A/N. Here's episode 10 peoples!
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Episode 10: The Invasion Pt. 2
The air was stuffy and more than a little uncomfortable, the vast number of shelves in the dark, candle-lit room hefted down with dust covered books and files as old as the very dirt itself. The silence within the almost immeasurably large room was almost deafening yet peaceful at the same time, only occasionally shattered by the soft, whispered sounds of the crinkling of paper; the old, barely touched, faded pages of a book that had lain forgotten on a tall shelf to never be seen again until that very moonlit night.
"Kurosaki? Are you in here?" a tall man with rich brown hair called out, light brown eyes scanning the room for any sign of the pre-teen from his place in the doorway. He was met with continued, only slightly broken silence, eyes twisting up in miniscule concern as he ventured further into vast archives that contained the long, drawn out history of the Gotei 13 and Soul Society as a whole. Walking along the aisles, he peeked around rows and columns of seemingly never ending bookshelves and old-fashioned, rotting with age filing cabinets; wrinkling his nose up at the amount of dust that had collected over the years without nary a soul –living or dead- ever bothering to visit the old, nearly forgotten place in almost a century, if not longer. He himself had to admit that he had almost not bothered to even think of checking this almost-tomb of ancient laws, forgotten documents, and stored information that would've put the computers in the twelfth division to shame in his search for his suddenly wayward third seat; the eleven year old having mysteriously disappeared without a trace and without telling anybody beforehand a total of three days ago. It had almost sent his own lieutenant into a tizzy over the matter, the girl's old sister, or maybe even a motherly instinct, taking control of her actions and almost resulting in the normally gentle vice-captain almost tearing the whole of fifth division, and by extension, Seireitei, in an almost mad search for the child. That is, if he hadn't managed to catch and calm the overtly worried lieutenant down first.
The man quickly shook his head, forcibly pushing his thoughts to the back of his mind, the matter at hand more important than the events of the last three days. Though honestly he himself had to admit, the news that her friend was going to be executed might have been too much of a shock to her system. "Kurosaki? Kuro- Oh!" the man called out in surprise, almost tripping over himself as he finally spotted the young, strawberry blonde in question, huddled into a corner, amidst a pile of various files and books; her nose buried deep within a particular one. Her appearance was a tad disheveled, and the man couldn't help but frown and the obvious dark shadows under the young child's eyes, a tell-tale sign that she had been getting very little, if any at all, sleep. "Ichigo-chan." He called, hoping slightly that calling her by her first name might draw the child's attention, his usual habit of calling her by her last having obviously had no results prior to having finally found the exhausted child. She blinked, eyes turning up to meet his, expression worn with stress from the past week or so.
"Hm? Oh hey Aizen-taicho." The small child greeted, sounding surprisingly energetic for one so obviously exhausted. "What are you doing here?"
"Kurosaki. You do realize how long you've been down here, don't you?" the man asked gently, kneeling down in front of her to move the piles and stacks of obviously and thoroughly read books.
"Only a couple of hours right?"
"No Kurosaki," he responded, blinking in surprise at the answer. Had she really not been aware of the time that had passed by since she had entered the archives? "Kurosaki. You've been down here for three days almost, not just a couple of hours. What were you doing that you found so important and urgent you disappeared without a trace?"
"Oh… I… I wanted to compare Rukia's case with others. But I can't get into the twelfth division without Hanataro or Rin, so I came here instead." At the information, Aizen blinked for a moment, confused at to what exactly the seventh seat of the fourth division had to do with getting into the twelfth division for information.
"Can I ask why you need Yamada-san to get into twelfth?"
"Mayuri-taicho is less likely to try experimenting on me if I have Hanataro with me." If Aizen had been any other man, he would've found himself face-faulting at the blatant statement that feel from the child's lips. As of now, he just barely blinked in shock, eyes staring at his third seat as if she had grown a second head, before finally sighing in defeat and reaching to help her onto her own feet.
"Come on, let's get you back to the barracks. You need to rest."
