The Karakura Underground
an excerpt

“Chad didn’t go to school today.” He nodded his head in the direction that their mutual friend had gone. “He hasn’t missed a day of school since grade school. When I asked him why, he said you had something important to tell him. So spill.”

Tatsuki growled, running a hand through her hair and making the spikes stand up even more than they already were. She pushed off of the counter she had been leaning on and came to settle down on the couch opposite Ichigo’s. She opened her mouth to say something to him, but abruptly closed it, apparently changing her mind. She then turned and snapped to one of the thugs in the room.

“Get me a drink. Don’t ask me what I want. Give me whatever’s there.” Then, as an afterthought, she turned to Ichigo. “Oy. You want something to drink?”

“No,” Ichigo said shortly. “I want you to tell me what the hell’s going on. Something seems off.”

“Sharp, aren’t you?” Tatsuki said, sighing and leaning back in the couch. She waited for the thug to bring her her glass of amber colored something before turning back to Ichigo, a serious expression on her face. “What do you know about how the cities work, Ichigo?”

“What about them?” Ichigo asked, slightly confused.

“How they work. Who’s in charge, what are the underlying powers, who the police answer to. You know. Shit like that.”

“Uhhh. There are police in Karakura and they answer to the larger divisions in Tokyo. And Karakura has its own governmental body, but it comes in second to the larger workings of the one in Tokyo. I hear there’s some election going on there, but I haven’t been paying much attention. School’s been driving me up the wall,” Ichigo said, frowning.

“Well you know more than most anyways,” Tatsuki said, taking a sip of her drink. She made a face for a moment and looked at the glass with a distasteful look on her face and then shrugged. “But there’s more to it than just the police and the government. There are people who work both cities that most people don’t know about. Or if they do, they don’t pay attention.”

“What, like street gangs and the black market?”

“We’re nothing compared to what I’m talking about,” Tatsuki said, shaking her head. “Ever heard of the Kuchikis, Ichigo? Or Aizen?”

“No. Who the hell are they?” Ichigo stared.

“Not who. What. Or, okay, well I guess who’s okay too, but mainly it’s just what.”

“All right, then,” Ichigo said, growing frustrated. “What are the Kuchikis and Aizen?”

Tatsuki laughed and threw a sheet of paper Ichigo hadn’t known she had brought with her at him.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow, but picked it up all the same. It seemed to be a letter of some sort. Or it started out as a letter. And then it just got confusing.

Yasutora Chad.

And underneath an inked drawing of a black butterfly half crossing paths with the outline of a translucent crescent. And that was all.

“What’s this?”

Tatsuki drained the drink in her cup before leaning forward and clapping a hand on Ichigo’s shoulder, a huge grin on her face.

“It’s a Hell Butterfly. Crest of the Kuchikis.”

“And what does that mean?”

“Mean’s our dear friend Chad’s been summoned.”

Ichigo had a bad feeling about this.

“By who?”

“You mean by what?” Tatsuki smirked.

“By what, then?”

Arisawa Tatsuki leaned back in the couch again just as the deep voice of Chad spoke from behind her shoulders.

“The mafia.”