Part 3 – Hunt for the Eyes of the Dragons
Chapter 24 – Discovery
It's been four months since the last chapter and everything has went back to normal, or as normal as it can. Seireitei has been completely rebuilt back into its former glory, four months was more than enough with the huge man-power that soul society has.
If you were wondering what happened to Hikari after she got blasted into the sky then I'll tell you, she was coincidently caught by Haodong 4th seat of squad four, remember, who came after her. He healed her and they met up with the rest at the foot of the stairs where all those menos were. After the battle Usaitar disappeared into Hueco Mundo and no one has heard from him since, there hasn't been any sign of him even when they sent a recon team to investigate in Hueco Mundo. They've decided not to worry until something happens, much to many captains disagreement however, as they claim it'll be too late if the wait for Usaitar to act first. But Chojiro, who has been temporarily put in charge until they can find someone who will lead the Gotei 13 because all the current captains refused to do it and seeing as Chojiro has a bit of experience he was put in charge by central 46.
Nothing much has happened in the last four months, it was mainly rebuilding soul society. Since captains and vice-captain find it difficult to enter Hueco Mundo they've had nothing to do except over look the rebuilt. But recently something strange has been happening. If you remember both Ratiasu and Ketu are wearing dragon necklaces, only a dragon's head, what I failed to mention was that the dragons only had holes for eyes and it looked like the holes could be filled with something. Well recently both Ratiasu and Ketu's necklaces' eyes have been flashing different colours, it was only small and infrequent at first but as the time passed the light got brighter and more frequent to the point where they both had to take it off when they were sleeping, I do remind you that they had never had to take it off before seeing as it was a precious gift from each other.
It's the beginning of a new day now. The sun is shining, birds chirping etc. etc. and the first cherry blossoms were blooming. It is around ten in the morning and most people were awake, except Ratiasu who was still snoozing away in her bed with vermillion around her everywhere. What she doesn't know is that she's about to get rudely awakened.
Outside her huge house which was a load of buildings connected together, in old fashioned Japanese style. Ketu appeared outside her gates and just strolled in, and the two guards didn't do a thing. He quietly opened the door to her room and stepped in and slowly closed the door behind him.
"Arghh arghh, so much red," joked Ketu to himself looking around. "Now let's think, a good way to wake her up, he he he, this should be good." He looked around but didn't find anything, so instead he lowered his face near to her and made a funny face with a wide smile. "Wake up Terri," he said repeatedly in a growing high voice like that you'd say to wake up a child.
Ratiasu slowly opened her eyes. "Huh?" she mumbled staring at Ketu. He stuck out his tongue and 'rawred'. Ratiasu screamed and without thinking swung her arm into Ketu's face. He went flying into the wall and looked a bit dazed. "Oh my dear god," she panted getting out of bed. "That wasn't nice Ket, I could've killed you. And haven't you heard of knocking?"
"Well, at least it woke you up," said Ketu standing up again.
Suddenly the door flew open and another girl jumped in and shouted, "Wakey wakey Terri." Ketu and Ratiasu both stared at Haruka as if to say, ooooookay. "Oh? You're already up? Sorry."
"Yeah, rudely woken up by a certain someone," said Ratiasu shooting a menacing glance at Ketu who just smiled pleasantly.
"Damn, I missed the best part," thought Haruka smiling to herself.
"Well now that I'm awake I hope you don't mind to get out while I get changed. Then you can tell me why you had to wake me up so abruptly," said Ratiasu opening her wardrobe.
"Alright we'll wait for you outside," said Ketu gesturing for Haruka to leave with him. They both went out and closed the door. Ketu sighed and paced around, "so Rika didn't Chojiro ask only one of us to come?"
"He did, but I felt like joining in on the fun, and besides, its better if we all arrive at the same time isn't it?"
"I guess." Ketu shrugged, "Whatever, I wonder what the urgent call is though, to suddenly request us three to meet him in division one headquarters, must be something important."
Ratiasu's bedroom door opened and she stepped out in her stunningly pretty vermillion soul reaper outfit tied with a large vermillion bow at her back.
"Wow, you look fabulous Terri, I'm loving all the vermillion."
