This chapter was getting too long, and it had a natural breaking point roughly around the middle that I used to divide it into two (And maybe build some suspense). Now hold on and take a breath, this is where things start to get intresting.
It was raining. Ichigo and Grimmjow could be seen in a friendly scuffle upstairs during the afternoon, after Senna had left. Ichigo was on the bottom, his right hand mashed against Grimmjow's cheek and forcing his head to the side, while the other attempted what appeared to be a strangling of the younger male. Ichigo managed to flip himself around and sat on the teal-haired teen's back, smooshing his face into the floor with one of his arms painfully pulled up pinion style behind him. The orange-haired tormentor smile down in victory, "Give up yet?"
Grimmjow was literally saved by the bell when his phone rang. He crawled out from under Ichi and pulled out his phone, the sapphire machine playing 'white christmas' and checked his texts.
Hey, Grimm, wha's King's ringtone fer me? -Shirosaki.
Not a clue. call and ill c. -Grimmjow.
Shiro put the phone to his ear and listened to the muffled buzz on his end. There was a very faint ring heard through the front door. After a moment, a slightly out of breath Ichigo could be heard, "Shiro? What's up?"
"I was wondering if you were going to let me in, or leave me out here like a drowned puppy."
There was a loud dull thump that was something heavy undeniably falling over upstairs and a half muffled whisper-yelled, "Shit!" followed by what was obviously a pair of feet pounding down a set of steps. Less than ten seconds later the door was opened to show a ruffled tan teen in a red sweater, blue jeans and socks, "Sorry! We must not have heard your knock. Come in." he stepped aside and ushered the pale boy in. He hesitated for a moment before turning around, "Wait here a minute, I'll go get you a towel."
Grimm came down the stairs and gave a half-assed wave, "Yo."
"So, what was my ringtone?"
Grimmjow gave him an odd look, "Don't take it the wrong way, because I call tell you the line you think he chose it for is incorrect."
Shiro tilted his head, water dripping pathetically from his soaked locks, looking for all the world exactly like a half-drowned puppy, "Okay?"
Grimmjow's mouth thinned into a barely-there line, forcing his expression to remain stern though the albino reminded him very much of a younger and more carefree Ichigo with that look on his face. He shook his head and looked away, unwilling to give in to this stranger and trust as easily as his brother, "Your ringtone is 'Snow' by the Red Hot Chili Peppers."
Shiro tried not to look as though he'd never heard the song before, which he hadn't, and said, "Oh. I c'n see tha' happenin'."
Ichigo came back in with a fluffy black towel, "Here, Shiro. Sorry."
The pale teen took the towel and looked at Ichigo incredulously, "Lemme see if I go' this right: yer sorry 'cause I didn' call ya sooner ta unlock th' door?"
The tan teen rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "I guess it sounds silly when you say it like that."
Shiro snorted as he started drying his hair, " 'kay then, you put in a way that makes it make sense."
Grimmjow grinned, "He's got ya there, Ichi."
Ichigo glared up at his brother, then looked at the floor, "Well, we don't usually keep the door locked on the weekends since we're mostly all here."
"So yer apologizing 'cause ya fergot ta unlock th' door this mornin'." he shook his head, "Baka."
Grimm looked the albino up and down appraisingly, "Why are ya all wet anyway? Don't ya own an umbrella?"
Shiro glared up at him, indignation burning in his eyes, "Tha' rain came outta nowhere! The forecas' said it'd be nice weather t'day!"
"Yeah, ya get that around here. We have a history of flashflooding. It's almost a given that everyone take their umbrella with them during this time of year."
"Also, the weatherman couldn't tell it's raining if you held his ass underwater." Ichigo added.
Shiro cackled while Grimmjow grinned, "That too."
Ichigo led the way to the livingroom after Shiro was suitably dry. The pale teen flopped down in one of the two armchairs, "Sorry if I'm too early."
The strawberry-haired teen shook his head, "Not at all. Actually, you're just about on time. This is typical for us; we usually have an early dinner on saturdays, then we'll head off to the tourney if there is one or spar together in the dojo up the street if there isn't, and come home later in the night for a midnight dessert. Karin and Yuzu love it because it's the only night of the week that they get to stay up so late."
"So what happens?"
"I suspect we'll be called to dinner sometime in the next half-hour, try not to stuff yourself, then we'll meet with the others at the Vizards' place." Grimmjow said.
