Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Soultripping ❯ Soultripping ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, never have never will. My most humble apologizes to all the creators that I am about to transgress.

 

Plot summary: Battlestar Galactica crossovers with anime. See if you can make some guesses as to what anime. No Google peeking! And yes some of this will be AU.

 

Note in the beginning Japanese will be in italics. Hint as people learn the languages this will disappear. This will happen as a side effect of some of the stuff that is going to happen not due to people taking the time to sit and learn it.

 

Soul Tripping

Chapter One Watching and Waiting

Cami Page sat quietly in the corner and watched. Her Grandfather had always said that she had a good eye for the details. She chocked back a sob as she thought of her Grandfather. Cami briefly let her mind drift back over the events of the last few days and hours.

Her Grandfather had brought her to the botanical ship in orbit above Caprica for her birthday, something that she had been looking forward to all month. They were going to spend seven days and six nights on the ship as it slowly cruised around the system. Cami had been excited at the prospect of spending all that time with her Grandfather, even though they were going to have to share a cabin. She had the couch and he had the bed.

The trip had started out well enough, even though she had gotten a little sick on the way up. They had settled into their cabin, which while small was very nice. After a short safety lecture from one of the crew they had been turned loose. They had wandered through the exhibits of all the different animal and plant life of the Twelve Colonies. Cami had excitedly run ahead to each one telling her smiling Grandfather all she had learned in school about each one.

This was when she had first noticed the four strange children that seemed to be hanging around the edges of things. They never seemed to be part of any one group, but the adults never seemed to give them a second glance. It wasn't that they stood out thought Cami to herself, but it was all the little things that just didn't seem quite right that bothered her.

Two of the girls wore sundresses, which while pretty enough didn't look like anything Cami had seen in the stores. The black haired girl wore her hair in two pony tails that stuck out from the side of her head. Her hair was so black it was almost purple and she seemed very meek and mild mannered. The brown haired girl was also quiet and reserved. She looked like she was related to the other black haired girl in the group.

The third girl dressed like a boy. Which was very common on Caprica, but it was what she had with her that made her stand out a little. She carried an odd looking ball. It was covered in five sided black and white shapes and the girl carried it in a net like bag. Of the four in the little group this girl seemed to be one of the ones in charge. This brought Cami to the boy.

To begin with he had been the one to catch her attention. He had the most flaming red hair she had ever seen. While red heads were not unknown in the Twelve Colonies there weren't a lot of them. He seemed to be the other one in charge or at least he seemed to think so. He and the boyish looking dark haired girl were constantly arguing in low tones and jabbing fingers at each other when they thought no one was looking.

Cami had put them from her mind at first, but she had kept seeing them all around the ship. Now she was stuck with them and a rather large group of people in this little used observation lounge. They had been brought here by crewman Billy Carros. Billy was the crewman who had given her section their safety lecture at the start of the trip. He was keeping up a running commentary about what was going on from the information that he was getting through his earpiece.

“Oh, Gods,” Billy said in a tired voice “the Cylons just finished nuking Virgon and now they are moving on to Libris.”

“What about Picon?” one of the four vacationing Colonial Warriors asked in a harsh whisper. He was trying not to alarm the children by whispering, but its harshness was having the opposite effect. Most of the children sat huddled in a small group at the feet of two women. Cami could hear them trying to sooth the children in soft reassuring tones.

“I told you it was gone an hour ago” Billy stated in a flat voice “asking me the same questions over and over again isn't going to change the answers.”

“Sorry, I guess I'm just on edge” the Warrior replied in an equally flat and tired voice.

Cami struggled to remember the Warriors names, she had only met them briefly during the safety lecture and they had talked only to her Grandfather. They had arrived shortly after Billy had brought her here from the infirmary where she had watched her beloved Grandfather die of a massive heart attack.

“It's alright Lt. Cally” said Billy “we are all on edge, but can you please just knock it off.”

Their names came rushing back to Cami all at once: Tom Cally, Ellen Conoy, Dominic Costanza and Diana Delaney. They were all Lieutenants in the Colonial Military who were on leave together. Cami suspected that they were couples but hadn't seen enough of them to say for sure. They had each entered leading one of the four strange children by the hand. They had promptly handed them over to the only two other adults in the room, Mrs. Sesha Kelly and Mrs. Dianna Tucker.

Cami glanced over at them, Mrs. Kelly and Mrs. Tucker were chaperoning a small group of children. Three of the children, Sarah Kelly, Kacey and Nick Tucker were their own, the rest, Margaret Stockwell, Sam Palacios and Aaron Adar were their students. They had come aboard the ship Aerilon when the ship had stopped there. Their school had sent about one hundred students on this trip and they were scattered in small groups all over the ship. The ships Captain had put the ship into immediate lock down as soon as news of the Cylon attack had reached them and while this had stopped a ship wide panic it had separated many people from their loved ones.

They had been stuck in this place for close to a day now, ever since the acting President Mrs. Roslyn had started forming them into an emergency convoy. Cami could look out the window and easily see dozens of ships floating in space nearby.

“Any luck on getting through to those kids?” Lt. Conoy asked abruptly to Mrs. Kelly.

“No, none at all” she answered back “they seem friendly enough, but when I try and talk to them all they do is sprout gibberish back at me. It is a language I think, because they seem to be able to understand each other, I just have no clue what it is.”

“What are they doing? Ellen asked as she watched them from across the room.

“I have no idea. The two girls over there have been drawing some sort of design on the wall for about an hour. I think I have their names figured out.. The other two seem to be playing with some sort of toy. I don't know their's yet.”

“Oh, well that's a step in the right direction. Who are they then?”

“Well the two over there drawing on the walls are Ururu and Yuzu.”

“Ururu and Yuzu? You have to be kidding me. What kind of names are those?”

The two girls had both looked up and over when they had heard their names.

“Ururu-chan are they talking about us again?” Yuzu whispered to her friend. She and Ururu had been trying to keep between the strange adults and Jinta and Karin since they had been brought to this room. They had been somewhat successful since the only one to bother them had been one of the younger women who seemed to be with another group of children.

“Yes” Ururu whispered back “Jinta-kun how soon will you be ready?”

“Any time now, even sooner if you leave us alone. Karin-chan you are going to have to focus your spirit power right here for this to work.” Jinta announced in an authoritative voice. This earned him a dark look from Karin. Jinta glared right back at her. This was all her fault he thought to himself.

Jinta paused in his rather clumsy efforts at getting set up for their first attempt at getting home since their rather unexpected arrival here. Almost a week ago the Kurosaki girls had come into Urahara-san's small store where he and Ururu lived. Ururu had served tea while he had occupied himself watching Yuzu, the picture of feminine beauty in his eyes. Soon there after they had decided to go exploring some of the more exotic sections of the store where they had soon enough found trouble. Trouble in this case being a rather small, unused room covered with symbols and holding a palm sized device.

