Chapter 8

"Damn! What did I get myself into? Ever since I've been here, I've been alternately attacked, unconscious, maimed, and near to the point of death. How can it get any worse?" I thought in my fevered unconsciousness.

When I came to, I found myself in Chad's room; only now, there was no door. Confused as I was, I still decided to take my chance to explore. Jikan was with me. Apparently, he must have been healed sometime after the fight. Or maybe the whole thing was a dream; a nightmare really. Pondering this, I left Chad's room and discovered that my fight was no dream.

The man who attacked me was standing outside the room, with Aiko by his side.

"Hi, Saidō! Sleep well?" The man asked.

I instantly reached for my zanpakutō, but was stopped by Aiko.

"Saidō wait! He's one of us."

"What? The bastard almost killed me!"

"He did this for your-."

"Thanks Aiko, but I'll take it from here." The man stepped past her. "I'll give him a tour around the place. You do whatever you like."

"Well...uh..." As she looked at me with hate, I gathered that he knew that she was hellbent on getting her revenge on me.

"Thank you sir." She walked away.

"Now try to follow me, Saidō, and don't get lost. This is a big place."

I couldn't tell whether it was a warning or just friendly advice.

Regardless, I wanted to know everything about this place.

"Hey whats your-"

He started to run into the dimly lit catacombs. I did my best to keep up.

According to him, this was a shortcut to the main underground city. "He's full of crap," I thought as we spent many hours leaping off rock pillars and running endlessly along the sides of the smooth cavern walls. I could never catch my breath to ask even a single question.

We finally stopped near an underground waterfall for a short break, which I desperately needed. I was so hungry and thirsty I thought I would collapse. As I drank from the water, the man looked strangely at me.

"Whats the look for?" I asked.

"You do know you are drinking out of the sewage, don't you?"

I spewed out the water. WHY hadn't he told me earlier? He started to laugh manically. So this was some prank, the bastard. I hit him in the face; it was the least I could do to repay him for his helpfulness. He took it without retaliating; what a good sport.

As I rested on the rock, I thought about which question to ask first. What time period is it? What is this place? Wha-

"I'm guessing you want to know who I am," said the man.

"Yeah, for starters."

He looked toward me as he rested on another rock.

"Just call me Kagine, Kagine Miyato." He stretched out his hand towards mine. "Sorry we couldn't meet under better circumstances."

I accepted his hand warily. Now that I could think clearly, I realized that he could have killed me whenever he wanted too.
Now their was a question I wanted to ask.

"Why did you attack me?"

His head hung low; it seemed like he was hoping to avoid the issue.

"Um, I was testing you, to see how powerful you were and what powers your zanpakutō has. I lied to you because it was the only way to force you to reveal your full potential."

Well, that made sense, I supposed. Kind of a relief, really.

"You know, I actually thought you were going to kill me back there."

"I was. The only reason I didn't is because you surprised me with that last trick." So much for relief.

We started running again after that. As I thought about it, it seemed to keep getting easier.

"Maybe the reason why Kagine is so fast and powerful is because he must have been doing this for years," I thought.

After another couple of hours, we finally reached the city. It wasn't much of a city, really, more like a shantytown
composed of rotting huts. It was then I realized why I didn't sense anyone earlier. The caverns that surround this place
must be a source of seki seki.

It didn't hurt to ask.

"Hey Kagine, is the cave roof above us made of seki seki?"
He seemed kinda glad I asked the question.

"No. Well, not entirely. The man who helped build this place lined the walls with a thin layer of seki seki. He did this so that this could be a haven for people with spiritual pressure if the need ever arose. One of his many secrets I guess."

"So who is the man who made this?"

"A soul reaper named Kisuke Urahara."

"I wonder, where is he?"

His head dropped down again.

"He's dead." Kagine said coldly. "Come, follow me."

I followed him into a dark and lonely cavern with a lake in it. In the middle of the lake stood a huge crystal which provided
enough light to fill the entire cavern. It was gigantic, a huge pillar pointing straight up. As I looked in more closely, I noticed that there were names that covered the entire crystal.

"Wha What is this?"

"This is a memorial for people who died during 'The Holocausto de las Almas'."