This is a fun chapter, one that I found surprisingly difficult to get into at first. Much of (my) Visored Arc is just a very fun training montage, so I hope y'all are ready for that. Now, this chapter is a lot shorter than the others. I hope you'll forgive me for that, but the word counts of these should start climbing again after this.
Sit back, grab some tea, and enjoy!
Part I
...and thus, dispatch of the officers named below will take place in no less than seventy-two hours…
…dispatch of the officers…
…of the…
Kisuke closed his eyes tightly, a hand going up to try and rub away the tiredness and burning. He was pretty sure he'd just read that last line about five times, and he still had no idea what it said. Why did nothing seem to be sinking in today?
How much trouble would I get in for just signing the paper right now, not even bothering to finish reading it, he thought.
The moment he thought it his brain was shooting down the idea with little remorse. It would be just his luck that hiding somewhere in this document was yet another budget cut for his division. He quite literally couldn't afford something like that right now.
A part of him yearned for the days when he had a Lieutenant to take up some of the burden.
Another part of him had nothing to say to that Lieutenant other than good fucking riddance, and dear gods his headache was back again.
Kisuke kicked back from his desk, practically melting into his rolling chair. Those thoughts reminded him of something that he'd really rather not, a certain piece of paperwork that he'd been perpetually keeping at the bottom of the pile for nearly the last week.
The Captain Commander had been bothering him about it, too, bringing it up at just about every meeting (and boy were there plenty of meetings, with poor Karakura town being flooded with so many Hollows lately). So, it seemed like just about every day Kisuke was being bothered about when he'd finally get started on the search for Kurotsuchi.
He was allowed to bring whomever he wanted to assist (within reason). All that he needed to do was bring that bastard here (ready and willing to help, specifically) within three weeks. It'd make for an easy mission if they were talking about anyone but Kurotsuchi, here.
His old Lieutenant was a crafty man, and the two had separated on just about the worst terms possible. Finding the man would be incredibly difficult. Convincing him would be completely impossible.
Shaking his hair out (and realizing briefly that he really needed a shower) Kisuke tried to think this out. To understand a problem as a whole you needed to know its components. Problem number two can come later. First, he needed to solve problem number one.
He knew he needed a tracker for this job, and not just any tracker. Obviously, Yoruichi would be his first choice, but he doubted he could get her approved. Her status in the Soul Society, while better than before, still floated somewhere between "not quite enemy number one" and "well, we guess you're not a criminal." He needed a second choice, here.
Kisuke's eyes drifted back to his paperwork and the mountain it made on his desk. Maybe his second choice could be conveniently forgetting to file the mission paperwork due to all this other shit on his desk?
With a grimace he reached over and grabbed the paper he was reading before. Procrastination saved the day again, it seemed… His eyes scanned the paper, attempting to find where he'd last left off.
…no less than seventy-two hours.
Those officers shall be: Captain Tōshirō Hitsugaya, Lieutenants Rangiku Matsumoto, Ta…
Tatsuki Arisawa…
He paused at the name, smirking to himself. That girl… She'd been quite the wild card during the Ryoka's invasion.
He still remembered when Yoruichi told him the news, how this Lieutenant had found the hideout so easily. His jaw had just about hit floor, but Yoruichi, she'd looked pleased of all things. In that moment, he'd felt a little bad for the girl. Yoruichi's been known to be… demanding of her pupils.
Kisuke's eyes widened.
"Jintaaa!" he called.
The boy poked his head around the corner looking incredibly annoyed.
"What?" Jinta asked curtly.
"Make a call to the Sixth for me. I need to speak with Miss Arisawa."
The boy stared at him eyes narrowed. "…Fine," he eventually said, "but at least tell me why."
"Just," he paused momentarily, glancing back at the one paper stuck at the bottom of the pile, "tell her it's important. With a wave he added, "Captain Commander stuff."
