Renji noticed for the first time that the halls he walked through were brightly lit. He thought it strange that he had never realized this truth about the aesthetics of the barracks of the Sixth Division of the Court Guard Squads. In the short time since he had become the squad's lieutenant, he had never had as much reason to be in such a dark mood as he was then and there.
The reason he was upset began teasing him as soon as he found her.
"Oh, what does the big lieutenant want with me?" Rukia Kuchiki said from inside her cell.
"Shut up."
"Oh, I'm sorry, lieutenant."
"I said shut up!" he yelled. "Don't you understand the position you're in?"
Rukia nodded and sat down on the one piece of furniture in her cell, a wooden chair that faced the back wall and away from the bars Renji stood behind.
"Do you think I'm really going to be executed?" she asked grimly.
"What?" Renji asked, taken aback. "No! Captain Kuchiki is meeting to discuss your sentence now. I'm sure he'll ask for some sort of clemency."
Rukia looked down. "Then I am doomed."
Renji gripped the bars of the cell tightly. "That's ridiculous! He's your brother!"
Rukia turned her head enough for Renji to see one of her eyes narrow.
"In the forty years since I joined the Kuchiki house, not once has that man looked at me."
Rukia was proven right and Renji wrong when Byakuya Kuchiki finally returned. He recited the sentence robotically, as if he had been asked to memorize it.
"The class one felon, Rukia Kuchiki, shall be sentenced to death. The sentence will be carried out twenty-five days from now through the use of the Sokyoku. This is the final decision of the Soul Society."
As Byakuya left, Renji had to grab the prison bars again to steady his shaking knees. Rukia merely turned away and stared at the wall.
Tessai climbed down the ladder into Urahara's underground training facility.
"Manager," he said, "Yoruichi has returned."
"Thank you." Urahara said in an unusually deep voice. "Toshiro, would you please go upstairs for a bit? I need to finish checking out the gate."
Toshiro, having finally learned not to question the eccentricities of Mr. Hat and Clogs, gave him a perplexed look before following Tessai back into the shop.
Just outside were Orihime and Chad.
Toshiro blinked a few times to be certain that he was not seeing things.
"What are you doing here?"
"We're here to help you." Orihime said.
"We both realize that we owe you and Rukia." Chad added.
Toshiro raised his hand, gesturing to them to stop. "So you can see me. That doesn't mean you can come with me. This is going to be really dangerous, and you two don't even have any powers."
"Neither did you, at one point." a deep voice said. "Things change."
Toshiro looked around to see who had spoken, but as far as he could tell there was no one there.
Orihime bent down and picked up a black cat. She held it up to Toshiro.
"Hello, Toshiro Hitsugaya." the cat said. "It is a pleasure to meet you at last. I am Yoruichi."
Toshiro raised both of his hands to his forehead. "Now there's a talking cat. As if my life wasn't weird enough."
"You're taking it better than I did." Chad said.
"These two have recently undergone extensive training just as you have." Yoruichi said. "You will find both of them quite capable."
"If you insist on going alone," a familiar voice said, "you're going to be sorely outvoted."
Toshiro looked around Orihime (being far too short to look over her) at the new arrival. "You, at least, I half-expected."
"I don't like living in the debt of Shinigami." Uryu said.
Toshiro analyzed him critically. Uryu was wearing the same Quincy uniform he had worn when he had first revealed himself to Toshiro and Rukia, but there was one addition, a white glove with blue stripes on only one of his hands.
"Am I to assume that you've been training yourself?" Toshiro asked.
"Of course." Uryu answered.
Toshiro looked at each of the three who were determined to become his companions on his mission.
"If we all go to the Soul Society, who'll be left to protect the town if hollows attack while we're gone?"
"Oh, you can count on us to take care of that." Urahara said from behind him, wiping his nose with a handkerchief.
"That just fills me with confidence." Toshiro muttered.
"What?" Urahara asked, acting insulted. "Don't you trust m-m-me-achoooo!"
"Are you all right?" Orihime asked.
"Yeah." Urahara said, wiping his nose again. "Yoruichi must've been talking about me a lot lately."
"Idiot." Yoruichi said, looking to the side. "I haven't mentioned your name all week."
"He caught a cold while we were training." Toshiro explained as Urahara sneezed even harder than the previous time.
"Well," Uryu said, "there's no way he's coming with us like that."
"No." Yoruichi said. "I will guide you. My knowledge of the Soul Society is about as extensive as Kisuke's."
"Well," Urahara said, his voice now higher than usual because he was speaking through a stuffed nose, "shall we get started?"
Underneath the store, Urahara revealed a large window-like structure made of hewn stone.
"This is the senkaimon. The gate to the Soul Society."
He paused to allow his guests to gaze in wonder, but even Orihime looked impatient.
"Get on with it." Yoruichi said.
"Very well. I must warn all of you that we can only keep this gate open for four minutes. You must reach the other side by then."
"And what happens if we don't?" Toshiro asked.
"You'll be-achoo! Achoo! Achoo! Achoo! ACHOO!"
