It was amazing how even with the threat of war hanging over them, the shinigami of Seireitei more or less went about their ordinary lives.
The captains were no exception to this. What began as a meeting had turned into something of a dinner party.
Even Soi Fon, Hitsugaya, and Unohana who were normally very busy regardless of the state of affairs had been persuaded to stay behind with a little divine intervention.
That is to say, a large tub of holy bone stock, a very flustered lieutenant, and Amaterasu's presence.
It had began as a strategizing session. Each captain making suggestions as to how they were to engage Aizen. They were certain that the final battle would happen in Karakura airspace due to the nature of the location. There was also the problem of what to do with the innocent bystanders. If they remained they would perish, either from the reiatsu released in the battle, or the aftermath.
Somebody suggested that the human beings ought to be put into stasis and stored in the twelfth were met with protests from all the other captains.
As did suggesting the usage of Ryujin jakka to lay waste to the town and destroy the properties that made it the jureichi. It was agreed that that suggestion would be a last resort in the event that Kurosaki Ichigo fell in battle. Using it before then would be considered suicide by Zangetsu.
Yamamoto eventually decided that they would have to consult Kisuke Urahara for a method of keeping the citizens of Karakura safe. "I will not hear any protests! It is either him or Wakato Uiharu! I have no interest in being talked at by someone of questionable sanity."
"But Head captain! Urahara is a scou-"
"Captain Soi Fon." Interrupted Ukitake. "The last moontriber I had to work with in person was Enji Uiharu. He was selectively mute and would only respond to his partners in what I can only assume to be in french." He rubbed the back of his neck at the memory of being telekinetically thrown into onto the streets after irritating the strawberry blond one too many times. "I assure you. His father is far more difficult to work with, his powers being far more potent."
"I recall that the last time Yama -jii spoke to the man he ended up losing most of his hair." Joked Kyoraku. "Something about the man constantly anticipating what he was going to say and dominating the conversation and replying in english poetry."
Yamamoto grunted but did not deny the statement as he took a sip of his tea; he got a few stares from the younger captains for that. "The moon tribe has always been peculiar. even before they were a part of Seireitei. I keep my interactions with them to a minimum for the sake of my blood pressure"
Of course that turned into a bit of a history lesson in an of it self since many of the people in the room were not aware of the history of the five noble families.
A long time ago, in a desperate bid to win the war between the quincies he sought an alliance with the youkai. Five closely tied demon clans claimed the title of strongest. The crow tengu, the foxes, the dragonians, the moontribe, and the phoenix family.
Defeating the head of each demon clan would win their allegiance. Such was the law of their home land.
Unfortunately, Ywach wanted the same thing.
The majority moon tribe clan fell by the hands of a quincy. They were always the odd ones amongst the demons clans and since their alligiance did not shift through battle but through debate. They were systematically slaughtered by the quincy king. The head of the moon tribe allowed his clan to accepted into the seireitei ranks out of sheer desperation. They never did pick a house name to identify them. The head at the time reasoned that since they were born with glowing blond hair, telekinetic powers, and the occasional gift of prophecy that there was no need for them to limit themselves to a single name. Their mannerisms set them apart even more from the rest of the yokai and soul population.
The king dragonian, boiled alive by Ryujin Jakka. His descendants switched allegiances upon his defeat. They were all too happy about serving the society and not the one who had defeated their king. They were not very fond of fire elementals, but so long as they were allowed to go about their business they would do as central 46 ordered.
The best swordsman of the Crow Tengu tortured to death by Yachiru. His wife, the strongest Ubume fell shortly afterwards, but not before cursing Yamamoto himself with a life of chaos. He had scoffed at the idea of yokai curses at the time but he learned very quickly that they were very strong and nearly impossible to get rid of. Administrative duties had been a nightmare since then. If it wasn't pyrotechnical disasters caused by the Shiba family it was an intraclan war within the Shihoin estate or a tax fraud involving a lieutenant. Then there was a twenty year man hunt for a rogue shinigami kidnapping the moon tribe heir.
The tengu were honorable, they bow to those with superior skills and even if their beliefs were different; they at least respected the strength of their enemies. They valued discipline above everything else, practicing their traditions with out deviation.
Ubume on the other hand, are incredibly vengeful. They were often unwilling to change even under the most extreme of circumstances and Unohana had been cursed with sterility and extremely unpleasent female problems after wiping out the resisting ubume. Unohana was unwilling to elaborate further and he knew better than to push the subject or repeat that particular little detail.
The Great Ho Oh gave him a good deal of trouble. It's flames grew brighter from his own and burned the air all soldiers needed to breathe, killing them by roasting them from the inside out. The creature was the definition of obnoxious senior and so the match was very short. Fortunately there was little resistance to assimilation after that though it seemed that the clan as a whole lived on disturbing large amounts of enthusiasm, obnoxiousness, and ham. They did not care much for underhanded tactics and actually cursed Ukitake's son when he jumped into assist him.
