"Ebony & Gold"
A Bleach story
By: CrimsonGaze
A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! And hell, thanks to anyone who even read it and didn't review! I'm in a good mood so I'll just thank anyone and everyone! Thank you!
"Speech"
Thoughts/Memories
Emphasis
Chapter 008
"Hide and Seek!"
Back in Seireitei, late in the evening, the kind, black haired shinigami captain was working. She was working hard to figure out the puzzle in front of her. At first glance, the dead bodies recovered from the outskirts of Rukongai, looked like ordinary dead bodies, but to someone as experienced and wise as Unohana was, they seemed anything but normal. The corpses seemed to be.. made, from different parts, from different persons. All the bodies had several spiritual residues, a hand could have a totally different reiatsu when compared to the same body's leg for example.
Unohana cradled her chin thoughtfully, even considering calling Kurotshuchi over to aid her in her task. The puzzle in itself wasn't that difficult, she already figured that they died from a poison unknown to her and to their vast database and that they were somehow able to radiate many kinds of spiritual energy. A single piece of the puzzle was still missing though, the gentle captain couldn't come up with any explanation as to why the bodies emitted multiple spiritual energies. That simply wasn't possible. There were no seams to indicate that the body parts had been somehow sown together and Unohana really didn't see any other marks to indicate as to why the bodies were like that.
So busy in her examinations and hard thinking, Unohana failed to notice that behind her.. one of the corpses opened it's eyes.
In the darkness of the night, the goddess of flash made her way swiftly towards the familiar office, hoping to find her loved one there. She had already visited Soifon's home, so no other place came to her mind as she thought of the possible whereabouts of the small captain. She was disappointed as she got there as there were no traces of her. She flashed to the roof of the building and then noticed something strange. The streets were crowded with guards. She remained hidden in the shadows, avoiding unnecessary encounters with the shinigami unaware of her former status and rank, as she made her way towards Unohana, knowing she'd have information on the news she heard at Kuukaku's.
"What is it?" the man asked in an annoyed tone.
"Um uh.." the shinigami stuttered, not knowing how to response.
"Hurry it up. I was asleep." Kurotshuchi ordered, irritation clear in his voice.
"Unohana captain sent me here to deliver this message." the young man finally said, not knowing how to deal with the situation as he saw the 12th squad captain without his makeup. He wasn't even sure at first if he was delivering the message to the right man but got his confirmation after hearing the man talk in his distinctive voice.
"What could it be at this late hour?" Mayuri asked himself, accepting the scroll in his hands. "You my go now."
"Hai!"
The 12th division captain closed the door to his home and opened the scroll. "Get there immediately..? How troublesome!" he hissed as he made his way to get dressed. Normally he would not have helped the female captain but seeing that it was a personal request by the captain-commander to help the 4th squad in their investigation, Kurotshuchi saw no other way. "Nemu! Nemu!" he called for his artificially created ´daughter´.
"Hai, Mayuri-sama?" the young woman asked, appearing from the dark.
"I'll be going out, you, watch over the institute."
"Hai."
The crackle of the fire quietly died down as the guards fell asleep in their posts. In the darkness of the night, all that could be heard was the shuffle of the leaves and grass as they danced in the howling wind. Many pairs of eyes watched the enemy fall asleep and small knives found their way to their marks, cutting deep into the throats of the sleeping forms, giving them their final rest. Nothing was heard after. Not the steps. Not the swish of the blade cutting the air. Even the final breaths were silent.
The fire had died out. Only light around came from the moon and in the dim lighted woods, the intruders dressed in black made their move forward. They flashed to an entrance of a cave, the leader reasoned this natural shelter to be their base of operation and figured it was probably protected with a barrier and even worse, traps. After the quick checkup on the area, the group gathered around the tiny leader, forming a circle. "Front team moves in now, rest remain here as backup."
The group nodded, avoiding unnecessary noises.
"Front team, move out."
The group of four moved in and at the mouth of the cave, the small leader stopped to inspect it quickly. Seeing no traps and feeling no barrier, the intruders began their mission, feeling this to be too easy.
In the back of the cave, the three strong forces instantly sensed their lair invaded and began to organize their group.
As Kurotshuchi was closing in on his destination, he suddenly heard the sounds of a struggle. He stopped to listen for the direction and after determining that it was indeed coming from his destination, the morgue, he sighed deeply as he had wanted to avoid any confrontations like this. The sounds luckily quieted down as he got closer but didn't entirely vanish. He opened the door and was surprised by what he saw. "Wait!" he yelled as the woman inside was about to do something she'd regret.
