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Chapter Seventeen - Searching for Answers
Once the trio returned to the Seireitei Hitsugaya led the way to the Squad Ten office, followed closely by Ed and the woman that he called teacher. Her explanation about someone using alchemy to fuse Hollow together to create a more powerful being made since to the young captain, who had acquired a vast amount of knowledge about alchemy during his lessons with Ed.
The real question was who was responsible for the creation of said creatures?
Once again Izumi had a very valid point about the number of people capable of pulling it off being limited. It had to be someone who had extensive knowledge of alchemy, as well as the time necessary to learn to use that skill in Soul Society.
When they reached his office Hitsugaya slid the door open and motioned for the two people following him to enter. Ed and Izumi complied and the young captain followed them, anxious to question this new arrival and find out exactly what she knew about the manufactured Hollow. The white haired youth motioned toward the sofa and, taking the hint, Ed and Izumi sat down.
"So tell me," Hitsugaya said, a strange expression in his teal eyes. "What do you know of these Hollow that were created using alchemy?"
Izumi took a deep breath and met the young captain's gaze. "They began appearing a couple of months ago and they seem to be targeting specific people. I think they are most likely a test run for some kind of experiment."
"Why do you think that Teacher?" Ed asked, his golden eyed gaze focused on the woman who had trained him and his brother.
"Well," Izumi said, her thoughts wandering back to her first few encounters with the modified Hollow. "At first they targeted normal people who lived in the Rukongai; no one with particularly strong reiatsu and thus no one who posed a threat to anyone. Then, their targets became random Shinigami who were out in the Rukongai on patrol and now finally the two of you."
"I see," Hitsugaya said, running a hand through his unruly white hair. "So their targets have increased in strength over time. That most likely means that their testing exactly how tough of an opponent their creations can deal with."
"Wonderful," Ed said, his voice laced heavily with sarcasm. "So what are we going to do about this?"
"We're going to stop them of course," Hitsugaya replied, as though this were the most obvious thing in the world. "You should go and request to borrow your brother from Squad Four. I expect that we'll need his help and his powers will most likely prove useful in this fight."
"Right," Ed said, getting to his feet. "I'll go and fetch Al right now."
And with this Ed departed the Squad Ten office. He couldn't believe his bad luck; all he'd wanted to do was grow strong enough to defeat that bastard Tomori and yet now he found himself drawn into yet another conflict. And a conflict involving Hollow chimera of all things.
"There's something weird about this," the young Shinigami thought to himself as he made his way across the Seireitei toward the Squad Four barracks. He really hoped that Captain Unohana consented to let him borrow his brother since his powers really would be useful in this fight.
"Nii-san!" Al called out as he spied his older brother walking across the Squad Four courtyard. The younger of the two brothers offered the elder a smile but it faltered as Ed grew closer and Al picked up on the concern in his golden eyes. "What's the matter?"
"We have a problem," Ed replied, gazing around. "Do you think that Captain Unohana will let you come to Squad Ten with me?"
Al shrugged. "Probably but why?"
"I'll explain everything on the way," Ed promised. "Now go and ask her."
Al picked up on the sense of urgency contained in Ed's voice and immediately dashed off in search of his commanding officer. He returned about ten minutes later and nodded to Ed. "She said that it was okay for me to come with you. Now tell me what's going on?"
"Right," Ed said, turning and leading the way toward the gate that led from the courtyard. "Well Captain Hitsugaya and I had just finished our training session when we felt what we thought to be the combined reiatsu of a large number of Hollow out in the Rukongai. We went to check out the situation and we discovered that it was a single Hollow but one that possessed the reiatsu of many."
Al gasped upon hearing this news. "Nii-san... does that mean what I think it means?"
Ed nodded. "It means that someone else in this world knows how to use alchemy and that they're using it to fuse Hollow together. We have to find out who is doing this and we have to stop them."
"Right," Al said.
The two brothers quickly made their way to the Squad Ten barracks and when they entered Captain Hitsugaya's office Al froze as his gaze fell upon someone that he hadn't expected to ever see again. His gray eyes widened and his mouth fell open.
"Oh yea," Ed said as a sort of after thought. "Guess I forgot to mention that we sorta ran into Teacher while we were out in the Rukongai..."
Al whirled on his brother. "How could you forget to mention something like that?"
Ed shrugged.
"Hello Alphonse," Izumi said, offering the younger of her two former students a smile. "You're looking well. And I've heard from Captain Hitsugaya that you've gone into healing."
"Yea," Al said, sounding somewhat embarrassed.
"Come on," Hitsugaya said, motioning for the two boys to come over to the spot where he and Izumi were seated. "You can catch up later. For now we have to figure out exactly how we're going to deal with this little problem."
"Right," Ed and Al said in one voice.
Ed and Al sat down on the sofa and together the four of them discussed the modified Hollow and the person who was responsible for their creation. Ed thought that the homunculi were the most obvious culprits of something like this however they had been unable to actually use alchemy and none of them knew if this restriction would have disappeared after death.
As things stood the list of suspects was a long one.
"This is going to take forever," Ed whined as he gazed at the list that he and the others had comprised. "We'll have to search the entire Rukongai looking for these people. And there isn't even any guarantee that they're all gonna be there."
"We have no choice," Hitsugaya said, shaking his head. "We're going to have to enlist more help. There's just no way that the four of us can do it on our own. And unfortunately this means that we're going to have to tell them about alchemy."
"It's okay," Ed said, a smirk spreading across his face. "I've completed my research. There's no longer any reason for me to keep it secret."
"Alright then," Hitsugaya said, getting to his feet. "I'll go and speak with Head Captain Ukitake and have him call a captain's meeting. We'll discuss the matter and hopefully make arrangements for the search for the people on this list. And in the meantime I need for the three of you to get together with Hughes and search for anyone else that knew the people first hand."
"Right," Ed said, knowing that they needed as many people as possible who actually knew what the suspects looked like.
"We'll meet back here this evening and discuss what we've learned," Hitsugaya said, gazing at the three people seated on the sofa.
Ed, Al and Izumi all nodded their heads in agreement and with this decision made the quartet parted ways; Hitsugaya quickly made his way to the Squad One barracks while Ed, Al and Izumi began their search for their former comrades. Ed had to admit he was somewhat apprehensive about alchemy becoming public knowledge but it was necessary and it wasn't as though the Shinigami would be able to learn all that quickly.
Hitsugaya was an exception after all.
"Besides," the young man thought to himself. "People are dying so nothing matters except ending this as quickly as possible."
A/N - and there's another chapter. I apologize for the fact that this one is fairly uneventful but we're working toward the 'events'. Hope that you enjoyed, please leave a review and tell me what you thought.