Ichigo scoffed, "Oh, you're one to talk, Grimm. Remember just the month before last? You painted the floor a lovely vomit color when Ikkaku hit you in the stomach."
"Ehgh, don't remind me. That's why I was warning him, it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience."
Shiro's voice was calm, "I think I can control myself."
Grimm smiled condescendingly, "You think that now, but you haven't tasted Yuzu's cooking yet."
The pale teen was about to reply when Karin stuck her head in the room, "Dinner's ready!"
Karin really had a set of lungs on her when she wanted, and her shout brought everyone out of their hiding places. Shiro was and wasn't surprised to see the tiger-teen, Ggio, come down the stairs and sit at the table. A man with short raven hair came from somewhere past the livingroom and stood in front of Shiro, and it wasn't lost on the albino that Ichigo was giving the man a glare that could melt glass, "Hello! My name is Isshin Kurosaki and you must be my beautiful son's new friend!"
Shiro saw Ichigo slap his hand to his forehead with a look of suffering and smiled at the taller male, "Yep! Hichigo Shirosaki, sir. He really is somethin' t' look at, ain't he?"
Ichigo flushed a brilliant crimson and looked like he wanted nothing more than for the floor to swallow him whole. Isshin shook his one hand in both of his, "YES! SOMEONE WHO APPRECIATES MY SON FOR THE LOVELY SOUL HE IS!"
Shiro was certain he heard the berry-haired teen mumble something like, "Please, god, kill me now." before he cleared his throat, "Dad, as happy as I'm sure Shiro is to meet you, dinner's going to get cold if we don't hurry, which will then make us late later on."
Shiro snickered as he sat next to Ichigo at the table, "Wow, he's really somethin', ain't he?"
The orangette sighed, "Believe me, you have no idea. This was him on his best behavior."
Ichigo passed the snickering boy the dishes as they came to him, sometimes taking some of the offered food from the dish before passing it on. When everyone was plated, they bowed their heads, "Itadakimasu!"
Shiro took a bite of his dinner and looked up in surprise, "Wow, this 's great! Thanks, Yuzu-chan."
Yuzu blushed and waved off the praise, "Oh, thank you, Shirosaki-san! I love cooking, and it's so great that everyone likes it so much."
Ichigo nodded, "Yuzu gets more thanks and praise for her food than she has food to be praised. She's one of the best cooks around. Ggio's absolutely determined to learn everything from her. He's positive that under her tutelage he'll be able to get a scholarship to culinary school."
The tiger-teen's tats became camouflaged in his blush, "ICHI! You don't need to go sharing my hopes and dreams, you know!"
"Why? Nearly everyone knows how much you love to cook."
The tan raven blushed harder, "I still have a long ways to go before I'm even as good as Yuzu. There's no need to go spreading around my desire to go to culinary school."
Ichigo leaned closer to Shiro and spoke in a stage whisper, "Don't believe him, he had a hand in everything on the table. Even Yuzu says he's as good as her, though he always refutes it."
Ggio glared, "Are you done torturing me, yet? How about we talk about your eventual plans to become a therapist?"
Ichigo glared back, "Shut up, Kitty."
"Make me, Berry."
Shiro tensed and waited for Ichigo to launch across the table at the saber-tooth teen, but they both continued to glare. Shiro could have sworn that he saw sparks and lightning flash as the two pairs of eyes remained locked. Ichigo finally looked away, not as though he were giving up in the minor male dominance fight, but as if the other was so inconsequential that he didn't pose a threat and wasn't worth the effort to eye-fight. He looked over to the albino, "Ignore him. I don't have any plans to go into the psychiatry field. It's not really what I want to do, let alone what I'm suited for."
"That's a lie, Ichigo, and you know it." Ggio stated, "He does want to help people get over their problems, and he's good with advice and stuff, but he doesn't think he can do it, too afraid to mess up."
The pallid male watched the verbal spar while the rest of the people at the table ate like the two combatants weren't even there, chatting softly with one another or munching on the delicious food. Willingly risking life and limb, Shiro ventured his opinion, "Guess that makes two of you, huh?"
Everyone at the table quieted and looked at him, Ichigo and Ggio with shock, the others with something akin to worship. Ggio turned away with a sniff, "Oh, just shut up."
Ichigo stared at his plate with a blush on his cheeks, "Yeah, what do you know anyway?" he said and picked at his food.
