Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or Bleach.
A/N: Well before I address the pairings I want to say thank you to GirlFish, Black Bankai, r, BaconLover1800, kitkatkate2008, ZeroExia, SoulNinjas, 1eragon33, xihimagicianx, Timekeeper78, ShiraYukiShadow, Shadowtalon62, and every person who has read this story! Now for the pairings. The poll has closed and it turns out most of you wanted Danny to be paired with Momo, so I guess that's what it's gonna be.
Reviews:
BaconLover1800: I'll say Momo. Thanks for the input.
GirlFish: Since Rukia has been taken, it looks as if things are about to get interesting. Yes it is and there was going to be more fight scenes in this chapter, but I ended up deciding to save it for the next one.
By the way guys, there is going to be a time skip in this and the stuff that happened in the time that was skipped will be explained in flashbacks and such.
Chapter 4: Welcome to the Soul Society
If someone told Danny that giant monsters with holes in their chests were walking around with just about no one noticing, people could form bows out thin air, someone could transform a sword on command, or that other freaking dimensions existed without almost no one else knowing about any of it, he wouldn't have believed them. For most of it, anyways.
But here he was.
"Everyone ready to go? If you aren't, turn back now and no one will think any less of you," said the man Danny knew as Urahara. No one made even the slightest movement or sound.
Danny couldn't help rolling his eyes. Not a single one of them were going to quit after all the training they'd been through. He could still feel its effects even after his two days of rest.
"Alrighty then!" chirped the shopkeeper. "You're all free to go!"
Danny looked at each one of his new friends. Yoruichi, the talking cat, (he still found that weird), Sado, the really tall quiet guy, Orihime, the seriously cheerful, hot (really hot. . .) ray of sunshine, Uryū, the guy who he still hadn't forgiven for interrupting his precious sleep even if it was to find Rukia. Was he forgetting anyone. . ? Oh yeah, and there's Ichigo, he supposed. . .
"Danny?" Urahara asked. "Would you do the honors?"
Danny nodded as his hands flared with green fire. "Alright, come on out!"
The fire began to take shape into a zanpakuto broadsword. His sword which was a five-foot long blade with a foot long hilt with green flame designs intricately running along its length, and a green skull was engraved on the front and back of the hilt.
It was without a doubt a strange design for a regular zanpakuto. Tessai and his father had made sure that Danny knew that with their non-stop rambling about the whole thing. He wouldn't be surprised if his Dad tried to experiment on it when he wasn't paying attention.
His zanpakuto spirit wouldn't be too cheery about that.
"Reap, Karitoriki!"
Green light burst from the broadsword, making everyone who saw it turn away to avoid temporary blindness. When the light dimmed, he was holding a double-scythe enveloped by green flames that danced about the weapon. His Shikai.
He spun it, rapidly, out in front of him. The flames followed the movements before piecing into a swirling, fiery green portal.
"Wow, is that safe?" asked Orihime looking at the portal with uncertainty.
"It doesn't burn, if that's what your asking. It's just a little painful and. . . hard to direct?"
"Eep! Painful?!"
"Hard to direct?" Ichigo drawled.
"Hey!" Danny protested with a flushed face. "It's not my fault this is hard!"
"Can it get us where we need to go?" asked Yoruichi.
"Yeah, I can do that."
"Then let's go."
Without another word, the feline walked through the portal.
The group stepped into the portal, spurred on by the fact that the portal didn't explode or smell like burnt cat.
Danny grit his teeth as he felt the familiar out of body experience. He wasn't surprised to hear a few gasps and groans behind him. The feeling of the portal was extremely weird, after all. It felt like his atoms were getting ripped apart painfully slowly, thrown into acid, and then getting slammed back together again.
Needless to say, it freaking hurt.
Then, just like that, the portal opened.
In the sky.
"What the hell, Danny?!" Ichigo shouted
"Hold on, I've got this!"
Danny thrust out his hands, causing a ghost shield to knit itself around them. He focused hard and the shield began to thicken and shrink around them.
"Alright, guys! This is gonna get bumpy!"
The impact rattled Danny's teeth as the force-field bubble bounced along the ground before rolling to a stop.
The bubble dissipated quickly, leaving the teens lying in a heap on the ground. "Geez Danny, you couldn't have opened your portal anywhere else!" yelled Ichigo rubbing his forehead.
