Bleached Vampire
Chapter 25: Lessons Learned
Ichigo dragged the unconscious form of Kuyou all the way to the entrance of the Student Police underground complex. He noticed a few of the group still around, either nursing wounds and injuries or helping those that needed it. They looked at him and made a move to attack but stopped. From both the power that Ichigo was sending out and the defeated form of their leader, the group weren't sure what to do next. Ichigo smirked, this was a good start but he needed more. He wanted to make sure his point got across and also to make sure that Orihime and Kurumu and the others were still okay.
So dropping Kuyou he sent his powers flaring up to attack anyone close, but to those that couldn't sense spiritual power he fired a massive black getsuga into the air. Anyone in the area would have seen it, so Ichigo just stood there and waited for everyone to show up.
Ichigo had an idea of what to do but honestly he was just going to wing it. He knew what needed to be done, in order for this school to no longer live in fear they needed to be free of this group that called itself the Student Police. They also needed something to take its place. He knew that Rukia might chew him out for what he was going to do, but let her. He had to do what he needed to do.
It wasn't long until more and more people started to show up, Ichigo ignore all of them keeping his eyes on the entrance. Soon he saw Moka walking out like she owned the place, behind her came the others. He sighed to himself seeing Kurumu but when Orihime walked out with golden wings, that was a shocker. He blinked a few times wondering if he was seeing things.
"Inoue?" Ichigo asked seeing her.
"Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime smiled happily seeing him. Then she noticed his damaged form, his clothing was ripping in a few places and it looked like he had a few burns on him. She ran over to make sure he was okay. "Kurosaki-kun are you okay? You looked hurt."
"Uh…it's okay I've been worse," He said slightly in a daze. "Inoue…what happened to you? I mean, the wings?"
"Oh!" She smiled at him as the others came to join them. "While we were captive I managed to do this, I think it's my powers reaching for the next level but I don't know how to control them yet. I'm not even sure how to use the wings."
"Well I can help with that," Kurumu stated looking down at Kuyou. She really wasn't sure how strong Ichigo was but he had to be pretty damn strong to take out Kuyou with only that little damage to show for it. She looked back up at the others as she went on. "I think her wings will work like mine so I can teach her how I put them away and how to fly."
"Oh that would be great, I always wanted to learn how to fly," Orihime couldn't wait for her first flying lessons.
Ichigo then noticed the red marks on her face as his free hand gently cupped her face making her look at him. She blushed heavily as he did so, not sure why he was doing this. His eyes narrowed dangerously, "Inoue, who did this to you?"
Her eyes widened as she remembered that she still had the marks from being slapped around. Ichigo's eyes were that dangerous look he got when he was set on fighting someone. A cold fury in them from someone hurting her, she felt conflicting emotions about that. She felt strangely happy that he seemed to care about her wellbeing but also scared for him about what he might do.
Thankfully Kurumu stepped forward, "Don't worry I already kicked the girl's ass that did that, she got what was coming to her."
"So what now?" Rukia asked him. "And why did you sent up so much energy before?"
"Just getting everyone's attention," Ichigo told her seriously.
Inner Moka stayed silent watching with interest, although she was still a little angry about having the fight taken from her. Thankfully there had been a few members of the Student Police still around inside the complex to vent her frustrations out on. But now it seemed like Ichigo had some kind of plan, she wanted to see what his half-human half-shinigami was going to pull off. She looked over when she saw Renji walking about with Tsukune.
She was thankful that the red haired man had been able to protect Tsukune, or else strength or no strength she would have hurt Renji for failing in his duty. Soon others started to show up, Chad and Mizore looked the worst for wear, Orihime already rushing over to them.
"Sado-kun, Shirayuki-chan," Orihime said in worry. "You two are all hurt."
Both just blinked staring at her, the whole golden wings thing was going to take some time to get used to.
"You have..." Mizore stated as she was eased down Chad onto the ground.
"Oh yeah, I think they look nice," Orihime beamed at her wings.
