Disclaimer: I do not own bleach! All credits go to Tite Kubo
Reverse London, Buckingham Palace
The limousine arrived at the entrance and a few attendants of the palace was standing there, they opened the door and let Ichigo and his party out, there was a single camera crew outside the main door that recorded them.
Ichigo greeted the people who was sent to greet him with a handshake, out of resepct of royal protocol and the Wandenreich, the greeters never reached out their hand until Ichigo did so, due to his status as the monarch.
"Welcome your majesties, we are honored by your presence here today and very grateful that you have come here, the prime minister and members of the cabinet are awaiting you inside, the Soul Society has already arrived and from what we have heard, your personal aircraft is on radar and will land in 3 minutes." A greeter said.
"Thank you." Ichigo said as he entered with his party, the limousine drove off with Inoue as she never left the vehicle per Ichigo's instructions.
Ichigo and the remainder of his party was escorted to the great hall, where many people had assembled.
"Now introducing, his majesty, emperor Ichigo Kurosaki of the house of Stratburg, and his wife, empress Bambietta Basterbine of the house of Stratburg, along with Marshall Sado Yasutora and Marshall Aizen Souske of the royal imperial military of the Wandenreich." An attendant said loudly.
Ichigo looked around and noticed camera crews again, but Ichigo was unsure whether they broadcasted live or just recorded for a news broadcast later, regardless he didn't think much about it as the prime minister had set his course for Ichigo and his party, a man he and Bambietta only recognized because of a single picture as they had never seen the guy before, regardless Ichigo put out his hand.
"Your majesty, we are so happy to have you." The prime minister said as he shook Ichigo's hand and then Bambietta before going to Aizen and Chad.
"We are honored to have been invited prime minister." Ichigo said as the two men smiled content with each other.
Ichigo knew that any meetings wouldn't start just yet, after all not many in this room knew one another, furthermore politics have changed over time aswell in the spiritual world, so jumping right into high level political meetings right off the bat was probably not a smart move due to the political differences, the Soul Society had their form of governance, compared to the Wandenreich, where the Wandenreich was an absolute monarchy, the Soul Society used to be something similar to a constitutional monarchy, but with the death of the Soul King it was more of two republics instead now.
Both branches had a parliament, where the Wandenreich had a royal court where Ichigo and his advisors made all the decisions, but despite the two branches being similar their governance were the west branch were using political parties and they did not possess an aristocracy, compared to the east branch that did have an aristocracy, members of central 46 were chosen rather then elected compared to the parliament of the west branch were all members were elected by the public.
Despite having similar forms of rule, the two branches were miles apart from being similar in their governance, the Wandenreich were even further away due to the empire having their monarch make all the final decisions, funnily enough though, the Wandenreich possessed more freedom then the east branch did aswell as being far more open-minded, the east branch was far more authoritarian then the Wandenreich actually was despite being an absolute monarchy and that did say something.
If Ichigo had heard correctly that caused a major dispute between the two branches, which eventually lead to their ties being cut off completely, according to the archives in Silbern from what the Wandenreich had gathered in information over the millenia Yhwach ruled, the east branch even had considered a military approach against the west branch at one point but was stopped by the zero division.
The near war between the two branches was caused by central 46 demanding to be in charge of the west branch and wanted a unity between the two branches, on the grounds that they were supposed to rule all spiritual beings, despite the west branch being filled with special humans, something westminister palace outright refused due to their differences.
At first it just ended up with both branches feeling insulted, the west branch due to the demand and the east branch due to the refusal, nothing worse then that, but they had kept on with their talks and never managed to agree, leading to impossible demands from both sides and fists banging on the table, if the zero division and the soul king hadn't intevened it would have been amusing to see who would win.
Of course Ichigo was always weary of central 46, after all the institution of central 46 have been known to be extremly corrupt over the years, but as the situation was the opposite was also true, after all the old Wandenreich did Ichigo the favor of killing the miserable old farts off during the war where they had no choice but to replace the members, and one member had shown a lot of promise, going so far as to proclaim that they needed to change, which was a rather bold move.
