Chapter Six: Los Vaqueros
Soi Fon bowed slightly at the waist in acknowledgement of her superior. She then turned to Keigo and Mizuiru and said to them, "Hello there, ryoka boys. It's been quite a while since I have last saw you, hasn't it?" She smirked at their dazed looks on their faces, before chuckling out loud.
Keigo was the first to recover from the shock of seeing the second division Captain standing before them, and having Ichigo say that she is a Vaizard. "Since when have you been a Vaizard?" exclaimed Keigo.
Soi just smiled at him and said, "Oh, I just joined recently."
Ichigo sighed and said, "Shaolin, that was eighty years ago when you just us."
She turned to him with a confused look on her face, "That's not that long ago."
Ichigo replied, "I'm not even going to reply to that, Shaolin." He started to stretch his arms and legs, while he continued to talk to her, "Did you avoid detection?"
She scoffed, "What do you take me for, Strawberry? Some kind of little princess straight out of the academy? I can take care of myself just fine, o King Vaizard of idiots."
He just glared at her before their interesting argument was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. He glanced in the direction of the sound to find Mizuiru with an annoyed facial expression.
"Can we get back to why she is here at this very moment?" asked Mizuiru.
Ichigo nodded his head in acknowledgement and replied by saying, "She is here for many reasons, but the only one that you really need to know about is this. She is here because she needed to deliver something of great importance to our cause." She nodded her head in agreement with his statement and turned her head towards the two junior Vaizards.
She crossed her arms over her chest and turned back to Ichigo. "I heard you had an interesting run-in with Yoroichi a few days ago," she said with a smirk. "What in the world did you say to her in order to piss her off so much?"
Ichigo simply grumbled under his breath at this. He looked away from her as she arced an eyebrow in his direction. "What was that?" she asked in an annoying tone.
Ichigo glared and replied, "Not now Shaolin. First, we must attend to the business currently at hand." He turned his attention back to his fellow classmates. "She is delivering a device that will allow all the Vaizard members an instant safe haven in any given situation. This device acts similar to the Negacion of the Menos Grande, in that it protects us and brings us back to our 'safe haven' that we reside in. It does not destroy the matter around the retrieved warrior like the Negacion. It simply deploys one of Hachi's previously constructed barriers and retrieves the members in question."
Mizuiru and Keigo only had one word to say to Ichigo, "Cool."
Ichigo chuckled lightly at their response, "Well, anyway you two, I want you two to hurry up and go home and rest. I need you two in top form tomorrow, for we are continuing training. In fact," he sneered, "we are going to kick it up a notch."
Both junior Vaizards groaned.
Soi just laughed out loud.
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Karin and Yuzu were both nervous as they entered the Vaizard training site. They walked very close to each other, taking comfort and giving support to each other by their close proximity. They gazed around the place, noticing that it looked both warm and cheery, and dark and drab.
Karin looked towards the creepy blonde in front of them and asked, "What exactly did you mean by our brother wants to see us?"
Hirako just shrugged and said, "Exactly what I said, little girl."
Karin became angry and said, "If you call me that again, I swear that you will need an entire glacier to ease the pain between your legs."
Hirako flinched and said, "Hey, hey, you don't have to get mad at me, Kurosaki. I was just told by your brother to bring the two of you here." He turned and smiled his creepy smile at them, "Evidently, you two have been trying to hide something from your so-called 'comrades'."
Karin narrowed her eyes, "I have no idea what you mean."
Yuzu nodded her head in agreement and said in her quiet voice, "Yeah, Karin's right! We would never hide anything from everybody who is fighting with us."
"Really," said Shinji, "Then how do you explain the little scent of hollow that I can detect oozing out of you?"
The twins blushed and looked to the side guiltily. He was right, even though they wished he wasn't. They both had somehow gained an inner hollow within the last few weeks, and it was getting harder and harder to control them as time went on.
Hirako saw their expressions and chuckled, "Don't worry ladies. The reason you two are here in the first place is because we can help both of you with your little 'inner hollow' problem."
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Soi Fon turned to Ichigo and placed a hand on her hip. "So what do want to know before your sisters get here?"
Ichigo glanced at her and replied, "How is everything going with the Brethren Division?"
She smiled and said, "It is going quite well. We are now at 95."
Ichigo nodded and said, "Good, very good. It seems that our conversions have gone a lot more smoothly, haven't they Shaolin?"
She smiled a little bit more and replied back saying, "Yes, it has. Of course, having the second division a part of the Vaizard since the foundation of the Gotei 13 certainly helps things along with my subordinates."
Ichigo rubbed his chin, "It certainly does, certainly does. Have you picked out what you are going to wear to the dinner with the elders of the 'family'?"
She didn't respond at all, instead, she pulled out a large bat out of nowhere and hit him upside the head with it. She sighed as she put the bat away, "You never do learn, do you Ichi-kun?"
He laughed and answered, "I hope not, Soi-chan, or else how would I entertain myself?"
She huffed and crossed her arms.
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Yuzu gazed at the painted clouds on the ceiling and had to restrain herself from falling anime style. She sighed and shook her head in wonderment. Who knew that there was someone out there in the world who shared Urahara-san's twisted decorating sense?
She and her sister looked over at the little fluctuation of reiatsu. They saw someone who was dressed similarly to a Shinigami waiting for them. Yuzu gasped when she noticed who it was. That mop of orange hair was unmistakable. She ran as fast as her human legs would take her, before leaping into the embrace of her big brother. "Onii-chan!" she squealed happily.
He returned the quick hug and said, "How have you been, Yuzu-chan?"
She looked up at him and asked, "Where have you been? It seems as if you haven't been yourself at home, and I think I know why. But anyway, I'm kinda hungry, Ichi-nii. Do you have kitchen somewhere around here?"
As Ichigo lead his two sisters to the kitchen, he sighed happily and said to his sister, "You have no idea how much I have missed your cooking, Yuzu-chan." He turned around and called behind him, "Coming, Shaolin?"
She smiled warmly at him and said, "Hai."
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Keigo arrived at the apartment he shared with his sister, making sure to be as quiet as he could on his way to his bedroom. As he passed by the couch, he heard a light snore. He looked down to see his sister sleeping curled up on the couch. She was clutching a photograph in her hand, her head resting on a tear-stained pillow.
His gaze softened as he looked her tear-stained face. He went to a closet and grabbed a blanket. He then went over to where his elder sister lay, and placed it over her, making sure she wouldn't catch cold during the night.
He looked at her one more time, before reaching down and gently removed the photograph from her hand. He heard her say something, and thought she had woken up. She had just talked in her sleep.
As he went to bed in his room, he placed the photo by his bed, gazing at it one last time before he drifted off. In the picture, he was no older than a year old, while his sister was only a couple of years older. His parents were also in the picture. His mother, who was so tiny and frail looking, one would have never guessed just by looking at her that she had borne two children.
The other person in the picture had a gentle smile on his face as he gazed at the camera. His glasses and expression made him appear to be a man who could command respect, and evoke kindness in every gesture. He had been in soul society when this picture had been taken, so one could tell he was a powerful man just because he was wearing a white captain's haori.
As Keigo finally fell into a restless slumber plagued by dreams, the picture of Sosuke Aizen and his family fell to ground.
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TBC…
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