"Oh, I'm sorry, but you're not the one with the dimension traveling powers, I am!" Danny yelled back with a scowl. "So you can shove it!"
"That's exactly the reason why you should learn how to use the damn thing!"
"Would you two just shut up!" shouted Yoruichi. "We need to get to the gate as quickly as possible! The Gotei 13 is not to be underestimated! They'll make quick work of you if you squabble like children!"
Danny and Ichigo grudgingly pocketed their spat while glaring at the other. Well, they stopped for all of two minutes.
Ichigo and Danny bickered the whole way to the gate. . . What?! It wasn't his fault for Ichigo being so annoying! Anyways, when they got to the gate, it turned out that. . . there was no gate.
Danny's brows furrowed in confusion. There wasn't the slightest hint of a defense and the Seireitei was easily visible. It was way too obvious.
Apparently not for some people, though.
"You have gotta be kidding me, Yoruichi!" Ichigo ranted. "I thought you said there was A GATE! You kept warning us about the gate and a gatekeeper over and over again but where is it?!"
A rare smile adorned Yoruichi's face as he slowly backed away. "You know what? I'm just gonna let you figure that one out, Ichigo."
In fact, everyone stepped back because of what was coming down behind Ichigo. Danny felt a grin twitch onto his face despite trying his absolute hardest to quell it.
"Why are you all backing AWAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!" Ichigo sailed through the air and landed straight on his arse with a cloud of dust surrounding him.
Danny didn't get long to enjoy Ichigo's misfortune because of a loud thud. He could see the tall stone gates peeking out over the billowing dust cloud.
"Well, this is troublesome," muttered Uryū.
THUD!
Danny blinked. "Um, Yoruichi, what was th-"
THUD!
"Get ready!" Yoruichi cried, rearing his claws.
"What's going on?! What is-"
SLAM!
The smoke split apart with alarming speed as powerful wind tore through the Rukongai. They would've been blown away if Danny and Dani hadn't created a last minute Ghost Shield.
Once the winds died down, the two halfas dropped their shields. A huge gate had formed with a giant gatekeeper as its guard. Even calling him a giant felt like an understatement with two massive hammers that were easily larger than Chad in his meaty grip.
"I am Jidanbo," boomed the giant, "and unless you defeat me you shall not pass! Now, send your leader to fight me!"
"I'll fight him and don't worry, I'll be quick."
Danny turned to see Ichigo stepping forward, ducking his head, likely to avoid the embarrassment of his unintended flight.
Danny didn't get much time to enjoy it, though. "Wait, what? You're the leader?! Says who?"
"Grrah, look! We don't have time for this! You heard what Yoruichi said."
Danny just rolled his eyes and grumbled as Ichigo started towards Jidanbo.
"You think you can beat me, huh?" Jidanbo raised his hammers. "Let's see!" He swung one hammer down on Ichigo which he blocked easily with a raised sword. A shockwave echoed across the field, kicking dust into the air.
Ichigo looked up at the giant, somewhat bored. "Is that the best you've got?"
The swing was followed by another one and another and soon Jidanbo was swinging a flurry of hammers with Ichigo moving his sword in time to block and after a while of that Danny was getting pretty annoyed.
They were getting nowhere, and Ichigo could've ended the fight ages ago. Like seriously, some people wanted to go back home. Y'know, summer break and all that.
"Ichigo just break the stupid hammers!" Danny yelled.
Ichigo looked back fast enough to give him an annoyed glance (and almost give himself whiplash) as he drove his sword upwards and turned one of the hammers to rubble. With a flash of his sword, the other quickly met a similar fate.
Ichigo had destroyed the hammers so fast that if you had blinked, you would've missed it.
Jidanbo's eyes widened and slowly began to water. His bottom lip started to quiver along with the rest his body. Danny blinked. "Is he about to-?"
"Y-you destroyed my hammers. . . UWAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Danny had never been more stunned in his life. This big, giant guy was crying because his hammers got shattered.
He was taken out of his shocked stupor to see Ichigo comforting the giant, albeit slightly awkwardly, and he was even more surprised when it actually seemed to work. He didn't think the teen was capable of tenderness.
The giant's tears had reduced, substantially, and he was only sniffling at this point. "You and your group may pass with my blessings. I hope you all have your leader's kindness as well!"
Danny could've sworn that he heard Uryū mutter something suspiciously like "yeah right." He shared the Quincy's sentiments.
