Bleach 28

A/N: Hey guys! This marks the first post since I started this semester at college, I've got some really writing heavy classes, but I will still be posting a chapter every now and then. Thanks to NerdyGothGirlMalice, Cf96, and Xx13deathsxX for their reviews. It really helps me to write. And thanks to everyone else who read the last chapter and to everyone who has been with me since the beginning. So, enjoy the chapter everyone!

Cain fell. It was a simple thing, as he faded from consciousness he could feel the wind rushing past him as he plummeted towards the ground inside of the castle fortress of Las Noches. He had put every iota of reiryoku he had left into that final strike against Ulquiorra, it was all he could do to not pass out cold right then and there, he couldn't afford to pass out, even as the edges of his vision turned to grey, then into an opaque black, he knew that if he fell asleep right then the chances of him waking up again were slim to none. In all honesty challenging Ulquiorra to a fight was not his best idea, however it had shown him that he had a long ways to go if he wanted to take on the more powerful opponents.

The wind kept rushing past his falling form, he could barely feel his extremities, and he knew that he had not reverted back from his awakened form, however he couldn't feel any of his tails, even as they streamed behind him. It was a surreal experience for him, to be able to clearly see his tails flapping in the wind as he fell, and not be able to feel them. He could feel his body absorbing reishi from the atmosphere, a normally unnoticeable phenomenon, however in his current state he could feel almost each particle enter his body.

At some point during his fall he became aware that he was falling backwards towards the ground, the anticipation of pain creating a sense of dread and timelessness in the fall. However he lacked the muscle control to even turn himself around. The only real consolation in the whole thing was that his bankai had cauterized all of his wounds, so at the least he wasn't going to die of blood loss. He couldn't see much of anything at all, he knew that at some point he would hit the ground, and at that point he would either die on impact, or not. Either way he had a gut feeling that it was going to hurt like hell.

About a minute later he realized that he was not falling as fast as he should have been, another ten seconds passed and he was able to feel what felt like a solid board below him carrying him down towards the ground. This was much more comforting to him as it meant that he wasn't just going to be splattered on the ground as soon as he got there. However he had no guarantee that the people that were helping him weren't just going to kill him as soon as he landed. If he had been thinking properly he would have recognized the board below him as the same type of one that Uryu had been riding through the Garganta, he wasn't thinking the best at the moment. Then again, hovering between life and death would do that to a person.

He felt the board slow down, from what he could see he was getting pretty close to the bottom of one of the towers that littered the landscape of Las Noches, thankfully he was getting slowly better on his own, a benefit of having mixed blood he supposed, give him a couple of hours and he could bounce back from most things. Unfortunately a full on fight with the fourth strongest espada when the guy had unleashed not one release, but two with his power increasing tenfold each time did not count as most things. However, he had predicted that something close to this might happen to him, and had already set up a kind of insurance policy to that effect.

He felt the board come to a rest and fade away, the abrasive sand below him coming up to greet his tired and battered body. Surrounding him were several people, thankfully none of them were any threat to him. And in fact it seemed like they had all finished their respective fights.

Around him were gathered Ichigo, Uryu, Crow who was glowing with all of the absorbed reishi that he had access to since he had entered Hueco Mundo, Orihime who was already projecting her Santen Kesshun over him even as Crow began transferring Reiryoku to him, the combined processes beginning to slowly regenerate his broken body. He could here both Uryu and Ichigo chewing him out for going to fight Ulquiorra alone, something that he could only try and ignore, however it was not exactly the easiest thing in the world to accomplish, as it was not only scathing, but loud as well. It didn't help that Captain Unohana was there as well, it kind of ruined the whole tough guy persona that he had been building the last time he had seen her. Thinking back however, the last time he had seen her had been in similar circumstances so he guessed that he had to take that statement back.

"let me guess" Cain groaned out, he was in an insane amount of pain at the moment, the healing had made him regain his senses, which was a good thing because it meant that he was no longer knocking on death's door, the downside of it was that he now able to feel the full repercussions of his actions, "soul society decided to send reinforcements only after they found out that half the espada were dead." He could feel his wounds beginning to close, first the smaller ones, then the deeper and more serious ones that must have been the ones that he had guessed had been caused when Ulquiorra had been throwing him around like a ragdoll. If he never had to go through something like that again it would be too soon. Seriously he had no idea how he had made it out of that fight without his internal organs being completely liquid.

"So…what all did I miss, because unless I miss my guess... Aizen will not have just stood around with all the battles going on." Cain brought himself up to one knee, then fully stood up, the healing was doing wonders for his injuries, and in fact it felt like the healing was making him even stronger than he was previously. Maybe it was just him, but he definitely felt stronger. While still inside the Soten Kisshun he started to crack his neck, turning it to either side, and flexed his tails. Surprisingly enough, although they had been severely burned, they had also been one of the fastest things that had been healed.

