A/N
Hello. This is my first fanfic in English. I hope I could improve my English while writing this fic. If you wouldn't mind, please be kind to point any strange sentence or typos or anything... I would appreciate it very much :)
*o*o*o*
Chapter 1
Strange Blue Clouds
*o*o*o*
Akon knocked on his captain's office door hurriedly. He brought a very thick report on his hands—maybe that's what made him spunkier than ever . After waiting for a while, a bored answer finally replied, "Come."
Kurotsuchi Mayuri sat on his 'throne', as usual. His hands danced on the piano-like keyboard much like an evil organist doing an evil piece of orchestrated music. How much time, Akon wondered... how much time he had spent on his giant computer? Hours, maybe days? Weeks, even? And then there's his daughter. The famous Kurotsuchi Nemu. The silent fukutaichou always stood by Mayuri's side, dutifully obeying every command spoken by his captain.
The two most powerful and respected persons on Shinigami Research and Development Institute. Akon felt his pride swell by serving these two strange... shinigami. Yes, the two of them were strange, but no doubt absolutely amazing.
"Well, Akon? Spill. I don't have forever to wait for you," Kurotsuchi-taichou scold him harshly without diverting his attention from the colorful big wide screen in front of him.
Akon gulped, and said, "Aah, gomenasai, Taichou. But I finally matched all the reishi patterns from the weird soul from a year ago, detected by the WS-UK soul radar."
"That soul, hmm?" His Taichou asked, absentmindedly humming. This prompt Akon to nod and continue.
"Yes. And the result is... astonishing, if not confusing."
Now the Taichou finally giving his attention to his third seat. His painted face was screaming "I'm bored!" with just a tiny little bit curiosity on it. Maybe he's thinking that Akon's 'confusing' report was just a child's play to him, and Kurotsuchi-taichou must be really wasting time with this.
Yet he opened the report anyway, and read it silently. Time was passing by so slowly... But the moment Akon had hoped finally came—his Taichou's eyes seemed to widen. Frowning, Kurotsuchi raised his head from the report and asked, "Is this all true?"
Akon nodded excitedly. "Yes. I have matched five similar cases in the last millenium. All of the six case, including this case, have very low Reiryoku, below the standard of a normal human being. Six of them have a very different pattern of Reishi from Shinigamis, humans, Quincies, or any other type of beings, but at the same time the Reishi pattern of the six were almost identical with 97,23% match rate. This is the prove of the occurence of—"
"—splitted souls..." Kurotsuchi-taichou said, with a tinge of a dreamy note that was very out of his character. He didn't care if he interrupted Akon's speech, but neither did Akon himself. After a moment of silence, he hummed again and said, "Very well. A for the reward, I will give you a week."
"L-le gasp!" Akon unconciously exclaimed. A week of holiday, all for himself! This... this was totally unexpected... he knew that the work he had done was impressive, but not that impressive that he earned himself a week of no work! Even three days is more than enough for him. "Thank you so much, Taichou!"
"Now get out. If you scream in front of my door, I'll swap you kidneys again, and there will be no reward, too," his Taichou threatened dismissively.
The third seat nodded vigorously, and exited the office, staggering. Akon was more scared at the prospect of getting no reward at all over kidneys swapping, though.
*o*o*o*
Meanwhile inside the office, Mayuri was re-reading the report again. His smile—the wicked version one—was slowly creeping wider and wider. "Splitted souls," he repeated, as if he was trying to convince himself over this wonderful prospect. "This kind of case had never been occured for the last 291 years. Oh, I never dreamt that I could dissect something as magnificent as splitted souls! The oldest, most ancient and brilliant, but at the same time, dumbest technique ever invented..."
Nemu clung her head slightly to the other side. "Mayuri-sama, if this technique is indeed dumb, then why must we pursue the person, Sir?"
