Ch 87: Unpleasant experience, unpleasant discovery.

Noah appeared in his living room. He sat the big man and the woman on the sofas so that they would be comfortable, then climbed the stairs to search for Kaede. It was only one hour past midnight, so she likely wasn't sleeping.

Seeing light seeping from under the media room, he opened it and saw Suzu and Kaede watching some movie.

"Master? You're back early. What's with that getup and that mask? And you got injured?" said Kaede, noticing him.

"Shinigami disguise. Something happened. Pause your movie and come to the living room, please."

The girls immediately followed him, and when they saw the two unconscious people, Kaede gasped and pointed a finger.

"What are they doing here?!"

"He's big." commented Suzu, watching the muscle mountain curiously.

"Do you know them, Kaede?"

"Of course! They are Sister Griselda, the one I talked to you about, and Cardinal Priest Vasco Strada. They were missing, and the Inquisition was worried sick."

"It's as I expected, then." nodded Noah.

"Where did you find them, Master? Are they okay?"

"I hope so. Or there's a certain girl who's going to receive a spanking, and it's not one of you. Heal and Cure them, please, just in case."

Noah was short of time, so he took his smartphone and searched in his contacts for a certain shady Shinigami.

"Got them from Shikoku and the other Thunder Gods." said Noah to Suzu and Kaede as he waited for the line to connect. He enjoyed their startled reactions.

"Noah-kun? This isn't really the ideal hour for calling, you know? I need my beauty sleep."

"Greetings, Urahara-san. I'm sorry for calling this late, but I'm in a rush. It is about business related to Aizen."

"You have my full attention." replied Urahara, his flippant tone gone.

"Some time ago, you took under your wing a group of Shinigamis who had been partially turned into Hollows and gave them a place to hide and recover. Would you be willing to do the same for eight humans who got experimented on by Aizen?"

Kaede and Suzu inspired sharply as they understood who Noah was referring to.

"I very much want to ask how you know about the Shinigamis in question, but I think you'll just answer with something related to your goddess. Tell me more about those eight."

"Aizen has a fortress in Hueco Mundo where he performs experiments to turn Hollows into Partial Shinigamis, and is building up a group of lieutenant and captain-level Hollows Shinigami hybrids. But before this, he was kidnapping humans to try to make them partially Hollow, and one of them developed an ability that allowed her to escape and take the others survivors of those experiments with her."

"I have fought one, and I'd rate his raw power as maybe above average Lieutenant level. Certainly not strong enough to face a Captain, even without any Bankai being used. They are in control of their powers and their intellect doesn't seem to have significantly suffered from what Aizen did to them, aside from the obvious collection of traumas. They want to stay out of Aizen's reach and return to the human world, since Hueco Mundo is quite the boring place. However, most of them had their bodies altered by the experiments. In some cases, enough that a simple return to civilian life isn't really a viable option.

"…Can you use your teleportation to carry other people?"

"Yes, as long as they are in physical contact."

"I'd like you to bring them to the training room under my shop, then. I want to meet them before I make a decision."

"Of course. I should come with six of them. The location of the other two is unknown at the moment. I also have more information to give you, since I fought two of the shinigamified Hollows. Those are definitely captain-level."

"I'll wake up Yoruichi. She's going to bite my head off. She hates being disturbed in her sleep."

"Thank you, Urahara-san. I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Are you going to explain the mask, Master? And who's this Aizen?" asked Kaede when he pocketed the phone.

Noah smiled.

"Later. I need to return to Hueco Mundo right now. Please wake up Asia, Irina and Xenovia. I'm sure they'll want to inform the Inquisition as soon as possible. I should be back soon."

"Yes, Master."

…

Noah teleported back to wherever the Eight Thunder Gods' base was. He relaxed as he saw he wasn't going to be immediately ambushed.

Shikoku called out the others when she saw Noah, and they gathered.

"The Shinigami I mentioned wishes to meet you guys before he makes any promise. I will teleport you guys to him, but you will need to be on your best behavior. No attacking him out of the blue. That person is strong, and he might cut you down." stressed Noah, looking at Naruhime. She grudgingly nodded.

Noah wondered if he perhaps should have warned Urahara about her.

"We will behave." said Fukuma.

"Can you give us just two more minutes?" asked Jaku'un. "I was in the process of engraving a message on the wall, so that Jouryuu and Taikyoku wouldn't be worried."

"Sure." nodded Noah.

While Jaku'un was writing on his message, Noah used Promise to check on the surroundings. There was always the chance that Ulquiorra or some other Arrancar would find them.

When he fought them, Noah found out that he was about equal in terms of speed and strength. His swordsmanship was superior, but not enough to face both Ulquiorra and Grimmjow simultaneously, and he'd been under a lot of pressure. He had wounded Grimmjow twice, but received one in turn.

