Justice for the Soul

Chapter 4

Connections in the Afterlife

The group of Sui-Feng, Batman, Diana, and J'onn were walking through the dark pathway between the living world and Soul Society, it was dark and quite creepy looking to Diana and J'onn, but only Diana showed or voiced it, "is the pathway always this… dark and haunting?"

"Yes, though only the dead go by faster than any other and don't realize they have gone through, us soul reapers must travel through to get to the living world form Soul Society," Sui-Feng said as they finally stepped through the other side to see a large and sunny area with white towers. "This is Soul Society, we're in the headquarters for the thirteen court guard squads, the Seireitei," she raised her hand and a ninja with a book on his head appeared out of nowhere and bowed before the captain of the second squad, "tell the head captain that I've brought them." The ninja disappeared and they began walking again, they appeared on a marble walkway so they continued to go straight, "I'll assume the woman will need a change of clothes so as we wait for word from the head captain I'll have one of my men bring her something."

J'onn was a little confused as to why she would say that while Batman knew why, they remained stoic even with J'onn raising an eyebrow at the comment, Wonder Woman was a different story, "what's wrong with what I have, is it unsatisfactory to wear this in front of your head captain?"

Sui-Feng looked back at her and saw that she was seriously asking that question, she sped up a little bit while giving the dark knight a look to speed up as well, they fell in step a few paces ahead of the group, "is she seriously oblivious to what her outfit looks like," Sui-Feng asked.

"Yes, her culture is from the Greek era, their clothing style was less modest than what the current era is used to, her island never grew out of it while they were isolated from the rest of the world, the island was the fabled paradise island Themyscira, home to the Amazons," Batman replied.

"So she has no sense of what her outfit looks like to others," she asked and he shook his head, "very well, we'll just wait until it's decided when the head captain wishes to meet with you," she stated until a black butterfly came and whispered into her ear at a tone only she could hear. Sui-Feng turned to them as the butterfly flew off, "it seems the head captain has decided to hold a captains meeting for you to attend, you'll all be meeting all the captains and acting captains, if any of you have behavior problems, I suggest you refrain from showing them."

She turned around to walk back with the other three following her, Batman did speak up though, "you don't have to worry about that, I picked them because they were best suited for diplomatic missions, Diana is a princess that was trained in diplomacy and J'onn is a pacifist by nature."

"That was quite clever of you, I suggest in showing that same foresight when meeting with the head captain, he has a temper on him at times and is regarded as the strongest soul reaper in history, show the same foresight and you'll get on his good side," Sui-Feng suggested.

Diana and J'onn just looked at each other then looked back at the walking pair, neither was going to say anything, but Diana had enough and whispered to J'onn, "I'm not familiar with man's world, but is this what they call flirting," she asked and got a small shrug in return.

"I've dealt with similar type of people in the past, I know my way around them easily enough, and the other two are at least intelligent enough to hold a conversation with someone of similar age since J'onn is quite old himself and Diana is from a race of immortals," Batman informed stoically.

"You sure are trusting of me with this information, I could always use this to my advantage in battle, you should be more tight lipped than this in regards to your team's secrets," Sui-Feng chastised him, Batman was being chastised and Diana had to hold in her laughter at it.

"Not really, the only thing you really know is that Diana and J'onn are both old, Diana comes from a warrior race while J'onn is more peaceful in nature and therefore would prefer not to fight if he can help it, there isn't anything you can do with that knowledge," Batman stated as if it was fact.

"You know, it's a little concerning that they aren't even bringing us into the conversation that we are clearly listening to, I think they are flirting," Diana whispered to J'onn as they walked inside a building with the symbol for one on it, a one inside of a diamond style square.

"You seem to be quite a bit smarter than what I first thought," Sui-Feng commented as they walked along a wooden path where a stone courtyard was shown, the other side showed two other people in white shihakshos walking along the path before turning left and meeting them.

