Later that night, everyone in Seireitei was alarmed that the prisoner had escaped. Rukia and Asa had to change their plans, and began running on the rooftop before anyone caught them. "Why do I have to run?!" whined Ichigo, who had his Zanpakutou back and was follow behind.
"We're heading to Hakuto Gate to get us out of Seireitei!" informed Rukia.
They got down from the roof when they approached a giant hole in the wall, and crouched as low as they could while peeping to watch out for the other Shinigami. "If I give them a good explanation, they'll understand." he suggested quietly. "Is doing something like this a good idea?"
"It's not... normally." replied Asa, looking at him. "But don't you think something's wrong?"
"What did I do, anyway?" he asked.
"We don't know either." she replied. At that moment, Tamako emerged from the shadows and approached them while his master dug out a candy. "Did you find anything, Tamako-kun?"
"Apparently, people have been disappearing because a time gap has formed between Soul Society and the Human World." he reported after receiving the candy. "Kurotsuchi-taichou went to do a survey with Zaraki-taichou in charge of the security. They also disappeared, and when they searched the place, they found Ichigo's Combat Pass."
"Now that you mention it." Ichigo glanced down to where his Combat Pass used to be and said, "I lost it when the Cleaner attacked us in the Precipice World."
"Which means that your Combat Pass was presented as evidence for the disappearance of Kurotsuchi-taichou and the others." concluded Asa while sheathing back her Zanpakutou when Tamako returned to it.
"It's just like she said." came a familiar voice, which alarmed the three Shinigami as they quickly got up on their feet to face the source.
"Renji!" called Ichigo with surprise. "Ikkaku!"
"Damn!" cussed Rukia.
"Sorry, Ichigo." said the latter.
"You'll have to return to jail quietly." added the red-haired man.
"You guys too?" muttered Ichigo with uneasiness.
"We have no intention of killing you as long as you quietly turn yourself in." said Ikkaku.
"Though, I don't think that'll happen." said Renji.
"Tell us one thing, Renji." ordered Rukia after taking a few steps forward. "Why is Ichigo a suspect?"
"You heard Asa-san." he replied. "The answers are all there."
"We found that your Combat Pass was there in the Precipice World several days ago at about the very same time that Kurotsuchi-taichou and the others disappeared." elaborated Ikkaku.
"What do you mean "several days ago"?!" demanded Ichigo. "Rukia and I passed through the Precipice World yesterday, shortly after noon. And are you accusing me of eliminating Kurotsuchi and the others? I'm no magician, you know." Something about this issue seemed off, for Asa furrowed her brows with suspicion.
Rukia, too, had such thoughts. "Wait, Ichigo." she called. "I'm beginning to understand."
"Understand what?" he asked.
"The question of why your Combat Pass was presented as evidence even before we left the Human World is definitely a mystery." she said. "But one thing is clear. Whoever is responsible for trying to frame you is the mastermind behind this incident."
"So you're saying that guy is manipulating everyone?" deduced Ichigo questioningly.
"I don't really understand what's going on, but we're not doing this because we want to." said Renji, who grabbed their attention.
"But if your resistance means we can fight again, that's just fine with me!" As soon as Ikkaku held his Zanpakutou, Rukia and Ichigo mirrored his action, followed by Renji. "You haven't lost your reiatsu yet, right? Before your reiatsu is gone, let's have one last fierce fight! Extend, Hozukimaru!" He slammed the hilt of his Zanpakutou into its sheath before it took on a form of a spear with a wax wood shaft and its pommel had a red horsehair tassel.
"Roar, Zabimaru!" said Renji before his Zanpakutou went into its Shikai form.
