Disclaimer: I own neither Bleach nor Kyou Kara Maou, I'm just having fun here. No harm or profit intended.

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"Your father has been a great help, Kurosaki-san," Yuuri said to Ichigo the following morning, after the group had said their goodbyes to the rest of the Kurosaki family. "We would have lost a lot of time if we had to travel all the way from home again today."

Ichigo and Rukia were still tagging along – mostly because Ichigo's father had all but pushed them out the door and then shut it in Ichigo's face, telling him to go have fun with his friends. Never mind where Kurosaki Isshin had ever gotten the idea that the Mazoku were Ichigo's friends. Ichigo was still sticking to the story that he'd helped pull them out of the canal.

Still, he didn't have anything better to do, not unless a Hollow attacked somewhere, so he guessed he could hang out. They weren't bad people. He'd helped them out of a nasty situation, they had thanked him politely and they hadn't given him a hard time about the way he'd helped them. Neither had they ordered him around without explanation. Soul Society could learn something from them, when it came to that.

They were heading into one of the larger parks, one that had a thickly forested hill in the middle of it. This early in the morning on a Saturday, not many people were here. In fact, the park was completely deserted. Ah, peace and quiet.

Or maybe not. As they were partway up the hill, Rukia started looking worried and Ichigo caught the sense of a powerful spirit not too much later. Trouble? Ichigo felt in his back pocket for the badge that allowed him to shed his body and go into shinigami form just in case. The Mazoku didn't seem to notice anything, though Murata looked at Ichigo and Rukia oddly a few times. And then, when they reached the clearing where, according to Shouri, the stones were buried, they found it already occupied.

The first thing they saw was a white captain's coat drifting in the wind like a flag. Very quickly after that, it became clear that the coat belonged to Captain Kurotsuchi of Twelfth Squad. A shinigami, but just about the worst of the lot, if Ishida's stories were to be believed. He looked it, too, his face painted with an inhuman mask and with strange metallic protrusions where his ears should have been.

He was standing over an opened case of rocks that gave off a mild red glow. He held one of them in his hand, studying it. Behind him stood his lieutenant, covered in mud and shoulders slumped from exhaustion. She was holding a shovel.

Captain Kurotsuchi turned around as they approached. He spotted Rukia. "Ah, Kuchiki," he said. "I commend you for reminding me about the Mazoku and their artifacts. I would never have thought to scan for them otherwise." He held up the stone as he continued. "These stones certainly do have some interesting potential." He looked over the group behind her. "And now you've brought me a couple of live ones, too. Very well done. These will make excellent test subjects."

The Mazoku all looked at Rukia suspiciously, and she was quick to try and clear the air of any misunderstandings. "Captain Kurotsuchi," she began, looking shocked at the captain's implications.

"Oi, Kurotsuchi," Ichigo beat her to it. He was behind Shouri and Conrad, but he stepped forward. "They didn't come here for your amusement, and you know it."

The captain regarded Ichigo with a look of utter loathing. "Stay out of this, substitute. It doesn't concern you."

"Like hell it doesn't." Ichigo pointed over his shoulder. "We didn't save their asses yesterday just to hand them over to you today." He pulled out his badge and pressed it to his chest. His body dropped away to the ground, leaving Ichigo standing in shinigami form. From the corner of his eye, he saw Rukia abandon her body as well. The substitute soul she put in her body scrambled to pick up Ichigo's body and get out of the way. Ichigo put his hand on Zangetsu's hilt. "You'll have to go through me."

Yuuri put a hand on Ichigo's arm. "You don't have to fight on our behalf, Kurosaki-san. You did enough yesterday." Ichigo suddenly found himself surrounded by the Mazoku. They had arranged themselves around Yuuri. Shouri was passing out swords from the case he'd carried to Wolfram, Günter and Conrad, despite the latter two's injuries. The four of them now formed a wall around the kid and Ichigo.

Wait, four? Where had Murata gone?

