Chapter Nine
Tōshirō did not think his sour mood could be dampened anymore but he thought that too soon. Arriving at the yonbantai barracks, he was automatically met by the several shinigami standing at ease by the door, guarding the entrance of the Fourth.
Tōshirō walked into the Fourth, ignoring the protests of the guards. "Matsumara-san, what is the meaning of all this?" The white haired captain asked the tenth seat of the Fourth once he was at the reception desk.
"The Twelfth are guarding the area." Matsumara said. "Kurotsuchi-taicho was given mandate over Kurosaki-san and decided to guard the area since she is dangerous."
"And why don't they just transfer her now?" Tōshirō was not liking the direction this disaster plan was taking.
"Kurotsuchi-taichō wants her quarantined first for the next twenty four hours." Matsumara said.
Tōshirō raised an eyebrow at her. "How will that help?"
"Kurotsuchi-taichō wants her to be in a proper health state before being transferred as caution." Matsumara said. "In case she has infectious diseases from the world of the living."
Hitsugaya looked dumbfounded. "In… Fectious diseases to the dea— never mind. Was she not examined when she came in through a series of tests?"
"We tried to explain that to Kurotsuchi-taichō but he insisted upon it."
More like bullied his way into it... Hyōrinmaru scoffed. Of course this was not standard procedure. Kurotsuchi just loved to break down his victims before breaking them apart. It made his blood boil.
"Where is Kotetsu-fukutaichō?" Hitsugaya asked Matsumara.
"She's in her office." The ice Captain continued down the halls of the barracks but found what he was looking for almost immediately.
"Oi! Kurotsuchi!" Hitsugaya called out as he approached. "Where is Kurosaki?"
"Why, she is in the Quarantine unit, Hitsugaya-taicho." Kurotsuchi-taichō said. Hitsugaya was about to walk past but the captain in a full face blocked his way. "And where do you think you are going?"
"To end this madness..." Tōshirō tried to circle past but Mayuri blocked his way.
"No one likes favoritism, Hitsugaya-taichō." Kurotsuchi-taichō chuckled. "So what is this girl to you? Friend... lover, perhaps?" Hitsugaya stared at him blankly. "Why did you decide to investigate this girl's disappearance in the first place?"
Ignoring the captain of the Twelfth, he turned to Isane who had come out to see what the commotion was about. "Kotetsu-fukutaichō, would you please let Kurosaki ou–"
"I'm surprised she didn't call for your help, Hitsugaya-taichō." Kurotsuchi-taichō mocked him, drawing back his attention back. The desired effect was achieved as Tōshirō's icy, emotionless stare melted and a glare was etched on his face.
"What did you do to her?" Hitsugaya-taichō asked slowly, taking a cautious step towards him.
"Nothing... yet..." Kurotsuchi-taichō said. "I tend to be thorough with my investigations. Extremely thorough."
"You little–"
"Hitsugaya-taichō!" Isane stood in his way before the captain pounced on him, holding at the hilt of his zanpakutō on his back. "Calm yourself, please. Now may I please speak with you in private?" She pleaded with Hitsugaya-taichō.
He stared at Mayuri who looked smug, wishing he could wipe that grin off his face away with the rest of his pathetic face paint. He was much stronger than Kurotsuchi – especially now that he had matured fully – so he could easily cut him down.
And that is what he wanted.
Kurotsuchi was deadly smart and could easily piece together what was going on. He wanted Hitsugaya to attack him in order to cement whatever theory he had of his relation with Karin so the ice Captain relented and just walked away. "I don't like this." Hitsugaya announced as soon as he entered the Captain's office.
"Neither do I but Kurotsuchi-taichō is... Kurotsuchi-taichō." Isane sighed. "He has control especially after what I heard that Kurosaki-san may have been taken by Aizen."
"It is a working theory." Hitsugaya admitted.
"I know I am not a captain but next time you have a meeting regarding one of my patients, call me." Isane hissed. "You cannot make finalized decisions regarding my division in the absence of a captain."
Tōshirō raised an eyebrow at her. "Your division?"
"I have been running this place for the past five years... by myself." Isane pointed out. "Any interjections?"
"Fair point." Hitsugaya relented.
"Now can you tell me the matters discussed in the meeting other than Aizen escaping imprisonment for the umpteemth time?" Isane asked.
"Shihōin Yoruichi and Mashiro Kuna interrupted our meeting." Hitsugaya said. "Do you know anything about the Tachibana clan?"
"The Fourth Great Noble House?" Isane mused. "They're the ones that have a history for zanpakutō corruption."
"Apparently there is a family art taught amongst them that keeps the zanpakutō in line?" Tōshirō mentioned.
"Oh, that is Sonshō." Isane said.
"Sonshō..." Tōshirō echoed.
