Shinji: "By the Soul King, I completely forgot about beefcakes!" or "All I wanna do, is be split in two, by a giant woman. A GIANT WOMAN!"
Like father like son I guess. Also: GRANDBABIES!
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Plague Dog [Bleach SI/AU]
- Thread starter Chairtastic
- Start date
Gasorin Journal #13
New
Chairtastic
Anything's a chair if you're brave enough
- Location
- Breakfast nook
- Pronouns
- He / Him / It
Gasorin's Journal #13
---
Translated from braille.
--
I didn't keep a journal in Hueco Mundo -- well, I did, but Baraggan's rampages destroyed my journal, so I'm starting fresh. Two hundred plus years of journals -- all gone. But, oh well.
I think my hogyoku is different, because it was made in Hell. Specifically a realm not created by the Soul King's ritual. Mine is a lot more stable than Sosuke's or Kisuke's are depicted to be. It takes much less coaxing to get it to activate, and it doesn't seem to activate on its own.
No making Orihimes or Sados for me, it looks like.
Grandma passed away, don't know if dad got sick and tired of waiting for her to change her mind, but she's gone. Auntie Yuria is head of the family now, and she was a lot more open to listening to the possibility of Soul Reapers having changed.
Props to Koga, though. He took the bad reputation he got from the Squad Four slaughter, and turned it into motivation for a whole character development arc. It probably helped that folks realized he could meaningfully fight back against the bandit king if he slipped back into old habits.
And now he's going to be part of Squad Zero. Shame they're not allowed to take family or spouses up with them. Asami must be crushed.
I'm sitting in a house that used to be the seat of an entire clan -- Auntie tore down the walls between lots of the compounds to create one big compound. So far I've been able to pull the old 'this is my house!' gag on three people who came to visit.
Sosuke has a house of his own. He was so happy that I didn't mind he adopted kids rather than had them himself. I don't know what's happened in that family dynamic; but Rangiku doesn't have a Soul King fragment in her. And she should.
I'll ask eventually. Probably when he feels comfortable showing me his hogyoku. He knows I don't have mine on me.
It's back in Las Noches. I have it on a little table next to my throne -- anyone could go in and steal it if they wanted. But they don't.
That's what legitimacy buys you. Loyalty, not just obedience.
It probably also helps that I have Ulquiorra running the show while I'm away.
Ginrei's explanation doesn't add up. I know he doesn't just 'forget' things like that. So I started to put together who could have memory-altering abilities. There's stuff like the Ouin which could do that, probably.
But then I remembered -- who doctored history in the first place. Who would want a disruptive influence like me out of the way of upsetting their status quo long enough for things to stabilize. Who would know to stop me from chaos laddering before I really got going?
Who has been with me every time I close my eyes, every time I write with black ink, every time I wore even a stitch of black?
You could have just asked me to tone it down, Monk. As a note, for future reference.
I would hate to have to stress-test what the combination of my toxic reiryoku and your 'take reiryoku from anyone who says your name out loud' trick causes.
Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go see if Sajin's been born yet.
---
Oh snap!
---
Translated from braille.
--
I didn't keep a journal in Hueco Mundo -- well, I did, but Baraggan's rampages destroyed my journal, so I'm starting fresh. Two hundred plus years of journals -- all gone. But, oh well.
I think my hogyoku is different, because it was made in Hell. Specifically a realm not created by the Soul King's ritual. Mine is a lot more stable than Sosuke's or Kisuke's are depicted to be. It takes much less coaxing to get it to activate, and it doesn't seem to activate on its own.
No making Orihimes or Sados for me, it looks like.
Grandma passed away, don't know if dad got sick and tired of waiting for her to change her mind, but she's gone. Auntie Yuria is head of the family now, and she was a lot more open to listening to the possibility of Soul Reapers having changed.
Props to Koga, though. He took the bad reputation he got from the Squad Four slaughter, and turned it into motivation for a whole character development arc. It probably helped that folks realized he could meaningfully fight back against the bandit king if he slipped back into old habits.
And now he's going to be part of Squad Zero. Shame they're not allowed to take family or spouses up with them. Asami must be crushed.
I'm sitting in a house that used to be the seat of an entire clan -- Auntie tore down the walls between lots of the compounds to create one big compound. So far I've been able to pull the old 'this is my house!' gag on three people who came to visit.
Sosuke has a house of his own. He was so happy that I didn't mind he adopted kids rather than had them himself. I don't know what's happened in that family dynamic; but Rangiku doesn't have a Soul King fragment in her. And she should.
I'll ask eventually. Probably when he feels comfortable showing me his hogyoku. He knows I don't have mine on me.
It's back in Las Noches. I have it on a little table next to my throne -- anyone could go in and steal it if they wanted. But they don't.
That's what legitimacy buys you. Loyalty, not just obedience.
It probably also helps that I have Ulquiorra running the show while I'm away.
Ginrei's explanation doesn't add up. I know he doesn't just 'forget' things like that. So I started to put together who could have memory-altering abilities. There's stuff like the Ouin which could do that, probably.
But then I remembered -- who doctored history in the first place. Who would want a disruptive influence like me out of the way of upsetting their status quo long enough for things to stabilize. Who would know to stop me from chaos laddering before I really got going?
Who has been with me every time I close my eyes, every time I write with black ink, every time I wore even a stitch of black?
You could have just asked me to tone it down, Monk. As a note, for future reference.
I would hate to have to stress-test what the combination of my toxic reiryoku and your 'take reiryoku from anyone who says your name out loud' trick causes.
Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go see if Sajin's been born yet.
---
Oh snap!
So, besto Hallow is here! Finally Ulq makes his debut. Please tell me that he gets friendship lessons from Gasorin.
Also it seems that You-Know-Who is up to his old Shenenigans. At this point I am waiting for a Silbern Diplomatic party to show up, if only for the sheer vindictiveness of trolling the Monk.
Also curious. Is Gasorin's Super Toxic thing affecting Quincy Quality of Life over in the Schattenbereich? Like, we don't know what Toxic Reishi does.
Also please tell me Koga and Asami had kids....Or is Monkman really that petty....Speaking of, what is gonna happen to the Kuchiki's Ancestral Sword? Like, I know Muramasa is Koga's now, but he is kinda Kuchiki by marriage rather than normal. Also, what got him in Squad 0? Like, everyone in it is there because they are bonkers. Like, he is there because he is the Kenpachi of the Group? One of the few guys capable of using the next scariest thing to Sayafushi?
Also it seems that You-Know-Who is up to his old Shenenigans. At this point I am waiting for a Silbern Diplomatic party to show up, if only for the sheer vindictiveness of trolling the Monk.
Also curious. Is Gasorin's Super Toxic thing affecting Quincy Quality of Life over in the Schattenbereich? Like, we don't know what Toxic Reishi does.
Also please tell me Koga and Asami had kids....Or is Monkman really that petty....Speaking of, what is gonna happen to the Kuchiki's Ancestral Sword? Like, I know Muramasa is Koga's now, but he is kinda Kuchiki by marriage rather than normal. Also, what got him in Squad 0? Like, everyone in it is there because they are bonkers. Like, he is there because he is the Kenpachi of the Group? One of the few guys capable of using the next scariest thing to Sayafushi?
- Location
- Right next to the butcher's shop.
Huh, helps explain why he doesn't blame Ginrei: he knows the man's not at fault. Or rather, he suspects it. No real certainties with this kind of stuff.
Not sure why he made sure Ginrei didn't inform him though - he'd be out of the picture, regardless of whether he knew the reason behind it. Seems kinda pointless.
That said, whether his suspicions are accurate is a pretty big question.
Wait, did Koga get to take Muramasa with him? I thought he was a Kuchiki artifact, and having those effectively seized by Squad Zero is a bad precedent. Maybe everyone thought it best to get it out of the picture, for the sake of peace and the valance of power, but it's still a pretty extreme step.
Edit: ninja'd
Not sure why he made sure Ginrei didn't inform him though - he'd be out of the picture, regardless of whether he knew the reason behind it. Seems kinda pointless.
That said, whether his suspicions are accurate is a pretty big question.
Wait, did Koga get to take Muramasa with him? I thought he was a Kuchiki artifact, and having those effectively seized by Squad Zero is a bad precedent. Maybe everyone thought it best to get it out of the picture, for the sake of peace and the valance of power, but it's still a pretty extreme step.
Edit: ninja'd
Chapter 15
New
Chairtastic
Anything's a chair if you're brave enough
- Location
- Breakfast nook
- Pronouns
- He / Him / It
Chapter Fifteen: Welcome Home.
---
"Oh hey, I'm rested up enough to appear in between story sections again."
