Author's Notes: Sorry it took so long. Here's the next chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters, storylines, or concepts mention in the story, just the OCs.
Chapter 35: The Heart of a False Being
"What?!" both Miranda and Bonkers yelled in complete and utter shock when Trevor told them about his conversation with Leon last night. Canard sat in a chair near the corner listening. He didn't fully understand what was going on, but he got the gist of it.
"What the Robert rat guy said was true?!" Bonkers said in a panic. "There really is going to be a SOLDIER and a SeeD?!"
"Well, the Congress of Radiant Garden is still debating it, before voting on what they should do," the keyblader sighed. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "How can Leon and the others even consider it?"
"I can understand how you feel," Canard spoke for the first time today. The others looked at him and listened intently. "This SOLDIER and SeeD can spiral out of control. However, I do understand that world's position. After the legendary hero Drake DuCaine defeated the Saurians hundreds of years ago, Puckworld had become complacent. If we were ready militarily when the Saurians attacked us again then they wouldn't have conquered us when they had return for the second time. It's not a sin to be ready for your enemies, but they need someone absolutely moral running the show. If not, well…"
"You will have an empire," Miranda finished his sentence.
Everyone fell silent. They didn't want to think the worst of Radiant Garden and hoped that everyone involved with the process knows what they're doing.
Trevor shook his head. "Still, I—"
Suddenly all of the alarms went off. Red lights flashed all over the cabin making everyone jump out of their seats.
"Eddie, what's wrong?!" the keyblader yelled.
The AI turned off the alarms and a display of a large Heartless gummiship appeared on the monitor. "Gang, it would seem that an enemy ship is following us. What course of action would you like to take?" On the screen a large, long gummiship silently floated. The ship looked like a castle tower hundreds of yards long turned sideways. But then something even more unaccepted happened. Several large dark portals opened up in innerspace and several more ships like the first one appeared.
"Oh my god, they are trying to surround us," Miranda exclaimed.
"Eddie, get us out of here. NOW!" Trevor ordered, but it was too late. The large dreadnoughts opened their sides up and thousands of smaller Heartless gummiships came pouring out. It seemed like every one of them started firing on the Heart of Gold.
Miranda rushed to the control panel and began typing away. "Shields have been activated!" she yelled out.
The Heart of Gold sped through innerspace desperately trying to get away from its attackers. However, the enemy gummiship and the dreadnoughts were too fast and continued to fire upon them. The ship's energy shield buffered some of the damage, but the Heart of Gold still rocked and swayed violently with every blow.
"Shields down to 82 percent," Eddie warned them.
"We can't shake them!" Bonkers despaired.
"We have to!" the keyblader answered.
"Shields are at 80 percent," Eddie continued.
"We need to do something and fast!" Miranda yelled. "They're closing in on us again!"
"Everyone! Calm down!" Canard yelled at the top of his lungs. "We will get through this!" The duck then took charge of the situation. "Does this ship have any weapons?"
Trevor slapped his forehead. "Yes, of course. Cid installed them a long while ago." It's been so long ago he nearly forgotten about them.
"Trevor, you fire the weapons!" Canard ordered. "Don't pay attention to the dreadnoughts just focus on the smaller ships ahead! Miranda, continue to dodge the attacks! Bonkers, help Miranda by locating any possible escape routes!" Without question everybody obey orders while the duck sat in the captain's chair. Canard was a natural leader and clearly had some experience.
The onslaught continued and they made little headway. They were still miles away from a world to hide on and while they had weapons they were still outgunned.
"Shields at 50 percent and dropping," Eddie announced.
Canard banged his fist on the chair. "Bonkers, have you found an open route yet?!"
"None have opened up!" the bobcat responded.
An idea popped into the keyblader's head. "The Infinite Improbability Drive! We can use it to escape!" He slammed his fist on the button, but nothing happened. "No, no, no, no! Eddie, why is the Infinite Improbability Drive's not working?!"
"The Infinite Improbability Drive was knocked offline," Eddie answered.
"Well, bring it back online!"
"My systems can't. It must be done manually down in the engine room located at the heart of the ship. 45 percent of the shields remaining."
Trevor immediately got up and rush toward the door.
"Trevor, don't abandon your post!" Canard yelled.
"I have to!" the keyblader argued. "If we are going to survive then I must fix the Infinite Improbability Drive!" Without waiting for a reply, Trevor dashed out of the room.
The muscular duck cursed under his breath. "Bonkers," he ordered, "you're now in charge of weapons!"
The bobcat bounced from his chair to Trevor's former one and started firing missiles away.
"Shields are at 40 percent, gang," Eddie replied still sounding cheery.
"Trevor's plan better work," Canard spoke softly.
KH-KH-KH
Trevor raced through the hallways of the gummiship. He was constantly on the verge of slipping and falling due the rocking and swaying of the ship. The keyblader reached his destination and arrived at the strange slightly curved door to the engine room. When he entered the room he saw that the wall encircled the entire room forming the whole floor and ceiling into a circle. Along the curved wall were monitors, pipes, wires, and pistons. At the center of the room was a hole in both the floor and the ceiling. Thick cable wires protrude from the two holes and were attached to a device that looked like a golden box, pulsating with incredible energy. Trevor now knew why the ship was called the Heart of Gold.
Because of this golden box, powered by the Infinite Improbability Drive, the ship can move effortlessly through space and, if needed, travel to any part of the universe in a mere nothingth of a second.
Trevor saw that three cables were disconnected and hanging limply next to the Infinite Improbability Drive. Wasting no time, the keyblader sprung into action. Quickly and carefully he inserted the cables into their appropriate places and made sure the connections were secure.
"Eddie," he called out to the AI when he was finished, "activate the Infinite Improbability Drive! NOW!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that, old sport," Eddie explained. "Due to protocols it can be only activated at the ship's cabin."
The keyblader cursed under his breath and rush toward the cabin. Halfway back to the cabin he began to feel faint and it was difficult to breathe. His vision was failing him and he began hearing voices of a certain rabbit, otter, and dog.
'No, not this,' he thought in horror. 'Kyle can't take over yet. I can't slip away again!'
Before he could slip completely into the ether, he took his arm and bit down hard. The rush of pain was enough to bring his mind back. The keyblader still felt dizzy, but he didn't let it deterred him from reaching the cabin. He picked up the pace only to stumble when the ship rocked violently from a hard-hitting attack. He have to get to the cabin, he have to activate the Infinite Improbability Drive, or their lives will be forfeited.
KH-KH-KH
"We only have 30 percent of energy left for the shields, gang," Eddie announced.
"Blast it!" Canard cursed as another barrage of lasers struck the ship.
"I don't see how we can get out of this," Miranda said. "They just keep coming!" She was right; the dreadnaughts just kept producing Heartless gummiships.
"25 percent," the program continued on.
"Shut up!" Canard yelled at the AI. "If you're going to speak, let it be something useful. Like a way for us to get out of here!"
The AI paused for a moment before arriving at a deduction. "I'm sensing some real tension in here, gang. I know what will calm you all down; a song!" Suddenly old fashion big band music started playing causing everyone to slap their heads.
"Does your ship's AI always behave like this?" Canard questioned to two.
"Sadly, yes," Miranda responded.
Then Eddie started singing like he was the lovechild of Frank Sinatra and Lena Horne:
"When you walk through a storm,
Keep your chin up high,
And don't be afraid of the dark."
Three Heartless gummiships swoop down and shot some mini missiles at the Heart of Gold. Upon impact the ship rocked so violently it nearly flipped over.
"Miranda, find us a way out of here," the duck ordered.
"I'm trying," the blonde cop yelled back.
"At the end of the storm,
Is a golden sky,
And the sweet silver song of a lark."
Suddenly, more ports on the dreadnaughts opened up. Ten very large missiles were fired at locked on the Heart of Gold.
"We have ten incoming missiles," Miranda warned. "If we get hit we are not going to survive!"
"Evasive maneuvers!" Canard ordered.
Miranda tried her best to steer the ship, but the missiles were closing in. Making a sharp turn, she headed toward a collision course for one of the many dreadnaughts. At the last second she pulled the ship upwards. Two of the missiles hit the dreadnaught, but the others followed the Hearts of Gold vertically.
"Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown,
Walk on, walk on."
One of the missiles hit the back of the ship and decimated the shields. They are now completely defenseless. The ship sprung out of control and the steering controls won't respond.
Eddie stopped the music for a second to tell the crew the obvious. "Now that the shields are gone there's a 99 percent chance that we all going to be destroy within a couple of seconds. It's been swell knowing you guys." The music was turned back on and the AI continued to sing:
"With hope in your heart,
And you'll never walk alone,"
The door opened and Trevor rushed through without acknowledging anyone. He leapt in the air ready to hit the Infinite Improbability Drive button.
