Chapter 26
2001
Tanya shook her hair out straight, before tying it up in a ponytail and plopping her hat down on her head.
'Today,' she thought, 'will be a good day.' She had scheduled some training with "her team", as she referred to the third unit of the 10th Division, which included both Hidenao and Lehrgen. After training, she had plans to take Visha out on a date, taking the initiative for the first time in their relationship. Rounding out the day, tonight was the newly-minted Lieutenant Renji Abarai's promotion party and while her attendance wasn't strictly mandatory it was important to participate in such office events. Besides, she was sure the party would be far more entertaining than the office parties of her long-ago first life.
Tanya was engrossed with her thoughts about the busy day to come as she walked down the stairs to get her first coffee of the day. The surprising sight of Nicole and Visha seated at the kitchen table, engaged in conversation, immediately snapped her focus back to the present.
"Nicole, what are you doing here?" Tanya asked, slightly confused as she walked across the kitchen towards the pair.
Nicole looked exhausted and somewhat beaten down. Her voice was leaden with all the sleep she'd missed as she looked up from the table at Tanya's approach. "Oh, hey Tanya. I know your day's probably really busy already, but would you mind helping me out with something?"
Intrigued by this turn of events, Tanya nodded and said "Sure" as she pulled out the unoccupied chair and took a seat at the table.
With a sigh, Nicole began to explain the situation. "Something's gone wrong in the 13th Division. The captain's even sicker than normal, so he's not in a great mood, not to mention Rukia is sort of, kind of… Uhh… Missing in action."
Tanya blinked a couple of times in astonishment at the last sentence. "Sort of missing in action? Let's take this from the top. What do you mean, she's missing in action? And what does her disappearance have to do with the captain's health and things going wrong with the 13th Division?"
"Sorry," Nicole said as she sat back in her chair and explained. "Rukia went out on a normal single man operation. She was only supposed to be gone about a month and she's already a little bit over that. The Captain has also generally not been feeling well ever since she went off due to his illness. I believe it might be aggravated because he's trying to wrestle with the idea of sending the Second Division after her to see what's going on."
Tanya nodded, understanding the situation to a point. One of your charges going missing meant it was recommended that the 2nd be sent in and find out what had happened. They were, after all, the scout and stealth forces, as well as the military police. But sending something like that after a noble could cause a bit of a shitstorm in those circles. No doubt his illness was being aggravated by the stress of having to deal with the choice between those two things.
"Hmm, that is not a great situation to be in, I can see," Tanya commented before she continued. "Has he considered sending someone from his own division to check up on her and see if she's okay? Also, are you still receiving reports from her?"
As she asked this question Visha got up and pulled out a cup of coffee from a waiting coffee maker before she came back and put it down in front of Tanya.
"I suggested that maybe one of us should go visit, yes. However, the Captain doesn't want to send anyone else into this situation. He doesn't want to give Rukia the appearance that he doesn't trust her, but he also doesn't want to get any of us in the same situation that Rukia is in if there's something going on. As for the reports they're generally just reporting on her killing hollows, actually an abnormally large amount of hollows, but other than that nothing too off."
"A large number of hollows? How many are we talking about here?" Tanya asked, a little bit intrigued by this bit of info. One a week would be too much in her opinion to come across in the world of the living,
"One or two every couple of days."
Years of dealing with the insanity of some people's statements had given her at least some control of not doing spit takes when people said something rather ridiculous. Thankfully all she had to do was swallow and put the coffee cup down because this conversation had just become massively more serious.
"A non-seated officer is killing two to five hollows a week in the world of the living. Are there confirmations of this beyond just her word?" Tanya asked with a serious tone to her voice.
"The kills have been confirmed by an agent that lives in the human world and we have records of which hollows that are more notorious being killed. She killed Shrieker and he had killed two or three other reapers."
"Okay, that is strange, " Tanya said out loud, while Tasha said simultaneously "That's some BS. I mean I know the girl is undervalued. By all rights, she should have an officer's position by now and there must be some political Noble chicanery going on to prevent such. But I don't think she's that strong right?"
