chapter 27

plans moving forward

urahara tapped his his chin with his fan in thought as he strolled through seireitei. young ishida had given him a new project. he would admit that sometimes he would grumble about being the "tech support" for the group, till he remembers how was the one to start all of this and how much he loved the mental challenge. those children never failed to find new things to keep him interested. todays situation involved a group of quincy with stolen power and an apparent inability to regain it. really the solution was simple enough ichigo would have hit on the answer with his past experience. power could not be lost, it could be damaged, sealed, transferred or even stolen but it could not be destroyed or ripped out of a soul completely. the power itself was a fundamental part of the soul and its structure, that they even still existed as souls said they still had that power, it was just a matter of puting them under enough stress to bring it back out. problem was the clash between quincy and shinigami societies. the quincy clearly had not hit on this basic principle, given they had no reiatsu to measure in most cases and their powers were mostly mental in nature he could see how they missed it, so it was purely a shinigami method. with the bloody history between them it was highly unlikely they would trust in shinigami methods. so it would come down to how well young ishida could talk and persuade, and he had no such ability at all. he knew how dearly inoue wanted to help ichigo, she loved him so it was only natural, but he was thinking it would be better to give the young woman a phone call and redirect her to ishida's aid. her natural empathy and unique power structure might go a ways to breaking the ice.

uryu was turning heads and he knew it. it was bound to happen when he stalked through the streets of the hidden enclave in full quincy battle regalia with bow at his back. he didn't care if they noticed him, didn't care if they stared. they had given up and he could see it all around him. this hidden place wasn't so much an area for quincy to hide from the shinigami, but from the hollow should they attack, a burrow to scurry into and hide their still rich souls from the jaws of predators till the reapers arrived to slay it. it filled him with a mix of bitter disappointment and white hit rage to see such a surrender. for over a thousand years the quicy had stood against the hollow in defence of not just themselves but so many others, at their height they had challenged the near invincible might of the seireitei, and they had given up when they were in the best possible place to find a solution. he knew the catalyst for their powerlessness and he hated the man for it, hated them for giving in, hated the whole situation. his building rage unconsciously caused his power to flare with a mix of reiatsu and reishi sending people scurrying away, and he hated them all the more for it.

masaki winced as she watched uryus anger grow, this wasn't going to end well. soken had passed on his hope for unity between the shinigami and quincy to his grandson in full, and now that he was here to fulfil that dream his own people were insufficient to the task. it hurt her to watch him implode like he was. when she had shared pictures and stories with kanae he had clearly been a happy child full of hope, now he was a grim figure in stark white causing people to look away or hide as he approached. it was such a radical change she didn't know what to say or do. she knew children became adults but surely some trace of what he once was should have remained? it made her so anxious, and somewhat afraid to meet her own son again, because she would be meeting him again regardless of his 'orders'. masaki was an emotional person and she knew it, but she also prided herself on being very far from stupid. she had done fine in school even with the emotional turmoil she had been going through, successfully gotten through university to help in her husbands clinic and pushed herself beyond the normal in her studies of her peoples histories and abilities, but her emotions were pulling her in different directions it was difficult to know what she should do. on one hand she NEEDED to see her son even if it may be a foolish thing to do, and on the other hand uryu was ready to go nuclear and needed to be brought back to some level of self control. she needed to see where this would go and she needed to help her ichi because he was in danger, because she hadn't been fooled by uryus careful words at all 'no more than normal' danger was still danger, and any guess of him taking after her or isshin said the danger was anywhere between 'do not face alone' to 'absolutely hair raising' with all kinds of room for 'life threatening' and 'world ending' in between. all she had to do was turn around and leave, head towards seireitei and start asking questions about an army in rukongai, or she could cut off uryu's march through the hidden town and try to calm him down before it all went wrong.

tatsuki had trained most of her life as a martial artist and would happily admit she was pretty good at it, but watching yasutora smash people around reminded her once again that training was only part of the equation when it came to spirit combat. real combat experience and the raw power that came with it mattered just as much and it was something she was very lacking in compared to the dark skinned giant her group accompanied. sado had fought and bleed while she was in a dojo, first against the general thugs of karakura then against trained soldiers in seireitei and the winter war. even orihime was beyond her in power and she wasn't very sure she could close the gap. it was a strange feeling being on the weaker end of the group, needing help from others, but she was growing used to it. tatsuki knew there were other ways she could help out as she stepped up to guard the giants left side as his armoured right fist smashed into another foe, its pressure sending most of their group sprawling. tatsuki moved forward to knock out the downed opponents letting sado move forward to handle the remaining threats freeing up his time and concentration. she had discovered sado had a firm 'no killing' rule where he could avoid it and had no pressing reason to end his enemies. she was happy to be away from the bloody work the south rukongai army had involved her in, even knowing they would move on to reincarnate hadn't given her much comfort. though in recent days she heard the fighting had largely stopped after the loss of the militia forces though sado had told her it was about to escalate as shinigami reinforcements moved in under a new commander, one of the taicho whose reiatsu she had choked on when she had first arrived. kuchiki he had told her and it sent a shudder down her spine. she had trained under kuchiki instructors during her limited time at the academy and they had been scary good, the thought of their leader scared her. it also made her realize she and the others weren't really ready to be out here yet, they weren't shinigami yet, but she wouldn't back down. her thoughts were shattered by a soul chilling roar that echoed through the cityscape and she froze, struggling to move or breath as she glanced around franticly. a firm grip on her shoulder and the swell of warm, familiar reiatsu around her calmed her nerves. she swallowed the bile trying to crawl up her throat to look up at sado.
"its alright" his deep voice rumbled "I've fought these before"
"I know. ill be careful but I'm going to help so don't even try asking"
a wordless grumble was her answer "stay behind me and look for openings"
she wanted to argue, wanted to be at the front, but she knew better now. knew why they had kept her and the others out of all this even if she still disagreed. it was her choice and she would stand by it.

