Yo! It's me again. Still horribly busy with school and all that...hopefully I'll have more time to write over Christmas break...but because today's my birthday and I!'m in a good mood, I decided I would post a chapter anyway. SO YAY FOR BIRTHDAYS!

-Embee

The Broken Veil: Difficult Decisions

Although Oszlár was released the from the hospital the very next day, it took three days for Satoki to finally appear, and during that time she refused to see anyone, not even Oszlár. Those three days were the most nerve-wracking of Sirius's entire afterlife, as he had promised to wait until everyone was fully prepared before dashing off to find James. Lily was also released early, and then immediately taken into custody by Lefu. It was decided that she not be told that she was possibly beginning a Hollowfication process. She didn't even know that she was being placed in a stasis. As much as Sirius hated lying to his best friend's wife, he knew it was for her own good.

When they finally received word that Satoki was getting released, Sirius and Oszlár were waiting. Everything was ready, and Lefu was currently settling the now-comatose Lily into his private lab, away from the prying eyes of Kurotsuchi.

Oszlár let out a gasp of shock when he saw Satoki.

Satoki's left arm, which had been so horribly wounded, was gone. Sirius had been sure she still had it last time he saw her…but then again, he hadn't been paying very close attention. Her uniform covered up any sign of her injuries on the rest of her body, but Sirius could see her blackened skin extending down from the large eye-patch that covered her ruined eye.

Without looking at either of them, Satoki started limping and slipped right between them.

"You will have to begin the search without me," she said simply.

Finally Oszlár regained use of his tongue, and he hurried to catch up with Satoki.

"Satoki-san, what…happened?" he asked hesitantly, trying not to look at the scarily-empty sleeve.

Satoki shrugged, and Sirius thought it looked very strange without the second arm to do the movement.

"I could no longer use it, so I asked that it be removed."

Inwardly, Sirius was impressed that Satoki had the strength to make such a decision. But how would it affect her fighting ability?

Before Sirius could even begin to think about asking her, Satoki abruptly stopped.

"You will begin the search without me," she repeated. "You do not have the luxury of wasting time, as Potter-san's trail grows cold with every passing minute. I will catch up with you in one week's time."

And with that, she vanished, Shunpo'ing away before either Oszlár or Sirius could stop her. Even with one working leg she was still little more than a blur.

For a few moments, they stood in a shocked silence. Then Oszlár broke it by swearing heavily.

"She didn't even tell us what she intended to do!" he exclaimed, clenching his fists. "She must have decided to get her arm removed after I was discharged…but I had promised to help her…"

Sirius, although still a little confused by what had just happened, stepped up to place a comforting hand on his smaller friend's shoulder.

"Satoki's a strong girl. She knew having an arm she couldn't move would only hinder her," Sirius said. "I'm sure she just didn't want to worry us."

Oszlár nodded, but Sirius wasn't too sure if the redhead actually heard anything he had said.

"Now let's go. Like Satoki said, we don't have any time to waste."

OoOoOoOoO

Lefu wasn't sure what surprised him more: the fact that Satoki knew where to find him despite Lefu never telling her where his personal lab was, or the fact that she had politely asked to be admitted instead of cracking his security measures and appearing unannounced.

He realised just why when he saw her.

"What happened to your arm?" Lefu asked, staring openly at her empty sleeve. The rest of her looked like crap, especially now that half her face was covered with a black eye-patch, but the most disturbing result of the attack was Satoki's missing arm.

"It could no longer serve me, so I removed it," Satoki answered, as though she were describing a blade that had broken. "I have come with…a request for you."

Now Lefu was interested. If seeing Satoki entre a building legally was rare, then hearing her ask him, Lefu, the number one person Satoki would love to throw off the nearest skyscraper, but doesn't because of possible friendly-friend relations through Oszlár, for help was even rarer.

"Yes?" he asked carefully.

Satoki fixed him with a hard stare. "I need you to make me a new arm, a new eye, and do whatever it takes to repair my leg in seven days."

For a few moments, Lefu was silent with shock.

"I will not be able to fight at my best crippled like this," Satoki said. "I have no intention of remaining so weak; however there was nothing I could do to restore my limbs. I know that you are…skilled in the sciences, and I would assume that you have some idea of how to complete my request."

