Chapter 34
Returning to the Soul Society was a rejuvenating experience, like returning from a business trip that had lasted way longer than it had any right to. Yes, she was returning with a large Sword of Damocles hanging overhead, ready to fall on her if she made one misstep, or if not her, then possibly impact the planet below with enough force to decimate everything in a nuclear obliteration. But at least things made some sense now.
She arrived through the Senkaimon from the World of the Living with little fanfare. After all, it wasn't like anyone was expecting her to return with some grand news. As far as anyone who was not aware of the Rukia situation was concerned, this was a simple mission to hunt hollows and deal with the normal problems of the World of the Living. Nothing special, nothing major; just because a third seat didn't mean much. Granted, she should have told Visha that she would be back today. She would have time to talk to her soon enough. Right now, she needed to file a report and be on her way towards talking with Jūshirō Ukitake, the commander of the Thirteenth division.
Quietly, so as not to rouse anyone's suspicions, she moved out of the main courtyard of the passageway to the World of the Living and started moving towards the division headquarters, stopping off at the Tenth division to drop off her report. Her report stated that she had just killed a lot of hollows and there might be something interesting going on in the World of the Living in the coming days. She didn't know exactly what was going to happen, but if they took all the activity seriously, it probably would require some form of action to prevent grievous loss of life.
Dealing with this situation was going to be a massive headache even before having to deal with possible hollow problems. What would happen if the units deployed stumbled upon a certain orange-haired punk trying to deal with some of the hollows that were showing up? No doubt something terrible, and they would review the situation before they were ready. She needed to be careful to make sure the response was properly handled.
'Focus on the now, focus on getting this over with, and focus on seeing the now. You're too wound up,' Tasha called from the back of Tanya's mind, reminding her that she needed to be calm and collected. Nodding her head, she continued to the Thirteenth division headquarters and was stopped by several guards who apparently were waiting there.
"Who goes there?" one of the tougher-looking guards said, holding his arms in front of him.
"Tanya of the Tenth division. I'm here to speak with your commanding officer, Captain Ukitake. I have important information for him," she said, folding her own arms and looking up at the rather tall individual blocking her way.
""He's not taking any visitors right now," the guard said matter-of-factly before continuing, "Third seats Kotetsu and Kotsubaki have ordered that there be no visitors since he is recovering from a bout of his sickness."
"Unfortunate," she said, concealing her annoyance at this. She couldn't just go in and speak to him to get this over with, but she could do what she could. Reaching into her uniform, she pulled out a manila envelope and said, "Have this delivered to him when he's feeling better. This should cover most of it, and tell him that I am willing to have a meeting with him whenever he's feeling up to it."
The guard nodded and took the envelope as if he was about to open it before she said, "This is for his eyes only. Perhaps the third seat will be allowed to see it as well, but this is the most important point in secrecy."
The guard sighed before putting the envelope under his arm and saying, "Fine, I will get this envelope to him and keep it secret. I will not allow anyone to view it. Is there anything else you want to know while you're here, third seat of the 10th division?"
"Yes, how is Nicole doing? I haven't spoken to her in a week," she said, trying to be neighborly with the fellow division. Something was going on, and they seemed to be on edge right now. She had to wonder if it had to do with what she came here for.
"She's been busy taking care of the captain and is also indisposed right now. I'll send your regards."
"Ah, thank you," Tanya said with an eye on them before turning to leave. She was already starting to suspect that whatever odious sickness the captain was having right now was most likely a lot worse than normal, and perhaps this would prevent their meeting for a while, though hopefully not too long. Shaking her head, she started to move towards the Tenth division. It took her an hour to make the walk, but it was an hour well spent. Along the way, she took some time to familiarize herself back with the Soul Society, getting used to its sights and smells after spending a week in the World of the Living. She had to admit that if she had a choice, she'd probably prefer to be back in the World of the Living. The lack of technology around was always a bit of an annoyance to her, not to mention the lighting was absolutely abysmal at this late hour in the day. A line of torches and candles to light the streets meant anyone could sneak up on you and try to take you by surprise. Thankfully, that was not a common occurrence, as criminals didn't survive long within the central districts, let alone this close to the Seireitei. But there was always a bit of concern. In the back of Tanya's mind, everything was a bit of a concern; she was still technically worried about the return of Being X and having it work to try and convert her to his religious worship."
Shaking her head, Tanya stopped thinking about Being X and got on with her life, quickly arriving at the Tenth Division and lurking through some of the hallways to get to her office. In front of her office was a cubby that she had installed a few years earlier in order to place her paperwork for logistics staff of the Tenth division to pick up and move it to where it needed to be, minimizing her workload. Reaching into her uniform again, she pulled out an envelope she had purchased while in the World of the Living with a basic description of everything she was reporting and everything she understood was going on, which she thought would not get her in trouble. Mainly, a document stating that there was an uptick in hollow attacks and that there might be something more on the verge of happening that may need investigation. She left it open enough so that at worst, the job might come back to her. It would give her an opportunity to go to the World of the Living to check things out and make it clear that she may need to call for help if that turned out to be insufficient.
After sliding the document into the Tenth's captain's office, she was about to turn and leave when she felt a hand come to rest on her shoulder.
"TANYA!" a voice cried, and then she felt herself pulled straight into a hug by a drunk Rangiku. "Good to see you again, it's been so long," the drunk woman said, shoving Tanya's face deep into what most young men would quite enjoy. Tanya also quite enjoyed it, though she kept that to herself. Pushing her away, the lieutenant asked, "You just got back from the World of the Living?" she asked as she wobbled slightly on unsteady legs, making it quite clear that she probably had been drinking quite a bit tonight.
"Yes," she said with a smile, "just got back and was putting in my report before getting ready to go back to my home. What are you doing Rangiku?"
