Chapter Twenty: Time of Change.
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"...Wait. What happened? Where'd that punk go?" / "…"
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Thi Ahmed
One moment, she was being condensed into a pill. The next, she was suddenly in a body.
Her first reaction upon being restored was to punch the nearest face she could see. That happened to be Gasorin's.
The waify fox was launched across the room into a wall and crumpled to the ground with a bloody nose and pained yelp. Scrawny twig still couldn't take a punch.
Thi quickly processed – she was alive again – and soon parsed that someone nearby was laughing. As if she'd never been bound in oil for centuries, she sat up. Someone had placed her reigai in white yukata while she was on Gasorin's bed.
The laughing party quickly revealed itself to be Chiyo. She was in civilian clothes, but with her head covered in a wrap. Her blue kosode had patterns of lily-of-the-valley, on a curvier vine than the Squad Five flower logo.
"Welcome back, dumbass." Chiyo tossed a change of clothes her way. "Gasorin's set us up with a house while we wait seventy-five years to get back into service. You and I are rooming together."
Thi had only moments to parse that she'd had a red kosode with brown repeating fist patterns thrown at her, along with Chiyo's comment. "Wait, what?!"
"It'll take seventy-five years to filly 'set' in these reigai, so we're on sabbatical." Under her head-wrapping Chiyo raised her eyebrows. "Don't know about you, but when I checked my account for back-pay? Was pretty nice. And I wasn't the equivalent of a seated officer like you were."
It was all too much, too fast, Thi slipped into catatonia as she had to process so much new information.
She was back. She was back. Her skin was still as tan as the day she got devoured. Her muscles were still as huge – it was as if the intervening centuries had gone by in a snap.
When Thi snapped back to reality, she wasn't in Gasorin's house anymore. She was in the Seireitei being let by the hand, following Chiyo.
"Where are we going?"
Chiyo looked over her shoulder to Thi. "To the house Gasorin bought for us, so I can get you to eat and you can vomit up your zanpakutou in private."
Thi almost slipped back into catatonia from that sentence, its damage to her psyche was so great. "What?"
"Yep, happened to me and every other shinigami that Gasorin has put together so far. As soon as you eat something, your reigai takes the reishi and turns it into your zanpakutou." Chiyo smiled with her eyes. "I was lucky. Mine is a tanto. You, on the other hand…."
Later, after Chiyo showed Thi to a narrow two-story house and provided a rich meal of curry, rice, gyoza, and that wonderful alcohol from Reverse London – beer – Thi found out how literal she had been about that.
Thi sat on the cool white tiles of the bathroom, spittle and bile on her chin as her zanpakutou laid in the bathtub beside her. Her breath came out in pained wheezes – the worst part had been trying to get the shark-patterned tsuba out.
Chiyo sat beside her, hands alight in kaido as she mended Thi's throat and jaw. "It's all smooth sailing from here," she told the swole giant.
"That was almost legitimately worse than being eaten alive," Thi muttered. How much of her words were understood and how much was unintelligible blubbering, she honestly didn't know.
"See, having a big powerful sword has downsides. Feel up for ice cream?"
Without much second-guessing, despite having vomited up an entire sword minutes prior, Thi nodded yes. She got to her feet and followed Chiyo to the kitchen with her zanpakutou in hand. At the table she sat, until a bowl of delicious frozen sweet milk was placed before her.
As she cleaned her zanpakutou, ate a bite of ice cream, and rubbed her throat in a trance-like state, things started to clear up for her. Mentally, that was.
"I'm sorry," she said, as she put down a spoonful of ice cream uneaten. A crime in itself.
"For?" Chiyo pulled a section of her headwrap outward to deliver a bite of ice cream to her hidden, only theoretical, mouth.
"For not reporting Gasorin back then, and getting us all trapped."
"You've been apologizing for that for nearly five hundred years at this point."
"And I'm going to keep apologizing until everyone is able to live outside of what I did to them."