Jidanbo pressed his hands against the wall and grunted. Inch by inch, the gates raised from the ground with slight creaks and groans. Suddenly, it all stopped. Jidanbo was sent into shocked stupor at something behind the gates.
Danny traced the giants' gaze to find a man with silver hair, a small sword in his hands, a standard Shinigami uniform, a white haori, and a face full of smiles. Literally. The guys' freaking eyes were smiling for Christ sake.
"Jidanbo, what do you think you're doing?" the man asked.
His tone was silky yet deadly. Danny could feel the goosebumps rippling across his arms from the killing intent alone. It didn't take a genius to know that guy was bad news.
"Just because you were beaten doesn't mean you give the enemy a free pass. When you were made gatekeeper, you were sent here to defend the gates at all costs. Even with. . . your life."
The man's sword glowed, and his sword shot out towards Ichigo. Before Danny could even scream a warning, Ichigo shielded himself with his zanpakuto. The force of the Captain's blade still had enough force to push Ichigo away from the entrance of the gates.
The sword then retracted and extended again, but this time, it went after Jidanbo. Danny, without a second thought, launched himself towards the blade.
He unsheathed his sword and flash stepped in between Jidanbo and the blade. He grit his teeth as barely parried the ever extending blade. He could feel the blade shoot past his ear as it retracted back to its knife like size.
Danny just barely caught the man grinning at him just before the walls crashed back down. Just like that the killing intent disappeared. It felt like a weight just got lifted off of his shoulders.
"Who the hell was that?" Ichigo grunted, pushing himself to his feet.
"Gin Ichimaru," explained Yoruichi, "Captain of the 3rd Squad. We'll be facing more people just as strong if not stronger than him once we breach the Seireitei."
Danny could see a slight waver of confidence in his friends' faces. He felt it himself as much as he hated to admit it. They felt like they were stronger than Dan had ever been.
"Damn!" cursed Ichigo. "Now what?"
"Danny, can you use your zanpakuto ability to get us in?" asked Yoruichi.
"Nope, they've got an anti-ghost shield around the walls," Danny replied. "I could probably get you all inside, but Dani and I'd be stuck out here."
"That's just great!" sighed Yoruichi. "Now we'll have to go and get a favor from my crazy friend."
"Oh come on Yoruichi," said Danny. "It can't be that bad, can it?"
Yoruichi scoffed as she walked off. "You have no idea."
It was dull having to just stay in Aizen's headquarters with the only thing to keep one entertained being training and emphatic links. But enjoying the latter made him feel like a stalker. He may have been many things. A murderer sure. A terrorist? Most definitely. A stalker he was not.
Hueco Mundo was a place he could get used to at least. He'd been more ecstatic than he'd liked to admit when he found about its existence. He'd heard stories about it, but he'd never actually seen it, even in his own time. Seeing hollows for the first time was incredible.
So that's why he found himself battling hordes of hollows for entertainment. Well, it wasn't as much as battling as it was murdering. Seriously, it was a frigging massacre.
"Um, si-sir. . ?"
Dark Danny glanced down at the sniveling hollow now standing next to him. He dwarfed the pitiful creature in height and bulk, which only added to the creature's terror.
It probably didn't help that he was slaughtering its brethren, but he'd never been one for hospitality anyways.
He deftly pointed a Ghost Ray lit hand in the face of the hollow, causing it to shake in its boots...er...hooves in this case. "What is it you want?" Dan purred with a fanged grin stretched across his face.
"Uh, L-Lord A-Aizen-sama wants you to meet him," the hollow informed scurrying away. "H-He says it's important!"
Dark Danny's brows raised. "The old psycho is finally going to do something! There's only so many hollows you can kill before the novelty wears off, you know."
The hollow chuckled weakly as Dark Danny opened up a portal with a wave of his hand and floated through it. He found himself floating in Aizen's throne room. It wasn't anything particularly grand yet, but Aizen assured it would be a proper base soon.
"Aizen, you wanted to see me?" asked the ghost.
"Yes, Dan-san. It has come to my understanding that you have been using my hollows. . . as target practice."
Aizen didn't seem angry. Rather, he appeared rather amused.
"Yes!" Dan said cheerfully. "They make a great way to pass the time."
Aizen smiled with a gleam alight in his eyes. "I have a proposition that I'm sure you'll enjoy more than torturing hollows."