The whole battle between him and Ulquiorra had just gone to show Cain that he had a long way to go still if he wanted to protect anything. He was by no means weak, but he wouldn't classify himself as strong enough yet. Then again, he realized he really should cut himself a bit of slack, he hadn't even had the majority of his abilities for a year yet. The amount of progress that he had attained was essentially unheard of, and although he didn't have as great a growth rate as Ichigo did, his was pretty damn close.

"Well if you must know," Uryu responded, "Aizen left Las Noches literally seconds before you came falling through the roof" he had an air of distain, having to stand side by side with a Shinigami captain was souring his mood.

"Oh Uryu" Cain snickered "It looks like you were able to fight someone without losing your powers this time, good job!" Cain was currently doing stretches inside of the Soten Kisshun, he had every intention of following Aizen to the world of the living, and unlike everyone else around him, he actually had a way to get there.

He didn't even need to tease the Quincy, he just wanted to. He was kind of procrastinating actually, he knew that Aizen had brought his three strongest espada with him, not to mention their fraccion, and even though he knew that if he went he would most likely have the support of at least seven captain class fighters, the knowledge that each one of the three espada were above even Ulquiorra in strength and power, made him more than just a little cautious. He knew that it was mostly just paranoia, besides, at the least he'd have both Crow and Cazador with him, and if worst came to worst he'd be able to escape.

The shield lowered itself around him, he could feel himself completely recovered from his fight with Ulquiorra, both his physical body and his reiryoku had been restored to more or less their full power, and he himself had stopped feeling most of the pain that had begun with the healing. To be honest, he was exhausted, even after Orihime's healing it appeared that the one thing she couldn't get rid of was his tiredness.

"Crow, how're you doing after refueling my reiryoku?" he wanted to know how much he could afford to use up in getting to Karakura Town, the faster way would use up a good deal of power, and would be his preferred method of transportation, but he also didn't want to be out of reiryoku just by getting to the battlefield. The fact that his Awakening had progressed from just his hand, to now covering the entirety of his left arm gave him some comfort. It seemed to him that, as he grew as a Shinigami, his hollow powers grew in step with them in perfect harmony. Of course this worked both ways, but he hadn't really had time to train in the majority of his hollow abilities.

"With the amount of energy I've absorbed boss, I could fill your reserves another ten times and still not even be close to empty." Crow was still literally glowing with the amount of energy that he had absorbed since he had entered Hueco Mundo, which really benefitted Cain a lot since he could go all out and not have to worry about running out of energy. It also gave him peace of mind, it meant that it would be almost impossible to kill Crow through conventional means. Not to mention how strong that it would make the Bount's Doll. During the training to fight the Arrancar Cain had had the distinct displeasure of fighting the insane Doll on multiple occasions. It was not fun in the slightest, what made it even more annoying was the fact that he couldn't even attack it at full strength without worrying about Crow.

He didn't want to expose Cazador to the frontlines yet, but at the moment he had no choice, besides he could hardly baby a fucking Vasto Lorde class Arrancar, even if he wasn't technically 'complete'. "Good," Cain replied, "well that settles that then, Crow, Cazador, youre with me, we'll head to Karakura Town and assist the forces there," he grabbed onto Crow's shoulder drawing Reiryoku from the Bount and slashed the air in front of himself, tearing a ragged hole in the fabric of the dimensions, and revealing Karakura town, or at least what he believed to be Karakura town, the several pillars around the City giving him some doubt on the fact that it was the actual Karakura Town, but he really didn't care either way.

He drew himself, Crow and Cazador through the Garganta before anyone could say anything and flew down into the fray already in progress. He signaled Crow and Cazador to assist the Shinigami defending the Towers while he flew towards a monstrously gigantic creature that seemed to be about to kill at least three lieutenants, only one of whom he really recognized. The others he didn't really know but he didn't care either way, he was going to make a flashy entrance and nobody could stop him. He felt the Captain Commander notice his presence and gave the old man a smile and a thumbs up even as he rushed forwards. He drew Onmyouji and Kikōō as he flew in, flames dancing around him as he took on the appearance of a meteor and crashed into the creature, a giant pillar of flame turning the creature to ash within seconds.

"The Party is here!" he exclaimed as the flames died down around the dead creature, he flashed over to the lieutenants and made sure they were ok before going up to say hi to the captain commander, as he landed up where the captains were he noticed that crow had already killed one of the Espada's Fraccion, and Cazador was helping out another Shinigami do the same.

"what brings you here brat?" demanded the captain commander in that annoying tone of his, you know the one, the one that makes him seem like he's the most easily surprised guy in the universe/

"Oh, well," Cain responded in his best impression of Urahara, "this and that," he gave the captain commander a grin before flashing over to where he thought the best position would be for the upcoming fight, "I just thought that this would be too fun a party to miss!"

Even as he said so two of the espada stepped forth from where they had been standing, one looked like some kind of shark lady, and the other looked like an old man, nothing really remarkable about him. But he knew that whatever had gone on before hand would be nothing compared to the fight that was about to go down. And, instead of fear, it filled him with a sense of excitement. He was about to face down one of the most powerful Arrancar ever created, and he couldn't wait.