"Greetings, movers and shakers. Drago3511 here updating a long-since untouched story, and man this is the second time I've updated this first chapter. The first time was because I forgot to add a part into it. And now, the second time is because I looked it over again after wanting to start on chapter 2 and I noticed a TON of spelling and grammatical errors... Like Christ on a cross it was bad."

"Anyway, I finished watching the Bleach anime a few months again and was severely disappointed. Not just by the fact that it cut off from where it was right before the blood war, but also because the Fullbring arc was lackluster at best. If I end up doing that arc, which would be a story in itself instead of a continuation of Waging War, there will be a few changes to try and make it better. I can try, at the very least."

"Speaking of Waging War, I'm sure a lot of my Bleach fan readers would rather see that updated instead of a filler arc story, which is canon to my series because it was the BEST filler arc in my opinion. And don't worry, it'll get worked on. I have plans for both of these stories, believe you me. It's just a matter of having time to do it between work, my personal life, and now the holidays coming up to bring 2018 to a close."

Sean: "So in short, you'll do what you can."

"As always. Because as I've come to find, making promises is easier said than done when it comes to writing... god, I would suck if I ever went official. But anyway, enough about that, let's roll with the disclaimer! I do NOT own Bleach or any of its characters, stories, locations, Zanpakuto, etc. Those belong to Tite Kubo and DID belong to Studio Pierrot until the end of its production run."

BANKAI~

(Sean POV)

Ever since I got back from the world of MAR, things have gotten a little peaceful lately. I put most of my Ärm's away in the armory, keeping a couple on my person just because they look cool. There have been no Unversed attacks, and I actually got to enjoy last night with Aqua without any disturbances.

"So, where are we going this time?"

Speaking of disturbances, "I honestly don't know Doran. All I know is that there was a new path that manifested onto the Multiverse Pathway and I figured that the four of us could investigate it." I said. The four of us included myself, Doran, Lucas, and Elias. Normally, it would have just been me, Lucas, and Doran... but when I dragged Elias into this during the whole XANA thing and found out that he had Weapon blood during our time at Death City, he felt like he should come with us now and then.

We all got ready and changed our clothes. I wore a zipped up vest that was half-red on top, and half-black on the bottom. Underneath that was a black t-shirt, the sleeves showing past my vest. I wore my usual brown cargo pants, being held up by a black belt with a silver buckle. Black combat boots with red soles covered my feet and black and red fingerless gloves were on my hands.

Elias wore a standard yellow t-shirt with an open black vest on over it. He wore yellow sweatpants and black work boots as well.

Lucas was wearing a white t-shirt with black crossed belts strapped over his chest. He wore black workout pants with red drawstrings that were left untied. Orange and black sneakers donned his feet.

Doran decided to wear a white t-shirt with a black spiral design on it. Black pants covered his legs and he wore white combat boots on his feet, the boots had black straps in a criss-cross formation around his ankles, as well as black soles. An open gray trench coat covered his shoulders and arms, the tail split at his lower back and ended at his knees.

The four of us were currently walking down the Pathway and we took a left, heading down the new path and ignoring the eleven others. We eventually walked up to and through the swirling portal that leads to our current destination, everything else went blank after that.

(Timeskip - 1 hour)

I groggily woke up in front of a Japanese style house in the middle of the night. I was lying face down in the dirt and steadily got to my feet. I dusted myself off and saw a glint of moonlight reflect off of something metal, and it wasn't my belt, but rather something attached to my belt. I looked down to my right hip and saw a katana sheathed in a black sheath with a golden flame-decal styled guard and a crimson cloth wrapped hilt. I immediately checked my surroundings to find...

"Yep, I'm alone again." I said to no one.

"Excuse me, is someone there?" I heard a feminine voice ask. I turned my attention to the small house and watched the door slide open. When it was fully open, I saw a girl wearing a black shihakusho and black hakama pants, along with white tabi socks. She held a katana with a pink cloth wrapped hilt and she had some sort of badge tied to her left arm. When I looked up at her face, it was soft. She had black eyes and light black-brown hair tied into a bun with some of her hair framing her face.

