Shocked expressions crossed over each of their faces and Toshiro's as well.
"Do they have the ability to become Soul Reapers?" He asked the aging reaper. "Kurosaki was lucky since his father was a Soul Reaper and gained the power through genes, but these people are from another world. The process might even kill them."
"Your former companion and fellow Weapon host will be able to." Yamamoto said, gesturing to Vincent. The gunman seemed startled by this. "As for the others…perhaps there is a latent ability within them that can be expressed as Soul Reaper powers. The circumstances of their power may be a little different than what we're used to, but it will allow them to fight in this world."
"It could take years for them to discover the full potential of their abilities. Depending on how long it takes Sephiroth to gain powers of his own, we may not have that kind of time."
"I'm sure Urahara can find a way, as he did with Kurosaki."
The Gaians noticed Toshiro grimace at the new, to them anyway, name. They had no idea what they were speaking about, but decided to remain silent rather than interrupt. Most of them anyway.
"So do we get to be Soul Reapers or not?" Yuffie interrupted the Captains' banter.
"Hold your tongue, child." Yamamoto snapped. "It is rude to speak without being spoken to, especially when one is already in a discussion."
The Wutai princess shrunk under the gaze of the old man, realizing her error. The same things were taught in Wutai, but she never had been one for etiquette.
"However…to answer your question, this may need to be discussed with the other Captains. A meeting shall be called shortly to discuss war preparations and whether or not you are to join our ranks temporarily as Substitute Soul Reapers."
"So we'd be like Ichigo?" Tifa asked.
"In a sense." Toshiro shrugged. "As we said, it won't be exactly the same as our power."
"It's still a start." Cloud argued. "If you don't mind me asking, how soon can the Captains gather together?"
"I'm sure they'll need to set things in order among their squad before arriving, but they should all arrive within the hour." Yamamoto stood from his seat and began walking further inside to his office. "Wait here for them."
The old men left and the room seemed to cool a bit, as if the man's very presence had heated the room, and a pressure lifted off of them, however slight. They hadn't noticed until the heat left and left the chilling effects of Toshiro's energy, as slight as it was. If the heat of Yamamoto's power had completely masked Toshiro's…they had no doubt the Head Captain was extremely strong.
"At least you get to meet the other Captains now." Toshiro said to them, walking away from Yamamoto's throne to a spot closer to them and to the right of the chair. "I should warn you about some of them though."
"Like who?" Yuffie tilted her head curiously.
"Squad Twelve Captain, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, will probably threaten to experiment on you." The Ice Captain stated, watching almost all of them shiver uncomfortably. Sharp eyes caught Vincent stiffen and Toshiro remembered Hojo, the man behind the Omega Incident. He needed to make sure Vincent and Mayuri were never alone in the same room, not only for the gunman's safety but his sanity as well. "Squad Eleven Captain, Kenpachi Zaraki, will look for the strongest among you and attempt to fight. Beware, his Spiritual Pressure is monstrous."
"How monstrous? As much as Ichigo's?" Cid asked.
"Try strong enough to probably kill Omega in two or three blows." Toshiro smirked as they gaped. "I didn't ask to bring him into the war against Weiss because I was afraid he would kill everyone around him, not just Deepground, and probably would have demanded to spar with almost all of you, especially you two." He pointed to Cloud and Vincent.
"Got it…scary guy." Yuffie muttered under her breath. "A-Anyone else?"
"Squad Seven Captain, Sajin Komamura, is actually a wolf." He saw Red perk up excitedly. "More of an anthro, really, but a wolf all the same. Those are the only three I would see as the most shocking to you, the others you can meet on your own."
As he said this, a swirl of wind at the door caught their attention where they saw a petite woman with short onyx hair step in with authority in her step.
"You are the Jenova War Heroes?" She asked with a demanding tone that didn't fit her tiny frame. They nodded. "I am Captain of Squad Two and Commander of the Stealth Force, Soi Fon."
"Stealth Force? Like ninjas?" Yuffie asked excitedly.
"Assassins." Soi Fon corrected, walking to a spot closer to Yamamoto's chair but on the same side as Toshiro. "We take out rogue Soul Reapers that pose a threat to the Thirteen Court Guard Squads."
"Oh…"
Two other Soul Reapers arrived, distracting them once more. The Gaians had moved to the right of the door so the spirits could enter without having to walk around them. One of the new arrivals was the Captain they had passed not long ago, Byakuya Kuchiki. The black haired noble only glanced at them before taking a spot somewhere between Toshiro and Soi Fon. It was then the Gaians realized they were lining up.
As for the other Captain, he was blonde haired, the bangs cut at an angle over his eyes, and a strange frown.
