Heads up ya'll! This is going to be a premier introducing chapter with some guest appearances by some of the "good" characters. So let's get down to business! Here's a present! An early update because its Friday and I'll be away from home all weekend and won't be able to update this Monday, so here you all are and I hope you enjoy! Thanks to Kage Kurai, AbsoluteReader1995, Phantom Claire, Inmsodiac, KageNekoReborn, and AngryHitsu for reviewing. Disclaimer time
DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN BLEACH ONLY THE PLOT (of this story) AND SOME OF THE OCs
Ichigo blinked confusedly. He was sure that he was in the midst of one of his torture sessions, and that the one that he was in lasted longer than it did, but all of the sudden it just stopped. He couldn't explain it. Not that he was complaining that they stopped, he just found it curious, but he was sure someone at one time told him not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
The snowstorm was still blowing outside. While he was no longer receiving one of his bouts of torture, two things were stopping him from leaving. One being that he wasn't sure that he was done with these sessions, and the other being, he was still in incredible pain from all the sessions he had to relieve, so he wasn't in a hurry to get lost in the snow storm, again.
He grimaced when he pushed himself up, his arms, hands, and whatever else weren't working to their full potential. His elbows were shaking with the strain, and his legs were screaming their protest when he tried to use them. He eventually got himself in a semi-sitting position, everything hurting twenty times worse now that he agitated the wounds. His body was also stiff from remaining in one place for too long. Sadly, it was something he had become accustomed to while he was in captivity.
His chest heaving from exertion, he looked out to the endless white. He attempted to clear his throat, momentarily forgetting that in one of his middle term captivity sessions involved Daichi strangling him, and his throat protested against it, his jugular having been moments from being crushed.
A few years ago, before he became a shinigami, he would've wondered if this was hell. But having been there and knowing what constitutes for heaven in this world, he couldn't figure out where he was at all. He was lost, helpless, alone, and in great pain.
He didn't even know if those who were on the search team were even still looking. His internal clock said that it had been at least four weeks since he got himself kidnapped.
In a way Ichigo supposed it was fitting. He had underestimated Yuna, and had assumed that her friends wouldn't join in the fight. He had foolishly guessed that she wouldn't be able to do anything that severely hurt him, he should've reconsidered the moment that he saw she was in shinigami dressings. She had been the biggest threat amongst the group, he knew that now. The others had been because the group that took him had accounted for him having his inner hollow with him.
Ichigo was surprised to find that he actually missed Hichigo, the hollow; while creepy, insane, and more than a little annoying had at least provided him with something to do whenever he got trapped in his own mind. Though that had been when he was training and before his mastered his hollow mask transformation.
Here, the only form of entertainment was whatever Ichigo could think of, and he had never been very imaginative, taking things to literal, and knowing what was possible and what wasn't. While most of his memories where faded to the point of almost being useless, he still knew that he had lost his imagination when his mother was killed.
Somehow as a child you got it in your brain that your parents would be with you forever, and as you grew older you were supposed to slowly realize that everyone dies eventually. Ichigo never had the chance to grow up and realize that, having his mother killed right before his very eyes, it was something that he could never change and he learned to grow up fast. Only because he needed to help raise his sisters.
Somewhere in his life, someone thought that he deserved to become a shinigami. At first the teenager was more than thrilled to have the power to protect his family like he desired. But now he was wondering if it wasn't a curse.
Several figures entered a bar in the 80th district. It being the worst district, and the furthest away from the prying eyes of the Gotei protection squads. The three that just entered the bar, looked around, ignoring some of the heated and lustful looks thrown their way. The spotted a group in a far off corner, the headed towards it.
A male with a scar running down the center of his face looked up at the newcomers, about to chase them off should they be a drunken patron of this bar. It wasn't, it was three figures that the small group was waiting for.
He motioned for them to sit down.
One of the girls, a female with tanned skin and dark hair sat down, looking at the table, arching an eyebrow at the appalling conditions of the bar.
"It's the best we could do princess." The man with the scar stated.
