Chapter 10

Jun shielded his eyes as a massive lightning strike came down upon his adversary, engulfing him in its energy. A massive amount of smoke was thrown up as the intense heat seared everything in its range.

"What the hell?", Jun asked himself as he jumped back. The heat had become too intense to bear.

Suddenly, the lightning vanished, causing the air that had expanded due to the massive build-up of heat to collapse onto itself, resulting in a massive shockwave that rattled every bone in Jun's body and caused every surviving window within a three mile radius to shatter under the intense vibrations. Jun desperately tried to keep out the smoke out of his eyes, the stinging caused tears to form which blurred his vision. The stench of seared flesh suddenly filled the air. The corpses of Jun's subordinates had been within the reach of the heat and had been seared as a result. He coughed as he inhaled some of the smoke.

"I never thought there was a student here in the academy that could release his zanpakutō, this guy really is something".

The smoke cleared as a sudden gust of wind picked up, leaving the two combatants facing each other on their field of battle. Curious as to what his opponent had done, Jun studied Kaito and noted that now, he was holding two swords instead of one. Both still looked like regular zanpakutō, with a few differences, first of all, the back on both swords had become lined with backwardly curved spikes, giving them the impression of a dragon's spiked back. A chain was attached to the end of each blade's hilt, the chain itself running up to Kaito's elbow before curling around his upper arm and finally vanishing through the back of his clothing. The edges of the swords glittered in the light being emitted by the constant arcing of lightning that now covered Kaito's body while a continuous torrent of air encircled Kaito's body, throwing small amounts of dust into the air which obscured his features as they moved through the faint blue aura surrounding him.

"I hope you're ready for this Kawazoe Jun", Kaito glared as he raised his head, the glow in his eyes now clearly visible, giving him a terrifying presence.

Jun noticed the glow in Kaito's eyes intensify as he raised his right sword.

"This ends here", Kaito spoke as he brought down the sword, causing a violent arc of lightning to blast away from the blade, tearing up the earth as it raced towards Jun with terrifying speed. Having just enough time to raise his claw in defence, Jun took the full brunt of the blast as it struck him, the metal of his blade conducting the raw electricity and transmitting it into his body. The jolt sent him to his knees as his muscles started to contract randomly, leaving him unable to control his own movements. As he slowly regained control, he raised his head to look at Kaito, who was far from done with his attack. Having brought down his right hand sword, he had quickly spun his other sword into a backwards grip and had begun a horizontal swing. Jun expected another lightning spike, but was surprised to see that instead of lighting, the blade was now firing a translucent blade of air towards him. His muscles still sore and unable to respond from the lightning, Jun was struck by the second attack as well, which tore through his armour and penetrated his skin, leaving a deep gash in his torso. The sheer impact of the blade of air causing Jun to be thrown back several meters.

"You're finished Kawazoe Jun", Kaito spoke coldly as he slowly approached Jun, his swords encircled by their respective element.

"This fight is indeed finished Fujiwara Kaito, but I'm not", Jun said as he raised himself back onto his feet, coughing up a few handfuls of blood in the process, "you may be stronger than me right now, but I will grow stronger myself, and I'll be challenging you again in the future, you can count on that".

He raised his hand, a long white ribbon clutched in his fist which immediately surrounded him in long loose swirls.

"We shall meet again", Jun said as the ribbon completely enveloped him and vanished, taking him with it.

"Kaito, are you alright?"

Turning towards the source of the sound, Kaito spotted Emi and the others race towards him. Emi paled as she saw the Kaito's bloodied chest and tears started to well up as she hurriedly ran towards him.

"I'm fine", he responded as he slowly forced the reiatsu away from his zanpakutō, causing the menacing elements that were still infused in the twin blades to subside, Emi carefully helping him to his feet.

"He ran, I couldn't finish him", Kaito said as he took a good look at his friends. They were all fine, though Midorikawa still had an annoyed expression on his face. A glimmer near Emi's side suddenly caught his eye though, and as he took a closer look at it, he noticed that her own zanpakutō had also changed its shape. It had lengthened into a long staff that split into two thin blades around the middle, the two pieces arcing outwards a bit before curving back together until they almost touched in the end, water was still dripping from the still glimmering edges of the blades.

