And introducing... the Visored! A couple of new OCs (who'll become very important throughout the rest of the fic), and a special appearance from Zennosuke Kurumadani... just because.
I'm trying to lessen my notes, and I honestly don't have much to say this time except. On we go with the Hueco Mundo Arc! (and whole lot more thrown in for good measure), I promise you, this will be a wild ride, and nothing like you ever imagined... Here we go!
Chapter 20. New Arrivals
Karin was standing on a fence, hand on her hip, watching impassively as the reishi particles of her latest hollow-slay finished dissipating. It had been so easy…if she had a little more trust on her own control she might not have even needed to materialize her zanpakutou to purify it, kidou would have done it. While that fact bored her, it also put her more at ease, it meant her sister wouldn't be in too much danger when it was her turn to go hollow-hunting.
It was something they had decided was necessary, to take turns going after the hollows, since they appeared so often and other people, most especially teachers, would get too suspicious and begin asking unnecessary questions if the same person kept taking 'bathroom breaks' or 'going to the nurse'. And really, there were enough of them that there was no need for the same person to go out twice on the same day, at least not yet.
Once done with the hollow, Karin shunpoed as fast as possible back to her classroom. It was still homeroom-hour, and she got to the door right as another girl was entering, her momentum making the two girls crash slightly, though not enough to throw them down.
"I'm sorry." Karin excused herself automatically. "I wasn't looking where I was going."
"That's quite alright." The other girl assured her. "I'm not hurt."
It was until then that Karin actually took a good look at the girl, she was wearing the usual high-school uniform, though beneath the skirt she wore dark-bikers, her head was half covered with a white bandana and the platinum cuff on her wrist had a symbol Karin found strangely familiar. However, the most attention-grabbing detail as far as she raven-haired girl was concerned, was that she'd never seen the other girl before. A new girl in Karakura-High, weeks after the term began? It just couldn't be normal.
"Excuse me, I don't think I've ever seen you before." Karin commented, furrowing a brow.
"No, probably not." The other girl shrugged. "I'm a transfer student. This is my first day. In fact, I had just been called in by the teacher when you arrived…"
It was until that moment that Karin realized the teacher was looking at both of them, obviously waiting for them to get inside.
"Right." Karin nodded before hurrying to her seat.
The homeroom teacher, Ochi-sensei, watched Kurosaki Karin in silence briefly, before turning back to the new student:
"As I was saying class…" Ochi Misato said. "We have a transfer-student starting today. If you could introduce yourself, tell us something about you…"
"Castelo Keeva." The girl introduced herself in an emotionless voice, her body a bit stiff. "Of Mexican nationality, I've lived in many different places in both Mexico and the United States. I'm also a gymnast and martial artist."
"Why did you come to live to Japan?" A random student asked from the back.
"It was my sister's idea." Keeva shrugged before turning to the teacher. "Will I be assigned a seat or can I seat anywhere?"
Ochi-sensei ignored the new girl's strange attitude, it wasn't like she hadn't had students acting odd before, and signaled for her to seat anywhere she wanted and Keeva did so in a chair by the window, right in front of Karin; who was still watching her surreptitiously. Yuzu, sitting beside her sister, could only wonder what exactly was going on.
xXx
That afternoon, the Nakama were walking through the park together, they'd been training at Urahara's place earlier, knowing that it would call undue attention if they were to visit the hospital to use the Ishida's training room too often.
Training that day had been good, and before they reached the corner where they would all split to go to their respective homes, Karin began her complaints about the transfer student.
"Don't you think you're being a bit paranoid?" Keigo suggested after she told them all about the new girl: Castelo Keeva.
"Well, lets see." Karin's voice was soaked in sarcasm. "It's several weeks after the start of the Fall Semester, right after a group of very powerful captains betrayed Seireitei and revealed an alliance with the most powerful hollows of Hueco Mundo; we're in the Juureichi, which we suppose will be attacked at some point for Aizen to go through with his plans; all of us are the only ones with a chance against any of them in this world; oh, and we know the attack, the war, will come to us at any moment. Now, if those aren't more than enough reasons for being at least a bit paranoid…"
"Ok, so there are risks." Tatsuki said. "But that doesn't mean that we're going to be suspicious of any new student that comes to the High-School. Or any new person in town…"
"Not any new student." Karin corrected. "She has reiatsu! Strong, very tightly controlled reiatsu, I could sense it running through her body, as if it were right beneath her skin, when I bumped into her this morning."
That definitely called everyone's attention.
"And then there's the transfer student from our class…" Orihime commented right then, apparently only remembering the fact in that moment.
"What…?" Karin wasn't expecting that, no one had mentioned it before. "You have a transfer student as well?"
"Yes." Uryuu nodded. "A Hirako Shinji…he too has reiatsu, possibly shinigami, though it doesn't feel exactly right…"
"Seireitei wouldn't send someone else without informing us first." Rukia pointed out, arms crossed, pensive. "At least I don't think so."
