Thanks for the reviews. They make me want to keep on writing.
Now to tell you some much needed information. This is set two or three years after Aizen's defeat/death and Ichigo's death. (no I won't tell you so much that it gives away the plot) I got a question on why Uryu Ishida didn't recogize Nel's name. Well, for a few good reasons, 1. he only knew Nel for a short time 2. he never saw her in adult form 3. it was a long time ago. (I'll slip by that one) haha
Lost Heart
We all have a mask we wear. We hide our faults and emotions behind it.
When the mask finally breaks, will the end come?
Rukia sighed. It was her dumb luck that had brought her back here. She never wanted to see those small roof tops or hear the sounds of the city. It all reminded her of him.
Renji seemed to be thinking along the same lines because he said (more to himself then to her), "And here I thought the hollows were heartless."
She was sure he was referring to their commanding officers. Yes, it had been heartless of them to send both her and Renji back, knowing full well the emotional ties they both had to this place. But then, no one else knew this place better than they did.
A wave of anger and grief threatened to overwhelm her senses, but she resisted. Rukia straightened and looked at her friend.
"Come on Renji, the sooner we destroy the arrancar, the sooner we can leave,"
"Right…yeah. Can you sense it?"
Out of the two of them, Rukia did have the better spiritual sensing capabilities. She closed her eyes to help concentration. But she needn't have bothered.
"Oh wow," she breathed and Renji gave her a look of alarm. "They weren't kidding about strength." Rukia allowed herself a smile. "I'm thankful you know bankai."
"By the look on your face, I'd say I'm thankful too," Renji's laugh was somewhat forced. "Is he that strong?"
Rukia kicked him in the shins.
"Of course he is you idiot! Why do you think would I be so serious otherwise?"
"Alright, alright!" He yelped, hopping on one foot. "Let's just go!"
"Wait just one minute, there's no need for that yet," said an overly cheerful voice. Rukia groaned inwardly. She knew that evil voice anywhere.
Renji and Rukia turned to an all too familiar figure who was walking on air towards them.
"You know," Rukia said, letting her temper getting the better of her, "I'm just not going to be surprised anymore. What is it this time, Kisuke Urahara? Did Aizen rise from the dead? Are sinners from Hell invading? Is Chappy the Bunny really Gin Ichimaru in disguise? No, wait! Better yet! Are you and Yoruichi are getting married?"
Kisuke fluttered his fan, giving her a pitying look.
"My my, Ms Kuchiki, you have no sense of humor!"
"Just state your business you cheating shop keeper!"
He laughed at her and closed his fan with a snap.
"Very well," he said and then looked at Renji, "Why don't you both come over and have some tea at my place. Uryu, Sado, and Orihime are already engaging the Arrancars as we speak."
"Look Urahara," Renji began, looking slightly annoyed himself. "We came here to get this finished quickly—"
"Come visit and I'll forgive half of what you owe me."
Rukia shot an angry glance at Kisuke, and then at Renji. Just what sort of debt had that idiot gotten himself into?
"I—I suppose we could stay a little bit…" he stammered.
"Then it's settled!"
How did I end up in this mess?
A few minutes later she, Renji, and Kisuke were seated cozily around a table. Renji made polite conversation while Rukia kept her stony silence; Quite determined to remain in her bad mood.
"These are the first arrancar to show their faces after Aizen's defeat, so why now?" Renji was saying, sipping his tea while the shop owner fluttered his fan a bit.
"One can only guess… Arrancars and Vasto Lords prefer to keep to themselves in Hueco Mundo. It is a rather rare occasion that we have the honor of encountering one here in the World of the Living. Yoruichi has gone to keep an eye on our new visitors. So all we can do is wait for her return."
"Hold on," Rukia could not help voicing her thoughts, forgetting her bad mood, "I thought you said Uryu and the others are taking care of the Arrancars as we speak!"
"Well now, so I did," Kisuke said in his sing song voice.
"But they should be able to handle an Arrancar with ease! I was sure that its spiritual pressure was no higher than that 9th Espada I fought back in Hueco Mundo!"
"Alas, I fear that is not the case," his voice lowered to a more serious tone that grabbed the two Soul Reapers' attention.
"What are you saying?" Renji started to ask, "Just what exactly are we dealing—" He was cut off as a cry for help came from the front door.
"Orihime!" Rukia exclaimed and rushed to her friend as she stepped through the front door. Sado came in next, supporting Uryu who wasn't looking too good.
"What's wrong with him?" Renji asked, not bothering to rush forward as Rukia had done.
"I'm fine!" The Quincy snapped, his glasses flashing, "Just stunned by spiritual pressure. No big deal."
