This article, Storming the Seireitei, is property of Stylx |
First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Current Chapter | Final Chapter |
The Hollow Hunters | One-Man Invasion | Storming the Seireitei | The Final Mile |
Part 1[]
Sereitei Jail Cells.
Kumiko Fujiwara sat on a lone seat in the middle of the empty cell, bound by a strong rope to stop her from using her hands. She looked round the cell silently, she had been awake for a number of hours after encountering the Shinigami, spending them procrastinating about Masato and his condition. After calming down she took her first deep breath since waking up.
Just as she did so the cell doors opened, making her lift her head, to her dismay she saw the lieutenant Shinigami she encountered with two other subordinate shinigami following closely behind him.
"I am Yamada Kooji, lieutenant of the 9th Division of the Gotei 13, I'm here to ask you some questions.", he said calmly, looking at the young fullbringer dead in the eyes.
"What did you do to Masato!", she exclaimed, ignoring Kooji's words.
"Your friend had to be put down...", Kooji started, but before he could finished all he felt was Kumiko's leg sink into his abdomen as she jumped out of her chair and kicked him, screaming out of grief.
The lieutenant took a step back as the other shinigami pinned her down, albeit with some minor difficulty. He walked back to Kumiko, rubbing his cheek in doing so.
"Put extra restraints on her.", he ordered the two shinigami, "I'll talk to you after you calm down.", Yamada said to the struggling woman.
As he walked away Kumiko wrestled with the two shinigami, she managed to stand up and shouted to the lieutenant, "You bastard!"
Kooji ignored her and walked out of the cell, he sighed and walked out of the cells, accidentally stumbling into a familiar face.
"Hasegawa.", Yamada said, looking at his fellow lieutenant.
"Kooji-san.", Kuroda replied.
"What are you doing here then?", Kooji said sharply, his eyes narrowing at his ally.
"I was just going to talk to the prisoner about some-.", Kuroda started, he was however, cut off by Kooji.
"That's none of your business is it? It's mine.", Yama snapped, he looked at the arm band Hasegawa was sporting, raising his eyebrows.
"So you finally got promoted then.", he said blankly, "It's about time, although I don't see what you've done recently to warrant one.", he finished, looking at the shocked Hasegawa.
"Anyway I've come to tell you that there is a Ryoka in the Soul Society.", Kuroda said.
"What!", Yamada said, clearly shocked, "Do we know who it is?", he pressed on.
"Yes, it's that other Fullbringer we saw in the human world.", Hasegawa said, exaggerating Kooji's surprised look.
"How? I killed him myself!", he said, increasingly getting angrier.
"He survived.", Kuroda said grimly, "I saw and battled him myself, he's gotten stronger too, he was able to create swords out of reiatsu.", he finished off, much to Kooji's chargin.
"I've relayed all the knowledge I gathered on him to the captains, so we are prepared to-", he was cut off by Yamada shoving him aside.
"Out of my way!", he said viciously, storming off out of the jail barracks, with Kuroda looking at him with mild confusion.
"There is no way some two-bit human is going to humiliate me.", he said through his teeth, "He's not getting in the seireitei, even if it kills me.
Part 2[]
The past couple of days in the Shiba residence felt like training to Masato more than mere housework. He stumbled back and forth, doing rather absurd jobs such as feeding Ganju's pet boar, Bonnie, which was more of less arena fighting as the boar seemed to not like Masato too much. Helping Ganju do shopping, which was hard to do due to Ganju's habit of acting tough in front of the locals, causing fights that Masato had to break up and helping Kūkaku with gathering the materials needed for the cannon they were going to use.
After doing his chores he had to train with the spirit cannon balls, which he was slowly getting better at, as he was able to form perfect spheres, whereas he could only form less stable forms, such as ovals and rectangles when he first arrived.
The day before invading the seireitei.
Masato woke up to the sound of Ganju's pet boar, Bonnie, making a ruckus again, he quickly got dressed, having his breakfast earlier than usual. He started to make his way to the back garden, however, he was caught by Kūkaku.
"Oi! Where are you going!", she said menacingly, Masato turned slightly to face her.
"I want to hone my skills so I can-", he was cut off by Kūkaku, punching the back of his head.
"Do your work, then you can train.", Kūkaku said sternly, walking out of the room.
Sighing, Masato continued to walk to the back of the Shiba residence, he took out his obi and let it envelop him in his reiatsu, he formed a reiatsu Katana and he started to start training.
"Sorry Kūkaku-san, this is too important to waylay.", Masato said quietly.
