A/N: Thanks again to all my readers and reviewers! As thanks, here is an extra-long chapter once again!
"Er, please hold still Kuchiki-taichou," said Kotetsu Isane nervously as she uncapped a bottle of disinfecting solution, which gave off a powerful odor as soon as she did so. Her patient, sitting with his legs dangling on the side of the hospital bed, gave a quiet nod and crossed his arms over his bare chest to facilitate the exposure of the rather nasty looking wound across his back. The upper half of his white hospital robes pooled along his waist and a few stains of blood had marred the otherwise immaculate fabric as soon as Isane had taken off the gauze.
"Does it hurt?" asked the tall medic as she dabbed generous amounts of antiseptic over the still healing gash with a cotton ball held in a pair of forceps.
Even without seeing the matching glare, the monotone voice of the Kuchiki heir made her knees rattle a bit. "Does what hurt?"
Before Isane could jabber out an awkward apology for insinuating that the 6th Division Captain felt discomfort in any possible capacity, her own rather infamous Captain stepped in to the rescue, having come in soundlessly from the door leading to Byakuya's private suite in the 4th Division Treatment Center.
"Now, now, just tell Isane if there's any pain at all, alright Byakuya-taichou?" came the sickly sweet voice of Retsu Unohana. "It's important to know if any nerves have been damaged in the fight."
A monosyllabic murmur began to form on Byakuya's lips before realizing that this was Retsu Unohana he was now dealing with. "Yes, I will. Thank you."
"Good. How is your hand feeling?" asked Unohana.
Byakuya held up a bandaged right hand and flexed the fingers. "Better."
"Excellent. Now, Isane will be back tomorrow to change the dressings over your wound. In the meantime, you may have to sleep on your side to avoid ripping the stitches."
He nodded.
"No strenuous activities of any kind, okay?"
The coal haired captain nodded once more, any plans of sneaking out for late night training fading under the threat of being restrained to his bed by Retsu Unohana's considerable prowess in Kido.
Turning to leave with her lieutenant, the braided woman fixed him another smile. "Oh and you have a visitor."
Byakuya turned to face the door which had creaked open to let the two medics out as it let his diminutive adoptive sister in. Rukia wore a worried expression which seemed to intensify the moment she laid eyes on her brother sitting on the white hospital bed.
"Hello, Nii-sama? H-how are you feeling?" she began tentatively as she made her way into the room, clutching a small basket of fruit in one hand.
"Quite fine, Rukia," he replied evenly, rising to his feet and taking the basket from his sister's hand. "The medical staff members here have proven themselves competent."
"That's good to know," she said, feeling the awkwardness seeping in. Making small talk with Byakuya Kuchiki was like drawing water from a rock; it might have been documented once, but it seemed impossible now. She sat down beside him on the hospital bed, and began to peel an apple from the fruit basket.
"Your injuries seem to be healing nicely," said Byakuya again, turning his attention to Rukia's bandaged right arm. "There has been considerable improvement in your usage of your zanpakutou as of late."
The small girl's eyes practically glowed at the praise, however offhanded it seemed. And she had just proven that her brother was capable of small talk after all!
"Can you remember how you got the wound?" he inquired, still looking at her bandaged arm.
Rukia swallowed; okay, he wasn't making small talk. He was still obsessing over the strange fight with the white haired ryoka. Almost a month ago, she and Ichigo were patrolling for signs of Hollow attacks when they detected a huge infestation of what seemed to be a few thousand Menos Grande a couple of kilometres outside Karakura town. When they had arrived at the scene, they saw a man in a red coat playing with the Hollows, before shooting them to dust. But that wasn't the strange part.
"That's weird," muttered Rukia, her cellphone in front of her. She and her orange haired partner had taken to hiding behind some trees that surrounded the open field where the cellphone had led them to.
"What's weird?" asked Ichigo, still watching as the man dusted himself off and holstered the pistols he had been using to kill Hollows.
"The cellphone's still showing a massive infestation in the area," she said, looking at the glowing dot on the area they were currently in. "But I can't see any more Hollows. Can you?"
Ichigo shook his head, his eyes never leaving the red coated man, who was standing still in the middle of the field.
