Well, I am back for a long-overdue second instalment. I understand that the chapters are short now, but they will get longer once I delve deeper into the story line.
Thank you to akafyi, who read this over, changed some things, and pushed me out of the rut I was stuck in for the past few weeks.
Last I know, I do not own Bleach. I only own my characters, the bizzare-o-land plot for this story [it's coming ...], and this laptop. *checks statistics on the computer* No, Bleach still belongs to Mr Tite Kubo.
Written by: 7ShadowsUnleashed
Posted: 12 April, 2014
Æ
Two halves of a zanpaku-tō blade fell to the road moments before their black-shrouded master followed, clattering impossibly loud as they settled in the ridges between flat cobblestones. The body hit the walkway with a muted thud and rolled into the shadow of the Squad Eleven barracks a half-second later, joining its companion in the cold shadows beneath the wall.
.:.
They thought they had landed soundlessly on the roof, but the fools should have known better: two soul reapers could never move soundlessly. What set two men apart from the silent night — be it the swish of their robes, the slightest clatter of their zanpakutō within their sheaths, their feet scraping the tiles, or possibly a combination of all three — made no difference in the manner in which they now lay, or it might have made every difference in the world.
It is surprisingly difficult to ask a dead man why he died, even if you are in the Soul Society.
No matter, Leafshard reassured himself. No one heard them fall.
He looked over his team once more. "We kill once more tonight," he told them. "No more."
"Please note that 'kill' means kill. No maiming. I don't want to clean up after you again." Windshadow flickered as she moved. Her fluffy white hair danced around her, every delicate silver strand growing longer, thicker, and splitting into tiny offshoots. She shook her head, the feathers swishing gently in the breeze. Her fanged mouth, flickering tongue, inhuman green eyes … everything winked in and out of existence like a photograph under a strobe light.
"Shall we?" she looked to Leafshard for this answer.
The yellow-eyed youth turned his back to her to hide his childish grin, "Don't let me see you lag behind, little cat."
She scoffed, a sly grin splitting her lips "Don't worry: you won't see me at all."
.:.
The busty lieutenant of Division Ten, Rangiku Matsumoto, woke the moment shadows hopped through the shaft of moonlight spilling into the dark office — something that must have been pure luck.
Trapped in the final spider-threads of a hangover, the woman blinked a few times to see if the pale shades were lingering traces of a dream—not that she remembered any of the stories her subconscious mind had concocted that night — given they were gone in a flash, leaving only the curtains swishing in the light breeze.
What was that?The orange-haired woman wondered. Memories of the recent murder reports surfaced in her somewhat sober state; it made her paranoid. Maybe I should check on the squad.
She stood and walked down the hall, knocking on each door as she went down the long hallway, and flicking off a stray light switch here and there.
Everything seems good so far.
It seemed so, until she came across the apartment she shared with the captain.
Hand on the doorknob, she slowly opened the door, only to find an abyssal darkness spread before her — every light snuffed out.
That's strange. She thought. Captain always leaves the light on in the hallway.Should she stumble while some-what sober—like now—and actually plan on brushing her teeth or taking a shower, Hitsugaya always left the light on to illuminate her path — always.
Matsumoto began walking slowly down the hallway towards her bedroom, feeling her way along the inner wall as if she were blind.
"Captain, are you awake?" she called. "I'm ba-"
Cold hands wrapped around her neck, pulling her down to the floor on her knees. The lieutenant fought for a startled breath, gasping for air as she tried to loosen the fingers wrapped around her throat.
"Do not breathe a word," a soft voice warned—kind of ironic for the situation at hand. "I would prefer not to kill you, but, if you cause trouble, I can easily go back on my words"
"Who … are you …? Where's …?" her voice trailed off as the hands tightened around her throat, cutting off her air supply.
" 'Where's …' the captain? I am guessing? Don't worry, he's fine; nothing will happen to him." The voice sounded ageless, hypnotic, rough, and refined all at the same time — Matsumoto could not place it.
