Chapter 56:
-Early the next day in the Tenth-
Toshiro stood atop of one the roofs in his division, merely watching the sun rising on the horizon, taking in the sight of twilight before the day would officially begin. He took in one more cool breath, just as the sun began heating the air with it's warm rays; 'I wonder how many of these I've watched throughout my life time.' he thought nostalgically, letting out his breath and glancing over to a figure moving below him.
'He just couldn't wait could he?' he continued, staring down at the glasses wearing Quincy as he walked through the division and used hirenkyaku to quickly get by any shinigami nearby.
The icy captain just ignored him, then looked back to the sun as it's full circumference became visible in the sky and crossed his arms across his chest; "Today marks the end to this confrontation." he said, seemingly to himself before vanishing in a shunpo.
At the same moment that he disappeared, Yoruichi walked up to the same place he shunpoed from and lightly smirked; "Indeed it does." she whispered in a determined tone.
She stared in the direction her friend had left in, then looked towards the Sixth Division and let out a sigh before shunpoing toward it.
-On the roof of a large building in the Third Division-
Uryu stood across from Jin and between him and Ran'Tao, all the while he kept his eyes narrowed and his bow drawn on the Bount; "I will avenge Yoshino-san...no matter what." the Quincy claimed, readying the spirit particle arrow to fire.
"I wonder if you can." Jin said smugly, not believing that the young teen posed a threat against him.
"Watch and see!" Ishida called out, firing the arrow just as Jin was about to smile in amusement.
Kariya had moved out of the way of the shot but the Quincy had used hirenkyaku to get behind him and fired off another arrow. The Bount threw his hand forward, creating an air current, which was meant to block the attack, but the arrow shot straight through it and then Kariya's leg. His eyes became wide, then he limped on the roof as he landed; "Not bad. But far from being at my level."
Uryu narrowed his eyes as his feet touched the ground and he charged up another blue arrow; "I'm just getting started." he claimed, using another hirenkyaku to get on his right side and firing quickly.
Jin dodged easily as he gathered the spirit particles around him and began healing his wound; "Pathetic." the Bount muttered smugly.
He then gathered two air currents around his hands and swung them at the raven haired teen, but Uryu moved out of the way and countered with another arrow toward Jin. But he simply blocked it with a very powerful gust of wind; "Firing single shots will never lead to victory." Jin claimed, gathering air around his hands once more.
Uryu narrowed his eyes, then glanced over to Ran'Tao, whom had watched their fight with interest and amazement; "We'll have to see about that!" he declared, vanishing from sight.
He then fired off a lazy shot as he came up behind him, to which Jin dodged by jumping into the air, but Uryu jumped up after him. As the Bount was about to send the air currents around his hands at him, Uryu vanished once again, but he left an after image, which fired off an arrow toward Jin. The white haired man narrowed his eyes and dodged; "What did I just tell yo-" but Jin was cut off as he saw more and more after images of the Quincy circling around him
The determined Quincy continued to use hirenkyaku and eventually left ten after images surrounding him. Each one was firing at him simultaneously, not allowing the Bount any rest or much time to dodge. Jin was hit by many of the arrows, even after spinning an increasingly strong wind around him to serve as a shield. After twelve shots had hit home, Jin fell from the air and hit the roof hard; "Hmph...it seems that you're more powerful then I anticipated." he said, gathering spirit particles once more to heal his injuries.
Uryu was about to fire one more arrow, aiming straight for the man's heart, but he ended having to dodge a strong air current coming at him. He touched back on the roofs surface and narrowed his eyes on the Bount; "You can't defeat me you know. So long as I absorb the spirit particles in the Seireitei, I'm invincible." Jin claimed, smirking confidently, making the Quincy narrow his eyes on him even further.
Ran'Tao couldn't help but look at Uryu in slight surprise that he had been able to do so well against someone as powerful as Jin thus far. But they were all so focused on the fight that no one saw a swift movement off to the side of them, nor the figure that appeared in the shadows soon after. Then Uryu was about to charge another arrow but a small crack suddenly showed itself in his bow, making both his and Ran'Tao's eyes to widen, while Jin merely smiled.
"It seems that you are putting too much pressure on that bow of yours. It won't be lasting too much longer." the Bount claimed smugly.
"That's not a problem. I'll just defeat you before it completely falls apart." was all Uryu responded with before disappearing from sight and firing an arrow from directly above Jin.
To which he jumped off to the side, but this arrow was much more powerful then the rest and had hit the Bount with a wave of spirit energy. Kariya tumbled slightly as he slid across the roof, but he never regained his footing, due to Ishida sending seven arrows at him, one right after another. The raven haired teen then used another hirenkyaku to get behind him and shot an arrow directly into the man's back. Since he had more time to charge the arrows power, the blast had blown Kariya twenty feet away and straight into a wall.
The white haired man picked himself up painfully, immediately turning around to glare at the Quincy and gathering more spirit particles. He breathed somewhat heavily as his pain increased from moving; "You'll pay for that one." he claimed angrily, his normal smugness vanishing as he ground his teeth together.
