Chapter 12
'I guess I deserve this,' Uryuu lamented to himself, staring at the stub that was once his hand.
True…although he had masqueraded as a loyal servant to Yhwach to ensure that his plans for revenge succeed, that still does not erase the fact that he has caused much psychological distress to the rest of his friends…particularly and most especially to Inoue.
Uryuu gritted his teeth. He knew – above all else – how Inoue hated the idea of violence, more so if it is among their gang. He also knew that she had been traumatized already by how Ichigo had been beaten within an inch of his life…and still Uryuu subjected her to the very same circumstances by shooting one hell of a hole through Ichigo's stomach.
'I deserved this,' he repeated to himself. He was just getting his proverbial just desserts from the same person he had sinned. How ironic.
In any case, Uryuu decided not to dwell too much on this. After all, what was a hand if it meant that he got his mother back? Instead of feeling remorseful or resentful, he should rejoice because a miracle happened. And it was all because of Inoue.
In hindsight, everything that she did in the entirety of this war was nothing short of…well… amazing does not begin to encapsulate how she had progressed from how she was in the past.
Back before Kuchiki-san was sentenced for execution, Uryuu had already decided that Inoue does not belong to the battlefield because she lacks the killing intent necessary to strike the final blow to victory. This is further compounded how when she was abducted by Aizen and taken to Hueco Mundo as a hostage…she did not participate in any of the battles. Instead, she became a weak link to exploit in order to defeat Ichigo.
Uryuu had then concluded that Inoue must always be protected. And yet, that very same damsel-in-distress stood her ground with Ichigo in his yet most powerful form against the King of the Quincies…a being that possessed the terrifying Schrift The Almighty and had also absorbed the essence of the Soul King.
Uryuu remembered Ichigo's account of the battle. Not once was Yhwach able to purposefully break the Santen Kesshun , and the Quincy King needed the combined power of the Almighty and the acausal nature of the absorbed Soul King in order to subvert Inoue's ability to reject phenomena.
Meanwhile, Ichigo also mentioned that when he was rendered unconscious, Inoue also took it upon herself to fight against Yhwach in a one-on-one battle. Although she ultimately lost, her last move proved to be the miracle that released their mothers' souls from Yhwach's grasp.
Uryuu gulped. How utterly monstrous. Glancing at his handless arm, he realized that the threat posed by Inoue may as well be incalculable…potentially at a level of that of Ichigo's.
'How ironic, indeed,' Uryuu repeated to himself. 'Who would have known that Kurosaki's progress would turn him to the unstoppable force of a sword…whereas Inoue would be the immovable object of a shield. And they would eventually be each other's perfect complement, enough to almost overpower an entity beyond all reason. Is this really just a mere coincidence?'
Uryuu gently shook his head. Taking a glance back at his non-arm, he recounted the events that followed after Inoue sliced it. Ryuken and Ichigo's father, the bonafide doctors that they are, performed any and all possible medical procedures in order to stop the bleeding…to no avail. Urahara took one look, injected a suspicious-looking regenerative serum from Mayuri Kurotsuchi's laboratory…and nothing happened. Uryuu also tried using his own Schrift Antithesis to see if the 'condition of being handless' can be exchanged to another. It did not work.
'...it simply does not exist anymore,' Uryuu recounted Tsubaki's words. Nothing exists there; hence, there is literally nothing that can be exchanged using his Schrift.
So this is how Koten Zanshun actualizes the ability to reject phenomena into offensive purposes. It does not just cut things physically…it cuts something out of existence. Belatedly, Uryuu also realized that this might also be the mechanism as to how Inoue's shields basically just pop out of nowhere despite her and her hair pins being hundreds – if not thousands – of feet away. It was likely that all Shun Shun Rikka fairy possessed the innate ability to reject space, time, and even the air resistance whenever they travel from one area to another. That was perhaps the reason why they seem very fast.
"There. Now, it's done," a voice said from beside him. It came from a very large, pink-haired man.
"Thank you, Ushoda-san," Uryuu offered his smile to the Vizard.
"I'm sorry, I cannot regenerate your hand," the man said apologetically. "I didn't know that Inoue-san's Shun Shun Rikka had already developed in such a way that even I, with similar powers to her, couldn't do anything."
"It's alright," Uryuu brought his handless arm, now encased in a light-green, rectangular, box-like barrier. "You managed to stop the bleeding. For that, I cannot thank you enough. But may I ask how you were able to stop the bleeding when the others weren't?"
Ushoda-san contemplated for a moment.
