Well I am back! Another on time update for me. I don't know how much longer this story is going to be, I'm not anywhere close to the end, and I do have my own Arc to complete. So well yah. I'm just going to give you the chapter and disclaimer and then I'll see you at the bottom.
DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN BLEACH I ONLY OWN THE PLOT AND SOME OF THE CHARACTERS
Enyo made good time making her way to the King's office. She was sure that he was there, where else would he be? After all he was sure to be getting busy with all of what was going on and about to take place. She nodded to the guards who saluted her as she walked past. She gave two sharp taps to the door, she was gentle as she didn't want to bruise he knuckles but they were loud enough that she knew wouldn't be mistaken as random thumps.
"Enter." The silky smooth voice called.
Enyo opened the door and stepped in with grace. She bowed low to the King once she was fully inside. She wouldn't dare raise her head until the King told her to do so, even if this was going to cause unsightly wrinkles in her dress.
"Rise." He commanded and the Grecian girl did as she was told. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Milord, I have something interesting to report." She spoke gently fluttering her eyelashes for no apparent reason other than it was flirty and something she deemed acceptable for her to do.
The King looked up, he was genuinely interested as Enyo didn't often come down to report things herself deeming it beneath her. "Oh? Let's hear it, my dear."
She tried to keep herself from rolling her eyes at the pet name. "Naturally, milord." She bowed once again.
When she stood up the King looked ready for her to begin. "On a whim, I went to observe what condition our guest was in. He wasn't a very pretty sight, though he wasn't to begin with, he scowled too much, anyway as I took a closer look I saw that he had REM."
"REM? What's so important about that? Everyone has that." The King said.
"But he shouldn't. By all rights he should be brain dead, after all that's what normally happens when your conscious self disappears. I've used my ability on many, and not one of them ever had REM again."
"Meaning?"
"He is still there on some degree. Meaning he can be saved by those shinigami providing they figure out how, and I can try one more ace to try and get his hollow. If that is milord's wish."
The King leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled together as he thought about something. He chewed on his bottom lip, and Enyo couldn't help but notice that his lips were chapped. Most unsightly, she thought. Finally the King leaned forward his elbows on his desk.
"What happens if you fail? If he retreats further, if he rejects you again?"
Enyo paused, thinking hard. "Then I suppose his very essence will be too torn for repair. He could still be alive, but he'll be nothing more than a body that once was someone."
The king hummed thoughtfully. Enyo cleared her throat indicating that she had more to say than what she already had. "But I expect that the chances of him resisting me once more are very slim. Providing that I can find him in that maze of his."
"Can you guarantee that he will be found?" Sachio inquired.
Enyo shook her head, causing a few more strands to fall out of her bun, but somehow they managed to frame her face perfectly. "No. If he has receded far enough into his mind then only the strongest of bonds can bring him back. Whether they be of hate or love, it matters not. I can guess that there aren't many hateful ones."
The King looked slightly put out. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Hmm, and you can't erase his essence without finding him?"
"I cannot." She spoke carefully.
"What if you managed to get more power?"
Enyo tilted her head considering it for a moment. "It may be easier to find him then."
"Very well." The King spoke once again leaning back. "Thank you for the report, I'll let you know what I've decided later."
Sachio waved his hand and Enyo knew this was sign for her dismissal. She bowed once more and walked out of the office. The door swung shut behind her. Once it did Enyo sighed it was barely noon and she had done everything she wanted to do. She supposed that going back to her room and getting a pedicure was always an option. With that thought in mind she walked off towards her wing.
Ichigo had felt a strange presence enter this place and leave within seconds. It felt like something was creeping up on him. He had actually physically spun around making sure that he wasn't being follow. But at this point any company would actually be welcomed, even if it was one of his captors. Being alone, it was unnerving, he still had his puzzle about whom he fancied but the creepy feeling had distracted him and leaving his thoughts to wander a different and more dangerous trail.
He had found that more and more often when he wasn't focusing on finding the one who he had affection for they would go into a place in his mind that he had tried to ignore, the dark part of his mind that held all of his 'what ifs' and 'if onlys'.