Karin sighed, "You have no idea how long we've been trying to drill that into their thick skulls. Finally, someone they'll listen to."
The berry-haired boy beside him coughed, "Um, if we're done, we should get going. Don't want to keep the others waiting."
Shiro nodded, "Yeah, that sounds good."
Ichigo flashed him a grateful look that caused his heart to beat faster and stood up, "I'll be just a minute, I need to get something." he said and raced upstairs.
Isshin stood and helped Karin and Yuzu clean the table off while Grimmjow, Ggio, and Ulquiorra went to get their shoes on. Shiro's berry-head came back down a few moments later with several gym bags on his shoulder. The albino went to follow him to the door when he froze midstep. Wait a minute, I didn't just think that, did I? He shook his head. Definitely not. I've only known him half a week!
"Shiro? Are you coming?"
The albino rubbed the back of his head when he realized he'd spent five minutes frozen and staring off into space, "Er, yea. Jus' a little excited an' wonderin' wha' sorta fun I'll have."
Grimmjow rolled his shoulder towards the door, "Well, come on, then. The quicker we get there, the sooner you'll find out."
It had stopped raining almost as soon as it had begun, and the night was bight with stars and the full moon. It was a twenty minute walk to get to the warehouse district, and Shiro could see the draw of such a place if a person were going to do much of anything in the underground. He ogled his surroundings like a tourist, "So, what do the Vizards do with all the open space?"
Ichigo motioned for him to walk next to him, "Like I said, the Vizards are pretty much as neutral as it gets. They stay to the more borderline illicit activities. Odd shipments of things, odd or hard to come-by pets. Underground fashion, some of the more tame weapons' dealings and stuff along those lines."
"What about the other groups?" he asked quietly, somehow feeling that speaking in anything but a whisper was a bad idea.
"The Soul Reapers deal more along the darker part of the sunny side of things. Working around the law and such. Byakuya is a businessman and the head of several large corporations. The Hollows are definitely more to the darker side of things in the rougher part of town: drugs, bodies; both willing and not, anything that can get them money, which is just about anything."
"So the Soul Reapers are the good guys, the Hollows are the bad guys and the Vizards just are?"
The orange-haired teen shook his head, "Not at all. The way they live doesn't tell you anything about what they're like as individuals or even as a whole. I didn't mean to give you that impression. It's all about location. The warehouse district has lots of places to hide things, and direct access to the port, so it's easy to move sundries and local miscellaneous items. The Soul Reapers operate on and around the up-and-up because that's how Byakuya runs them; he doesn't want them falling into the vast corruption that they were vulnerable to before when Yamamoto led them. Out in the slums and even as far in as two blocks over from my house, anything and everything has a blackmarket value, and the Hollows make use of that fact. It wouldn't be an understatement to say that it's survival of the fittest in that area."
"What about the Arrancars?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, what else is there for them? You got everyone else selling everything under the sun, from financial advice to guns and drugs to people and animals; what's left?"
Ichigo seemed to hesitate and turned to face ahead, "Uh, well..."
"Jus' tell me, Ichi, I promise I won't judge 'em or nothin'."
He looked at the ground, "Information. Information...and lives."
"Lives? Like...like a hit?"
"Like a hit."
"Oh."
"The underground is split into different quadrants, the different areas. The one the Soul Reapers control is Seireitei. The Vizards made it somewhat of a joke, what with their location, and named it the World of the Living. The slums, that bad area I told you about, is actually split into two different areas; Hueco Mundo, where the Hollows reside; and Las Noches, the home of the Arrancar."
Shiro noticed that Ichigo seemed to like talking about the underground, the Arrancar and Soul Reapers and Vizards the most. He noticed though that he seemed dead set against even mentioning the Bounts, and he decided skirting the subject was the wisest course of action, "You seem slightly reluctant to talk about the Hollows."
Ichigo clenched his hands, "I try, very hard, not to judge people based on who they hang with or anything other than what I see myself. But, for so long, I hated all Hollows, and I guess that's just a little hard to get over. The Soul Reapers and Hollows are in the middle of a very uneasy ceasefire at the moment, the matches rather tame considering the stakes. And I guess I'll always be a Soul Reaper in that I just can't trust the Hollows. I know one or two that I consider friends, but as a whole..."
"Sounds like they ain't too trustworthy on the whole."