"Inoue-san's ability is truly powerful, but it is not absolute…or at least, it is not yet at a point that it is. So, I had to look for a way to circumvent the effect of her Koten Zanshun. The barrier that I put your arm in is a time-based Bakudo that I created. Basically, it stops the time of whatever is inside the barrier. I just needed to adjust the Kido in such a manner that it specifically targets the blood pouring out."
"I-I see," Uryuu replied, considering everything that the Vizard told him. It was fortunate that Ushoda Hachigen was still here in Soul Society to help with the medical efforts to heal the wounded Shinigami Officers.
"I will be reapplying the barrier once every two days, just to ensure that it works well…until we can find a more permanent solution," the Visored moved to stand up.
"Wait," Uryuu stood as well. "May I ask you to reshape the barrier to look like a hand?"
"Sure," Ushoda-san waved his hand over the barrier, effectively transforming it to Uryuu's desired shape.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome. If you need anything else, my phone number is with Kurosaki-san. You can reach me through him," the older man smiled before walking outside the sliding doors.
Now that Ushoda-san has left, Uryuu allowed himself to ruminate over the things needed to be addressed. First, he had the barrier transformed in the shape of a hand so that he can still manipulate it with the Ransōtengai technique using Reishi strings. This way, it can be functional in the event that they may face another threat…which given how things are, is surely bound to happen.
Second, now that they have gathered much data from, it is time to collate it in one meeting to ensure that everyone is well-informed. No more delays despite the fact that some will not be present. Ichigo's parents have taken Ryuken and mother to the Shiba Residence, with plans to ask the siblings Ganju and Kūkaku for some temporary lodging for mom and Masaki-obaa-san. Then, Dr. Kurosaki and Ryuken will depart back to the World of the Living for matters that require their immediate attention.
Third, both Kuchikis – Captain Byakuya and Rukia-san – will not be attending their meeting since they have responsibilities related to their respective Divisions as the highest ranking authority present. Lady Hisana will be accompanying Captain Kuchiki to his work…something about an earlier agreement between the two of them.
Anyway, Abarai-kun will be attending the meeting to record the proceedings for their perusal later.
That leaves him, Ichigo, Sado-kun, Urahara-san and Yoruichi-san, along with Abarai-kun, to talk among themselves regarding the rudimentary pieces of evidence that they were able to scrap from very limited sources. This would be enough since they were the primary people involved in this.
Since Urahara-san will be present, they may have a chance to make a coherent explanation to this mind-boggling situation pertaining to Inoue.
Speaking of Inoue…it was agreed that it would be in her best interest not to attend since she is still recuperating. That, and there may be a chance that she is not yet fully conscious.
Uryuu exhaled, taking the neatly stacked papers from a nearby table, and began walking out of the room.
'I hope this works,' he mused.
"Okay, everyone," Uryuu sat down on one of the seats allocated for the long opulent table. "Today, we are gathered here so that we can share the information that we have collated. Please be informed that the proceedings of this meeting shall be recorded both through a device and written documents. Abarai-kun shall be writing the minutes. Each and every person in this table shall be given the chance to explain their findings. Questions shall be answered later after the last person has already given their report. Any clarifications?"
The attendees shook their heads to answer.
"Sado-kun, what did Ginjo and the Fullbringers say?" Uryu turned towards the tall teenager.
Sado-kun cleared his throat, and in his deep baritone voice, he began speaking. "I would have to confirm this with Urahara-san but Ginjo stated something strange to me about the Spiritual Pressure of all Fullbringers."
Sado glanced at the former Twelfth Division Captain, who nodded his head in assent.
"Ginjo said that despite having vastly different abilities from each other, Fullbringers have this one unifying similarity in terms of their Reiryoku. It's that, at their Reiryoku's core, their abilities manifest because of a single factor. This factor is ever-present in all known people who can utilize Fullbring," Sado-kun paused for a moment, mulling over his next few words before turning his attention towards Urahara-san.
"Urahara-san, Ginjo said that a Fullbringer is born when one or both of their parents are attacked by Hollows. The attack leaves some traces of that Hollow's Spiritual Pressure inside our parents' bodies that they pass on to us. But Ginjo said something to me…he said that our parents were attacked in the first place because there's something inside our souls that caused that Hollow to attack. Ginjo said that whatever attracted the Hollow seemed to have a similar Reiatsu signature to the Soul King."
Uryuu felt his eyes widen. Impossible. He tried to speak but no words seemed to come out. Instead, he along with the people that gathered, stared at the genius Shinigami.
"Is it true that we have pieces of Soul King in our souls?"
Urahara-san avoided their eyes, shook his head and answered. "Yes. All Fullbringers possess a part of the Soul King in their souls."
