An Unexpected Turnout: Chapter 21
Katsuya waited in silence for him to talk more, but he didn't. This made him irritated because he gave Shu more than he asked for.
"What are you doing this for? This... This whole entire plan of yours? What are you trying to accomplish?"
"I believe you only asked for 'a' question. I'm not obligated to answer those." He heard Katsuya give an annoyed sigh.
"Then I'm not obligated to stay any longer-" Before Katsuya could finish putting the period on his sentence, Shu reached out and grabbed Katsuya.
"You got faster."
"Seems like it, doesn't it?"
Katsuya dodged Shu's hand after he tried to grab him. Shu only grazed his shirt, missing Katsuya's body completely.
At this time, Katsuya was facing the only exit to the lab. Shu was behind him. He turned around to watch Katsuya closely. He knew he'd try to make a run for it, so he had to be faster this time.
Katsuya tilted his head back to where he could see Shu. He then smiled and put his hand up to wave. "Later." He said. With this, Katsuya tapped his foot on the floor and he started to be lowered into the ground. Shu tried to grab him before he fully went under but wasn't fast enough.
"Damn it."
"I think I have a pretty good idea on what you're trying to do and what you did, but I don't know what your trying to target. I'll hang onto my theories a bit longer and try to piece things together. See ya, Tie Your Shu's."
Shu figured Katsuya was trying to escape, so he ran over to the wall where the stair case was and pushed a button. The stairs automatically came down and he ran up them.
X
Katsuya walked out of the secret door into his room. His room wasn't that small. He didn't have that many objects in here either. Only the basic things: a bed, dresser, desk, TV; things found in a normal room. Katsuya's room was pretty clean. Nothing was scattered around, no clothes on the floor, everything was well organized. The only thing that stuck out in the room was that the dresser drawer was open.
He walked over to his dresser and moved the clothes in such a way to make them look untouched. "I have to assume Shu is going to come in here and search my room. I can't leave any trace of me touching anything. If he finds anything to lead him to believe I was in here, he'll figure out what I have, and if he does I won't have the upper hand." Katsuya pushed the drawer back into place and started to leave when he remembered something. He opened his closet and searched for new clothes on the rack. If he was here, there's no point in not changing.
He picked out a black shirt with a dark red stripped design and jeans. He changed his shoes for red and white ones, not trying to really match. Katsuya grabbed a red jacket from the back of the closet, hung his dirty clothes in the back of the closet, and shut the door. Walking over to his bed, he got on his knees and searched for something under it. When he found what he wanted he pulled it out. It was a box that contained a soul reaper uniform that was his size. The box also contained a small charm, which Katsuya pocketed. After pushing the box back under the bed, he went back to the secret door he came out of.
"I have to assume that Shu is looking for me outside, so I'm going to have to exit far from here. This will be interesting." He sighed and tapped his foot, commanding the door to close.
...
"This is taking forever!" Rangiku complained. "Should we just leave? I mean, we know we aren't going to find anything, so why bother?"
Renji and Rangiku brought about half of their squads to search the Seireitei. The two wanted to bring a lot less, but they were given orders to search the whole area, so they couldn't argue. If they brought a lot less, then they would most likely get called out for it.
"I wish we could, but orders are orders." Renji said with a sigh.
"We should go get a drink! No one would know!"
"No. We need to finish up here. How about we spend a couple more minutes on searching and then call everyone back?"
"Fine." Rangiku looked around and stared at a storage building. "Let's look in there."
The two walked toward and in the building. It was semi dark, even with the sun shinning brightly outside. The windows to the building were covered with boards, which explained the darkness.
Rangiku and Renji glanced around to find nothing out of the ordinary. Seeing stairs, they headed up them ever so boredly.
"Is there a point in trying?" Rangiku asked.
"Not really."
They poked their heads in each room to find nothing but dust and boxes. There really wasn't a point in them doing more then they had to. Knowing they'd find nothing made them even less motivated to look.
