"Oh, no! This won't do, won't do at all!" Mai whispered upon walking into her office. It wasn't all hers, seeing as she shared it with three other peers who worked different shifts, but this was her home away from home! Her safe haven! And it was all wrong.

Still standing in the doorway, her violet eyes swept over her desk, naturally the first one in the room, then to the next one, and the next, and the last. Her desk, normally organized and clean in anal fashion, was utterly destroyed. So much so, it looked like the other three in the cramped room. Her chair was not where she had left it (and that much she could justify, as the room was small and with four desks and chairs, bumping was bound to happen). But, even her desk looked like it had been bumped, and by a large horse at that! There was no excuse for that, none at all, as her desk, and everyone else's, was nestled into a corner.

They were not large desks, barely large enough to allow a full grown woman any elbow room, and Mai had to be extra careful in making sure everything was in its proper place. Her writing tools stayed on the left, the edge closest to the door, in an elegant clay cup. The files and papers were on the right in a very tidy stack nestled in the corner, which left the center, a good nine inches on a slow day, free for the current tasks. Beneath the desk, behind the wastebasket, was a narrow shelf that just barely held her zanpakutou for safekeeping while on duty.

Every day for the last twenty years, the time she'd been in this office with fewer (thank the Taichou very much) coworkers, her desk had been exactly the way she left it. That was not the case today, no siree. The previous metaphor, the horse, was too small, Mai surmised as she approached her station. It must've been a bull.

Untying her zanpakutou and placing it in the nook beneath the desk, she started from the corner and worked her way right to left, organizing files and putting them in alphabetical order. Patients, with completed charts, went in a stack on her left to go back to archives, while those with incomplete charts went in the middle. Miscellaneous paperwork, memos and lists went on the right; they would be dealt with as soon as this mess was fixed.

Oh, no. Not alphabetical. Numerical, she decided; the archives ordered by the number system, as there were many similar surnames afoot.

She lifted the stack of incomplete charts, turn them a quarter of a turn, and placed them on top of the miscellaneous papers pile to prevent any further mixture. Then she took the completed charts and began the task of setting the charts in the right order. She stood for this, and in her bent position, her white mane fell and cascaded down the side of her face, shielding it from any who would enter.

[bgcolor=000000]While not necessary, at least not yet as he did wish to bring it up during the next council meeting, Malik made it a habit to visit the Second Division's medical department for a check up at least every other month. True, he didn't go out into the field that often at all anymore, simply because others did it and his presence wasn't actually called for, but there were still dangerous here and there even in an office. Just last week his 19th Seated member fell off a step stool whilst trying to dust off an old file, and broke his ankle. Dangerous workplace, those filing rooms. So cluttered that even if you think you are on level ground, you aren't. Oh no, not at all. Malik would really need to expand that room, several centuries of files did tend to pile up.. Or simply find someone to put in charge of organizing it whom knew what they were doing. Sadly, he couldn't think of someone who fit that bill just yet..

But that's neither here or there, Malik was here for his check up and his usual doctor, the fair Captain of the Division was preoccupied so he had to make due with someone else. Wandering about the higher ranked offices and treatment centers he found two women having children, three men whom had suffered some nasty injuries in the field and a very gruff looking Third Division member whom apparently tripped, tore a very valuable (to whom he could only guess) scroll in two, and landed face first into a potted plant. Safe to say this one had more than a few bumps and bruises to be mended. According to what he overheard whilst ease dropping, he would need to be bed ridden for the next week or so. Clumsy oaf, hurting himself that badly by tripping.

Honestly, they didn't make soldiers as tough as they did in his day.

Stopping near a lantern, the Soutaicho opened it a crack and stuck in a thin wooden stick which he had previously removed from a pouch in his belt. Once it took to flame, he then applied said flame to the dried tobacco leaves within his pipe, which was also in his mouth. Giving a few puffs until said leaves started to smoke he let out a slightly unrelenting sigh. He knew whom he'd have to ask for his check up, and to be quite honest it made him, uncomfortable. Snuffing the flame out on the stick, he closed the lantern and went on his way toward where he recalled her office being, praying she would not be there.


