For those who are wondering about the Soul Reapers at the moment.
Head Captain Yamamoto could sense the unrest among his squads.
It had nothing at all to do with some of the women holding an immediate Women's Association meeting to discuss something of great importance. And then dragging Rukia and Renji along with them.
Nor did it have anything to do with some of the Lieutenants of various squads- Rangiku, Nanao, Momo, Nemu, Yachiru and several others- going on strike and refusing to do their jobs.
And it certainly didn't have anything to do with the current hostage situation unfolding among Soi Fon's squad- where Yoruichi was being held hostage and interrogated about something.
Though those things might have been a great big clue. Though it didn't quite explain why Ikkaku and Yomachika had somehow setting fire to one of the buildings. Which was now blazing in the center of the Seireitei like a great big flare of some kind.
And while he wasn't absolutely certain about why there were such events taking place at the moment. He did know one thing. This had Kurosaki Ichigo's name all over it.
He wasn't sure how he knew this. He just did.
He was totally certain that this was the girl's handiwork because wherever she went, chaos just seemed to follow after her. He didn't necessarily mind anymore that the Seireitie wasn't exempt due to their close ties to the girl. Everything was usually fine since the old man knew that the child never meant any harm.
In fact, seeing all of the chaos going on now sort of made him feel as if things were finally getting back to normal. Like they had been before the girl had lost all of her Soul Reaper abilities and been cut off from them.
He would be one of the first to admit that the past two years or so had been hard on all of his Squads. Especially the young ones who had the closest bonds to the girl.
In fact, he would go so far as to say that the loss of Kurosaki had broken many of his Reapers.
Not physically, but it had broken their spirits. And he had also noticed that many of them had been utterly depressed, and despondent and had only managed to function by the skin of their teeth. Those sorts of disheartening feelings had even become dangerous to some of them more and more over time.
And he had hated that losing one person- no matter how special and unique- had reduced them all to such a serious state.
It was why he had contacted Kisuke Urahara about helping the girl regain her abilities. He had felt that it was inevitable. Of course, he had missed the child too. He had simply hidden his feelings about missing her better than some of the others.
And then once that had been done successfully, he had announced to the entire Seireitei that she would finally be returning to them.
The spirits of his Reapers had been rekindled and everyone had waited for her to return anxiously.
Taking a deep breath, he looked away from the window where he could see the flames climbing higher and was mentally making a note to have those hooligans all help to rebuild the bulding/buildings that wound up damaged today.
"Thank you all for coming," He finally said. Having been silent for long enough while contemplating everything. "I know that today is a bit of a bad day for a meeting," It was an understatement, he knew. And the others knew it too. But it still bore saying. "But I wonder if any of you have heard anything from Ichigo Kurosaki recently?"
There was a few heartbeats of silence before some of them started denying that they had heard anything from the girl. However, there was one among the group that he had assembled that looked as if he were sweating bullets.
"Ukitake? Have you heard from the girl?" He asked, focusing his undivided attention on the white-haired Captain who was looking nervous as hell.
"Uh, well, you see Head Captain...I have. Just last week actually."
"Oh?" Yamamoto questioned as Shunsui Kyoraku suddenly blurted out.
"How is she?"
Beating him to the question and earning a glare from the elder.
"She was...well, for lack of a better word, panicked."
"Panicked? Whatever for?" Byakuya chimed in this time, his mask of indifference broken by a concerned frown.
Ukitake looked distinctly uncomfortable and then began to explain that something was going on with the girl. And his information was limited for the time being, though he did mention of Ichigo being around demons. Which had caused a certain...sort of hysterical laughter to bubble up from the head Captain as he took his seat.
Not that the others present could blame the elder any for it. They often felt the same way when it came to Ichigo as well. Or more specifically, the situations that she often found herself in.
Some of those situations were so damned ridiculous that hysterical laughter simply couldn't be helped for one reason or another. Sometimes it was just the best way to deal with their stress.
Still...
"So, she somehow summoned you and her inner hollow both as familiars?" Toshiro asked curiously.
"Uh, yes. That's what I managed to understand of the situation. Oh! There was one more familiar as well, a cute fluffy little chick of some kind."
"Chick? You mean like a baby bird?"
"Yes, it was very adorable. Though it had a rather extensive vocabulary."
"Wait, the chick talked?!" Shunsui said, looking a bit grossed out.
