Chapter 12: New Allies

The next day, Yoruichi sleepily watched Squad Two train under the morning sun. Between learning to transform and realizing Soifon's honesty, she had too much adrenaline and too much to think about to sleep. Despite her tiredness and distractedness, she mustered some pride for her men. They were slowly picking up the technique she had shown them earlier. One of the more talented recruits had just managed to use the technique to catch his opponent off guard. A few others were not too far behind. Such promising and loyal troops.

The thought of talented subordinates reminded her of, far and away, the most talented one, Soifon. Shortly after that, it reminded her of the prisoner's accusation.

How could I abandon these people and how could I leave Soifon?

It was easy to brush off the accusation when she could comfortably claim that the prisoner was an imposter or a liar, but she couldn't deny it anymore.

Am I really the kind of person who could forsake all of her bonds and responsibilities? I need to get to the bottom of this.

Training wrapped up right before noon and the captain handed out a few helpful comments before she headed to the Twelfth Division.

"Shihouin-taichou," Soifon bowed when she stepped into the cell.

Yoruichi took a deep breath. "None of that, Soifon," she bestowed Soifon with a small smile, half sad and half guilty. "Yoruichi-sama would be fine."

"O-of course… Yoruichi-sama." Soifon heard the words that were not spoken. "I thought you would never believe me." A small relieved smile etched itself on her face once the shock wore off .

"Well, time travel. Really? You should be happy you haven't been sent to the Maggot's Nest or the Soukyouku." Yoruichi pretended to huff defensively. "Or the loony bin," she added for good measure.

"I understand." Truly, Soifon couldn't fault Yoruichi for her skepticism and knew she had been treated exceptionally well, everything considered. "I couldn't believe it either at first, but it's an opportunity I'm determined not to waste," Soifon clenched her fists at her sides. "I just…"

"Hmm," Yoruichi interrupted the impending brooding. She stepped out of the open door, calling her student with two flicks of her wrist. "We can talk about the situation and your plans later, but for now we're getting out of here."

"Ah… That sounds good, Yoruichi-sama," Soifon said, sufficiently distracted by the promise of breathing fresh air without suffering Yoruichi's wary glances. If she never saw the inside of that cell again, it would be too soon.

As the bright sun climbed high in the sky, shinigami started filtering into the mess hall.

"Yeah, I purified two hollows this week!" the man from Squad Six bragged. "Pfft, small fry. That's nothing," the one from Squad Seven answered. "I took out three of them just today!"

Behind them, a man dressed in a white coat continued to eat his lunch, his expression betraying nothing of his disgust as he listened. It was a shinigami's job to get rid of hollows, of course, but he found it pretentious that these men called it 'purifying' when their intentions weren't so noble. The conversation made it clear that what they did, they did for glory. He doubted that they truly understood what they were doing. 'Nothing but dogs mindlessly obeying Central 46 for an ear scratch and a bone. Soon enough, Aizen will make his move, ending their existences before they even knew what happened.'

And him? He had nothing to worry about. With the information he now had, he was going to make sure that he was standing right beside Aizen when the axe fell.

With that final thought, he piled up his eating utensils and dumped them carefully, soundlessly into the designated bin. His planned meeting wouldn't be for a while; there was no need to rush and call attention to himself.

Soifon and Yoruichi chatted about a bunch of inconsequential things like the weather and how the squad was doing, both delaying the inevitable confrontation about the details of Soifon's situation. It was painfully awkward. Clearly, it was going to take a while to air everything out and to develop any sort of stable dynamics now that Yoruichi knew that Soifon was a time-traveling captain—one that she had apparently hurt.

When a young shinigami arrived to train, the two eagerly took the opportunity to suspend their increasingly lame conversation and watched.

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Shakkahou!" the little girl chanted, the red light reflecting on her glasses. The fiery medium-sized ball floated forward slowly and exploded slightly off of the target. The girl seemed to grit her teeth in frustration before she tried again, eyes screwed shut in concentration as she went through the chant. This time, the ball was bigger, but it stayed firmly in place at her hands. Her wide innocent eyes grew wider still and in panic, she didn't think to end the Shakkahou immediately.

When Soifon saw what was happening, she flashed over faster than Yoruichi thought her capable, leaving an afterimage on the bench. She held two hands over the ball, expelling kidou of exactly the opposite speed and energy. Just like that, the Shakkahou vanished into thin air.

"Utsusemi and hanki?" Yoruichi whispered in surprise. Utsusemi was a very advanced secret skill that she had developed. And Hanki? That technique called for decades of experience, enough to judge the opponent's kidou as well as to properly measure the nullifying technique. If Yoruichi still had any doubts about her protégé's claims, they were all gone now.

