Survivability 08: Spotlight [KPop / Bleach]
Title: Survivability 08: Spotlight [Part 2]
Author: verocity
Fandom: KPop / Bleach
Featuring: EunHyuk, RyeoWook, Zhou Mi, Henry, TOP, ChangMin, HaeJin, SeungGi, YeoSeob, TaeYang, DaeSung, Onew... and the Captains. :D [Keeping up with the Bleach style of having a metric buttload of characters ;)]
Pairings: -none-
Rating: G
Warnings: If you watch Bleach, this is pretty much par for the course.
Genre: Action & Adventure
A/N: Well, this chapter took some time to finish. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless ;)
Summary: With the right plans and given enough time, one could take on the entire Soul Society.
Word Count: 11,756
Link to Part 1
Captain BoA turned her sharp gaze to the head of the 4th Division. "Captain JunKi. A few days back your Lieutenant examined a physical body at the request of the 9th Division. What were the findings?"
JunKi flashed the half-smile he always wore whenever he was in thought. "Without going into details? Cause of death was most probably impact from a mid-altitude fall, enough to break some bones and damage a few crucial organs. The most notable feature was the absence of any traces of spiritual energy from within the body."
"Noted," BoA said. "Captain HyoRi, it was your Division that acquired the body from the human world."
Impatient as she was to get to the bottom of things, HyoRi still indulged her fellow Captain. "My men received a dispatch request from the 6th Division who said they were alerted by an asset. As far as I know, it was just routine clean-up."
"At an opera house?"
"Yes."
"That same opera house is now under Class S Isolation," BoA said to the surprise and amazement of most of her audience.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," YunHo said in the tones of someone who thinks he must have misheard something, "but doesn't Class S Isolation entail the-"
"-creation of a parallel micro-dimension created specifically to contain the targets or areas involved, yes," finished BoA, who had anticipated this kind of reaction. Ever since the technology became available seven hundred years ago there had been only four known cases that required Class S Isolation. It was a costly procedure, although the current head of the Research and Development Institute was making breakthroughs towards its refinement.
JongKook of the 6th rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "According to my Lieutenant, he just relayed the request from the Research Institute's second-in-command. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 12th Lieutenants were apparently directly involved in events leading up to the isolation."
JaeJoong raised his hand before YunHo could stop him. "This is all interesting, BoA, but what does this have to do with the rest of the Divisions? Apart from the unsanctioned involvement of our Lieutenants, that is."
"JaeJoong, I'm sure she'll get there in her own time," YunHo said in a whisper that nonetheless carried over to everyone. JaeJoong ignored him.
"His concerns are valid-" BoA assured YunHo.
"See? My concerns are valid."
"-and we'll get to them in a minute." BoA passed a sheaf of papers around. Each copy listed a timeline of known hollow attacks with corresponding details under each event. Some of the items were marked with red ink. "I asked Captain JongKook for statistics of hollow activity in an area spanning seven cities of the human world over the past three years. The marked entries are hollow attacks that occurred at or near cultural centers, such as theaters, opera houses, museums, and the like."
"The attacks are three to four months apart," said Rain immediately as he scrutinized the paper. He noticed that, once again, everyone was looking at him in surprise. "Yes, I'm still here even though I'm bored out of my mind," he said a tad testily.
"JiHoon," said HyoRi, who completely forgot that the 11th Division Captain was still around. Usually he'd have made some half-assed excuse by now. "Why do you think that was significant?"
"It means these aren't random attacks," Rain said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Random attacks mean the absence of pattern. I should know. I attack stuff randomly. Sometimes." He gave them all an unironic wink that affected each Captain to various degrees.
"Captain Rain is entirely correct," said BoA. "And each time, the hollow involved was purified by the 6th Division."
HanKyung narrowed his eyes. "Ten attacks out of twenty-four in three years? Someone's been targeting cultural centers. That much is obvious, at least."
"But BoA said the hollows were all killed," JaeJoong said.
"It doesn't necessarily have to be the same hollow that's behind on this," said JunKi thoughtfully.
"The 6th Division could have killed scavengers," HanKyung supposed.
JaeJoong was lost. "How's that again?"
"I think I get it," YunHo said as he traced the list with his fingers. "Some hollow moves into a city, subtly sets up shop in a cultural center and marks it as his territory. After three to four months, he leaves for another city, which means his old territory is now unguarded. Another hollow is enticed by the high spirit activity in the cultural center and launches an attack. The death gods stationed in the area dispatch it and files a report and that's that. Except that the original hollow is still alive and has by then moved on to another city."
"For the past three years?" JaeJoong said, surprised at the implications. "And we're catching up to it only now?"
"Then something must have changed," HyoRi said calmly. "The latest attack - the one at the isolated opera house - happened two months earlier than the pattern predicted."
BoA returned her folder to her robe's inner pockets. "Certain aspects of my 3rd seat's involvement in the hollow attack have led me to conclude that the original hollow perpetrated that attack. The body that the 4th Division examined? According to his report, it belonged to a child that acted as the hollow's human host of sorts. I thought the case was closed when both host and hollow were killed."
JaeJoong let out an audible gasp. "But since there was still some spiritual activity in the opera house and our Lieutenants vanished when they investigated it, it means the hollow is still alive somewhere!"
JongKook looked grim as he contemplated their options. "My Lieutenant said there was a portal at the opera house. And that it collapsed soon after the four Lieutenants entered it."
"Then we open it up and beat the shit out of the hollow involved," said Captain Rain cheerfully, ever practical and satisfied at the prospect of direct violence.
~*~
A magpie landed on the windowpane beside his desk.
RyeoWook drew his attention from the lecture on splash functions of wave-form healing techniques to watch the little distraction hop aimlessly about. How did that old rhyme go? He started singing it in his head. One for sorrow... and right on cue, a second magpie landed on a branch a few feet above. The first one hopped off the windowpane to join its companion.
Two for joy, thought RyeoWook with a relieved glance towards EunHyuk, who was studiously taking notes a few seats back on the other side of the room.
Things hadn't been joyful lately.
JunSu was always running all over Soul Society, even on the few nights when he was supposed to be on scheduled rest. DaeSung spent more time in the Rukongai districts than in Soul Society, but whatever it was that kept him busy never made it to public news. And DongHae... he couldn't even bring up DongHae's name without EunHyuk clamming up and refusing to speak. RyeoWook couldn't tell whether he was livid or dejected.
