Chapter 38 A Stroll Through the Woods

So much for a simple exercise, Nia thought as she pushed her way through the underbrush. She had lost what little trace there was of Amagi some time after they entered the woods, and even worse, she was not able to sense Momo, Rangiku or the other part of the Division that was split up to cover a different part of the woods. Her blood was boiling, and as time dragged by she grew less and less capable of controlling her temper, and they have been in the woods nearly half the day. Every time Nia would shout at them for any little reason, Third Seat Tsukune would jump and nearly drop to the ground practically on instinct; though he was smart and talented, he was severely skittish.

"Well there goes another one," Nia grumbled as she heard the distinct snap of a twig followed by an earthy moan of a tree branch and than a man groaning. She brushed her red bangs from her face in frustration, her anger was building up so much that she did not bother to look behind her to see one of the newest recruits; a bald slim young man was dangling upside down a few yards to her right. Amagi's little game was getting rather annoying.

"Ma'am," Tsukune stuttered slightly as he stopped walking to look back at the man flailing his arms trying to get down, "at this point and under these circumstances I think it would be best that we, er, well, we cut the unfortunate out of the trees." Nia looked over at him in suspicion, but knew that he was right; she needed everyone with her when, and if, they find Amagi.

"Well, guess you're right," Nia turned to a pair of soldiers and pointed at the bald man in the trees, "cut Boota down. Please." She was trying to not sound so harsh but it did not work so well.

"Though there is something else though," Tsukune said cautiously. He ran his hand through his short blue hair while he thumbed the side of his leg nervously. Nia noticed and raised a brow in suspicion.

"Yeah well go on," She barked unintentionally as she continued to walk through the thick underbrush of the woods. He followed only a step behind her.

"Do you sense that?"

"Sense what?" Nia asked giving him a confused look over her shoulder.

"Exactly,"

"No seriously," Nia stopped dead in her tracks and turned to face Tsukune, glaring at him, "what am I supposed to sense?" She was not quite getting what he meant, but than again, she quickly found out when he was first recruited that he tended to talk nonsense.

"When was the last time you were actually able to sense Amagi's reiatsu?" Tsukune asked trying to get what he meant across to his superior. Nia closed her eyes and tilted her head as she focused all of her strength into pin pointing Amagi's reiatsu, but there was a problem; she was not able to sense his, or let alone anyone close by.

"Hm, that's weird," Nia spoke, "wonder if that is Amagi's doing."

"No, I doubt it," Tsukune said he stood in front of Nia and had began to tap the side of his leg rhythmically, something was bothering him and he was not letting it out, "it has to be something else."

"If it's not Amagi than what is it?" Nia looked around at the still trees and noticed that there was no residual pressure from anything at all. What the hell is going on? Nia thought to herself as she looked up into the evening sky that peaked through the tops of the massive trees.

"What do you want us to do ma'am?" Tsukune asked nervously.

"Shh," Nia said pointing to Tsukune's nervous habit, "we have to get the rest of the squads back together so we can discuss what to do. Do you know where they are at least?" He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out; he was interrupted by a huge shockwave of reiatsu that made the trees bend and branches break. A few of the division members lost balance and were thrown hard into the soft earth or against a nearby tree. Usually after a shockwave like that, there would be remaining reiatsu and could easily be sensed, but something was odd about this particular one; there was no residual reiatsu, in fact the shockwave had little to none to begin with.

"That was Amagi's reiatsu, even with how little there was, his is always unmistakable to me," Nia said facing the direction from which the epicenter lay. She grew uneasy with the situation unfolding around her. Was Amagi in trouble? Or did he too realize something was amiss.

"Something is not right in these woods," Tsukune said quietly as he darted his attention from tree to tree. The underbrush was thin in these parts, but the shadows cast by the trees played tricks on their eyes.

"No, your right," Nia said looking back at her subordinates as the vast majority of them were helping others to their feet or taking a much needed rest, "can't let out guard down now, but I hope Amagi realizes this too."

Kneeling down, Amagi panted heavily; he blasted out as much reiatsu as physically could, which left him exhausted. He looked around at the damage he caused and knew that if they could not sense him, they would have surely felt the shockwave he made. With the amount of reiatsu used, in a normal circumstance, that shockwave would have leveled the forest and would have been felt all the way to the Seireitei. This was not looking good for him.

