His legs were sore - not to the point of being difficult to move on, but there was a tenderness that had yet to fade - and as a result, Kiba's exercises for the past couple days had been empty of their usual strikes against his favored wooden dummies. Instead, Kiba moved from one side of the training room to the next, striking at imaginary foes - shadow boxing, his father called it - increasing his rate of movement with every step.

His open palm lashed heel-first directly forward, and one imagined foe cried out as he pinwheeled backward; he was replaced by two more, one bare-handed and cutting low, the other with metal in hand, his katana cutting in an upward arc. A step to his right put Kiba inside the katana's range while the man shooting for his legs missed his tackle, taking several more steps before he could turn. Kiba's right elbow cut sharply forward, smashing into the imaginary swordsman's chin, before his left foot mule-kicked backward, the heel digging into the cavity to the left of his victim's neck, crashing into his collar bone, possibly fracturing it as he sent the phantasm crashing into the ground.

A pole-arm, next, jabbed at him from ahead, and Kiba side-stepped to avoid the thrust, turning leftward as he did. A he followed his left elbow strike with a complete spin, knocking one assailant to the ground as his right fist crossed hard before him once, then again, both strikes hitting a third imagined body in the abdomen. Doubled over, the imagined victim would be subject to an elbow dropped onto the back of his head as Kiba dropped to his knees, avoiding a sideways swipe with the pole arm from before.

Before the armed spectre could bring his weapon again to bare, Kiba would turn and leap into his reach, putting his hands in the space between the man's arms and sides and throwing them wide, forcing his grip on the pole arm to break into a one-handed hold. Kiba was forward again in a heartbeat, both hands seizing the victim on either side of the head and yanking his skull downward, to be met by his right knee nose-first. Broken, this phantom too faded away.

Kiba repeated these and other movements in rapid succession, sweat beading across his face and neck as he worked to control his breathing, to ignore the pain in his legs and work through it as he kicked, kneed and charged his way about the room. It wouldn't be all too many minutes, unfortunately, before the Taicho slowed his movements, sighing as after a while his arms dropped to his side, his exercise ended. Shaking his head, the Taicho removed his kosode and took up a towel, rubbing hard at his face, neck, shoulders, then back.

The exercise, he silently lamented, was simply not the same without the contact aspect. In his mind, he couldn't make himself be hit, and when he could, he couldn't physically respond or be paused as he otherwise would need to be. There wasn't any training to be had in that except as a way to remember how to do what he already knew how to do. It was a warm up, put simply, and an exercise composed completely of warm-up movement was nowhere near an actual, intense, straining work out. If anything, this was what really soured Kiba's disposition with the damnable wounds, though by this point they were prepared to fade into the realm of memory.

Still, hard to say he could bring himself to forgive Kurisuna for robbing him of a few days exercise. Or, for that matter, simply being outright unapologetic for her actions. Of course Kiba had hurt his fellow Shinigami before, usually by accident rather than because it would be funny to expose them to some questionable fluids, but he'd always been regretful for the action, and the damage had never been lasting, nothing a brief nap and an ice pack couldn't resolve.

Secretly, a part of him warned that the only reason Kiba had survived was because his death would have been looked at too intensely - he could argue off an investigation regarding cuts to his legs with a gruff enough attitude while the medics were busy, at least for as long as it took him to decide on a course of action, but a death by the sword was something immediately obvious. Be it by stab or slash, the killing stroke would have been too obvious, and as off her rocker Kurisuna might have been, she was certainly never stupid.

The implications altogether were annoying, and eventually, only one thought became too evident a reality to ignore: Kiba needed to talk to Sumie. She was the smart one, the logical one, and most importantly, the one who could read Kurisuna the best. She could give Kiba the advice he needed, instruction on what would be the best thing to do.

[bgcolor=E86100] You know what's great about the aftermath of major crisis in a medical department? Nobody is apparently smart enough to watch the outsider! And what happens when that outsider is edging for a new adventure? She sneaks out! Fluffing her best pillow under a bed sheet, she bailed out the window and snuck about in the large place known as.. Seireitei.

