New week new chapter! Before I get into, though I'd like to say that I took some major liberties with Rukia's Bankai for the sake of this story. So, quick warning there.
Also, this chapter is a little more violent than usual, mostly because it's like 99.9% fight scenes.
Enjoy!
Part I
With a single cry the battle begun.
"Dance! Sode no Shirayuki!"
Rukia sent a White Ripple at Captain Shiba, watching it slice through the air towards him. It never reached, not that she was surprised. In a blur he was several meters away, and in another blur Tatsuki had come down upon him with a yell.
The Lieutenant's sealed Zanpakuto met the Captain's with a heavy impact, and to Rukia's chagrin the man didn't look as shocked as she would have liked. Tatsuki found herself shoved off, landing on her feet with barely a stumble on the other side of him. She activated her Shikai without a word. This move had the Captain's eyes widening in surprise.
"You've activated your Bankai," he said quietly. Then, looking back at Rukia, a fierce grin on his face he added, "You both have."
Neither girls answered him. They simply stayed silent as they moved around the Captain, looking for any possible opening. The man held himself in a relaxed way, loose. Rukia would have said he looked unguarded if she hadn't known any better.
Tatsuki was the first to attack, charging at him with flames licking the edge of her blade, sword arching, forcing him back. Rukia came right after, a White Ripple launched immediately and then dodged. She followed through, running forward and slicing at him with her own blade. They may not have had any time to make battle plan, but the goal here seemed clear: corner then take down.
This was easier said than done.
Captain Shiba was kept plenty busy by the two being unable to even attack under their joint volley, or at least that's what it looked like at first. He was dodging attack after attack, moving just a hair too fast to land anything meaningful on him. His Zanpakuto was barely able to twitch in their direction before Tatsuki met him blade for blade. In those ways, he seemed to be at the end of his rope, but all Rukia had to do to prove otherwise was see the look on his face.
He was smiling, light and easy as he dodged. He even seemed to be having some fun with that, and well, that pissed Rukia off just a bit, not nearly as much as it pissed off Tatsuki, though.
When most people got angry, they lose focus, they start to slip up and make mistakes. Rukia had taken down quite a few Hollows using that against them, actually. The fact that trick couldn't be used as easily on smarter Hollows was what made them so deadly. They weren't necessarily stronger, just more focused and slower to get to that point of sloppiness.
Tatsuki, luckily, wasn't one of those people at all, though for once Rukia got to see it used against someone other than herself. The second Tatsuki noticed the Captain's smile her attacks became deadlier, sharper. Her accuracy grew and when she came at him at a breakneck pace from the left, forcing him back and right into Rukia, she managed to send a blast of flames right up his arm, making that smile of his waver.
She almost single handedly pushed him further into the brush, and it was there that Rukia saw her chance. She slammed the tip of her blade into the ground as the Captain's feet met a tangle of roots.
"Tatsuki!" she called out in warning. The Lieutenant took one look at Rukia and jumped into the trees. Before Shiba could follow her his feet were frozen to the ground. A tense quiet settled over them.
"Huh," the Captain sounded, experimentally tugging at his leg. It didn't budge. "That's some Zanpakuto you got there. The reports really didn't do it justice."
Rukia shifted in her position. The ice was still growing up his leg. He seemed completely immobile, but he didn't seem very concerned by it. Her guard went up immediately. Tatsuki landed beside her with a gentle thump eyes trained perfectly on the Captain.
Best to be cautious, then.
"White Ripple!" Rukia yelled. She let loose the attack, Tatsuki right at her back, and not a moment later a rush of steam came from the target.
"Burn, Engetsu."
Rukia heard it, almost like a whisper as the steam bit at her skin, scalding. She threw an arm over her eyes in instinct, finding it hard not to get pushed back by the sheer force of it. Even in the midst of all that, Rukia was able to register just how bad this was.
"Shit!" Tatsuki muttered next to her. Rukia pulled her arm from her face. The mist was just starting to clear. "We have to–"
"Getsuga Tenshō!" Rukia could see a dull glow through the fog, a red so dark it was nearly black, right at the tip of the Captain's shadowed blade. With widened eyes Tatsuki roughly took Rukia's hand and ran for the trees, dragging her for a moment, and then forcing her down into the ground as an immense power washed over them. They stayed down for a long while.
With a heaving chest Rukia brought herself up on her hands and knees with much hesitation. She saw the trees that took the attack she and Tatsuki were meant to, seeing them cut cleanly in half, curved edge of the stumps still smoking. She saw the trees behind those in a similar state (and the trees behind those and behind those).
She looked back over her shoulder to see the slowly approaching Captain a way behind her, not a trace of ice on him.
"…His Zanpakuto's energy based," she heard Tatsuki explain through the sound of her own pounding heart. "You need to watch for those attacks. He probably won't release his Bankai, but…" She trailed off before shaking her head furiously. "He won't. I go right. You go left."
