• • •
"Bye bye~! " Ichimaru-Taicho teasingly called out, waving to us as the gate slammed shut and dug into the earth once more.
I glared at the closed gate, huffing in frustration.
"Kurosaki-Kun! Are you okay, Kurosaki-Kun?" Orihime questioned, running straight towards said strawberry.
Sighing, I flash stepped over by them, looking down at Ichigo just like they were; I successfully startled Orihime, but that didn't matter.
"Ichigo?" I asked, blinking down at him as he reached forward and grasped the hilt of his Zanpakuto.
"IT HURTS!" Ichigo roared, pushing his upper body off of the ground as he growled. The rest of us blinked, watching as he sat himself up. "Damn that punk! What is he?! He nearly killed me! Damn it… Ouch!"
"He sure is lively…" I muttered, rolling my eyes before I let them trail over him. "But, it doesn't look like he's injured. That's good."
"Safety first, Ichigo." Yoruichi stated, walking up to the strawberry.
"Yoruichi-San," Ichigo sighed, "Sorry. Because of me, the door-"
"Forget it." The black cat said, shaking her/his head. "There is no point in feeling bad about it now. Although the door is closed again, that was Ichimaru; even if you had passed through, the results would have still been the same. Be thankful you're not injured."
Scuffling noises met our ears.
"People..?" Ishida questioned, watching as residents stepped out of their homes to get a better look at us.
"Who are they?" Ichigo asked, "They were hiding all along?"
"Why?" Orihime questioned.
"Well, you can't really blame them." I said, shrugging as Yoruichi nodded to show that the cat agreed with me.
"Anyone that was not guided here by a Shinigami is considered an intruder, also known as Ryoka's. They are seen as the trouble makers of Soul Society." Yoruichi explained. "They were hiding because they were afraid."
"…Are they dangerous?" Ichigo questioned, looking down at Yoruichi for the answer.
"Well, they are showing themselves before us… So, probably not."
"Excuse me!" A small voice called out, "Sorry! Excuse me! Pardon me!"
A small child was making their way through the growing crowd.
"M-Mister! Long time no see!" The small boy exclaimed, smiling up at us waving; however, he was looking straight at Chad. "It's me! The parakeet, Shibata!"
"Shi…Shibata?!" Chad exclaimed, his one visible eye widening in surprise.
I softly smiled, watching as Shibata ran up to Chad. Their difference in height was quite comical; although, anyone could see how happy the little boy was from seeing the human giant once more. However, my attention was soon captured as I watched a group of the townsmen trying to get Jidanbou's severed arm from the rooftop that it had landed on.
It didn't take too long for them to accomplish their mission: they had actually used rope to form a sort of pulley system to lower it back to the ground. Orihime had ordered them to fetch the arm because she was going to try and heal it back. They were also attempting to tug it across the ground and over to Jidanbou's limp body, but they weren't moving very quickly. The rather large gatekeeper was still profusely bleeding.
"You can help, you know." Ankoku-Tatsu's voice played out in my head. "You've been getting better at your shadow manipulation; it's close to that of what you'll be able to do in Bankai. However, try to control the shadows to weave around his arm and tug with all of your might. You should be able to move his arm easily."
Smirking, I muttered a quick 'thanks' under my breath and took off with a flash step. Appearing in front of the men moving the arm, I startled them so bad that they dropped their hold on the ropes.
"Hehe, I'm sorry for startling you." I apologized, slightly bowing at the waist as I slowly smiled at them. "I would like to try and help, if I may."
"Well," One of the men hedged, looking at the others for help. "You can try and help if you want to. I don't know how much help you'll be."
"Oh, no need to worry." I hastily said, waving at them in a dismissive manner. "You guys won't even have to lift a finger, hopefully."
"What do you mean?" Another one of the bulkier men piped in, seemingly scowling at me.
"Just watch," I replied, gracefully pulling Ankoku-Tatsu from my hilt as I jumped backwards into the shadows that the shabby buildings cast. "Sorera no ue ni kagekyasuto, Ankoku-Tatsu!" I exclaimed [which translates to; "Cast your shadow over them, Ankoku-Tatsu!"].
Everyone peered back at me, watching in awe as the shadows seemed to leap from the ground and tightly wrapped around the blade of my sword, staining it a deep black. The golden triangle shaped hilt slowly began to glow until it was a bright crimson color, eerily standing out from the surrounding shadows. The previously red cloth wrapped around the grip was now black, but the small black ribbon had switched to the crimson red and rapidly grew in length.
