Chapter 15 version 5

1983

Tanya stood at attention with her former lieutenants to either side of her. It had been a few weeks since her talk with her stubborn sword and their last meeting had not ended with the reveal of the spirit's name, though they had an agreement at least. Her sword wanted her to be more proactive and less reactive about engaging in fights.

Well she wasn't about to throw herself into harm's way but she could meet Tasha halfway, there was a class on konso a volunteer class that everyone must attend at least once before they complete their time at the academy. It was a humanitarian mission to the world of the living. Young volunteers from the academy would go to a world of the living and help souls pass on through the rite of konso. There was also a small one in ten chance that students would be attacked by a hollow whilst there.

This is why Tanya had not volunteered for it yet, she had hoped to complete all forms of training before attempting this particular class. Sure there would be a volunteer Captain on hand if something were to go terribly wrong, a practice that apparently started up 30 years ago when something had gone terribly wrong. And she would be paired with two other students for added protection, but she did not want to entrust her life to most of the students in her class.

They all seemed like generally good civilized people but they were all shooting for the same small selection of officer seats. And though Tanya was fine not flying too close to the Sun in this life, she had remained one of the top students in the class through hard work and dedication. Which for one of the students who was struggling could put a Target on her back, what better way to get rid of competition than to say a Hollow had them for lunch or dragged them through a portal to Hueco Mundo. Would the academy even bother to check every bush for a body with a sword wound through the guts, she somehow doubted they would.

So she had engaged her former lieutenants to join her on this expedition. She figured having them on the trip would guarantee her survival, but Nicole and Vooren had gone a step above. The day before when they had been handed out pieces of paper that would indicate what squad they would be in they had managed to trade with a few of the other students to make sure that all three of them would be paired together. Nicole and Vooren must have suspected the same things as Tanya, not particularly hard to imagine as they were some of the other top students in the class and Grantz continues to face an occasional duel now and again. It was a simple logical formula; they only really trusted each other so they had to make sure to stay together during this expedition.

Standing at the North end of the academy waiting with 24 other students she saw Captain Aizen and a third-year student she didn't know. Behind them came four members of the Kido division dressed in black uniforms with the addition of a long white face covering who were preparing the gatewayto the world of the living.

The third-year gave his name as Rozumi Rimoru and then began a long-winded explanation of the importance of Konso. It sounded like it was a pre-prepared speech that had been given to him that he was just regurgitating. Which was understandable they had been doing this field trip for their students once a month for however many years this institution was open. It was probably nothing new under the Sun or explaining Konso.

The more interesting part of his speech dealt with avoiding the people of the world of the living. He was recommending using rooftops and "wooden poles" to travel as they could bump into living people even if they couldn't see them. And he warned against staying in the middle of large open black roads or they may be run down by "horseless metal carriages".

How often were soul reapers hit by cars that they needed to add that to the It speech? Seemed rather ridiculous that, that was a concern, but then again she noted they did not teach physics at the academy. If they did, they'd know how dangerous crossing modern roads really was.

He then moved on to explain that they would have 24 hours to explore the world of the living and perform Konsos. For the most part, they would be on their own though they would have a communication device handed out to them to call in for help if a hollow were to appear. As if on cue, one of the Kido division members began handing out a device that looked like a contemporary pager.

She chuckled at the odd little device, in her first life she never had to use such a thing, cell phones took off by the time she started her career, but she was aware that before the 2000s devices like this had been big and widespread in many first-world nations.

She gave a nod of thanks to the Kido division member as he walked off. She had considered joining the Kido division for a short time. They were a backline logistics unit after all, not something that should get into any trouble. The problem was when you looked into it they had no captain or lieutenant. Apparently, they had been removed something like 100 years ago, and ever since then, they've been attached to the general captain's own first division. In other words, whatever they had been, they were now an extension of the first division's general staff, and she'd learned her lesson about dealing with general staff in her last life.

The third-year finished his speech by making it clear that they had to return beforethe 24 hours were up or they may face disciplinary action. Tanya would keep that in mind but doubted it would be a problem for her squad. Then he signaled the Kido division members and they began opening a gateway to the world of a living.