They had reason to think like that, after all, they had been informed of the actions taken, first by Sui-Feng, and later by the Gotei as a whole, during the situation with the Bounts; the Nakama imagined such courtesies could be expected to continue.
Rukia hadn't been at school that morning, as she'd gone to Seireitei to present her report due to the increase in the number of hollows appearing in Karakura; they had to be ready in case the situation escalated to more than the Nakama could handle on their own, or in a way that became too dangerous to the civilians.
"I know the name Hirako Shinji." Karin announced unexpectedly.
That interrupted any other contemplations and everyone turned to look at her.
"He was a captain, a little over a hundred years ago." Karin informed them. "I can't actually remember what Squad he belonged to, this happened before I became a shinigami, about fifty years before in fact, I was still young…oyaji should remember, or maybe Yoruichi-san, Tessai-san, or Geta-boushi. Anyway, what I do remember is that he was a taichou, something happened, and he left, or was sent away; he disappeared from Seireitei, along with over half a dozen others, all of them high-ranked shinigami, captains and lieutenants; among them Yoruichi-san, Urahara, Hiyori…"
"Didn't Urahara tell us something about that?" Chad asked suddenly, remembering when the shinigami/shop-keeper had been 'persuaded' to telling them the truth prior to their 'invasion' of Soul Society. "About what Aizen did back then?"
"The Visored." Orihime declared.
They all turned to look at Ichigo.
"The Visored are here…" Ichigo declared the obvious.
"You think it's because of you?" Rukia asked him, nervously.
"Well, if they're here its obvious someone called them here." Uryuu declared. "Yoruichi-san had seen the mask while in Seireitei, so…"
"But would they really do something like that without talking to Ichigo about it first?" Mizuiro asked, brow furrowed, he obviously didn't like it.
No one knew for sure, no one knew Urahara Kisuke, or any of the other adults, even Ichigo's father…or especially him, enough to know, to make a decent guess on what they would or wouldn't do at any given moment.
"I still don't trust Geta-boushi, even after we talked to him upon our return from Soul Society, it's like…he just doesn't learn." Ichigo declared, arms crossed. "And whether it was he who called the Visored, or they decided to come to Karakura for whatever the reason…"
"It's too much of a coincidence." Karin finished for him.
"You think the girl from your class is connected to them as well?" Tatsuki asked her, disliking the situation more and more as they talked.
"Don't think so." Karin shook her head. "The name Castelo Keeva doesn't ring any bells, from this life or my last one; and her reiatsu didn't feel like a shinigami's, or like anything I've ever felt before…though…"
"What?" Everyone asked instantly.
"There was something else." Karin admitted. "The symbol engraved on the platinum cuff she was wearing, I've seen it before, though I cannot remember where, or even when…"
"What was the symbol?" Rukia inquired.
"A star." Karin answered softly. "But not any star, it was very intricate looking, and formed by knots, Celtic-style knots…"
"It does sound somewhat familiar…" Ichigo said, closing his eyes, trying to remember. "But I have no idea from where."
"If it's a style of jewelry maybe other people wear it too." Chizuru said with a shrug. "I mean, like the engraving of a flower, or a snowdrop, or anything else…"
"No." Ichigo shook his head. "This is important. I don't know why, or how, but I somehow know this is important…"
Before anyone could say anything else the denreishinki and other specials devices sounded the alarm, at the same time as Yuzu, Uryuu and Orihime turned their heads in the same direction.
"My turn." Ichigo announced, nothing better than slaying a hollow to let out some stress, as far as he was concerned.
He didn't even need to get out of his body, the hollow wasn't powerful enough to require that, but still Ichigo did, if only so he wouldn't be seen attacking a creature normal people couldn't see, it would have made for one awkward situation.
It took Ichigo less than five minutes to dispose of the hollow, even when he made sure to limit his power a lot. He was about to go back to his body and his nakama, when he sensed a reiatsu signature approaching from a side.
"You…Who the heck are you?!" The newcomer demanded. "Why are you dressed up as a shinigami? And wearing a haori?!"
The newcomer was a shinigami himself with his hair in a black afro, the only reason Ichigo had noticed his reiatsu at all was because of how focused he'd been on pulling his own power in (so as not to finish the fight against the hollow too soon), his reiatsu was really low, and would have gone unnoticed for the shinketsu shinigami under normal circumstances.
Ichigo let out a very small reiatsu pulse, just enough to call his nakama's attention to his position, while keeping most of his attention on the shinigami before him.
"Who are you?" Ichigo asked in turn, ignoring the question of the other shinigami.
"Eh? M…me?" It was obvious the shinigami with the afro hadn't been expecting that. "My name is Kurumadani Zennosuke! I am the shinigami handpicked to replace Miss Kuchiki Rukia, who got arrested for some crime! Did that impress you?"
"Not at all." Ichigo deadpanned. "I'm Kurosaki Ichigo, shinketsu shinigami and captain of the Nakama." he signaled to his haori and the badge hanging from his sash. "We're allies of Seireitei and the Gotei 13."
