In case you haven't already, check out my other story Visions. It's a little shaky in the beginning since it's the first fic I ever wrote, but things stabilize and get good around chapter 7 (the chapters are kinda short too). Also check out my community where I put the best fanfics. The list is much shorter than my favorites list. Thanks, and here's the new, and longer chapter.
By the way, I feel so happy when I see how many people are following this. Thank you all.
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Recap: The two souls walked on and chatted like nothing happened for a couple minutes before they literally ran into their first captain.
It's not like they hadn't been looking ahead, Masaki and Goro had just rounded a corner at the same time as the captain, and they hadn't seen each other. It was a particularly hard impact since the Rukon souls were running at the same speed as the captain when they hit him. He was a white haired man who immediately began coughing harshly while his brown haired companion rushed over to him at the same time as Masaki.
"Are you all right!? Oh my, that's a serious cough you have there. Take my handkerchief," Masaki said worriedly while the captain graciously accepted her gift, his friend holding his shoulders while the coughing fit subsided.
"I must admit, I haven't seen you around here before and you certainly don't look like a soul reaper," the brown haired one with the hat and the pink coat observed as he looked at her unfamiliar face and her clothes that had transferred over from the World of the Living.
"Oh yes, I'm pretty new here, I just got here a few days ago and I've been travelling with my friend Goro to get here."
"So you're from the Rukon? How did you get past Jidanbo? The only other person to do that was..." the white haired one trailed off.
"Ichigo, right?" Masaki piped up.
"Yes exactly, I'm not surprised you know. But Jidanbo is strong, and if you'll pardon my saying, you two don't seem as if you could-" he broke off abruptly and started coughing again into the handkerchief, but more so than before. Little spots of blood dotted the previously white material.
"Sorry you two, but I need to get my friend here to the Fourth division barracks. Stay here, we're not suspicious of you now but if you move we will have to consider you intruders, and we wouldn't want to do that now would we?" The man paused. "If we don't come back in 10 minutes ask around for captains Ukitake and Kyoraku," and with that, they blurred from view and disappeared.
"Goro, those were captains? I thought they were supposed to be dangerous, but they seemed awfully nice."
"Ooooh, don't let that fool you miss. They are plenty dangerous when they want to be."
"So should we wait here until they get back?"
"Probably," Goro said. Then he sighed as the first thing Masaki did was start reading chapter one of her new book.
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Recap: "Ichigo, Karin, Yuzu, we need to get going to the soul society right away."
"To the Soul Society?" Karin looked at her father. "You really aren't kidding are you," Karin said seeing the seriousness in his face and finishing her sentence quietly in a not-question.
"Not at all Karin," Isshin said. He quickly switched into his soul reaper form and pushed his sword into the air, turning it in an invisible lock to open a senkaimon. For one moment, the four just stared at the light coming out of the doors, trying to wrap their minds around the thought that Masaki still existed somewhere. Then, finding that it was impossible to comprehend this, they shook their heads, resolving not to believe in false hope until it was confirmed.
"Uh dad, we need Urahara's help to go through. Yuzu and Karin need his special gate, they can't transform like we can," Ichigo pointed out. "Forgotten already old man?"
"N-no! Of course not! I was merely testing the gateway... just in case. Well now that that's done, off to Urahara's!" he said, and he purposefully marched out, his son and daughters grumbling behind him.
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"You know Goro, some of this information isn't true. Here, in the introduction it says that, 'Mr. Kurosaki was a completely crazy idiot who punched and/or kicked his son Ichigo every morning to hone his reflexes and strength in Hakuda.' It's obviously been exaggerated to great proportions, my husband never did that! I mean he is a bit of a goofball, but seriously..." Masaki shook her head and continued reading while Goro hid a smile. It was quite fun to see Masaki reading about the events that occurred while she was out. She was still thinking and remembering in the past, so it was like she was reading about the future.
"Miss, the information in that biography was collected by trusted sources and in some cases the family themselves, so I don't think there's any false statements in there."
"If you say so, but..."
"We're back~!" a voice rang out. "I hope we didn't keep the young lady or her companion here too long."
"Oh we didn't mind the wait at all, it gave me more time to read the book that Jidanbo gave me, Captain..."
"Kyoraku, but you two can call me Shunsui. Formalities were never my thing," Shunsui replied.
"So then you must be Captain Ukitake," Goro said referring to the the white haired captain who was no longer coughing.
"Yes I am, nice to see you remembered. So let's get right to the point here, who are you two?"
"Oh my name's just plain old Goro, and my companion right there is-" Goro broke off as his head started pounding. Silver wisps started rising from his kneeling form and he could barely hear Masaki and the two captains calling to him. He could only hear one voice.
Let me out and at 'em! I haven't gotten ANY good fights since you started travelling with that woman. I WANT TO KILL ALL OF THEM!
