Author's note: Hello, dear readers, I'm here with another short story collection. This one focuses on longer and more serious oneshots that don't fit into the Bleached Thoughts, which are for short and funny stuff. Tales of the Gotei 13 will be mostly Action/Adventure, Drama or Angst genre with only a side helping of humor. I hope you'll find them enjoyable anyway.
This collection focuses on the lives of Gotei 13 shinigami, both canon members and some original characters that appeared in my other stories On the Frozen Plain and Stinging Bee. If you are interested, you might find out what happened tosome of them here. For everybody who asked about a possible sequel to OTFP, I plan to post at least two oneshot that work as its sequel here. I won't post them until OTFP is completed.
That was enough rambling. Now on to the first story.
Tales of the 13th Division
Rukia's first Hollow Hunt
Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: T
Characters: Rukia, Kiyone, Kaien
"Are you sure?" the adopted Kuchiki princess asked, hoping that her voice didn't tremble too obviously.
"Of course," Kotetsu Kiyone, at the time co-Fifth Seat of the Thirteenth Division, nodded vigorously. "It will be good for you."
"But I've never done it before," Rukia protested.
"That's more the reason for you to go," her superior said. "You have to start sooner or later."
That was true, but Rukia would much prefer it to be later rather than sooner. It was still soon after she had been adopted into the Kuchiki family and placed into the Thirteenth Division. She was assigned to be Kotetsu-goseki's personal assistant, but so far her job consisted of helping the other girl with paperwork and drilling new recruits. But this? This was way outside her experience. She was sure that she stood no chance.
"I don't think I can do it," the young noblewoman said.
"Nonsense," Kiyone waved her hand dismissively. "You won't have to do anything. Just tag along and watch as I destroy the Hollow. It will be a good experience for you."
Rukia still wasn't convinced, but Kiyone was her superior, so she couldn't do anything about it. So five minutes later she trod miserably through the South Gate of Seireitei, following the slight brunette and thinking about what chance did she stand if she really had to fight a Hollow. Her performances during Academy exercises with dummies were far from stellar and though she passed them, she knew that the real thing was going to be worse than any dummy. She caressed the handle of her sword. The zanpakutou was every shinigami's most trusted weapon, but she wasn't any good with it. Months of training with Kaien-dono improved her skills from 'dismal' to 'poor,' but that was far below what was sufficient in battle. She felt she was still years away from discovering her zanpakutou's name. Her Kidou was powerful, but if she cast it without incantation, it wouldn't be enough to dispose of the Hollow. And she doubted she would have the time to chant the whole thing. She really, really hoped that Kiyone would be able to deal with everything they'd run into without her assistance.
Such were her thoughts when they finally arrived at their destination. Rukia realized it because Kiyone stopped so suddenly that she bumped into her.
"Sorry," the adopted Kuchiki said, but Kiyone ignored her. She didn't seem to notice the collision either.
"So now we're on the spot," she began. "The Hollow is somewhere nearby and we have to find it. To do so, we can follow its tracks or search for its reiatsu or track its scent or..."
Rukia tuned out Kiyone's chatting. They were at a known Hollow's haunt now. The situation was dangerous. They could get attacked anytime. She gripped the handle of her katana, prepared to draw it at a moment's notice.
Despite straining her senses to the max, when the Hollow attacked, it still came as a surprise. Rukia screamed when it pounced on her. Some of the reflexes drilled into her kicked in and she jumped away. She landed on bumpy ground and promptly fell. The Hollow turned to her, its yellow eyes burning into her violet ones. Rukia lay on the ground, helpless. She felt fear like never before. Then the Hollow shrieked as Kiyone's sword cleaved its head in two.
"See?" the Fifth Seat smirked. "I told you it was completely safe." Rukia felt a sudden urge to strangle her, but she didn't dare to get up. Her knees were too shaky to support her weight. She stayed on the ground, waiting for her heartbeat to return to normal.
