A.N: Hey everyone, if you read the last chapter, which was really just an author's note, you'd know what happened. His funeral was yesterday and I decided I was going to wait until after that to update. Thanks to all those who gave us support, it really helps. With that being said, here is chapter 41!
Brooke's Zen of the Day: I'm lost. I've gone to look for myself. If I should return before I get back, please ask me to wait. (I use that a lot actually.)
Brooke
Finally, it was time for us to go back home, where we belong. Away from the Soul Society and their Soul Reapers. We were nearing the end of July and I was just itching to get back home. Everyday I worried that Aizen would decided to come and get us before we had a chance to leave ourselves. We never had been told how we were supposed to get out of the Seretei once we'd infiltrated it and finished our job.
It had taken forever to tell Fran and Katie my plan and figure out the finer details with them. This was thanks to the fact that we weren't allowed to see each other for more than an hour a day with supervision and that we couldn't be all together at the same time, but we had finally done it. The funniest part was how simple to plan really was, and it all started with one, little question.
"Hey, Toshiro?" I asked one day as I lounged in his office as he did paper work, Rangiku was out so I had to stay with Toshiro as my babysitter.
"Hm." He grunted as he continued filling out paper work.
"When can we go home?" Toshiro straightened up at this and turned to look at me. I met his questioning glaze with my own, giving him to most wide eyed, innocent look I could muster. For being as perverse and as big of a troublemaker as I am, I can make myself look pretty damn innocent. Like they say, never judge a book by it's cover. "Toshiro? We are going to be able to go home, right?" I asked, sounding worried and slightly upset that I hadn't gotten an answer yet.
"It's not for me to decided," he told me finally, "You need to take it up at a Captain's Meeting and ask everyone at once."
"Well, can you set us up a Captain's Meeting?" I asked causing the small ice protégé to sigh.
Eventually, Toshiro did get us a Meeting, it took about two days, but he got one. We were told to make a formal request of what we wanted to do then give our arguments, and then we'd have to wait for the Captains to reach a decision. The whole thing reminded me of the U.S Court System and seemed like a rather vexing route to take to getting out of here, but if that's what it's going to take.
"Well, the three of us are requesting that you let us go back home, schools starting up soon and we don't want to miss anything and fall behind. Aizen and his followers never found out where we live, they kidnapped us without ever figuring it out, so it's not like we have to worry about them finding us." Katie explained to all the important, powerful members of the Soul Society.
"I may not be on good terms with my mom, but I haven't been able to contact my her or brothers since the end of Spring Break when Brooke and I we're first kidnapped. I have no idea what happened to them, or if they know that I'm all right and I hate thinking that I maybe worrying them with not knowing if I'm even alive. None of us have been able to contact our families since being kidnapped." Katie lied sadly, her eyes downcast.
"Yeah, my parents think that I just up and disappeared from home one day and they have no idea what happened to me and it hurts me to know that they're so worried for me. I miss them so much." Fran agreed softly, she sounded so sincere that I couldn't tell if she was lying of telling the truth.
"We never signed up for this, all three of us were thrown into this war without even being asked if we wanted to help or not. I'm not entirely sure about them, but I don't want to partake in this fight, I just want to go home and act like none of this ever happened. I want to go home, to my home, to be with my family and just be a normal teenager again. Is that too much to ask?" I looked them in the eyes with the saddest eyes I could make. Almost ironically, I preformed this by thinking about how much I missed hanging with my makeshift Arrancar family and how badly I wanted to save my friends from their gruesome deaths. I thought about how I would feel if we were not successful in stopping their deaths and I actually felt my eyes begin to water as tears threatened to fall.
"Please, just let us go home." Fran muttered quietly as we all stared at the Captains, waiting for them to speak. The three of us were all close to tears and I had a feeling that they weren't completely false.
"We must discuss your proposal, please go outside and wait for us to make our decision." The Head Captain commanded us, shooing us outside to wait to find out whether or not we'd be able to leave.
The three of us went outside and wiped the tears out of our eyes. Looking at my two friends, I could help but smile hopefully, an expression that both my friends happily returned. I was praying that my plan worked and that the Captains would be moved much more easily by emotions than Aizen was. While we were in there I'd noticed a couple Captains were feeling bad for us, I just hoped that we had gotten to enough of them to get them to let us go. Yes, my entire plan for getting us home was to gain enough of the Captains' pity that they would let us go home. A simple enough plan, now all we had to do was wait and see if it was efficient. It seems that living under Aizen's control for as long as I had has taught me how to manipulate people better than before… so that's what were getting out of this deal.
"So, you think were going to be going home?" Fran asked Katie and I as we sat with our backs against the wall.
"I sure hope so, I don't know home much longer I can stand this." I admitted, looking over I noticed that Katie looked slightly torn, but when she noticed me looking at her she quickly covered it up with a confident smile.