The gateway or Senkaimon was a strange gateway looking more like a set of old paper doors than a mystical portal. But the bright shining light on the other side of them implied there was some mystical mumbo jumbo going on. Slowly the groups were let through the gateway in order of closest. Being 6th in line they had to wait till 5 other groups went in and then with bated anticipation they walked through.

If Tanya was more of an emotional person she might have cried seeing the large skyscrapers around her on the other side of the gateway. The air in the style of buildings all around her confirmed this was Japan. This was her original Homeland and as close to her original time as she had ever been. Sure it had been a long time coming and this wasn't exactly her Japan however sometimes you just had to take what you got.

Breathing in a good lungfull of air she turned to look at her lieutenants and noticed they were staring up stunned at the skyscrapers. She'd almost forgotten and they'd come from a time when four to five stories was the maximum height of most real buildings. The Eiffel Tower in the Republic and the statue of the worker in the federation not counting being they were propaganda monuments. She would have to show them this new world so they did not look like a pair of stun schoolchildren.

She was about to admonish them for staring up at the buildings with their mouths open when she heard the unmistakable thump crunch of someone getting hit by a car.

Turning back towards the nearest road she saw one of the first students that walked through had apparently ignored the third Year's warning and been hit by a car. The driver of the said vehicle had pulled off to the side of the road and gotten out looking around very confused, understandable being that he just hit something he could not see. The soul reaper in training whose idiocy knew no bounds was crawling back to the sidewalk alive thanks to already being dead most likely.

The third-year student was audibly mumbling his discontent as he watched the display. Confirming that this was something that happened regularly with their own complaints and swearing.

Grabbing her squad mates attention she noted "Well then it would seem our student leader is busy and our goal is to simply find souls to send to the other side, I see no reason to stick around here."

Nicole and Vooren nodded with the young man responding"yeah got to say this was not what I expected when I signed on to this trip. I think I heard they were constructing a buildingroughly that size in New Amsterdam but I don't think I've ever seen this many buildings towering over us."

Tanya nodded understanding where he was coming from before she responded. "These buildings are the inevitability of a capitalist system. Land and space are premium in cities. Building taller and bigger is the best way to get more for little. I imagine someday if we had lived, Berun would have towers scraping the skyline like these."

"I have to wonder," Nicole began, "if we had lived what would you have done after the war?"

That was a thought Tanya hadn't put as much emphasis on in the last few years. The original plan was to get into the upper ranks to avoid the inevitable war. What would she have done after the war? She had some ideas but with how things had been going she doubted she would have been able to maintain her military career.

"Perhaps I would have written a book about our time in the military. I suspect it would have sold well in post-war Germania, and probably moderately well in the other nations. Though I get the distinct feeling Dacia would have banned it. My memoirs of that campaign would not have been very pleasing to the dukes of the country." She mused, causing Nicole to chuckle while Vooren smirked in response to Tanya's theoretical answer to their question.

Stopping at the street lights Tanya watched the vintage cars with some amusement.

"Can't believe cars took off this way, kind of thought the price of oil would have kept them a military necessity and a civilian luxury," Grantz commented as he watched them with her.

"In a way, this is what we were fighting for when we fought the Russy if they had their way, that's how things would be. But in this world, it would seem capitalism has won out in the long term." Tanya said with a satisfied smile.

"How do you know that?" Grantz asked.

"A few books in the library that dealt with the early 20th century of this world. I don't know everything yet but I can make some educated guesses." Tanya said, waving off the question.

"So the Communists were defeated here?" Nicole asked.

"Unfortunately no not in the military capacity anyway, from what I was able to dig up they were useful in dealing with their ideological brothers andafter their second Great war a general live and let live relationship developed between them and capitalist countries. Of course, there is more to the story but that's the short of it."

If memory serves: they still have 8 years before the Soviet Union falls, sure the Chinese would still be around, but that's one less communist Nation to worry about. And she was worried, just because they were spirits did not mean that they were not possibly subject to nuclear fallout. She did not want to find out what nuclear radiation could do to a spirit body, after all, nuclear radiation was just energy and they were supposedly beings of spiritual energy, most likely there was no cross over but the two did not sound like they would mix well so she rather this reality stayed on the path for her history and didn't take a sharp turn toward nuclear end times.