--
Sosuke Aizen
The children were playing with their great-grandparents in the yard between the two family's houses. Sosuke sat at the edge of his porch with a table laden with snacks and tea for resupplying both children and elders as needed. That was the task the children gave him, he was the concession stand operator.
Grandmother Fiti, a tall shark-woman with no hair and a haunting grin who wore loose pants under her kosode, played the part of a ticket-master with the power to sniff out stowaways onboard a make-believe ship.
The children and Grandfather Ginpa were, of course, the stowaways. They always made sure to move in bursts so the elderly arctic fox could hobble along with them.
On the other side of the small table from Sosuke was his friend and former squadmate – Kaname Tousen.
A dark-skinned man who had recently taken to styling his purple-tinted hair into starfish-like spikes, and wore a long white coat over his shihakusho to mark him as a Squad Nine elite – Kaname was blind. However, he still seemed pleased to hear children at play, from how he smiled.
"It is good you allow Gin to still act like a child when he's off-duty," Kaname told him. "I was afraid he would lose himself in the work of being a shinigami."
"I learned something from watching Lord Kuchiki's emotional constipation," Sosuke replied and poured tea into a small cup for his grandfather as the group passed – then handed it off. "There is no point in being afraid of expressing ourselves, for the cost of being stoics is far too high." A second cup was poured for his grandmother as she chased after them – and again, handed off.
"Does that not fly in the face of our training, though?" Kaname turned his closed eyes in Sosuke's direction. "We obtain a level of invincibility by living as though we're dead."
Sosuke poured Kaname some tea, and passed the cup over to him. "I never agreed with that aspect of the training, though. It encourages the idealization of death, at least the quote-unquote right kind of death. In service to the Squad, or the society." He considered whether or not to pour for himself, and decided he was thirsty enough to justify it. "Both our Squads and Soul Society have the most to gain from people who live through strife, or just in general want to live."
Kaname listened intently, his attention only diminished by his sips. When it was understood Sosuke had finished his thought, Kaname spoke again. "Well said. But… our lives are not easy. Sacrifice is sometimes necessary."
"I never said it wasn't. But, like I told Gin when he joined the Academy, it's not something shinigami should seek out." Sosuke glanced at his mischievous son, and his energetic daughter. They were so happy in that moment, he wanted to burn it into his mind forever. "There are too many dead shinigami in our records – and too few ancients like Yamamoto or Unohana. We're understaffed far too often."
Kaname stopped with his cup almost at his lips, then set it down. "I didn't think of it like that. Hmm."
"I think my time at Wing Bind's conservation division gave me a more unique view of this issue than the Court Guard Squads anticipated." Sosuke looked down at his tea, all his joy from before replaced with grim certainty. "It's why the problem with Qunicies is such unpleasant work."
The playing group rapidly had to change course, as one of the herds of meatball dragons had decided to graze upon the lawn insects. Meatball dragons were small, about the size of a Galapagos tortoise, rotund, with thin beaks and tiny eyes. Every beastman district in the Seireitei had multiple herds, to combat parasites and insects.
No one liked fleas or ticks, lease of all people covered in fur.
Sosuke had brought them over from the West, with strong objections from Wing Bind that the esteemed negotiator had smoothed over.
When he had first seen Koga Kuchiki, Sosuke thought the man was weird and annoying.
And he still was.
But Koga had grown to become a diplomat, trained Squad Three to be diplomats, negotiators, de-escalation specialists. Their artistic skills were used to compliment their ability to build rapport. Such a shame that the Quincies could not be swayed by words.
Koga 'the Negotiator' Kuchiki had earned his invitation to the Royal Guard by his skill at diplomacy. He had created the foundational documents for the post Central Forty-Six Soul Society's governance. His efforts officially ended the period of anarchy, and saw it through growing pains to the present stabilized period. And he peacefully brought the beastmen tribes back to the Soul Society; though not all in the East.
The fox district was an exterior wall that encompassed multiple former clan households, the walls between them torn down to create vast open spaces divided by occasional footpaths. Sosuke's home was adjacent to his grandparent's and nearby to his father's.
So it took him a while to see Gasorin on the approach with his entourage.
Hollows with shinigami powers… and returned to their humanoid forms, mostly. What an odd development. All the texts about arrancars that Sosuke had read had indicated the return to humanoid form was cosmetic only. But those texts were clearly wrong.
The arrancars stopped a bit away from Sosuke's house, made to remain behind by the fox who continued forward.
Sosuke turned to overlook the lawn as his father approached. He knew what would happen the moment Gasorin got close – and he was correct.
Gasorin got him in a hug, and Sosuke returned it. They'd hugged a lot when Gasorin first returned from Hueco Mundo, but Sosuke wasn't going to turn down more.
There would come a day when one of them was gone for good, and there wouldn't be any more hugs. For all Sosuke knew, it could be that day.
"I'm so proud of you," father told him, with his real voice. Soft that no one past Kaname could hear.
"Love you too." Sosuke gently indicated the hug should end, and gestured to Kaname when he was free. "This is Kaname Tousen, my friend and frequent debate partner."
Kaname's mouth twitched with a smile as he bowed to Gasorin, who reciprocated. "It is an honor to meet a war hero like yourself, Sir."
"And similarly an honor to meet you." Gasorin spoke with his false voice for Kaname, then glanced to where his parents played with the children. "I would love to stay and play, but your aunts need me to get to business right away. Had to at least see you before I left, yeah?"
Sosuke smiled. A night in Soul Society and already his father sounded more rested. He doubted it was Hueco Mundo that had brought on such tiredness, but rather the centuries of work. "Certainly. Would you be willing to join us for dinner, later?"
"Assuming you don't have tofu exclusively, sure."
Sosuke tilted his head, the light caught his glasses so that the lenses were white from the glare. "Tofu is good for you, father."
"So is meat."
"Hmm. I'll prepare a meatball for you, how's that?"
"Perfect. If things go well, I can bring your aunts to see you." Gasorin turned to Kaname. "Before I go, Tousen… have you seen Sajin Komamura recently?"
Sosuke felt his eyebrow steadily climb. What?
--
"I'm a very chaotic individual. Sajin is very orderly. But most importantly, he's not so orderly that he's intolerant. And I'm not so chaotic that I'm unreasonable."
--
Charlotte Chuhlhourne
His Majesty's birthplace was, to put if mildly, confusing. And ugly.
The inner city of the region was made of all white stone, yet they didn't treat it like a canvas. Silence was deafening because nobody seemed to want to sing, or play music.
The outer city was being modernized, expanded, but there was no passion in the work. It was a one-to-one replacement of what had been there before, but cleaner. More white stone.
Soul Society was a hollow's ideal hunting ground, because strong souls were plentiful. Yet the world didn't give the impression of having a strong soul itself. Soul Society felt sterile. Lifeless.
Even Szayleaporro's facilities back in Hueco Mundo, meant to be medically sterile, had more personality.
It was horrible, and Charlotte hoped His Majesty would shake them up enough to fix it.
He opined the ugliness of Soul Society to his fellow porcentajes. None of them were quite as in-tune with the nature of beauty, but they listened all the same. The porcentajes were His Majesty's personal fraccion, soldiers under his direct supervision. They were students, attendants, and advisors.
Charlotte Chuhlhourne, His Majesty's self-admitted favorite, was a muscular man with purple hair, dark skin, and the wherewithal to flaunt what he had. His fellows in the 'power' group were: Choe Neng Poww, the tallest and physically strongest, with half-lidded eyes, a clean shaven head under a hat, and a sleepy bearing; and Nirgge Parduoc, a powerful man with a musclegut physique, blond hair under his mask fragment helmet, a soft-spoken but leacherous manner.
The other three were the 'speed' group. Ggio Vega, the smallest and fastest of them, lithe and feminine; Findorr Calius, another blond who hid bloodthirsty madness under a dispassionate mask; and Abirama Redder, the tanned and tattooed hype-man of the porcentajes, ever eager in all things.
His Majesty understood, at least. He looked at Charlotte with his ears drooped. "We can't make them want their city to be beautiful. And we can't ignore the possibility that there is beauty in it we can't see. All we can do is carry our beauty around with us, and hope it inspires them."
It was a bitter pill to swallow, but Charlotte did.
They made their way, surrounding His Majesty, through the streets of the Seireitei to the Squad Twelve barracks. In the night, they had familiarized themselves with the layout of the Seireitei, to know the major landmarks and their relative distance from each other.
Charlotte could spot several all-black stealthy shinigami on the roofs and in the shadows – observing them. For the time being, they just watched. However, they encountered no one on the street.
