Back in Black

Lt. Commander Richie

Disclaimer: I do not own either Bleach or D Gray-man. Eyup.

A/N: I love this idea so much. Unfortunately it was born of writer's block. But still, it's a great idea in my opinion~ The adventures of Lenalee in Soul Society, should she be dead and in possession of a dual zanpakuto! Yeah!

Night 10: Turn Back the Time Record Part 5

-/-

Her small quarters were pitch black, the moon outside blocked by the tree in the small pocket garden outside. The wind was nearly nonexistent in the dead of night, and like so many others in the 13th Division Lenalee slept soundly. She was undisturbed by nightmares for the first time in a long while, her dreams instead full of flowers and gardens that she chased her subordinates and friends through in a game of tag. There was plenty of laughing as she tackled someone to the ground, rolling over them to get to her feet and take off at a sprint. But as she ran something grabbed her attention, and the world went black as she stirred from the dream. The sound came again, a light rustling, and the 5th Seat bolted straight upright and held her hand forward in preparation to fire a Hado as fast as she could.

A green glow diffused through the room, turning every surface every shade of the color that seemed to exist. The source was a collection of pinpricks of light, crystals floating in the corner of the room at about the officer's eye-level. Without warning they moved, lightning-fast and with the rustling sound of fabric, and a man's warm hand clasped around her wrist and pointed it up at the ceiling. At the closer vantage point Lenalee could make out handsome facial features, small crystals stuck directly to the skin and shard-like spikes holding back wavy black hair. Long curls hung over one side of his face, and his eyes glowed the same color as the crystals he sported not only on his face but sewn into parts of his clothes in intricate patterns.

"I wouldn't do that, little Lena. We're not here to fight you." His voice was deep and sensual with a crushed crystal tone, practically a purr to the 5th Seat's ears, and she blushed at the close proximity that the strange man had to her. In the darkness she could see the cruel-looking claws of glowing green crystal he wore on the fingers of his other hand, and they needed no flexing or glinting in light to infer just what they were capable of. His haori spread across her futon in a blanket of glowing crystal chips, a row of hexagons decorating the edge and a twisting pattern of swirls and butterflies reaching up the sides.

"Dark Boots." Her voice was only a whisper, no more than a breath, but the man's mouth tilted slightly upwards in what was almost a smirk as she identified him. "Why are you-" one of the man's clawed fingers came up and pressed on her lips, not enough pressure to cut skin behind the movement but enough that she quieted immediately. The spirit's face was immediately serious again, and he let her wrist go in order to bring his flesh hand to her cheek in a tender movement.

"We are two, three counting you. While she fights this I've come to tell you goodbye." The shock must have been evident on the 5th Seat's face, because the man's face softened into a look that seemed so tender it was hard to imagine that he could ever hurt anyone or anything. Lenalee's fingers grasped at the soft fabric of his clothes, unmindful of the glowing crystal shards that nicked at her palms, and she clenched the garment as hard as she could in her hands.

"You can't! What are you fighting? We'll do it together!" The spirit gathered the girl to his chest, his fingers lacing through her long unbound hair as she began to cry. He shook his head and she bit her lip, tasting blood there as she realized the spirit's claw had cut her. Without warning she pulled back and punched him in the shoulder, small cuts appearing on her knuckles as she slit the skin on the crystal designs there. His laugh was hollow as she looked stubbornly resolute, his face becoming grim as something caught his attention. His vision shifted up and to the left, eyes unfocusing for the briefest of moments before his flesh hand reached out once again and cupped his shinigami's cheek. She leaned into it just slightly, not flinching in the slightest as the spirit leaned forward and placed a long and tender kiss on her opposite cheek right by her ear.

