Bleached: Four Years Later

Chapter 5

Sorry for the long break everyone! I'm back to working on this, in fact I have another chapater that's getting close to done, but it's off in sort-of beta land. Anyways, hope you all wanted more Eyon, Cyerra, and Zezuri!

Disclaimer: We don't own Bleach, just Eyon, Zezuri, Cyerra, and Airi.

A few weeks passed and Èyon had all but forgotten about her encounter with Cyerra in the second division. She sat down at her desk to work on her never-ending pile of paper work. Brushing a stray strand of dark blue hair out of her eyes, the fourth seat of ninth division noticed Shuei standing in front of her desk and jumped.

"Èyon, take this over to Jagerjaques-taicho's place, thanks," said Shuei, the lieutenant, and acting captain of ninth squad as he handed his fourth seat a stack of papers.

Èyon groaned. Reluctantly taking the stack, she headed off toward fifth division and the captain's room. She arrived to find nobody there. "Hello?" she called into the empty room.

There was no response.

"Jagerjaques-taicho must be off on an important errand," thought Èyon with a sigh, "Well, I suppose I'll just hang around until she gets back". Setting the papers down on the floor next to her, she sat down and waited.

About five minutes later, Èyon was getting restless. She stood up and began to pace the room. Just then she sensed a strange energy coming from behind one of the bookcases. Curiosity and boredom getting the better of her, she went over to investigate. It appeared to be an ordinary bookcase, but she sensed a kido spell placed on a book. She touched the spine and jumped at the grinding noise that came as the entire bookshelf slid into the floor to reveal an enormous void with a long spiraling staircase leading down into the darkness. Nervously, she began to descend the stairs. "There must be a thousand stairs!" thought an exhausted Èyon as she continued down the stairs. After what seemed to be a long time later, Èyon finally reached the bottom of the stairs. With a relieved sigh, she stepped off the last stair into the room below. She looked around the room to see some writing etched into the wall. It read: På tvers den verdenen finne den dal. "What does that mean?" wondered Èyon.

"Is someone down there?" called a voice from up the staircase.

Recognizing the voice as belonging to none other than the lieutenant, Hinamori, Eyon quickly scrambled up the stairs.

"Who are you and just what were you doing in there?" the fifth lieutenants eyes flared dangerously; her hand on her sword ready to draw.

"Crap," Eyon thought regretting her decision to explore.

"Speak, or I'll- I'll cut you down where you stand!"

Eyon could clearly see that Momo was not bluffing. "I-I came from 9th division to deliver some papers to Jagerjauqes-taicho, but no one was here and, well… I was bored… What is that room down there for anyways?"

Momo hesitated and slowly lowered her hand from the hilt of her sword. A puzzled expression crossed her face. "Wait, you made it all the way down? How? The spells reset every time I enter!"

"Hey! What's up with all the racket?" asked Grimmjow, entering the room with his wife.

Momo looked over to her captain and her husband, "This girl says she made it all the way down the stairs."

Zezuri and Grimmjow exchanged glances.

"Let's discuss it in my office; I can't be in this room very long," Zezuri admitted.

---

"So, Eyon, how did you manage to get into the room?" Zezuri asked now sitting comfortably in her chair behind her desk.

"I-I don't know... I just walked down the stairs, nothing stopped me." She fidgeted with a bracelet on her wrist, wondering what the big deal about the room was.

Momo suddenly had an idea, "Maybe the spells were de-activated! I'll go check!" she ran out of the room before her words registered in anyone's head.

--

Ten minutes later Momo rushed back into the room, gasping for air; Zezuri's office was on the other side of the division from the office of the previous captains. "Well…?" asked Grimmjow.

"N-no good. The spells… weren't touched at all…" she walked into the room and sank into a chair by the door.

Eyon shrugged as Zezuri sighed and put a hand to her head, "I don't get it… why can't I enter the room? Why do the spells reset? How come only Eyon can get through?"

The room was silent as all four of the occupants realized they were not going to get any answers.

"I need to be getting back… Shuei-fuku-taicho will be mad at me if I'm late…" Eyon meekly ducked out leaving the other three to further ponder the day's events.

"What should we do?" asked Momo after watching the other shinigami depart.

"I think we need to get some help in this investigation; why don't we ask Captain Hitsugaya for some help?" suggested the fifth captain.

"Shiro?" Momo exclaimed, "That's a good idea! He had been investigating C-captain A-aizen's behavior before anyone noticed anything," her sentence ended with a downward glance at the floor. Four years may have passed since the last time Soul Society had seen the previous captain of the fifth squad, however, his lieutenant still couldn't find the strength to move on. Because of this, she still hadn't made things up with her foster brother.

Zezuri handed a folded piece of paper to Grimmjow after hastily scribbling some words on it, "Could you take this to tenth division?" she asked looking up at the blue haired arrancar.

He took it and grinned. "I'll be back before you know it," and sondio-ed out of the room.

---

"You there! New recruit!" a loud voice called out.

Cyerra stopped in her tracks; she was leaving the dining hall to go take food to the prisoner. Turning around she saw the lieutenant, Maychiro walking in her direction. "My name's Cyerra," she muttered when he was within hearing distance.

"You. The captain wants you to report to her after you do your job." He walked past her and headed for the cafeteria.

