And we continue. I do not own Bleach, characters or locations.
~Urahara's make shift lab~
"Are you sure something is missing?" Rini and Ayame where helping Urahara go through the inventory in his lab. It was a mess, both the list and the lab.
The Espada, Mist, had raided his lab, but nothing seemed to be missing. The Espada was no where to be found after the shinigami had engaged the Espada forces in the forest. The shinigami had returned knowing that a war was ahead of them.
"I can't find anything missing, but I can feel something is not quite right." Kisuke paced and checked random places at times. "I just can't seem to figure out what."
"I don't know about you guys, but it feels quite cozy to me." Ayame's eyes widened at her own comment. "You're right something is missing. I never feel cozy in your lab. Even when I just walk through it Or peek in." Ayame shivered thinking about the feeling she used to get.
"Oh dear." His head shot up and he started digging through piles. "They couldn't have known it was there. The only people who saw that was us three and a few others." He stopped digging once he reached the closet that was behind the pile. "Unles one of them is a traitor, but I can't see most of them as the traitorous type." He had opened the closet and pulled up the floorboards. He pulled out a chest and opened it. "Unless one of them is a better actor that we think." he mumbled mostly it himself. He wasn't paying much attention to the two girls behind him. "So it was that they were after." He closed the box and headed toward the door. "You two come with me. We need to find someone. And a few others."
Ayame and Rini looked at each other and shrugged. Typical Urahara behaviour to them. They followed him to the 1st squad barracks. They waited in the meeting hall while Urahara went to speak with Kyoraku. They passed by Nanao as they walked.
"What brings you girls here?" Nanao was surprised to see the two here. She would have though they would be training since Rini now had a zanpakutou and needed to train with it more.
"Urahara-san found out what was missing from when Mist broke in." Rini remembered her time when she was Blood. Mist had always been quite and was definitely capable of hiding her tracks, but she couldn't understand what she took and why she made it look like she was after the book. 'Unless they wanted to throw us off."
"Must be something important to have to report it to my husband." Nanao had fought a bit with the Espada. Mist hadn't been strong but she was capable of holding her own. Plus Nanao hadn't fought with her full strength due to her pregnancy.
"It is quite serious dear wife." Shunsui wrapped his arms around his wife. She was starting to show signs of her pregnancy through her larger sized uniform. "I've called a special meeting. You three are to attend." Kyoraku walked towards the meeting hall with his arm around his wife. "And surprisingly Urahara-san is early for once." Kyoraku had stopped just before the room to tease the former Taichou.
"Then let's go before we're late." Nanao dragged her husband with her into the meeting hall. The others followed them smiling at Nanao's control over her husband.
~Meeting~
"Thank you for gathering. Urahara, please tell us why we are all here." Kyoraku stood at the head of two broken rows of people.
"Thank you Kyoraku-Soutaichou. We are gathered because I found what the enemy was looking for." Urahara paused to see if anyone would question his statement. He wasn't disappointed.
"I thought it was that book." Ichigo knew the shopkeeper would eventually explain, but he had a look on his face that was begging for a question.
"Yes. That is what I thought as well, but she didn't fight hard enough to try and get it. The moment it got to be difficult she gave up." Everyone nodded in understanding. "This leads me to believe that she was told to retrieve the book, but if it became to difficult to abandon the mission. Because that was also, just a distraction."
"Why would they use two distractions?" Karin was standing beside her brother were his Fukutaichou would normally stand.
"What do you have that would be more important than that book?" Yuzu was curious about how many secrets the chipper, happy man had.
"Two excellent questions by the Kurosaki twins! To answer the first question, they really did not want us to notice what their true objective was. To answer the second, it's something that should have been destroyed. However it was to powerful to be destroyed by anything, except a very strong Reiatsu." Urahara side glanced to the two girls standing beside him. They had both realized what he was talking about.
"Can you just spit it out?" Tamaki wasn't used to Urahara's way of explaining things.
"I will. You seem a bit impatient." Kisuke didn't know much about the new Taichou.
"I have a lot of paperwork to do. I still haven't chosen a Fukutaichou yet." Yakamoto defended. He was tired of all the paperwork.
"Stop harassing the new guy and get on with it Urahara-san." Kurotsuchi was annoyed at the man's round about ways.
"What was stolen?" Orihime added in a gentler tone, trying to get them back on topic.
"An artifact that was used the last time Aizen betrayed Soul Society." Urahara wanted to see what conclusions they would draw.
"The Hogyoku? Wasn't that recorded as destroyed?" Tamaki asked looking puzzled.
