This chapter is it, folks. The long, long-awaited moment (well, I've been waiting for it, anyway). Hope it's worth the wait! (although, personally, I'm pretty gratified by the fact I finished it at all...)

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The Striking Snake

Ch28

Uncoiled

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There was a ripping crack of thunder, loud and sharp and menacing enough to make Thor himself consider a career change. Several things happened at once.

For the briefest fraction of a second - so brief that only Byakuya, Soifon and the elder captains could even be certain they saw it at all - three thin, needle-like rays of white light shot across the sky, penetrating the fiery apparition and piercing the stand behind it.

The sokyōku phoenix halted mid-flight, suddenly writhing and screaming. The enchanted blocks holding Rukia in place shattered, and she began to fall.

Shunsui drew his swords in one fluid, lightning-quick motion, while Jūshiro pulled a wooden shield-like object from under his cloak and began muttering an incantation. The artifact radiated magical power, and bore the symbol of a noble clan on its face.

The remaining captains and lieutenants, still operating in reflex from the sudden disturbance, turned to face the forest from where the rays of light seemed to have spawned.

There was, barely audible beneath the roaring of the damaged sokyōku, a hiss of flash-step.

Then a burst of unfamiliar reiatsu; cold and dry, like the dust on the floor of a forgotten tomb.

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They say it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end.

Rukia stopped about as suddenly as one would expect from a sixty-meter fall. However, she didn't seem to be even close to as dead as she should be.

This was probably related to the sharp hiss just as she reached the stand's foundation, and the embrace of skinny but extremely strong arms.

"Heyo, Rukia-chan," came a Kansai-accented whisper. "Did ya miss me?"

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The phoenix twisted, turning to track its intended prey and the interloping snake that had snatched it. It turned fully around as Gin flash-stepped back towards the forest, and prepared to strike again.

It was, however, rudely interrupted by several massive ropes coiling around it, shooting upwards from the pair of captains on the ground. The ropes crackled with an ancient yet immeasurably powerful binding ward; forged during the old feudal era of the soul society, it was none the weaker for its great age.

Unleashed, and lacking its proper return seal, the awesome destructive potential of the sokyōku had nowhere to turn but inward.

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Jūshiro's eyes widened as the giant conflagration shattered, scattering its dying embers into the wind. He dropped the now-redundant artifact, and turned back to his friend - only to catch Yamamoto's gaze over Shunsui's shoulder.

The old man, normally so peaceful looking, had an intensity to his expression that his students had not seen in over seven hundred years.

"Now do we go?"

Shunsui sheathed Katen Kyōkotsu with extreme alacrity. "Yep!"

The two vanished, followed almost instantly by the old Sōtaichō. In the same moment, Unohana nodded to the present lieutenants, who promptly gave chase after the fleeing Gin.

Standing by, and robbed of her immediate target - that is, the two treasonous captains that had just absconded - Soifon turned, preparing to flash-step after the last stubborn ryoka. Before she could take off, however, a shrouded phantom collided with her at high speed, slamming her sideways and knocking her clear off the edge of the plateau.

And suddenly, the sokyōku hill was silent again, almost as if the entire catastrophic ceremony had never occurred.

"Hmm."

Narrowing his eyes, Byakuya drew Senbonzakura from its sheath for the second time that day and flash-stepped away from the scene.

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"Gin, you idiot! What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Hello t'ya too, Rukia-chan," Gin replied impassively, flash-stepping as quickly as he could. "Nice ta see I wasn't too late."

"Why are you here?" Rukia yelled. "I told you not to come, dammit! I told you not to follow me!"

"Psh. Y'were sentenced to death. Whether or not ya would forgive me hardly matters in a case like that, don't'cha think?" Gin jumped over a tree root as they cleared the forest on top of the plateau. "If yer determined to be an idiot about duty and honor and the greater good, I'll just stop listenin' to yer idiotic drivel. I said I'd do anything it takes, and that's exactly what I intend to do."

Rukia opened her mouth to reply, but found herself at loss for words.

"Whoops, look out!"

Rukia's eyes widened as a lieutenant - Ōmaeda, it looked like - flash-stepped up beside them and attempted to swing his massive morningstar-like weapon. He had made a sad mistake, however, in approaching from the outer side of the stairway. Gin dodged the attack and deftly kicked the lieutenant off the stairs in mid-leap, sending him plummeting quite a distance.

