Chapter Ten
Maka Urai retreated to his secret training cavern when the news they were at war reached him. Suddenly, the training he had been doing didn't quite seem adequate, for though he was certainly proud of how far he had come in the past few months, their opponents were rumored to be Arrancar, and he was no seated officer. Even though he felt he should be by now, he wasn't, and not even seated officers could easily take out an Arrancar.
So he secluded himself alone to his training room, and went as far as he could without exhausting himself.
All the Divisions were now on alert, an invasion might begin at any time. He regretted that this made it impractical to press his limits, as he needed to be ready for a fight at any moment, but after as much physical training as he thought safe, Urai sat down to meditate with his sword.
She was a jealous woman, his Zanpakuto. The moment he opened his eyes in his inner world, he found her hanging upside down right in front of his face, glaring viciously.
"You're late," she hissed, crossing her arms. "Or shall I say early? It is a whole other day, so maybe the clock resets itself? But you didn't come at all yesterday, so how am I to know what time it is, eh?"
Urai sighed. "Gomen, but duty calls at any time, regardless of a Zanpakuto's schedule."
"Well, maybe this Zanpakuto is going to be busy too, regardless of a Shinigami's schedule!"
Urai nodded seriously, sitting down under her tree. "Don't let me bother you, I'll just be resting here."
She glared at him again.
"You know I don't like it when you're alone in here," she muttered. "So I can't exactly go now, can I? You should leave so I can get back to my busy life."
If there had been crickets in Urai's inner world, they would have made their presence known in the silence that followed.
"Really, don't mind me," repeated Urai, reclining with his hands behind his head. "I'm just tired from training and wanted to chat, but it's not as pressing as your busy, busy schedule."
"You're trying to make me stay and talk through reverse whatever, but that's cheating, because I already can't leave you alone, and you know it," his Zanpakuto snapped, climbing back onto her branch and perching there angrily. "Little jerk. Well, I'm staying right here, but I'm not talking to you, and that's that. Humph!"
Urai nodded again and closed his eyes, relaxing completely. He wasn't entirely sure why his Zanpakuto was as difficult as she was, but he tried to live with it. If he ever intended to achieve bankai, it would take a great deal more understanding between the two of them then they were yet capable of, and he saw no way of remedying that except to spend time with her.
Even if it did always end up turning into him sitting under her tree, her sitting on her branch, and neither of them talking to one another.
Time passed slowly, though she stopped snarling at him after a few minutes. Urai let the silence stretch, knowing she would break it eventually, even if just to hum to herself. She did that often, and he liked it. She could communicate a lot more reasonably when she wasn't talking.
In the meantime, he liked the silence. It was peaceful in this inner world of his, sitting quietly under a tree, and here he could make himself forget for a time that the outside world and all it's troubles even existed.
Until the illness struck.
One moment he was relaxing in peaceful silence, the next he was in a world of blood and darkness. Pressure he couldn't stand under was pressing down all around him, and, worse still, inside of him, as if there were a black hole deep in his soul. Rain fell all around him, but it felt thick against his skin, like blood.
He should have been terrified, but everything was deadened under that pressure. Even in the midst of the fit he knew that if he woke up, he would be paralyzed with fear, but living through it was strangely devoid of panic. Even the black blood on his bare skin didn't seem the least bit disturbing.
Then she dragged him out of it, smacking him hard on the head with a coconut.
"Self-absorbed idiot," she muttered, though Urai could barely hear her over the pounding of his heart. "One of these days you're going to get yourself dragged into oblivion and kill us both."
Urai shuddered, hugging his knees. Oblivion indeed. That's what he saw beyond the rain - oblivion.
.
Ichigo stood on the tip of Sokyoku Hill, waiting for he knew not what.
There was a tangible tension in the air - a thousand Shinigami on edge could create an atmosphere like nothing else really could. The declaration of war had shaken everyone, and even the captains were tense. If Seireitei had been at full strength when Caro made his threats, things might be different, but the divisions had yet to recover from the last few decades.
An over-population of spirits in Rukongai, an over-abundance of Hollows in the World of the Living, and now a shortage of Shinigami after Aizen and Shiro wrecked havoc the year before. All the divisions had been forced to take on an unprecedented number of raw recruits just to fill the ranks, and no one more then the Fourth Division. In a war against Arrancar, Seireitei would need their healers... and the majority of their healers were barely out of the academy, with no combat experience or real tests of reacting to life or death situations.
So Seireitei prepared in a setting of heightened tension, many with the added nervousness that came on the edge of one's first real battle.
The lack of butterflies for communication was just one more problem to add to the list, and one weighing heavily on Ichigo's mind as he watched messengers running back and forth below. As short-handed as they were, sparing men just to take messages from officer to troops, or captains to officers, would be a costly necessity. Thankfully, the Second Division had suffered the least during the Incident the previous year, and among their ranks were the swiftest Shinigami in Seireitei.
As if Ichigo's thoughts had summoned him, one of the masked assassins from Second flashed up onto the rock behind him. The man knelt respectfully, but swiftly, before giving his message.
"Patrols along the upper Rukon Districts have discovered the presence of Arrancar in the area, but were unable to investigate further due to the violent souls living there. Kyoraku Sotaichou has called the captains to assemble for a strategy meeting."
Ichigo nodded. "Thank you." As the man shunpo'ed away, Ichigo spared a moment to look out towards the Rukongai, beyond the walls of Seireitei.
