Log; Complete

[with-no-fear.livejournal.com]

When; Thursday, July twelfth, early evening.
Rating; G
Characters; Kotobuki Ran number1gal and Aizen Sousuke with_no_fear
Summary; They enjoy a cup of tea and discuss the City.
Log;
Finding the carousel was no difficult task, seeing as it was in plane view from nearly everywhere in this city. Aizen stood before it, casually awaiting the arrival of the young lady he was to have tea with. She was polite, and one of the few people he's met so far that didn't claim to know him from a previous encounter. Those who had mentioned previous acquaintanceship with him did not seem to fond of him from the few words he'd exchanged, even his subordinates were none too pleased with what the previous person who claimed his identity had done. Before he could completely straighten out that little mess, however, he needed to understand his surroundings. A clock counting down to the end of all things lent him to believe that there was much more to this city than what met the eye. Information was key.

Ran was her usual happy self, but not running around. A few days in a drugged state for accidentally ripped your stitches clamed the girl down quite a lot. She really couldn't recall what had happen the last few day, but she was glad to be getting out now. A new friend for tea sounded nice as well. She wore a simple sundress so it would not pull on her new stitches. Spotting a man she had never seem before she walked over to him. "Aizen-san?"

Aizen smiled at the girl, she was naive looking, and trusting. "Yes, you must be Kotobuki san." He offered her a slight bow in greeting. "It's a pleasure to speak with you in person." Manners were important, especially over tea, and he was not one to be impolite. This girl offered him what he needed most at this particular moment in time, information, so it would be undoubtedly stupid to do anything to make her less forthcoming.

Ran grinned and gave a slight bow back, for polite reasons. "It's cool, I know that it can be a pain to be new and you seem like a nice guy." Her mind was actually on the delicious cake that she knew was just waiting for her at Café Juliet. "Come on, it's this way, follow me." Ran started their walk to the café. "So what do you want to know about first Aizen-san?"

He followed a step behind her, letting the girl lead the way. "Yes, well, my arrival was a bit unanticipated." His eyes scanned the people and things that they passed, assessing it all and filing away the information for future referancing. He was unsure of how long he would be here, but if it were for more than a day or two he would most likely need to know as much as he could. Since he had no idea of how he had arrived here, and his attempts to open a door to Hueco Mundo had failed, he might be here for some time. "About the City itself. The layout looks quite on purpose."

Ran started to walk backwards since he didn't seem interested in walking next to her. "The city layout? Huh, never really thought about that. If you want the brainy things about the city you should talk to Ryuzaki. He always asks questions like that. I can tell you about more practical things though. Like that there is no currency in the city, you can use leaves if you like. If you need a place to stay just pick a building and an empty room and its yours." She smiled in her happy way. "Plus I try to talk to everyone, but I bet you could tell that."

"Nothing wrong with being sociable." Aizen commented offhandedly, comiting the name Ryusaki to memory for later use as well. "The currency thing is interesting, I don't suppose you know why that would be, do you?" He doubted it, after her last answer, but there was no harm in asking. Besides, she was a connection to this city, and even if she couldn't offer the information he wanted, he could use her to get to those that could.

"Nope, not at all." Turning around to walk normally she gave a happy little jump. "There it is! Café Juliet." She started to run but her stitches pulled. Stopping abruptly she turned back to him. "Running is a bad idea." She gave a weak laugh but then seemed to be right back to her happy self. "Do you want to sit inside or outside? We have to go in first to put our order in. I just love cake" she looked so extremely happy to be there.

"Too bad." Aizen's eyes roamed over the Café, a nice looking place, small, with a simple set up. "Take your pick of inside or outside, you've been here before so I would assume you'd know which was better." He hoped she knew at least that much. "I'm fond of good cake myself. Though it can be difficult to come bye." Cake was often served with the tea in Los Noches, made to his taste most of the time, save for when he let Gin choose. Gin was a little odd when it came to his food. "What type would you recommend trying?"

"I like to be outside so you can watch people as they pass by." She walked into the café, assuming that he would follow her. "Well when I first got here Cain let me order all of the cakes, so I know what they all taste like. I really enjoy the strawberry one, because it had the most sugar. But that might not go well with tea. The berry tart was less sweet but equally good." She was looking at all they had. "Personally I think I will have a lime tart today, just to mix things up a bit." Placing her order for said tart, she smiled at Aizen. "I will pay today since you are new, so order what you would like."