"It cursed almost nonstop actually." Ukitake said with a small chuckle. "It's vocabulary reminded me a bit of the time Ichigo took part in helping with our film festival and kept getting blown up."
Toshiro let out a whistle as Byakuya suddenly found the floor interesting while Yamamoto muttered, "That is bad." As he recalled the movie in question. It was one of the best movies that the film festival had produced.
It was also one of the most colorful due to the girl's almost constant cursing at Byakuya who had been behind all of the explosions.
"Yes, very bad." Ukitake agreed with a smile. "All in all, I was probably with her for an hour, perhaps less. But she did say that she would try to explain things to me the next time that I saw her. Although, I received a text from her last night, so she may not need to come here and explain things in person unless the Head Captain asks for her presence specifically." The white-haired man said as he dug his cell phone out of his Captain's jacket. "Would you like me to read it to you all?"
"Yes." Yomamoto said.
"Please do." Shunsui said with a grin, already somehow knowing that whatever the kid had to say was going to be both crazy and hilarious.
"Hn." Byakuya said, wondering if Rukia knew that Ukitake had gotten a text from her friend.
"What is she up to? Does the text say?" Toshiro asked as he braced himself.
"Ah, I believe so- Hang on and let me pull it up." Ukitake said as he took a minute to find the text and pull it up and then cleared his throat and began speaking,
"Hi everyone! Long time no see. I'm sorry that I vanished without a trace, but something came up and my dad wanted me to keep quiet about it. First of all, I need to stress the fact that I haven't turned on anyone. I haven't forgotten my job, as a Soul Reaper nor the many wonderful friends that I have made over the years."
"However, with the Head Captain wanting me dead every other Tuesday-"
"I do not want her dead every other Tuesday!" Yamamoto interrupted.
Everyone glared at him and some even hushed him. The cheeky little brats. The elder thought as Ukitake picked up where he had been interrupted.
"I wasn't certain about how well received certain information would be. Let me explain, I'm apparently part demon..." Ukitake paused as he realized what he'd just said aloud and took a second to give everyone else in the room a cautious look in an attempt to gauge how they were taking the information. No one seemed very surprised by the admission, so he decided to continue. "I found out when I went to bed one night and woke up the next morning with fangs, claws, a tail and horns. I was upset by what had happened and in an effort not to let my friends or family see me, I ran away and hid myself in an condemned building. My dad found me later on, and instead of freaking out like I expected him to- he just sat down and began to tell me how to return to normal. We both stayed in the building until the extra parts were gone. After that I broke down crying..."
"Oh Ichigo." Shunsui said sadly. Already feeling hurt on the girl's behalf. Ukitake could tell that Byakuya and Toshiro were as well.
"After that, dad decided that it wasn't safe for me to stay in the human world any longer. At least not while I remained untrained in my new abilities. So, after a week or so of prepping, he summoned a demon and made a deal with him. The demon is named Sullivan- and he has adopted me as his grandchild."
Ukitake paused again when another laugh, this one a bit more amused sounding escaped the Head Captain.
"Sir, if I may? What is so funny?" Toshiro demanded, not finding the fact that Ichigo was currently in the hands of an unknown demon very funny.
"Sullivan is one of the three great demons. A noble, of great influence. Many consider him to be one of the...more pleasant demons in the Netherworld. And in recent years he has not only had a hand in running the Netherworld's government but has taken up a job as a principal at a school known at Babyls Demon School."
"You know him?" Byakuya asked.
"We've run into each other a few times, yes." Yamamoto said before continuing to speak, "If Ichigo has found herself in his care, then she is likely being cared for very well. After all, demons like Sullivan hold their treasures close to them."
Toshiro looked like he wanted to say something else, but was cut off by Ukitake asking, "May I continue?"
"Go on." Shunsui urged him.
"Since being adopted by Sullivan some freaky stuff has happened. Honestly, if my hair hadn't turned white from fighting Aizen, then it would likely turn white after being brought to the Netherworld. Sullivan has taken great pains to make me comfortable and see that I have the training that I need for my new abilities. Unfortunately, the tradeoff for that training means going back to high school with demon children. Which is so hard. The children of the Netherworld are mostly undisciplined, and savage. Feral even. On the day that I went to the school for the entrance ceremony, I got into a fight. It was entirely by accident, but it still happened. I won that fight, and gained myself a minion..."
"Oh no." Ukitake groaned out while trying to suppress his giggles. It wasn't working and he still managed to giggle a few times before sobering and going on.