Tatsuki went after him in a moment, Rukia taking a second to even register what she had said, much less follow. It was a little delayed, but Rukia found herself backing up Tatsuki's closer ranged attacks, designed to keep him from doing another one of those…well, Rukia wasn't really sure what that was.
She watched as Tatsuki clashed with Shiba again, trying to trap him in another White Tree as he locked his blade into one of the larger rivets in Tatsuki's Zanpakuto, throwing her off balance and rolling away several centimeters. The moment she saw him start to gather energy at the tip of his blade, Rukia charged in herself.
The substitute kept him off balance, using her recent experience, with a larger Shinigami. She switched between going high and going low, falling just short of tripping him up, but at the very least managing to keep him busy. Tatsuki was rolling back onto her feet then, the Captain's eyes going to the other girl for a fraction of a second. Rukia scored a cut on up his right forearm.
"Rukia, freeze that wound, now!" Tatsuki cried out desperately. She was charging towards them, flame at the ready. Rukia was already swinging her blade (because nothing good came after a warning like that) preparing another attack.
Before she could even utter the word "Ripple", and before Tatsuki managed to reach them the Captain took a blood covered finger and smeared in onto his blade and with a single swing a blast hotter than anything Tatsuki had ever conjured shot out of his Zanpakuto. There was no time to hide, no time to run.
Rukia thought that in her last moments she might have thought or said something interesting, but she found that her mind was just blank as this incredibly energy came barreling towards her. That was why when she was tackled to the ground and held there, she did nothing but fall over as Tatsuki crouched over her, covering her as much as she could.
For a moment, Tatsuki was swaying on her hands and knees. Then, she collapsed limply, right on top of Rukia as a wave of horror washed over the girl. Rukia let out something between a horrified gasp and a strangled scream when she rolled the Shinigami off her. When she saw her back, she went silent.
Most of the fabric on Tatsuki's back was burned away entirely, the flesh underneath red in some areas, white in others as it seemed to want to peel away. Rukia's hand hovered over the wound helplessly. Sometimes her ice could slow a bleeding wound, but this…this was different. What would she even do, here?
Before she had the chance to sort out her thoughts, Tatsuki stirred beneath her, eyes coming into focus again as she forced herself back up.
"Damn," she rasped out, just as she got herself up on her hands. Then, with a wry smile she asked. "Is it just me or are we getting out asses kicked?"
Rukia didn't find it very funny. She just stared at Tatsuki with wide eyes. Tatsuki's smile dropped. She brought herself fully to her feet, an eye on the approaching Captain. They didn't have long.
"We need to release our Bankai," Rukia said, "but we'll need to keep our distances. Ice and Fire probably don't mix well."
Beads of sweat were forming on Tatsuki's forehead, and when she nodded, she dislodged a few of them, droplets splattering on the ground.
"Wait for my signal."
At that Rukia ran away from Tatsuki, feeling something clench in her stomach at the act. She quickly got to the other side of the Captain, judging the distance by sight as she got herself clear out of Tatsuki's range. She hoped to god this would work.
"Now!" she yelled. "Hakka no Togame!"
"Yoenhoshi!" Tatsuki yelled right after.
Rukia had never activated Bankai before, hadn't even seen one, really, and so, even if she knew on an instinctive level what she could do with hers, it still felt so wonderful, so new.
She was dressed in a pure white Kimono, delicate ribbons trailing behind her. The black hair that used to fall into her eyes was now as snowy as Sode's own locks. She could hear the gentle jingle of her intricate hair ornaments by her ears. Her breath fogged in the clear air. Her hands tightened around the icy blade in her grip. She felt beautiful, powerful.
Across from her she could see Tatsuki, who looked quite different. Not much of her appearance had changed, aside from the flames surrounding her head like a halo. Her sword was gone and around her were six floating steel pillars inscribed with Kanji that Rukia couldn't quite see from here. They circled the girl for a single rotation until a single one settled in front of her.
"Scald!" the Lieutenant called out, and right before Rukia's eyes the pillars seemed to melt, revealing a single powerful stream of flame. The fight began anew.
Tatsuki attacked first, an eager grin on her face as she sent the snake-like stream of flame right at the Captain, fast as lightning, sending him running back, dodging in barely trackable blurs.
Rukia knew pretty immediately that she couldn't take the same approach. The cold having seeped deep into her muscles within seconds. If she were lucky, she'd be able to run as fast as she could as a human, meaning the punishing pace the battle was taking was completely beyond her.
All that meant, though, was that she'd need a different way to keep up.
Taking careful steps, registering the frozen patches of ground she left behind, Rukia looked for an opportunity to send a blast of freezing air at the Captain. She was confident that even one hit would do the trick. So, the first time Tatsuki sent him edging in her direction, Rukia took careful aim, swinging at him, forcing him back to the pillar of flame.
The Captain was, for once, truly trapped between the two, and it was as he was back peddling that Tatsuki's pillar brushed with the man, just barely touching his cut right arm, harshly cauterizing the wound in an instant, a visible grimace on his face.