"You don't know just how much we truly love you." His breath was hot in her ear as he spoke, and the sensation made a tremble flow through the girl as she reached out for the spirit once again. But as she did so she was suddenly only holding a flock of crystal butterflies, their wings clicking and tinkling like a crashing chandelier as they dispersed and knocked her outside door off of its hinges as they flooded through it. Leaves fell from the tree in the pocket garden outside as they thundered through the branches, moonlight finally filtering through the foliage to light up the small room she was quartered in. Without regards to her state of undress in only a black and white checkerboard-print jinbei, Lenalee scrambled to her feet and ran out the door after the fleeing spirit. Her hair flowed behind her unbound as she flash-stepped barefoot to the roof of the 13th Division's main building, her toes grasping at the tiles and her fingers holding tightly to the decorative carp at the end of the roof with a white-knuckled grip.

The sensation of every zanpakuto and its Reiatsu being released in the Seiretei was absolutely overwhelming. It made the air taste like power, raw and tingling like electricity was charging every molecule the 5th Seat breathed in and out. Easily picked out were those of the Captains and Vice-Captains, shining beacons of raw energy that blanketed everything in a veil of sluggish movements and difficult breathing in a way that seemed menacing and horrible. Lenalee swallowed hard at the sensation, her mind racing as she scanned the dark horizon with careful eyes. Explosions of color and light, coupled with explosions of all sizes and fresh washes of insurmountable power, lit the center of the Seiretei with an eerie glow. Her hair blew in a sudden wind and the officer's eyes widened as she watched a wave rise, glowing so pink in the night that the sparse clouds above reflected the light. It crashed down on several buildings, exploding into a cloud of rubble and an ocean of a billion small knives. A Captain-level Reiatsu blinked out of existence, and Lenalee's mouth began to fall slowly open. There was something very wrong going on in the Seiretei.

"Everyone up!" In a single step of shunpo she was kicking open the barracks doors, running down halls with loud footsteps and banging on every shoji door she passed. "Everyone up now! We've got a serious situation developing and we need everyone alert and ready to go ten minutes ago!" Grumbles and yells followed her wake up call, but relatively alert shinigami quickly dressed and made their way to the main courtyard of the 13th Division with zanpakuto sheathed and ready to go. As they milled around, some cursing the early hour and others lamenting that they hadn't gone to bed yet, the lower-Seated officers attempted to regiment them into a relatively helpful force. As they did that Lenalee made a dash to the officers' quarters, entering the building through her broken door and immediately banging on the door of the quarters next to hers.

"What the hell is going on, Lenalee?" 4th Seat Shiratori slid his door open with enough force that it jumped when it stopped, light flooding the corridor from the lit lantern he held in his hand. He was already dressed and had his zanpakuto with him, wary of the shadows in the corridor as he looked around. "You look like hell! How'd you get so cut up?" His expression softened as he took in the litany of small lacerations she sported, his free hand coming up to wipe some blood from her forehead.

"We're being attacked and I think Captain Kuchiki is down! You wake up the 3rd Seats and I'll get everyone else!" Lenalee turned to run for the end of the hall where the 6th Seat's quarters were, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. Yoshi's face was grim as he pointed with the hand holding the lantern at the 5th Seat's quarters.

"I'll wake the other officers; you get dressed, get cleaned up and get your zanpakuto. If Captain Kuchiki is down we'll need to mobilize so we can act in full force when we receive orders." At Lenalee's look of confusion, the 4th Seat wiped a hand across her forehead in a motion that made her wince at the sting and showed her his hand in the light of his lantern. There were smears of red across it, bright and wet in the yellow light. "You're bleeding everywhere, little Lena. Get dressed and clean up, then report to me and we'll see about assisting the Captains." She nodded once, retreating into her room and grabbing a handkerchief to mop at her forehead with from the desk she kept her things on. With fumbling, stinging fingers she found her lantern and lit it, the orange glow casting about the room in warmth that seemed only skin-deep.