"Haven't I told you that you could to speak only after I'm done speaking?" he scolded her, harsh. Nemu bowed her head, mumbled a soft formal apologize for the 'lack of obedience'—at least according to Mayuri. "Foolish, such a foolish simpleton. As your creator I'm disappointed that you cannot conclude a quick logical explanation from this occasion! I will tell you, but this is just because I'm feeling rather generous. A man who had done this kind of technique, Nemu, can be considered immediately as a Type V target."
"... dangerous, wild, and had to be seized immediately in order to protect the balance of Human World and for the progress of science as a test subject," she answered, nodding in agreement. Of course, a man with a simple life could almost have no possibilities to possess the ability to perform a technique that was considered 'brilliant' by Mayuri. Or even thinking to perform it. "Understood, Mayuri-sama."
"Finally, it's about time your shrimp-sized brain could munch this information," Mayuri sighed a little too wearily, and read the report again. Suddenly his eyes caught something interesting written in the report. He frowned hard. "This Reishi pattern... hmm... Nemu, open the UK-RP archive and search for file number 7," he ordered.
"Hai, Mayuri-sama."
When the said file was given to him, he greedily opened them and began to study it, hard. Time still passed by slowly. And Nemu just stood behind him, as silent as the wall behind her.
"I see..." Mayuri finally said, while touching his chin. "But who should I sent to capture this soul?" Mayuri began to rise from his big comfy chair that looked like a throne and began stride around his office—an indication that he was now thinking very, very hard. "Akon? He's good, but those humans there will be terrified by his appearance..." He then mumbled something about weak humans and a weird occult community. "... 4th seat? Huh, he's a twiddledumb. 5th? 6th? Twiddledumbers. And everyone else are twiddledumbest, dumb beyond any imagination..."
As always, Nemu stood there in silence. Oh, she's always been like that. She said nothing as her precious father—master—ranting about any topic he had choosen to ramble about. None of her opinions matters, anyway. Mayuri didn't need any additional theories or whatsoever—his mind was already great enough to do just fine. So why bother?
"I certainly have to choose someone who will understand the complicated way to transport a damaged soul fragment safely..." he said slowly. "Any Shinigami from another division can't do that." He shook his head, he mumbled something incomprehensible... His brain was calculating every single possibilities and probabilities...
And at that moment, the sharp gleam of Mayuri's golden eyes landed to his own daughter.
Nemu felt her adrenaline hormone risen. Nervousness? But why? She felt it, but she didn't understand it.
"That place, huh?" Mayuri murmured and touched his chin in a decisive manner. After a full five minutes, he began to rise from his seat and glanced at Nemu. "Come. We must meet the Soutaichou this instant. A written permission for this kind of mission just won't be enough."
"Hai." She nodded and followed Mayuri outside. Every kinds of question about what kind of mission he was thinking, or why they must meet the Soutaichou, or why did her father refered the place as 'that place', Nemu absolutely didn't dare to ask any of that. Patience is a virtue, especially if it involve something that has a high possibility to raise her captain's anger.
*o*o*o*
And now Nemu understand why he refered the place as 'that place'.
Because, 'that place' turned out to be a place that was so far, far, far, far, faaaaaaaaaar away.
The Supreme Commander of The Thirteen Court of Soul cast a weary look at the weird makeup of Kurotsuchi Mayuri beneath his closed eyelids. He sighed. "A mission? To... England?"
"Yes, Soutaichou," Mayuri didn't even refrain himself from grinning gleefully. "Splitted souls, Soutaichou! A case—and a rare one, mind you—that is a very serious violation of laws. For example, the Law of Souls paragraph 38 clearly states—"
Soutaichou held his hand in an almost defeated manner. Mayuri grinned wider. Throw this Gotei 13 grandpa a set of rules from Central 46, and he won't be able to tolerate it for even a minute. Mayuri really love to abuse this weakness of him everytime. Maybe there was something in those crap that always upsetted Yamamoto. The kind of crap that didn't even manage to save Central 46 themselves against Aizen's cold Kyouka Suigetsu. "And who you might choose to undergo such mission?"
