Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, nor do I own Star Wars.

Translator's note: 'Hage' technically means 'Baldy'. Hiyori uses this mild insult all the time; it's a Japanese culture thing. In some translations (e.g. Dattebayo) the word 'dickhead' is used, but this is probably too severe a translation. The closest English translation that would make cultural sense in context would be 'jerk' or 'dumbass', although the essence of the meaning is lost in translation.


"Be proud of the way you are. Because we ultimately become who Fate asks us to be, and sometimes, accepting that is the way we can help the world."
~ Captain of the 5th Division, Shiba Kuukaku; on why she never wears a prosthesis


Hiyori knew that when her left boob itched, it was a surefire sign that she was being followed.

It was a bright and breezy day, and she sped down the busy center-of-town street on her motorized wheelchair while trying to pick up a reiatsu trace. It wasn't immediately discernible, so Hiyori was a bit alarmed. At the very least, it was a busy day and there were many people gallavanting this way and that. She wasn't close to home, but as long as she stayed in public, a confrontation was unlikely.

Although Hiyori hated being reminded of it, her fighting days were long over. She unceremoniously scratched the itch, picked an irritating booger out of her nose, and whipped out her cell phone. "Shinji?"

"What's up, babe?" came the other end.

"I got a five-niner on a four-ten hop."

She could practically feel him frown through the phone. "You've been watching waaaay too many movies."

"I love you, too. Now can you send someone to help me with the groceries, or are you seriously gonna make me try and use kido to stop this buffoon?"

Shinji laughed. "Your kido couldn't stop a dog from pissing on a fire hydrant."

Hiyori snorted. "I'm not dicking around, Meathead. I got someone who's been following me for at least ten minutes, and I can't exactly get lost in the crowd." She cursed herself for being an easy target. Goddamn it, she swore. I would give anything to have my legs back right now.

A sigh came through the phone. "Love and Rose should be close by - I'm a bit swamped over here. Is that okay?"

Hiyori wanted to say no, but that wouldn't be fair. Shinji was the only one of them who had managed to land a real corporate job. Despite the fact that he worked eighty hours a week, it was his medical benefits that gave Hiyori her motorized wheelchair - her key to independence. "Yeah. But tell them to hurry up."

"Yeah, yeah."

Hiyori hung up on her completely aggravating husband as she slowed down on the busy street, trying to linger longer amongst the crowd. She loved him endlessly - but he was still a dickhead.

She strategically rode by a storefront that had a heavy glare in the window pane, hopeful that she could use the mirrored surface to get a look behind her without making it obvious. The man following her was instantly identifiable - he stuck out like a sore thumb in a room full of socks.

He was a tall, grimy European-looking individual wearing a gray one-piece jumpsuit, the kind that plumbers wear while they're on the job. His gray, lifeless eyes matched his deathly palor, and his hair was dissheveled just shy of enough to make him look like a graveborn zombie. What made it so painfully obvious was that he was carrying a nylon guitar case on his back. Plumbers with guitars are unusual enough, but most people carry a guitar neck-up. This fella had the guitar case slung over his right shoulder, with the the neck pointed down at an angle towards his left foot.

Hiyori knew that even her brickhead of a husband would notice that it was the most convenient way to hide a large sword.

She turned quickly and picked up the pace, dialing Love. "Damnit, Hage, where are you?"

"We can see you," he said in his best Samuel L. Jackson voice. "Turn left at Rosako Park and right on Tarikawa Avenue. Rose and I will cut him off."

Hiyori smirked. "Just because you shaved your head doesn't mean I'm gonna start calling you Mace Windu," she teased. "Thanks."

Cursing the fact that her wheelchair couldn't go any faster, she could feel the man gaining on her. Hiyori casually reached for her hook. It was a small, thin, two-foot metal rod with a small looped hook on one end and a larger hook on the other. Because she had absolutely nothing below her waist (save for a synthetic prosthesis made to mimic hips that contained an artificial bladder), getting in and out of her wheelchair was not easy. The hook was for when she dropped her keys or phone or whatever. It also made a suitable weapon in a pinch.

Looking over her shoulder, she saw that he had picked up the pace, and started closing the gap.