"Awww, how kind, thanks Ket," she said delightedly turning around and showing him her outfit. "Anyway, so that's what this is about eh? Chojiro asked us three to report to him?"
"Yep, he told us to meet him ASAP in front of division one headquarters. No time to waste chit-chatting then, when he sent the hell butterfly it sounded pretty urgent. Maybe they found Usaitar or something," replied Ketu.
"That'd be good, I'd love to get my back again him," said Haruka forcefully.
"Well anyway, let's go," commanded Ketu, turning around.
"Sure." All three set off and flash stepped their way to division one. A few second later they arrived. Ratiasu first, followed by Haruka, then Ketu half a second later. Chojiro already was standing there patiently waiting for them.
"I see you three made it in good time, marvelous, if you will please follow me." And without another word Chojiro disappeared into division one's building. Ketu shrugged and lead the two girls in. Inside was a magnificent entrance hall with a large staircase in the middle leading upstairs and four doors at the four corners of the hall. Chojiro lead them through the door immediately right as you walk in. This is a small room with a large chandelier for light and nothing else apart from a flight of stairs down into the basement.
"Hey wait, isn't this the seireitei library?" asked Ketu as he stopped just short of the stairs looking down after Chojiro.
"You have a good eye captain Zakura, have you perhaps been to the library before?" replied Chojiro.
"No, I just heard from Crystal that it was under division one in an extremely large basement. And this looks to be it."
"You have good deduction skills, now shall we continue, our guest if waiting."
"Guest? Who?" interrupted Ratiasu who sounded intrigued.
"You'll see vice-captain Zakihara, I'm sure you know him quite well," Chojiro continued down the flight of stairs, the three of them followed.
They stepped down into the library it was rather dark until Chojiro switched on the lights. The library then came into much clearer view as many as 50 to 60 chandeliers lit up and illuminated the vast area. They were standing at the bottom of the stairs in the middle between as many as 50 rows of shelves full of books and countless number of columns of shelves.
"Aww, did you have to turn on the light? I was enjoy the dark them, it was fun," said a familiar voice coming out from behind one of the shelves.
"Crystal, is that you?" asked Haruka.
Crystal poked her head out from behind a shelve, "oh you're here," she said surprisingly, she disappeared again, "hey cous they're here."
"Oh?" came Shunsui's voice sounding like it was quite far away, "bring them over then."
"Sure," Crystal shouted back. She stepped out from behind the shelves, "hi guys, good of you to make it, it's been a while since we've seen each other. It's been a month roughly right? Since I went with Shunsui. Let's just get down to business then, come follow me. Oh and by the way, you look fabulous today Terri, love the red."
"I'll just be off then," said Chojiro bowing his way out.
"Ok, thanks a lot," exclaimed Crystal. "Well don't just stand there," she flash stepped behind the three of them and pushed them forwards, "come on come on, let's move it, just follow me."
"Erm, sure but what's this about anyway?" asked Ketu looking puzzled.
"Don't worry, you'll find out, my cousin will explain, just follow me for now," said Crystal flash stepping in front of them and leading the way. Ketu obediently obeyed and the three of them followed Crystal through shelves full of books. She led them for fiveish minutes until they ended up in a small dark corner of the library with a door at the end which labeled "Ancient Texts".
"Ancient texts? What's this about?" inquired Ratiasu.
"Be patient Terri," replied Crystal. "Hey cousin, we're here and I've brought them along."
"Wonderful, I think we should all have a drink together," said Shunsui opening the door.
"Now's not the time to be funny, it's serious," scowled Crystal.
"Come on, relax I'm sure we have time for one cup of tea at least."
"No, now get back in there," said Crystal pushing Shunsui back into the room, Ketu, Ratiasu and Haruka went in after her. The door shut silently behind them by itself.
"So? What's this about?" asked Ketu again politely.
Crystal and Shunsui didn't reply but carried on walking deeper into the room, a minute or two later they arrived at a dark end lit by a candlelight held by a very familiar person.
"Hi, nice to see you all again," said a smiling Jushiro Ukitake. He was wearing a light brown kimono, and a brown short sleeved haori.