The non-combatants were kept far away from the 'dangerous hollows', most likely. As if any of the porcentajes would hunt without His Majesty's permission. They had the idea that all six of them had to be barely-sapient hungry monsters.
Perhaps it would be wise to exploit that preconception. Charlotte decided he would discuss it with the group once they were in private.
Soon, they found themselves at the Squad Twelve barracks gate. There was no one there, but Charlotte could feel people nearby when he opened his pesquisa.
The walls of the barracks were low, made of white stone tinged yellow from age. Goldenrod tiles decorated the gatehouse roof and important buildings tall enough to be seen from the outside.
"At least this place isn't bone white like everywhere else in the Soul Society," Charlotte muttered.
"Yeah, piss-stained walls adds a lot of character," Abirama added.
"Hush," His Majesty said as he approached the doors. Once, twice, thrice he knocked – with considerable force each time, like it was some ritual. There was a scrape, and His Majesty leaned closer to the door. "Gasorin Egawa to see Captain Hikifune, if she has the time?"
The scraping sound repeated, and His Majesty stepped away. On closer inspection, Charlotte saw a sliding section of the door at rough eye level for someone of Findorr's height.
"Now we wait, and hope they have the courtesy to say 'no', if she doesn't." His Majesty created a bubble of black reishi that sparkled yellow and sat on it. "Smoke if you've got 'em, boys."
That was a coded message for 'stay in the general area, and pretend to lower your guard.' His Majesty had a wide range of such coded phrases.
They made a show of relaxing, putting their guards down. To make it seem like, if the shinigami wanted to do something stupid – they could get away with it.
None took the bait, sadly.
Charlotte kept track of time as they waited, he hummed a song about removing beer from a wall. He'd known it when he was a human, forgotten it, then His Majesty helped him recall the tune. From there, he just knew the words; in the same way he just knew where his hands were at any given moment.
Perhaps he'd been a drunk when he was a human.
After ninety-one circuits of the beer on the wall tune, the doors opened. Heavy and strong, they created a small gust from their movement. On the other side of them was a woman, as tall as His Majesty, dressed as a Captain with vivid pink hair, armed with an enormous spoon.
She was wary, from how she glanced around at the porcentajes before she focused on Gasorin. "I'm here. What do you need from me?"
His Majesty stood, and broke the bubble he'd sat on. "Well, if you want to talk about it in public…" He took a deep breath. "I have several souls trapped inside me I'd like to get out. I believe your spirit candy can help with that. I'm here to ask your help."
Captain Hikifune, for who else could she have been, looked around again. "I can try. But send your hollows back where they came from, alright?"
"As you wish." His Majesty turned his head slightly. "Return to Las Noches, await my signal to return to me at my house."
Objections from Charlotte and the others started up, but His Majesty remained unmoved.
"Has it become necessary for me to repeat myself?"
Yet another bitter pill to swallow – His Majesty had given them an order that they had to obey. Choe slashed the air with his finger, and created a tear into the realm between worlds – the Garganta. One by one they entered the tear, and gathered the reishi of the Garganta to form a bridge.
"Don't sulk. Your King is not so cruel as to keep you away for long."
Charlotte would deny that he did, indeed, sulk for the rest of his days. The other porcentajes, they certainly sulked. But not him!
Nope!
--
"Little thing I noticed. Wind Division's soul talking/manipulation can be used to stir up memories even really old hollows have of being human. Doesn't work on primordial hollows who were never human, but on the rest it's good for socialization."
--
Kisuke Urahara
Tessai had told him that something incredibly interesting was about to happen in the Squad Twelve barracks, and invited him to watch. An old war hero had come back from Hueco Mundo with a pack of hollows obeying his every order, and wanted some mod-souls made from him – according to the rumors.
Ran'Tao had done that, made herself a daughter by creating a mod-soul based on herself then put it into a reigai modeled after herself. Weird.
But scuttlebutt said the war hero already had a kid – had grandkids, even. Why would he want mod-souls made from him?
Kisuke wanted to find out.
He was third seat of Squad Two, and head of the Onmitsukidou's Detention Unit, though he didn't seem to look it from how people reacted to him. Kisuke wasn't afraid to answer 'I don't know' to questions, and he didn't cultivate a fearsome image. Most of the time, he barely had the time to cut room for his eyes to see through his bangs.
Kisuke was usually busy.
Tessai, his friend, was also usually busy. Tessai was the Kido Commander – still new in the role, since it had been hundreds of years with the position vacant. Odd traditions in that branch of the military kept them leaderless – something about an exam. Tessai did cultivate a more fearsome image; glasses that were permanently glossy from the outside, a fancy staff and coat over his shihakusho, facial hair that took constant maintenance.
It was rare that the two of them were able to see each other. That there was something interesting to watch only made it better.
In the basement of Squad Twelve's barracks was the chamber where soul candy was made. Thirteen vats filled with bubbling red fluid that suspended pea-green pellets until they collected at the bottom. In the middle of the vats was a slab with multiple hoses.
Kisuke had helped to create the mass production line for soul candy, gikon, and the modified souls, mod-souls. Eleven of the thirteen tanks were meant to house gikon, while the other two were for mod-souls. He'd helped with the programming of the artificial souls, encoding baseline intelligence and concepts.
Things like how to walk, and talk. The barest of the bare basics.
He watched from the sidelines as tank thirteen was emptied of fully cooled mod-souls for whatever procedure was to be planned.
"Officially, you're not supposed to be here," Tessai said from the shadows as he crossed his hands behind his back. "So don't do something rash unless it's called for."
"I'm just watching and learning," Kisuke replied without missing a beat. "If something happens, I got lost on a jog."
"Mmm, good." Tessai stepped out of the shadows and into the overhead spotlights.
Soon, Captain Hikifune and Ran'Tao joined him, accompanied by the presumed war hero.
A beastman, on the tall side. Interesting. An arctic fox, with a tanto zanpakutou hidden in his voluminous sleeves. Kisuke guessed that the spear he was alleged to wield was his shikai, then. Oddly, there was a strange choker with a mouth around his neck that had reiatsu of its own.
Like a zanpakutou, but different.
"Please strip to the waist and lay face-down on the slab. Your chin should rest on the top," Ran'Tao told the fox as she, Kirio, and Tessai got semi-organic technology ready.
Pumping lungs warmed up, vascular spikes sharpened, brain electrolysis fully charged – stuff like that.
Tessai took the fox's coat, white kosode and black shitagi along with the choker and other ornamentation. They were set aside while Kirio connected the vascular spikes to tank thirteen.
Kisuke saw another interesting thing when the fox laid down – the mark of the spiritual hazard on his back. A darker black than elsewhere on the fox's body, almost glossy – like wet ink.
Tessai glanced at Kisuke with eyebrows raised, just as interested about the mark. Spiritual hazards were dangerous by their very existence. In the old days of Central Forty-Six, they were supposed to be killed or thrown into Muken.
Not surprising that a spiritual hazard ended up killing Central Forty-Six, then.
"We'll need to tie you down," Tessai told the fox after he'd laid on the slab. "There will be pain, to keep you from biting your tongue we'll need to belt your jaw shut."
"I understand," the fox replied, his voice soft as cotton. "Do what you need to do."
The fox was tied down onto the slab. Arms, legs, tail, torso, wrists and ankles. The tail was belted down to the patient's thigh.
In the dark Kisuke moved around to see Tessai loop a belt around the fox's muzzle to force it closed.
Then Kirio took two organic tubes covered in arterioles or venules depending on their color topped with spikes, and stabbed the fox with them. The red arterial tube went just to the side of the lumbar spine; the blue went to the opposite side of the thoracic spine.
It was a fascinating process to watch the tubes swell with reiatsu in seconds. The red was filled by the patient, while the blue was filled by the operators – Ran'Tao at the time.
Kisuke watched as the fox started to spasm, with muffled sounds of pain, as the arterial tube began to pulse. It was like something had been sucked out, and traveled down the tube to tank thirteen.
A pea-green orb plopped down from the top of the tank into the red fluid at the bottom. As soon as it hit, the fluid bubbled and frothed from the mod-soul's heat.
"Gasorin, focus on the souls you want to extract. Build mental walls around them and push them toward where the pain is worst," Ran'Tao's tone was pitiless. At least nine mod-souls had been extracted already.
Something Kisuke noticed was how the patient's spiritual pressure went down with every mod-soul made. That was irregular. On a hunch, he entered reiraku and felt for the fox's reiryoku. With every mod-soul extracted, Kisuke could feel the fox's reiryoku itself diminish.
It was horrifying to see Captain-sized chunks chipped off from something so huge. It was comparable to the Captain-Commander's when the process started. But as it went on, that mountain of power whittled away.
