A/N: Just want to mention I'm using Shino and Ryūnosuke from the beginning of the Thousand Year Blood War arc of Bleach in this chapter. However, as I am ignoring that actual plot, they have not been to Karakura.
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ACHTZEHN
TIMELINE X + N
The map and transcript Urahara had sent to Akon delayed Rin's departure to nearly noon on Monday due to adjustments in research sites and arrangements for escorts. Not wanting to raise any alarm, Akon approached the captain of the Thirteenth Division to request a pair of unseated officers who were good but needed more experience in the World of the Living to escort a scientist conducting an experiment. Captain Ukitake had cordially agreed, smiling though his eyes were sharp. He may as well have said, "I'll cooperate, but you had better not be throwing my subordinates into the lions' den. Or else." As always, Akon wondered how the most senior captains in the Thirteen Court Guard Divisions managed to so casually project threats wrapped in good cheer.
Rin emerged from a senkaimon flanked by two young shinigami, Shino and Ryūnosuke. All three stood in the air and appreciated the bird's-eye view of the city.
"It's so pretty!" Shino said in surprise. She shaded her eyes and looked around. "I've never seen buildings like that!"
Rin smiled. "I'll take some pictures between tests. I wonder what all those glass towers will look like when they're lit up at night?"
Ryūnosuke craned his neck to take in the city. "Ehhhhhh? This city is bigger than I thought it was. The mission brief said it's classified as Level—"
Rin laughed loudly and awkwardly. "We'd better get to work!" He looked down. They had emerged from the senkaimon just above the train station in the central part of town. He pointed down at it. "The first test site is there, then we'll cross the tracks to that construction site over there."
"What are we even doing, Department Head Tsubokura?" asked Shino. "The brief just said we're escorting you."
"Ah, just call me Rin. It's easier," Rin said while waving his free hand. The other was holding a huge bundle slung over his back. "And I'm taking some readings from the sites of some disturbances for further study."
"What kind of disturbances?" Ryūnosuke asked curiously.
"Ah, it would take too long to explain. Come on, let's go."
They landed on the platform unnoticed. Rin set the bundle down, rummaged, and took out something that looked like a big snail mounted in a metallic dowsing rod. The snail had a single antenna, upon which was a spinning radial.
"What the hell is that?" asked Shino while Ryūnosuke cringed away.
"Just a sensor. Please excuse me while I work," answered Rin.
The two escorts were soon bored as Rin wandered around, casting about the building unseen by the lunchtime commuters. When he reached a bench on the far platform, he frowned at his snail-thing and returned to his bundle to fetch a bulky thing that looked like a giant slug with three eyes and another radial. Also, it had claws. Big claws. Rin carried it over to the bench and carefully set it down. It promptly began spewing paper, its claws acting like the recording pens of a seismograph. Whatever it was doing apparently fascinated Rin, but the two escorts didn't understand a jot of it. They stayed there for well over an hour before Rin packed up the giant slug, retrieved the dowsing snail, shoved the bundle at Ryūnosuke, and wandered across the tracks while looking at his handheld sensor. The construction site across the way began boring as the workers were lounging around or gone for lunch. So of course Rin spent a good hour wandering around the place, then another hour with the big sensor on a particular catwalk. At least the workers were back to doing interesting things to watch by then.
Around three that afternoon, Rin stood straight and stretched. "All right, two down, thirty-seven to go!"
Shino and Ryūnosuke shared a glance. This was going to be a loooooooong mission.
§ x § x §
High on a construction crane, a white creature watched the shinigami with expressionless red eyes as its fluffy tail swished in the shadows inside the support frame.
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Karin, Yuzu, and Homura returned to the clinic after an afternoon spent fruitlessly wandering in the areas near the railroad tracks. Whatever Witch was out there, it was very good at hiding. While Yuzu cooked dinner and Karin vented her frustration on video game enemies, Homura pulled up articles about trains on her phone. Her hope was that something she read would spark an idea of where to look. She had wanted to go hunting at night like she did in Mitakihara, but the twins had indicated that would be a last-ditch tactic because their father might sense them moving around town. If not him, then the people at Urahara Shop. It left a sour taste in her mouth but Homura supposed potential allies were worth some patience. And really, she hadn't realized how constantly exhausted she had been until she slowed down this weekend. It seemed fitting that she would go into what would potentially be her most promising timeline well-rested and renewed.
