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.
Seireitei, the city at the center of the world. At this point in time, it is only the center of its mother region. This is the realm of the shinigami, where the war between the feuding countries sparked and where the fire of battle roars. In the city, the center of the massive place, was the Court of Pure Souls. Far beneath that building where the political dignitaries and pompous puff-shirted old men delegated, was the Court of Heavenly Demons. Netami had just arrived in this subterranean building.
"They'd all better be here" Netami said to himself. He entered the spacious temple room to the sight of eight other people, all of greatly variant appearances sitting around a stone-cut table. Netami took his own seat between two empty ones and looked around. "All of us aren't here yet" he said. "That's disappointing."
"It's all quite fine!" an older man called out. He sat flexing him muscles, his mouth covered by a fine and wide mustache. "There's enough of us here to hold a valuable meeting."
"Out of eleven" a dark-skinned woman with a huge collar blocking off her mouth and nose "only nine of us are present."
"We KNOW!!!" A huge, muscular man with a massive broadsword on his back shouted, pounding cracks into the table in anger.
"Calm down, you guys" a man who sat in the shadows wearing a long, billowy cape with frayed edges said in disgust. "It's not like you aren't going to die eventually."
"We may be" Netami said. "Upon eliminating our most pressing threat, the Hibanobachi family and their court, I was discovered by a rogue assassin from the Guild."
"Damnation, Suichi!" A dark-skinned, well spoken but very gruff faced, red-haired old man said, hitting the table. "Can you do nothing without raising such a horrendous panic!?" Netami glared over at him quickly, keeping his hands together in front of him but thinking hard about reaching for his sword.
"Whatever" a young man with brown, messy hair said, leaning far back in his seat. "Netami screwed up a bit. It's nothing we can't handle. We can just find this sucker and eliminate him, right?"
"We could" Netami said, "but I have no idea where he is..." The room grew cold and silent for a moment. Then the missing, two, one fat and happy looking with a samurai-knot hair style and the other wearing glasses and smoothed back graying hair, entered and sat, placing their hands upon the table.
"Great news, comrades!" the jolly big man began. "Kingo and Sosuke have returned with news from the war front!"
"Feh!" a busty girl with fire-like hair huffed. "You two are the only ones who care about the war!"
"Maybe for now" the slick Sosuke said in his infinitely charming voice, "but right now we have some quite relevant information."
"How so?" Netami asked.
"It's not like you were all quiet" the fat Kingo said, chuckling and patting Netami hard on the back. Netami quelled his murderous anger as much as he could but still felt like drawing his sword on the spot. "Tell them, friend Sosuke!"
"Apparently" Sosuke said, leaning forward, "the cross-regional nuisance the Kyuuhiouto is being hunted and destroyed by a small group of travelers."
"Knights?" the proper red-head asked.
"No" Sosuke continued, "Manzenryuu swordsmen. Hoji Araijin, Suichi and Shin Kenpachi." Netami grinned at the mention of Suichi's name. "It seems that they are now between points. They are headed for Gevlav to finish off the gang themselves."
"Why?" someone asked. Sosuke smiled and answered.
"From what I've heard" he began "they're just bored..."
Unseen by the public, each of the members of the mysterious table departed through the city in different ways. Some of them stayed together to discuss their plans for the new rising star of the west, Shin Kenpachi, and his fellow fighters.
"These Manzenryuu" the large, angry table-goer started "really piss me off!"
"Why's that, Toki?" a pale girl with a frail-looking frame and black makeup asked.
"It should be obvious, Gloria" Toki growled. "They always do whatever they please, not thinking of the consequences and running from town to town slaughtering whoever they want!"
"So?" Gloria asked, dodging the human traffic on the sick streets. "Then you should become one."
"That's not the point!" he roared. "And that's another thing, a position like that should be earned, not just randomly available for whatever bastard wants to do it! I earned my spot at Hell's Table, they should earn their freedom!" Gloria tilted her head at him, then drew out her sword and silently released it. She was now holding a stylish, pink and tar-black umbrella with seemingly pulsating patterns in the pitch dark hues.
"Then kill them" she suggested. "Kill them all if they piss you off."
