Chapter 14: The One Fell Swoop Plan! Momo's Surefire Secret Tactic!

The zanpakuto, its unique shape and abilities are defined by its Soul Reaper. A Soul Reaper is able to harness the power of the zanpakuto by learning its name and forming a synergistic unit. The Zanpakuto is born with its Soul Reaper and dies with its Soul Reaper. That is the existence of the zanpakuto.

Muramasa continue to limp through the forests until he stopped near a group of gillians. "It's just what I thought…gillians." One of the gillians spotted the zanpakuto and let out a loud cry, causing the other hollows to turn their attention to Muramasa. The same Gillian charged up a red ball of spirit energy and fired a cero.

Back in the Soul Society, Ichigo and Luffy had already left the scene, leaving Rangiku and Momo to face their zanpakuto.

Haineko sighed and said, "This really sucks. You made me lose my boy toys." Rangiku looked at Haineko in confusion. "You're so lame really."

"What are you trying to say?" Rangiku questioned.

"Wow, this is really boring. You're still just an annoying old lady."

"And you've become a catty blabbering monster. I can't believe that I've never saw this in you."

Haineko glared at her former master. "What did you mean, old lady?"

"You sure seem to be enjoying your new found freedom."

"Yeah, I am. I am finally free and it's totally amazing. When I'm with an old woman like you, I begin to feel old myself. And that's certainly no way to live." A tick mark appeared on Rangiku's head, annoyed at what Haineko just said.

"Is that really you, Tobiume?" Momo asked, looking at her zanpakuto. "I really missed you."

"Not me." Tobiume said, closing her eyes. "I was glad to get away from you."

"What?! When we were united, you were always there for me when I needed you the most. We always trusted each other, didn't we?" Momo readied her sword. "Tobiume, I'm taking you back with me."

"I refused." Tobiume said calmly.

"Why won't you?" Momo said confused.

"I'm stronger on my own. I cannot continue to stay with as weak as you are."

A sword appeared in Haineko's hand as she swung it at Rangiku, who blocked it with your own. The two started to clash swords with Haineko jumping back in the end.

"If you don't want to come back voluntary, I hope that you're prepared to be defeated."Rangiku said.

"There's no way that you can beat me old lady." Haineko said. "You see, I'm young and beautiful and you're washed up." Rangiku charged towards her zanpakuto and the two crossed swords again.

"Well, aren't you going to attack?" Tobiume taunted. Momo didn't move or respond to Tobiume comment. "You believe that I'll come back to you by just standing there staring me with pathetic look on your face. How can you always think that everything is going to work itself out without you doing anything about it?" Momo's facial expression started to changed from emotionless to irritated by the zanpakuto's cold words. "You can't harm a fly. People walk all over you and you don't say a single thing." Then a picture of Aizen popped into Momo's head. "You'll be waiting forever if you believe that guy will come back and beg for your forgiveness. He doesn't want to be around you either because you're weak." That struck a nerve.

Momo flash-stepped closer to the zanpakuto and swung her sword at her. Tobiume, surprised by the sudden action, quickly dodged and jumped behind her former master. Momo turned toward her zanpakuto with a now determined expression on her face.

Haineko leaped in the air and lowered her sword down on Rangiku. Rangiku quickly blocked the attack and crossed blades with Haineko as the zanpakuto was getting the upper hand. Haineko jabbed her sword at the lieutenant, who quickly moved out of the way but a little bit her hair was cut. Rangiku ran her hand through her hair and noticed some of it was cut. "Give up now or you're going to be bald." Haineko threatened.

"Oh please make not of my perfectly shaped head." Rangiku countered. "I'm going to look fabulous ever without my hair."

"I think that you should just give and run away. Or does the size of your ass prevent that?"

"It's hard to believe what comes out of your mouth. It should be wired shut."

The blade on Haineko's sword turned to ash as she sends towards Rangiku, who moved out of the way. Haineko smirked as she used the hilt to make the ash follow her former master. "You won't be able to run away much longer!"

"Bakudo #37: Fuiboshi!" Momo shouted. Then Tobiume bounced off a substance made by Momo's kido and was send flying into Haineko, making the ash chasing Rangiku disappear. Momo ran towards Rangiku, checking to see if she's ok.

"Watch you're going." Tobiume whined, rubbing her head.

"Stay out of my way!" Haineko shouted.

"Why don't you get out of my face?! Don't you somewhere else you could be?!"

"You bumped into me if you recall!"

"If you weren't so flabby, you could've jumped away!"

The two lieutenants watch their zanpakuto argue with a sweat drop. "Something's wrong with those two." Rangiku said.

