Bleach is not mine, ownership rights are deferred to the great and venerable Lord Tite and the Dukes and Ladies of Viz Media and TV Tokyo
Please accept my humility as a substitute for legal Sodomy.
Chapter Three - Small Talk
Hakuteiken, struck against Getsuga enhanced steel once more as both Kurosaki and Kuchiki struck out at each other once more, the time for words past.
A look passed between the two as they flickered out of their respective high speed techniques as one, each knowing that the next charge would end it, the fight having dragged and strained their bodies beyond the limits of which they could handle. Stepping towards each other, they each had to pause mid stride, as a heavy presence imprinted itself on the area, two figures dressed in the same white Haori's that Byakuya had been wearing before Ichigo had torn it to shreds, stepping out of a whirlwind of bandages.
The Captains of the Third and Fifth Divisions had entered the fray and, from the presence of the silver haired man alone, Ichigo knew that he was well and truly screwed.
Zangetsu roared as Ichigo came flickering in and out form every conceivable angle, Getsugas roaring, steel biting and all he could wonder was just how the hell the silver haired man was deflecting every strike with such unbelievable ease.
"You ain't half bad Ichi, God knows my Lieutenant could stand to learn a thing or two from ya." He drawled, slapping Zangetsu to the side with his bare hand before planting his fist straight in the young human's gut. "But ya need to understand Ichi, that while you might be able to stand up to the likes of Kaname or even ickle Toshiro, against me;" He grabbed Ichigo by the scruff of the neck, pulling him in close with a twisted smile. "Against the comin' shit storm ya goin' to need ta be a hell of a lot better." And he launched the boy through a wall, possibly two, Ichigo couldn't too rightly recall, the pain of having a building collapse on him a little distracting.
"Honestly, from what I'd heard I expected better, you've been hyped up around the company break room as kind of a big deal." He had? By who? Byakuya had been nothing but dismissive of him and he was sure that renji disregarded him as nothing but a rookie who had gotten lucky, so who did that leave? Rukia the convicted criminal? Sure, why not?
"Come on Ichigo, don't tell me that was enough to put you down." No, it really wasn't, but he had to think and consider his next move. He had been slinging Getsuga around like he was handing out candy, vanishing in and out of Sasapo hoping for an opening that had never come, hoping to disorient his opponent in the chaos.
That had been a spectacular failure. In fact, he'd still yet to land a decent hit on the man. "Not gonna come out on ya own? You're boring Ichi, guess I'm gonna have to end this then. Shoot to Kill…" Well, if that wasn't a call for the now or never, ichigo really didn't know what was, flaring his presence to scatter the rubble, a Getsuga bursting to life as the man's Shikai was unleashed, the florescent white blade extending at the same moment, slicing through the attack like it was paper, only to strike nothing as Ichigo had vanished only to reappear in a burst of incandescent blue and white, hand snapping onto the Shinigami's face, slamming the man into the ground and leveling Zangetsu at his prone neck.
"Ya won't do it." Ichimaru observed, smiling. "Ya can't do it."
"And how would you know fact one about me?" Ichigo growled, Zangetsu's tip pressing into the man's neck, drawing blood.
"I can see it in ya eyes, the fear and hesitation. Hollows are one thing, sure they look twisted enough that you can disconnect the fact that they were human once. But with me, with any Shinigami really, you can't see anything but. To you we aren't just Shinigami, we're human. Just. Like. You." He drawled out, words wrapping around Ichigo's ears like snakes. "And that is possibly the worst thing you can do because trust me, we ain't. We are the furthest thing from human you could possibly meet, even more so than Hollows, I can promise you that."
Growling viciously, Ichigo swung Zangetsu up. "Ya see, you just don't have the ston…" Only to bring him crashing down on the Silver Haired man's sword arm, severing muscle and bone, eliciting a howl of pain. "Wha… I don't… argh, I don't get this." He stammered, left arm clutching his now bloody stump, Ichigo looking away pointedly.
"Don't make any mistake Shinigami. I might not be willing to kill you, but if it comes down to my friend's lives or yours, there's just no contest," Shouldering Zangetsu, he vanished in a slowly dissolving blur of lingering Sasapo. "When it comes right down to it Ichimaru, I will do anything for my friends."
Smirking through the pain Ichimaru muttered. "We'll just see, won't we?"
Sliding back with all of the fear of a cornered rat, Ichigo slipped back so that all three Captains were in his line of sight. "What's wrong Ichigo?" Gin Ichimaru started with a genial smile. "Ain't ya happy to see us? Guess not." he sighed turning his attentions to the glasses wearing man behind him. "Wasn't Tousen supposed to be here by now?"
