The first problem
One of the things that is infinite is human stupidity, not superiority.
A white haired man walked down the corridors of the first division, his pony tail was tied low and his bangs were parted in the middle of his head messily like two oversized eyebrows. A japanese style straw hat shaded the top part of his face from view. Between his teeth was a translucent yellow lollipop.
He was wearing the standard black kimono and hakama all shinigamis wore. Hands in his pocket like folds of his hakama. A large white piece of clothing was hanging from his right forearm. Black fur rimmed its edges. But those weren't the things that you'd notice at first glance. No, in fact, the first thing you'd notice was the black coffin slung on his back, that was shorter than him by a foot or so.
On it was a giant broad sword that was western in style, the grip was gold, a bit broad and wrapped in bandages, it didn't quite have a guard. It was shaped like a cross with the grip covering the middle of the first quarter of the blade and had four green diamonds stuck on it pointing to the four ends of a compass. The blade itself was dark grey, almost black and abruptly turns to silver around the edges.
The sword was chained down into the groove cut out on the coffin with chains and sealed with a few charms that was filled with hardly legitable calligraphy. If you looked close enough, you might see them move at a very slow pace.
The man made his leisurely way down the rest of the corridor, stopping in front of the twin white doors of the meeting room. He scratched his forehead, the movement turning into twirling a lock of his white hair. "This should be the place," he looked around. "It's been so long since I came here, it's kinda nostalgic actually." with that, he pushed opened the twin doors and entered.
The captains were already at their positions, Soifon glaring, her lost arm not showing in the folds of her haori. Gin, with his ever closed eyes. Unohana staring serenely at the newcomer. Byakuya stood rigid, eyes closed as usual. Komamura in his armoury and new battle scars. The only splash of bright colour on Shunsui's shoulders. Toushirou, not quite a midget anymore. Kenpachi let out a loud yawn, his haori was falling apart. Mayuri's face was painted differently, and he no longer looked like a gazelle. Ukitake coughing a bit. And there was Yamamoto, unchanging through the years.
The man stopped in the middle of the two lines. He took off his hat and bowed in a single fluid movement. Then, he grinned. "Long time no see Yama-jii."
He looked no more than 200 years old. Gold eyes gleaming with a childish glow, promising undone paperwork, candy, fun, craziness and deeper within was ancient knowledge and sheer power. He stood up straight.
"Fellow captains of the Gotei 13, you are gathered here today, to witness." Yamamoto started. "Today, we are no longer the Gotei 13, but the Gotei 14." All 12 pairs of eyes were on him.
"Why weren't we informed of this sooner?" Soifon snapped. She had heard rumours but there was nearly next to no evidence that there was going to be a new division. No new compounds or buildings were being prepared as the new division's headquarters. And who were the members anyway? Could it be...?
"Calm yourself, I shall explain no further, Taiga Kushiro, I leave the rest of the explanation to you." Yamamoto said. They all looked at the white-head, like he was Aizen revived. And they should, the Taiga clan was one of the four noble families and the oldest one at that. For another, Kushiro was, the first head in line that was born more than 3000 years ago.
"Hi, my name's Taiga Kushiro, head of the Taiga clan." Kushiro paused, pocketing his finished lollipop stick. "Starting today, I shall be the captain of the 14th division. The special non-shinigami division that is. It's not entirely shinigami free, but the shinigamis aren't shinigamis of the norm." He waited abit for the words to sink in. "For example, Kurosaki Ichigo, a substitute shinigami that got his zanpakuto by unnatural means. Not going through the process of death and skipping directly to getting his powers.
"Another would be Ulquiorra Cifer, Grimmjow Jaggerjaques, Tia Halibel, Neliel Tu Oderschavak and the rest of the arrancars that survived the war and have swore peace. They are currently under the care of my colleagues, who is currently trying to turn them into full shinigamis." Kushiro fiddled abit with his bangs, facing his fellow captains.
"Wait," Shunsui raised up his hand, "weren't they annihilated in the war?" speaking aloud the question that everyone was thinking.
"Negative, my fellow captain," Kushiro smirked. "Yes, they disappeared from this existance. But our dear Kami-sama has given them a second chance, it depends if they're willing to take it though." Kushiro uttered Kami-sama like it was merely a friend's name. Indeed it was actually, for he was one of the two people in this entire existance that had seen and met the divine being in person and lived to tell the tale.
"You mentioned that they disappeared from this dimension," Byakuya said slowly. "Where, exactly, did they disappear to?"
