*Insert General Disclaimer here*
It was on the outer edge of the eightieth district of west rukongai that the small shrine resided. It was a nicely built shrine and even had a small koi pond out back despite the state of it's surrounding districts. The surrounding area was well taken care of and was complete with two fox statues guarding the entrance. Often people would come and take refuge in the shrine be it from the weather or simply the other residents of rukongai. But what protected the people who took shelter there was not a god as many people in the living world believed, but infact two sisters that resided there.
No one in the eightieth district knew about the sisters as they had never seen them. Both were extremely cautious and dealt with any problems unseen. However there was one time when someone had seen the duo at the shrine. It was only a passing glance and the shinigami patrolling the area thought nothing of it.
That is until now.
All the captains save for the missing captain of the ninth division were on guard. The meeting reinstating Gin and Shinji as captains had been interrupted.
In the middle of the captain's meeting stood the lone intruder clad in a shinigami uniform and the familiar mask that Gin Ichimaru had seen long ago.
The captains watched warily each reaching for the hilt of their zanpakuto. None of them had sensed the reiatsu of the intruder until she had made herself known.
The intruder merely stared intently at the head captain. She was rather short, a little shorter than Hitsugaya-taichou now that he had gone through a small growth spurt, and stood around 4'8". She was clearly past hers though as her chest was rather large, though not as large as Matsumoto's, topping the hourglass shape her body had that most women strived for. The paper mask had the kanji for stars written in black ink, which could been seen clearly as the plain paper had no holes in it. Some of the captains wondered if the intruder was another Tosen. Her hair was tied up in a short ponytail with her bangs framing her face. It was a ocean blue on the top and seamlessly faded down into a dark navy at the bottom. She stood firm in the middle of the room under all the gazes, her hand resting calmly on the hilt of her zanpakuto which was a deep blue. The wakizashi was safely tied to her waist just below the eight-pointed star that formed the guard.
"You dare intrude here?" The soutaichou boomed. "State your name and purpose, it is clear that you don't belong to any division!"
The intruder bowed to the head captain and began her explanation. "My name is Mei-yin and I am here to become a captain of the gotei 13 by the means of trial by combat." She stated. "But it appears that the captain of the division I wanted is missing so I must do so another way." She sighed. "Besides it was time I introduced myself to you Soutaichou as well as the rest of the captains. I'm sure you've noticed that someone has been taking care of the hollows hanging around the poorer districs that you can't get to in time."
"That's impossible. There is no way you have been single handedly killing all the hollows that had appeared there!" Mayuri screeched. "Perhaps on some instances but the ones where there were over 100 hollows? I don't believe it! They were gone before we could even dispatch someone to the area, let alone have enough time for you to kill them!"
"Who said I was alone?" Mei-yin countered. "Despite what you may think, I am in fact skilled enough to become a captain. Hard times are coming and you will need all the help you can get."
"And how do we know we can trust you?" Hitsugaya asked, glaring at Mei-yin.
"You can't afford not to." She said lowly with a smirk from behind the mask.
Yamamoto slammed the end of his cane to the ground, stopping any further comments. "To intrude on such a meeting, and then to demand captaincy. I am intrigued as to how much power you think you have. You will take the captain proficiency test in front of all the captains tomorrow at noon. Should you impress me I shall grant you the position of captain. If you fail however, you will be eliminated." He told her.
Mei-yin bowed to the head captain. "Thank you, Soutaichou. I will not dissapoint." She said before shunpoing away.
"Hitsugaya-taichou, follow her. I want you to find out everything you can about her. If she shows to be a threat at all to Soul Society send a hell butterfly at once. I expect a report tomorrow morning at eleven hours." Yamamoto ordered.
The small captain nodded and left swiftly at once.
He followed her all the way to the eightieth district before he lost track of her. He scanned the crowd to see if he could track her but once again she had concealed her reiatsu. Thankfully the crowd seemed to disperse at the sight of a shinigami in the district leaving the roads bare. He wandered around for a quite a while, even knocking on doors and asking the residents if they had seen Mei-yin.
"Ya ain't gonna find 'lil Mei that way Shiro-kun."
"Why did you follow me Ichimaru? Soutaichou assigned me to this, not you." Toshiro asked coldly, turning to face the sly captain.
"Ah, but you don' know this area too well do ya? Not as well as I do anyways." He grinned. "I'll show ya where she's hidin'." Gin said as he walked around Toshiro and headed down the road.
Toshiro scowled but followed the sly taichou. He seemed to be the only one who knew what was going on here. The residents were useless.
Eventually the white haired duo made it to the small beaten path that lead to the shrine. Shunpoing in, it didn't take long for them to reach the entrance to the shrine.
