
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/8713555.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Rape/Non-Con,
      Underage
  Category:
      F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi
  Fandom:
      Multi-Fandom, Bleach, InuYasha_-_A_Feudal_Fairy_Tale, D.Gray-man, Naruto,
      Kuroshitsuji_|_Black_Butler
  Relationship:
      Abarai_Renji/Kurosaki_Ichigo, Sebastian_Michaelis/Ciel_Phantomhive,
      InuYasha/Kurosaki_Ichigo, Kurosaki_Ichigo_&_Uzumaki_Naruto, Hollow
      Ichigo/Grimmjow_Jaegerjaques, InuYasha_(InuYasha)/Grimmjow_Jaegerjaques,
      Kanda_Yuu/Allen_Walker, Kanda_Yuu/Lavi/Allen_Walker, Harem_-_Relationship
  Character:
      Kurosaki_Ichigo, Hollow_Ichigo, Uzumaki_Naruto, InuYasha_(InuYasha),
      Allen_Walker, Ciel_Phantomhive, Sebastian_Michaelis
  Additional Tags:
      Crossover, Brothels, Alternate_Universe_-_Demons, Demons, Human
      Trafficking, Yaoi, Forced_Prostitution, Harems, Adult_Ciel_Phantomhive,
      Aftermath_of_Torture, Hurt/Comfort, Rape_Recovery, Post-Traumatic_Stress
      Disorder_-_PTSD, Unethical_Experimentation, Soul_Bond
  Collections:
      Fanfiction_Challenge_April_2017_Post_Apocalypse
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-12-01 Updated: 2017-02-12 Chapters: 4/? Words: 20930
****** Where Demons Fear to Tread ******
by phoenixreal
Summary
     Massive Crossover Fic.
     After the Four-Fold Demon wars ended, the world was left in chaos.
     Despite the factions coming to a tentative peace, the human world was
     the one that suffered the most. There were no victors in the war,
     which had been waged because of humans. Four Demon Blooded find
     themselves captured together and thrown into a place called
     Purgatory. It is where Demon Blooded are captured and used to satisfy
     the perverse desires of well paying humans that carry hate for the
     spawn of those that trampled their world. From hunts, and death
     films, to the brothels that cater to any desire, Purgatory is more
     than just a place for humans to indulge in their fantasies of
     vengeance for a world torn apart by someone else's war. Purgatory is
     hell for those who find themselves there. The lucky ones find their
     death quickly; the unlucky ones do not.
Notes
     Alternative Universe – Purgatory
     This is a Crossover AU that combines elements and characters from
     Inuyasha, Bleach, D. Grey Man, Black Butler, and Naruto. This AU has
     been created by phoenixreal and sapphiretou. Feel free to use the AU
     we have created for your own stories, but we’d appreciate a link back
     or a note about our creation. Please see Notes for more information
     on the AU, and if you are really interested in using it, let us know.
     Very much first draft and in development, so many changes
     forthcoming.
     ------------------------------------------------------------
     Purgatory Crossover Universe
***** Purgatory *****
                                        
===============================================================================
                                        
Londinium bustled and writhed with life, even as twilight had been long past.
As the biggest, and most industrial city, in Albion, Londinium was always busy.
Steam powered factories produced goods at all hours thanks to gas powered
lights that brought near daylight to them. The river Thames that ran next to
the city provided more than enough water and hydraulic power for the busy city.
Clocks ticked, and bells and whistles could be heard all through the night. The
smoke and smog seemed perpetual, a low covering blanket on the city at all
hours of the day, it seemed. The mixed smells of burning coal and fresh roasted
fowl permeated the streets. Self-powered carriages chugged past horse drawn
food carts, even in the wee hours of the morning. The populace were indeed
industrious, and no one really questioned the decrees of their Queen, for it
was apparent she took her job very seriously.
In the alleys, and hidden in places dark and deep, though, an underground
thrived, however. Only the most well connected people could even access the
goods and services traded on the black market. Of course, considering the state
of the world after the Demon Wars, it was no wonder some things were scarce
these days. Much of the lands had been scorched as the four demon factions
waged war on each other, at the expense of the humans that resided there. It
had been nearly a hundred years since the war ended, and Londinium was a
testament to human ingenuity and tenacity. Even out of the deepest crater, a
city was born. However, in the blood of those that lived there ran a cold
hatred that could not easily be quelled.
This animosity was quite apparent as a young man with bright orange hair ran
through the streets. He had on a thin shirt and pants, both of which were
threadbare and dirty. His feet were bare and beginning to bleed as he took a
run up the side of a building, bounding from side to side to get onto the roof
to evade his pursuers. He moved with incredible speed and agility, though, and
if that wasn’t enough, the demonic eye he had marked him for what he was,
either a half blood, or a blooded. Either way, the residents stepped aside as
he begged someone to help him as he dodged a man with hair a few shades darker
than his own, and another one with white hair.
He couldn’t get away from them. He heard them like thunder as he dodged and
weaved through the alleys of the confounded city. He hadn’t expected them here.
He hadn’t expected them to find him. Honestly, he just wanted to be left alone
with his twin. Well, he called him a twin, they weren’t really twins. But that
was complicated.
“Stop, demon spawn!” he heard behind him as he leaped down the side of a
building. He just wanted to find his twin. He needed to find him, and if he
did, they could fuse, and then get away. But he lost him…
Ichigo Kurosaki had been born in the normal way of humans, but when he was
born, his eyes marked him as demon blooded. His mother and father tried their
best to protect him, but neither could understand how it could have happened.
Neither of them had any Demons in their lineages, in fact, his mother had been
one of the Quincy Clan, a clan of Demon Hunters. They’d moved often, but then
after his sisters were born, it became harder. Luckily, Karin and Yuzu were
normal. Then, a set of demon hunters had tried to capture him, and in doing so,
they murdered his mother. In his grief, his father had run with the girls.
Ichigo didn’t blame him. The demon hunters knew about him, and they wouldn’t
stop. He’d run from them. At nine years old, it hadn’t been easy for him. Now,
almost ten years later, it wasn’t much easier to avoid them.
However, when he had been ten years old, something happened that changed him
forever. He’d been caught by a pair of sadistic demon hunters that had him
pinned in an alley. They had been teasing him, threatening to hurt him. When he
was ten, he hadn’t known what they meant, but he did now. These “demon hunters”
were usually criminals that wanted to have freedom to rape, murder, and
otherwise harm others. They could get their hands on demon blooded and half-
bloods and claim that they fought and resisted them, so they had to kill them.
No one questioned those kills because in most human lands, they were
universally hated.
At ten, though, something happened as the man pressed him into the concrete
ground and laughed as he cried. The world whited out and the men were dead and
he was running with his hand intertwined with a white one. Once they were
outside the city he realized what had happened. He was looking at an copy of
himself, only pure white. He had one eye like his, black sclera and gold iris,
and the other was honey brown. Ichigo’s demon eye was the left, and Shiro, as
he named him, had his demon eye on the right. Shiro very quickly became the
loud, outspoken one of them. He was brash and confrontational. Ichigo was quiet
for the most part, but he would defend his twin if he had to without
hesitation.
But they had gotten separated when a large group of hunters had found them
outside the city. They hadn’t been bothering anyone, just had set up camp
outside the town together. They’d run, of course, but they’d separated them,
knowing that if they were together they could fuse to become one extremely
powerful demon.
Now, Ichigo couldn’t figure out how to get away from them. They’d got him
cornered and before he knew it, he was at a wall. He turned just in time to see
one of the men shoot, and the world faded away. He could feel the tears as he
fell to the ground. He just wanted Shiro back. He needed him.
Mabashi smirked as he looked over the downed demon spawn at Jin. “Think the
others got hold of the white one?”
Jin shook his head. “I bet not, that fucker was the smarter one of the two.
Besides, you can’t let them touch each other or we’re in trouble. But boss
wants us to throw this one in Purgatory. He’s pretty, he’ll fetch a good price.
So would the white bitch, but you know, I doubt Ho and Ban caught him. Anyway,
let’s get him over there before he wakes up and tries to run. Don’t want to
bruise that pretty face before someone pays to do it,” he said and helped
Mabashi lift the unconscious boy up.
“He’s pretty lucky, would pass for human except that eye,” Mabashi said. “Oh
well, just another one to get used up,” he commented as he tossed the thin body
into the back of the van and locked the doors. “Come on, let’s get him into the
place so we can get something to eat before we go to bed for the night.”
In the dark of the building, a young man stood and watched intently. “What are
they doing back here…” he muttered as they drove off with the boy. He reached
up and ran a hand through his dark hair and his ocular implant spun and focused
on the van as it left. “Fuckin’ Bounts. That’s no good,” he muttered as he
walked away. He was slightly annoyed that Orochimaru had been right.
Sasuke Uchiha had been living and working as a part of Otogakure, a somewhat
safe haven for blooded and half demons loyal to Orochimaru. Orochimaru was a
rather infamous, and powerful, half demon that even the Shinigami and the Black
Order gave a wide berth to. He had a lot of people under his command, but he
also never did anything to warrant interference from the various groups.
Orochimaru had sent Sasuke into the city to verify if the Bounts were in town.
Anytime they showed up, demon blooded and half demons who weren’t hiding ended
up disappearing. They were known as “catchers”. No one knew where the ones they
caught went, but they were never seen again.
He headed back, using the stone that Orochimaru created for him. It was
something he had to be wary of, as it was demonic magic that powered it, and if
he wasn’t careful, he could be caught and jailed. He might have been human, but
using demonic items was prohibited.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ichigo woke up in that way that told him he’d been drugged. It was a slow and
sluggish thing that felt like he was swimming up through layers and layers of
water. He moaned and rolled over, feeling hard floor underneath him and hearing
the clinking of chains. The world came into focus suddenly and he sat up and
looked around him, eyes stopping on a figure sitting on a cot nearby. He was a
short, petite boy, it looked like. All Ichigo could see was his white head of
hair where he clutched his knees to his chest.
“Hey,” Ichigo said as he stumbled to his feet, the chain around his left ankle
clinking. He looked down and saw it had a demon seal on it. Of course it did.
He rubbed his head and moved toward the other occupant.
Other than the several cots that lined the edges of the cell. The walls were
clear, but Ichigo knew that it wasn’t glass, it was that clear steel that he’d
seen the humans making. He thought it was so hypocritical of them to abhor
everything from the demons, yet, they used demon magic to create this clear
steel. The room was perhaps ten by ten in size, and it sat next to another cell
just like it on either side.
“I’m Ichigo,” he said as he sat down on the cot next to him.
The boy looked up and Ichigo saw he was blooded or half like him, too. He had
white hair, and a long curse mark down his left cheek. His eye was also
demonic, Akuma blood, if he didn’t miss his guess, and his left arm was covered
with some sort of leathery looking skin. He smiled a bit. “Allen,” he said in a
soft voice.
Ichigo leaned back against the wall behind him. “Any idea where we are?” he
asked.
“Purgatory,” Allen answered, shivering slightly as he spoke.
“What’s Purgatory?” Ichigo asked, frowning.
Allen looked at him. “You don’t know what Purgatory is?”
Ichigo shook his head. “I’ve been running for a while, this is the first time
I’ve been in this place,” he said with a shrug.
“You’ll regret winding up here,” Allen said with a sigh.
Ichigo looked up as the cell next to him opened and two figures were thrown to
the floor. The door slammed and he never saw who threw them in there. The cells
seemed to be soundproof, but he could see that there were two females. Both of
them had cat ears and tails, so he guessed they were Youkai blooded. Shiro had
told him how to recognize the various demon bloods because doing so would keep
him safe. Ichigo didn’t know how Shiro knew so much since they were essentially
the same person. There was a muffled sound on the other side and he saw four
females being ushered into that cell. He saw they had holes in parts of their
bodies, so they were Arrancar. That was impressive, full Arrancar were hard to
capture. One had curly purple hair, another had short blonde hair, the third
had black pigtails, and the last one was really short with short black hair.
Ichigo thought that might have been a guy, but it was hard to tell. A few
minutes later another person was pushed into the first cell with the two Youkai
Blooded. They seemed to give him a lot of space.
“There’s all sorts of blooded here…” he said as he turned back to Allen. “What
is this place?”
Allen looked at him. “Hell,” he said seriously. “This is a place where we’re
taken and never seen again. We’re used up for human consumption, whatever their
desire. The tough ones are sent to the gladiator ring. The ugly ones are sent
to the snuff films and death chambers. The unique ones are sent to research.
And the pretty ones…we get sent to the brothel.”
“We?” Ichigo asked.
Allen nodded. “This is the waiting area, when these cells fill up, they move us
all to the Purgatory brothel. If you’re here, that’s where you go. That’s why
there’s more girls than guys here. Most of them want females up there, but they
keep a few boys. I heard that they’ve run out recently. Of the boys.”
“Run out?” Ichigo asked, brows meshing together.
“As in they’ve died for whatever reason. There’s no rules. They pay. They put
you chained in a room with them. They do what they want. If you die, they have
to pay extra, but that’s all,” Allen said with a sigh.