There were a lot of Hollows all around, including a human-sized one with a mostly red mask, far in the west, that seemed pretty strong, but Noah didn't do more than glance at it. He kept looking around, searching for Ulquiorra or Grimmjow. Until he saw something that made him freeze.

About twelve kilometers east, a dozen people were walking closer.

"Everyone." called out Noah.

"Yes?" asked Shikoku.

"I am going to show you something happening right now about seven kilometers south of here."

Noah used his soul magic to project to them an image of what he had seen. He recognized most of the people walking in their direction. Three of the Espada, Nnoitra Gilga, Luppi Antenor, Szayelaporro Granz. Ranked 5th, 7th, and 8th. The first was a battle addict, the second an arrogant little shit, and the third was a very troublesome mad scientist. Each of them was accompanied with their Fraccion, relatively strong Arrancars who didn't make the cut to the Espada and acted as their minions.

The single Fraccion of Nnoitra, some guy Noah remembered could turn into a Hollow boarman, was dragging behind them a captive. A tall woman with light brown skin, antlers protruding from her temples, long white hairs and gray eyes. Instead of clothes, parts of her body were covered by what looked like natural bony plates.

She was bruised and battered, her arms bound behind her back by heavy shackles, and had a thick metal collar around her neck. The Fraccion constantly pulled on the chain connected to the collar, dragging her forward.

The other person Noah didn't recognize was leading them. A woman with a heavily painted face that reminded Noah of a geisha, but the red and black markings on her cheeks gave her a stern look, like an old priestess. A long cloth ribbon floated behind her like an oversized halo, and she was dressed in an overly elaborate kimono.

More importantly, she didn't show any indication of having suffered violence, and Noah could see her bow her head with a smile when Szayel asked her something.

Noah stopped his soul magic, and the Thunders Gods had expressions of anguish, and fury.

"Taikyoku that bitch! She's betraying us!" spat Naruhime.

"Jouryuu-nee…" lamented Kuusetsu, starting to cry.

"They will be there soon, and there's too many of them to fight. Especially if Grimmjow and Ulquiorra join the fight later. We need to leave, now." said Noah.

"Y-yes." said Shikoku regretfully. The others nodded.

"Everyone, place one of your hands on me. Physical contact is needed for teleportation."

The six Thunder Gods were clearly unhappy with Jouryuu's fate, but they knew what would happen if they fought. They did as Noah asked, and he teleported them all to Urahara's underground training room.

Noah saw Urahara, Tessai and Yoruichi waiting for them near the stairs.

"Hi, Urahara-san, Tessai-san, Yoruichi-san. Sorry for bothering you with this." smiled Noah.

"It's fine. Anything we can do to poke a stick in Aizen's wheels, we will do. But why are you wearing that mask?" asked Yoruichi.

"I don't want Aizen or any of his cronies to identify me."

"I see."

Noah quickly introduced everyone, and Shikoku thanked Urahara profusely for being willing to help them.

Observing the group's dynamics and body language, Noah guessed that among them, Shikoku and Fukuma acted as unofficial leaders, while the others rarely spoke.

As Shikoku started relating her experiences, Noah cleared his throat and drew his Zanpakuto.

"I'll be away, for just a minute or two, hopefully."

He teleported away.

"That guy… Can't he just come and go the normal way?" sighed Yoruichi.

"He wouldn't have drawn his weapon if he didn't expect to fight, and his clothes are torn. Were you in trouble in Hueco Mondo?" asked Urahara, looking at Shikoku.

Shikoku was explaining what she had seen in the vision that Kuro-san somehow showed to them when three people teleported in, two of them, Jouryuu and Kuro, rolling on the ground due to momentum. Jouryuu looked in confusion at her surroundings.

"Shit! I'm never… doing that… again!" cursed Kuro-san, his voice full of hurt. He was on all fours, seemingly trying to get a hold of the terrible pain he experienced. The reason for his suffering was obvious, as a large sword was impaling him, the jagged blade entering just behind the right shoulder and exiting through his guts. Shikoku thought that the pain must be unbearable.

"Stop being a baby, it's just a single sword." said the third person, a black-haired woman wearing white and gold plate armor, so beautiful that Shikoku felt dazed.

"Still, that was a bold move, and you, pulled, it, off." The woman smirked as she seized the handle of the sword sticking from Kuro's back, and pulled it off, eliciting a scream.

She placed her hand near the gaping wound on his back and a blue glow appeared. His wounds started closing.

"Good job, my other half." She muttered as she faded away.

Her disappearance caused everyone watching to get out of their dazed state, and Fukuma and Kuusetsu ran to Jouryuu.

