Another saturday another chapter. This time focussing on Yoruichi's investigation, and we finally get to see the first bankai of the fic. (don't worry, it's just Isane's captain's exam)
Yoruichi was given the approval she needed to access the lower archives. The Kuchiki archives were organized based on the sensitivity of the information contained within. The upper archives were public, requiring only to be able to enter the Seireitei to access. While this already limited access to a rather small number of people, those people could access the materials contained within.
The Lower archives were a different story. Oftentimes information sent to the lower archives was only of the legally privileged variety. Deeds, declarations of inheritance, papers of adoption. Information that while not necessarily classified, shouldn't simply be available to the public without the express permission of the parties involved. There was classified information down here, and Yoruichi still had her old security clearances, but that wasn't the kind of information she was looking for.
She was looking for census papers for the Tsunayashiro clan. Such papers were often deemed privileged due to the thousands of years where disputes were only settled in blood. This made all five clans wary of disclosing their numbers openly. While the formation of the Gotei and the Central 46 ended the necessity for such a practice, the information was still considered privileged for other reasons, mainly centering around privacy of the family members.
"Here you go Lady Shihoin. The materials you requested," The librarian who had accompanied her placed two binders onto the table she was sitting at.
Yoruichi nodded in thanks and then got to work. Pulling out a small notebook and then opening the census record.
She wrote down each name, creating a small checklist that she would run through when she started going through the list of the dead. Though as she did so, a name stood out to her.
'Yugure.'
The name itself wasn't a big deal, but the claimed parentage was.
'Mother: Kakyo (deceased)'
'Father: Tokinada (dispossessed)'
Yoruichi hadn't known that they had a child before she was murdered. The entry then proceeded to detail how guardianship was transferred to her uncle. It was interesting, but right now it wasn't relevant.
Yoruichi kept going through the census. She carefully transcribed names and ages as she went along, carefully marking each point when the initial letter changed. The process took her a while, but it would be fruitful.
Yoruichi sighed. This would be the part that would test her stomach. She had okayed the deaths of a lot of people in her time as commander of the Onmitsukido. The weight of that didn't weigh down on her as heavily as she thought it should.
As she opened the records of the death toll her stomach sank. She was greeted with the images of the grisly slaughter.
The pictures of dead men and women weren't enough to phase her. She had seen enough of that, both investigating them and being the cause.
No, what got her were the children. She had to get up and pace for a moment to collect herself. The cold rage aimed at Tokinada was beginning to test her finely tuned emotional control. The desecration of innocence was a common theme for Tokinada, but this was a new low.
After a few moments, Yoruichi had wrangled control of her emotions again. She then sat down and continued going through the accounts of the butchery, this time with the dusty old mask of Onmitsukido commander in place. The cold distance gave her what she needed to power through the record of the butchery, crossing off names as they appeared one by one.
Overall it was an hour to get through both records, and the task overall was emotionally very draining. She didn't even want to look at her notebook at this point, the image of every crossed-out name burned into her memory, each one associated with a dead body soaked in blood.
She would find them justice, even if they didn't deserve it.
Hisagi was working on his motorcycles again. This time it was the Kawasaki he got from the items confiscated from new arrivals. It wasn't unusual for souls to come into Soul Society with items connected to their past lives and it was often procedure to confiscate them. A motorcycle however had beggard belief for many. One of his colleagues had given him it since the original owner had asked it to be given to someone who would take care of it.
Thus over the past year, he had learned a lot about motorcycles and had even taken a liking to them. Something the presence of the larger Harley attested to. He had taken to keeping the bikes in running condition simply as a means to keep his nerves. With the exchange between Hikone and the older Yamada still haunting him, he found that this was an effective way of distracting himself.
It was troubling to him. It seemed that Tokinada had created events such that Hikone would become dependent on his approval. It was a troubling realization to him. While it was clear that it was Hikone whom Grimmjow was chasing, whatever Hikone had tried to do ended in abject failure. That failure had made Hikone want to die. Perhaps the only reason why he had found Hikone alive was because their injuries prevented them from killing themselves. It was haunting.
It reminded him of what lengths Tokinada had driven Tosen to. Here he was again, creating another monster, another victim of his cruelty.
He wanted to help the kid. He didn't know how, but he wanted to help.