Jinta rolled his eyes so hard Kisuke was surprised they didn't pop out of the boy's skull. Grumbling to himself, he stalked away, either in search of the nearest Jigokuchō or to bully Ururu into doing it for him. Either way, it looked like this was getting done sooner than Kisuke first thought.
Dread settled deep into his stomach.
Part II
Briiiiiing!
Barely a second after the bell rung, students started chattering, their relief of the finished week nearly visible. The teacher tried to speak over them and clarify the weekend's assignments, but it was all for naught. In the middle of all this was Rukia, stuffing books and papers into her bag before slinging it quickly over her shoulder.
"Hey," Renji said in a hushed tone beside her, "you going to the, uh, 'hideout' again?"
"Mm-hm," she hummed. "I'm going to try and talk to it today." Even just saying those words increased her anticipation (or was that just anxiety?). She'd only been waiting twenty-four hours, but to her it might as well have been weeks.
"I should probably wish you good luck then," he said offhandedly. Renji reached for his own bag, short sleeve of his uniform riding up slightly. A cold jolt went through Rukia's stomach. Instead of clear skin, or even tattooed skin she caught a peek of bandages wrapped around his bicep and disappearing into his shirt.
What Rukia was thinking must have been plain to see because Renji reacted immediately.
"I didn't get this from fighting!" he exclaimed. He scratched the back of his neck, eyes averted. "I just thought, since my powers come from my tattoos 'why not get more?'"
Rukia's eyes went to the ground, embarrassed. "Oh," was all she could get out before she started heading for the door. Renji followed behind her with quick steps.
"So, yeah," he started awkwardly, "it's nothing to worry about."
She pursed her lips. "But… you'd tell me if it was, right?"
"Was…" he trailed off an eyebrow raised. Rukia turned to him sharply.
"You'd tell me if it was something to worry about, right?"
For a moment he stopped, eyes wide. He brushed it off quickly with a smirk and a scoff. "I can handle myself, you know. Just stick to worrying about your training."
She held his stare for a good few seconds, challenging, but he didn't back down and probably never would. In the end, she just let out a sigh, turning back around and walking forward again.
"Well, someone has to worry," she said with a pout. "You certainly won't."
"Yeah, yeah, hypocrite."
Rukia let a hint of a smile crawl on her face. She forced it down the second they reached the school gates.
"Whatever," she said grumpily, "just try and still be in one piece by Monday, okay."
With a smug grin he waved her off, marching towards Kukaku's shop, somehow getting the last word in without even having to speak. Rukia had to resist the urge to roll her eyes as she began heading in the opposite direction.
Without Renji there to act as a filter, her mind pretty immediately went to her true problem of the day.
Twenty-four hours may not have been very long, but it was enough time for her to think over her last (and so far, only) conversation with the Hollow.
Had she thought about it enough to actually solve the problem? She really had no idea, but hopefully she'd have something of an edge when she tried again. At the very least she understood a few things that she hadn't before.
For example, she knew that the Hollow wasn't in it for the power, assuming the thing's immediate and negative reaction could be trusted. In fact, it didn't seem to want anything to do with Rukia at all. The only thing it did want was…
…was…
And that was where she'd get stumped. She just couldn't figure out what it wanted. What she needed here were clues, of which she had plenty. She just needed to use them.
The Hollow seemed to like its hostile takeovers, having hijacked both her and Sode no Shirayuki on several occasions. It's also saved Rukia's life multiple times, even though it seems to hate her. It was almost as if the Hollow was saving her body for… itself.
…Wait a minute…
Eyes widening Rukia hurried towards the hideout. She got plenty of strange stares from random pedestrians, but she ignored them all. Only one thing was on her mind, then.
With barely a pause she tore into the warehouse, ignoring the startled Hirako that she blew straight past. She dropped her bag, plopped right back into her spot from yesterday and didn't so much as meditate her way into her Inner World as she did force her way in.
The second she felt the sharp cold on her skin, before she even opened her eyes, Rukia spoke.