"Have patience Gin, we are not so pushed for time with everybody's attentions spread so far and so thin." He replied, smiling benevolently, or at least that was the mood that Ichigo picked up on, only it felt wrong, almost as if it was forced. "For now, I think we can spare some time for explanations, after all, it seems you have a few questions you'd like to get off your chest, Captain Kuchiki."
Only now did he really notice the way Byakuya's hands were shaking, his eyes widened into something similar as when Ichigo had let loose all the power of his Bankai. It was a blanket disbelief, but unlike earlier it was mixed with something else, something far more primal that Ichigo had retreated into with the appearance of the two new arrivals.
Terror. Pure unrestrained terror and, for some reason, it wasn't directed at Ichimaru.
"I suppose we'll start with the obvious, I am not dead simply, because I never was." And then he understood Byakuya's fear. This was a man who had made himself appear dead to the entire might of the 13 Court Guards, the orginization that handled every last aspect of death and the threats that roamed at it's fringe. To be able to pull that off with such ease and grace was monumental and, to the mentality of the Shinigami who believed their will the bar and their decisions never wrong, it had to truly strike at something alien inside of them. "It was all just a trick, a sleight of hand I prepared in hopes of not having to compose myself like a desperate beast in the coming occurrences, as it was I was only to have an audience of 3 for this next part, but it appears young Kurosaki is far more tenacious than even I gave him credit for."
"Stop with the doublespeak and answer me Aizen." Byakuya almost growled, for all the way he composed himself he may as well have been screaming at the top of his lungs. "Why the deception?"
Shaking his head, as if talking to a toddler the brown haired man, Aizen, chided the man softly. "Soon Byakuya, but you must be patient. When Kaname returns with our young delivery girl all will be made clear, and I will hear your objections. But for now, shall we not merely enjoy each others company? Trade stories and get to know one another more intimately? For instance, I find myself ever intrigued by the human who achieved the pinnacle of Shinigami power not even 6 months into his discovery of those same said powers, the boy that can match Captain class Shinigami and forced the fearsome Grand Fisher into retreat." Conversation and attentions shifting suddenly onto him, three sets of piercing eyes focused on nothing else. "The boy who managed to take even my most trusted Lieutenant's arm with such vicious resolve?"
Swallowing a hitch in his throat Ichigo slid Kyoka Zangetsu back, the black and white blade's surface shimmering almost as if it were reflecting a rippling tide. "What's to know? You've already summed up my greatest hits, what more is there?"
"Distract the enemy, keep him talking and try to evaluate a method of escape. A tried and true strategy, if not a little cliched, although still one far more commendable than blindly charging and dying like a fool. It makes me sad that you were never a Shinigami inducted through the 13 Courts, I would've made you something amazing." Aizen let out a wistful sigh. "Alas, we don't always get we want. But I hope you know, young Kurosaki, that killing you is an action that I will not enjoy."
"Kill me?" Ichigo laughed. He really couldn't help it, the stress of the day, the ever present bite of his Senbonzakura wounds and finally the whole pile of hell just loaded down at his feet, it was tricky not to just laugh, eying Byakuya quickly, he noted that the man had taken on a look of incredulity, maybe a little pity as he took in, what he must have assumed to be the young human's mind shattering into a million tiny pieces, even Ichimaru looked at him with a frown of worry, how messed up was that?
But Aizen? he just kept smiling eyes gentle and soft as Ichigo continued laughing. "How messed up is this?" Stammering though the laughter. "15 years old and I'm about to die... in a world that isn't even mine?" shaking his head, he stared at the brown haired man, he shifted his feet, Zangetsu thrummed in his hands and he growled. "Don't think I'm going to make it easy for you though. You want to kill me Aizen? You are goddamn going to have to work for it."
He sighed once more, eyes closed in pity. "I'm afraid young Ichigo..." He began, as the orange haired human ran towards him in a flash of Shunpo, six other Ichigos springing into life around him. "You just aren't capable of that." And turning on the heel, with a speed that shadowed even Byakuya and maybe even Yoruichi, he ignored the six illusory Ichigos and caught the blade of the real one, just reappearing out of a Sasapo at the brown haired man's back as he had done so many times before against so many other people, resting the razor edge against his index finger. "You got predictable Ichigo. Lesson one, never be predictable." And in a burst of pain, Ichigo felt his body split open and the last thing he heard before darkness claimed him was his name, screamed out by a familiar voice.
Is it just me or is there alot of homoerotic subtext in some of my prose here?
So we're three chapters into the rewrite and with one more to go before a brand new chapter all together I'm finding myself much happier with this than I ever was with the first posting of it.
Till next time, later homies.
