Her Turn
Summary: This time, she would save him. No matter the costs.
xoxoxo
She stepped calmly over the guards mangled body, shaking the blood off her Zanpakuto as she went. Somewhere in the distance she heard the sound of alarm bells ringing and quickened her pace.
There would be no point in all of this if she got caught after all.
Exactly seventeen other idiotic guards met the wrath of her Zanpakuto before she finally met her target. As she cut them down one by one, she wondered half-heartedly if she was supposed to be feeling remorse for their needless deaths.
She wondered if she would feel remorse for killing her target.
She was tearing apart a family after all.
She found him sitting in a rocking chair next to his young son's bed. He did not look up when she entered the room, her Zanpakuto scraping ominously on the floor; instead he simply chuckled, as if he were expecting her.
"Don't hurt them," he said simply, standing up from his chair, "give me your word, you won't hurt them."
She nodded. Her mission brief only required that he be killed, and besides, killing sleeping children often left a funny taste in her mouth.
"And…" he paused and looked at her imploringly, "and there is no other way to settle this?"
She shook her head. Her master's orders were very specific after all.
Kill The King.
"What do you hope to achieve by killing me? The realm will only become more unstable with my death. Is that what you want? Is that what he wants?"
She shrugged. What happened to the realm after his death was not her concern. As long as she got what she wanted, she could care less.
"I suppose he thinks he can do something?" he scoffed, "there is nothing he can do."
She started slightly once he began making his way towards her.
"I don't want to stain my son's bedroom with my blood," he said simply, pushing past her and walking into the corridor.
"You aren't going to fight back?" she spoke quietly as she followed him, closing the bedroom door behind her.
He shook his head, "no doubt you've heard the reports?"
She nodded.
"Then that should be answer enough."
"I promise my blade will not touch your family," she said softly as she unsheathed her blade, "Remove, Meimei!" she cried before lunging forward.
In thirty seconds, he was dead.
She worked quickly after that, removing the slim bottle of reiatsu she had been given by her master. She mumbled a quick kido spell to secure her surroundings, before uncorking the bottle and pouring the reiatsu over the body of the man.
Once she had completed the task she took a few seconds to stare at his body.
She wondered why she felt nothing for the man she had just brutally killed.
The sound of hurrying footsteps interrupted her reverie and she turned and fled, disappearing into the darkness.
It was quite an odd feeling really.
She had just killed The Spirit King, and nobody would ever know who it was.
xoxoxo
1
His breathing was oddly erratic as he shot out of bed, as if he had just been struck by lightning. Groaning as he ran a hand through his spiky orange locks, moistened with sweat, he slumped back into bed and glared angrily at his ceiling, as if it had personally wronged him in some way. Not for the first time in the last week, Ichigo Kurosaki felt extremely uneasy. As if someone were watching him. The feeling of paranoia had gotten so bad that he hadn't been able to sleep for more than three consecutive hours before his body would violently wake him up, forcing him to search for a potential threat.
It was getting to the point that he wished he had actually paid more attention to Rukia when she was explaining to him the basics of detecting another person's reiatsu. As it stood, his skills in that particular department were extremely limited. The only people who he could accurately seek out by their reiatsu were Chad and, to his surprise, Orihime.
A deep sigh fell from his parted lips as he tried in vain, once again, to detect the reiatsu of his apparent intruder. During the last few weeks he wondered if he was going crazy. Perhaps the strain of being a Shinigami was finally getting to him. He was only 18 years old after all, and had spent the last three years doing things that no teenager should ever have experienced. He had literally gone to Hell and back, to not suffer from it mentally would have been a miracle.
His eyes flickered to the alarm clock that sat atop his chest of drawers and he groaned once more after seeing the time. It was barely after 3am and he reckoned he had about another three hours sleep before his paranoia woke him up again. After glancing around his room suspiciously for a final time, he finally tugged his covers over his head and soon settled into a fitful sleep.
xoxoxo
Orihime Inoue stared suspiciously out into the darkened sky of Karakura, her brows furrowed as she scanned the night sky for an intruder. Not for the first time in the last week, she could sense a foreign reiatsu and it made her worried.
She was almost certain that the reiatsu belonged to a Shinigami, which helped to ease her worries slightly since she knew they weren't going to be attacked by a rogue Arrancar anytime soon, but it didn't help that the mystery Shinigami seemed determined not to make his or her presence known. A week ago, when she first sensed the reiatsu, she had searched out for the Shinigami, but she never found anyone.
