Here's the Fourth chapter! Just as a quick note for the later chapters, I plan on tweaking some things timeline wise that Minato doesn't have anything to deal with. You'll see in maybe 1 or 2 chapters after this one.
Chapter 4: A Velvet Reunion
Minato P.O.V.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room." Igor said as soon as I stepped in. "However, I suppose I should say welcome back."
"Yes, it's good to be back Igor." I said as I took my usual seat. I noticed that no one was standing next to Igor at the moment.
Noticing this, Igor explained. "Ah, my apologies, but I'm currently short an assistant right now. Elizabeth is making some preparations if I recall correctly and my second assistant, Margaret, is in the middle of a battle with your successor."
"My successor? Aren't we in the past though?"
"You forget, Master Minato." Igor chuckled. "The Velvet Room is always one with the real world's current time. So if the current year is 2010 and you go back in time to 1945, the Velvet Room will be like how it is in 2010."
"I think I get it. The year, I assume, when Elizabeth sent me here was 2010. So even though I'm in the past, the Velvet Room is still one with 2010."
Igor smiled. "Exactly. However, the year Elizabeth sent you back from was 2012. You've were the Great Seal for about two years. During that time, a new Fool appeared and a new threat to the world along with it."
"Is he doing a good job?"
"Yes, he's been preforming wonderfully. He is just putting the 'finishing touches' as you may call them. Margaret was the assistant I had with me during his visits and, like Elizabeth with you, grew fascinated by him. So, before his journey came to a close, she decided to challenge him."
"How's he doing?"
"Although I don't observe such things usually, last time I checked, they were even, but Margaret used Diarahan on herself."
"That reminds me of how annoying it was when Elizabeth casted that. Thank god it was only once."
"Yes, your battle with her was also a wonder to observe." Igor said before with a raise of his left hand, cards appeared on the table. "Now to your situation at the moment."
I nodded. "Something important will happen, won't it?"
Igor chuckled. "Not in terms of the fate of mankind resting upon it, but something important will happen. With a small movement of his left hand, a card flipped over, revealing the Magician. "The Magician, in the upright position. This represents harnessing one's own power and talents. Seems like you'll have a great harnessing over your new powers."
"I take it you're referring to my zanpakutō." I said, putting my hand on the hilt.
Igor smiled and nodded. "That and others." Igor said, leaving me confused at what other powers I could possess. Igor flipped over another card, showing the Moon. "The Moon, in the upright position. This represents illusion and mystery. I suggest you be wary of your surroundings. Masks don't have to be seen to still be there. The most innocent of smiles can easily hide the cruelest of intentions."
I instantly thought of the once chairman and advisor of S.E.E.S.: Shuji Ikutsuki. I clenched my teeth. "Not something I'm new to Igor."
With a wave of his hands, the cards vanished. "Yes, my apologies, I forget how painful betrayal can be."
I sighed and smiled. "It's alright. No harm, no foul." I said before deciding to change the topic to one of my questions. "Tell me Igor, how can I summon a persona now?"
Igor smiled a smiled large than I thought possible. "Your powers as they are now are different than before. In due time you will learn, but I'll still be able to perform my services of fusing personae for you." I did a victory dance in my head. "However, I can't at the moment." I started crying in my head. "Your soul isn't in unity at the moment, with part of it residing in your blade. Until your two parts have formed a link, attempting to preform fusions would be…unpleasant to your soul to say the least."
I nodded. "Well thanks for telling me anyway Igor."
Igor just chuckled. "Anything for a guest, whether current or the predecessor."
I smiled and stood up. "It was nice meeting you again Igor."
"Yes, it was quite…nice." Igor said before I stepped through the door to leave.
I noticed that no one was around when I left the Velvet Room, thankfully. I unlocked the door to my room and opened it, noticing that there were two beds, meaning that I might have to share with someone else. However, given the neatness of the room, my possible roommate didn't show up even though it is starting to become night. I looked at the desk and found multiple text books. One is on basic sword fighting, called zanjutsu. The next is on spells that Soul Reapers can cast, Kidō. Hand-to-hand combat known as Hakuda is in the third text book and a fourth text book that discusses fighting at super-fast speeds: Hohō. However, Hohō seems to be for the advanced classes.
Worried about the subjects?
'Hmm? No, not at all Orpheus. I was just wondering how difficult my first day at the Academy would be like.'
Well you were and in fact you're still a genius, so what's there to worry about?
'You have a point, Orpheus. I don't really have anything to worry about. My time in the kendo club, fighting Shadows in Tartarus, and just practice in general has made me an expert on sword fighting. My training sessions with Akihiko and trying out new weapons in Tartarus have made me quite efficient with using my fists in combat. Kidō sounds a lot like casting spells so that would be a synch given my spamming of them when I want to have some fun.'
