Soul Societies

Note: the first bankai mentioned below is a place-holder for the one Kubo-sensei has planned for her.


"Finally, we get to visit a normal shinigami." Ichigo thinks to himself, still not remembering what happened with the Niban-tai Taichō. "One that doesn't stink like spoiled rice... that isn't secretly a 2000 year old psychopath with a braid on the wrong side... or one that i was just starting to think was kind of cool until i got to his house." He went on while he and his friends (plus Ganju, but minus Rukia, who said she had to meet somebody else) are being approached by the Taichō that his friends described as having had a helmet the first time they saw him.

The same shinigami that Aizen almost killed with a black rectangular thing the size of a building.

The only shinigami even bigger than Kenpachi.

"As if! The most normal shinigami there is just haaas to be a giant dog, doesn't he?!" He thought next.

"Welcome to the Nanaban-tai, Kurosaki Ichigo-san. I'm Komamura Sajin. My Fukutaichō, Iba Tetsuzaemon, is currently preoccupied." He tells them. "While i had no intention of harming your companions, here, I was uncertain what to think regrading the execution... but when i attacked Aizen, i admit to planning to kill Kuchiki Rukia with that shikai-punch you saw him jump away from."

Ichigo is about to respond, but stops when he sees what appears to be an ashamed expression on the massive Taichō as he bowed.

"Though i will never see myself as being worthy of having it accepted, i offer the same sincerest apologies given to her whilst you were recovering from your mis-adventure at the Niban-tai."

After hesitating due to how much closer all those teeth are to his head, he returns the gesture. "If Rukia was willing to forgive you, then think nothing of it, Komamura-san."


In East Rukongai, district 37.

"What are you thinking?" Kira asks his predecessor after crawling out of what had been a wooden hut. "The Sōtaichō said my trial was postponed."

"This has nothing to do with that, you putrid vermin who dares associate himself with the Sanban-tai." Iba's mother spat.

"T-that was decided by an official recommendation." Kira replies, for which he takes another glancing blow from a "flipper" of the mass of hot water shaped like a whale's skeleton. it almost makes him wish he was dealing with Hitsugaya-Taichō.

"It's true, i have been out of the loop for a hundred years... but I'm damn sure when a shinigami becomes a deserter, anything they did is still instatnly revoked, you stupid little shit!" She tells him while the skeleton begins another charge. "In other words, we of the Goteijūsantai to do not consider Aizen, Tōsen, or even... that snake-bit bastard, Ichimaru, to be shinigami any more!" She added while the skeleton is twenty yards from him.

The last part of which causes Kira to change his posture. "Hadō no sanjuichi: Shakkahō!" He yells, and the water skeleton explodes.

The older of whom smirks at her son. "Looks like he's not so spineless after all, Tetsuzaemon." She says, then seals her shikai before pointing Kira out to Pendleton. "Your turn, Taichō."

"Eh, i don't get one?" The younger Iba says after flinching. "Then, what'd you bother dragging me along for?"

"I wasn't about to let you pester that shinigami daiko I've been hearing about into joining your stupid club."

As those two argue, Pendleton walks towards Kira for a moment. "What are you thinking?" He asks while placing his palm on his Zanpakutō's hilt. "Why do you consider a liar who isn't even in the same dimension worthy of defending, Kira Izuru?"

"Ichimaru... a liar?" Kira asks to nobody in particular. "He agreed not to hurt Hinamori-kun, and he d-" He is saying before Pendleton interrupts by releasing his shikai without the incantation.

"Oikaze: Kakū kagai-sha(1)." The Captain says aloud as he lifts his Zanpakutō and subtlety swings it in a circular motion.

"Taichō, you swore never to use that on anything weaker than a Gillian!" The older Iba shouted suddenly.

Kira braces himself, but feels nothing but a tiny headache. "When are you planning to attack me, Captain?" He asks slowly.

"It's not "Taichō didn't hurt Hinamori-kun", buster. That became a lie when Ichimaru let Aizen hurt her!" Buford spelled out while turning around. "I suggest you accept that in the next fifteen minutes." He added over his shoulder.

"Uh, why... what happens after that?" Kira asks him, only to finally notice the horrified look on Iba's mother's face. "Captain?!"

"If Umo'i Kunshu's first move is it's army, then the second is it's hired assassin... Kakū kagai-sha increase the air pressure around it's prey." Buford informed him callously. "I'd wager you have that long before your ears bleed. Then, five minutes... nah, make that four minutes before your organs get crushed into Tare sauce."


At the Nanaban-tai.

Ichigo, Uryu, and Ganju are watching Inoue and Chado through a window as Komamura is testing if they're capable of casting Kidō, when Ichigo notices something small move out the corner of his eye. Thinking it's Yoruichi in her cat form, he follows the sound of the paws to one room, where he finds it's an ordinary dog (by Soul Society's standards) being fed by a random shinigami. "Huh, didn't know they allowed pets here." He says aloud. He notices a lack of response, but figures he wasn't loud enough.

"Excuse me... hello!"

"That won't work, Daiko-san." Ichigo's then told by another one. "Our new rokuseki, Rindō Atau, has been deaf since he arrived in the Soul Society."


Back with Pendleton.

"Six minutes left, Mr. Cyclops." Buford says to Kira, who is in his Inner World.

"You heard him, Izuru." He is told by his Zanpakutō's spirit; a man with a stone slab on his back and holding an iron ball that should be too large for even both arms, nevermind the left one. "The truth is ever a burden, but you are not the only one suffering from it's weight." Wabisuke advises as he crouches down, and what should be Izuru's reflection in the iron ball is instead the sight, which can't be heard, of a red and black shadow shaped like a man slashing the side of a windmill over and over.

