Chapter3. The Thirteenth Arcana pt.2
Momo had seen death before. The glazed eyes, drying blood from the ripped up bodies but never had she felt the same horror that coursed through her veins and made her blood run cold then when the man with the sleek black hair and rumpled business suit swayed slightly in the breeze blowing. His left leg was crossed behind the right, which was straight up tied by some silver cord visible against the dark material of the pants. His arms were bound behind his back; her eyes went to his face, the expression tight, the glassy eyes fearful as if recognizing their attacker and knowing death imminent.
The bile rose in her throat.
Rukia fared little better. Stunned she had pivoted around to face the still body of the priest. Her violet eyes were horrified and a piercing scream rolled out from her throat. Pounding footsteps thudded the stone steps and a blond head came into view. Rangiku stopped, just as shocked as her fellow hunters. Her gray eyes traced the swaying figure and she whispered softly, "oh Gods…"
Renji came up behind her, panting heavily. He started back when he finally looked up, "oh geez! What the hell…?" Momo lowered her hands from her face, tears forming. Rangiku swallowed hard and ducked beneath the hanging body. Immediately she pulled her into a tight bear hug, "don't look at it…shhh. Rukia?"
The new hunter had backed away. From the stone trough she retrieved a floating leaf, "I know who the witch is," she said, looking at it closely. Renji had inched below the Torii gate just as Rangiku did but now he glanced up at the corpse and then down at the cards on the ground. Rangiku and Momo looked over to her curiously, "what?" Renji who had the presence of mind to question her more coherently, "who is it, Rukia?" seconded this.
Rukia turned the leaf over in her small hands and held it up for them to see, "a ghost. We thought it couldn't possibly be Yoko Sumeragi because according to a report from three years ago she had committed suicide in Tokyo bay. But this proves it…" the leaf at first glance appeared ordinary but when light was reflected through it…a form of a tiny cross in flames became visible.
~~~****~~~
"Okay she died by drowning in the bay…but here it says that rather than burn her body as per Japanese custom…her parents buried her in a small graveyard in the ruins of a burned down Church on a tiny island several miles out from Tokyo bay," Renji stabbed his finger down on an unfolded map. Dust motes danced in the air clinging to Rangiku's blouse. She batted at them annoyed, "so our Yoko other than having a strain of *Berkana a generation or two back…was buried instead of being cremated. And the part about the church makes sense."
"From the leaf," Renji added.
"Right."
~~~****~~~
An hour at the police station had slowly turned into two then three and still Grimmjow wasn't convinced. For how could two hunters, one seasoned the other fresh from the strict Solomon academy, not hear or see anything when two men were murdered practically a few feet away? And no he refused the vague hypothesis of Rukia's that the culprit was a dead witch.
Ghosts don't murder people. That's a fact.
His sharp teal eyes rolled up to the ceiling; Momo seeing this glared angrily at him. If looks could kill then he'd have been a pile of ash by now. "It all fits," she tried again, "the Tarot cards, the story—" Grimmjow tilted his chair back muttering, "what story? Explain to me how you two didn't hear or notice—a"
"Going back to this again?!" Momo snapped. Rukia sat placidly beside her on a hard plastic chair, her arms propped up on the table, her expression drowsy. Grimmjow slammed his hand down on the table startling her. Even Momo seemed a bit cowed. "I'm sorry," he said to them both, "but I just need to understand this." He pressed the button on the tape recorder down, turning it off.
"Tell me then. So I can help you," he gestured to Momo.
Her hazel eyes softened, "alright. I'll start at the beginning. Hanataro compiled all the info for us; Rangiku and Renji are checking something out as we speak and um…well here it goes. Yoko Sumeragi was fired three years ago from Subaru group from her job as Secretary. The reasons given were weak and it took only a little digging to find out more. She'd been having an affair with one of the Executives a Mr. Hidetada Suzuki, husband of Tomoe Suzuki. Tomoe found out and threatened separation and scandal if the details of the affair were made public. So grudgingly he got rid of Yoko…who was five months pregnant and just about to start showing."
Grimmjow nodded, "I'm following you so far. But why after three years would her spirit come back to seek revenge?" Momo smiled knowingly, "ah but here's the real dirt. Hidetada's younger brother proposed to her as a sort of cover up in case she spilled her guts. Hiro Suzuki, the second victim. For some reason or other, this, Hanataro couldn't find out why. He jilted her at the altar. And then two months later devastated once more she threw herself off the pier into the churning water below."
