Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, Tite Kubo does. However, note that anything not of the Manga/Anime (unless I point out otherwise) is of my own design, including my OCs Kai, Rertyan and the Sanctuary Team.
Warnings: Contains slight romantic reference, swearing and violence throughout.
Brief: Just over a year has passed since the initial incident which brought Kai to Karakura, and it seems his past just will not leave him alone. An old adversary's return forces the group into a new world, but something has changed. Can they work together to stop the ultimate evil from destroying their homes, or will darkness fall over the dimensions?
Pairings: KaiHime, Ichiruki
Bleach; the Doomsday Tomes
Chapter 3: Scars of Defeat
Ichigo's black blade crashed into Skywrath's inflamed weapon, the force of the pair of them sending shockwaves throughout the battlefield. Nearby, Ed slashed through his Zempacki opponent's chest, the hot blade cutting through the creature's hide with little trouble, a trickle of blood leaking from his left eyebrow. He turned his attention towards the sky line as a figure fell from the clouds and the rain began to fall. Seeing the shape of the dark silouhette, his eyes widened fearfully.
"Kai... lost?" he questioned before moving to help his friend. A trio of blasts of blue light shot Kai in quick succession, sending him down sharply into a derelict building in Karakura, the concrete crumpling behind him and toppling over as he passed through the skyscraper. "Dammit." Ed headed towards Jon and Ella, getting their attention by distracting the Zempacki fighting them with a burst of flames. "Did you see that?"
"Wouldn't believe it if I hadn't," Jon replied.
"Good," he nodded. "In that case, I want both of you to go down there and get him back in order; I'll deal with these two." Jon raised an eyebrow but nodded and took Ella with him to the crash site. The Zempacki went to chase them, but a jet of flame came between them and their targets. They turned to face Ed, who grinned tauntingly at them. "Hello boys. Looks like someone needs to teach you some manners."
"You think you can stand up to the Chaos Void's second and third?" one of the creatures asked. Ed cocked his head.
"Second and third, eh?" he asked. "I take it you've diengaged your Primera locks, so I guess I should give you the courtesy of witnessing true power; let me show you my Bankai, Zempacki."
The sword in Ed's hand sputtered as the flames stopped briefly, then a huge wall of fire shot out, engulfing the entirety of Ed's being. The flames began to subside as the teenager's power levelled out. Ed smirked as the Zempacki as they backed away, slightly taken aback by this sudden transformation.
Ed's Bankai took the shape of a pair of red armoured gauntlets over his forearms and hands, a matching chest plate and pair of boots, the gauntlets chained to the chest plate. The gauntlets featured a flame jet unit under the arm, the muzzles finished in gold while the rest was red, and four similar items extended with two stacks on each shoulder blade, the top ones longer than the bottom. The chest had a silver twin-doored circular bulkhead in the centre, and around Ed's forehead was a red headband with two long tails hanging loose from it, with a bronze-coloured pendant in the middle, the image of a fist wreathed in flames evident on it. Every panel glinted red as a gold trim made itself prominent on the armour.
"This is Infernal God's Fist, the Bankai of my Solar Spear," Ed announced to the shocked creatures. "Now, come at me with everything you have, or you will die with regrets."
"Don't get cocky, kid," one of the creatures snarled, lunging forward to fight the young warrior.
Far below, Jon and Ella were scouring the rubble where Kai had crashed through Karakura. Finally, they found him. The Neo-Vizard lay on the ground in amongst the wreckage of buildings which he had slammed into on his way down, his body pulsing with red electricity, his Supreme Release partially active, but the sword was shattered, the armour was heavily damaged, and the right wing appeared to have been mostly vaporised in the Cero during his plummet. The young man's breathing seemed greatly laboured, his face contorted into a mask of abject pain with every weak sucking in of air and passing breath escaping his lungs. Ella crouched beside the wounded Vizard, a orange glow emanating from her hands as she used her reiatsu to trace the damage throughout Kai's body.
"This is bad," she said, more to herself than anyone else, though Jon took notice of her words. "The wounds are deeper than he's ever had; broken collar bone, three ribs cracked, his left arm is dislocated... He's in bad shape; I'm not sure I can heal him and have him fighting soon."
