[A/N: I was literally so busy writing the future chapters that I almost forgot to update, but lucky for you I did not! This chapter was a wee bit longer originally, but, due to some story changes, I had to cut a couple hundred words. Don't forget to review!]
Chapter Fourteen: Let's Get Down to Business
"We're so high up," Yukina said, peering over the edge of the Lookout. "You can't even see the ground."
"Where are we exactly?" Hiei asked.
"You know Korin Tower?" I asked. "We're above it."
"That impossible," Yusuke said.
"Yeah, I heard planes can't even fly that high," Kuwabara said. "You have to climb it and only the most powerful martial artists can-."
"Your dad climbed Korin Tower didn't he?" Yusuke asked flatly.
"Yeah, when he was 12 or something," I said.
"Your dad not only makes me feel inadequate, but he's also a total freak sometimes," Yusuke said.
"Climbing Korin Tower you find strange, but the teleporting over a dozen people here you're totally able to cope with?" I asked.
". . . Good point," he said.
"Kairi."
I looked over and saw Gohan approaching me.
"I was about to leave before Dende told me what was happening," he said. "I'm sorry about Keiko and Shuichi. Are you guys okay?"
"We'll be fine once we know whose ass we need to kick," Yusuke said.
"Please tell me you know something," I said.
"We don't have a who, but we may have a where thanks to Dende," Gohan said.
We quickly sought out Dende who was with Mr. Popo and Piccolo as usual, already with the Soul Reapers.
"Starting the party without me?" I asked.
"Never," Dende said. "I'm glad to see you're all right."
"Thanks. Now I hope you have some useful information for us," I said.
"We still couldn't say who's behind this, but there's only one place they could be hiding out that would allow them to travel between the Living World, the Spirit World, and the Soul Society," Dende said. "The Dangai Precipice World."
"What's that?" Kuwabara asked.
"It's the space between the Soul Society and the Human World separated from time and space," Byakuya explained. "It would be an ideal place to hide. Would be."
"Except for the Kototsu," Rukia said.
"That train thing, right?" Ichigo asked.
"The Kototsu rolls through the Dangai every seven days to clear it out. It will destroy anything in its path so no one can linger there," Byakuya said.
"What about that other place? The uh, the Pseudo Space," Yusuke said.
"I considered it but that only opens sporadically or when someone like Sensui opens a tunnel," Dende said.
"But I'm guessing the Dangai opens up every time a hollow comes through," I said.
"Which makes it easy to access Hueco Mundo and the Living World," Toshiro said. "That still leaves the issue of the Kototsu."
"But even if they are in that place, if it only connects the Living World, Hueco Mundo, and the Soul Society then how have they managed to get to Spirit World?" Goten asked. "That's where Frieza and all those guys were."
"The Spirit World would be easily accessible through the Living World," Hiei said.
"Yeah, how else would we be able to go back and yell at Koenma so frequently," I said.
"So it's safe to assume that whoever is behind this originates from the Living World or Spirit World," Uryu said.
"Hmm. . . I'm having a thought," Dad said.
"A dangerous past time," Vegeta said.
Dad shushed him. "What if, and just hear me out, what if they actually came from the Bongo Recipe World."
"Dangai Precipice, kid," Bardock corrected.
"It's not possible. The Dangai is empty. It is essentially a big space filled with nothing," Byakuya said.
"Right. It's just a big ol' place filled with nothing. You call that place the Bongo. What if someone else not from the Soul Society called it something else?" Dad asked.
"What are you getting at, Kakarot?" Vegeta asked.
"What if someone else knows it as the Dead Zone?" Dad asked.
". . . Are you seriously suggesting that Garlic Junior is behind this, Goku?" Piccolo asked.
"But it makes sense. He'd have motive to kill everyone, and he'd have the means to. And if he was able to get out of the Dead Zone once, he could do it again," Dad said.
There was silence.
"Kakarot's got a point," Vegeta said quietly.
"I noticed," Gohan said.
"Who is this Garlic Junior?" Toshiro asked.
"A nothing really," Gohan said. "Tried to take over the world a few times until he got knocked into the Dead Zone."
"But how would he get out? If my memory serves me correctly you told me that you blew up the Makyo Star which is how he got out in the first place. So he doesn't have the power to get out again," I said.
"Good point," Gohan said.
"Sounds like your friend Garlic Junior could create a Garganta. That's how the Hollows move between Hueco Mundo and anywhere. If he had a problem getting sucked into all of the time, it's probably because his was unstable. But after seeing a Hollow do it, someone with that kind of ability wouldn't have a hard time figuring out how to tweak it," Kisuke said.
"But Garlic Junior was a little nothing. How could he cause all this trouble?" Gohan asked.
"He obviously has the means to get to all the souls he's taken, but how remains a mystery," Toshiro said.