Almost an hour and a half later, we were called back in to hear the verdict on whether or not we were going to be going home. Filing back into the meeting room, I looked around to see if I could find any hint to whether or not we'd be released and be able to go home. Looking at Captain Unohana and Captain Ukitake, two of the nicest Captains here, I noticed that neither one seemed to be avoiding looking at the three of us, making me feel more confident in our chances.
"Alright." Head Captain Old Fart announced causing my two friends and myself to tense up slightly, I had Katie's hand in one of my own, and one of Fran's and my other and all three of our grips tightened as the old man began speaking. "After much debate, the other Captains and I have decided that the three of you shall be allowed to return home and kept out of the war. We will be sending someone to check on you to make sure that Aizen leaves you alone, go pack up you things to leave." You can't understand how happy I felt at this news. I instantly brought my two friends in for a hug as we bounced up and down we were so happy. We were all grinning ear to ear as we thanked the Captains and ran off to our designated Barracks to gather up our things, leaving our Captain/Escorts far behind us as we sprinted.
Back in the room I shared with Rangiku I quickly changed into my regular clothes before, packing all my things up, feeling ecstatic that we were finally going to be going home. Soon, I'd see Lilinette and Katie and Fran would be able to see their boyfriends and I'd see my Grimmy-Kitty and show him that I wasn't lying last time we talked. Just as I was shutting my bag Rangiku walked in. Beaming up at her, I ran over and gave her a hug.
"Thank you for being so nice to us Rangiku." I thanked, smiling at her causing her to smile back.
"No problem," She smiled happily, "Now hurry up, the Captains are going to open up the dangai when for you three to go through, with a couple escorts of course." I nodded before grabbing my stuff and walking out of the room, "I'll admit, I'm going to miss you guys."
"Yeah, we'll miss you too, you should come visit us sometime." I agreed as I we began walking. When we got to the entrance I found both Katie and Fran waiting for us along with Shuuhei, Renji, Byakuya, Toshiro and Berry.
"Now, your going to have to run to make sure you get to the other side safely, your escorts will make sure of that, but remember you have to hurry." Toshiro explained, by the looks of it Renji and Berry were going to be our escorts across. Before they had a chance to open the dangai, I quickly hugged Shiro.
"See ya Shiro." I chirped causing him to shake his head at me and opening the portal.
"Now go!" He yelled and the three of us along with our escorts began sprinting for the other side.
Nothing amazing happened on our trip back and before I knew it, we had said goodbye to Renji and Berry and found ourselves standing before my front door. It seemed so weird to be at my house again, we really hadn't spent much time here since school got out, having been here only once before when we left for the beach house, and that was only for thirty minutes or so.
"We're home guys." Katie said, causing me to smile widely. I couldn't feel anyone's Reishi inside, but because of Aizen's shield, that didn't mean that no one was in there. Unlocking the front door the three of us stepped inside to find my house much the same way as it had been when we left. Setting our things right next to the door, we wandered through the office and into the living room, slightly sad that no one was to be found anywhere. No one said anything as we sat down, just taking in the nice feeling of knowing that we were home, even if my house felt empty and slightly dead.
Suddenly there was a slight squeak and all of our heads snapped to the basement door handle to see it go down before the door began opening. When the door closed again we saw Lilinette minding her own business, not even noticing us as she started to the kitchen through the living room.
"OH MY GOSH, LILINETTE!" Her eyes widened just as the three of us jumped up and glomped her, tackling the small blonde onto the ground.
"Wha- where did you three come from?" She asked sounding slightly confused.
"We got the Soul Society to let us go by playing with their emotions!" Katie told our Arrancar friend.
"Dude, it's soooo good to see you again!" Fran agreed happily. It had been so long since we'd seen our friends/family that I wouldn't be surprised if I was happy to see Nnoitra… well… maybe not that far.
"Did ya miss us?" I asked happily, sitting up and moving off her so we could all get up. She nodded happily before glomping all three of us at once.
"HOLY CRAP! YOU GUYS ARE REALLY BACK! I'M SO HAPPY!" she squealed as she hugged us, when we finally separated again we started spitballing questions so fast I was amazed she kept up with us.
"Where is everyone, why aren't you in Los Noches?" Katie asked quickly, making sure no one else had a chance to ask a less important question before her's was answered.
"Aizen-Sama sent a few of us here just in case you guys escaped on your own because he knew this is where you'd go," She told us, duh, Aizen always knows what we're going to do next, "but I think it was also because everyone was getting just a wee bit antsy about getting you three back, so he sent some of us here to get us out of his hair. The others are downstairs." I almost laughed at that, it was touching to know that people cared about us that much, or it could be that they didn't like us being in the Seretei because they were worried we flop slides.
"What's going on up here trash." A monotoned voice asked as the basement door opened once more as Emocar stepped out. He didn't even have a chance to shut the door all the way before Fran nearly tackled him and kissed him firmly on the lips.
