White Hibiscus~ホワイト・ハイビスカス
「十」 Mizore – The One Day Traveler
I have close-to-zero intentions of comprehending this quirky place.
Today's observation: Almost every single entity here was given a name – the roads, the trees, and the type of clouds. Even houses had a name tag written at the front wall. It was strange – it was like sorting to ensure everything was in proper condition – it seemed like these creatures loved to be in control in whatever they do. The implementation of names makes the place more confusing than it already has been. Las Noches is definitely an easier place to live in.
Once I am done with such a place, I am staying at Hueco Mundo for good.
Previously, at the train station, a lady handed me over this multi-colored piece of paper that attempts to fit all the houses into it – silly efforts by those creatures yet again. As a result of this 'compression' project, roads were translated into lines while architectures were depicted as cubes on it. Karakura Town had transformed into a few plots of randomly-shaped quadrilaterals with lines intersecting them into segments. There were a total of 12 segments; with each owning an individually unique name. I reached out for the inner pocket for a device that looked like an electronic rectangular block with a paper stuck on the screen – Press 103 to find Ichimaru Gin! (=
It was as if I could hear Ichimaru-san talking via the piece of handwritten note.
103 was the exact number combination for the way he had wanted to be addressed as – Ichimaru-San.
I pressed the numbers as instructed.
Was it even possible to reach to Ichimaru-san via this rectangular block?
There was a long silence, followed by a soft ringing tone and it went on for a few seconds before...
"Moshi moshi?" It was Ichimaru-san, and for some reason, I could even visualize that smile on his face.
"It's me," By now, I had been fully aware that my name was not allowed to be spoken out aloud.
"Of course it had to be you, Ulquiorra-kun~" That cunning jester chortled slightly – I should actually feel relieved that it was the right person picking up the phone, rather than be bothered about his teasing.
"Regarding the places..." I hoped that Ichimaru-san understood what I was trying to tell him.
"Oh, you are lost?"
"No, there are 5 places that you wanted..."
"Ah, that's for reference. It's not what Aizen-sama wants yo..." Plans have changed again, I suppose.
"What am I supposed to do now?" I had to wait for new instructions? The last thing that I want to hear from Ichimaru-san was the order to "remain in Karakura until further notice" - this place is utterly brain-draining.
"Calm down, Ulquiorra-kun. First things first, I would like to congratulate you on reaching Karakura Town safely. Seems like you can adapt pretty well, right? " The fox remarked wryly.
I had not said a word to it. It was not my nature to say no to Ichimaru-san; yet I was not able repress the awkward feeling to bring myself to agree to what he had just said. Remaining silence would be just perfect.
"Ulquiorra-kun?"
"Yes?"
"You don't like Karakura Town?"
"No. It's just that..."
"Good, "Ichimaru-san sounded relieved.
I wanted to mean "No, I don't like Karakura Town at all ".
It looks like another case of misunderstanding; yet I had not removed the assumption that it might have been one of the smiling man's tricks.
"That's because you need to play a game," Ichimaru-san sounded extremely excited about it.
"A game?"
"Yes, Your Aizen-sama calls this a Traveler's Game."
It was a ploy – Ichimaru-san's use of that man's name was just to entice me to play this game. That game turned out to be way tougher than he had once promised it would be - "find the place with the high intensity" turned out to be another lie Ichimaru-san had made up.
"After this call, you have to use this device to activate the 'counter' device – this indicates the number of souls in this area. Remember, it has to be at 100,000 and above. "
"When all the counting has been done, you have to calculate the intensity of spiritual activity in this place. Karakura is very active with shinigami activity, so we need to dispatch the right amount of Espadas when a real battle commences."
"The last mission would be to have you gather information, which means you have to do a little walking. We need the exact coordinates of the four ends of Karakura Town, that's all. The device can tell you where it is by flashing its screen upon contact with the spot. When all it's done, you can come back home."
"Understood," When I heard that I would have to walk round the perimeter in order to get those co-ordinates, I cringed in disgust. This mission was worse than babysitting Las Noches.
"Aizen-sama will welcome you home okay?" I was almost sure that was meant as a sarcastic remark.
Well, it takes a long time to see through Ichimaru-san.
I stood by the unlit lamp post and tried to figure out a way to activate the "Counter Device" - which required me to press the middle round button twice. The screen would then start blinking as it collated the number of souls in Karakura Town – it had 136,248 souls, living and wandering combined. This number seemed extremely large for a small place like this – souls seemed to have gathered at Karakura Town, for a reason. What were they attracted to?