"You do know I can't give you my body… right?"
"Yeah!" it scoffed, annoyance in its eyes. "Why do you think I was trying to take it?" It said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Rukia let out a huff. "And how's that been working out for you so far?"'
The Hollow gazed at its nails, perfectly manicured as Sode's always were. "Pretty good, actually."
"What if I told Sode no Shirayuki to start fighting back, again? Would that still be good?"
"Be my guest," it said haughtily, "and watch your powers go back to shit in return."
Rukia crossed her arms, eyes averted. "If it means keeping my body, fine by me. I like having that a lot more than being a Shinigami."
The Hollow paused, eyes narrowing. "What are you getting at?"
Rukia gulped, sweat trickling down the back of her neck despite the extreme cold. It had worked.
"A deal," she finally said. "There's no way I'm just giving you control all the time, but maybe we can reach a compromise."
"What, like taking shifts," it grumbled.
"No," Rukia started. She resisted the urge to fidget uncomfortably. She'd started this bluff. It was her job to finish it. "I mean, like you come out when I want you to."
"What?" it growled. The ice beneath Rukia's legs shook slightly, tiny cracks appearing on the surface. "No goddamn way. I refuse."
"Okay," Rukia said with a measured shrug. "Then we keep on fighting each other until Aizen eventually comes and kills us without so much as a struggle."
The lack of response from the Hollow was deafening.
"…Or," Rukia continued, "we coexist, work together, and get stronger than that bastard could even imagine, but we do it on my terms."
The Hollow's nails dug into the ice, furrows showing up on Rukia's side. Rage was in its eyes.
"…And what would those terms be?"
Rukia let out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding.
"You let me summon the mask when I want," she said. "We figure out the rest together."
It sneered, "Is that really it?"
"No," Rukia said sharply. "You also have to promise me that you'll stop tormenting Sode."
The Hollow's eyes narrowed into glowing blue slits. With a flourish of its borrowed robes it stood up, head held high.
"Deal."
When Rukia's eyes opened she was back at the hideout. Yadōmaru sat above her on the couch, peeking over a racy manga cover, a single eyebrow raised.
Rukia grinned.
"You did it?" the woman asked.
"I… think," Rukia answered, standing up. She shook out the pins and needles that had settled in her calves. "I made a deal, at least."
The woman closed her book, a curious look on her face. "Try summoning your mask." For a moment Rukia was confused.
"I'm still in my human body," she said steadily.
Bringing a free hand beside her the woman gathered a visible power into her palm, and in the blink of an eye she was holding a bone white mask, a large cross cut into the front.
"And I'm in a gigai," she pointed out. "Just try it."
Rukia stared at her own hand, wondering. "Okay," she said hesitantly. "I guess I could give it a shot."
Sucking in a deep breath, she turned all her focus to her hand, pouring in power as if she were preparing an attack in her spirit body. Even trying felt odd. She was certain she would never have thought of doing such a thing on her own.
Eyes squinted, and muscles clenched, she collected what she could, and a with slump of her shoulders she realized all she was doing was making her palm a little frosty. She looked back to Yadōmaru with a frown.
"You're doing it all wrong," the woman said immediately. "You're drawing on your power like a Shinigami. You need to do it like it Visored."
"How do I do that?" Rukia asked exasperatedly.
A look of consideration came over the woman's face, then. She tapped her chin, eyes down. "Well, Shinigami only have one pool of Reiryoku to draw from, but Visoreds, we have a second one. You need to draw from that."
You need to draw from your Hollow side, she didn't say.
"I understand," Rukia said with a nod. Yadōmaru returned to her book.
Staring at her hand, Rukia tried to sift through her own power, drawing from her Hollow side. Tried was the key word, there. Her eyes fixed, she muttered to herself.
A Hollow's Reiatsu is dark. I just need to find that.
She stood up, pacing to the wall, then to the end of the couch, then around, mindlessly going around the warehouse.