The music reached its crescendo as the trumpets and drums played loudly. Eddie sung the final words of the song in perfect pitch:
"You,
Will,
Ne-
-ver,
Walk…,
Aloooooooooone!"
As when the missile hit, Trevor hit the button and the cabin filled with smoke and fire. Everyone flew backwards and the world faded to black.
KH-KH-KH
Darkness: that was all that Trevor could see at first. At first he thought he was dead. He wondered if he made it on time. Maybe he didn't save everyone. Was all of his actions were for naught?
He heard footsteps coming toward followed by a child's voice.
"Mommy, mommy! Why those people are lying on the ground like that?"
A maternal voice chimed in and made a disapproving scoff. "Pay no attention to them, Katsurou. They are just a couple of winos!"
The footsteps left with the sound of a child gleefully repeating the word 'wino' over and over again.
Trevor slowly opened his eyes and was greeted by a bright blue sky. The crisp chilled blew through and the rustling of trees can be heard. A single brown leaf drifted within his vision and landed on his forehead. Wherever he was, it was autumn.
It ached to sit up, but the keyblader managed to do so. Scratching his head he spied Miranda lying on her back a few inches to his right while Bonkers was lying on his stomach to his left.
He shook Miranda to wake her up. "Miranda…," he rasped. "Miranda, get up…"
The cop stirred a bit before opening her eyes. She slowly sat up holding her head as if it ached. "…Trevor? …Where are we?"
The keyblader looked around and saw that they were lying on a paved sidewalk. There was a park bench nearby and greenery was all around them. "I'm guessing that we in a park…" He shifted he weight a little. "Don't know how that happened." He turned his attention to the unconscious bobcat and shook him alive.
As the bobcat stirred a rattle of metal can be heard. When the cartoon sat up both Trevor and Miranda knew that something was not right. Bonkers had a chain attached to his chest. The chain wasn't long, just a couple of inches.
"Bonkers…," Miranda began, "Look down…"
The cartoon looked down and observed the chain. He grasped it with one hand and carefully studied it for a moment. He dropped it unceremoniously and leaned back. Finally the reality of the situation shrank in and his eyes literally bulged out.
"Why's there's a chain struck to me?!" Bonkers screamed in shock. He desperately tried to take it off, but to no avail.
"Wait a minute!" Trevor got up quickly and looked around. "Where's Canard? And the Heart of Gold?!"
The cops also got to their feet and looked around wildly. There was no sign of the duck, the gummiship, or a wreckage of any kind. It was almost eerily how beautiful and picturesque their surroundings were, but having the knowledge that a few moments ago they were hit by several missiles.
"I don't see him anywhere," Miranda said. "We should spread out and search for him."
The keyblader nodded. "He couldn't have gotten far. Maybe—"
Suddenly, a little girl's scream echoed through. The three of them turned around and a little girl, with a chain protruding from her chest like Bonkers, raced toward them.
"What's wrong?!" both Trevor and Miranda said. But the little girl said nothing and when the two humans tried to catch her she went right through them like they were nothing. A cold chill went down the keyblader's spine. 'How can she go through us like air?'
"It's after me!" the girl screamed as she raced through the trees. A giant black pterodactyl soared over our heroes' heads chasing after the little girl.
"Was that a Heartless?" Miranda questioned.
"It looks like it," Trevor summoned his keyblade. "Whatever it is, we got to save that girl."
Their chase led the three warriors into a clearing hidden by a grove of thick trees deep within the park. They arrived just in time to see the girl tripped in the middle of the clearing. She turned around just in time to see the monster swoop down and landed next to her. The creature had a white mask wrapped around its head that looked like it was made of bone. Right where the heart should be was a giant gaping hole. The strange creature lunged at the poor girl, mouth agape hoping to sallow her whole. Before the girl could be harmed Trevor came between her and the monster and took a swipe at the creature.
Miranda came running up, sword drawn, ready to help him. "What kind of Heartless is that?" she asked when she got a good look at the creature. "I don't see the usual insignia on it."
"It could be a Pureblood Heartless," Trevor mused. He turned to the little girl. "Hey kid, are you alright?"
The poor little girl was shocked and dazed. "Y-y-you can see me, mister?" Before Trevor could ask what she meant, the monster gave a loud roar and charge right at them. "No, it's going to eat us!" she screamed.
"Thunder!" Bonkers casted and a bolt of lightning struck the monster stunning it a little.
Seizing the opportunity, Trevor rushed in and jumped high into the air. Before the keyblader could strike, the creature recovered and used a screech attack to send Trevor flying backwards.
The monster was about to fly away when someone shouted, "Getsuga Tenshō!" A blue energy wave in the shape of a crescent moon sliced through the whole area. The attack missed the monster, but only by mere centimeters.
Before anyone knew what was going on, two people wearing black kimonos appeared seemingly out of nowhere. The first one looked like a somewhat short teenage girl with black hair. She was carrying a katana of some kind and looked unimpressed by the monster. The second person was an older teen boy with orange hair. In his right hand was a ridiculously large katana that was in the shape of a butcher knife.
The young man in the black kimono jeered at his attack. "Dammit, I missed. The next one won't though."
At first, Trevor was in awe, but he quickly got back on his feet ready for some more. "Hey you two," he yelled at the two strangers. "Get out of the way! That monster is no joke!"
"It is you two who should get out of the way," the orange-haired teen said to both Trevor and Miranda. He didn't know that Bonkers was with them. "I don't know how you two can see us or this Hollow, but that doesn't matter now, does it? You don't have the power to defeat this monster, but don't worry. I do." Faster than the eye can see, the young man appeared behind the monster known as a Hollow and one of the creature's wings came off as if it was sliced off.
Trevor, Miranda, and Bonker's jaw hit the floor in amazement.
"Did… did he just teleported?!" Miranda said in shock.
The keyblader went through everything in his mind. "No, that was pure speed. My god, I never seen anyone move that fast before!"
Writhing in pain, the Hollow let out a huge screech and a devastating whirlwind formed around it, preventing anyone from attacking it.
"Bonkers," Trevor called to his side. Once the bobcat was at his side, it was time to activate his Drive Form. "Aviator Drive Form!"
The two in the black kimonos took noticed and was stunned at what they saw. "A human that can fuse together with a Plus?!" the teen girl said in surprise. "That young man had high spiritual pressure before, but now it has skyrocketed. And that blade… What kind of weapon is that? What kind of human is he?"
Once the transformation was complete, Trevor lifted his keyblade and cast "Thundaga!" Several streams of lightning congregated and struck the Hollow, severely damaging it.
"Whoa…," the orange-hair teen said in awe. "That guy has some skill."
Trevor smiled at his handiwork. "Now that you are weakened, try a blast of Blizzaga!" He launched a giant ice ball at the monster. The spell hit causing the Hollow to stumble back in pain.
"Whoever he is, he has the right idea," the young woman in the kimono said as she drew her sword. "Reign over the frosted heavens: Sode no Shirayuki!" Her blade transformed into a completely white katana with an elegant snow white ribbon coming from the hilt. It was perhaps the most beautiful sword that anyone has ever seen. It looked like a work of art rather than an instrument of war. The young woman punctured the ground around her in a semicircle with the tip of her blade. She then shifted into a battle pose as she gathered her mana for her attack. "Tsugi no mai, Hakuren!" Like magic, an enormous pillar of ice encased the monster and flash froze it.
The young man in the black kimono gathered up all of his mana in his sword. "Getsuga Tenshō!" He unleashed a wave of energy and destroyed the ice pillar and the monster along with it.
"Whoa," Trevor commented as he exited his Drive Form. "Those two are crazy powerful."
The orange-hair teen went up to the little girl. "There, the Hollow won't bother you anymore."
"Honest?" the girl asked.
"Yeah," the teen said. "In fact, I'm going to send you to a place where they can't bother you again; The Soul Society. That's the place where all departed souls go to live." He raised his blade and lightly tapped the hilt of it on her forehead. The little girl started to glow a brilliant blue and transformed into a ball of light. The girl's soul drifted higher into the sky before disappearing completely.
"A departed soul?" Miranda said aloud. "So that little girl was a ghost?"
"No wonder why she phased through us," Trevor came to a realization.
The teen boy then went over to Bonkers. "And now it's your turn, you… strange… thing." He hit Bonkers' forehead with the hilt of his blade, but nothing happened. "What the?" He started to hit Bonkers over and over, but the only thing he could achieve was giving the poor bobcat a massive headache.
"Hey, you!" Trevor summoned his keyblade, "stop hitting my friend! What in the hell do you think you're doing?!"
"I'm trying to perform Konsō so this thing won't become a Hollow in the future!" the orange hair teen yelled back.
