A.N: DOUBLE UPDATE (C2); WARNING - swearing in this. – Here's Part 3; & if it was given a proper name I'd probably have called this chapter, 'The Situation' or something along those boring lines. Hopefully this chap ain't as boring as it would've been named. Oh and yea obviously I don't own bleach, no money is made from this yada yada yada, Matsuyukisou etc. and other OCs are my own invention. And don't forget to review ra.
Thank You
Chapter 2; 3rd Part – Shinigami
It was dark enough for them to shunpo back to the Shoten even in their gigai's, but instead the three silently agreed to walk back, savour the time to themselves to mull over everything that occurred in their interview with Ryuken Ishida. Though the roads were fairly busy, the walkways were deserted, most humans had long ago left their workplace and were either cuddled up at home or heading there. It was early spring and the night air was chilly enough to remind of winter.
"We're fucked!" spoke Kensei, breaking the silence, "I never thought the kid would have survived! I mean come on! A Shinigami-Quincy half breed, half living and half dead, what the hell does that make it?! And of all the Quincy men, it had to be their damn King! What the hell was Mika thinking?! We're fucked I tell you!" he exclaimed loudly, turning to them his eyes challenging them to deny the truth of his words. "Ishida was right! We couldn't defeat Aizen, what chance do we have against an assassin-trained King descended from 200years worth of Visored-Quincy blood?!
"I do not believe our situation is that dire," answered Urahara, quite jovially considering the predicament
"If the Matsuyukisou deem a shinigami dangerous enough to send their own after, nothing can be done" spoke Kensei totally ignoring Urahara's annoying grin, "The Sotaichou will not side with you Byakuya," he spoke seriously locking gazes with the nobleman, "Soul Society cannot and will not speak out against a Matsuyukisou order, it will result in a war. Considering their King, the Quincy have the upper hand this time,"
"Are you suggesting then, Muguruma," Byakuya's voice cold and menacing, "that I should just step aside and allow them to kill Rukia?! Soul Society may turn a blind eye, but I will not, even if I have to battle the Quincy's alone!"
"You won't be alone, those damn stubborn kids will no doubt be standing right beside you! Hell!, I'll be standing right there next to you, but understand this Byakuya, you may declare yourself separate from Soul Society, but the Matsuyukisou will not see it so. You are a shinigami - rogue or Soul Society patriot - there will still be a war!" answered Kensei in all seriousness
"Then there will be a war!" proclaimed Urahara in nonchalance, "We must therefore prepare for that! I suggest we hurry back; my fingers are quite chilled. We'll inform the others and then decide what we'll tell the kids" spoke Urahara in a feigned motherly manner. They used shunpo for the remaining distance to the Shoten; retelling the meeting with Ryuken and explaining the situation to the others. Tessai left just before midnight to take over Urahara's midnight-8am patrol time, allowing Urahara to explain again to Yoruichi and the others returning from patrol.
"What have you decided to tell Ichigo and the others?!" questioned Soi-Fon after the update
"Everything, minus the part that Rukia is the main and only target, it would be easier and safer to let them think that they are all targets," answered Urahara having decided that already with Byakuya, the returnees nodded in approval. The last thing they needed was for those kids to go up against the Matsuyukisou head on, their massacre would be unnecessary. Soul Society was another matter; they would not be able to contact Soul Society or the Sotaichou until the usual allocated time at the end of the next week, which gave them a week to do whatever they could.
Byakuya was anxious for an audience with the Quincy King, and even more anxious for a favourable outcome if he was able to talk with the Quincy King. He spent another night awake, continuously going over all the reports to try to ascertain how many Matsuyukisou Quincy were in Karakura, and mulling over everything he knew about the Matsuyukisou.
Byakuya returned to the apartment early in the morning to change and escort the girls to the Shoten; he had to some how instruct Rukia never to leave her gigai, without drawing suspicion from her, which was likely, she was a smart girl. The steaming water eased some of the tension throughout his body, but it could not alleviate his anxiety, a meeting with the Quincy King is the only shining hope for them. If Ryuken failed to get him an audience with Kisshoten, they would have no choice but to stand against an army of greater power than Aizen's force from the Winter War. At least in the Winter War, Soul Society also stood fighting, Byakuya was doubtful that the Sotaicho would stand with them against the Matsuyukisou. Rukia's only hope was this meeting, a meeting that was not even certain of happening; Byakuya hated being powerless, the occasions were rare, Hisana' illness and subsequent death was one of those occasions, and now this. His one and only glimmer of hope for Rukia relied on the success of a man, who has never been patriotic to his own kind, and whose hands were just as tied as his own.
