Chapter 6. Dragon Court

Ichitaro and Kumori took a walk for at least few miles away from her home together. He saw how happy she was when they'd finally met. After 10 years of their friendship, he was curious regarding on this place. Then he asked her calmly :

" So, you want to tell me about this place?"

" You mean 'Crystal Soul'? Yeah, it's pretty old. I mean, way older than the Soul society. Probably centuries old, I think. My dad used to told me about it and we're aren't monsters, we're entities." she answered.

" Entities? " he asked.

" Well, you could say that. It's more of a nicer word than calling us monsters. They're demons, witches, vampires, werewolves, yokais and fallen angels in this place. No one had ever caused chaos ever since the 3rd spirit war. That's because of the spirit demons, they've just wanted peace from the start. Since they're extinct for centuries ago, no one knows who was behind this and why." , she said as she's about to hold Ichitaro's hand.," It seems peaceful, isn't it?"

" Yeah. It is peaceful."

" Maybe someday, you'll take me to a world of the living."

" You mean Karakura?"

" Yes. "

" Well, maybe I could tell you a thing or two about it. " he said, just before his light blue eyes stared at her. Despite having the same age and height, her body was petite and her breast was small. Apart from wearing her favourite silver t-shirt, black jeans and white flat shoes, she and Ichitaro first met at the Karakura bridge near the river. Ichitaro then asked her another question :

" What's with that blue cloak?"

" As you could see that_____"

Just as she was about to finish her side of the story, a kid with dark orange hair, wearing a watermelon coat and a white shirt, was running away from someone. He bumped onto him fell on the ground, but Ichitaro pulled him up with his one hand. Not knowing very well on where he came from, Ichitaro simply asked him :

" Alright, you dweeb. Who are you and what are you doing here running around?"

" Oh.... I'm sorry. I didn't see you there. I was...actually running away from these guys." he answered nervously. He pointed out three boys heading towards them.

" Who are these guys, Tsukinami? " Kumori asked.

" I don't know..... Well I kinda know them. " he said.

As three boys arrived, Ichitaro, Kumori and Tsukinami were about to prepare something incredibly melodramatic.

One of the boys, wearing a white vest and black buttoned shirt, which all of them were wearing the same as he wore, stepped forward without even introducing themselves and harshly commanded to Ichitaro:

" Give me that Tatsu, kid."

" What are you going to do with him?", Ichitaro asked., " Torture him or something?"

" Oh, don't worry. We'll have to deal with him, if you bring him to us and you'll forget about it happened." he chuckles.

" Dealing with him... As in... You want to smash him against his will, aren't you? "

" Smash him? Oh no. We won't. We'll just have to teach him a lesson, like boys do. "

" Hey, that's not true! " shouted Tsukinami.

" Shut up, kid! ," he continues then looked at Ichitaro, " Well, sorry for the inconvenience____."

" Maybe taking a `no` might be a best option." , said Ichitaro as he disturbed the boy leader without any hesitation.," Since you've wanted that kid for no reason, I doubt you guys have any good explanation."

" Enough with the chitchat bullshit and give me that Tatsu! " shouted the tall boy in between the leader and the short boy.

" I'm afraid that won't work." Ichitaro said.

" What does that mean? " said the leader.

Before Ichitaro could answer the questions, he simply punched the leader on his left eye and nose, then punch him in the gut and into his chin unconsciously. The tall boy went berserk and charged towards him with his fist clenched in anger. However, Ichitaro jumped and tilted his entire body from his fist before kicking his face so hard, the tall boy began bleeding from his nose and mouth.

By then, he placed his own foot to trip the tall boy and watched him fall to the ground, knocking him cold. He looked at the short boy. When he glanced at him, cowardly he ran away, dragging two of his injured friends along. Tsukinami went to Ichitaro and said :

" Oh thank you so much. You saved my life for good."

" It's cool. I just need to find someone who could help me with this whole Yamagata thing."

" Wait, a Yamagata? As in Koro Yamagata?" he asked.

Those questions made Ichitaro felt uncomfortable. He knew that he couldn't just randomly tell him that he's deceased for eternity. Without answering his question, Ichitaro took out Koro's diary from his side pocket and showed him, before he nodded.

Tsukinami, carefully examined the diary. When he opened the book, he could see that they're ancient letters written. He later said :

" I may not be an expert on ancient history, but we could go to the library, if you like."

" Maybe we'll find that information about those mysterious letters." said Kumori.

" And find out about the Yamagatas and their origins." said Ichitaro as he finally realised something.

" Correct. Now, follow me. "

As Tsukinami, Kumori and Ichitaro ran towards the library, he simply introduced himself to Ichitaro :

" I'm Tsukinami, by the way."

" Ichitaro. It's nice knowing you. "

" You know, everyone have their own title, especially you."