Hiyori swore and reminded herself that it really was time to get a gun. Pulling a can out of her groceries - seriously, Hachi was supposed to be on a diet, why the hell was he asking for pumpkin pie filling? - she did a hard left at the park's edge, as per Love's directions. Using the momentum of the turn to her advantage, she heaved the makeshift projectile at her assailant, and then yanked down a trash can with her hook to slow him down.

To her terror, the man did indeed whip a sword out of the guitar case and cleaved the can in two - a hell of a lot faster than any normal person should have been able to do.

Fortunately, it bought her time as mashed pumpkin exploded in his face, temporarily blinding him. Hiyori followed with a can of peas - a shame, because she actually liked peas - but it wasn't very effective as it only hit him in the shoulder. Unless she beaned him in the head or nailed him in the nuts, he likely was going to be able to shrug it off.

Wiping his face with his sleeve, the man let out a guttural, inhuman roar. Hiyori glanced over her shoulder as she made a right onto Tarikawa, frightened by the noise.

The man's tongue had been cut out.

"LOVE! ROSE!"

They came out from an alleyway, swords in hand. "Rose will take you home," Love instructed. Hiyori nodded, and the two left Love to survey the man chasing after her. Love was instantly dismayed by what he saw.

The pursuer's sword was a hand-and-a-half broadsword with a platinum crossguard and a thick, heavy black blade. If it was a lifeless object, it would have weighed far too much for someone to wield one-handed.

Love dashed forward, his katana extended in a dive for the man's throat. The grimy man dodged left, thrusting a kick forward into Love's gut - and when the blow connected, Love felt it in his eyeballs. This was not a normal strike - it almost felt like he was hit with shunko.

Stumbling backwards, Love was able to regain his balance enough to see the black sword coming down at him. He blocked - and then his zanpakutoh shattered like glass.

"Holy motherfucker," Love swore. Grabbing a metal trash can lid that had conveniently been knocked over, he turned tail and ran. "ROSE! GET THE FUCK OVER HERE, NOW!"

"Hiyori, get away as fast as you can - we'll stall him," Rose said quickly. She nodded, and he joined the fray. Slipping into shikai, he cracked his whip hard at the black-bladed pursuer, giving Love a chance to gain some distance.

As soon as Love had breathing room, he fired off a Hado #32: Yellow Fire Flash at Ol' Plumber Joe. He evaded, slashing out at the blast to dissolve it. Sweet motherfucker, Love thought, this guy is ridiculous. Whatever he is, his spiritual pressure is through the roof. Not too many people can deal with captain-class kido spells.

The odd assailant finally spoke, and managed to mumble out some words that were only barely recognizable: "Devour, Ragnarok."

Oh shiiiiiiiiit, Love thought as he ran like hell. Without a zanpakutou, there was no way he was getting out of this alive. "Hiyori, c'mon!" he said, running up behind her.

"I'm going as fast as I damn can!"

"Fuck it," he said, and shifted the gear into neutral from behind.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Saving your ass from certain death," Love said, pushing the heavy motorized wheelchair as fast as he could on flash steps. His distance was hampered by the weight and the fact that he was still in a gigai, but at least they were escaping.

"What about Rose?"

"He can handle it," Love panted as he strained to get Hiyori and her apparatus away from the battle.

"Hage!" Hiyori yelled at him. "I got it from here! Go back for Rose!"

Looking over his shoulder, Love could tell Rose was indeed in trouble. Hiyori was far enough from the fray to make it back to the warehouse on her own, as long he could stall the pursuer. "Alright, but get going!"

Hiyori grumbled, but her days of heroics were long over. Snapping the chassy back into gear, she plodded down at what could only be comparable to a brisk pace.

Love turned back on flash steps, chaining off Hado #4: White Lightnings in an attempt to provide Rose some cover.

It wasn't working. In flashes and blips, Rose was suddenly engaged in close-quarter combat with Plumber Joe, and his shikai was terrible under the circumstances. Love arrived to clothesline Joe away, but the pallid gray man pulled Love down with him, biting into the flesh of his arm. Love swore as his teeth broke skin, and the pain was excruciating as the European man literally tore a hunk of flesh from it.

Rose wasn't in good shape, either. He had been stabbed in the leg and his ear had been sliced open. Joe scrambled to his feet, kicked Love in the head for good measure, and then charged on Rose.

In a flicker of shunpo, Rose barely escaped a beheading, but he was badly injured. Love barely had time to witness Rose pull on his hollow mask, preparing to escalate.

