Chapter 29! A Person or Two
Laugh loved her family, she loved the people she was surrounded by in the castle. But she always had her doubts. She remembered her human life, vaguely, well enough to talk about it, but not enough to feel grief over her death. She knew that logically her killer had entered the soul society not long after she did, but she could never feel the need hunt them down or get revenge. She liked the soul society, it reminded her of her life but it was different enough to let her move on. She was very fond of the castle and she very fond of her team
But now she was starting to doubt all of that.
It may come as a surprise but Laugh knew a lot more then she let on. She knew every detail of what everyone was capable of, she had helped king pick the winners, if you could call them that. She didn't know what to except when she handed in her entry for the new squad that the soul society had decided to form. She wasn't sure why they had decided that a new squad should be formed so many centuries after the first 13. At least, she wasn't sure at first.
Now she knew why. She knew the multiple reasons why.
But, that wasn't the matter right now, she should be focusing on the battle. She should be preparing to kill someone. But her mind keeps slipping. Perhaps if she just emptied her mind this would be easier.
She and her team were facing off against the white haired Bount. Over all, when they had first run into him, he was pretty chill. He had greeted them with a small smile and introduced himself and Gilbert. He ever held his hand out as if expecting someone to shake it. No one did and he just shrugged it off and shoved his hands in his pockets. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "Well, aren't you going to introduced yourself? I do prefer knowing the names of the people I kill." He asked, leaning forward and teetering on the heels of his feet.
Neo stepped forward and put his arm out in front of Laugh and Det. "You're not going to be able to kill us." He said sternly. "Trust me. We don't go down that easily."
"That's not how I remember things going down." He laughed "Though you did put up one hell of a fight, so I'll give you that much."
"What do you mean?" Det asked, slowly putting his hand in Neos arm. He had been hanging behind Laugh, his limited moments had made his slow in arriving to their new location. He had moved his headphones to around his neck but he also had some smaller ones in his pocket for his teammates, but they were only in case of an emergency. Slowly, so not to be noticed, he slipped both of the pairs into Laughs hand. She would understand what it meant and get the second one to Neo.
"Just because I didn't fight you doesn't mean I don't know what happened." He shrugged again, taking a few steps forward. He reached up and touched his earing with his left hand. "Or do you not remember that happening. I could fight you right now, and know all your littler trick and you won't even know which ones would even work?"
"Not going to lie," Det started "I don't really want to."
Gil let out a weak laugh, a puff of smoke flowing out of his mouth, and pointed to the Shinigami. "I like you kid. Your honest. We don't see that much nowadays. But-"
"But?"
Gilbert sighed and continued to walk towards the group of three. He kept the cigarette away from his face but not in a fashion that would tire his arms. "I'm afraid that you have something that I need." He said without emotion.
"And what exactly would that be?" Laugh asked, pocketing the ear protection in the same movement she used to reach for her sword.
"More of a who really. Those it's the location that really matter here, not the person. A person needs to die here tonight." He looked up "Its night, right? I honestly don't even know."
"I'll need a little more than that buddy. Like who this person is." Neo said as he put a hand on his sword as well. He felt Laughs hand slid into his pocket and leave something in there, but he didn't have time to check what that was.
"A king. There is a king on this land that does not belong. Now is the only time that he will be able to be killed else it'll be my grave my family will be digging." Gil let out one last puff of smoke before stamping out the cigar. "Nasty things those are" he joked "but they help with the migraines so you really can't complain that much."
"Last chance to turn back." Neo said, but Gil just shook his head.
"Sorry kid. I really can't do that." No one moved for a second, then two. Suddenly, like an unspoken command was given, all three of the Shinigami drew their swords and summoned their Shikai. Gilberts eyes widened but he shrugged and reached for his earing. "Show yourself! Vogel!" he called out.
The air once again changed in power. It was getting to the point where nobody even looked up from their own fights. The only one who did, was Ludwig. "Brother." He whispered. He was distracted long enough to get a cut on his cheek from Toms meat cleaver. The blood started flowing like a water fall. True it was a decent sized cut, but not that deep.
"Good to know that still works." He laughed. "I was getting worried there for a second. Guess I didn't land any good hits." He jumped back, avoiding a punch from the Bount. "Hey Wan. I know you can do somethings that are pretty awesome. So pick one and use it. Don't leave me here to deal with this alone. You know how well that will work out." He joked. Trying to remind his teammate of his low stamina without telling their enemy. If Ludwig found out, he could drag out their battle and untimely use it to his advantage.
