Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.
The next morning, when Shin could move without shouting painful profanities, the three departed leaving Shigu to the wrath of the village women he had abused in the past.
"And if you don't mind" Shin shouted behind, "we're taking the girl with us!" Hoji had the still unconscious Ryoko slung over his shoulder and was already starting down the road.
"Umm" one medic girl started curiously, "you aren't going to...um...defile her, are you?"
"I don't believe in rape" Hoji shouted.
"It's for information" Suichi confirmed. "That's it. Plus, with her gone from there the Kyuuhiouto has no ties in this village anymore. See ya." With just his wave, all three were gone. As they walked away into the rising sun, the villagers departed. Their memories still fresh but quickly retreating, another mark on the map of Shin Kenpachi's murderous conquest across the world. A conquest grown out of boredom.
But not everyone in the world is bored. Some are angry. In the harsh Badlands in a bordering region to where Suichi is fleeing, Netami prepares to reenter a more sociable place. A fortress that is occupied by shinigami in the war against the bandits that were now dead and the Hollows that, given Netami's tendencies, would soon be dead. His clothes were replaced and fine again, his sword in its hilt, and his eyes still gleaming red and orange.
"I know this place" Netami said to himself as he walked. "I came here as a child and achieved Bankai. What wonderful times those were, when conflict escalated into war and death ravaged the land like a wildfire in the sky. How I still long to achieve such a state, one wherein I could set the sky itself into a tumultuous blaze that can blacken even the darkness of the night. I wish to scorch everything with my dark flames...but first I must kill Suichi. He hold the truth about my massacre. With him alive my alibi may be useless...of course I wouldn't have an excuse to kill him even if I found him. I'll need to rally the others..."
After his careful prose and planning, Netami dashed of and blazed across the rest of the barren land of flat, dusty rock. The borders of the fort that lied ahead were guarded around the clock by giants, men of twenty or so feet tall, with angry and disobedient dispositions. More often they slept than guarded.
"Is that a flea in the distance?" one giant asked the other. His friend, leaning against the wall of the fort, looked up.
"No!" he jestingly replied. "I believe it's a water flea!" Both giants laughed loudly as Netami approached quickly. He stopped suddenly, letting a surge of his energy ripple out and blow through the giants. They sat shock-still now.
"May you allow me in, gentlemen?" Netami said with a low tone. The giants lowered their weapons at him.
"I don't think so" one said.
"How do we know you're not with the bandits!?" the other demanded.
"Those barbarians?" Netami said, looking back. "I ate them all." The startling straightness with which he said that shook the giants to their toes. "My name is Netami. I'm with the Shinigami Royal Coat-of-Arms in this region. I require transport to Seireitei..." The giants continued to be speechless, knowing the name from somewhere they wished not to speak of.
"Go ahead in then" the giant offered. Netami disappeared from them and reappeared inside the walled complex. Bust men and women were running about, carrying bundles of things for various tasks. Food, wood, water, weaponry, all was rushed to and fro in a panicked mess. Then, from a high-risen tent in the center of the camp came a tall, lean man wearing a dark cowl and an angular mustache.
"Oiiiii. Who's this guyyyyy!?" He proclaimed, leaning back and pointing erratically in Netami's direction. The shinigami all stopped their activities and took notice, recognizing his steely face immediately.
"My name is-" Netami began.
"HA-WAIT, brother!" the tall commander shouted. He flashed over and placed his fingers nearly on Netami's head. "Let me read who you are. I can tell very much from a man with my super-psyonic mind reading!!" Netami let the odd man hum loudly, pressing his temple on, and hoped silently that his finger would pierce into his brain so he would stop making noise. "Your name is Enrique and you are here for my sandals! Well, I'll tell you, brother, that my sandals are not for sale or retail!!" Netami, now fully annoyed, grabbed the man's long index finger and twisted his whole arm. "Ah! Brother' your hurting me!!"
"My name is Netami" Netami introduced. "I require immediate transport to Seireitei..."
"Why didn't you say so!?" the tall man whined charismatically. "We have a caravan going there straight away! You just hop on over and we'll get you situat--" and then Netami threw him into the far wall from only the grip of his finger. The tall man limply crashed down to the ground while the dark figure strode over to the assumed train of wagons still being stocked with supplies.
"This train had better leave soon" Netami noted. At the tone of his order, the shinigami picked their pace up to impossible speeds, hauling many loads of random things each trip, in an effort to calm their nightmarish guest. Netami smiled to himself and sank down into the empty wagon to sleep, the first real rest he could have had in the longest possible time.
I'll find you Suichi Netami thought as he drifted away into sleep. No matter where you have gone...
With a cold splash of snapping cold, Ryoko was forced awake. Initially, she was just annoyed and stirred, listening to her own groaning and the voices around her.
"Looks like she's up" a man said. "Or she's having a bad dream."
"Try hitting her." another suggested.
"With this?" another voice offered. Fearing getting hit with whatever implement they were holding, Ryoko struggled to open her eyes.
"Sure" another voice confirmed. Just as she flew her head up with eyes open, she flinched at the wet slap of a fish to the face.
"Oh, she's up" Shin said, holding a live fish in his hand. Ryoko spat the rank taste of the object out of her mouth and confronted her captors with a vehemently angry face.
"Why'd you hit me with a fish!?" she demanded.
"A tree trunk seemed excessive" Shin explained.
"And these things" Hoji noted, holding up some pussy willow reeds "are to flimsy. They'd just irritate you."
