Author's note: Read from the first chapter. This chapter is my second last chapter. Please read and give an overall review, I'm begging you. I just need your perspective about this story.
Bleach
Chapter 9: Joining, Part II
I woke up on a bed, smelling the same disinfectants that a hospital would have. I got up and there was nobody around. 4th Division again, huh? This was odd, as the last time I remembered, I was lying on the ground after a battle. I heard footsteps getting nearer to my room and the door was opened. It was my brother-in-law, Ariga Saga
"You're awake? Great! I better tell the others."
I called out to him, but he left as fast as he came. Now that irritated me. Fukutaichou Kotetsu came and checked my body again. From her, I found out that I was bedridden for 2 days. Thinking back, I was dying and wondered who saved me. That reminded me of the supermarket job and the training at the dojo. I wondered if anyone did something to them.
I was grateful that I was not given the limit restriction. I would have died if I was. I still don't know why the big guy didn't give me the restriction. Maybe it was because he taught me how to control my reiatsu accordingly. Or maybe I was the 8th Seat. My friends and my former colleagues were glad to see me alive.
"Why am I still alive and brought here since I had been banished?" I asked.
"Your banishment was caused by insubordination to the Sotaichou. However, since Aizen's treachery, Yamamoto Sotaichou notified everyone about your role in the real world and that the insubordination case was just your cover. So when the resident Shinigami found you dying, they saved you. You should thank them as one of them was the former 9th Seat of 4th Division," said one of my former platoon members.
Well it was a good thing that he didn't mention about the Vizards. And the notification had probably encouraged anyone to save me. It seems that I owed the big guy a lot. I can figure that once my life was saved, I was brought back to Seireitei.
"I heard that the Arrancar you fought against was made by Aizen. How it is that you managed to defeat it?" asked one of my former colleagues.
"Experience, skills and luck."
"Really? You managed to beat an Arrancar created by Aizen using those only?"
"Well, the Arrancar was quite stupid." I lied. They looked at me in disbelief.
"A Taichou using Bankai took a hard time to beat one and you can by using Shikai alone. Now we know that you're lying, Arisuke."
"Take all the time to guess, but being who we are, you certainly don't to waste your time in guessing, do you?"
"True. Well, I don't want to waste my time here and you certainly need more rest. Come on guys, I'm sure you got other things to do," the 8th Seat said as she left with the rest of the 1st Division members.
I was glad that she became more comfortable with her job now than a few months ago. My former platoon finally accepted her.
"Do you want to tell us how you did it, exactly?" asked Shikamuri, with Asuka waiting intently for the answer.
"I already told you. Isn't that enough?"
They got irritated, "We had been friends since the academy, Arisuke. Don't you trust us at all?"
"I trust you will see me differently, that's for sure. Now, can I just rest peacefully?"
With that said, they left. I know that they will eventually know about my Bankai, but it was better for me if they were kept in the dark for now.
Later, two Shinigamis came to my room. They were resident Shinigamis of my area. The same two people that saved my life.
"How you today?" one of them asked.
"Feeling better, thanks to you. What brings you here?"
"It is our responsibility, as a Shinigami, to check the person that we saved."
"Right," I said, nodding my head.
"Anyway, I'm Kondo and this is my partner, Katsura."
I shook my hand with them. "So, when did you arrive to save me?"
"A few minutes before the end."
"You saw my Bankai, didn't you?"
"What would you do if we did?"
"I'll treat you to dinner to shut you up."
"If we didn't?"
"I'll still treat you to dinner to show my thanks."
Both of them chuckled. "Don't worry. We came to help, that's all. Some other time perhaps, but I hold your word for it," Kondo said.
"A good use with the Guan Dao, though," said Katsura, suddenly.
So they saw. I smiled. "You know, both of you are among the five who knew about it and among the four who actually saw it."
"It was an honour then." They smiled back and left.
I was discharged the next day as I had been summoned by the big guy. There, I gave my full report to him. When I finished, he suddenly gave me a choice. Be a Taichou if I want to stay in Soul Society or continue the assignment in the real world. From his voice, I can know that he wanted me to become a Taichou. However, he should know about me already. I was given three days to stay with my family before I head out to the real world again.
I was quite happy meeting my family, but I felt a bit empty without her. The scarf was still there on my table where I had left them. Hitomi did a good job in keeping the place clean without disturbing anything.
I arrived at the real world again, doing the same assignment and living at the same place. Well, I found out that my boss at the supermarket and the siblings at the dojo had been given false memories on why I disappeared for seven days. I was quite thankful and whoever did this had done it a few hours after my last battle. Sometimes, Seireitei do surprise me in this kind of way. Having to visit my sister who was involved in an accident was a good ploy, but it was troublesome to actually keep up with these kinds of stories.