"No," Tanya said out loud. Standing up she walked over to the coat rack, pulled her sword off of it, and then quickly attached it to her belt. She was unaware of what this situation was all about but this was a fine opportunity to ingratiate herself with the captain of the 13th so she would jump on it.
"Nicole, arrange a meeting with the Captain of the 13th for me. I need to have a chat with him about this situation. Can you do that for me?"
She attempted not to sound too demanding due to Nicole not being one of her subordinates, but her tone made clear she wanted this done.
Nicole nodded before saying, "He's coughing up bad today, but I'm sure I can get him to clear his schedule if it's about this subject."
Nodding her agreement she then mumbled, "I'm going to have to cancel all my plans for the day," before she looked over to Visha. "I may also have to cancel our date tonight, sorry," she said a bit sheepishly.
Visha didn't even bat an eye as she stood up and gave Tanya a kiss on the cheek. "I understand completely. Rukia is a friend and she saved your life once. It'd be dishonorable not to see if you can help your friend."
'Oh I forgot about that,' Tanya thought before nodding her agreement, "Yes, exactly."
"Get a room love birds," came a voice off to the side and for a moment Tanya thought Tasha had been screwing with her again. Then she realized the voice had been real as Visha was giving a death glare not too dissimilar from some of her own personal best.
"It's our house," Visha said before pointing towards the door. "Now go get the meeting arranged so Tanya can save your division from having another black mark on its record."
Nicole nodded and quickly left the room, heading down the stairs to the cafe.
"You're going to make this up to me right?" Visha asked.
"Of course," Tanya said with a smile before Tasha echoed in the back of her mind 'Get a room!' louder than Nicole had done.
Tanya did not have much cause to visit the 13th. It was outside her purview of jobs so she was not prepared for just how friendly the place was. Every person she passed greeted her with a cheery personality. Mix in the calming environment from that koi pond and she had a bit of emotional whiplash from what she had seen in the 11th. Hell even the members of the 10th were not this cheery. Then again with a commander who was known for bouts of sickness it made sense.
'Being close to death does have a way of focusing one's mind on things they wished for,' she thought as she glanced at the sky with a deep sigh.
Most likely the Captain wanted a peaceful life for him and his troops. By the cheery attitude of the few members she passed on her way to the main building she would assume they wanted it that way as well.
"Tanya!" Nicole's voice called from the entrances of the main building waving her over.
"Nicole," she responded in her most professional voice, "has the meeting been arranged?" she asked, looking past her to see two officers arguing with each other. One a blond haired girl with short hair, the other tall black haired man with a goatee that would probably make a goat envious.
"It took some convincing but Third Seats Kotsubaki and Kotetsu agreed to let you have small talk with the captain," she explained as Tanya walked up to her.
"There are two Third seats?" Tanya asked with a hint of confusion. She should do more research about the 13th. Plus if there were two Third seats that Nicole had to run this through that had to mean there was no Second seat. If it was one Third seat she would assume that they were off galavanting being a hero, but with two Third seats she would have to assume the captain was trying to choose between two good candidates.
"Captain Ukitake hasn't named a new Lieutenant since the last one died," Nicole supplied as they walked up to the pair.
Nodding Tanya commented, "Ah, I understand," continuing mentally, 'he must be the sentimental type. Good to know with the conversation we're about to have.'
The pair of Third seats opened the door for Tanya, giving her a view into a bedroom that overlooked a koi pond. The goateed man then announced her by name.
"Third Seat Tanya Degurechaff of 10th division is here to meet you sir!" the man yelled which was a bit too loud, but he got the job done.
In response a tall, white-haired, 40-something man with green eyes in the bed across from the door had a coughing fit into a napkin and waved her in. She carefully noted that there was blood in the napkin as he put it away. The two Third seats then closed the door after Tanya entered, leaving Nicole outside.
"Good afternoon Captain Ukitake," she said while giving him a bow.
"Good afternoon Third Seat Degurechaff. I'm a bit surprised to have an officer of another division wanting to talk to me, but it's a welcome one really," Captain Ukitake said with a pleasant smile.
