116 King of hell

When a captain passed away, their body would be offered to the realm of hell due to the fact that the reiatsu within a captain was so vast that it was impossible for it to be released back into soul society. So, to avoid unnecessary complications, they were offered to hell. However, while they couldn't leave hell itself as they were now part of it, becoming something akin to guards, there strength took a great leap compared to before their death to the detriment of their original personalities. While they could remember their previous memories, their personalities took a more colder turn and changes would occur to their zanpakuto.

Itsuki carefully looked at the ones that had a tattered white haori behind them and cross-referenced them to his memories. There were some he recognised having met them back when he was part of the second division and one when he was a captain, the previous kenpachi. Still, these weren't all the captains that had once been part of the Gotei 13.

As compared to how many captains there had been, the ones that were in hell were only a small portion. Some were lost to the Garganta, some laid in Hueco Mundo, some were either MIA and yet to be found, some were still alive but had retired somewhere, while some captain's Reiatsu just wasn't enough for them to be 'presented' to hell realm.

With the people here, he could start his own Gotei 13 but he felt it to be a waste. Hell had its own way of working and it had been working well since time immemorial.

Itsuki narrowed his eyes before dismissing everyone leaving only him and Aizen behind. As soon as everyone left, Aizen immediately let out a smile and let out his reiatsu, causing cracks to appear surrounding them. Fortunately, it was just within the hall otherwise it would cause quite the commotion.

Itsuki narrowed his eyes and also released his reiatsu, matching up to his. Although it wasn't their full strength, the ones that had left the hall had alarm signals go off as the pressure from the hall made it difficult to breath.

"Hooo-"

Aizen narrowed his eyes as a flash of amusement went through them, as he increased the pressure. With Itsuki also increasing his pressure, the others outside the room felt the pressure disappear but felt even more threatened as they looked at the closed doors.

"Ara, you guys are really going at it aren't ya?"

Itsuki let out a smile as he reigned in his reiatsu,

"It's been some time, Urahara."

Aizen also stopped as he let out a small laugh.

"It was rather surprising seeing you appear like that."

In response, Urahara bought out his fan and covered his face, ignoring Aizen and looking towards Itsuki.

"It seems you succeeded, seeing the stoic face smile like that."

Itsuki let out a sigh and was about to say something when Urahara continued,

"When are you going to let them know?"

Aizen looked at the two with interest, when he felt his vision change finding himself out of the hall. Knowing that he could just barge in if he wanted to, he reigned himself in as he started contemplating. It seems that he will have to lay low until he could gauge out, how strong Itsuki was. Back in the hall,

"Not anytime soon. Until I have a sure-fire way in not letting them get hurt."

"Don't you think you're powerful enough already?"

"I do, but these are the people that were able to constrain both the Soul King and the Hell King whilst leaving them as mere shells of their former selves."

Waving his hand, Itsuki's reiatsu formed a shape of the other Soul Society he saw.

"They may not be powerful, but they may hold methods that overlook a concept such as power."

"Similar to a rule, eh?"

Itsuki nodded, before looking at Urahara,

"How's that thing coming along?"

"I've hit a bottleneck…"

"It's fine, we have Aizen. He probably knows about the Hogyoku than even you, the one that created it."

Urahara's eyes narrowed,

"Do you trust him?"

"No."

- Soul Society -

Rangiku looked at the little bundle of joy in her arms sleeping soundly. She wondered what colour hair the child would have but from what she had seen when the baby opened its eyes, she would be sharing the same eye colour.

"You should get some rest now Rangiku."

Hearing Soi Fon's words Rangiku handed the baby to Soi Fon who placed it gently in the cot.

"That damn Urahara, he has also gone missing since that day."

Yoruichi was leaning against the wall biting her nail as she was visibly getting frustrated. Ever since Yamamoto told her about the possibility that Itsuki may be alive, she instantly went to look for Yoruichi. The news, however, had not, been passed to Rangiku as they both felt that only they should shoulder this small bit of hope.

