This War's Not Over: Chapter 21
The Silent War
Hello everyone!
This week everything's gone wrong for me! A leakage went all over my computer, and I broke my leg! XD But I'm still updating, just for you guys! :D (on another computer of course. The font might be a little weird) The reviews were great!
Last chapter's Japanese names were all based around google translate so sorry if some names like "White Lightening" appear differently as Byakurai and as Jun's zanpakuto!XD
Hope you enjoy this chappy!
No one could believe their ears.
Rukia and Renji were frozen to the spot, while Ichigo stood with his jaw agape. Uryu and Chad were the first to recover from their shock, as they started firing furiously their attacks at Jun. The messenger easily flashstepped away to evade the teens' attacks, appearing behind Ichigo. The orange-haired teen turned around to face him Jun, his white espada uniform billowing in the wind.
"It seems that you have reverted to your espada form again, Ichigo-sama," Jun said in disapproval. "I wished that you would have let us dispose of your inner hollow while we were at the palace. But don't worry—we'll get rid of it...eventually."
Ichigo didn't speak a word, his yellow eyes narrowing with silent anger. It was Rukia who spoke from behind him instead. "That's...impossible! Soul Society would never have been defeated!"
Renji and Rukia's despair hit him like a wave. He wished that he had never had his hogyoku powers in the first place. It was bad enough dealing with his own emotions. How could he deal with everyone else's?
"He could be lying, Rukia," Renji said quietly.
"Call me a liar all you want," Jun said challengingly. "But I can assure you that what I say is the truth. It was reported that Soul Society was causing a stir among our stationed subordinates...The Gotei 13 seemed to be alarmed by the sudden disappearance of their substitute soul reaper and their two lieutenants, one who is from a noble house. So the Royal Guard went to...appease their worries."
Sympathy for Rukia and Renji and anger towards Jun glinted in Ichigo's eyes. Soul Society was what the two soul reapers called home. How could the Royal Guard have come and killed the people who worked under them?
"I'm bet there are survivors Rukia," Ichigo vouched.
Rukia didn't say anything, holding her zanpakuto with both of her hands. By the time Ichigo sensed her despair change into fury, it was already too late. She flashstepped in front of Jun, ready to hack his head off.
Her anger had consumed her. Ichigo had never seen her like this. Jun could easily cut through her anger-blinded attack. His sword ripped her body from head to toe, her blood lacing in the air.
"Rukia!" Ichigo screamed as he sonidoed to catch her.
The petite soul reaper in his arms, he nimbly sprang away from her attacker, his yellow eyes reduced to furious slits. Renji was immediately engaged in a full on battle with Jun, receiving several long gashes after a couple attempts to reach his injured friend.
Ichigo shook Rukia, his usually emotionless yellow eyes wide with worry.
"Rukia! How stupid are you...Charging in blindly? That's not like you," Ichigo whispered, confusion crossing his gaze.
Blood trickled down her mouth as she tried to speak. Ichigo helplessly pressed his hand on her wound, but it was useless because it was already caked in blood.
"Nii-sama, Ichigo... What if they killed Nii-sama?" Rukia's voice was filled with anguish.
Ichigo tried not to flinch at the intensity of it. He really hated his hogyoku powers now.
"I'm sure he made it out somehow," was all Ichigo could say.
Rukia gave Ichigo a weak smile, before her head fell backwards into unconsciousness. Ichigo tensed as he saw Miko making her way towards him, along with Chad and Uryu who were covering her. It took all three of them to pry Rukia out of Ichigo's grasp, before Miko attempted to heal her with her healing kido.
Anger pounded in Ichigo's ears.
His yellow eyes were narrowed as he coldly watched Renji's hopeless battle against Jun—he wasn't about ready to forgive Jun for everything he'd done. With an amazing display of sonido, Ichigo was already by Jun's side in a matter of seconds, slicing down the messenger the same way he had cut through Rukia.
With a screech of pain, Jun plummeted down while everyone stared at Ichigo in disbelief.
"Looks like Mr. 0 Espada is back," Grimmjow grinned. "Grind, Panthera!"
The 6th espada's resurreccion completed, Grimmjow charged after Jun's severely damaged form. He had amazingly recovered from Ichigo's blow, but the teen wasn't surprised. Jun belonged to the Royal Guard. Their task was far beyond easy.
Ichigo watched silently as Grimmjow easily dodged Jun's electricity beam that had injured Ichigo earlier.
It was only a matter of time before Grimmjow decided to use his Gran Ray Cero on him, which Jun cancelled out with five of his electrical beams. But Ichigo was unsatisfied with simply dealing Jun one blow. It was strange—Ichigo had never felt the lust for more battle—apart from when he was in his own ressurreccion, fused with Shiro. Something was clearly wrong.
