Dog Star
"…I know, a secret path to that tower."
"Well good! It saves me the trouble of finding you invaders."
The trio of males whirled about sharply to meet the blank scowl on her brow.
One of them, the one that seemed to be the only good-looking one present, with bright orange hair and brown eyes shouldering a large butcher's-blade zanpakutō on his back dressed in a shihakushō, blinked once; his surprised stare shifted into a scowl of unease as he lifted a hand to the bandage-wrapped hilt of his weapon.
The woman with clear blue eyes and neck-length wavy dark black hair that only looked to be five-four clad in a black shihakushō raised a hand to the hilt of a katana shrugged onto her left shoulder, slender fingers gripping the red-clothed hilt. "Turn yourselves in now and I won't cut you down." She ordered in a frosty tone.
"And just who the hell're you to order us around like that?" The orange-haired boy rebutted; her reiatsu, it's like Ikkaku's, but it's way stronger than his was, he mused grimly, noting he'd have to divert her somehow so he could continue on his mission.
"Akatsuki Kita, third seat of Sixth Division." She answered.
The second male dressed in a shihakushō perked up and then scrambled forward, "W-wait just a second! You said you were from the Sixth Division? I'm from Fourth, Yamada Hanatarō!" He piped up, perking her ears and stalling a possible duel.
She blinked. "Fourth Division; what the hell are you doing, aiding these guys, Yamada-san? They're ryoka, in case you haven't noticed." She asked.
Yamada explained to her the circumstances behind his current position, briefly mentioning a squabble with some of the meatheads from Eleventh Division, before finishing on the point that 'and this is where the story ends.'
Soaking it in, she nodded, noting the boy in the shihakushō –whom he'd dubbed as Kurosaki Ichigo—had calmed his stance and was keeping an eye on her –out of caution, if she had to guess. "Fair enough."
"So you're not gonna attack us?" The second ryoka wearing a strange outfit –whom he'd also dubbed as Shiba Ganju—asked of her, perking her ears.
Kita straightened to her feet and dusted her pants off. "Not if what Yamada-san says is true, then I won't turn you two in. I… I've met her before, Rukia; she's the sister-in-law of my old friend, Kuchiki Byakuya, and she doesn't deserve such a fate. You've got balls to come in here and to have caused such a stir in the Seireitei," she looked to the brown eyes of the Kurosaki boy, holding his stare for a second, "but I've got to give you credit for it, as odd as that may seem. If you don't mind, I'll help with what I can, to save Rukia." Her blue eyes turned soft, empathetic and compassionate all-in-one.
Ichigo raised both brows. "You will?" He calmed and then nodded, smiling a little. "Thank you, for not turning us in, Akatsuki-san." He straightened to look at the seventh seat. "Okay, Yamada, lead the way."
"It's Kita." She corrected calmly, trodding forward to walk at his side. "Strawberry."
A mixture of annoyance and embarrassment appeared in his handsome face; he snorted and cut his gaze to the side. "Shut up!" He pretended she didn't snicker quietly at embarrassing him.
Did the Seireitei always look this intimidating from the outside?
Shaking her head slightly, she felt relief at finally being out of the confines of the underground sub-tunnels, or as Ganju bluntly called them, "the shit-smell factory"… He wasn't far off the mark with that one.
"We're close, but it sure looks intimidating… Think it's gonna get tougher from here on." The aforementioned man mused aloud, stirring her from her thoughts.
As she made to spout a sarcastic remark, a familiar reiatsu jerked her attention away and towards the base of the stairwell that led higher towards the rest of the Seireitei's white-walled towers and buildings.
Her fingers lifted to grasp onto the hilt of her zanpakutō as she felt a small sliver of fear race up her spine when recognizing just who the reiatsu belonged to.
This didn't go amiss with her fellow Shinigami, particularly the orange-haired strawberry.
"What's up, Ichigo?" The younger Shiba asked when his friend lifted a hand to stay his words.
His brown eyes narrowed. "There's somebody on the steps." He answered lowly as a breeze blew past them, clearing the fog that surrounded the bottom of the stairwell.
'Shit.' Her zanpakutō growled softly in the back of her mind as she recognized the shock of red hair atop the awaiting party's head, the black visor-shades on the top of his forehead that covered the widow's peak of his hairline.
"It's been a long time; do you remember me?" The lieutenant of Sixth Division drawled.
Ichigo glared at him, recalling the fateful evening that his world had been turned upside-down a second time within two months. "Abarai Renji." He ground out.
::::::::x-x::::::::
I can't believe I'm doing this.
Narrowing her eyes on his slight stagger in his walk, she drew her zanpakutō and uttered a 'tch'. "This dumbass-strawberry better be worth it, Rukia." She mused under her breath, spiriting forward into the fray.
"Kita, come back!" Ganju barked behind her.
"Bakudō 37: Tsuriboshi!" A wide blue webbing-net caught the descending jagged blades of his shikai-transformed Zabimaru, surprising both combatants, before the air froze at the back of the lieutenant's neck.