The hands loosened just enough for her to speak. "Then … why are you holding … me hostage like this?"
"Because I have no choice."
The lieutenant was suddenly released from her captor's grasp around her neck and she fell to the ground, gasping for air all the while coughing at the same time. Lifting her head, the strawberry blonde caught a flash of white in the shadows a second before something struck the back of her head and she sank into blackness.
.:.
Matsumoto opened her cerulean eyes to see the white walls of the squad four barracks. She pushed her body into a sitting position, ignoring the throbbing pain in her head as she assessed the situation, trying summarize what she could remember into simple words: someone — presumably female due to the long, narrow fingers she remembers coiling around her throat— had infiltrated the Squad Ten barracks sometime late last night, found her way into the building and had knocked her out. Though the intruder probably had not come alone as she could swear she heard voices drifting down the halls.
Her head began pounding from the effort of trying to sort out all of this information. Calm yourself. You can sleep when you know Captain is all right.
She wasn't positive, but there was this gut-wrenching feeling inside her telling her that her captain was injured … where was her faith in the youngest member of the Gotei Thirteen?
He's okay, I know he is. He's Captain Hitsugaya: he would never fall victim to anyone.
That sounded better.
Voices could be heard outside her door along with the opening and closing of others, as well as the scuff of slippers on the tatami mat floors.
Then the door to her room suddenly opened and in walked the leader of the healing division, Restu Unohana."I trust you are well, Lieutenant Matsumoto," she asked in her motherly-sweet voice that made the enemy want to run for cover.
"Captain Unohana," Masumoto bowed as well as she could from her seated position. "What's going on around here?"
The Squad Four captain stopped just before the bed the lieutenant was lying on. "That's what I've come to discuss about with you," she said.
.:.
A soft laugh emitted from Windshadow whom was seated atop a shelf where she was watching their hostage, Squad Ten's Captain, Toshiro Hitsugaya, fall once more to the cold stone floor. His chest heaved with the exertion and his arms remained bent at the same unnatural angles they had fallen to when he awoke.
She had to admit, she was enjoying watching their hard-won prisoner struggle against the insurmountable, but it looked like the fool was going to waste their work by getting himself killed — something she was not in the mood to let slide. It had taken some time to capture him, and Leafshard and his second-in-command, Ledger, still bore the thin cuts from the young captain's escape attempt.
.:.
In her mind's eye, she could still see the mist-laden ridges they had crossed, only the sky standing between them and silver-eyed moon. Below them spread the world, feeling even larger than when one stood within it. To see it spread boundlessly before them, the Grey Squad felt small and insignificant. They wanted to stand there and revel in its beauty forever, to forget their limits and needs under the silver moonlight.
Then their prisoner woke.
He had been foolish to think he could escape, but capture can change one's mind faster than any other life-and-death situation. The realisation that one's life is not in one's hands but in those of others ... it makes them panic or it drops them, unceremoniously, into a thoughtless depression. Hitsugaya was clearly of the panicking sort, breaking into a cold sweat the moment he opened his eyes, struggling against the soul chains that bound his hands and feet as he tried to draw the sword sheathed and tied behind his back.
He somehow manoeuvred the long blade out of its sheath and cut the soul chains around his legs before using a similar process to free his hands, and took his sword with a childish gleam in his eyes. It was like his pitiful mind had tied the zanpaku-tō blade to his survival. Seeing it now and feeling the familiar silk-wrapped grip beneath his hands, he felt as though he might have a chance.
Just as his hands clasped the hilt, his body was pushed flat against the hard ground.
"So the rumour is true: a Zanpaku-to really can cut through a weaker soul chain." Leafshard whispered, his knee pressed into the white-haired shinigami's back. With his loose, stringy black-and-grey patched hair, the young man passed for an older street rat or an apprentice grim reaper depending on the day's chosen attire. "I was curious about it - concerned as well - so thank you for that little piece of information, little captain." he grinned, curved fangs starkly gleaming against his shadowed face. "I now know how to render you powerless."
