Ace Shinigami Investigations: Narue Ueno

Narue gave a small giggle, "I don't like fighting, trust me...but my zanpakutou can be fun otherwise when you don't think about her abilities! We talk all the time!"

Her abilities were a bit intimidating when one really thought about them, though Narue rarely entered fights to begin with... She was in the administrative division after all! She battled much more paperwork than anything!

She could fight though...it just left a sour taste in her mouth...

"Hm? Talk all the.." He blinked once or twice before shaking his head, feeling sheepish. "I'm sorry! I forgot for a second about the talking to Zanpakutos. I feel silly." He said, blushing a little as he looked away. "B-but yeah.. those powers sounds awesome... Like... you can use them outside of combat, right? If I had powers like that, I'd use them ALL the time." Granted, he used his powers all the time and wouldn't trade them for anything, but they weren't flashy like hers.

"It's easy to forget if you don't have one, so no worries!" There was no need to say sorry! It was something that either was easy to forget or not even widely known if one knew about shinigami! No offense taken!

Within her mind, Narue even heard the little jingles of Akumu's bells signifying she took no offense either!

"I haven't really honed my abilities up enough to be able to do too much outside of my shikai, at least...I've never tried doing stuff like that, but if I'm out of gigai I can go through walls!" That was something anyone of a race such as shinigami or arrancar could do though without a gigai...hehe...

"Y-yeah..." He had his power but... he didn't tell anyone about it... His girlfriend would have known but then he'd have to reveal ALL that supernatural stuff and... well things ended, so obviously that would have been too much for her anyway. "No worries at all!" He echoed cheerily.

"Huh. It'd be the first thing I'd strive for. Being able to mess with people sounds fun." He chuckled. "That's cool too... Man.. Humans don't get crap... We age faster than others too, apparently. Not that I mind too much. I never really feel rushed." He got plenty of enjoyment out of his moments, after all.

"Hehe, if I could strengthen myself to do those things outside of my shikai then it would be pretty cool; I should try! It'll show that I've become stronger too! If I keep practicing then maybe I'll be able to one day!"

Narue seemed happy with that, it would be a training goal! She could train and hopefully teach herself to call upon Akumu's abilities outside of shikai, even if it were just for fun purposes.

Humans...did age much faster, but it was nice to here Souma wasn't bothered by it. It was good to live your life without such worries!

Souma nodded happily, before glancing ahead as they neared the crime scene. He looked around as they got closer to the caution tape before carefully stepping under it and holding it up for her to follow. "Okay, there's nobody around right now. No guarantee it'll stay that way though... So we should definitely be quick. I don't know how I'd talk my way out of it if someone found us."

He was certainly risking getting in trouble, but it was important. This was every bit as much of Narue's business as it was his.

Narue gave a nod as Souma spoke, stepping under the caution tape as he held it up for her now that they were at the crime scene again. They'd need to be careful, and quick; it would be difficult to get thorough information that way, but it was necessary.

Any new amount of information would be helpful.

She would be as careful as she could! Souma was risking a lot by doing this...

Looking down at the body, she looked over it; the first thing she needed to do was to get the notes down for what she saw currently, her previous notes having been written as she looked at the scene from afar.

His soul was already long gone from the looks of things, the gigai was just a bloodied, empty shell now. That...wasn't good...

It was a gigai, and to find his division she'd need to check his uniform within the gigai...but...the uniform might be gone too...

Souma glanced around before following her into the alleyway, crouching down next to the body. He froze time for a minute and scanned the body. Hrm... It was definitely a hollow attack but further than that... it was hard to tell anything..

"Well... You can pop him out of his gigai, right? So we could investigate further?" He asked, unsure of how these things worked, but figuring she had the answers.

He glanced up to her, frowning before placing a hand on her shoulder. "Hey... I'm sorry... I know it must suck to lose a comrade..." He hadn't ever lost anyone he knew, but plenty of people on the force had dealt with that...

"...His soul's already long gone, meaning the spirit particles have already returned to the atmosphere." Narue explained; "Meaning there's nothing in the gigai anymore."

That was...troublesome, more than troublesome.

