Chapter 43: Pieces move into place.
Tanya sat back, enjoying her coffee, and looked down at the paperwork in front of her with a very firm smile, wanting to widen her lips.
Finally, something was happening. All the political pressure she had managed to muster was finally starting to pay off. After conversations with several lieutenants and captains, something was finally happening.
And she was so very relaxed to see that someone in Central 46 had a damn bit of intelligence and was realizing that they might have overstepped their bounds.
There would be a document release that Central 46 would be taking up Rukia's case once again. They had not canceled the execution; they seemed to still be firm in their opinions that it was needed. However, they were willing to hold a trial, at least. And if a trial could show that the situation was more complex than they believed, they would be willing to change the sentence.
This was the best outcome that could have ever come out of the current predicament. After all, they had gone from "she's going to die in 2 weeks" to "we're going to hold a trial next week to determine if she should die in 2 weeks."
The question, of course, was how she was going to pull this off. She had already submitted her name as a potential lawyer in this situation. It should be arriving at the office any moment now, and from there, she should get an official chance to speak to Rukia, talk to her, and find out exactly what they had that could be used to get them out of this situation.
At the moment, though, all they had, different from what she knew, was not great. Ichigo was dead or not going to be useful in this situation, so there goes a character witness. And bringing in any of the humans left who knew Ichigo or what had been going on... well, she doubted they would be very much in favor of helping the murderers of Ichigo or tempted murderers prevent the inevitable outcome of rebellion from causing their own downfall.
Not to mention trying to bring in Ichigo's dad would probably not be a great situation. She still had some belief, after all, that his dad was the former leader of the 10th Division. Bringing in a former powerhouse who just lost his son to the mistakes of the government into a place where he could cause the most damage was probably not the best idea.
No, no, the best plan in this situation was to bring as many character witnesses as possible to prove that she was loyal. Granted, that shouldn't be too hard, and after all, the Thirteenth Division could definitely help out in that matter. Surely, she had friends amongst them. And not to mention herself and the current lieutenant of the Sixth Division.
Proving that she was loyal would make it a little bit harder for them to continue with the idea of a death sentence. At least, that's the hope. There were, of course, plenty of chances for things to go a different way, but hopefully, that wouldn't be a major problem. She was sure she probably had plenty of friends...
Although, for the life of her, as she sat there and thought about it, she realized she had no idea who those friends could be. Sure, she was well familiar with Renji and their relationship, being one of obvious emotional ties that were not being fulfilled, but did she have anyone else in the Thirteenth Division?
She had never seen her with anyone else. Could it be that perhaps she was a loner?
That could be a problem. A loner might make it a bit harder to prove that she's loyal. Not only because there are fewer character witnesses, but also because whoever she was combating in this conversation would obviously point towards the fact that she was a loner, implying that it was why she had been easily drawn into whatever conspiracy had been going on in the World of the Living.
Not the worst argument, though. After all, she could argue that it might be a failure of the Thirteenth Division and not proof that she was disloyal to the Soul Society. It could simply mean that she was incredibly loyal to anyone who was a friend to her and that the Thirteenth Division had failed to make proper friends.
It wasn't much, but it might help.
Now that she thought about it, she needed to look into Rukia's backstory. At the very least, she needed more information about her than what she had now if she was planning to prosecute this case well enough to get her out of the death sentence.
Finishing her cup of coffee, she got up and cracked her neck, turning to Visha. She was about to say something along the lines of, "I'm going to try and go to the Thirteenth Division to find more information about Rukia's history so we can better fight this case." But those words died on her lips as she remembered that she was under house arrest, keeping her pretty much sealed up and unable to do that.
She needed Central 46 to acknowledge her as Rukia's lawyer right away. That would most likely get rid of the house arrest and give her enough freedom to do what she needed to do. But until then... Tanya worked with what she had. She quickly moved over to a window to look out of and used her magic to create a communication spell directly to Nicole Von Levenshtein.
"Nicole Von Levenshtein, can you hear me?" she said, hoping that she was receiving calls. At first, there was nothing, but after a few moments, she heard, "Tanya, odd way to contact me. Kind of busy right now."
"Whatever you're busy with is not important. I need you to find any and all records about Rukia and bring them to the coffee shop."
"Ah, sure. Why exactly do you need those records?"
"Because I've just received word that Rukia has a trial date now. Are you not paying attention to the news?"
"Tanya, I just woke up an hour ago. I just got in the shower. Some people need time to wake up. We aren't all machines."
Tanya let out a sigh before saying, "Well, alright then. But still, as soon as you're done with your shower, bring me those records. I need to know everything about what Rukia has been up to for the last few decades. I need to see what evidence they might come up with that could be a problem when we take this to trial. Also, find any and all friends of Rukia and make sure they're willing to be character witnesses to show that she is a loyal individual to the Soul Society."
"Ah, sure. I'll take a look at the first part and get that to you. The second part might be a bit harder. I'm not really sure if she has any friends."
Tanya let out a deep sigh before saying, "I was afraid you'd say that. I was getting a similar feeling all of a sudden that she might be a loner."
"I wouldn't say loner, but yeah, she doesn't really connect with a lot of people from what I've seen."
"Hmm," shaking her head mentally, Tanya said, "That could be a problem, but hopefully we can overcome it with enough evidence. Otherwise, as soon as you're done with your shower, bring me those files."
"Done," Nicole said before adding, "Also, do you need anything else?"
"Yes, what's going on with the captain of the Thirteenth? I haven't heard anything substantial in a while."