Rukia was surprised. Of all people to be stunned by spiritual pressure, Uryu would be last person whom she would expect, much less admit to have gone through the experience. Orihime was busy explaining to Kisuke what had happened.
"They didn't seem to want to fight, so they left and Uryu gave chase. That's when the male Arrancar turned back and released a real thick amount of spiritual pressure directly to stop him from following. Uryu was nearly crushed and fell. That's when Sado caught him and I tried my best to reject as much damage as I could. He should be fine in an hour or two."
"That's good to hear," chimed Kisuke and gave Uryu a hard pat on the back, ignoring his gasp of pain. "Come on in and have some tea, Yoruichi is making sure your efforts weren't in vain."
"Is everyone determined to insult me tonight?" moaned Uryu, but no one was listening.
"It's been a while, Rukia," said Orihime cheerfully to her as they were being poured tea by Tessai whom Rukia had not noticed up until this point.
"Yes, it has," she replied, a little more stiffly then intended.
"Have you been promoted?" the girl's eyes had found the badge Rukia had tied neatly to her arm.
She doesn't miss a thing…
"Yep, I'm the lieutenant of Squad 13," Rukia felt her face blush and she allowed herself a proud smile. "My hardworking skills finally paid off. Brother was very pleased!"
"Congratulations!" Orihime smiled, but Rukia could not help but notice that it was a rather weak smile.
"Is something bothering you, Orihime?"
"Nothing that important, Rukia," her smile vanished and she suddenly looked grieved, mirroring how Rukia felt on the inside. A tear trickled down her cheek. "It's just that…since Ichigo died…things haven't been the same. Tatsuki moved away soon afterwards. She keeps in touch…but she's so busy now that we hardly have time to say 'hello' and 'good bye'…." Orihime's pity story was cut off as Rukia gave her a comforting hug.
"You should have told me sooner so I could come visit! If you need company or a shoulder to cry on just say so!"
The magic words were spoken and Orihime started bawling into Rukia's shoulder while that latter patted her head in a comforting manner.
By now, they were all crowded around the table. Orihime had recovered herself and was sitting next to Uryu, sniffing and blowing her nose.
"Well, Urahara?" Renji asked, "How long are you gonna keep us in the dark? Just who are these arrancar anyway?"
"Now now, don't you like being kept in suspense?" said Kisuke, whipping a fan out of nowhere and hiding his obvious grin behind it.
"NO!" shouted Renji, Uryu, and Rukia in unison. Kisuke sighed something that sounded suspiciously like "no sense of humor" before getting to the point.
"Alright then… to make this easier to understand, you have to first understand something. We're dealing with no mere arrancar. The current amount of spiritual pressure our two friends are generating is give or take around 9th Espada level as Ms. Kuchiki so nicely pointed out. Yet they defeated a highly trained Quincy without so much of exchanging a single blow. Tell, me Uryu…were the two arrancars wearing anything that looked…odd?"
Uryu shook his head.
"If they were, I couldn't see because they were wearing heavy looking cloaks. There was defiantly something odd about their spiritual pressure because it didn't feel like any normal arrancar, but I couldn't detect much else."
"Heavy cloaks…." Kisuke mused, his fan fluttering absentmindedly. "Well, I suppose they were just crudely fashioned out of a fabric that's like Seki-Seki stone. It's very rare. Material like that can only be found in Hueco Mundo. I'd made one myself back in the days of the Soul Society before I was banished. Quite useful for concealing one's spiritual pressure…"
His smile started to grow wider, causing all present to wonder about his sanity.
"Tell me," he said to the table at large, "Have any of you ever encountered an Espada above the ranking 4?"
Sado nodded, Rukia flinched, and Renji frowned.
"Yeah," the tattooed Soul Reaper replied, "We faced Yammy. He was Espada 0…we were all hopelessly out matched. His spiritual pressure kept on getting bigger. It was like….facing five captains using Bankai all at once."
"It took Captain Kuchiki and Captain Zaraki a while to kill him," Sado spoke for the first time, his deep voice filling the room.
"Brother was just doing his job," Rukia said, although her pride in her older sibling was evident.
"Well, I don't know if any of you knew this," Kisuke interrupted, suddenly snapping his fan shut, "but all Espada ranking 3 and above were all originally Vasto Lords long before Aizen became involved. As you can imagine, their power was already incredible to start with. If my calculations are correct (and they usually are), my estimating how much power can be suppressed until it leaks out uncontrollably I am therefore assuming one of the arrancars (that is currently here in Karakura) has the spiritual pressure between an Espada rank 2 and an Espada rank 1."