"Hmm so…but then why kill the first guy's wife?"
"Simple. According to the fertility clinic files we found. All those years the couple had tried but with no success in having children then it finally happened. Tomoe Suzuki was seven months pregnant when she went missing."
~~~****~~~
"Who'd have thought that a spirit could cause this much harm?" Rangiku muttered, looking over the papers they'd found once more. Renji steered the car smoothly, easing up on the gas pedal as they came up to a light just turning yellow. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," he quoted. Rangiku looked up, her eyes vaguely amused, "do you speak from experience?"
Her partner gave a short bark of self-deprecating laughter, "no. But that's what we're dealing with isn't it?" She nodded, "yeah. I wonder where Kurosaki was heading off to when he said to meet him back at Raven's 13 later on?"
"Huh I don't know…but right now we have to spring Momo and Rukia from Grimm's clutches—oh ho speak of the devil!" He swerved into a no parking spot in front of the Tokyo police department. Coming down the steps, being led out by the shifty-eyed policeman was Momo hiding a secret smile and Rukia holding her skirt up a few inches while going down.
"Let me guess, you want to come with us?" Rangiku asked smiling as the girls piled in the backseat and Grimmjow made as if to follow them. Momo bounced and leaned forward between the front seats, "his boss didn't want to let us go but Grimm," she flicked him a grin, "snuck us out."
Rangiku's smile grew wider, "really? Could Grimm have a soft spot for us hunters?" The blue-haired man snorted, "as if! I just wanted to see if I could use you guys to get my suspect." He slid into the back beside Rukia who tried not to look uncomfortable while having her hip right up against his.
"Uh huh…" Rangiku exchanged a look with Momo.
~~~****~~~
One person who didn't look happy to see Grimmjow was Kurosaki when the elevator doors opened and the group stepped out. He was waiting in the hallway outside the main office, his typical scowl in place, "what's he doing here?" Rangiku got between them as Grimm taking this as an insult from the lead hunter stalked toward him angrily. "Good Gods can't you two not fight? We have a case that needs our attention right now…besides that. You of all people, Ichigo, should know exactly why he wants to join in."
Vindicated, Grimmjow crossed his arms over his chest and smirked triumphantly as his rival's face twitched. "I see…just this one time then. Oh and Grimm…the coroner I spoke with today told me to pass this message on to you. He had said to say hello to kitty. When I told him I didn't know anybody named kitty, he smiled and said you would understand," Kurosaki shrugged.
Grimmjow's eye twitched much like a tic, "what was his name?" he asked tightly.
Rangiku herded the others around them, her eyes rolling up to the ceiling.
"I don't recall the first but I usually address him as Schiffer-san."
"ULQUIORRA! THAT BASTARD!!!"~~~****~~~
"Damn dirty rat," Grimmjow was still grumbling as he took a seat on the low square stools placed around the central computers. Rangiku leaned over to hiss in Rukia's ear, "he really means bat. I've seen Schiffer-san once before so I know he has his ears pierced and…" she giggled a bit, "Wears tiny silver bat studs."
A spurt of half-hushed giggling earned them a harsh glare from Kurosaki. Hitsugaya being out of the office luckily for Grimmjow since the humans weren't supposed to participate or be aware of the SCG's existence. Made him the instigator of the meeting to which he took to with aplomb. The circular lights above dimmed with a command from the computer below and a 3D image flashed up on all the screens.
"This is an X-ray of Tomoe Suzuki's head. Schiffer-san when examining it, noticed some peculiar lacerations to the neck. He thought it was as if she had been alive and had a thin cord wrapped around her throat then was dragged by it from behind. Are any of you familiar with the old practice of Garroting?"
When no one answered, Momo spoke up, "um it was a favored method of execution in Spain where they would place an iron collar around the victim's neck and use screws to slowly tighten it. Mostly it was done to criminals but elsewhere axes were twisted in thick rope to the same effect. Basically a very painful and gruesome death."
