Today was the day. Today would be the day that Twilight and I close the rift. I thought it would be yesterday or the day before. That was not the case.
Two days ago I end up taking the day to fix up the shinigami contingent by getting rid of Kyoka Suigetsu's influence. There were forty of them that I had ended up getting to. It took less work than Nanoha as I skipped the reishi to kishi step. While it took almost thirty minutes to treat her in comparison it only took fifteen with the shinigami. Even so it took quite a bit of time with that many of them, a little over ten hours, and even though I still had plenty of magic left it was still mentally draining. It was also dark by the end of it so we decided to get the rest of them done the next day.
After a surprisingly good night of sleep I was informed after exiting my counterpart's room that more affected shinigami had been brought in to be treated. Even Captain Commander Genryuusai Shigekuni Yamamoto, what a mouthful, came with them to get treated. There was old. There was experienced. And then there was Genryuusai. The guy was hard nosed and just reeked of 'I know better than you'. That was evident if you ever saw him without his uniform on as he was not only ripped but had scars in multiple places that let you know he had seen some shit. He also had an absolutely epic beard despite being bald.
Wasn't much of a conversationalist either. He was cordial for sure, but didn't have much to say to me for quite a while. That was the case until Byakuya had to be his usual dour self and told the leader of the shinigami forces about how I accomplished what I did. Now Genryuusai wasn't stupid. What he told me was that after I removed the effects that I was never to use that ability again. Now, I knew that he was doing that because he wanted to keep the natural order intact. I, however, knew that there were always exceptions that these rules had to have for safety's sake. The problem was that Soul Society's rules were always so rigid that it made any exceptions seem like egregious offenses. I wanted to argue the point with him, but I knew that I stood about a snowball's chance in hell of convincing him to see things my way. I simply grunted and went to work.
Or I would have if the captain commander didn't stop me in my tracks with a glare. He could tell that I was being non-commital with my response and again ordered me not to do it only more forcefully. I stared in aggravation back at him for what seemed like quite a while. Then I summed up what I thought about that in three words:
"That's fucking stupid."
Not the best move to make. He didn't appreciate it either. He held his cane out in front of himself and I immediately held up my hands to forestall him from pulling his zanpakuto out of it. I had to carefully explain why I said that and the extenuating circumstances as to why I would end up using it in the future. I'm... fairly certain he wasn't going to try to execute me for the time being.
With that out of the way I started treating people once again. Just like the day before I didn't really feel tired from it nor did I feel like I was using all that much magic. Yeah I was absorbing some back but I was still losing more than I received. I was certain at that point that it had to do with my transformation. After all it would make sense for me to have more of a capacity now that all my abilities had been enhanced.
Despite all the shinigami I had treated there were still many more to go by the time it got dark. What was brought to my attention was that future me would be appearing back in the timeline sometime very soon. That would be bad news. Of course, it was Bulma who came to the rescue there. She had the brilliant suggestion of using the memory orb to show future me how to treat them. I almost argued about how it wouldn't stay after I left but realized that my counterpart was still in this dimension. If at least one of me has a presence there then my active spells won't disappear like usual. That was even proven by the memory orb the other me left.
That was a big weight off of my shoulders. It meant that we could head on to seal the rift and go back to her home. Thanks to that I again got a good night's sleep after having a little time to unwind thanks to my illusion spell.
That led to this morning. Without the need for any other distractions I found Bulma quickly and handed her two orbs. One was for future me so he could treat those still affected by Kyoka Suigetsu. The other one was for her. That one was for her machine. It took a while to understand how to differentiate between similar worlds without Eris to help compensate automatically like with Yusuke's group but I somehow managed. That would help a great deal with getting the Strawhats home after Bulma finished with her device. Mr. Scowly- I mean Trafalgar Law would appreciate that I bet.
That, in turn, led us back to the site of the battle nearly a week ago. It was quite the sight to see. There were pock marks, scorched earth, muddy places that could soon be called swamps, and various other places where the ground had been warped in some unnatural manner. Twilight and I, along with Bulma, Nanoha, Robin, and the pilot of the ship we took, a guy whose name I never got, ended up a small distance away from a rift that was much larger than the ones I had previously encountered. Most were only three feet or so from end to end. The one in Rebel was about seven or eight feet. This one was dancing wildly between two vertical points that looked about half a football field apart.
"I'm glad we're doing this now," I ended with emphasis. "This rift looks like it's close to tearing apart."
"Is it not supposed to like like this?" Bulma asked.
"No way," Nanoha answered before I could. "The rift we found here before wasn't nearly this size!"
"The ones in Equestria were only a few feet or so too," Twilight added.
"So this is bad then?" Robin asked.
"Only if it doesn't get sealed up soon. Twilight, I think you should hurry up."
