Chapter 22. A village where Yokai lives

[ ICHITARO'S POV ]

It's the afternoon and time seemed to had moved faster than any humans and entities could possibly kept their own paces, unless a certain entity is fast enough to catch up with this mischievous season. From the deciduous autumn forest to a mixture of pale golednrod, pale warm orange and sandy brown on different shades of coloured grasses turned into straw and a cold river dawdled streamed so swiftly as it began it's last autumn days until winter arrives.

Ichitaro and his sisters loped their way to take the Kamaitachis to their very own home on a relaxing dry grassland; followed by Renji, Rukia, Shikamaru and Mikatsu. Renji gave Rukia a piggyback ride on his back, due to her near casualty of her abdomen. Despite she felt better by Shikamaru's `healing` glyph and had fallen asleep during their journey, his fear of losing her remained a dark storm hovering above his head.

Shikamaru and Mikatsu were silent, almost muted immediately after their bickering argument had almost cost Ichitaro's mission which remained anonymous to them except Ichitaro himself. Rangiku was carrying Ichitaro's stuff including the zanpakutos, whilst Ichitaro had five of the Kamaitachis wrapped around his arms, Excalibur on his hoodied jacket sleeping as well and a notebook in his pocket.

As for Yoshimura, her questions on Ichitaro's mysterious disappearance from Karakura town and how he landed towards the spirit world remained unanswered.

She had to interrupt this quiet afternoon by being the first to speak. 

She briskly went towards him and nicely asked:

" Hey, Ichitaro. Ever since you went missing in Karakura town and ended up here, could you tell me how did you end up in here? "

" I don't know how I ended up in here. I was sitting in the cemetery and I, miraculously, wind up here. Despite that it has something to do with a crow on my hoodie, my guess is as good as yours. But as soon as I find a way back home, maybe I'll explain everything to you."

" Wait, did it has something to do with a.....crow ?" she flustered, yet in a monotonous serious tone. 

" Of course it's about the fucking crow, Yoshimura. You can laugh about it, if you like." 

" And uhh.... how did it end up in your hoodie?"

" Just leave the fucking crow out of it. "

Shikamaru was as resentful than the other even after Ichitaro kicked him all the way to the demons like a defenceless bait. He simply stormed towards Ichitaro, stopped him along with the others and spluttered with rage:

" Alright, wise guy. Can you tell me where the fuck are we heading to? WE'VE BEEN WALKING FOR THE WHOLE GODDAMN HOURS!! IT FEELS LIKE GOING AROUND IN CIRCLES FOR MONTHS! Some of us here need to know what the fuck's going on."

" We're actually taking the Kamaitachis home. You really need to keep your voice down. You might wake up Rukia or worse. " Yoshimura defended her brother, giving him a half fully answered, hence neither of them gave him a real answer.

One of the Kamaitachis, Mimi opened her eyes and spotted a mountain which is a few inches away from there.

" We're here! I can't believe we're actually here!" She rejoiced and more Kamaitachis were peeping through Ichitaro's arms; they too were in high spirit. 

" Wait a sec, you guys live here?" Ichitaro asked, placing his one hand and viewed mountain top and immediately cuddled them from falling off.

" Umm, yeah. At the mountains inches away from here." Hachi answered. 

Shikamaru's jaws were dropped as he was astounded by Hachi's words.

" WAIT, WHAT? OVER THERE?! MY DAD'S GONNA KILL ME, IF I END UP IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!!" he yelled, nearly waking Rukia.

" Just move your lazy ass bones and stop being such a pussy, slacker. It's getting late and this might be another option! " Renji demanded, shuffled his way and take Hachi from Ichitaro for directions. Ichitaro decided to follow him and spoke:

" Maybe listening him won't be a bad thing, or you can go back where you'll be kicking the bucket. But, it's up to you. " 

Yoshimura and Rangiku were following their brother as well. Even Mikatsu, leaving him with a big cheerful smirk on her face that almost frustrates the hell out of him.

