Author`s Note: This chapter is a little shorter that the others. I had alot of distractions and didn`t want to not update. The next chapter will be out soon and will be much longer.
Enjoy
Ichigo sat in his fourth period class watching the clock. He hadd long since tuned out his teachers lesson and all other background noise. The only thing he really heard was the ticking of the clock as the second hadn made another full rotation. Only a few more minutes and he could leave. School had become a hello for Ichigo. Every class he did the same thing. Tuned everything out and watched the clock. When lunch came around, he would eat with his regular group. But he didn't converse much. Unless he was directly spoken to, or needed to state his opinion, Ichigo didn't emerge himself in conversation. Especially since all the conversation about Chad and Uryuu's accident.
Accident. That was what everyone beleived. That was the cover up that Soul Society implemented to hide the real reason for their deaths. When Chad and Uryuu's bodies were brought back from Hueco Mundo there was nothing any healer could do for them. Other than heal the wounds on an already dead body to make it easier to fool people in the real world. The cover up for their deaths was a carr accident. Chad and Uryuu were walking down the street when they were both struck by a car. With some tinkering of surveillance cameras and some shinigami in gigais to act as witnesses, the scene was complete. A tragic accident that killed three people, two studtens walking across the road, and a drunk driver. The druck driver was nothing more than a special gigai that was complete with organs and blood. Virtually the exact same as a human body. Soul Society had methods of covering their tracks.
Their funerals were held a few days after the funerals in Seireitei. Their names were included on the plak up in Soul Society but their bodies were buried on earth. And for the second time, Ichigo had to hear his friends name spoken in a eulogy. Everyon at school was deeply saddened by the loss of two of their classmates, but not to the defree of Ichigo and Orihime. For the last few weeks there was a great deal of self blame for the deaths. Both from Ichigoand Orihime, and in Sould Society. Many felt that it was their fault, some were correct, but these wern't the times to lay blame even if it was self blame. In the back of his mind, Ichigo knew it was no one\s fault, everyone fought to the best of their ability.
The bell rang and he picked up his bag and left the classroom swiftly. As he exited his school he saw Orihime, she waved at him and walked her own way home. Ichigo sighed, Orihime had taken it the hardest. She felt that if she didn't allow herself to be taken to Las Noches than there would never be a rescue mission. And if there wasn't a rescue mission than Chad, Uryuu and Hanataro wouldn't have been killed. Ichigo told the girl how ridiculous she was being, how it wasn't her fault. She said she agreed with him but he could tell that she still felt like it was all her fault.
It was thrusday, and when the weekend came, he was going to Seireitei to do whatever he could. The war with Aizen had come to a sort of halt. In the past five weeks Aizen hadn't made a single move. They had assaulted Las Noches a few times, but due to the immense size of the fortress they couldn't afford to commit to a full scale attack. There was too much of a risk of Aizen abandoning the forterss and counter attacking. Since they ocouldn't use the Senkaimon to transport themselves directly into Lax Noches, it gave Aizen too much time to leave and launch a counter attack on Seireitei. So instead they resorted to small excursions through the fortress to gather information and kill whoever they came across.
It seemed that an invasion of Hueco Mundo was impossible due to the circumstances for the time being. For them to win the war, it looked like they would have to wait until Aizen's next move to attempt to kill the man.
"Nii-san!" Yuzu puped up as he walked into the door. "I made sukiyaki for dinner."
Ichigo nodded in response and thanked his younger sister for the food when she handed him his plate. Ht took the plate and went up stairs to eat in his room. He had been eating in his toom a lot latlely. He preferred to be alone most of the time when he was at home. It wasn't that he didn't like his families company, they had actually been a great support for him during this rough patch. Yuzu did her party by cooking his favortie meals everyday and continued being her cheery self. Karin had been a good person to talk to when he chose to talk about it. And his dad...well his dad hadn't attacked him at all in the last five weeks. Which was just fine with Ichigo. His family wasn't the reason he looked himself in his room, he just liked to be alone in his mourning.
He ate his food slowly as he did his homework. When he finished he laid down in his bed and closed his eyes. He thought about the weekend, when he could go back to Soul Society and do what he could to help. It wasn't much longer before he drifted off to sleep and dreamed of happier days.
"So will you two help me?" Hisagi asked captains Ukitake and Kyouraku.
Shunsui rubbed his beard lightly as he contemplated Hisagi's request. "Yea I think we can. Can we Juushiro? I can only speak for myself." He asked his friend.
"Yea I'm all aboard." Ukitake said after a momnet of silent thought.
Hisagi smiled and bowed lightly to the two captains, thanking them.
