Read, Review and check out my other stories!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

"Rukia" - Regular Speech

'Ichigo' - Thoughts

*Kaien-dono* - Zanpakutō speech/thoughts

"Bankai!" - Spiritual Technique

Chapter 8: Mist Fire and Silver

Kirika eyed the three Soul Reapers surrounding her with slight trepidation. Regardless of the fact they were morons, they were experienced members of the Goteijūsantai, so she started to analyze their Shikai.

The whip-like Zanpakutō wielded by Hiro was metallic and segmented like a rat's tail. It writhed in its wielder's grip and it was obviously a Heat-type Zanpakutō, a subset of the Fire-types. It had melted stone with a single strike, which meant it had to be a few thousand degrees Celsius at least.

Nagisa's Zanpakutō was a gunbai, a wooden war fan used in the samurai period to indicate which troops a commander was going to move. Unlike those ones, which were a foot long at most, this one was five feet long, green and had a pair of leaves engraved on both sides. She had no idea what it could possibly be, but a wind-type Zanpakutō maybe? They were rare, but not unheard of.

Finally, Daisuke's spearhead was leaf-bladed, but had six segments to its handle. As almost all of 11th Squad was melee-oriented, she doubted there would be any Kidō tricks to it, but that didn't necessarily mean it wouldn't be tricky.

She daren't use Nejibana's Shikai, so this meant she'd have to start off with her A-game. She wasn't as naïve as Ichigo was. She knew that she might have to badly hurt or even kill these men. He had it easy thanks to his overwhelming Reiatsu. Against these chumps, he wouldn't even break a sweat shrugging off their attacks.

But her? Kirika didn't have that luxury. Sure, being in the Rukongai and now the Seireitei was going to be a big help in boosting her spiritual abilities, but still, she was only just on the cusp of becoming a Fourth Seat. Even chumps like this could take her out if she underestimated them for a second.

"Before we start, can I ask why you three are together?" Kirika asked, "It was my impression that each squad kept itself aloof from the others."

"We ran with the same gang in Inuzuri." Hiro informed her, "Yeah, the squads don't socialise, but we do, every so often. Just once every couple of months or so."

"Will you idiots please start cutting her to ribbons already?!" Daisuke rolled his eyes heavenward as if beseeching the Rei-Ō (Soul King) for patience.

"Why not do it yourself?" Kirika challenged him. Squad 11 never changed much, so if that holds true…

"Cheeky little…!" Daisuke roared and spun his spear around before swiping it at her. Kirika jumped back, but the grin on his face told her that he wasn't done.

"Nobase, Rokkotsu Tansō (Lengthen, Six-Boned Short Spear!)" he sneered.

With a wooden thunk, the spear split into six sections, including the spearhead, attached by a six inch chain, extending the length of the spear's length by quite a bit.

"A six-section staff/spear." Kirika growled as she knocked it away.

'Tricky…all of them seem to be mid-range fighters.' Kirika thought as Daisuke lashed at her with his spear-turned-chain whip, 'Fortunately, the other two seem to obey the Squad 11 etiquette of letting each man fight their own battles, so I can beat this guy down before having to deal with the other two.'

"Seems all you can do is run away, little girl!" the man growled in frustration.

"No point in retaliating, 'cause you couldn't hit an elephant if it was in front of you." Kirika quipped cheekily.

"…! DIE!" the bald man howled.

'Hehehehe…too easy.' Kirika thought slyly.

As the man lashed his spear-whip at her, she vanished in a blur of Shunpo, appearing behind him and slamming a chop to the back to the back of his head, knocking the man out.

As both her feet and Daisuke's unconscious body hit the ground, Kirika had to congratulate herself on that. Squad Eleven disdained the use of any kind of Kidō, which some of them even applied to the Shunpo. Looks like this guy was one of them.

"Get her!" Nagisa said angrily, "Hakaze! (Leaf Wind!)"

He swiped his fan at Kirika at the same time as Hiro snarled, "Honōnomuchi! (Flame Whip!)" and made the entire length of the whip, save for the handle he held, burst into flames. He lashed Hinezumi in front of Yōsen just as the latter Zanpakutō released a large gust of wind.

The result was a flaming inferno heading towards Kirika rather quickly. She raised her index and middle fingers, pressed them against each other and said calmly, "Bakudō #81: Dankū! (Way of Binding Number Eighty-One: Severing Void!)"

