Guardian Angel II

War of the Seven Sins

Chapter 8

Going it Alone

Disclaimer: I don't freakin' own Bleach!

Alright, I'm back again my mind slaves! Here's the continuation of my "Koshino rescue operation" mini arc. This is probably the longest chapter I've ever written ever, so sit tight for this one! Some more story development near the end. Just a fair warning, we're about half way through the story already.

On a special note: the super main antagonist will be making an appearance in this chapter as well. He's a badass of the highest caliber, so there.


"That stupid bloody bastard," muttered Nathan.

Nathan, Ichigo, Holly, Grimmjow, Uryu, Chad and Toshiro sat in a meeting room in the thirteenth division barracks. Matt had now been missing for two hours and they were all worried, even Grimmjow was wondering what was going on with the kid.

"I can't believe he'd just go out on his own like that," said Holly.

"Hey, for once I'm on the kids' side. We had the map, we had the man-power, we should've busted in and kicked some ass!" shouted Grimmjow.

Ichigo nodded. "I wasn't a fan of just waiting around myself, but we've got to focus on what's happening now. We need to find Matt and we need to help him."

They were all in agreement on that.

"So first of all, we need to know who's in on this. I already know I'm going after him."

He looked around the room waiting for their responses.

"If Ichigo's going, then I am to," said Chad.

Uryu nodded as well.

"I'm in to, I'm helping Matt out whether those fat ass captains like it or not…no offense Toshiro."

"None taken, I thought it was stupid to. I'm in."

Ichigo turned to Grimmjow.

"Hey, if there's even the slightest chance I get to bash someone's face in, I'll go," he shrugged.

"Nathan?"

"Matt's my best friend, and one top of that, Koshino's in my division. I've got an obligation to the both of them," he answered.

Ichigo sighed and stood up, and the others followed suit.

"Right then; we'll need to head out and find where he's headed. If we follow the trail of his spiritual residue, we'll be able to find out where he's going."

"How are we gonna get back to the human world though, Matt trashed the senkaimon gate when he escaped the Soul Society?" asked Nathan.

"Don't worry about that. Each noble house has its own personal senkaimon. I'm sure Byakuya will let us use his if we ask; he's got a stick up his ass the size of Zangetsu when it comes to the law, but he owes me one," answered Ichigo.

"Enough chit-chat then, let's get our asses moving!"


Meanwhile in the human world, Matt was floating across Elliot Bay. As it turned out, the Elliot Bay Water Taxi's route passed extremely close to where he needed to be. He figured he was coming up close on it now, so he left the map on the ship; it had a sight barrier, so there was no chance of someone finding it. The cave was probably very deep underwater, which was why he was again thankful that Soul Reapers didn't have to breathe.

He sat on the railing overlooking the cold bay waters. Matt braced himself for the chilling waters and leaned over the edge. For a few brief seconds he felt the wind rush in his face, then suddenly everything was ice cold. His muscles locked up on him for the first few seconds, then he got slightly used to the temperature and flexed his arms and legs. Once he was sure he was in full control of his extremities, he pulled himself underwater.

The water was dark, but luckily the sun was still relatively up and shone down on the murky water, giving him some light until he reached deeper depths. He had not idea exactly how far down this cave was, but he was confident he could handle the water pressure, his body was much more resilient than even most water vehicles. The good news was that he wouldn't have to swim for this entire mission. Where there was an underwater cave, there was usually an air-pocket, which meant dry land.

He pushed and kicked deeper and deeper into the dark depths of the water, watching the occasional fish swim past then quickly rush away from his presence. It was getting increasingly harder to see as the sunlight that had guided his way was slowly fading away. He just kept swimming in a straight line though, sure that he could find it if he just kept looking.

It felt like he'd been swimming downward for an hour, in reality it had only been about ten minutes. He was almost completely blind when his hands finally hit the bottom of the bay. That was done, now he just needed to find the cave; for that he'd need light. He began breathing out fire in small bursts, just enough to see what was around him. For the most part it was just a rough plain of sand and rocks.