RyeoWook realized that more magpies arrived while he was lost in thought. He counted them and smiled warmly. Five for silver. Maybe he should cook up a feast just for the two of them tonight. They'd just finished with the midterm examinations so they could reclaim a bit of free time, and anyway the results won't be out for another few days so there's still time to celebrate. Maybe they could go to the market for the ingredients after class or... Or I could pay more attention to the lecture in case the teacher holds a pop quiz and I can just ask EunHyuk about dinner later, thought RyeoWook. He took his brush once more and reoriented himself with the lecture.
~*~
"How do we open it?" JaeJoong asked out loud, the apprehension in his voice palpable. "We have to get our men back immediately."
"Simple," said BoA with a manic smile on her face. "We bait the hollow out of its hiding place. Once it opens the portal, we rescue our men, then BAM!"
"Again: how?" JaeJoong asked a little perturbed but unsurprised at BoA's eagerness for action. Being head of the Special Ops called for calm planning and ruthless action.
"We could lure it out with a huge amount of spirit waves," JongKook suggested. "No hollow could resist that, right?"
JunKi shook his head thoughtfully. "The hollow stealthily enacted a pattern of behavior too sophisticated for our expected models. Either we're dealing with an adjuchas, or this one's just that much smarter than its peers."
"Any single one of us could handle an adjuchas," HanKyung said confidently.
"Sorry, but I'll have to call dibs on this one," said Rain. Again with the looks, but this time they weren't surprised as much as wary. "What? I'm bored. The only people who could even excite me have access to this room and it's against the laws to challenge Captains. Giving an adjuchas the beatdown of a lifetime could take my mind off things."
HyoRi cracked a smile. "Anybody who's surprised, raise your right hand."
"Again: how do we lure it out?" JaeJoong said with more impatience. Now that a viable plan of action was being raised, he was itching to go out there and rescue his Lieutenant. Even if he was such a big baby.
"It targeted cultural centers," YunHo said more to himself than anyone else. "That means it's interested in artists, yes?"
"The last host was a violinist," JunKi supplemented in case it helped. "My Lieutenant was under the impression that he was a proficient one."
"So we get someone who's musically gifted," said HyoRi. "That could be tough. With the heavy training schedules and workload we assigned our personnel, I doubt anyone's been practicing music enough."
YunHo frowned. He didn't agree with what he was about to say, but if he didn't say it the consequences could be dire. "I may know of someone."
~*~
Outside RyeoWook's window, unnoticed by anyone, more birds took their rest on the tree. Ten magpies could have warned him of what was about to come.
~*~
"How much of the kid's information do you think is valid?" SeungGi asked lightly as he drew theoretical diagrams on the sand.
ChangMin dismissed his question with a shrug.
Zhou Mi caught the action out of the corner of his eye and fought down the irritation. "He's got nothing to lose," he said solidly.
"Nothing to gain, either," ChangMin retorted.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Zhou Mi said with a voice as sharp as arctic wind. "Did you have any information about Henry prior to meeting him tonight?"
"No, but-"
"Or maybe you're such an expert on human psychology that you could read him like a book just based on those few seconds?"
ChangMin didn't bother to speak. His glare said more than enough.
Zhou Mi wasn't fazed the least bit. "Or maybe, and this is just guessing, you were under the assumption that anyone and everyone has as much of a head start and privilege as you do?"
ChangMin turned to look at SeungGi's diagrams, but Zhou Mi saw he struck a nerve.
"Don't get all high and mighty on us humans just because you're a death god," Zhou Mi said in a voice dripping thickly with venom. "Until you understand how quickly time flies for us, how even if we live a safe life we only have an average of eighty years to live and despite that we've been doing just as well as you have. You spirits age because you choose to. We don't have a choice."
"So!" SeungGi interrupted brightly as if the last few seconds had been nothing more than a discussion of particle theories. ChangMin closed his mouth. "Anyone have any idea how to destroy a parasite dimension?"
ChangMin drew a circle around the SeungGi's diagram of the energy conversion phase. "If this place is made of spirit energy, I can siphon it to power a really destructive demon art."
"Is that a fact or a proposition?" SeungGi asked.
"A proposition for now," ChangMin clarified. "But if it's at all possible to do, I can figure it out."
"Okay then, you can work on that. Zhou Mi, how about you?"
Zhou Mi ran his mind through all his successful experiments so far. None seemed appropriate. "You know, I never invented anything for the sake of destruction. I made my crossbow to be non-fatal and the explosives I used against the hollow were just highly compressed spirit energy."
"I see. Hmmm." SeungGi looked at everything he'd drawn so far, which, honestly, wasn't much given the limited time they had to work with.
"How about he works on how to forcibly regenerate the hollow?" ChangMin suggested with a faint yet credible attempt at being civil. "Since we'll need it to open the portal for us and he's used to working with a time limit. And he's less biased against them anyway. You know, compared to us."
"That's an idea," Zhou Mi acknowledged, ignoring the passive aggression for now in the face of having to solve an emergency. "What'll you work on, Lieutenant?"
"I'm going to work on dimensional tunneling methods. In case it doesn't want to open the portal for us," SeungGi said with a wink, ever bubbly. "Can't spend the rest of our immortally long lives here, now can we? But you don't have to worry about that, you only have a measly sixty years left."
~*~
Lately, their walks home were very subdued.
EunHyuk, usually talkative and touchy even if he had the lowest grades in class, always had something to say. True, self-deprecating things at times... but he always laughed. Always had a story to tell about himself, even if it was embarrassing. EunHyuk, who believed that the world would be a much better place if people just smiled more often.
What could a friend do if a guy like that ran out of smiles?
Frankly, RyeoWook was getting worried. More worried.
"Will you lighten up if I promise to cook your favorite meals for dinner every day this week?" RyeoWook said as they slouched homewards.
EunHyuk gave him a look that, on a sunnier day with birdsong all around and the smell of fresh cooking wafting from a picnic basket, could have passed for a wan smile. Late in the afternoon, though, and tired from school, it just helped RyeoWook realize even deeper how fragile EunHyuk's optimism actually was. "I'm sorry," EunHyuk said after a few steps, trying to sound lively. Or, a more accurate term, alive. "I didn't mean to drag you down. Tell you what: let me go to the market while you're cooking so we'll have fresh fruits to go with your feast. Good idea?"
