so here's the last of the chapters that are currently up on AO3. though you will be receiving some minor edits on a couple of chapters fresh that I've made since they's gone up on Ao3.
Kukaku had figured now was the time to get Ichigo something to wear to formal events. He can't just wear his shihakusho everywhere now can he? Thus, Kukaku had brought Ichigo with her to a place where they could get some of that made for him.
"Do we really need to do this?" Ichigo however, didn't want any of this. He never really gelled with being nobility. The idea that he was above someone simply by birth was not an idea he was comfortable with.
"As a noble you'll be expected to look the part," she could see Ichigo's scowl deepen. "Yeah I know, I hated it too, it's kind of our thing to not like being nobles," Kukaku however understood the point of it. They were the clan that made sure whatever hair-brained draconian bullshit the other clans came up with actually passed some sort of muster. They were the voice of sanity a lot of the time among the great houses, the ones who had to remind everyone that what they decide to do, or what they lean on the 46 to do, can have lasting ramifications to more than just them.
"Fine. What am I getting fitted for?" Ichigo felt like he was already giving up on going home. He already knew the likelihood of going home was slim, especially after he returned to the level of power he had when he fought Aizen, but this solidified it.
"First, something to wear over your shihakusho that makes it so you don't look like some grunt," Not that she had any disrespect for the average shinigami, it just that Ichigo wasn't one. "And don't worry, you'll only have to wear it to events where you would be allowed to wear your shihakusho. It's to differentiate you from a member of the Gotei," wearing garb over a shihakusho had become the standard way of saying 'I'm a shinigami but I'm not Gotei' since the Gotei became a thing. Most of the time a simple haori was fine, the only rule being that it couldn't be white.
"And?" Ichigo was perfectly fine with his shihakusho and really wasn't liking this whole 'hey I'm a noble' shit, but now it made sense. It allowed people to tell who was an active part of the Gotei and who wasn't. He was more concerned with the other thing he'd have to get.
"A kimono for more formal events, something simple for now, there's nothing extravagant for a while, and we'll deal with that when we get there," Ichigo was actually fine with that. A simple kimono was actually not a bad thing, he was honestly more worried about there being some sort of style that he didn't know about.
"Okay, so a haori and a couple of kimonos, that's it right?" Ichigo looked over at Kukaku.
"Yup, just getting measured, picking colors and materials. In and out," Kukaku was wondering why he was so resistant to it. Her guess was probably due to him identifying strongly with the unseated as he was basically a nobody who became someone purely by achievement, an everyman. Finding out he was a Shiba kind of broke that, and well, it was basically saying he wasn't going home. Granted if he did end up going home, he'd be coming back here anyway so she figured it best to do it now rather than later.
"It better be," Ichigo hoped it would be quick. He didn't want to have to stand around forever getting measured, then having to pick out every last detail.
Chad was making himself some food, basic spicy ramen made with a few twists his abuelo taught him. It wasn't much, but it was good, and easy to make.
In the year since the Blood War Chad found himself returning to a semi-normal life. Hollow attacks were on the rise, but that was to be expected given the casualties sustained. Fortunately, Isshin had picked up the slack left by Ichigo as Karin trained when he and Orihime weren't enough.
Today though there were no emergencies. Just a nice quiet day.
It was just after he had finished pouring the ramen into a bowl that his phone rang. He pulled it out to look at the number before answering.
It was Riruka. Why would she be calling? Chad flipped open the phone.
"Hello?" Chad spoke cautiously. To say he had a rocky relationship with the other fullbringers would be an understatement.
"Hey, Chad, there's a situation… I got a message from Yukio," Chad hummed in acknowledgment as Riruka spoke. "Xcution's back, and not in a good way."
"What?" Chad spoke in response. While it may have been understated for most, Chad was slightly shocked. Were there more fullbringers than they realized?
"Yeah, my response too," Riruka continued. "Apparently some bitch by the name of Aura Michibane took over after you guys killed Ginjo and Tsukishima and turned the whole thing into a damned religious cult."
"Why?" Chad was puzzled. What would someone gain from doing all of that. Sure there were your usual answers for cults, control, money, sex, power, but why limit their reach to a group who wouldn't fall for that?
"To blow Soul Society's cover. Apparently, we weren't the only fullbringers that were hunted by the shinigami," Chad swore internally, a vendetta. If word of Soul Society reached the general public with quantifiable evidence, it would be pandemonium, and just after the blood war? This could actually threaten the delicate post-war balance of souls if things got too out of hand.
"I'll let them know next time I can see them," he was referring to the Gotei 13. Riruka knew he had an in with the current head captain, and he could inform them of the situation. "Do you have any information to give them?"
"I'll email it to you, just… make sure it doesn't get out of hand. We don't need them treating us like the quincies," Riruka hung up. She probably would have called Ichigo directly if he were still here, but he wasn't. So he had to tell Soul Society.
Chad sighed. He quickly dialed Urahara's number. He needed to arrange for passage to Soul Society. Fortunately, Ichigo had left some of his stuff behind to be given to him at a later date. That would be the perfect cover incase he was being watched.
