into rukongai

AN. sigh I uploaded the unbetaed version. thanks again mister guest for the notice and here's to my ever important beta reader. if you have already read this chapter sorry for the hassle

It was almost like the calm before the storm, Ichigo mused before revising his opinion, no, it was exactly like that. He smiled as he looked around the table taking in the chaotic antics of his father and the calm counterpoint of his sisters. It was a truly enjoyable night that displayed the kindness and love of a functioning, dysfunctional family. it was a reminder he deeply needed of the better side of humanity, for in the morning he would be leading a thousand strong force into the blackest parts of Rukongai, he could only pray that the month of solid training he had put them through would be enough to keep them alive, but he knew it wouldn't be, not for all of them. He didn't know how far he would get if he was honest, he had several thousand undertrained soldiers to attempt to restore order to several billion people, but he had to try, he had to succeed.

A chopstick collided with his head.

"What's with the dower look boy!? This is Kurosaki Isshin's patented 'compulsory happy family time' so hurry up and smile already!" his father shouted.

Ichigo scowled and took the bait without hesitation, not noticing Yuzu reach over and steal his dessert, it was common knowledge in the household that the sweetest of them had a sweet tooth to match. It was an important bit of information that Ichigo had forgotten, but not something he would care about till tomorrow, in the meantime he just growled and continued to enjoy the atmosphere.

'Man, I could really use that dessert right now' at the four gates of the Seireitei, Ichigo's forces had begun to assemble and it was proving to be a logistical nightmare, one he was really beginning to need a break from. There was an upside to it all though, as the enemies they would be facing weren't hollows and because there was so much Shinigami support available, Uryuu had been given the all clear to help him in the field, words hardly described his relief at having the man he had rapidly come to view as his right hand with him. Not that he was the only one, even with the key bit of advice from his father his kido still largely sucked, so Momo and Rukia had decided to tag along. He was also being joined by Toshiro, being a Taicho never stopped and apparently neither did his training to be one. With a sigh Ichigo reminded himself once again that it was the last day of preparation and all too soon he would be heading into north Rukongai. The northern districts, while lacking the noteworthy corruption or organised crime syndicates found in the other districts, were known as the most violent and lawless parts of soul society, so much so that the people of the other areas considered exiling someone there as good as a death sentence. It was a problem that couldn't be solved with the subtlety of Soifon's men, and getting her help had been a nightmare, he had eventually resorted to Yuroichi and punching some major noble in the face, and he was only bringing enough of them with him to ensure the integrity of his forces, the north would have to be subjugated by force of arms alone. Even the militia, both the remaining parts of the Shiba loyalists and the new recruits, had been left out. Only fully trained Shinigami were going with him, that and a progressively eager Quincy.

"What the hell are you so worked up for about?"

"You don't get it, do you Kurosaki? This is it."

"This is what?"

"We are about to show all the worlds what a Shinigami and a Quincy can do when they have each other's backs. This is the beginning of my grandfather's dream, and I will show them that the power of a Quincy is not to be underestimated."

"They don't underestimate it, at least the old man doesn't, or have you forgotten our secondary mission already? Hell, we wouldn't have even got this far if you hadn't helped." What went unspoken was the assassination attempt on the pair of them a week ago, even with his training with Uryuu, Ichigo's sensory abilities still needed some heavy work, he knew he could do it but like Kido it would simply take time. The man had been good at stealth, real good, but it hadn't made a difference when Ishida Uryuu had detected him from three blocks away. The fight had been very, very short and completely one sided. It was after this event that he realised the same could be said for all his skills. He was good with a blade but Unohana outclassed him completely, as did Byakuya and Kumomura in hoho variation and hakuda/zanjutsu combination. He was growing, there was no doubt of that, but his combat potential was just so great it couldn't take anything other than time to reach it. The power of the final Getsuga Tenshou had come at a staggering price, the fusing of himself with his inner spirits and the burning out of his spiritual powers, a burn out so complete he hadn't even been able to see spirits in the slightest, it would have taken decades to recover without help. Ichigo knew somehow, in his very bones, that he would eclipse that level of power eventually, the final Getsuga Tenshou would one day be a technique that he would use at will without such huge drawbacks, or with his broadening array of skills, one of a group. Ichigo was brought out of his thoughts by a clacking bell and the sight of the gate opening before him, the operation to retake the Rukongai had begun in earnest.

God loved fucking with him, that's all there was to it as far as Ichigo was concerned. The first fifteen or so districts in every other direction had been retaken with only minor issues from the odd gang or corrupt businessman, the north? They had just reached the seventh after half a week of fighting.

"Kurosaki, there is now no doubt our plans were leaked to the people that would cause us the most possible trouble!" Uryuu shouted over the din of the small battle that had erupted around them.