"A good idea, yes," RyeoWook admitted. And it would surely get a smile from EunHyuk somehow. But it would just be a pretend smile, just something to make RyeoWook stop worrying. And that would be an insult to the real smiles that he wanted to see again, the ones as bright as sunlight on a clear morning. "However, I think a better one would be you just staying home and telling me what happened at DongHae's apartment. It's been weeks and you haven't told me a thing about it." He didn't miss the split second of bitterness that flashed through EunHyuk's face, or the way he balled his fists to displace aggression. "Come on, we swore we'd be brothers, right? Best friends to the end."
"I... just don't want to talk about it. Please?" EunHyuk turned to him with pleading in his eyes. RyeoWook just knew he didn't have the heart to press the issue.
RyeoWook turned his sigh into a smile. "Okay. I understand. But you're still getting that feast," he said, trying to be cheerful for two. "To celebrate our still being alive even after a hellish midterm exam like last week's."
The normal EunHyuk would have made a comment about the statistical improbability of him receiving a passing grade. RyeoWook waited a few seconds before accepting that no such comment was on the way.
A shadow passed by and for an instant RyeoWook thought a bird flew over them. But the instant ended with a flurry of white robes, and the tall and very solid form of Captain YunHo stood before them looking tense and slightly out of breath.
EunHyuk, professional worrier, immediately concluded the worst. "Captain... did something happen to DaeSung? Tell me where he was last seen, I promise I'll find him - I won't sleep if I h- mmph!"
"It might be a good idea to let the Captain speak," RyeoWook said as he clamped his hand over EunHyuk's mouth.
YunHo raised his hand for silence. "I am fully aware of your trainee status but we need to enlist your services immediately."
EunHyuk nodded. "I'll just fetch my sword from the apartment-"
"Thank you, HyukJae, but I was referring to RyeoWook."
"Me?!" RyeoWook exclaimed, flustered like he'd never been flustered before. "But- I don't- What can I do that a real death god can't? And my Captain-"
"-has given his endorsement and is standing right behind you," said a voice that sounded like merry laughter on a breezy day at the seaside. Captain JunKi waved a pale hand at them. "Hello."
RyeoWook and EunHyuk barely had any time to formulate a proper reaction before YunHo grabbed them by their waists and, with a softly muttered "We don't have time for this," wafted them off towards somewhere more private. JunKi's smiling after-image faded as the light realized belatedly that he wasn't there anymore.
~*~
"You've got to hand it to YunHo," said BoA with an edge of admiration in her voice. "Honorable in times of honor, ruthless in times of action. Should I worry about being replaced?"
HyoRi's laugh rang of cynicism. "Was there ever any time when you put honor before your duty?"
BoA considered the point. "Oh well! It's nice to know I won't be out of a job."
The two Captains, along with JongKook and HanKyung, relocated to the 6th Division headquarters where they would be able to observe the events about to unfold in the human world. Before them, monitors displayed scenes from the isolated opera house at all angles with the operators slightly out of breath due to being star struck and the crushing spiritual pressure of having four Captains in the room.
A fifth overwhelming spiritual signature arrived and the youngest member of the staff almost fainted.
"They're on their way," said JunKi as he took one look at the people around him and cut his ambient pressure in half. "My pretend-trainee even agreed to act as an additional bodyguard, bless him."
BoA grinned. "At least he'll get to see some action again. Good for the boy."
"I just hope JiHoon will keep his excitement in check," JongKook told everyone. He glanced at HanKyung who'd been silent thus far. "You haven't said a word since we left the Hall."
HanKyung shrugged. "It's not my jurisdiction that'll be affected. But I'm here for moral support anyway. Incidentally, isn't this overkill? We've figured out what to do. Do we have to watch every step of the way?"
"He has a point," JunKi said amiably. "I'm as excited as the rest of you at the thought of capturing a smart hollow for the value of its rarity, but I have tons of patients whose healing I should oversee."
"You two aren't any fun," HyoRi answered, but she didn't object. HanKyung and JunKi waved goodbye and vanished at the same time.
On screen, the World Gate opened at the roof of the opera house and out stepped YunHo followed by a black butterfly, Rain, RyeoWook, and EunHyuk. JaeJoong, with a hand gripping his sword tightly, brought up the rear.
~*~
SeungGi's finger froze an inch from the sand. He glanced at ChangMin and Zhou Mi, who were each working on their sand diagrams. "Did anyone else just feel a slight tremor?" he asked.
"Huh?" ChangMin said without much concern. It was clear from his eyes that SeungGi's words never even registered.
"I'm not getting anywhere," Zhou Mi admitted with properly maintained exasperation having apparently misheard SeungGi's question. "Any progress on your end?"
SeungGi squinted at the crumbly lines of his work. "Well. I think I just figured out how to send signals to other dimensions. Maybe. And even then, I'm not sure if it'll work."
Zhou Mi walked over to SeungGi's space and mentally ran over the figures he came up with. "Aren't there any ways to test it?" he muttered distractedly.
SeungGi just chuckled to himself. "Let me figure out how to receive messages and then we'll talk- Hey, there was that tremor again!"
And right on cue they heard Henry yell, "Heads up! He's up to something!"
~*~
RyeoWook stood on the opera house's stage and eyed the grand piano that rested on a small platform in the orchestra pit. "You want me to play?"
"Anything. Anything at all," YunHo told him.
JaeJoong stood at center stage and regarded the darkness around them with a distrustful eye. He raised a hand, muttered a few words, and pale yellow light shining from his hands bathed the entire auditorium. He saw the gigantic chandelier and floated his ball of light up to shine from its center. The shards of crystal hanging from wires gave the light a glowing fairytale effect.
Rain, on the other hand, was watching RyeoWook patiently.
EunHyuk returned from his patrol of the area. "Captain, it's my professional opinion that this place gives me the creeps." RyeoWook, wrong-footed as he felt at everything that happened within a seeming blink of an eye, remembered to feel glad that at least some energy was back in EunHyuk's voice.