Oh well, thought Ichigo. There wasn't time to worry about Murata's disappearance now. "You're underestimating what you're up against," he told Yuuri.

Rukia positioned herself on the other side of Yuuri. She also had a hand on the hilt of her sword. "Those Hollows from yesterday were small fry compared to a shinigami captain, Shibuya-dono. You would be better off running."

"That's not going to happen," Conrad stated. He was on Yuuri's right flank, and he had a sword in his hand, but he was currently using it more as a crutch than a weapon.

Ichigo shook his head. With his injuries, Conrad really shouldn't even be here. "All the more reason to leave it to us."

"No." Yuuri sounded adamant. What do you know, he had a stubborn streak. "You shouldn't go against your own friends. Please stand aside."

"I am really not that interested in the blather of experimental subjects or minor shinigami," Kurotsuchi interrupted, sounding bored. He turned to his lieutenant. "Nemu, disable them."

"Yes, sir," Nemu acknowledged. Then, with two quick, zigzagging jumps, she was on the group.
She moved fast, far faster than yesterday's Hollows. Ichigo was used to speeds like this and so he was ready when her first strike came at him, but he wasn't so sure the Mazoku were likewise prepared. Therefore it came as a surprise when Günter, his sword in his off hand, managed to block Nemu's strike. With a twist of his blade, he threw her off to the side. There, she collided with some sort of shield that Shouri had summoned. The collision briefly knocked the wind out of her.

Rukia moved to strike, but Nemu had already recovered and rolled away. That brought her close enough to Conrad that she could pull at his injured leg. He screamed with pain and fell to one knee, but he did manage to slash with his sword. When it came back up, there was blood on it.

Rukia struck again, and this time she connected. Her sword pierced Nemu's right shoulder. Nemu let out a grunt of pain. Then she pulled herself off the blade and calmly stepped forward. Once inside of Rukia's guard, Nemu struck the other Shinigami in the stomach, making Rukia double over.

Ichigo stepped in to stop Nemu from landing another blow on Rukia, but it wasn't necessary. Conrad, from his kneeling position, swung his blade in a flat arc, cutting at the back of Nemu's knees. She evaded it, but it took her too far away to strike Rukia. Instead, she struck at Wolfram, who managed to block it, if just barely. The movement brought her closer to Yuuri.

Shouri roared, and above them dozens of streamers of water from the ponds and fountains in the park twisted themselves into a shape that rushed at his brother's attacker and threw her back. The water hadn't taken the shape of Shouri's signature giant hand. Instead, what hovered overhead was a dragon to rival the release of Toushirou ("Captain Hitsugaya")'s sword.

"Oho! Now things get interesting," was all that Captain Kurotsuchi said to register his surprise at the fierce opposition. He glanced over to his lieutenant. Nemu stayed down for a few seconds before groggily sitting up. She got no sympathy from him. "Don't just lie there," he yelled. "Get on with it, you lazy dog!"

Nemu slowly got up and shook the water out of her face. "Move!" Kurotsuchi commanded again. His lieutenant complied with his order, but it was clearly too slow for his liking. He sighed and put his hand on the hilt of his sword. "Looks like I'll have to do this myself." He pulled the weapon. "Scratch out, Ashisogi Jizou!" he called out, and the blade changed into a warped trident.

With a speed that outstripped even Nemu's, Kurotsuchi shot forward. He initially passed Ichigo by to strike at Günter. The Mazoku managed to interpose his sword between two of the blades and block most of the strike. One prong of the trident, however, passed his defenses and hit him in the throat. Günter fell to the ground immediately, clutching his throat. It sounded like he was suffocating.

Ichigo stepped into the hole in Yuuri's defenses that Günter had left, raising Zangetsu and wondering when Yuuri was going to do whatever he had planned. Because if it turned out he didn't have anything planned, asking Ichigo to stand aside would be upgraded from unwise to suicidally stupid.