"Why, hugging you of course," she said with a smile before beginning an explanation. "It's been a party atmosphere for the last few days for some reason. I think some of the lower staff were saying something about a little witch being gone, or the slave driver had left, something like that. I don't know, but the alcohol has been flowing freely, and I've been having a great time the last couple of days," she said while playing with her currently orange hair. Apparently, she had dyed it again every couple of years, and Tanya learned that she would do that in order to stand out more. Tanya believed she had also attempted to get herself to switch her hair color once or twice as well, but those attempts had failed as she didn't have the time nor see the need to change color at this point. She was okay with how she looked, and she saw no need to experiment with different hairstyles and hues that she could do. She had already figured out how to communicate with her sword and master Shikai. There wasn't any reason to experiment with lipstick or other base makeups other than to appease her zanpakutō spirit.
'That may be true,' came Tasha, her inner spirit perking up at those thoughts, 'but I still think you'd look good with white hair. It would make you look a little bit more menacing.' Before Tanya could try and shoot that down again, the spirit continued by saying, 'By the way, "The witch is gone, the slave driver's left." I think they're talking about you. Thank you for being a little bit too hard on some of the members of the Tenth division.'
'You're probably wrong,' Tanya thought to herself. 'And no, I wasn't too hard on anyone. If they can't meet my standards, then that's their own problem. I'm just trying to make sure they survive. They either follow my orders and thrive or end up caught in a big problem.'
'Yes, yes, the problem of having fun. You should try that sometime. I know Visha would love it,' the spirit teased.
Ignoring the spirit, Tanya said, "Well, that's good that they were having so much fun while I was gone. Try not to let them disturb anyone." Then a possibility entered her mind, and she asked, "Anything I need to know before I head back out to head home?"
Rangiku shook her head before saying, "Ikkaku from the Eleventh division was wondering where you were. He apparently wanted to have a training session with you. Captain Hitsugaya wants to ask you to take a look at some paperwork on your desk when you get back. Something about a mistake in the Twelfth division causing a logistics problem with your training program. I also think I heard something about Grantz from the Sixth division wanting to talk to you about something."
'Grantz wanted to talk to her? That was unusual, not impossible. She hadn't had many conversations, but they did talk once in a while. Usually, it was about something important, so she would have to make time to talk to him. She's already going to have to make time to go by the Sixth anyway. With the position Rukia was in, it would be better to have Captain Byakuya and Lieutenant Abarai in on the situation. Both of whom have close relations with Rukia and would likely want to do something to help out,' Tanya thought.
Nodding her head, she said, "Thank you for the information. Is there anything else I need to know about?"
Scrunching up her face in thought, Rangiku shook her head and said, "No," then reached into her pocket and offered Tanya a bottle of whiskey, saying, "Here's some good stuff I was saving. Go enjoy that with Visha."
"Thank you," Tanya said, taking the bottle, thinking it would be a perfect gift for a good evening with her. "See you later, Rangiku."
"Later, Tanya," she called back as she turned and left, heading for home.
The walk to the apartment Tanya shared with Visha was not very long from the Tenth Division nor was it very far from the Eleventh either. It was perfectly positioned between the two so that they could get to both places for their work hours. As a result, it was not hard for Tanya to find her way into the coffee shop they ran. Fortunately, this late in the evening, it was still open, though she shouldn't really be drinking caffeine this late anyway. It's almost night.
Thankfully, there was no one minding the shop. Admittedly, it was most likely that everyone had gone home for the day, which means she entered without much noise. Shrugging at the lack of people, she moved on from the downstairs and quickly ascended the flights to her apartment above the coffee shop. Pulling a key from inside her uniform and with a slide, she unlocked the door and walked into the room, looking around to see if Visha was there. It was late, and she might not have come back from work, so it was also possible that she was still at the Eleventh. Thankfully, she was pleased that it was not true, as she saw Visha leaning over a counter, seeming to be humming as she was cooking something. Rapping hard on the side of the door, Tanya said, "I'm home."
Visha immediately stood up and quickly turned, a smile on her face as she saw Tanya before rushing over and giving her a hug. "Welcome home, Tanya," she said before separating. "I was just cooking dinner, and I was worried that I made a little too much. Fortunately, it looks like we'll be just fine."
"Wonderful," Tanya said as she hugged her back, feeling at home finally now that she was out of the field.
Visha let go and started walking back behind the counter to the cooking area before she said, "So how was your trip to the World of the Living? Anything I need to know about?"
Tanya shook her head, falling behind her a bit before taking a seat at the table, finally saying, "Where do I even begin on the mess I found myself in?" Leaning back, she said, "Use a comms spell; closed channel just so we keep this as private as possible." Visha seemed a little bit confused by the look on her face, but she cast the spell as Tanya did the same.
Taking a breath, she said, "Well, where should we begin? Do you want the important news or the not so important news, which is just interesting stuff I saw while I was away?" Tanya didn't even bother thinking twice about keeping some of the stuff she was involved in secret from Visha. She just didn't need to know about the former Tenth Division captain as it was better for her to have no details about that information, and for Tanya to have no details fully around in her head, but the stuff she would have to publicly talk about sooner or later, she could talk to Visha about.
"Start with the fun stuff. How many Hollows did you kill? Nicole said that Rukia was killing like three Hollows a week, right?"
Tanya nodded before saying, "That's probably a good estimate of what we were dealing with. I killed at least ten hollows or more, kind of lost track after number eight."
"That's a lot of Hollows. What the hell is going on in the World of the Living?" Visha asked as she moved the utensil against some sort of pot, preparing the food.
"That's a good question, and I'm worried about it. But as of now, it's not my issue. If it becomes something that is interested in the World of the Living and is making a mess, then I might have to go back and deal with it if it keeps up. Hopefully, it doesn't require something bigger to deal with it."
