Author's Note: Yo. So here's chapter 18, just two more chapters in this arc to go…I think. Four at the very outside.
IMPORTANT! I went back and updated chapters 1-4 of this fic, because a helpful friend of mine, ZeroKaze, helped me thrash out better Japanese for Nejibana's new Kaigo under Kirika, as well as giving me better names for Yoruichi's Zanpakutō attacks and abilities. Go and check them before reading this chapter! That way, you won't be surprised by the different terms used in this chapter.
Other than that, enjoy.
Read, Review and Check out my other stories!
Beta'd by BigCC
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach!
"Rukia" – Normal Speech
'Ichigo' – Thoughts
*Kaien-dono* - Zanpakutō speech/thoughts
"Bankai!" – Spiritual Technique
Chapter 18: The Mask Comes Off: Kirika's Rage
After Aizen's Arrival and Before Kirika's Attack
Kuchiki Rukia had been subjected to a positively unholy amount of shocks in her life, and the last two months had had more than the rest combined. Losing her powers while saving a Human child with an incredible amount of latent Reiryoku, guiding that self-same Human into the role of a Soul Reaper, feeling herself slowly fall for that Human despite every effort she put forth to keep her distance, and then seeing him drive off a low-class Menos Grande, a Gillian.
Then came her arrest, her imprisonment and eventual liberation.
So you could appreciate how she was gaping in stupefied shock as Captain Aizen, who was supposed to be dead, appeared via a Kidō that she recognised as being Sentan Hakuja.
"A-Aizen…-taichō…?!" Hinamori muttered in shock, falling to her knees as more evidence of Kokken Asa's words slid into place with her supposedly dead Captain's appearance. The poor girl didn't know how much more she could take.
"Well now, isn't this just fascinating…" Kurotsuchi Mayuri muttered, pausing in his fight with Ishida.
"What is the meaning of this, Aizen-taichō?" Unohana asked coldly. "Or would calling you with that honorific be a mistake due to your actions?"
Aizen smiled tightly, his eyes roaming the battlefield. His smirk grew when he spotted Hinamori collapsed on her knees. "Now, now Unohana-taichō…you should know that throwing accusations around like that is-"
A raw shriek of rage drew the attention of the entire battlefield as Kokken Asa Shunpo'd above Aizen and somehow duplicated herself. Aizen, appearing to be genuinely startled, looked up with wide eyes as the masked woman and her copies each unleashed a powerful fire-type Hadō at him.
"Shakkahō!"
"Sōkatsui!"
"Sōren Sōkatsui!"
In an instant Aizen was engulfed as the three Destruction Way spells hit home near simultaneously, being his entire body being engulfed in burning spiritual energy. Rukia took a step back automatically due to the sheer amount of heat emanating from the impromptu pyre that had engulfed Aizen Sōsuke.
'From only uttering the name of the spell, she got this much power from them, not to firing three in the space of a second while maintaining an advanced Shunpo technique…' Rukia thought in awe. 'She must have a talent for fire-type Kidō, there's no other explanation.'
As Kokken landed over on the roof near where her brother and Ichigo had paused in their fight, Rukia felt a bit of confusion when the Masked Soul Reaper spoke to Byakuya about 'Hisana's Will', obviously referring to her. She looked a great deal like the deceased wife of her adoptive brother, she could admit; it was why she had been adopted by the Kuchiki Clan at Byakuya's request. Kokken seemed to imply something else though…
Her attention was suddenly diverted again as Aizen seemingly ripped his way out of the firestorm, a soft grunt of exertion being the only sign of effort from the shocking feat. His shihakushō and haori were scorched and burned, his immaculately groomed hair in slight disarray and even a couple of small burns now dotted his face and neck. For three Hadō from a Soul Reaper who couldn't be more than Lieutenant-class to have managed to wound a Captain-class Soul Reaper took one or both of two requirements; either they had to ridiculously powerful or the Captain had only had their passive Reiatsu active.
All Spiritual Beings had Reiryoku, which someone with sufficient training could focus into Reiatsu upon command. Powerful Spiritual Beings, such as the higher-ranking Seated Officers in the Goteijūsantai, had a passive layer of Reiatsu surrounding them constantly due to the sheer amount of Reiryoku they possessed. If someone with a attacked a more powerful enemy, then at best they would be repelled without so much as scratching their enemy. At worst they would be hit with damage equivalent to the difference between their Reiryoku and Reiatsu.
To bypass this hurdle, you needed to either possess a sufficiently dense Reiatsu of your own or overpower your enemy's Reiatsu with a large amount of Reiryoku via a Hadō or a zanpakutō's special ability.
'He was totally unprepared for an attack…he had his guard down completely, leaving him vulnerable to a Hadō's wrath.' Rukia thought in disbelief, and for a good reason. Even if one could theoretically pierce the passive layer of a Captain's Reiatsu with a Hadō, that still left the hurdle of the lightning-quick reflexes of the Captain in question in raising their Reiatsu to a sufficient density to either repel the attack or stop it in its tracks.
Aizen had been wounded, very minorly, but wounded nonetheless, by Kokken's Kidō attack. He had let his guard down by not having his Reiatsu at a reasonable level of self-protection and he had been so utterly surprised by the attack on his person that he had allowed the, admittedly powerful, trio of Hadō to pierce through his Reiatsu in several places before he'd had the presence of mind to increase his Reiatsu to block the overwhelming majority of Kokken's surprise attack on him. In the entire history of the Soul Society, this occurrence had happened fewer than perhaps a dozen times; with the last time being a short time after the Sōtaichō had founded the Goteijūsantai.
"Kokken Asa." Aizen growled, his benign, affable mask shattered like a cheap toy. "You have become a veritable thorn in my side and now, you have gone one step too far. Gin, kill her."
There was a slight, disbelieving moment of silence from almost everyone in the courtyard as Ichimaru Gin Shunpo'd several meters behind the Masked Soul Reaper, thrust his zanpakutō out and said, "Shoot to kill, Shinsō!"
The blade of the weapon was the normal size of a wakizashi one moment and then it just seemed to elongate and pierce through Kokken Asa's abdomen, staggering her.
"Ichimaru!" the Masked Girl roared in anger, the modulated voice she had courtesy of Urahara's helmet sounding even more sibilant than before. She dropped her sword, clapped both hands over the foot of steel emerging from her gut and shouted, "Hadō #11: Tsuzuri Raiden!"
