"We're in luck," Isana said, her face showing a purposeful determination as she stepped up to the curb and hailed a cab.
"I know exactly the place the little spirit is talking about. I went and visited with Alex a few years ago as part of his school trip. I even spoke with the spirit there. Daikon is right, he falls asleep a lot."
It seemed she thought she was coming with me. She even gave directions to the nearest train station to the cabby. I'd better nip that in the bud before this went any further. I thought it was entirley too damn likely that there were gonna be some daaark places for me to walk in before all of this was through. I didn't wanna be draggin' along some mortal woman that I was just gonna have to waste time protecting when I should be concentrating on a good fight.
"Look missy," I said wanting to be clear so she wouldn't mistake me. "I know that he's yer son, an' I appreciate that you must be worried about him, but yer mortal. This ain't business fer mortals."
"So are you," was her tart rejoinder.
She fixed me with that mom-look. I didn't know what it was about that look, maybe some kind of magical effect from giving birth or something, but it shut me up instantly (and I know I'm not an easy guy to be made ta shut up, because people are constantly at me about it).
"And if you think you're leaving me behind when it concerns my baby boy you are sadly mistaken," she dded firmly. "I don't care what it takes, I don't care where we have to go or what kind of monster we have to face... I don't care if i have to walk strait into hell itself!"
I debated on whether or not to tell her that it might actually come to that at some point.
"I'm going with you and bringing my baby back home safely," she said with firm determination. "If I have to leave this world and travel to another that's what I'll do. I'm not going to let my son remain lost. I'll never leave anyone behind again."
Her ferocity took me by surprise for a minute, she always seemed so elegantly calm and placid. Apparently there was a mama lioness under all that silence.
I kinda understood now why she might be so driven, if what the boss had said about his wife being obsessed with finding the sister she'd abandoned in Hangdog to save her own skin was true, then it was the kind of thing that would carry over into the next life. She wasn't going to stop looking for her son even if threatened with death. I was her only lead and I could see just by lookin' at her that she was going to stick to me like a burr.
:She does bring up a good point, though,: I thought to myself as the scenery passed by in a blur. :I'm not a spirit anymore, how am I supposed to get through the gate into the Dangai while I'm still stuck in a mortal body?:
All the gates that I knew of led straight to the Seireitei. I didn't want to go there until I'd managed to get rid of this damned mortal body of mine. Call me crazy but I didn't want to find myself mistakenly sentenced to execution.
Isana gestured that I should pay the man from the two wallets I'd lifted from the guys I'd beat up last night. Now why didn't I realize that I had mortal money sooner? I felt a little chagrined about that. I thumbed through the thick stack of bills in each wallet, putting them all in one wallet and putting the useless one in a place that would tempt pickpockets. I looked over the money I had gotten, the low rank asshole might have been a wimp but he'd had a lot of money. Most of the bills were hundreds.
She ordered train tickets out to the countryside and used some of that mortal money I'd "won" (hey, spoils of war, right?) to pay for it. We also grabbed food from a nearby vendor in the station. It was something I'd never seen or heard of before that sounded like "peetzuh" and it didn't look like much, a triangular slice of thin baked bread covered with melted cheese and meats and vegetables. But then I took a bite of it.
:Wow! So goood!: I marveled to myself how something so simple could tate so amazing.
Granted, my new mortal body had a greater sense of the physical and material world than my spirit form (or even my gigai) did, but still... this was like, food of the gods or something! Isana looked amused as I quickly devoured the first slice she'd bought for me and went back for more. They came with different toppings on them too! Whoever had invented this stuff had been a genius.
"You eat that stuff just like my son," she said with a warm note of fondness in her voice. "He can finish off an entire medium deluxe all by himself and still have room for desert."
"There's desert?" I said, staring in amazement.
No wonder Rukia never wanted to leave the mortal world if it offered up stuff like this. Those vending machine things they had were neat enough, with that dispensing flavored drinks and snacks at the touch of a button, but to find out that there were even more wonderful things was just...
I polished off my slices, the savory flavors of all the combinations practically exploded on my tongue, and looked up at Isana hopefully. She rolled her eyes, looking amused and went to bring back desert. It was some kind of crusty, crumbly stick of bread with sticky frosted topping and brown stuff on it. I eyes it for a minute because it didn't look like anything I recognized as sweet and delicious. She popped a peice in her mouth to encourage me, so, not to be outdone or called a wimp, I tried it.