' If this isn't Karakura, then that means....i must've been transported somewhere else. But with what, exactly?', he asked himself., ' Some kind of magic? Hoax? Whatever it is, I have to find out soon.'

~~~~~~

After reaching their destination, felt exhausted and tired, Ichitaro seemed curious to find out that the library is as big as the stadium, but with a roof on top.

" Newbie?" Tsukinami asked.

" Yeah. I've found him on the graveyard." Kumori answered.

" Oh, let's enter quickly before those boys were after me again." he said as he went inside.

" Come on, Ichitaro. Your curiosity will kill the entire Nekomadas out here." she grabbed Ichitaro's hand as they went to the library. He soon noticed that Kumori's hand was more softer like an adorable soft toy rabbit that he used to have. As three of them had entered the library, they had discovered that it's not just an ordinary library, even Ichitaro.

It's filled with flying books, book cases moved by itself and librarians were also entities too. One thing about this place was they're no security guards. Just magical peacocks made it's recognition to others that are welcome before they flew somewhere else.

When Tsukinami went to the receptionist desk, Kumori and Ichitaro looked around the entire building. She simply asked him :

" Those moves. How did you do that?"

" That time when I kicked their asses?" he asked, making him avoid her question.

" Yeah"

" Well, I learned it from my mom. She actually trained me and my siblings to the core. Surely, my dad's a `soft butter` as my mom said, at least he taught me the way of life."

" Well, I guess your dad is pretty cool."

" Not all the time. Sometimes he can embarrass me, even if I'm here. But at the end of the day, he's still my dad. "

Kumori giggled at what he said. She found Ichitaro to be very cute, despite never showing any emotions in him. Then Tsukinami appeared, causing a distraction of relief to her.

" Alright, we have good news. We can search those ancient words and the origin of the Yamagata clan at no°15, which is right there." he said as he pointed out to his right hand side. Three of them headed out to no°15 which they had spotted and it was pronounced :

HISTORIC SPIRIT WORLD - NO°15

They pinpointed tons of books at the library and they noticed that there's a chair and a table too. Instead of sitting down, they began searching for a possible solution to the riddle. They had to find about the ancient letters, the Yamagatas and their origins. By the time hope was slowly fading away, Ichitaro discovered two huge books in between the shelfs with a familiar surname - it was written by one of the Yamagata clan. Curiously, they opened the book. With every detail it shared, they had spotted another clue.

" Guys, check this out. It says here that the ancient letters were actually from the spirit demons. They wrote this in secret to confuse other entities, making it one of the most difficult languages in the spirit world." said Tsukinami.

" You know what this means? " said Kumori.

" Yeah, they're trying to tell us something. Something bad is going to happen here. " he said.

" Yeah, and look at this one. It also explains that the first female to ever met them was Hanabi Yamagata." she said.

During their conversation, Ichitaro had red through all of the information, even learning that the Yamagata clan were the pillars of the ` strongest foundation ` in the Soul society, followed by the Kuchiki clans and the Shiba clan.

' I guess you're not just an ordinary man after all, Koro.' he thought.

Whilst listening to their conversations, he could hear an argument coming from the receptions and it grew louder than a wildfire.

Since he knew that it's never his business, he decided to ignore this heated arguments as he continues to listen to Kumori and Tsukinami. However, this argument doesn't die out easily. Instead, it spreads out even further from the library.

Besides that, he sensed some kind of a spirit energy that is powerful, which made him feeling dizzy. Kumori looked at him and asked him as if she was worried about him :

" Ichitaro, are you alright?"

" Yeah, I'll be fine." he said. Despite he knew very well he's not okay, although Kumori saw him that he wasn't feeling well.

" Ichitaro, come on. We have to go to the doctor. I can see that you're not okay. Tsukinami, you can continue giving me the information. I'm going to take Ichitaro somewhere else."

" Okay, but please come back. I don't want those boys after me again. " he said, nervously.

She nodded to him, while assisting Ichitaro to get out of the chair and going out. Ichitaro's dizziness seemed getting worse and worse for him that it even thought that someone was there.

" Kumori, we have to find another place.... There's someone out there."

" Ichitaro, there's no way out of this place. This is only exit. So stop being such a pussy and let me do this____."

" "Or you'll give me your very own ` Kumori's makeover `. " Think that I've forgotten about it? " he chuckles.

She smiled at him when he remembered her favourite words. She'd even swore that Ichitaro was more than a good friend to her.

" I guess I remember that. "

Once they'd reached to the reception, Kumori gets a shock of her life. She saw her uncle arguing with another man as he handled Koro's baseball bat and was ready to fight him. Even the poor librarian tries so hard to stop the fight, until she falls to the ground. She even crawled to her desk in fear.

" What the fuck?! Iruka, what are you doing here?" she asked.

Iruka looked at her and said :

" You have to take Ichitaro somewhere else. It's not safe for him. There's someone out there who wants him."

" Want him? What do you mean by that?"

" Come on." he said as he lifted Ichitaro and hold him like a little baby. He was even surprised that he weight less than a hundred pounds. By the time they exited, the man stopped them at their tracks. The other was carrying a dagger, similar to the murder weapon that killed Koro. He starred at them and said :

" I'll never going to let you get away with this, Wildling."

Iruka scoffed at the figure. " Only Zen can say that " Wildling" part. Whatever it is you're doing Deki, it'll never work. Just tell Kazumi to go and fuck a soul reaper. I mean, everybody knows she slept with him but didn't regret anything. "

" YOU'LL NEVER INSULT MY QUEEN AGAIN! "

He roared and released the most biggest spirit energy anyone could ever sense. So Deki went straight to him along with his crooked dagger. Iruka rapidly dodges his attacks and punched him at the back of his head. The fight quickly intensifies, while everyone were watching this whimsical brawl.

But since Iruka threw Ichitaro to Kumori for the sake of his safety and avoided yet another damage, Kumori took Ichitaro somewhere further away from here. Unfortunately, someone stopped at her tracks and prevented her from leaving.

Whilst Iruka was about to choke the living life out of Deki, another man shouted his name :

" IRUKA!! IF YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL MY BROTHER, THEN SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR PRECIOUS NIECE!!!"

Iruka noticed the man held Kumori. Ichitaro struggled to get back up and saw that his best friend was in trouble.

" You let her go!" said Iruka

" Or what?", he asked, deviously.," I can't keep my promises, Wildling. I'll kill her right now, even if I have to."

Ichitaro's eyes were fulled in rage and anger. He believed that no one was going to kill Kumori and got away with it. That was until a certain spirit energy had surpassed the others - his own spirit energy.