"Now you survived your first battle," Kiyone said. Some battle, Rukia thought, but said nothing. She still didn't trust her voice. "We are going to celebrate." And then she grabbed the unresisting girl and dragged her into the nearest inn. The newly adopted Kuchiki thought it wasn't a bad idea. She could use a drink.
It was well after midnight when a mostly sober Rukia dragged a completely smashed Kiyone out of the sake house. Kiyone was leaning on her, babbling drunkenly about how awesome Captain Ukitake was, what moron Sentarou was and how she was so much better than him. Rukia did her best to ignore her, but it was hard with the Fifth Seat's mouth so close to her ear.
They could have stayed for the night, but Rukia didn't want to. What would Byakuya-nii-sama do if he learned that she had spent a night drinking in a rundown pub somewhere in Rukongai? Rukia was pretty sure that it was against some Kuchiki rule. That was why she barely drank anything after downing the first cup, letting Kiyone have the rest. And that was why she wanted to get back to Seireitei before morning, hoping that she'd be able to blame their latecoming on having to search for the Hollow. She hoped that she'd be able to blame Kiyone's current condition on some of its abilities too, in case the taller girl didn't sober up before they reached the barracks.
Halfway to the next district she realized that there were worse things to fear than Byakuya's wrath. Namely Hollows. She realized this when she felt the foul reiatsu nearby. We purified that one! she screamed mentally, initially thinking that the slain Hollow had somehow come back. But no. This reiatsu was different. It was another Hollow. And if Rukia wasn't mistaken, it was stronger than the last one. And Kiyone was now snoring on her shoulder, completely oblivious to the danger they was in.
Rukia dropped the inebriated Fifth Seat to the ground and drew her zanpakutou. She didn't even think of running. She couldn't run fast enough with Kiyone's weight slowing her down and leaving the drunken girl was out of the question. And she would probably just twist her ankle if she tried to run in this darkness through this forest. She had to fight. She found it strange that she wasn't terrified of the idea, given her earlier reaction to encountering a Hollow, but that might have been because of the alcohol still circling through her bloodstream. She assumed her beginning stance, facing the direction she thought the Hollow would come from.
Then she remembered that she was no good with a sword. How could she have forgotten? It must have been the sake. So what was she going to do now? Kidou was the obvious answer. Let's start with something simple.
She removed her left hand from the hilt of her zanpakutou and pointed it palm-out in the direction she felt the Hollow approaching from. Then she began reciting. "Ye Lord! Mask of flesh and blood, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!" As soon as she finished the chant, she heard the leaves rustle. "Hadou #31: Shakkahou!" she called, letting the orb of red light fly. There was a big explosion of fire and light. It revealed the Hollow standing ten paces away from where she thought it was, completely unscathed.
Damn it, Rukia swore. She had just wasted her best shot on a tree. But at least the tree caught on fire and the flames illuminated the scene, so she could now see what was going on. It was cold comfort. When she looked at the Hollow, she realized that she really didn't want to see this. It was gross. The Hollow Kiyone had purified earlier was a standard one, white mask, vaguely animal-like body with a hole and sharp claws. Scary, but not really ugly. This one was different. It had a white mask too, but it seemed to be twisted into a permanent conceited sneer. It reminded the girl of Byakuya. That filled her with dread. What if her brother found out she compared him to a Hollow? He would be so displeased with her. It was unlikely that he could read her thoughts, but with the captain of the Sixth Division she couldn't be careful enough.
She chased such idle thoughts away and concentrated on the rest of its body. The Academy taught that the shape of a Hollow's body can tell a lot about its combat abilities. How many limbs did it have? How did they move? How sharp were its claws? Did it have wings? Tail? Stinger? Did it have glands for shooting poison, acid or whatever? How would it most likely attack? Did it have some blind spots?