"You think Ichigo's enjoying his search?" Renji asked Rangiku.
"Probably not. Shuhei's probably dragging him around."
...
"Captain!" A soul reaper called to Ichigo. He was running toward them, waving.
"Hm?" Ichigo responded.
When he caught his breath, he started. "Sir! We found the rogue soul reapers! Lieutenant Kuchiki gave me orders to find you and lead you back to their base."
"Rukia? Shouldn't she have been in that market place or somewhere near there? Did she find you guys?" Ichigo and Shuhei continued down the path, going toward the place where the soul reaper came from.
"Yes sir. She came out of the bushes and told us to go find you."
"Hmph..." Shuhei, Ichigo and the soul reaper started running now. There was little conversation after Ichigo last spoke. They needed to focus on getting to Rukia anyway.
It really bothered Ichigo that there was a base. Buddy wasn't lying. He wished he was. It didn't make any sense though. It was a simple theory. Why was there a base? Yachiru said Kenpachi had wiped out the last of them recently. It is possible that one could form again, but if this was a guess, then how could it be so accurate? Rukia was probably thinking the same.
When the three arrived, they saw Rukia put a finger over her lips. She knew Ichigo was going to shout her name, so she went ahead and stopped him before he could even start. She motioned the three over and pointed in the direction of the base. It stood out a lot. The area around it was open and spacious. There were no trees or bushes near it. The hut itself was a bright tan color, which didn't help to hide it. The base reflected the sunlight in many directions, which could easily give away their position.
"I wonder if they were really trying to hide." Shuhei whispered as he watched a soul reaper walk into the base.
"Probably not." Rukia answered back.
"So," Ichigo said, "fill me in on what's happening."
"Well, I sent the squad members to do various things. This one," She pointed to the soul reaper next to Shuhei, "was suppose to bring you back here. The other three went out in search of the other groups. So far, we found one other group."
"I see." Ichigo returned his gaze to the hut. He wanted to get this over with. If he had to take down former comrades, he didn't want it to be suspenseful. He really didn't want to do it at all, but it probably is a test of loyalty in some way.
Shuhei and the soul reaper who led him and Ichigo to Rukia walked over to the group that returned and started to talk to them. Seeing as they were out of earshot, Rukia moved to the other side of Ichigo, away from them.
"What do you think?" She asked.
"I don't know. I guess it could be a coincidence, but I'm not buying it." Ichigo said.
"Your right. But what could explain it? I thought Lieutenant Zaraki took out the last one. I'm pretty sure he didn't leave any alive, so there weren't any survivors. Maybe there were more hidden? They could have formed a new base. Then again, they did it in such a short time."
"Since their isn't an explanation out there that we know of, I guess it's just by luck. I don't like the fact that we did find one after it was supposedly destroyed, but that's all we can go on. Plus, we have other things to worry about." Ichigo did have a point. If this was some sort of trick, they'd have to ignore it. They had too many things to think about. Besides, it couldn't be linked to their problems anyway. Right?
When the remaining groups came back, Shuhei told them the plan he made up before they arrived. "Since there are four groups of four, I want three groups to spread out around the hut. Do this quickly and quietly and stay hidden in the bushes and trees. I know you aren't the Stealth Force, but do your best. The last group will go in with me and Rukia. Captain Kurosaki will stay here. If the traitors start coming out and attacking, you all come out, but don't be reckless. Whatever you do, don't wreck the base."
All of them whispered the word 'Sir' and three of the four groups spread out around the area. The last group stayed with Rukia and Shuhei. Ichigo just stood back and watched.
When everyone was in position, Shuhei and his group quickly ran up to the door, or tried to. Right when they stepped out in the open, the rebel soul reapers swarmed out of the hut and took their positions around it. There were a lot of them surprisingly. They all had their hands up, ready to attack.
The three groups jumped out of their hiding places, seeing as this was their order. Ichigo flashed behind Rukia. A soul reaper who was facing Shuhei and Rukia yelled something to his group and their hands started to glow.