Even as Satoki was speaking, the gears in Lefu's mind were already turning, coming up with ways to design a prosthetic arm that could still function just as well as a natural arm, as well as a fake eye. The leg would be a little harder…as Satoki hadn't completely lost it… He had quite a bit of data stolen from the human world, ideas and patents formed by humans themselves…with a little more research he could have the information he needed…

"Yes, I can do it," Lefu said, noting with interest that a brief flash of relief crossed Satoki's usually impassive face. So she had had a slight twinge of doubt in his abilities. "But," he said, holding up a finger, "I have to warn you. It's going to be painful, very painful. If I were doing this for anyone else, I would refuse to let them do anything strenuous for at least a year. I'm going to have to rewire your entire nervous system, and possibly regrow your skin. Are you willing to withstand that?"

Satoki nodded without any hesitation.

"Do it."

OoOoOoOoO

The journey to the East 80th District was a silent one. Oszlár was still worrying about Satoki, while Sirius was trying to figure out just how he was going to track down James. Lefu had assured him that the devices he had given Sirius would be able follow James's reiatsu, as it was impossible to completely mask one's spiritual presence completely without some sort of artificial aid.

But the one thing that really worried Sirius was the possibility of James escaping to the mortal world. The allied army was stretched thin as it was, fighting on two fronts, and the last thing they needed was a third threat.

Signs of the current war could be seen in every District of Rukongai. Even the nicer Districts were rapidly filling with lost souls. Some of the older shinigami Sirius had spoken to said that they hadn't seen such an influx of the dead since the last human World War.

Sirius gritted his teeth and pushed himself to Shunpo faster. The sooner he could find James, the sooner he could get back to the war and help stop it.

James's hut was exactly the same as it had been when Sirius had last seen it, when Oszlár, Satoki, and Lily were being taken away by the Fourth Division for their wounds. The hut itself was in shambles, its wood burnt and cracking. The scorched earth surrounding the crater was untouched, and Sirius guessed that the remnants of James's twisted reiatsu had kept vandals at bay. Even four days after the Hollowfication, the reiatsu was strong enough to make Sirius gag, and Oszlár immediately turned pale.

Bokor Oszlár may prove to be a hindrance if even this low level of reiatsu is enough to make him sick, Karu no Riken said over Sirius's concern for his smaller friend. You may refuse to consider it, but I know that you realise the truth of my words.

I am not leaving him behind! Sirius said stubbornly. I need someone to back me up in this, and with Satoki out of commission for Merlin knows how long, Oszlár is all I have. Raishika's a long-range weapon anyway, so if worse comes to worse he can just hang back and attack from afar. Besides, maybe he's just tired from his recent mission in Germany. He can handle high reiatsu.

Although it was obvious what his Zanpakutou thought, she said nothing else on the matter.

They only paused long enough to collect some of James's reiatsu with Lefu's device before retreating a safe distance and contacting the scientist.

"Alright, Lefu, we have the reiatsu," Sirius said, adjusting the headset slightly. Oszlár was wearing a similar device, to allow them both to speak with Lefu in his lab. "You need at least half a bottle, right?"

"I can't believe that's reiatsu," Oszlár said, poking at the bottle in Sirius's hand. After being sucked into the bottle and greatly condensed, the reiatsu resembled a sickly-looking dark green blob of partially-solid liquid.

"Yup, half a bottle. Now you need to attach it to the spatial displacement transmitter," Lefu's voice came from their headsets. "It's the gourd-shaped one…with the yellow handle…"

Sirius was very thankful that he had forced Lefu to label all of the equipment before setting out, otherwise it would have taken him much longer to find the device Lefu needed. He pulled out the device from his backpack, and screwed the bottle onto it.

"Now what?"

There was a pause, and Sirius could faintly hear the sound of various buttons being pressed.

"Now you send me the reiatsu," Lefu answered. "Press the button on the bottom of the transmitter, and hold it for about three seconds, or until all the reiatsu is gone. I don't know how long that will take…"

Sirius pressed the button, and he and Oszlár watched as the reiatsu in the bottle was slowly sucked into the transmitter. They waited for several minutes until it was finally empty.