That proclamation was probably the biggest reason Ichigo was actually interested in central 46, but he was unsure whether it was his own curiosity or something else that made him so interested in them, he would be lying if he said he wasn't interested in seeing any potential developments of change within their system, for if they refused to change, there is no doubt that angry words would have been thrown between the Seireitei and Silbern and a full diplomatic crisis would happen between the east branch and the Wandenreich.
But there was far more to it, this was a major point of distrust in Ichigo towards the Soul Society, as Ichigo trusted the aristocracy more then the politicians in central 46, compare the two, the nobles could at the very least be reasoned with, or atleast parts of them, while central 46 had a good, proud and long history of stubborness, idiocy, lack of forethought and consequences.
Ichigo might be young and knew to leadership, especially on the national and international scale, but even he knew that with every action comes consequence, be it good or bad, in order to properly ensure that his nation flurishes, he had to be open minded and not stubborn in order to make sure that the nation progresses into the future and not remains stagnant like the east branch, clever leadership and forethought is key to that, but for some reason it appeared that the old central 46 never knew that, though he hoped the new one did, for the west branch definitely did.
"I do hope your journey has been good?" The prime minister asked.
"It has, I must say, reverse London has such a wonderful and unique landscape compared to it's counterpart, it brims with a lot of nature and beauty." Ichigo replied.
"Oh I do thank you, it is a bit different then it's front side but we are proud of this city." The prime minister replied.
"You have every reason to, front London is a part of the world of the living compared to this place where it is in the Soul Society, and while front London do have their unique architecture, reverse london possess the same, but it definitely does not possess the natural feel of nature as they lack those large trees, that causes front London to feel just like any other city in the end, reverse London is another story however." Ichigo stated, much to the approval of the prime minister.
'Nice going' Bambietta said internally as she realized Ichigo appealed to the national pride for prime minister.
"Oh, very generous words indeed your majesty, it warms our heart that you have taken a liking to reverse London." The prime minister said proudly.
The press were all over the words Ichigo spoke, as their attention had gotten to him and Bambietta and they made sure to record every word, of course the words Ichigo spoke were words of praise, something that could potentially lead to political support of the Wandenreich in the west branch amongst the population, it could potentially serve to give the Wandenreich a good advantage in terms of political talks if they approached this carefully, and Ichigo didn't miss out on the opportunity once it arose.
Taking a look around, Ichigo noticed the Kuchiki family and the Shihoin family aswell as some members of central 46, Ichigo did ponder this however, as Ichigo had taken notice that the Kuchiki family and the Shihoin family had been more involved in the affairs of the Soul Society then the other two great houses, making him wonder what they were even doing, then Ichigo noticed Heinz Speer, the Wandenreich's ambassador to the west branch who bowed respectfully once Ichigo looked at him, aswell as some officers of the Quincy army present aswell as the top of horns and other people Ichigo was unable to name and have never seen before.
Regarding the Quincy ambassador, he had been moved to the Wandenreich's new embassy to the west branch, as the west branch permitted the Wandenreich to build their own embassy based on their needs, they have had a temporary embassy somewhere else but London and Silbern both agreed that it wasn't safe enough due to potential dragon attacks, so they built a new one with defensive barriers that would automatically be activated once an emergency button was pushed along with other defensive features, the Wandenreich split the bill with the West branch on this though, as the Wandenreich paid for the defenses while the west branch paid for the building, though it was Quincies that built it up as they could build faster.
The embassy had a large fence around it to ensure that there were no trespassers, aswell as a local security force from the Quincy army about the size of a company, namely 120 men that took shifts, so only 60 were active at a time, although security had increased with K.G aswell as Ichigo wanted to see the new embassy, and due to all the people and the majority of the former guest rooms being offices, there were much less rooms then the original building in front london, and the Soul Society had a lot of people with them.
