Hitsugaya has not been informed why, but he has been summoned to an emergency captain's meeting. "And here I thought things were going to be peaceful again….." he ran a hand through his spikey white hair. He hated the way things kept on showing up, the ryoka invasion, Aizen incident, bount invasion, zanpoktou rebellion; so many wars, so many battles. Most were within the same year.
It's been a year and a half since Aizen's defeat and things were going very smoothly in the 13 court guard squads. He was looking forward to the days that would resemble the ones before the Aizen incident; peaceful days where he could wake up whenever he felt like it, finish paper work in peace, look over his squad activities, get his afternoon nap, train, visit a few people here and there and only worry about Rangiku and her habit to get drunk, hide sake in his office, and not do her own paper work. Not worry for the life of himself and his men along with colleagues of his and constantly being sent out into the field, more paperwork than usual and more stress.
Yes, he was really looking forward those days. Especially since Momo has recovered from her wounds completely now, and she was acting like her old self. If Aizen is brought in a conversation, sure, she looks hurt and tries to get away from the subject, but she doesn't look miserable. He desperately wanted to hear her sweet voice again; in those days that he was sure were going to come.
He looked up as he saw squad 1's symbol on the large doors that lead to the room where captain's meeting are held, the atmosphere thick with anticipation. The guards opened the doors once they saw him, allowing him to enter the room. He saw that only Komamora, Ukitake and Kenpachi were missing as he walked over to his usual spot, sighing as he did so.
Shunsui, who saw his sigh, tried to cheer him up "Hey, don't be so down! I'm sure that Mayuri just accidentally spilled some experimental gunk in the fresh water supply again!" he said it merrily, Hitsugaya was wondering if he was drunk and he was the one who paid for Rangiku's drinks a little earlier.
"Hey! That was years ago, and it was that clumsy lieutenant of yours who knocked over the liquids!" Mayuri was pointing at Shunsui, his eyes slightly bulging and his teeth grinding. Kind of ironic, since Hitsugaya's lieutenant was the clumsy one.
"You call my Nanao-chan clumsy! I think of it as childish of you to blame my sweet Nanao-chan for your own mistake." Shunsui actually sounded very slightly angry, or displeased, rather. It was at about that time that Komamora and Ukitake filed into the room, with Ukitake coughing twice before he was in his spot.
"It's the truth! She should've stayed away from my experimental area, otherwise none of that would have happened!"
"You should really stop blaming people….." Shunsui was now lazily tilting his hat.
"I'm not blaming anyone, but the one responsible!"
Apparently Hitsugaya wasn't the only one who was fed up with the argument "That's enough! That is not what this meeting is about!" the head captain raised his voice in order to quell the fighting, and as if on cue, Kenpachi arrived not even bothering to make his footsteps a little quieter as he went to his assigned spot.
The head captain wasted no time in starting the meeting "I have called this meeting for one reason and one reason only." There was a pause, possibly because had to catch his breath "A kuseiko (eternal truth/force) has formed in the depths of hell."
Everyone was now looking at him wide eyed, most had no idea what a "Kuseiko" was but the word "hell" defiantly meant something bad. Very bad. It was always bad!
Kurosuchi was the one to speak next, in order to answer the question on everyone's mind "A Kuseiko is merely a rare object formed within hell from the agony, pain and spiritual power of the sinners that dwell within it. Now normally the responsible personnel in hell would make sure that such an even does not occur, but it seems that they failed at that duty. Mostly likely because of the espada we sent there along with their immense spiritual pressure."
Soi Fon wasn't pleased with the little amount of information he has given "Why is this object so dangerous? If it's enough to call an emergency meeting then it should hold some threat. Plus, if it has formed then why don't the "responsible personal" in hell fix it? What reason is there that we have to interfere?"