"Yes, well I heard about the Rukia situation from Fifth Seat Levenshtein and they're both old friends of mine at this point so I thought I'd pop by to see if I could help," Tanya said with a smile as she prepared to propose her plan delicately.
Captain Ukitake's black eyebrow quirked upwards before he said, "Though I appreciate the sentiment, the Rukia situation is well in hand. I confirmed with Captain Aizen on the matter earlier today and he believed I should alert the Second about this matter."
Tanya nodded, a bit annoyed by this turn but not any less determined.
"Official channels are the best for the situation being settled legally, though I think we can both agree that the moment you alert Second Division this no longer becomes an internal 13th matter and becomes a Gotei 13 matter, which will necessitate the involvement of the Central 46."
Tanya smiled internally as she saw a pained expression cross Ukitake's face, no doubt he knew just how bad that could be for Rukia as Tanya did.
"Yes, I am a bit concerned about the possibility, though I'm not sure what you can offer on the matter?"
Ukitake looked her dead in the eyes as he asked that, making Tanya wonder if he knew what she was up to. Well if he did there were good chances he would be okay with the operation.
"Well as the Third Seat of the 10th division I can travel to the World of the Living without issues, and if I happen to run into Rukia and find out what is happening or give her a warning that she needs to come home, that's just a glorious coincidence," Tanya said with a smile.
"Hmm," Ukitake made a thinking noise before he asked, "so you would do this, off the record, so as to check up on her for us? You know, if this got out and it turns out that Rukia had gone rogue, Central 46 would be involved and you could be implicated in the matter, no?"
"Yes, while that is true, from the reports of hollows she has been killing, I am of the opinion she simply suffers from battle mania. She's become addicted to the fighting and is not thinking about returning because she feels of use. She just needs someone to talk to, or knock some sense into her, and considering I owe her for saving my life once, I feel I should be the one to do it."
Ukitake gave her a bemused look, then coughed heavily again.
"I had heard you were good with words, but preparing your legal defense in case of Central 46 was not what I was expecting."
"A good soldier knows the law so they can obey it, but they also know where the law can be used or bent for the better," Tanya said with a smile.
"Well that is a statement I can support. On the matter of Rukia, she was sent to Karakura Town. As far as I know, there is nothing of interest in that town, but something is drawing in the large number of Hollows she's facing," he said, signaling to one of his Third Seat lieutenants to hand her a piece of paper with the information.
Tanya looked over the numbers and shook her head, "I know she's undervalued as an employee but isn't this amount of kills on Hollows over the norm?"
From the edge of her sight, she spotted a pained expression on the captain of the 13th's face. Had she hit some sort of nail on the head with that off-hand comment? It's hard to say how direct a hit it was, but she would guess pretty close with the way he responded.
"I do admit she most likely should have already had an officer's position. I was considering giving her one after this particular mission, but things are complicated."
Tanya raised an eyebrow but asked no further questions instead saying, "This is your division. You run it how you see fit. I'm a simple comrade who knows she has the skills required for an officer's position, nothing more nothing less. Is there anything more I should know about the situation?"
"You know as much as me," the captain of the 13th said. "Just try to be careful. You seem to be a good friend of Rukia. I'd hate for her to lose you."
Smiling Tanya nodded her head and said, "I will do everything that is in my power to make sure we both come back fine, and with much luck, this situation will pass well beneath the interest of the 2nd division and the Central 46."
"Good luck Third Seat Degurechaff," he said, very formally bowing his head.
"Thank you Captain. Hopefully I won't need it," she said with a smile before she turned to the two Third seats who opened the door for her, allowing her to leave.
Walking past Nicole, she nodded and said, "Situation in hand now," with a smile before heading out the door of the 13th.
In actuality, of course, that was not exactly true but it was a start. Soon she returned to the Tenth division and filled out the paperwork for a patrol in the World of the Living. Not hard really as the hard part was getting a patrol in Karakura Town as that was officially 13th territory, but the 10th had Naruki City which from the map she found was only a hop, skip, and a jump from her target. She'd have to spend a week patrolling some city after she had Rukia on her way home but that was an acceptable loss of time. Now all she needed to do was wait in her office for Lieutenant Matsumoto or Captain Hitsugaya to okay her little trip.