"But I'm not done yet."
"Kurosaki-san, do not question your captain on this. You need rest." Aizen said, both expression and tone stern and serious as he gently pushed the child out of the room, leaving the pile of books on the floor while making a mental note to come back and read through what she had already read. Little did he notice, as the child eyes narrowed, subtly slipping a particularly thin book from a shelf as they passed it and into the large confines of her sleeve.
"Hai, Aizen-taicho." She agreed simply, a clever smile on her lips that went unnoticed by the obviously distracted captain.
"Oh, ohayo Ichimaru." Ichigo greeted as she exited her captain's office, a stack of files in hand that she only barely managed to retain a good grip on as she narrowly missed colliding into the fox-faced, snake-like captain of the third division; silver hair shadowing squinting eyes as the man grinned down at the child, a hand reaching up to ruffle her hair.
"Good morning there Ichi-chan." The older man greeted, his grin suddenly taking a turn for the suspiciously mischievous as he lifted the pile of paperwork from her hands.
"Ah! Ichimaru! I need to deliver those to the thirteenth division!" Ichigo protested, hands reaching up to try and get back the stolen documents, only to end in failure and a pout as the fox faced man simply patted her head in reassurance, turning an almost playfully cruel expression onto his blonde hair lieutenant, whom Ichigo just now noticed standing behind the large man.
"Taicho, that's not very nice…"
"Nonsense 'Zuru! 'Sides, you'll be taking care of this task for her! After all, it's not nice to make a little girl carry such a heavy stack of papers all the way to the thirteenth division now is it?" the man inquired mischievously, shoving the pile into the blonde haired lieutenants hands, before turning back to Ichigo and beginning to gently guide her outside the fifth division.
"But what about that message you had for Aizen-taicho-!"
"You can deliver it!" the silver haired captain called back, waving easily over his shoulders as he lead the only barely managing to struggle third seat in the direction of the west gate. The lieutenant was left to stare after his captain, wondering how exactly he was going to explain to the captain of the fifth division that his third seat had been stolen by another. And for that matter, how was he going to deliver a message he'd never been told the contents of.
"Taicho is so mean to me…"
"Ichimaru, why are we here?" Ichigo found herself questioning the tall man as she followed him through the streets of Seireitei, eyes looking up to the man inquisitively before they dropped down to gaze at the tiled road before them, the tall white walls that surrounded their home and fortress growing ever closer and taller in appearance.
"Ah, to go meet up with ta rest o' my squad of course."
"But I'm not a part of the third division. Why drag me along instead of Kira-kun?" she questioned again, eyes continued to stare ahead. Gin paused at the question for only a second, feet stopping completely before he finally continued to walk, though a contemplative expression still remained on his face.
"Well, Cap'n Aizen's always having you run back and forth between divisions lately right?" he inquired, continuing in his explanation as she nodded her head, "Well, I thought-"
"You? Think? That's a scary thought, did anything blow up in the process?" Ichigo couldn't help but tease as she continued to follow the silver haired man, watching with an amused grin as the man looked back at her in shock and slight offense that all but lasted a total of fifteen seconds at most. The third division captain almost curled in on himself as he broke into what seemed like bone-shaking laughter, normally fake grin turning genuine as he gazed out of a shielded blue eye at the strawberry blonde standing just a few feet away from him.
"Ya see, this is why I think they should've put ya in ma division. Ya'd fit right in! I betcha ya'd even be able to get poor little 'Zuru smilin' and laughin' too!" Ichigo gave a small snort under her breath as the pair continued walking again, Gin reaching out to ruffle her hair affectionately as they finally approached a medium-sized group of shinigami, obviously the members of third division that Gin had said he was dragging her about to meet. "Or maybe tenth would be better… After all ya in the white captain get along so great together…"
"Please don't start with that, please. I get enough of that from Rangiku and Momo." Ichigo pleaded with the man, eyes gazing at him exasperatedly as the man continued to chuckle under his breath in amusement.
"Ah, it can't be that bad Ichi-chan."