"Never heard of you." Zennosuke stated, watching Ichigo carefully. "And did you just say we? I'm only seeing you, kozo…"
"He was talking about us." Karin announced, she was in her modified shihakusho, having left her body. "Kurosaki-Nagaken Karin, shinketsu shinigami, Nakama and retainer of the Noble Nagaken Clan."
Zennosuke's eyes widened as he was having an obviously hard time following what was going on, no one had informed him about other shinigami in Karakura, and less of all about a group of spiritually aware humans, like the ones standing behind the two young shinigami, there had to be at least half a dozen, and their reiatsu was completely different from anything Zennosuke had ever sensed before, and then…
"I am Kuchiki Rukia." The obsidian haired announced as she stepped forward, in her shihakusho as well. "So why exactly is it that they sent a substitute for me, when I'm right here? And even if I weren't, this is the Nakama's territory."
"I don't know anything about a territory." Zennosuke answered. "Haven't been informed of any changes since I was sent to take your place Kuchiki-san." Then he added in an angry mutter. "Of course, I'm such a low level shinigami that no one thinks it's important enough to inform me of anything at all…"
"How long has it been since you were sent to Karakura?" Uryuu inquired, pensive.
"Fifteen weeks, more or less." Zennosuke answered.
"And your instructions weren't changed at all recently?" Uryuu asked then.
"Not at all." Zennosuke shook his head. "I haven't been given any new instructions at all. Why is any of this important, boy?"
"The name is Ishida Uryuu, I'm a Quincy and part of the Nakama." Uryuu clarified. "And it's important because we've been back from Seireitei for over a month now. We were there to clarify the so-called crime Rukia-san was being accused of. As you can see, things were resolved to everyone's satisfaction. The Nakama were recognized as allies of Seireitei and the Gotei 13, with Ichigo as our leader."
"I haven't been informed of any of this." Zennosuke insisted.
"Can you see this?" Orihime asked, extending her badge in his direction. "On one side it reads Nakama, on the other is the symbol of the Gotei. It shows we're allies."
Zennosuke had to admit he could recognize the symbol of the Gotei 13, and the kanji for the word Nakama on opposite sides of the badge. He also knew who Kuchiki Rukia was, and could recognize two others as being obviously shinigami, still, he didn't understand why no one had informed him that things had changed. And they had to have changed, a lot, if the Gotei was allied with humans with strange powers.
"I've sent a message to Ukitake-taichou." Rukia informed everyone before turning to the other shinigami. "A report should be sent to you sometime soon regarding the Nakama and the events of the last few months. I have no idea if you will be recalled to Soul Society or sent somewhere else. However, it's unlikely that you'll be staying here in Karakura, there are more than enough of us here already."
Zennosuke nodded, bowed his head slightly to everyone present and then left.
Before any other comment could be made the Nakama suddenly became aware of yet another newcomer; Karin and Rukia jumped several feet back in opposite directions, while the rest of the Nakama got on their guard and Ichigo spun around and moved his zanpakutou just in time to block a blow from another blade, one being held by the very transfer student they had been talking about just a few minutes before.
"Hirako Shinji…" Ichigo whispered.
The orange-haired had to focus his reiatsu to be able to step on air, since Shinji's attack pushed him beyond the roof where he'd been standing during the conversation with the other shinigami. Karin and Rukia were a few feet away from him, while the rest of his nakama were on the sidewalk, they couldn't exactly climb onto the roof, or invade private property, especially not in the middle of the day; still, they all had their eyes fixed on the confrontation, prepared to interfere at a moment's notice if it became necessary.
"What are you trying to do?" Ichigo demanded, pushing back. "Kill me?!"
"Don't make a ruckus like that, Kurosaki Ichigo." Shinji declared, ignoring Ichigo's words. "With spiritual pressure such as yours you cannot lose your composure so easily. Otherwise you'll be found out all too easily."
"Found out?" Ichigo inquired, shifting his weight to push back further. "By whom? You? Those like you?"
"You're asking me who?" Shinji snorted. "Idiot. And what do you know about those like me? Huh? What do you know?"
Ichigo shrugged, holding his zanpakutou more tightly, if his opponent wasn't revealing anything then he wasn't either.
"Do I need to tell you every little detail?" Shinji went back to his rant, realizing the orange-head wouldn't answer his own questions. "Can't you figure it out for yourself?"
"Stop talking to me like I'm a retard!" Ichigo bristled.
"They're here." Shinji drawled. "See? I told you so! It's all because you left your spiritual pressure unchecked like that…"
Ichigo rolled his eyes before turning down to his nakama, only to notice that some of them were gone already to handle the few hollows that the spike in his reiatsu had called, one or two even seemed like menos, which is why more than one of them had gone in each direction.
"It's being handled." Ichigo told Shinji. "What I want to know is why the hell you attacked me from behind." He thought briefly before adding. "Oh, and also, what the hell are you doing posing as a transfer student at Karakura High?"
"How would you know I'm posing as anything?" Shinji was honestly curious, nothing of what he was told about the boy prepared him for a verbal confrontation.