Monday night passed much like Sunday night had, and Tuesday in turn passed much like Monday. Until that afternoon, when the girls found a labyrinth.
They were walking in an alley between a grocery store and the train tracks when their Soul Gems suddenly glowed. They continued cautiously until they found the orange pumpkin/clock sigil that had appeared in the train station. As the girls walked through, the alley abruptly disappeared and was replaced by the demented subway station full of clocks Homura had found when she first arrived in Karakura. Again, it didn't have the heavy sense of presence a true labyrinth held.
"Another damn Familiar," Karin complained.
Yuzu sighed. "We can't afford to let it mature into a duplicate of this Witch. We need to kill it."
Homura stepped forward. "Karin, only transform if it is absolutely necessary. Minimize the risk to your Soul Gem and save it for fighting the Witch."
"Got it," Karin agreed unhappily.
Homura and Yuzu held up their Soul Gems and let their power loose, clothes transforming into their battle costumes. Homura drew a handgun from her shield and Yuzu summoned her whip. Her face went cold and focused. "Let's make this quick."
They navigated the winding maze of subway tunnels by the violet light of Homura's Soul Gem. Homura found the labyrinth unusually complex for a mere Familiar. Whenever they actually found the Witch, it was sure to be a pain to fight. They were just getting sick of the reverberating ticking of the countless clocks when they emerged into a subway station like the one they had fought in the week before. Mismatched clocks on the walls, mechanical wreckage all over the ground, and a bizarre turnip-headed scarecrow dressed as a train conductor spinning around on its pole on the platform as though dancing. They stood and stared at it for a minute.
"We can do this quickly," Homura said calmly. "Yuzu, restrain it. I will shoot."
Yuzu nodded firmly and jogged away. Karin stayed just out of sight, face and body language awkward. Homura stalked around the platform, gun held down but at the ready. The two fighters made eye contact. Yuzu lashed out with her whip and ensnared the Familiar, crushing the scarecrow's fairy wings with the golden cord. The turnip blew on its whistle, creating an ear-splitting shriek of—
Click. Time stopped.
Yuzu was frozen mid-wince. Karin was a statue covering her ears. Homura positioned herself so neither sister would be caught in friendly fire and methodically emptied the Beretta's entire magazine toward the Familiar, bullets freezing in midair split seconds after she fired them. Satisfied, Homura remained in firing position and allowed time to resume its flow.
All fifteen bullets impacted the turnip head at the same time, causing it to explode.
Homura tucked the gun away and released her transformation before the labyrinth could disintegrate. Yuzu followed suit out of habit, still in shock. When they reappeared in the alley, Karin, who had been gaping, squawked, "How the hell did you do that?! I didn't even see you move!"
Homura elegantly tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Practice," she said coolly.
"How many Witches have you fucking fought?!"
Yuzu looked scandalized. "Karin!"
"Too many," answered Homura.
"We need to get home," Yuzu interrupted before Karin could escalate. "I need to start dinner."
Karin huffed but immediately fell into step beside her sister. Homura followed.
"You need to teach me how to move that fast, goddamn."
"Karin!"
"I believe you would call it a trade secret," Homura smoothly replied.
Karin barked out a laugh. "I like you."
Though she didn't show it, Homura found herself pleased.
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Kisuke was absently keeping track of the three girls wandering around town while cataloging the various relevant stories he was finding on supernatural message boards into a spreadsheet when their reiatsu suddenly disappeared. He sat straight and cast about more thoroughly. Gone. His pen dropped from his mouth as he stood quickly. A passing thought struck him; he grabbed a reiatsu-concealing cloak and donned it as he leapt out of the shop toward the last place he had sensed the girls.
Sensing from a distance while distracted was imprecise. The best Kisuke could do was figure they had been in the general area of a train crossing. His phone jangled loudly in his pocket. Isshin. Kisuke whipped it up to his face, barked, "I'm on it, wait for intel," and hung up.
He cast about for the girls' reiatsu again. Nothing. He looked around a radius of about a block. Nothing. So he perched on a building, rummaged in his pockets, and pulled out something that looked like a small tablet. Its function was similar to the dowsing snail Twelfth Division used, but more portable. Kisuke cast about for anything unusual.
Using the sensor, he found an anomaly near a grocery store. He reached out his senses. It was as if there was a slight weakness in the fabric of reality. How curious. He'd never felt anything quite like it before. Similar to a Garganta, yet not. After hopping over to a building behind the grocery, Kisuke squinted and saw something like a faint heat haze. He hadn't had much time to look at it when suddenly the air rippled and the three girls appeared out of nothing. The visual distortion immediately disappeared.