In the semi-darkness of the room everybody self-consciously touched their own throats silently giving thanks for not being born back then. Kurosaki smiled eerily again, "correct. Tomoe Suzuki was garroted, her head cut off in the process. Strangulation was also a determining factor in her brother-in-law, Hiro Suzuki's death. His was instantaneous as the weight of his own body crushed his lungs. The priest the same way by strangulation. What the precise connection there is…I won't know until Momo finds out for me."
The brunette flushed and agitatedly said, "Find out what?"
"Well I'd thought to spare Grimm here from any possible criminal charges later on but since he seems so set on helping us…"
"Just cut the crap, Kurosaki! And explain what you have in mind," Grimmjow crossed his arms in typical annoyance. Kurosaki glanced at him and then slid his gaze over everyone else, speaking slowly so that his words weren't misinterpreted, "on Tsushima Island are the ruins of a church and near these ruins is a small Christian Cemetery…Momo I want you to take Kuchiki with you and dig up our dead girl Yoko. Make sure she's really and still dead."
"What?" confused beyond reasoning, the brunette hunter stared at her leader in shock.
"WHAT!" Grimmjow had started up from his stool, pointing a shaky finger in Kurosaki's direction, "grave robbing is--"
"Punishable by law," Rangiku spoke calmly, her hands folded on her lap, "we know that. But Ichigo has a point. One of Yoko's older relatives whom was a witch had the craft of Berkana, the resurrection wheel. Life and death are balanced on it much as the symbol on the Wheel of fortune, the tenth Major Arcana. Right now we could be dealing with a—r"
"Resurrected witch," Rukia finished. Her quietness had seemingly marked her as a docile female but he could see it. Stubbornness lurking just beneath the surface, a will unbroken by no one, strength masked by a face of calm…and a quaint sort of beauty rare in most women. "Precisely, Kuchiki. I see that HQ trained you well," Kurosaki said, his tone unusually lacking in bite.
Was that a compliment?
Rangiku's blond head swiveled toward him and then back to the girl sitting beside her. Her violet eyes were trained on the screen before her, determinedly it seemed. Though when she was sure he wasn't looking at her, or anybody else for that matter, she snuck a sideways glance at his profile.
So she did like him to some extent…but just how much?
Momo was still arguing about her and the girl in question going alone to Tsushima Island, but Rangiku ignored that. Probably Renji and herself were to do field work or something along the like…and Grimmjow really wasn't hunter material him being a cop and all. Besides Hitsugaya would go absolutely ballistic if he caught wind of the fact that they'd let someone other than an HQ hunter join them for a meeting.
Speaking of Hitsugaya….
"What the hell are you doing here?!"
Momo shrieked and jolted in her seat, Rangiku mildly turned to confront the short shadow standing in the entranceway, "hello, chief. How's your day been?" Kurosaki sighed, cupped his forehead with his palm in a clear gesture of downright defeat. Hitsugaya didn't take kindly to Rangiku's question as he glanced from their guilty faces to the perplexed expression coloring the offending policeman's countenance.
"Alright I want some answers and I want them now!"
~~~*~~~
"Geez he didn't have to be so rude," muttered Momo as she and Rukia walked out into the underground parking lot. Kurosaki had stayed behind to try and smooth things over with chief Hitsugaya…'good luck with that' as Rangiku had said when she too had left through the front with Renji.
Grimmjow slouched behind the two girls, his hands in his pockets, seemingly deep in thought. "To the police station?" Momo asked him when they reached the white car. He looked over to her, his teal eyes troubled, "Kurosaki meant it, huh? Digging up that woman's grave?"
She nodded.
"Hmm, I see…" he placed his hand atop the roof of the car, leaning forward toward the drivers side, "will you two…you know be okay with it? You can't have somebody go with you?" Momo looked to Rukia and they shared a second of meaningful silence then the petite raven-haired hunter ducked her head briefly.
"You could come with us," Momo offered.
~~~*~~~
"Get out he says! Good Gods does he think he owns us?!" Renji snarled angrily to the steering wheel. Rangiku tucked a blond strand of hair behind her ears, making her diamond encrusted hoops shine, "I don't doubt that he thinks that. Though…I really believe he wanted us out of the way so he could stash those cases of Peach Oolong tea waiting out in the hallway."
"You think so?"
"I know so," Rangiku smiled, shifting slightly in the leather seat of the sedan. To make it up to Matsuyama Hotel and back to Tokyo by sundown was a feat only accomplishable with the speed demon hands of her red-haired partner. But what exactly had Kurosaki wanted them to look for there…?