I continued on the assignment to the sixth month and still no movement from Aizen or his Arrancars. It was four days into the month that I received a report that another Arrancar activity had caused a stir in the real world.
It turned out to be a ruse just to kidnap one of the Shinigami representative's friends. I don't know what he wants from her, but I know that her powers were quite unusual for a human. Come to think of it, maybe he wants her to restore the orb to its original working order should it fail in some way.
It was during this time also that the Nikatama guy came to me. I was standing in front of a building, looking at it intently. I read the address again and it was correct. The address was on the other side of Okinawa and it took me a long time to search for it. All those trouble and the building was a small bookstore.
For a name like the Fallen Crusade, I was expecting something dark and gloomy, but the bookstore was very bright and there were at least six people inside checking out the books. I went in and gave the card at the counter. She looked at the card, took it and smiled at me. She then ushered me to a room.
It was brightly lit and quite colourful. There was a coffee table and two couches. It was more of a private discussion room for discussion groups. I waited for a while when Nikatama and another guy came in.
"You must be Arisuke Takahashi. My name is Tanabe Kinme," he said as he held out his hand.
"So, what is this all about, meeting me out of nowhere and wanting me to be here?" I asked without shaking his hand.
"Straight to the point. Once a 1st Division member, always a 1st Division member. Do you know exactly who we are?"
"Aside from former Shinigamis who are still loyal to Seireitei banding and working together independently from Seireitei, this organisation is just a fleeting dream that can be destroyed easily in one swing of a weapon."
"What I meant was do you know ourselves in the inside?"
I got lost hearing that question. Part of me somehow knew what he meant.
He smiled, "We're like you, Arisuke. Shinigamis that had demons sealed into their bodies. This fact is the reason why we formed this organisation."
I was shocked to hear that. I know that there were 19 others that shared the similar fate. "How many people did you find so far?"
"If you join us, you'll be our 11th member."
"11? I thought there would be around 20."
"You talked to it, haven't you?" he smiled. "All of us did to our own."
"What made all of you do this?"
He thought for a moment and a story began. Kinme and a fellow Crusader were the founding members of the organisation, but what had initiated them was something unexpected.
Kinme was out on the field doing his assignment when he met one of the core Death Lords of Hell. Having a Death Lord to come to the real world to personally talk to you was something that happened once in a lifetime. That meeting was his first and last meeting with the Death Lord.
Throughout his military service in Seireitei until his resignation, he had received detail information on our history, the demons and which demon went to whom. From the information, he met and talked to his co-founder about this and both decided to form an organisation. With the information sent to him being constantly updated, he managed to find 8 others who also worked in the Gotei 13. As for the remaining 9, three were living in Rukongai while the rest were somewhere in the real world.
With 10 members in line, all of them finally quit their job and left Soul Society 300 years ago. Still, they somehow managed to get some contact in Seireitei. Since then, they had been doing what any Shinigami do, but with their own style and belief. I felt strange that nobody enquire about 10 people quitting their jobs at the same time.
As for me, they already know everything about me before I died. The truth was, if I didn't join Seireitei, they wouldn't have care about me at all. Since I joined, they were actually waiting for the right time to persuade me to join the Fallen Crusade. When they heard that I resigned, they had been trying to contact with me all this while. They had just found out my sister's home address when I was sent to the real world. I didn't know that they had a branch in Okinawa.
According to Kinme also, the Loyalist agents were actually nothing much of a help. They will do anything to save the host, but not at the cost of them being found out. The agents also tend to not to help the host if the host were able to take care of itself or any kind of help were in the way. This explained why I was admitted to the hospital three times because of fatal wounds.
I also found out that the extraction ritual of a demon was actually fast and easy. A special glove was used to open up the soul and a special diamond was used to extract the demon out. The glove was created in a way that it won't damage the soul. The diamond itself was created to be strong enough to withhold the powers of the demon for about a month. These two things were given to each agent.
I never thought that the technology from Hell could be that advanced and also mass produced these kind of things. Hell must be very powerful to have these things created. The glove was somehow familiar to a glove used by Aizen to extract the orb from the Kuchiki member, but yet the purpose was different. I wondered if the former Taichou of the 12th Division had some contacts with Hell. I also wondered about what other things that Hell managed to create.
Joining them was not my idea of protecting the real world and Soul Society since I'm still technically working for the big guy. Still, they taught me how to initiate communication with my demon and with that ability, I had made a deal with Sesshouhane to use his powers more often at my will. The demonic power increased my reiatsu, stamina, strength and speed which were familiar with that day long ago.