"Bigger how?" Visha asked, raising an eyebrow as she turned her head.
"Captain-level or greater," Tanya said, shaking her head. "Something is trying to add raw Hollows to the World of the Living, and whatever is doing it will need to be dealt with either by me or someone with more abilities than me."
"Damn," Visha said, shaking her head before she came back to the table, bringing a spiced chicken meal of some kind next to a pile of Alfredo noodles, by the looks of it, in a hurry.
"Trying something new?" Tanya asked as she placed the meal on the table.
"Just some new spices I got," Visha said with a shrug before she sat down in front of Tanya. "Now continue the story. What else is going wrong?"
Tanya took a breath before grabbing a knife and fork and cutting herself a piece of meat before leveraging some of the noodles next to it. "Well, what's the best way to say 'Rukia has lost her powers'?" she said, figuring the best way to drop the news was by surprise and just rather playing about it.
"What!" Visha yelled mid-cut around a slice of chicken, looking at her in shock. "What happened, how did she lose her powers, is she okay, is she back in the Soul Society?" and a couple more questions came that Tanya shook her head and raised a hand to.
"Let's start with the known problems. No, she's not back in the Soul Society yet. It's not safe for her to return until she gains her powers back, considering the situation." Visha looked like she wanted to ask what the situation was, so she just continued. "As for how she lost her powers, it's complicated, but the gist of it is she gave her powers to someone she shouldn't have, and now that person has her powers, which, as you might imagine, is a bit of a political nightmare for someone with noble ties."
"Oh, Tanya," Visha said, shaking her head before saying, "do you have a plan to get her out of the situation, or are we still unsure how we're going to handle this?"
"We?" Tanya asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Tanya, I'm here to help. Rukia helped you get to Central, where we met again. It's the least I can do."
Tanya nodded before saying, "There's a plan in motion. I delivered a document that outlines the direct problem to the captain of the Thirteenth. Hopefully, he'll be able to start putting things together, and I won't need to do anything more than provide testimony at some point."
"For good measure, I am planning to look into the laws around the creation of temporary Soul Reapers, substitute Soul Reapers as they're called, so that we can make sure to understand the issue and see if there's any way to prevent her from being targeted by the nobles as their one opportunity to go after a Soul Reaper with noble ties."
Nodding, Visha said, "Good, good. Well, if you think of any way I can help, I will gladly do it. What about this temporary Soul Reaper? What do we know about him?"
"He's a confident idiot," Tanya said, shaking her head. Seeing a bit of confusion from Visha, she continued by saying, "The idiot is very good at understanding concepts. He's a natural fighter and would be a good member of the Soul Society when he finally dies," she theorized, "but he shouldn't have those abilities now, and because he does, that's a problem. A problem that the nobles will use against Rukia, of course."
She nodded her head and said, "Is there any way to get rid of his powers and set things right?"
Tanya shook her head before saying, "It's possible, but we don't have any ideas right now. That's why I must do more research into substitute Soul Reapers in order to find out if there's a way to depower him or at least minimize his power leakage that would make things easier right now. Though we are preparing for the possibility that he will need to swear his allegiance to the Soul Society in order to make people at ease with the concept of a living Soul Reaper."
Visha nodded her head in understanding before saying, "This seems like it's going to be a hard issue to deal with. Do you have any idea where you are going to start in getting this situation untangled?"
Tanya nodded before saying, "We probably have two months before this situation becomes uncontrollable. That being said, I have two months. I need to get a few things under control. One, speak to someone who I believe has a good idea on substitute Soul Reapers and ask them as many questions as I can on the matter. Two, get the Thirteenth captain completely on board with a plan to get this rogue Soul Reaper brought in under his command. Three, find allies I can trust who can support the Thirteenth in this issue, most likely the Tenth and Eleventh captains. I think they would do the best with possibly the Fifth captain as well. I'll speak to him on that matter when I get the chance. And finally, I think I need to put out feelers to the captain of the Sixth. He might be able to help us with this situation since he is, after all, Rukia's brother."
"So, where do we start?" Visha said.
Thinking about it, Tanya said, "Well, we start by having a good night's sleep. This is something that should be done when I'm fresh and ready in the morning, not while I'm somewhat flustered from a long day already and still putting my mind back together from dealing with the insanity of the World of the Living for the past seven days."
"Insanity? Did anything else happen while you were gone?" Visha asked.
Tanya blinked before she said, "Well, at the start, I ran into one of the more intelligent hollows, apparently out on a vendetta against a family. Not exactly the greatest creature I've run into, but thankfully, we dealt with it. There is also another, although odd, Hollow that the punk ran into, a giant wolf according to him."
"Scary. How did you kill it?" Visha asked
"We didn't. It is still alive," Tanya said matter-of-factly before continuing. "It ran into him and apparently just wanted to talk."
"Okay, that's abnormal. I don't think I've run into many hollows that talk, let alone just want to talk," Visha said with a raised eyebrow.
"I know it's weird," Tanya said, shaking her head. "Whatever situation Rukia has gotten herself embroiled in is abnormal and not something I would ever want to deal with. I hope we can get this situation handled quickly and quietly and just put it all to bed so no more of this crazy stuff happens."
Visha nodded before adding, "Start eating. I want to hear what you think of it."
"Oh, right." Tanya added, using her knife and fork to cut off a piece of chicken and thinking about it. It was mildly spicy but pretty good, and the chicken wasn't overcooked, just perfect. The blade quickly cut through, even without much pressure, indicating it had been cooking for the right amount of time. Unfortunately, the spiciness was kind of too much for a bite or two, so she immediately used her fork to grab some alfredo noodles, which contained something that soothes the burning feeling down and makes it easier to digest. "Mhmmm, this is great," Tanya said with a smile, happy to be back home and away from the insanity of the World of the Living.
"Is it good?" Visha asked with a wide smile.
