A/N: You know the drill. I don't own anything but the plot ;-)
The search for one Kisuke Urahara's place wasn't exactly as easy as Dante made it sound, as Lady was just now figuring out. Karakura Town was still a fairly large place and the directions she would get were either unclear or contradictory to each other. Add that to the fact that her grasp of Japanese language was very limited, and she wasn't at all surprised that she had ended up staying in a dingy motel room for her first night in Japan. Her single trolley bag held just a week's amount of clean clothing and more importantly, ammo. Something was decidedly off about the entire town, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it yet, so even the week's worth of bullets and grenades wasn't all that comforting to her.
Lying down on the bed (with the back massager feature non-functional, natch), she glanced over at the two ugly orange tag bags containing the Devil Arms. She had managed to pass the weapons off as antiques at the airport, thank god, but they were still a pain to carry around.
The room wasn't all that bad; at least the toilet flushed and the bed was comfortable.
After a quick shower (very quick, especially since the water wasn't heated at all), she changed into a plain white tank-top and sweatpants. Plopping down on the bed, she had the sudden urge to check her phone. It made her feel a bit stupid, but the lack of another phone call from Dante was disconcerting and now, the thought of something bad happening to him rattled around in her head.
"He's alright," she said, shutting her eyes and feeling a tiny bit embarrassed for some reason. "It's just one phone call," she repeated, relaxing a tiny bit.
Sighing to herself, she could just imagine the Dante's face if she let slip that she had worried about him in any capacity.
Dante was really beginning to hate the Soul Society. For one, they seemed to operate on the same fucked up justice system as the one back home. Secondly, the food served to him in his special cell had been horrible. Third was the constant supervision from the various nut jobs that seemed to crawl out of the woodwork as soon as he got there.
Admittedly, the old man and Shunsui were okay guys; at least Shunsui was, being quite sympathetic to his plight, despite being the one who actually managed to knock him out and get him to the Soul Society in the first place.
He had been expecting another escort to accompany him to the call room, where his calls back home could be monitored and recorded. He remembered seeing a creepy face wearing a grin from behind the two-way mirror in the room, its malicious eyes watching his every move.
Kinda reminded him of Gene Simmons actually, but that was impossible.
That morning, however, there were two escorts. One was a bald man with crazy, red marked eyes, who kept spewing forth waves of spiritual energy towards him. The other guy was...well, kinda fruity to be frank, what with the shiny hair and eyebrow ornament things, but he also had considerable spiritual energy from what he could tell.
"So, where you guys taking me?" the half-devil asked nonchalantly as the two men flanked him while they walked along a white brick road. Surveying the damage to the buildings and some of the roads, Dante could sort of understand why everybody here was pissed at him. "Listen, I'm sorry about destroying your shit."
"Hey, no problem man," came the surprisingly amicable answer from the bald man. "So tell me, what was it like fighting with two Shinigami captains, two lieutenants, a Vizard and a Quincy?"
The devil hunter tensed; despite the friendly tone, the man's eyes held a psychotic gleam to them, his hunger to battle someone, anyone, becoming quite apparent. The other guy, Eyebrows, chuckled as they entered what seemed to be a housing facility, behind the large white stone walls. A large wooden door stood in front of them, an insignia of a yarrow flower very prominent at the top.
"Nice digs," said Dante, as the bald man knocked on the large door. "I'll ask again, why am I here?"
"This qualifies as your recreation or 'rec-time' I believe, as the humans call it," answered Eyebrows, crossing his arms.
"Yo, open up, it's Ikkaku!" called Baldy at the gates, looking back over his shoulder at Dante with a maniacal smile. "I brought us some fresh meat!"
The silver haired man smirked. "Dude, that didn't sound gay at all, just so you know."
"Laugh all you want," said Eyebrows as the large doors began to open. "Our captain's heard all about you and now he's wondering what all the fuss was about."
The two Shinigami and ryoka, as Dante could remember being referred to at times, entered the barracks. There was a large field where he saw several Shinigami sparring, some of them looking to be in very intense duels. A Japanese style house, resembling one from feudal times, stood at the center of the compound. This was where the two men were leading him to, Dante figured.
