Not much to say this week, so enjoy the chapter.
Yukio was walking around the Visuals Department blacksite that they were keeping Karin and Yuzu in. Personally, he wondered why Tokinada didn't have him keep the sisters in Invaders Must Die as he could just pause time in the game, and they suddenly stop being an issue.
Not that he was arguing. Doing that would be annoying, as he'd be locked out of playing some of his games, so he kept his mouth shut.
Unfortunately, 'minding the hostages' as Tokinada put it fell to him. As much as he respected Aura's drive to change the world, she really had a poor choice in allies.
And why the sisters? Orihime was a far less annoying target. Sure, she'd probably complain or try to fight back, but not only did Karin insult them at every opportunity, picking up her sword long enough to put on the wrap burned through his gloves and left his palms with third-degree burns. Aura healed them easily, but he refused to pick that thing up again, even as he was assured the wrapping kept the powers of the blade from affecting him.
Seriously, why did Ichigo's family have to be such a pain.
"What'cha doing?" Suddenly, Yukio found himself having the attention of the only other person he found to be just as annoying as Karin.
"Didn't I tell you I want to be left alone?" He didn't have time for Hikone's antics. For as strong as they were, he found their childlike nature to be infuriating.
"Master Tsunayashiro wants to speak with you," Hikone's innocent tone was grating on Yukio. Their demeanor just made things worse.
"He said I should be keeping an eye on our 'guests,'" Yukio retorted. He honestly didn't care and just wanted to be left alone so he could get back to playing his games.
"He said I should take over while you're gone," Hikone's words caused Yukio to pause for a moment as he considered what he would do.
"Screw it, she's your problem now," He found Tokinada's presence to be marginally better that than baby-sitting the captives, so he left to see what their psychopath of a sponsor wanted.
Hikone however, began their watch over the twins. They had so badly wanted to meet them since they were told about their shared nature. Sure, Hikone was artificial, and they're naturally occurring, but they and their older brother were the closest in composition to Hikone's own existence. They simply couldn't contain their curiosity.
Hikone walked the rest of the way to the holding cells. The blacksite was a place well out of reach of pretty much everyone who didn't know where it was. Getting the necessary seki-seki into place must have been a pain. Hikone then opened the door and entered.
"Shit, is it lunch already?" Karin's voice held a mocking tone to it.
"Karin," Yuzu spoke out against Karin's crass addressing of their captors. It was almost like she was trying to piss them off.
"What? If they're going to kidnap us, they should at least provide room service," Karin was beyond the point of caring about her own health in the matter. Whatever the reason was for them being kidnapped, it was clear they wanted them alive, else they already would have tried to shut her up. So why not keep going?
"I'm sorry, I didn't bring any snacks," Hikone spoke innocently, entirely unaware of Karin's attempt to harang and frustrate them.
"Damn, was hoping to get something good to eat for once," Karin turned away from her new minder, her interest in the matter exhausted.
Hikone didn't know how to process Karin's disinterest. They had hoped to start a conversation with the twins, hoping to learn more about them, and through them, themselves. Karin however had slammed the door on that. She was hardly interested in the artificial soul, seemingly taking a nap.
Yuzu was eying him warily, however. He could sense that her powers were still dormant, it was likely that she would have been unable to see them until just now.
"Are you…?" Yuzu trailed off, unable to get the question out of her mouth. While Hikone's passive spiritual pressure was a non-issue for Karin, Yuzu could feel it, and it thickened the air like a humid summer day.
"Yeah, they're a soul, and I assume you aren't in a gigai?" Karin answered her sister's question before the young artificial soul could. When she looked over at their minder, however, Karin's eyes were a steely glare. Karin knew Yuzu would be more susceptible to manipulation due to how sudden this all was for her, and so Karin went to lengths to manage who they both interacted with, when, and over what. Since Hikone was a new factor, Karin was particularly wary.
"No, why?" Hikone answered honestly, but their voice began showing the faintest hints of frustration.
"So, you can see them now," Karin figured the stress of the situation may have caused her to awaken her powers ever so slightly, but this confirmed it. With her question answered, she didn't answer back.
This bothered Hikone greatly. They had come here to talk to them, learn about them, why weren't they playing along? They stomped off and sat in the corner, pouting.
Karin wasn't sure they were quite done with trying to interrogate them yet. The kid seemed persistent, though they probably only wanted to socialize. However, given the context, she didn't want her or Yuzu to interact with their captors more than absolutely necessary, something Yukio was happy to oblige.
Ichigo was in the courtyard of the manor working a pell with a boken. The dents in both the pell and boken told any observer exactly why he was doing it. He was pissed!
Tokinada had kidnapped his sisters, and now nobody had any idea where the bastard was! It was like he vanished!
The sound of the pell being hit reverberated across the whole courtyard with each blow. Finally, with a loud crack, the boken gave way and snapped, Ichigo tossed the broken training tool into a pile with the others he broke today and was about to pick up another before he heard a familiar voice.
"I think that pell is thoroughly dead," Rukia's voice soothed his anger somewhat.
"Isn't being around me this much risky?" Ichigo jabbed back. Byakuya had made a point of walking Ichigo through the process and what they were and weren't allowed to do. He didn't like it, but he wasn't going to risk ruining things for the both of them.
"Idiot, do you think he'd actually call it off? And either way," Rukia then leaned close to Ichigo before whispering, "we already broke all of them anyway."
Rukia's voice felt like electricity going down his spine. And she was right, they had broken the main rule of this entire process, and well… serving shinigami were held to different standards ultimately. Not that he agreed with any of that.