She gave a small nod to Souma's following words; she'd never known this shinigami, but still...to lose...

"I'll be fine!" Narue gave a smile towards him, "We'll solve this! It would be best to write up the report like I was meant to, after that we can get a team on this case to more thoroughly investigate."

She nodded at that, it seemed like the best course of action. She was a lieutenant, but she was part of the administrative division, it was best for shinigami that were meant for these types of missions to investigate.

"The injuries to the gigai though... There's been similar cases -- of similar injuries, I mean! I'll need to look more into it to be sure though..."

His soul was... GONE? Just... gone... Souma stared, wide eyed at the gigai before he shuddered rather visibly... To die was one thing... but... for your very soul to be gone? That was just.. disgusting... He'd... heard hollow eat souls.. but this was just... "horrible..." he said softly.

He looked back to her... It... They would send a team to deal with this? But... He wanted to help... to try and solve this... "Isn't... Isn't there anything I can do?" He asked quietly, wrapping his arms around his stomach, feeling a little sick... He felt... useless..

"There are certain hollows that have evaded shinigami from slaying them, this one...might be one of those hollows. They're tricky and also strong, so they're harder to deal with."

There weren't too many, but a few out there... It would call for further investigating.

"If there's anymore cases like this, can you keep me posted, that...that's a way to help. It sometimes takes time for us to hear word and human police sometimes know moments after the attack."

He really wanted to help...and if this were one of those hollows then that would be a way of helping.

"But you have to stay safe too!" That was important as well!

"Huh.. I've... I've only ever run into a few hollows... one or two of them, I had to hurt, but for the most part I managed to scare them away... and even then I've never killed one... but something like this... It's... It's different..." He knew there were hollows who weren't BAD... but this one... it had to be, right? This seemed like more than just feeding... this was... murder, wasn't it?

"Mhm.. I... I could be like.. your guys' secret contact?" He said with a slight smile. He meant it, even if it sounded a bit silly. "But... I can take care of myself too, I mean... don't get me wrong.." He blushed a little, looking away.. It's not like he needed protection. He was a trained quincy after all.

"Mhm... There are some good hollows...arrancar, but this one isn't one of them. This one isn't a good one, it's out of control and it'll continue to do things like this until it can be taken out."

Narue...hated speaking like that, but it was true. The hollow needed to be killed for this to stop.

Her smile was bright at Souma's words though, and she gave a nod; "Yeah! Like a secret contact! I can give you my contact information, you should be able to reach me easily with it!"

Souma could accept hers and he could help that way!

She didn't doubt that he could take care of himself, but still...there was no telling how strong this hollow was, so it was best to be careful!

"Y-yeah..." He smiled a little and nodded. He... was happy to hear a Shinigami say it... She would know hollows better than he ever could... So if she said there were some good ones then it must be true... although it also meant... this hollow really was evil.... and needed to be killed. He wasn't.. It wasn't like he couldn't kill, he just... never had.

But at least something positive came from it shortly. "Y-yeah! Um.. Does it.. work like a phone or something?" He asked, wondering how contacting a shinigami worked. They couldn't just have interdimensional phones, could they? "Um.. so... is there anything else we can do here besides trading contact info?" He asked... "Can we at least... I don't know... do something to honor the dead?"

"Mhm! It works like a phone, see?" Saying that, she pulled out her communication device from her pocket, it looked like a cell phone, but it worked between dimensions! If Souma had her contact information he'd be able to get in touch.

Bringing up her number, she showed him so he could properly input it into his phone.

Anything more they could do... Honor...

Her smile softened at hearing that; "Of course, there will be a service for him held back in the Seireitei, even though we couldn't get his information...but if you'd like we could do something."

If there was a river near by...they could get a paper lantern and let it float down the river. That was a sign of respect that she'd heard of. It was to honor those that had passed on...

He looked at the device, curious, stopping time to study it. His study didn't reveal too much beyond what he could already tell. It was some sort of spiritual world-hopping cell phone.... Clearly a newer model than his... heheh. He added her in contacts, before pausing, pulling up the phone's camera and holding it up. "Say cheese." He said with a grin before the phone took her picture for the contact.