Looking over from her thoughts, Tanya saw Nicole and Grantz looking at an electric shop and the TVs they had on display. "Hmm they managed to make moving pictures more than a sideshow for theaters," she said pretending this was the first time she saw them.

"It's rather amazing and they have them in color too," Nicolo said, entranced by some animated work she was unfamiliar with.

Looking around at some advertisements Grantz murmured, "the world is different yet the same, I would've thought going 60 years in the future of a different timeline in a different country, everything would be unrecognizable?"

"Hmm yes well this country happened to lose a war with this world's version of the Unified States, so it was under their cultural influence for a few decades. That and its efforts to westernize mean we will see a few things we can recognize. Though culturally if we had to interact with people here, we would most likely come off as bumbling fools." Tanya mused, and she counted herself among that, she may have some cultural background memories to go off, but years in the Empire would have eroded and rusted her sensibilities. If she could live in this world she was sure she could reacclimate herself, but Soul Society had her stock in their world, for now.

They were continuing their walk further away from the main group crossing a few streets with crowds looking for the wandering dead when she heard a distinct call.

"Help" it was weak but it was there. The fact that none of the other walkers on the street reacted to the call was a cue in that this was a spiritual matter.

"It came from that park over there," Grantz said, pointing across the street. As Grantz started moving toward the crosswalk Tanya didn't feel like waiting for the light so she used spiritual pressure to jump up onto the light post to cross the road. She was followed by Nicole and who seemed to have had the same idea. As Grantz followed the street rules to cross the road, Tanya noticed someone's shoe and skidmarks on the road next to the park. Shaking her head knowing they were about to find a sad story she moved toward the bushes and found they had been damaged by the passing of a body, past them was a downward slope leading to a drainage ditch made up to look like an overgrown creak between the park and the road.

Tanya wasted no time, breaking through the bushes and sliding down the slope stepping on rocks at the bottom. Across from her was a woman attempting to cradle her own body but unable to touch it. Her body appeared to be in bad shape, it seemed to have been hit by a car before it rolled down the slope. Her head was bleeding badly but judging by the rock near it, she assumed that wound was not from the initial accident.

The spirit of the woman was in bad shape, though with her attempting to move it was easy to see her left leg was broken. Wearing an office uniform she looked like she had just gotten off work at night, and most likely had a terrible run of luck.

"Dear God" Nicole muttered loudly as she slid down next to Tanya before she said a prayer

to Saint Michaela the Archangel, one of the popular military saints in the Empire's version of Christianity.

Grantz asked from up above with bush, "What's down there?!"

"Nothing good, cut back the bush Grantz, and make a path, clear and noticeable" Tanya called back before she turned back to the women. She was still crying and hysterical not having noticed them yet, her Chain of Fate looked fresh though only a few links had been dissolved, perhaps only dead within the last few hours, she probably had some time before the chain was completely destroyed and transformed her into a hollow.

Looking back up the hill Tanya shook her head, even if she had been missing since last night it would take time for search effort to get underway, and off by the side of the road like this in a drainage ditch, it could take weeks if the rain didn't come and move the body if it did she could disappear and be lost to time.

"I thought spirits just left their body when they died, why is she still … broken" Nicole

said, confused by the state of the spirit's body.

Tanya sighed then said "The more traumatic the death the more likely some injuries carry over, a mental scar inflicted on the soul from what I read. It is one of the reasons souls become Hollows. If the person breaks their leg they can't get to a place where a Soul Reaper will find them."

Taking a step towards the woman the rocks shifted under her foot causing the chained spirit to look up seeing them for the first time. "Please help, I- I don't know what happened I was just walking home last night and now, now I'm outside my body."

Tanya stepped closer and took a knee in front of the woman "What color and make was the car hit you"

"Car?" The woman asked, confused.

"You were hit by a car last night, this unfortunate accident has resulted in your current predicament. So I need you to remember what color it was… it will help make sure the person responsible is dealt with property." Tanya explained hoping to focus the women's mind away from the body in front of her.