"So, mind telling me why I just found paperwork to allow you to go to the World of the Living?" came a familiar voice. Looking up she saw Rangiku Matsumoto peering into her office from the outer area.
"Nothing too special, just wanted some fresh air," Tanya said with a smile.
"Sure, and you decided to choose Naruki City randomly to go get fresh air," the blond said, giving her a look.
Had she been found out already? No that can't be it. This must be something else.
"Well not exactly randomly," she said with a shrug, baiting a response from Rangiku.
"Right, well I guess you would want to pay your respects to Captain Shiba eventually. Just don't do anything stupid while you are over there, and call for help if you see any Hollow more powerful then you can handle. GOT IT?" the blond said forcefully.
"Will do Lieutenant Matsumoto. May I assume I have permission to be on my way to the World of the Living then?" Tanya asked with a solemn face.
Shaking her head the blond said, "Yes, but I want you to come back as soon as you're done with that patrol," the Lieutenant commented with a grim look more resembling that of an older sister worrying about their little sister than a commander talking to an officer in the military.
Shaking her head while wondering when she had become someone Matsumoto worried about she responded with a nod and said "I will return home soon. I have a date night with Visha to get back to so I don't want to keep her waiting."
Satisfied with that response, Matsumoto nodded and left heading back toward her office.
Now alone with her thoughts, Tanya cracked her neck and considered this new info. Apparently, the last captain of the 10th had died in Naruki City, which was unfortunate but nothing she should be concerned about. The hollow who had done that was most likely long dead, and if not, well she would just have to avoid it at best and call in help from Soul Society at worst. She was not a moron charging into the jaws of death.
Getting up from her desk and attaching her sword to her belt she walked out of her office heading for the Senkaimon. Whatever had sidetracked Rukia she would deal with, and then get back to her date night.
Tanya breathed in the fresh air of the World of the Living as she walked along the road heading for Karakura Town. Naruki City was a nice modern cityscape, the skyscraper and glass buildings made her feel at home in a way she hadn't been in several decades at this point. The roads were clean blacktop with a well-run public transportation system passing by every 5 or 10 minutes as she walked along the roads. There were even advertisements for things she remembered from her teenage years on the walls of the buildings she passed.
It was nice to get out of the feudal Japan looking Soul Society for a while and seeing the progress of the human world brought a smile to her face. She wondered if it would be possible to get a gigai for her and Visha to have a date night in the World of the Living. Most likely not something she could do morally since the Soul Society had a big thing about keeping the Worlds separate though she didn't think it was illegal. It would have to be something she'd research later when things were more stable.
Well considering she never found a way to get a gigai into the World of the Living, preventing her from executing her plan to have Ishida put a little money in the stock market, particularly in companies she knew would do well in the next 10 years, she doubted she'd find an avenue to be able to do it for a date night.
"You didn't even try that hard," Tasha said from the back of her mind.
"I believe I tried hard enough. The 12th division just seems to have some sort of issue about creating those fake human suits. Besides I doubt I would have had enough time in the World of Living to get everything set up. I would need to get citizenship in this world, make sure my paperwork is good, and set up bank accounts. That might be something I could do in a of couple days from now but at the moment I would most likely need either contacts here who can help me facilitate this or a couple of months, which I think would be noticed by the Second Division and make the whole situation untenable," Tanya said.
"Ah, perhaps, but there's always the chance they wouldn't have cared," Tasha's voice mused.
"You are too carefree," Tanya commented as she shook her head.
"You are too paranoid," Tasha shot back.
"What is the old saying? 'It's not paranoia when you've had someone out to get you.' Being X classified as someone, and they were out to get me," Tanya said as she walked around a corner and started heading in the general direction of the town she needed to get to. She knew she should probably get on a bus but she could use the exercise and it was still fairly early in the morning.
"Right. It's not paranoia when someone is out to get you. Still, we both know that Being X has not shown his toga-wearing self since we came to this world. Or a set of worlds I guess. That being the truth of the situation I doubt he's going to just pop up to screw with us now," Tasha said, amused by Tanya's misremembering of the quote.