She had considered telling her friends about her worries that they were being spied on by Shinigami, but she opted against it. Whilst Chad would probably take a calm approach to the news, she knew that both Ichigo and Uryu would most likely fly into a rage and attempt to harm the Shinigami, and who knew what trouble that could bring for them.
With a soft sigh, she drew her gaze away from her window and snuggled down deeper under her bed covers, mumbling a soft wish of protection for her friends and Karakura Town. She sincerely hoped that the appearance of the foreign reiatsu wasn't going to stir up the odd sense of calm that had instilled over her usually hectic life.
For the first time in the three years since she had received her powers, Orihime and her group of highly unorthodox friends found themselves more or less completely removed from the spirit world. Aside from the odd Hollow, (which was more often than not, taken care of by the Shinigami stationed in Karakura), they had nothing to do.
They actually got to live like the teenagers they were, and Orihime could admit that she was enjoying in wholly. She was extremely grateful for her powers, but it was nice to be able to simply hang out with her friends without having to worry about if they were going to be attacked.
It also gave her the chance to become closer with all her friends.
A small smiled lit up her face as she lay in bed, the smiling faces of all her friends drifting into the forefront of her mind. They were more than friends to her now, they were her family.
Her thoughts predictably drifted towards a particular member of her makeshift "family".
Ichigo.
Even now, her stomach developed tiny fluttering butterflies every time she thought of the scowling orange haired boy.
Since the defeat of Aizen she had done her best to quell her feelings for him. There was no point in chasing after him like some sort of lovesick puppy after all. That didn't mean she would ever stop loving him, no, she had already surmised that Ichigo Kurosaki would always hold a special place in her heart. He was her first love after all, and she promised herself that she would always be there for him. If she couldn't do that as a lover, then she would do it as a friend.
It was a difficult task, and the decision to step away from him in that respect weighed heavily on her heart for a while.
To her surprise, it had been Tatsuki who had contested Orihime's decision to take a step away from Ichigo. The fiery black haired woman had to stop herself from physically slapping some sense into Orihime. She'd known her long enough to know that what Orihime felt for him wasn't a silly crush, it was true love, and it baffled her to see her best friend so calmly agree to let her love dwindle.
"You deserve more than that!" she had yelled, feeling angry on Orihime's behalf, "you deserve more than to let your feelings die just because he's a complete moron! Just tell him how you feel!"
But Orihime had simply smiled and shook her head. She wasn't going to confess. He had done so much for her after all; burdening him with her silly feelings seemed cruel.
It took a while to convince Tatsuki not to "go over there and pummel some sense into that jerk", but eventually she agreed to respect Orihime's decision.
Nibbling her bottom lip lightly, she tugged her bedcovers over her head and squeezed her eyes shut. A while had passed since her she had made her choice in regards to Ichigo, and she still had strong feelings for him. She wasn't naïve enough to think that her feelings for Ichigo would suddenly evaporate over night, but she would have been fooling herself if she didn't admit that she had hoped they would have lessened by now.
She sighed once more before succumbing to a sleep filled with brightly coloured dreams.
xoxoxo
"So, where are you going? What're you doing tonight?"
"Work."
"But you worked last night!"
"Yeah, I did."
"And the night before!"
"Yeah."
"And -"
"Keigo, shut up," Ichigo growled, using all his self-control to stop himself from swiftly punching Keigo in the face to stop his ridiculous rambling. As usual, Keigo did not heed Ichigo's warning.
"I'm just saying," he continued to wail, oblivious to Ichigo's twitching fist, "it's pretty suspicious, isn't it Mizuiro," Keigo roughly poked Mizuiro in the gut.
"Hm?" the boy in question asked, lifting his head up from his mobile for just long enough to assess the situation. Keigo was being annoying - as per usual. And Ichigo was gearing himself up to punch him - as per usual.
"He clearly has another group of secret friends!" Keigo concluded, fake tears streaming from his eyes, "that's it, isn't it Ichigo? You're embarrassed to introduce us to your new friends aren't you? I bet they're a bunch of super hot, sexy ladies with gigantic boobs! Oh the horror~" he continued to blubber, "how selfish of you to keep them hidden away from us, you're supposed best fr-"
Ichigo snapped.
One foot collided with Keigo's face and sent him reeling backwards, blood spurting out of his nose.
"I thought I told you to shut up," Ichigo muttered, ignoring Keigo's new wails of sadness over the fact that Ichigo had attacked him once again.