"Is she mad?!" Rukia gasped as the contact lightning Hadō erupted from her hands, shooting up the blade and into the caster's body, making Kokken choke in pain, as her insides were hit with her own technique. Even so, the lightning still transmitted down the other half of the blade in a flash, directly attacking Gin's hand. The silver-haired man grimaced in pain before quickly retracting Shinsō to its original length.
Quickly snatching up her zanpakutō and using Shunpo to retreat down and out of immediate line-of-sight of the Captain, Kokken pressed her free hand to her abdominal wound and the green glow of Kaido appeared.
'She's attempting to heal that kind of wound with basic Kaido?!' Rukia shook her head in disbelief and moved to help her before Hanatarō rushed past her to apply his far more experienced knowledge of Kaido to healing Kokken.
"You shouldn't fight for a while." The Third Seat informed Kokken as he healed her. "Even if I heal it, you'll risk reopening the wound if you push yourself. Not to mention the internal damage you did to yourself."
"I believe our current opponents require risks to be taken and limits pushed, Hanatarō-san." Kokken said, an edge of pain in her voice. "Your words are noted, however."
"Gin, I ordered you to kill her, not inconvenience her." Aizen bit out. "Finish the job!"
"Maa, is this really the time, Aizen-taichō?" Gin grinned at the angry man. "Ain't ya got somethin' better ta be doin' instead?"
"Tch." The brown-haired man clicked his tongue and turned to stare at Rukia, who froze at the weight of Reiatsu being forced upon her from the man. It was hard to even breathe, let alone do anything else…such as stand. As she collapsed to her knees, Aizen started moving towards her at a slow, unhurried walking pace.
"Stop him!" Rukia dimly heard Kokken shouting. "If he gets to Rukia, he'll kill her! Don't let him touch her!"
Chad, despite the knowledge that he would be basically useless against a Captain, fired off a powerful blast of Spiritual Energy at the walking man. It washed over him like water off a duck's back, leaving him looking unaffected by it completely.
"Hanatarō, use your zanpakutō to heal me! Now!" Kokken ordered, sounding both frustrated and desperate.
"B-but I don't know if it can even heal deep wounds like this!" the slight man protested.
"We have to try, so do as I say!" the Masked Soul Reaper ordered.
Using his Hirenkyaku to appear above Aizen, Ishida fired a barrage of arrows at the Captain, all of which shattered against his Reiatsu, which cloaked him like armour.
Hanatarō drew his zanpakutō, which had an odd groove running down the length of the blade, and cut at Kokken with it. Oddly, no blood was spilled by it, and almost a tenth of the groove on Hanatarō's sword was turned red.
He repeated this several times, with less and less red being added each time as the special ability of his zanpakutō gradually healed Kokken of her wounds.
"Get away from Rukia!" Ichigo shouted as he raised his blade. "Getsuga Tenshō (Moon-Fang Heaven Piercer)!"
A wave of powerful blue Spirit Energy erupted from the oversized butcher's knife-like zanpakutō as the Deathberry brought it down in a vertical cut aimed straight at Aizen, the sheer spiritual density of the attack cracking the paving stones as it passed over them.
Just before it would have struck Aizen, the Captain raised one hand and said calmly, "Dankū."
With a modest exertion of Reiryoku, a man-sized rectangular shield snapped into place between him and the Getsuga Tenshō, the blue wave slamming into the Dankū like a freight train. The struggle lasted a brief moment before the Bakudō strained, cracked and then collapsed under the raw power of Ichigo's special attack. By that time though, Aizen had calmly walked past where it might have struck him, the technique flying past him harmlessly.
"What the…?!" Ichigo breathed in disbelief.
"That I had to actually use Kidō is indicative that it may have posed some slight measure of danger to me had it landed, Kurosaki Ichigo. Take it as praise that I actually put in the effort to block." Aizen advised him smoothly.
"That is far enough, Aizen-taichō." Byakuya said as he appeared in front of the traitor with a burst of Shunpo. "Regardless of what the Ryoka accuse you of, the fact that you were seen dead a few days ago throws suspicion upon you with your appearance here and now."
Aizen ignored the man and simply Shunpo'd around him whilst using the power of his Kyōka Suigetsu to make Byakuya think he was still in front of him and arguing with him. He had too little time to bother with the uptight and honour-conflicted man.
"Dammit!" Ichigo growled. "Hey Renji! Let's kick this guy's ass!"
"Tch. Like I need you to tell me that!" the redheaded man smirked. He Shunpo'd away from Sasikabe and in front of Aizen at the same time Ichigo did the same. The orange-haired boy levelled his massive cleaver at Aizen at the same time Renji raised his serrated snake-sword diagonally in front of him.
"BANKAI!" they shouted in unison.
The eyes of every Soul Reaper in the courtyard locked on to the pair as their Reiatsu spiked, with Kuchiki Byakuya's eyes first widening, and then narrowing at them.
"Bankai…impossible!" he murmured. Bankai was a level of power that oh-so very few Soul Reapers attained, to the point that only the Captains of the Goteijūsantai, the most powerful men and women of Soul Society, were believed to have obtained it. The rare few who did gain the second and final form of their Zanpakutō had their names etched in the rolls of honour in the Soul Society. For Abarai Renji, a former Inuzuri brat, and Kurosaki Ichigo, a mere human, to attain such an honoured power was unthinkable.
And yet, the sheer amount and density of the Reiatsu that the pair of them were giving off were completely in line with someone who had recently attained Bankai. Could they have possibly…!?
In an explosion of Reiatsu and dust that could be felt across the entirety of the Seireitei, both Ichigo and Renji were obscured from sight by a tornado of thick Reiatsu and blinding red light respectively. The red-tinged black lightning formed of even more condensed Reiatsu arcing through swirling surge of energy surrounding Ichigo only added further to the shock of the display.
Renji's light shroud dissipated first, revealing Renji standing with a light-tan fur cowl around his neck, with an ape's skull on his left shoulder and the entirety of his right arm encased in the fur. Surrounding him and leading back to the hilt in his right hand was a massive serpentine skeleton of a snake that wrapped around its wielder protectively. At the end of the skeleton was a large, fanged baboon skull tipped with a large mane of fur the same shade as its master's own. It opened its jaw and hissed loudly and ferociously at Aizen.
"Bankai: Hihiō Zabimaru! (Final Release: Baboon King Snake Tail!)" Renji snarled.
"Hooooh…most impressive, Abarai-kun." Aizen praised him honestly. "A Soul Reaper as young as you attaining Bankai is a rare thing."
"That's enough out of you." Ichigo's voice rang out before the tornado around him was sliced in half, revealing the Deathberry himself. Wearing a black long-sleeved ankle-length coat and clutching a black daitō in one hand, the crossguard in the shape of the manji character. A small chain of metal links were dangling from the Kashira.
