Chapter 40, Hurry Up and Wait


Tanya had come to a realization: she had miscalculated in one specific area that she really should have thought more about. When she began her plan, she had assumed that there would be nothing stopping her from getting right to work and trying to right the ship and get everything flowing in the direction she wanted it to flow. However, she was under house arrest, so even though she had a plan, until she could leave the premises of her own apartment, all she could do was rely on her friends to try and gather info for her and find out what was going on with Rukia.

Of course, that seemed to be a problem as many of her agents and friends seemed to be out of town all of a sudden.

Tanya Lerghen and Hidenao were out hunting Hollows in the outer districts with a detachment of the Tenth Division. Grantz was out on one of those operations to create better relations between divisions. Even Koenig was out on one of his patrols for the Eleventh Division.

Which left Tanya with few sources of information. One person who was sitting across from her at the kitchen table was Nicole Von Levenshtein, who was part of the Thirteenth Division and looked like she was on the verge of a mental breakdown. The other, of course, was Visha, who was at the head of the table sipping coffee like there was nothing wrong. And of course, she might be able to get some information out of Neumann, who was part of the First Division. However, getting in contact with him would take time.

So, all she could do was sit back and discuss the current situation.

Clearing her throat, she said, "So, what do we know about the current situation of Rukia?"

Visha shrugged before saying, "We've heard nothing in the Eleventh Division about the situation other than things you already told me. Rukia messed up, made a temporary Shinigami, and is now being judged for it. What judgment is going on, well, that's beyond my knowledge."

Nicole Von Levenshtein nodded her head in agreement before adding, "Hey, we're here in exactly the same position. We did find out that she's being held in the Sixth Division prison cells, but other than that, well, nothing much. Captain Jūshirō Ukitake has been informed that she's been imprisoned and has put out a notice about his opinions on the matter, but otherwise, we're not doing anything over at the Thirteenth Division. Also, his cough is coming back harder, so he might be down for a few weeks."

"Hmm, well, that's about where I expected the situation to end up immediately," Tanya said, leaning back in her chair before adding, "Have there been any announcements about her trial date or when they will be holding the debate?"

The pair shook their heads, both not speaking at first. "It's just the first day since her capture, so I would imagine it would take a bit longer than 12 hours for them to figure out what they're going to do."

"True, true," Tanya said, leaning back for more information. "The more information we have, the quicker we can act. Right now, we can't really act at all because we don't know what's going on."

"Oh, you can announce that you're willing to act as her defender, right?" Levenshtein said, to which Tanya nodded her head in agreement. "I can announce that, although there is some question of whether they'll deny that right, considering that they put me on house arrest as soon as I stepped through the Senkaimon."

"Well, it's not the worst thing they could have done. I mean, they've thrown Rukia in jail, so obviously they don't think you're completely involved," Levenshtein pointed out.

Tanya nodded her head in agreement before saying, "True, but it could be that they just thought I would be more of a threat if they'd gone for full imprisonment right off the bat. It was easier for them just putting me on house arrest and taking away my sword."

"Yeah, how do you feel about that?" Visha asked, expressing concern.

Tanya noticed Visha's worry and shook her head. "I'm perfectly fine with that. I do not need my sword to fight."

"Correction, you don't need your sword on you to fight," chimed in Tasha in the back of Tanya's mind, though she ignored her.

"Besides, I don't need to fight, not physically at least. Legally, this will all be settled, and I simply need to work on making sure that this is done correctly. And to do that, I need to have my fingers in the legal situation as it currently stands. It shouldn't be too hard. Rukia knows my plans, so all she needs to do is request my legal aid. And by the ancient court systems I have studied, we should be allowed to present our case. As there's no harm nor foul to the Soul Society, it should not be a hard job to get Central 46 to hear us out."

"And what if they refuse?" Levenshtein asked, raising a rather good question.

"If they refuse, that doesn't exactly bode well for anyone in the Soul Society, especially since I could easily reveal all the evidence of what exactly was going on and how this was all a grave accident that spun out of control."

"And how exactly would you do that?" Visha asked, raising an eyebrow.

"By telling the one person who would have no fear of Central 46 and letting them do the rest of the work."

Levenshtein looked confused, but Visha quickly picked up on it. "It's Kenpachi," she said, and Tanya nodded.

"Kenpachi is possibly one of our greatest allies in this situation. Not only does he not fear Central 46, but he would also be more than enough to spread this information all over the place and cause a general distrust of Central 46, hastening them to reconsider their objectives, I believe."

"That's a rather devious plan," Visha said.

"Devious plans are our best allies in this situation," Tanya said with a shrug. "Central 46 has a history of overreacting. The only way to meet someone head-on with an overreaction is to overreact back. Get them to blink and make them step back."

"And if they don't blink and step back?" Nicole Von Levenshtein asked, sounding worried.

"Well, we better hope that there's no communist waiting in the wings for the moment when all hell breaks loose because sooner or later it will, either in response to this issue or another one down the line that echoes this. Central 46 has unlimited power, and if it becomes apparent that they are abusing that power, reapers are going to start asking questions about why we serve Central 46, and those are the questions that neither I nor they want to answer."

Getting up, Visha said, "Well, if that's the situation as it stands, we're going to need to try and get in contact with Kenpachi, and he should be able to help us. Do you think there's anyone else who can help us, Tanya?"

Tanya shrugged before saying, "I don't know. The captain of the Sixth, I assume they're on our side, and from what I understand, the captain of the Thirteenth is on our side. That's three out of ten captains. I guess we need to talk to the captain of the Tenth, and that will bring us up to four. Beyond that, maybe I should contact the captain of the Fifth. They seem like a reliable ally in this situation. But with this damn house arrest, I can't go out there and do it. I need to write some letters."