He hated when that happened. He always had doubts, what "hero" doesn't. He had felt like the weight of the world had been on his shoulders and still was. He knew by wandering aimlessly he was allowing the sky to slip closer to the earth. Damn, now he was sounding like Enyo and her references to Greek legends. He shook his head. He wasn't Atlas, he wasn't even a demigod but he still felt like he was always sent on quests, granted he volunteered for most of them and it was mostly his fault for starting some of them, but it wasn't the same, there was no oracle giving him shrouded words of his future. Half the time he didn't know if what he was doing was the right thing.
He shook his head trying to dislodge those thoughts. Granted he thought that it was a good thing that he paid attention when the teacher had made them learn about the Greek myths as a genre study in his literature class. But that's not what he needed to compare his situation to at the moment. He had two things that should be his top priorities. One, getting out of here. Two finding out who he had a crush on.
Though he figured that he should know number two. Most people were aware of who they had a crush on and who their type was. Then again Ichigo wasn't exactly normal in those respects, or any. Hell! He wasn't a typical shinigami!
He decided that walking would help him clear his head. Normally he was able to hold a train of thought longer than he was at the moment. It felt like his brain was fuzzy, and he had to blink in order to get rid of the double vision he was experiencing.
He heard the sound of something that was being dropped. Looking up he saw that there was a large stalactite was falling from the sky. Ichigo stumbled backwards attempting to avoid the falling stone. It missed him by about an inch. Surprised he looked up and saw that his vision was still blocked out by the raging snow storm. He couldn't figure out how a stalactite fell from the sky, he wasn't in a cave as far as he knew, and how did a blizzard happen in a cave anyway? Nothing was making sense anymore.
Ichigo sat down, covering his face with his hands and pressing the palms into his eyes. He was trying to get himself to focus as the walking hadn't helped any. Off in the distance he heard more stalactites falling. He still couldn't figure out where they were originating from.
I'm not much good any more, am I? He thought to himself, a bitter laugh left his throat. It sounded worse than it should've, his voice still terribly underused. When he used to laugh, on the rare occasion that he was actually laughing at something genuinely funny and not the obnoxious laugh he did when it was someone's expense he was laughing at, it was smooth, gentle, and had a slight breathiness to it. He didn't think he had laughed like that it a long time.
25 days since Ichigo went missing
Isshin wasn't that surprised when Urahara had visited him yesterday and told him what had happened. In truth he had expected that his past would come and bite him in the ass. He had also figure that he would be cruel enough and target his children, or in this case, his only son.
True he could've taken measures to prevent this from happening, but what could he have done. The man's power was something that couldn't be underestimated, at least when he knew him, the power was undoubtedly impressive but it was used so evilly.
He had kept a few things from his wife, where she had told him everything. He only kept his secrets out of pure necessity, though Masaki probably was able to figure some things out. She hadn't been stupid, she had played ignorant but she had been one of the smartest people he knew.
Still he wasn't sure what he should do. If Soul Society was actually looking for Ichigo, and Urahara was helping, he would be found sooner or later. But sitting around doing nothing wasn't very fatherly of him. But he had Yuzu and Karin to think about as well and if he and Ichigo both ended up dead then who would take care of them? The bearded man looked over to the poster of his beloved.
"What should I do?" He asked it. His tone was no more than a whisper, and that of a confused man. As expected the poster remained silent and unhelpful.
Urahara was never a worrier. Sure he was someone who would mildly concerned if you were bleeding out on his carpet, but even then he was more concerned about the carpet staining than the actual person. He tended to claim that he was distant from people because they didn't understand him, and he understood his inventions better than most people.
But right now he was defiantly worried. About more than one thing at that. He was worried about how little information that they had about the Neo-Gotei, how were they supposed to fight when they were practically blind? He was worried about creating a portal to this pocket dimension, he had decided to classify it at that as it was the closest thing in definition that covered the anomaly. He had never created something that would lead someone into a place he had no clue how it was design, he could put the group into the middle of the meeting room during a meeting. He was worried that with the equipment that he had created wouldn't be able to find the dimension or get an exact location, then it really wouldn't help his impromptu doorway.