"They look good on you," Chad could say the only thing he could think of about them. They did look nice and for some reason, they fit her personality.
"Okay let me heal you two up," Orihime thrust out her hands. "So...I'm not sure how to do this like normal, I think it works differently so give me a minute."
Orihime tried to remember how she had used a shield without her fairies. Only this time she called for her healing one. She could feel the tug of her powers but something was missing. She then tried to visualize the dome around them and that was all she needed. The golden dome appeared just as she kept the image in her mind as she slowly started to heal them.
It wasn't much longer until the others arrived as well as most of the other members of the Student Police force. Kurumu eagerly went over to Uryu who arrived with a large number of spirits but for some reason he was pretty distance with her. Renji and Rukia went to work giving out soul burials while other people filed in.
Moka took the moment to walk over to Tsukune to check a little closer. Although they still needed to talk about what happened earlier, now wasn't the time. Her face felt a bit hotter as she remembered what he had done, or at least what some part of him had done. Normally any other man that would have dared to try such things with her would have been punished within an inch of their life.
Tsukune looked up towards Inner Moka as she walked towards him, he couldn't help but blush as she could still taste her in his mouth remember how she felt against him and the sexy sounds she made.
Moka stood before him and stared, "If you're thinking perverted thoughts I'll have to hurt you."
"N-no I'm not!" Tsukune quickly covered. Although Inner Moka was the very sexy side of Moka, she was also the scary side. Plus he had felt her kicks before they really hurt, even when she pulled back on their power.
She looked him over and he thought he caught a hint of a smile on her face before she got all serious again. "We'll need to talk about...before." She mentally cursed feeling herself blush and damned her weakness. "But not here, but later."
"Uh, yeah of course," Tsukune had figured this was coming.
She moved closer to him, "But know this, I would never allow just any man to do those things to me. You will take responsibility for it."
"Responsibility?"
"You are taking me out," Moka told him. "You remember what I told you before don't you?"
Tsukune tried to remember what she was talking about.
'In order to date my other half you'll have to seduce me too,'
His eyes widened as he remembered those words, did that mean that he had actually managed to seduce Inner Moka? How did he do that, just by being more 'forceful' with her like he had been or was it something more?
"Well?" Moka said angrily getting impatience for his response.
"Oh! Of course!"
She smiled softly at him as she took out her seal, "Although I would like to see what that fool is up to, I think I've been out for too long as it is. I'll leave the rest to my kinder self but know this, I will have to share what happened with her. Although she is the weaker part of me, she is still a part of me. So I shouldn't have any advantage."
Tsukune wasn't sure what she was referring to until she leaned in and kissed him, hard. Tsukune couldn't believe this was happening as he enjoyed the sensation of her lips on his. Soon there was a light and a slight shift. He was still kissing Moka as he heard a moan but this was more of a cute sound then the sexy ones that Inner Moka made.
Suddenly Moka pulled back and he saw it was Outer Moka, who was blushing madly at the fact she had been kissing Tsukune.
"Huh?" Tsukune saw the seal back on and guessed that Inner Moka placed it back on while kissing. This must have been her way of evening things up between both sides.
"T-Tsukune! W-what is, why was I, why were we..." She blushed even harder as she felt her fingers touch her own lips feeling the passing warmth on them.
"It was Inner Moka's idea apparently," Tsukune said feeling he had a lot to explain now.
By this point The Student Police were eager for a fight but one look at their reader and seeing many of their numbers with injuries already they could feel that although they had the numbers, it wouldn't be an easy fight. It also wasn't helpful that Ichigo's temper was on a controlled boil but his power still leaked out. The yokai that weren't used to his power stayed back from him, never feeling such a concentration of power before. Plus it wasn't like any power they had felt, while yokai power was wild and flaring, this was thicker and there was a pressure about it.
To those closest to him, it felt like an ocean was just above their heads ready to slam down onto them.
"My, my," Urahara said while he and Yoruichi sat on a branch of a tree together looking over everything. "This is certainly getting interesting."