Unbeknownst to him, both Kūkaku and Ganju were watching him, their eyes both glued to the young fullbringers back, Ganju turned to his sister, who was still looking at Masato with a small frown.
"You gonna do anything sis?", he said quietly, wary of triggering her infamous anger.
"No, he would just ignore me, even if I beat the crap out of him, he wouldn't budge.", she said calmly, "You're going with him tommorow, keep him in check.", she continued, looking at Ganju, who nodded silently.
The two left Masato to his training, a grimace appeared on Masato's face as the two left, he swung his blade, causing the ground to split where he slashed.
"Don't worry Kumiko, I'm coming!"
One day later.
"Okay! Lets get started then!", Kūkaku said jovially, looking at both Masato and Ganju.
"Where's Yoruichi-san? I thought she was accompanying us also.", Masato said.
"She said she had some business to do and that she would meet up with you in the seireitei.", Kūkaku stated, answering Masato's question.
"Ready?", Ganju said, walking toward them with one of the reiatsu spheres Masato was training with.
"Yeah, lets go Ganju.", Masato said.
The two men walked into the cannon, forming the sphere that would help them break into the seireitei.
"Right, lets go, Kagizaki!", Kūkaku stated, slamming down her palms onto the cannon, which promptly shot the reiatsu cannon ball to the seireitei.
Flying through the air, both men poured their reiatsu into the ball which was keeping them alive, as they approached the energy wall of the seireitei, an idea struck Masato, he pulled out his obi with his spare hand and activated his fullbring.
"What are you doing?!", Ganju shouted, visibly shocked.
Ignoring him, Masato manipulated the reiatsu ball into a more spiked shape, which hit the wall of the seireitei with full force, causing a large sound which rung the ears of all below. Just as the sphere started the crack, they pierced the wall that was blocking their progress, creating a blinding flash of light.
"It worked!", Masato shouted back to Ganju, who was wearing a bamboozled look on his face.
As the two men plummeted toward the ground, the Shinigami all looked up at them, wondering what just happened, Yamada Kooji was among them, gritting his teeth as he headed toward the landing destination of the cannonball.
A large cloud of sand and dust signaled the arrival of Masato and Ganju, both of them emerging from a pool of sand.
"What the hell did you do!?", Masato said at the equally shocked Ganju.
"I saved us! What does it look like.", he screamed back in response, he was annoyed at the fullbringer's daredevil antics as they crawled out, brushing the excess sand of them.
"Now lets get out of-", Ganju stopped in the middle of his sentence to look at a big group of shinigami approaching them.
"Lets get going.", Masato said, running in the opposite direction of the shinigami, with Ganju following suit.
"How are we going to get rid of them?", Masato asked, looking behind him to see how far the were away.
"Follow me.", Ganju said, turning to a wall, "Turn to sand, Senpa!", he shouted placing his palm on the wall as it instantly turned to sand.
"Awesome!", Masato stated, reverting to his goofy antics, Ganju grabbed his arm and ran through the opening.
"Lets go!", he said, the two of them running of into the dark alley.
Suddenly Kooji appeared in front of the pursuing shinigami, seething with anger.
"How many were there and what did they look like!", he said sharply at the closest shinigami.
"They were two men, but we didn't get close enough to-", he was interrupted by Kooji grabbing him by the collar.
"Find out then!", he said grimly, throwing the shinigami away, he jumped to the roof and looked around, he was then approached by Mizuumi.
"Did you get any information?", he said calmly to the 9th Division lieutenant.
"See for yourself.", Yamada said, he used shunpo to move away from the scene, leaving a mildly annoyed Mizuumi to check out the situation, he turned around to see a shinigami appear behind him.
"Have you found any leads Fukashi-san?
"Not yet sir, but I have informed all major personnel of the threat.", the shinigami said in response.
"Third seat Sato-san! We have some information!", one of the pursuing shinigami said.
"Give me it please." Fukashi said.
"The intruders were two men and one had a judogi on, that's all sir.", the shinigami said.
Both Fukashi and Mizuumi grimaced, the latter of the two turned round to face a hell butterfly, he let it land on his finger, after a couple of seconds he turned to Fukashi.
"Keep searching for the ryoka, I need to attend the lieutenant's meeting.", he said sternly.
"Yes sir!", Fukashi said boldly, both of them used shunpo to head off to their respective duties.
The ryoka have shook the seireitei.
Part 3[]
Seireitei, Lieutenant's meeting quarters.