"So, your captain's got a little crush on me or something?" said Dante, even as a few men stopped their sparring and stared at him. Most of them began radiating spiritual pressure as well, looking very eager to fight him.
"Well, you're right about crush, but probably not how you think," said Baldy as they went inside the house. They finally came upon a sliding door which opened to reveal a large room. A sword rack was off to the far side of the room, as well as several weapons like spears and even a few shields.
What really caught Dante's attention was the man sitting at the far end of the room on what looked like a bean-bag chair; he was tall, easily as tall as Dante himself if he stood up, with eight spikes sticking out of his skull, like rays of the sun. Walking closer, Dante saw the man's face – he had menacingly sharp features, with a bloodthirsty gleam on his left eye, while the right was covered with a black eyepatch. A long scar ran down the left side of his face, a sign of battle experience. He was wearing a tattered white haori, similar to the other Shinigami captains, except his absolutely reeked of blood.
"Is this him?" asked the man, still sitting on his cushion. His aggressive features darkened slightly at the sight of the devil-hunter, a sign of slight disappointment.
"Yeah, he was the only one there," responded the bald one, Ikkaku. "We checked the records and everything. He's the guy."
Dante grinned sardonically. "So, what do I win?"
This time, the tall man grinned back, making his features look all the more intimidating and aggressive. Ikkaku and Eyebrows were both smiling, yet they looked slightly on edge, almost like they were expecting an inevitable catastrophe.
"So, you fought with Kyoraku, Kuchiki and Ichigo, all at the same time eh?" said the man, now standing up to his full height and walking to face Dante.
Dante gave a nod, glaring back at the Shinigami's one uncovered eye. Although Dante was shorter in height only by two inches, the spikes on the man's head made it seem like he towered over the half-devil.
"Not like I had much of choice," responded Dante nonchalantly, refusing to be intimidated. "They drew their weapons, so I drew mine."
"I like that attitude," responded the spike-haired man, with a grin. "I am Kenpachi Zaraki, Captain of Squad Eleven. The cueball behind you is our Third Seat, Ikkaku Madarame and the one beside him is our Fifth Seat, Yumichika Ayasegawa."
"Nice to meet you guys," replied Dante amicably, despite the tremendous spiritual energy that Kenpachi practically haemorrhaged in his direction. Grinning widely, Dante stepped closer and held out a hand.
From behind him, Ikkaku and Yumichika stared in amazement – the ryoka was showing no signs of discomfort, even with his proximity to their captain's vast reiatsu.
"Dante," he said, gripping the Shinigami captain's hand with vice-like strength. To his bewilderment, the spike-haired man looked...well, happy.
"Not bad. Most people faint when I give them a taste of my reiatsu, and that's when I'm much further away from them."
The devil hunter agreed silently, noticing that his two escorts looked a tiny bit nauseated, almost like they were being drowned.
"We've said our names to each other," said Kenpachi, matching Dante's monstrous grip with his own. "I suppose you know what that means?"
"I'm gonna go ahead and guess...we try to kill each other?" said Dante, deciding to show off by beginning to release his own demonic energy. The room began to darken and swirls of dark red energy began to fight against the vast spiritual power flowing out of Kenpachi.
Kenpachi scowled, looking mightily pissed about something. "Actually no, we can't really go all out. If we cause anymore damage to the place, the old geezer's gonna take it outta my ass."
"Agreed," replied Dante. Even though he was technically putting his life at risk again, this was a good distraction until Lady got to the Soul Society. "They took away my stuff, so unless you got a spare sword around here..."
"Ikkaku, lend him your sword," barked Kenpachi who had drawn a long, worn-out katana.
"What?" yelled the bald man indignantly, holding his weapon possessively. "This is my zanpakutou! I'm not gonna let some dirty ryoka use it!"
Kenpachi sighed and looked threateningly at his Third Seat. "You know, Yachiru's been wanting to go to a waterpark in the human world...I'm still looking for someone to take her..."
"Fine," growled Ikkaku who had paled at the threat. He took out the sheathed katana from his white obi and handed it to Dante. "Don't scratch it, alright?"