The white-haired prisoner gritted his teeth and moved his sword arm back a few millimetres, preparing for something ... anything ... an opportunity to do damage to his captors: even a little would help. Wait for it, wait for it ...
He felt the weight on his back shift. Though there was very little - whoever sat on him was clearly a featherweight - he still could not lift himself off of the ground. Something drained him, held him to the ground, but he pushed against it and gathered his strength.
I will not lie here at your mercy: I am Toshiro Hitsugaya, the youngest captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, and I will not be trumped by the likes of you. I will prove that someone as young as I can be a captain the squads can be proud of.
He braced his left arm against the stone, pressing the tips of his toes down for purchase, and sprang, throwing the man from his back as he swung Hyorinmaru in a wide arc.
He saw his captors clearly for the first time. The boy he had thrown into the air had landed in a sideways lunge with enough feline grace to scare Yoruichi, one hand pressed flat to the ground and the other balled into a fist and held tightly against his side, stringy black and silver hair falling disobediently across his back and shoulders. He stood with a smirk and dusted off his palms, calmly humming a few bars of "Metric Lips" as he moved to stand before his comrades. A pair of identical girls stood on either side of him, propping themselves on his narrow shoulders. Two men, an older fellow with an apparent limp and a young man with deep brown eyes stood on either side of the girls like a flock gathering behind the lead bird ... a flock of dangerous, predatory, freakishly capable birds.
Am I really that weak?Toshiro wondered. To be beaten by a single man, three girls, and two boys.
"This has to be the greatest insult to my career." the young captain growled. He moved Hyorinmaru to its "ready" position - held vertically at his left side - and waited for them to charge.
"Well, who would have guessed? The prisoner wants a fight." In contrast to his light tone, the boy's burning eyes took a dangerous gleam. "Ledger, Herdra, come with me." The older man and twenty year old followed him. Together, the three males stationed themselves before Toshiro, their eyes carrying the same wicked gleam.
Evil wood, evil water, and evil flames. Toshiro met the brown, blue, and fiery eyes as he slowly turned, trying to predict the enemies' movements with little luck. Why do I always find the villains?
The fiery-eyed leader grinned. "Let's not keep him waiting."
.:.
Windshadow shook her head as she watched the prisoner struggling in his cell. He managed to move his arms as he thrashed, screeching as the muscled appendages flopped like dead fish, smacking the stone. She was sure that, even from her perch twenty metres above, she heard his bones crack with each blow.
"He's going to kill himself if he goes on like that," a voice whispered in her ear.
Windshadow jumped, turning to confront her assailant, then she saw him and laughed softly, her arms crossed over her chest. "I didn't hear you enter, Leafshard."
Said man stood at the edge of the pit-cell. "Do you enjoy seeing the powerful brought low, little cat?" he asked. His fiery eyes were two brands burning in the darkness.
Windshadow forced her eyes away from the pit. "I don't know."
"Make him stop thrashing."
The white-haired girl groaned. "It's my day off!" she protested.
The black-haired boy laughed. "Well, Little Cat," he pulled her by the shoulder and threw her off the edge. "You can take a day off when the prisoner isn't in danger of killing himself."
Windshadow shrugged. "It's no fun when I'm not missing something important." She plucked a silver strand from her head and twisted it into a figure eight. "Kowareta Kaze no Kage: be my wings."
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Well, how did I do? The lacking review count last chapter made me a bit miserable given the number of views this piece had. What am I doing wrong? Right? Is it just "meh?" Is there something you want to see?
What do you think of the Grey Squad? Leafshard? Windshadow?
Please critique so the next chapters will be better [and come faster].
Kowareta Kaze no Kage: "broken wind shadow"