Soooooooooo sorry for having you guys wait so long, but schools takin up time. I hope this chapter is as good as the others, I feel like it doesn't flow so well. Please tell me in a review or something if you feel that something isn't right, it helps.
This is the chapter where everything really starts to get into critical, with action and emotion and suspense and all that, I hope I didn't overdo it.
Thanks all for the reviews and favs so far! Let the story continue...
Beginning of the End
Yoruichi smiled. "Long time no see, Lil' Byakuya."
Purple hair tied in a ponytail with face covered by a scarf, Yoruichi Shihoin leapt with feline grace –
- and stabbed Ichigo in the stomach.
His last conscious words were: "Wait, I have b…"
"You can't beat Byakuya yet," muttered Yoruichi.
Ichigo blacked out, knowing full well that this entire meeting would result in nothing but a very, very, pissed off Byakuya.
In the depths of her own mind, Byakuya sighed. Somehow, she had known that she just wouldn't have beaten Yoruichi, even though they hadn't had a game of tag in… well… a few decades. Women have a thing about how they measure time, because time is how you measure age. This is one of the reasons why the majority of the Captains in the Society of Souls like the captain's meetings so much, because they get to see Head-Captain Yamamoto. The minority of the Captains, however, hate the captain's meetings for the exact same reason.
Today, or rather, tonight, was not her day. Or night. Well, the whole week hadn't been her day.
But today was definitely the worse. Her vice-captain gone, her brother's execution moved up, Ryoka continuing to wreak havoc, Kenpachi causing even more havoc, a certain demon-cat showing up, nostalgia making her feel old…
If she wasn't the 28th Head of the Kuchiki Clan, she would have screamed.
"Aren't you going to chase after them?" Ukitake asked her fellow Captain, concerned.
"No. I have lost interest." answered Byakuya. As she walked away, her zanpakuto teased, Then stop thinking about him.
I have no interest in chasing that demon-cat.
That's not who I meant.
Ukitake had Senataro and Kiyone put the unconscious Rukia back in his cell. It surprised her that Byakuya was angry enough to release so much reiatsu. Or perhaps she was… no, that was deginitely impossible. She approached the cowering medic of the 4th Division to see if she could help piece all the strange happenings together.
Aizen winning? A Substitute?
In an instant, the healer was bowing in front of her, pleading. "P-please, Captain Ukitake, you have to save Rukia-sama! For Ichigo-sama's sake!"
Ichigo woke in a vast cavern, surrounded by his genderbent friends. Yoruichi glared at him with ferocity that only a cat could muster. "You shouldn't have tried to take on another Captain, Ichigo. And definitely not Byakuya. Not until you have bankai."
At this point, Ichigo lost it. "Look, I DO have bankai! BAN-KAI!"
His reiatsu knocked his companions to the ground. Except Yoruichi.
"Wow, Miss Yoruichi, you must be really strong!" exclaimed Orihime. "You must be the strongest cat in the world." Thinking quickly with every Orihime's brand of logic, he added, "Both worlds. And in the Dangai. All worlds. Yeah."
"Well, I'm flattered, but you're wrong there. I'm not a cat."
When the smoke cleared, standing among them without any shame was a naked man. He had long purple hair and dark skin, and golden eyes surveying with delight at the various reactions of the rest of the group.
Most of them were along the lines of the question: "You're not a cat?" or the statement: "You're not wearing clothes!"
But Ichigo's amused him the most: "YOU'RE A MAN? Oh wait, that makes sense…"
"And why does it make sense?"
Ichigo frowned. "Well, everyone's a different gender now. I should've guessed that you were a guy."
Cue the confusion.
The strawberry sighed. "I guess I should start from the beginning…"
Hanataro was scared out of her wits. She had already been scolded by Captain Unohana once; she didn't want to imagine what would happen if she was caught sneaking out of captivity.
Walking a few paces in front of her was a low-ranking Shinigami of the 6th Division sporting the same tattoos as the vice-captain. And the person that broke her out of her cell. She was treating the whole thing like some great adventure, and going on and on about how absolutely amazing Vice-Captain Abarai was. If fact, she was slightly disappointed when Hanataro had insisted that they send a message to the Ryoka before anything else. Somehow, this Rikichi didn't think anything short of rushing out and fighting alongside Renji Abarai was acceptable. But this was important.
It helped that Rikichi was so low-ranked that she was almost always the one stuck with taking care of the Hell Butterflies.
The next few minutes passed as a blur, and before she knew it she was watching the black butterfly flap its way towards wherever Ichigo was. She hoped that the butterfly's message didn't include the shakiness in her voice.
"Hurry, Ichigo-sama. Rukia-sama's execution has been moved up... to this afternoon!"
"And that's the plan."
Ichigo beamed. The dusty ground around him was covered in markings and, in big letters near 'the top', were the words 'THE PLAN'.
"Th-that's a great plan Kurosaki-chan!" stuttered Orihime. He may have been a man, but even so, he was a feminine man. You couldn't be all that manly when your powers were control over a couple of fairies.
The Quincy snorted. "Is that the best plan you can come up with, Shinigami?"
Chad grunted. Ichigo hoped it was a grunt of approval. If Orihime was a whiny feminine man, then Chad made up for it by being a woman with lots of muscles and very few words. And an arm that fired laser beams.
Yoruichi was looking thoughtfully at a particular set of scribbles. He was smiling. And, thank goodness, he was also wearing clothes.
Renji was still spamming her Bankai. Ichigo got the distinct impression that she was trying to impress someone, but he couldn't figure out for the love of life and afterlife who. And she kept looking at him for some reason. Maybe she wanted to talk to him about his awesome plan?
Satisfied, he dismissed them and went off to the healing spring. It was a bit strange to know that he couldn't take too long to fix up his wounds from Kenpachi, seeing as there were four other people waiting their turn.
Trust a female Urahara to make the waters pink and smell like roses.
Toshiro Hitsugaya's heart was still pounding after the fight. It was a pity that The silver-haired Captain's heart was also still beating.
Toshiro frowned. Only the extreme could have driven Momo to break out of his cell. The letter must have done something to him, someone must have done something to him. And she knew exactly who did it. Gin.
The young captain watched as Matsumoto carried the unconscious boy away. For once, the lazy man wasn't drunk off his ass or trying to grope her. Or both.
She swore that she would get to the bottom of this… and repay Gin for harming Momo.
Ukitake tried to sleep, knowing full well that trying to take the Head-Captain on fatigued would result in certain death.
Kyoraku, on the other hand, was snoring her head off underneath her straw hat, empty sake bottle in one hand. She knew that if she was going to die the next day, then she may as well spend the night drunk.
Byakuya had dreams about strawberries for some reason. She didn't even like sweet things.
Rukia had nightmares about re- killing Kaien on continuous loop.
Ganju dreamed about pigs. But that doesn't matter, because she hardly appears in this fanfiction. She is as ugly as ever.
And Aizen dreamed about multi-world domination. But then, when had she not?
Oh no, the SUSPENSE! What will happen in the next chapter? Will history be changed? Will Ichigo be able to out-plan Aizen or will Rukia be killed before his very eyes? WILL KYORAKU HAVE A HANGOVER?
Will I even post the next chapter?
Will you fav and review?
Next time: The last battle begins! Ichigo vs Aizen, Duty vs Emotions, and Ganju vs Heavy Editing!
Oh wait, I kinda gave away if I will post the next chapter right there.
WHO WILL WIN IN THE END?