The west branch was prepared to throw out a few of the offices to give Ichigo a place to sleep in the palace but Ichigo insisted that the embassy worked just fine, something the K.G approved of greatly, the west branch had kept apologizing for the ordeal as it was rather embarrasing for them but they had been ensured by Ichigo through Heinz that it was of no consequence as it did allow Ichigo to see his new embassy in detail, something Ichigo greatly wanted, The embassy was also the place Inoue was currently located aswell.
"Regretfully the city has been badly damaged but it will be repaired, we hope you will get to see it in it's full glory once it has been fully repaired." The prime minster stated.
"Do not worry about that, it was to be expected." Ichigo assured.
The prime minister then went on to greet Bambietta before continuing on with Chad and Aizen, of course Aizen did look relatively bored, much to Ichigo's amusement, once an attendant with some drinks, namely champagne, arrived, Ichigo and Bambietta took a glass each, followed by Chad and Aizen after they were free.
After a while Ichigo and Bambietta spoke with a few of their officers, namely a general, a couple of colonels and some majors aswell as some politicians from Westminister who had also been invited, which included the speaker of the house, all officers were high ranking of course as those lower were busy with their respective units around the city, Ichigo was completely drawn into the conversation when he suddenly felt something.
It was an odd sensation, Ichigo could immediately tell that something was off with several people here, this of course caused Ichigo to rapidly look back towards the door where he and Bambietta had four guards each, so namely eight guards from the K.G permanently attached to them, aswell as Ulrik who was with them, Ichigo also kept looking around where there were some Gotei guards, aswell as guards from the palace itself.
The sensation came from the attendants mostly, in terms of reiatsu everything checked out, but in terms of presence, it felt rather sinister.
"Everything alright your majesty?" A colonel asked.
"Not sure... How long have those attendants worked here?" Ichigo asked curiously.
"I don't know your majesty, there are many people working here so it's hard to say without looking at their files, is there something wrong with them?" A parliamentarian asked.
"Ichigo has stronger sensory capabilities then we do due to his nature, if he senses something off, it is highly probable that there is something wrong." Aizen stated as he looked the same way as Ichigo.
"What do you sense?" Chad asked.
"Something sinister... That one over there is filled with pure killing intent... judging from the sensation I'd say he's a fullbringer based on former experiences with sensation." Ichigo replied firmly.
"I-I'll contact security this instant!" The parliamentarian replied.
"Or I can have my guards handle them immediately." Ichigo stated firmly as he gave off a sign to his guards, causing them all to approach.
"We should have the palace guards come too." Chad stated.
"Yeah you're right, it is their jurisdiction after all." Ichigo stated.
"This event is getting more interesting by the minute." Bambietta said rather content.
The parliamentarian went to a security guard who quickly called for assistance to the state room which they were located, Ichigo's guards were briefed and Ichigo pointed out the suspicious individuals rather quickly as he didn't want this event to end in a disaster, it had already taken him quite a while to notice them which went to prove how much he lowered his guard.
The palace guard arrived and with the K.G, Ichigo pointed out five individuals who stood out in the room.
"You there, stand fast!" Ulrik said loudly as he pointed at one of the suspicious attendants.
Of course this order caused the room to become silent and the K.G was now in the center of attention, the palace guards rushed in, causing people to wonder what was going on, even the Gotei guards had prepared for combat.
The guards moved on the five attendants that stood out, as everyone had stopped moving, Aizen approached one of them and took a closer look at her, at first glance nothing stood out for him, but he peeked a bit closer and by sheer coincidence, noticed a chain around the neck of the attendant, he then put his hand up against her neck, he used his reiatsu to check for any irregularities and quickly noticed that Ichigo had hit jackpot, as the necklace appeared to be enchanted somehow.
"Take off your necklace!" Aizen ordered.
"W-what?.. This is a family heirloom!" The attendant stated, causing one of the palace guards to approach.
