Rumors and Alternative Facts [Private]

The sun beams beat down on the Seireitei as Shinigami went about their daily business.  Each squad had it's own rituals and routines, and each had at least a little time off.  Others though, they wouldn't be so lucky.  "Just relax, unless something else comes up and we need you you're free for the rest of the day."  With a wave the blonde Shinigami walked out of the 4th division.  Snopy wasn't a member of the division, but his reason for being there was obvious by the bandage on his right arm.  It was only a small cut, but this is "Combat vs hollow" standards of small.  It was only the afternoon, but Snopy had already had to deal with a mission.  The hollow itself was not particularly dangerous, except most physical attacks just bounced right off it.  So the 5th division got called in to send backup.  It wasn't too hard, since they sent a small squad, but it didn't go down before it went ballistic and injured several of the Shinigami tasked with it's defeat.  Snopy was pretty sure they were fucked if something wasn't done.  So he lured it point blank before blasting straight through it's skull with magic.  Still, it left a nice little parting gift.  He was the lucky one though.  The other Shinigami had varying degrees of injuries.

Many people were talking about the "Unseated Shinigami" who blasted that thing to the next dimension.  Those who were there would know better, but there were...other rumors floating about.  That this so called hero (a label which Snopy admittedly wanted some of the gossips to stop stamping onto him) only managed to defeat the hollow because it was heavily weakened thanks to his comrades and yet "Boasted his strength".  Others even went so far as to say he waited for it to maul his compatriots before acting to make himself look better.  Despite the official reports and the eyewitness reports, the rumors spread faster than their superiors could stifle them.  For the most part it would pass.  Most would eventually know the truth or get bored and move on after a few days or weeks, but some.  Some liked to cling to anything that made them look better than someone else...or gave them a target.  "Look at the poor hero, he has a little boo boo."  Snopy's face flinched for a second.  Not because he was startled, but because this guy's voice was gonna get really grating really fast.  He turned, it was a small group.  They seemed mostly intent on slandering him more than trying to fight him, but who knows.  "Pardon?"  Snopy hadn't had much time to know about the rumors that had spread so quickly, he didn't even realize people knew about it.  

"You have a lot of nerve.  Letting all those Shinigami take a beating before jumping in to save the day.  You're real grade A scum, got it?"  Snopy blinked.  He had some slight clue although where he got that information he would never know.  "You'd do well to worry about yourself and not make up stories."  "Cocky little brat.  Making up what?  That you waited til they did all the heavy lifting then you did easy clean up?  Oh no, I'm not making anything up."  "If by easy you mean a strategy that if I had failed would have resulted in me cut horizontally in half, then sure, easy."  Snopy had better things to do, he'd probably have to go to one of his superiors and talk to them about this nasty rumor.  However as he turned he got grabbed on the shoulder and forced back to facing the group, the leader of which was now about an inch from his face.  "I'm not gonna let people like you run around hurting my allies.  Got it punk?"  Snopy blinked and momentarily winced, it was very stealthy, but the leader had just punched him in the gut.  Still he was not falling for it.  "I'm not going to punch you if that's what you're waiting for."

Snopy knew the game. He was supposed to fight back. If he threw a punch, then these guys won. They were banking on it. If he doesn't react the way they need him to, they are just bullies to the surrounding public. The stealthy punch was a clear sign their plan needed him to react, provocation. He shouldn't have masked the pain down to a small wince, but he needed them to slip up...ooooor just straight up get the attention of a seated officer. From behind he heard a familiar voice and the punks stepped back in almost shock. In front of him stepped a girl who was...well tiny. Still while he didn't pay too much attention to anyone below Vice Captain outside of his division, if only because of poor memory of faces if he didn't personally converse with the person, he was pretty sure it was Kaminari. He blinked at her question of people surrounding him. One of the thugs straight up prostrated themselves and "gave in to all of (Kaminari's) demands" but while still taken aback, the others were less than amused. "This punk let his allies get injured just so he could take all the glory, so we're showing him we won't put up with it, got it?"