"Kido!" Shuhei warned everyone. Different kido attacks started flying in all directions. Everyone dodged, but that didn't do much. Everyone started countering using kido, but most of the rebels blocked or took the attack.
Ichigo ran around deflecting or jumping around, straying away from Rukia and Shuhei. He couldn't use kido, so he couldn't attack. If he fired a Getsuga Tensho, he'd risk the base. All he could do was dodge and hope he wouldn't be over powered.
The traitors were using normal attacks, but they were powerful. They were pushing even Shuhei back somewhat. The force that hit Ichigo's blade also was pretty strong. This probably gave Shuhei a reason to believe that they ambushed Toshiro. If they were pushing everyone back, then they had a right to be acknowledged as attackers. This was going to be tough.
Shuhei made contact with a soul reaper that was just about to fire a kido with his kido. His face stayed emotionless to this hit and kept going. A pattern of bobbing and weaving through a wave of spells and then firing some of his own occasionally. Rukia was working up a sweat too. She was firing her usual kido, Sokatsui. She was rarely throwing in a Soren Sokatsui, but that was only when she had more then two attacks fired at her.
As more traitors went down, more showed up. It was like when one went down, another came to take his or her place. It seemed impossible for that many soul reapers to fit in a small hut, but they could be coming from underground.
Ichigo was still doing his best to dodge. He was hoping that they wouldn't notice him not firing anything, but it was only a matter of time.
Ichigo landed on the ground, looking around cautiously, when he noticed someone from the corner of his left eye. He turned his head quickly to see who it was, but instead got grazed by an attack on his right shoulder. This sent him stumbling backwards to the right. Rukia noticed and yelled his name. He quickly got back on focus when he noticed the same person, but this time in the bushes. He resisted looking, but he did a quick, fatal glance that way. The word fatal hit its mark, because he got hit by another attack, which was more powerful then the last.
Rukia kept dodging as she watched Ichigo. What was he doing? She kept seeing him look to his left. Nothing was there though. The kido was only rustling the bushes as they flew by. Could that be why he was distracted? "Look alive Ichigo!" She said and regretted. Once the words came out, Ichigo lost focus and looked her way. As he did this, Hado 58, Tenran, crashed into him, sending him flying into a nearby tree. This was then followed by Bakudo 4, Hainawa.
This got Shuhei's attention. He did quick glances over to see what happened, but noticed there wasn't a need for him to dodge much anymore. All arms were faced toward Ichigo, who was tied to a tree. "Ichigo!" He shouted. Ichigo wasn't looking at him.
By this time, Ichigo was out of it. He knew someone was there. He kept seeing, what now looked like, a child. Ichigo didn't know why he had the urge to keep looking for him. It was getting him beat. Maybe it was an illusion of some sort. Either way, it didn't matter now. He was already caught.
Ichigo was starting to get light headed. Of all the times... His world felt like it was swaying. With this, he tried to keep his movement to a minimum. He kept hearing Rukia and Shuhei shouting at him, and kido being fired, but it sounded distant for some reason. He began to at least move his eyes in the direction of their yells, but he trailed to the left again to see movement. He dropped his sword as his right hand started to go numb.
At that moment, when Zangetsu hit the ground, a flash of red and blue came flying toward Ichigo. "Well this might be troublesome..." He muttered weakly as he vanished into the attacks that hit him.
Rukia, Shuhei, and every other comrade among the battle field froze. The trees around the area the attacks were fired, including Ichigo's, kicked up dust as they came in contact with the ground and each other. There was no movement from within the dust cloud. All that could be seen was Zangetsu laying in front of the wreckage.
"I...Ichi...-" This was all she managed to get out before a Shakkaho flew by her head. The traitors weren't letting up. They resumed their attacks. Rukia didn't have time to worry about Ichigo right now, as well as the rest of the remaining soul reapers.