"I see," Sado-kun replied. "Ginjo said that if this is the case, he would have been able to sense a piece of the Soul King inside Inoue. However, Ginjo made it clear that he cannot sense it from Inoue. But there is something there…something different…foreign. That was the reason why Inoue was never invited to join the Xcution like I was."
Uryuu cleared his throat. He needed to take control of the proceedings of the meeting in order for all of the information to be aired out first. "Thank you, Sado, for your report. Next, I will preamble Kurosaki's report with a little background information. Me and my mom, along with Ryuken and Kurosaki's mother went back to the original base of the Wandenreich in order to look for records regarding a supposed being adjacent to the Soul King. Although our search was ultimately fruitless, we were able to find a poem written by a Quincy who claimed to have seen a vision of how the Worlds were created. This may be a stretch but perhaps this may be related to what Sado shared with us…that Ginjo sensed a different thing within Inoue's Reiatsu."
Uryuu looked at Ichigo, and nodded for the latter to proceed.
"I guess it's my turn now. Urahara-san, would you project the poem like a hologram?" Ichigo turned towards the older man.
Click. A screen hovered midair, with the poem visible.
"I applied some literary approaches in order to interpret the poem written by Weissager Höhenblick. I will be detailing my interpretation based on the order of the stanzas of the poem since I think even the arrangement of the lines hold some deeper meaning. This is just also a disclaimer, but this is just my interpretation of the poem; hence, I may be wrong. I'm pretty sure that only the original author could possibly state the actual truth behind these lines."
/In the beginning of time, there was the Void
The Universe was boundless and formless
Everything and Nothing teemed against each other
In endless Tides of Chaos/
"The first stanza correlates with the idea that the original, singular world were divided into three…during the primordial era, so to speak, wherein life and death swirls around each other in perpetual pandemonium. The /Tides/ referred to here may just be an imagery to help readers imagine how there was constant chaos, with no discernible order, system or structure in the time before the Worlds were created."
/Then He has cast this Void into the Great Divide
Into Day and Night, into Morn and Eve
This was the first of days
Then, he separated these Tides/
Ichigo began pointing to a particular word in the hologram. "See this /He/ here. In various linguistic and religious traditions…if the /He/ is spelled with a capital letter, it denotes a being of great importance. In Judeo-Christian worship, the /He/ correlates with the idea of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, exalted being…a God. This may mean that the /He/ is meant to be the Soul King, and the idea of the /Great Divide/ and /separated these Tides/ could be what Yhwach claimed as the original sin of the Five Noble Clans of the Soul Society…wherein they cut off pieces of the Soul King and used his body as the lynchpin to ensure that the Worlds created were kept separated from each other. /Day and Night, Morn and Eve/ , may just refer to the idea of Life and Death being kept apart; since in literature, /Day/ and /Morn/ symbolizes life, whereas /Night/ and /Eve/ is associated with one's death. The /first of days/ could mean the primary reason why there must be a lynchpin in the first place.
/He named the Tides Above as the Skies
This was the second day
He granted the World Below
As the Land that bear much Life/
"The /Tides Above/ here is easy…looking at it in the perspective of a mortal, that is to say, the mortal author of this poem… /Above/ refers to the idea of Heaven…or in the system of our Worlds…it refers to the Spiritual Plane such as the Soul Society and the Hueco Mundo. /The World Below/ , /Land/ , and /Life/ refers to the idea of the World of the Living. So…Heaven – or Heavens, in this case – and Earth… Death and Life.
/For He so loved this World
The he foresaw and saw to it
That it set within the Perfection's count
Three. It was the third day/
"This was tricky to figure out, but I think the /World/ being referred to here is not the World of the Living…or not just the World of the Living since the author specifically used an uppercase /W/ to write the word – like a personal noun or a name – and relates it to the idea that this /World/ is a recipient of affection coming from the /He/ or the Soul King. I don't know but I am sensing that these lines mean that this recipient is the Soul King's world. Metaphorically speaking, when you refer to someone as your world , it means that you love that person to such a great extent. It symbolizes the central importance of the person in the speaker's life. It conveys a deep emotional attachment, suggesting that the person is as significant to the speaker as the entire world might be. /Three/ , of course, is culturally believed to be the number of perfection. Hence, this could mean that the affection held by the Soul King seemed so great that he did and perfectly arranged everything for this recipient of love.
