This chapter will be a little different...
Chapter 4
The meeting began in silence, for such meetings were prone to begin this way.
Seth interrupted this silence by entering the room with an enormous smile on his face. "Fellow terrorists!" he exclaimed.
Of the three others in the room, one was a woman, another a little girl, and the last a boy teenager. On Seth's exclamation, the woman sighed self-sufferingly and looked out the window. The teenager face-palmed. The little girl didn't look up from her drawing.
"Aw, c'mon!" Seth whined. "Don't be this way! Let's get excited for what Seth has to say! Everyone after me," he lowered the tone of his voice, "Wow, Seth, what interesting news have you brought today? I am overjoyed with anticipation."
The little girl pelted a colored pencil at his forehead.
Seth showed no outward reaction to this action whatsoever, maintaining his oblivious smile. Even as a trickle of blood slipped over his nose.
"He won't shut up unless you acknowledge him, ya know," said the teenager.
"I am more than aware," said the woman. "Ever since I was assigned to this cell there hasn't been a moments peace."
"I will take that as an acknowledgement!" Seth happily proclaimed, then promptly sat on the ground with the little girl. The little girl looked up with suspicion and positioned herself so Seth couldn't steal her paper and pencils. Seth pretended not to notice.
"What the hell do you want, Seth?" said the teenager.
"I'm glad that you asked!" Seth replied while the woman sighed again. "While on my super-special mission with the Commander, I happen to have noticed a discrepancy in the wards, so then I went out to check what was up—"
"Are you sure you didn't see a shiny object and get distracted?" the teenager interjected.
"Well, in fact, that's exactly what happened!"
The teenager began to beat his head against the wall.
"There was also a strange noise!" Seth tried to say in defense.
The woman sighed.
"Well, ridicule me all you want, but I was the first one to locate an Afterlife Class A!"
The little girl dropped her colored pencils, the woman whipped her head around, and the teenager stopped looking moody.
"Ah-hah! Got your attention now, do I?"
"Stop trolling us, Seth, and get on with it," the teenager said excitedly. Well. Almost excitingly. The teenager didn't get excited about anything.
Seth had the look of a cat who was completely content after slaughtering his prey. "In the lot next to the super-secret location I went to, I found two people spying on us. Well, I could barely see the other guy, but the fact that I could see him at all meant he was living. Somehow. Therefore Class A. But this is the funny part, see, 'cause when I think back on it, the person I spoke to could see me and the Class A. Did you get that? He could see both of us."
"So?" said the woman. "He was a muggle."
Seth mock grabbed his heart, as if wounded. "Lashna! Who do you think I am? I'd never go out in public without being slathered in Anti-Muggle charms! That's just basic survival!"
The woman, with the codename Lashna, sniffed and looked away again. "This person must have been some kind of wizard, then? At least a squib?"
Seth nodded and waited for them to realize it.
"Get out!" shouted the teenager. "That's fucking impossible!"
"Did you tell the Commander this?" stated Lashna at the same time.
"Ah, no, I didn't get the chance. He kinda refused to talk to me after I went off on my own…"
The woman stood up, causing the little girl to follow her. "We will go now. Where did he say he was staying?"
"He said he'd head back to the Guild Headquarters in London and report to the Chairman. 'The Wizarding World is becoming interesting,' he said. 'I smell an opportunity.' I think he was just constipated, but no one else seems to like my opinion on that subject…"
"This information changes everything! Imagine the progress! Our cause will jump forward by a hundred years!" The woman began to stride to the door. Lashna turned around in the doorway. She looked at the three others working in her cell. The little girl with the little braids in her blond hair. The moody teenager who wore black all the time. And the man with the scar from his jaw to his collarbone, hiding behind his blue scarf.
The stately woman with the dusky skin said the motto of their organization. "The Whitelanders will catch the rising moon."
"All for the salvation of the world," the three chorused back.
Sosuke Aizen had a plan for every eventuality. One of the first things he ever learned was how to make sure the right eventualities occurred. However, he did not expect his plan to fail in this particular way. He had countless back-up plans for countless different failing scenarios, but none of them had this particular result. This threw everything off.
In Muken, the eighth and lowest level of the prison located under the First Division, Aizen was having some trouble planning his future out. There were too many unknowns, too many to fool. Twenty thousand years was a lot of time to reflect on where you went wrong. Too long, he thought. He'd barely been there a year or two and he was already bored out of his mind. Yhwach spiced things up, but that was already fading. What does an immortal to do in his free time?
