Title: Creatures of Myth: Hidden Enemies

Summary: Something strange is happening in Soul Society. Youkai have awakened after years of silent watching, and they're not exactly doing so peacefully. Hitsugaya Toushirou finds love in the strangest person, Inoue Orihime is discovered to be more than she believes, and Ichimaru Gin once again finds himself wrapped up in an evil plot. A hungry evil is lurking in the shadows of Seireitei, and it's dark plans threatens the lives of those Kurosaki Ichigo holds dear.

Major Pairings: Hitsugaya x OC, OC x Inoue Orihime, Ichimaru Gin x OC, Ichigo x Tatsuki, OC x OC. Mentions of Uryu x Nemu, Chad x Isane, and Renji x Rukia.

Rating: T (Heavy Gore (Cannibalism), some violence, and mild themes of a citrus fruit nature)

A/N: This idea will be a huge mix of inspiration I got from many other fics. For the first time, I'm trying out doing an outline so I know what I'm writing, so if you think this is good then… well… cool. Lol. For the first time in forever I'll know the basic plot events in each chapter so I'll know what the heck I'm doing beforehand! This story shall have order! The plot will make sense! You are going to notice some themes that this shares in common with the manga Black Bird (Such as Senka maidens), but please disregard them. This is my opinion of what Youkai would be like, please don't question it… I've done my research… I know what they're really like, but for the sake of this story, this is what they are like.

(Also, the quality of the writing takes a jump at chapter five. The quality itself and the presence of plot is insanely better once you reach chapter seven (where the plot suddenly morphs out of nowhere XD). I will work on overhauling the first four chapters of this fic when I get the time.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

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It was a calm night. The crickets chirped in the gardens of Seireitei, the beautiful glowing moon illuminating the world with its snow-colored light, bleaching the color from the roves of the many buildings. A slight breeze rustled the leaves, calming the sleeping spirits, but the wind, in reality, was an omen. Powers were stirring, old, primal, powers.

They were waiting. Tonight was an important night of diplomacy. If the deal was not struck, then, well, they might fight a war. The prophets among them had predicted that if a war was started, then the death count would be high, especially for the unknowing souls that inhabited the region.

Two lone figures met on Sokyoku Hill. Clad in loose cotton kimonos, the males stood at least five feet away from each other, their body language tense. It was obvious to any that these individuals were not normal souls, nor were they Shinigami, no, they were too powerful. Another thing set them apart from others. The silver-haired male had tails, nine of them, exactly, flowing out behind him, and the other with jet black hair, had large, black, shiny wings.

The winged male frowned, "Soma. I am saddened that we must meet under these unfortunate circumstances."

Flashing a grin, the other being laughed, "Unfortunate? The understatement of the eon, Shimizu. We're on the brink of war, and you say unfortunate? Well."

Shimizu sighed, and a gust of wind blew. "What does your clan want, Soma?"

The creature was silent for a moment before answering softly, his eyes cast down, "You're not going to like it."

"I await your answer, Soma," the man demanded harshly, scowling, "What will it take for an alliance?"

There was silence before Soma answered, "The Kitsune want a marriage between our clan and the Tengu clan," he said, somber.

Suddenly, the wind picked up, leaves were tossed around, branches were torn off trees, and the wind howled like never before. Shimizu eyes were wide with fury, "You want my Ao to marry Rentaro? Are you out of your mind, Soma?" he seethed.

The Kitsune's shoulders slumped. "Unlike you, Shimizu, I have to follow the will of the Soma elders. If the marriage does not occur, then you know what will happen. Or rather, what won't."

Shimizu stood tall. He had hoped that it wouldn't come to this. War was the last thing the Tengu wanted. He wasn't so sure about the Kitsune, but who knew? "I need a male heir that is a Tengu, Soma. If I marry off my only daughter to a Kitsune, then that will be impossible."

"I understand, Shimizu, but don't expect the elders to, also. If there is no alliance, then I cannot guarantee that we won't ever end up on opposite sides of a war."

The Tengu sighed.

"I'm sorry, Shimizu. I have no choice."

He nodded, "Likewise."

Shimizu suddenly realized the aura that hung just behind Soma. It was a dark aura that belonged to a dark being. He gasped in terror, "Soma, look out!"

