A/n: Thanks for the reviews, follows and favourites.

Warning: Swearing, violence and grammar errors.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach - that is all... But the following OC characters are all mine :D

Chapter 36: Cold Touch

The colour of crimson floated in the air for a moment that seemed like forever, before gravity took over and dripped onto the ground. Zommari stared at the duo with wide eyes – well he was more focused on the fact that his enemy had pierced her weapon through his weapon's left shoulder. In return, the unreleased zanpakuto had punctured through Tahani's body and she had the confident smirk remaining over her face.

However the espada managed to get over his astonished expression and bore his golden eyes towards the shinigami woman. "You had sacrificed your own body so that you could stab your comrade." He referred to the fact that Tahani's stomach was now bleeding heavily. At the mention of her new injury, she had raised her left arm to at least stop the blood escaping from her wound. "Now you had surely lost – eventually you will lose the strength to keep standing, and you will lose this fight." Silence came from Tahani as she tightened the hold on her dagger, eyes went over towards the espada and her face dropped. The pain was searing – for a half dead girl, Rukia can surely stab someone! Ichigo better watch out if he angered her too much.

Finally, Tahani decided to give Zommari a response to his comment.

"This is it?" Tahani jeered, releasing her dagger to grab Rukia's blade. Instantly, the espada looked completely infuriated that Tahani didn't fall victim to his plan. She narrowed her eyes in determination, pulling out the offending weapon from her body only to slam her fist against Rukia's face. In response, the Kuchiki went flying and Zommari's golden eyes flashed furiously in Tahani's direct. An amused chuckle escaped Tahani's lips when it occurred to her that it had been a while since she had a good brawl.

"You've think you've won this?!" Zommari snapped, raising his hand to activate his power, however Tahani used shunpo to dodge his attack. The last thing that Tahani needed was to lose control over a limb again, one arm being useless had given her no proper way to fight. In fact she only had one way to use her zanpakuto and that was if Rukia came close to her again. Unfortunately, Zommari had not bothered to move Rukia since Tahani had been doing nothing but dodging his attacks

A chuckle escaped Tahani's lips as she unclenched her fist and smirked coyly. She had to keep pushing him to get Rukia to attack. "I don't know about yerself – but I feel fine, this is just a scratch for me!" In an instant, the espada had reappeared behind her to use his Amor again but Tahani had instantly retreated. She scowled at the realisation – she was still defenceless and she didn't know how she could keep avoiding her current enemy.

The most she could do is go after the espada in order to reel in Rukia but she would still have to avoid his Amor technique. Seriously, who named a controlling power love? Apparently the arrogant espada did. Her smirk didn't fade from her features and used shunpo to appear behind him. Her plan to attack him was almost brilliant that even a genius like Mayuri Kurotsuchi would applaud for her plans.

As Zommari noticed that she was behind him, he attempted to his ability and Tahani immediately flashed out of sight. There was no way she was going to get him if she had kept trying to dodge, however she could catch him if she got close enough. Each time she had used shunpo, Tahani appeared half a metre closer to him than she had before and kept up the pace until the worst happened.

Just as Tahani was going to appear in sight again, it seemed that Zommari had caught on with her plan and used Amor on her again. Instinct made her halt and her useless arm swung in front of her face, shielding the technique from affecting her head. The espada showed his annoyance and Tahani used that opportunity to take down the espada. She let out a cry, pushing her feet with the remaining strength she had to reach towards the espada and raised her hand to in front of her face again. Her palm glowed dangerously red, indicating to Zommari that she was going to fire off another kido.

"Hado thirty-three," Tahani began but her eyes grew wide when Rukia appeared. Instead of firing like she had planned, Tahani dismissed the weak kido before it blew up in her face. She planted her feet a metre and a half in front of Rukia, allowing the reiatsu to stir between her two daggers.

"You should give up." Zommari raised a brow when Tahani let a chuckle as she raised her hand in the space between her and Rukia. Slowly, his eyes narrowed in disgust. "You are either too proud or you still believe you have a chance at victory. You shinigami are filled with empty pride and it will be your downfall."

