Prologue – Turn Back the Pendulum, Aftermath
"Hurry, hurry, HURRY UP!" screamed Murasaki as we ran through the halls.
"Shut up, just run!" I bellowed back in an obviously labored voice. I decided it was better to conserve my strength for running than arguing with Murasaki. I wasn't as fast or strong as he was.
"If we get in trouble again, I'm going to KILL you!" Murasaki shouted at me again with exasperation, and then started sprinting even faster. It took everything I had just to stay on his heels. Why were we running so fast? We would be late for class regardless. Takemura-sensei would have our heads whether we were ten minutes late or one second late. Maybe he would be extra strict today because we were having a guest lecturer. Rumor had it that it would be someone from the Gotei 13. Kenzai heard from one of his sources that it would be a Captain. I had laughed at him. A Captain? Speaking to an Academy class? Surely they had more important things to attend to than talking to a group of brats who weren't even real Shinigami yet.
We turned a corner, and all that remained was a straight stretch until we reached our classroom. But as I prepared myself to use the last of my strength to speed down the hallway, I suddenly came to a halt. The hall was packed with our classmates. Everyone was standing around, whispering, with worried looks on their faces. As I paused to catch my breath, I looked at Murasaki. He was as confused (though not as breathless) as I was. "Was everyone late for class today?" he asked me. Takemura was famous for locking the door to the classroom as soon as his class started, often leaving any students arriving late stranded outside. If you were lucky, you could hear the mumbling from inside the room if you pressed your ears to the door.
"I don't think so," I replied. "This is our entire class. There's no way he'd shut everyone out." Suddenly, I saw a flash of blonde hair amidst the haggle of bodies. "Hey, Kayuya!"
The blonde girl turned, and upon recognizing us, walked over to where we stood. She gave us a disapproving look as she crossed her arms. "Late, as always," she admonished. I playfully smirked back. Kayuya had been friends with Murasaki and me since our days in the Rukongai. Being the oldest one in our group by a couple years, she took it upon herself to be the responsible one. As children, that meant making sure we had food to eat as orphans running around in the Rukongai, and as students in the Shinigami Academy, making sure that we were doing our work and properly training to become Shinigami.
"You're just as late as we are," retorted Murasaki. That comment made Kayuya's flowing blonde hair bristle.
"Don't compare me to the two of you!" she exclaimed, with a stern look in her dark brown eyes. "I've never been late for a class, unlike you slackers. In fact, I was the first one here today, and I found the door locked when I got here."
"Do you know why?" I asked. "We still have class, right?"
"Yes, you dummy, we're still supposed to have class," she said. "I don't really know what's going on. It's not like Takemura-sensei to not give us any notice for canceling class."
"It's not like Takemura to cancel his class in the first place," muttered Murasaki. "You don't have any idea what's going on?"
"Not really," replied Kayuya. "I tried to ask around for information , but I didn't have any luck. I did send off—HEY, KENZAI!"
I turned my gaze behind me, to the person Kayuya was shouting at. Standing behind Murasaki and me was a small and squirrely-looking boy. He was playing with his messy, black hair that was styled to look like a broom. His black eyes darted around suspiciously, and as he licked his lips with his long, skinny tongue, it was as if he was searching for things to steal. This was Kenzai, another one of our classmates. Kenzai was also a Rukongai brat like Murasaki, Kayuya, and myself, though he lived in a rougher and more dangerous district than we did. Growing up in the slums of the Rukongai makes you a resourceful individual. Most people become gang leaders or petty thieves, but Kenzai developed a slightly more refined talent: intelligence-gathering. It was rumored that nothing went on in the Rukongai without Kenzai hearing about it first, whether it was witnessing it firsthand or hearing about it from one of his many hidden sources of information. After he joined the Shinigami Academy, his network spread throughout the Seireitei as well. Most of the information he had was petty gossip about the happenings of the nobility or small tidbits of stories about missions into the gense, but every once in a while Kenzai had a real juicy story to tell – for a price.
"Did you learn anything?" Kayuya asked earnestly.
"Yeah, heard some stuff," mumbled Kenzai, as he licked his lips again. He averted his gaze from Kayuya and looked towards a group of female students huddled near a door to another room.
