The hollow loped along, sniffing the air, trying to locate the tasty scent that had drawn it to this world, when a strange mess of sounds drew it's attention upwards.
"O lord-"
"Grow-"
"Flutter of wings-"
"Crush them-"
"Steel wheels-"
"Growl-"
"Destructive art nu-"
The hollow let out a tiny mew before the shapes launched themselves forward simultaneously. The resulting shockwave shattered every window in a five-block radius and had people running for nearby doorways.
"Wha-!"
Did the building just…shake? I looked around. Several other people had seemed to notice it as well, staring at each other nervously. There weren't any fire alarms sounding, or any more of whatever it was, so after a moment, I returned to my shopping.
"Good morning, Ukitake-taichou, Zaraki-taichou."
"Good morning, Aizen-taichou."
"I couldn't help but notice the look on your face, coming out of first squad headquarters. Is there something amiss?"
"Keh."
Zaraki pushed himself past Aizen, not bothering to look back as he spoke.
"Jus' some shinigami being stupid."
Aizen tilted his head at the remark, looking to Ukitake for clarification.
"Several shinigami suddenly traveled to a single city in the mortal world. We're not sure why."
"How strange…"
Ukitake bent over coughing, and waved goodbye as he hurried off fumbling with something in his pocket. Aizen nodded as he passed and continued on his way, the edges of his lips turning upwards.
"Let's hope they stay out of trouble…"
The mass of grumpy, arguing shinigami bounced from rooftop to rooftop, no clear winner among them.
"How ridiculous…"
Ikkaku rubbed his head as he walked up to the door. He was about to ring the doorbell when a piece of paper caught his eye, taped to the mailbox. Out of curiosity, he picked it up, and then jumped in surprise as several shinigami began breathing down his neck, looking at the paper over his shoulders.
"What's that?"
"Hey!"
A second squad member neatly pulled the paper out of his hands and danced away, holding the note up to read it aloud.
"Remember, after grocery shopping, clean garage. No more putting it off."
The assembled shinigami stared at each other. Then they turned to look at the garage. Then back to staring at each other.
"You! Grab that side!"
"Shut up, Matsumoto!"
"Hey now, we're trying to supervise here!"
Kyouraku-taichou and Matsumoto-fukataichou shared a grin and a bottle of sake, relaxing in some patio furniture and directing the work effort while the rest of the shinigami toted, hauled, and grunted. The work was mercifully interrupted by more beeping, and the assembled shinigami groaned and stretched as they pulled out the communicators.
"Just a little one. No big-"
A second beeping started up. Followed by a third, and a fourth. The next second, the screen was saturated with dozens of dots.
"Holy…"
"O-K!"
Ikkaku jumped up onto the roof and pulled his blade out, waving it above his head.
"New plan!"
And then he was off. The rest of the shinigami quickly dropped what they were doing and followed.
The feeling of a hollow's reiatsu reached me, but it quickly disappeared. And what was that sound? I quickly turned as the feeling reappeared, much closer. It vanished as well, and just as quickly.
"THREE!"
"Huh?"
A trio of shinigami I couldn't name ran past, whooping and laughing.
"The hell?"
Some more hollows must have appeared, I guess. I waited a few moments more for the light to turn green before continuing on home. No one was there, and the work in the garage was at least half-finished. I just finished putting away the groceries before another wave of reiatsu rolled past, a mix of shinigami and hollow, followed quickly by the sounds of battle.
Dashing outside, I could see at least five shinigami scrambling to defend themselves against no less than twenty hollows. I flash-stepped onto a nearby roof, landing softly and pointing at the nearest hollow. It screamed as the beam hit the small of it's back, and as it turned, a shinigami took the opening and beheaded it. The shinigami landed beside me and turned back towards the melee, chanting hurriedly and picking two hollows out of the air with a bolt of lightning before leaping back into the fray. It was all I could do to just distract the hollows, as they were noticeably larger and more powerful then what I've faced before.
By the time the battle was over, two of the shinigami were seriously wounded. One shinigami began yelling into his phone before he simply stopped and stared at it, giving it a shake and asking the man next to him for his phone.
"What's wrong?"
"I can't contact Soul Society…It's like the hollows' reiatsu is messing with my equipment. I can't call for support."
"Support? But you've got a captain here and a bunch of vice-captains and third-seats! What do you need support for?"
"This."
He showed me the screen. There were more dots then screen showing.
"Damn, that's…huh? What are they doing?"
"What do you…"
As we watched, the dots began to converge at a single point on the screen.
"Do they do that a lot?"
"No. Only to…oh SHIT! You two, help the wounded, the rest, follow me!"
"Here!"
I tossed my house keys to one of the men and joined the second group.
"Hey, you can't-"
I was already on my way, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, following the strange shift in the reiatsu that now blanketed the city.
Closer now, the reiatsu seemed to tug at me. Not oppressive like the reiatsu of an angry shinigami, it was like a vacuum, cold and sharp, trying to suck the energy right out of my body. I stumbled just as I jumped, the field I created to carry me shattering and falling away, and I felt the familiar tug of gravity, my gut twisting as I saw hard, unforgiving concrete far beneath me.
"Hey now…that's a nice effort, but you really shouldn't go any farther."