Sneaking about, she absorbed the new surroundings with her keen tiger senses, and without noticing, she found herself.. somewhere else. Looking at one building, she spotted something interesting. A training room with a man doing.. a boxing match with his own shadow? Let's investigate further!

She took it upon herself to sneak up to the window of the room, and pulled herself slowly up to watch into the room, her hands and head only visible for those watching inside. ...Those watching outside? It's just a cat, no need to be alarmed.

... But then, she got an idea! It was time to have fun, and fun she'd have! She shouted from her position to the man, who was now taking a break of sorts, and then dropped down to hide. "Hey, try an uppercut next time! Shoryuken!"

SPOILER: Click to show

Sui Returns! Trial of the Tiger!

Draping the towel over his shoulders, Kiba paused as an excitable child's voice filled the room. Looking around, he didn't immediately spot anybody, but the tell-tale shuffle of a body against the wall turned him toward the window, where he blinked at a very clear sight of some trees. Scratching the back of his head, Kiba moved toward the window, pausing just for a few seconds to think about what to do before shrugging, placing his hands along the bottom of the frame, and hoisting himself up to peek over.

Grunting as he rested his upper body and leveraged himself to simply rest against the sill, Kiba blinked down at the child loitering outside his Division wall. "Uppercuts are too flashy. Everybody sees 'em coming." He finally stated after a few moments. With another grunt, he shifted against the window, grimacing.

"If you wanna give advice or whatever, you should come inside. Outside is weird these days, with walking things and snow goblins and stuff. Probably little floaty things with heart-arrows or something next. I think we have some snacks." Kiba wasn't great with kids, but he wasn't terrible either; a poor sense of humor was easily contrasted with a nearly ever-present snack or two. Kids liked milk, right? Everybody liked milk! And cookies and stuff. Sure they were almost kinda stale now, but crunchy cookies were still pretty good...

[bgcolor=E86100] "I'M A ROCK!"

The girl shouted, like a reflex on being caught in her failed attempts at tricking this person. Maybe he'd go away? Maybe not? I mean, she was pretty small like a rock. Or.. a big rock. She couldn't be a tree, nah, too short for that.. maybe a tree stump? Wait, what did he say? Free snacks? Milk? .. MILK?

"Sure! I'll come in!.. Wait. It's not Soy Milk, right? I mean, this IS Soyreitei."

The girl asked, as she climbed into the building via the window. I mean, who needs doors these days? Doors are for pussies, and Sui is a tiger.. a short tiger, which could be noticed when her body hit the floor from her poor climbing skills.

Hopping away from the window as the child leaped up, Kiba scoffed. "I only drink real milk, not weird pretend milk." Turning, he would then remove the towel from his shoulders as he leaned down to take back his kosode from the ground, wincing slightly at the discomfort in his legs before he lead the child further inward of the building, toward his office, with a slight wave.

To reach his office they would have to pass through two more rooms, both of them very similar to the first; rather than a hallway connecting many rooms, Kiba's Fourth Division was instead a series of rooms, nearly all of them for the same or similar purposes, with his office near to the back... just before the prison cells. The walk from the front of the building was a hassle, but that was the point - it was almost maze-like if it weren't actually fairly simple, meaning the common criminal housed in the Fourth would be hard pressed to escape if they got free of their cage. And they would surely deserve their freedom if they managed to get beyond Kiba, who's office would be the first they met.

Once in his office, Kiba paused to actually put his kosode on, sighing slightly at the nearly comfortable feel of the cloth against his now dried body, before walking briskly toward his desk, though rather than sit behind it, he sat on the ground in front of the desk, shuffling his legs as he gestured for the child to take a seat. As with his workshop near the Rukon Gate, Kiba had a small hidden compartment beneath one of the tatami mats near to his side, and he lifted both the mat and the secret door to get to the built-in 'icebox' and the jug of milk within, as well as two of the several stored cups, all nice and chilled.

After pouring two cups and setting one before Torako - though he didn't have her name yet, naturally - Kiba reached blindly onto the desk behind himself, pulling a small wicker basket down and setting it too between them: lined with a red cloth, the basket was half full of cookies, at which Kiba nodded proudly. "Mothers make the best cookies."