~~~*~~~
The cold wind whipped the skirt of Rukia's dress. She smoothed her hand along the fabric trying with minimal success to keep it from flying up. Momo stood a few steps away, haggling over the price of a rented boat with an old man. He eyed them suspiciously, especially Grimmjow and his borrowed SCG jacket. One of Renji's spares from the trunk of the Nissan, it also neatly hid the tiny revolver, usually kept in the gloved compartment for emergencies, but now put to use in place of Grimm's service gun.
The tiny black metal revolver wasn't as tiny and harmless as it seemed. A rounded side chamber held four craft negation bullets and on the other side, four more with titanium tips on the glass body. Grimmjow had let out a low whistle when he'd been handed it back when they were still in the car. His appreciation for the pistola pequena had only increased when Momo explained its features and the lack of de-pressurization needed as hers did.
An improvised holster made up from a partially busted one thrown in the backseat and his belt had completed it. He walked around now on the quay, pausing every once in a while to pat the area under his arm with a smirk. If only Kurosaki could see him now! Rukia edged along the rope railing toward him, "Jeagerjaques-san, come. Momo's secured us a boat."
Grimmjow half-turned and let out a bark of laughter, when he could speak properly he explained, "I'm sorry I wasn't exactly making fun of you, Senorita. It's just that Kurosaki…he never treats me with anything but in a manner of utmost dislike…and hearing you say Jeagerjaques-san, it really tickles my funny bone!"
"Guys, hurry up!"
They both looked down to where Momo was waving energetically up at them from the stern of a small fishing boat. Grimmjow offered Rukia his hand as they descended the slick steps to the waterfront. Taking it gratefully, she clung to him tightly as her heels threatened to slide out from under her. "Easy does it," he said, gently helping her settle on the narrow wooden plank that served as a seat. Her weight swayed the craft as though it were made of driftwood. Grimmjow stepped back and eyed it dubiously, "are you sure it won't capsize?" His teal eyes traced the worn front and precarious dipping it made whenever Momo moved.
"Of course it won't, silly! Right, Rukia?"
Aforementioned girl sat still as a statue, one pale hand rose up to her mouth; holding in, Grimmjow suspected blatant motion sickness. He backed wisely away, "I'll have to pass, Momo, Rukia. I just don't—l"
"Like water? Eh, kitty?"
A tic appeared much like it had before when Kurosaki had relayed that strange greeting from the coroner. Momo noticed and continued, "poor little kitty…afraid of water is he? Maybe…Schiffer-san was right and we should call you Grimm-kitty, how does that sound? Grimm-kitty?"
His jaw tightened, his eyes flashed dangerously, he hopped into the boat so fast that it swayed violently beneath them. "Let's go then," he said tightly in answer to Momo's brilliant smile. She handed him a worn oar "start paddling. We have a long ways to go."
"Wait…isn't Tsushima Island several miles out from…"
"Uh huh. So start paddling!"
Rukia wordlessly leaned over the side of the boat.
~~~*~~~
Hours and many aching muscles later and the stone ruins of a building came into view. Grimmjow groaned with extended effort as they swung into a natural cove. "I—am—never going to help you two again!" he gasped out, nearly collapsing onto the sandy stretch of beach. Momo stepped out, her feet touching down lightly, "oh, get over it! I'm sure you just built up at least a tighter six-pack," she said, glancing appreciatively at the taut sculpt visible beneath his shirt.
Grimmjow swung the black jacket over his shoulder, "yeah, yeah." He looked up and down the sand, noting the peculiar quiet, "no birds," he said half to himself. Rukia got up shakily, her mouth firmly covered by a linen handkerchief, her eyes darted around curiously. "What time is it, Momo?" she asked through the muffling fabric.
"Five pm sharp." Momo bent down and hoisted a pair of small campsite spades over her back, "Rangiku and Renji are supposed to join us in an hour or so by speed boat. In case you're wondering that's how we're to get back," she muttered seeing the look Grimmjow shot her. He simply shrugged, "well lead on then."