After eighteen additional mod-souls were extracted, the fox shakily issued a thumb's up.
Kirio stopped the machine with a flick of reiatsu. She and Ran'Tao carefully pulled the vascular spikes out of the fox, Gasorin. Despite how deep they went and how close to major blood vessels they'd been, there was only minor bleeding.
Gasorin was a weird name, Kisuke reflected. He moved sneakily to tank thirteen and examined it. The mod-souls inside were still too hot to sink to the bottom. Twenty-seven mod-souls, and eighteen derived from souls that Gasorin had stored inside himself? Fascinating.
Tessai made himself busy by removing the straps on the fox.
"Kido… Commander," the fox muttered once his muzzle was free. His eyes were bloodshot and his voice a barely-there rasp. "Sir. Permission… to throw up and pass out?"
"Denied," Tessai replied immediately. "Walk it off, Corpsman."
"Yes… sir…."
--
Glossary:
Arrancar: A hollow who has broken their mask, and encapsulated their hollow shape and powers within a zanpakutou in mimicry of shinigami. Must be a menos grande to even attempt it, with the different stages having different levels of success and humanoid appearances from success.
Fraccion: Arrancar soldiers assigned to a higher-ranked officer as acolytes.
Porcentajes: Fraccion assigned to the monarch of Hueco Mundo personally.
Las Noches: Originally Baraggan Luisenbairn's palace, it has become a fortress, castle, and capital city all in one under Gasorin's rule. Larger than the Seireitei, but smaller than Soul Society as a whole.
Pesquisa: Hollow equivalent to reiraku, allowing them to feel for reiryoku signatures and gauge their strength.
Gikon: An artificial soul contained within a candy sphere. There are eleven varieties of gikon, which serve as personality templates. They can be further customized by the customer.
Mod-Soul: An articial soul contained within a candy sphere. Unlike gikon, mod-souls have enough reiryoku to last indefinitely unless killed. Some even have enough to engage hollows in combat and win.
Meatball: A variety of dragon that feeds on insects, and slaughtered for its meat. Tasty.
--
Cast!
Kaname Tousen: Sosuke's friend and debate partner. Devoted to justice, and the pursuit thereof.
Fiti Egawa: Gasorin's mother, a shark beastman. Has been the head of her household since she and Ginpa married. Is never seen without trousers of some kind. Never.
Ginpa Egawa: Gasorin's father. A sweetie-pie with a dark side. Loves his kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids more than anything.
Charlotte Chuhlhourne: One of Gasorin's porcentajes, part of the power group. Lives for beauty, and knows he's Gasorin's favorite.
Choe Neng Poww: One of Gasorin's porcentajes, part of the power group.Hates Loves whale puns.
Nirgge Paduoc: One of Gasorin's porcentajes, part of the power group. Secretly super perverted.
Ggio Vega: One of Gasorin's porcentajes, part of the speed group. Knows more and better kung-fu than you.
Abirama Redder: One of Gasorin's porcentajes, part of the speed group. A hype man who can convince you of your ability to rip a bear in half length-wise.
Findorr Calius: One of Gasorin's porcentajes, part of the speed group. Looks calm and collected but could, would, and will probably murder you while laughing like a madman.
Kirio Hikifune: Outgoing captain of Squad Twelve. Known for her mastery of life, and her development of artificial souls. Due to be promoted to the Royal Guard.
Kisuke Urahara: Third seat of Squad Two, Unit Commander of the Detention Unit. An inquisitive mind who needs a kick in the pants to become a leader.
Tessai Tsukabishi: Kido Commander, having pass Yua Shiba's ascendance test after the position was vacant for hundreds of years. A good friend, and a harsh commander.
---
Gasorin is currently not stronger than god! Had to give those folks something for being devoured and held captive for hundreds of years, so he shaved off some of his reiryoku to give them a nice power boost.
Once they get some reigais, the chapter one crew will be back!
I went to using 'shinigami' because it's legit easier to type than Soul Reaper. Those extra keystrokes add up, man!
---
"Oh hey, I'm rested up enough to appear in between story sections again."
--
Sosuke Aizen
The children were playing with their great-grandparents in the yard between the two family's houses. Sosuke sat at the edge of his porch with a table laden with snacks and tea for resupplying both children and elders as needed. That was the task the children gave him, he was the concession stand operator.
Grandmother Fiti, a tall shark-woman with no hair and a haunting grin who wore loose pants under her kosode, played the part of a ticket-master with the power to sniff out stowaways onboard a make-believe ship.
The children and Grandfather Ginpa were, of course, the stowaways. They always made sure to move in bursts so the elderly arctic fox could hobble along with them.
On the other side of the small table from Sosuke was his friend and former squadmate – Kaname Tousen.
A dark-skinned man who had recently taken to styling his purple-tinted hair into starfish-like spikes, and wore a long white coat over his shihakusho to mark him as a Squad Nine elite – Kaname was blind. However, he still seemed pleased to hear children at play, from how he smiled.
"It is good you allow Gin to still act like a child when he's off-duty," Kaname told him. "I was afraid he would lose himself in the work of being a shinigami."
"I learned something from watching Lord Kuchiki's emotional constipation," Sosuke replied and poured tea into a small cup for his grandfather as the group passed – then handed it off. "There is no point in being afraid of expressing ourselves, for the cost of being stoics is far too high." A second cup was poured for his grandmother as she chased after them – and again, handed off.
"Does that not fly in the face of our training, though?" Kaname turned his closed eyes in Sosuke's direction. "We obtain a level of invincibility by living as though we're dead."
Sosuke poured Kaname some tea, and passed the cup over to him. "I never agreed with that aspect of the training, though. It encourages the idealization of death, at least the quote-unquote right kind of death. In service to the Squad, or the society." He considered whether or not to pour for himself, and decided he was thirsty enough to justify it. "Both our Squads and Soul Society have the most to gain from people who live through strife, or just in general want to live."
Kaname listened intently, his attention only diminished by his sips. When it was understood Sosuke had finished his thought, Kaname spoke again. "Well said. But… our lives are not easy. Sacrifice is sometimes necessary."
"I never said it wasn't. But, like I told Gin when he joined the Academy, it's not something shinigami should seek out." Sosuke glanced at his mischievous son, and his energetic daughter. They were so happy in that moment, he wanted to burn it into his mind forever. "There are too many dead shinigami in our records – and too few ancients like Yamamoto or Unohana. We're understaffed far too often."
Kaname stopped with his cup almost at his lips, then set it down. "I didn't think of it like that. Hmm."
"I think my time at Wing Bind's conservation division gave me a more unique view of this issue than the Court Guard Squads anticipated." Sosuke looked down at his tea, all his joy from before replaced with grim certainty. "It's why the problem with Qunicies is such unpleasant work."
The playing group rapidly had to change course, as one of the herds of meatball dragons had decided to graze upon the lawn insects. Meatball dragons were small, about the size of a Galapagos tortoise, rotund, with thin beaks and tiny eyes. Every beastman district in the Seireitei had multiple herds, to combat parasites and insects.
No one liked fleas or ticks, lease of all people covered in fur.
Sosuke had brought them over from the West, with strong objections from Wing Bind that the esteemed negotiator had smoothed over.
When he had first seen Koga Kuchiki, Sosuke thought the man was weird and annoying.
And he still was.
But Koga had grown to become a diplomat, trained Squad Three to be diplomats, negotiators, de-escalation specialists. Their artistic skills were used to compliment their ability to build rapport. Such a shame that the Quincies could not be swayed by words.
Koga 'the Negotiator' Kuchiki had earned his invitation to the Royal Guard by his skill at diplomacy. He had created the foundational documents for the post Central Forty-Six Soul Society's governance. His efforts officially ended the period of anarchy, and saw it through growing pains to the present stabilized period. And he peacefully brought the beastmen tribes back to the Soul Society; though not all in the East.
The fox district was an exterior wall that encompassed multiple former clan households, the walls between them torn down to create vast open spaces divided by occasional footpaths. Sosuke's home was adjacent to his grandparent's and nearby to his father's.
So it took him a while to see Gasorin on the approach with his entourage.
Hollows with shinigami powers… and returned to their humanoid forms, mostly. What an odd development. All the texts about arrancars that Sosuke had read had indicated the return to humanoid form was cosmetic only. But those texts were clearly wrong.
The arrancars stopped a bit away from Sosuke's house, made to remain behind by the fox who continued forward.
Sosuke turned to overlook the lawn as his father approached. He knew what would happen the moment Gasorin got close – and he was correct.
Gasorin got him in a hug, and Sosuke returned it. They'd hugged a lot when Gasorin first returned from Hueco Mundo, but Sosuke wasn't going to turn down more.