"His name is Alice Asmodeus, and he calls me master-"
"Oh no." Shunsui laughed next. Ukitake waved a hand at him to silence him and went on.
"He's a good kid. But it's almost physically painful to look at him sometimes. He sparkles. SPARKLES. Like glitter! It's crazy. But I like him, so I'm going to keep him. I refer to him as my duckling and I will teach him all sort of mischief."
"The Netherworld is going to randomly burst into flames at some point, isn't it?" Toshiro asked with a heavy sigh. He could already see it now.
Shunsui reached over and patted the kid on the back while Ukitake continued to read.
"Another person that I refer to as one of my ducklings is a small girl named Clara Valoc. When I first met her, she looked so very lonely to me. She was playing alone and was trying so very hard to connect to others. But because she's hyperactive and has a lot of energy, making connections is difficult for her. And because of that other demons want nothing to do with her unless their bullying her. in many ways, she sort of reminds me of a more impish Orihime. So I've decided to keep her too. We've been almost joined at the hip ever since."
"Aww, that's nice." Shunsui said, with a fond smile.
Ukitake grinned at his childhood friend, "Isn't it though?"
"Stop stalling and read the rest. I need to go and make sure that Rangiku hasn't blown something up." Toshiro said in annoyance.
"Okay," Ukitake said with another chuckle. "There is one last person that I want to tell you about. His name is Opera and he is what's called a Security Devil. As far as I can tell, his job a lot like both a guard and a butler. He also assists Sullivan in his work so that he doesn't fall behind. He's a cat demon! He has an actual pair of cat ears and a tail. He's a nice guy, though I don't doubt that he isn't very nice to those who try to hurt those under his care. I like him. And he likes me too. In fact, he has decided to court me-"
"No way." Shunsui said as his jaw dropped open in startled shock before he let out a whoop and started to excitedly jump around as he waited for Ukitake to read on.
"Apparently, Opera finds me to be quite the catch. Though I'm still a bit unclear on why that is- since I've never attracted anyone to me before. He's gone to some pretty extreme lengths to make me fall for him despite barely knowing me at all. He's an interesting guy and will keep me entertained just as much as I keep him on his toes. I'll be keeping him too. P.S. Opera and I exchanged blood and are now more or less married. I hope that he doesn't come to regret his choice."
"What?!" Toshiro, Shunsui, Byakuya, and Yamamoto all shouted in unison.
Back in the Netherworld-
Ichigo kept having to resist the urge to sneeze for some reason as she tried to listen to the teacher's instructions. Not long after taking roll call, their teacher had then told them all to follow him and led them outside.
It turned out that their class was going to take place outside for the time being so that they could be ranked. She didn't know what that meant but she understood the implications easily enough. Which meant that they would be doing something strenuous.
From the way that the teacher was talking, they would be racing across the valley that they had been led to and stretched out as far as the eye could see.
All of it might not have been such a bad thing if it wasn't for one tiny detail.
She didn't know how to fly.
In fact, she hadn't bothered to even practice flying after getting her wings. She had just put them up and left them, figuring that she wouldn't need them. Now she was kicking herself for her lack of foresight as Az and everyone else prepared to take flight.
Their wings bursting from their backs as if they had always been there and she simply hadn't seen them. To be honest, that was a distinctly strong possibility.
"Master, why haven't you gotten your wings out yet?" Az asked, jolting her from her thoughts.
"Uh, I'm just a bit self-conscious about my wings." She said awkwardly.
In truth, she was being pretty honest about how she felt about her wings. She was self-conscious about them. And for good reason, she'd never had wings before. In fact, up until her demon blood had started to awaken, she had spent all of her life without the damned things.
And now that she had them...she'd do anything to get rid of them. And maybe her horns and tail. She didn't like them either. But she knew that they were all a part of her new self. So, she knew that she would have to find a way to accept them inevitably, but she wasn't so keen to do it right this moment.
"O-Oh. Okay. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." Az said, looking kind of depressed that he had asked her anything about her wings to begin with.
"It's fine Az. You didn't know." She said as she smiled at the kid. Az visibly seemed to soak up the warmth of her smile like a flower soaked up the rays of the sun. He went from wilted to back to normal.
Weird. She thought to herself as she glanced away from him to see if she could find Opera and Shichiro since the two of them had tagged along with the rest of them. She found them standing off to the side where there was a big rock formation, watching everyone prepare for the race.