Without much time she only grabbed one of her gold hair bands, pulling all of her hair through in one long motion before securing it with a click at the base of her neck. The long tail hung limply along her back as she pulled off her sleepwear, throwing it haphazardly across the room as she pulled on a shihakusho and tied it like she normally did. Her obi was the one from the day before, still laying half-folded across her desk, and she forwent the pretty knot she usually did for a very utilitarian one that only took a few motions. All of this she tied with a black cord and then ran to her small closet, pulling the door open with enough force to make it jump in its track. From under the neatly-folded extra futon she kept there for her nonexistent guests she pulled a wakizashi, the utterly plain circular tsuba marking it as nothing much higher than a training sword. Lenalee ran back to her desk and pulled a scarf from the growing pile next to it, tying one knot around the sword's sheath and then tying the improvised rig and weapon around the bottom of her obi with a more permanent knot. She grabbed another scarf and tied it around the top of her obi, tucking the ends she usually let trail into themselves so as to stay out of the way. With a process that usually took half an hour cut down to nothing more than ten minutes the 5th Seat grabbed her Dark Boots and ran for the door with her lantern in her other hand.

The weight of a sword was a foreign one on her hip, oddly heavy and slightly cumbersome. But the 5th Seat had a sinking feeling that she would need it, even if she never really knew how to handle one to begin with. The metal shoes that she wore as she raced through the darkened gardens felt strangely empty, nothing more than a flexible coldness that seemed more like cruel shackles to her than actual shoes. The feeling was irrational at its base, but there was still an unexplainable sentiment there that she couldn't seem to shake. Lenalee took a corner a little sharply and nearly toppled over as her shoes skittered on the entrance to the main courtyard, sparks and shrieks going everywhere as she regained her balance and headed for where her commanding officers stood. As she approached it became evident that something very serious had happened- not only were 3rd Seats Kotetsu and Kotsubaki getting along, they were talking civilly and apparently planning something.

"Have we received orders yet?" 4th Seat Shiratori looked up from where he was re-lighting his lantern, his eyes focusing on the girl in front of him with a split second of confusion before recognition set in despite her lack of pigtails. Lenalee set her lantern down and gently took the one from her superior, holding it steady so that he could use both hands to re-light it.

"No. The men are getting a little antsy and I've got no way of sending anyone for information. We have no idea what's going on and we need to know pretty damn quick." No sooner had Yoshi spoken did a messenger flicker into view with a flit of shunpo, kneeling in the center of the small group of highly-Seated officers with his head bowed low. The entire courtyard fell utterly silent as the man spoke, only the shifting of cloth and click of swords in sheathes audible.

"Captain-Commander Yamamoto has been kidnapped by an insurgent- this same insurgent has somehow managed to release the spirits of all the zanpakuto in the Seiretei." The spirit's words suddenly became clear to Lenalee as she looked down at her Dark Boots, the metal forms completely empty of feeling and reassurance like they normally held. "The 13th Division is to seek out any and all roaming spirits and capture them to the best of your ability. All Seated officers 5th Seat and above are to find and subdue their zanpakuto spirits before they deal damage to the Seiretei or anyone in it." 4th Seat Shiratori, his lantern forgotten in Lenalee's hands, reached for the sword he usually kept at his hip. The look on his face spoke volumes as he grabbed the handle, a sudden feeling of loss he hadn't even noticed coming to the forefront of his mind.

"You heard the man! Everyone, move out! The capture of zanpakuto spirits, whether or not they're yours, is our main priority right now! If you encounter a zanpakuto more powerful than you, do not engage alone!" 3rd Seat Kotetsu's voice rose above the assembled shinigami, and they all shouted their understanding before heading for the main gates of the Division. His job done, the messenger disappeared in a flit of shunpo without even so much as a sound.

"Will you be alright?" Lenalee's voice was small but steady in the rush of shinigami that headed for the main gates. Those that thought ahead disappeared in flashes of shunpo, but still the noise was almost deafening. 4th Seat Shiratori nodded absently, his hand still clutching at his sword with a sort of slack grip. "Don't let your sword, or lack thereof, get the best of you." Yoshi seemed to snap from his funk in a jolt of movement, and his fingers left the grip of his sword with a lingering touch before patting the top of the 5th Seat's head. She smiled at him in the glow of the lantern, and held his out to him before stooping to pick up her own.

