"Yoruichi-Sama!!!"Soi Fon tried running after Yoruichi but was interrupted as a shadow engulfed her.
* Bang *
It was Itsuki"s gigai landing on top of her. Since it was abrupt, she didn"t have time to react and was pushed onto the ground due to its weight. Regaining her bearings, she noticed a weight pressing down and the Gigai"s face incomparable close to her.
"So Close"
Her faced suddenly flushed as she heard a cold voice interrupt her thoughts.
"Hentai"
She looked towards Itsuki only to see a disgusted look directed at her deepening her embarra.s.sment as she hurriedly tried to get up. Some of the Onmitsukido members ignored this interaction and went to help Soi Fon.
"""We didn"t hear anything"""
"Niihashi Noel, lead the way"
Itsuki ignored helping Soi Fon and turned towards Noel bringing her out of her thoughts. For some reason, Itsuki found some sort of pleasure in teasing Soi Fon. These weren"t due to him having romantic feelings for her but she, in all fairness, did make for an easy target for someone to tease. It was similar to how you would irritate your little siblings. Now we know where Ryurai gets her personality from.
"Siblings, huh?"
This thought irritated Itsuki for some reason and an unpleasant feeling welled up in his chest. Itsuki was quite contradicted with what to do, on one hand there was Rangiku, a gentle girl who liked Itsuki back. On the other hand, there was a sense of loss, as if he wanted more. He never knew what to make of this feeling, indecisiveness filled his heart. It seemed like his past life"s lack of interaction with the opposite gender while being a part otaku had come back to haunt him. Interacting with Rangiku may have helped Itsuki increase his confidence, but those deeply ingrained roots were hard to change. No matter who he was now or how cool he looked, it would be difficult for him to change his core personality, even with the changes brought from the mystic eyes. His mental abilities were also proving to be useless in this situation.
It wasn"t a simple set of calculations or a new life new me situation.
"Seriously, killing is much more easier"
This thought shocked Itsuki, and a wry smile appeared on his face. It seemed his core personality was changing, but not in the way he hoped. The concept of death and slaughter felt familial as if he belonged to it, was moulded by it. This did however bring in a sense of decisiveness as he looked for a solution, before coming across a common saying
"Time will tell"
Everyone was occupied in helping SSWB, so no one saw Itsuki"s subtle changes in expression. The unpleasant feeling didn"t digress fully as he got irritated.
"Too slow"
The innocent Noel, who was riding a small dragon meant for the transport of witches, was suddenly lifted. Holding her in a princess carry Itsuki pushed his speed to his maximum and made a beeline towards the direction where the explosion occurred.
"eh?! eeeehhhhhh?!"
Noel couldn"t process what was happening as her surroundings started to blur.
"Tch, showing off"
Soi Fon, now recovered, also increased her speed to catch up to Itsuki with the Onmitsukido members following suit. However, they failed to do so as Soi Fon started to lose ground against him.
This only meant one thing, Itsuki"s Shunpo was superior to hers. Although she could tell that Itsuki was still inferior to her G.o.ddess, it was still superior to hers. This lit a fighting spirit within her as she refused to be outdone and pushed herself,
"I must not lose to him!"
Ninii was surprised by the turn of events as she brought up her speed while screaming
"Wait for me!!"
Noel didn"t feel too well with the sudden change of speed and before she knew it, they were facing a dark dragon. It looked similar to what Itsuki encountered in the Rukongai but only larger.
The dragons roared with an expression saying, "You shall not pa.s.s". Itsuki felt amused by the look as he remembered a certain someone saying those lines. Noel, however, was beyond terrified as it was her first time encountering such a large dragon. Still terrified, she felt a push and a gust that forced her to close her eyes. Opening them, she noticed that the clouds looked especially large in Reverse London and were continuously growing.
"Eh?! Growing? Wait not growing, they feel like they"re getting closer? They"re not getting closer, I am?!!"
She finally realised that she wasn"t being held by anything and was thrown into the sky. Quickly turning around, she saw a small Itsuki confronting a dark dragon.
"Aaaagg…"
Her scream was interrupted as she saw Itsuki put his hand on one of his katana, a flash and returning his katana into the sheath, she didn"t even catch a glimpse of the blade. What shocked her even more was the unmoving dragon suddenly collapsing and splitting into two, diagonally from its right shoulder to the left side of its waist.
Another scream escaped her mouth as she felt herself to come to a halt and pulled downwards.
"Aaaaaggggggghhhhhh!!!!!!"
She didn"t scream for long as she felt two hands grasp her. Slightly opening her eyes, she saw Itsuki holding her as a breeze blew her hair. Moving her hair off her face she glanced downwards to see the ground the same distance away as to when she closed her eyes, although it did look a little closer. A fierce vertigo hit her as she quickly lynched Itsuki"s neck, burying her face into his chest.
Itsuki was too shocked to move but quickly came to his senses as he started to slowly pat her back, calming her down. Calming down, she moved her head and turned away, refusing to show her blushing face. It was her first showing this side to the opposite gender.
"Shall we make a move now?"
Giving a small nod of approval, Noel refused to look at Itsuki. The others just reached them as Itsuki shunpoed away. They all gave a look of shock seeing the dead dragon and its size.
Ninii was especially shocked as she surveyed the surroundings. Seeing the surrounding damage, she realised it was most likely caused by the dragon"s arrival not due to the fight. This meant that it was dispatched in one move, thinking to here only one thought went through her head,
"Fierce!"
Suddenly a blush crept onto her face as she started to feel envious against Noel. Putting her thoughts aside, she then followed the group trying to catch up to Itsuki.
Itsuki arrived at the HQ of Wing Bind. It was a fairly modern building that had around seven storeys with a castle like roof with two towers. An emblem of Wing Bind was underneath it. Now looking at it, Itsuki could see the source of explosion being from the seventh floor. He could sense the reiatsu of a dozen or so Shinigami coming from there.
He shunpoed to that location and settled Noel onto the ground next to him. Putting her down he got a clearer view at the situation ahead of him.
Bodies were lain strewing about across the marble floor with blood flowing across it. They wore a similar uniform to Noel but had a more combat orientated design. Around 12 to 13 Shinigami were there cleaning their blade indicating they were the cause of the ma.s.sacre that lay ahead of him. The sound of vomiting could be heard next to him as the sight was too much for Noel. Growing up in a relatively peaceful place, it was the first time she came across a horrific sight such as the one in front of her.
Itsuki closed his eyes upon seeing this scene, not to avert his gaze from the sight but to calm his emotions as his mystic eyes solely activated. He was furious.
His thoughts were slowly pulled towards a conversation he had with Yamamoto
* Flashback *
"Itsuki, what do you see as justice?"
Itsuki contemplated on this question.
What was justice? Was someone who broke the rules evil? Was a person stealing to feed their child evil? Was killing someone just to fill your stomach evil? Itsuki didn"t know. Training with Yamamoto gave Itsuki a profound insight to the term "The strong eats the weak".
"I don"t know sensei. What I do know that if I see something wrong happening in front of me, I will try to stop it"
"Even if it means going against the world"s justice"
Itsuki never replied but Yamamoto got his answer. Letting out a sigh he just said
"I will give you my last lesson. Become strong and fight for your source of "justice". You can leave"
Itsuki bowed and left.
Chojiro who was next to him asked Yamamoto
"You sure about this?"
"Yes, although we have different minds, we walk the same path. He"s just like those other two kids"
Giving out a defeated sigh as he got back to his paperwork. A few seconds ticked by as a roar was heard within the 1st division
"Why is there so much paperwork!!"