Ichigo stared at him. “But you’re a kid! You can’t be going to a brothel!”
Allen smiled. “I’m not, actually. I’m probably older than you. I’m twenty
nine,” he said with a sigh. “I just look fifteen.”
Ichigo thumped against the wall. “Why the waiting?”
“Because the brothel is shielded, and it takes a lot of power to open it for
demons to pass through. Normally a blooded can’t get into the place, so they
have to do a lot of effort to close the shield long enough to take us through.
Best we can hope for is a swift death,” Allen said with a sigh.
“How many do they wait for?”
“Six in each cell,” Allen said. “I imagine they will need a couple more boys at
least. Boys get the roughest treatment,” he said with a sigh.
Ichigo went to the wall and put both hands flat on it. “Shiro…” he whispered.
“Please come find me.”
“Who’s Shiro?” Allen said from his seat.
“Um, well, kinda my twin, but not really. We used to be one person, but then we
were two…” Ichigo said and turned back around. “I just call him Shiro because
he’s white colored, skin, hair, all that. He protects me, and I protect him.
But, if we touch each other we can become one again, and when we do that we’re
as powerful as a real demon instead of a blooded. So they separated us from
each other, otherwise they wouldn’t have caught us. We’ve run from them too
many times to count.”
Ichigo sat down on the floor. “Shiro’s gonna be so mad,” he whispered. “He
won’t stop until he finds me…he’ll kill people, I know it.”
Allen looked at him. “Maybe he won’t,” he said with a shrug. “Does it matter?
They’re the one that hate us.”
Ichigo felt a sudden wave of sadness. He knew that Shiro would stop at nothing
to get him back. He also knew that there was no way for Shiro to figure out
where he went if he hadn’t seen what happened to him. He hoped Shiro was able
to keep himself from destroying too much and getting himself killed.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
“Should we show him how we handle things here?”
Bambietta Basterbine smirked as she watched Cang Du and Quilge Opie drug the
bound demon spawn into the street. All around them, the humans that lived in
their city watched with wide eyes as they moved through the street. No one
dared say anything, they simply watched as the four Wandenreich drug their
victim toward the town center.
“Come one, come all, and let’s punish one of these demon spawn!” yelled Candice
Catnipp as she bounded into the area. “What shall it be today?” she said,
spinning on her heel and looking at the other four.
Cang held him up on the right, Quilge on the right. “Tie him to the post, use
the scourge on him. See how much skin we can rip out before he bleeds to
death,” Jugram Haschwalth, the Vice General of the Wandenreich said as he
walked up, hands tucked neatly behind his back in his pristine white suit. 
“He’s one of the Tailed Spawn. He deserves no better than a long, painful
death.”
Bambietta smirked as she pulled the scourge from her hip that she carried.
“String him up,” she said as the two men pulled him toward a tall post with
shackles attacked to it in the middle of the square.
The creature between them was beginning to wake up. He already looked bad,
dripping blood from cuts and bruised all over his tan colored flesh. He was
very obviously a Tailed Beast spawn, he had three tails in bright orange that
nearly drug the ground while he was unconscious. He’d been stripped down to a
pair of loose pants and nothing else. He was blonde haired with a pair of fox
ears on the top of his head instead of human ones. Within minutes he was
chained to the pole, hands stretched above his head, on his knees.
“Cane his feet first,” Jugram said with a smirk. “Should wake him up.”
All around the square, people watched. They knew better than to walk away from
public event. To do so would mean to end up whipped there as well, or publicly
executed. They knew the horrors that they might soon witness, but their fear
kept them where they stood.
Cang Du steppe up, pulling the cane from the thong on his hip. He grinned and
pulled it back, slapping across the bottom of the demon spawn’s bound feet. He
had been unconscious, but when the first strike hit his feet he gasped and
yelped. They’d gagged him, but even through the gag, he screamed as he struck
him again and again until his feet were both bleeding.
“I think he’s awake,” Cang said and stepped back, flicking his wrist to get the
blood off the cane as he put it back.
“Good,” Bambietta said as she stepped up behind the panting demon spawn. “Here,
let’s see how long before you die,” she said as she pulled back the vicious
scourge and let it fly at his exposed back.
After fifty strikes, she stepped back panting from her own exertion. He’d
finally passed out, strips of skin hanging from his shredded back, and a pool
of blood under him. He was breathing still, but thinly and he was limp against
the pole.
“What should we do?” Opie said and looked over at Jugram. “Should I kill him?”
“He’s dead already, he just doesn’t know it yet. Leave him there until
morning,” Jugram said and turned on his heel and left, followed by the other
four chuckling people.
The human residents of the city wandered away slowly, all but a little girl who
stood holding a fox stuffed toy in her arms. It was a relic from the days
before the demon wars. She hugged it to her chest and waited until everyone had
gone. She walked up to the bloody mess that had become of the creature in the
center of the square. She stared at his face, watching as his eyes fluttered
weakly.
“Mr. Fox demon?” she said quietly.
Bright blue eyes stared at her, and even a young child like her could see the
pain he was in. She smiled at him, though. “My mommy gave me this. She said
that one day I would see someone who needed it worse than I do. She said that
my Daddy left it for me. She said that Daddy said he was magic,” she said and
she sat the stuffed fox on the ground in the spreading pool of blood under the
demon spawn fox. Where the blood touched the toy, it started being sucked up
into it, changing the color from orange to deep crimson. The little girl smiled
and turned away, leaving it there. After a few moments, the toy fox began to
stand on all fours, and blood red tails began to emerge beside the single one
it already had. There were soon nine tails.
The toy moved forward haltingly, blood still being pulled from the ground into
it. The ground was nearly cleaned of the blood by the time the toy simply
walked into the Demon spawn. There was a flash, and he was simply gone. All
that remained was a stuffed toy fox and clinking chains.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Naruto hadn’t known he was a half demon until his blood matured when he turned
fifteen. Then, he knew, but he could hide it. That had been five years ago.
This year, the transformation had finished, and he couldn’t hide it anymore.
The Uzamakis lived in Heiligstadt, capital of the Wandenreich territory, and
anything demonic was disposed of, quickly. In fact, anything that was
considered impure by Yahweh’s decree was destroyed. The people lived in fear,
and they had ever since King Yahweh had taken over the area shortly after the
Demon War began. At first, the Wandenreich offered protection and kept the
demons away, then, something happened, and the very demonic energies they used
to protect them from demons began to warp their minds and very souls.
Naruto had been spotted by one of them this morning. His parents had died not
long ago, and he couldn’t keep inside the house all the time. As the changes
became more visible, it became harder to hide them. He had to leave for food.
So they had chased him down, beat him, then took him to the center of town to
die. The little girl, he hadn’t expected that, but he recognized a blood totem
when he saw one. He may not have been raised among demons, but his father, his
human father, that was, had been a Quincy before he’d hidden his abilities and
pretended to be a simple laborer. He’d recognized Naruto for what he was but
kept him safe, until the day that Yahweh had sent for him and his mother. They
were hung in the center of town for “suspected dissention” which meant that
Yahweh had decided that he wanted them dead.
Now, he pushed himself shakily to his feet and looked around him. He was in
some sort of forested area, and he was starting to shiver. He still felt blood
running from his shredded back and his feet felt like they were on fire. He
limped until he fell into a hollowed tree root and just laid there for a long
time, panting.
“You look terrible,” he heard a voice say. He lifted his head weakly and saw it
was another demon spawn like him, but this one had long white hair and a pair
of triangular dog ears on his head. He wore a red outfit. “What happened?” he
said as he knelt beside him.
“Humans…Wandenreich…where…where am I?” he asked.
“I don’t know, I’ve…been running for days now. I haven’t seen another one of o
ur kind in a long time,” he said as he felt around on the ground and plucked a
few plants. “Here, I have some training in medicine,” he said as he began
trying to do something with the frayed skin of Naruto’s back. “What’s your
name?”
“Naruto,” he said with a sigh, trying not to cry out. “You?”
“Inuyasha,” he said softly. “I just want to get home, but I don’t know how to
get there.”
Naruto nodded. “I just want to live,” he muttered as he found he couldn’t even
move. “Are there good humans?”
“Yeah,” Inuyasha said as he slid down beside Naruto’s head. “Not a lot, I’ve
found, but some have helped me.”
“Who are you running from?” he asked.
“This woman with long green hair, she reminds me of a snake, but I don’t think
she’s a demon,” he said. “There’s two of them, and she almost caught me once,
said I was pretty enough for Purgatory. I don’t know what that means.”
“It means, you’re mine,” came a woman’s voice from nearby.
Inuyasha stood up but couldn’t tell where it was coming from. “Where are you,
you bitch?”
“Ah, I’m not alone, and looks like we get wo pretty boys for the price of one,”
she said again, and before either could react, the world went black and crashed
around them.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ichigo began to wonder how long they would have to wait. The other cells were
full, only their sell had room in it. Allen, he found, wasn’t very talkative,
and he himself paced more than anything. Food appeared, if it could be called
food, but before it showed up, they were gassed to unconsciousness.
Ichigo felt the chain on his ankle tighten and yank him toward the wall. He
heard Allen’s chain retract, but he was sitting on the cot already. He looked
up as a man came toward the cell dragging a figure, and a woman came behind him
dragging another. Both were drug into the cell and dropped, and both shackled
with the sealing anklet like Ichigo and Allen. The man and woman left, and the
chains on Ichigo and Allen loosened.
Ichigo immediately went to check on the two that had been brought in. He knelt
by the first, a white-haired boy like Allen, but he had dog ears. Youkai? He
shook him gently, and he groaned, turning his eyes on him.
“Huh, where…” he said and sat up, looking around. He looked at Ichigo and
Allen. “What…where am I?” he asked.
“On your way to Purgatory,” Ichigo said with a sigh.
Ichigo heard the other one groan and then saw that he looked injured. He moved
over to him and looked him over. “Hey, you alive?”
Naruto opened his eyes to see a young man over him with one brown eye and one
black and gold. “Ah, you’re a hollow blood,” he said as he sat up and rubbed
his head, then rubbed his ass where his tails felt like they’d been yanked.
Ichigo nodded. “I’m Ichigo Kurosaki,” he said and glanced over at Allen.
“That’s Allen Walker.”
“Naruto Uzamaki,” the blonde said as he sat up.
“Inuyasha,” the dog-eared boy said and looked between them. “What is
Purgatory?”
Allen sighed. “I told him already. Hell. We’re set to go to the Purgatory
brothel. It would have be better if we’d gone to the Purgatory Hunts or the
Purgatory Ending.”
“What are they?” Naruto asked.
Allen looked between them. “The Hunts are where they send the ones that they
want to hunt down like animals. The Endings are where they take the ones that
aren’t good for the brothel or the hunts, and they’re used for amusement of
humans who want to murder or torture us to death. They do death films too.”
Allen sighed. “But at least it’s over quickly.”
Inuyasha looked between them and sighed. “I just want to go home. I want to see
my brother even if he hates me still.”
“Why would your brother hate you?” Naruto asked, glancing at him.
“I’m half blood, my brother is a full blood youkai. My mother was human, and my
father the dog demon. I…I was kidnapped by the hollow army,” he said as he
glanced at Ichigo. “But when the wars ended, when we became allies, they let me
go, but I was far from home.”
Naruto nodded. “I didn’t even know I was half-blood until I started changing
when I turned fifteen,” he said with a sigh. But I lived in Heiligstadt,
Wandenreich territory, and they found me,” he said with a sigh.
Ichigo gave the two new companions his story, and Allen had little to add. They
talked on and off over the next few days, but eventually they fell asleep like
they usually did for meals. However, this time when they awoke, they were
somewhere else. Ichigo crawled to the others and saw that he’d come awake
before them. He looked around and found they were in some kind of viewing room.
The whole front wall was made from the clear steel, and the other three walls
were concrete. Each of their wrists and ankles were bound with a metal cuff
marked with the demon seals. There were four kinds of seals, of course,
depending on the demon, but these were engraved with all four.
In the room were four cots, and there was an adjoining bath with a small
shower/tub. It was about twenty feet wide, and about ten feet in depth across.
Ichigo realized that they had all been bathed and changed. He looked down to
see he had been put in a yukata type robe. His was black with gold streaks in
it. Naruto’s was orange and edged in white, Inuyasha’s was red, and Allen’s was
black edged in silver. They’d all been placed on the cots that lined the back
of the room away from the clear barrier. Ichigo walked up to the wall and put
his hands on the surface. Across the hallway, he saw another room just like it,
and he was staring at some of the ones that had been in the cells near them.
They were all dressed in similar yukatas. He glanced to his left and right and
saw that there were other rooms on either side of the one across the hall. That
meant there were at least six of them. Maybe more.
As he watched, a few men and women walked down the hallway. They were well
dressed humans. A pair came up to the clear barrier and looked at him. He could
hear them faintly.
“New boys?” the woman said with a smirk. She was older, and had her black hair
in a high bun. “I shall have to tell the boys.”
“I don’t think your son will be allowed back, after he killed the other two he
bought for the night,” the older man, a balding and rather fat man, said beside
her.