She got up and brushed herself off, walking over to a nearby desk, pulling out some paper and a quill, before coming back and sitting down.

"It will probably take me an hour to get all the letters written. Nicole Von Levenshtein, would you be willing to deliver them for me?"

"Sure, Tanya," Nicole Von Levenshtein nodded. "I'll help you."

"Wonderful," Tanya said, starting to write the first letter. It was to be taken to the captain of the Tenth division, giving them all the knowledge they had on the current goings-on in the World of the Living, or at least the portion of the story that she was willing to share.

She left out the notion of helping Ichigo since that wouldn't help their argument that she was simply trying to help Rukia. Well, technically it would, but Central 46 would probably seize that opportunity if they knew it was intercepted, claiming that she was part of a conspiracy. Then she wouldn't be defending Rukia from any case; she'd be defending both of them from being executed.

There's one thing that Central 46 did not tolerate, and that's the notion of a conspiracy. All old court cases she had ever found seemed to show that you could get away with quite a bit if there was no conspiracy. However, if they thought it was a conspiracy, they went hypersonic with their execution hammer.

She had finished her first letter, which would give the details of what happened to the captain of the Thirteenth division, when a loud knock came from the store door, causing everyone to look towards the windows.

Beyond the "Store Closed" sign stood a rather menacing and imposing figure, one who had apparently snuck up on them without making much noise. And on said figure's shoulder was a small pink-haired girl.

"Well, that was unexpected," Tanya said, getting up and walking over to the door, unlocking it, and allowing Kenpachi to lean over and get inside.

"Huh, so this is where you two live," Kenpachi said, looking around, as the pink-haired girl gave a wave.

"Hey, Tantan, hey Vishy," Yachiru said with a cheery smile. "This place smells pretty good."

"Good morning, Kenpachi," Tanya said, giving a bow before asking, "What brings you to our establishment?"

"Oh, little of this, little of that. I heard you got yourself into a bit of a problem, so I've just been poking around, trying to figure out what's going on. The story I'm hearing here sounds pretty interesting," Kenpachi replied.

"What story is that?" Tanya said, stepping aside to allow him to enter the building. He took a few steps towards the set of tables arranged in the center and took a seat. Tanya followed suit, taking a seat to his left, as he seemed to compose his thoughts before speaking.

"Well, I heard some rookie killed a Menos, which is a rather impressive story to begin with. But then I hear this rookie is actually not a Soul Reaper, at least not an official one, not dead. Then I hear the captain of the Sixth is in jail. So now I'm officially interested in what's going on here. I went over there and met with him, heard all kinds of interesting stories, and had a little bit of a confrontation with the captain of the Sixth over exactly what stories I've been hearing," Kenpachi explained.

"What stories have you been hearing? I've been put on house arrest, so I can't find out what's going on," Tanya said, crossing her arms.

"Really now? That's interesting. I wonder what judgment they'll send your way after they're done with their current one. Oh well," Kenpachi said, taking a glass of coffee that Visha placed in front of him. He took a sip before continuing, "Not a bad taste. Well, to start, apparently Central 46 has already come down with a judgment on Rukia's case. Execution in 25 days."

"What?!" came the shocked voices of all three women in the room.

"Yep, yep. Apparently, Central 46 has decided that Rukia's crimes are so great that she needs to be killed," the pink-haired girl added.

"That's insane!" Tanya exclaimed before deflating as she realized that, though in character for some of their stories, it usually depended on someone doing something that made them think there was a conspiracy going on.

The captain of the Eleventh division shrugged and said, "Don't know anything about that. All I know is that the captain of the Sixth should have tried to use his influence to defend his own people. I tried to have a fight with him about it, but it didn't end well. Gin interfered, and the old man's telling me to stay far away from the captain of the Sixth until this is all over."

"Probably for the best," Tanya thought, considering that if the captains fought each other, it would not be very good for the local infrastructure.

However, that did say something interesting. The captain of the Sixth was not on their side. Why the hell was Rukia's brother not on their side?

"She was adopted into their house," Tasha said. "Maybe it was a political adoption."

Tanya shook her head at that before saying out loud, "There goes one of the captains I thought I could understand. But twenty-five days? That's rather ridiculous considering it was just an accident. They're not even allowing a court case to defend herself."

"Yeah, it would seem that Central 46 isn't even giving the option for a court case on this one. They've gone straight for execution, and I'm afraid there's not much anyone can do for Rukia," the captain of the Eleventh division said with a shrug before adding, "Well, at least nothing apparent. The Sixth division captain, I suppose, probably had a chance to beg for her life but apparently decided not to."

"Great, noble bullshit," Tanya said, leaning back and shaking her head in annoyance. "Alright, so plan A is off the table so... hmm."

"What's the matter?" Levenshtein asked, sounding worried.

"Plan A was to win this legal case in such a way that we didn't get into a position like this. Plan B was to have Ichigo fight a couple of third-rankers and prove that he is a good possibility to join the Soul Reapers, that he can be loyal to the Soul Society. But for us to do that, we need to find a way to get a message to him and find a way to get him into the Soul Society."

"I don't think you need to worry too much about that. He'll be here sooner or later," Kenpachi said with a shrug, drawing Tanya's eyes to him.

"What do you mean?"

"According to the report Yachiru read," he said, pointing in her direction as she smiled, "the rogue's D.E.D. Captain of the Sixth executed him upon seeing him."