"Oh? What exactly did you have in mind?"
"I was wondering if you would like to go on a mission to assassinate the Soul Society's Central 46."
If Dan was giddy before, now he was absolutely ecstatic. "Now you're speaking my language!"
After a long day of many thank yous from the Rukongai citizens and Jidanbo, the group of ryoka were off. It was incredibly risky of him to have made hammers for Jidanbo out of ghost ice, not that Danny actually told him that especially after what his parents said, but it felt right.
"You can't let them know you're a half-ghost, Danny," said Jack. "If they find out, the consequences could be deadly!"
"Why not?" Danny asked. "It can't be that bad right?"
"Your father's right. You remember the War we told you about, right? How the ghosts helped the Quincies? That's why the Soul Society and the Ghost Zone are mortal enemies. There's no telling what they'd do if a ghost set foot on their territory so promise you won't use your ghost powers unless absolutely necessary."
"Don't get me started on Mayuri!" shouted Jack. "The creep would rip you apart molecule by molecule! Can you believe that?!"
". . . I can imagine it, yes. But fine, I'll try not to use them."
So anyways, Danny was bored out of his mind, so he did one of the only things that would keep him occupied: he trained. He was currently in the back courtyard of the house they were staying at.
Thankfully, it was pretty spacious and far away from people. He rubbed his hands together as he grinned with anticipation.
'I think this is incredibly inadvisable.'
Danny scowled as he glanced over his shoulder at his zanpakuto spirit. He looked like a skeleton wrapped in a ratty cloak black coat. Essentially, he looked like death himself.
"I've gotta train if I want to get better, right?"
'Yes, but this is something you could do in your inner world. You could catch the Soul Society's attention like that.'
"It'll be fine. Yoruichi said Kūkaku explodes Kidō here all the time! They won't notice a little Kidō from me."
He didn't hear a retort from his zanpakuto spirit, so he raised his hands to the skies. Danny furrowed his brows as he felt the Reiryoku flowing through his being.
"Alright, let's try this one! Sprinkled on the bones of the beast! Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring. Move and become the wind, stop and become the calm. The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle! Hado number sixty-three, Raikōhō!" Danny shouted as a giant yellow wave of energy burst into the sky.
Danny then took the golden Fenton Bow of his back, grabbed a Fenton Arrow from the Fenton Quiver (he was seriously gonna have to change those names later), filled it with the Reishi around him and his Reiryoku, notched the arrow before finally firing it into the sky.
It looked admittedly pitiful; a small arrow trying to take on a giant ball of energy. But that's when it transformed. It became a massive arrow that obliterated the Hado, rocking the sky with the explosion.
It took much practice to fire that off with such ease. A true testament to how far he'd come within the past couple of weeks.
"What is going on here?!"
He winced. He didn't expect him to show up. Looking back on that, it wasn't the smartest line of thinking.
"You just set off a Lieutenant level explosion! Do you seriously want to attract the Shinigami here?!"
"What's the point in getting worked up? They probably know we're here anyways, so I not gonna let them stop me from training!"
"You're impossible," complained Yoruichi.
He gave the cat a cheeky grin. "I know, but what I don't know is how we're gonna get into the Soul Society, especially since it's probably gonna be even more guarded after Gin saw us beat Jidanbo."
"I already told you, my friend would take care of it," replied Yoruichi, licking his fur.
"Oh yeah, it slipped my mind. What are Ichigo and the rest of the crew doing?" Danny asked.
"Well, before I came out here, we were trying to break up a fight between Ichigo and Ganju."
"Seriously?! This I gotta see!"
So, Danny sprinted into the house and dodged to the right just in time to avoid getting hit by a flying Ichigo. He slammed into the wall hard, leaving a dent as he slid back to the ground.
"Dang Ichigo, you just can't stop getting your butt kicked, can you?" Danny mocked.
Ichigo looked up at Danny with a twitching eyebrow. Danny grinned even wider at the sight of it.
"SHUT UP!" shouted Ichigo throwing a punch at him which he caught.
"Hey, I'm fighting him so you better move unless you wanna beatdown, too!" yelled some other guy. Ganju probably.
Danny looked in the direction Ganju and saw he seemed to have a bunch of cronies lurking around him, grinning like a bunch of sycophants. One of those said cronies walked up to the leader and whispered something into his ear which probably wasn't good considering how high his brows shot up.