 

“Hey! What's back here,” exclaimed Karin as she scampered down the dimly lit stairway. She didn't even slow down as she disappeared into the dark. The other two girls looked on with foreboding at the darkness.

“Ururu-chan are we allowed to go down here, it doesn't seem very safe. What will we do?”

“You stay here Yuzu-chan, I will go get Karin-chan she couldn't have gotten very far.”

“Oh, you big babies” said Jinta “I won't let anything happen to you, lets go before Karin finds all the good stuff first!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jinta had to admit to himself that if he hadn't been trying to show off to Yuzu by picking up the device they probably wouldn't be here right now, but Karin didn't have to try and boss him around either. He and Karin had then started to fight over it and while tugging it back and forth had tripped some sort of switch. The next thing they knew they were in a different small room on a strange zoo like spaceship. The week that had followed had been exciting to say the least.

It had been fairly easy to keep a low profile even though they didn't speak the language at all. There had been at least one large group of children their age on the ship. They had simply attached themselves to the ends of small groups as needed to get food and water. Thing had been going rather well all things considered though Jinta to himself.

That had all changed about a day ago when they had been sitting in one of the many little side observatories, they could just make out a planet off in the distance with the naked eye, when they had seen it rocked by a series of bright flashes. Things had changed quickly after that. The people on board the ship had started to panic. Jinta and Karin had tried to get all of them back to the little hide away they had found, but the bulkheads had all closed and the only people who could get around were crew members. They had been gently detained soon after that and escorted by four soldiers to this small room.

Jinta and Karin had not wanted to risk using the device at first hoping that someone would come. As time had gone on though they had started to try and figure things out. The device itself was simple. It had three settings, a switch and a single covered dial. The dial was half moon shaped and was evenly split into a green side and a red side. The dial also had one arrow which was reassuringly well into the green, when they had first arrived it had been well into the red.

The problem had occurred when the device had gotten stuck half way between two settings and had activated. Both had agreed that trying to use the device while the arrow had been pointing to the red was a bad idea. The question puzzling both Karin and him had been if the symbols on the walls had been of much importance.

Ururu had softly provided the answer “It wass a spell to enhance and focus spirit particles.” It had been decided that Ururu would be put in charge of drawing the correct symbols. They had set out to find some chalk or a good enough substitute when all hell had broken loose. Now they were stuck here and here didn't seem like a good place to be for very long. That opinion was reinforced when the crewman with the headphones let out a shocked moan. All of the people began to babble questions at him as he looked blankly at his now removed headset saying the same words over and over again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“They're leaving us here, they're leaving us here…..”

“What the hell do you mean “They're LEAVING US HERE” shouted Lt. Delaney. She jumped at Billy, grabbing him by his shirt front and jerking him up out of his seat. “They can't do that we have ships full of civilians here, they can't leave us for the Cylons to kill!”

“Yes they can and yes they are,” said Lt. Costanza pointing out the window as nearby ship simply flashed out of existence. “Once that Cylon Raider spotted us we were doomed, they have to save as many as they can.”

Suddenly another series of bright flashes lit up the room. That was when the real screaming began.

“I think we are in big trouble,” said Yuzu in a rather scared tone of voice. Jinta, Ururu and Karin all looked to where Yuzu was pointing. The sight that greeted them was that of a monsterous looking pair of starfish.

“Jinta I think now would be a good time to press the button.” Karin said in a rather to calm of voice.

“But, I haven't figured out which one of the settings takes us home yet,” snarled Jinta. Even as he argued he watched as the two strange ships began to sprout puffs of vapor. The adults in the room had gone deathly silent, even the children had begun to grow quiet, “Right, time to push the button.”

As soon as he did things began to happen differently then before. First they didn't suddenly just disappear and then reappear some place new. Instead the symbols the Ururu and Yuzu had drawn on the wall lit up with blue, spirit flames. Next the wall inside of the symbols faded out of sight giving way to a view of a desolate landscape shrouded in twilight.

“Is that what I think it is!” shouted Karin.

“Yes, it is. Lets get going those things look like they're getting closer and I don't think that that is a good thing!” Jinta yelled back over his shoulder as he began to walk through the doorway. Ururu, Yuzu and Karin looked at each other then out the window at the rapidly approaching streaks of vapor and then at the doorway. Without a backward glance all three girls scooted towards the door. Everyone in the room just stared in open mouthed amazement totally forgetting the Cylons for the moment.

Tom was the first to recover his wits. “Everyone get moving” he screamed pointing to the door “we don't have much time. Hurry up if you don't want to die here.”

That was all it took to get everyone rushing pell-mell for this undreamed of source of salvation. They managed to all squeeze through the door without a second to lose. Tom looked back over his shoulder and swore he could see the missiles. The door suddenly began to fade away. Turning around Tom could see the small red haired boy pointing the small device in his hand at the door.

 

Chapter Two: Hueco Mundo, Las Noches and other Garden Spots

Sesha looked about her to make sure all of the children were safe and accounted for. As she quickly counted heads her mind raced with possible explanations as to what had just happened. Everything she thought of just kept getting more and more bizarre. There was no way that what had just happened should have been able to happen. Doorways didn't just appear in normal ship walls surrounded by blue flames.

Headcount done, she began to really look at her new surroundings. She really, really didn't like what she was seeing. It looked like a dessert with a few scraggly looking trees poking up through the sand. It was gloomy, lit by a gray twilight that just didn't seem at all right. She tried to find any sign of the sun, but came up empty. She was so wrapped up in what she saw she never heard Dianna come up behind her.

“Why do I get the sinking feeling that we might have just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire Sesha.”

“I don't know about that yet, but this place does look pretty grim. I don't know who or what those kids are, but we are alive because they brought us here where ever here is.” Sesha wrapped her arms around herself. Turning she made her way back over to the children and gathered Sarah to her side. Nodding in agreement Dianna followed her example. They all looked to the Warriors for guidance.

Tom, Ellen, Dominic, Diana and Billy were all huddled together having a “what do we do now?” meeting. The events of the past few minutes had left everyone rather wild eyed and giddy.

“Where in the name of the Gods are we,” Billy asked in a hushed voice “this place isn't like any place in the colonies. I should know, I mean I have been to every single colony at least half a dozen times in the last five years and this place is just crazy!”

“Easy Billy,” Dominic said as he noticed Billy's voice slowly getting more and more ragged. “We will figure things out. There has got to be a rational explanation for what just happened.”