A see-through rectangle made of her Reiryoku hummed into existence before her, blocking the incoming firestorm. It smashed against her shield ferociously, but was unable to so much as crack it.

"A Bakudō in the eighties…Eishōhaki?!" Hiro gaped.

Kirika smiled grimly. This was the spell that Tessai had drilled into her until she could use it without the incantation. Dankū could block any of the Hadō from one to eighty without suffering damage, but he cautioned her with a tale that a particularly puissant Kidō user could use it Eishōhaki and withstand Hadō Number 89 with ease…Aizen.

"Let's dance, boys." she said and charged at them as her Dankū dissolved. Nagisa hurriedly backed up and sent gusts of wind at her with frantic swipes of his gunbai, while Hiro lashed at her with his whip.

Dancing through the whip's strikes, Kirika countered each of the windblasts with a weak Byakurai. Each time the lightning and wind collided, a small explosion happened.

"Who the hell are you?!" Hiro snarled, "No Ryoka should be this strong!"

"Kokken Asa!" Kirika replied, "And, just so you know, I'm the second-strongest member of my group. Goodnight!"

Finally getting close enough that Hiro couldn't risk attacking her with his whip, Kirika threw Nejibana into the air to distract them. As they both automatically looked up at the sword, she slammed a fist into Hiro's sternum, sending the man flying back into the wall.

"Hiro!" Nagisa shouted angrily, "Damn you!"

"You first." Kirika snarked. She caught her sword and sliced it at the small man, who desperately blocked with his gunbai. Sadly, for him, he neglected to reinforce it with Reiryoku, so Kirika cut his Zanpakutō in half.

"No! Yōsen!"

"Reinforce it with Reiryoku next time, genius." Kirika snapped as she pointed her sword at him, "Now, answer a few of my questions. Where is Kuchiki Rukia being held?"

"Wha…you're here for her?" Nagisa said in surprise, "She was just moved to the Senzaikyū (Palace of Remorseful Sin) a few hours ago, by order of the Central 46."

'Damn. Wait, that's odd…those conservative old geezers wouldn't change Rukia's location this quickly…Aizen. He's done something.' Kirika thought furiously. She snapped at Nagisa, "What's her sentence?"

"She…she's to be executed in two weeks…by the Sōkyoku (Twinned Punishment)." Nagisa replied nervously.

"What?!" Kirika was shocked, "The Sōkyoku is only used for the execution of Captain-Class Soul Reapers who have committed grave sins! Kuchiki is an Unseated Soul Reaper who just gave her powers to a human! Something reeks about this…"

"Hey, I just know the scuttlebutt." the Soul Reaper raised his hand in a pacifying manner, "I didn't decide anything."

"I am aware of that." Kirika sighed, "Now, what is the nearest Squad Barracks from here?"

"Err…Squad Five, I think." Nagisa said pensively, "I wouldn't go there though. Captain Aizen's probably there."

"That's exactly who I'm looking for." she said coldly, "Thanks for your help. I'm going to knock you out so your friends here don't get suspicious and ask why you were the only one knocked out. Keep quiet about me asking you anything and you might not get thrown in the Maggot's Nest."

"Damn decent of yo-" He started to say before Kirika slammed the pommel of her weapon into his temple, making him drop like a puppet with its strings cut.

Kirika started running along the causeways, her sword drawn and ready to use.

'This doesn't make any sense. Why would Aizen go through the trouble of using the Sōkyoku to kill her? Why not just kill her via normal execution?' Kirika mused to herself, 'The only difference between the two methods is that the Sōkyoku destroys the entirety of the Soul it targets, removing them from the cycle of reincarnation, like a Quincy's Reishi arrow. Why would he manipulate everything just to do that to Rukia? It makes no sense…'

She almost tripped up as something occurred to her. 'It wouldn't…unless Urahara has been keeping MORE secrets. Does Rukia have something INSIDE her Soul? Something Aizen wants? Shit. It makes sense…that would explain why Rukia's powers never returned…I'll bet Urahara created a Gigai that was draining her powers instead of helping to recover them. The best way to lock something inside a Soul would be to drain someone's powers into nothing and then seal up the Saketsu and Hakusui.'

The next step would be to kill the person, which would send the Soul into the Cycle of Reincarnation, which would send whatever was sealed inside of it with it, to be reborn who knows where and when, making it almost impossible for Aizen to find.

She doubted Urahara would have gone quite THAT far, but still…

"Urahara, I am SO going to kick your ass for this." she swore.

