A/N: YAY new chapter! so there is a cameo character in this chapter, COOKIES TO WHOEVER SPOTS HIM, but if your one of my friends from school...you don't count...
Warnings: Language, violence, sexual content, character death.. you know, all that fun stuff...
Disclaimer: WHAT? I DON'T OWN BLEACH? SINCE WHEN?
The street had a chessboard look to it, light, dark, light, dark, as I walked underneath streetlight after streetlight. I felt out of place on 5th Avenue, watching the expensive cars drive by, watching the ladies with their couture and then me, dirty, bloody, black clothing, I stood out completely. Coming up to the building that housed my sister's condo, the doorman gave me one glance and let me in. The Soul Reapers are powerful in this town; he couldn't have turned me away if he tried.
Entering the building, I strode across the brightly lit elevator and pushed the button for the third floor. My sister's boyfriend had chosen the apartment well; it was close to the ground, which my sister liked. Both my sister and her boyfriend, Edward, were former members of the Soul Reapers, but they moved on as soon as they hit 20. As the elevator slid open, I stepped out and paused, trying to remember if I had to go to the right or the left. Finally I remembered that the apartment was to the right and headed down the hall, coming to the door marked 713.
Knocking on the door, I heard my sister yell to come in so I turned the doorknob, stepping into the airy, white apartment.
"Pippa, what If I had been a murderer?" I asked crossing my arms.
My sister, Pippa, sat on the floor with her laptop in front of her, immersed in writing yet another cheesy romance story. "Oh I knew it was either you or Edward, and since Edward doesn't knock, it had to be you." She replied, not looking up from her laptop.
"Still, I don't feel safe if that's how you answer the door." I said, concerned.
"Oh don't worry Sera-"
"It's Karui, remember?" I interrupted
"Really? Using gang names even here?" She said sadly, looking up from her laptop, "OH MY GOD!" She cried jumping to her feet.
"What?!" I yelled, looking side to side, expecting an enemy to be standing in the shadow.
"Your face is covered in blood!" She cried, "Hold on, I'll call the hospital!" She ran over to the telephone.
"Wait!" I grabbed her arm and stopped her before she could make it all the way over. "It's not my blood!"
"It's not?"
"No, don't worry, I'm unharmed." I said sadly, remembering Chad lying on the ground.
"Oh." She said, realizing the situation, "I'm going to make tea, and then you're going to tell me everything."
"Ok." I mumbled, wiping away any tears that threatened to spill over the edges, I wasn't going to cry, I wasn't.
She squeezed my arm and then headed into the kitchen, pulling her long red hair into a ponytail as she went.
I turned and walked into the dinner room, taking a seat at the large hardwood table. The room was done in mostly whites, giving a bright effect to the whole room, with the large dark wood table in the center. Edward was into antiques and Pippa shares his passion so the table was probably around 100 years old. Pippa stuck her head into the dining room.
"Hey, you can use the master bathroom to wash up, it's the nicest. " She said kindly.
"Ok," I said, "In the bedroom?"
"Yeah, down the hall second door on the right." She replied before going back to making the tea.
I left the dining room and walked to the direction she pointed. Entering the master bedroom, the first thing I noticed was a huge poster of a Giant Squid on the far wall. I laughed under my breath; my sister had a weird affection for the creatures. Still, I can't believe that Edward would let that go up in the bedroom, but then again, he was a sucker when it came to my sister. Walking into the bathroom that was attached to the bedroom, I quickly strode over to the sink and looked my face in the mirror. Aside from my usual messy hair, my whole face had a splatter of blood, making me look like an extra from a horror movie. I bent down and ran the water until it was warm enough to use on my face. Splashing the water on my face, I watched as red rivulets ran down my face and into the sink. Finally I could make out my bright green eyes, eyes I shared with my sister, out from all the grime. Letting myself have a quiet moment to mourn Chad, I quickly finished washing until my face was all clean, and exited the bathroom.
Returning to the dining room, I saw Pippa waiting there, with hot tea and chocolate chip cookies on a plate.
"Hey, you look better." She said as I slipped into the chair across from her.
"Yeah, thanks.' I replied, taking a cookie to munch and a sip of the tea.