"Yes it is," His partner grinned. "I wonder what he's up to."
"With him it's so hard to say," Urahara said to her. "He's a frightening kid that one."
When Ichigo saw that everyone on his side was here and there were enough people gathered from the other side he pointed his sword at a group near the entrance. "You lot! Get in there and drag every single person out of that place."
"Who the hell are you to-" One said before Ichigo cut him off.
"NOW!" He roared as his power shot up sending every one of them close to him to the ground gasping for air. Others there were a bit further away were sent back from the pressure of his powers. Ichigo let up just enough to let those students get up and get running into their base.
He waited around for them to finish. Other members were either dragged out or were able to walk on their own power. Ichigo waited until the flow of people stopped and then looked at them. "Is that everyone?"
"Y-yes." One of them managed to say.
"Good," Ichigo then looked around him and spoke up loudly for everyone to hear. "Now listen up, I'm going to say this only once and you better listen!"
"From this day on the Student Police is disbanded!"
There were of course roars of protest but Ichigo silenced them easily enough. "You lot don't do anything but cause fear and harm the students of this school! You say you 'protect' it but who protects the school from you? All you do is force your own wills on others regardless of what they did. This group is nothing but corrupt and this ends now!"
"So from this day on, if I see anyone wearing those damn black uniforms, if I find out that you're causing trouble, then you'll answer to me!"
Ichigo looked over to Renji, "I could use some help here."
"Oh?" Renji wasn't sure what Ichigo had in mind but he figured it might be good. So far he was enjoying things.
"Think you can help me blast that place into rubble?" He pointed his blade towards the entrance to the Student Police base. This was the reason why he wanted everyone out of there, now he didn't have to hold back on his powers.
Renji smirked as he got ready. "Fine by me but I'll have to go a bit further to have the power to do it. Bankai!"
There was an explosion of power as Renji changed, his shoulders covered in the pink fur but everyone overlooked that from the giant bamboo snake creature that was wrapped up around him.
"Hihio Zabimaru," Renji said calmly. "Well I'm ready." He told Ichigo as both parties flared up their powers.
Ichigo sent a massive black getsuga, while Renji had charged up his Hikotsu Taiho, as a massive red energy was collected inside of the 'snake' and then fired out of the skull like mouth like a canon. The combined energies caused such a massive explosion that nearly everyone was blown off their feet. It was an impressive display of power by the two shinigami causing dust to blow all over the place.
It took time for the dust to clear and when it did, what had once been the underground hideout was now nothing more than rubble and a giant hole in the ground.
"Oi, oi," Urahara said picking up his hat. "That was a bit overboard."
"Those two need to learn some restraint," Yoruichi said with a scowl on her face as she tried to get the little pieces of leaves and a stick out of her hair.
All the students were both shocked and terrified at the display of power. They were sure that even their leader couldn't cause that much damage all at once. Ichigo grinned over everyone there, "Anyone else want to say anything?"
"You...bastard..." Kuyou coughed out as he tried to raise himself up. He had regained consciousness and wouldn't allow this new slight to go on. "We are the...protectors of the peace...we are-ARG!"
Ichigo slammed his foot onto the yokai's head, sending the boy's face into the ground. A tick formed on the young shinigami's face as he looked angrily down at him. "Shut up, you lost, you don't get to say anything anymore."
"But who will protect the peace!" Some random member shouted out.
Ichigo's head snapped up trying to find who it was but several people flinched, he couldn't tell who had said that but if that's what they wanted, then he'd tell them. "My friends and myself will do that!"
"We will protect this school a lot better than any of you lot. Anyone can come to us for help and we'll help them, we won't imprison them without a reason, we won't abuse our powers because unlike you, we fight to protect others. So as of right now, your organization is gone, your base is gone, your leader is defeated and unless you want to fight me and my friends, you're done!"
"Now get the hell out of here and I never want to see any of you causing anymore trouble..." He noticed everyone was in still in a bit of shock and needed a little incentive. "Leave!"