The enemy was gathering, it seemed, in Soul Society itself.
.
The first assault came, even as the captains discussed the possibility of a first assault, in the form of thousands of Rukongai residents from the wild, upper districts.
The captains felt the fighting immediately after it began, and with a few swift words to close the meeting, they dispersed to lead their divisions to the defence of the gate guards. Ichigo, with no division to lead, went straight to where the fighting seemed most intense.
The spirits living in the upper Rukon districts had always been violent, often unbelievably so, but never before had they launched any kind of organized assault. They would as soon tear someone's throat out as sit down and try to talk... and usually talking descended into throat-tearing before too long, so any organization at all was nigh unto impossible. Ichigo knew there had to be an outside presence directing this assault, and there was no doubt in his mind as to whose presence that was.
Coward. Sending outsiders to do his fighting for him? Che.
Ichigo drew Zangetsu, eyes narrowing. "Che" indeed. I wish we could have just fought him then and there, when he decided to go to war. This is an unnecessary fight.
But fun, I hope, snickered his inner voice of blood-thirsty insanity, otherwise known as Shiro. It's been almost a year since our last decent fight.
I hope we never have to fight another person like Aizen again, Ichigo retorted. It still deeply disturbed him when he thought about having been caught in the illusions of Kyoka Suigetsu; fighting his own allies, possibly his own daughter, without even knowing it.
I was talking about our last decent fight, King. You, me, a whole city full of collateral damage. Sure, it was a stupid move on my part brought on by that free-loader Muramasa, and if I won we'd both probably be dead, but... there was no denying, it was fun.
"No, it wasn't," muttered Ichigo, landing for a moment on top of the gate so he could examine the battle below. He still had the scars from the fight Shiro was talking about, the worst (to him) being a ragged white scar on his chest and back from where Shiro had run him through.
The fighting was right at the gate itself, the Shinigami on duty having been forced into a tight half-circle around the gate by the horde of Rukon citizens. These weren't weak, passive spirits like those from the majority of the districts, but wild, powerful fighters hardened by an existence of near-endless conflict. They came from the environment that had raised the previous Kenpachi, and they fought like it. Even though they lacked the training and techniques the Shinigami all had access to, their numbers more then made up for it against the gate guards.
The Shinigami below were hard-pressed, so Ichigo didn't hesitate for more then a moment. Just long enough to say, in a voice loud enough for those below to hear (and hopefully start getting nervous), "Ban-KAI!"
The reiatsu, wind, and dust forced many of the combatants back, and some fell gasping to their knees, unable to stand against the captain-level pressure. Ichigo slashed Tensa Zangetsu through the air, blasting away the obscuring cloud of dust, and jumped down in front of the gate to face those rebels that remained. The Shinigami rallied behind him... or, rather, took shelter behind him, dragging their wounded back and out of the way before stopping to catch their breath.
With a roar, several of the rebels charged at Ichigo, brandishing clubs and wicked, jagged swords. Ichigo meet them head-on, dancing through their slow movements with speed they couldn't possibly match, smacking away weapons and knocking opponents back into their own allies, or just knocking them out. He fought mostly one-handed, not even bringing his Zanpakuto into the battle.
The rebels were obviously cowed, for though there were always several enraged spirits charging Ichigo or the gates, the majority of them were now hesitating. They hadn't been counting on a Captain showing up so early in their campaign, it seemed.
There was a rustling in the crowd, and the pressure in the area increased again. From among the ragged Rukongai citizens appeared a red-cloaked figure, a drawn Zanpakuto in hand.
"In the name of the Dioses Muerte, fight."
Ichigo took his sword in both hands, tensing. Other red-cloaked figures, some with their hoods pushed back, many with their hoods up, were appearing from among the Rukongai rebels, all with drawn swords. Arrancar, Shinigami... he could sense both, and even something else he couldn't quite place.
"In the name of freedom, fight!" called the foremost figure again, and the whole horde surged forward once again, apparently driven on by the appearance of leaders among them. Ichigo jumped forward to meet them, but the sheer number of attackers made it hard to defeat them nicely like he had before. He began to cut the Rukongai rebels down, trying to shatter the wall of enemies that would be hitting the already worn-out Shinigami guards at the gate.
"Getsugatensho!"
His attack smashed through the front lines of the attackers, rending a chasm in the ground between the majority of the horde and the gates. The rebels teetered at the edge, some falling, others jumping and just barely making it to the other side, having to scramble up by the tips of their fingers. The red-cloaks hardly seemed to notice, taking the new obstacle in their stride and jumping easily across. Ichigo turned, meaning to get back in-between the red-cloaks and the gates, but the press was closing around him again.
At that moment, though, he felt a familiar reiatsu nearby and smiled, abandoning his attempts to reach the gates again. Moments later, even as the gate guards tensed for the clash, a wave of new Shinigami flashed over the walls. The bulk of three divisions, led by Captains Hisagi, Yoruichi, and Kuchiki Byakuya.
The sound as the two forces clashed was nearly deafening, a roar of metal clanging, Kido chants and blasts, and people screaming. Mere moments in, Ichigo found himself facing one of Caro's red-cloaked minions, though the man had flung back his hood to reveal narrow, suspicious eyes and black hair. He was grinning in a way Ichigo knew quite well, the grin of a destruction-loving madman.
"It will be a pleasure to fight you, captain," said the stranger with dark anticipation. "To fight, and to claim your hiori for my own!"
