Meeting Again

"How did you find this place?" asked Kisuke as he looked around. The water in the pond was giving off a soft blue light, illuminating this small place.

"It was actually Kuroka who found this place when her Senjutsu failed to penetrate it," Yoruichi answered.

"It was actually just luck, nyaa. I just thought of giving this lava lake a pass and didn't expect to come up with anything," Kuroka added while shrugging her shoulders, "But it was Yoruichi who deemed this place important."

Yoruichi nodded, "As I said before, it's because Byakko had a slight reaction the moment I stepped into this place for the first time. Although it could have been for other reasons, I still decided to call you over just to make sure."

Kisuke then crouched down and scooped out the water using his hands. The moment he touched the pleasantly cool water, a familiar feeling immediately washed over him, "Do you know any effects of this water?"

Yoruichi shook her head, "We don't. Since you'd be coming, it was better to leave it to you. We didn't dare test something unknown without the necessary experience and knowledge."

Kisuke wouldn't forget the familiar feeling that the water is giving him, especially when he first felt it not even two weeks ago, 'So this is what she meant by we'll meet again.'

The next instant, the barrier keeping out the lava suddenly expanded to cover the whole cave, enclosing them within. Not knowing what's happening, Yoruichi and Kuroka immediately heightened their senses to limit when a voice suddenly resounded in their head accompanied by the oppressive pressure that those who are on top could only possess, "We meet again, Pawn of Chaos."

Hearing that, Yoruichi's eye widened, and her pupils shrunk, "Kuroka! Grab Kisuke, now!"

Kuroka, who was having the same reaction, heeded Yoruichi's words and went to grab Kisuke to leave this place, only to fail when her target suddenly shifted his body, dodging her hand, "Wha-!?"

Kisuke then immediately went beside Yoruichi who already materialized her Zapakuto, "Ban-- !?"

But before she could complete her words, Kisuke covered her mouth with his left hand and the other hand stopped the pommel of her kodachi to be pulled out. Ignoring Yoruichi's glare, Kisuke responded to the voice out loud, "As I said before, I'm not his pawn and have no intention of being one."

Before the mysterious voice could respond, however, Kisuke added and asked, "This is a secured location, right?"

Although confused, Yoruichi immediately put away her Zanpakuto while thinking, 'How does Kisuke know of this voice?'

Without a change in her tone, the voice replied, "You're currently hidden from Chaos' eyes, but not for long."

Kuroka also calmed down seeing Kisuke is conversing with the unknown entity, but she also noticed that Kisuke was still completely in his birthday suit and hurriedly conjured his clothes for him, 'This damned pervert isn't even bothered, nyaa.'

Kisuke inspected the surroundings and indeed, the barrier was giving off the same feeling as Ophis' barrier that allowed them to hide from Chaos temporarily, "Then I'll go straight to the point. Why did you help me? What's your goal?"

Ever since getting the change in his Falna, Kisuke would inspect it every chance he got and concluded that the mysterious being didn't leave any 'backdoors' to it. On the contrary, Kisuke figured that he could entirely isolate his entire Falna quite easily, essentially disconnecting it from everything, including from his very being.

There was silence for a few minutes before the mysterious voice answered, "I'm just curious of what you can do, outsider."

Kisuke clicked his tongue after hearing that, "Don't act like that guy now. If you need something, say it straight to me and maybe we can talk about it."

More minutes of silence ensued before the mysterious voice spoke up again, "I'm certain that Chaos would be using you to kill me."

Kisuke immediately frowned, "Are you saying that he'd be able to push me to do that regardless of my will?"

"If it's you who'd just arrived in this world, you wouldn't do anything. But now that you care about some inhabitants of this world, you would have no choice but to slay me."

Kisuke's brows furrowed further as several possibilities entered his mind, "So what you want is for me to spare you?"

The mysterious voice chuckled, but somehow, Kisuke, Yoruichi, and Kuroka could feel that it's filled with loneliness and longingness, "Fufufu... I wouldn't ask you to change my fate of inevitable demise. I just wanted you to do me one favor. Please delay the 'Promised Time' as much as possible and I can assure you that nothing will be changed in the end and this world will still go on."

It was Kisuke's turn to be silent for a few minutes. Sighing, he asked, "What is this 'Promised Time' that I always hear about and when is it?"

"It is the rise of the Dungeon against the Heaven and it'll happen at the defeat of the Black Dragon and the rise of a Demi-God." As soon as the mysterious voice had said that, her presence disappeared, signifying that she cut off her telepathic connection to everyone. However, the barrier didn't go down.

Kisuke then sat back down and immediately started contemplating about the information he just received.

Yoruichi sat beside him and asked, "Do you trust this mysterious voice?"

Kisuke shook his head, "Of course not. We don't know if what she's saying is the truth. And even if it is, it's very obvious that she's not telling the whole story."

"The 'Promised Time', it's one of the Deities' biggest secrets. Even if they have mentioned this multiple times before, nyaa, Nobody from the Lower World actually knows its true meaning," Kuroka also sat beside him and said.

"It sounded like she's going to destroy the world and you'll be the one who's going to kill her. However, when she said 'It is the rise of the Dungeon against the Heaven and it'll happen at the defeat of the Black Dragon and the rise of a Demi-God', I have this feeling that she's not referring to herself as the 'Dungeon'," Yoruichi added.

Kisuke rubbed his chin and agreed with Yoruichi, "I also got that feeling. But it's really contradicting. If the 'rise of the Dungeon against the Heaven' isn't her, then why did she need to be killed?"

Yoruichi and Kuroka became silent. They don't have an answer to offer Kisuke's question nor would they try since they don't know anything.

Yoruichi then suddenly asked Kisuke, "When did you meet this voice? You haven't told us anything."

Kisuke sighed and told Yoruichi and Kuroka the whole process of what happened when the Hougyoku transformed them and how the mysterious being 'gave' him the Falna and how she claimed that she had created the Heavens.