“I say the first thing we do is get a hold of those kids and start asking some really pointed questions,” Ellen ground out. “Those kids brought us here and they need to take us back.”

“Not the best idea Ellen considering “back” is most likely a glowing ball of radioactive space dust right about now.”

“Shut the hell up Tom you twit, don't you think I know that! I meant back to the Colonies!”

“That wouldn't be such a good idea either, considering all the news we had been getting!” Tom shot back with some heat. “We have to consider the possibility that we might not have anyplace to go back to. So roughing up those kids might not be that smart of a plan, moron.”

“I think everyone needs to shut up right now!” Diana said. “In case you haven't noticed the kids in question are looking just a little less freaked out then we are and our yelling at each other isn't helping our people at all.”

Everyone stopped and looked at both groups of children. The Colonial children were huddled around their parents and teachers looking very pale and frightened. The four strange children were handling things just a bit differently. They were each facing a different direction and actively scanning the distance as if on the look out for something. The two girls facing somewhat towards the group had worried looks on their faces. Not terrified but definitely worried.

“I'm going to go and see if I can't talk to them,” declared Tom “we need to find out what is going on.” With that he started to walk towards the kids. This produced an instant reaction.

“Jinta-kun one of them is coming over here!” squeaked Yuzu “what should we do?”

“Don't do anything I'll handle him!” Jinta said bravely as he moved around in front of the girls, placing himself between them and the strange adults. He reached into his backpack and pulled out his tetsubo, which judging by the shocked look on the face of the oncoming adult was something of a surprise. If that surprises him thought Jinta to himself just wait till they see what Ururu has got hidden away in her bag. Hefting the iron club onto his shoulder he stood waiting for the man to come closer.

“What do you want?”

Tom was stumped, the kid was talking to him but he couldn't make head or tails of what was being said. A strange feeling of understanding was rolling around in the back of his mind, almost like his brain knew what was being said, but just hadn't gotten the message out yet. Well first things first Tom thought. Taking his finger and pointing to himself he said “Tom” in a slow and clear voice.

Jinta looked at him for a moment and then shrugging his shoulders pointed to his own chest and said “Jinta.”

Well that's a start thought Tom as the young boy looked at him. Tom took the time to study the boy closely for the first time. He looked much like any other young boy Tom had ever met. It wasn't until you reached his eyes that things changed. His eyes looked wise beyond their years.

Now, to find out where in the Universe we are or if we're even are in our own Universe, Tom thought to himself. He slowly moved his arms around vaguely pointing to everything in general and in his best puzzled voice ask “Where?”

The boy just looked at him for a few moments without saying anything. Then turning to his companions he began to speak in a rather annoyed voice to his friends.

“Does anybody know what the hell this idiot wants?”

“Maybe he wants to know our names,” said Yuzu helpfully.

“They could want to know why they are here,” suggested Ururu as she looked out into the distance. She was well aware of the dangers of becoming distracted in Hueco Mundo. Even after the defeat of Aizen it was still a very dangerous place. For right now they were safe enough, but the longer they stayed here the more likely they were to attract the attention of some wandering Hollow. Thankfully most of the Espada were dead and their forces scattered, they wouldn't stand a chance against anything larger then a Hollow.

“I think you're on the right track Ururu-chan,” Karin piped up “but I think they want to know where “here” is first.” She stepped up to the strange man and waved her arms about and said “Hueco Mundo,” in a clear tone so that there would be no mistake.

“Hey, ask them what this place is,” yelled Diana Delaney from the top of one of the many sand dunes surrounding them. While everyone had been watching the first real attempts at communication she had gone exploring on he own.

She had climbed to the top of the nearest dune in order to get a good look around. At first glance all she could see was mile upon mile of more dunes, broken only by the occasional leafless tree. When she turned around however it was a whole new triad game. Off in the distance was easily the largest man made structure she had ever seen in her life. Being a Viper pilot had given her the ability to judge size over long distances.

“What do you see,” yelled Tom back at her.

“The biggest fraking building I have ever seen in my entire fraking life! That's what I see.” This simple statement started a mad dash to the top of the dune by all of the Colonials with the exception of Tom. Tom stayed and watched the reaction of the four kids. The looks on their faces had gone from worried and watchful to downright terrified. The girl Yuzu was shaking her head back and forth while giving a silent scream. The others were not so quiet.

“Get the hell down you idiots,” screamed Karin “you'll be seen!”

Ururu took more direct action, using shunpo she raced to the top of the dune and began to bodily push people backwards. The children seeing this tiny girl throw the adults around stopped dead in their tracks half way up.

Before Tom's shocked eyes the tiny dark haired girl re appeared right where she had left just seconds before. She had moved so fast his mind was having trouble taking it all in.

“How did she do that,” was all he could stutter at the boy. Jinta just looked at him, pointed in the direction of the building and replied “Las Noches” and drew his finger across his throat in a well understood gesture.

“Ok then, is anyone else totally freaked out by the fact that that girl moved like that,” asked Ellen in awe.

“That and the fact that she just kind of picked me up and tossed me right into Billy,” said Dominic.

All further discussion on the subject was interrupted by a strange wailing noise coming from the direction of the building. As soon as the sound began Karin, Jinta, Yuzu and Ururu took to their heels in the opposite direction. Yuzu had stopped long enough to grab Sesha's hand and tug her into movement while yelling at her and pointing towards the noise.

“Run, we have to hide, a Hollow is coming!”

The pure panic in her voice and the sight of the others running away was enough to the two teachers in motion. Gathering up their charges they began to follow the head long flight from the unseen source of the sound.

Tom didn't hesitate any longer. “Let's go people I think we don't want to meet what ever it is that makes that kind of racket.”

The wailing kept getting closer and closer. No matter how hard they ran they all began to realize that they weren't going to get away. Tom could now feel a series of vibrations that his mind identified as oncoming footsteps.

Tom watched as Jinta and Ururu exchanged glances and without a word between them they began to drop back towards the back of the group placing themselves between whatever was coming and the rest of the children. Jinta had pulled out the iron club that he had out earlier. Ururu set her backpack down and was pulling something out of it. It came out slowly and just kept coming out. `What the hell,' Tom thought to himself, `that thing is bigger than the bag it was in!' The object in question was about five and a half feet long and box like. It looked to be wrapped in bandages with one end open. The open end looked to have about six barrel looking ports evenly spaced in rows of two. `She has a rocket launcher?' Tom's mind just stopped questioning things at that point.