"Jun?" Ichigo asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
That's right, I thought with a smirk, I don't think that Ichigo's ever seen me release my Zanpakuto. The previous time I had around him had been when Grand Fisher had wounded him and I healed him up; of course, he was passed out by that point.
"Just watch, Ichigo." I replied, lifting my sword to the side as my eyes began to glow with an eerie red tint from focusing on my reiatsu. "This is the ability of my Zanpakuto."
The shadows around me began to dance around, willingly submitting to my control. Of course, these were only the shadows of buildings. Living people's shadows tended to fight back more. I narrowed my eyes in concentration as they leapt up from the ground, forming what seemed to be solid dark winding shapes. Without any movement from me, the shadows willingly darted forward, wrapping and binding themselves around Jidanbou's severed arm.
Everyone gasped as the shadows began easily pulling the severed arm back to Jidanbou's body; to them it must have looked like someone just leading a dog around on a leash. However, if it hadn't been for those days completely set aside for training, I wouldn't have been able to do this.
"Amazing~!" Orihime cheered, watching as the shadows gently nestled the arm back to its rightful place. "I didn't know you could do things like that, Jun-Chan!"
I gently smiled at them all, walking out of the shadows as I released the ones around the arm from my will. They faded away like smoke, as did the ones surrounding my Zanpakuto before I sheathed it.
"It's not that great," I replied, offhandedly shaking my head. "I mean, it's great in situations like these, but it's more difficult to use in a fight."
Orihime's smile slightly faltered when I brought up using it in fights but she didn't press any further about her wishes of not fighting. "Thank you, Jun-Chan. You've saved us a lot of precious time. Now, I'll make sure to tend to Jidanbou-San until he's well."
Shaking my hand once more in the air dismissively, I frowned. "No need to thank me, Orihime. If you can really heal his arm, then you'll be the one needing all of the thanks."
The auburn haired girl sighed, sadly shaking her head. However, she just walked towards the fallen giant and raised one of her hands gracefully to the hairpins in her hair. "Shuno, Ayame! Soten Kisshun! I reject!"
Like earlier when she had formed the shield, pieces of light floated from her hairpins. However, this time, there were only two sources. Each of them floated over to the wound, floating directly from across each other. Then, with a blinding light, they formed an oval like shield.
Orihime looked like she had the situation under control, so I stretched and leaned back against the wall of a nearby house. My sudden movements seemed to have caught Ichigo's attention, seeing as how his cinnamon eyes moved from the glowing shield to settle on me. He opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by a person on his other side speaking up.
"A lot of Shinigami are jerks, but… Jidanbou is from the alley, too. So he is very nice to us." The spirit said, crossing his arms as he turned his head away from Jidanbou and towards Ichigo and me. "Seeing you go against Ichimaru Gin for Jidanbou… And seeing you help try and save his arm… You both must be nice people, too."
Ichigo looked uncomfortable, like this was one of the first times that he had ever received a compliment. He sighed, bringing his hand up to his face to nervously scratch his cheek. "It was nothing, really."
Rolling my eyes, I elbowed the strawberry in the side before leaning forward and looking around him so I could see the soul. "He means to say that he did it without a second thought; it was the right thing to do, so he did it. That's just the kind of person he is."
The soul chuckled a bit at my reply, which caused Ichigo to faintly blush and scowl down at me. I just ignored the look at beamed up at the soul.
• • •
"Good; everyone's here."
I looked up from my seated position next to Yoruichi, watching as Ichigo walked back into the hut that we'd be staying in with Orihime in tow. Ishida was standing next to the door, waiting for them to return as well.
Orihime had yet to fully heal Jidanbou's wound completely. However, she needed to be here as we discussed our next strategy. Because of that, I had suggested that Ichigo go and get her.
That didn't stop him from complaining about it, though. He didn't understand why he had to be the one to go and get her; he didn't know that she had a huge crush on him and he would be the one she would most likely listen to. And after a rather intense glare from me, Ichigo scurried out of the hut to go and get Orihime.
"Come and sit." Yoruichi commanded, turning to look at everyone. She was seated across from the Elder that had kindly lent us lodging in his home for the night. "I want to discuss our plan for tonight and tomorrow."
"Alright," Ichigo nodded, walking over and claiming the seat on the ground next to me. I looked up and smiled at him, before setting my gaze back on the hand drawn map that was spread across the center of the floor.
"First, once the door has been opened, the security behind the door will increase dramatically." Yoruichi explained, as the Elder pointed to the gate that we had crashed on the map with a pointer. There was a big 'X' drawn over it, and a large circular area that expanded from inside of the gate that was shaded in; that was supposed to represent the added security.
"So then fighting the guardian for passage won't work anymore?" Ishida asked from his position next to Orihime.