Most of all he was worried about Ichigo. The kid was tough, undoubtedly, he had seen the hit's the kid was able to take and continue to fight unhindered. But there was more than being tough, he was strong physically, but had trouble emotionally. He didn't have a good track record with emotions which was a liability to him, and something that these people would be able to pick up on quickly. There was also the part where he had no idea on how cruel the ex-shinigami would be able to be; he had a sinking feeling that they would be able to be extremely cruel if they wanted to. There were a lot of things he didn't know. He also was certain that Ichigo's wounds that he suffered in the initial encounter would have been healed or even proper treated, there was a better chance that they were used against him.
His mind paused in his thoughts. It was like someone had hit the emergency break. The initial encounter! It was in a public place and that there would be video cameras! Sure the humans wouldn't be able to pick up shinigami but he knew that the cameras would still be able to capture the shinigami as if they were regular humans.
He dashed to his computer and started to look for the cities video archive. Once that was found he set to work hacking it. He knew that it seemed weird that he knew human skills but it was proving useful at the moment.
A few seconds later and there was a large file downloading onto his computer. Once it was finished he opened it up and looked for the correct date. He found it as it was near the top and was the next in line to be used to start a cd so that it could still be accessed but it wouldn't be taking up memory. He was lucky he got to it when he did.
He sped it up until the evening then he watched as people filtered through, he kept changing cameras not sure where the encounter actually took place. He stopped when he saw the gate that Yuna had used and he saw five shadows emerge. A little while later and Ichigo showed up.
Urahara couldn't believe his luck at finding this! They now had five actual faces of the Neo-Gotei and two of their number's shikai. It wouldn't help with finding Ichigo, but it would help Soul Society if it came to war, and it was looking like it would.
He picked out the faces, they weren't as good as they should be. Three of them were perfect, and he did stop to wonder why the playground had more security cameras around it than most stores had in them.
He could identify Yuna. She was the one that had accidentally looked at the camera dead on. The next on was of a large man that had only one ear, he had been standing in the view of the camera and his face was clear. The third clearest one was actually extremely clear. She was exceptionally beautiful and he knew that if he knew who she was he wouldn't forget her face. The other two were more challenging to get a clear enough image of, they hadn't strayed from the shadows that much but the pictures that he was able to get would have to suffice.
He began to run through a facial recognition system that he had from when he was in the second squad. It would take a while as the system was so old that they still had drawings of some of the ancient shinigami that have long since died, retired, or gotten a promotion. Urahara leaned back, he felt like was doing some good now.
Even if he was still worried about Ichigo, but now he had something to focus on, which was a big relief for him.
The five groups had reached the top of the pillars now. It was a disturbingly beautiful sight. The bone white sands of Hueco Mundo covered the entirety of world and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was like an ocean shore, without the ocean.
The groups pulled out their devices and started to scan for the location of the anomaly. Hums and beeps filled the relative silence as the devices did their job. The screen of them was lit up, waves of different colors appeared there and vanished, though one stayed the same, Toshiro could only guess that the wave that remained was the frequency they were trying to find a match to. Another thought was, why were their so many other frequencies, were they from the hollows? Or were they from other anomalies that they had yet to find. It was a question for another day.
The devices must've been scanning every wave in their vicinity because it was taking forever, at least to the white haired captain. It was about an hour before there was a brief burst of static and Ikkaku's voice came through the speakers of the device.
"No luck over here. Its saying there isn't any more waves for it to scan and there wasn't a match."
Toshiro pressed the button to speak. "Alright. That means that we know what direction not to go."
There was silence as everyone continued to watch the screen. Rangiku was getting bored, the waves had been interesting for the first five minutes or so, and there was an unspoken excitement about getting one step closer to their goal, but that feeling wore off quickly with the lack of progress. The strawberry-blonde was uncertain about how her captain would act if this led them to another dead end. They had run into so many already.
The next to check in was Renji. "Nothing over here."
The report didn't prompt a response from the team leader. Rangiku watched her captain, apparently engrossed in the little screen.
Toshiro stared at the screen, not really seeing anything. A sense of foreboding had crept up on him, and he didn't like it. So far all they had accomplished was getting to the top of insanely high pillars and the devices were taking too long and not providing the results Toshiro wanted. The white haired shinigami wondered when he had become so impatient, previously he had proven to be one of the more patient captains, but now he certainly was acting his physical age.