"But - " Rukia hesitated. "How? How did you stop the sokyōku? How did you destroy the shackles - and the stand, it looked like? How - "

"Secret. Tell ya later." Rukia blinked, suddenly realizing that the scabbard of Gin's wakizashi was strapped to his arm, pressed up against her body. It was also rather uncomfortably... warm. "No time now. Got ta get away before I have to fight someone really mean."

As he spoke, he casually disentangled his left arm from his passenger and reached into the air as he exited flash-step. His hand caught the wrist of another lieutenant, the fourth one this time, and twisted her arm into a quite literally bone-cracking position. She stumbled and fell behind, effectively incapacitated.

"Where are we going?" Rukia sputtered, confused as to his mad flight. "They'll follow you wherever - "

"We're going to where I can dump ya and fight unencumbered, duh," Gin replied. "Heads up, old man!"

Gin jumped forward, raising his knee and bringing his considerable momentum behind the single strike point. There was a coconut-like noise as the knee collided with a grey-haired head, and Chōjirō fell unconscious.

He incapacitated three lieutenants without even slowing down...

"Oh, and I'm pretty sure your ol' bro is following us, so ya better hope my stepping has stepped up! Haha!"

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The sixth division barracks was empty. Every division member was either on patrol - likely a measure ordered by the captain to quell the apparent anarchy - or already incapacitated over the course of the five-day guerrilla war the ryoka had waged.

That suited Renji just fine, given that he was no longer in much shape to deal with anyone who might try to apprehend him.

It is no secret that the greater a soul's reiatsu, the more durable they are in soul form - in a few ways, at least. High-ranking shinigami are invariably much tougher than humans. Their bones are stronger. Their pain threshold his higher. Their muscles can produce more force than those of any mortal man. Given the correct training, they can even make their skin like iron, though only one shinigami is ever recorded as having done so; the practice is more common among hollows.

But perhaps most pertinent; they can be cut in all directions, and lie for hours, and lose a river of blood to their wounds - and yet not die.

Renji was a lieutenant, almost godlike in his power, and the million blades of Senbonzakura Kageyoshi had not quite been enough to bleed him to death. However, they surely could have, had Byakuya truly sought to kill him. His wounds had been dire, and would have slain a lower seat.

The division first aid supplies had patched him up to the point where he could walk, probably run, but his strength was depleted to the point where an eighth seat could take him down. He couldn't risk going to the fourth division for better treatment, so all there was to do was wait.

"Ayo, Renji!"

The limping lieutenant looked up to see a silver-haired figure flash-step up to him, carrying a smaller figure in a white yukata. He unceremoniously dumped Rukia into his arms.

"Get going, pineapple! He ain't far behind!"

Renji nodded, turned, and legged it, sprinting as fast as he could with a struggling woman in his arms.

Gin paused, straightening and regaining his breath.

The sixth division barracks was a ghost town, completely deserted under the noonday sun. But for the trail of blood left by Renji, there was not a single sign of life.

Gin idly glanced over the blood trail. It ended as it went into one of the buildings, presumably where Renji had acquired bandages. From there, it traced back down the central street and up to a large bridge, or possibly walkway...

At one point, the walkway had been lined with towers. None now stood their full height, most having been obliterated about a third of the way up. Dust and rubble lay everywhere.

"Huh," Gin mused to himself. "That must have been a battle and a half. I wonder what caused all that mess..."

"That is what happens when a captain lets loose on an enemy, ryoka," came a cold voice behind him. "Nothing nearby can hope to survive, least of all inanimate structures."

Gin turned leisurely, his grin never faltering. "So, we meet again at last," he said. "Care ta try yer luck a second time, Byakuya? I got a feeling ya might find me a bit tougher than before."

"Shunsui is a sentimental fool," came the curt reply. "Even if he was sober, he would have given much less than his full strength against you. Do not think I will do the same."

Byakuya vanished, and Gin whipped his arm around. There was a clash of steel meeting scabbard.

Gin tilted his head back. "I'unno, Byakuya," he said lazily. "He seemed pretty on top of it to me. And hey, maybe you're a bit faster, but the fact remains I can see yer moves now."

The two shinigami pushed away from each other, and Byakuya's expression hardened. "I see. To have blocked that strike, you must surely have improved at no less than a prodigious rate... but your freakish growth shall not avail you against a veteran captain, child."

he brought his sword around and held it vertically. "Scatter, Senbonzakura."

The blade dissolved into countless lethal shards, glittering a terrifying magenta in the sun -

"Stab him, Shinsō!"