I pressed the next button as quickly as I could in order to analyze the level of spiritual activity.
Results were surprising: Negative.
Impossible.
I could sense the intensity of spiritual activity way beneath this Gigai suit, yet this device is telling otherwise. It had to be the work of the Shinigamis who resided in Karakura Town – they were trying to keep this place out of sight from Aizen-sama. This finding had only made Karakura Town more suspicious than it had ever been.
Karakura Town looked like any ordinary town in this place. It had little, almost negligible differences from the one I just left – the houses had near-identical heights; there were scribbling all over the paths; and there were creatures which were dressed in the same fashion as well. However, it seemed like there were more than just humans living in Karakura Town – Hollows would appear randomly and low-ranked Shinigamis would jump out and eradicate them. Hollows would only be attracted to one thing – potent souls; and the citizens living in this area possess them.
Aizen-sama, too, apparently was after this town for this unique characteristic.
Now for the final mission – it appeared to me like a very long one.
Treat this like a trial given to you by Aizen-sama – do it without complaining too much.
***
I started off with this segment called Kitakawase – it was given this name because a deep-flowing river intersects the area at the northern edge. I had to stand at this particular edge and align the rectangular block so that it is able to tap the exact number combination. I was deducing that it may be due to the Karasu River that it made gathering data a little more challenging – the exact coordinate was on this piece of rock that was inching closer to the water body each time I click the button on the recording device. I kept thinking to myself, How on earth... is this supposed to help Aizen-sama achieve his lifelong dream? There were humans who kept initiating conversations with me, but I had totally ignored them – for there were more important businesses to complete right now. Most of them were waving their hands to halt my movements and sounded very frantic. I turned to look at them the moment my device locked the coordinates into its internal memory space.
Correct my observations if I'm wrong, humans do have excellent imagination levels.
"Are you okay, young man?" One aged lady asked worriedly.
"Yes" I wasn't so sure what had happened to me. Why did she want to know if I'm okay?
My arm was then grabbed firmly by that same human.
She had eyes that looked like mine – water drops were gathering at the sides of her eyes.
"Don't give up your precious life just like that," She began to rub her eyes.
Her warm left hand was still gripping onto my white jacket – there were no signs of letting go.
I've grown used to being misunderstood. This woman definitely had vivid imaginations.
"I won't," I let out a sigh and removed her bony hand from mine. She struggled her way down the rock and nearly slipped off the smooth edges – I caught her before she disappeared from my eyes. Why did she risk her life instead, to stop me from taking my life? What eccentric behavior.
"You should not give up your precious life," I lifted her words while picking up the device, with a small exception – I hadn't meant what I said. I do not see what is so 'precious' about living on this world. In fact, I intended to explain to the wrinkled-faced lady that I was already dead; so her words would not work for a person like me – but I had expected that she might ask more complicated questions – so I left things the way they were.
I had three more corners to returning to Hueco Mundo. After the Karasu River, I took an approximate 2 hour walk to reach Yumisawa – it had a large sand patch where many little humans were riding on plastic horses; sliding down a blue elephant made of concrete. There were tiny planks of wood that were suspended above ground level – these humans would fight their way to sit on one and rock themselves like a moving pendulum. The higher they went, the sharper were the pitch of their shrilling. They had a common expression on their faces; something which I was not born to do. It was not an easy task for me to accomplish; even if I had tried to mimic the way the creatures did, the lines on my mouth would not budge – I was never made to smile.
Gakuenchou was just located next to Yumisawa. The name Gakuenchou spelled out School Town. Schools were very large buildings that house huge armies of creatures with very close age groups. They wore outfits, just like Espadas would – while most schools preferred white as their outfits, there were schools that chose other colors. Humans have to prepare for war too? While most soldiers were not armed with swords; they carried along with them bags and countless of books – I guess those were their form of weapons in this world. I should keep a look out of these places; it would not be optimistic if I had to take on all of them at one go. The coordinate indicator was beeping loudly as I went past Karakura College – it was sitting on the grass patch at the back gate. There was only one way to get to that spot – get over the wall, run past the corridor of windows, jump across the dark-colored fence, walk a little more and place the device on the grass blades. It would have been easier if the armies had left the premises. I took a glance and noticed all the windows were lit – they were still conducting battle training – this made things more challenging.
Getting over the front wall was simple, even when the black grilled gates were tightly shut. I strode into the premises trying my best to pass off as a fellow soldier who was about to change into my outfit – which I obviously do not have it. Some soldiers who were arranged in a line waiting to get food began to point at my direction and started whispering to one another. None of them had turned violent, yet. Two lady soldiers approached me with gleaming eyes and asked earnestly,
"Ne,ne~ are you our new teacher?"