There was a pause before, "I heard sickness has got them down bad. He's resting, and I think his lieutenants are keeping the whole situation away from him. After all, it's still a few weeks before the execution, so they might as well let him get fully healed up before he steps into the situation to try and help out."
"Hmm, that is not very good," Tanya said with a shake of her head before continuing, "Try to remind his third seats that a commander cannot make the proper decisions without full intel of what's going on. Yes, giving him two weeks to recover is nice and all, but every day that goes by, Rukia's execution gets closer."
There was a sigh from the other end of the line before I heard Nicole say, "Fine, fine. I'll try and remind them that this is getting a little bit ridiculous. It is becoming a problem. Now, can I get back to taking a shower? I had a long day yesterday, and I didn't have a chance to take one last night."
"Yes, yes, have at it," Tanya said with a wave of her hand, without realizing that Nicole couldn't see it, and she ended the call.
Well, one situation handled. Now, on to the others. Until that message arrived from Central 46, stating that she was available to work as Rukia's counsel, she couldn't exactly do much. But she could do a few things, such as contacting the Eleventh Division and seeing if they couldn't perhaps send a few people to the World of the Living to interview folks. Bringing them here, of course, is out of the question, but maybe she could get a few interviews on what Rukia was actually doing. Because what she was doing was being a normal high schooler, she could easily claim that this was all part of the cover in order to try and fix the problem she was dealing with.
Granted, there was the issue of whether people would be willing to help, but she was sure the Eleventh Division would be able to twist a few arms to pull it off.
Tanya was about to make a call when everything rumbled. She blinked, looking at the coffee cup that had just moved, as Visha stood up and moved over to look over the counter at her. "What was that?" she asked.
"An earthquake?" Tanya said, confused, trying to piece things together. Earthquakes weren't exactly common in the Soul Society. If anything, she didn't think they actually happened at all, as far as she was aware. Tanya had never experienced an earthquake. The only time the earth shook like that was when she was near the walls that would come down when someone tried to enter the Soul Society without permission.
Those walls only come down in sections. Usually, it would take too much effort to bring them down all at the same time and then put them back up. You would only do that if you thought you were being invaded, which is not something that had ever happened as far as she was aware... although if all the walls did come down, the rumbling would probably have reached their little coffee shop.
Blinking, she put her hand to her ear and tried to make a call to Grant. He was in the Sixth Division and should be able to give her more information. After all, he was closer to the walls and could tell her what was going on. Looking out the window, she saw people in the street looking around, and then several rushing off in the directions that would tend to head towards the wall, which could imply that the wall was down.
Unfortunately, their building's main windows did not face the wall. They faced the central area of the Soul Society. In order to get a look, she would have to go upstairs.
Shaking her head, she started to do that, saying to Visha, "I'll be right back."
As Visha nodded, she moved up the stairs, and as she finally reached the top, Grant picked up.
"Tanya here, what's up? Did you just feel that rumble?"
"Did I feel it? I just saw it all come down. The walls are down all around the city."
"Why are they down?" she asked as Tanya moved towards a window and opened it to get a big look, confirming that yes, the walls closest to them were down, and as far as she could see, it's every horizon available. They were down.
"Don't know. I'm on my way to the walls now, but it's looking like something's going on over there. Crashing and explosions, sounds like a fight."
"A fight at our walls?" Her eyes were going wide as she looked out there, wondering if the Communists had finally risen up in anger, or if there was some other faction about to roll over the walls and try to kill us.
Well, that would put an end to the rebellion theory being off in the far future, as it was already underway. Well, this could be helpful in getting Rukia out. All hands on deck. Maybe she messed up, but they'd need every pair of hands they can get to keep the enemy outside the walls. It was a good argument. Granted, it would basically turn Rukia into a penal legion soldier, but penal legion soldiers are better than dead. They can always come back from the penal legion.
Looking out the window, she asked, "How long until you reach the wall and can tell me what's going on?"
"Five minutes. I'm moving as fast as I can, but it's a bit of a jog. Also, there's a bit of a crowd running the other way."
"Running as in 'there's something at their back chasing them' or running as in 'they want to get home to not be on the streets when whatever is happening is coming down?'"
"The second one. I think they're not really running in panic. They're running in 'I have to get home' sort of movements. Not a lot of screaming."
"Hmm, so they haven't breached the walls yet. That's good." Shaking her head, Tanya looked at the horizon, trying to see if she could see anything. Although at this distance, it was an effort in futility. Unless there was an actual explosion or a mushroom cloud, she probably wouldn't see much.
She waited, remaining quiet, hoping something would happen to explain what was going on. But after a good five minutes, finally, something did as Grant called back.
"Okay, we've got something weird going on over here."
"Alright, speak up. What do we have?" she asked as she looked out over the horizon, still keeping her eyes on the walls.
"Apparently, some unknowns from the outer districts have attempted to breach the wall. A pair of unknown Soul Reapers and four other individuals with unknown abilities tried to enter the Soul Society just by walking in. The walls came down, and the giant of the gate, Jidanbō Ikkanzaka, moved to talk to them and scare them off. They got into a fight. Apparently, this unknown Soul Reaper defeated the giant, which led to him trying to open the gate for them."
Tanya blinked before saying, "Why would the giant try to open the gate for an invading enemy?"
"Don't know, but apparently Captain Gin was in the area, saw what was going on, and attacked the giant and closed the gate, preventing whoever it was from entering the Soul Society. Security is on high alert, and people are talking about putting together an expedition to go beyond the wall to find these people and arrest them since they apparently have Soul Reaper gear, and we don't know who they are."