She debated on whether or not she should go and ask one of them for any pointers on how to fly, but once the teacher gave them the 'go' signal, it was too late. Everyone took off in a flurry of strongly flapping wings that stirred the dirt.
They had all left her behind, even Az and Clara. Yet despite that fact, she wasn't upset. She merely moved over to the nearest ledge to see if there was some other way to do the race without flying.
"What are you doing fool?" She heard her teacher ask in an exasperated tone.
"Checking the height from here."
However, her explanation didn't seem to do anything but annoy her teacher. So, when she wasn't looking, he walked by her and pushed her off the ledge.
Opera had kept his eyes on his Lilith, the entire time that she and the other kids had been milling about the area and socializing in small groups up until Kalego began to explain what they would be doing.
"A race sounds like fun." Shichiro said, sounding almost thrilled to be there to witness such a silly thing. Opera hummed in agreement, because it did sound like fun, but wondered what kind of race the children would be participating in when Kalego mentioned that the kids would be flying.
The moment that he heard that, he tensed up a bit.
After all, he had no idea if his Lilith even had wings. Much less if she could fly.
Next to him, Shichiro seemed to pick up on his tension and the cause of it and simply asked him, "Does she have wings?"
"I don't know." He said automatically, because he didn't know. It was something that had been overlooked entirely. And he was presently very, very pissed with himself for overlooking something so damned important to his Lilith's wellbeing.
"Oh... Oh no." Shichiro muttered softly in dread.
After all, it was a well-known fact that flying was important to demons.
Flying helped them reach otherwise difficult to reach places, escape harm, and even helped them avoid detection during times of war. It was absolutely unheard of for any demon to be without their wings unless they had been captured, and their wings physically removed via torture or some other way.
The act of removing a demon's wings was referred to as 'grounding' for obvious reasons. And it was an agonizing process to heal from. One that had driven many demons utterly mad.
It was also an act that had been outlawed in many places that the Thirteen Crowns governed over and carried the heavy sentence of death, if one was caught removing the wings of another.
And on the hells of that information, he remembered that she had spent the entirety of her life in the human realm. A child born with wings would stand out and even be considered a freak there. People would have come far and wide just to see her, study her, even experiment on her if her wings had been noticed.
His master had told him that her father was the one who had summoned him and made the deal to place her in their care. His master had also said that her father was a shrewd man, but also one who loved his child.
To keep her hidden- and safe...would her parents have removed her wings to prevent her from being found out as something other than human?
The implications were upsetting at best since such a thing being done to her out of love, was still considered one of the worst forms of torture imaginable. Especially since she would have been very, very young at the time it happened.
His stomach began to churn with nausea, and he suddenly felt very dizzy. Beside him, Shichiro seemed to have come to a similar conclusion because he was looking rather green himself.
It was around then that the two demons realized that the race had started, and had to quickly shove their feelings aside to focus. Especially when the dust cleared and Ichigo was the only person left out of her class that wasn't flying away.
Opera's heart began to beat harder; his hands became shaky.
Worry, fear, terror flooded his side of the bond, and he knew that she could feel it from the way that she looked towards him with a frown. She might not have understood why he was feeling so strongly right then, but he did feel her reach out to him and try to calm him.
The soft touch of her own emotions helped to ground him, mentally as he saw her move over to the ledge and look over the side. At first, he was confused, but then he remembered that she had done things similar to this while doing work as a Soul Reaper.
It was her way of trying to measure or calculate something's height and width and how best to get down from somewhere or go around something. He felt a small measure of reassurance that she was trying to think of a safer way to participate in the race.
Until...Kalego finally seemed to realize that he had a student that was left behind. And being the spiteful creature that he was, he pushed her off of the ledge.
Lilith!
He was moving before he even realized that he was in motion, his own wings unfurling as he rushed past Kalego who was suddenly tackled to the ground by a very upset Shichiro as he dove off over the ledge to save his bride.
Ichigo wasn't sure how far she had fallen before instinct finally kicked in, and she tried to stop her freefall with her hands. She grabbed at rocks, dug her fingertips into the earth until they bled. Scrambled to get a good grip on tree roots and stones. And then finally, she managed to stop her fall entirely by grabbing onto a sharp and jagged piece of stone protruding from one of the many lower ledges underneath where she had begun her fall.