That got people running.
"A bit much don't you think?" Renji asked Ichigo as he took his sword back to its resting state.
"The base needed to be destroyed."
"Oh I don't mean that," Renji grinned, "that I enjoyed. I meant the whole protecting the school thing."
Ichigo scratched the back of his head, "Yeah well, we're here to protect it from hollows anyway, might as well help out if we can in other matters. Besides the Newspaper Club was doing these guys job for over a year by the sounds of it anyway."
Renji gave him a questioning look, "You do realize this is making my report on this going to be hell on me right?"
Ichigo only grinned at him, "Hey, I'm not the one that has to write it, so what do I care?"
"You bastard..." Renji grumbled at him.
-Hueco Mundo-
The endless dessert of Hueco Mundo stretched out farther than any hollow knew, some said that it was endless, others thought that there was a barrier when you finally got to the ending. Some even thought that their world was a mirror of the human world, in that it was a spherical world just like the Earth. No one knew for sure.
Outside of the domed capital of Los Noches it was an endless white sand dessert in a permanent night sky. It was a hard life for hollows living out there in this desolate world, not enough to eat to stave off the never ending hunger all hollows felt. Or in the case of more advanced hollows like the two Arrancar that were moving at quick speeds, the never ending emptiness.
The two were Demitri and Septima, who were also leading a small force of lesser Arrancars. These were either unnumbered to double digits.
"Aren't we there yet?" Septima whined as they took a stop. "I hate coming out here, all this sand messes up my shoes and my dress."
"Stop being such a drama queen," Demitri told her annoyed. "We're almost there at any rate."
"Well we better hurry then," She flipped her long hair over her shoulder annoyed that she of all people had to come out here. She hated being out here, it only reminded her of her life before she was an Arrancar. Always wondering and hunting so she wouldn't devolve, it was a miserable experience. Now things were different, she had more power now and thanks to their new leader more power was promised.
They continued on until they came to a small canyon with caves. They could already see the hollows among the small community that had set up. Since these hollows had refused to obey the new king of this world, their fate was already sealed. With a single command the Privaron forces descended.
Although among the group hiding out was a mix of different types of hollows, two young female Arrancars were also among them. A slim dark haired one in pigtails was carrying her friend, a short haired blonde that was physically unable to move on her own very well. Both had a mask covering one eye as they walked on.
"You can put be done here Loly," Menoly told her friend.
"Alright," She eased her down onto a rock. Looking at her blonde friend it was hard to not get angry at what had happened to her. The blonde's body was still a mess after what Yammy had done. She had been given healing but her legs and one of her arms were still weak. It was hard for the girl to walk on her own and to fight was impossible.
Loly had found her nearly dead after she had gotten herself off the side of the tower, she still cursed that Quincy for nailing her by her skirt to the tower. It took her hours to figure out a way down. But thankfully she had found her only friend still alive and had found help. After word got back that Aizen was defeated, there really didn't seem any point in sticking around and joined this group.
Suddenly the sounds of shouting and battle were heard as both girls looked up to see other hollows attacking them.
"Damn it," Loly gritted her teeth. "Can you get into one of the caves?"
"Yes, I can manage that much," Menoly struggled to her feet.
"Good, I'm going to help out, please be careful." She then ran off to help the others.
"Pathetically weak," Demitri said in disgust, he hated the weak as they were useless. So far the battle had been so one sided that it was pathetic. "Is there no one among you that's a challenge?"
A loud outcry of pain was heard but this time it came from behind him from his own troops. He quickly turned around to see that his forces were being attacked from behind, and they were being slaughtered. He rushed forward to attack someone that would dare come up from behind like a coward. By the time he got there nearly all his troops were defeated.
"You there!" He roared.
The figured was in a hood and cloak but stopped at his voice. The figure slowly turned around and pulled back the hood. There looking back was a man's face with wild blue hair, a mask shard on his right cheek and matching blue eyes.
