Chapter 3
We all whipped around, I silently cursed myself for not paying attention to who was around us. There were two men behind us both at a fukutaichou's level. One had black hair cut into a bob, a orange collar that connected to a bracelet, and yellow and red feathers on his face. The other was a bald man with red makeup on his eyes, he was dancing around chanting lucky. Me and the teens exchanged confused glances.
"So which wimp's sword did you break?" the bald one asked finally having finished his strange dance.
"Hmm, I think he said his name was…" I trailed off pretending to think about it. "Oh right, that's it! He said his name was Gin. Gin Ichimaru Taichou of the 3rd division." To their credit, the two looked frightened for a split second, but then they started laughing.
"You really expect us to believe that you broke a taichou's Zanpakuto? Yeah right, you don't even have any reiatsu!" the bald one exclaimed.
"Lying is so unbeautiful. But at least your face is beautiful," the other one said.
"Do you want to take them, or should I?" I asked, ignoring them and turning to Ichigo.
"I will. You should go ahead and get Rukia. We'll catch up later," Ichigo said.
"Fine. But if you run into a taichou run. You can't defeat them. Meet me at the Senzaikyu as soon as you can," I responded, I turned to Yoruichi and opened my mouth to speak, but was cut off by feathers.
"Wait, you're here to save the girl? I hate to break it to you but her execution is in an hour. Also no one said you could leave, girl," he said.
"Yoruichi stay with them," I said. "And for the last time, I don't need permission from any of you." And with that I shunpoed towards the Senzaikyu. It takes about a minute to get to the stairs in the middle of the Seireitei. I come to a stop a few feet in front of the man at the bottom of the stairs. He has a tribal looking tattoo on his face and down his neck,and long firetruck red hair in a ponytail. I think this is the one Urahara told me about, Renji.
"Look, I just wanna save your friend and then go back to my daily life. So, if you could just step aside, that would be great," I said before he could open his mouth.
"I can't do that. I will save her by myself," He said, reaching for his Zanpakuto.
Before he could draw it, I shunpoed behind him and knocked him out with the hilt of one of my daggers. I made my way up the seemingly endless stairs, once I reached the top I sensed a large reiatsu on top of one of the walls. I stopped and turned my head to the source of the reiatsu and nearly fell to my knees. Crouched on top of a wall to my right is Kenpachi Zaraki, my father.
"Are you the one who broke Ichimaru's Zanpakuto?" he asked, jumping off the wall and landing in front of me.
"Yes," I replied, turning to face him, and trying not to collapse.
"Tch, what a weakling. You don't even have any reiatsu. What's your name kid?" he asked. It took everything in me to not run up and hug him.
"Grimm Zaraki." He snarled, and lifted me up by my throat.
"Where did you hear that name, girl?" he hissed. I reached into my vest and pulled out the picture, that my mother had given to Urahara to give to me, and held it in front of his face. His eyes widened and he dropped me. I landed on my feet and looked at him. He had tears running down his face, when he met my eyes, the sorrow in his eyes almost brought me to my knees. Not being able to hold back any longer I sprinted across the last couple feet that separated us and slammed into my father wrapping my arms around his wide frame, almost knocking us both over in the process.
"I am so sorry, babygirl," he whispered wrapping his arms around me.
"It's okay, papa. I mean, I've changed a lot since the last time you saw me," I mumbled not removing my head from his chest. We stayed like that for a while, just enjoying the feeling of finally being able to hug each other after so long. "But now we have to stop the execution. An extremely powerful object that Aizen needs is bonded to the Kuchiki girl's soul." I pulled away from my father and looked up at him.
"I think it's about to start," He said looking at Sokyoku Hill.
"Well, I guess we better get going then," I said taking a few steps back.
"I'll go find your friends!" said a pink headed girl poping up from the back of my papa's Haori.
"Good idea, Yachiru. Get them to Sokyoku Hill as soon as possible," he said as she jumped off his shoulder. She nodded and took off down the stairs, he turned back to me. "Let's go."
I nodded and turned towards the execution grounds just in time to see a huge pillar of reiatsu shoot up into the sky.
"I'm going to run ahead, see you there," I said and took off as fast as I could. It only took me a couple seconds to get there. I landed on top of the execution stand just as the Sokyoku started towards Rukia. In an instant I had my fire Zanpakuto drawn and cut through the beak of the phoenix. As I settled myself back on the execution stand the now broken Sokyoku hit the ground. The sound rang loudly in the shocked silence that had settled over everyone present. From what I could tell all of the taichou and fukutaichou were here except for both from the 5th, 11th (obviously) and 12th; the 8th and 13th taichou were also absent but their fukutaichou seemed to be here.
"Who the hell are you?" Rukia shouted at me. As soon as she finished my papa showed up. He looked around at the captains and at the broken Sokyoku and then looked up at me.
"That's my girl," he yelled with a face splitting smile. It took a second, but papa's words seemed to register with my mother, because she gasped, covered her mouth with her hands and then fell to her knees. The tall silver haired girl, who presumably is her fukutaicho, next to her gasped and went to catch her but I beat her to it and caught her around her waist. She went to draw her sword but mama held up her hand to stop her.
"Is it really you, Grimm?" she whispered, bringing her hand up and brushing my bangs out of my eyes.
"Yeah mama, It's me," I whispered back smiling softly. Everyone who was close enough to hear, gasped. Mama let out a choked sob and wrapped her arms around my neck hugging me. Papa finally reached us and brought us both into his arms.
"I guess this means that this execution had something to do with Aizen's plan," she whispered in my ear so low that I had to strain to hear it. I nodded silently.
"Unohana-taicho, Zaraki-taichou, what is the meaning of this," the soutaichou demanded.
At this we all untangled ourselves from each other. I shunpoed back up to the execution stand, leaving my parents on the ground.
"I am Grimm Zaraki," I stated so that everyone could hear. Looking down at Rukia I continued, "I came with Ichigo and four others to rescue Rukia Kuchiki and stop Sosuske Aizen's plan to use the Hogyoku that has attached itself to her soul." Everyone gasped. Before anyone could respond I plunged my water Zanpakuto into the stand, breaking it, I grab Rukia before she can fall, set her next to me, and lean against one of the sides. The whole process took a couple seconds at most, as the dust settles Renji, the teens, Yachiru, and Yoruichi, in her true form, show up. "Yo, took ya'll long enough."
"Sorry, Yachiru kept getting us turned around," Ichigo yelled back, causing me to laugh.
"What's your excuse, Renji?" I teased.
"What? You knew I'd come?" Renji asked confused.
"Tch, I wasn't born yesterday. I knew you wanted to save her, and be the hero," I scoffed.
"Zaraki-taicho explain now!" the soutaicho shouted, opening his eyes. Just then two captains rushed on to the hill, carrying what looked like a shield wrapped in a velvet rope.
"Oh, Jushiro, it looks like we got beat to saving her," the taichou with long brown hair in a floral kimono and straw hat said to the taichou with long white hair.
"And just what did you think you were going to do with that?" the now very pissed soutaicho shouted.
I picked up Rukia and before she could even comprehend what was happening I shunpoed to Ichigo and silently told the group to run. I nodded at Renji signaling that he should go with them, and then appeared in front of the soutaichou. This whole thing took about a minute.
"Now, I don't know about Flowers and Whitey over there," I said jerking my head at the two shocked aforementioned captains. "But I can explain the rest of it."