"True, but better safe than sorry in my book," she said as she came to a corner and waited for the light to change.
"So are you going to do it?" Tasha asked.
"Do what?" Tanya asked, a bit confused by the question.
"Oh, you know what. If these worlds are the same as they had appeared so far there is a small chance that right now somewhere in Japan there's a 17-year-old version of you. Are you going to tell me you're not interested in perhaps giving yourself a little warning about being careful around human beings?"
"Why should I be? Yes we are similar beings but I am not him and if he is in this world, which is unlikely, I doubt that the worlds are that similar. What would I be to him? Some random blonde girl showing up at his front door who he probably can't see and tells him to watch his back in 2013 and not take human's capacity for vengeance for granted," she responded with a shrug. "If by some chance he has the spiritual pressure to even see me all he would come away with is that there is a crazy woman on his front step warning him about his impending doom in a decade or so."
"True, but you're also a spirit. If he does somehow see you that goes a long way, and confirming your warning, who knows? If a ghost tells you you're going to die you might listen… Then again he might declare you not real and non-existent, then begin calling you Being T. That would be a full circle of your life wouldn't it? Get murdered and piss off a being of supreme power becouses you reject their existence then have a chance to prevent your murder only to have yourself piss you off because they don't believe you exist."
Tanya made an annoyed and concerning noise because Tasha was hitting the nail right on the head there and there wasn't much she could say to counter it.
"Well as true as that statement might be the initial hurdle is 'would he have the spiritual power to see me'? Assuming no then there's no reason for me to look further into this possibility to prevent my own murder even if it isn't going to prevent my own murder. …This is getting into temporal mechanics isn't it?"
"Yeah," Tasha said, "but I doubt the time-space continuum would care if you saved yourself from an alternate reality before they died, though it is a little bit confusing."
Before Tanya could respond the light changed and she began to cross the street organizing her thoughts. Looking around she noticed the height of the buildings was lowering as they got further away from what she assumed was the center of Naruki city. She must be entering the outer region of Karakura town now.
"And that probably means you're close enough to do a little bit of a spellcraft to find Rukia don't you think?" Tasha proposed.
Agreeing, Tanya pulled up a locator spell of sorts. It was meant to help her find the spiritual signal of a soul reaper, something she's been working on and was based on mage signature tracking. Bringing up a holographic screen to better be able to view the spell as it functioned she did a quick check, but she found nothing.
That was concerning. By placing what she remembered Rukia's energy pattern into the formula to be like from the last time they had met she should have easily popped up. The shinigami signature as she called it would not have changed that drastically.
"Perhaps there's some sort of interference jamming the signature from working correctly," Tasha proposed, sounding as if she was talking from over Tanya's right shoulder as she looked at the same thing Tanya was.
"Perhaps, but then all I would need to do is take off the signal search and just look for soul reaper power. Rukia is the only soul reaper here so that should be an easy way to find her," she said, changing the search. As she did there was a massive spike that appeared in the search. There was a soul reaper in the town, that was for sure, but they were putting out way more energy than she'd seen while visiting the World of the Living. It was hard to estimate exactly what level the spirit power was at but if she had to forcibly guess she'd say maybe one of the weaker third seats. There were some similarities in the signature to Rukia as well but there were also major differences.
"That is odd," Tasha managed to get out.
"Odd seems like an understatement. Either Rukia has been training at a level I applaud her for or something has happened to alter her powers massively and generate large amounts of spiritual pressure."
"What could do that?" Tasha asked.
"I don't know and that's what's concerning me."
"Well do we at least know where Rukia is?"
Looking at the reaper signature Tanya gave her best guess. "The other side of town by those hills by the looks of it. Looks like we'll need to get a ride on public transportation over there after all because I don't feel like tiring myself while getting there and having to fight whatever the hell is going on."
She turned to look around for a nearby bus stop figuring she would just have to hope someone was getting on so that she could bum a ride off of it when she noticed a green-eyed girl with long brown hair looking at her from across the street, her mouth open in surprise. Something about her looked familiar until she scaled the girl down.
"Looks like finding a ride just got easier" she said before using a little bit of energy to jump across the street to avoid whatever traffic there was.