"Do what you can," Jon replied, hoisting his warhammer to rest upon his shoulder. "Even if he can't fight now, we can't have him die on us yet."
"I know," Ella replied, picking up the gold cutlass of her Shikai, a bright yellow-white glow spreading over it. "I'll try using Redeemer; it might not fully fix him, but it should stop him bleeding to death at the least."
The blade plunged into Kai's chest with a flash of bright light. Yellow sparks pulsed over the fallen warrior, the red energy subsiding as the healing power of Judgement Bringer combated the worst of the damage. Kai's breathing eased with a spluttered cough, his release glowing red and dissipating into reshi around him, leaving a cracked Supernova Dragon beside the teenager.
"Ok," Ella breathed, her reiatsu lowered drastically from the move. "That did it. Let's-"
"Cru... cible," Kai breathed, cutting her off. "He has... the... Crucible."
Jon and Ella's eyes both widened in shock.
"What did you say?" Jon asked, bemused by these words, but Kai's head slumped to the side as he fell unconscious where he lay. He looked up at the clouds where Kai had fallen from, fear in his eyes. "How can that be? I thought we destroyed the Impendium Crucible."
"Jon," Ella said firmly. "We have to get Kai back to Urahara's; I can't do anything else for him here."
"Alright," Jon relented. "Let's be quick though."
With their friend over Jon's shoulder, the pair of them disappeared in a burst of Shunpo. Far above, JX gazed down upon the battles below, from Ed fighting two Zempacki effectively to Skywrath and Ichigo locking blades, satisfied by the effort of his forces. Before long, he vanished from sight, leaving the battlefield behind as wave of reiatsu pulsed over the area as Skywrath and Ichigo struck against one another again. Skywrath grinned.
"You have a lot of power, Kurosaki," he remarked, striking one more time at Ichigo, Tensa Zangetsu's blade intercepting the swipe without a hitch. "You would do well with the Zempacki Legions."
"Sorry, I'm already with a group of people," Ichigo replied. "And I think I prefer Soul Society to you."
"A pity; to let such power and talent go to waste would be a shame, but if you are resigned to this, so be it." Skywrath raised his sword and held it horizontally in front of him, a deep red-blue hue enveloping the blade. "Disengage Segunda Lock!"
The energy overflowed from the sword as a series of black chains splintered from around Skywrath, just like when he released the Primera Lock. In the burst of energy, Ichigo released his Supreme Release preparation form, readying himself to counter the new state of Zempacki release. When the displacement of energy had passed, Skywrath's sword had changed to become a much larger, black double-edged sword, more like a Bastard Sword than a katana, with red runes glowing along the length of the blade. He raised the weapon and pointed it at Ichigo's head.
"Don't blink," he growled. "Don't hesitate for a second. If you do, you will die here and now."
"Don't underestimate me either, Zempacki!" Ichigo replied sharply.
Ichigo pushed off of the air, bringing his blade swinging towards Skywrath but finding nothing there. The flat of a blade slammed into his back and sent him whirling, allowing the assailant to cut downwards into Ichigo's back, a spray of crimson erupting from the wound. Ichigo turned and swung again, but his blade struck another and bounced away under the impact. This left Ichigo open as another swing came in towards his chest.
A thickly armoured gauntlet pushed the oncoming blade aside, and another struck Skywrath in the face, forcing him away. Looking to the newcomer, Ichigo spotted Ed standing there.
"Never thought he would go this far out," he said, more to himself than Ichigo, then turned to his ally. "You have to be careful with him in this form; if you lose track of him for even a second, it could be the end of you. Stay focussed, and allow me to fight with you."
Ichigo smiled slightly.
"You got it," he said, raising his sword again. "Let's-"
A crushing sensation washed over them as a humanoid figure appeared beside Skywrath. He wore a thick armoured shoulder plate with an eye rolling within a socket on the front, and held a conical metal device in his left hand. He placed his right hand on Skywrath's shoulder.
"Master JX," the Zempacki said, bemused.
"We have what we came for," the man said firmly. "We're going back now." Skywrath looked ready to argue, but said nothing, instead blowing a small red whistle, a piercing screech echoing over the battlefield. In a matter of moments, the Zempacki forces had all gathered at their portal, exiting through quickly in a retreat. "It was fun, insects, but now we have claimed what we needed from this pathetic place. Farewell, puny humans."
