"One captain died! A whole noble clan slaughtered and Aizen pranced into the Soul Society, performed some abhorrent ritual that cut off Hueco Mundo entirely. Our forces are stretched thin as they try and mitigate the mass number of Hollows with nowhere to return! The balance of the world could be at risk! What do you have to say for yourself Genryusai!" The cry of the 'judge' infuriated Yamamoto, his fingers gripping his cane with even more force , the barely audible sound of cracking wood reaching the old man's ears.
Bureaucracy.
A necessary evil that safely guarded the order he fought to create. Ensuring his spiritual pressure did not emanate from his being, Yamamoto breathed in, the dark desire to unleash it fully and crush the barking dogs before him never left. Here he was the head captain of the Gotei thirteen being admonished by gnats.
The Soul Society was protected by the Gotei, but it was governed by the Central Forty-Six, if the Soul Reapers were the defenders and monsters, then the Central Forty-Six were the judges and jury. Laws were passed by them, sentences would be issued by them as well, if the majority agreed to it they could task the Soul Reapers with the extermination of entire districts in the Rukongai.
Empathy, sympathy and the act of understanding the lives of others, were cast aside in the name of maintaining the balance between the three worlds. Cold and uncaring justice was all they held sacred; all other things that existed save for a few assets were disposable. Yamamoto sighed and looked down to his right, a blue Kido box, nearly as tall as him when he did walk with a hunch, stood there. The head captain was old, ancient some might say, but they never lived long enough to say it again.
He had fair skin, a face ladened with deep wrinkles, eye brows that framed his face, a beard worthy of any old master, and red eyes that could reduce lava to ash. He wore the standard shihakusho, he draped an exaggeratedly large haori over his back.
"The court guards are handeli-" Cutting off the elderly soul reaper a member of the central forty six interrupted.
"The great court guards who lost an entire barrack to the traitor Gin Ichimaru! And was not just any barrack, it was the barracks of the research and development unit! Our technology and communication have taken a massive hit, we are unprepared and understaffed to even properly rebuild!" More shouting came from the forty six faced people, the longer their prattle continued the more fractures appeared on the old man's cane.
Bringing order to the gathered members one of them struck their gavel to draw their attention.
"Calm yourselves everyone, this racket will not solve our issues. We the new Central forty-six must not allow the infighting that plagued our predecessors to infect us as well." The room quit and the anticipation took over everyone who had a board to shield their identities. "Good, I suggest before all else we execute the ones who aided Aizen and destroyed much of our home land. The changeling in that very box! Genryusai we as the judges of this world order you to kill off the intrud-"
Cold.
That was the only way the member of central forty-six felt as his blood lost its warmth.
It seemed as though the others also seemed to notice, the members' eyes as well as Yamamoto's all drifted to the blue Kido box which seemed to take on a red hue at its sides.
"Could this be?" Muttering to himself the captain pondered, then his vision was filled with a blind light. An explosion rocked the area shield and defended the judges from a majority of the impact. Despite that each one of them was thrown back due to the force, the only one who did not seem bothered by the display.
The first thing everyone noticed was the foul odor that assailed their nostrils.
"Ah, what the hell, did a bog just appear!" The central forty-six member tried his best to ensure his earlier meal did not make a reappearance.
"No bog, but a swamp. Swampfire to be exact!" Members rushed over to see who entered their chambers due to the strange nasally voice.
"What the-? Changeling!" Noticing the hourglass symbol on the creature's chest they all began to shout.
The racket fell onto deaf ears as the monster stared down the old man next to him, who reciprocated the action. What stood before the head captain was a bipedal plant man, he was as tall as he was pungent and he was very pungent. He seemed to be made out of intercropped green vines, he had trunk like feet, fingers that bore the color of flames. An odd protrusion shielded the sides of his head like a popped collar, his head was yellow in color and sported a purple flame that escaped from an exit on his head.
"What flammable one you are." Yamamoto told him as a threat as well as a way to understand more of what he could potentially do.
"Ha, that's more true than you could ever know old man."
'Don't underestimate the bastard, brat.' The grizzled voice of Barragan spoke directly to the alien in his mind, inside of which he sat on a throne constructed from what seemed to be a part of the universe itself. Ben's mental world was all green grassy fields and open blue skies, so it was quite a shock to first discover that he had one and that the former king of Hueco Mundo resided there.
'I know. I wouldn't rush into this without thinking I could win or get away. I have another way to potentially bust out of here and for all of us to get back at Aizen.'
The alien surveyed his surroundings, all he saw was a circular parliament like room with a spot light beaming directly down upon him and the old man.
"Turning your back against an opponent I thought you would at least know never to perform such a novice mistake." Yamamoto narrowed his eyes on the alien before him, who simply smirked and showed his odd blue teeth.
"Of course not! I am way more professional than just surveying my surroundings, we're underground aren't we?" The alien grinned.
"Observant, yes we are and there are a dozen seals and levels of durable material that separates us from the outside world, you must already know why I am telling you all of this yes?" The old man seemed amused by the plant man for learning their location.
"Thanks, and yeah you're planning to kill me, however I want to make a deal."
The mention of a deal drew the attention of everyone present and locked their attention onto the plant man.
...
At the same time Yasutora Sado laid down on a bed within the barrack hospital of squad four, his bed was next to the window the sun beamed down upon him.