"I'll try," replied Dante with a shrug.
"I'm serious! If I find single scratch on it, I'll kill you!"
"Damn, what is it with this squad and killing everything?" muttered Dante to Kenpachi.
"We're the Eleventh Squad of the Gotei 13," responded Kenpachi, pointing his sword toward Dante. "It's what we're known for."
"Good to know," said Dante, drawing the borrowed sword from its scabbard. "Just to be clear, Shinigami are technically spirits, right?"
"Yes, we're far from being human, if that's what you're asking," said Kenpachi, knowing exactly what would set the ryoka off.
Dante didn't respond and charged at Kenpachi with a horizontal slash, leaving a swath of broken floorboards behind his wake. The taller Shinigami blocked the strike with his own, using just one hand to effortlessly parry the strike, sending Dante back a good distance.
"You're good," said Dante, re-sheathing the sword. "You won't believe how many fall for that one."
Kenpachi roared with laughter and charged, leaping high and crashing his sword down with an overhead strike. The devil hunter sank into an iaidōstance, drawing his sword into a perfect upward slash to counter, sending a shockwave across the room as the two swords clashed.
The bloodthirsty captain smiled again as he rebounded off the strike and landed in front of Dante, who had re-sheathed his own sword once more.
"It's been a while since I've seen anyone who can stand up after that!"
"Same here."
Ikkaku watched as the white-haired prisoner charged at his captain yet again, drawing the sword – his sword – into a diagonal slash. It crashed against Zaraki's weapon, sending sparks flying everywhere as the two combatants locked swords.
"Using one hand?" said Dante, noticing his opponent's preferred grip. "Swordfighting's not the occasion to be doing that, buddy."
"Like I said, if we destroy anything, we're going to end up paying for it," replied Kenpachi who then vanished suddenly.
"The ryoka's done for," said Yumichika from the sidelines, as Kenpachi re-appeared right behind Dante, striking downwards with his sword.
CRASH!
The Fifth seat's jaw dropped as Kenpachi's sword hit the floor at the exact spot where Dante was supposed to standing. As if weightless, the red-clad man now stood on the back of his opponent's immobilized blade and ran up on its length like a narrow bridge. He then flipped off the apex and gave a solid kick which hit Kenpachi right on the skull, sending the captain crashing through a far wall.
"How the hell..." whispered Ikkaku from beside his friend, staring as their captain made his way back on to his feet.
"Heard the bells a mile away. You're not insulting me, are you?" taunted Dante, the katana held against his waist into a iaidō stance.
To the half-devil's surprise, his opponent looked positively ecstatic. "What the hell was I thinking? I don't give a shit if I have to pay the entire Soul Society's paychecks! It's been a long time since I've had a fight like this and I'm not going to let some stupid rules get in the way!"
This time, Dante felt a steady rise in spiritual energy as Kenpachi began to glow in a golden light.
"I am Kenpachi Zaraki! I will tell you now that unless you come at me with the intent to kill, then you'll never be able to even cut me."
"Well then, since we're done playing around, how 'bout you remove that eyepatch?" said Dante, beginning to circle Kenpachi, his own dark red energy crackling around him. "When I slashed you from the right a little while ago, I saw your eyeball move underneath it. You can still see with it can't you?"
The captain grinned. "Think you can handle it?"
"Positive. In fact, allow me."
Shink!
The eyepatch fell from Kenpachi's face as if an invisible blade struck it. From across the room, Dante was sliding his sword back into its scabbard.
As soon as the eyepatch hit the floor, the walls around the building began to crumble as two fearsome reiatsu, one gold and the other dark red, began to combat each other in a tornado of destruction.
"Well, there goes the budget for the Annual Drinking Party," yelled Ikkaku amidst the carnage. He himself loved battle but drinking was a fairly close second. His captain, on the other hand, loved fighting first and most everything else a distant second.
Kenpachi swung at Dante with another overhead strike, which he blocked with his sword. A crater formed underneath the white-haired man's feet as the impact hit him. Pushing at the blade, Dante sent off Kenpachi's weapon and struck several swift slashes. The taller Shinigami quickly dashed back to avoid the strike but found his midsection to be covered in bleeding cuts.