"Bankai: Tensa Zangetsu. (Full Release: Heaven Chain Slaying Moon.)" Ichigo stated as he glowered at Aizen. "So you're the one who's been puppeteering things from the shadows?"
Having fully regained his poise and composure, Aizen softly clapped. "Very impressive, Kurosaki Ichigo. A Compression-type Bankai has not been seen in the Soul Society for many hundreds of years. And from a human, no less. You are an interesting one."
"…let's shut this guy up, Renji." Ichigo's glare increased at the obvious air of condescension that the man was giving off. He didn't even consider the pair of Bankai-wielders to be a threat.
"Right." The redheaded man looked grimly serious, and not a little vengeful. Unsurprising, really; this was the man who had manipulated the entire Seireitei and made Renji arrest and confine his childhood friend for inevitable execution. If the Lieutenant didn't feel vengeful there would be something wrong with him.
With a large whipping motion, Renji sent his enormous bone serpent straight at Aizen…who simply raised his hand and caught the massive construct/weapon barehanded. He wasn't moved back by as much as an inch.
"No…way!" Renji breathed in disbelief.
"There is a reason that it takes a solid decade, if not more, for a Captain-class Soul Reaper to unlock and fully master their Bankai if it is an Expansion-type, Abarai-kun." The traitorous Captain informed him kindly. "Part of that is the amount of Reiryoku that it takes to manifest the spirit of their Zanpakutō into its final form, and another part is the sheer size of the Bankai makes it unwieldy and difficult to use. It takes almost the entire decade to learn its various kinks, strengths, abilities and any special attacks that it may possess. Also, the Reiatsu density distribution around your Hihiō Zabimaru is inconsistent. You may want to look in to improving that. Even I should not be able to touch a Bankai of this size without having more than my passive Reiatsu active."
Unhurriedly raising his other hand, Aizen easily caught the blade of Tensa Zangetsu in it. "As for Compression-type Bankai, they possess the advantage that they are not, in fact, massive constructs or animals, thus they can be wielded with the same amount of ease as their previous forms almost as soon as they are unlocked. For those who are not aware of the existence of a Bankai-type other than Expansion, this can lead to disbelief that it is a Bankai at all from the enemy. A costly mistake, to be sure. On the downside however, their special attacks are often hidden and require both time and effort to unlock and master."
Ichigo, who had been gaping like a fish until this point, recovered himself with a particular feral grin. "Izzat so? Let's see how you like these apples then! Getsuga…!"
Heavily compressed red-tinged black Reiatsu coated the blade of Tensa Zangetsu, making Aizen's eyes widen again.
"…Tenshō!" the orange-haired boy roared as he exerted every ounce of physical and spiritual strength he possessed, making the black Reiatsu flare up and wash over Aizen like an unstoppable tide. With a shout, Ichigo threw Aizen back and let loose the compressed wave of his Getsuga Tenshō with a single double-handed slash. Freed from its prison around the sword, the compressed Reiryoku flung itself at the target of its creator's wrath, driving the taken-aback Aizen into and through a wall and leaving a deep gouge through the battered and cracked paving stones of the courtyard.
"Well, ain't that somethin'?" Ichimaru remarked after a moment, the ever-present smile on his face unchanging.
With Kirika
Sparing a moment to glare at Ichimaru after he spoke, who she was still very angry with after he went and stabbed her through her goddamned stomach, Kirika Shunpo'd over next to her brother, who was letting off very dense Reiatsu and a crapton of Reiryoku. Sheesh, no wonder he was limited in how long he could maintain his Bankai until he trained some more!
"Kurosaki-san, go and continue the attack." She urged him. "Aizen is not likely to fall from such a technique. If he was only that powerful, we could laugh him off as a mere monster."
Shooting a look at her, Ichigo nodded before vanishing, with Renji following after him with a Shunpo. It hadn't been a Shunpo that Ichigo had used though; it had been pure physical speed. It sent chills down her spine at how much of a deadly combatant her brother would become once he had mastered his abilities to their fullest capacity. All the power of his Zanpakutō's Final Release compressed into a daitō and combined with ultrasonic speed that didn't even require him to use the Shunpo technique. Add in his ludicrous amount of Reiryoku and Reiatsu and his apparent ability to use a powered-up version of his Shikai's attack in Bankai without any sort of training and that spoke a lot about how strong he could become.
"Kokken!" Yoruichi called over to her as she jogged over, Soi Fon following behind, divested of her Captain's Haori. Both of their Zanpakutō were still in their Shikai forms.
"Sensei, Sempai." Kirika nodded to the pair. "I take it you kissed and made up at long last?"
Soi Fon flushed at that, even as she snuck sidelong looks at her former teacher and newly reclaimed girlfriend. "Y-You could say that, Kohai." She managed to get out, much to Yoruichi's amusement. The Werecat gave the petite woman a one-armed hug, making her squeak in surprise.
"Good. Nice that something is going right around here." The Masked Soul Reaper grumbled.
"What happened to you?!" the Shihōin Princess demanded with narrowed eyes. Ah, she'd caught sight of the stab wound.
"Ichimaru's Shinsō." She informed her sensei. "Got me from behind after I nailed Aizen with a trio of fire-element Hadō. He was pissed."
"Not to mention the fact you attacked Ichimaru via his weapon with Tsuzuri Raiden while it was still piercing through your stomach." Rukia added with an incredulous look at Kirika. "What were you thinking?!"
"That I had no better chance to attack him than that and that I had someone with a Zanpakutō that could heal me on standby." The redhead answered simply. "I was trained in a similar way to the Keigun section of the Onmitsukidō, Kuchiki-san; anything goes to complete the mission and defeat the enemy before us."
Soi Fon nodded approvingly. "Yoruichi-sama has taught you well. The fact you were stabbed in the first place was substandard, however."
"I shall endeavour to not disappoint you in future, sempai." Kirika replied with a bow. "I have only received less than a decade's worth of training from sensei, however, so I ask that you keep that in mind."
The sounds of combat grew louder before abruptly Ichigo was blasted back through the hole in the wall that Aizen had made and barely managed to flip and land on his feet in time to skid to a halt in front of the three women. He was bleeding from a cut in his forehead and his coat was even more ragged than before.
"Dammit!" he cursed.
"Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime hurried over and started to heal him with her Sōten Kisshun.
"Renji started attacking me for some reason!" the orange-haired boy snarled at Yoruichi, making Soi Fon bristle in indignation, although the purple-haired woman wasn't bothered herself.
