Chapter 9 – Freya
Contrary to public opinion, cults are not run by smart people.
Narcissists? Yes. Greedy exploiters? Of course. But they tend to not be very mindful of the risk or how to protect themselves if an incident happens.
Within hours of opening the case, Ichigo had a name of the cult lead, a location, and how to contact them. It was so easy that he felt that Shamira had only set him up to handle them because she didn't want to be anywhere close to this mess. Which, with a little bit of foresight applied, was a pretty good idea.
If this was a simple removal mission, she would have been more direct, but the way Shamira wanted the cult dealt with was more in line with making sure they disappear after all possible use is gone. Shamira knew that he needed the throne that Geninnam holds and his revival is the only way that the throne returns.
Luckily, it's in the Abyss. That was also the bad news with all of this.
It was easy for things to become...misappropriated inside the Abyss. You don't just leave the Abyss. No matter what you do, the Abyss comes with you. A shard of your soul is turned impure.
Geninnam was trapped in the Abyss when he would return. This Way of White death cult or whatever might be able to bring him back, but unlike the Wandenreich and the return of their great leader, there would be nothing more afterward. Eventually, Ichigo will have what he needs from them, and eventually there will be a time where they don't need to exist. And when they didn't need to exist, Ichigo would do his job. And he would do it very well.
"Steyr, Austria, hmmmmmm," Ichigo said, rubbing his chin, "Alright. Alright."
A young, bright, and beautiful girl with waist-length platinum blonde hair wakes up on a hopefully uneventful Wednesday morning with plenty of vigor. She yawned, rubbing her eyes before she looked upon a clock. After a brief moment of shock, she jumped out of her bed, with a shout.
"I'm late!" she exclaimed. She dived into her wardrobe, before grabbing a long white dress and ran out of her room.
"Gardenia! We're going to be late!" she shouted, knocking on a door to a room next to her. The girl didn't wait for the one named Gardenia, a girl with short black hair, to open the door, with an irritated expression.
"Are you serious, Freya?" she grumbled, "It's not like it's a big deal for us."
A grand cathedral in the middle of a dark forest. Hidden away from society. The world was not ready for them. But soon...
Hopefully.
For now, the only thing that they could do is move into the future. Their leader told them that the world would be prepared soon. That she would be allowed to socialize with people outside the church. She couldn't wait for that. She desperately wanted to meet people outside of the church. It wasn't that the people in the church weren't great or anything, but she just wanted...more... Was that too much to ask for?
"See, Freya," Gardenia, in a short white dress, with black leather leggings underneath them, said, with a smug smile on her face, "No one is even here. You were worrying over nothing." Freya, looked around nervously, rubbing her shoulders.
"Something isn't right. Master is always harping on that people need to be on time. It's not right that he's not here..." Freya said. Gardenia shrugged.
"Eh. No one is perfect."
The large door leading into the cathedral opened, the loud booming sound of wood and metal rarely used filled the room. Freya and Gardenia stiffened, jumping in the surprise of the unusually loud noise.
"A-ah, Master..." Freya said, turning to greet their leader, before she froze, shock and confusion filling her eyes.
"Who are you?" Gardenia asked, grabbing a small dagger from a strap from her thigh.
"How interesting. In the middle of nowhere. Away from outside influences," a man, wearing a long gray coat over his black military uniform said, cupping his chin, "Who do you two happen to be?"
"I asked first! You need to answer us!" Gardenia shouted. The man started walking toward them, his footsteps filling the wide room. Freya hid herself behind Gardenia.
"I don't think that you need to know that," he said, brandishing a white curved blade...or at least a curved blade in a white sheath. Gardenia couldn't tell. Honestly, she couldn't tell if it even mattered.
Gardenia charged at the mysterious man, dagger high. The man spun his blade, blocking the dagger. With a flick of his wrist, the girl was thrown behind him. Gardenia landed on the ground, with a heavy thud, before quickly jumping to her feet to continue her assault.