"So, you managed to release your zanpakutō Emi", Kaito noted as he sealed his own zanpakutō again and sheathed it. He didn't have the necessary power to keep it released anymore.

"Apparently, as did you Kaito", Emi smiled as she too sealed her sword.

"It was necessary though", Sakamoto butted in on the conversation, "If Emi hadn't released her power, we'd be in some serious trouble by now. The cannon was heavily guarded, even though they had apparently sent away about three quarters of its defence moments before we struck".

"Midorikawa here", Sakamoto continued as he pointed to Midorikawa, who was being poked by Miharu in an attempt to get the scowl off his face, "was instrumental to our victory. We held off the enemy forces while he prepared a kidō spell powerful enough to destroy the cannon. Afterwards, the enemy forces retreated almost immediately, a logical choice of their commander".

"Figures they'd retreat after losing their heavy artillery, no army can stand up against six taichō class shinigami with just numbers on their side", Akimoto commented.

"We'd better get back, perhaps they need our help in cleaning up the rest of the enemy forces", Kaito said as he looked back to the academy building where clashes of spiritual pressure could still be felt.

"Good idea", Sakamoto replied as they went back to the main building, taking out the occasional straggler on the way.

Kago Asuka, taichō of the fourth division was healing one of the wounded academy students when she noticed one of the enemy soldiers flying directly at her.

"Hey, Naoki, how many times have I told you, I don't heal enemy soldiers, and I certainly can't do anything with these corpses you've been sending me, so quit it would you?", Asuka yelled to the man on the other side of the wall as she knocked the dead enemy soldier onto a heap that had been steadily growing as the battle outside the walls raged on.

"Sorry Asuka, it's just that I'm having so much fun, I can hardly control myself", Naoki shouted in response.

"Yeah, well then aim them somewhere else, it's getting annoying to find myself continuously being bombarded with corpses, I've got enough on my hands as it is".

"Hey, knock it off you two", Tetsuo yelled as he concentrated on spotting another kidō blast coming from the cannon.

"I've got to focus here, something that's quite difficult with you two quarrelling all the time. Do you want me to get Yushio to help sort out your differences perhaps?"

"No thanks, we're good", Naoki shouted in response. He'd been scolded enough by his wife for one day already and he didn't want her to ruin his good mood so he began to work his way through the seemingly endless stream of enemy soldiers with a little more care in filleting them and where he threw what remained, not that he could really decide where they flew.

"All forces, retreat", a voice suddenly shouted over the battlefield, audible even over the thundering noise created by the battle. Within seconds, all the remaining attackers had started retreating, much to Naoki's chagrin.

"Oh no you don't", he yelled as he watched the nearest enemies make a hasty retreat, completely dropping their defence in the process.

"Rip them to shreds, Shuurajō", Naoki shouted as he released his zanpakutō for the second time that night. Horrified, the men watched the blood red reiatsu stream from the taichō that was pursuing them. Slowly, his zanpakutō split into a multitude of long tentacles, rows on sharp hooks and spikes adorning the sides, the tips splitting into four separate pieces, the inside of each one lined with teeth, all curved backwards, leading towards a central mouth. Blood oozed from Naoki's weapon as the tentacles flashed towards the terrified men. Some were impaled, others just shredded to bits as they were enveloped by several tentacles at once and a few got caught by the mouths which carved through their skins, sucking out their blood and leaving nothing but empty husks in their wake.

"Last one", Naoki grinned as he directed his sword towards the one soul unfortunate enough to remain within his range. Blood spurted from the man's mouth as the tentacle hit him in the back and emerged on the other side of his body, covered in blood. Nonchalantly, Naoki whipped his sword back into its sealed shape, flinging the man over the wall in the process.

"NAOKI!"

"Oh crap"

After having warned Naoki several times, Asuka decided that enough was enough. She hadn't been able to dodge or redirect the last corpse, which was now lying at her feet. Enraged, she grabbed the corpse and flung it at Naoki, the fact that there was a wall of more than a meter thick in between proved to be a mere detail as the corpse slammed through the wall and into Naoki's face, causing him to topple backwards onto several more corpses that littered the area outside the main building.

