Hitsugaya glared intensely at Tori's chimera. "For the last time, where is she!?" He shouted out, nearly exploding.
"Why do I have to tell you… chibi…?" Daichi wondered out loud, emphasizing the chibi part just to see Hitsugaya's reaction – he loved doing that whenever he could. Hitsugaya was set to explode at this point; Daichi just taunted him by lying down on the ground and dozed off into a little nap.
"I AM NOT SHORT!!!" Hitsugaya shouted out; he stomped up towards the chimera, waking him up, and tried to prove his point. Tried. Daichi stood up ever so slowly… he towered the captain by about half an inch. Rangiku's silent laughter grew louder and louder until she had to leave the area or else she'd be part of the injured. "…please tell me where she is…?" Hitsugaya asked meekly after taking several steps back so no one could easily recognize the height difference.
"In a land far, far away from Seireitei" Daichi simply yawned out and started to walk away.
"…a land far, far away…?" Hitsugaya asked with a blank look on his face. Tori was always in a land far, far away; Lala Land – the land of dreams and marshmallows and where wishes come true!
Byakuya and Hisagi didn't get very far on their interrogations either, Hiroshi and Isamu gave them strange riddles for them to follow as well.
---
"That stupid asshole Grimmjow!!" Ichigo growled out furiously as he and Renji raced back to Seireitei after learning that they had really been tricked to go to Hueco Mundo. They also learned that the rest of the Espada had already left for Seireitei while Grimmjow was beating them up. They only learned of this AFTER Nel and her buddies ganged up on Grimmjow so they could tell Renji and Ichigo their news; which incidentally was the truth. Once the two captains reached Seireitei, they could only see chaos unravel. "Oh damn…"
"I'll report to the geezer" Renji offered, having Zabimaru in shikai just in case someone tried to ambush him. He left leaving Ichigo alone to ponder about what his next move should be.
"Shinn, Emiko, Rukia!!" He shouted out suddenly and left immediately to find his family. He was confident in Rukia's skills so that took off some of the concerns he had, but for his two kids… anything could happen.
---
"Shinn… shouldn't we have stayed at home…?" Emiko asked her brother, staying close to him as they wandered aimlessly in the area of Division 5.
"And then what…? There's no action at home; there's only so much fake war stories I wanna hear from all the old people living with us" Shinn reasoned with his younger sister.
"But still… all we have for protection is a light-saber and a frying pan!" Emiko pointed out holding up the frying pan while Shinn guarded them both with their light-saber.
"Don't worry! Nothing will happen to us!"
"SHINN, EMIKO!!" A loud voice shouted out to them from a great distance.
"…dad…?" Both twins recognized the loud voice and looked over to the direction. In a flash, Ichigo was standing before them, in Bankai with his Hollow mask on. His kids had NEVER seen the hollow side of Ichigo before so they weren't sure if that was their dad. Emiko was frightened as hell and hid behind Shinn while Shinn held out the light-saber and pointed it at his dad.
"Who da hell are you and how do ya know our names!?" Shinn snapped at his dad trying to put up a strong front.
"What? It's me!" Ichigo told them, wondering why his kids didn't recognize him. "And who told you how to speak like that?" He asked him sternly, crouching down to Shinn's eye level.
"I'm doing the talking here!" Shinn shouted out bringing the weapon up to Ichigo's neck. "If you don't spill it, I'll use the force and kick your ass!"
"What!? Why you--!!" Ichigo was starting to get frustrated at his son's attitude. He realized for a split second that his mask was on… maybe that was why his children didn't know who he was… He ripped it off and stared at them. "Now do you know who I am!?" He questioned them… not realizing that he was still in vizard mode (his eyes were still black and yellow…)
"Shinn… that's not daddy is it…?" Emiko whispered confused in his ear.
"Looks like it but man is he stoned!"
"Wai—what?" Ichigo was the confused one now. Where did his kids learn these kinds of words?
"Dad?" Shinn piped up slightly lowering his weapon.
"Finally!"
"YOU IDIOT!!!" Shinn whacked Ichigo on the head with his light-saber. "Why are you doing drugs at a time like this, huh!? Mom's fighting so we can have a future and you were just hitting the hard stuff by saying that 'you had to go to Hueco Mundo'!? I can't believe you! I trusted you! I looked up to you!" Shinn hollered out whacking Ichigo every second.