Kisuke stayed back and frowned in thought as the girls chattered and left. A few minutes after they were out of sight, he hopped down to the alley behind the grocery and approached the source of the distortion. He took readings as quickly as he could. From this close he could sense the faintest of Hollow-like residue. It was slight enough that Kisuke never would have noticed it in this Hollow-infested town if he hadn't been specifically looking for something in that exact place.
Fascinating.
Really, what had the Kurosaki girls gotten themselves into?
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"Have we done something wrong?" Shino asked rhetorically from her perch on a burnt-out restaurant in southern Kazamino City. "Is Captain Ukitake punishing us? Because this feels like punishment. Death by boredom. There isn't even anything to fight here. I haven't sensed a single Hollow. Why does this guy even need an escort?"
Ryūnosuke scratched his temple nervously. "At least it's an easy mission."
"Boring. Easy is boring."
"Um... at least it's almost dark? We'll get to see Mitakihara all lit up again."
Shino sighed dreamily. If nothing else, the mission was worth seeing the center of the human city lit up like a sparkling fairy kingdom at night. All those fanciful glass towers with their multicolored lights were visually dazzling. There was nothing of the like in Soul Society.
"Hey, guys!" Rin called up from an empty lot behind the automotive repair shop next door. "I'm ready to move on!"
Shino stretched. "Thank God. At least these Kazamino stops have been shorter than the Mitakihara ones. C'mon."
Both escorts jumped down to the scientist. Rin was looking at a map, first checking off a small circle representing their location, then tracing his finger to the southeast and stopping on the next marker.
"Okay, we're going to the coast, here, in Shinchi. We'll spend the night there, then swing back to the west to the border of Shinchi and Mitakihara." Rin folded the map and collected his things.
"The coast?" asked Shino. Her eyes sparkled and she held her hands to her cheeks. "I've never seen the ocean before! Ooh, I'll be able to watch the sun rise over the sea!"
Ryūnosuke glanced aside and wryly muttered, "You say this mission is boring, but you keep acting like a tourist on vacation."
Shino promptly punched her friend in the face.
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Glowing red eyes watched the shinigami's antics from the shadows under a car parked behind the mechanic's shop.
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Isshin sat at the kitchen table and drummed his fingers on its surface, forcing himself to remain seated instead of charging out the door to hunt down the girls. He had been paying more attention to their reiatsu signatures and noticed them blip out of existence for fifteen minutes.
Fifteen. Entire. Minutes.
A quarter of an hour.
An eternity.
His restraint had been sorely tested. Only Kisuke's words held him back. Wait for intel became his mantra. Isshin strained his senses and waited for... anything. Anything. Wait for intel. Any time now. Wait for intel.
Isshin drew a shuddering breath when the girls' reiatsu blinked back into existence. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes in relief. The trio moved nearer to him; he realized they were coming home and set about calming himself. The call that came from Kisuke helped. Mostly.
"They're safe," Kisuke said.
"You don't sound sure of that, Kisuke," Isshin said doubtfully.
"They're unharmed and in good spirits," his friend clarified.
"And?" Isshin prompted.
"Annnnnd I don't understand what I saw. Yet."
Ominous. But they could deal with that later. His girls were almost home.
Isshin thought he had done a pretty good job of looking normal until the girls came into the room and reacted to whatever his face looked like with fleeting trepidation before smoothing their expressions.
It absolutely did not help that all three of them had wisps of that Hollow-like reiatsu coming off them. Not visibly, but Isshin sensed it. An epiphany struck him: Karin and Yuzu knew much more than they were letting on. Were much more involved than they had said.
And didn't trust him enough to tell him. It made him ill.
Isshin couldn't help but glance at the portrait of his late wife and wonder, Masaki, would they have told you about... this?
"What's with you, Goat-Face?" Karin drawled.
Isshin frowned. "Did anything happen while you were out? I mean... you were gone longer than I thought you would be." He managed to not wince at his own clumsiness. Somehow.
"Ha? We stay out this late a lot. The sun isn't even down."
"Yeah, Daddy," added Yuzu. "We were just walking around with Homura."
Isshin directed a level stare at each of the girls in turn, desperately trying to see through them. They didn't crack. His Parental Interrogation Gaze had no effect on them. He gave up and forced his face to imitate manic cheer. "If you say so!"
