Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach. Want to though. Badly.
The Sereitei Entrance
As interesting as the exchange of heads for money was, the purpose of your visit to the Seireitei was revealed as his superior, Hideki, beckoned Sosuke over as the last of the heads was sold for what looked to be a particularly tidy sum. Glancing over his shoulder to look for Kira, who had been joined in company by "The Beast", he moved to wake her up out of her deep slumber over , but Hideki shook his head in the negative. Sosuke surmised he probably wanted to speak with him first then, or to isolate him on his own terms.
That was all right with him; he'd talked himself out of worse situations than that before.
Taking a few steps forward, he came up to the three dark haired, strong jawed shinigami who had argued and bargained for the now paid for severed heads. Looking at each of them, Sosuke quickly gathered that the rouge-like and wild gleam to their eyes and the stoic, yet easy going demeanor their faces held meant that they'd more than likely come from the high numbered Rukongai areas.
For some reason, the quick observation of their origins put him at ease, even in the presence of the bloody heads and stained hands.
Dressed in nothing more than plain shihakusho's that most shinigami wore, they looked like the average shinigami for the most part, except for the hardened look of their features. Sosuke guessed that the taint of the uncivilized areas of Rukongai expressed itself in someone's face mostly when they argued or yelled, like how the new shinigami in front of him were doing.
"Ahem," coughed Kei Hideki, who had patiently waited for the mostly muzzled bickering between the shinigami to stop, before interrupting politely. He silently lifted his hand towards Sosuke, giving him an introduction to the now curious shinigami assembled before the young man.
"Here he is," said Hideki in a conspiratorial tone, his speech bubble shrinking down in size from before and taking on a darker tinge.
It alarmed Sosuke only slightly more than the red and pink shaded bubbles "The Beast" had produced earlier.
It was an interesting development he'd record later, as it seemed to imply that he had somehow gained the ability to perceive or have an insight into the emotions of oth-
(^ U ' )
"Maybe that's just your gut feeling doing the work. We said it was mostly all in your head, remember? How about that, hm?" Hogyoku, smirked at him.
"Maybe it was in his head then," he thought. Still, he felt the projection did help…somehow.
Managing not to give away to much of what was on his mind, he ended up looking back and forth between his superior and the strangers, and hid his apprehensiveness as best he could. The question of what they wanted from him bubbled on the surface of your mind though. Before he could ask a question though, the air surrounding him shifted slightly and a completely alien voice spoke out to him, catching him off guard.
Speaking in a vocal range, and sound almost completely separate from what he dealt with on a regular basis, one of the shinigami directed a series of gibberish his way that seemed to bend all the sound he could hear into a cacophony of noise, " h%#p d!*$%#h%^o*….."
The air surrounding him slightly warped again before he was looking at the man who had just spoke in honest confusion and Hideki , who seemed as calm as ever.
"Hiro, I told you, he's good, but not that good," said Hideki, implying that he had somehow earned his approval beforehand, but in which or what way was it involved in this was the question.
"Damn, well I had to try," said the man who had spoke, sounding much more human than a minute ago.
"Well not even a genius could pull off what you were thinking; he probably hasn't even been around enough shinigami to know how to "speak". Hell, he doesn't even have the pressure to receive it cohesively," said a brown haired, glasses wearing shinigami, smiling in amusement at the man named Hiro.
"Ah, no big deal to me, he's the one who made the bet. Now, I want to see what you had in mind for the other part before you pay us," said another brown haired shinigami. He proceeded to hand his zanpakto over to the one known as Hiro.
The shinigami in question hefted the blade given to him over head before offering it forward to Sosuke, with a smirk gracing his face now.
He wondered what was going on here, as he gripped the sword in his hand.
"Oh! You ass! You just wanted to see his sword play. Okay I'm leaving," Said the glasses wearing shinigami, who turned around, preparing to leave.
Calmly fingering his own blade coolly, Hiro answered his departing companion with some choice words of his own, "You don't want to see the guy that made Kasumi look like an idiot in action? What happened to the whole "look out for the talents of the Rukongai" thing you were going on about the other day, huh?"
Laughing out rather loudly, the other brown haired shinigami twisted the metaphorical knife deeper into the suddenly formerly departing shinigami, "Ohhh, he's got you there, Sito."
Turning around slowly, the bookish looking shinigami looked at Sosuke and his still smarting hand before walking briskly over towards . Taking his hand in his and lifting it up for inspection, he mumbled some kind of recitation before placing both of his palms over the hand. A green glow enveloped them as warm, tingling sensation blossomed in his still tender fist.
Taking the time to look away, the man known as Sito took the time to look at Kei with a small frown.
"You were going to let him spar with Hiro like this?"
Nonchalantly shrugging, Kei returned with an easy going answer and small happy- go-lucky smile, "He'll live. Besides, desperation brings out the best in people…if used correctly. I wanted to see how he dealt with stress when under attack and no prep time. Well, maybe some other time then…"
Temporarily stunned at the man's answer as he was, Sito lifted his palms and shook his head in disappointment.
The other brown haired shinigami was busy chuckling at some joke that apparently Hiro was in on, "Ha-ha-ha –ha -haaa! Aw man, Kei. You just can't help being an ass, can you? Ha! What am I saying, of course you can't! Ha- ha-ha-ha!"
Hideki simply shrugged once again in response and offered Sosuke a small conciliatory eyebrow raise.
He supposed that he take that as a sorry?
(- o -)
" What a jerk,"said Hogyoku.
On that Sosuke could agree with Hogyoku. He'd had had suspicions earlier, but Kei Hideki definitely was someone to watch out for.
"Excuse me, Sosuke was it? Your hand should be fully healed now, please test it out," called Sito.
Taking the man up on his offer, he rotated wrist, clenched a fist, and threw a few punches before examining the skin on his hand. It was completely fine and he made sure to thank the shinigami before he stopped in his tracks.
"There's been a slight change in plans," he said, smiling at Sosuke with a gentle smile that held something … sinister at bay, "please arm yourself properly."
"Yeah, I'm gonna hang back instead. Give you some tips, you know, when you need it," said Hiro, who was suddenly being both too cheerful and helpful for Sosuke's taste.
"Um, arm myself? Tips? What do mean?" he asked not liking where things were going.
"Please don't play dumb. We simply wish to see your skill," said Sito, who suddenly jumped away and rushed back towards him with sword in hand.
"Ya!"He yelled as his blade quickly came down upon the hastily brought up one the other shinigami had loaned to him.
"Good," he said cheerfully, breaking off contact to give him more breathing room.
Silently Sosuke fumed.
It seemed that shinigami loved their battles as much as their need for order. And he'd lately and unexpectedly become the former.
But that was fine by him.
"Pause," Sosuke mumbled.
As the blue shaded world came to him, he smiled in anticipation as he struggled to impress another batch of shinigami, as best he could.
Random Encounter…. Random Encounter…. Random Encounter …. Random Encounter
Author Note:
Don't kow about you guys, political porn usually gets me-"House of Cards" anyone? Anyway the next chapter will be the end of this Arc. Please stay tuned.
And thank you to those who have followed and faved the story, your support is very much appreciated everyone. Thanks to those who have recently done so as well. Some feedback is also always appreciated whether you like the story or not.
Please let me know if there are any criticisms you have and anything you like about the story.
The next one will be up soon.
(^ u ^)