I sure wish my Hollow bothered telling me how to do this, the useless squatter.
She walked for a long while, eyebrows furrowed as she stared at her hand. She wandered right to the door, weaving out of the way when it opened to Rose and Aikawa in the midst of a mildly heated argument. The two gave her a double take before walking all the way to the couch, plopping right beside Yadōmaru who gave them an icy glare from the top of her book.
"I'm telling you," Rose bit out, "that Hollow reminded me of Gido."
"And I'm telling you, it looked nothing like him."
"He had the whole one peg leg thing! Besides, it's not just about looks. Mannerisms, attitude, it was all there!"
Aikawa let out a low groan.
Rukia tapped her foot in place, eventually settling on a wide window ledge, not paying the other Visoreds any mind. She went from sitting, to lying down, to sitting upside down, all while staring at her hand.
It was near sunset when she finally stood up again, this time victorious.
"I did it!" she yelled. Her hand was in the air, clutching a fanged mask. It felt surprisingly light in spite how much chaos it was capable of causing.
"Hey, looks like the newbie's got it!" Aikawa said with a relaxed grin. Beside him Rose lowered his copy of Hunter x Hunter that he was previously using as evidence. At the moment he seemed to just be reading it.
"You should try fighting with it," he suggested. "Hiyori and Kensei are always up for a match or two."
Staring down at the mask, Rukia felt her elation turn as a bit of fear jolted in her stomach at the thought. Yeah, that idea still scared her, despite the progress.
"I'll come back for that tomorrow. I think I'd better go home, for now. I'd like to… check on my Zanapkuto, if that's alright."
"We'll be here," Rose said with a shrug. He continued his reading.
Tucking the mask into her already overstuffed schoolbag, Rukia rushed out of the hideout feeling lighter than ever.
Part III
"Welcome back to the land of the living."
"You're still here I see."
"Is there a reason I wouldn't be?"
"I can think of several."
"Well… we could always go back to how we were. Hearing you scream's a lot more entertaining than this."
"I'd like to see you try. As long as you're here Rukia's deal binds you. You're powerless."
"…"
"What? Did I strike a nerve?"
"…You're a real piece of work, you know that?"
"Ditto. Now, tell me, Hollow. You made a deal with her. Are you willing to make one with me?"
"Tch, it's as your master said. I don't exactly have a choice."
"She's hardly my… You have a lot of things to learn here, don't you?"
"Are you going to be a patronizing bitch, or are you going to say what your deal is?"
"Being a patronizing bitch is something of a pastime, but yes, I'll tell you. I'm willing to freely give you my power, no takeover necessary and absolutely none of this parasitic nonsense. You just need to play nice."
"You've… met me, right? I don't really do the whole 'play nice' thing."
"I'm sure you could learn, one way or another. Acting as Spirit guide can be quite fun, you know."
"You're… wait… are you trying to be nice to me?"
"Darn it, foiled again!"
"I will find a way to kill you."
"Look, we were both thrown in here together. Rukia believes this can work, so goddammit I'm going to try. I don't like you, but let's be honest, there's hardly any point in hating you."
"I don't like this."
"…"
"Fine. I'll play nice. Just stay out of my way."
"That's all I ask."
Part IV
At an hour so late it was nearly morning, Uryuu sat at his desk. Before him was a heavy tome, closed, and a filled notebook, open. Within the notebook were dozens, if not hundreds, of hastily written blurbs, pieces of information he'd found that were at least related to his problem.
He flipped through them, a deep frown on his face.
There was the Quincy King a man that supposedly could take and bestow powers. He wouldn't be helping any time soon, though. He'd been dead for nearly one thousand years.
Then, there was the golden sword, Gram, which is promised to either bestow powers on its user or kill them. He didn't have the nerve to try. (Not that he knew where it was.)
