Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :(
Setting: After Winter War
Chapter Fourteen: The Barrier
Note:
Italics is thinking
Bold italics is Ichigo's hollow
The Forest Clearing
Renji POV
After a quick soak in the lake the three boys went back to the clearing, Shiro had already retreated back into Ichigo, apparently bored because the fighting had ceased. According to Nanami, Ami and Kaori were coming back for some food which meant that Hisa might come out too giving Renji a chance to attack her again, even without his sword he hoped to get past them all to return back to Urahara's shop.
Renji sat in between Ichigo and Nanami in silence and let their conversation wash over him as he though of ways to break the barrier that Kaori had erected,
"I could try ta knock the girl out, the barrier would probably break if I did…or maybe blast a hole in it, but I dun't think tha would work" Renji reflected as he thought about his distinct lack of kido abilities.
A rustling brought him back into the conversation as Nanami raised his voice joyfully, he turned to find Ami coming through the trees looking quite put out. She flopped down onto the grass and sighed
"Stupid Shinigami didn't say anything about their plan" she grumbled and Renji internally smirked.
"Why didn't they?" Nanami asked
"Probably because the planning stage is over, they were getting ready for something…I think it's a direct attack because they were talking about 'moving out'"
"Do they know where we are? The barrier shouldn't give any indication of us being here" Nanami questioned.
Ami motioned behind her "Kaori's checking the barrier now" she told them.
The four sat in silence until Kaori returned with some bags
"Do I even want to know when you had the time to go shopping?" Kaori groaned, Kaori settled herself gracefully between Ami and Nanami and took out 6 bento boxes
"I thought it would be good to eat something other than fish tonight, the barrier's fine by the way. No cracks anywhere" Kaori said happily as she handed out the food. Renji accepted his grudgingly and began to eat, it had nearly been a day since that liquid had been injected into him, which meant that he only had a day left to get away before he fell under the spell. Renji quickly formulated a plan that probably had no chance of working, but it was worth a shot.
"Can I go fer a walk? Or do I nee' a babysitter?" Renji sneered at them, Nanami looked at him
"Feel free, just remember there's a barrier" he said, brushing his black hair out of his eyes as he turned away and started talking to Ami.
Renji walked into the forest and towards the opposite side of the barrier, as far away as possible from the others. If he could lower the barrier fractionally or crack it temporarily the Captains should be able to sense his and Ichigo's reiatsu before the girl got it back up. From what the two girls had said, the Captains plan had changed, originally they were going to draw Ichigo and the others to them an create an ambush, but by the sound of it they were planning to attack which meant they would need to know where it was. Renji reached the barrier and looked at it, he could see his reflection and to his disgust he saw that his hair was turning darker. He would soon be like the other slaves Hisa had managed to acquire.
"Righ' lets do this and hope I don' die in the process" Renji muttered and stepped back a few feet before holding his palm out to the barrier.
"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Shakkahō"
A ball of red energy shot out of his hand and hit the barrier, he burnt his hand in the process but he didn't kill himself so he shot another Shakkahō and then a third.
"Okay I think that may have made a crack" Renji grunted as he shot a fourth and fifth at the barrier, it rippled dangerously and seemed to have gone more see-through than the surrounding area. "I hope the Captains can see this" he muttered as he shot another and started increasing his reiatsu in hopes of being sensed through the weak part of the barrier.
Urahara's shop
Outside POV
Kuchiki Byakuya stood up from the plan he and Hitsugaya Toshiro had been poring over.
"What's the matter?" the Tenth Division Captain asked.
"Abarai's reiatsu, I can sense it. It's coming from the forest outside Karakura" he answered. Hitsugaya closed his eyes briefly
"I can sense it too, its very feint" Hitsugaya agreed. Footsteps could be heard and Rukia bound in after knocking hastily
"Brother, I can sense Renji's reiatsu" she said excitedly, "He's telling us where their base is"
"Yes Rukia he is, but we must stick to the plan" Byakuya told her and she nodded, looking downcast.
Urahara appeared in the room and looked at them
"At least we know where they are now, I wonder if Abarai-kun will get injured by Hisa for doing that"
"Would she do that?" Rukia asked, panicked.
"She will have changed since I last knew her, but I believe that Ichigo will protect him as much as he can from her wrath" Urahara said from behind his ever-present fan.
"Isn't Kurosaki completely under her control?" Byakuya asked.
"He is, but Renji isn't the strongest person here is he? Yet she took him to their side. Why do you think that is?." The room was silent after Urahara asked until Toshiro looked up at him
"So they wouldn't have to fight" he answered,
"Partly" Urahara agreed "But if that was true why would she take Ichigo at all, because he would have to fight all of his friends. I think it is because they make a good team. They make up for each others weakness's, Ichigo's small Bankai and Renji's large one work in harmony together and they cover each others back's in battle… but they do have a weakness…"
"Kido" Rukia said
"Exactly" Urahara said, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
The Forest
Ichigo's POV
Ichigo jumped up when he felt the first blast, he had felt it in his chest as pain filtered through their link.