"So there are the heroes." The new Captain spoke. "Squad Five Captain, Shinji Hirako. Good to see you're alive."
"Huh?" Tifa looked confused.
"That's not funny, Hirako." Soi Fon griped.
"Oi, we're both Captains, call me Shinji." The blonde snapped back, taking a spot on the other side of them. So it was evens on one side and odds on the other, the squads were wall organized.
Soi Fon glared at him while Toshiro sighed; there was always an argument with someone as the Captains gathered.
The next Captain took another ten minutes to arrive and the Gaians, minus Kadaj, were surprised to see a familiar face. Retsu Unohana gave them a welcoming smile, introducing herself once more for Kadaj's sake, and stood between Byakuya and Soi Fon. Next to arrive was the wolf Captain of Squad Seven. Sajin greeted them with a polite bow before standing next to Shinji just as two more Captains arrived. One was brown haired with a pink robe over his haori, the Squad Eight Captain, Shunsui Kyoraku. His partner had long white hair but a kindly face and looked rather sickly. He was the Squad Thirteen Captain, Jushiro Ukitake.
"Rose and Kensei might be a little late." Shunsui said aloud to the other Captains. "Visored business."
While the Gaians silently asked what he meant, the other Captains simply nodded in reply and didn't explain as the two older Captains took their places.
Eventually the others arrived. Mayuri and Kenpachi both had them reeling in horror, with silent evil grins and bad vibes from the former and a blood lusting gleam and intense pressure from the latter. Kenpachi's tall height and scarred face, as well as the eye patch, may also have been a factor. As Mayuri took his place next to Toshiro, Cloud noticed the Ice Captain keep a wary eye on the face painted man. A man with long, wavy blonde hair introduced himself as the Squad Three Captain, Rojuro Otoribashi, or 'Rose'. With him was a well-built man with short gray hair; Kensei Muguruma of Squad Nine.
That was all of them and the Head Captain soon returned and took his seat, the two lines of Captains standing quietly as they always did with the eight Gaians standing at the now closed door.
"I know this is such short notice after the meeting we had just this morning," Yamamoto began, noticing Shunsui chuckle slightly at the comment, "but it is time to discuss the more important parts of our defenses against Sephiroth. Out of the eight of you, who knows our enemy the best?"
The last words were directed at the Gaians. Cloud and Kadaj both stepped forward, the latter being rather unwilling to do so.
"I have fought him three times before." Cloud spoke first. "His aims are always the same, but this time he might have something different in mind since the Soul Society is open to him now."
"And you boy?" Yamamoto turned to the silver haired man. "You are Sephiroth's Remnant, are you not?"
"I am." Kadaj replied.
"Then you would best know the motives behind his actions?"
"Yes."
The Head Captain mulled over this for a moment, giving the other Captains a chance to step in. Mayuri gladly did so.
"As a Remnant you have his powers, correct?" The scientist demanded. Kadaj nodded, albeit reluctantly. "Then why don't I just examine it for myself and learn every weakness to it?"
"That would involve killing him, wouldn't it?" Toshiro glared at the Captain on his right.
"What of it?" Mayuri scoffed.
"As you know, Gaia is under my protection and that includes its people. Aerith revived him for a reason and it was not so you could cut him open. You're not to touch him."
The scientist scowled fiercely at the tiny Captain.
"They may be under your protection, but their lives are not for you to control."
"I never said that. Keeping Kadaj out of YOUR hands falls under protection."
"You little-"
"Enough!" Yamamoto shouted at the pair and the heat became stifling. They were quick to silence. "Captain Hitsugaya is correct, Kurotsuchi, Kadaj is not to be harmed."
The Remnant let out a relieved sigh at this.
"But we do need some way of learning just what kind of power Sephiroth has." Yamamoto continued. "Will you tell us that information, boy?"
"Gladly." There was no hesitation in the reply.
"Very good. Captain Soi Fon may best be suited to gather such information." He nodded to said woman who bowed, looking at the silver haired man with interest. She'd never interrogated a willing informant; at least it was an easy job. "And you, Cloud Strife, you will share with us your experiences of Sephiroth's attacks?"
Cloud nodded quickly.
"I remember Toshiro saying something about a meteor he summoned or something." Shinji commented, ignoring Toshiro's snap back of 'Captain Hitsugaya' by pretending to clear out his ears. "How the hell did he manage that?"
"An item called the Black Materia." Cloud replied. "The ultimate black magic. It brings nearby comets or even moons crashing towards the summoner. Sephiroth used as much power as he could and managed to bring an enormous comet towards us. It would have destroyed Gaia."