The sand eventually petered out to coarse grass yellowed at the edges for lack of water. Boulders lined a pathway of sorts, leading as Grimmjow suspected right up into the Cemetery. A board lying near the rusted fence spikes gave the name as St Francis's dear ones. Weathered stones lay toppled over onto each other, Momo picked her way through carefully, in one hand she held a paper bearing the exact placement of their quarry's plot…however after a few minutes of quiet searching…he heard her distinctly mutter a curse.
"Damn. This can't be right!"
"What?"
She turned in a complete circle counting the graves, "it says here that there's supposed to be thirty one people buried in this Cemetery."
"So?"
"There's only," she ticked her fingers in mid-air, "Thirty."
Grimmjow frowned before he could say anymore Rukia beat him to it, "how can that be?" Momo poked one of the stones with her foot, "I don't know…unless…" her eyes went to the single spire rising up from the hill. Rukia looked to just in time to catch the glare of the setting sun as it illuminated the spire, making it seem as though it were on fire.
"A burning cross," Rukia breathed softly.
~~~*~~~
Momo stared up at the gilt sky just starting to darken at the edges, "we'd better hurry." Grimmjow took his shovel and began poking around the charred ruins, "do we know what we're looking for?" he asked, somewhat annoyed at this extra work required of him. Rukia knelt down at the remnants of the stone altar to peer at the inscription carved there, "Therefore, he that made them will not have mercy on them. He that formed them will show them no favor," she read aloud.
"Cheerful isn't it?" Grimmjow commented, tapping a blackened brick. Momo glanced at him, "Isaiah 27:11. And to someone of the faith it makes perfect sense." He snorted and her expression darkened. "If you're a fanatic that is…" he walked a few steps then caught something with the tip of his shoe. Kneeling he pushed away mortar chips and broken bricks to uncover a flat stone without any writing on it.
"Hey, girls, I think I found something!"
They both crowded around him. "Small. Rather too small to contain a body, no?" Momo theorized as she pushed away strands of hair hanging in her eyes. Grimmjow rapped his knuckles on the smooth top, producing a distinct sound, "hollow inside. Maybe a crypt?"
"Maybe," Momo sounded doubtful. Rukia raised her eyes from it to catch the swiftest of shadows dart away behind a part of a tumbling down exterior wall. "Open it," she said softly. Momo glanced at her but shrugged to Grimmjow's questioning look, "go ahead." The two hunters stepped back as Grimmjow straightened up from his crouch, leveled the shovel and struck down with ear-splitting force.
Tiny stone chips flew but the whole of the stone didn't budge. Again he struck it, opting for an angle, four spidery cracks appeared. Five more and chunks crumbled down into the seeping darkness of the inside. Momo watching the approaching night above, brought forth a couple of high-beam flashlights from the duffel bag hanging from her shoulder, handing one to Rukia, she switched hers on and shone it down into the hole.
Floating dust and debris cloaked the air, but she thought she could see something…ivory colored and fragile looking. "Break the sides, Grimm," she ordered. He huffed and wiped the back of his hand across his sweating face, "you're the boss woman." He brought the point of the shovel down at the corner, slamming it one last time until he heard a satisfying crack. The stone caved in emitting choking quantities of powdery dust, Grimmjow coughed violently, Momo leaned forward, shining her flashlight down.
"Oh my…"
Grimmjow followed her line of sight down into the hole, his teal eyes widened, "fuck it's…"
"A baby."
~~~*~~~
Rangiku looked around the room once more, "just as I thought," she said disgustedly, "nothing." Renji dusted his hands then scooped his gloves off the dresser top, "well Ichigo did say to check thoroughly. Top and bottom…" he glanced toward the spotless bed, "though after the police finished up, I don't know what he expected us to find." Rangiku sighed, "a wild goose chase," she sat down on the edge of the bed.
Renji quirked an eyebrow, "you sure you want to sit there? That is after all where Tomoe's head was left." A soft chuckle was his reply. "You don't think I'm that morbid do you?" she sniffed, "I suppose we'll have to get back to Tokyo soon…" her gray eyes wandered upward, "hey Renji…"
"Huh?"
"There's a hand above you," she pointed up at the crossbeam ceiling.
"What!"
He spun around, his head tilting back, just in time to have a small tan colored book drop on his face from a slender white hand that retreated into the shadows.
"Ouch! Dammit!"
