Part one – The White Soul Reaper

Chapter 1 – And so, it begins

A hell butterfly was casually flying towards division 9 to deliver its message to the captain. The butterfly sees its target room and flutters in through the window. The room was completely dark, except for the bright moonlight flooding in through the open window. Crystal's gold lining on her clothes hanging on the opposite wall reflecting the moon. It is a large room, with a study type of table, a big bed and two cupboards by the walls. A framed picture of her, Naomi, and Raven together graduating the academy together and other pieces of random paper were on her table. The butterfly slows down and carefully lands on her nose. Crystal instinctively moves her hand to try and get off what's on her nose (she's still asleep of course). She doesn't hit, so the butterfly just walks about on her face and steps on her eye, which at last wakes her up. She opens her eyes a bit, and sees a tiny black figure in front of her.

'Aaarrhhhhh, what the hell' she screams frantically trying to get rid of the insect, 'shoo, shoo, I'm trying to sleep here'. After a few seconds she realises what the butterfly is and calms down.

'Whoops, sorry little butterfly, what's your message then?' She listens to the message, 'an assembly at this hour? If that old fool of an idiot Hisaigo, doesn't have a very good reason for this, I'm gonna kill him.' She gets out of bed, and gets dressed, looking rather cross. After brushing her hair for a few minutes, she picks up her sword, and leaves through the front door.

'Ah what a lovely, peaceful night' she sighs, 'I would've enjoyed it more if I was sleeping though.' She flash stepped past a few blocks of houses. And then she remembers something.

'Hey, why don't I go see Raven? Yeah, knowing him, he'll be sleeping like a rock; I doubt a butterfly has any chance in waking him up.' Thought Crystal, and at that she changed her direction and went to division 3's houses.

Upon arriving, a few guards ran up and shouted 'Who goes there? State your name.'

'I am Crystal Kyoraku, here to wake up Raven cos we have a captain's meeting now and I doubt he'll be woken up by a butterfly. I also have the hell butterfly that delivered my message if you don't believe me. But I actually don't care cos I enjoy a good fight even if it's an effortless win.'

'Please forgive us Captain Kyoraku, we could not make out your identity in the dark.'

'Apology accepted, good job though, you guys have good reaction speeds'

'Thank you for your compliment ma'am, we go about our duty the best we can to serve the Captains'

'Wonderful, then can you help me out. You see everything looks so different in the dark, and I can't see Rae's house, do you guys mind guiding me?'

'Of course not ma'am,' the two guards now accompanied Crystal and walked to Raven's house. It took longer than Crystal thought seeing as how she can just get there with a couple of flash steps when she knew where it was, but now she has to walk and it seems to take forever. They walked on corridors mostly, weaving in and out of other houses on the way. 10 minutes past and they finally arrive. Walking through a big gate, they saw Raven's house, on either side two smaller houses, stood, (i.e. the living room and dining room). Between the gate and his house there's a massive square shaped garden type area and on either side are pathways going to other places. Many trees surround the area with an assortment of plants, many of which are flowers.

'The lights are still off, looks like I was right, he's still asleep, that piece of rock. Well it's time for a wake up call' said Crystal, not even attempting to keep her voice down.

She flexed her muscles and was about to smash down the door when the guard stepped in and said 'No ma'am, you can't just kick down someone's front door. Allow us to knock first'

'Alright I guess I was being a bit rude, but make it quick, we're gonna be late.'

'Yes ma'am' one of the guards, crept up to the door and ramped on the door, hard with his knuckles. 'Sir, Captain Kyoraku is here to see you' no answer, 'Sir are you awake?' still no answer.

'I'm gonna take that as a no' said Crystal getting a bit impatient now. 'Can't we just unlock the door and go in? He has got a meeting right now. As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.'

'I guess we can, only this once though' said the other guard by Crystal.

'Good, then unlock the door and hurry it up, we'll probably be the last ones there by the look of things.'

One of the guards got a key out of his pocket and slowly and quietly unlocked the door. 'Please pardon my intrusion but you have a meeting now sir.' All three of them go in after a moments of silence. Raven, was still in his bed, a hell butterfly sitting on his head, and he's breathing silently facing the wall. The room was dimly lit, two tables and a bed, his clothes were hung onto a few chairs, and his sword was right by his bed in reachable distance. A shelf of books is by his tables and underneath his tables are pieces of random bits of paper.

'Wow, never knew his room could be so messy' said Crystal very sarcastically. 'Ok, time for the wake up call.' She walked over to Raven, stooped down by his eyes.

'WAKE UP YOU PIECE OF ROCK.' She screamed the six words down Raven's ear accenting every word.

'Hmm?' said Raven. He was still just barely awake after opening his eyes a bit.