Kurosuchi eyed the captain "I wasn't finished you know….." he looked around the room before he spoke again "Once this kuseiko is formed, the residences of hell cannot see or sense it and even if they could, they cannot interact with it, their skin just passes through the material it's made out of. The reason it has been brought to our attention is because of the same reason we try not to allow it to form. The kuseiko manipulates space in such a way, that it threatens to tear into the same world that it's in parallel with, eventually ripping the universal tapestry completely, making one world the same as the other, merging, so to speak."
There was silence, and everyone was still looking at him. He sighed "You bunch really are simpletons! The world it is parallel with is the world of the living! The world of the living! The same world we have all sworn to protect! There is a reason that the gates of hell only open in the living world! Haven't you ever heard humans say "hell on earth"? Honestly where did you think it came from!"
Everyone in the room instantly knew the danger of the situation now and the severity of the consequences should they not be able to fix the problem in time.
"Then let us open the gates of hell so we can fix this!" Soi Fon was now ready for action.
"Like I said, the kuseiko manipulates space in its dimensional tapestry, we pretty much do the same when we open the gates of hell manually. Because of the way it is randomly manipulating space, opening a gate to hell is simply impossible! Even in the off chance that we could, the soul that ventures in will undeniably die!" Kurosuchi rolled his eyes as he said it.
"Then how are we supposed to solve this?"
"If we knew that then we wouldn't be here?" There was a silence. How were they supposed to fix the problem if no one could enter hell?
"Is it possible for a machine to interact with the kuseiko?" Normally people would be surprised that Hitsugaya would ask such a question, but then again, they were all out of ideas. This meant that they had to consider all possibilities.
"Unfortunately I'm not sure….I'm not even sure if I could even get a machine into hell!" Kurosuchi himself was falling under the pressure.
There was more silence, but then all of a sudden, a decision was made "I hereby order captain Kurosuchi to explore all options and possibilities of how to solve this problem and Captain Komamora, along with Captain Unohana is to assist him. All other captains are to inform all of the lieutenants of this incident and to answer any question they may have. Meeting dismissed!" the head captain banged his walking stick on the ground. Then one by one, they all filed out.
"Tch! Not even a fight is going on anymore! It's just a game of 'find the kuseiko'!" Kenpachi loudly muttered his discontent. Hitsugaya now realized that what Ikkaku said was true: The world could be ending and he wouldn't even care.
Hitsugaya then spoke to him, raising his head in order to look at him in the eye "You know captain Zaraki….if the world of the living ends, then no more hollows would want to come there. You and me will spend all day fighting weaklings despite how tired we are of them ." Zaraki winced, he scratched the back of his head to show how discontent with the fact he was "and that means the strong ones would want to go to the newly hell-ized world. The chances of you even being allowed to go there are close to 0%, the head captain is bound to seal the senkaimon. It really would be a shame wouldn't it? To spend all day fighting pest while the strong ones are completely out of your reach."
Zaraki now stopped dead in his tracks, and Hitsugaya knew right then that his strategy worked, Zaraki then used flash step to go somewhere.
"Are you sure we want him trying to "help"? He might cause trouble." Soi Fon walked next to him, a lot of captains have been paying more attention to him, due to the mass power he's been gaining at an almost unimaginable rate. His training has been paying off.
Hitsugaya looked respectfully at her "Despite how right you could be, we need all the help we can get. Besides; there just might be a miracle that Kenpachi actually gets an idea that just might work. I'm sure even idiots have their days…."
"Yes, you could be right."
"-and if worse comes to worse, we could ask Mayuri to open an unstable gate to hell and send him through it. Unlike us, he might actually pull it off." He said this half as a joke, and half serious. He was trying to lighten the mood.
Yachiru then appeared behind them with a happy smile on her face "Hey! Toshi is it true what everyone says that you were once in squad 8 with Kyouraku-san?" apparently what Hitsugaya just said was just a mere hint to her of his origins.
Soi Fon looked at her "I can tell you for a fact that he wasn't." she then looked at Hitsugaya "You really are quiet about that aren't you?"
