Steven and Sam listened to the bullshit that Voro spouted out his well paid mouth. " Can you believe this?" Sam said seething. Steven pressed his lips together and suddenly ran up and tackled Voro to the ground and started hitting the abusive, kidnaping jackass. "Jesus Christ Steven! " Sam ripped Steven off of Fuego. Who laid spitting blood on the conference hall's floor. Voro felt the fat lip and blackened eye coming on strong as well as at least 2 of his teeth now rattling in the back of his throat. Sitting up he spit them out. "I want this man arrested. He could even be one of the beasts that stole my woman." Sam gripped his friend tighter to stop himself from adding to the wonderful job already done. " Careful jackass. We know about the bounty on your head. Too much noise and we'll let the gangs of this city have a go before we step in." Sam whispered softly and saw the man go pale. Sam turned to Steven then. "Apologize Steven, I told you, you shouldn't have gone drinking that early. Just because he got the girl to go with him." Steven growled at Sam, Sam growled back. Shaking Sam off he gritted out the apology and stormed off into the crowd. "Well that was entertaining. Don't you think Means?" Ani said to his fellow assassin. Means rolled his eyes. "We're ordered to make sure these soul snobs do what they were ordered to do. I don't see the reason we had to stop here." Ani tsked his friend. " You saw the report yourself, you've been to her houses in nearly all the countries. This is the one spot there's nothing. Not a drop of her presence. So who else could they be talking about. She's setting up shop." Means snorted. "All those houses didn't have one ounce of power. None. They were all dead ends, sure they know the names and the arts, but what we know hasn't been a well kept secret in centuries. Anyone of our enemies could have taken it into their head to come over here and take over. Wish it would have occured to me." Ani shook his head. " Yeah and that would have lead me to having to kill you and you're my only blood left. My dear sweet cousin." Means spit at Ani's feet.
"Don't remind me. Now can we eat. I know we don't need to eat usually but here its kind of a staple." Ani snorted and nodded, walking out. Leaving behind a small recording bug just in case they needed it. Rukia landed on the top of Jamie's home now taped taged listed and organized by room. What had happened? She'd found no one at Urahara's which gave her a creepy feeling. How could she protect Jamie if she couldn't find her? Ichigo landed next to her. "I don't like this. Jamie's not a criminal." Rukia eyed him. "How can you be so certain?" Ichigo frowned at her. "How can you doubt her? She's....she's....I don't know. I've just met her but I love her." Immediately he saw her reaction. "No-no not that way! Damn I didn't mean it that way! Everyone at home feels the same. She's like family but....she can't be. Can she?" Rukia gave him a studious eye and paled slightly. There was a simularity, but what that meant she didn't quite know. "There's no one at Urahara's not even in the practice grounds. I don't know where they went, there's no trace of them." Ichigo looked at his watch. "We'd better get back before our idiot selves do something we can't explain away."
Renji recieved the new orders at Urahara's by hail butterfly. "The high king's orders are the following. Any soul smith in the living realm is to be captured, tortured and eliminated without question. Their bodies to be delivered to the soul societies head master's home for the high king's messenger to record and dismember as the high king demands." When it tried to fly away Renji caught it. "Now you wait ! He can't demand us to kill off someone who hasn't done shit except help rescue a girl." The butterfly snorted. "These aren't my orders they are the high kings. Take it up with him, but don't expect to keep your head afterwards." After that it escaped. Renji looked at Urahara. "I....I can't do it. I can't follow the order. Capture, torture and kill? I can't see any of us following these orders. Especially not Captain Kuchiki or the head master." Urahara thumbed his chin."Go take a walk, cool your head, think about it." Just then Renji's phone rang with his captain's face on it. He hit the answer button.
"You have recieved your orders." The cool unfeeling tone was too much for the lt. to take.
"Go to hell. I'd rather be exiled then to kill Jamie on some irrational whim of a royal." Then he threw the phone against the wall where it shattered into pcs. Urahara shook his head. "You shouldn't have done that. Being exiled isn't a walk in the park. You can never go home, your stuck here life after life time. Though if you believe even 1/2 of what Jamie said she's been around alot longer." He opened up the briefcase very cautiously. Taking out various babbles and the card that had come with it just in case they ever needed a bit of help. Urahara smiled softly. She was a character. Beauty even if her scars had made him wince and wonder how she had survived them. Brains enough to know just what buttons to push to get away without too much being noticed. Except for Tessai, he'd kept an eye on things. From the car's license plate to the details of her crew. Even now he was keeping tabs on the car, a few favors called in. A car that had stopped in a mall parking lot. "Here take this and the card. Call it they maybe able to help you. I'll try from this end to talk to Byakuya and hold him off from reporting you. You can't change much from this side, its better to go from the inside. Less resistance, more support." Renji sagged. Urhara squeezed his shoulder. "I can't blame you. I'd have fought the order myself and if I know the other's, they won't just do as they're told so blindly. Look what happened when they tried to kill Rukia, it didn't go down at all as Aizen wanted. God bless that boy." Renji bent his head in shame, yes bless Ichigo. Without him Aizen would have split the society in two. Those who had believed in Rukia's innocents would have been made to look like hero's to the people. While those like him and his captain would have been worse then Aizen. He should have been the one to save her to stand against....he felt the slap hard across his face.
"Knock it off Moocher. You can't change the past, you just have to do the best you can and do better next time.... You did, but you didn't give Byakuya a chance to be convinced that you are right and he's wrong. You don't even know if he's going to fight this order or not. Especially after what could have happened to Rukia. Hmmm....not my best pep talk, but go and take that walk. You are welcome here anytime, after all we maybe exiles together. Tessai and I may go out and do a little shopping, maybe even start a bank account...." Kesuki went back to the case and grabbed out the wallet and airline tickets.
"Like she said she came prepared. If you leave come back and visit once in awhile. We'll all miss you, don't tell the other's I told you. You're like having an easily irritated sibling. Alot of fun. Now go and take that walk, clear your head at least." Renji nodded and opened the shoddily repaired door. "I'll fix this when I come back and thanks."
Kesuki nodded and was on the phone in seconds with Tessai who had been down in the tunnels.
"He's gone, but I don't know for how long. He just technically quit the reaper business. Things have definitely gone from boring to interesting. The high king wants her captured tortured and killed. That speaks alot about her importance. Like he's afraid of her.Why is the big question." Tessai listened closely. "In my studies as a child, smiths were legends.Part horror part fairy tale. I always wanted to meet one. Now I have and found that the fairy tale is true enough. But it was always the horror stories that would make me thankful that they were just stories." Kesuki frowned.
"And?" For a moment there was silence. "She's not evil but that doesn't mean we won't find ourselves on the wrong side of her. We will have to chose which side we want to be on and take the concequinces that come with it. Are we prepared to chose?" Kesuki took off his hat and gave himself a look in the mirror. He had been so much once and now....he sighed. "She doesn't deserve to go out that way at least without knowing why."