The nine-tailed man turned, but not before the woman sprang. He screamed as its jaws closed on his neck, piercing his flesh and spreading its deadly venom in his veins. The red-eyed woman released the Kitsune's neck and backed away, licking her bloodied lips. Soma's tails disappeared, one-by-one, and he collapsed to the ground, beyond assistance.

Shimizu growled, "Shirohebi! Why? Your people have been allies with the Kitsune for thousands of years!"

The woman laughed. "True, but now they want to ally with you Tengu. That is unacceptable. Besides, it's not like this will spark a replay of the fifth Senka war. Damn that was nasty!" she tensed and threw several white objects at Shimizu. He caught them automatically, realizing too late what it was. It was simply packets of Shirohebi venom. Shimizu yelped and dropped them. One was empty and unwrapped.

The Shirohebi woman cackled, and ran.

Shimizu realized what the snake-demon had just done. She'd framed him for the Kitsune clan leader's death. This… was very bad.

A war would spark. The Shirohebi was right, it wouldn't be anything like the Fifth Senka war, but it would come close, definitely. There would be no attempt to negotiate from the Kitsune side, so the wise decision would be for the Tengu to forego all negotiations, also.

The Tengu flew off into the night. He needed not only to warn his people by sunrise, but he had a few favors to call in.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A woman in a darkly-colored Yukata sat in the garden of the Kuchiki family. Of course, nobody knew she was there. Especially not the Shinigami that lived in the manor. Her face was covered with a beautiful white mask, which she understood was risky around these parts, but she didn't care. The part around the mouth and nose lifted away from her face slightly, creating the illusion that she had a beak, but the rest was just shaped like a woman's face. She spent many nights walking in the Kuchiki gardens, and she'd given Kuchiki Byakuya a good scare once, but she was more careful nowadays not to show herself.

She almost wanted to sigh. Weren't the Shinigami supposed to be like those as herself? It was rumored that they once were, but certainly not in her lifetime.

"You there!" yelled a loud, male voice.

The woman ignored it, staying completely still, staring deeply into the koi pond, as always. They wouldn't be able to see her. Youkai were invisible to most Shinigami.

Footsteps approached her, and she began to become skeptical. She turned to face the men.

They stopped in their tracks and pulled out their Zanpakuto. There were two guards. "Shit! It's a hollow," one said fairly loudly.

Underneath her mask, the woman was stunned, fearful almost. Of course, they couldn't tell, for her face was covered. "You… Can see me?" she spoke, her voice like wind chimes.

The men showed no sign of answering her question. "Just attack it!" one called and ran at her with an unsheathed Zanpakuto.

Despite her initial bewilderment, she responded quickly and efficiently, concentrating energy in her hand before releasing it in a downwards swipe, cutting a not-so-shallow gash in the Shinigami's chest.

"Why you-" blood began to pour from the gash.

She put a hand to her mask, "Neither of you are Senka, obviously, nor do you have the Sight, so I am baffled as to why your eyes can see me," she said curtly.

The un-harmed one looked angry, "Of course we can see you; you're a Hollow!"

"Hollow? I am no such thing." She turned and began to walk away.

"So you're one of them Arrancar things, then, eh?"

She stopped, turned and glared, although they really couldn't tell that well because of the mask. "I am not of the Hollow family. Nor is my species in the same Phylum," she looked to the sky, golden hair ornaments jingling. "I shall be taking my leave now."

"What, you can't just…!"

Wings. Black, feathery wings unfurled from her back, and the Shinigami gazed in wonderment as the woman flew into the sky. One man quietly whispered "Tengu…"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"What do you mean, my father is dead!" shouted the young, silver-haired man.

The old gray-haired elder scowled, "He was killed by the Tengu clan leader, Shimizu Hakyu. Soma Rentaro-sama, you are the new clan leader, but of course, you still need to follow our orders, and we strongly suggest going to war with the Tengu clan."

Rentaro seemed shocked. "No! Ao would never…!"

"It was not Shimizu Ao-hime that committed this crime against us, Rentaro-sama," the elder stated. "Just because the offspring of a person would never do something, does not mean that their parent will not."