"Shouldn't Lieutenant DaeSung also be here?" RyeoWook asked, unsure of whether he was overstepping his bounds. He ran a finger on the piano's key guard and traced a line of shininess against the accumulated dust of weeks. He'd been itching to play ever since he saw the piano. But when a Captain snatches someone from his walk home to take him to the human world, one can be sure it's not just so he could hear one's rendition of Tarantella No. 16. Although how much nicer the worlds could be if such could happen without irony.
"DaeSung's working on another project," YunHo answered with a coating of patience. He felt it was enough that RyeoWook had been dragged into a project he had no prior knowledge of. At the very least, there had to be permission even if it was about something as small as this. He wasn't going to desecrate the artistic spirit by forcing him to play against his will.
Unless it came to that. Besides, Captain Rain's ever evolving boredom and JaeJoong's pent-up frustrations might snap if RyeoWook refused, which would save YunHo from actually having to commit dishonor.
For the record, it didn't make him feel any better.
~*~
HyoRi watched as the smallest death god sat on the piano bench and apprehensively uncovered the keys. "Still, don't you think consigning a trainee as bait seems a bit extreme?" she asked JongKook.
"I don't like it myself," JongKook admitted. "But it's the sensible course of action. The kid is musically inclined. And using a full-fledged death god might tip the hollow off."
"And provide him with too much power?" HyoRi continued with ironic flatness.
"He won't be in any trouble," BoA assured her senior Captain. "With YunHo, JaeJoong and Captain Rain there, he's perfectly safe as can be. And my ex-third seat isn't half bad himself."
JongKook strode around the room and inspected every data-processing screen available. "At this rate, we'll have to promote the kid based on sheer field experience alone. Think I could get him to transfer to my Division?"
"JunKi wouldn't be too pleased," HyoRi muttered. "How often does a student whole-heartedly enter the Medical Division?"
BoA raised her hand to silence the other two. "Shhh. He's about to play."
HyoRi shivered. Visibly. "Anyone else get the feeling that something we overlooked turns out to be really bad and really important and is about to happen?"
"Now that you mention it..." JongKook trailed off.
~*~
Even as the sand shook beneath them, SeungGi and ChangMin drew their swords while Zhou Mi ran back to the cave for his crossbow.
"Somehow, none of my scenarios involved an earthquake," SeungGi said shakily. "Misaki, bloom!" His soul cutter glowed with the light of springtime before fracturing into crystals in the seven colors of the rainbow. The shikai began tracing endless patterns protectively around its owner.
"Figures that a hollow who manifests in an opera house can't regenerate without making a scene," ChangMin said loudly just to be heard.
"He's not regenerating!" came Henry's voice as the others rejoined them. "I don't know what he's doing, but he's not just pulling himself together!"
~*~
RyeoWook had barely finished the first system of the Appassionata when the sudden explosion of pure spirit pressure blew him straight off the bench. EunHyuk flash-stepped and caught him before they both flew off the stage and crashed through a row of chairs by the middle of the audience's pit.
YunHo's robes flapped loosely against him but he stood his ground and put a hand on the hilt of his sword. On the opposite side of the stage, he saw JaeJoong enter a more balanced stance with his soul cutter already raised. "Finally!" Rain said as he walked calmly towards the source of pressure. There was a smile on his face - the smile of a boy after he heard the door to the candy shop unlock after hours of waiting under the summer heat.
YunHo wondered if it was too late to propose a screening method for mental health among the 1st Division.
~*~
Pull himself together? SeungGi thought as a spider-shaped shadow of absolute blackness the size of a training field formed on the sand they stood on. His crystals' flight patterns began to grow erratic. "Know what?" he said to the shouts of shikai being released. "I think it's trying to pull out."
Zhou Mi looked grim even by the light of his crossbow's spirit bolt. "And it's taking this dimension with it!"
"Brace yourselves," HaeJin warned everyone darkly. ChangMin started chanting.
And the sand began to fall in, dragging the humans and death gods with it.
~*~
It took a RyeoWook a few seconds to gather his senses, and even then everything seemed so blurry and the whole world felt like it was trapped in an unending earthquake. He managed to pull enough self-respect to avoid groaning when he made the effort to stand up, but an arm around him firmly pushed him back to the floor.
"Stay down," he heard EunHyuk whisper in his ear.
That was when RyeoWook realized that there was no earthquake. EunHyuk was covering him with his own body. And he was trembling with barely suppressed terror.
~*~
Captain HanKyung jerked to attention as alarms let loose all over his headquarters.
"All the alarms?" he said in a moment of shock before he regained his sense of action and began barking out orders to everyone present. His various officers on duty started a frantic race against time.
"SungMin," HanKyung said as everyone cleared out.
"Captain!"
HanKyung spoke tersely. "Open the Tenteikura. Tell all the Divisions that I'm declaring Soul Society to be in a state of emergency. Supervise the civilian evacuation before you join the fight." Captain HanKyung drew his sword and vanished in a manic flurry of robes.
~*~
YeoSeob leaned closer completely unsure if he just imagined something, if it was a play of the lights... or if JinKi's lips really did move. It was such a small movement, but then YeoSeob had a really sharp eye. Everyone in the 6th Division did.
"Did something happen?" DaeSung asked him.
From the other side of the glass, they saw TaeYang get up from his chair and exit the isolation chamber.
"What did he say?" YeoSeob asked as soon as TaeYang rejoined them.
TaeYang leaned a hand against the glass. "'Say' isn't the right word. 'Mumbled,' more like. Or 'whispered'."
DaeSung's eyes were narrowed in suspense. "Well? What was it?"
"He said 'They're here.'" And when the other two were still looking at him, TaeYang just shrugged. "That was it."
They caught the sudden movement out of the corner of their eye and the trio jerked back before they remembered that a glass wall stood between them and the human. It took merely a split second for JinKi to move from near-catatonia to a state of panic. He kept slamming his fist against the glass as his eyes locked on to where the three Lieutenants were standing. YeoSeob reminded himself that JinKi couldn't see them anyway, but common sense overrode it: he knew with certainty that JinKi could sense them despite the isolation technology.
He glanced at TaeYang and DaeSung, both of whom were also staring, transfixed, at the scene.
YeoSeob realized that JinKi's mouth was opening and closing in a frantic pace and the veins along his throat were popping with the effort. He's screaming, YeoSeob realized belatedly. He was yelling at the top of his voice and the microphones caught every note of desperation.