"Um, hi there." I said nervously with a wave of my right hand.

Her face turned from soft to serious and she gripped the hilt of her blade, "Who are you?" she asked me. I jumped at the sudden change in tone of her voice.

"You don't look like a Soul Reaper, so why do you have a zanpakuto?"

'Soul Reaper, zanpakuto... why do these words sound so famili- CRAP, I'M IN BLEACH!'

"Um, the thing is... I'm not a Soul Reaper. I'm human." I said while putting my hands up defensively.

"My name is Sean Sky-Uchiha, what's yours?" I asked. Her face turned soft again and she let go of her sword.

"My name is Momo Hinamori, Lieutenant of Squad 5."

After she said her name, I saw a black butterfly flutter its way to her finger and land. When it did, her eyes went wide.

"What's this?" She asked.

The butterfly then flew off again and Momo slipped on some straw sandals and was about to run past me when I grabbed her wrist, "What's wrong?" I asked her.

"I've just been summoned by the Head Captain, along with a large group of my fellow Soul Reapers."

"Let me come with you, there's a good chance my friends might be there too." I said with a serious look.

Momo nodded and only said two words, "Hold on." Before I could even ask, everything became a blur.

(Lucas POV)

"Hey, wake up!" I heard being shouted by some guy. I opened my eyes and saw sideways feet and wide-rimmed black pants. I looked up to the person who owned said feet and pants and saw a guy with red hair pulled back into a spiky ponytail and a white cloth wrapped around his forehead.

"Ugh, could you gimme five more minutes?" I lazily asked with half-open eyes. I then felt myself get picked up by the back of my shirt and was directly eye-to-eye with this man.

"Whaddaya want pineapple head?" I asked half-awake. I could vaguely see a vein starting to bulge above the cloth on his head.

"What I want are some answers. What is a human doing in the Seireitei with a zanpakuto? Are you a friend of Ichigo's?"

"Listen, I don't know who this Ichigo guy is, where this Seireitei is, or what a zanpakuto is. What I do know is that I don't like having my shirt stretched out. So could you let me go?" I asked the red-head. I got what I wished for, he let me go... and I fell on my ass.

"Ow..." I complained until I saw a katana strapped to my belt. It was in a purple sheath and had a thunderbolt-shaped guard. The hilt was wrapped in an orange cloth.

I was brought out of my thoughts when I heard someone say, "Enough, Renji. We need to get going."

I looked behind the red-head, now identified as Renji, and saw a man with long black hair, with some of it being held by a hairpiece. I also noticed he was wearing a similar outfit to Renji, only he had on some sort of white jacket of some sort on too. The guy walked up to me and looked down to meet my gaze.

"I'm Byakuya Kuchiki, Captain of Squad Six. You've already met my Lieutenant, Renji Abari." Byakuya said, gesturing to Renji.

I got up to my feet and returned the greeting, "Lucas Typhoon, High School student."

"Tell me Lucas Typhoon, were you in a group with three others?" Byakuya asked me.

I nodded my head, "Yeah, those guys would be my friends. Do you know where they are?" I asked him. The stoic man closed his eyes for a second, almost as if he was concentrating on something.

He opened his eyes again a second later and continued to speak again, "Yes, I do. I sense one of them in the Squad Five barracks with the Lieutenant there and two more which are actually where Renji and I were called to. If you wish to reunite with your friends, then come with us." After he said that, he blurred out of sight, leaving me with Renji.

"Alright kid, let's get going." Renji grunted. He grabbed my left wrist and before I got to protest, everything vanished in the same blur that Byakuya did.

(Doran POV)

I slowly opened my eyes when I heard footsteps coming in my direction. When I opened them fully, I saw a clear night sky.

