Chapter 10 – 2nd Squad Rebels

Four men dressed in near-identical clothing watched the Shinigami Captain point his sword at their Lieutenant's throat. They watched their captain fight the Shinigami loosing himself to his Hollow. They watched the Shinigami stand with one hand on their swords, as yet unaware of their presence. The four men wore fitted, long-sleeved black tops with collars that covered the bottom half of their faces, with baggy black pants, ninja-like sandals, fore-arm and shin protectors, and black gloves. Long, sleeveless, hooded white cloaks hid the visible parts of their faces. These men hid in the shadows, waiting patiently for the right time to strike.

~SPOV~

Captain Soifon didn't hesitate as she dived forward to the barrier containing Kurosaki and an old friend, a very old friend indeed. She remembered Akemi from her early Onmitsukido training days. As good a fighter Akemi was, she was still weak, a crybaby, this would be easy.

Unexpectedly, Soifon was suddenly pulled solidly to the ground, unable to move. Then she could feel it, something that had been there all along, but she'd never noticed. For a place where light simply radiated from the entire ceiling, her shadow was awfully dark. Taking all her effort, she turned her head to look at her shadow, in an instant, a man wearing all black aside from a white cloak rose out of it.

Being the Commander-in-Chief of the Onmitsukido she of course knew that ninja and assassins had to stick to the shadows, but this took on a whole new meaning. The ninja didn't move, which confirmed her thoughts that he was only keeping her from getting through that barrier.

"It's alright Ohad; you go entertain yourself with the Shinigami vice-captains, this won't take long." Said a smooth voice

Soifon looked round enough to see Akemi stood just outside the barrier, watching her with a look of interest. Kurosaki was laid on the ground inside the barrier, his spiritual pressure completely gone. He was dead. And Akemi looked happy, almost pleased, with his death. As Soifon felt the ninja's hold on her fade, she dived for Akemi, who dodged her attack as if it were nothing.

~SPOV~

Wordlessly, Ichigo dived forward and ran the hollow through with his sword, then watched him smirk as he dissolved into dust. As the black dust rushed towards him and enveloped him, merging with him, Ichigo didn't move, he understood now, what Akemi had been telling him about the differences between a Visored and a Shurehemimai.

He looked down at Zangetsu, his Zanpakuto; this sword now only represented half of his being.

~SPOV~

The fighting stopped abruptly at the sudden crushing spiritual pressure. Shinigami were almost flattened to the ground, instantly weakened. Shurehemimai looked round in shock at the spiritual pressure to rival a captain's.

In the midst of where the barrier had been only moments before, stood Ichigo, holding an unfamiliar sword in his hand. Ichigo looked down at the sword, a look of interest on his face; he turned it in his hand. The sword was two-thirds the length of Zangetsu, the hilt and sheath were red. He looked round at the Shinigami, almost instantly understanding why they were here.

"Leave." He said simply

~SPOV~

Ichigo watched the Shinigami leave through the spirit gate, and he reigned his spiritual pressure back in, looking round at the Shurehemimai left in the room. Four ninja in black and white, Kaito and... Akemi...

'Damn...' he thought 'Has she always looked like that?' If not, he'd been a fool not to notice before now. 'Since when did she have a belly-button piercing?' he wondered. He saw the anxious look on her face and smiled reassuringly at her, before letting go of the new sword and allowing it to evaporate into thin air.

~Verenite~

Hakemi lifted her head to look at the man who was stood in the door-way, the same man who had chained her up in here. She laughed bitterly. "What'chall wan naw?" she asked mockingly, earning her a boot across the face. "Aw, play nice" she chimed; this only gained her another kick. Goodness knows how long she'd been her, and she still had yet to know why she'd been brought here.

The man crouched down so he was at eye-level with her; he held her chin with one hand. "Such a beautiful face," he purred "Shame about your accent though. If it weren't for that, I might consider making you one of my pets. You could give little Akira some companionship."

She spat in his face. Even if she didn't like it, Hakemi had the same protectiveness over her subordinates as Akemi did. "Bastard" she hissed. He slapped her across the face, before wiping his own.

"What?" he asked, his cockiness increasing "Don't like it that your little friend is nothing more than a quick fuck to me?"

Then Hakemi snapped, and she launched herself at the man, breaking the chains with ease. Claws sprang from the end of her fingers and fangs grew in her mouth.

~Karakura~

"What are you doing here?"Akemi asked the four ninja, who had now revealed their faces and could not be more different.