"Ichigo's dead? Okay, okay... that's a problem," Tanya said, her eyes widening as all the possibilities that had been there went up in smoke, and even more horrifying ones began to grow before her eyes.

"Okay, that's a problem on many, many different fronts," she finally said.

"What do you mean?" Visha asked. "On which fronts has that created problems?"

Taking a breath, Tanya finally replied, "I have reason to believe that there might be something more to Ichigo, something to his parentage."

"Like what?" the captain of the Eleventh division asked.

"Well, his father looks a lot like the former captain of the Tenth."

Kenpachi immediately leaned in, saying, "What now?"

"Hold on," Levenshtein and Visha said together, leaning forward as well.

"I don't have proof, but I will say that the man who was his father looks like an aged version of the former captain of the Tenth. So if Ichigo is dead and that was really the captain of the Tenth..."

"Oh, this is going to be fun," Kenpachi said with a smile, one that spoke of the amount of fighting that was about to happen.

"Really burns my plans," Tanya said. "Not really fun, in my opinion. The plan was for Ichigo to face off against some lieutenants and third seats in hopes of proving his loyalty and skill. Now that's gone up in smoke."

"You know, I really have my doubts on that," Captain Kenpachi said with a smile as he leaned back. "You're telling me this kid is possibly the son of a powerful Soul Reaper, and you thought he had a chance to fight against second and third seats of divisions. Factor in that he apparently beat back a Menos Grande. Bare minimum, I think the kid's probably still alive, even if he's severely injured. And this is going to be fun either way."

"How is that going to be fun?" Levenshtein said.

Kenpachi simply smiled, saying, "Well, if he survived, he's going to be rather pissed off and coming to save Rukia, which means I'll get a chance to fight him, test his mettle, and see if he deserves to have his chance to save her again. If he didn't, well, his father is going to come back here to kill as many of Central 46 as possible, and probably the captain of the Sixth, which means I get a chance to go head-to-head with the former captain of the Tenth division, which again is good for me."

Levenshtein's lower jaw was firmly dropped as she said, "Do you think of nothing else but the possibility of fighting?"

Kenpachi shrugged before saying, "Not really, no."

"The Eleventh is full of battle maniacs," Levenshtein said with a shake of her head, getting a laugh from Tanya as she knew full well that the Eleventh Division had been full of battle maniacs as well, and she was part of that.

"Hmm, well, assuming that Ichigo is dead and we only have 25 days, there's almost nothing we can do. Almost," she said, looking towards Kenpachi, causing him to raise an eyebrow. "Why are you looking at me?" he asked as Tanya's mind worked.

"As a captain, you could lodge a formal complaint with Central 46. One would not be enough, but if we get enough complaints launched, you might be able to stall out the execution and get the case to be reconsidered. The thing looks like a kangaroo court right now, and a kangaroo court will not be good for morale within the Soul Society."

"I don't know about that. I wouldn't know how to lodge a formal complaint," he said with a shrug before Tanya's eyes sparkled with a thought.

"Do you mind if I write the formal complaint then? It would be basically what I said, that this appears to be a kangaroo court, and if the Soul Reaper was dealt with, it seems overreacting to go straight to execution. Removal of her powers or expulsion from the Soul Reapers would be a more fitting punishment for the crime, if there has to be any punishment at all."

"Hmm, sure, but I have one more thing to add. I don't like the idea of using the Sōkyoku. If there has to be any execution at all, it should be a fight to the death. There's more honor in that than what they're planning."

Levenshtein looked stunned, as if she was about to argue against that, but Tanya simply raised her hand in her direction, forestalling her. "We need this to look like it's from Kenpachi. That's exactly what Kenpachi would add, so I'm adding it," she said, pulling out a piece of paper to get to work.


Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto raised his eyebrow as he looked at the paperwork in front of him. It wasn't often he received a note from his commanders about a current situation in another division, but it did happen now and again, especially around the time of recruiting. However, he would say this was the first time he had ever seen the captain of the Eleventh Division write an actual letter positively. Because most letters that went to Central 46 had to go through him, he had to make sure they were sound of mind and content. And, anyway, he just said this was a rather sound-minded and well-written letter.

He was aware of the current issues with Central 46 and the Soul Reaper Rukia, and though he had some issues with it, it was the law of the land, and he would uphold those laws. But he had to admit that whoever had written this letter or discovered its content had quite a few interesting notions on how to challenge the law of the land.

The official law that had been broken was a simple sentence: "It is against the law for Shinigami to give their spiritual power to humans." This attack attacked the premise that this power had been willingly given to a human.

'It's an interesting statement from a friend of Rukia, Tanya,' he thought. According to Rukia, the human had a large reserve of spiritual power, and the transfer of powers had been unintentional to the extent that it had gone. Now, that really was not enough to prevent Central 46 from imposing a punishment on Rukia, but it seemed to argue that if the law had to be upheld, excessive execution was a bit too much. Currently, there had been no official cases after the law had been brought in stating that execution was necessary, and jumping straight to execution for an accidental breaking of the law would simply set a dangerous precedent going forward. It would mean that if there was ever a situation where a person had to choose between giving their powers over to someone and saving them from a Hollow attack, or letting the Hollow consume them, they would either choose to become a criminal, thus increasing the number of Soul Reapers who are not within the control of the Soul Society, or they would die and make the Hollows stronger, having successfully murdered a Soul Reaper.

In his opinion, it was a good point. Even if he believed the law of the land should be followed, Central 46 could be stepping on a snake in the bush without realizing it would lead them into a bottomless pit.