She shrugged. “We paid the recompense for that incident. Besides, not his
fault…” the voices trailed off as they walked away.
Ichigo couldn’t believe this. It was true. They had been taken to this place.
They were going to used for the perverse desires of these humans… He dropped to
his knees, hands pressed to the window. He glanced behind him as Allen and the
other two stirred. He needed to find a way to get them out. He didn’t have
Shiro to help him, so he had to do it alone. He had to protect them, especially
Allen. He seemed so sad and had given up.
***** Sanctuaries *****
Chapter Notes
     Reminder that this is an AU still being developed, so things will
     change, and it is currently super rough first draft. Please keep that
     in mind when reading.
                                        
Rin skipped along the hallways of the main building pulling her friend and his
caretaker along with her.
“Miss Rin, I am not sure that we should be bothering the Lord…” the dark
skinned man following tentatively behind the two younger ones commented. He
reached up and pushed the mirrored visor up on his nose.
Kaname Tōsen had been born blind, but like so many in recent years, he’d
acquired a bit of demonic inspired technology that helped him out. He still
didn’t see like others, but he could see in a manner similar to echo location. 
In front of him, the young Rin was skipping with his charge, Wonderweiss.
Wonderweiss had been the reason he’d abandoned his station as one of the fallen
Shinigami’s lieutenants. None in Las Noches spoke of Sōsuke Aizen since his
attempt to assume control of the Arrancar. Of course, that meant that Tōsen,
who was one of the Shinigami, or had been, had not gone back to his home of the
Seireitei either.
“Don’t worry! Lord Sesshōmaru said to come see him if I had anything he should
know, and he should meet you and Wondy!” Rin said as she walked up and pounded
on the door for a moment before she opened it and led the other two in.
“My Lord Sesshōmaru!” she said with a brilliant smile.
Lord Sesshōmaru, the current leader of Yōkai Demons, turned and glared at the
three that had just barged into his office. He growled under his breath. Tōsen
had not yet met the Demon Lord, but he had heard enough stories of him. He was
said to have an insatiable desire for power and near outright disdain for
anyone that was not a full blooded demon.
“What do you want, nuisance?” he said as he sat down in the sofa along the back
wall, his white robes accenting the fountain of long, white hair that framed
his face. The moon symbol on his forehead, his demon mark, stood out
significantly when there was plenty light for it.
“I brought my friends, my Lord!” Rin said. “This is Tōsen-sama, he’s a
Shinigami, and his Arrancar friend Wonderweiss! That bad Shinigami guy
experimented on Wondy. But he’s better now.” Rin was dancing around where
Sesshōmaru was sitting.
“I see. Why are you here?” he said and sighed.
Rin smiled and crawled up on Sesshōmaru’s lap. “Because I wanted to see if you
had heard about Uncle Yashie!”
The sensation of Sesshōmaru mood changing was palatable. Tōsen sensed easily
the sudden near vulnerability of the Demon Lord. 
“No,” he growled. “Nothing. The Noahs claim he was sent via caravan two months
ago. There was no caravan, and there has been no sign of him,” he said and
glanced at the Shinigami. “But Akuma can’t be trusted. They’re no more than
living weapons. Disgusting creatures. Rin, go play with your friend,” he said
as he stood up. “Go play,” he said with a sigh and waved them off. 
The gregarious young girl drug her two companions out the door with her into
the hallway. Sesshōmaru stood at the window for a long moment until he heard
the door open again.
“Lord Sesshōmaru, there is a visitor for you,” Jaken said from the doorway.
Sesshōmaru sighed and glared at the impish creature that seemed to think he
oversaw the place most the time. “Send them in,” he answered.
“Lord Sesshōmaru,” a voice said from behind him. He turned and saw that it was
a pair of black uniformed Shinigami and one of the Espada from Las Noches. What
would they be doing here…
The first of the Shinigami nodded at him. “Byakuya Kuchiki,” the dark haired
and regal appearing one said. “I am a captain of the Gotei 13, and this is my
lieutenant, Renji Abarai. We’ve come with a representative from Primera Espada
Starrk. This is Sexta Espada, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez. We’ve come to discuss some
possible ways to quell unrest among our peoples and the humans.”
Sesshōmaru looked at them. “I see no need for this. I have no difficulty with
my populace. If your cities and homes have such difficulties, I have no concern
for them.”
Renji shook his head. “This concerns all Blooded more than it concerns the
humans.”
Byakuya stood stiffly. “You have heard of the Bounts.”
Sesshōmaru froze for a second and looked at him. “Bounts. They are a legend. No
consequence.”
“Yeah, ya’d like that, huh,” Grimmjow commented, dropping into a chair instead
of standing and sprawling over it. “They’re real. Trust me. We’ve had more than
one of ours disappear where they shouldn’t. And the only thing in common is
these assholes that come and take them away. One of our Espada’s lost someone
very important to them and he wants him back.”
“Why should this concern me?”  Sesshōmaru said with a deep sigh. “That is where
you are, not where I am,” he said.
The red headed Shinigami spoke up. “Look, these people are a problem, and they
are snatching demon bloods anywhere they can. And that’s not even counting that
entire region that is a death sentence to walk in to the east of Londinium.”
Sesshōmaru looked at him. “Heiligstadt. The Wandenreich. I’ve heard enough from
some of the Demon Bloods that come here seeking my protection from them.”
Byakuya nodded. “So that’s why we’re here. To discuss this. It seems to us, and
the Arrancar, that making an alliance rather than being a bunch of random
cities across the land. Albion needs us to come together.”
“Albion needs us?” Sesshōmaru said with a huff. “I could go back to my
homeland, so could all the demons and leave these dumb humans to their own
problems.”
“You don’t believe that, and I know it,” Grimmjow commented. “You stay here
because of Inu-Taisho’s wishes. And you won’t turn your back on your Half Blood
brother.”
At the mention of his brother, Sesshōmaru stood and turned away from them.
Grimmjow glanced at the Shinigami. “Wait, he’s not here, is he?”
Sesshōmaru shook his head. “The Noah had captured him. They claim he escaped
from a transport and ran away even though they told him they were sending him
home. I doubt they were going to do that at all.”
“We can help, you know. We can see if we can’t find out anything. He hasn’t
been captured by the Wandenreich, we know that. We have an inside man,” Byakuya
said with a sigh.
Sesshōmaru nodded. “I…will consider this idea. Summon me when you know more. Is
there an arranged meeting place?”
Byakuya nodded. “Thus, far we have agreed at the Black Order stronghold in
Londinium, central location and easy to get to.”
“Very well,” he said and turned his back to them again.
Byakuya and Renji glanced at Grimmjow. “Alright, let’s get out of here,
Grimmjow said with a yawn. “We have yet to get to the Black Order Stronghold
tonight,” he said as he led them out of the room into the hall.
Rin almost ran right into his legs. She looked up at him. “Whoa, Mr. Hole in
the belly!” she exclaimed as she looked behind her as Wonderweiss caught up.
Tōsen froze as he came around the corner. He stared at the two Shinigami for a
long moment. It was a moment of truth, in a way. He had defected from the
Shinigami with Sōsuke Aizen in his attempt to rule over the Arrancar and
Hollows of Hueco Mundo.
“So, this is where you ended up,” Byakuya said as he glared at one of their
traitor numbers.
Tōsen wasn’t sure what to think. “I…I came here in the chaos. I just…I did not
believe I would be welcome back at the Seireitei. I took Wonderweiss,” he said
and gestured to the white-haired boy that had sat down and was strumming an
ukulele with a placid grin. “I knew that Aizen was going to use him as a
weapon, and in doing so, he was going to die… I couldn’t let that happen.”
Byakuya looked at him for a long moment. Tōsen didn’t back down. He knew of
course he was safe in this city. Not only that, he knew the Shinigami. They
would not attack him unprovoked.
“How did you get here?” Renji asked, looking at him for a long moment. “The
only portal into Hueco Mundo was in the Seireitei unless Aizen had another.”
“I came through the one in the Seireitei and found a caravan outside the city.
It was risky, but I had no choice. I believed that I would not be welcome back
home after I chose the Aizen’s side. Incorrectly,” Tōsen said with little
expression on his face. “I hid the boy until we were nearly here, and I found
this place to be a good place to go for those of us that are miscreants and the
like.”
The short and impish Jaken came walking down the hall. Wonderweiss jumped up
and held his ukulele in one hand and grabbed the small creature with the other.
“Jaken,” he said with a smile and tucked him under his arm.
“I am not a doll!” he screamed and flailed. Wonderweiss seemed unperturbed by
it and sat back down, pulling out the ukulele and playing again, this time with
the demon under his left arm.
“And what’s special about him that made you defy your new master?” Renji said
with a cocked eyebrow.
Tōsen sighed. “He was an Arrancar that Aizen tried to recruit, a group that
were musicians,” he gestured to the boy playing the instrument. “But he
refused, and Aizen took him and began playing with his head. He was very nearly
incapable of speech at all by the time he was done. I knew then that what he
was doing was wrong. I could make no further excuses that there was any sort of
justice in his actions.”
Renji looked at him. “Komamura has been searching for you.”
“I know, I…I heard, but I was afraid of my reception, and I have made a home
here,” he said with a sigh.
“You would not be received poorly,” Byakuya stated. “I believe the head captain
would understand the situation. We are returning to the Seireitei now, and
we’ll let them know that you are here and safe. Now, Abarai, we must go,”
Byakuya said with a sigh.
The two Shinigami took off and Grimmjow stood and looked after them. He sighed
deeply and was about to turn away when the door to the Lord Sesshōmaru office
opened again. He looked at the Arrancar.
“I have had an urgent missive from Londinium from the Black Order. They’ve
requested immediate assistance with an Akuma siege taking place. I am going
myself, would you care to come with me through our portal?” Sesshōmaru asked.
Grimmjow nodded. “Yeah, save me some fucking walking,” he muttered as he
followed Sesshōmaru down the hall.
“Jaken, quit fooling around and do your job,” Sesshōmaru commented as he passed
the Yōkai being held by the Arrancar.
A few minutes later, Sesshōmaru opened the portal to the other location.
Demonic magic could breech the Dangai, or the Limbo, but it had to be done in a
way. Only Daiyokai like Sesshōmaru could open one at will give the time to
enact the ritual. Arrancar could transport themselves to Hueco Mundo but only
from the Human World. Sesshōmaru and Grimmjow both stepped across the borders
between their worlds.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
“Something is going on, and I think we have to get in there to find out what it
is,” Sasuke Uchiha said as he paced in front of Orochimaru desk.
“Getting into Purgatory is a death sentence for any of us,” commented Kidōmaru
from beside Orochimaru. He ran a hand over his short dark hair and snorted.
“That is not a winnable game.”
“Oh, shut up,” Tayuya grumbled. “We have to do something. They got Kimimaro the
last time they came around. We can’t leave him there.”
Orochimaru sighed. “No, we cannot. He is a valuable asset to me.” He glanced at
Sasuke. “Go to the Black Order. Inform them that we have the location of
Purgatory and are willing to give it to them on the condition that you aid
them. I will give you a glamor before you leave so that you are not
recognizable. Bring Kimimaro back, and if you see any of these Bounts, kill
them.”
Sasuke nodded and bowed slightly before leaving quickly. He almost smiled
because they were doing something. Despite his appearances, and attempts to
seem disinterested, he honestly was bothered by the things that occurred to
friends and the other demons. He may have been entirely human, but he had been
saved by Orochimaru during a raid by the Wandenreich on his family’s land. He
stepped out to the gate and phased through it, receiving the glamor that
Orochimaru offered, then headed into the city.
The gates of the Black Order were imposing, but it didn’t bother Sasuke in the
least. He stood there until an eyeball came out of the gate.
“What do you want?” it asked.
“I need to see the Black Order.”
“Why?”
“I have information on Purgatory.”
The gate opened immediately and he walked in, noting that there was a dark-
haired man waiting on the other side with a katana over his shoulder. He had
shoulder length black hair and glared at him. Beside him was a guy with short
red hair and a hammer on his shoulder. He had an eye patch.
“Sasuke Uchiha,” he said as the ocular implant spun and focused in on them. It
relayed information back in real time to Orochimaru. “I’ve been sent by Lord
Orochimaru.”
“Kanda,” the katana wielding man said and turned on his heel.
“I’m Lavi,” the red head said in a more jovial tone. “Come along, we’ll go talk
to Komui. Fascinating for you to show up just as we’ve dispatched an Akuma
siege. With help, of course,” he muttered as he saw the fall of dust through
the air from the magic the Yōkai had used. They hadn’t expected their missive
to summon the Demon Lord himself. He supposed that he was annoyed with the
Akuma and wished to extract some manner of revenge since they’d lost his
brother.
“Siege, huh?” Sasuke said. He knew Akuma left no trace when they were
destroyed. Most demons left no corpses.
“Yeah, but it’s over. The Lord Sesshōmaru and one of the Arrancar’s Espada were
with us. It…did not take long with their assistance,” Kanda commented from the
front.
