The Internet is lagging. Postponing online games for a few hours, I write whatever pops up into my head. And throw it to fanfic sites like these. Hehe
A/N: Luz means 'light'. Estrella means 'star'.
Chapter Three: Baldur
"What the hell….?" said Yakumo. "A hole… Does this make me a hollow?"
"In the loosest sense, yes." said Urahara. "This is what I initially wanted to talk to you about yesterday. May I continue?"
Toshirou grabbed his zanpakuto.
"I would refrain you from acting, 10th captain." said Urahara. "As you can see, she has no traces of a hollow's mask, and therefore she is not an arrancar. And yet, she has a zanpakuto! What does this make her?"
Yakumo turned around, and was startled to see a meter-long katana at her waist's side.
"She isn't in shinigami garb though." noted Matsumoto.
"Does she have to be?" smiled Urahara coyly.
"Th-this is…" Yakumo started.
"Overwhelmed? It looks like we can skip the transformation processes and proceed immediately to training!" said Urahara cheerfully.
"Kisuke-san! What is it you were talking about earlier?" insisted Yakumo.
Urahara's expression darkened.
"I would prefer it if we could keep this matter private with Soul Society." he said firmly.
A ninja dropped down from the hole in the skylike ceiling.
"Give it up, Kisuke. You're lucky the Center 46 hasn't been on to you since the beginning. And it would help to shed some light on Yakumo-chan's real origin." said Yoruichi. "Providing that Hitsugaya-taicho and Matsumoto-fukutaicho don't rat on to Soul Society."
"Is it that important?" said Matsumoto.
"The reason we kept it so secret was because the higher-ups would react rather… undesirably. What is more…. allies of ours warned us of Aizen's treachery before Ichigo ever received his shinigami powers, and so we worked harder to make sure the conditions were just right." replied Yoruichi. "What we may tell you could be the trump card in our deck. Swear to us that not a soul will hear of this."
"Heh." smirked the young captain. "I swear."
"Taicho, are you serious….?" asked Matsumoto.
"Regardless whether or not we know, Urahara will carry out his plan. Correct?" said Toshirou.
Urahara nodded.
"Could someone tell me what the hell is going on?!" yelled Yakumo. "I know what happened in Sol Society over the summer from Yumichika-san, Ikkaku-kun and Renji-san but this is confusing me! And why am I a hollow?!"
"Ikkaku-kun???" said Matsumoto.
"What???????????" Yakumo stared.
"Nothing. Might as well swear…" Matsumoto sighed.
"All right. This is one heck of a long story guys and I don't want to repeat myself, so listen up…" Urahara took a deep, long breath.
Apartment 609, 6:52 p.m.
"Yakumo-kun! I'm home!" said Rinata, carrying several shopping bags.
"What's with all the stuff?" asked Yakumo, brushing her long hair into a braid.
"I wanted to make cookies since you've got an oven… At my house, our oven's broken." Rinata removed various food items from the shopping bags and attempted to organize them into the closets and cupboards.
"By the way, only boys receive the –kun honorific…" noted Yakumo.
"Is that so? Sorry, Yakumo-kun… Oops! There I go again…" Rinata shrugged. "But it suits you…"
Yakumo stared out the balcony window, comprehending Urahara's story…
"Several hundreds of years ago when I was already a captain, I met an amazing person who went by the name of Luz. She was, and is still the most powerful being I may meet in my lifetime. She was the one who told me to establish Soul Society's R&D department, and gave me the Hougyoku in exchange for a great burden that I now carry." explained Urahara, back in the store's basement grounds.
" 'From now on, you shall be the Vastrode's ally within Soul Society, one which will know all to befall it. In exchange for our knowledge, you shall keep us in this world as humans, and you must give up your power-your Bankai.'"
"Giving up my ability to use Bankai was hard, but Luz taught me the techniques I used on Kurosaki-kun, the methods of making the untraceable gigai, almost everything. The Vastrode, the highest order of hollow, had the wits to survive but despite their feared power, they had no control over it, and needed me to produce gigai for them. These are the same gigai I used on Rukia Kuchiki, gigai that not only hindered growth of spiritual power, but repressed it. With this the Vastrode, once deities of power within Hueco Mundo, now lived as humans in our world."
"The downside of this was that the Vastrode gave up almost all spiritual capability, and as a race of hollow, very few managed to get past the limits I set on their power. Most had only enough to see normal spirits and occasionally, other hollows. The gigai also enabled them to live and survive like humans, requiring food, shelter, all the necessities to live. Of course this meant that they died as humans and their souls would go to Soul Society."
"Luz had such a fate. Although she was the first Vastrode, her powers were almost gone, due to the fact that she made the barrier that exists between Hueco Mundo, Earth and Soul Society. To her it was little power, but for us shinigami… Well, she was still strong enough to take out at least two captains at once. Reborn into Soul Society, she was accepted into a well known clan. She'd lost most of her memory along the way but remembered enough to know who I was when she saw me. Luz is standing right here in this room, but we all know her as Shihouin Yoruichi."