Mizuiro quietly pocketed his phone, shaking his head with a smirk on his face. They were both so predictable with their actions. If Mizuiro didn't know better, he would have thought Keigo was something of a sadist with the way he continued to rile Ichigo up, knowing it wouldn't end well for him.
"Where are you going?" Mizuiro asked softly, falling into step with Ichigo, both leaving Keigo "crying" by the curb, "you don't usually walk this way home."
"Work," Ichigo lied quickly, running a nervous hand through his orange locks, "that crazy boss of mine keeps making pick up deliveries from all over the place." Well, at least that part wasn't as big a lie, his boss did keep making him trek all over Karakura to drop off or pick up things.
"Ah," he replied simply, before retrieving his phone from his pocket.
Ichigo shot his friend a sideways glance. Mizuiro was a quiet guy, but Ichigo got the feeling that he knew a lot more than he let on.
Shrugging it off, Ichigo and Mizuiro walked on in a comfortable silence, which was soon ruined by a grumbling Keigo, (though they both ignored him).
They walked for about fifteen minutes longer before Ichigo waved to his friends and turned down a small side road.
In truth, he was not doing a job for work.
He was visiting Urahara.
His eyebrow began to twitch in premature annoyance as he pictured the crafty blonde haired shopkeeper. It wasn't like he didn't like Urahara, (he did just about like him), he just found that his patience levels lowered to a minimum whenever he was in his presence. But, he could admit that Urahara was a useful ally and he needed his help.
The paranoia that someone was following him was becoming too much for him to handle, and he figured that if he wanted to get closer to figuring out who it was, Urahara was his best bet.
He opted not to inform his "spiritually in tune" friends about it, deciding that there was no point in worrying them about something that could have very well been all in his mind.
Especially her.
His eyes narrowed slightly, but he couldn't help but reluctantly agree with his Hollow. Worrying Orihime was definitely high on his list of things he didn't want to do. She had gone through so much because of him, been put in so many dangerous situations because of his unstable powers, he made a personal vow to keep her out of danger wherever possible. She didn't deserve to be burdened by him in that way anymore.
When he arrived in Urahara's dusty courtyard, he found Jinta and Ururu dutifully sweeping the yard. Or rather, he found Ururu trying her best to sweep whilst Jinta lolled lazily on the steps, sipping a can of lemonade.
"Hey Ururu," Ichigo waved politely to the young teen as he strolled through the yard.
"Hm?" Ururu glanced up from the floor, "ah…Ichigo-san!" she bowed her head, "good afternoon."
"Oi!"
Ichigo's eyes narrowed as he walked passed Jinta without a word of greeting. The kid was a brat and Ichigo usually tried his best to keep away from him.
He swiftly strode through the doors and was about to slide them firmly shut, but instead froze as he caught the end of Jinta's annoyed mumbling,
"What the hell are you all doing here anyway?"
"Who?" he asked, confused.
"You and your friends, idiot," Jinta added cheekily, before jumping up and dashing away, just in time to avoid Ichigo's foot.
Ichigo's brows furrowed in confusion at Jinta's words. To his knowledge, his friends had no reason to visit Urahara.
Still confused, he stepped into the store and walked with familiarity to the little room out back where Urahara and his visitors often congregated.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"I asked first!"
Urahara used his fan to hide his smirk as both Ichigo and Uryu glared at each other from across the room, both teens demanding to know what the other was doing. He had missed their pointless bickering.
"Ichigo."
Ichigo paused in his argument with Uryu and turned around.
"Chad?" he asked in confusion, staring at the young man sitting patiently in the corner of the room, watching their argument with amusement, "what the hell are you doing here?"
Chad opened his mouth to answer Ichigo's question, but was cut off my Urahara.
"I think," he said pointedly, "we should save all questions until our final guest has arrived."
"Final…guest?"
As if she were simply waiting for her cue, the sliding doors on the other end of the room slid open and their final guest arrived.
"I'm so sorry I'm late Urahara-san!" Orihime gushed as she kicked her shoes off and entered the room, "a little girl got her poor kitten stuck in a tree in the park and, well…I couldn't just leave her crying there so I had to shimmy up the tree and rescue it and then-"
"Good afternoon to you to Orihime-chan," he said hastily, cutting the busty young woman off before she could get carried away recounting her tale, "we haven't been waiting long. Ichigo just arrived a few seconds before you."
"Oh, that's good then, I…" she paused; finally taking in what Urahara had said. Blinking slowly she surveyed the room, "Uryu-kun?" she mumbled with furrowed brows as she finally noticed her bespectacled friend.