Ichigo grunted in reply as he cut down another man, it had bothered him the first time he had to do so till his cousin had pointed out that the man hadn't truly, completely died. Ichigo was very quickly coming to see his knowledge of the afterlife as a true blessing, it let him fight freely without having to worry about the fate of the people he took down. Any other guilt had lasted as long as his first glimpse of a slave pen back in the third district, so close to the Seireitei and they hadn't even known. He could only count his blessings that he had yet to see or hear of another. But this is what happened when 'might made right' for too long he mused as he rammed Zangetsu through another man's sternum, there had to be a balance between knowledge and power, between idealism and cynicisms, the north was full to the brim with all of it but with no balance at all. Before leaving on the current patrol he had had to dismiss a group of volunteers, they were to full of fire at one injustice or another and had been all too eager to fight without a thought to tactics, their overarching goal or any semblance of cohesion with the rest of his forces or regard for his own orders. The only law in the north was what you could make by any means you could and those that disagreed or were too weak were left by the wayside or put in pens to be used as the local warlord saw fit. Ichigo finished the fray as he flickered after a running man and severed his spine with a clean cut before stabbing his blade down through his fallen foes head, they had learnt quickly that the enemy only ran to get reinforcements or let the higher ups know of a potential weakness they could strike at.

"Well Kurosaki Taicho? What now?" Ishida asked as he approached

"Don't call me that, you and I are a team and I don't want the troops to start thinking of you as some sort of second in command" Ichigo answered

Uryuu smiled "But I'm not a Shinigami, it's only natural that I defer to you in matters concerning their leadership. Don't worry I expect you to do the same with any matters involving the Quincy, at least until you get a bit further with your training. It's about knowledge and respect Kurosaki, they won't follow a Quincy happily and we both know it."

"I think that could work nicely, I don't want them to start seeing a Quincy as some sort of second to a Shinigami," Ichigo replied with his own smile "it could really undermine our second objective with this thing."

Uryuu's smile shifted to a smirk "Then how about we move your training out into the open? That way they see me as an instructor as well as your partner?"

"Now you're just trying to humiliate me."

The Quincy's smirk grew wider "True, but it would accomplish what you want to achieve," Uryuu's smile returned "don't worry about it so much, the further we get, the more it will work out, besides you aren't doing all that bad with your training."

"Uryuu, I can barely gather Reishi" Ichigo deadpanned

"True but you have a handicap, your huge reiatsu is getting in the way. But back to the question, what now? This is snowballing rapidly and we now have solid reason to believe that our opponents know we are..."

"More of them!" someone cried as another, larger, group rushed out from a few streets ahead

Neither Ichigo nor Uryuu wasted any time. The Shinigami Taicho started barking orders to his men, ordering the squad of nine reapers into formation, bringing the pair of Kido specialists to the fore. Within moments a couple of crimson fireballs streaked toward the charging mob, erupting in gouts of flame. This however was nothing compared to the Quincy bowman's display as a seemingly volley of light smashed into the crowd, blowing limbs off and delivering none fatal wounds with each arrow, the front ranks collapsed in moments. Ichigo took the opening as he and the rest of the unit flickered forward in a burst of Shunpo. Another trio stopped short to deliver the killing blows to their fallen enemies while their leader and the others engaged the main group. The Taicho swept his sealed blade, a feat he reluctantly achieved to prevent harming the others around him, in a blurring arch slicing a man clean in two before bringing Zangestu down to shatter the blade of the next man and following through with a crushing blow to the throat, collapsing it and moving on to his next enemy. This one held a spear of some kind, it was common so far for the enemy to wield anything they could get their hands on regardless of skill or benefit to the unit. Ichigo dealt with it like he had all the others so far, by sweeping his Zanpukuto up under the head of the weapon and loping the point off before closing and finishing the man with a fatal stab to the chest. In this time his comrades had not been idle, they had given a fight expected of a Shinigami before being joined by the trio that had lagged behind, when combined with the pinpoint support from the Quincy coupled with Bakudo from the Kidoists the small skirmish quickly turned into a rout for the attacking mob.

"Kurosaki!"

Ichigo turned at the new voice, leaving the clean up to the rest of the patrol, and watched as the child sized Taicho of the tenth division appeared on the scene.

"Yo Toshiro! You run into as much of a mess as we have?"

"Kurosaki, I do hope you realise just how big a mess you're in"

"...how bad are we talking here? Yeah they've put up a fight but we have no losses so far" and wasn't that a godsend in Ichigos opinion, even with a Zanpakuto it could be hard to kill a Shinigami, without one even blows that should have killed them in moments barely got deeper than the skin.

"I took the liberty of sending the Onmitsukido you left in reserve ahead to scout out the situation. You have an army heading your way, they estimate they will be on you by the end of the week."

"...shit, that's bad"

"It gets worse, the army is only made up of a few of the warlords in the lower districts and they already have the numbers on their side but that's not the main issue"

"It's the higher districts" Uryuu said as he joined them

"Correct, the deeper you go the bigger and more powerful the warlords' forces become. The only silver lining is that the higher districts wouldn't have heard about you yet and the ones so far don't really think you're going to get far with this venture and many of them haven't set aside old grudges or issues to cooperate. But it still gets worse, we can already bet that if you get that far they will work together against you and to be frank we have no bloody clue what they have out there." Hitusgaya finished.