chapter 26

people milled about and yoruichi moved through the crowd like she belonged there, like she had always been a part of this societal group, the masks they all wore helped to she supposed but body language and the right dress could get you a long way in her experience. It had taken time, resources and effort to get her this far with how cautious these people were being. It made full sense given they were essentially at war with the shinigami of the seireitei lead by a man who was quickly become a legend in his living life time, to make matters worse for them, they were losing. The recent destruction of the southern reclamation army could be seen as a victory but these people had been around and held power long enough to know it was only a setback while the shinigami still took the field against them. What did it matter if they they killed a few hundred? A thousand? The shinigami had abilities beyond human and the balance of souls was roughly equal to the population of human souls in the living realm that numbered in the billions. This was far to small a tip of the scale, to small a victory and they all knew it, its why they had met. They needed better weapons, they needed better trained troops and they needed a unified plan, most of all they needed time. byakuya had them scampering for answers to these questions. The man had moved in like an oncoming storm over the past few weeks making use of his centuries of experience that ichigo lacked and gave no signal of so much as a slowing of his pace. He had coordinated with the fujiwara to levy the enormous resources of the seireitei and the districts they controlled to move in food, water and material, and while the people liked the extra sustenance and easier living they were unwilling to stand with the keepers of the balance just yet, they were getting scared of the escalation. Another fear for them to work through, but they would work through it, and come out the other side more loyal to seireitei then ever before. At this point the only great clan not directly involved was the ottori and there was rumblings in the distance they were up to something, this was all so different to any time this had been tried before, it had an air of permanence, of relentless determination. youruichi almost wanted to laugh. If it had been her orders this whole meeting would be dead, even their bodies wouldn't be found if she so wished it but ichigo had a different idea. She considered it a bit naive of him but ichigo didn't want to paint the image of them being a knife in the dark. She could see the benefit of this though, she had ordered and lead such missions before, this way they had access to the major high level planning sessions and as long as ichigo didn't overplay his hand they would never notice till it was far too late. Really she was just happy to be plying her trade to her full ability again, the lack of blood was a nice bonus. yoruichi shifted her attention as the crowd was settling in for the talks. The first thing to catch her gaze was the clothing the arrangers of this get together wore, that sort of quality material was only readily available in the inner districts, or the seireitei.
'well that removes any doubt' she almost rolled her eyes behind her plain mask, the first rule was you had to dress the part, this clearly wasn't an overseer of the shihouin though she wouldn't write them off as just staying in the background.
"ladies and gentleman of esteem" the apparent leader began and this time she did roll her eyes, this wasn't just failure it was gross overconfidence.
"we all know why we are gathered here today, we need a plan to counter the shinigami invasion of our rightful lands, we need equipment to counter their power"
"we all know you're interested in your long term bottom line" a rather grumpy sounding man said loudly from behind yoruichi.
"come now, does it matter why we are doing this? If the shinigami win we all lose regardless of our different goals. Not all nobility is bad, most of the biggest, widest reaching projects in rukongai are funded and managed by the nobility" the host replies, the smile could be heard behind the mask.
"I would bet my hairy left testicle you lot had nothing to do with any of it. If the shinigami weren't just as bad I wouldn't be here, we will build rukongai how we want it to be and seireitei can be damned you lot included" the same voice rang out. The crowd responded with a variety of cheers and condemnations.
"then it is agreed, we need to set aside out historic clash of, business interests, to deal with the larger threat or none of us get what we want" the host replied with a laugh. yoruichi tuned slightly to set eyes on the man behind her, perhaps she could find some people to sway away from this cause. Not directly of course, that was far to risky but getting the right people in the right place could be done. He was an old giant of a man with dark skin and grey white hair. Ah now that was interesting, she had heard of this man. He was known as a revolutionary against seireitei and the nobility both and ran a large scale operation out in south rukongai with tendrils reaching into the east and west districts, a large enough reach that it wouldn't be all too far off to call him the disputed ruling warlord of the south though he was known to keep his operations away from seireitei proper and had no great influence in the last to five to ten districts to focus on his opponents. Going by the rather simple title of "old man". His operations were known to be a bit different to the typical sort. He refused all trade in slaves or drugs, instead he was known more for the smuggling of other addictive goods such as alcohol, tobacco and coffee, little of which would be considered a crime if not for the methods he used to obtain the stuff in the first place. He was also known to be involved in the weapons trades as well as bribery, extortion, forgery and general corruption with only limited theft, kidnapping and murder involved. yoruichi knew why he had been let into the meeting given his open hostility towards the nobility. Because he had principles that could be used to undermine or control him, the people on stage saw him as a controllable threat and they weren't entirely wrong with how far they and the other warlords would go to get what they wanted. She felt they were underestimating him though. The same principles that they could exploit made his territories stable and his soldiers highly loyal and motivated. The Old Man had gotten to the top through a series of brutal turf wars with anyone around him, and he had won them all with the dedicated and drilled forces he commanded. That same force had destroyed the southern army with the sudden use of guns. They had been baffled trying to figure out how so much equipment had flowed to the north and south rukongai without their notice, till they made the connection the old man had received no aid yet from the group on stage, and was crafting his own. This man would be byakuyas primary opponent.
The other big player, one she was deliberately keeping her eye on was down towards the front. He was a small man of European lineage who got where he was through a mix of brutality and military skill, he was known as "The Director". The man had a record displaying it all, skill with logistics, improvisation, tactics, intelligence and long term strategy, and unlike the Old Man, no one challenged this mans rule. He had brought the violent, fractious north under control by sheer ability, brutality and fear, and it worked. ichigo had been up against him since he first marched out through the black ridge gate into the north rukongai though The Director clearly hadn't taken it too seriously, that was about to change. He had a hand in everything, nothing that could be profited off in some way was ignored. This had a twofold effect, anyone under him was either very angry, very broken or very happy depending on who profited and who suffered, and he was very very rich. Assassination could be a good option here as much as ichigo hated the idea. The instability and infighting his death would bring could be exploited, she just had to find a way to convince ichigo to give the order and they could work part the targets understandable paranoia to get at him. His forces were known to be vast and eclectic, ranging from the conscripted mobs ichigo had faced so far to professional mercenary soldiers and well paid specialists in just about every area military, scientific and material. This was ichigos primary enemy, and yoruichi hoped he would be up to the task and not destroy himself in the process.