"Woah, Captain Ukitake, it's been, way too long, nice to see you again, how have you been?" exclaimed Ketu.
"I've been better, but I'm holding on quite well, we can worry about greetings later, but at the moment we don't have much time. Oh and don't call me captain anymore, I mean I haven't been captain in ages, just Jushiro will do."
"Sure thing Jushiro, but what do you mean by we don't have much time?" Ketu said thinking hard. Ratiasu and Haruka stayed silent behind Ketu.
"Well, as we all know Usaitar knows the whereabouts of the last piece of his sword correct?" Everyone nodded, "I believe it'll be about another month or two before he finds it. In that time we need to prepare."
"Woah, hold it, how do you know it's another month or two? And what do you mean prepare?" asked Haruka interrupting.
"I believe it to be another month because, the hollow numbers in the real world has decreased at the start of his search, I believe the reason is that he was using the hollows to help search. Recently the hollow numbers have started rising again, which means that he's nearly found it so he does' need that many hollows to help anymore. This is still just mere speculation however, but it's better to act first anyway and maybe even catch him off guard."
"You have a good point there," agreed Haruka nodding. "So, how are we suppose to act then?"
"First of all, we need to get stronger, we know Usaitar is very powerful and can easily kill us in our present state. We need to train ourselves and become much stronger than we are now and only then will we be able to beat him."
"Easier said than done," interrupted Ketu.
"I agree, but do you remember Usaitar mentioning something about a fourth release?"
"Yeah, Usaitar and Hisaigo both mentioned something about a fourth release, but I thought it's impossible. Bankai is the final release isn't it?" questioned Haruka.
"It's true that there can't be a release after bankai, but who said you can't have another release after shikai?" Ketu's eyes widened as if to say 'ahhhh'. "I discovered a book on the branched release from shikai when I had so much time on my hands so I spent it in the library. The release itself need an incantation by the user of the sword, good thing is, it uses as much spiritual energy as bankai so you can hold it for quite a long time, and it's far more powerful than bankai. I don't know how much more powerful I just know that their powers are miles apart."
"So, how do you achieve this new release?" asked Haruka cheerfully.
"Don't get too ahead of yourself this release will take a while to achieve but very luckily it'll take as long as you need to finish the requirements."
"Requirements?" said Ratiasu.
"Let me explain, and try not to interrupt. First of all this release is only achievable by three swords i.e. three people," Ketu looked as if he was about to say something but Jushiro but a hand out to stop him. "These three swords are unique, as they are surprisingly the oldest swords in seireitei surviving for hundreds of years. They are the three dragon swords," Jushiro saw the expressions on Ketu, Ratiasu and Haruka's faces and nodded to confirm what they thought, "yes, you are correct, these three swords belong to the three of you." The three of them was stunned, to say the least, but didn"t say anything. Jushiro walked over to a shelf next to them and picked out a huge book which was about four times length of the fifth Harry Potter book and three times wider. "These books are all in the ancient language of soul society so it was hard to translate but this book has all the information needed to obtain the fourth release. I'm not going to read to you what it says because that'll take forever, I'll just give you a summary." He opened the book up at one section and revealed a square gap about a third in of the book in the middle of the pages. And also a few ripped pages. "As you can see this book has been ripped before, but luckily they managed to retrieve all the pages, just not what was inside two of three of the square boxes thought I'm sure I know where they are." He flipped through a few pages, everyone was watching and waiting. "Firstly, the release is called "DORAKAI", which stands for dragon release." He coughed and paused, "the release is triggered by two things, an incantation and a dragon pendant with two filled eye holes."
"Wait, you don't mean-," started Ratiasu.
"I do, the pendants that's mentioned in this book is the exact ones you and Ketu are wearing right at this moment." Instinctively both Ratiasu and Ketu took their pendants/necklaces out and took a look.
"What do you mean two filled eye holes?" asked Ketu.
"Take a close look at the dragon's head, do you notice that its eyes are missing?"