"Well? Do you have anything to tell us?" Kayuya asked again, with a slightly more urgent tone in her voice. Kenzai picked up on it as well.
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't," he said. His look returned to Kayuya. "I'm not in a revealin' sorta mood right now, if ya know what I mean." A sly smile creeped across his face. I rolled my eyes. He was trying to con us.
"How about I beat it out of you, ya little rat?" growled Murasaki, as he suddenly grabbed Kenzai by the collar of his robes. Murasaki was considerably larger than the tiny Kenzai, and as Murasaki lifted him off the floor, Kenzai writhed furiously.
"HEY! Let go of me, ya big ape!" he screamed, as he punched and kicked at Murasaki as he tried to break free from his grasp. Murasaki lazily fended off his blows.
"Koga-kun, stop!" shouted Kayuya. Kayuya was the only one of us who called Murasaki by his first name. Murasaki would beat up anyone who called him that aside from me or Kayuya. I never did because it felt weird to me. Murasaki gave Kayuya a disapproving look, but he grudgingly obeyed, and released Kenzai's collar. Kenzai fell right on his butt, still kicking and punching on the way down.
"OW! Ya could've let me go more nicely, ya gorilla!" Kenzai was wincing as he stood up, massaging his bottom.
"Are you going to tell us anything now?" asked Kayuya again.
"After that warm welcome by the oaf here! You're outta your mind, Kamikawa!" spat Kenzai as he glared at Murasaki. "You're gonna have to pay up if you wanna hear a word from me."
The stern look returned to Kayuya's eyes. "You know, I was the one who convinced Koga-kun to let you go in one piece, Kenzai-kun," she coolly replied. "If he gets mad again, I might not be as willing to convince him to calm down next time." Murasaki took a menacing step towards Kenzai as Kayuya spoke, for added effect.
"Fine, fine! Ya make a good point." Kenzai relented, staring warily up at the imposing figure of Murasaki. "I guess I owe ya one. Anyways, here's what I heard from a little friend of mine."
"I heard that we were going to have Captain Aikawa speak to us today."
"The Captain of the 7th Division?" I asked, incredulously.
"Ya know any other Captain Aikawa's around these parts? Of course it's him, ya moron! Anyways, he and Takemura go way back, so I hear, so he was gonna come to our class as a favor to the old geezer. But, I heard that something serious happened to him these last couple nights."
"Something serious? To a Captain?" Kayuya asked, with a concerned look on her face.
"Look, everything's pretty hush-hush, so I didn't get too much," explained Kenzai. "All I know is, somethin's happened to the man – I don't know if he hurt himself on some mission or if he's doin' some sorta business elsewhere. But that's not even the juiciest bit a' news that I got."
"Well? Spit it out!" shouted Murasaki.
"Hey now, hush-hush! This is serious talk here!" Kenzai quickly calmed Murasaki down. "Keep ya temper down! Alright, this next bit's a little serious, so come around close," he said, beckoning us towards him. Murasaki, Kayuya, and I all huddled near Kenzai, as his voice suddenly dropped to a barely audible whisper.
"This friend of mine tells me – look, this is all supposed to be secret to normal folks like us – but that whatever's got Captain Aikawa down and out, it's also taken out some other Captains and Vice-Captains as well."
"Along with Captain Aikawa, there's rumors that 3rd Division Captain Otoribashi and 9th Division Captain Muguruma are missing too. On my way back here, I bumped into a fellow who told me Vice-Captain Yadomaru wasn't at morning meetings at the 8th Division's barracks, and that there was no reason for the absence."
"Am I hearing this right?" said Murasaki, as he rose with a look of sheer incredulity on his face. "You're telling me that we've got three Captains and a Vice-Captain in some sort of dire straits? And you expect anyone to believe that!"
"Hey, I'm just the messenger here, get that in your monkey head! I'm not making anything up, I'm only tellin' ya what I heard ! And keep your voice down!" hissed Kenzai as he grabbed Murasaki's robe and pulled it back into our small huddle.
