WHITE BEACON

Hello Nurse
It was a dark room, lit only by a small blue light. In it were three figures, two women, and one, unconscious teenage boy.

Splish...Splish...

The sound of water splashing could be heard, as one of the figures seemed to be dipping a small cloth into a bowl of liquid, and then wringing it out slightly. She took a breath, and the cloth began to glow, as she imbued it with her spiritual energy. "Now...let's begin." While the woman behind her, who, as the glow spread across the room, was revealed to be Gaikou Ryuusei, looked on with apparent distrust, she began to get to work on her patient, Ahatake Kurosaki.

Gaikou muttered to herself, "I wish I actually paid attention to learning how to patch people up..." She didn't trust this woman. Not on bit. "How long will this take?"

"Healing through Kidō and medicine aren't that much different. My technique can heal the physical form within just a few hours." The woman replied, glasses gleaming. "From there on out, it's all up to him. Whether this boy decides to live or die, he'll decide his fate. If he doesn't give up the will to live...he'll eventually wake up."

"I have but one question," Gaikou asked, puzzled. "...Who on earth are you, and why the heck are you helping us, anyway? I really don't understand..."

"My name is Myōbu." The woman replied, sliding the cloth along Ahatake's body. "Myōbu Ichimonji. I was instructed to help you by someone I owe a debt."

"Cold..." Ahatake's thoughts were clouded as his vision became blurred. How long had he been lying here, blood leaking out? He had no idea. He could hear Mokin in the background, trying to speak to him, but he couldn't make out what she was saying. "Am I...going to die..?" As he closed his eyes, he saw the outline of a small foot step down in front of his face.

"You really are just as hopeless as he'd said..." Myōbu looked down at Ahatake's wounded form, sighing in disappointment. "Someone like you, I expected a bit of power..." She cast a look at the fallen Machishi. "I better do something about that too..." She summoned a Hell Butterfly, sending it off to the Fourth Division with a message to come retrieve Machishi. As Myōbu bent down, she felt a spiritual pressure behind her, one that was unfamiliar, as well as the sound of approaching footsteps.

"....Ahatake!" Gaikou called out, as the footsteps picked up while she dashed towards her fallen ally, readying her reishi gauntlet. "The hell are you!?"

"...Oh, you must be his special friend." Myōbu rolled her eyes, hoisting Ahatake over her shoulder with ease. "I was told you should be coming back. Come on, let's go patch this thing up."

Gaikou blushed, turning away in embarrassment. "I-I'm not! What on earth drives you to think such a stupid thing!" She really, really hated people insinuating that she and Ahatake had one of those kinds of relationships.

"Because it's hilarious." Myōbu replied off-handedly. "Now, let's go, come on!" She insisted angrily; she could feel several spiritual pressures coming in response to her message. "The Relief Division is on it's way, come with me now."

"Alright, alright...." Gaikou had a mental reminder in the back of her head to slap this woman after they ran off. "...Relief Division!?"

"Yes, we have a medical division like any military." Myōbu replied, surprised at the idiocy.

"Well, I thought the Relief Division provided comic relief!" Gaikou snapped back. She wasn't joking. "Every military needs a bunch of jokers!"

"...Please never procreate." Myōbu sighed in exasperation. As the two made their escape, the relief division arrived, headed by a young, brown haired girl with freckles. "Machishi-san!" She ran over to the fallen warrior, looking worried. "Taniguchi-san! Please check for Mukagami-san! He's never too far from her."

"Immediately, Eguchi-san!" A bespectacled man with cropped hair received the order and took off immediately with two others. The woman referred to as Eguchi kneeled down beside Machishi, and rolled up her sleeves. "I will begin first aide! Kitamura-san, please help me!" Her hands began to glow with bright orange energy as she placed them over Machishi's body. "What could have done this?"

Myōbu and Gaikou ducked into an empty building, keeping to the shadows as the woman placed Ahatake's body onto the ground. "I'm from the Fourth Division. Let me give you something to tend to your wounds, and then I will begin to patch up your friend."

"Alright." Gaikou didn't really bother to argue. "However. Why are you, a ghost samurai-thing, trying to help some invader? It doesn't make any sense."

"Not because I want to, trust me." Myōbu replied, preparing a strange liquid and placing it into a bowl. She then tossed Gaikou a small pill. "That is a recent development within the Soul Society; flesh restoring pills. They work as basic first aid on minor wounds, and they're still untested." She placed a finger to her chin. "...Actually, they aren't even approved. Something about side-effects. Anyway, this should heal your wounds, for the most part, until I can finish patching you up personally."