"A Hollow?" the keyblader questioned.
"Yes, like the creature we just fought," the young woman in the black kimono spoke up. "They are dark spiritual creatures born from human souls that failed to cross over to the Soul Society. When a person dies their soul, or Plus, have something called a Chain of Fate attached to their chest. Just like the one on your friend's chest."
The three travelers gasped in horror. Bonkers looked down at his chain in complete and utter horror. "Does this mean that I'm…? I'm… I'm…." the bobcat shook in fear.
"Yes," the young woman nodded. "You have departed, in other words you are dead."
"You could have broken it to him more gently, Rukia," the orange-hair teen said.
She stared at the teen and crossed her arms, "Relax Ichigo, he's not a child. He can handle it." Rukia turned her attention back to the three warriors. "So, as I was saying, the Chain of Fate corrodes over time. It corrodes faster when they are attacked by a Hollow or if the Plus becomes dangerously obsessed with something. Once the chain is gone the Plus becomes a Hollow, which would attack spirits and the living alike.
"To prevent this from happening, we Soul Reapers perform Konsō or Soul Burial on Pluses so they can cross over to the other side." She then turned to Trevor. "But it seems that we can't do that to your friend here, because you did something to him!"
"Me?!" the keyblader said in shock.
"It's not normal for a human to fuse together with a Plus," Rukia stated. "In doing so, you must have altered the Plus' soul somehow. And if he becomes a Hollow because we can't use Konsō on him, it will be on your head."
"Well, then there must be some way to bring Bonkers back to life," Trevor argued. "Maybe that's why this Soul Burial thing didn't work on him."
"Get real," Rukia scoffed. "It doesn't work that way. You can't just resurrect someone. And another thing, where do you get that strange weapon of yours?"
"You mean the keyblade? Well, it's a long story…"
"Well, whatever it is, I'm afraid that—"
"Ichigo! Rukia!" said a voice. Everyone looked behind them and saw the strangest thing coming at them.
"Uh, is that a stuff toy lion coming at us?" Miranda raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, unfortunately," Ichigo said.
The lion toy then saw Miranda and fixated on her. It jumped up and leapt toward her. "Ooh, who is this blonde beauty?" it cooed. "What bliss will it be, to be held in her arms! To be cushioned by her large—"
Before the stuffed animal could reach the cop, Rukia raised her foot and brought it, and the toy, crashing down to the ground. "There will be none of that, you pervert," the young woman said as she continue to rub its face into the ground with her foot.
"Kon, what are you doing here?" Ichigo asked the plush toy.
"Oh yeah!" the stuffed animal shouted as he struggled beneath Rukia's foot. "You need to come with me quick! It's about your body!"
"What?!" Ichigo yelled as he ran away from the clearing. "Why didn't you take care of it, Kon?!"
"I'm only a stuffed animal! What do you want me to do about it?!"
Rukia sighed and rubbed her temples. "Oh brother. Here we go again…"
KH-KH-KH
"Ugh…," Canard rubbed his head and slowly got up. He looked around and saw that the entire cabin of the Heart of Gold was trashed. Exposed wires were everywhere; most of them ripped apart. Sparks will occasionally erupt from the console while the monitors will only show static.
"Is everyone okay?" the duck asked but no one answered. He looked around again, but Trevor, Miranda, and Bonkers were no where to be found. "Eddie, are you still online?"
The AI's voice fizzed and cracked since most of the speakers were broken. "zzzz….still…zzzz….-nctioning…"
"Where are the others? Are they okay?"
"Their...zzzz…-cation unknown…zzzz…. Sensors….zzz…can't find…zzzz…."
Canard sighed. He needs to find the other crew members, but first he need to find out where he is. "Eddie, are any of the ship's speakers still functional?"
"Zzzz… -rridor…zzzz."
The muscular duck took that to mean 'corridor' and he walked out into the one of the many ship's hallways. "Eddie, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear, Canard," Eddie beamed despite the carnage that the ship received.
"Where are the others?"
"My sensors can't find them. Wherever they are, they are not on this ship."
"Okay… so where are we?"
"I don't know… The only thing my sensors are picking up is that we are surrounded by something."
"By what?"
"I can't said, old sport. We are just enveloped by something heavy. Also we haven't return to normality yet."
"What?"
"Trevor activated the Infinite Improbability Drive, raising all of the improbability levels in and around this ship. Currently we are at the Improbability ratio of forty-two thousand to one against. But the thing is; we are stuck at that level for some reason."
"Well, how do we reach normality?"
"The engine room is heavy damaged from the crash. You need to fix it if we are going to go anywhere. Don't worry; I will walk you through all of the repairs."
Canard sighed and headed toward the engine room. 'Where are you guys?' he thought somberly.
KH-KH-KH
"I told you to stop using your combat pass so freely," Rukia said to Ichigo with her arms crossed. She was in her gigai, an artificial body that allows her to interact with the world of the living. The two were at the park's entrance now wearing street clothes. She quickly brushed her skirt then picked up Kon and threw it at the teen. "Next time you need to become a soul reaper in public, use your mod soul. Those people who found your body lying on the ground thought you were in cardiac arrest!"
"I'm not going to run around carrying a stuff animal," Ichigo pointed at Kon. "People will think that's strange!"
"That's your problem," Rukia huffed.
"Hey," Trevor called out to them as he and Miranda and Bonkers ran up to them. "You two need to help us find a way to bring Bonkers bring to life."
"Oh. And why should we do that?" Rukia said with her arms and hands akimbo.
"The two of you obviously know a lot about the spiritual world," Miranda began, "you can help bring our friend back to life."
"Look, I know that you three are in shock, but there's nothing that I can do." The young woman pulled out an object that looked like a pez dispenser with a duck on it. "But don't worry, in a couple of seconds you won't remember a thing." Before she could do anything everyone felt a strange presence coming from far away.
"What was that?" the keyblader questioned.
"I don't know," Rukia said, "but it's coming from the train station. "Funny, its spiritual pressure is a lot like yours, stranger," she said to Trevor.
"Spiritual pressure?" the keyblader questioned.
"The amount of one's spiritual energy."
"Oh, you mean like mana."
"We have no time to talk about this. Ichigo, we need to see who is exerting that spiritual pressure."
"Right!" the teen said with confidence and race towards the strange presence with Rukia. Kon was holding on to Ichigo's shoulder with dear life.
"Wait, we're coming too!" Trevor and the others ran alongside them.
"No, this is not something for normal humans to deal with," Rukia chastised.
"In case you haven't noticed, we're not normal humans," Miranda explained.
Trevor nodded in agreement. "You have no idea what kind of monsters we have faced in the past."
"Give them a break, Rukia," Ichigo said. "They're obviously not going away. And they do have some kind of strange powers, like Chad or Orihime."
The female soul reaper sighed heavily. "Fine, but they are your responsibility."
"Hey, don't talk about us like we're some sort of stray animals," Trevor complained.
When they all arrived at the train station they were shocked at what they saw. Hordes of white beings that all have a pink, faceless cone head. At times these creatures appear sentient as they would occasionally appear to study a person intently. But other times they just wander aimlessly with no real sense of direction. But the strange thing about the scene was that all people around them carried on like they couldn't see the creatures.
"What the hell?" Ichigo said. "What are these things? No one seems to notice them."
"We can rule out Heartless and Nobody then," Trevor said.
"They could be souls, but I don't see a Chain of Fate on any of them," Rukia pondered. She pulled out a soul candy and swallowed it. She exited her gigai and told it to hide someplace safe.
She saw Ichigo about to use his combat pass again, but she stopped him and told him to use Kon. The teen grumbled and reached into the stuffed animal's mouth and pulled out Kon's soul candy. Ichigo swallows and exited his body in his full soul reaper regalia, while Kon's personality was controlling Ichigo's body. Ichigo told Kon to stay out of trouble and left with the others. But before Kon could do anything the strange white creatures encircled him refusing to allow him to escape.
Trevor, Ichigo, and the others reached the other end of the train station and spotted even more of the strange creatures. Ichigo tried to perform a Konsō on them, but it didn't work. Rukia pulled out a cell phone and attempted to call someone.
"Creepy, isn't it?" Trevor said the Miranda and Bonkers.
The blonde cop nodded in agreement. "It's like some sort of strange ghost story come to life."
"I'm getting interference," Rukia said putting around her cell phone like device. "I can't contact the Soul Society for some reason."
Then a strong wind blew through the area. The strange creatures seem to react negatively to it, and their heads turned to a bright red. They sprouted arms and hands and tried to grab our heroes.
"Back off!" Trevor swung his keyblade causing some of the creatures to back off.
