Chapter three
A dark discovery
The man who just slain a hollow with one swing of this sword turns to us. His blade vanishes from this hand. I don't have the strength to raise my head. His voice, as he begins to speak again is unmistakable. It is Fallon. My gaze barely reaches up to his chest. Alice grabs me, turning me onto my back pulling me in close to her. She looks down to me then to Fallon.
He sighs, "What a mess." He walks over to us, his feet hitting the grass is a clear sound in the aftermath of the battle.
"What are you doing here?" Alice asks. "And how did you do that?" Her eyes show she is more confused then I myself. I guess it's understandable.
"I have business with the Quincies, and the fisher's attack forced my hand." He stops in front of us and squats down. "I am a soul reaper, Alice, and was hoping to keep you out of all this." He reaches out, rubbing the blood off her cheek. I would have punched him if I had the energy. Wait, blood? It takes a minute for me to notice that she isn't bleeding, it's me.
"I don't get it, how-"
"That's not important right now. When he wakes up I want you to give him these." I can't see what it is he gives her. I pass out, either from blood loss or lack of energy. All I could see is him reaching behind his back before everything went dark.
I wake up, body weak and sore. I'm in my room with the sun beaming through the window. The smell the freshly cut grass, curacy of the grounds keepers reaches the second floor. The room is cleaner than usual; there isn't a single bit of Alice's clothes on the floor. Her silk sheets go all the way up to my neck leaving my skin rather warm on the summer afternoon.
Where is Alice? I try and to sit up, my chest arms fighting every step of the way. My head spins in circles nearly dropping me to the floor. On the door to our private bathroom is a full body mirror. Glancing at it, I can see most of my bare chest and left arm are covered in black and purple. On closer examination the bruising continues down my side and left leg, all thanks to the fisher.
It is at that moment I remember about Isaac. Have they found him? How badly did the hollow- I can't finish the thought.
I don't bother putting on a shirt, walking down stairs in nothing but sweat pants. I can hear voices coming from the kitchen. It's not Fallon but one is Alice. Walking into the kitchen I find her and my father sitting at the table. In the living room is another Quincy. I don't know his name but he is a relative of mine but I don't know how. Our family has such a long line of that branch in so many ways it's nearly impossible to keep up.
The Quincy stands straight, observing the house and surrounding. It is a common thing for us, them to do. Always stay alert and on guard, you never know when they will appear. He looked like a normal guy beside that. He's dressed in a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt and black boots. On his left wrist is a tattoo of the Quincy cross in sliver ink. It is well made having shading and depth.
The silver cross on the wrist was once a symbol of our family and in some regards still is. Nowadays the tattoo has mixed emotions in the community and to keep up with the economy, not all can bare the mark in a business setting. For many years it fell out of tradition but seems to show signs of a comeback, mainly in the newer Quincies. My father bares this mark.
He sits facing me as I enter. He is said to be one of the most powerful Quincies alive today and would have taken over as head of the family if not for my grandfather's mastery of Ransōtengai. Nearing eighty, he can weave spiritual fibers throughout his body so he can fight and live like a young man.
My father looks up at me with his green eyes. Along with that I inherited his slender, athletic body shape. I would say I am in more tone then him, many because he uses spirit energy to train as I work out my body. Most say I look just like him, my attitude and lack of talent he would say is because of my mother.
Seeing his motion Alice turns. Her violet eyes catch mine, a smile lights up her face. Jumping to her feet she nearly tackles me in a hug. My body stings from her touch but I try to ignore the pain so not to alarm her. After a long kiss her arms wrap around my neck, mine around her waist. After several moments I begin talking to my dad leaving her to hold me as long as she wants.
"You've been out for two days, son. Using up all your spirit energy has prevented your body from healing until you stabilized." He gets up, adjusting his black sweater. "I tended to gash on your forehead, the rest I believe you can handle." I had forgotten about that, I guess that's where the blood was coming from. "I was just informing Alice that we are working around the clock to find this, reaper. I've sent Jericho," he points to the man in the other room. "and Ivah to search the surrounding areas for him."
"What do you plan on doing when you find him?" Alice finally let's go of look at Salathiel, my father.
"What we do to reapers that intrude in this world." His words are cold, "We make them leave or get rid of them."