"Grimmjow Jaegarjaquez!" Demitri shouted out. "You're supposed to have died!"
"Like I'm that easy to kill," Grimmjow sneered at him. He flung the cloak away revealing his battle scared body. The long gash that had been over his chest was the most prominent. "You're one of the rejects aren't you?"
Demitri sneered at him. "I'll kill you for that insult."
He rushed forward to slam his fist into the former Espada's head, only for it to be caught as Grimmjow just smirked and then the larger Arrancar was tossed aside.
"You forget your place Privaron," the blue haired Espada laughed. "You lot were replaced because you weren't strong enough to fight on the kinds of levels your replacements could."
"I'll show you to look down on me!" Came the challenging roar as the two started to fight.
Across the battlefield Septima was fighting on her own, she didn't feel the need to help anyone or for anyone to help her. She was powerful enough to stand on her own as she attacked hollows easily.
"Hey you!"
Septima turned and dodged just in time to see a cero narrowly missing her face. She saw a young girl Arrancar coming at her, obviously the one that had fired that cero. Not like it would have mattered, she was strong enough to take that kind of attack.
So Septima fired her cero at the renegade Arrancar girl that had dared to come at her. The young girl in pigtails had rushed out of the battle towards her with her weapon drawn. To think that an Arrancar was here instead of serving their new master, it was insulting. Not only that, she knew this girl as one of the few little leaches that attached themselves to Aizen like puppies. She was always with a blonde if she remembered right. Always in the canter tower even though they held no station and that just pissed her off. So Septima was going to destroy this girl in one shot.
But just then before her cero connected a green blur got in the way. She watched as her cero was literally swallowed and then fired back at her at twice the power. She had barely gotten out of the way as she looked in surprise at the figure before her.
Dressed in green rags of clothing, a long mane of green hair, a damaged skull mask on her head it wasn't difficult to see who this female fight was.
"Nelliel Tu Odelschwank," Septima said in both awe and fear. She was the legendary old Third Espada that had vanished one day. No one seemed to know how it happened but there were rumours of course.
"Nel-sama," Loly stated in relief. "I thought you were on a patrol."
"I just got back," Nel told her not taking her eyes off the woman in front of her. She tilted her head slightly. "I believe I know this Arrancar."
"Yes you do, I was once one of the Espada like yourself," Septima said angrily getting up. "So you are one of the leaders of this group I supposed."
Nel stayed silent looking at her with nothing but pity in her eyes. This only infuriated the other woman more.
"I am now one of the top three generals of the new leader of Hueco Mundo, you have been gone a long time and there is no way you can beat me now," Septima drew out her sword. "Rule the world, Regula."
Her form changed as she wore armoured plating like that was a cross between scale plates and the scale plating of a royal queen's, a high neck guard around her neck almost like that out of Victorian era. There was a bone crown grew on her head as her sword turned into what looked like a large sceptre.
"Well now, why don't we try this now then?" Septima grinned at her.
"Very well," Nel said with a bored look on her face.
"Nel-sama you know that you can't use-" Loly tried to warn her but Nel just placed a hand out to silence her.
"Now is not the time for that," Nel told her. She knew her limits and that because of the injury on her mask she couldn't use her release. She had learned that the hard way, too much of her power leaked out constantly in that form. She could only use it for a few minutes before she would revert to her child state. It took her long enough to gather enough power to get back into her adult form.
Nel rushed forward with her sword drawn but stopped suddenly as though she hit a brick wall and fell to her knees.
Septima laughed, "You never did learn my ability did you? My power is to control gravity, everything within my domain I can control the gravity, that is the power of my rule. To make all those bow down towards me like they should."
Nel struggled to stand but soon found more power was sent down onto her making her kneel again.
"Please that's not even the full power you're feeling," Septima told her increasing it again.
"This is nothing," Nel gritted out of her teeth a she pushed herself to her limits. Slowly she got to her feet, a bit unsteady but she did as she slowly moved forward. Septima tried to increase her powers again and again but Nel would not go down again. She kept moving forward with her blade drawn.