Taking two, to demonstrate, Kiba chomped the both of them down in quick order, then washed the sweet deliciousness down with half his cup of milk. "Yum! Haaah. So, what brings you all the way out this way, little rock?" Few were the children that came bumbling about the Fourth Division, Kiba knew - most mothers warned against it, not wanting their children near the criminal element that could be contained within. And some just not wanting their children near Kiba, Sumie had declared, on account of his potential for 'bad influences'. Kiba scoffed at the idea, naturally - like he did anything any regular kid wouldn't!

[bgcolor=E86100] "Right on! Soy is only good for.. nothing!", the girl replied to his reply, as they made their way through the copies of rooms together, her eyes look around the very.. same-looking rooms. Thoughts popped up into her head such as "cheap carpentry" and "buy three - pay for two" offers. And then, they arrived, the last room, which was fancier than the others. She took a well placed seat at the available.. seat, and was offered milk and cookies, which soon became empty mugs and crumbs.

"Mothers make the best cookies."

"I.. wouldn't know, I don't remember mine..", the child replied, the rudeness of the voice changing to a rather.. depressed one, her stare turning away for a few moments. And then, another question was thrown at her, and as if she tried to force it, she let out a fun.. joke?; "O-oh! Why am I out here? Well of course, you do know what time it is, right? Adventure time..! Pshhh, anyone knows that it's adventure time!"

Kiba blinked at the child's admission of not knowing her mother - awful rare in this day and age, wasn't it? Especially for how young the girl was, Sumie surely would have shared gossip by now about a poor mother lost in childbirth or something...

This thought process almost made him miss the child's strained quip concerning the time and it's prime adventuring status, and he nodded - and yet once again he was interrupted, this time by some meek fellow escorted in by a much lower seated member of the Division. Wordlessly the blonde-haired male handed Kiba a note, written by the Doctaicho of all people, and Kiba skimmed the thing briefly before looking up at his guest, blinking a few times before shrugging and crumpling the note up, tossing it over his shoulder toward the far wall behind his desk.

"Message received, let Harupia-Taicho know the situation's being handled." The man paused, very clearly aware that the girl in Kiba's office was the one he was supposed to try and return to his Taicho, but his eyes were drawn to Kiba when the much more physically intimidating man cleared his throat. "Plain to see my guest and I are relaxing over milk and cookies. Nothing for a doctor to get worried about. I'll escort her myself when we're done."

The Second Division member clearly wanted to murmur an argument, but a slight nod from Kiba had his own seated member place a hand on the Second Divisioner's shoulder, a clear sign it was time to leave. The messenger sighed before nodding and bowing, turning to bring Kiba's reply to the Second Division, no doubt. With a sigh, Kiba reached forward and grabbed up another cookie, shrugging weakly to Sui as he popped the baked treat into his mouth.

"Doctors, they just don't know. When it's adventure time, you gotta adventure. Its pretty much a law." Sumie had always berated Kiba for speaking with his mouth full, but she wasn't here, and anyway, it was clearly time to be adventurous - not time to chew-swallow-speak! Shaking his head over the ignorance of such poor, unadventurous doctors, Kiba would take up the milk jug, lean over to refill Sui's cup, and then refill his own before setting down the jug, picking his cup up, and leaning against his desk with a sigh.

"Visiting from the Rukon, hm? Guess that means you were involved in that little mess with the... whatever those things were, huh? Didn't get too hurt I see - good to know they make adventurers strong out there."

[bgcolor=E86100]

BUSTED

Or not! The fear of being dragged back to that boring hospital was getting to Sui there for a second, but it would appear that the stranger in front of her is of the same mindset as the daring tiger! An adventurer! .. A kind one at that, as he let her stay for more milk and cookies, the girl grabbing the newly poured & actually quite delicious milk and chugging it down with super speed. Milk is the best thing ever, or so Sui would think for the rest of the day until dinner would be served.

