Chapter 7: Breath
The group of Ichigo, Orihime, Uryu, Chad, Rangiku, Hitsugaya, Yachiru and Kenpachi reached home around 5 o' clock. None of them had said anything to each other since they had left the graveyard. They had had to ride yet another form of public transportation to get back to the road where Urahara's second shop was. If they thought the trains were packed with people, it was nothing compared to when they stepped onto the busy street as they made their way towards the shop's 'welcome' sign.
Everyone seemed to be completely oblivious to the entrance of the store, rushing past it on their way to wherever they needed to be. As Kenpachi glanced up towards the sky he found at least one thing that was probably something to be a little bit happy about. The sky had cleared up from the morning funk it had been in, and looked as if it would stay cloudless throughout the rest of the day and the night.
Ururu was the first one to greet them as they walked through the open doors into the warm, non-air conditioned shop. She was holding a small personal fan in her hand though she looked like she wasn't sweating at all. Especially compared to Jinta who had his tongue hanging out of his mouth like a dog, trying to get as much cold air as he could find. When he saw the group enter he yelled lazily,
"Hey! Their back!"
He then turned around and pulled the single regular sized fan in the room as close to his face as he could monopolize the airflow. Ururu quietly muttered in her soft voice,
"Jinta... you should really let the others have some of the air too..."
He ignored her and continued fanning himself. "It's not like I asked to get dragged all the way to China in the middle of this heat wave. They can get their own air!"
As they all sat down around a round table situated on the floor and Tessai brought them a large pitcher of iced tea, Kenpachi finally asked,
"So... how long do we have?"
"We need to leave at sunset." Was Ichigo's immediate response.
A depressed silence filed the room after that. Even Yachiru sipped her tea quietly, and the silence was only broken when Kisuke popped his head inside the doorway, asking in his easygoing voice,
"How did everyone like it?"
More silence greeted him, and he took his seat with them around the table. After he took a sip of his own glass of tea he murmured playfully,
"I assume you all were introduced to those four guard brothers?"
They all made a little grunting noise, then Matsumoto scowled and said,
"Yeah... they all kind of rubbed me the wrong way, you know? They were weird."
"They're always like that. You might want to get used to it, since they guard at night time too." Uryu replied unhappily.
"Can they see us?" Hitsugaya asked cautiously. "Do they have some connection to the Soul Society?"
"They can do a whole lot more than see us." Ichigo answered in an equally unhappy tone as Uryu had. "We don't know who they are or what they know but... they know stuff. Stuff about us. And about what we're doing."
"We should keep an eye on them." Hitsugaya said determinedly, wondering why no one had mentioned the suspicious characters before.
"We have been." Uryu said slowly. Ichigo nodded and finished for him,
"They really don't do anything besides guard the bodies. They do disappear now and then, but they turn up not 2 minutes later. Trust us, we would know if they were really up to something. They're even there when something shows up to fight. Not that they help, they just stand there and wait for one of us to kill it."
Everyone in the room was thoughtful for a little while. Kenpachi was getting a little bit annoyed with the situation. When he had heard about this mission, he thought it would be a good chance to train himself and maybe find some answers to the millions of questions he had about his zanpakutô. He wanted to at east be able to fight something or someone strong, but now it seemed he was beginning to get caught up in the mystery surrounding the mission, and that was leaving no time for him to think about himself. He could feel Yachiru's restlessness as well, she was never one to enjoy being quiet for so long, yet she knew when there was a time and place.
Both of them were almost happy when it was finally time to leave for the graves. Kenpachi was the last one out the door that night, Yachiru riding dutifully on his shoulder. He was caught off guard when Urahara stopped him just before leaving and asked to have a word with him. He sent Yachiru ahead which made her a little angry, but she complied none-the-less.
"What is it, Kisuke?" he asked impatiently.
In a very cryptic answer he replied,
"You should focus on the Xiari. It may have some of those answers you've been looking for."
Kenpachi gave him a confused look, but anticipation bubbled up in his stomach. If anyone knew how to find answers, it would be Urahara. He would follow his advice no matter what.