Yoruichi began walking back to her 'home' if she could call it that. She honestly wanted to end the day early at this point. The depths of Tokinada's inhumanity were not something she wanted to think about. She was glad that she was born after this kind of thing stopped happening. As she was walking however she heard a voice she didn't want to hear ever, but especially today.
"Well well, if it isn't the shining beacon of the Shihoin," Tokinada's voice spoke from behind her.
"I am really not in the mood right now," Yoruichi began walking away.
"Now now, is that a way to treat an equal?" Yoruichi was suddenly mere inches from his face. Her golden eyes stared into his with a smoldering hatred.
"You are not my equal," Yoruichi spoke in a tone that conveyed exactly how frayed her composure was. Tokinada smiled, this was a rare opportunity.
"I think you're forgetting exactly what you've done over your life Yoruichi," Tokinada grinned. The former clan head had more blood on her hands than even him.
"What I've done has nothing to do with this," She practically growled. Muscles tensing as though both readying to strike and holding herself back.
"Does it? We're both monsters Yoruichi," Tokinada's grin then vanished, "I just happen to accept that, instead of hiding behind the morals of a dead man."
"How dare you…" He brought Kaien into this. Yoruichi was doing everything in her power not to kill him here and now.
"You were supposed to be the best of us, a monster unseen since before the Gotei. Generations of selective breeding and thousands of years of careful study into how best to train warriors, all to make you. The perfect monster," Tokinada closed the distance, his own green eyes reflecting in Yoruichi's. "How dare you squander that."
Tokinada turned to leave. Yoruichi wanted to wring his neck. It would be simple. She was too fast for him to react, one precise shunpo and she could snap his neck.
But she didn't. Not only did she not have anything to back up any such action, it would be against everything she stood for, against everything Kaien taught her. Tokinada knew that.
She let him walk away. She needed to bide her time.
Ichigo was hanging out with Renji. Well, hanging out wasn't exactly the right word. While he and Renji were good acquaintances and close allies, the two had never really become friends yet. Ichigo chalked this up to the two of them never really getting the opportunity to move past their first meeting. Sure, he and Renji had long since cleared the air from that day, but since then they never really had time to sit down and talk.
They had decided to go to a relatively upmarket restaurant with closed booths. Both because Ichigo figured he needed something to take the edge off of his nerves and because he wanted privacy due to the topic of conversation.
"So, you said you wanted to talk?" Renji had noticed the nerves Ichigo had. It was unusual for him to be so nervous, but then again, he was often overly concerned about things so maybe this was just an extension of that.
"Yeah," Ichigo swirled his drink. Whatever it was, it was eating him up.
"Well? Are you going to talk about it or not?" Renji prodded. Ichigo did ask for him to talk to.
"It's about Rukia," Renji's brain went through several hundred possible scenarios and multiple different reactions before stopping himself.
"What do you mean 'It's about Rukia'?" Renji knew he was probably overblowing it.
"She suggested I send a request in," Renji knew exactly what Ichigo meant by request. He had heard his captain grumble about them enough when he thought Renji wasn't listening. There was a sting at that realization, but he moved past that.
"So she asked you to marry her?" Renji rephrased the statement. He figured Ichigo would have issues about the omai process, but given they had already completed many of the preliminary steps it really wasn't truly an arranged marriage.
Ichigo stared blankly at Renji for a moment as he processed that. She in a roundabout way she did in fact propose to him.
"Yeah, I guess she did," Ichigo then finally took a swig of the sake he had ordered. "It just… doesn't feel right. It feels…"
"Let me stop you right there because I know what you're going to say. Your relationship with Rukia was never going to follow a normal precedent. You're both extraordinary people who met under extraordinary circumstances," Renji had grown to respect Ichigo, their rematch, where he had broken down and begged Ichigo to save her was the moment he realized the kind of person Ichigo was.
"No, I guess it wasn't," Ichigo chuckled. Ordinary was something that Ichigo's life seemed to abhor. "So you're saying send it?"
"Damn right I am, you almost got yourself killed several times over for her sake. I should know," Renji was sure as hell not going to let Ichigo get cold feet now of all times. "Do you know how much she talks about you? I knew she was smitten the first time we actually managed to sit down and talk."