"Aizen's zanpakutō." Yoruichi concluded swiftly. "Dammit."
Soi Fon looked somewhat confused, so Kirika quietly filled her in on the true nature and abilities of Aizen's Shikai. Needless to say, the Captain of Squad 2 was less than happy about what she was told.
"Absolute hypnotism? And I missed that?" the assassin growled, chagrined.
"I missed it too, ya know." Yoruichi pointed out before her first apprentice could berate herself any further. "The instant you saw him release his Shikai, you were trapped by it; he could make you see and hear exactly whatever he wanted."
"I am most displeased with you discussing my zanpakutō's abilities with all and sundry, Shihōin Yoruichi." Aizen mentioned as he sauntered back into the courtyard just as unruffled as before, albeit with a minor twitch in one eyebrow. "So, Kokken Asa is truly your student. It would explain her propensity for interfering in my plans with her mere presence, just as you did a century ago."
"What can I say…she learned from the best." Yoruichi grinned savagely. "Little Bee, follow my lead. Kokken, support us with Kidō. Ichigo, you do your own thing."
As a makeshift plan, it wasn't half-bad, Kirika quickly concluded as she sheathed Nejibana and took up a rear position. While Aizen could use Kyōka Suigetsu's effect on Yoruichi and Soi Fon to make them attack Ichigo and herself, he wouldn't, simply because of one fact: supreme self-confidence and ego.
He believed, without any doubt, that there was absolutely nothing that three Captain-class Soul Reapers, plus one high-Lieutenant-class Soul Reaper, could do to him that would remotely inconvenience him now that he had his guard up and was aware of his surroundings. He wasn't entirely wrong either; the Masked Soul Reaper had to admit that with great reluctance. The reason he had likely used it on Renji was either a sense of caution regarding a brand new Bankai or he simply saw Renji as being beneath him.
The latter was the most likely avenue.
"Kuchiki-san, retreat. Now." She tensely ordered the ravenette. "This is a battle beyond your skills, as impressive as they are."
Reluctantly, Rukia obeyed with a look of trepidation on her face, her eyes darting between Aizen and her friends, Orihime following afterwards to protect her friend.
A slight pulse of Yoruichi's Reiryoku was the only signal that her apprentices needed to start the attack. Soi Fon followed the Werecat in her frontal attack while Kirika vanished in a Shunpo to rapidly fire incantationless Shakkahō blasts at Aizen from multiple locations. Ichigo wordlessly launched a Getsuga Tenshō at Aizen before vanishing in a swift blur to slice at Aizen's flank.
Almost lazily, Aizen used one hand to bat the balls of fire out of the air as if they were tennis balls, simultaneously dodging Soi Fon and Yoruichi's punches and kicks, as well as Ichigo's Getsuga and sword cuts. He even looked lazy while he was doing it!
"Bakudō #1, Sai! (Way of Binding Number One, Restrain!)" Kirika shouted. The simple binding spell was literally the first Kidō spell that any Academy student ever learned and it would only take a matter of seconds before Aizen could break it. Yet even so, it would give her the time to layer more of them on top of it.
"Bakudō #9, Geki#! (Way of Binding Number Nine, Strike!)" Kirika continued. "Bakudō #4, Hainawa! Carriage of thunder, bridge of a spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six! Bakudō #61, Rikujōkōrō!"
With the first spell, Aizen was surrounded by a red aura and his body paralysed. With the second, a yellow rope of light shot out from one of Kirika's hands and wrapped around his arms. Finally, with the third spell, the yellow rope of the Hainawa was formed into six rods that slammed into place around Aizen's waist.
"Now! Those will only hold him for a few moments more!" Kirika shouted.
"Nigeki Kessatsu! (Death in Two Steps!)" Soi Fon snarled as she attempted to stab the bound man with Suzumebachi, but no Hōmonka appeared on his body.
"Your zanpakutō is an admirable one, although I am afraid that it is worse than useless against someone who is stronger than you are." Aizen cordially informed her. The assassin ground her teeth and fell back.
"Hadō #63: Raikōhō!" Yoruichi fired off a powerful lightning Kido next before slamming her gauntlet-covered hand onto the ground for some reason. As the Hadō washed over Aizen, harmlessly it must be noted, the Shihōin Princess slammed five more marks in a circle around Aizen.
"While stimulating, I fail to see how you expected that to do anything." The traitorous Captain stated as he broke free of the binding Kidō.
"Who said that was to do more than hold your attention?" Yoruichi smirked before extending one hand to the nearest Sokusekka mark. "Manekineko: Roppō Shinkō! (Beckoning Cat: True Blessing of Six Directions)!"
After saying that, she vanished in a blur of Shunpo.
Looking puzzled for a moment, Aizen's eyes widened as the cat print marks glowed black and then a formed a black ring between them. He tried to move, but then Kirika kept hitting him with multiple low-level Bakudō, with Soi Fon adding in several higher-level ones as well.
"It's pointless to try and escape, Aizen." Yoruichi said solemnly. "The true ability of my Manekineko is gravity control. When six Sokusekka are formed into a ring, I can control the gravity inside them to the point that creating a small quasi-black hole is more than possible for me. Roppō Shinkō will devour you alive. Not even I would be able to escape its grasp if caught in the centre."
"I see. This is indeed a powerful ability." The brown-haired man stated. "That being the case, I suppose…that I should actually put some effort into this fight."
Abruptly, Kirika found herself choking as a large feeling of pressure bore down on her, as Aizen Sōsuke finally exerted a large amount of his Reiatsu. It ripped through Manekineko's technique as if it wasn't there, literally carving through the marks with the sheer force of the released energy.
The Bakudō she and Soi Fon had been layering around him were likewise shattered like flies being swept up in a tornado.
Then Aizen went on the offensive for the first time. Disappearing and reappearing in front of each of the three women, he slammed a single punch each into their bodies, sending them flying into the walls. Soi Fon was down and out, with Kirika and Yoruichi dazed.
'No…no way…three Captain-Class Soul Reapers with a Lieutenant-Class Soul Reaper as support and he's this overwhelmingly powerful?!' Kirika thought in disbelief as she started to heal herself again. Aizen had struck her in the abdomen, just below the solar plexus and it felt as if several of her ribs were at least fractured, with at least one close to breaking completely.
"K-Kokken-san!" Hanatarō rushed over and started hitting her with his sword.
"H-hanatarō-san…can I ask a favour of you?" Kirika asked weakly.