"How many do you have?" Ukitake asked.
"With you two, five. I need one more to kick start this think. I'm not sure who I should approach though." Hisagi said.
"Try Unohana-taicho. I'll put in a good word for you." Ukitake said with a nice smile. Hisagi agreed and thanked them once more. After that he turned and headed in the direction of the 4th division.
"I'm sure you will put in the best word. Won't you Juushiro?" Shunsio said with a smirk.
"Shut up. And watch waht you say when we're in public." Ukitake replied with an annoyed expression.
"You two have been together for the last half-century. What's the point in keeping the secret?" Retsu and I are both bery private people. There's no reason to go gallivanting around." Ukitake replied.
Shunsui laughed at his friends reasoning. "I never said you had to gallivant around, just that you don't have to hide it."
"Like I said." Ukitake replied. "We're both private people."
Shunsui sighed in response. They walked for a whbile before he spoke again, a question suddenly rissing to mind. "Am I the only one who knows about you two?"
"Yup." Ukitake said. "Since your such a close friend to both of us we felt iw would be unfair to start a relationship and keep it a secret from you."
Shunsui nodded with a smile.
"Although." Ukitake added. "I think Retsu is going to tell Isane-san sooner or later."
Again Shunsui nodded, speaking a reply wasn't needed. The two of themw alked through Siereitei until they reached the 13th division. The two captains walked until they reached Ungendo, Ukitae's family estate, where they sat in the luxerious garden near the fish ponds. Ukitake usually came to his family estate to relax when he was feeling particularly ill. Shunsui visited frequently and sometimes the two of them would go there when they wanted to get away for a bit. The last five weeks had been extremly stressful for all captains of the Gotei 13. Organizing missions to Hueco Mundo was annoying in itself, coupled with the paperwork that came along, but that wasn't the problem. It was the Central 46 that had caused all the stress.
With the slaughter of the last Central 46 they were left without a formal gobernment for a while. The four noble houses and the Gotei 13 ran Soul Society during the gap in government. The nobles took control of most of the Central 46's duties while all military control was taken over by the Soutaicho, Yamamoto. But that couldn't last. Before Inoue Orihime was taken to Hueco Mundo the process of selecting the next Central 46 began. And by the time the battle in Karakura ended, the process was complete. It took them a week of working none stop before they had caught up to everything that had been neglected. And once they were properly organized, the Central 46 began causing problems.
After the battle at Karakura, Yamamoto used his temporary authority to lift the vizard's exile. And that was the topic of the Central 46's first move. To attempt to re-banish the vizard. Their reasoning was that despite the aid the vizard gave in Karakura, they still could not be trusted due to their hollow abilities. The fact that Tousen revealed hollow abilities didn't help the matter. It was after the Central 46's order to exile the vizard again that Yamamoto called a captains meeting and asked all the captains to stand by him one-hundred percent and give all the aid they could to stop the exile. His request wasn't an unreasonable one, the captains were loyay to Yamamoto, and did stand by him. Byakuya had been especially helpful, being the head of the Kuchiki clan.
With his status in on e of the four noble houses he managed to pull a great deal of pressure from the nobles. The majority of the Kuchiki clan had opposed the vizard's exile. Soifon had also used her family ties with the Shihouin clan to gain mroe support. Although she didn't get the whole clan on their side she did help get enough to make a difference. And while Juushiro and Ukitake weren;t part of the four noble houses, their own clans were still fairly prestigious and they managed to bring more support.
All in all, they managed to oppose the Central 46's decision and the viard were allowed to remain within Soul Society. Even though it was a victory on their side, opposing the Central 46 was never a good thing. For another two weeks or so the Central 46 had been breathing down their necks, slapping them with all sorts of regulations. For the last few days they were quiet though, apparently busy debating about unkown issues. Rumers surfaced but Juushiro and Shunsui knew not to pay attention to them. ALthough, they were prepared for something big. They didn't know what was going to happen, but gut feeling told them that it wasn't going to be food.
"So." Ukitake spoke up, breaking the silence. "What do you think we can expect from Aizen in the near future?"
Shunsui looked at his friend with an inquisitive look. He knew Ukitkate for a long time, and he knew where his friend was headed with this conversation.
"I have no idea what his next move may be." Shunsui said honestly.
"Possibly putting himself and Gin through hollowfication?"
"I assume they've already done it." Shunsui replied. "If Tousen went through it, it doesn't make sense for Aizen and Gin to avoid it."
"I wonder how much stronger they'll be." Ukitake said.
"Listen Juushiro." Shunsui said, deciding to bring it out in the open. "You and I are two of the stronges captains in the Gotei 13. There is no reason to doubt yourself because of what happened."
