A midnight stroll was the perfect ending for a hard day of exercise. The young shinigami had been in the training grounds of the twelfth division for several hours before finishing his training. Together with his peers, the boy had gained even more strength since he left the academy. Yet, he was still no match for any of them.
As he walked around the outer quarters of Rukongai, where had had been raised, he saw a few kids running around, still playing in the middle of the streets. Not a single one of them was older than fifteen he thought, as he kept walking towards his old home. I haven’t met anyone in quite some time; it must have been over a year since I last visited.
He saw a young little girl running in his direction as he took a step to the side, thinking she would just rush past him. Instead, she ran up to the shinigami and he could see panic spreading across her face.
"Mister, mister,” she said as she grabbed his shihakushou. "Please help me; my brother went missing in the woods when we were playing.”
The young girl that stood in front of him was not a day older than ten. "Tell me, where did your brother go missing little girl,” he said as he grabbed her to calm her down.
"Over there, by those rocks,” she said as she pointed towards a rocky area. Not until now did he notice that she wore torn up clothes and slippers on her feet.
"Okay, go tell your parents and I will find your brother for you.”
They both went separate ways. It took Eiji only a few minutes to reach the place where the little girl had pointed, and the shinigami started concentrating. Reiatsu Noukan, wasn’t it? I should probably be able to find him with this. He started extending his reiatsu as much as he could. From what he had noticed previously, his range was just less than a kilometer at the moment. After a minute, he felt a faint reiatsu in his detection field. So he is to the west. I better hurry before something else shows up. You never know what kinds of animals may be around here.
He started running at full speed, hoping that he had pinpointed the location correctly. He was starting to get closer to his goals, as he stopped again to use the technique he had already once utilized. He felt the target was even closer now. Just a bit more and I can get the young boy home safely. Hopefully nothing has happened to him.
In front of him stood a boy, only a year or two older than the girl that had asked him for help. They looked identical, with the exception of the length of their hair. While the young girl had long flowing hair, this one had shaved his head almost completely bald. He walked up to the boy slowly as he extended his arm to him.
"What’s wrong boy, why are you alone this deep in the woods,” he asked, as he reached towards the boys shoulder.
"A-a-a-a monster attacked me,” he said as he started crying silently. A few tears dropped down his cheeks as he started wiping them again. "H-h-he hunted me all the way here and then disappeared.”
"A monster you say?”
It must have been a hollow. But what does a hollow do here? And why did it attack the little boy? He doesn’t have any special spiritual power. It must be after something else. He took the young boys hand and pulled him up from his spot on the ground. "All right, time to go home,” he said, as he lifted him up on his back. "Hold on tight.”
-
Halfway through the forest, Eiji felt a disturbance in his reiatsu. He kept running as he took a good look around him. There is something close. But I can’t fight with this kid on my back. I will have to leave him before I go back. "We’re almost there kid.”
-
At the beginning of his home town, Eiji saw a few people standing together with the young girl he seen earlier. You could see that all of them were relieved that the kid had returned safe and sound. Eiji walked up to what appeared to the boy’s father and handed him the kid. "I think that he should be all right, he only needs to rest a bit.”
"How can we ever thank you,” the mother said as she grabbed both of her children and hugged them. She and the father of the children were dressed even worse than the two kids. There was nothing to cover their feet, and all torn up and dirty clothes that barely covered them.
"Just you make sure that your kids don’t run around this late anymore,” he said as he started walking towards the forest where he had retrieved the boy. "Go back home, there is something I must do here.”
The dark haired boy started running through the forest at full speed once again. I know it’s still here, I can feel it. He stopped in his track and used the Spiritual Pressure Perception again. This time, he found his target easily. I see, so because it’s a lot stronger than the boy, it’s easy to find it. It’s still not strong enough to give me any trouble.
The hollow was a lot slower than the shinigami. He had reached him quickly after finding it. The evil creature next to him looked like a somewhat bigger version of a sabre-tooth tiger. Its teeth extended more than a foot out of its mouth and were pointing upwards. Eiji quickly appeared in front of it and kicked it right in the face. Following up with another kick, the hollow fell on his back.
Weak. I can’t believe that it was this creature was what managed to hunt that kid that far into the forest.
As he unsheathed his zanpakutou, he saw the hollow trying to stand up, prepared to flee. With another kick to the chest, the hollow had stayed in place for good. With a simple swing through its head, the hollow started to disintegrate. He re-sheathed his sword and went back.
-
Upon returning to his home, he saw the family still standing where he had left them. He went up to the boy and squatted down in front of him.
"Kid, tell me, how did the thing that hunted you look like?” he asked as he hoped that his target was the right one.
"I don’t know,” the young boy said, still scared to his wits. "I think it looked a little like an elephant, although bigger.”
Even bigger than an elephant? That can’t be! Don’t tell me that there are two hollows around. What could it be that has drawn them here?
The young boy looked once again at the family in front of m. "You got back now,” he said. "I’ll take care of everything.”
The young boy sent a jigokuchou for Soul Society. Knowing that it would reach Marie in time, the shinigami went for a little investigation in the forest next to his home town. Ever since I entered the forest, I’ve had a bad feeling about it. I need to get to the bottom of this. Hopefully she will get here before something happens.