Sasuke was vaguely impressed. He hadn’t seen these two work together often. The
Black Order tended to keep their distance from the actual demon factions.
Granted, most of the Black order were either demon blooded or used demon
artifacts to help with their purpose. That purpose, though, some demons
disliked. They served as a Demon Police force almost, but then so did the
Shinigami. They entered the main room and Sasuke saw the Demon Lord. He arched
a brow. His presence was a lot more powerful than he expected. Then again, he
wasn’t used to meeting with full Bloods.
“Ah, hello,” a man with glasses said and came running to Sasuke. “You come with
information? On Purgatory? Please, come, come,” he said ushering him to the
large table where the blue haired Espada and the Yōkai lord sat.
“Yer human,” Grimmjow said with a wrinkle to his nose. “But ya smell of
demons.”
“Yeah, what of it?” he said, crossing arms over his chest. “Look, I’m sent by
Orochimaru. We have a location on Purgatory.”
“How?” Komui asked with a frown. “We’ve been trying everything to get that for
years now.”
“The Bounts were in the area doing snatch and grabs,” Sasuke explained.
“Orochimaru implanted a tracking device on all of his people that were going to
be leaving soon. One of our higher-ranking Demon Bloods, Kimimaro, disappeared
right after he came into Londinium. We’ve traced his location,” Sasuke said and
blinked, turning on the image projector in the ocular implant.
A projected image of the area appeared on the white wall next to them. At first
there was no real indication that the tracer was there, until Sasuke flipped
the image to a side view. Komui grinned.
“They’re under Londinium, that’s why we haven’t found them. They’ve carved a
piece of Limbo to use as their hiding place,” he said.
“Hypocritical,” Sesshōmaru growled under his breath. “They condemn us and kill
us, yet they’ll use the bridge between the worlds to hide that disgusting den
of perversity?”
Grimmjow glanced at him. “You shouldn’t come to Las Noches, if you don’t like
perversity. We got a nice brothel there, popular,” he commented.
“It is not the willing participants I have a problem with,” Sesshōmaru said
with a snort.
Komui nodded. “First we need recon verification. Uchiha, you are glamour
already, you should go in. I can’t mask Demon Bloods, so I’m afraid that you
two will not make good on a covert entrance.”
“Why can we not simply go to the location?” Sesshōmaru asked. “Why must we
enter?”
“Wards,” Lavi said from across the table. “There are seals and wards all over
the place. I can go in, I’m human, if I don’t take my hammer, I have no demon
magic. I need a ward pulsar.”
“Ward pulsar?” Grimmjow asked with a tilt of his head.
“Yeah, you set it off and it blasts all wards for almost two miles. We don’t
use them often, but sometimes, like this, it’s necessary,” Lavi said with a
shrug. “It should be me and the Shinobi boy, no more. Otherwise it looks
suspicious.”
Sasuke glared at Lavi. “Why do you think I’m a Shinobi?”
“Please, I could tell where you were trained the moment you walked in. Shinobi
all have the same body movements from the way they learn to control demon
magic. Fascinating ability, you know, syphoning demon magic out of the air with
those jutsus of yours,” he said as he handed his hammer off to Komui. “No time
like the present, we need to do this before they figure out we know their
location.”
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Two months had passed, and they had been, quite frankly, hell for those in
Purgatory. None of them got much rest, as it seemed that there was a reason
they went through males so fast in this place. Ichigo just wanted Shiro. But
even so, he did what he could for the others. He worried most on Allen, but as
time went on, he thought the white-haired boy might be more resilient than he
gave him credit for. Now, his worry was the jinchuriki. The half Yōkai boy
seemed angry all the time, but that meant he was beaten and bruised worse than
the rest of them.
Allen and Inuyasha had been taken out, leaving Ichigo with Naruto. He sat down
beside him and patted his leg.
“Hey,” he said to the boy quietly.
“Hey,” Naruto responded.
“I know it doesn’t help, but we’re going to get out,” Ichigo assured him.
“Remember that, so we can get out together, we promised.”
Naruto turned over and looked up at Ichigo and there were tears in his eyes.
“Will we? They’re so awful, the things they do to us, and make us do…someone is
going to kill us with our power sealed like this,” he said quietly. “I could
get out so easily…”
“I know…” Ichigo said.
There was a loud bell and both stood immediately. The sound indicated a
customer on the hall, and they all had to stand at the ready. To do otherwise
led to horrible punishments. Ichigo and Naruto watched as two men walked down
the hall with one of the valets. They looked at each window as they passed, but
they stopped in front of their window. One of the men was red haired and had an
eye patch. The other had black hair, but his face looked fuzzy to both the
Demon Bloods in the room. They couldn’t hear, of course, but it seemed they’d
been chosen. Ichigo reached out and clutched Naruto’s hand and wondered which
of them would get this pair of humans.
“Both, out,” came the intercom as the door in the side opened.
Naruto clutched Ichigo’s hand again as the went down the steps and around into
one of the empty rooms. They both went and stood at the foot of the large bed
that dominated the room and stared at the floor. Now they would find what
torment awaited them with these.
“Damn, aren’t you fucking adorable,” came one voice.
“They’re both cute,” came another one. “I can’t fucking believe that this is
real. Fuck.”
Naruto grabbed Ichigo’s hand again and clutched it hard. “I think they’re
scared.”
“Of course, they’re scared, idiot,” came the other again.
Naruto gasped as his face was tipped upward and he was staring into the face of
a man, no boy, he wasn’t that old, with dark hair and one oscillating implant.
“Fucking jinchuriki,” he muttered. “Fucking full ass jinchuriki in this place,
what the fuck?”
Ichigo looked at him and ground his teeth. He felt Naruto’s body tremble. The
ones that realized he was a jinchuriki beat the hell out of him. “Leave him
alone,” he growled out finally.
The implant spun and the dark haired one let go of Naruto’s chin. “You’re a
Hollow…but different…I’ve never seen one like this…” he muttered. “Lavi, what
do you make of this?”
The redhead came over and looked at Ichigo. “One demon eye? I’ve never seen
that before. I didn’t know that was possible. What’s your name?”
Ichigo glared at him but didn’t say anything. He had full intention of making
them angry so they beat him instead of Naruto. “Alright, don’t tell me, Hollow
boy,” Lavi said and turned to Naruto. “You?”
Naruto glanced at Ichigo and back to the two in front of them. “Naruto,” he
said finally.
“This is so many shades of fucked up, Sasuke,” Lavi said and turned to him.
“How many you think they have in this part alone?”
“Too many,” he said as he reached under his robe and pulled out the device
Komui gave them. “Should we take these two when we leave?”
“We can’t, otherwise they’ll know we’re onto them,” Lavi commented as he
watched Sasuke.
“What do you mean?” Ichigo asked.
Lavi turned to him. “Oh, I’m sorry, allow me to introduce myself, Lavi Bookman,
Black Order,” he said and bowed. “That’s Sasuke Uchiha, he’s a Shinobi. We’re
here to disable the wards so we can bust in and free everyone.”
Ichigo stared at him and then looked at Naruto. “What?”
Sasuke did something with his hands and the flat device he was holding
disappeared into the wall completely. “Ready, we can trigger it at any time.
But we need the full force before we do. Way too many guards for us to do this
alone. And that’s just the Brothel floor.”
Lavi smiled and sat down on the bed. “We shouldn’t leave yet. They’ll think
something’s up.”
Sasuke sighed. “True. You two, sit down. We’re not going to do anything. We’re
just hear to get people out. And I didn’t want to listen to whining females.”
Ichigo and Naruto slowly sat down, hands still intertwined with each other.
Lavi turned toward them. “How long have you been here anyway?”
“Two months since our group was brought in,” Naruto said slowly.
“Group?” Sasuke asked with a frown.
“They only drop the wards for full shipments,” Ichigo said. “So, they wait
until they have at least twenty-five or so caught.”
“Ah, that explains the empty beds. You had four in your room. Two other males,
I take it?” Lavi said.
“Yeah, a half Yōkai named Inuyasha and a…as weird as it sounds, and Akuma
Blooded named Allen Walker,” Ichigo said with a sigh.
Sasuke and Lavi both nodded, but let them sit in silence for about an hour
before they left, and let the two Demon Bloods be returned to their cell.
“I hate leaving them,” Sasuke said as he glared behind him. They walked through
the portal and appeared up on the streets of Londinium.
“Well, once the force is assembled, there won’t be a problem. Let’s go give our
report,” Lavi said as they headed back to the Black Order. They found Komui in
his office with Grimmjow and Sesshōmaru seated across from him. There was a
black suited Shinigami with bright red hair and another with neat black hair
standing to the side now, though, and there was another man with blond hair
standing to the side.
“Good, you’ve returned! Mission accomplished?” Komui asked excitedly.
“Yeah, here, this is what we got,” he said as he turned and blinked three times
to activate the video playback on the implant. They saw the encounter with the
two and then saw the rooms as they passed them on the way out. Sesshōmaru
jumped to his feet and turned to glare at Sasuke.
“Go back.”
Sasuke went back in the video and went forward until Sesshōmaru practically
shouted again, “Stop, there!”
Sasuke wasn’t sure what this was about, but it was when they were leaving and
they had walked by the room that the two boys had been in. “What is it? That’s
just the other two that are in the same room with the two we talked to.”
Sesshōmaru turned back and his eyes were vibrant red. “The dog eared one.
That’s my brother.”
Sasuke looked at Lavi as he shut the feed off. Lavi spoke up. “They…they said
that they were with a half Yōkai named Inuyasha and an Akuma blooded named
Allen Walker. The jinchuriki is named Naruto, and the Hollow blood is name
Ichigo, but I only picked that up from the jinchuriki speaking with him.”
Komui felt the incredible power roiling off the Demon Lord. “Okay, calm down,
rushing will only put them in danger, I’ll get things going as soon as I can,”
he said as he stood up to go to the call room.
***** Fabrications *****
Chapter Notes
     Note: I've added Black Butler elements.
     Please remember this AU is in development, so changes are possible at
     any time.
 
The young lord yawned as he sat on his bed waiting the butler to come help him
dress. Honestly, he didn’t require the attention, but it was necessary to keep
up the appearances. Of course, he was sure change was in the air.
“Bochan,” the dark-haired butler said as he bowed.
“Don’t call me that,” he muttered.
Ciel Phantomhive was waiting, biding his time. With the appearance of a child,
he was much older, and much more inquisitive than they gave him credit for. The
Queen counted on the young man’s voice on matters of the state of Albion. He
stood up as his butler dressed him.
“Sebastian, how long until we are done here?” he asked as he moved where
Sebastian needed him to move. “I tire of this smelly place.”
“Ah, Bochan, I sense change on the air, do you not?” Sebastian said, leaning in
to lick the lobe of his young master’s ear.
Ciel growled, slapping him away. “We have business,” he muttered as he looked
at him.
“Ah, but Bochan…” Sebastian said with a smirk.
“You’ll wait to service me until later,” Ciel sad and turned on his heel and
walked away toward the room where the meeting was taking place.
Sebastian stood at the back with the other servants as he sat down at the
table. The Queen sat at the head, an elderly and graying lady with an ever-
present smile.
“We have had an incursion last night on the Black Order by Akuma forces,” she
said as she glanced about the room. “I fear that the time has come for we, as
humans, to separate ourselves from demonic influences.”
There were murmurs of agreement but Ciel narrowed his eye at her. “How do you
wish to do this?”
“Why hunt down and kill every Demon Blood out there,” answered one of the other
noblemen at the table. Ciel glared at him.
“How will you decide who to kill, Lord? How indeed?” another lady at the table
spoke up.
“I’m sure there can be technology created to test blood to find traces of
demonic energy,” another noble said from the other end of the table.
Ciel looked at them. “There is nothing but idiocy in this idea.”
“What would a child know of this?” groused one of the older men at the table.
“I know that by now, most humans have traces of demonic energy just by being
around things of demon magic creation, like the clear steel. It gives off
energy. And of the nine levels of the netherworld, we only know for sure how to
trace demons from four of them,” he said, glancing between them. “My father was
a Quincy, if you remember. That is why I sit at this table with you, or have
you forgotten this?”
There were muttered annoyances around the table. No one liked to admit that the
child among them knew more about demons than anyone else. “Quiet, please,” the
Queen said as she looked around. “Lord Phantomhive is correct. There are too
many variables to simply eliminate all of those with Demon Blood. It makes us
no better than the horrors that are perpetrated by the Wandenreich.”
“Those people have the right idea,” the older lord muttered.
“They kill their own people for asking questions,” Ciel provided. “This is not
how we do things.”
The Queen smiled at him. “Lord Phantomhive, you are vocal about what we should
not do, might you posit ideas for what we can do to help our situation?”
“The embassy building,” Ciel said and looked around the table.
At the mention of the controversial construction everyone started talking. The
Queen shushed them.
“Hear out the Lord Phantomhive!” she announced sternly.
Ciel rolled his eyes, though only the one was visible. “The Demon Embassy would
provide several benefits. We would have access to all levels of the Netherworld
in one place. Currently we have to travel throughout Albion to even access some
of them, and some we are still unable to visit. We would have treaties and
emissaries from those that wish it, and we would have ways to monitor those
that do not. This would be the first step toward true peace with the Demon
realms.”
