Month of falling leaves, four days to the beginning of autumn (August 3rd)
The captain and lieutenants' meeting was unexpected; perhaps though it should not have been, Amagurai reflected as she hurried towards the central meeting room before the sun had fully risen into the sky. It seemed a few days previously some ryoka had used an illicit Senkaimon to get into Rukongai and had tried to enter Seireitei through the West Gate. They would have succeeded too, had Gin not conveniently been there and severed one of Jidanbō the Gatekeeper's arms so the giant could not hold the gate open.
The description of the ryōka included one who had challenged Gin directly: an orange-haired boy in shihakushō with a sword as long as he was tall.
Kurosaki Ichigo.
Amagurai entered the lieutenants' room, glancing around. It was only half full; she wasn't late, thank goodness.
"Amagurai-san!" Renji called out from across the room. "D'you think it's him?"
The bound kami grinned, remembering the human teen's reiryoku patterns and temperament. "I'd bet on it, Renji-kun," she replied sweetly. "He reminds me of a few other shinigami of my acquaintance. Some people just don't know when to quit." She did not mention that she knew the younger Kurosaki was somewhere in Soul Society; debts were such handy things and few people even in Soul Society remembered how dangerous they could be.
"Amagurai-san? Have you seen Aizen-taichō?" Hinamori asked shyly. The redhead smiled at the younger and rather naive lieutenant:
"I'm the wrong person to ask, Hinamori-kun," she said wryly. "I somehow always miss Aizen-taichō. I don't think I've seen him in over a year!"
This got a laugh out of the gathered lieutenants: her inexplicable inability to be within several buildings of the 5th Division captain was a source of much hilarity in certain circles and there was money riding on when they would next both be visible at the same time.
"I heard you got banned from 1st Division, Amagurai-san," Matsumoto said, eyes sparkling with mirth. "How did you manage that?"
I would be a very poor fukutaichō if I did not attempt to protect one of the officers under my command from an unfair sentencing," Amagurai said coolly, "especially when Ukitake-taichō is in no condition to do it himself."
"Your loyalty does you credit, Nishi-san," Sasakibe-fukutaichō of 1st Division said, ever calm and conciliatory, "though your persistence in the face of the inevitable is somewhat taxing."
That got a few chuckles. Amagurai smiled, sharp as a fistful of blades:
"Why, Sasakibe-san, I would do no less for any of my colleagues, should it prove necessary."
"Thanks, Fire-head-chan!" chirped Yachiru. "I'll tell Ken-chan you offered!"
That effectively killed the tension and the conversation turned to less serious matters. Then the alarm sounded.
"Intruders?" wondered Kira Izuru of 3rd Division.
"How?" breathed Kotetsu Ise of Fourth.
Yachiru didn't say a word, dashing out of the door in an instant. Doubtless she intended to join her captain, who would certainly be hunting down these new challenges for a good fight. The rest of the lieutenants followed her, stopping in the courtyard to try and see which direction the intruders were coming from. Amagurai didn't bother: direction was ultimately unimportant as each Division had a specific area of Seireitei they were responsible for. Instead she flash-stepped back to Thirteenth as fast as she could to issue orders.
She arrived back at her Division's headquarters in time to witness her officers performing what looked like a not very synchronised headless chicken dance.
"Atten-shun!" she bellowed.
Everyone froze, some half-dressed, others unarmed or with food stuffed in their mouths.
"Squads, you have three minutes to be fully prepared and at your stations! Squad leaders, to me!" she barked. Chaos resumed, slightly more purposeful this time. The squad leaders swiftly lined up in front of her, not one of them in full uniform.
"Third seat Kotsubaki, your squad will report to taichō to defend the residential area and respond to orders from sōtaichō or the Central 46. Third seat Kotetsu, you will take your squad and squads three to seven to conduct a thorough search in our Division's patrol area for the ryoka. At least one of them is almost lieutenant level, so take care! Squads eight and nine will remain here to guard the Division, provide relief and respond to sightings. Understood?"