"Aw, so these must be from the group the old man called this meeting about," one of the men said, he was long haired brunette that had a small braid in it, over his white shihakusho he wore a pink floral pattern kimono covering and had on a straw hat with a flower on the top.

"I hear you took on an arrancar hand to hand and defeated it, that was quite the feet," the other man said, he had long white hair falling loosely behind him, he had on a standard white shihakusho with nothing else added, though he did look quite weak in the eyes, unhealthy weak.

"Captain Kyoraku, captain Ukitake, good to see you are well, you should head inside, introductions will be made at the meeting," Sui-Feng suggested, she obviously didn't like one of the two men given her tone was really harsh, more than likely Kyoraku given him eyeing Diana.

"Now Sui-Feng, you should really lighten up, conversation with who you're meeting with beforehand can be a great benefit, lets people get to know one another so they can know what to expect before any misunderstandings happen," Kyoraku wisely said with a kind smile.

"However you do have a point, the meeting will be starting soon, everyone else is already inside," Ukitake said with a small blush at Diana's attire, seriously, did she not know the word of modesty, he was no stranger to women showing a little skin, but that outfit pushed past that quite a bit.

The two captains left after that and went into a room to the group's left, "I swear that if Kyoraku doesn't stop that I'm going to have his lieutenant stomp his balls off," Sui-Feng growled out, "stay here until you're called in," she ordered the three before going in herself.

Batman eyed everything and took notice of their position and the ninja that were watching them from the roof, they were hidden well, but not well enough not to be spotted with his eyes, Diana and J'onn mustn't have seen them though, either that or were acting oblivious on purpose. "Enter," a rough and old voice ordered, all three nodded to each other and walked in with Batman up front, Diana walking behind on his left and J'onn walking behind on his right, inside was a meeting hall that was plain looking with two rows of people standing on each side.

In the center was a bald man sitting on the only chair leaning on an old cane as he watched the trio enter, on the far end beside the old man's left side was Sui-Feng, beside her was a black haired woman in twin tails tied into front braids and a stoic look on her face that hid a smile. Next to her was a man that seemed to give Batman a run for his money in brooding, he had hair ornaments and wore a white scarf, next to him was Kyoraku, then a gap between him and blue haired man with face paint that made him look ten times creepier, not scary, just creepy. On the other side was where the differences in attire were shown, first was a blonde man with bangs covering one of his eyes, then a space between him and a werewolf, then a scared man, man with bells at the end of his head, and then finally Ukitake in the last spot.

"Welcome, strangers, to the Seireitei, this is the captains meeting room, I am head captain Yamamoto, to my right in order are captains Sui-Feng, Unohana, Kuchiki, Kyoraku, and Kurotsuchi, they are captains of squads two, four, six, eight, and twelve. To my left are Lieutenant Kira, captain Komamura, lieutenant Hisagi, captains Zaraki, and Ukitake, they are in charge of squads three, seven, nine, eleven, and thirteen," Yamamoto stated with the same rough and old voice they heard before.

"This is Diana, princess of the amazons from paradise island Themyscira," Batman introduced gesturing to his left side where Diana stepped up and bowed, "this is J'onn J'onzz, a martian and the last of his race," gesturing to J'onn who followed Diana's actions in giving a small bow. You could faintly hear Kurotsuchi mumbling that he owed Kisuke tons of money now, "I'm Batman," he gave a bow himself and raised back up to find that the other captains and two lieutenants were staring at him with a quirked eyebrow, he chose to ignore it.

"I suspect that is as much information we're going to get about who you are," Yamamoto guessed and received a nod in return, "I suppose I can't force trust immediately, but on to business, I have been told that you have gone against an Arrancar on equal ground and won, by yourself."