There would come a day when one of them was gone for good, and there wouldn't be any more hugs. For all Sosuke knew, it could be that day.
"I'm so proud of you," father told him, with his real voice. Soft that no one past Kaname could hear.
"Love you too." Sosuke gently indicated the hug should end, and gestured to Kaname when he was free. "This is Kaname Tousen, my friend and frequent debate partner."
Kaname's mouth twitched with a smile as he bowed to Gasorin, who reciprocated. "It is an honor to meet a war hero like yourself, Sir."
"And similarly an honor to meet you." Gasorin spoke with his false voice for Kaname, then glanced to where his parents played with the children. "I would love to stay and play, but your aunts need me to get to business right away. Had to at least see you before I left, yeah?"
Sosuke smiled. A night in Soul Society and already his father sounded more rested. He doubted it was Hueco Mundo that had brought on such tiredness, but rather the centuries of work. "Certainly. Would you be willing to join us for dinner, later?"
"Assuming you don't have tofu exclusively, sure."
Sosuke tilted his head, the light caught his glasses so that the lenses were white from the glare. "Tofu is good for you, father."
"So is meat."
"Hmm. I'll prepare a meatball for you, how's that?"
"Perfect. If things go well, I can bring your aunts to see you." Gasorin turned to Kaname. "Before I go, Tousen… have you seen Sajin Komamura recently?"
Sosuke felt his eyebrow steadily climb. What?
--
"I'm a very chaotic individual. Sajin is very orderly. But most importantly, he's not so orderly that he's intolerant. And I'm not so chaotic that I'm unreasonable."
--
Charlotte Chuhlhourne
His Majesty's birthplace was, to put if mildly, confusing. And ugly.
The inner city of the region was made of all white stone, yet they didn't treat it like a canvas. Silence was deafening because nobody seemed to want to sing, or play music.
The outer city was being modernized, expanded, but there was no passion in the work. It was a one-to-one replacement of what had been there before, but cleaner. More white stone.
Soul Society was a hollow's ideal hunting ground, because strong souls were plentiful. Yet the world didn't give the impression of having a strong soul itself. Soul Society felt sterile. Lifeless.
Even Szayleaporro's facilities back in Hueco Mundo, meant to be medically sterile, had more personality.
It was horrible, and Charlotte hoped His Majesty would shake them up enough to fix it.
He opined the ugliness of Soul Society to his fellow porcentajes. None of them were quite as in-tune with the nature of beauty, but they listened all the same. The porcentajes were His Majesty's personal fraccion, soldiers under his direct supervision. They were students, attendants, and advisors.
Charlotte Chuhlhourne, His Majesty's self-admitted favorite, was a muscular man with purple hair, dark skin, and the wherewithal to flaunt what he had. His fellows in the 'power' group were: Choe Neng Poww, the tallest and physically strongest, with half-lidded eyes, a clean shaven head under a hat, and a sleepy bearing; and Nirgge Parduoc, a powerful man with a musclegut physique, blond hair under his mask fragment helmet, a soft-spoken but leacherous manner.
The other three were the 'speed' group. Ggio Vega, the smallest and fastest of them, lithe and feminine; Findorr Calius, another blond who hid bloodthirsty madness under a dispassionate mask; and Abirama Redder, the tanned and tattooed hype-man of the porcentajes, ever eager in all things.
His Majesty understood, at least. He looked at Charlotte with his ears drooped. "We can't make them want their city to be beautiful. And we can't ignore the possibility that there is beauty in it we can't see. All we can do is carry our beauty around with us, and hope it inspires them."
It was a bitter pill to swallow, but Charlotte did.
They made their way, surrounding His Majesty, through the streets of the Seireitei to the Squad Twelve barracks. In the night, they had familiarized themselves with the layout of the Seireitei, to know the major landmarks and their relative distance from each other.
Charlotte could spot several all-black stealthy shinigami on the roofs and in the shadows – observing them. For the time being, they just watched. However, they encountered no one on the street.
The non-combatants were kept far away from the 'dangerous hollows', most likely. As if any of the porcentajes would hunt without His Majesty's permission. They had the idea that all six of them had to be barely-sapient hungry monsters.
Perhaps it would be wise to exploit that preconception. Charlotte decided he would discuss it with the group once they were in private.
Soon, they found themselves at the Squad Twelve barracks gate. There was no one there, but Charlotte could feel people nearby when he opened his pesquisa.
The walls of the barracks were low, made of white stone tinged yellow from age. Goldenrod tiles decorated the gatehouse roof and important buildings tall enough to be seen from the outside.
"At least this place isn't bone white like everywhere else in the Soul Society," Charlotte muttered.
"Yeah, piss-stained walls adds a lot of character," Abirama added.
"Hush," His Majesty said as he approached the doors. Once, twice, thrice he knocked – with considerable force each time, like it was some ritual. There was a scrape, and His Majesty leaned closer to the door. "Gasorin Egawa to see Captain Hikifune, if she has the time?"
The scraping sound repeated, and His Majesty stepped away. On closer inspection, Charlotte saw a sliding section of the door at rough eye level for someone of Findorr's height.
"Now we wait, and hope they have the courtesy to say 'no', if she doesn't." His Majesty created a bubble of black reishi that sparkled yellow and sat on it. "Smoke if you've got 'em, boys."
That was a coded message for 'stay in the general area, and pretend to lower your guard.' His Majesty had a wide range of such coded phrases.
They made a show of relaxing, putting their guards down. To make it seem like, if the shinigami wanted to do something stupid – they could get away with it.
None took the bait, sadly.
Charlotte kept track of time as they waited, he hummed a song about removing beer from a wall. He'd known it when he was a human, forgotten it, then His Majesty helped him recall the tune. From there, he just knew the words; in the same way he just knew where his hands were at any given moment.
Perhaps he'd been a drunk when he was a human.
After ninety-one circuits of the beer on the wall tune, the doors opened. Heavy and strong, they created a small gust from their movement. On the other side of them was a woman, as tall as His Majesty, dressed as a Captain with vivid pink hair, armed with an enormous spoon.
She was wary, from how she glanced around at the porcentajes before she focused on Gasorin. "I'm here. What do you need from me?"
His Majesty stood, and broke the bubble he'd sat on. "Well, if you want to talk about it in public…" He took a deep breath. "I have several souls trapped inside me I'd like to get out. I believe your spirit candy can help with that. I'm here to ask your help."
Captain Hikifune, for who else could she have been, looked around again. "I can try. But send your hollows back where they came from, alright?"
"As you wish." His Majesty turned his head slightly. "Return to Las Noches, await my signal to return to me at my house."
Objections from Charlotte and the others started up, but His Majesty remained unmoved.
"Has it become necessary for me to repeat myself?"
Yet another bitter pill to swallow – His Majesty had given them an order that they had to obey. Choe slashed the air with his finger, and created a tear into the realm between worlds – the Garganta. One by one they entered the tear, and gathered the reishi of the Garganta to form a bridge.
"Don't sulk. Your King is not so cruel as to keep you away for long."
Charlotte would deny that he did, indeed, sulk for the rest of his days. The other porcentajes, they certainly sulked. But not him!
Nope!
--
"Little thing I noticed. Wind Division's soul talking/manipulation can be used to stir up memories even really old hollows have of being human. Doesn't work on primordial hollows who were never human, but on the rest it's good for socialization."
--
Kisuke Urahara
Tessai had told him that something incredibly interesting was about to happen in the Squad Twelve barracks, and invited him to watch. An old war hero had come back from Hueco Mundo with a pack of hollows obeying his every order, and wanted some mod-souls made from him – according to the rumors.
Ran'Tao had done that, made herself a daughter by creating a mod-soul based on herself then put it into a reigai modeled after herself. Weird.
But scuttlebutt said the war hero already had a kid – had grandkids, even. Why would he want mod-souls made from him?
Kisuke wanted to find out.
He was third seat of Squad Two, and head of the Onmitsukidou's Detention Unit, though he didn't seem to look it from how people reacted to him. Kisuke wasn't afraid to answer 'I don't know' to questions, and he didn't cultivate a fearsome image. Most of the time, he barely had the time to cut room for his eyes to see through his bangs.
Kisuke was usually busy.
Tessai, his friend, was also usually busy. Tessai was the Kido Commander – still new in the role, since it had been hundreds of years with the position vacant. Odd traditions in that branch of the military kept them leaderless – something about an exam. Tessai did cultivate a more fearsome image; glasses that were permanently glossy from the outside, a fancy staff and coat over his shihakusho, facial hair that took constant maintenance.
It was rare that the two of them were able to see each other. That there was something interesting to watch only made it better.
