Chapter Forty-Three

"Right, we have a bit of time, so let's set up a captain-killing trap. Kurotsuchi needs some payback, and I'm dying to dish it out," declared Steve, rubbing his hands together gleefully. His eyes almost glowed with excitement as he began throwing orders around. "Kitsune, you specialize in bakudos, right? Get your strongest one ready, but hold it. Dikayumi, set up another whatchacallit, a Quincy-Star. When Kurotsuchi arrives, Charles, you and Herald will draw him in to the middle of the exploding-star, Kitsune will catch him with his bakudo and I'll back him up with Ningyōzukai. Dikayumi will blow the star sky-high, and we all flash in after to finish off whatever's left. Then we should have a clear shot to Caro to clean this whole thing up."

He snapped his fingers at them, smiling in satisfaction at his plan, but only Kitsune moved to obey. Charles and Herald exchanged doubtful looks, Yylfordt stared off into the distance with a pained expression, and Dikayumi slid to a sitting position on his rooftop, looking sick. Steve glanced around at them all, his smile fading, then he let out an impatient breath.

"What's the matter? We have the upperhand here, but we need to actually take advantage of it for that to mean anything."

"Kurotsuchi isn't the only one heading for us," Charles replied grimly. "Can't you sense it? Dikayumi's attack told every enemy in the city where we are, and Kurotsuchi isn't the only one who is coming to investigate it."

"A captain," Herald ventured, scowling at the sky. "A lieutenant, or someone else at that level. Multiple Hollows, though none that feel very dangerous."

Dikayumi called faintly from his rooftop, sounding as puny as he looked. "Does anyone else feel that? Something bad is coming."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that would be the evil-freaking-clown coming our way. Kitsune, fix Dikayumi. We need his Quincy powers."

"Er, what about the bakudo?" Kitsune stopped dead in his tracks, a large ribbon wrapped around both his arms and then hanging down to form a hexagon in the street. "This kind of takes a lot of concentration..."

"I think Grimmjow needs backup..." muttered Yylfordt, unconsciously leaning forward as if ready to launch himself across Seireitei to his former master's aid. Steve threw up his arms in frustration, spinning around to face Herald.

"Fine, no one likes my plan! Feel free to jump in with your own whenever you like, co-lieutenant. I'm sure that one will be flawless."

"No, I think..." began Herald, then stopped, tense. This time, Steve wasn't too distracted to notice it, too. A clash, reiatsu that they all felt they should recognize, but couldn't quite. And powerful people coming closer.

Steve straightened. "I have a new plan. None of us can afford to be alone because of Caro's powers, so pair up. Yylfordt, you're with me. Charles, with Dikayumi. Herald, you get Kitsune and Lilynette. We have multiple enemies incoming and they will doubtless try to separate us, but do not leave your partner."

"That, I agree with," grumbled Herald. "As for dealing with Caro's last general-"

His next words were drowned out by a crack of energy, blasting across the battered crater of a street with a roar like an angry motorcycle. The Fourteenth Division scattered, jumping to one side or another to avoid the crimson blast.

Steve, Kitsune, and Yylfordt landed on the right, while Dikayumi, Herald, and Charles flash-stepped to the left. All eyes turned to the origin of the blast – the two figures standing further down the street where there had been no one a moment before.

Kurotsuchi Mayuri smirked across the battlefield, his golden eyes finding Steve with no hesitation and without a glance at anyone else. There was something in his gaze that set Steve's blood on fire, something condescending yet hateful, as if simultaneously gloating at already having killed him once while despising him for surviving.

The creature next to him was a Hollow- no, multiple Hollows, scavenged for parts and stapled together into a fire-eyed monstrosity. Not the same monstrosity they had defeated in the World of the Living, but another of the same ilk; an experimental nightmare that hated everything and everyone for simply existing. Red light flickered between its crooked horns, the fading remnant of the tattered cero it had just launched.

Secondary, thought Steve, annoyed. So, the self-destruct did not kill it. I knew we should have stayed and made sure for ourselves.

Lilynette bared her teeth and snarled, but no other words were exchanged. Steve had a dozen snarky lines on the tip of his tongue, but none of them seemed quite up to the task of communicating his intense loathing for the Shinigami facing them.

"Manipulate, Kamakiriha!"

The air whipped past them in a flurry as Charles released his Zanpakuto. The half-broken chains at his side shattered and vanished into the air, replaced by new gleaming lengths looped at his waist like the pistols of a gunslinger. His coat-tails flapped in the wind as he leveled his Zanpakuto at the former-Captain.

Steve winced in slight annoyance as another release went off right next to him, sending shards of pavement slashing past his cheek. "Impale, Awaikunshu."

Yylfordt's release had progressed since the Aizen Incident. Not the whip, which he snapped through the air with the same attitude of a man cracking his knuckles before a fight, but the armor. The single bone helmet had become helmet, bracers, gauntlets, and boots, all pale white and sleek with narrow, viciously sharp spikes. He crouched, flicking the tip of his whip this way and that as he eyed their opponents.