Knowing that he would probably be attacked in his shihakushou, the shinigami changed his wardrobe into something more fitting. Just like when he was alive, Eiji wore a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt. On top of that he had a black leather jacket; just like the one that used to be his trademark. "Ah, this should probably be good enough for me to blend in with anything.
Once again, he entered the forest. This time he took his time and walked slowly through it. After a few minutes, he hadn’t seen anything but a few wild animals. He took a seat at a large boulder nearby and started focusing. Reiatsu Noukan. He extended his technique as far as he could without any luck. Not a single being with great enough reiatsu to be noticed was within his one kilometer barrier. I guess they must be a lot further in than I thought. Could it be them that sent the hollows toward the town?
After searching for almost an hour in vein, the shinigami got a message from his superior. Marie had sent him a hell butterfly, telling that there would be a group of assassins from the twelfth arriving shortly, to aid him. So she’s not coming? I wonder who these people coming are. I should probably finish this before they arrive.
Once again he began roaming the forest. He knew not what he would find, but he knew there was something out there. A group of people, a cult of some sort had formed around his hometown. Ever since he left, he had been told that all kinds of rogues and bandits had been pillaging every inch of the small town. People barely had enough money to eat; their lives were at stake here. "I wonder what kinds of people are able to do something like this to them. There must be a lot of them seeing as the people aren’t able to make any resistance,” Eiji said to himself as he was walking deeper into the forest.
He had entered an area that seemed completely abandoned by nature. Only a few bushes where still alive, not a single blooming tree was to be seen. Sand and gravel had completely covered the ground. The young boy felt some sort of disturbance around this area. He looked around himself and found a small indent in one of the mountains west of him. He walked towards the plains only to see a small cave entrance, big enough to fit a person. He slowly entered the cave, as he felt a few signals of reiatsu gathering inside. They were not note-worthy of him, but the sheer amount of them had him somewhat dazzled.
"There must be more than ten people inside here,” he said to himself as he began crawling in the cave. "I’ll have to go quietly in here so that I don’t get noticed.”
He started concealing his spiritual power as much as he could, hoping that he would not be found. After a few minutes of searching, he had found his target. There was a small room inside the cave which contained an altar of some sort. What scared him weren’t the twelve people that were standing around the altar. In the middle of them, some sort of hollow was lying there, clearly in agony. They had their hands held towards the hollow, and Eiji could see their reiatsu gathering around it clearly.
What the hell are they trying to do? Are they trying to kill it or do they think that they can make it stronger by injecting spiritual particles into it? A second later the hollow vanished. It had been blown into smithereens.
A voice in the cavern was heard. "Damn, I think we put too much into this one,” it said.
Another voice appeared, somewhat darker than the previous one. "No, that’s not it.” They all put their hands back in their brown robes. "We have to achieve the same wave-length before we can inject it with enough reiatsu.” The conversation turned into a quarrel. One after another, the men started yelling at each other, everyone with an opinion of their own. Thinking that this was his chance to escape, the dark-haired shinigami slowly exited the cavern.
Standing outside the cavern were four people. Even though he had never seen them before, Eiji recognized them immediately.
"So you are the ones that Marie sent,” he said arrogantly.
One of the assassins walked slowly up to him, as the others stood put in their place. "Give us a quick briefing, and we will take care of the rest,” he said as he awaited an answer.
The young shinigami didn’t answer immediately. Instead of talking outside the cavern, he pointed in a direction he thought was east, and started running. The group followed him quickly and the assembled a few hundred meters off their previous location.
"You,” said the man that had walked up to Eiji, and pointed at one of his underlings. "Use your detection barrier and alert me if you sense something.”
"So what do you have to tell us?” he asked EIji once again.
This time he wasn’t hesitant to answer.” There are twelve of them. Each and every one got low spiritual power, and they don’t seem to know how to fight. What I found odd was the technique they were using.” He took a quick pause.
"Technique you say?” the man covered in black said. "What kind of technique?”
The young boy looked over at the group that stood perfectly in line of each other, everyone with a different task at hand. "I’m not sure.”
The shinigami took a deep breath before he started speaking again. "I think that they were trying to enhance a hollow by putting their reiatsu into it. The specimen that I saw exploded after a few second only. I don’t think that they know how to fully utilize it.”
"And furthermore,” he took another pause. "I don’t think that they are just your everyday cult. There must be someone supporting them. Teaching them these things.”
"I see,” said the group leader. "We should probably eliminate them as quickly as possible.” He walked towards his group to give them the instructions.
"No, you can’t!” Eiji yelled out as he grabbed the man. "We have to find out who is behind all of this!”
"As you wish. I’ll be sending one of my men back there to confirm what you just told me. If everything is as you said, we shall further investigate it.” The man said as he once again set foot towards his group.
He whispered something into the ear of the assassin who was on detection duty and he left the place a second later. "This will be our rendezvous spot. If you notice anything strange, come back here and send us a jigokuchou. We will not waste a second.” And with that, the rest of the group left.
I guess I better get going myself. I could probably find something if I talk to the villagers.