"A sentiment our foxy friend shares. Though he does try to take the blame for himself." Chiyo took another bite of ice cream. "I want to forgive you, but you won't forgive yourself so what's the point? Might as well light a fire in the rain."
Thi narrowed her eyes at Chiyo and thinned her lips. "Did you just reject my apology?"
"Yes. Because you're trying to make me feel bad for you so you don't have to forgive yourself." Chiyo looked at her intensely. Her face being mostly covered made all Thi's attention go to her eyes. "Forgive yourself. Then I'll accept your apology."
"How am I supposed to -- "
"The same way we're supposed to forgive you, dummy. By getting it through your musclebound skull that you didn't know what would happen, and you tried to stop it when you figured it out." Chiyo rapped Thi on the knuckles with her ice cream spoon. "You suffered just like we did. So forgive yourself."
Thi rubbed her wacked hand and frowned. "Just like that?"
"It helps if you start by saying it. Then you can get the work started on meaning it."
It took her a while to find a way to say it. Thi ate a couple spoonfuls of ice cream as she tried to parse the idea. Then, she happened to catch her reflection in the spoon.
Her face, contorted into a horrifying mess from the curvature. To her eyes, a spot-on recreation of Thi as she'd been that day. Despite how easy it had been to come back to a body, the centuries as a collection of thoughts made her weary. That weariness didn't appear on the spoon-reflection, due to the curvature.
She spoke the words, with some effort. "I forgive you, Thi." In a way, she cheated. She apologized to the version of her which hadn't experienced their horror yet. That was someone else, not her. And yet her at the same time.
Perhaps that would be enough to start.
As she was about to eat another bite, her last bite, horror struck as two dots connected themselves. "Oh no I punched Gasorin earlier."
"Yep." Chiyo nodded. "Broke his whole jaw, too. Getting the porcentajes to not cero you to death before he could talk again was tricky." She shook her head at the memory. "That boy needs to learn how hierro works, or at least blut vene."
"Aww man, he probably thinks I hate him or some shit. Damnit…."
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"Oh no! Here I am sitting in one place for a prolonged period of time." / "…"
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Kisuke Urahara
After the induction ceremony, there were three new captains in the Court Guard Squads. Ran'Tao, a transfer from the Kido Corps, Rose Otoribashi the former lieutenant of Squad Three, and Kisuke himself.
Kisuke and Ran'Tao were familiar, but he hadn't had the chance to speak much with Rose. It was only from another captain's advice that he knew Rose preferred the Western name to his actual first name.
Rose was a blond man, he wore his hair long in a wavy pattern. He wore a chemise shirt common in the West between his kosode and shitagi, to make use of the ruffles.
Ran'Tao had adopted the Squad Six haori in its long-sleeved form, to mimic the effectiveness of a lab coat.
Meanwhile Kisuke had done the same as Ran'Tao, for they had similar goals.
Ran'Tao was a great scientific mind from the time of the Quincy invasion of Soul Society, and though her devices had helped the Quincies more effectively invade she never abandoned the betterment of Soul Society.
She told him so when the three of them shared a drink at an Earth Division bar after the induction ceremony. It was little more than an informal greeting that the more social captains partook in.
The bill was paid by – now former – Captain Kuchiki.
Yoruichi and Captain Kyoraku were trying to drink each other under the table while other Captains kept them somewhat under control.
Meanwhile the three new bloods sat at a table and chatted. Mostly, it was the youngsters asking Captain Ran'Tao for advice.
"How odd, you two are of opposite minds with your divisions." Ran'Tao observed with half-lidded eyes. She sipped from a bowl of sake and articulated her thoughts. One of her fingers pointed at Rose. "You want to keep the Squad as your predecessor left it – and quash the factions trying to advocate for change." Another, on the opposite hand pointed to Kisuke. "And you want a root-to-stem change of the mission statement."
Rose sipped from his bowl, then smiled at her. "And you want an often overlooked aspect of your new Squad to become the principal going forward."