"Yoruichi was a Vastrode before…" said Yakumo to herself. "This is really complicated… I wish that damn Kisuke wrote it down somewhere."
"On a side note, her apprentice Estrella lost a good deal of power as well, but in her rebirth lost almost all traces of her past as a Vastrode. She reunited with Luz however… She goes by the name of Soifon now."
"Boy, was Hitsugaya-taicho surprised when he learned that the 2nd division captain was a Vastrode…" smiled Yakumo.
"Fast forward to Aizen's recent activities. The Hougyoku, according to my reports, can only be activated by a series of conditions. Those reports are completely false. The Hougyoku can be used by anyone with spiritual power, but only the Vastrode can use it effectively. Luckily, Luz and Estrella destroyed the documents in Hueco Mundo that state this. They did leave some incomplete documents there, including some with my name mentioned, to make Aizen think he has the upper hand in information."
"There is currently only one Vastrode in the world with power enough to operate the Hougyoku effectively. This very Vastrode's hollow powers pale in comparison to Luz's original powers, but this Vastrode in particular has a few abnormalities. For starters, the Vastrode in question was not transferred into a gigai, but was born into a human body with a Vastrode soul. Second, the Vastrode has not been changed into an arrancar, but has a zanpakuto and shinigami abilities…"
"That Vastrode is you, Yakumo." said Urahara firmly. "Which is why I had your aunt send you to Karakura. It was by pure chance that I found you, and it is our luck to have someone like you."
"Wait. So I'm a Vastrode… Does this mean I have to fight?" asked the perplexed girl.
"Take your time. That was a lot of information to take in." smiled Yoruichi.
"It's a good thing I didn't pull Hell into the discussion…" said Urahara, stretching.
"Wait, this has something to do with Hell??" said Toshirou.
"It does. Hell had a part in Yakumo's birth, but we'll get to that another time." began Urahara. "Yakumo, you have no biological parents to speak of. Yoruichi modified your aunt and uncle's memories to hoodwink them into thinking that you were their niece and specifically made sure that for most of your life you were alone."
"Why?" Yakumo shouted. "So all this time, I've been spending my life friendless because of you guys?!"
"It was to prepare you psychologically." said Yoruichi. "I'm sorry…"
She walked over to Yakumo and gave her a hug.
"If anything, it was my fault. If I had left you with parents and siblings, you would have turned out differently, and it would have been harder to make the transition. Look at Ichigo. He's cutting classes for the greater good, isn't he? However, he has his family to worry about and all…" Yoruichi hugged harder. "If its family you want, I'll bully the shinigami to stay with you. You already seem to be attached to a couple of them. And you have Rinata."
"Oh yes! About Rinata…" said Urahara.
"I don't think we should be telling her yet." said Yoruichi.
"What about Rinata???" said Yakumo forcefully.
"She's not a Vastrode if that's what you mean. For the time being, she is an ordinary human. We'll tell you one we're sure about her, okay?" smiled Yoruichi. "And I can be your mom and Kisuke here can be your surrogate dad."
"Eheh… No thanks." sweatdropped Yakumo.
Yakumo though about this deeply.
Soon, she noticed the scent of oatmeal raisin cookies in the air.
"Wow Rinata, those smell good! Can I have some?" said Yakumo.
"No, Yakumo-kun, you'll spoil your appetite!"
"Come on, just one? Please?" Yakumo's stomach grumbled.
Hueco Mundo
"Are you insane, Aizen?! If you want me to do that then you've got another thing coming!!" shouted Grimmjow Jaggerjack. "I mean we're arrancar, not Vastrode! Why should we be running around in human bodies like the rest of those worthless shinigami?!"
"Grimmjow!!" growled Kaname Tousen.
"That's the fourth Espada to refuse the offer…" sighed Aizen dramatically. "Let him be, Kaname, it's not an order, rather it is an offer."
"May I accept it, Aizen-sama?" asked Ulquiorra, stepping from the shadows.
"Ulquiorra! You've got some nerve barging in on us-" began Grimmjow.
"Finally!" said Aizen happily. "Someone voluntarily asking!"
"Won't he be recognized though? Kurosaki, the Mexican and the girl all have seen him, not to mention Shihouin and Urahara." said Gin, leaning on Aizen's throne.
"The human form will look tamer than the arrancar inside it. All right Ulquiorra, your task is to collect information on the Vastrode in the human world without causing general suspicion, especially from the vizard. Understand?" smiled Aizen, as several other arrancar began working on Ulquiorra to make a gigai for him.
"Understood, Aizen-sama." replied Ulquiorra.
end of chapter three