But then the Bount smiled widely as he noticed a large crack appear in the bow; "And it looks like your time with that bow is running out."
Uryu clenched his teeth together, knowing that his limit with the bow was creeping up on him and would more then likely give out any minute. But before he could think any further, Jin swiped his hands in the air, sending many powerful air currents at him. Though he was able to dodge each one, the attacks took out large sections of the wall behind him, despite being about five feet thick. The Quincy jumped into the air and fired off a few arrows, but all of them missed and had even created a dust cloud, which shielded Jin's next action.
He had used his great speed to suddenly appear behind Uryu and send a strong knee into his back. Then he grabbed the teen by the shoulder, spun him around and delivered a painful head-butt into his face. Jin smirked as Uryu yelled out in pain as his nose broke from the impact and so he decided to send a powerful punch into the Quincy's stomach. To which Uryu coughed up blood, closed his eyes from the extreme pain and attempt to take in an impossible breath.
Jin brought his hand up, then backhanded Uryu against the face, sending him hurling down and into the roof's top. The Bount smiled widely and slowly lowered himself down to be positioned across from the raven haired teen; "You're almost out of power already? You have yet to cause me any serious damage." Jin claimed, chuckling smugly.
Uryu glared at the white haired man, then slowly and very painfully stood himself up, readied another arrow and fired it at him; "It's no use." the Bount said, just as he swiped the blue spirit energy away as if it were a bug.
But the Quincy's attack wasn't over, he pushed aside his pain and focused on his anger for the man, he then used a hirenkyaku to get on Jin's right side and fire off five more shots as quickly as he could. Yet Jin just used a whirl wind to destroy the arrows before they reached him and even counter attacked with a sharp air current. Uryu dodged out of the way, but he was met by a powerful fist to his face from the Bount, knocking him into the roof; "Even your speed has drastically fallen." the white haired man gloated looking down at him.
Uryu glared up at the man, ground his teeth together and was about to generate another arrow, but Jin kicked his arms away. The Bount smirked widely and was about to finish the raven haired teen, but he was interrupted by a voice from off to the side; "Kariya!"
Ran'Tao suddenly leapt toward them, as she came closer, she took a small silver rectangular-shaped trinket from her haori-like coat and narrowed her eyes on the Bount. She then pressed a small button on the top of the silver object and it suddenly opened, it divided into four triangles, with a glowing white disc in the center. But the most notable feature about the device was the Bount's crest in the center of the glowing disc.
As the brown haired woman came forward, she was engulfed in a large and powerful spirit energy and she hurled her body into Jin's. She wrapped her arms around his and used the spirit energy around to keep the Bount from attacking; "Wh-What? What is this? I can't get away from her!" Jin exclaimed angrily.
He then removed one of his arms as they slid back toward one of the walls, he attempted to deliver a punch to her side, but she suddenly pulled out a strange knife and stabbed him with it. Jin cringed from the blade entering his ribs, which in turn, stopped his attack and growl silently from the wound. Ran'Tao looked back to Uryu and narrowed her eyes; "Fire!" she called out.
The young Quincy's eyes became wide at her demand and just stood there for a moment, too stunned to move; "Do it now!" she yelled, snapping him from his daze.
"I can't." he said silently, but the other two were able to hear him, causing Jin to smirk lightly and Ran'Tao to turn her head to him fiercely.
"Don't worry about me and do it!" she screamed at him, to which he shook his head, obviously seeing too much of the Bount Yoshino in her to even think about hurting her.
"I can't do it!" he yelled back at her, but he froze as her eyes shifted to a determined yet pleading look.
"Please...don't let the Bounts win." she said, making the Quincy close his eyes, charge up an arrow and fire it just as he reopened his eyes.
Jin's eyes had become increasingly wide as the arrow came hurling right at him, but it had been aimed to miss Ran'Tao so he knew it would miss all of his vital parts. Yet it had done much damage to his body and even thrown the brown haired woman twenty feet away, making Uryu catch her before hitting the roof. But as he laid her down and shared a few words between the two of them, the Quincy stood up and started heading toward Jin to finish him off.
The Bount himself was starting to stand up, but he did so with great difficulty and much pain shooting through his body. But just as Uryu was about to charge up his finishing arrow, a sudden wave of orange-red spirit energy erupted from behind him. He looked back to see Ran'Tao crouching down in pain, then letting out a scream of pain; "What the-?" Uryu demanded to himself before running to her side.
The Quincy looked around at the spirit energy, then to Ran'Tao as she continued screaming from extreme pain; "No choice." he said to himself.
He then began gathering all of the spirit particles from her and formed a gigantic orange color arrow with it. Uryu pointed it toward the healing Bount, but due to the high amount of concentrated spirit energy, he wasn't about to fully point it at him before it suddenly shot all on it's own. The arrow hurled forward, just barely missing Jin and exploding on the wall behind him. The enormous blast had caused him to fly forward and tumble across the roof top till he hit the opposite wall.
Ran'Tao looked at Uryu with a shocked expression; "You tried to use the escaping spirit energy to destroy him." she commented, looking over at Jin as his wounds had finished healing, but at a much slower rate then normal.