The Woman looked confused before her eyes widened, "Yellow, American import I think, sporty looking."

Tanya nodded then reached over pulled out the women purse from under her body, carefully she checked inside and found some lipstick then applied it to the purse, putting down the details she had gotten before she tossed it back to Nicole "put it up on the side of the road make it look like she tossed it up and out of the ditch." Nicole looked confused as Tanya turned back to the woman.

"Why are you moving my purse?" she asked

"You were hit by a sports car and sent flying into a creak where you hit your head so hard your soul has left your body. I'm sorry to say the best anyone can do is make sure your last words point to the one who put you in this situation. " Tanya said, still kneeling on one knee across from the woman.

"Oh… I'm dead… " The hope in her eyes seemed to die a bit. Before she asked, "So if I'm dead, what are you?"

"Death is only the beginning in this case, there is a world beyond this one where souls go, I'm part of a group that helps guide lost souls there. If you'll let me" Tanya said technically she didn't need to tell women anything but she felt like doing a bit more.

"But but my family and work and..."

"None of your concern now I'm afraid, but you may see your family again one day, it will require hard work, tell me were you a hard worker"

"One of the best workers in my building."

"Then you need to build yourself up, work yourself to the bone, and you can become a Soul Reaper like us, and when you do, you will have assists to find what you lost when they cross."

Women gulped down something then said "I'll do it, how how do I get to this next world"

Tanya took her sword off her side, "The pommel of our blades allows us to cast a spell that will cross you over without effort." she said flipping the blade so the back end was facing her. "All I need to do is tap it to your forehead and you will be on your way to your new career."

"Ha you sound like a human resources officer." the woman laughed

Tanya chuckled, "Yeah I like to think of myself like that sometimes." before she tapped her head with the pommel "Work hard office lady." bright light enveloped the woman before it faded leaving a black butterfly to flutter away.

"Tanya, aren't we supposed to not mess with the world of the living at all," Nicole asked, holding up the purse.

"That rule's more guideline about putting down roots and messing with the lives of people who live here, that" she got up and pointed to the bag "belongs to a dead person. It's a thin line I'm walking but I don't think anyone would care."

Nicole nodded before she asked, "You're taking a bit more risk than you used to when it comes to following orders."

"What can I say, dying alone because of someone else's incompetence is not a way anyone should go." Tanya replied before she kicked off the ground using spiritual energy to land back at the top of the hill.

Grantz had just finished using the flat of his blade to bend the brush back more noticeably "Good work Grantz." She noted with a smile. Then Nicole joined them, leaving the bag just in front of the bushes. "Well then we've already been here half an hour only have one soul to show for it, we better get to work and improve those numbers don't you think?"

The trip to the world of the living started around 6:00 a.m. in the morning and they worked well into 7:00 p.m. Work was not exactly the proper term. Mostly they just explored looking for souls that needed to be moved over and between the three of them they were able to find around 35 in total.

It was a peaceful experience, something Tanya had not expected. Given her luck, she had half imagined hollows to appear every time they turned the corner but they were doing fine. It was during these long hours of work that Tanya finally noted how much she enjoyed her time working with Nicole and Grantz.

They were competent, they were reasonable, they were everything she wanted in her peers. They were substantially better at their jobs from the days that they had been her subordinates. Working with them was a breeze as they knew enough about each other that they could predict what needed to be done. Useful when the soul decided it wanted to run, which had been a rather unsurprising thing. People did not want to give up the things they had even if they were in no position to hold those things.

Anyways, her time with Grantz and Nicole reminded her that she needed to make sure those two got good positions as well. Having them close by wherever she ended up would be preferable since she knew she could count on them if things ever went sideways. How she would do it she wasn't sure yet, she would have to find a division that was in the market for three top-of-the-class soul reapers.

Factoring in their futures into her own path would require some thinking, with the 10th no longer an option, she had considered 11th since Visha was in it, but she worried about what Tasha's influence would have on her in that division. They were not out of consideration but she would like the one that was less violent. The 5th division was a possibility, her relationship with their Captain gave her an in, and Aizen seemed like a reasonable individual to deal with. Beyond those divisions she would need to do more research, perhaps she missed some division that would be safe… Well that was not true, she had found the safest division in her mind.

