Chapter 39: Showdown

Urahara stared down Kurotsuchi, as the other man grinned wildly at him. Mayuri had always been a little off, his mind bordering the line between insanity and genius. This was one of the reasons Urahara had released him from the Magot's Nest and brought him into the twelfth. It was a decision he both regretted and didn't at the same time. He had never intended to leave the mad scientist in charge of the division, but some things couldn't be undone no matter what. "Oh?" Kisuke asked feigning ignorance. "What ever do you mean?"

"Tch." Mayuri stated with annoyance. "I knew you had something to do with these children. They're one of your experiments, are they not?"

The Kurosaki children blinked in surprise, before Ichigo snorted. "Getabushi, experimenting on us is as likely as a pig flying."

Verena's shoulders shook in laughter at this. If the situation wasn't so serious then she'd be rolling with laughter. The red head in front of them raised an eyebrow at Ichigo's joke. Or is that a tattoo? she wondered as she took in the stripes. He kind of looks like a wild tiger there. she thought as the image of her zanpakuto spirit came to mind. Grinning she suddenly really wanted to test this guy's skills.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Kisuke apologized, " these children are the real deal. All I did was train them and ensure they had the right education in how to fight hollows," He bowed his head so that his eyes were shadowed by his hat. "and anything else that would do harm to them." He then took out his paper fan. "You give me too much credit. I'm just a lowly candy-store owner these days."

Mayuri's grin broadened once more. "Oh really?" he asked as his eyes searched out Namu, the black haired girl was ready for the signal her master would soon give.

Meanwhile Byakuya and Yoruichi were still staring down each other, looking for weak spots. Yoruichi may not have her zanpakuto with her at the moment, but that did not mean she was defenceless and Byakuya knew this from his childhood experiences with the woman.

Yoruichi smiled at the younger man. "I take it Genrei finally retired from the sixth, since you're its new captain." she stated and saw his left eye brow twitch. She knew he had a tell when it came to his level of annoyance and seemed had hit one.

"He left for the royal realm many years ago." he told her. "You would know this if you hadn't sided with a traitor." He prepared himself to strike before she did. Suddenly she vanished from sight. Spinning Byakuya knew she'd try to attack from behind, only for him to suddenly feel his family scarf being snatched away.

"Still too slow." she told him before taking off into the forest.

"Abarai!" Byakuya snapped at his lieutenant who jumped slightly at the higher tone of his captains voice. As he turned to follow Byakuya, Verena stepped into his path.

Verena pointed her finger at it, the tip glowing gold. He couldn't hear the incantation but he did hear the final part. "Hainawa!" she yelled out. The yellow energy rope wrapped around his torso, entangling his arms in the gold energy causing him to be captured by her before she grasped the end of the rope and flash stepped the opposite direction that his captain had gone in.

Inside Ichigo's mind his hollow was laughing his ass off at the look of shock upon the red head's face before being dragged at high speed by Verena. A grin threatened to appear on Ichigo's face, but he won that battle and took on a more serious pose as the black haired girl now stood there with a needle in her hand looking for the signal to take him down. Can't let her hurt Karin. he thought as his left hand went to his hip and pulled the old man's sword from it's place there. Now wielding duel swords he prepared himself for a fight. What he didn't know was Karin was thinking the very same thought towards him.

At that moment Kurotsuchi decided he was finished with whatever Urahara was stalling for. Drawing his zanpakuto he spoke. "Claw Out." The sword's shikai released form looked like a deformed trident.

Urahar raised an eyebrow. He hadn't ever seen the shikai release of Mayuri's sword. So this is new but not too unexpected. He was expecting the twelfth division captain to use it, possibly go as far as use his bankai. "Awaken." Instantly Benihime responded. The heat coming off of the sword as it vibrated passionately, telling Urahara that she was excited about this fight. Truth be told, so was he.

Renji was flung into a large tree before being released by the kido ropes. He'd never tell anybody this, but the girl had actually surprised him by attacking him first. He'd been sure she'd want to protect her brother. Not wanting to hurt her, he really didn't like fighting women or girl's, he decided to try some higher level binding kido on her; hoping it would work. "Carriage of thunder. Bridge of a spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six!" He held his hands outward in front of him. "Rikujokoro!" Six beams of light shot out of his hand and slammed into Verena's mid-section, holding her to a tree. Gritting her teeth together. Verena grumbled at be efficiently pinned to the tree. "Sorry kid, but I've got to get to my captain's side." He told her and was about to flash step away when he suddenly felt the girl's spirit pressure begin to rise.

"What did you call me?" she asked with annoyance. "I'm. Not. A. Kid!" She punctuated as raise her spirit pressure higher with each word. Renji swallowed hard as the six beams holding her suddenly cracked and disintegrated to nothingness. Now free, Verena's eyes glowed a deep blue color. The energy swirled around her, black marking appearing on her wrists as she grabbed her sword.