Ichigo looked over at his once rival as he then grabbed his sake and downed the whole thing. Almost as if he needed the boost to say what he was going to say next. Renji then put the cup down and sighed.
"I've never seen her as happy as she was when she got to recount those three months with you," Renji was one of the only two people alive who knew Rukia. Not Lieutenant Kuchiki, not Rukia Kuchiki, but Rukia. "You brought a smile to her face that I hadn't seen in almost a hundred years Ichigo."
That almost floored the carrot-top. He knew she had brought color into his life like she was a new sunrise, but to hear he had done the same for her. It was surprising.
"I did?" Ichigo wasn't used to that. He had always seen himself as trying to be the silent workhorse who tried to do everything he could to make everyone else happy. He had done all of the chores around the house, he had taken over cooking when he was 10 until Yuzu insisted. He never thought about how that made others feel. To him he was just doing the right thing, no big deal. But for Rukia, what he did for her was a big deal.
"Yeah, you were the best thing to ever happen to her, and I'm not going to let you fuck that up," Renji brought a smile to Ichigo's face. Not a smirk, not a grin, but a genuine smile, an expression his face had almost forgotten how to do.
"Thanks."
Isane took a deep breath to calm herself. She sat before three captains in a small training arena. It wasn't often a captain's exam was made open to even select audiences, especially after Aizen used his to get as many people as possible to see his shikai, but she had insisted. Her reason was simple, the fourth needed to know that she could be the bulwark Unohana was.
"Begin!" The voice of the head captain could be heard, and at that moment she drew Itegumo, wordlessly releasing it, proving she had bankai, and then attacked three of the targets with a rapid display of shunpo and swordsmanship. The tatami mats cut cleanly, and the edges of where she cut bore the subtlest traces of frost.
The last mat she had taken out had caused Rose to raise an eyebrow. It had been given a boken to represent a sword guard. In no way a realistic obstacle, but when he had observed her zanpakuto seemingly phase through the boken and cut the target behind it he was impressed.
"So her blade can become mist," Kenpachi was unusually observant. He had personally requested to be a judge for this when he had learned of her appointment. His argument was he had the best idea of what Unohana had wanted both of her successors to be. Granted he had little idea of what being a judge for this entailed, or that it was just confirming that her bankai was in fact a bankai, but the symbology was enough to convince Kyoraku.
"Now, show it to us," What 'it' was was obvious, and in reply Isane raised her blade to eye level, holding it parallel to the ground as the ambient temperature plummeted, and the smell of biting frost filled the air.
"Bankai, Koroshi Itegumo."
The entire area was blanketed in a thick chilling fog, completely obscuring Isane from view. When Rose extended his senses to see where she was he was shocked to find that the answer was everywhere and nowhere. The haze of her bankai concealed her presence utterly.
Kenpachi started laughing. When Shunsui turned to see why, they found Isane standing in front of him with her index and middle fingers pointed at his throat as if casting a high level hado.
"Have to say, that's quite the bankai," In the past, he would have found such a bankai to be insulting. You faced your enemies head-on and gave them the name of their killer. However, Isane wasn't a killer, she was a surgeon. Her focus would never be on the foe in front of her, but on those behind her who depended on her to protect them. A bankai like this was from someone who abhorred fighting and sought to end it as soon as possible.
"Well, that proves it," Shunsui spoke casually, clapping his hands together. In response, the fog flowed into Isane's blade as it transformed into its sealed form, after which she then sheathed her blade. She had passed.
Shunsui was hiding the many thoughts going through his mind at how unsettling her bankai was. He had already made several conclusions about its capabilities based on the very limited showing.
The fog didn't hide Isane, the fog was Isane.
Tokinada had to admit, Isane's shikai and bankai were impressive. She would amount to a decent captain. Nothing close to Byakuya or Yoruichi, but adequate for her role.
Tokinada stopped, putting his hand on his chest. He could have sworn that he felt something slash at him, what however he wasn't sure. After rummaging through his thoughts for a moment he shrugged and then moved on. He didn't sense any looming threat, and he was uninjured. Perhaps it was just a flash of paranoia.
Had Tokinada looked a little longer, he would have noticed a figure in a black hooded cloak placing a bookmark in a small novel before vanishing.
I hope you have enjoyed this chapter, and yeah... Tokinada's a bastard.