Rukia let loose another attack, him evading it with much more time to spare then Rukia would like. When Tatsuki's fire twisted towards him at high speed, reaching for his legs, he jumped away from that one, too. Rukia fired another attack, and missed in an even worse way, movements growing more sluggish as the seconds went on.
She could see the frost crawling up her hands, and when she forced them to move again, she could feel an aching pain in the joints. She forced them to move just a little bit faster as she started to run in, putting some cautious Hohō into her feet because dammit now wasn't the time!
That was probably her first mistake.
Tatsuki seemed to just be getting started as her speed and energy grew until Rukia had a hard time keeping track of her at all. The girl was a pure force of nature, and Rukia didn't use that term lightly. Rukia didn't notice that their attacks were growing out of sync as she pushed herself ever harder.
What Rukia saw was a single moment in which Captain Shiba was vulnerable to her, and she went for it. She aimed right for the Captain's core sure that this would be the one and watched as she missed by a single hair. He flew past it, and with two muttered words sent a Getsuga Tenshō right at Tatsuki.
She saw the single moment of pained shock on Tatsuki's face, saw when the girl was sent flying back into the trees, and Rukia's face went as white as her hair with horror.
Then, she felt anger.
Captain Shiba had really done that. He'd attacked Rukia's new ally. He'd attacked the Lieutenant he trusted enough to go to the World of the Living with. She was his son's friend and he'd probably just killed her. He just…he…
He had to pay.
Rukia pushed herself as hard as she could, ignoring the aching in her joints that quickly turned to burning sending volley after volley of ice to the man freezing entire sections of the forest around them.
He kept on dodging. Why the fuck did he keep on dodging? Why couldn't he just stay still? Why can't I go faster?!
This was the mantra that went on loop in her head. They grew louder, angrier, until one word was indistinguishable from the next, until it was just a wave of screaming in her head. It was when she let that cry out, loud guttural, inhuman, freezing everything around her in a single flash that Rukia lost consciousness.
…
When that human girl, (Rukia, as he'd heard) started coming at Isshin with everything she had, he realized something was very wrong.
It didn't take a medic to realize this girl had to have been in pain. Her skin seemed completely frozen in some places, cracked open with some of the worst frostbite he'd ever seen (and he helped train Tōshirō back in the day). She was ignoring all of that though, just attacking him with a single-minded rage. When she let out her grand scale attack, he had a mere second to shield not only himself with a Kidō spell, but young Tatsuki as well.
So, there he was, crouched over the Lieutenant, energy shielding them both and marking out an unfrozen square of the grass. She was currently behind him, sitting up and patting down her chest, probably wondering why it wasn't in pieces right now.
He really wanted to explain everything, but now probably wasn't the time. He cautiously released the spell.
Behind him stood Tatsuki, confused and unsure. Before him stood Rukia, though it was pretty obvious this was no longer the girl he was fighting before. For a second, she just stood there, swaying slightly, and Isshin was starting to think maybe that was all she had in her.
Then, she let out a cackle, throwing her head back as this horrible inhuman sound made its way from her throat, and from that open mouth came a thick white substance that he'd seen far too many times.
A mask formed over the girl's face obscuring all but a pair of bright blue irises that were boring into him. She…no, it attacked them.
It released another grand attack, sweeping recklessly at them and Isshin did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed Tatsuki's arm behind him and Shunpo'd the hell out of there, dragging her along. In a second, they were out of range, Isshin's eyes wide as he wondered how things had gotten this out of hand this quickly.
"Did you know…?" he trailed off glancing back to an equally shocked Tatsuki.
"No!" she yelled. The proud pillar of fire from before was starting to wilt and waver. It was shaking as badly as she was.
It spotted them in that moment, attacking them again, and Isshin pulled them both out of the way yet again, thankful for the difference in speed. He could see the trees that had taking on the brunt of the blast. They were cracking under their own weight, crumbling. He didn't want to know what would look like on a person. He didn't want anyone to get hurt here.
Well, glancing back to what he had done to Tatsuki's back, he amended that to "seriously hurt", feeling a little guilty.
Tatsuki managed to drag herself from that shock then, and directed her Bankai towards the…
Isshin knew what it was, what this was. He just didn't want to consider the implications.
Tatsuki seemed hesitant to go near the girl, though, the flames wavering before they could ever make contact. It was likely she just didn't want to hurt this girl.
(All the more reason to make sure this human made it out of here alright. Tatsuki hadn't had a friend in a while.)
By now he'd had a little while to observe this girl's Bankai. He saw that every step taken left behind a trail of ice, put together that even its skin was probably too dangerous to touch right now.
Isshin was never a very cautious man.
He saw one moment in which the Hollow left itself wide open, sending a blast of ice to Tatsuki's Bankai which dodged just in the nick of time. He ran towards it in a flash, slamming his hand to the side of its face, cringing as the appendage froze almost immediately. He pinned it roughly to the ground.
"Tatsuki!" he yelled out, and in an instant her stream of fire zig zagged over the Hollow, holding the struggling creature to the ground.