He slowly swam to the right, then the left, back and forth. He began to lose hope, maybe the map he got was wrong, or maybe he wasn't in the right spot. Then his foot hit something he wasn't expecting, it hit a hard surface. He looked down; his foot was resting on a plot of sand, but it didn't feel like sand. It was smooth and solid and unmoving.

He struck it with his foot as hard as the massive amounts of water above him would allow. When his foot struck it, it made a low thunck sound.

'Spiritual barrier, just like the guy said!'

He flipped over in the water and placed his hands on the barrier and sent a reiatsu pulse coursing through it and disabling it. When it was finally gone, Matt could plainly see a large pathway deeper into the bay floor. It was neatly carved and straight, definitely not naturally made. Without any delay he swam down into the cave.

It got even darker without any sunlight at all, and Matt had to breathe fire again and again to keep from slamming to the cave walls. It seemed endless, just one straight path downward that didn't seemed to have a light at the end of the tunnel. Just as he thought that though, there was -ironically- a light at the end of the tunnel. He swam faster, madly kicking his legs and push the water away with his arms.

The path finally curved upward and with one final push he felt his head finally break free of the waters of Elliot Bay. He latched onto a ledge and pulled himself up, flopping down on the hard rock surface to take a rest. Despite the face that he was in an enemy base, he was still happy, at least he knew for sure Koshino was here now. He could even feel her spiritual pressure, albeit faintly. It seemed like there were three other massive spiritual pressures inside as well.

He'd avoid them if possible, but he would have Gabriel ready if it came down to fighting their way out. Besides, he fared will against Acedia and he was only using shikai. If he used Bankai, they shouldn't be too much trouble. He didn't have any fear as he rose and pushed aside the doors that led into the interior of their base.

'Bring it on.'


"So, who is she Ira?" asked a woman with short dark blond hair.

The one armed man was leaning against a wall outside the Soul Reapers cell in the lowest levels of the base. Every member of their little organization had their own specific base except for himself. He lost that privilege along with his arm. This base belonged to Invidia and Avaritia, twin sisters.

"One of Anderson's friends, she'll be good for leverage. We did want something on the guy so we could control him, well here she is," he said calmly.

"Hm, I guess she'll work," agreed the dark blond woman who was Invidia.

Avaritia jumped into the conversation, "Are you sure he won't be able to find us?"

Ira nodded. "Won't be a problem, he doesn't even know who we are yet."

The two grinned. Ira had always hated their grins, they were so big yet so empty. Pointless.

"Well, I'd love to stay, but I've got some other stuff to do," he said, dissipating into the air.

In truth, he just didn't want to stick around for the massacre to come. He'd love to stick around and enjoy his handiwork, but there was a chance that if he stayed he'd have to fight Matt, and he couldn't very well kill his best lapdog now could he? It didn't bother him that he couldn't stay to watch, because he already knew Matt was here and knew very well what happens to him when he gets angry.


Matt sidled across the hallways of the cave base. It was dark except for some torches that lit the way down the path. It was quiet so far, and he didn't feel any spiritual pressures besides Koshino and the now two larger pressures. That made him grin; the fewer to fight, the better. He was still dripping wet from the swim into the base. His clothes and hair were both matted to his body, which was quite annoying but livable.

He held Gabriel tight in his hand, hoping he would be able to sneak his way in and out of the base, but that probably wouldn't be the case. If he got too close to the two occupants of the base, they would surly sense him and attack. That severely restricted his movements, and if you add onto the fact that he had no idea where the hell he was going, it seemed like fighting was his only option.

He entered a new room; it wasn't anything like the hallways. This place was lavished and pristine; it put even Koshino's house to shame. There were marble floors and columns, gold chairs, fountains; it was practically and underwater mansion. As cool as it was, he pushed his curiosity aside and focused on the matter at hand.