If I had said no, I might not be able to get to my destination.
"Yes," I lied.
"Wow!!! What would you be teaching us?"
"It has not been decided yet," A lie would always lead to another. That is why I dislike lying; because you have to be creative to keep lying.
"I hope you would be coming to our class though!" They seemed to be very excited about this. I was not able to provide any lies for that sentence, so I kept silent again. I took a slight bow and walked past the dark gray windows – I saw what the soldiers were doing to prepare for impending battles. They sat and listened to the words delivered by one human – I suppose they were discussing strategies on how to tackle their opponents.
It was a good thing that the soldiers were focusing so much on their tactic-brainstorming sessions that I was able to jump over the fence without being noticed, I allowed the device to capture whatever information it wanted while I pondered over what I had just saw.
I had wanted to know why that human was not wearing the common outfit everyone donned.
What was he? The leader? He could not have been, right? That's because Aizen-sama also wore Espada outfits like us. He had his own way of leading the army – wearing the same color meant that he would be on our side, no matter what had happened.
The device clicked to signal the completion of data gathering. Two more – Kinogaya and Minamikawase.
As the body refused to move in Sonido, I charged towards both locations at full speed. Kinogaya was like the more deserted part of Karakura Town – it was cordoned off and had tight security – the creatures here had worn white plastic caps and black rubber boots. The third coordinate was located beside a pile of fallen tree trunks – I had to remain concealed behind the shrubs as I threw out the device. The impact of the device could no t be heard by the creatures because the weapons they were using to fell trees gave out a louder whirring sound. What were these trees for? I was unable to find an explanation to what was going on in that area but I managed to pass by a large white board which wrote " Proposed: Construction of Shopping Mall " - it felt like I witnessed a portion how Las Noches could have been built in this manner too.
Minamikawase was my last stop and had looked almost similar to Kitakawase, except that the river was now located at the southern part of the segment. By the time I had reached the river, it was 2130hr on the device. The sky had grown darker and there were white specks all over the black carpet – it was not as dark as Hueco Mundo's. Those white specks, are they snowflakes stuck on the surface of the sky? The moon was of a circular shape and resembled very much like the light given off by the lamp post. I positioned the device for the last time and took a final look at Karakura Town – The night sky was still better than the bright blue ones. As the device clicked for the last time, I dialed 103 on the rectangular block again.
"Go to the clock tower at Sakurabashi; it's less visible from the Shinigamis if you were to open up a Garganta," were the final instructions on Earth.
Sakurabashi was located across the road and the colored paper that was given to me at the train station indicated that the clock tower was a signature of that area. The clock tower was built with such precision and accuracy that most of the residents relied upon it to catch their trains on time. I looked up at the long black cuboid – the clock face read "2145hr". I was about to raise my right hand and open the dark hole when I heard a familiar name.
"Mizore...nii chan?"
Only one person called me by this name.
I was not sure if I should turn around and look at your face then.
yu-pon's note:
(it's Chapter 10 - yay~)
Hello again~ thanks for reading!
I think most of you would be goggled-eyed when you are reading this chapter.
I can understand why - the use of Japanese town names right?
(actually these names are taken from... Bleach's Karakura Town Map)
I was busy this week (with air tickets) so I wasn't able to do a good job, imo.
Please forgive me. m(_ _)m
Translation notes:
I'll give this first. Ichimaru-san = 103 because Ichi is one, Maru is a round circle (can be denoted as a 0 in numerical terms), San is 3!!
(and Ichimaru Gin drew a inverted smile... because he meant it this way, or rather I wanted him like that. XDD)
Moshi moshi - Hello? Usually girls use this way to pick up phone calls. Guys will use "Hai." - yes? instead. Ichimaru Gin was just being naughty here ~ heehee.
Ne,ne - is more like "hey there" i guess. this is kinda hard to define -- but it's used when you want to catch the person's attention.
Kitakawase, Yumisawa, Karasu River, Gakuenchou, Kinogaya, Minamikawase and Sakurabashi are all names found on the Karakura Town Map.
Chapter 11, I need not say anything more right?
(apologies for making Ulquiorra-san sound like a paedophile okay.. XDD he's not!)
For those who didn't enjoy 10, I will make you love 11. nah, just kidding.
(ties ribbon to yu-pon's head and starts thinking.)
Till then!
ほなおつー