' For the Gods sake, why do I always got myself into? I hate this shit.' he wondered before catching up on the others as if he hadn't have much of a choice.

 ~~~~~~ 

As hours had passed, the sun revealed it's golden orange and it showed everyone how exhausted it felt after a long-short autumn days and Winter's reign will soon begin. Until then, no one knows when she'll ever return.

Ichitaro and the others had reached to the end zone of the mountains and rested after a miles long exhausting journey all the way from the soul society to the not-so demolished mine shaft where they believe this is where Mayuri might plan something.

Renji even had to take Rukia away from here because of Jupiter and Denki's sudden ambush, as Rukia nearly gave up her ghost trying to save Ichitaro from being killed. 

" I guess we should shelter here because it's their home." said Renji.

" Not quite." Mikatsu stated.

As all two soul reapers and the adolescent triplets were astounded by Mikatsu and the other Kamaitachis, but could not muster up a single ounce any of their strengths left anymore. Ichitaro, despite walking towards a longer distance and could almost show signs of fatigue, spotted an ancient language around a barrier, similar to the notebook that Koro might wrote. But he decided to let them continue since it's new to him.

As their spirit energy began swirling around them, their tiny bodies glowed teal green and their eyes were bright in aquamarine, whispering chants. They recited the ancient language as it glowed corn silk in colour and their spirit energy touches towards the mountain wall, causing it to disintegrated into piles of diminutive pebbles. 

An enormous amount of light flashes through everyone's eyes and they simply shield their own, even though their strengths had almost perished due to lack of eating some food, yet it did woke Rukia even if it didn't make any sounds, yet her eyes are still shut.

After the light slowly bounced back into its normal size and removed their hands from their eyes, it immediately showed Yokai villagers were busy preparing a meal for a certain ceremony, in peace and harmony.

Majority of female Kamaitachis washed their clothes together down by the river, the Yokai children were playing outside and were jumping for joy and the elders were smoking contented without any quarrel and conflict among themselves.

Meanwhile other Yokai guards were on patrol in case any intruders were there disturbing the villagers or worse. 

Renji realised that it'll be a ` suicide mission` if they barged in unannounced, since he sensed a spirit energy much stronger than he was, but not as strong as an arch demon. So, he simply grabbed the triplets and Shikamaru towards two large wooden made wheelbarrow. This might be enough to hide, then suddenly a wall-like Yokai blocked his path. Renji looked at him as a shiver ran down on his spine. 

' Is that a...Nurikabe?!' he gulped.

" What are you doing here, Soul reaper? You came for the orders of the queen to steal the Kamaitachis, aren't you? And i see you brought your friends too. ", he asked.

Renji remained speechless after looking at him in terror. 

" Then, you're an intruder! GUARDS, SEIZE THEM! SEIZE THEM!", he screamed.

" NO, WAIT!" the Kamaitachis cried, but it was too late for them as the Yokai guards races and surrounded them. One of the guards was a Tengu standing right besides them and quickly realised something.

" No, it's not what it looks like! You don't understand!" Hachi shouted.

" I understand it perfect alright. They're here to take the treasures as well. They must've had threatened you all just to rob from us."

" Hey, weren't as ruthless as demons. It must be a misunderstanding." Renji stated, struggling to stand up as a result of fatigue from carrying Rukia all this time. Tengu drew his kitana and aiming it on Renji's throat.

" Cut the crap, Soul reaper. I don't buy that snob story you're creating. Because of your kind, our women, children and even the elderlies are in danger, raping and killing them like we're some useless animals from the world of the living. Now, we won't be hiding on your shadow any longer, unlike your leader .", he added. 

As his fear turned into anger, Renji was furious over the Tengu when he mentioned Captain Yamamoto. His fists clenched in wrath as he punched Tengu right across his face, but no matter how strong and tired he was, the red skinned Yokai easily grabbed his fist, causing commotions on the villagers, including a curious looking Yokai.

" HOW DARE YOU SAY SHIT ABOUT CAPTAIN YAMAMOTO?! WE'RE NOT HERE TO TAKE YOUR FUCKING TREASURES NOR ANYONE!!! WE'VE JUST CAME HERE TO BRING THEM HOME! " Renji roared in frustration and quickly calmed down with a big sigh, " By then, we'll be out of your hair and continue to seek shelter."

Silence had manifest itself in this rural kingdom. Rukia finally open her eyes and looked around towards the unknown place she hadn't been here before. 

" Renji, this does look like the Roukon district, where are we?" she asked.

" This is the Yokai district. And you, Soul reapers are the intruders." Said a male Yokai figure.

Everyone quickly turned towards him and bowed down before him, except for Renji, Rukia, Shikamaru and the Kagami triplets. Heavy footsteps echoed the premises and everyone stepped further away from whilst they bowed right before him. Even the guards kneeled before him, realising that this male Yokai was actually their leader as he got closer towards him.

A man, as the same height as Renji, he has light Cyan blue hair with a hint of dark blue in colour and pointy red wine horns on his forehead and maroon eyes. He wore a blue violet kimono robe decorated with cherry blossoms and red sparrows on each side, which is almost the same as Shunsui's, except that it's pink in colour. There's also giant scarlet pebbles around his neck.

Tengu, simply dare not to look him in the eyes in respect and said :

" Hirōshi-sama, these Soul reapers appeared to have trespassed here along with the Kamaitachis and a nekomada, my lord." 

' So much for being a conceited prick. ' Renji thought.

Hirōshi starred at Renji and the others and sighed heavily. Rukia finally got off from Renji and grabbed his arm and said:

" My apologies for trespassing. I don't know how and why we got here. The reason why we run away is because we're under attacked by the fallen angels. We have no choice but to flee along with the kids and this guy with a mask of a hollow deer came and try to kill these kids and he has dark magic that I can't even describe it ____."

" Wait, did you just say, ` a mask guy coming after these kids ` and the Soul society is in annihilation by fallen angels?" he asked her, in an appealing, yet serious tone.

Renji was about to wriggle her hand, but he couldn't as they were surrounded by Yokai guards and had to defend themselves without getting themselves killed. Looking into his eyes, she simply nodded her head to show that she's correct. Hirōshi went towards Nurikabe and ordered for the gates to be closed and the password to change. Nurikabe, simply asked the teams of constructive Yokai to build it on how it used to be. Hirōshi then sent Rukia towards the medical facilities to get healed properly and the Tengu sends Shikamaru, Renji and the triplets towards the guest house and being easily monitored by the guards.

' I can't let anyone knows about Ichitaro. However, his powers had shown that it wasn't like any kinds of demons nor other hybrids, or any other entities. This means he might be something else that no one knew what it was.', Rukia thought as her eyes were slowly gazing towards him, in which, coincidentally, the medical facilities was right the opposite of the guest house. She examined Ichitaro by curiousity, ' What are you exactly, Ichitaro? '