Yoruichi shook his head. "And here he was doing so well. I guess I'll have to explain." He walked up to the gate and faced the four superpowered classmates.
"If you fail to reach the other end in time," Yoruichi said gravely, "you will be trapped in the space between worlds for eternity."
Toshiro bit his lip, then turned to the others. "I made my decision, but the rest of you can still back out."
"No way." Orihime said. Chad nodded.
"Don't make getting out-voted into a bad habit." Uryu said, pushing his glasses up. "You'd make a horrible politician."
The gate began to glow blue, and Urahara, having regained his composure, said "The gate is about to open. Please jump in simultaneously when it does."
They assembled right in front of the gate and waited.
"Now!" Yoruichi yelled as the light began to fade to reveal a rippling substance between the stones. The group all disappeared into the potal.
"They're off." Tessai said.
Jinta walked up to the portal. "So things are going to be pretty boring around here for a while, huh?"
"Maybe." Urahara said. "Bu-bu-bu-ACHOOOOO!"
Urahara took out his hankerchief. "That was a good one. I'm a lot less stuffed now."
He walked past a shaking Jinta, who was covered head to toe in snot.
Tessai looked him over. "Clean yourself up, young man."
"Y-yes, sir."
There was nothing but blackness, and yet they could see clearly.
"What's going on?" Uryu yelled as they ran through the precipice world between dimensions. The walls are closing in and following us!"
"If you have time to look behind you and talk," Yoruichi scolded, "then you should run faster."
No sooner had the words left Yoruichi's mouth than a liquidy tendril had shot out of the wall following them, ensnaring Uryu's cape. He screamed and struggled until Chad tore the cape off of him and lifted him over his shoulders.
"Thanks." Uryu muttered as Chad continued to run while carrying him. He was grateful that he was facing the other direction so no one could see his embarrassment.
'I didn't want to use my Heienkyaku because I couldn't carry any of them.' he thought. 'Well, maybe I could have carried Toshiro, but that would mean leaving the others behind.'
"Um, guys…" he said, continuing to look back. "There's a light heading toward us."
"It's the cleaner!" Yoruichi yelled. "Double time it! If that thing touches us we're done for!"
"I see the end!" Toshiro yelled. There was a light at the end of the tunnel that had just come into view.
"Move!" Yoruichi urged.
"We're not gonna make it" Uryu, the only one with a view of the cleaner's position, yelled.
Orihime turned around. The others yelled her name, but she paid them no heed.
"Hinagiku! Baigon! Lily! Santen Keshu! I reject!"
A triangle shaped barrier of energy appeared between them and the cleaner. The impact caused an explosion that blew the rescue party through the exit of the tunnel.
They materialized in midair and all fell to the ground painfully.
Yoruichi was the only one to land on his feet.
"What's wrong with you?" he scolded Orihime. "Turning around like that! If anything other than your shield had touched the cleaner you'd have been sucked in forever!"
"I'm sorry."
"That's enough." Toshiro said. "Orihime probably saved us all with her move. We wouldn't have gotten out if not for her."
They looked around. They had landed in an old looking straight out of feudal Japan with unpaved roads.
"So this is Soul Society." Uryu said. "It looks like it's from the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries."
"I don't see any people around." Toshiro said. The child in him could not help but think 'This is really another world!'
"They're here." Yoruichi assured him. "They're probably hiding from us because we fell out of the sky.
"This is Rukongai. It is the first place most souls go to when they die. It is a territory that surrounds the Seretei, which is where the Shinigami reside."
"There's an area over there that's paved and looks more modern." Toshiro said, pointing in the direction of the different-looking area.
"That's the edge of the Seretei."
Toshiro motioned in the direction of the Seretei. "Let's go."
The humans ran towards the Seretei, over Yoruichi's objections.
"Don't approach that place recklessly!"
A great wall came down between them and the Seretei with a loud thud.
Toshiro looked from side to side. More sections of a thirty meter tall wall were falling into place, kicking up large clouds of dust.
"They came out of thin air." Orihime said.
Toshiro nodded. "Like we did. They must hide these walls in the precipice world until an intruder shows up."
"It's actually a pretty ingenious defense system."
"Thank you, intruder. It is always nice to be complimented."
Toshiro and the others looked at the clearing smoke in front of them to find the source of the voice.
"It has been a long time since anyone has tried to breach the gate of pure souls without a pass."
Before them stood a giant, fifteen meters tall and eight meters wide. He wore Shinigami clothes.
"What is he?" Uryu asked Yoruichi. "I thought Shinigami were supposed to be the same size as humans."
"He is Jidanbou." Yoruichi said. "He is one of those chosen to guard the four great gates of the Seretei. For three hundred years he has guarded the western gate, and not once has he allowed an intruder to enter his gate."
Jidanbou raised a gigantic axe that was as thick as a man is wide.
"Who will be the first to fight me?" he asked.
Toshiro stepped forward. "I will."
"Wait." Yoruichi cautioned. "You will need a plan. It may take all of us to defeat him."
Jidanbou laughed. "I think not! In this town we have a rule: All battles are fought one on one!"
