Gateway 54: Interlude

Jushiro Ukitake

“First things first,” Urahara said, leaning back and letting the brim of his hat cover his eyes. “They’re still alive and well.”

Jushiro almost choked on his tongue at that information. The last time he saw the eight of them, they were Hollowfied. To think there’d be any chance at being ‘alive and well’ after that was unimaginable.

“You’re wondering how that’s possible when they were already taken over at that point, aren’t you?” Urahara smirked.

Jushiro cautiously nodded. He didn’t know where Urahara was taking his story, but he could see his attempt at manipulation by starting it the way he did. He’d let it play out and parse truth from lie when he was back on the Seireitei.

“That’s the reason Tessai and I got involved,” Urahara waved in the direction the man had left with Alex. “They were already infected when we got there, but Tessai’s forbidden Kido and my expertise managed to stabilize their transformations,” Urahara crossed his arms. “It wasn’t easy, and it didn’t guarantee they’d be able to control their inner Hollows. But in the end, everything turned out fine,” he gave a mirthless smile. “Except for all of them being sentenced to death and having to be brought to exile here in the living world with me.”

“And if I asked for a meeting with them?” Jushiro challenged. While he didn’t fully believe Urahara’s account of the events, meeting his supposed victims would go a long way to validating his claims.

“I’d have to send them a message and see who would want to,” he shrugged. “They don’t have a lot of goodwill towards the Gotei anymore, and while we kept in contact, 100 years is a long time over here…”

Jushiro sighed. Urahara was right. Shortly after the exiles arrived in the living world, the humans achieved flight, and not long after that, they stepped on the moon. The Human World’s pace was just faster than that of Soul Society, and during the last century, it had been growing faster.

To think that a group of Shinigami wouldn’t be swept away in it after a lifetime in Soul Society was comical. Just the time he spent with Alex out there was enough to pique his curiosity. But if he had to live it?

He banished those thoughts. He’d have time to ponder hypotheticals when he was back home.

“I understand,” he nodded at Urahara. “Now, you said that you found them already Hollowfied. If you didn’t do it, who did?”

He had read the reports, and evidence of Hollowfication experiments had been found in Urahara’s lab.

“Aizen,” Urahara said, and Jushiro almost laughed incredulously.

“You can’t still be trying to blame Captain Aizen!” Jushiro exclaimed. “Shunsui directly stated he saw him in the Seireitei that night!”

“That’s the problem,” Urahara frowned. “Aizen is a much better liar and manipulator than anyone gave him credit for.”

“How so?” The condescension in Jushiro’s voice was unmistakable. Not that he was trying to hide it.

“I didn’t know this when Tessai and I were brought forth to Central 46, but Shinji explained that Aizen had been manipulating him since he became his Lieutenant,” Jushiro snorted, prompting Urahara to glare at him. “Aizen’s Zanpakuto has an ability called ‘Complete Hypnosis’, which lets him control someone’s senses so they can see, hear, feel, and smell what he wants. So Aizen being seen in the Seireitei on the night of the incident means very little when it comes to placing him.”

Jushiro let his misgivings take a backseat to think about how that’d work. Because while Shunsui had confirmed Aizen’s presence that night, he also said he was suspicious of Aizen until that point.

“How does that work?” He asked a few moments later. Try as he might, he couldn’t come up with a way for Aizen to easily manipulate so many people for so long.

“What do you think? He has followers,” Yoruichi said. Her male voice once again surprising him. “Aizen had one of them trained specifically to take his place when he doesn’t want to be seen as absent.”

“And they aren’t all low-level Shinigami either, Captains Kaname Tousen and Ichimaru Gin were also there the night of the incident,” Urahara piped up.

Jushiro groaned internally. Even if he didn’t fully believe them, he still had the duty to investigate their claims, and with the information they had given him, he knew he’d be second-guessing any movement he made to follow through on it.

At least he’d have Shunsui’s help. That would lessen the burden on himself a fair bit.

Urahara clapped his hands. “Now that the downer conversation is over, we can get to the interesting part,” he said, meaning Alex.