"I fought a monster after the rest of my group went against it and couldn't do anything, after the heavy hitters got in their ineffective shots, each consisting of different forms of enhanced strength ranging from magically enhanced to biologically enhanced, I stepped forward and acted. I had no real trouble fighting him and decided there was an x-factor that was not present in the others, could have been anything, it was at that time when Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihouin stepped into the picture to finish the monster off," Batman reported like he was a soldier.

There was a moment of silence before Yamamoto picked up a random pebble someone tracked in and found its way to his side and threw it and hit Kyoraku in the temple, "that's how you submit an actual report Shunsui, not 'meh, some stuff happened but it was taken care of', like last reported." Two captains had to hold in their snickers at the scolding, Zaraki and Kurotsuchi to be exact, the others wanted to laugh as well given how there was a shift in their posture slightly, but Batman chose to ignore it while Diana and J'onn took a different approach and had sweatdrops at the report. "Now, as Kisuke no doubt explained to you, the x-factor you are referring to is known as reiatsu, spiritual power that comes from a strong soul and often years of training, a few circumstances must be met before you can even begin to access your reiatsu though. Somehow you must have accomplished these requirements in your own dimension and allowed you to access it fully here, before you could only access part of it probably giving you a presence that others found unapproachable, here you can access far more and probably have it when you return."

"Yes, Kisuke did explain this to us, also explained why some of the powers my team had was ineffective against them, their power has nothing to do with the soul that these beings are powered by," Batman informed, also left out the part that only him and Shayera could use it.

"Very good, Sui-Feng," Yamamoto called roughly and the captain stepped forward, "you are to take Batman and train him yourself, from what I've been told he is closer to your combat style than the others, take him away after this meeting," he ordered and she nodded. "Now, from the preliminary report that I've received, the one known as J'onn J'onzz could be classified as your team's medic, correct," they nodded to the question, "then Unohana will take you under her care while Diana will go to squad six for some training."

"With all do respect captain, I'd prefer not to take care of the woman, her clear lack of her own attire shows her ignorance of many matters that I'd prefer not to waste my time teaching her," captain Kuchiki commented with a stoic face and the same tone that Batman uses.

Diana was about to retort when someone else interrupted, "I wouldn't mind taking her," they all turned to Hisagi as he spoke, "my squad could use some more actual fighters, there aren't that many left, so an amazon with ancient combat styles could be a big help to us."

Yamamoto seemed to be pondering this as he stroke his beard, it took a little bit, but he finally came to a conclusion, "I'll allow it, your squad's combat ability has been diminished lately and an amazon warrior could help with that, and your own nature could help how she dresses."

"What's wrong with how I dress," Diana asked out loud, the others just stared at her for a moment before there was a chorus of 'nothing', all in a deadpan exhausted way, she looked around confused before just shrugging off that question, "why split us up at all?"

"If we put you in only one squad then your team that will be staying here won't really learn anything, if we split you up then each of you could learn something, Batman will learn how to use his power effectively so that he's not blindly using it and attracting too much attention. J'onn J'onzz can learn from our own medic on different healing techniques that could help them, as well as also give his own knowledge and experience to her as well, and you can learn more combat techniques and possibly teach others what you know," Yamamoto stated.

"That is a very kind gesture of hospitality head captain Yamamoto, thank you," Batman said with a bow before Diana had time to make her own comment, she was about to say something about being able to do that in the same squad, until Batman talked before she could ask.

"Know this though," Yamamoto said in a bit more stern tone than before, "should you attempt to betray our trust in you, all of your 'justice league' shall be utterly annihilated by the overwhelming power of the entire thirteen court guard squads, understood," the three nodded yes at the threat. "Good, this meeting is dismissed, the newcomers will immediately go to their squads, you will begin their training and grant them knowledge of how we do things, but as I'm sure they are aware, they will be watched until they have fully earned our trust, dismissed."

Everyone began to leave, minus the six that were going to be paired individually, Batman turned to observe the mostly empty room to take note and make sure of the structure of the room matched what he saw when he first entered, it did, the stone used was abnormal in nature. Sui-Feng took note of what he was doing but chose not to comment on it in front of the others, just decided to start walking and expected the Batman to follow, he did without her having to order him to, she appreciated his mind and attitude a little more now.