She set the mug down once more and looked up at the now promoted Food Supplier, as she prepared her answer to his statement. "I-I wouldn't say I'm strong.. heh-", her gaze turned away, with an almost pained expression on her face, but just for a split second, "-I was just in the way."

For their sake, the second messenger hailing from the Second Division was turned away at the front of the Division - the message, naturally, was taken, and would be delivered to Kiba in time, but the messenger himself would needs be sent back to the Second without a response: this simply was the way with Kiba now and then - when he said he would do something, it was best to take him at his word and leave the matter sit. Within his office, the Taicho simply grunted as the child denied his compliment of strength, instead claiming herself to have simply been in the way.

"That's silly. Bein' in the way is what Adventurers do; if they aren't in the way, they're just blown through. If you're in something's way, though, that means you're strong enough to make it stop long enough to have to deal with you. That's tough if anything else is." The Taicho nodded resolutely at his statement, setting down his glass of milk and stretching - nothing quite like a stretch after a work out, and with a sigh he brought his hands up to rest on the back of his head, resting his handy pillow against the surface of his desk and blinking up at his ceiling.

"If you met those things and got hurt, and you're still here today, you're tough. That's really all there is to it. And if you can be tough against those, you can be tough against anything. Shoot, I met some of those things and got hurt, and look here - I'm the toughest there is!" Kiba removed a hand from his head at this, giving his chest a hearty thump and smirking - the tough taicho, that's who he was. And he'd be damned if some smarmy red-haired bitch was going to get him all down and out just because she got a sneak attack in.

"You'n me, we're tough. We get in the way, we don't get scared, and when it comes down to brass tacks, we suck it up and go to the doc like we're supposed to. And so when some dumb red broad tries to make us think she's tougher... we show her who's tough. That's how it works: we don't go to anybody else because we're all we need. We're tough and we handle our problems on our own, everybody else be damned!" Kiba chuckled at this, removing his left hand from his head as well, thumping the back of his skull against his desk as he brought his hands to his face, rubbing at his eyes in astonishment - how did it take him a conversation with a kid to figure out that finding Sumie was pointless? He was a big boy, and big boys handle their problems, period. So the real situation, then, was to decide of Kurisuna intended to be a problem, and if so, to resolve the problem.

Man, this babysitting business was better for one's thought process than expected.

[bgcolor=E86100]After hearing that.. speech? Was that a speech? I mean, it did just sound like he got hurt like Sui did! But, he was right about one thing, and that would be that Sui Torako is tough! Tough like a tiger... cub. However, one thing did come to her mind as the man finished his "speech", and that was..

"So, how did you show this dumb red broad that you were tougher?"

The girl asked, moving closer, staring at him with a sharp stare, as if it was trying to pierce his soul and find out the answers on how to be tough!

At the child's questions, Kiba only chuckled - and the chuckle quickly turned to a laugh as the Taicho lurched forward, shooting from the sitting position to his feet! "Silly child! Haste makes nothing but waste, and lessons need to be taught after time - and more than enough time has passed! C'mon kid - we're getting you back to the Doc to see what the hell he wants, and then we're gonna go show Red what's up!"

Practically chortling, Kiba didn't wait for the girl but instead stepped forward, snatching at the collar of her shirt to pull up her and then up to his shoulders, the Taicho practically howling in excitement as he lowered his upper body - no need to crack the kid's skull against any doorways - and began charging toward the room exit. The roll, any unfortunate souls would rapidly learn, was not to be slowed, and Kiba's charge was dead set for the Second Division. Destiny awaited!

[Exit]

[bgcolor=E86100] Eh? What? What now? The man stood up like a thunderbolt striking the ceiling and declared his intention of a knife striking her back! No! Not the doctor! It was boring back there! But before any objections could be shouted, she was already on her way there, having been pulled up and put on the defeated warriors back.

"WHOANELLY!! Stop! D-Don't go so fast! I don't wanna go back theeeeereeeeeeee---!"

[EXIT]

SPOILER: Click to show

Thread closed and locked, point distribution is as follows:

Kiba - 6 + 1 = 7

Sui - 6 + 1 = 7

Points to be added shortly.