A/N: I'd like to apologize if the end of this chapter is a little too gruesome for some of you, I happened to be watching Deathproof while I finished writing which probably had something to do with the graphic fight scene. Other than that, next chapter we'll see some characters who are canonically deceased but were killed off screen. Plus they didn't really get the screen time I thought they deserved. Well, as always I appreciate reviews.

Chapter 11

Kotetsu Manor

Impossible wasn't a word Kinji Kotetsu used very often. After what he'd been through he'd become skeptical of skepticism. He'd embraced a view of the world much larger than most people. What did the bard say? "More thing in Heaven and Earth" etc. But impossible was the only word that sprang to mind when he tried to think of a way to beat Kitsunebi. She had transformed herself into some kind of lupine half-form with nine massive tails coated in white fur. That fur was as hard as steel and could gather together in murderously sharp points. He could barely defend himself let alone go on the attack. And any time he moved out of the considerable reach of the lashing tails the beast would blast him with blue fire. His robe had been burned away above his waist and the ends of his hair were charred and blackened. The smell of it warred with the incense-like scent the flames produced on their own.

He used the battle scarred zanpakuto in his hand to parry another of the needle covered tails and he could tell the blade was close to snapping. He couldn't keep using it to parry or he would be left without any means of defense. He'd tried using his shikai ability to drop the beast into darkness and give him a little breathing room. But her fire could light up the room despite his ability. He didn't really have enough time for a kido incantation so his options there were limited. Unless the kido was exceptionally powerful it wouldn't eve affect the being trying to kill him.

"How the hell am I supposed to beat you?" Kinji yelled in frustration. He received a snarl and renewed attack in answer. One tail caught his left arm and shredded the skin. The pain was more than just intense, it was constant. Those tails were a nightmare weapon that shaved away flesh or steel with equal disdain. He flash stepped behind a pillar and used kido to bind the injury. He wouldn't be able to focus when exposed muscle was causing him constant pain. The bandage cinched tight and he grunted in pain. Then the stone pillar he was hiding behind exploded under the onslaught of those metal covered tails. Several bright lines of blood showed on Kinji's exposed back.

"Screw it! Hado 59: Reito Kyuryu!" A spiraling torrent of water and ice discharged from Kinji's injured hand and collided with Kitsunebi. Four of the tails swept aside the kido with a hiss of steam. Kinji knew a hado of that level wouldn't hurt something as powerful as Kitsunebi, but it did block her vision for a few precious seconds. The 8 foot tall were-fox experienced a brief moment of confusion before being crushed flat into the ground. Kinji's good arm hit the back of the creature's neck with stone-shattering force. He'd jumped straight up to the cavern ceiling then kicked off toward the floor with increased speed. It was a good move, but the blow wasn't enough to finish the fight. Three tails slammed into him from various angles and knocked him through a cracked stone pillar more than 50 feet away. Several hundred pounds of broken column buried him. "Anyone get the number of that freight train?" He croaked out in irritated sarcasm. He pushed himself clear of the rock pile, keeping one eye on his opponent. He blinked a few times to clear his eyes of dust. His slightly concussed brain told him his vision was impaired because the nine-tailed abomination in front of him only had seven tails. The slight shimmer in the air tipped Kinji off as to what had happened but he didn't move quick enough. That was the power that made the match-up so unfair. Kinji was fast and skilled enough to avoid an opponent using multiple weapons, but if those weapons could become the next best thing to invisible he wouldn't stand much of a chance. The tails weren't entirely invisible, more like transparent. But even with the slight distortion they caused when looking through them, he couldn't tell where they were until they were within a couple feet.

The tails weren't covered in spikes when they wrapped around his waist and neck but Kinji was only mildly thankful for that. Decapitation was a faster way to go than strangulation. He redrew his zanpakuto only to have a third tail wrap itself around his wrist and twist. His grip went slack and the sword hit the stone with a dull clatter. A pulsing pressure built in behind his eyes as the powerful appendage squeezed tighter around his throat. He had a few seconds left before he would pass out. Maybe 30 seconds before the lack of air killed him. The tails brought him close to the creature's main body and he could feel the thing's breath hitting his face. It planned to take a bite out of him! The vertical slits in the creature's eyes made it look absolutely feral. If his zanpakuto was in there somewhere, she sure as hell wasn't running this show. He used the last bit of air in his lungs to choke out a spell. "Bakudo 75: Gochutekkan." Without the incantation the spell only had about half its usual power but the five iron pillars still crashed down onto his opponent with a good deal of force. The tails flung him aside when the beast's head hit the stone floor. He heard his left shoulder separate but for the moment he couldn't feel it. The binding spell was already shaking unsteadily when he managed to drag himself to his feet. "Walls of iron sand, a priestly pagoda, glowing iron-clad fireflies-" he recited the incantation to strengthen his binding and the new weight cracked the stone under the strange creature.