In the basement of Squad Twelve's barracks was the chamber where soul candy was made. Thirteen vats filled with bubbling red fluid that suspended pea-green pellets until they collected at the bottom. In the middle of the vats was a slab with multiple hoses.
Kisuke had helped to create the mass production line for soul candy, gikon, and the modified souls, mod-souls. Eleven of the thirteen tanks were meant to house gikon, while the other two were for mod-souls. He'd helped with the programming of the artificial souls, encoding baseline intelligence and concepts.
Things like how to walk, and talk. The barest of the bare basics.
He watched from the sidelines as tank thirteen was emptied of fully cooled mod-souls for whatever procedure was to be planned.
"Officially, you're not supposed to be here," Tessai said from the shadows as he crossed his hands behind his back. "So don't do something rash unless it's called for."
"I'm just watching and learning," Kisuke replied without missing a beat. "If something happens, I got lost on a jog."
"Mmm, good." Tessai stepped out of the shadows and into the overhead spotlights.
Soon, Captain Hikifune and Ran'Tao joined him, accompanied by the presumed war hero.
A beastman, on the tall side. Interesting. An arctic fox, with a tanto zanpakutou hidden in his voluminous sleeves. Kisuke guessed that the spear he was alleged to wield was his shikai, then. Oddly, there was a strange choker with a mouth around his neck that had reiatsu of its own.
Like a zanpakutou, but different.
"Please strip to the waist and lay face-down on the slab. Your chin should rest on the top," Ran'Tao told the fox as she, Kirio, and Tessai got semi-organic technology ready.
Pumping lungs warmed up, vascular spikes sharpened, brain electrolysis fully charged – stuff like that.
Tessai took the fox's coat, white kosode and black shitagi along with the choker and other ornamentation. They were set aside while Kirio connected the vascular spikes to tank thirteen.
Kisuke saw another interesting thing when the fox laid down – the mark of the spiritual hazard on his back. A darker black than elsewhere on the fox's body, almost glossy – like wet ink.
Tessai glanced at Kisuke with eyebrows raised, just as interested about the mark. Spiritual hazards were dangerous by their very existence. In the old days of Central Forty-Six, they were supposed to be killed or thrown into Muken.
Not surprising that a spiritual hazard ended up killing Central Forty-Six, then.
"We'll need to tie you down," Tessai told the fox after he'd laid on the slab. "There will be pain, to keep you from biting your tongue we'll need to belt your jaw shut."
"I understand," the fox replied, his voice soft as cotton. "Do what you need to do."
The fox was tied down onto the slab. Arms, legs, tail, torso, wrists and ankles. The tail was belted down to the patient's thigh.
In the dark Kisuke moved around to see Tessai loop a belt around the fox's muzzle to force it closed.
Then Kirio took two organic tubes covered in arterioles or venules depending on their color topped with spikes, and stabbed the fox with them. The red arterial tube went just to the side of the lumbar spine; the blue went to the opposite side of the thoracic spine.
It was a fascinating process to watch the tubes swell with reiatsu in seconds. The red was filled by the patient, while the blue was filled by the operators – Ran'Tao at the time.
Kisuke watched as the fox started to spasm, with muffled sounds of pain, as the arterial tube began to pulse. It was like something had been sucked out, and traveled down the tube to tank thirteen.
A pea-green orb plopped down from the top of the tank into the red fluid at the bottom. As soon as it hit, the fluid bubbled and frothed from the mod-soul's heat.
"Gasorin, focus on the souls you want to extract. Build mental walls around them and push them toward where the pain is worst," Ran'Tao's tone was pitiless. At least nine mod-souls had been extracted already.
Something Kisuke noticed was how the patient's spiritual pressure went down with every mod-soul made. That was irregular. On a hunch, he entered reiraku and felt for the fox's reiryoku. With every mod-soul extracted, Kisuke could feel the fox's reiryoku itself diminish.
It was horrifying to see Captain-sized chunks chipped off from something so huge. It was comparable to the Captain-Commander's when the process started. But as it went on, that mountain of power whittled away.
After eighteen additional mod-souls were extracted, the fox shakily issued a thumb's up.
Kirio stopped the machine with a flick of reiatsu. She and Ran'Tao carefully pulled the vascular spikes out of the fox, Gasorin. Despite how deep they went and how close to major blood vessels they'd been, there was only minor bleeding.
Gasorin was a weird name, Kisuke reflected. He moved sneakily to tank thirteen and examined it. The mod-souls inside were still too hot to sink to the bottom. Twenty-seven mod-souls, and eighteen derived from souls that Gasorin had stored inside himself? Fascinating.
Tessai made himself busy by removing the straps on the fox.
"Kido… Commander," the fox muttered once his muzzle was free. His eyes were bloodshot and his voice a barely-there rasp. "Sir. Permission… to throw up and pass out?"
"Denied," Tessai replied immediately. "Walk it off, Corpsman."
"Yes… sir…."
--
Glossary:
Arrancar: A hollow who has broken their mask, and encapsulated their hollow shape and powers within a zanpakutou in mimicry of shinigami. Must be a menos grande to even attempt it, with the different stages having different levels of success and humanoid appearances from success.
Fraccion: Arrancar soldiers assigned to a higher-ranked officer as acolytes.
Porcentajes: Fraccion assigned to the monarch of Hueco Mundo personally.
Las Noches: Originally Baraggan Luisenbairn's palace, it has become a fortress, castle, and capital city all in one under Gasorin's rule. Larger than the Seireitei, but smaller than Soul Society as a whole.
Pesquisa: Hollow equivalent to reiraku, allowing them to feel for reiryoku signatures and gauge their strength.
Gikon: An artificial soul contained within a candy sphere. There are eleven varieties of gikon, which serve as personality templates. They can be further customized by the customer.
Mod-Soul: An articial soul contained within a candy sphere. Unlike gikon, mod-souls have enough reiryoku to last indefinitely unless killed. Some even have enough to engage hollows in combat and win.
Meatball: A variety of dragon that feeds on insects, and slaughtered for its meat. Tasty.
--
Cast!
Kaname Tousen: Sosuke's friend and debate partner. Devoted to justice, and the pursuit thereof.
Fiti Egawa: Gasorin's mother, a shark beastman. Has been the head of her household since she and Ginpa married. Is never seen without trousers of some kind. Never.
Ginpa Egawa: Gasorin's father. A sweetie-pie with a dark side. Loves his kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids more than anything.
Charlotte Chuhlhourne: One of Gasorin's porcentajes, part of the power group. Lives for beauty, and knows he's Gasorin's favorite.
Choe Neng Poww: One of Gasorin's porcentajes, part of the power group.
Nirgge Paduoc: One of Gasorin's porcentajes, part of the power group. Secretly super perverted.
Ggio Vega: One of Gasorin's porcentajes, part of the speed group. Knows more and better kung-fu than you.
Abirama Redder: One of Gasorin's porcentajes, part of the speed group. A hype man who can convince you of your ability to rip a bear in half length-wise.
Findorr Calius: One of Gasorin's porcentajes, part of the speed group. Looks calm and collected but could, would, and will probably murder you while laughing like a madman.
Kirio Hikifune: Outgoing captain of Squad Twelve. Known for her mastery of life, and her development of artificial souls. Due to be promoted to the Royal Guard.
Kisuke Urahara: Third seat of Squad Two, Unit Commander of the Detention Unit. An inquisitive mind who needs a kick in the pants to become a leader.
Tessai Tsukabishi: Kido Commander, having pass Yua Shiba's ascendance test after the position was vacant for hundreds of years. A good friend, and a harsh commander.
---
Gasorin is currently not stronger than god! Had to give those folks something for being devoured and held captive for hundreds of years, so he shaved off some of his reiryoku to give them a nice power boost.
Once they get some reigais, the chapter one crew will be back!
I went to using 'shinigami' because it's legit easier to type than Soul Reaper. Those extra keystrokes add up, man!
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Evaunit02mark1
S-s-smell the Prey, S-s-start the Hunt.
Souske's gonna get a whole new bunch of aunts and uncles.
Good for him.
Awesome chapter. Can't wait for the Shinigami to start asking pertinent questions about Hollows.
Also awesome work with the cast descriptions and Koga. The Negociator huh? Neato. Guy came a long way, only took Ran'Tao kicking his pants to do so.
Also let me guess, the chance of Mayuri making out of Muken are in the negatives, huh?
Also awesome work with the cast descriptions and Koga. The Negociator huh? Neato. Guy came a long way, only took Ran'Tao kicking his pants to do so.
Also let me guess, the chance of Mayuri making out of Muken are in the negatives, huh?