Everyone had stopped running by this time and just sat in a huddle at the bottom of a small pile of rocks that were a little taller then they were. It was the only cover that they could find that was worthy of the name. The four Warriors pulled out their personal side arms and chambered a round. The wailing had reached such a pitch that it was hard to hear. Dianna Tucker and Sesha had pulled the children including Yuzu into a tight huddle with their backs against the rocks. Karin had placed herself just in front of them but not as far out as the Warriors. She had placed her black and white ball on the ground in front of her and put her foot on it.

“What are those two kids trying to do, get themselves killed,” shouted Ellen.

Tom looked back around to see Ururu and Jinta in front of the line of Warriors.

“Ellen, just relax these kids seem to know more about this then we do, and for some reason I don't think those two are as helpless as we think.”

“Helpless, helpless that chicks got a frakin rocket launcher and they're calling her helpless. Helpless my butt,” laughed Dominic.

Sesha looked down into the pile of children and saw Sarah, Cami, Margaret, Kacey and Yuzu all tightly holding on to one another for comfort. The crying had stopped most likely because they were all simply too exhausted from the run to have the energy to cry. Now they just stared into the distance with glassy, shell shocked eyes awaiting the next mind numbing trauma. They didn't have long to wait.

The Hollow was probably the biggest, ugliest thing that he had ever seen in his entire life. It was easily fifteen feet tall and bipedal. Its two arms were heavily muscled and reached down to the ground. The Hollow's face was some sort of bone like mass with long fangs. As it lumbered toward them it almost seemed to be talking to them, occasionally its' long tongue would snake out and lick at the corners of its' mouth.

Tom rechecked his sidearm to make sure his safety was off and that he had chambered a round. He didn't like to think about how ineffective his puny little gun was going to be against that thing, but he was going to die trying to defend his people.

“I have now officially stopped being shocked,” commented Ellen in a tired almost resigned voice. It was like she had given up all hope of living through the next few minutes. “What in the hell are we going to do against that thing?”

“We're going to kill it,” screamed Diana. With a deep throated yell she leaped forward firing her pistol at the monster. She emptied half her clip before she even got close, remarkably she did manage to hit it several time. Which shouldn't have been too surprising thought Tom, considering how damn big the thing was. The high velocity rounds tore into the things flesh without doing any major damage.

The Hollow reacted instantly. It leaped forward low and fast, sweeping its' clawed hands around the helpless Diana. It lifted her up in the air, her feet kicking wildly as it brought her towards its mouth. Her screams ended abruptly as the Hollow bit her in half, blood sprayed out along the sides of its face.

“Get out of the way you idiots!”

Tom whipped his head around to the side. He could see Jinta waving his arm in a frantic motion. Tom realized that they were going to be useless against this thing, maybe it would be better to let these guys handle this thing even though they were mere children. Going against his better instincts Tom shouted, “Get back everybody, we're just in the fraking way!”

Ellen and Dominic fell back slowly keeping themselves between the rest of the children and the monster. The Hollow had continued devouring Diana's remains all the while mumbling to its self. And there was no doubt about it, the thing was most definitely talking to its self.

Hearing an earsplitting whooshing noise, Tom turned his head just enough to catch a glimpse of Ururu firing her rocket launcher. The rockets moved forward in a cloud of smoke, diverging and converging in a random overlapping pattern as they headed for the Hollow. They slammed into it and exploded on contact. It disappeared in a cloud of smoke and fire. The monster staggered forward out of the haze, clearly injured but still on its feet. Suddenly Jinta leaped into the air and started to run at the Hollow waving his iron club over his head.

“I don't know how much more of this I can take, this just isn't real. It can't be real. Real people do not run through the air like that, they just don't.” Ellen sounded almost childish in away thought Tom. She is going off the deep end. Just too many unbelievable things had happened for her to take in.

He forced his eyes back to watch Jinta. Jinta moved in a graceful, slow motion kind of way. Still stunned from Ururu's attack the Hollow just stared at Jinta unable to defend itself. As Jinta came closer to the Hollow he brought his tetsubo down in a crushing overhead blow that cracked the skull of the Hollow down the middle. Within seconds the Hollow had disappeared into a pile of windblown dust.

Jinta stood calmly about ten feet in the air with his tetsubo casually resting on his shoulder. He looked down at the three shocked faces looking back up at him.” What,” he asked “haven't you guys ever seen somebody shonen jump before?” He waited for some sort of reply.

“Is it just me or did anybody else start understanding some of what he just said?” asked Dominic.

“I think I caught a few words,” replied Tom. “I'm not sure but I think I heard him say `you guys' and `jump'.”

“I heard that to.” Ellen added.

“You guys are starting to make some sense,” stated a small girl's voice from behind them. They spun around to see Karin slowly walking the few steps that separated them.

 

Chapter Three: Who are you and where the hell are we?

“What the hell is going on? Why can we understand you all of a sudden?” Tom and Ellen asked over each other. Dominic just kept looking at the small girl in front of him.

“I'm not sure but it must have something to do with the properties of the spirit particles here in Hueco Mundo,” replied Karin.

“Is that what this place is called?” Dominic asked, finally shacking himself out of his daze. “What is this place and what was that thing, that Hollow. And how do I know it was a called a Hollow?”

“That is one of the side effects of traveling from one spirit plane to another,” answered Ururu as she to walked over to the group. “A traveler gains knowledge of his environment over the course of a few days. We would have started to understand you when we were back on the ship before we had to leave. Your understanding of us most likely comes from your close contact with us.”

“Alright I'll accept that, I mean at this point I'm willing to believe just about anything. Could you stop hovering there, please it really, really freaks me the frak out!” Tom said to Jinta. Turning back to Ururu he asked,” are we going to have to fight more of those things?”

“I don't know, many Hollows were killed in the war against Soul Society, but many got away from the final battle and their numbers could be growing. We should be able to handle most of the Hollows that are out here, we just don't want to get anywhere close to Las Noches.”

“Las Noches, is that the big building that we saw earlier?”

“Yes, it was Aizen's fortress, but thankfully he and his Lieutenant Tosen were killed however Ichimaru's body was never found and he may have come back here.”

“Well then where do we go from here, I hope this isn't considered the garden spot of this neighborhood?”

Karin, Ururu and Jinta all laughed at Tom,” No, no we just need to wait for the device to finish charging and we will leave.” Jinta answered, joining the group at last after coming down from his midair perch. “We didn't use as much energy this time around and it is almost fully charged. I say just a day or so and we can head for home.”

“That brings me to the question of how you kids got on the ship in the first place,” as soon as the words were out of his mouth Tom regretted them. Karin and Jinta instantly fell into bickering with each other.

Shacking her finger in Jinta's face Karin yelled “This is all your fault you blockhead!”

“Is not, you were the one who went down stairs and opened that door!” came the quick reply.