It was obvious to him that this was not written by Kenpachi. Yes, they had added a nice little segment at the end that definitely sounded like the captain, but he knew exactly who was writing this. He would have to humor them. After all, he had looked into Tanya and how she had come into the Soul Society. He was aware that Rukia had been involved, and there was one thing he understood: besides the law, the friendship between Soul Reapers needed to be honored.

If Tanya wanted to step up and try to help her friend avoid an execution, then he would forward this letter. There was a probability that it might prompt Central 46 to at least give it another look. After all, 25 days was plenty of time for a full investigation of the situation, and as the letter itself said, the Soul Reaper in question had been killed. The potential harm to the Soul Society was generally mitigated, so there was no reason to resort to execution when there were other options.

He would leave it to Central 46 to figure it out. It was their job, and he would abide by whatever decision they made. However, he did hope that they would at least pay some attention to Tanya's words. The notion that they could create enemies among their own reapers held a fanciful thought, but strengthening the Hollows was something he feared would become a problem.

Stronger Hollows meant more dead reapers, and in that case, it would be better for a human to temporarily acquire Soul Reaper powers than for a Hollow to gain more power to use against other reapers.

Reaching up, he took a pen out of its inkwell and quickly wrote a note to Central 46 before calling out for Chōjirō Sasakibe to take the letter over to their office. He would leave it to them as it should be, he thought, as he looked at the next task he had to deal with today.


"Why is Tanya under house arrest?" Rangiku asked.

Tōshirō shrugged before saying, "She was a witness to whatever's been going on. Hopefully, that's all she was. Central 46 isn't exactly the friendliest group when it comes to investigating whomever they have their eyes on."

"Yes, I know that, but don't you think they would go straight to throwing her in jail if they thought she was a criminal?" Rangiku said.

"They obviously don't think she's a criminal, but I don't know why. They just don't want her to have her weapon or leave the Seireitei. Otherwise, they wouldn't have taken any action."

"It's all very weird," Rangiku said, shaking her head.

"I'm not saying it's not. The whole situation seems pretty strange to me, right down to literally throwing the book at whoever messed up. But I'm sure the legalities will be figured out," Tōshirō said.

"Well, that's just it. Tanya was planning to be involved in figuring out the legalities."

"What?" Tōshirō looked up at that and asked, "Come again?"

Rangiku shrugged her shoulders and said, "She told me she was working on a plan to help Rukia navigate this investigation without much harm and was planning to act as her lawyer. Now she's trapped in our house, unable to do that."

"Huh... Who knew about this plan?" Tōshirō asked.

Rangiku shrugged her shoulders again and said, "I'm not sure. I would assume probably Tanya's girlfriend and Rukia. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, really. I'm just trying to understand how deep the knowledge of this problem goes and wondering why we weren't informed."

"Tanya explained something about not wanting it to look like a conspiracy."

"Yes, but now she and Rukia are looking like they're involved in a conspiracy."

"True, but I believe her point was that she didn't want her allies to look like they were involved in the conspiracy, so we could help."

Tōshirō shook his head and said, "That is the dumbest way to go about this, in my opinion. But fine, Tanya likes to keep her secrets. I guess she's going to have to face the consequences now because people are going to start wondering if she was more involved than most people think due to the house arrest."

"Oh, is that why she's under house arrest? To prevent her from getting the story out?"

That's actually what the captain of the 10th Division had been thinking, but he kept his thoughts to himself and simply shrugged, saying, "Maybe. If it's true, then that's not good for Tanya. It means that Central 46 is not pleased with anything that has happened here and will come down hard."

"How hard do you think?" Rangiku asked with obvious concern in her voice.

Leaning back, he thought for a moment before saying, "They'll probably demand that she remain in detention after they've dealt with Rukia, for a year or two, maybe even a decade. They'll keep an eye on her and prevent her from going on any missions to the World of the Living until they're sure she hasn't broken any rules or tried to shift the power balance between the worlds."

"Damn, so it's permanent house arrest for a decade. That's not going to be fun. At least I got her to go shopping with me before that happened."

"Yeah, it's a good thing you did," he said with an exasperated shake of his head before getting back to work. "Besides, I'm sure things will eventually calm down."

"I hope so. The whole situation is going to upset Tanya if Rukia really is executed."

"And since it will upset Tanya it's probably the reason they had me take her sword."

"Yeah, kind of odd that she just let you have it. I don't think any Soul Reaper would hand over their weapon that easily," Rangiku commented. He had to nod his head in agreement. Handing over your sword and trusting someone to hold onto it was akin to committing suicide if something went wrong. But then again, Tanya was more than just a sword master. If something went wrong, she would probably fight her way here and retrieve her sword herself. Though, between him and her, he was pretty sure he would win.

Sighing, he said, "It'll be alright, Rangiku. Now get back to work. We have a lot of paperwork to do."

Rangiku sighed before saying, "Oh, come on. Can't we just wait for... oh..."

It must have been at that moment that Rangiku realized the person who had been keeping their paperwork down to just a few pages a day was currently under house arrest, meaning they would be busy dealing with paperwork from across the division.

"Oh noooo, you have to help her get out of house arrest!" Rangiku near shouted, sounding afraid.

"No, I don't. We can handle the paperwork," Tōshirō responded with a shake of his head.

"But there's so much! How does she do this every day?"

"She has a team most days, though I will admit the team is currently out on patrol. So I do wonder how she's been able to keep up with our work."

"Wizardry! Tanya's got some sort of spell she's not telling us about that allows her to get through this stuff easily."