"It happens everytime!" Ukitake snapped, surprising Shunsui.
"Easy there. Need a drink to calm your nerves?" Shunsui said with a smile, pulling a bottle of sake from his robes.
"No thank you." Ukitake replied. Shunsui put the bottle back into his robes. "I'm sorry for yelling. That's not me." He apologized.
"Don't worry about it. And in regards to your earlier statement, there's an easy solution to that problem."
Ukutake turned his head to Shunsui. Looking for the answer to his problem.
"Sit on the side lines, and jump into battle with your Bankai at the exact right moment and one-shot Aizen." Shunsui said jokingly.
Ukitakte laughed. "Yea sure. That's the solution to the whole war." He shook his head in comical disbeleif.
"Don't worry about it. We both know if you had more physical stamina, you'd be stronger than me." Shunsui said as he lied back on the porch, pushing his straw hat over his face to block the sun.
"Ha, don't try to flatter me. We have different abilities and I'm ill-matched against you."
"I said you'd be stronger than me. I didn't say you would be able to beat me in a fight." Shunsui said lazily.
Ukitake merely laughed in response.
Starrk walked down the halls of Las Noches, the sounds of his foor steps echoed through the corridors. They had been successful in finding a few Vasto Lorde, much to Aizen's pleasure. He lifted his hand and looked at the new tattoo he received once the new Vasto LOrde were exposed to the hogyoku. The back of his hand was still raw from the removal of his old tattoo...twice. After the Vasto Lorde were added to the Espada Starrk was demoted to cuatro. Then he acheived what Aizen wanted from him, he gained the power he should have had if he became an arrancar through the traditional method. So again the tatto was removed and he became the segunda.
His mission with Barragan and Halibel produced four Vasto LOrde who had filled the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th posistions in the Espada. Ulqiorra's second resurrection put him above both Barragan and Halibel but not above the new Espada, so he was demoted quiinto. Barragain and Halibel were demoted to 7th and 8th respectivly. No one had been able to acheive a second resurrection like Ulqiorra had, and when the one week time limit was up, Aizen used the Hogyoku. Lukily, Aizen was bluffing, he tested a second exposure of the hokyoku on numeros instead of on his strongest arrancar. They learned it didn't work, and the numeros were killed by it. It seemed the only way to acheive a second resurrection was by natural means. No short cuts.
"Starrk. Aizen-sama wants you to come to the meeting hall."
Starrk turned to see Lilynette at the end of the hall. He sighed and turned around, walking toward Lilynette and the direction of the meeting hall. He looked Lilynette up and down as he walked towards her. Once Starrk figured out how to become stronger, or a "correct arrancar" as Aizen had put it, Lilynette had changed drastically. He found out that the method of reaching his full potential was the removal of Lilynette's mas. When they split their soul, Starrk was left with all the power, while Lilynette was left with near none. It only took Starrk a day or so to realize that Lilynette had untapped power, and when he figured it out, he instructed her to shatter her mask.
After she broke her mask her entire physical appearence had altered. All that was left of her mast was a thing streak of bone on the top right side of her head that started at the hairline above her eyebrow and curved to the back. The streak of bone was cracked and cut into a thorn-like pattern. Her light yellow/green hair remained the same length, while she didn't Lilynette was now a foot taller and came up to Starrks shoulders. She gree in all ways, while before she had the appearance of a child, now she had the appearance of a woman. Her breasts were now in the large C range and her body curved in all the palces a woman was supposed to curve. She wore the same outfit, albeit a larger size than before. Her revealing jacket gave off a large view of her new cleavage and her collar was now much higher than before, simmilar to Halibel's. Since she didn't zip her jacket up like Halibell did, her lower face was still visible.
Lilynette's soft pink eyes looked at Starrk as he reached her. She turned to walk with him to the meeting hall. "Checking me out again eh?" She asked, teasing
him.
"I'm not checking you out, I just forget that your still a child under that womanly appearance." Stark replied with the slightest of smirks. Lilynette elbowed him had in the ribs at his subtle jab at her immaturity. He grunted in pain from her attack. Another thing about Lilynette that had changed was her strength. She was near Espada level in strength now. Still weaker than Grimmjow but stronger than an unreleased Yammy. Oddly enough, Starrks own power increased when Lilynette had removed her mask.
They reached the meeting hall and Starrk opened the door to go in, since Lilynette wasn't an Espada she waited outside the room. He walked in and took his seat, everyone else was already there. His eyes moved across the table and landed on Iulia Dobra. The new primera sat with her hands idly on the table. She was olive skinned with light yellow eyes. Her hair was brown and was tied in a braid that reached the centre of her shoulder blades. The remains of her hollow mask were under each eye. The same way Grimmjow had blue markings under his eyes, Iulia had small bone fragments accentuating her light eyes. She was only a few inches shorter that Starrk and had a slimmer body type than Halibel. She wore regular arrancar styled clothes, a white dress with a white jacket over top with one long coat tail that reached her calves. It resembled a skin tight zip-up haori. The only skin she showed were her hands, neck and face.
"Now that everyone is here." Aizen began. "It's time to go through the details."
Starrk listened to Aizen's instructions but for the most part, he let the words pass through his head. Once he got the jist of it, he thoroughly stopped paying attention. Aizen most likely noticed his lack of concentration but said nothing. Starrk rarely gave his full attention to anything, no matter what he was doing. It was a trait that Lilynette found extremely irritating, and it earned him several punches and kicks. The meeting was a short one, all of their meetings were short. So when aizen finally dismissed them, Starrk stood and walked out of the room. He was intent on taking a nap.
"Coyote!" Starrk turned to face Iulia. She was the only person who referred to him by his first name. She seemed to refer to everyone by their first names,
it was a little odd.
"Yes?" He asked monotonously. He wanted to sleep.
"I was wondering if you could help me." She said. "I'm going to choose fraccion."
Starrk looked at her with a confused expression. "Why do you need my help with that?"
"Because, you've been in Las Noches longer tha I. And I'm sure you know the other arrancar better tha I do."
Starrk said nothing in respsonse, he didn't accept that as her full answer.
"Also, I asuume that there is ill-will between us, since i took your position." Iulia said. "And I don't want that. So come help me choose fraccion and we can get to know eachother."
Starrk smirked and went with the female Espada. 'This should be interesting.' He thought.
"Come Lilynette." The girl, who was silent through the whole conversation, perked to attention and jogged to catch up to Starrk and Iulia.
Hisagi exited Unohana-taicho's office and walked down the halls of the 4th division. His meeting with her was more difficult than the ones he had with the other captains. The other captains had all been fairly easy to convince. Soifon, Hitsugaya and Komamura were the easiest, considering they were drunk as hell. And Ukitake and Kyouraku-taicho both got on board fairly easily. In order to get Unohana's support he had to go through a small test. Unohana had fully interview him as if he were applying for a job. And they weren't easy questions either. He had spent a solid hour in her office answering all of her question to the utmost detail. He knew from the undertone of her voice that if she were to support him than she expected nothing less than excellence from him. And he was willing to oblige in order to get her help.
"Lieutenant Hisagi?"
He looked over at Isane and smiled politly to her. "How's it going Isane-chan?"
"I'm good. How about you?" Isane asked. Her eyes reflected concern. "What are you doing here? You're not hurt again are you?"
She stepped over to him and looked for injuries.
"No no I'm fine. I just had to speak with Unohana-taicho about something." Hisagi said with a smile. He found Isane's unneeded care cute and amusing.
"Oh ok. Did your conversation go well?"
"Yea it went fine. Your captain is very kind."
"Yes she is." Isane agreed. She looked at her feet for a moment than back to Hisagi with a coy expression.
"Where are you going now? Do you have other errands to run?"
"I was just going to go finish up some paperwork, after that I'll probably walk around my division and try and find something to do. "
Isane shifted her weight from foot to foot. She suddenly couldn't look Hisagi in the eye. "Well after your finished your paper work. Would you like to maybe have...dinner?"
Hisagi widened his eyes breifly before smiling. "Are you asking me out on a date Isane-chan?"
Isane nodded shyly.
"Ok. I'd love to have dinner with you."
"Ok." Isane said with enthusiasm. Her shyness disappeared.
Hisagi looked at her and his smile faded slightly when he noticed how close she was. Not that he was uncomfortable with being close to a woman, he just felt a little at odds when he realised he was looking up at her. He never payed much attention to Isane's height, at least not until after they had a date set up. He smiled lightly and bade her farewell, and set a time for their dinner. As he walked away he searched his memory for when how tall Isane actually was. It only took him a few minutes before he remembered.
'Six feet one inch.' He thought, an embarrased look became visible on his face. 'Shit, I'm only five foot, nine.'
Just a quick explanation on Iulia Dobra (pronounced "Eye-ulia Dough-brah"). She's wears the exact same clothes that Orihime wore when she was staying in Las Noches. I'm going to provide drawings of all O.C's later on. They won't be masterpeices, just a quick sketch to give you an idea on what they basically look like. With Iulia, I'm just going to copy a pic of Orihime in the arrancar clothing and then just draw a new head. lol.
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