"It is a lost art of the Tachibana clan." Isane said. "Each Great Noble House has a lost art. So far I only know of shunkō from the Shihōin clan and sonshō from the Tachibana clan. You see how shunkō is a hybrid of kidō and hakuda, sonshō is a hybrid of zanjutsu and hakuda. I am not entirely sure how it works but it has been effective for the Tachibana clan. However the last living user passed away over a hundred years ago; Tachibana Minami."
"Kuna Mashiro knows it." Tōshirō pointed out. "She is Tachibana Minami's daughter."
Isane looked confused. "Minami-san only had one daughter who was her first born and she died years ago... Hitomi was her name." She went over to her desk and pulled out a folder. "Here, from Unohana-taichō's research on zanpakutō corruption. I was looking at ways to help Kurosaki-san's case. Hitomi's case was extreme. She had a poison based zanpakutō, Ō no hebi and it messed up her body function so she died."
Tōshirō opened it and noticed the picture. "She looks just like Kuna-san but with brown hair." Isane jumped immediately and took the picture out of the file and looked at it intensely. "And look at this." He put the file down, grabbed a pen and loose piece of paper before writing down Mashiro's name without the kanji for her surname. "When you put mitsuru and shiro together and read it in this way, you get Mashiro but turn it around."
"Hi... tomi..." Isane gasped. "Incredible. But why does she use Kuna Mashiro instead of Tachibana Hitomi?"
"She probably wanted to hide the fact that she is a Tachibana – the heiress nonetheless." Tōshirō mentioned after remembering what Yoruichi had said about Mashiro's status in her family. There was a falsehood inside this story; either Mashiro is the first born and simply lied to protect her status as the matriarch or she is the first born and was to inherit the birthright but she was disowned or she plucked herself out of it. "But we aren't on that. Mashiro offered to help Kurosaki but the sōtaichō refused because of how reckless she is."
Isane sighed. "All we can do is hope that she does not worsen under the conditions of Kurotsuchi-taichō." Tōshirō hissed audibly at that. "... You must care a lot about Kurosaki-san."
"She's my friend." Tōshirō simply said before turning for the door to leave but the third seat, Yamada Hanatarō came running in.
"Fukutaichō... Hitsugaya-Taichō... orders from the sōtaichō to take emergency stations." The boy clutched at his chest, gasping for air.
"Why?" Isane asked.
"Word got back from Central 46, Aizen Sōsuke has escaped." Hanatarō said.
Yuzu waited anxiously with Ichigo as Tatsuki searched the warehouse in Yokohama. "Why do I have a feeling she'll find nothing?" Ichigo snidely commented earning a reprimanding stare from Yuzu. "What?"
"Do you want to find out what happened to your sister or not?" Yuzu asked him.
"Of course I do! But I just–"
"Found something..." Tatsuki shouted from where she stood, holding an old, plastic bucket on the other end of the warehouse. The two came over and stood next to her. "There's a trace of blood circling the rim of the bucket." Tatsuki said as she pointed at it before pulling out a bottle of luminol. "Parts of the bucket that turn pink show blood was present." She started on the outside with nothing to show but as she sprayed on the inside and the whole bucket turned pink. "There could had been twenty litres of blood in this bucket."
"What?" Ichigo was about to grab at it but Tatsuki slapped his hand away.
"Put on gloves or you will contaminate the evidence." Tatsuki hissed. "Unless there is a psycho who smears blood on every inch of a bucket, we can assume that the victims were drained of their blood, this can account for up to four people but if they were taking regular pints of blood which are three hundred and fifty mililitres..."
"Then we're looking at fifty seven people tops." Ichigo did the math in his head. "Assuming they weren't taking pints and just a little then it could be much more."
"Okay but how do we prove that more than one person's blood is in there?" Yuzu asked.
"Leave that to me." Tatsuki said. "You guys check the rest of the place but please wear gloves and if it looks weird or suspicious, call me first. Remember to watch–"
"We get it!" Ichigo rolled his eyes. "We're not idiots, you dummy. The faster we do this, the sooner we get out of here."
Tatsuki glared at the orange head before using swabs to take blood samples. The siblings went into a different room as instructed with Ichigo grumbling and complaining. "Why can't I just find Aizen and kick his butt? It's easier."
"Because there could be a lot of other people missing, onii-san." Yuzu said. "And not shinigami... actual people. These people are in danger."
"As if people were never in danger before." Ichigo scoffed.
Yuzu huffed. "If you really didn't want to come here, then why did you bother to come?"
"You think I'm going to let the two of you come here alone while a psycho with a sword is on the loose?"
"We don't need you to protect us." Yuzu said. "I can handle myself just fine and so can Tatsuki-san."
"No, you can't and that's final." Ichigo said, leaving no room for discussion "Now, what are we looking for?"
"Anything suspicious." Yuzu said.