Before anyone could do anything else, a mini whirlwind blew through. Out of the whirlwind a female soul reaper jumped out of it and started slashing at the monsters. The mysterious soul reaper zipped around and performed summersaults while destroying the creatures like no one's business.
"Who is that?" Trevor questioned Rukia.
"I don't know," she confessed. "I've never seen her before."
Another whirlwind was created beneath her and lifted her up into the air. As she spun in the air she twirled her katana and shouted, "Bring them to the Twilight: Mirokumaru!" Her sword transformed into a monk staff and she waved it at the monsters. Wherever she pointed her staff a massive twister surrounded by lightning formed. With this technique she destroyed most of the mysterious creatures.
While all of this is going on, Kon managed to get out from the grasps of the creatures right before falling to the ground. Before he got up he looked up at another cluster of the strange monsters and saw several men among them wearing green uniforms silently watching the battle.
With another wave of her staff, a strong gust of wind blew through and destroyed the rest of the creatures.
"Whoa, that girl is no joke!" Bonkers said in awe.
Trevor looked around, but couldn't find the young teen. "Wait a minute, where did she go?" The soul reaper was nothing to be found.
"Yes! That was awesome!" shrilled a girl's voice in complete glee. The group turned around and saw the mysterious teen soul reaper in her gigai. Now that they have a better look at her they could see that she had purple hair tied up with a yellow ribbon. She had amber colored eyes and wore a girl school uniform. She continued celebrating until she spotted the group. "Oh great, it's the guys who can't do anything."
Both Ichigo and Trevor took offense to her remark. "Hey, we could've helped if we could!" the keyblader defended himself.
"Yeah!" Ichigo added. "You just hogged all the credit! And how did you change into your gigai so fast?!"
The young soul reaper shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know," she said innocently.
"Just tell us who you are," Ichigo demanded to know.
"I'm a soul reaper, you know a type of shinigami, duh," she rolled her eyes. "That's should have been obvious since you're one too, you know."
"I know that, I'm asking for your name!"
The young teen girl sneered. "If you want to know someone's name you should offer yours first," she scoffed.
Ichigo sighed and nodded, "The name's Ichigo."
"Trevor," the keyblader offered.
"My name is Miranda," the blonde cop spoke.
"Bonkers!" the cartoon cat jumped up.
"And my name is Rukia Kuchiki," Rukia stated.
The mysterious girl smiled. "See there? That wasn't so hard! The name's Senna. Okay, later!" she said as she turned to leave.
"Now hold on a minute!" Ichigo stopped her. "Why did you destroy those creatures?"
"Because it was my job, duh," Senna said annoyed. She then caught a glimpse of Trevor's keyblade. "Wow, I have never seen a zanpakutō like that," she said to Trevor. "But then again zanpakutōs tend to change shape when they are in shikai."
"Zanpakutō?" the keyblader said confused. "What's a zanpakutō?"
"Don't change the subject!" Ichigo told Senna. "What were those creatures?"
"Look, your name's Ichigo, right?" Senna crossed her arms.
"Yeah…," said the substitute soul reaper.
"Shouldn't you guys be taking care of that?" she pointed to something behind the group.
The group turned around just in time to see a whole bunch of people running around away from something. A whole gang of Heartless were chasing after them. One of the humans running away was Kon who tripped and fell so hard that he coughed up his soul candy.
The Heartless that was pursuing the humans was Shaman Heartless. The Heartless was shaped like a monkey with black fur expect for its arms and prehensile tail that was covered with reddish fur. It wore a white mask with the Heartless emblem on it and a false pointy beard protruding from it. It was carrying a bent magic staff with its tail.
"The normal humans can see them," Rukia said mystified. "How is that possible?"
"Because they are not spirits, they're Heartless!" Trevor answered her and rushed into battle.
Ichigo rushed into battle also, grabbed the soul candy before anyone could step on it.
The Shaman Heartless waved their staff and a blue flame blazed beneath our heroes' feet burning them. "Ah!" Trevor cried out in pain. He swung his keyblade at them, but the monsters just leapt out of the way.
"Enough of this nonsense," Rukia said as her katana became white again. "Tsugi no mai, Hakuren!" A pillar of ice formed and imprisoned some of the Heartless. However the remaining Heartless spewed out various fire spells, melting the pillar, and freed their compatriots.
Ichigo used his super speed move known as Flashstep to get the drop on the Heartless. Before he could hit them with an attack however, the Shaman summoned several will-o'-wisps to encircle them and burned the young man whenever he got too close. "Dammit," he cursed as he backed away.
"Blizzaga!" Bonkers cast. The spell connected to one of the Heartless and knocked it back.
"Bonkers!" the keyblader called to the bobcat. When Bonkers came to his side he prepared his attack. "Limit Breaker: Blizzard Raid!" Trevor tossed his keyblade and Bonkers covered the weapon with a Blizzaga spell. The keyblade hit one of the Heartless, ricocheted and hit all of the other Heartless.
Then the Heartless did something completely unexpected. Their bodies retreated into their masks and the masks started floating around manically. The masks then started ramming everybody. When our heroes tried to attack the masks their attacks would just bounce off.
The only one who wasn't being attack by the masks was Senna. With the speed and grace of the east wind she was able to dodges the Heartless with ease. She was able to land a couple of hits, but all she was able to do was push the offenders back a little. The teen girl jumped back and regrouped with the others. "Nasty little buggers, aren't they?"
"These creatures are defiantly not like Hollows; that's for sure," Rukia commented. "They are not as strong as Hollows, but their numbers are a bit overwhelming; especially since they are using a different set of tactics than enemies we have previously faced."
"I don't care if they're like the Hollows or not," Senna said. "All that matters is that they are going down!" She charged back into battle without thinking.
"Hey, wait!" Trevor called out and ran after her. "You don't know what you're getting into!"
"Then shut up and help me," Senna yelled as her katana turned into a monk staff again.
Both keyblader and soul reaper leapt over the Heartless and pooled their mana and spiritual energy together. "Limit Breaker: Sen no Yoru Wo!" They both raised their weapons in the air and a massive whirlwind engulfed them. Controlling the twister from the inside they targeted the creatures of darkness and tossed all of them up and slamming them all over the place destroying them.
"Who rules? We rule!" Senna celebrated as she spun around and appeared in her gigai again.
"Alright, enough games," Rukia said to the girl soul reaper.
While Rukia was talking, Ichigo took out Kon's soul candy and stuffed it into the stuffed animal again. Once he finished with that, his soul entered his own body again.
"What squad do you belong to?" Rukia question the girl.
Senna thought for a millisecond then just brushed the question off. "Sorry, but I don't keep track of little details like that. I know I belong to one of those squads."
"Look," Rukia said at wit's end. "We see you wield a zanpakutō and you know how to release it! Only a soul reaper of the 13 court guard squad can do that, so you must belong to a certain squad. How can you not remember which squad that you're in?"
"Don't know," Senna said as she danced around a bit. "Does it matter? I mostly rely on my gut feeling. You know… instinct, I think they call it. And my instinct told me I should attack those strange creatures, so I did. It's simple as that."
"I give," Rukia said exacerbated. "Ichigo, I'm heading back to the Soul Society. I'm having trouble contacting them and they need to know about the phenomenon that we witnessed earlier."
"You're just going to leave?" Ichigo said.
"Yes," Rukia plainly stated. "And keep an eye on that girl and the three interlopers will ya? Don't screw this up."
"We're standing right here!" Miranda said offended.
"The least you could say is 'thanks for the help,'" Trevor commented.
"Whatever," the young woman soul reaper said. "I'm off."
"Well, that was rude," Miranda said in a huff.
"You get use to it," Ichigo sighed.
"Hey guys," Bonkers looked around. "Senna's gone."
"WHAT?!" everybody yelled as they frantically looked around for the girl.
As they were looking for Senna, a voice called out. "Ichigo!" The group turned around and saw two soul reapers walking toward them. One looked like a child with turquoise eyes and white hair with a few spikes in it. Unlike the other soul reapers he was wearing a white haori and a light green sash around his shoulder. The soul reaper next to him was voluptuous woman with shoulder length orange hair and a pink scarf tied over her left shoulder. The way she wore her uniform was somewhat provocative.
"Ichigo," the short soul reaper spoke again. "We need to talk."
"Tōshirō and Rangiku too?" Ichigo said to the two.
"I would really appreciate it if you call me Captain Hitsugaya, Kurosaki," the child soul reaper said.
"Wait, how can a child be a captain of anything?" Trevor questioned.
"I'm not a child!" Tōshirō yelled at the keyblader.
"Wait a minute," Rangiku said. "Those three can see us?"
"Yeah…," Ichigo scratched the back of his head. "They had some kind of mysterious spiritual power or something; especially that one." He pointed at Trevor.