"Count yourself lucky Soul Reapers," the leader shouted. "I'll leave for now! I'll be back in the morning, so don't run away!"
"I'll be here!" shouted Ichigo, angrily.
"Wait Ichigo, we can't stay we have to go to Yoruichi's friend's place!" Danny hissed.
Ganju and his men stopped, abruptly, in seeming shock. Ganju actually hopped off of his boar and strode over to Danny. The dude had some very beady eyes. "Did you just say Yoruichi as in Yoruichi Shihoin?"
"Yes, he did," Yoruichi came forward. "You wouldn't happen to be Ganju Shiba, are you?"
Ganju nodded weakly and stammered, "I-I could show you to her place, if you want?"
Before Danny could snicker at the Shiba's rotten luck, the teen saw his zanpakuto spirit apparate in the corner of his eye. He would've ignored it, if it weren't for the that he only came out for serious things.
"What's up, Kari?"
Danny smirked as the spirit glared at him. "Danny, you can use your zanpakuto ability to get in."
Danny's brows scrunched. "What are you talking about?! It's ghost proof! The second I try, I'll get zapped or something."
"Tell me, Danny. What good is a shield when you already have something that has infiltrated."
"What. . ?"
The spirit sighed as if Danny was the one not making sense. . .
"You are thinking about your power all wrong! It is not a door; it is a portal!"
The halfa smacked his forehead. "Oh, I get it! Thanks, Cloak!"
"Don't call me that," grumbled the spirit as it faded away.
"Guys we can use my zanpakuto powers to get into the Soul Society!" Danny exclaimed.
The group watched him with a mixture of confusion and uncertainty.
"But you said that you couldn't?" Yoruichi retorted.
"I know what I said, but I just realized how my zanpakuto ability works. It works by teleporting things from like another plane. I was thinking earlier that I would have to go through the shield, but it really doesn't matter. We'll just be popping into the Soul Society like a wormhole."
"Are you sure about this?" asked Uryū. "What happens if you're wrong?"
Danny shrugged. "You guys'll be fine. At worst, I'll just get zapped for a second."
"We'll get zapped."
Danny blinked as he looked down at the irate child. "Oh yeah. Dani and I will be fine though. We've been through worse, right?"
Dani just rolled her eyes and grumbled.
"Well then," said Yoruichi. "I guess we won't need to go to Kūkaku's after all. I suggest everyone rest up because we might if things go wrong, have to do a lot of fighting early on. Be sure to tell, Kūkaku that I said hello, Ganju."
"Ye-yeah, definitely! C'mon, guys! It's getting late out here!"
The Shiba hopped on his boar and quickly took off, leaving his crew members chasing his dust.
Danny glanced down at the cheeky cat who was leisurely walking away. "Do I even want to know what that was about?"
"No. No you don't."
The Next Morning
The Rescue Team, including Ganju, was standing at the wall guarding the Soul Society. Danny stood with his Shikai unleashed, ready to open the portal. I concentrated hard as his zanpakuto glowed an unearthly green and a firey green portal began to form. "Okay, guys hop in!"
After waving goodbye to the Rukongai citizens, one by one we hopped into the portal as it closed behind them.
The portal reopened.
Hundreds of feet above the above the ground.
Again.
Before any of us could grab onto the other, the portal exploded separating the group with each landing in a different area.
"Ugh! Danny, you idiot I thought you said this wasn't gonna be painful!" shouted Ichigo.
"I never said it was going to be easy or painless and I couldn't have predicted the portal would backlash like it did!" Danny shouted back.
"Hey! What are you four doing there?"
Danny looked up to see the man was wearing a standard Shinigami uniform with a zanpakuto, plus he was bald and there was a man next to him dressed pretty much the same way and looked like he spent hours in front of a mirror.
"Um, this guy," Danny said, pointing to Ganju, "was trying to enter the Soul Society using some Kidō techniques. We were just bringing him back to the Rukongai but wouldn't stop fighting us."
Ganju took the hint and began thrashing around as if he were trying to escape.
"Huh, I've never seen you guys before, do you mind telling me what squad you guys are from?" asked 'pretty boy.'
"Oh! We're all from, uh, squad eleven!" Danny exclaimed.
"That's impossible because we're from squad eleven and I've never seen you there in my life unless. . . you're the ryoka!"