Tanya shook her head, not liking this at all. Unknown Soul Reapers with the potential to cause problems. The temptation to ask if they were wearing red was great, but she stomped that down, making the assumption that it could be something other than a communist uprising.
But then, who was responsible for this? Who was an unknown Soul... Her eyes widened as she realized that the answer was quite apparent and terrible at the same time.
"Damn it, Ichigo," Tanya said out loud as it became apparent to her what was probably going on and what was probably going to cause a problem. Oh sure, it was probably impossible for Ichigo to have found his way into the Soul Society unless he actually died, but maybe he had actually died, and maybe he hadn't been sealed off from his Soul Reaper powers as thoroughly as the Sixth's captain believed. Either way, he found his way into the Soul Society and somehow, instead of showing up 40 years later, he's showing up in time and gathering forces to fight to free Rukia.
Now, that could speak well about it not being his death that brought him here. Perhaps that Kisuke Urahara fellow had been responsible. Perhaps he had some backdoor into the Soul Society that no one was aware of. Or perhaps, and this one was annoying and fearful to her, Being X had seen the plight of Rukia and was trying to make it as complicated and painful as possible.
Hopefully not. She'd rather not have to deal with that entity again. But if she had to, it was the worst possible thing for him to have done—to arrange things favorably for Rukia. Especially when she was this close to pulling the situation out of the fire that it was currently in. She only needed time and a little bit of elbow grease to make it work so that Rukia would get off as free as possible without a death sentence. Now, with an actual invasion underway...
Well, if it was confirmed that Ichigo was the one who was attempting to invade the Soul Society, Tanya knew that any chance to save Rukia was going to go up in smoke.
"What was that?" Grant asked, obviously wondering why she had mentioned the name of a dead man, or perhaps he didn't know the name. Either way, it was an odd name to just shout out.
"Nothing, nothing," Tanya said with a shake of her head before saying, "Keep an eye on the situation and let me know if there's anything else going on. If they find out anything more about what's going on, tell me right away."
"Yes, sir," came the reply from Grant before the call ended, and she was left by herself to think.
She could try and figure out how Ichigo was here. She could delude herself that it probably was not Ichigo, or she could plan for the worst, assuming that Ichigo was here. Could he get into the Soul Society now that the walls were down? Probably not. Assuming they could not, she meant. The only way that the situation could progress badly for Rukia is if they went outside to hunt him down and brought him inside to testify against her.
In this case, it would be either better for him to surrender and attempt the plan she proposed many weeks before of trying to show his loyalty to the Soul Society in order to make it clear that he was not a threat, or for him to die. Either way, as long as he was outside, there was still a chance of getting Rukia off through the method she was currently pursuing, so she must continue with that.
But if she had the ability to get outside, she would definitely be searching for him, trying to contact him, and either get him to surrender or go away. He was an unknown variable, and at the moment, an unknown variable could cause chaos, and chaos would inevitably lead to disaster.
But she couldn't get outside, not only because the walls were down and they were not going to be letting anyone outside while those walls were down unless they had a specific mission from the captains in charge, but because she was still under house arrest.
This was really starting to be an annoying, biting flea that was coming for her blood.
If someone wanted to make sure that she didn't have any access to the resources she needed, putting her under house arrest was going to screw with every plan she could come up with. Not only that, it was preventing her from actually taking action fast enough to deal with the situation as it comes up.
She doubted that Central 46 knew about what was going to happen, but it was quite clear at this point that Central 46 had been attempting to keep her under control, at the very least. Probably as a recompense for not being able to prove anything about her having gone out of her way to be part of the conspiracy that they were accusing Rukia of.
Shaking her head, she turned to head downstairs. She had no idea what she was going to do, but she knew one thing: she needed to be ready to move as fast as she could. Hopefully, she would have access to the documents needed to pull off an end to the house arrest, and then she could start responding in time to the developing situation. But if she did not have that, she would need to plan for the inevitable.
What the inevitable would be, Tanya did not know, and she shook her head as she walked down the steps.
Visha looked up at her and said, "What's going on?" Reminding her that she had not been aware of the situation, Tanya took a moment to think about the best way to deal with this. She couldn't reveal everything; otherwise, she'd be risking putting Visha in the same chopping block she was on. So she decided to go with the best option: lying.
At least partially lying.
"Someone apparently tried to break into the Soul Society, and now everyone's on high alert. No one knows what's going on, but apparently, one of them was a Soul Reaper." She gave exactly as much information as she had. Everything past that point was conjecture she had come up with, so as long as Visha didn't come up with the same conjecture, they should be fine.
"You don't think it's Ichigo, do you?"
Damn it, but she should have seen that coming. After all, they were a couple for a reason, and it wasn't because they weren't each other's intellectual equals.
Smiling, she said, "I don't know what it is, but that is one of the options, I'm afraid."
Visha shook her head, annoyed, but finally said, "Well, assuming that it's not Ichigo seems unlikely. So what are you going to do about it?"
Smiling, she said, "Hope that he stays far, far outside the walls and lets me solve the situation, so I can find him later and tell him he's an idiot and send him back home before he causes more problems."
"That doesn't seem very active of you."
Resting before saying, "It's as active as I can be with the current housing situation. Hopefully, it'll be over soon, though."
She moved to the table and picked up her coffee, sipping it again as she sat down. She was about to put it back down and try to relax when she saw an imposing figure knocking on the door.