It had legs. Short and stout and a lot of them. Rukia couldn't tell how many exactly. They sprouted from its thick, cylindrical body in short intervals and they seemed to be struggling to support its massive bulk. The body was robust and long, ending in a short thick tail. The whole thing looked like some cross between a centipede and a salamander and it looked like it could move only at a crawl. But as the Academy instructors and later her colleagues in the Thirteenth reminded her countless times, a Hollow's appearance could be deceptive and often was. A shinigami who didn't want to end up as a Hollow's lunch had to assume that everything he or she guessed about the Hollow's ability was incorrect. And because Rukia had no desire to become some monster's snack, she had to count on it moving with lightning speed.
None of the above was the bad part. The really gross thing about it was its skin, if it could be called such. It looked more like a collection of burns, blisters, warts, zits, lesions and festering wounds. It stank. And it was covered in slime or pus. Rukia would bet her monthly wage that whatever covered its skin was poisonous or at least corrosive. She should avoid touching it.
Just as she finished her analysis, the Hollow attacked. It opened its mouth and shot out a long pale tongue. Rukia reflexively blocked it with her zanpakutou. The slime covering the tongue enveloped her blade. Then the Hollow retracted its tongue, pulling the zanpakutou with it. Rukia stared stupidly at her suddenly empty hands. Crap, she thought. She was unarmed now, there was a Hollow at large and Kiyone was still dead to the world. She wanted to kick the Fifth Seat awake, but she doubted it would help. The brunette hadn't even stirred when Rukia had dropped her.
The Hollow shot its tongue forward again, Rukia's zanpakutou still attached to it. Some reflex made her move before it could hit. She avoided the attack, but she was still defenseless. Wait, that wasn't true. She still had her kidou.
"Bakudou #1: Sai!" she shouted. The Hollow stiffened. Did it work? Rukia didn't wait to find out and quickly cast another spell.
"Hadou #4: Byakurai!" The bolt of white lightning grazed the Hollow's side. It had broken out of the Sai just in time to almost dodge. That wasn't good.
"Bakudou #1: Sai!" Rukia tried again. This time the Hollow didn't wait for the spell to his and sidestepped.
"Bakudou #4: Hainawa!" a rope of yellow light shot from Rukia's hands to the Hollow. She didn't really count on it having much effect and she was right. The Hollow dodged again. It really was deceptively fast.
Then the Hollow got bored with the dodging game and attacked. Its tongue shot towards the young Kuchiki princess again. And this time the zanpakutou still stuck to it pointed with its tip at her heard. Rukia barely dodged. That wasn't good. It seemed that the Hollows attacks were getting faster. She wasn't sure she could evade the next one or the one after that.
Ominous crackling sounded through the clearing. Was some deity of Soul Society letting her know that her time had come? No, she realized, the crackling came from the burning tree. Rukia got an idea. It was crazy, but she had already tried every sane option she could come up with.
"Hadou #31," she began and the Hollow tensed in preparation to dodge. She aimed her palm a bit to the side, making the Hollow dodge the other way. "Shakkahou!" she finished. With a swift movement she changed the direction of the fireball. The Hollow looked a bit confused when it saw that the ball of red energy would miss it widely. Then it seemed to smirk conceitedly. So the little shinigami missed. Shows just how pathetic she is.
But Rukia wasn't aiming at the Hollow. She knew that without full incantation a spell in the thirties level wouldn't be strong enough to harm the Hollow seriously. There was an explosion of light as the Shakkahou hit its intended target: the burning tree. With a loud snap, the trunk broke in two and the giant oak toppled down. The Hollow realized what was going on too late. The tree fell on top of it and trapped it under its branches. The Hollow roared in pain and looked with fear at the flames slowly crawling towards it. For the moment, it was trapped. Rukia just had to grab her zanpakutou and purify it before it got out. And she had to hurry, because the tree wouldn't hold it for long.
That was when she realized a fatal flaw in her plan: her zanpakutou was still stuck to the Hollow's tongue. She nearly panicked. What am I going to do now? It's going to kill me and Kiyone... Kiyone! The Fifth Seat, still sleeping obliviously and dreaming about arguing with Sentarou, still had her zanpakutou at her waist. Rukia laughed. She crunched down and grabbed the sleeping girl's katana. Then she raced towards the trapped Hollow. She was just in time. It had already broken most of the smaller branches holding it down and was now working on the biggest one. Rukia didn't give it time to finish. She lifted Kiyone's sword high above her head.
