Author Notes: This chapter strongly hints of Orihime and a notable character from my fanfic and the origin of Grimmjow for my fanfic at least.
And Kazui's Rei-Ken will be revealed next chapter.
As of 04/18/2020, I'm expanding the chapter as it felt lackluster last time around. I found one detail from the light novels that was especially interesting- specifically about the Noble Family's personal Zanpakuto- not for an individual, but a weapon that's passed down from generation to generation.
For the Tsunayashiro Clan- it was the Enrakyōten (Law of the Bewitching Lucid Mirror) and for the Kuchiki Clan- it was Muramasa (Village-Just), a character from the anime filler that was refitted into the light novels. The Shiba seem to be connected with the moon, so a sword that fits their nature while being royal (specifically this was based on an imperial sword based from Japan).
Warning M material such as violence and nightmarish imagery included.
Chapter 35: Blue Baby, Orange Baby
Soul Emperor Meeting Room
The atmosphere suddenly went from calm to incredibly ominous.
And from Kazui's perspective, the scenery was then filtered with a crimson blood like color from then on.
Abeseimei then noticed Grin.
Damn, it's a Creation Quincy...then again..., thought the tyrant.
"Disgusting Quincy...it's a good thing that the all of the elites are here...I can commence it without worry...as anyone else would be powerless to stop what I just started...30 minutes before this meeting to discuss the routine restoration of the Soul Kings' stability.," he said, which horrified Grin.
"I thought you had at least changed for the better once you changed the Soul Society..., but you're scum...," Ashiyama said with a scowl.
"Genjō...this is for the sake of the balance...," said the Soul Emperor turned to the black haired man.
He looked with regret as he generated barriers around the entire group, keeping them from escaping if they even wanted to.
"FUCKEERRRR!," Ichiyon shouted.
"Yes, hate me...the best leaders do cruel things to maintain order...," Abeseimei said with a condescending tone of indifference.
"Thanks for locating their hideout in the Rukongai and "treating" the patients...Ishakyōki...," he added.
"...What is the meaning of this...?," Retsu asked, looking at Ishakyōki.
The mild mannered man with short, light blue hair, square glasses and silver iris eyes then placed his right hand to his face and swiped it upwards. As he moved his hand, his face and hairstyle changed.
His hair now had dreadlocks with round ends, resembling a jester hat. He also wore black lipstick, black half-circle markings on his cheek, a blue, round nose, wore skull with crossbones earrings, as well as a dark neckband with a no symbol around the Shiba Clan symbol.
"What this means...you savage under the guise of a saint...is that I'm being promoted to the Big 4...rather the Big 5 with my inclusion, there's plans for more to join eventually...also I have to thank you for teaching me about everything you know...I'll use it to reverse the innocents's despair being replaced with hope as circumstances get better for them, into ones where I can look down at them falling into absolute terror!," he gloated as he was allowed to exit his seat.
"So the medicine we developed to help the Rukongai-," she asked before Ishakyōki interrupted with a cruel answer.
"Sniffing out the Quincy hiding within the plebeians...oh it was untested...so- who am I kidding, all vermin not born in the Seireitei deserve to die. Hopefully, we can make it into more territory for the nobility...I'm actually interested in the physical side effects...I need to record it..."
Abeseimei was especially pleased with this explanation to the more noble attendants' horror, breaking the image they had for him being a noble ruler and not the monster he truly was.
Retsu then slumped with a dull expression of horror and betrayal.
"You're fortunate that you outrank me...no, you're going to hell for this someday.," Yamamoto cursed the former lieutenant.
"Not if you die first, you who've accomplished nothing except in your prime- a brute pretending to be a law abiding father...did your wife divorce you and your children disowned you during the war 1000 years ago when you got too extreme for everyone...or did they put up with the abuse until you calmed down enough for them to speak their minds and leave you to rot...?," Ishakyōki gloated, which managed to get under the Head Captain's skin, especially when mentioning the far more accurate latter explanation.
So he was hiding it for years...this disgusting soul he bears..., Shunsui thought with a forced smile while his hand grasped the arms of the chair tightly. If he weren't restrained, he would've tried to kill the man even if he was one of the Soul Emperor's elites.