“We'll I didn't start picking things up and shacking them now did I?” By this time both were nose to nose and looked about ready to hit each other. Tom glanced at Ururu and Yuzu to see if they were going to step in to stop it. Both girls stood there nervously wringing their hands and only making little attempts to get a word in edgewise. Clearly Tom thought he was going to have to do something, however before he could say a word the older teacher Mrs. Tucker took control of things.

“That is enough children, you stop that right now!”

Karin and Jinta stopped yelling and looked at Mrs. Tucker. Hanging their heads both turned towards her and put their hands behind their backs. They were the perfect picture of little children who had been caught doing something they shouldn't have. Which Tom thought might be a big part of this mess.

“Now I want you to tell me what happened and I don't want to here any excuse or whose fault it was, just tell me what happened.”

After taking just a few seconds to look at each other, Karin and Jinta reached some sort of agreement and Karin started to speak.

“Yuzu and I were at home and we asked my brother Ichigo if we could go and play with Ururu. When we got there we started to explore Mr Urahara's shop.”

“We live with Mr. Urahara,” added Ururu helpfully.

“Thank you dear,” said Dianna directing her attention back at Karin she said “please continue.”

“I found this doorway and it wasn't locked or anything so I went in. Then Jinta picked up the device off the bench, it didn't look important, everything was all dusty. I wanted to look at it so I grabbed it, but Jinta wouldn't let it go. We started pulling on it and then it went off.”

“Is that when you ended up on the ship?”

“Yes, we didn't know what to do so we just waited for someone to come get us.”

Tom listened carefully to what was being said, he was able to make some good guesses as to what might be going on right now. Whoever this Mr. Urahara was he must have noticed the children missing by now and had started some sort of search for them. The children sounded pretty confident that they weren't just going to be abandoned. The troubling aspect of this was that no help had arrived however in the plus column the kids seemed to know where they were at now in a general sort of way. Tom decided to take the plunge.

“Do you know how to get us back to our home?”

“No,” answered Jinta and Karin at the same time Yuzu and Ururu both just shook their heads.

“Ok, well we know we don't want to stay here any longer then we have to so the next logical step is to head for your home. We can get there right?”

“Yeah, I know which setting will take us back, but we can't use it until it's charged up.” Jinta stood with his arms folded across his chest.

“Good, we will just find a place to lay low until we can leave. This place looks just as good as any and is defensible. Let's get moving people we have a little bit of a wait ahead of us.”

With that Dominic and Ellen sprung into action, having the children gather up nearby rocks they began to build a small wind break. Sesha and several of the other children started to gather together any kind of food or candy that was hidden in someone's pocket in preparation for an evening meal.

“Are we going to be alright?” Dianna asked Tom.

“I don't know, I think we just have to get through this next few hours and things will start looking a lot better. We just have to have faith in the Gods”

“I hope your right.”

 

Chapter four: Of big brothers coming to the rescue.

 

Ichigo marched across the yard of Urahara's house. This new home was very different from the quiet, drab little shop that he had lived in when Ichigo had first met him. Back then he had been keeping a low profile that had all changed. His new home just outside of Konoha was more in line with a traditional Japanese castle. Entering into the sprawling building he headed straight for the work area where he could see a group of people clustered around a bank of machines.

“Any luck,” he asked Rukia in a tired voice. He hadn't been able to sleep well for the last days, never for more then a few, restless hours at a time. He had just come from home where he had put his exhausted father Isshin to bed.

“No, nothing yet, we won't be able to track them until they turn the thing on and use it again. Did you find out anything?”

“No the Hokage has the all the available ninjas out looking in every crook and cranny of the fortress. If they are still onboard this station the ANBU will find them.”

“What did the RDF have to say?”

“Admiral Gloval assured me that no enemy ships have entered this section of space within the last ten days. So, that rules out kidnapping by any Invid forces. I went to Soul Society and was assured by General Shigekuni that nothing had exited through the docking bays without being completely searched first. I don't know what else we can do.”

The despair and helplessness in Ichigo's voice was almost too much for Rukia to bear. Ichigo and the entire Kurosaki family had become dear to her heart over the years that she had known them, ever since that fateful night fifteen years ago when she had first come crashing into Ichigo's bedroom on a mission for Soul Society.

Much had happened in those fifteen years, not the least of which was her marriage to Ichigo. Rukia let her mind drift back through time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first of several major events had been the almost simultaneous attacks on Soul Society and Earth. Earth had been devastated by the Zentraedi led by Supreme Comamander Dolza. At the same time Soul Society had attacked by forces led by the renegade ex shinigami captain Aizen.

Moving the remaining populations of Earth and Soul Society to this super dimensional fortress had been a major undertaking. It had stretched the remaining resources of the two peoples almost to the breaking point, but they had done it.

The people had begun to transform the space station from its pure military function to a more home like and peaceful place. It hadn't been easy to seal off many of the huge dry docks that had been set aside for repairing battle damaged Zentraedi warships and turn them into earth like habitats. They had even managed to completely terra form the entire interior of the station, looking up and seeing land or even a small sea had taken some getting used to she thought with a laugh. There was now more then enough room for the present population and for many, many generations to come.

They were going to need all that room. One of the most interesting side effects of mixing the two different dimensions had been the surprising slow down of the aging process. This slowdown had not been matched by a slow down in the fertility rate. Rukia patted her own swollen belly, she had heard one women complain that all it took to get pregnant anymore was to just pickup a pair of men's underwear.

There were now four major cities located at four of the six main points of the station. The two of the four, Macross and Karakura Town were from earth. Macross had survived the Zentraedi attack by having been inside of the original Super Dimensional Fortress. Karakura Town had survived due to the efforts of Urahara Kisuke. For all outward appearances Urahara had been a simple shop owner, reality however was very different. Urahara was the exiled former head of Soul Society's.

After the first attack on Earth by the Zentraedi, Urahara had quietly bought small parcels of land at strategic points around the outskirts of the city. Together with several other exiled Shinigami he had built a defensive shield barrier to protect the city. While this had prevented the city's destruction and had saved many people it had blown his cover. Urahara had then joined forces with Dr. Emil Lang Earth's Robotech and Protoculture expert. Together they had been instrumental in securing the abandoned Zentraedi space station and rebuilding both cities in their present locations, Macross at the “top” of the inner station and Karakura Town on one side.

It was at this time that Aizen had launched his long awaited attack on Soul Society. His army of Hollows commanded by his Arrancar and elite Espadas had driven Soul Society's defenders into the inner defensive works and had slaughtered much of the population outside of the walls. In an effort to save Soul Society and defeat Aizen at the same time Urahara and Captain Mayuri of the 12th Division had transported Soul Society to the Super Dimensional Fortress. The resulting energy backlash had surged through Aizen's army devastating it. They had then placed Soul Society at the “bottom” of the inner part of the station.