Captain Kenpachi of the Eleventh Division opened it, stepping inside with a smile as he said, "So, have you girls heard the news?" Yachiru Kusajishi on his shoulder was giggling as she proclaimed, "There's going to be a fight, and it's going to be awesome!"
This drew a sigh from Tanya. The fact that even he had figured it out meant that it was very likely that everyone was going to figure out who was likely responsible for the invasion. Hopefully, he'd stay outside the damn walls because the Captain of the Eleventh was likely to execute his orders as required and could technically kill Ichigo. She was sure of that. He wasn't that strong, he didn't even have his shikai. It would be like leading lambs to the slaughter.
Ichigo was not in a good mood. He had almost broken through and gained access to the Soul Society within the first few minutes of arriving here.
He was so close to crossing into the Seireitei, and then things spiraled out of control. First, there was Jidanbō, which had been an unfortunate situation, but they had eventually come to an understanding. Then, when Jidanbō had decided to help them enter the Seireitei, some white-haired Captain named Jin or something like that had cut his arm off and sealed the door. They left Jidanbō outside to die from a bleeding wound. If Orihime hadn't been able to perform some healing magic, he would be in a much worse situation than he is now. But even then, he's going to have to recover and hope that the Soul Society doesn't come after him for helping them.
He was trying not to think about the fact that, in a way, this was his fault. After all, if he hadn't been able to talk with Jidanbō and just listened to the cat, they would have left, and Jidanbō would have been in a corner talking about the loss of his sword but okay, not having to worry about the Soul Society coming down on him.
Ichigo needed to keep his head in the game, so he pushed those thoughts away. Even though that had been a failure, so far everything had gone alright. Sure, they had to run like hell to escape the passageway between the World of the Living and the Soul Society, mainly because someone didn't mention that there were massive trains that apparently cleared up the gateway he created. They had to run for their lives, not be turned into spiritual mulch.
From there, they had run into Jidanbō and dealt with that situation as best they could, and then they had been locked out of the Soul Society's Central districts.
He didn't have much planned past that point besides helping Jidanbō get healed, though the cat wandered off, saying, "Don't get into trouble." Ichigo assumed the cat had wandered off to try and find someone to help them get inside, so they just did as they had been ordered: not fucking the trouble and sticking around the area they landed, which took an odd turn.
Chad had happened to run into the kid he had saved a few weeks back when he was being held in prison in a bird by a hollow for his entertainment. The two were now talking and getting to know each other, revealing a bit about how the Soul Society worked. Ichigo had to say it was not something he was a fan of.
The idea that you just show up here whenever and hope someone would take you into their family was a bit odd to him, though he assumed it only worked that way for kids. Adults probably had to work to survive.
Though Ichigo had been told by Tanya and Rukia on several occasions that there was no definite schedule on when a person would arrive, he found it a bit odd that someone they knew was already here.
Ichigo tried not to think about that. He tried not to think about the possibility of looking around the Soul Society for his mother. Simply because if he didn't go looking for her, he was afraid he might do something stupid.
Yes, he would love to see her again. Yes, it would probably be the greatest moment of his life, and he wanted to try and put the ghost of his mistakes away finally.
But would he be willing to say goodbye if Ichigo actually did that? That was his concern. He didn't need to make any more trouble. He needed to help Rukia escape the current threat to her life, maybe help Tanya if she was in trouble too, and then go home. His mother was here. He'd see her when his time finally came.
Sighing, he got up from where he was sitting and stepped outside the little store that was letting them rest there.
After they had helped heal Jidanbō, the local people were rather nice to them. It seemed that Jidanbō was always a helpful hand in the area and kept the hollows away. So, doing Jidanbō a favor was enough to make them friendly in their minds. Hopefully, they would help them by showing them a place where they could stay until the situation was figured out. The shop owner, an elderly man, was letting them hang out there until they figured it out. And until then, well, they just sat there and hoped the Soul Society didn't come out of their fortified walls to beat the hell out of them.
Thankfully, they were a good few miles from the Soul Society's walls, so they should have plenty of room to maneuver if they did come out.
Ichigo let out a sigh as he looked around, seeing that the Quincy girl, Akita, was practicing with her bow while Uryū watched in the direction of the walls. They were taking the situation a lot more seriously than anyone else, it seemed. Orihime was still taking care of Jidanbō, so she would catch up with them soon enough.
And as for Tatsuki, well, she was off in a corner with a shovel, digging a trench for drainage. One of the methods that Tanya suggested in her book was physical labor to increase spiritual pressure. Plus, it wouldn't risk dying, so Ichigo suggested that Tatsuki do that while they went. It was better for her to build up some reiatsu now and worry about what could happen once they were inside the wall.
Ichigo had done his best to try and help her with her form. After all, she needed some sort of sword and the ability to fight in this particular style of combat. But it was obvious that Tatsuki was better with hand-to-hand combat. So, building up spiritual pressure through hard work was probably the best way to try and compensate for her lesser ability to fight sword on sword.
He was still going to try and get her to be as proficient as she could with it. It's just that he really hoped they wouldn't come across anyone who could fight sword on sword with her.
Shaking his head, he looked down the road and wondered where the cat was. As much as he knew it would take time to find a way into the city, he would admit he was a bit impatient.
Being kept out of the Seireitei was keeping them from all their options of trying to help Rukia, as well as from Tanya's plan of perhaps trying to prove his loyalty to the backup plan of breaking shit until they escaped.