Mayuri who had been cloaked and followed the group into the meeting room thought-
I was interested in examining these unique Quincy subspecies, but that looks like it's no longer the case...I'll make due with the regular kind that I'll sniff out in the World of the Living...
As he prepared to leave, he thought-
Ishakyōki...when you killed our parents...I asked if it was for medical advancement like I would've done if I was given the opportunity ...you said it was to make them feel despair knowing their own son murdered them and recorded their exact expressions so that they would know they existed only for him as playthings...you acted like you made a discovery when the results were clear before they were even tested...they actually felt disappointment that you cling to morality and apply it to study and believe you're already perfect for doing so...I don't believe in good or evil as they restrict science..., but you're an ignorant monster, incapable of growth, who believes he's a god beneath your talk of research...that's all...
This revelation, that Ishakyōki, the one she had hoped to be her successor, only to use everything to warp it into something hideous had been using more than anything caused Retsu to feel numb and unresponsive for the rest of the meeting.
I'm just a beast...and I gave everything I was entrusted...to the devil..I'll take another lieutenant, but I'll truly trust anyone again.., thought the black haired woman.
Most of the leaders accepted this as a casual action while others begrudgingly accepted the situation.
"So many Pluses come into the Soul Society...what's the difference if you lose a few to a simple medical testing when more can replace them?," Tokimū said, which managed to completely anger his fellow captains, but especially his lieutenant.
"We will talk about this once we return...though to be honest, it should be him that I should be punishing for allowing this for the Rukongai.," Yamamoto said, which managed to completely frighten the 9th Captain.
Yamamoto looked at Abeseimei, who whimpered when seeing the intense glare.
The barrier's still active...Y-you can frighten me!, thought the tyrant.
Sosuke himself thought as he looked up at Abeseimei-
This coward shouldn't be on there...it should belong to someone like my father...and eventually me.
"Oh the Quincy...I would've let him die with his comrades, but I have a better idea...," the Soul Emperor said as he lowered an octave in his voice for the last part of his sentence.
"Bring the Quincy...I want to see if he can become a panther...you know...for the kicks!...Grin, he doesn't really smile a lot...Maybe he should be called a grim jowl...Grimmjow!," Ishakyōki shouted as the sentinels grabbed Grin out of his seat and pulled him outside of the room as the former 4th Squad lieutenant followed, skipping with glee.
"Wait! We don't want to destroy anything! We could help your Society to improve!," Grin pleaded as he struggled to get out of his grasp.
"My Order is perfect...Your daughter will be one of the first to die to pay for sullying my palace with your presence.," Abeseimei said to Grin, specifically, causing the latter to howl in despair.
With the deaths of the Creation Quincy, the Quincy I deceived won't realize the truth and continue their path to self destruction., thought Abeseimei with glee.
He then turned around to see Ichiyon had managed to break out of his imprisonment and had drawn not only his own Zanpakuto, but the Clan's personal one.
In left hand, his personal Zanpakuto was a katana with a lightning bolt shaped guard, with lightning bolt shaped yellow tassels with the blade becoming a Reishi blade with electrical energy discharging from the sides.
In his right hand, was a long silver blade with only a hexagon guard showing carvings of the Samsara circle, the blade ran from the tip to the rounded end that served as the pommel.
"That in his right hand, it's the heirloom of our ancestors! It was deemed crap because it couldn't be sheathed because it was so sharp that it would cut anything except the chains that Ōetsu provided to keep it from accidentally slice the planet if it were accidentally dropped. And it would slice off the hand of whoever it touched...yet Ichiyon isn't bleeding...does it fully trust him?!," Taiju explained with shock.
"Strike down Kaminari-Getsu (Lightning Moon)!," he declared.
"See the Evil in front of you, tear it from the throne of order so that Freedom can reign! Honjo Masamune-Getsu (Sturdy Flourishing Moon of the True Righteous Origin).," he added.
Sorry, dad. I was thinking this was gonna go south..., but Grin...I'm gonna beat the crap out of this guy in order to get him to see reason-, Ichiyon thought before subconsciously he heard the words as the world gained a golden filter.