No! I'll fight you later. But please not now, I have a mission to help this woman, to help my friend! Goro replied in his mind.
Do you honestly think I give a crap? HUH!? GET IN HERE AND FIGHT ME OR I'LL COME OUT AND FIGHT YOU! Or would you rather I came and killed someone else on your end...
No! Okay, okay, I'll fight you, but please not now. I'm in the middle of- Goro felt a tug on top of panic as he was pulled into his inner world. He didn't have time for this! He opened his eyes to the familiar sight of dozens of crowded little huts with red roofs, yellow walls, bluish-white windows, and a stylistic appearance, almost like they had been painted with watercolors. He was standing about twenty feet above them on air and looking from a bird's eye view. A mile to his left there was a fog of pure black, growing and advancing ever so slowly. Directly in front of him was a person.
The person was a man, but he didn't have the stereotypical giant muscles and square chin. Instead he had a pointed chin a lanky frame. He had red skin the color of blood and long ivory hair tied into a low ponytail. His eyes were a deep green with no pupil and he had fangs about an inch long. The only things he wore were a sleeveless ripped black robe with a gold belt and a sword in a gold scabbard, and he was barefoot.
Goro looked upon this man and was hit by... sorrow. Once upon a time, they would have had so much fun killing and slaughtering hollows together along with any weak soul reapers who would dare to get in their way. But Goro had changed, and this man had not. Goro would "communicate" with him every day, meaning he would fight him so he wouldn't go on a rampage inside Goro's soul. But then Masaki had come, and Goro had forgotten about his partner until meeting Jidanbo. He'd made up his mind to confront him later, but he'd procrastinated, and now he was being forced to fight him at a bad time.
"Stop staring into the distance like that, you coward!"
Goro snapped back to reality and looked at the man again. "Satsujin, it's been a while-"
"Don't give me that crap Goro, you've been avoiding me. But I don't care, I just need this one fight until..." the zanpakuto smiled, showing his razor sharp fangs. "Never mind, you don't need to know right now. At this moment, all you have to do is FIGHT ME!" Satsujin screeched as he flew at Goro.
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"Goro! GORO!" Masaki shook her companion. He was passed out on the ground while silver wisps of spirit energy continuously evaporated from him.
"I think we should get your companion to the fourth division right away," said Jushiro. "Come with us, Shunsui will carry him."
"I will?"
"Yes, please help him!"
"I guess I don't have a choice since you asked so nicely," Captain Kyoraku said as he hefted Goro onto one shoulder. The three ran to the fourth division with the Captains leading the way and making sure not to flash-step so they wouldn't lose the woman behind them. When they arrived, a kind lady who introduced herself as Captain Unohana took Goro into a special room, asking the three who came with him to stay outside. She looked curiously at Masaki for a split second before disappearing into the room. After a bit of silence, Captain Ukitake spoke up.
"Don't worry about your companion. Captain Unohana is the best healer in the entire Soul Society, so he'll be fine."
"I'm sure he will. Oh, and thank you very much for your help. I realize that captains as important as you didn't have to escort Goro to this place at all but you did anyway."
"Ah don't mention it," Captain Kyoraku said. "But you have a point, normally we wouldn't have cared. But something was bugging us about you two, especially you, and we didn't know what."
"Shunsui's right, you remind of us someone. We didn't catch your name earlier, could you tell us?"
"Of course, I'm sorry it was rude of me. My name is Masaki Kurosaki."
"Kurosaki? Are you in any way related to Ichigo?"
"You could say that, since he's my son," Masaki said as she returned to her book. She missed the shocked looks that both captains gave her and each other. She also missed the hell butterfly that they sent out of the window in the direction of the Head Captain in the first division.
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Captain Unohana frowned. This man's spirit energy was acting very strangely. It was his own, but it seemed to be fighting against him, like a part of himself was no longer united with him and was turning on him. If that was the case, then it was the sort of problem in his inner world that she could not interfere with. The only option was the keep watch over this man until the conflict was resolved. As Captain Unohana thought this over, Goro was battling his zanpakuto in his inner world.
Ha! I'm almost ready now, Satsujin thought as he continued to slash at his master. No, former master, he corrected himself. Then he suddenly smiled, much to Goro's confusion.
"I think I'm ready to get out of this dump!" the zanpakuto said. Goro was only confused further.
"What do you mean?"
"Ha, you really don't know, do you? The only reason I've wanted to fight you is so that I can get stronger. Strong enough to manifest myself into the outer world, and destroy and kill to my heart's content! Just like the old days, before you turned into a mushy coward!" He snarled.
"But that's- that's impossible!"
"Not for me it isn't. And you have no idea who I'm going to kill first," Satsujin smirked, and he vanished.
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