As they dodged, the dust settled. Rukia and Shuhei, as well as the rogue soul reapers glanced over at the wreck. Ichigo was nowhere to be found in the direction. The rebels smiled in victory and continued their push. Rukia's heart sank. Why did he seem so out of it back there? He usually always kept his eyes at his opponent as they attacked and listened to others at the same time. Was there really something to his left that wasn't the spells rustling the bushes? Whatever it was, it was probably gone now.
"Keep your eyes on the the prize," Shuhei told her. "We have to finish this so we can see if we can find him. If you lose focus now, we're sure to be pushed back.
"Sorry," She said. "I think it's time we move in for some real close combat." Shuhei agreed. Rukia moved to a less targeted area and called upon her zanpakuto. "Dance, Sode no Shirayuki!" A beautiful white ice and snow type zanpakuto was in Rukia's grasps. The ribbon on Sode No Shirayuki flowed gently behind her as she stood.
Not wanting to, Shuhei reluctantly took out his sword. Everyone halted. Even the rogues knew that Shuhei never fought with his shikai often. They were somewhat glad and horrified at the same time. This meant that they were pushing them to their limit, but it also meant that they were about to be wiped out. "Reap, Kazeshini." With this, Shuhei's blade turned into two black scythe like swords. He stared at it hatefully. He seriously didn't like the shape. "Ready?" He said in a despising way. The question was directed toward the rogues more than Rukia and the others. Everyone took their swords out, knowing it was about to be a sword battle.
Everyone charged at the still kido using soul reapers. Their kido packed a punch, but how would they do in a sword fight? Since they continued using their long ranged attacks, everyone assumed they only trained that. The group should of used this strategy earlier.
As they started deflecting and making the rogue soul reapers draw their swords, some dust kicked up in the direction of the demolished trees. No one payed it any attention until a flash of light fluctuated in the cloud. "You think... You can get rid of me... That easily?" It was Ichigo's voice. It sounded irritated and ready to tear some people up. With this, some sort of shock wave kicked up the wind around the area, making some soul reapers slide back.
The light in the direction got brighter, blindingly brighter. Everyone turned their attention to that spot, squinting and covering their faces. A few stepped back.
Ichigo was hanging in there, somehow. He didn't know what was happening. Everything wasn't in sync with what he wanted to do. He felt something suddenly appear around his neck. Ichigo wanted to look down but couldn't. He did, however, see Zangetsu disappear.
Something came shooting out of the light and dust as they all watched. It seemed that there were more appearing. The unknown objects also seemed to be hovering above the rogue's base. They couldn't see what they were from the height they took, but whatever it was, it probably wasn't good. Some of the soul reapers started to back away slowly.
"Die." They heard Ichigo bluntly say as the objects came shooting down like bullets. Completely lost, Ichigo felt a hand on his chest. He looked down to see someone grab, what seemed to now be a necklace. He then felt a familiar pain in his head as he felt himself fall backwards. This searing pain and light headedness didn't mix very well. He felt the necklace being ripped off his neck.
It seemed like whatever just happened stopped, not before hearing a couple of blood curdling screams. The area around the base was covered in dust. When it cleared, no one was left standing, aside from the few on the 13 Court Guard Squad's side who weren't that fortunate of not getting caught in the attack range. The space around the base was colored in crimson red. It was a horrifying sight.
Rukia stared in the direction Ichigo was supposedly in. She saw him laying on the ground. She looked around to see if anyone was watching, but they weren't. When she turned back toward Ichigo, Zangetsu reappeared. This surprised her.
"O-Okay men," Shuhei said, still shocked. "What are you waiting for? Storm the base." With Shuhei's orders, everyone went in. Shuhei and Rukia ran toward Ichigo.
I got a burst of inspiration when I was typing the part about Ichigo and Shuhei finding Rukia. It just came to me. So I thought 'Why not try to throw it in the story and make it more interesting for me to type?' This is relevant to the plot, so don't worry. It's not some filler I just wanted to put in here. Ichigo is a captain now, so he has to at least have one mission before the week ends, right? Remember everything has a purpose. Keep that in mind. ^^