"Tell me, Yamamoto. What should I do?"
"Uh." The tiredness from the affairs of yesterday did not leave the head captain completely, the only saving grace he was afforded was the cool air, the soothing sounds of the hustle and bustle of nature and finally the beautiful colors brought forth by the rising sun. Sadly these pleasant sights were obscured by the headache his contemporary brought him.
The duo walked in the sparsely populated central garden of the Seireitei, abundant spiritual energy flowed throughout the area. Thanks to his various trips to the location the elderly shinigami discovered that those with high spiritual energy attracted the natural energy similar to a magnet. This phenomenon was the cause for the old man to have several tiny blue sparks swim around his body.
"Saiban, you talk as if we have no choice in the matter. If it was anyone else I would have given you my seal of approval without a doubt. What you are asking me to do is to approve Tokinada becoming the head of his noble house, I am sure you did not need me to tell you what crimes he was accused of."
Sandals and clogs met the brick laid path the duo stepped upon each creating a distinct sound.
A long silence occupied the air between the duo.
"It is what it is, laws are meant to be followed, that is what the former captain Kuchiki stood for."
Saiban, the face of the quiet console known as the Central Forty-Six, believed in the execution of the laws without fail. The man could not boast of being mighty in stature, his calling card was the blindfold he wore over his eyes, the word order was embroidered in Japanese kanji on the center of it. Black and gold were his staple colors, his robes primarily consisted of the former while the latter were used as highlights. His hair was a long golden curtain that stopped at his lower back, the hair ended in dark tips.
"Evoking the name of a dead man? Has your justice finally shown a crack?" The old man gave a sly remark, sadly his companion showed no response. Later, however, once a pond came into view the blindfolded man stopped and seemed to stare at the ducks, frogs and birds that called the area home.
"Look there Yamamoto, what do you see?" Yamamoto pondered on what his response should be, the other man was obviously referring to the pond before them.
"A system perfectly in tune with itself, times may arise when that system may be forced to adapt to new challenges, however that is the nature of life. What cannot adapt and change will be swept away by the sands of time. That is how the Gotei, no all of Soul Society must be, for us to continue onwards to the future we must change." The older man did not hesitate as he spoke those were his honest thoughts and feelings. Those words sickened Saiban to no end, but he forced his face to not make his true feelings visible, no matter how much political influence he wielded challenging the man who founded the Gotei was wishing for death.
"Time. To a mortal such a thing is absolute, to us it is little more than a nuisance we kido to bend it to our will to reject it outright. Time may be unavoidable to many, but not to the truly strong, this..." The blond haired man spread his arms out wide, Yamamoto knew exactly where the man's tirade was headed. "All of this is thanks to you, "Genryusai Yamamoto, the one who torched trillions" there should not be any form of change the rules and regulations were the things that allowed us to stand where we are right now. Calamities are simply trials that test the our ability to defend and uphold these things we cherish if-"
Cutting him off by raising his hand, the old man stopped slouching to be a head taller than the younger blond haired man.
"I have heard enough of your words Saiban, you are not the first, and you will not be the last, that is for certain. However, my answer will remain the same, Kurasaki and his friends, as well as the newly appointed captains are not to be messed with. For the case about the successor to the record holder clan I refuse to allow him to be released from Muken. If there is nothing else I would like to enjoy this scenery, alone." The head captain laid everything out for the agent, he could sense the frustration welling up from within the young man, surprisingly he simply bowed.
"Thank you head captain for your time, it has been...informative." Standing upright again, he turned and took his leave, the elderly man stared back at the pond.
Red.
The once blue water was stained with the color that he was all too familiar with, that was a sign of spiritual pressure being used, the animals died due to being so weak. On the opposite side of the scale Yamamoto was too strong to feel it occur.
"Everything will be alright." This Gotei started with him, despite that this vessel would not go down with its captain, he would entrust the future to those he raised and guided that was the will of the world.
Yamamoto simply placed the end tip of his wooden can into the water and in the second, steam rose into the air.
The heat and moisture were the things that the old man felt at first, but soon they became little more than nothing to be bothered about. He everted his gaze from the once life filled pond and began to leave, every drop of water and every piece of life had been reduced to nothingness.
Change did not mean one must be idle and accept any and all things, especially blighted things. When encountering such evils the destruction of the entire system is called for.
...
Karakura Town the World of the Living.
Ichigo Kurasaki laid on his bed, arm over his eyes to block out the morning sun. Bags were visible underneath his red eyes, the night had been a difficult one, his whole day yesterday was one of his worst yet.
His father allowed him to stay home after seeing his obvious change in mood and demeanor, death.
He wanted power so that no one around him could die. He rolled to his side, the image of Byakuya's corpse with his severed arms haunted him.
Maybe, if I could have defeated that arrancar guy then everything would be okay? Maybe he could have saved him?!