"He never said he'd confiscate it, he just told you to take it off!" The guard said sternly.
"Is everything alright?" The prime minister asked.
"This one is using an enchanted necklace to her true reiatsu as a fullbringer, most probably a Dominion agent, judging from the sinister presence you and the five others sent out earlier that Ich... His majesty sensed, this necklace seems to be hiding all of it, except for the sensory skills of a primordial god, from the description you're no spy, you're a potential assassin..." Aizen stated, much to the surprise of the attendant and everyone in the room.
"Take off the necklace, now!" A guard ordered.
The attendants made a move for their neck, but a sudden rapid movement caused the K.G to spring into action, as they flashed behind them quickly and forced them to the ground, much to the shock of everyone in the room, once they were safely on the ground and unable to move the royal guardsmen took their hand inside their suits and took out what appeared to be weapons that had somehow bypassed security, causing a major embarrassment and the beginning of a scandal in the west branch.
The guards helped the K.G and took out the necklaces, all of them identical, and them ripped them off, causing their true reiatsu to come out as everyone who was well versed in sensing reiatsu recognized them as fullbringers, the Gotei and several palace guards who also knew how to sense reiatsu, though the west branch had another name for it, causing a verification that they were indeed agents, but something got Ulrik's attention.
"Well, there's that plot averted." A guard said.
"Not quite." Ulrik said as he looked at the agents.
"What do you mean?" A guard asked.
"When someone fails an assassination, they're bound to be upset due to all the planning, however they don't show any signs of regret or failure, meaning they either have insurance, or have already made their move!" Ulrik pointed out, as the K.G was trained for these kind of situations.
Ulrik ordered in a bag belonging to the K.G, inside was a bottle of liquid, it wasn't harmful to digest, but it was specifically made by the research division for the K.G, it was a liquid that changed to a red glowing color if it came in contact with poison, it was one of the safety guarantees the K.G had and believe it or not, they actually used it fairly often when food came to the palace or before it was served to the royal family, as no food came to the royal family unless it had been cleared beforehand, this was a technique the K.G used as it had been proved reliable.
The liquid reacted to anything that was lethal or harmful to digest, put it on a poisonous mushroom and the liquid will go from clear and blank to red glowing fairly quickly, and Ulrik took Ichigo's glass and injected it with the liquid before giving the glass a slight shake for a few moments, but nothing changed.
"The drinks aren't poisoned from the the looks of it." Ulrik said.
"What about explosives?" A royal guard asked as he studied the agents intently, this caused some panic to appear.
"Then we need to-" A guard said.
"What about the food?" Ulrik asked as he interrupted the guard, and the mention of the food caused a slight and bearly noticable reaction that Ulrik picked up on.
"Not explosives, they've done something to the food." Ulrik said.
"How do you know?" A guard asked.
"A slight reaction at the mention of it, there was none with the mention of explosives." Ulrik stated.
"There is no explosives, just poison, from the looks of it they would have been caught if they had carried in explosives." Ichigo said as he used the Almighty, and no future showed any explosions.
"So you used the Almighty to forsee the future?" Kyoraku asked from a distance.
"Correct, there is no future with an explosion around us, as for the food, it'll test positive, all of it will! It was a good observation Ulrik, go test the food for evidence." Ichigo ordered.
"Yes your majesty... If I may ask-" Ulrik said to a guard before the guard responded early.
"Kitchen is this way." The guard replied.
"I'll contact the police and Wing Bind and have them send someone over here, we thank you and do apologize for this." The prime minister said.
"Do not worry about it, as long as it ended well there is no need to be concerned about it." Ichigo said.
"Agreed, spies and assassins are everywhere in wartime, we should have expected such." Ginrei said.
"For now let us continue to enjoy ourselves." Ichigo said.
"Of course, thank you." The prime minister stated.
The event continued without a hitch, of course the agents were apprehended and the event became headlines in the news faster then you could blink, but no one died so that was an upside, it was hard for the Wandenreich and the East branch to blame the west branch for this breach as Ichigo was the only one capable of noticing it.
