Chapter 4: A plot arises
"Master Han what are your orders" the 13 Commanders of the White Lotus Society all said as they knelt alongside with the 13 Co-Commanders awaiting their orders. "We wait for now, I imagine that Soul Society will strike first as I believe they will try to re capture the village that we have taken only a few weeks ago. Then after they are tired from their assault we shall send a strike force in to wipe the remaining ones out". "Master Han let me do this please" Yakra said as his fingers touched the scar Mitch gave him at their last encounter. "No Yakra I think this time I'll send Shang to deal with them" "It would be my pleasure sir" a tall thin Asian looking man with long black-hair and a long wispy beard said grinning. His hazel eyes glared with the delight of his chance at fighting Mitch who he heard was quite the warrior "I shall prepare my men to attack on your command".
Mitch knelt before the Captain Commander inside the 1st squad barracks awaiting his orders from the old man. "Mitch here are the orders that your team will carry out at once. Recently we lost a village in District 35 of Rukongai to the White Lotus Society and since then they have taken hostages, unfortunately we don't know whether they are dead or alive. Your job is to eradicate all the men and if there are any survivors bring them back alive to us, I trust you can do this" "Of course Captain Commander I'll inform everyone in my group and we'll mobilise straight away".
Racing towards the gardens Mitch found Ania, Tom, Ryu and Yan were already standing there awaiting their squad leader to return with their orders. "Alright guys follow me, we're off to a section of Rukongai that has been captured by the White Lotus Society and have been given orders to eradicate every enemy that is there and rescue any hostages that are alive". "Do we have to kill everyone that we see though?" Tom said as they started following Mitch towards their destination. "It's either we kill them or they kill themselves, you remember what happened last time if they fail a job they will kill themselves so either way they'll die Tom".
Arriving at their location everyone was greeted to the sight of the entire village being completely burnt with buildings torn apart, the dirt all around was a mixture of charred black with pools of blood. Following the trail of blood there was a pile of corpses scattered about ranging from villagers to shinigami while the odd White Lotus soldier could be seen also.
"….my god is this what war looks like…" Tom felt sick from the sight of the bodies covered in numerous cuts while he noticed Mitch seemed unphased and wondered to himself how many times he had witnessed scenes like this. "Keep your senses open as there's no telling where the enemy may be hiding" Mitch said unsheathing Ashura as he slowly walked through the ruins of the village keeping his mind open to sense even the slightest trace of reiatsu.
"Hey Raltz you were right, they sent those dirty shinigami bastards to find us" one of the White Lotus soldiers whispered to a scruffy looking man as they crouched behind the rubble of a crumbled house peering out at Mitch and his group. "Heh they sent small fry's to come investigate this'll be easy picking boys, take your pick but leave the pretty blonde girl for me" Raltz licked his lips as they all grinned drawing their blades.
The moment the soldiers moved Mitch sensed them as he turned around to everyone yelling "WATCH OUT!" but by then the 12 White Lotus soldiers had surrounded them in a circle grinning at the prey they had caught. "Well, well, well what do we have here? A group of shinigami's sent to quell our little force from this humble village." Raltz walked around the circle eyeing everyone up as he clicked his tongue "They really must be underestimating us if they send a bunch of weaklings, though I will say their taste in women is good at least" he winked at Ania who turned away in disgust.
"I think you're the one underestimating us, did it ever occur to you that we could hide our reiatsu to lure you idiots in" Mitch smirked as Raltz stepped back slightly startled but regained his composure "Your bluffing!" "You can be the judge of that" Mitch nodded to everyone as their reiatsu began to rapidly climb going past the entire 12 men who stepped back slightly intimidated now that they knew just how strong his group was. "Now that you've all graciously gathered in one spot let's say we take 4 guys each and Ania since this guy is so into you I'll leave you the honour of dealing with him" "My pleasure".
Ania, Mitch and Tom released their shikai's as the White Lotus soldiers all charged towards them hoping to overwhelm them with sheer numbers, darting past each swipe from his opponents Mitch spun around to face his four men "Try being a bit more accurate with your swings" "You bastard, I'll teach you to mock us" one of the men said gripping his zanpakuto with both hands and swinging it down with all his might as Mitch caught it above his head with one hand.
"I was expecting a bit better" sighing he pushed the blade back before swinging Ashura upwards cleaving across the man's chest as he fell backwards in a fountain of blood. Before his body dropped Mitch vanished from the other opponent's sight as one was suddenly cut in half "Where the fuck is he!" one of the remaining two said as they frantically scanned around unable to see him. Mitch reappeared directly in front of one lopping his head cleanly off before plunging Ashura through the remaining man's stomach.
"Ryu how are you handling things over there?" Mitch called out to the young shinigami who was parrying blows left and right but clearly being overwhelmed by the numbers. "Umm I'm not entirely used to handling this amount of opponents at the same time" he yelled back over his shoulder as Mitch smirked "Alright one amount of help coming your way" Mitch began to chant while diagonally crossing his hands together creating a X shape, "Raging fires of the north combine with the fire and sun god to obliterate the earth Destructive Art 89: Fire blast" a huge X shaped flame erupted from Mitch's hands as it raced towards the four men and Ryu who could feel the intense heat moving quickly towards him.
Reacting just in time Ryu shunpoed out of the way along with two White Lotus soldiers but the remaining two didn't act fast enough as they were engulfed in the flames turning into nothing but ashes. "Thanks for the assist leader, I think I can handle the remaining two men" Ryu yelled back to Mitch as he leapt towards both opponents clashing blades as they grinned still overconfident they could handle a boy nearly half their age.
Breaking off from the clash Ryu ducked underneath a swipe at his head before slashing a counter across the man's chest leaving him falling into a pool of his own blood. "No way will some young whelp get the better of me" the remaining man growled as he went to attack only to watch Ryu vanish from his sight and reappear behind him a second later. "Wha…" he stammered as blood spurted out of two holes that formed on his chest as he collapsed dead while Ryu breathed a sigh of relief.
"Impressive you stabbed him twice while moving past him with shunpo" Mitch said as he appeared next to Ryu who sat down catching his breath "Thank you for the praise leader" "Hey can we cut the formalities and you simply just call me Mitch" "I don't think I can simply call you Mitch but how about Sir?" "I guess that's slightly better" he said sighing before looking over at how everyone else was faring with their opponents.