"Yeah, a perfect mix of flavors," Tanya said with a smile.
"Good. I was worried I was going overboard with spices," she said, rubbing the back of her head.
"Well, I think it's the perfect food to return home to. I'm glad to be back; I haven't had a good meal since I left."
"Well, eat up! I'm glad to have you back!" She said happily.
The first step in saving Rukia's career is to gather intel on potential allies. That meant making a stopover at the Sixth division and speaking to Grantz. So, that's what she did this morning. Tanya moved through the streets of Central, heading towards the 6th division, expecting to have a rather short conversation before heading off to the Eleventh division, before finally making a stop at the Thirteenth division to see if her report had finally been filed and to have a conversation with the captain.
Really, she would probably like to speak with the captain of the Thirteenth first. After all, it was his soldier that screwed up, and he probably would have the most insight on the situation. Unfortunately, he was ill, and since Tanya was under the impression that since this was not a one-off thing, it was very likely that she would not have a conversation with him for some time. So, instead of wasting time, which she was not prone to do, it was best to get to work and start putting together all the assets needed for her successful trial.
It was only a 30-minute walk from the part of town she lived in to the part of town controlled by the 6th, so finding Grantz was the next part of her plan. Unfortunately, that's when her plan met with the unfortunate realities of existence.
Standing in front of the gates of the Sixth division, she was stopped by several of their own guards who asked what she was here to see, and when she told them she was here to see Grantz, they nodded and sent someone to go find him. Standing there, she waited for a good 10 minutes, wondering what was up before the guard returned.
"I am afraid Grantz isn't here right now," he said with a shrug before explaining. "He's off on an expedition to the outer districts and probably won't be back for a month."
"Strange," she thought. "This division doesn't usually send out people on expeditions," but that was not too great of an issue as she instead decided to make an effort to find out more information about the relationship between Rukia and the brother. "What about Lieutenant Renji? Is he around?" Tanya asked, her arms folded behind her as she waited for a response.
"Yeah, I'm around," said the lieutenant as he came out of the main building. Walking down a series of steps leading to the front door, he nodded to the guards and said, "Hey, Tanya, what's up?"
"Lately nothing, possibly something," she had been trying to figure out what would be the best way to handle this conversation before deciding on her approach. "Mind going on a walk with me around the barracks?"
"Sure," he said, raising an eyebrow. Nodding to the guards, he followed behind Tanya as they moved away from the majority of people. Once they were far enough away, Tanya said, "I've been involved in gathering information on a little bit of an incident involving Rukia."
She was not allowed to finish as he immediately yelled, "Rukia? What's wrong? Is she alright?"
"She's fine physically and mentally, though she could be better. The situation is complex, and the details will come out sooner or later, but the important part here is what you read about Rukia and her brother's relationship. I need to know if he'd be willing to help us out in the situation."
"I don't know. I've been working with Byakuya for a couple of months now, and from what I've seen, he's a very professional guy who also seems kind of cold and distant. I would think that since he brought her into his family, he has some sort of care for Rukia, but I've never actually seen them interacting together."
"Hmm, unfortunately, that's not particularly helpful," Tanya said, shaking her head before continuing, "With it likely that in the coming months, Rukia is going to need your help in a roundabout way."
"How so?" he asked as they walked.
'You'll need to help show that someone is worthy of fighting with the Soul Reapers,' is what she would say if she did not need to keep the exact situation under wraps until it was already out. Instead, she said, "Unfortunately, I can't give you exact details yet, not until we have a better grasp on the situation and how it can be handled."
"That's not a lot of information. Can you give me anything else?" he asked, scratching his head as the two kept moving along.
Shaking her own head, Tanya said, "Afraid I cannot. This situation is tense due to the noble origin of the issue and will be until we have control over it. Talking about the exact details could just make it worse. Better to have the surprise on our side than have no surprise at all." She continued, "You only need to know that when the time comes, Rukia may need your help."
Renji nodded his head and sounded irate. "Well, when you have the ability to tell me more, let me know, and I guess I'll just continue to try and get better at fighting and such," he said with a shrug before continuing. "You're okay with this situation, right? There's nothing that could be a problem for you? You're right in the center, helping with whatever has apparently gone wrong."
Tanya shook her head before saying, "I'm hopefully going to work this out so I will not be in any trouble. Only time will tell, though, if I'm successful," she said with a shake of her head.
"By the way, where is Grantz? I was told he wanted to speak to me."
Renji shook his head before saying, "Yes, recently he was attached to some missions in the South. Captain Aizen of the Fifth Division suggested that we be more proactive about sending expeditions to the outer districts for cleaning up problems, and during the creation of the team, he was assigned to it."
"Hmm, interesting," Tanya said, noting the unfortunate timing of that.
"Yeah, as they said, he should be back in a month, so whatever he wanted to talk about will have to wait until then."
Tanya nodded before saying, "Well then, keep your eyes open and let me know if any nobles come poking around, as that will mean something is going wrong, and I need to know about it, okay?"
"Will do, Tanya," he said with a salute before they went their separate ways.
From the Sixth division, Tanya moved quickly through the streets heading for the Eleventh division, figuring that having the captain on their side might be for the best. Some might question the reasonability of asking him for help, considering he tended to be a bit more of a fighter type and less of the politics type, but that's where he was kind of the perfect candidate for helping out in this situation.
Tanya doubted that he had any issue with anyone related to nobility or where they came from. He only seemed to care about if they could fight, and if Ichigo proved they could fight, he would want to fight him. Now, Tanya doubted that he'd go too far, meaning she was sure he wouldn't kill him, but the simple fact that he would want to fight him might be enough to get them to step into politics, getting him to come to bat for both Rukia and the punk.