"But why did he need to get rid of all of those souls in the first place?" Kuwabara asked.
"Our intelligence shows that based on the level of activity taking place, it's likely that all the souls are still in existence, but likely being kept somewhere where their influence here is minimal," Nemu said.
"So the souls still exist, he's just holding them somewhere else," Ichigo said.
"Correct," Nemu said.
"Could he be keeping them in the Dangai?" Yusuke asked.
"Their influence would be felt here if they were there," Rukia said.
"More than likely he's found something that's made him capable of capturing souls and holding them," Soifon said.
A red flag went up in my head. Something about what Soifon had said made my brain start going at a million miles a minute. I looked around the group as they continued to theorize with each other as if something was going to make me remember. Then my eyes landed on Hiei. Why, I do not know, but that was when the penny dropped. I started jumping up and down, the thought still forming in my head as I realized something obvious.
"Calm down," Ichigo said, putting his hands on my shoulder.
"I know how he's collecting all the souls!" I said. I turned to Yusuke and Hiei. "Remember our first case together Yusuke? Hiei?"
"Maze Castle?" Hiei asked.
"No. Not as a team. Where we met you Hiei? The whole reason you went to look for Kurama in the first place!" I said.
I watched as Hiei and Yusuke had the same epiphany as well.
"The Orb of Baast," they said in unison.
"What's the Orb of Baast?" Uryu asked.
"It's one of Spirit World's three Artifacts of Darkness. The Shadow Sword, the Forlorn Hope, and the Orb of Baast. The Shadow Sword turns anything it cuts into a low class demon. The Forlorn Hope grants any wish you want at a full moon as long as you give your life in exchange and the Orb of Baast collects and holds souls," I said. "The Orb is especially capable of taking the souls of children, but I bet if you put it in a room full of dead souls it would be able to swallow up a whole mess of them."
"Looks like we've almost got this thing figured out," Ichigo said.
But then I had another thought. "The only way that they could get the Orb is if they were in Spirit World. And the artifacts are under serious lockdown after Hiei and Kurama stole them."
"So? What does that mean?" Ichigo asked.
"It means that Spirit World has likely been aware of the situation at hand for much longer than we have," Hiei said.
"Bingo."
As soon as I heard the voice I was looking around to see where the source was. A moment later, my favorite blue haired grim reaper came zooming onto the Lookout, hopping off her oar before dematerializing it.
"Holy crap, Botan," Yusuke said. "It's about time Spirit World pulled their heads out their asses."
"I'm afraid they haven't. Not completely anyway. I was sent to help assist the Soul Society anyway that I could. They're 'not aware if you and Kairi are involved'," Botan said. "But I'm glad to see you're all safe. Things in Spirit World aren't particularly good."
"I'll bet they're not," I said.
"The Artifacts of Darkness have been missing since at least two days after you quit," Botan said.
"That's a really long time to go without telling someone. Hiei and Kurama took them they acted like it was the end of the world," Yusuke said.
"Well now it is the end of the world, I'm afraid," Botan said. "They sent out people to hunt the artifacts down, but hadn't been able to locate them. Once they realized that the balance was beginning to be disturbed, rather than request your assistance again they left it to the Soul Society to handle it being that they were taking the brunt of the damage."
"I wanna punch King Yemma in the nose," Dad said, a slight flicker of irritation in his voice.
"In addition to the Orb being stolen, shortly after souls from Hell vanished as well," Botan said.
"Like Frieza and Cell," I said.
"Yes, and many others, but mostly we found concern with Dr. Gero also vanishing," Botan said.
"He must be the one who's re-engineer your hybrids to turn Frieza and Cell into one of them," Vegeta said.
"We suspect this also," Botan said. "Additionally, we know with absolute certainty where they're hiding."
"Not the Dangai?" Soifon asked.
"We believe that they probably originated from the Dangai, but as a side of effect of their relentless collection of souls, a few hours ago, we discovered that the Valley of Screams has started to reemerge," Botan said.
"All right, what the hell is that?" Yusuke asked.
"The Valley of Screams is a naturally occurring phenomenon. It's a dimension that exist between the Soul Society, Spirit World, and the World of the Living," Rukia began. Tessai stood next to her, crouched down so as not to tower over her. In his hand he held up a drawing detailing Rukia's explanation.
"Why do your drawings still suck so bad?" Ichigo asked.
Rukia took her sword and whacked him upside the head.
"What the heck was that for?" Ichigo scolded her.
"Because you're a jerk and your attitude sucks," Rukia shouted unapologetically.
"It's not my fault you draw like five-year-old," he retorted, equally unapologetic, causing Rukia to whack him again. "Will you cut that out?!"
"Maybe if you weren't so rude she wouldn't accost you," Botan said.