The female said, nothing but scowled in the general direction of the male.
The other female in the group slid into the other side of the booth, playing with her vibrant red hair, looking the tiniest bit unnerved by her scarred companion.
"Shall we get down to business?" The raven-haired girl asked.
"C'mon, love, we're at a bar? Can't we liven the mood up a bit before we totally ruin it, a pint of ale is always a welcome reward after training. Those blokes in the meathead squad don't take it easy while training." Said the third new comer.
"Don't call me love." The raven haired girl snapped back. "We aren't here for pleasure either."
The third newcomer, a slender male with unruly blond hair, pouted. "Right you are, but we still have some time to kill, and the King won't know."
The scarred man, spoke up once more. "We're working at the moment, but we do have time to kill because we're still three short, Kana, sometimes it pays to relax."
Kana's eyes flashed turning from a light amber to a darker one, then back again. "Tsk. Whatever."
The red-haired girl frowned slightly. "When will the others be arriving?"
"Who knows?"
The other member who had remained silent thus far sat up, she had aqua hair and eyes to match it, she the tattoo of her clan one her face, a crisscrossing pattern that went from her forehead down, until it disappeared underneath her uniform. If she didn't have that she'd have been a real beauty. "It's best to come at separate times, we all are from different squads, and it'd look suspicious. You know how these dogs are. They'll use any reason to question someone."
"Kasumi is right." Kana replied.
Kasumi grinned, it looked innocent but the look in her eyes was devilish, it was too be expected having served under Yuna for years before she became her own premier. She had followed Yuna after she left, begged the half-demon to take her away from this place.
"Kasumi-san, you look scary." The red head commented.
"Yuu, I'm going to disregard that last comment." Kasumi looked pointedly at the red-head who was currently the youngest premier in Neo-Gotei.
Yuu quieted down. Looking towards the door, waiting for their other companions.
Silence fell across the table, the blond male was fidgeting in his seat.
"Masahiko, stop it." The larger male spoke finally.
"Sorry, Sora." Masahiko mumbled. Then he grinned slyly. "It's just I'm surrounded by such beautiful women.
Sora ducked. Leaving enough room so that Kasumi could reach back and smack the head of the other male.
"Honestly, Masahiko make it original." The aqua haired female said retracting her hand.
"Yuu-Chan! Kasumi-san hit me!" Masahiko whined attempting to snuggle up to the other female shinigami.
"Masahiko, I will punch you if you don't move." Yuu growled.
Masahiko reluctantly slunk back into his own personal space. Minutes passed where the group remained silent. The bar door finally opened, revealing two more males. Both dressed in shinigami attire, the quickly made their way over to the group. One of the males looked almost identical to Tadashi, only his hair was a dark purple color that could be easily mistaken for black, he even had the same piercings. The other was slightly shorter than his companion, he had white hair covering up one of his completely black eyes, and the rest of his hair was spikey however.
"Jiro, Nao, you're late." Sora greeted.
Nao made a face. "Sorry, but the captain had me do something for him."
The other shinigami made a face as well. They knew that feeling well. They didn't like it, but in order to perform their duties to their true allegiance sacrifices had to be made, even if it did hurt their pride.
"Hey, barkeep!" Nao called suddenly. "Bring us your finest sake!"
Masahiko looked abashed. The others merely ignored the white-haired male's request and finally got down to business.
"The king has returned the plan to its original date." Kana started.
"I wonder why he's changing everything now. We're in the final stage of perpetration." Masahiko questioned.
"What he's got planned, it's big. He can't afford to screw up, and we can't either." Kasumi replied.
Jiro finally spoke up. "Hasn't it been a month since we got the brat?"
"Twenty-eight days." Sora replied.
The purple-haired man nodded. "Which means my brother will be joining us soon."
"What? Tadashi will?" Yuu looked annoyed.
"Yeah, the King thought he'd be the best one for the job." Jiro replied.
Kana was looked away. Masahiko spoke up, in a serious voice this time. "But from what I've heard from the ninth's new captain found a way to identify the five that went on the retrieval mission."
