Science Rules

"Weh..." Lieutenant Yukari Motou said lazily as she laid her head down on one of her many research tables in her office. She was all dressed up for a day of science and discovery, lab coat, safety goggles and all, but it just seemed like nothing wanted to go her way today. It had started well enough though! She rose bright and early as she always did, managed to finally make a breakthrough on a new chemical compound she'd been working on for weeks over breakfast, and then hurried straight into the Division as soon as she got dressed.

What she failed to realize in her haste was that while the formula was actually being made, she absolutely couldn't test any of her explosions in or around her lab. And that was awful. Her new compound was very sensitive, and any sudden movements that just so happened to shake the ground (as she is want to do) would make everything just go down the drain.That wasn't exactly something Yukari wanted to risk, especially not after all the work she went and put into it. "But stiiiiiiiilll..." She drawled on, pout canvasing her face as she let out another sigh. "I could have designed it to maybe not take so long, or at least not be as sensitive. I'm going out of my mind here waiting!"

She had already taken to eating some chocolates out of her secret stash for comfort, but at this rate, she'd soon find herself chocolate-less and still waiting for the formula. "There's gotta be a better way... I think Isaac's busy, so probably can't make a social call there. Not like he can use his Bankai around here anyway... Unless he wanted to try it at his own Division again~" She thought with a small smirk. "Eh... Oh! Maybe I can get Hisao-robo to come over. Maybe he finally got one of his doohickeys to work well enough this time!" Deciding that this was the best course of action, Yukari quickly pulled out her phone and dialed into the number she remembered the last time she met him at the bar.

"Hey Hisao! Wanna come over to my place and nerd out a bit? I've got something cooking right now, so I've got a looooooot of free time. Just make sure to knock kinda softly when you get here though, my baby is a little sensitive at the moment."

The digital trill of a cell phone pierced through the quiet of the study room. It rang once, twice... five times before the form of a still-sleeping shinigami finally stirred from underneath an open scroll. Hisao groaned as he returned to the waking world, eyes fluttering. He rose, and the scroll on his head clattered back onto the table.

So he had fallen asleep reading the old scrolls?

Oh no. He had fallen asleep reading the old scrolls. He hadn't drooled all over the scrolls, had he? Hisao's eyes immediately moved down to the scroll that he had fallen asleep on, and sighed in relief that the precise calligraphy was still intact.

A good thing, too. He could repair it with trivial ease, but imagine what would happen if word got out that the recently-promoted Captain of Ninth had slobbered over some of the oldest records in the Kido Corps. records? Norma probably would have come out of retirement to personally tan his hide.

He gave a high-pitched frantic laugh at the thought. The call was at twelve rings now, and it was then that Hisao remembered that his indestructable brick of a phone was active. Hastily, he grabbed at it and put it to his ear.

"Um... Hello? Hello? Er..." The thirteenth ring blared into his ear. Hisao pulled it aside and winked. Ack! He needed to press the talk button! "Yes, uh... Hello? Oh, ah, this is... Motou-san? Yeah, I'll... I'll get on it. I'll see you there."

--

The captain still moved about a bit awkwardly in his haori. He had tailored (well, engineered) his current one to keep from being ripped. Hisao had always wondered how the other captains had always kept their badges of office so pristine, but he definitely knew that he'd get his ruined in an instant.

Right now, he was milling around the Twelfth Division, looking a bit lost as he tried to locate his colleague (friend...?). Purportedly, he would know Yukari's office when he saw it, but as he moved from building to building, he didn't see so much as a nameplate for the explosion-happy scientist.

He scratched his cheek in confusion, completely blithe to the fact that the brushwork of the scroll from earlier was imprinted on half of his face.

Several agonizing, quiet, boring minutes passed as Yukari languished in her laboratory alone. The formula was still bubbling away, a long ways off until it was finally settled and still the woman was bored out of her mind. “I swear, the next time I do something like this it’s gonna be while I’m asleep. Curse my headstrong devotion to anything and everything combustible. Also for the betterment of science and blahblahblah…” She flopped across her desk and began idly playing with her long, braided hair when a realization suddenly hit her like an errant trash can blown away by a misplaced carrot-shaped bomb seven years ago during a drunken haze.