Aizen offered a warm and almost fatherly smile, "Well then, how about I get the strawberry tart, since it comes recommended. And, thank you for your kindness Kotobuki san." The smell of tea and cakes, as was expected, was strong in the little shop, but not overwhelmingly so. It had a pleasant atmosphere to say the least, and might be a good place to sit and gather more information if he found himself in need. Several of his Arrancar could not be trusted, it seemed, including Espada ranked. He needed information on his own subordinates as much as on anything or anyone else. "Well, next subject then? Who do you know in this city?"

Ran smiled in her always-happy way. "No problem." She got some pretty stones from out of her purse and handed them to the lady behind the counter for their order. "Ok, they will bring it out to us." She once again took the lead in heading out to the small porch like area outside of the café. She picked the table that she and Cain always sat at, the one with the most shade. "Who do I know? Let's see, counting the person I told you before there is" she started to tap her fingers as she listed them off. " Cain Hargrreaves, his sister Merry, Kensei, Light, Suu, Greed, Kisara, Kira, Walter, and a bunch of other people. Why?"

Aizen followed, letting the girl chatter. She was amusing in her mannerisms. "No particular reason." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the tabe casually, and his chin on the back of one upturned hand. "It is just that I am knew here, and even those I thought to be my friends have betrayed me." He used the word friends for her sake, subordinates was a better word. "Many people have expressed interest in my presence here, but not many seem happy about it, though I do not know why, because this is my first time coming to this place." He paused as if thinking. "I'm just looking for people I can trust." Use, he was looking for people he could use.

"Ouch! That really stinks for you, I am sorry." She sat in her seat with her hands resting on the table. "Well I recall that everyone was going on about a war between the arrancar and the shinnigami, but I stay clear of the whole thing and didn't ask questions after my friends told me it was dangerous." She smiled at him. "There are so many different types of people here. I even met a vampire, though I can't tell what people are unless they tell me." She smiled warmly at him. "You can trust me, though I don't' know of how much help I can be."

"Don't be sorry." He leaned back in his chair once more as the cakes and tea arrived, thanking the young lady who brought them out. "One can only expect betrayal, it is a part of the order of things." He took the cups and plates off the tray, setting Ran's before her before taking his own. "I, myself, am not too terribly interesting. Nothing worth mentioning, really. Especially with talk of a war, and a ... vampire...?"

Ran nodded. "Yeah, Walter is a vampire. He is really nice to me though, and said I could call upon him if I ever needed help." Taking a bite of her tart a very large smiled popped up onto her face. "ohhh just so good." She said after swallowing. "Oh! And I met a father of the cloth, they have vampires in his world too, but instead of preaching is like a peacemaker between them. This pace just full of people you wouldn't think of. And greed isn't human, not sure what he called himself now." She took another bite and seemed to be thinking. "I am sure you are more interesting than you think, what did you do before you got here? I was a high school student and number one GAL of Shibuya."

Aizen took a sip of his tea, it was quite good, a nice blend considering it was paid for with shiny rocks. "Vampires and peacekeeping priests, most interesting, but you don't know what this Greed is?" The girl seemed like the type to believe whatever she was told, so, for all he knew, Greed was human. "Popularity is something girls tend to strive for, but you will find, as you get older, that it is not always what you thought it was." He tried a small bite of his own tart, also quite delicious. "I was quite uninteresting, honestly. I was just a man working to raise his status in the world, a long term, but worthwhile goal."

Ran giggled. "Being number one GAL isn't about being popular, even though I was. It was about having as much fun out of life as you can! About spending time with your friends and being the best person that you can be. Being number one meant protecting Shibuya from gangs and others that wanted to disturb everything that everyone worked so hard for." She sighed as she remembered all the good times she had at home. "A working man huh? That sounds nice." Eating some more of her cake she looked at some of the people walking around. "It's funny to think I will never see my friends again."

"Don't be so sure of that." He offered her another smile before he drank more of his tea. "If there is a way into this place, by all logical means, there must be a way out." He did not doubt that there was, because he did not plan to spend the rest of eternity in this place. He had goals to achieve and a throne to take. "You may yet see your friends again. However, either way you will miss someone, because you've grown attached to those you've met here, have you not?"

"It is always true that someone will be missed. For leaving or dieing someone will always be missed." She gave him her warm smile." But for someone like me who will die at some point, isn't it best that I live for the here and now? Being sad is never going to help me to be happy. So I chose to be happy." She was almost done with her tart as she ate more of it.

