In a small cave under the Sokyoku Hill, Ichigo lay in a futon, passed out and slowly waking up
He opened his eyes a crack and thought to himself "Where am I?...I'm still alive?"
"Looks like you're awake" A familiar voice rang out, clearly close to him
Yoruichi sat next to him, in cat form, her black fur bristling slightly as she moved
"Yoruichi-san… It's a good thing you're still ok" Ichigo said, sounding relieved
"Hmph, better than you're doing"
"Ahh did you rescue me? Thanks for that"
"You should thank your own stubbornness, which was probably the only thing that kept your injuries from killing you"
"Injuries?...Well I did get hit quite a few…."
Ichigo trailed off and realized something important
He sat up abruptly and the wound on his chest began to bleed again
"You Idiot!" Yoruichi exclaimed "You can't sit up just yet, don't you know just how bad your injuries are!"
"But Chad's in danger… I need to go save him"
Yoruichi sprang up and pushed him back to the ground
"Calm down, Chad is fine, so are Orihime and Uryuu"
"Eh?"
"The captain Chad was fighting isn't a bad guy, so even though he was injured, he was transferred to the fourth division for healing, and Orihime and Uryuu have done fine, they haven't gotten into many fights and are both hardly injured... So you just stay there and rest, someone half dead won't be able to help anyone at all"
Ichigo nodded as he recalled his encounter with the fourth division captain and lieutenant knowing that Chad would be fine, and was about to ask where Moll was, seeing as the last he had seen of her, she was with Yoruichi, when Yoruichi spoke up again
"Also, half of this thing you were carrying got smashed, it's was pretty lucky cause if it hadn't I would have been looking at two of you now"
She pushed the mask Ichigo had been wearing when he emerged from the Shattered Shaft towards him,
Ichigo reacted with surprise
"Yoruichi-san…I smashed this and left it under Urahara's store, I don't have any clue how it got back to me"
Yoruichi's eyes widened in shock but Ichigo didn't seem to notice
"Oh well" he said as he moved to grab it
"Wait… I'll hold on to it"
"Whatever"
Ichigo moved his arm back from the broken mask and stared at the ceiling
"You know, you're pretty amazing Yoruichi-san"
"Eh?"
"Running around the whole time without even getting hurt, and then carrying me here with such a small body"
"Oh, well there's really no problem once I return to my original form"
"Ahh I see…you original for…"
Ichigo looked shocked
"Original Form!"
"Come to think if it, I've only shown Layne and Moll so far"
She did a cat smirk,
"Oh well, I suppose there's really no point in keeping it hidden anymore, you're going to find out anyway"
And with that she morphed into her human form, minus her clothes
Ichigo turned the exact colour of a strawberry, but she didn't seem to notice
"You look surprised Ichigo, though I don't really blame you, probably thought I was a man from the way my cat voice sounds, Anyway I should explain how I carried you here-"
"PUT ON SOME FREAKIN' CLOTHES!" Ichigo shouted
"Ahh sorry, sorry" she began dressing "Anyway I used this thing" she held up a white thing that looked like a claw on a stick and gave it to him
"…What does it do?"
"You put your reiatsu into it and you can fly, it's pretty unique, so you should feel honoured to have it"
"…"
"I said feel honoured, not be silent"
"…You can shape shift, you can cure wounds, and you have something rare like this…Yoruichi-san, just who are you?"
Yoruichi hesitated for a second before opening her mouth to explain but a crushing reiatsu filled the room before Yoruichi could answer
Ichigo instantly knew that it was Byakuya, remembering from their encounter in Karakura town
"That's coming from the direction of the Senzaikyuu" Yoruichi exclaimed as Ichigo got up and rushed past her, still holding the flying stick thing and ignoring his chest wound starting to bleed again
"Oi, where do you think you're going Ichigo!" she shouted at him
"Layne was going to the Senzaikyuu! If I don't go he's going to get hurt!" Ichigo shouted back "FLY!"