"Sounds fun." Kenpachi beamed.
"How did you stop it?" Jushiro spoke up.
"The Black Materia's opposite, the White Materia. Aerith managed to activate it before Sephiroth killed her and summoned Holy. It protected the planet from Meteor."
"Does he still have this materia?" Yamamoto questioned gravely.
Several Gaians shook their head.
"We took it from him after his death and destroyed it. The White Materia is lost as well, and only Aerith was able to activate it anyway as a Cetra." Vincent spoke this time.
"And after this whole Meteor Fall thing, he came back two years later as this guy?" Kensei butted in, gesturing towards Kadaj, who scowled at him.
"Him and his two brothers." Cloud replied. "They were after the remains of an alien life form known as Jenova. Once Kadaj had it, he used it to become Sephiroth."
"Was not pleasant." Kadaj mumbled.
"I defeated him and he left Kadaj for dead." Cloud continued.
"Oh that's nice." Shinji snorted. "Toshiro's comment wasn't that far off, he and Aizen are strikingly similar."
"Only Aizen was twisted from the start." Toshiro replied, trying his best not to shout at Hirako for forgetting his title. "I was told Sephiroth went insane after he learned the truth about how he became so strong. Insane enough to call Jenova his mother."
Several eyes turned to look at Kadaj. The Remnant didn't meet their gazes, refusing to acknowledge that he, too, had called Jenova his mother many a time before he was abandoned.
"He probably still does." He said, hoping to get the spotlight off of him. "He's been trying to destroy Gaia to use it as a 'vessel' and use it to travel to another world just like Jenova did. Now that there's another world connected to Gaia already, he'll probably go after both."
"Will he spread the Geostigma here?" Tifa questioned the Remnant.
"He can't, not without the Lifestream." Kadaj replied honestly. "But…he might try to find another way."
"Geostigma was a disease that invaded the body and created a black rash along the skin." Toshiro explained for his fellow Captains. "It would occasionally ooze a black substance and was told to turn one's blood black as well. It was also excruciatingly painful and had a high death rate."
"Cloud had it once." Yuffie said randomly and the swordsman growled something at her, silencing the ninja.
"Had it?" Jushiro questioned.
"There's a pool in Aerith's church back home that could heal it." Cloud answered. "Ironically, it was Kadaj who put it there."
The Remnant simply shrugged.
"I was trying to blow you up but I hit the ground and Aerith sent out the water." He said uncaringly. "But since it was getting rid of the thing that made me who I was, I had to run for it." When he saw several Captains glance at him questioningly, he sighed. "Since I'm Sephiroth's Remnant, and Sephiroth's very blood was pretty much Mako and Jenova Cells, my blood is the same. The stigma was actually a small amount of M-Jenova's cells getting into the bloodstream."
"Sephiroth can control the cells, can't he?" Sajin mused aloud, more to himself than the Gaians.
"Yeah…he can." Kadaj answered anyway, quickly realizing their problem. If Sephiroth wanted to, he could control Kadaj into his personal servant again, and possibly send Cloud reeling in pain as well, since the swordsman had long since locked out mind control.
"You'll have someone watching you at all times." Toshiro told him. "The minute you become a threat you will be restrained, but not harmed."
"I'll make sure to enforce that with my squad as well." Soi Fon added, seeing as she was to be the boy's interviewer.
"Not sure whether to thank you or not." Kadaj said to the small Captain, noticing the small smirk creeping onto his face.
"That is sufficient information for now." Yamamoto silenced the room with his voice after taking in all that was said. "I believe with this the Captains can gauge our enemy's strength to a near enough degree to be prepared." Multiple nods. "Now onto another matter."
The Head Captain told the others of his idea to turn the Gaians before them, and possibly the other Jenova War Heroes, into Soul Reapers.
"Who will agree to these terms?" The Head Captain panned his gaze over the twelve Captains.
Ten of the twelve hands raised into the air. Surprisingly, Retsu was one of the ones against it, along with Byakuya. The latter refused due to the risk of breaking more laws and having another event like the one with Ichigo and his sister Rukia, the former knew the high risk of death and was not willing to lose their allies.
"Very well." Yamamoto seemed to know this would be the turnout and moved on quickly. "It's best we help settle in our guests. We have a lot of work ahead of us."
Okay i'm probably not gonna post the next chapter for a while I've got AP tests and Finals are fast approaching, which means loads of work to do. I'll get back to this as soon as i can, don't worry, but it might take a week or two. I may not even continue untl after school is out. So, i guess you can consider this story to be on hiatus for now until school is out of my way. Sorry for that. Enjoy!