Naoki grabbed several of the corpses that were lying in his vicinity and prepared to send them flying to Asuka when he suddenly felt the reiatsu of his wife approaching causing him to quickly let go of the thought.

"Looks like those students of your were able to take out the cannon Shinji", Yushio said calmly to her former subordinate as she slowly looked around the academy, "it seems your interest in them was well founded".

"I knew they were special, each and every one of them. Kaito especially, he caught my eye the moment I saw him in the real world. Putting him together with the Shimizu heir and the others only reinforced my hope for them".

"Indeed, they really work well together", Yushio admitted. Her student had chosen wisely and created a team that she knew would become well known throughout Soul Society in the future.

"Looks like they're here Shinji", Tetsuo said as he jumped down from the roof and joined the other taichō that had begun gathering.

"Good. Asuka-san, what's the status of the students?"

"Several of the classes of the lower grades were annihilated. They weren't fast enough to evacuate the dormitories. After that we lost several students as we brought them here as well as a of the shinigami escorting them. Total losses are around a hundred students and about a dozen of our shinigami, most of them were caught in the blast that took out the dorms. One teacher was also killed while he was helping to evacuate. They hit us hard".

Hearing of the toll the attack had taken, the taichō lowered their heads. Never before had the academy been a target of a large scale attack, and never before had they lost so many students in such a short amount of time.

Hearing the sound of several feet touching the ground near them, they looked up to see the brave team of students standing in front of them. Bloodied, but victorious.

"Handa Taichō", Sakamoto saluted formally as he approached his superior officer, the one that had sent them on their mission, "primary mission objective has been accomplished. The enemy kidō cannon has been destroyed. Resistance was encountered along the way, but was dealt with primarily by Shimizu-san and Fujiwara-san who released their zanpakutō to overpower the opposing forces. I shall provide you with an extensive mission report when we have reorganised".

Hearing Sakamoto's report, the eyes of all the taichō except Shinji widened. They had never before encountered a student capable of releasing his zanpakutō while in the academy before and here they were faced with two at once.

"Good job, all of you", Tetsuo said as he looked at the group in front of him, "Kaito-kun, you're looking a bit beaten up".

"Yes sir, I faced an enemy officer of considerable strength, I believe he was of the same level as a fukutaichō. It took considerable effort to make him retreat".

"Alright mister", Asuka interrupted Kaito as she grabbed his clothes, "you're injured and you're going to stop playing hero until I've healed those wounds on you. And I don't want to hear anything about you being ok, because you're not".

"I'd as she says kid", Naoki whispered as Kaito was dragged past the eleventh division taichō, "you don't want to get her mad".

"Naoki, I heard that you know".

Emi watched Kaito being dragged off by the fourth division taichō and was about to follow him when suddenly a voice halted her.

"Emi, I'm so glad to see you're ok".

Turning around, Emi saw her father, Shimizu Yuuji, taichō of the ninth division, make his way through the crowd.

"Handa-san", Yuuji said as he turned towards Tetsuo, "in the future, please refrain from sending my only daughter on dangerous missions such as the one today".

"I assure you Shimizu-san, that it was the only possibility at the moment, given the fact that our available forces were preoccupied with holding the perimeter around this building. In addition to that, your daughter and several of her classmates volunteered for the mission. In fact, I believe they would've even gone out to destroy that cannon without me ordering them to".

"Even so, please make sure that my daughter is safe in the future".

"I'll try, but that depends on her commanding officer when she's assigned to one of the divisions".

"True, now, Emi", Yuuji said sternly as he turned to face his daughter, "who of these people is the one named Fujiwara Kaito?"

"He was taken away for treatment by Kago Taichō father, he sustained some injuries during his battle with an enemy officer".

Yuuji sighed, if he'd been taken away by Asuka, the chance of getting to speak him before she was done with him was practically zero, unless you wanted to end up on the operating table with a cracked skull. She was notorious for her temper if she was interrupted during treatment of her patients.

"Very well then, I shall take my leave now. Emi, you shall remain here and finish your training. After you graduate, I shall be expecting both you and Fujiwara-kun at my mansion. I'll need to talk to both of you".

Bowing, Emi acknowledged her father's request as he turned and walked away to resume his duties as a taichō. He would read about their mission in the report that he would undoubtedly receive.

