Chapter 19: CH20: Returning Home

 After getting her head around the situation, Yoruichi Shihouin decided to send several of her subordinates to track down the hollow and assess the situation. Little Bee looked so cute with her new friend, but the entire situation was a headache waiting to happen. If she didn’t push her weight around as an heiress to a noble clan, the situation would end with executions. They were threading the needle across the room by tossing the thread.

 

She rode in the wagon with Kisuke while her masked subordinates took to the trees down a mostly frozen road at breakneck speeds. A single stout horse pulled their wagon while she lounged on a stack of wolf pelts. The soft fur tickled the back of her legs while she watched the trees fly by. In another wagon, bounts were hauling ass with a team of horses trying to keep up. Yoruichi kicked up her legs on the stack of bodies in the wagon’s bed.

 

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Kisuke said, making her feel better.

 

Animals didn’t have reiatsu except the horse pulling the wagon did, and the wolf pelts she used as a cushion had hollow reiatsu. Not only that, the horse seemed entirely too intelligent. It knew the path home, and Silas didn’t order it around; it knew to avoid bumps in the road and how to drift their wagon on ice. Whatever Silas had done had been unnatural in ways that were hard to quantify.

 

Yoruichi had to write her report in a way that painted everything in the best light possible. Soifon didn’t have many friends, so killing him would be traumatic. She was almost ready to invite him to soul society as a guest of her house, but that could prove even more problematic.

 

Silas had a strange reiatsu connected to his flesh, more like an internal organ than a soul. His body seemed to absorb small traces of reishi from the air in intervals parallel to a heartbeat. She could practically feel his reiatsu rolling off him, and that needed to change. Hollows had already attacked him;  spiritual entities would make the situation worse. Her presence wasn’t an issue with her reiatsu control, nor was the rest of her division. She planned on giving him a crash course in reiatsu control at the earliest opportunity.

 

Kisuke stood up from his seat when the fence came into view. It glowed on the horizon and dragged in reishi like a hole in the ground. He stopped them before they crossed the fence.

 

“Mistress, if my wolf pelts cross, my defense will burn them up. So I thank thee for keeping them warm, but they need to be put away, or they will be ruined.” Silas said.

 

“Thy defenses detect hollow reiatsu,” Kisuke asked, eyeing the myriad of symbols covering the posts fence stretching around the property.

 

She could sense they were no threat to her or any in her division. Even the bounts would be immune to the effects of the fence.

 

“They rebuke all things hollow with deadly force if the beasts persist long enough. It’s a shame I managed to get all my defenses the way I wanted them, and I must replace them. Everything I built tis already outdated.” Silas said.

 

Silas looked over at the bounts, who seemed a little nervous at the prospect of hard labor. Before opening the gate, Silas tossed the skins in a big leather pouch painted with fractals. Men with higher-than-average Reiatsu ran out armed with muskets but froze when they saw Silas in front of a massive group.

 

“We have guests; go slaughter a hog and get the cook fires going,” Silas ordered, and two dark-skinned men ran off.

 

“We don’t eat food from the world of the living. Some spirit water wouldn’t be bad unless thou have spirit wine.” Little Bee said coyly.

 

“Thou will need to return in a month for spirit wine. But I will save a bottle for thou and thy mistress cousin. Methinks hog and spirit water mayhap be enough to reach the first realm.” Silas said.

 

“First realm of what?” Kisuke asked and sucked in a deep breath of air. “Thy land tis like soul society except for maybe more pig shit than I would like; it's everywhere.” She punched Kisuke in the arm too fast for anyone to catch on.

 

“There art downsides to increased intelligence in certain animals. They think they can defecate anywhere they want. Strangely the cows learned where to go in a week, but the pigs have rebelled despite their greater intelligence.” Silas said, walked over to a contraption, and began pulling and pushing it.

 

Her eyes widened when spirit-dense water started pouring out from the opening in the device. Silas filled up a canteen and handed it off to Soifon.

 

“I will be but a moment; methinks I have some cups in my shack.” He moved faster than any human, kicking up a trail of dust as he sprinted. Only a few heartbeats later, he returned with a stack of wooden cups covered in symbols.

 

“The formations help further purify the water to make it cleaner,” Silas said in his defense.

 

It would pour out of her body regardless. Only the spiritual energy in the water would remain within her body.

 

“Thou said thou would attempt to reach the next realm; what does that mean,” Kisuke said.

 

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The human paused and then looked thoughtful. “Tis not a secret. I am preparing to reach the next step in my cultivation. Thou could compare it to,” Silas looked at little Bee and nodded. “Tis like graduating from soul reaper academy without joining a division. Methinks that is the best way to describe the step. Tis important but not an insurmountable leap. Would thee watch over me for this ritual as a show of camaraderie?” Silas said.  