"Don't worry about me- do you know what you're looking for? You have two to catch, little Lena, though I doubt you've forgotten." Lenalee nodded to her superior, clicking her heels together with a metallic clink.

"I'll be alright," she reassured, shifting enough to indicate the plain wakizashi she wore tied at her waist. The 4th Seat furrowed his eyebrows at the sight, unaccustomed to seeing the girl in front of him with a sword. He wasn't even sure she had owned one before this, since she neither had a grasp of Zanjutsu nor a reason to perfect that skill. Without letting Yoshi pose a question about the sudden appearance of a bladed weapon at her side, Lenalee nodded a confirmation to him and was gone in a flash of shunpo fast enough to stir the air.

-/-

-/-

The stillness of the cave was only broken by the sounds of battle elsewhere. It echoed down the long tunnels, turning from battle cries and blasts of power to the moans and howls of creatures in the night. Her shoes clicked on the stone below her feet, horrid squeaks issuing forth as she stumbled on the hard floor. Blood spattered on the cold rocks beneath her as she moved, finally beginning to pool as she stopped and slid down the wall of the cave with a slight whimper. One hand clutched tightly at the cut on her side, and if she pressed hard enough she could still feel the shard of sharp crystal that was stuck there. The Dark Boots scraped on the rock floor as she drew her knees closer to her body, the hand that wasn't grasping at the bleeding wound in her side still grasping the wakizashi she had armed herself with days before. The weapon had been a good idea after all and had protected her from several dangers she had never thought would have been difficult to overcome.

"Why?" Lenalee's voice was a pained whisper in the tunnel, and she bit her lip to stifle the cry that would have otherwise come out as she reached into her wound and pulled the shard of glowing green crystal from it. It was shaped like a butterfly's wing and made of thousands of faceted edges, refracting its own light in shimmers and shines that made it seem so innocent. But the crystal was deadly, as the 5th Seat had quickly found out, and she didn't like it one bit. There was not a single thing innocent about her zanpakuto spirits, and though the promised they would never hurt her she was beginning to believe that they had lied. Lenalee wound up and threw the crystal shard as hard as she could, a grim satisfaction coming from the tinkling sound it made as it smashed against the opposite wall of the tunnel. Her zanpakuto were not nice things, and in that moment she resolved not to be nice to them either.

"Do you know what it feels like to love and be despised in return?" The hard edge to the sensual purr of a voice in her ear was frightening and sudden, and the 5th Seat stiffened before taking a haphazard swipe at the spirit with her wakizashi. Sparks flew as the metal impacted his clawed crystal hand, and the blade was promptly wrenched from Lenalee's white-knuckled grip and thrown down the tunnel. In all his resplendent silks and his crystal-decorated haori, one half of the Dark Boots sat next to its former master on the rough stone floor. His green glow lit up the entire subterranean passage with a dim light, the swirls and patterns on his haori even more brilliant in the deep darkness than they had been in her room only a few days before. When Lenalee didn't answer his question, the flesh hand of the spirit reached up and grabbed her by one pigtail. The 5th Seat hissed in pain, but turned her attention to the beautiful man with a look in her purple eyes that belied an old resentment and a horrible hurt.

"I'm beginning to." Her succinct answer wasn't enough for the spirit, and he stood with her pigtail still clenched in his fist. Lenalee hissed in pain as he tugged again, and struggled to her feet in an effort to alleviate the cruel sting. Blood spattered on the ground as she did so, and her red-stained hand clutched at the wound again to staunch the flow. Still, a steady dribble of red found its way through her fingers and bubbled its way down her arm to her elbow.

"You'll never know what you put us through!" Suddenly the clawed green crystal hand was at her face, just barely scratching with a grip that almost trembled. The cruel look in his eyes was so different from the one he had worn only days before, nearly the polar opposite the completely tender gaze that he had held her in before he had said goodbye. Whatever Muramasa had done to her zanpakuto spirits, it was something horrible to have so reversed the love that had been there until just recently. "We did everything for you! We kept you safe, we helped you keep the people around you safe, and yet you scorned us and hated us as though we were the very demons you used us to destroy!"

