A New Plan:
"H-Hi." I said. That was about as much as I could get out before the kunai around my throat got a centimeter closer. I was currently looking up at a woman in a white coat with no sleeves and an orange interior looking very pissed off at me. She was also wearing a sleeveless version of my robes, so I could only assume she was also a Soul Reaper, but why would ninja be under her control?
"Who are you and why did you assault me? Answer quick, and I might let them to end you quickly." She said coldly down at me. All I could do was point hesitantly at the kunai currently threatening me. She raised her hand and they stood back, but still at the ready.
"I'm Sanju Roku, and I didn't assault you, you just happened to get in the middle of my training." I said, sitting up into a cross-legged position. I would probably be on my ass again anyhow if I tried to stand.
"Training? Training for what?" She asked.
"Well, mostly to get a hold of my powers, but also to get prepped to help stop Hell from leaking more souls." I said with a straight face, this woman didn't seem like the type to mess with or hide the truth from, even a little.
But what I did say seemed to shock her, and confuse the rest of the men assembled around me. She started to storm towards me, but in the process, she kicked my Zanpakto. She looked down, picked it up, and looked back at me. "Is this yours?" She asked holding it a bit in front of her face.
"It is." I responded.
She then proceeded to walk over to me and grab the front of my robes and lifted me up until I was an inch from her. "You're coming with me." She hissed. She turned to the others. "Return to the barracks, I have to take this man to the Head Captain." And with that, they disappeared. And I thought I was fast.
"Ok, now that they're gone, you can-" I started, but then I suddenly noticed that I was being hauled along by the front of my robes by her across the sky. Just how ridiculously strong were woman in the Soul Society? And if they're this strong, how strong were the men?
As if the universe wanted to screw with me, we passed over a training ground with a multitude of craters with at least 51 men in there. I say 51 because it seemed to be one on fifty. One man with long spiky hair and an eye-patch was easily dispatching the others.
Great, as though I already didn't feel inferior to Rukia and this woman, that man was just crazy. And just as I was getting over that scene, I took in where I actually was. The least I could say was that I wasn't on Earth anymore, that I knew it.
I'm pretty sure the giant rock structure in the center of a city would have made itself famous for being a free standing cliff. And I'm pretty sure that a city this big would not go unnoticed, but I have never seen it before. There were actually low standing buildings as far as the eye could see, interrupted by irregular structures like a tower or walkway from time to time. By the time I was able to comprehend all of this, Soi Fon (if I heard Yoruichi right) had landed and was dragging me along toward a set of towering doors.
"I'm sorry to inconvenience you, but I can walk properly." I said.
"And how do I know you won't run as soon as I let go?" She inquired without either stopping or looking back.
"You have my Zanpakto and I'm pretty sure you can take me down easily." I pointed out. Without a second word, she dropped my robes and I fell into line behind her. Thank you schooling.
We marched along and as we got close to a pair of double doors, I noticed that there where two guards at the doors. What ever was going to happen, I hoped this person had the clearance for what she was doing. I needn't have worried; as soon as the guards saw us (or her at least) they began opening the doors. The inside was a lot blander than I was expecting. All it really was was a long wooden hall ending with a long tapestry and a high-backed chair.
I am just going to take a stab and guess the old man sitting upon said chair is the Head Captain, because as soon as we came to a respectable distance, Soi Fon got into a knelling position, I adopted the same position, hoping it was the right move.
"And what can I do for the head of the Second Division today, hmm, Captain Soi Fon?" The old man said in a rather gravely voice. I glanced up to get a better look at him, and what I saw startled me.
For one, he was missing his entire right arm, yet he still held a very old wooden cane. I could see faint scars over his bald head and face, yet his beard was so long that it needed its own bindings to keep it together. He was wearing the exact same kind of white coat as Soi Fon, but it just hung over his shoulders and was white on its interior. His eyes seemed shut, yet it also felt like they were boring holes into my very being.
"Sir!" Soi Fon began, giving a shock "This man attacked me-"
"Oi!" I said looking at her, but she just shot me a glare back, and I shut up.
"-As I was going to confer with Urahara and locate Madame Yoruichi as requested. When we landed back in the Soul Society, he claimed to have been training with Madame Yoruichi with this Zanpakto," She said, holding up Shiyouso "to stop the problem's we have been experiencing with Hell's gate. Sir!" She ended.
This seemed to get the old man's attention; because I could see his eyes open considerably. "Young man, what is your name?" he asked me.
"Sanju Roku, Sir." I said loud enough to be heard, but low enough that I hoped I wasn't sounding rude. This might have also been done because I felt like I had been slowly suffocating since I entered the room. For the life of me, I couldn't figure it out.
"Would you bring me your Zanpakto, Sanju?" he asked. I was actually starting to like this man; he didn't seem to be as hard as Soi Fon. Of course she had to be the bump in the road.
"But Sir! We can't trust what this man does or says until-"
"Captain, I understand your concern, but right now, I assure you, it is completely safe." The Head Captain cut in. Without a second word, Soi Fon slid my Zanpakto over to me and I picked it up slowly, just in case any of those ninjas were still around.
As I walked up to the Head Captain, the smothering sensation seemed to increase exponentially. About halfway to the Captain, I fell to my knee.
"Oh? What's the matter? Having a hard time getting the wind in you sails?" The old man asked. And then it clicked; he was the reason why I was having a hard time moving. I don't know how, and I don't know why, but this was obviously some sort of test. And I hated tests that didn't have a right or wrong answer.