Back on the field, the little girl lifted her head to look at Soifon, confusion clear on her features. The older girl laid a hand lightly on her shoulder, startling her. "That was close, Ise-fu—san" The title almost slipped out before Soifon caught herself. With a small shake of her head, she continued. "When you practice again, make sure a seated officer is there to supervise."

"O-okay," Nanao Ise stuttered, still shaken from the incident. She couldn't even be sure how the lady knew her name.

"You know, the first one wasn't bad," Soifon commented as she swept her vision across the field and to the half-demolished target. Probably barely enough to pass academy, but impressive for one so young.

"Listen, my teacher once said the key to a successful kidou spell is the correct visualization. What are you trying to make when you attempt this spell?" the former captain asked.

"An exploding b-ball of light?" Nanao answered uncertainly.

"An exploding ball seems a lot like a bomb, doesn't it? If you think of it that way, the ball is unstable, and there's nothing to drive its movement," Soifon tried to explain more kindly than she would her own recruits. Nanao frowned, trying to process the information.

"For Shakkahou, think of it more as a cannon. There is energy held inside a ball that is sitting in a tube. When you are ready, you apply a force behind the ball, propelling it through the tube. That way the ball travels quickly, on course, and only explodes on the target. Do you understand?" Soifon asked. "Try it again," she ordered when the girl said she thought she did.

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Shakkahou!" The ball was small but it flew fast and flew true, burning a hole straight through the target much closer to the bullseye. Nanao couldn't help but squeal in delight as she hugged Soifon's waist in gratitude.

Soifon blushed in embarrassment, "H-hey now—"

"Thank you so much, Onmitsukidou-san!" Nanao smiled brightly.

"Uh… Yeah," Soifon patted her head hesitantly. "You did well. Just keep practicing with supervision like I told you."

"Yes, ma'am!"

With a final pat, Soifon bid the girl farewell and walked back to Yoruichi. She was about to apologize for disappearing from her master's side without a word but found the woman with an amused smirk on her face. Her blush intensified.

"Now isn't that cute. I didn't know you had a soft spot for kids," Yoruichi teased.

Soifon responded with a slight pout, not bothering to accept or deny Yoruichi's observation. "That girl… She's had to save me a lot in my timeline," she told Yoruichi nostalgically.

"Was she your lieutenant?" Yoruichi asked, not knowing that Soifon was referring to the numerous instances that the SWA Vice President had interceded on her behalf, rescuing her from having to take part in the association's more inane plans.

Soifon snorted. "I wish. No, she's no good at hakuda, but despite that slightly pathetic display just now, she does turn into a formidable kidou master. She's destined to be Kyouraku's second-in-command."

"Kyouraku's? But what about Yadomaru-fukutaichou? Does she become a captain?"

"Yadomaru-san?" Soifon repeated. "Didn't Urahara tell you she was hollowified?"

"Hollo-what now?"

"Aizen experimented on shinigami to give them hollow characteristics and make them more powerful. People kept disappearing, and then finally, he hollowified a bunch of captains and lieutenants, all in one go. Yadomaru-san was one of them," Soifon explained.

Yoruichi's eyes widened before they narrowed to consider the situation.

"Urahara really didn't tell you anything?" Soifon found herself confused. "Isn't that why you finally believed me? I even thought he'd tell you more about the science of it since he's been working on hollowification himself…"

"He what?!" Yoruichi shot up from her seat.

"He also said not to tell anybody…" Soifon mumbled to herself, ignoring Yoruichi's outburst for the moment. "Could it be that he was trying to keep the information… or maybe even… ," The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like…

"No! We have to find him before he does something stupid!" Like her mentor, Soifon shot up, immediately making her way to the nearest roof and flash stepping.

Yoruichi was stunned by at how Soifon suddenly sprung into action, not bothering to report her suspicions or to ask for her orders, but she quickly caught up. She still wasn't sure what was going on except that Kisuke seemed to be up to something dangerous, but if there was going to be trouble, then she had a good guess about where it would be. "Soifon, head for Inuzuri!"

"He's here again, Aizen-sama," the lieutenant's right hand man informed him.

Aizen released a long suffering sigh. "So he hasn't learned his lesson, has he? Tell him I'm not interested in working with him and that if he comes again, he will die. Slowly. I'm being extremely patient and merciful with him as it is."

"The man says he's got information that'll be very useful for yer plans and something about captain-level prisoners an' all."

"New bargaining chips? He's certainly determined, I'll give him that." Aizen took a thoughtful pause. "Well, I did promise you a playmate, didn't I?"

"Yep," Gin grinned, fingering the hilt of Shinso cheerfully.

"Fine then. Bring him in. For his sake, this had better be worth my time."