I sat upright and saw Elias to my left, in the same groggy manner that I'm in. I put my hands to my sides, but my left hand bumped into something. I looked down to see the hilt of katana in its sheath. The hilt was wrapped in black and white cloth, crisscrossing each other, the golden-copper guard looked like a clock face without any sort of number indication, and the sheath was a dull gray. I looked over at Elias, who was holding his own sword. The sheath was golden yellow, the guard looked like a buzz saw, and the hilt was wrapped in yellow and black cloth.

"Hey, who are you two?" I heard a woman ask. We both got to our feet and turned around to see two people, one was a woman of average height with short black hair and two braids wrapped in white cloth and suspended at the bottom of the braids were two gold rings. She was wearing a black shihakusho with a white jacket over it, black hakama pants, kung-fu shoes, and she had a sword strapped horizontally across her lower back.

The other one was a big guy wearing the same thing has the woman, only without the jacket and he was wearing tabi socks with straw sandals. He had a katana on his left side and also wore some sort of ridiculous purple collar sticking out of his shihakusho.

I looked over to Elias for support, but I noticed that he was looking at the woman with a blush on his face. I don't know why though, she doesn't look like the kind of woman he'd be interested in.

I sighed and faced the woman and the guy with the bad fashion sense, "Hi, I'm Doran Paradox and this is my friend Elias Frost. I know this may be hard to believe, but we don't know where we are or why we have these swords with us. We're looking for two of our friends, have you seen them?" I explained and asked. As if on cue, five figures blurred into existence between us and two of those figures happened to be Sean and Lucas!

"Wow, now THAT is the way to travel!" Sean exclaimed. He then let go of the person who he came here with, which was a girl with her hair tied up in a bun and was wearing the same black clothes as everyone else here except for us.

"Let go of me dammit!" I heard Lucas complain. I looked over in his direction and saw that he was trying to pry his arm out of the grip of a red-head whose hair was done up like a pineapple. The guy co-operated and let Lucas go, allowing him to fall on his ass.

"I really hate this place." I heard Lucas mutter. He then got up and walked over to me and Elias while Sean was doing the same, but with the girl following him.

"Hey guys, glad to see everyone's okay. I'd like you to meet Momo Hinamori." Sean said, motioning to the girl next to him. Said girl did a slight bow and smiled a little.

"Momo, these are my friends Lucas Typhoon, Doran Paradox, and Elias Frost. They're my best friends and we've been through a lot together."

"Yeah, like how we've almost been killed by some sort of power-hungry maniac or evil force about... fifty times! I lost track somewhere around 52." Lucas exclaimed while he crossed his arms. Sean sweatdropped at this.

"Aren't you exaggerating just a little?" He asked. Lucas just shrugged and looked around at all the other people in the black Japanese outfits.

"What do you think's going on here?" I turned around to see a guy in the same outfit with a white haori and a pink kimono over his shoulders and a straw hat on his head.

"I have no idea, Shunsui." replied a man with long white hair and a white haori. 'What do those haori represent? There only seem to be a few of these people wearing them, so they must mean something.' I thought, grip tightening on my katana.

(Sean POV)

There were eventually 20 or so people in the same garb surrounding me and my friends. There was a thick fog that surrounded us that seemed to lighten up as each moment went by. Eventually, it lifted completely and there was a single person in front of us. It was a man with tan skin, he had slicked-back silver hair and a dark grey mustache. The only thing that caught me off guard was that he collapsed for no reason a second later.

"Something's coming." I said. Everyone in the crowd looked at me with either a glare, wide-eyes, or a placid look.

"And whatever it is, it isn't friendly." I finished with a glare. Everyone turned in the direction of my glare to the cliff of the plateau we were all on.

A solid form suddenly phased in front of us. From what I could tell, it was a male with messy auburn hair. He was wearing a fur-collared white robe/coat and pointy shoes. He wore a brooch, and he had insanely long fingernails. He also had purple markings around his eyes.

"Who are you, and where is the Head Captain?" A man with a fox head shouted.