"That idiot" Nanami wheezed, clutching his chest in a mirror image of Kaori. "He knows it won't break so why is he attacking the barrier?"
"He can weaken it enough to give away our position" Kaori gasped.
"Can you hold on until I stop him?" Ichigo asked, picking up his sword, the other three nodded and he sped off.
Using shunpo Ichigo quickly made it to Renji's side.
"What are you doing?" he demanded
"Wha' it look like?" Renji asked through gritted teeth as he pushed his reiatsu as high as he could while something tried to push it down. He shot another Shakkahō at the barrier and Ichigo swung his sword around and bashed him on the side of the head as hard as he dared. Renji dropped like a stone and his reiatsu dissipated around him in a swirl of red.
Ichigo threw Renji over one shoulder and held his sword in his hand as he used shunpo to get back to the clearing. He place Renji a little away from the fire and went back to the others.
"You guys alright?"
"Yeah fine"
"Been better"
"Once I hit the red-head I will be"
Ichigo sighed.
"He still needs some time" he told Ami as he hunkered down into a crouch next to them. At that moment Hisa appeared from her barrier-covered cabin.
"My my, what on earth happened?" she asked sweetly
"Ren tried to destroy the barrier so the Shinigami could find him" Kaori chirped, quite content now that the pain had gone.
"Ami, I want you to check in with the Shinigami and see if they found out. It would do us no good if they found our base" Hisa said and Ami stood
"On it" she said and vanished into the trees.
"Kaori dear I think we'll need to strengthen the barrier, if you don't have enough reiatsu I'm sure Ichi will let you borrow some of his" she said, looking at Ichigo from confirmation. He nodded and went back to watch Renji.
"Ichi, Nanami. I think you'll need to keep a closer eye on him. If this had been yesterday I would have punished him, but he is so close to joining us that maybe he got scared. I'll let it slide as long as you boys tell him that there's nothing to fear from us" Hisa told them
"Of course my Lady" Nanami said, bowing theatrically. She smiled and petted them both on the head before going back to her cabin.
"Ichi sweetheart, I think Renji will need his new uniform soon" Hisa added.
"Of course Hisa-sama" Ichigo agreed and looked down at his own silver robes, silver contrasted nicely with Hisa-sama's robes and their hair.
Ichigo stared at Renji's unconscious face for a minute, musing internally.
"You're his friend Ichi, why is he trying to get away from you?" Nanami asked.
"He isn't, he wants us to be saved. If he'd had the chance to leave I don't think he would have because he wants me to leave too" Ichigo explained. "Plus I don't think he likes the idea of being controlled, as he puts it"
"I didn't like the idea at first either" Nanami admitted "But I don't mind now. It feels good to help her achieve her goals."
"I agree all those lost souls in the Valley of Screams could be saved so easily. It could have been done years ago." Ichigo said. "And the link is good too; we can share injuries and even reiatsu."
"And ya share a mind" Renji said groggily, sitting up with a struggle "That's why ya aren't yerself Ichigo. 'cos all these guys are changin' how ya think"
"Yeah but in the reverse Ichi's changing how we think too" Nanami countered. "Hang on, I know a minor healing Kido" he said as he held his hand over the bruise on Renji's head. "Did you have to hit him so hard Ichi?" he scolded
"Yeah yeah sorry" Ichigo said, stretching back and watching the healing. "Damn Kaori's using a lot of my reiatsu to strengthen the barrier" he commented.
"Yeah she's using a bit of mine too. But you recover your reiatsu so fast it's the best to use in a situation like this. You should be able to fight at full power in a few hours while the rest of us won't be able to until tomorrow" Nanami said as he finished the healing.
"See Renji, there is something good about being linked together, they others can use my reiatsu if they need to" Ichigo said. "You too when the serum has completely finished its process"
"An' I should be happy about tha' why?" Renji muttered.
"You'll see the light soon Ren" Nanami said as he stood up and stretched his arms. "I'm surprised you haven't at least started seeing our way of thinking"
"I've seen what Ichigo was like!"
"Oh so you're fighting it because you're scared?" Nanami countered "Well Ichigo wasn't, you shouldn't be either"
Renji looked at Ichigo who shrugged, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
"Well we should get some sleep" Nanami said as he settled back down on the grass. "Ami and Kaori are going to keep an eye on the Shinigami until the morning most likely"
"Why aren't you two spying then?" Renji huffed. Nanami grinned at him.
"You need a babysitter"
Renji punched him in the face.
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A/N: Okay I have no good excuse; I have reasons for taking forever to write, but not really good ones on their own. Altogether they make quite a list though. I won't say them though they don't really matter. Sorry for taking ages to update but I hope to be updating quicker now. :) For those of you that haven't given up I hope you enjoyed it.