Shinigami Savant Quest #68

You are Kusajishi Riku, Captain of the Ninth Division of the Seireitei Court Guard. After a taxing pair of duels you and Yoruichi managed to defeat your own clones, albeit at a cost. To defeat your mirror for certain in a single move you employed your modified kidō called Yūgure Kasō, which burned away your left arm as backlash and necessitated the use of a second vial of regenerative serum.

The result however was that your own copy was completely obliterated on the spot, with not even traces of dust left behind to mark her passage from the world, while Yoruichi lured her copy into a trap and destroyed her body. The fake Yoruichi's soul, contained within a small red pill, is now somewhere on your wife's person. It's likely her intent to interrogate the pretender before handing her off to Kisuke for a more in-depth analysis. Only problem is that there's still a lingering sensation in your new left arm that bothers you.

“Your replacement isn't quite right, is it?” Yoruichi asks, no doubt noticing the slight difference in how the limb moves as you walk towards the farmhouse where the Valhallans you were tracking had holed up. They seem to have been sheltering in place there while your own battles strayed increasingly far from where they began, the rapid series of hundred-meter-long strides having made it very difficult to keep track of such details.

“Sharp eyes,” you admit, gently stretching your fingers. First all at once, then one at a time... each careful movement feels slower than it should. Clumsier, too. “The muscles are naive, but that should improve with use. Sensation's just how it should be, so that's a bright spot.”

“True, had there been lasting nerve damage it would've been worse,” Yoruichi agrees, leaning over to rap her knuckles against your forehead. “Hey, Rosa! You know what to do, right?”
>1/2

Rosa's response is a silent one, but immediate. Tiny threads of reishi emerge from your left shoulder, near the base of your neck, and weave themselves into a net which hovers a mere finger's width above your skin. They run from your shoulder all the way down to the tips of each of your fingers, and slowly begin to sink themselves into your arm with a strange, spreading chill.

After the last thread disappears your arm begins to move to another's will, repeating your stretching routine with a measured speed far closer to your norm. The arm still feels weaker than your right, but it moves the way it did before you burned the old one off.

“I'm handing active control back to you,” Rosa informs you as a sense of control returns to the previously independent limb. “I'll keep up accelerating the process of healing and retraining your muscles until it's back to normal, but while I'm at it that's about all I'll be able to do.”

“Lemme know if my help's needed in a fight and I'll consider it.”

“Better?” Yoruichi asks, prodding your arm.

You make a fist, then relax your muscles once more. “Better.”

“Good,” she smiles calmly. “Now that we've solved that little performance issue, shall we have a chat with these Valhallans?”

The two of you stop in front of the door of the farmhouse, standing in a front lawn that looks as if it's been peeled back like the skin of an onion. Any time there are lumps of sod stuck in the lintel above the door something bad's happened.

They're certainly still inside, that much is for sure.

>Knock on the door, it might confuse them.
>Calmly allow yourself in. This should be a civil meeting.
>Kick the door in, it's Riku time.

>Kick the door in, it's Riku time.

>>Kick the door in, it's Riku time.

>Knock on the door, it might confuse them.

>>Knock on the door, it might confuse them.

>Calmly allow yourself in. This should be a civil meeting.

I don't think kicking the door in is really going to have much of an effect after the display we just put on.

>Kick the door in, it's Riku time.

>Calmly allow yourself in. This should be a civil meeting.

>Knock on the door, it might confuse them.