“Why should we want peace?” the older man said again.
Ciel stared at him. “Two hundred years ago, they nearly destroyed the entire
world. They wield magic as weapons, and we have nearly no knowledge of most of
it. The Hollows and the Yōkai desire to work with humans, and create treaties.
The Tailed Beasts offer no resistance to peace, and only wish to be left alone.
The Akuma, they are creatures of destruction, but with the aid of the other
factions, they will be easy to control. We either make peace, or one day, they
destroy us all.”
There was a long silence. “This would have never happened if the Gate had never
been opened,” one of the younger ladies of the court said.
“There is no going back now,” Ciel said. “When the Gate to the Netherworld was
opened, there was no closing it. It was human greed and thirst for power that
put us in this position. The Demons would have never crossed the Dangai on
their own. Humans were the ones that let them come across, and to live in
concert is the only way to avoid certain destruction.”
The Queen nodded. “This is true. We must come up with viable alternatives.
Wanton destruction of elements will not do. Let’s adjourned and reconvene in
the morning and perhaps we will have some new ideas,” she said and stood up and
left.
Ciel was up and out toward the gardens as soon as she was gone. He flopped into
the grass. Sebastian sat down beside him. “My lord, what bothers you?”
“Being treated like a child,” Ciel muttered. “Hiding the fact that you are more
than my butler. Not being able to tell them what I know. And having to smile
when I know what happens below the streets of Londinium.”
Sebastian leaned over and pulled the smaller boy into his arms to kiss him
soundly for a long moment before releasing him with a grin. Ciel blinked and
glanced around them. “No one is near, my Lord. But one day we will be able to
show them. And besides, having a child’s appearance behooves you in your
position.”
“I look fourteen,” Ciel complained and crossed his arms in a huff.
“We told them you are sixteen,” Sebastian said with a smirk.
“I’m thirty-one!” Ciel growled. “You and your demon magic making me look like a
child. When am I finally going to look like an adult?”
Sebastian smiled. “Pact magic has many effects, my Lord. Slowing the aging
process is one of them. I am uncertain how slowly you will age. You were ten
when you took my pact bond, and you have aged twenty-one years since then, but
appear to have ages four or five.”
Ciel shook his head. “I still can’t believe those idiots believed the story I
gave them about being the Phantomhive’s last child before they died and you
raised me. Like you could raise a child.”
Sebastian smiled. “My Lord, the day will come when we no longer have to hide
any of this. I am your consort and companion, my Lord. Forever more.”
Ceil shook his head and stood up with a sigh. “Come, Sebastian. Let us go and
see if we can’t get more information from the old cook. He seems to know more
than anyone else in the castle…”
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Sasuke stood outside the walls of the Black Order awaiting the rest of them.
Lavi had come to stand with him, along with the dark-haired sword wielding
Kanda. Lenalee was another who came to go with them. They were all what they
called “relic users” so none were Blooded. They also sent several others that
were more like ground troops, including an interesting man named Zabuza that
didn’t speak much. The Shinigami had sent an incredibly tall man with spiked
hair named Kenpachi Zaraki, and his tiny counterpart, a pink haired girl named
Yachiru. Byakuya Kuchiki and his lieutenant, Renji Abarai had come, along with
a retinue from their medical staff.  The Demon Lord Sesshōmaru had come, of
course, he needed no men with him. He had to wait until all the seals were
broken, however, to enter. The Arrancar had sent Grimmjow, a short man with
green eyes named Ulquiorra, a man with brown wavy hair named Starrk, and
several others. Those three seemed to be in charge, however. To Sasuke’s
surprise, though, all eight of the Vizard members had come. They stood off to
the side, marked as more demon than the other Shinagami by their black and gold
colored eyes.
“I’ve never seen so many Blooded in one place,” Lavi observed.
“Are all the Shinagami Blooded?” Lenalee asked as she glanced around them.
“Nah, some aren’t. Some use relics like us, but they have Halfbloods and
Blooded in their ranks. Of course, the Vizard are all Halfbloods hat were
experimented on by that one of them that tried to take control of the
Arrancar,” Lavi said as he glanced toward the Arrancar.
“That was a mistake,” Lenalee said as she saw the groups begin to intermingle a
bit. She noted a short Shinigami female.
“Well, I guess I’m not the only girl,” she said and headed over toward her.
“Hey!”
The dark-haired Shinigami turned bright purple eyes on her. “Oh, hi!” she said
and smiled.
“I’m with the Black Order, Lenalee,” Lenalee said with a smile. “Not many girls
around in this raid.”
“Rukia Kuchiki,” she said and shook Lenalee’s hand. “We have other female
Shinigami, the medical team has Isane and Captain Unohana. But yeah, it kinda
is a boys’ club.”
“Kuchiki, isn’t that the name of one of the captains, the handsome one with the
black hair, right?” she asked, looking over to see Byakuya was in what looked
to be an intense conversation with the Demon Lord Sesshōmaru. “Is he your man?”
she asked and looked back at her.
“Nii-sama?” Rukia said. “Oh, no, he’s my brother.”
Lenalee smirked. “Ah, well, that’s good,” she said and glanced away.
Rukia looked at her. “Why’s that good?”
“Oh, nothing. My brother is trying to get this going, Komui…” she said and
headed back where Lavi and Kanda stood with Sasuke, leaving Rukia a bit
confused.
Komui got up on a disk that lifted him up in the air.
“Attention!” he called, using a voice amplifier. He waited for everyone to
quiet and look at him. “We are going to move out. We do not have a large force,
as you can see. We have instead strategic teams. Now, Team One is going to be
Lenalee, Kanda, Lavi, and Sasuke over there. They are all human, and can enter
the building and set off the seals. Once that happens, Team Two, the front line
team, will go in. Team Two is Captain Zaraki and his people. Lord Sesshōmaru,
Captain Kuchiki and his people are Team Three. They are going to take the back
position in the building. Team Four is being led by Espada Grimmjow and
consists of his fraccion. They will left flank inside the building. Team Five
will consist of Espada Starrk and Espada Cifer. Both will take a handful of
people and flank the inside right, and the inside lower levels. Team six will
be the retrieval team. This will be Captain Unohana from the Shinigami and
Espada Harribel and their people. Now, we know basic layout, all of you have
been given the reconnaissance done by Lavi and Sasuke, keep it in mind.
“Our priority is to get as many back to the Black Order as quickly as possible.
We know there are at least four levels. The Brothel area is on the first level,
the hunts are run out of the lowest, or fourth, level, the films are done on
the second level, and the torture and kill zone is on the third level. We are
working from the top down. So we’ll begin with the Brothel and go from there.
We know that the brothel is the most likely to have survivors. We are
anticipating at least thirty from that level. The lower levels are unknown.
Alright, move out!” Komui said and hopped off the floating disk.
Once they reached the portal and secure the entrance, easily disabling the
guards, getting into Purgatory was easy. However, they knew their time was
limited. Their biggest fear is that once they realized they were breeched,
they’d start disposing of those in the place. To say it was chaos was an
understatement. Sasuke and Team One managed to set off the device that disabled
the wards and seals, and then everything exploded in cacophony.
The first level was easy to clear of those running the level, and Unohana and
her people quickly began rounding up the various people in the cells. There was
a problem when they got there, however. Sasuke and his team found that the four
boys they had seen previously, which included the jinchuriki and the brother to
Demon Lord. They quickly found out they had all been taken down to the third
level after being “damaged” during a visit with a client.
The second level was minimally staffed as it was night, so they quickly managed
to gather all those working there and secured it. There hadn’t been much there
except some “sets” for their films, which usually included some sort of snuff
at the end.
Zabuza was one of the first to breech the “kill zone” with Team two. The third
level reeked of blood upon entering it. The first room they opened made Zabuza
stop and stare. It brought something to mind he had wanted to put out of it.
When he’d worked for a man named Gato, when he watched them beat a slave to
death… Only going to his wife Reiko and his brother Haku had kept him from
bolting that day and dying for disobeying. Still, the memory surged until
someone shook him. He blinked and looked to see it was Lavi.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Not really, but are any of us right now?” he asked.
Lavi glanced in the room. It hadn’t been cleaned after whoever had used it
previously had beaten one of the Blooded to death. The body was still strapped
to the board in the back. “Come on,” Lavi said. There’s more rooms and we have
to find the ones that are still alive.”
Room after room, they found makeshift torture chambers and way too many bodies.
Sasuke threw open the door to a room where he heard screams of pain and saw a
man, at least he thought it was a man, he honestly wasn’t sure, beating the
jinchuriki he’d seen previously with a metal barbed scourge. He turned and
glared at Sasuke for about a second before he was gurgling blood from the kunei
knife imbedded into his throat. The jinchuriki was hanging by his wrists on a
wall and he carefully cut him down with another of his knives. He was shaking
but alive.
Grimmjow breeched another room where he heard noises. The occupants, a male and
female couple, turned and stared at him where they seemed to be in the middle
of something… He frowned and realized they had the white-haired boy with dog
ears bound down to a bed and were torturing him with an entire assortment of
tools. He took a step forward and punched the man and bashed his elbow into the
woman’s face. Both fell and the boy on the table was panting as he looked up at
him. Grimmjow growled under his breath and started untying him and looking for
something to cover him with.
Lenalee and Lavi broke into a room where they heard someone, finding the white-
haired boy hanging by his wrists where a man was viciously punching him in the
ribs. Lenalee took no time kicking him unconscious with her relic empowered
boots. Lavi let the boy down and took off toward the upper levels to get him to
the medical team.
Renji and Byakuya found themselves breaking into a room where there was a row
of people in various states of dismemberment. Some were alive, but most were
not. A large man with powerful muscles was swinging an axe at the neck of the
boy with orange hair that Sasuke had shown them. Renji growled, releasing his
sword and knocking the man off him and into the wall. Byakuya went to check on
those lying in the row awaiting execution. Renji checked the one he had been
about to behead and found he was breathing, shallowly, but breathing. He picked
him out and took off as Byakuya checked on the others. None were alive still,
or at least, none could be saved.
By the time they reached the bottom level, they found no more survivors, and
they were grateful that the numbers were significantly less down there. It
seemed that after they breeched the top levels, they had started to gather the
victims and took them down to be killed in the execution room. Most, if not all
of those on the teams, were sickened and disgusted by what they had just seen.
They made their way back to the Black Order, taking with them a total of
thirty-seven survivors. There had been another twenty-six that were beyond
their help or already dead. They arrested a total of sixteen people that were
working or patronizing the place. For now, those arrested were only thrown in
the dungeons of the Black Order, and the survivors were taken to the dining
room where it had been converted into a massive medical area.
Lenalee stood at the door and watched the medical people do what they could.
She looked over when Rukia walked up beside her. “That…that was horrific,”
Rukia said as she looked up at Lenalee.
“We knew it would be bad…but this was so much worse than I could have
imagined,” she whispered. “So many dead…and just…the state that the ones we
brought back were in…I can’t even imagine what they went through…”
Sesshōmaru sat beside his brother and waited. He hadn’t awoken yet. The
Shinigami had used their healing abilities on him already, but they warned
Sesshōmaru that the trauma had been extensive. He had not been meant to leave
the room he was in alive.
“Inuyasha,” he whispered and took his hand that was far too cold. “I’m sorry,”
he said gently
“He is a Halfblood,” Byakuya commented as he walked up beside him.
Sesshōmaru nodded and looked up at him. “Yes, our father fell in love with a
human woman when my mother decided to return to Yomi.”
Byakuya sighed and put a hand on Sesshōmaru’s shoulder. “I commend you for
caring for a brother that is not of full demon heritage. I understand you are
one of the few Yōkai to remain in the human world.”
“My father loved the humans, perhaps that is why, to honor him,” he said with a
sigh. “I hated him, you know,” he said as he kissed his brother’s knuckles. “At
first. I despised the half breed dog as I called him. Yet…as he grew older, I
came to love him.”
Byakuya nodded. “Even the most noble of blood must sometimes realize that there
is more to life than bloodlines…”
Sesshōmaru nodded and looked over where the other three boys that had been with
his brother were similarly laid out unconscious. “He won’t want to leave them,
but I need to take him back to our city. I will care for him there,” he said
and stood to go inform the Black Order that he needed to leave with him as soon
as possible.
Kanda growled because there was a banging on the inner gate. He shook his head
and wondered who had locked themselves out again. No one had come to the outer
gate. He pulled open the door and started to yell at whoever it was only to see
someone that was not a member of the Black Order.
“How did you get in here?” he asked, but the white skinned figure simply pushed
him out of the way with a wave of his hand.
“He’s in here,” he growled and took off at what had to be a demon increased
speed.
Kanda followed him but stopped when he came to the entry to the dining hall.
The white skinned figure had gone to the bed where the boy with orange hair and
the single demon eye was lying. He had crawled into the bed beside him and was
clutching him. Kanda turned and stared at Lenalee who was just as surprised.