"Is that so…," Tōshirō pondered aloud. "Could they be connected to the mysterious events that are unfolding?"
"Hey, we have no clue what's going on here!" Trevor yelled at Tōshirō. "We're just as clueless as you!"
"Speaking of which, we are here Ichigo to escort you to Urahara's shop," Tōshirō explained.
"Mr. Hat-and-Clogs?" Ichigo questioned.
KH-KH-KH
The group had to abandon they search for Senna and accompanied Tōshirō and Rangiku to a small shack of a shop in the middle of the city. It was there where they met the owner of the shop, Kisuke Urahara. He was a slightly tall, lean man with messy light-blond hair. He wore a dark coat, wooden scandals, and a striped bucket hat that shadows his eyes.
"Well now," Urahara said as he served his guest some tea. "I suppose you can tell me the reason for your visit."
Tōshirō spoke up, "Earlier today in the Soul Society, a town from the world of the living appeared in the sky. We also detected various spiritual energy waves entering the world of the living. Shortly after that, we lost all commutation between our two worlds."
"What?!" Trevor, Miranda, and Bonkers said genuinely confused.
"These three are hopeless," Tōshirō scoffed.
"Hey, you little brat, we only came to see if this Urahara guy can bring our friend back to life!" Trevor argued.
"I'm not a brat!" Tōshirō yelled back.
"Calm down you two," Urahara said as he pulled out a paper fan. "There's no need to yelled, keyblader; especially since there is nothing wrong with your friend here."
"Wait… How did you know that I am a keyblader?"
"You don't live as long as I have without learning to read people," Urahara laughed. "Your friend is fine; that soul chain on him is a fake. That's why Konsō didn't work on him."
"What?!" everybody said in shock.
"If I would to guess, the fake soul chain is just a part of the disguise this world gave him so wander this world without drawing attention to himself. On this world it's not common to have cartoon characters to wander about. So the world gave him a disguise so that normal humans can't see him, but you can."
The three travelers let out a collective sigh of relief at the news. "We should've known," Miranda said. "We keep forgetting how hard it is to kill a cartoon character."
"Now, I bet you three are wondering how this world works," Urahara continued. "You see, this world, Karakura Town, is in fact made up of several different worlds separated by a dimensional barrier known as the Dangai Precipice World; the two main worlds being the World of the Living, which is this realm and the Soul Society, the world of the dead. While as you probably already know, it's extremely difficult to travel to other worlds. That's not the case for our collection of worlds; that is, if you have the right tools. There's a give-and-take relationship between our worlds. When a person dies in the World of the Living it is up to the soul reapers from the Soul Society to perform Konsō on the soul so they can enter the Soul Society to live a new life. And when someone in the Soul Society dies their soul then gets reincarnated in the World of the Living. So you see our worlds are connected to one another. Though, in truth, it's a lot more complicated than the explanation I just gave you, as you will see in a moment.
"As for the problem at hand, it has to deal with the Precipice World. Normally it's there to keep the World of the Living and the Soul Society from touching, but it seems that a new world formed in the Precipice World. This world grew so big that it connected the two worlds leading to the mirage the Soul Society saw earlier."
"The stealth force was sent to investigate this new world, but they failed," Tōshirō said. "So the only thing to do was to investigate the large influx of spiritual energy entering the World of the Living. That's why I'm here."
"I wonder if that was those white things were?" Ichigo wondered.
"You saw something strange?" Tōshirō demanded to know.
"Yeah," Trevor chimed in. "These strange white ghostly figures."
"They had strange cone-like heads," Miranda remarked.
"And there were hundreds of them!" Bonkers added.
"You guys are talking about Blanks," Urahara said. "You see, sometimes souls gets lost in the Dangai Precipice World and wander aimlessly. These souls eventually gather together and form a world with the Precipice World known as The Valley of Screams. In this world, the souls separate their memories from their energy to prepare to enter the cycle of rebirth once again. Are you guys with me so far?"
"As much as we can…," the keyblader rubbed his temples trying to process all of the information.
"Basically, the creatures that you guys encountered were Blanks; souls with no memories."
"So what happens to the memories?" Miranda asked. "They must go somewhere."
"An excellent question," Urahara said. "The memories all fused together into one entity known as the Shinenju. It's a type of jewel that returns to the World of the Living.
"Normally this is a natural occurring phenomenon and shouldn't be a cause for alarm. However, The Valley of Screams is now connecting two worlds together… It's my educated guess that someone must be doing this intentionally."
"Oh yeah," Kon said as he jumped on the table. "I saw something strange when we were attacked by those Blank creatures! There was some guy wearing strange armor among the Blanks! I can't remember the details though."
That's when Urahara reached in and pulled Kon's mod-soul pill from the plushie's mouth. "I will have Kon analyze later. Maybe then we will get closer to solving this mystery. Though, if I would have to guess, the perpetrators are after the Shinenju. I would suggest Ichigo that you keep watch over Karakura Town in case our enemy appears again. As for you keyblader, I would like you to aid Ichigo. We could use all of the help we can get. All four of you need to find the Shinenju before our enemy does."
KH-KH-KH
"How are we supposed to find this Shinenju-thing if we don't know what it looks like?" Trevor complained as he, Miranda, Bonkers, and Ichigo wandered into a mall pavilion.
"Don't know," Ichigo admitted, "but we have to try."
"Oh, you guys came back!" a voice gleefully said behind them. The group turned around and saw Senna smiling at them.
"Senna?!" Ichigo exclaimed. "What're you doing here?!"
"Well, it's not like I have anywhere to go," Senna shrugged. "Though, it's getting boring here. All of these wonderful things to buy and I have no money to pay for them!"
Miranda rolled her eyes. "Actually it's good that we have run into you. We need to ask you about the creatures that attacked us earlier, the ones called Blanks."
"Oh, so that's what they are called?" Senna said while looking into a store display window as if she wasn't paying the group any attention.
"Senna, please," Trevor pleaded. "We need your help. We believe someone is using these Blanks to find the Shinenju."
"Oh," Senna said slightly intrigued. "And what does this Shin… shin… this doohickey looks like?"
"We're not sure…," Ichigo sadly admitted.
"And what are you going to do when you catch whoever is trying to get it?"
"We will stop them!" Trevor said. "Clearly they are villains up to no good."
Senna turned and looked the keyblader over. "You're full of yourself, aren't you?" Before the keyblader could respond to this shocking statement, the soul reaper continued on. "You're trying to be all big and tough, but you're really not. You're putting up an act. You're kind of like a kitsune!"
"A what?!" the keyblader blurted out unsure if he should be offended.
"You know; a fox spirit! In order to interact and trick humans, kitsune will disguise themselves as humans. They may look and act like humans on the outside, but in reality they're fakes."
"Alright, enough games," Ichigo said. "Can you tell us anything or not?"
"Sorry, I don't have a clue what you guys are talking about," Senna said. "Looks like you all have to wait for the pointy head things to return. I could help you guys, but only if you do me a favor first."
"Oh," Trevor said, "and what's that?"
"Buy me a red hair ribbon!" the soul reaper gleefully requested. "The yellow one I have just isn't me. Red is more of my color."
"Do we really have to do this," the keyblader asked Ichigo.
"Such a pain," Ichigo scratched the back of his head. "I guess we have no choice but to humor her."
It wasn't long before they all found themselves at the nearest boutique buying the said red ribbon.
"Here," Ichigo tossed Senna the purchased ribbon.
"Alright!" Senna jumped up and down. She started to run away from them.
"Hey, where you're going?!" Trevor called out to her.
"I'm going to the restroom so I can put this on, if that's all right with you!" the young soul reaper relied.
"I'll make sure she stays out of trouble," Miranda volunteered and went after her.
In the restroom, Senna quickly discarded her old yellow ribbon and replaced it with the new red one. "There, much better, don't you think?" she said to Miranda. "Red is so my color."
"I suppose so," the blonde cop agreed, though she wasn't up for girl talk. "Are you sure you don't remember anything?"
"Positive," she said as they left the restroom. "Though, I don't know what's the big deal is. I mean, it's not like—" Senna stopped in her tracks as she stared out of the window. "Hey, that river outside… I know that river…" Suddenly a flood of memories flooded Senna's mind; a little girl greeting her father by the river, a funeral being held for a man, and finally a family sitting down at a dinner table.
"Senna," Miranda asked worried, sensing something was amiss, "is everything alright?"
"…I need to check something out," Senna quietly said.
KH-KH-KH
"Senna, wait up!" Miranda called out as she chase after the young teen. It was now late into the evening and the two of them ran through the back alleys of Karakura Town. Senna moved as if she knew where she was going, though the cop didn't know where.