With Ichigo
The orange-haired boy gaped in disbelief as, in less than ten seconds, what looked like a victory for their side turned into an overwhelming defeat. Yoruichi, her Captain-slash-former apprentice and Kokken were all taken out with a single hit each. That was just insane!
Now Aizen was simply adjusting his haori and dusting himself off as if nothing had happened!
"Well that was mildly amusing." The man said before starting his walk towards Rukia once again.
"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus. In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens! Hadō #73, Sōren Sōkatsui!"
A large bolt of blue fire shot at Aizen, crashing into him and actually making him shift his stance to compensate for it. Looking across at the one who had fired it, Ichigo saw Kokken Asa standing firmly in front of Rukia, her chest heaving from the effort of standing after taking such a heavy blow.
"Impressive." Aizen remarked idly. "Your willpower must be strong to be able to stand again on your own after being struck by a Captain-Class Soul Reaper. I certainly didn't pull my punch by much when I struck."
"You…have no idea…about my will." Kokken spat at him. "Hadō #31, Shakkahō!"
Another blast of red fire was launched at Aizen, but then the black-masked woman started chanting before it reached its target.
"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!"
As the last of the incantation was spoken, the Red Fire Cannon tripled in size and power, towering over its target.
"Kōjutsu Eishō…!" Aizen breathed out in disbelief as the Hadō slammed into him and exploded with enormous concussive and fiery force.
Even Rukia was shocked by this. "A Spoken-after Incantation?!" she whispered in disbelief. It was a high-level skill amongst Kidō Masters, one that was mostly used to reinforce Kekkai Kidō. It was literally speaking the incantation of a given Kidō after casting it as a way of empowering it. It was even more difficult when used for offensive use, requiring precise timing and control as well as a sense of daring and recklessness.
Things Kokken apparently possessed in spades.
"Damn. That Kidō stuff actually looks pretty cool." Ichigo muttered. He still thought that the chants sounded ridiculous though.
"That, my masked friend, was a mistake." Aizen snarled as he blasted the fire away from him with a burst of his Reiatsu. Appearing in front of her with a blur of Shunpo, he backhanded her across her mask before raising one hand and pointing his closed middle and index fingers up. "Hadō #90, Kurohitsugi! (Way of Destruction Number Ninety, Black Coffin!)"
Still reeling from the lightning-fast blow across her face, Kokken was unable to move as a black box formed around her, hiding her from sight. A mere ten seconds later, the box vanished, revealing Kokken, bleeding from open wounds all over her body and her mask cracked. With a contemptuous expression on his face, Aizen kicked Kokken again, sending her into a wall.
This time, she stayed down.
"Hmph. A bare third of the power output of the real thing." Aizen scowled. "Hadō in the nineties truly are very difficult to cast Eishōhaki."
With Kirika
Wheezing in pain as blood came from her throat, Kirika tried to move her body, but to no avail. She was utterly spent, body broken by that damned Kurohitsugi. She couldn't believe Aizen was able to use the first Hadō in the nineties Eishōhaki like that! That brought Aizen's puissance with Kido up to at least Tessai's level!
'All…all I can move is my head…!' The Masked Soul Reaper thought as she shifted to see what was going on. The wounds she had received from the Eishōhaki Hadō that Aizen had used were numerous and covered most of her body, but amazingly enough, she hadn't received any broken bones from it. Her cape, with its Reiatsu suppression function, had buffered her from the extremes of the technique…somehow.
Knowing Urahara, he had added some kind of shielding property to it without her knowing about it. Tch.
As weak as she was, Kirika could only watch helplessly as Ichigo fought Aizen, faster than she had ever fought, even at her best. He may not have trained as much as she had in the past, but getting his ass kicked for five days straight by Urahara had beaten the basics of fighting with a sword into his body. Add in to that the speed at which Ichigo could move in his Bankai and even Kuchiki Byakuya would have trouble in fighting him.
To Aizen, however, it didn't seem to matter. He seemed almost able to predict Ichigo's attacks before he made them and avoided them with the minimal effort needed, Tensa Zangetsu's blade passing by him with millimetres to spare. After about a minute of this, Aizen blasted Ichigo back and into another wall with an Eishōhaki Tenran before finally reaching Rukia and gripping her by the throat.
"N-No…!" Kirika croaked out, looking around desperately. Ichigo was stunned from being thrown back, but he'd be back at it in a moment, but other than him, there were no others that would be able to stop Aizen; Soi Fon and Yoruichi were both down, Mayuri was standing around taking notes, Byakuya and Renji were still under the active influence of Kyōka Suigetsu, Unohana wasn't a fighter by trade, Kenpachi was still fighting against Komamura, and Ukitake was still fighting the Sōtaichō alongside Kyōraku. The rest may as well have not been there for all the good they would be; only a Captain could threaten a Captain, after all.
Her ears were ringing, so she couldn't hear what Aizen said to the ravenette he held in his hand, even as he cast a spell that she had no clue what it was; it summoned earthen pillars from the ground in a ring around Aizen and Rukia that held the latter suspended as Aizen shoved his hand inside Rukia's body, attempting to extract the Hōgyoku.
'No…! He can't get ahold of it!' Kirika desperately scrambled for something that she could do, anything, to stop Aizen…and came up blank. The ritual Aizen was using to extract the Hōgyoku was already risky enough to Rukia's Spiritual Body as it was; if someone actively interfered in the ritual, the chances of Rukia surviving dropped from a coin toss to who knows what.
'Someone…anyone…stop him!'
With Rukia
Whatever Kidō spell Aizen was using to shove his hand into her chest like it was currently was not designed to make things pleasant for the recipient of the hand, Rukia was certain. It felt like someone was shoving a stake coated in acid inside of her, with the pain growing every second.
'I…can't take much more of this…!' she thought. 'Why…is it always like this? I'm…hurting…and everyone who tries to help me…is hurt as well…!'
Watching everyone who tried to stand between her and Aizen getting beaten bloody was horrifying. Seeing Kokken stand up the first time had given her a flicker of hope, one that had been crushed when Aizen had used that Eishōhaki Kurohitsugi on her and kicked away as if she were garbage.
Even if she survived the extraction of what she held inside of her Soul, Aizen would no doubt have her killed immediately. Rukia had always known that she was weak and powerless compared to those around her, but never before this moment had she cursed the fact so much.
'Power…if only I was stronger…!' Rukia thought as she espied Ichigo fighting to get to his feet, Kiyone and Sentarō looking on in despair, Byakuya trapped in an illusion and her human friends looking on helplessly. 'If only I was stronger…!'