“He was inside the gates. No idea how he got there,” Kanda told her as she
nodded and headed toward the bed where he was.
“Who are you?” Lenalee asked him gently.
The white skinned figure turned one black and gold eye and one honey brown one
on her and growled. Lenalee realized that he was a perfectly identical copy of
the Blooded on the bed save he was white in color and the opposite eye was
black and gold. He tightened his hold on the other one and looked to be close
to tears.
“He’s going to be okay,” she said, glancing over to see several of the others
had come closer. “We’ve healed his wounds. We won’t hurt him; we’re trying to
help.”
The white creature turned and nodded. “Okay. I’m…I’m Shiro. We got separated. I
couldn’t find him. No matter what I did, I couldn’t find him. I knew he was in
pain. I felt how much he was hurting and I couldn’t stop it,” he said quietly
and seemed to clutch him tighter.
“Are you related to him?” she asked and sat down by his bent knees.
“Depends,” Shiro said. “We used to be the same person, then we split apart
because we were all alone. He was so sad and lonely, we had to be two to
survive,” he said and clutched him. “We can become one again, if we need to.”
Lenalee nodded. This was something unheard of, a demon splitting into two
entities. She was sure that Komui would want to examine them in this case. She
glanced at the short white haired boy. Akuma blood, but that was impossible.
Akuma couldn’t breed with humans like Hollows, Yōkai, or Tailed Beasts. So she
had no idea how he could exist…
By the next morning, those that weren’t injured began to leave for their homes.
The Arrancar returned to Hueco Mundo, retrieved by a pink haired Arrancar that
wore rather sensual attire. Lenalee had thought he was rather interesting. What
caught her attention was the dark-haired boy that came with him. She looked
around as people milled and found the female Shinigami she’d talked to.
“Hey, who’s the skinny brunette guy?” she asked.
Rukia looked up and over. “Oh, Uryū Ishida. He’s one of the few Quincies left
after the Wandenreich split off from them. He stays with Szayelaporro most the
time,” she said.
“And who’s he? He’s an Arrancar, right?” she asked, crossing her arms over her
chest.
“Yeah, Szayel run the Las Noches brothel,” she said and smiled as Szayel knelt
in front of one of the female Arrancar who was sobbing. He spoke to her for a
long moment then embraced her for a long moment. He then stood with her and put
an arm around her and led her to the room where they’d summoned the portal to
their realm. “He’s also a researcher and doctor. He’s an odd guy, but he spends
a lot of time helping the ones we send back that have been abused. I don’t know
his history, but he seems to know a lot about dealing with it.”
Lenalee nodded. “Um, hey, I was wondering, since all this has happened, do you
think someone from each of the factions could stay here until we’re ready to
send the injured ones back? And maybe you and that Quincy could stay? I didn’t
know there were any left, and there’s some gaps in our demon knowledge that I
would love to fill in.”
Rukia thought about it. “That might be a good idea. The Black Order is
relatively safe and we could possibly learn a lot, especially since three of
these are unusual Bloods. How many are seriously injured enough to need to
remain here?”
“There’s the four boys, then about six girls that really need to stay for
another few days,” Lenalee answered.
Rukia nodded and headed off to find her brother. She came around and found him
in a very hushed discussion with the Demon Lord. She smirked. Well, wasn’t that
cute, she thought to herself. She cleared her throat and Byakuya turned and
stared at her.
“Nii-sama, I wanted to see if it would be possible for some of us to remain
here until the last ten injured victims are returned to their realms. I also
suggest seeing if the Quincy Ishida can stay and help us unravel some of the
demon lore we’re unfamiliar with,” she said with a nod of her head.
Byakuya nodded. “That may be for the best. I’ll speak to Ishida and see if he
is willing to stay and help. Perhaps you and Renji would be best to stay here
for Shinigami representation. I believe Grimmjow, considering he’s had more
experience in the human world that many of the other Arrancar, and possibly one
of their other Espada would be suited to remain.” He looked at Sesshōmaru who
was frowning. “I know you must return to your city, but I can assure you we
will care for your brother.”
Sesshōmaru sighed and nodded. “Very well. See that I am informed when anything
changes.”
He turned on his heel, white hair and the fluffy stole he wore swishing behind
him. Rukia watched him go. “He’s very lordly,” she commented.
After a few seconds, she glanced up to realize Byakuya was just staring after
him. She shook her head and cleared her throat. He turned to her, blinking.
“See if the others are agreeable, I’ll speak with the Quincy,” he said and
headed off.
Several hours later, the group that was remaining with the Black Order was
seated around a large, round conference table. Uryū Ishida sat nervously,
because honestly, he hadn’t thought he’d be called on like this. However, as
one of the last Quincy that had not been corrupted, he felt obligated to help
them.
Komui stood up, adjusting his glasses and looked around. “Alright, I’m going to
do a round of introductions for those of you that might not know each other and
briefly explain what our purpose is.”
He looked around and saw everyone watching him. “In the last two hundred years,
the human world has started to return from the destruction of the Four-Fold
Demon War. Now, we all know what happened, but of course, only a few
individuals that lived through the War are still alive, including some here.
I’ve brought you all together to attempt to bring peace to Albion. The
destruction of our own societies and the descent into depravity and persecution
must stop. One idea that has been presented is building an embassy that will
link the netherworld realms to the human world in a central location, here in
Londinium, and offer a place where emissaries from the realms of the
Netherworld will be housed. Any questions on this?” he asked, looking around.
None were raised.
“Now, I’ve invited Uryū Ishida, one of the last remaining uncorrupted Quincy.
I’m sure you are all familiar with the Wandenreich territory to the east.
Quincy are one of the most well versed groups when it comes to demonology and
demonic history. Some of you will be familiar with what he must say but others
may not. Now, also in attendance, from the Shinigami we have Rukia Kuchiki and
Renji Abarai,” he said pointing to each of them. “From the Vizard, Shinji
Hirako has agreed to stay for this,” he said pointing to the blonde man.
“Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez and Tier Harribel are Espada from Las Noches for the
Arrancar and hollows. The Lord Sesshōmaru was unable to stay, unfortunately,
however he discussed any concerns he had before he left with me. From the black
order, I’ve asked Yu Kanda, Lavi Bookman, and my sister Lenalee to attend. We
have a Shinobi, as well, in attendance, Sasuke Uchiha, representing the
Halfblood leader Orochimaru.”
There was a little murmured discussion and Komui looked at Uryū. “If you
please, Mr. Ishida.”
Uryū nodded and stood up. “Yes, so the things I’m going to reveal are
considered Quincy secrets and are not supposed to be spoken of in front of non-
Quincy. However, with the near decimation of my people,” he said as he walked
to the from and tucked his hands behind his back.
“Since I know some of you are familiar with the history, this may be a repeat,
but there may also be things you are unaware of.” He took a breath. “Around
five hundred years ago, Albion was a prosperous country in a wide world. We
were busy and industrious, and then, someone got too industrious. It is unclear
who was the first to delve into the Book of Nether, but someone opened a book
that should never be opened by humans. In doing so, humans gained he attention
of the King of Hell, or rather, the ruler of the Netherworld that exists
adjacent to our world.”
He looked around, seeing everyone was enraptured. Now was the part that many
were unaware of. “All of them are aware of the four demon factions. Hollows,
Akuma, Yōkai, and the Tailed Beasts. These four nearly destroyed our world when
the Akuma wanted to enslave all humans, in particular the humanoid appearing
demons called the Noahs that exist well evolved past the normal weapon like
Akuma. Now, this is all basic, but the fact is that we opened the gates,
humans, that is. We used the Book of Nether and opened a gateway into Limbo, or
the Dangai as some call it. We couldn’t enter at first. Then the relics started
falling through to our world from the Dangai.” He glanced at the people from
the Black Order. “The Black Order began finding them, mistakenly calling them
Innocence because they gave humans power to fight off the minor demon
incursions. The Quincies found them,” he dropped the bracelet from his wrist
for the others to see. “We refined it into a focus that we could use to warp
reality around us to summon our power.” He held up his arm and summoned the
glowing blue bow for a second before letting it dissipate. “At first, the only
thing to come through were the minions of the Demon Lords. The Succubus and
Incubus came through, as the first level of the nether after the Dangai is the
Ring of Desire. However, the Dangai connects all but one of the lower seven
levels to the human world.” He looked around. “The Hollows hail from the Ring
of Hollowness, or Emptiness, if you want to refer to it as that. The Yomi is
the Ring of Transformation and home to Yōkai Demons. The Akuma come from
Destros, the Ring of Destruction. The Tailed Beasts are from the Ring of Rage
and Wrath. Now, this leaves three other levels. The Ring of Wishes is the home
of the Djinn, or genies as we call them most the time. They, however, are
uninterested in human affairs with rare exception.”
He paused. “There is one level where the residents have always been connected
to the human world, and through which the Book of Nether originated. The
Penumbra, or the Ring of Shadows is the place where the Goetian Demons are
from. They are a Bond Demons. They normally do not enter the human world, but
there are several families that have been able to summon and Bond with them for
several thousand years. These Demons are utterly faithful to their human
masters in exchange for whatever pact is formed with the Demon. For this
reason, they are rarely spoken of. They blend in completely with the world
around them. They exude no demonic energy. They are, however, full blood
demons.”
Uryū sighed. “The part that is most concerning is the final level of the
Netherworld where the self-described King of Hell is confined. Or rather, was
confined. Also, known as the spirit of treachery, this being is feared even by
the other demons and has been kept confined for longer than memory. The concern
is that during the Demon War…they escaped the Ring of treachery and their
chains. They are in the human world, and it is them, in whatever guise they
have chosen, that is causing the chaos.”
There was a long silence. “Most of the last is speculation. However, it is
based in many theories that have been around for the last two hundred years,”
Uryū continued. “The part of the King of Hell that is the most dangerous is
that they represent treachery, including against their own. They care not for
demon or human, they only wish to see betrayal against each other. If all the
Demon Bloods are gone, they will turn the humans on each other. I believe that
they are what happened to the Quincies, poisoned by the very knowledge they
were seeking,” he said and sighed deeply. He sat down. “That’s all I can offer
right now.”
There was a long silence. “Any thoughts on the fact that we have three Demon
Bloods that shouldn’t be able to exist?” Lenalee said, looking around.
“Jinchuriki are not unknown,” Sasuke said and looked at her. “We’ve known of at
a least six born of the different Tailed Beast Demon Lords. This one just
appears to be the child of the nine tailed Fox Demon Lord, that is the leader
of the Tailed Beasts,” he said as he looked around.
“So, we have two that are direct children of Demon Lords,” Komui said, looking
around. “The brother of Lord Sesshōmaru and the child of Lord Kyuubi,” he said
with a deep sigh. “And the other two?” he said, looking around. “We’re experts
mostly on the Akuma demons, and I can’t explain the boy with the Akuma eye and
curse mark. They either convert humans into Akuma or they kill them.”
“Unless the evolved Noah can produce progeny?” Rukia said from the other side
of the table. “Most of the Shinigami are descended of Arrancar and human
Halfbloods. The blood is diluted in most of us, but we retain some of the
power.”
“Never seen the like,” Uryū muttered. “There are very specific rules on
producing Demon Bloods…”
“There are?” Komui asked with a frown.
Uryū looked at him. “Um, yes, there are different dynamics…uh…most prolific are
the Hollow Demons…” he said, starting to flush a bit.
“Yeah, we like to fuck a lot,” Grimmjow said with a shrug. “Don’t matter what.
We can breed with whatever we want, just depends on their alpha/beta status.”
When everyone stared at him. “Really? Alright, so Hollows are genderless, well,
we express a gender but it doesn’t matter. Both me and Tier are alphas, so if
we fuck a beta, they get pregnant with our child, not either of us. I mean, a
human male can’t be impregnated, obviously, but an alpha Hollow can impregnate
a female human, and a male human, provided they express enough alpha
tendencies, can impregnate a male or female Hollow.”
Uryū nodded. “Um, yes. Though there is some evidence, there may be alterations
to male humans that would make them able to carry Arrancar babies,” he said and
looked like he was blushing a bit. “Ah, Yōkai are similar, they have a semi
alpha/beta structure. Their males can get any female pregnant, and occasionally
the rare male beta Yōkai. Tailed Beasts can only have children with a female
once they have transformed into a humanoid appearance.”
“What of the others? The Djinn and the pact demons?” Renji asked.
“They are unable to reproduce at all. Part of the reason they avoid conflict is
because their numbers are limited. They are immortal, but they can be killed,”
Uryū said with a nod at them.
The group sat for a long moment trying to understand everything. “Um, and that
weird one? The one that is two demons?” Lavi asked, looking at Uryū.
Grimmjow shook his head. “He’s obviously Hollow descended, but I’ve never heard
of one splitting like that. I mean, one of the Arrancar has done that, our
Primera Espada, he was too powerful and his being split into a second entity,
but she is not near his power, and only a sliver of his consciousness. This,
this is different. They aren’t the same creature anymore, they are distinctly
different, and if what I’ve heard is true, they turn into something that
appears to be a full Blood demon when they rejoin each other.”