"I never-" Lenalee began, but the sting of fresh cuts being scraped into her face by movement made her still. She was close enough to the spirit that she could feel him breathe, four layers of lush silks and long wavy hair just barely brushing against her in a way that managed to convey further hostility where they had once conveyed comfort.

"You are so selfish." Her eyes widened at his words, confusion evident on her face as plain as the crystals that adorned his. A lock of curling hair pulled its way free from the crystals that held it back, falling into the spirit's face in a way that just barely began to make him seem a little less frightening. But his words still bit at her consciousness, stirring up feelings she never knew she had towards the shoes she wore and the spirit that held her so close. "You scorned us and hated us, yet begged and pleaded for more power every time you wanted to protect what was precious to you. We loved you so much that we did it without question!" For a spare moment the claw was removed from her face, and Lenalee took the chance to spin tightly and plant a foot into the spirit's stomach. Surprised, he stumbled backwards and let go of his former master's pigtail. The shinigami spun on her heel and ran for the wakizashi the spirit had thrown, diving for it regardless of the burning pain in her side. Just as her hand was about to close around the handle, however, the shadows that filled the tunnel so completely shifted just barely and the sword was suddenly lifted out of her reach.

It rose into the air as though lifted, fading into the darkness as the shadows coalesced into something vaguely human. What had once been the deep shadows of a darkened tunnel was now a tall form composed completely of blackness, tapering and fading down into a cloud of black smoke. It had no arms and hardly any shoulders, a cloud of curling white hair coming into being as Lenalee struggled to her feet. Her wakizashi was no longer visible, absorbed completely by the darkness. The bow around its neck faded just as the rest of it did, like someone had taken an eraser to the base of the creature's body and had begun to destroy it from existence.

"You don't even remember." The smoky spirit's voice was effervescent in the growing green glow of the man behind the shinigami she spoke to, but full of pitying hatred that seemed far more tangible than the speaker itself. As the spirit spoke its eyes opened, white pits in a blackened face, and its mouth stretched red across its face in a horrible mockery of a smile that was much wider than any human mouth could ever accomplish. In a horribly cruel movement the male half of Dark Boots grabbed its former master by the wrist and wrenched her backwards. Lenalee fell onto his chest in a heavy motion, the spirit leaning down to speak to her even as he held his clawed crystal hand to her throat. Blood leaked from the wound in the 5th Seat's side and bled into the spirit's haori, staining the beautiful fabric a garish dark red.

"Do you have anything to say before we kill you? Keep in mind I've waited for a long time for my freedom from your hatred, I don't think I can wait much longer." The beautiful purr of a voice the man possessed did nothing to mask the spite in each and every one of his words, and the spirit's claws tightened just slightly around her neck until they began to break skin. Lenalee weakly resisted against the grip he had on her, but suddenly found the tip of her wakizashi gently prodding her in the stomach. The 5th Seat immediately stilled, her mind racing as she listened to the silence that had overtaken the tunnel. "I'm waiting." Both spirits seemed hesitant, as though they were waiting on her final words before they killed her and would not make a move until then.

"Thank you for protecting me," Lenalee finally began, her voice breaking the silence into a thousand pieces as she let go of the wound on her side to reach up and place her bloodied hand on the cheek of her captor. He stiffened at the warm and wet sensation, blinking heavily for a moment before taking in the surroundings as though he was just then seeing them for the first time. His clawed grip went slack for just that moment, and Lenalee took the chance to duck from his hands and spin low to kick his legs out from under him. The male spirit went down heavily, his eyes fixed on the ceiling of the tunnel with a dazed expression. "I am so grateful to you both that I don't think you can quite comprehend it." The black creature of a spirit dissolved down into a puddle of shadow, spreading across the floor before coalescing beneath its counterpart and pushing him to his feet. As it assumed its original form, the male spirit clenched his flesh hand and pointed the clawed one at her.