"ULQUI-KUN! I'M SOO HAPPY TO SEE YOU!" she exclaimed, hugging his chest as said emo still looked somewhat surprised to see Fran, well, at least as surprised as an he can look.
"Fran?" He question slightly only for my friend to smile up at him. Katie, Lilinette and I cooed as he hugged her back.
"Hey Katie, you should probably go find Stark now." I told her, making sure not to disturb the 'couple' just in front of us. Katie nodded before racing down the steps to find Stark. Snickering I turned to Lilinette, "Hey Lili, wanna help me lug everything upstairs to my room?" She nodded happily and we left to go put everything in my room. It was weird seeing my still unmade futon just sitting in my room. I set all of our stuff on said futon before going back downstairs.
"I should probably contact Aizen-Sama." Lilinette told me as we started going down the steps to the basement. "Just so he knows that you guys are here seeing as I can't see Stark or Ulquiorra doing that with Katie and Fran being back and all." I laughed again, just enjoying being home.
"I'll come with you, I don't have much else to do." I told her as we started walking through the part of my basement that Aizen had added and I didn't recognize. We entered a room with a HUMONGO screen and Lilinette started pushing buttons as I began inspecting every little thing that was in the room. After telling some random Arrancar who looked like either Menoly or Loly, I can never keep their names straight, to get Aizen, the big man himself finally appeared on screen.
"Yes Lilinette what is it?" Aizen asked my blonde friend before I popped into the camera frame happily.
"Hiya Aizen!" I greeted, waving happily, causing the brown haired man to look at me strangely.
"Yeah, Brooke, Katie, and Fran are back from the Soul Society." Lilinette elaborated for me, causing me to chuckle lightly.
"Yup, we told the Soul Reapers that you were going to attack Seretei by attacking the poorer distracts with your hollow army and working your way in… in less words of course." I told him, answering his question before he had a chance to ask it.
"I right, as I prepare for the next phase of my plan, I want the rest of you to stay there, I will contact you if anything changes." Aizen informed us.
"Okay, tell Gin I said hi for me please." I asked just as the screen went black. "well that takes care of that I suppose. What should we do now?"
"Grimmjow's here." Lilinette told me matter-o-factly; not even elaborating on it for she already knew what I was going to do with this information.
"O-really? I guess I should probably go pay my Puma-Sempai a visit then, huh?" I asked making her laugh slightly at my sly look.
"You probably should, I'm going to go make sure that Katie didn't scare Stark and give him a heart attack, later Brookie!" Lilinette agreed as she walked off to find our other friends waving, I began walking down the hall, looking for a certain blue house cat. Just as I was rounding a corner I saw a very distinctive blue haired man walking in front of me, oblivious to my presents. Smirking, I snuck up behind him as quietly as I could before jumping on his back, clinging onto him like a koala.
"What the Fu-" he yelled, totally surprised that someone jumped on his back, causing me to laugh my head off, "Brooke?" he asked recognizing my voice sounding totally dumb founded.
"Hiya Grimmy-Kitty!" I greeted happily from over his shoulder, "Long time no see huh?"
"When the hell did you get here?" he questioned still sounding severely confused by my presents.
"Umm… 'Bout fifteen minutes ago, why do you ask?" I asked, trying to sound confused but I couldn't do it I was laughing way too much, "I missed you SOOOOO MUCH Grimmy! And look, I didn't get myself killed, told you I'd be alright!" I laughed happily as I hugged him as tightly as I could. However, seeing as I have almost no mentionable upper body strength, I don't even think that he noticed.
"Yeah, yeah. Now get off me." He told me looking away in what was most likely agitation, but not even Grimmjow's annoyed mood could bring mine down. Snickering slightly, I hopped down before I decided to tease my grumpy kitty.
"Hey Grimm-Grimm, you wanna know what I think?" I asked as Grimmjow started walking down the hall. Running ahead of him slightly, I turned around so I was walking in front of him backwards.
"Knowing you, no, I don't want to know what goes on in your head." He told me making me smile; I'd really missed messing with him.
"I think that you missed me." I told him slyly.
"What the hell gave you that retarded idea woman?" Grimmjow demanded defensively.
"Really? So you didn't miss me at all?" I asked coyly trying my best to look small and pitiful, for some reason I wasn't having as much luck in that department as I had earlier today with the Soul Reapers. "'Cause I think that you did."
"Did you get hit on the head while you were at the Seretei?" Grimmy asked skeptically causing me to laugh at him.
"Aww, that proves it, you did miss me!" I cheered happily, loving the face that he gave me, "You were worried about whether I got hurt or not. Grimmy-Kitty missed me! I have to go tell everyone, Grimmjow has feelings! Hey everyone! Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez missed little ol' me!" I yelled as loudly as I could as I started sprinting down the hall as fast as my legs could carry me.
END CHAPTER!
A.N: And there we are, out of the soul society, with a story that's one year old and over 100,000 words long.