"Orihime-san," he nodded politely to her.
"Sado-kun?"
"Hey."
And finally,
"K-Kurosaki-kun?"
Ichigo said nothing, seemingly just as confused as she was.
"What the fuck is going on here?" he asked Urahara directly, "why is everyone here? I thought I told you I didn't want to get them involved!"
"Tut tut Ichigo," Urahara murmured as Orihime settled herself onto one of the pillows on the floor that had been set out for them, "always trying to shoulder the burden on yourself. When will you learn?"
A vein above Ichigo's eyebrows began to twitch violently.
"Urahara," he growled threateningly.
"I find myself having to agreeing with Kurosaki," Uryu sniffed, "when I contacted you, I did it under the understanding that nobody else would be involved."
"Me too," Chad put it.
Orihime nodded in agreement, she knew she wouldn't have dared to contact Mr Urahara if she knew he would call the people she specifically didn't want to get involved.
Urahara shook his head, "you misunderstand, I didn't call any of you here. This morning I was woken by four phone calls. The first was you, Uryu and I agreed to meet with you this afternoon. The next was Chad, I was mildly surprised by his phone call having just received one from Uryu, but I agreed to meet you as well. Ten minutes later, Orihime called. And finally, you Ichigo. It was most intriguing, as you all said more or less the same thing, 'can we meet? I have a problem and I don't want to get the others involved?'"
"So!" Urahara grinned as he clapped his hands together, "what is this problem you've all been having that apparently only I can solve?" he wiped a pretend tear of joy away from his eyes as he said that.
The four teens looked at each other warily, each wondering what piece of news the other three had that was apparently so worrying they needed to confide in Urahara.
Uryu cleared his throat and spoke first, "for the past week or so, I have been feeling a strange reiatsu…"
Orihime, Ichigo, and Chad all stared at Uryu intently.
"It comes and goes but,"
"But you're pretty sure it belongs to a Shinigami?" Chad finished.
Uryu nodded, using his forefinger to push up his glasses that fell down his nose slightly.
"I've also felt the same reiatsu," Orihime admitted, "that's why I contacted Urahara-san. I wanted to know if you had any idea of who it could be."
"And they haven't tried to attack you?" Urahara asked with a frown.
"No, they're reiatsu is pretty…" Orihime paused as she tried to find the correct word to use to describe it, "stationary. Like they're simply watching us."
"Interesting, very interesting," Urahara mumbled before turning to Ichigo, who was otherwise silent, "and you, Ichigo. Why are you here? What was your big problem?"
"Uh," he kneaded the back of his neck nervously, "same as them, I guess. I mean, I thought I felt something strange and, well…yeah."
"Tch," Uryu scoffed, "I'm surprised you noticed, you're normally quite dense in that area. There may be hope for you yet."
"Fuck off Quincy," Ichigo snarled, his hand drifting towards his representative badge that sat in his back pocket, "you wanna go?
"Gladly!" Uryu retorted, gearing himself up for a fight, however, both were stopped by Chad who rightly grumbled,
"Shouldn't you two be taking your anger out on the Shinigami stalking us, instead of each other?"
"Sado is right!" Urahara barked, suddenly standing up whacking both Uryu and Ichigo smartly on their heads with his fan, "who knows, you may all be in grave danger?"
"You don't need to look so happy about it!" Ichigo yelled, taking a seat on the empty pillow next to Orihime.
"What's life without a bit of danger, eh?" Urahara shrugged, and none of the teens could safely say that they knew he was joking, "anyway, moving along. May I ask why each of you didn't want the others knowing about this supposed mystery Shinigami?"
"Kurosaki is a hot headed fool and would probably attempt to beat the Shinigami to a bloody pulp if he were fully aware of the situation. I thought that it would be more prudent to find out if I could discover a little more about the situation before informing him."
"More or less the same," Chad mumbled after Uryu had finished his rant, "sorry Ichigo."
"Traitor," Ichigo hissed, earning himself a shrug from Chad.
"I…um…" Orihime spoke up, shooting both Ichigo and Uryu a nervous glance, "I didn't want to tell you guys just yet because…well, I didn't want you or Uryu-kun to hurt the Shinigami," she admitted guiltily.
Ichigo frowned, even Orihime questioned his ability to ask questions first and punch later? Maybe he needed some help.
"And you Ichigo?" Urahara prompted.
A faint, almost unnoticeable, blush stained his cheeks, "to be honest…I kinda thought I was imagining it, so I thought I'd come here and see if you knew anything."