'Well mister sleepy head, us captains have got an emergency meeting now, and your late, so am I because I had to come and wake you up.' Said Crystal in an annoyed tone (then again, who'd blame her).

'Oh so, that's what that hell butterfly is for, ah I see' then suddenly realizing what he just heard, 'humph, we're gonna be late, where's my uniform.' He said, though looking as though he doesn't really care.

'Hanging on your chair' said Crystal.

'Wait for me outside, I'll just go get dressed' said Raven, who has calmed down a bit too much for the situation.

'Alright don't be too long', said Crystal, a bit relieved now. She and the guards walked out of Raven's room. The two guards left and went back to their posts at the front door. Crystal waited for about 3 minutes before Raven shows up fully dressed carrying his sword on his shoulder, showing no worries at all.

'Ok, I'm ready, let's go' commanded Raven still expressionless.

The trip took only 2 minutes; both Raven and Crystal's flash steps are all very fast so that was expected. They both landed on the roof and saw Shunsui walking casually towards the meeting hall. They were both relieved at the sight of him (Although Raven isn't showing any expressions).

'Well looks like we aren't the only ones who are late' said Crystal breathing a sign of relief.

'Hmph, Shunsui.' murmured Raven, in disbelief and disgust.

'Hey Shunsui, over here' shouted Crystal, who flash stepped next to him and jumped on him.

'Oh hey little cous, how are ya' said Shunsui looking tired as always.'

'I'm good, I'm good. How are things with Nanao? Made a move on her yet?' asked Crystal, looking suddenly energetic.

'Ha ha, you're a funny one aren't you? I don't know what you're talking about' replied Shunsui, hiding a smile underneath his oversized hat.

'You know perfectly well wh -' but she was cut short by Raven

'If you two don't stop chit-chatting we'll be in trouble, although I really couldn't care either way, but even so, I'd hate to get in trouble with that Hisaigo guy, he doesn't seem right…' and he trailed off at that.

'Oh yes sorry, guess we should go inside then. But did you have to say it in such a mean way?' said Crystal no sound of sadness or uncertainty at all. Raven didn't answer. He just swept ahead of them both and made his way into the meeting hall.

They approached the gigantic doors of the hall, which was guarded by two guards standing on either side of it. As soon as the three captains approached the doors, they swung open revealing the massive high ceiling meeting hall. It was brightly lit by two big lights hanging from the ceiling, the head captain Hisaigo was patiently waiting at the front. All other captains were already standing at their positions waiting for the meeting to start.

'Ah, so you've finally arrived.' said Hisaigo smiling at the three captains who've just entered the hall.

'I apologize for our tardiness Captain Ukimori, but we ran into some unwanted business on the way.' said Raven bowing to the head captain giving a glare at Crystal, who didn't seem to notice and just walked to her usual spot in the hall.

'That's quite alright, I should apologize also for calling everyone up this late, but it was an emergency so I had no other choice.' Hisaigo waited until everyone was in their places and said 'ok now that everyone is here, I believe it's time to being. I'll make my speech short and hand it over to captain Kurotsuchi.' He paused, 'Basically to put it simply, we have an intruder, a ryoka if you will in out territory. Just be careful because according to Captain Kurotsuchi he is extremely fast and strong, and no one knows what he looks like.' He paused again and looked around the silent faces with different expressions.

'Hmm, looks like a good fight' thought Kenpachi 'I better get to him before anyone else can

Hikari sighed, 'Terri won't be happy with this, I know how much she hates fighting, meh, guess I'll clear this guy out before Terri can hear about it.'

'Now I will hand this over to captain Kurotsuchi who will give you the full details' said Hisaigo moving aside. Mayuri walked up to the front.

'Good morning everybody, it is a bit early today so I won't keep you guys here for too long. Now, the intruder alarm sounded today at exactly 3:00am. I'm guessing many of you were still in bed so you wouldn't have seen or heard the explosion of the eastern gate being blown to pieces today.' He stopped looking around at the shocked faces only 2 were showing nothing.

'That's what he thinks' thought Ketu.

'Anyway, with the information I have gathered I can say for sure that that this person blew open the east gate without much effort, and it would take much force to blow open a gate. Also I have gathered that this person calls himself 'The White Soul Reaper'. Also I regret to inform that the eastern gate keeper Hihanko has been brutally slayed and sliced in half. Unfortunately that's all the information I could in the short time I had at the scene. Lastly, I just want to put everyone on high alert this White Soul Reaper person is armed and dangerous, so be on guard.' As soon as he stepped off the stage a big crash sounded outside the hall doors.

'Hey, who are you'

'Stay back, there's a meeting in progress.'