As soon as they released their Zanpakutou, they began to attack, with Ichigo fighting against Ikkaku and Renji against Rukia. Asa used Flash Step to move away and watched the fight from a tree branch, taking note of the fight. 'Something's not right.' she thought. 'For a moment, I thought Renji and Ikkaku didn't hesitate to attack them. It's like they were serious about it.' At that note, she saw how Renji was able to overpower Rukia by forcing her blade down and pushing her to the side harshly, which surprised her. 'When did he become this powerful? No, when did he and Ikkaku become this serious in fighting them? This isn't some simple mind-control technique. It has to be something more than that.' At the moment where Ichigo released his Bankai, Asa thought it was enough. "Bakudo #73: Tozansho!" As soon as she said that phrase, blue energy extended upward to four points and formed an inverted pyramid, which solidified into a barrier around Ikkaku and Renji, trapping them inside.
"Asa-san!" said Ichigo with surprise.
"Good timing, Asa-chan." praised Yoruichi, who just landed next to the said girl.
"Yoruichi-san." she greeted.
The said woman then turned to look at the two Shinigami below. "Ichigo, Kuchiki, let's go!" she ordered. Together with Asa, they quickly left the scene and followed her to her hideout.
"You saved us, Asa-san, Yoruichi-san." thanked Ichigo.
"We can't stay here long." reminded the latter.
"Yeah." he agreed. "But something's wrong with them."
"I agree." said Rukia worriedly. "The look in Renji's eyes was dead serious about killing us."
"It can't be helped." said Asa. "That wasn't the real Renji or the real Ikkaku."
"I see." said Ichigo. But after a few minutes, when he properly registered what she'd said, he was as shocked as Rukia. "Not real?! What do you mean?!"
"What?" questioned Yoruichi with a mild surprise. "Were you fighting without having realised that?"
"But... their reiatsu was the same as it always was, and..." he trailed off.
"He's right." agreed Rukia. "But they seem to be much more powerful than I recall."
"Is that so?" responded Asa before heaving a sigh, not liking how complex the problem was becoming. "They are very well made, after all."
"Well made?" repeated Rukia, puzzled.
"Shinigami require a vessel for their Konpaku in order to function in the Human World." explained Yoruichi. "In other words, a Gigai. At the same time, bodies that serve as vessels for a Konpaku exist in Soul Society, as well. In other words, the Soul Society's version of a Gigai, so to speak. Is that easier to understand?" Uncrossing her arms, she walked towards the side where she wrote the characters "霊骸" on the wall, prompting Ichigo and Rukia to stand up and read the characters. "A Reigai."
"Rei... gai?" repeated the former, who was unfamiliar with the term.
"The Abarame and Ikkaku you saw earlier are fakes created by placing a near-perfect Konpaku inside near-perfect Reigai." she explained further. "Although fakes, they've been created so that their memories, personalities and thoughts, nearly everything, are almost perfect copies of the real thing. What's more, I have absolutely no idea how many Reigai have currently infiltrated the Gotei 13."
"But, I don't get it." said Rukia while taking a step forward. "Wouldn't those so-called Reigei be unnecessary in Soul Society, where the Konpaku itself becomes the body?"
"That's probably true for ordinary Shinigami." said Asa, whose turn to get their attention. "However, these are those for whom they are a necessity."
"And they are?" questioned Rukia nervously.
"Reigai are indispensable for development of, and experiments on, the Soul Candies in Soul Society." continued Asa, and that was all it took for Rukia to understand where the problem was coming from. "Yes, the Department of Research and Development. It's probably certain that someone in Squad 12 is secretly involved."
Suddenly, Rukia turned around and noticed someone's absence. "Ichigo?" she called, but received no response. "Ichigo! Where did he go?!"
"Probably to Squad 12." answered Yoruichi, who was able to easily tell his intention for leaving. "I'll do something to throw off security. Asa-chan, you rendezvous with Ichigo and Rukia to gather information."
"Okay." responded Asa before leaving with Rukia to get to Ichigo as fast as possible. Luckily for them, they were able catch up and found him running on the rooftop like earlier. Rukia and Asa quickly used Flash Step to get in front of him, halting him in his tracks.
"Ichigo!" called the former. "Where are you going?!"
"I'm storming into Squad 12!" he replied.
"Fool." scolded Asa sternly, which took him by surprise because he'd never seen her acting this way. "You're not going to succeed by storming into the main compound without a plan. We'll secretly sneak into Squad 12 and gather as much information as possible. We'll figure out our next move from there."