"What?" Kasumi almost yelled. "If the shinigami captains find him, we're all sunk!"
Kana stared evenly at the frantic looking girl. "No matter, this is a small glitch in the plan. We should inform the king."
"But who will he send then?" Yuu countered. "Tadashi is the best for the job, apparently."
The group fell silent. "We can disguise him, and it seems like only the captains know of this situation. So he just needs to stay out of the captain's way during his visit here. It'll be brief." Sora attempted to calm them.
Jiro sighed. "My brother is never brief. But how do we inform the King?"
Sora sighed. That was the problem the King could contact them at any time, but they had to go through hell to contact him, not literally.
"We use Iris." Kana replied.
"Iris? Isn't she one of Enyo's weirdoes?" Masahiko said aloud
"She is, and she's only to be used in emergencies." Kana replied.
"I think this constitutes as one." Yuu replied.
The group nodded.
"Whose squad is she on?" Kasumi asked.
"She's in the forth." Sora replied evenly.
Everyone turned to glance at Nao. The white-haired man who had been busily drinking down sake, blinked. "What?"
"You're going to be the one to tell Iris the message we need sent." Sora clarified.
"EH? Why me?" Nao gaped.
"Because it makes the most sense. You and Masahiko don't get along anyway and Masa is in the eleventh squad so its our perfect cover up." Yuu elaborated.
"Do it tonight." Kasumi replied stealing a cup of sake for herself. "Say it was a bar brawl that got out of hand."
"Once in the medical division ask for Iris." Sora said.
"Deliver the message, tell him to send the response to Jiro." Kana replied airily.
Jiro looked serious. "It's an important mission. Without you doing this, we'll fail, and you'll never get your revenge."
Nao looked around the group. Sighing, he downed another cup of sake. "Fine. Masa, let's get this over with."
"Make it look convincing, start arguing now!" Yuu urged quietly.
"The rest of us are going to scatter." Sora stood up motioning for the others to do the same.
"Wait, I'm going to use a trick to make these patrons forget about us five." Kasumi said.
She quickly drew a symbol in the air, spoke a strange word, and there was a bright light.
"Start in five minutes, that's when they'll be able to form memories again." The aqua haired girl nodded.
The five shinigami that weren't going to be part of the "brawl" vanished in a shunpo leaving the two males alone.
"Let's drink until the fight?" Nao suggested.
Masahiko grinned. "Let's."
The two began to down the remainder of the sake and some of that behind the bar. When their five minutes was up they started their performance.
Outside of the bar a lone figure sat on the fence, her head tilted to the side. A frown gracing her too pale lips. She had seen everything, and felt the low level demon magic being used by one who hadn't' been trained to use it. Her hair was pulled back into a bun, and she looked quiet out of place.
Leaping from the fence, startling a few drunken bystanders and some birds, she began walking away from Soul Society. She had seen what she wanted to see, confirming what she had guessed at. What the mortals were doing did not affect her, and in fact it made her task easier.
She had seen proof that not even as a full-fledged demon, Yuna was able to take on an apprentice, and a loyal follower. The girl was a danger to the plan, but if she was killed in the upcoming skirmish, then her life would be twenty times easier.
She heard rumbling from behind her, and heard as the thin wall was busted through along with the screams of fear and protest. She turned her head to gaze at the commotion, feeling two life forces ghost-above her head. Her pale-lavender eyes swiveled upwards in time to see a male with dark spikey hair and a tattoo on his face, of the number 69. He looked strong. The other was a blond with half of his face covered by his hair. He looked like he was depressed about something.
The female sniffed, memorizing their scents. She would kill them should they come after her and become an annoyance. They were heading towards the bar fight, she shook her head and continued down her path.
Because of the deplorable living standards in this particular district, she and to endure the lustful gazes of men. One tried to accost her. All she had to do to dispose of the nuisance was flick him in the forehead, and he fell to the ground dead, his skin quickly turning blue. She had given him an accelerated version of hypothermia, the shock that his body went through at the sudden twenty degree body temperature shock was enough to do a pitiful soul like him in.