Uryū nodded. “I’ve heard rumors of the ‘white demon’. I thought they were
exaggerations, but it obvious they aren’t.”
“You could always ask me, rather than talk about me,” came a voice from the
rafters. Komui looked up as the white skinned demon dropped down easily to
crouch behind them.
Everyone stared at him. “We thought you wouldn’t want to leave the other one,”
Komui said.
Shiro snorted and walked around the table, taking in everyone. “Always fucking
trying to figure out what we are…” he muttered. “I’ll tell you what we fucking
are, and we’re not your experiment. I’ll take my Ichi and leave with him before
I allow that. And in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m fucking good at getting in
and out of places.”
“You couldn’t get into Purgatory,” Grimmjow said with a smirk.
Before he realized it, he was on his back, his chair tipped back and the white
creature straddling his chest. Black claws were extended from his fingers right
at his throat. Others stood up but Grimmjow snorted.
“Feisty. I like it,” he muttered.
Shiro growled and got up. “No I couldn’t get into Purgatory,” he said as he
turned away. “And my Ichi suffered for it.”
Grimmjow sat up again. “Look, ain’t yer fault, that place was locked down
tighter than a drum. But we got him and the others out, that’s what matters.”
Shiro glared and him and gave him a curt nod. “I suppose. But it still doesn’t
take away the fact that someone is trying to kill us all.”
“That’s why we’re here, Shiro. To protect everyone, human and Demon included,”
Komui said.
Shiro looked at him. “I only want to protect one person, and that’s my Ichi.
The rest can go fuck themselves. But if I must protect them to protect my Ichi,
I’ll do it,” he muttered and flopped into one of the empty chairs, kicking his
feet up and draping them over Grimmjow’s lap. “Alright, bitches. Let’s do
this.”
***** Las Noches *****
 
“Sir!” came the insistent voice from near Komui in the middle of the night.
“What?” he said as he sat up.
“We’re under attack!”
Komui sat up and heard fighting. “What…” he muttered, grabbing his glasses and
running from his room.
“What’s happening?” he called as he came into the main room where the injured
were laid out.
The Shinigami Rukia looked at him. “There’s a group outside trying to breech
the wall. Their leader said that the Band of Seven demands the release of the
demons into their custody. The Akuma are back as well offering cover fire to
these seven. Kanda, Tier, Shinji, and several others are out engaging them.”
Komui growled. “We can’t do that. They need to be protected.”
“I can take them to the Seireitei,” she offered.
Grimmjow walked up. “No, they’ll know that’s where they’d be. Get them ready.
We’re taking them to Hueco Mundo. Las Noches is by far the safest place right
now. For one thing, it’s not on this realm, and not just anyone can open a
portal. The Seireitei is based in the human world.”
Considering their options, it was the best one. Before long, the ten
unconscious victims had been each handed off to someone to carry them through
the Dangai into the Ring of Emptiness and the great city of Las Noches. Shiro
had Ichigo, of course. Renji had taken up Sesshōmaru’s brother. Lavi had taken
the white haired Akuma boy, and Sasuke had taken the Jinchuriki. Rukia, Tier,
Lenalee, and Grimmjow had taken four of the females that were still
unconscious. Uryū, of course, had come along as well to return to Las Noches.
Two of them, a pair of Arrancar named Loly and Menoly, had recovered enough to
walk on their own.
They exited on the seemingly endless sands of the empty realm of the
Netherworld. Those that hadn’t been to another realm were left a bit nauseous
and fraught with vertigo for a moment. Lenalee, Lavi, Sasuke, and Rukia all
appeared to have been affected. Grimmjow looked over.
“It’ll pass. If it’s your first time, doesn’t last long. Come on, we’ve got a
bit of a trek. I put us down a ways from Las Noches in case someone tracks the
garganta I used,” he said as he led them toward a huge structure in the
distance. As they got closer, it was a massive dome.
“That’s Las Noches?” Rukia asked.
Grimmjow nodded. “Yup. Las Noches is the name for our city. In case you didn’t
notice, the ambient energy here is draining power away from us as we walk. It
isn’t smart to stay in the wastes for more than a few hours, or you’ll become a
meal for them.” In the distance they heard the howling of the lesser hollows.
“The only good thing the rogue shinigami did for us was build this place.” He
glanced at Rukia who was starting to stumble. “As you can see, the ones most
affected are our kin, the demon blooded of the hollows. So he built it for
himself, but evolved hollows feel it too. The further away you get from base
level, the stronger the drain. Reverse of what happens in the realm of the
Akuma, where the stronger they are the more the ambient energy feeds them. But,
this is the realm of emptiness after all. So if you’re eaten by one of them out
there, you can’t get much emptier,” he muttered as they came to a massive wall.
It had to stand two hundred feet high.
Grimmjow stopped and motioned again, but this time he only opened a portal
through the solid wall. They came out into a wide walkway and overhead there
was a mock sun in the sky. “I’ve brought us in by Szayel’s Castle, since that’s
the easiest place to hide them,” Grimmjow said as he walked toward a gate in a
fence that stood ten feet high along the white brick path.
Tier came up beside him and they pushed a button beside the tall, solid iron
gate. There was a pause and then the gate was opened. The one with the pink
hair with barely more than a teddy on answered the gate.
“Uryū!” he exclaimed, completely ignoring the rest as he bounded out of the
gate and snatched up the black haired Quincy and pulled him into a deep kiss.
Grimmjow sighed. “Szayel, ya fruity bitch, these people aren’t getting lighter.
Fuck yer boyfriend on yer own time!”
Szayel released Uryū, who stumbled back red faced and blinking. “And stop using
your pheromones on him all the damn time, yer gonna scramble the poor boy’s
brain,” he muttered as he shoved through the gate past the slightly dazed
looking Quincy and the smirking Szayel.
“Alight, loves, welcome to my love castle,” he said with a smirk.
The others looked at him and followed him through an open garden area that
surrounded the place and into a large, open room where several male and female
courtesans sat around. The place had a very old Earth Arabian theme to it, with
ornate columns and alcoves. Every bit of exposed wall was carved expressively.
“A brothel?” Rukia said and looked at Grimmjow. “We can’t take them to brothel!
Not after what…”
“Look, do you want them to be safe or not? Last place anyone will look is
here,” Grimmjow said and saw Szayel was molesting Uryū again against the wall.
Uryū’s hands were splayed flat on the wall and Szayel was in the process of
apparently trying to find out how far down his throat his tongue would go while
grinding a knee into his crotch. “Szayel!” Grimmjow snapped.
“Oh, sorry,” he muttered, turning around, but holding one hand on Uryū’s arm so
when he slumped down, he didn’t fall. “He’s been gone so long though!”
“He’s been gone a day!” Grimmjow reiterated. “Fuck, I swear you are the
horniest fucker I’ve ever met. Show us to the closed rooms, please,” he said
with a sigh.
Szayel smiled and pulled a stumbling Uryū along behind him as they took the
stairs down to a lower level. “These rooms aren’t used anymore, but they’re all
kept well. Now, they’re rather plain, but I’m sure if you need to dress them up
you can figure something out.”
As they took the stairs Lenalee glanced at Rukia. “Um, is the Quincy okay?”
Rukia looked at her and nodded. “Ah, yeah, Alpha hollow bloods, and bloodeds,
exude a pheromone when they’re around their mate. Only affects their mate, but
it puts them a submissive state. Sort of a calming effect, or in this case, an
aroused state. The state it puts the beta in varies according to the alpha.”
Lenalee watched as the lights flicked on and it was a long hallway with four
doors one either side of it and one at the end. They were all covered in ornate
wood doors, but as they passed them, each of the eight rooms had different
carvings. Szayel led them to the end of the hallway and opened the last door to
the left. As they entered they were surprised. The room was huge. Szayel smiled
and turned back.
“The hallway is infused with a bit of a magic to make it shorter, that way you
don’t have to walk forever to get down to all he rooms. Once everyone’s in
here, we’ll remove the glamor,” he said as he turned around.
The room was enormous, and had at least eight bedrooms with four on each side.
There was a large common room, and open kitchen and dining room. “There’s four
baths, one shared by a pair of bedrooms. Each bedroom has a bed that fits four
comfortably, and a sofa. There’s the three living area sofas, and of course,
each bath has a large tub. So, now, those who are in need of medical, I’d like
to move one of the other beds into one room, so there is a room for the four
boys and the four girls that are still ill.” He turned to Loly and Menoly.
“Sweeties, you’ll come up to the med bay with me, and I’ll have a look at you,
then we’ll get you set up in a private room.”
Uryū had seemed to come out of his drunken seeming state. “I’ll see to these,
Szay,” he commented and smiled at him.
“Good, button, good,” Szayel said and kissed his cheek. “Do hurry, I’ve missed
my button.”
Uryū blushed deeply at that and turned to help get the beds moved around.
In about an hour, a pair of the bedrooms that were adjoined by a bath were now
equipped with two of the very large beds, and a pair of the large couches for
whoever was on watch with them. Uryū flopped onto the bed in the room with the
four boys. Lenalee sat down beside him.
“What’s up with the weird way you act around the pink haired guy?” she asked.
Grimmjow looked up from where he was checking over the monitors they’d put on
the dog eared boy. Shiro snorted from where he’d snuggled in beside Ichigo.
He’d put himself between Ichigo and Naruto who shared the bed with him. Uryū
had gone totally red and put his hands over his face.
“Uryū’s a beta bitch,” Shiro said with a smirk.
“But he’s human, a Quincy,” Lenalee said with confusion.
Again Shiro snorted. “Yeah? And you’re a beta too, honey, just like me ‘n Ichi,
and actually all these boys are betas. Grimmy over there’s alpha as fuck, and
so is that Rukia honey.”
Grimmjow stared at him. “How can you tell that? It takes months to figure out
if a non-hollow is an alpha or beta.”
“I can tell when I meet someone,” he said with a snort. “Think of me as
distilled and concentrated hollow instincts, bled off my Ichi. That’s why he’s
in such a bunch of trouble without me. I’m everything hollow, and he’s
everything human.”
“So…all of them, even the noble borns, are betas?” Grimmjow asked, arching a
brow as he looked them over.
“Oh yeah. And that Renji is an alpha, too. So, if Rukia wants him, it ain’t
happening. Two alphas don’t mate well,” he said with a shake of his head.
“Unless they take on a powerful beta that needs two alphas together, then
they’d be okay together.” He paused and stared at Grimmjow. “Yo, what’s with
you and the dog boy? I thought you liked me,” he said with a pout.
“What?” Grimmjow said as he stared at him.
Shiro pouted again, snuggling into Ichigo’s hair. “I smelled it when I was
straddling ya.”
“Fuck, I’ve never seen a fucking hollow blood with that sort of nose,” Szayel
said from the doorway. “Come on, button.”
Uryū was up and gone with him without a word to anyone else. “Button?” Lenalee
said, looking at Grimmjow.
“He sews, Uryū that is. When he started coming here, Szayel had him fixing the
courtesans clothes. Well, he told him one day that he thought he was cute as a
button. Uryū evaded him for a while, but eventually Szayel’s charm, and
perversion, won out,” Grimmjow said with a sigh. “Unfortunately for me, it was
me that caught them in the middle of their first mating.”
“I still don’t understand this, Uryū’s not even blooded,” Lenalee said with a
frown.
“Don’t matter none, honey. Powerful hollow bloods can use the mating bond on
any beta, even one from another demon line or a human. We are demons, after
all,” Shiro muttered.
Grimmjow moved around between the beds and sat down beside Ichigo’s legs where
Shiro had wrapped his over Ichigo’s thighs. “Hey, I didn’t know you were
interested in an alpha.”
“Ain’t never had one interested in us,” Shiro responded, burying his head
further into Ichigo’s orange locks.
“Hey, don’t do that,” Grimmjow said and rubbed his hand over Shiro’s head. “We
can mate if ya want,” he said and winked a blue eye at him.
Shiro pouted. “No. You want to fuck the dog boy. So leave us alone,” he said
and flopped over toward the other boy.”
Grimmjow sighed and shook his head, going to sit by Lenalee. She looked at him.
“What was that bout?”
“Foreplay,” Grimmjow muttered. “He’s a bratty beta. So you know, he’s gonna
make me work. Plus he won’t do anything until Ichigo wakes up. Mostly because
it’s a two for one deal.”
“He said you want to ‘mate’ the noble boy?” she asked.
“’Course, I’d fuck every one of ‘em, they’re all betas. I mean, I’ve fucked
Uryū before a couple times,” he said with a shrug.
“I thought he was Szayel’s mate?” she asked.
Grimmjow nodded. “Yeah, he is. But it doesn’t mean he doesn’t want others to
fuck him now and then. I mean, Uryū’s not my mate, but he could be if Szayel
wanted someone else to share him like that. Just the nature of how we do
things.”
Lenalee nodded, seeing Rukia coming in. “How are these?” she asked and sat
down.
“Not bad,” Lenalee responded and sighed as she felt her heart flutter a bit.
