I really should have put this in earlier. Thanks to Sad-ninja for betaing my story.
Please review!
Chapter Two: Waaaaaaay outclassed
Hitsugaya yanked out his blade and took a classic guard position. Matsumoto did the same while Uryu readied his bow. Enishi withdrew a short wakizashi from behind his back and held it up, point down to his left, in his right hand.
"Pierce the night, Tsukiyomi."
The wakizashi lengthened into an azure spear, with a sapphire stone embedded on either side of the spearhead. Near, but not at the other end, a small ring connected the overwhelmingly larger part of the spear with a much smaller section at the end as long as Enishi's palm.
Matsumoto was entranced by the elegant weapon. Hitsugaya was not quite as catatonic, but just as reverent.
Tsukiyomi...the moon dragon's fang and the most powerful ice based zanpaku-to in existence. I always wanted to know which one was really stronger: Hyourinmaru, or Tsukiyomi. But not like this. He shook his head slightly.
"Matsumoto, snap out of it!"
Matsumoto angled her blade."Growl, Haineko!"
The blade melted into a dangerous stream of ash that streaked toward the renegade captain.
"Bankai! Daiguren Hyourinmaru!"
Hitsugaya gained icy wings, a tail and a dragon's head on his right arm while a much larger version exploded from his zanpaku-to and flew toward Enishi. Uryu unleashed the full might of Ginrei Kojaku's 1200 arrows per second on him. Underneath his helmet, Enishi grinned. He threaded his right index finger through the ring of his zanpaku-to and began spinning it in front of himself. The simultaneous impacts of Haineko, Hyourinmaru and the hail of arrows merely disintegrated against the blindingly fast rotating spear. Enishi moved it to the side and continued spinning it.
"You know what I think?" he asked as he suddenly caught the spear. Then in one move, a little charm around his left wrist flashed and formed a bow, which he slapped his zanpaku-to down onto and yanked back the string.
"I think you're outclassed."
And then he let go-
***
Chad let fly a massive blue energy blast. Raiden Namikawa simply swatted it away with his Scimitar and then smirked.
"I like baseball too, but now isn't the time to be playing."
"Yeah! Now is the time to be fighting!"
"Madarame-san-"
"Can it bucket hat! I wanna fight him by myself alright?"
Bucket hat?
Ikkaku yanked out his zanpaku-to, and then slammed the hilt against the sheath. "Extend, Hozukimaru!"
Raiden's eyebrows lifted slightly behind his mask as Ikkaku expertly twirled his halberd. "You're like my older brother. His zanpaku-to is a spear. This should be fun."
Madarame chuckled. "It won't be that fun unless you release your zanpaku-to as well!"
"Ne, Madarame-san-"
"Shut up! This is my fight!"
"Heh, I like your spirit. What division are you?"
"I'm the third seat of the eleventh division!"
"My captain's old division eh? Well, what are we waiting for?"
With a loud yell, Ikkaku flourished his halberd and charged forward with a vicious right swing. Raiden flipped overhead and aimed a slash at Ikkaku's head, which was blocked. The second Raiden landed, Ikkaku lashed out with a furious barrage of blows, all of them very lethal. Raiden ducked and dodged most of them, parrying a few before launching his own offensive. Both Urahara and Chad watched in silence as the exchange wore on, and Ikkaku's grin grew wider. Truth be told, he was enjoying this fight much more than he normally would. Raiden's fighting style was overwhelmingly similar to Kenpachi, who Ikkaku always admired for being the strongest (although that claim was now seriously in dispute). He relied on the long reach of his sealed zanpaku-to, the incredible strength behind his one-handed blows and his seeming invulnerability to blades, which he demonstrated by catching Ikkaku's halberd by the spearhead midswing and throwing it to the side. Ikkaku took the chance to disengage.
"Not bad, Madarame Ikkaku."
"Heh, thanks!"
"But why are you holding back? You won't make a decent challenge if you don't use it."