He couldn't get her exact position, but he could feel Ksohino a few levels down and a bit farther east of his current location. He had two options; he could either make a huge entrance and get there faster but have to fight whoever was guarding her, or he could sneak his way down, which took longer, and still probably have to fight her guards.

"Ah, fuck it," he shrugged.

He rose his fist and punched the ground, collapsing the floor and taking him down to teh next lowest level. It sure as hell wasn't quiet or stealthy, but it worked and it was fast. He repeated the same process again, falling down another floor. He was sure that had gotten the attention of whoever was living here.

Sure enough, he felt the spiritual pressures moving the second he hit the ground. They were moving fast, but he could outrun them if he had to, and if he hid away his spiritual pressure, he just might be able to grab Koshino and run before they found them. He'd have to keep up his pace and find her cell quickly though.

With that, he punched in the ground again, blowing away another level of floor. Her presesnce was getting stronger, another four or five levels and he'd be on the right floor. Another punch and another floor exploded into dust. The fragments of rocks were cutting up his knuckles a bit and felt trickles of blood ooze out of his hand. It was minor pain though, hardly anything to complain about, so he smashed away another level of ground.

'Three more floors, that's all!' he shouted in his mind.

He could feel the two pressures getting closer. Luckily, they hadn't caught onto what he was doing yet and were on the completely wrong floor. If he kept his pace, he could confuse them enough to make his way out before they were any the wiser. He had landed on the next floor down, he was making good progress.

He smashed away another floor and landed hard on his arm on the next one down. It was, again, minor pain and barley worth a grunt of discomfort. Matt quickly rose and raised his fist again and smashed away the last floor in his way. With that, he landed safely on his feet this time and reached out with his spiritual senses. He could feel her with much more detail now, she wasn't too far off, just down a few halls.

'Almost there, almost there.'


Back in the Soul Society, Ichigo and the rest of the group were just about to use Byakuya's personal senkaimon gate.

"Thanks Byakuya, see ya around," said Ichigo.

The captain merely nodded and turned to leave.

Nathan and Holly were already though the gate, followed by Grimmjow and Toshiro. Chad and Uryu followed and Ichigo jumped in last and crossed the trans-dimensional corridor that led to the human world. He ran through with all speed, reaching the end without incident. They were all standing in front of Matt's house, which still had some of his spiritual residue around it, indicating that he'd been back here recently.

"It seems he's gone off that way," said Uryu, pointing off into the distance.

"Holly, what's off in that direction?" asked Ichigo.

She thought for a second and said, "Well, besides downtown Seattle, there's Elliot Bay."

"Yeah," said Grimmjow, "I remember something about an Elliot Bay when that cloaked guy gave Matt the map! He said there was an underwater cave or something!"

"So we get to the bay, meet up with Matt, and save his sorry ass!" said Nathan.

"Right!" said Holly.

On that note, they all headed off towards Elliot Bay to help Matt. Wherever he was under those waters, he was probably in over his head on a ridiculous scale.


All the way back in the cave under Elliot Bay, Koshino sat huddled in a corner of her cell in an effort to stay warm. Her cell was dark, rough, and had no entrance or exit that she could see, not that she'd gotten up to check. Her spiritual senses were dulled, but she could sense well enough to know that the people who'd been standing outside her cell a minute ago were now gone.

She would have tried to investigate it, but she was in too much pain. Her captors hadn't been the kindest bunch and made sure she was nice and injured before they stuck her in here. Most of her injuries focused around her legs so she couldn't run, or walk for that matter. She couldn't even stand if she wanted to.

She was about to fall asleep when she suddenly felt warmer. She sat up a bit to try and identify what it was. It was definitely a spiritual pressure, and it was warm, almost hot. It was growing stronger by the second and it didn't take her long to figure out who it was.