"Oh but it is."
"Ichimaru-taicho!" their conversation was interrupted as one of the non-seated officers present ran up to them, a confused gaze immediately landing on the nonchalant form of the third seat, more than a little bewildered by her presence. "Um…"
"No need to worry, she's just visitin' 's all." The man easily replied, grinning away whatever other questions they may have had concerning her presence at the gate.
Despite what some may have believed about the third seat of the fifth division and the captain of the third's ability to get along with each other, which according to others was actually non-existent. They actually got along with each other shockingly well. Gin, for whatever reasons that were his own, and that of which Ichigo refused to pry into, liked having her presence around and even went so far as to "barrow" her from her division and duties at times. If he were to be honest with himself, he thought of her like the younger sister he had never had. As for Ichigo, it was more of the ability to be more of herself and a little less loose around others that Gin helped to provide when around her, something only a few managed to accomplish and so was regarded as a rather close friend in her own book of sorts. A bonus in Ichigo's book was that he one of only two people that she actually felt comfortable going to when she needed someone to talk to, the other being Toshiro Hitsugaya of the tenth. Combined, they were the only two people she would ever go to for advice outside of her own zanpakutō.
The two shinigami were shaken from their thoughts when the gates suddenly, and to the great expectation to the many present, opened without warning. Immediately the shinigami and Gin drew their swords, Ichigo only standing back in her own individual choice to observe before drawing her blade at the cause.
"What the-?!" the non-seated shinigami immediately burst into yells and shouts of outrage and shock, eyes growing wide at the sight of the guardian of the west gate lifting the giant, heavy-set, wooden door; behind him, the tell-tale silhouettes of what must have been intruders seen behind the large giant.
"Oh ma… Looks like we get ta meet some new playmates, eh Ichi-chan?" Gin asked, tone dripping with a now devilish sort of amusement as he prepared to released his zanpakutō. He stopped however as Ichigo stepped forward, slowly walking up to the giant before bending over slightly to look at the people standing behind him. Gin eyes squinted in concern as the child seemed to go stalk still at the sight of the motley group, seeming to grow worryingly pale as the blood seemed to drain from her personage. He immediately stepped forward, placing a strong hand on the younger, frozen third seat and pulling her back behind him as they intruders entered through the gate. "Yo Gatekeeper, whatcha think ya doing? Lifting the gates forbidden."
"I lost, as such the gate must be lifted." The giant explained, looking all the more like an innocent child. It made Gin almost think twice about what he was about to do. Almost.
"Nope, ya got that wrong I'm afraid. If the gatekeeper loses, he ain't supposed to open the gate, he's supposed to die."
"Ichimaru-"
"Sorry Ichi-chan, I know you don't really like violence, but I'm gonna have ta ask ya ta close yer eyes." The man interrupted, lifting a hand to block the younger's vision as he called for zanpakutō's release. "Shoot to kill, Shinso!" Gin couldn't help the grimace that crossed as his face as he felt Ichigo wince under his hand, the sharp scream of pain shaking the child, only jarring her further as the gate suddenly slammed shut. "C'mon Ichi-chan, let's go back." He said, guiding the third seat back in the direction they had come from, the members of his division in tow. "Hey, maybe Rangiku and I can arrange a date between ya 'n the chibi captain." The silver haired captain all but giggled in amusement as he was forced to dodge the slightly-overpowered-for-a-third-seat swat Ichigo attempted to hit him with, only narrowly managing to miss as she proceeded to chase him, face beet red in outrage at his words.
"GIN!" Gin spent the rest of the afternoon entertaining and distracting the third seat, all genuine smiles and laughs as the minutes passed by easily. He would never openly admit it, even though he knew that man probably suspected it. But the little, short-tempered berry, might just cause him to rethink his own original plans.
A/N. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for reading! And if you guys wanted to know who took Ichigo's place, I decided it'd make for an interesting plot point to place her sister Karin in her shoes and make her the substitute shinigami. Anyways, please remember to review and see ya!