"How, how are you doing this?" Septima had never seen anyone stand up to her power like this.
"You lost your place in the Espada because you weren't strong enough to keep it," Nel told her coldly. "That is the way of things for us here, only the strong survive, even though I hate that part of our life here. But while I lost my place to deception, I was never weak. My strength was real and you could never be as powerful as myself or even my replacement in the Espada."
"That is why I was an Espada and you are a Privaron." Nel ended her words by putting all her strength into her swing, she knew she would only get one. Septima brought up her sceptre to block the swing but all the power managed to knock it out of her hand. That was when the gravity stopped being placed on Nel as she stood facing her enemy. Nel was sweating and panting but still ready to fight.
Septima growled as she disappeared and grabbed her weapon. She took a moment to look around and didn't like what she was seeing. So far it was only down to her and Demitri, this wasn't good. "Demitri we are leaving!"
"I can take him!" He shouted back.
"Then I'm leaving you here alone to fight them all off!" She disappeared.
He cursed as she ran off and looked around even he had to admit that the odds were against him. "I'll finish this another time."
"Heh," Grimmjow smirked, "Running away like a scared little girl huh? Some things never change."
Demitri snarled something at him but left.
Grimmjow smiled, it had felt good to cut loose and fight like that again. It had been too long and he had been getting anxious for a decent fight. Looking around he saw the bodies littering the area slowly disappearing as hollows did. He didn't care for either ally or enemy, he only cared about one thing and this group was the only place he could rest up and restore himself.
Thinking back to when he had been left behind, beaten and bloody, slowly dying and unable to move. He had been discarded like garbage, something that his pride wouldn't allow to go unpunished. He winced suddenly as he felt the pain in his chest from his wound. The large scar still hurt on his chest, when he had been found and healed the healing hadn't work all the way. He still couldn't believe he let the 'brat' throw up on his body to heal it.
"Grimmjow," Nel said in a commanding tone to get his attention.
"What do you want?" He demanded. He hated how she used that tone of voice with him, if he was back up to his normal strength he might have considered fighting her. She may have held a higher position in the Espada than he had, but he knew her weakness.
"We need to gather up the survivors and move, this location is no longer safe."
"Tch, why should I care?" He asked her. "If they die they die, besides they'll only slow us down."
She glared at him as she marked right up to him, "You can either help or you can leave and be on your own. I know your strong enough to battle hollows but not a group of Arrancar like them. They will come back with more in number and you'll be alone. So it's your choice."
He bitterly thought about it, in his current state he couldn't win. Without a word he marched off without saying anything.
Nel sighed, that man was always trouble, it was a constant battle when dealing with him and she was already tried from her fight, she didn't need another one so soon.
"Nel-sama!" Came the familiar voices of her two most loyal fraccion.
"Are you alright?" Pesche asked.
"I'm fine," She smiled at the two hollows. "Pesche I want you to scout the way ahead, Dondochakka, I want you to help move the injured."
"Right away Nel-sama!" The two saluted and ran off to their tasks.
With them gone, Nel's smile fell. She turned to face where she knew the capital was, although you couldn't see it this far out she knew where it was. She had heard the rumors that there was a new power in charge but it looked to her that it was true. She had hoped for more of a power vacuum. With all the infighting it would only keep things chaotic and her group could be left alone. Now that was no longer the case.
She sighed, it was another problem her group faced. Fighting other hollows, eating, shelter, it had been a constant struggle out in the dessert. There were times she missed her carefree days back as a child with no memories of her past life. But that was the past and she had to keep moving forward. Looking up at the moon she wondered how Ichigo and his friends were doing. It had felt like such a long time she had seen them, and she missed Ichigo.
"Nel-sama," someone called to her.
"No rest for the weary," She said to herself with a small smile as she went off to see what new problem she was needed for.
Next up Chapter 26: Picking up the Pieces
Regula = Ruler