"Actually it was never recorded of having even existed." Kyoraku glared at Tamaki. "In fact the only people who know about its existence is in this room. Except for you. You should have been the only person to be lost on his conversation." Tamaki's eyes widened. "We were going to repeat this several times with others to find the traitor, but it seems we hit gold on the first try. Good first choice Urahara."
Urahara bowed at the compliment. "It was nothing. I have an excellent identifying team." He winked at Ayame and Rini.
"Yakamoto Tamaki, you are under arrest for being in league with the traitor Aizen Sosuke. As well as giving the enemy information and giving them access to our resources." As Kyoraku spoke Ichigo, Urahara, and Sui-Feng surrounded Yakamoto.
"I didn't do it! It must be a mistake!" Yakamoto defended.
"Then explain how your Reiatsu was found in my lab. Despite the fact that I remove all traces of any Reiatsus every five days. The last time you were there was a week ago." Urahara looked towards the Taichou. "Plus that still doesn't explain how you know about the Hogyoku."
"Some of it must have transferred to Moth when he ran into me in the forest. I couldn't chase after him, because I was already occupied with another Espada." Tamaki explained holding his hands up.
"We only told Urahara there was another Espada other than Mist in his lab. No one else should know that." Rini spoke up when everyone looked to Urahara for an answer. Everyone turned back to a startled looking Tamaki.
"We created multiple layers to test if someone was guilty. And leaving most everyone out was part of the final test. Too bad for you, you passed them all. It's sad to see someone still so loyal to a traitor." Urahara looked at Yakamoto with a serious face. "Even after Hinamori-Taichou moved on from his betrayal."
Ichigo, Urahara, and Sui-Feng began to approach Tamaki.
"Don't think I won't go down with out a fight." He pulled his zanpakutou out of his haori. "Cast my enemies into darkness! Kage Ryoshi!" Shadows surrounded him as his blade became a pair of long knives.
None of the other shinigami had their zanpakutou. They were suppose to leave them outside the room.
"Coming into the meeting hall armed with out wartime orders being issued. That's another crime to add to your list." Sui-Feng took a stance to use Shunko.
Tamaki headed for the door but Ichigo stepped in front of him And Sui-Feng approached him from behind. Tamaki did not hesitate to attack, but Ichigo blocked all of them. Tamaki saw Sui-Feng get closer. "Bankai! Kage Kurogane!" The room fell into darkness. "Not so high and mighty now are you?" There was a sound of something heavy hitting the ground.
"Sajo Sabaku Byakurai!" A flash lit up the dark room. The darkness faded to show a restrained and unconscious Tamaki laying on the ground and a heavily injured Ichigo laying down beside him. Rini stood in front of the doors to the meeting hall.
"Ichigo!" Orihime rushed to his side. "Ichigo say something please!"
"You can stop yelling in my ear." Ichigo mumbled as he sat up. Wincing a bit as he rolled over onto his back. He had a pool of blood infront of him and several large gashes on his chest. "Why's the room still dark?"
"It seems one of his Bankai abilities is to cause blindness when struck." Urahara poked the unconscious man. "I'm sure it will wear off, or we'll find a way to cure it." Ichigo may not have been able to see, but he knew where Urahara's voice was coming from and glared in that direction. "I'm sure Kurotsuchi-Taichou would love to recreate its affect." Urahara smiled at the now blind Taichou.
"For the time being Kurosaki-Taichou, you should not be in any battles." Kyoraku knew Ichigo would protest, so he added more to cut off his options. "I'm sure it would give your wife enough piece of mind so that her stress does not cause her to have a miscarriage."
Ichigo was stunned at the Soutaichou's words. "Orihime?" He couldn't see her nod, but she also squeezed his hand to let him know her answer. With her confirmation he gave up any resistance. "Alright I'll stay out of any fights till I get my sight back." Orihime hugged her husband. She was grateful his stubbornness was overcome by his worry for her health.
"Sui-Feng-Taichou, take this traitor to his cell. Make sure to strip him of his haori when he gets there. And don't stop Kurotsuchi-Taichou from interrogating him, but make sure he doesn't kill him." Sui-Feng nodded and slung Tamaki's body over her shoulder then headed towards the Maggot's Nest once outside.
"For now you all stay here." Everyone went back to their places they were standing in before the fight broke out. "Nanao, call the other Taichous and Fukutaichous. An emergency meeting is necessary, and i'm going to put war time laws into place immediately." Kyoraku left the room to retrieve his zanpakutou and send a hell butterfly to Central 46 to tell them to put the war time laws into place. When he returned the two lines were back in formation, except for Sui-Feng, with their zanpakutous at their sides.
~emergency meeting~
The meeting began once Sui-Feng returned.