Deep inside of Kuchiki Rukia, the Hōgyoku stirred as it detected two fervent wishes, one from its current container and one nearby; from one of the two people it had never had the opportunity to grant wishes for, in fact. It had no mind as such, but it was somewhat sentient and if the emotion of 'glee' could be said to be ascribed to the wish-granting orb, then the Hōgyoku gleefully granted the wishes of Rukia and Kirika, just as Aizen's fingers closed around it.
Aizen felt triumph for one moment before he was struck by an immense amount of force from somewhere, ending him flying out of the circle and through yet another wall. He wasn't so much hurt as taken off guard, and he still had the Hōgyoku in his hand, so that was something, at least.
Looking up, the traitorous Captain saw that Kuchiki Rukia had fallen to the ground on her hands and knees and was gasping for breath after being freed from his grasp, with the hole in her chest from where he had pulled the Hōgyoku out sealed shut by the effect of the highly-specialised Kidō he had used on her. It was disappointing that she hadn't died as a result of the extraction, but he had to work with what he had.
The unexpected air-time was something of a concern, but then again, no one had ever sealed something as powerful as the Hōgyoku inside of a Soul Reaper before. There may have been some unexpected variable that he hadn't known of to cause the blast that had sent him flying.
"Hmm. So…this is the Hōgyoku." Aizen said holding his prize up. The Hōgyoku had a deceptively simple appearance for an artefact of such power; it was a bluish-purple sphere, small enough to fit into the hand of a child, but the sheer power that it possessed belied its small size.
Power that he would put to good use against that thing that dared to rule above him.
"Now that I have the Hōgyoku, your usefulness to me is at an end, Kuchiki Rukia." The brown-haired man smirked. "Gin, kill her."
"Shoot to kill, Shinsō!" Ichimaru obeyed without as much of a second of hesitation, sending his Shikai forwards at Rukia with a single thrust. Time seemed to slow for the former Inuzuri brat as the blade sped towards her, the faces of everyone
'Kaien-dono…Miyako-sama…it looks as if I'm not going any further.' Rukia closed her eyes as her fate drew close. 'Goodbye…Ichigo…'
The sound of blade piercing flesh resounded through the courtyard, but Rukia felt no pain. Opening her eyes, she gasped at the sight of Kuchiki Byakuya kneeling before her, one of his shoulders impaled by Ichimaru's Shikai.
"O-Onii-sama!" she managed to say in shock.
Grunting in pain, the Head of the Kuchiki retained his cold expression, even as he glared icily at Ichimaru.
"Maa, this is troublin'." Ichimaru remarked as he reverted his weapon back to its original size. "My Shinsō is the fastest blade in the Soul Society and yet she's been parried, dodged or blocked at least half a dozen times in the last week or so. It's gonna give me a complex, so it is."
Aizen growled in irritation at the continued obstruction to his plans. When Ichigo, fully recovered now from being blasted into a wall via Tenran, flashed in front of him with his sword raised, that frustration boiled over.
"My patience with you is currently at an end, Kurosaki-san." He informed the boy as he drew and cut with his sword with one hand, almost bisecting Ichigo at the navel.
With Kirika
Looking on in horror, Kirika found herself robbed of her words as her brother collapsed to the ground in a bloody mess.
"All that is holding your body together is a few scraps of flesh and sinew, Kurosaki-san." The monster who had mutilated her brother said calmly and almost casually. "No amount of willpower can overcome that fact. Now to deal with Kuchiki Rukia, once and for all."
As the man stepped over Ichigo and towards Rukia, Kirika felt despair threatening to overwhelm her for the first time in ten years. A decade of training herself into the ground and she was still so weak and powerless.
Suddenly, the world around her turned grey and Kirika blinked in disbelief at the sight of everything slowing down, as if everyone was walking through treacle.
*Is that what you believe, Kirika-sama?* a familiar voice said and the redheaded girl gasped in shock as Nejibana's spiritual form appeared on the other side of the courtyard and started to walk towards her.
"N-Neji…bana…b-but…h-how…?!" Kirika gasped out in shock.
*Do you truly believe that your efforts have been in vain?* Nejibana asked again as she advanced. *Is this the limit of your perseverance? Of your determination? Of your will to succeed? Is this the limit of your determination to avenge the deaths of your friends and of Kaien-sama? Is this all that you are, Kurosaki Kirika?*
Taken aback at the unusually harsh words of her Zanpakutō, Kirika gasped out, "But…I've tried…so, so hard…and I barely scratched him. He's beaten down Yoruichi-sensei, Soi Fon-sempai and my brother like flies! I can't even move right now! What more can I do!?"
*Stand up.* Nejibana replied, the female spirit now standing in front of her. *Stand and fight. You are strong without me, but you and I have never truly resonated in battle save for in spars. Together, we can at least hold off Aizen until Ukitake-taichō arrives with the Sōtaichō. At that point, the traitor will have no choice but to retreat.*
"But…to do that…I'd have to use your…Shikai…!" the currently incapacitated girl realised.
*The time for secrecy and subterfuge is at an end, Kirika-sama.* Nejibana said gently as she knelt next to her mistress before frowning. *I can see why you cannot move. The helmet and cape are emitting an energy field that is paralyzing you. At a guess, Urahara set it up to activate if you took above a certain threshold of damage. You can break through it if you raise your Reiatsu high enough; it's only designed to deal with someone in the mid-Lieutenant range at best.*
While cursing Urahara with every ailment under the sun in her head, Kirika realised something. "Wait…if I'm talking to you…here…outside of my Inner World…then that means…!"
*Congratulations, Kirika-sama. You are indeed at the threshold of being able to learn my second form.* Nejibana nodded. *I would ask to wait a while for that, as you still need to use me in combat more before I will allow it, even through the use of Urahara's device.*
"Heh…deal." Kirika chuckled tiredly. "Well then, old friend…let's go all out and show the world what we're made of."
*Let us indeed, Kirika-sama!* Nejibana declared as she vanished. Without further ado, Kirika began raising her Reiatsu, not bothering about doing it steadily as Urahara had told her to do. Screw him and the horse he rode in on. She was not going to sit back while her brother was so badly wounded and Rukia was under threat of death!
At the rapid rise of her Spiritual Pressure, unseen by Kirika, red lines crisscrossing the mask and cape appeared flashing a warning. As she climbed from Low-Lieutenant to Mid-Lieutenant, the paralysis on her body started to wane. Emboldened, she pushed herself further and further, the cape flapping as it strained to contain her Reiatsu before ultimately failing.
