Ace Shinigami Investigations: Narue Ueno

"Ah..Ah... I-I see." He looked aside, a little embarrassed by... it wasn't technically praise but, what she'd said. It was nice. So.. Emotional maturity was tied to physical growth maybe? It's what it sounded like. He seemed like an adult, children seemed like children. You just matured slower to match your aging? Sounded right to him.

"Ah.. I'm... not.. I mean.. I guess I'm an adult but just barely." He was only 21. He'd thought that was old when he was 19 or 20 and still in school. When he got on the force and was immediately treated like a kid because of his age, wellll... Things changed then. "How's your drink?"

He was an adult to her, twenty-one was young but he was still an adult!

When he asked her about the drink she gave a happy nod, swallowing her recent sip before speaking again. "It's really, really good! Uwaa~ There's so many foods and drinks here I've never tried before!"

It was chocolate-y and really good!

"I'm glad!" He said quickly, picking his coffee up and sipping at it. Jeeeez... he was still flabbergasted. She was.. so old... "W-well, it goes without saying, you look good for your age, ma'am." He said with a silly grin, trying not to think of her as an elder. It was hard in the face of such knowledge.

"So." His voice dropped a little, signaling a more serious topic. "You said earlier this was... not the first problem you've had... with what we met over?" He didn't want to talk about the body in public. "Can you tell me, discreetly, about the other incidents?"

Narue gave a small giggle at being referred to as M'am, it was silly; she acted nothing like someone that would be an elder to him. "You can call me Narue, or like you'd been doing before!"

She returned his grin with a bright smile of her own, though his tone caught her and she realized they were moving on into more serious territory.

"Aha, that's right...I think this is the...third we've had so far. They were both similar to this one, though the two before were apart of different divisions, both unseated officers..."

He nodded. "Um.. Okay, Narue! Sure thing!" He supposed he'd try to just.. go back to thinking of her how she appeared. If that's what he was supposed to do. He didn't mind, honestly. It made her less daunting to talk to.

"Hm. No connection? So... probably something preying on them... maybe.. maybe going after their spiritual energy? Could be hunting them.." He frowned, trying to think of possibilities. "Well, once we can go back to the crime scene and investigate, maybe we'll learn something new."

"Probably..." Narue nodded, agreeing with him before taking another sip from her drink; something was preying on them, but it was...hard to really make guesses right now on what that something was.

They would go back to the crime scene in a bit, "Mhmm! Hopefully we can figure something out!"

If she could get him out of his gigai, then maybe they'd find more answers...they'd at the very least have a division number.

"Mmm." He gave a solemn nod. He couldn't imagine what that was like. For shinigami to be alive that long and then get murdered? The guy hadn't looked any older than 20 or so but he could have been centuries old just to get killed in an alley? Seemed awful to him. He sipped at his coffee and tried to give Narue a cheery smile.

He looked back down unsure of what to say now. He didn't want to just go right back into asking about her. They were working together so he should be professional, even if he was curious about lots of things. "Rmm." He never was good at small talk.

Narue took another sip of her drink, seeing that it looked like Souma was thinking on something; perhaps about the case...

She wasn't sure what to make of it herself, all she had right now were the notes she'd taken on the situation. Most of it was knowledge Souma probably knew of as well.

It was just basic investigation notices...

"Hmm..." Narue took another sip, swallowing it before she spoke again; "So! What other kinds of things do you do other than be an investigator?"

That's all she really knew about him really, other than that he was spiritually aware, it was good to talk!

Souma was enjoying his coffee and considering getting a snack of some kind and immediately choked on it when she asked about him. "H-huh?" She wanted to know about him? But.. There wasn't really that much to tell... Mmm, he didn't want to stonewall her being nice. "Um.." He hated talking about himself and crossed his arms self consciously

"Well.. I.. I listen to music, sometimes I keep up my archery skills, just in case. Um..I read a lot of mysteries?" He wasn't sure what to say. His job was what he felt was the most interesting thing about him besides being a quincy. "I... Just went through a breakup? I guess?" That was... something?

Souma seemed shocked she'd ask, and Narue was about to ask if he was okay when he choked on his coffee but he started talking first in attempt to answer her.

He seemed...shy?

She waited patiently, letting him work through whatever he needed to to speak.

Ooo~ Archery? Mysteries!?

She...did not want to touch on the break up, she knew that people were upset after such things, and had learned it was best not to talk about it.

"Mysteries?" She had brightened at hearing that, "I read lots of stuff on mysteries, though I read more on ghost stories and stuff, but I love mysteries too!"

Little subtle reactions and the fact that she didn't say anything about it let him know she was avoiding the subject of the break up. He wasn't too upset about the whole thing, but he understood it was an awkward conversation subject. "Um.. Yeah, mysteries. I mean.. I'm not a detective, but I like.. that kind of stuff." He shrugged.

"Oh? Ghost stories, hm?" Interesting. He knew better than to assume it was because she was a ghost though. "You like being spooked, or you like spooking others?" He asked, figuring that one of those was likely for a ghost story aficionado.

"Well I'm just really interested in that kinda stuff! Folklore, occult happenings; with the stories it's becoming almost like an initiation in my division to gather the new recruits and give them a story! It has to be at night though when the atmosphere is right!"