The Hollow struggled, writhing and screaming the types of obscenities Isshin yell at Ichigo for saying around his sisters. Hopefully it would manage to wear itself out soon enough. There was no reasoning with it now.
"Captain?" he heard Tatsuki pant out beside him. He grimaced thinking yeah, it was about time he explained himself to her. He turned.
She punched him right in the eye.
"What the hell was that?!" she yelled. Isshin clutched his face with his burned hand, moaning. Okay, he deserved that one. "If you're going to test us like that, maybe pick a better time!"
"So, you figured that part out?" he asked with a pout, looking through his fingers.
"Yeah," she scoffed, "I know what your Getsuga Tenshō can do to people. I figured it out when that second one didn't cut me in half."
"Oh! So, you did believe me for a while!" he exclaimed with a sly look.
"Not the point!" she yelled angrily. She then shook her head. "Gods, no wonder poor Matsumoto won't stop complaining about you."
He gasped, hand to his heart. "My dear Rangiku complains about me?!"
"She told me, and I quote, 'Captain Shiba's the reason I drink.'"
At this, Isshin did what was practically an entire routine involving fake crying, soulful lamentations, and wallet pictures of his late wife. Here, the Hollow broke.
"Could you just stop, already!" it yelled in a tinny voice. "I think I'd rather die than listen to another minute of this!"
"Huh, you can talk," Tatsuki said with a raised eyebrow. She tightened her Bankai's hold ever so slightly.
"I'm not just some mindless beast," it said, sounding far more relaxed than it had any right to be.
"Good," Tatsuki said coldly. "Then you can be reasoned with. Leave this girl's body before I burn you to a crisp."
"Hmm…" the Hollow hummed, tapping its fingers idly. "Nope!" It laughed then, as if it had just told the best joke it had ever heard.
With a frown Tatsuki tightened her Bankai's grip on the Hollow, but it only laughed louder, growing hysterical.
"I know you won't kill this girl!" it cried. "You think of her as your 'ally'. She does too, you know."
"I've only been her 'ally' for a few days, Hollow, and I still have a mission to complete. Don't test my patience."
"It's got a point," Isshin said from the side. The Hollow turned to him, shocked for a moment. That look quickly turned into a glower.
They both had a point, he thought. Isshin knew a bit about the mission, just enough to realize that these girls were supposed to be at the top of that mountain and distracting the Captains there with a staged fight. He knew that Tatsuki would never kill the girl, despite what she said.
He also knew that they were delayed because of him and that he needed to come up with something fast.
"You're right, Hollow," he said slowly. "We aren't going to kill you. That being said I've got a friend that would just love to take a closer look at you in his lab."
This statement had a slightly different impact than the others if the creature's harsh glare was anything to go by. It seemed this creature didn't trust him quite as much as it did Tatsuki.
Isshin smirked. This just might work out, in the end.
"You have the human's memories, don't you?" he asked.
"Bits and pieces."
"Then you know about her mission."
"Yeah, she wouldn't shut up about it." It was an odd phrasing, one that Isshin made sure to remember.
"Then I've got a proposition for you!" he said with a grin. "You climb up on that hill and finish the mission, and I'll make sure you stay out of that lab."
For a moment the Hollow stayed silent, staring right at him, bright eyes uncomfortably piercing. He wondered if it would actually agree.
"…Fine."
Isshin looked right back into the Hollow's eyes. They were empty and hate filled. He could see a thousand wishes for his painful demise. He saw no lie.
"Tatsuki, let it go."
The girl blinked at him in shock. "A-are you sure?"
"I'm sure," he said. "I'm also sure that you should deactivate your Bankai entirely. You strain yourself any more and you won't be able to fight at all."
Tatsuki's eyes flashed up at him, her mouth opening to protest, but after a moment she seemed to think better of it. She took a small step back and with a shaky breath simply said, "Yes, Captain Shiba." She allowed the fire to dissipate, her Zanpakuto reverting back to its Shikai.
The Hollow wasted no time after that springing back to its feet and running away. For a moment Isshin was afraid it had gone back on its word, that he'd miscalculated, and then he figured where it was running.
"Ornery bastard," he muttered. "Tatsuki, are you ready?"
"As I'll ever be," she said. It was pretty obvious that she had a tenuous grasp on what was even going on at this point, and he was hardly going to fault her for that. Even he was confused.
"Let's make sure that Hollow doesn't get too far ahead, then."
Part II
Crouched in the shadow of the trees, waiting for their enemies, Uryuu was starting to second guess this mission. He knew it was far too late for something like that and that now was the time to just shut up and complete the mission, but with the sounds of battle coming from the ground below, with the feeling of the trees shaking from another within the forest he was feeling a little…on edge.
There was obviously some kind of infighting happening in the Seireitei below, some terrifying battle amongst Captains taking place that Uryuu had no desire whatsoever to stick his nose in. That wasn't nearly as worrying as Orikasa's flaring Reiatsu signature deep in the trees. Judging from the nervous looks his other party members were giving each other, their minds were in similar places.