"Alright." he responded while rubbing the back of his head nervously. 'Why does she sound like Byakuya when she called me that?' he wondered.
Rukia glanced at her and suppressed a giggle. 'Asa-dono seems to have picked up one of Nii-sama's traits.' she noted.
"North!" came a voice from below suddenly. The three of them looked down to see a group of Shinigami running towards that direction. "They're headed for Kokuryo Gate!"
"Let's go while Yoruichi-san is able to distract them." commanded Asa.
With a nod from the other two, they quickly made their way into the Department of Research and Development, where they could sneak inside with the help of Asa's Zanpakutou that conjured a number of illusions tricking the guards and diverting their attention away from them. Upon arriving at the door that led to the information they needed, Rukia knocked on it a few times before they quickly hid themselves. After a few minutes, one of the department heads exited the room and looked around for the person who knocked on the door.
Once he was away from the door and stood in the middle of the dark corridor, a Kidou spell was cast and bound him with orange chains, sending him crashing into the wall at the end of the corridor. "Sorry about that." muttered Rukia with guilt.
"What happened to secretly sneaking in?" questioned Ichigo, who was watching the scene with a cold sweat on his cheek. "Is it okay to use such an obvious Bakudo?"
"There's no time to debate that." said Asa monotonously as she walked ahead to enter the room, shortly followed by the two before they shut the door behind them. Rukia rushed to the computer and began typing to dig for some information, causing the screens to light up.
"So what now?" asked the Substitute Shinigami.
"Checking the records of of past movement through the Precipice World." answered Rukia. "There should be someone in here that holds a clue to what's happening." She then began opening pictures of the Shinigami who went through the tunnel.
As more windows began to appear on the screen, something caught Ichigo's attention. "Hold on a second." he said.
"What is it?" asked Rukia, who stopped at the picture of Rangiku standing in the tunnel.
"Can you go back a few windows?" he requested. She began closing the windows one by one until it stopped at the picture of a naked girl running away in nothing but a large cloak. She was a short and petite young woman with chin length dark green hair and purplish-red eyes. Asa didn't know who this girl was, but she seemed familiar to Ichigo when he muttered, "That's..."
Rukia followed his gaze and was equally surprised. "So it's that girl?" she questioned.
Suddenly, the screen turned red when the screen zoomed into her face, which caught Asa's attention as she turned around to read out loud what was written on the monitor. "Gone missing in the Human World; later found in Karakura Town." she read. "If she refuses capture, elimination is authorised."
"What?!" exclaimed Ichigo who quickly turned to the monitor and read the sentence once more. "Damn!"
"What now, Ichigo?!" asked Rukia, who looked as worried as him.
"Isn't it obvious?" he said while stepping away from the machine. "Return to the Human World."
"Be serious!" she scolded. "This isn't the Seireitei as we know it! As far as we're concerned, this is the enemy's den. Do you really think you can slip right through the Senkaimon? It's a safe bet that the Reigai have blockaded the Senkaimon."
"Then what do you suggest I do?" he asked.
But even she didn't have any ideas. "Well..." she trailed off.
"Don't worry." came again the familiar voice from behind them before the person walked out of the shadows.
"Yoruichi-san." said Asa. "What happened to the pursuers?"
"Do you think their kind could keep up with me?" she proudly asked. "About now, they're in a fluster because they lost track of me."
"Great work, Yoruichi-san." praised Ichigo.
"But I don't think the enemy will cease guarding the Senkaimon." said Rukia.
Yoruichi crossed her arms over her chest. "Neither do I." she said. "Which is why we'll breakthrough head on."
"Head on?!" repeated Ichigo with disbelief.
"They may be fakes, but didn't you say they possess powers equal to or above the Captains?!" questioned Rukia. "Breaking through will be extremely difficult!"
"We're going to break through because they're fakes." clarified Yoruichi.
"Huh?" responded the two, who were still confused and skeptical about the plan.