"I'm off to bed", Sakamoto suddenly said as he turned around and left to find a place to sleep. Not an easy task with the dorms in rubble and with all of the students crammed into the main building. With him, Akimoto, Saruwatari and the taichō also went their separate ways. Eventually, Miharu and Midorikawa left in search of a place to rest, with Emi being the only one to remain on her place.

"You still here?", she suddenly heard a voice behind her talk softly.

She turned around, only to stare straight into Kaito's eyes, his chest had been carefully wrapped in bandages, but nevertheless, he was standing before her, perfectly all right. Slowly she moved her hands over the bandages, careful not to hurt him.

"How does it feel Kaito?"

"Still hurts a bit, but I'll live", he replied calmly as he too wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, drawing her closer to him.

"Sorry I made you worry Emi", he whispered in her ear as he pulled her even deeper into the hug.

"Don't worry about it, you're all right, that's all that matters to me Kaito", she said as she snuggled into his chest, allowing the warmth of his body to comfort her.

They remained like that for several minutes, until Emi finally pulled away, her eyes almost shining in the moonlight. Without a word, she took his hand and pulled him along with her on her search for a secluded place to sleep.

"You've failed me Kawazoe", the man spoke to his subordinate, "it was due to your inability to stop those puny students that the cannon was destroyed, resulting in the failure of the mission and the loss of almost our entire strike force. For this failure, you will pay dearly. You are hereby, by my personal order, banished from the brotherhood, effective immediately".

This verdict caused Jun to look up at his commanding officer, his eyes alight with fury. Forcing himself to calm down, he stood up, his hand already itching. He decided to let it do what it wanted.

"For your information sir, do you know what the main cause of death for officers on the battlefield is?", Jun asked as he slowly drew his zanpakutō, causing the man in front of him to stumble backwards, fear in his eyes.

The blade flashed, blood splattered on the walls as it slashed through the body of the former commanding officer.

"It's assassination by their subordinates", Jun answered to the man that was now slowly dying in front of him, his throat slit, preventing him from even uttering anything more than a faint gurgle.

The man died as Jun cleaned off his sword and walked out of the room, the order of his banishment never having reached the ears of any other member of the brotherhood. He knew he didn't have to fear any repercussions for killing the old fool. Assassinations were common practise in the order and were usually left unsolved unless the solution presented itself on a silver platter. His strength and fame in the brotherhood would take care of any suspicion in the brotherhood in case any would arise at all.

Kaito was awoken by several rays of light that fell through cracks in the ceiling, most of them a result of the previous battle. Emi had led him on a search through the entire building for a place to sleep until they'd finally found a way into the attic. Having made sure they weren't followed, they snuck in and carefully sealed the door. What had happened afterwards was mostly a blur. Kaito blushed involuntarily as he recalled the few fragments of the previous night that he could remember. A slight shifting of a weight on his arm drew his attention. The blush turned a shade darker as he saw Emi using it as a pillow, the small ray of light clearly disturbing her slumber. He let his eyes take in the entire scene, Emi sleeping on his arm, both of them naked, a thin blanket they'd found the night before being the only thing that shielded them from the morning cold. He removed his bandages as he'd been instructed by Kago Taichō. His eyes widened slightly in amazement when he saw the marks on his chest. The wounds had healed, a slight discoloration being the only thing that remained of the vicious gashes across his chest.

"Well, she's the fourth division's taichō for something", Emi suddenly said, her eyes still closed.

"I admit, she does one heck of a job", Kaito admitted, trying to remain calm, even though Emi had startled him a bit. It was incredibly difficult to remain calm with her slowly crawling closer to him again, especially when they were both naked.

Slowly, Emi started caressing his chest as she looked into his eyes. He felt his restraint cave in completely as she kissed him.

"Kaito, Emi, are you up yet?", a cheery voice outside the door suddenly yelled.

Startled, the couple scrambled into their clothes and they'd just finished dressing when Miharu burst into the room in her usual manner, which consisted of almost jumping all over the place while yelling and laughing happily, followed by a much less enthusiastic Midorikawa.

"Let's hurry, the headmaster of the academy is going to give a speech in the central courtyard, it's almost going to begin. I wanted to come wake you a bit earlier, but Ryouji here stopped me, I still don't know why", Miharu said, almost mixing up her words in the process because she tried to speak too fast.

