Tsuki arrived not too far away from where Yachiru was watching the scene unfold and hid behind a nearby tree, doing the same. She'd come just as Rukia was being lifted up to the rafters for her execution. She looked on in horror and anger as Byakuya did nothing to stop this. Fire spiraled from the tip of the spear and it leaned toward Rukia and began taking shape. The shape it took was of a large fire bird and its target was Rukia. The creature started to approach Rukia and Tsuki thought to herself, 'No! Ichigo's too late!' But as she watched on, the bird suddenly stopped and a figure was standing before the fire creature, holding it back. "Who is that?" she asked herself, but felt the spiritual pressure and had no doubt. "Is that…Ichigo?" She smiled inside, sensing that he had gotten stronger but also worried. Tsuki was sure that Byakuya was going to try and stop him, to prevent Ichigo from saving Rukia. She hoped that Ichigo was strong enough to fully take Byakuya on.
Soon after Ukitake arrived, restraining the fiery creature with an instrument from the Shihôin family. Something must have happened because the bird exploded into many fiery pieces. Tsuki watched on as Ichigo broke the rafters and retrieved Rukia. Just then Renji also ran up, bandaged as if he had been in a fight. Tsuki then saw Ichigo raise Rukia above his head with a smirk on his face. 'What is he doing?' she thought to herself as she continued to keep her eye on the orange haired soul reaper. Ichigo then took aim and launched her towards Renji, Rukia screaming all the way. Tsuki held her breath all through it but was relieved that Renji caught her. He ran off with her and Tsuki knew that this wasn't over. Sure Rukia's execution was stopped, but Ichigo still had to fight off the captains and vice-captains on the ground.
And a great opportunity arose, because a few of the vice-captains that were present for the execution were chasing after Renji to retrieve Rukia. But Ichigo was one step ahead. He used flash step to appear in front of the three to keep them from capturing the two escaping. Immediately, the three vice-captains began to attack, but Ichigo defeated them without his sword before the vice-captains could do any damage to him. 'He has gotten strong….' Tsuki thought with amazement as the orange haired soul reaper then blocked Byakuya's sneaky attack with his zanpaku-tô. 'I hope he is able to do what I couldn't…' Tsuki had her eyes glued to Byakuya and Ichigo that she didn't notice Soi Fon taken away by Yoruichi and Ukitake, Shunsui, and the head captain go off to a secluded place. "Please, win….Ichigo." Tsuki muttered with hope while she continued to watch their battle unfold.
Sounds of metal hitting metal filled the air and the ground cracked and broke multiple times from the force of the battle. For a moment they stopped and Tsuki heard Ichigo demand that Byakuya should use his bankai. She knew that he wouldn't use it so easily unless the opponent was a challenge. He did, however, use his shikai and in response, Ichigo released a shot of light blue energy, stopping Byakuya's attack and hurting his hand in the process. The two spoke a little more and Byakuya was persuaded to use his bankai. He dropped his zanpaku-tô and it sunk into the ground. As he spoke the incantation, two rows of swords lifted up from the ground on either side of Byakuya and they broke into tiny shards of metal, flying like cherry blossom petals in the wind. "Senbonzakura Kageyoshi!" Tsuki said to herself as she gripped to the tree near to her. "Byakuya means business now! Ichigo, I hope you're ready for this…"
Immediately, Byakuya attacked Ichigo, but he jumped up to dodge the attack and attacked his enemy with his Getsuga Tenshô. Byakuya deflected with the thousand blades without lifting even a finger. He then trapped the orange haired soul reaper and forced him to the ground, wounding him in the process, causing a crater to appear with Ichigo in the middle of it. Tsuki couldn't see what had happened to Ichigo, but suddenly she felt an immense spiritual pressure from where he was. Dust rose and spun around as he used bankai. When the dust settled, there stood Ichigo in slightly different garments. His top was a little slimmer fitting and was long, ending at his knees with a jagged edge and had a blood red colored underside. His zanpaku-tô had taken a different shape too. It was the same length, but looked just like any other zanpaku-tô before shikai and it was pure black with a black chain hanging off the hilt. Soon after Byakuya was attacking again, but in the blink of an eye, Ichigo was right next to him, holding his sword to the captain's neck. The orange haired soul reaper then withdrew his zanpaku-tô from the captain's neck and stepped away.