"Ihat's... really sweet," I managed after a moment. I would have said that it was too sweet, except that it was some how ballanced out by the taste of something savory and heavy, some kinda spice or sumthin'. It would never be manly to admit it and so I never did, but I'd always had a terrible sweet tooth, so the confection was gone pretty quickly.
:Boy, if Rukia eats this sort of thing in the mortal world all the time, it's a wonder they don't have to roll her gigai around sideways,: I thought. She loved sweet stuff, it was one of the things we shared in common. I supressed another pang of worry about being separated from her for who knew how long.
I thought again about trying to contact her, but unfortunately she was still in the Seireitei. Of all the times for her not to be in the field with that brat. I could stop by Ichigo's and tell him to pass the word on, but if I knew that kid, he'd insist on getting himself involved. I didn't want that, and not just because of pride either. (Right, keep telling yerself that.) If he got involved, then Rukia would get dragged into my mess and her reputation still hadn't recovered from her last run-in with the execution grounds, if she were to be caught up in another mortality mess-up people would start saying she was jinxed. I might have tried some of those other humans that hung around the kid to get one of them to pass on the message, but... well, the little orange-haired girl was one soul shy of a menos, and that Ishida kid would probably sooner spit on a Soul Reaper than look twice at one, even me I'd bet. There was that Chad guy, but he wasn't one for talking, I didn't know if they'd ever get the message if I counted on him to do it for me. I'd sooner hang myself than go ask Ichigo or any of his friends for help, besides, I was already following a lead and if it panned out I wouldn't need to ask them. I was sort of in a hurry to ditch this body anyway.
:I probably should try Urahara's,: I thought.
I sorta wanted to, just so someone out there knew I was alive (literally, more alive than I wanted to be) and okay, and trying to make it back home. However there were a couple of reason's why trying to bug Urahara with this would be a bad idea.
If they hadn't had people watching the Urahara Shop before, they certainly had to by now. I wasn't so sure that Twelfth hadn't figured out a wire tap or I'd have simply called them from a payphone. Dropping by to buy a gokontekko, one of those skull things that shoot a Reaper right out of his giagai (or in Ichigo's case, his body) was out of the question, they'd be on me like a pigeon in a cattery.
:Maybe if I write him a letter,: I thought.
I could be vague but give enough clues about the sender that he'd be able to figure out who'd sent it. I could even use the secret code Rukia and I had invented in the Academy to pass notes to each other in. Yeah, that would work. There was one problem however, I didn't know the address of his shop, just that it was in Karakura town. Still, human's in this world always seemed to be able to find out information like that, so maybe Isana would know.
"Hey," I said, turning to her. "I need to write a letter to someone, but I don't have an address other than the city he lives in, could you do some kind of human thing and hunt it up for me?"
"No problem," she said easily with a shrug. "It should be on an online phone book. Give me some money and I'll pay to use a public portal and look it up for you."
I selected one of the smaller numbers from one of the four different wads of cash I had secreted about my body and handed it over while she pulled a note pad and pen from out of her enormous purse. Women.
I thought about how to word my letter to give enough clues as to who the sender was that they wouldn't dismiss it out of hand but vague enough that it wouldn't get anyone in trouble in case I was in trouble. I indicated that I was continuing the task that had been interrupted by my encounter (counting on the fact that Rukia would eventually be reading this) and that I wasn't certain where it would take me, but that everything I'd found out so far suggested I might be going down a completely new rabbit hole. And no, I didn't need back up. In fact, the fewer people who knew about me was definitely better. At least until I could get the mess cleared up and make an official report to my captain.
I really really didn't want to think about what it would be like if my Captain had to hear news of me second-hand from someone else instead of receiving a direct report from me. The idea that Rukia might tell him wasn't so bad; she was his little sister and so there was bound to be some leeway there, plus he was aware of how much we shared with each other. There was, however, the possibility that he might hear it from someone else other than Rukia... like Uruhara or Yoruichi. Both of the two of them would go out of their way to be as annoying and provocative as possible just to get a rise out of him. And that would only piss him off further. So I stressed the discretion bit.
In the middle of my letter Isana had come back with an already stamped envelope and the address I'd been looking for. I mailed the letter from a nearby box and we finished waiting for the train.