- Location
- Right next to the butcher's shop.
Implying that Gasorin has siblings. Uh oh.
Wonder whether his foe died during the civil war?
It's funny that Koga, Mr. Reckless, ended up being a great diplomat. How much of it involved violence, I wonder?
With how much Gasorin got weakened, how long until a hollow gets ambitious? It would be a quick way to get his power back. Although you'd hope most would be smart enough to realize the futility of trying.
Wait, Las Noches is huge, is it as empty as under Aizen? Semi-filled, like under Barry? Or full to the brim? I'd assume hollows still need a lot of personal space, even as Arrancar with awakened human emotions, but that's still a lot of hollows.
Gasorin Journal #14
New
Chairtastic
Anything's a chair if you're brave enough
- Location
- Breakfast nook
- Pronouns
- He / Him / It
Gasorin Journal #14
---
Translated from braille.
--
Blessed silence in my head!
Any of the souls I wasn't going to let out, I digested prior. Baraggan and Ryuu got omf-nomed good and proper.
That process hurt. Like, quite possibly the worst pain I've felt in my entire life thus far. It's a good thing they belted my mouth shut or I'd have thrown up during the extraction.
Squad Twelve didn't have any reigais on hand, so Ran'Tao offered to teach me how to make them. I've got most of the extracted souls in a jar with me.
What's risky though was me giving all of the weaker souls a boost. Sort of as reparations for devouring them in the first place. Anyone weaker than me when I first got started is now just as strong as me.
Reiryoku grows back fairly rapidly, so I'll be back to where I was in time. Right now though? Sosuke's stronger than me, certainly. He's going to feel that when I show up for dinner.
My porcentajes will feel it when I call them back. I'm weak enough right now that any of my Espadas could try to challenge me -- if they didn't know what I can do to them. It doesn't matter that I'm weaker, one near-miss from Osenmaru and I'll be eating them alive in front of everyone just like Baraggan.
I'm using Wind Division soul-talking to find out which candy has which soul and writing their names on 'em. So I don't accidentally put Chiyo in Minato's body, yeah?
Then there's the nine mod-souls I made by accident. All Captain-class reiryoku powered, all of them blank slates with only basic programming. I... could have more kids? Make reigai for them, and make Dad throw his back out from dancing for joy. Maybe Sosuke would like to be a big brother?
I could give them to my Espadas? Coyote would like that, I think. But there's only nine mod-souls, shit.
Pragmatically, I should eat them to gain my reiryoku back from them. But... I dunno.
It's weird not having Tsubame and Minato to talk to in my head anymore. They specifically told me they don't want to be put into dolls.
I'll talk to Sosuke about it at dinner tonight, but I should also consult my porcentajes -- they're supposed to be my advisors, after all.
...I totally forgot to go looking for Sajin today. Damnit! Tomorrow, then.
---
---
Translated from braille.
--
Blessed silence in my head!
Any of the souls I wasn't going to let out, I digested prior. Baraggan and Ryuu got omf-nomed good and proper.
That process hurt. Like, quite possibly the worst pain I've felt in my entire life thus far. It's a good thing they belted my mouth shut or I'd have thrown up during the extraction.
Squad Twelve didn't have any reigais on hand, so Ran'Tao offered to teach me how to make them. I've got most of the extracted souls in a jar with me.
What's risky though was me giving all of the weaker souls a boost. Sort of as reparations for devouring them in the first place. Anyone weaker than me when I first got started is now just as strong as me.
Reiryoku grows back fairly rapidly, so I'll be back to where I was in time. Right now though? Sosuke's stronger than me, certainly. He's going to feel that when I show up for dinner.
My porcentajes will feel it when I call them back. I'm weak enough right now that any of my Espadas could try to challenge me -- if they didn't know what I can do to them. It doesn't matter that I'm weaker, one near-miss from Osenmaru and I'll be eating them alive in front of everyone just like Baraggan.
I'm using Wind Division soul-talking to find out which candy has which soul and writing their names on 'em. So I don't accidentally put Chiyo in Minato's body, yeah?
Then there's the nine mod-souls I made by accident. All Captain-class reiryoku powered, all of them blank slates with only basic programming. I... could have more kids? Make reigai for them, and make Dad throw his back out from dancing for joy. Maybe Sosuke would like to be a big brother?
I could give them to my Espadas? Coyote would like that, I think. But there's only nine mod-souls, shit.
Pragmatically, I should eat them to gain my reiryoku back from them. But... I dunno.
It's weird not having Tsubame and Minato to talk to in my head anymore. They specifically told me they don't want to be put into dolls.
I'll talk to Sosuke about it at dinner tonight, but I should also consult my porcentajes -- they're supposed to be my advisors, after all.
...I totally forgot to go looking for Sajin today. Damnit! Tomorrow, then.
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Please let this be an ongoing gag. Gasorin has eyes, yet he cannot see Mount Komamura!
Other than that awesome stuff as usual. Though I am curious, why did eating Barragan and Ryuu for good hurt?
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
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i think he meant, the process to extract the souls, hurt.
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Mm, and that's one mountain he wants to climb.
So, 18 souls were extracted, 9 are new, two are Beastmen, and two were the original Shinigami...that leaves 5 extra souls from the Academy instructors right? I hope that the one of them (who I've been privately referring to as 'Instructor Moron' for how he categorically ignored that Gasorin's reiatsu was out of control during the graduation ceremony) has...learned their lesson shall we say.
Though, on top of that, this isn't just a case of there suddenly being 18 new Captain Class souls right? Because 9 of them have been cognizant the whole time, and as such are in possession of secrets from multiple branches of the Kido Corps, other branches of Soul Society, and hell even other Planes (like Hell...or the Hollow civilization in Las Noches that actually predates the Soul King breaking the realm if you include Barragan). And who knows what Gasorin has additionally shared that's completely out of context.
This isn't just a badly needed surge of captain power for the G13, it's an organizational crisis in the making. Though, at least the C46 aren't around anymore to screw things up with guaranteed rash decisions? Now it's only maybe rash decisions.
One super powerful weirdo breaking societal convention in terms of knowledge/authority isn't great, but it's got precedent (Yamamato). Gasorin just (potentially) made a brand new power-bloc that could challenge the G13 outright with a little time though. And that's not even considering him now being the head of a sovereign spiritual power every bit as old as Soul Society (not that many knew about Las Noches until now).
Though, on top of that, this isn't just a case of there suddenly being 18 new Captain Class souls right? Because 9 of them have been cognizant the whole time, and as such are in possession of secrets from multiple branches of the Kido Corps, other branches of Soul Society, and hell even other Planes (like Hell...or the Hollow civilization in Las Noches that actually predates the Soul King breaking the realm if you include Barragan). And who knows what Gasorin has additionally shared that's completely out of context.
This isn't just a badly needed surge of captain power for the G13, it's an organizational crisis in the making. Though, at least the C46 aren't around anymore to screw things up with guaranteed rash decisions? Now it's only maybe rash decisions.
One super powerful weirdo breaking societal convention in terms of knowledge/authority isn't great, but it's got precedent (Yamamato). Gasorin just (potentially) made a brand new power-bloc that could challenge the G13 outright with a little time though. And that's not even considering him now being the head of a sovereign spiritual power every bit as old as Soul Society (not that many knew about Las Noches until now).
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Chairtastic
Anything's a chair if you're brave enough
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If the mountain would just STAND STILL, but no.
Also this. The extraction hurt, not devouring the souls.
Thems was tasty.
He both wants to court Sajin and do the 'silence Gregory, I am searching' thing.
Nine brand new mod-souls were made, and eighteen souls were extracted, for a total of twenty-seven Captain-class chunks of reiryoku floating about.
Instructor Moron spent a considerable amount of time in the first fifty years of their stay at the Gasorin Resort being beaten literally all day er'ryday, yeah.
Ichibe can plot all he wants, chaos laddering happens one way or another.
And on top of all that, it's been almost five hundred years. Everyone from the time of the civil war probably figures Gasorin's got his bankai by now. And those who don't? Don't know how pants-shittingly terrifying his shikai was. All that was recorded was that Gasorin mostly used absolutely bullshit kido abilities, very rarely his shikai. What it does was kept out of the public record.
On the discord I made a comment that standing policy in the Gotei 13 if Gasorin uses his bankai: Drop what you're doing, run, evacuate the entire Seireitei.
Yamamoto, probably: Abandon your posts! Flee, flee for your lives!
That is something I am actually curious on. Besides being a moustache twirling mastermind, what does Ichibei do all day long? Ghost write, actually write novels in the human world, watch shitty soap operas, latino dramas, act as Kishibe Rohan's rival as a mangaka? Like, the fuck does a million year old Immortal do with his day? He can't just be micromanaging all of existance all day long.