"Daddy I don't like you this way!" Emiko wailed, raising the frying pan above her head to slam it down on her father's head.
"EMIKO STOP!!" Ichigo brought his arms up to prevent anymore injuries. Ichigo 'returned to normal' which surprised his children.
Shinn and Emiko blinked confused, not understanding what had just happened.
"Damn, I guess there's no problem now" Shinn shrugged and started to walk away with Emiko.
"Oh no you don't!" Ichigo stood up, his shadow looming over his kids' heads. "Shinn what did you say to daddy? And where did you two learn those words. I want answers now!"
"RUN!"
---
Seireitei did not look like Seireitei at this point. With fights occurring at every second, people chasing others around (i.e. Ichigo chasing his kids), people looking for other people and "hollow hunting"; no one could really say that this powerful, superior area was dignified at all.
1st division was handing out orders to every other division from the reports received. 2nd division, like most of the other divisions was protecting Soul Society from hollows and arrancars. 4th division was overflowing with injured shinigami. It was amazing how they didn't run out of beds and how there was no such thing as a waiting time. 5th division had 50 percent of their members running around chasing off hollows whereas the other 50 percent were wondering what happened to their captain who was reported to have returned. 6th, 9th and 10th divisions were almost in the same position as 5th. 50 percent fighting off hollows, 25 percent looking for the 3 missing shinigami and the last remainder, trying to figure out the riddles (which were pretty easy to figure out if they didn't analyze it so much). 11th division was having the blast of their time; eventually creating a contest on who could kill the most hollows/arrancar. 12th division was frantically trying to catch the hollows that were spared by the ruthless 11th division-ers; not an easy feat to accomplish.
---
"2 more for him… making it… 48…" Maki-Maki (I forget his name…) silently talked to himself as he tallied off the scores for his fellow teammates. He chose to stay out of the fighting and take the safer, easier and "boring" job. So far, there was no one person that stood out at having the highest nor was there a person who had the least; everyone was pretty much even with each other. Then there was also the fact that a bunch of them were sent to 4th division's care… multiple times; people deciding to stop for a while and start drinking (since it was after 12); and people getting lost and "disappearing".
"Um… excuse me…" A timid voice spoke up with the sound of a door opening.
"Hm?" Maki-Maki looked behind him to see none other than Hanatarou peering meekly behind the door. "Whaddya want?" Maki scoffed returning to his scoreboard.
"I have a message from Unohana-taichou" He quietly reported. "She wants your division to quit recklessly running into hollows and attempt to get rid of them."
"What?"
"She also said that it was pointless to create a competition out of it since only Zaraki-taichou or Kusajishi-fukutaichou could actually win it…" He faded off and retreated a little bit seeing how it had offended the 11th division member. "It was her words not mine…" He tried to reason out of it as Maki started to walk towards him with an offended look. "It's only because we're in chaos from all the fights and there's so many people that we can barely catch up!! We're only human… well dead humans… but we're only human you know!!" Hanatarou frantically babbled out, backing up into the hallway until he hit wall. Maki just glared at him and was about to say something when two tiny little voices echoed into the hallway.
"GET OUTTA THE WAY!!!"
"Huh?" Both Maki-Maki and Hanatarou looked to their side (Hanatarou's left, Maki's right). Two tiny little specks off in the distance grew in a short amount of time with a large amount of dust trailing them. They were Emiko and Shinn, running away looking scared. They zipped past the two shinigami sending a gust of wind to fly through.
"What's their problem?" Maki wondered looking off at their fading silhouettes with dust still flying out. He then looked off in the opposite direction wondering what scared them that bad. His answer came quick; 5th division captain, Kurosaki Ichigo.
"Ichigo!" Hanatarou shouted out quite relieved. Ichigo heard him and stopped.
"Ha…Ha…" Ichigo tried to remember the 4th division member's name; sadly he couldn't remember.
"You don't remember my name?" Hanatarou asked looking quite depressed.
"More importantly though…" Maki interrupted. "Were you chasing those two kids?" He asked pointing off in the direction Emiko and Shinn ran to.