The sisters glanced at each other. Great. They knew he knew something. Fabulous. So much for playing dumb.
Homura broke the tension by asking if Yuzu needed any help preparing dinner. Yuzu looked devious and got all three of her "assistants" plopped down at the table dicing vegetables and peeling carrots before they knew what was happening.
Isshin was bantering good-naturedly with Karin when Yuzu gasped, "Oh! Homura! I forgot to tell you! I washed your uniform. It's such a pretty uniform!"
"Ah. Thank you," Homura said politely. A moment later, she said, "Oh," with mild surprise.
Isshin glanced up from his half-chopped daikon, back to the daikon, and snapped back to Homura when his mind processed what he had seen. The girl's paring knife was embedded in the base of her left thumb. Deeply.
He stood sharply, immediately activating doctor mode. "Yuzu! Clean towel!" Yuzu dug in a drawer as Isshin ordered, "Homura, don't take out—"
Homura removed the knife. The wound bled profusely.
"—The knife. Ahhhhhhhh, nooo—"
"It is not serious," Homura tried to calm him.
"That had to have hit bone... severed a tendon? Ah, you're going to need stitches—" Isshin grabbed the towel from Yuzu and wrapped it around Homura's hand. She blinked up at him, entirely too calm for someone who had nearly severed her thumb at the lowest knuckle. Why wasn't she screaming or crying?
"That will not be necessary," Homura demurred. As if he had offered her surgical dressing for a paper cut. As if any treatment would be more of an inconvenience than the wound itself.
"No arguing. To the clinic!"
Homura sighed, held the towel and followed him. Isshin felt her reiatsu rise and do... something. He threw a strange glance at her over his shoulder as they went down the hall. What was that? What was she doing?
Once in an exam room, Isshin prepared sutures and first aid supplies, cleaned the wound, and found... a slice. Not even a serious one. More like a long, deep paper cut. He blinked.
That couldn't be right.
"I told you it is not serious," Homura said quietly.
"But—" Isshin frowned in confusion. He had seen how deep the knife was before Homura removed it. "But... so much blood..."
"Sometimes shallow wounds bleed the most, correct?"
Isshin looked up into Homura's eyes. She was completely placid, showing no signs of pain or panic. For a moment, her stare felt like the obligatory patience an adult showed a small child who was disagreeing because they didn't understand something. Like she was waiting for him to catch up with her.
"Uh... yeeeah," Isshin agreed, face baffled. "Let me just... get the butterfly bandages."
When he was done dressing the wound, Homura thanked him politely and strode from the clinic with the dignity of a queen.
What the hell.
That wound should have been bone-deep and done damage to the tendon. It also should have been extremely painful. Was her calm due to shock? He didn't think so. All he could think of was how Homura had raised her reiatsu for the duration of the walk to the clinic. What had she been doing? How had the wound clos—
Healing herself. She had been healing herself.
That was an advanced technique that stymied many shinigami, and this fourteen-year-old girl just casually did it without looking at the wound? And she had no visible reaction to the pain when he doused the wound in disinfectant. Even his battle-hardened son would snarl when his wounds were disinfected. It was if she had no pain reaction at all. The only sound she had made was mild surprise.
What the hell.
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Tuesday night passed into Wednesday morning. Kisuke was once again absently tracking the three girls, factoring Isshin's call about Homura's apparent healing skills into his dossier on her, when he sensed her move away from the library well before lunch. Curious what she was up to and short on new information, Kisuke grabbed the reiatsu-concealing cloak, wrapped himself in an illusory kidō, and skipped across the rooftops to find her.
Kisuke found Homura about two blocks from the train station. He stood on a tall building and watched as she paced the sidewalk for the length of a city block, turned toward the tracks, went back the way she came alongside the actual tracks, then exited at the beginning of the city block on the opposite side of the tracks. She then repeated the pattern, zigzagging her way down the railway corridor. It was quite obviously a search pattern. What was she looking for? Another disturbance? And what was she holding in her hand and watching like a compass?
Frowning, Kisuke hopped buildings to get closer and pulled out binoculars. Cupped in the girl's left hand was an egg-shaped amethyst set in a golden cup-like stand that conformed to the egg shape of the gem. The gold was embellished with decorative filigree and a small, diamond-shaped amethyst was attached to the crown of the large gem. It somewhat reminded him of a Fabergé egg. The girl maintained a steady pace, completely absorbed in staring at the jewel. Was it some kind of sensor? Crystals were terribly useful for such things, after all.