All that being said, of course, nothing had gone horribly wrong yet. There was no reason for anything to go horribly wrong, and unless anything told Uryuu otherwise he was standing his ground.
There was, of course, something about sitting there in silence and worrying that managed to pass the time incredibly well, and soon enough Uryuu had lost track of what time it was at all. The looming trees hiding the position of the sun from them certainly didn't help.
Neither did oppressive humidity that made his brain just want to stop working entirely. (Seriously, how did Shinigami manage with these heavy black robes?) It was just as he was shutting his eyes against what was probably going to be a legendary headache that he heard rhythmic footsteps coming from the nearby path. His eyes snapped open immediately.
Ganju was a few meters in front of them peering around a particularly wide tree. After barely a second, he retreated, looking them all in the eye as he held up four fingers.
Four guards
They had worked out a rough plan before they had even stepped foot on the hill; though, Uryuu could only hope everything would go accordingly. He summoned his bow silently, an arrow at the ready. He waited for the signal.
"Blossom, Shun Shun Rikka," he heard Inoue whisper under her breath beside him. Four of her "butterflies" broke off from her Zanpakuto hovering in front of her for a few moments. She shifted, meeting eyes with Ganju, then Sado.
After a moment of hesitation, the butterflies zipped to the guards in a flash.
Everyone sprung into action after that, running out from the shadow of the trees and into the light. It was around then, somewhere in between his foot meeting the path and him drawing his first arrow that Uryuu got to see Shiba for the first time in weeks.
He looked ragged, worn, like he hadn't slept in days, and not even his pure white yukata managed to hide that. When Inoue's shield sprung up around him that desolate look turned into surprise, and then something akin to happiness. (Which was good. Nothing about that sad look suited the Shinigami at all.)
Uryuu aimed quickly for the guard furthest from him and fired before they even had a chance to process what was going on. It impacted solidly, the masked man stumbling right off the cliff. This managed to wake the other guards up.
The guard across was the first one Uryuu saw take action, a Kidō spell already at his fingertips, crackling lightning headed right for Uryuu. Chad was in front of him, Shikai clad arm absorbing most of it before it managed to hit. By then Uryuu was already drawing another arrow.
"Thanks for the save," he said, firing and hitting the one that had sent the spell. He was on the ground in a moment, and by the time Uryuu had looked up, somehow the battle had already finished.
He saw Abarai, spikes just disappearing, retreating from an unconscious man with a heavily bleeding shoulder and a lightly bleeding head. Ganju wasn't too far off, cautiously prodding another downed man, a suspiciously bloody looking rock barely a meter from them.
It was almost anticlimactic, but Uryuu would never knock a job well done. The only thing left now was to deliver Shiba. Inoue lowered her barrier.
"…Ichigo?" She said the name quietly, as if she had a hard time even believing it. Uryuu immediately felt uncomfortable, not because of some misplaced jealously, but because he felt like he was intruding on something.
"I…" Shiba sounded. He over everyone there something like bewildered relief on his face. "You guys…you really came for me."
Inoue approached him then, a hand reaching up towards his face as she looked at him carefully. Her eyes started shining. Her lip quivered. For a second Uryuu was worried that she'd really start crying right then and there, but she didn't. She sniffled once and her hand dropped to untie the ropes on his wrists, her lips pursed.
"We're not out of the woods yet," she said tersely. "We won't be safe until we reach Yoruichi's hideout."
"Huh," Shiba said, rubbing at his now free wrists. His eyes were averted. "I guess I didn't imagine that she was outside of my cell the other day. Is she with you?"
How Shiba managed to gather the energy to sound authoritative in the state he was, Uryuu had no idea. It was almost admirable, if a little annoying.
"Not exactly," Ganju said. "We'll meet up with her soon."
"Sounds good to me." Reaching up to his neck, he tore off the red collar they had strapped to it with some difficulty. He looked the to group, one by one, and then did a double take. "Where's Rukia?" he asked.
"We'll explain on our way down," Ganju said, a heavy hand on his nephew's shoulder. "We need to move before anyone figures out something's wrong."
The two held each other's gaze for a long moment after that. Shiba was the first to break it.
"…Okay," he said quietly.
The group ran as quickly as they could down the mountain path after that, which considering Shiba's weakened state, wasn't very fast at all. During this run, as Inoue, Sado, and Ganju explained things the best they could, Uryuu learned quite a few interesting things about what exactly was going on below them, or at least the three's competing theories on it. Either way they all seemed to agree on one thing. The Seireitei, especially the Captains and Lieutenants, have been in utter chaos as of late.
He looked down the edge of the path only to see a sword the size of a skyscraper descend on what appeared to be a Captain.
"Chaos" seemed to be underselling it, really.
Uryuu decided to look away from that and not even think about it, even with the battle's thunderous sounds ringing in the background. He instead looked back to Shiba who was right in behind him.
Seeing him now, Uryuu could tell he wasn't doing so well. He looked thinner and paler than Uryuu remembered and seemed utterly exhausted as he stumbled in his running every so often only to doggedly try and pick up the pace again. When Uryuu concentrated he could see the man's Reiatsu, which had been pretty weak, even when they first met.
