Disclaimer: Bleach is owned by Tite Kubo.

Chapter 7: One step forward, five steps backwards

" Welcome, Kurosaki Ichigo."

Her words reverberates in his ears. It is the same voice yet it feels different. He sees a small strained smile on her lips. They are only half a room away from each other yet the distance between them feels further than that.

" Ru—" Ichigo takes a step forward and opens his mouth to speak but is stopped when Shihoin Yoruichi places a hand in front of him. He turns his head to his mentor inquisitively and finds her shaking her head at him. His eyebrows furrows deeper.

" Ichigo-kun," He hears the head bishop address him in a low voice. " I understand how you feel but please remember that you are no longer facing the person your family saved but the grand priestess, the figurehead of the temple and the physical representative of the goddess of moon and sun." He reminds and gestures at the other spectators inside the halls with his eyes.

Ichigo clenches his hands to his side and grits his teeth. He looks forward to face Rukia once more. He feels the gap between them grow every passing second and it unsettles him.

" May I ask Kurosaki Ichigo-san," The grand priestess suddenly speaks again, addressing him directly. " What is it that you seek upon coming here to the temple?"

He feels the heavy gaze of the people inside the shrine directed towards him. But this tension does not deter him. "I've come here to meet Rukia and bring her back home with me." He says.

The direct mention of her name and his intention creates murmurs amongst the people inside the shrine, all sounding displeased by the directness and disrespect.

" How dare you say something so carelessly, boy?" One of the people wearing the white cloak with gold seams steps up and gives Ichigo a challenging glare.

" Bishop Komamura. This young man is the guest I invited." The grand priestess calls out with the silent implication asking him to stand back. Then the grand priestess addresses Ichigo once more. " Kurosaki Ichigo-san, that is something I can no longer grant." She clears her throat and continues. " Is there anything else that you wish to ask?"

Ichigo shakes his head and looks at her, wearing a determined look on his face. " Then how can you make that happen then?"

His declaration brings distraught among the group of people standing alongside Bishop Komamura who called him out earlier. Ichigo ignores them and focuses his attention to the grand priestess. An obvious touch of surprise appears on Rukia's face but the strained smile she is wearing since the beginning morphs into fondness as her facial expression subtly mellows.

" What impertinence is this?" One of Bishop Komamura's group, a boy with spiky white hair and green eyes, steps up and asks. " What kind of question are you asking? Are you here to waste our time?"

" Grand priestesses exist to represent the goddess of moon and sun." It is the head bishop who says that. " But that can be taken up by choosing one of the current priestess to take the role."

" Then—"

Ichigo exclamation gets cut off as the Grand priestess continues from where the head bishop stopped. " However, a grand priestess' role is far more complex than that. They serve as the hope of the people and a promise that one day someone will end the reign of terror of the dark shadow."

Seeing the disappointed look in Ichigo's face, the head bishop who stood beside him gives him a pat in the shoulder. " What we're saying is…if the main role of the grand priestess disappears then maybe, just maybe, there will be no need for a grand priestess."

" Head Bishop. What is the meaning of this?" It is again the young boy who says this through gritted teeth, his brows contorted into displeasure mimicked by the rest of the bishops beside him. " Do not twist the laws of the temple as you please!"

"Ara, Bishop Hitsugaya, whatever do you mean by me twisting the laws of the temple?" Kyoraku vies with him, showing an innocent unguarded face. " As far as I'm aware, everything that's been said in the past hour are nothing but facts and truths. Correct me if I'm wrong, Juushiro."

" I can't say you've said anything wrong, Head Bishop." Ukitake Juushiro tells them with the usual congenial smile on his face. " Don't be upset now, Hitsugaya-kun." He rummages through his sleeve and retrieves a piece of hard candy and offers it to the young bishop beside him. " Here, a candy. Sweets will make you feel better when you're upset."

" You're the one making me upset, treating me like a kid!" Hitsugaya tells him in irritation but snatches the candy from his hand and pops it in his mouth while pouting.

