A/N: So, this isn't monday. But I was really busy, and it was my birthday on the weekend, and I made this chapter EXTRA SPECIAL! So I hope everyone enjoies it... because it made me want to kill myself.
No...
Not really.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or InuYasha. But I do own the scary images tattooed on the undersides of my eyelids, which have inspired Ichigo's creepy nightmares. Lawl.
Hakumei Hollow
Chapter Seven: Hanshou
By ancient-relic
He grinned, because in retrospect, this was going to turn out quite nicely. He hadn't really planned it this way, and at times, he wanted to smack himself for rejecting the position of captain. Yet as things began to come together, he wanted to laugh in delight.
She'd told him that the one that they'd been waiting for would come soon, and he would have to serve under her in order to remember his past. The pain- the dull ache that had quickly made a place for itself in the back of his head- reminded him of something long forgotten.
And now, with things slowly coming together, he was going to uncover the mystery of his past.
:-:-: :-:-: :-:-:
Kagome lounged in her office, taking the blank walls in with little interest. The place was so... decrepit. She would have to re-decorate.
"Sesshomaru," she called, raising her hand to help it carry.
"Yes," he appeared in the window, crouched lightly on the sill.
"Don't be so strange. People will get suspicious." She chastised, folding her hands into her sleeves.
"I am an animal by nature," Sesshomaru pointed out. "Not unlike Komamura-sama."
"Just don't go giving it away, is all." Kagome said, before sighing. "This place needs some paint. Can you take care of it?"
"You trust me to... re-decorate?" Sesshomaru paused to choose the right word.
"Sure, just think of it as a chance to use your artistic license, or whatever. I think I need a nap."
"Very well," Sesshomaru chuckled before disappearing out the window.
"But first," Kagome murmured to herself, running her hand down her forehead and across her eyes, "I need something to eat."
Her eyes flashed red in the moonlight.
:-:-: :-:-: :-:-:
Ichigo watched from his high vantage point atop the scaffold as captains milled about the winding roads. He easily caught sight of Kenpachi, who went in several circles before breaking through a wall to get to the bar he'd been looking for. This caused Ichigo to laugh, which caused Yoriuchi to smack him.
Except, Uryu was in between them on the scaffold, and he lost his balance, and bumped Ichigo, who ended up falling off the scaffold. Chad caught Uryu as he fell, his other arm supporting Orihime, who had been on his other side.
Urahara hid his wide smile behind a fan.
"Shit..." Ichigo grumbled, picking himself up from the ground. "That's gonna be a bitch in the morning,"
"Oh suck it up," Yoriuchi grinned, smacking his shoulder. Ichigo moaned in pain.
"Come on, everyone. Let's go underground. It's already dark, and we don't want to be caught... unawares." Urahara said, glancing at the rising moon.
"By what?" Orihime questioned, walking after Urahara as everyone trailed after him.
"The Hollow killer," Rukia said, appearing beside them. "It could be anywhere, and we wouldn't even know it."
"It's true," Yoriuchi said, as they all entered a steep tunnel, the dark stairway lit only by a torch every dozen feet. "She's already infiltrated the Soul Society- and I don't think they can sense her, either."
"Oh boy," Orihime shivered, the chill not in the air, but in Yoriuchi's words.
"Don't worry, Orihime," Ichigo said, placing his large warm hand on her shoulder. "I won't let anything happen to you guys."
"Be careful what you promise- your words might not be enough this time, berry-tan." Urahara said, already ahead and hidden in the shadows. His laugh echoed eerily off the walls.
:-:-: :-:-: :-:-:
Byakuya opened his eyes, and rose from his raised futon. Something was calling to him from the night. Every time he closed his eyes, a haunting cry wafted through his mind... and he couldn't tell whether he was making it up, or if he was actually hearing something from outside.
Pulling on his black haori over his white night yukata, he grabbed Zenbonsakura and got ready to leave the Kuchiki compound. Checking to make sure no one would see his exit; he decided it would be best to stick to the shadows. If he used the flash-step, it might leave a signature that another shinigami could follow. And that was unacceptable.
I'll start at the scaffold- it's got the best view of the Soul Society, he mused. That way, if there was something suspicious, hopefully he'd be able to get a glance of it.
Ducking through the gate, he moved slowly along the wall of his complex. Trees whistled lightly in the breeze, but other than that, the night was silent.
Then what... he closed his eyes, thinking. ...there.
The sound wafted through the night again. Listening carefully, he headed towards the scaffold. The sound seemed to both grow and shrink- he could hear it more clearly at some times than others.
Yet he could not tell where it was coming from, no matter how hard he listened. The harder he tried, the harder it was to find. Keeping his eyes closed, he let his ears guide his feet. Finally, when he was beneath the scaffold, he opened his eyes.
