Chapter 5: Before the Storm

"Outside in the cold distance,
A wildcat did growl"
- "All Along the Watchtower"

"Again!"

Karin growled at Rukia as she returned to her stance.

"Ye Lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, March on to the south! Way of destruction 31, shot of red fire!"

Rukia dodged her kidou blast once more, but just barely.

"Good! You're getting the hang of this!" Applause sounded from the ridge behind Karin.

"Good job, onee-chan!" called Yuzu, clapping enthusiastically. Jinta was clapping as well, probably trying to impress Yuzu. Ururu applauded politely.

Kurosaki Karin wiped the sweat off her brow. This was a lot harder than Rukia made it look.

Karin hadn't cried since that first night, but it had been hard. She felt sort of... numb. She couldn't - didn't want to - believe her brother was gone She couldn't believe she finally had confirmation of what he was, and he was gone. Rukia had started teaching her kidou, she suspected, to distract both of them. She'd even roped Yuzu into a few lessons, though Karin's younger sister seemed to be dealing more effectively, or at least more quietly, than she was herself. Yuzu was burying herself in taking care of the rest of them ("the rest of them" being Ichigo's friends, the other shinigami, the shouten's usual denizens, and Karin, the sisters having taken up residence in the little shop while their father visited Soul Society).

"Karin, again! You've got the concept down, but we're going to keep doing this until you can hit me. I'm not even using shunpo!"

Karin sighed. Practice makes perfect.

-----

He had a sword now, and his sword had a name: Sagetsu Master taught him his sword's name, and Grimmjaw and Ulquiorra taught him to fight. It puzzled him how easily he learned. Everything else he did seemed new and confusing, but not swordplay. That came to him as if he'd always known it. In a way, it made sense. Master had made him to fight.

When he wasn't practicing with Sagetsu, he learned tactics from Tousen-sama. This skill didn't come to him as naturally as fighting, but he learned quickly once he managed to grasp the basics.

About a week after he was created, his master came to him and told him that it was time to visit the living world.

-----

Dinner at the Urahara Shouten was an interesting affair. Yuzu and Tessai cooked, with Jinta "helping" - apparently a new development since the Kurosaki sisters had moved in. It was always delicious, despite Jinta's interference. A fight would inevitably break out about half way through, usually involving Ikkaku and Renji. Karin, Rukia, and Hitsugaya or some combination thereof would break up the fight while the others watched on in amusement.

Dinner the seventh night since Ichigo's disappearance was simple: rice and miso soup. Everyone seemed exhausted from training, and there was a strange feeling in the air. Yoruichi, who generally appeared at dinner in her cat form, had transformedfor dinner that night, and Keigo had apparently deemed it prudent to bring his new weapon - an over sized pole arm of some sort - to the table with him. Nell barely even played with her food, and Orihime made no comments about how ketchup would improve the soup. Somehow, they all knew something was coming, even if they didn't realize it.

-----

There was no real objective to his mission other than to cause general disorder and to test his abilities. It would be Gris's first time leading the Espada in battle and his first chance to really prove himself to Master. He was eager - so very eager. Eager to please Master. Eager for blood.

------

Rukia put her chopsticks down with a resounding click.

"What if he wasn't annihilated?"

Renji glared at her from across the table. "What do you mean?"

Rukia allowed her self to fall backwards so that her back was resting against the wood paneled wall. "We've all been assuming Ichigo's soul was destroyed. We're too afraid of the other possibility to even consider it, either because we don't want to consider what kind of power someone like Ichigo would put in Aizen's hands or for more... personal reasons. We have to stop that."

Hitsugaya nodded. "You're right. I've been thinking about it for a while, but voicing the possibility seemed... wrong."

"Guys, don't be ridiculous!" said Keigo loudly, breaking the solemn atmosphere with enormous skill. "There's no way that Ichigo would turn on us. That guy has a sense of honor out of, like, the Meiji period!"

"Keigo, the Meiji period was when they were transitioning out of the feudal system."

"Uh, I knew that. I meant the, uh, Neolithic Period." Tatsuki face-palmed. The shinigami just looked confused.

"The point is," said Rukia, regaining control of the conversation, "that we have to consider the possibility that we'll be facing Ichigo - or what was Ichigo - in battle."

-----

The Espada stood before the portal, waiting for it to open. Gris, at the head of the procession, turned to face them. He said nothing, simply giving his troops the manic grin that they had, in the time he had been anticipating the mission, begun to associate with his battle-lust. He licked his lips as most of the Espada returned his smile. Ulquiorra, Grimmjaw, and Noitora did not, and he took careful note of this, wondering why they always reacted to him differently than his other subordinates.

The portal opened behind Gris, momentarily blasting him with a light that threw his features into sharp relief and the featureless-ness of his mask into sharp contrast. He turned back to the portal and, drawing Sagetsu, stepped through.

-----

Yumichika was speaking. "Well of course there's no way of knowing what the odds of one possibility or the other is, but what really matters is -"

He was interrupted by a sharp gasp from Rukia.

A word escaped her barely parted lips: "No..."

-----

It was dark in the human world, but there were little lights both above and below, and the pinpricks of human spirit pressure shone dimly in his mind, as did a cloud of greater power, not far off. He pointed towards it.

"There."

He moved, and the other Espada followed.

-----

Rukia to the front of the Shouten, begging, praying that she was wrong. She opened threw open the door. Ten Espada, led by a familiar masked figure in white who grinned down at her with bloodlust in his - its - eyes.

A thundering of footsteps from behind her. Gasps and Yuzu's choked sob. Karin yelling for her sister to get back inside.

"Ichigo..."

-----

Sagetsu: Chained moon. I'm not sure that's how it would be pronounced, but I think I've got the right kanji.

Many thanks to IluvsBakura for the beta!

May the Force be with you and remember, "do or do not, there is no spoon."

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