Ichigo would have to wonder a little longer, because before Kurotsuchi could move on to face him, a bright blue spirit arrow shot between the two of them.

"Still up to your old tricks, Mayuri?" Ishida asked, his voice emanating from a tree at the edge of the clearing.

Ishida did love his grand entrances, and Ichigo cursed himself for giving Ishida the opportunity to make one. But he couldn't be too angry, because however annoying the spectacle might have been, it meant reinforcements. Better still, Ishida wasn't alone. Chad and Orihime came running into the clearing as well. Orihime saw that Günter was down and sped to his side, calling up her healing flower spirits. Chad took position next to the still kneeling Conrad.

Kurotsuchi, however, wasn't impressed. "If it isn't the Quincy." He flicked his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Go play elsewhere. I'm busy."

"Not just yet." Ishida had drawn up another arrow and now loosed it squarely at Kurotsuchi. He blocked it while barely even looking. Then he fixed Ishida with a yellow-eyed glare. "You are not as strong as you were. Leave now." When his answer was another arrow from Ishida, he didn't bother with any further warnings. "Nemu," he ordered, "deal with him." And he was moving again, striking at Shouri this time.

The water dragon came down and washed over Kurotsuchi, but he was already moving on. Nemu was moving as well, attacking mainly Ishida, but also striking at other members of the group as opportunities presented themselves.

Ishida was the only one of their group free to move, and he couldn't shoot freely because of all the friendly targets. Ichigo cursed Yuuri once again for his unwillingness to get away. Right now, he had a place in a fixed defense, so all he could do was block strikes coming at him and attack enemies coming into his range. He could do a lot better if he had some maneuvering room. But if he stepped out of the circle to engage one enemy, the other would have room to strike at Yuuri.

And right now, the two of them were whittling down the defenses. Orihime was crouching right next to Yuuri. She was done with Günter and was now working on Conrad, but Günter didn't seem to be ready yet to join the fray again. Chad was doing a good job of keeping Conrad and Orihime safe, but Wolfram especially was struggling. For all his bravado, if Rukia hadn't been drawing off most of the attacks that might have been meant for him, he would have been down already.

And then something happened. Ichigo didn't see the exact moment because he was busy fending off an attack from Nemu, but when he looked back Rukia was down, and Kurotsuchi was just finishing a strike that would take out a just recovered Conrad. It did. That left an opening. Kurotsuchi stabbed forward, driving his three blades inexorably toward Yuuri. Wolfram let out a war cry and tried to interpose himself, but he was just a little too far away at the wrong angle. The longest prong of Captain Kurotsuchi's trident was only a few inches away from Yuuri's chest. There it stopped. Orihime, still kneeling on the ground, had summoned her shield right in front of Yuuri.

Shouri's dragon swept in again to push the captain back to a safe distance, but that threat had also been enough to finally set off Yuuri. He screamed. The sudden flood of spirit energy emanating from the kid made Ichigo take several steps away from him. Probably a good thing, because with the winds spiraling up around Yuuri it would have been hard to move in his immediate vicinity.

Somehow, Yuuri seemed taller, and the wind whipping his hair around made it seem longer, too. And the sense of power was … overwhelming, especially coming from who it did.

"Now I get why they made him Maou," Ishida said into the winds.

Kurotsuchi picked himself up and dusted off his robes. "This kind of power is good," he said, sounding really pleased with himself. "Well, then let's get serious, shall we? I may have to kill one or two of you, but happily there are enough to go around."

"This is bad." Shouri had stayed next to Ichigo. He was panting with effort, but his exhaustion still couldn't mask the worry on his face. "Yuuri can't keep this up for long outside of Shin Makoku." He raised a hand, then clenched it into a fist. "There's a way to share power, but I don't know how to do it myself. Murata's the one who knows how." He cursed. "Where's that damn coward run off to this time?"

Kurotsuchi held his sword in front of his face, almost in a traditional fencing salute. He spoke one word.

"Ban-kai."

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