 

Little Bee nodded, and it was too cute to pass up. Yoruichi had already sent a hell butterfly reporting their activities, and they had time. She cast her eyes at the bounts milling about, talking amongst themselves and marveling at the reishi in the air. It cut off once it reached the fence, but they enjoyed the spirit water greatly. She had no idea what effect it would have on them.

 

…

 

Pig scat covered the ground, he could hear the crows of roosters in the distance, and the stench of cattle was in the air, but he had never felt more alive. Eugene felt a gentle, cool breeze as it swept over his skin, carrying a dusting of reishi particles. He felt like laughing at the novel feeling. Then the soul reaper said that the land felt like soul society and commented on the strength of its defenses. Everything clicked then, along with the receding of his hunger with the cool crisp taste of spirit water in a wooden cup.

 

Before, he had attempted to hypnotize their host Silas and take him to be fed upon by his fellow conspirators. Such a mighty spirit could surely bolster their own strength but was it necessary with what he could feel. The land sang with spiritual energy more than he could ever imagine existing in the human world. There was enough that even the animals carried it in their bodies. Animals could be fed upon without breaking the taboo.

 

When his hypnosis failed, he panicked and offered his people to settle on their host’s land as workers. He had planned the kill the trusting fool and even offered him a fake crest to put him in a false state of security. There were many rumors about vampires, such as their need for certain objects of power to survive. Eugene used one, and the trusting fool accepted it.

 

Then he left and brought with him high-ranking Shinigami, and they left like they were all friends. It was infuriating, condescending, and what his people needed. They were in a place where they had no fear of hollows, the next best thing to soul society by a seated officer’s own admission, and had a benefactor. This wasn’t a cave city; it was a lake fortified with a fence with plenty to do.

 

In his 1000 years of life, he rarely felt as content as he did on Silas’s farm. But his host clearly didn’t trust them but hadn’t plotted to have them exterminated. Eugene had other problems that suddenly popped up. Silas more than likely still had a mortal lifespan, so what would he do when it ended. This land would be purchased by another human who wouldn’t understand its significance or how to cultivate it properly. Clearly, there was more to it than animal husbandry.

 

Silas needed a wife or multiple wives. Children of his benefactor needed to be had as many as possible. Multiple children should ensure the lord of the land trained them in his ways ensuring that accidental death or disease wouldn’t take them all. As an immortal, he could document the information each generation needed and ensure knowledge wasn’t lost between generations.

 

Suddenly his future, which had been an endless shade of grey with few sparks of color, came to life with schemes and strategies to ensure he would always have a mortal benefactor.

 

“What art thou plotting with that gaze, Eugene?” His wife Yoshino asked with a smile on her delicate face. She looked happy for the first time since they had been married. In her hands were two legs of chicken, and she offered him one. He could feel spirit energy within the bird and took a bite.

 

The meat melted in his mouth with the taste of spirit energy. It was different from the tasteless, bland meat he sometimes ate for appearance's sake in society. More than one bount had been burned as a witch or vampire from a lack of blending in. Humans noticed fewer aging issues when bounts ate and went to church with them. For a while, some believed they were only fortunate or, in Eugene’s case, already had an old man's hair. Powdered wigs often helped with a little face paint when it was available.

 

“I think we have found our home and should call the others. Together we can build this land along with our benefactor.” Eugene said.

 

“He doesn’t trust us. Do you think we should have one of our girls seduce him?” Yoshino said.

 

That was an idea. In the short term, it would shore up some loyalty to them until he found some suitable dames to breed their host with. Then, he would have Koga search for some suitable women. There were neighboring tribes nearby that could help pad out the numbers.

 

He wondered if he could stir up some stories about himself. Eugene enjoyed listening to them after they had a few centuries to get convoluted.

 

As for the short-term having one of their people in his bed couldn’t heart, Eugene set his mind on a young redhead, one of the last bounts born. She was Mongolian and hadn’t formed her doll yet. She had the same red hair as Genghis Kahn had many centuries ago. Those were some wild times on the steps though he was sure they were in for some wild times in the new world.

 

While the fenced-in land was their own slice of soul society, wouldn’t it be better for the world if it were extended perhaps a few miles to the west?

 

“Li Fang has an agreeable personality,” Eugene said.

 

“She changed her name,” Yoshino said.

 

Eugene nodded as he remembered. Li Fang had changed her name to Aoife because she thought the new world settlers would prefer an Irish name over a far eastern one. But no, apparently, the protestants hate the roman catholic Irish with a passion an oriental wouldn’t receive. They often tried to convert her but hadn’t thrown rotten fruit. Putting such a woman in their host’s bed could balance out the power between him and the local powers like the wizard families in the colonies.

 

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