Tatsuki paced impatiently in the Urahara Shop. David and Raven had said that they needed to speak with Kisuke about something before they could explain anything. She couldn't stand it. She had too many questions to just be ignored.
"What's wrong, Tatsuki?" Orihime asked with a curious look. Tatsuki faced her friend with a dumbfounded expression.
"Did you forget?" Tatsuki asked with a huff. "That freaky woman called me her sister! That's what's wrong!"
"Tatsuki," Ichigo said, getting the dark-haired girl's attention. "Don't worry. Whoever that woman was, she was probably just trying to psych you out."
"But why me? There's nothing extraordinary about me. Aside from being able to see ghosts and stuff, I'm completely normal."
"That's where you're wrong," said a male voice. All eyes fell on David, who had just returned to the room with Raven and Kisuke. "The Sins don't approach humans unless they play some kind of role in one of their plans. And like it or not, you're their latest interest."
Tatsuki's eyes went wide with disbelief. "But why? There's no way I could be related to those guys! What the hell could they possibly want with me?"
"We don't really know," Raven said somewhat regretfully. "We don't usually learn what the Sins' plans are until the last minute. Sometimes we stop them, sometimes we can't."
"What do you mean by that?" Uryu asked. "How powerful are these 'Sins'?"
"Just one of the Seven Sins can topple entire empires single-handedly," David said flatly. Ichigo, Orihime, Uryu, Chad, and Tatsuki all stared at the Grim Reaper with wide eyes. "Fortunately, their number remains strictly seven. No more, no less."
"Why is that?" Orihime asked.
David sighed. "Lust, Greed, Envy, Sloth, Gluttony, Wrath, and Pride. Those are the Seven Deadly Sins. They act as generals in Hell's army."
"Uryu and I have actually been to Hell," Ichigo stated. "We never encountered those guys before."
Both Grim Reapers and Kisuke chuckled. When they were given strange looks, Kisuke said, "There's more than one hell, Ichigo." Everyone's eyes widened at the revelation. More than one hell? Is that possible? "You see, there's one set of afterlife worlds for each inhabited continent. Each continent has its own way taking care of the deceased. For example: the Greek God of Death, currently Ulquiorra as I recall being told, takes on all responsibility for exorcising Hollows and helping Wholes pass on to the Underworld, which is split into different regions. There's Asphodel – which is pretty much Limbo – the Fields of Punishment – kind of self-explanatory – and Elysium – that's where all the good and pure souls go. And in actuality, Soul Reapers take charge of all of Asia, save for Russia. That still falls under European jurisdiction."
David nodded and took over the explanation. "You can probably tell from our faces and accents, but we Grim Reapers are from North America. To the truth, we're not too much different from Soul Reapers. Our forces are also divided into thirteen groups that we call battalions rather than squads. And just like how we've always fought Hollows, we've also fought genuine demons."
"D-demons?" Orihime stammered.
Raven suddenly shot her hand up in the air, clearly excited for some reason. David nodded, letting his little sister speak. "The Sins are seven of the most powerful demons of all. Under their master, the Dark Prince, along with two others who serve as the Prince's greatest soldiers, they command an army of monsters that are utterly merciless. Their leader ultimately aims to annihilate all human life in the world."
"But why would they want to do that?" Tatsuki asked, already not liking where this was going. "Who is their leader anyway?"
David, Raven, and Kisuke all looked at each other for a brief moment. From the look on Kisuke's face, none of the Japanese teens were going to like the answer to Tatsuki's question. David was the one to speak first, saying, "Let answer your question with another question: in Christianity, who is the supreme evil being that epitomizes all things chaotic?"
The dark silence hung in the air for several seconds. Everyone's eyes were the size of dinner plates now. "No way," Ichigo said in a rare stammer. "He can't be real."
"For someone who's seen the impossible before, you sure are narrow-minded," David chided. He put his hands together so that his fingers were interlocked, resting his elbows on the small table in the room. "The force we deal with… it's led by something so dark and malevolent that it makes everything else that you've ever fought look like the calm before the storm."
"Is he really that powerful?" Uryu asked.
"Yes," David stated with a clearly perturbed expression. "It only makes sense. Especially when you consider that fact that he's Lucifer."
-o-
Well, the bad guy's been revealed. And it's not just any villain, but the ultimate great-great-granddaddy of all things evil. Anyway, I'd originally planned for this chapter to be a little longer, but I figured that this would be a good place to end it. So says my author's instincts. Anyway, I'll see you guys later... so to speak.