I carefully held out Eris towards Twilight. The mare grabbed hold of Eris with her telekinesis and lifted it out of my hand. She then proceeded to slowly trot closer towards the erratic occurrence. Once she felt she was close enough she moved Eris forward until she was touching an endpoint. The erratic movements slowed down and the endpoint far about us made its way down. After about a minute the two endpoints met in a flash and disappeared. Even as far away as I was I heard her relieved sigh as she turned around and trotted back towards us.
Only for a stoic Kaname Tousen to appear between us.
A quick snap of my fingers and Twilight was with us again before he could do something to her there. I then put up a shield to make sure he didn't try anything else. This was not what I needed right now.
"It seems that I finally have the chance to talk with you without any real interference," he spoke.
"I don't want to just assume you mean me," I said, "but I doubt you mean anyone else."
I flicked my eyes down to Eris who had come back to my hand. Just over six minutes until we left involuntarily. I had to do something, but I couldn't fight him. I might leave before I finish talking and he'll take out the ladies in his frustration. Not good in either regard.
"Why do you fight-"
We were all shocked once again as a long blade passed through Kaname's chest right where his heart would be. The blade withdrew quickly and he fell to one knee allowing us to see behind him. To my utter confusion I saw Gin Ichimaru standing quite the distance away. He must have used his shikai Shinso to do that.
"Okay, what the hell is going on?" Bulma yelled.
"You didn't need to do that!" Twilight yelled even louder. "He was just talking with us!"
"Well I'm sorry and all, but I don't think he was going to let you just walk away from this whole thing ya know?"
"You didn't know that!"
"You're just trying to get back into our good graces after Aizen was defeated aren't you?" I asked. "You know I could've just told them you were deep cover to get revenge on him."
"Oh? And how would ya know that? I don't remember saying that to anyone."
"My knowledge is extensive. Aizen should have made mention of that."
"He didn't exactly share that much ya know?"
"I still haven't forgiven him for hurting that man!" Twilight yelled.
"Don't worry. I just used some anesthetic on my blade. It just worked extra fast cause it was so close to his heart."
"You shouldn't have done it at all!"
"Everyone calm down!" I yelled before settling down. "I don't know if he was going to attack or not but what's done is done. Both Tousen and you are considerably dangerous. I'd talk about it more but I'm about to leave involuntarily. Come back in three days and you can talk about it then."
"Ah shucks I really wanted to talk now."
"I'm a doppelganger. You'd be getting nowhere anyway. Now, let us take care of Tousen okay?"
"Sure, sure," he waved off-handedly while turning around. "I guess I'll talk about what I know later."
Gin then disappeared probably in a shunshin. I let out a sigh of relief and dropped my shield. I watched as Twilight hurried over to the fallen Kaname along with the pilot. Robin simply crossed her arms and used her powers to look him over from here. Pretty cool really.
"He's breathing," the pilot said, "but he's still losing blood."
"Get him to the ship," Nanoha ordered. "We'll be taking him back for treatment."
After a quick salute and a use of Robin's powers Tousen was hurriedly being carried off to the ship.
"Well, that ruined the mood," I stated to try and bring some levity.
"Yeah," Bulma said. "Another headache for us."
"At least we have another threat taken care of. I'd say we came out ahead," Nanoha said brightly.
"Anyway, it's time for Twilight and myself to get going. We've got... seventy-five seconds until we leave."
"It's been interesting seeing you here. Even if we have had something like this happen with Trunks once before."
"Yeah. Make sure everyone keeps training, even Gohan if only to keep himself going at this level."
"More enemies?"
"More enemies."
"I'll let them know."
"Also tell Goku and Vegeta to work on level three. It should help a lot."
"I look forward to telling them that," Bulma said with more than a hint of tiredness.
"One last thing. Stop using contraception now. It should be about the right time for you to get pregnant with your daughter."
"WHAT!?!"
"Robin," I said ignoring Bulma's rambling, "take care of future me."
"Of course I will. I hope he takes care of me too."
"I know he will."
I turned to Nanoha, but I found no words coming as I stared at her face. I had no idea what I could say to her. An apology didn't seem right anymore. I didn't have any words of encouragement either. Nothing to tell her about. Nothing to give to her. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
Chu~
I stood there in utter bafflement as Nanoha stepped forward, leaned in, and gave me a peck on the cheek. I was frankly shocked by the gesture. It had to have shown on my face as she giggled airily.
"It's a token of thanks. For not taking advantage of me I mean. I think I could see a day where I'd fall for you. If you'd lose that beard first anyway."
Yeah, that was right when the light from Eris erupted into all our eyes. Still I think I managed to say one last thing before I left.
"Maybe I will."