"So, why'd you come here?" Ichigo looked over at Rukia, their difference in stature forcing him to look down at her as usual.
"Oh, so I can't just come by and say hello to my future husband?" as much as Ichigo liked the sound of that coming from Rukia, his mood was still quite sour.
"You can, but there's more to this isn't there?" There was just too much going on for that to be the case, as much as he wished it was.
"Fine, yes, I'm here to see how you're doing with…" Rukia sighed. She didn't need to finish her sentence.
"About as well as I can. Dad and I are not exactly fond of sitting by and doing nothing," Ichigo began gathering the broken training swords to throw into a burlap sack Ganju insisted on giving him.
"Still no word on where they are then?" Rukia wished she could help, but her obligations to the thirteenth were uncompromising.
"No, Kukaku had to keep Dad from storming the Tsunayashiro estate today," Ichigo didn't pitch in partially because he wanted to do it himself.
Rukia didn't know how she could help. Until the Gotei involved itself she couldn't avail them of the resources at her command. She was about to apologize but Ichigo spoke
"Don't worry about not being able to help. You being here right now is enough," Ichigo slung the sack over his shoulder before beginning to walk to where the wood could be disposed of. Rukia simply being there for him was helping him greatly.
Rukia sighed in response. He was always a hopeless romantic, the poems he's been sending her as of late have been evidence of that.
"You have any news on where he might be?" Kukaku took another drag of her pipe. This was not a good situation to be in.
"None. It's like he just vanished," Yoruichi was working with her to try to figure out their next move. Kukaku expected this, as Tokinada rarely bluffed.
"If he evaded even your gaze, that's impressive," Kukaku knew of her friend's little spy network. It didn't officially exist, and was nominally supposed to serve her brother, but everyone knew who was actually in charge.
"It's also scary. We have no idea what he can do, where he is, or what he plans to do with them," Yoruichi was busying herself with parsing what little information they had.
"He's not going to hurt them. He took them to keep us out of whatever he's doing, not drag us in," Kukaku exhaled more smoke from another drag of her pipe. "Not the best way if you ask me.'
"No… he's already written you off… could he…?" Yoruichi's mind was putting the pieces together, if she were Tokinada, how would he try to win the battle before it started?
"He may have kidnapped them to force us to divert resources," Yoruichi wasn't certain, but this would create a priority situation for Ichigo and Isshin, both of whom were major threats to even most captain-level shinigami.
"So this is a distraction?" Kukaku inquired. She wasn't a strategic mind like Yoruichi, it wasn't how she was raised.
"Possibly, but I still feel like I'm not seeing the full picture…" What was she missing? What did Tokinada know that they didn't? How did he plan to win once the fighting actually started?
"If he's going to try what I think he's going to do, I've already taken precautions," Kukaku hated not being able to be straight about it, but perhaps Yoruichi knowing that she had her blind-spots covered was good enough, that she wasn't the only one working to stop him.
"Are you sure it will be enough?" Yoruichi knew that if Kukaku didn't say something outright that it was for a reason, and so didn't press.
"No, but it should make this winnable," Kukaku wasn't sure about anything involving this. The fact Tsukishima was able to pull it off at all was a miracle in and of itself.
"Alright," Yoruichi hoped that Kukaku's plan worked.
"You want us to do what?!" Uryu flinched at Bambieta's exclamation. He had figured she would be critical of the move, and given her explosive tendencies, an outburst like this was to be expected.
"Karin and Yuzu Kurosaki have both been kidnapped, likely by Xcution. I wish to attempt a rescue, hopefully before they are relocated," Uryu looked at Bambietta as it was clear she was still dissatisfied.
"And why should we bother ourselves with the spawn of a shinigami?" Bambi still hated shinigami, and in her eyes, they were always going to be that.
"Because they're quincy!" Uryu raised his voice in reply. He wasn't going to let the old ways creep back in. Not when they were what motivated many to join the Wandenreich in the first place.
Bambietta was silent, but she glared at Uryu, prompting him to sigh.
"Ichigo and his sisters are quincy, not only is helping them the right thing to do from the perspective of protecting our people, it will ingratiate us to one of the great houses. Ensuring us some level of protection," Uryu was hoping that maybe, just maybe, that Ichigo didn't hold his decision to join the Wandenreich against him, even if he rightly should.
"So that's your plan? Become their lapdogs?" Bambietta hated the idea of giving up control. Especially to someone that has a reason to make that painful.
"My plan is to find a way for us to exist without threatening the balance. If that is solved, then they will have little reason to bother us," Uryu remembered his father's stories. About how there was some attempt at peace. He hoped that this time it would work.
"Except for old grudges, or the fact that we can still pose a threat to their grunts," Bambietta faced away from Uryu. She had been alive long enough to see how this goes. Wars breed wars, a cycle going on in perpetuity. Only the threat of mutual annihilation could ever get two sides to bury the hatchet.
"Which is why we need to convince them that we have left those days behind us," Uryu needed to keep those held as POWs in Soul Society in mind. "Domino."
"Yes your highness?" Shaz responded from beside Uryu.
"Have you located Xcution's new headquarters?"
"Yes, and what may be a shinigami blacksite," Uryu figured that may be the case. This all but confirmed their theory that it was the Visuals Department that was helping them. "It is in the forests overlooking the city, we will largely have free reign to use our less destructive abilities."
"Thank you, Domino," Uryu then looked at the rest of his small cell of quincy. "Time is of the essence, get ready, we will strike at dusk."
as always, comments are welcome. (Seriously, that shit is like a drug, almost as good as cherry coke)