"Hmm, thought for sure you missed me," he said, placing a hand on his wounds before bringing up his blood stained fingers to his lips and tasting it.
"Like that trick? I'll show it again!" yelled Dante, slashing at the air several times and sending multiple arcs of energy hurtling towards his opponent. To his surprise, the spike-haired captain didn't even dodge the attack and instead took them right in his torso. Narrowing his eyes, Dante saw that his opponent wasn't damaged in the slightest.
"Didn't I tell you before? If you don't have the resolve, you won't be able to cut me!" growled the Shinigami, charging towards Dante and locking swords with him once again.
"You really shouldn't be using a technique you're not that familiar with around me," Kenpachi snarled as he pushed against the other man's blade with all the strength his one hand could muster. "Or maybe...you don't really like using that technique, do you?"
From the sidelines, Ikkaku gulped nervously. His faithful zanpakuto was currently being wielded by a ryoka who had no idea how to use it and it was going up against a guy who had a habit of cutting through zanpakuto.
"Just not my style," replied Dante, holding his ground despite his opponent's tremendous strength. In truth, this fight was reminding him in more ways than one, about his battles with his brother.
"Don't take your mind off the fight!" yelled Kenpachi, as he gripped his sword with his second hand and pushed down. This motion sent Dante's weapon flying out of his grip and embedding itself into the ground. He quickly flipped backwards to avoid a horizontal strike that took down a nearby wall. Several members of the Eleventh division looked at the hole from the outside of the building, wondering who had gotten their battle-thirsty captain so riled up.
Despite losing his weapon, the white-haired man grinned again. Kenpachi charged towards him with another devastating two-handed slash. This sent out a golden arc of energy, cutting the entire wall in front of him in half and sending many Shinigami outside jumping for cover. The half-devil, however, managed to blur past his opponent's first horizontal strike, then dashed again past an upward slice and narrowly sped through a stabbing attack. Seeing that Kenpachi has left his back open after the forward motion of the stab, Dante spun on his heel and loosed a powerful spin kick at his opponent's back, sending the taller man skidding forward a few metres.
Kenpachi looked over his shoulder at Dante, who was bouncing on the balls of his feet, bobbing and weaving around like a boxer. The white haired ryoka thumbed his nose and let out a high-pitched whoop, beckoning the bloodthirsty captain to attack with an outstretched hand.
Smirking, Kenpachi stabbed his sword into the floorboards, sending out a slight shockwave. He then walked past the weapon, and raised his fists into a fighting stance.
"The ryoka's going to have a fist fight with Captain Zaraki!" someone from the outside crowed. Most of the compound for the 11th Division had been reduced to rubble and now the witnesses to the battle were beginning to increase in number. "Get everyone over here!"
"Place your bets people!" called Yumichika towards some of his squadmates who began digging around their respective money pouches. "Our Captain, The Demon of Rukongai, against the...er...the White Death!"
Several mini-explosions, similar to gunshots, were heard as Dante and Zaraki began to pummel each other with melee attacks. Kenpachi unleashed vicious combinations with his fists and elbows, hitting Dante several times on the torso and the head. The half-devil kept fighting however, countering with powerful kicks to avoid his opponent's slight reach advantage.
"Had enough?" asked Dante, still jumping around with a smile on his face.
"Are you kidding? I'm having the time of my life!" roared Kenpachi, catching a kick meant for his face with a crushing grip. "Got ya!"
As he moved in for a punch however, Dante quickly raised his other leg, delivering a graceful somersault kick towards Kenpachi's jaw with a crack. The taller Shinigami recovered much faster than he expected though, landing a knee strike at Dante's abdomen before he could properly land after the somersault. The attack caught Dante by surprise as he flew back several feet before regaining his footing.
"Muay Thai?" he asked Kenpachi while he tried to regain his breath. He had cracked a couple of ribs and now his healing factor was getting a much deserved workout.
Zaraki nodded as he re-located his jaw which was nearly torn off the muscle from Dante's unexpected somersault kick. "What about you? Jeet Kune Do?"