"Hai, fukutaichō!" The squad leaders chorused.
"Then get moving!" Amagurai ordered. A blur of shunpo later she was alone, so she headed to the office to get started on the paperwork. Ten minutes later the eighth and ninth seats, leaders of the eighth and ninth squads, entered her office, now armed and properly dressed.
"I will be out on my own," she informed then briskly as she neatly stacked a pile of paperwork. "I'm stronger than any of the ryoka and my reiryoku sensing talent should help me trace them. Remember that we don't know why they're here, so don't get complacent."
Amagurai deliberately ignored the reiatsu spikes around the 11th Division: while that presence was definitely Kurosaki Ichigo, she was more interested in the other members of the invasion group, specifically those of the boy's friends she had only heard about. The individual blowing holes through walls somewhere near 6th Division was specifically who she was chasing, though she was not exactly putting a whole lot of effort into it.
Whoever it was moved pretty quickly: she traced the peculiar energy signature from the landing site and halfway across Seireitei, past numerous unconscious squads and through any number of ruined buildings and after several hours was closing in on those odd flashes that were definitely not kidō. However at that moment she received a summons to another lieutenants' meeting.
Sighing and fixing in her mind the direction the ryoka was travelling in –directly towards the Senzaikyū– Amagurai set her sights on the lofty roofs of 1st Division and vanished in a blur of shunpo.
The purpose of the meeting turned out to be just a damage report. Ikkaku and Yumichika had been defeated by the ryoka they encountered, indicating the enemy either possessed considerable strength or enough cunning to outfox Seireitei's most hardened fighters. Considering that the ryoka had pretty much flattened 11th Division Amagurai was leaning towards the former. The individual she had been following had certainly blasted through a number of patrols with apparent ease. She also wondered what Saitō was up to; the ryoka would not have survived encountering him, which suggested he was maintaining a suspiciously low profile.
As her fellow lieutenants gasped in horror and muttered in dismay, the third seat of 4th Division continued his report: three ryoka had been identified, two of whom had taken a hostage. Those two had also vanished from Seireitei's collective senses, which was unusual and unnerving. At least, it was to people who failed to take into account that the sewer system was shielded, which included everyone not in 4th Division and everyone in the Division who hadn't paid attention to that little titbit. Amagurai knew because she'd taken advantage of that fact to do shikai practice down there for several months before Unohana-taichō noticed the change in the sealed form of her blade.
While near her Iba Tetsuzaemon worried that one of his men had not reported in and someone else bemoaned the lack of real information, Amagurai noticed Renji slipping out of the back door. Curious but not really concerned –Renji after all had a very good idea of why the ryoka were here at all– the bound kami instead stepped forward to referee the argument brewing between Matsumoto and Ōmaeda. Abarai could handle himself.
As late afternoon slid into evening Amagurai returned to 13th Division and the paperwork she had been neglecting. With Jūshirō still out of the picture for another two or three days she had to stay on top of both his workload and her own. However around sunset she became aware of Renji's spiritual pressure: he was fighting someone all-out. Hopping up onto the roof, Amagurai realised his opponent was Kurosaki Ichigo. And, judging by that last spike, the human had just won.
Curious as to what had led the tattooed lieutenant to disregard his orders and hunt down the intruder by himself, Amagurai quickly tidied her office and left in the direction of 6th Division, stopping by at home in passing to let her husband know all was well and dismissing the shinigami still hanging around to rest for the night.
Considering who his captain was and how on edge Byakuya was at the moment, Renji's stunt would probably get him into trouble.
The first day of the invasion. Why the fourth seat of the 11th Division is nowhere to be found is a point I will return to later. What do people think of Yachiru's nicknaming skills?
As for the headless chicken dance, I'm sure my readers have seen it before: does running around at random and panicking ring a bell?