Escape, of course.
If only it was that easy. Aizen hated the competency of some parts of the Seireitei. The other parts were complete trash, but some parts were frustratingly thorough. Aizen tried to stop himself from thinking of all the ways to make the entire Seireitei as thorough as his prison, but failed. He was just too bored.
"Oi."
She was trying to speak to him again.
"Oi!"
Twenty thousand years wouldn't have been too bad if he wasn't stuck next to her.
"Hot-cakes! I know ya can hear me!"
"Oh, I am sorry, were you speaking? I was not aware maggots were capable of human speech."
She laughed. "So, Mr. Super-Genius, have ya thought of any way to escape this hell-hole?"
"Yes, I have, actually. All of them involve you devolving into a heaping pile of rotting flesh. You may begin any time now."
She was the type of being that would have been picking her nose right about now, if she had been able to move. Instead, she spat at the ground. Disgusting. Conversation after that shut down.
After Aizen calculated three-hundred and fifty-seven different ways to kill Ichigo Kurosaki and five-hundred and three reasons why he should not, she spoke again.
"How's this: If I escape and ya don', I'm takin' ya with me. If ya escape before me, ya can kill me. Deal?"
"No. I do not make deals."
"I don't get you." She said without her usual slurring accent.
"Nobody really does."
"What if I take ya wit'out askin'?"
"Good luck with that."
"I'll do it, ya know."
"I am aware of the fact that you meant that as a serious threat."
She laughed again.
Only nineteen thousand nine hundred and ninety eight years left. He could do it, he knew he could. But would it already be too late?
"Hey, hey, hey, hey!"
Aizen said nothing.
"What's yer name, hot-cakes?"
Aizen said nothing.
"That's a cool name, too, but I think I'll stick with hot-cakes. Fits ya better."
Aizen said nothing.
"What's ya favorite color?"
Aizen wanted to kill something. But, no. He was patient.
"Hah, trick question! The answer's actually green."
She continued to speak to herself and Aizen decided to sleep.
Then he heard, "Oi, spicy-pants," a new nickname she presumably thought up while he zoned out, "when I turn into a cat and take ya with me when I escape, I wanna introduce ya to a couple of peeps I know. They remind me o' ya."
Turn into a cat? "What is your name."
"Chiasa Shihōin, at yer service!" She sounded smug.
Aizen had heard of her. He knew what she was down here for, but he did not know she turned into a cat. Useful information. "I am Sosuke Aizen, and will be happy to meet these friends of yours."
This time her laugh was positively feral.
(o)(0)(o)
Chiasa threw open her arms, "Welcome, hot-cakes, to the Bunribuntai! Make sure to keep yer feet off the coffee table and you'll be fine." It was a joke, Aizen knew. There was no coffee table. In fact, there was precious little of anything.
This part of the Rukongai was exceedingly poor. The building the woman had led him to was a shack, better kept than most other buildings, but still a shack.
"Stop lookin' so damn condescending, I haven't even shown ya the good part!"
Aizen kept his reservations about any 'good part' to himself.
Chiasa walked across the dusty wood floor to a sliding closet, the only one with the door intact. Aizen briefly wondered why no one had started living in this place since the time Chiasa was free. "Blasted thing…" she struggled, "... only been three hundred years and ya've completely rusted over…" Aizen made no move to help, he doubted that the women would really have any trouble opening something if she really wanted to open it. He thought of the breakout…
"Ah-hah! Gotcha!" the door slid open with an ominous creak, revealing a metal picture frame, empty. The inside of the door and the surrounding walls were all metal, and, indeed, rust had taken over a great portion of it.
"And this will allow us to enter the World of the Living?"
"O' course! See, ya just push some buttons here, um, give it a good kick or two, and, viola! Instant teleportation device."
There were no buttons to push and the kicks Chiasa gave the metal made the frame rattle brokenly.
"Just step through it."
"Step… through it?"
"Stop bein' a wuss, hot-cakes, and step through the damn picture frame!" Before Aizen could think twice, Chiasa picked him up and held him over her head. Then she threw him head-first into the wall of the closet. Through the picture frame.
Instead of smashing into the metal wall (and probably the next five buildings) and getting a bruise, Aizen flipped midair and landed, midair, in what appeared to be an expensive condo. He looked behind him and saw an empty metal picture frame. The next second Chiasa phased through, as if she was in the World of the Living in the first place and had just phased through the wall from the other side.
Impossible.