Ichigo pushed his worries aside, instead sonidoing to Grimmjow's side. Renji had made his way to Miko, because he was in desperate need of healing. It was the two espadas who had taken over the fight now.
"Grimmjow," Ichigo said in his frosty voice. "This fight...is all mine."
Grimmjow glanced at Ichigo in surprise, before studying Rukia's injured form below them. He looked as if he wanted to argue, but his eyes flashed with understanding.
"Whatever," he said, before grinning. "I'll prevent any of your reiatsu from getting to her."
Ichigo's heart warmed for a moment. Slowly, Grimmjow had become one of his closest friends. It made him regret talking to him so coldly before. Pushing away Shiro's influencing anger, Ichigo grinned back. "I'm counting on you."
Grimmjow had just disappeared from his side when another electrical beam shot out of the smoking debris towards Ichigo. Ichigo simply put his head to one side to avoid it, his gaze returning to a wintery glare.
The smoke cleared, and it revealed Jun panting, the blood barely visible on his red uniform. Ichigo's body came forwards, mercilessly crashing tensa zangetsu against Jun's own zanpakuto. The teen found that his previous anger towards the messenger had far from disappeared. It was only growing as he parried blow after blow, wanting to beat Jun to a blood pulp for everything he had done to him and his friends.
Anger.
It powered his blows, and to Ichigo, it was exhilarating. He found himself actually enjoying this. It felt good, but that in itself was alarming. What's happening to me?
"Looks like us merging together is no longer restricted to just our ressurreccion," his inner hollow's voice sounded in Ichigo's head.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ichigo asked, alarmed.
He could see his hollow put on a sardonic grin. "It means that it's just as easy for me to take over as it is for you."
And when Ichigo's anger hit an absolute high, Ichigo blacked out.
When Shiro took over Ichigo's body, he was glad that for once he had control over their espada abilities. Black ink spread over his scleras, his golden eyes glinting with bloodlust. He was going to enjoy these few minutes of freedom. It wouldn't be long before Ichigo's anger appeased and pushed him back out of control.
It was strange that they were still merging even though they were only at their basic form. It was an alarming matter, but something that could be attended to later in the hollow's eyes. Ichigo's friends had clearly noticed the change in Ichigo's reiatsu, and were waiting tensely as Shiro's gaze shifted from King's friends to Jun.
His lips pulled back into in sadistic smile as he finally laid his eyes on a potentially worthy opponent. He sprang at Jun with blinding speed, letting out a scream of glee. It had been too long since he done this—surely King wouldn't mind if he stretched his legs a bit?
Jun had clearly realized that Ichigo's hollow had taken over, since his eyes were wide in terror as Shiro easily cut through his defences. Shiro's blade sliced through Jun's zanpakuto like a knife through butter, before embedding itself into the messenger's flesh. Jun let out an agonized scream as Shiro ran him through, before tearing his zanpakuto back out again.
Jun fell to his knees, and Shiro knew he was finished. It had all been so easy—barely enough to satisfy the hollow's lust for battle. Here was his enemy, his life in Shiro's hands. But the hollow wasn't like King. He didn't spare unworthy opponents simply because he pitied them. If someone no longer had the will to fight, it was better just to put them out of their misery rather than to spare their life.
As Shiro coldly raised his blade to deal the finishing blow, hesitation stopped him in his tracks. Ichigo's inner hollow cursed. It was King's own emotions seeping into the hollow's killer instincts. It was just all so annoying. Why did King always get in the way no matter how Shiro proceeded?
Shiro gritted his teeth as he forced his arm to crash down on his enemy. "This is the way it works Kingy."
He could hear King clearly now, begging him to stop. However, just before Shiro's blade came in contact with Jun's body, a voice rose above everything.
"Impale him, Shinso."
Shiro watched in shock as Gin's zanpakuto impaled itself into Jun's heart, blood spattering all over the hollow's face. Shiro and everyone turned towards Gin, all aghast.
"What...What did you do?" Uryu demanded, his eyes narrowed.
Gin smiled his usual fox-like grin, his zanpakuto shrinking to a dagger once more. He tucked it under his arm, glancing back at Uryu. "I was merely testing whether Ichigo-kun would be willing to slay someone in his espada form."
He turned to Shiro. "And I was right."
Shiro smiled scathingly at Gin. "Just in case you haven't noticed, I'm not your 'Ichigo-kun'."
"I'm aware of that," Gin replied.