His prays fell upon deaf ears, as so many of them did.

From within he heard the shuffling of papers and what he could've swore was his little girl cussing beneath her breath. She certainly hadn't learned any of those terms of phrase from him, the very thought of it turned him a little pink in the face. Standing with his back against the wall, just outside the door he took a long inhale from his pipe, turned his head away from the door and blew four smoke rings, varying in size before blowing a solid line of smoke. Snickering to himself he whispered. "Bulls-eye." And then slipped around and into the door frame.

"Good morning, Sweetness." He glanced about the mess of the room and frowned. "Stampede?"

Mai ignored her father. Not because he was her father, oh no. She was much too focused on the task at hand, and simply did not hear him approach. Even if the man walked softly, the hallway was rarely the scene of any major noise, and a normal person, one who used her ears at all times, would have heard the man approach.

Her nose still worked, however, and the acrid, vile scent that followed Malik into the cramped office did not go unnoticed. Her head jerked upward, pulling her hunched body along with it, while her right hand reached for the nearest rolled item. Face flushed with frustration, she turned to face the defiler. "Why must you torture me so, Father?" she asked sweetly, gesturing with her free hand at the pipe he was halfway hiding from her eyesight. "You know that you're breathing a vile thing; I've told you thousands of times."

She smiled faintly before continuing. She hadn't heard him speak before entering, but her own need for order gave him an semi-answer anyway. [Coloe=697989]"Pardon the mess."[/color] She gestured with the roll at the chaos - three charts without a home, a crooked mug a few inches to the right. "I was just tidying up."

The roll waved through the air between father and daughter in a futile attempt to rid the air of the stench. "I would offer a place to sit, but..." she trailed off, looking at him and batting her eyelashes. "You stink."

[bgcolor=000000]"Torture you? Stink?!" His frown twisted and grew into a wicked looking grin before he took a step into the cluttered area. "Why, I would never, EVER, do such a thing." He stated with a nod as he popped his pipe back in between his teeth, giving Mai a bit of a wink as he did so. "On purpose, anyways."

Fumbling around with his belt he pulled out what seemed to be a tiny stopper and plunked it in the pipe's opening and let out a sigh. "There, that should help a bit." He would have to wait a bit before actually putting the pipe away to make sure the flame was good and out. Such a waste!!! "And it can't be too bad or your mother would've insisted I quit smoking after Chie was born, and you know how your sister's health fluctuates.

"Which reminds me, has she been in recently? I'm ashamed to admit I've not heard from her in awhile."

Did...did Malik hit his head? Did he really think that taking such a long drag, on a pipe, in front of his daughter, was a good idea? Apparently he did, as noted by his wicked grin and rather hasty attempt at stopping the vile thing.
While he did that, Mai turned away slightly and began to dry heave, ever so slightly; two could play at that game. Her hands rose up to cover her mouth, and she uttered a small, helpless-sounding groan....

Oblivious to Malik's actions, whatever they may have been, Mai continued her heaving until the wastebasket presented itself under her curtain of hair. She promptly stopped and stood erect and dropped her hands from her mouth. An eyebrow cocked itself as her head inclined in a deliberate challenge. Oh yes, two could play at that game.

[bgcolor=000000]She turned her back on him, was he being ignored or was she simply inclined to go back to her work. Which when he thought about it, was actually ignoring him. How rude!! What, gagging? She was going to be sick!

In a flutter he looked around the office and spotted just what was needed, oh yes a wastebasket! As quick as a bunny, he pounced upon it and scooped it up before rushing to his gagging daughter's side. He went to hand it to her, but noticed too late it was half full or broken quills, empty ink jars and torn up paper.. So, he dumped it out, sadly upon Mai's desk.