The stick he was holding reacted to his reiatsu and turned into a giant wing, and Ichigo flew off into the distance
"I felt the faint reiatsu heading towards the Senzaikyuu, I knew at once it was someone with at least a Lieutenant's power trying to hide their reiatsu, but I was expecting Ichigo Kurosaki… To only find you here, how disappointing" Byakuya said calmly, surveying the scene
Layne had both his keyblades out and was bleeding a little from a small cut on his left shoulder, Anita was face down on the bridge, completely knocked out and Rukia, sitting back against the rope wall, was doing her best to stand up under the effects of Byakuya's reiatsu
"Sorry to disappoint you" Layne replied easily, mentally cursing the fact he had taken too long beating Anita and given enough time for Byakuya to make his way there
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to let me pass"
Byakuya didn't reply and Layne sighed "I guess this is the way it's going to be, Let's get it done then"
Byakuya disappeared from sight, and blood spurted from a new slice up Layne's left arm
"What the hell?" he shouted, Byakuya had been impossibly fast and Layne had only been able to react at the last second, only causing his arm to get cut, instead of wherever Byakuya had been aiming for
Layne dropped to his knees, gritting his teeth against the pain of the deep wound on his arm
"It was impressive that you were able to blunt my attack, but you should vanish, it isn't worth dirtying my sword on the likes of you" Byakuya said, reappearing behind Layne, sword sheathed
Layne grinned, inwardly he realized he was in a hell of a lot of trouble, but for some reason that he couldn't fathom, he couldn't admit that he was outmatched
"That isn't going to work on me… you're definitely much, much stronger than I am, but I can't quit… I promised Ichigo"
Layne stood up and gripped his keyblades tightly
"At this point you'd need to rip my heart out and slice it into a million pieces before I'll admit defeat" he continued, dropping into a ready stance
"This time, I'm going to block your strike"
"Then I shall just have to make this next blow the last" Byakuya replied, showing no sign that he was irked by the insult
He brought his sword up in front of his face and looked like he was about to whisper to it
Layne frowned, he'd now been around Shinigami long enough to recognize when a Zanpakuto was about to be released, but he had no idea what Byakuya's could possibly do
Rukia screamed "No!, Nii-sama!" but it was too late
"Scatter, Senbonzakura" and his blade seemed to split into numerous pink flower petals which floated around, seemingly aimlessly
"What the hell is this? My Doom of Shitty Pink Flowers?"
Byakuya made no reply, but swung the hilt in Layne's direction and the floating pink flowers became a storm and headed towards Layne
As they flew at him Layne saw them glinting and realized they weren't flowers, but blades
"Shit, me and my big mouth" he said and crossed Oblivion and Oathkeeper in front of him in an attempt to at least block some of them but before the storm reached him a blast of air hit them and they dispersed
"How do you always end up like this Layne?"
Moll landed in the space that the petal blades from Senbonzakura had previously occupied, zanpakuto released
"I was fine, thank you very much"
"Oh really?" Moll said skeptically, eyeing the cuts and bruises he'd received over the last few days, especially the most recent large slice up his left arm
"Really, I was just about to negate his attack and do one of my own"
"Did you see Joel?"
Layne's expression darkened slightly, but he didn't want to lie to Moll
"Yeah… he's joined these guys; he tried to kill me so I kicked his ass"
"Fuck off, I don't believe you"
"What is there not to believe, besides, we can do this later, this guy is currently attempting to fillet me like a crappy fish"
Moll noticed the fallen form of Anita and reacted exactly as Layne had imagined she might
"Whoa, is that that fucking bitch?! What the ever living fuck is she doing here?!"
"Hell if I know"
This wasn't good enough for Moll, who continued to lambast Layne and pester him for details about Joel and Anita, but Byakuya after getting over the minor shock of Moll's appearance, and waiting a couple of seconds for them to finish arguing, decided enough was enough and sent Senbonzakura's blades back at the two
Unfortunately Moll was too busy attempting to verbally annihilate Layne to notice the storm of blades until they hit her, and suddenly she had a multitude of deep cuts all over her, Layne however, a little more used to actual combat had sent a quick Rain at the blades headed in his direction and gotten most of them, but the rest had basically shredded his other arm
"Bastard, don't you know it's polite to wait for your opponents" Layne growled, now pissed off, a little at Moll cause she was stupid enough to chat during a fight, and a lot at Byakuya cause of his Doom of Shitty Pink Flowers
Byakuya said nothing, just brought the hilt of Senbonzakura around to bring the bladestorm down again but was stopped as his arm was grabbed from behind by someone
A captain with long hair as white as snow and a cheerful expression on his face had stopped Byakuya from executing Layne and Moll
"I think that's enough, wouldn't you say? Captain Kuchiki"
"Capt… Captain Ukitake" Rukia whispered
"Oh Kuchiki, Your looking well" he greeted Rukia cheerfully
Layne was surprised by the cheerfulness of this Captain, but he sensed that he could be just as dangerous as Byakuya, if not more so
"What is the meaning of this, Ukitake?" Byakuya asked
"Oi oi, that's my line, releasing your zanpakuto in the center of Seireitei is an offence, even if you are fighting the Ryoka"
"This is a wartime situation, the ban was released"
"War Time? Is this related to the murder of Aizen?