"This meeting is now in session." Kyoraku's voice boomed through the hall. "Yakamoto Tamaki was found to be a spy for Aizen Sosuke this morning. For now 8th squad will be under the direction of Ise Nanao till a new Taichou can be appointed." He saw a nod come from the 3rd seat of 8th squad who had been acting Fukutaichou for 8th squad. "As you probably already found out, war time laws have been instated. We can expect Aizen to attack at any time." He paused then looked towards Urahara. "I will let Urahara give his report."
Urahara stepped forward and turned to face the Soutaichou. "In the recent raid that occurred, we originally thought they were aiming to take the ritual book." He held up said book. "We were wrong, and in our wrong thinking we did not find out till now what their true objective was. And that they accomplished it, by stealing the Hogyoku." He waited for the name to sink in. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rukia clutch her chest at the mention of it.
"I thought it was destroyed after we captured Aizen." Hinamori looked lost. She didn't remember much, but she had been filled in by Rangiku on what happened while she was unconscious.
"No. It was not. Nothing we tried was powerful enough. Not even the Kido Canon could destroy it." Everyone sweat dropped as they wondered if he had actually tested the last part. "However, I did come across a way to destroy it. However, the blast radius would be large enough to take out all of Karakura town, or in a more relatable way. It would wiped out all of the Rukongai and Seireitei."
"It's that powerful of a bomb?" Ichimaru had held the Hogyoku once, but he did not get that impression from it. 'Why didn't Aizen use it like that?'
"What method did you discover for destroying it?" Ichigo wanted to know if he could help, other than not fighting. No one else had realized that he was blind yet.
"It requires a very concentrated and dense amount of Reiatsu. Much higher than any Taichou could achieve. However, at that time I only knew two people capable of that." Everyone looked at Ayame and Rini. "But now there are three."
"You are not dragging Yuzu into this." Isshin glared at Urahara.
"How do you know it's Yuzu, Goat-chin?" Karin asked not caring what she called her father in front of others.
"It's because you are like you brother, Karin-san." Urahara was hoping to avoid a fight between the father and daughter. "You have power, but not the best control. And do not worry Isshin-san. I would never put her in danger that she did not want to be in." Urahara paused to let the two settle down. "Besides, speed is also required and Yuzu's zanpakutou prevents her from being able to reach the high enough speed. The blast would reach its max power and radius in under half a second."
"Can either of you two reach that speed?" Kyoraku was weighing his options.
"Ayame has a bit of trouble getting that fast, but she can more easily concentrate her Reiatsu. I can easily reach that speed, but it takes a longer time for me to get the right concentration." Rini answered as honestly as she could knowing it may change the outcome of the war.
"I can attest to there speeds." Yorichi spoke up from her place at the end of one of the lines. "Ayame isn't fast enough for sneak attacks, but Rini's isn't strong enough to cause heavy damage."
A strong blast shock the meeting hall. Most Taichous kept their footing, while most Fukutaichous did not.
"Meeting abjured. Taichous, battle positions!" All of the Taichous and Fukutaichous headed to their respective squad building, except for Ichigo who went with his wife while leaning on her shoulder. The ones with no squads awaited further orders. "Kurosaki Karin, go help 10th squad. Kurosaki Yuzu, go aid 11th squad. Awazaki Ayame, 9th squad. Abarai Rini, 13th squad. Kurosaki Isshin, 6th squad. Shihoin Yorichi, 2nd squad. Dismissed!" They all headed towards their assignments and reported to the Taichou or Fukutaichou of the squad they went.
"Now the battle begins." Kyoraku walked towards his office. He had a feeling Aizen might show up to attack Seireitei sooner or later.
"It's quite the nice office you have. You fit into it quite well." A white suited figure sat behind Kyoraku's desk.
"I thought you might show up. Shall we end this?" Shunsui kept Nanao out of sight as she quickly headed off to alert others of Aizen's whereabouts. "Flower Wind Rage and Flower God Roar, Heavenly Wind Rage and Heavenly Demon Sneer. Karen Kyokotsu." He released his zanpakutous.
"I don't think you understand the difference in power between us." Aizen was amused by the Soutaichou's actions.
"He won't be fighting alone." A white haired figure stepped out from behind Kyoraku, his zanpakutou already released. "I wouldn't let my friend face a demon like you alone." Ukitake glared at Aizen.
"Let's see then, if Yamamoto's prized pupils can do better than he did." Aizen drew his zanpakutou with an evil grin on his face. "He didn't even cause a sun burn."
Shunsui and Jushiro rushed towards Aizen. Both hide their anger towards the man's words. Aizen easily managed to block them and proceeded to counter attack. Aizen held his evil grin.
Cliffhanger before an important battle. So cliche. Please give feedback.