The female continued on her way as if nothing happened. Making her way to the edge of peaceful territory she placed her hand on a tree trunk revealing a gateway into a snowy world. She looked around checking to see if anyone had followed her. When she saw none she walked into the tree. Hearing the shouts, that were faded because of the distance, of anger due to another drunken brawl or something as equally human.
Just before she full vanished into the tree she spared the soaring white towers that marked the base of the Shinigami, one last glance. They knew nothing of what was about to come.
It was the coming of the demons.
Truth be told, the King of Neo-Gotei was not expecting a call from one of his premiers stationed in Soul Society. Or for the premier to be covered in bandages and bruises. For a brief moment Sachio feared that they had been discovered.
"Sir, I need to report something to you, it's important."
"I assure, if it wasn't I'd personally kill you. What is it Nao?"
The white haired man looked grim. "The ninth division captain knows the identity of the five premiers you sent on the retrieval mission.
"The ninth's captain is dead." Sachio replied evenly.
"There's three new ones." Nao responded.
"What? Why didn't you inform me of this?"
"It happened recently. Last night was the only time we could get away without blowing out cover."
Sachio nodded. He did have good subordinates, they put the mission first and new how to act without needed to be ordered every step of the way. "Who are these new captains?"
"Kisuke Urahara, Yoruichi Shihoin, and Isshin Kurosaki." Nao replied. "Also the tenth division's captain has retuned along with six other shinigami, I presume these are the ones that you informed us about?"
"They are. Now back to the original reason you called." Sachio replied curtly.
"Right, as I said, Urahara somehow found out the identity of all five premiers that you sent to the World of the Living. He'll know Tadashi."
"I assume you're talking about stage two?" Sachio questioned.
"Yes, sir." Nao nodded.
"What would you have me do? Tadashi is the only one with the ability to perform this task."
"Disguise him. Only the captains would know, so they couldn't act until they had a council or cornered him alone. Either of which wouldn't be a problem. He'd have more time to carry out his task before the captain's cornered him, or he'd kill one of the captains."
Sachio nodded. "But that would ruin the covert ops for the mission. I'll inform Tadashi and send a message back with the plan."
"Send it to Jiro, sir."
The king nodded and closed the transmission. This was only a tiny little kink in his otherwise flawless plan, he should've accounted for Urahara to pull something like that, but he knew now, and he would be able to counter it.
Now it was just making sure Tadashi wouldn't screw his mission up; as the red-heads fiery nature tended to make him do.
He sent a crow out to retrieve the premier, there was only two days before stage two. Then it was only a matter of efficiency on the Soul Society premiers to set up stage three. Then all hell would break loss.
Sachio saw himself sitting on a throne in Soul Society within another month. Everything was proceeding on schedule.
Snickers. Yes I gave you a full chapter on the baddies and you still don't know their plan! Sorry, but stay with me, you'll know soon enough. Plus we got to meet the rest of the premiers. Yes it's also a short chapter, I apologize, but what can I do? But at least you kind of know who my mystery character is?
Mer-mer, your character is in it, her name is Yuu.
Phantom Claire, I hope I did the overall character correctly.
You all probably just want to read the preview. I won't keep you waiting any longer.
Toshiro had been called to the ninth division; in a way. He had mentioned to Urahara in passing earlier that day that he wanted to talk to him about something. He needed to hear a professional opinion on what was happening. The brief feelings that he got, the cryptic words, and the overall worry he was feeling. The young captain was thinking that it was just stress induced. They hadn't had any sort of break in between the Aizen incident and this.
He walked into the surprisingly well kept captain's office. It wasn't immaculate, but the white haired captain had seen worse. There were papers littering the floor, desk, tables, walls, and for some reason the ceiling. He really didn't want to know, so he wasn't going to even ask. But it was a mystery.
There you go! Now onto the next and all of that. Oh and next chapter? *grins evily* It may have some emotions. Any way! Review below with your thoughts. Later! ~IF