chad had faced hollows before, typically it was with someone more capable but he would adapt, this monster wasn't too strong anyway. he could take it out quickly but had settled on a different plan. tatsuki wasn't letting him go. he had managed to break off from the rest yesterday with the argument they could cover more ground and recruit more people separated but tatsuki was sticking to him like dried glue and he couldn't shake her, she had argued even he should have a partner and she would slow him down the least, he had nothing to counter with that wouldn't scream "I'm trying to get rid of you" so here he was. she had to learn and gain real combat experience beyond the nearly powerless mobs she had fought so far, needed to face new enemies and have her soul put in danger so she could grow. he would play defence for her while she killed it, keep his left arm and the blade it now held waiting till she needed it. he settled in for the hollows approach, feeling its reiatsu shift in the air as it lurked just beyond the dimensional wall of soul society. he flared his own reiatsu as bait and the beast responded as the air above them ripped open in a black pit and the beast fully entered the realm of souls. the siereitei would have detected it by now, but they would have detected him as well and were unlikely to scramble a response till things went wrong.
the monster lunged as it fell from the sky, it was the typical hollow fair with its armoured masked head coupled with a bestial body. he took note of its large bulbous head, low squat four legged stance with sharp claws and its bladelike tail. there was also the teeth, but the teeth on a hollow were always sharp to help with its goal of devouring other souls so they deserved no special notice. the thing was designed to sit low to the ground and use its head as defence while it attacked with its forward claws and lashing tail, the back claws were likely for stability. chad raised his right arm to catch its lower jaw in his armoured grip, not paying any mind to its bite as its teeth clamped shut on his hand uselessly. using his prodigious strength he shifted its momentum downward to the earth in front of him, stunning the creature as it slammed down. he could kill it now if he wanted by driving his blade clear into its skull shattering its mask, but that wasn't what he wanted. he stepped slightly to the side giving tatsuki a chance to take a blow, she followed through after a moments hesitation to swing down at its head. it was a classic hollow killing blow sado had seen ichigo use many times, a clean blow downward to shatter the mask and end it quickly, and it skipped and skidded off the monsters face with a screech of sparks as her blade failed to penetrate its mask. sado stepped forward again to lash out with his fist and bat the creature aside before it could gain its feet properly and held out his other arm to stop tatsuki from taking another blow at its head "you don't have the reiatsu to cut through its mask, injure its body to weaken it first or put out more reiatsu then it. careful with the second method it will tire you out quicker. don't hesitate, it wastes time and effort." the hollow roared as it clambered to its feet. "trust me to look after you till you get better." tatsuki gave him a grunt of agreement as he stepped forward to meet the hollows challenge. the beast took a steady stance giving him a feral glare, then its tail lashed out as at his left as it clawed at him in a two pronged attack. sado took it in stride as his right arm gripped the claw and his left moved swiftly, driving his blade clear through its tail and pinning it to the ground. tatsuki took the chance to move forward and sever its tail clean off. blood flowed as the hollow screamed, its reiatsu dropping as it shifted to try and support its own life. its other claw came up as it shifted to its hind legs to scratch and grip at sado's body, his own hollow reiatsu hardening his body against the attacks. he heard tatasuk'is strangled cry "don't worry about me." he raised his left arm and put his back into a throw as he once again smashed the hollow the earth and his companion stepped up again to cut clear into its belly. 'good, she's not taking chances'. the monsters power dropped again at the injury and tatsuki moved to its head, this time her blade cut through its face ending the fight and purifying the lost soul. tatsuki lent over against her knees as she panted for breath. the fight itself hadn't been the taxing part but fighting under hostile reiatsu was exhausting, she was lucky he had been there to shield her from most of it.
"you know chad" she panted "your going to have to trust me too"
sado blinked in surprise

keigo, mirurio and alice wandered their assigned area with a new purpose.
"so did you catch what the big guy was looking for mizuiro?" keigo asked turning to his friend
"i did" the young man replied with a smile "there's quite a few of them around once you know what to look for, though I don't get the difference between the colours" he continued as he stretched his strange senses out across the town.
"so we just have to get these people to meet him right?"
"that is the plan"
alice glanced between them as she followed along behind them "so how did you know he wanted us gone? he was being entirely friendly"
keigo turned to her with a smirk "he and ichigo spent ages keeping us out of all this so we got good at knowing when they were avoiding us or wanted us gone. normally we would stick around to make it hard to try and learn something but this time we have a good idea of what he's after so this time we played along, for the most part. tatsuki will stay with him to make sure we learn something this time"

orihime looked at her phone with a frown. looks like she had other things to be doing, and she didn't like it. she didn't like how isolated ichigo was becoming from the emotional and physical support of his friends, all he had was toshiro who had his own work to keep up with as well. she knew he hadn't visited his sisters this break and worked right through. she would have to trust rukia and hinamori, and she did, she just wished she knew what they were up to because she really doubted it aligned with what ichigo had planned.
"sorry girls but it seems I need to help uryu-kun with his super secret mission. look after ichigo-kun for me" she announced with a smile.
"we will do our very best" rukia replied with a firm gaze
well...that was something. whatever they were up to the pair truly believed it was the best action they could take for ichigo's well being. pulling up a map orihime let out a groan, she really needed to develop some kind of high speed movement or quick way to travel because this was going to be a hike.

masaki made her choice. she reached out to grab the young man before her and dragged him off in a different direction "dont ask questions and come with me. i think it will help you".