"That won't be necessary. They're not worth the time." Electing to completely ignore everything that came out of the "Vigilante's" mouth he only acknowledged Kaminari. He clearly won. He kept his composure and their obvious blatant bullying garnered the attention of a seated officer. "They're just trying to provoke me. Make me throw the first obvious punch, then paint me as some kind of biblical Satan by using the rumors floating around. They either want an excuse to beat someone down or a way to make themselves look good." He still completely ignored them, but one thing was clear. Either he hit the nail on the head, or their paranoia that a Seated Officer would believe him was palpable. They seemed a bit shaken. Well except the leader, who was clearly pissed. "And now he's trying to spread lies about us. Come on, you can't possibly believe him can you?" To that his comrades all shouted a unified "Yeah!". Well the two that weren't still prostrating themselves anyway.

Snopy really raised his eyebrow.  How was this going to go?  Was she gonna believe them or not.  If she had any sense of proper justice he'd be fine but he didn't know her.  Finally though she dropped the lighter demeanor and tossed out some serious threats.  The leader almost didn't back down but his minions talked him down.  "Hmpf, you watch yourself "hero"."  Snopy rubbed his temple.  He needed something to drink.  "Oh for fuck's sake, stop calling me that."  He let out a sigh as they walked off.  He began to wonder when they'd be back.  There was no way he'd just completely given up.  That guy was gonna prove his moral superiority.  And by prove he meant fake it.  He looked to this female before him.  Now she was examining him.  Great, now his integrity was about to be questioned.  Before he could just automatically tell her to talk to his Captain or literally anyone who was injured in the fight, she asked if she knew him.  He blinked as he lowered his raised finger.  Oh, or not.  He sighed yet again.  "No more than they did."

He scratched the back of his head.  "Miss, forgive me if I'm mistaken, Hatakeyama I presume?  I'm pretty bad at remembering names if I don't talk to someone personally so forgive me."  Perhaps it would be smart to give her his name.  "Snopy Saika, 5th division.  You might have heard of me, the guy who was least injured against the Armored Walrus."  He looked off towards where the goons had wandered off to.  Under his breath he muttered.  "Am I not trying hard enough?"  He shook it off though, now was not the time for that.  He turned back to her."Look, um...Miss Hatakeyama...sorry, I'm bad at formalities."  He was clearly stumbling over himself, his body language was uneven and a little tense. He didn't know where to even go from here.  What did she know?  What did she think?  He was trying so hard to put his past behind him, he didn't want some stupid rumors to ruin everything he was working for.

Well then, she was pretty direct wasn't she?  She immediately called hers the best division.  Delusions?  Probably.  Granted he didn't feel too much zeal for the Gotei in general so he wouldn't argue...yet.  When she asked him to repeat he stuttered a bit in shock, face a tad red.  "W-wha?  Oh, no it's nothing.  Don't worry about it."  Not a smooth recovery but if she pressed it too hard he'd have regained his composure by then.  Hopefully.  After he admitted his lack of affinity for formalities, she actually told him to just be himself.  In his head he thought "But that isn't proper protocol".  However, he didn't care.  "Okay then, Kaminari."  Well, he just called someone of higher rank by their first name, if this was gonna backfire it had better do so soon or not at all he thought.  Still, she brought back that damned hero label again.  He let out a little airy scoff, though once clearly not directed at Kaminari but more of a half laughing half upset "Oh that".  "Oh, you've heard it too huh."  He sighed.

Then he threw up his arms with a shrug.  "I mean I can give you the long version if you want, but the short version is this.  Heard of the Armored Walrus?  Large bulky hollow.  Deceptively fast.  While not particularly strong, it's thick skin made it fairly immune to physical force.  So me and a group of other 5th division Shinigami went to deal with it, since Kidō still worked.  It thrashed us pretty badly, almost killed a few.  It was too hard to hit.  I figured it'd kill me anyway if I did nothing so I provoked it into attacking me, and managed to kill it point blank with no room for it to dodge and only got a small scratch by some sort of luck."  Snopy was curious though.  She said they shall be friends.  "You said friends?"  She's been pretty "playfully cocky" so maybe...well if this killed him oh well.  He put a mischievous grin on his own face.  "Is that an order?"  He was clearly joking and didn't mean he'd only be friends with her on orders, since that was just cold.  Still, he hoped she had a good sense of humor or this would be bad.