"Are you okay?" Asked Yoruichi, suddenly appearing near Kuro.

"…I will be in a moment." winced the masked Shinigami as he got to his feet.

"Thank you very much, Kuro-san. I am very grateful for everything you’ve done for us." said Shikoku, bowing deeply.

"You're an absolute idiot, you know that? Jumping into a group of enemies to save a woman." scolded Yoruichi.

"Sure, I'm an idiot. But an idiot that will sleep soundly tonight, without having to worry about what torture an innocent woman is enduring." grinned Noah. Yoruichi nodded grudgingly.

"Who was that person?" Asked Urahara.

"My Shikai summons an Avatar of my goddess. But her strength and abilities are limited to my own… Shikoku, Taikyoku is dead. Her head loped clean off. Seifuku, that's the name of my Zanpakuto, did not take kindly to me being skewered like this."

"It's… fine." sighed Shikoku with a sad smile. "Even before she betrayed us, Taikyoku was acting fairly distant from us. She tried to impose herself as our leader at the beginning, and became even more distant after we told her no. She was more an acquaintance than family, really, and she had made her choice. She betrayed us, and we would have killed her ourselves for it."

"That's a relief to hear."

Noah inspired deeply, and exhaled slowly. The pain was completely gone now. Noah had been so focused on kicking away the Fraccion holding Jouryuu's chain and fending of the few probing attacks from Nnoitra and Luppi that he has not considered a possible attack coming from above. He had been completely blindsided, and if the sword had impacted his head instead of his shoulder…

Noah determined to find ways to cover his blind spots. He had the Magician Arcana, and could program magic as he wished, so it was an oversight from his part to not already have taken steps to protect his blind spots. His arrogance had made him careless.

"Urahara-san, have you reached a decision?"

Jouryuu wasn't completely up to speed yet, but the others had told her about the Shinigami possibly providing them with a safe place.

"We're going to help them." nodded Kisuke Urahara.

"Thank you very much." said the Thunder Gods, nodding in gratitude.

"Tomorrow morning, I will bring you all to the place where other… victims of Aizen's experiments are living. Each of them is strong, likely strong enough to defend you from anything Aizen might throw at you, unless he decides to go all out. I do not see him trying at this point. He is still playing the role of a model Shinigami in Soul Society. We will not restrict your movements, but I will make for those of you who need it some special items to disguise your… unusual features. Are you all willing to accept our help?"

Without surprise, they all were.

Noah nodded.

"Since the odds of one of you falling into Aizen's hands anytime soon are now negligible, I'll introduce myself properly." said Noah, removing his mask.

Shikoku and Rairen gasped in recognition.

"My real name is Noah Enfield. It is nice to meet you all. I am part of the Anti-Demon Corps, not the Shinigami. I only dressed like one because I didn't want to implicate the ADC in that fight."

"That explains a few things. I knew I had seen your eyes somewhere." nodded Shikoku, smiling slightly.

Rairen didn't say anything, seemingly deciding their recent fight was not something worth bringing up.

"Thank you, Noah." said Jouryuu, bowing deeply to him. "You took a great risk to free me. I will repay this favor."

Noah used Healing on her, too, making her scrapes and bruises disappear. Her comrades had already freed her from the shackles and the collar.

"Helping innocent people is part of my job as Lilith's Champion. But if you wish to repay me, I may have an employment offer for you. I can't reform this world alone, and I am recruiting talented people. But let's talk about this later. For now, you guys should enjoy your return to the human world as much as possible. I'll give you my number, if you guys need anything."

Noah gave one of his contact cards to Shikoku.

"Now, I am going to get some sleep. Tomorrow morning, I'll report tonight's matter to Ren Yamashiro."

He looked at the seven Thunder Gods, as well as Urahara, Tessai and Yoruichi.

"Farewell, everyone."

They all wished him farewell, and Noah returned home.

…

As expected, all the girls were awake and waiting for him, and so were Sister Griselda and Lord Vasco Strada.

"I'm back."

"Welcome back, Master." happily said Kaede and Suzu. Then they frowned when they saw his state.

"Master got injured again." frowned Suzu, seeing his blood-soaked kimono. The gut wound in particular had bled a lot. She walked around him to inspect him and saw the other hole in the back. "Twice!"

Noah smiled. "Once, actually. I got skewered all the way through by a huge, jagged sword. Terrible experience, zero out of five, will not recommend."

"That doesn't make me feel better!" retorted Suzu as she hugged him tightly.

"Well, it's been an eventful night." sighed Noah as he patted her head. He turned his attention to the two people he had rescued.

"It is a pleasure to meet Kaede's master at last. I am enormously grateful to you, Noah-kun. As you likely known already, I am sister Griselda, and this is the Cardinal-Priest Vasco Strada."