Ikkaku's eyes widened slightly. "You know?"
" 'Knowing your enemies and allies can provide you the edge you need.' "
Ikkaku grinned, wider. "Urahara, Sado-san, can I trust you to keep this quiet?"
Urahara angled his head with a slight twist of his mouth. "Why is it that no one trusts me?" Chad simply nodded.
"Okay! Here goes! Bankai!" An explosion of wind and reiatsu engulfed the powerful third seat and raised an enormous dust cloud, obscuring him from view. When it cleared, Ikkaku was revealed holding his three gargantuan blades.
"Ryuumon Hozukimaru!"
Raiden whistled. "Quite a large set of blades there. Well, because you went all out, I'll show you my Shikai." He stabbed his Scimitar into the air with his right hand and then swung it slowly in a full circle. "Take flight and burn the skies, Amaterasu!"
As he held the blade now parallel to the ground and pointed to his left, it began to glow brighter and brighter. It finally burst into flames and began expanding. Raiden brought it above his head and began spinning it with two hands creating a massive column of fire, before swinging it down and to the right with his right hand. Excess energy leaking off of him ignited the surrounding air in an impressive display of power. If anyone could see underneath his mask, they would have seen an insane grin fixed into place. "Now, shall we?"
***
Renji kept his eyes on the lithe, gray armored figure as he spoke. "Yoruichi-san, who is this guy?"
"She, is my old rival, Hanabusa Sayu."
Sayu inclined her head. "Hmph. Nice to see you remember Yoruichi."
"Long time no see, wish it were longer."
"Oh come on...this is how you greet your old rival after all these years?"
"Maybe you should have thought about that before you came here searching for Ichigo."
"Oooh, that's why? I didn't know you were so stupid as to-whoopsie!"
Apparently, Soifon didn't take kindly to Yoruichi being called stupid. She had released her zanpaku-to and charged forward, blindingly fast and attempting to kill. Unfortunately, she wasn't anywhere near fast enough. In one second, Sayu had vanished only to reappear behind her yanking a cloth backward, hard. Said cloth was wrapped around Soifon's wrists and neck individually and was bound so tight that she could barely breathe.
"You always had a knack for teaching the temperamental," Sayu commented idly while Soifon struggled against the binds. "Still," she leaned her head in next to Soifon's ear. "I didn't know you picked them so...loyal," she breathed in a whisper.
"Soifon-taicho!" Renji readied his blade.
"Hmm hmm hmm. Time to play!" Sayu slingshot Soifon by swinging her on the cloth binding, sending her crashing headlong into an unprepared Renji, before she engaged Yoruichi. Soifon yanked away the cloth and with a very cat-like snarl joined the brutally fast and lethal exchange. Renji was entranced. Three masterful fighters, women no less, making attacks and defending so surely that it seemed to resemble a choreographed dance, albeit a very fatal one. Yoruichi and Soifon were perfectly double-teaming against the old "Flower of Death" of the Fifth Division. The seamless flow of strikes, swings, lunges, counters and evasions made him feel very inadequate. He resolved that if he survived this night, he was going to ask Yoruichi to teach him some hand-to-hand.
The key word being if. The dance was disrupted as Sayu grabbed Soifon's left leg and swung her into the dumbstruck Renji once again, giving him a very rude wakeup call. Suzemebachi came dangerously close to his heart as Soifon flailed wildly from the impact. Renji groaned and gingerly pushed the Special Forces Commander off of himself. He painfully tried to stand only to have Yoruichi crash into him sending him back down. Yoruichi and Soifon got back up and watched warily as Sayu unsheathed a blade from her back.
"I better let him have some fun too, or he's gonna yell at me later. I command you take form, Susanoo!"
The shunto lengthened and took on a silvery luster. Lightning danced along its length and a breeze started to pick up. She held the blade and made ready to lunge. Yoruichi and Soifon entered Shunko and got into position while Renji whimpered from the ground.
"Don't mind me...I'm just a freakin' doormat..."