Mizuumi walked into the room that the meeting was taking place at, he looked round, seeing most of the lieutenants was already there, without saying a word he took his seat next to Yamada Kooji.
"Name your presence.", the head lieutenant said, he raised his own hand and said, "4th Division lieutenant, Sadao Yamaguchi."
"1st Division lieutenant, Chōjirō Tadayoki Sasikabe."
"2nd Division lieutenant, Atsuko Shimizu."
"3rd Division lieutenant, Ganjou Mizuumi."
"5th Division lieutenant, Hikaru Kimura."
"6th Division lieutenant, Masahiro Yoshida."
"7th Division lieutenant, Sayomi Katō."
"8th Division lieutenant, Kuroda Hasegawa."
"9th Division lieutenant, Yamada Kooji."
"10th Division lieutenant, Kiyoko Itō."
"13th Division lieutenant, Miyuki Kobayashi."
"Now for all you present, we have a ryoka in the seireitei, there is another man also accompanying him, it seems, from the information Hasegawa-san received is that he is a fullbringer who is trying to rescue the fullbringer we have under custody due to suspicion of her being in the group Xcution. We can only assume he is also part of this organisation.", Yamaguchi finished of his sentence.
The lieutenants all looked around, talking to each other before Yamaguchi spoke again.
"Kooji-san has failed to get any information out of the prisoner due to her distressed behaviour,", he continued on, making Kooji wince, "We shall leave her care to Hasegawa-san and Shimizu-san, due to their experiences in both interrogation and the prisoner's habits.", Yamaguchi stated, looking at the two lieutenants.
"I must protest!", Kooji stated, however he was quickly silenced by a sharp, piercing glare from the 4th Division lieutenant, he slumped into his chair, becoming silent.
"For the ryoka, both the 3rd and 9th Division shall actively search while the other Divisions shall be command posts, alerting any sightings of the ryoka, meeting dismissed.", Sadao said as all the lieutenants stood up, with Kooji coming up last.
As they left Mizuumi approached Yamada, prompting the latter to turn to his peer.
"Well?", he said coldly.
"Shall we formulate a plan of capture?", Ganjou said calmly, he looked directly into the eyes of Kooji, making the 9th Division lieutenant falter slightly.
"We kill him, that's all there is to it.", he said finally, using shunpo to search for the ryoka, Mizuumi, sighing, followed suit.
Meanwhile, in the small alleyways of the Seireitei, both Masato and Ganju finally got away from the horde of Shinigami that were chasing them, after they regained their senses Masato turned to Ganju.
"Do you know where they keep prisoners Ganju?", he said, looking around for any Shinigami near them.
"They would either put here in the 9th Division prison, the 2nd Division prison, or the Senzaikyū, but the latter two seem a bit too extreme, so we shall go to the 9th Division barracks fist.", Ganju finished off.
"I don't think so, scum.", a disembodied voice said.
Both ryoka turned around to see Kooji, his Zanpakutō drawn, looking directly at them.
"Ganju, run, he's only here for me.", Masato said.
"But!", Ganju said, obviously worried for his safety.
"Go!", Masato exclaimed, the Shiba took a half-step back, and ran in the opposite direction.
"I'll kill him later, but for now...", Kooji said, as he did so, he disappeared, only to reappear next to a shocked Masato.
"I'll deal with you.", he finished off, slashing at Masato's chest.
The fullbringer used his bringer light to dodge the majority of the attack, however his shirt was slashed and a shallow cut was shown on his chest.
"You've gotten faster, I'll give you that.", Kooji said, mildly impressed, he once again disappeared, however, Masato, ready this time, managed to fully dodge his next attack with bringer light.
"Tch, you pest", Kooji said, looking up to Masato, who had just got out his white obi.
"Pride of the Gentle Way", he said, his obi fusing to his arm and his reiatsu forming around him, immediately Masato formed a reiatsu katana and lunged at Yamada, their blades creating sparks due to the force of the attack.
"Hmm, not bad, you seem a lot more powerful that before, but you're still no match for me.", Kooji said, he then jumped back from Masato and pounced at him, attacking relentlessly with his Zanpakutō, Masato managed to hold his own against the attacks, however, small cuts began to appear on his Judogi.
Masato managed to break away from Kooji by using bringer light, he started to run away from him, Kooji, unimpressed, followed him, both of them appeared in a large, open space, where Masato looked at Kooji.
"I was going as fast as I could.", he said, perplexed at the lieutenant's speed.
"I already told you, you cannot beat me.", he said confidently.
