Game 3 - Chapter 3

The crowd slowly quieted down as an unexpected guest suddenly entered the ring. Tetsu turned around, confused, wondering what was going on, and then almost dropped his microphone. The Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13 was standing in front of him.

"L... Ladies and Gentlemen," he stammered, "The Captain-Commander has a few words for you all before we start the main tournament!" Tetsu handed the microphone to the General, bowing politely.

The General closed his eyes and began to speak:

"Fellow citizens of Soul Society," he said in his gruff, commanding voice. "Today we have witnessed several thrilling battles already, and the main tournament hasn't even yet begun. It is only fitting that this amazing preliminary round should culminate in a historic event. And, as there will be...," he nodded toward Captain Soifon, who had returned to her seat with the other Captains, "...certain members of Class 3-A that shall be unable to participate in the tournament, it seemed only fair that we should... announce a change to the tournament's schedule."

An audible murmuring rippled through the crowd.

"Fifth Seat Ayasegawa!" the General called out.

"It's... it's ready!" Yumichika yelled back, racing into the arena holding a very large scroll. He hopped into the ring and handed the scroll to the General, panting heavily. "S... Sorry, sir... It's the... the best I could do... in such... short notice."

He turned around and headed back to the faculty section.

The General opened the scroll, read it for a moment, and then passed it on to Tetsu. Tetsu glanced at it, his brow furrowed, and then his eyes shot open at the General. Yamamoto nodded at Tetsu, who nodded back. "Y... Yes, sir." He took the scroll over to the light operators and handed it to them. Moments later, a large screen descended over the windowed wall of Kyouraku Hall. With a click, the screen lit up:



"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have redrawn the lots for this tournament," said the General. "And for the first time in Academy history, members of Class 3-B will be participating!"

Matsuura basked briefly in the glow of victory, he had just beaten the highest rank 3A student after all, but it wasn't without a price. He clutched his side in pain, several of his ribs were cracked, not to mention the other wounds he suffered.

I've only won though because I let...AUGH!

Matsuura dropped to one knee in pain, clutching his head.

I...can't...

He looked around through bleary eyes, the world around him slowing, several 4th divisions rushing to him in slow motion.

AUGH!

Another wave of extreme pain washed over him. He crumpled to the ground, his body briefly convulsing. It felt like everything was on fire, every single part of him thrown into a searing flame, his brain overloading from the pain.

"Goddamnit, when did you get so damn heavy boy?!"

The immediate feeling of harm dissipated, but then pain still lingered. Matsuura having had his eyes clenched shut in pain slowly opened them at the familiar voice. There above him stood Ikiwazura. Matsuura slowly picked himself up, his breath ragged, a look of extreme tiredness across all of his features.

"What...am I doing...here?" He barely managed to say, he felt out of breath, out of tune. It was a feeling very foreign to him and it wasn't something he enjoyed.

"I called you here, well...that's a lie. You've been here the whole time. I simply made you aware that you are here." Ikiwazura explained nonchalantly. Matsuura stared bleakly at him as he tried to process the information he was just given.

"But...that's impossible...I've been fighting Red...head...?"

"Yes and no. Tell me Matsuura what do you remember of the last time you were here?"

Matsuura gave Ikiwazura an odd look at the sudden change of course in their dicussion, his mind going back to the last time he was in his inner world.

"Silence....and the buildings on fire on one side of the street. Why...why are you asking me this? What's going on?"

Ikiwazura simply chuckled, or at least what one could interpret as a chuckle, apparently his vocal chords didn't allow for chuckling. "Look around you. See for yourself what has been wrought."

Matsuura gave him another strange look before Ikiwazura waved his hand to indicate their surroundings, Matsuura following it as he turned slowly to get a full view. He was in disbelief at his surroundings. Everything, as far as the eye could see, was burning in the black flames, several houses in the first row had burnt to ash, revealing more houses behind those on fire. He turned back to Ikiwazura in a panic.

"But...what?"

"In fact, I had to drag you out of the flames as well."

"What? How? How did this happen?! Why? When?" Matsuura's voice grew with each question, the intensity of fear and concern growing exponentially.

"I've already explained this to you. You let your thirst control you, control this place. And so the fire spread to consume all in its way. It even consumed you, briefly."

Matsuura looked down at himself, his clothing burnt and singed, he was right he was on fire...but could...

"No...no way is this possible..."

"Oh but it is! Don't you get it? You have been here for quite some time! Fighting me no less. Quite a tough cookie you can be sometimes."

"No..." Matsuura shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, this wasn't possible. "This...can't be happening. You're lying. I've been in the real world fighting!"

Ikiwazura sighed, shaking his head. "You really don't get it do you boy? Well not much can be done about it now anyways, you're in hysterics and quite badly beaten. I'm sending you back, we'll talk another time."