Kisuke reviewed the facts as he knew them. Their three squads would become interdependent on each other, going forward. Squad Three was the squad of diplomacy, artistry, lateral thinking. Squad Six's afterthought focus on historical documentation, often a punishment detail under Captain Kuchiki, would become their main focus. And Squad Twelve, under Kisuke, would become the research and development division.
The past, the present, and the future – interconnected.
Ran'Tao nodded. "Something tells me the Great Weave Guard sewed us neatly into this situation."
"She's known to do that," Kisuke observed and picked up a strange new menu item with chopsticks. Honey roasted peanuts, coated in sugar crystals. It was aggressively sweet. Almost too much. He had another.
"So, Lake Division is presently… leaderless?" Rose asked, as gently as he could.
"For the moment, yes." Ran'Tao sipped her drink again. "A transfer from the Onmitsukidou is being groomed for the position, though. Amagai, I think his name is." She shrugged. "The Kido Commander believes that a vacancy in Squad Six would cause precious history to slip between the cracks, especially since it's been a punishment detail for so long."
"I wish you luck with breaking the news to your squad about their new job as historians." Kisuke smiled, a little awkward. "I know I'm going to have my work cut out for me convincing mine to become researchers."
"You just need to find what each person is interested in," Rose entered the conversation again. "Not all research needs to be military, or else it eventually ends up with Jokaishou used as bombs."
Ran'Tao nodded. "It was much the same when I first joined the Corps. You need a certain amount of 'duh, obviously' studies to shut up idiots like the Head-Captain." When the two blonds at the table ribbed her for speaking of their commander like that, she waved them off. "Uh uh, that man is dumber than an iron life-vest. You only know him as he is now. I remember when he was the Bandit King. He used to set people on fire if they had glasses, because he thought that gave them photographic memory to remember faces."
Captain Unohana, at the table next to them, leaned over with a smile. "She's right, you know. Though she should really lay off the sake before she starts dredging up more ancient history." The great healer closed her eyes as she smiled, and threaded malice throughout her next sentence. "Shouldn't the past stay in the past?"
Ran'Tao's eyebrow twitched and lowered her sake bowl to the table, then she pushed it away.
"Your liver and bone marrow will thank me later." Then Unohana returned to her discussion at the neighboring table.
Rose and Kisuke pointed in Unohana's direction at the same time. "You knew her back then, too?" They asked as one.
Ran'Tao nodded. "And no, I'm not so desperate to die that I will answer questions on the subject. You want to know? Convince her to tell you, or read a history book." She sighed and rubbed her eyes under her glasses as she stood. "Which… reminds me, I need to get my squad producing updated history books for Shin'o Academy asap. Shall we do this again next week?"
Thus would begin a tradition of the three squads which would endure long after the three of them left their positions.
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"What the hell's going on around here? Are you stabbing me or not?" / "…"
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Souya Azashiro
Something was wrong.
Something was right.
The pain from the oil at Central Forty-Six had stopped. When that beastman had changed the oil with his bankai, it had eaten at him faster and more viciously than the previous black oil. The difference had been between being too close to a fire, and being on fire.
But after a while, the oil stopped hurting him.
Around that same time, he started to cough with his physical body deep in Muken. What he coughed up was milk at first it seemed – but then he saw it start to move. The oil.
Somehow, his connection to the reishi around the oil had become a connection with it. Waxy white oil started to come out of his lungs with every cough.
Eventually, he could feel it reaching up through his throat to come out his nose and mouth. He could even feel some of it leak from his ears. What was happening?
'The consequences of your actions, I'm afraid,' his sword spirit told him with her manic grin.
He felt his skin grow numb where the milky white oil passed. When he felt for it in the dark he felt gooey fur, wet and drying, in rivulets across his body. Souya could feel the wax solidify on his face, it built up a layer around his nose and mouth. When he tried to use kido to light his way, he could see it grow in real time.
What do you mean? He asked his sword spirit.
'A leash can be pulled from either side. You used my power to fuse with the Seireitei – so that the barrier between you and this place was nothing. Which means….'
