Coming battle
The Shop was in total silence.
With the news of Rukia being injured, Orihime and Tatsuki were the first two to arrive with Uryu and Chad following soon after.
The only noise as they waited for Rukia to wake up, was Hisana giggling while Ichigo toyed with her nose. The others contemplating the issue and occurrence of Sode no Shirayuki attacking Rukia. The voice of Orihime cutting through the tense silence gained their attention.
"Rukia's awake" moving after Ichigo as he moved to Rukia's side, Kisuke stood in silence as Rukia was set up to hold Hisana, the mother's face softened in relief.
Moving to sit beside Ichigo, Kisuke spoke.
"So, Kuchiki… what happened on the other side?" looking to the others while holding Hisana protectively, Rukia spoke with a frightened look on her features.
"It was a nightmare…"
Closing her eyes while pulling Hisana closer, she continued.
"A man, or Zanpakuto, whichever one he was, named Maramusa came into the Seireitei… he claimed that Shinigami will no longer rule of Zanpakuto and that they will rule over us instead. It had gotten worse when Hisana's Zanpakuto spirit manifested when the fighting had gotten so intense in the seireitei…" turning to ichigo, the teens eyes frowned in worry at her next words.
"When Maramusa witnessed this… he practically ordered all children of the Shinigami to be brought to him, saying the young ones will be set free… Ichigo, Unohana nearly went on a kenpachi like rampage when Ryuji was close to being taken" seeing Ichigo narrow his eyes, he took a slow breath before calming himself, though his knuckles were pale from the tightness.
"When do we go there?" startling the others as he stood, Rukia spoke.
"ichigo, if you go who know's what will happen if Yamato or Kuro is taken from you?" looking down in thought, Ichigo was about to defend his future actions until the door was thrown open by Loki who had a serious expression.
"I'm only going to ask once… what the fuck did I miss while I was out of town, the news is all over the fact pillars of ice are near the river" staring at Loki, the sight of a woman in civilian clothing moving from behind him made Uryu and Ichigo tense up in alarm.
"Loki… why is their a quincy with you?" turning to Kisuke with a frown, Loki turned to Bambietta as she admired the shops interior, he moved to her side to speak softly.
"Bambi, we agreed you'd stay outside until I was ready for introductions?" turning to her saviour with an amused smile, the quincy spoke while softly tapping his nose.
"Got bored" sighing while rubbing his eyes, Ichigo turned to Kisuke.
"Weirdness aside we need to head over and help them, Loki might have an idea on who this Maramusa guy is?" turning to the wolf as he stepped into the room, he had a pair of reading glasses on his head while looking into a glowing book.
"Maramusa is the Zanpakutō of a disgraced Kuchiki, a Koga Kuchiki to be precise, he married into the clan and the power of his Zanpakutō got to his head" snapping the book shut, Loki held his right hand out to show a charm forming from ashes, a look of concentration on his face, he spoke.
"I haven't really tested this out but it should protect Ichigo from losing Yamato or Kuro" tossing the totem to Ichigo, the Totem showed itself to be of a small howler monkey.
"Should?" looking to Loki he merely gave a shrug.
"This is the first time I've tried making a countermeasure to Maramusa, the last few times I went through this scenario I merely talked it out with my Zanpakutō until we agreed on something" staring at Loki as he gained a sad frown at a memory, Rukia spoke.
"Was it all the same?" turning to Rukia with a frown, Loki spoke.
"No, one time Yama-jiji's Zanpakutō got tired of the fighting… so it burnt the entire Seireitei to ashes, only a scant few survived but even than the scars remained… the world barely avoided the apocalypse, when I tracked down Byakuya's remains after that shit storm, I went straight to Koga's cell and tore his head off. I had to leave that world because it began to crumble to nothingness beyond my abilities" sighing as he crossed his arms with his eyes closed, Loki's face flashed with a black and white mask for a split second until he looked up.
"We have two scenarios at this crossroads, one we stay here and it gets worse, or the other we go to help and fix this shit before it goes further down to shit" seeing them look amongst themselves, ichigo spoke.
"My kids are already being targeted by a crazy Zanpakutō, You can bet I'm going to keep them safe" grinning at the teen, Loki was about to speak his approval until the voice of Yoruichi spoke calmly.
"Good, cause only a few captains are still standing after that fiasco" turning to Yoruichi as she entered the room, she sat down on a cushion beside Ichigo.
"And only a few seated officers are able to keep up the fight" turning to Kisuke, the man sighed.
"I'll have a Senkaimon open tomorrow, right now we need to let Kuchiki-san recover" nodding in agreement, Ichigo was about to address the others until all but Kisuke, ichigo, Loki and Yoruichi jumped as Masaki formed alongside Yamato.
"We have a question for Loki-san, before we all leave to prepare?" turning to the mother of ichigo, Loki gave a nod in greeting.
"Go ahead"
"Would the separation work on me seeing as I am Ichigo's quincy powers?" turning to Loki as he frowned in thought, the frown deepened further as the mask returned.
"No… I'm seeing many timelines and new dimensions I am not seeing ones with ichigo's quincy aspect being separated from him." looking up to the duo, Yamato spoke with a serious look to his eyes.
"We're safe to use that if need be"