Either way, he was feeling impatient and wanted to do something, anything. Instead, he was standing there watching the sun slowly set.
Well, he was up until he saw someone riding down the road at a fast pace.
He had to blink a couple of times at first, thinking he was seeing a horse before it became clear that it was no horse. No, the riders were on massive pigs, hogs that could somehow bear the weight of a human and seemed to not care that their riders were not exactly the skinniest of folks.
They quickly rode right up to the front steps of the shop. A man with a headscarf dismounted, looking at Ichigo with the eyes that he would expect from a hooligan giving a cop before saying, "Old man, we heard Jidanbō was injured. What's going on?"
Fortunately, the old man didn't respond in time, obviously taking his time to come up to the front door and not wanting to shout. Instead, the headscarf-wearing man turned to Ichigo and pointed, "You, you have something to do with this, don't you? Yeah, punk-ass shinigami."
Ichigo looked left and right before, more out of shock that he was being called out this way than anything, he had expected a few things for today, being assaulted was at the top of his list. Being called a punk-ass shinigami was well at the bottom of that list, probably not even on it. Clearing his throat, he said, "If you mean, do I have anything to do with the giant being injured, technically, yes. We got into a fight, but it wasn't me who injured him. That was the shinigami inside the Seireitei. Me and my friends were simply helping him, thank you very much."
"Sounds like you're friends with your damn shinigami," he said, shaking his fist at Ichigo.
Ichigo blinked before saying, "Not friends with the shinigami inside the Seireitei, at least not most of them."
"Oh sure, that's what they all say," one of the other riders said from the backlines of the trio of hog riders. "Whenever someone who looks out for the people gets injured, it's always, 'It was just a rogue shinigami, already had it coming for taking the law into his own hands.'"
"Well, that's nice to learn," Ichigo said with a nod before saying, "But I really am not on the shinigami's good side. They just tried to kill me three weeks ago, after all.'"
"Yeah, soul reapers are trying to kill each other every day," the headscarf-wearing individual said with a shake of his head before drawing a blade from his side and pointing it at him. "You're no different than any other good for nothing soul reaper. You wear the black and you have a sword. That means you're a problem for the people. And I, Ganju Shiba, the number one shinigami hater in all of the outer districts, will show you the error of your ways!"
"Oh, can you ever shut up?" the old man said, stepping through the sliding doors that had been left somewhat ajar. "These people are friends of the outer districts. They did their best to help Jidanbō, causing problems is just causing problems for no reason, and I will not have a fight spill out from the street into my place of work. So stop whatever you're planning."
"Ah, you're just a lone shinigami who needs to be taught his place," Ganju said, still pointing the knife at him. Still, Ichigo refused to draw a sword on him. At this point, he was somewhat tempted, being insulted the way he had been and accosted with claims that he was a member of the Soul Society. It was somewhat annoying, especially when he had yet to succeed in the second part of that statement.
There was a cough to the right, causing the group to look over there and see the two Quincies, who were both watching the situation inquisitively.
"Okay, so you've got me outnumbered, but I've got two of my best buds here who can keep them busy," he said, looking back at some of the riders, only to see that Chad had stepped up behind those two and was looking at the situation with interest. Ichigo hadn't even noticed his arrival, so it was perfect timing on that.
"Three can still be handled by my two best buds," Ganju claimed.
"How about five?" Tatsuki said, standing up from where she had been shoveling dirt for the drainage ditch, wiping her hand on the back of her head, revealing that she was wearing the shinigami uniform. Orihime was kneeling nearby, looking down at the trench, which had apparently been dug down to two feet by this point, possibly three, or was that just the buildup of dirt on the other side? Either way, it was rather impressive work she had managed to accomplish over the last four hours.
"Five might be a bit- Wait, why are you digging in the trench?" Ganju Shiba said, still pointing his knife at Ichigo but now looking at Tatsuki.
"Tanya's handbook says doing hard labor helps with building spiritual pressure," Tatsuki said with a wave of annoyance, stretching her back out as she moved her hips a bit.
Ganju blinked before sighing and flipping the knife around before sheathing it at his side. "Why didn't you just say you're from the Tenth Division? Those guys are the only ones that actually do something good around here, well, them and the Eleventh, but the Eleventh gets a lot more violent."
Ichigo blinked. Still, he had just learned quite a bit of information, so he decided to take things one step at a time. Clearing his throat, he said, "Well, first off, we're not part of the Tenth or the Eleventh, just so you know. We are friends of Tanya, though, if that helps solve things more peacefully."
Ganju nodded before saying, "Kind of, sort of. I've never met her myself, but Tanya's kind of got a reputation in the outer districts. Some little thing that did good in the far distant districts and made her way to the Seireitei, doing good before renovating some of the divisions there to do even more good. She's kind of a saintly do-gooder that's going to someday either help the Seireitei get over its terrible management of the outer districts or be murdered by the Seireitei because she's too good for her own government to deal with. I think the second part is going to be more likely, with the news that came out of there a few days ago about the execution. I was kind of happy to see them killing each other and not killing us."
"Huh, yeah, I don't know about that first part, but we are kind of worried about that second part," Ichigo said, rubbing the back of his head before continuing, "Also, we're here to save a member that they may be trying to kill."
"Ha, good luck with that. You'll never get inside the central districts," Ganju said, shaking his head and turning to look at his pig before saying, "Plus, you'd need an army to even break through the wall. Either that or... well, things that you can't get access to." With a shake of his head, he started to turn away.
