Chapter 11: Nozarashi

Ichigo was making his way back to the Seireitei as fast as he possibly could at this point. His speed still needed some work, but in all honesty, he was making good time still. He was over some more forest when he spotted the Seireitei off in the distance. He saw the barrier and the smoke from the fires and immediately grew worried for everyone, especially his girls. Doubling his efforts, Ichigo took off in a burst of shunpo only to feel a strong spiritual pressure a little ways off from where he was. Turning to his left, Ichigo closed his eyes and focused. With Katen Kyokotsu's spirit along with Kyoraku's excellent control over his spirit energy and senses, Ichigo was able to make out just who was releasing this spirit energy. To his surprise and unfortunate horror, it was the one person he didn't think he would run into today. Kenpachi Zaraki, but there was also a few others there as well. There was Ikkaku, Yumichika and Rangiku as well. When he felt her spirit energy and how it was straining, he knew immediately that she was in trouble. Turning on a dime, Ichigo rushed over in that direction to get to one of his girls.

While Ichigo was doing that, Rangiku, Ikkaku, and Yumichika were in the fight of their lives right now. All three of them were panting heavily and standing there with bruises, cuts and tears all along their bodies. True, they were strong in their own right, but unfortunately that strength didn't mean much when the man you're facing is among the strongest captains in the court guard squad.

Right now, Blue Kenpachi was standing a little ways away from them with his blade on his shoulder. He scowled at the three for wasting his time as he was tasked with leaving the soul society to go and get the girl. Before he could, he was confronted by these three and 'fought' them. To him, it had been a pretty disappointing fight.

"Well then," the fake started as he too his blade off of his shoulder and walked over to the downed trio. "Guess I might as well kill all of ya and be done with it. This was such a boring fight."

Ikkaku struggled at first, but managed to make it to his feet. Blue Kenpachi raised a brow and stopped in his tracks. "Then if that's the case," Ikkaku started with a wide grin on his face. "Then LETS SPICE THIS UP! BANKAI!"

Blue Kenpachi went a little wide eyed at the word Ikkaku spoke and watched as the torrent of spirit energy swirled around him and two red dragons went inside of it. When the energy subsided, Ikkaku stood there in his Bankai and grinned wildly at the reigai of his captain. Said reigai also grinned wildly and flared his energy in the process. Ikkaku did the same and the two charged at one another. The clash was loud and powerful for a few seconds. In those few seconds, both Rangiku and Yumichika were forced back by the intense energy and tried to get out of the way. Unfortunately for them, the blast of spirit energy was so great, that it blew them back at great speeds. Yumichika was sent flying into a tree and was knocked unconscious, but Rangiku was sent flying into the air.

As she was sent away, Rangiku was slowly trying to process what just happened. The disorientation from what just happened and the exhaustion from fighting a captain was too much for her at the moment. All that was going through her mind right now though, was that she would have loved to have been with Ichigo once again. How she along with the others longed to be with him once more. To hear his strong, protective voice. Feel his toned, muscular arms wrapped around each of them in a loving embrace for each of them. To be by his side for a long time, but now that was over and done with. All because of what Kageroza did to him. To their strawberry. She closed her eyes as she waited for the painful fall that would be, but suddenly, she felt something warm and comforting hold onto her gently.

"Rangiku?" A familiar voice spoke to her in a concerning tone. "Rangiku, please tell me you're alright."

Rangiku realized whose voice this was and immediately opened her eyes to see the very man she was thinking of. She went wide eyed as she looked deep into those brilliant brown eyes of the very person she loved and lost along with the other girls. "Ichigo?" She asked as he smiled down at her.

"Yo." Ichigo said to her with a kind smile.

She stared at him with shock clear in her eyes, then they started to water and soon enough she was latching onto his neck, sobbing. "Ichigo. You're alive. We thought what Kageroza said was true."

Ichigo hugged her back to comfort her, but had no idea just what she was talking about. After a few minutes of them just standing there, rubbing her back to calm her down, Rangiku finally let go of him. He looked into her tear streaked eyes and grew even more worried. "Rangiku, what exactly were you talking about? What did Kageroza say to you?"

