Blank period: The Jaws Close

This article, , is a side-story entry in Bleach: The Coven War, set two years after the Prologue. This particular chapter is the second part of a four-story arc and follows on from Blank period: The Noble Art, and again sees Kenji Hiroshi and Van Satonaka as the main characters.

The atmosphere in Zaraki district could be cut with a knife. Every time Kenji took a step he felt like there where a pair of eyes following his every movement, and the glances that the locals stole at Van, Mikado and he where dark and suspicious. The presence of Shinigami this far away from the Seireitei -- or even districts near to it -- was rare; rare enough that some had gone their entire lives here without once setting eyes on the dark-robed protectors.

"I'll be back shortly." Van said in a quiet aside to Kenji. "We'll go with your initial plan, okay?"

"Agreed." Kenji whispered back quickly. "Watch your back."

"Look after her."

With that Mikado turned in surprise as Van, disappearing with the tell-tale swish of Shunpo, left her and Kenji standing alone in the streets with dark eyes looking on from too many windows, alleys and side-streets. If Mikado didn't know any better she was sure the crowd was about to turn violent.

"Do not wander from my side." Kenji warned. "Hisagi wasn't kidding when he said this would be dangerous. If Yoshiro was here, and something happened to him that would make him cease contact, then we should be on-guard."

"But Yoshiro's only the ninth-seat." Mikado answered. "By virtue of rank you and Van are much stronger than he is."

He didn't have the heart to correct her. There was much about Yoshiro that was unknown; the true depths of his strength was just one of the many mysteries surrounding him. Kenji agreed with many of Van's suspicions regarding the Shiba clansmen and trusted him about as far as he could be thrown. Van did, after all, suspect Yoshiro of being the Visored he fought in the roughly two years ago. The only thing currently going against their suspicion was that Yoshiro, alongside his twin brother, where seen drinking in Kei's bar the night of the incident.

He decided to settle into the role of teacher again.

"Van is stronger than I am, yet I outrank him." Kenji pointed out. "Don't be so hung-up on rank. You only start to see real difference when you look at Captains and Lieutenants."

He left out the fact he and Van where counted amongst the latter in terms of spiritual energy and combat ability.

"Just keep your guard up."

"Yes, sir."

What Mikado did not say however was that she felt far safer and at ease in Kenji's company than she would have felt had she been teamed up with Van, regardless of Kenji's claims regarding Van's strength. For roughly two years Kenji had been her teacher and close confident. At times he was harsh and uncompromising, whilst at others he was kind and encouraging. He always was what she needed him to be to develop and, not for the first time, she thanked her lucky stars that fate had saw fit to see her join the 9th Division.

Van slipped away in stealth and obscured his physical presence with Kidō before suppressing his reiatsu to the point of near-invisibility from years of practice gained in the Patrol Corps of the. With that accomplished he followed Kenji and Mikado at a distance, seemingly appearing to walk on air, and he kept an eye out for anyone that appeared to be following them.

One stood out almost instantly.

She was a raven-haired woman with piercing blood-red eyes framed with delicate rectangular glasses. She was attempting to blend into the crowd -- her clothes where little more than rags -- but the air surrounding her was altogether too poised for her to be a lowly thug eking out a miserable existence in Zaraki.

And that was exactly what drew Van's eye to her.

"No, you're something else, aren't you." He thought. As soon as he did however he saw her stop suddenly and Van, slipping away using Shunpo, barely avoided her gaze. "Oh, she's good to have sensed me. Watch yourself Kenny, you've got a real harpy on your tail."

Van, raising his eyebrows, suddenly turned around and vanished; the swish of Shunpo sounded even as an explosion of fire and lightning tore through the air, and the top section of his kosode fell away to billow freely in the air...

"Fool child."

With that the bespectacled woman returned to the crowd.

The explosion was the first thing Kenji processed and he leapt upwards towards it before he really knew what he was doing. In moments he had grasped the ragged remains of Van's kosode but instead of fury and anger all he felt was relief and calm.

"He used ." He thought. "They're playing right into our hands, whether they realise it or not."

He made an exaggerated motion where he purposefully clenched the ruined remains of the kosode in his fist whilst wearing a look of utter hatred. He then ripped the garment into a long strip and tied it around his left bicep, specifically around the armband he wore on that arm.

"Come on." He said to Mikado, sounding angered.

"But where are we going? What about Van!?" Mikado was nearly screaming.

He wanted to tell her that Van was alive; that he had slipped away as he was used to doing in dangerous situations. But he couldn't without blowing Van's cover, which was now stronger than it had been before whoever had noticed him attempted to silence him. So he kept his false anger plastered across his face even as he crashed in the door of a tavern.

"I want answers."

And in the mood he appeared to be in Kenji wasn't going to take no for an answer.

End.