And with that, the gateway closed around them, leaving the combatants staring at the space where they had once been. Ichigo broke the stunned silence with a growl.
"Dammit," he cursed, returning to his unreleased state. And dropping to ground level with the others. "Come on, let's go back to Urahara; whatever's going on, we have to assess our next step."
Later, Urahara Shoten
"So that's what that thing was?" Ed asked. "I had no idea that it was still in one piece."
"It isn't," Kai growled, his wounds being treated beneath the orange barrier Orihime had established. "It's in five parts; by the sound of it, when they came with the Black Hollow, it was to find and reclaim the last bit, but they didn't have the strength to until the first part was activated."
"Yeah, you did take quite a beating, huh?" Jon commented, his arm folded. "By the way, how do you feel?"
"Like shit," the man grunted. "Who's got the next stupid question?"
"What the hell happened up there?" Ichigo asked. "I thought you said that he couldn't beat you if you can go a level higher."
"That's under the assumption that he can only use his zanpakuto," Kai replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "You probably don't know this, but there is a weapon more powerful than that of the Hogyoku."
"What?" Uryu questioned. "Something stronger than that?"
"It's plausible," Urahara's voice stated as he appeared in the room. "The Hogyoku Aizen used had the power of many thousands of hollows within it. Furthermore, it had the power of another Hogyoku as well inside it. That power was enough to transcend the barrier of hollow and Soul Reaper, but that does not make it an absolute power by any means."
"That's right," Ed nodded. "Something like the Impendium Crucible absorbs offerings, since it was originally seen as an idol of gods; great warriors would be put into it at the end of their lives, criminals were executed in it if they were of noble blood. In this manner, their power was absorbed and their strength fused with it. However, that is the inert form of the Impendium Crucible."
"If that's all the power it has, then it should be no problem; it wasn't much more powerful than Aizen after he merged with the Hogyoku," Ichigo said. Kai shook his head as Orihime's barrier lifted.
"You're an idiot," he said simply. "That power was from one of the five pieces and an unreleased zanpakuto." Ichigo's eyes widened, but Kai went on. "Besides, it took the pair of us in full power to stop Aizen in that form; the Impendium Crucible is sometimes called the Godly Armour of Demons, mostly because it's dark power being acclaimed to be an indefinite dark power, but also because, as is thought with a god, only its user may damage it. Which means that only if I manage to become more powerful will we make a dent in it."
"You're saying that nothing we do will damage him?" Chad asked. Kai nodded.
"Then what do we do?" Rukia asked. "We can't let something like that come together; it could well spell disaster for the World of the Living or even Seireitei."
"Agreed," Ichigo said. "We should mount an offensive before it's too late."
"If those components have to activate," Renji added. "The sooner we move out, the better."
"Then it's settled," Kai said, sheathing his now-repaired zanpakuto behind him. "However, on the way, we have to make a detour, else our actions will be in vain."
"Where to?" Jon asked. Kai's eyes were dark as he turned.
"The Ashen Abyss," he said plainly. "Everyone, prepare to move out in twenty minutes, and no more."
The group dispersed except for Ichigo and Rukia, the latter of which had walked over to the former. Rukia sighed, turning her gaze from Ichigo. He caught on to this response and spoke up first.
"You don't like this either, huh?" he said. Rukia looked up at him, her eyes full of worry, her guard dropped in the same fashion she always did when it was only them.
"It was bad enough when Aizen was that powerful," she said. "I... I don't want something like that to happen again."
Ichigo hooked his hand beneath her chin, raising her head to his eyes.
"It'll be okay," he said. "I won't let that happen again." Rukia smiled up at him and they shared a brief hug, before returning to normal. "Come on," he said finally. "Let's get ready to go; at this rate, we won't be able to stop that creep."
Sorry this took so long, but I've just started my exams and time is tight at the minute.
Anyway, I hope people are enjoying this instalment (though I'm aware that this is nowhere near as popular as my other works), and hopefully it will gain popularity amongst others before long.
It may be a while before my next update on this story, but I will be writing when I can; just be patient.