"And you didn't want to tell your friends in case you were wrong and they thought you were insane?" Urahara nodded wisely, earning himself a murderous glare from Ichigo that he steadily ignored.
"I guess if we had all just spoken with each other, we wouldn't have had to bother you Urahara-san," Orihime laughed nervously.
Urahara on the other hand shook his head, "quite the contrary, I'm pretty sure that you would have decided to deal with the problem yourselves and caused even more trouble."
"What do you mean even more?" Uryu asked suspiciously, "for the last few months we've more or less completely removed ourselves from the spiritual world. We haven't caused any trouble."
"Hm."
They sat in an odd silence, broken only by the distant sound of Jinta berating poor Ururu in the yard, as Urahara contemplated whatever he was thinking about.
As Urahara thought, Ichigo stared around at his group of friends. He knew he had been naïve to think that they had not detected the reiatsu as well. After all, it wasn't a secret that they were all better at it than he. He sighed, before shaking his head ruefully. It was just as Urahara had said earlier, he was always trying to shoulder the burden solely on his own shoulders.
"I wonder," Urahara pondered out loud, gaining Ichigo's attention once more, "I wonder if this has anything to do with problems in Soul Society at the moment."
"Problems?" Orihime asked, her eyes growing wide as she thought of her many friends that lived there, "what kind of problems?"
"Well, rumour has it-"
He paused and cocked his head to the right, "something is coming."
"Coming?"
Ichigo, Chad and Uryu all took up defensive positions, with Ichigo swiftly taking out his representative badge and stepping out of his body. Orihime clenched her fists to her sides tightly, staring intently in the direction that Urahara was staring at.
They waited anxiously for a few seconds before the wall they were all staring at rippled slightly and a large black door formed in it.
They all relaxed slightly once they realised what it was.
"A senkai gate," Urahara said frowning, "odd, I wasn't expecting anyone today."
The black door opened slowly and a familiar figure came into clear view.
"Rangiku-chan!" Orihime cried happily as the busty lieutenant stepped out of the gate, "what are you doing he-"
She paused as she noticed that Rangiku wasn't the only Shinigami to emerge from the portal. Captain Hitsuguya came out next, followed closely by Captain Byakuya and then Renji stumbled out, followed finally by a very worried looking Rukia.
Orihime frowned as she stared at the group of Shinigami. It wasn't as if she didn't enjoy seeing her Shinigami friends, but it wasn't often that a group of them this big would come to the real world. The last time she had seen a group of Shinigami with this much power between them was when they had dealt with Aizen. Other than that, there was simply no reason for them all to be there. That much power could upset the balance in the world.
"Is there something the matter?" Urahara asked, also sporting a frown, apparently thinking the same thing that Orihime was.
"Yes," Byakuya said heavily, his eyes zeroing in on Ichigo, "something is seriously wrong."
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Ichigo growled, already on the defensive.
"Ichigo Kurosaki," he began, his eyes still betraying nothing.
"Nii-sama!" Rukia said quietly, her voice coming out almost as if she was begging him to stop, "please, there's no proof!"
"Proof of what?" both Ichigo and Uryu asked. Orihime glanced behind her and noted that Ichigo had one hand firmly planted on Zangetsu, as if he were expecting a fight.
"The Spirit King was murdered earlier this week," Hitsuguya said flatly.
"Impossible," Urahara snapped, dropping his fan to the floor, "absolutely impossible."
"I wish it were so."
Orihime gasped, there was very little she truly knew about The Spirit King, but from what she had been told by Urahara or had overheard from her Shinigami friends, she knew he was an important man in Soul Society. Apparently he was even more powerful than the Head Captain.
"How?"
"Ichigo Kurosaki," Byakuya turned to Ichigo once more, "you're under arrest for the murder of The Spirit King."
Ichigo blinked.
"Excuse me?"
"They think you murdered him, Kurosaki," Uryu said slowly, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the group of Shinigami in front of him.
"You've got to be shitting me."
"Byakuya, don't be foolish," Urahara spoke quickly interrupting Ichigo's curses and noting that he had begun to flex his fists angrily, and was gearing himself up for a fight, "whilst he is talented, you and I both know he couldn't kill The Spirit King. How would he even get to The Royal Realm? Think about what you're saying here."
"I am not the judge nor am I the juror. I am merely here to escort him to Soul Society so he may be trialled for his crime."
"I don't even know who the hell this Spirit guy is!" Ichigo yelled, slamming his fist into the wall, "how can you accuse me of murdering him?"