The pressure suddenly stopped growing though, it just stood still. A second later, she heard the sound of crunching metal, then again, and for a third time. Out of nowhere, light shone into her cell as the door was busted down. A figure stepped into the room, and after a few seconds of adjusting to the new light, she saw Matt's smiling face.

He stepped to her and kneeled down, pulling her into an unexpected hug.

"Geez, I leave you for five minutes and look what happens," he joked.

"W-where are the o-others?" she asked weakly.

She couldn't see the sullen look on his face. "They couldn't make it, but believe me, they wanted to come."

She lifted her arms slowly and wrapped her arms around his waist, clutching his robes tightly.

"The important t-thing to me is...you came."

He smiled, but was monitoring the two pressures at the same time, and they were making their way back here quickly.

"Well, we're not out of the woods yet, I've still gotta get you out of here. Can you walk?"

She shook her head. "They cut up my legs, I can't even stand."

"Bastards," he said under his breath.

"Come on then," he said, picking her up bridal style.

"What are you-?"

"If you can't walk then I'm carrying you out, simple as that. I can outrun those two idiots out there no problem, we'll have you back home before you know it," he reassured her.

She nodded and held on tight to him as he dashed out of the cell and though the hallways at full speed. As he sped onward, Koshino that his right hand was bleeding. It didn't look like he had gotten into a fight, so why would his hand be bleeding?

"Matt, what happened to your hand?"

He suddenly stopped. "Look up."

She was confused, but complied anyway. What she saw was a series of gaping holes in the floors of the cave.

"Did you-?"

"Punch through them all? Yup, much quicker than stairs wouldn't you say?"

With that, he crouched down and jumped into the air, leaping all the way back to the top level. The room still remained a sight to behold, despite the huge hole in the floor and the rubble scattered all over the place.

"All we need to do is get back to the surface and we're home free!" he said, more to himself than her.

He was just about to the door when he suddenly sensed the two pressures again. The next thing he knew, there were two figure standing in his way, blocking off the door. They both looked frustrated, but also surprised, like they didn't expect him to be here at all.

One on the right had short dark blond hair and bright green eyes, and the one on the left had long bright blond hair with brown eyes. They both had the same face though, they must have been sisters.

"How...how did you find us so fast?" asked the one on the left.

"I had some help, you obviously don't have very good security if someone can find your base and put it on a map," said Matt smugly.

"You don't think...?" said the girl on the right.

"...Ira. That treacherous bastard," hissed the girl on the left.

"Who's Ira?"

They both turned their attention back to Matt and scowled.

"It doesn't matter, because you won't be alive long enough to worry about it," said the girl on the left.

Matt snickered and turned away to set Koshino down somewhere she wouldn't get hurt. He placed her by one of the marble columns.

"Just sit tight and let me handle this, it won't take long," smiled Matt.

"But last time you fought a person like this you almost died!"

He laughed lightly. "Relax; this time...I'm going all out."

She was about to protest further, but he'd already turned around and was heading back to the pair of enemies blocking their way.

"So, I don't know or care who you are at the moment, but I might as well introduce myself."

"We already know who you are," said the short haired girl.

"Matt Anderson, age sixteen, Deputy class Soul Reaper," said the other.

Matt laughed again. "Not as of three hours ago I'm not," he said raising Gabriel.

"Enough talking though, I'm getting bored. What say we liven things up here."

Matt centered his zanpakuto in front of him and gathered an amount of reiatsu he hadn't used in quite a while. He could feel the power creeping into his hands and then into his sword.

"You two should count yourselves lucky, I haven't had to use this in a long time."

The air around him was starting to destabilize and reiatsu poured out of him like a fountain. The pressure coming off him was enough to make the two in front of him shudder and force a chill up their spines.

"Here we go! Bankai!

All the spirit energy that he'd pent up until now rushed outward in the white column of flames that he felt the last time he activated his Bankai. He felt his normal robes disappear, and in its place was the bottom of Gabriel's robes, as well as his white overcoat and metal shoulder plates. His Bankai had a new addition though, it had evolved since he first used it. His bankai now entailed two ivory white wings sprouting from his back, adding to his already massive power and speed.