Don't even get me started on your spamming! When you first learned that you could do Jack Brothers when you had me and my bro Pyro Jack, you used it whenever you started a battle, and you fight a lot!
'Why are you so frustrated?'
It's not easy doing stand-up comedy with only a five minute break!
'Ok, Jack, whatever you say.'
Master… if I may give you my opinion…
'Sure Hypnos, go ahead.'
Naga and I have been discussing…and we believe that it would be best for you to establish a 'link' with your sword. According to that man Igor, once you do, you'll be able to fuse and create more personae and obtain your ultimate personae once again.
'That's a great idea Hypnos.'
You've become friends with Naga?
Does it surprise you Jack Frost? Perhaps it's because my former master, Takaya, was friends with Jin, a man of the Hermit Arcana, like Naga is.
'Interesting theory Hypnos.' I figured Hypnos was right since I was able to make my social links level up when I had a persona of the same arcana in my repertoire.
As much as I agree with Hypnos and Naga, my liege, I think it would be best if you rest for now.
'Very well Berith.' I said before placing my sword at the side of my bed and going to sleep.
3rd Person P.O.V.
Inside the Captain Commander's Office, Yamamoto, Isshin, Jūshirō, and Retsu were talking.
"How are the recruits?" Yamamoto asked.
"Less than a fifth passed and the ones that did didn't look that special really." Isshin responded.
"I concur." Jūshirō agreed. "I didn't feel any strong potential from any of them. While I'm not one to downsize people, this year's batch seems average at best."
"Wait…" Shunsui began. "…you're forgetting about Minato."
"You're right." Isshin pitched in. "I didn't feel much spiritual pressure from him, he has excellent control over it. If I didn't know better, I'd say he has reached Captain Level already and was just decreasing his spiritual pressure not for others to notice. I have a feeling that Minato is very unique."
"I agree." Retsu said, bringing everyone's attention to her. "Minato's spiritual pressure was…different from anything I've seen before."
"What do you mean by this?" Yamamoto asked.
"His spiritual pressure felt…layered."
"Layered?" Shunsui asked.
Retsu nodded. "It felt as if his spiritual pressure was layered and mixed with a multitude of others. To an unobservant spectator, his spiritual pressure will seem normal while if you look closely, you could detect multiple parts to it. Including Minato's own, I detected five parts."
"That many?" This time it was Jūshirō who questioned.
Retsu nodded once again. "However, I was skeptical at this as well so I searched for his pressure again. This time, I detected six parts."
"He gained one so fast?" Shunsui asked/exclaimed.
"The most interesting part though was that two parts of his spiritual pressure were almost exact copies of Captain Kurosaki and Captain Kyōraku."
This nearly made Isshin and Shunsui fall over. "How?! We don't feel like we lost any spiritual pressure so how did he manage to obtain them?" Isshin asked, being the first to recover from the surprise and shock at how a good kid like Minato could even do something like that.
"I'm unsure how and maybe Minato's not even aware of it. However, if he keeps this up, there's a chance he'd become a force to be reckoned." Retsu concluded.
"I see." Yamamoto said. Secretly, he was in as much shock as everyone else was, but still appeared calm. "We don't know whether Minato will prove hostile to the Soul Society or not, but the best action would be to observe him. We need strong soldiers to fight the Hollows and the Menos Grande."
"Don't forget the Vasto Lordes and Adjuchas." Shunsui said. "Our scouts have said that they have started rallying together. Seems like they didn't like it when you killed their leader, the Oscuro Fantasma (Spanish for Dark Phantom), 100 years ago and they want payback."
"They'd be fools if they tried." Yamamoto said. However, he knew how powerful the Vasto Lordes can be. Their leader was no pushover either. For the first time in 300 years, Yamamoto was forced to use his bankai and even then the fight was difficult. Oscuro Fantasma wasn't the king of the Vasto Lordes and Hueco Mundo for nothing. However, his savagery and lust for conquest caused him to declare war on the Soul Society. The result was chaos. The Vasto Lordes and Adjuchas were making quick work of the lesser Soul Reapers and the Captains could only take on so many at once. Eventually, with the Soul King allowing Yamamoto to use the Ō no ha (Jap. for king's blade), Yamamoto and the other Captains of that time were able to push the Menos Grande back to Hueco Mundo, killing a large number of Vasto Lordes and Adjuchas. To ensure that another invasion wouldn't happen again, Yamamoto went to Hueco Mundo alone and challenged Oscuro Fantasma to an all-out brawl. The result was the total obliteration of Hueco Mundo. Almost everything in the dimension was destroyed except the Forest of Menos and Las Noches, everything else became a desert. It was brutal, but in the end Yamamoto won, Oscuro Fantasma was slain and a large majority of the Vasto Lordes and Adjuchas were wiped out in the cross fire to the point where Adjuchas were uncommon and Vasto Lordes were little more than a myth.