Slipping her the basket beneath her mane of hair, he gently pat patted her back and offered words of support. At least until she revealed it had been a clever act! One to make Malik feel bad for his smoking!

"Oooooh, all fire and brimstone just like your mother." He exclaimed, raising a brow in response to her. Challenge met, little girl. Game on!

Violet eyes boring into hazel eyes, smirks growing and fading. The sound of shifting debris. A typical Tanaka standoff.

With the bin still in front of her Mai slowly turned to face Malik and his waxing smugness. The roll of parchment, which she didn't let go of during her fake heaving, switched hands and went to push the bin away; it wasn't her bin, as she would have definitely felt the man go behind her, and so she did not want to touch it. She was positive that the bin in question belonged to a fat slob of a shinigami who had a very distinctive scent.

Bad scents meant bad things. Like Malik's smoking.

Another quill slid of its place in the pile, and before she went to look at the source of the sound, she was positive, absolutely positive, that Malik's smirk grew and his eyebrow arched higher. Very slowly, Mai broke eye contact and dropped her gaze to her desecrated desk. She blinked slowly, twice, and without looking back at her evil father (it wasn't intentional, he was just being considerate), dropped the rolled parchment. Both hands shot up and covered her delicate mouth, as though to stifle a very strangled scream.

Her entire body seemed to convulse like a racking sob with violent tremors from her elbows to her knees, causing the folds of her shihakushou to shift as though they were a set of lacy, gently wafting curtains. The sheer horror, the audacity, the garbage on her desk! And it was from the fat, stinky man! "Noooooo..." she moaned quietly before breaking into a stream of low no-no-noing.

What a bad father, dumping garbage on his daughter's desk!

[bgcolor=000000]The two stared at one another, neither giving an inch or so much as batting an eye. She wouldn't blink and neither would he! Backing down was a sign of weakness and as the father he would not show any sign of it! He had learned long ago with this one that you had to remain strong, or she'd walk allllll over you.

And then, she broke eye contact. VICTORY! Wait, what? The look on her face, the sheer horror of it and the muffled scream! What had he done?! He looked to see. "Oooh.." Even if it were for the very best of intentions, poor, poor Mai didn't see it as such. No, whilst playing a trick on her father she no doubt thought this was his way of getting back, by littering her prize position.. A little desk, in an even smaller office.

"God help us all if you were to ever get children, Tanaka-san.''

"If she only knew the half of it..." Letting out a deep sigh, he palmed his pipe slipping it into his belt shortly after and started to scoop the bits and pieces of trash off her desk and into the waste bin in which he was still holding. "I'm sorry, Sweetling. I didn't mean to make such a mess, I really did think you were going to be.. Oh never mind."

SPOILER: Click to show

I have no idea what Kuri's colour code is and that's as close as I bothered to try to get o.o;

Whatever Malik did snapped Mai out of her no-ing; maybe it was the apology, putting the pipe away, or the selfless act of cleaning the fat man's garbage off his daughter's workspace. Well, whatever it was, Mai's reaction to it was completely unexpected.

No, she didn't scream. No, she didn't slap him (though she would have if she was in the right state of mind). She didn't even faint.

Instead, she stepped back, still shaking and quaking in her shihakushou and lowered her head. She pinched her eyes shut and slowly shook her head side to side, as if saying no no no all over again. A choked sob-like sound escaped the confines of Mai's stifling hands, no doubt drawing Malik's attention from his task.

As the loving father he was, he would look up to see his daughter backing slowly up, shaking her head, hiding her face, and crying. She hadn't cried, as far as he would have knowledge of, since that day in the Rukongai. To Malik, it would look like she was clearly very deeply affected by his behaviors.

She wasn't. Not in that way, at any rate; yes, the garbage on her desk was disgusting, but it only served to anger her. And ever since her childhood, when she realized that anger wouldn't get her what she wanted, she had resorted to other, more civilized means.