"We know who you are." Ichigo deadpanned. "Or at least have very strong suspicions, based on who you were a hundred years ago."
"You weren't even an idea a hundred years ago, kid." Shinji snorted as he looked at the daiko without attacking again.
"Maybe not, but there are quite a few people who were more than 'ideas' a hundred years ago." Ichigo pointed out. "And at least one of them remembers that you were a captain in the Gotei 13 back then. Also, I'm quite sure we have some common acquaintances."
"Really, like who?" Shinji inquired.
The blonde was growing more and more confused by the minute, what was happening wasn't what he'd imagined when deciding to confront the boy he'd been told might be like him and his 'family'; and there was the fact that he kept saying 'we'.
"Like me, Hirako-san." Karin stated as she moved closer to them. "My name is Kurosaki-Nagaken Karin. I'm the reincarnation of Nagaken Karin, sister of Nagaken Isshin, you might remember him more than me."
"The reincarnation of Isshin-san's sister." Shinji's eyes widened. "Karin-chan? You are the little tomboy, the Raven-princess…"
"Only Hiyori has ever called me that…" Karin muttered before rushing to stand right in Shinji's face. "Is she alright?! Is Hiyori alright?!"
"Wha…?" Shinji was shocked, suddenly not knowing what to do, or say to the girl upon him, he'd never been in such a situation before.
"Just answer me Hirako-san, tell me if Hiyori is alright!" Karin insisted.
"Yes." Shinji answered eventually. "Yes, Hiyori is fine."
The relief Karin felt in that moment was so great that she just dropped to her knees, however, the moment she stopped focusing on her own reiatsu she has unable to hold herself in the air, falling down; she was about to crash against the ground when:
"Santen Kesshun!" A feminine voice called from half a block away.
Orihime and Tatsuki joined them as the triangular shield lowered to the ground slowly, Karin kneeling on it, still breathing erratically due to her own suddenly overwhelming emotions.
"Karin, are you alright?" Ichigo shunpoed to the ground instantly.
"What happened here?" Tatsuki called as she got on guard, facing Shinji.
"Hey, I didn't do anything to her, only answered her question." Shinji declared, holding his hands up, he didn't understand what was happening at all.
"He's saying the truth Tatsuki." Rukia assured her shunpoing to their side. "Karin asked him about someone named Hiyori, and when Hirako-san told her she was alright he got like that."
"Who could make her react so strongly?" Tatsuki asked, truly confused by Karin's reaction.
"I have no idea." Ichigo answered, frustrated by that fact.
"Hiyori…" Karin said in a soft, slightly broken voice. "Sarugaki Hiyori, she was Urahara-taichou's fukutaichou when I was a child, back in my last life. She was…everything I couldn't be: strong-willed, honest to a fault, she said whatever was on her mind, not caring what others thought about her words, or about her."
"If you call Hiyori strong-willed…I just call her pig-headed." Shinji deadpanned.
"She was the only one, aside from Yoruichi, who didn't act like she was walking on eggshells when around me." Karin went on. "For everyone else I was the little sister of a Noble Clan-Head, even after I became a shinigami, but Hiyori…she never cared about any of that. Said I was like any other brat, and my name meant nothing to her." She smiled wistfully. "She once challenged me to dye Nii-sama's haori pink, and then make him wear it when he went to the barracks that day. I did it. Nii-sama didn't seem to mind at all."
"If oyaji was half as crazy back then as he's now he probably even found it funny." Ichigo commented with a smirk.
"Probably." Karin agreed. "Raven-princess, it was a nickname Hiyori gave me after I did that. Said that I shouldn't be a noble-princess but a raven one, since ravens are usually tricksters, and I obviously had to be one to have done what I did to my brother…the name stuck actually, even when I became a shinigami, some people kept calling me a raven…"
Like Gin…Kitsune, he'd always called her Karasu, just like she called him Kitsune, it was their way of expressing their friendship.
"So you're the little raven-princess Hiyori usually talks about…" Shinji said thoughtfully, and then something else occurred to him. "How do you even remember your previous life? If you were a soul then…and now…"
"I'm actually human right now, or half-human anyway." Karin clarified as she finally controlled herself enough to get back on her feet.
Shinji's eyes widened yet again at that and he gave several steps back as he turned to look at each of the people around him: three shinigamis, a quincy, and several humans with strange powers…he'd never seen something like that…
"What the hell is going on here?!" Shinji demanded.
It was until that moment that the Nakama realized how things looked to an outsider: they were eleven, all with various levels of reiatsu, and most obviously human. Shinji was only one, and with most of the Nakama just returned from where they had gone to deal with the hollows that had appeared during Ichigo's and Shinji's brief scuffle, the blonde former-shinigami found himself completely surrounded in that moment.
"Stand down." Ichigo ordered calmly before turning to the blonde. "My name is Kurosaki-Nagaken Ichigo. We're the Nakama, Rukia, my sisters and I are shinigami, Ishida Uryuu is a Quincy, the rest are humans with abilities."