He opened his eyes, now a pure crystal blue instead of his normal ocean blue ones. The two opponents he was facing down now had drawn a dagger each. They blades were black and he could see a faint blood red spiritual aura coming from both of them. They had an overly dark feel to them, like they were the embodiment of their own special type of evil. Matt scanned them both, they were strong, no doubt about that, but his Bankai was more than a match for the both of them.

"Impressive," said the short haired girl, "but we have our own powers. Allow me to demonsta-"

She was suddenly cut off, as Matt was no longer in front of them, but behind them. He stood casually with his sword stuck in the ground, creating a molten puddle of magma where he planted it.

"I just said 'enough talking'."

Matt snapped his fingers, and the girl's torso suddenly exploded in a splatter of blood. dozens of slash wounds could be seen, making her look like someone had preformed a brutal autopsy on her. She was dead before she hit the floor.

"Invidia!" cried the other girl. She kneeled over the person who was most likely her sister and placed her hands over her body and began to shake her, like she couldn't comprehend what had just happened. She actually looked like she was sobbing and she clutched her blade harder.

She leaped up at Matt and shrieked with her dagger raised high. Matt sidestepped the first attack and ducked under her second swipe. She was attacking with no defined form or strategy, she was just swiping at him like she was crazy. She was extremely easy to dodge, but she got one lucky shot in on his right cheek. Normally he wouldn't have even felt it, but that dagger did have special properties like he thought.

He felt a small fraction of his power suddenly disappear. It was quickly replaced, but it was large enough for him to notice its temporary absence. She knew that he noticed to because she was now wearing a sickeningly insane grin.

"Like it? My power allows me to steal peoples energy from them! The deeper the wound, the more power I steal! And you, you're like an all you can eat buffet!" she said, followed by an almost insane giggle.

'Reiatsu siphoning huh? Well I already know how to beat her then.'

She charged forward again, and stabbed her dagger forward. Matt made no attempt at all to move out of the way and the blade plunged itself into his chest, just below his heart. Instantly he could feel his power being funneled into her weapon, but it didn't worry him. She was killing herself and she was none the wiser.

"Accepted your fate, huh? Don't worry, I'll put this power to good use. First I'll use it to finish off your whore of a girlfriend, then I'll take out that fucker, Ira! He'll pay for killing my sister, just like you are now!"

Matt just kept his confident smile; she was pretty dumb, even for a blond. (A/N: My sister is blond, and she's pretty stupid, so I have the right to make fun of them!)

"There we go, I think I've got my fill," she said slyly.

When she was about to pull her dagger out of his chest, Matt grasped her wrist and kept the dagger in his chest. She had a look of surprise on her face.

"W-what are you doing!?"

"Let me explain to you just what's happening here."

Matt reached under his robes and revealed his cross necklace that Kisuke had given him a year ago. He still remembered the last time he visited the weirdo, that was when he was told of his condition. His ability to break down his Spirit Buffers, how it was doing harm to him and that was why he wore the necklace in the first place. The mechanics of it were also explained to him, how it worked, what it did.

He had to admit, as pissed as he was that Kisuke and Ichigo never told him what was going on, he was grateful that they cared enough to build him something like this. It looked like he had to thank him again the next time he visited Karakura.

"See this, this necklace is a sort of reiatsu recycler. It takes my excess spiritual pressure that's normally evicted from my body and reintegrates it. Also, my wings hold large extra stores of power, a sort of boost if you will. Between these two factors and my already large stores of spirit energy, I have a near infinite supply of the stuff," he explained.

"In short missy; you're gonna run out of space before I run out of power, and when that happens...well, you get the picture."

As he finished that sentence, he saw fear replace confidence in her eyes. She began to struggle to let go of the dagger, but Matt's hand held her in place. She couldn't budge and couldn't break free, and on top of that, she was running out of space to put all the power that was being funneled into her.