"Yeah, why?" Ichigo asked.
"Why? They're your kids whatever they did can't be as bad as when Kusajishi-fukutaichou almost learned about the birds and the bees" He told him.
"You guys told her that!?" Ichigo asked bewildered.
"It wasn't us!" Maki shouted out defensively. "Kurai Mika-dono almost did one time and same with Shinboku Tori-dono"
"Figures…"
"Ichigo… since you're my friend and all, I don't want you to get into trouble. But both Emiko and Shinn looked really scared; they can call Children's Aid and you can get arrested!" Hanatarou warned him.
"Er…" Ichigo never saw it from that perspective. "We're just ……playing a game… yeah that's it! No reason to worry!" Ichigo stammered, hoping they'd get his drift.
"What game?" Maki asked, somewhat curious.
"…um… Hide-and-Go-Seek…?"
Maki and Hanatarou looked off into the direction the two kids ran off to; then looked back at the captain.
"That's not hiding, Ichigo, that's running" Hanatarou pointed out the obvious.
"Well, they're really bad… at hiding" Ichigo stated hoping they would forget about everything.
"You're playing Hide-and-Go-Seek at this time!?" Maki asked doubtfully. "We've got a war going on; you don't see me and this guy playing games do ya?"
"Um… well… I uh…" Ichigo stuttered trying to find an answer that would get them off his back; he wasn't good at interrogations and lectures, which would explain why Rukia always got her way at home.
"Yamada-san! We need you back at the emergency wing!" A female shinigami shouted out from the other end of the hall.
"Uh, okay!" Hanatarou responded. "Looks like I gotta go now, I'll see ya guys later!"
"See ya Hanatarou!" Ichigo shouted out waving him off.
"You're lucky she showed up or you'd never remember that guys' name!" Maki sniggered at Ichigo.
"It's not my fault! That's a hard name to remember!"
---
"Karakura Town… no cars as always… why are we here!?" Tori wondered out loud, scanning her surroundings. Nothing ever seemed to change in Karakura.
"'Cause his majesty awaits!" Rina told them in an uninteresting voice pointing at Urahara's shop. Urahara was sitting at the doorstep waving at them with a happy-go-lucky grin on his face.
"Long time no see!!" He hollered out happily.
"Okay, seriously, why are we here?" Mika asked looking at Rina in the eyes. "If he wants his moose back, he can't have 'em 'cause I don't know where they went, they just left!" Mika blabbed out defensively.
"…I forgot about that…?" Rina and Tori both murmured to themselves.
"Urahara just wanted to tell us something that we don't know" Rina told them as she pushed both her friends from behind towards Urahara's.
"There's so much we don't know Rina; we'll be here for centuries once he finishes telling all the things we don't know!" Tori pointed out.
"Oi! What's taking so long!" A harsh voice that belonged to a female shouted out from within the shop. Hiyori stomped out and whacked Urahara full across the head, sending him flying into the dirt.
"GAH!" All 3 shinigami yelled out as they saw her. Tori and Mika didn't really know who she was but she was intimidating to say the least. Rina remembered the freak attack involving Hiyori and a bunch of other people. Hiyori looked up at the shinigami, muttered something, and then left with a scoff – Mika found those actions to be offensive.
"Hey you wanna go!!" Mika hollered out shaking a fist.
"Mika, don't. She's a scary kid" Rina warned Mika.
Urahara got up from the ground and dusted off his hat. He stood up to face the shinigami. "Well um… that person was Hiyori, my lieutenant when I was a captain" He explained to them.
"You're kidding" All three said in shock.
"She just owned you!" Tori pointed out.
"The power balance is all messed up…" Rina sighed, disappointed in Urahara.
"Captain… wait, you were strong!?" Mika gasped in disbelief.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that…" Urahara muttered and entered his shop. "Anyways, come inside I have something important to tell you guys" He ushered them in. All three stood firm outside, glancing at Urahara suspiciously. "…what…?" Urahara asked looking side-to-side, up-and-down.
"I dunno…" Mika started off. "Every time we do something and you're involved, something REALLY bad happens to us…" Mika told him.
"Like what!?" Urahara screeched out, not believing her.