"Holy shit!"

Oszlár winced and hurriedly pulled the headset away from his ears.

"Do remember that we can hear you very clearly," he growled, scowling.

"Oh, sorry about that…" Lefu said almost distractedly. The sound of furious typing, and several more expletives, came through the headset, until finally the man on the other end sighed with relief. "That was a hell of a lot more potent than I had guessed. Actually, I'm surprised that you managed to get this much after three days' worth of dissipation. Are you sure that this is pure reiatsu, and that this wasn't contaminated by anything else?"

"Yes," Oszlár answered. "There is no sign of anyone coming near here for the past three days. I think the dark reiatsu scared people away."

"Hmmm…I'll have to do some more study on this…for now, I'm going to send you a signal. White, take out the reiatsu tracker and the radio. Plug the radio into the tracker and set it to channel 58."

Although he was itching to start chasing after James, Sirius knew better than to try and hurry Lefu, as it would only make him move slower. Instead, he obediently followed Lefu's instructions.

"The tip of the antenna should start blinking soon, and once it does, you can unplug the radio and put it away," Lefu said. Not a moment later, the antenna began to blink. "Keep the tracker out. It has a reading of James's reiatsu, and that's how you'll be tracking him down. Press the button right below the screen to turn it on, but don't mess with any of the other buttons!"

Sirius thought it was a good thing he only needed to press one button. There were far too many buttons on it, making the tracker look more like some diabolical remote.

"The screen will give you a basic map of the surrounding area for about ten meters, and it will show you which direction to go. I'll have a more detailed map back here at the lab so I can track your movements. If you get within ten metres of any large collection of James's reiatsu, the tracker will vibrate. When it does, let me know."

"I may need to ask you about all that again in ten minutes," Sirius said with a grin.

"And that's why I'm here holding the fort, otherwise you'd go running off the nearest cliff," Lefu answered, ignoring Oszlár's protests that he, at least, was smarter than that. "Do keep in mind that I still have other jobs that need doing, so don't start pulling all nighters! I need my beauty sleep."

"Fat lot of good that will do you," Oszlár muttered, forgetting that Lefu could hear every word.

"I'm offended, Shorty."

Sirius laughed, and then turned on the tracker. It immediately began vibrating so hard that Sirius nearly dropped it.

"Wait until you're away from there to turn it on! That's going to mess up the reading!" Lefu shouted.

"Oh…yeah…" Sirius said, hurriedly turning off the tracker.

"I fear for the outcome of this mission."

"Oh shut up."

Sirius and Oszlár waited until they were several yards from the site of James's Hollowfication before turning the tracker back on.

"Nothing's happening," Sirius said, staring at the blank screen of the tracker.

"Assuming that James didn't go towards the Rukongai, he could have gone in any direction between north and south. If he used Sonído, then the first trace of reiatsu we find could very well be several miles away from the site. Start sweeping."

With a sigh, Sirius nodded. He and Oszlár began a meticulous sweep, running back and forth along every angle that James could have fled. The sun was nearly below the horizon by the time they finally got a signal.

Sirius looked down at the screen of the tracker, which showed a light drawing of the forest before them. A darker string of dots showed the approximate trail that James's reiatsu had left behind. Finally, after more than three days of preparation, he was about to truly embark on his mission.

And still he hesitated. The moment he started off through the forest, he would have to accept the fact that he was marching off to kill James. Sirius had no way of knowing if Lefu really had a way to reverse the Hollowfication, or even if James would reincarnate. Killing him a second time, as a Hollow, could easily render him truly dead. Either way, it would mean that he would have to take away Harry's father, and Lily's husband, again.

Oszlár, seeing Sirius's inner turmoil, took the first step into their mission. Unbeknownst to Sirius, the small redhead had already made a vow to himself that when they finally found James, he would be the one to kill him, to spare Sirius the pain of murdering his best friend.

"Let's go," Oszlár said softly, disappearing into the shadows of the forest, Sirius following behind him.

If you think this is torture for my characters...you should see what I do to some of the others. One poor guy's had his entire clan massacred and was pretty much ostracised from his whole nation, despite the fact he saved them! I should probably feel bad...but oh well~

Legolas: You have no shame, nor remorse.

Nope~