"Why would they have a shrine when there is no god?" Toshiro asked himself quietly. Gin nodded. "Strange indeed." He agreed.
"It's not for the worship of a god, but for the familiarity of a safe haven for people to retreat to." A soft voice answered.
The two captains looked up to see a young woman exiting the shrine. She had long hair that reached to her mid back, the color matching her eyes which were a rich dark brown. She was almost as tall as Toshiro, only two inches below his height which he was proud to say was now 5'3". Aside form that she seemed to have the same figure as Mei-yin, right down to the lightly tanned skin tone. She wore something similar to the kensei uniform with a golden colored, long sleeved haori over it. The haori had a red trim with a black underside to it.
"You seem well dressed for someone in the eightieth district." Toshiro stated bluntly.
"We just take good care of our clothes. We've had these for ages." She smiled.
"We?" Gin asked, surprised.
"My sister and I." She smiled. "You should have known, you were following her after all. I didn't think you would find us but it seems you have a good memory, San-ban-taichou."
"And who would you be?" Asked the icy captain as he tried to detect their previous intruder.
"Mei-li" She replied with a low bow.
Gin nodded. "I knew there were two of ya when I came here last time. Didn' know it was you that killed the hollows."
"We didn't want to reveal ourselves to the Sereitei before it was necessary." She explained. "Why don't you come in for some tea? You should stay the night as well if you plan on collecting any information before tomorrow morning." She smiled.
"H-how?" Toshiro sputtered. "You weren't there! How could you know such information. Your sister had already left so don't tell me it was her."
"Oh?" How are you so sure I wan't there?" She smirked at him before she returned inside of the shrine, leaving the door open for the two of them.
"Well shall we lil' Taichou? It'll be rude to refuse such an offer after all." The sly captin began to walk towards the shrine as well, not waiting for an answer.
Toshiro followed along behind him though he never let his guard down even as he sat down at the small table.
Mei-li returned with the boiling teapot and gracefully poured each of them a cup. They each murmured their thanks as she sat down with her own cup in hand.
"I apologize for any trouble my sister may have caused when she interrupted your meeting." Mei-li began, "Normally we would have simply joined the academy and climbed up the ranks but we don't have that much time to spare."
"What do you mean by that?" Toshiro asked, curious. "You sister said something about hard times coming but she never said anything specific."
"We don't know what's going to happen as of yet but there have been whispers of a great disaster befalling this world." Mei-li paused for a moment and sighed. Perhaps they wouldn't notice….
"An' this won't affect the human world? Or do ya not know?"
Mei-li turned to Gin and smiled. "Ah, well we aren't to certain on that part as of yet."
"Mei-li! What are you telling them now?!"
The three of them turned towards the floor at the back of the shrine.
Toshiro narrowed his eyes at the figure that emerged from the hidden door. "You!"
"I have a name. Or did you forget already?" Mei-yin snapped. "The information she's giving you is not meant for your ears!"
"Ah, but it is." Mei-li smiled. "At least for Histugaya-san anyways."
Mei-yin walked up to the icy captain and examined him. "Ah. You're right." She nodded.
Toshiro managed to get a good look at her face which was masked before. Now he knew she wasn't fully blind as her golden eye stared into his own, looking like a fox with it's slit pupil. The left on the other hand, he wasn't so sure about. The eye was closed a little more on that side like it couldn't open completely. It was only noticeable up close to point where could see the pupil which looked like a half cooked egg yolk. There was no iris and the eye itself seemed to be misshapen a little as if something had impaled it.
The rest of her face was normal aside from that which he was thankful for. He wouldn't admit it but the eye wasn't pleasant to stare at and held in a sigh of relief as she moved away.
"What are you two insinuating?" He growled at them, the irritation directed more towards Mei-yin.
"Nothing that can't be seen." Mei-yin smirked. "I just thought the heavenly guardian would be a little more manly."
"Mei-yin! Stop being so rude." Mei-li chastised, though she herself was failing to hide her amusement.
"I told ya Shiro." Gin teased. "But what does that got ta do with lil'taichou here bein' worthy of your information?"
"Well who else would protect the world from the great disaster?" Mei-yin rolled her eyes as if the answer was obvious.
Toshiro sighed and finished his tea before speaking again. "If you don't know what the disaster is, how do you know that I'm the one you need to prevent it?"
"We just do." Mei-yin replied, pouring herself a cup of tea. She lacked the grace her sister had in the action and missed the cup slightly. "Ah, sorry Li. I keep forgetting."
Mei-li simply sighed and handed her a cloth. "One of these days you'll forget when it matters most. I keep telling you but you don't seem to remember."
"I know." Mei-yin nodded. "But that's what you're here for." She grinned before quickly emptying the cup. "Alright. Now that were acquainted how about a friendly spar?"
To be continued... possibly.