Chapter 1: Dark Skies
The Captain's meeting was nearing the end. Captain Hitsugaya was only half paying attention since Captain-Commander was currently briefing Captains Ukitake and Kurotsuchi on the formation of an investigational squad and it was quite boring. They were supposed to investigate the appearance of hollows with black mask that seemed to seek out and devour soul reapers only as opposed to all souls. Apparently Ichigo Kurosaki had encountered several already and while he had dispatched them easily they were giving weaker soul reapers trouble. Any other details were beyond Toshiro's notice for the moment. As Toshiro wondered what might turn a hollow's mask black it happened.
Suddenly reiatsu had appeared that had not been present a moment before. It seemed to be coming from the center of the room where no one was. Immediately Yamamoto stopped talking and every captain turned their eyes toward the empty center of the room save Captain Kenpachi who it seemed had not yet noticed. The reiatsu was fading in and out but it was definitely getting stronger. The reiatsu was also strange feeling. It was like if a normal person's reiatsu was a single color this reiatsu kept changing what tint it was constantly, unevenly, and, as far as Toshiro could figure, completely at random. Then in the center of the room a black sphere appeared. At this point Kenpachi finally noticed what was going on. The sphere was small but it didn't stay that way. It began to grow until it was at least 12 feet wide forcing most of the captains to jump backwards to avoid touching it. It then faded into nothingness revealing 2 people.
The first was a thin guy with dark skin. He was probably around 5'10". He had a small straggly goatee and small mustache. His hair was curly but not very long. All of his hair was jet black. He wore shihakusho like any normal shinigami but his seemed worn and old. He also looked tired.
The second was a girl who was somewhere around 5'7". She had light skin and brown hair that reached a little beyond her shoulders. She wore a shihakusho in a similar state to the guy's. But her most prominent feature were her several injuries. She had clearly just been in a vicious battle and she almost immediately collapsed to the floor.
In the time it took most of the captains to take this all in Captain Unohana was already treating the girl. The boy stood looking around the room apparently taking it all in and looking like he had been caught horribly off guard by his own sudden appearance. Soifon spoke first "Who are you and how did you come to be here?" It was said with an air of demand.
The boy responded "My name is Coal and I am here to warn you that you must immediately begin diplomacy with an organization known as The Order of the Black Mask in order to avoid a war. "
Soifon responded after a short pause "What is The Order of the Black Mask?"
Coal answered "A group mostly made up of former soul society members. They have been hiding their existence for over 100 years since they would be considered traitors."
"Why did they leave Soul Society?" This time it was Toshiro who spoke.
"The reasons vary. Many left because they were in some way unusual. Many of them were deemed dangerous for one reason or another."
"So it is a band of criminals?" Soifon had beaten Toshiro to the question.
"In Soul Societies eyes many of them are in some way unfit to be soul reapers."
"Perhaps an example would help." suggested Shunsui.
"One of the members destroys and absorbs souls when he kills them. It disrupts the natural cycle of souls moving between the human world and Soul Society, if his power had been discovered he would have been killed for sure."
"Well I would think so. He would be destroying the balance Soul Society seeks to maintain." Soifon said bluntly.
"Yes but if he tried to leave he would be imprisoned because he already had shinigami powers. He had no options due to his abnormality except leave."
"Even so, we can't negotiate with them. They are still traitors and possibly dangerous from the sounds of it." Soifon stated this with an air of finality and then added, "Where can we find them?"
"You intend to bring them in or exterminate them I suppose."
"Of course, but I suppose you have a problem with that."
"Yes as a matter of fact I do. I believe we should attempt a diplomatic solution because the other option is war. This war won't be easy, they are a powerful group. Casualties are sure to be high. I think you should all reconsider."
"I think that's enough. Are you going to cooperate with us?"
"In that case, no." Coal said as his hand casually drifted to the hilt of sword.
"Then you are under arrest." Said Soifon. Her hand was already on the hilt of her sword.
Toshiro stepped out in between Soifon and Coal." Let me fight him. I want to see just what it is that makes his reiatsu so odd." Toshiro had indeed been wondering about the disorderly state of Coal's reiatsu which was clearly the same reiatsu as the sphere he had so suddenly appeared from. Furthermore he had noticed that the girl's reiatsu seemed similarly chaotic. Though this was confounding it was not the main reason he wanted to fight him. Soifon might very well kill him immediately and Toshiro wished to inquire more about this Order of the Black Mask. When he heard no objections from Soifon he calmly drew his blade as Coal did the same. Coals sword was maybe an inch or 2 longer than Toshiro's own blade.
"I am Hitsugaya Toshiro, Captain of Squad 10."
"I am Coal formerly ranked 8th in The Order of the Black Mask."
The battle began. The first collision came with a crash. They had struck head on. They twisted and parted Coal came again but just as he came in close on Toshiro's left pull back never quite getting into attack range as Toshiro blocked needlessly. Toshiro pursued as Coal reversed direction to come at Toshiro again. Coal struck at Toshiro while keeping a healthy distance between them. Toshiro began to slash at him but immediately realized his folly pulling is sword back to defend from the counter attack Coal had launched by shifting himself around Toshiro's blade to the inside coming left shoulder first, despite being right handed, ready to stab with his blade. Toshiro deflected the hit and used his Shunpo(flash step) to get back and analyze the situation.
Toshiro had already found the first difficulty with fighting Coal. Coal was definitely faster than him. On the other hand despite his speed Toshiro had not yet been injured or even come especially close to being injured. It took a moment of thought to realize why but Toshiro could only come up with one explanation. "Your style is defensive, isn't it?" Toshiro was more stating than asking.