"So..." Pippa started, taking a sip of her own tea, "whose blood was it?"
I sighed, "Chad's"
"Hmmmm" She thought out loud, "big guy? Mexican? Doesn't talk much?"
"Yeah, that would be him."
"I see, I didn't really know him too well, how did he die?" Pippa questioned. She wasn't being heartless by asking all this, she was just slipping into her gang persona, getting all the essential information first.
"We were confronting a rival gang member in a back street; there was a sniper on the roof, shot the back of his head out." I sighed, "What gets me the most, is that it could have been any of us, none of us knew the sniper was there, anyone of us could have died, but he shot Chad."
Pippa looked at my sympathetically, "I know this is probably not what you want to hear right now, but be glad it wasn't you, I don't know what I would do if Ichigo showed up to tell me that you were dead."
I smiled ruefully, "I bet Ukitake is feeling the guiltiest right now, he was leading the assignment."
Pippa was silent for a second, "who is this rival gang?" she questioned.
"They're called the Arrancars," I answered, "They are being lead by Aizen; apparently he defected along with Gin and Tosen."
"Really?" She exclaimed, almost knocking her tea over in her shock, "how could they? This will start up gang warfare! Are they idiots?"
"I know, I know," I replied, "we've all been wondering the same thing."
"Quit the gang" Pippa said looking me right in the eye, "I don't want you to get involved with this. You can come live with me and Edward, you'll go to school, get a job, and it will work out."
I sighed, "That sounds wonderful," I admitted, "but I'm involved now, I can't let them get away with killing Chad. Besides, I've already been kicked out of school, and I can't leave until I'm 20, you know that. And I couldn't leave my friends behind." I stood up and walked toward the door out of the apartment.
"Thanks for this, I needed it." I said honestly.
"Wait," She said getting up to follow me, "stay the night please? You can go back in the morning."
I looked at her, "thanks, but if I don't get back, Byakuya will have an aneurism, and Ichigo is probably wondering where I am."
"Ok," she coincided, "just, please be careful?" She asked, pulling me into a hug.
"I will, I promise." I hugged her back, before turning and walking out the door.
Pippa stood by the window and watched as her little sister walked out onto the street, pulled her hood up and placed her hands in her pockets, and proceeded to stroll down the street in the direction that she knew was the base. Pippa wasn't sure how she felt about religion, but in that moment she was praying intently to whatever god exists that her sister would be safe. Hearing the front door open and close, she knew that Edward had come home.
"Pippa?" She heard him call out.
"In here." She answered, not leaving her spot by the window, watching until she couldn't see Karui anymore.
He heard footsteps come up behind her and felt Edward wrap his arms around her waist. She leaned into the warm comfort oh his chest, as her rested his head against hers.
"She'll be okay." He mumbled into her hair.
"You don't know that, she could have gotten shot right now and we would never know, and then her body would end up in a garbage pile in a back alleyway, and then we couldn't..."
"Pippa," Edward interrupted her tirade, "she will be fine, we made it to 20 and go out fine, and so will she."
Pippa turned around in Edward's arms so she was now facing him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "As cheesy as this sounds," She began, "we only go through because of each other, and who does Karui have? No one."
Edward smiled, "you have got to stop treating her like a child, just let her live her own life."
Pippa rested her head against Edward's chest, "okay, you're right, I'll stop worrying."
"Good," Edward said, reaching up a hand a pull Pippa's chin up so she was looking straight at him, "cause I could think of better things to be doing right now." He whispered before lowering his mouth onto hers, capturing her lips and pulling her against him. Pippa smiled against his lips before kissing him back, matching his passion.
The nights were getting colder; I was going to have to switch to my winter coat soon. I wrapped my arms around me, trying to keep some warmth in. I had already left the 5th Avenue, and was heading to where the HQ was located. I had left the brightly lit street, entering a darker part of the path to HQ. I felt fear grip me, even though I had walked these streets many times before, now with the Arrancars, I was more cautious, warily looking around and on top of buildings in case of another sniper. I froze as I heard footsteps in front of me. Hands on the snap that undid my rifle, I looked ahead of me, but relaxed as I saw the figure of Ichigo standing there.
