"Sir, a report has been sent from Squad 12!"
A messenger Shinigami appeared in the 1st Division office and reported, alerting the Head Captain and his Lieutenant as he looked from reading a report to look at the kneeling man. The old man was sitting in his chair like usual with his Lieutenant, Chojiro Sasakibe standing beside him with his hands behind his back.
"Well, what is it?" he asked firmly, his eyes closed shut.
"Two Arrancars have been detected in the Eastern section of Karakura. Based on their Spiritual Pressure, density and stability, we believe they are fully developed. That is all"
Having finished delivering his assigned report, the Shinigami vanished, leaving behind a wary Lieutenant and a contemplating Head Captain.
"Sir?" Chojiro started hesitantly, not quite sure why the Head Captain would take so long to come to a decision. It was simple; they just had to send a few Lieutenants to deal with the Arrancars. In his humble opinion, it didn't need that much time to come up with a sound decision.
"What is it?" the old man asked and glanced at his Lieutenant.
"Pardon my intrusion, but shouldn't we take measures to deal or at the very least stop the Arrancars?"
Yamamoto nodded slowly, well aware that his Lieutenant didn't know what he knew. "The Arrancars would find that their little excursion to the World of the Living is not as fruitful as they had hoped it would be."
Chojiro blinked, wondering what the Head Captain meant by that. "Sorry sir, but I don't understand."
"A rather unique individual resides in the area the Arrancars are expected to arrive. If I know that person well, then it's safe to assume that we don't need to send our men there in order to deal with the Arrancars."
"Are you talking about Haru Uzumaki?" he asked curiously, skeptical over the fact that a person so comical and nonsensical will be able to handle two fully developed Arrancars. In fact, a full-pledged Captain would have trouble dealing with a powerful Arrancar!
"That's correct"
"I admit his sudden attack against Sosuke Aizen was strong and noteworthy, his behavior leaves much to be desired."
Yamamoto shook his head in negative, recalling the conversation he had with Haru. He had taken to observing his subordinates more often, asking simple questions randomly and gauging the limits of their pride and honor. In the end, he had been disappointed to see that what Haru had said was true from A to Z.
Most of his Captains and Lieutenant as well as lower seated subordinates had proven to be far too arrogant or over confident in their abilities, believing themselves as higher beings with unmatched power and authority.
And now his Lieutenant proved that even he was a victim of blindness.
Blinded from the truth, blinded by his judgment of the blond's character and behavior to realize his true self. No wonder Haru was acting the way he was, no one would suspect a person so loud to be powerful enough to make him, the Head Captain, feel like a child.
Just how could he have been blinded to the authentic colors of his Ideal world? Shinigamis were supposed to protect the Souls entering the Soul Society, not rule over them with an iron grip.
The less than pleasant condition of the West Rukon district as well as the rest of the Soul Society except Seireitei was a prove of his constant failure. He had created the Shinigami academy to nurture those Souls with powerful Spirit Energy in order to protect those who had none… to sacrifice their lives in order to save others. But now, the Shinigami who were supposed to protect the Souls, were the ones ruling them.
No food, no shelter and no life.
"Don't make assumption based on your judgment of his character Chojiro; never judge a book by its cover. I made the same mistake upon our first meeting and paid the ultimate price." Yamamoto said mysteriously.
Even though he trusted his Lieutenant like his own flesh and blood, there were still some secrets and things that were better left hidden. His humiliating and degrading defeat at the blond's hand was one of those secrets.
"Yes sir." Chojiro agreed even though he failed to really understand what he meant by "ultimate price".
A blue orb of light from the sky struck the ground, blasting away debris and dust into the surrounding area, creating a large crater that got the attention of many spiritually aware people. The dust from the explosion slowly subsided to reveal two men, one significantly shorter than the other, dressed in white long coats, white hakamas and black straw sandals with swords strapped to their hips.
The most noteworthy countenance notwithstanding their clothing about them were the black holes. The short one had a tennis ball sized black hole in his throat while the tall one had a large black hole in his torso.
"Yikes! I came here once when I was masked, I see the World of the Living hasn't changed one bit, still boring as ever! The Spiritual Pressure is so thin, I can hardly breathe." the tall one commented with a disgusted grin, looking around with clear contempt and hatred evident in his eyes.
The tall Arrancar was blessed with some unique facial features. The rest of his head was bald, only a low ponytail emerging from the back of his head. He had orange eyebrows with two orange blush-like marks under his eyes.
The short one was a green eyed man with some sort of unique green tear marks under his eyes, the right side of his face and head covered in a bony helmet. The expression on his face was one of absolute disinterest and impassiveness as he gave his partner a disinterested look, not really caring about something so irrelevant to their objective.
"Stop your whining Yammy, I told you I could manage this by myself, yet you insisted on coming. We are here for a reason."