"He saved us, Sal. And he's a good man."
"Alice, I am aware of your… familiarity with this man but is a danger to us. We can't allow a threat to reside within our city." She starts to squeeze my arm, the non-bruised one so it isn't so bad. I don't blame her for her dislike of my father; he can bring that out of people. "What do you think son, is he a threat?"
I know what he really wants to hear, that all reapers are a threat and should be dealt with without question. Alice turns to me. She gives a look, one saying please help him. "He is definitely powerful. He took down a fisher with one strike but I could not begin to gauge his overall level. Whether or not he wishes to hurt the Quincies, I'm not so sure. He did protect us, Alice for their prier relationship and me for an unknown reason. I do not see him as an immediate threat as his primary target seems to be the hollows."
My father evaluates my report. "Regardless, we will find him and make him leave." Alice tries to argue but he refuses to listen. "Samuel, the family is meeting tomorrow to discuss the incident with Isaac and prepare a ceremony." He begins to Jericho it is time to leave. Without looking back he adds, "I expect you to be there and to go over your report and make sure your information is accurate." The both of them walk to their car and leave.
"Your father is such a," she stops to calm herself, refraining from finishing. "Thank you for standing up for Fallon and," She hesitates, "I'm sorry about Isaac. That's why I don't want you to get involved. And I know I made you go to the park and almost got us killed."
I try to say otherwise but she won't hear it. She isn't crying or blaming herself. Alice isn't the type to do such things, when she messes up she uses it to push past and fight on. "I just couldn't help it. When he said she was all alone in the park it hit me so hard. The thought of being lost in the dark with monsters around, I felt like I was dying inside."
"It's not your fault." I lift her head up to see her eyes. "We all want to help and do what we can for others. That's why it's so hard for me at times to just walk away."
"I know, and I know you have to for Isaac but please talk to them about Fallon. We owe him that much." As much as I hate to admit it, Alice is right. "I don't understand what is going on with him being a soul reaper. When we were together he never said anything about it did anything that made me think," she struggles to find the words. After a moment she gives up on the topic. "He wants me to give you something."
I follow her up the stairs to our room. In her underwear drawer she removes a thick folder and three seele schneiders. I dismiss the folder. The seele schneider are a powerful Quincy tool they use to fight with. The item is difficult weapon to come by. Though this is undoubtedly a Quincy weapon it is different from what I have seen in the past. After examining it, it's lighter, not by much but noticeable. Besides that the handle is slightly rounded but the ends are still squared off. The length is enough to hold with two hands but seems to be best for just one, making a few inches shorter than normal ones.
"The whole time you were out I wanted to throw them away." I looked up at her. Her eyes were sad and she's clinching her arms. "But if it will help you stay safe then maybe you should keep it."
She moves in close to me, her orange/red hair lighting up from the open window. I was expecting a kiss but what I get instead is a punch to my bruised shoulder. It hurt, a lot. "Don't ever give up again." Her finger is pointed at my face. This time her eyes do water. I feel incredibly low now. I hug her, promising to never do it ever again.
"Did my dad say I was out for two days?"
"Yeah, you missed work so I called and told them you were in an accident." She looks at my chest, "I guess these bruises will make it a believable story."
"Yeah, I guess so; I'll just have to make sure I don't heal myself all the way." I gave her a smile. "What about you, did you work at all?" She shakes her head. "It's going to be hard to make rent this month." I fall back into the bed. Alice climbs in with me, lying next to me but not on me.
"We'll manage."
Alice leaves for work later that day, leaving me to my healing. I go to the spare bedroom so to be completely alone for my recovery. It itself is rather empty room, no pictures on the walls, no bed, table or chairs. A single curtain covers the window casting a dim light over the space.
Still only in my sweat pants I sit in the center of the room. Turning on my Ipod I start playing some music, starting with no rest for the wicked. Crossing my legs I rest my hands on my thighs. After closing my eyes I extend my reach to the room. Free of items the space is full of reichi, even so it alone is only a portion of what I will require to recover.
Reaching farther out though the house and the open window I feel the entire world around me. This is the most basic of Quincy abilities, to draw it in for most is as well but I have a harder time. Over the years I have developed a method that has proven to work rather well. My body becomes the center point, instead of pulling the energy in, I change the flow of my own energy. Acting as a negative terminal it draws the energy around me in, as it enters my body it to is converted. This process is rather slow but uses no energy to do.