Rangiku took a breath to calm her nerves some more before continuing. "He said-"

Right when she was about to speak, a large beam of yellow spirit energy flared behind them. They turned to see Blue Kenpachi standing there in the air with them, laughing maniacally at the two. "Ichigo! I'm glad to see you're still alive after all this time! I've been looking forward to our rematch for some time!"

Before Ichigo could even question, Blue Kenpachi rushed him without his eyepatch on. Ichigo, thinking quickly, tossed Rangiku out of the way, much to her protest, and brought out Hyorinmaru. He blocked Kenpachi's slash but the force pushed him all the way down to the ground in the process. He stood up and quickly dodged a stab to the ground as Kenpachi tried to impale him. Ichigo sent an ice dragon towards the reigai as he was landing on the ground, but the fake simply flared his energy. The ice melted before it could get to him and Ichigo cursed to himself. He put Hyorinmaru away and brought out Katen Kyokotsu, knowing that he would need the energy.

"So," Blue Kenpachi spoke up with a mad grin to his face once more. "What Kageroza said was true. You really did have other zanpakuto's after all. Good. Then that makes this SO MUCH MORE FUN!"

He rushed toward Ichigo and the two started to clash once more. Despite having the combined powers of Kyoraku, Aizen and Toshiro inside of his soul now, Ichigo was having trouble here. Beforehand, he fought Kenpachi not with skill, but on pure instinct. Matching his savagery with the crazy captains, and he had the energy output to match Kenpachi before. Now, on the other hand, Ichigo was nowhere near the reigai's level. If this continued, then Ichigo would have to resort to using Bankai, and quite frankly, he had no idea what exactly that would do to his body. He had only used his new spirit's Shikai beforehand, but he had no idea just what would happen when he went Bankai with any of them.

He was broken from his musing when he felt the large hand of the reigai grab at his face and slam him down to the ground. Blue Kenpachi went for a stab to Ichigo's eye, but said teen managed to slip away from his grasp and fire off a powerful kido at the fake. This sent Blue Kenpachi soring, but the reigai caught himself and rushed right back towards the orange haired teen once more.

"I'm gonna need your help Kyoka." Ichigo said to himself and the spirit.

"Good." Kyoka spoke up. "Since you're no match for him like before, you need to fight smarter."

"Any ideas?" Ichigo asked as he dodged another attack from the reigai and went for a slash of his own.

"I don't know if this will even work or not," Kyoka started with a hint of nervousness in her voice, "but you need to see if you can grab hold of his zanpakuto like you did the others."

Ichigo, detecting the nervousness in her tone, asked "Why don't I like this idea?" He went for another slash, only for Kenpachi to bat it away and kick him in the stomach.

"Because I'm not seeing any other way you're going to be able to actually grab onto his blade." She answered him.

"What if you freeze him?" Hyorinmaru spoke up.

"Wouldn't work." Katen spoke up as she smacked him on the back of the head. "I'd suggest maybe using Kyoka's abilities, but knowing Kenpachi, he'd probably just flare up his energy and make it difficult to get near him."

Just as Ichigo stood up after leaping away from the reigai, he had an idea. "This might be insane and really backfire, but it just might work."

Before Kyoka, Katen Kyokotsu or Hyorinmaru could protest since they saw the thought flash across his mind, Ichigo rushed the reigai. Blue Kenpachi rushed towards Ichigo as well and the two clashed once more. They broke away and Blue Kenpachi went for a lunge, attempting to impale Ichigo in the chest. Ichigo took a deep breathe beforehand and moved just enough so that the blade would stab him in the side. The same side the original Kenpachi stabbed him in their first fight. Ichigo winced in pain, spat out blood and gritted his teeth as the blade was deep in his side. Blue Kenpachi grinned from ear to ear, but that all changed once Ichigo smirked to him.

"Gotcha." Ichigo grabbed at the blade with a free hand and was suddenly, he was once again encased in energy, but this time it was a yellow energy. Ichigo once again found himself within his inner world and noticed that there were several new skyscrapers forming out of the yellow energy. He looked around some more until he saw what looked like a little girl with pink hair. Ichigo immediately recognized this being and went wide eyed and mouth agape. "Yachiru?"