When the oil dug into the Seireitei, it dug into him. And since he was connected to everything – everything was connected to him.
Release your power! He told his sword spirit. Release your bankai!
'What do you think that will accomplish?' She frowned at him. 'You already have that stuff changing you. Devouring you.' Her voice began to grow distant. 'It's getting into your brain now. Goodbye, Souya. Let us meet again in the next….' Her voice grew so distant, he couldn't hear it anymore.
The oil had started to coat his eyes. He could feel it worm its way under his eyelids and around his eyeballs as he looked around for anything he could use to save himself.
Please! It couldn't end this way! He tried to pry the plate white oil off his face to no avail.
All that happened as a result was his hands became covered in the oil. Then, as it spread up his arms, he felt his hands disobey him.
His memories started to erode in front of him – like something horrible ate them right out of his mind. The execution pit. The sight of his family, slaughtered by hollows. The nobles at the pit's edge who laughed at the bloodsport.
His sister, a shinigami, who died trying to save him.
One by one, they were sucked away. He could feel the empty space that had been there. But by the end, he had lost the will to do ought but sit with his mouth open.
And then he was gone.
Souya Azashiro's eyes closed. Eyes of something else opened where they had been. Black-sclera, white iris. Under the former nobleman's kosode and shitagi two new arms, furry with black pads had formed and crossed themselves.
From his shoulders grew two serpentine tentacles that ended in spear-blade points with black adhesive pads on one side. They slipped through the neckline of his clothes and helped him to stand as they gripped the ground.
A strange mix of a squid and dog beastman seemed to stand in the infinite dark of Muken where Souya had been.
The new creature examined their body, felt their fur with their new hands, and spoke.
"This will do."
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"Huh. Guess it's just me in here again."
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Maki Ichinose
Maki hadn't changed much in hundreds of years, appearance-wise, personality-wise, nor career-wise. He was still a guy who removed the sleeves on his shihakusho, wore his dark hair short, and was still a lieutenant – but of the Kido Corps rather than Squad Eleven.
He'd been the Lieutenant to the Seventh Kenpachi, Captain Kuruyashiki, when the man died in a duel to the Eighth Kenpachi Souya Azashiro. The discrepancy in their leadership styles had been too much, it prompted him to switch his service.
He wanted to scream – the unjustness of it all!
Chief Shah had been a good man, a saintly man who fed the whole Soul Society with his backbreaking efforts. And not even a month after he was murdered, the Corps had replaced such a great man with a harlot. A hollow sympathizer!
That was Maki's belief, anyway. He heard people say the new Chief was a war hero, and a legend over in Thunder Division, but all of that paled to the number of people who had laid with the beastman for no other reason than enjoyment.
Animals! The lot of them! That was why he'd left the Eleventh Division – he couldn't stand to see a well-oiled machine get smashed by the opportunistic appetites of others.
Maki strongly considered if he should leave to join the Onmitsukidou, or transfer divisions. Good things were said about the incoming Chief of Lake Division, or he could take a stab at a post in Sky Division.
These were Maki's thoughts as he arrived at the Earth Division headquarters the day after his new Chief was inducted. The HQ was built at the border of the Seireitei in the same general vicinity as the Squad Eleven and Twelve barracks, as the southern Rukongai districts had the most plentiful farms.
Chief Shah and his predecessors had considered it more efficient to clear wilderness for brand new farms than attempt to coax the other three regions to take up the practice.
The HQ was a building of smokestacks from the many kitchens in the eastern side – the meals for the Celestial Bureaucracy we prepared by Earth Division staff with local cooks being allowed to prepare for others upon receiving their food supplies.
The western side was administrative, and mostly focused on getting out work orders for repairs. While it was the division's goal to extend the Seireitei's convenience and ease to all Rukongai, the logistics didn't support it.
Maki had intended to find people glum about the change in leadership, but instead he found the sergeants and cadets in the administration side zipping around with paperwork sometimes piled higher than their heads.