Gardenia, gripping her small blade with all of her might, dashed in front of the intruder, slashing three times vertically. All three times were deflected without exhausting much effort. Gardenia tried mixing a kick into the combination, but this turned out to be a costly mistake, as the man caught her by the ankle and flipped her aside, like an unwanted toy. She landed on her back, in front of the stage that Freya was standing on, watching on with an uncomfortable amount of stress.
"Gardenia!" Freya exclaimed.
"Stay back, Freya!" Gardenia shouted back, "He's dangerous! Go somewhere safe!"
"Oh, you don't need to worry about that," the man said, chuckling between the pause, "If I were truly dangerous, we would not be having this confrontation." Gardenia struggled to her feet, knees wobbly. He hadn't even hit her and it felt like she had smoke filling her lungs.
"Are you tired? I'm guessing that you have never been in a real fight before."
"Shut up!" Gardenia roared, "I'm not tired! You're doing something weird!"
"How? The first time I touched you was when you tried to kick me. And even then, what would I have done? Poisoned you? I'll have you know that my hands are clean."
"S-shut up!"
"Don't you have anything other than that?" Gardenia, blinded by rage, rushed at the intruder, stabbing her dagger at his midsection. Before the blade could reach flesh, the man caught Gardenia by her wrist with a gloved hand. With his free hand, the intruder waggled a finger.
"Before, it was sloppiness by inexperience. But now...You're tired. Exhausted. And furious. Easy to take advantage of. Trained well for self-defense against an average hoodlum. But against a professional? No chance."
"Let go of me!" Gardenia shouted, struggling in the man's grasp.
"You should probably have another dagger on you. Just for moments like this."
"Will you stop patronizing me!?"
"I'm trying to give you some lessons. Might come in handy one day."
"I'm not trying to hear it!" Gardenia shouted, slamming her head into the assailant's chest. The man let go of the wrist in his hand and stepped back. Less because the attack did any damage but more out of showmanship. Despite the relative lack of challenge that he was facing, he was interested to see what the girl could do.
"I'm not going to allow you to hurt Freya. No matter if it costs me my life!" Gardenia proclaimed, barring her teeth.
"Like I said. If I came to do harm, it would have already been done," the man said, calmly, "I am nothing that the church could have prepared you for. And If you were smart, you would let me do my job and be out of your hair."
"Master said not to trust men like you."
"And who did your master tell you to trust?" Gardenia's stance faltered as if she didn't expect a follow-up question. Interesting.
"In fact, when was the last time you met someone outside of the church?"
"Heavens, time seemed to...slip?" a man, with a lightly gelled brunette comb-over, wearing a spectacularly white suit sang, walking through the cathedral large front doors, followed by six members in tow, in white cloaks. The intruder turned to face the newcomer, with a slightly irritated expression on his face.
"Who might you be?" the man asked. The latest guest to the party blinked, in confusion.
"If you are going to come to my church, shouldn't you introduce yourself first?"
"I could. Or I could just kill you and spare myself the hassle."
"Funny. I like a man with a sense of humor."
"And I like a man who's ignorant and vulnerable. Who are you? I don't have all day."
"...Jonas Wagner..." he replied, with a stern expression on his face.
"Ah, just the man I am looking for. My name is Kurosaki Ichigo. I have a feeling that we are going to be really close in these trying times, Mr. Wagner."
"So what's the issue?" an exasperated Kuchiki Rukia said, a hand away from a very painful face plant into the desk that she was working at. Rukia hated deployment briefings. While they only had to do them every six months, it was still a massive pain in the ass to do. The thirteenth squadron deployment around the same amount of people that the eleventh did. Only, since the ones in the thirteenth weren't complete morons, they were expected to do more and held to a higher standard. And because a Captain doing a deployment brief was not about to happen, especially one as fragile as Captain Ukitake, it was on her shoulders as the vice-captain. At first, she thought it would be a fun challenge. She already understood some of the general rules. Assign trouble makers the Rukongai so they could keep an eye on them. Assign high performers Karakura Town, because, with the amount of insanely strong, hollow slaying capable people there, they would barely have to lift a finger.