"Yeah." Momo said, helping Rangiku up. "They don't seem to get along."

"You got a problem?!" The two zanpakuto shouted at the lieutenants.

"Do we really have to take them back?" Rangiku said with a sweat drop.

Ichigo and Luffy continued to run down the dirt road in the forest, looking for Byakuya. 'Where are you, Byakuya?" Ichigo thought. 'Why have you hidden your spiritual pressure?' Then Ichigo stopped running, causing Luffy to stop in his tracks as well.

"Hey Ichigo, what's up?" Luffy asked confused.

'That's odd. It's feels like some sort of presence. Where is it?' Ichigo closed his eyes, trying to track down the new presence. 'I can't even tell how close it is. What is it?' Then Ichigo felt a very familiar pressure and started running towards the source with Luffy not too far behind him. Ichigo jumped to the highest point so he could get better view of the area.

"Something's not right here." He said, looking around. "I know this presence." Then ice particles appear around Ichigo as spikes of ice were formed pointed towards Ichigo. Ichigo jumped out of the way before the spikes could pierce him. More spikes were sent towards Ichigo and easily destroyed them his zanpakuto.

"Ichigo!" Luffy shouted, trying to run to his friend's aid. Before he could, dragons made appeared and charged towards. "Gum-Gum Gatling!" Luffy fired a barrage of punches towards the dragons, easily destroying them. Ichigo looked down and saw a man standing in the middle of the rocky terrain.

"There you are." Ichigo said, before landing on top of the rock closest to him. "Identify yourself!"

The man looked up and said, "Are you Ichigo Kurosaki?"

"That's right, I am. But how do you know that?"

"You seem to reasonably skilled."

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Muramasa warned me to keep far away from you."

"Now, that's interesting. Why would he do that?"

"That's what I'm determined to find out. And there's only one way to do that." A sword appeared in the man's hand as four ice dragons appeared and surrounded Ichigo. They circled around the substitute soul reaper and closed in on him. The man lowered his sword and started to walk away.

"Bankai!" Ichigo shouted as the ice shattered, revealing him unharmed and his zanpakuto in its bankai state.

"Did you say 'bankai'?" The man said shocked.

"That's right. Now who are you?"

"Tell me, is your sword a zanpakuto?"

"Yes it is."

"So, a zanpakuto…" The man whispered to himself before looking back at Ichigo. "What is its name?"

"Why do you want to know that?! What's with all the questions?"

"Apparently, you're not my master after all." The man replied.

"I thought that was obvious." Ichigo said.

"Well if you're not my master, then I have no business with you. Good bye." The man started to walk away.

"Wait!" Luffy shouted, causing the man to stop. "You're looking for your master but you don't know who it is?"

"No, I do not who my master is." The man said. "And I do not know my name."

"What?!" Ichigo said, confused.

"Sennen Hyoro!" Ice pillars appeared around Ichigo and Luffy and circled around them. "I bet you two farwell."

"Hey!" Luffy shouted, trying to break free from the ice prison but couldn't. "Get back here!"

"Hyorinmaru!" A new voice shouted, getting the man's attention. "It's Hyorinmaru!" The man looked up and saw the captain of Squad 10, Toshiro. Toshiro jumped down from his spot and landed next the zanpakuto. "Your name is Hyorinmaru and I am your master. You are my zanpakuto."

Muramasa was breathing heavily as he stood back up to his feet. He started to walk away as the gillians slowly dissolved to nothing. A hollow appeared from behind Muramasa and tried to attack him. Muramasa materialized his sword and cut the hollow in half, instantly killing it.

"That's not good enough." He said to himself as he coughed up some blood. He looked behind his shoulder and saw an adjecha standing behind him. "So you're the one."

Momo jumped from tree to tree with Tobiume chasing after her. "Come back here!" The zanpakuto shouted. "You're always turning your back on reality! Admit to what happened!"

Momo stopped jumping and turned toward her zanpakuto. "What are you getting at?" she asked.

"You have been betrayed by the person you trusted the most." Tobiume said. "I couldn't anything at the time but I was right there, watching it as it happened. It's frustrating."

"I see." Momo said, looking down.

"I can't stand seeing this. If you keep this up, you'll end up destroying yourself even with me trying to help you."

"You're quite harsh. Tell me, tell me what to do."

"You need me to help you. I want to put you to sleep forever, you poor little thing."

"Put me to sleep?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot that you were for some time now." Tobiume fired more fireballs towards at Momo. Momo jumped out of the way but the force of the explosion sent her falling to the ground below. "Does it hurt?" Momo looked up, glaring at her zanpakuto. "What you're feeling now is the pain of reality. It's nothing like the naïve world that you leave in. Reality is harsh and painful. I'll help to change your mind."