It was a solid spell meant to immobilize all four limbs as well as the body as a whole. Breaking free took an enormous amount of power. But those damnable tails were scraping and gouging pieces out of his spell even as he tried to reinforce it. He had bought himself maybe 20 seconds to get his head back on straight. A feral scream rattled the smaller bits of debris in the cave and deafened the sitting soul reaper. The creature screamed louder and louder until the iron pillars themselves began to crack and fall. More like 10 seconds, Kinji corrected himself. But it was enough for him to get his mind and body back in some semblance of working order. He was down an arm and he had retrieved his sword, damaged though it was. His legs worked fine and binding spells were at least somewhat effective.

"What the hell Kitsunebi? After all the lecturing about keeping my calm you turn into this? Hypocrisy doesn't suit you." He wasn't sure if the strangulation had been what cleared his head or if it was the shock, but he felt detached from the situation. He could see exactly how to end things and what it would cost. If he had been holding onto the fear and anger from before he never would have seen it. He should have understood the answer immediately. He had to admit, in a contest of pure strength he had no chance at all. A clear head allowed success where brute force wouldn't. But that didn't mean brute force didn't have its place.

He watched the nine tails sway menacingly in front of him, waiting for him to get closer. The bestial visage sneered at him from behind those deadly limbs. Kitsunebi, or what she had become, had barely exerted herself and had maybe one bruise to show from the entire fight. This is it,Kinji told himself, one last chance. He readied his zanpakuto and started muttering the chant to a kido he barely remembered. Kitsunebi's combat ability rested on two important factors. First was the ability to see her target. Even with nine opportunities to attack, without sight to guide her Kitsunebi's chances to kill him were low. But the second was far more important. The tails had to come from behind her back to strike at him, meaning that there was a small safe area inside her range of attack approximately two feet in front of her. If he could reach that spot with enough strength for one solid strike he would walk away with his bankai, and more importantly, his life. "Bakudo 21: Sekienton!" He forced more power into the spell than it was designed to use. A billowing red smoke filled the immediate area and left both combatants blind. Kinji had seen enough of how this creature fought to predict its next move. He ducked low to avoid the attacks that would have torn off his arms and head. Then he charged forward, not using flash step because he wasn't sure if another forward attack was coming or not. If he moved too fast then a tail would get in his way and bisect him. His feet touched only lightly on the stone because of the speed he was moving at. His almost psychotic calm had begun to fracture under the onslaught of his fast-beating heart. But he only had to hold it together for a few more seconds. Then it would all be over, one way or another.

The red smoke had sent the beastly zanpakuto into a frenzy of wild attacks. The first three were an instinctive attack on where Kinji had been standing. After they missed the beast assumed he must have dodged to the sides. When the subsequent attacks hit nothing it covered them in blue flame and sent it out like a shockwave. The blue fire cleared away the smoke but it wasn't potent ennough to harm the man who had come within 8 feet of the were-fox. In an enraged panic the tails all came whipping back toward the main body. They moved exceptionally fast but Kinji was already in motion and the tails had to bend in an awkward angle to try meeting his rush. Kinji's sword thrust was aimed at the thing's lupine head and carried enough force to slice straight through its skull.

In that brief moment of seeming triumph Kinji let himself believe he would win the exchange without taking any more damage. Later he would scold himself for forgetting the lesson that stood at the core of his being. If you wanted change to happen, real change, someone had to bleed. And more often than not Kinji was the one who did the bleeding.

One of the tails had proven swifter than the others and had buried itself in Kinji's back and emerging from his stomach. But for what he had gained he counted the gaping hole in his torso as a minimal cost. The chipped and cracked blade of his zanpakuto had sunken deep into the right eyesocket of the fox-spirit. Once again the creature was engulfed in blue fire but it didn't just vanish in a puff of smoke. The creature's body blackened and turned to ash which wrapped itself around Kinji's bloodstained torso. He would have screamed in shock of he had the breath in his lungs. In mere seconds the would-be Captain was engulfed in burning ash. He felt a sudden rush of relief as the pains of his injuries disappeared and a strange warmth gathered against his lower back. When the ash finally fell away from his eyes he saw Kitsunebi, as he had come to know her, standing a few feet in front of him with a proud smile on her face. "I knew you could do it, Master."