Having the captain of the Eleventh at your back politically was probably one of the best political allies you could have. The Eleventh division was the combat division, and a good hope to deal with any noble who tried to raise any fuss about the issue. Of course, with any luck, that particular type of pressure would not be needed, and they could get this situation handled by a simple couple of fights proving Ichigo was worthy to fight alongside the rest of the Soul Reapers.
Of course, having backup plans for the plans behind those plans never hurts anyone, especially when you didn't know what your opponent was going to do. Her meetings with nobles had been very minimal. She didn't think that she actually met a noble that wasn't an official Soul Reaper, so the ones she had met were not the standard from what she could understand from the reading of the documents she came across over the years.
But from what she read, they were not great people to be talking to; they were the worst to deal with. They were, after all, nobility who had come to live in the Soul Society over the last thousands of years and built up their empire in this world, and they had a long time to grow customs of the way it was run. Their influence was felt throughout the Soul Society, one way or another, even if supposedly Central 46 was the head of the government. The matter was that Central 46 was made up of nobles and friends of nobles.
This was just a long-standing clique, one that had held power for a long time and had tentacles into every aspect of society, whether it was economic or espionage. She was fighting a force that would not give up its chance to put Soul Reapers in their place if it saw an opportunity, and in order to do that, she would need to have several keys for a successful win.
The first key was Ichigo being able to fight and win in combat with some heavy hitters in the Soul Society. The second key was several captains agreeing that having him around was not a bad idea. The third key was, of course, the captain of the Eleventh, who was probably worth several captains.
Of course, she hoped that the threat of massive combat would not be necessary. With any luck, her other strategy of minor combat to appeal to their senses of honor would be enough to set the course for a situation they were willing to accept, but there was nothing wrong with having a backup plan.
In fact, there was nothing wrong with having several backup plans. This is why she also needed to have a meeting with the captain of the Fifth to discuss possibilities of either undoing what Rukia had done or any other information he had about temporary-turned-permanent Soul Reapers.
Of course, there was a question of when she should have that conversation with him. After all, having a conversation with him right away about the matter would perhaps set a course towards a possible success or perhaps lead to him saying that she should just turn this over to the proper authorities and let them handle it. After all, if you just go to a person with a vague idea of what you want to get done, they're not going to immediately assume it's possible. But if you could present a working logical route for it to happen, they're more willing to help you out and propose other ways of making it possible.
Plus, she should probably wait until she had a chance to do her own research and find out information on her own about the matter of the permanent Soul Reapers amongst the population of the living. Once she had that information, she could do enough on her own to see that everything would be a success.
Also, she should probably wait until she had a chance to speak with the captain of the Thirteenth. She didn't know how long his illness would keep him bedridden, but she needed to have some sort of conversation on this matter as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the more time was wasted, the more likely something would go wrong, and some noble would get in their mind to start poking around ways to screw with the captain of the Sixth.
But that would have to wait for another day. Today, she needed to focus. The captain of the Eleventh would take much of her conversation skill to not immediately get him to go rocketing towards the nearest portal to the World of the Living to fight. She would need to come up with a way of talking about the situation so that he would see the value in waiting for him to come to the Soul Society.
Shouldn't be that hard, right?
"Why are these hollows running?" Ichigo asked as he and Rukia chased after a pair of hollows that had been on the verge of attacking a ghost couple in the nearby park.
They had been trying to convince the couple to allow them to send them to the Soul Society for about half an hour. The couple was refusing because Rukia had happened to mention that it might take a bit for them to be reunited, and they were not happy with that idea. However, they couldn't leave them because their soul chains were rather close to being near the end. If they didn't send them through soon enough, they'd be turned into hollows and either one would hurt the other or, somehow, they turned at the same time, they may hurt others.
Thankfully, this pair of hollows jumped out and tried to attack them, which had revealed the threat of the monsters to them and probably would help in negotiating with the couple to agree to be cleansed.
However, the couple took a back seat now as they had to chase down these monsters and deal with them before they caused any other harm. Unfortunately, they were running instead of fighting them, making it just that much harder.
"No idea," Rukia called. "Maybe it's a trap?"
Ichigo blinked as that actually sounded rather reasonable if they knew that they were outmatched. Why wouldn't these creatures fall back to somewhere where they could lay a trap? That would imply that there was another hollow waiting in the wings for an attack.
Those thoughts were interrupted as a fist came out of an alleyway, smacking into the foremost hollow. It bounced along the streets before scrabbling itself back onto the ground and bearing its teeth at the alleyway where the fist had come from.
Both hollows were rather cat-like, so it wasn't hard to see why they were running in a pack and immediately began working together. As soon as the attack appeared, bearing their white mask fangs, they looked at the alleyway before Tanya stepped out.
He blinked a couple of times in confusion before he said, "Tanya," tilting his head. Considering he knew she was not in town right now, according to her, she was going to be returning today and he would not be seeing her until she had a plan. So either she already had a plan or something had gone wrong or maybe...
"Oh hey, it's the orange-haired punk," the girl wearing Tanya's face said, looking in his direction and speaking in a voice that sounded somewhat like Tanya but also different, which kind of reminded him of... Kon.
"The Soul Candy?" Ichigo asked, getting a smile and a nod of approval from the rather busty schoolgirl standing in front of him.
"Got it in one, good job, Mr. Giant-sword-will-destroy-my-enemies," she licked her lips and said, "I hope that's not overcompensation though."
"I'm sorry, what was-" he could only say as the girl laughed and turned back towards the two hollows.
"I see you have a pair of friends here. I wonder if they're also friends of the hollow I found hiding in the alleyway back there." With that, the girl reached into a rather large bag and pulled out the head of a hollow, still somewhat dripping as it obviously had not been properly killed by cleansing. Though the way she tossed it towards me gave me enough room that my sword was able to sweep through the skull as it came at me, finishing the cleansing job.