Yoruichi shook her/his cat-like head. "Breaking in like that was never a good idea in the first place! It was this idiot's recklessness!"
I laughed out loud, quickly bringing my hands up to cover my mouth and try to muffle the sound. However, Ichigo turned to glare at me after his shocked face faded; after all, Yoruichi's tail did straighten out to point directly at the strawberry.
"Anyways," Yoruichi continued, shooting me a look that said to shut up, "We won't be able to use that gate anymore."
"What about the other gates?" Chad brought up.
"They are at least ten days away. We would be wasting a lot of time just going there." Yoruichi explained, shooting down the giant's idea.
"Then how are we going to…?" Ishida asked, eyes widening.
Yoruichi cut her golden eyes straight at Ishida. "Don't worry. If we can't go in using the gate entrance…We'll just go in without using the gate entrance."
"Without…using the gate?!" Ichigo exclaimed in surprise as we all turned to look down at the small black cat as if it had lost its mind. How else were we going to get in?
"Elder-Dono," Yoruichi spoke, turning to look towards the kind-hearted elder of the Rukon District. "Shiba Kukaku. Do you know where Shiba-San is?"
The Elder's mouth merely dropped at the question, his small eyes widening from behind his wrinkles.
"In the past the place used to be somewhere around here, but… Since Shiba is a drifter, there is a chance that…" Yoruichi began, only to trail off in silence as she stared up at the Elder.
"Shiba…Kukaku." The Elder stated, "Can it be that… You plan to go into the city through 'that'..?"
"What do you mea-" Ichigo began to ask, but his voice was drowned out by a loud, thundering noise.
"What's that sound?" I asked, voicing the question that was on everyone's mind as we all looked around to try and find the source.
After a few more seconds, the sound stopped.
However, it was then that a person was thrown through the Elder's door, knocking it down as they came flying through it.
"WAHHH~!" The intruder screamed, landing on the ground and skidding over towards us. We all leapt to our feet and scurried out of the way.
"Who is that?!" Ichigo exclaimed, angling his body so that I was partially hidden from view if the person stood up to look around. However, I bent to the side to peer from behind him.
A wild pig then walked in through the door next; although, I wasn't too sure that it was completely wild because it had a large pink bow tied into the hair coming from its back.
"It's a wild boar!" Ichigo exclaimed, his jaw dropping in shock. "A wild boar ran in!"
"Ahh… I got thrown off by my pig again…" The intruder groaned, slowly standing up and brushing the dirt off of his pants. "Yo! Long time no see, Jiji!" [Jiji = less respective way to say 'Old Man']
"Ganju, what are you doing here?" The Elder asked, standing up. "Go back home!"
"Some greeting! I come to visit after a long time and I get that?" The intruder, now known as 'Ganju,' said as he placed a hand on his hip. "You're scaring the guests, don't be so impolite…"
"That's because of you!" The Elder exclaimed.
"Wait a minute…" Ganju muttered, as his eyes scanned the room and landed on me and Ichigo.
"What?" I asked, blinking as I angled my head further from behind Ichigo's back, trying to get a better look at whatever he was looking at.
"What are you staring at?" Ichigo asked, his eyebrows narrowing in his usual scowl as his cinnamon eyes were trained on the newcomer. I blinked, looking back and forth between the two of them; it was such a tense atmosphere.
"What the?!" Ganju exclaimed, pulling his sunglasses off to get a better look, "What are punk ass Shinigami's doing in here?!"
"What?" Ichigo asked, defiantly staring back at Ganju.
"Not 'what'!" Ganju exclaimed, stepping closer to the two of us and standing in front of Ichigo. Ganju's eyes cut to my form for a second, catching the strawberry's attention. Ichigo, being the protective person that he is, gently shoved me further back behind him. "I asked you a question: What are punk ass Shinigami's doing in a place like this?!"
Ganju inched closer to Ichigo with each word of his question. He even had the nerve to tap Ichigo's cheek with his hand, further aggravating the strawberry.
"Huh?" Ichigo merely questioned as Ganju's hand stayed on his cheek; I could see the vein on his forehead beginning to throb.
"Huh?!" Ganju questioned back, eye twitching at Ichigo's lack of response. The man merely sneered, grabbing Ichigo's chin. "Say something, Dandelion Head-!"
Ichigo said something, alright; well, his fists did the talking.
Ichigo managed to land a direct punch on Ganju's jaw, sending him flying across the room once more.
"Why the heck did you punch me, Dandelion Head?!" Ganju exclaimed, sitting up and clutching his jaw. "Are you trying to pick a fight with me?! Huh?!"
