I had a dream...

[Shdo]

Darkness


Light


The vast grassland stretch across the horizon, endless and still, no wind disturb this place. This is the place the gods go to when they sleep, at least a part of it. Here they drag their limbs and here they fight one another, this is a place where horrors and wonders lay. This world exists parallel to our own, and parallel to the spirit world as well. If the real world is the body, and the spiritual world is soul then this is the world of the mind, of thought and of dreams.


Among the motionless grass blades a single creature sat still, like a freeze picture he laid motionless. He raises his head and sniffs the air, a familiar smell approached.


"Captain Ito…" the lizard gestured with his hand at the floor in front of him, signaling to the confused captain to sit, "I've been waiting." Somehow the big lizard looked soothing, not primal as it always looked like.

[Gol D. Roger]

((OOC: These events take place the night after Itō's investigation.))

Itō strode across the sun-touched grasslands, the blades rustling as his feet passed through them. It was strange, the place was familiar, and yet unfamiliar to him. He simply felt a particular affinity to it, for it reminded him of the beautiful Rukongai countryside...

Then, it occurred to him that he had no idea where he was. This place was foreign, unknown. And he also had not a clue how he had come to be there.

In fact, the very last thing he remembered was settling down to sleep...

That was it. He must be dreaming.

From the sea of sparkling green, a figure suddenly rose before him. Its brilliant emerald scales had blended amongst the grass, but now that it, no, he, stood upright, the sun glinting off his features, he stood out like a beacon. Itō recognized him. Ezzo Coatl.

"Captain Itō…" the lizard gestured with his hand at the floor in front of him, signaling to the confused captain to sit, "I've been waiting."

There was something about Ezzo which was different, calmer than his usual self. Sensing no threat, Itō did as his 4th Seat requested.

"You have called me here, haven't you, Ezzo-san," Itō said, not so much a question as a statement of fact. "But how, and for what purpose?"

[Shdo]

"How? This is a complex truth, but let's just say that I am more real in your dreams then in reality," as Ezzo talked the grass moved like touched by unknown force, there was no wind, "yes Ito, we are in your dream, or my reality if you wish…" he raised his head and smelled the Air, "a storm is coming, can you feel it? The events of today are only a shadow of what to come, someone doesn’t just kill and replace members of a group for fun, there is a greater scheme."


"as for why have I called you here…when the previous killed me and took my egg to sereitei he and his division have caught my attention, we are bonded for now and for now I am at your service, to give advice and consul in your dreams as well as a place for you to think," again he gestured with his hand at the grass land that surrounded them,
"Here only those I chose can come, here I can talk to you about things without playing the games I play with the rest of the mammals, here you can actually talk without anyone spying on you. You can hide knowledge here and secrets as well as to learn some."


"So Ito, how do you feel about losing your subordinate lives, allowing the murderer to escape, and allowing little Rayne to get hurt by not going for her help? Are we pleased from this day? Could we have done something better?"

[Gol D. Roger]

"So Ito, how do you feel about losing your subordinate lives, allowing the murderer to escape, and allowing little Rayne to get hurt by not going for her help? Are we pleased from this day? Could we have done something better?"

"My, you're certainly quite forward in this place, aren't you?" Itō gazed at Ezzo thoughtfully, with an almost bemused expression upon his face. "But I can sense the truth in your words, that this place is your home. So as my host, I will accord you the same respect given to me in the 6th Division."

Itō met his silent stare with a cool confidence. "As for your questions, Ezzo-san... How do I feel about the deaths of the 6th Division members? Well, certainly, I cannot feel good about such a thing. If there was anything I might have done to prevent it, I would have."

He took a deep breath, measuring his words carefully. "However, as I am quickly coming to understand, the responsibilities of Taichō are not always pleasant, nor satisfying. I must accept the things I cannot change, and also the decisions that I have made.

"The murderer may have escaped, but in fact, this person was not within our grasp in the first place. I am but a finger upon the hand of the Gotei 13, and I can only do my very best, for the sake of the whole body that is Soul Society, and perhaps the Living World as well.

"I have acted in the best manner possible in order to save the lives which were both of most importance to the Court Squads, as well as those in the most immediate danger. In regards to Himura, it is, perhaps, regretful that I was forced to stay my hand and leave her to the enemy, but I would make that decision again, and again, if I had to.