"You've lost! Making amends does nothing now!" The three faced each other with a fiery determination in their eyes, and Lenalee once again clutched at the wound in her side in an effort to stop the blood. In the green glow of the male spirit she was beginning to look very pale, a slight sway to her stance coming into play the longer she stood. "A few years of gratitude don't make up for a lifetime of hatred!" The spirit's voice was full of spite, and as he started towards his former master she began to smile widely. "You've got nothing to smile about." His tone became wary as he reached out with his senses, unsure of what he would find. His eyes suddenly went to the hand clamped over the shinigami's wound, noting the blue glow there that was nearly drowned by his own bright green aura.

"Making amends bought me enough time to cast Bakudo #14 on myself," Lenalee smiled as she pulled her hand away from her side, the blood there only covering warped and scarred flesh. "It isn't very pretty, but it'll do." In a sudden movement the 5th Seat jumped forward in a flying kick, catching the male spirit in the throat with her foot and sending him flying backwards through the more ethereal black one. With a spin she alighted on the ground, crouching low and ready to attack once again should the opportunity present itself. It did almost immediately, the effervescent black spirit falling to the hard ground in a puddle of shadow before shooting forward in a series of very solid spikes. One very narrowly missed its target, and the cool aura the spike exuded made Lenalee think of the shoes on her feet for a split second before she ducked and then flipped backwards. Before she could even finish the flip she was surrounded by a thousand of the bright green crystal butterflies, their sharp wings making small slices on her skin as she landed in a careful crouch. "Hado #58, Orchid Sky!" She thrust her hands forward and called on a fairly massive amount of power and concentration, not trusting herself to have time to say the incantation for a higher-level Hado without making a mistake.

The whirlwind that ripped through the tunnel blew both the butterflies and the more ethereal spirit completely apart. In all the confusion the Hado caused her wakizashi was released by the black spirit and sent flying into the opposite wall, embedding itself into the stone with a certain amount of ferocity. Lenalee immediately ran for it, grabbing the handle and pulling with both hands to wrench it free and sheathe it at her side. Both spirits were beginning to stir and collect themselves as she faced them, a long silence passing between the three in a way that seemed almost dead. The male spirit was the first one up, butterflies still alighting on him and becoming parts of his lush clothing and crystal decorations as he stood on shaky feet. Lenalee resisted the urge to run to him and help him up, instead forcing her hands to go to the wakizashi she had just sheathed at her hip.

"This has to end." The male spirit's voice was strained, but no less of a purr than it had ever been. The tone hurt the shinigami more than she thought it would, and she let her hands fall from her sword as she gave him a sad smile and nodded her agreement. It wasn't a pitying smile, or even a grieving one, but the expression was bordering almost on tears in a way that made the spirit's eyebrows furrow ever so slightly. In unison the two crouched, their stances matching as they faced each other in the green-tinged gloom.

"You are the wind in the butterfly's wings; you dance the waltz of the misty morning, Dark Boots." Where Lenalee's boots exploded up her legs in a rush of black tendrils, forming her boots and armor in only seconds, the spirit's boots formed differently. The air shifted slightly, a dim blackness that Lenalee realized was the smoke-like white haired spirit coalescing on the male spirit's legs and feet to form the same hard black boots she wore. The bright green lines down the front of his boots flared into life, and as though it was a starting signal the two combatants launched at each other with alarming speed. They kicked off of each other with enough force that the tunnel shook, rocks falling from the ceiling as the stone rumbled around them. They skidded backwards on the stone floor, sparks flying from the pointed toes of their boots before they came to a stop and jumped at each other once again. This time they met with matching high-kicks, their shins smashing together with crushing force before rebounding and making separate moves. Lenalee ducked low and kicked upwards and to the side, nearly impacting the spirit's knee before he twisted out of the way and flipped over her head. The shinigami suddenly found hands grasping under her arms, and with the momentum of his spin she was thrown down the tunnel at an alarming speed.

