I don't own Bleach

Tides of Fate Chapter 11

Together, For Now

"The Captain's reiatsu has disappeared," Isane noted worried, "Do you think he's dead?"

Shunre closed his eyes for a moment before reopening them, "I hope not if only for the fact that he's our best healer." Isane nodded before looking back at Heito.

"What do you think has happened to him?" she asked. Shunre kneeled next to him and inspected Heito's pulse.

"When we fought that one General Heito's Zanpakto was destroyed so that might have something to do with it," Shunre said. He let out a huff. "Well, whatever it is as much as I hate to admit it but that's the least of our problems. We can worry about what to do later. Right now we need to get to that barrier so we can figure out how to take it down and fast."

"Agreed," Byakuya replied, "But not all of us are in able condition. Lieutenant Tsubata is incapacitated under unknown means, Captain Soi Fon is currently suffering from a broken arm and leg, you're still suffering from some organ damage, Captain Hirako and Renji are both in fighting condition but not ideal fighting condition, Lieutenant Kotetsu is still pretty racked up from the attack she suffered at the hands of General Cyrun, and I have a few broken ribs. Not to mention I don't seem to be able to talk with my Zanpakto let alone release it. Hell, Yoruichi and Yushiro here are the only ones in any condition to really do that much."

Shunre crossed his arms a bit and closed his eyes in thought before reopening them, "What's wrong with your Zanpakto, Captain?"

Byakuya let out a sigh, "It's not listening to me like it usually does. It hasn't even said a word no matter what I try. She always used to be such a chatterbox. It's weird."

"Excuse me Captain," Isane spoke up, "But I remember that the same General that you all fought used Senbonzakura as well." This caught everyone's attention.

"That's impossible!" Soi Fon refuted, "When me and Captain Kuchiki faced the General his Zanpakto was a lance! It in no way resembled his Zanpakto!"

"Wait, are you sure he used Senbonzakura, Isane?" Yoruichi asked.

The lieutenant of the 4th gave a small smile, "Kinda hard to mix up thousands of Cherry Blossom pettles swarming at you for something else."

Yoruichi's eyes widened, "But that would mean-" She turned to Byakuya with the shocked expression on her face. He gave a small nod and a huff.

"It's Kio," he replied.

Shunre straightened up a bit, "I think I've heard of him from somewhere. Where was it? Oh, yeah it was on the list of Head-Captain candidates."

"There's a list?" Renji asked disbelievingly.

"Yep," Shinji replied, "You're kinda new to the Captain scene but once you stick around long enough you tend to pick up on a few things. The Head-Captain Candidates List is said to be a secret document which only the Head-Captain and select members of Central 46 are privy to. It contains a list of 5 names at any given point for people who show the qualities necessary to take the position of Head-Captain in the case of the Head-Captain dying or retiring. The former being the more likely scenario." He turned to Shu next, "Though I always thought it was kept locked up tight. How'd you get your hands on it?"

Shunre smiled a bit, "Let's just say being Captain of the Kido Corps has its perks and leave it at that. But whatever the reason for me seeing previous renditions of the list the point is that he was also marked as inadequate due to death and all records of him were destroyed. Well, Captain Kuchiki, Shihouin-sama, what's your connection to him?"

The two shared a look before Yoruichi let out a sigh and began talking, "He was once an apprentice of mine when he was in the Academy. At first he struggled for a bit but after he became friends with and started training with Byakuya he grew very powerful very quickly."

"How long did you train him?" Shu asked.

"Not that long," Yoruichi responded, "It was only for a bit before he moved to Squad 1 after which he began to get a bit of an ego afterwards and said he didn't need anyone to help someone like him in all of his superiority. I'd intended to straighten him out but was exiled before that could happen. Once I returned and after Aizen's betrayal I asked Byakuya what happened to him. And he said-"

"Kio died and due to certain events we switched Zanpaktos," Byakuya finished, "Senbonzakura was originally his."

"No way," Yushiro said, "You can use another's Zanpakto!?"

"Partly," Shunre explained, "If there's a strong connection of trust between the two wielders, and I mean REALLY strong here, they can each use the other's Zanpakto but to a lesser extent. While this may open up some interesting strategic possibilities there's two things about this to mainly be wary of minus the afore mentioned lesser extent of use. The first is something I discovered after I found out there had been cases where something similar had happened and that is it was never originally intended for Zanpakto to be able to do this. Any more from that and I'd be giving away Central 46 level secrets. The second thing to note is that if you possess another's Zanpakto for too long your personality becomes more like the original wielder's."