With a loud explosion of fabric, the Reiatsu/Reiryoku concealing cape shredded itself to pieces, allowing Kirika's unrestrained power to be felt by all.
With Rukia
The petite ravenette gasped as yet another source of powerful Reiatsu showed itself when Kokken's cape suddenly exploded. It was climbing past the lower limits of a High-Lieutenant and was rapidly surpassing the point that Renji had been at before he had achieved Bankai!
"Yet another attempt to stop me?" Aizen growled, halting as he turned his head to gaze disdainfully at Kokken, who was slowly climbing to her feet and drawing her zanpakutō. "You are as persistent as a cockroach, Kokken Asa."
"Ai…zen…Sōsuke…!" the Black Masked Soul Reaper growled with hatred. Her mask, battered and cracked as it was, had lines of crimson red flashing as if in warning. "Pay…you will pay…!"
"I would dearly love to see you try, for all the good it would do you." Aizen sneered genteelly.
"Aizen…!" Kokken growled, her Reiatsu climbing yet again. "Aizen…!"
As spider web of cracks grew to encompass the entirety of Kokken's helmet, the red lines that covered it changed from lines to a symbol on the mask portion of the helmet; they formed a leering red skull face. That was just before the entire helmet exploded into shards, exposing the bloody, battered and utterly enraged face of…
"AIZEN SŌSUKE!" Kurosaki Kirika screamed in fury, her red hair falling down in waterfalls behind her as it was released from its captivity.
Rukia felt the world around her become unhinged at the sight of Ichigo's oldest sister clad in the black robes of a Soul Reaper. Had she…had Kirika been a Soul Reaper this entire time?
A sickening realisation fell over Rukia at that. Assuming that Kokken…that Kirika hadn't been lying at all when she was telling them of her past…then Aizen had experimented on her…?
"Well lookie here, Aizen-taichō!" Ichimaru said cheerfully. "It's that useless piece of refuse you told me to kill ten years ago."
"And she is still alive. Why?" Aizen demanded.
"Hey, I threw her inta the Dangai! The Kōtotsu shoulda taken care of her!" the smiling Captain protested. "Guess she was lucky."
"I was, you bastards!" Kirika's voice, full of hate and rage, snapped out. "It came within a metre of hitting me before I made it to the World of the Living! Since then, I've trained with only one thought in my mind…killing the three responsible for my suffering! You, Ichimaru and Tōsen are marked men, Aizen!"
"Brave words, but you shouldn't say such things, trash." Aizen answered lightly. "It is just a pathetic front. I am beyond you, even with such admittedly impressive Reiatsu."
"The burns you have from my three Hadō put that into doubt." Kirika sneered back. She then held her zanpakutō vertically to her side, arm straight and tip pointed towards the ground. "Consider yourself honoured, Aizen. You are the first person I will be unleashing my Shikai against outside of a spar."
"Hoh? Then by all means, show me it." Aizen smirked confidently.
"You may wish that you hadn't said that." Kirika laughed before growing serious and spiking her Reiatsu yet again. She started to spin her sword in a clockwise motion. "Surge through the deep sea and roil the dark heavens…Nejibana!"
At that, Rukia felt the breath in her lungs arrest. 'No…she can't be…!'
In a hauntingly familiar transformation, Kirika's zanpakutō glowed yellow and started to elongate. It turned into a long polearm, with a spearhead and two extra prongs at the tip, with a red tuft of hair at the join between spearhead and shaft. At the other end, a twisted screw appeared and unleashed water as it moved.
Stopping its spin, Kirika planted the haft of her Shikai onto the ground, causing the water to surge around her feet in a circle. The roiling waves grew as more water was leaked from the weapon.
Around her, Rukia was dimly aware of gasps and expressions of disbelief from those who had known Shiba Kaien. It was only natural, after all; a zanpakutō was almost always unique to the Soul Reaper who wielded it. In rare cases, such as Tōsen Kaname, a Soul Reaper could displace their own zanpakutō for someone else's, but this simply wasn't possible; Kaien had been dead for over forty years and he and Kirika had never met before.
"What's the matter, Aizen? You look as if you've seen a ghost." The redheaded girl snarked at the poleaxed traitor. "Subject 15 of Group C-A, Kurosaki Kirika, present and accounted for! And I'm going to kill you!"
Immediately vanishing in a Shunpo, the girl reappeared above of Aizen, already spinning Nejibana around in a circle before bringing her down in a vertical cut that Aizen automatically moved back to dodge. When the spearhead smashed into the ground in front of him, the man found a large wave of water smash into him, even as Kirika landed, spun her pike around and slashed at Aizen horizontally this time.
Drawing his sword this time to block it and hopefully give the brat a bit of Reiatsu Rebound damage to chew on, Aizen parried the slash with the ease of over a century of practice with the sword…but found himself once again struck by water.
"That…that fighting style…it's…!" Rukia breathed. Kiyone and Sentarō nodded dumbly from next to her, where they had Shunpo'd in as soon as Kirika had been revealed.
'A unique one-handed spear style that is reminiscent of a dance…and the shift between striking with their weapon and the surging tides that it generates…both of these are without question Kaien-dono's techniques!' the Kuchiki girl thought numbly. 'But…how…?'
While most of her mind was caught up in watching Kirika and wondering how her possession of Nejibana and Kaien's techniques was even possible, another part was watching Ichigo, who was currently being healed by a frantic Orihime. That part of her was relieved as the massive wound bisecting the human boy she had fallen for gradually closed, at quite a rapid pace. Ichigo himself was watching Kirika in a kind of stunned disbelief. Understandable, really.
"NOW!" Kirika suddenly roared.
"Mitase! (Fulfil!)" A voice shouted from over by Yoruichi. Rukia's head snapped around to see a trembling, but determined, Yamada Hanatarō with his sword held above his head. "Akeiro Hisagomaru! (Crimson-Coloured Gourd!)"
With that, the Third Seat brought his sword down and unleashed a massive blast of Spiritual Power…straight at Kirika, who was still fighting Aizen. Before Rukia could open her mouth to shout a warning, the girl Shunpo'd out of the way, allowing Aizen to take the full brunt of the surprise attack, which struck the man like a lightning bolt.
While Aizen was taken off-guard by the sudden attack from someone he had considered so utterly beneath his notice that his presence had simply been forgotten, his Reiatsu defence was sufficient enough to ward off the vast majority of the blast, leaving his clothes with the lion's share of the damage; his Captain's Haori was destroyed, as was his shihakushō's torso section, leaving him bare-chested. As for wounds on his body, a thin line leading up from his left-side abdomen to his left shoulder was all he had.