When Aizen thought something was impossible in the presence of evidence to the contrary, that meant there was something someone else knew that he didn't. He disliked things that he was ignorant of.
"Huh. Place sure has changed," Chiasa remarked, standing next to him.
"The times have changed. I am surprised your organization is still running."
"Don' be. It's run by shinigami deserters. They've got nothin' left."
Silence but for the intensity of Aizen's gaze.
"You've got questions." It was a statement. "Let's meet up with the others, then we'll discuss this like one big happy family."
"I doubt anyone will be happy after this."
Takeshi Kanda was the division lieutenant of the Bunribuntai, and, technically, the current captain, since the official captain was in prison. That statement, in itself, should show you how messed up his life was. And he certainly wasn't happy about it.
Imagine how he felt when his captain broke herself and the worst criminal in Soul Society history out of prison. Then they show up at HQ and act like they own the place, completely ignoring the fact that he was basically the person keeping this organization together, demanding they see all the work he's done so far, then openly criticizing it in front of his face.
The afterlife just sucks sometimes.
The transmission from the spy came while he was contemplating his sucky life. He put down his tea.
((Lion Gold to Pheasant Green: confirmed sighting of Doubleblack Diamond))
((Lion Gold to Pheasant Green: report, automatic Class ranking SSS, mission deemed Extremely Dangerous))
Takeshi responded. ((Received))
He did a quick translation under the copied transmission, and quickly got up. He needed to report this to the captain.
The Whitelanders had finally found what they were looking for.
Over the entire Seireitei, one message was broadcast. "IMMEDIATE LOCKDOWN. HIGH-PRIORITY CRIMINALS MISSING FROM CUSTODY. ALL GATES TO THE DANGAI ARE TO BE SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATELY. ALL CAPTAINS ARE TO BE ON STANDBY FOR IMMINENT ATTACK. ALL SQUADS ARE TO PREPARE FOR BATTLE. I REPEAT, IMMEDIATE LOCKDOWN…"
Rukia Kuchiki looked up from her desk and the piles of paperwork littering it. The sky was an azure blue today, with tiny puffy clouds high in the air. The temperature was a little too warm, but not enough for her shihakusho to become stifling, even considering the added weight of the white haori. But now there was no chance she'd finish her paperwork, no chance at all.
She thought one thing, and one thing only.
"Ichigo…"
The wizards moved in the night. But the night was not simply a time designation, it was living thing. It was darkness incarnate, like a flood of blackness in the pit of hell, it lived, it breathed, it was—
"You're thinking strange things again, aren't you, Seth?"
"I can think what I want! This the place?"
"You have the map."
"You know I can't navigate."
"I know."
"Then stop giving me the map!"
"I don't want to hold it. Besides, it looks like a three-year-old drew it. I think there's drool on the corner."
Seth nearly dropped the map right there. He examined the corner closely. "That's not drool that's—"
"We're here," said the commander. The commander was the one who was maintaining the silencing, cloaking and muggle-repelling spells over both of them. He said he wanted to save Seth's strength in case they met resistance. Seth secretly thought that the commander just liked doing everything by himself.
They had stopped in front of a very ordinary house that doubled as a clinic. Seth couldn't read Japanese (though he could speak it reasonably well) so he didn't know what the sign read. That was another reason why the map was useless to him, it was written entirely in Japanese. The commander was Japanese, so it was probably meant for him. But, no, he had insisted he knew where he was going.
"Stop thinking sarcastic thoughts."
"Bite me."
"You should really stop giving me ideas."
A shadow detached itself from the doorway. "And you should really stop targeting teenage boys, Yori. People might think you have a fetish." The shadow formed itself into an ample breasted woman with black hair tied behind a cap.
"Ikumi Unagiya, so you've decided to join us after all," the commander continued.
Was this what he meant by 'resistance'? Seth thought.
Unagiya snorted. "As if. I'm here because I heard some idiot plan to kidnap my employee."
Isayama told her, then? That was out of character.
The commander's voice went hard. "You know why we are doing this. Why it must be done. This has little to do with the life of one child, and more with the lives of every human that will ever live. Do you still stop us?"
"Ichigo isn't the guy you're looking for, and I'm determined to back that up."
"Why do you refuse to see how special he is? He is the link between worlds, the bridge between life and death."
"And what evidence do you have of this?! The fact that he can see through the wards on my shop? He goes there every day! I'd be more shocked if he couldn't find it! And what else? The word of that wackjob over there?" She mockingly pointed at Seth.