Kinji examined himself and was surprised to find the most serious of his wounds had been repaired. He rolled his arm experimentally and found it sore, but ultimately useable. His hand brushed something soft just behind his back and he turned around. His surprise was evident on his face when he saw the white-furred tails of the creature he had killed attached to his back. He thought about moving them and they danced to his thoughts. He thought about the way the fur had stiffened into spikes with an iron hardness and they obeyed. "This is my bankai?"

"Yes. This is the most rudimentary form of my fully released state, Myobu Kitsunebi. It is a unique bankai that merges your zanpakuto with your very flesh."

"There's only four tails." Kinji commented. He realized that the offensive and defensive capabilities of this form was dependent on the number of tails and was surprised that he had less than half of the number of tails that the creature had possessed.

"As I said, this is the most rudimentary form. As you grow in strength and wisdom so too will this form grow. Now, let me show you how it works."

Haru Kotetsu was a veteran. She had seen centuries of battle and survived with hardly a scar to show for it. After her retirement she had know deeper sorrows than pains of battle. She knew the sorrow of a widow, the grief of a mother who believed her child dead, and the hollowness accompanying deaths of old friends. She had come through it all like a piece of fine steel, beaten into a deadly sharpness by the pressures and heat of a harsh life. That strength of character was reflected in the durability of her zanpakuto. It showed a few gouges and many scratches but absolutely refused to break.

The disgraced Shihouin marveled at her weapon's ability to defend her from his attacks. It was a credit to her spirit and level of skill that she had stood against him for so long already. His bankai, Onikoroshi Avalokitesvara, had struck at her hundreds of times. Her blood stained several patches of ground on the now bare earth outside Kotetsu manor. The sixteen weapons grasped in the arms of his bankai also dripped with Haru's blood, but only three of them. The metal arms, sprouting from his sides like those of a buddha statue, could all attack at the same time. So how had she come away with so few injurues? The noblewoman's wind manipulation and superior battle experience had allowed her to repel most of his strikes before they even came near her.

"I have to admit, you are very skilled, Oni of the Wind. But time is running short. I'll have to end my enjoyment now so we can retrieve what we came here for." He advanced with a smile. "If it's any consolation, you would have killed me if the Master hadn't given me this bankai."

"Not done yet." she panted in a deliberate parody of his earlier statement. She pulled herself upright and lifted the heavy club with aching arms. Her body had nearly reached its limits, which made her kick herself for not maintaining herself better in the past two centuries. In the old days she could have fought continuously for hours. Now, after less than 30 minutes of active battle she was worn out. "I have a few more tricks up my..." she looked to her shredded shihakusho which now lacked sleeves, "well I still have some tricks." Haru held the blunt weapon horizontally and pulled in the last dregs of her power. A light red aura gathered around the weapon and began to rotate. It picked up speed and began pulling air in around it. Haru's flash step put her on her opponent's left and the club came crashing in with bone crushing force. Eight arms blocked with their weapons but couldn't hold against the hurricane force winds spiraling around the kanabo. The spiral force twisted the arms at odd angles and jammed the joints so the Shihouin took the strike on his side which was covered by a silvery plating where the arms were attached. The strike made a sound similar top a gong and threw the man back into the ranks of his troops.

Haru dropped to her knees from exhaustion. She'd pushed herself too hard too fast. "Well, I guess I'll try the other tricks...some other time." Her vision went black for a moment but she pushed past it and stayed conscious. The Shihouin tossed several of his troupe out of the way once he was back to his feet and came at Haru with a snarl. "Yukine. You can help now." Haru said dully. The thrust of several weapons was halted by what appeared to be a massive shield. Spears and knives held in mechanical looking hands were halted by, as absurd as it might seem, an 8 foot high metal fan. Crouched on top of that fan was Yukine, Haru's servant and personal bodyguard. She'd been chosen for that position because even as a child she boasted high levels of spiritual energy. And in the past 250 years her power had done nothing but grow. She wasn't as strong as someone like Haru who had held the rank of Lieutentant in a Division that specialized in close combat, but she was more than competent.

"Lady Haru, are you alright?" she asked from on top of her weapon.

"Just feeling my age." Haru said in between gasps for air.