Ichigo's reiatsu overtook them and everyone on the bridge was momentarily stunned
"What is this reiatsu? It's clearly a Captain's level but I can't recognize it… who is he?" Ukitake asked, unfamiliar with Ichigo
"This reiatsu… could it be" Rukia whispered in awe
"It's about fucking time", Layne muttered to himself, slightly relaxing his grip
A white wing shot up from next to the bridge and flew up, Ichigo trailing behind it, he came down and landed right in front of Rukia, who had gotten up to stare at him flying
He ignored Rukia as she said "Ichigo…"
He made his way over to Layne and Moll, lying on the ground
"Sup" greeted Layne, Moll just groaned in pain
"Sorry you came all this way and ended up getting so beaten up" Ichigo said, looking quite upset at their condition
"Don't worry about it" Layne replied neutrally, tearing the sleeve of his shihakusho into strips and binding the slice on his left arm "I think I would of gotten into a fight with this jerk anyway, you say Rukia's his sister?"
"Aye"
Ichigo moved back over to Rukia, who was staring at him wide eyed
"Rukia…I came to save you"
Rukia started tearing up
"What the hell are you making that face for?" Ichigo said, irritated "You're going to be fine, so be happy"
"Idiot" she replied "I told you not to come, I forbade you from coming, and now you and your friends are all hurt"
She dropped her head, so he didn't see the sight of her crying
"If that's it, you can get mad later…after I beat this guy"
"What the hell are you talking about Ichigo" Layne said, having finished his bandaging job on himself and Moll "After we beat this guy"
"Ichigo…" Rukia tried speaking up again
"What the hell? You'd better not be trying to tell us to run away, because I'd never even think about that" Ichigo replied, turning his back to her
"You see all this blood?" Layne spoke up indicating Moll's, and Ichigo's injuries "This is effort, this is the price we paid to get our asses up here, running away now would just waste all that"
"Exactly" Ichigo agreed "So I'm not going to listen to anything you say, so don't bother idiot!"
"Wh..What the hell is that supposed to mean!, Your ignoring the rescues opinions? What the hell kind of rescue attempt is this" Rukia shouted at him
"Shut Up! You're the one being rescued, so you should be in a corner somewhere quivering with fear" Ichigo shouted back
Layne facepalmed
What on earth is that idiot on about?
"Idiot" Rukia said, calming down "You never listen to anything I say"
"And you need to stop with all the nagging" Ichigo replied, turning slightly "Don't worry, cause I won't die just yet, I've gotten better since you've been in this hole"
"Can we get this over with?" Layne spoke up, "Last time we spoke for too long Moll got messed up"
"Whatever, let's do this Layne"
Ichigo and Layne took a few steps closer to Byakuya and Ukitake
"Look at you standing there, you didn't even step closer while we were talking for all that time" Ichigo said cockily
"Why would I…need to sneak up on the likes of you" Byakuya replied "Don't overestimate yourself"
And Byakuya let his reiatsu loose, filling the air and placing a crushing weight that pushed Rukia to her knees, and caused Moll to start coughing
Ichigo unsheathed Zangetsu and Layne tightened one of his cloth bandages and cracked his neck
"That all you got?" He asked lazily, seemingly more powerful after the small beating he had taken than before
"Let's finish this, Byakuya Kuchiki" Ichigo said, grinning
"I do not have the time to waste with gnats like you two"
He brought his sword up in front of his face, which Layne recognized as preparation for his Shikai
Shit, not this again
Layne readied Oathkeeper, hoping to disperse the blades enough to get a clear shot and attack while he was busy
"Scatter" Byakuya began, but before he could finish a white ribbon snaked out and enveloped the blade
Yoruichi appeared, holding the ribbon's end, and instantly apparent and the one who had wrapped it around Byakuya's blade so fast it appeared to be done all at once
"Ex-captain of the Stealth Forces, Yoruichi Shihoin" Byakuya, said, identifying her as he recovered from his shock nearly instantly
"Yo, Yoruichi" Layne greeted "Nice of you to join the party"
"Yoruichi-san…If you came to save me, thanks but, please move aside, because I need to defeat this guy" Ichigo said solemnly
"Defeat him? By Yourself?" she scoffed and then disappeared from sight
Layne frowned as she disappeared from Ichigo's sight, more used to his flashstep and better able to track her, but she wasn't heading for Byakuya or Ukitake, she was heading for Ichigo
She reappeared with her hand in Ichigo's stomach wound
"What…" He managed to say before he passed out and she picked him up and held him over her shoulder
"OI!" Layne shouted, his feelings of betrayal clear in his emotional outburst "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING YORUICHI?!"