"Since when do humans have spiritual abilities?" Shinji asked, not quite believing it.
"Since we're in constant close contact with someone who leaks reiatsu like an open tap." Tatsuki deadpanned calmly.
"It's not my fault, I didn't know!" Ichigo defended himself. "My idiotic father never said anything! Not even after I almost got killed, twice!"
He would rather not bring his mother into it all at the moment.
"Half-human shinigami, a surviving Quincy and more than half a dozen humans with strange spiritual abilities…" Shinji enlisted as he looked at all the teenagers. "This isn't exactly what I was expecting to find…"
"And what were you expecting to find?" Uryuu asked, suspicious.
"What I would like to know is what he's even doing here." Karin added, just as suspicious. "I still think it's too convenient, for people with reiatsu to be arriving to Karakura, right when we're waiting for war to break-out at any moment…"
"War?" Shinji's brows furrowed.
"Yes." Ichigo decided to bluff a little. "Did Urahara Kisuke not tell you that part when he called you here?"
"Or maybe it was Shihouin Yoruichi who made the call." Uryuu suggested, following Ichigo's line of reasoning.
"So you know what's brought me here." Shinji nodded.
Really, things weren't turning at all like he'd been expecting, first his 'target' knew his name, then there was a girl who was the reincarnation of a former captain's sister, a group of humans with abilities, and they all seemed to have some idea of what he was doing there…Kisuke hadn't warned him about any of that!
"We know that it's a mistake for you to be here." Rukia stated with false calmness as she went to stand at Ichigo's side.
"Really?" Shinji's face twisted into a half smirk.
All the Nakama got back on their guard as they sensed Shinji's reiatsu going higher and higher. They knew he was preparing to do something, even if none of them had any idea what exactly. Then that same reiatsu began turning dark, and it only made things worse.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Tatsuki demanded, her body glowing an off-white color as she prepared for a fight.
"I have no reason for being here." Shinji repeated. "So that means you have no idea what this means…" as he spoke he twirled his zanpakutou in his right hand, at the same time he brought his left to his face and pulled down… "A zanpakutou and a mask! Now, see this? See me? Watch and tell me you don't know what this means!"
Silence was the answer, as most of the Nakama had no idea how to reply to that, without giving away too much. Most…but there was one who had no trouble doing exactly that.
"A shinigami's zanpakutou and a hollow's mask." Yuzu stated calmly. "You are a shinigami who has crossed the barrier into the hollow domain. You are a Visored."
"You are incredibly well informed, miss." Shinji commented, eyes focused straight on the chestnut-haired girl. "Why might that be?"
"My name is Kurosaki Yuzu, Hirako-san." Yuzu explained, bowing her head respectfully. "I'm actually not a shinigami, I don't have a zanpakutou, but I'm quite good at kidou. It was Urahara Kisuke who told us about the existence of your people, it was considered as necessary information when we decided to go to Soul Society to get Rukia-nee back."
"When Aizen made his move." Shinji added. "You were there."
"Yes." Yuzu nodded.
"What he was doing, it included hurting one of our own, we weren't about to allow that." Karin added strongly.
"And why was he trying to hurt one of your own exactly?" Shinji asked then. "Why would Aizen care about a group of humans? Even ones with strange abilities like all of you?"
"Because not all of us are normal humans." Karin said, rolling her eyes. "My brother and I are shinketsu shinigami, Rukia is a shinigami as well. Urahara Kisuke was an idiot and got Rukia involved; that in turn made the rest of us get involved."
Shinji still didn't fully understand what was going on, but he knew for sure it wasn't as simple as a young shinigami somehow turning out to be a visored…
"Three of you are shinigami then." Shinji said pensively. "I was told one of you would have one of this." He shook his mask, in his hand instead of his face.
"I'm afraid Urahara-san was wrong about that." Yuzu said blankly. "None of us use a mask like that, my siblings haven't even been shinigami for that long in the first place. Either you were lied to, or he was talking about someone else."
No one else said a word, most were surprised at how easily Yuzu was lying, although, if one analyzed carefully, she wasn't actually lying, none of them 'used' a mask like that, or a mask at all, even Ichigo, the times he'd used his hollow's powers, he hadn't been wearing a mask like that, and the only time the mask had appeared, he hadn't been wearing it so…
"Well…I really hope you're saying the truth…for your own good." Shinji said off-handedly as he crushed the mask into reishi-particles and sheathed his zanpakutou.
"Is that a threat?" Tatsuki asked, still not lowering her guard.
"No, it's just a warning." Shinji said calmly, hands in his pants. "Someone who holds a zanpakutou and a mask, a Visored, is someone with an Inner Hollow. Whoever has an Inner Hollow, and hasn't trained to defeat it, will lose control sooner or later. And you all won't want to be there when that happens; because if you are…you will most likely die…"
"It's a good thing we don't have to worry about that, then." Rukia said out-loud.