"Teitai Shita no Ō (Stagnant Time King).," said Abeseimei as he grabbed Ichiyon and repositioned him to stab Grin in the gut with his Zanpakuto while also grabbing Grin's right arm and thrusting it into the orange haired boy. He then swallowed the Honjo Masamune-Getsu, assimilating it into himself. He then grabbed Grin's other hand and thrusted it through Ichiyon's skull.
The filter faded as Ichiyon's eye grew dim and looked in horror as Grin was equally terrified.
"Sorry...I got tricked...," he said with a weak smile, as Grin looked down as the young man fell to the ground in a pool of his own blood. His orange hair turned black as his Zanpakuto ebbed away.
Abeseimei's only reaction was disappointment that the "orange" power didn't return to himself, something that he kept to himself.
Grin looked at his hands, covered in blood and screamed in horror.
Something made him kill Ichiyon and he was horrified that he was capable of such brutality.
Taiju, burst out of the barrier and rushed in with a father's anger at the loss of his son.
"Glow through the Darkness! Hikari Getsu (Light Moon).," he said with his zanpakuto with a cross shaped guard as it became a sword composed entirely of white Reishi, slashing Grin's left jaw so that it was twisted into a half grin.
"We believed in you and you pull this...your words are as hollow as your promises...leave now Quincy...No, you Hollow...," he said with utter contempt.
He stepped away as his stomach was split open from the blade and formed into the shape of a hole. He was covered with a white substance that engulfed his body and transformed him into something.
"He's Hollowifying- And he's not undergoing Soul Suicide! Prepare for-," Yamamoto shouted before something interrupted him.
Allow that was heard was an animalistic howl and an eerie ambient noise as the world experienced another golden filter.
Kazui then saw the area turn to black.
Rukongai
Kazui suddenly reappeared back in the Rukongai during the night.
Several of the Rukongai residents mutated suddenly and without reason, with their body parts growing to gigantic proportions, growing extra heads, turning inside out, etc.
As several Quincy exploded for seemingly no reason into pools of blood, one female in a hooded robe prayed for salvation while placing two babies on an altar, one with blue hair and the other orange hair. Both had greenish six flower like hairpins on both sides of their heads.
She emitted a large Reiatsu that materialized into Joana, Anomias, Morana and Mechayemit.
"Please send them somewhere they will be safe...," the woman asked the figures.
"Are they your own and Grin's progeny...?," asked the blue skinned woman.
"No...they came from the sky above..., but I believe they're the salvation of our kind that need to live...even if it is years from now...," she replied as she began to vanish.
The four then created a spiral portal from their Reishi, in which the woman then sent the two sleeping babes within.
"Farewell...Orihime...daughter of the the sun...Aoihana..daughter of the moon...," she said before she began to swell up and almost explode, but before she completely did so- a silver, armor skinned Panther hollow with a disproportionate large head pounced on her and bit her throat.
He attempted to eat one of the babies vanishing into the portal, but something subconsciously stopped him.
The Hollow with its blue glowing eyes realized what it had done and screamed with the last bits of its former humanity as several Hollows emerged from the bushes and began to devour him.
They twisted into a large towering black robed being with a panther mask before even more black robed figures bite into him.
The figures twisted into a black sphere, from which a white armored panther with a hole in its stomach with feline blue iris eyes, but this time having body parts proportionate to an actual feline emerged.
"I...I...I...am a king! HAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm not a Grin Jaeger guy...I'm Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez!, I'm KING! HAHAHAHAH!" he laughed, the last remnants of his past life vanishing as he embraced his future identity as the future Sexta Espada.
He then vanished into a Garganta.
Other Quincy arrived, wearing variations of the Quincy traditional uniform with the Vandenreich insignia, they looked in horror as the Rukongai residents wandered aimlessly as misshapen horrors and Quincy that were about to explode, looked at their would be rescuers, reaching out before they exploded into blood, staining the coats of their white attire.
"Did they do something to anger the Soul Reapers?," asked one.
"No, unlike us, they have done nothing except plead with the Soul Emperor who doth nothing except scorn promises and exterminate us.