Now, it was nearly nonexistent, barely a flicker, not unlike a regular human Soul. Considering that this man was supposed to be a Lieutenant, that could not have been good. It was likely due to extended exposure to Sekiseki stone. From what he understood the entire Repentance Cell was made of the stuff.
Uryuu clenched his fists at that. He knew personally what exposure to that stone felt like.
Whatever conversation was happening at this point was washing over Uryuu, he not really having much to add, and not being terribly upset at that.
"I still can't believe you did all this to save me," Shiba said breathlessly.
"We never would have gotten this far without Ganju and the humans," Orihime said with a gentle smile. "They were the ones that inspired us to go after you in the first place."
Uryuu doubted any of them counted as humans at this point. They were a Quincy, a Substitute Shinigami, and a Fullbringer, but he doubted that really mattered.
"Then…I guess I owe you my life," Shiba added with a grin.
"Hey, save the thanks for when we actually save you," Abarai responded. "We've still got a way to go."
Actually, they were pretty close to the bunker (if Yoruichi's crudely drawn map were to be trusted), but Uryuu knew what Abarai meant. After all this work of breaking into the ridiculous fortress that was the Seireitei, they'd need a to figure a way to break out.
The group reached the turn off point, Ganju waving around the map as he yelled that they were going to head in. The man's foot barely reached the line of the trees, and suddenly, things went very, very wrong.
A figure appeared crouched on a tree branch, someone that Uryuu was sure wasn't there just a moment ago. Uryuu had hoped he'd never see this particular Captain ever again, but it seemed he wasn't so lucky.
The Captain of the Second Division looked down on them, scrutinizing as Ganju took a cautious step back. Her eyes settled on Uryuu and then Abarai, narrowing.
"I knew something was wrong," she muttered to herself, standing fully. "Ōmaeda, capture the prisoner."
He hadn't noticed the Shinigami right behind them, but the second Uryuu turned to face him it was impossible not to. He was a monster of a man, a Lieutenant if his badge was anything to go by, holding a flail the size of a wrecking ball.
"I'll take care of the rest," the Captain said. She jumped down from her perch right onto the path.
The group was boxed in on both sides on a narrow cliff by one Lieutenant and one Captain. Uryuu should have known this mission wouldn't be so easy. He summoned his bow the moment the Captain drew her sword.
…
Renji was at the back of the group with Chad when Ōmaeda suddenly appeared, and though he was feeling plenty intimidated and all that, he had a hard time taking the Lieutenant seriously. His huge purple collar was damn laughable, so was that goofy expression on his face, the one trying desperately to look scary. The Shikai was a little harder to write off. One look and Renji knew that it would only take a single hit and then lights out.
Chad ran to Ichigo immediately bracing his arm against a swinging attack from the man. The first hit was brushed off as Chad took his own swing at the man, a swing that was expertly dodged. The man reared back for another attack, and his second impact had Chad stumbling. That was about all Renji could take. Activating his spikes, he moved in to get a few hits in of his own.
…
Uryuu went into the fray cautiously optimistic. Now he was starting to think they were in some serious trouble.
He and Inoue were working in tandem aiming arrows and Kidō at the woman in rapid succession. It apparently wasn't rapid enough because the woman had no problem dodging every single one without breaking a sweat, moving faster than their eyes could even keep up with. He wasn't surprised when he saw Ganju standing to the side, frozen.
"Hadō number four, Byakurai!" Inoue called out. The powerful beam made by the spell didn't even graze the Captain.
Uryuu followed immediately with an arrow of his own, but for once the Captain did something aside from just dodge. Flipping in the air she sliced it cleanly with her Zanpakuto, sending both halves harmlessly on either side of her.
Of all the nerve!
"This," she said dodging another angrily fired arrow, "is getting tiresome."
Inoue sent another incantation-less spell after the woman, dodged again.
"Sting all enemies to death, Suzumebachi!"
They may have just fallen into the worst-case scenario.
…
Ōmaeda was strong, Renji would give him that. He hefted around his Shikai like it was made of paper laying into both them and the rocky path, leaving huge cracks and craters wherever it landed. The Lieutenant had yet to score a direct hit, but Renji had been grazed at least a few times already.
(Renji barely resisted the urge to cringe against every impact, too. They were on a cliff path! This guy had to know he was playing with fire, here.)
He pushed past those feelings and moved to attack the Lieutenant again only to be blindsided by Chad of all people.
Renji's ally swung into him with heavy impact, braced against the flail that Ōmaeda had used to swing him. Renji found himself tumbling from the force and right over the narrow cliff.
For a terrifying second, he was free falling, then scrambling, and by sheer stupid luck he'd managed to get one of his shoulder spikes lodged right into the cliffside. He bit his lip against the pain. He's pretty sure that one nearly sent his arm out of its socket.
"Chad!" he yelled. He wasn't sure if he was calling for help or just making sure that the man was alright, but he called his name. Renji looked down at the buildings below his dangling feet. They looked so small from up here.