When the train arrived we got on it and sat down. I had never traveled in the mortal style before so all of it was a novel experience to me. An hour or so later Isana stood and signaled that we were going to be getting out. The train dropped us off at a tiny little station in the middle of no-where. There was a tiny little station that doubled as a gift shop, for the nearby shrine as well as a tiny strip mall that probably supplied some local community. Isana seemed to be the sort who always believed in being prepared for she bought a map, some portable bottled drink and a prepackaged bento which she put into a touristy little sling bag. With me more or less trailing after her, we set out on the trail up the mountain.
"Do you think this spirit will have what you need to know?" she asked me to break the silence as we walked.
"I dunno," I said. "Nuthin' like this has ever happened before. I miss Zabimaru."
"Who's Zabimaru?" she asked curiously.
"That's the name of my zanpaktou," I said, trying not to sound too sad about it.
"Zanpaktou?" she asked, requesting more information. She probably needed something to get her mind off her missing son.
"They're sort of spirit swords that are soul-bonded with their wielders," I answered. "We Soul Reapers use them to send on the souls of the dead either by the konsai-ritual for regular spirits or destroying them with the soul-cutter after they've turned Hollow."
I'd explained the basics about Hollows and normal Souls the night before, but Isana could see spirits, and had already seen some Soul Reaper in action, so she's probably already had a basic idea anyway.
"and you have names for them?"
"All Zanpaktou have names,"I said. "Not every Soul Reaper knows that thier names are at first."
She gave me a quizzical look so I warmed to my subject, I was always happy to talk about Zabimaru. I explained a little about how the blades manifested when we joined the Academy and about shikai and a little about the other demon arts too, kidou and the barehanded styles used mostly by Second Squad.
"And Zabimaru is the name of your Zanpaktou?" she asked.
"Yeah. Our swords reflect our inner powers and natures," I replied. "Zabimaru and I are strong, batttle-loving and proud. I haven't been able to sense him since I got turned mortal. I hate being kinda helpless."
"If he's part of you, then how is he gone just because you've turned mortal?" she asked.
"I don't know and it's driving me a little crazy. I don't think there's ever been a case of a Reaper being turned mortal, the closest thing I can think of is the time my Ruki- er, I mean my friend Rukia," I corrected myself hurriedly, hoping she wouldn't notice my slip and get curious.
Of course I should have known better, she was a woman, and chicks noticed that kinda thing. Always locking onto the things a guy would like them to not notice.
"Oh-hoh, is that your girlfriend?" she asked, her voice a little teasing.
Yeah right, didn't I just wish.
"Just a friend," I said gruffly, trying not to betray anything about the mess my heart was still in. "We've known each other a really long time."
"Oh," she said.
"So anyway, the only thing that comes close to my situation is the time Rukia gave her powers to a mortal so he could form a Zanpaktou and fight to protect his family. And even in that case, she wasn't mortal like I seem to be, she just had to stay inside a gigai, that's a fake body by the way, for long enough for her spiritual powers to grow back," I said. "Her Zanpaktou took even longer for her to recover."
I wasn't even going to go into the bit with that damned Urahara and his damned Hougyoku and all the trouble that it had caused.
"Maybe you just need a little time to get used to your situation," she suggested gently.
"I don' wanna get used to it," I growled. "I want outta this body so I c'n go back ta laying the smackdown on Hollows. My Captain is already gonna give me shit, an' his lecture'll just keep getting longer for all the time I'm away."
More than reason enough for me to hurry my ass up in my book. It'd be easier if he'd just yell at me or smack me around when he's not happy with me but nooo, he has to get this tragic suffering look on his face that says "it's sooo hard to find good help these days"and start lecturing me about proper observances and grace and 'edikit' and all kindsa bullshit. It was really frickin' anoying. I hated being talked down to, especially by him.
"You say 'my Captain' and I keep picturing this old bearded man with a peg leg and an eye patch wielding a cutlass," she giggled.
I laughed before I even realized it. The mental picture of Byakuya Kuchiki dresed up as a pirate with a beard was too funny not to laugh at. It occured to me that maybe I should avoid talking about my Captain in the presence of the reincarnation of his wife; it seemed like one mess that I really, really didn't want to get involved in.
"So what's he like anyway, your boss? My boss is a pervert, he keeps trying to talk me into going back in the office with him and when I chill him out with a look he smiles and pretends he was only joking. There are at least three interns who have filed sexual harrasment suits against him but he has enough connections with teh higher-ups that ho-one ever just fires his ass."