With Chad

Sado Yasutora, otherwise known as Chad, was a hard person to surprise or startle. By nature, he was imperturbable.

Still, falling from the height of a skyscraper faster than a speeding car would tend to make the calmest of individuals panic, and Chad was no exception. Still, he was good in a panic situation, so he fired off a couple of spiritual energy blasts at his landing locations to simultaneously slow him down and soften up the landing site.

He reinforced his body, especially his legs, with Reiryoku as Kokken-sensei had taught him when he had learned his Paso del Viento. When he crashed into the ground, with quite the loud crash, he emerged from it unscathed and with only a scattering of dust on him.

Looking around, he saw that he was in the middle of what looked like a courtyard of some kind. It was completely empty and he had no idea where to go from here.

Concentrating on his ability to sense Reiryoku, Chad winced as he was metaphorically clubbed over the head by all the varying Reiryoku signatures that the Seireitei had inside of it. Trying to find any of his companions in all of this was impossible, unless one of them raised his Reiatsu high enough to stand out in the crowd.

As if waiting for him to come to that conclusion, Ichigo's familiar and overwhelming Reiryoku rose like a bonfire among candles. He was near another powerful source of Reiryoku, but the other one wasn't as strong as he was, so Chad wasn't concerned.

To go to Ichigo or not…that was a tough question. On one hand, Chad knew Ichigo could handle himself, even weighed down by Shiba Ganju, who was, at best, a Fifteenth Seat in terms of power. On the other hand, Kokken-sensei had told them all last night that in the case of being split up, to prioritise reassembling before continuing the mission, otherwise they risked being defeated in detail, overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

Resolved to do as she said, Chad strode forwards. From what he recalled, Kokken-sensei had described the Seireitei as a winding maze, designed to slow down, contain and confuse intruders while the Soul Reapers located and dispatched them.

'Well then…ignore the corridors.' he reasoned. He blasted through a wall that was in the same direction as Ichigo and walked through the opening. About a dozen Soul Reapers were lying on the ground and covered with rubble from his strike.

Fewer enemies to deal with.

After continuing on this vein for a while (twenty walls or so), he was finally confronted by someone who hadn't been KO'd by his blasts.

"Hold it there, Ryoka!" the man bellowed. He had a shaved head and a brown beard tied into a braid that reached down to his waist

"There's no need to shout. I am perfectly capable of hearing you." Chad said calmly.

"Hah! As if a Ryoka has any right to tell me, Hoshi Sōichirō, 7th Seat of Squad 5, what to do!" the man scoffed. "Surrender now!"

"I'll have to decline." Chad said simply and raised his fists.

"Fool! Now you shall perish!" Sōichirō scoffed as he drew his blade.

The man was well muscled, but heavily over muscled on one side. Chad assumed he was an avid swordsman. Well, he wasn't about to entertain him.

Chad pulled back his armoured fist and gathered spiritual energy there before firing it off at the Soul Reaper.

"Hah!" the man yelled and cut through Chad's attack, deflecting it into a nearby wall and demolishing it.

This made the Mexican youth raise an eyebrow. That was a fifty percent blast. Obviously, a Seventh Seat would require more power to beat than the rank-and-file Soul Reapers.

"Was that your best attack, Ryoka?" Sōichirō sneered, "Then allow me to show you mine! Namidate, Mugenjin! (Ripple, Infinite Blade!)"

The man's sword glowed silver before changing. The blade flattened, thinned and grew until it was several feet long. The hilt of the sword lost its tsuba and grew a couple of inches.

Chad recognised the weapon. Kirika, Ichigo's eldest sister, was a bit of a sword otaku and had told him about this kind of sword before. It was an Urumi, an Indian sword that was more like a whip in use than a sword, but Zanpakutō were never what they seemed, according to Kokken-sensei.

"Perish!" Sōichirō boomed as he lashed his weapon at Chad. The youth leapt back, but Sōichirō boomed out, "Nobase! (Stretch!)"

Wide eyed, Chad had to deflect the blade as it surged forwards, seeming to grow longer in mid-flight until it reached him. It was now at least ten feet long, almost double its original length.

"Wah-ahahahaha!" the Soul Reaper laughed nastily, "My Mugenjin can extend however long it is necessary in order to reach the enemy! As long as I can see you, you are within my range, Ryoka!"