"Yeah, gotta love Bruce Lee."
Kenpachi grinned as he pulled his sword free from the floor before raising his head slightly upwards to indicate that Dante should do the same.
"Captain Zaraki?" called Yumichika from the sidelines, busy collecting bets from the small crowd that had gathered to watch the bout. The prisoner's almost done with his 'rec-time' which means we have to get him back to his cell soon."
"Ah, damn it," growled Kenpachi irritably. "Time sure flies when you're having fun."
Dante grinned. "You said it. I can't even remember the last time I had this good of a workout."
Kenpachi laughed twirling his battle-worn blade in nervous excitement. "You ready?"
The white haired man threw away his scabbard and took a different stance, the sword now pointed towards his opponent . "You bet."
Time seemed to stop as Kenpachi charged at Dante, wielding his sword with both hands, setting up for a devastating two-handed diagonal slash. The devil hunter seemed to float off the ground as he charged with frightening speed, becoming nearly impossible to follow with the naked eye.
There was an explosion of spiritual energy, gold and red mixing in a blizzard of destruction as the two combatants met. When the smoke began to clear, the members of the Eleventh Division saw the result of the battle.
"Damn, you got me," muttered Dante, looking at the jagged blade buried up to the hilt in his chest.
"Me too," said Zaraki with a chuckle, his own torso bleeding from what looked like a million stab wounds. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you? Was that a Flash Step you used? It looked a bit slower, though."
"Nope, that's all me dude," replied Dante, coughing up a wad of blood. "You were moving pretty friggin fast too."
"Cut it out. I hate being patronized," growled Zaraki. "Yumichika, what's the time?"
"Five minutes 'til we have to check him back in," answered the Fifth Seat, stuffing what looked like coins and several bills into his sleeve. "Hopefully this'll cover the damages..." he muttered.
"Five minutes eh? How 'bout another round?" said Kenpachi, who was still grinning despite his torso being cut nearly to shreds.
"Nah, I'm good," said Dante, pulling out the blade from his chest, wincing slightly. He handed the weapon back to Zaraki who accepted it. "Besides, I'm getting kinda hungry."
"I hear the prison food here's pretty shitty," said Kenpachi, putting his eyepatch back on. "I can get these two to buy you some decent grub and a drink," he said, motioning towards an irritated looking Yumichika and a scowling Ikkaku.
"I'm not gonna buy that asshole anything!" yelled Ikkaku angrily, holding up his sword which Dante had discarded a while ago. "Look what he did to my zanpakuto!"
"Yeah? Get your inner tube and goggles ready then," came the sadistic reply from Kenpachi. "Oh, and wear your pink swimming trunks. Yachiru loves those."
A vein throbbed over Ikkaku's temple, having been rendered helpless with the thinly veiled threat. "Alright! Come on you dick, let's get you some food and then get you back where you belong. But I want a fucking fight in return for this!"
"No, his next fight is with me," growled Kenpachi again, though he was smiling widely once again. He turned to Dante with a gleam in his eye. "In return for not making you eat shitty prison food, you owe me another match. And this time, it's to the death."
"This better be the best fucking meal I've ever had then," chuckled Dante incredulously. "Seriously, was this not a 'fight to the death' for you? You've got some high standards, man."
"I think we both know that this was nowhere near that," said Kenpachi. "Or do you expect me to believe you beat Kuchiki, Kyoraku and Ichigo with just that?"
The devil hunter smiled conspirationally and chuckled. This guy was a lot smarter than he let on.
He held out a hand. "Fine. You and me, to the death, when the time comes."
Kenpachi gripped his hand in a crushing handshake, having recovered quite quickly from his injuries. "That's what I want to hear. Now, let's get some grub and drink!"
"Captain, we really have to check him back into his cell, or else they'll take away his recreation privileges," whispered Yumichika.
"Shit, that's not good," muttered Kenpachi, disturbed at the thought that sparring matches with this new powerful opponent would become few and far in between. "We'll run back to his holding cell. You two, get the food and booze and meet us back there. Go, go, go! Or I'll kick your ass!"
