[ SOMEWHERE IN THE SPIRIT WORLD ]
The starless sky grew brighter behind the clouds and darkness faded as the grey winter dawn broke over the Maiden light castle of Black wing city, located on the mountain grounds. Despite the cold, dreary weather, the entire city was buzzing with variety of activities. Kazumi had taken over the Seireitei, they said. Moreover she might be close towards reaching her goal and those who knew, felt it in their bones.
Inside the Maiden light castle, heavy footsteps were emitted in the hallway. Chiaroscuro lights of flickering candles were shimmering shyly onto the darkened room, followed by a gentle, light wind. Starrk was walking through the hallway before reaching to the door where Yumikō spent his time inside his bedroom.
The sliding door opened and he walked in, only to find him in an oval shaped bathtub, covered in milky warm water, while being surrounded by five beautiful Arranchar maids. Soaking his own body and rubbing his arms, he kept viewing on a painting of a young girl and a woman right next to her, which both have the same hair and eye colour as his.
When he turned to his attention on Starrk, he didn't blush nor did anything stupid because of his early morning bath time routine. Starrk walked out of the sliding door and bowed before him.
" My lord." Starrk called, but Yumikō almost giggled in amazement.
" You do know you shouldn't have done that? By calling me `my lord`, Starrk."
" I couldn't help it. You're the one who gave me a second chance after all." Starrk responded and both of them blushed.
" So, how is it going? Is Zen arriving yet?" Yumikō asked, which broke the awkwardness between them.
" Uh...No. Not yet." Starrk answered, then saw a Victorian style paint portrait of a young girl and her mother. Yumikō sighed and Starrk saw the portrait.
" Wait, is that....?" He asked, but couldn't find a right word at the portrait.
" That's my mother, Ume Takeshida. And my old life, before the decision I made. I haven't regretted it since." He answered.
" I see. I wonder if she... isn't like.... you know Kazumi."
" True. My mother already knew that I wanted to be a boy growing up. If she was alive, she would've been proud of me and how my dreams are coming true. Even though she told me about my human father and how I adopt his surname, I really never knew him. I often wondered what he looks like, if I have siblings or what kind of man he was."
" Whoever your father was, he might be a very reasonable man like you. If he was here with you, you two would've had a great relationship. Let's hope your plan on getting your throne back won't backfire." Starrk stated and the impatient scoff of the dark lord echoed. In which Starrk continued:
" Look, Yumikō. The Soul society now knows Aizen was a manipulative liar and I also suspected he's been trying to destroy the entire spirit world for his greedy purposes. Yes, I've been there with him for a long as I can remember and I thought he's different from other leaders, but I was wrong. The way he acted, the way he's devoted to Kazumi, I was pissed off when he got away. However, I'm glad his death brought closure to everyone. That'll be our strategy to overthrow Kazumi."
" You're right. No one can get away with an abysmal crime they committed and pretend they did nothing wrong. I hate those kind of entities, moreover their deeds would soon come back to haunt them for eternity. Lord Genryūsai must've learned it the hard way when one of his men he trusted, betrayed him. Though it wasn't the first time that happened to him. Now, he's asking me and emperor Hirōshi for an alliance." He acknowledged with a smirk on his face.
" I will regain my power, then destroy Kazumi and her goons for annihilating everything they've touched along with their heinous crimes that involved them and the Soul society for decades long. That's the way to restore Sukuna's honour. She must know her ways of dictating and shaping the Soul society in her own desire has reached its end."
In a warm and caring manner, he stared at Yumikō and was about to comfort him when the sliding door burst open. One of the phoenix guard ran towards them and she went on her knees with her head down.
" Lord Yumikō, there is something you must see. A sailboat from the Soul society, had arrived as well as the other ships. I'm not sure if it's the Head Captain, but you must come and see for yourself at once." The female phoenix guard explained as she remained kneeling by the door.
" What are we going to do about it?" Yumikō asked.
" I have no idea. In contrast to... whatever the head captain wants, I shall investigate this matter myself." Starrk answered before leaving him along with the guard.
Steams from the warm water began to dilute into lukewarm, forcing Yumikō to get out. Moreover, one of his maids gave him a towel, covering his naked body. Starrk glare at him before taking off from the inside of the castle, heading straight to the gate.