"Rude? I was just saying that it looks like something my kid sisters would draw," he said.
"And how isn't that rude?" Rukia asked.
"It's the truth," he said.
Another whack.
"Stop!" he yelled at her.
"Maybe you should just stop talking," I said putting a finger to his lips. "That way at least she'll stop hitting you."
"Thank you, Kairi," Botan said. "And I think your artwork is lovely, Rukia."
"Thanks," she said. "Anyway, the Valley of Screams occurs naturally. It happens when souls get lost on their way to the Soul Society and even the Spirit World. The Souls manifest in the Valley of Screams as Blanks and the memories merge together into a single object, the Shinenju, and it returns to the Living World."
"The Valley of Screams didn't pop up on our radar until a few hours ago, so we're lucky we caught it at all. And if they're hiding there, it's quite likely that they've used the Orb of Baast to round up any Blanks that would alert us to the location of the Shinenju," Botan said.
"Why is finding the Shinenju so important? It's just a bunch of memories right?" Goten asked.
"If that Shinenju falls into the wrong hands it could be used to draw the Soul Society, the Spirit World, and the Human World together through the Valley of Screams," Kisuke said. "As you can imagine, this would destroy absolutely everything much, much faster than this imbalance is going to."
"It's never easy," Yusuke said. "Just once I want it to be easy."
"Wishful thinking," Hiei said.
"So what do we do now? How do we stop them?" Orihime asked.
"We go to the Valley of Screams and we kick this Garlic Junior Guy's ass," Yusuke said.
"It won't work like that," Gohan said. "Garlic Junior doesn't work alone and we already saw that he's got a whole mess of flunkies ranging from Saibamen to Cell."
"So we kick their asses too. What's the hold up?" Yusuke asked.
"That's always your plan—running half-cocked and then what happens? You get your ass kicked or worse, Dimwit," Genkai put in.
"Well what the hell do you want us to do?" Yusuke asked.
"Excuse me." We all looked back and saw Yukina standing at the back of the crowd. "That Shinenju thing, I think I know where to look for it."
"Did you see it?" Rukia asked.
"No, but," she paused as she walked forward. She took hold of Rukia's picture book and flipped back through a few pages. She came to page with one of the Blank souls on it—it was large clad only in white with a pink pin shaped head in it. "I've seen these before."
"When?" Rukia asked.
"Only one or two of just this past week or so," Yukina said. "When I was walking to and from school."
"Why didn't you say anything?" I asked.
"You said that there's a lot weird stuff that happens in Karakura Town and that I should try to ignore it, so I did," Yukina said.
"Good work, Detective," Hiei said.
"Shut up, Hiei," I said.
"I think it's obvious what needs to be done now. Back to Karakura Town to make sure the Shinenju doesn't fall into the hands of the bad guys," Genkai said. "And you Soul Reapers need to find a way to get to this Valley of Screams."
"And the last thing we're gonna need are the Dragon Balls," Bulma said walking over and tossing a radar to my dad. "So we can clean up this mess after you stop this Garlic Junior creep and get back all the innocent people that were killed today."
"It's been a while since any of us have looked for Dragon Balls," I said.
"And you're not going to break that streak today," Genkai said.
"Aww, why not?" I asked. "I want to have a fantastical adventure amongst all the shit—I mean crap—bad stuff."
"Because you and all of your new friends are going to go back to Karakura Town and find that Shinenju," Kisuke said.
"I'm not sure it's such a good idea considering two of their friends have already been murdered and they're at the top of the bad guys wanted list," Bulma said. "They should all be staying put right here."
"I would agree with you except that the last time the last time the Valley of Screams popped up the Shinenju popped up right into the hands of a certain Substitute Soul Reaper," Kisuke said.
"I barely even remember that," Ichigo said. "You said the Shinenju was just a vessel that was made up with memories, so once all the memories returned to the Blanks we all forgot what the Shinenju was because technically it didn't even exist."
"That's incredibly unhelpful," Yusuke said.
"Yes, but if anyone's good at getting lucky where bad luck's involved I'd peg you and your partner," Genkai said. "And good things go in groups of three so lucky you, Kairi, you get to go on a field trip with your boyfriend and take two of your half-Saiyan brethren."
"This is still a very bad idea. What if they get attacked again?" Bulma said.
"We send them in with babysitters," Genkai said. "Isn't that your favorite job, Hiei?"
Hiei rolled his eyes.
"And the rest of you'd better skip over to the Soul Society and find out what the hell is going on the other side," Genkai said.
"Renji, Rukia, go with them to Karakura Town," Byakuya said.
"You too Rangiku," Toshiro said.
"Yes, Captain," Rangiku said.
"And Goku, as our expert Dragon Ball finder I'm sure you'll be able to manage," Genkai said.
"Goku,