Herald, of course, already had Lilynette prowling beside him, and Steve's release had yet to fade from their last battle. Their combined reiatsu forced Kitsune to beat a hasty retreat, and there was certainly no way for them to slip back under the radar now. Flickers of movement on distant rooftops betrayed the approach of new opponents, Shinigami, Hollows, and who-knew-what else.

"I didn't want to sneak around, anyway," Steve muttered, and everyone in the cratered-street flashed into action. With Yylfordt on his heels, Steve went straight for Kurotsuchi's smirking face.

Why am I doing this?

Charles stood by Dikayumi, keeping one eye on the Quincy even as he scanned for unaccounted-for threats. Kurotsuchi's monster-Hollow (Charles decided to call it Frank) pounced at Herald, the closest target, but Charles really didn't think the former Primera needed anyone's help. As for Steve's fight, there was no way Charles was getting in-between the two lunatics on the other side of the crater.

Because I want to kill Shinigami while you have an excuse. Not that I need an excuse, but humans are wimps.

"Shut up, Nnoitra," he grumbled, glancing again at Dikayumi. The youngest member of their party still looked like he was about to pass out, and Charles wasn't sure why. He had looked uncomfortable after setting off that explosion and vaporizing those Shinigami, but surely he hadn't used too much spiritual energy in that attack. If he had, he should be looking better as time went on, not worse.

The two Shinigami he had sensed investigating appeared on a wall a few streets over, one in all black and the other wearing a white haori that fluttered in the wind. They might have been allies as easily as enemies, but Charles turned to face them nonetheless.

"Can you stand?" he asked Dikayumi, and the Quincy took a deep, shuddering breath.

"I feel like something's clawing at my insides," Dikayumi admitted, his tone pained. "He's getting worse."

Charles' grip on his Zanpakuto tightened. "'He'? Now is not a good time to go Hollow on us."

Dikayumi did not reply. Charles glanced over his shoulder, just for a moment, to see him doubled over, clutching his chest.

Then, a flash of movement. He instinctively raised his Zanpakuto, only barely catching the blade that slashed down towards his face.

The dark-haired captain leaned into his attack, the sudden pressure forcing Charles to jump backwards over Dikayumi in order to keep his balance.

"Are you an ally of Seirietei?" asked the captain, voice raised over the sounds of battle across the crater. Charles narrowed his eyes.

"I am a protector of the World of the Living," he replied. "Any other loyalties come second to protecting innocent humans."

The captain hesitated, his scowl relaxing ever-so-slightly. He, too, glanced at Dikayumi, then back at Charles. "Good answer. Go back to the World of the Living and do just that, and that will be the end of it."

A memory of General Akama flashed through Charles' mind, the former-Shinigami trying to work around Caro's orders to give him a way out of a fight. This captain was doing the same thing.

Not an ally.

"I can't do that, captain," he said, gritting his teeth. "Last year, I saw what could happen if evil men took over Seireitei; the things Aizen could do to ordinary humans to get at those of us who fought against him. Caro is no better then Aizen. The best way to defend my family, and all humans... is to fight those evil men before they ever get close to the World of the Living."

The captain 's eyes narrowed.

"Fine."

Something slammed into Charles with the force of a train, flinging him backwards. Midair, he flipped gravity backwards and his momentum, and only his momentum, abruptly slowed. His attacker, having been pushing so intensely against his Zanpakuto, flipped over him and smashed into the building Charles had been about to hit, sending a cloud of dust and shards of rock billowing into the air.

Chains.

He swung an end of chain around the hilt of his Zanpakuto even as he fell backwards down the street, past the battling evil-scientists and their respective minions.

Perceptive vanished. He twisted gravity around himself, slowly at first but with increasing force and speed. His white coat flared out around him and his chains spun violently, whipping up the stone-dust that had settled since the first clash. Charles closed his eyes – they were useless in this storm anyway – and followed the captain by his reiatsu.

He's hesitating.

One more rotation, then Charles snapped gravity to a point far beyond the captain. His steel hurricane collapsed, drawn downward (or what Charles saw as down) at the captain, curving around him with what was left of that violent spin. Reiatsu, some of it his and some it someone else's, swirled around them with increasing fury.

Suddenly, the air stilled, leaving dust hanging in the air as if frozen there. Charles' chains hit something and whipped around it, then whatever it was moved. Charles felt them tug at his belt, the movement strong and confident, and with a sudden sense of vulnerability he detached the ensnared chains and pulled himself down. Slamming flat on the street, he felt the air vibrate as something sliced wickedly over his head.

The hanging dust was blown aside by a flare of reiatsu, and Charles looked up. The captain stood in the air over him, glowing with a sea-green light. His haori was abandoned, flying off in the blast of wind, leaving his muscular arms (crisscrossed with scars and black markings) bare. His Zanpakuto was gone, and in its place he carried two massive scythes, each wrapped in and connected by chains. Not Charles', though his did hang limply from the blade of one, but black, barbed chains that cut into the captain's hands even as he held them.

"You've provoked him now," warned the captain, his eyes blazing. "My Zanpakuto does not like having his title challenged."

Dread crashed into Charles as suddenly as a spike of reiatsu. It occurred to him that, perhaps, he had let himself underestimate the Shinigami.

"Bankai, Hayate Kinzokushini."