Hideki wasn't here. This was good. Mia slipped into the room, locked the door and breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing... wait.

Going to the window, she caught a glimpse of the outside... and gasped. What in the world...had he done... Looking at the card, she picked it up and turned a deep shade of red as she finished reading it. NO THIS WAS IMPOSSIBLE THIS CAPTAIN WAS OUT TO KILL HER!

Mia fled the room, intending to back a cake and give it to the noble who's birthday was today... Probably. She had it marked but she was too flustered to think about checking. She'd bake that cake and calm down...