'Yachiru' smiled at him before pulling out Kenpachi's blade and pointing it right at Ichigo's face. "My name isn't Yachiru." She started in a dark like tone. "My name is what that idiotic brute never bothered learning. Mu name, is-"

Ichigo cut her off as he suddenly felt it, the connection like all his other spirits. "Nozarashi."

The sharp pain came back once more and hit the two of them in the process. Unlike the other times he had done this though, the spirit changed. She grew taller, almost as tall as Kyoka, and developed and curvy like Katen. Her pink hair changed to a long, spiky hot pink color that went to her back, and her eyes changed to yellow. She looked at Ichigo just as he did to her when the pain subsided and bowed slightly.

"It's about time someone knew my name." She spoke with a grin. "Now lets see how well you do with me."

Back to reality, Blue Kenpachi backed away with his blade no longer covered in blood from the energy and went wide eyed. He felt as if something he didn't know had been taken from him, but he didn't know what.

The yellow energy encasing Ichigo broke apart and Ichigo was in a sitting position with Nozarashi resting on his shoulder in its sealed state. He had on the same attire, but now the coat had a yellow tint to it and no longer had any sleeves, showing off Ichigo's muscular arms. Ichigo stood up and took the blade off of his shoulder to look at the fake of Kenpachi. He grinned wildly before holding the blade away from him for a moment. Both Rangiku, who was shocked at first to see Ichigo stabbed then dumbfounded when she saw his new look, and Blue Kenpachi went wide eyed at what the strawberry said next.

"Drink, Nozarashi."

Suddenly, a large amount of yellow spirit energy swirled around Ichigo and then skyrocketed into the air. Both Rangiku and Blue Kenpachi looked on in stunned amazement as the energy dissipated and revealed Ichigo holding a massive cleaver ten times larger than his original zanpakuto on his shoulder. He looked at the shocked reigai and grinned some more before moving too fast for someone carrying something so large. Blue Kenpachi had no time to respond before Ichigo cut through him cleanly.

"Heh." Blue Kenpachi spoke up a bit with a smirk. "So that's what its mane is, huh?" And just like that, he turned into dust like the others and cracked in his pill form.

Ichigo quickly reverted back to Nozarashi's sealed form and looked toward Rangiku. She was still staring at him, mouth completely agape, and he chuckled at her for a bit. When he stopped, he made his way over to her and planted a passionate kiss onto her lips, breaking her of her trance.

When they parted, Ichigo smiled to her and she smiled back. "So, what were you going to tell me before we were so rudely interrupted, Rangiku?" He asked her.

Rangiku looked away for a moment before turning back to him and sighing. "Kageroza announced to the Seireitei that you were dead, Ichigo." She said to him with a tear in her eye.

He tilted her head up and wiped said tear away. "I'm right here." He said to her. "I'm not going anywhere, and besides, I still have to take my girls out to dinner after all of this is done."

Rangiku smiled at him and kissed those lips of his once more. He returned it and wrapped his arms around her waist. When they parted, Rangiku smiled to him. "The girls are gonna be so happy to see after all this time."

Ichigo raised a brow. "What do you mean?"

Rangiku sighed and looked into his eyes once again. "Ichigo, when Kageroza announced your death, that was two weeks ago."

Ichigo looked at her with confusion on his face and his mouth agape this time. "Huh?"

Yep, Nozarashi was Yachiru, at least in this story. (I honestly have no clue what's what with Kenpachi's zanpakuto. All I know is its name and look. I made up the release, but if he actually has one and someone knows, please tell me.)

Never mind. Thanks for telling me guys.

Anyway, what did ya'll think of this?

I'm wondering which zanpakuto I should have Ichigo absorb into his soul next. Which do ya'll think out of these options I'm thinking of right now:

Sode no Shirayuki

Zabimaru

Suzumebachi

Benihime

or Kazeshini

Leave your response and I'll see what I can do, or if you have a suggestion, then feel free to share it with me.

Hope you guys and gals enjoyed this chapter and will continue to enjoy this story, ya'll stay awesome out there, and as always,

PEACE!