"Oh yeah," agreed Ketu after close inspection
"Exactly, you need to fill those eye holes with the specific eyes and are compatible with the correct owner of the pendant." Ketu just stared at Jushiro with a blank and puzzled expression. "This book tells us the location of one of each of the eyes and its name." Jushiro coughed, looked at Haruka and her saddened face reminded him about the third necklace. "Ah not to worry Haruka, I know what you want," he turned to near the end of the book and took out a dragon necklace from a box in the book. "Here you go, the only one that wasn't stolen." He looked back and Ketu and Ratiasu, "I'm still amazed at how you wound up with the necklaces in the first place, I guess it was destiny. But anyway enough about that." He turned to the first section of the book, "All the eyes are situated in the real world so all three of you will need to go there to get them. Ratiasu's first eye is called the "Eye of Virtue" and it says it's in a country called England in a small town named Bebington, and apparently the pendant itself will guide you the rest of the way and likewise for Ketu and Haruka." He turned to the second section. "Your first Ketu, is called the "Eye of Benevolence" fits you I must say, it's located in the country of Italy, in the city of Venice." He turned back into the last section, "and lastly your first is called the "Eye of Divinity" Haruka, in Tokyo, Japan. The book doesn't mention anything about the second eye so I presume you'll know where to go when the time comes. But you three must first set off to these three locations. Also the book mentions that there are fierce and powerful monsters guarding the eyes that only the true holders of the dragon swords will be able to beat, so be ready for a fight once you've discovered the eyes. Don't worry about the incantations, according to the book you'll know it the instant you've obtained both eyes. And on that note I'm finished. Any questions?" The three shook their heads, "good, then I suggest you three better set off, the faster you get these eyes the faster we can surprise attack Usaitar and hopefully it'll be before he gets his last piece of his sword." He put the book back to where it originally was, "now for this mission a lot of captains and vice-captains have volunteered themselves to help you out, so you will leave seireitei in groups of three and go to your specific destinations. First Ratiasu will leave via the eastern seireitei exit to England and accompanying her is Crystal, Shunsui, Rukia, Kenpachi and Yachiru, I'm surprised those two volunteered for this, guess Kenpachi just wants a good fight, oh well. Secondly Ketu will leave via the north exit to Italy with, Raven, Byakuya, Renji, Izuru and Taetsuzaemon. A weird combination of people there I must say. Lastly, Haruka leaves via the southern exit to Japan with support from Hikari, Hitsugaya, Matsumoto, Naomi and surprising squad four's fourth seat Haodong Zhang. Apparently Hikari insisted that he came along as well. Anyway those are the groups, they should already be there so you three should hurry. I'm done here, I guess I should go back home and get some rest. Anyway see you guys later, and good luck."
"Yeah bye, thanks for helping us out," said Shunsui as the others said their farewells. "Well now, we'd better be off Terri, can I call you that? It's what Crystal always calls you."
"Sure," smiled Ratiasu.
"Good, then let's go Terri, I know how impatient Kenpachi can get."
Ketu held Ratiasu back, "promise me you'll return here in one piece."
"No need to worry Ket, I'll be fine, just make sure you come back as well."
Ketu smiled, Ratiasu was halfway turning around when she suddenly turned back wrapped her arms around Ketu's neck and kissed him. Shunsui faked a cough and they broke apart half-heartedly. "I'll be back, and you will as well, I know it." Ratiasu turned and flash stepped off with Shunsui and Crystal.
Ketu stood there and smiled to himself, a wolf-whistle from Haruka snapped him out of his day dream. "Shouldn't we be going as well?" asked Haruka.
"Oh… err… yes, of course," stuttered Ketu as he flash stepped off.
Haruka signed and also flash stepped away.
Come on people where's the "awwwwwwwwwwwwwww" that kiss scene was cute, don't you agree?
(From the scene where Ketu just walked into Ratiasu's room when she was sleeping) Not to worry they are sort of married if you've read the backgrounds, I mean they've been alone for a few years, what do you expect them to do? Actually don't answer that.
I'm on a geography trip next week, and then I've got work the week after that, I'm working at the golf open championships in royal birkdale if anyone was wondering, so if the worst happens the next chp won't be up until three weeks from today, but I may be working I'll still try and get the next chp written, so I may have it two weeks from now
Btw sorry for all the blocks of writing, but I couldn't find a place to put paragraphs