They all knew they didn't have to worry, Visored or not, Shiro wasn't someone they needed to be afraid of; if anything, the hollow side of Ichigo's soul seemed to be as over-protective of them all as the rest of him, maybe even more so; and the loyalties were exactly the same ones: to Rukia, his family, and the Nakama.
"Yeah, a good thing…" Shinji agreed nonchalantly.
And yet, the Visored couldn't help the feeling that he was missing something, he just hoped it wouldn't come back to bite them all later. In any case, he was already planning on having a very serious conversation with Kisuke, the former-shinigami/shopkeeper was going to pay for not warning him about the bunch of human teenagers with spiritual abilities, and he also better explain where the lost and scared new Visored was supposed to be, because even if he was right and one of the shinigami among the teens was a Visored, they didn't act like someone being scared out of their minds by a psychotic Inner Hollow should…not at all. Something was seriously wrong there…
Before anything else could be said an extremely strong reiatsu could be felt echoing around Karakura, a dark reiatsu…
"What the hell is that?!" Keigo cried out in near-panic.
It was one thing to face off against the usual hollows every so often, but what they were feeling in that moment had to be at least a hundred times worse! It was even worse than the huge hollow they had felt on the day so many had invaded Karakura…
"That's a hamen!" Karin cried out, obviously just as shocked as the others.
"A what?!" Ichigo demanded.
"An unstable, high-leveled hollow, at least Gillian-class, that has managed to break its mask, gaining shinigami powers." Karin clarified. "The exact opposite of the Visored. We have to hurry, before someone ends up dead."
No one else was able to say anything before she was off, shunpoing as fast as she possibly could in the direction of the dark reiatsu.
"Mizuiro, Keigo, Chizuru, you stay back, take care of our bodies, please." Ichigo ordered. "This is obviously too much for you. And be careful, in case the reiatsu of this one attracts others. Everyone else, with me!"
And with that, they were all gone.
It took the group several minutes, even using their various high-speed techniques, since the reiatsu they were sensing, as huge as it was, was coming from the other side of Karakura. And yet, when they were all just a few blocks away, there was a huge flash of light, a cloud of dust that enclosed several streets, and when they both cleared out, the reiatsu was gone…
All the Nakama froze in place the moment the huge reiatsu vanished.
"What just happened?" Tatsuki asked, confused.
"The reiatsu just…disappeared." Orihime answered, not quite believing it herself.
"Did whatever it was just leave?" Yuzu inquired.
While Karin and Ichigo hadn't liked it, they hadn't gotten the chance to tell Yuzu to stay back, besides, despite looking so much more vulnerable, the younger Kurosaki twin really wasn't weak in anyway, not spiritually, emotionally, and certainly not in her will, there was just no way she would have stayed behind, no matter the danger.
"No…" Uryuu whispered, all his focus on what they had just sensed. "What happened, it wasn't due to someone or something leaving this plane. In fact, I could almost swear…"
"It was destroyed." Rukia finished for him. "Whatever it was that had that reiatsu was just destroyed. That's probably what that flash of light was."
"How?" Ichigo asked, turning to the others. "Who? Who in Karakura could possibly have the power to destroy something with that kind of power…aside from possibly us?"
"I honestly have no idea." Uryuu answered quietly, he really didn't like that.
"Was it maybe Ishida-sensei?" Chad suggested.
"I know most of you can't sense reiatsu that specifically, but I can assure you, my father is nowhere near here." Uryuu replied. "And I cannot feel any of his reiatsu in the area. So no, this wasn't his work." He made a pause before adding. "I cannot feel Urahara or Yoruichi-san, or anyone else from that shop either."
With the adults having been shinigami captains at a time, they obviously would have the power necessary to defeat a hamen.
"I don't sense oyaji either." Karin added.
"So then, who the hell did this?" Tatsuki demanded.
There was no answer, really, none of them had the slightest idea of what had happened.
Then their attention was diverted, by an ebony-haired girl wearing a gray top, dark-denim jeans, a short jacket and black boots; they could see her as she walked down the street at a brisk pace, in the same direction all the Nakama had been going until a minute before.
"That's her, Castelo Keeva." Karin stated.
"Didn't you say she has reiatsu?" Chad inquired.
"Yes." Karin nodded immediately.
"It's hard to feel it, because she seems to somehow be keeping it inside her own body, but I can sense it." Orihime commented.
"Then, if she has reiatsu she must be able to sense it somewhat." Uryuu said, both of his brows furrowed, as he understood what his nakama must be thinking. "Even someone abysmal at it would have been able to sense that hamen…"
"Which bequeaths the question…why is she going in that direction?" Rukia finished.
"And she seems to be somewhat in a hurry." Yuzu added.
"I remember her." Tatsuki pointed out. "Orihime and I saw her a few minutes ago, not too far from here, when we went hunting one of the hollows that appeared when your reiatsu flared."
"Really?" Karin was very interested in that. "What did you see?"
"That's just it." Tatsuki answered. "We didn't see anything at all, aside from her that is…not even a hollow…"
"Someone else destroyed the hollow?" Karin wanted that little detail clarified before adding. "Do you think she did it?"