But people love to complain. Complain about favoritism. Complain about the frequency of deployments or not wanting to eat Rukongai food anymore or some other crap that she no longer could care about. Rukia truly loved her position, but sometimes it could be incredibly frustrating. She often wondered how someone like Renji could do the same job as she did and still remain the idiot that he was. Also, she probably shouldn't be thinking about Renji while she's still on the job. Especially when she has several very angry subordinates complaining about...something. She had already forgotten.
"I'm tired of having to keep deploying to the living world! I'm tired of having to find somewhere to sleep every damn night or eat some garbage because I can't afford a real meal!" Oh. This crap again.
"The per diem that you receive in the world of the living should be plenty to get you by," Rukia said, rubbing her forehead, "And you have places to stay. We overhauled the process a long time ago. We even give you deployment pamphlets on where to go. Are you not paying attention to the information that we give you."
"I'm paid to kill Hollows, not to read!" the largest of the brutes shouted. Rukia had never felt the urge to kill burn so strongly until that very moment.
"Unfortunately, you are not in the eleventh division, so yes, you are expected to read every once in a while," Rukia said, dryly, "But, I get it. It was clearly a mistake to send you to the world of the living. I will work to find a replacement as soon as possible."
"See, what I tell ya!" the man shouted, smugly, "I told ya that she would be reasonable!" He walked out of the room in tow with his boys, with an insane amount of swagger that he did not deserve.
"Imbecile," Rukia said, coarsely, rolling her eyes, "I'll reward someone else then. And I'll try to transfer you to the eleventh. Dumbass."
She'll work her frustration out later. Right now, she just needed to figure out who to replace the idiot. She honestly could use the break, but she's goes to Karakura all the time to speak to Orihime. She didn't like having to pick again, because now she had already done the work, managed the schedules, and worked how they would be paid. Now she had to troll the schedules again to see an odd man out because someone had to complain about what was supposed to be a reward. Fools
"Man, I need to make backup plans..." Rukia said, before leaning back in her chair, a luxuriously nice chair from the world of the living. One that came with cushions. And wheels! It was truly the most magnificent chair that Rukia had ever laid her eyes on. And it wasn't even that expensive. The living were truly spoiled.
"Vice-Captain?" a voice called out, knocking Rukia out of her reminiscing on better times. Wide-eyed, Rukia sat straight up and met the amber eyes of...
"Uh..." Rukia said, forgetting where and who she was for a moment.
"I heard that man yelling at you...About not wanting to deploy..." Oh, thank the heavens, a volunteer.
"Y-yes! Yes!" Rukia shouted, stunning the girl, "That man didn't want to go to the world of the living! Karakura Town, to be exact. Beautiful place. Love city...Town. It's more of a town. Beautiful people. Are you interested in going!?"
"...Ah, sure, if you'll let me. I've always wanted to visit the world of the living," the girl replied. Rukia flashed a great smile, as the lurking thought of who the hell was this person was brushed aside.
Wait a minute. How did she not know this person? While she wasn't going to lie and say that she could remember the backstory of every single person that entered the squadron, but she couldn't even think of a name for her was bizarre. Rukia went out of her way to remember the names of everyone in the division, no matter how small their role was.
"It's Senna," the girl said, answering Rukia's pleas, "I haven't done a very good job in connecting with others. I've barely made an impression. I'm hoping this deployment can change that."
"Senna, okay," Rukia said, with a small, sincere smile on her face, "I'll put you down for that. Thanks for stepping up."
"It's no problem."
Jonas Wagner was many things. A multi-billionaire. Son of a key player in Europe's banking revolution, Jonas had very few troubles growing up and expanding the empire. Why he was running a cult was beyond Ichigo's imaginations. He could easily dig into how Simon Wagner gained his money and what his son is doing with said money. It was easy enough to find them. And Jonas didn't seem to be the brightest cookie in the jar.
"You're wearing a Hell's Militia uniform," Jonas said, "Interesting. I take it that you have heard of us?"
"I have. And you don't need to know what uniform I am wearing," Ichigo said, pulling a small notepad out of his pocket and writing a small snippet down in it, "And don't worry about the notes. These are for me and me alone. You're not in trouble."