The 4th or healing division would be the safest unit, they were back lines and meant to keep the other divisions going. It would be perfect, but the same reason it was safe was why it would be hard to get her, let alone all three of them in. Its turn over rate was not existent, which meant she would have to wait until a position opened. She would have to see about creating a relationship with the Commander of the 4th for now, perhaps they would be as reasonable as the commander of the 5th.

Before she could give much more thought the pager on her belt began to go off, picking the device from her side she looked at it.

"What's happening, Tanya?" Nicole asked as she finished sending elderly women off to the next life.

"A team about three blocks to the north of here is under attack from Hollow, not many details given in he page but we're to return to the gate or provide support if possible." Tanya said reading info

"Huh well, I guess we should head back to the gate," Vooren said before asking "which way to get back to the gate?"

"It's 5 blocks north" this was an unfortunate situation, if they could have avoided the fight and headed straight back for the gate she would have. But now if they attempted that it would look rather cowardly and if any of the other teams died her team could suffer from career limiting consequences.

"Well, that settles that, we need to at least poke our head in to see if we can do anything, and if not punch through and make our way to the gate with any survivors." Grantz proposed.

Tanya nodded, liking that idea, it would preserve their lives while also keeping them safe from much criticism, "Sounds like a good plan" she said leading the way.

A 20 minute jog later they were in sight of the remnants of the fight, before them were two hollows their bodies deformed monstrous parodies of what they once were, one was busy smashing the head of a fallen Soul Reaper into the ground while the other was in a bareknuckle brawl with the wall of muscles known as Hidenao. He was giving as good as he got both their faces were covered in blood. His relatively short sword appeared to have been slammed into him into a brick wall, just behind the monster.

That was odd behavior Tanya noted, seeking out a reaper to have a duel without their weapon. She may need to reevaluate just how animalistic the Hollows were.

"Mental enhancement, we distract the Hollows with a decoy then get the survivors away," she said, already casting her spell, her eyes glowing blue.

But before they could get to work she saw Sōsuke Aizen approaching from the other side of the street. He was drawing his sword, and then Tanya had a splitting headache. One moment she was watching the captain approach then next all her decoy spell alarms went off and followed by what could be described as an error message. It only felt like it lasted a second or two going away just a moment later, But when she could open her eyes again the Hollows were dead and decaying on the ground.

Being rather annoyed, some sort of spell malfunctions had interfered with seeing whatever 5th captain had done. Tanya looked at the others, their eyes were not glowing so they most likely had not gotten mental enhancement spells up, though they looked overly impressed, she have to ask them what they saw later when she got the chance.

"Ah Mis Degurechaff, I see you came to help as well." came Aizen's voice.

Turning to the captain Tanya nodded "Of course Captain, as fellow Soul Reapers in training it was our duty to come to see what we could do to help."

"Well that's good it looks like this team could need some help, I'm assuming you learned some healing kido?"

"If it is Kido I learned it, healing Kido is too good to for us to pass up"

"Good good see if you can get these three walking then I think it's time for today's lessons to come to an end."

Writers note

Bit of a slice of soul reaper life chapter, biggest concern was I could mist chartiorize Tanya but I think I pulled it off.

In other news, I have reconfigured my pat rion into a monthly thing after someone actually sighed on (biggest shock i had last week), do with this info what you will, I'll be making this story either way so if someone decided to throw me a tip that between you and your creditors.

Edited by: Starstruck91, fleet, bloodalchemy, Tisaku, emberwing

writers responses
Jctherebel: you're welcome!
skrapsynneh: hype I hope I delivered on.
James the apple:that is one think I'm looking at
Mark the Mark: think i have something along those lines in chapter 16 but I'll keep that idea close at hand for future chapters.
Grocamol:that chapter and few comments was kind of my inspiration for this idea
arthurpendragon1940: first qyuastion I'm not sure if you asking for that or hoping that it not that. second question is, considering there not fighting over power i think they are compatible.
Guest: fixed in the master copy next time I do a version update it be fixed here as well.