"I'm afraid that the Head Captain is... unavailable at the moment." The man responded. The fox-man flashed out of existence and then re-appeared in front of the man, like some form of teleportation.

"What did you do with Head Captain Yamamoto?" He demanded. The man just stayed silent. That's all I could tell from my perspective anyway.

"If you will not tell us..." He reached for his sword and removed it from its sheath. "...Then I shall BEAT the answer out of you!"

He took a vertical swing, but the man just backflips away closer to the cliff. He then stretched his palm out and a giant gust of wind was let out in the direction of our group.

'This isn't any ordinary wind, I just know it.'

The fox-man lifted his blade and shouted out, "Bankai!" A burst of neon red energy surrounded him and the ground started to shake. A huge suit of samurai armor burst from the earth.

"Kokujo Tengen Myou'ou!" The armor stood well over 100 feet tall above him.

'So this is Kokujo Tengen Myou'ou up close. I have to admit, it's a lot bigger than I thought it was.' I thought to myself. I then hardened my glare once again.

'But if this is all true, then Muramasa, the man in white, just separated all of the zanpakuto from their Soul Reapers with that gust of wind.'

But I snapped out of my thoughts when the large Bankai went in to attack... but it was aiming for Komamura, the fox-man!

"Get out of the way!" I shouted at him. Everything next was a blur. I moved quickly and tackled him out of the way of the gargantuan blade, just before it struck the ground.

When the dust cleared, I looked down to see Komamura, thankfully uninjured.

"Hey, are you alright big guy?" I asked him. He looked up at me with a shocked look on his canine face.

"You... saved me." he gasped out. I looked up at Kokujo Tengen Myou'ou, which burst into another gust of wind.

"Not yet." I muttered.

The wind blew violently for a minute before settling down. Gone was the towering form of Komamura's Bankai, and standing in its place was an eight-foot-tall man with navy blue hair and red skin. He had glowing eyes, had wrist guards, carried a bladed bolas, and wore some sort of tunic or toga around his waist.

"Yeah, out of the frying pan and into the fire." I muttered to myself. The giant disappeared and reappeared next to the man in white. A bunch of other figures also appeared out of thin air around the man. Many of them were very interesting looking, especially the gold baby with butterfly wings and the pink-furred cat girl.

I got up in front of Komamura and placed my hand on my new blade, my friends running up beside me and doing the same thing. Just as I was about to draw my sword from its sheath, I heard some feminine voice whisper in my head.

'You aren't worthy of wielding my power.'

After that sentence was spoken, I felt something being pulled from me. It wasn't just a feeling either, as a figure literally WALKED OUT OF MY BODY! It wasn't just me either! People walked out of Elias, Lucas, and Doran as well!

The person who walked out of my body was a woman, probably 18-20 years of age by looking at her. She had firey-red hair and deep orange eyes. She was wearing an open red kimono with long gold cuffed sleeves that cut off at her mid-thigh. Underneath that, she wore a silky red dress that was a shade darker than her kimono. She wore red heeled boots that were an inch high. Her fingers donned blood-red nail polish and she wore bright red lipstick as well. The most noticeable thing about her though was that she was holding a sword in her left hand by the sheath... and it was the same sword that was in my own hand!

The one who left Elias was a tan male with slicked black hair who was about 22. He had ominous purple eyes (Think Lelouch from Code Geass), and a cheeky grin on his face. He wore an onyx colored tank top and black leather armbands with gold plates. His legs were covered by gold hakama with black decals running along the cuffs that looked like saw teeth. His feet were covered by black leather shoes. A large brown shield was on his back that had metal bladed edges sticking out around it.

The next one walked out of Lucas. It was a large male, roughly 30 just by looking at him, who had shaggy black hair and fair colored skin, not too light, but not too tan. He had stormy gray eyes and a constant frown was etched into his face. He wore a blue robe with fur edges, making it look like some sort of king's robe. Underneath that, he wore a white frilled shirt with black bands around his wrists, gray pants that were held up by a black belt with a topaz jewel in the middle of the buckle. Strapped to his belt was a broadsword. His feet encased by royal black boots.