Yachiru didn't ask him anything when he caught up with her and the rest of them. But, she did seem to hold on to his clothes especially tight as they entered the graves just as the moon rose above the mountains on the far edges of the flat expanse of graveyard.
"It's actually a bit chilly now." Rangiku pulled her sleeves down to cover her arms some more.
As they walked farther into the depths of the graves, probably somewhere around the entrance to the Yih, tiny lamps placed flat on the ground, about 5 feet from each other began lighting up almost magically. Before anyone could wonder how they hadn't noticed them before, Yin stepped out from behind a giant statue of a lion, smiling his creepy smile and said,
"The lamps are solar powered. When the sun goes down they have sensors that tell them to turn on."
Without acknowledging that he was even standing there, Ichigo addressed his group.
"Have we already decided where everyone is going?"
"Um, I told Rangiku I would watch the Yih tonight with her..." Orihime said to Ichigo shyly, sidling over to the other orange haired woman quickly.
Ichigo nodded. "Uryu and I will take the Tiki and Chad and Toshiro can handle the Riki."
"That leaves me and Kenny to go to the Xiari!" Yachiru smiled, finally finding something to be happy about that day.
Ichigo nodded again and said one last thing before they all went their separate ways,
"Remember, midnight is the time when you really have to be on watch. They've been weak so far, but we never know when that could change. Be careful."
Everyone quickly flashed away, Kenpachi greatly enjoying being able to use his real speed and real body instead of the lousy gigai he had been wearing all day long. Yachiru was also happy with the way the cool breeze blew threw her hair as she rode on his shoulder towards the Xiari.
"Ken-chan?" She asked suddenly. "What do these enemies look like?"
He laughed. "Hell if I know. I just hope they're tuff."
He wasn't thinking very much about whatever they were trying to protect the lost souls from. He was thinking about what Urahara had said to him earlier about focussing on the Xiari. It's true, he had gotten a strange feeling when he had been in that particular section of the graveyard earlier that day, but he mostly thought it was the same thing he felt in all the four parts of the graveyard; distinct unease. There was something wrong here, he could feel it. And he also knew he wasn't the only one who could feel it. Yachiru was on edge, so was everyone else. It filled the air with an odd feeling of waiting. Kenpachi was glad he had something to distract him from the waiting. He reached down and gripped his zanpakutô tightly as he stopped and looked around at the Xiari at night.
The graves themselves seemed less lit up than the other areas they had passed on their way there. There were fireflies everywhere they looked, Yachiru's eyes lit up when she saw them and she instantly tried to catch the closest one to her.
"Ken-chan?" She asked as she hopped onto the ground, "What should we do until something fun happens?"
He narrowed his eyes as he looked around the graves and few trees as if searching for something. He huffed when he couldn't see or feel anything out of the ordinary around him.
"I wanna talk to that Xin guy again."
Barely had the words left his mouth and a voice behind them spoke,
"I'm here, and awfully curious as to what I could possibly help you with?"
Kenpachi scowled, knowing a diss when he hears one, but ignored it to ask,
"Kisuke said you might be able to tell me why my sword won't show me it's true form."
The first thing he heard after he said this was a heavy sigh coming from next to him. He glanced down at Yachiru, confused when she asked in a bored tone,
"Ken-chan, why are you still going on about that?"
Kenpachi was left speechless as Yachiru frolicked away among the fireflies and graves. He turned back to Xin, shaking his head and wondering when exactly she had grown tired of his search for his zanpakutô's true form. Xin did not mimic his look of surprise, he seemed to completely understand Kenpachi's previous question so he answered,
"I think I know where to take you. Follow me."
With one nervous glance back towards Yachiru he followed Xin down a dark path where no solar powered lights seemed to shine. Before he had time to wonder where he was going, a bright light came from out of the darkness and blinded him, Xin seeming to magically disappear at the same time.
So... I like this story. I wish I were a better writer to do this story justice... Oh well.
KeikoPanda102