So in a sense... Spook others.

Getting spooked...ahahaa....please no.

It was all fun though! Doing those stories, it brought a lot of the members closer because they'd had fun together! "It helps people make friends too! If we all have fun together, even if it means a spook, then we can work better together!"

"Wow! Well it's certainly a unique interest. Just... try not to spook me, okay? It's not that hard." He said with a playful little hand wave. He didn't normally get scared from spooky stories, actually, but he didn't want to ruin her fun or anything. He paused time and glanced at the doll. Hrm.. what was up with that? No... Everyone probably asked her about the doll, no asking about the doll.

"Uumm, I also have a Corgi. His name is Archimedes." He picked up his phone and quickly pulled up pictures of a rather dopey little Corgi staring happily at the camera.

"Promise!" Narue smiled; she only did that if people wanted to join in on the stories! So Souma was definitely safe from any spooking! He had wanted to know a bit of her interest when it came to that, and she had shared.

At the picture, she seemed to brighten at the cute doggy; "Awww~! He's so cute!"

It was such an adorable type of dog! There were tons of breeds, but this one was definitely really cute!

He grinned, handing her the phone to look through his pictures. He had doggy photos in their own album so... just as long as she didn't go to other albums, she wouldn't find any bad pictures of crime scenes or anything. "Yeah, he's a real cutie. He's not really smart, so the name was sort of a joke, but I love him and that's just his name now." Archimedes was admittedly not sharp, even for a Corgi, but he was the sweetest dog Souma had ever had.

"I spend a lot of time with him when I'm alone, especially lately."

"I'm sure he makes great company!" Narue smiled, "I don't have any pets, but I've played with some strays before back in the Soul Society, there's lots that love attention!"

Other than that it was just her and Hato-kun!

She kept busy enough anyways, so...she wouldn't want to have a pet and then have to focus on her work and stuff and have them be all lonely... Loneliness was sad!

"He does, he does!" He reached out to take his phone back, glancing at the pictures himself before putting it away. That sounded nice of her though, to play with stray animals and give them affection. Wait, there were stray animals in the soul society? How did they get there? Did animals go to soul society when they died? Huh... Weird...

"Umm..." He glanced up at her. "We could.. head back to the crime scene, see if it's empty yet?" He didn't mind talking but he didn't want to waste her time.

"Okay." Narue gave a small nod, "It might be!"

She wasn't sure how long they'd been in the coffee shop, having been caught up in her conversation with Souma and enjoying her drink. Whoops, hehehe...

If it wasn't they could just talk more!

He nodded and got up, heading to the door and holding it open for her. "After you." He said politely, following once she'd gone through. "Hopefully we can check it out BEFORE it gets dark... " He frowned, crossing his arms again as they walked. "I mean...You need to complete your investigation but... if whatever it is is targeting shinigami, um..."

He looked aside, feeling bad for questioning her ability but... worried nonetheless. "I just don't want you to put yourself in harm's way.."

Standing from her own seat, Narue situated Hato-kun around her neck again so she'd be sure his wings wouldn't come untied before heading towards the door in Souma's trail.

"Thank you!" She stated, stepping outside as he held the door open for her. "Hopefully, hm?"

He was...worried about her? Well, whatever was killing shinigami was still out there...

"I'm a lieutenant! No worries! I don't really like fighting much, but I can hold my own, definitely! I'm not second in command for nothing after all! Heehee~!"

She was attempting to reassure him...

She seemed confident... or at least she spoke confidently... He was still worried but... Lieutenant made her second in command? Well, she must be pretty tough then... And he wasn't exactly a pushover himself... They should be okay, right? At least, if something happened, he could make sure she was fine.

"Well, alright.. I don't like fighting much either, mind you, but I'm not bad at it myself." He nodded. "So um... what's your power? All shinigami have a unique one, right?"

"Umm, I'm good with kidou! Shinigami can all use kidou though, but yup! That's right! Our zanpakutou grant us unique abilities! With my zanpakutou I can do...ghost powers, I'd say!" Narue smiled.

Yup! Akumu only had shikai, but she could give us ghostly abilities! Poltergeist, and disappearing... She was a great zanpakutou!

Ki..dou? Uhhh, what even was.. He tilted his head, curious but not wanting to swamp her with questions. But what were ghost powers? He just had so many questiooons. He'd ask the less embarrassing one, since if all Shinigami could use Kidou, he should already know about it. "Ghost... Powers? What does that mean?"

It could mean a lot of stuff... psychic powers, passing through walls, moving stuff around, immortality... He was curious what she could do now.

"Wellll...." Narue thought for a moment, thinking of quick and easy ways to explain some of her own powers; "Like how ghosts can turn invisible or throw things without touching them!"

That worked!

Those were a couple of things she could do, she definitely didn't really care for fighting though...

Souma blinked, not quite in disbelief, but still shocked at her power. "I.. didn't expect such an unassuming girl, lieutenant or no, to have such spooky powers." He didn't doubt her strength, but she was so small and sweet and her powers sounded downright scary. "Er... N-not that you don't seem like a lieutenant or anything. I mean, I know you're very powerful and all." He frowned and looked down, hoping he hadn't insulted her.