"That's my line!" Ichigo exclaimed, balling his hand into a fist as it shook with anger. "Suddenly barging in here and trying to provoke me like that! Who the hell do you think you are?!"
"Well, looks like they're going to fight." I murmured, crossing my arms across my chest as I walked over to stand beside Orihime and Ishida, who were out of the way of the fight.
"What should we do?" Orihime asked, turning her head to look at me. "We have to stop them!"
The Elder merely sighed, "…Just as I thought…"
"What do you mean, 'Just as you thought…'?" Ishida questioned the Elder, thrusting a finger in Ganju's direction. "Who is that, Elder-Dono?"
"What? You really don't know who I am?" Ganju questioned.
"I don't." Ishida replied, pushing up his glasses.
"Neither do I." Orihime said, shaking her head.
"Don't know." Chad said.
"How should I know?" I questioned, shaking my head and rolling my eyes.
"I don't even wanna know." Ichigo replied, scowling.
"Hah, then it can't be helped. I'll tell you!" Ganju said, dramatically pointing to himself with both of his thumbs. "My name is Ganju! Self-Proclaimed Crimson Bullet of West Rukon District! Self-Proclaimed the most 'want-to-call-you-big-brother' candidate for fourteen years running! And..! Self-Proclaimed West Rukongai's Number One Shinigami Hater!"
They're all self-proclaimed?!
What an idiot!
"Hah, you're hopeless." Ichigo scoffed.
"What?"
"What?"
With a battle cry, Ganju ran towards Ichigo and slammed into his stomach. Both were sent flying out of the doorway and into the street.
"Kurosaki-Kun!" Orihime exclaimed, rushing over to the doorway along with Ishida. I merely sighed, shaking my head as I followed after them; although, knowing them, they probably wouldn't be dragged into the fight.
"Hold it~!" A voice called out, causing all of us to stop. "We won't let you get in Aniki's way!" [Aniki = Big Brother]
"If you really want to get involved in this fight…"
"We'll be your opponents."
Ganju's friends crowded the doorway, blocking our view of the fight. Although, it didn't help matters when we saw that they were all riding boars as well, considering that I wasn't focused on a fight any more. I just wanted to laugh.
"So you guys are that Ganju's underlings…" Ishida said, narrowing his eyebrows as he stared up at them.
"Wow," Orihime breathed.
"All of them are riding on boars." Chad pointed out, appearing behind me. I nodded, busting out in laughter.
"Get out of here!" Ganju exclaimed, stomping his sandal clad foot on the ground to emphasize his point. "While I'm alive, no Shinigami will be allowed to step foot in West Rukongai!"
Ichigo's foot swiftly came up, nailing Ganju in the face.
"AHH!" Ganju and his friends chorused, almost in sync.
"Aniki!" One of his friends cried out, worried.
"That's enough," Ichigo said, standing up and rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. "You didn't even hear me out! And you just go around hitting people… Even if you really wanted to fight me, you're not good enough to be my opponent."
"Punk!" Ganju exclaimed, standing back up and clutching his face with his hand, "That was twice in a row that you've punched my handsome face..!"
"I kicked you the second time, idiot!" Ichigo retorted.
"Oi! Stop it, Ichigo!" Yoruichi yelled, running out from the house. "Don't waste your energy on a useless fight!"
"He was the one who started it. You should tell him that." Ichigo growled, scowling at Ganju. Yoruichi only scoffed at his childish behavior.
"It seems like we're destined to fight, you and me." Ganju drawled out, unsheathing a very short sword from his back. It looked like it should have been a regular sword, only it had somehow been cut straight down because it had such a smooth vertical edge.
"Stop, Ganju!" The Elder commanded, "He is not an evil Shinigami!"
"Shut up!" Ganju roared, turning around to glare at the Elder. "Shinigami are Shinigami. There's no good or bad."
"Ganju…" The Elder softly spoke, his eyes softening.
"Here I come, Shinigami!" Ganju exclaimed, beginning to run toward Ichigo with his short sword ready.
"Ichigo doesn't have his Zanpakuto!" I observed, my eyes widening when I didn't see the large, cleaver like sword in his hands.
"Hold on, I'll make a shield!" Orihime stated, holding her hands out in front of her. However, she didn't need to; Ichigo's Zanpakuto was soon flying above our heads, aimed at Ichigo.
"Thanks, Chad!" Ichigo said, catching his Zanpakuto by its handle without even looking.
I could feel my jaw drop in amazement as I watched Ichigo skillfully spin around, aiming his Zanpakuto at Ganju. I found it utterly amazing as the wrappings around his Zanpakuto managed to loosen at once, falling away from the sword and shortening as it circled Ichigo.