"Rangiku, tell you what, I think you might be right."

"What?" she said, sounding shocked.

"I stumbled into her office once and found her hard at work, her eyes glowing blue like they do when she uses one of her spells."

"That little..."

"None of that. Get back to work, Rangiku," he said, giving her a stern look. She sighed and did as she was ordered. He hoped that his little slip would get her motivated enough to work for a little while longer than usual.

Yeah. He hoped.


Tatsuki was not in a particularly good mood, mainly because there seemed to be a lot of weird things going on all of a sudden. The last time that happened, she learned that the Spirit World was real.

Right now, the weird things that were currently happening were the fact that Rukia, who had a link to the Spirit World, was gone. Not just gone as in no longer at school or in town, but more like she had asked other girls and they didn't know who she was talking about.

That was disconcerting to a level that Tatsuki didn't like. Thankfully, though, she could confirm that she was not insane. At least Orihime knew who she was talking about, and it wasn't Tanya. Tanya's body was still around, so the Spirit World was definitely real, and she was not imagining things. There was definitely something up, especially with the way Ichigo had been acting all day—looking rather down and deep in concentration.

She hadn't had a chance to talk to him about it all day since school was busy, and she had Nationals coming up, so she needed to train for it if she was going to accomplish her goal of winning.

But now that the day was over and they were all walking home in the same direction, she decided that instead of heading directly home, she would damn well be busy and go popping up in front of him with Orihime.

He seemed stunned as the two of them came around the corner and didn't get a chance to say anything before Tatsuki said, "All right, what's going on? Start talking," as she grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt.

"What do you mean?" he obviously played dumb before Tatsuki responded.

"Where is Rukia?"

Orihime backed her up by saying, "She didn't come to school today, and everyone's acting like she doesn't exist. It's very weird."

"Ah... yeah, not really sure how the whole memory-erasing thing is done, but yeah, Rukia has returned to the Soul Society."

"Oh, is that all? Seems rather strange to erase everyone's memories of her. They could have easily just said she got sick or was transferring to another school. So why are you acting like you're in the dumps about it?"

"Because she's probably in jail at this very moment, at least according to Tanya's talks about the legal system over there in the Soul Society."

"Right, stuff that Tanya never wanted to talk to us about. I'm going to assume she told you more than what she told us. So explain why exactly this has got you looking like your favorite pair of shoes got run over by a car."

Ichigo let out a sigh before leaning against the wall. "Tanya's plan was to fight this legally and in a court of law, but according to a friend who knows more about this sort of thing, he believes that she's being a little bit too assuming that it can be fought in a court of law. They are going to execute her in probably 25 days or so."

"The hell!?" Tatsuki said with a voice full of pure shock. "What kind of system are these Soul Reapers running that they go straight to execution over this sort of stuff?"

"I've been asking the same thing, you guys," Ichigo said with a shrug before adding, "and I still don't have an answer. All I've been told is that it's just how the system works."

"A very crappy system," Tatsuki said, shaking her head. "Is there anything we can do?"

Ichigo looked at her before shaking his head and saying, "I'm meeting with that friend later today who's going to help me get in shape. He thinks he can get me into the Soul Society, and if he can, I'm going to go in there and see if I can't go with the other plan Tanya came up with."

"What was this other plan?" Orihime asked.

"Prove my loyalty by challenging several high-ranking members of the division to combat and hope that works. If not, well, at least I'll be in there and I'll either have a chance to rescue Rukia or I won't."

"So our options are to sit back and do nothing or charge into the Spirit World and hope we come out the other side."

"No, those are my options. I have already made a choice. You two are not coming."

"Hey now, Rukia is my friend too," Tatsuki said, folding her arms across her chest.

"Yeah, this is true, but as far as I'm aware, neither one of you has any ability to actually fight Soul Reapers. You might just end up getting yourselves killed if you two come along."

"Hey, we defended ourselves during the Hollow storm a couple of days ago."

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" he asked, looking at them confused.

"During the Hollow storm, one of those creatures attacked," Orihime said. "And we defended ourselves just fine."

"I didn't know that happened," he said, thinking it over. "But that doesn't matter. Fighting a reaper is a lot different than a Hollow. Just stay out of it, okay?"

He pushed past them, heading in the direction of his house. Tatsuki was going to reach out to grab him and give him a piece of her mind, but Orihime grabbed her shoulder and said, "I have a better idea."

She waited until Ichigo was rounding a corner before saying, "Mister Urahara. If anyone has an idea on how to train up our powers to be worthy of fighting reapers, I think it's him. After all, that's probably who he's referring to as this friend with contacts on this situation."

Tatsuki nodded in agreement before saying, "That sounds like a plan. Let's go to him and see what he can do."

They shared a nod before heading off in the direction of a certain candy shop.


"You know, I was starting to think Soul Reapers might not be so bad," he said as Akita Ishida brought him an ice pack. "And then I met those two assholes," he muttered in pain.

"Yeah," Akita Ishida said with a shake of her head. "Guess we only ever ran into good Shinigami. Tanya would not have simply attacked you for asking too many questions."

"Well, I was blocking the path to their doorway," Uryū admitted, knowing that, well, it was kind of his fault. But it still was a rather painful experience nonetheless.

Last night, he had been walking home from high school and he'd come across Rukia, who seemed to be in a state of confused panic as two Soul Reapers were explaining to her how they had reportedly killed Ichigo. Well, Ichigo was a rather good Soul Reaper by his books, and he thought highly of him, so he'd decided those two guys needed to be taught a lesson.