'What was that? That power that filled every inch of my being I felt incredible if I could maybe experience it again-'
"Umm, Sado-I mean Chad, are you awake?" A soft voice made itself known from behind the door to his room.
"Oh, yes come in." Opening the door stepped in a beautiful and tall figure, she wore the standard black uniform of the shinigami except she had a badge that wrapped around her left arm. The uniform did little to help his her well endowed figure, she had silver hair and grey eyes. She was Isane Kotetsu the lieutenant of squad four, she carried a bowl of porridge with her
"You seem better already, that's great." She placed the bowl next to the man's bed and began to take his temperature with her hand.
"I just stopped moving due to exerting muscle, not a fever." Chad joked as she tested how sensitive his limbs were by flicking her fingering.
Staring him in the eyes, "Of course, but I take pride in my work so I have to make sure that my patient is in the clear, and what doctor would mind looking after such a cute patient."
Blinking the gentle giant, asked her, "You think I'm cute?"
"Ahh! N-no I-I didn't mean it like that. But don't think I'm not cute, you are, no wait I-" Her rambling was cut off by Chad, who looped his arm around her waist, he pulled her down where she landed on his chest.
"Wha-?!"
"I think you're pretty cute too, Isane." He spoke with a more gentle tone that put the woman at ease. She buried her head into his chest, the warm feeling comforted her, but despite everything she stood up.
Fixing her hair Isane then cupped Chad's cheek, "Thanks for that, I was really worried about you, I won't ask you to step back from the battlefield. You and I have places where we need to be because the people who we care about are there so if anything promises me, you'll become strong enough that I don't need to worry."
The feeling of her, the words she spoke filled his stomach with butterflies, he held her hand in return.
"I promise." He had more reason to become strong, from this moment forward he would harden his body to become as durable as his resolve.
"Thank you, we still have a long way until everything can go back to normal so when everything is said and done let's see where things go." And like that she left Chad began to rattle his mind of ways to become stronger in the shortest amount of time possible.
...
Soon after Kevin stepped into a section of Mayuri's personal lab that had five human sized tubes filled with an odd turquoise colored liquid.
In each of them was an arrancar, each of them were the ones Ben had a close relationship with or at least the ones who could escape whatever that Sosuke Aizen guy did.
"Ugh, this whole debacle is becoming a major headache." Kevin shook his head, and sighed. He really missed the simpler times where it was just fighting big bad after big bad.
"You and me both."
"I agree with that sentiment."
Grimmjow and Lancelot both joined Kevin in the room, both seemed downcast which the alien hybrid understood why.
"Oi, know this and tell Tennyson the one who's going to do Aizen in is me." Grimmjow spoke with a level of anger and bloodlust that no one had ever seen before.
"I make no promises sir Grimmjow, if the opportunity arises I will take the bastard's head." Lancelot seemed to carry the same desire to see Aizen's life be brought to an end. One lost his home and friends another lost his boss or superior who he swore to protect, this matter was personal to them each.
"Ugh, been there before just know if you need help I'm pretty useful in a fight." Revenge was a path that could only be resolved by a person's own actions and their decisions while on that path reveal their true selves.
...
At the same time as the boys meeting Gwen was at the Kuchiki estate with Rukia, Renji, Ichigo and Orihime. The five of them were silent, the eyes of the first three looked particularly hollow as if all the light behind was snuffed out.
Inside of the estate in the now emptied master bed room was the corpse of Byakuya Kuchiki, the news hit them like a train. He was Rukia's brother, Renji's mentor and the first soul reaper to accept Ichigo. Orihime clenched her hands tight, her nails dug into her palms. She could feel the blood trickle, it did not bother her anymore. She had nothing to say even with the knowledge that there was nothing she could do, she felt as though it was her fault.
A hand clasped her shaking one, it was Ichigo's, it was as if he was telling her, 'its ok.' She stopped and leaned on him for support.
As if to mirror the orange haired couple, Rukia went on to clasp Renji's hand, the display did not shock the red haired soul reaper. Renji read the meaning behind the action, she begged him without saying it, 'please, don't leave me.'
That continued, for a few moments, Gwen watched over them as a way to ensure they were ok, grief made people do crazy things.
Gwen thought back to the early days of her relationship with Kevin the two seemed like complete opposites that could never match. Despite that they made it work.
"Apologies." A stealth core member made his appearance known. Everyone turned to his location at the entrance of the room.
"Head captain Yamamoto has called for an emergency meeting for all of the captains and vice-captains." The news seemed to sour the already heavy atmosphere, but the five people all moved forward to the squad one barracks.
...
At the barracks not only were there captains and lieutenants, the Karakura gang and the Alien Force minus Ben were also accounted for. After seeing everyone assembled the head captain tapped his cane into the ground to officially start the meeting.
"There is no need for me to tell you all about how dire our current situation is. When Aizen left he took two other captains alongside him; we have no one capable of filling their places at the moment. To further add on to our troubles squad twelve was destroyed, our technological capabilities have been crippled due to this loss, and lastly, captain Kuchiki has fallen in battle."
After the old man spoke the entire room seemed to react differently, even then all of them deep down had the same desire for vengance.
"There is no easy solution to all of our problems, however I have a solution to the issue of a missing captain. You can enter."
Everyone directed their attention to the entrance of the meeting hall, the door opening revealed a figure in a haori.