Mayuri hesitated and his grin faltered a little bit. But he answered nonetheless, "Kurotsuchi Nemu."
If an eyebrow could be furrowed higher than Tokyo Tower, Soutaichou's eyebrow might be higher than that. A slit of his eyes opened. Surprise was evident all over his elder features. And even that is an understatement. Yes, Kurotsuchi Mayuri was notorious for his actions to his own daughter. But very few people, like Soutaichou, noticed that he never, ever, let her alone for just more than a day. It as if the poor female shinigami was all his to use and abuse... even if that was the real case. He could never live a day without her, and maybe, just maybe, she could never live without him either. That's why he never set her free.
Until now.
Yamamoto cleared away his throat and his confusion. "Very well. Permission granted. Judging by the nature of the mission, there will be no violence needed, except if the situation permits, or if the mission cannot continue without violence." He snapped a finger, summoning a Hell Butterfly which came shortly and then landed on his fingers. After the message was done, the Hell Butterfly flew, leaving a thoughtful Soutaichou, a Twefth Division Captain who began to grin again, and a silent female Fukutaichou.
A moment later the three shinigami felt a familiar reiatsu coming really fast toward the first division's barrack. The door knocked once, and after Soutaichou said, "Enter!" another man came in. His shinigami robes were highly customized. But the strangest thing from his appearance was his moustache—it's color was black, contrary to his already grey hair.
Who's dumb enough to actually dye his hair grey? Or worst, dye his moustache only?
"Nemu."
"Yes?"
Mayuri nodded his chin very slightly to the newly-arrived shinigami. And Nemu understood right away that he was asking for his name... again. "It's Sasakibe Choujirou-fukutaichou," Nemu whispered back to him. Mayuri nodded once in acknowledgement, his face was scowling. He really hate difficult names, even more so if the person was not so useful to him.
Sasakibe tried hard not to cry lamely again after he heard Nemu's whisper—a clear reminder that nobody seemed to remember his name. He bowed to the Soutaichou and asked, "Yes, Genryuusai-dono?"
"Teach the fukutaichou of twelfth division about the customs and cultures of England... how to live in England without drawing suspicion. Make sure you cover every part of it."
"Gladly," Sasakibe agreed eagerly upon Soutaichou's order. Apparently, teaching another shinigami about the country he highly adore was... exciting, to say the least. "Well, shall we begin now?"
Mayuri almost snapped when he involuntarily blurted out, "Now?"
"Of course. English customs are very different from us, Kurotsuchi-taichou. I'm afraid if we don't start immediately, Kurotsuchi-fukutaichou will never catch up with the date of her leave. If I'm not mistaken, she will be on a mission to England...?"
I suddenly really want to strangle this man's neck, Mayuri thought, but nodded anyway. Soutaichou probably could read the fluctuation of his reiatsu. Damn these emotions—especially all of the emotions connected to Nemu's sudden departure. He never like it if his daughter was suddenly taken away without a proper permission from him.
"And now," Soutaichou glanced at Mayuri's direction again. "You said that the location is still undetermined?"
The twelfth division's captain sighed, long, as if he was facing a toddler. The man was so full of intelligence that for over a century he had found a very nasty habit of mocking every single shinigami who couldn't match his IQ, even Soutaichou himself. He replied with a bored tone, "No, not 'undetermined'. In fact we have the exact coordinates. We just want to clarify if the location is correct. But we are... well, we're didn't have any personnel to do that kind of task." There is a hint of gloom in his tone, and he continued, "So I ask for your permision to assign a Shinigami from Gotei 13 who knows human world well, to make us sure that we... hit the right spot."
All of this was a little bit embarassing. The Tweltfh Division was a division full of researchers, not fighters. This fact often made the captain slightly frustrated. Weak, weak, weak Shinigamis! That's why he invented the flesh bombs so he could make them more useful.