He had a feeling that something was going happen and quickly regretted using up so much of his strength; the air seemed to becoming stale and heavy, and the wind was dying away. The usual sounds of wildlife that echoed through the trees had long gone quiet.

"Looks like things will be getting rather interesting," He said as he stood up, his hand resting on hilt of his zanpakuto at his side. He looked into the blue sky, waiting for the rest of his Division to find him.

"It was this way Rangiku-san!" Momo shouted pointing in the direction from which the shockwave came.

"Yeah I think you're right," Rangiku said following behind her, "you know, wasn't this supposed to be a simple exercise?"

"Er, it was supposed to be," Momo said, "though it didn't go as planned I guess."

"Stupid Amagi," Rangiku grumbled, "Always like him to cause problems for everyone else, and this is too much searching and running for my liking."

"Well, at least you weren't sitting in the office getting drunk again," Momo giggled as they ran. The dozen men and women in her squad were at her heels as they ran through the light underbrush.

"Could sure use a shot of sake about now," Rangiku panted, they came across a few fallen trees that looked fresh.

"We must be getting close, cause look," Momo pointed to a bright wall of light growing ahead of them," that's where the forest ends I think." Rangiku only nodded and moments later they were engulfed in the wall of light and it took all of them a few moments for their eyes to adjust to the non obscured sunlight.

"Well look what we have here!" Amagi said as their eyes fully adjusted to the light and saw him standing at the center of an open field; he was surrounded by trees that had been blasted over pointing outwards away from him, "Now just have to wait for Nia and the others to come find us." Amagi said cheerfully, he was relieved that they got the hint and were still able to follow the direction where the shockwave originated.

"So what the hell is going on?" Nia shouted as she entered the open space on the opposite side of Momo and Rangiku. Both squads of the Division converged and stood at the ready around them.

"Don't you feel that?" Amagi asked coyly raising his hands slightly, his palms facing the sky.

"No, that's the problem Amagi-sama," Tsukune stepped past Nia and saluted his captain.

"Exactly!" Amagi said in an awkwardly cheerful manner, and both Rangiku and Nia knew the moment he got in this sort of over joyous mood like this, that something major was about to happen. "What ever this is, it is only absorbing the excess reiatsu that us, and everything else gives off, but nothing more. What ever is doing this even has Tenshi worried."

"Tenshi?" Tsukune asked aloud but was not able to catch himself on time.

"Yes," Amagi said, looking at his Third Seat and placing a hand on the hilt of his zanpakuto, "that's the name of my zanpakuto."

"I see," Tsukune said in wonder as he starred at the sheathed sword at Amagi's side.

"Well are you orders than Taichou?" Nia in a soft tone, upon finding Amagi her built up temper had dissipated. He looked at her and winked.

"First things first," Amagi clapped his hands together, "Everyone here? Anyone notice someone missing? I laid plenty of traps out there and hopefully no one was left behind." It was silent, eerily silent. Amagi noticed that the wind had finally stopped; the only sound he heard was every individuals breathing, their soft heartbeats, their footsteps in the soft earth and nothing more. He was on edge, this was not right.

"Everyone is here and accounted for Taichou," Momo said as she looked around at all the faces from the Division.

"Good, now we need to get the fuck out of here," Amagi said, he tried to keep his voice completely calm, but by the way Nia was looking at him, at least some sense of worry came through, "something is not right here at all, and once we get back to the Seireitei I have to inform the Captain-commander about this. That is if they don't already know." The last part was mainly him thinking aloud, but every one nodded in agreement.

"Alright, you heard the man," Nia barked, "get moving!" Nia ran out in front of her subordinates at began to sprint; everyone else followed closely behind her. Soon, they were all out of sight, leaving Amagi standing in the clearing by himself. He looked up at the cloudless sky and saw that it was growing late in the evening. Show yourself what ever you are, Amagi thought as he broke his gaze to follow the rest of his division.

"Are you coming Amagi-kun?" Rangiku shouted as she noticed that he had not moved, he was now looking up into the sky as if waiting for something.

"Go ahead," He said calmly, "I will take up the rear, you just follow Nia-chan ok?" She moved to protest but Amagi just looked down and smiled at her, "I will be fine, just tell her I will be right behind everyone." Rangiku nodded slightly, but she did not feel right leaving him behind, but he is the Captain after all, he should be fine.

"Where the hell is Amagi-kun," Nia grumbled as she stopped and looked behind her. She was expecting to see him not far behind her, but he was no where to be seen. They were nearing the forests edge and the evening sunlight was breaking through the tall branches of the trees. The rest of the division casually walked on heading towards the shoreline of the lake just beyond the forest.