In her mind, for the first time ever, Verena heard her zanpakuto speak. Teach this boy not to mess with us and I will reveal my name.

That had never sounded so good as it did right then. Flash stepping, Verena unsheathed her sword and brought it's blade down upon Renji. Thinking fast, the red headed man grunted as he felt the power behind the blow. Shit! he cursed mentally. Just how strong are these kids? he wondered as another blow came at him. Pulling his torso backwards, he found himself almost being cut in half. The girl then brought her sword down into a downward strike. Renji jumped backwards once again. She also seemed to be getting faster as well.

Grasping his zanpakuto he called out to it. "Howl Zabimaru!" He said this as he ran his hand over the blade. The sword transformed into a six pronged weapon. Renji grinned at Verena who seemed to be waiting for him to attack. Throwing the blade back and snapping it forward like a whip the blade almost reached Verena when a bright golden cord wrapped around it pulling it to the right.

Both combatants turned their attention towards the newcomer, a man with a mask and long blond hair stood there in a black jacket. "Did I miss the party?" his voice asked in a warbled tone.

Verena grinned feraly at Renji. "You're just in time, Rose." She then flash stepped towards Renji, a fire ball forming in her hand as she came down upon him.

Byakuya fired a concentrated powerful bolt of lightning from his finger at Yoruichi who went invisible as she sped up her flash step. She use to be the captain of the second division after all. She was a master of this ability. This left him in another clearing, seemingly alone when he was kicked in the left side by the flash goddess. Sliding to a stop, his hand brought up his sword. "Scatter Senbonzakura." The blade of his zanpakuto suddenly turned into thousands of tiny pink petals.

Yoruichi blinked in surprise as the tiny petals began to swirl above them. This should be interesting. she thought having hoped to see what his shikai release was.

"You have never experienced my shikai." Byakuya said in his ever emotionless tone. "You left before you could, however, this shall be remedied tonight."

"Do you plan on killing me Byakuya?" she asked him as she had noticed how detached he seemed to be.

"You are one of the heirs of the noble clans." he said. "Should I kill you, I would have to explain why well enough to avoid a clan war." His eyes met hers. "I plan to only defeat you and bring you back."

He threw his hand with the hilt into the air. Above them the petals reacted and sped towards her. Without thought, Yoruichi decided to avoid these petals as much as she could. The blades followed her quick movements, not allowing her to rest. She saw the damage the petals could do upon the trees or ground. Deep gouges were in the ground as more than half of the trees in the clearing were missing their tops now.

So the petals have become sharp blades. she thought as she realized the power of this sword. Thousands of tiny swords. Incredible. She found herself quite proud that Byakuya's sword had such an ability.

Jumping behind him she almost was able to hit him, but was caught off guard by several of the petals appearing to be there as a protective barrier. She barely avoided being cut by them as she used her fasted flash step to get out of there. Sliding across the ground away from him, Yoruichi was happy to see he'd pulled the petals back. His defences were way better than they had been the last time they'd fought.

Standing still Yoruichi began concentrating on raising her reiatsu as she decided to go full throttle since that was obviously Byakuya's plan. She decided on a single attack that would put him out of commission for a little while. It was an advanced technique which combined Hakuda with kido. Her clothes on her back exploded as lightning began to run across her back and arms.

Byakuya's eyes widened as he saw this. He had heard of her use of this technique, but had never seen it before. Shooting his arm outwards to quickly eliminate her, Byakuya saw her flash passed his defences without a problem. With her body glowing like white lightning she practically flew passed the petals and struck him in the chest. It was like an explosion had occurred before him and he'd been in the line of fire. The spirit centers that controlled his power went offline in seconds as pain exploded on his chest and he was sent flying across the field. Coming to a stop by a tree, Byakuya began to loose consciousness. The last image he had was not of Yoruichi, but of two men who should not still be alive as they came out of the forest to stand next to Yoruichi.

"I thought you were in trouble." Kensei stated as he replaced his sword on his hip.

"You should know better than to let out a flare for help when you don't need it." Love chastised her.

Yoruichi glared at the two other men. "I'm not the one in danger." she stated. "Kurotsuchi is here and Urahara is fighting him, but he has a strange girl with him." she explained before going on further as she walked up to Byakuya. "He wants Ichigo for some reason." she told them causing both men to give each other a look.

"Rose went to help Verena." Kensei stated as he looked off towards a portion of the forest where he could feel Ichigo's power. "Is it me or is that boy getting stronger?"

"Kisuke thinks the ring seal is weakening." she explained as she bent down to feel for a pulse. Sighing when she felt one, she gently turned Byakuya onto his back and began to administer some healing kido. "He thinks that's what is drawing hollows out of the woodwork and it's probably what got Kurotsuchi's attention."

"Shinji, Lisa and Hiyori went to help." Love told her as he looked between the shinigami male and her. "He feels familiar."