He looked back down to the departed... "Hm... We could..." He wondered... "mmm.. I don't know...if he gets a soul in seireitei maybe that would be best... this gigai is just a shell, right? It's... not much to honor... I think he should be put to rest like a shinigami..." He said with a smile, which quickly faded to a sad frown.

The picture was unexpected, but as soon as Souma asked, she gave him a bright smile for the picture now that he had her contact information. She could easily do that!

"He'll have a grave, and headstone in the Seireitei, among the other fallen shinigami...and one of the seated officers of a division will give a speech for him. I'm not sure what we could do with his gigai here without risking trouble...but..."

If that hollow hadn't of eaten his soul...he would be reborn as a human...

He saved the contact once it was done, happy with the picture before pocketing the phone. He looked at it, somewhat excited... He could call a real shinigami... it was... Impressive, even for all of his usual spiritual secrecy.

He nodded. Those... those all sounded good... a grave, a headstone... he just wished there could be peace for his loved ones that he'd been avenged. He looked back down to the gigai and reached down, placing his hand on his forehead. "Rest in peace..." he said with a frown before standing up. "Um... I don't.. want to stay here too much longer... if you have something you want to do here... I guess you should before we go?" He crossed his arms feeling... well, appropriately depressed..

Narue stood by as Souma reached down towards the gigai, her smile softening at his respectful words for the departed shinigami. It made her happy, even though...they didn't know this shinigami's identity the dead was still shown proper respect...

She only hoped they could locate that hollow eventually...

"I don't have anymore to do here, I just need to write up my report which can be done anywhere." She explained; it probably would be best to get out of this area, just in case a cop came around to investigate further.

She didn't want to get Souma in trouble!

Souma nodded and led her out of the area, holding the police tape for her. He relaxed visibly once they were out of the crime scene. While loitering around it was suspicious, he at least couldn't get in TROUBLE for it. He took one look back at the alleyway and shivered.

"Y-yeah. If they take roster they can probably figure out who it is too, right?" He didn't know how many shinigami there were, but it couldn't be too hard to track a missing one.

"S-so... Are you headed back? Like... to Soul Society?" He asked. The place itself was still mysterious even if Narue seemed normal.

"Well need to go through a list to see about missing officers or recently deployed ones, we can only hope his gigai matched his true appearance..." Sometimes shinigami preferred to get gigai's that were different from how they appeared, so Narue could only hope he was the type to get one that naturally looked like him.

It would make things much easier...

When Souma questioned if she was heading back, she gave an apologetic smile; "It would be best for me too, I need to get my report in and send word out to assign a team to this. We can keep in touch though! You can use my number for normal conversations too, I don't mind!"

It didn't just have to be about business, so she would be happy to keep in touch! Friends were great!

Souma was amazed once again. So the spirit bodies who entered the gigai didn't have to match the gigai's appearance? Wow... He'd always sort of assumed that when the soul entered some sort of blank gigai it took on the soul's form. Neat. Hopefully he wasn't one of the odd ducks who didn't use their own... Or she?

"Oh that's quite alright. I know about needing to get work done." He said. He kept to himself mostly too, so it wasn't like he minded. He was happy he'd made a friend, he wasn't so greedy as to need to hang out more with her. Besides, she still looked sixteen, hanging out with a bunch of kids all the time could make people talk... or make more people assume Souma was younger.

"Oh... I don't even know what to call about but... Yeah, that's good! We could even hang out sometime, or you could let me know if you need help investigating again!" He smiled helpfully.

"Mhm!" Work was important, and while she seemed...and pretty much was the easy-going type, work was important to her as well! If it weren't for the Seireitei, then she wouldn't be living as nice a life as she was now so she always made sure to do her work!

Narue gave a nod at Souma's response, if he ever wanted to they could hang out or talk! That was perfectly fine by her, and if she ever had another case that needed investigating she could give him a call!

"Sounds great!" She smiled; "Well, I'll get going now, it was really nice meeting you!"

With a small wave, she waited for Souma's response before heading off into an alleyway where she could open a senkaimon to get back back home.