"And that means Byakuya wasn't actually born with a stick up his ass, right?" Renji asked gaining a glare from Byakuya.

"I do not have a "stick-up-my-ass" as you put it, Abarai," he retorted.

"Uh-huh," Renji replied sarcastically, "suuuuuuuuure." He smirked for a bit as Byakuya glared at him. After abit Renji's eyes grew wide, "Where's Rukia!?"

Shunre glanced over in his direction and calmly told him, "Oh yeah I forgot to mention that. She got kidnapped." Everyone's eyes turned to Shunre.

"And just why did you not tell us?" Byakuya asked sternly.

Shu sighed, "Because knowing our luck she'll be or has been saved by some person who will reveal some huge secret of the universe that we were unaware of that will thus lead to most if not all of us getting dragged into some huge apocalyptic conflict the scale of which will make you think we're in a shounen manga or something and we'll get a bunch of mindf**** along the way."

Renji scoffed, "Yeah, sure THAT'S what's going to happen. It's sooooo-"

Maria popped in out of nowhere with Hanatoro draped over her shoulder and interrupted him, "COMEPLETELY CORRECT! Ding ding ding the "most likely to be the protagonist" award goes to Shunre Kaiser!" Rukia popped out from behind her.

"Renji! Ni-sama! I'm ok!" she said waving. Everyone (minus Shu) had the biggest "WTF!? faces" imaginable on their mugs. Shunre let out a sigh and a grin.

"I told you so," he replied.

"Shut it," Renji snapped back at him.

Changing the subject Byakuya turned to Rukia, "Rukia, how are you? What happened?"

Rukia tensed up at this and bit her lip, "Well, I- *sigh* the man who captured me took me to his General. He then preceded to- well- beat me to a bloody pulp. I probably would have died if Maria-san hadn't shown up and gotten me out of there and healed me as well." Byakuya nodded.

"Excuse me," Shinji interrupted, "but am I the ONLY one here concerned about the fact this girl has Captain Yamada draped over her shoulder?"

Maria smiled and placed Hanatoro down, "Don't worry. Me and Rukia witnessed him getting struck down by one of the Generals. After said General and the remaining fighters left we went to Yamada-kun and I healed him. It wasn't anything too serious."

"Maria-san," Rukia said, "Captain Yamada was stabbed numerous times through the chest and limbs and was impaled through his skull. How does that translate to "not serious"?"

Maria smiled, "Because I'm awesome."

"Oh yes, Maria-chan," Shunre said, "how did you find us?" Maria pointed towards Byakuya.

"I could smell his emoness from miles away!" she proudly declared.

"I am not an emo!" Byakuya declared, "And even if I were there is no way you could possibly "smell" it."

"Oh I am caught!" Maria said placing the back of her hand on her fore head and raising her arm melodramatically melodramatically, "I used the sexiness sensors in muh brain to locate all of you! On that note-" She quickly zoomed towards Byakuya placed her hands on his cheeks and smiled in his face, "BARE MY CHILDREN! Oops, wrong one." She zoomed over to Shunre and did the exact same thing but invaded even more of his personal space than she did Byakuya coming just short of outright molestation, "BARE MY BABIEEEEEES!"

"And this is the part where I get a restraining order," Shunre deadpanned.

Renji sweat dropped, "Uh, lady, maybe you should stop." Maria grew outraged at this.

"SHUT UP! YOU'RE NOT SEXY ENOUGH TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" she yelled pointing at Renji. She then pulled Shunre over and into her chest and began stroking his hair with a ridiculous "serious" expression on her face. "It's ok, the red-haired pineapple-human hybrid can't hurt you now my love," she said. Shunre just pulled out a taser and started zapping her. Her hair shot out and she collapsed on the ground smoking. "I always knew…. I was….. hot," she wheezed out before Shunre tasered her a couple more times for good measure. He then casually flung the taser in a random direction killing a random cat.

Shunre let out a sigh of relief, "Well that takes care of that." He wiped his hands. But Maria just got up stretching her arms out in front of her.

"Imma zombie!" she said no signs of damage on her body.

Shunre let out a groan, "What the hell." She smiled.

"Magical healing magic of magicness!" she clapped her hand together and the Shinigami found their wounds healed. "You are welcome!" she proudly declared. Shunre looked up.

"Everyone look out!" he yelled. Noticing something coming down from the sky everyone quickly dodged out of its way as two more forms came down next to it. When the smoke cleared nearly everyone was shocked. Standing there with their Hollow masks on were Kensei, Rose, and Mashiro.

Author's Notes: BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Man, I love writing Maria's lines. Callian31, signing out!