"I used a bakudō spell", Midorikawa answered when he noticed both Kaito's and Emi's questioning look.

"Yeah, you meanie", Miharu yelled as she tried to kick him in the shins, only to be treated to another lower level bakudō spell.

While Miharu was temporarily distracted by the glowing rope around her, Kaito quickly mouthed a thank you to the kidō master, receiving a small nod in response.

"Hey Ryouji, what did you do with this rope thingy, I can't get it off", Miharu yelled as she pulled at the rope, still not managing to break free from its grasp.

"I'll release you when you've calmed down a bit Miharu, until then it'll restrict your movements", Midorikawa said in response, ignoring the irritated look on his friend's face.

"Could you help me out Kaito-kun?", he asked as he pointed at the struggeling Miharu, "we still need to get her to the assembly as well".

Kaito grinned in response as he grabbed Miharu by the scruff of her neck and swung her over his shoulder like some ragged old bag.

"It seems the last of the students have finally arrived headmaster", Nakajima said as he watched the group of students walk into the courtyard. He sighed a bit as he witnessed Tanaka Miharu's position, though he had to admit it was a bit of a comical sight with her being swung over Kaito's shoulder like that, and at least she finally remained in one place for more than half a second.

"So it seems", the headmaster said as he amusedly watched the group make their way to the rest of their class, seemingly oblivious to the strange looks they were receiving from the rest of the students.

Everyone's attention was soon drawn forward though, when the headmaster of the academy made his way to the front of the small platform that had been placed near the teacher's quarters. Everyone quieted down immediately when he raised his hand, Miharu being the only one to make any noise at all as she tried to bite through the rope and kick Midorikawa in the shins at the same time.

"We've all suffered a great loss", the headmaster began, the sound of his voice resonating against the walls of the courtyard, "we've all lost people dear to us, friends, sometimes even family. But we were victorious, together with the help of the people behind me".

The headmaster pointed to the taichō and their men standing behind him.

"We currently don't know who was responsible for the attack, but rest assured that we will find them and destroy them utterly. The Onmitsukidō is currently investigating the attack and the moment they come up with the identities of those responsible, we will strike with full force. This attack was a direct declaration of war against us and we will respond in kind. With this in mind, I would like all of you to dedicate yourselves fully to your training so that we may be prepared for the next battle, and this is especially important for the students of our last year whose final exam is coming up. We will need all of you to graduate and join the ranks of the Gotei 13 as support as soon as possible, we cannot afford to spare even one person amongst our forces in the times to come. Please, do your utmost best, so we can defeat any enemy that comes in our path".

The assembled crowd of students burst out into a deafening roar when the headmaster finished his speech. A satisfied smile played over his face as he watched the students in front of him. He had changed their sadness and anger into courage and strength of will, they'd be prepared now. Meanwhile, several of the taichō and their subordinates looked out over the crowd in search of students of the last year that would be valuable additions to their squads. Most of their gazes eventually remained locked on the students that had been responsible for taking out the cannon, with most of the gazes coming to a rest over Kaito and Emi, the only two students in the academy capable of releasing their zanpakutō, and with it, incredible power.

"I see you're interested in Kaito-kun as well Naoki-san", Shinji grinned at his fellow taichō when he saw the smile play across Naoki's face.

"I don't care about him being in the eleventh, my wife would probably snatch him to her division anyway. I just want to fight him".

"Don't you always".

"It's too bad that they get to request their own transfers, and with Shimizu-san around, he'll probably have something in store for those two, knowing that they're in a relationship".

"That's true, and it won't be easy for them to overcome that challenge", Shinji agreed. It would be hell to overcome Shimizu Yuuji's challenges, knowing the standards he kept. His fukutaichō was someone that had been reported to being close to achieving bankai, he'd already been able to materialise his zanpakutō's spirit at will. The rest of his squad was also highly skilled. He requested nothing less than the very best of both his squad and himself, resulting in one of the most powerful squads in the Gotei 13. In terms of combat effectiveness, even Naoki's eleventh division was only just ahead of the ninth, the only reason for that being their brute strength and love for fighting.