He swung his axe over Toshiro's head at the ground behind him, carving into the ground. A barrier of stones separated Toshiro from the rest of the group.
Toshiro did not react at all to Jidanbou's move. His hand slowly moved to the hilt of his sword.
Behind the stones Jidanbou had thrown up, Chad and Orihime were crouching, preparing for action.
"I'm going to punch a hole right through this rock." Chad said. "The moment I do, you use your attack. He won't be prepared for it."
"Right."
"What are you whispering?" Jidanbou roared. "My ears are as big as the rest of me, so don't try any funny plans."
"You can stay out of this one." Toshiro yelled back. "I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?" Uryu called.
"Yeah. This guy's a pushover compared to the two we fought that last time."
"A…pushover?"
'Now that he mentions it,' Uryu thought, 'this guy's reiatsu doesn't seem all that high.' He closed his eyes to be able to concentrate on the strength of their foe. 'Is it because it's less than the reiatsus of those other Shinigami, or does it just seem that way because we've become that much stronger?'
"Is that all?" Jidanbou asked, growing impatient.
"Yes." Toshiro drew his Zanpakuto completely and assumed a fighting stance. "We can fight now."
Jidanbou grinned from ear to ear. "Good." He raised his axe above his head and swung it down with all of his might at Toshiro.
Toshiro swung his sword in an upward direction. The weapons met with a sound of thunder.
Uryu and Orihime screamed as an extremely large metal object flew over the stone wall at them. They and Chad just jumped out of the way in time to avoid getting crushed.
In front of the barrier, Jidanbou stared at his hand. It held only a large wooden stump.
Youichi leapt on top of the metal object now embedded in the ground.
"So he destroyed Jidanbou's axe with his first attack."
"M-my a-ax-axe…" Jidanbaou whimpered.
"My axe! Why'd you have to destroy my axe!" He began sobbing uncontrollably and pounding the ground.
"Um, sorry." Toshiro said, stunned by the turn of events. "I was in a hurry so I wanted to end the fight quickly, and that seemed like a better idea than actually hurting you."
"No." Jidanbou continued to sob. 'You care, even though you're my enemy." He picked Toshiro up by his sides.
"What a kind-hearted person you are."
"Um…er…" Toshiro looked down, not happy about being lifted off of the ground.
Jidanbou put him down, much to Toshiro's relief. "Look at me! I'm crying like a baby over an axe! I'm a disgrace as a man!"
He threw his hands up in resignation. "It's a total defeat!"
"Um, does that mean we can pass?" Toshiro asked.
"Yes." Jidanbou said. "I will open the gate for you now."
As Jidanbou turned to open the gate the rest of the group came forward.
"Toshiro's really strong, isn't he?" Orihime asked.
'It's more than that.' Uryu realized. 'He knows how much his strength has improved, probably because he had Urahara to compare himself again.
'He doesn't consciously hold back, because he wants to win as quickly and as easily as possible. That hasn't changed. But he did not release his Zanpakuto the way Renji Abarai did. I thought that that was what Urahara wanted to teach him the most.
'If Toshiro can release his Zanpakuto, it doesn't make sense for him not to, unless…'
"Wow." Orihime said as Jidanbou lifted the massive gate up over his head. "I didn't think anyone could lift something that big."
"It helps to be a giant." Yoruichi said.
They began to walk past Jidanbou, but Toshiro, who was still first, stopped.
A white haired man in Shinigami clothes and a white kimono stood before them.
"Who is that?"
Jibanbou was shaking uncontrollably.
"That looks like a captain." Yoruichi said.
"A captain?"
Byakuya dropped the sword and reached for his own. Toshiro turned to face him.
The next thing Toshiro knew, there was a hole in his chest.
"Y-yes." Jidanbou stammered. "That is the captain of squad three, Gin Ichimaru."
"Damn it." Toshiro said. 'To fight another captain: I never imagined this would happen so quickly. What are we supposed to do?'
There was a flash of light, and Jidanbou's arm burst in an explosion of blood. All of the rescue party stared in shock as his arm fell the humungous gate collapsed onto his shoulders.
'I wasn't paying enough attention.' Toshiro thought. 'If he had targeted one of us with that attack we'd be dead.'
He focused on the captain. 'But if he tries that sword extension technique again I should be able to dodge from that distance. Unless he can make it even faster than that.'
"Not good at all." Gin said, smiling. "What are you doing?"
"I lost." Jidanbou admitted. "Once I lost, I had no choice but to open the gate."
"No," Gin said, his smile widening, "when a gatekeeper loses, he doesn't open the gate.
"It means death."
"Toshiro!" Yoruichi yelled. "We have to retreat!"
"Right." Toshiro said. He and the others turned and ran. "Drop the gate, Jidanbou!"
It seemed that the giant could not have held it up much longer anyway. He fainted right after letting the gate go, his body going into shock.
The gate slammed down with a thud and the rescue party stood behind it, farther from their goal than before.
"Now how are we supposed to get in?" Toshiro asked in frustration.