━ ENDEARMENT ( byakuya kuchiki. )

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 // Central 46 Massacre

<Esmee's POV>

Momo was in a room in the Squad Ten barracks where she was resting. Toshiro, Rangiku and I were all there, hoping she would wake up soon. Suddenly, a hell butterfly entered the room and landed on Rangiku's finger.

"A hell butterfly?" Rangiku spoke. "The following is an urgent message for all squad Captains and their Lieutenants, a change has been made regarding the execution of Rukia Kuchiki. Be advised, that this convicted prisoner's execution is now set for twenty-nine hours from now. This decision is final. There will be no further changes to the execution date. That is all."

The hell butterfly flew away again, and I turned to my Captain. We walked out of the room.

"Captain," Rangiku called out.

"The execution, and the release of Sogyoku's power, if Gin really is the one behind this, then there is no way I can just stand there and watch his plan go forward. Let's go, Rangiku, Esmee. You know what we have to do. Stop the execution." Toshiro explained.

We began to run down the halls of the Seireitei, trying to get the Central 46 grounds. We began to flash step among the roofs, attempting to get there quicker. We approached the gate and realised there were no guards.

"This place is deserted." Rangiku spoke.

"Well someone's here because it's locked from the inside." Toshiro replied. "You must open this door immediately, it's a matter of upmost importance. My name is Captain Hitsugaya of Squad Ten."

Suddenly, the emergency defence lock came on.

"Somebody's activated the emergency defence lock!" Rangiku spoke.

"Yes. It gets stranger every minute. I wonder what's going on. " Toshiro responded.

Toshiro approached the door.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"What do you think? Just stand back." Toshiro answered.

"But you can't!" Rangiku exclaimed.

Toshiro grabbed his zanpakutō and sliced through the door, making the bars and the door break.

"Captain you've just broken down the sealed door into Central 46, are you insane?" Rangiku asked.

"And the alarm hasn't gone off." Toshiro spoke.

We changed our site into the broken door.

"Breaking down the door should of surely have activated the alarm, but it didn't. And, where are the guards who are always posted here? Something's wrong. Someone must of killed them and then dragged their corpses away. Then once they got inside, they must of resealed the door and deactivated the alarm behind them." I explained.

"Obviously they meant to keep things quiet." Rangiku whispered.

We ran inside, running down a lot of steps as quickly as we could to discover what was going on. We got inside and were startled by the site.

"No way. What is this? What happened here?" Toshiro muttered.

"What? I can't believe what I'm seeing. How could something like this happen?" I asked.

Everybody was slaughtered. Blood was dripping down from the tables, while lifeless bodies lay on the tables or sat in the chairs slouching over the table.

"This blood is completely dry. It's already blackened and even started to crack and flake. This obviously didn't happen yesterday, or the day before that. The question is when?" Toshiro asked.

"The last time Central 46 operated normally was just before Lieutenant Abarai was defeated, after that martial war was declared and the central underground assembly hall was locked down completely. No one was aloud to enter or leave. The defence system was engaged, sealing all entrances and there was no sign of forced entry when we got here. That means they were killed before then. If that's the case, all the judgements and decisions that have come from Central 46 since that time... They were fake. But who could've pulled this off? Captain Ichimaru, even he's not capable of doing this by himself. So there must of been others who helped him." I replied.

"Captain Hitsugaya." A familiar voice called. "I figured I'd find you here."

All of us turned to the source of the voice.

"Izuru... Are you the one responsible for this?" Toshiro questioned.

Izuru just turned and walked away.

"Lieutenant Kira couldn't pull of something like this by himself. So he couldn't of done this." I thought.

"After him Rangiku and Esmee. Come on!" Toshiro ordered.

"Right!" We said at the same time.

We began to run after him, and the sounds of running footsteps were all that could be heard. We flash stepped in certain places so we didn't have to waste time running up stairs. Izuru ran out of the building and so did we. When we reached the roof tiles and began running on them for quite some time, I realised something.

"Lieutenant Hinamori. She is a master at kido, so that forcefield that Toshiro put up would have no affect on her! Also, it's meant to keep enemies out, not in. This could be a decoy. I have to go back!" I thought.

I flash stepped away and hid my spiritual pressure so Toshiro and Rangiku wouldn't come after me, if this wasn't a decoy then we would be doomed if we all left Izuru.

I ran back as fast as I could back to the Central 46 assembly hall and see two shadows going inside from a far away distance. I couldn't flash step any longer, I was practically exhausted, but I couldn't give up now.

I ran inside, trying to be as quiet as I could as well as concealing my spiritual pressure. The sight I saw made rage boil inside of me. I saw three figures. One of them was Gin Ichimaru, the other one was Momo and the last one was Sosuke Aizen. The worst part is... Momo was impaled by Aizen's zanpakutō.