"I guess it does, but my reasons are...rather more personal than that." he shook his head, "Besides, not all Hollows can be bad, because the Arrancars first evolved from them when they split off."
"But yer heart is tellin' ya that all the good ones already left." Shiro guessed the unspoken worry in the other's head.
Ichigo sighed, "That's it exactly. When I was eight, my mother was attacked and killed by Hollows."
Shiro stared at him in shock, he'd known that Ichigo's mom had died, but he hadn't known she'd been killed. He watched the other boy closely, "Sorry."
The orangette shook his head, "Not your fault. It's just..." he stopped for a moment and clenched his hands until his knuckles turned white, "I want to hate them all so much, even though I know it's wrong."
Shiro was at a loss for words at the darkness in those two words the berry-haired teen had uttered. He was now, officially, out of his depth, "Everyone would. You can hate whoever you want to, King. Everyone can hate who they want to, wrong or not, reasons or not, everyone does and I don't see that changing anytime soon."
Ichigo shook his head, "I'm not like everyone else in looks, why should I allow the hive mind to suck me down into that vortex of hatred? Logically, I know that they aren't all bad, and I can control it most of the time. But in my heart, they will always be my enemy, even in a truce-time."
"Well, there's a reason it's called 'truce', instead of 'peace'."
The tan teen looked up thoughtfully, "You know, I actually didn't think about it that way."
"Maybe you're thinking of them as enemies because they are enemies."
They came to a stop outside of a large warehouse. It was huge and light gray in the strong moonlight, the ocean breeze blew in towards them from the port a hundred meters out. There was a large empty area around the warehouse, cement glowing pale in the night like it was lit from within. Ichigo stopped them and turned to fully face Shiro, "When we go in, we'll be escorted into rooms to change into our clothes, since walking down the street in them in this neighborhood would be seen as a declaration of war because we're not on home turf. I have an outfit here that should fit you, something Yumichika just had to design and make for me, which might I add I never wanted, and have never worn." he held out one of the only two gym bags he had, the others being held by everyone else. He then pulled something from his pocket, "And it would make everything alot easier if you wore this."
Shiro took the crescent moon pendant that hung on a strong, thin gold chain. The pendant was a black crescent moon that faded to deepest crimson at the edges, the whole thing about the size of his palm. He held it up to catch the moonlight and twisted it back and forth to watch the light glint off of it. He looked over to see Ichigo fidgeting nervously, "King."
"Yeah?"
"This is bitchin'. You ain't gotta worry abou' me wearin' it." he saw the orangette relax, "It's gettin' it back that you'll 'ave a problem with."
The tan teen looked away, the red dusting his cheeks barely visible in the light, "Oh, uh, that's not a problem. You can have it."
Shiro smiled widely, "I'll hold ya to that, ya know."
Ichigo shifted from foot to foot nervously, the motion seeming to go unnoticed by their companions. He coughed and regained his composure, "There are several rules you'll need to adhere to in there. Those people in there don't know our names, and it should stay that way. With us all being Arrancar, the fewer people that know us, the better. Going in the way we will, you'll automatically be associated with us, whether or not you decide you dislike this and never come back. So, obviously, we can't have them learning your name either."
"I c'n see all that pretty well. So, wha'cha gonna call me, an' wha' should I call you?"
"I'm Zangetsu. I think we should call you Engetsu. Keep your phone with you at all times and if you need anything at all, text one of us."
" 'Kay."
Ichigo knocked on the door of the warehouse in a pattern that eluded Shiro, and it opened to reveal a two tall men, both topping even Grimmjow by an inch or two. One of them, with short silver hair and a white open jacket with nothing under it, a large '69' tattoo on his torso, held out his hand and Shiro noticed the white fingerless gloves, "Ichigo."
The orangette took it without hesitation and smiled, "Good evening, Kensei."
The taller male turned to look over his shoulder, "Hiyori! Mark it, Zangetsu's here!" he turned back to them and pulled his hand back, "Welcome and relax in the battles to come."
Ichigo nodded and, as he passed Shiro, whispered just loud enough to be heard by the albino alone, "The traditional greeting."
Shiro followed close behind Ichigo as they passed the second man, a man with large sunglasses and a huge afro, who nodded at them, "Zangetsu."
Ichigo nodded in return, but remained silent. The pale teen watched the way the orange-head acted, the way he seemed to relax and straighten. Like he wasn't truly comfortable until he walked through the door to the warehouse. It wasn't long until they came to the dressing rooms, the others following closely behind.