"He's Byakuya Kuchiki." she said with a wide grin. "He's the head of his clan now."

"Damn." Kensei cursed. "It really has been a long time."

"As if we didn't already know that." she stated grimly as she felt his spirit centers come back online. "His powers should return within a few hours, but he will remain unconscious until morning." She looked at the two men who had become her closest allies over the last hundred years. "Take him back to the shoten. I'm sure his sister will take care of him for the rest of the night." Nodding the two went to do just that as Yoruichi went to help Urahara. A feeling of impending doom coming over her as all she could sense was Ichigo's power and not one speck of her long time friend's.

Minutes before Byakuya and Yoruichi's fight culminated to an end, Kisuke found himself on the defensive side of battle as Mayuri was proving to be quite the bloodlusted opponent as he slashed and stabbed at Urahara, all the while expertly avoiding Kisuke's kido attacks. Laying Benihime's blade against his palm Urahara called out a new attack. "Hado #32: Oukasen." Bright yellow energy shot out towards Mayuri. The lightning electrifying the already unstable air around them. When the dust settled Urahara had to dodge a blast of purplish red spiritual energy that incinerated the spot he'd just been. "Oh my." he stated as he lifted his hat slightly so he could see better. "That came close."

"You're as entertaining as always." Mayuri commented.

"As are you." Kisuke complimented as he readied for another bout of fighting before speak in a more serious tone. "You won't be taking Ichigo as long as I am around."

"Hmm... Perhaps then ," Mayuri began causing Urahara to raise an eyebrow under his hat. "it is time to be serious." He held his sword out before him. "Bankai."

At that same moment Lieutenant Kurotsuchi made her move and attacked Ichigo, who dodged the needle; quite literally. Karin called out her attack at the woman, "Hi no tsuki!" The fiery crescent hit the woman squarely in the chest. Ichigo felt the ground shake and tremble under his feet. Turning his head, Ichigo's eyes widened in surprise.

Holy shit! the white haired albino hollow cursed within him. Is that a fuckin' baby or a fuckin' bug?

Ichigo couldn't quite decide if he was impressed by the size of what he was guessing was a bankai or if he was disgusted by how obese and over the top it seemed to be. He was so distracted that he almost didn't stop the lieutenants attack. Her leg came out to kick him in the side, only for him to hit her with the flat of his blade instead of cutting her with it. She then flash stepped and was in front of him. Surprised Ichigo shouted out a kido spell without thinking, not the best idea given he was horrible at the art. "Sho!" he yelled causing her to flying off into the trees as the low level hado spell only pushed her away from his person, though at quite a bit of distance.

Lieutenant Kurotsuchi jumped from the trees to the ground and was about to attack once more when an electric current caught her, a silent scream escaping her lips as pain filled her body. Somebody had just used Hado 11: Tsuzuri Raiden on her.

"Yo, Shinji." Ichigo greeted from on high as he jumped from the tree branch he'd been on.

With his mask in place, Shinji grasped the edge of it and moved it to the side. "Yo." he greeted back his wide smile visible to Ichigo. "Seemed you could use a hand."

Standing up, Hiyori also had her mask in place. She seemed slightly annoyed. "Don't think for an instant this gets you out of training tomorrow!" she yelled at him. Ichigo and Shinji gave her an annoyed look.

"Hollow masks..." the woman said as she observed them. "But not full blown hollows. Master Mayuri will want to know about this." She muttered as she stood shakily, only to get karate chopped at the back of her neck and fall unconscious to the ground.

Shinji suddenly felt the hairs of his arms raise up as an explosion was heard. Looking towards the cloud of purple smoke, he felt it would be best for a quick escape, but he suddenly realized something. He barely sense Urahara's spiritual pressure. Laughter could be heard as somebody else seemed to choking on the smoke. Urahara escaped the smoke as it dispersed, his face covered in sickly purple coloring. Dropping Benihime, Urahara Kisuke fell to his knees.

"Getabushi!" Ichigo yelled out as he spotted his long time teacher fall onto the ground as the creepy guy from before stood behind him as he held a second needle in his hand.

"Of course, if the stupid girl couldn't capture the boy, taking you in will be the better plan." was heard before the mad scientist picked Urahara up before vanishing from sight, leaving stunned people behind.

M-Angel: I bet nobody saw that one coming. So with that Arc 1 comes to an end; which means Soul Society Arc is next.

GunBlade2018: Oh there's a few more elements of surprise to come that nobody seems to know about.

Midnighscar17: I hope you liked the fights. Sorry if Mayuri vs Kisuke didn't go into too much detail. I decided not to for a reason.

MungetsuIchigo: I'm glad. Hope this update is satisfying.

12gaSword: LoL! It was a cliffhanger. She does know that is her sword spirit, she just doesn't know it's name. It's being very stubborn, like she can be.