Narrowly dodging the would-be blow, Renji reappeared yards away from his intended target, glaring at the caster of the mid-level Bakudō, the jagged blades retracting to his zanpakutō's hilt. "That was a dirty trick!" He called.
"So was delivering a killing blow to a novice Shinigami." Kita remarked blandly, shouldering her zanpakutō onto her left shoulder. "Surely you learned better parlor tricks while training to be one rank above me, Renji." She added.
Why the hell is she aiding that brat? Doesn't she know the consequences for treason? He growled slightly under his breath and snorted, glancing to see the orange-haired Shinigami had been ogling her in amazement and shock, before he returned his gaze to the woman that was not only a hell of a kidō expert in their squad but was also his captain's oldest friend (and possible love interest, if he dared dance towards getting himself killed by said captain). "Still sore about that, are you? Don't tell me that's the reason you're helping that bastard you just protected; he was the one responsible for stealing Rukia's powers, y'know." He demanded harshly.
She huffed, "that's bullshit. Even if he was the one responsible, he's still tryin' to make amends and save her from what the Central 46 have sentenced her with… You did deliver her here, if you also recall." She snapped cattily.
A nerve was hit, rippling down his spine and making his grip on his zanpakutō's hilt tighten. "Don't you dare blame me; remember your place, Third Seat!" He snarled.
She glared at him, her reiatsu spiking with her growing annoyance. "'My place', huh? Need I remind you, Abarai Renji, that you don't own me!?" Flicking her wrist she sent a wordless Shakkahō flying at him, narrowly missing as he shun-po'd out of the way and reappeared overhead.
With a grunt, he swung the jagged blades of Zabimaru down onto her head.
"Rip, Kuroyaibira!" Kita commanded, reiatsu spiking further as she dodged it at the last second and swung her shortened blade up at him on an extended black chain, sparks flying when the blades glanced off each other and her zanpakutō's blade retracted down onto the hilt as if on a chord.
Renji skyrocketed down to clash with her, Zabimaru colliding with Kuroyaibira and locking as both second and third seats of the Sixth Division came to blows, disengaging and then locking, repeating the motion for another few bouts.
Finally shoving against him to propel herself away, she skidded back into the ground on her heels, panting slightly, with slight nicks in her skin that wasn't covered by the pale gray wrist guard and gloves on her hands.
Even though she felt slightly tired from squabbling with him, she could still topple him with just kidō if she felt like cheating; but she wasn't that kind of girl.
"So what was that shit about 'parlor tricks'?" He wondered blandly from several yards away.
Wiping a smudge of blood from her right cheek, she huffed and lowered her zanpakutō, gripping the hilt lightly. "Given that you suck at kidō, you're the one who should learn from a master!" She flew forward and dodged the extended blades of Zabimaru, leaping overhead. "Hadō 33: Sōkatsui!" A wide jet of blue fire screamed down at him, causing a large cloud of smoke to rise up as she landed nimbly a good several yards away, flicking her wrist to sheathe her zanpakutō.
Although she hadn't expected him to drop dead from her mid-level kidō spell, she didn't expect what came next.
A white-hot jolt of pain erupted down her right shoulder, making her grimace and feel the air swiftly follow the retracting blade that had ripped into her skin and torn her shihakushō; she raised a hand to grip her shoulder tightly, turning a little to see the smoke clearing.
Blood dripped freely from her shoulder and hit the ground beneath her as she saw the burn-marks from her kidō, the bottom half of his right sleeve ripped off to show the tattoos on his arm; his brown eyes glared hard at her.
"As if you have what it takes to save her; you're afraid of what the captain will say or do when he finds out his oldest friend has gone and defied his rule." Sunlight glinted from the blades of Zabimaru that he lifted high when he went for a critical blow from the sky, "Admit it, Kita!" He exclaimed.
Am… Am I really afraid…? Of Byakuya?
A loud 'klang' rang out in the morning air.
A/N: all right, our heroine finally gets a chance to kick ass! lol hah i know, i'm a nerd. deal with it. xD anywho, i forgot to mention in the previous A/N, if you lot srsly don't understand half of the terminology from the Bleach universe, check out the series' Wikia page. it's really resourceful, no lie. the other terminology used/ going to be used in the future chapters is just the basic honorifics used in Japanese culture. some of the terms i had to look up while looking for ref so don't feel like a lone ranger if you need to dig up reference for some of the stuff. /had no idea that Nujabes' music was great influence for writing
ja ne!
*oh yea, feel free to review. i won't harp on it, all i ask is for some simple feedback, praise even if i'm asking for a miracle. but nah, reviews enough are love so feel free to drop one. ^^
** Ichigo's name has two meanings: 01) One Being/ One Person (i think.. it's been a while since i've looked up his name.. 0: )/ 02) Strawberry (: ((if my first translation is off, feel free to correct me! ^^))