Hello everyone and welcome to my new story. I am fantastically depressed and lazy, so I am reusing a character from my last quest instead of making a new one, yay!
Updates are whenever I get the motivation to make a new chapter. This story is going to go severely off the rails at some point. This isn't going to be a fix-it fic, nor a story where everyone and their dog has a happy ending.
Nothing can be explained.
The weeping tears fell from the sky like a heavy blanket. The dark streets of Tokyo prefecture were silent tonight, nary a soul in sight. A young girl walked through the lonely streets with quiet steps. No one spared her a second glance. It was as if she were a ghost, separated from this world and the mundane men who populated it.
A pink hoodie shielded the otherworldly traveler from the rain as she walked under the weeping sky. The wind howled and thunder bloomed on the horizon, not so differently from the cries and roars of a long-forgotten battle.
Nothing can be explained.
The thought repeated itself in the girl's mind. Tired magenta eyes looked up at the clouded heaven's from behind a mask of bone white. She then scoffed and continued moving under the torrential rain.
"Where was it. . . it can't be far, can it?"
The dark steel buildings lining both her sides cast deep shadows along the deserted street she found herself on. The lone streetlamp flickered every third breath, as if it were a candle giving its dying last gasp.
The eastern cosmopolitan surroundings were familiar to the girl as a cat was in the ocean. She cursed her luck and picked up the pace. The meeting point was close, she sensed the cloying Reiryoku in the air.
It couldn't be far now.
Another bend around an alleyway and the masked girl found herself looking at a seedy bar. A cold shiver of anticipation slithered down her spine. The rickety sign above the worn wooden doorway simply read "The Cricket".
She approached the double swing doors and pushed them in, pausing as the act produced an audible creak. The inside of the bar held only one occupant. A blind man with dark skin and purple hair sat down on a stool idly swishing a glass of burgundy liquid.
"So, you've come," the man's deep voice startled the girl into action. She took a moment to study the sitting man before slowly approaching him.
"Sorry for being late. I'm not used to . . . all this?" She gestured outside to the concrete jungle.
"I suspected as much," he replied without revealing much, his expression tight and neutral.
The man poured another glass as she took a seat. He handed her the glass and then took a sip of the burgundy substance. The girl merely stared at the offered drink before her eyes tightened.
"I assume you know why I initiated this meeting," she began.
"The intel?"
The girl nodded. "Let's start off by introducing ourselves."
The man nodded stiffly.
"My name is Kaname Tōsen, captain of the Ninth Court guard squad of Soul Society, although I suspect you know that much given the letter my lieutenant handed me earlier."
"You presume right. My name is Ulthar Menes," Ulthar's voice was strong and confident as she replied to the soul reaper.
Ulthar pulled back her hood, allowing her long hot pink hair to fall down her back. Tōsen tensed, although it wasn't because of the girl's beauty, far from it.
A white bone mask split in two in a wide haunting grin; Sharp teeth lined that nightmarish maw that seemed to want nothing more than to swallow the soul reaper whole. A pair of cat ears rose from the girl's head like an afterthought.
A tail untied itself from Ulthar's waist and lazily wagged behind her.
"Hollow. . ." Tōsen let his hand fall on the hilt of his sword, ready to initiate violence.
A heavy blanket descended on the bar.
"Don't be so quick to choose the sword over the Pen, "Ulthar cautioned Tōsen with a menacing look. Her posture was slack and completely at ease in the face of a captain's spiritual pressure.
Tōsen gritted his teeth at the hollow's reply like he had been told something truly outrageous.
"You, a lowly hollow, dare approach a captain of the thirteen court guard squads?!"
A dense spiritual pressure descended upon Tōsen akin to a giant swatting a particularly unsightly fly. The good captain fell off his stool and clutched his throat in a panic as the spiritual presence crushed him against the floor.
"Vasto Lorde!" Tōsen choked out.
Ulthar spared the prone captain a malicious grin that promised dark intentions should he continue his disrespect. Her hands clenched and unclenched as her fingers transformed into long ebony black claws that stretched back to the second knuckle.
After a few seconds, Ulthar dropped her spiritual pressure to let the captain regain his bearings.
Tōsen stared up at Ulthar with hatred before picking himself up. He schooled his features into a professional mask and faced her with a grim demeanor. "What business do you have with me?"
Ulthar chuckled at the beaten down dog. "It's not you per say. You're the good errand boy for Captain Aizen. His project in Hueco Mundo has gained my interest. To put it simply, I want in."
"You seem to know a lot about our operations," he commented after a pregnant pause to process the news that an outsider had learned about his group's activities.
Ulthar felt a sense of victory as the man swallowed his pride and finally appeared to deign to negotiate with a hollow.
"My sources are something I cannot give up, professional courtesy you see. I also have valuable intelligence that I can guarantee your master will want."
Regaining his cool, the dark-skinned man adopted a chill frown. "We are in the late stages of our operations. Letting an unknown element into our midst right now could be disastrous. What intelligence could you possibly have that we don't already?"
Ulthar's eyes shined.
"Tell me captain. . . have you ever heard of the Wandenreich?"