Meanwhile, Yoshimura was standing on a sailboat and watched as the blurry visions of the castle, which was caused by the foggy morning, were nearly visible. She was carrying Frost in her arms and her teeth and body was shaken by the cold.
" Are you sure, this is the right place? Looks like it has been abandoned for a century." She asked.
" Yes. Yet, you must remember that the castle was the only place the dark lord lives. And be polite to him." Frost answered.
Armies of phoenixes were all heading towards the Japanese style iron gates, combining with the sekkiseki stone and earth wood wall. Armed with spears, bows and arrows and their swords, in case an incoming attack comes, two guards at the gate sighted a sailboat across the blue stream, now almost frozen by the winter. Starrk was seen standing outside of the gate as he watched the first sailboat heading forward.
Captain Kyōraku and Captain Ukitake arrived at the center of the Maiden light castle and to Shunsui's surprise, he saw the Espada he killed not so long ago. He wondered if Yumikō was behind it, but chose not to fight. However, majority of the phoenix guards drew their weapons on them, preventing the attacks
Whereas, a clueless teenage girl who was transferred to the spirit world with her sister to search for her twin brother, was now alone, walking and looking around to where destiny prepared for her. Her curiosity ended when the dark lord appeared behind her. She turned around and saw him in his winter style kimono and a white kirin furred puff hanten.*
Unknown to her, his smirk appeared on his face once he placed his hand on her shoulder.
~~~~~~~~
｛ ICHITARŌ'S POV ｝
Deep beneath the caliginous snowy forest, a light snow fell gently, whilst hiding paw prints of a werewolf and weird line which looks like it dragged something or someone.
Zen walked slowly from exhaustion, after successfully capturing Ichitarō in Hakune island. Dragging Ichitarō's skinny, body before things began to manifest, all that's left was to wait for the dark lord to examined him before sending him back home before anybody could notice he was gone.
Ichitarō was struggling to wriggle himself free from Zen's robust teeth, which was difficult for him since he didn't get some sleep.
" Hey. Excuse me. Giant wolf? Would you please put me down, so I could find my sisters and go home?"
" If you want to make me look like a bad guy before the dark lord, you can try all you want, but that will never work."
" You can talk? I thought a talking god cat that turned into a dragon was the only one."
Zen scoffed without an answer. After seconds of silence, he finally asked:
" What is your name, child?"
" Uh….. Ichitarō Kagami." He answered unsure about the situation he got himself in. Without looking at him straight in his eyes, Ichitarō asked, " Why did you come all this way to search me? I don't taste that good, you know?"
He blinked and smirked between his muzzle,
" Because of a certain promise I made to someone. But you must see the dark lord first. And no, I don't eat demons."
" At least, treat me like a decent person not some ` miracle object` ."
" My apologies if I see you so…. very uncouth. No one haven't seen a spirit demon for centuries, and your appearance seemed very..... suspicious."
" Why does it matter to any different types of… spirit entities?" He asked, unsure if he's correct.
" Well," He replied, not knowing someone was standing behind the pine trees, watching their every move, " us, the Spiritual Authorities Society, are working really hard to ensure there's nothing going to interrupt the balance between two worlds. We'll even bring justice to the weak and helpless, while punishing wrongdoers. However, if you behave very well, then I'll reconsider the dark lord to send you home."
' Such a weak response with cheap excuses. But, I'll take his words for it.' he thought. Seconds later, the eldritch silence took over.
Meanwhile, Ramune drew closer up as Zen and Ichitarō advanced forward. Magical pink rose fire danced together with white plum blossom petals in Ramune's hand as she quietly chanted a spell in her paternal mandarin Chinese language. She quicky aimed it towards them and a blast sent Zen back to reality as he threw Ichitarō away from the fire. His face was morphing slowly into a smirk.
Zen leaped and scratches with a swipe of his claws directly at Ramune, but she activated a shield spell and blasted him away, spinning in mid air and land on fours on the snowy ground as he growled.
" Your powers sure have returned, dear princess." he scoffed.
" I do not know what Yumikō's order was, " Ramune countered. " All I wanted is that kid to be safe here with me, one way or another. What Shīfù's will, we get the job done."
" You're still following Genryusai after he betrayed your people. Such a sad tale for a smart woman like you. However, it's the dark lord's order to bring him here. You'll have to fight for him, princess." Zen boasted.
" Challenge accepted." she replied.