Oh yes, she was so devious! Tricking her father, making him feel so, so, guilty that he would relent. Oh, the joy she had experienced!

Even though she'd grown out of manipulating him, she had kept to playing minor pranks. Though none quite so serious as this; altering his shihakushou or exchanging one foodstuff for another. Simple things, funny things, sneaky things.

Well, two of three isn't that bad....

[bgcolor=000000]Continuing to rummage through the garbage before tossing it in the bin, to make sure it was indeed garbage and not something important to Mai, Malik only turned his head and frowned at the sight he saw. Of course, the choked back sob was the reason he turned in the first place, however the sight of his youngest daughter actually crying didn't make him feel any more sorry or amused, just well annoyed.

"Oh stop being such a big baby and come help me. Had you not faked ill, this wouldn't have happened anyway. Which reminds me, you never did answer my question.

"Playing tricks, ignoring your elders.. What a daughter I've raised." And with that he gave his head a shake and went back to cleaning up the mess he had made. What a pest, what a pest indeed!

He was secretly glad Chie never did any of this. No, she was a good girl. Distant, but a good girl none the less.

As soon as Malik made his statement and turned back around, Mai relented; he was such a drag sometimes. Like he was a different man.... Gone were the days of an easy rapport, the simple understanding of parent and child.

Her hands dropped and she resumed her normal height, rather unperturbed. "No, I haven't seen her," she said loudly. "I make a point to not examine family members. It's a conflict of inter-

"Not that one!" she exclaimed, darting forward to save her memo-writing quill from certain doom. It must have fallen out when the garbage poured onto the desk and gotten mixed in with that common riffraff. To prevent Malik from making any other erroneous actions, she swatted at his hands to get him out of the way.

Mai desk. No Malik's.

[>,,>]

[bgcolor=000000]Aha! Another trick, he knew it. Or so he could claim, in all honesty he really thought she was blubbering over spilled milk. Women, more so daughters, were a tricky thing to figure out. "Ah, I see." He half mumbled in response as Mai finally answered him, picking up what seemed to be a relic of a quill, certainly trash, and such began to toss it away.

And then she hollered.

She gave him such a fright he nearly dropped the basket atop her desk which would not doubt make a mess all over again, only this time perhaps more so of one. "Okay, okay! This would go much easier if you we-YIIPE!" Hands swatted, he backed off, though not dropping what he was holding, gods forbid if he did for then a mess would be all over the floor.

"Really girl, use your indoor voice. You'll give your Captain a heart attack like you nearly did me if you keep that up." Though she would most likely do it on purpose, the latter that is for kicks if she were bored.. No, no she wouldn't. That's pushing it. Or was it..

Malik's eyes shifted to the ceiling as he thought it over.

With the quick, deft hands one would expect of a grifter, Mai collected the rest of her belongings from the remaining debris. Luckily, Malik had made excellent progress in the cleanup and she only had a few handfuls. She turned and jerked her head slightly, indicating that he should come closer, and fairly quickly.

One learned these things in the Second Division, and occasionally one forgot who was not in her command. To an outsider, that is to say anyone who was to peer into this spectacle, the situation would be baffling: an unknown giving non-verbal commands to the SouTaichou! Madness!;

Madness? This was Tanaka Family Bonding Time!

Alas, there would be no epic kick to the chest and eternal plummet toward death, unless the connection between the two, father and daughter, was suddenly made and was equally baffling. Or downright scary, given the topic of conversation. Heart attacks. Now those were an epic kick to the chest toward a squishy death.

Instead, Mai replied as she deposited the debris into the container, "My Taichou is not as old as you. His heart is young."

[bgcolor=000000]While not giving it much thought on the manner, the Soutaicho saw the signal to move closer, so he did and held out the bin as he did so. This old dog knew a few tricks, otherwise Mai wouldn't be around in the first place, right?

Once Mai's hands were empty and the bin full, Malik set it aside on the floor and cupped his hands behind his back and simply snorted a laugh at her response. "Kids.. That actually brings up one of the reasons I'm actually here, aside from popping by to check in on you, see how you're doing and what not.