Leaving Earth behind to recover from the attack the new SDF had set out to basically find a quiet corner of the universe to sit in until the time was right to come back and rebuild. With a steady supply of Protoculture from Zor's newly discovered hidden matrix they had set out. This peaceful plan was not to be. Shortly after leaving Earth they had been swept up into a four sided war between themselves, the self styled Robotech Masters, and two factions of the Invid. Since no one side had an advantage the war had been dragging on for sometime.

They had gained their most recent arrivals ten years ago. These were the people of the Hidden Village of the Leaf or Konoha. While under an overwhelming attack by the forces of Orochimaru the fifth Hokage Tsunade contacted Urahara, who had been a friend of her teacher the Third Hokage in an effort to enlist his help. Not wanting to lead hostile forces back to them and being stretched rather thin it had been decided to simply transport the entire city to the SDF.

It was at this point that citizens of the SDF had begun calling their new home Urahara's Ark. The joke making its rounds said something along the lines of `Being attacked by the forces of EVIL? Are you all going to DIE? Don't worry, just call the SDF hotline. We'll leave a light on for you.'

The Ninjas of the Konoha had filled out the SDF's new defense forces very nicely. The old Robotech forces had taken over space combat and patrol duties while the Shinigami had taken over station security and had jurisdiction over any ground assaults. With the addition of the Ninjas they had greatly enhanced planet side scouting abilities and enhanced their station side policing capability.

It was this new addition that was currently being used to try and track down the missing children.

 

“We've got something,” yelled Ran'Toe from her station at one of the tracking computers “an unauthorized gating activation in grid 228-B-456 going into Hueco Mundo.”

“Are we sure it is them,” asked Urahara “the device is only supposed to travel between the three main dimensions. How did it get so far over in that area of space?”

“I don't know, but the energy signature matches up exactly with that of your records. And it is going into Hueco Mundo.”

“How soon can we get there is all I want to know Urahara-sama,” shouted Ichigo.

“I'll start the preparation at once Ichigo, get that team of Ninjas ready. We will have you there within the hour.”

True to his word an hour later Urahara had the last calculation done and the gate to Hueco Mundo open. Ichigo approached with four Ninjas following closely behind him in a tight formation. Rukia easily identified them as team leader Shikamaru followed by Kiba with his dog Akamaru by his side and trailed lastly by Naruto and his wife and team medic Hinata.

Turning from his work to address the group Urahara looked his typical serious self underneath his stripped green and white hat.

“This is the first time in close to fifteen years that we have sent anyone into Hueco Mundo. We don't know what is there or what has been happening so be careful. Get in and get the kids and then get out as fast as you can.” Urahara handed Ichigo a small flashing tube. “Take this with you it will allow you to contact us when you have found them and for us to move the gate entrance. Hopefully that will not be necessary, but we can't take it for granted that they will not have moved from their entrance point.”

“Thank you Urahara sama.” Turning to the ninjas Ichigo simply said “Let's go.”

“Right behind you!” shouted an enthusiastic Naruto pumping his fist in the air. Shikamaru and Kiba just shook their heads Hinata sighed.

 

Chapter Five: Rescue and new problems

Stepping through the gate brought back a rush of memories to Ichigo. This place hasn't changed much since the last time I was here. It is the same old stinking sand as before.

“Ichigo where do we start?” asked Shikamaru. He motioned for the rest of the team to spread out in a defensive pattern.

Ichigo cast his senses out trying to pick up a trace of his sisters' spirit power. “There,” Ichigo said pointing of to the left “they went that way.”

Springing into action the group headed off at a rapid pace using shunpo. As they drew closer to the children's location Akamaru began to growl deeply.

“Ichigo Akamaru is sensing the presence of others.” Kiba stated from the side.

“We will hide our approach then and move in slowly to see what is going on.”

Coming to stop several dunes away from where they had sensed the missing children Ichigo sent Kiba and Naruto ahead to scout out what was going on. Gone were the days when Ichigo would have blindly charged in not knowing what the situation was.

Naruto and Kiba were back in just a few minutes. Kiba began to give their report.

“They are not alone. They are with a group of strange people, thirteen in total, mostly women and children. They don't seem to be in any trouble, but they just had a big fight a little while ago and at least one person looks to have been killed.”

“Well then let's go see if we can't get my sisters and everyone home safe and sound and find out what is going on.” With that Ichigo stood up and pulled his Zanpakuto off of his back. “We will gather at the top of the rocks just above them. That will give us control of the situation. I don't want to hurt anyone, but if there is trouble I want us to be able to handle it.” Jumping to their feet everyone moved with their shunpo getting by the astounded guards before they could so much as shout an alarm.

“Alright I want to know who you people are and why you have my friends and family,” Ichigo announced in his most menacing voice. Judging by the looks on everyone's faces all that work he had done in front of the mirror hadn't gone to waste. The mood was quickly ruined when his two sisters and Ururu and Jinta all yelled “Ichigo!” at the tops of their voices and rushed him. In an effort to grab them all he lost his footing and fell flat on his face to the great amusement of onlookers.

After his initial shock at the sudden appearance of a new group of dangerous looking people in their midst, one of whom was dressed in a block robe like outfit and sandals with the biggest looking sword he had ever seen, Tom turned to Ellen and said “I think we have just been rescued.”

Cami closed her eyes as she heard Lt. Cally say those words to Lt. Conoy. She wrapped her arms around herself and looked at her rescuers. They seemed very strange to her eyes. The one called Ichigo had picked himself up off the ground and was hugging Yuzu and Karin to him and telling them that everything was going to be alright even as they talked rings around him. The children were telling him about everything that had happened in such a wild manner that they were only confusing him. Finally he stood up and motioned to them to be quiet. He looked at her friends then put his hand to his chin in deep thought.

“Well it seems my sisters think you guys could use some help.”

Tom stepped forward “Yes, we would be grateful for any help you could give us for getting out of this place and back to our people in the Twelve Colonies.”

“Well, I we can get you out of here, but as far as getting you back to the Twelve Colonies I've never heard of them. How about you guys?”

The rest of his team looked at one another and shook their heads.

“How could you have never heard of the Twelve Colonies? All humans are from the Twelve Colonies,” Ellen asked in a stunned voice.

“Well this isn't the time nor the place to get bogged down in twenty questions. Shikamaru get on the horn and tell them to get the gate ready and to prepare for company, we have so guests coming.”

Motioning to Naruto and Kiba to jump off the rocks and place two gate rods over to one side, Shikamaru activated the communication device and established contact with SDF. Within moments the outlines of the gate home began to form.