"Like when you came to Seireitei as Mayuri's replacement…" Tori pointed out. "During that whole time, weird shit kept happening"
"They have a point" Yoruichi spoke up, suddenly appearing beside Urahara, scaring the life out of him. "But we really have to tell you something, so come inside already!"
"Ok." All three calmly walked inside when Yoruichi welcomed them in.
"…why?" Urahara wondered, all alone.
Inside the shop…
"Holy…" Mika gasped, seeing all the vizard, jammed packed in Urahara's living space. Then, her eyes found Hiyori's, they had a glaring contest as sparks shot out from their eyes, scaring everyone else.
"If she was a lieutenant…" Tori wondered. "Then does that mean, everyone else here was a shinigami…?" Tori asked Urahara.
"Yep." Urahara nodded.
"Hirako Shinji, 5th division captain; Aikawa Love, 7th division captain; Muguruma Kensei, 9th division captain; Otoribashi Rojuro… or Rose; 3rd division captain" Urahara introduced the former captains, pointing at each one.
"Kuna Mashiro, 9th division lieutenant; Yadomaru Lisa; 8th division lieutenant; and you guys know my lieutenant, Sarugaki Hiyori" He introduced the rest, leaving one bigger vizard left.
"Who's that?" Mika asked pointing at him.
"Ushoda Hachigen, vice kidou captain" Tessai spoke up introducing the man.
"…kidou captain?" Tori wondered out loud.
"Never heard of a position like that" Mika added on.
"Maybe he's making it up…" Rina wondered. The three girls started to whisper to each other to try and figure out what a Kidou Captain was.
"Eh-hem!" Tessai coughed, to grab their attention back. "I was the Kidou Captain of the Kidou Corps, when we were still in Soul Society" Tessai explained.
"…maybe that's why we never heard of them" Mika pointed out.
"Yeah, maybe they don't exist anymore 'cause both of them left!" Tori pieced things together.
"…The Kidou Corps still exists…" Urahara tried to tell them but failed.
"Anyways!" Yoruichi spoke up. "All of them including myself, will be going to Soul Society"
"…why…?" Rina wondered.
"Can you guys even go?" Tori asked doubtfully.
"Shut up and let me finish!" Yoruichi snapped impatiently.
"Yes ma'am" Both girls saluted, quite scared.
"When Yoruichi-san and the rest of them leave" Urahara started off.
"When we leave, Urahara is gonna tell you guys why Aizen has targeted you guys, and the important task that all of you are going to have to do" Yoruichi completed Urahara's lines.
"That was what I was gonna say…" Urahara moped, drawing circles on the floor with his forefinger, in his corner.
"Aizen targeted us?" Mika asked confused, not remembering any moment when Aizen had targeted them.
"When he tried to take your zanpakutous, when he first introduced you to Seireitei and was your guardian practically when you guys first became shinigami" Yoruichi pointed out.
"I thought he was being nice… minus the zanpakutou part" Tori pouted, feeling slightly betrayed.
A short while after, Yoruichi and the vizards left for Soul Society, leaving Urahara all the glory of storytelling. Tessai was also present in the room too, just to fill in any missing details; but Urahara made sure he didn't leave anything out.
"Pull out your zanpakutous" He ordered the three, and they followed through. "Use shikai" He told them.
"In here…?" Mika questioned his logic.
"Just do it" And the three did; nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Rina's was a sword of black flames, Tori's a fan made of blades when opened up (a sword when closed) and Mika's an ice dagger. "These forms right now, are not their true shikai form" He told them with a serious look on his face.
"We know that" The three piped up, taking Urahara by surprise.
"Well that saves me a story to tell…" Urahara muttered, as the three put their zanpakutou's away. "That just leaves me with the story of your father's and why your family was killed off, leaving only you three to survive… plus a bunch of extras…" Urahara told them, gaining interest from the three girls now fully paying attention. "Like when Aizen faked his death when Ichigo and the others went to save Rukia, he pulled the same trick years before which sealed the fate of your families"
"Kyouka… Suigetsu…" Rina muttered silently, knowing of Aizen's zanpakutou's abilities.
"Exactly. I'm going to tell you what happened, from the beginning"