Fate (A Bleach Fanfiction)

Chapter 128: Shinigami vs Shinigami! The Twins arrive!!

3rd person's pov

At the Black Ridge Gate, a shinigami named Danzomaru, lies unconscious on his back while Yoshi and Mabashi oversee another group of villagers with a second seige engine, preparing to open the gate as well. Both of them seemed to take notice that Mitsuo had suddenly vanished, and they weren't sure what caused it. In the forest outside Fugai, Ichigo, Chad, Orihime, Uryu, Rin-Rin, Kurodo, Toshiro and Rangiku are running frantically back towards the Seireitei. A massive wave of panic washed over Ichigo, noticing that he could no longer feel Mitsuo's reiatsu. He was worried that he was playing tricks and somehow trying to stalk Kuroki, who he could feel had a shaky reiatsu. He could tell that something was wrong, Kuroki's spiritual pressure fluctuating up and down. "Ichigo, are you alright?" Orihime asked, noticing the uneasy look on Ichigo's face. "Yeah, I'm fine.. I'm just worried about Kuro.. Her spiritual pressure doesn't even remotely feel stable." He said, his eyes shaking. "I'm sure everything will be fine, Ichigo. This is Kuroki we're talking about. She might just be fighting one of the other bounts." Rangiku suggested, nobody else had noticed that Mitsuo's reiatsu had suddenly disappeared except Ichigo. "I don't think she's fighting anyone. Besides, I locked her in Squad Six barracks." He said, shaking his head. This got everyone's attention, "You did what?" Rangiku quipped, looking at him in shock.

"It was the only way to stop her from entering another fight and possibly either dying or Kana killing someone. She's probably just in the room." Ichigo defended, letting out a sigh. "Then why else would her reiatsu be fluctuating like that if she's not fighting somebody?" Toshiro questioned, "She could be injured. And heavily. That could be a reason why." Uryu said, ".... If she escaped from the room, then she could have run into Mitsuo."

"Now that I think about it," Toshiro started, "I can't feel anything related to Mitsuo's spiritual pressure or even feel him." He finished, looking up at Rangiku.

"You don't think -?"

"No, she couldn't have, Rangiku. I'm pretty sure the last fight Kana came out and got her injured, Kuroki made sure she didn't come back out. So there's no way, she could have killed him." Ichigo argued, crossing his arms as he looked at Rangiku.

"You're right. There's no way she would let Kana do anything of that sort, not after she took the full brunt of a Getsuga Tensho the last time." Chad said, he was getting the feeling that there was something off about this whole ordeal.

"Rin-Rin? Kurodo, can either of you feel Mitsuo's energy?" Ichigo turned to the two Mod souls, who shook their heads at him. "No. It's like he completely disappeared." Kurodo said, making the others look to one another as they thought of what could have possibly happened to Mitsuo.

"How can someone just disappear completely like that with no trace?" Orihime asked, looking over at Ichigo.

"Nobody can.. Not completely. Not unless-"

"Unless he was thrown back into where we came from." Ichigo said, his eyes widening. Everyone looked at him, surprised and shocked at the thought that Mitsuo wasn't even from their realm. "What do you mean by that, Ichigo? Is Mitsuo not of this world?" Toshiro questioned, his eyes slightly narrowing at the young man. Ichigo thought for a moment, trying to figure out if he should reveal what he had learned about both Mitsuo and Rui. But he felt that now was not the right time to bring it up, not when they had so much more stuff to focus on.

"Look, we don't have time to worry about it now. We have to go stop the bounts. I'm pretty sure Rui will explain to you everything about how he really knows Mitsuo later. For right now, let's focus on the bounts and stopping whatever they have planned." Ichigo said, "Hold on, Kurosaki. You know something, don't you?" Rangiku stated, crossing her arms over her chest. She didn't particularly like how Ichigo was trying to sweep this under the rug, she wanted to know what he was hiding. "I can't tell you as it is not my story to tell. I can have Rui explain everything to you later when we see him. I promise you that much." Ichigo basically was begging for this subject to be dropped, both Chad and Uryu picked up on his reluctance and knew that this was something everyone would need time to process. "Just drop it, we don't have time to argue about anything right now. Not when the bounts are harming the people here. Let's go." Uryu said, "I agree. We'll talk about this later, let's go stop the bounts." Toshiro spoke up, giving Ichigo a look.

"But Capt-"

"Drop it, Rangiku. Now."

Meanwhile, the villagers at the White Road Gate force the tip of the siege engine underneath the gate and begin raising it by pulling down on the other end. With immense effort and Tōba's encouragement, the villagers succeed in raising the gate almost completely up by fully leveraging the siege engine. After noting with delight that they did it to Kariya, who acknowledges this, Tōba instructs the villagers to riot as they please within the Seireitei, and as the horde of villagers rushes toward the gate, several Shinigami step into view and assume battle stances, which causes the startled villagers to stop in their tracks as they are told that they will not pass this point. When they demand to know who the Ryoka are Kariya, Koga and Sawatari walk forward from the crowd, which parts to let them walk through. The three men approach the gate, which is still unopen as the unnerved shinigami were determined not to let them in. Exchanging words back and forth with shinigami reveals to Kariya that he was going to get nowhere, so when they attack him, he fights back using his doll. He quickly incapacitated the shinigami, his technique being praised. As more conversation goes on, Kariya reveals to Toba that the villagers had played their part in this.

At the moment, the twins, Rei and Yukio were scouring the Soul Society to figure out where Kariya was. They knew he was being active, but they had no clue where he had gone which frustrated them both to no end. "We can try finding Ichigo. He might be headed in the direction of Kariya." Rei suggested, looking absolutely calm while Yukio panicked. "You want to go to Ichigo?!! Are you crazy?!! He'll kill us when he finds out what happened to Kuroki!!" He panicked, screaming at his calm twin. "It'll be fine, Yukio. Kuro is safe and her injuries are finally healing. Besides, she's not fighting anyone or planning to. And since Mitsuo has disappeared, she can finally get the rest her body needs." He said, shunpooing as he found Ichigo's reiatsu. Yukio sighed, sweatdropping as he muttered under his breath before shunpooing after his brother. In less than a minute, the twins appeared in front of Ichigo and the gang, who were in the middle of confronting Kariya and his men.

"Oh boy," Ichigo turned his head at the familiar voice, his eyes landing on the twins. "Guys?" Orihime called, looking confused. Uryu, Rangiku and Chad looked to one another, knowing that the twins must have had a reason as to come find them like that. Especially since they needed to stop Kariya, who had felt the disappearance of Mitsuo.

"Where is my sister? Is she safe? Is she okay?" Ichigo questioned, "Well..." Yukio started, making Ichigo growl in irritation.

"Spit it out!"

"She escaped the room! Then she found Renji and Rei, who you sent to watch over Mitsuo and then Ishihara appeared during the battle. Then Kuro fought Mitsuo and she got severely injured and Mitsuo has completely disappeared! Like, we really don't even know if he's still in our realm. But don't worry, Kuroki is being treated in Captain Unohana's hospital and she's not going to be fighting anyone any time soon, unless you absolutely need her!!" Yukio shouted, leaving everyone in shock at the news they just received.

"What?!!" Ichigo shouted, making Yukio flinch.

"You stupid idiot." Rei sighed, smacking his forehead.

"Explain." Ichigo demanded, turning to Rei who just sighed.