"I will!" he said, clenching his fists. Elsewhere, near the farther end of town, Netami was nearly ready to depart on his own when the young, very relaxed man and the older, proper gentleman cam up behind him.
"You know" Netami said to them both, "we're not at the table anymore. I can draw my blade on you whenever I like."
"We're not seeking trouble with you" the large, proper man said. "We simply want a justification of your actions."
"I'm going to find Suichi" Netami said "and kill him. I may as well kill his friends while I'm at it, too. Any competition in the land is a good enough reason to cut someone down."
"He's nuts, Kakugari" the younger man said to his associate. "You can't just barrel into enemy territory in times of war looking to fight a single dude! The whole country'll be on you!"
"You should come with me, Horoshi" Netami cruelly said. "It may be fun to fight these men..."
"Hoo!" the previous, muscular old man said, flipping into scene from above. "I shall come as well!"
"Really, Senshi?" Kakugari said sarcastically. "You may be in a peak condition, but what know you of politics with the sword?"
"I know enough" Senshi chided. "And I know that little Netami is too young of a sproutling to charge into battle with strangers alone. I shall accompany you, regardless as to what you may want!" Netami glared at them all, increasing his spiritual pressure greatly only to see them all counter it laxly. He wanted to push it further, knowing her could, and crush them al so they wouldn't come along, bu then his mind gave him a better idea.
"Fine" he agreed, raising his field. "But if you happen to die, I won't care. And if you are about to die, I won't save you..."
"Easy" Horoshi said. "We just won't try to die!" His juvenile confidence forced his seniors to chuckle lightly at him, which he brushed off and marched on up to Netami. "Where to, team leader?"
"Indeed, captain" Kakugari said, marqueeing the term captain. "Where shall we begin our venture?" Netami faced him for a moment, then just turned and started walking.
"We're going on foot" Netami said. "If Suichi can survive like that, then so can we."
"Fair enough!" Senshi said, flipping gracefully through the air behind Netami while the others simply walked.
"Things are coming along nicely" Kingo said from a high-rised building window. Sousuke, sitting across the room, took a deep drink of some viscous liquid. "Sousuke, your throat still aches?"
Sosuke gulped down the last of the horrible liquid and gave a strained "Yes" before coughing softly. "I should be fine in due time though, my friend."
"Kingo grows worried about the Tenshioni" Kingo said. "He thinks maybe some civil strife may erupt upon the return of Netami and company..."
"Worry not, my friend" Sousuke said, pouring some sake into cups on the table. Kingo came over and sat across from his friend. "Our organization is not so weak as to waver at the slightest threat our members may make about rebellion. We are much more dignified than that."
"Still" Kingo said, taking a sip of sake, "Kingo does worry. Netami's pride and fear of power could become very problematic for us all. Toki will doubtlessly hurry off to fight whomever he can, and Gloria will keep in step with him. Those two cause Kingo the most grief."
"They are but children" Sousuke said, sipping his sake likewise. "They at least have responsibility, unlike the others. Chosuke and Yuureiko tend to be very wild and exclusive respectively."
"And Koumoto gives Kingo the willies..." he said, shivering in example and sipping carefully from his cup. "All in all, our group is quite unstable..."
"Nothing will happen, my friend" Sousuke confided. "I can assure you, the only thing Netami will find out there in the world of fighting is disappointment."
"How so?" Kingo asked, pouring his friend more sake. Sousuke leaned back and looked up at his ceiling, as if he could see the sky through it as he prophetically gazed.
"I have had..." he started "another vision. Of the distant future!" Kingo nearly dropped the bottle he held. In this world of unending war, where the Golden Age of the shinigami power brings out the greatest legends and forces the world has ever seen, there are truly monsters among the men. The Tenshioni, the Manzenryuu, the Kyuuhiouto, all of them with different purposes, some darker than others, and all of them fiendish plagues on the waring society at large. Now, all these forces, the wanderers, the plotters, and the great movers, all shall converge together!
...at some point...
Tenshioni: Heavenly Demon
Manzenryuu: (recap) Aimless/Perfect Path. Either interpretation is correct, but use Aimless when talking about it.
Kyuuhiouto: Nine Secrets Gang