Wing Bind dispatched the Sabres, which was the tactical corps and the Gallows who was the personnal affairs corps, and handled punishments internally as they investiagted the matter, under normal circumstances Wing Bind wouldn't be involved but since it was such a high level event choke full of V. they had no choice but to put all hands on deck.
Two chefs were apprehended aswell, along with six security guards that was guarding another location, they were taken into custody by the Sabres before being handed over to the Gallows later on, the entire investigation was a joint Wing Bind and police investigation.
Under normal circumstances the event would be over, but they opted to continue with it regardless as everyone had wished for the first high level political event in reverse London to go well, and with the police force and Wing Bind focusing in other rooms they were left alone, after all it was a very important evening.
Eventually the group split up and Ichigo had to go through a bunch of people, even Bambietta was speaking with other people by herself, so a few politicians, ministers along with everything in between and god knows what else, a certain individual approached Ichigo, namely two females who were well dressed.
"Impressive, I can see why our mistress is interested in you." The first female said.
Ichigo sensed that they were rather familiar somehow, in terms of reiatsu they were pretty close to that of a Shinigami but their attire said that they were far from being anyone from the Seireitei, Ichigo could actually compare their reiatsu levels to Komamura.
"Your mistress?" Ichigo asked curiously.
"Yes, she has had her eyes on you for quite some time, ever since you ascended into godhood actually." The first female replied.
"Really? Then she can get in line because she isn't the only one." Ichigo replied as he took a zip of his champagne before glancing at Aizen who was a bit further away with Chad.
This caused the first female to frown while the other laughed.
"She didn't mean it that way, anyways I'm Eva and this is Wilma, we already know who you are." The second female said.
"I would assume so if your... Mistress... Have had her eyes on me." Ichigo replied.
"Anyways, ignoring your rude remark earlier, our mistress is expecting to see you tomorrow, try not to disappoint or be late." Wilma stated as she turned to leave.
"I beg your pardon?" Ichigo asked, feeling rather insulted.
"You heard me." Wilma stated firmly.
"Yeah well she's probably gonna be disappointed when I refuse to see her." Ichigo stated bluntly, of course this caused Wilma to rapidly turn around in anger.
"What did you say?" Wilma asked with malice.
"I said... I refuse... To see her." Ichigo replied sternly.
"How dare you!?" Wilma replied with an angry tone, before she quickly backed off with a presence of pure anger from Ichigo directed towards her, of course Ichigo made sure not to make a scene and aimed it directly at Wilma.
"No how dare you try to make demands of me!? Let me tell you right now, no one will make demands of me, and if you so much as try to make demands of me again, I'll rip your guts out where you stand and strangle you with them, is that understood?" Ichigo asked with a hint of danger, indicating he was willing to follow through with his... Warning.
"Ahh... You made him angry." Eva stated as Ichigo finally let up before she directed her attention to Ichigo.
"I must apologize for Wilma's behavior, she is a bit zealous in regards to our mistress for personal reasons and are willing to talk down to anyone regardless of status as long as it involved our mistress, she even caused some problems with the westminister palace a while back." Eva stated.
"I don't care what her reasons are, if she is to act like a diplomat with that attitude the only thing she will receive is refusals, insults and war, this companion of yours have only delievered insults at her utterly failed attempt of diplomacy, so I will inform you I will not meet your mistress and any potential words she might have, she can deliever to the ambassador in reverse London, his name is Heinz Speer." Ichigo said firmly as he was about to leave.
"Our mistress was unable to come here today, which is why we were sent in her stead-" Eva said before Ichigo interrupted her.
"I do not care whether she was able to come here or not, I will not let her get so high and mighty over herself so that she can think that she can demand whatever she wants from my empire, it doesn't work like that and I will not bend on that!" Ichigo said firmly.