"They're here! They're all over the place! They're going to kill us all!"
Author: verocity
Fandom: KPop / Bleach
Featuring: EunHyuk, RyeoWook, Zhou Mi, Henry, TOP, ChangMin, HaeJin, SeungGi, YeoSeob, TaeYang, DaeSung, Onew... and the Captains. :D [Keeping up with the Bleach style of having a metric buttload of characters ;)]
Pairings: -none-
Rating: G
Warnings: If you watch Bleach, this is pretty much par for the course.
Genre: Action & Adventure
A/N: Well, this chapter took some time to finish. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless ;)
Summary: With the right plans and given enough time, one could take on the entire Soul Society.
Word Count: 11,756
Link to Part 1
Captain BoA turned her sharp gaze to the head of the 4th Division. "Captain JunKi. A few days back your Lieutenant examined a physical body at the request of the 9th Division. What were the findings?"
JunKi flashed the half-smile he always wore whenever he was in thought. "Without going into details? Cause of death was most probably impact from a mid-altitude fall, enough to break some bones and damage a few crucial organs. The most notable feature was the absence of any traces of spiritual energy from within the body."
"Noted," BoA said. "Captain HyoRi, it was your Division that acquired the body from the human world."
Impatient as she was to get to the bottom of things, HyoRi still indulged her fellow Captain. "My men received a dispatch request from the 6th Division who said they were alerted by an asset. As far as I know, it was just routine clean-up."
"At an opera house?"
"Yes."
"That same opera house is now under Class S Isolation," BoA said to the surprise and amazement of most of her audience.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," YunHo said in the tones of someone who thinks he must have misheard something, "but doesn't Class S Isolation entail the-"
"-creation of a parallel micro-dimension created specifically to contain the targets or areas involved, yes," finished BoA, who had anticipated this kind of reaction. Ever since the technology became available seven hundred years ago there had been only four known cases that required Class S Isolation. It was a costly procedure, although the current head of the Research and Development Institute was making breakthroughs towards its refinement.
JongKook of the 6th rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "According to my Lieutenant, he just relayed the request from the Research Institute's second-in-command. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 12th Lieutenants were apparently directly involved in events leading up to the isolation."
JaeJoong raised his hand before YunHo could stop him. "This is all interesting, BoA, but what does this have to do with the rest of the Divisions? Apart from the unsanctioned involvement of our Lieutenants, that is."
"JaeJoong, I'm sure she'll get there in her own time," YunHo said in a whisper that nonetheless carried over to everyone. JaeJoong ignored him.
"His concerns are valid-" BoA assured YunHo.
"See? My concerns are valid."
"-and we'll get to them in a minute." BoA passed a sheaf of papers around. Each copy listed a timeline of known hollow attacks with corresponding details under each event. Some of the items were marked with red ink. "I asked Captain JongKook for statistics of hollow activity in an area spanning seven cities of the human world over the past three years. The marked entries are hollow attacks that occurred at or near cultural centers, such as theaters, opera houses, museums, and the like."
"The attacks are three to four months apart," said Rain immediately as he scrutinized the paper. He noticed that, once again, everyone was looking at him in surprise. "Yes, I'm still here even though I'm bored out of my mind," he said a tad testily.
"JiHoon," said HyoRi, who completely forgot that the 11th Division Captain was still around. Usually he'd have made some half-assed excuse by now. "Why do you think that was significant?"
"It means these aren't random attacks," Rain said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Random attacks mean the absence of pattern. I should know. I attack stuff randomly. Sometimes." He gave them all an unironic wink that affected each Captain to various degrees.
"Captain Rain is entirely correct," said BoA. "And each time, the hollow involved was purified by the 6th Division."
HanKyung narrowed his eyes. "Ten attacks out of twenty-four in three years? Someone's been targeting cultural centers. That much is obvious, at least."
"But BoA said the hollows were all killed," JaeJoong said.
"It doesn't necessarily have to be the same hollow that's behind on this," said JunKi thoughtfully.
"The 6th Division could have killed scavengers," HanKyung supposed.
JaeJoong was lost. "How's that again?"
"I think I get it," YunHo said as he traced the list with his fingers. "Some hollow moves into a city, subtly sets up shop in a cultural center and marks it as his territory. After three to four months, he leaves for another city, which means his old territory is now unguarded. Another hollow is enticed by the high spirit activity in the cultural center and launches an attack. The death gods stationed in the area dispatch it and files a report and that's that. Except that the original hollow is still alive and has by then moved on to another city."
"For the past three years?" JaeJoong said, surprised at the implications. "And we're catching up to it only now?"
"Then something must have changed," HyoRi said calmly. "The latest attack - the one at the isolated opera house - happened two months earlier than the pattern predicted."
BoA returned her folder to her robe's inner pockets. "Certain aspects of my 3rd seat's involvement in the hollow attack have led me to conclude that the original hollow perpetrated that attack. The body that the 4th Division examined? According to his report, it belonged to a child that acted as the hollow's human host of sorts. I thought the case was closed when both host and hollow were killed."
JaeJoong let out an audible gasp. "But since there was still some spiritual activity in the opera house and our Lieutenants vanished when they investigated it, it means the hollow is still alive somewhere!"
JongKook looked grim as he contemplated their options. "My Lieutenant said there was a portal at the opera house. And that it collapsed soon after the four Lieutenants entered it."
"Then we open it up and beat the shit out of the hollow involved," said Captain Rain cheerfully, ever practical and satisfied at the prospect of direct violence.
~*~
A magpie landed on the windowpane beside his desk.
RyeoWook drew his attention from the lecture on splash functions of wave-form healing techniques to watch the little distraction hop aimlessly about. How did that old rhyme go? He started singing it in his head. One for sorrow... and right on cue, a second magpie landed on a branch a few feet above. The first one hopped off the windowpane to join its companion.
Two for joy, thought RyeoWook with a relieved glance towards EunHyuk, who was studiously taking notes a few seats back on the other side of the room.
Things hadn't been joyful lately.
JunSu was always running all over Soul Society, even on the few nights when he was supposed to be on scheduled rest. DaeSung spent more time in the Rukongai districts than in Soul Society, but whatever it was that kept him busy never made it to public news. And DongHae... he couldn't even bring up DongHae's name without EunHyuk clamming up and refusing to speak. RyeoWook couldn't tell whether he was livid or dejected.