"Ichigo! Wait up!" I called, letting loose my grip on my rifle, I sprinted forward until I was right beside him. He whipped his head around to face me, and I could just make out his eyebrows knotted in confusion.
I smiled at him before taking his hand and linking my fingers through his, like we would always do when walking together. I him tense up, and although I thought that it was weird that he would do that around me, I thought it was probably because he was mad at me for running off.
'Hey, I'm sorry ok?" I apologized, "I'm sorry I ran off, Byakuya probably sent you after me right? Don't worry; I'll chew him out when we get back for sending you on such a stupid assignment." I smiled at him, and pulled him along behind me.
The second I heard the dark chuckle, that was slightly higher than Ichigo's own voice, I froze. I looked behind me, to the man whose hand I held. A thin strip of light was splashed across his face, and I looked not into the face of Ichigo, as his eyes were black with amber irises, with a slightly maniacal look to them. I gasped and jumped back, but not before the hand that I had been holding, grasped on tightly to my wrist, stopping me in mid jump.
"Not so fast," The guy said, his voice sounding a lot like Ichigo's, only slightly higher and a sort of crazy tone to it, "do you think I'd really just let you go, hmmm?"
He raised his pistol with the hand that wasn't currently cutting off circulation to my wrist, and pressed the tip of his pistol right on my chest.
"Please, I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else, please, just don't do this." I pleaded, all the while lifting my left and to try and undo my rifle from its back holster.
The guy let out another crazed laugh, "you think it's because of that? Stupid little Soul Reaper." He cocked his pistol and grinned. I had almost reached the holster of my rifle; I just had to stall him a little more.
"So am I safe to assume that you're an Arrancar?" I questioned.
"Got that right, took you long enough." He said mockingly.
"And of course you automatically know that I'm a Soul Reaper, what are you, stalking me?" I taunted back. I was so close to being able to reach my rifle; a small smile began to cross my face. I saw his eyes dart over to where my left hand was, and before I could stop him, he swung me around and slammed me against the wall, cracking my back against my rifle. I groaned and slumped against the wall, I probably would have fallen if he wasn't holding me up with his left arm, holding the gun against the side of my skull with his right.
"Nice try," he cackled, "but you're not good enough, see ya." I winced as I heard the trigger click, but no blast followed. The laughter got harder as I opened my eyes to see the completely white face thrown back in laughter.
"You thought it was loaded!" He laughed, his whole body shaking up and down, "you were actually scared! Sorry love, but I already unloaded all my bullets before I met you." He stepped back and I fell against the ground. He turned to leave, but before he did, he turned his head back around.
"And just for reference, my name is Hichigo, NOT Ichigo." With that, he strode off until I couldn't see him anymore.
When my breathing returned to normal, I shakily got to my feet, and when I felt I could run, I took off in the direction of HQ, not stopping or looking back until I got there.
I reached the building and ran through the front doors, screeching to a stop and almost falling over as I noticed most people in the front hall, standing around a coffin that was placed in the centre of the room. As soon as I burst in they all looked up.
"KARUI!" Ichigo yelled, running over and grabbing my upper arms, shaking me, "where were you?!"
I looked up at him, but didn't really see him. All I could see was the white hair, white skinned, look alike. I wanted to ask him so many questions about the guy I met in the streets but all I could get out was, "Ichigo...who?"
He looked at me strangely, but then the dark shadow of Byakuya came up to the side of Ichigo.
"Ichigo let her go." He commanded. Ichigo looked angry, but he released me anyways, "And Karui, we need to talk." He turned and walked toward a corner away from everyone else. I blindly followed him, not wanting to look at Ichigo.
"So," he started as soon as I was facing him, "did you not hear my instructions earlier? I said to not go out alone. If this had happened some other time, you would be severely punished for it. As it is, we are short handed at the moment," He looked pointedly at the coffin in the middle of the room that I was sure held Chad's body, "So you will be allowed to continue with your assignments as you normally would, however, if there should be any other incidents like this, I will take you off all assignments, understood?"
I nodded and was about to ask what was going to happen to Chad's body when a scream broke out from the hallway.
"She's gone!" A voice shrieked
Everyone looked to see Suzu come running in from the hallway.
"She's gone! She wasn't there! We have to find her!" Suzu kept crying.
