Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.
"So" Hoji said grumpily, "where to now?"
"For the umpteenth time" Shin replied angrily "we're going to a town called 'Burgo'"
"What the hell!?" Hoji yelled. "What weird-ass kind of name is that?"
"I think it means 'meadow' in some weird language" Suichi clarified.
"Tch. Who cares?" Hoji complained. "All these places have weird-ass names. Riev, and Burgo, and...what was that first one?"
"Wasn't it 'Gam?'" Shin replied.
"Gam's not a word! Backwards weird-o's..." Hoji growled. Suichi put his finger to his chin and thought for a moment.
"You know" he started, "I think they have a different name for their shinigami here, too. They call them 'Soul Reapers' or some such crap."
"I hate this country" Hoji growled even deeper. Shin smirked to himself as he and his group walked down the path to the next town across the mountains. Up the craggy steep sides of and across the jagged peaks they went, always leaping and bounding straight into the setting sun. Suichi's eyes could barely take it. Eventually, their tireless searching came to fruition, and the place they long sought was found. After a near straight week of running through the exhausting, foodless mountains, the shinigami found the hermitage they were seeking.
"Is that the right place? Suichi asked between his panting. Shin walked over and pulled out the scroll the counsel of Riev gave them and held it up. The symbol on the roof of the place matched the symbol drawn in the scroll. It was indeed the place.
"It might be" Shin said, giving the decision no more commitment and walking forward.
"We need a better answer than that!" Suichi yelled. Hoji followed after with his arms crossed.
"No we don't" Hoji explained to the still exhausted Suichi. The poor tired man looked at the two monsters as they walked on as if they walked across the street to get there. The huge building atop a short flight of wide stairs was regardlessly a welcome sight for Suichi, who was nowhere near as berserkly tough as his companions.
"Wait up!" he yelled, stumbling after them up the steps.
"Yo!" Shin shouted before kicking open the door. "Anybody home!?" No answer. To Shin's dismay, the temple looked abandoned. The coals in the fire were just barely red. "Maybe they went for a walk.
"OI!" Hoji screamed, kicking the other door off its hinges and across the room next to the offering alter. "COME OUT, DAMMIT!!"
"Be less subtle" Shin chided. Suichi finally arrived and took a subjective glance around.
"Looks like they evacuated for some reason..." Suichi said, responding to the desolate air, the overturned furniture, the still-fresh food on the alter and the embers in the fireplace.
"Well, we kicked in the door" Hoji said to clarify.
"I know!" Suichi said angrily. He started walking around to assess the damage a little better, getting a feel for the scene. For his occupation, Suichi had caused more than enough murder and panic scenes to know what could happen where, but his deductive eye wasn't picking up anything suspicious. His ears picked up on Hoji scarfing down the food on the alter, but that was about it. Shin went in the opposite direction as Suichi and ended up in what seemed to be the monk's quarters. Each room was about the size of a prison cell, if not smaller, and had nothing in it but a blanket and a statue of whatever god these people were worshiping.
"Looks cozy" Shin said. His fighting instincts picked up on and unusual creaking from the adjacent hallway. He moved his hand up to the hilt of his sword and gripped it slowly. When he turned, he saw nothing at the end of the hall. Regardless, the creeping chill didn't settle, and he slowly paced down the hall, looking into each identical room with a vicious furrowed glare. Back in the main hall, Hoji was tilting his head to try and figure out the cryptic statue these people worshiped so much. It looked like a very poorly made, curvy palm with abnormally straight fingers that ended in points like claws.
"Even their art is ass-backwards" Hoji said. His instinctual chill perked up, so he swung around with his sword drawn and ready to pounce. There was nothing. He glanced around with his sword still ready, but decided against unnecessary force in a holy house, stowing his sword back in its sheathe.
"Where does this food come from?" Suichi asked himself, analytically observing the fresh inventory in the back that was full of food and other essentials, like water and obviously spiritual alcohol. Unfortunately for Suichi, being the combatively less aware than his two counterparts, only sensed the danger as it swung down upon his, landing with a thwack.
"You find anything?" Hoji asked the overly-cautious Shin.
"Nah" Shin said, removing his hand form his blade. A moment of silence passed in the absence of a third input.
"Did you sense something?" Hoji asked.
"Someone" Shin confirmed. They both flashed back and ran down the hall where Suichi had gone, but found nothing. The only open room was vacant of life but plentiful in food. Hoji ignored the obvious danger and charged ahead for the food. "..." Shin didn't intervene, as the prospect of watching Hoji get dragged away from his own stupidity was more amusing to Shin than the concern of where Suichi had gone.