RyeoWook realized that more magpies arrived while he was lost in thought. He counted them and smiled warmly. Five for silver. Maybe he should cook up a feast just for the two of them tonight. They'd just finished with the midterm examinations so they could reclaim a bit of free time, and anyway the results won't be out for another few days so there's still time to celebrate. Maybe they could go to the market for the ingredients after class or... Or I could pay more attention to the lecture in case the teacher holds a pop quiz and I can just ask EunHyuk about dinner later, thought RyeoWook. He took his brush once more and reoriented himself with the lecture.
~*~
"How do we open it?" JaeJoong asked out loud, the apprehension in his voice palpable. "We have to get our men back immediately."
"Simple," said BoA with a manic smile on her face. "We bait the hollow out of its hiding place. Once it opens the portal, we rescue our men, then BAM!"
"Again: how?" JaeJoong asked a little perturbed but unsurprised at BoA's eagerness for action. Being head of the Special Ops called for calm planning and ruthless action.
"We could lure it out with a huge amount of spirit waves," JongKook suggested. "No hollow could resist that, right?"
JunKi shook his head thoughtfully. "The hollow stealthily enacted a pattern of behavior too sophisticated for our expected models. Either we're dealing with an adjuchas, or this one's just that much smarter than its peers."
"Any single one of us could handle an adjuchas," HanKyung said confidently.
"Sorry, but I'll have to call dibs on this one," said Rain. Again with the looks, but this time they weren't surprised as much as wary. "What? I'm bored. The only people who could even excite me have access to this room and it's against the laws to challenge Captains. Giving an adjuchas the beatdown of a lifetime could take my mind off things."
HyoRi cracked a smile. "Anybody who's surprised, raise your right hand."
"Again: how do we lure it out?" JaeJoong said with more impatience. Now that a viable plan of action was being raised, he was itching to go out there and rescue his Lieutenant. Even if he was such a big baby.
"It targeted cultural centers," YunHo said more to himself than anyone else. "That means it's interested in artists, yes?"
"The last host was a violinist," JunKi supplemented in case it helped. "My Lieutenant was under the impression that he was a proficient one."
"So we get someone who's musically gifted," said HyoRi. "That could be tough. With the heavy training schedules and workload we assigned our personnel, I doubt anyone's been practicing music enough."
YunHo frowned. He didn't agree with what he was about to say, but if he didn't say it the consequences could be dire. "I may know of someone."
~*~
Outside RyeoWook's window, unnoticed by anyone, more birds took their rest on the tree. Ten magpies could have warned him of what was about to come.
~*~
"How much of the kid's information do you think is valid?" SeungGi asked lightly as he drew theoretical diagrams on the sand.
ChangMin dismissed his question with a shrug.
Zhou Mi caught the action out of the corner of his eye and fought down the irritation. "He's got nothing to lose," he said solidly.
"Nothing to gain, either," ChangMin retorted.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Zhou Mi said with a voice as sharp as arctic wind. "Did you have any information about Henry prior to meeting him tonight?"
"No, but-"
"Or maybe you're such an expert on human psychology that you could read him like a book just based on those few seconds?"
ChangMin didn't bother to speak. His glare said more than enough.
Zhou Mi wasn't fazed the least bit. "Or maybe, and this is just guessing, you were under the assumption that anyone and everyone has as much of a head start and privilege as you do?"
ChangMin turned to look at SeungGi's diagrams, but Zhou Mi saw he struck a nerve.
"Don't get all high and mighty on us humans just because you're a death god," Zhou Mi said in a voice dripping thickly with venom. "Until you understand how quickly time flies for us, how even if we live a safe life we only have an average of eighty years to live and despite that we've been doing just as well as you have. You spirits age because you choose to. We don't have a choice."
"So!" SeungGi interrupted brightly as if the last few seconds had been nothing more than a discussion of particle theories. ChangMin closed his mouth. "Anyone have any idea how to destroy a parasite dimension?"
ChangMin drew a circle around the SeungGi's diagram of the energy conversion phase. "If this place is made of spirit energy, I can siphon it to power a really destructive demon art."
"Is that a fact or a proposition?" SeungGi asked.
"A proposition for now," ChangMin clarified. "But if it's at all possible to do, I can figure it out."
"Okay then, you can work on that. Zhou Mi, how about you?"
Zhou Mi ran his mind through all his successful experiments so far. None seemed appropriate. "You know, I never invented anything for the sake of destruction. I made my crossbow to be non-fatal and the explosives I used against the hollow were just highly compressed spirit energy."
"I see. Hmmm." SeungGi looked at everything he'd drawn so far, which, honestly, wasn't much given the limited time they had to work with.
"How about he works on how to forcibly regenerate the hollow?" ChangMin suggested with a faint yet credible attempt at being civil. "Since we'll need it to open the portal for us and he's used to working with a time limit. And he's less biased against them anyway. You know, compared to us."
"That's an idea," Zhou Mi acknowledged, ignoring the passive aggression for now in the face of having to solve an emergency. "What'll you work on, Lieutenant?"
"I'm going to work on dimensional tunneling methods. In case it doesn't want to open the portal for us," SeungGi said with a wink, ever bubbly. "Can't spend the rest of our immortally long lives here, now can we? But you don't have to worry about that, you only have a measly sixty years left."
~*~
Lately, their walks home were very subdued.
EunHyuk, usually talkative and touchy even if he had the lowest grades in class, always had something to say. True, self-deprecating things at times... but he always laughed. Always had a story to tell about himself, even if it was embarrassing. EunHyuk, who believed that the world would be a much better place if people just smiled more often.
What could a friend do if a guy like that ran out of smiles?
Frankly, RyeoWook was getting worried. More worried.
"Will you lighten up if I promise to cook your favorite meals for dinner every day this week?" RyeoWook said as they slouched homewards.
EunHyuk gave him a look that, on a sunnier day with birdsong all around and the smell of fresh cooking wafting from a picnic basket, could have passed for a wan smile. Late in the afternoon, though, and tired from school, it just helped RyeoWook realize even deeper how fragile EunHyuk's optimism actually was. "I'm sorry," EunHyuk said after a few steps, trying to sound lively. Or, a more accurate term, alive. "I didn't mean to drag you down. Tell you what: let me go to the market while you're cooking so we'll have fresh fruits to go with your feast. Good idea?"