Tom watched with relief as the gate cleared and he could see people moving in the distance.

“What are we going to do Tom?” Ellen asked “These people are so different from us, is it going to be safe going with them?”

“I don't know Ellen, but anywhere has got to be better than here. Get everyone ready to move, like Ichigo just said this isn't the time nor the place for long chats about who came from where.”

In a matter of a few moments they had gathered the children together and began to move through the gate. I must be getting used to this, Tom thought to himself I'm not even bothered by this. The trip was rather anti climactic this time around, absolutely amazing what a lack of explosions and the threat of imminent death does for a persons state of mind.

They exited the gate into a large and with the exception of what looked like a small work area empty room. Gathered about the small island of computers was a handful of people dressed either in black robe like outfits or tunics underneath vests and short pants. They seemed to be split equally among men and women. There also seemed to be at least one younger looking woman who was quite pregnant. That is what put Tom's mind the most at ease. He couldn't see a pregnant lady being involved in a potential mass murder, it just didn't seem right.

As soon as they had come through the gat Ururu had thrown herself at an older looking man who was wearing a short billowy type shirt with short pants and a funny looking green and white stripped hat. He had gathered her into his arms and gently patted her back as she cried in his arms. Jinta had also approached but much more slowly and in obvious distress. The man had simply looked at him.

“I'm sorry,” Jinta said in the meekest voice Tom had heard him use in the short time he had known him.

Without a word the man opened his arm from Ururu's back. Jinta flung himself in to the shared embrace with relief.

“Well it looks like all has been forgiven for now,” Mrs. Tuckers said from his elbow.

“Yes, hopefully this will be a sign of good things for us as well.”

Yuzu and Karin seemed to be having a family reunion as well with the pregnant woman, Ichigo and another older looking man. As the Colonials looked on Ichigo hustled the two girls off. As he turned back he saw the man with the green and white hat place Ururu into the powerful arms of a large, mustached man who with Jinta in tow also left the room.

“Well, well what are we going to do with you,” said the older man as he stood up. “We can't just send you back since we don't know exactly where that is and from what the children have been telling me you might not have any place to go back to. By the way in case you haven't guessed or they forgot to tell you I'm Mr. Urahara welcome to my home.”

“My name is Lt. Tom Cally and these are Lt. Ellen Conoy and Lt. Dominic Costanza,” Tom motioned behind him. Turning he pointed over to the rest of the group “Over there are Crewman Billy Carro, Mrs. Dianna Tucker her children Kacey and Nick, Mrs. Sesha Kelly and her daughter Sarah. The rest of the children's parents are back in the colonies they are Margaret Stockwell, Sam Palacious, Aaron Adar and Cami Page.”

“Welcome, welcome. You all must be worn out we will see about getting you something to eat and clean clothes and maybe even a bath.”

This statement was greeted with signs of relief by the rest of the group. With a wave of the small handheld fan that he was carrying one of the people standing by the computers came walking over.

“Yes, Urahara sama,” the beautiful girl with orange brown hair said.

“Inoue I want you to take these people and get them cleaned up and fed as soon as possible.”

“I know just the recipe…”

“No! No take them to the bathhouse first we will just have something brought in no need for you to go to the trouble of cooking anything.” said Urahara in a slightly desperate voice. Tom decided then and there to try and avoid any cooking done by Inoue.

As Inoue led everyone else off Urahara held Tom and Ellen back.

“We need to talk about what is going on and what is going to happen.”

“My thoughts exactly Mr. Urahara, while Ellen and I aren't ambassadors we can promise you that our Government will be very grateful for any help that you can give us.”

“That leads us to a very interesting question Lt. Who is your government?”

“Well we have the Council of Twelve which is made up of one representative from each of the Twelve Colonies of Man. It is headed by a President. Each Colony is in charge of its' local affairs, but we all work together for defense and in other major areas like education and medicine.”

“You talk about defense and you look like you are in the military, do the Twelve Colonies have many enemies?”

Tom thought that a strange question, what did he mean by enemies?

“Well we have been at war with the Cylons for about forty years. We signed a truce with them, but it looks like that was broken and they attacked us.”

“Who are the Cylons?”

“The Cylons are a race of machines created by man, who rebelled and they have a plan.”

“Oh, they have a plan?”

“Yes, the complete destruction of the human race.”

“Why, am I not surprised by that,” Urahara sighed from behind his fan. Tapping it slowly against his face deep in thought he contemplated what he should do next.

His first step would be to inform the SDF council as to his new guests. Next he would suggest a scouting mission to these Twelve Colonies of Man. That name alone had all sorts of interesting connotations. He would send one of his own personal scout ships to see what was going on. They needed information on these Cylons and they needed it fast. Just what they needed another enemy bent on wiping out humanity for little or no reason.

“Are you going to help us?” asked Ellen breaking his train of thought.

“I will do everything in my power to help you if I can,” he assured her “but one can't simply rush into these kinds of things.”

“But our people need help now, anything could be happening!” she shouted.

“That's right,” Urahara said “anything could be happening, for all we know you are the last people left alive from the Twelve Colonies. We need to prepare and move slowly to see what is happening.”

“He is right Ellen. We need to think about what is the best way to help. It might be that these people will be able to help us defeat the Cylons, but it also might be that these people will help us rescue any survivors and help us start a new home.”

With that final statement the full impact of what had happened to them finally began to sink in. Ellen began to cry softly with her face in her hands. Tom tried to comfort her but could do little other than gently pat her on the back.

“I think it would be best if we rejoined everyone and got you fed and cleaned up.”

“Yes, that would be best,” Tom agreed.

The three slowly moved towards the doorway that everyone had gone through just a little while ago. Tom felt his stomach rumble. He had not eaten anything in over two days. He wondered how the children were holding up.

 

Chapter Six: Of bathhouses and chopsticks

Cami followed along with everyone else as the girl named Inoue headed for a doorway. In seconds they were outside in sunshine and warmth, Cami breathed in the fresh air.

“By the Gods!” gasped Sesha.

Cami frantically looked around to see what had so surprised Mrs. Kelly. She soon saw that she was pointing up. Cami let out her own little gasp as her gaze slid up Sesha's arm and she finally saw what had caused her outburst. Gazing up through the puffy white clouds overhead Cami saw lakes, streams and fields even off to one side a small town. Not that those things were all that strange she thought, it was just that one didn't expect them to be hanging upside down above their heads. She fully understood Mrs. Kelly's reaction. It just wasn't something one saw everyday.

The children handled the situation much better than the adults all things considered. They peppered Inoue with one question after another hardly giving her a chance to answer. With a musical sounding laugh Inoue begged them to slow down.