She was hanging there, trying to figure out a good way to climb back up when Opera suddenly appeared.
He said nothing once he found her, though she could feel his relief through their bond. He merely flapped his wings a time or two and then grabbed her, startling her into letting go of the rock that she'd grabbed while he wrapped his arms around her body tightly, and then flying them both back up to the top ledge.
And once there, he gently set her on her feet and then landed and tucked his wings away as he quickly pulled her back into his arms and hugged her.
"Thank devi." He muttered as he gave her a small squeeze before then letting her go and moving his hands to her shoulders and gripping them tight. "Why didn't you say something?" He demanded in a tone that she'd never heard from him before while he gave her a little shake.
"Why didn't I-" Ichigo echoed sounding more than a little bit confused.
Opera hung his head and took several deep breaths when Shichiro suddenly chimed in from where he had Kalego in what looked like a very uncomfortable head lock.
"You're wings, Ichigo. Why didn't you tell us that you didn't have any?"
She blinked at the giant demon's dark and angry sounding tone as it occurred to her that both he and Opera had somehow gotten it into their minds that she was wingless.
"Oh, that." She said in understanding and then explained awkwardly, "I do have wings...I just don't know if I can use them." Which wasn't exactly a lie since she could vividly recall the unnatural size of her wings the one time that she'd seen them.
The blasted things had been massive enough to remind her a bit of Zangetsu in its shikai form.
They had measured almost five times bigger than she was tall. And their width had been...strangely just as wide. They had been very heavy too.
The weight of the flesh, bone and glossy, jet-black feathers had been far heavier than she had been able to handle. And that was saying quite a bit for someone who could swing a massive zanpaktou that weighed an easy two thousand pounds on a good day, around one handed without tearing their own arm off.
There was silence from the three demons staring at her for several moments before Kalego finally sighed and patted Shichiro's arm to get him to release him.
The giant did so- though he seemed as if he were very reluctant about it.
As it was, she still wasn't sure how she'd been able to hide herself without being crushed by them. She had simply dismissed the fact that she had miraculously managed to escape her home and run away to adrenaline.
"Show us." Kalego said once he was on his feet again. Ichigo visibly bristled at the demand but understood that as demons they were far more likely to be able to show her how to use her wings than anyone else.
"Fine." She said, feeling sort of miffed at being in this ridiculous situation to begin with. But still did as her teacher bid. Bringing her wings out was difficult for her, mostly because they had to rip through layers of flesh just to be seen. And the pain that it caused was...terrible. She didn't know how to put it.
It stole her breath, and made her nerves scream in agony. So much so, that she fell to the ground, clenching her teeth hard enough that she could taste blood.
"Ah, I see the problem now..." Kalego said as he stared at the massive, feathered wings protruding from the girl's back. "Your wings are far too big to use without snapping bones or ripping tendons and flesh apart. Not only that," He paused for a second so that he could reach out and touch one of them to confirm his suspicions. "But it also looks as if they are far too heavy for you to fly with." If he had known that the girl couldn't use her wings at all, then he wouldn't have pushed her off of the ledge like he had.
Especially since now, he knew that she was essentially grounded without having had her wings removed.
What a mess. The hellhound thought as he removed his hand from the wing that he'd been touching and told her to put her wings away.
It took her a moment or so longer than absolutely necessary- another drawback to having such large wings- but finally she was able to put them away. And once she did, she was able to breathe much easier due to the fact that the heavy weight of them had vanished entirely.
Slowly getting to her feet, she took a moment to dust herself off as she heard Kalego ask her, "Tell me fool, how are you planning to take part in a flying race if you cannot fly?"
"There are other ways to participate," She said, already having several ideas on how to do it. It would involve using her Soul Reaper abilities but then, she wasn't entirely sure why she was bothering to hide them to begin with. It wasn't as if anyone knew just what she was aside from Shichiro finding out that she was a hybrid. And even that information had been limited due to the fact that she purposely withheld everything else from him. "For instance, I can move really fast when I want to. And I'm great at scaling stuff."
The demon looked less than impressed and she gave him a look of disdain for doubting her. "All I need to know is if those are against the rules."
He looked slightly taken aback by her look she gave him, but slowly said. "They are not." Which got him a feral smile that sent chills down his spine.
"Okay then, I'm off." She said cheerfully before he was suddenly knocked off of his feet by a strange pressure while he heard very loud and abrupt BOOM and she disappeared from their sight.