He made a wild slash at her with Oblivion which she dodged easily, and while he was spinning around for a second attack he got clobbered from behind by a silver keyblade and went down
"Retard" Moll said, putting her keyblade over her shoulder as she stepped over his fallen form "How could you doubt that she's on our side?"
Yoruichi jumped back and picked Layne up and slung him over her other shoulder
"Get going Yoruichi" Moll said "You won't be able to outrun this douche with those two dead weights, so I'll hang here and keep em busy"
Yoruichi nodded and smiled apologetically at Moll before flashstepping to the roof of a nearby building
"Three Days, Little Byakuya, in three days I'll make them both stronger than you" and with that she flashstepped off, disappearing from both sight and reiatsu sense
Byakuya sheathed his sword, turned around and walked off, leaving a very confused Moll, Rukia and Ukitake
"What the…?" Moll asked, beginning to sway a little as her resolve left her
"Well I guess he always does whatever he wants anyway" Ukitake muttered, shaking his head in confusion
"Bah, and to think I got beaten cause I was too busy being stupid" Moll berated herself, and sat down to try and conserve her energy, throwing dirty looks at the passed out form of Anita
Ukitake approached Moll calmly, clearly not afraid of any potential threat she could possibly pose to him
"Now the question is, what do I do with you?"
"Well as long as you're not going to go after the other three, I'm just going to sit here and slowly bleed out, so if you want to help me, I'm not going to say no" She replied, grunting a little from the pain of her wounds
Ukitake chuckled
"I think I might just have to, even if your attempt failed you are trying to save a member of my division and I can't just let that go"
In the cave under the Sokyoku Hill, Layne was ticked off, and with good reason
"Why?" Layne asked Yoruichi, recovering faster from the clonk on his head, that Ichigo would from whatever drug she had used to incapacitate him "Why us? Moll was down and Rukia was who we came to save, we had the best chance of winning"
"Don't overestimate yourself, you and Ichigo would have both died"
"How can you be sure of that?!"
"Easily… you know the man you encountered that Ichigo stopped to fight, that was a Captain… Kenpachi Zaraki, he nearly killed Ichigo… there are twelve more Captains like him throughout the Seireitei, and you would have to defeat each and every one of them… including the two there on the bridge with you, you couldn't even touch Byakuya, don't even try to pretend that you wouldn't have died on that bridge with nothing to show for it"
"Better me than Moll and possibly Rukia" Layne said defiantly
"It was impossible for me to outrun Byakuya while carrying two of you, so people had to stay behind"
"Why couldn't the people staying behind be Ichigo and Me then?"
"Because… Rukia had no power to come save the two of you, and Moll will never be able to surpass a captain and achieve Bankai"
"Bankai?"
"I'll explain when Ichigo wakes up"
"But Moll will be killed!"
"If she was going to be killed, she'd be dead by now, you're better than that Layne, you know just as well as I do that she's still alive"
Layne shut his mouth, but fumed silently
Once Ichigo had woken up and raged at Yoruichi, then calmed down, they got started
Yoruichi sent Layne off to do his own training while she worked with Ichigo
"Before we being Ichigo, have you noticed that Zangetsu is always released?"
"It is? Well I noticed that it's a lot bigger and shaped differently to other zanpakuto, and it doesn't change shape when I call it's name, like Layne's does"
"Heh, so you didn't know after all, well, then I bet you also don't know that there is a second level of release for Zangetsu"
"What?"
"Not just Zangetsu, but Layne's Roxas, Moll's Sora and all other zanpakuto have two levels, the first is called Shikai, and the second is called Bankai"
"Bankai" Ichigo repeated
"You need to be able to do both releases to be a captain, so pretty much all the Captain's can do Bankai, except for one… Zaraki Kenpachi
Ichigo shuddered at the memory of his fight with Kenpachi; the man's strength had seemed unnatural
"The power of Bankai is dependent on the user's strength and training, but generally, it increases your power level anywhere between five to ten times"
"Holy shit"
"Pretty crazy isn't it, unfortunately from Shikai to Bankai, even the strongest people need ten years to master it"
"Oi oi, I only have-"
"I know, I'm going to use a different method for you and Layne, and you'll both learn the Bankai in the three days we have left"
Ichigo nodded, and unsheathed his zanpakuto
"What are we waiting for then?"