Two guards shouted warnings at a person who sounds like he's approaching the meeting hall.

'I'm warning you, stay back or I'll -' but the guard never got to finish because as soon as he said that there was another crash and the guard screaming in pain.

'What the hell's going on out there?' said Crystal staring at the door, no one answered her. Until the hall's door just flew apart and was blown into pieces. Everyone flash stepped backwards to get as far away from the falling debris as possible.

'Who's there? Answer me.' Hisaigo was the first to say anything as he stepped out into the open. A white figure slowly came into view from the dust fog that was in the air.

'Ha ha ha, well, well if it isn't the 13 Division captains,' a high pitched voice echoed all around the hall.

'I'll ask again, who are you?' Hisaigo said once more looking calm as usual.

'Oh I must apologize. I haven't properly introduced myself yet'. He stepped into the open. It was a young man in his 20s or so. He had a diagonal scar straight across his face, medium length hair, bright flashing red eyes with very pale skin colour. He was wearing a usual soul reaper uniform, expect everything was white, and even his sword which he was holding in front of him. His sword was (what looks like) a normal katana.

'I am mostly known as the White Soul Reaper, that name was given to me a very long time ago, and I'm guessing you all noticed why.' he said pointing to his clothes. 'But many hundreds of years ago, I did have a name, I actually prefer being called my name, but not many people know it, so I'm going to tell all of you what my name is. My real name is Usaitar Zakihara, so now you know; call me that instead of White Soul Reaper'

'Fine, so your name is Usaitar, ok. What are you doing here?' asked Hisaigo who hasn't moved an inch.

'What am I doing here, ha, you ask a funny question. Well let me give you a little history lesson. About 500 years ago, I was the best soul reaper ever to be in seireitei, but no one liked me, they all thought I was too powerful, so you know what they did? They exiled me, banished me from soul society, they even locked my sword away, but getting it back wasn't so hard, but even so, I hated soul society, and now that I have an army of hollows under my control. I've come back to get my revenge.' at that last word he jumped up, swung his sword once at the ceiling. It looked like nothing's happened but a second after he swung his sword something hit the ceiling and it blew apart out wards with a tremendous crash.

'What's with that power?' thought Ketu ducking out of the way of a piece of falling rock.

As soon as the dust cleared a massive hole in the ceiling could be seen. Usaitar jumped out and went off into the sky.

'I think it's about time I invited some friends over to play' laughed Usaitar who opened up a gate to Hueco Mundo. A second later Gillian type menos and what looks like hundreds of hollows started swarming into soul society.

'Stop this at once, what do you intend to do' shouted Hisaigo, though his expression hasn't changed.

'Me, I intend to have a war. And since I'm a nice person I won't start this war straight off.' He soared more up into the sky. 'I won't even be sending my entire army until later. I want to test the strength of your men first. So, I'll give you 24 hours to prepare, at 6am tomorrow morning I'll lead off my first assault, on the eastern gate once more, and if no one is there to stop my entry, well then a lot of civilian will just be hurt. So I suggest you prepare for war. Oh and don't worry, I'll go easy on you in the first assault, no menos will participate in that attack.' He laughed again.

'Are you insulting us,' shouted Raven glaring at Usaitar.

'No, I'm just being like the kind person I am' said Usaitar having a wide smile on his face, and then he disappeared with the rest of the hollows.

There was silence in the hall, which now looks like it just got heavily bombed with debris and rubble everywhere. Everyone had stunned faces (except Byakuya, Raven, Kenpachi and of course Hisaigo).

'Well, well. You all heard him, it's time to prepare for war' said Hisaigo after a long moment of silence. He walked forwards a bit so everyone could see him and spoke again 'Since they've declared war on us, then we shall also declare war on them. It's going to be special war time rules, the release of zanpakutos are permitted anyway, if you see a hollow do not hesitate to kill it. His first attack will be tomorrow at 6am on the eastern gate. I'm going to ask divisions 3, 5 and 7 to handle his first attack tomorrow morning is that clear'

'Yes sir' said Raven, Ketu and Hikari.

'Furthermore, I want all the other divisions to get ready for the long term fights. Division 11 most importantly need to prepare to face many enemies. Division 4 have all medical soul reapers on high alert so if a soul reaper is injured anywhere you've got to be able to get there quickly. Is that understood?'

'Yeah, yeah' said Kenpachi in a, whatever fashion.

'Of course sir' said Retsu bowing.

'The other remaining divisions, be ready at all times. Prepare yourselves and always be on guard, when the war starts divisions 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13 are going to face the enemies. Division 12 will work on strategies etc. This is war now. Division 3, 5, 7 meet together at the eastern gate tomorrow at 6, do not be late. This meeting is dismissed.