"I'M IRRATE ENOUGH!!" Ryoko blared, forcing all three men to jump back. She sighed to calm down and tried to cross her arms, only to notice now that she was tied at the wrists and legs. Above that, her outer robes were missing, and her chest wrap was exposed. "Wha-where are my clothes!?"
"I'm wearing them" Shin admitted. "They're kind of tight on me, though. You need to build some muscle."
"SHUT UP!!" Ryoko shouted. Then she broke her anger and got scared. All three men that had invaded and successfully leveled her grip on the town were looming over her, staring her down. "Oh god. You're going to kill me, aren't you?" Shin looked back at Suichi. "AREN'T YOU!"
"QUIT SHOUTING!!" Shin roared. His voice knocked Hoji off his rock perch, shook the birds from the trees and killed the fish in his hands. That or suffocation, which isn't as interesting. Shin stood up and tossed the fish back into the brook behind him, Suichi dodging it barely. Ryoko buckled back, her eyes wide with a deep fear for her life from just Shin's voice echoing through the mountains. "We won't kill you. You're just a restless sleeper."
"What?" Ryoko asked breathlessly.
"You kick in your sleep" Hoji explained, getting back up onto his small rock seat. "You really messed up my back for a bit...it's fine now though." Ryoko looked confused, out of place and a little scared at the group's intention.
"I want information" Shin confessed, standing up slowly. "What you used on my was either Shikai or Bankai. Tell me now and no word games." To the effect of seriousness, Shin drew out his sword and pointed it down with a swing at her face. Ryoko didn't flinch this time, now that she knew her life wasn't ending anytime soon.
"It..." she started reluctantly, "it was Shikai."
"I knew it!" Hoji shouted happily. "Suichi, you owe me a free meal!"
"Fine" Suichi agreed. Shin nodded, wanting her to continue with an explanation.
"All swords" she began informatively, "are extensions of their owner's souls. As a scientist of spiritual power, I was able to learn how to fluctuate my own power when activating my sword, giving it more than just one form. Our swords are reflections of ourselves, our own personalities and traits in another form. Knowing the name of your sword is enough to release it, but knowing how it works is much different. Much more complex." At the length of her explanation, Shin sat down and sheathed his sword with the threat no longer necessary.
"Well" Hoji began "how did you find out your sword's name?" Ryoko looked over at him to address his question.
"I just did" she responded plainly. "One day my sword spoke to me and I knew what its name was."
"It was the same with me" Suichi added. "One day after a job I just knew my sword's name. I know how it works well enough, too, but not as well as you apparently."
"Indeed" Shin contributed, feeling left out of the loop between the other two 'enlightened' shinigami. "Which of those forms was the true one?"
"Neither" Ryoko said. "My old sword's real form is obsolete. Much less powerful that the other two."
"Even the first one?" Shin asked.
"The first form I used" she responded "was the closest without being exact. The second form, Kokugen Sazanami, was a form where I amplified the main trait of my original sword. That is, the form to expand over time when not fighting."
"Interesting" Shin said. "is this a well known process to the shinigami, or just you?"
"As of now" Ryoko admitted "I am the only shinigami I know of to extensively research this. I'm sure others can do the same, but under different terms and in different ways. I'm not positive about it."
"More specifically" Suichi now began, "is this a process that requires exclusive training?"
Hoji clapped his hands and pointed out "That's a great question!" Then, he pointed to Ryoko for the answer she had.
"Not that I'm aware of" she said. "The process comes naturally to me, but again, I'm primarily a scientist in the Kyuuhiouto. Their fighters aren't as...graceful as I am."
"One last question" Shin said. "Then we'll untie you."
"Not one!" Hoji whined. "Ten! I have a lot of questions to ask her!"
"What about?" Shin said, glancing out of the corner of his eye at his comrade. Hoji felt the sting of Shin's glare and backed down.
"It's not important" he said in defeat. "Just B.S., really."
"Where is the Kyuuhiouto headquarters?" Shin asked. Not expecting the question to be brought up, even after her references, Ryoko recoiled.
"No!" she spat. "I won't, I can't tell you that! If they found out that I not only was defeated but betrayed them as well I'd die!"
"You're being interrogated by two berserk murderers and an assassin" Suichi pointed out. "Are people who don't even know you're gone yet really a concern?" Ryoko bit her lip in defiance, but Shin's icy glare was too much for her. She sighed, and mumbled her response.
"...Gevlav..." she said. "The General and his guard are all in Gevlav right now."
"Great" Shin said thankfully, cutting her ropes with a flash of his sword and tossing her her coat. "And where's that exactly?"
"No way, Shin!" Hoji complained, stomping over to him. "If I can't ask her my questions then you can't ask her another!"
"I'll ask her what I wish!" Shin bellowed, trying to make his statue-esque friend flinch. "I beat her once, I can do it again!" While Shin and Hoji argued, Suichi shooed Ryoko away, giving her a look that told her 'run while you can, this won't stop'. So, she ran, desperate but unafraid through the forest. She didn't run back to town, but stayed in the woods.
"These men are crazy!" she noted to herself. "If they go to Gevlav like that now they'll get mowed down in an instant! I should do something about that...maybe...tell the General?" and then she stopped. She skidded and dug her feet into the ground and stopped in her sprint. "...no" she decided. "That rat bastard deserves to get his ass kicked now! Let him die, and these stupid, brutish thugs with him!" Ranting and raving about the injustice of the society she just rigorously defended, Ryoko went stomping through the forest while Shin and company prepared once again to move out.
Their target this time, Gelav...
once they procured a map.