"Nope, no more of those things here!" yelled the man before turning and looking directly at their hiding spot. "You two can come out of there now!"
Ichigo cautiously stepped out of his hiding spot, eyeing the white haired man. He gripped the handle of Zangetsu as he slowly began walking over to the stranger.
The orange haired boy stopped a few feet in front of the man, before drawing the massive blade on his back.
"How the hell can you see us?" growled Ichigo, pointing the sword at the stranger's forehead. "And why were you killing Hollows?"
"How the hell can I NOT see you? Oh, and you two were talking loud enough to wake the dead," said the man with a shrug. "As for this, it was a favour."
Rukia, having made her way in front of the man as well, cast a sideways glance at Ichigo who was still giving the man a death glare.
"What the hell ARE you?" asked Ichigo, tensing up for combat and blocking his smaller companion with his body. "Rukia, it's HIM! Look at your phone!"
The smaller Shinigami looked at the orange haired boy before remembering the cellphone in her hand.
Her eyes widened with realization and a feeling of dread settled in her stomach. "He's the 'infestation'?"
And then, the skirmish ensued, starting with her and Ichigo, then Ishida and Chad showed up and joined in, then Orihime after that. Before long, her brother and Renji had arrived for backup. And then Captain Kyoraku showed up and then…well, she had been knocked out for the last few minutes but she could remember someone using their bankai before everything going dark.
"I'm sorry, Nii-sama, I'm afraid I can't remember," she said, searching her memory desperately. In a flash, she remembered a beam of crimson light before blacking out. "I-I think….he hit me with a cero."
"That's highly unlikely," mused Byakuya. "When he was brought back here to Soul Society, the medical team and research staff couldn't find a Hollow-hole on him."
"But…he fought just like that Espada that Captain Kyoraku fought in the fake Karakura town…" muttered Rukia, remembering the twin pistols the man wielded, fighting in a reminiscent manner to the primera Espada, Coyote Stark, as described by Shunsui Kyoraku.
Glancing sideways at her brother again, Rukia noticed how tenderly he held himself, even if untrained eyes would see nothing wrong. The wound on his back was still paining him, though he would never admit it to anyone.
Rukia gulped again. The ryoka had cut her brother, Captain Byakuya Kuchiki, one of the strongest Shinigami in recent history, clear across the back. It was almost unheard of, the last one to do so in a sword fight being Ichigo Kurosaki in his Hollow form. When she found out that Ichigo had possessed that much power, a small part of her felt fear that any one being could possess such strength; it was only her utter trust in the orange haired youth's character that kept her from further thinking about the matter. The white-haired prisoner, on the other hand, exhibited monstrous capabilities beyond what she had ever witnessed, even from the likes of Sousuke Aizen and the Arrancar.
"I will have to have a conversation with the Research Division later regarding speedier release of the Gentei Reiin after a request is made," said Byakuya out of the blue, as if the thought had been building up for a while.
It relieved Rukia somewhat to know that her brother had only been using a fraction of his strength against the red clad stranger. It made much more sense that way….
"….but, you said you were able to use your Shikai," said Rukia with sudden realization. "The Gentei Reiin only allows Shinigami to twenty percent of their full power. Releasing a Shikai in the Human World requires at least…."
"Thirty percent, yes," said Byakuya. "That is why I was planning on discussing a quicker Gentei Kaijou upon request. I may not have been able to use Senbonzakura's true form at first but I was later able to activate it."
The long haired captain turned to his sister whose eyes were wide with disbelief.
"You used your Shikai?" she whispered. "T-then how…how?"
"How did he cut my back?" finished Byakuya, while taking another slice of apple from the plate on his sister's lap. "I'm analyzing the matter as well."
3 Weeks Ago…
Byakuya Kuchiki glared at the man in front of him, wearing a red trench coat and carrying a white handled nodachi – a type of katana made slightly longer with the purpose of cutting down horse riders. The silver haired man braced the sheathed weapon across his shoulders, resting his arms lazily on it.
"Man, you assholes just keep popping out of the wood work eh?" he said with slight irritation. "Based on my sources, I'm doing you all a goddamn favour. And this is the thanks I get?"