"We have no idea." Orihime answered. "Like I just said, it's hard to sense Castelo-san's reiatsu, and there was no foreign signature where we'd sensed the hollow, if she did it…we just have no way of knowing."
"Ok, let's suppose, for a minute, that she did destroy the hollow you were going after." Uryuu said in a contemplative tone. "How powerful was it?"
"If it wasn't a menos then it was very close to it." Tatsuki declared.
"But it wasn't any more powerful than the one Ichigo had to fight the day so many hollows appeared on Karakura, before Rukia was taken." Orihime added helpfully.
"Very well." Uryuu nodded, expressing his theory. "Let's suppose then, that Castelo Keeva is powerful enough to defeat a Menos-class hollow. Even one that powerful is nowhere near what we felt a few minutes ago. Having felt her reiatsu, do you think she might be strong enough for that as well?"
"No idea." Karin answered honestly, having been the one to get a better feel of the other girl's reiatsu, since she was the only one to have been in actual contact with her.
"I don't think it really matters if she would have been capable of it or not, not at this point anyway." Rukia declared. "She obviously wasn't the one to do this…"
"What makes you so sure?" Ichigo had the same gut-feeling, but no reasonable explanation for it, and wanted to know if she did.
"Because she's still walking to the place where the reiatsu appeared, and then disappeared from." Rukia explained. "If she'd been the one to do it, she would be there already."
"So…what you're saying is that there is yet someone else in Karakura, someone we have never met, who has enough power to fight, possibly even destroy, a hollow as powerful as the one we felt a few minutes ago?!" That really didn't sit well with the dark-haired martial artist, not with everything already going on.
"You think it might have been one of the Visored?" Ichigo suggested. "I mean, Hirako was with us, but there are supposed to be others, right?"
"If it had been the work of a Visored we would have felt his or her reiatsu." Karin stated blankly. "No, this was the work of someone else."
"So, let me see if I'm getting this right." Tatsuki grumbled. "Besides the Visored, who may be as many as eight, and the girl with the strange reiatsu in Karin's class, there's yet someone else here in Karakura with spiritual abilities, and a power high enough to destroy a Gillian-level hollow with shinigami abilities?"
"That's the gist of it." Ichigo nodded, he didn't like it either.
"Great, just great." Tatsuki could have swore under her breath in that moment. "And to think the War hasn't even begun yet…"
No, it hadn't, and things were already getting pretty complicated; it wasn't exactly the best prospect to have at the moment as far as the Nakama were concerned, not at all. In a moment were so much already hung on the line, when war could break out at any moment, and so much was likely to depend on them; they really should be on top of everything, and they weren't, not in the slightest.
xXx
A short while later, after the Nakama were already gone from the area and the last remnants of the powerful hollow's reiatsu had dissipated, Castelo Keeva finally made her way to an apartment complex, and her own modest home on the last floor.
The teenager stepped into the apartment, to a living-room/dinning-room separated from a kitchen by a counter and a half-wall, it was all furnished in very sparsely due to both the personal tastes of the young women living there and their economical means.
The one other inhabitant of the apartment was in that moment standing by the glass window/door that lead to the apartment's balcony (one of the advantages of living on the last floor); it would have seemed like she was focused on the view outside if it weren't for the fact that her eyes were closed. Dressed in an ankle-length skirt, long sleeved blouse in shades of violet and a long white veil, a long, thin gray lock of hair seemed to have escaped from her hairdo as it moved slightly with the soft breeze on the woman's face. It was the same woman who had arrived with Castelo Keeva to Karakura just a week and a day before.
"My lady?" Keeva inquired softly, wondering briefly if the veiled woman had perhaps fallen asleep while standing.
"I'm alright Keeva." The woman assured her softly.
"You really shouldn't have done what you did my lady." Keeva commented respectfully. "There was no need for you to bother with anything. I could have handled that corrupted creature myself with ease."
"It was no bother Keeva." The woman told her. "And you need not worry. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, and of pesky little 'monsters' like the one that appeared a short while ago. I am not a child, or a defenseless human…"
"I know that my lady, it was not my intention to offend you in any way…" Keeva said, half-babbling through the apology.
The rant was interrupted as the veiled woman swayed on the spot, nearly falling to the floor, until she held herself on the edge of the wall.
"My lady!" Keeva cried out hurrying to her side, intending to hold her up herself.
"I'm fine." The woman said, refusing the girl's help.
And yet, even as the woman said those words, she brought her hand to her temple, letting out a very soft pained sigh.
"My lady…" Keeva began yet again, very worried for the woman.
"I'm fine, Keeva." The woman insisted. "It's just a headache. I'm going to lay down for a while, call me when it's time for dinner."