The last words of Rose's life were interrupted. "Kinshara - Bankai, Soto-"

"ROOOOAAAR!" The tongueless man yelled, and a purple tendril of evil slithered out the end of his sword and right down Rose's open throat. With a furious yank, a horrid, squelching, ripping tear grated Love's ears. It was a terrifying, repulsive, convulsion-inducing sound Love recognized as the forceful removal of a soul from a gigai. The glowing white embers of its essence snaked along the purple tendril, and enormous jaws that appeared at the end of the one-and-only Ragnarok clamped down and devoured it.

Plumber Joe then turned his attention back to Love, and Love realized that he had only moments to live. He fired off a Hado #31: Shot of Red Fire, but Joe batted it back at him with the heavy black broadsword, and his own Hado spell struck him in the chest. It hurt like a bitch and knocked him back down to the ground. The blast hit him right in the soloplex, and Love found his whole body unable to respond.

Love stared up at the black blade, prepared to accept his fate, when a flash of blue light struck the stalker through the head. Plumber Joe collapsed in a crumpled heap, unconscious.

Ishida Uryu flickered into place. "Are you alright?"

Love allowed the quincy to slowly help him to his feet. It took quite a few moments until he could even sit up. "Yeah, but-"

Before he could say another word, a fleet of unmarked black cars and SUVs with tinted windows pulled up, and men in dark suits and sunglasses started pouring out of them. Quickly, they seized the fallen attacker, handcuffed him, and hauled him off into the back of an armored SUV. A series of other workers located and wrapped up up the sword that he had been wielding, and carted it off for evidence.

While this was going on, a man approached them. He wasn't Japanese, but it wasn't clear where he was from. Possibly Russian, considering the blond hair, but he spoke with a perfect Nagasaki accent that would have been completely impossible for a foreigner to master. "Thank you for your assistance," he said in a flat tone, flashing a badge of some sort too quickly for either Ishida or Love to really check it out. "I'm Agent Jones from the National Anti-Terrorism Agency. We've been looking for this terrorist for a number of weeks now; seems he's been going on a rape and murder spree. We'll take him from here, along with his murder weapon for evidence."

Ishida gave the man a furrowed brow. "Um, what about Ro-"

"I'm sorry," the agent said, cutting him off, "I can't tell you any more than that. Classified information. One of these men will come and take a statement from you."

With that, the agent who identified himself as Jones turned and quickly got into a car, driving off with a cavalcade of others behind him. A tall, dark man who appeared distinctly African approached them. He flashed another badge at them, identified himself as Agent Roberts, and took down their personal information. Oddly enough, his Japanese was a perfect Kyoto dialect.

But before Ishida could ask him any questions, he thanked them with a tone that indicated the subject was closed. "Thank you for your time. NATA will be in touch with you if we require more information. We've already radioed for an ambulance and it should be here soon for your friend over there." Then, rather abruptly, he got into his black SUV and thundered off.

"Bullshit," Ishida spat, pointing to his pager. He was on the hospital's paramedic/EMT shift, and if they had radioed for an ambulance, it would have gone off.

"Quick, let's get Rose's body out of here," Love suggested. "If we wait too long, it's going to revert back to its doll form, and then we're going to have a lot more explaining to do."

Ishida yanked his cell out of his pocket and dialed his fiance. "Orihime, how are you feeling?"

Orihime coughed on the other end. "Alright, I guess."

He knew she was putting on a brave face, and he hated to ask her for anything, but this was an absolute emergency. "Do you think you can drive?"

She knew he would never ask her this if it wasn't really important. "Yeah, I should be able to. I got a good night's rest."

Ishida sighed. He shouldn't be asking her to get involved - he had a bad feeling about this. "Alright," he said, not knowing any other options, and explained the situation.

"On my way," she said with a bit of steel in her voice. It reminded him of many years gone past; the better days when things were simpler. In a brief flash of unusual optimism, he wondered if a little excitement would be good for her.

-:-

The mood was somber back at the Vaizard warehouse. Rose's gigai had been incinerated, thanks to a quick Hado #54: Abolishing Flames from Hachi. There were no ashes, but Lisa symbolically wiped the area with a handkerchief, as if to gather the ashes. Lisa, who found herself even more bitterly angry than usual, folded the handkerchief carefully and deposited it into a small vase. With a silent prayer to a nameless god, she put the vase on a shelf in the main room.