Flash-steps flickered and resolved. The pink cloud parted, swirled, and returned to a defensive formation around Byakuya's new position.

Gin twisted his wrist and snapped the blade back, then picked the scrap of white silk - the edge of which was stained crimson - off the back. "Careful where ya use those flashy moves, yer captain-ness. I ain't gonna hesitate for theatrics. I don't fight fair, remember?"

"Indeed." Byakuya tensed.

Gin liked watching people's eyes. Since his own were so often hidden, he did not need to worry about the complex etiquette of eye contact, and the eyes often betrayed the most of a person's inner thoughts; naturally, they were what his gaze would gravitate to when watching someone.

This time, it saved his life, for a tiny flicker in Byakuya's cold greys was all the warning he got. He felt the petals lacerating his left arm even as he warped the world in a flash-step.

"So ya can move them without gestures," he hissed. "Scary. Almost scary enough."

Byakuya made no movement, but Gin was watching the body of the petals. There might have been a thousand, but Byakuya used them poorly; he moved them as a focused attacking mass, which almost defeated the purpose of having a dispersion weapon. Far better to just bluntly engulf the enemy in a loose cloud. Perhaps it was less refined, but it would have been more effective.

Not that Gin was complaining, of course.

He stepped forward, then right, then forward again. The petals were a nightmare to dodge, but not impossible. So far, he'd only received a nick on his hand and a couple more rips in his sleeves.

Byakuya moved his hands then, and the petals moved faster, returning around him in a rotating shield as Gin approached.

Hand movements means finer and faster control. Good to know.

"Shoot to kill!"

... but the blade was deflected as it extended, the petal vortex blasting it away like a steel wind. Clearly, the assassin's knife could not stab through this armor.

The bladed cyclone expanded suddenly, shooting outwards in all directions. Gin was delayed by the retraction of Shinsō, and got blasted across his chest and most of his upper arms with blades.

The two separated again, staring each other down across the sixth division courtyard. Gin was the worse off, with his shihakusō hanging in tatters from his bloody shoulders, but the way Byakuya held his right arm, along with a rip and speckles of red in the cloth over his ribs on his right side, suggested he was not quite unscathed either.

"You have seen my power... Hyapponzashi," said Byakuya icily. "Surely you can see now that you will fail."

Gin cocked his head, his vulpine expression as cheery as ever.

"No, I ain't seen nothin', really," he replied. "I ain't afraid of you, Byakuya. For all yer pride and arrogance, all I see is a weak little man. Ya got no conviction. Ya can't put yer heart behind yer blade. All yer talk about honor and duty ain't doing anythin' ta help ya sleep at night, is it?"

Byakuya's already narrow eyes closed to slits that almost matched Gin's.

"If ya wanna scare me, Byakuya, yer gonna have ta show me yer bankai. I ain't even gonna take this seriously if ya can't do that."

"Ban Kai is the fullest expression of battle a shinigami can summon," Byakuya almost spat. "In a hundred years, you would never become worthy of that measure of respect. I will not degrade myself to go all out on one as young and foolish as you."

"Suit yerself." Gin vanished.

There was a spray of blood, and Byakuya's eyes widened.

Gin turned around slowly behind the captain, flicking blood from the blade of his tiny zanpakutō. "Convinced?"

For a second, I lost sight of him...

Byakuya turned, holding himself with dignity despite the blood staining his torn haori.

"I suppose I must concede that your growth has exceeded what anyone would have thought possible... you have gained power at an almost profane rate since I struck you down." Byakuya slid one foot back, returning to a flawless ready stance. "Perhaps it is undignified to unleash such power against such pitiful vermin, but surely it is a greater shame to die through underestimation. And of course, after such chaos, it is fitting to dispatch the disruptive factor as quickly as possible."

Gin rolled his eyes behind his narrow lids. "Get on with it."

Byakuya's expression was like iron. "As you say."

The petals of Senbonzakura collected, re-forming into the steel blade. Byakuya extended his sword arm, the blade pointing straight down.

He let go. Gin's face betrayed no reaction as the blade sank into the earth and ripples of darkness spread out.

"Ban Kai."

A thousand blades, each over twelve feet long, slid out of the ground to form a terrifying corridor behind Byakuya's figure.

Byakuya abruptly tilted his head sideways to dodge the white lance that had shot from Gin's figure.

"Dammit!"

"Scatter, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi!"

The blades dissolved, filling the air with magenta shards of death.

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"Captain!"