"This is a signal to restart our next war to stall until the Kaiser Gesang (Emperor's Hymn), which speaks of a time that the seal is broken and it releases the Emperor- for he will regain his heart after 900 years. 90 years after, his intellect would return. And 9 years afterwards, his power would return even at the cost of the impure ones who have ignored this atrocity. 9 days after he regains his power, the emperor will regain the world...," said a third, seemingly the leader.
"Death to the Soul Reapers!," they shouted in unison.
"Those poor people we should find a way to cure-," said one of the Quincy who looked in pity at the mutated Rukongai residents, but their pleas went unanswered in the cries of rebellion.
"No this is what they want us to do! Keep calm and-," suggested one of the Quincy, but their voice was muffled by the cries of their brethren asking for blood and revenge.
The area then faded to black.
Soul Society- 3 Months Later
Kazui then saw on a stormy night outside of the South Gate.
Yamamoto patted Taiju on the back as Ichiyon's corpse who buried in the 13th Squad's barracks, an action which he begged the Soul Emperor to have permission for this one courtesy for the sake of the Shiba family when the latter initially planned to make him fodder for a Zanpakuto for Oetsu to use.
Isshin comforted his emotionally distraught father with a look of pity.
"The Quincy have betrayed us with their lies for the last time... We go to war!," the Head Captain shouted.
Countless Soul Reapers roared in unison as they charged at an incoming legion of Quincy warriors.
Mayuri who had been recruited sometime after the disastrous meeting, grinned in anticipation for the battle and opportunity to dissect Quincy.
"Sorry, that your brother, Ishakyōki-," Misuke said before Mayuri gave a surprisingly, uncharacteristic look of disgust.
"I may be many things..., but being associated with that name is revolting even for me...," he snarled.
The two then activated their Zanpakuto as they engaged in battle.
The scene turned dark again.
Karakura Town - Simultaneous Past
Kazui saw two different perspectives at the same time.
Both were inaudible for some reason.
On the left, a little boy chin-length brown hair along with his currently obscured mother and father saw a baby that suddenly manifested from the sky above.
On the right, a woman in a pregnancy ward lamented to her husband the loss of their stillborn child. Suddenly, a baby appeared, floating down from the celling.
The boy grabbed the first baby on the left as the mother on the right grabbed the second baby.
The woman on the left scratched her head gesturing what she should call the baby.
The man on right gestured politely what to name the child.
Two names appeared in Kazui's mind.
Orihime. Aoihana.
Then Kazui noticed the posters on the left and the scenes on the television on the right.
The former belonged to something from the late 80s while the later belonged to something from the 2000s.
And another set of names flashed into his head-
Inoue. Senzai.
Ishakyōki along with his obscured assistant hide behind the corner in the left and behind the door on the right, but both times, he was scared off by Ryūken who varied in age in the two perspectives- one younger in the left and more in line with what Kazui knew of him on the right.
The scenery turned to black.
Kazui's Heartspace
Everything then grew brighter.
Kazui then saw the four again along with the chained heart and he was back in the previous space.
"It was only a vague memory gathered from the pieces of the fallen Quincy...do you feel it now-," Anomias said before noticing Kazui's eyes pouring tears.
"...I can't forgive them..and I think I have an idea what I am...," Kazui said with his voice breaking down emotionally.
"Soul Reapers usually contain their emotions because they distract from battle, but a focused heart with emotions to guide when the mind is in disarray...is strong...," Mechayemit said as he and the other three transformed into Reishi letters- Ë, Ï, ſ and the Ω respectively and entered Kazui.
The black chains dissolved gracefully while the gray chains screamed with their mouths agape before they rusted away.
The heart burnt with an orange light as a sword hilt emerged.
Kazui then pulled the sword sheathe.
The world grew increasingly white as he did so.
Kazui's Mindspace
Yhwach was sitting on a throne made of Reishi in the cosmic space.
He then noticed Kazui, whose eyes was hidden by his hair.
"So you've hardened your mind?," asked the mustached King.
"...I've awakened my heart...," Kazui replied as he took a battle stance as he summoned Tsuki to his side.
"So you're going to release your Bankai?," asked Yhwach.
Kazui summoned a sword hilt from his chest, much to the A's mild amusement.
"Yasakani no Magatama: Amaterasu..I call the name of your Rei-Ken..," Kazui declared.
Next Chapter: ß- the Final Letter- A2