Staring at Ramune, with a fatal look on his dark brown eyes, he dashed at Ramune and hit her back with his head but she blocked it and launched a side kick at his jawline. Zen groaned in anger and he briskly dashed towards Ramune.
Zen smirked as he stomped the snowy ground and combination of blue lightning and boulders erupted, knocking Ramune into the sky. His eyes glowed in greyish blue, activating his claws growing blue and it knocked Ramune roughly to the floor.
Ramune slowly stood up without making any sound and quickly sent out three yellow fire balls to Zen. Unaware of what Ramune was capable, he was blocking her attacks where Ramune activated another spell and blast him, knocking him away and crashed through trees.
Zen quickly stood up, roared and launched a sound wave to Ramune. But, Ramune instantly took one of her hairpin and counters the attack, as it transformed itself into a slim style jian* sword.
[ WOOSH! ]
In full speed, as Ramune used her two fingers along with her jian sword, merging both together, so does Zen with his claws. Both of them were countering and giving each other cut wounds as they fight.
In the meantime, Ichitarō took his own time raising himself up and was holding his head with his hand. He looked around, then tried to stand up from the bed of snow when he saw two entities fighting each other over him.
Meters away from their fight, this gave Ichitarō the opportunity to escape, but Murasaki flew and landed on the snowy ground as Ichitarō was suddenly stopped on his tracks. At first, he growled at Ichitarō, owing to the fact he plan on escaping Ramune by himself - it just happened, he thought, yet even more weird things began to happen to him.
Almost immediately, he drew closer to him sniffed at his scent as if he was a dragon. Ichitarō wondered if the dragon went against Ramune's will on not eating harmless intruders like him. All that, shone a light of hope for him when the door size portal opened and Rukia, Ichigo and Rangiku came out. Ichigo noticed Ichitarō was in danger of being eaten by a purple eyed dragon. All three of them were frozen stiff in fear of Ichitarō.
Ichigo, afraid and felt anticipated on what the dragon was going to him next, he unsheathed his black, stylish, long tantō* sized sword, ready to risk his life alongside weapons. Ichitarō was almost the same size as Rukia, while standing before Murasaki. Yet, Rukia halted Ichigo.
But, to everyones surprise, Murasaki only eats dead carcasses and intruders that are threatening the Seireitei. Instead, he simply licked Ichitarō's face. At first he was annoyed at the dragon's action, but he continued anyway until Ichitarō showed small grin plastered on his face, which was rare for Ichigo to see.
What's more amazing, he even heard his first giggle and Ichigo reckoned he hadn't heard his laughter since the accident. As Ichigo and Rukia saw Murasaki gently pushing Ichitarō, resulting him to fall and tickled him again, Rangiku, in act of desperation, was inquest on the dragon's behaviour and why would it do that.
By then, everything changed for Ichitarō when he saw Ichigo and Rukia along with his sister, yet Yoshimura was nowhere to be seen. He quickly stood himself and went to them, but distant himself because of the dragon's musky smell. Ichigo, on the other hand, was in peace. Knowing Rukia and the Soul society took care of them.
" What took you so long, Ichigo-kun?" Ichitarō, simply asked.
" Thank goodness, Ichitarō. You are still alive." He came closer and hugged him, yet Ichitarō didn't hugged him back. Though he didn't care about the smell from the dragon, his heart was jumping for joy, he was glad he's safe.
Rukia smiled as well. That was, until Ramune arrived with deep cuts in her upper and lower body and her cheek. She returned with Zen, now bounded by her silk scarf, unable to escape. She bowed before her, yet Ramune was surprised to see her.
" Tù Nian. You left with Wáng and that little girl, what change?" She asked, in a puzzling manner.
" Forgive me, Lady Kyōraku. I wish I could stay here with Byakuya, but I can't just sit here and wait until Ichitarō dies somewhere. I know you can protect him. However I____." She answered, but Ramune interrupted her.
" Oh, I get it. Well, change of plans. We're supposed to go to the Heavenly Dragon gates, but we'll be going to the Maiden light castle. I want to hear the dark lord's words first." She explained. " Come along, Tù Nian. You can take the Shiba kid and Ichitarō's sibling with you."
Understanding that she'll be using Murasaki for transportation, Rukia agreed as she broke Ichigo and Ichitarō's hug and took them and Rangiku with her. Little do they know, a shadow appeared behind those trees.