Shiro was shown to one room and closed the door behind him, opening the gym bag to see what he would wear. He shook his head when he saw white. I'm gonna look like a fuckin' ghost. Ah, well, nothin' for it.
He was surprised how well the clothes fit him, like they were made just for him. Then again, given how similar he and Ichigo were in body shape, maybe it shouldn't. He was also pleasantly surprised at how well the clothes suited him, if he were given a chance to design an outfit, and had any artistic capability at all-which he didn't-this is what he would have chosen. It seemed to be a variation of the Shihakusho he'd seen on what he assumed to be Soul Reapers on the way in, slightly tighter, rougher, yet more stream-lined in look, with an overcoat. Quite simply; he loved it! The red and black sash prevented it from being too white, and drew the eye up to the crescent pendant that hung just under his collarbone, encouraging one to look even higher to meet his eyes.
Shiro spun around to get a good look at himself in the mirror and couldn't help but think he looked less like a ghost and more like a fallen angel. He smirked at that thought. Nah, more like evicted angel.
He grabbed his bag and exited the room to see Ichigo, still in his civilian clothes, waiting alone for him. The orangette made a small twirling motion with his finger and Shiro complied, spinning around to show off. He hated to admit it, but this was the nicest set of clothes he'd ever worn, and he couldn't help but preen.
"Well, what do you think?"
The albino cocked his head, smirk present, "Shouldn't that be my line?"
"I'm not the one that has to wear it; you are. So your opinion is the one that matters."
Shiro smiled hugely, "It's sweet! I don't know who this Yumi guy is, but he's got good taste."
Ichigo chuckled warmly, "Vain peacock that he is, he'd love to know you think that. And if it matters at all, I think you look great."
The pale teen looked down, color dusting his cheeks, "Uh, thanks." he looked around for the others, "So where's everyone else?"
He nodded toward the other rooms, "It takes a little more effort for an Arrancar to get ready, for rather obvious reasons."
The other cocked his head, "How so?"
"You'll see in a few minutes."
Ggio was the first one to come out of his room, a conservative white outfit on, otherwise looking the same as usual. It had only taken him a few moments longer than Shiro to come out. The tiger-teen glanced at Ichigo, "You can go get ready now that I'm here to keep watch."
Ichigo smiled, "I know. I just want to see his expression when he first lays eyes on Arrancar Grimmjow."
Ggio smiled as well, "It's something to see." he agreed.
This, of course, got Shiro even more curious. He started shifting from foot to foot, too excited to stand still. He whipped around when he heard the door behind him open, and staggered back a step at what he saw, "Oh, fuck."
There stood all six-foot four-inches of Grimmjow, semi-loose white pants like his own and a light white jacket with cutoff sleeves, and a huge fucking piece of some big-assed predator's jaw on the right side of his own, a maniacal smile on his face.
Grimmjow noticed his gaping, "What'cha lookin' at, Shirosaki?~" he sing-song crooned.
Ichigo walked past him, "That's why it takes longer for an Arrancar to change." he said as he went in his own dressing room.
Shiro wanted nothing more than to reach up and see how the hell Grimmjow kept that thing on his face. There was no way he was using the same adhesive that girls used for those little body jewels they sometimes donned. His fingers were actually itching to do it. Ggio noticed it because of the twitching of said appendages and smiled, "Not without the releasing agent, Shiro. I can assure you it's not coming off otherwise."
Shiro looked away and refused to blush, "I've no idea wha' yer talking about."
"Uh-huh, sure you don't."
Grimmjow twitched from foot to foot, "I'm going to go show 'im around, you know; give him the tour."
Ggio looked up once then did something Shiro had never seen the raven do before; he dismissed his blue-haired lover with a flick of the wrist that indicated he could care less, "Whatever, but I'm not saving your ass if he comes out and finds Engetsu gone."
It took about two seconds to figure out they were talking about him before he was being dragged off by the arm by the blue-eyed behemoth. Grimmjow pulled him along the wall and pointed out things as they passed by, even, correction; mostly things hidden behind what appeared to be halls made from large containers, the kind seen on freight ships. He assumed that they were being cautious and staying fairly close to the dressing rooms, because he knew for a fact that the warehouse must be at least six times bigger than the area they explored.
"The cages are behind here."