"Here it is…," Senna said as they entered a graveyard. "I know it sounds strange, but I think I've been here before…"
"We should've gotten the others," Miranda lamented. She sighed heavily. "Why couldn't you wait for a few more minutes?"
Senna stared blankly at a tombstone. "…I believe my funeral was here…"
"What?" the swordswoman said in complete shocked.
Before Miranda could get an answer, a Blank appeared out of nowhere and tried to grab Senna. The young soul reaper jumped out of the way such in time for more Blanks to materialize out of thin air.
"Senna, get behind me!" Miranda said as she drew her katana.
"Can your blade even cut these things?" Senna asked as she exited her gigai and pulled out her zanpakutō.
"Well, we're about to find out. Hama Ryū-ō Jin!" Miranda yelled and unleashed an energy wave. The sword managed to wipe out most of the Blanks, but more kept appearing.
"That's pretty good," said a voice from behind them. Miranda and Senna turned around and saw several men and women dressed in green cloth armor staring at them maliciously. "It's a shame that she has help, we weren't counting on that."
"Anyway, it's time for you to meet, our leader, Ganryū," another armor person said to Senna. "We have big plans for you." He snapped his fingers and an Invisible Heartless appeared.
The Heartless looked like a demon whose horns formed the outline of a heart. It had a heart-shape hole on its torso and a blue blunt sword. Using its sword it knocked Miranda unto a nearby gravestone. The Heartless then grabbed Senna by the neck before she could do anything.
Suddenly Ichigo appeared in the graveyard by using Flashstep. "Get off of her!" the teen cried as he sliced the Heartless with his zanpakutō.
In pain, the Heartless dropped Senna and jumped back.
"And where did you two run off two?" Ichigo asked the women.
"We can do whatever we want, thank you very much!" Senna huffed, though she's glad that Ichigo came to her aid.
Miranda picked herself right up just as Trevor and Bonkers ran huffing and puffing into the graveyard. "I hate it when Ichigo uses Flashstep!" Trevor said to Bonkers. "Not all of us can use it, you know!"
Trevor saw the Heartless and charged at it. The Heartless countered with its sword and pushed Trevor back. Bonkers fired a Thundaga spell and managed to hit the Heartless. In response, the creature of darkness disappeared, but not before tossing its sword to the ground, then a ring of dark flames surrounded Trevor. The keyblader tried to hack at the flames, but to no avail. Suddenly the flames burst and the Invisible appeared before our hero, sword in hand, and preformed a spinning sword attack.
While its back was turned to them, both Ichigo and Miranda attacked the Heartless from behind. Reeling from the attack, the Invisible spun around and fired several blasts of dark energy at the two.
"Enough," said one of the mysterious warriors. He snapped his fingers and dismissed the Heartless. "We see now that the time has not yet come. We will come for her later…," With that the green-clad warriors vanished into the darkness.
"Darn," Trevor cursed under his breath, "they got away…"
"What were you thinking?!" Ichigo chided Senna, "Running away like that."
"I didn't run away!" Senna protested. "I came here, because I remember that my family was buried here. I still have memories, back when I was alive."
"Quit playing around," Ichigo scoffed.
"I'm not playing! In fact, my house used to be around here, somewhere."
Before Ichigo could say anything else his cell phone rang. He excused himself to answer it. After a minute, the substitute soul reaper returned with some news.
"That was Urahara," he began. "I told him about the people that tried to attack Senna. He said that they were from a clan that the Soul Society had exiled after a territorial dispute."
"So they are looking for revenge," Miranda deduced.
"Yeah, but we don't know what their end game is."
"…Or why they want Senna for their plans," Trevor added.
"Don't look at me!" Senna said. "I'm just as clueless as you guys."
Everyone signed heavily, unsure what to do next.
"We can't just wait for the exile clan to attack us again," Bonkers said.
"Our only option is to find the Shinenju before they do," Ichigo said.
"But where to look," Trevor pondered.
"Well, we won't find out standing around here!" Senna said as she ran off.
"HEY, WAIT!" Ichigo yelled.
"Oh bother," Trevor said as everyone chased after the young soul reaper. "Here we go again."
KH-KH-KH
"Not again…," Canard cursed under his breath. Every now and again the Heart of Gold would rock and sway uncontrollability. The duck's face was covered in grease and oil from trying to fix the ship's engine and still the job was only halfway done. Let's not even begin on the speakers. From what he could tell, there is no way to fix most of them without some wire. Canard made a quick mental note to see if he can savage any loose wires from around the ship. Lucky for him, he was in the one part of the ship with a working speaker.
"Eddie, what's going on out there?!"
The computer hummed to life. "I still have no clue," the program said honestly, which unnerved the duck. "…But it's strange… From what I can tell, it's like we aren't in interspace anymore."
This shocked the duck. He could be more trouble than he realized. "If we aren't in interspace, then where are we?"
KH-KH-KH
Early next morning, Trevor, Ichigo, and the others stumbled their way into a local festival located within a closed pavilion. Booths were set up everywhere as crowds of people shuffled to and fro. The substitute soul reaper commented that there shouldn't be a festival at this time of the year; especially one this crowded.
Senna, however, was over the moon. She danced around the fair filled with whimsy. "I remember coming to this festival every year with my family," she said. "I'm glad to see that it's busy as ever."
"We all came here because of you," said a random man. All of a sudden people started gathering around our group of heroes. "You have led us all here, Senna," the man continued. "And now that we are here it's time for us to go… Take care Senna." Suddenly the majority of the people, attractions, booths, and props vanished. It was like the entire festival was nothing but an illusion this whole time. All that was left was an almost empty pavilion with a few shops scattered here or there.
"I don't get it," Ichigo said looking around. "Were they all souls, Blanks? What's going on?"
Senna clutched her head in pain. "Why does it keep happening?" she questioned truly frighten. "Why do people around me keep disappearing?" A flood of conflicting memoires entered her mind. There was no rhyme or reason to the images that she saw, but a sickening dark realization was coming over her. "Do you think…? That maybe… I'm really…,"
"Senna, calm down," Trevor tried to comfort her.
"You don't understand. How could you?" Senna said darkly. "There's a chance that I might not exist… A chance that…"
The keyblader stopped her. "Don't think like that! This can all be explained." He turned to Ichigo, "Can it?"
Before Ichigo could answer, someone answered for him. "Sadly, it can be explained," said a voice from behind them. They turned around and saw a small group of soul reapers; Rukia was among their numbers. One soul reaper stepped forward. He had long white hair and wore a white coat over his black kimono. He would occasionally cough heavily as if he was sick, but even so, he looked well enough to fight if the situation calls for it.
"Captain Ukitake, Rukia," Ichigo said in surprise. "What are all of you doing here?" Ichigo know that it was rare to have so many soul reapers in the world of the living. This only could mean that something big was happening.
"Ichigo," Rukia spoke up. "Please listen to us. The Shinenju that we were looking for was Senna all along."
"Because of this," Captain Ukitake stepped in, "We need to hold her in the Soul Society for an indefinite period of time."
"What?!" Trevor said. "But why?"
"Not that it considers you mortal, but the villains orchestrating these strange events that are happening in this world are after Senna. If she was in the Soul Society there will be no way for them to retrieve her. Now we must ask you Ichigo, let us take Senna in our custody. Don't make us ask you again. We are prepared to use force if necessary."
"Listen to yourselves," Trevor spoke up. "Senna is not something you can just take! She's a living being! If she doesn't want to go with you then she shouldn't go!"
"Noble words, mortal," Captain Ukitake said. "But the fate of millions overrides the fate of one; especially if that one is a false being."
"I couldn't said it better myself," a dark voice echoed throughout the pavilion. Several dark portals appeared and the people who attacked Senna in the cemetery stepped out of them. Among them was a new member, a tall man with long white hair and a scar across the left side of his face. He was wearing a black cape and had gold bordering on his green cloth armor. "Senna is nothing more than a false being; just a mishmash collection of discarded memories of those who have left the mortal coil. There is no reason why anyone should get attached to her."
Trevor summoned his keyblade and pointed at the villain. "I don't know who you are, but you have no right saying that Senna is a false being!"
"Ah, forgive me," the man said. "It seems that I have never given you my name."
"You don't need to," Captain Ukitake said, "Ganryū of the disgrace clan."
"I see that my reputation precedes me," Ganryū laughed. "But, my clan and I prefer to be called the Dark Ones. Soon, this world and the Soul Society will crash into one another by our design. Both worlds will be destroyed and we will finally have our revenge!"
"That's not going to happen!" Senna screamed as she exited her gigai and released her zanpakutō. "I'm going to stop you and prove to everyone that I'm a real soul reaper!" She leapt after Ganryū.
"Senna, don't do it!" Trevor yelled after her.