"Kill them! Kill them all!" the leader of the strike team screamed to his subordinates. His one on one match was over as far as he was concerned. The woman had called in back-up and lost by default. He didn't have to kill her himself anymore. He had the victory he wanted. The invasion force released their zanpakuto with dozens of shouts. The Kotetsu line crowded more tightly around Haru and Yukine as the latter's weapon shrank back to a normal size. The Shihouin immediately went on the attack but was blocked by the blue-garbed guards. Yukine pulled a compliant Haru further back into the compound and behind her guards.

"I didn't expect him to have a bankai." Haru admitted. "If I knew, I would have killed him before he had a chance to use it." she said bitterly.

"As soon as the medics replenish your strength you'll have another chance." Yukine consoled her. She covered Haru's head and neck protectively with her fan-like zanpakuto when the wall exploded inward and showered everyone with rock and wood splinters.

"I'll only need one shot." Haru promised. "Just one." Yukine called for the medics as soon as they were in the main hall. Two men in white Division 4 coats immediately started replenishing her reiatsu and bandaging her wounds. Yukine hovered for a while until Haru ordered her to go help the guard. Then she reconsidered and changed her orders. "Go find Jiro! See if you can get him safely away from here. If you can't then take him down to the Forest. The three of you will be safe there long enough for the Gotei 13 to retake the compound." Yukine hesitated for a moment but bowed her head in obedience.

"Yes, Lady Kotetsu." then she was charging through the halls of the massive house toward Jiro's private quarters.

Division 4 hospital

"Captain Abarai, I told you the symptoms will pass in another day or two." Retsu Unohana said placatingly. Renji had come to see her every morning for the last month, almost immediately after breakfast. The Captain had been experiencing a strange variety of symptoms every day for the past month. First it was a swollen tongue, then gastrointestinal distress, then a chronic sneeze, then narcolepsy. It was almost as if someone had been drugging him and changing poisons on a daily basis. After a month of these strange illnesses Renji's temper had been growing steadily worse.

"Captian Unohana, I can't take it anymore! It feels like my skin is on fire day and night. I haven't slept in two days." The gracious looking Captain of Division 4 nodded in sympathy. Renji's skin had turned nearly as red as his hair from some kind of unique allergic reaction. The irritation was somehow limited to only his skin and she didn't know of any substance that would cause such a reaction. Without knowing that she was helpless to treat the root cause. But she did know a simple and effective way to treat the symptom.

"Isane, could you prepare a set of chilled bedding for Captian Abarai? I'm placing him on temporary medical leave for the next 8 hours." The silver haired medic nodded and took Renji to one of the empty private rooms in the barracks.

"You have no idea how badly I need sleep right now." Renji whined.

"I only sleep about three hours every night. I know how you feel." Isane said politely.

"Is that because of work?" he asked.

"Not really." she said, surprised Renji has asked her something personal.

"Then why?" he pressed. It was simply beyond him why someone would get so little sleep if they didn't have to.

"Have you ever heard the saying "sleep well, grow well"?" Renji shook his head. Then, through the haze of constant discomfort he realized what she was talking about. She was depriving herself of sleep so she wouldn't get any taller.

"Is this about your height?"

"N-no." she said unconvincingly. Renji was suddenly flashing back to all the Lieutenant meetings where Isane had complained about the troubled she experienced because of her unusual stature on a fairly regular basis. Anytime anyone said anything about her height it would send her into a devolving spiral of self-doubt and indecision.

"You know I'm taller than you." he said with some irritation.

"Yeah, but you're a guy. Most girls like a tall guy but guys don't like tall girls." she said gloomily.

"Are you kidding? If this is about guys not beating down your door then just walk around in that swimsuit you wore when we went to the beach." Isane blushed a deep red at the suggestion. She remembered that swimsuit because it was sometimes featured in her nightmares. By the end of that trip to the beach she was sure her face would be permanently red from the embarrassment.

"W-why would I do something like that?" Isane said defensively.

"Hey, just sayin'. Even if a guy didn't like tall women, the sight of you in that swimsuit would make any guy overlook something like height." Isane wanted to bury her face in her hands. But when duty called there simply wasn't room for personal discomfort. She straightened herself and took a calming breath. "We should go to the beach again. Without the demon watermelons this time."