~~~~~~~

[ MEANWHILE IN KARAKURA TOWN]

'As Autumn wave herself to bid farewell, Winter raised her head high with her beautiful snow white gown. Little do everyone knows, she was more cruel than her sisters.'

A young man, at the age of 22 years with his long raven black hair combed over and midnight blue eyes wearing a white long turtleneck sweater and a green camouflage pants, wrote a simple essay on his school project on top of the shelf inside the store. With few papers on the bin, a soft Pop music playing on the radio and his promise to never mess it up even if he wants to, a telephone rang right next to him which haulted his plan.

* Ttttttttrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnggggggg* ( telephone sound )

He took a deep breath and placed his paper and pen, picked it up and answered:

« Urahara shop. »

« Hello, is your father here?»

«I think he's a little bit busy right. Probably in his room taking a nap. But I'll try my best to wake him up.»

«Oh good.»

« Please hold. Before I ask, who am I talking to? Just for recognising.»

« Just an old friend of his.»

« Oh, okay.»

The young lad dropped the phone without hanging up and went upstairs and headed straight to the hallway until he reached towards his father's room. He knocked the door several times and covered his eyes in case he was busy with his mother. When the door was opened, a man in his late 30s in blonde hair and spring green eyes, wearing his dark green kimono robe, decorated in black triangles and white circle at the end, peeping through and stared at him awkwardly and lazily.

" Naruto, you can remove your hand now. I'm completely covered. Anyway, I thought you're busy with your homework what's changed?" he asked. Naruto removed his hand and answered:

" Umm, some old friend of yours called and wanted to speak to you." 

" Alright, I'll see who it is. Just go back to your room.", he sighed as went back to the shop. He picked up the phone and answered:

« Urahara shop?»

« Hey, Kisuke. I assumed you were too tired to take care of the shop yourself and you let your kid do it all by himself.»

All of a sudden, Kisuke remembered who it was.

« Lieutenant Chojirō? Holly shit, you're someone else.»

Chojirō chuckles himself as Kisuke was rubbing his face in embarrassment and he continues:

« Oh Kisuke. We still miss you after all those decades. Anyway, I got good news for you, Captain Yamamoto agreed to help regained Ichigo's powers. I'll see you after a week.»

« Well then I guess it's good news indeed. Alright see you soon, old man.»

As he hanged the phone and amusingly, his face was brightened up by a big lazy smile. Then a black cat appeared on the table and said:

" You seem happy."

" I guess I am. Yamamoto is willing to cooperate,all that's missing on the ingredient is a demon blood and Naruto does have that blonde red haired kid. I think he might help us."

" But what about Ginjo and the others? They won't be happy after this."

" Don't worry, Yoruichi. They'll find out.... eventually."