To say that Hisagi's day was going well would be inaccurate. Sure it wasn't a bad day, that usually included Lieutenant Kuna going full tokusatsu and absolutely beating the shit out of him in a spar with stupidly named attacks. No, today was just average. So to alleviate his boredom on this slow day he was working on his motorcycle, a motorcycle Lieutenant Kuchiki had somehow managed to get smuggled in. It was honestly impressive. He knew the thirteenth could get just about anything into the Seireitei, but he thought an entire motorcycle was beyond their abilities. Rukia and the thirteenth's unseated underground must have taken that as a challenge as within the week they had gotten a Harley Davidson into the ninth's barracks unnoticed. The only sign of their involvement was a note saying 'you're welcome' with a smug-looking rabbit on it left on the motorcycle itself.
The shit they could do was simply impressive.
His mind however was not fully focused on the machine he was working on. He was primarily focused on the fact that the world of nobility had been shaken up by the reinstatement of the Shiba clan. While what happened to cause this stayed behind closed doors, the revelation that Ichigo Kurosaki was the son of the former tenth division captain and previous head of the Shiba clan Isshin Shiba made things pretty clear. Central 46, for some reason, deemed that the actions of Ichigo cleared the Shibas of his father's sins, and frankly, he agreed. Hisagi wasn't one of those shinigami that worshiped the very ground the members of the (once again) five houses walked on, but Ichigo had earned his respect in both the Winter War, and the Blood War.
Ichigo put his life on the line for Soul Society for no other reason than it being the right thing to do. Sure, he was a prodigy. Most likely one Soul Society had never seen before, and would never see again, but he didn't have that upbringing that made a lot of nobles detest the lower social strata.
He really wanted to get an interview with Ichigo. Sure, he would be a useful primary source for his work on both wars, and a major issue seller in his own right. But now? The issues would fly off the newsstands and the magazine would regain the momentum it had before Tosen went on his misguided crusade.
Once again his mind returned to that of his former captain. After Tosen's betrayal Hisagi was at a loss. He was wondering why his captain would do such a thing. Then Captain Kommamura pulled the lid off of the whole thing. Tosen had a great friend and mentor in one Kakkyo Shiba. She was the one who pushed him to become a shinigami, she was the one who imparted upon him the very values he would come to mantle, and she would die at the hands of one Tokinada Tsunayashiro, her own husband . Once he had been told all of that it all clicked. His closest frient, his inspiration, died at the hands of a psychopath, and recived no justice. He could feel his blood boil thinking about it.
He shook his head. Though he now knew why his former captain and mentor went astray, he also now knew Aizen had played that sense of justice against him. To manipulate him and use him for his own ends. He was only happy that he got Tosen to see the error in his ways before his death.
Clearing his head of those thoughts, Hisagi returned to tensioning the drive belt on the motorcycle. It probably wasn't going to be running for a week at least, but he had a friend in the twelfth working on that. Something about an artificial gasoline substitute if he remembered correctly. He just hoped it didn't blow up like the rest of the twelfth's side projects.
Bazz-B should be dead. He shouldn't have survived his battle against Hachwalth. Hell, he knew he was going to die, Hachwalth still had his Volstandig while he didn't. Yet he woke up in a high-security intensive care ward in the fourth. Apparently, he got prompt medical attention from someone who was highly proficient in kaido before he bled out and was transferred to a fourth division battle hospital before being moved down from the Soul Palace to the fourth's own hospital.
So, once he had been cleared to be discharged, he found himself among what was now known as the 'quincy quarter' of the Seireitei, where all of the quincy who were captured, surrendered, or turned coat in the latter stages of the war were housed. The quincy there had a different name for it though, Camp Sedlytz, after a Lichtenreich sternritter who had had the pleasure of facing off against Yamamoto in the last invasion. They all knew why they were here, the shinigami can't just let them run off and do their own thing. So, for the wisdom of surrendering, or because the medics of the fourth had standards, they were allowed to live in what could be best described as a well-furnished holding camp.
Bazz didn't know why they just didn't finish the job already and kill them. It was clear to any quincy who actually did the math that there was no peaceful resolution to this conflict. As long as quincy lived they would be a threat to Soul Society's precious balance. Though he wasn't going to argue with being kept alive, he just hoped that a shinigami with a grudge didn't decide he should die. He knew the thirteenth's lieutenant could be a cold bitch when she wanted to be, and he had personally put a large chunk of the division in body bags if there was a body left that was.
The little slice of hell they found themselves in, while being almost entirely improvised, was both effective and quite comfortable for a prison camp. It followed the usual building plan of many of the Gotei's temporary barracks. A semi-ridged tent with rows of bunks that were air-conditioned, a large mess tent with decent enough food, and good showers. The only differences were the guards and the fact that the occupants had to wear a special suppression device cooked up by the twelfth. Said device worn as a collar created an amped-up effect similar to the old sanrei gloves that prevented a quincy from controlling the local reishi.
Of course, as the highest ranking quincy in the camp, most of the residents looked to him for some sort of leadership. He tried but he was never really a leader, that was always Hachwalth's specialty. He just made sure nobody gave the guards a reason to come in and clean house.
Of course, there was the issue that until recently members of the camp have gone missing in the middle of the night. It was only a few, and it was the ones most likely to attempt an escape, but the guards couldn't find anyone, nor could they find any evidence of them having escaped.
Someone had been kidnapping quincies over the course of the past year. His money was on the twelfth, but some had said that Captain Kurotsuchi had lost interest in the quincies. While he didn't buy it, he had brought this to the attention of the guards. It's really all he could do. It's not like he could do detective work from a prison camp after all.
So, now that that's done, let me know what you think so far, and don't be afraid to interact. I don't bite.