"Nia-san," Rangiku said as she appeared next to her, "Amagi-kun said he was going to follow behind. I don't know why either." Nia attempted to pin back the large bang that fell across her face but soon gave up; she was too distracted.

"And he sent you to tell me?" Nia asked, watching Rangiku shift uneasy on the balls of her feet, she was looking over her shoulder back into the depths of the forest, Amagi was still no where to be found and the rest of the division had long passed, "The most we can do is wait for him at the rendezvous point." Rangiku turned and opened her mouth to protest, and Nia knew what she was thinking but cut her off; that they go and find him, to not leave him behind like that.

"No, if we go and find him we will only piss him off," Nia sighed, again brushing her bangs to the side, "we continue and hope that he gets back quickly."

An extremely loud tearing sound echoed through the dead silent trees. This sound was terrifyingly familiar to Nia; it was not a Garganta opening nor was it any other sound another Shinigami would recognize. Only she and Amagi would know. She turned to Rangiku who was trying to find a break in the trees to look up and see what that was, but Nia grabbed her arm and gave her a horrid look.

"We need to go get the others," she gasped, "and fast!" The two of them used Shunpo and darted through the trees as fast as they could. As they went they heard a deep and loud spine tingling hissing coming from somewhere above them. They nearly broke through the forest when the ground shook and a loud explosion rumbled through the trees. Rangiku looked behind her to see where that explosion came from but could not see anything.

"Momo-san," Nia yelled as she and Rangiku blasted from the forest, Momo and Tsukune where frozen in fear as they looked up into the sky.

"Futaichou," Momo breathed as she pointed a shaky finger at what they were all looking at. Nia turned around and gasped as she saw a massive tear across the evening sky. Within the shadows of the tear, two large bright red eyes watched them. Those eyes were piercing, menacing and sent shivers down Nia's back. Some of the Shinigami dropped to the ground and covered their ears when what ever this thing was roared; it caused the ground itself to shake and the leaves in the trees to rustle madly.

The roar was followed by something else; a jet of flames that was so large in diameter that it threatened to engulf the entire fifth division. There were screams and shouts as some tried to run, Nia watched in horror as the flames grew closer, the heat was tremendous and the light emanating from it reflected off her pupils. Her light pale green eyes reflected orange as the flames grew closer. Just as she thought it was to late, that this is were it ended for her, she closed her eyes and waited. Though it never came, instead when she opened her eyes again she saw that they were surrounded by a yelled dome.

"Tsukune," Nia said as she looked over at the third seat of division five and saw that he had activated his zanpakuto and had the tip pointing towards the sky. The flames arced around the dome and blasted the area around them, "everyone ok?" She turned back and saw that the rest of her subordinates were just as shocked with Tsukune as she was. He never had been quite able to control the Kido shield that his zanpakuto creates but Nia was glad that now he was. They all nodded in shock, some did not even move as they watched the orange wall around them warp and twist around them.

Nia suddenly realized her captain, the man she could not live without was no where to be seen; he was still out there and her worst fear was that he was caught in the flames as they flooded the forest. Horror and fear over took her as she screamed out his name at the top of her lungs.

The massive black steel doors creaked open revealing a gigantic vaulted room. The room was lined with massive pillars that supported the high arced ceiling. Combinations of curved and jagged designs were carved into the ceiling as well as the inside of pillars facing the opposite wall. The carvings shone with a bright white light which illuminated the massive room and cast eerie shadows on the gray stone walls. Every so often a section of light would fade to blue and follow along the patterns giving the impression that the light was moving and tracing out the designs.

The doors slammed shut behind the average height woman after she entered the room. She had short pink hair and her blue eyes shone as the light hit them. Her long black dress dragged along the ground as she walked, making her appear to be floating above the stone floors. The corset top of the dress made her slender figure and ample breasts more shapely and the gems that lined the cups glistened in the soft light. It was a good distance walk from the gigantic steel doors to the center of the room where an old man in an oversized cloak stood, leaning against his cane.

"Otosan," the girl said upon reaching the man, his dark gray eyes fell on the girl as she kneeled at his feet, "it has encountered both of them and has started attacking."

"Good," The mans voice was hoarse and sounded weak, "Those pesky little pets of Aku-me really do have their uses. Let's see how this one does as its now at full term."