"We have evidence. And witnesses who swear to seeing an orange haired Shinigami leaving the castle at the time of his death."
"I'm not the only orange haired Shinigami in the world."
"Witness statements describe him as wielding a large kitchen knife shaped Zanpakuto."
"They're lying."
"Kurosaki," Hitsuguya barked, "perhaps your Hollow took over and went on a rampage."
"Bullshit!" Ichigo growled, "don't even try and use that against me, you and I both know I have near perfect control over it now!"
"What motive would he have for killing the King?" Urahara asked solemnly, "as he rightly just blurted out, I doubt Ichigo had any idea who the King was until recently."
The group of Shinigami shared an uneasy glance between each other,
"There's been some…unrest in Soul Society at the moment," Rangiku admitted, "and Ichi-"
"That's enough Matsumoto," Hitsuguya ordered, "it will all be explained to him when he gets to Soul Society."
"I'm not going anywhere with you," Ichigo spat back, withdrawing Zangetsu swiftly, "I don't know what you're playing at, but I don't like it."
"Me neither," Uryu said, and Chad nodded in agreement.
"If anyone get's involved in his arrest, then we have been ordered to kill them," Byakuya said gravely.
"Isn't this all a bit extreme?" Orihime asked timidly.
"The Spirit King is dead," Rukia said quietly for Orihime's ears only, "this is the biggest crime to hit Soul Society ever, they're…they're taking it very seriously."
"But…he's Kurosaki-kun. He couldn't kill anyone."
"We know that," Renji put in, "but the Head Captain, not to mention Central 46 need to get this sorted out. As it stands, Ichigo is their only suspect."
"But why? Why is he a suspect?"
Both Rukia and Renji glanced at one another before shaking their heads, opting not to answer Orihime's question.
"Kurosaki, you will surrender your Zanpakuto and come with us peacefully," Byakuya ordered, "if not, we will be forced to use force."
"Fuck off Byakuya," Ichigo spat, "no way in hell am I going anywhere with you because you've decided I've murdered some old man I know nothing about!" as if to reiterate his point, he picked up Zangetsu and pointed it threateningly at Byakuya, "I've beaten you before, and I can do it again."
"Don't make us do this Kurosaki," Hitsuguya said, warningly.
"I'm not going anywhere willingly with any of you."
His words sparked them off.
It happened in a flash, first Hitsuguya lunged forward, mumbling a kido spell as he moved. Ichigo easily dodged the blinding light that shot from his fingers and moved to swing Zangetsu at the young looking Captain, but instead ended up making the tip of his Zanpakuto graze the wall behind him.
With the size of the room, and the amount of people in it, Zangetsu's size wasn't going to do him many favours.
Uryu noticed his difficulty and stepped forward, producing his bow and arrow from seemingly out of nowhere, he drew his hand back, ready to aim it at Hitsuguya, but stopped as Ichigo barked,
"Stop! You heard them, any of you get involved and they kill you," he said gravely, "this is between me and them."
"You can't hope to defeat all of them," Urahara said slowly, doing his best to calculate their chances of survival if they got involved in the fight. It seemed that Byakuya had been deadly serious when stating they would be killed if they aided him.
"I don't need to," he replied cockily, "just enough for the rest to get the picture. I'm not going anywhere."
"We won't hold back," Byakuya warned, pulling out his Zanpakuto.
"Wouldn't want it any other way," he quipped back.
The two Shinigami lunged for each other, this time Ichigo didn't try to swing Zangetsu at Byakuya until he was far enough away from the wall to avoid scraping it. Their Zanpakuto met each other as they both tried to swipe at the other. Ichigo tried his best to force Byakuya out of the room, knowing that he couldn't use getsuga tenshou inside such a confined space, and it appeared that Byakuya had figured out the same thing. No matter what Ichigo did, the Captain class Shinigami did not go anywhere near any of the rooms exits.
He hissed in pain as the tip of Byakuya's Zanpakuto clipped his shoulder, sending him falling backwards.
"Ichigo!" Chad yelled in concern, stepping forward, gearing his arm to join the fight.
"Keep out of this!" Ichigo roared back, clutching his shoulder that had begun to trickle blood, it wasn't a deep gash but it stung like hell.
"Surrender now Kurosaki," Byakuya said, "from now on, I won't hold back."
Ichigo grit his teeth, but refused to back down. He was innocent god damn it!
Byakuya sighed, recognising the determination in Ichigo's eyes.