Jushiro wanted to ask more questions, not only about Aizen but also about what a human Captain Isshin Shiba was doing, living in the city with what appeared to be his children; however, he held back. The first, because Urahara clearly didn’t want to talk more about it, to either conceal evidence of his involvement or to let Jushiro’s inevitable investigation lead him to his own conclusions. And the second, because it wasn’t his place to interfere with a happy family when the father’s only crime was desertion.

Although he was sure the man’s son had seen him and Alex, if only because Alex had been loudly complaining about his refusal to use a map. But when Jushiro felt them, he needed to see how the previous Captain had been doing. Pretending to lack a sense of direction was the easiest path to it without alerting Alex to what he was doing, something he now knew he didn’t have to do.

“What do you think?” Jushiro asked instead of voicing his thoughts.

“I believe him,” Urahara smirked. “His explanation of Campione and Authorities matches what I saw in the readings, and his magic is too different to be something from this world.”

“And his story was too complex, detailed, and devoid of logic for it to be a lie,” Yoruichi added.

“I agree,” Jushiro nodded. “But what does that mean?”

“That you prepare for when he leaves,” Urahara pointed at him. “And you make the best of the opportunities he represents. Maybe send someone with him when he goes back. He’s new to his position as a Campione, so whatever information we get now wouldn’t be as good as a Shinigami living there for a few years can get. As a bonus, he has a reason to come back earlier than if he went away by himself.”

“And you get access to other worlds sooner,” Jushiro couldn’t help but say.

“Of course,” Urahara easily agreed. “It’s not like it won’t be reciprocal either. You heard his basic description of his first Authority, which means he already has unlimited access to the shop. Do you think he won’t be coming here to at least talk to Tessai as much as he can get away with?”

He hasn’t thought about that, but it was true. Alex’s movements weren’t restricted by Soul Society’s rules and laws, something he experienced when Alex brought them to the World of the Living. The only reason he figured Alex hadn’t been making regular visits was that he had no reason to.

And now he had.

“You’re right, I’ll have to be ready for when the time co-” Jushiro was cut off by the ground shaking. “What was that!?”

“An earthquake?” Yoruichi exclaimed.

“No,” Urahara said, standing up with his cane held firmly in his hand and Yoruichi on his shoulder. “That was localized.”

“An attack?” Jushiro asked, letting his hand rest on his Zanpakuto’s hilt.

“Maybe,” Urahara said, not sounding sure of the answer.

Another tremor hit, making all three of them balance themselves to not fall over.

“Or maybe,” Urahara continued, his tone turning accusatory. “Tessai decided to show Alex the training room!”

With that, Urahara rushed to the back of the building. Yoruichi on his shoulder and Jushiro following close behind.

___

They found them where Urahara said they’d be: the training room.

In the back of Jushiro’s mind, he marveled at the masterpiece of Kido that the place was. Like someone had taken one of the high-level training grounds in Soul Society and stuck it underground. Rock outcroppings were spread around the place, with what appeared to be an open sky and sun bearing down on them. He knew it was some type of illusion from how long they had to descend from the trapdoor at the back of the shop, but it was still impressive.

He didn’t let any of that appear on his face, instead focusing on Alex and Tessai animately discussing something beside the biggest blackboard he had ever seen.

As they neared the two, Tessai waved a hand and Alex waved his wand, making pieces of chalk fly out of the blackboard’s base and start frantically writing on whatever open space they seemed to find.

“-Grouping of 31 and 11?” He heard Alex ask.

“It can work,” Tessai said, a hand on his chin as he looked at the board. “But to find the right words to match the numerology we want will be hard.”

“Yeah, using primes that high doesn’t seem like-” Alex cut himself off at seeing us approach. “Oh, hey guys!”

“What do we have here?” Urahara said, bypassing Alex and Tessai to examine the board.

“A spell that mixes Kido and wanded magic,” Tessai answered, taking a step back and crossing his arms as he watched Urahara.

“Didn’t you already do that, Alex?” Jushiro asked, carefully omitting that he had heard Aizen had participated.