Byakuya said nothing, his eyes scanning the battle field. Kurosaki was lying unconscious, enveloped in a glowing light, undoubtedly the abilities of the strawberry-haired female kneeling beside him. Rukia was nursing a wounded shoulder and breathing heavily, her back against a tree. The Quincy was crouched on the ground, a hand nursing his ribs and the tall boy with the arm was on one knee, blood dripping from the side of his mouth.
"This is just protocol, buddy!" came the annoyed growl from beside Byakuya. His lieutenant, Renji Abarai, had drawn his own weapon and was eyeing the strange man menacingly. "Favour? I have a hard time believing that."
"Believe whatever you guys want," replied the man with a shrug. He then turned to Ichigo and Orihime, the latter of which gulped nervously. "I was just minding my own business, when your boy here decided to pull a sword on me. You can ask him yourself when he wakes up."
"You knocked Ichigo out?" asked Renji incredulously, a small disbelieving grin on his face. "You must be tough to do something like that so easily."
"Oh, it wasn't easy," said the man, lazily turning back to face them. "Wasn't hard either, but that's relative. He pulled some neat tricks though; had a cool mask and Drive-lite."
The tattooed lieutenant looked confused. "Drive-lite?"
The man raised the sheathed sword from his shoulders and rested it on the ground like a cane, before it vanished into thin air. Before Renji could comment, he had drawn another weapon, a menacing looking broadsword, from his back and pointed it threateningly at them.
"I forgot; you guys haven't seen 'Drive-classic' yet, have you?"
Almost faster than they could blink, the man cut through the air with his sword, releasing an arc of crimson energy from the blade. It was only through years of training that both Renji and Byakuya were able to Flash Step beside the man, who was watching gleefully as the area in front of him exploded into rubble.
"No way," muttered Renji. "That was….a Getsuga Tensho!"
"Yeah, that's what the other kid said. I prefer 'Drive-lite.'"
With a roar, Renji launched towards the man, ignoring Byakuya's stern warning glare. He raised his own katana in the air before issuing the familiar command.
"Roar, Zabimaru!"
The katana transformed and its bladed links hurled towards the man with great speed, whistling in the air. The red coated stranger, however, turned slightly on his heels, avoiding the blades within an inch of his skin.
"Don't act so cocky, you bastard!" yelled Renji, swinging the handle of his zanpakutou to launch another attack. Loud crashes were heard as the blades of Zabimaru hit trees, rocks and ground surrounding them, clouds of dust and debris being kicked up in the process.
As the dust cleared, Renji felt utter annoyance as he saw that the man had barely moved from his standing position, having avoided all of his blows within an inch of contact.
"Not bad," said the man, clapping mockingly. "I've always wanted a whip-sword but I can never find any decent ones."
The man smirked then blurred and reappeared behind him.
Renji's eyes narrowed while retracting Zabimaru back to sword form – did the man just use what looked like a Flash Step?
As he was learning to master Zabimaru, Renji had found it essential that he be proficient in Flash Steps, so as to take advantage of his weapon's range and to compensate for the relative slowness of its attacks when compared to other zanpakutou.
Renji smirked a plan forming in his mind. He blurred as well and reappeared behind the stranger with a downward strike at the ready. "Nice try, but you're way outta your league!"
CLANG!
Without looking, the silver-haired man raised his sword to block Renji's attack from behind. He glanced over his shoulder at the tattooed Shinigami's stunned face and smirked.
"That's MY line, kid."
"I ain't no KID!" yelled Renji, before raising his palm inches away from the man's face. "Hadō thirty-one, Shakkahō!"
Raising his palm, the red haired lieutenant shot a ball of fire point blank into the smirking man's face. As the smoke cleared from the explosion however, he realized to his astonishment that his opponent looked completely unharmed. The man again blurred from sight and reappeared a few feet away, looking irritated. He kept rubbing his eyes and shaking his head. "Damn, that's an annoying move."