Landing next to the girl she gave a little bow and said, "Miss Ishida, long time no see."
Stepping back as she appeared to be startled by how fast Tanya had switched sides of the street she said "It's you. You're the soul reaper that saved granddad, um ah," she mumbled something for a bit before she put out her hand and said, "Akita, nice to meet you," her words stumbling over themselves as she got them out.
"Tanya," she corrected, taking the hand and shaking it. "Nice to meet you again as well. I'm wondering if you can help me. You see I need to see a friend on the other side of town but being a soul reaper it's kind of hard to get access to public transportation. I kind of have to depend on the bus driver having high enough spiritual pressure to see me, which is very unlikely, however they should be able to see you if you're willing to help me get on board."
Stammering out the girl managed to say, "Yes! Yeah, I can help."
"Perfect," Tanya said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a few coins, one of the few things she managed to requisition for her trips to the World of the Living just for occasions like this. "This should cover your trip," Tanya said, handing her the coins before indicating a nearby bus stop. "Shall we wait for a ride?"
The girl nodded and walked with Tanya over to the bus stop and then asked, "you have a friend in the world of living you need to see?"
"A coworker actually," Tanya admitted. "A fellow reaper who hasn't reported in a while."
"Oh, you mean Rukia…" Akita commented.
"What," Tanya and Tasha said at the same time though only Tanya was heard. She had turned to look directly at the girl, confused at how she seemed to know exactly who Tanya was looking for. "Oh right, you're a Quincy. You probably ran into her on patrol," Tanya said, trying to make sense of the situation.
"Well, that and she goes to the same school as me, same class as well."
Having just turned away, Tanya slowly turned her head again to look at the brunette and asked carefully, "Did you just say she goes to the same school as you?"
Akita, now looking a bit concerned, nodded her head resulting in Tanya looking back at the road and thinking.
The only way Rukia could be going to school is if she had a gigai, which meant she had contacts in this world who could make her something like that. Why would she have a gigai and why would she have contacts… because she was getting ready to flee the soul society and take up life in the world of the living. That was the most likely situation, and that was the most awful situation for Tanya to be in and she had just made herself responsible for bringing back a possible runway, a runaway with friends that she might have to fight. This operation now went from a one-day thing to two or three. She would still have a meeting with Rukia to find out exactly what was going on but she wouldn't push too hard until she had a grasp on the situation. She could not risk an altercation.
Clearing her throat Tanya said, "she must have gone under deep cover for some reason," she proposed before continuing. "So tell me about who Rukia has been hanging out with. I don't want to stumble into her deep cover operation and cause a problem."
Akita nodded and began, "well she sits next to that other soul reaper Ichigo Kurosaki…"
Another soul reaper, this mission just keeps throwing more curveballs at her…
Writers note: man it has been a long time since I wrote this November is my best guess. I changed my writing style up quite a bit of sense then. And how my temptation to move over to the first person has grown… ah I might experiment with it once I write chapter 29. But anyways here is the chapter, hope I didn't break canon…. MAWHAHAHAHAHAH
Edited by: Lord Feunoyr, 1Coltsguy, Readhead
Community edited by:
Community editable doc (Chapter 26) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread
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Reviews
setokayba2n: she is in the body of an 18-year-old...
Chronolocked: probably because she playing with TNT
ivan1305as: ha doubtful that happen... unless of course I add third picture to my plans for comision things now that my patron seeing some success
Dragonaut344Doomed: thank you been working on an idea like that for while, though would be funny
Cyan Sung-Sun: older work and no beta this chapter was produced in November of last year, which means those sides' stories are nearly that old.
I move weight:.. right convenient... it not set up in the book and manga that those were ordered from down high. sure could play well she created the strategy, but it made clear in the same material that she created that plan in hopes of closing a loophole Sherman used in the civil war to bomb cities. the best argument you can make is she kinda fucked up following orders as she did, but that's kind of the point of Tanya, she followed orders, till they got her killed. also, let's not forget the CIVILIANS had taken up arms and executed prisoners of war and used churches as military installations... complaining about Tanya's war crimes, while ignoring the french war crimes is kinda a funny take.