"Calm down." Another gang member, Rukia, said, "Who's gone?"
"Momo!" Suzu cried, "She's left!"
We froze; there was only one place where Momo would try to go...
The room was high up at the top of a solitary building, on the outskirts o the city. It was cold, but the man standing before the table couldn't care less. His eyes raked over the pictures that were taken earlier that day.
"See anything ya like?" A voice called from across the room.
The man didn't need to look up to see who was there, he had known for a long time that the silver haired male was standing there.
"You can come in now Gin" The man said.
Gin walked into the room and walked over to stand beside the other man. "Hey, I know these people." Gin said, his Cheshire grin pasted to his face.
"Soul Reapers, I had Wonderweiss take these pictures earlier at the set-up. I was looking for new faces." The man explained.
"And are there any?" Gin asked, picking up a photo of who he recognized as Ukitake.
"Her." The man said, picking up a picture of a young woman with light brown hair and golden eyes.
Gin looked over at picture that he held, "Hmmm, I might remember her, yeah, I think her name might be something like... Harto? No that's no right, it's... Hortu? Nope, that's not it either..."
The more powerful man looked pointedly at Gin, effectively shutting him up, "Find out more about her, now." He commanded.
"Yes, sir." Gin replied, still grinning, and took the picture with him as he walked out of the room.
The man left standing at the table in favour of standing in front of the floor to ceiling glass wall. Looking out at the city just below him, he almost smiled at the thought of what was to come next. How ignorant they all were, if only they knew...
"Lord Aizen." Came another voice form the doorway.
Aizen turned and inclined his head slightly, "yes, Tosen?"
"You have a visitor." The blind Arrancar replied.
Aizen smirked, already knowing who would be foolish enough to seek him out, "send her in."
Arisu skipped lightly down the deserted sidewalk, watching the yellow taxis race by, and staring at the dark store windows.
"Arisu! Wait!" The voice of Arisu's partner came from behind her. Arisu waited impatiently as Usagi hurried to catch up with her.
"You know, if you got out more, this wouldn't happen." Arisu stated factually, as she watched her friend try to catch her breath.
"Yeah well, you try to run all the tech operations, you wouldn't last a day." Usagi retorted.
Arisu shrugged, not really caring about continuing the conversation. She started walking down the sidewalk again, with Usagi right beside her.
"Seriously, who sends someone to a funeral home at 4 in the morning?" Usagi complained.
"Byakuya did." Arisu replied.
"No I don't mean it literally...you know what, never mind." Usagi sighed.
"If you didn't want to know the answer, then why did you ask the question?" Arisu asked, confused.
Usagi stared at her, disbelief etched on her face, "you are the strangest child I know."
"Stranger than him?" Arisu asked, pointing to a young teen sitting in the alleyway, hunched over and staring at them.
Usagi whipped her head around, staring at the guy for a couple seconds, before looking back at Arisu. "How long as he been there?" Usagi asked.
"About as long as we've been here." Arisu answered. "We should go say hi."
"Are you kidding?! That's the last thing we should do! "But Usagi's protests fell on deaf ears as Arisu was already skipping over to where the strange teenage boy sat.
As soon as she reached him she gave him a small smile, "hello, what's your name?"
The guy turned his head to the side and raised his thumb to his mouth, "vonderveiss" he answered, a Swedish accent apparent in his voice.
"Wonderweiss? That's a strange name." Arisu commented, Wonderweiss shrugged, brushing a few stray strands of blonde hair out of his eyes.
"Don't talk to trash like that."
Arisu looked ahead to see a guy come walking down the alleyway. His pale skin was a direct contrast with his black hair. The man strode down to stand right beside Wonderweiss, staring down at Arisu with emotionless eyes. Arisu felt Usagi walk up to stand beside her, making it an even two against two if it came down to that. Arisu looked up into the face of the taller male.
"Well that was rude." Arisu said to him.
The other man's apathetic emotion did not waver, so Arisu continued.
"You interrupted my conversation, and you insulted me, what do you have to say for yourself?" Arisu asked in her slightly whimsical voice.
The other man was silent for awhile before answering, "I don't need to answer you, girl."