"It is simple fact that Otowari-san is of greater importance to the Gotei 13 than Himura-san. Much as it may pain me, and my mind and my heart may cry out for me to take a different course, this sort of resolve is what the station of Taichō requires.

"My decisions may hurt me, cause me anguish, but it is my absolute duty as Rokubantai-Taichō to make the choices that are best for us all. This is our way. We are not civilians; being shinigami means we are prepared to sacrifice ourselves for the greater good. To expect any less of my subordinates, or of any shinigami anywhere, is to give them great insult.

"If I had abandoned Otowari-san to go after Himura, I would have hurt her heart just as grievously as the enemy harmed her body. And her body will recover. Her fighting spirit, I suspect, would not have, and I would find myself the object of her resentment just as Otowari-san is, for whatever reason that may be.

"So..." Itō said, now the absolute picture of calm and serenity. "We are pleased with this day, and we have done our very best."

[Shdo]

"'Finger'? You? You are no 'finger', you are Ito, you stand alone and die alone, and you are a hand on your own right. I am a 'finger', never alone," Ezzo looked at the blank stare of Ito, "forgive me; I confused you when I should make things clearer, ill stop talking on things that are irrelevant to our conversation."


Somehow, even if it was impossible, Ezzo smiled, "it doesn't matter who dies and how many chances were lost, as long as you are pleased, all that matter is your happiness, to you at least. Your morals and your decisions are what define you, and doing something your heart doesn't agree to would only mean you betray yourself.

"But the problem remains, if you had trusted your vice captain and let him or yourself to reach Rayne we might have had her assailant at our possession, the dead clone, and the reach from there to the killer would be short. If you could trust the 12th division vice captain to stand on her own then why couldn’t you trust your own vice captain? To at least search for her? He is stronger than her, but do you trust him? Maybe we should give him more credit?


"But the decisions are made; it's pointless to argue on what happened. But the future, this still open…why did you bugged the 1st division headquarters? If this will be found it will severely damage your standing in the gotei, considering you are new and only returned from exile."


Ezzo tail started to swing around with excitement, to him the future of others was interesting, the others story is closed to him and he doesn't know how they will burn out, will Ito get himself executed for spying on his commander? Will he die of old age? It's always interested Ezzo, why do they fear death when they know they cannot escape it, they will all die sooner or later yet they keep running…

[Gol D. Roger]

"I'm afraid your misunderstand my intentions, Ezzo-san. I kept Murasaki with me, not because I did not trust him, but because I felt it necessary to have as much protection for Otowari-san as possible." Itō folded his hands across his lap, attempting to find the best words to explain.

"If I had sent Murasaki after Himura Rayne, I would have been left alone to safeguard Otowari and Himura Sayuri as well. Our enemy had no trouble defeating three Taichōs. Thus, to leave Otowari with only one man to defend him would have been foolhardy, to say the very least."

"As for the clone, you have not realized that I encountered yet another of their kind this day, attempting to kill his former twin. These copies will not speak of their master; they can only die. So nothing was lost."

Itō sighed, smiling lightly at the lizardman. "And you are wrong about another thing," he said. "Whether by your standards, or simply by my own, I am a finger upon the right hand of Soul Society, that which is called the Gotei 13. I stand together, always, with my fellow shinigami; I will die with them. I, too, am never alone.

"You think I fear my own demise; I can see it reflected in that gaze of yours. But you are incorrect. I am prepared to die at any moment, so long as it is to serve Soul Society, for if I do that, I will be accompanied by my compatriots, even in death. Their hopes and dreams, their lives will guide me. Life has no meaning without death. This is verity, absolute.

"You appear to be a shinigami, and yet, at your essence, you are not. If you truly wish to be a part of the Court Squads, to be a Death God, you must come to accept these truths, just as you have accepted your own, Ezzo-san.

"The heart is subject to many passions, most of them fleeting. A man must always know what is truest to him, even if it causes him pain. This is what it is to be a human being, in a physical body, or a spiritual one. My decisions may cause me to hurt at times, but so long as I hold fast to the deepest desire of my heart, to serve the Gotei 13, even my painful decisions will not be wrong.