There, before him, stretched the Soul Society. He could see three of the four gates, as well as the main headquarters for the Council. Yet everything was quiet, and everyone was asleep, with exception of those guarding the gates. He did not want to talk to them, so instead chose to remain where he was, scrutinising the village.
Then, the eerie humming echoed through the night again, louder than he had ever heard it before. Looking straight up after the sound, Byakuya's eyes zeroed in on the little figure high atop the scaffold. She was swinging her legs over the side of the scaffold, and a long, tattered cloak whipped through the air behind her on the crisp breeze.
"You, intruder," Byakuya said, jumping into the air, his hand on Zenbonsakura as he touched down. His other hand steadied his haori, on his shoulders.
"Me?" her voice tinkled melodiously through the air. Long dark hair covered her face from his view.
"Who are you? And what business have you here?" he questioned, sliding his zanpakuto an inch out of its sheath.
"Me?" she repeated, laughing. The sound tickled Byakuya's ears in a sickeningly sweet way.
"Yes," he said, drawing his sheath. However, he didn't take a step towards her, as she rose from her seated position. Tense, he watched her hands, should they stray to a weapon.
They were small and delicate, partially hidden beneath her tattered sleeves. She was small, but not unnaturally so. She looked to be slightly taller than Soifon... and around the same size as Kagome.
"Wouldn't you like to know." She said, her grin tangible, yet invisible. Tilting her head upwards towards the sky, another breeze kept her hair from revealing her face. Irritation flashed through him.
But then, she turned towards him; lightly, like a dancer, on her toes, and he saw her face.
A grotesque mask covered her face, jagged pieces stopping between her nose and her mouth. Pouty lips were partially visible. The eyes were angled and almost slits, resembling the kabuki-style of the human world. Horns protruded from several spots at the top, forming an almost-crown. Beads of an unknown material- bone, gems... glass... hung from delicate strands from the larger horns. However, in the center of the mask- around the forehead, a pink-purple orb was surrounded by runes and seals, and was currently glowing a faint purple-white.
"What-"
"Don't you mean who?" a voice tickled the back of his neck, by his ear. The girl was at his back. Tensing, he used shunpo to dance away. From several feet away, he watched the girl as she lay on her stomach in mid air. It looked as if she was resting on a hard plane, but he knew better. It was a fairly advanced technique of expelling reiatsu from the body. However, it was only usually expelled from the limbs- the hands and the feet. Because it used reiatsu so quickly, to expel it from enough of the body to lay in the air meant she had either a special technique, or enormous amounts of reiatsu.
"Who," he intoned, "are you?"
"Well, gosh, aren't you rude?" she chuckled. The voice was behind him. Turning again, he disappeared to several feet away.
"That isn't going to work you know," she said, still behind him.
Byakuya was astounded. How was she doing that? There was no way to predict where he was going to be so accurately.
"Well," she said, a snide drawl. She waited for him to turn around before she continued. "I've just synchronized my aura with yours. You're just pulling me around all over the place."
How did she know- "I can read your mind, silly," She stepped closer. "It's really not that hard- you think so loudly."
Red eyes stared out at him curiously from behind the mask. Straining, he found he couldn't move away. Looking down, he was floored to see a binding kido holding him in place.
"When did you do that?" he grit out, his mind whirring furiously. He had no idea what this... thing "I'm not a thing!" was capable of.
"Well if you find me so offensive, I'll just leave. I didn't have to let you find me, after all." She grinned.
Stepping back, the kido disappeared. Byakuya almost lost his balance, but braced himself, drawing Zenbonsakura.
"I'll only ask you once more," he said, pointing his sword at her. He tensed, preparing to lunge- or defend.
"Well, you've asked me more than one question," she said. "Which one are you planning on repeating?"
Byakuya, his temper simmering violently beneath the surface of his battle face, roared. She was mocking him!
"Ah, you're right," she said. "How rude of me. To answer your questions... it was a simple task of wordless kido. And I can't tell you my name. That wouldn't be any fun, really."
She disappeared, and Byakuya used shunpo again. Feeling her presence behind him, he thrust Zenbonsakura backwards, under his left arm. It met some resistance, before sliding gently. Had he pierced her?
Turning around, his eyes widened in shock at what he had indeed pierced. She was holding up her hand, the blade straight through her palm. She had directed the blade away from her face with her right hand, which was crossed over her chest. However, she wasn't bleeding.
"That wasn't very nice," she said, a threatening timber entering her voice. "I really don't like it when people like you do thing like this."
Flexing her hand, she pulled it backwards along the blade with a sickening squelching sound. At the tip, she rotated her palm, the blade slicing through more of her flesh, until her hand was partially severed. Then, fisting her hand around the blade, he felt an enormous reiatsu pour from her fist, and his blade shattered.
Holding up her hand as if for inspection, he watched as her hand stitched itself back together, tendons and muscles and bone reattaching themselves before the rest of the flesh and skin covered it. Finally, her hand rejuvenated, she looked him in the eye again. Her red eyes glowed eerily, and seemed to pulsate.
"I should kill you for this," she chuckled. "I should. Yes, shouldn't we? His soul is so tantalizing... I know, but it's not time. Imagine it ripened... with fear, anger... hatred." she spoke aloud, her eyes never leaving him. Byakuya wondered who she was talking to.
"Like mine," she whispered.
A sword materialized on her back, as tall as her, wrapped in bandages. It looked like a broadsword- not unlike Ichigo Kurosaki's, the substitute shinigami. She stretched her left arm up to reach it- in what seemed like slow motion. The bandages fell away, revealing a long white sword hooked into a crooked point, like a scythe's blade had been attached to a broadsword. A white ring pierced the back of the blade below and opposite the hook.
"I am the one you call... Hakumei Hollow." She said, slicing the air. Byakuya caught glimpses of Hueco Mundo through the rip in the sky. "Pass on my message, Byakuya Kuchiki."
Her last words were but whispers. "Divine retribution is coming. Pray that your souls be saved."
:-:-: :-:-: :-:-:
Miroku peeked into his new captain's quarters. They were empty.
"Kagome-sama?" he called, stepping inside. "Kagome-sama?"
"Monk," a voice came from the shadows. A blade pressed against his throat.
"Sesshomaru-san?" Miroku questioned, as Sesshomaru stepped out of the shadows. "What are you doing here?"
Sesshomaru remained silent for a moment, looking at the paint buckets he had procured. "Direct your question at yourself, monk. You are trespassing in captain's quarters."
"I'm the third seat, Sesshomaru. Get a hold of yourself!" Miroku was getting a little exasperated. "This is my division, and my captain's quarters! I have as much a right as you to be here."
"Not while Kagome is out," he growled. "Leave, monk."
"Stop calling me that!" Miroku replied, turning to leave. "I have not followed a god for a long time."
And with that, he disappeared into the darkness, sliding the shoji doors shut softly behind him. Sesshomaru wondered if Miroku remembered his past. It seemed InuYasha did not remember Kagome- or his older half-brother. Did he even remember himself...?
"You didn't have to shoo him out, you know," Kagome said, wiping her mouth with her sleeve, stepping in through the window. "Miroku's pretty smart. He'll figure it out soon enough."
"And are you okay with that?" Sesshomaru asked, completely serious.
"Absolutely not," Kagome replied with a smile. She placed her zanpakuto against the wall beside the couch, before slumping onto it.
"Then what will you do?" Sesshomaru questioned after a moment of silence. "If he remembers? If he figures it out?"
"I will kill him," Kagome stated, rolling over to face the back of the couch and effectively ending the conversation.
"Now get some rest. Duties begin tomorrow."
:-:-: :-:-: :-:-:
Ichigo woke up, a damp sweat on his face. He'd had another dream- this one much more peaceful than the last. However, something morbid was lurking at the edge of his thoughts... and he couldn't place it. It made the hair on the back of his arms and at the name of his neck stand on end.
He remembered his dream, closing his eyes.
Light hands brushed across his face- his hair, his ears, his eyes, his mouth. A soft scent washed over him, and he wanted to lift his hands and return these gently gestures. Yet something bound him, preventing him from responding. His mind seemed to be the only thing functioning.
"Wow," a voice breathed, her breath saccharine. "This is something else. And it really isn't Tokyo anymore,"
His eyes cracked open, and bright brown eyes stared fondly into his own. And then-
A ripping scream tore through the air, and a red-eyed face replaced the one on the back of his eyelids.
The face had come to him while he was awake, now, too. Sitting up in his sweat-covered haori, he looked around. Everyone seemed to be asleep... so the scream must have been from his own head.
"Ichigo... Ich...i...go..." a voice echoed through the huge room, and Ichigo turned his head left and right, searching for the source of the sound.
Red eyes watched from the darkness as her illusions made his hair stand on end and his skin damp with sweat. Satisfaction stole across her features before she returned to her quarters.
"I see you... Ich...i...go..."
To Be Continued...
A/N: Well, that's that. A little bit of confrontation, on three fronts. And more Byakuya, and more Ichigo. A little about Miroku at the beginning, there, if you were a little confused. The third new captain will be cleared up... soon...
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Ahem.
Well, please tell me what you think!! In a review, of course! I look forward to hearing from you!
ancient-relic