"You…!" he growled at Hanatarō, who hurriedly reverted his scalpel-shaped Shikai back to its Fūingata form and moved to help Orihime. Before he could take more action, Kirika reappeared above him, her Shikai spinning almost as fast as a propeller and the sheer mass of water it was generating was twice the size of the circumference of the polearm itself.
"AIZEN!" she shrieked in a fury and brought her weapon down in a diagonal slice with all the strength of her arms and Reiatsu, with the added power of the centrifugal force of the spin she had generated adding to the speed of her attack. It made her faster than Aizen expected, as he reacted just a fraction of a second too slowly and Nejibana bit into his body, a long and wide wound being cut into him from his left shoulder to his right hip. Added to that, Aizen was thrown back by a massive tidal wave of water released by Nejibana as if he were just a hunk of driftwood.
The look of exultation, satisfaction and obsession on Kirika's face chilled Rukia somewhat. It bordered on pure hatred. Kirika well and truly despised Aizen, to the point that causing him any sort of injury was a cause for celebration.
Suddenly, as if strings were cut, Kirika fell to her knees with a groan. Reaching out with her spiritual senses, Rukia was horrified to discover that the redhead was now almost completely tapped out in terms of Reiatsu and Reiryoku. Something which was proven as Nejibana reverted back to its Fūingata form by itself.
'She must have loaded every single bit of Reiryoku she could scrape together into Nejibana and formed it into Reiatsu, just for the explicit purpose of bypassing Aizen's Reiatsu to wound him.' Rukia guessed. 'She didn't aim at his head or try for a stab to the heart; she deliberately set out to cause him a grievous, non-fatal wound. Kirika had obviously made arrangements with Hanatarō-san earlier if her use of his zanpakutō is any indication. She was right, that would be almost certainly fatal on a Gillian-class Menos Grande, no question.'
What puzzled her was why Kirika had chosen to settle for just wounding him. Even a Captain would die if they lost their head, after all.
"Ha…haha…" Kirika started to laugh in a slightly insane and unbalanced way. "Hahahahahahahaha! Finally, at long last, I've made a start on the vengeance owed to me! For all you have done, Aizen, I will kill you! Let that wound be a reminder of that!"
"Aizen-sama." Tōsen appeared in a burst of Shunpo. "Do you have what we need?"
The man he was addressing staggered to his feet, blood dripping from the wound to his chest and an expression of outrage and anger carved into his face. "Yes."
"Then let us leave. We have no need to stay here any longer." The blind man said before raising his sword, blocking a strike from Hitsugaya Toshiro, while Matsumoto Rangiku held her sword to Gin's neck.
Three more blurs appeared as Ukitake Jūshirō, Shunsui Kyōraku and Yamamoto Shigekuni Genryūsai Shunpo'd into the courtyard, just as the gate of the Hakutōmon was lifted up by Ikkanzaka Jidanbō, Shiba Kūkaku perched on his shoulder. Behind the massive giant, you could see the prostate and unconscious forms of the other three gatekeepers in the large no-man's land between the walls of the Seireitei and the district nearby.
The last to appear were Zaraki and Komamura, who had long since had his armoured helmet destroyed, revealing his canine appearance to all who looked.
"So you three are the ones who have been causing a ruckus in the shadows." The Sōtaichō rumbled dangerously. "Aizen. Tōsen. Ichimaru. Explain yourselves at once."
"Hmm…I think…not." Aizen sneered back. Then, quick as lightning, he raised one hand and fired a Byakurai at Kirika, who was completely helpless to protect herself, having expended all of her Reiryoku earlier.
"Shiten Kōshun! I Reject!" Orihime cried out. In a flash, her four spirits flashing out to form the pyramid-shaped orange shield in front of Kirika. The pale white Hadō struck the shield, which cracked all over the place, and then Tsubaki dispersing the force of the attack and sent a powerful explosion back along the path that the Byakurai had taken, heading straight for Aizen.
"I believe your suggestion is wise, Tōsen." The man growled. A shiver in the air was all the warning they got as a massive hole in the sky was ripped open, revealing at least a dozen Gillian-class Menos Grande, with something larger and more menacing looming over them. From three of the Gillians came three pillars of orange light appeared from the sky, slamming down around each of the renegade captains. Gin actually pushed Rangiku away quickly before the orange light could hit her.
The explosion from Orihime's Shiten Kōshun slammed into the pillar of light around Aizen and washed off of it as if it was water being splashed against glass.
"These Negación (Negation) barriers are completely impenetrable." Aizen smirked down at the gathered Soul Reapers and humans as he started using Kaido to stem the flow of blood from the large wound on his chest. Even with Kaido healing him, he would have a permanent scar after everything was said and done.
"He speaks the truth." Mayuri frowned slightly as he put away his notepad. "Tch. What a waste of perfectly good data…"
"Why Tōsen?!" Komamura called to his friend. "Is your path not that of justice?!"
"My path is that of the least bloodshed, Komamura." The blind man replied steadily as a platform of earth beneath each Captain broke away from the ground and started ascending up into the sky, safe within the all-encompassing shield of the Negación. "And that path is not with the Soul Reapers."
"Bullshit." Kirika snarled. "You…I'm looking forward to taking your head, Tōsen! We'll see exactly how well your 'justice' stands up to my vengeance!"
"Aizen-taichō…why?" Hinamori whimpered. The poor girl had been in something of a daze since everything that Kokken…that Kirika had said had proven to be true
"Because no one else has stood atop heaven before…and the first to do so shall be me." Aizen threw his glasses away and messed his hair up, changing his appearance substantially. Then his eyes narrowed on Kirika's form. "And you, throwaway refuse, shall be the one to feel my wrath as it happens."
"See ya later, Rangiku." Gin said sincerely, his face not smiling creepily for once. "Sorry."
"Gin…" the busty strawberry blond said softly.
Kirika sat on the ground watching as the three people she hated and feared the most in existence rose up into the sky and vanished into the giant hole in the sky, which closed up almost immediately.
"I…wounded him…I…I can actually hurt the bastard." She muttered woozily as she started to wobble. Her wounds were catching up with her now that the adrenaline rush had faded and her mind was processing things slowly as she headed towards unconsciousness. "Th-that's…pretty good…to know…"
Yoruichi reached the redhead just as her eyes rolled back and she slumped forward, unconscious at last.
"I've got you, girl." The Shihōin Princess muttered to the girl she saw as a daughter. "And I am so, so proud of you. Now though…now we come to the hard part…the explanations."
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Next Chapter: Aftermath: Sibling Confrontation
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