"If I may give any kind of suggestions... Hitsugaya Toushirou from the Tenth Division fits this simple task," he continued, without any display of malicious intent. Or so Soutaichou thought. Yes, that was a good idea. Mayuri would definitly love this.
The old man nodded. He snapped his fingers again, and sent the orders flying through the walls and walls of Reishi...
*o*o*o*
The cold here was really nice. Toushirou smirked.
But that smirk contained both satisfaction and frustration.
Those imbeciles of RSDI. How could they possibly send him to nowhere? They said the place must be very crowded because the results of their reiatsu detector machines said so. Well, those stupid clowns of Twelfth Division should repair their useless machines. Because all he could see everywhere... was ruins.
Ruins.
Ruins.
Flowers.
Ruins.
Forests.
Oh, look, an owl.
And more ruins.
His scowl went deeper until his eyebrows connected each other. Was it possible if those ruins gathered so much reiatsu that could fool a RSDI researcher? Well, no human is perfect. And so does the shinigami researcher. But their captain was smarter... wasn't it?
Or is this some kind of trick Kurotsuchi pulled at Hitsugaya Toushirou?
Yeah, that could be it. Maybe he's still mad because Toushirou did nothing to punish Matsumoto after she spilled two big bottles of sake over Kurotsuchi's haori, said she just want to cheer up that clown captain a little bit. Well she was drunk, so drunk that she forgot to respect her superior... but Toushirou found it a little bit funny anyway, so he let her go without any punishment except for those damned paperworks. After all, what's life without a little fun? Even a serious captain like Toushirou would like to experience a little fun sometimes. If not rarely.
But sending him to England as a payback? Really, how low Mayuri could be? To hell with this so-called 'splitted souls' mission. Toushirou felt like he could explode any moment.
Yes. He. Was. Angry. And he hate it if he's angry. He preferred to have a cold fury rather than angriness. Hot-blooded angriness. Maybe storming his way to Tweltfh Division's barrrack would help ease it.
'Calm down.'
He stopped. Those voice...
'Angriness will lead you to accomplish nothing. It will show you nothing.'
Toushirou sighed deeply. And slowly nodded. "You are right," the white-haired captain whispered in agreement. Hyourinmaru's words of wisdom never bore him, and they were—just as he said—always right. He silently thanked him and the Soul King who granted him a wise Zanpakutou.
He glanced at those ruins again. Maybe they were right about the place. But... what if he can't see it? Yes, splitted soul is not something to show to everybody. It makes sense now. There was only one thing to do to confirm it. The Tenth Captain then performed Reiraku.
He closed his eyes, quickly materializing any Reiryoku thread nearby. And the result stunned him.
It turned out that those RSDI researcher were correct. There were hundreds, hundreds of threads visualized, surrounding him like clouds of soft cotton.
But those those threads were not white-colored, like the usual color of a Human's thread would have. They're not red either, like any Shinigami's thread.
They were blue. Strange blue clouds of soft cotton, poking his body from everywhere around him.
How is this possible? Is this... a new species the Soul Society didn't discover yet? Many questions formed in his white-haired head. Maybe going to the location of one of the person—or being—who had this strange Reiryoku would help. Toushirou grabbed one of the thread and followed the direction it gave him. He decided to use shunpo.
It lead him to a forest. A big one. And old, he could smell it on the giant trees. Very different from the forests he saw before. Strangely, it almost had a magical feeling in it...
"Halt!"
In one fluid movement, out of reflex, he unseathed Hyourinmaru and pointed it at a group of man with the legs of horses. They all carried a bow and an arrow, ready to be fired at the captain.
... wait, those are... centaurs? Do they guard this place from outsiders? What a weird choice of guardians. Well he shouldn't be surprised like he was now. England was a weird country with a plenty of weirder creatures.