"You don't think we really fell for Masaru's crap do you?" asked the shortest of the four men, he had mouse-brown hair, brown eyes and a bright smile, his name was Anan "Do you have no faith in us?" Next to Anan was a tall black man, who nodded silently in agreement, this was Ohad, he didn't speak much, or at all really.

Akemi grinned, Kaito had mentioned something about some of her squad rebelling, but she had no idea that they'd escaped repression from Masaru. She suspected the Baako, the leader of the four, a man with a dark-blond pony-tail and bright green eyes, was the primary source of the rebels. Finally there was Jirou, the second in command; he was probably the smartest in this group, the strategist, a reserved man with short dark brown hair and glasses.

"Ah, Captain, Vice-Captain... there is the small issue of ranks here, I believe that my comrades are slightly confused as to how to report to." Said Jirou it his usual calm, upright manner.

"What do you mean?" asked Akemi, noticing that he seemed to be forcing the word 'Captain' to refer to her, Kaito just sighed and lit a cigarette.

Jirou cleared his throat slightly "I doubt that any here have failed to notice that you no longer act as any form of vessel to the Hollow, Tígri Daímonas. And your souls are no longer merged or connected. Despite my deepest respect for you, Urahara-san, I cannot deny the fact that you are no longer a Shurehemimai, and therefore no longer Captain of Second Squad, Commander of the Elites, or current standing Omega." He said, his eyes never wavering away from Akemi's. No one spoke, only Ichigo was surprised, everyone else seemed to of seen it coming or known about it. Akemi looked affronted, before she sighed. "The obvious choice for your replacement would be Vice-Captain Chojin." Advised Jirou

"Right then…" she muttered, drawing Fenikkusu and turning to face Kaito, who had drawn Sora no Yumi. They held their swords parallel, then reached out and grabbed the blade of the other's sword, tightly enough to draw blood. Suddenly, Kaito swiped his sword down swiftly, slicing Akemi's hand down to the bone. In that instant, Kaito's Haori turned white and a second one materialized on top of it, this one was black and sleeveless, also, a silver band now glinted on Akemi's bicep, there was fine tiger-print engraved into the band. Both sheathed their blades.

For the second time, Jirou cleared his throat, earning him a sharp 'what now?' from Akemi. "You can't be a vice-captain either." He pointed out "Captain Chojin will have to choose his own."

Everyone looked to Kaito, who was taking a drag on his cigarette, looking bored as hell. Holding the smoke in his lungs for a moment, he watched them, before blowing the smoke up into the air. "Kurosaki" He said simply, taking another drag on his cigarette.

"What?"

"You're my vice-captain."

A shocked silence fell, Ichigo looking horrified. "Th-that's a bit rash, don't you think?" asked Jirou "Shouldn't you take more time over this?"

"Yeah!" interjected Anan, "Didn't he, like, only just go through the change? Wouldn't Baako be more suitable? Why don't you consider him too?"

"We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over." He said in a dull tone, although the meaning of this sentence seemed to fly over their heads. "Kurosaki's better suited anyway."

~Later~

Half-naked, Ichigo lay back on his bed, arms behind his head. He thought it was strange, how Shurehemimai rules worked, that he could just go straight to being a vice-captain if he was chosen by a captain, even though he'd only properly become a Shurehemimai a few hours ago. The silver band on his bicep glinted in the moonlight. His was unlike Akemi's or Akira's in design, it seemed to be mostly plain, but it glinted a dark red color in the light and had strange symbols carved into it, they looked almost Greek…

"I know you're there." He said clearly, having been able to feel the spiritual pressure outside in the tree outside his window for a while now. There was silence, and then the spiritual pressure left. There had been something strange about that spiritual pressure, it felt familiar, but he couldn't think who it belonged to.

~SPOV~Morning~

Yuzu looked up from her cooking when there was a knock at the front door, she turned the gas down on the cooker then ran to go and answer it.

"Yes?" she asked, as she opened the door. Facing her was a tall girl with long light-colored hair, she looked about the same age as Ichigo and she had a bright friendly face.

"Hi, my name's Akemi Urahara, I'm in Ichigo's class. Is he awake yet?" she asked politely

Yuzu beamed excitedly 'Ichigo's girlfriend?' she wondered "I'm afraid not, would you like me to go and wake him?"

"No, it's not that important really, I'll just come back in an hour or two."

Before Akemi could turn to leave, Yuzu stopped her "you could come in if you like!" she said brightly, having taken an instant liking to Ichigo's girlfriend. "I was just serving breakfast!"