Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of its characters; they belong to the great artist, Kubo Tite. I am merely a fan of the series with a large imagination and a want to share these imaginations with fellow fan fiction lovers! Comments are always loved!

Chapter one: Attack in the Crater

Nanao pelted across the moor, sounds of battle echoing all around her. Squad 8, her squad, had been sent to the area to fend off a recent infestation of hollows currently invading the area. It was a desolate location in the world of the living, therefore, it didn't have any extra shinigami patrolling the area which allowed the hollow number to grow and expand across the open stretch of land.

As she ran through the battlefield, fear prickled deep in the young lieutenant's heart: it looked as if squad 8 were losing. The number of hollows was at least triple the amount of the soul reapers and as the battle dragged on, more and more kept coming. What bothered Nanao the most, were all the bodies of her comrades lying on the ground, either dead or severely wounded. 'How long is this going to drag on?' she thought despairingly. 'Just how many shinigami will die here?' She skidded to a halt as a hollow jumped in front of her; it was one of the larger, therefore, more powerful ones.

Nanao raised her hand and shouted a quick incantation, instantly she shot a blast of kido at the hollow, grazing its shoulder. The hollow reared back roaring in pain and immediately its tail lashed out, slicing a deep jagged wound across the dazed fukutaicho's arm. Nanao gasped and her hand shot to her shoulder, gripping the wound and instantly feeling a heavily flow of blood seeping through her uniform and soaking her arm and hand.

'An eye for an eye? Try an arm for an arm!' Nanao thought bitterly. 'Funnily enough I didn't really believe that phrase till now anyway! Guess that's one lesson I sure got to learn the hard way!' Nanao then stared at her opponent; the fast regeneration skills known to most hollow were starting to kick in and in a few seconds she was the only one with a wound. 'Damn it! I don't have to for this! I have to get to him!' The lieutenant reached out with her mind, searching out for the reiraku she had been following before the hollow interrupted her. 'There it is; he's close by.' She thought relief, focusing on the hollow again; she just had to get past it and then she would be at his side.

Nanao closed her eyes, thinking fast; she tried to recall a powerful kido spell she could use now and take care of the hollow in one blow. There were plenty of spells; she just had to decide the right one with the easiest incantation.

"Got it!" She exclaimed opening her eyes, and it perfect time too; the hollow lunged for her, opening its jaws, trying to land a bite on her with its sharp saber-like fangs. She dodged quickly, not wanting to receive another wound like before, and raised up her hand beginning an incantation.

"First Movement: Shiryuu, Second Movement: Hyakurensan, Final Movement: Bankintaihou! Bakudou 99 Version 2: Bankin" as Nanao shouted this, the incantation took place in steps. With the first step, Shiryuu, white cloth wrapped itself around the hollow, binding its arms and tail to its body. In the second movement, Hyakurensan, metal spikes shot from Nanao's hand, piercing the hollows body, further preventing the removal of the cloth binding the hollow; and finally, in the last part, Bankintaihou, a huge slab of stone formed about the hollow, and came down hard upon it. Immediately the hollow's skull burst into smithereens while the rest of the body turning into dust and blew away in the wind. The exhausted lieutenant panted in relief, but then turned almost instantly and started flash-stepping away again.

Nanao ran for barely a few seconds but have covered nearly the whole moor where the battle was taking place, when she reached a large crater in the ground; huge masses of reiatsu were pouring out of that 'war pit'. Nanao, as accomplished at reiatsu sensing as she was at kido spells, could instantly tell it was her captain, Shunsui Kyoraku facing an arrancar level hollow. Nanao flash-stepped to the edge of the crater and stared inside it, watching the fight that was taking place there.