The only one who had been taught a lesson was him, and he realized he wasn't ready for a fight against reapers. The red-headed jackass had beat the hell out of him without really using his sword, and left him a crumpled heap on the ground as they took Rukia away through the gateway to the Soul Society.

If he didn't have a cell phone to call his cousin, he probably would still be on the ground in the park for the rest of the night and might have gotten sick from hypothermia. Thankfully, that hadn't happened, and he had been pulled into a cab by his cousin who had come to his rescue. That's why he was now in her apartment instead of staying in his own.

Currently, he was lying back on a couch, nursing every bruise he could possibly have, with ice covering most of his body, and a rather large bowl of chicken noodle soup on a counter next to him. One good thing you could say about his cousin was that she really liked to take care of people. It was also her greatest flaw, as that same care had gotten her into several Hollow attacks, but he'd let that slide for now.

With a groan, he was about to ask what the plan was for dinner when Akita came up next to him and said, "So, what's the plan?"

"Plan? What plan?" he said, looking at her.

"I mean, I've spent the last 24 hours looking after you, listening to your story about how you tried to help Rukia and were defeated, and yet you haven't come up with a plan to try and rescue her. It seems to me that you should be trying to come up with something."

He shook his head before saying, "I'm not trying to come up with a plan to rescue her. I'm trying to come up with a plan to get revenge against that arrogant red-headed jackass."

"Wonderful, then you can help me figure out how we're going to rescue Rukia when we figure out how to get to the Soul Society."

"Akita, it's impossible to get into the Soul Society. Only Soul Reapers have the ability to freely make a passage there, and we can't exactly get them to do it for us. They don't exactly like us so any attempt would just result in failure. The best we can do is plan revenge against the Reapers that eventually come through and leave their guard down-"

Slap.

Uryū winced as his face turned red. Akita was looking down at him with rather annoyed eyes before saying, "I get that there doesn't seem to be much hope, I get that there doesn't seem to be many ways into this Soul Society, but I also know what is the right thing to do, and that's saving Rukia from whatever those devils are planning to do with her."

Uryū had to give her a look as she was being a little too much, but he sighed and said, "If someone were to just knock on your door and say, 'Hey, I know how to get you into the Soul Society,' I'd be all down for it. But that's not going to happen, so the best I can do is start training. So the next time they come through, I can make sure to make them understand that this is not something I will let happen ever again."

He thought his point was rather sound when he heard a strange tapping above him, causing him to look up and see a black cat at the window.

"Isn't this the third story?" he asked, looking at the black cat as it sat there, still tapping as if wanting to be let in.

"No, we're on the 4th," Akita said, tilting her head in confusion before shrugging and leaning over, clicking open the lock and opening the window, letting the cat trot in as if it owned the place.

"Well, that was a rather long climb for a cat," it said in a deepish voice, as if it was the most normal thing in the world for a cat to be talking.

Uryū's reaction was exactly how a human being should react to a talking cat: he jumped off the couch and got as far away from the creature as possible, pointing and saying, "What demonic beast are you?"

"I am a cat," it said flatly. Unfortunately, Akita's reaction was exactly not a normal reaction as she simply said, "Cute," and pulled it into a cuddle hug, causing the cat to stifle its conversation for a moment with a meow as it was hugged and petted at the same time.

"Don't just play with unknown wild animals!" Uryū yelled, looking for a stick to try and poke the cat out of the apartment.

"It's not wild, it can speak the human tongue, which means it's intelligent," Akita said, defending the cat.

"All true," the cat said, enjoying the pets. "But to get to the point of my coming here, can I be let down, young Miss?"

Akita sat down on the couch and said, "How about I just let you sit on my lap?"

"Hmm, acceptable terms," the cat said, lying back in a relaxed way as it sat on her lap. "Now, as I was trying to say before we got to know each other, I am a representative of someone who is going to launch an expedition to save Rukia in the Soul Society. I'm also willing to help train you to fight the Soul Reapers you will face there. If you're willing to come with us to the Soul Society, I would assume, since that's what I overheard in your conversation, both of you would be interested in doing that. Correct?"

"Yes, Mr. Cat," Akita said, continuing to pet the cat.

"No, well, yes, but actually no," Uryū said, shaking his head as the two looked at him in confusion. "We are not going to run into the Soul Society to rescue Rukia. The two of us would be easy targets."

"There will be several others as well. I have quite a list of individuals to talk to today," the cat said matter-of-factly, which did not seem to settle Uryū's opinion on the matter.

"It doesn't matter. We are not going to the Soul Society without proper training."

"Which I'm offering."

"And we are not going to train under a cat when we are Quincy. We have our own style of training, thank you very much."

"... So what you're saying is that you're okay with us going to the Soul Society as part of this group, as long as we do our own training on our own," Akita said, pointing out exactly what he was saying, a little bit more openly than he would have liked.

"Yes, kind of like that," Uryū said, folding his arms across his chest.

"Hmm, don't like that. I'm sure I could help you train a lot better than whatever you think you can do."

"I don't know what you are or what skills you have, but I have access to materials that can help teach us what we need to know much faster than whatever you can come up with."

"A lot of dangerous pride you Quincy's have to get yourselves in trouble," the cat mused before shaking his head, finally leaping up off the girl and onto the back of the couch, then trotting over to the window. "But if you think you can train yourselves better than what I can give you, fine. I'll be around to give you the details about when we're making our attempt to rescue Rukia. You can ignore it or you can come along. It's up to you. Sound good?"

"Sounds great," Uryū said, still watching the cat with concern as it finally trotted out of the window and jumped out into the open space, falling four stories and probably not dying.