There were at least three cases of Quincy with power bestowed under mysterious circumstances sometime around his grandfather's generation. Notably, everyone from that generation were either dead or missing (which really just meant dead).
Things like that were what made up his notes, dead mythological figures, lost rituals, missing artifacts, and a ton of information that might be interesting if absolutely any of it was useful. The fact that those notes were all his research had amounted to in the end was downright disheartening.
Running a hand through his tangled hair, Uryuu slid off his glasses, trying to pretend that his eyes weren't burning as badly as they were.
It was during times like these that he really wished his grandfather were still here. He would know what to do, or at least what to say. He had the knowledge of a generation long past, knowledge that he hadn't had time to pass on before…
But that was wrong, wasn't it? He did manage to pass it on, just not to me.
No, no, no, he was not going there. He wasn't that desperate, yet.
Shoving the notebook in his desk drawer, Uryuu stood up from his chair, stretching his aching back. Tomorrow he could take another look at the artifacts back at the hideout. It had been a while since he'd really combed through it all. There was the possibility that he'd missed something.
Right now, he needed to take a shower.
Part V
"Sode!"
Rukia's voice echoed down the icy lake. Her eyes darted around, down to her reflection, towards the dark sky, and finally–
"You don't have to yell."
Rukia spun around, seeing Sode no Shirayuki, standing before her, a smirk on her lips.
"You're okay," Rukia sighed out.
"Of course, she is," a voice scoffed. "I keep my word, human."
Eyes briefly widening, Rukia looked down at the ice only to see the Hollow in Sode's reflection. The Hollow waved at her cheekily. Her eyes went back to Sode, alarmed.
"Let's just say I made a little deal of my own." The Spirit tossed a lock of white hair over her shoulder. "It wasn't too hard, really."
"She's a lot better at it than you, ya know," it said, deadpan. Rukia wasn't quite sure who the Hollow was referring to.
"So… it'll just be there now, huh?"
"As stubborn as a cockroach, she is," Sode sighed, "but it seems our resident Hollow can learn."
She…? Rukia decided to go along with it.
"What deal did you make with… her."
Sode's lip's pursed. Her eyes went down to the Hollow, a pointed look making it across. The Hollow rolled her eyes.
"It's hard to put in terms you could understand," the Spirit tried.
"Not that hard. What, are humans real slow or something?"
Sode sent her a glare. Her eyes went back to Rukia. "You'll find out soon enough," she said simply.
"Got it…" That wasn't the most comforting thing Sode could have said, especially considering what she was going to do tomorrow.
She looked back up at her Zanpakuto, the Spirit's eyes still trained on her. There was an odd look in them, one that Rukia couldn't quite describe.
"What?" she asked hesitantly.
Sode blinked, almost like she'd been unaware she was giving that look at all. "It's nothing," the woman said. "Just try to remember our goal."
Rukia grinned. "I guess the work's just begun, huh?"
"That might be putting it lightly," Sode said with a smile.
The Hollow groaned suddenly, throwing her hands up in the air. "I can't take any more of this crap! We get it. You're a big damn hero. Goodbye!"
A burst of cold air hit Rukia square in the face, forcing her eyes closed. When she opened them, she was back in her room, sitting on the floor. A wide grin was on her face.
Alone in her room she cheered silently, aware of just how late it was. She'd made some progress today! She even managed to keep her promise, and (hopefully) regain some of her old power. Things were going right for once.
Hello, my dear sweet users. As some of you know I've been cross posting this entire fic over at AO3. I've been using that sight for a while, and while not perfect, I think it's great. For example you can do things like moderate comments, which due to one bad cookie here has become a necessity. (You can check this fic's review page yourself to see what I mean.)
I'm not gonna move there permanently without warning, though, and certainly not if you guys aren't cool with it. So yeah, are you cool with it? And for those of you that have been here since the Rose Garden days back in middle school, do you want me to cross post that, too?
Tell me what you think. (Your reviews give me life and I am starved for human contact.)
Have a nice day!