Shunsui and an arrancar Nanao didn't recognize from any previous fights or descriptions were heavily engaged in combat. The arrancar had shoulder length navy-blue hair and a bone headband with small antelope antlers (the actually part of his hollow mask he kept). He wore a long, zipped-up, white trench coat over skin-tight black pants that extended all the way into the brims of his snow white rain boots; over his trench coat, he wore a sleeveless black vest. On his face were distorted bright blue lighting markings right under his eyes which were matched by replica markings on his black fingerless gloves; they were even the same shade of blue. The arrancar's zanpakutou was a long two-handed katana, whose hilt was wrapped in a material the same shade of navy as his hair and two long stings extended from the hilt, and at the tips two sapphires were embedded into the material. Everything about this man seamed to match some part of him somewhere else; in fact, the only oddity about him was his bright green eyes.

Even though he held a proud heir about him, the arrancar's clothes were torn in multiple places and it was easy to see the bright crimson splashes of blood against the pale white of his outfit. Ever part of the arrancar's mask was chipped. Shunsui also looked battle worn; his prized pink kimono lay abandoned upon the ground and his hat lay beside, looking battered and as if it would burst into dust by just looking at it. His chestnut colored hair lay tangled about him and pieces of it clung to his sweat-damp face from when they had fallen lose from his pony-tail. There were deep cuts all along his body, the most prominent being the one just above his left eyebrow, which showed signs of hindering his sight partially. Both of the fighters showed signs that they were near their limit and Nanao knew they wouldn't last much longer.

"I don't believe I caught your name, Arrancar-san." Shunsui said after parrying a blow and flash-stepping away.

"It's Denkou Ryoushi. Not that it matters much to you, Shinigami. By the time you've gotten to memorize it, you'll be long dead and I gone!" the arrancar smirked.

"Well, that's not very polite. Not to mention, you didn't even ask me my name yet either. How can you stand to kill a person and not even know their name?"

"How can I stand it? I'm a hollow; I have no feelings. Killing a person without knowing their name is perfectly fine in my book. Why wouldn't it be?"

"I'm afraid this is where we have to agree to disagree, Denkou-san." Shunsui replied heavily. "I feel it shameful to not give you opponent the honor of at least knowing their name when you kill them. It lets them know their memory clung to something when they leave."

"Like I care; but I can tell you'll drag this out anyway. What is your name then, hard-head?"

"No, I don't think anyone is named Hard-head where I come from." Shunsui replied with a grin. "The name's Shunsui Kyoraku, captain of squad eight."

"Well then, Kyoraku-san, you can die here now knowing that I laughed at your silly ways and your ridiculous memory!" Denkou sneered before appearing behind Shunsui. He released a frenzy of attacks and knocked Shunsui off his feet and leapt back before charging up a cero. Shunsui brought his twin-swords up to parry the cero, but left himself open as Denkou lunged forward with a sword thrust.

Nanao knew there was only enough time for actions; thinking was too slow in a moment like this. Know she had just a few seconds to do anything to save him; Nanao flung herself off the cliff and in between Shunsui and Denkou's sword. She couldn't stifle the cry of pain that tore from her lips as the arrancar's sword plunged through her abdomen, sending waves of scorching pain through her whole body; instantly she felt the sword wrenched forcibly out and she collapsed onto the ground, writhing in pain and clutching the fresh wound. Everything started fading and she couldn't see or hear anything clearly; it's like she was in the haze you get right after waking up.

There was a strangled cry, lots of shouts, the zipping sounds that were made by a gargantua, and then Nanao was slipping away. However, right before she lost all recognition of anything, she could have sworn the Kyoraku-taichou's face kept swimming in and out of focus above her own.

Author's Note: Well, here it is at last! The first chapter to my first ever fan fiction! Love it? Hate it? Let me know! I'm currently typing up chapter two, but I've already writing up through chapter four. Any tips are welcome and comments are loved! Hope you all like Denkou Ryoushi..well, like him as much as you can like the big, evil, bad guy. (He'll be back! Where we'll get to see what he can really do) Also, for those who say it's odd for them to get taken down by a low-level arrancar, this was when the arrancar first started showing up and the captains were having trouble gauging their strength. Just for the record, yes, I do rotate some words between English and Japanese for a more culturally diverse mood. (such as fukutaichou and lieutenant; taichou and captain; ect.) I also love prefixes like the '-chan' and '-san' parts as well!