To signify that I can use this power, a human shape tattoo appeared on my right arm with wings spreading across my right shoulder. Each member had a similar yet different design of tattoo at different part of their bodies. At first I thought the tattoo was just like that, but every time I used the powers, the tattoo grew in size. The more I use the power, the bigger it gets.
There was nothing much to train at all in using demon power; I just need to use the massive power slowly. Still, with the war against Aizen expected to be around winter, I don't think I can fully use the demon power. Even though I can take time off from work and classes, it won't be enough for me.
It was in the middle of the month that I received a report from Seireitei that the Shinigami representative and the rest of his friends had infiltrated Hueco Mundo. Knowing what Aizen's experiments could do, I don't think that he and his friends could save her. It was a good thing to try, but in a life-or-death situation, once a person fail, the person will die. Apparently, the former Taichou of 12th Division was the one who created the portal to Hueco Mundo. I didn't know that he could do that without any proper help.
I also heard that all 4 Taichous from the 4th, 6th, 11th and 12th Divisions were sent to assist the Shinigami representative. I was totally shocked by the news. The big guy was willing to sent assistance to the representative after he defied orders. All these years of knowing him as strict disciplinarian who followed orders unquestionably and disliked anyone who disobeyed him, he seemed to be getting soft.
It was almost a day after I received the news that the big guy called me. The big guy was rallying all the help Seireitei can get. After so many years of acting independently, the big guy wanted me to act on behalf of Seireitei to persuade the organisation to join the war against Aizen since I already told him about my membership. As loyal as the Fallen Crusade, of course they would join in the fight.
Two days later, I heard a report from the Fallen Crusade that the whole population of Karakura Town had been evacuated to Soul Society. Apparently, this was ordered by the big guy himself to make the actual town itself to be a battlefield. From this revelation, all the members of the Fallen Crusade immediately went to the town.
There, we saw the remaining leaders of Gotei 13 fighting against three Espada and their Fraccion. I didn't see Aizen or his two close subordinates. But then again, they might have been trapped in the firewall.
I noticed a multiple reiatsu, which was similar yet different. It was the Vizards, I'm sure, but it radiated differently as if it were different people. And it was. Strangely, I recognised these Vizards. They were the ones that learned the illegal way and escaped to the real world at the same time as former Taichous of 3rd, 12th and Kidou Corp. In a way they can be considered as criminals, but if they were, why were they fighting against the blind and the fox face? And I see the two were doing a fine job of holding them up.
One thing that surprised me and obviously the rest of the Fallen Crusade was the ability that the two had; the ability to use Hollow powers. Seeing them using it was unexpected and with these power they somehow managed to beat the Vizards easily.
We immediately activate both our Bankai and our demon powers. I don't know how, but the demon power gave me heightened senses, which I didn't notice before. The power let me see through Aizen's hypnotism and act through it. Because of this ability, we all saw where he was. He was in the middle of a ritual and we certainly don't want him to finish it.
We separated into three groups. Two groups fought off the two subordinates while Nikatama, Kinme and I fight with him. True to his style, he used the hypnotism, but we managed to deflect his attacks which were a surprise to him. As expected from a Taichou-level traitor, he managed to hold us off. We increased our demon power usage and Aizen began to slow down. Eventually he used his Bankai and we eventually increased our usage. This time, it was much longer, but slowly his defences crumbled. There was anger in his face mixed with the inability to comprehend our powers.
Suddenly he made a stand; a stand which I recognised as a person who wants called a new power. I charged at him, but seeing the white of his mask, I called out my Bankai lightning command as it was much faster.
Yuuhoshi stabbed him pretty badly, yet he managed to survive. There was one thing I never thought I would do; I knew that as long as Aizen was alive, he'll still have that kind of dangerous ambition. So, thinking that the future would be better without him, I decapitated his head to make sure that he was really dead.
Seeing Aizen dead and most of the Arrancars they brought along had been defeated, both the blind and the fox face surrendered, along with the remaining Arrancars. Thus end Aizen threat. Hopefully, there won't be another person like him.
It was quite a disappointment actually that this group of Vizards were not as powerful as I thought they would be. And another disappointment that only this group appeared. After all that pledging to me, he and his friend didn't even appear and I was a fool to believe him. And I quit my job because of him. However, I found out later that the two Vizards and their group had been assigned to protect Karakura's population that was unconsciously placed in Soul Society. It was just another step of precaution, just in case Aizen might came back to take souls.
Well, half of the town was destroyed during the battle and right now, it was taking its time to be rebuilt. The Shinigami representative, his friends and the 4 Taichou managed to come back to the real world with the help of the current and former 12th Division Taichou.
Everything became normal again. It was hard to imagine that all of us had trained and sacrificed for this man. Now that it was over, I felt slightly empty and glad too that I can finally live in peace.