He pointed down at Jun's body, were Shiro and everyone noticed that a kido spell was slowly fading from Jun's finger tips.
"I was also protecting you and Ichigo-kun from whatever kido he was using. You seemed so distracted for a moment, I thought you might not have noticed," Gin smiled.
Shiro let out a low hiss. He must have been so distracted by King's emotions that it was probably true that he hadn't noticed. The hollow slipped his zanpakuto back into his cloth belt, before closing his eyes. King still hadn't pushed him out yet. Shiro supposed that King was testing him, waiting to see what he would do.
He wanted to revert back to their soul reaper form. He hated sharing emotions with King. It made him soft. But as he concentrated, he realized that his wish was no longer possible.
He let a horrified snarl rip through his throat. "We can't turn back!"
Rukia was given a sip of water from Miko's gourd. It had been a few moments since she had regained consciousness, and her eyes were now darting in between the hollow and Gin. She was too far away to hear what they were saying, but the hollow seemed fairly agitated. It was funny to see the hollow stomp his foot like a child in a hissy-fit. But Rukia immediately reminded herself that this was Ichigo's hollow. If you weren't careful around him, there was no telling what he would do—Rukia had experienced that first hand.
She wanted Ichigo back. It terrified her that the hollow might decide to take his anger out on her friends. Seeing that Miko was preoccupied with Renji, Rukia slipped away. To her surprise, she noticed that Gin was walking back towards Miko. He had obviously seen her, but he didn't say or attempt anything to prevent her from leaving.
Rukia's wound hindered her movements. She stumbled clumsily along until she heard Grimmjow call her back, but she ignored him. Uryu and Chad seemed to have left to scout the area for an exit, seeing that Gin, Grimmjow and Miko would be enough to stop Shiro if he tried anything.
When she finally reached the hollow, she spoke quietly. "Give Ichigo back."
Shiro turned to look at her, surprise glittering in his golden eyes, before a mocking grin plastered itself over his face. "If it isn't Queenie herself."
Rukia wasn't afraid. She crossed her arms to show it. "I said give him back."
She wasn't sure why he had started calling her 'Queenie' all of a sudden, but she pushed it away.
"You shouldn't be up, or King'll be pissed," Shiro grinned.
Rukia remembered that 'King' was the way the hollow designated Ichigo. But it didn't matter. If the hollow refused to give Ichigo back, then she would do it by force. Her hand moved to draw out her zanpakuto, but she found Shiro's hand wrapped around her throat, throwing her to the ground.
He grinned in her ear, Rukia's eyes wide as she felt Shiro's breath on her neck.
"I missed you," he said in a teasing voice.
Rukia struggled underneath his grip, but he wouldn't budge. Grimmjow was already sonidoing towards them, but to Rukia's surprise, Shiro removed his grip from around her neck. Rukia opened her eyes, relieved to see the black ink fading away from Ichigo's eyes.
Ichigo blinked awake, horror crossing his gaze. "Rukia! I'm so sorry."
The pair sat up, Rukia coughing as she rubbed her neck.
"Did he...hurt you?" Ichigo asked, his eyes full of guilt.
It was obvious that Ichigo had regained dominance over his body. Or...had the hollow let him?
Rukia swatted him away. "Don't worry. I'm fine. I'm just glad you're back."
"Ichigo!" Grimmjow was at their side. "Thought you were gonna kill her there."
Ichigo shot the 6th espada an angry glare, before turning it away sharply. "No, but I'm gonna kill him."
"Oh, come on. Aren't I allowed to have a little fun every once and awhile?" the hollow protested, but Ichigo knew he was grinning.
"I think I'm just going to ignore you for awhile. Teach you a fucking lesson," Ichigo hissed.
They were both mad due to the fact that they could no longer revert back to their soul reaper form. That was bad enough. But then Shiro had decided to scare the living crap out of a wounded Rukia, which added to the pile of reasons for Ichigo to be pissed off with his hollow.
They were on the move after recovering from their injuries. The Royal Dimension was now crawling with guards, since they had severely underestimated Jun and failed to kill him without making any noise. Ichigo was also mad at both Shiro and Gin, because Shiro had tried to kill a wounded man, while Gin had actually killed him. But he remained quiet, and he was glad that so did the others.
Once they arrived at the huge gate, Gin took the guards out in quick succession with his extending blade before he signalled for the group to follow. Ichigo was relieved that the Royal Guard security was so lax. Otherwise he was sure he and his friends would have been killed by now.
They crossed to the other side of the Royal Dimension gate, joy flooding through Ichigo as the familiar Hueco Mundo air filled his lungs. But all of his friends' faces were grim—and he instantly remembered that a war had been waged during their absence on Soul Society.