Chad walked another street, once again with the rookies at his back. He had to find a way to ditch them. They were his friend too, but there was only so much he would willingly get them involved in. He could feel more and more of his own kind the more he looked. They just didn't know what they were, hadn't been trained, likely hadn't even discovered what they could do. ichigo wanted shinigami drop outs and raw volunteers...it Was nice of him to want to give them a go, give them a chance...but If he could get something better to act as the core, then it would all go so much smoother. A new order to form the heart of a new shiba militia. A new order of law keepers who could stand up to criminal and hollow both, or so he hoped. But first he had to ditch the B team, seireitei was untrusting of new powers and he would not let them take the risk. And he had to think. Things weren't as he expected them to be, as he had been taught they should work. His people were identified by a flash of green light, that tiny bit of hollow reiryoku in their bodies, in their souls. So why was it that he found that further out, but near the seireitei he felt sparks of bright crimson?

...
uryu wandered the streets with the bright haired masaki leading the way. His grandfather wouldn't be part of the society he was about to meet,, and never would have been even if his soul hadn't been torn up by kurotsuchi. The gemischt had their own ways now and they did not welcome echt openly. masaki was a known exception, perhaps the only exception. He held hope for his mother though, though he doubted he would be welcomed.
"there are some things you must understand before we meet them uryu-kun, that i would like you to pass on to ichigo when you get the chance" masaki said as she stepped of the main streets.
"and what would that be?"
masaki sighed "that we don't have any power left, we aren't quincy anymore."
uryu blinked "bullshit"
"im afraid you will have to accept it" the woman said giving a sad resigned smile
"and i say again, bullshit. The power is in your blood, in your very soul. It is yours regardless of what legend says of where it first come from. i have lost my own power before, as has ichigo and we both recovered. What you should be saying is that you haven't yet discovered a way to restore them.
"im afraid we have tried, but everything has failed"
uryu grit his teeth at he blatant surrender before stalking up to her and reaching reaching into her soul with his senses.
"uryu-kun your being rather rude about this" she said as she shifted under his gaze
"shut up and stay still. We didn't put in all this effort just to throw it away now, so just shut up and stay still"
after a few moments he pulled out what appeared to be a phone to send a message equaling a medical report in detail.
"uryu, what is that?"
"you may have died young kurosaki-san, but i would think even you would recognize a mobile phone."
"yes, i do, but soul society doesn't have them...and i remember them being a bit bigger."
uryu gave her a hard look "and just why do you think i went through all the trouble of tracking you down through the vast territories of rukongai, kurosaki-san?"
masaki shifted again, this conversation was not going how she expected it to
"why else? To track down family."
"then you would be wrong. As hard as this may be to hear both ichigo and myself have gotten used to life without a mother" masaki winced "i am here on political and military matters. To extend an offer of reconciliation, aid and an alliance from the shinigami of seireitei on the direct orders of yamamoto soutaichi. i can feel where i have to go now, lead on or get out of my way"

...

zangetsu stood calmly atop his pole in the sideways world he inhabited, the hollow stood right across from him face to face.
"how long are you going to keep lying to yourself zangetsu. Do you really think he hasn't noticed? That he even cares what you've done?" the hollow asked
zangetsu didn't reply
"quiet as usual huh? Well let me ask some questions you already know the answer to. On that night it all started...where Did the sword come from? ...where Did the shihakusho come from? ...how long will you keep lying to yourself?"
the silence echoed
"you know the difference between you and me? I'm made of bone and cover it with a mask, but you have flesh to cover the bone...if i rip away that flesh to look at the bone i wonder what i would find".

A/N so much longer than normal...I cant really apologize because it was for good reasons. family has been having issues so I had to put all my focus on them and my own emotional wellbeing. It killed any desire to write (and I did try) but hopefully ive reached a point where its not dragging at me anymore.