"This ain't the end of the story. There's a buncha other folks involved here too. As far as I've heard, we've got no word on the whereabouts of 5th Division Captain Hirako either. There's also some more Vice-Captains too, but I don't know which ones. There's even some big-wigs in the Kido Corps involved in this too. All I hear is, there's some sorta big mess surrounding the Gotei 13 right now, and they're in a crisis tryin' to deal with that."
"Kenzai, are you sure about all of this?" Kayuya asked in a ragged whisper, with a tinge of fear in her voice. "Do you realize the magnitude of what you're telling us?"
"What is it with you blockheads, I told ya I don't make this up, I only hear it from other folks" spat Kenzai, clearly exasperated by our disbelief. But if you paid attention, you could tell that what he heard was troubling him as well. "Look, the guy I heard it from, he's ain't ever been wrong before. He ain't ever mislead me. I know it's heavy stuff, but I ain't got a good reason to disbelieve a word of what he said. Believe me, I thought he was spewin' garbage at first too, but if you saw the look he had on his face while he was relayin' all this to me, you woulda believed him on the spot."
"Why haven't we heard anything about this?" I asked. "There are too many important people involved to keep this under wraps forever. I mean, one Captain missing is one thing, but four?"
"I hear ya Kataki, but this is all breaking news, ya get it? This is all recent stuff," replied Kenzai. "I figure the Gotein 13 and the Central 46 are trying to get to the bottom of this mess before they release any information to the common folk."
"He's probably right," whispered Kayuya, nodding in agreement. "It would cause a panic if they told us that four Captains were out of commission without any additional information. Of course, it'd be tough to keep this under wraps for long, so I'd expect to heard official word of this soon."
"Girlie's got it right. I knew Kamikawa was the smartest one out of you bunch," said Kenzai. "Anyways, that's all I got for now. I'm gonna skedaddle on out of here before all these other guys start suspectin' us of a crime or somethin'. We've been huddled up for too long. I trust that you guys know the drill: you don't breathe a word of anythin' you heard just now, and if anyone asks you about me, tell 'em you never had the privilege of speaking to good ol' Kenzai." And without another word, Kenzai scurried out from our little circle, disappearing into the crowd of our classmates as they had huddled discussions of our own.
Murasaki, Kayuya, and I stared at each other. We didn't know what to say – we didn't even know what to think. Finally, Murasaki broke the silence.
"Do you think he's telling the truth? Maybe he heard it wrong or…" his voice trailed, as if he realized how stupid that statement sounded. Kenzai might have been a sneaky rat, and he was a pretty talented liar. But Kenzai had never deceived us before, and from the frightened way he told us this shocking news, I knew that he wasn't trying to just then.
Another silence fell. I pondered on the weight of Kenzai's words. At least four Captains and a Vice-Captain missing. As the 10th Division was still without a captain, that meant nearly half of the divisions in the Gotei 13 were without a leader. This was nothing short of a disaster. And just what had happened to them? Were they defeated by a Hollow? Maybe they had battled a Vasto Lorde – after all, you only needed a handful of them to destroy all of Soul Society. But if they did battle a Vasto Lorde, would it be invading Soul Society next? Was destruction coming to our home? All these random thoughts cluttered my brain, and I started breathing hard as fear crept over me. Kayuya, perhaps sensing my agitation, grabbed my arm is if to soothe me.
"We don't know if things are going to get worse around here," she said, and looked directly into my eyes. Her normally stern and reproachful look was replaced with a calm and comforting one. Her soft brown eyes radiated warmth, and slowly melted my fears away.
"Well, whatever took the Captains down, you can be your ass that I'll take it down if it ever comes after us," laughed Murasaki. But I could see behind his façade. He was just as worried as I was.
Kayuya grabbed his arm too. She could read Murasaki just as well as I could. "Stop it," she said. "We don't even know if they're gone. For all we know, they could be in the 4th Division Barracks, recovering under the care of Captain Unohana."
But then, she pulled us both closer to her, and I could tell that Murasaki and I weren't the only ones troubled by what we just heard. "But, regardless of what happened," Kayuya said, "if Kenzai's words were true, then we only know one thing for sure. Things are about to change for everyone in Soul Society."