The energy flows around my body as planets do to a star. The feeling of power all around you drawing closer, entering your body can feel like getting high. In an area where there is large amounts of reichi and the ability to draw all it in at once can make one light headed. The skin starts to tingle while all your senses heighten.
With nothing but my thoughts and the music to keep me company my attention turns at times to that night. Did Isaac ever even see what it was before he dead? Did it just out right kill him while hidden behind the vale? I can't let myself think of that right now. Ivah, his sister, I can't imagine what she is going through right now.
As the energy enters my body it is concentrated in my skin and blood vessels around the bruising. The hemoglobin is broken down faster, turning the areas more of a green. Energy fused blood begins to pull away from the damaged capillaries. The rest will have to heal naturally.
Getting up I go to my room to examine the results of my work. After four hours the wounds have turned a green and yellow color. After another two days they should be healed completely.
In the mirror I catch site of the folder Fallon had given to Alice to give to me. Whatever he wants I imagine the answers will be in it. It is a simple blue folder with nothing written on it. Inside is over forty pages all labeled from one to forty-six. They are reports on the hollow garganta, or pathways between their world and ours. At first, all the information goes over my head but after a while it all starts to paint a picture.
Much of the documents explain that over the last thirty years the tears have grown in size and duration. Even so, many time hollows have not passed through the openings. Only about seventy-two percent of the time does a hollow take passage, ones that need far smaller to escape. Across the globe this has been going on but in only a few locations is it a constant. One of those is in the United States- that's here.
On the final page is a recap and conclusion of all the recorded data. It states that based on the information the only logical conclusion is that the hollows are preparing to open multiple gargantas at a pre-specified time. If these points are to be open at once, these gates to Hueco Mundo will connect resulting in an opening large enough for Gillian or even Adjuchas class hollows to enter the human world.
My heart stops dead. If you can believe what this is saying then a mass invasion is going to hit the world. This town will be at the heart of it all, the epicenter. As the home world for the hollows there is no telling how many could enter the city at one time. There would be no way for the Quincies to stand against this threat.
My grandfather and father might be able to handle an Adjuchas if they fight together, but streets full of hollows, we wouldn't stand a chance. The idea is overwhelming. I feel like I'm going to be sick. Grabbing pages spread across the bed it's hard to tell just what I'm doing. After getting composed it's back in order and in the folder.
This is insane. I will have to be sure about this. Grabbing my phone at the foot of the bed my stomach cringes at the thought of getting others involved after how that went last time. Pushing it aside I call a family friend, one that you can say, works for Quincies. He monitors the cities for any indication of hollow activity, if I didn't know him well enough I would have thought this was his work. But if anyone can verify this information he would be one of them.
Normally he stays busy with research but as part of the head family he rarely ignores my call. He finally answers after the second attempt. I give him key dates and information for him to collaborate the reports. Do to my position he does not argue but merely states how busy he is.
"I understand Samuel, but what is this all about? I don't think we have any records as far back as you're asking for." I can hear how tired he is. It is getting late and only reason I haven't gone to sleep is for the fact I slept two days straight.
"Just let me know if all this checks out. Can you have it tomorrow and meet me at my dad's place? We are having a meeting there and I'll need this information verified before then."
"Well hell boy," he wines. "Why haven't you asked sooner? I'll be up all night on this."
"I'm sorry to put you through this; I only just found out about this and need to know for sure."
He stays silent for a minute. I am pretty sure he can make out my anxiety in my voice. "I'll have it done, don't worry."
I thank him and hang up, before putting away the folder. It is the last think I need to be looking at right now, the last think Alice need to hear about. Around twenty minutes later she comes home and collapses in bed next to me. I could smell the food on her. I want to think about anything else beside that folder. I ask her about her day and little things, like who was her favorite teacher, what she dreamt about last night.
Thankfully she didn't ask about reapers or Quincies. Maybe she had her fill for the day, maybe my dad filled her in, while unlikely it is still possible, or maybe she could tell I didn't want to talk about it. Nevertheless she fell asleep on me, leaving me to my thoughts, to my nightmares of what might happen to her and what had happened to Isaac.