If it were to be a case of false hope, only they would be affected not Rangiku as the latter would need to be there for the child. As soon as she heard the news, she went to look for Urahara, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Seeing the baby sleep and Rangiku dozing off, they left the two. As the night deepened, Rangiku started frowning and twitching, evident of a nightmare as she started sweating. Suddenly, a hand appeared patting her forehead calming her down. Her frown eased as a small smile left her mouth as she calmed down.

Itsuki looked at her with guilt and turned to the now awake baby. Looking into the baby's cot, it seemed that Rangiku's fidgeting had woken it up. A small smile left his face as he touched the cheek of his child, looking at the curious eyes that kept shooting left and right before focusing on the being in front. The baby let out a smile and started giggling as it tightly grasped, the Itsuki's index figure as he tried to move away. It may have only been an instinctual reaction but it strengthened it's resolve as he freed his hand.

Leaving a kiss, the baby looked reluctant to see him go as he moved back. With tears threatening to come out, the baby looked at the being that gave it warmth disappear from its vision before bawling its eyes out.

Itsuki heard the wail but already left thinking that the baby wouldn't remember this anyway and it was all due to a small connection that the two shared. Or was it?

"What happened?"

Hearing the baby, a maid in charge of Rangiku came forward and tried to calm it down. This however, also woke Rangiku up from a nice dream as she got up while wiping drool off her face.

'It's been a long time…'

It had been a long time since she had a pleasant sleep with a pleasant dream. For some reason she felt assured as she took the child from the maid's hands. Slowly they were able to put the child to sleep before she returned to bed. Before she dozed off once again,

'You're still alive…'

It wasn't something that she was sure of but just a hunch.

'Better not find someone else…'

With that she went to bed with a small smile.

Itsuki let out a sneeze as he rubbed his nose. He wondered who was talking about him, but his attention was bought to someone sitting in front of him. Yamamoto looked at his dead student, yet no expression could be seen on his face. Itsuki looked at the face and could tell the old man was angry but assured that he was still alive.

"How long has it been?"

Itsuki never answered as he took a sip of tea. Yamamoto's eyes twitched as there was only one cup of tea and Itsuki had blatantly used that. However, he indeed had a soft spot for his third student as he let it be. He was just happy that Itsuki was alive and well.

The two didn't say anything and shared a warm atmosphere but Yamamoto had a feeling, maybe the next time they came their meeting wouldn't be this courteous.

"Captain-Commander."

Chojiro, his lieutenant, appeared surprised to see his captain in his previous training grounds.

"Just reminiscing about the past…"

With that Yamamoto disappeared with the tea set and Chojiro was left looking, wondering why the tea was cup was on the opposite side of the table not in front of him.

- Kuchiki Manor -

A single lamp bought brightness to a lone table within the clan's private library. Byakuya shifted through books, upon books looking for something yet to no avail. Seeing the tens of books piled around him he let out a sigh before pinching the bridge between his eyes.

"Seems like you have been very busy."

Unsheathing his zanpakuto, Byakuya swept it towards the voice as the voice dodged.

Waiting for the person to come into the light, a familiar head of white hair came into view. The only different thing was his Haori but that familiar stoic face looked at him with a bit of warmth.

"How do I know you're not just Aizen in disguise?"

Itsuki let out a smile and worded a few things as Byakuya's stoic face crumbled a little before returning to its normality.

"Fine…"

"Well, you're not surprised in seeing me."

"If that was all it took to take you down then it would bring shame upon me that I hadn't won any of our duels."

Itsuki let out a smile as he sat down in front of him.

"Well, what do you want?"

Knowing that his friend had shown himself in front of him it seems that he had a request.

"Information, although the Daireishokairō harbours all of Soul Society's knowledge, it's only limited to the information that the four great clans and the central 46 of that time would allow to be placed in there."

Byakuya gave a sigh as he took out his clan head's token.

"Although I don't know what you are doing, remember if it endangers soul society, I'll be the one to cut off your head."

Itsuki smiled as he knew what his friend was like. He knew that Byakuya had a lot of questions but he trusted him. However, his last statement was true, Byakuya would be the first to express his killing intent if he strayed from his path.