Man gotta have a hobby or something.
Eesh, 27 new captain-class souls? And since Gasorin claimed he made them all equal (though he personally will recover to his old height where they are probably already capped out or will have to slog through reiryoku growth the normal way)...Gasorin is/was 28 times the normal 'Captain Class' capacity? And that only makes him comparable to Yamamoto?
Geeze, canon made a big deal about Aizen being 3-5 times the average Captain in power and comparable to Yamamoto (if not quite there in pure-power without Hogyoku bs)...but either the standard 'Captain Class' power measurement is waaay under the actual level anyone experienced enough to be a true captain (ie, no countingthe jobber Hitsugaya) should be at, or Yamamoto declined a lot in his last few centuries in Bleach.
Separate to that though, 27 new Captain classes (though probably not in control since they didn't have that power while they were in Gasorin's soul) is going to be a huge deal, and it definitely could be very alarming, but it's not like they're guaranteed to start a civil war. An institution like the C46 could look at a huge new bloc of potential elites, double the G13's Captains in number, and with centuries under the influence of a renegade like Gasorin to wear down their indoctrination/institutional loyalty if they even had any to start...and they could quite fairly (surprising right?) decide that the risk is too high and the whole group needs to be purged before they actually learn to use their power (again, not considering Gasorin as a combatant here, the answer to him seems to be 'break out the forbidden artifacts and/or summon the whole Royal Guard).
The C46 are gone though, and Koga's lasting legacy is apparently a political/diplomatic framework purpose-built for balancing the edge between being flexible enough to pull in formerly warring or vastly different groups to peace, and yet stable enough to last for centuries (which is actually a VERY difficult thing to do, tbh, IRL politics at its most basic is all about the tug of war between flexibility/freedom in the system, and stability to make it actually work). Hell, this is the sort of thing (and his specialty is actually ACTIVE and requires interaction unlike the rest of those schmucks in the Royal Guard that either finished their masterpiece already or are sitting on it for their own exclusive use) that could have Koga being sent down to play negotiator. He's got a proven connection to both parties, and his whole thing is apparently diplomacy...smoothening the integration of a shitload of powerful reapers and starting relations with Las Noches should be his thing! Plus, this isn't exactly something Ichibe could gainsay without openly revealing his hand. Not sending the diplomat when diplomacy is needed is kinda a red flag. And while the Monk definitely has the power to be a dick anyway...being straight forward is anathema to him, and he's used to extremely long gambits. So it's a perfect time for Gasorin to start cozying up to Koga! Gotta re-establish those social connections and get some more in the (so far) most exclusive Plane and group. And getting the new not-Captains integrated and loyal to the G13 cuts both ways? Why play tug of war with loyalties when you can just steal the whole org? 27 high-ranking future officers is a LOT, and that's on top of all the old contacts and new ones in the making.
Geeze, canon made a big deal about Aizen being 3-5 times the average Captain in power and comparable to Yamamoto (if not quite there in pure-power without Hogyoku bs)...but either the standard 'Captain Class' power measurement is waaay under the actual level anyone experienced enough to be a true captain (ie, no counting
Separate to that though, 27 new Captain classes (though probably not in control since they didn't have that power while they were in Gasorin's soul) is going to be a huge deal, and it definitely could be very alarming, but it's not like they're guaranteed to start a civil war. An institution like the C46 could look at a huge new bloc of potential elites, double the G13's Captains in number, and with centuries under the influence of a renegade like Gasorin to wear down their indoctrination/institutional loyalty if they even had any to start...and they could quite fairly (surprising right?) decide that the risk is too high and the whole group needs to be purged before they actually learn to use their power (again, not considering Gasorin as a combatant here, the answer to him seems to be 'break out the forbidden artifacts and/or summon the whole Royal Guard).
The C46 are gone though, and Koga's lasting legacy is apparently a political/diplomatic framework purpose-built for balancing the edge between being flexible enough to pull in formerly warring or vastly different groups to peace, and yet stable enough to last for centuries (which is actually a VERY difficult thing to do, tbh, IRL politics at its most basic is all about the tug of war between flexibility/freedom in the system, and stability to make it actually work). Hell, this is the sort of thing (and his specialty is actually ACTIVE and requires interaction unlike the rest of those schmucks in the Royal Guard that either finished their masterpiece already or are sitting on it for their own exclusive use) that could have Koga being sent down to play negotiator. He's got a proven connection to both parties, and his whole thing is apparently diplomacy...smoothening the integration of a shitload of powerful reapers and starting relations with Las Noches should be his thing! Plus, this isn't exactly something Ichibe could gainsay without openly revealing his hand. Not sending the diplomat when diplomacy is needed is kinda a red flag. And while the Monk definitely has the power to be a dick anyway...being straight forward is anathema to him, and he's used to extremely long gambits. So it's a perfect time for Gasorin to start cozying up to Koga! Gotta re-establish those social connections and get some more in the (so far) most exclusive Plane and group. And getting the new not-Captains integrated and loyal to the G13 cuts both ways? Why play tug of war with loyalties when you can just steal the whole org? 27 high-ranking future officers is a LOT, and that's on top of all the old contacts and new ones in the making.
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Chairtastic
Anything's a chair if you're brave enough
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I think that, when they said that Kubo hadn't mathed out how strong Yamamoto actually was -- and the in-setting justification might be that no one (save Unohana) in living memory had seen Yamamoto go all-out. It had been over a thousand years since anyone had seen him as the bandit king, so they had a skewed frame of reference.
I want to thank you for not saying Sajin, who took nearly as many Ls throughout the series.
Rose, as Koga's lieutenant and the soon-to-be Captain of Squad Three, would be tasked to at least keep things from exploding as Koga's getting his bones oken'd. Here's hoping he can manage!
nmWarden
Webcomic Glutton
- Location
- Texas
The rebuilt academy must be pretty sorry if not a single shikai can interact with Gasorin's fallout zone safely. That speaks poorly of the kido corps too- never came up with a way to scrape the oil into barrels fo4 storage? Or cleanse it? I understand it was never a major priority, but…
Oh right. Does Soul Society have cell phones yet? I suppose Mayuri might have been the one to make those originally, given the year Hat n Clogs left in canon.
So does shichishin actually work on sapients of every realm? That's terrifying. You'd think… oh well. And the bakkoto don't have a lifespan? Mm. I don't recall in canon, but I wonder if they cause problems in bystanders if they are destroyed during a battle. That could justify modern soul society minimizing their use.
Also? I don't want to imagine a story with dozens of false hydras eating memories left and right.
Lastly… Toshiro Hitsugaya's childhood should take a turn for the better if reforms affected his grandma in the slums.
Oh right. Does Soul Society have cell phones yet? I suppose Mayuri might have been the one to make those originally, given the year Hat n Clogs left in canon.
So does shichishin actually work on sapients of every realm? That's terrifying. You'd think… oh well. And the bakkoto don't have a lifespan? Mm. I don't recall in canon, but I wonder if they cause problems in bystanders if they are destroyed during a battle. That could justify modern soul society minimizing their use.
Also? I don't want to imagine a story with dozens of false hydras eating memories left and right.
Lastly… Toshiro Hitsugaya's childhood should take a turn for the better if reforms affected his grandma in the slums.
Chairtastic
Anything's a chair if you're brave enough
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The problem is that Gasorin is the only person who can dispel the oil seemingly. It devours all other forms of reishi that come into contact with it. Pure reiryoku abilities work on it, but they're not useful in removing the oil.
Detoxifying the reishi left behind when the oil is removed is easier, but that's like saying it's easier to climb a rock wall with two hands rather than one.
Not yet, though they have other gadgets. Such as washer/dryers, induction stoves, and other appliances.
As long as you have a brain capable of processing auditory information, it works on you. Even Hell was vulnerable to parts of Shichishi's powers.
That's not even getting into the bullshit that is Shusuke's tuning fork bakkoto. Totally disables zanpakutou abilities, that one.
The neighborhood she lives in is presently being renovated, yeah. She'll have central air/heating soon.
Chairtastic
Anything's a chair if you're brave enough
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Quite so. For those who aren't on the discord or check my status, I'm going to be trying again to write an Eberron story. It's D&D, with everyone and their great aunt Schmerta having plots of world domination or political prominence, magical industrial revolutions, a hundred years war, and nuclear wastelands. Fun times.
You may make your voice heard about the Chair of that story over yon: Class of Chair - Online Poll - StrawPoll
Please note that one of the voters for Psionic Monk has changed their vote to Arcana Monk so there is an unofficial -1/+1 for them.