Don’t ask.

“I… never told Hisao where my lab was, did I?” She said aloud. The dreadful silence of her bomb site-slash-laboratory was the only thing there to answer here, and she let out another long sigh. “Oh god, there’s like, tons of buildings around here. Poor guy’s probably lost as all hell. Which I guess would make me an awful host or something. Ehh… Not like sitting here would be any better.” Yukari pulled herself off of her table and slinked towards the exit to her lab, pausing only to make sure her lab coat was buttoned back up before she walked out the door. Probably not cool to look like a slob when inviting someone over too. Most likely. Man I wish I planned today better…

She cast a wistful glance over at the several craters of various sizes that dotted the perimeter of her personal lab before pushing herself forward off in search for her invited guest. “Hisaaaaaoo? Yoohoo, over heeeeeere!” For a brief moment, her instincts kicked in and she thought of using a (moderate) explosion to help light the way for the Captain, but her stupid lame formula would just go flat afterwards. “Note to self,” she narrated, keeping an eye out for any sign of Hisao “Next formula needs to be an explosive that’s powered by explosions. Add a glass of wine and a comfy chair, and I’d have one fantastic evening to myself. Also lock the door. We don’t need another Chemistry Lab incident again.”

The brown haired shinigami continued on her hunt, calling out Hisao’s name as she made her way around the perimeter of the Twelfth Division. He couldn’t have been that lost… right?

Wait, no. He could totally do this. He could detect whatever a Lieutenant-shaped reiatsu was around and just follow it to its source. Or, better yet... Hisao pulled out his new-and-improved boxy mouse robot and set it down. A small reiatsu sensor was deployed in the front.

He had taken out the wind-up parts, since the clockwork really was outdated. Now it just ran on a supply of reiryoku. "Alright, little guy, let's find Mutou-san."

The mouse sprang into mechanical life as he fed it some information about Yukari's reiatsu along with a steady stream of energy. The mouse turned left, then right, then skittered down the hall the way that Hisao came. So he overshot the lab?

...Oh, wait. He had upgraded the mouse to run unreasonably quickly, didn't he?

"W-wait up!"

Hisao chased after the mouse, taking wild turns as the mouse did. As his footsteps hammered down the hall, he thought he heard something resembling a voice. Wait, yeah. That was totally a voice. "Motou-san?"

Yukari would see a four-legged box as Hisao's voice rang out. Having fulfilled its purpose, the mouse's legs immediately locked up. The momentum sent its little box-like body tipping forward.

Yukari had already started tracing Hisao’s reiatsu signature on her own hunt for her guest, and she let out a small snort of amusement when she noticed that he had actually gone past her own lab. “Alright, I’ll take the blame for this one. I did sorta just say ‘come on over’ without any real directions or anything. Eh, I’m sure he’ll be cool with it.” She stuffed her hands into her lab coat pockets as she made her way to where she sensed him coming from. It’s just in good fun, right?

What she didn’t expect however, was the sudden appearance of a familiar (albeit upgraded) little robot that was barreling its way towards her. Hisao’s voice called out from a ways behind it, which all but confirmed that the Captain was quite close to his little contraption.

The little robot hit the brakes immediately as it neared her, and Yukari scooped down to keep it from falling over from its remaining momentum. “Whoa there, wouldn’t want you to get all dirty after he put all that work into you.” Speaking of which, judging from the footsteps, he’s probably just around the corner as well. Welp, time to play the part of the good host or whatever. Least I could do for someone who’ll hopefully liven up this bore of a day.

“Yo, Hisao! Sorry about leaving you in dark about where I hang my coat. Kinda got a little bit absorbed in my work and everything, y’know? Next time I’ll be sure to fly a sign or something!” Yukari called out as she stepped around the corner to meet the rushing shinigami.