"What? No! Wait!" Matsuura sat bolt upright, scaring the 4th divisions tending to him before falling back into the cot in pain. He was back in the real world.

What...did he mean? This doesn't make any sense...

Matsuura scoured his mind and memories trying to find an answer.

Chiken both watched the fights and ignored them at the same time. Whenever someone released their Zanpakutou, the large shift in reiatsu would always draw his attention to the fight, but it would never hold it as Chiken's eyes gradually strayed out the wall made of windows and his thoughts strayed to the clouds. This would continue for most fights, the exception being Takeshi's massive burst of flame, that caught Chiken's attention for a whole two minutes before it strayed away.

Chiken almost missed the change to the tournament as well, but he was looking out the window, watching the beetle he was chasing before, when the screen dropped. At first, Chiken frowned since he wouldn't see the beetle any more then he looked around, confused with the screen and with the murmurs the crowd broke out into.

Chiken managed to deduce that everyone was talking about what the screen had on it, mostly because the majority of people were pointing at the screen. He glanced over at the screen when something on it caught his eye: his name. Chiken blinked at looked at the screen with his full attention now. It was similar to the sheet he had eaten before his fight with the hooded person. Chiken didn't understand what it meant, but his name was connected with a line to Anshou's. Chiken shrugged, then frowned. While he didn't care about what was on the screen, he couldn't see the beetle with it there. He turned his attention back the the ring, just to look at something as his mind wandered.

It seemed the interrogators were coming much later than expected.

In his dimly lit cell beneath the ground, Ryouichi Kanue lost track of time. In that immense period of silence, he planned. And waited. And schemed. And waited some more. And then he began plotting again. But mostly he waited.



Ryouichi knew exactly what his captors were trying to do by making him wait. It was an age-old tactic: Lock a man in solitary confinement, leave him alone for hours on end with nothing but his own thoughts and the prospect of waiting endlessly, and he should be glad for company, any company, even if it is a Second Division interrogator, and even if he was aware of the tactic in the first place. This was, however, a trick that Ryouichi was determined not to fall victim to. And he was succeeding.

First of all, there was a table in the middle of the room. Clearly this was not a genuine prison cell, as the only use for such a table would be for a questioner to peer enigmatically across at the uncertain, jumpy prisoner. There was also the fact that he had only been accused of a crime, not convicted, and although he certainly didn't place any undue faith in Seiteirei's joke of a judicial system, there was no way they were going to lock him up forever on the basis of a mere suspicion of attempted murder. Especially when the more experienced fighters watching, specifically the Captains, should obviously have been able to see that Rumiko had deliberately leaned into the attack. Whoever had ended up healing her as well, for that matter (he suspected it would have been Captain Unohana, as Orihime's powers were too, well, powerful to put on display in front of a large crowd). Despite that fact, Ryouichi was inclined to forgive them for arresting him. It wasn't their fault that a stadium full of enraged and misguided peasants had no eye for combat, after all.



No, indeed, it was not for lack of company that Ryouichi Kanue was waiting rather than scheming. It was only because that scheming had hit a frustratingly solid brick wall. In one masterstroke, Rumiko Adachi had effectively shredded every one of his short-term plans, and all for what he could only perceive as a minor insult, no matter how hard he tried to twist his perspective to divine her motives. Or perhaps it was simply her being prideful or paranoid. Regardless, the damage had been done, and there was virtually nothing he could do to take it back now.

One of the most vexing things about the whole affair was the fact that he had been forced to scrap his original plan on uncovering Rumiko's intentions. Granted, he could always try tricking her into revealing such things in other ways, but that would require rapidly altering his approach many successive times in a very short period, and it would be infinitely more difficult that way, with no prior set-up.

Although he was loathe to play a game of verbal speed chess with someone like Rumiko, flipping situations like the one he was in now on their heads was his specialty. He would only have to wait for opportunity to come knocking, in this case perhaps literally. It was especially easy when he had time to settle on an ideal course of action and come up with ways to twist every possible scenario to his favor. Like say... now, while he was waiting with monumental patience for his interrogators to show up.



Very soon Ryouichi decided the time for waiting was over.

Smiling slightly, he discreetly shifted his gaze to a certain corner, where he was sure the cameras that any good intelligence agency should have were. Whoever was assigned to watch him would surely be a bit bothered by the fact that he was staring straight at them. As an afterthought, he began singing the most annoying song he knew of, low enough that he could plausibly deny singing to an empty room if his interrogators barged in without warning, but loud enough that whatever audio equipment they had planted in the room would be sure to pick it up.

"This is the song that never ends.
Yes it goes on and on my friends!
Some people started singing it not knowing what it was.
They'll continue singing it forever just because..."