"That's where yer gotta shut up," Tahani said fiercely and the air around them decreased in temperature. "I don't like doing this," The raven haired woman admitted as her fingers felt a cold surface. "But this is the only way I can play fairly."

"Attack!" Zommari commanded to the Rukia, but Tahani knew that he was already too late.

Her eyes narrowed darkly and let the reiatsu solidify. "Korudotatchi!"

Rukia had tried moving forward but she was unable to. The reason why she couldn't move was because of an icicle spear that was preventing her from moving any closer. Tahani chuckled with the amusement, wrapping her bloodied fingers over the ice before she pulled it out of her own shoulder and dug in deeper into Rukia's. If she had one of those cameras, she probably would've taken a photo of the surprise that was flashing over the espada's face. He looked like he had just discovered that everything he ever believed in happened to be a disgusting lie.

His shock was exactly what Tahani needed. She pulled out the spear from Rukia's shoulder, brandishing her weapon towards her opponent.

"I won't lie – I hate using this because it takes the fun out of the fight; in order to learn bankai I needed to master this technique," Tahani explained looking towards her spear. Her spear was basically made up of her two daggers pointed opposite ends, and it was stuck together by ice. It was possible to shatter the spear, however as long as she had the technique on she could easily fix her spear. Other than that, her reiatsu was stored in the ice so it was rather complicated to even crack the ice.

"So... do ya think ya know about it?" Tahani questioned, folding her arms as she watched Renji and Chad have their usual sparring match. She had to admit that she missed having a sparring match with Renji – after all he knew bankai and that was something she was willing to test her strength out on.

"Interesting," Kisuke replied was he observed the ability. He flapped his fan in front of him delightfully, eyeing the frozen spear as if it was some personal treasure. "It's as if your zanpakuto had two releases."

"That's impossible!" The raven haired woman retorted before the former captain could continue, "There's no way that there can't be two releases unless it was bankai included and I know that this isn't bankai!" She glared at her spear, tightening the hold she had with demise. Whatever this ability was – it was definitely too weak to be a bankai...

"I know." Tahani's eyes narrowed as she heard Kisuke speak, "But I believe that Aisutaiga is testing you in its unique way. In order to unlock your bankai, you have to master this way of battling before the next task. It's rather interesting to see that your zanpakuto is testing you a different way from others."

"But it doesn't matter." Tahani shook the day dream out of her head and spun the spear with her uninjured arm. "This should be enough to keep Rukia out of the fight and kill ya." Tahani looked towards Rukia seriously before a smirk crossed over her face. "It will be nice and quick so ya don't have to worry about the pain." She narrowed her eyes to notice that the blood had slowly dried over her body; at least the bleeding had slowed down. The raven haired woman was unsure if she would survive if she had kept the daggers. At least now, she did have a fighting chance to win the battle.

Zommari's golden eyes narrowed with fury, before he let out a yell. "Do you think that you have a chance of defeating me shinigami?" He spat, locking his visible eyes with hers. "All I have to do is control your sovereignty before you can get near me." No sooner than he let his two eyes flash purple, Tahani appeared right behind him with her weapon prepared to cut through him.

"Nice try, but ya little eye trick is getting a bit too annoying!" She declared with a cocky smirk, swinging her weapon to slash a few of his eyes. Before she could attack anymore the espada had vanished from her sight and appeared behind her with wide shocked eyes.

"Your speed..." He hissed, opening up more eyes on his head to glare at her. Apparently he had more eyes hidden, that would've been a nasty little trick if he had caught Tahani off guard.

Her determined smirk widened as she left her weapon on the side. "Aisutaiga's main ability is speed rising – with the daggers I was twice as fast, but with this spear..." She chuckled at the sight of his anger and narrowed her eyes. "Is double the speed of the daggers – I can now keep up with most of the captains back at Soul Society." It was true that she was rather skilled with shunpo; however she knew that she would've been unable to keep up with a captain for long – with her new ability she could keep up with them for a while.