Sounded like another Captain I knew, one who was always going on about "his sweet Nanao". I briefly wondered what it would be like to see her file some harassment charges on him. Amusing, if nothing else. My Onii-san Amber had a bit to say about the good captain of Eigth Squadron too. Things about a lack of subtlety and elegance however sincere his gestures were. A real woman never appreciated being treated as an object.
"Well," I said to her query. "My captain certainly isn't anything like that. The 'zact opposite as a matterofact. He's not very... personable. But then again, he's top-tier nobility so what the hell can you expect?"
"Nobility?" she asked curiously.
So I breifly explained how the structure of the Soul Society worked, Ruokongai on the outside filled with the spirits of the dead and the general decline of the districts, Seireitei on the inside with the Soul Reapers coming almost exclusively from titled nobility up until very recently.
"...And the Kuchiki's are one of the Four Noble Families," I concluded. "So they're the most wealthy and influential of all."
"And you're from the outside?" she questioned. "The Rukon District."
"Yeah, one of the lowest of the low," I admitted, for the first time in a long time I didn't feel a suppressed stab of pain at being reminded of my very very humble origins. "District seventy-eight out of eighty, they call it Hangdog. Me an' Rukia both grew up there. I had to work hard to make rank, but I'm a lieutenant now."
"Sounds like you've worked hard and come a long way," she commented. I nodded absently.
"Stupid mortal body," I muttered under my breath, looking down at myself.
If it weren't for this body I could have just headed straight back to the Seireitei and reported about my encounter with the Shadow, but now, I was stuck here until I figured out a way to get whatever had been done to me undone, otherwise they'd take one good look at my human self, my lack of a Zabimaru at my side, and figure that I'd torn a page from the Book of Rukia, and lock me up.
We were pretty much out in the middle of no-where by now and I was a bit surprised when Isana stepped off the main road and onto a smaller dirt track that led further up the mountain. We walked along it in companionable silence. We didn't really know each other all that well but at the same time, knowing who she was and knowing she was related in soul to my Rukia made me inclined to like her and want to protect her. Seeing her detirmination to reach her son against all dangers and obstacles made me admire her a bit.
To be honest, when I had first heard about Byakuya's tragic history with his wife I hadn't been all that fucking inclined to feel sorry for the bitch. Maybe everyone else would have been sympathetic because she died sad, still searching for her baby sister, but not me. I was from Hangdog, I knew what it was like there. I'd made my own family, and in my book ya don't abandon family unless yer dyin'. The fact that she'd done so just because she wanted to save her own sorry ass was more than grounds enough fer me not to like her. She'd abandoned my Rukia to likely die in a dumpster so she could eat. But seeing how it followed her into her next life and made her willing to enter hell itself to save her family made me reconsider my previous judgement of her.
Traveling with Isana should be fine for now, but as soon as I got a solid lead that led out of the Mortal Realm I was going to leave her behind, not just for my sake (though it would be a lot easier and safer fer me ta travel without having to drag some weak mortal around and protect her all the time) but for her safety as well. If the Captain or Rukia ever found out I'd found her, knew who she was, and let her get hurt on my watch, Rukia would freeze off the extremities I valued the most shortly before she let her brother turn me into confetti. The mortal woman and I would probably be parting ways soon, and after I managed to separate out from this damned body and get back to report to the Captain, I could decide whether it would be morally ethical for me to tell him whom I'd found. We Soul Reapers were not technically supposed to interfere in the lives of Mortals, Rukia's situation was beyond weird for the average Soul Reaper, which I guess just went to show how extraordinary she was.
Yay! Finals are done with today! As a celebration, you all get a two-fer! I shall post this one tonight and the next chapter tomorrow morning.
...
Renji: And speaking of things having to do with two...
Zabimaru: we have prepared this musical number to give an unauthorized preveiw of coming attractions that the author has not authorized.
Renji: So here goes! *sings to the tune of "My bologna has a first name"
My Zabimaru has a first form,
we call it the snaketail...
My Zabimaru has a seco--
Nightheart: Hey! Stop that, you're giving too much away! Get out of here, you're going to ruin the cool surprise.
Renji: Aw c'mon! it's just so cool! Can't I tell them?
Nightheart: No you may not! Off with you!
*shoos them out of the Authors note*
Nightheart: Honestly! Trying to ruin the revelation that was half the reason I wrote this thing. Sheesh! The nerve. Well, I hope everyone else is looking forward to it anyway.