"I'm not going to fight you if you don't put some effort into it." The Bount said, ducking to avoid getting stabbed by Wan.
Ludwig crackled and disappeared, leaving behind a showering of electricity. He moved behind Wan and tried to shock him. Wan ducked and let Tom swing over his head. Ludwig took the hit on his arm and went for the Shinigami.
"What are you here for that you can't normally get?" Wan asked again, moving from behind the Bount to next to Tom.
"A person." He simply replied.
"Why can't you just give us a straight answer?" Tom complained. "Is it really that hard. Just say 'I'm here to kill your king.' Or Something like that!"
Ludwig shook his head "I'm not here for your captain." He said "I'm here for my little girl."
There was something about how he said that that made Wan snapped. "She's not your!" he yelled, jumping at the Bount once again. "She died and she's one of us now! What is the point of all this! You risking your entire clan for someone who has already moved on! She's dead! Get over it! Take Lilly and leave you Bount!" Screw Bankai, he didn't even know what it was so there was no use trying to access it in the middle of a fight. He had a perfectly powerful attack at his disposal, all he had to give up was a little sanity. That was fine.
"Good to know you've picked one." Tom smiled as he watched the gantlets form on Wans hands.
Up in the castle, some of the unseated officers still remained. They all were running around a dark metal room with hanging lights above. "Steve!" yelled on of the guys with a bandana that covered his eyes and head "Have you collected the data and conversations from all the battles yet?"
"Yes Christoph!" Yelled back a pudgy guy with hair on only the left side of his head. "I even color coded it for you!" he said in a mocking tone.
"Good! Let me see." Christoph said, grabbing it from Stevens hand. Only to realize his mistake and give it back. "It's not in brail."
"You want me to read it to you?" he smirked.
"Yes." Christoph growled.
Steve sighed and looked at the packet. "There are currently three to four different motives that the Bounts have expressed. The Bount named Hutt seems to have no real problem with us Shinigami so he probably is only here for convince of his goals. I believe he's after Mathias. We have that information colored purple." He turned a page and looked at the stuff highlighted in pink. "As for Mathias. We believe he has been using the castle as a cover. Something is blocking our receptors so we only have a vague idea of what his goals are. Not everything we send in is being sent back. He's after something."
"And he's somehow blocking us from knowing." Christoph turned around and placed his hand on his chin. "What about his power? Any idea?"
"It's a two-stage ability. But it seems to branch off of that. While it's in its second phase, the Bount seems to be able to manipulate a few things. The monsters show resemblance to the previous Bounts that have attacked us." Steve ran his hand through his remaining hair "Maybe when it's in its second stage, it can draw on the abilities of those that allow it to do so. That's why he hasn't used any of the current Bounts ability's."
"What about what he's doing right now?"
"There's no outside indication that what he's doing is actually real so it's probably something he can only do while in his second stage."
"Have you ever heard of a Doll that can do something like that?" Christoph asked.
"I was looking into that. Earlier he mentioned something about him being the only one who can do such things so I'm going with that the theory that he's unique among the Bounts."
"Do you think he's eaten living souls?"
"It's possible but we don't have anything to prove or even hint at that." He sighed. "But about the other Bounts. We don't have much information on them either."
"You mentioned their motives? You haven't mentioned Gilbert and Ludwig yet."
"Ludwig's motives seam to entirely revolve around Raven." Steve flipped through the papers, finding the blue highlight. "Apparently when she was alive, she lived with the Bounts. And now that's she's dead, they want something from her. Apparently, they are not happy that she became a Shinigami."
"She died and entered the soul society. She had high amounts of spiritual pressure. What did they think was going to happen?"
"Who knows."
"What about the white haired one?"
"Gilbert." He's here to kill. I believe he's the only one who is really after a life. But who that is, is still a mystery."
"He mentioned a king." Christoph said, leaning on to Steve's shoulder and poking the papers for no reason.
"Yes, there's three that he could be talking about."
"Three?"
"Captain Crawford. The Northern king of Bounts, Mathias. Or Gilberts brother."
"You think that he would kill his own brother?"
"It's always a possibility."
Christoph laughed "You and your possibility's."
OK! Flash talk. While there will be a chapter next week, theyre wont be one the week after that. I am going to a theater competition to compete with a few thousand others and neither of my pieces are really complete yet. Plus, I have been signed up for the comity sports section of it and I've never done that before. Minor stress there and I really need the week off. Telling you now so I can remind myself. So feel free to review!
