A/N: Thanks to ILuvsBakura for the most excellent beta.
Prologue: Three Years Dead
-Tatsuki-
Arisawa Tatsuki met Vice Captain Abarai about three years after her first and only day of highschool, when she'd died in the bombing that had killed almost the entire student body.
She had special permission to attend hakuda practice with the year's graduating class. He was scouting the class for his captain, looking for soon-to-be-shinigami with potential. She was the first one he approached.
"Oi, you!"
Tatsuki turned away from the door to the women's locker room, rubbing her bruised left shoulder.
"Yes? Can I help you?" Being polite to your superiors was even more important here than in the living world.
"What's your name?"
"Arisawa Tatsuki."
He ran his eyes down the list of sixth-years the faculty had supplied him with. "You're not on the list."
"I'm a second year student, fukutaicho."
"Then what the hell are you doing here?!"
She couldn't help grinning at him. This guy was actually kind of cute.
"Kicking ass, sir."
-Ichigo-
It was almost exactly three years after Kurosaki Ichigo died that he found the sword.
He'd been a topnotch fighter in the living world, but in Rukongai they had tricks that went well beyond dirty and weapons that were specifically designed for them. It didn't help any that they had ranged weapons as well. The day he'd found the sword, for example, he'd already had his wrist broken with a blackjack and his shoulder punctured with a frickin' CROSSBOW BOLT when he stumbled backwards into the alleyway under the force of a nasty punch to the face. He was pretty sure he passed out then, and there was a vague memory of a sideways world (being punched in the face does funny things to you), and when he came to his senses there was a sword next to him, and it felt just right in his hand when he picked it up. That was the first day Ichigo killed in Rukongai, but far from the last.
-Rukia-
It was three years and several months after she died that Kuchiki Rukia first saw Kurosaki Ichigo, though she didn't learn his name for a long time.
She was in uniform, walking through Rukongai for old times' sake, accompanied by the entourage that followed her whenever she left Seireitei. Said entourage had been provided with food to hand out. They might as well make themselves useful.
What first caught her eye about the young man standing in the alley mouth, backed by a nasty looking group of Rukongai's finest, wasn't actually his obnoxiously loud hair color. It was that he was that he was holding a sword. She noticed his hair after that and finally, as he turned and walked back into the alley, the look of pure hatred he gave her.
"I
donated myself to the Mexican army I don't know where
we're going from here Out
in the field there's no such thing as mercy I
don't know where we're going from here I donated myself to the Mexican army I wish I believed in divine destinations I don't know where we're going from here
We were 10000 guns shooting
into the night
Turning screams into sand and sand into blood
And
murdering darkness with fire and light
I'm just following orders
I don't know
how we'll conquer the king
This ain't my revolution
We bloom through the
night into flowers of death
"I don't believe any thing that
I've said"
Jesus was heard saying under his breath
I'm just following orders
I don't know how we'll conquer the king
This ain't my
revolution
I gave
all my love to a Mexican whore
I gave her my dreams and I gave
her my money
I buried my family under her floor I
don't know where we're going from here
I'm just following orders
I don't know how we'll conquer the king
This ain't my
revolution
I
wish I believed in a world made of light
The needles are biting
the arms of salvation
And the mexican army is trained and ready
to fight
I'm
just following orders
I don't know how we'll conquer the king
This ain't my revolution"
-"I Donated Myself to the Mexican Army"
--This Ainï't My Revolution--
Chapter One
-Tatsuki-
Secret Mobile Corps Junior Officer Arisawa Tatsuki circled the corpse of Eleventh Division member Toyoda Kenzou, then knelt down to inspect the deep slash to the gut that had killed him.
It was, to all appearances, just one of those things that happened every couple of years: Eleventh Division members go out to Rukongai because the sake's cheaper there, get drunk, start fighting and - this was the part that didn't occur on a regular basis - someone ends up dead. Being Eleventh Division members, the culprits typically saw this as perfectly acceptable, and were often too drunk to remember it clearly in any case.
Arisawa Tatsuki chose not to trust appearences. She wasn't sure what it was - maybe something about the residual reiatsu? - but something was off.