Gaikou looked at the pill for a few minutes- though she didn't decide on whether or not to eat it. "...Huh. I don't trust this...but we're in a bad situation already." While wary, she did consume the pill.

"Well done." Myōbu said, her voice bored. "Now, let's begin."

The White Beacon
Across a solid bridge, a group of Shinigami were moving. Several masked figures, escorts of some sort, where holding several strings of rope that were attached to the wrists of a female figure, whose face was concealed. They walked slowly, and with purpose, crossing the bridge as they headed towards a large, multi-floored white tower, which overlooked nearly the entire Seireitei.

"We've arrived." A member of the group spoke as they walked into the door of the tower, closing it off from the inside and removing both the bindings on the wrist, as well as the cloth covered the woman's face, reveling it to be Harumi Muruiyama.

"This is the Senzaikyū." One of the masked men informed her. "This shall be your cell, until the appointed day of execution." He gestured to the small slits of window that decorated the area; the only view of the outside in this dark cell. "Through this window, you can see the Sōkyoku. That is the weapon which will be used for your execution — a perfect way to end the life of a traitor like yourself."

Harumi remained silent, fixing a stony glare on the man.

"As defiant as ever." The man seemed to be amused by this, sauntering over to Harumi, placing his hand on her face, forcing her to face him. "That will vanish soon, however. There's no way out, and no one is coming to save you. You made the choices that led you here. Now you simply have to pay." He shoved her to the ground and he turned, walking away as the rest followed him. "See you at the day of execution."

Harumi remained silent until they left, not moving a muscle. "Ahatake..." She thought. "Are you alright...?"

Some miles away, the boy in question sat bolt upright, gasping as if he'd run a marathon. "H-Harumi...!" He looked around, and saw night had fallen, and he was in a building he didn't recognise. "Where...am I? I thought I heard Harumi..." He scratched his head in bewilderment.

"Did you?" Gaikou caught up with him. "You're here right now. That lady who helped us out is sleeping, though." She tapped him on the shoulder, trying to get his attention. "Don't worry, we'll save Harumi."

Ahatake rubbed his eyes, and looked at the sleeping figure of Myōbu. "Whose she, Gaikou?" He asked, bewildered. "She's definitely kind of cute..."

"Some ghost samurai who healed you." Gaikou paused. "I don't trust her. At all."

"Shi!Ni!Ga!Mi!" Ahatake emphasized each syllable for her. "Not 'ghost samurai'. And why not trust her? She seems to have healed you too, didn't she?" Not that he would tell her, but he was glad she didn't get too badly hurt against Harutō.

"I wouldn't trust her. She's of a different race than me-" Gaikou paused. "Let me backtrack on that. She's part of the military. And for what we've seen so far, none of them are too friendly."

Ahatake raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You...you may want to double think the first thing you said." He looked around the building. "So, how long have I been out?"

"Two weeks. I think. I wasn't paying attention." Gaikou looked away, trying not to draw attention to the fact that that sword-crazy woman almost killed him. "Now, let's go save Harumi."

"T-two weeks!?" Ahatake jolted up in shock. "What do you mean, two weeks!? I was out of it for that long!?" He started to make a mad scramble for his Shihakushō and Zanpakutō. "We've got to mo-!" Shuddering again, Ahatake coughed up a large amount of blood, and doubled over in pain, holding his gut. "W-what happened...?"

"You almost got killed by a crazy sword-lady. That's...about it, I guess." Gaikou immediately tried to grab his arm. "I was making a joke, geez. It was only two days."

"That's right..." Ahatake eased himself back down, trying to stop the bleeding. "I nearly...got killed by that insane woman right out of that horror movie...." He shuddered, and heard a rustling behind him. Myōbu was awakening, and the moment she did, a sigh of exasperation escaped her lips. "Who made him overexert himself?"

Gaikou rather unapologetically responded, "He did it to himself. Not my fault that he reacted so badly when I told him a joke."

Myōbu removed her glasses from her face, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Gaikou Ryūsei, wasn't it? You are an idiot." The fact that she could say this so bluntly made it rather humorous. She sighed, and bent down at Ahatake's side. "You aren't much better." She berated him. "You've only been recuperating for two days and overeact, opening your wounds that I'd just put all of my energy into fixing."

"I'm so-" Ahatake began but she cut him off. "Both of you are idiots. Now shut up and let me patch you back up." Her hands began to glow again. "Let's try to get through this without accidents."

The sun had once again set; Myōbu had forbade Ahatake from even sitting up, so he was lying as still as he could, Myōbu had fallen asleep against the wall again, and Gaikou appeared to be awake, sitting near him but looking off in the other direction. Was she guarding him?