"I did?" Kushiro feigned innocence, but ignored the question. "Yet another example would be Inoue Orihime, Sado Yasutora and company. Having spiritual power not in the form zanpakutos. Also, if they accept, the Quincies shall also be in this division but are free to do whatever they wish if Yama-jii approves." Kushiro added emphasis on the last part, making eye-contact with Yamamoto. "Lastly," he paused, his hand reached out to grab the air, but it didn't come back empty. In his hand was a white hollow mask that had tiger markings on it. "Would be the Vizards." Kushiro smirked at the slightly surprised looks of the captains. "They weren't the first to go through this transformation." he added, letting his mask disintergrate.
"Now then, any questions?"
Kushiro let out a long suffering sigh, after the meeting, he was throughly interrogated by a few of the captains. "Not much time left for today," Time, ah yes, Time. Kushiro smirked.
"Not much indeed, Cushion." said a voice behind him.
"Hey there Sir of All Madness," Kushiro retorted playfully.
"Sage of Arcane Magic thanks." Sam answered. He also had white hair, but it was short, barely brushing his shoulders. "Did you tell them anything you shouldn't?"
"Nothing beyond the fact that I was from the Zero Division." Kushiro answered looking at the rising moon.
"Technically, you're not from the Zero Division." Sam reached into a black top hat and pulled out a small orb. "Why didn't Kami-sama just erase their memories and just say the heck with it? No, rather, why did he even create this thing?" Sam held up nothing less than the Hogyoku itself and threw it at Kushiro.
"He was bored," Kushiro answered nonchalant, tossing the most dangerous orb in all of existance back to Sam. "He's like a kid you know."
"Look who talking," Sam snickered. "He took your watch didn't he?"
"Way to put it Captain Obvious," Kushiro deadpanned, he stopped in the middle of an empty compound that was still within seireitei. "Well, come on, if you don't hurry, where is a taicho supposed to put his division?"
Sam shook his head slightly, he rubbed the surface of the Hougyoku with his thumb. This orb was made specially for him, given personally by the divine being.
Not to mention, thrown by the divine being during his tantrum into Urahara's hands. The ability to distort reality. Sam clenched his fingers around it and it emitted a silver glow, the same shade as his eyes. "Come into being." he whispered. Reality distorted, the landscape began swirling into an abyss, then, fiber by fiber, the japanese-styled buildings came into existance.
Within the minute, the fourteenth division's headquarter was finished. Sam snapped his fingers and the lights came on. "Well then, I'm done here, see you. Mitsuki and Satsuki are coming with the arrancars tomorrow, Vizards will be moving in an hour's time and I'll be sending in the Zero division guys."
"Yep, seeya in a while, Sam." Kushiro waved at the portal. "Call the chefs over too."
"Will do!" Sam called over the noise of the portal.
Meanwhile, in the realm of the living, the Kurosaki household was strangely quiet. Oh wait, that was because I was wearing earplugs. My bad.
A loud crash was heard, one of the many that happened since Ichigo had started packing. "I CAN'T BELIEVE OUR SON IS GOING TO LEAVE US! MASAKI! DID YOU HEAR THAT?" Isshin hugged the poster of his wife like a lifeline. "THIS HEARTLESS BOY IS GOING TO LEAVE US ALL ALO-ubbuuh!" Isshin was aburptly cut off as Karin's foot connected with his face.
"SHUT UP ALREADY IDIOT FATHER! SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!" Karin shouted into his ear. When certain that her father was going to shut up for at least another ten minutes, Karin stormed off to her room she shared with Yuzu. Yuzu was silent, not making a sound on her bed.
Karin glanced at her and scratch her head in frustration. "Come here you big crybaby." Yuzu peeped out from under her blanket, eyes red and puffy, desprately trying not to cry anymore.
"I'm- not, cry-ng." Her voice broke and she started bawling at full force. Karin sighed and when over to her twin, holding her and patting her comfortingly.
"There, there," she whispered. "Ichi-nii is already 20, he should be leaving, it's not like he's dea-" Karin stopped, then shook her head. "It's not like he's dead. Sure, he's going to the land of the not-so-living. So what? It's not like he has a choice does he,"
"He does," Yuzu sobbed, pounding at the bedframe. "he does." She hiccuped.
"I know, but would you choose to abandon your memories and an awesome power for a normal life? Losing all your nakama for your past life?" Karin reasoned, though she was also aching inside. Yuzu didn't answer. "C'mon stop crying, you don't want to look like a zombie when sending him off would you?" After a pause, Yuzu nodded. "Let's get some shut eye."
Ichigo dropped facedown onto his mattress. The week had been long, too long. He pinched the bridge of his nose. He faintly remembered how Rukia had just walked into his room five years ago, somehow suprising him. After the winter war, not much had cropped up for them to meet. A few hollows here and there, but nothing more serious than that. A huge hollow appeared once with lots of reinforcement, but still it was nothing compared to fighting in the war.