When Yamamoto returned, he saw just how much of the Soul Society was destroyed. The Central 46 deemed the Rukongai to be of little concern, putting many of the districts in poor conditions and possess little governance. Captain Unohana tried to press the issue, but they wouldn't even let her have an audience with them.
"Are you completely certain of this?" Retsu asked, worrying if a repeat of the events that occurred during the last mass Hollow invasion will happen.
"Positive. While I doubt they'll be attacking soon, I suggest we be on our guard." Shunsui replied.
"I see. Now, back to the matter first at hand…" Retsu began, moving the conversation back to the original topic: Minato Arisato.
"I say we leave Minato alone for now. If he starts to do anything suspicious, we'll talk to him about it. Personally, I think it's just some kind of special anomaly or maybe a mutation, like Captain Komamura." Isshin suggested. Jūshirō and Shunsui nodded in agreement.
"Very well then, we shall simply observe Mr. Arisato for now. However, if he shows any actions that are harmful to the Soul Society, I want a Hell Butterfly sent to Captain Sui-Fēng immediately. Understood?"
"Sir!" The three of the Captains said in unison while Retsu just closed her eyes and nodded.
"Good. Now then, I bid all of you good night." Yamamoto said before the four other Captains flash stepped away.
Unknown to any of them, a figure standing outside of the Captain Commander's office was smiling.
"Seems like Mr. Arisato will be a very interesting piece to have. Wonder how strong his allegiance lies with the Soul Society is." The figure said to himself before flash stepping away to an unknown location.
Minato P.O.V.
I woke up groggily and on my stomach. I could've sworn I fell asleep on my back though. I got up and looked around. It seemed like I was on the first floor of Tartarus. However, there were some differences that were quite noticeable. The first was that there was no door to the Velvet Room. Second was the absence of the transporter that S.E.E.S. and I used to move to higher floors faster. The third was that the exit to leave Tartarus wasn't there. Instead there was a wall, giving no indication there even was a pathway there. The fourth was that the way to the second floor was blocked. The opening that should be inside the giant clock that the stairs lead up to has some kind of door locking it shut. Apparently, the only way I'd be able to leave is going up and that's not even a choice right now.
"Hello?" I shouted. "Anyone here?" There was no answer except my echo. I walked around a bit and kicked the barricade blocking the only visible route up.
Do you want to climb?
"Huh?" I say as I turn around only to find no one. "Who said that? Orpheus, are you here? Naga? Hypnos? Jack?" I call out to some of my personae, hoping they'd respond.
They can't help you climb. Only you can help yourself climb.
"Show yourself!" I shout, getting an uneasy feeling.
We'll meet soon, but for now, keep trying to climb.
"But-" I try to say when I suddenly wake up covered in sweat.
Master! Are you alright?!
'Yeah Orpheus. I'm fine, I think.' I sigh and look out the window, but find myself staring at a… red pineapple?
"Hey! Glad to see you're ok." A person exclaims. I realize that the red pineapple was actually the hair of a person. A male person with brown eyes. "You look like you were having a bad dream."
"Who are you?"
"Huh? Oh, I'm your roommate. Name's Renji Abarai."
"Minato Arisato."
"Well Minato, guess we'll-" Renji tried to continue, but a loud bang interrupted him. I looked to see the source and saw the door to our room broken open. A petit girl with black, short hair and violet eyes was standing at the doorway with an upset look.
"Renji! I thought we agreed to meet each other thirty minutes ago!" The woman shouted.
I sighed, feeling like I was with Junpei and Yukari again.
Those two always made me think of Hades and Persephone.
'They bickered a lot?'
More like at each other's throat. I sighed again at Orpheus' comment, something that caught the woman's attention.
"Huh? Who are you?" The woman asked with a severe lack of manners.
"My name is Minato Arisato."
"Rukia." The girl said quickly.
Renji sighed before looking at me. "Want to join us. We simply hang out over in the big courtyard until classes begin."
"Yeah, but we lost 30 minutes of that time thanks to you." Rukia said sharply.
"Yeah, I know. So, wanna come?"
"Sure." I said as I got out of bed and grabbed my zanpakutō as Renji grabbed his and walked out the door with Rukia leading.
SMASH
Thou art I, I am thou
Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Fool Arcana…
'Do I have any Fools beside you Orpheus?'
No, I'm the only Fool persona here.
'I see.' I reply as I walk pass the Velvet Room door and follow after Renji and Rukia to start my first day at the Academy.
Minato had his first dive into his subconscious! Not that he knows of course. Renji and Rukia are the first parts of the Fool Arcana. I'm not sure if I want them as social links though because I only have so many arcana that I have left (6 have been used after this chapter, leaving 16). In case anyone asks, I have figured out the appearance and functioning of Minato's shikai form and the appearance of Minato's bankai form while function is still in the works.
