Chapter 7
"Three realms?"
"Seems I was correct in my assumption that you are unaware of them," Aizen says, mostly to himself as he turns back to Leah. He brings them to a stop in front of an unmarked door. He opens it and motions them inside before continuing, "Our world consists of three realms. These realms are known as 'The Soul Society', 'The World of the Living', and 'Hueco Mundo.' Their existence and the existences of the creatures in them are kept a secret from humans."
A table stands in the middle of the room, littered with papers and maps. Even more maps hang from the white walls. Aizen points to each of them in turn, as he names the realm they belong to.
"You and your lot have somehow managed to find your way to Hueco Mundo, Las Noches," he informs the women as he walks towards the table. "Matilda is back in your realm. The one humans come from and live in. She is in Karakura Town, Japan to be exact.
"The Soul Society is where the enemy—my enemies and now yours since you attacked one of theirs—reside in," he says, eyes purposefully locked on Daisy, daring her to deny that she isn't in the same positon as he is. That she isn't beginning hunted by The Soul Society too. "The creatures that live there are called Souls and Death Gods. And the Death Gods are the Enemy."
"Death Gods?" Leah asks a look of wonder on her face as she takes a glance around the room. Maps cover every inch of the white walls while the table takes up more than half the room. It's the planning room, she realizes as she eyes the three dimensional model of some city on the far end of the table.
Daisy, for her part, keeps quiet. Her eyes run across the map of The Soul Society repeatedly.
"Glorified spirits—souls—that help ushered the spirits of the deceased from The World of the Living to The Soul Society and protect them from the Hollow," Aizen says and he shuffles through the mess on the table and pulls out some pictures from it. "This is your typical Death God."
He hands Leah a picture of a human looking man dressed in black from head to toe. His dressed in traditional Japanese clothing and there's some type of sword dangling from his hip. He also has a shock of red hair and tattoos cover a fair amount of his skin.
Daisy takes one glance over her shoulder and recognizes the face instantly. It takes all she has not to rip the picture from Leah's hands just so she can stare at it and marvel over how much the man has grown because she knows him and he was just a child when she left.
Because that's her Renji...
"What is a Hollow?" Leah asks as she hands him back the picture only for him to give her another. Expect the creature on this one doesn't look the least bit human. It's distorted with a huge gaping hole in the creature's middle.
Daisy recognizes him too and her hearts pangs as she remembers what happened to that particular test subject.
"They are souls that have been tainted, twisted. That have turned into mindless creature bent on death and destruction because they were not taken to The Soul Society in time or were eating by another Hollow before a Death God could get to them," Aizen explains as he hands her even more pictures. "There are various types of Hollows—different class if you will—and they normally reside in Hueco Mundo."
"Normally?"
"They tend to travel to the other realms from time to time."
"Are you a Hollow?"
The question catches Aizen and Daisy off guard. They look at Leah with wide eyes. She's the first to ask him that, to come to that type of conclusion, and it surprises them for some reason.
"No."
"What are you then?" she asks and it's only as her hand drops away from the hilt of her Katana that Aizen notices it was there to begin with.
"A Death God. A former one at least, but of course you know all about this don't you, Daisy."
He can't help himself as he spoils her secret for her because he knows she's kept it a secret. How she managed to keep it a secret from a team of assassins, he's not too sure but he knows her well enough to know she could pull it off.
It's petty of him to do it. He knows it but he still hasn't gotten over what she did to him. To them.
Leah turns a hard glare at Daisy. One that promises hell and kind of makes him regrets snitching but he ignores it as he moves to the table. He fiddles with some of the papers while he waits for their shock to where off.
"Dr. Day?"
"You asshole!" Daisy shouts at him and Aizen barely dodge the shaft as she swings it at him. "How fucking could you?"
"Me?" Aizen drawls as he steps back and out of range of her weapon. "You're the one that abandoned us! You're the one that gave up and left Gin and Tōsen and I to clean up the mess. You're the one that walked out on us when things got tough! You're the one that gave up on everything we were trying to accomplish. That gave up on her."
"What was I supposed to do?" she asks, running a hand through her hair in frustration and anger. "We were wrong, we couldn't save them! And Shinji! You saw what it did to Shinji and the others," she whispers and angry, shamed tears fill her eyes "We did them that to them because we thought we could bring her back. Because we thought we could play god...we...we killed them."
"That is where you are wrong," Aizen whispers to her, a smug tone to his voice as he tosses a handful of pictures in front of her. They flutter onto the table quietly and Daisy takes them in like a breath of fresh air. "They are alive and well, thriving actually."
"How?" Daisy asks, breathless in her amazement as she scoops the pictures into her hands and looks them over repeatedly. She tries the engrave the pictures into her mind, desperately trying to wipe away the memories of the last time she'd seen them...pained and changing. Shifting into the horrid monsters they were trying to save.
Of the night their experiments had gone awry.
When they'd accidently released the disease.
It had been an accident. A beaker containing highly toxic chemicals cracking during an experiment, a contaminated Hollow breaking free during the commotion, and then there was no stopping it until it was too late.
Until it had infected so many...
"Urahara," Aizen says bringing Daisy from her thoughts. "It took some bribing—not much, you know the man had been itching to defect for centuries already—but with you gone we had no choice. He used the forbidden spells to slow down the Hollowfication while we tried to find a way to reverse it, but we could not. We could only pause it. Stop it before they actually became full-blown Hollows. They go by Vizards now."
"No! He didn't!"
"Using the forbidden spells resulted in Urahara's banishment," Aizen continues, ignoring her gasp. "His and Tessai, like we knew it would. They were going to be stripped of their powers but Yoruichi agreed to help us get them out before that could happen. She had tired of The Central and their cruelty as well. Though she made us promise that we would find some way to end their tyranny and it was the least we could do"
"Where are they now?" she asks voice soft and Aizen sighs. For all that she'd abandoned them when they need her most Aizen knows that she does care. That she truly believed that Shinji and the others would have died or been killed and that the guilt had caused her to run.