It was too late, the young woman was hell bound to prove herself. She tried to attack the Dark Ones' leader, but Ganryū was too fast for her. He managed to dodge her attack and punched her in the stomach. She lost consciousness and slumped over. The leader of the Dark Ones tossed her over his shoulder not noticing the red ribbon from Senna's hair loosen and fall to the ground.
"We got what we came for," Ganryū smirked. With that he and the Dark Ones disappeared with Senna.
"No! We can't allow them to escape!" Captain Ukitake yelled as he and the other soul reaper used flashstep to chase after the Dark Ones.
Ichigo and Rukia was about to chase after them as well when a whole bunch of Blanks appeared. "Dammit," Ichigo cursed, "not these guys again!"
Trevor picked up Senna's red ribbon and gripped his keyblade tighter. "We don't have time for them! We need to find Senna!"
The ribbon then started glowing and Trevor's clothes transformed revealing a new Drive Form. He was now wearing a black kimono like the soul reaper. Instead of a keyblade he now carried a zanpakutō. The words Substitute Soul Reaper Drive Form floated in his mind. All of the Blanks drifted backwards and faded away into the shadows.
"Well, you are just full of surprises," Rukia commented. "When did you become a substitute soul reaper? Who gave you that power?" She gave a sideways suspicious glance at Ichigo.
"Don't look at me!" Ichigo defended himself. "I don't know how he got this power!"
"Try not to worry about it," the keyblader said as his clothes became normal again. He put Senna's ribbon in this pants pocket. "Sometimes, with the power of the keyblade, I can a lot of crazy stuff."
"That's well and good, but how do we find Senna?" Ichigo folded his arms.
"I imagine the Dark Ones will take her to the Valley of Screams, but there is no way to travel to there from the Soul Society, which means that there must be a portal somewhere in the World of the Living. So, the question is, where would that portal be?"
Miranda snapped her fingers, "I remember Senna acted strangely when she looked at the river near by, like she was trying to remember something."
"It's a good a place to start looking as any," Rukia nodded.
KH-KH-KH
All of our heroes reached the river in question and sure enough there was a portal in the center of it. All of the normal people that walked by as if they didn't notice. Trevor figured that since the portal is of the spiritual nature, normal people cannot see it.
"I'm going in!" Ichigo said as he drawn his zanpakutō.
"Ichigo, don't be a fool!" Rukia chastised. "At least wait until backup arrives!"
"Senna is out there scared and alone. I'm not going to stand by and wait when I can do something!" With that Ichigo leapt inside the portal.
"Don't worry," Trevor said to Rukia. "We'll look after him, you go and get help." He then said, "Substitute Soul Reaper Drive Form!" and in a huge ball of light he, Miranda, and Bonkers fused together. When the light faded Trevor was a substitute soul reaper just like Ichigo.
"A word of advice," Rukia said to the keyblader. "A zanpakutō is more than a sword; that's a spiritual being all onto itself. If you know your zanpakutō's name and you are in sync with it, you can access its released form, or shikai. With shikai you will gain a new set of abilities you couldn't do before."
"How do I learn my zanpakutō's name?"
Rukia shook her head, "That's something I can't teach you. You will have to figure that on your own."
Trevor nodded and jumped into the portal as well, psyching himself for the upcoming battle.
KH-KH-KH
In the Valley of Screams, Senna was strapped high in the air to a post with several purple orbs rotating around it. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Ganryū glaring up at her. "So, you have me now," she spat at the villain. "What do you want me to do?"
"You don't have to do anything," Ganryū smirked. "All you have to do is sit back to be used like the tool you are." He folded his arms and grinned seeing his plans come to fruition. "As you know, when souls get lost in the Dangai Precipice World they become Blanks and lose their memories. These Blanks come together and form a new world in the Dangai Precipice World known as the Valley of Screams. The memories of the Blanks are then merged into one object called the Shinenju, namely you, which returns to the World of the Living. But you see the Blanks have not lost their individuality completely and they seek out their memories. That's why they are so attracted to you, Senna.
"However, when the Shinenju is placed in the center of the Valley of Screams the Blanks will rush and push against each other, just to get closer to you. This will cause a massive release of energy that will cause this world to collapse on itself like a dying star. The gravitational force of the collapse will cause the World of the Living and the Soul Society to collide with one another and destroy them both."
A whole army of Blanks erupted from the ground and began to swirl around Senna. They form a cocoon around her and slowly branched out like a twisted dead tree.
Ganryū smiles upon this, when seemly out of nowhere an energy wave cut into the tree made from Blanks. The Dark Ones turned around and saw both Ichigo and Trevor.
"You two again?" Ganryū scowled.
"Give Senna back to us," Ichigo demanded.
"Why do you all care about such a useless thing? It's just the discarded remnants of long forgotten memories!"
"Don't you dare talk about Senna like that!" Trevor yelled. "It doesn't matter what her origin is, she a person just like you and me!"
The leader of the Dark Ones tossed his head back and laughed. "You fools! Oh well, it matters not. You are impossibly out numbered and furthermore we Dark Ones are able to use the Blanks as a power source." To prove his point he summoned a Blank and transformed it into a sword. "And in the Valley of Screams there is an endless supply of Blanks. After all, this world is made up of them! The both of you only managed to enter your gravesite. Care to dig your graves too or do you want us to do it for you?"
"The only one who is going to die is you," said a voice. Rukia appeared next to Ichigo and Trevor along to a whole host of soul reapers. "The cavalry is here, guys. We will handle the Dark Ones; you two take care of Ganryū and get Senna."
"Right," both Ichigo and Trevor said as they rush toward Ganryū.
Ganryū generates several daggers in the air and launch them at our heroes. Both Trevor and Ichigo managed to evade them and tried to swipe the leader of the Dark Ones. Ganryū used flashstep and then summoned a group of Blanks to grab and pinned down Trevor. Ichigo slashed at the offending Blanks, but two more Blanks rose from the ground and grabbed his legs, preventing him from moving.
"Enough games!" Ichigo bellowed. "Bankai!" In a rapid burst of energy, the teen soul reaper's zanpakutō transformed. It was now slender, like a regular katana, but the blade itself was a deep rich black. The crossguard of the zanpakutō has four prongs bent out of shape. There's also a broken chain dangling form the end of the hilt. Ichigo's clothes had changed slightly as well. He was now wearing a black robe like overcoat that's tattered at the end of it.
Trevor just could feel the overwhelming spiritual power coming from the teenager. So much so, that at first he couldn't move.
"That's the true power of Ichigo's zanpakutō," said a voice within the keyblader. "But tell me; are you even worthy of wielding a zanpakutō yourself?"
In an instant, Trevor's consciousness found itself in a rundown library. "Wha-? Where… where the heck am I?"
"You're in your Inner World," said a voice behind him. The keyblader turned around and was shocked at what he saw. The voice belonged to a giant fox standing on its hind legs. Its fur had the glow of a warm fire, its eyes burn deep and bright like smoldering amber. The creature's tail danced and flickered like it was completely made out of flames. The fox was smartly dressed though, complete with a black suit, black shirt, and a blood red tie. The strangest aspect about this creature was that it was partially restrained. Its right arm was bound to its body by silver chains; though its left arm was free.
"Who are you and what's an Inner World?" questioned Trevor.
"The Inner World," the fox began, its voice seem to echo, "is nothing but the representation of your soul. In other words, we are inside of your heart. Just like the time when you became a keyblader or the time you fought Kyle.
"As for me, I am the spirit of your zanpakutō. My form and power is nothing more but a reflection of your heart and personality."
"I guess that means I have issues…," Trevor said under his breath. "If you are my zanpakutō, then tell me your name so I can use Shikai. And maybe you can teach me to use Bankai like Ichigo!"
The fox sighed and closed its eyes. "You are a long ways before you can even think about using Bankai. As for Shikai and learning my name…" It snapped its fingers and three large red boxes appeared before Trevor. "If you can find your zanpakutō on your first try then I will lend you my power. Choose carefully and try not to over-think it."
Trevor rubbed his chin a bit lost in thought. Then he snapped his fingers and came to a conclusion. "You're bad at this game, you know," he said.
"Oh?"
"You gave away the answer when I asked who you are. And you just said 'find my zanpakutō.' But you never stated that the zanpakutō was in one of the boxes. The answer is obvious; you are my zanpakutō, just like you said in the beginning."
"Is that your final answer?"
"Yes."
The fox threw back its head and laughed. "You're wilier than I thought you were. Very well, my name is…"
Trevor found himself back on the battlefield; he knew what he had to do. "Unlock: Nise!" Trevor's zanpakutō transformed into a keyblade that he never seen before. It looked exactly like his standard keyblade, Nostalgic Memory, but with several differences. The metal of the keyblade was a bright hot red like recently tempered iron. The teeth of the weapon was made up a metalworking in the shape of a single flame. The keychain was bright silver, just like the chains that bound Nise in the Inner World, and the token was a small kitsune mask.