Somehow, the Mexican youth had to doubt that. All Zanpakutō had limits; this man's weapon was no different. He had stated one limitation, that he had to see his enemy in order to extend the blade to reach them. There had to be some kind of maximum range that the blade couldn't extend past as well.

Last night, Kokken had informed them about Captain Ichimaru's Zanpakutō, Shinsō. It was the fastest attacking Zanpakutō in all of Soul Society and could extend to a hundred times its own length in a flash, but no further than that.

Since a Captain-class Soul Reaper had a limit to how far he could attack with his weapon, this man must have one as well.

Chad raised his armoured fist and sent another blast at the man, who moved his weapon's sinuous blade into the way and intercepted it before the blast could strike him. Sōichirō then sent the weapon arcing at him, making it grow longer yet again as Chad retreated.

Suddenly, the Soul Reaper started to move forwards rather than extend his Zanpakutō. Chad eyed the blade and estimated that it was about eighteen feet long from tip to the base of the blade section.

"I see…that is the longest you can make it, then." he said calmly.

"Silence! I will cut you to ribbons, Ryoka!" Sōichirō roared, "Dakōken! (Meandering Sword!)"

The blade of his Zanpakutō started to thrash around on its own, lashing and slicing at everything within reach, even the paving stones, turning them into rubble.

'That should be something more like 'Indiscriminate Sword'' Chad thought dryly. The only thing not being cut inside that eighteen-foot radius was Sōichirō himself.

"See! Haha! You can't so much as touch me with your weak little blasts and you can't hit me without getting into striking range!" Sōichirō sneered, "And you can't do that without getting sliced to ribbons by Mugenjin! Give up!"

"Before…you asked me if that blast I used was my best attack." Chad said, "You never bothered to hear my answer."

He thought back to his training with Kokken-sensei.

-Flashback-

"A name?" he asked. He was in the warehouse that he and Orihime were using to train their powers.

"Yes, a name." Kokken nodded her helmeted head, "For Soul Reapers and for Inoue-san, knowing the name of our attacks vastly increases the power of our attacks. For Kidō, the same thing applies. If used with only the name and no incantation, it is decidedly weaker, even more so if you omit the name as well. That is, unless you are really puissant with your Kidō. Anyway, the point is that I would like you to choose a name for your spiritual energy blast, so we can see if the same principal applies to you, as well as how effective it is if it works."

"I have no idea what to call it." Chad confessed.

"Don't sweat it so much; a name will come to you eventually." Kokken assured him, "We Soul Reapers are spoiled in that regard as the names of our attacks are born with our Zanpakutō, so we just have to learn them to use the attacks."

"A name…" the Mexican youth gazed at his black armoured hand thoughtfully.

-Flashback End-

"And? What of it, Ryoka?!" Sōichirō shouted.

"I just thought you should know…that up until now, my blasts have only been roughly half of a full powered blast." Chad replied, "Unincanted as well."

"WHAT!?" Sōichirō paled.

"This…" Chad growled as he slowly cocked his fist back, "…is my blast at its current full power."

A brilliant blue light surrounded his fist, much brighter than all his previous attacks, with a great deal of heavy Reiatsu coming off him.

"El Directo! (The Direct!)" The Mexican shouted as he slammed a punch forwards, releasing a massive blast of spiritual energy at his opponent. Panicking, the Soul Reaper directed his blade at the incoming attack, but the thin blade couldn't withstand the sheer destructive force of Chad's El Directo, shattering and crumbling under the blast.

"Impossible!" Sōichirō shouted before he was struck by the blast. The El Directo crashed over him and continued on through the wall behind him…and several more walls after that, before dissipating.

The beaten, battered and unconscious form of Hoshi Sōichirō was splayed in a crumpled heap amid the rubble of the third wall. He wasn't seriously hurt, just almost completely naked except for the shredded and tattered remains of his Shihakushō and loincloth.

Chad looked down at his armoured hand with a frown.

"Still doesn't feel right." he muttered. Oh sure, it was more powerful than his regular blasts, but lacked…something, as if it was an incomplete attack.

'Have my powers still not fully matured?' the Mexican youth wondered to himself, then felt silly for asking the question. Of course they weren't fully mature, he'd only started training with them less than a month ago.

Obviously, while the name 'El Directo' was the right one for the attack, the full powered version was still beyond his reach for the moment. Once they left the Soul Society, he would ask Kokken-sensei for her guidance on this subject.

