Rebirth In Bleach - 30 Interception

The sun could be seen drowning into the horizon as its last rays of light graced soul society. A dozen or so people were currently running through a myriad of trees at speeds unimaginable by a normal soul.

“Hey, how far we left till we reach the hideout” called out escapee number one

“Not long, according to my calculations, they should have just started looking for us” replied the leader.

“I don’t want to meddle in things, but how did you know that. With our positions, we shouldn’t even know this kind of information”

The leader just stayed silent as he remembered who came to visit him.

– The leader’s flashback –

– A week ago –

It was the day when Itsuki was off duty, a mysterious man came to visit him. He was just idling around when it happened,

“Want to escape” The mysterious man suddenly called out,

“Wha…” Shocked by the sudden voice he fell backwards trying to make out the intruder in his cell.

“Want to escape this hellhole” The mysterious man asked of him

The leader’s eyes suddenly became blank as he repeated the words

“I want to escape this hellhole”

“Good”

These were the last words before the mysterious man disappeared. The leader came out of his blank state only to notice a pile of papers in front of him. It had all the information, from the guard’s rotation times to the detention corps rotation times. Places they are vigilant about and spots where there is a small window that will be overlooked allowing them to escape.

However, there is no information about Itsuki on it and all the ways of escaping, naturally lead them to the north.

– The present –

Remembering the mysterious man, he didn’t know how he looked but all he could remember was a pair of normal eyes behind, what seemed to be, a pair of glasses. What shocked him was the eyes, it seemed that the owner of them was just taking a walk in their backyard.

Of all the people that were powerful enough to infiltrate and wear glasses only one came to mind. But he still didn’t know the reason of why that person would do what he did on the first place.

Before he could think deeper into this, they reached a small clearing only to notice a member of the Onmitsukido in front of them. Looking at the half-covered mask and the head full of white hair, the leader realised that there was no information about the person in front of him.

Itsuki had already arrived and moved in front just to intercept them. He had to follow procedures.

Before the leader could react, a freezing voice came from the opposing force,

“Prisoner’s #004, #007, #012, #015…”

Before he could finish, one of the escapees attacked him. Appearing behind Itsuki, the escapee went for a jab at Itsuki’s back where the heart was located. Hitting him, he realised he felt nothing as ‘Itsuki’ slowly faded out. Grasping that it was just an afterimage he quickly retracted his hand only to feel a cold object entering his body from behind. Looking down, he saw the front end of a sword covered with a layer of blood dripping onto the floor.

Slowly turning around, he stumbled upon a pair of terrifying azure eyes with a pink circle in the middle. Itsuki withdrew his sword as the escapee collapsed in front of him. Noticing their colleague being brutally killed sent a shiver down their hearts. Their enemy was armed, while they themselves were unarmed. Itsuki looked on as the prisoners slowly backed away. As they had retaliated, Itsuki was now able to kill them. He could see the lines of death littered on them with one point on their forehead, similar to the hollows, and two more on their bodies.

At first glance, he could see who the leader was, and their previous talk confirmed his suspicions. Noting that the others were useless he disappeared from their views. This triggered an expected reaction, they scattered in different directions while also abandoning each other. However, this was not a problem for Itsuki. He reappeared next to one escapee, cut his body in half and moved on to the next. This time it was a she, noticing Itsuki appear behind her, she quickly turned around and threw a punch, trying to retaliate in some way. She may have had some hope in her heart, but that came crushing down as she realised that there was no hand to throw the punch. Before the pain even registered in her brain, she flew up in the air only to see a familiar headless body and blacking out.

This wasn’t the end, one after another, each crueller than the other, it was like he was harvesting crops except it was lives and only a few breaths later, was he finished. Dismembered body parts lay everywhere in a picturesque scene of blood and gore. One thing that was similar was the eyes of the dead, all of them had panic and fear written across dictating the cruelty they experienced.

This didn’t invite any change in expression for Itsuki as he looked towards the direction of where the leader ran,

‘Quite fast’

As he thought this, he quickly made his way towards the leader only to find him collapsed, face down on the floor. Moving next to him, Itsuki sheathed his sword keeping his arm ready in case of an ambush. This was a habit all practitioners of the Hiten mitsurugi-ryu had, keep their arm over the sword in case of an ambush, allowing them to quickly draw their sword if there was one.

as he turned him around, making contact with a pair of lifeless eyes. A wound could be seen where his heart was, and a disbelieving expression masked his face.

“Tch”

Displeasure was present in Itsuki’s eyes as he knew the conspirer had left no loose ends. He knew that people of this level couldn’t have escaped on their own and concluded that they must’ve had outside help. Glancing around he tried to make use of his eyes but to no avail. His eyes all depended on Itsuki’s perspective of the target’s ‘death’.

Realising that there was no point of looking around he decided to send up a flair notifying the others.

A while later another member of the detention corps arrived and Itsuki directed him to the other escapees. Itsuki still had to report so he waited for his superiors to arrive. More and more members arrived to clean up what was left and to see if there was any evidence on their bodies, isolating the surrounding area. While some looked towards Itsuki with fear, some were filled with wariness and some with complete indifference. Slowly, members of the executive militia arrived before the corps commander, Shihouin Yoruichi, arrived along with her personal guards.

She read the report as everyone, including Itsuki, kneeled there with their heads lowered. The one in charge of the prison was sweating buckets as he waited for Yoruichi to speak.

Yoruichi finished reading the report and glanced towards the one in charge. Before she even opened her mouth the one in charge started speaking,

“Captain, it was all my fault for neglecting my duties, I should be punished for my error”

“No, it was mine, I suddenly fell asleep, so I should be punished”

Itsuki just stayed where he was with his eyes closed. A defeated sigh left Yoruichi’s mouth as she looked at the ones taking responsibility confronting each other. This went on for some time before she glanced in the direction of Itsuki, looked back and spoke out

“Ma, ma, no need to brood over whose fault it was. Minamoto Itsuki, you stay behind, the rest are dismissed”

“”Hai, we thank the captain for her leniency””

As everyone left, Itsuki stayed in his place, not moving a single bit. Yoruichi then dismissed her guards only leaving Soi Fon, her and Itsuki in the room. The room slowly descended into silence as none of the three spoke. Soi Fon was okay with this silence, Itsuki seemed okay with it but there was one person that couldn’t stop fidgeting. Making her way towards Itsuki, Yoruichi called out

“Minamoto Itsuki, get up”

No reply came, this time Soi Fon called out a bit louder

“How dare you ignore what Yoruichi-Sama asked of you, GET UP!”

Opening his eyes Itsuki got up while giving out a slight inconspicuous yawn. He had fallen asleep.

The room once again descended into silence with the slight giggle of Yoruichi resounding throughout the room before turning into a full-blown laughter. The reaction of Soi Fon was the total opposite.

– 5th Division HQ –

‘Minamoto Itsuki, your eyes intrigue me’

A man wearing scholarly glasses looked towards the direction of the 2nd division HQ. A voice suddenly came from behind him.

“What’s going in that head of yours?”