Whatever they found, it wouldn't be pretty.
"Ichigooooo!"
A green flash slammed into the orange-haired teen. Ichigo tumbled to the ground, stunned. His face immediately reddened as he found himself suffocating in someone's breasts, her hug breaking every bone in his body.
"N-Nel? Are you alright?" Ichigo gasped.
He had been told that Nel had been left behind to distract the guards. He couldn't imagine how wounded she would be. Nel pulled herself back to give Ichigo a good look over, and Ichigo did the same. His throat clenched as he noticed a fresh, long jagged wound on her face, and one of her eyes were closed to prevent the blood from seeping in. Her body was crisscrossed with scratches and bruises and it made Ichigo want to scream at his team for leaving her behind.
"Oh, Nel... Nel, I'm so sorry..." Ichigo whispered as he realized how feeble her reiatsu was.
Ichigo hated himself. He really was turning into Aizen if his subordinates were dying for him like this. Nel smiled to him kindly. "Don't worry about it Ichigo. I took care of all of them. And I can take care of myself too."
He helped her up, putting her arm around the back of his neck to support her. He guided her towards the group, who came rushing towards them. Grimmjow's eyes were lit with alarm, immediately offering to carry her. Ichigo felt the guilt radiate from him in waves, and the teen resented it.
Without a word, Ichigo instinctively flicked his wrist and opened his first Garganta. He didn't show his surprise as he walked without hesitation through it. He let Rukia take the lead, since she had a much better reiatsu control than he did to create a stable path for the injured Nel to walk on.
"We need to find Inoue," was all Ichigo said.
Everyone nodded in assent, and soon enough, they found themselves standing above Karakura Town. Uryu seemed to be searching for Orihime's reiatsu, but then he turned to Ichigo, his eyes wide. "She's not here—neither is your family—and Urahara-san and his crew. They're all gone."
Ichigo let an angry snarl out before he glanced at Renji. "Let's search Soul Society."
Renji nodded, and used his zanpakuto to open a Senkaimon. When they entered the Dangai, Ichigo was the first to notice. "The Royal Guard got rid of the Kotetsu train thingy."
Everyone stiffened with unease, but they kept going forwards. The absence of the Kotetsu was to their advantage anyway. There was no way they could make it with an injured Nel in tow if they had to run for their lives.
When they reached the light, Ichigo forced his eyes to turn emotionless. He had to stay strong for Rukia and Renji.
They were standing above the remains of Seireitei.
All the buildings were charred. The walls surrounding the Seireitei had been demolished. Sokyoku Hill had been reduced to rubble. The 1rst Division Barracks had been flattened into the ground.
He glanced at Rukia, who had her arms clutching her sides, her head bent down as she shook in an effort to stop herself from crying. It was the first Ichigo ever saw her do that. Renji had his hands balled up into fists, rage glittering in his eyes. Ichigo wanted to say something that would comfort them, but there was nothing.
Uryu swallowed. "I...I don't sense any reiatsu."
Ichigo's stomach knotted as it dawned on him. What had happened to his family? He didn't need his hogyoku powers to know how Rukia and Renji were feeling right now. What if the Royal Guard had taken his family away and...killed them?
The horror made Ichigo want to make sure—he didn't believe that every last one of the soul reapers had been killed. Maybe it was just a bluff—something to put down the team's morale. Jun had never said anything about winning the battle. Simply that they had destroyed Seireitei. Ichigo truly wanted to believe that.
Think.
Where would he have hidden when he was once severely wounded, fighting against Soul Society? When it hit him, Ichigo felt so stupid for not realizing before.
"The sewers!" he blurted out.
Rukia and Renji's heads rose. "What?"
"The sewers! The Royal Guard don't know about the sewers. It conceals reiatsu...they could all be hiding down in there!" Ichigo grinned triumphantly.
The two soul reapers' eyes flickered with hope.
"You might be right Kurosaki," Uryu said, pushing up his glasses.
With a signal, Ichigo led his team down to floor, where one of the hidden tiles he remembered was placed. Thank you Hanataro, he thought.
With a heave, he lifted the tile and waited for everyone to jump in. Miko came last, but she stopped just before jumping in. "Reaper boy."
Ichigo raised a brow. "What's wrong?"
Miko began to whisper, her eyes filled with pain. "I...don't want to suffer a slow painful because of the bloodlock poison. When the time comes when I can't even walk..."
Ichigo cocked his head. "What?"
"I want you to kill me."
There! I really wanted to build up on Miko's character. Hope that did the trick! ^^
Hope you enjoyed and again and always, please review! :D