Moment of Fate [Murasaki, Erika]

Murasaki had naturally been ready to handle any serious issues that came her way when she became Captain Commander, but she'd have to admit that she hadn't actually expected any of it to happen quite so soon. When she got reports back about Death of all things suddenly dying, though it was something she just couldn't ignore.

She could have just sent a missive to her Vice Captain, but that still wouldn't have really been enough to convey how urgent this was. No less than four members of the Command division were sent out to find Erika and bring her ASAP, regardless of where she was or what she was doing.

In the meantime, Murasaki was simply pacing in her office, thinking about the situation with a cup of tea in her hand. She'd be the first to admit she'd have rather had sake right now, but she couldn't afford to have her head on even a little bit wrong.

"Captain."

She announced while walking in, the blonde woman's composure like steel. She was aware of how important those subordinates said this was, running to her and out of breath. Erika did make it her promptly but as far as her poker face went the vice-captain wasn't heavily alarmed. She was the vice-captain of the first division that represented command, it was her duty to be a level head and handle everything the best she could no matter the grim situation.

So Erika walked in and towards the wall to lean against it. Her golden eyes closed while in thought. What could have Murasaki so spooked? Pacing like this and looking nervous, worried.

"Stop your pacing. The Captain Commander should have nerves of steel, now what's wrong?"

"Right, right. You're right."

Sighing to herself, Murasaki leaned against her desk as she set her tea down, folding her arms as she looked to Erika with a serious expression. It was one she didn't wear often, and one could easily say that it outright didn't suit her. But either way, it was necessary.

"Reports are in that Death is gone. I don't think we can ignore this, and I think it might be the best chance we'll have to get jurisdiction over Hell again."

Right to the point. After all, there wasn't any room for small talk in this situation. They needed to get things hammered out ASAP, because every minute it wasn't handled was a minute that someone else could easily interfere.

Ah, that made sense. She just gave a nod through her closed eyes. Aware of where exactly Mursaki was and what she was doing through her reikaku, even if it deprived her of seeing that serious expression. It was a time for thinking about what to do about the situation. She understood, she thought.

"Have you alerted Central 46, the Shihoin may have some treasured tool to assist as well."

The first thing that came to mind was to garner attention and support from the others of Soul Society, she was not incredibly familiar with what the noble families might have to offer but the great families did have some knowledge that she knew had been kept out of her eyes when she was Tsubaki's vice-captain.

"Hell is quite warped however, removing the demons' influence on it will be extremely difficult. Let alone reacquiring the actual realm itself, Hell was also rarely touched by us shinigami, if at all. It was self-managing, do you intend to actively interfere with it beyond reestablishing it's neutral position?"

All important questions to consider and plan their next moves.

"I haven't yet. I don't want to jump to anything, and this is the kind of news that will spread like a wildfire as soon as it gets out. I want at least a plan before I tell anyone anything."

Sipping her tea briefly, Murasaki looked out one of the windows and considered Erika's considerations. It was all entirely correct, and she shook her head at the final question asked.

"Nah. That'd be overstepping our bounds, I think. It's enough to be able to send souls down there and let things handle themselves. At most we could stand to start stepping in if people escape, but that's still all jurisdiction stuff, not governance or anything like that."

Alright, that made sense. Erika was left to continue pondering through her closed eyes. Focused on her thoughts and planting seeds which she tried to cultivate into different approaches to deal with what was going on. It was difficult, to simply enter Hell was hard. Harder than it might've been before and there were too many technical details that were beyond her.

The physics and dynamics of the realms in particular. She had once heard that the living realm was a lid for Hell, if that meant that it was located underneath the living realm, had it moved by the power of the demon god to be intertwined with that realm? Such a power would need to be counteracted and there were few things to equal a being like that in power.

However, he no longer possessed that power and Hell had been inflated begging Erika to wonder if it would crunch now. Twist and contort over itself due to all the extra bits that were tacked onto it.

"I think further discussion with the members of the Third Division are necessary, and that we reach out to Urahara Kisuke for his knowledge on matters. There are too many factors which are beyond the scope of our ability to understand, large and small."

Though that did not mean that nothing should be done in the interim.

"However, Captain Commander. I believe that still leaves the question of what you want to do at this moment?"

"I've got a pretty good rapport with the Urahara Shop, I've been working with him for a few years now. Mm... You think you could go down and talk about this with him? Much as I'd like to go, it'd already make it pretty obvious how serious this is if I go down to Earth."

Rubbing her chin in thought, she had to consider the full scope of the situation, including what she'd already heard from Yoruichi not long ago. If things were really as unstable as she was saying, the odds of this just staying quiet were low, really low.

"I talked to Yoruichi Shiohin, she'd spent a few years there and she said Hell was already in a pretty bad spot. We'll have to prepare for the worst. I think this could easily turn into a war, especially depending on how Demon World responds to it. Not to mention, this'll be one more thing we're throwing in the face of the Vandenreich. I don't mind doing that, but it's just something to be ready for."

Murasaki hadn't necessarily given any definitive answer just yet, she was just thinking aloud. She didn't tend to do that all the time, but she wanted Erika to be on the same page as herself.

"I'll talk to the Captains and the heads of the Great Noble Families, at least. I don't want it to be obvious we're doing anything just yet, not 'til we can get a full picture of just how bad this'll be."

"Mhm."

She affirmed to the request, with a curt nod. Smirking a little bit at the way that Murasaki sounded unsure, gave her the option to say no even. It made her wonder if it was the illusion of choice or if she had said no would she have been allowed to continue on, it wasn't the situation for the kind of testing that she might do.

"I am sure the loss of Death may even have a cascade effect for them after their ambitious usage of the entity for so long by Deveta; I acknowledge that war is possible but I think this situation affords us an opportunity to use it as leverage if we can get an advantage over them now."

Negotiate? Coming from her? That was ironic, wasn't it? Erika was a pragmatic individual though and Hell and Demon World, while insulated now, were still a force to be reckoned with. Nothing easier to march in and reclaim a whole realm. If the issue of Death could be plugged in negotiations, Hell on the table of a bargaining chip then she could save them quite the trouble of launching an offensive.

"That'd be ideal. I'm not someone that wants a war, and I don't think most of the Gotei is either. If we did that it's just asking for more conflict, and that's not our job at the end of the day. If we can handle things peacefully, we should."

But, of course, Murasaki wasn't necessarily happy about the idea of giving Demon World or its inhabitants anything more than was actually owed to them. They were definitely on the backfoot, and that was good, considering how things had gone.

"It's not smart to plan too far ahead, or we might end up getting ahead of ourselves. We can talk again after we've figured these things out. Most important thing right now is asking people who know more about these things how they think it'll go."

"A wise decision, captain."

Giving it a couple more moments she kicked off the wall and opened her eyes, giving Murasaki another look as if she was anticipating something else.

"Is that all? I will depart to the living world promptly. Oh, that reminds me. If it is alright with you, I would also request an asauchi. I'll return it at a later date."

Erika didn't bother explaining to Murasaki why she wanted the asauchi, she knew as well as the vice-captain that to imprint on it was futile but there were questions and many things that were still hazy and the blonde wanted to look into peculiarities about her katanakaji, its incompatibility with asauchi.

Growth didn't come from accepting the situation to be hopeless and Erika was the Vice-Captain of the Captain Commander. If her abilities were restricted, it should be her goal to overcome those issues and grow past them. To correct and pave a pathway to make her up to par with the position she had.