It's replaced by one of a young girl crying and screaming under a plum tree during a typhoon. "Wabisuke; those were Hisagi-san's and Hi...Hinamori-kun's-" Kira realizes as he is then shown what must be the spirits associated with Hitsugaya-Taichō, his Fukutaichō, and Abarai-san. He even is shown the figure in black armor that he and Ichimaru watched the younger Iba's Taichō use against Zaraki-Taichō on a monitor formerly belonging to one of the six judges last week.

"All of them are despairing, Izuru... even Umo'i Kunshu, Naraku no Yōnagawa, and-" Wabisuke tells him before being interrupted.

"You don't need to continue." Kira tells him as he sighs. "The only way to save them is to..." He says next before opening his eyes and standing up with two minutes to spare. "Omote o agero, Wabisuke!" He shouted, then threw it at Pendleton's Zanpakutō, which it got caught on and made him loose his balance.

"...Took ya long enough, Fukutaichō." Buford tells him while thinking about how he was just about to give up on him again.

"If you don't mind; I'm ready for the next round." Kira says while sealing Wabisuke.

"Your brains must still be half-liquefied, man." Tetsuzaemon says while clasping a hand on his forehead.

"I served under Unohana-Taichō, so I always carry a Shinten vial on me." Kira tells him before he squeezes a bit in his mouth.

The trio turn around and huddle for a few moments before Pendleton agrees. "Yottsu-" He starts before seeing the look in Kira's eyes, and goes all in.


In South Rukongai, district 78.

Rukia is sitting outside her old village when Isane shows up on a horse. "Sorry I'm late, Kuchiki-san." She says while dismounting. "Abarai-san's pupil informed me you wanted my assistance?"

"Only due to how the worst is over, Kotetsu-Fukutaichō-dono." Rukia replies, causing the taller woman to balk.

"You mean due to wanting to get revenge on Aizen." Isane says, to which Rukia glances down.

"Yes. I've spent the first three days getting back into shape with my Sode no Shirayuki by challenging other Goteitaishi." She explains while looking at it. "Then i worked my way up to ice-type shikai users." She finishes, and Isane guesses that she wants to spar with the only Fukutaichō with one before finally approaching Hitsugaya-Taichō. "Not quite; you've heard from your subordinates about Inoue Orihime and Sado Yasutora, correct?"

"I have; how are they involved?" Isane asks her.

"You must know then that if they received their powers by being exposed to Ichigo's, who's to say i was not also augmented since meeting him again at the Senzaikyū?" She explains before glancing to her right, where a translucent white form soon appears.

Isane blinks before gasping. "Your Zanpakutō started to m-materialize?" She says, only to nod and smile. "In that case, you should have just gone straight to the Juban-tai... isn't that right, I~te~gu~mo?" She asks as that smile becomes more ominous.

"Itegumo?!" Rukia then asks her as she looks to the "horse", then back to it's "rider". "Renji's not the only..."

"Hard to see why you're so surprised." Isane tells her while shrugging. "Even if it was requested by Kuchiki Byakuya-sama that you graduate early from the academy, you did learn who my Taichō is."

Rukia starts sweating before answering. "The first... Kenpachi."

"Are you afraid?" Isane then asks mockingly.

"...Knowing this now, please allow me to practice with you at your fullest strength, Kotetsu-fukutaichō-dono!" She requests while bowing.

Isane stares for a moment before telling her to stand. "I will honor your resolve, Kuchiki Rukia." She says, and both draw their Zanpakutō.

"Mai, Sode no Shirayuki."

"Bankai: Setsumō Tōun-ka Shirajirashīkage(2)." Isane says, and after the "horse" disappears, the two side blades of her shikai extend to show chains connecting them to the tsuba before splitting open and shooting out, then merging to form a quarter-mile wide disk of ice.


At district 37.

"Omote o agero, Wabisuke."

"Bankai: Gyokuza no Kimete(3), Umo'i Kunshu." Pendleton and Kira say, unknowingly at the same time as Isane and Rukia, as he holds his Zanpakutō up to his chest, which changes it to it's shikai form.

Kira and the rest watch as the decorative wings become longer than he is tall and the feathers detach themselves before combining into six tubes on the inner side of a dome that's twice the diameter of the Chūōshijūrokushitsu's moat that separate him and Pendleton from the two Iba's.


Shinigami Zukan.

Tetsuzaemon and his mother are examining the structure before he realizes something. "Wait, this is no time to be awe-struck! Love ya, Ma, bye!" He says before shunpo'ing off.

Elsewhere, two wounded shinigami are guarding a stagecoach from several hollows. "Looks like it's down to just us, now." The first says, and after the second nods, both release their shikai's. "Sakimadare, Benishidare."/"Yurase, Daichimaru."

Just as they're finished posing heroically, a black mass appears and defeats all the hollows instantly.

"Um... shall we go home and have some Hainekonnyaku?" A little girl in the stagecoach asked after whatever just made her last two guards look bad was gone.

Once in the Seireitei, the fukutaichō arrives with his patented Bukkomi Dogeza. "Kurosaki Ichigo; Nanaban-tai fukutaichō, Iba Tetsuzaemon, challenges you to battle!" He says, only to see Rindō with a hedgehog.

The juichiseki hands the critter over and starts using sign language to inform him that Ichigo and his friends left half an hour ago for the Hachiban-tai, which causes Iba to gawk at him in a super-deformed manner.


Chapter eight.

1 Tailwind: Fictional assailant.

2 Snowblinding white shadow under a frozen cloud.

3 Decider of the throne.