Masato straightened up, he held his katana horizontally and drew his hand across it, forming a long reiatsu chain from the hilt of the sword.
"Watch me.", he said ominously.
Suddenly, the fullbringer started to swing the katana from it's chain, he threw it at Kooji who promptly dodged it's arc, however he was surprised to see the blade coming for him again, he blocked the attack with his Zanpakutō, causing Masato to pull it back in order to get control of it again.
"Intriguing.", Kooji said quietly, dodging another attack from the chained katana.
"Hmph.", Masato said, pulling the blade back, he got rid of the chain connecting to the katana, sweat was dripping from his face, and his judogi started to lose integrity.
"I see, you can manipulate your reiatsu in a solid matter, but doing so drains your energy, an effective but power consuming way of fighting if I say so.", Yamada said coldly, "However since you are managing to fight me on more or less fair ground I say it's time to end the show.", he said, raising his zanpakutō so it's blade pointed downwards.
"Commence Yokobue."
Part 4[]
Ganju stopped at a passing corner, panting for breath, he looked back from where he came, after he regained his composure, the clansman continued his search for the 9th Division Barracks, however he was intercepted by a shadowy figure, abruptly appearing in front of him.
"...!", Ganju gasped quietly as he looked upon his opponent, he scanned the arm of the assailant, looking at his noticeable badge.
"You're.", Ganju started, however his sentenced was completed by the shinigami.
"3rd Division Lieutenant, Ganjou Mizuumi.", the shinigami replied, his facial expression had no discernible emotion, merely a plain, if not slightly worn look. Ganju, still in mild shock, turned to the wall next to him, his hand raised.
"Seppa!", he shouted, reducing the relatively think wall to a heap of sand, leaping through it, Ganjou ran as fast as he could, sweat dripping from his face. Meanwhile back where the initial confrontation took place, Ganjou merely sighed and used shunpo to once again intercept to shiba clansman.
"Dammit, you want a fight then eh?", Ganju growled, he lunged at his opponent, throwing a powerful punch, Ganjou in response, dodged it swiftly, undeterred, Ganju attempted to uppercut the lieutenant, Ganjou, once again, move to the side, dodging the attack, however he grabbed Ganju's hand, grasping his wrist tightly, which caused the clansman to wince in pain.
"Your technique is non-existent and your speed would be considered laughable to most, but your punches undeniably carry a great amount of power.", Ganjou murmured, releasing Ganju's hand, the clansman backed away as soon as he could, massaging his wrist.
"Dammit, take this, Senpen Banka!", Ganju retorted, throwing a number of shakudama fireworks at the 3rd Division lieutenant, who jumped backwards before using shunpo to dodge the explosion. He appeared behind Ganju, who smirked at the appearance of the lieutenant.
"Take that!", Ganju shouted, he thrust a spare shakudama at Ganjou's face, who could only close his eyes just in time as he was engulfed in the small explosion.
The two combatants retreated a few metres while regaining your composure, Ganjou, stumbling slightly due to the brightness of the explosion, only showed mild burn marks on his face, Ganju, who was kneeling, was holding onto his arm, which had took the brunt of the explosions, it was covered in mild burns and was smoking slightly. Finally regaining his senses, Ganjou looked towards Ganju, who returned the look.
"I underestimated you severely, forgive me for my mistake, I shall take you seriously now.", Ganjou said, he drew his zanpakutō, firmly holding it with both of his hands, Ganju responded by drawing his own, dao like sword.
"Get ready.", Ganjou said, he remained still as Ganju charged towards him, as he did, Ganjou raised his sword above his shoulders, bringing it down as Ganju attempted to block the strike. Releasing a blue coloured energy, Ganjou's slash cleanly cut through Ganju's sword and then sliced Ganju's arm, creating a massive wound running down it. In a state of shock, Ganju fell to the floor with a thud, unconscious.
"Ryōdan.", Ganjou stated, wiping the blood of his sword and then sheathing it.
"My apologies, Shiba clansman."
Despite the intensity of his battle, Masato felt the undeniable spiritual power of Ganju Shiba wane, he turned round, his face painted with distress.
"Over here!", the disembodied voice of Yamada shouted, his attention brought back to the battle, Masato just barely managed to dodge Kooji's blade, which was now sunk into the floor, Masato backed away, he discarded his Reiatsu Katana, it's own dissipation caused Masato's Judogi to regain it's integrity. His passage of safety was cut short as he was forced to dodge the blade of Kooji's Zanpakutō.