"Yeah...kill two birds with one stone. But I couldn't hold that much power for long...it looks like Ichigo will get his chance after all. That Hitsugaya knew my limits better then I did." the Quincy said, mostly to himself as the bow on his hand suddenly shattered and his clothes returned to his normal human outfit.
"We had better get out of here...it's going to get pretty dangerous pretty soon." he continued, offering his hand the the brown haired woman, to which she was about to take it, but stopped as she heard the Bount's voice.
"Do you think I'll just let you go?" Jin asked darkly as he stood up and glared at the two, his wounds completely healed.
"No...but I already know that you can't get to us, regardless of how powerless we are." Uryu claimed, knowingly.
Jin ground his teeth together, brought his hand up and generated a large amount of wind in it; "We'll see about that!" he yelled out, swinging his hand forward and sending a large gust of wind toward them.
Uryu looked at it without a single drop of fear and even smirked lightly; "Word of advice, don't interrupt..." the Quincy started as a shadow suddenly moved from off to the side.
The gust of wind suddenly dissipated as it reached within ten feet of the two, which cause Jin's and even Ran'Tao's eyes to widen; "...Captain Hitsugaya's plans." Uryu finished as he looked to Toshiro at the spot the gust of wind was stopped.
Toshiro glanced back at Uryu and smirked lightly; "How long did you know I was there?" he asked.
The Quincy merely smirked back to him and turned to Ran'Tao as he helped her up; "Since the beginning." he claimed.
The icy captain smirked slightly wider, then it disappeared as he glared over at Jin; "But the Quincy has a point...you really shouldn't interrupt with my plans." he said, just before he glanced over to his left.
Jin kept his eyes narrowed on the white haired captain, but then he followed his stare to the side, just before an overwhelming blue spirit energy came hurling at him. The Bount dodged off to the side, but he was grazed by the attack on his left arm and leg; "Sorry...I guess I got here just a bit late." Ichigo commented as he appeared in a shunpo next to Toshiro.
"Hpmh...you'll need to work on that." the white haired captain said, turning around and looking to Uryu and Ran'Tao; "I trust you'll be able to take care of things here." he continued.
Ichigo smirked to Toshiro from over his shoulder and nodded; "Oh yeah...you can count on that." he said before leaping toward Jin and slashing down at him.
Toshiro smirked lightly as the sound of Ichigo's sword clashing with Jin's wind filled the air, then he walked toward Uryu and Ran'Tao; "Let's go." he said simply.
He then grabbed both of then by the arms and shunpoed them down to the ground, where they were met by Rangiku, Orihime and Chad. Uryu looked at each of them, knowing that they would more then likely show him their distaste for leaving without telling them anything. But before anyone could speak, a large spirit energy suddenly rose up and the echoing voice of Ichigo sounded in their ears; "Bankai!"
An enormous whirlwind erupted from the roof, which had caused Jin to leap into the air and stay there using his own wind. As the wind died down, Ichigo suddenly leapt from the roof and attacked Jin. They all watched them, but then Toshiro turned his attention to Ran'Tao; "So how many Jokaisho's are there and where are they located?" he asked, to which everyone turned their eyes to him.
Ran'Tao nodded to him, reached inside her jacket pocket, pulled out a folded up map and handed it to the icy captain; "I was wondering when you were going to ask. We've met up quite a few times and you never bothered...I was starting to think that you just forgot." she said, making Toshiro's expression to go from cold and serious to flustered.
He had even blushed slightly, but it had disappeared as his normal and icy composer was brought back to his face; "I was...busy." was all he said before taking the map and turning away from everyone.
They were all about to question him, but they were interrupted as Ichigo and Jin suddenly flew by them from above their heads; "Anyway, Uryu...get her some place safe so she can rest. And the rest of you can go after Kurosaki if you want...just don't get in his way." Toshiro said, giving all of them a hard stare.
Each of them nodded, then Uryu immediately took Ran'Tao by the arm and waist, helping her away. While he did this, Orihime and Chad started running off toward where they could sense their friend. But as Uryu walked, he could hear Rangiku speaking to her captain; "So why didn't you ask her before this?"
There was a long pause before he made a very silent response, but just loud enough so that the Quincy could barely hear; "I...I just forgot."
Uryu had almost tripped over his feet as he heard this, then glanced over his shoulder with an expression that asked; 'Are you serious?' But then Toshiro suddenly vanished in a shunpo as his lieutenant began laughing; "Aww, come on Captain! It was an honest mistake!" she called out, while still giggling madly from her amusement and following after him.
Uryu sighed lightly and rolled his eyes; "I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to being around these shinigami." he mumbled to himself as he kept walking with Ran'Tao.
Okay, there's Chapter 56, I hope you guys enjoyed. Since this chapter was mostly from Uryu's POV, the next chapter will feature Ichigo vs Jin and will be mostly from Ichigo's POV. Anyway, I hope to see all of you review, I got ten reviews for the last one, I hope I get just as much if not more. ;) And remember, any ideas, OC's or suggestions are welcome. But I will say this, the OC's won't have to big of a part, they will show up every once in a while though. Till next time. :D