To my side, falling along with me, the captain in the straw hat was grinning at me. I returned the grin with a wide-eyed expression of gratitude and stretched an arm out. He raised an eyebrow and stared at me, puzzled. I shook my arm frantically and took another look at the ground, which was approaching quite rapidly.
"Oh!"
A moment later, I was back on the nice, solid rooftop.
"Stay here."
"Why? What's going to-"
A monstrous, ugly feeling. Cold. Hungry. The scent of rot and death. I screamed as the skin on my arms began to peel away, the muscles underneath blackened and charred, the smell of it-
Gone. A hand on my shoulder.
"Concentrate. Focus your energy and protect yourself."
I did, and when the hand was removed, the cold aura returned, but my body was intact.
"It was…all in my head?"
"Yeah."
"What…what is…"
"Relax! I'll handle this, won't take a moment. Just sit down, take a breath, and you'll be fine. Now…"
He stepped right to the edge of the building, unsheathing two swords in one smooth motion. He began a low chant, and past him, I could see a huge mass taking form, easily dwarfing the nearby buildings. Kyouraku-taichou's blades grew, growing and changing form. He leapt just as a plume of while erupted from the top of the mass, forming a mask.
"That's…that thing…is a hollow?"
"Gillian."
I looked behind me to see a group of shinigami looking on, the one who spoke pointing forward.
"Don't blink. You're not gonna get another chance to see this."
I turned back around, and I watched as a silver line raced towards and up the massive hollow, circling and criss-crossing it's body, two bright crescents gouging huge chunks out of the hollows' form. It roared and flailed clumsily at the point of light dancing across his body, trying to swat the captain away. He avoided the slow strikes easily and continued upwards to the Gillian's neck, moving so fast it looked like a noose was tightening around the thing's neck. The light intensified for a moment, and without pomp or ceremony, the gillian's head separated from it's body and crashed to the ground. After a moment, the entire thing dissolved, gone, as if it never was.
"Whew!"
The captain alighted back on the building's ledge, swords sheathed. He took his hat off and dusted it casually before replacing it and adjusting his haori.
"I could use a drink. You?"
With the Gillian thing gone, medics were quickly called in to take care of the wounded. Miraculously, no one had been killed (relatively speaking) and my basement was quickly taken over by fourth squad, converting the rooms into a makeshift hospital.
Outside, I passed around what sake I had to the exhausted shinigami, sharing a toast with them to Kyouraku-taichou, who seemed to be actually blushing at the attention.
"Mahh…my only regret is that my kawaii Nanao-chan isn't here to share a drink with meEEE!"
His voice rose suddenly and his head tilted as a girl appeared next to him, twisting one of his ears.
"What do you mean by my Nanao-san?"
"My vice-captain, of course! What did you think I was implying? You wound me."
"No. Not yet…"
She released his ear and adjusted her glasses, taking in the scene.
"But my dear Nanao-chan, what are you doing here? Perhaps, you wanted to join me?"
"Hardly. We came to find out why you had all come here."
"We?"
A surge of reiatsu announced the arrival of another captain, a woman with two long braids and a downright scary look in her eyes. The men from second squad scrambled to their feet and saluted, freezing in place as she glared at each in turn.
"Soi-fon-taichou too? Then…"
Matsumoto leapt in fright as someone appeared behind her. Another captain, this one looking even younger than me, with spiky white hair and a long blade strapped across his back.
"Hitsugaya-taichou…what a surprise!"
"Matsumoto…"
She backed away, looking for an escape route. Another man, this one's arrival catching the notice of the rest, stepped into the backyard and looked out over the group before focusing on me. Shifting, I saw the new vice-captain and the other two captains were also staring at me.
"Err…sake?"
Yamamoto, flanked by the captains of the Gotei-13, flipped through the two reports in front of him while the shinigami who had gone to the living world sat at the opposite end of the room, sweating profusely.
"So…If I am to understand this correctly, there is a human who has made his home available to visiting shinigami, turning an otherwise tedious assignment into what is essentially…a paid vacation."
He looked up towards the assembled group, who all nodded simultaneously.
"And due to this information leaking out, an error which Aizen-taichou has already admitted to…twenty-three shinigami, including a captain and two vice-captains, traveled to the mortal world, and finding they were not alone in their desire, decided to engage in a hollow-hunting competition to see who would be allowed to stay. The result being serious property damage in a populated area, and drawing the attention of a swarm of hollows which proceeded to condense into a Gillian. A Gillian that seemed to suppress the workings of our communication system and even prevented us from opening a portal to the mortal world in its vicinity."
Another chorus of nods.
"After which, you all returned to his house…" He turned one last page. "And had some sake. Correct?"
Heads bobbed, and remained low.
"I see."
With a shake of his head, he rose and dismissed the captains present, all but Unohana-taichou.
"Everyone, please come with me."
They looked up at the sound of her voice, puzzled, but followed her outside. There was a group from fourth squad waiting, wearing some very unnerving grins.
"My fourth squad has been terribly overworked lately, and has been in need of a…paid vacation."
One of the men stepped forward, pushing a cart carrying mops, buckets, and assorting cleaning tools.
"My thanks, for volunteering to fill in their positions while they are away. I understand from the report that you all have more than sufficient experience in such matters."
She bowed low, and though it was contrary to her nature, tried her best to ignore the cries of anguish of suffering that followed as aprons and hairnets were handed out.