Ichigo interrupted, saying, "Hold up one moment. Did you say your name was Shiba?"
Ganju turned to Ichigo with a nod of his head, saying, "Yep, that's me. Why, have you actually heard of me?"
"Well, no, it's just... it's just kind of an interesting thing. My father just revealed to me last night that his family name is Shiba. He also happens to be from the Soul Society."
"Ha, funny small world," Shiba said, before, again, turning to walk away. But Ichigo felt a familiar presence jump onto his shoulder. Tilting his head, he saw that the cat had returned.
The cat spoke up, saying, "Would you happen to be related to Miss Kūkaku Shiba?"
Ganju stopped mid-step, turning to look at the cat before saying, "Yeah, that's my sister. Why do you want to know about that?"
"Oh, wonderful! That makes life so much easier. By the way, you two, meet your cousin. Ganju, meet your cousin Ichigo. We're actually looking for his sister because she has a way into the Soul Society."
There was a momentary pause as both of them took in that information. Finally, Ganju said, "So, you're saying we're family?"
"Yes," the cat said with a rather amused purr.
Shiba let out a sigh, shook his head, and said, "Great, now we can't turn him down. Alright, welcome to the Soul Society, cousin." But his tone made it clear that he was not happy about this at all and was being rather condescending.
"So, you must be Isshin's kid, right? Thought he was dead."
Ichigo shrugged before saying, "Severely injured, lost his powers, wasn't able to return to the Soul Society. He lived in the living world, found a happy life, and here I am. Yeah, nice to meet you, cousin," he said, holding out his hand, hoping to smooth things over as quickly as possible.
Ganju gave his hand a rather dirty look before sighing and taking it. "I hate soul reapers," he said rather dourly, before adding, "But you're family, so I'm going to let this one pass."
Smiling, Ichigo said, "If it makes you feel better, I'm not officially a soul reaper. I'm a rogue, unofficial, and they tried to kill me."
Shiba blinked before laughing and saying, "That does make me feel better. Nothing like pissing off the soul reapers by working with something they don't want to exist." Turning to look at Tatsuki, he said, "Is she also family, or what's her deal?"
"No, she's just determined to help her numbskull friend survive this," Tatsuki said in the third person, seeming annoyed that they had not addressed her directly, even though she was standing right there. "Also, point of fact, I'm technically in the same situation as your cousin. I should not exist and will be hunted down. All that fun stuff."
"Hmmm, so helping you spit in the eyes of the Soul Society? Works for me," he called to one of his hog riders. "Go find us a few more mounts for everybody. We've got a long journey back to the house, and I think sis is going to want to talk to them as quickly as possible."
"Will do, boss," he said as the pig pulled off a rather impressive stand on its two legs, like it was a horse, before turning around to run off in a direction that one could assume would take him to a pigsty or stables.
Shaking his head, he turned back to the teenage girl inside. "Alright, so let me hear the plan."
"Plan?" Tatsuki asked.
"How are you planning to get into the Soul Society? I want to know exactly what your plans are, how much damage you're going to cause. After all, I'm helping you find my sister. I think I deserve to know what you're up to."
"That may be true," the cat said from Ichigo's shoulder, "but the Second Division has eyes and ears everywhere. It would be better for that to wait until we're somewhere safe."
Ganju looked at the cat before saying, "Fine, fine. You have a point," with a shake of his head. Then he looked around and said, "So, you're from the World of the Living. How was that?"
Ichigo blinked, realizing he was attempting small talk. He shrugged his shoulders before responding, "It's more advanced than here. A lot more people around, that's for sure."
"Hmm, alright. Where's that guy already?" Shiba said, looking off in the distance before shaking his head. He looked up for a moment before finally seeming to come to some sort of realization. Then he said, "How's your control of spiritual pressure?"
"Not bad," Ichigo said, pulling his sword off his back and generating a small shield along it so he could see it.
Ganju whistled as he pulled his knife out and tapped the shield, saying, "Not bad, not bad. You're going to need a lot of control for the method we're probably going to be using to get you in there."
Ichigo blinked before asking, "Why is that?"
Ganju smiled and said, "Can't spoil it. Sister would kill me. But let's just say the more control you have, the better chances there are of you succeeding and not ending up plastered across those walls as they turn you into puree."
Ichigo shivered at that and said, "Noted," turning off the shield and putting the sword back on his back. He would need to work with Tatsuki to make sure she had some control over her spiritual pressure too. Probably need to work with everyone. If Ichigo hadn't had Tanya drilling the concepts of how to make it function the way it did into his skull, he'd probably be having some problems.
Shaking his head, Ichigo looked past Ganju and said, "So, number one shinigami hater, why is that?"
Ganju shrugged his shoulders before saying, "Lost a brother to the divisions. The way they treated us after it happened was well enough that we just packed up and left. When your father died, it just sort of cemented in our family that the soul reapers will just use us up and throw us out. So we don't get involved with the soul reapers, or at least try not to."
"Hmm, yeah, I'm starting to get the feeling that we just shouldn't have gotten involved. As a whole, they seem to have some problems," Tatsuki commented.
"You don't know the half of it, kid."
Tatsuki coughed before saying, "Kid? You don't look older than Ichigo yourself, really."
"Ha, I'm in my thirties. One of the benefits of being a Soul Society member," he said with a smile, giving a wave to Tatsuki.
She seemed to take that well, turning to Orihime and asking, "Do you think that benefit extends to our normal bodies when we get back?"