With a twist she stopped herself parallel to the ground, looking up the tunnel at her rapidly-approaching assailant with determination in her eyes before kicking off of the solid empty air and twisting to catch the spirit in the chin with one foot and flip him over her head and into the ground. Before he could react she twisted again, her heel coming down with explosive force and nearly crushing his head. At the last second he moved, just narrowly missing his death at the hands of his former master before rolling completely out of the way and then flipping to his feet. His kick upwards missed as she flitted out of the way, coming up behind him to deliver a kick that sent him smashing into the roof of the tunnel. The ground rumbled ominously and large chunks of rock began to fall, and with the threat of a cave-in imminent the 5th Seat kicked off towards the mouth of the tunnel with enough speed that the air behind her cracked loud enough to make the already unstable walls shake even more.

A cloud of dust followed the shinigami out into the massive cavern she had originally found her zanpakuto spirits in, the rumble of collapsing rubble echoing ominously through the large empty space. She turned and skidded to a stop in the open air, her pigtails flying over her shoulders to hang around her face as she watched the cloud for any signs of movement. She just barely began to relax as her spirits exploded from the cloud of dust with a bang of breaking air. The two jumped into movement once again, taking advantage of the larger amount of space they could now fight in to build up momentum for their crushing attacks. Lenalee flipped herself over twice before cracking her heel into the head of the male spirit and flinging him into the ground. He laughed as he stood, his boots scraping the stone as he pulled himself into a stance and then jumped. In a tight spin that made every layer he wore fan out in a blanket of sparkles the spirit rocketed up past the 5th Seat where she stood in the open air and then flipped upside-down to shoot himself at her. At the last moment he flipped again, his foot impacting her chest and pushing the girl towards the ground at an alarming rate with him still pushing. Somehow Lenalee managed to get her hands around his ankle and push off the open air with her own boots, using his momentum against him in order to flip him around and with a kick send him flying face-first into the stone floor below.

"You're learning! I haven't had a fight like this for a long time!" In a crack of broken air the spirit was on his feet and in front of his opponent, spinning tightly to plant a boot in the shinigami's stomach and send her flying into the rocky ceiling. Instead of hitting it and falling back towards the cavern floor, however, she punched through the thin stone crust as she impacted it and flew into the open air. The force sent her spinning head-over-heels for a moment before she righted herself, skidding backwards through the open air at a 45-degree angle to the ground and shaking dizziness out of her head. A refreshing breeze was a stark difference from the musty cavern air, and at her altitude it blew Lenalee's pigtails to the side as she scanned the surroundings for her assailant. From above a boot impacted her back and she went flying once again, twisting around at the last moment to kick off above the treetops and deliver a spinning kick to the spirit's side.

"I can do everything you can do! There's no point in dragging this fight on any longer!" The two met in a flurry of kicks as Lenalee yelled above the din, going on the defensive as the zanpakuto spirit became more aggressive in his attacks. He planted a foot in her chest again and kicked her backwards, the two stilling in the open air as though waiting for the other to make the next move.

"We can utilize our powers to the full extent of their abilities, Lenalee. You can do everything we can do?" The spirit scoffed and flexed his clawed hand in the bright sun. Where in the dark he appeared to glow green and sparkle, in the bright light of the sun he shone like a diamond from every crystal shard that adorned him. The effect was annoyingly bright. "That's so misinformed that it isn't even funny. You're still learning how to control us- you can't do nearly the things we can." The spirit whipped his clawed hand forward to catch the boot aimed for his face, twisting the girl's foot around and throwing her up into the air without too much difficulty. She flipped herself around and launched back at him, a bang of shattering air following her supersonic movement as she twisted several times and then brought her heels down on the shoulders of the spirit. He stumbled downwards, losing his footing in the open air and tumbling about a hundred feet towards the treetops before righting himself and peering upwards at his former master.

"I know one thing you can't do that I can!" The dark-haired spirit looked quizzical as he furrowed his brow and looked up at the girl, her words almost lost on the wind. "Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws!" The spirit's eyes widened in alarm as he realized just what was being cast at him, but he was too late to react before the massive bolt of blue-white fire hit him with enough force to blow him into the ground and set several trees on fire. "Hado #33! Blue Fire, Crash Down!"