Arisu was about to tell him off again, when Usagi grabbed her arm and whispered in her ear, "we should go, before this ends in a shootout, they're Arrancars, see the white bands? We really should go, now."
Arisu considered this before throwing this advice completely out the window and turning to ask the older male, "Are you going to kill us?"
"No," the man answered immediately, "I was not ordered to, therefore I will not, you're not worth my expending the energy."
"Then there is no reason for either of us to be here, is there?" Arisu questioned.
"No there isn't," He replied, "so we shall leave, come Wonderweiss, we are needed back."
The man turned his back on the two Soul Reapers, and walked off in the direction of which he came, pants placed leisurely in this coat pockets. Wonderweiss stood up from he had been sitting and turned to follow the other man, but he paused. He looked back around to Usagi, before reaching in his pocket and taking out a crumpled piece of paper. He extended his arm out, holding the paper in his hand. Usagi just stared at him.
"I think he wants you to take it." Arisu prodded.
"Oh right," Usagi said, reaching out and quickly grabbed the paper from Wonderweiss's hand, "thanks."
Wonderweiss didn't say anything, just turned and followed after the former man. Usagi opened the paper. Arisu gave her a minute to look it over before asking, "What does it say?"
"It's in Gin's writing." Usagi whispered, staring at the sheet.
"Ok, but what does it say?" Arisu asked again, impatiently.
Usagi turned the paper around to face Arisu. There was only one word written on it.
Omerta
"Omerta," Arisu read out loud, "what does it mean?"
"I'm not sure, I'll look it up when we get back, but why would Gin send me any sort of information at all?" Usagi questioned, folding up the paper and putting it in her pocket.
Arisu nodded and started walking again to the base. Soon they had reached it, but they were so lost in discussion about what the note could have meant, that they didn't notice the cardboard box that was placed haphazardly by the front doors until Usagi had walked right into it.
"Whoa, hey, what's this?" Usagi asked after regaining her balance.
"I don't know," Arisu answered, walking around the box which was almost as big as she was.
"Well do you think we should bring it in? It's not going to be a bomb or anything is it?" Usagi asked concerned.
"Whatever it is, it's leaking." Arisu stated, pointing to a red liquid like substance seeping from the bottom of the box.
Usagi gasped, mind racing on all the possibilities of what it could be, but no matter what her mind came up with, it always lead back to one thing...blood. Arisu watched as Usagi raced to the front doors and threw them open.
"We need some help out here!" She called frantically. As soon as she had, Suzu, Toushiro, Karui and Ichigo came running.
"What happened?" Toushiro asked. He was a small 16 year old, but he had a commanding presence that made him able to move up the rank of the Soul Reapers easily.
"We found this box, and I believe that there might be, ummmm, something that was once alive in there." Usagi tried to explain, pointing at the blood that was still staining the sidewalk beneath the box.
"Oh god, you don't think...?" Suzu asked quietly, eyes wide with fright.
Ichigo whipped out his Swiss army knife from his back pocket. "There's only one way to find out." He said stepping up to the box and slicing up the tape that kept the top of the box closed. He opened it and looked inside, but immediately stepped back.
"What's in there?" Karui asked Ichigo, but he only shook his head. Karui slowly walked up and ripped the top of the box open exposing what was inside for everyone to see. Immediately Suzu screamed and fell to her knees, covering her eyes with her hands as if trying to erase what she had seen from her memory. Toushiro looked away and put his hand on Suzu's shoulder that was heaving up and down as she was sobbing into her hands. Usagi looked at the body for only a second before facing away and vomiting whatever was in her stomach onto the sidewalk. Karui stepped back and reached for Ichigo's hand, grasping it tightly as she continued to stare at whatever was in the box
Arisu stepped up closer so as to see the contents of it. The stench of blood was overwhelming as she looked at a mangled corpse that was shoved into the cardboard box. The body had been cut up into many pieces so as to fit in the enclosed space. The only part that was left intact was the head, which was placed at the top of the bloody pile. Arisu looked into the dead eyes of Momo; face still contorted into her last scream.
"What should we do?" Usagi whispered recovering from her earlier shock.
"Give them what they want." Karui replied coldly.
Everyone turned and looked at her questioningly.
"You heard me, if they want war, we'll give it to them."