What was happening to her? That seemed to happen every time Rukia came around.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ciel paced in an extreme amount of annoyance. “What do you mean there was
another attack?” he growled at Sebastian.
“Just that, m’lord,” Sebastian said with a smirk.
“What about the Blooded they rescued from Purgatory?” he asked.
Sebastian stood behind Ciel and ran both hands down his ribs. “They’re gone.”
“Where?” Ciel answered, letting Sebastian slide his pants over his hips.
Sebastian started laying sucking kisses down his smaller partner’s neck. “Hueco
Mundo. I felt them cross the Dangai,” he murmured against the wet skin.
Ciel sighed, melting into the demon’s touches. Twenty years now Sebastian had
been everything to him and more. He’d been ten when he took the bond.
Sebastian’s end seemed small at the time, of course, to a ten-year-old boy
wracked with rage and guilt at the death of his parents. He hadn’t understood
the meaning of the demon’s one request.
“I’ll give you all you desire, your revenge, everything. In return, I only ask
for you to give yourself to me, mind, body, and soul however I may desire it.”
As a child, Sebastian had asked nothing of him. He did what his young master
wanted without question. Of course, the magic was what slowed Ciel’s aging. It
was purely selfish on his demon consort’s part; which Sebastian would never
admit aloud. Sebastian had lost so many of his bonded. He refused to let
another human die after a mere fifty or sixty years of life. In the bond, his
magic had slowed his young master’s aging to a crawl. Sebastian had been bound
to the Phantomhives for nearly six hundred years, and a different family for
another two thousand before it. He tired of new masters, and at the birth of
the child, he swore that he would not lose another of his bonded to the claws
of time. In essence, Sebastian had given his young master a piece of his
immortality. The act itself was forbidden, because what he had done ensured
that Sebastian’s life was entwined with the mortal life of Ciel. As long as one
lived, they both would live, but if one died, they both would perish.
Ciel Phantomhive, though, the moment he had sensed the soul within him, was the
last he would bond to, and he knew it. So, when his master met his twentieth
year, Sebastian had informed him of what he was required to give, and that was
everything. The young man found it more than enjoyable, however, to be on the
receiving end of the demon’s touches and became nearly as insatiable as the
demon. Sebastian knew that it was an effect of what he’d done. They were
forever bonded in every way, and neither could resist each other. For the last
ten years, Sebastian had sated every desire of his smaller bonded, and in
return he’d found Ciel desired more and more. Despite the youth his body
displayed, he was far from innocent. Sebastian wondered anymore who the demon
was…
The soft huffing breaths as Sebastian worked his way down Ciel’s spine with his
kisses and nips as his hands slid down to his hips.
“Seb-as-tian…” Ciel whispered. “Please…”
“Yes, my lord,” he whispered as he traced his wickedly long tongue down the
crease of his body to his prized destination.
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
“Button, button,” Szayel said as he pressed Uryū over the exam table, hands
already tracing over his hips. “How has button been?”
“Hah, fine, please…” he panted. “You’ve been putting out the pheromones
nonstop, Szay…please….”
Szayel smirked. “Okay, okay, just a minute,” he muttered as he slid his
trousers just enough off his hips enough to wriggle two slender fingers into
him before slipping them out and slamming up into him suddenly.
“Ah,” Uryū exhaled and gripped the table hard. “Harder, Szay…” he growled.
“Oh, yes, Button,” Szayel said, shifting his glasses up his nose as he slammed
into him hard enough to rattle the table.
In the next room, Loly and Menoly looked up as they heard the noises. “Never
mind that, girls,” came another voice. They looked up to see an Arrancar
standing there with a helm of sorts on his head. He wore a tiger striped scarf
and a black suit. He didn’t have shirt under the jacket. His brilliant yellow
gold eyes were focused on the two girls. “Szayel thinks if he doesn’t fuck Uryū
once a day that he’s gonna explode,” he muttered as he smiled at them.
He moved around and sat beside them. “So, welcome. I’m sure you’ve got
questions about this place?”
“Loly and I were in that other place, so it…well, being in another brothel is a
little hard,” Menoly said, brushing a hand over her dark hair. It fell around
her shoulders in a unkempt corona at the moment.
“I’m Ggio Vega. I’m like the second around here. I help Szayel run this place,
and trust me, it is nothing like that place you were in. For one thing,
everyone here works here because they enjoy it, not becase they’re made to do
it. I know it is hard, after what you were forced to do, but you aren’t here to
work here at all. Just, this is the one of the safer places from the people
looking for you. Szayel works really hard to make srue that this place s the
most secure castle around here,” Ggio said with a smile.
“Why is that?” Menoly asked, her hand interlocking with Loly’s. “Why is that so
important?”
“Well, for one thing, a lot of the people here are running. Sometimes they are
staying here for a while, and sometime they are staying forever. Some work here
as courtesans, others as helpers of some sort. Cooks, maids, you know, that
sort. Then others go off to other castles.” Ggio looked up as one of the other
Purgatory victims was led into the room, a young man with short blond hair and
an eyepatch. Ggio looked up at Cirucci as she led Tesla into the room.
“Ggio, honey, Tesla here was having a bit of a pain in the room with the
others. Can he sit in the cool down room with you?” she asked, sitting him in
an armchair.
“Of course,” Ggio said and smiled.
Loly and Menoly exchanged a look. “Cool down room?” Loly asked with a frown.
Ggio nodded. “This is like the room where the courtesans can come rest when
they’re not wanting to work, but they aren’t wanting to be alone for a reason
or another.” He turned to Tesla. “What’s going on?”
Tesla shook his head. “I just, I feel weird being here, instead of that place,”
he said.
“You were down in the film level, right?” Ggio said.
Tesla nodded. “Yeah,” he said and gestured to his missing eye were his hollow
hole was. “They sad I was too ugly for the brothel,” he said with a sigh.
“Fuck that,” a new voice said behind them.
Ggio looked up to see Nnoitra was standing in the doorway, one of the girls
from upstairs on his arm. She kissed his cheek when he leaned down and went
into the other half of the room. “You’re fucking gorgeous,” he said as he
stared at him.
Tesla blushed immediately and ducked his head. Nnoitra moved over and knelt in
front of him. “Come with me?” he asked. “Come to my castle. I…I want to have
you. I have never wanted to mate a beta before now. Come, please. I’ll give you
everything you want.”
Tesla blinked his one eye and stared. “What…why?”
“I dunno. Just do,” Nnoitra said and they could all smell the sudden release of
pheromones from the tall, lanky alpha demon. “You smell like the sweetest thing
in the worlds to me. And I want to take you and fuck you over every surface in
my castle.”
Nnoitra stood up and reached out for him. Tesla swallowed and nodded. “Yes,
master,” he whispered and took his hand. Nnoitra smirked and yanked him into
his arms. He leaned down and kissed him for a long moment before dragging him
out the door with a near drunk look on his face.
Ggio smirked. “Well, that’s one way, I suppose…”
Loly and Menoly glanced at each other. “I don’t want to work as a courtesan,
but I don’t want to be with someone as their beta,” Loly said.
“Of course not, I assumed you two were already mated,” Ggio said as he looked
between them. “Menoly here’s an alpha, so I just assumed you were already
mates.”
Loly blushed. “Well, it wasn’t possible in…ah…there…”
Ggio smiled. “Here, let’s get you set up with a more permanent room for now
instead of the medical rooms,” he said and led them out.0
                            -oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
“Alright, so I got put on bitch tour duty,” Grimmjow said with a grumble as he
led the group outside the fence to Szayel’s place. He turned and looked around.
The two Shinigami, Rukia and Renji, the three Black Order guys, and the
shinobi. And Shiro was walking beside him. “Now, I’m gonna show you bunch
around because I might not be able to do it later on. So now, here we go. This
is Szayel’s castle,” he said and pointed to the one they just exited.
“Szayel runs the brothel, which is open to anyone, and there’s a special portal
for people outside Heuco Mundo to get to the place. It has link in a couple
cities in the human world,” Grimmjow said, looking them over. “But he’s also
the head of the medical wing, which is also in his castle. He also runs the
research wing, which is the second level of his castle. Don’t go up there
without his knowledge. And as you saw, his basement is rooms built with a demon
spell on the entire place. This place is a fortress unto itself,” Grimmjow
explained.
“Each one of the Espada, or leaders, of the Arrancar has a Castle. I dunno why
we call it that, we just do. Like, Szayel’s looks like a castle, and Barragan’s
but others don’t. Anyway, some of us have bigger castles, others not so much.
Come on, head north here along this path.” He stopped and pointed to another
walled area. “I’m not showing you inside every Castle. But that’s Harribel and
her girls. She also has the Tiburon Pools. They got all kinds of water shit. So
those are public. To your left, that’s the Lugar de Reunion, memorial for those
lost in the wars and stuff. And up there,” he pointed to a hedged area. “That’s
the Moon garden,” he commented as they passed it.
Rukia had managed to walk near Lenalee. She glanced over as they passed the
pools. “I love to swim, maybe we should check it out later,” she commented.
Lenalee looked at her. “Haven’t you been here before?”
“Yeah, but never have time to go to the pools. I hear she has all sorts of
therapeutic pools with salts, minerals, and oils…” Rukia said with a smile. As
they passed, they could see the pools and smell rushing water.
They came around the corner and Grimmjow gestured to a large building that
looked kind of like an apartment building. “Now, this is my Castle. I don’t
stay there much, I’m always on bitch detail to the human world. I have my
followers in there. Next to me is Nnoitra, then Ulquiorra, both solitary
sorts.”
He stopped by a large walled area next to his place. “Nnoitra has an arena,
like a gladiator thing, that he runs. He’s a big fighter type. He likes
contests,” he said as he continued and gestured to the small and plain looking
house behind a simple iron fence. In the yard, a small pale man was watering
roses. “Ulquiorra has a thing for roses,” he muttered.
 “Now, over there,” he pointed down a business looking area. “That’s the
Mercado. All sorts of people come to set up shop and sell.” The Mercado was a
series of open tents where people could set up and sell whatever they liked, it
appeared.
They walked down and there was another larger castle, but this one was more
formal looking. “At the end here is Starrk’s Castle, he’s in charge these
days.” Everyone stopped and looked around for a moment. “Any questions so far?”
“What do each of you do?” Lavi asked, having been rather quiet so far and just
taking in the world.
Grimmjow blinked. “What do you mean, do?” He was confused. “We do whatever we
want. We’re the strongest and most capable of the hollows. We control them.
That’s what we do.”
Rukia glanced over at him. “Hollows, unlike humans, need structure and control.
They’re creatures of instinct, and if they don’t have someone that sets the
rules, this land is chaos,” she explained. “They recognize the strongest as
their leaders.”
Lavi nodded slowly as they turned the corner to head south they saw a large,
extravagant looking castle. “Barragan, he’s pretentious,” Grimmjow muttered as
they continued. “He has a bunch of followers, but some like Ggio prefer to work
with others.”
They turned to the left again. “Over here on the right we have Aaroniero,
Zommari, and Yammy. They’re all solo, so they got small places.”
They passed the first place, Aaroniero’s, and saw that it was a large building,
but it wasn’t extravagant looking. The next one was Zommari’s and there was a
wafting scent of some sweet smoke from it. Renji covered his nose and sighed.
“I hate that smell.”
“What is that?” Lenalee asked as they moved past it.
“Zommari runs…ah for want of a better word, a drug den. The smell is a type of
hollow bred hallucinogenic plant that can be smoked,” Rukia answered. “I mean,
they’re careful and all. Once you go in, you can’t leave until you’re sober
again.
Lenalee nodded. She looked over to note that Shiro hadn’t spoken the entire
trip. He just walked with his arms crossed over his chest and looked around as
they passed things. She got the feeling something was wrong with the demon, and
she wasn’t sure how to deal with it. He seemed…bowed.
Yammy’s castle was another simple looking thing. Grimmjow commented, “He’s
rarely here, he’s usually out in the sands corralling hollows that are causing
trouble.”
They came down to the end and were facing the walls of Szayel’s again. “And
now, see, at the end is Szayel’s place again. So there ya are. Any questions?”
“When is the Mercado open?” Kanda asked. “And what sort of things are sold
there?”
“Well, depends on who is selling. A lot of the Arrancar sell different things,
arts, sometimes Szayel sets up a Fuck booth…” Grimmjow said.
“A what?” Lenalee asked.
“Like a kissing booth, you know, but you buy a fuck,” he said with a shrug.
“Can be fun. Anyway, but they also see gadgets and stuff sometimes.”
The Black Order group seemed a little put off by the open sexuality of the
Arrancar. “Why are you lot so fucking uptight about fucking?” Grimmjow said
with an arched brow. “I mean, seriously, it’s just fucking.”
Lenalee blushed. “Well, I just think it means something more than just that.”
“Sometimes, yeah,” Rukia said with a smirk. “But there’s times just to have
some fun,” she said with a shrug.
Lenalee felt a blush cross her cheeks again. She was about to say something
when they saw someone come out of the gate, a girl with long, curly purple
hair. “Grimmjow, they’re awake, we need you guys inside, now!” she said
urgently.
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