For a few moments more they spoke and then Byakuya was on the offensive. Ichigo just used his speed to dodge and attack but when he did; the captain would switch to defend himself. In every minute that passed, Ichigo seemed to be getting faster. Tsuki was getting a headache from trying to keep track of him. When it seemed as if Byakuya would catch him, it would fail. Ichigo just kept getting faster and faster. Finally, Byakuya resorted to using his hand to direct Senbonzakura, making it faster. He tried a couple more times but Ichigo dodged the first and it seemed as if the second attack would get him, but the young soul reaper batted the shards away like they were nothing. In the blink of an eye the orange haired shinigami appeared behind Byakuya and made an attempt to wound the captain.
The attack was too fast to discern and when the act was done, Tsuki saw that Byakuya must have turned around at the last moment and caught the zanpaku-tô in his hand. She watched as they exchanged words once more. She couldn't hear them, but she understood that her captain must have found out how Ichigo's bankai worked. Tsuki could tell he was angry, because he shouted with the same tone, "….destroy that power of yours and you along with it!" She knew he was serious and marveled at the fact that she had never seen her captain so angry before. Tsuki watched on with worry as the small blades began to change and morph into many swords around the two battling. 'Senkei?' she thought to herself while Byakuya took one of the swords in hand and they began to duel.
At their first encounter, the ground blew up and dust flew from the force of the two spiritual pressures clashing. Tsuki trembled from the sheer pressure and hoped that Ichigo would pull through this. The two clashed a few more times and Ichigo began to slow down. A couple times, he came close to being finished off, but he managed to dodge and defend himself in the last moment. While Byakuya had his enemy cornered, he took another of the swords in his free hand and pierced Ichigo's foot to keep him in place. While the orange haired soul reaper looked on in horror, the captain used a kido spell – Byakurai – and the blue light from the spell shot straight through Ichigo's chest. He bent over in defeat and Byakuya was standing over him, ready to strike a final time. Tsuki closed her eyes. She couldn't watch.
Silence followed, and a change in the atmosphere made Tsuki slowly open her eyes to see what was going on. Ichigo caught the sword, but something was different about him. He had half of a hollow's mask on his face and his eyes were yellow and black and he had a malicious grin on his face. This most certainly was not Ichigo. He slashed at Byakuya and backed away laughing evilly. Tsuki watched in horror as her captain stood in shock while the hollow attacked again with a black Getsuga. Before Byakuya could dodge out of the way, his enemy moved quickly and shot another Getsuga, then moved again behind the captain and held him in place. The two attacks hit Byakuya, leaving him exhausted with three of his kenseikan broken.
Suddenly the real Ichigo grabbed ahold of the mask and pulled it away with some difficulty. He apologized for the interruption and faced his opponent once more. 'What was that?' Tsuki asked herself while the two exchanged words. 'It looked like…a hollow mask.' She went deep into thought and when she couldn't find an answer, she looked back up. By this time, her captain had activated his final attack with the rest of his power. "That's…" she said with shock while looking at the white wings that had extended from his zanpaku-tô. "Shûkei Hakuteiken! Byakuya rarely uses this attack!" She looked over to Ichigo, who had been doing the same thing. He was using all of his power to release another Getsuga Tenshô. The two ran forward for one final encounter and as they did, a big explosion of black and white energy filled the air for all of the Soul Society to see.
When the dust had cleared, Tsuki looked up from shielding herself from the dust and saw the two facing away from each other. A wound on Ichigo's shoulder appeared and he begun to fall forward but he used his zanpaku-tô to keep from falling. She looked over to Byakuya to see a wound appear on his shoulder too. "A draw?" Tsuki asked herself with wonder. The two had a final conversation and she started to move out into the open to go see her captain, but he used flash step to leave. Ichigo yelled out "Victory!" before falling back onto Orihime's head and the rest of the ryoka followed her to go congratulate the orange haired soul reaper. Tsuki stayed where she was, smiling sadly as she watched them. "Good job, Ichigo." She said happily. "The battle is finally…over."
Finally done…. I honestly didn't think that the battle would have a chapter of its own, but there you go. The conclusion will be done within the next two chapters, but don't go thinking it'll end after that. There's still more to Tsukiko Kishin's story.