"Those two are definitely flirting, right," Diana asked J'onn who again shrugged because he honestly had no idea, didn't even know Batman could flirt, he only barely knew what flirting was thanks to Flash trying to get him into television shows, but Batman didn't seem like the type.

They heard giggling and turned to see Unohana standing behind them as silent as a ghost until the giggle, "I take it you're new to the world outside of the amazon culture," she asked in a pleasant voice and got a nod in return, "I think they just have similar mindsets, not flirting."

"I don't really think captain Sui-Feng even knows how to flirt with someone even if she did like him like that," Hisagi commented from just behind her with his arms crossed looking over to where the two left, the leaguers thought they might see some fear in his eyes though.

"I don't think they were when leaving Diana, but I do think they were on the way here with how they were speaking to each other casually and glancing at each other often, though I don't think they were aware of doing it consciously," J'onn theorized, though he could be wrong.

"Oh my, if that's the case then I'll need to have Sui-Feng make some appointments and check her health and see if she's able to have kids, it'll be so interesting having little ones running around disturbing the head captain," Unohana commented as she began walking away with a smile.

Hisagi leaned in close to the leaguers and whispered to them, "don't let Unohana fool you, sometimes that smile is not at all pleasant, don't do anything to upset her, that smile can turn scarier than anything you've ever faced, and I do mean anything," he gulped at the last bit.

"J'onn J'onzz, are you coming or not, there are still people that need to be treated after all so we don't have time to stand around too much," Unohana called back to the martian with a sweet smile, one that wasn't scary, J'onn nodded to Diana and left with the squad four captain.

"I guess that leaves you and me, I'll show you to our barracks, just make sure to be patient around the other squad members, they did just have their captain turn traitor after all," Hisagi commented as he began walking, Diana quickly caught up and fell into step with him.

Batman and Sui-Feng

Batman and Sui-Feng were walking the path that led to the squad two barracks, it was a simple path and didn't have much noise coming from it as they were all nothing but trained ninjas trained in the art of stealth and went through rigorous training to remain as silent as possible. You'd think that the second squad was going to be close to the first squad, but that wasn't the case, "you're wondering why we're so far from the other barracks," Sui-Feng surmised as they walked, he subtly nodded, "we're in charge of detention," that was the only explanation given.

Batman understood the reason then, keep the prisoners away from the general populous, the same rule applied in Gotham, Arkham may not be the most secure, but at least it was out of the way and away from everyone else, "any other duties that I should be aware of at the moment."

"At the moment, only one other significant duty that we perform, we are the stealth force for a reason, meaning that when necessary, we are ordered to hunt down and assassinate a target, within reason, we are able to fight on the front lines or in secret," Sui-Feng answered quickly.

"The lives that you take, I assume they are souls in this afterlife and when dead go into a cycle of reincarnation or ascend to a higher form of heaven, or do they descend down into hell," Batman asked stoically, he chose not to mention the taking of life, they were all technically dead anyways.

"Before we didn't know what happened to them, we just killed them and where they went we didn't question it, now we know more, when a soul is killed or purified they reincarnate or they go to hell, hell has no reincarnation system, so if you're sent there you're stuck," she confirmed.

They were coming on a bridge and once across they were met by two men guarding a doorway, one stuck out his palm and Sui-Feng took off her Zanpakuto and handed it to him, the man looked to Batman and Sui-Feng looked at him expectantly, so he gave up his utility belt. They continued on and went through the door, leading to a long stairway passage going down, he chose not to mention anything until they reached the bottom, inside was a room filled with people in white robes, nothing fancy or restricting but still prison garb, "where are we?"