"What is it that you want here?" One of those centaurs spoke. An air of wisdom flowed around him. The leader, Toushirou thought.
Almost five minutes passed without any one of them making the first move. Of course, as a prodigy, Toushirou could easily defeat those centaurs. But it will draw attention from those blue Reiryoku thread owner, and that was a condition he certainly cannot allow. Secrecy is one of Shinigami's priority.
Finally, he sheathed his sword reluctantly. If he could squeeze information from these centaurs without any violence involved, it would be great. He would prefer a civil talk rather than a blood bath, anyway. Toushirou was certainly not a fan of Kenpachi's way of thinking.
He put both of his hands in the air, letting them know if he didn't want to go down the path of violence. The centaurs lowered their weapons, but only a bit. "Do you... understand what I say?" Toushirou spoke with an uncertain English, almost no accent. Shinigami had to speak English perfectly, you know. Even if they had a Japanese culture, their jurisdiction didn't always centered inside Japanese borders.
"Yes," the leader answered with the same amount of uncertainty. The creature was still measuring him as a threat or not.
"Can I ask you some questions?" he asked.
They lowered their bow even more at this questions, and glanced at each other. Maybe they were feeling a mix of suspicion and confusion. Toushirou can't really determine their facial expressions. "It depends," the leader of the centaur answered.
Toushirou nodded, and proceeded to ask them. "Is there any building here?"
"Yes."
"What kind of building?" he asked, not realizing he was frowning deep.
"A castle."
"A castle?" That was strange... so he entered a kingdom? Is this some kind of prank? This kind of some Renaissance game was not that funny, if somebody asked him. He asked again, "What kind of activity would occur in that castle?"
"Teaching activities."
That was unexpected. "Do you mean... a school?"
"Yes." The leader nodded.
"What is this school teaching?"
"Magic."
Riiiiiiiight. "Magic... so it's a magic school, teaching magic to... wizards... and witches." He was more stating it to himself rather than talking to those centaurs, but the leader replied anyway.
"That is correct."
Toushirou glanced at them suspiciously. Were they lying? Of just want to screw his mind? Or stating the truth? Centaurs are considered a wise being, and lying was not in their character. Maybe there was a castle there, hidden in plain sight. Or not so plain anyway—Toushirou almost didn't notice at first, right? Maybe if he could get closer... "Can I see it?"
The leader contemplated at this, and pierced a long stare directed to him. "Only if you could," the leader finally said. "And if you swear you would do no harm to it."
This time the Tenth Division Captain nodded seriously. "I swear."
The leader glaced at the other centaurs and nodded his chin to Toushirou. They immediately surrounded the short taichou and guarded him, preventing any kinds of offensive attack or escape. "Right this way," the leader said, and walked through the forest. The centaurs, with Toushirou in the middle, started to follow him.
This was so bizzare. It's like attending a weird centaur's parade with Toushirou as the center of attention. Every other creature in that forest now suddenly shown up and stared hard at Toushirou—birds, squirrels, wolves, skeletal horses, giant eagles with claws and horse legs, unicorns, giant spiders... you name it. He sighed, but not protested. He hate it when he became the center of attention, but he hate it more if he agitated a group of paranoid centaurs.
The trees slowly lessening, and the smell of forest slowly disappearing too. After a while, they could hear a "Halt!" from the leader in front of them, and stopped. The sight in front of him made him stunned for the second time today.
A massive castle made from stone stood gracefully with green yards and a gleaming beautiful lake. It's not just massive, it's... super massive. Gargantuan. Leviathan. Stupendous, and very royal. Toushirou could almost breathed the magic humming from the castle. It even seemed to scratch the sky—no wonder it was so grey this afternoon, the sky could almost feel the pain of being shoved all the time. People with robes of different colors—witch and wizards, Toushirou supposed—was walking here and there, chatting to themselves. The lake itself was enormous, and smooth like glass. Sometimes the glassy surface distorted a bit when some squids responded the shriek of owls flying above them.
