Currently, Itsuki was leaving the 1st division after an individual came and took the captain test."So that was Amagai Shusuke."
Indeed, his unkempt appearance and with his easy-going att.i.tude brought a one of a kind disguise, covering his true ruthless character. Behind that simple, casual smile was a sinister mind h.e.l.l bent on getting revenge.
Itsuki arrived and felt a phantom pain on his torso. Tracing the previous wound inflicted by Ichigo, Itsuki remembered his miscalculation and the deeply embedded pride that was hurt. He believed that he was nigh invincible until now and he would be able to go against anything that came his way. While this was true, Ichigo"s potential and his current increase in strength was something that he had still underestimated. Knowing that the current Aizen was most likely stronger than now, and him training Ichigo, it seemed that he had inadvertently raised the power levels of this world.
He remembered back when he fought Bankai Ichigo, although no one found out, he had to remove his limiter to end the fight quickly. The only reason he was able to do this was due to one of the many spies he had planted within the Gotei 13.
Taking his mind of this incident, he looked towards the empty stand where Seikyo would usually rest upon. Itsuki had sent Seikyo over to Hueco Mundo to search for the hidden village. With this he was able to conclude that they weren"t able to share their sight if they were in different realms.
Sighing to himself, he wondered when he became so pa.s.sive. Itsuki made his way to his personal training grounds and went into his inner world. Opening his eyes, he was astonished by what came to his sight. The precious mountain that housed the two zanpakuto spirits was nowhere to be found and all that lay was one filled with various cracks leading to immense ravines. The new addition to this world were two suns placed on both the east and west of the mountain, a pure black one dotted the west while the orange one hovered towards the east. Knowing that they were the current una.s.similated powers, Itsuki ignored it and looked for the two zanpakutos.
Searching high and low, he couldn"t find them until he directly looked up. A certain upside-down platform stood there as Itsuki saw a familiar black armoured individual albeit with a few changes,
"Is that how my Bankai looks like?"
With a thought, Itsuki floated up and landed across from the figure. The light beautiful snow that once slowly descended now raged in anger. Itsuki could barely see but he never moved to protect himself from the snow. Putting both of his hands on his swords, he felt it within himself and knew that he had disappointed his zanpakutos.
One of the major things that had carried on from the Hiten mitsurugi-ryu was to always be prepared for an ambush. Not reacting to Ichigo"s ambush was his first failure. Underestimating others and overestimating his calculative abilities, was his second. Not putting into account, a person"s possible improvement and their raw potential was his third mistake. Lastly, only looking at a person through their character from the anime and not seeing them as a person with feeling in front of him was his fourth mistake.
Although he had come to terms with this all being real, there was bound to be some sort of prejudice due to seeing their roles in the anime. All the people he had encountered had a shift in character due to his presence. He wasn"t saying that he would stop looking at them like that rather he wouldn"t hastily judge a person and mark them with that character. There were two sides to everything, he would properly look at their characters first before deciding on a conclusion.
The only ones that were saved from this judgement was his three lovers, he had long been surprised with the way they did things and seeing Soi Fon lose her obsession over Yoruichi was just one of the reasons that he didn"t look at them like that.
Itsuki deeply looked at the armoured warrior as he saw faint tears, leave its eyes. He needed to let his zanpakuto spirits know he was back. Unsheathing his swords, he was the first to move.
Itsuki didn"t know how long he had spent within his inner world when he opened his eyes. He got up and observing his surroundings, he realised that no one had come to disturb him.
Making his way towards his main office, he found that Soi Fon was already there with mission details in her hands. Frowning slightly, he took the mission details in his hands and read through them. It was a something of a side mission, apart from being the last line of defence, he had to search for the escaped princess of the Kasumioji clan, Kasumioji Rurichiyo.
Sighing in defeat, he realised on of the reasons that he had "stagnated". Soi Fon looked worried to the side as she could tell that Itsuki wasn"t acting like his usual self.
"Itsuki."
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"Itsuki."
Not getting any sort of reply from him, Soi Fon was sure that there was something wrong.
"Itsuki!"
Finally getting his attention, she saw Itsuki look away from the mission details and back at her. With a raised eyebrow, Itsuki looked confused as to why she was shouting. This further solidified her belief that something was wrong. After making sure that no one was around, she came up close to him and put her arms round his neck,
"Is there anything wrong?"