"How long will this take..." Gaikou let out a deep sigh- ignoring the fact about Harumi's execution, she was more than irritated about the break that they had to take here.

Ahatake sighed, though he couldn't help but chuckle at Gaikou's irritation. "You need to be a little more patient..." He pointed out. "Not all of us could have gotten the easy opponent..." Still chuckling a bit, he winced. "Yep...definitely hurts to laugh."

"It's also gonna hurt to pee in a moment." Gaikou aimed her foot straight at his crotch. "Let's just hurry. Time's ticking and you DO know that they could easily speed up the execution date at any moment?"

Ahatake let out a sharp yelp, the pain rocketing through his body like a live current. "Dammit...blonde...bitch..." Ahatake hissed.

"Will you two stop it?" Mokin snapped, fluttering in through a window. "It's well into the night, and that cry of pain can be beard even outside!"

"Arguing time is important." Gaikou snapped, "You know that we don' t have much time! Hell if we keep waiting around, then her head will come off like a bottlecap!"

"As much as I'd like to brand the Soul Society as monstrous heatens, that's not how it works." Mokin sighed, settling down on the sleeping Myōbu's shoulder. "The Soul Society typically allows for a grace period of around a month for the maximum penalty in a convict's execution. I believe Entenryū told the dimwit here as much."

"...So we have a month?" Gaikou let out a sigh of relief. "That's good, let's just relax for three weeks and in the last week, let's storm the Soul Society." That...wasn't how it worked.

Mokin fluttered over to her and began to rapidly peck at her head. "You wear glasses, I'd assume you have a brain in there!" She settled down, breathing heavily. "As soon as Ahatake recovers, we need to head to the Senzaikyū. Are you certain that's what he said, Gaikou?"

"I'm sure that's what he said." She paused, pressing a finger to her lip in thought. "I THINK." Naturally, Gaikou Ryuusei, despite owning glasses, wasn't the smartest holy arrow fired by a Quincy weapon.

"I think she said something like that to me while Myōbu was fixing me." Ahatake said quickly; Mokin seemed ready to kill Gaikou. "And there is a large white tower that's hard to miss."

"That would be the Senzaikyū." Mokin confirmed, landing down next to Ahatake. "That's good. We have a general idea where we're going." She looked down at what she was standing on. "Ahatake...what's this?"

Ahatake cast a look at what she was resting her feet on. It was a mask, menacing and skull-like, and nearly destroyed. "Oh that? Myōbu said she found it my robes. Apparently, the thing absorbed the brunt of that woman's attacks; I'd be dead if I hadn't had that with me. The funny thing is..." He paused. "I don't ever remember picking that mask up."

"I see..." Mokin said slowly. Just looking at the mask sent a chill throughout her small, avian body. "If you don't mind, I'm going to hold on to this."

"Hm? Oh sure." Ahatake waved it off.

"Could it really...?" Mokin's mind was traveling away from everyone now.

"...What's that?" Gaikou took a closer look at the mask, as she realized, "Oh! That's one of those evil ghost demon- no, those Hollow masks!" She wondered, "But why is it here?" She eyed Ahatake off suspiciously. "You better not be one of those in disguise!"

Ahatake and Mokin looked at Gaikou in dead silence; bewildered by her stupidity. "No, I'm not a Hollow in disguise." Ahatake sighed, turning his head towards the mask. As much as he wanted to reach for it, Myōbu had said not to move. "I suppose when my gut patches up, we'll have to hurry and set out again."

Gaikou stared adamently at Ahatake's gut, trying to actually talk to it. "Hurry up and patch, you stupid gut!" She wanted to wail on it so badly. "...I'm not good at being patient."

"Just calm down. We'll be here awhile." Mokin sighed.

"I'm surprised." Kayla sighed, sitting on top of a rooftop, the body of a Shinigami dangling from a tendril formed by her hair. "We haven't encountered anybody really worth our time at all." She ripped the tendril from the Shinigami's body and let it fall. "I was hoping to let it all out here. Let these Shinigami know...exactly how I feel."

Dohko sighed as he scratched his head. "Oh, man. You really have it out for these guys, don't you? Anyway, normally I'd say try and dial it back a notch, but you've got your reasons, so go crazy."

Kayla stood up, looking down at the corpses of defeated Shinigami; skulls smashed, swords broken, their blood and intestines pouring out. Her eyes glinted in the moonlight as she cast them towards a building emblazoned with the kanji '七' in the distance. "We're coming Harumi. And I will slice to ribbons any Shinigami that oppose us. Until Soul Society is flooded over in their blood..."

The End