He kept his eyes on the window, even as Akita locked it back up, got up, walked next to him, and then punched him in the shoulder, saying, "You didn't have to be that mean."

"An unknown spiritual entity just walked into your home, and you're saying I'm mean? For all you know, that's a vampire that's going to come back here in the night and suck you dry because you let it into the house once."

"Well, if that's true, at least I'll have a strong brother figure by the window so they can get sucked dry first. Maybe they'll fill up and not need my blood."

"Mmm," Uryū made a sound from the back of his throat and resolved to make sure that window was locked when he went to bed that night before shaking his head and saying, "Alright, as I was saying, I have access to some of Grandad's old research materials on how to fight as a Quincy in my apartment. We can go get it and start training right away."

"No, you need at least one more day of recovery before that," Akita said, shaking her head as she guided him back to the couch and forcefully sat him down. "Starting tomorrow, we'll look into training. Today, worry about actually being able to walk again without having to hold onto a wall."

He sighed and nodded as his cousin walked away back to the kitchen, then leaned back on the couch before asking, "Out of curiosity, when you went to school this morning, how did Ichigo look? They said they killed him last night, but I didn't get any other details on that matter."

"He wasn't dead from what I saw this morning," Akita said with a shrug as she cleaned some dishes. "He looked really down though, so obviously he has his own problems. I think he probably got beat up just as bad as you, but because he was in his spiritual body, it's not as noticeable."

"Huh, okay. I'll admit that's one advantage that being a reaper has over being a Quincy."

"Yeah, whatever you say, cousin. Now eat your chicken noodle soup, relax, recuperate, and get ready for training tomorrow. We have to figure out how we're going to rescue Rukia."

"We're not going there to rescue Rukia. We're going there to teach Soul Reapers a lesson," Uryū said, trying to make it quite clear what the objectives were.

"Whateeeever you say, cousin," Akita said, making it quite clear that she wasn't listening to what he thought the objectives were and had her own set of objectives.

He sighed and just relaxed. He had no control over the situation, so he might as well just go with it. He would probably get what he wanted nonetheless.


Ichigo poked at the food with his utensil, not really feeling hungry as he thought about what he would have to do tonight. He had already arranged a meeting with Urahara to start their training, so all he had to do was finish his food and go do that. But, well...

He had questions and thoughts, and he was currently waiting for everyone at the kitchen table to clean up and leave. Well, mostly everyone. He was really just waiting for his two sisters to finish cleaning their dishes and leave the room. His father was being jovial, eating away and talking about his day, and that's who he really needed to talk to about this.

Except, how do you talk to someone about the Soul Society? How do you explain that you're planning to go on a crazy mission to try and save a friend? How do you explain that you could end up dead? It was a tough situation, and he wasn't really sure how to start. All he knew, though, was that he wanted to wait until the girls were gone so they wouldn't be worried.

Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long. They were a lot more prompt in finishing their chores because they wanted to go watch something in the living room, which was far enough away that they probably wouldn't hear their conversation. So, now he had to figure out how to start the conversation.

"What's eating you, boy?" Isshin said with a smile as he finished his own food and looked across the table, noticing the situation Ichigo was in.

This was it. This was the moment he had to talk about it. Taking a breath, he started to say something when his father interrupted him, "You know, son, if you're having girl troubles, you can always talk to me about it."

That got a laugh out of him because, in a way, he was somewhat right. He was having girl troubles; it just wasn't relationship girl troubles. Taking another breath, he decided to start off slowly. "Dad, do we have any connection to the spiritual world besides the ability to see ghosts? Do you happen to know why I have this ability?"

His father seemed to lose his smile for a second before it came back, saying, "Yeah, I know. I have a pretty darn good idea why you can see ghosts, but I try not to talk about it. Your mother never wanted you to be involved in the spiritual world after what we went through."

That was not what he was expecting to hear. Leaning forward, he said, "Okay, well, let's pretend that I've gotten myself wrapped up in the spiritual world in a way that I can't get out of without doing what is necessary to help a friend. Is there anything I should know?"

"Hmm, well, if it's to help a friend, do what you must do. That's assuming if you're asking for my opinion on the matter of helping your friend. But you're asking if I know more about why you have spiritual awareness beyond what most people have."

His father seemed to be thinking for a bit before he finally said, "Have you ever met a girl named Tanya Degurechaff?"

Ichigo's eyes widened in shock before saying, "Yeah, how do you know her?"

"Because I've met her, of course, here in the hospital about a month ago, but also about 20 years ago. Fresh-faced from the outer districts of the Soul Society."

That was a lot for Ichigo to take in as he looked at his father in shock before he said, "Are you saying you're from the Soul Society?"

His father nodded before saying, "A mission went bad many years ago. I got stuck here, found the love of my life, had a rather good life here to boot, so not exactly the worst thing to happen to me. That's why you have the ability to see things that most people don't. You're not exactly fully human."

Ichigo was left stunned and speechless before he asked, "You said both you and Mom saw things, though, didn't you? Is Mom also a Soul Reaper?"

His dad chuckled before saying, "No, no, she's not. She's something else, but I don't want to talk about that right now. She didn't want you in this whole spiritual nonsense more than you needed to be, so I'm not exactly going to unleash all the beans right now. We'll talk about that another time."

"So if you're from the Soul Society, what can you tell me about it?"

"I can tell you that whatever Kisuke Urahara is telling you is both false and true at the same time," his dad said.