Mindlessly he changed, the neatly folded white cardigan upon his bed unnoticed, he slipped out of his bedroom and began to cook a quick breakfast; scurrying and noise notified him that the girls were awake. They ate quickly…wordlessly, and walked to the Shoten just the same.
"WHAT THE FU…!!!"
"ICHIGO!" reprimanded Rukia interrupting him from finishing that sentence. He scowled at her, but his expression quickly softened to obvious worry and frustration at the predicament, Aizen and his Espada were one thing, but now they were up against Quincy assassins on top of Aizen.
He took a deep breath, and then for extra measure took a couple more before speaking again, "So…who exactly are these Matsuyukisou guys, I mean I thought Uryuu and his dad were the only Quincy's left since the war," he said glancing toward Uryuu
"Obviously not; I was always of the belief the Matsuyukisou were wiped out in the war as well. My grandfather did mention them many times, they were the royalty of our kind, the noble eight, the leader of the Matsuyukisou, a Kisshoten, was…is the King of all Quincy's," he said glancing to Urahara and the other Shinigami, Urahara nodded to him to continue explaining the Matsuyukisou. "Well you see the Matsuyukisou was always a separate group from the main Quincy population, not only because they were nobles but because their movement was that of assassins, punishers to wrongdoers and high powered Hollows. Their main and only purpose was to retain the balance in the world, punishing any and all that threatened to or was upsetting that balance. They were the most powerful of all Quincy's because of their noble blood."
"What is the big deal about them being noble? So what, it all just started with some guy declaring himself as King of an area, and proclaiming his family as noble, their blood is no different from yours" retorted Ichigo, scowling more, the note of reverence in Uryuu's voice for these so-called noble had not escaped his notice.
"But it is different, from mine and any other Quincy that's existed. The Matsuyukisou were the first ever Quincy's and therefore," stated Uryuu
"The first?!" exclaimed Urahara, Kensei and even Soi-Fon at once, interrupting him. They had always known of the Matsuyukisou, before the war it was taught in the Shinigami Academy, one single class conducted by the Sotaichou himself, it detailed that the Matsuyukisou were a group of highly skilled Quincy assassins, more dangerous than the Onmitsukido Corps, and if encountered were to be avoided at all cost. They knew the group to be old, but never reckoned they were responsible for the first order of Quincy's.
"Yes; 2000yrs now. The Matsuyukisou village was deep within the Northern forests, edged upon the hidden lake,"
"hidden lake?!" drawled Ichigo an eyebrow raised in amusement
"this is how it was told to me by my grandfather, you got a problem with that Kurosaki" he all but hissed back
"No, none at all, please continue" waving a hand in front, his scowl upturned into a smirk of amusement, Uryuu rolled his eyes, calming himself and continued
"The village was founded by 8warriors, their descendents making up the main families, the…"
"Kisshoten, Fubuki, Sagiri, Kangetsu, Hatsuyuki, Bosetsu, Jimo and Uzume" answered Kensei
Uryuu did a nice impersonation of Ichigo's scowl whilst adjusting his glasses, "If you know this story you are more than welcome to tell it," he said staring intently at Kensei and Urahara,
"We would if we did young Ishida, but we don't we were only ever informed that the Matsuyukisou were not to be crossed, as for the names of the families, we got that from your father. Continue the tale though; it may bring some deeper insight about the Matsuyukisou Order," responded Urahara, smacking Kensei across the head with his fan as a command to keep quiet.
"Yes well, you were right about all the families except one. Uhyou was the other family not Uzume. I don't recall ever hearing about the Uzume clan from my grandfather."