"Oh," Itō added, as an afterthought. "And regarding the bug, you must better apprise yourself of Soul Society law. Seireitei Emergency Provision, Article IX, dictates that a Taichō has the authority to enact intelligence gathering measures in secret, if knowledge of such measures poses a security risk to the Seireitei, and so long as said Taichō discloses any such action once said risk has been resolved. In my two centuries of exile, I have come to know Soul Society law like the back of my hand."

Itō cleared his throat. "You are a perceptive one, Ezzo-san, if a bit overly curious. I believe I have allowed you your fair share of questions, and done my very best to answer them. As your Taichō, I cannot permit you to question my choices any longer, whether in your world, or within the halls of the 6th Division. You are my 4th Seat, and if you do not trust me after hearing what I have said thus far, I have nothing further to say to you.

"So now, it is my turn to do the asking, should you believe in me enough to answer. Who are you, Ezzo-san? From where do you come, and what is your relationship with my predecessor? And furthermore, what are your intentions for Soul Society?"

[Shdo]

"Very well, I love to talk about myself since the cats and birds don’t listen since they know everything already, and all there is here is cats and birds. To answer who am I? We will need to take a little walk, meanwhile ill answer the other questions," he rose from his pile of grass and started to walk towards what appeared like a small hill.

"Where I come from? From this place, this is my world. Your world is the spiritual world, when you go to the real world you use a fake flesh, when you dream you project yourself to your dreams. The human lives in the real world they have flesh, when they die they reach the spiritual world, when they dream they project their mind to the dream world. I am here, in the dream world, always have been.

The little hill was still half a kilometer from their position; it was quite big around 20 meters. "Your predecessor loved to travel, Rukongai is big (by your standards) and explored, so he moved beyond it and found a ruin, there I stayed and kept my little selves, he came. I never seen such a weird creature, I attacked, he killed me. Then he took me to the room you sleep in, I hatched. He kept me as a pet, in reality (or dreamality) he was the pet. I brought him here after 3 months, he asked the same question and I showed him who I am. He lost his mind ever since, slowly, hopefully you will do better."

"WAIT, maybe I can avoid showing you too much, maybe I can explain this in another way," he dropped on his knees and plucked a stone out of the ground, "you see? This is you, you are inside the boundaries that define who you are, a rock, a man, a shinigami," he then grabbed some of the grass and pulled, the grass didn’t ripped but was uprooted, pulling more roots that were connected to other grass blades, a whole net of them. "This is me; I have many fingers, real fingers. I hope this plain and simple explanation can satisfy you, just look at this web as a something, lets called it 'grass web' now no matter where you grab it, it's still 'grass web'. I am too am 'grass web'," Ezzo tilted his head at Ito,
"Was that close to be understood? It's hard to me to explain, it took me 10 years to understand that you are a rock and not a 'grass web'."



((OOC: sleep time.))

[Gol D. Roger]

"You have explained well," Itō said. "I believe I've grasped the concept."

Itō took a step towards Ezzo, lifting both the grass and the stone from the lizard's hands. "You, the grass web, your consciousness is varied, and yet inherently interconnected, inseparable. I, on the other hand, as the rock, possess a singular, sentient consciousness. But..."

He bent down, gesturing to a small pile of stones, and placed the rock in his hand on top of them. "When one rock meets another, and another, and yet another after that, eventually they become a mountain."

Itō turned, the sun beating upon his face, as he gazed out towards the horizon. "Soul Society is a mountain made up of many stones; stones of different sizes, different shapes, weights, compositions... Even each pebble is individual, and yet it makes up a part of a greater whole."

He leaned over again and picked the stone back up, then presented it, and the grass, back to Ezzo. "I am the rock, yes, but I also belong to the mountain. Both apart and together, always. Despite the fact that my consciousness is not joined with the other rocks, we remain connected on a different level, as a piece of a greater purpose."

Itō glanced at his 4th Seat. "Do you understand what I'm saying, Ezzo-san?"

[Shdo]

"yes, I understand what you tell to yourself, I heard it many times, many told me that they will lived on in their loved one," suddenly another voice spoke from behind Ito, it was a second lizard, this one was blue with red eyes and spiked back, roughly the same size as Ezzo, "Time have passed and they died, their loved one died," a third voice came from the side lines it was a smaller lizard, half a meter tall with black scales and burning yellow eyes, "their clans died, their countries and their dreams have died," the three lizards talked in a complete unison, and in the distance other lizards could have seen, in various sizes and shapes, "and only I remain, they die and I live, me and the cats and the birds. I don’t even know how many years have passed but I remember men dreaming about caves and hunting huge beasts."