Renji smiled, raising his palm once again. "Yeah? Have some more!" He shot forth blast after blast of the red fire spell, figuring the quantity of the blasts would make up for accuracy. The man sighed heavily and began to disappear and reappear all around the field, avoiding the shots with ease. Renji watched as the man blurred from one point, before making his move – just as the stranger appeared over an area, the Shinigami lieutenant used his own Flash Step to reappear right in front of his with Zabimaru raised over his head.
"You're dead!" he yelled before swinging down. Instead of hitting his target however, the man was gone from the spot, nowhere to be seen.
"What the-?"
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap!
The Shinigami watched astonished as a series of footprints began appearing on the ground, as if an invisible force was running around at high speed. The footprints looked like gunshots, the impact making small craters in the soil every time a step was made. The trail of broken ground surrounded the red haired lieutenant like a cyclone of death. Renji knew this wasn't right; he had to reappear eventually, but so far, the rapid footprints were the only indication of his opponent's presence.
"Shukuchi," said Byakuya suddenly, having appeared beside his lieutenant. He had been observing the fight for a while to analyze the man's fighting style and had come up with an observation.
"Huh? What are you talking about, taichou?"
"That technique he's using," replied Byakuya, watching as the rapid footsteps continued to appear, as if rain from above was pelting the ground. "It's a technique different from Shunpo or even Sonido because it does not require the use of reiatsu. It only requires the user's own raw leg strength."
"Is that even possible?" "There has been only one recorded usage of the technique by a human being, some time ago in the early Meiji period."
Click.
"I see you two know your homework," came the snarky voice of the silver-haired man, his guns pointed at the two Shinigami's backs. "Look, I'm really tired from all that clean-up and I'd appreciate it if you could just let this little thing slide."
"Renji, look after the injured," came the command from Byakuya. Renji took one look at his captain's ice-laden glare before nodding and hurriedly attending to Rukia, who was still slumped next to a tree. Drawing his sword and fearlessly facing the strange man, Byakuya levelled him with a cold stare. "Ryoka, by order of the Soul Society, put down your weapons and come with us. You are in direct violation of laws regarding possession of mystical weaponry and assault on Soul Society liason."
"You've gotta be shitting me," growled the man, his two pistols, one silver and the other black, still pointing towards the Kuchiki nobleman's face. "You're arresting me?"
The long haired Shinigami's eyes hardened. "Yes, with all your limbs intact, if you cooperate."
The man let out a small chuckle. "Looks like you're the real deal then. I can tell, you're a notch or two above the orange haired kid and the tattooed dude, at least when it comes to fighting. You gonna show me some cool tricks with that sword of yours too?"
The captain's mouth fell into a severe line. "I need not show my Shikai to trash like you."
A short bark of laughter escaped the man's throat. "Okay….kinda uncalled for, but okay, I get it. Don't wanna show all your cards all at once eh? Then, how 'bout I make you show me?"
Byakuya's eyes narrowed ever so slightly as the guns continued to point towards him. "If you lower your weapons now, I will do my best not to kill you."
"Ah, kind of a cocky sonuvabitch underneath that cool, emotionless thing you got going eh? Yeah, I've dealt with your type before – had a lot of training in that matter when I was just a kid."
"This is your last warning, ryoka."
The man paid no heed to the warning, keeping his weapons in place. "Better be careful, buddy. You keep your nose turned up like that all the time, you might not see it when someone cuts your throat."
The two figures charged, blurring and clashing swords, each rapid strike from Byakuya followed by a counter from the ryoka. After a few seconds of continuous sword fighting, both combatants flickered out of sight before reappearing a few feet facing each other.
"Not bad," said the man, a thin cut appearing on his forehead and a larger one on his chest, both of which began to bleed. "Pretty damned good actually. It's been a while since I've fought anyone as good as you."
Byakuya didn't answer as a thin cut began to form on his own cheek. "Silent type eh?" said the silver-haired ryoka, shaking his head with his hands on his waist. "You know, you remind me a lot of some-"
Before he could finish talking, the ryoka suddenly keeled over as a gush of blood sprayed forth from his back, emanating from the slash made by Byakuya who had suddenly reappeared behind him. The man fell on one knee, chuckling wryly while coughing. "Damn, didn't even see that one. See, I knew you were good."