But then, Rukia suddenly appeared, walked right into his medical university dorm. Well, more like flew right into his face foot-first.
Who knew lastest seireitei technology was attached to her foot and she literally kicked his soul right out of him. And as if the five year gap didn't exist, she pulled him to fight a Menos Grande that had appeared due to a distortion in the barriers between dimensions. He destroyed it without much difficulty. But he had gotten hurt abit because he was distracted by Rukia's presence, it was until she called him to stop being a moron and start fighting properly did he unleash a Getsuga at the Menos.
Yeah, that was Rukia alright.
He rolled over to lie on his back, recalling their coversation after the Menos was defeated.
"Good work, Ichigo," Rukia started, her voice still had that slightly deep tone to it. "Well, long time no see. I see that you're sword skills are getting rusty."
"Rukia," Ichigo finally said, a thousand things coursed through his head. But he only said one thing, "Yeah, nice to see you still up and kicking. How's life treating you?"
"Haven't seen you in a while and that's all you have to say?" She was cut off by a ringtone. "Chappy, Chappy, Chappy, the funny bunny, he's cute and pi-" Rukia fumbled with the handphone for a second before picking up. "Excuse me,"
Ichigo watched as she started off with a serious tone, giving her report of the Menos. Then gradually turning pink as the person on the other line teased her. She then ended the call while shouting a few profinities at phone and snapping it shut. "Damn that Renji, where were we? Right, Ichigo, down to business, Yamamoto-taicho is making a deal, your power is constantly growing isn't it? Even the constricter doesn't help keep it in check."
"Your point?" Ichigo asked, his hand absently touched the black band on his wrist that doubled both as a watch and the constricter as well as a tracking device.
"Your reiatsu is distorting the balance again," Rukia sighed. "The realm of the living is not built to contain captain-class reiatsu. Yamamoto-soutaicho is giving you two options in this matter," Rukia paused. "One, is to leave the realm of the living for good."
"Which is to say, he wants me dead."
"Technically, yes. Your physical body will die, and you can't come to this realm frequently, maybe once in every decade or century. The damage caused by your reiatsu is going to be irreversable if it continues to grow."
"Then why don't you guys just put a captain-reiatsu seal on me? You know, the ones they put on the taichos when they came the first time? It works on Kenpachi, so why not me?" Ichigo stopped mid-step. The night sky above them went dark as a cloud blocked the moon light.
"It won't work on you. Kenpachi's reiatsu stopped growing centuries ago, it'll stay at that level for the rest of eternity, it replenishes itself but doesn't grow. Shinigamis grow into their reiatsu, we have a certain capacity, full Bankai being the final phase of our reiatsu growth. But you're an exception, your reiatsu growth doesn't end with Bankai, it continues to grow at a steady pace never meeting its end. This is what we call 'Infinities'. There are currently 3 Infinities in all of recorded history, first is Taiga Kushiro born 3000 years ago, head and founder of the Taiga clan. Next is Kuroya Kai, a ryoka like you that got shinigami powers through unnatural means. There is one more, but we are unable to find any information beyond the fact that his name starts with a 'S'."
"Okay, so my new nickname is 'Infinity'. Cool." He answered sarcastically. "So what's the other option?"
Rukia went silent for a moment. "Sealing your powers permanently and a memory wipe, cutting all ties with Soul Society and Hueco Mundo."
"So what your saying is that I have to give up either my family or my memories."
"In essence, yes." Rukia answered, their pace stopped entirely. Rukia turned back to look at the dandelion head. "Look Ichigo, Yamamoto-soutaicho originally just wanted to wipe your memory of this five years clean of soul society and your powers. But, we managed to persuade him, Renji, Hisagi, Hitsugaya-taicho, Matsumoto, Ukitake-taicho, heck, even Byakuya oni-sama filed a letter to him." Rukia flung her hands around for emphasis. "Ichi..."
Ichigo blinked, amazed. "...I'll think about it." was all he managed.
Ichigo sat up, he had dozed off. "Be at Urahara's sweet shop on Sunday, 6 p.m. sharp. I'll be on the other side."
A/N: Why, hello there, this is the first chapter of my first fanfic. Hope it isn't to random. It's supposed to be a kind of funny-serious fanfic, with random scenes and maybe a plot. The time flows in one way, so the scenes happen one after another unless I say it isn't.
Reviews and comments would be nice.
For how the OCs look, well, if my description isn't clear enough, you can find most of them in my dA acc.
Thats all for now, Ja Ne.