Orihime just shrugged in confusion before saying, "I don't think so. I mean, a soul is a soul, so I would assume not. Maybe if your soul stays young, you stay younger longer," she said, tapping her chin.
The cat laughed on my shoulder before saying, "It kind of does work that way, Orihime. There have actually been incidents where rather elderly individuals with high spiritual pressure, upon death, take on a rather youthful face after a few years in the Soul Society. You're as old as you feel in most cases here. Even the current leader of the Soul Society's divisions and the oldest member of the Gotei 13, General Yamamoto, has benefitted from that, and he looks absolutely over 70 from a distance. But let me tell you, he takes that shirt off, and you'll think he's in his 20s or 30s."
"That's a bit more information than I needed to know," Uryū said with a shake of his head.
"Agreed," Akita said, her cheeks looking a little bit reddened by the statement, causing Ichigo to give her an odd look.
Shiba looked at the pair before saying, "Hey, what's with those two? Why are they wearing a uniform and white?"
"They're Quincy's," the cat said matter-of-factly, causing Ganju to raise an eyebrow.
"Thought those were extinct," Shiba said matter-of-factly.
"Not yet," Uryū said with a shake of his head before saying, "By the way, how did you domesticate pigs enough that they can be ridden? Isn't that kind of bad for their backs? That's why we have horses."
Shiba waved his hand at Uryū, saying, "This is the spirit world. Don't question things like that. Things are not constrained to the physical as you see them in your world. Bonnie here," he said, petting the top of his pig's head, "is 20 years old and has the spirit of a war horse. It was meant to ride in battle."
Before that chewing out could continue, Ganju's men returned with a group of six pigs. "Boss, boss, got the mounts, but I had to rob the gang of thieves and hooligans over on the west side. We've got to go."
"Damn it, could you not have paid Old Man Wilson?"
"They robbed Wilson yesterday. These are his pigs. He said if I get them, they're for free."
Shiba looked a bit taken aback for a second, then amused before saying, "All right then, I guess this works out. Everyone, mount up! We're heading out!"
Tanya Lerghen sighed, looking up at the walls, annoyed that they were down and even more annoyed that apparently they were not taking messages. She knocked on the wall, wondering where everyone was. Usually, when someone came up to the wall, a giant would come and let them in, but right now, it was rather sealed.
Hidenao was standing next to her, not saying a word as he looked around, confused.
"Well, we finally make it back, and they have a shutdown. You know, of all the things I expected we'd run into on the way home, this was not it."
Hidenao didn't show any concern before pointing to the signs of battle nearby.
"Yeah, that's concerning as well. It looks like there was a big fight, lots of power usage too," she said, taking a knee and picking up a piece of rubble. "Something smashed these rocks pretty good, so I would say a giant was involved. But why is this place in such a bad condition? Usually, the Cleanup Squad would have been out here already. There was a commotion, and they don't like to leave these walls down for no reason."
Hidenao shrugged, indicating that maybe someone had not been captured or dealt with.
Tanya noted that, after all, that made the most sense. They wouldn't leave these walls down unless they weren't sure about the security. And they wouldn't have sent someone out for the same reason. If things weren't secured yet, then they would be keeping the walls down until they were.
But who were they trying to keep out? She doubted there was anyone in the Soul Society who could be a threat to the Seireitei. So obviously, it had to be something from outside the Soul Society. What could come from outside the Soul Society to do that? Looking around, she wondered if there was a rather large possibility that there were Hollows on the rampage.
After all, there were already reports of Hollows on the rampage in the outer districts, which was drawing out a lot of critical support for the Seireitei. Already, that was one of the reasons it had taken them so long to get back. Could this be some sort of pre-planned attack by the Hollows? Could the problem even be like this?
She scratched the side of her head in thought, trying to piece together what was going on. Thankfully, someone on the other side finally noticed them, and the gate was pulled open. A group of twenty men used ropes to lift the wall into a position that they could slip underneath without having to lie on the ground to crawl under.
"Ms. Tanya Lerghen," came a familiar voice, causing Tanya to look over and see Glanz coming over, giving a wave.
They waved back before looking at Hidenao and giving him a nod. They shared a nod before Glanz continued, "You guys just got back today. Good. Things are a little bit crazy right now."
"Crazy? How crazy?" Tanya asked with a tilt of her head. "I mean, I heard that something was going on with Rukia, but that's all I've heard so far."
Glanz noted before saying, "There's that, and then there are the rogue reapers who tried to break in earlier today."
"What?" she said, looking back at the wall before saying, "How are there rogue reapers? How did they nearly break in? When did all this become a thing?"
"They were very strong, was how," Glanz said before saying, "We have theories, at least Tanya has theories. Right now, though, we're just trying to get everything under control, secure the walls, and make sure no one gets in past that." He shrugged before saying, "If I were you, I'd make your way to Tanya's. She could use another hand with the situation, I think."
Lerghen tilted her head before saying, "Sure, but can I get some more details on what's going on? We've been out for a couple of months, and now we come back, and everything's crazy."
Glanz shrugged before looking around and saying, "Can't really talk about things right now. Everything is on a need-to-know basis."
"Thanks, Glanz," Lerghen said with a shake of her head before saying, "Well then, I'm going to go find out what's going on straight from the horse's mouth on this. You coming, Hidenao?" Lerghen said, looking at Hidenao. Whether or not he nodded, she said, "Alright, off we go," starting to move before Lerghen stopped and said, "Wait, why are you here? Doesn't the Sixth Division have its territory a bit further away?"