With that put to one side, he vanished in a blur with his Paso del Viento, heading towards Ichigo.

With Orihime and Uryū

Ishida glared down at the unconscious form of Ikkanzaka Jirōbō, Jidanbō's little brother. He had been a typical arrogant Soul Reaper, nothing like Jidanbō, who Ishida could, reluctantly, admit to liking.

Out of respect for Jidanbō, he had held back from his impulse to seal the man's Saketsu and Hakusui for his overbearing attitude. He'd merely destroyed the man's Zanpakutō, then used Hirenkyaku to appear above and behind him and knock him out with a kick to the back of his head.

"Ishida-kun, that was amazing!" Orihime cheered.

Ishida flushed at the bubbly girl's praise. He wasn't used to his classmates praising him in any way, especially not a cute girl like Orihime.

"I-It was nothing, Inoue-san." he replied humbly.

"But it is amazing." Orihime said, looking dejected, "I can't hurt people easily. Kokken-sensei scolded me for it…and she's right. What if I get you or Kurosaki-kun hurt or worse because I'm so reluctant to harm others? I already got Tsubaki hurt because I didn't want to hurt Jirōbō-san…"

This made the bespectacled Quincy frown slightly. While he knew Kurosaki Kirika was right, she shouldn't have put it quite like that. Now Orihime's going to blame herself whenever she failed.

"I think that being able to heal rather than harm is a good thing." he said as he led her away from the knocked out Soul Reaper, "It's easier to destroy than heal, after all."

"I don't want to be a burden though…" Orihime said miserably.

"I see." Ishida said with a sigh, "Well, you can't change a fundamental part of yourself all that easily. The important thing is to do what you can. Think baby steps. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, after all. It's taking the first step that's the hard part."

Orihime was quiet for a while after that before she whispered, "Thank you, Ishida-kun."

"No problem." the Quincy looked around before beckoning Orihime to follow him, "This way."

With Kirika

Kirika huffed as the last of the squad of Onmitsukidō fell to the ground in defeat. She had been forced to abandon her silly plan of attacking Aizen when her common sense, sounding a lot like Yoruichi-sensei, reminded her of the difference between her power and his.

She had felt Ichigo and Chad flaring their power earlier on, swiftly followed by the defeat of whomever it was they were fighting. Chad seemed to be heading to meet up with Ichigo, which was all to the good. He would ground Ichigo at best and back him up at worst.

It had been shortly after that that she had been ambushed by the members of the Stealth Force. None of them had so much as drawn their Zanpakutō, so she had left Nejibana in her sheath and dealt with them with just her fists and feet to respect them.

'Still…is it me or are they weaker than what Yoruichi-sensei told me they would be?' she pondered. The Onmitsukidō was the shadow of the Goteijūsantai, working in the shadows and eliminating its enemies by stealth and trickery where force would not work. Each member was highly trained in Hohō and Hakuda, rarely needing to use their Zanpakutō due to their skill in those two sections of the Zankensoki.

This squad of ten should have forced her to use Bakudō or Hadō in order to deal with them. Instead, she had barely broken a sweat while dealing with them. Was Soi Fon slacking off with their training? It didn't sound like something the by-the-book-bitch would do, according to Yoruichi's stories of her former Lieutenant.

So what was up here?

Shaking her masked head, Kirika was about to head off on her way to the inner area of the Seireitei to infiltrate the Senzaikyū and get Rukia out, when a familiar form in a white haori appeared before her, fake smile on his face and silver hair rustling in the wind.

Ichimaru Gin.

"Maaaa….you're quite the hard one to track down." he said breezily.

'Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!' was on a loop in her mind. She wasn't ready to fight a captain, especially not this one.

"Ichimaru Gin…" Kirika said with forced calm, "Do tell what I can do for you?"

As she spoke, she was estimating her chances of getting away and they were not promising. Then, she spotted an opening in the ground, with a paving stone next to it.

'One of the entrances to the sewers! I don't think Ichimaru was ever in Fourth Squad, so he should have no idea about the layout. I'm outta here as soon I see an opening!'

"Surrendering would be good." the silver-haired man said, "If not, dying is optional as well."

"I am afraid I shall have to decline your…generous…offers." Kirika said tightly, "I choose option 'C'…escape."

With that, Kirika blurred into a Shunpo and vanished down the sewer entrance, but Ichimaru still managed to anticipate her actions and sent Shinsō at her, grazing the top of her helmet and tearing the cloak she wore down the middle.