The next day both Ichigo and Layne were immersed in Bankai training, Yoruichi had brought two dolls to materialize the Zanpakuto spirits and so Layne had materialized Roxas in short order and begun his training
In stark contrast to the field of swords Zangetsu had summoned, there was nothing special around Roxas and Layne, just Roxas holding Oathkeeper, Layne with Oblivion and looking like he'd been savaged by a bear
"You won't be able to get Bankai like that Layne" Roxas taunted, "And I'm beginning to see how you lucked out fighting Joel, It seems that you can only take on the weaklings, like that Anita chick on the bridge"
"Harsh words from the one who my power's come from" Layne shot back
"It just means that you're not using me properly"
"Then teach, me" Layne growled through gritted teeth, starting to rush at Roxas "If I'm nothing without your help teach me so I can become strong"
Roxas flipped over Layne, easily dodging the charge, Layne swung Oblivion behind him and shouted "Let me use your power Roxas, tell me what I'm doing wrong, If it's impossible for me to win, then you should just run me through right now!"
Before Roxas could reply an explosion blew up some of the rocks near the entrance, and Renji and Joel stepped through the billowing smoke
"Jeez, I didn't think that we'd find you here" Joel commented lazily
"Idiot, I told you I felt their reiatsu's" Renji replied
"I must have been ignoring you"
"Bastard"
"Joel" Layne snarled, beginning to move towards them
"Hey now, Layne" Joel gulped "I…i..i didn't mean it" he stammered quickly as Layne walked towards him, looking angry as all hell
Ichigo stopped his training and grinned at the sight, "This could get messy"
He watched as Layne stabbed Oblivion into the ground
Joel literally flew, at least six metres before hitting the ground and rolling to a stop another four metres later, and he lay unmoving, unwilling to get up and make himself the target for another punch like that
"Now that that's over with, what the hell do you two want?" Layne asked "If it's round two, we're fucking busy"
"We don't have much time left, so we need a place to finish our training" Renji said calmly
"What do you mean you don't have time?" Ichigo shouted
"…Rukia's execution date has been changed again, the new time is…Noon tomorrow and they are also executing one of your other friends, for supposedly stealing the powers of a Shinigami"
Layne immediately turned away from Renji and yanked Oblivion out of the ground
"Train out of our way"
Renji nodded and moved off
"It can't possibly be enough time to reach Bankai by then" Yoruichi said in anguish
"Shut up, don't go giving up on your plan so fast, if the execution is at noon tomorrow, then all we have to do is be done by noon tomorrow, right Layne"
A loud explosion was all he received in reply
"You've got some fucking nerve Joel" Layne muttered, staring off the man in front of him, during a break they'd both taken in their training "You fucking tried to kill me"
"So did you… in fairness" Joel replied lightly, choosing his words carefully, but not giving much ground to Layne
"Fuck off, I was just trying to disable you and get you out of my way"
"I was told I nearly died"
"So did I!"
They went back and forth for a bit longer, reminiscent of the old times when arguing about what comic book character would win or which person they didn't like was stupider until Layne cut the crap
"Enough, why would you try to kill me, the first familiar face in this strange place where you were dropped all alone"
"My oath… but I'm sorry, I was wrong"
Joel's sudden admission of fault startled Layne and took the wind out of his sails, Joel was not only fiercely loyal, but incredibly stubborn and getting him to admit that he was wrong was usually like pulling teeth
"There has been a series of murders in the Seireitei, they started just after you showed up, but before I knew it was you…"
"And you just assumed we had something to do with that?"
"No… but did you?"
"You know me better than that Joel" Layne sad sadly
"I did… before we fucking woke up in a different dimension as swordsmen with mystical powers… but the evidence piling up points away from you…"
"Anita Schweitzer is here"
"What?!"
"I fought her at the Senzaikyuu… she claimed her zanpakuto turns Souls into fuel for her abilities, that would explain your murders"
Joel was clearly stunned by the news
"That's…not…how, I'm on the same side as her… am I wrong?"
"Forget about that for now, we have bigger fish to fry" Layne said, standing up to resume his training "Do you think he's evil?"
Layne tilted his head to indicate Renji training in the distance
"No…" Joel said slowly, shaking his head
"Then trust your gut Joel, you ignored it and look what happened, you tried to kill me!"
"You're going to hold that over my head forever"
"Absolutely"