"A good idea, yes," RyeoWook admitted. And it would surely get a smile from EunHyuk somehow. But it would just be a pretend smile, just something to make RyeoWook stop worrying. And that would be an insult to the real smiles that he wanted to see again, the ones as bright as sunlight on a clear morning. "However, I think a better one would be you just staying home and telling me what happened at DongHae's apartment. It's been weeks and you haven't told me a thing about it." He didn't miss the split second of bitterness that flashed through EunHyuk's face, or the way he balled his fists to displace aggression. "Come on, we swore we'd be brothers, right? Best friends to the end."
"I... just don't want to talk about it. Please?" EunHyuk turned to him with pleading in his eyes. RyeoWook just knew he didn't have the heart to press the issue.
RyeoWook turned his sigh into a smile. "Okay. I understand. But you're still getting that feast," he said, trying to be cheerful for two. "To celebrate our still being alive even after a hellish midterm exam like last week's."
The normal EunHyuk would have made a comment about the statistical improbability of him receiving a passing grade. RyeoWook waited a few seconds before accepting that no such comment was on the way.
A shadow passed by and for an instant RyeoWook thought a bird flew over them. But the instant ended with a flurry of white robes, and the tall and very solid form of Captain YunHo stood before them looking tense and slightly out of breath.
EunHyuk, professional worrier, immediately concluded the worst. "Captain... did something happen to DaeSung? Tell me where he was last seen, I promise I'll find him - I won't sleep if I h- mmph!"
"It might be a good idea to let the Captain speak," RyeoWook said as he clamped his hand over EunHyuk's mouth.
YunHo raised his hand for silence. "I am fully aware of your trainee status but we need to enlist your services immediately."
EunHyuk nodded. "I'll just fetch my sword from the apartment-"
"Thank you, HyukJae, but I was referring to RyeoWook."
"Me?!" RyeoWook exclaimed, flustered like he'd never been flustered before. "But- I don't- What can I do that a real death god can't? And my Captain-"
"-has given his endorsement and is standing right behind you," said a voice that sounded like merry laughter on a breezy day at the seaside. Captain JunKi waved a pale hand at them. "Hello."
RyeoWook and EunHyuk barely had any time to formulate a proper reaction before YunHo grabbed them by their waists and, with a softly muttered "We don't have time for this," wafted them off towards somewhere more private. JunKi's smiling after-image faded as the light realized belatedly that he wasn't there anymore.
~*~
"You've got to hand it to YunHo," said BoA with an edge of admiration in her voice. "Honorable in times of honor, ruthless in times of action. Should I worry about being replaced?"
HyoRi's laugh rang of cynicism. "Was there ever any time when you put honor before your duty?"
BoA considered the point. "Oh well! It's nice to know I won't be out of a job."
The two Captains, along with JongKook and HanKyung, relocated to the 6th Division headquarters where they would be able to observe the events about to unfold in the human world. Before them, monitors displayed scenes from the isolated opera house at all angles with the operators slightly out of breath due to being star struck and the crushing spiritual pressure of having four Captains in the room.
A fifth overwhelming spiritual signature arrived and the youngest member of the staff almost fainted.
"They're on their way," said JunKi as he took one look at the people around him and cut his ambient pressure in half. "My pretend-trainee even agreed to act as an additional bodyguard, bless him."
BoA grinned. "At least he'll get to see some action again. Good for the boy."
"I just hope JiHoon will keep his excitement in check," JongKook told everyone. He glanced at HanKyung who'd been silent thus far. "You haven't said a word since we left the Hall."
HanKyung shrugged. "It's not my jurisdiction that'll be affected. But I'm here for moral support anyway. Incidentally, isn't this overkill? We've figured out what to do. Do we have to watch every step of the way?"
"He has a point," JunKi said amiably. "I'm as excited as the rest of you at the thought of capturing a smart hollow for the value of its rarity, but I have tons of patients whose healing I should oversee."
"You two aren't any fun," HyoRi answered, but she didn't object. HanKyung and JunKi waved goodbye and vanished at the same time.
On screen, the World Gate opened at the roof of the opera house and out stepped YunHo followed by a black butterfly, Rain, RyeoWook, and EunHyuk. JaeJoong, with a hand gripping his sword tightly, brought up the rear.
~*~
SeungGi's finger froze an inch from the sand. He glanced at ChangMin and Zhou Mi, who were each working on their sand diagrams. "Did anyone else just feel a slight tremor?" he asked.
"Huh?" ChangMin said without much concern. It was clear from his eyes that SeungGi's words never even registered.
"I'm not getting anywhere," Zhou Mi admitted with properly maintained exasperation having apparently misheard SeungGi's question. "Any progress on your end?"
SeungGi squinted at the crumbly lines of his work. "Well. I think I just figured out how to send signals to other dimensions. Maybe. And even then, I'm not sure if it'll work."
Zhou Mi walked over to SeungGi's space and mentally ran over the figures he came up with. "Aren't there any ways to test it?" he muttered distractedly.
SeungGi just chuckled to himself. "Let me figure out how to receive messages and then we'll talk- Hey, there was that tremor again!"
And right on cue they heard Henry yell, "Heads up! He's up to something!"
~*~
RyeoWook stood on the opera house's stage and eyed the grand piano that rested on a small platform in the orchestra pit. "You want me to play?"
"Anything. Anything at all," YunHo told him.
JaeJoong stood at center stage and regarded the darkness around them with a distrustful eye. He raised a hand, muttered a few words, and pale yellow light shining from his hands bathed the entire auditorium. He saw the gigantic chandelier and floated his ball of light up to shine from its center. The shards of crystal hanging from wires gave the light a glowing fairytale effect.
Rain, on the other hand, was watching RyeoWook patiently.
EunHyuk returned from his patrol of the area. "Captain, it's my professional opinion that this place gives me the creeps." RyeoWook, wrong-footed as he felt at everything that happened within a seeming blink of an eye, remembered to feel glad that at least some energy was back in EunHyuk's voice.