He kept his eyes up.
"Busy," he heard Chad grunt. Whatever relief Renji felt at that disappeared when he started noticing the cracks in the stone developing around the lodged spike.
…
"Suzumebachi can kill an enemy after only two strikes to the same place."
The Captain said this with a condescending grin on her face, her black and gold gauntlet with its single wicked claw glinting in the sunlight. She was right beside a terrified looking Ganju, his hand clamped to a sluggishly bleeding wound on his neck. Uryuu could see the edges of a large four-pointed mark right around it. Before the woman could make another move Uryuu fired at her, forcing her away.
He didn't let up after that, and she dodged every single one, not that he was terribly surprised at this point. There was something odd he noticed, however.
That trick from before, where she had cut one of his arrows in half. She never did it again. She didn't even try to. It was possible that with her Zanpakuto in this state she couldn't. With that he increased his volley as fast as he could.
Still too slow!
The Captain was zig-zagging towards him and Orihime, the two pushing back with just about everything they had, but she moved too unpredictably. Uryuu was letting out a grunt of pain, stumbling, before he even realized he'd been hit.
Looking down he saw that same marking in the center of his chest (even over the Kimono, somehow). To the side he saw a grimacing Orihime, the mark creeping over her ear and across her cheek.
It had barely been a minute and they'd all already been hit once.
…
"Renji, grab my hand!"
Renji could see Ichigo leaned over the side of the cliff, hand extended, and maybe it was the impending death talking, but he thought the Shinigami looked like an angel right then.
Despite this, Renji was hesitant. He'd tried incredibly hard not to move at all since his initial call for help, not wanting to make the cracks in the stone he was suspended by any worse, each impact of Ōmaeda's Zanpakuto sending a jolt through him. He gulped heavily.
"Renji!" Ichigo yelled again, stretching further.
"Yeah, yeah I heard you," he answered shakily.
He crept his free hand upwards slowly, trying not to shift his weight too much. He managed to get it to his waist, his shoulders, above his head, then…
Ichigo gasped suddenly, looking over his shoulder, and Renji found himself so startled by it he jerked back. The crack widened, a rock fell, and Renji started falling too. His eyes screwed shut.
He jerked to a stop again, hitting the side of the wall as something gripped his hand. He looked up to see Ichigo, leaned a bit more precariously over the edge of the cliff. He gripped back as hard as he could.
Weakened as he was, luckily Ichigo was still pretty strong. Renji gripped on whatever surface he could, hefting himself up as Ichigo pulled them both back from the edge and onto solid ground panting and pale.
It took Renji a second to find what Ichigo had been so worked up over earlier. Now, it was all too obvious.
Chad was kneeled right behind them, an iron grip on the chain of Ōmaeda's flail, the huge spiked ball imbedded into his bloodied hip.
"Shit," Renji muttered. That looked bad, like really bad.
Ōmaeda was at the other end of the chain, grunting, face going red as he tried to wrench it from Chad's grip. He turned to Renji and his eyes widened. That was as good a cue as any.
Renji charged in.
…
At this point, the Captain was just toying with them, and that really pissed Uryuu off.
Ganju was nursing two more marks, one on his shoulder and one on his back. Inoue had another on her stomach. Uryuu had one on his thigh. Basically, things weren't looking so good for them.
Inoue kept her spells going, but if her shaking hands were indicative of anything it was that she didn't have too many left in her. Uryuu was feeling pretty drained, himself, but he kept on firing, and kept on missing.
The Captain came towards them again, and Uryuu found himself bracing for another one of her stings.
In a sudden movement the air was knocked clean from Uryuu's chest as she kicked him right in the sternum. He went tumbling to the ground, away from the others.
Black dots danced across Uryuu's eyes as he laid on the ground, just trying to regain his breath. When his vision starts to clear he can see a crack right at the corner of his glasses and the Captain standing over him a delicate foot pressed to his stomach.
Her literally standing over his prone body made Uryuu angry, but not nearly as much as the look in her eyes.
The Captain looked down at Uryuu as if he were nothing, an inconvenience at best, like a fly that had gotten a little to close to her lunch, one that she was getting ready to squash. She leaned down, stinger moving towards the mark on his chest.
Her claw was stopped before it could reach, a glowing orange barrier hovering over Uryuu. The Captain had a look of shocked on her face replaced quickly with anger as her head snapped over to Inoue, four segments of her Zanpakuto missing.
The Captain didn't move off Uryuu, though. Instead her free hand started to glow red. Inoue stayed still, probably knowing full well that two segments wouldn't be enough to save her.
"Inoue!" Uryuu yelled, banging on the inside of the barrier. Her shields were perfect, he knew this, but right now that didn't matter. "Inoue! O-Orihime!"
"Hadō number fifty-four, Haien."
…
Renji was able to see, up close and personal, the exact moment Ōmaeda figured out he was screwed. It was somewhere mid-kick, with Renji's spike headed right for his side. Chad still had a firm grip, Renji was just going for it, and the Lieutenant was cornered. He knew he didn't have too many options, here.