"For cage fights?"
"Bingo." he was pulled along, "They serve food in those two containers, constantly monitored closely by Vizards to ensure no one does anything to the food besides eat it."
Grimmjow was about to drag him off again when a shrill whistle split the air, "Pantera!" Shiro was glad when the blue menace stopped and looked around, he was really getting ticked off from being dragged around like an unresponsive dog. A female was jumping up and down and waving an arm in the air, the other by her mouth to amplify her voice, "Pantera!"
Shiro saw his tormentor spot the girl and grin while waving her over, "Heya!"
Knowing that they'd wait for her, the girl made her way over at a steady unrushed pace. Her skin was a light mocha color and her hair was a deep chestnut. She was too far away for him to make out her eye color, but her hair was something else: long enough to reach her neck, it swept around to frame her face perfectly, the back sweeping out at nape-length rather than laying flat, but styled on top of her head so that it looked like she had cat ears the same color as her hair. She was wearing pastel pink, extremely tight tights that cutoff halfway between her knees and ankles, a same-colored strapless top that only covered her breasts and half of her stomach, that had a strip of something white and fluffy at the collar all the way around.
She stopped in front of them and smiled up at Grimmjow, Shiro took note of how long and sharp her canines were; almost fangs, "It's been like forever!"
"Don't look at me; I'm not the one that's been out."
She frowned, "Don't I know it? But a job's a job."
"I take it you were successful?"
She scoffed, "Don't insult me, Pantera. Aren't I always?"
Grimmjow smirked, "Almost always."
She huffed, "You're going to hold that over me forever, aren't you?"
"Of course." Grimmjow was about to say something else when his phone went off and he looked at it, "Crap, I have a situation. Hey, watch the newbie for me." he said and turned around, quickly disappearing into the crowd.
Shiro watched him in disbelief that swiftly changed to anger, "Damn you, Pantera!" he growled out, remembering not to call Grimmjow by his real name. He looked back to the woman warily, "An' you are?"
Her gaze was glued to the pendant that rested against his chest and he shifted uncomfortably, grabbing the crescent moon. She looked him up and down for a moment, "You're with Ichigo, huh?" she asked quietly.
Shiro tensed, not getting how she knew the berry-haired teen's name. He clenched the pendant tighter, "I don' know wha' yer talkin' about." he ground out stiffly.
She noticed his tension and held her wrists out so he noticed the barely off-white wrist guards on them, "It's okay, you can trust me. See? Pure ivory. Chosen for me by Cero himself."
He glanced at her warily, "Wha'?"
"Here, I think proper introductions are in order." she turned around and crouched down, because she was a freaking amazon in those heels, and lifted her hair even further up; revealing a black gothic '7' on the nape of her neck. She stood up and faced him again, holding out her hand, "Septima Espada, Haineko, at your service."
He held his out and clasped hers like he'd seen Ichigo do with Kensei at the door, "Tagalong Hichigo Shirosaki, Shiro, at yours."
She smiled, "Now that that's out of the way, you can call me Growl."
"Engetsu." he replied and withdrew his hand.
She nodded, "I can see that. It was the pendant that gave it away, your alliance. Zangetsu's mark. You'll get one yourself if you decide to stick around after tonight."
"Well I don't really know what the place has to offer. Gr-er, Pantera, sort of kidnapped from by the dressing rooms."
"It's okay, I know Grimmjow very well. I'm actually very close friends with the Kurosaki's. I train Karin and Yuzu in fighting when I get the chance. Odelschwanck-sama is actually putting up both me and Tier at the moment, or, well, she would have if we'd been in town for the last month."
"Wow, that name's a mouthful."
"Yes, well, you can tell it's genetic, what with Nel's full name."
"I jus' got confused."
"Nel's full name is Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck."
"Ah, yer stayin' wit' Nel's mom."
"Yeah, she said she was lonely with only her and Verde there, and Teir and I needed a place to stay, so she offered us her's."
" 'Kay, 'm gettin' there. Now who's Tier?"
"That would be Tier Hallibel, Tercera Espada. Most people find her name hard to pronounce, so she usually just goes by Tia. Around here she's Tiburon, like I'm Growl."
"Ya know, yer pretty good at explainin' things."
"In that case, would you like me to show you around?"
"Tha' would be helpful, Grimmjow ain't 'xactly the best tourguide around."