He shrugged before saying, "Tanya asked me to look into it, so I'm looking into it."
Lerghen nodded her head. There was something that was universally true about everyone from 203; they all had a loyalty to Tanya and were willing to do things that were outside their divisional structure. It made her wonder what exactly they had all been through to have such camaraderie, and if she would ever be part of it or if she would just be an odd amalgamation that was next to them simply because her father had known them in another life.
She shook her head before saying, "Alright, talk to you later, Glanz," while thinking to herself that she really didn't need to think about this. She needed to go see Tanya.
With that done, she headed off, walking further into the city as quickly as possible. She watched the people go here and there as they walked by. Everyone's attention seemed to be up; people were watching the walls with either fear or curiosity, as if there was a giant monster about to try and topple them.
The only ones who weren't looking at the wall with worry were some kids who were just looking at it with amazement from atop one building, obviously putting their lives in danger. But she wasn't going to cause problems for them. After all, they were just kids, and it was their parents' responsibility to deal with them. The Seireitei was, after all, the safest place in the Soul Society, so letting them run around should be okay, even if there might be a war going on outside, well, not yet, but they'd see this real reaper turn out to be a bit more soon enough.
Sighing, Lerghen focused on the road, moving quickly through the streets and finding herself in front of the coffee shop where Tanya lived and she had to stop and look around because it was full, oddly enough.
Beyond the front door, there was a large group of individuals all around the place, members of the Eleventh Division, and apparently deciding that today they wanted coffee, though she quickly noted that quite a large amount of them had actually brought alcohol with them.
Confused, she pushed her way through but had trouble getting past a few of the bigger individuals.
Thankfully, Hidenao stepped in front of her and used his larger wall of flesh and muscle to break a path through, allowing them to enter the establishment. They found it just as full inside, though a bit more orderly as the people inside were at least paying for coffee.
She could see the Third and Fifth Seats in one corner having a conversation while the captain of the Eleventh was in another, sitting with Tanya as they discussed something.
Nodding to Hidenao, he pushed his way through, and soon they found themselves in the back by Tanya's table. Tanya noticed them and gave a nod of approval.
"Tanya Lerghen, welcome back," Tanya von Degurechaff said with a smile and then said, "Hidenao, good to see you. I assume you two had an excellent time out on your little hollow hunt."
Hidenao nodded his head in agreement as Lerghen said, "We did our job. We hunted hollows and we helped with civilian outreach. What's going on here?" she said, looking around, trying to figure out why the room was so full of people.
"Negotiations, that's all."
"What kind of negotiations?"
"Oh, nothing too much," Captain Zaraki said with a smile that put a fear into herself. "Tanya was just agreeing to another fight with me, in response to me taking it easy on someone else if they prove to be ready for a fight."
"If they do not surrender, I thought we agreed on," Tanya said, raising an eyebrow, getting him to nod with a smile and say, "Yes, yes, not if they surrender. I will not fight them much."
The pink-haired girl who was sitting by the captain, and lieutenant of the Eleventh Division, giggled as she listened to the conversation.
Sighing, Tanya shook her head before saying, "I assume you're aware of what's going on outside."
Lerghen shook her head before adding, "No, not really. I have some information about what's going on, but not a lot. Someone tried to break into the Seireitei, and everyone's in panic mode."
Degurechaff nodded before saying, "Yes, that's about the important parts of it. Hopefully, they keep them out. But if they don't, well, I was just having an agreement with the captain here of the Eleventh that they should be captured and not killed, as they may be important to the court case to free Rukia."
"Oh, that makes sense," Lerghen said with a nod before saying, "So what exactly should we do to help in this situation?"
Tanya smiled before saying, "Go to the Tenth. My paperwork has been stacking up, and because of that, I haven't had any chance to speak with the captain there. I'd like to speak with him before the end of tomorrow if possible."
She heard the sigh from Hidenao, and as she lowered her head, she kind of expected something a bit more grandiose by the amount of people in the room. But yeah, this was Tanya. Paperwork came before violence and adventure. That's just simply who she was.
"Alright, well, I guess we can do that tomorrow," she said with a nod before saying, "Is there any other way we can help?"
"Yes, go get a good night's sleep. You've been out there in the wild for months. You probably haven't had any refreshing, relaxing time that entire trip, which means you're running on instinct and adrenaline at this moment."
"And we don't need that. We need you fresh and ready, both of you, 'cause tomorrow we go to work on a legal war to save a friend from a miscarriage of justice, and I need you to be fresh and capable. Can you do that?"
Tanya always had a way with words. She gave a salute along with Hidenao as she said, "Of course, ma'am," feeling a bit of pride knowing they would be working for her on this subject.
Tanya nodded before saying, "Good, good. Now go get some drinks and mingle a bit before heading home. Come right back here in the morning, and we will get to work. I have records I will need to go through tomorrow, as well as building the legal framework for the defense in case things go in an unfortunate direction," she said, looking towards Captain Zaraki, who smiled and nodded at her.
"Till then," she looked over at the bar where Visha was working, "I think I've kept my girlfriend too occupied, and she needs a little help with all these customers."
Lerghen nodded as she walked by, happy to see her in good spirits. One thing she could say, when Tanya was in good spirits, it felt like the world was under control. And if everything was under control for Tanya, then everything was fine.
Writers note: FUCK YEAH WE GOT A CHAPTER OUT!, and whatm a chapter ans shit starting to pop off.. Who knows how things are going to go!
Please comment, review, and generally enjoy yourselves…
Edited by:L, Coltsguy
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