Those questions kept his mind awake and were unending, perhaps-
"Ichigo!" Receiving a kick to the side of the head of his head the orange haired young man was sent tumbling down to the floor of his room.
"What the hell was that for Kon!?" Ichigo rose and grabbed the stuffed lion plushy that kicked him.
"Stop moping around, how are you supposed to get anything done if you just sit around here and do nothing!" The toy shouted as Ichigo pulled his limbs in various directions with an uncaring disposition.
"What do you want me to do? I couldn't even land a decent hit on that guy, not to mention the huge problem I have with my inner hollow the more I use bankai the louder his voice gets." The possessed doll squealed as it uselessly tried to break the hold of the teenage boy, to no results.
"That may be true, but is sitting around here going to do anything to change that? Everyone else is busy getting stronger and you're here mopping and being afraid to face your fears. You know what I say? Get out there, and look for a reason or a way to fight him back in this world if filled with ways to combat this stuff or a version of it. One of them has to work for you." The substitute shinigami stopped, his eyes widened for an instant.
"Huh, that was surprisingly good advice. Thanks, Kon."
"You're welcome- wait! Surprisingly, what do you mean by that I always give out great advice!" The doll continued to scream as Ichigo decided to search for ways to curb the influence of his hollow. Stepping out of his house Ichigo wore a white polo shirt, skin tight leather jeans and a red bag adorned his back, Kon hid within.
The duo left for the market district, their search was not long before a store caught their eyes.
"An old fashioned record shop?" Ichigo scrutinized the business, he thought these types of stores all went out of business as the popular bands that had records all disbanded.
"Oh, don't people say music helps you to calm down or enter a trance and stuff like that? Maybe we can find you something to listen to and that'll help you out." Whispering from his hiding spot from within the bag, he advised his friend, who pondered but then he agreed.
The first thing that caught the eye of the young man was the retro feeling of the place as if time had not affected the area.
The wooden shelves housed the many oversized black disks in their album covers.
An odd scent filled the air, the patrons chatted about as if they had no care in the world. Full belly laughs, gentle audible humming reached his ears.
"Sorry sir, but for security reasons we ask that you leave your bag with us." Asking him while he pointed to the substitute shinigami's back, stood a store clerk.
"O-oh sure here." Ichigo was concerned for his stuffed friend, but that feeling faded as he recalled how strong the lion toy was.
After dropping off his bag Ichigo looked around more seeing, that the floor had a dark fabric covering.
Various shapes each a different color, stretched across the floor.
"Jazz, techno, heavy metal...afro beats? They have those?"
"Oh, a rare find. Those are really hard to come across in this day and age." Hearing the voice of a man, Ichigo turned around, there behind him stood a man with jaw length blond hair. He had a straight cut, which allowed the substitute shinigami to see his brown eyes.
His attire consisted of a plain white shirt, dull grey long coat, slacks and a newspaper boy cap.
Ichigo felt oddly unnerved by the man before him who seemed to only be slightly older than him.
"Yeah, not a lot of this stuff gets here, so I sometimes try to listen to whatever I can." Ichigo had a preference for rock music, however he was not unfamiliar with other genres, after all songs were simply another form of poetry. And he took pride in his excellence in languages, the man closed his eyes and nodded.
"You really are well versed, oh, look at the time I should take my leave. I'll see ya."
The man left the store with a strange joy in his steps, he waved to Ichigo along the way as if they were old friends.
"Weird guy." Ichigo took out his flip phone and checked the time, it read ten forty-three, the teen examined the album once more, shrugged his shoulders and decided to purchase it. He rationalized that even if it could not help him in taming his hollow, it still would be a good listen. He headed to the stores counter to purchase and check out, until-
"That's odd, sorry sir your bag seems to have been misplaced."
The clerk spoke with an embarrassed tone as he began to ruffle through every space available behind the counter. Ichigo kept a calm attitude as he thought about who could have taken it.
Then it came to him, the blond haired man from before his instincts were alerting him about the man, could he have been involved with Aizen that being the reason he was so friendly with the auburn haired boy.
"It's OK I got a clue on who has it!" The young man shouted as he left the store trying to sense Kon's spiritual energy as he sprinted. Vehicles, civilians and sounds faded away from his senses as he envisioned several ribbons. Concentrating, a yellow ribbon appeared and he grabbed it.
"Gotcha!" Ichigo traversed through the city until he stopped at an abandoned warehouse, and right above there sat the blond haired man, with Kon in hand.
"Hey, I don't know who you are, but that guy you have in your hand there annoying as he may be is my friend. So I'm telling you to put him down." His senses were on high alert, this was enemy territory, who knew who or what could happen? He slipped one hand into his pocket ready to use his Substitute Shinigami combat pass.
"Why so hostile? After all..." The blond man placed his hand over his face and light began to swirl about. "After all, who could understand you better than us?" He spoke in a distorted voice as he wore something that caused a violent shiver to shoot up his spine. The man wore a hollow mask.