"I was going to track you down later and have you do the job. It looks like I won't need to do that now. Unfortunately, what I would have loved to have met your soul candy, I hear he's quite a character.'"
"Ah, maybe another time," Ichigo said, a bit confused by this turn of events, but hey, one less hollow, and the other two hollows seemed a bit unsure of what to do, which gave him the opportunity to hop forward, slicing down through one's head and killing it. The other quickly disappeared into the black void and didn't seem to come back right away.
Rukia checked her phone before saying, "Yeah, it's gone now," before turning on the blonde bombshell that was Tanya's soul candy and fake body.
"Now, would you mind explaining to me why you're out and about? I thought Tanya would have returned you to Urahara."
"Well, well, I guess she could have," the fake Tanya said with a shrug before adding, "but then why waste a perfectly good opportunity to make money? At least, that's what Tanya said. She gave me a whole briefing on how economics works, how to play the stock market, and posted me to make a safe house here in the World of the Living in case something ever goes wrong."
"She's making a safe house for us?" Ichigo asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, that's rather nice of her," Rukia said with a shrug.
"...Yes, for you," responded the blonde girl, though something about the way she said that raised his hackles, making him believe that it was not true, in fact.
However, considering that he wanted to believe a lie, he had to assume that if he ever did need a safe house, she would, of course, let him or whoever he needed to stay in a safe house stay. At least he hoped so. Technically speaking, he guessed if he wanted to, he could knock the soul candy out of her with the back of his blade rather easily, so there was that as a threat if it ever came to that, preferably not though.
After all, if he was letting Kon live in a stuffed animal while he was doing other things, he guessed if Tanya decided to let what's her name live in the fake body while she was away, maybe everything would be fine the way it was?
Shaking his head, he said, "Well then, it's good to meet you Miss... what did Tanya name you, anyways?"
"Hmm, she really hasn't given me a name yet, a bit of a misstep on her part, I think. Oh well, soon enough, that'll be dealt with. As soon as she returns in a month or so. I guess I'll just use her name when I go out since I'm posing as her."
"Alright then, what should we call you till then?"
"Hmm, well, I guess you can call me Yuki till then," she said with a shrug, kicking some of the debris that had once been a hollow.
"Okay," Rukia said, her eyebrow raised a bit, as she grabbed onto Ichigo's shoulder and started to walk away, saying, "Well, nice meeting you, Yuki. Have fun being alive, we got to go handle the dead."
"Ah, of course," she said, giving a wave. "Well, have fun with that. I'm sure the dead are quite happy to be on their way to the Soul Society. See you in school Monday!"
The two of them stopped in unison at that, both turning to look at her in confusion.
"What? Tanya said I could go to school, as she said something along the lines of 'well, better not let a good opportunity go to waste', something that would allow me to build a heavier cover."
"But Tanya has not been to school before, she was just using the uniform," Rukia pointed out.
"Ah right, it wasn't Tanya who said that, it was Mr. Urahara. Got the two confused," the girl said as she tapped the side of her head with her fist before continuing, "oh well, still, I guess we'll be seeing each other at school on Monday, get to meet all your friends and keep an eye on the situation for Tanya."
"… Okay," Ichigo said, nodding his head. "See you there." This time, he grabbed Rukia, who was looking at the girl a bit worried, and started leading her away, saying, "How bad of a situation is it that a soul candy is attempting to learn and go to my school?"
"Probably not that bad," Rukia said with a shrug before adding, "Yes, she's trying to go to your school, and yes, she is a soul candy, but theoretically, as long as she doesn't talk about the Soul Society and keeps out of Soul Society business, there's nothing exactly illegal with her doing that. I don't think anyone's ever really thought about doing something like that, though."
"Why has no one ever really thought about doing that?" he asked, noting that that was probably an important reason.
"Soul Society members don't usually stay in the World of the Living. We also don't usually leave bodies wandering around. Nothing illegal about it, it's just not something we do."
"So technically, this is all legal. Leaving the body around just to make money to support Soul Society's operations lets them ingratiate themselves into society and just be a normal girl. Let's hope it is all legal and something that this Yuki can do."
Rukia shrugged before saying, "As far as I know, I mean it's possible that there's some law I'm unaware of, but if it's something I'm unaware of and it's something that Tanya is unaware of, probably only Central 46 knows about it, so no one's going to really report about it."
"Tanya's that good with the legal system?"
"From my understanding, she graduated from the Soul Arts Academy with one of the highest honors in that particular area. If anyone knows the legal system, it's Tanya, so yeah, she would know how to avoid getting herself and this Yuki in trouble."
"Alright then, so not an issue we need to worry about. Let's go back to focusing on doing Soul Society business and getting those two sent on to the next life," he said with a shake of his head, putting aside the worries of the blonde bombshell from causing any problems… Well, that being said, he had to worry about Keigo Asano now, didn't he? He had a feeling that he would be more likely to try and date the girl as soon as he saw her.
Probably would fail, but how much strength did that girl have, and how would she take it? He did not want to have to deal with explaining why he had a broken arm from a simple shove or something of that nature. Then again, perhaps he was being overly worried. After all, his only example of a soul candy was not exactly a standard soul candy in Kon, who was a modified soul and not exactly the standard soul candy model.
Turning back to Rukia, he asked, "So that soul candy girl, was she a standard example of what to expect from soul candies?"
Rukia shrugged before saying, "I think so. I wouldn't know, I've only ever had my eye on the Chappy model. I know there are other models of soul candies, and who knows what model Urahara gave Tanya. I mean, I thought I was getting a standard one when I got Kon, remember?"
"That's kind of adding to my concern. Are we sure that's not another modified soul?"
There was a bit of a long pause as Rukia thought about it before saying, "No, no, maybe. I guess we'll just have to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't do anything superhuman. If she does, then I guess we might have a problem, but if she doesn't, then I guess we're fine."
