Unfinished Gems

Soul Brothers - 20 - FIN

~A BREAK FROM THE WINTER WAR~

~IT'S THE MURAMASA ARC~

~

"I'm guessing everyone else got that weird summons from Yamamoto," said Yoru dryly.

Normally the old man at least waited until a reasonable hour before dragging their ass out of bed.

Cheshire was still yawning.

It seemed every Squad Captain (except Zaraki, who had taken off yesterday to kill hollows in the Rukongai districts) had been called to the Sokyoku Hill for no apparent reason.

It was only pure luck that he happened to be up finishing paperwork at the time of the summons, or he would have been extremely cranky.

Suddenly the lieutenant of Squad One appeared. He looked like hell.

Yoru felt the presence long before the others, and realized the real problem.

A new enemy had shown up to annoy him.

Komamura charged in, much to the surprise of Yoru. He was stopped by someone he had only heard from the canine's sword.

His zanpakuto had just blocked him.

Each of them attempted to use shikai at the very least, but for some reason they refused to respond.

Well, almost all of them did anyway.

Cheshire appeared at Yoru's side, annoyed at the man before them.

"You can't control me, idiot."

"He's behind this?"

Cheshire nodded. This Muramasa person just tried to take control of Cheshire through their inner world. Fortunately for Yoru, Cheshire wasn't like the other swords at all.

They all stared when the explosion started. Apparently Muramasa had taken control of all the zanpakuto except for Cheshire.

Ichigo had managed to con his lieutenant into covering for him while he stayed in the World of the Living for a few days. So long as there wasn't a captain's meeting, he could skip the paperwork demons that threatened to eat his desk up.

(Yoru had made the mistake of mentioning that joke within Kurotsuchi's hearing, and the man had taken it upon himself to actually create the demons. Rumor had it he would have succeeded if Yamamoto hadn't caught wind at the last minute and used his zanpakuto on the beasts.)

Muramasa seemed annoyed by Cheshire. Possibly because he was the only sword spirit that remained loyal to his master. Clearly he had no idea why that was.

"Cheshire...strike."

"Gladly. The only one who can command me is Alyss!" hissed the cat.

To the shock of the others, Cheshire not only attacked Muramasa, he actually scratched him pretty good before vanishing and reappearing at Yoru's side.

"How interesting. How is it that your zanpakuto remains at your side when the others heeded my call?" asked Muramasa, intrigued.

"Because Cheshire isn't my zanpakuto. He only plays the part," said Yoru, amused.

That was news to the other captains.

Muramasa had done what he came to do. He had released the zanpakuto from their former masters and told the soul reapers that they were their own people now.

The only one who dared to defy him was Yoru and his sword, though he had yet to figure out why.

~

Unohana was very busy healing those injured in the initial attack. Yoru used his secondary healing bankai repeatedly trying to keep his friends alive. He was the only person who had been at the initial scene that could still use his sword...though revealing that Cheshire had never belonged to him in the first place was a bit of a shock.