"Nanao and I are just lucky Rangiku forgot her camera." Isane agreed, recalling the watermelons putting her in a …...compromising situation. She shook the thought away and brought Renji to his room. Isane drew her zanpakuto and released it. "Run, Itegumo." Two additional shorter blades appeared just above the tsuba. She dragged the sword lightly along the futon, creating a layer of hoarfrost as the material was cooled to below freezing temperatures. Then she repeated the process with a heavy blanket and motioned for Renji to lay down. He was about to do so when an alert siren sounded. Both officers snapped their heads toward the sound. "What's going on?" Isane demanded of one of her subordinates as a handful ran by the open doorway.

"No idea. Captain Unohana just told us to get the surgical rooms preped for incoming wounded." the Division member said before hurrying off.

Kotetsu Manor

Haru was proving why her nickname was Oni. She had killed a dozen enemies on her way to the Shihouin with the strange bankai. Her zanpakuto was howling in glee at the intensity of the battle after being left to gather dust for so long. Small tornadoes devastated the battlefield with every swing of the iron club. But for all her effort she was only one small part of the chaos and havoc that had demolished half of the Kotetsu compound. Wind, fire, water, and metal projectiles had scoured the ground clean of vegetation, wiped the outer walls out of existence, and collapsed the main hall of the manor. Broken wood and pieces of shattered stone were scattered thousands of feet around the building. The entire guard force of the Kotetsu Manor had either been killed or fled from the battlefield. Now it was just Haru, a handful of attendants, and several members of the branch families, specifically Kyoraku and Kira, against more than 50 officer-class assailants. Predictably, only Haru was still resisting the anonymous army when the small team sent by Yamamoto arrived.

Byakuya Kuchiki and two dozen members of Division 6 brought down a dozen of the enemy soldiers in the first few moments. Their leader had assured them that the Gotei 13 would not interfere so when soul reapers descended upon them they were completely unprepared. The Shihouin took one look at Byakuya's haori and screamed "Into the manor. Into the catacombs!"

A real Captain was too much for him and he knew it. But he didn't have to beat the Captain, he didn't even have to fight him. His men had uncovered the entrance to the Stone Forest and his objective was there. He just had to kill the man training there and bring the corpse back to his masters. He returned his bankai to its sealed state and ran to the entrance at speed, thirty men in tow.

"Lady Kotetsu." Byakuya said, extending a hand to the exhausted noblewoman.

"In the mansion...my son...the guests-" she panted.

"I understand." he replied before vanishing with a whisper of sound. Byakuya's flash step brought him through the gaping hole in the side of the building and he began searching the building. Upon finding guests he sent them out to where his Division members were guarding Haru. But when he went to find Jiro, he only found the dead body of a woman, an attendant according to her attire. Yukine, a fighter with the capacity to serve as a 3rd seat in the Gotei 13, had been bifurcated just above her stomach. Byakuya had seen bodies cleaved in two before, he had in fact been the cause of such wounds on certiain occasions. But this was something outside his experience. There was a six inch wide section of her abdomen simply missing. It hadn't been shredded or burned away, it was simply absent. The area missing corresponded to the line of a standard sword cut. The zanpakuto in the woman's hand had been cut in two as well, probably trying to block the attack that killed her.

The Captain hadn't encountered an ability like this one before, but the mystery wouldn't deter him from his most immediate goals. He left the body where it was and swept the mansion for other nobles. He checked every room and closet but came up empty. There was no one else in the building. He flash stepped back to Haru. "There is no one left in the manor. Did you have your sons sent away during the attack?" Haru's sweat slicked face held a measure of relief. She believed that Yukine had escaped with Jiro.

"I sent my attendant to take Jiro to safety. I guess she managed to make it out in time." Byakuya paused for a moment, not certain if he should mention the corpse he had found. After all, he and his men hadn't come here as a rescue mission at all. Yamamoto had sent them for an entirely different purpose. But he didn't think it right to withhold important information from Haru either.

"Your attendant is a woman bearing a zanpakuto?" Byakuya asked. Haru nodded with an exhausted wariness. "She's dead. And there is no sign of Jiro Kotetsu." his blunt declaration of the tragedy earned him a blank stare. Haru had heard every word with perfect clarity but it was as if Byakuya had spoken in a foreign language. The sounds he made were familiar to her but she simply couldn't accept the meaning those words conveyed. "Where is Kinji Kotetsu?" the nobleman asked callously. Haru pointed at the opening in the ground that lead into the Stone Forest automatically. Byakuya took half of his troops and headed down into the darkness, leaving Haru to overcome her shock and accept the reality of her son's disappearance and probable kidnapping.