I just grunted and stood up again. The going was slow and deliberate (not to mention hard), but I eventually did make it up to the captain. I handed him my sword like he had asked, and promptly collapsed.
…
"That still doesn't answer my question. Is he dead, or not?" I heard a rough male voice say in the darkness.
"If you would care to think you oaf, you can clearly see that his Zanpakto is still here, thusly meaning that he is indeed alive." I heard another man practically hiss his entire speech.
"That's all I wanted to know. Hey kid!" the last part was accompanied with a kick, in the ribs. I gasped, doubled over on the floor I was already on, and opened my eyes. I immediately forgot the pain and backed away from the man who had just kicked me, because he was the man I had seen with the eye patch earlier taking out all of those men.
"Kenpachi! I'll have none of that to one of my patients." I heard a woman say from my left. She had very long hair that came over both of her shoulders and intertwined to end in her lap. Her eyes were also closed like the Head Captains, and smiling slightly. And even though they were weren't directed at me, I could feel their chilling evil glare.
"Yeah, whatever. At least he's awake now old man." Kenpachi said as he turned to the Head Captain scratching his head like the glare didn't matter. I noticed I was now sitting against the side of the hall, and there were now a total of thirteen other people in the room, each wearing a white coat, and now that I could see the back, I could also see that each had the same diamond design, but each had a number between two and thirteen on the back. I was guessing that the number one was for the Head Captain. I could also see that there was a strange tube with green liquid and my Zanpakto floating inside with a multitude of panels around it and the man wearing the '12' shirt working on them.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing to Shiyouso?" I started to stand up, but the lady kept a hand on my shoulder and gave me a less intense glare to stay still. I did, mostly because I felt my legs starting to give way halfway up.
"Shiyouso Hmm? Perfect! That was exactly what I needed, the name!" 12 said, he also was the man who practically hissed everything he said. He started typing more into the panels surrounding the tube. Shortly after, there were a few beeps and the fluid drained from the tube. 12 took Shiyouso from the tube, wiped it clean, and sheathed it. I then noticed that he also had my sheath. But before I could say anything, he tossed me my Zanpakto back, landing neatly on my lap. "That is indeed a real Zanpakto, and it is his." 12 said.
"Impossible!" Soi Fon said. "If that's supposed to be true, then where is he in the academy records? There should at least be a record of him entering the Soul Society."
"I can tell you this much, his Zanpakto is unprecedented, and there are no records of him existing inside the Soul Society until today." 12 said.
"Geez, you could have just asked. But apparently that's just a bit to direct for you people isn't it?" I immediately got glares from about half the people in the room, practically saying 'you were unconscious'. The other half appeared to not even care. "The reason why I'm not in any of your databases is because I'm still alive, well, technically. I honestly thought Rukia had cleared it with her superiors already. And the captain of the 12th division is right, I haven't been here before today." I hoped I had gotten that division thing right.
"He even seems smarter than I gave him credit for, he's already figured out the ranking status." 12 said. "But if it's to be true that you're still alive, how did you come by your power, hmm?"
"Um, would you believe me if I said that Ichigo Kurosaki stabbed me?" This elicited a round of gasps proceeded by a heated discussion. It seems that Rukia had been right; power sharing really wasn't a good thing.
"Captain Mayuri, did you detect any of Ichigo's spiritual energy while examining the Zanpakto?" The Head Captain asked.
"No, not a trace. Everything was all him. But if none were there, that would mean..." Mayuri mused. He then went into a silent rant to himself.
"Do you think you can stand?" The woman captain next to me asked.
"If I had a little support, probably." I said.
"Here then." She said, as she took my arm and lifted me along with herself as she stood. I grabbed onto Shiyouso as I stood. I had estimated right, any less than her helping me, and I would be right back on the ground. She lead me over into a duel line that the rest of the captains were lining up in. I also noted that the consul had up and disappeared into nothing.
"Now to business" The Head Captain said, not even fazed by the sudden disappearance of matter. "As it has become apparent, the guardians of Hell have started to let the condemned out into the real world. As we have no jurisdiction over Hell, the only thing we can do is to locate and send them back."
How arrogant and incompetent was this guy. Little to say for the other's who were agreeing with him. A sudden fit of rage got me right back on my feet. "I'm sorry to interrupt," I interrupted, "but is that it? I may have only been doing this for a week or so, but if Rukia is any measure of a regular Soul Reaper, then you people have no chance of defeating these guys."
"Oh?" Said a man next to me; I remember seeing him wearing the number 6. "What does my sister have to do with your evaluation?" Sister? Must be an older brother or something.
"The thing is, is that Rukia and I have already encountered one of these escaped denizens, and the two of us together were only able to barely take it down. Mainly by surprise."
"Oh really?" a blond man that was wearing the number 5 across from me asked. "If I remember correctly, Rukia Kuchiki is just about equal to that of a lieutenant, is she not?" Wait; if I could remember correctly from Rukia's horrible drawings, lieutenants were right below captains. Suddenly I didn't feel so bad losing to her.
"And a second point," I moved on, "The guardians aren't letting them out. From what I could discern from my communications with him, he was willing to do anything not to go back."
"And how do you know it wasn't just putting on an act?" A white haired kid down the row from me with 10 asked. "What if he did that to throw you off?"
"Well, the two halves of him I cut him into did fall into what Rukia confirmed to be the fire's of Hell." I said.
"Enough." The Head Captain shouted. "Thank you Sanju for your insight. Now that we know that it is indeed the souls doing, and not a fault of the guardian's, their plans do fall into our jurisdiction. We'll be moving out as soon as we can establish a steady link with Hell."