"This is the maggots nest, Kisuke was once in charge of this place, this is where those that have proved, through their ideas and actions, they are a risk to their fellow soul reapers or became an obstruction to that squad's duties, this is where they all exist, away from everyone else. The only difference between this prison and others is that their activities are not restricted, as such, anyone who enters here must either be unarmed at the front gate, or disarmed at the front gate, no weapons can come in since they are free to roam and may make the attempt of theft. This is why all members of squad two must be proficient with hand to hand combat fighting," Sui-Feng explained before motioning him to proceed forward himself with a motion of her hand, he began walking as she talked, "your test from me is to fight all of them until none are left."

Batman continued to walk until he stopped in the center of the room where all the prisoners were eyeing him, looking ready to pounce at a moments notice, it was only when the second division captain raised her hand and bringing it back down in a swift motion that they did attack. And attack they did, they all charged Batman at once, it would be suicide to stand in one place, and the best path to solving a problem is straight on, so he ran for the man charging in front of him, and they followed like rats in a trap.

J'onn J'onzz and Unohana

J'onn J'onzz was being led through the squad four hospital by Unohana while she explained some of their duties, "we primarily provide support and relief to anyone who needs it in the other squads, using healing kido and standard surgery for the wounded, we are quite good at it."

J'onn looked around and noticed how many people were going about and treating the patients with efficiency, it wasn't a chaotic rush but a quickly learned and efficient routine that helped get the patients cared for and treated as quickly as they could, and it was a spectacular sight. "I've been in the hospitals on both Mars and Earth, but I've never seen it so orderly and at the same time the patients getting the proper care, quite impressive," he commented as he passed by an operating room with a boy performing knee surgery on another squad member.

"Yes, we try our best to be as orderly as possible while providing the quickest care possible, it's taken a lot of practice, but it helps when everyone has just one boss to keep them in line instead of a board of directors, or is the world of the living different nowadays," Unohana asked smiling.

"I believe that is how it's run in my universe, not sure about in this one though," J'onn mentioned as he looked in a room with a rowdy, what he assumed, squad eleven member, "but from what I've witnessed so far in this universe, the similarities would suggest the same running system."

"Very sound reasoning," Unohana said as she led him deeper into the hospital where the more serious cases had to be treated, "right now we don't have anything too serious because of the lack of activity to prepare for the war coming soon, but we always have a team on standby."

"We have something similar in my universe, our headquarters though are mainly run by machines, they are always on and are therefore always ready to take in patients when needed," J'onn stated as he walked in and saw what he expected to see in an old styled hospital.

"I'm sure that is mainly due to your advanced technology there, while we do have such things they are mainly from Kurotsuchi and as such we don't trust them, we use our own skill and knowledge to get the procedures done," she stated back to him with a smile never leaving her.

J'onn nodded, he too has seen the way they relied heavily on machines in his home universe, the lack of skills in actual hand-based work is becoming more apparent as the years go by, he had seen it on his own world before the invaders came, though they quickly went back to skill not machines. That war claimed many lives and aspects of their lives were destroyed, some of them however was preserved enough to revert to skills and practices that were long forgotten, one such thing was the mixing of herbs and plants, this of which brought forth the toxins that paralyzed them.

"We have been instructed to give all of you tests to see what your skills are and how they compare to ours and if there is improvement on either side," Unohana led him to a room where several dummies were laid out and ready for the test, "yours is to operate on each patient." He walked over to the areas and saw that each one had a different injury and would need a different type of treatment, "as you can see there is not a single one with the same injury, so you must find what is wrong and treat them, obviously I won't help you as you must be tested not I."

Diana and Hisagi

Hisagi's squad was quiet and not many things were going on at the moment while Diana was walking through their own barracks, they were oddly close to the twelfth division apparently because some of them looked different as compared to the rest, some even had horns. Others didn't have horns or looked to have been experimented on at all, those were all plain looking people, those that didn't stand out much and ones you wouldn't notice in an event or in a crowd of any sort, all in all they were all normal people that could pass by inconspicuously.