/In the fourth day, He has let them be
Lights upon the Tides Above
The greater and lesser light
That stood guard over the Tide Below/
"Continuing on…these perfect arrangements consist of /Lights upon the Tides Above/ with the duty to watch over the recipient of love that both connotes the World of the Living . The /greater and lesser light/ implies that there are more than one entity with a duty to watch over. I'm guessing that this refers to Shinigamis since they have always held the duty to maintain the balancing system of the Worlds, and one of their prominent rules is to never arbitrarily harm a living human. The other group may be Hollows…don't react yet. A Plus that becomes a Hollow first devours their family and loved ones…the reason it usually happens is because they were almost always near their families as a soul…hence standing guard. The third is probably Quincies…with their sworn pride and duty to protect Humans from Hollows…to the point that it is heavily encoded in their genetic makeup."
/In the fifth day, He brought forth
Souls that roam these Tides Above
As if to keep its ardent gaze
Upon the Souls in the Tide Below./
"This implies that the system of standing guard or watching or protecting whatever you may call it…was put into place before the World of the Living could be finished. This is perhaps the reason why the author used the word /Perfection/ . Everything was prepared first for the recipient of love."
Ichigo exhaled for a moment, pausing as he went over the hologram once again. "In any case, the use of language in the first set of stanzas utilized some words and linguistic structures commonly found in Judeo-Christian Bibles…specifically accounts related to the Book of Genesis. I think this is a clue since even the word 'genesis' means 'start' or 'past.' Anyway, I will now be moving on to the next three stanzas."
/On the sixth day, He crowned
A Lone-Horned Man-God
As One to Govern All
And on the seventh day, He rested./
"This stanza is very familiar. When we first confronted Yhwach atop the restructured Royal Palace…well, it was actually me who killed the Soul King…I think it was what the word /rested/ means. The line /A Lone-Horned Man-God/ somehow supports this notion since I transformed into a one-horned version of my Hollow form during that battle. However, what is interesting here is that it happened on the /sixth day/ but the Soul King /rested/ on the /seventh day/. It was almost like it was planned…that everything that happened was part of a premonition coming true. The strange thing is the author used the word /rested/ like it was deliberate and in accordance with the will of the Soul King. Next, the word /crowned/ ...well, try as hard as I may deny it, I was probably slated to become the Soul King's replacement as the /One to Govern All/. In hindsight, it probably always has been the case. I have the same hybridized soul composition as the Soul King… /to Govern All/ means to become the lynchpin that holds all the Worlds together.
/Beware of the Evening of the Seventh
For She shall awaken from Her slumber
Deep within the abyss of the Tide Below
Three six-pointed Morning Stars shall herald Her coming/
/She, whose name must never be invoked
But you shall know of Her solemn vow
By the fire in Her sight
And by the warmth of Her light/
"These two succeeding stanzas go back to the supposed partner of the Soul King but it was a warning about something that may happen on the Evening of the Seventh. Honestly, this was unclear to me. I don't know if this refers to a date…and if it's a date, it does not specify anymore. No other clues exist that could help me interpret this because what follows it is a bunch of descriptions for the thing referred to as /Her/ . This /Her/ may be that light we encountered a few days ago… /Morning/ , /Stars/ , /Sight/ all circle back to the idea of a bright light…the one who took away Inoue's Shun Shun Rikka. However, one thing is for certain that /Her has strong ties to the World of the Living."
Ichigo stopped and glanced around the room. "This is basically it."
"What do you mean this is it? There are other stanzas," Renji questioned.
"The remaining lines…I have yet to decode it since-" Ichigo halted from speaking. Then, his facial expression morphed into something that does not seem to bode well. "Shit."
"What? What?" Uryuu demanded, suddenly standing up.
"The first sets of stanzas refer to what happened in the distant past.. The second set refers to what happened now..in the present. If that was the case…"
"Shit alright," Yoruichi-san interjected.
"It seems that the remaining lines are things that may happen in the future," Urahara-san summarized. Silence immediately ensued, consuming their once very bountiful conversation by a pregnant pause.
"I have a question," Renji broke the silence. "What do we call this supposed partner to the Soul King?"
Ichigo began to suggest the name, "The Soul Q-" His voice slipped, and he coughed "Ackkk!"
"What just happened?" Yoruichi-san stood up as well, the foot of her seat making noises as it scratched the wooden floor.
"Try saying it again," Urahara-san suggested.
"Soul Q-" Renji's voice seized as well. Then he hacked uncontrollably. Cough. Cough. Cough.
"Wait! Everyone, stop! There's probably a seal placed on that name," Urahara-san warned everyone. "Don't say it more than three times…just to be safe. We don't know what would happen if we do."
"She, whose name must never be invoked." Ichigo read the line once again.