Among them were those human-faced hollows the new Chief had as his servants. Whenever someone fell they appeared to help put papers back together, then sent them on their way.
"What's happening?" Maki demanded of the nearest officer – a masked Kido Sergeant. "Explain the situation." He added the last part when the sergeant tried to rush off with their paperwork, accompanied by physically picking them up by their kosode.
"The new Chief's ordered us to make ready for relocation. All our records need to be copied, sent off to Squad Six, and packed up – can I go back to work, sir?" The sergeant asked, the fear of a deadline in her voice.
Maki's eyelid twitched. "Relocation to where?"
"No idea, Chief said it wasn't important until we got a work order to Lake Division for a new senkaimon, sir!"
Maki's eyebrow twitched. "What's wrong with the old senkaimon?!"
"Chief said it was too old and smashed it! Can I please go back to work, sir?"
Half of Maki's face began to contort on its own as he set the sergeant down and started to navigate a busy office space in a state of rage-induced serenity. 'I'm going to kill him,' Maki decided as he walked. 'I'm going to go right in there, and just kill him.'
Maki ascended stairs and navigated floors to find himself in front of the Chief's office. Normally, there would be guards – but they were absent.
A very good thing, on account of the murder Maki wished to visit upon the occupant.
He threw the doors open, with intent to begin a tirade – when he stopped. The overlarge desk of some special mahogany sub-species had all the decorations cleared off, the egg-shaped chair was empty. The sitting area sofas were unused, and the Chief's personal quarters were still locked up from when Maki had done the locking.
Where the fresh hell was the new Chief?
"Excuse me, Lieutenant?"
From behind, the party he'd been seeking spoke. The reiatsu-infused waves of his speech aide were impossible to miss. Maki whirled around to see the fox, just a bit taller than him, with his.
It galled Maki to see the fox with a much slimmed-down version of the Earth Chief's robe over his color-inverted shihakusho. The brown coat with black Kido Corps logos that contained the earth trigram at their heart looked far too orange with white nearby. It was insulting.
Still better than when he walked in on the fox in his underwear the day prior, but insulting all the same.
"You…." Maki snarled. "I've been looking for you."
"Clearly." Gasorin rolled his eyes. "I've been trying to get your attention for the past two floors – but you weren't listening."
Oh. That realization made Maki's rage miss a step, he let awkward embarrassment supplant fury for a moment as he muttered an apology.
"Look, I was trying to say – you showed up late, so you missed the meeting earlier. Would you like the cliff notes while I send the rest of the division off to lunch?"
"Does it include why you smashed the senkaimon and are relocating us?" Maki narrowed his eyes to fine slits.
"Of course."
"Then fine, let's go." Maki waited for the fox to lead the way, but neither of them moved. Minutes ticked by, with no changed. "Well?"
Gasorin's eyebrow slowly raised the entire period of silence. He crossed his arms and started to tap his foot. When Maki asked his question the fox gestured with a 'continue' motion. "'Then fine let's go'…?" He spoke in a leading tone.
Ah.
With gritted teeth, Maki spat the words like curses. Maledictions upon the fox and his bloodline. "Then fine let's go… sir."
Gasorin smiled as only foxes could. From top to bottom with mischief. "Excellent, Lieutenant. Follow me, let's have some of Las Noches' famous five-layer burrito de la Muerte."
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Cast:
Maki Ichinose: Lieutenant of the Kido Corps' Earth Division. Formerly Lieutenant of Squad Eleven under Captain Kuruyashuki, transferred to the Kido Corps after Souya Azashirou took over the squad.
Rojuro Otoribashi: Freshly promoted Captain of Squad Three. A musical man, with influences from the West. Prefers to go by 'Rose' than his true first name. Why he doesn't have it changed is anyone's guess.
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Ah, things are progressing nicely in Soul Society.
What are you talking about, that part in the middle? Y'all're crazy.
Go eat some burritos, all the abuelas I talk to say eating enough of them will fix what's wrong with your eyes. And your hips. And your decision making. And your money problems.