All in all, it was very... "Beautiful," Toushirou said without realizing.
The leader nodded. It was time for them to withdrawn to the woods before anyone spotted them. They finally reached a safe place, and turned their gaze to Toushirou, expecting him to say something.
The said shinigami just coughed a bit and bowed to them. "Thank you for the information," Toushirou said. And then he turned his back to go outside the territory of the centaur, intended to report his findings quickly to Soutaichou and also to that clown face.
But hordes of centaurs blocked his path. Behind him, the leader stated, "As an exchange for our information, we want some answers as well."
He cursed his luck. No wonder he gave him so many informations. Toushirou turned his body to face the leader of the creatures, and nodded stiffly.
The leader smiled almost victoriously. "What do you want here?"
"I want to see the building." There's no point in lying, anyway.
The centaur squinted his eyes. "How do you know there was a building here?"
"Using a technique," Toushirou confessed.
Now he was a little bit intrigued. "What kind of technique?"
Toushirou smirked. "The one that you won't be able to perform," he answered.
Clearly, that was unexpected. That answer made him grunt in annoyance, but he accepted his answer anyway. Centaurs can't do wizard's tricks too, so maybe the strange white-haired person did use some kind of technique they won't be able to perform. Still, he clearly not satisfied with that answer. "Where do you come from?" he asked.
Toushirou pondered for a little while, and decided to take the risk. "Soul Society."
The leader blinked. "Soul... Society," he repeated, as if to convince himself. "Is that where the souls of afterlife reside?" he asked.
This time it was Toushirou who blinked, but he quickly regained his cool. Let that fool believe what he wanted to believe. "Yes. But those souls reside on the other places in the world too, right?" he shot back, implying a false statement that the Soul Society could be anywhere in this world.
"We are the one asking questions, not you," the leader was pissed. Looks like he bought that false implication. Wow, this was satisfying. Thank Kami Toushirou was one of the best pokerfaced-captains in the Soul Society. "Where is this Soul Society?"
"A place you will never found no matter how hard you try." When the leader looked even more pissed, Toushirou added, "It's the truth, anyway."
After taking some deep breath, the leader of the centaurs finally could settle down his raging emotions. "Are you a Soul Mage?"
Toushirou shook his head. "Never heard of it. And certainly not one."
He received a long, long look from the leader. After a while, the leader began to whisper, "What... are you? You looked like a human, yet you are not one. You smell like one but you definitely not one. And your power... your power is alien to us."
A smug smirk appeared across Toushirou's lips, and he said, "I'm asking you 7 questions. And I already answered 7 questions. Your chance is over. Now I'm taking my leave. Good bye, and thank you again for your informations." Toushirou quickly bowed to them, and disappeared with a flash of shunpo, leaving an angry pack of centaurs behind.
When he finally got out from the magical forest, he glanced behind him. All he could see was ruins... again.
How meticulous, these 'magicians'. Hiding a castle full of magical children was not an easy task, yet those teachers succeed. He shook his head.
Then he jabbed his sword in the air, opening himself a Senkaimon that would lead him straight to first division's barrack. Toushirou left in a single leapt of Shunpo—unsuspecting a wary glance directed at the frosty taichou, miles and miles away. That man—or woman, one couldn't tell clearly—sighed wearily. Those lips trembled as it whispered in a half fear and half fury, "The shinigami... are here? Sousuke Aizen, you bloody bullocks..."
*o*o*o*
A/N
Mayuri remembers people according to their usefulness. I think it's horrible, yet strangely effective for him.
Do you like it? Is it worth continuing? Do you have any suggestions and/or critics to improve this story and my writing? Please be kind to leave review :) If you want me to continue this story, please give me a few weeks or maybe months to finish it. If not, then... uhh, I'm trying not to be a pessimistic...
PS: 'Nemu' is a homonym for 'silk tree'. Hence the title :)