"What the hell happened?" Shinji asked as he barged in, slamming the door shut. He had rushed from the office as soon as he could.

The sound made Orihime wince in her chair, and Shinji instantly regretted it. The pale woman was gaunt, a specter of her former self. She readjusted her beret as she rubbed her temples, the sound of the door slamming clearly initiating a migraine. Even though her prognosis was very positive, breast cancer had done her the worst kind of justice. Hiyori had seen her in the hospital recently, when Orihime had gone in for (hopefully) her last and final round of chemo. She was pale and sickly, and Shinji realized that she really should be in bed.

Hiyori, Ishida, and Love related the story. Shinji's eyes widened when Love mentioned the black sword.

"You can't be damn serious," Shinji exclaimed. "Did you really hear him say 'Ragnarok'?"

"Absolutely positive," Love reassured him. "That's when he sucked the soul right out of Rose."

Ishida interrupted. "What's so special about this Ragnarok sword?"

Kensei snorted. "I forget how young you guys are. You don't know anything about Ho Shin Yang, do you?"

Orihime shook her head. "...No - who was he?"

Lisa pushed her glasses up her nose. "He was the previous soutaicho of the Gotei 13, before General Yamamoto."

"Over a thousand years ago," Kensei clarified. "The demon sword Ragnarok was his zanpakutou. I'm amazed only one of you died back there."

Ishida wanted to ask a million questions, but the conversation was moving too quickly. Shinji's mouth was flapping a million words a minute. "This sounds crazy suspicious to me. Some dude walking around in the middle of a park swinging a sword long thought to have disappeared? And for the sword to be alive? That's ridiculous."

"Do you think that means Yang Soutaicho is alive?" wondered Mashiro, lollipop dangling out of her mouth.

"Who knows," Lisa muttered. "Who knows where he went. But even still, from the way Love and Hiyori describe him, there's no way that guy was Yang. If you think Yamamoto looks old, you haven't seen Yang. He was four thousand years old when he left the Gotei 13."

"Why did he leave?" Orhihime asked.

"Dude was four thousand fucking years old," Kensei spat. "If I live that long you can bet your ass I'm gonna retire."

"Could Yang be in the Royal Guard?" Love suggested.

Shinji shook his head. "If he was, he's not there anymore. Kurosaki Senior never met him."

Ishida couldn't take it anymore. "Can someone please explain how- - -"

His question was interrupted by an intense explosion above. Hachi knew immediately what had happened. "The shields around the warehouse!"

"Shit! We gotta get out of here now!" Shinji barked. The noise was deafening - he could hear artillery fire raining bullets down against the shields, and in between rounds, he could hear the whir of helicopter blades. Explosions continued to rattle his eardrums as the ground shook and the warehouse creaked under the strain, despite the barriers.

"Kensei, Mashiro, Hachi - get in the van! Lisa, Love - go with them!" he ordered, pointing at Ishida and Inoue. Grabbing Hiyori right out of her wheelchair and slinging her over his shoulder against her very vocal protestations about leaving her wheelchair behind, Shinji bolted out the door.

Hachi had his mask on and was chanting, holding the barriers while everybody piled into their cars. He could see through the windows that there were at least two helicopters over the warehouse, and they were dropping massive incendiary devices against the building. The firebombs were beginning to crack the shields, but he focused amidst the chaos, trying to give the others cover to escape.

Love, Lisa, and Ishida piled into the car while Orihime struggled to get the old clunker's engine to start. Shinji was strapping Hiyori's backup wheelchair into place because there wasn't time to get the electric one inside. Mashiro was revving the engine as Kensei tossed two large duffels worth of supplies into the back of the van and slammed the doors shut.

Hachi made a break for it, trying despite his girth to move quickly enough to get inside. His shields were cracking.

"DAMNIT, HACHI, C'MON!" Hiyori screamed.

But it was too late. His shields gave way, and a massive spray of bullets pierced him everywhere, and the giant man fell backwards in a stomach-wrenching spurt of crimson.


Reviews, please! I'll be on vacation for Chanukah - Happy Festival of Lights to everyone! - so the next release probably won't be out until Sunday. Next chapter: Car chase!