Zommari looked more irritated by the second, before he commanded Rukia to start attack Tahani again. "Attack her now," He made Rukia lunge her blade towards Tahani who easily chuckled as she dodged the slash. There was no way he was going to get Tahani with the attacks he was sending. As Rukia made another slashing motion towards Tahani, she raised her spear to block the katana before kneeing Rukia in the face. "Damn you," He cursed as Rukia fell towards the ground.

Tahani used that chance to charge directly towards the espada and prepared to slash him in half. "This was a fun battle, too bad that I gotta make it end quickly." Just as she swung her weapon down the espada used sonido to appear behind her to use his technique on her from behind. "Ya not gonna get me that easily!" She declared as she used shunpo to vanish from his sight and appear behind him. Just as she appeared, Rukia jumped in the way again and attempted to stab Tahani. "Crap!" She blocked the attack and held her ground as Rukia tried to slash her in half. "Damn it."

"As long as I have this puppet, she can simply shield me from any future attack," The espada explained as Tahani showed off a dark smirk. He paused at her snide smile, noticing that she had begun to laugh with excitement. "What do you find so amusing shinigami?"

"Ya really getting on my nerves!" She announced darkly as her reiatsu shot up. "I should've told ya... but speed isn't the only thing that my zanpakuto does." A thick sheet of ice started to form on Rukia's katana which made the espada halt in his words and widen his eyes.

"How did you?" He looked like he was lost for words as the ice managed to take over a majority of Rukia's body. In the next moment, Tahani held her reiatsu into her zanpakuto and cut through the air in a single slash which resulted in a large slash into Zommari's chest. Blood erupted from his wound as he let out a gasp of agony and Tahani lowered her weapon and narrowed her eyes. "You shinigami are revolting," He hissed as his body began to fade away. "You say that you come to stop us hollows from eating humans, but you're killing us in cold blood! You think you're so noble?! It only disgusts me that you put yourselves at that level!"

Tahani smirked before she looked away from him. "Ya annoying – the only reason why I killed ya is because ya in the way of my blade. I told ya that I was from the eleventh division, and it didn't matter of who stood in my way." He vanished into the air, declaring Tahani was to be the victor of the battle. "I will kill them all..."

Pushover... Aisutaiga's voice uttered, just as Tahani looked at her zanpakuto. You said that you didn't need this ability to help you.

"Well I lied," Tahani replied out loud which left the zanpakuto chucking. "Korudotatchi was the thing I needed when he started using his power – with Rukia as his little bodyguard I couldn't even attack him unless I cut her head off so I needed to freeze her body. I had that chance when I had blocked her with the spear; whenever someone touches the spear they get covered in ice which freezes them completely." She took a deep breath and allowed her reiatsu to settle.

You're lucky for a stupid girl.

A smirk crossed over Tahani's face, Yeah I am... Tahani looked away from Zommari's previous direction before she noticed Rukia's body still trapped in the ice. Only her head had been unfrozen, but for some reason Tahani didn't feel okay about completely freezing up the Kuchiki at all. She closed her eyes in pity, unable to forgive herself that she had hurt her comrade. Maybe Renji will never forgive her, but Tahani's desire to kill Aizen had eased her conscious... only a little bit, "Sorry Rukia... if I had come sooner than neither of us would be like this."

Her zanpakuto had not shattered, thankfully because she felt that she may need it if she was going to rescue the human. The raven haired woman looked up towards the path and let out a cocky smirk. It seemed that Ichigo had won his battle with the espada as well – she was going to have to find him and they could find that girl together. It felt like Renji and Uryu were safe for now while Chad was in the same situation as Rukia. Tahani couldn't even sense the human's reiatsu anymore.

She stumbled in her steps, groaning at the pain that she felt in her countless wounds. Not even Aizen gave her this many wounds, but then again – his wounds were huge and they had knocked her out. This time she was going to possibly go down slowly and painfully – if she doesn't find Orihime that was.