"Huh?" the tan woman asked, holding the enemy by it's throat, ready to give it it's final blow.
"Don't destroy it!" Mayuri said, spreading his arms and coming closer. "It'll be a great specimen!"
Unohana and Yoruichi sighed. "Kurotshuchi.."
"What?" he asked, baffled.
"Fine." Yoruichi said, giving in and dropping the zombie on the ground. It started crawling towards the man, drool sliding down its chin, eyes white as they had rolled over. "Do what you want with it, but do it quick.."
The 12th squad captain wasted no time as he injected it with something dug from his sleeve and the former man dropped down, unmoving.
"Kisuke sends his regards by the way." The former captain grinned, enjoying the brief flash of irritation on the mans face.
"He's still such a troublesome man." Urahara's former lieutenant sighed, inspecting his newest specimen. "This thing was being controlled."
"How can you tell?" the 4th squad captain asked.
"The way it's muscles are torn and twisted.. it cramped just after my injection."
"How does that tell you?" Yoruichi asked.
"It just does." Mayuri said, pointing at the neck of the former person. "See here."
"That wasn't there before." Unohana insisted, she had done a thorough examination on each of the bodies and none of them had a marking like that.
"Yes." the scientist agreed. "When he wasn't ´active´, there was no indication of his state.. But after he activated, the sign that controls him resurfaced."
"By active you mean when he.. woke up?" the former captain asked, scratching the back of her head.
"To put it more commonly, yes." Mayuri stated, feeling aggravated as he had to repeat himself.
"Do you think.. that all of these are like this one?" Yoruichi asked, looking around her, quickly counting at least thirty corpses around.
Unohana sighed, knowing the answer.
"Most likely." Kurotshuchi answered, already drawing his Zanpakutou as the dead around them started rising up. "How troublesome."
Soifon, Koizumi and two others in the secret forces made their way around the cave, picking their route carefully, trying to read the spiritual energies flowing around in the damp air. They moved swiftly but quietly, all trained in the ways of stealth they went a long way undetected. They soon ran out of luck though, as a man stood before their way around the next corner, torch in his hand. "Come out." he said calmly. "I know you're there."
The group of four flashed before him, all taking a ready pose.
"Hmm." the dark man hummed, inspecting the ones in front of him. "I see you brought no captain with you." he said, recalling them always wearing their white haori which Soifon had not brought along this time.
None of them gave any outward sign to prove him wrong, they were glad to have the advantage of his ignorance.
"Then, which one of you is in charge?" The man smirked. "No, which one of you is the strongest?"
"We have no need to answer your questions, Arrancar." Soifon stated calmly in a monotone voice.
"Oh? Then how do you expect to get any answers from me either?"
"You seem to be mistaken." the captain remarked. "We were not sent here for information." she grinned. "We were sent here to exterminate you."
"You believe yourself capable of this?"
"Of course we-!" Koizumi barked, taking a step forward.
Soifon stopped her by slightly raising her arm backwards, never taking her eyes off the enemy.
"I see, you're the leader then." the Arrancar smiled happily. "That must make you the strongest also.."
"Care to test it?" the small woman asked, keeping her cool.
Soifon was barely able to finish her sentence as the Arrancar dashed forward, going for Soifon's neck with his horizontal slash. She dodged it and easily parred with him as they exchanged punches and kick, evading only when he used his blade. As the fight went on, the Arrancar quickly noticed his enemy's speed getting a step greater than his so he attempted to back up slightly to gather his wits for the next combo of attacks. Soifon however would not willingly give him such a chance as she rushed after his every step to get distance, always disabling his movements from anything else than blocking. Finally seeing her chance as she dodged a clumsy strike aimed for her chin, Soifon flashed right before him, bringing her palms on his chest with a force that sent the large, dark man flying a great distance away from them, crushing on to the cavern wall, crumbling a pile of debris atop him.
From underneath the rocks, the man rose, roaring in a bloodthirsty frenzy, his eyes flaring with anger. "Who are you?!" he yelled angrily, unable to comprehend the woman's power as he was so easily pushed down and even without a sword.
"As said, I have no need to answer your questions."
The Arrancar scowled. "You will know the mistake of your arrogance!"
Soifon grinned when she noticed the look on his face as a strange mark appeared on his chest.
"What? What is this?!" he yelled, trying to make sense of it all.
Koizumi and the other two were amazed, they hadn't even seen her draw her Zanpakutou or then releasing it. But there it was, the gauntlet shaped Suzumebachi on her right hand, a droplet of blood on the tip of it's stinger like blade.
