✩ 066
Backdated to the 17th--after returning home from the retrieval mission, around 3am or so.
[Very Filtered to Ukitake and Unohana//Unhackable via Bananaphone]
Mission Report:
I know this wasn't an officially sanctioned trip, but it bears reporting officially all the same. Shiba Kuukaku should have been delivered to the Fourth Division along with eight of the nine missing division members mentioned in Szayel's announcement on the 9th. There are five corpses--the bodies of Ijouno, Chenoda, Maidano, Yamana, and Sakuda--in various states of desecration. The boxes the bodies were in were too heavy to efficiently bring back to Seireitei, but the bodies are all labeled. Mostly out of necessity. The sixth missing male Shinigami, Asagaku, was apparently cremated. His ashes are in the urn that was delivered with the rest.
There are three females as well--Kimomono, Keisuna, and Uransha. They are...not dead, but with all due respect, I feel that a merciful euthanasia may be the best course of action. Unohana-taichou, you are of course welcome to examine them as you see fit, but Szayel explained what he had done, so...maybe I can save you a grim job.
Their bones were removed and replaced with steel implants that aren't attached to their muscular systems, rendering them completely immobile. Their vocal chords were severed, their lips sewn shut, and their eyes removed and replaced with glass. They are, essentially, living dolls. They have no way of telling us, or showing us, how much pain they are undoubtedly in, or what sorts of horrors they have experienced. This is, of course, at your and Hisagi's discretion, but I would like to request a mercy lethal injection at least for Kimomono, a member of my own division. Even if their bodies can be repaired, what Szayel has done to them can never be erased. I defer to your best judgment.
In addition to the missing Shinigami, we were given money for our "services"...which I promptly threw back at him...and each of us was given a folder. Inside the folders were photographs and information regarding certain things we all hold dear. Contents were as photos and notes as follows:
Kurosaki Ichigo: Rukia, Kurosaki Karin, Kurosaki Yuzu
Kurosaki Isshin: Kurosaki Karin, Kurosaki Yuzu, the grave of Kurosaki Masaki
Urahara Kisuke: Shihouin Yoruichi, Tsukabishi Tessai, Hanakari Jinta, Tsumugiya Ururu, Urahara Shouten
Kotetsu Isane: Yamada Hanatarou, the grave of Kotetsu Kiyone
Sado Yasutora: Shibata--apparently a young soul in Rukongai he befriended, and the grave of his grandfather
Shiba Ganjyuu: Several members of his old gang in Rukongai, the grave of Shiba Kaien
Abarai Renji: Rukia, Inoue Orihime, Hinamori Momo
How he got photographs and information regarding these people and locations is unknown. He went on to explain that he is aware of all these people and locations we keep close to our hearts, and refusal or delay to jump when he says jump in the future will jeopardize them. The mutilation of Kimomono, Keisuna, and Uransha were intended as a demonstration of what he would consider doing to these important people, and the tortures he is capable of.
There were no casualties on the retrieval--we were not engaged physically by the Octava. He taunted and monologued plenty, but did not attack. It seems he is, at least, good on his word; he merely wanted us to pick up what he no longer had use for. Shiba Kuukaku appeared to be unharmed aside from being put into some manner of stasis and...redressed a bit oddly.
End report.
[Further Private to Ukitake//Unhackable via Bananaphone]
I am willing to take whatever flak for this mission; please don't punish Ichigo, Ganjyuu, or Kotetsu-fukutaichou. Their presence was at my request and I am willing to face the consequences for going against the blanket order not to move for them as well. I merely ask that whatever disciplinary actions are enacted don't remove me from duty until such time as a replacement may take my seat. Hinamori is not currently in a state of health--mental or emotional--to run a division, and we cannot afford any more holes in the ranks. I am not sorry for what I did, only that I had to go against your wishes to do so.
I await your decision.
[Private to Kuukaku]
Promise me you won't beat the hell outta me and your family for coming after you until Unohana-taichou officially discharges you from the Fourth. That's all I ask.
[Filtered to Hinamori, Kira, Hisagi, Rukia, Rikichi, Kensei, and Byakuya (since you guys would have been the ones he notified before leaving)]
Back. In one piece. Mission successful, report filed, yadda yadda yadda, but Szayel's still at large. Working on that. Hinamori, Rikichi, I may be a bit late coming in tomorrow--later today, whatever--but I'll be there without fail. Thanks for holdin' the fort.
Feel free to commence yelling at me. Or you can wait til you see me and do it in person. Whatever blows your skirt up. See you when I see you.