"Ugh…" Waking up, Urahara slowly lifted his body off of the ground as he held up his head with his hand. 'What happened...' Allowing his vision to clear up the first thing Urhara saw was the strange black stone he had been laying on. It was only after seeing this unfamiliar floor did Urahara's mind clear up.
Looking around, Urahara found himself encased within a crimson barrier. Standing not far from the surface of the barrier were ten Void Warriors forming a sealed formation around him. 'What happened while I was out.' Everything up to the point where he fell out of the sky and collapsed onto the ground was a blur.
From the ground beneath him to the dark sky above, Urahara had never seen anything like this before. 'Based on the fact, these things are guarding me. It must have been him who brought me here.' Narrowing his eyes, Urahara thought back to the battle they had in Karakura Town. 'No, it wasn't even a battle…' The image of Isshin's death flashed through Urahara's head as he clenched his fist.
In his current state, he couldn't cast Kido, and his Zanpakuto was missing. 'Dammit, I can't even remember what happened. Did Ichigo manage to escape, and what about Yoruichi.' With so many unanswered questions, his thoughts were interrupted as a voice came from the warped space behind him.
"Well, look who finally woke up." Looking at Urahara, Shen had a slight grin on his face as his eyes flashed. In seconds the Void Warriors surrounding Urahara disappeared back into his pocket dimensions, leaving only Shen, Urahara, and Rukia, who had remained silent. "I was expecting you to wake up in a couple of days, but you recovered rather quickly to that trauma I put you through."
Walking closer to the barrier he placed around Urahara, Shen heard Urahara speak, suppressing the boiling rage he was feeling just looking at Shen. "What happened after I passed out…" Speaking through his teeth, Shen could see the hatred Urahara had for him. After all, he killed Isshin, and Urahara still didn't know whether Yoruichi was dead or alive.
"Hmm, you mean what happened after all of you failed to defeat me?" Clarifying Urahara's face turned grim as Shen spoke with a smirk on his face. "Well, there's no reason for you to look so down. Although most of Katakura Town is destroyed, your shop is fine, I think." Hearing Shen makes light of his question Urahara snapped at him. "Do you think this is a joke!"
Looking down at Urahara, Shen sighed and replied. "Well, it doesn't really matter what I think of it. In the end, I couldn't care less if Katakura Town was destroyed or not, and it's not like anyone important died." With that being said, Urahara could tell by the way Shen spoke he honestly didn't consider Isshin nor Yoruichi as essential people.
"In any case, you won't care about that for long. I just wanted to let you have your final moments as your normal self." Shrugging slightly, Shen backed away as Urahara asked. "What do you mean, my last few moments? What are you going to do to me?" Looking at Shen's calm gaze as he spoke, Urahara couldn't help but tremble slightly.
"Well, originally, I was going to give you a choice of telling me how to extract the Hogyoku either now or later. But after all your resistance, I changed my mind." Walking over to Rukia, Shen placed his hand on her head as he spoke. "Now I've decided you'll be just like Rukia. You'll be loyal to me and tell me everything I want to know without hesitation, even if it results in more casualties. And you'll enjoy every second of it."
Looking at Shen's face, Urahara couldn't help but feel the fear. His personality, his free will, everything would be ripped away by Shen and hell be turned into a servant. In that instant, the swelling negative thoughts like before began to return as Urahara collapsed back to the ground, groaning in pain. 'Not again!'
"This time, I'll leave you in there until you submit." Walking past the barrier, Shen dragged his finger along its surface as it turned darker, blocking Urahara from seeing out and anyone else from looking in. As Shen continued to walk, his voice entered Rukia's ears. "I need to deal with something, so keep him company." It was a simple order, but Shen had a different reason for giving it to Rukia.
He knew for a fact something had happened, and in all honesty, he didn't trust her at the moment. But he also couldn't risk anything happening to the Hogyoku, so he decided to leave her for now. Even thinking that so he couldn't say he was worried about her doing anything either. The magic he was using to control her had already reached level four, meaning that even if she wanted to break free of his control would be hard.
And even now, the magic was only growing more and more powerful. 'It's only a matter of time before it reaches a point no matter how many friendship speeches the protagonist wants to give the one under his control will be unaffected.'
With all that in mind, Shen disappeared from the center of the Kamui Dimension. Flying at his fastest speed in one direction, it only took Shen a few seconds for the central pillar within the dimension to fall out of sight. 'This should be far enough away.' Landing on one of the more immense sized pillars below.
"Alright, then time to view the fruits of my labor." Creating six different portals on the floor, six pods containing the captains accompanied by mini pods containing their Zanpakuto began to enter the Kamui Dimension. Shen hadn't gone into Image Training for a while, mostly because he was continuously occupied with something else. But now that he had access to the Kamui Dimension, finding time to train was no longer an issue.
After destroying his normal Zanpakuto Spirit Shen got a single notification from the System saying one out of four tasks were complete. But even after killing more Zanpakuto spirits, he never got that message again. It was only after destroying Renji's Zanpakuto Spirit that had access to its Shikai form did Shen realize that the task was the ascending ranks of the Zanpakuto.
From his understanding, the first task was a typical Zanpakuto Spirit, the second being a Released Zanpakuto Spirit and third. 'A captain level Zanpakuto Spirit.' He had no clue why the System randomly gave him this task, but he was already wreaking havoc across this world. He might as well pick up the bonus prize, right?
'Hmm, I wonder what the fourth one would be. Although there are levels beyond Bankai, they have never been fully described or explained. At best, I know that the Zanpakuto begins to merge with the user or something along those lines.' Dwelling on this matter for a moment, Shen shook his head, bringing his focus back onto the captains floating silently in front of him. 'Well, I'll figure it out when I get to it.'
"For now, I think these six have been asleep for more than long enough." Activating his three tomoe, Sharingan Shen began to apply pressure onto each one of their Zanapkuto at once. This feeling was enough to drive Renji insane due to the pain, and even though he wouldn't enter their inner worlds this way, it would be more than enough to jolt them awake.
After a few seconds passed of Shen applying pressure to their Zanpakuto one by one, each of the captains was jolted awake. As if reanimated, each of the captains began gasping the moment they woke up. "Huh?" Looking around, Soi Fon found herself unable to move as she observed her surroundings.
"What's going on." Coming too, Ukitake found him in the same mind state as Soi Fon. It was only until Shen spoke up did they realize he was standing in front of them. "Welcome to my world captains of the Gotei 13." Giving them a welcoming smile, Shen a glint of hidden intent in his eyes as he continued.
"We have so much to talk about."
Note: Plan on doing a mass release of four chapters next Monday-Tuesday to make up for all the missed chapters!
Also, sorry about the short chapters. I just have a terrible habit of rapping chapters up quickly, so it's hard for me to stretch them to 2k words like an I promised. I'll be working on that over the weekend.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and don't forget if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask in the Auxiliary chapters!