Soul Society arc: Revelations

Soul Society arc: Revelations is a short-story set within the Soul Society arc that runs concurrently with Unification, which depicts Jinta Kanō's personal reasons for infiltrating the.

Jinta Kanō walked the streets of his former home oblivious to the sights and sounds around him. Some would even say he had numbed himself to them. They hadn’t changed much anyway. At times the Seireitei seemed to resist change. It didn’t half put him in a bad mood. Here he was scouring the Seireitei at his leisure, looking for clues to his powers and why he, unlike anyone else before him, could wield two separate zanpakutō simultaneously. The answers lay within Bansui Amatsuki’s lab, which the oldest of the 12th Division records claimed was hidden within the old execution grounds. Those same execution grounds where now little more than garbage dumps, and the stench rising from them was utterly horrible. If he didn’t need to go through here, then he would have walked past it without complaint.

‘Heh, this must be my lucky day.’ Too bad sarcasm did him little use here.

He descended into the garbage, feet touching down on a hundreds types of filth – discarded food, dirty, sodden clothing and used nappies. He put his foot right into one of the latter and punched the wall in irritation because of it, where the wall suddenly fell open on hidden hinges.

‘Would you look at that,’ he walked through into the darkness with a cautious step. A flickering flame lifted above his head and moved with him, suspended in the air by will alone. ‘My days turning around- woah!’

A guillotine fell from the roof, slicing through his fringe! Locks of cut hair drifted through the air and Jinta tapped his backside comically to ensure he hadn’t browned his trousers. Good, he hadn’t. Now all he needed to do was find new pants, ‘cause he was fairly certain he’d pissed himself instead. ‘Bansui… I hate you.’

The corridor was lined with other such traps, all of which Jinta avoided by releasing his zanpakutō into Shikai. The red flames protected him as he moved forward. Guillotines and hidden blades fell onto and where deflected by encircling barriers of brightly lit flames, while the darker black reduced the offending traps to ash to be swept aside by the chill wind. At the corridors end was a large door which was quickly reduced to ash by Jinta’s Kaen Shingō Kūshū, which blew the door clean off its hinges with the strength of an Ikkotsu punch imbued with vibrant flames.

‘Open sesame,’ he’d always wanted to say that.

A light flickered to life on the ceiling, casting the room in a bright light. Computers and tables lined the walls, while a blood-stained desk filled the centre of the room. It was smaller than Jinta had thought it would be. This might not take as long as he had originally thought. At this rate he’d be able to join the others again and get some helpful information on Kōhai Tochi, while helping Kujina with her goal. Amazing how quickly he was referring to the Hama Alliance as Kujina. Maybe he was just a sucker for a pretty face?

He rifled through old papers, for he feared touching any of the computers lining those walls. If the corridor leading here was any indication, how was he to know if it they weren’t bobby-trapped at well? The risk was just too great to take, especially since he was the only person here. ‘Zanpakutō, zanpakutō,’ he whispered over-and-over. Maybe it’d help him find what he was looking for?

He must’ve looked for an hour before one such paper caught his eye. ‘Project Nijū,’ the paper read. The following script was written in a neat hand, obviously one used to detailing ones research findings by hand. “The results of the modified soul experiment are noteworthy, but hardly fantastic. The template can wield both zanpakutō easily enough, but only with half their original strength when used together. More time and resources will be needed to gauge growth.”

The details of the paper, which included experiments on live zanpakutō spirits forcefully removed from their respective owners as well as points pertaining to the mastery of Tsuinkai, brought a chill to Jinta’s spine. At the bottom just above the follow-up observations was a list of subjects. Below Takahara Yasuhiro was Jinta’s own name, who they deemed lost, as well as five others, all of whom had apparently expired? Had they died to perfect this Takahara fellow? Or him? Was he an accomplice in murder before he was even old enough to know any better!? He didn't even remember pocketing the paper.

‘I’m… a … modified soul?’ He had suspected as much, but at least with thoughts you could save yourself from the worst of it. The truth was an entirely different matter. ‘Bansui!’ The name reverberated off the walls and ceiling, down the corridor and out the door, where it echoed in Jinta’s ears. The man would die. And he’d die painfully.

‘… Help… me,’ a voice, faint, called.

At first Jinta didn’t hear it. He was still plotting Bansui’s death, imagining it in his minds eye. Then it sounded again and he whipped his head around. On the far wall a cloth was draped over an entrance, where the voice had originated from. Jinta cleared the space in a few quick strides. He ripped the cloth from the wall and staggered back, mouth agape! A young girl with blue hair, a red jacket and a black skirt lined with white lay suspended in the air and chained to the wall.

‘Holy- Hold on,’ he said urgently. The chains seemed to resist being cut or broken, even when he used both his zanpakutō.

‘Please…’ she said, crying.

Jinta gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tightly around the chains. Experimenting on him was one thing, but keeping a child like this!? It gave Jinta all the anger he needed to fuel his spiritual energy. The vastness of his spiritual power was loosed through his arms, where he gave a mighty heave! His arms strained, his veins rose and the chain remained unmoving.

‘Don’t be afraid,’ he said as he turned towards her. He placed the chain over his shoulder as though it where the cord of a sack. Purgatorial fire erupted from his back, forcing him forward, but his hands braced him in place to the chain; which began to groan. With a roar and a push the chain snapped and Jinta pitched forward at speed! Something else snapped as well, for the weight of the chain seemed to decrease drastically as Jinta let it fall. He twisted as he fell, arms wide. The young girl swung on the second chain like a pendulum right into Jinta’s waiting arms. ‘Got you,’ he said quietly, returning him and her to their feet. ‘I’m gonna break the next one, and then I’m going to get you out of here.’ She nodded, head down, tears falling. Gods! She was only a child! The second chain broke without so much as an effort. It had probably been strengthened by some form of Kidō, which he had apparently broken along with the first chain.

‘I’m Jinta Kanō,’ he said kneeling in-front of her. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Iris,’ came the faint reply. ‘… Thank you…’

‘That’s a pretty name,’ he then tilted her head up and whipped her tears. ‘Iris, you can’t stay here. Can you remember where your parents are? I can take you to them.’

Those words only made her cry more.

‘Okay, okay, I’m sorry!’ Jeez, he was an idiot. ‘What about Grandparents?’ She looked at him blankly as if to say “what’s a grandparent”. Lovely, at this rate he’d need to bring her with him. ‘Alright,’ he said at last, sighing. ‘Do you want to come with me?’ She nodded and, when he turned, jumped onto his back. She could hear his heartbeat through his back.

With a new companion he knew absolutely nothing about, Jinta made his way back through the lab and out of the old execution grounds. Hopefully Harumi would know what to do with the girl, because Jinta was stumped for a solution…

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