As soon as she hit the bottom, she sped down one passage, noting her location by the carved numbers on the ends of the passages. She was underneath the outermost reaches of the Squad Three Barracks, near a central chamber that acted as a nexus for all the sewage in this area.

Lovely.

She heard Ichimaru Shunpo after her and put on extra speed. Captains were generally not Shunpo specialists and entry-level Onmitsukidō was probably out of his league, but Kirika didn't believe in taking chances with her life.

As she appeared in the nexus chamber, a large room covered in grills and with flowing water, a solid hit to her lower back sent her sprawling to the ground. When she heard the four doors of the room slam shut, she knew she was done.

As she rolled to one knee, she saw Ichimaru standing and looking at her.

"The doors are all locked." Ichimaru said amicably, "Take yer helmet off little experiment survivor with pretty red hair. We're the only ones here."

Double-checking, she saw he was right. Deciding that she didn't exactly have much in the way of choice, she removed her helmet and let her red hair free from the bun it was in. Damn that felt good.

"It has been a long ten years…Ichimaru Gin." she said as she looked at him with a scowl.

"Ah, so it is you, kid." the fake smile was back in a flash, "When our swords crossed I had my suspicions, but ta think ya came all this way. What a shock."

"When our swords crossed?" Kirika asked in mild confusion.

"When two high-level Soul Reapers cross blades, they can read the emotions that the other is feeling at the moment the Zanpakutō touch." Ichimaru explained, "Ya felt anger, fear and recognition of me. Other than Urahara, Yoruichi and Tessai, ya are the only one in that group who knows me. Simple to deduce if you think about it."

"Enough with the chit-chat." she growled, "What has Kuchiki Rukia got inside her that has made Aizen manipulate everything so she is executed by the Sōkyoku?"

"Figured that out, did ya?" he asked.

Kirika snorted. "Urahara didn't tell me, if that's what you mean. I take it that Central 46 is dead and that all the orders regarding Rukia have been Aizen's?"

"Two for two." Gin clapped sarcastically, "Ya sure ya wanna know? It'll put ya in danger to know Aizen-taichō's plans."

"Shiba Kaien's memories will not let me leave Rukia alone." Kirika replied, "And I can't help her if I don't know what that bastard is planning."

"Fair enough." Gin said, "The thing inside the little missy is called the Hōgyoku (Breakdown Sphere). It was made by Urahara years ago. It has the ability ta break down the boundary between Soul Reapers and Hollows."

"That's what Aizen used to frame the Visords a hundred years ago!" Kirika realised.

"Yes and no." Gin replied, "See, Aizen-taichō made his own Hōgyoku, but it's…incomplete. Unstable. Even feeding Souls to it didn't improve it. Then he found out the new Captain of Squad Twelve, one Urahara Kisuke, had made a better one. He used his own Hōgyoku to Hollowfy the Visords then set about finding Urahara's once he was outta the way."

"But Urahara had hidden it inside of an Inuzuri brat…Rukia." she finished, "How'd he discover it was inside her?"

"He was a guest lecturer at the Shinōreijutsuin once he was promoted ta Captain. He is a smart one and guessed what Urahara had done, so he scanned every person at the Academy in hopes of finding the Hōgyoku." Gin shrugged, "He found her as soon as she entered the Academy. Thing is, it's very, very difficult to extract something that's been implanted inside someone's Soul for a century, or even fifty years. So he started setting things up for all of this, extracting the Hōgyoku from Kuchiki Rukia via her death by Sōkyoku."

"Wait…so Kaien…Miyako…my friends…everything was for the sake of this stupid Hōgyoku?" Kirika bit out angrily.

"Yep." Gin nodded with his smile.

"Why? So he can make people into Visords?" Kirika asked sarcastically.

"Nope. See, we have an army of special Hollows." Gin replied cheerfully, "If a Hollow takes its mask off, it becomes humanoid and gets Soul Reaper-like powers. These are called 'Arrancar'. It's Spanish for 'Tear off.' Aizen-taichō has an army of Gillians, Adjuchas and Vasto Lordes he's used his own Hōgyoku ta turn 'em inta Arrancar. He wants to become a perfect being, superior ta both Hollows and Soul Reapers, with the powers of both combined…then overthrowing the Rei-Ō."

"He wants to overthrow the Soul King?!" Kirika asked in disbelief, "Is he mad?"

