Chapter 13 – Shattered Ice (note: this starts immediately after the two groups' separated)
'Ha ha ha, a ha ha, stop running, I only want to kill you,' shouted Kenpachi running after Rangiku, Toshiro, Byakuya and Renji. They ran off towards the other gate as fast as they could when they separated into the two groups, but however they run they just couldn't shake Kenpachi.
'Dammit, that Kenpachi, he's really annoying me now,' said Renji angrily. They kept running but also made sure that they could always able to see the wall of seireitei. Renji caught up to Byakuya, 'Captain, wouldn't it be easier to take him out then run away from him?'
'No, we mustn't waste our energy, it would take all of us together to take down Kenpachi and even then it might be a tough fight seeing as we can't kill him. We need to save our energy for the gate keeper. If there is one that is.' Renji sighed and kept running.
'Ha ha ha, what's the matter, too scared to fight me? Awww, poor you,' shouted Kenpachi still closely pursuing them.
'I think we should split up and hide our spiritual pressure. I know that Kenpachi's never good at tracking spiritual pressure so maybe we can get away from him that way,' said Hitsugaya looking frustrated at not being able to fight.
'That's a good idea Captain,' said Rangiku optimistically.
'Running away in separate directions and hiding our spiritual pressure to confuse him? Not my type of strategy I'd prefer to face him head on, but I guess it doesn't look like we have much of a choice. Captain Kuchiki, what do you think?' asked Renji thoughtfully. He slowed his running down a bit waiting for Byakuya to respond.
'Fine, we don't have a choice; I guess we'll have to do it this way. We'll meet at the gate.' They came up to a large hill, 'Renji, you and I will go to the right.'
'Matsumoto, we'll go left,' commanded Toshiro. 'Let's go.'
Byakuya and Renji flash stepped to the right of the hill and Toshiro and Rangiku flash stepped off to the left. Kenpachi arrived at the hill tilted his head and looked confused.
'Where the hell did they go? I can't even sense anyone's spiritual pressure.' He looked both ways, 'Hmph, so you wanna play tag eh? Well then so be it, I always enjoy a good game,' he thought as he licked his lips and he flash stepped off to the left of the hill.
Byakuya and Renji ran for a few minutes then stopped and looked back, 'Looks like he's not after us, I can't sense his spiritual pressure at all. Guess captain Hitsugaya's plan worked; well at least it got Kenpachi off our back.'
Byakuya didn't look happy or annoyed though. 'Whatever, let's just keep moving. We need to make it to the gate by tomorrow. We'll worry about Kenpachi if he finds us, which probably won't happen.' They just walked on from then. The gentle wind guiding their way. They flash stepped off into the distance and disappeared from site, arriving on a hill a few hundred metres in front of the gate waiting for Rangiku and Rangiku to show up.
Hitsugaya and Matsumoto kept running passing trees and grass fields as they went.
'Did we lose him?' asked Toshiro
'Doesn't look like it, I can still sense his spiritual pressure close by,' replied Rangiku.
'Damn that bastard, he doesn't know when to give up.' They raced through what looked like the countryside of seireitei, passing many villages on their way. Houses were burnt down and loads of hollows could be seen running around destroying whatever they could find.
'Such destruction, this is unforgivable,' said Rangiku looking at the crumbled houses and burning buildings. The hollows didn't take notice that two soul reapers were running around, but then again they were hiding their spiritual pressure so the hollows probably couldn't sense their presence.
'When we get rid of Hisaigo this'll all be over and everything will return to normal. This will all just seem like a bad nightmare,' assured Toshiro. They kept running for what seemed like hours until they finally came to a halt when the greenery ended. They stopped at the edge of a large patch of barren wasteland. It was all empty except for a large wall that blocked their way.
'What is this?' asked Rangiku
'I think this is the first layer of the seiretei wall. We've gone too far, we must've passed the gate about an hour ago. Just great, now we've got to go back.' Toshiro sounded annoyed. He looked back, 'Dammit, I don't know which way's which.'
'Wow, even the captain doesn't know where to go. Guess I don't have to either then,' Rangiku said happily.
'Grrr….' Toshiro glared at her, Rangiku back off a bit with a slight worried look on her face as she smiled nervously.
'Let's just walk one way and if we don't get there within a few hours we'll turn aground. OK?' Toshiro frowned at Rangiku asking her in a vicious way.
'Sure, whatever you say captain,' she answered nervously.
They turned to their left and started running again along the wall. An hour of running passed and all they saw was nothing but the massive white wall and barren land.