"What awful things that would say about tourguides in general if he were." she chuckled.
Shiro laughed with her, "Definit'ly."
"You should text Ichi and let him know what's happened and that you didn't really get kidnapped."
He nodded, "Good idea." he grabbed his phone.
Don' kill Grimm. He snatched me ta show me aroun' and left me 'ere wit' Growl to go deal with somethin'. She's gonna show me around. -Shiro.
It was about ten seconds before the girl's phone rang and she pulled it out to look it over. She typed a reply and flipped it shut, putting it away he knew not where. It didn't seem to him there was enough room in her outfit for the thing. She looked over at him, "Apparently it's okay for me to steal you, so long as I have you over by the sands an hour from now. I think you're in for a treat, too, if you haven't seen Zangetsu in his Arrancar outfit."
He nodded, looking forward to it, "So, what's around here and are there anymore rules I'm gonna haf'ta follow?"
She started walking them through the huge containers without a problem or pause; obviously she knew this mouse maze quite well. They finally came to the end of the container corridors and stepped out into bright white light, very different from the dim, reddish light they'd been in. Shiro saw rope ladders going up the sides of the containers and several people were walking on the tops of them. Haineko stretched and looked around, "The only ones here right now are us and the Soul Reapers, and the Vizards, obviously, this being their ground and all. The Hollows won't be here for another hour and a half I'd guess."
"What about the Bounts?"
"The Bounts aren't welcome at this meet after what happened the last time. The invitation may be extended again, and soon if I know anything; Shinji isn't liking the lack of product movement without them here, but he will have order in his house. So as you just saw, the first quarter of the warehouse is basically a bazaar with food and all sorts of items. It brings in a good deal of money for them, another reason for them to play host to us all. That's the thing about Vizards, always an ulterior motive, the only exceptions to that are Shinji, Hiyori, and Kensei, possibly Hachi as well; he really can't walk away when someone needs his help. Even with them, though, there are reasons. Shinji and Zangetsu have this really close work relationship and Shinji owes him big time for some help we gave him. Hiyori is the Arrancar-Vizard contact, she's the handler; anything that goes on with a request that comes through here goes through Hiyori first; except for that whole Shinji-Zangetsu thing I just explained."
"So what happened las' time th' Bounts were invited?"
"They attacked outside of the sands; fought people that didn't want to. It was an ambush. Shinji was pissed. It nearly turned into an outright blood-battle right there, but things managed to settle down and Shinji told them not to come back again until he expressly, personally, invited them. Haven't seem 'em since. 'Course, that may not necessarily be a good thing: keeping your enemies close and all that."
They stopped at the edge of a -well, there was no other word for it but 'sandbox'- indented sanded pit. Shiro looked at it, "Wha's this?" he asked, also taking note of the welded steel girder structure all around this entire part of the warehouse, assumedly used for seating judging by the people perched on it.
"One of the three types of battle arena. This is the most commonly chosen one, called 'The sands', if you couldn't guess. They're small areas cut out in the cement and filled with sand, not much, only about three inches. It's not really enough to impede movement, but it softens falls and such. Traction is a bit of a problem, and it's very possible to potentially kill your opponent by suffocation. This is usually used by those lower in the ranks and those that like to fight dirty by throwing sand in their opponent's eyes. I should also let you know that saying 'outside of the sands' applies to any of the fighting rings.
"One of the worst things a person can do is attack someone else outside of the quads. It's lower than low, an insult saying that the person attacked isn't worth the notoriety of walking over to one of the rings for others to watch. It's one way of saying that someone's so weak that it'd be a waste of time to drag them all the way over for an official match because there's no way they'll win: a waste of everybody's time and attention.
"And that's a hot-headed fight, not a sucker-shot. That's another thing you just don't do here. It's cowardly and pathetic. Sucker-shots are a good reason for an out-ring beating, assuming there's an appropriately strong witness or the victim is in good enough shape."
"Growl!"
They both turned to see a petite girl with huge violet eyes waving at them. Shiro smiled, "Rukia!"
She ran over and whispered, "Hi, Shiro. What's your name?"
"Engetsu."
She pulled out her cellphone and her fingers flew across the buttons. She flipped it closed with a satisfied expression, "There, now everyone knows your name and can get your attention when they see you. Not everybody could be lucky enough to know the name of the random person you're with."
Shiro looked up at Haineko, "So you know Rukia?"
The cat-girl frowned, "Not well, but yes, we've met a time or twelve. I usually do my best to avoid Soul Reapers in general."
"Why's that?"
"Because my sister's one. Lieutenant Matsumoto. We...don't see eye-to-eye, on much of anything. That's something you'll see alot of here, family feuds played out in the quads, relatives that didn't agree and joined opposing sides."
Sensing the tender subject, Shiro switched tracks, "So Rukia, where's Renji?"
"He's my brother's Lieutenant. So probably with him."
"No way, Renji's that strong?"
She nodded, "Yep."
Haineko tugged on the albino's sleeve, "Oh! Look! There's an Espada in the quad, let's go look."
Rukia nodded and ran after them, watching someone that appeared to be a ninja land in the middle of the roped-off square, "Who is it?"
Haineko ignored them to cheer on her team-mate, "Go, Akai! Get 'im!"
Rukia tried to jump up to see who else was in the ring, but was unable to do so because of her height, or lack-there-of. She sighed, "I'm going to watch from the beams."
Shiro had to admit he was interested in watching a good fight from such a promising perspective and nodded, "I'll go with ya."
There were handholds in the form of half-circles of steel welded to the vertical beams so people could climb. The horizontal ones also had the same holds on the bottoms and sides, presumably to keep one from falling off.
They could see right over the crowd and into the roped-off area, into the ring. They both seemed to be waiting for something. Shiro started when Haineko was suddenly right beside him, "They're waiting for the word to spread about the match. It isn't often such a promising fight comes around."
"Wha' dya mean?"
"That's Lieutenant Madarame down there." Rukia answered.
Haineko nodded, "Ikkaku. It's not often an Espada and a Lieutenant go at it. Ikkaku is Lieutenant of Squad Eleven, the power squad. But I think he's underestimating Noba. Noba excels in using his opponent's strength against him, he moves like water. He could very well massacre half a squad if he were so inclined. Fortunately, Noba's a man of few words and great inner strength and self-assurance. I have lots of respect for you, Rukia, but Ikkaku's not going to win."
"I can't see a damn thin' about 'im 'cept that blue suit o' 'is. Wha's 'is number an' where's 'is bone?"
"You'll see in a few minutes. All Espada are required to show respect to opponents of equal rank to them; that would be Soul Reapers Lieutenant and above, all Vizards, all Hollows of Adjucha level or higher, and all Bounts with the Doll rank.
"You'll notice that this is a standard quad, four poles roped off around a blank area of concrete. This is where the real fighters go. When you fall, you take the pain and pick your ass back up. The last arena is the cages. A cage fight is a free-for-all, anything goes, winner-take-all deathmatch; no rules to speak of. Two people enter the cage, one person leaves, and that's at the most. A cage match goes until one of the fighters is unconscious or dead, usually the latter, because it's up to the winner."
The bald Lieutenant, Ikkaku, stretched up away from the pole he'd been leaning on, "Let's get this started already, I'm getting bored." his opponent merely nodded. Ikkaku quickly stripped out of the top half of his Shihakusho and tossed it over the pole to hold it and started stretching out his muscles.
The mystery man, Noba, reached up and pulled off the top half of his hood, revealing hair red enough to give Renji a run for his money and wild enough to put even Ichigo and Shiro to shame. He had one golden crescent moon earring dangling from his right ear that glinted in the light. Continuing his disrobing, the sleeves coming off from just above his elbows, showing his arms from his fingerless blue gloves to where the remaining short sleeves hid them, revealing slightly off-white ridges on his arms.
"Oh, shit. Those look painful." Shiro muttered as he saw the bone wrapped around the red-head's forearms almost like stripes, from elbow to wrist, six on each arm, looking almost like a ribcage with the spine on top, and appeared to have an odd texture.
"They do. The scaled stripes. Those are like having a dozen little swords on your arms, they were specially made for him. One nice swipe and his opponent is on the floor bleeding and missing a good chunk of skin."
"An' 'is number?"
"Wait for it."
The bald man stepped forward, "I, Ikkaku Madarame, Lieutenant of Squad Eleven, challenge you." he declared, pointing at his opponent for emphasis.
The red-head reached up and pulled down the lower half of his mask, revealing a black gothic '2' marring the lightly tan skin on his left cheek, "I, Akai-tenshi, Segunda Espada, accept your challenge."
x
Annnd cliffhanger.