"Nope. He's dangerously intelligent, absolutely ruthless and has a pain in the ass Zanpakutō." Gin said grimly, "His Kyōka Suigetsu (Mirror Flower, Water Moon) is an illusion-type Zanpakutō that has the ability of absolute and perfect hypnotism, domination over all five of the senses. How else do you think he's gotten away with so much over the last few centuries?"

"Shit!" Kirika cursed, "How does it work?"

"Yer safe as long as ya don't see him use his Shikai." Gin replied, "As of now, every Soul Reaper in the Goteijūsantai of the Third Seat Level and above, including me but excluding Tōsen Kaname, is under the sway of his hypnotism."

"Broken as hell." Kirika muttered. A Zanpakutō like that was practically a cheat code.

"You wish to prevent Kuchiki Rukia's death, correct?" Gin asked, "She won't be safe as long as the Hōgyoku is inside her. Aizen-taichō has an alternate way of extracting it, though it is painful for her. Make it so the Sōkyoku cannot be used and he will use the alternate method."

"How? The Sōkyoku is a tool supposedly created by the Rei-Ō." Kirika pointed out, "Once the damn thing is started up, it's supposed to be impossible to stop it from executing whoever is on the execution stand."

"Two choices." Ichimaru raised one finger, "One, get Kuchiki outta the Senzaikyū and hide her until Aizen-taichō gets pissed enough to go looking for her himself."

He raised the next finger. "Or two, grab the Shihōin Shield, wrap the cords it has around the Sōkyoku's phoenix form, and cut the shield, which will destroy the Sōkyoku."

"Yeah…think I'll try for the first one." Kirika said dryly, "The Shihōin Shield is probably locked up tight as a drum somewhere I have no chance of getting to. I still don't like the idea of letting Aizen have that stupid Hōgyoku thing though. Why didn't Urahara destroy the stupid thing?"

"He tried." Gin snorted in amusement, "He did everything short of using the Sōkyoku to destroy the 'stupid thing' and even that won't so much as scratch the Hōgyoku. The only thing to do is to put it somewhere where no one can touch it. And since Aizen-taichō has the only thing that can get it out of your midget friend, there ain't much choice, is there?"

"I know." Kirika growled, "I know and I like it about as much as I like being puppeteered by Urahara; not much whatsoever."

"The seal that the Hōgyoku is under has put it in a sleep-like state." Gin offered, "Once Aizen-taichō has it, it can only be used once after he fuses his Hōgyoku with Urahara's Hōgyoku. After that, it can't be used until it awakens fully."

"Cold comfort." the redheaded Soul Reaper grumbled, "Fine. What now?"

"I'll leave thataway." Gin nodded at the entrance to his left, "You head the opposite way. Go left, right, left, straight, then up the ladder. You should emerge in an area close to a Shihōin storehouse. Grab a Cape of Flight and hightail it over to the Senzaikyū and get Kuchiki outta there. Hide down here until Aizen-taichō finds you."

"I doubt it'll be as easy as all that." Kirika grumbled. The saying 'no plan survives contact with the enemy' was far truer than she had known before today. Things had been screwed up so many times by luck and happenstance so far that she shuddered to see what would happen next.

"By the way kid…what's yer name?" Gin asked.

"In my mask, I am called Kokken Asa." Kirika replied, "Without it, I am known as Kurosaki Kirika."

"Huh…so ya were adopted by ol' Isshin then?" Gin smirked, "Things just keep gettin' more interestin'."

"Whatever." Kirika glared at him, "You, Aizen and Tōsen are on my shitlist. Remember that. I'll cooperate with you until the other two are dead…then you are in my sights. Remember that, snake."

"I do." Ichimaru replied, his smirk getting bigger, "And you're right; I am a snake. I'll be a snake in the grass right up until Aizen least expects it…then I'll strike."

Eying him, Kirika replaced her helmet on her head. The Captain then pressed a button on a remote he fished out of his haori and the doors opened.

Kirika zipped down the passage she was told to go, hating the fact that not only was she a puppet on string, but that she had more than one puppet master. How her brother and friends were ever going to forgive her was a mystery to her.

Ichimaru walked down the passageway he had told Kirika he would take and absently killed an Onmitsukidō operative who had heard everything as he tried to sneak past him.

"Tsk, tsk…Soi Fon-taichō needs to train you boys' better." he scolded the corpse.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Next Chapter: Baboons, Flames and White Towers

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII