Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. I'm really glad you like it and I'll try to update more often. This chapter is a little shorter than the others, but there will be some action in the next chapter with two Arrancar. I know its been a long wait, but here is the next chapter. Enjoy:)
Chapter 7
"Aizen!?" Ichigo yelled, shooting out of his seat. The rest of the Shinigami's had shock written all over their faces, even Toshiro and Grimmjow, who was now sitting up on the bed, listening intently.
"Who is this Aizen?" Laxus's gruff voice sounded from the other bed.
"He's a dangerous, manipulative, cunning bastard who tried to overthrow the Gotei 13 and Soul Society," Renji answered. My head was spinning from these names I've never heard of.
"Can you please explain from the beginning? " I asked.
"Soul Society is a place where people's souls who had died go to. The Gotei 13 are the Shinigami's that protect Soul Society and Seireitei, which is where we live," Rukia began to explain as she put a sword on the table. "Each Shinigami has a Zanpakuto which is a sword that reflects a Shinigami's spiritual power, and that gives the sword it's shape and abilities. Since a Zanpakuto comes from a Shinigami's soul, it is able to have a mind and body of it's own. The higher ranked Shinigami's have names for their Zanpakuto and all Zanpakuto have two forms, Shikai and Bankai. If a Shinigami knows the name of their Zanpakuto, they can call it and release it's Shikai form. Not many Shinigami's can perform Bankai, only the captains can. A few high ranked Shinigami's have been able to release their Bankai, Ichigo and Renji being two of them." Rukia finished explaining. We sat in silence as everyone mulled over this when something clicked in my mind.
"Your Zanpakuto is just like my magic," I stated, causing everyone to give me confused looks. I rolled my eyes and clarified.
"The Zanpakuto is only as strong as it's Shinigami, right?" Rukia nodded. "They rely on your power to be able to perform their own attacks, but still maintain a mind and body of it's own. My spirits rely on my magic when I call them out and are only as strong as I am and also have their own mind and body. Each Zanpakuto has a different ability, correct?" She nodded again. "So do my spirits. None of their power is the same and the Zodiac's only have one key in existence, just like there is only one Zanpakuto in existence. The only difference is that your Zanpakuto is born within you while my spirits aren't, but in a way we're still connected as one." Understanding dawned on the Raijinshuu's and Laxus's faces as they found something to connect the information to.
"Can you tell us who this Aizen is now?" I asked, growing impatient.
"I will, but I need to explain a few other things as well," Rukia said, placing a piece of paper on the table. She started drawing rabbits again, making it hard for me to understand what she was getting at.
"I need to report this to Soul Society," Toshiro said as he stood up and left the room.
"Okay. First off Hollows are creatures that are made from Human souls that stay in the Human World too long. When a soul becomes a Hollow, they lose all reason and only live to devour souls. When their not in the Human World they're in Hueco Mundo, a desolate desert that is always nighttime. All Hollows look different, but the one thing they have in common is the white mask covering their faces, which is formed by the hearts that they lost. They also have a hole on their body where their heart was carved out during the transformation. Hollows can be saved or purified by a Zanpakuto and sent to Soul Society in their original soul." She illustrated this by rabbit turning into a weird looking creature, then a Shinigami rabbit stabbing the Hollow before turning back into a soul and disappearing.
"The Hollow that you saw earlier was a Menos, which is an evolved form of Hollow. There are three types of Menos, the Gillian, the one you saw, is made up of thousands of smaller hollows and is considered low-class. Adjuchas are the second-class and are smarter and stronger than a Gillian. The last class is Vasto Lorde. This type of Menos is rare, but is more stronger than a Gillian or Adjuchas." Rukia paused to let us go over the information. So a Human Soul turns into a Hollow by having the heart carved out to be replaced by a hole and turned into a mask. For some reason I looked over a Grimmjow, who was still staring at me, and studied him for a minute. He has a hole and a partial white mask, but he also has a Zanpakuto. Could he have been a Hollow before?
"Before I tell you about Aizen, you need to understand the system of the Gotei 13. There are thirteen divisions in the Gotei 13. Each division has a captain, lieutenant and eighteen seated officers. Though each division has a captain, all the captains listen to the command of the Captain-Commander, who is also the captain of the first division. Some divisions specialize in a specific category. For example, the 4th division specializes in healing and the 12th division specializes in research." I noticed Ichigo and Renji shiver and pale at the mention of the 12th division.