Tatsuki sighed. If this turned out to be just another Eleventh Division mishap she was going to be in trouble. Renji would undoubtedly be pissed at her for endangering her career.
She turned to her assistant, Saru Hanabiko.
"Contact the Fourth Division. I want a full autopsy on this guy."
-Ichigo-
Kurosaki Ichigo sighed, slipping off the mask and cloak he'd worn on his way to the abandoned house that was his base of operations. He'd lived here once when the Black Mask had been just starting out, but once people had started to pay attention to them that had gotten far too dangerous.
"Vasto Lorde," said a masked figure, bowing to him. Ichigo sighed. He really really regretted letting them come up with titles sometimes, though using them to further the gang's association with Hollows was a nice touch.
"Take off the damn mask, Botan, and stop fucking bowing to me."
"But - !"
"Mask off Botan." Botan was inordinately fond of anything that gave the Black Mask the air of a secret society. Ichigo despised anything that did the same. He'd only allowed the titles because the Mask was so big these days that they were necessary.
I'm starting to loose control of it, he thought, not for the first time.
"Are the other Adjuchas here yet?" Ichigo asked, placing the mask and cloak on a low, dusty table.
"Indeed, o great one!"
"Botan?"
"Yes, Vasto Lorde?"
"Shut up."
-----
Ichigo sat cross legged on the floor, across from the horseshoe formed by his nine lieutenants, holding his katana in his lap.
Aomori Yukio, the newest of the Adjuchas, was the first to speak. "I heard that a shinigami was killed in Rukongai last night," she said, sipping from the flask of tea she seemed to carry with her everywhere.
Ichigo nodded grimly. "He was drunk. Couldn't even release his zanpakuto. I'd be dead if he'd been sober."
"This is the first time one of us has killed a shinigami," said Yukio. She had the appearance of a ten year old girl, but Ichigo had seen her fight. She'd died in the bombing of Hiroshima.
"And this is somehow different from the regular people we've killed?" said Shioyama Jiro, twirling a knife in his left hand.
"Damn right it is!" said Tamaguchi Akira. "This is our first real blow against the shinigami!"
"We've been over this, Yamaguchi-san," said Ichigo. "The day we go up against the shinigami - at least when they're sober - is the day we all get killed.
"What you all seem to forget," he continued, leaning forward towards the Adjuchas, "is that we're just a gang."
"The biggest fucking gang in Soul Society!" said Yamaguchi.
"Yeah, sure, but that doesn't matter. We can stir people up as much as we want, but there's no way we can ever take down the shinigami. All we can do is try to force them to change their policies. Just be thankful they're never going to attribute a killing that was done with a sword to any one but another shinigami."
-Rukia-
Kuchiki Rukia set her empty teacup down and looked up at Captain Ukitake. He was staring out the window at the magnolia blossoms just outside.
"Why did you call me here, captain?"
He did not turn to her immediately. "Am I not allowed to simply invite a subordinate for tea, Kuchiki-san?" He turned his head, showing the gentle smile on his face.
"Of course, Ukitake-taichou, but I am sure you have some additional reason for requesting my presence today."
He turned to face her fully, still smiling, and nodded. "You have read the situation correctly. I want you to investigate something for me."
"Sir?"
Ukitake put his own cup down. "There is a gang in Rukongai: the Black Mask. They have been growing over the past few years and I would not be surprised if they were by now the largest organization in Soul Society other than the Shinigami."
"There have always been gangs in Rukongai, Taichou."
"Not like this. Not on this scale, and not this virulently opposed to the shinigami. As far as I know, they are not united in their views, but I know very little. I need your help, Rukia. I need you to find out more about the Black Mask for me. I cannot be sure, but I suspect that they are very dangerous."
"How could they possibly be a threat to us, Ukitake-taichou?"
The smile left his face. "The are no threat to the shinigami as a whole, but to the people of Soul Society and the independent operation of the thirteen divisions... Unless they are truly fools they will not attack us directly. But if they come upon the idea of cutting off our supplies..."
Rukia grimaced. "There would be reparations."
"Yes," said Ukitake. "And Aizen-soutaichou would undoubtedly use the opportunity to seize more power."