For a moment, Cyerra almost called out to him; she still hadn't been able to ask about the prisoner, but she didn't want to get her new captain mad at her by asking this fool about something he might not know about. Sighing to herself, the tan shinigami continued on her way lost in thought, wondering if the prisoner would be awake today; he'd been out ever since her second day on the job, so long ago now it seemed. She still hadn't been able to find out what the heck an arrancar was and now she really wished she hadn't fallen asleep in every "Hollow Analysis" class. She knew arrancars had something to do with hollows, but that was it. Fortunately, none of that stuff had been on the exam; otherwise she knew she wouldn't have graduated.

Finally she arrived at the cell door far into the division's prison. Carefully she slowly opened the door as if she expected the prisoner to come flying out at her. She picked up the tray once she saw his form still limp in the chair. He'd slouched down in the chair a bit more every time she'd been here. Now the position he was in looked quite uncomfortable. Had he woken up? A quick glance at the untouched tray of food she'd brought the day before told her he hadn't. After switching the old tray with the fresh one, Cyerra set the older food by the door gently and turned to the prisoner. She couldn't just leave him slouched like that; just looking at him gave her a back ache. She approached him as a weary traveler would approach a sleeping tiger. Wait, they wouldn't, but Cyerra's curiosity always overruled her fears. Stepping closer she could hear his faint breathing. She carefully put a hand on his shoulder, ready to spring back if he showed any response. None came. Breathing a sigh of relief, she gently pulled his limp form up to a halfway decent posture. As she moved the prisoner, his hair moved off to the side as his head slumped to a side giving Cyerra a fully view of three pink diamonds that arched over his left eyebrow. "Hardly something I'd call manly… or even threatening… but then again he just seems so... defenseless…" Pity wasn't something Cyerra normally expressed, but the poor treatment this arrancar was receiving, brought out what she had.

Satisfied with her work, Cyerra turned to leave. "Hm?" Something was caught on her hakama.

The prisoner let out a moan as Cyerra attempted to remove his hand without ripping her uniform. "Geez, you've got a strong grip," she said through gritted teeth. Attempting to wriggle it out from his grasp wasn't working too well. "Great, just great! I've got to see taicho, and she's not going to be happy if I'm late!" The fifth seat could just see her captain using her as target practice if she was more than thirty seconds late. "C'mon! C'mon!" she shouted forgetting to be quiet.

Suddenly, the prisoner's violet eyes snapped open as did his hand.

The sudden release of her hakama caused Cyerra to fall to the ground with an "Oof!" she landed hard on her bottom. Gazing up at the prisoner sitting in the chair, she quickly regained her composure.

He gazed back; confused.

"I thought you weren't going to let go!"

The prisoner blinked once, as if trying to remember where he was, or who he was.

"I brought your food, it's over there," Cyerra remembered Soi-Fon's summons and quickly exited the room as the arrancar tried to regain his focus.

---

Running as fast as she could, Cyerra vaulted over anything in her way in a way only her captain could out do. She was just as confused as the prisoner had been, perhaps more. Just what was that collar doing to him? His glances had been nothing like his temper when they'd first met. "I guess I'll just ask Soi-Fon" she muttered, sliding the door to the ninja captain's office open.

"Ask me what?" Soi-Fon was standing at her window, gazing out over the training fields for the stealth force.

"T-tachio! I apologize for my tardiness!" Cyerra made a quick bow.

"What's the status of the prisoner?"

"He woke up as I was leaving…" the younger girl's voice trailed off.

Soi-Fon looked up from the window, "Something is troubling you. You shouldn't let your emotions cloud your sense of duty. What is it you wish to ask?"

At first, Cyerra was slightly taken aback by this new side of Soi-Fon, had she been daydreaming just now? And of what? "A-about the prisoner," she finally managed after frantically searching her mind for the right way to phrase the question. "What is he?"

Soi-Fon went back to looking out the window. "Cyerra, when did you join the Gotei-13?"

"About five months ago."

"Then this was before you," Soi-Fon stated. "Four years ago, when Aizen lead his last attack on the Seireitei, he brought along his entire army of hollows and arrancar. They were after the Razdemerdetemps, a kido supplement that somehow was inside of Zezuri."

Cyerra nodded, this was all common knowledge so far.

Soi-Fon continued, "During the battle, the prisoner, as he now is, was severely wounded and left for dead. I found him after the battle unconscious and took him into custody in hopes of getting some information from him. Over the four years he has been in that cell, he has not uttered phrase of any information I didn't know." She paused for a moment, "Did he say anything to you?"

"No, he was just in a daze, as if he'd forgotten who he was."

"Hm, I'll need to see Kurosutchi about that serum then, it seems it's too strong…" Soi-Fon walked over to her desk and scratched a note in a book lying open on top of the otherwise spotless desk. "You are dismissed. Report to me again tomorrow."

"Yes, taicho!" Cyerra made to leave the office and stopped a hand on the doorway. "May I ask one more question?"

The second captain didn't look up from her work, but nodded.

"The prisoner, what is his name? Do you know it?"

Soi-Fon stopped writing as if to think for a moment, "Yes, it's Luppi."

"Luppi," Cyerra repeated it to herself as to not forget as she silently left her captain to her paperwork.

And you all thought he was dead! *laughs*

Review or perish! Okay, not really, but please do! It keeps us, well... me, going. -Airi