"Wise words, Kotobuki san." Aizen at a bit more of his own tart, only a few bites into it, unlike the girl. "No matter what decision you make, you will be leaving someone behind, it's best not to dwell on it. After all, if you think of the person you miss, you will realize the sorrow they feel at missing you, or at least the sorrow they should feel if they are a true friend." He set his fork down, leaving the tart unfinished and contented himself with just his tea. "The world is a cruel place."

Ran put her fork down on the plate, having finished it. "No, its really not cruel. There is always happiness if you look for you." She smiled in her big way as she looked at him. "There is always joy for me." She looked to be thinking. "Has this world been cruel to you?"

"Not particularly, but I often see those around me suffer." He remembered the look on Hinamori's face as he ran her through with his zanpakuto. It would have been more cruel still for him to let her live, he had molded her, and shaped her until she was incapable of living without him. He had only been doing her a favor, but she was forced to live still by those who would suffer without her. It brought a fond smile to his face. "Everyone has those things that haunt them, that cause their soul pain. It's inescapable no matter how much happiness you find. It can always be taken away."

Ran wasn't sure why he was saying such depressing things, but she found her self placing pity on him. "No, they will always live on in your heart. There is always a place were happiness can live on, even in the saddest of times" She laughed. "Let's change the subject yes? I seems we have hit on a point that we both have different ideas about." something new, any thing new.

"Ah yes, of course." This girl was too young to understand the true workings of things, so he could not place blame on her for not understanding him. "What is life here like? The same as other cities? I'm sure there are some differences, of course, with so many people from different places." Nothing, other than the clock that had been mentioned to him, seemed out of the ordinary, that and the people from many other dimensions.

Ran light up as she thought about it. "Oh! I completely forgot to warn you about the curse days! The deities here like to play games with the residents and place curses on them. The they can range from funny to really annoying!" she laughed as she thought about it. "One time my friend kept talking in cat pictures! It was so funny" Her radiant smile back in place.

"Cat pictures?" Aizen asked, setting his empty tea cup down. "That sounds... difficult." He wasn't sure he wanted to understand the meaning behind that particular statement. Talking in cat pictures seemed a time consuming and pointless task. "The deities curse the citizens? How very... childish of them. One would think that they would have better things to do with their time than make the lives of those they watch over more difficult."

Ran shrugged. "I guess if you have lived since the beginning of time you have a lot of free time to just make things like that up." she leaned back in her chair. "I won't say that I understand it all because I don't, but it can be very amusing to watch, especially when people do things they would never normally do." She laughed to herself.

"I should hope you understand why I cannot hold a high opinion of their actions." It was quite distasteful, how they could call themselves the rulers of this world but treat it so poorly. Worse than a god that would take no action was one that interfered to cause chaos. There might as well be no ruling deities at all, everything would fall to chaos on it's own from that point. "This city is interesting, but not somewhere I think I shall stay for too long."

Ran blinked at him. "No, why, are you as old as the gods as well? I would think that only one that has lived so long could pass judgment upon them. They are gods." She smiled. "Well, there are ways out, but you have to make deals with the deities to do so."

"I'm a tad older than I look." A lot older than he looked to a human, the decades had bled into centuries long ago. "It still does not excuse their actions, the right to rule should not belong to just anyone, and the abuse of that right is far worse than simply the wrong ruler." He looked at his still unfinished tart, it would be rude to leave it, and began to eat it once more. "There are no excuses for incompetence."

Ran watched as he ate and spoke of ruling. "Why don't you try to bring order to the city then?" she idly twirled a hair around her finger. "You seem very adamant about how things should be run."

"I don't have time to bother with other worlds, I have my own to be concerned with." He popped the last bit of the tart into his mouth, pushing his plate aside once he ws finished. "I don't plan on remaining here long enough to fix everyone else's problems, not where there are my own to deal with."

Ran nodded. "Yeah, it is a big city." Then she idly looked to her watch and jumped up with a start. "Oh no! I was supposed to be home for dinner tonight! I am sorry to rush off like this Aizen-san, but I really must be going, is that ok?" she seemed in a very big rush. "If you want to talk again you can contact me on the network, ok?"

Aizen stood as well, offering another small bow. "It's no trouble, thank you for you time. Please try not to be late for your dinner, you would not want it to grow cold."

Ran bowed slightly back as well before dashing off, waving behind her as she went. "Ok, see you around!"