"Aizen used to be the captain of the 5th division before he betrayed Soul Society and left for Hueco Mundo. For years Aizen had been secretly experimenting on Shinigami and the citizens of Soul Society, trying to make a race of Shinigami and Hollow. He wanted to give Shinigami Hollow powers and give Hollows Shinigami powers, and he succeeded. About a 110 years ago, a few captains and lieutenants were ordered to investigate the disappearance of souls throughout Soul Society. Aizen found them and forced them to undergo Hollowfication, which is inserting a Hollow's soul into a normal soul." I noticed Ichigo's face pale a little and the slight shake of his shoulders.
"Luckily, another former captain, Kisuke Urahara, found them and tried to reverse the damage. He was able to stabilize their souls, but the Hollowfication remained. Kisuke was framed for the incident and fled to the Human World. Aizen had succeeded in giving Shinigami's Hollow powers, but he wasn't satisfied. He still experimented until he found a way to give Hollows Shinigami powers by removing the Hollow's mask and giving them a Zanpakuto, but it only worked on Vasto Lorde's. Aizen named this new race Arrancar. The Arrancar's are able to use a Zanpakuto and are numbered by their reiatsu. The Arrancar's who have a number one through ten are called Espada and are the leader of their division. This happened to Grimmjow, who was the Sexta Espada before he came to Soul Society." I looked over at Grimmjow. He was laid back on the bed with his eyes closed, but I could see the stiffness in his shoulders and knew he was following the conversation.
"The Gotei 13 had been preparing for a war, but three years ago Aizen disappeared from the face of the Earth. The Arrancar separated and went their different ways, a few even joining the Gotei 13. Recently though, our Research and Development division had been getting readings of a powerful spiritual presence. They believe it to be Aizen, but it keeps getting blocked by another powerful presence, which turned out to be those black keys. Our group has been sent to collect these keys while looking for Aizen." Rukia finished.
Freed's pen scraping over paper was the only sound that filled the silent room. I looked over to see his notepad filled with notes, even the margins were filled with words. He was in the middle of underlining something when his pen suddenly stopped.
"Rukia-san, if Aizen is the one after these keys, how will he summon them? Does he have that ability?" Freed asked, all curiosity gone from his voice.
"No, he does not have that ability. If anything, he'll command someone who can to do it," Rukia answered. Everyone's heads snapped up at the same time, their attention directed at me as they realized where the conversation was going.
"I-I doubt he'll come for me. I mean, I'm not that strong anyway..." My voice trailed off as nervousness welled up in me at the thought of being used as a tool to destroy the world again. It doesn't seem as though the Infinity Clock crisis was that long ago.
"That's why we have been ordered to protect her," a deep voice sounded from the door. We turned to see Toshiro walking back into the room and sit in the seat he previously occupied.
"The Commander ordered us to protect Lucy under the condition that she finds the rest of the keys before Aizen. He also said that he will send more people to back us up in a few days. Apparently, they need Urahara's help to reopen the portal." I felt the gazes of the Shinigami's on me, looking at me expectantly. I gulped and looked over to Beelzebub who hadn't said a word the entire time.
"My mom was helping you find a way back home, right?" Beelzebub nodded slightly. I nodded back and turned to Toshiro, determination swirling in me.
"I promise that I'll find all the Demon keys. The Demons need to get home and I'll need your help to find a way. I don't want Aizen to get a hold of these keys, but the well-being of my spirits come first." Toshiro nodded and Beelzebub looked at me in surprise. I noticed his body relax, all the tension in his shoulders vanishing as he gave me a small smile.
"Thank you, Demoness," He whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear.
"You're welcome. Now then, why don't we take you guys to our guild. It's about time we got home anyway, I'm sure everyone's worried and we need to explain all this to Master," I suggested as I stood up. I was about to call Virgo out to store our luggage, when a large black hole appeared beside me. Two men emerged from the darkness and the smaller one surveyed the room before his bright green eyes landed on me.
"Yammy," he spoke, his voice emotionless. The larger man nodded and began to advance toward me.
"What are-" was all I could say as large brown hands closed around me and pulled me into the abyss.
Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. I'm really glad you like it and I'll try to update more often. This chapter is a little shorter than the others, but there will be some action in the next chapter with two Arrancar. I know its been a long wait, but here is the next chapter. Enjoy:)