"Maybe I should save some energy," Tahani uttered to herself as she sealed her zanpakuto back into the sealed state. At least then she could cover her reiatsu up from potential enemies. As soon as she sealed her zanpakuto up, Tahani noticed something odd with her half frozen arm. The black mark had never disappeared from her forearm, which only made her frown.

Did it mean that she was going to have a permanent tattoo on her arm-?

"Amor," At his familiar voice Tahani's eyes widened with horror. She turned around to face the owner of the voice, he had looked injured – but there was no sign of blood trailing down his chest. How had he survived it? Tahani had seen his blood, seen him wither up and die! Instantly it clicked; she growled in annoyance. So he had used his Gemelos Sonido in order to catch her off guard, and then strike her when she had turned her back. What a stupid thing for her to forget that he could make clones!

Tahani couldn't use Korudotatchi again; the only reason why it had worked the previous time was because she had managed to get Zommari's guard lowered. He looked like he had calmed down from his rage, but there was something that Tahani noticed – something that only made her feel utterly terrified.

One of his pupils had dilated, which clearly meant he had used his ability. She tried moving her undamaged arm in order to defend herself but she couldn't move it. That's when she saw the clear black symbol on the back of Tahani's arm.

"Shit!"

"I had told you shinigami," Zommari declared as he made the hand symbols to move her arm. Tahani's arm trembled in protest, slowly forcing the katana towards her chest, "That your arrogance was going to be the cause of your death. You are not only unable to defend yourself – but now you are unable to lay hand on me-!"

Tahani used her legs to dash towards him before she could get stabbed, briefly surprising the espada once more, "And I thought I told ya that ya gonna have to control my entire body!" She attempted to kick out a leg, but the arm automatically changed direction and stabbed her own offending leg. The shinigami collapsed before she could make it, clenching her teeth at the pain. "Bastard..." Depending on her legs, Tahani pushed herself up so that she could stand up, narrowing her midnight eyes to glare at him

"I admit that you had kept up well against the fastest espada, you are even able to stand up though your injuries can take a toll on you," Zommari raised his hands again to command Tahani's next movements. She tried to fight against the moving of her arm, but it was useless for her to even try. "So long shinigami," He commented coolly as Tahani's blade was getting dangerously close to her chest, "Your arrogance was the reason why you lost this battle today."

Damn it! Tahani cursed in fury, glaring at her zanpakuto – it was going to be the cause of her death after all. She knew that the espada was going to win the battle so she didn't bother to argue against it. In fact, Tahani kept a smirk on her face and let her life flash before her eyes.

Awakening to her new life, saving Laria, crossing blades with Renji, becoming a shinigami, meeting the kid and rescuing Rukia. Everything that happened, it was all because Tahani wanted to protect Laria that day from the stranger.

Laria...

Tahani's eyes opened at the flash of memories, wincing in pain as she felt her blade digging into her skin. All the memories that she had of her friends – Renji, Rukia, Ichigo, Ikkaku, Yumichika (... well), Hozumi and... Laria. The reminiscences that she gained were already cherished. "I failed again, Ria-chan..." She whispered under her breath, words that weren't even acknowledged by the espada. As she as she felt the pain, a voice had suddenly halted Zommari and Tahani from continuing.

"Bakudo sixty-one." Tahani instantly recognised the stony voice. "Rikujokoro."

The raven haired woman widened her eyes as the six bars firmly planted themselves into her body. Since the bars trapped her body, Tahani was no longer able to move any of her limbs. She looked at her rescuer with shock and disgust at the same time.

"Damn it – the captain is never gonna let me live this one down..."

A/n: I loved the last line, that is all I say for this.

Korudotatchi - Cold Touch, hence the chapter name.

26-04-2015* It was my friend's birthday on the 22nd, another was on the 24th and it was ANZAC day yesterday. This time in April is always active.

Ciao!

Please Review.