Itsuki was inwardly surprised but a smile surfaced on his face. It seemed that Soi Fon had noticed something wrong with him. Itsuki just smiled at her and gave a light kiss on her lips,
"Nothing."
This seemed to rea.s.sure Soi Fon as she didn"t question any further. As their job here was done, she accompanied Itsuki to the main Senkaimon. Hinamori and Yuki joined her later on but the worried look on Soi Fon"s face went unnoticed. She felt a slight uneasiness in her heart as she remembered Itsuki"s smile, it felt unusual.
Upon returning, Itsuki felt like he had forgotten something before he once again appeared on top of the portal leading to the valley of screams. He could hear faint screams coming from it when a figure shot out screaming and reached for the moon. He could see the figure stretching out his toy hand before gravity ruthlessly brought him down. The portal to the valley just closed when he landed on the same spot as he started drowning, gulping down water and struggling for breath.
Itsuki just watched from the side when he used all his strength just to pull himself onto the sh.o.r.e.
Kon had just escaped from the life and death situation. Waking up to find himself in a mysterious place he found that he was wounded and thought it was probably from the fall. Looking around, he started walking to try and find this place"s inhabitants. It seemed that Kon had somehow "forgotten" his traumatic experience with Itsuki as he just remembered falling down a bridge and ending up here.
Before he knew it though, he couldn"t find anyone and just when he felt all the loneliness inside of him burst out, the world around him started to crumble in pieces. Now he had to run away from a collapsing world. Luckily, he had found a portal leading to the living world and jumped through, just when the world was completely annihilated.
Crawling onto the sh.o.r.e, Kon lied on his back heavily breathing while he started twisting various parts of his body to release all the water he had soaked up. When he was done, he got up and a figure appeared in his sights. His traumatic experience came back like gushing water escaping from a broken dam as the grievances stored deep within his heart emerged.
Pointing his claw made out cloth at Itsuki, h started shouting,
"You son of a…"
Back at where Itsuki was standing, the group looked confused seeing Kon pointing at them and him screaming. Although they knew that he was screaming at them, he was just too far away, and his voice was too small for them to hear anything.
"What?"
Hinamori looked confused as she put her hand next to her ear and bent forward to try and know what the toy was trying to do the same. She turned to Yuki,
"Do you know what he is saying?"
Yuki just shook her head before looking at the other two, who also shook their heads. Although Itsuki could faintly hear him, he just chose to ignore most of Kon"s profanities. Back to where Kon was standing,
"…how could you do that to the great Kon-Sama…"
Sadly, for Kon, most of his grievances went unheard as Itsuki felt that there was no point in just standing here once he realised that the "thing" he forgot was Kon himself. Itsuki just turned around and left with the girls trailing behind him. As for Kon,
"…you unders- w-wait, where are you going? D-don"t leave meeeeee!"
Falling onto his knees, he dramatically screamed his lungs out, waking up the entire neighbourhood.
Itsuki arrived at the Urahara store before looking at Soi Fon and the other three,
"You guys go ahead; I need to check something."
Soi Fon wanted to say something but refrained from doing so when she saw Itsuki"s look. Instead, she would share what currently happened to her other two sisters.
Itsuki arrived in an inconspicuous alley and after making sure no one was looking, opened a Garganta and waited. A few seconds later, Seikyo flew through and landed on top of Itsuki"s outstretched hand. Petting the bird, Itsuki asked the bird his current most important question,
"Any clues?"
Seikyo shook her head as Itsuki continues,
"Close?"
Itsuki was happy seeing Seikyo nod before he took out a folded strip of paper and tied it to her feet. Whispering a few words, he let her fly back into the Garganta and closed it. He ended up making his way to the park where he sat on a bench and pulled out his Kiseru, waiting.
It wasn"t long before a Garganta opened behind him and a familiar figure walked out. Giving out a slight laugh, Aizen sat on the other side of the bench,
"Didn"t expect you to call me, Minamoto Itsuki. I was quite surprised seeing your eagle make its way into my humble abode."
Itsuki didn"t say anything and took a puff,
"Humble abode? If that is what you call humble…"
"So, what is this "something interesting" you talked about in your letter?"