"Not sure if you've noticed this or not, but the 9th division is security, we are the defending force and are always on standby for combat, which is why you also see the 12th division, we need their technology to help us," Hisagi stated as they walked towards his office at the moment. Diana remained quiet as she looked around, nothing stood out to her, which was a good thing with what they did she supposed, "to help with that we are all proficient with some type of combat style, from swords to hand-to hand, we even have a few good archer types to help us."

It was clear to Diana that this was all for combat, a place to train your respective styles and to teach others, and now that she looked closer with this information, those that are there clearly help one another where needed, "I see that you are all very skilled, and you respect your styles."

"Thank you, you will be a very good fit around here, because we are also in chart of the arts and culture, so we also run the 'Seireitei news magazine'," Hisagi commented as well before opening a door to reveal a printing press and several other workers going about carrying paper all over. "You'll be a good fit because you'll give us the perspective of an outsider while you're here, spar with those that ask and also do an interview or two after reading a file," as he talked, he walked and handled several things along the way that came with practiced ease, used to all of it.

"I suppose that is fair," Diana stated as she continued to follow him until they got to a different room altogether, it was dimly lit, several different people surrounding a square sparing mat, with several different practice weapons on display around the room, ranging from swords to spears.

"You might not like this or you might not care, but the head captain told us that we have to give each of you a test, all the squads really, in case different people were brought," Hisagi stated as he moved to stand in the middle of the ring, "yours is to fight all of them in a gauntlet match. There's plenty of weapons to use during the match, and a team from squad four ready just in case more injuries are had then we'd like," he moved to the side as Diana stood within the ring and the first challenger stepped forward, a knife wielder, "this will end when I feel you're done, fight!"

Batman and Sui-Feng

Sui-Feng didn't even flinch when the sound of a loud crunch echoed throughout the cavern and a body was thrown her way and impacted the wall to her right, the impact was enough to crack it as the body slumped to the floor, she barely looked to see that as she watched the massacre. Batman was brutal yet efficient when it came to fighting his opponents, especially when his opponents were already dead he can't kill them since he didn't have a Zanpakuto and these souls didn't need purification, sad thing is that none of these prisoners seemed to put up a fight for him.

One guy came in and was hit with repeated torso strikes that just caused repeated convulsions before being tossed into another charging guy, when another came charging with an axe handle ready, he was met with a chop to the neck and literally smacked down to the ground like a fly. Batman used one guy like an object and tossed him around and into random guys easily enough before flipping over them and slamming his foot into the back of one's knee, another tried to grab the mask, but he leaned back and grabbed the arm before twisting it and breaking the limb. One that was fairly decent when it came to fighting tried for a move, but it was just dodged to the side before Batman slammed his elbow into the man's jaw and tossed him aside, it was just a one sided beatdown now, those left feeling fear at this one man beating them so easily.

"ENOUGH," Sui-Feng's voice was loud and harsh, all the prisoners backed off, those that could anyway, some were limping, and one guy had to crawl on hands and knees, "you're good Batman, probably better than most that I've seen," in private she though, 'almost as good as Lady Yoruichi.'

Batman walked forward, not even winded as he stood in front of her and said, "I've had a lot of trainers in my life, fighting is just one of the skills I've acquired," the voice was plain, and she could easily tell that he wasn't meaning it to be bragging, he was just stating a fact, that was it.

"So you can fight, you have a brilliant mind, you're naturally gifted with reiatsu and you are naturally flexible as well," She began walking around him as she was speaking and stopped in front of him while looking in his eyes, it was clear that he could do more, "what else can you do?"

At the question, he smirked, the first true emotion he had shown in the entire time and it was a smirk, not of arrogance, not of pride, and not of ambition, it was just a smirk, but one that hid an allure, a mystery she now wanted to solve, "I'll get you a list," and left to exit the maggot's nest.