Seth felt vaguely insulted. He pointed at himself in disbelief.
The commander, bless his soul, came to Seth's defense. "No Whitelander would ever dare lie to me." Well. Kinda.
"You have nothing on Ichigo. I won't let you take him." Unagiya slid her wand out of her arm sheath and brandished in front of her.
"Seth. Do your job." The commander dropped the spells he had been holding, they had no effect on Ikumi anyway, and this was a cue for them to split. The commander ran forward at a dash and continued up the wall when he reached it, defying gravity. Unagiya dashed forward as well, aiming to tackle him, but Seth turned the ground under her feet to a mud pit. Unagiya snarled and cast a padding spell over the floor, before she could fall into it. She ran across the invisible padding, making it look like she hovered above the ground. Then she quickly cast an immobility charm at the fast receding form of the commander. The commander noticed the spell at the last minute and dropped flat to the building, instead of standing on it.
The spell missed his torso but snagged his leg, turning it into dead weight. Unagiya began running up the building, but Seth stopped her with a barrier ward, spearing the area between the commander and Unagiya. She hit his barrier with a force spell, but Seth was made of sterner stuff than that, and the barrier held. The commander frantically tried to revive his leg, but Unagiya actively resisted his efforts. She hit Seth's barrier with a double barrage of force spells, and it was all Seth could do to keep the shield running.
Drop the barrier. Seth heard the words in his head and he immediately complied. As soon as the barrier dropped the stun spell, which had already been cast, hit Unagiya before she registered the barrier had dropped. She hit the ground with a strangled, "Yori…" Then laid still.
The immobilization spell on the commander's leg instantly vanished. He continued to flit up the building until he was out of sight, entering a dark window.
Seth stayed on the street, watching.
The commander's ex-lover lay sprawled like a dead body.
(o)(0)(o)
Good news, Ichigo. You're about to be kidnapped.
Ichigo blearily stared at the note and rubbed his head at the same time. Someone had thrown the rock at his head, and that's how he woke up in the middle of the night. There was something familiar about the handwriting, but now was not the time. He staggered to his feet and threw on some clothes with the vague idea of beating the crap out of whomever thought it was a good idea to mess with his sleep. Be it kidnapper or prankster. He headed downstairs.
He got to the bottom of the stairs when the doorbell rang. Ichigo walked over, more than a tad wary. He opened the front door, not all the way, and glimpsed a figure outside in complete shadow. The figure made no attempts on immediate assassination, so Ichigo opened the door all the way.
The figure was actually two figures. One was a thin man with crew-cut short black hair and glasses. Another was a dark-skinned woman, like Yoruichi, but without the boobs. Her hair was grey, though she was young-looking.
Both wore police uniforms.
"Uh, how can I help you... officers?"
Crew-Cut flashed his badge. "You are Ichigo Kurosaki, correct?"
"...yes?" The police were on his doorstep. Ichigo frantically ran through all the people he had beaten up in the past six months and tried to figure out who had reported him. It was no use. They were all gang members. They didn't rat people out.
"You will have to come with us immediately," Crew-Cut continued. The woman just watched. It creeped him out.
Ichigo made no move to leave. "For what reason?" Without consciously thinking about it, he adjusted his body-language to hostile, feet wider apart, arms ready at his sides.
In reaction, Crew-Cut said, "It is nothing major. We have heard that you were witness to a case we are currently working on. It would benefit us to hear your statement." Ichigo still gave no inclination of movement. "It will only take a moment, then we promise not to bother you again."
What could Ichigo do? Say no? To the police? No way in hell. "Ah… sure," Ichigo really didn't want to take his eyes off the police officers, but if they were going to drag him around to the police department in the middle of the night, he wanted shoes. "Just give me a sec."
It happened when he turned his back.
His entire body felt like it was drenched in ice-water. One moment all he felt was his own muted reiatsu signature and nothing from the officers at the door. Then it washed over him like a flood, threatening to drown him. His own reiatsu rose to the challenge before he recognized it consciously. That man's reiatsu was ingrained into his soul.
Then he was passing out, blackness dancing at the edges of his vision. No! It can't end this way! He grabbed the wall with one hand, forcing himself to turn around.
One face dominated his vision.
Smiling in a way that was almost amused, but not quite.
"Ichigo," the face said.
No! He should be in prison!
"You've become so weak."
All the breath was knocked out of him.
He crumpled to the ground.
Aizen.
"We have to move quickly."
"Where's the guy?"
"We've been had. He's already been moved."