The last figure came out of Doran and was by far the most interesting one of all. It was a girl, roughly around our age, she had gray skin with white hair and black eyes. She was wearing a white tank top and a black frilled gothic skirt. Sticking out of her head was one white angel wing on her right side, and one black devil wing on her left side. He hands and forearms were black, ending in gray claws, as were her feet and calves. She didn't have a tail and wasn't holding a weapon of any sorts.

"Today marks the end of the reign of the Soul Reapers." The man in white stated. "The end of our oppression. Today marks a new era. The era of the rule... of the Zanpakuto!" He declared for everyone present.

I knew it, so we DO have Zanpakuto. I have no idea how this happened, but we have them... or, HAD them. Now, they want to kill us. I can only hope learning their names will save us, but we'll have to fight them to the best of our abilities before we can learn their names. I grit my teeth and glared at him.

"My name is Muramasa, and I have liberated your Zanpakuto from their bindings." Muramasa said.

"What do you mean by 'Liberated'?" Mayuri Kurotsuchi asked. To be honest, I was never fond of Mayuri. I don't necessarily hate him, but I dislike him. Plus, the guy just gives me the creeps. I hope I never run into Syazel.

"What I mean is that you no longer have the ability to use your Shikai or Bankai states, as your Zanpakuto's spirits no longer inhabit your swords." Muramasa explained. See, this is why I hate this guy's power. It's cheap. VERY, VERY CHEAP! Even though he said these words, many Soul Reapers tried to call out their Zanpakuto.

"Growl, Haineko!" No results.

"Extend, Hozukimaru!" Nada.

"Rain over the frosted heavens, Hyourinmaru!" Zip.

"Roar, Zabimaru!" Zilch.

"What's wrong with this thing?" Renji shouted as he shook his sword.

"It's true, all of our Zanpakuto are unresponsive." Rukia exclaimed.

Momo grabbed her sword and dropped to her knees. "No, Tobiume..." A lone tear fell from her face. That was the last straw. I unsheathed my katana and charged at Muramasa with a yell.

"Kaioken!" I shouted, a crimson aura surrounded my body. I reared back my sword and swung it horizontally at Muramasa, only to have it blocked by the girl in red's own sword. I widened my eyes as the collision canceled out my Kaioken. The girl had a bored look on her face and scoffed at me.

"Pathetic." She said. With a single flick of her wrist, she knocked my sword out of my hands. I was surprised at how strong she was. "And you're my so-called 'master'? Unforgivable." She kicked me in the chest and sent me flying back to the crowd. The kick was plenty strong, but the fact that she was wearing heels made it even more painful.

"Sean!" My friends called out to me. All three of them managed to catch me and cushion my impact. My sword landed in front of me, sticking into the ground. I grit my teeth again and leaned out of my comrades hold, gripping the hilt of my sword. The girl huffed again and sheathed her own blade.

"Learn my name, and maybe next time I won't hold back on you." that shocked me to my core. She was holding back? Muramasa grinned.

"Now, now, my dear. Save your strength for the true fight." Summoning his own sword, Muramasa stabbed it into the ground and waves of energy shot out towards us, causing the ground in front of the crowd of Soul Reapers to shatter and rise up into the air like an elevated platform where they all looked down on us like we were ants waiting to get stepped on. This.. was only the beginning."

"Geez, even the footnotes I forgot to change. Goes to show how long I've been out of it with this story. And all my others... I know I'm shitty with my updating. But hey, I've got some renewed energy to tackle this story again so I'll try and keep at it for a while. And stay on the lookout for any other story updates that may come in the future."

"I just realized I have three Bleach stories right now... each one completely different in where it starts. And I'm planning on a fourth one that surprisingly, won't focus on an OC. It'll be one of those "what if Ichigo had a different Zanpakuto" stories that I'm sure there's at least one per fandom out there."

"Well, time to get to work then. Until the next chapter, ja ne!"