To Byakuya's surprise, the man then suddenly got up to his feet, as steadily as one who did not have his back slashed a few seconds before. As he turned to face his opponent, the Shinigami was further surprised to find that the wounds he had inflicted upon the man were nowhere to be found.
The man began to smile but then frowned at seeing Byakuya's indifferent face. "You know, I usually get more of a reaction after something like that."
"Jest all you want," said Byakuya, charging again with a swift strike which was barely blocked by the man. "When the Gentei Kaijou is complete, you will come with us."
The ryoka wrinkled his nose.
"The what? Damn, I am running out of Japanese here."
As soon as he said this, a fearsome wave of reiatsu began to emanate from the stoic Shinigami, enough to actually send a few birds flying from their trees.
"Shinigami who visit the Human World are required to seal off the majority of their reiatsu to reduce the amount of collateral damage," said Byakuya, glowing white energy surrounding him. "What you have witnessed so far was a mere twenty percent of my power."
"Twenty percent?" said the man, holstering his pistols and looking to be in deep thought. "That's…well, that's not very much."
CLANG!
The strange combatant grinned widely as he locked swords with Byakuya, noticing the greatly increased force behind the swing. "Damn, you weren't kidding! That packed a hell of a punch!"
He got no answer as Byakuya flickered and reappeared at his side, slashing horizontally. Instead of blocking with the large broadsword, he swiftly drew one of his guns and used it to parry the strike. As Byakuya's blade bounced off the metal barrel, the ryoka fired a shot that narrowly missed the Shinigami's head.
"Don't tell me you've never faced a Gunslinger before."
The Shinigami responded by performing swift, deadly strikes with his sword, sending sparks flying off the metal. The man had drawn his second gun and used both pistols to parry at each strike, pulling the trigger at opportune moments to fire at Byakuya, who would duck and weave to avoid the gunshots. It was a deadly ballet of traditional weapons against modern weapons, both fighters wielding their respective armaments with lethal proficiency.
Seeing an opportunity, Byakuya removed one of his hands from the grip of his sword, parrying the gun aimed at his head. Just as the man pulled the trigger, the Shinigami Flash Stepped immediately behind the man, his index finger pointed just inches from the red leather covering the man's back.
"Hadō seventy-three, Sōren Sōkatsui."
The twin beams of azure fire shot from the Shinigami's digit, their intention to engulf the red coated man in holy fire. Before they could hit their mark however, the ryoka leapt high into the air and positioned himself right over Byakuya. He flipped upside down and pointed both his guns towards his opponent before spinning rapidly like an upside-down human top. Looking upwards, Byakuya could see crimson energy crackling around the pistols before a rainstorm of bullets infused with red lightning showered upon him, completely decimating the area he was standing in with a rapid volley of powerful gunshots.
Landing on the ground, the man holstered his pistols as he surveyed his handiwork."You still alive in there?" he called.
As the debris cleared, a rectangular orange force field was see shining around Byakuya, who had his hand turned towards the sky. He was bleeding from the shoulder, a bullet having escaped the force field, yet looked as indifferent as ever.
"Damn, those moves are really annoying," said the man with a growl, drawing his broadsword once more. "So what now? Are we gonna go at this all night?"
"Hardly," came the cold reply. "I will finish this now. Scatter, Senbonzakura."
The Byakuya-Dante fight will be concluded next chapter ^_^ Again, I made a few references to Dante's abilities here, including his incredible speed shown in DMC4. He's only used one style specific move here which was Rainstorm, as I had to have him use it in context. Yamato also made a brief appearance in the beginning of the fight – the nodachi Dante was carrying at the beginning of the flashback.
For those having trouble visualizing the scene when Dante fights against Byakuya's sword with his guns, imagine the gun-kata fights from Equilibrium. Dante also does a very similar fight scene with Lady in DMC3, during the cutscene when she finds Arkham seemingly dead on the floor.
Shukuchi is a reference to Seta Soujiro from Rurouni Kenshin. I hope I did the technique justice by my descriptions here, as it is one of my favourite anime fight scenes of all time.