"I'm aware, and truthfully she never demanded anything, she just told us to give you a message that she is interested in meeting you in private, but due to Wilma's stupidity and lack of diplomatic skills we have thrown ourselves in a rather unfortunate situation." Eva stated.
"Yes you have... Not really my concern." Ichigo replied.
"I can assure you, our mistress is only asking for a few moments of your attention, nothing more, I will inform our mistress about the unfortunate circumstances and I am sure she will make any amends and punish Wilma for her insolence." Eva stated as a few thoughts went through Ichigo's heads, most notably a question that was unavoidable.
"If that is the case... Why isn't she here now if she is going to attend the meeting anyways?" Ichigo asked as he turned around.
"Well, the situation is a bit different where we are, we do not possess a strong and mighty army like you do, or a massive population like you do, in fact we are a small but proud faction." Eva replied.
"Too proud if you ask me." Ichigo said as he looked at Wilma.
"You have already meet members of our species, I am sure you remember a certain former captain belonging to the seventh division?" Eva asked.
Thinking about it a certain dog appeared in Ichigo's mind and by this point, all the insults were put aside for now, as Eva had finally managed to grab Ichigo's undivided attention, he did get a good look at the two females but they appeared to be fully human.
"Is that so? You appear more human then animal to me, but your reiatsu seems a bit different." Ichigo replied.
"Correct, Komamura's clan was different then the rest of our species, originally we are capable of transforming into human, but Komamura's clan was created differently millions of years ago, some could even call it a curse, as you have undoubtadly seen what happens when his clan transforms into a human." Eva replied.
"I see." Ichigo replied.
"And I have no doubt that you even have reports of our mistress aswell." Eva stated, causing Ichigo to raise an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked.
"Didn't that sternritter report back to you regarding a mysterious female in Mutsu a while back? If I recall correctly she teased him a little." Eva stated.
Ichigo did recall the report slightly but he didn't remember all the details as he had been preoccupied with other things over time and this was a few months ago, and after thinking it over, Ichigo had finally managed to find interest for personal reasons, though he was unaware that it was actually that, Eva had aimed at in order to salvage the situation, what better goal then to make it a personal interest? Although Eva was taking a gamble with aiming at his interest herself, it was probably the only thing she could do at the moment, all thanks to her companion who pissed Ichigo off.
"Very well, I will see her for a brief moment." Ichigo said, finally taking interest as Eva was rather content with that response.
"Thank you... Excuse us." Eva said as she dragged her companion away as Ichigo watched them intently, he was rather displeased but curious that was for certain.
The ordeal went rather well, they were able to solve the food problem but eventually came the time to call the quits for today, and Ichigo went with Heinz and the rest of the group to the embassy.
Once they arrived Ichigo was content to see it, as it looked like a mansion combined with a office building, it had been fenced in and was guarded by security cameras and sensors around the premises, but it did hold a sports court behind the building aswell as a pool and the inside was shaped like a expensive mansion.
The building was also rather large, with several guest rooms, dining rooms, and everything needed for diplomacy, aswell as a bunch of security rooms and everything needed to ensure the safety of the embassy and the personnel stationed there.
Ichigo did make sure to look around, though Bambietta made good use of the pool, needless to say, Ichigo was actually impressed, Ichigo did take his time to enjoy the moment as Ichigo was fully aware that tomorrow would be a very busy day.
To be continued
A/N: I have regretfully managed to get sick, and was unable to write the proper finish on the chapter as I had intended to have two days in one chapter, luckily I had prewritten some of it on thursday and friday so I was able to just add on a quick finish here.
Yeah it was probably extremly weird to have the event continue after someone tried to poison the food, but I just decided to add that in as I wanted to show that the Dominion is willing to take chances aswell, it isn't just the Wandenreich, and logically it was a perfect opportunity to strike at the top, I considered using some sort of explosive seal or something but figured that it would be easily caught by security compared to a bottle of poison.
So see you next week, hopefully my health will get better tomorrow or something.