The two seated officers disappeared as Dante and Kenpachi made a dash back to the holding cell on top of the ivory tower.
As they ran, Kenpachi Zaraki felt like laughing to the heavens. Serving in Soul Society must be the cause for his recent good karma – first Ichigo, now this Dante guy. What more could he want?
"AAAAAARRRGGGHHH! Get the fuck off me!" yelled Lady as she woke up in uncomfortably close proximity to a large, bespectacled man with a moustache who seemed to have made his way into her room, under her sheets and right on top of her during the night.
She quickly brought up her knee to the man's groin. To her surprise, his face remained indifferent to the crippling blow.
"Very good reaction," he said approvingly even as Lady pushed against his face with her palm. "I believe the jetlag's gone Kisuke."
"Thank you Tessai," came a jovial voice from off Lady's vision. "You can get off her now."
"Kisuke? Kisuke Urahara?" asked Lady as she got up from her bed and faced the other man who had invaded her room. He was tall and slender with an average build, but held himself with an air of confidence. He sported dark green attire, the most prominent of which was a green and white striped hat covering his straw coloured hair, while on his feet he wore wooden clogs.
"My reputation precedes me I see," he chuckled, before letting out a strangled yelp as Lady grabbed the front of his robes and shook him like a ragdoll.
"How the hell did you find me?" she yelled as Kisuke's head flopped around. "Dante said you could help bring him back?"
"Let's...be...calm...about...this!" said Kisuke, gently grabbing the huntress' wrists. This action caused her to stop throttling him and let him go. "We'll get him back. I promise."
"Good. That bastard owes me," replied Lady, feeling self-conscious for some reason. That's when she remembered that Dante hadn't called yet. Slowly and deliberately, she pulled out her cell phone from the small drawer beside her bed and opened the display.
You have 1 text message.
She pressed on the button to open the message, wondering what it would contain.
'Hey Lady! Sorry for not calling a while ago. They took me out of my cell for some exercise and I kinda lost the time, so I could only get this one text message. Don't worry about me though, I met some cool dudes here. By the way, if you've never had okonomiyaki, you should try it – it's awesome. Anyway, that's all for now. Check out the pictures I sent you!
Love - Dante'
"Who the hell said I was worried?" muttered Lady angrily as she opened the sent picture. She raised an eyebrow at the picture depicting Dante holding a small porcelain bottle (containing sake, most likely) and a slice of what looked like pizza. Beside him was a wild and aggressive looking man, glaring at the camera like it was challenging him to a fight. Off to the side, a bald man was holding a saucer of liquor to his lips while the other, admittedly handsome man beside him struck a seemingly rehearsed pose, gazing nonchalantly off to the side with a pout that rivaled a professional model's.
"I see he's doing well for now," said Kisuke, looking over her shoulder as she quickly turned off the phone. "But we don't know for sure. We have to get to Soul Society as soon as possible."
"I'll ask again, how'd you find me?"
"Get dressed and pack up your things. We'll explain on the way."
A/N: And there you all go, an extra long chapter and a fight scene for everyone who's read my story here so far!
Some notes:
The Insignia for the Eleventh Division of the Gotei 13 is the Yarrow. The meaning behind this symbol is Fight.
Okonomiyaki is a Japanese savoury pancake containing a variety of ingredients. The name is derived from the word okonomi, meaning "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki meaning "grilled" or "cooked" (cf. yakitori and yakisoba). Okonomiyaki is mainly associated with Kansai or Hiroshima areas of Japan, but is widely available throughout the country. Toppings and batters tend to vary according to region. It's basically the Japanese equivalent of pizza.
Iaidō is a Japanese martial art associated with the smooth, controlled movements of drawing the sword from its scabbard, striking or cutting an opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the scabbard. While new students of iaidō may start learning with a wooden sword (bokken) depending on the teaching style of a particular instructor, many of those who study iaidō use an unsharpened sword (iaitō). Advanced practitioners of iaidō use a sharpened metal sword (shinken).
I've also made a few references to Dante's in-game abilities here, so see if you can spot them all :-D