The Kitsune boy's gaze was cast to the floor. A red aura a anger and fire formed around him, frightening some of the weaker Kitsune in the room, "If its war then what then it's war they'll get."

The elder nodded. "If you please sir, relinquish all control over our forces during this wartime to us."

Rentaro nodded, "Yes, defeat our enemy, elders."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Have you heard?

Yeah. The Foxes and the Birds are going to war.

You know what that means, right?

Yep! We're free to do whatever we want while they're caught up with their own troubles!

The Rukongai… shall be ours!

Blood and chaos~~ Blood and chaos~~ Ooo, I'm getting the warm fuzzies just thinking about it!

This is going to be so fun!

So fun!

Blood!

Chaos!

Those high and mighty Shinigami won't know what hit them!

All us lower Youkai will finally get our chance to have some fun!

Blood!

Chaos!

Death!

Pain!

Destruction!

So fun!

So fun!

Let's have fun!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In a realm to the far north, a black clad man with black wings landed in the thin dusting of snow. He gazed around before calling out, "Mira!"

The snow lifted off the ground in flurries, swirling around one point until that small area was totally obscured from sight. Suddenly, the snow dropped to ground, lifeless again, but in its place was a woman, a beautiful woman that would remind some people Sode no Shirayuki. Actually, she looked so much like Rukia's Zanpakuto that they could be sisters, if such a thing was possible.

The woman had ice encrusted in her hair, giving the impression that she was wearing a glass tiara. Her face was as pale as the moon, but her lips were a bloody red, and at the moment were curled up in an uncharacteristically warm smile. When she spoke, her voice was as icicles, "Greetings, Shimizu-sama. What can we humble Yuki-onna do for you?"

"Drop the act, Mira. I've been framed for the murder of Soma Terusai."

She laughed, and some of the snow melted, only freeze back into ice. "Well, isn't that unpleasant, Hakyu, dear!"

"Mira, I'm serious, a war to rival the Fifth Senka war is about to erupt."

Mira suddenly seemed deadly serious, murderous intent lurking silently behind her gaze, undetected by either of them. "Shimizu, I was unaware we were back on a first name basis," she said, ice beginning to grow on the edges of the Tengu's wings. Hakyu could see the moisture of his breath in the cold air, and his exposed skin began to sting from the frost.

He shivered slightly, but his composure remained. "Gomenasai, Shiramae-sama."

Mira sighed, and the deadly cold evaporated, leaving behind an exasperated expression. "Well, what do you want me to do about it?"

"The Yuki-onna have great powers, am I correct?"

"Of course you are, Shimizu, those powers are the reason the Kitsune make sure we stay here in the north," she said, her voice as icicles again.

"Well, then, I have a proposal…"

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A/N: Not too weird? I kinda like it… Chapters will get longer… I promise… Rentaro will be a recurring character; you'll see him a lot, so will the Tengu woman, namely Shimizu Ao. Ao is the main character in this, but that's not evident in this first chapter. And before anyone assumes anything, Shiramae Mira is not who I am pairing with Toushirou. Shiramae has some history with Hakyu, though…

Youkai that have appeared so far:

Tengu: These play a large role in Japanese Mythology. They are often spirits of mountains, and they are known to be relatively peaceful. Shrines dedicated to Tengu are not uncommon.

Kitsune: Fox spirits. Japan is home to two races of very friendly foxes, and in history, humans and foxes interacted much. This is where Kitsune come from. Kitsune are generally kind… but mischievous. Kitsune can be men or women, even in Mythology.

Yuki-Onna: Literally, Snow-woman. Said to be spiteful ghosts of women who have died in a blizzard. There is a legend of a three men who, due to circumstances, had to journey out into the blizzard. They encountered the Yuki-Onna, who killed the first two, but kept the third alive and let him go because of his youth. She made him promise never to tell anyone of their meeting. So the boy grew older, married a beautiful wife and had children, and one day he decided to tell his wife about the woman he met one day in the blizzard that saved his life. His wife turned out to be the Yuki-Onna, and was upset that he told. But technically, he didn't, so she didn't kill him, but she left, melting into a pile of snow.

Shirohebi: (The author can't find anything on them because the world sucks and hates her. She didn't just make them up… They were in Black Bird!)