The now named Yammy gave a grunt of agreement. "Yeah yeah, I get it. So how many humans are we supposed to kill?"
"Only one, the rest are of no concern to us."
"We are here in the world of the Living… a place where humans are swarming around like bugs and you only want to kill one? What are you nuts?"
A sideway cold glance from the short man stopped him from saying anything else. Yammy gave a loud grunt and walked up the crater, only to scowl in disgust when he saw a girl wearing a white Gi looking at them in shock.
"What are you looking at?" he asked with a frown.
"Stop it, Yammy. She can't see us." the short one commented without even glancing at the girl.
"Of course she can! Ulquiorra, just look at her!"
Hearing the straightforwardness in his tone, Ulquiorra looked at the young girl and had to admit his assumption was wrong. The pointed stare was a dead giveaway that she could see and hear them. It seems Lord Aizen's theory about Karakura Town full of spiritually aware humans was true after all. "Well, it seems you're correct."
Yammy smirked and slowly stalked towards the down and breathless girl like a predator stalking towards its prey.
Massacring pathetic humans has always been his favorite hobby… so easy to kill… so easy to make their puny lives disappear from their eyes. If he was supposed to kill one particular human, then he might as well kill others just for the fun of it!
Just as he was about to kick the down girl and hopefully squish her under his foot, a large black and red armored hand stopped him.
Yammy looked below his blocked foot and saw two humans, a blonde girl and a tall dark skinned boy, standing in front of him. He was surprised to see a mere human stop his kick with just his hand. "Who the hell are you?"
Orihime and Chad were just walking from school when the dense Spiritual Pressure of two Arrancars alerted them to their presence. It seems they were fortunate enough to be near the area, considering they arrived earlier enough to save Tatsuki from being killed.
"Orihime, take Tatsuki and go, I'll take care of these two!" Chad declared in his usual monotone voice, rubbing his shaking hand. Just blocking that kick was enough to almost break the bones of his hand!
Orihime nodded and shouldered the down Tatsuki as she walked away. Knowing Chad, he wouldn't stop until he couldn't move anymore, however, her fears came true when she turned around and saw Chad laying on the ground, his hand mutilated and shredded as if attacked by wild animals. "CHAD!"
Ulquiorra watched the orange haired girl with an odd sense of fascination, observing her as she used some sort of strange and intriguing technique to repair the wounds of the tall boy. The strange orange shield she used to protect herself from Yammy's attack was another mystery, though not as fascinating as the first.
She has healing powers… No, that's not healing. She is either reversing Time or Space, whatever it is, it's not healing.
"How the hell are you doing that?! You shouldn't be able to repair the damage I inflicted on him, in fact he shouldn't even be alive!" Yammy asked loudly, not believing the fact that a mere human possessed the ability to heal others.
"You're a strange human." Ulquiorra commented evenly, though it was still unclear if he meant good strange or bad strange. He eyed the small orange light attack shot towards Yammy, only to be blocked by his large hand and disintegrated into tiny pieces. Well, it seems aside from her healing powers, she was as trash as the rest of them. "Yammy, just kill here and be done with it."
Yammy grinned savagely, obviously pleased with the order considering his usual temperament. He adored killing! "Say bye bye!"
Raising his hand high above his head, the brutish Arrancar grinned widely and struck with his palm open, only to stop lest he impale his hand on a large sword… more like a kitchen knife.
"What's with these puny bugs popping up one after the other?!" The brute Arrancar grunted in anger, looking at the orange haired boy wearing a Shinigami Shihakusho.
"Ichigo!" Orihime said in relief.
"So I'm guessing, you're the reason why Chad is lying there bleeding?" Ichigo asked angrily, a dark scowl on his face.
"What the hell are you supposed to be?" Yammy asked rudely.
Ichigo ignored the tall Arrancar and turned to Orihime
"Take care of Tatsuki and Chad, I will deal with these two and end this!" the normally bubbly girl nodded grimly and encased both Chad and Tatsuki inside her healing rays. Ichigo gripped the forearm of his right hand with his left and extended his right, his sword outspread right in front of the confused Arrancar. "Bankai!"
The area around Ichigo was suddenly encased in a blue aura, wind picking up pace, trees shivering due to the furiousness of the wind as the people present shielded their eyes from the flying dust and debris. The smoke and the blue aura subsided a few moments later to reveal a changed Ichigo.
The changes were not much, his normal Shihakusho was replaced by a long black coat and his kitchen knife-like sword was replaced by a black normal sword with black chain hanging from the hilt. "Time to end this!"
"You've a Bankai, huh? Hey Ulquiorra, is this the guy?" Yammy asked dumbly, scratching the back of his head in confusion. Aizen had said something about a black Bankai, orange hair, but he was not sure.
The melancholic Arrancar shook his head. "Yammy, you really need to work on your perceptive skills. It's obvious that he is the one."
Yammy grinned savagely. "Good."