“What I had before was a proof of concept, the quick and dirty method. That was all about throwing two similar spells together and seeing if it worked,” he smirked. “This is the next step.”

“I can see it,” Urahara said while looking up at the board. “The systems can work together, but your methodologies clash too much.”

Tessai grunted, making Urahara look back with a sheepish smile.

“Ah, sorry about that. You know how I get carried away with these things,” Urahara said, stepping back and turning away from the board.

Alex sent Tessai a questioning glance, prompting the man to sigh.

“Kisuke is a scientist, not a mystic,” Tessai said, waving in Urahara’s direction. “That means all other scientists with a similar level of intelligence and skill will reach the same conclusions and discoveries he did. As mystics, each of us forges their own path.”

“Standardization versus specialization,” Alex nodded. “Makes sense. The wanded magic I’m using here is standardized in my girlfriend’s world, while my world’s magic is specialized after the basics.”

Jushiro listened as the three men and Yoruichi talked. He was never one for such pursuits, only making what he saw as basic trinkets when the need arose. But hearing the group before him trading notes on advancing their craft to new heights, he wondered if maybe getting back into it to see how far he could go wouldn’t be a good idea.

With renewed interest and a need to see if he’d have to go looking for the materials to craft something, he said, “Alex.”

Alex turned to look at him with a guilty expression.

“Sorry about that,” he said with an awkward laugh before turning back to the three exiles. “I’ll be back tomorrow with the Asauchi, but I probably won’t be able to stay since I’ll probably be kicking Zaraki’s ass. Tessai…”

Alex flicked his wand, and an empty journal appeared in his hand. A wand wave, and everything written on the blackboard flowed into the journal, turning the chalk into ink upon touching it. After that was done, he gave another flick and a similar journal appeared on top of the first.

“Here,” Alex said, giving the second journal to Tessai, who took it with an awed expression. “Let’s see where our paths led us when I come back.”

Jushiro didn’t notice Alex taking hold of his shoulder as he stared at Tessai, who was strongly nodding as tears started pooling in his eyes, so it was with a surprise stumble that he found himself back at his office in the 13th division.

“Thanks for the help, Ukitake,” Alex said, smiling at him. “I’ll go set things up for tomorrow. So if you want to see Zaraki get schooled, you’re invited.”

And with that, he was alone in his office.

Until the door was kicked open by his frantic Lieutenant.

“Captain! Where have you been!?”

Jushiro sighed.

___

Alex

I apparated directly into Zaraki’s office. It was as Spartan as ever, with only his sleeping form sprawled on the tatami.

“Zaraki,” I said, letting out just a bit of spiritual pressure, but it was enough.

In a blink, Zaraki was standing with his Zapankuto in hand, ready for combat.

“Alex?” He said drowsily. “What you doin’ here?”

“Tomorrow, after lunch, make sure everyone is there,” was all that I said before apparating out. It was still long enough to see Zaraki’s expression turn into manic glee.

___

As I sat down in my office, I let the weight of the last few days fall off my shoulders.

Kie was fine and well taken care of. While Luna would be.

I wasn’t a massive fan of depending on someone else to save her, but compared to Tessai and Kisuke Urahara, I knew I was still an amateur.

That didn’t mean I’d stop looking into my own solutions to the problem, just that an expert on the subject was also on the case. So I didn’t need to desperately focus on it to the exclusion of all else. Plus, I needed to learn a lot more about souls and Kido before I felt comfortable going all-in on a path of action.

So I let myself relax and focus on something simple: my fight with Zaraki the next day.

It shouldn’t be particularly hard. I had been massively holding back in our spars by not using magic. And while I knew he was also holding back, I doubted it was to the same level as I.

How much stronger could he be? Maybe a few more percentage points?

I snorted, leaning back on my chair. Seeing his and the division’s faces realize just how strong and useful magic was was exactly what I needed to decompress.

___

A/N: And that’s that.

I didn’t plan on making this chapter a full-on Ukitake pov when I started it, just the beginning. But every other pov I tried either showed too much or too little of what I wanted you to see.

As always, thank you all for your support! See you again next week.