"You learn quickly," Ichigo commented. "So, are you ready to do this?" Trevor nodded and they both used flashstep to get behind Ganryū.
The leader of the Dark Ones countered that attack with his sword, leapt back and tossed several daggers at them.
Trevor swiped them away his keyblade and plunged his weapon into the ground. "Bounded by Flames: Norowa Reta no Unmei!" Several chains of fire erupted from the ground around Ganryū and wrapped themselves around him. The chains then erupted in a massive fiery explosion.
Ichigo also prepared his own attack. "Getsuga Tenshō!" he cried out and a massive crescent wave of black energy was hurl at the leader of the Dark Ones.
When the dust settled, Ganryū was still standing, but he was surrounded by a black flame. "You fools can't stop my clan revenge!" he shrieked like a madman. "Even if I die, I will make sure that vengeance is complete." He erupted in a pillar of black flame and out of the fire a large Heartless emerged.
It was a humanoid looking Heartless wearing a white mask with the Heartless emblem on it. Four horns encircled its head and it had a giant heart shaped hole on its chest. Four dark long swords levitated around it completely under the creature's mental control. The name of the monster was Oni General.
"Norowa Reta no Unmei!" Trevor cast, but the Heartless avoided the fire chains.
"Getsuga Tenshō!" Ichigo unleashed another attack. However the Heartless blocked the attack with two of its swords.
The Oni General launched its four swords at our heroes spinning them around like pinwheels. The two heroes managed to dodge the sword, but the sword cut into the earth and a bunch of debris flew everywhere.
Using flashstep Trevor dodged the debris and appeared behind the Heartless. "Norowa Reta no Unmei!" he casted again and managed to bound the creature of darkness to the ground.
"Keep it right there," Ichigo said as he unleashed another Getsuga Tenshō at the creature.
As soon as Ichigo's attack hit, Trevor used the second part of his attack and cause the fiery chains to explode. The combination attack destroyed the Heartless and its giant crystal heart floated back to Kingdom Hearts.
Trevor looked back and saw that all the other soul reapers just finished off the last of the Dark Ones.
Ichigo unleashed another Getsuga Tenshō at the Blank tree construction and managed to free Senna from her entrapment. Ichigo and Trevor ran over to the Shinenju.
"Senna, are you alright?" Trevor asked.
"Yeah…," Senna said weakly. "Can we get out of here? This place is starting to annoy me."
"Of course," Ichigo smiled down at her.
KH-KH-KH
All of the soul reapers escaped the Valley of the Screams through the portal to the World of the Living. Trevor's Drive Form power ran out and the keyblader split into himself, Miranda, and Bonkers. The portal started to glow intensely and then revealed the world's keyhole. Trevor pointed his keyblade and locked the world.
The keyblader pulled out Senna's red ribbon and tried to give it back to her. However, the wind picked up and the ribbon was blown right out of his hand.
Senna tripped over herself and Ichigo caught her. Her body started to glow and slowly faded away. "It's time… In order to protect everyone is for the Valley of the Screams to disappear. And to only way to do that is for me to give back the memories to the Blanks. I do this… to protect all of you. …I can't imagine a world without people like you.
"Tell me…, did you think that I ever existed in this world? Do you think I had a family at one time?"
"Yeah," Ichigo said without hesitation. "I sure you had a family, Senna. There's no way someone as annoying as you didn't exist in this world at one point."
"Shut your big mouth," Senna laughed quietly. "I hope that one day we can all meet again." With that she completely faded away.
"I want to thank you guys," Ichigo said to Trevor, Miranda, and Bonkers. "With your help we were able to stop the Dark Ones and help save Senna."
"Though, I suppose we should take you three to the Soul Society," Rukia said to the wandering trio. "I'm sure that the head of the science department, Captain Kurotsuchi, would love to perform a vivisection on you." The three of them recoiled in disgust, but Rukia laughed playfully at them. "But since the three of you were such a big help, I guess the Soul Society doesn't need to know about your existence just yet. You three keep your noses clean." She turned and said goodbye to Ichigo and disappeared into the night.
Ichigo and the traveling three say their farewells and then they went their separate ways.
"After all this time, we still haven't found out what happened to Canard or the Heart of Gold," Trevor sighed.
"You mean we're stuck here?" Bonkers gasped.
"Well, we have no way to—" he stuck his hand in his leather jacket pockets and felt a strange lump of metal in his right pocket. He grabbed the object and took it out of his pocket. It turns out that it was a model of the Heart of Gold. "What the hell?" Trevor scratched his head.
The model then shook suddenly and then starting growing rapidly. Trevor was so surprised he dropped it. But instead of crashing to the ground, the model floated in the air and began its ascent into the sky. The higher it got the bigger it became, until the gummiship was its original size.
"I can't believe it," Trevor said. "I was carrying the gummiship in my pocket all of this time. That's impossible!"
"No, just improbable," the three of them said to each other knowingly.
"Well…," the keyblader rubbed his temples. "That's one mystery solved…"
KH-KH-KH
In Trevor's Inner World, Nise looked troubled. He sighed heavily at then looked at the disarray and confusion the library was in. "Trevor," he said. "Soon, one day, you will learn why my name is Nise. Though I hope that day will never come… since my name also reflects on the nature of your precarious existence. I hope that day never comes. People like you and Senna… deserve a happy ending like normal people."
KH-KH-KH
"Where were you guys?" Canard said as the keyblader's wayward crew entered the ship looking haggard.
"You don't want to know...," Trevor said as he flopped down on a chair.
Miranda sat in her chair and let out a deep sigh. "Never have I been in a battle that intense. Being a Soul Reaper isn't easy; I don't envy those guys."
The duck listened to the three complained, but couldn't understand a word that they were saying. "From what I can gather, you three had quite the adventure."
"Yeah," Trevor sighed. Senna final words bothered him. He didn't know why, but it felt like the walls of life was closing in on him. It was like he was on the verge of discovering something deeply disturbing. He shook off his concerns for the moment. "So, you were stuck on this ship, Canard?"
"Yes," the muscular duck nodded. "I managed to fix what I can on the ship, but at most it's only a patch job. All of the vital functions are operational, but a lot of the ship's systems took a major hit. We need to get this ship repaired and fast."
Trevor sighed heavily and put his head in his hands. "Cid is not going to be happy about this..."
"But, it's something that needs to be done," Miranda lamented.
With a click and a buzz, Eddie chimed in, "We can activate the Infinite Improbability Drive to get to Radiant Garden super quick, gang!"
"NOO!" everyone on deck screamed at the program.
"We are not using THAT again!" the keyblader said. "That... THING is buggy as hell! Let's just get to Radiant Garden the old-fashion way and let's only use the Improbability Drive as a last result." Trevor imagined that somewhere in the universe Yuko was laughing to herself saying 'I told you so.'
Just as everyone silently agreed something mysterious happened that caused the computer to doubt its own scanners. Out of nowhere, Trevor and the others disappeared; vanished into thin air. Eddie used its scanners several times around the ship, but couldn't detect a living organism. At first it thought that its scanners were broken, but after a diagnostic scan most of the scanner appear to be in working order. It tried to speak to them, but no one was answering back. It then ran a diagnostic on its speakers and found out that 40 percent of them were still working. After a millisecond it can only arrive to a simple conclusion: something was wrong with the diagnostic program, all of its scanners have failed, and the crew members are ignoring him yet again. The only thing the program can do is to follow the last order given to it and travel to Radiant Garden.
And so the Heart of Gold slowly turned around and lurched toward the distant world. If it only knew that its crew members were transported by a powerful entity it might have came to rescue them.
Next Chapter: Fanning the Flames
Miranda's Log Updated!
New Characters:
Ichigo Kurosaki: Bleach(manga 2001)
Rukia Kuchiki: Bleach(manga 2001)
Kon: Bleach(manga 2001)
Senna: Bleach: Memories of Nobody(2006)
Tōshirō Hitsugaya: Bleach(manga 2001)
Rangiku Matsumoto: Bleach(manga 2001)
Kisuke Urahara: Bleach(manga 2001)
Jūshirō Ukitake: Bleach(manga 2001)
Ganryū: Bleach: Memories of Nobody(2006)
Nise (OC): Kingdom Hearts III: Beyond the Kingdom
A/N: Good news, the next chapter is partly written, so it will probably be ready by next month or so. Also there are about nine more chapters left (leaving out the Epilogues and bonus chapters). I will try to crank out these chapters as fast as I can, so I can move on to Volume II of the story. See you next time!