The fox clan was simultaneously stronger and weaker then their reputation led Yamamoto and Ywach to believe. It was led by an eight tailed fox and a strange woman with white tipped hair that had shared a body with a cat spirit. The presence of the woman threw Yamamoto off for a while. He had expected the Yokai to be uncivilized and brutal. Having a Whole, even a one who had been possessed, and keeping it for a wife was completely unexpected. If anything he had expected the woman to be chained up and half eaten or made into some sort of slave. He expected the woman to be disposable to the fox, not a highly valued and devastating partner.
The two of the fought as one complete unit; as a whole, they came much closer to killing him then anything before or since. To them, honor was only a word, and pride was for games. They lived by ferreting out secrets and sabotaging their enemies. The moment they had heard of the shinigami assault they had begun to plan. His battle with them was on their terms, not his. A mistake Yamamoto seemed to be doomed to make with Aizen.
The worst thing was, they specialized in espionage and subterfuge and relished the suffering of their victims. The shapeshifters had caused a decades worth of paranoia from some of their stunts.
Over the night every single article of food had been either stolen, or poisoned ensuring that the battle field swung in their favor. The casualties amongst shinigami ranks were relatively minor. The casualties amongst the quincies were devastating.
What would have normally passed for a prank became devastating as toilet paper was laced with explosives, hot chili oil, or itching powder. Socks and shoes were laced with tacks and blood thinners. He could only guess how far the schemes went.
Using a series of taunts and disguises they fooled his army into attacking the quincy army before either one of them were ready for it.
Then there was the actual battle itself which ended with him bleeding out of his ears and unable t walk.
He remembered how the woman had trapped him in a crystalline labyrinth as he used Ryujin Jakka. If he tried hard enough he could still feel his lungs burning as the fox began throwing large amounts of peppers into the burning labyrinth; how he was forced into bankai just to escape the colorful jail; how the fox had split into eight creatures and choked him in poison powder just as he burned his way out.
If Yamamoto attacked the woman the fox would dart behind him and use some sort of reiatsu draining technique with his creatures or summon the elements of nature to attack him. If Yamamoto focused on the fox he would find thousands of tiny crystal shards raining upon him from the sky, or he would lose his hearing and sense of balance after the woman used some sort of ultrasonic whistle.
The battle lasted for days and ended only when Yamamoto sealed the woman away in another dimension and burned away most of the fox's tails and it fled.
Amaterasu watched the old man tell his story with mild interest. She was very impressed that Kabegami had stayed with her conduit for the whole battle rather then fleeing as she was typically prone to doing. Kabegami had flaunted about how she had groomed her conduit by battling her each time she fell asleep.
Then again, it was highly likely that the 8 tails threatened her into staying. Kitsune had the potential to become very powerful creatures regardless of their alignment. Ninetails was such an example; he had been able to contain on of the oldest and most powerful brush gods in his domain and wielded multiple techniques against her as she fought against it.
"I must say that the demon fox was one of the most difficult enemies that I have aced." Yamamoto took a long sip of his tea before continuing. "It took a great deal of negotiating with the rest of the clan since half of it believed that death is defeat while the other half believed that absconding counted as defeat."
"Convincing the Moon tribe to take a personal name was more difficult though." Noted Ukitake. "The other nobles did convince them to limit their last names to things that started with U."
"Which is why we are going to speak to Urahara. He is the most sociable and well adjusted Moontribe to be born in quite some time." Added Unohana.
"Head-captain Yamamoto" Began Byakuya. "The woman in red from several months ago with the white cat. The one who resembles Captain Soi Fon. Was she?"
"Yes. That woman was my opponent." Confirmed the old man.
"S- so then, that woman was the first Soifon. Wife of Shihoin" muttered the second division captain. She honestly wasn't sure whether she should be happy or not since the initial meeting was not under the best circumstance. While she was never the one to question tradition it certainly explained how the families were so closely tied and why the strongest female Fon of each generation was called Soi Fon. "I'm related to Lady Yoruichi..."
Authors note- So sorry for the wait. It has just come to my attention that I accidentally replaced the chapter where Chiyo meets the captains and posted another one twice. UGH! I am kicking myself for that. Especially since i just cleaned my computer and I lost the file. Oh well. Now i have to rewrite that particular chapter and edit this one since i don't exactly recall how the meeting went. I've been trying to rewrite the meeting along with the next chapter and it doesn't fit quite right. So here's a filler to keep you guys entertained until i can get this whole thing straightened out.
Ho Oh is more or less a chinese/japanese phoenix. The okami bestiary is sadly lacking in monsters that would fit in the fire department. At least, the ones that the great noble houses can descend from.
I came up with this when somebody pointed out that of the three noble families all of them had a name that corresponded to the five traditional elements. See if you can figure out which family comes from what demon.
Comments and criticisms are always welcome.
Edit- Chapter repeats have been fixed