"So wait and see and hope for the best," Ichigo said, shaking his head. "I wish we had better options."
"Sometimes we don't," Rukia said with a nod. "We'll just have to deal with things as we go."
"Watch out, Akira," Uryū Ishida called as the hollow they had been tracking attempted to jump out of a black portal and grab her.
Thankfully, she was a lot faster than the hollow, and she turned and fired her bow point-blank into the creature's forehead, destroying it.
"Thanks, cousin," she said, taking a breath and kicking the pile of ash that was dissipating.
Shaking his head, he said, "Don't thank me, keep an eye out next time."
"Will do, will do," she replied.
He sighed as he reviewed the situation. He had not planned to get involved in the spiritual world stuff. Unfortunately, something had prevented him from staying out of it. Mainly, more and more hollows were showing up, and they were starting to attack people with high spiritual pressure. He cared about that, so he did what any reasonable person would do; he started hunting them back. And Akira had immediately figured out that he was now getting involved and offered to help, an annoying thing, but there was not much he could do about it.
Many years ago, when he had nearly been killed by hollows and had also nearly watched his grandfather die, things had gone differently. He might have been a lot more active about killing hollows, but because his grandfather had lived, he had had time to think about things. He didn't want to abandon the ways like his father had, and he didn't have some chip on his shoulder against the soul reapers, so he had always come up with the notion that he would protect himself if need be. But the last few weeks of hunting these hollows had been rather fun. Well, somewhat satisfying to put these creatures down, scratching an itch that he didn't know he'd had.
Not to mention, he got to spend a little bit more time with his cousin, Akira.
They didn't talk as much as they used to when they were kids, and because he was not into being a full hunter as she had, she always had a different reaction from the whole near-death experience they had experienced. Instead of taking the warning to heart from the soul reaper protecting them, she'd always gone out there and been a bit more of a hunter than him, always getting involved in situations she should probably not be involved in.
It was rather a pain in his neck because he'd always have to look out for her whenever he felt like there was a hollow in the vicinity.
Ever since they were saved by the soul reaper, she'd been way too willing to help people with soul-related issues. He had hoped that asking that soul reaper to just tell her to stop would do something, but it hadn't, and now there was a problem he had to deal with. Mainly, hollows deciding that they were snacks that could feed them and needed to be eaten, which they had to inform the hollows that they were not through violence.
"Hey, cousin, when should we talk to Ichigo about maybe working with him? Seems like there's an uptick in hollow activity, and we're all trying to protect the city together, right?"
He sighed at her before shaking his head and saying, "Well, I can understand the sentiment, but getting involved in soul reaper business is not good for us. We need to stay independent and be able to handle situations on our own. Otherwise, they'll tell us not to shoot the creatures dead because they're worried about that supposed balance issue," he said, shaking his head.
It's not that he didn't believe the balance issue; it's just that he didn't believe it was as big of a problem as it had been a thousand years before. Back then, there had been many Quincys trying to kill as many hollows as possible, not just one or two dealing with them here or there. He didn't believe a small population would be a big issue towards the balance that they were worried about, but it didn't mean he was going to work with them openly.
Yes, his grandfather believed that they could find a way to work with them, yet his grandfather had never actually successfully pulled it off. He still kind of believed that it may one day be a possibility, but as long as they were against even allowing Quincys to use their powers, it was better to not be involved with the soul reapers, better to not draw their notice, and better to do things their way.
"All right, cousin Uryū," she said, shaking her head as she picked up her bag where she dropped it. She did not really like his determination on the matter. This hollow hunt had been rather unexpected, as it had popped out of a hole, apparently just assuming that they were abundant with spiritual pressure and easy meals. That's why they had to drop their packs on their way from school and handle it.
But now that things were handled, they could get about getting themselves together and head back home.
"Well, cousin, do you think we have any way we can try to end this surge of hollows we've been dealing with? Feels like there are more every day."
Uryū shook his head as he thought about the matter before saying, "Well, I mean, there's maybe one thing I was going through. Some of the old stuff Grandfather had in his stash, found a thing called hollow bait. Perhaps that would be enough to draw all the hollows out, maybe find whatever's drawing them here, and we could kill that and end the problem."
"Hmm, that could work," she said, nodding her head before saying, "but I think if we're going to do that, we should probably get the okay from the soul reapers. I mean, trying to unleash an unknown quantity of hollows on the world seems like it could go badly real quickly."
He nodded at that and said, "I'll think on the matter. Perhaps another option will present itself. Worse comes to worst, though, we don't need to get confirmation from the soul reapers to use that. I think it's our own equipment, our own policy. The two of us can handle any hollows that appear, I'm sure."
"Well, I hope you're right, cousin," she said with a smile as they continued their walk home.
Kisuke Urahara was sitting behind the counter, watching the TV and daydreaming for the most part. He had plenty of things going on in the background, of course, but nothing he needed to worry about too much as far as he was concerned.
Oh, sure, he was a bit concerned about looking over the information that the girl had left behind. He had to wonder if her sword ability possibly gave her some sort of precognitive sense on the economy, because a few of these times to invest seemed rather specific, and a few of these companies he checked out were small and not very well-known.
He guessed it was possible that perhaps she had just done a lot of research in her time here in the World of the Living. But, well, considering what he had to deal with, knowing that there was someone out to get him, believing that it was just an interesting coincidence that these companies did exist and that Tanya just thought they would do very well in the stock market seemed foolhardy.
He wasn't going to do anything to stop her, but he was going to keep an eye on it to see if he could figure out if there was something more going on than what he currently believed.
He thought Tanya was just another possible minor agent in the story, not an agent of Aizen, of course, but an independent; someone who was trying to make their way in the world. But now he wasn't sure. Did she have some sort of precognition abilities? Did she know about what was to come with Aizen? If she knew, was there a reason she was trying to build a war chest here in the world?