" Enough with this nonsense!" It is Komamura who speaks now, realizing something. " What you've said maybe all true but that's only asking for the impossible. Only with the death of the dark shadow can the grand priestess be relieved of her role. And most of us here knows how can that happen. It may not even happen in our lifetimes."

"Ah, you mean the goddess bloodline?" Kyoraku says out loud.

Komamura glares at him. " Head Bishop! How can you say such information so carelessly?"

" Why not? There's no stranger here!" The head bishop answers immediately and nonchalantly. This prompts Komamura to glance at the three people that he had brought along with him in the shrine which Kyoraku does not miss. " Oh, you're worried about these three?" He then grabs Ichigo's shoulder and pulls towards him, rubbing his stubbles on him. " They're fine."

" You!" Komamura does not hide his discontent towards his superior's careless actions. " How can you just decide that arbitrarily?!"

" Ara, grand priestess-chan." Kyoraku turns to Rukia for help. " I'm being scolded here. I feel wronged."

The grand priestess sighs and shakes her head. Then she regards Ichigo's companions. " Step forward, Head of the Templar Guards Shihoin Yoruichi."

This surprises Ichigo more than anyone else as he suddenly turns to his mentor who just grins at his perturbed face then looks forward.

" Yes!" Yoruichi answers the call and steps in front of the grand priestess.

But Ichigo's surprise does not end there as Rukia calls out another name. " Step forward, thirteenth bishop, Urahara Kisuke."

" Yes!" The person that Ichigo has always thought of as nothing but a shady merchant who overprices comes forwards and stands beside Yoruichi in front of the grand priestess.

" W-wait…you two…how?!" Is all Ichigo could say as his surprised-stricken look face turns into utter confusion. But he gets no answer.

" My…" Ichigo hears the head bishop beside him mutter. " I see now. The grand priestess is sly. She could have told me this in advance."

There are also murmurs among the bishops as they watch the two people called upon by the grand priestess. They look at the head bishop who shakes his head at them. It is then assumed that they've all been left in the dark as well.

" You've both done well with your mission." Rukia addresses the two, ignoring the commotion inside the room. " Where's the other one?"

" I'm sorry I'm late!" A new voice booms inside the hall. All eyes turns to the owner of the voice. Everyone looks at the man, donned in the temple's white cloak with blue seam lines in the sleeves, who approaches the crowd in the middle of the room.

But Ichigo nearly feels his heart jump out of his chest. " G-goat chin. What are you doing here?!" He no longer knows what emotion he is feeling at the moment. He just could not find a name to it.

"Come forward." Rukia's voice booms inside the hall.

" Yes!" The older Kurosaki answers the call. He then passes by Ichigo and gives him a tap on the shoulder and whispers to him. " We'll talk later." He then finds his place beside Urahara and Yoruichi. " Kurosaki Isshin, Captain of the Healer's Unit, reporting to the grand priestess."

Ichigo remains grounded where he stands as he stares at the three people's back. He's known the three of them all his life, one being his father, but at the moment they all feel like complete strangers to him. " Impossible."

" Grand priestess, what is this?! We haven't heard anything about this!" It is Komamura who asks, obviously running out of patience. " The thirteenth bishop?! Head of the Templar guards? And Captain of the healing unit?! These three unknown people? You're telling me they've been ordained in those empty posts without any of the bishops knowing about it? You're overstepping your authority!"

" Bishop Komamura…" The grand priestess begins calmly as she meets Komamura's eyes without wavering. " Whoever said that those posts were empty in the first place?"

" What are you trying to say? That they survived that massacre in the temple twenty five years ago and just went missing? That they abandoned the temple after that incident?"

" No." Rukia answers without missing a beat. " They've been sent out for a mission." She pauses and turns to Ichigo who still wears a stupefied look on his face. " They were commissioned to protect the goddess' bloodline—the people chosen by the goddess to deliver the end of dark shadow."

-000-

" What is the meaning of this?" Ichigo spits out. He does not exactly know where to begin and ends up saying, " Why are you here, dad? Where's Karin and Yuzu?"