"The pleasure is mutual. Thank you for taking care of my Kaede until now. She told me she learned a lot from you. You are welcome to my home and can stay for as long as you need."

"She saved us from the Thunder Gods the first time we encountered them." smiled Vasco. "I see a pattern emerging."

"Well, the Eight Thunder Gods aren't a threat anymore." sighed Noah as he sat down.

"I'll share my memories, so sit down and get comfortable, everyone."

The girls who already had experience with it immediately found their seats, and the church girls as well as their two guests imitated them.

Noah shared his memories, from the moment he noticed the power spike of Ulquiorra using one of his famous signature moves, to him returning home to find Kaede and Suzu.

"So Master has some kind of far-sight ability now. So cool!" smiled Kaede.

"Yeah." said Noah, using his far sight vision on a whim to observe the room from different angles. He could even see through materials to some extent. "It's quite convenient. In fact…"

His train of thought stopped abruptly as he noticed something. Hidden in one of the vents above one of the windows, was a small object. Something electronic, that had no business being there.

Making sure he kept his expression neutral and not looking at the window, Noah continued.

"…in fact, I can not only teleport to any place I can see, but also use a portal to remotely deliver offensive magic. I have a range of slightly over six kilometers now."

In reality, it was more like thirty, but the Inquisition didn't need to know that.

"I am glad that those poor people are getting help, and I will forgive them for attacking us." said Vasco, frowning. "But those enhanced hollows are bad news. I do not think I would be able to face this Ulquiorra in battle."

"Neither the Church nor the ADC should worry too much about the Arrancars. This is Shinigami business, and Aizen is unlikely to direct his hostility toward the human world, at least until he defeats Soul Society. Which he won't. That is the main reason I disguised myself as a Shinigami."

"Anyway, long story short, of the Eight Thunder Gods, Taikyoku is dead for having chosen Aizen's side, and the other seven are now going to live a quiet and peaceful life in the human world, under the supervision of some of Aizen's enemies. That's the plan, anyway. And the Shinigami will deal with Aizen soon."

"I would like to help, since sitting on the sidelines isn't really my thing, but I suspect I would only be a burden, against those." sighed Vasco. "We have informed the Church and a plane is on its way to fetch us. Would you mind if we stay here the rest of the night?"

"I do not mind. But I have a better proposal. I have heard about one of the victims of Galilei's experiments being in a kind of self-induced coma, and one of my friends, who is a reincarnated devil, knows her. Would it be acceptable if Kaede were to teleport you with him? I think she can deal with Tosca's barrier, and she can return with Yuuto once the girl is awake."

"That would be ideal. Thank you for suggesting this. If you can help that unfortunate girl, we will take good care of her." smiled Griselda.

"Yes. Although if she reacts like Yuuto did, she might have developed a dislike for the Church from her ordeal. I wouldn't be surprised if she were to decide to follow Yuuto back to Japan. In that case, I'm confident Rias Gremory will take her in."

"And there is one last matter I wish to mention before I get some shuteye. I will contact Azazel within a few days. I wish for the Church and the Angels, the Fallen Angels and the Devils to sign a formal peace treaty. This war has lasted far too long and made too many victims already."

The Cardinal-Priest and Sister Griselda looked at each other for a second, before looking back at Noah.

"Speaking personally, I more than welcome the idea of bringing this war to an end." said Vasco. "However, the Church's official position will be aligned to the one of Archangel Michael. I think he will agree, but we need to talk to him before we make any promise."

"I understand." nodded Noah.

"If there is nothing more to discuss, I'm going to sleep. Kaede, Suzu, would you mind showing Sister Griselda and Lord Strada to their rooms?"

"Not at all, Master." smiled Kaede.

Noah wished a good night to his guests, as well as all the girls living here, and retired to his room. He got rid of his Shinigami kimono, took a shower, and walked back to his bedroom to find Kaede and Suzu waiting for him.

"You endured a lot tonight, Master. How about we comfort you a little?" suggested Kaede.

Noah smiled warmly.

"I would love it. No sex tonight, but we can cuddle. Isn't it Suzu's turn to be in the middle?"

"Yes, Master." said Suzu in a small smile, already undressing.

Noah, Suzu and Kaede cuddled together under the covers, and as the girls started dozing off, Noah, his eyes closed and expression relaxed, was using Promise to scan his home and the surrounding garden, from top to bottom. And he found more electronic devices hidden in vents. The one in the living room, one in the kitchen, and six more in his own room, the media room, and the next four biggest bedrooms. He didn't know for how long those battery-powered cameras had been spying on his and his family, but someone was going to pay.

He already had an idea to trap whoever was behind it.