"You leave us no choice," Hitsuguya stepped forward, brandishing his own Zanpakuto.
"Now, now gentlemen," Urahara waved his hands worriedly, "two on one is hardly fair!"
But his worries went unheard as the three men lunged at each other.
Byakuya used shunpo to dart behind Ichigo, whilst Hitsuguya took the front.
In all fairness, Ichigo did last a fairly long amount of time against the two captains. Even in the confined space he had, he managed to whip Zangetsu around at lightning speed, sparring against and blocking the majority of the attacks. He sustained a few shallow injuries from their blades, but nothing that hindered his movement overly.
"Why," Ichigo huffed as he used Zangetsu to block an attack from Hitsuguya, "why won't you get lost?"
"We have our duties," he replied before holding Hyourinmaru high into the air, "Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyourinmaru," he calmly recounted, turning his blade into the icy demon that was Hyourinmaru.
Ichigo narrowed his eyes as Hitsuguya began attacking him once more. Not being able to use Zangetsu in such a confined space was really becoming a problem. He was just able to manage blocking and dodging his attacks without destroying Urahara's home, or injuring his friends. Getting his own attacks in seemed damn near impossible.
"Kurosaki-kun, watch out!" Orihime called in fear, noticing that whilst Ichigo was doing his best to stop Captain Hitsuguya from injuring him, Byakuya was preparing to release his own Zanpakuto.
Her warning didn't come fast enough, as Ichigo pushed Hitsuguya away and whirled around to face whatever Byakuya was throwing at him, Byakuya had already muttered,
"Scatter Senbonzakura!"
Ichigo roared in pain as the thousands of tiny pick petals were aimed at him, piercing his skin. He managed to use Zangetsu to deflect a few of the petals in the wall, but he wasn't fast enough and the majority of them hit him.
Blood trickled down his arms, face and leg. His shihakusho was torn in many places, showing the destructive damage of Byakuya's Zanpakuto.
"Stand down, Kurosaki," he said as he lifted up his Zanpakuto ready to attack once more, "I won't be so lenient next time."
Despite the shooting pain in his body, he managed to shoot Byakuya a somewhat cocky smirk.
"Never,"
A small sigh escaped from Byakuya's pursed lips, "you've brought this upon yourself".
In an instance, the thousands of tiny pink petals shot out of his blade once more and wrapped themselves around Ichigo's already battered body.
The force of the attack sent Ichigo flying backwards into the wall behind him, and in shock he dropped Zangetsu to the floor.
His cry of pain made Orihime want to scream. It was obvious to her, and probably everyone else, that Ichigo wasn't giving it his all because of the limited space he had to fight.
The petals evaporated and Ichigo dropped with a sickening crack to the floor, the majority of his body drenched in blood.
Byakuya placed his Zanpakuto back into its sheath before stepping forward slightly and calmly muttering the words to thekido spell that would presumably render the now heavily bleeding Ichigo incapacitated. His hand darted forward and a beam of bright yellow light shot from it…and hit an even brighter orange wall.
Orihime stood in front of Ichigo's battered body, a look of fierce determination on her face as she stared down at the Shinigami in front of her. The Shinigami who were supposed to be her friends. Were supposed to be his friends.
"Move," Byakuya said.
"I won't allow you to hurt Kurosaki-kun anymore," she said firmly, hoping her fear wasn't shining through.
"Move."
She shook her head, her shield not wavering in the slightest.
"Kurosaki-kun is your friend, he's not the enemy."
"Orihime…please," Rangiku begged quietly, "our hands are tied, do you think any of us want to do this?"
"Enough Matsumoto. Orihime Inoue, if you do not stand down, we have been ordered to kill you."
She gulped, but stood her ground.
"I…I won't."
"Orihime please!" Rukia and Rangiku both yelled in unison.
"I…"
"Inoue."
Her eyes widened as she felt Ichigo begin to stir slightly behind her. Glancing around she saw that he was doing his best to sit upright.
"Kurosaki-kun, don't strain yourself, I'll heal you in a moment I promise!"
He shook his head, "put your shield down," although his voice was relatively gentle, she recognised the order he was giving her.
"But Kuro-"
"They'll kill you," he said bluntly, "or…at least hurt you. And then I'd have to kill them, and I'd be in even more shit than I apparently am now, right?"
She swallowed, "but…"
"I'll be fine," he promised.
They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity before Orihime finally nodded.
"Be careful," she begged quietly, before recalling her powers. The second the orange shield went down that protected them from the Shinigami, Byakuya repeated his kido spell and several bright yellow lights shot out and wound themselves around his arms and legs, like glowing handcuffs.