"They are in Karakura," he tells her, rubbing at his face tiredly. "Urahara owes a shop there. So much has happened since you left, including my own defection, but they are fine. While Shinji and the others have yet to actually forgive us, they are safe from The Soul Society. They are not being hunted either."
"Why is there a war?" Daisy asks and when Aizen looks at her again he sees the fire in his eyes.
"We made good on our promise," Aizen tells her turning his attention back to the papers on the table. "Once we had finished our research and accomplished our goal to blur the line between Soul and Hollow, we wiped out Central 46. We killed all the corrupted bastards and left to bring as much peace to Las Noches we could and to find her."
"That sounds like a good thing," Leah say, speaking for the first time since Aizen revealed Daisy's secret. She moves towards one of the maps on the wall. The one Aize pointed out as The Soul Society. It's huge, with a number of different districts and takes up all of one wall by itself. "On all accounts."
"Not everyone thought so," Aizen says, an almost mournful tone to his voice that he tries his best to hide. "The ones that were unfailing loyal to Central 46 are now hunting Gin, Tōsen, and I down. Thus, they are going after my men as well," he says as he hands her a fairly big stack of pictures and passes another one to Daisy. "We call them Arrancars. They may be more human looking but they are nothing more than another class of Hollow."
What Leah and Daisy see as they shuffles through the pictures are people. A different array of men and women and even a child or two smiling at the camera. There's nothing in the pictures to suggest that they're anything more than weirdly dressed humans. If Aizen hadn't just told them that every person in these pictures are actually dead spirits they wouldn't have known better.
"The other Death Gods disapproved of them," Aizen tells them as he takes back the stacks of pictures and places them almost carefully on the table. "They want to destroy them. They want to kill everyone we have 'cured' and take Tōsen, Gin, and I for either execution or imprisonment."
"So what exactly is it that you want from us?" Leah asks as she watches The Lord stare down at the pictures, fondness in his eyes. He really cares for them, she's sure of it.
"I need your help so they will not succeed."
"Why is Matilda in trouble if she's in the human realm?" Leah asks, changing the conversation so she won't have to give The Lord an answer until she can think things through and talk it out with her team. Half of what the Lord is saying sounds absolutely insane and she really needs to have words with Daisy. However, if Leah's learned anything from her line of work, it's that anything is possible. "Why would they bother with her if she's just a human?"
"Because she is not human."
"What?"
A cold, dangerous look crosses Daisy's face as she takes in what he just said. Admittedly, he could have found a more subtle way to say that but we've already establish that he doesn't have a way with words.
"What do you mean?"
Lord Aizen is not afraid! He deals with bloodythirsty creatures on a daily basis. Spent more than half his life fighting evil creatures and he's a Lord God dammit! Therefore, some former Death God that he knows can kick ass and take down the biggest Hollow in two seconds flat does not scare him.
"Souls, Hollow, and even the rare human have this thing called Reiryoku," Aizen explains for Leah's benefit because he needs their help. Not because he is afraid, thank you very much. "It is a sixth sense and a power. In humans, it is rarely seen and even if it is, it is only a small amount. It gives humans the ability to see souls—the spirits of the deceased—and that is pretty much it.
"Souls and Hollows, on the other hand, are almost completely made out of it but, if a Soul has a large amount of Reiryoku, they become a Death God," Aizen explains. "Though, the effects of it are really still same for both. It gives them a different number of abilities and the more Reiryoku a Hollow or Soul has the more power they possess."
"What does any of this have to do with Matilda?" Leah all but growls as her patience runs thin.
"She has too much Reiryoku to be considered a human," Aizen tells them, hands raised in surrender as she starts to stalk towards him. "A human body cannot possibly hold that much Reiryoku. It is too weak. That vast amount of Reiryoku would tear it apart. Surely you should have realized it by now, Daisy."
"What does all that even mean!?" Leah yells before Daisy can answer and Aizen, caught between a rock and a hard place, blurts out the answer without thinking.
"Matilda is dead."
Aizen doesn't think about the consequences of what he says. Leah's all but yelling at him at this point and there's that familiar look in Daisy's eyes that promises pain. So, it catches him off guard when Leah collapses. The news hits her hard and her knees buckle right out from under her. He rushes forward, though. He catches her right before she can hit the floor.
"She can't be, she can't be, we can see her," Leah mumbles desperately as Aizen lowers her to sit on the floor. Daisy just stands there stunned. She's amazed she never caught it but it's true. All the clues are there.
The speed, the strength, the intelligence far beyond her age, and how it seems that she just isn't aging.
"Everyone can see her. She's killed her fair share of Targets! She can't be dead!"
"I'm sorry, but she is," Aizen says as he straightens and walks back to the table. He once again goes back to meaninglessly shuffling papers while he waits for Leah to calm down a bit and for Daisy to become responsive again.
"But we can see her! We've seen her gouge a Target's eye out and even if we all had enough Reiryoku to see her, she wouldn't have been able to that!"
"You are correct," Aizen says before Leah can say anymore. She's hysterical at the moment, but Aizen really doesn't have the time for her to calm down completely. "My guess is she is wearing a Gigai—an artificial body a Soul can don so that they may be seen by humans. It also allows them to interact with the environment. The one thing I do not know, though, is if she really is a Soul or possibly a Hollow."
"Why does it matter?" Leah groans as she leans back against the wall. She looks defeated as she sits there, head press into the wall and hands rubbing at her face.
"If she is a Hollow they will kill her on sight."
"Fuck!"