Kisuke followed her along the train tracks for over an hour. She followed the rails into the next city over, but didn't get very far before a store owner putting out the trash in an alley facing the tracks spotted her.
"Hey, kid! The hell are ya doing in there?! Ya got a death wish?!"
Homura looked up and just blinked at him, face disinterested.
"Aren't ya supposed to be in school?!"
Homura ignored him and started walking again.
"Hey, brat! I'm talkin' to ya!"
The girl's mouth turned down into an irritated frown.
"I got a cop buddy out front who's gonna wanna talk to ya! Hey, brat! C'mere before I call the cops on ya for truancy!" The man leaned in the back door of the store and hollered, "Heeey, Mataro! There's some brat walking the tracks!"
Kisuke almost missed what happened next. Homura glared at the man's back and pursed her lips disdainfully. The gem flared with violet light and disappeared as she called up her reiatsu in a tightly-controlled manner, manifesting a round, silver buckler on the wrist of the hand that had been carrying the gem. Just as he thought she might attack, she disappeared. There one instant, gone the next. Kisuke cast about for her. After reaching far, he found her... almost back to the train station, veering south toward Kurosaki Clinic?
How?
Because that had not been shunpo. Or any flash step technique that he knew of, shinigami, Quincy, Arrancar, or Fullbringer. With those, his decades sparring with Yoruichi had won him the hard-earned skill of being able to detect the path the quarry took while in motion between Point A and Point B even if he couldn't see it. It was an automatic thing for him now. But there was no trace of whatever path Homura took. She had just blinked out of existence and appeared elsewhere.
Kisuke frowned and turned back toward Karakura. He'd be gleeful over the riddle this girl posed if the Kurosaki girls weren't somehow tangled up in it as well.
§ x § x §
Wednesday afternoon found the shinigami research mission just inside Mitakihara, about a mile north of Shinchi and a few blocks south of Mitakihara Middle School. Rin set up the large slug sensor on the flat roof of a tall office building and was soon completely absorbed in his work. Shino and Ryūnosuke perched atop the roof access shack. Trying to stave off boredom, they began playing a game of I Spy while taking in the view and watching for enemies.
Forty minutes later, both escorts shivered.
"You feel that?" Shino asked, looking around.
"Yeah," Ryūnosuke answered, frowning. "What was that?" He turned toward the scientist. "Hey, Rin, did you—? Eh?"
Shino turned to look. "Hey, Rin! What was that?"
Rin stood with his back to them, head tilted back slightly as though looking at the sky. The creepy device at his feet had stopped printing. He showed no sign of having heard them.
Shino cupped her hands around her mouth and called, "Heeeeeeeeeeey!"
No reaction.
Frowning, Shino scoffed and hopped down to Rin's level. Ryūnosuke followed her. As they approached the scientist, both noticed their vision blur and felt disoriented.
Shino marched up to Rin. "Hey!" She stood in front of him and waved her arms. "Helloooooo?"
No response. Rin stared blankly into space, eyes unfocused.
Ryūnosuke joined her, worried. "Is something wrong with him?"
Shino squinted at the scientist. "Hey, what's on his neck?" She reached out for the blurry patch of pink.
Both escorts shuddered, a chill running up their spines.
A smug girl's voice airily said, He's joining my marching band. You should, too. We can play music forever!
Ryūnosuke swayed, dizzy and confused. "But... I don't know how to play anything..."
That's fine! If you join me, you'll learn in no time!
"But..."
Shino blinked hard and shook her head. "What—?" She repeated the action. "Ryūnosuke, snap out of it!"
Ryūnosuke blinked at her dreamily. "Shino...?"
I'll teach you how to play your own funeral march!
"Wake up, idiot!" With that, Shino hauled off and punched him, then drew her blade.
Ryūnosuke stumbled then straightened, holding his cheek. He looked more coherent. "W-what's going on?"
Eerie girlish laughter and the rattling of a snare drum keeping time echoed around them as reality warped and faded away.
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WITCH DATA
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?
Minion: Jakob, whose duty is to keep everything on schedule.
A/N: I've finally rolled this boulder to the top of the hill. Time to send it crashing down the other side ahahahaha~
This chapter was replaced with an edited version on November 1, 2019. Reviews with timestamps before that date refer to a slightly different version of the chapter.