Keeva nodded as she watched the woman walk slowly down the short narrow hallway that lead to the bathroom and two bedrooms, entering the last one and closing the door behind her. The girl was really worried, but there was nothing she could do, no way she could help the woman if she didn't allow it…she knew the woman wasn't alright, and yet there was nothing the girl could do if the woman didn't allow it…
"My lady…" Keeva whispered softly to the empty room. "I really hope this whole trip will be worth it. May it allow you to finally see the truth…that you need help, and you need it now…Lady Serenity…"
Inside the room the gray-eyed, veiled woman could still hear the girl's words as she lay slightly against the closed door of her bedroom. That room was even more sparsely furnished than the living/dining room, with a bed, a small shelf half-filled with her favorite books, a chair, and a desk covered with lots of papers and several notebooks filled with notes. On a corner a lone framed photo sat: it showed a younger version of herself, in her early to middle teens at the most, and while her head was mostly covered by a white scarf, her face could still be seen, soft-cream unmarked skin, two long ashen-black loose-curls of hair framing her face, her light-gray eyes full of so much light they almost looked like liquid silver; she was wearing a white and lavender ¾ sleeved peasant blouse and a lilac skirt that reached just below her knees. Next to her stood another girl, two or three years older, in a pink and red summer dress with short sleeves, a white scarf covered her own hair, her skin was tanned and just as unmarked as the younger girl's.
"Deirfiúr…" Serenity whispered, her eyes fixed straight on the photo, as her mind strayed back several years, to a time when things had been so different…
"You cannot leave!" A low, female voice whined softly. "You cannot leave me!"
There were the two girls, one fifteen, the other eighteen, standing in the middle of a small bedroom while the older girl packed a big suitcase; another suitcase and a couple of bags were already packed and waiting by the door.
"Deirfiúr…" The young Serenity whispered, pained.
"You know you're like my sister, I love you dearly, but this is something I must do…" The older girl whispered back softly.
Leaving her half-packed last suitcase for the time being, the older girl went to seat beside Serenity, embracing the younger girl with one arm and kissing her brow.
"But why?" Serenity asked, holding tightly onto the older girl. "Why must you go so far away? Why now? It's not fair. I don't want to be alone!"
"You won't be alone, you have your family." The older girl reminded her.
"A family that either doesn't know or doesn't like what I'm doing." Serenity said blankly. "My sister says I'm crazy to believe the supernatural even exists, my mother just sends me sad looks every time I so much as move suspiciously…and my father is in total and absolute denial of the whole thing. That's not a family…"
"At least they're still there, even if they refuse to accept the truth completely." The older girl told her. "At least you haven't been forced out of your own home because of what you are, because of what we both are. I'll always believe I was extremely fortunate when my aunt and uncle, your parents, took me in. Especially when, even after you began following on my steps, they didn't turn their backs on me."
"They still don't like it."
"True. But they're still here, with us. Even with anything they may say, or think, not many people would have stayed with us, would have even continued helping me, after everything that's happened already…"
"I think Mama believes that with you gone things will go back to normal…"
"Aunt Marie knows better than that. She knows there's no backing down from something like this. Being what we are…it is for life…and beyond."
"Is that why you're leaving?"
"I'm leaving because I have to. I have to go to where I'm needed. And right now that's in Asia. You understand that, don't you?"
"Why can't I go with you?"
"Because you're needed here."
"What for? With you gone, I'll be the only one left. We're all that's left, you said it yourself."
"I may have believed so at one point, but I was wrong. The two of us aren't all that's left, there's one more, though she isn't ready just yet. She'll be coming here soon, destiny will bring her to you, and it will be your mission to help her."
"How? In what?"
"Help her see the truth. Understand what it is that she can do, and that her abilities are a gift, not a curse, that she's not a demon…"
"What would make her think that?"
"She's been through a lot. She'll need you if she's ever to become the person she has the potential to be. So you see, we each have our mission to fulfill."
"Will I ever see you again?"
"Maybe, the future isn't written in stone…not even for an Oracle. I cannot tell you for sure what will happen, but I can tell you this. The time will come when you, and our future little sister will be needed on the far west, the same land where I'm going now. Then, maybe, we'll get the chance to meet again."
"How will I know when I have to go there? I'm not an Oracle…"
"You'll just know. Trust me."
"And what is the name of this land. You have never told me."
"Japan, the place where I'm needed now, and where you'll be needed one day is Japan, a small town called Karakura…"
Serenity nodded, committing the name of the place to memory, she would never forget; and she would spend the next however many years waiting for the signal that she was needed. And there was of course the new sister she would have by then…
"Promise me something, deirfiúr." The older girl said unexpectedly.
"Anything." Serenity answered almost automatically.
"Promise me you'll always fight for what's right, that you'll always follow what your heart and soul dictate, and you'll never give up." The older girl stated strongly.
"I promise." Serenity assured her, just as strongly.
In the apartment bedroom Serenity watched the photo silently, no expression showing in her eyes, or through the veil covering most of her face. Ever so slowly she turned away from the photo, walking to the bed to lay down, and still, her mind couldn't let go of that memory, the memory of what she had had, and lost…
"On my soul, on your memory, I promise, Deirfiúr…"