"Dude, there's so much food in here!" Hoji yelled. In the corner, hugging the wall of the pantry, was a cloaked figure wielding some unseen instrument, and an unconscious Suichi. Shin's imminent sense of danger overrode his brain and body for a moment when the shadow of death came looming out, so he unconsciously drew his sword and charged forward. Just as Hoji prepared to take a firm bite down on a piece of juicy, red meat, his danger sense went berserk. He turned in a flash to see a blur of brown come down on him. He struggled to shuffle back and pull out his sword in time, but only made it to point at his assailant's neck because Shin came in time to hold back the man's club with his foot.
"Nice dodge" Shin said sarcastically.
"Tch!" Hoji grunted in shock. "Who-who is this freak!?"
"Moreover," Shin started, sheathing his sword slowly, "where are you pointing? His neck's up here."
"No it's not!" Hoji said. He poked his sword into the cloak and pushed down the stick that was adding, if not doubling, the height of the hip-high old man who stood in surprise and blinked his huge eyes. Shin released the club from his foot's clutch and stood back on both his feet. The old man looked around him, noticed he was surrounded and withdrew the club behind him, pretending it wasn't there.
"Well, what brings you young'ns up to these mountains?" he asked kindly.
"BULL!" Hoji shouted, throwing a fistful of rice at his face.
After waking Suichi with the stinging, smelly alcohol, the three situated in the main hall before the odd old man who took a seat of honor directly under the statue. He was a strange, almost inhuman looking old man, though that didn't say much for an inhuman realm of existence. His face was wrinkled to the point where it didn't look like a face but more like a series of sags with eyes and a mouth plugged on for kicks. His whiskers were so thing and white that it looked like spider-webs dangling from his crinkled lip more than hair. His head was covered with visible, thin veins and a nearly white spot where gravity seemed to push down on his skin too much.
"So" the old man said, extending his disproportionately long, bony arms into a meditation pose, "what brings you warriors here?" Shin looked at his two compatriots, then answered on their behalf.
"We seek to obliterate the Kyuuhiouto and fill the valleys they have stolen from with their own blood." Suichi almost did a spit-take halfway through the explanation, but Hoji just nodded. The old man didn't look very moved by Shin's brashness at all. He even smiled...maybe. The wrinkles made it hard for anyone to tell what he was doing.
"So, you are here to rest before a fight?" the old man asked, slowly moving his arms and putting his hands together to pray.
"Not really" Hoji started, nodding his lead off from Shin. "We were sent here by the elder from Riev. He said you could help us learn more about the Kyuuhiouto before we fight them." The old man now parted his hands and made a large circle with his palms in the air, then brought them together again as if he was holding something in them. The group each furrowed their brows curiously.
"We don't need to know much" Shin said, desperate to keep the man's attention. "We just want to know where the closest one is." The old man opened his eyes part way, leaving his lids to show only the black of his large pupils. He saw the desperation in Shin's face, and his arms began to shake.
"Why do you want to kill them?" the old man asked. Before Shin could answer, or even think of an answer, a light started shining from the man's hands. A sphere of light started generating from seemingly nowhere. Suichi backed away, but Shin slowly stood up, getting ready to dodge or deflect or whatever he would have to do with this mysterious new force he was seeing. "...do you want to learn?" the old man asked with an evil grin. Shin's eyes shot open a moment too late.
"Hash-ra!" The orb shot out as a colossal, invisible wave of energy that splintered the wood and sent Shin flying out the door and down the steps, landing had against the ground far outside the temple walls. Hoji looked on after Shin, then drew his sword and started to rush forward.
"You ASS--" but he was cut off by another blast of energy. Hoji's head banged against the top of the doorway on the way out, knocking him out temporarily as he rolled to a stop with sword still clutched in hand. The old man summoned his club up from the floor and flashed ahead to the temple steps where Shin was viciously glaring up at him.
"In your current state," the old man shouted, leaning up against his club placed on the step below, "the leaders of the Kyuuhiouto would tear you apart!" Shin growled at these words. Hoji growled too, but from the bump he felt on the back of his head and the wet redness that was on his fingers from it. "Do you want to know the name of your weapon, Shin Kenpachi!?" Shin's eyes shot open again. His name, and his sword's name...this man knew them both?
Hash-ra: doesn't mean anything. It's the name of the technique the old man used, but it doesn't mean anything.