"Will you fight me without a weapon, surely you jest!", Yamada said, his cocky question made Masato grit his teeth. He used bringer light to maneuver behind Yamada, grabbing the Shinigami's reiatsu, Masato threw him a fair distance away, Yamada, only mildly surprised, landed on one knee.
"I see.", he muttered, he started to spin his double bladed sword above his head, as he did the hilt split in half, making a flute like sound and revealing a chain connected to each blade.
"Take this!", Yamada shouted, he threw one of the swords at Masato, who promptly dodged, sweat streaking from his face, Yamada however, didn't let up, using the chain connected to the sword, he kept making wild swings at the Fullbringer, who promptly dodged them with the help of his bringer light. As he dodged another swipe, Yamada only momentarily lost sight of the Fullbringer, however he quickly regained his sight as Masato appeared in front of him.
"Haaagh!", Masato punched Yamada in the face with all of his might, sending the Shinigami flying into a nearby wall.
"I'm finishing this.", Masato stated, he raised his right arm, the weaving of his reiatsu judogi coming apart, merging with itself to form a large, ball like object. Kooji, recovered, looked in awe.
"A flail?", he mused, he got up, reconnecting his zanpakutō with a swift motion.
"If you're speed is unbeatable, how about brute force!", Masato said as he started running at full speed towards Yamada, who readied himself.
"Take this!", Masato said, he swung the flail with great strength, Kooji dodged the attack, appearing above Masato, his sword raised high, however, as he was about to strike, he was unexpectedly hit in the back with the flail.
"Shit!", Kooji shouted as he crashed into the ground, as he got up he saw Masato directing another attack with his flail. Caught off guard, Yamada tried to block the attack, however the flail broke through his defence, destroying the lieutenant's hilt as it sent him flying into a wall.
"All I needed to know was if that hilt was hollow, since it was, it's defence was obviously going to be weak.", Masato explained, he sighed as he deactivated his powers, leaving him with a tattered array of torn clothes. Yamada looked up as Masato walked over to him, he was concussed from the blow, plus his shihakshō was destroyed, showing a large burn on his chest, courtesy of Masato's reiatsu.
"Consider that repayment for this.", Masato stated, he pulled back the torn should of his shirt to reveal a large scar, the one that Kooji dealt him on that night.
"Damn, you, ryoka.", Yamada said before ultimately collapsing due to his injuries. Taking a deep breath, Masato looked around to see a number of unseated shinigami surrounding him.
"Shit.", Masato said, he jumped in the air and ran by using his bringer light, surprisingly, the shinigami attended to the unconscious Kooji instead of pursing the young Fullbringer, who was already fast approaching the 9th Division barracks.
Part 5[]
9th Division Barracks.
Kumiko was stoically sitting in the bound chain in her prison cell, merely staring at the floor as both Atsuko and Kuroda walked in, causing her to raise her head.
"Where's Masato!", she randomly shouted, causing Hasegawa to look taken aback, however Atsuko merely sighed slightly.
"Your friend is still on the loose, which is good news to you I presume.", Atsuko explained in a matter of fact tone of voice, her news was enough to stop Kumiko's rage.
"Still loose? So he's not....", Kumiko asked, however Kuroda answered her question prematurely.
"Our colleages have sent us a message that he has defeated a vice captain and has fled from the scene, he has not yet been found.", he replied, Kumiko expression a look of relief on her face.
"Now, as we have relayed news of your friend's status, can you answer us some questions?", Atsuko asked, her voice was less demanding as it was firm, Kumiko nodded in response.
"Right, now, ahem, what do you know about the Fullbringer organisation, Xodus?", Kuroda said, Kumiko looked at his face for the first time since her imprisonment.
"Very little, all I did was observe their training methods when I was training myself.", Kumiko responded, her voice was calmer, yet it had hints of anxiety in it.
"What were their training methods?", Atsuko asked.
"Um, they would use their fullbring's to make impromptu arenas where they would fight each other in, honing their abilities, that's all I know about them.", Kumiko added at the end of her explanation.
"Hasegawa-san?", Atsuko turned to her partner, the lieutenant merely nodded.
"Your explanation was pretty accurate to the actual training methods of Xodus we have recorded, because of that we must keep you in order to clarify if you are part of the group.", Atsuko stated.
"But I said I wasn't!", Kumiko shouted, as she did so, she saw another officer drag a male wearing green clothing past her cell.
"We shall return a little later to question you some more.", Hasegawa said, Kumiko merely lowered her head as they left the cell.
"Masato."
End of Chapter