Crow was crouched on a building nearby. He'd had to wipe a clean slate. Aizen was summoning someone. Crow had also pulled back the other Shinigami that weren't meant to be part of the fight. He had given Witch the job of healing Kurosaki.
Looking around, Crow saw that it wasn't another Arrancar. A gateway to the castle was opening. By reaction, the Zero Division hit the ground. Their left knee was pushed against their shoulder and their right was pressed to the ground. Their right hands were fists and their knuckles brushed the ground. Their left was across their chest and touched their right shoulders. They're heads were bowed and they showed no signs of rising to their feet.
Aizen smiled. "Ah, so, she did come." He looked at Gin and Tosen. "Come, our guest has arrived."
The duo agreed and stood behind Aizen.
But all of them were shocked when it was Machi who came through. She was dragging Uryu's body by the collar. Letting him lie near the door, she raised her glass sword and pointed it at Aizen. "Don't you know it's rude to keep knocking when nobody answers?"
"Don't you know it's rude to answer someone else's door?" Aizen demanded.
Machi just smirked. "Ah, still pretending to be tough and mean, are we?" Machi raised the blade above her head and stabbed it into the ground, one clean cut. "If that's the case, do you want to know where she is?"
"I don't need it from you," he said, drawing his own sword. "Although I'm not one for bloodshed, you've got nothing to do but step aside and die, or die standing in my way."
Machi just closed her eyes, smiled, and shook her head.
A voice of sweet music echoed over the heads of all those in battle. "Do you dare to defile my home? Do you wish to savor death that much?"
Aizen felt a shiver of fear in his bones and he took a step back. "Who--?!"
"Sosuke, I'm hurt you don't remember me." A woman stepped out. She wore her hair up in an elegant bun with two bejeweled pins sticking out to her left. She wore a rich red kimono with gold cranes and it dragged on the floor around her. She wore four kimonos under that one, in order of black closest to her body, white, green, and aqua. Her face was smooth and her lips were a lush red. Her eyes were piercing red.
Aizen glared at her.
Machi was kneeling like her comrades. "Your majesty, I still don't understand."
"Life is hardly understood. Now, Sosuke, do you wish to explain this?"
Shunsui looked up. That feeling. He feared it. It wasn't something he'd ever felt before and he was frozen solid with fear. Beside him, Ukitake clutched his stomach and started to vomit blood and stomach fluids. The feeling wasn't something they were trained to understand. Rarely did the royal family interfere with fights. All the Shinigami were trained to fight and not fear death. Death was the greatest fear. But this was greater, and Shunsui felt like he'd rather die than be in this presence.
He saw Aizen looking infuriated. Suddenly, Shunsui was forced down, onto his hands and knees. It was a collective mass of pressure. It wasn't from that fearful presence. It was from something higher than a captain.
Renji and Byakuya were slammed back to earth by that pressure and Renji tried not to get off his hands and knees. Slowly, it started to become clear to him what was going on. Looking up, he saw her and his eyes went wide. Suddenly, Byakuya's hand grabbed Renji's face and pulled it down so he looked at the ground.
"What?!"
"Don't look at her." Byakuya made sure Renji was looking down before he spoke. "That's our princess. Her royal majesty Princess Ukiko. She's the one who gives us our orders. That I know of, she's the only one who has the authority to have someone killed." He stared at his sword and hand. "She has the power to destroy someone with just one look. If you look at her and she doesn't like you, she'll crush you to death."
"How so?" Renji asked, lying on his stomach and lying his head sideways, preparing for a harsher blow.
"Do you feel that presence in the air?" Byakuya stayed as he ways and closed his eyes. "That presence is her weapon. It makes us all fear her and wish to die. It can drive us to killing ourselves."
Suddenly--
"Don't you raise your sword to her!"
Everyone looked up. It was the Zero Division. They stood as a wall between Aizen and Ukiko-hime. Their voices echoed like they were standing in a large opera house. But it wasn't their voices that made everyone look up, it was the fact that Aizen had drawn closer, his sword prepared for battle.
Machi, being the middle one of the five, raised her hand to her face. The other four followed suit. Blood stains were obvious on their cloths and they had all drawn their swords with their right hands. Their left hands pulled away from their faces and blank masks with a single crimson line appeared.
The pressure holding everyone down increased ten-fold and all of them were forced down, even Aizen. He, Gin, and Tosen plummeted to the ground, creating a huge crater. The three of them were still able to stand, but they looked like an extremely heavy weight was on their shoulders.
Aizen raised his sword and smiled. "Don't you think you're being a bit crazy? You want to take me on? After I killed so many of you guys?"
Machi moved forward. "If you want to be like that, shall I call you a name?" There was silence and Aizen stared at her. "Squiggles, you mind stepping aside so I can take back someone you've got under your control? Besides, Squiggle, I don't have a bone to pick with you, Witch does."
Witch lunged off the high platform that seemed to be holding them high and Princess Ukiko just smiled happily and let her go. Witch's hands wound back and grabbed her long sword. She drew it and it created a wave of energy when she collided with Aizen. Ukiko was looking around as they started their fights and she spotted the mortally injured Shinigami and she floated down to them, firstly was Karin.
She had landed beside Byakuya and Renji and was obviously not going to make it. Ukiko placed a small silver orb the size of dime in her folded hands. Once she'd done that, she advanced on Izuru, Shuhei, and the two injured women. Up close, Izuru was shocked at how gorgeous she was.
Ukiko was probably a very elegant woman and certainly deserved her title of princess. He quickly bowed, but she touched his chin, pulling his head up. "You don't have to do that. I don't mind you being polite."
Izuru jumped a bit. "Your majesty, thank you." He gave her a little bow.
"Who are these two?" She asked, moving Matsumoto's arms to see the extent of the damage from Sun-Sun, Mila Rose, and Apache. "I just want to know their names." She smiled and Izuru agreed.
"This is Vice-Captain Matsumoto of the Tenth Division. This is Vice-Captain Hinamori of the Fifth Division." Shuhei watched them as Ukiko put a small silver orb in each of their hands.
When she was sure they were secured, she began to focus her energy. Reaching down, she touched Matsumoto's hand and the two pins came out of her hair and hit the ground. They started to resonate, like a tuning fork. Her hair was flying around and her aura became visible. It was a deep purple with a gold flicker somewhere on it's edges. A green flash from the silver orbs and Matsumoto, Hinamori, and Karin were concealed by bright green half spheres.
As she stayed like that, Aizen appeared behind her, his blade poised to kill her. However, Ukiko was unable to move, as the resonating forks made her ears bleed slightly. She didn't see him, either and Izuru and Shuhei came forward to block him.
But Aizen wasn't alone. Gin and Tosen appeared and their blades flashed in the light of the sun.