The man deactivated his Shikai, smooth blade slipping out of Chad's grip as he moved back, Renji's kick going a little wide. When Chad took a swing at the man, aiming right for the face, he didn't miss.
Ōmaeda was flung back by the sheer force of the punch hitting the ground with a solid thud. He didn't get back up.
It was pretty badass, actually, and just as Renji turned to tell Chad as much the man was falling to his knees, hands clutching his side as his Shikai quickly deactivated. Renji went down to him immediately, an arm around him just to keep him from face planting on the ground, Ichigo at Chad's other side.
"Woah, easy, big guy," Renji soothed. Bending over he got a closer look at the wound.
In a word, it was horrible. It was bleeding all over the place, and it looked like there were some broken bones under there. It was a miracle that he was able to throw that final punch at all. (That did make it even more badass in retrospect, but Renji would keep that thought to himself.)
Chad was pale and sweating, but his eyes were right on the fight happening beside him, legs trembling as if he wanted to get up and intervene himself. Renji doubted that would be happening any time soon.
He heard the Captain say, "Hadō number fifty-four, Haien," and his blood went cold. Renji looked up just in time to see the Captain aim right for Orihime. It looked like a counter spell was forming on Orihime's fingertips, but it was too little too late.
The Captain's spell fired and went straight up into the sky.
It took Renji a bit to even figure out what had happened, why the woman had missed so horribly, but right there was Yoruichi, holding the woman's hand to the sky. The Captain looked beyond pissed off about it, face twisted up in a confused rage.
"Yoruichi!" Ganju cried out happily. Renji was right there with him, letting out a breath that he didn't know he was holding.
"Something's happened on the hilltop," Yoruichi explained quickly, voice calm, even though the hand holding the Captain's arm was shaking. The Shinigami was struggling to get out of the hold. "You need to get up there immediately." Then, sending a pointed look to Ichigo she added, "Don't forget the mission."
Her and the Captain disappeared in a blur.
"That was way too fucking close," Ichigo gasped out. Chad quietly groaned beside him, and that must have triggered something in Orihime because she was with them in seconds, a distraught look on her face.
"Lie him down," she said. They did, Chad's face screwed up in pain for the duration of the movement. Her shield was on the wound in a moment. Renji stepped back after that, knowing there wasn't much else he could do.
"So…what now?" Ichigo asked. Honestly, Renji wasn't sure.
"We need to split up," Ishida said, sitting himself up, face pinched. "From what Yoruichi said, it seems Orikasa and Arisawa need backup, but we still have a mission to complete."
"Okay," Renji said breathlessly. "Who goes and who doesn't?"
A long moment of silence stretched on after that, the only sound being the quiet hum of Orihime's Shikai.
"…I should go with Ichigo," Ganju finally said, eyes firmly to the ground. "I couldn't do shit against the Captain. I doubt I'll be any good up there."
"I'd hardly call that a failing," Ishida said with a scoff. "She was going to kill all of us before Yoruichi arrived."
"THAT STILL DOESN'T EXCUSE IT!"
Renji almost jerked back at the sudden volume.
"I…I froze," Ganju continued. "You two were at least doing something. All I could do was try and stay out of the way."
The guy looked so depressed as he said this, it was damn near heartbreaking. If even half the stories Ganju had told before were true, he was hardly useless when he was back with Rukia. Things had just taken an unexpected turn.
…That being said, if Ganju and Ichigo were caught alone in the forest, as they were now, they wouldn't stand a chance, and as much as he wanted to help Rukia…
If she doesn't make it back, I'm killing her myself, just for making me worry.
"I'll go with him, too," Renji said.
"Okay," Ichigo said with a nod. He turned to Orihime then, who looked to be finishing up with Chad's wound. "You should come with us, too. You've already overexerted yourself."
Orihime's hands were shaking. Her shield was flickering, and by the time it went away she was sweating as bad as Chad was just a minute ago.
"No," she said. "After a wound like that Chad won't be able to fight. He needs rest, and Ishida can't go up there alone. Besides," she patted the pack at her hip, "I still have another Soldier Pill. I'll be alright."
Ichigo and her shared a long look after that. A lot seemed to be communicated then, not that Renji could tell what it was. Eventually Ichigo just shook his head and sighed.
"Fine."
After that, a few supplies moved hands. Chad was dragged up to his feet by Ganju, and the group split up. Moving into the forest Renji could only think of one thing.
Please let her come back.
I'm not sure if I mentioned this but Yakeruni means "Blazing Sun". Yoenhoshi means "Blazing Star". I'm not a native Japanese speaker, though, so please correct me if I'm wrong. We will probably be getting deeper into the lore of her Zanpakuto (as well as the Zanpakuto of Orihime and Chad) as the story goes along.
…As for Isshin. There will be a more full explanation later. Just assume he'd decided to do some investigating after he saw Yoruichi outside of Ichigo's cell, for now.
(The next chapter is going to be a big one.)