Haineko and Rangiku continued to collide swords with each other with neither one giving in an inch. "Who knew that an old lady like you can still move?" Haineko teased. "I'm impressed."

"What did you just call me?!" Rangiku shouted. Then an explosion erupted from where Momo is, getting Rangiku's attention. Haineko took advantage of the distraction and back-fist the lieutenant down to a lower branch of the tree. "Ow, what are you doing?!"

"I'm trying to get through to you." Haineko said. "I bet that you still think that you're good looking, right?"

"What?!"

"Women are just like milk. They all have an expiration date. So face it, you're way past your expiration date."

"You brat!" Rangiku said angrily. "I've had enough of you!" She grabbed Haineko's leg, pulling her down but the zanpakuto wiggled herself free.

"Like you could make me stop." Then Haineko felt Rangiku tightly gripping her head. "Would you just stop?!" She swiped her claws at Rangiku, forcing her to let go and tearing her kimono. Haineko smirked at her former master fixed her uniform. "I thought that it would help you look sexier. But since your shelve time has already past, you're pretty much done in term of appealing to anyone. Maybe you shouldn't be yourself, old lady."

"You are so dead!" Rangiku said, extremely pissed off.

Momo was breathing heavily as she slowly got back to her feet as Tobiume appeared in front of her. "There's one more thing that I want to tell you." Tobiume said. "All of those so-called friends of yours that you trust, that's all just a big joke." Momo widen her eyes when her zanpakuto said. "To be honest, none of them are really your friends at all. They're just pretending to be your friends because it's a part of their jobs. For instance, there's Rangiku Matsumoto. It's obvious that she cares about herself. She couldn't care less about what you're struggling with. Is she any attention to you now?"

Haineko was on the ground as Rangiku was tugging on her mouth and pulling her hair. The zanpakuto was pulled on Rangiku while to get her off.

"Why are you getting so crazy?!" Haineko shouted. "If you weren't such as old lady, you wouldn't care! It's really sad and pathetic to see acting like this!" Haineko finally get the lieutenant off of her and send some more of her ash towards Rangiku. "You're done, you old witch!"

Rangiku wasn't fazed by the ashes, instead she put hands close together and chanted, "The one who reigns, mask of flesh and blood, universal soar. The one crowned with man's name."

Momo stuck both of her hands towards Tobiume and chanted, "Disintegrate, black dog of Rondanin…"

"What do you think you're doing?" Tobiume questioned as Momo continued the incantation.

"Weave through, burn away, and claw out your throat. Bakudo #9: Horin." Momo fired a stream of bright orange made from her kido and Tobiume easily moved away from it.

"Your aim is awful." She taunted. "Have you heard anything I said?"

"Shakkaho!" Rangiku fired a red ball made from her kido but Haineko stepped out of the way like it was nothing.

"What are you aiming at?" Haineko smirked. "Old la…" Her cocky expression disappeared when she saw a smirk on Rangiku's face. The zanpakuto looked her shoulder and saw a stream orange wrapping around her and pulling her from her spot.

Tobiume looked her shoulder and saw the red ball that Rangiku fired coming towards her. She moved out of the way but the force of the explosion caused her to fall.

"Bakudo #9: Horin!" Momo made another stream of orange flames and wrapped it around Tobiume. Then Momo took the two streams that has the two zanpakutos and forced them together, connecting them.

"Hey stop pushing against me, will you?!" Haineko shouted at Tobiume.

"You really that I'm the one in control here?!" Tobiume shouted back. The two long streams disappeared leaving the one short stream that was wrapped around the both of them. The two zanpakuto fell and landed hard on the ground below.

Momo and Rangiku high-fived each other on a job well done. "We sure showed them!" Rangiku shouted happily.

"I hoped that they paid attention!" Momo added.

"What are you saying, old lady?" Haineko asked, glaring at Rangiku.

"You mean that you planned this from the beginning?" Tobiume said, putting the pieces together.

"And it worked too." Rangiku said. "Do you really think that I'll ever take anything that a spoiled that you said seriously."

"We knew that in order to go up against our zanpakuto power, we need to find a way to catch you both off guard." Momo explained.

"We knew if we split you two up and got you paying attention to us individually, beating you will be easy. You two deserve each other."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Haineko said irritated.

"You two might try to get along better." Momo said.

"Get along her?!" Tobiume shouted. Momo and Rangiku looked at each other and laughed, to the dismay of their zanpakuto.

To be continued…

Next Chapter: The Fateful Reunion! Hyorinmaru, the Ice Dragon!