"You do not require an answer to that either for.." the Commander of the Special Forces started calmly as she readied herself for the second and fatal strike. "..the answer would not reach your comprehension before your final breath."
"..ugh!" the dark skinned Arrancar gasped as he looked down, seeing the striped weapon sticking out his chest. He raised his hazy eyes to watch the woman before him, nodding his head in agreement. He could not process what had just happened. Soon he fell on his knees, Soifon allowing this to happen as she sheathed her sword and took a step back. The dark skinned Arrancar drew his final breath before turning into dust and the invaders quickly moved on.
The three strong shinigami sheathed their swords when the final enemy collapsed on the floor with a loud thud. After the quick inspection of surroundings, Yoruichi exhaled a breath of relief and grinned. "Well, that was a good warm up."
"Tch!" Mayuri gritted his teeth and gathered up his collected samples. "How troublesome."
After Kurotshuchi left and Unohana sent out word of the incident, Yoruichi pushed herself up to sit on a edge of a counter. The dark haired captain turned to regard her curiously, expecting her to explain why she was here. "Were these bodies the ones that were missing earlier?"
"Yes, although they were not dead at the time of their disappearance." Unohana smiled gently.
"Hmh." the former captain laughed slightly, unused to the other making jokes. "Glad that's dealt with then."
"Not exactly."
"Huh?"
"Well.." Retsu sighed, looking down on her feet. "These were not even half of the people reported missing."
"What?!" Yoruichi gasped. "That's crazy!"
"But unfortunately true. Over a hundred have gone missing and there might be a great amount of non-reported cases of disappearance."
"Just what in the world is this..?" the former captain said thoughtfully and cradled her chin.
"Not determined yet but a team was sent to investigate."
"A team..? Don't tell me?"
"The special forces. Soifon herself is leading the operation.." Unohana stated, not expecting such a shocked face on Yoruichi. "She didn't tell you?"
The tan woman shook her head calmly, slightly angry at her lover. Her anger was short lived though, as she quickly put together one to one. "This could be dangerous!" she almost yelled, surprising the other woman with her. "If these were not even half of them.." she continued, pointing at the dead around them. "Damn! Where is she?!"
The world felt and seemed like it was spinning as the mesmerizing green eyes stared at the ceiling of the cave, the small body lying on its back on the ground. Koizumi could sense the next strike coming for her but the last punch had been enough to kick the wind out of her thus making her unable to move. It was close, her last drawn breath got caught up in her chest, her eyes quickly closing.. She laid there, waiting, waiting for what seemed like an eternity and the strike just would not come. She opened her eyes and her advisory was nowhere to be seen, that is, until she sat up and looked at her surroundings.
Soifon leaped from corner to corner, from enemy to enemy. She tried her best to keep her subordinates and herself alive against the mighty two Arrancar who did their best to kill them. The two other guards were quite quickly disposed of, proving the enemy that they had not real reason to eliminate them. The trouble began after Soifon and Koizumi got serious in their fight. Koizumi was barely able to hold her ground so Soifon was busy keeping both of them in a condition to fight.
The fight ensued for a while, neither giving the other any ground. Soifon and Koizumi worked well together, coordinating and timing their attacks to suite the other on as well. The two Arrancar however were not really made to fight with two on two, and constantly failed to aid each other, sometime even scoring hits on their side. As the fight seemed to go for Soifon and Koizumi, the tide quickly turned as the Arrancar released their full power, distorting their shape into that of a monster, closely resembling the hollow they had been before gaining the power of Arrancar.
Soifon gritted her teeth, she was well aware that the fight just got more difficult. She looked at Koizumi by her side, who had fallen on her knees from the sheer power of the enemies' spiritual energies. The girl was again gasping for air but then again, this was her first time fighting something other than normal hollows. Soifon didn't like the options she had for this fight, she could run but that way she would have to abandon her men, which was out of the question. She took a deep breath, glad to have the power of speed and surprise with her as she drew her unreleased blade. "Sting your enemies to death, Suzumebachi."
After the emergency meeting of the captain's was finally done Yoruichi, Zaraki and Unohana rushed to the cave. They were met by a small group of the special forces, remaining in wait as backup. They told the three strong warriors that it had been a while since the recon team departed but no clear signs had been heard or seen which would indicate a fight. Yoruichi made her way swiftly inside, followed by her two companions. Nothing was spoken as they entered a large, natural hall where they found the two weakest warriors sent inside. Both of them dead. Yoruichi sighed, she could definitely feel Soifon's spiritual energy's residue in here, the only question was, where was she now, as the residue was the only indication of her being there.
-Chapter 008 END-
A/N: There you have that, sorry for the slightly longer wait!