If there was, did that mean that Aizen was successful and they were going to go into hiding, or did she know something that he didn't? Something that would require wealth here in the World of the Living.
Oh, how he hated the concept of precognition. If she somehow knew things from the future, that could be annoying to deal with. Hopefully, he was just overthinking the situation, but he did want a proper answer the next time he talked to her. The problem with that was that in order to get a proper answer he would have to reveal that he read the books. And to reveal that he read the books would, of course, reveal that the agent she left behind to do the work was also his agent.
Complex situations aren't fun. He shook his head, wondering what he could do to avoid getting on the third seat of the Tenth division's bad side.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone stepping onto the front step. He wondered who would come at this time of day and straightened out to get a look. He was surprised to see Ichigo's father, Isshin, standing there, looking around the shop as if he hadn't seen it in a long time.
"Hey, Urahara," he said, giving him a nod as he entered the building proper and looked around before asking, "you know, I don't keep up on what you do out here and all that, but I have a question, and I think you could help me with. Yesterday, a blonde girl showed up at my shop, and I didn't recognize her at first, but I swear I'd seen her as a soul reaper years before. What happened to her? Do you know anything about that?"
Kisuke blinked before saying, "Well, that was an unexpected question. Was this blonde girl going by the name of Tanya?"
"That would be the one," he said, shaking his head as he came to a stop in front of the counter. "That was Tanya, wasn't it? I was not just seeing things."
"Nope, that was a soul reaper by the name of Tanya, third seat of the Tenth Division, in fact."
"Ha, good for her. Why did she stop by my shop?"
He blinked, thinking this over before saying, "Probably because she's met your son, and she's very suspicious about how he acquired his powers."
Isshin let out an audible sigh before shaking his head. "How bad is the situation getting? I was under the impression that after the whole fake car smashing into my house thing, you were going to try and make everything good, and now I have a soul reaper popping around and poking at me."
"Everything's fine, everything's fine, mostly. As far as I can tell, this Tanya girl is on our side, kind of."
The look he got from Isshin encouraged him to continue talking.
"Like I said, kind of. Well, she's on her own side, and she's apparently trying to help make sure that Rukia doesn't get in trouble with Soul Society, so she's on our side, it's just, you know, not working with us, so she doesn't have all the details."
"So she doesn't know that I'm the former captain of the Tenth?"
"Well, I wouldn't say that. I think there are some implications that she does, in fact, know exactly who you are. She just doesn't think it's necessary to deal with. She's trying to help Rukia, and the former captain of the Tenth living in the human world doesn't help Rukia."
"Alright, well, that's a step in the right direction. Anything else I should know?"
Fanning himself, Urahara thought about it for a moment before saying, "Tanya took an interest in training Ichigo for a bit. I think he's better at defending himself now. But that's about all I can talk about. You should really just talk to your own son about this sort of stuff, clear the air as it is."
"I'd rather him not be dealing with Soul Society stuff at all," he said, shaking his head. "I'm really hoping that we can find some way to get this situation handled so he doesn't have these powers anymore, and we can go back to how it was before."
"It might happen," he said with a shrug. "Might not. You have to be prepared for either option though. Sooner or later, you're going to have to tell him the truth. He might start putting things together."
"I doubt that," he said, shaking his head before a beeper went off on his belt. "Damn it," he said as he looked at it. "Some idiot crashed his car. I'll be back another time to continue this conversation, all right Urahara?"
"Sounds good. I'll still be here," he said with a smile as Ichigo's father left in a hurry.
And now there was another interesting thing to be known for sure: Tanya had met the former captain of the Tenth. The fact that Soul Society was not running in here to capture him said a lot about her not betraying him, which meant there was another part of information he was missing.
He needed to know more about this Tanya so he could better predict her and prepare for whatever was about to go down in the coming weeks.
Writers note: lots of moving parts this chapter, lots of moving parts. Things starting to come together and things are moving to something? What is that something though? Guess you have to show up for the next one.
Edited by: L, TheBattle Sage, Guardsman Pius, Guardsman Pius, FreelancerDelta0, Hughes, Coltsguy
Community edited by:
Community editable doc (Chapter) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread
Supporters: Afforess, Gremlin Jack, Xodarap4, Duncan Sproule, James Moorhouse, Dankermaler, Hats88, DrkShdow, Devilstar101, Michael, Mana Rope, Falk Hüser, Silver Wolf, Mackenzie Buckle, Neso, Lmc9389, Staradder, KrasieK, Zollus, Jog256, Ethan Dowie, Maxim Blashkevych, The GrandMage, loyalChaos, Daryl, FreelancerD0, Zul The Lich, Flynn Pirola-Henderson, Retexks, John Norman, Ian R Major, Dale, Darth Vendar, BigKumaDM, Taylor Tilbury, Treant Balewood, Aske Helsted, Sam, Brandon Goodman, BarrettSlayer, Guillermo Echeverria, , D3ad0s, Pulse Rager, Daniel Quigley, Lago, CB-Otaku, , Adam Daw, Michał Kotuła, Louis Kasser, Arkhad, Tree Man, Pontus, Zahael, Nathan Cardoso, John Vargo, Lightstorm, Julian Rivera
Reviews
Eedura: probably not
Spartastic 4: for now you cought up, and that is a very good quasion
Guest: true
Mernom: always has been
setokayba2n: i wonder that as well
SaucyHandles: things
MaxTrueOmnipotent1: will understandings get worst?
Azai Jin: here more!
AnimeFan13579: this damn good review thank you, and i to would fine that conversation intreseting
ZobbleStone: everyone the answer is everyone
djoshuaclark: true... but he was always A hole , as for Euro i don;t know
PasiveNox: thank you for reviews
ksfb17: i have plan for bankai it just takes time to get there