The innocuous little book fluttered to the floor losing a page along with it. Rangiku bent down, ignoring her partner's annoyed yelp, her fingers closed around the edge but already she could see from the spidery writing written across it that it was someone's journal.
"Listen to this. 'My baby is already a month old. Such a precious thing she is, just today she smiled at me and I wondered at the beauty Hidetada and I had created.'" Rangiku read on, even as they raced out to the parking lot, "'He'll marry me, I know that with all my heart…from the very first he said he loved me. Loved me. Me. Yoko. Tomoe's half-sister—"
"Wait—wait a minute!" Renji interrupted, "half-sister? It wasn't in any of the files Hanataro complied for us so how…?"
"I don't know but that's what it says…hold on," Rangiku selected another page and flicked the switch for the car's overhead reading light. Though the digital clock said 4:45 pm, the sky was darkening fast on their stretch of highway. "My father abandoned me. Denied my existence, I learned later of my sister's happy childhood with her two happy parents. A loving mother, a loving father. My father. I've longed to call him that…though he'll never know. Tomoe is her name. His perfect daughter's name…mine; sunlight, sunshine. No one's sunshine."
"Angsty wasn't she?"
Rangiku snapped the book shut after reading another passage silently, "Renji, step on it!"
~~~*~~~
The tiny skull, round empty sockets stared luridly up at them. "Good Gods," Momo reiterated, "it's a baby…but how? Why?" Rukia more in control of her initial reaction bent low, her hands gathering her skirt, her finger traced the broken lip of the stone casket, "Sumeragi Himawari. Yoko's daughter."
A crack of thunder preceded her ominous statement and Grimmjow jumped, his hair standing on end, "can we go now?" Momo rubbed her arms inside her coat sleeves, "we can't go anywhere until Rangiku and Renji bring another boat. Which I hope they do fast," she muttered as her flashlight's steady beam began to decrease. Rukia stood up, switching hers off, "where shall we wait? They won't know to look for us here."
"Hmm, good point. I suppose we should head back down to the shoreline then. We'll tell Kurosaki what we found later—!" Momo's eyes widened, Rukia caught the look reflected by the faint light of the flashlight. "What's wrong?" she asked, her own violet eyes scanning the nearby darkness. Grimmjow shifted uneasily, the shovel handle clutched tightly in one thick fist.
The silence stretched. Broken only by intermittent crackles of thunder farther out over the sea; clearly this was not a night for sailing.
"I thought—I—"
Everything happened in a blur of rushing shapes, bursts of light and above all, screams. First from Momo as she cut off, her flashlight fell to the ground, her body doubled over, her arms wrapped around herself. Rukia jerked back suddenly when she tried to help the brunette hunter, a silver cord snaking around her throat, dragging her violently away. Teal eyes darted from side to side, defensively he raised the shovel; his feet spread wide apart. Momo gasping huddled near him, "Rukia!" she choked out.
Faint cackling floated on the wind toward them and then nothing.
~~~*~~~
"It's gotta be here somewhere!"
"We've already checked twice. There's no tombstone with even a similar name that possibly could be Yoko Sumeragi's!" Grimmjow said tiredly. The pacing swing of Momo's flashlight bounced in crazy arks over the graves in St. Francis's dear ones. A sack near Grimm's feet held the hurriedly gathered remains of Himawari Sumeragi. He'd balked originally at disturbing the baby's bones but a glare from Momo had silenced him and grudgingly he'd collected them up.
"I just don't understand!"
He looked up to see the formerly cool and calm hunter, angry and frustrated. Add a dash of worry in there also and you have Momo's current mood. Not that he could blame her. It wasn't pleasant to think neither that Rukia had been taken nor that they hadn't the faintest clue or hope of getting her back. Alive that is.
A crack sounded as she banged her foot angrily on the nearest stone, something broke off of it falling into the crackly weeds below. Momo glanced at it then did a double take, "paint?" she dropped down, her gloved fingers scraping the loose flakes off. Grimmjow drew near, squatting beside her. "Bingo. We found it!"
He turned the mounds of dirt over while she stood back, a cigarette lighter in her hand. To burn the remains, she recalled was the only way to set the spirit free. His shovel struck something hard, using the point he shoved the remaining black soil off of a smooth weathered pine surface. Prying the lid off Grimmjow fought off a hiss of disgust, his nose crinkling in distaste for the musky odor leaking from the dried husk inside.