Was Ichigo always this amazing?
"Huge! So that's your Zanpakuto! However," Ganju said, being parried by Ichigo's sword and stopped. "Don't assume that with a larger sword you'll be able to beat me!"
Ganju's foot spun around on the ground. I normally wouldn't have picked this up, but my eyes were well adjusted to the darkness outside. Not to mention that fighters usually wouldn't move their feet while they were being parried like that. His foot finished the circle, then he stomped the ground.
Smirking, Ganju grabbed the flat edge of Ichigo's Zanpakuto and easily pushed it into the earth. But, it didn't look like regular dirt that it was being pushed into; no, it went down smoothly and quickly.
"Sink!" Ganju commanded, still pushing down on Ichigo's Zanpakuto. Soon, it was almost all pushed into the earth, save for a few inches from the grip down.
"W-What's going on?!" Ichigo exclaimed, confused.
"The ground!" Ishida noted.
"It's like quicksand!" Orihime said, nodding.
"Ichigo! Look out!" I exclaimed, reading Ganju's movements quickly and figuring out that he was going to attack now that Ichigo was unarmed and full of openings.
Halfway through my sentence, however, Ganju had already moved and successfully landed a kick to the side of Ichigo's head. Ichigo was sent skidding back a couple of feet, although he managed to quickly steady himself.
"Why you!" Ichigo scoffed, wiping away some of the dirt smeared on his face. "Using weird tricks!"
Ganju rushed forward once more, planning on landing a few more critical attacks while Ichigo remained unarmed. However, Ichigo was on guard now and managed to block his attacks with his arm; forearm stopping forearm. In the blink of an eye, Ichigo saw an opening and attacked, punching Ganju in the face once more.
"How's that? That punch hurt, didn't it?!" Ichigo asked, smirking at Ganju. "Before middle school, I was stronger than Tatsuki in karate!"
I felt my eyes widen; he was stronger than Tatsuki back then? That was a few years ago. And Tatsuki was really strong! Besides, he trained with Urahara for days… and Urahara was a master of hand to hand combat.
"Damn it!" Ganju cursed, coming at the strawberry once more.
Ichigo caught Ganju's wrist easily, another punch coming in contact with Ganju's face again. I had noticed that Ganju's nose looked like it had been broken before, but now I didn't think it had any hope of ever looking normal.
"That punch just now didn't knock him out…?" Ichigo asked, shaking his smarting hand to try and regain feeling in it once more. "This guy is tough…"
"Punk!" Ganju scoffed, trying to wipe away the blood that was flowing from his, probably broken, nose. He began to charge Ichigo once more, but was interrupted by a loud ringing noise which caused him to stop.
"No..!" One of Ganju's friends still on the boar exclaimed. "Bad news, Aniki!"
"It's already nine o'clock!" Another one of them exclaimed, looking at the large clock strapped onto one of the other follower's backs.
"What?!" Ganju exclaimed, turning around and looking at them with wide eyes. "Nine o'clock?! Oh, no! Come over here, Bonnie-Chan!"
Ganju whistled for his boar, looking all around for her.
I blinked, hearing the thudding sound of its hooves.
My eyes widened as I saw it jump over Ichigo; its hooves barely missed his hair. Truthfully, I thought I could see a few hairs flying through the air.
Bonnie-Chan, the boar, collided with Ganju and sent him flying back once more. I'm guessing they had a love-hate relationship… Bonnie-Chan didn't seem to like Ganju that much. Not that I'd like Ganju, either. The boar had my respect.
"Hm… Bonnie-Chan, you're the same as ever…" Ganju muttered, sitting up and wiping away some of the blood and dirt on his face. "We're running out of time, so we have to move!"
"Oi..! Don't go!" Ichigo exclaimed, "Are you running away?!"
"Did I say I'm gonna run away, Dandelion Head?!" Ganju yelled from his spot on the boars back, "I just have some place that I have to be. Wait here until I come back!" Ganju then smirked, pointing at Ichigo. "Don't you run away like cotton in the wind! Let's go everyone!"
"Huh?!" Ichigo questioned, his left eye twitching in annoyance. "Cut the crap! That's my line!" Ichigo dramatically pointed at them, but they were now only small flecks in the horizon. "…They're all gone…"
"That was such a disaster, Ichigo." I sighed, shaking my head.
"Take it easy, Kurosaki." Ishida said, clapping the strawberry on the shoulder as he also stared off into the horizon.
"I'm gonna kill him!" Ichigo roared, the vein on his forehead wildly throbbing. "Just who the hell was he?!"