"I would hope so. You are too strong for us. We are merely a humble church."
"A humble church doesn't keep women locked up. A humble church isn't bankrolled by a billionaire," Ichigo said, "I don't need you to lie to me. What are we doing here?" Jonas narrowed his eyes.
"I don't understand why you are interrogating me? Have we done anything wrong?" he asked.
"I normally don't many calls about some cult for Geninnam in the middle of Europe, so of course I'm going to ask some questions."
"Is this what this all about!? Why don't you worry about some people that are actually hurting people!"
"Because I was not assigned to do that," Ichigo said, fed up with the direction of the conversation, "Why don't you take a break, Mr. Wagner. I have no interest in talking to you when you are going to be this way." Jonas crossed his arms, looking like a fussy child rather than a billionaire banker cult leader.
"Who sent you?" Jonas asked, quietly.
"Why would I tell you this?" Ichigo replied.
"I won't meet you if I don't know. These are my terms."
"And these are my terms. You will meet me when I say so, or I kill everyone in this room. Got it," Ichigo said, stepping dangerously close to Jonas, "I will let you know, Mr. Wagner, that I am not a very patient man. I am not a forgiving man. And I do not care about fairness, Mr. Wagner. What I care about, is that in the end, I get the result that I want." Jonas inhaled, trying to put on a brave face.
"And yes. I want Geninnam to return," Ichigo whispered. Jonas exhaled.
"W-wh-"
"You work for me, Mr. Wagner. You do good and I'll protect you. But you really need to make some meaningful progress. Or else I'm going to lose the faith." Jonas took a step back. Ichigo figured that this was probably the first time he had ever been challenged in his life. What a shock.
"Let's start over, Gardenia," Ichigo said, sitting on a bench in the first row, "You...Freya, was that your name?" Freya nodded her head nervously.
"Freya, come over here," Ichigo said, "Sit for a bit."
"Wow, wasn't Mr. Kurosaki so cool!" Freya gushed, brushing her hair, "He's going to help our church too! I knew that outsiders weren't that scary." Gardenia, sitting on Freya's bed didn't look so convinced.
"He's suspicious," she said, "How did he know all that stuff about us? Where did he even come from? What kind of name is Kurosaki?"
"He's from Japan, silly."
"Japan is nowhere close to Austria, Freya. Don't kid me."
"He could have been inspired by the teachings of Master Wagner." Gardenia cringed.
"I severely doubt that. Did you see the way that he was talking to him? If anything, I feel like we were bullied into something that we don't want to be involved with."
"You're just mad because he beat you up," Freya said, then stuck her tongue out at her friend.
"Hey, no I am not!"
"Lord Tobias, hope I am not interrupting anything," Ichigo said, into his cell phone.
"International calling isn't cheap so you need to hurry up," Shamira said, with a rather playful tone, "So, what did you learn?"
"Do you want me to start with the good news or the bad news?" Shamira sighed.
"Alright. Give me the positivity."
"The biggest takeaway from today is that Mr. Wagner is an absolute idiot. The man developed the cult and nothing else. I guess his daddy's cushy bank job wasn't all it seemed."
"The man had a knack for losing money. Figures he would be so short-sighted. Alright, so what's the bad news."
"Well, they have the last piece of Geninnam," Ichigo said. Pause.
"...Oh..."
"Well, it's not all doom and gloom. It looks as if they have no idea where Geninnam is. And even better yet, they have no idea how to resurrect Geninnam either so it's not as if they can do anything immediately."
"You have no faith that they couldn't find Geninnam?"
"Even if they find Geninnam, they can't move him. I'm trusting in the incompetence of this cult. I still need to keep an eye on them, to make sure things happen when I need them to happen."
"Of course. Why I have brought you on if I did not trust in your judgment. Proceed as you may, Ensign Kurosaki." The tone of the call ending rang through Ichigo's ear, who placed the phone in his pocket and closed his eyes.
"Well, at least it'll be interesting..."
"Freya" by The Sword