Yachiru looked between them "Quiet about what?" she then gasped "Don't tell me he was with the stealth force! Or squad 2!"she said it excitedly.
For a moment both were quiet, this only encouraged Yachiru she was right, but she was proven wrong by Soi Fon "The stealth force; as its name suggest, is known for its ability to stealthily acquire information and silently execute chosen targets. Hitsugaya's zanpoktou is not of the sort. Not only is its attack not discreet, but its loud and it gives out spiritual energy like no one's business! Plus, if it's a sunny day he'll just cause a thunderstorm in the vicinity, it like him saying "hey! We're over here! Go ahead! Kill us!" and though this not a problem for squad 2 since a requirement of stealth and discreetness is not required, I can tell you right now as the Captain of squad 2 that he was not fit as a squad 2 member. I know because I do know the requirements." Soi Fon said it in a matter of fact way.
Yachiru was ultimately crushed; she was no closer to finding the answer everyone wants to know. "Well….then do you know where Kenny is?"
"He went somewhere using flash step once Hitsugaya said a few word of "encouragement" to him."
"Oh, really? Thanks!" and she was off, leaving both of them bewildered.
-x- (some time later)
"-So that's the situation as it is. If you have any questions you are free to ask." Hitsugaya has just finished telling Hinamori and Matumoto exactly what the meeting was about. He had to call Hinamori over in order to save time.
Hinamori felt her heart skip a beat once he mentioned "hell", the word that was only too familiar to her "So we currently have no idea how to fix this problem? At all?"
Hitsugaya looked at her, he noticed her sudden change of mood once he laid out the problem for her, which is understandable "No, Kurosuchi is looking for options and possibilities right now. Since its him we're talking about, I'm sure he'll come up with something." He was trying to kept things at least a little positive.
Rangiku looked short on breath herself "Even though the soul society isn't going to be directly affected by hell, isn't the balance of souls going to be disturbed once hell reaches the world of the living, or even destroy it at some point?"
"That effect is certain. If hell does reach that point we can only hope that the officers in hell have or will be going through some sort of action to prevent that. None the less, they can't save every soul, nor can we." Hitsugaya had to give it to them straight; he couldn't afford to tell them otherwise.
"How's the central 46 taking this?" Momo, as a lieutenant, had to ask questions herself in order to fully understand the situation.
"From what I've heard, they too are exploring all options. They're discussing on what to do next right now." Hitsugaya was looking straight at her.
That response made her heart fall, she knew that one option was already in their head, and they were bound to choose it unless some other option is available. The thought of it made her clinch her small hands in fist "So…what are we supposed to do?"
Matsumoto looked at her small friend, wanting to comfort her.
"All we can do is wait. But the head captain issued an order not to long ago that we're supposed to have our zanpoktou on our person at all times and that we're now in a state of emergency." Hitsugaya started walking toward the door "-we're also supposed to stay within our squad barracks until instructed otherwise and to inform all squad members of this situation." He opened the door gesturing for Momo to head back.
Momo silently got up and walked through the door way, her feet taking her toward her barracks, the path familiar to her. It took her awhile, but she finally realized that Toushiro was following her; he was matching her footsteps perfectly "umm…You don't have to follow me.." Momo's voice was gentle.
"I know, but since I'm going to be confined to my barracks as well, I thought that I might as well walk you to your home safely."
"Oh…" Momo had nothing to say to that, she liked his company.
There was silence between them before either of them spoke, it was Hitsugaya that broke the silence "You know…its not like the soul society is ending; even if the world of the living does end, and the creatures of hell find their way here, I will still protect you."
This made Momo stop.
"M-Momo…?" Hitsugaya wondered if he said something wrong.
Even if she did have his protection, it won't save her.
Even if she did have his protection, it would still be hell they were dealing with.
Momo continued walking "I really don't think there's a need for that." There was a moment before she added "I mean, I really don't think there's a need for you to say something like that this early, hell hasn't arrived on the world of the living yet." She turned back and smiled at him.