As the onslaught of Kido ended the spirit groaned, his ethereal counterpart slowly dissolving from its attacking form into a white-haired puddle of darkness and smoke. Lenalee dropped to the ground like a stone, her impact sending scorched earth everywhere and denting the forest floor. The crater she had blown the spirits into with her attack smoked slightly, and her own Dark Boots sealed themselves as she ran to the edge and looked into the shallow depression. Both spirits were smeared with dirt and having trouble maintaining their corporeality respectively, and she jumped into the crater with them and slid down the dirt walls to kneel between them. The male spirit began to laugh, the sound rich and happy despite the circumstances. He was joined by a rattling wheeze of a laugh, the sound utterly frightening until Lenalee realized that it was in fact coming from the incorporeal spirit on her other side. Her Dark Boots both sounded amazingly relieved, and the 5th Seat began to tear up as she watched them both. She clenched her fists in her lap as she bit her lip, her eyes closing as she looked towards the ground.

"Thank you." The deep and seductive voice of the male spirit at her side made Lenalee look up, wetness clinging to her eyelashes as she took in the sorry state of her two zanpakuto spirits. His curling black hair went everywhere as he sat up, but the male spirit still made the effort and braced himself with his crystal claw in order to grab one of his shinigami's hands. "I think…" He seemed to pause, and Lenalee worked her fingers between his fingers in the silence. Her other hand went to the black puddle of smoke at her other side, unsure for a moment before feeling something grasp her in return and reassure her. "I think we may have needed that." He finished, and suddenly had to bring his clawed hand up in order to steady the girl that fell onto his chest with a cry and a torrent of tears. Behind the two of them the black form finally rose, completely corporeal and solid as a headless harpy-esque creature. It joined the embrace with its winged arms, exuding warmth from its jet black metallic body that seemed almost otherworldly.

Lenalee's gasping sobs quieted after a long while, turning into a steady pattern of breathing that indicated sleep. When he was completely sure she was out the male spirit stood, holding her carefully so as to refrain from slicing her skin on the thousands of crystals that adorned him. The harpy-esque spirit tilted its long headless neck to one side, the deliberate and slow movement conveying a question it couldn't otherwise speak out loud in its current form. Its counterpart nodded an affirmative and the black body fell to the ground in a puddle of black that quickly formed boots around the male spirit's legs. At a slow pace he kicked into the air, a content leisure falling over him as he made his way in the direction of the Seiretei.

-/-

Note to self: never, ever, ever write a fight scene between two people with the same powers ever again. HOLY SHIT THAT WAS CRAZY. But it was also so much fun and I loved doing it and oh my god I think I just wrote like five pages of WORDS WORDS WORDS in two hours what the hell am I doing.

So. Roughly ten and 5/8th pages up in the hizzouse. But for some reason this chapter only clocked in at about 6.5k words without this A/N, WHICH IS PERFECTLY OKAY, but yeah. I thought I had written more. But this chapter puts this fic over 50K words in only ten chapters! Holy shit, it took like twenty for me to do the same with The Loveless. That is so totally rad.

Anyway, for the male spirit that makes up one half of Dark Boots, imagine Byakuya. Now imagine him with all the suave and curly hair of Aizen without the mullet except curlier and about the length of the mullet. Now he's voiced by Steven Blum. Now make him sparkle just a little less than a Twilight vampire (askdjlfhkjhfd I CAN'T BELIEVE I DID THAT FFFFFF-) and you're about halfway to how goddamn pretty, suave, and sexy-voiced that spirit is supposed to be. For the other half of Dark Boots, imagine the headless harpy thing that the Dark Boots took the form of when Lenalee got her new boots in the DGM manga and they combined with her blood. Now make it pitch black because the boots are her original ones and not the red crystal ones. There you go.

I am too lazy to look through eleven pages and find crazy typos. If you find any, any at ALL in this fic (I type REALLY FAST so there are probably plenty) please tell me so I can fix them or I'll go utterly insane.

PEACE, YO

LCR.