There were gasps of horror and shock all around the tiny table.
"Th—that strong?" Rukia breathed, and then, almost dreading the next answer asked. "But what about the other arrancar?"
"Ah…" Kisuke chuckled nervously, as if he wanted to avoid the question. "Ms. Kuchiki, if I were to go by the same estimation…er…how do I put this…ah…" he cleared his throat then said, "Imagine Yammy in his strongest form of resurrection and the power he generated." Everyone's face was either paling or turning green, not liking where this comparison was leading. But the worst was yet to come.
"Now," he took a sip of tea, "Imagine someone with three times that amount of power…in his normal state without using resurrection. "
The reactions, if it hadn't been so serious, would have been hilarious. Rukia just sat on her mat with a dumbfounded expression on her face. Renji fell backwards, all tension drained. Orihime spat out her tea she had been drinking. Sado raised an eyebrow while Uryu rose to his feet and grabbed Kisuke by the shirt neck.
"Do you even realize what you're saying?" The Quincy barked, wanting to dismiss this reality as a lie or a joke. Kisuke let out another nervous chuckle but it only made Uryu's grip tighten. "You're saying that this mere Vasto Lord is stronger than Aizen!"
"Of course I'm saying that!" came the strangely amused shopkeeper's reply, "Aizen probably avoided this Vasto Lord because it was more powerful than he…or this is probably one of his creations that met his expectations a little too highly. But no matter where it came from, this is the strongest foe we'll ever probably live to face."
Renji then swore so badly that it made Uryu release Kisuke out of surprise. Rukia stood up.
"Renji, the Head Captain should be informed immediately!" she said, slipping her Zanpakutou through the tie around her waist. There wasn't a moment to lose. Not with an Arrancar more powerful than Aizen running lose around the World of the Living. Yet the prospect of having yet another war was not so welcome. Too many people had died….nine people too many…
A new voice brought Rukia out of her thoughts and caused Renji to freeze on his path to the door.
"Yo Kisuke!"
"Well well, Yoruichi! You've returned!"
A beautiful dark skinned woman with purple hair entered the room. Walking over to Kisuke in a graceful, cat-like manner, her yellow eyes gleamed with pleasure at the sight of her old friend.
"Not too late, am I?"
"Considering you've only been gone only 23.4 minutes, I'd say you're 1.6 minutes early."
"Excellent! And what are these kiddos doing here?" she strode over to Renji and Rukia. "Did I miss a reunion notice or something? Ah…no wait. Let me guess. They must be the force tasked to deal with the Arrancars!"
"Long time no see short-stuff!" She then said gleefully, messing Rukia's hair like a child. Rukia bit her lip; she disliked her height being made fun of or the source of a nick name.
"I haven't seen you in a while, pineapple-head! How's Head Captain Yamamoto doing?" she had turned to Renji, who amazingly did not react to her poking fun at his hair style.
"F—fine…" was all he could stammer and suddenly wore an expression that would have been appropriate if he'd been hit on the head.
Of all the times for him to be acting like an idiot!
But before Rukia could elaborate on her lecture for Renji, Yoruichi turned back to Kisuke, all cheeriness suddenly gone.
"I couldn't get too close without the risk of being detected. But I must admit I'm rather surprised with the way those two Arrancar behave. They aren't concerned about being discovered by us or the Soul Society. Nor are they aren't concerned with Hollows, Soul Reapers, or human souls. From what I overheard, it seems that they are looking for something…but didn't specify on what it was. The one with the monstrous spiritual pressure seems to be the leader by the way the other looked to him for permission. He told his subordinate that they would "wait until daybreak" until they would resume their search…" Yoruichi paused, and then spoke as an afterthought, "Your hunch about their cloaks was correct. It's exactly like yours though not very stylish. But then, we should actually be thankful they are wearing those cloaks in the first place…"
"Why?" Renji interrupted. "If what you said is true and they don't care about being discovered, why bother to hide their spiritual pressure?"
"Because," said Yoruichi patiently, "If they weren't wearing those cloaks, most of the humans here would die in a most unpleasant way from the sheer power of their spiritual pressure. Either that or the most unlikely answer which is they don't want their identities known…"
The little room was completely silent for a minute or two before Rukia snapped out of her stupor.
"Renji! Come on! We've got to report this now!"
"You're right," the lieutenant answered and followed Rukia in her mad dash to open a Senkaimon.
"Be back before dawn!" Kisuke shouted after them, "We'll keep an eye on the situation!"
The lights dimmed as the Senkaimon doors slid open and two Hell Butterflies trailed in the Soul Reapers' wake.