The rest of the lizards turned away and walked back to their business, only the original one remain, "so why working so hard knowing you will die and that your children will die and your clan will die, eventually, ? Why do men speak so highly of fighting and dying for their friends but when they do die they fade into the darkness alone? I do not understand why you walk your path when it's so lonely and doomed; you are so mysterious to me."

[Gol D. Roger]

Itō looked sadly at Ezzo and patted his shoulder. "I do not envy you, friend. A man who is immortal can never know what great meaning mortality gives to life."

He gestured to all the wandering lizards around him. "My path may appear lonely and doomed, to you. But from my perspective, it is rich, and full of joy. The fact that we shall one day die makes each moment we are alive far more important. How can you appreciate life if it is not finite?

"And a part of that appreciation is believing in a greater purpose. Being willing to fight and face death for it. Each person holds different values dear; some fight for money, or fame, some for family, some for honor, or duty. Some fight only for themselves, and others fight only with themselves.

"But these conflicts are what make us what we are. Our very society is based on inevitable death. Buildings are built with reinforcements of wood, or metal, to delay the certainty that they will one day crumble. In families, we are cared for by our parents, and care for them in return when death approaches.

"You see death as something dark, and sinister, something that deprives our actions in life of their meaning. In fact, for a human, it is just the opposite. I have no need to tell myself this, for I already know it as fact. I tell it to you," Itō said, touching Ezzo's shoulder, "that you might one day understand the truth behind our differences, and perhaps come to experience some of our joy for yourself."

[Shdo]

"I do cherish life, or moments…" Ezzo kicked the floor slightly, his arms were crossed behind his back, he looked like a child, "I played with children's once and swim in the oceans, I built temples and was worshipped as a god, I built empires and crushed empires…the previous captain had lost his mind when he saw the 'whole' me, he thought that I have a hive mind or something, he clearly didn’t understand who I am, I wondered why he descended into insanity.


"actually…I don’t see death at all, I don’t understand why people die, why they move when they know they will die…since I cannot die…maybe it's like you can't know how is it to give birth…you are…the male of the species, right?"

[Gol D. Roger]

Itō nodded, impressed. "A good comparison," he said. "I am, 'the male,' as you have ascertained, and indeed, I will never know what it is like to carry an unborn child, nor to give birth."

He gave a light smile. "And, just as you can never understand the experience of death, I am equally unable to fathom your lack of such a thing. It is... a conundrum, as they say."

Itō paused, looking out over the landscape, thinking. "I suppose... The difference between my predecessor and I is..."

He looked to Ezzo. "I won't even try to understand the, 'whole you,' because I know I cannot. It is beyond my capabilities as a human to do so."

He patted the lizard lightly on the arm and grinned; it was probably the first time he'd done so all day, or night. There was an almost mirthful air about him. "So let's hope my mind stays intact, shall we?"

[Shdo]

"I hope so, I wouldn’t like to end it like with the previous captain, in his delusions he went too far," Ezzo sniffed the Air, something was coming, "and now it seems we have company, they are drawn to your presence, to your flesh. You should leave soon for your own safety, in this world your spiritual power means nothing."

A shadow passed above the lizard and man, they looked up at the 2 meter tall bird-like-thing as it swirled down at them, "a troublesome one have arrived, time to wake," Ezzo tail smacked at Ito head, sending him unconscious in the dream world, and awake in the real world.


************************************************** ********


Ezzo was sleeping at his pedestal, Ito was there as well, both him and Ezzo were awake,"sorry about the tail thing."

[Gol D. Roger]

Itō blinked. How odd, that he was... standing.

Coming out of the dream, he took full stock of his surroundings. He stood in the strange chamber the cook had told him of earlier, with the pedestal, upon which sat Ezzo Coatl.

"Sorry about the tail thing."

"Quite alright," Itō said, rubbing his eyes, and continuing to look around. During the dream, he must have... sleepwalked from his bedroom to here. What an interesting experience. Not one he would soon forget.

"Well then, Ezzo-san," he said, "now it's time for me to sleep and dream dreams of my own creation." He chuckled. "Goodnight."

((OOC: Made it so that Ezzo's pedestal has its own room, doesn't make sense to me to have it literally in Itō's office or bedchamber.))