“One at a time, one at a time, I will answer all your questions in a moment. First things first what do you want first baths or food?”

“Food!” Came the thundering reply from the children

“Alright then off we go.” And with that Inoue headed for a long, wooden building surrounded by an open walkway. As they approached the building Cami could smell the odor of cooking food. It didn't smell bad just very different from what she was used to.

Inoue stopped outside on the steps leading up to the low walkway and sat down. Bending over she quickly took of her sandals and placed them on a shelf in a rather odd looking bookcase like piece of furniture. Cami stood there as did everyone else, Inoue quickly noticed the problem.

“It is customary to remove ones shoes when entering a private home or building and while this is not exactly private it is only used by Mr. Urahara's guests. You place your shoes in one of the shelves and claim them when you leave.”

As she finished speaking she climbed the steps and knelt before what looked to be a sliding door. Inoue knocked smartly on the door frame not on the door itself Cami noticed. Within a few moments the door was opened by a girl who was also kneeling.

“Good morning Inoue-san.” Said the dark haired girl. “How can I help you.”

“These are Urahara sama's guests and they have not eaten in at least two days. Would you have something that we could give them?”

“Of course, we will start right away. How awful no food for two days. What part of the station are they from? I haven't heard of any accidents did I miss something?”

“No, they aren't from the station they just recently arrived.”

“Well come in, come in. Listen to me blathering on and on. Inoue san you know the way to the main hall I will get things started.”

As she left Cami noticed that she was wearing a different style of clothing then Inoue. It was more like a bathrobe then Inoue's outfit, but it had a wide belt wrapped around the waist where as Inoue's had a much narrower belt more like a rope or cord. This belt also formed a bow in the back. On Inoue's outfit the belt had two long cords hung down in front just off centered.

They were lead inside. As she passed through the doorway Cami saw that the walls were made of what looked like paper. They were soon in a large room with a low, long table running down the middle. The table had many small mats around it and what looked like place settings.

“Please have a seat and I will be right back.” Inoue told them as she pulled aside another sliding door and disappeared through it, closing it behind her.

“What, don't these people believe in chairs?” said Margaret “How do they expect us to sit?”

“I think we are supposed to kneel or sit cross legged dear,” said Mrs. Tucker. “Now I know this is all very strange, but we are these people's guests and we are the strangers here so we must do our best to get along. So mind your manners is that clear.”

Everyone answered with a “Yes Mrs. Tucker.” Soon everyone had gotten as comfortable as they could without chairs. Cami heard the door opening. It had a distinctive sound to it, since it had no hinges it didn't squeak so much as grind. In walked a different black haired girl, this one had her hair done up in a bun.

“Mrs. Tucker san?” the girl said looking questioningly at the two women in the room.

“That would be me dear,” said Mrs. Tucker stepping forward.

“Ah,” said the girl turning and bowing towards her, “Inoue san wishes me to tell you that she is having the bathhouse prepared and clean clothes made ready. I am here to take measurements for sizes. I would like to begin as soon as possible if that is alright with you.”

“Of course, of course.”

“Thank you.”

“Tell me will Inoue be coming back to eat with us?”

“Yes as far as I know.” Replied the girl as she made her way around the room with a small string and a notebook in which she was busily scribbling down notes. In a few moments she was gone.

Just as Cami was getting ready to say something the door at the opposite end of the room slid open and in filed a small army of girls carrying trays of bowls and steaming food. Within a few moments a bowl of steaming noodles and meat was placed in front of her. It smelled great and her stomach let out a rumble. Just before she left, the girl who had served her laid down two small wooden sticks next to the bowl. As fast as they had appeared the girls were gone.

“How are we supposed to eat? With our fingers? Asked Nick.

“Hey that could be fun,” shouted Aaron.

“This stuff is great,” came a muffled announcement from Sam who had already started to use his fingers.

“I think we are supposed to use these sticks,” Cami said.”I mean they put them down right next to the bowls like they were silverware.”

Right at that moment Inoue returned. As she looked out over the table she immediately saw the problem.

“You are right Cami, it is Cami right?”

“Yes.”

“These,” Inoue explained holding up a pair of the sticks “are called chopsticks. Let me show you how to use them.”

And so began one of the funniest meals that Cami had ever been to in her life. It didn't take long before everyone was laughing and having a good time. Later thinking back on it Cami would realize part of their joy was the release of all the pent up fear and emotions that they had been keeping bottled up inside.

After the meal was done Inoue hustled them off to the bathhouse. There they got their next big cultural shock. As soon as they tried to all enter the dressing room together Inoue let out a horrified little scream.

“Dominic san what are you doing,” she said as she stepped in front of him. “This is the women's bath you can't come in here.”

In a few moments things were sorted out and the boys were shown to their side of the bathhouse while the ladies filed into theirs. Cami was enthralled by what she saw inside. The bathhouse wasn't a room full of tubs like she was expecting but instead was one large pool surrounded by a stone walkway that in turn covered with natural looking stones and waterfalls. Scattered around the edges of the pool were small stools.

The pool itself had several women and girls in it already and Cami saw that the pool was more for relaxing and that you used the stools as a place to bathe. From the other side of the wall they could clearly hear the boys shouting and yelling at each other, much to the amusement of the women already in the pool.

As she bathed the effects of her experience began to ease from her body and she began to feel very peaceful and could hardly keep her eyes open. She noticed that many of the other girls were starting to drift off as well. In a fog of sleepiness she allowed herself to be dressed after drying off. It was to much of an effort to resist and the clothes to strange for her to want to try.

They were led to a series of rooms, two girls to a room. Inside the rooms were long padded mats on the floor each with a very round long pillow that reached from one side of the mat to the other. Crawling under the blanket Cami snuggled down. It was much more comfortable then she was expecting. Within moments Cami was fast asleep.

Elsewhere events had been set in motion, plans were being drawn up and weapons of war made ready. The forces of humanity had found another lost and wounded cousin. It looked like Urahara's Ark was about to get some more passengers.

 

 

This is my first attempt at writing fan fiction so please be kind in your reviews. I HAVE A PLAN … really I do. This is meant as the first in a three part series, however I wrote this as a standalone in case people hated it or if things came up and I couldn't write the rest. I know it doesn't seem like it now but this is going to have a lot more Battlestar Galactica in it as things go on. In the second half I plan on answering a few unanswered questions from new BSG and picking up the level of combat.

Any way I love reading crossover fan fiction, NBSG and Japanese martial arts anime (in Japanese with subtitles no Dubing please). I thought I would do something a little different then the typical Stargate or StarTrek BSG crossover. I hope you liked it.