"Who?!"
"Guess."
"How'd they find out?"
"They have access to resources both living and dead. We must move. Now."
Two men blinked out of existence.
"What do you think you are doing?!" Chiasa spoke quietly, yet with force. Perfect pronunciation. Her lieutenant took a step back.
Aizen smirked, "Damage control," hefting Ichigo's limp body over his shoulder.
Chiasa inserted herself in the middle of the doorway. "I'm afraid I can't let you get away with that." Her small frame might as well have been a boulder.
She blinked, and Aizen was behind her. "You can try," he whispered in her ear. She snapped around, and he was gone. Her lieutenant was unconscious on the ground, bleeding from a wound to his temple.
Chiasa narrowed her eyes, grabbed Takeshi, her lieutenant, and Apparated.
Aizen paused in his flashstep in a very specific clearing for a very specific purpose. Rarely did he ever do anything else. The moon was almost full, bathing the clearing in silver light. In this light, everything was a shade of black or white.
They were there waiting, of course. Just as planned.
It was true; Aizen could not see them. However, it was easy enough to discern their location by saturating the area with reishi and looking at the blank spots. The gigai Aizen was in allowed the wizards to see him, but not the other way around. The Shihoin woman had said this was unusual. In this gigai, Aizen should be able to see and communicate with wizards. This was not the case, and puzzled Aizen to no end.
There were two, that was all Aizen could tell. He predicted it was the Japanese wizard and a peon.
Aizen dropped his charge on the ground; he landed without a sound. But Aizen could tell he would wake any moment now.
Perfect.
"We will wait here silently."
"But—!"
"Silently, Seth."
Seth burned with questions. Most prominent was the question of: What are we doing here?Our target was escaping! Why are we waiting in this insignificant clearing in some insignificant woods—
"Answers will come, Seth. For now, silence."
He appeared out of nowhere. Not like Apparition, just simply there. Seth finally understood why they were silent. That man was dangerous in a way he had never encountered before. He gulped.
The commander approached the man. Figures. That guy was fearless. "Why are you helping us?" he demanded.
"I see you have received my message. Consider this a cooperation gift." The strange man nudged an unconscious body with his foot.
"Why? Why do you do this?" the commander continued.
"I hope to continue being beneficial to each other." The man smirked, then disappeared. Seth hadn't blinked.
Seth had to ask. "Was that a… Soul Reaper?" His voice came out as a whisper.
"Congratulations, Seth. You have seen a sight few others will ever claim." The commander stood seemingly frozen in the middle of the white-washed clearing. After speaking he revitalized, sparking to action. "Let's tie him up, Headquarters is a long way away."
The commander and Seth walked up to the kid Seth had met once before. He looked exactly the same, the same punkish attitude. He scowled even when unconscious. That must have taken skill. Seth snored when he was unconscious. Or was that when he was sleeping?
"I'll put him to sleep, you bind him."
"Gotcha, boss."
"Don't call me boss."
"Gotcha, boss."
The commander glared at Seth as he cast the spell on the target. "Sopornium."
That's why he got elbowed in the face.
The commander reeled back, grabbing a broken nose.
Seth took a step back and cast a spell at the same time, "Petrificus Totalus!"
The kid dived out of the way, rolling on the ground. He was fast. Faster than he had any right to be. Seth moved to strike again, wordlessly; the commander was trying to keep back, healing his nose and stopping the blood that had completely soaked his front. The kid saw his wand flick and dashed in, aiming for close-range where the long-range spells couldn't hit him. Seth's spell went wild, and the kid punched him in the face, blood flying out his mouth. The kid was strong, as strong as a werewolf. Seth was completely stunned. After the punch the kid was already in motion, following up with a kick. Wham! Seth flew ten feet backwards, finally grinding to a halt on the grass.
Seth just laid there a moment, letting the pain wash over him. The commander! he thought. He pushed himself to his feet, only to see his boss stun the kid where he stood. The kid was still. Until he started to lurch forward. The commander stunned him again. Then he was still, and he did not move again.
Seth staggered over. "I must look terrible," Seth muttered.
"I don't see any difference." The commander was just mean sometimes. "Let's be quick about this, he could break the spell any moment now."
Ichigo Kurosaki was spelled into a deep sleep and covered with magical bindings. He was carried by the taller wizard; the shorter wizard with the blue scarf nursed his broken ribs. They gathered around a Tokyo postcard, both touching a corner. Space turned into a vacuum and sucked them up.
(o)(0)(o)