The Stone Forest

Now dressed in a set of spare robes, Kinji prepared to exit the cavern that had served as his training ground for the past month. Kitsunebi had cut his hair shorter to remove the blackened patches giving him a head of somewhat messy silver hair about 3 inches long. He walked toward the entrance with calm, satisfied steps. He had achieved his goals and was ending his self-imposed exile. He didn't think anything could wreck the good mood he was in. But that pattering sound of dozens of sandals hitting stone gave him pause. With the way sound echoed in the cavern he knew the people coming toward him were a long way off yet. He couldn't think of any reason there would be a large group coming into the Stone Forest, other than war breaking out. He discounted that possibility because there was no reason for anyone to go to war with the Kotetsu. Be careful of the unexpected Kitsunebi cautioned him.

He moved into one of the smaller side passages and drew his sword. "Spark, Kitsunebi." there was a dull flicker of blue fire over the steel of his blade and he flicked the blue flame toward the larger cavern. The semi-transparent flame coalesced into a small ball and moved into the center of the room adding a more little illumination to the area as it floated toward the ceiling. Kinji waited for the group with shallow breaths for nearly two minutes before the masked men came running into Kinji's training room. They were lead by a tall man with golden eyes, a man with considerable power but who was unknown to Kinji.

"Where is that silver-haired bastard?" the leader demanded of the man to his right.

"He should be here, sir. Our informant was very specific about the directions to this place."

"Then maybe you could tell me where the hell-" the man stopped and looked up. He saw the ball of fire hovering halfway between the ceiling and floor and smiled. Using a fire kido to light a room required the caster to be nearby. His pause caused his men to look up at the ball as well. "Spread out and search. He'll be close. If you have a chance to kill him, do it."

Even though the ball of fire had given away his position, Kinji didn't consider it a tactical mistake. Seeing the light from the blue fire was the condition to activate Kitsunebi's powers of illusion. Unlike the more powerful illusionary zanpakuto which could manipulate multiple senses and even cause damage to the body by tricking the mind, Kinji only had dominion over the sense of sight. And even then he could only manipulate how light or dark an area was. Even further limiting the utility of this illusion was the fact that he himself was subject to the illusions he created. If he wished for an enemy to be plunged into darkness then the area around the target would be completely black, even looking in from the outside. But still, if one knew how to use this skill right it constituted a powerful advantage.

But before Kinji could do anything, Byakuya Kuchiki appeared at the entrance to the cavern backed by at least 10 soldiers.

"Dammit!" The golden-eyed man cursed. He pulled something white from inside his jacket. "Get them!" he screamed at his men. He immediately started chanting the incantation that would jump him out of that cavern and back to safety. Though, considering he'd be going back as a failure, safety probably wasn't the proper word. Two dozen men with power to rival an officer of the Gotei 13 only bought him 5 seconds. Just enough time for Byakuya Kuchiki to release his zanpakuto.

"Scatter, Senbonzakura." The steel blade seemed to simply fall apart into shinning pink flower petals and drift lazily toward the crowd of masked men. Blood from a thousand cuts splattered everything between the two groups as the men who charged were slashed at from every angle. The ten who had charged Byakuya's group looked like someone had thrown them into a giant garbage disposal. Thin but deep cuts covered them from head to toe and they collapsed into a pool of their own blood. The rest of the invading army retreated to what they thought was a safe distance. The next swing of the Captain's sword arm proved their precautions useless. Even the Shihouin caught one of the deadly sakura petals across the face just before his spell activated. The pink blade cut him from his upper lip to his right eyebrow and his scream nearly interrupted the spell, but a fraction of a second later white cloth spiraled around him and the remains of his soldiers.

After the immediate threat vanished, Kinji stepped out of the side passage and waved to Byakuya. "Captain Kuchiki, good to see you. Any idea what the h-" Captain Kuchiki flash stepped to where Kinji stood and had his sword at Kinji's throat.

"Kinji Kotetsu, you are under arrest for high treason and the murder of 15 ranking officers of the Gotei 13." There were any number of appropriate responses to such an event. Going along with it sat at the top of the pile. Blankly asking why was a close second. Any route of action that involved compliance would have been fine. But Kinji didn't take any of those routes. No, being confronted by Byakuya, threatened at sword point, and placed under arrest for something he couldn't possibly have done hit just about every button he had.

"You can all go f-"And all hell broke loose.