Though when he actually focused on the device once again he saw that the previously erratic waves were starting to get closer and closer to the sample waves. He thought that it was progress, but truth be told he didn't really know much about waves and frequencies and things of that nature, he was a genius, but only when it came to things that had to do with being a shinigami.
The next one to call in was Yumichika. "Nothing over here as well."
Toshiro nodded though no one but his vice-captain could see. He figure that it was either him or Rukia and Ashido that would have the right frequencies. Now all they had to do was wait to see who would have the right one. Waiting was starting to get tiresome and repetitive to Toshiro, they had done enough of that and right now all he wanted to do was get Ichigo back.
The young captain wondered why he sounded so determined and needy at the same time. From the beginning he had been determined to get Ichigo back, it was a given for that. The substitute shinigami had helped Soul Society a lot in recent times, and there was something about the teen that compelled people to be more adamant in their decisions or to change their ways. Toshiro also thought that he owed it to Ichigo after the whole Kusaka incident, the teen had been so willing to help without knowing what he would be getting into.
Toshiro would've smiled if the situation wasn't so grim. That's essentially what I'm doing. I have no idea what's going to be waiting for us beyond the anomaly.
It was fifteen minutes before Toshiro's scanner lit up with a message. Toshiro read it greedily, but felt his face fall as he finished. Rangiku had heard the message alert and came to read it herself. She too felt her face fall.
'Cannot detect any more waves, no matches found.'
"Dammit!" Toshiro cursed.
Rangiku gave her captain a saddened look. Since her captain didn't look like he was in the mood to talk to anyone she took the device and pressed the button so that she would be heard.
"No luck over this direction." She mumbled into it.
There was silence. Rangiku figured that it was because there was only one remaining scanner. If that one came up blank then they would have to report a mission failure to Urahara. That was something that nobody wanted to do, especially after all of their setbacks. One could try to find something good about the situation, maybe that they were going to bring back a shinigami that was proficient in killing hollows and might be able to help them in the fight against them.
Not three minutes later came Rukia's voice. "We've got a 98% match!" She was trying to hold back her excitement, as he voice was a few decibels higher than normal and there was a happy tremor as she spoke.
"We'll be right over." Rangiku spoke.
Toshiro had looked up when Rukia reported as success. Happiness and something else shone in his eyes. The two shinigami flash stepped over to the pillar where Rukia and Ashido were. The others arrived seconds after they did. Rukia was fiddling with the device trying to get something out of it.
"According to this," Rukia held up the device, "there is something that matches our sample. It's a good distance away as well."
Toshiro crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "Even if it's across this world our mission is to get the coordinates for the anomaly and get back to Urahara-san."
Rangiku nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! We'll be able to cover a lot of distance today if we start now!"
There was a nod of assent from the group, but nobody wanted to be the first one to make the move towards getting started, for whatever reason,
Renji finally spoke up. "What are you waiting for? Let's get a move on!"
Renji then proceeded to jump off of the pillar. Rukia looked annoyed. "Renji you fool! You don't even know what way to go!"
She jumped down after him, Ashido not sure what to do followed. The others that remained looked a little baffled at the sudden burst of energy, no that wasn't the right word Toshiro decided, it was the sudden bust of normalcy that was confusing. Ichigo was still missing but everyone was starting to ask as if he had never gotten captured in the first place.
Toshiro jumped down a long with the others. His vice-captain was right the more efficient they were with their time the sooner this part of the mission would be over with. The sooner they could get Ichigo back.
There you all have it! Didn't this used to be updated on Thursdays? Anyway I should give you the preview now yes?
When night fell on Hueco Mundo two figures walked into the room where the prisoner was being held. The room had been remodeled somewhat instead of being just a singular bed there were two chairs, a table, and a pitcher of water. The teen's bed still remained the center of attention when walking into the room.
The two figures each took a chair. Neither of them looking pleased with their situation. "Why do I have to help you?"
"Our King ordered it such." Enyo replied.
It's the shortest preview yet I know but I didn't have time to write more before I needed to get this up so I'll be off to write chapter 17! Later!~IF