Momo shone her flashlight down, pressing the trigger of the lighter on, "Requiescat in Pace," she muttered, tossing the tiny tongue of flame into the casket. A brilliant blaze erupted, as did an inhuman scream shatter the air, Grimmjow started back. Momo fell in beside him, both watching as the plumes of gray smoke rose up into the stormy sky. A face, mouth opening in a final shriek of defiance formed on the side. Scrambling footsteps sounded on the weed-choked path outside the Cemetery. Three people appeared. Rangiku, Renji and an extremely dazed Rukia.
"Hey! Are you guys alright?" Rangiku asked, struggling to cross the confining grass stalks. Momo glanced at Grimmjow and smiled faintly, "yeah. I guess we are. Anyway…what took you so long!?"
~~~*~~~
"Revenge can do a lot of harm," Rangiku muttered more as a statement than anything else to Kurosaki's questioning. Everyone had gotten back to Raven's 13 and were sitting in a semicircle in the main office, Hanataro had brewed a pot of coffee and most if not all had a steaming cup in hand. He nodded.
Grimmjow, no one knew how, but he had sustained a couple of non-life threatening cuts to his arms and face, Momo was tending to these with a first aid kit and an iodine swab. The teal-haired Police officer hissed in pain when she applied the swab to his cheek, "so then three people were murdered by a dead woman seeking revenge?"
"A dead witch you mean," Rangiku indicated the thin tan book sitting on the desk, "in one passage she refers to a gift that God had bestowed on her. Her Aunt had the same gift as it were and is mentioned as having disappeared one day from her house in Odawara. Yoko was very bitter about it seeing as 'auntie' was the only person who understood her and the changes she was going through. Let alone later when she fell in love with her half sister's husband."
"But enough so that she wanted her dead?"
"Jealousy is a powerful emotion. Negative though it is, we can only assume it fueled the strength of her craft," Renji said, shaking his head at the refill of his cup that Hanataro offered, "so that when she did die…her soul was able to manifest years later when her original intended victim became pregnant; her own baby having been drowned in the bay along with herself."
Hitsugaya who was listening in, came forward suddenly from the scanner, "I agree with your assumptions since we may never know the absolute truth," he looked at them each in turn until his eyes came to rest on the itinerant police man trying to appear invisible under the Chief's usually withering glare. The Chief sighed, extending a key card laminated in plastic and attached to a silver ball chain, "here. Because of the help you gave us today on this case and in the past with your unwavering cooperation…against my better judgment I present you with this."
Grimmjow took the card from him, turning it over in his broad hands, "is this what I think it is?" A slow grin, cat-like the hunters noticed with alarm, spread over the police man's face, "a key card allowing entry into the building like what the hunters have?"
Hitsugaya frowned, "yes it is. Now I expect you not to go blabbing about this to anyone not even your boss." Grimmjow snorted, "as if I'd ever tell that jackass Tosen anything about you guys! Justice and peace my ass!" Momo stifled a giggle when teal eyes shot her a glare.
"Well alls well that ends well, I guess," she said, dabbing at another cut and causing Grimm to shriek right in the middle of his glory of getting on Kurosaki's nerves. Rangiku took a swallow of coffee then glanced at the sack of bones near Grimm's feet, "except what're you going to do with those? Shouldn't you have burned them too?"
Three pairs of eyes immediately dropped down to the sack, widening in alarm. "You don't by any chance have a large Cauldron around here do you?" Grimmjow asked, directing his question to Hitsugaya.
"What for?"
"To burn the bones in. I mean you guys are witch hunters and all…what?" the teal-haired honorary witch hunter glanced at the shocked faces of his new comrades.
"What? Can't you take a joke?"
"Just shut it, Grimmjow," Kurosaki and Rangiku muttered at the same time.
"Huh? What'd I say?!"
~~~To be continued~~~
A/N: Ugh this chappie nearly killed me! Over five thousand words long…eek! And I still wasn't too happy with the outcome ahem, reviews are appreciated.-) ciao. Note: The thirteenth Arcana in the Tarot deck is the Death card hence the title of the chapters. Clairvoyant: for those who don't know, is somebody who has visions of the future. An Empath: reads strong emotions left behind in objects or senses them.