"I had come to see your Captain, but he is busy elsewhere and unable to preform my tri-monthly checkup. I checked elsewhere before coming to see you, but I'm rather picky in whom gets to be my doctor." He paused briefly as he shifted his weight from one foot to another.

"So, would you do your old father the kindness of checking to see if he is still in good health?"

"You see, old man? Your ears failed you." Mai smiled faintly once more. "I cannot examine you for one of your tri-monthly examinations...are you worried about your health? Is something wrong, truly?" While her voice had taken more of a stern tone at the beginning, it immediately shifted to one of concern; her father was examined every week and a half.

Without waiting for a response, she brushed past her father and quickly stalked the halls, moving with the speed and grace of one accustomed to the building. A right here, then the next two lefts, up the stairs to the second level. The second right then an immediate left, down the stairs, straight through the door; if Malik was quick on the uptake, and matched her sudden speed, he would not be left behind.

If not, well, someone would eventually lead him back to civilization.

Mai was making her way toward the Taichou's office, which wasn't all that far as the jigokuchou flies, through the quickest way possible. She didn't expect to find Harupia there, as he was in some sort of meeting that did not include the lesser members of his division, but maybe she could find her father's chart. Three times a month!

[bgcolor=000000]Old man?! He thought with a deepening frown, his face was going to be sore later because of all this frowning, he just knew it! "My ears wo- What? N" and then she was gone out the door. He palmed his face and gave his head a bit of a shake. He had misspoke and she had misunderstood.

Grumbling to himself he stuck his head out the door to see his daughter disappear around a bend. "Cuss.." And then he gave pursuit, his haori flapping (in the breeze he was making) behind him. A turn here, a two more turns there.. Up a flight of stairs. She kept just out of his full line of sight, he didn't remember her being this quick on her feet. Maybe I really am getting old.

He could have shouted at her, to gain her attention to say. 'Mai, listen girl! I come in once every three months for a regular check up. Nothing is wrong.' But that would be terribly rude, considering this was not his building of work. Were that the case then his voice would be booming throughout the halls of the Division as he flagged down his trouble making daughter. Well, that wasn't fair. She only caused him trouble, not the entire Gotei.

"What a cuss this is turning out to be." He said softly to himself as he changed his pace into a slow jog, he would surely catch her now. Surely!

Onward Mai went, dipping, ducking, dodging, and diving through her peers and superiors. Her face was set in a very determined frame, as noted by her dark eyebrows and their slight pinchyness, while her strides carried her lanky person down and around more corners, stairs, doors, whathaveyous. If she had an excessive of clothing behind her, such as a Haori, it'd be flapping madly in her wake; alas, she only had a fine curtain of pale hair, and it only bounced in tune with her steps.

If Malik had called after her, as a parent often does to a child, Mai wouldn't have responded. Her quick mind honed it on her task - to find Harupia's office - and blocked everything out; a good thing, considering the number of papers fluttering about behind her, and the associated sighs, screams, and groans. She never actually collided with someone, as her eyes could still see, but the fear of any sort of imminent collision with another body governed so many other shinigami into poorly formed pirouettes and tours en l'air; many of those executing the aerial jump did not land properly, and those who pivoted often collided with a fallen comrade.

All of this would serve the agents of chaos, and no doubt hinder the man following his daughter. Mai was unaware, and as some would later say down the road in an alternate 'verse, "Ignorance is bliss." How wrong they were -- their fathers were not dying of some terrible, idiopathic (and/or imagined) disease!

As per the activity rules, Malik is exited and loses half his RP points for failing to post within three days after Mai.

See thread for activity rules

As no one else has joined this thread, it is ended.

RP points are as follows:

4 RP Points + 1 for quality for Malik - total of 5
9 RP Points + 1 for quality for Mai - total of 10

Thread Locked and Points added