He held her hand there for another ten seconds and then she began to overload. The power Matt was now forcing into her was building up and was leaking out visibly anywhere it could find an opening. the energy was pouring out her mouth, her eyes, her skin was even beginning to glow.

She screamed in pain, it was all too much for her body to contain. With one final shriek, the power forced its way out of her, ripping her body to shreds. She literally exploded from the inside out, killing her instantly.

Matt stood unharmed, save for the dagger in his chest. He easily pulled it out though, and threw it aside, letting the metal pang against the rock floor.

With those two out of the way, he walked back over to Koshino, who was still leaning against the marble column. She showed more shock than either of the other two girls had combined. As he walked forward, he dissipated his his bankai, leaving only his black Soul Reaper robes behind. Even though he'd won the fight, he was still exhausted from having to replace that much spirit energy at one time.

He was almost to Koshino when he heard a lone applause from behind him. He turned to see another cloaked figure, but this one was different. For one it was leagues stronger than the one that usual showed up, and the cloak and hood was black instead of the usual brown.

"Impressive Matt, very impressive."

"Alright, how does everyone seem to know who I am!?" he shouted.

He seemed to not be listening and walked over to examine the one dead body that remained. He nudged it with his foot, but didn't seem too interested.

"It seems Invidia and Avaritia weren't quite as powerful as I first believed. That still doesn't answer the question of how you found your way here in the first place though."

"I had help," he said.

"Help you say...only a person with intimate knowledge of our organization could have known where this base was. I already know who it was. I'll have to punish Ira once I'm done here, this treachery cannot be overlooked."

"Who is this Ira guy!?"

"He is the one who has been assisting you, and the one who abducted the girl I would surmise. I believe he's been using you to try and destroy us without our knowledge," he said in a monotone voice.

"I don't like being used," he growled.

"Don't worry, he will receive the maximum punishment. You however, will not live to see that come to pass; you know too much. You both must die."

At that he drew a blade. To Matt's shock, it was a claymore just like his, in fact...it was identical to his. There was only one thing that differed from his blade; the triquetra on his blade had no ring through his.

(For those of you who aren't history/ancient culture buffs, the triquetra originated as a pagan symbol, but was later adopted into the christian religion. The thing that makes the christian triquetra different from regular triquetra is the ring that runs through the three prongs. Without the ring, it's a pagan symbol and obviously associated with pagan religions or in some cases just plain old evil in general.)

Matt quickly moved to grab Koshino; he grasped ahold of her and lifted her up. Matt was about to run for it when an invisible force suddenly lifted him up and caused him to drop Koshino to the ground. As Matt was lifted up into the air, Koshino groaned from the pain that shot up her legs.

The telekinetic powers this guys seemed to have were constricting on his body and he felt his left arm crack. He cried out in pain as two of his ribs snapped as well. His body was being slowly ripped apart, and his bones were breaking one at a time.

Suddenly he heard a familiar voice, "Getsuga Tensho!"

The door to the main hall exploded open and Ichigo flew out of the smoke. Following him were Toshiro and Holly, then Nathan and Grimmjow, and bringing up the rear were Uryu and Chad. Matt's most recent attacker lost his focus on him and turned to the new threat. They group surrounded him on all sides as Matt fell to the ground next to Koshino.

"Annoyances," muttered the hooded man before he dissipated into thin air.

Matt tried to get up, but his body gave out on him and he was stuck on the ground. He was feeling a little dizzy and suddenly very tired. As he slipped into unconsciousness he heard an anthem of people calling his name before he fell into blackness.


Finally done, oh dear god finally done! It took me soooooooo long to write this chapter, it was rediculous!

Anyway, next chapter will be important as well. I promise by the time the next chapter is finished, everything will make sense...for the most part. I have to keep something for the last few chapters ya know.

I'm begging some kind soul out there to review, I'm getting lonely.