"Of course!" exclaimed Urahara, "The Uhyou clan were obviously wiped out in the war, The Matsuyukisou consist of eight, therefore must of promoted a lower clan to their ranks, therefore the Uzume Clan. Hmm…yes, well, continue Uryuu"
Uryuu rolled his eyes, "The most prominent family was the Kisshoten family; the head of the Kisshoten family was naturally the Chief of the Village. The Matsuyukisou weren't known as assassins then, they were just skilled warriors, especially in Archery. The main families were all very spiritually aware, they could see hollows and pluses but they couldn't harness spiritual energy to attack or defend against hollows, and pluses were at that time dealt with by a Kochou,"
"Huh, a kochou, a butterfly?!" exclaimed Ichigo
"A Kochou, it was the name applied to beings able to perform a konsou on pluses. This was before the time of Shinigami you see. They were usually spiritually powerful souls or humans. It is believed that the King of Soul Society told the 'spirit song' or konsou to souls in society who possessed strong reiryoku, they were able to summon hell butterflies and travel here to the Human World to perform the soul burial upon pluses. Humans with strong reiryoku were also taught the 'spirit song', which really is just a chant to initiate a konsou; these humans were commonly the shaman of a village. Once the old man started the Shin'ō Reijutsu Academy…the Shinigami Academy," Urahara clarified seeing Ichigo confusion, "training them into Shinigami, a konsou became a part of a Shinigami's zanpakuto and so the 'spirit song' was forgotten, humans that were Kochou eventually died and so the song was lost to history."
"Yes, and the Kochou of the Matsuyukisou was a Kisshoten," spoke Uryuu picking up his story
"so this Kisshoten, he was the first Quincy right?!" stated Kensei
"Not exactly, no! First thing, he was in fact a she," continued Uryuu only to be interrupted, again, this time by Soi-Fon
"That's not possible; there is never a Kisshoten woman. Wives do not count they are of other families, the Kisshoten Clan does not have daughters. This Kisshoten you talk of is therefore not a Kisshoten, what was her maiden name?" The other shinigami's present, from the looks of them, were of the same thought as Soi-Fon.
"I don't know where you got that thinking from but she wasn't a wife; Setsuka Kisshoten was the eldest child,"
"She obviously wasn't his child, the wife must have slept with another man," answered Soi-Fon with conviction
"WHAT?! Damn It…just shut…ARGH!" he readjusted his glasses. "Setsuka Kisshoten was the eldest child of Byakuren Kisshoten, leader of the Matsuyukisou, she was the Kochou of the village; and the Kisshoten clan do have daughters, there have been two other Kisshoten women after her that I know of," answered Uryuu through gritted teeth, he calmed himself down again, before continuing. "As I was saying, she started the Quincy movement, managing to coat her bow and arrow with her reiatsu, but it was her brother Anrui that first discovered the Quincy bow, drawing upon the reishii in the area. Anrui Kisshoten was the first Quincy, a pure Quincy."
"Anrui Kisshoten" echoed Byakuya, speaking for the first time since the start of the meeting. He shared a look with Urahara and Kensei, and thought to himself how ironic that the first ever Quincy, and subsequently the first Quincy King, a pure Quincy, was named Anrui, and that his descendent was the first ever half-caste Quincy, part Shinigami and also named Anrui; it was ironic, as well as slightly coincidental, but most likely fated. The former, a pure Quincy, started the order; the latter obviously perfected it taking advantage of his Shinigami-side and the possibility of Hollow-powers, creating a new order, a perfect order. The Matsuyukisou now were a much deadlier group than those before the war and their King…their King was beyond even all of Aizen's creations combined.
He would not give up and give in, however Byakuya could not help but acknowledge that Fate had truly dealt them all a cruel hand.
AN: I managed to stick to 4pages on this one, 3rd times the charm (or something like that). It turned out alright IMO, please review ra
I gave away a lot of little titbits and something that wasn't really answered that'll all come together in future chaps, that's all I'll say on this matter. Again a lot of dialogue, which I think is much easier to explain actions or occurrences past or present, the effect of being a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes, yep, The Lost World, definitely! I totally loved that book…neways!) N.B; Anrui means silent tears, originally tried to decide between Anrui and Ketsurui (blood tears or bitter tears) but Anrui sounds more appropriate to match Ulquiorra.
'til next time