(I know Michigan does. I don't ski like some people do. Tried once years ago, but always ended up on my bottom. Winter is the only season I don't like. )


Unohana was a bit surprised to see that Captain Kuchiki's gate had arrived below the shop. She would have to mention something before they left having the feeling that something might be wrong with the gates." Are we ready to head up?" She suggested with a smile.She understood why Travis didn't meet them down here, sensing he might still be a little tense.

(*innocent* I am not laughing, not at all. But at least your state is use to snow. Everything in NC closes down with an INCH of snow, and sometimes have 2 hour delays when it is predicted. *insert anime sweatdrop here*)

Byakuya nodded, as he headed up first. The reason he was here in the first place was that he had wanted to meet Travis and get to know him before starting to trust him.

( for the most part we are. We sometimes get bad snowstorms that have our road crews working overtime. Then we can get what's called thunder snow. Which is a snow shower with thunder.its a cool phenomena. That's not good. Things don't close unless its really bad. Then the schools close. My college has closed down a few times because of bad storms)

Unohana followed once Byakuya had climbed up. She was willing to give Travis a chance, knowing it was a big risk on his part to take. She respected that he wanted to try to build an alliance but first wanted to get to know him better.

Travis saw one of the captains appear and assumed that the male was Captain Kuchiki. He knew the here in Japan people were more formal to each other and he wanted to be respectful of their customs.

(...Thunder Snow sounds like an interesing jutsu name lol. Anyways, as long as you're safe, that's all that matters, right?)

"Travis-san, correct?" Byakuya asked, sizing him up as Unohana climbed up the rest of the rungs of the ladder. He noticed that he was being respectful, which surprised the noble male greatly. 'That's a good start...he's actually respectable, unlike some other shinigami I know,' the Kuchiki male thought to himself.

Unknown to Byakuya, his thought triggered two Kurosaki males to sneeze.

(It does doesn't it? Right. When they say keep off the roads I keep off the roads. )
" You are correct sir. And you must be Captain Kuchiki. " Travis said after he made a slight bow.

" It's nice to meet you Travis-San. I'm Captain Unohana. We both have heard much about you. Are we ready to start?" She asked.

"It is nice to make your acquaintance Unohana-san and I thank you both for taking the time to meet with me," Travis responded before responding that he was ready to speak with them both. He just hoped that after everything was over that the shinigami would be willing to work with the Quincy again...minus the ones who were part of the Vandenreich of course.

" Let's head to the back room so we can relax. Tessai has tea and some breakfast ready back there if you are interested." Urahara said leading the way to the backroom. He had a good feeling that this meeting would go well.

Unohana thought that breakfast was a wonderful idea and agreed for them to move into the back room. She thought that she felt a seal for a few seconds but didn't ask Kisuke about it, knowing that it was most likely one of his crazy inventions.

Travis thought everything smelled good since he had been too nervous to eat this morning. He sat down after the others had and started started to eat.

Urahara was glad that everyone was relaxing a bit. He knew a lot depended on this meeting. " Does anyone need anything else. " He asked after a little bit .

Byakuya nodded in appreciation, glad that Kisuke had thought of this and shook his head lightly in response.

Unohana looked at the breakfast that Kisuke had laid out for them. "Thank you Kisuke-san, for going towards all of this trouble," she said.

" Yes. Thank you. Kisuke-san." Travis said with a smile.

" You three are welcome. Tessai, Yoruichi and myself had a discussion on how to make this important meeting much easier on all of us. So we thought that having breakfast before the talks would be a good chance to get things off to a great start. "Urahara said with a grin.

"Speaking of which, where is Yoruichi-san?" Unohana asked, curious as to where her friend was.

" Yoruichi is spending some time with Katia and helping her with her training. I have a feeling that you both know about the Seer that was captured in Australia this morning. " Kisuke said in a serious voice. He had been the one who helped Tetsu get in touch with the Australian Shinigami. He knew they both did their best in trying to fight off the Vandenreich.

Travis cursed under his breath at that new" I apologize. " He said quickly feeling guilty for cursing in front of a lady. " The Vandenriech sometimes cause me to forget my manners briefly. " He said.

"It's understandable Travis-san," Byakuya said, knowing that the Vandenreich would annoy any Quincy member, just like how mentioning Aizen would get a scowl out of even someone as reserved as himself or something worse. He believed that the General Commander Captain was going to talk about the kidnapped Seer and see what they could do.

"I see," she said, nodding lightly in response. She knew that it was going to get harder for Hoshi and Katia, especially if they were unable to rescue the Seer that was captured in Australia.

" We're going to have to find a way to keep Katia and Hoshi safer. I've talked to Tetsu and he agrees that we need tohelp them get stronger to hold off what I think the Vandenreich have planned. It's dangerous for a Seer not to have visions. " Urahara said.