"Kiyaaaaa!" she shouted at the top of her lungs and swung the borrowed weapon down. It cut through the Hollow's mask and head like a knife through butter. The Hollow let out one last tortured shriek and dissolved into a cloud of black ashes. Rukia sighed in relief. She did it. She had purified her first Hollow. They were safe now. Well, expect for the beginning forest fire. Rukia tried to come up with a method to quench it for a moment, but came up empty. She had to get them both out.
She retrieved her sword from under the tree. Thankfully the slime had disappeared along with the Hollow, so her weapon wasn't too gross to touch. She sheathed it quickly and returned Kiyone's sword to her. Then she draped the prone girl over her shoulders and headed towards Seireitei.
The sun was about to rise when she finally reached the Thirteenth Division barracks. She was sure that the trip into Rukongai didn't take them this long. It probably was because she was so tired. The battle took a lot out of her and Kiyone was heavy, even if she didn't look that way. Now if she managed to sneak the still sleeping Kiyone into her quarters before anybody noticed them, she could pretend they had returned much earlier than they really did.
"You're up early, Kuchiki," a cheerful voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Kaien-dono!" she exclaimed.
"You look tired," the lieutenant observed. "As if you didn't get enough sleep. Where were you?"
"I accompanied Kotetsu-goseki on her Hollow-hunting mission." Facing Kaien, all her intentions of deception crumbled. She couldn't lie to him.
"So how did it go?" Shiba wanted to know.
"The Hollows were purified," Kuchiki answered.
"What happened to Kiyone?"
"Uh... well..." Rukia didn't know whether she should rat out her superior for being drunk, but then she realized that Shiba-fukutaichou could see it. "Well, she insisted we have to celebrate killing the first Hollow and..." she shrugged. She didn't want to go into details.
"You said she got drunk after killing one Hollow? But there were more?" Kaien questioned.
"Well, it was like this:" and Rukia started telling the full story. Kaien listened intently.
"Good work, Kuchiki," he said with a smile. "You said the Hollow looked really gross? Did it perhaps have a V-shaped mark on the chin?"
Rukia tried hard to remember. It had been hard to see such details in the firelight and constantly moving shadows, but now that she thought about it, there had been something on its chin. "Yes," she nodded. "It had such mark." Or her memory was playing her tricks on her.
"Whoa," Kaien said in awe, "that sounds like the Hollow was Sleaze-V. A dangerous one. It killed a shinigami before."
"R-really?" Rukia was hit by a sudden sense of dread. She began shaking. The bout of courage granted by the sake had disappeared alongside the traces of alcohol in her blood and she now realized just how close she had come to death. Then she felt Kaien ruffling her hair. She looked up at his grinning face.
"Why so scared, Kuchiki?" he asked. "You won, didn't you?" She nodded mutely. Kaien's gesture made her feel better, but a part of the dread was still there. "It means you have talent, if you killed such a dangerous Hollow on your first try. That should be nurtured. You know what? From now on, you'll be going with us Hollow hunting more often."
Going Hollow-hunting again? Rukia's heart nearly stopped. Would she have to face such monsters, and possibly even more dangerous ones, on regular basis from now on? Oh please no!
"Why so scared?" Kaien questioned. "There will always be an experienced shinigami to protect you. You wouldn't have to fight for your life."
"You know, that's exactly what Fifth Seat Kotetsu said," Rukia pointed out.
"Don't worry," the fukutaichou reassured her, "most officers know better than to get drunk."
"Somehow, this doesn't reassure me any."
"You'll be fine," he smiled. "You're strong, Kuchiki."
Rukia just nodded. She could see that arguing was pointless. Kaien-dono had already made a decision and she couldn't change it. She could only hope that she would live up to his expectations. And if not, then she hoped that she would at least live.