They are currently in a room inside the temple's living quarters that they've been sent in to rest after the events inside the shrine have been forcefully ended by Rukia who is then swarmed with questions and is currently stuck with the bishops somewhere else.

" They're with Inoue Orihime and Ishida Uryuu back at home. Remember that people with auburn hair that came last time in our house with Rukia's personal guard? They're the people from my unit looking after them at home along with some more Templar Knights."

" Your unit!" Ichigo exclaims in disbelief. " You're a member of the Central Temple and you didn't even say a word about this to your children? What the hell, goat-chin?!"

"Calm down, Ichigo." It is Yoruichi, who has been leaning by the wall beside Urahara, who joins in. " Isshin does not really have a choice. This has been a secret mission commissioned by the Central temple. It's an order we cannot break."

Ichigo does not exactly know how to feel or to react with that. " And that is more important than his family?" He asks her.

" It is because it is my family that is the mission, Ichigo." Isshin tells him. There is trace of guilt in his face as he looks at his son. " Despite everything, your mom and I at least wished for you three to have a normal life."

The younger Kurosaki realizes that the more he talks with them, the more he gets confused. " What does that even mean?" He spats. " Don't tell me you've got more secrets than your big revelations earlier." When they remain silent, Ichigo nearly dreads the answer that they would give him.

"Masaki, she…" Ichigo's breath hitches upon hearing his father mention his dead mother's name. Isshin notices this but continues, "… I did tell you before that she is Rukia-chan's predecessor. Meaning, she is—was the grand priestess that Rukia replaced."

The bright haired Kurosaki looks at his father with a deadpan look on his face. He, at least understands that much. He doesn't understand why his father brought that up until Urahara Kisuke, who has kept quiet this whole time, decides to speak up.

" Ichigo-san, I don't know if you're aware but a grand priestess can only be replaced by a new one through anointing once they could no longer perform their duties and in most cases, by default, I would be pertaining to the current grand priestess' passing. No two grand priestesses can exist at the same time. There are no exemptions to this rule." The bishop watches as Ichigo's face morph into more confusion. " You must that the grand priestess has been ordained after your mother died."

" Well, that's what you're implying. Isn't it?" Ichigo concludes.

" You must remember, Ichigo." Shihoin Yoruichi sighs. " This is the grand priestess we are talking about. Your mother died ten years ago but the current grand priestess has been taking up the role for more than twenty years."

The younger Kurosaki gets impatient with their round-about ways of explaining that he tells them, " Just get to the point, Yuroichi-san."

" Your mother was forcibly relieved from her post as grand priestess before she even died. It's because your mother is an exemption. She was not allowed to carry on her role as grand priestess as it conflicts with another much more important responsibility than only she can do." Urahara explains to him. "—being a bearer of the goddess bloodline."

There it is again. That term. Ichigo has heard it from Rukia earlier the first time. And now here again and he does not even have an inkling of what it is about. " Goddess bloodline this and that. I don't even know what that means." He admits, his patience obviously nearing its limits.

" It's understandable as this is not common knowledge to the public." The bishop reassures him while ignoring his mild tantrum. " The goddess bloodline is a special group of people believed to have been given the blood of the goddess of moon and sun coursing through their veins and original wielder of the blessed weapon created to destroy the dark shadow. There is no clear record of how they have come to be but to make it short, their existence is solely for the purpose of destroying dark shadow. Their very existence is as valuable as the existence of the sacred sword."

The clouds in Ichigo's mind slightly clears off. " And you're telling me that my mother was one of them?"

" Yes." Urahara Kisuke acknowledges. " She was one of the very few left scattered around the world that holds the goddess bloodline. That is why, even though she was ordained as the grand priestess, we had to forcibly remove her from that role. That's been decided by us bishops during those time and we decided to create a special task force to do that. It took us years to barely succeed."

" Lucky enough that we've manage to do it before that CentralTemple massacre happened." Yoruichi adds. " Costing the lives of our superiors and friends."