"This whole warehouse is suspicious." Yuzu felt like ripping her hair out of her skull in frustration.
"Let's settle for something Tatsuki-san can fit in a bag or carry with her arms." Yuzu calmly said.
"We are still talking about Tatsuki, right?" Ichigo laughed at his own joke but Yuzu was nowhere near amused and simply sighed in defeat. They searched the warehouse in silence, only coming across empty room after empty room. "I knew this was a waste of time."
"Ichigo!" Yuzu whined and Ichigo decided to keep quiet. Yuzu had a high tolerance to annoyance so her callling him by his given name without any form of honorific was a sign of her losing her cool. "If you could please stop and look on the brighter..." Yuzu stopped her whining slowly as realisation set in. "... side. That's it! We're looking in the wrong side."
"What?" Ichigo questioned but Yuzu ignored him before rushing out the room back to the front where Tatsuki was.
"Do you guys really have to run?" Tatsuki asked in annoyance but Yuzu ignored her as well before looking up to a platform hanging above.
"There's a door!" Yuzu pointed before approaching the chains that were the only way up.
"What door?" Ichigo questioned. "And what the hell are you doing! Oi! Get down from there!"
Don't listen to him... Yuzu heard her zanpakutō say. They can't see the truth... but you can. This spurred Yuzu on as she wiggled up the chain despite the many yells ranging between angry pleas and desperate death threats... all from big brother dearest. Once Yuzu got on, she had to admit the platform was shaky. It rattled her a bit but it didn't terrify her.
She turned to the door, reached out and opened it. Tatsuki and Ichigo who had not seen a door on that wall at all stared in amazement. "See?" She grinned. "I told you!"
"That little rag muffin is trying to give me a heart attack!" She heard Ichigo hiss and she started to giggle at her onii-san. Growing up has made him lose all sense of fun... not that he ever had it. He was always serious.
"Oh, live a little!" Yuzu teased. "If I hadn't showed up, the only thing you would have had going on for a friday night is reading an anatomy textbook."
"She's not wrong." Tatsuki followed the taunting.
"Shut up and climb." Ichigo commanded.
"But it's grandfathers first." Tatsuki continued to mock him but withered under his glare – it was the "Tatsuki, I am not playing games with you right now and I am dead serious about it" look that gave her the heeby-jeebies. "Going up." She said before approaching the chain, taking off her gloves and dragging herself up with Ichigo close behind.
They left you alone, Karin-Chan...
"Shut up!" Karin hissed as she sat on the floor of a room in the Quarantine unit. It was a metal room completely closed off with only one closed off window. She sat in an upward fetal position, covering her thighs and knees with her whole upper body before hugging her shins. She was disheveled with water marks dried out showing where the streak of tears had been.
In this cold cell... where no one can hear you scream.
"I said shut up!" Karin repeated.
Cute. You think you can shrug me off with that response. I am a part of you Karin, I know your deepest thoughts, your desires, the things you long for, the things you lust after. Angetsu laughed. Even your sister has deserted you. She left Soul Society.
"Stop lying!" Karin muttered.
Then where was she when you were being dragged through the halls and tossed around like a rag doll? Wouldn't she have been there? She is gone, Karin and she is never coming back.
"She is..." Karin whimpered as all the strength to fight left her. "She... she's still here. I know she is."
And if she isn't?
"She'll come back for me. She always does." Karin now sounded like she was trying to convincd herself.
Face it; your own sister has given up on you, your instructor fled the moment you stepped into Soul Society, your lying father is nowhere in sight and your brother who has brought all this upon you, who has deserted you a million times before just to be a hero to someone else doesn't even know the pain and suffering you are being subjected to. Angetsu taunted. Face it... you have been left all alone to suffer. Only I am here for you and only I will protect you.
Karin saw the whole world fade before her eyes. All you have to do... is follow me.
A/N: Mashiro (written in this manner 満白) when spelled backwards spells Hitomi (actually it has three different variations – or at least the three I found). I know this is not how they spell it in the manga but the one given to us in the manga was the most obscure spelling that I failed to find a cohesive meaning of and creates another name when spelled backwards. I'm hoping I'm not wrong though, this was from research years ago so I'm rolling with it.
I chose Mashiro simply because I needed a character to take on this role and I'm too lazy to think up random shinigami OCs... especially when Soul Society is a plethora of random characters that add nothing to the story. Mashiro is one of the few shinigami who we know is incredibly strong at lieutenant level without even using a zanpakutō. Using anyone for this would have made little sense and the more I wrote, the more I enjoyed moulding her for this story. I personally love the Vizards and hate how they are under utilised 90% of the time (even though they are more relevant to the plot than Ichigo... just my opinion)
Sonshō means injury or damage literally but in this story, in English it would be Sword War Cry... Kind of like how shunkō possibly means momentum but it is called Flash War Cry in the series.