"Shouldn't Lieutenant DaeSung also be here?" RyeoWook asked, unsure of whether he was overstepping his bounds. He ran a finger on the piano's key guard and traced a line of shininess against the accumulated dust of weeks. He'd been itching to play ever since he saw the piano. But when a Captain snatches someone from his walk home to take him to the human world, one can be sure it's not just so he could hear one's rendition of Tarantella No. 16. Although how much nicer the worlds could be if such could happen without irony.
"DaeSung's working on another project," YunHo answered with a coating of patience. He felt it was enough that RyeoWook had been dragged into a project he had no prior knowledge of. At the very least, there had to be permission even if it was about something as small as this. He wasn't going to desecrate the artistic spirit by forcing him to play against his will.
Unless it came to that. Besides, Captain Rain's ever evolving boredom and JaeJoong's pent-up frustrations might snap if RyeoWook refused, which would save YunHo from actually having to commit dishonor.
For the record, it didn't make him feel any better.
~*~
HyoRi watched as the smallest death god sat on the piano bench and apprehensively uncovered the keys. "Still, don't you think consigning a trainee as bait seems a bit extreme?" she asked JongKook.
"I don't like it myself," JongKook admitted. "But it's the sensible course of action. The kid is musically inclined. And using a full-fledged death god might tip the hollow off."
"And provide him with too much power?" HyoRi continued with ironic flatness.
"He won't be in any trouble," BoA assured her senior Captain. "With YunHo, JaeJoong and Captain Rain there, he's perfectly safe as can be. And my ex-third seat isn't half bad himself."
JongKook strode around the room and inspected every data-processing screen available. "At this rate, we'll have to promote the kid based on sheer field experience alone. Think I could get him to transfer to my Division?"
"JunKi wouldn't be too pleased," HyoRi muttered. "How often does a student whole-heartedly enter the Medical Division?"
BoA raised her hand to silence the other two. "Shhh. He's about to play."
HyoRi shivered. Visibly. "Anyone else get the feeling that something we overlooked turns out to be really bad and really important and is about to happen?"
"Now that you mention it..." JongKook trailed off.
~*~
Even as the sand shook beneath them, SeungGi and ChangMin drew their swords while Zhou Mi ran back to the cave for his crossbow.
"Somehow, none of my scenarios involved an earthquake," SeungGi said shakily. "Misaki, bloom!" His soul cutter glowed with the light of springtime before fracturing into crystals in the seven colors of the rainbow. The shikai began tracing endless patterns protectively around its owner.
"Figures that a hollow who manifests in an opera house can't regenerate without making a scene," ChangMin said loudly just to be heard.
"He's not regenerating!" came Henry's voice as the others rejoined them. "I don't know what he's doing, but he's not just pulling himself together!"
~*~
RyeoWook had barely finished the first system of the Appassionata when the sudden explosion of pure spirit pressure blew him straight off the bench. EunHyuk flash-stepped and caught him before they both flew off the stage and crashed through a row of chairs by the middle of the audience's pit.
YunHo's robes flapped loosely against him but he stood his ground and put a hand on the hilt of his sword. On the opposite side of the stage, he saw JaeJoong enter a more balanced stance with his soul cutter already raised. "Finally!" Rain said as he walked calmly towards the source of pressure. There was a smile on his face - the smile of a boy after he heard the door to the candy shop unlock after hours of waiting under the summer heat.
YunHo wondered if it was too late to propose a screening method for mental health among the 1st Division.
~*~
Pull himself together? SeungGi thought as a spider-shaped shadow of absolute blackness the size of a training field formed on the sand they stood on. His crystals' flight patterns began to grow erratic. "Know what?" he said to the shouts of shikai being released. "I think it's trying to pull out."
Zhou Mi looked grim even by the light of his crossbow's spirit bolt. "And it's taking this dimension with it!"
"Brace yourselves," HaeJin warned everyone darkly. ChangMin started chanting.
And the sand began to fall in, dragging the humans and death gods with it.
~*~
It took a RyeoWook a few seconds to gather his senses, and even then everything seemed so blurry and the whole world felt like it was trapped in an unending earthquake. He managed to pull enough self-respect to avoid groaning when he made the effort to stand up, but an arm around him firmly pushed him back to the floor.
"Stay down," he heard EunHyuk whisper in his ear.
That was when RyeoWook realized that there was no earthquake. EunHyuk was covering him with his own body. And he was trembling with barely suppressed terror.
~*~
Captain HanKyung jerked to attention as alarms let loose all over his headquarters.
"All the alarms?" he said in a moment of shock before he regained his sense of action and began barking out orders to everyone present. His various officers on duty started a frantic race against time.
"SungMin," HanKyung said as everyone cleared out.
"Captain!"
HanKyung spoke tersely. "Open the Tenteikura. Tell all the Divisions that I'm declaring Soul Society to be in a state of emergency. Supervise the civilian evacuation before you join the fight." Captain HanKyung drew his sword and vanished in a manic flurry of robes.
~*~
YeoSeob leaned closer completely unsure if he just imagined something, if it was a play of the lights... or if JinKi's lips really did move. It was such a small movement, but then YeoSeob had a really sharp eye. Everyone in the 6th Division did.
"Did something happen?" DaeSung asked him.
From the other side of the glass, they saw TaeYang get up from his chair and exit the isolation chamber.
"What did he say?" YeoSeob asked as soon as TaeYang rejoined them.
TaeYang leaned a hand against the glass. "'Say' isn't the right word. 'Mumbled,' more like. Or 'whispered'."
DaeSung's eyes were narrowed in suspense. "Well? What was it?"
"He said 'They're here.'" And when the other two were still looking at him, TaeYang just shrugged. "That was it."
They caught the sudden movement out of the corner of their eye and the trio jerked back before they remembered that a glass wall stood between them and the human. It took merely a split second for JinKi to move from near-catatonia to a state of panic. He kept slamming his fist against the glass as his eyes locked on to where the three Lieutenants were standing. YeoSeob reminded himself that JinKi couldn't see them anyway, but common sense overrode it: he knew with certainty that JinKi could sense them despite the isolation technology.
He glanced at TaeYang and DaeSung, both of whom were also staring, transfixed, at the scene.
YeoSeob realized that JinKi's mouth was opening and closing in a frantic pace and the veins along his throat were popping with the effort. He's screaming, YeoSeob realized belatedly. He was yelling at the top of his voice and the microphones caught every note of desperation.
"They're here! They're all over the place! They're going to kill us all!"