" I'm willing to help them as much as I can. " Travis offered. He knew he would be able to help with Katia's training it didn't know much about Seer abilities.

"I'm sure that Katia-san will be glad to hear that, and I'll make sure that someone from my unit keeps an eye on your family Travis-san," Byakuya said. He wasn't sure if the Vandenreich members would attack his family once they found out that he was helping, but the noble thought it was a good idea to do so, just in case.

" Thank you so much Capatin Kuchiki. You don't know how much this means to me." Travis said and stood to give a bow of thanks. His biggest fear was losing his family. " I'll let my wife know about this. She has some spiritual awareness and gets tense when she senses things she doesn't expect." He explained.

Byakuya nodded, glad that his act of good faith was appreciated. "You're welcome, Travis-san," was all that he said.

Travis sat back down glad that his family would be safe. He didn't want his children to suffer the loss of him and their mother like his father Joseph had ." You probably want to know if my family ever had any affiliation with the Vandernrich,." He said. he knew they needed to know that not all Quincy willingly joined.

Unohana nodded, wanting to know just what he meant by that statement.

" My father Joseph and his older brother Thomas were once members of the Vandenreich. But it wasn't their choice.Their parents were Quincies and had begun to train them both. That was when some members of the Vandenreich tried to get my grandfather Reid to join them, and he refused. Sometime later my grandparents were killed in an a staged auto accident. My uncle and father were taken by the Vandenreich and were trained for almost 6 years. My Uncle divided a distraction and escaped with my father back to this world. My dad said he had nightmares for years and feared the Vandenreich would kill him and my mom and kidnap me and my younger sister.He always said that he would rather be killed by the Shinigami than be taken by the Vandenreich. He said that any punishment they give is much worse than death itself. " Travis said. This was hard for him to talk about, but he knew it needed to be said.

Kisuke listened to the story, finding the similarities of what happened to Katia highly obvious. He had a feeling that the leader of the Vandenreichs had something to do with their death, but he wasn't sure how he exactly did it. It seemed as if this had also happened with Travis. "But your uncle and father were able to get out, which means they didn't want to help them. I'm sure I can speak for both Byakuya-san and Unohana-san when saying that we wouldn't hold anything against them, or you for that matter."

Both Byakuya and Unohana nodded at Kisuke's statement. However, Byakuya was curious about one thing. "When Katia was captured by Kurosaki and my Imouto, Katia could only call the higher ups 'Leader' and 'Uncle'. Would you happen to have any more information that your father and/or uncle were able to find out?" Byakuya asked, although he wouldn't be offended if Travis decided not to answer.

" Unfortunately I don't. I was only told this a few months before my Dad died. I had always wondered what had happened to his parents and was surprised when he told me this. Even if I would have asked him more he wouldn't have told me. He had a way of saying a topic wasn't to be asked about and his time with the Vandenreich was one. I do know they are known to kill Seers because to them Seers are traitors to the human race. In reality the Seers kept out of the fight between the Shinigami and Quincies because they knew they would be out matched. He did tell me once that over the last 60 years or so, Quincies had been going missing. He didn't know if it was the Vandenreich or something else entirely. " Travis said hoping for some answers.

Byakuya sighed lightly at that, hoping they would be able to find the names of the two people who were in charge of the Vandenreich. He was worried when Travis mentioned about them killing Seers as indiscriminately as they killed the Quincies, but why would they be considered traitors and voiced the question aloud to Travis. After asking his question, he voiced that the only theory he had was that the current 12th Captain had something to do with it, but he wasn't sure about it. He still didn't understand why Kisuke freed him from that jail so long ago.

" It might be because of the connection the Seers have to the unknown I guess. They might feel threatened by the visions Seers have and how they might be able to change an event , or inadvertently cause one. According to a legend , there was a Seer who saw of a terrible massacre and had no idea it was Quincies they saw dying. They didn't do anything to prevent it because they feared if they did do something that would be the reason for the great loss of lives. Unfortunately , it was just the opposite. The non- Vandenriech Quincy don't hold the Seers accountable for what happened. We know they are human like we are and understand that mistakes can be made. But the Vandenreich don't see the Seers as human , but more like some odd abomination to what is considered normal. See , most groups have an origin story of how their people came to be. Such as the Quincy , who have been around for almost 1900 years. Seers on the other hand , have been found as far back as Ancient Greece and possibly Ancient Egypt or even further in unrecorded history. They don't have a definite date of their origins and to some that might be unnerving. I'm not sure how far back the Shinigami go but do assume you might know. I apologize for the history lesson of sorts. My ancestors have always been the history keepers of the Quincy and I find this stuff fascinating. " Travis said.He was deeply bothered by the information that it was a possibly a Shimigami. Tetsu had warned him of this 12 Division captain once. He just hoped he never met the guy in person.