"Indeed, I would expect no less from a captain." Coal responded with a smile.
While this was expected there was still one thing Toshiro didn't get. Coal favored facing his left side towards Toshiro. This didn't make sense regardless of how you fought but he clearly did this regularly. He didn't have time to contemplate this further because Coal came at him again. It was an odd style even for a defensive stance to tell the truth. Coal kept a distance a little shorter than his sword between him and Toshiro a lot of the time maneuvering around Toshiro's blade to make attacks. It seemed like he was constantly a threat even though he must almost never land a hit. He also used his exceptionally fast shunpo to pursue Hitsugaya whenever he tried to put any distance between them.
Toshiro found himself locked in a close struggle with Coal for what had to be the 11th or so time when Coal at last said under his breath "I think it is time we got serious." Toshiro felt it before he saw it. Coal had Toshiro's sword pinned awkwardly close to his left shoulder and he gathered spirit energy into his fingers. With the call of" Way of Destruction 4 Byakurai (white lightning)" The white kido was fired almost point blank at Toshiro's chest. Toshiro was prepared having sensed it before hand and rolled sideways around Coal's blade to avoid it. As Toshiro came around the blade however he was met with a sight he did not expect: a glowing ball of red kido in Coal's left hand. "Way of Destruction 31 Shakkaho (Red Flame Cannon)." Toshiro pulled back quickly but had only one option to escape the attack. Soten ni zase Hyorinmaru (sit upon the frozen heavens Ice Ring). As the kido hit his sword steam exploded from the impact sending Toshiro sliding backwards almost into Kenpachi.
Toshiro was uninjured but still a little surprised. Coal had used 2 kidos with the same hand in extremely quick succession. This meant he must have been forming them at the same time. While this would not be beyond Toshiro's own skill level, it still surprised him that Coal was capable of it. For the first time Toshiro felt that his opponent might actually be quite dangerous if underestimated. Toshiro now also saw the last twist in his opponent's style: Coal used kido for offence when fighting with his zanpakto sealed. This meant that at the beginning of the fight Coal hadn't really been offensive at all but was merely sizing Toshiro up. Toshiro knew it was time to get serious.
Toshiro let fly an ice dragon from his sword and Coal used shunpo to dodge around it clearly ready to force Toshiro once more into short range combat. Toshiro however simply used another one of his ice dragons to force Coal away from him. Toshiro now sent his 3 dragons after Coal forcing him to dodge one, while blocking one with his sword, and destroying the 3rd with another shot of shakkaho. However the first dragon Toshiro had unleased doubled back at him from behind. It was coming at Coal's left side but Coal seemed unworried. He called out with a bit of excitement in his voice "Vallo obviam totus Atrum Custos". Despite that Toshiro had never heard this tongue before he could only conclude based on what happened next that this was the release of his sword.
A huge black shield had appeared on his left arm defending him easily from the dragon. His shield's shape was like you had put 3 circles together so they overlapped any holes and then stretched the bottom one's length to twice its width. Then you put a spike pointing outward from each circle nearly as about half as long as the circle they protruded from making the bottom spike quite large. Then laid 3 identical diamond shaped sapphires into it so that they each lay in the center of a circle and pointed at the center of the shield. Finally make this about 2 inches thick and slightly bowed outwards. The shield in total stood around 4'10" tall and was about 2'7" across at its widest point.
As Coal turned to face Toshiro, things finally made sense. He was use to letting his left arm lead because he was clearly used to having this massive shield protecting him on that side. He favored stabs because it made good sense for striking around his shield. Toshiro also noticed the lack of ice clinging to his shield despite having taken a direct hit from Hyorinmaru. It was now clear how formidable his defenses really were.
Toshiro attacked again. He let 2 dragons fly to the left as he faded right. Coal charged directly at Toshiro in response seemingly ignoring the 2 dragons. Coal rammed Toshiro with his shield and then attempted to stab Toshiro with his blade. Toshiro simply stepped back and blocked having maintained his balance despite the considerable force behind Coal's shield. Coal then used shunpo to Toshiro's left to avoid the ice dragons. Coal came again bringing his sword swinging around his shield forcing Toshiro to hold his Katana horizontal to both block the sword and avoid being rammed by the shield. Toshiro could feel Coal forming kido so he rolled left to keep Coal's shield between him and Coal's left hand. "Way of destruction 33 Sokatui (Blue fire, Crash Down)" Toshiro realized his mistake to late. The kido issued from the center of the shield instead of his hand cleanly hitting the left side of Toshiro's body. Thanks to Hyorinmaru being partially in the way and Toshiro's captain level reiatsu he wasn't badly injured but he was lightly burned on his left side.
As Toshiro stood facing Coal considering what he had seen he asked casually "Are you capable of bankai?" Toshiro feared the answer to this question greatly.
"Yes I am but you won't be witnessing it today." Coal responded calmly.
"Why not?" Toshiro inquired.
"Because I used its ultimate ability to bring me here, I won't be able to use my bankai for 24 hours." Coal responded bluntly.
"I'm sorry then."
"For what?"
"The fact that I am about to release my own bankai against you. You must understand, I have no more time for games. But before I do I must ask what is going on with your reiatsu? I have never felt anything quite like it."
"I was wondering if you would ask. All members of The Order of the Black Mask have reiatsu like mine."
"Why?"
"Due to the Oath of Chaos."
"Which is?"
"A powerful mark we all carry. Allow me to show you its power." Coal said this with a smile. Toshiro suddenly realized it was time to bankai.
"Way of Chaos 1 Solvo!"
"Bankai!"