Hitsuguya and Renji both darted forward and hoisted him up.
"Sorry," Renji mumbled apologetically as they stalked past Orihime. Hitsuguya offered her an apologetic nod as well.
"What are you going to do with him," Urahara asked as they prepared to enter the senkai gate once more, "what about his family? His father? Isshin isn't going to be happy with this."
"He will be placed in a holding cell until all the facts are gathered. If he is as innocent as he says,"
"I am innocent you bastard!"
"If he is as innocent as he says," Byakuya began again, "he will be returned to your world."
"And if you don't find him innocent," Uryu's cold voice cut across the room, voicing the opinion they all were thinking but were afraid to speak out loud, "what happens then."
There was a pause before, "we will deal with that hurdle when, and if, the time comes," and with that he stepped into the senkai gate and disappeared from their sight.
Rangiku followed him, shooting her friends a tearful gaze, as if she were willing them to forgive her for what they had done.
Hitsuguya and Renji both stepped forward at the same time, carrying the injured Ichigo.
"Ku-Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime cried as they both put a foot into the gate, "come back! M-make sure you come back!"
She couldn't see his face, because Renji and Hitsuguya had already guided him more than halfway into the gate, but she heard his reply clearly.
"I promise, I'll come back."
And then he was gone, and only Rukia remained of the Shinigami team who had just arrested their most trusted friend.
"I…I should go," Rukia said shakily, before bowing her head and rushing towards the gate. Orihime stopped her.
"Rukia-chan," Orihime said quietly, tugging on Rukia's arm to stop her from returning back to Soul Society, "K-Kurosaki-kun's going to be alright isn't he? This is all just some big misunderstanding, right?"
Rukia turned away from her, her eyes downcast.
"Rukia-chan!"
"The…the evidence against him…it doesn't look good."
"But he didn't do anything! He's Kurosaki-kun, Rukia-chan, you know him. Probably better than most people," she added quietly, trying not to let that fact tug at her heart strings too much, "you know he didn't do this."
Rukia shook her head but said nothing as she shook herself from Orihime's grasp and made her way towards the portal, before disappearing.
The silence in the room was almost deafening as she whirled around to see her remaining friends. As she turned, something glinted in the corner of her eyesight and she frowned before a choked sob fell from her lips.
Zangetsu lay forgotten on the floor.
xoxoxo
His lips curled up into a smile as the messenger boy turned away and left his quarters.
"The Kurosaki child has been arrested".
The slim figure lying under the sheets in the bed behind him stirred slightly, causing the bed sheets to ruffle noisily in the otherwise silent room.
"You're sure?" the figure purred, stretching like a cat in the bed.
He nodded.
He turned and slowly slid into the large bed, the woman lying next to him sidled closer to him, wrapping her arms around his nude torso.
"She'll come?"
He nodded once more, an evil smile gracing his manly features, "she will definitely come."
Everything was going exactly according to plan.
xoxoxo
A/N: HELLO, I've had this idea in my mind for a while now and I'm really quite excited to start writing it. Anyway, so this is going to be quite a long story I hope, with quite a few chapters, and twists and turns. Prepare yourselves for OC's and original powers, (OP's?). IchiHime is the main pairing for this fic of course, but it will be slow developing because, firstly: Ichigo isn't around at the moment to realise he loves Hime *sobs*, and secondly, I want their characters to develop, especially Orihime. I have big things planned for her, muahaha. There will probably be other pairings as well, nothing is set in stone apart from IchiHime though, so I apologise in advance if you come across a pairing you aren't fond of! I'm going to try and keep the chapters at a decent length and update regularly, but no promises.
I've ignored the Fullbringer's as you can probably tell, so for arguments sake, when Ichigo defeated Aizen he didn't lose his powers at all.
Hmm, well, review please and tell me what you think. This is my first attempt at a fic with such a detailed plot - and trust me it is detailed oh man you should see my planning document - and I want to know what you guys think, like if you think I should continue or not?
Also, since this is going to be quite long, I'll just tell you now that there will probably be things you want answered, so if you ask me in a review and I don't reply, I'm not being rude, I just don't want to spoil the story for you.
ALSO: Should I post my OC list on my profile now, so their descriptions, history, etc, or wait until they are all introduced individually? It's nothing that will spoil the story, but I was just wondering if people wanted a bit of background on the more prominent OC's?
OK, review please lovelies!
~ until next time.