"What do you mean?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I mean Urahara likes to keep his secrets, but he does have the best intentions for the world. I think he helped me and your mother a lot, and though I'm not exactly a fan of the fact that he's probably been training you behind my back, there's probably a good reason for it. I wouldn't say I trust him, but I trust that he has good intentions."

"That's not comforting and not exactly painting Kisuke Urahara in the best picture."

"I don't think anything can paint him in a good picture," Dad said with a laugh before continuing, "but if he thinks he knows what he's doing, I'm willing to let him take his shot. I'd prefer to do it myself, but my power has not exactly been strong enough to really do anything about this to begin with."

Letting out a sigh before leaning back in his chair, Ichigo said, "Alright then, I guess I know what I'm doing. Also, it wasn't Urahara teaching me. It was Tanya, actually."

"Really? Mind telling me about her? She was supposedly going to join my division when she was done with her training, but I was already trapped here by that time, so I don't know what ever happened."

Ichigo shrugged before saying, "She's the third seat of the Tenth Division, if that helps."

"Ah, that helps a lot. So she did join my division. That's good. Next time she sneaks around here, I'm going to have to ask her exactly what's been going on. She seemed more of a rule follower. I wonder why she didn't turn you in the moment she found out you had Soul Reaper powers."

"I think we can thank Rukia for that."

"Rukia, the girl who's been hanging around you recently. She's not your girlfriend, and she's a Soul Reaper. I guess that I got that right."

"Yeah, she's the one who gave me her Soul Reaper powers to protect us during that whole Hollow attack a while back."

"Right, that's when it all started. I thought there was something up when Kisuke Urahara said I needed to cover up the fact that there was a giant hole in the house or pretend the car ran into us. Ha! So you've been a Soul Reaper since then. That explains why you were starting to get better at seeing me coming."

"Yeah, and as far as I know, Rukia saved Tanya's life once, and I think that was the determining factor in her deciding to help us."

"Oh, well, yeah, that sounds like her. She was formerly some sort of German nobility, so it would make sense that she was into honor codes. How exactly has she been training you, out of curiosity?"

"Practically, she would basically fight me with one hand behind her back, using every skill she had. And she's got quite a lot of skills."

"Hmm, a good way to train in the Soul Society. If I had my powers back, I'd probably do the same. Heck, if you ever feel like it, we could spar a bit with wooden swords. I'm sure I could teach you a few things, just from my old practice regimen. I might be a little bit rusty, but it's like riding a bike after a hundred years. You never forget how to do it."

"I'm sorry, did you just say you're actually a hundred years older than you are?" Ichigo asked, getting a smile from his old man.

"No, I did not say that. I said that training with a sword for 100 years never goes away."

Ichigo gave him a look, knowing that it implied he was a lot older than 100 years, but he was just going to let that slide for now. Soul Society things were weird.

"Wait, if you're from the Soul Society, how come you never mentioned that you knew Rukia?"

"Boy, do you realize how big the Soul Society is? The place is big, kid, a lot bigger than possibly the real world is. It feels like that sometimes when you're there, even factoring in that maybe we were both in the 13 divisions. I was a captain of the Tenth. If she's not part of the Tenth, I wouldn't know anything about her unless she made an effort to know the captains of the other divisions. She probably didn't know anything about me."

"Huh, okay, that explains that. Well, at least the world is making some sense now, and I have a better feeling about this whole mission now."

"What is the mission, actually? I would like to know what Kisuke Urahara's plan was."

"Break into the Soul Society, rescue Rukia, and come back. There's a side plan that Tanya was working out where maybe if I proved my loyalty to the Soul Society, we would be able to solve this diplomatically. But Kisuke Urahara doesn't believe diplomacy will work."

"He's right, trust me on that. Tanya, for all her faults, is a good person, believing that the legal system will work. But trust me, while the legal system starts out acting rationally, which it does when it comes to the Soul Society, no rationality will work in the long term. I hate to say it, but your plan to rescue Rukia is probably the best chance, or if you have Tanya's support too."

"Why Tanya?"

"Because sooner or later, they're going to figure out that while Tanya was in the World of the Living she was involved in this effort, and when they do, they're going to decide she needs the same treatment as Rukia."

"Man, their system is so screwed up."

"Yeah, I know, so just trust your heart, kid. You know what's right, and you will do it. That's all that matters."

Ichigo nodded before getting up from his table, saying, "I better get ready for tonight. I'm going to be staying there for a bit to get ready for this operation. Before I go, though, do you want me to give you Tanya's book?"

"Tanya has a book?" his dad said, sounding surprised. "What's in it?"

"Combat training, mostly. From what I've seen, a few mentions of her ideology, which I think is some sort of capitalist libertarianism, I think. And there are stories from World War 1 used as examples on how to deal with combat situations."

"Huh, yeah, give me the book. I wouldn't mind reading that. Maybe there are some sections that will tell me what's been going on with the Tenth so I can find out how they've been doing without me."

Ichigo smiled. "Alright, I'll go get it for you," before taking his plate to the sink, washing it off, and heading up the stairs to his room.

Tonight would be a long night, that was for sure. But he would do what was necessary to help his friends. That's just what he would do. It was the right thing to do.

Whether it was Rukia or Tanya, if either one of them were in trouble, he would definitely help them out.


Writers note: surprises! Chapter out! I know I know it been while but it takes time to get chapters out, if you have issues with the time it takes feel free to join the discord! And either complain or join the editing crew. But other than that enjoy the chapter!, we moving forward to true chaos….

/NKn7Kv2be6

Please comment, review, and generally enjoy yourselves…


Edited by: L, BigKuma DM, Guardsman Pius, coltguy

Community edited by:

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