One moody eye looked up at the approaching cluster of eleventh division soldiers and ryoka.

"What happened?" Said Ikkaku as he slid to a halt. "Did you beat 'em? There's enough ruins around to - "

"Naw." Kenpachi stood up. "I got 'em to go to Bankai, but then they up and ran away. Tōsen got all antsy about being needed somewhere else or something. How about you n' Yumi?"

"Oh, we kicked their asses. Iba's down again, poor sod, and Hisagi with him. They ain't gonna be battle ready till tomorrow at least."

"Good." Kenpachi stood up. "I smell war, and I reckon it'll get better before the day's out. Come on - let's see if we can find that hundred-sword kid."

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"Truly, you have no sense of honor if you would strike a man in such a moment," said Byakuya. "You grow more disgusting by the minute."

Gin pulled Shinsō back as he dodged a ripple of petals. "But ya still took my advice ta heart, didn't ya? Ya sure are watching yer back now."

"Against an opponent with dignity, I would not need to."

"Well, you're welcome for the free lesson in how to be better warrior." Gin chuckled. "Honor is for keepin' yer word and standin' by yer friends, not for duels to the death. Nobody cares how honorable ya are if you're the one who doesn't walk away."

"Victory with honor is worth the risk, ryoka," Byakuya countered. He raised his hands.

Gin dodged one ripple of blades only to find another. Byakuya was finally using the petals properly, blanketing the battleground such that no place was safe. Even as he dodged the worst surges, Gin felt new nicks and cuts opening on his forearms and shins.

"Worth the risk of death?" He called back. "Some things are worth that, but honor ain't among them."

Byakuya did not respond as his hands swirled again.

"Shoot to kill - "

The blade lanced forth. As it did so, the dancing petals coalesced into an imploding tide of destruction.

It took a full minute for the dust to clear. Byakuya gazed impassively at the spot where his victim had stood.

Finally, Gin returned to sight - but a sorry sight he was. The remains of his shihakusō had been completely obliterated. All he had left were his ragged hakama pants, reaching down to just below his knees, and his sandals - and the extensive bandages on his lower torso and shoulders, though these too were starting to show signs of wear from the barrage of blades.

He had fallen to his knees, his head bowed and his arms crossed defensively across his face. The heavily-scratched scabbard of Shinsō was still bound to his left forearm, Kisuke's leather straps proving substantially more durable than cotton cloth or bandages.

His entire body was striped with rivulets of blood. A thousand cuts adorned his skin, as if the scars of a lifetime of war had spontaneously reopened.

And yet, his back straightened, and he drew one leg back beneath him, then the other. Byakuya's eyes widened as, despite having suffered the wrath of a royal sword, Gin stood, and straightened.

His eyes, redder than the blood that stained his body, were open, their crimson gaze focused squarely on the captain. Beneath his grin, his teeth glittered in the noonday sun.

"Well, Byakuya," he said, still breathing heavily. "I guess ya ain't a... pushover, at least. In hindsight, it was... a bit stupid of me ta think I could cut through your Ban Kai... with only my first release, really."

Byakuya's gaze hardened once more.

"Watch your tongue, peasant," he spat. "I will not suffer to hear you insult the captains of the court guards by implying you have achieved Ban Kai."

There was a moment of silence.

Gin blinked. "Who's implying anything?" He said. "I'm sayin' it."

No honor. No mercy. I am on a mission, and I must not fail. I will take any chance that is given. And I will bite swiftly.

He drew one foot back, and extended his right arm, his zanpakutō pointing straight down. The slight curve of of Shinsō made her blade look like the fang of a cobra.

A halo of green fire erupted around Gin, stretching over twelve feet tall and six across. The sudden shockwave of Reiatsu caused even the mighty Byakuya to flinch.

"Ban Kai."

The green fire leeched color, and the world around them darkened. Gin's monochrome figure was surrounded by a seething, malevolent grey, which faded off into arcane shadows.

"Strike him down, Kamishini no Yari."

Byakuya's jaw clenched.

The shadow faded, and the reiatsu flare disappeared. The blade of Gin's zanpakutō glowed briefly, and faded back to steel.

"You think a cheap illusion will impress me?" Byakuya outright scoffed. "Truly, you dedicate too much time to worthless insults. And such an obviously fake name, too! Your sheer arrogance leaves me at loss for words."

"My arrogance?"

Gin's arm blurred, and - just as there had been on the plateau less than an hour ago - there was an earsplitting crack of thunder.

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