'Dammit, where is that blasted gate,' Toshiro's getting really annoyed now.
'Shall we try going the other way then, captain?'
'Geez, guess we'll have to.' They turned round and walked slowly for a bit. 'This is rather boring, can't something interesting happen?'
As if to grant him that request, a maniacal laugh came out of nowhere, they turned around and saw a spiky haired lunatic laughing his head off with a yellow spiritual pressure surrounding him, he was charging at them with an incredible speed.
'Ah ha ha ha, AH HA HA HA, I'VE FOUND YOU,' Kenpachi screamed pointing his sword at them.
'Crap, I thought we'd lost him,' Toshiro said. They jumped out of the way as Kenpachi stampeded towards them. He crashed into the gate because he was unable to stop and made a large dent in the seireitei wall.
'That's some insane strength he has,' thought Toshiro landing with Rangiku opposite Kenpachi.
'Argh dammit, we don't have time for this,' Toshiro turned around and was about to go the other way when Kenpachi flash stepped in front of him blocking the way.
'Don't have time for me? Well too bad,' Kenpachi sliced downwards aiming for Toshiro's head. Rangiku jumped in and blocked the attack. 'Two on one? I like those odds.' He had a massive grin on his face.
'Growl, Haineko,' Rangiku said, the blade disintegrated and the cloud of ash charged straight for Kenpachi. Kenpachi made no attempt to dodge and was blasted off his feet by Haineko and smashed into the ground a few metres away. The dust cloud returned to the form of a sword in Rangiku's hands.
'Ha, that showed him,' she said triumphantly.
She was about to sheath her sword, until Toshiro put a hand across her and said, 'Don't celebrate too early; Kenpachi doesn't go down that easily. If we started the fight we'll have to finish it, properly,' sighed Toshiro drawing his sword.
There was a laugh, Rangiku and Toshiro turned round to see that Kenpachi has already gotten back up. He smirked, 'Was that it?' he said wiping some blood from a wound on his chest. 'I doubt this'll even be enough just to keep me awake.' He slowly walked towards them, 'Now that you've had your attack, it's MY TURN,' he charged at them, also taking off his eye patch, 'time to go all out, ha ha ha ha.' Toshiro flash stepped in front of him and stabbed at Kenpachi, who flash stepped with a perfectly timed dodge, appeared behind Rangiku and attacked her from behind her. She instinctively turned round and blocked, but the shear force of his strength with all his spiritual pressure behind the attack was too much for Rangiku to handle and she was thrown back into the wall. The impact made a small dent in the wall and made a sickening crunching noise. She slid downwards landing facedown on the ground with blood dripping from her mouth. 'Well, that was easy,' said Kenpachi smiling to himself.
'Matsumoto,' shouted Toshiro flash stepping next to her, he felt her pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when he found that she was still alive. 'Damn you Kenpachi. To tell you the truth I always knew you'd be the one to kill everyone whether you're controlled or not. You are truly a demon. And you know what, I'm going to slay the demon and do everyone a favour.' He stood up, blue spiritual pressure glowed around him and he walked towards Kenpachi. 'You will feel the pain of death. Reign over the frosted frozen sky, Hyorinmaru,' he shouted. The ice dragon head shot out of his sword and went for Kenpachi.
'Hmph, and that was that meant to be?' Kenpachi didn't even look at the dragon he just raised his sword and stabbed straight through the dragon without taking any damage. He rushed towards Toshiro with the same stabbing attack. Toshiro flash stepped to the side and again attacked with his dragon. This time Kenpachi was hit by surprise and the dragon lifted him off his feet and froze him in mid air. Toshiro smirked but it was too early to celebrate as the ice broke and Kenpachi came out still looking unharmed. 'Now that was a nice cool feeling.' He shot like a cannon downwards, Hyorinmaru came at him again but he easily sliced through it and went for Toshiro. Toshiro blocked, both captains' spiritual pressures collided and exploded blasting the ground to pieces within a ten metre radius around them.
Toshiro was at the bottom trying to hold his defense until Kenpachi let go. The ground collapsed beneath him and he was forced to flash step back a few metres. Kenpachi instantly flash stepped behind him and attacked taking Toshiro by surprise and just enough to cut his arm a bit. Blood splashed to the floor next to him from the cut in his arm.
Kenpachi stood there for a moment, 'Looks like the fun's about to begin,' he launched himself at Toshiro and went into a barrage of attacks. Toshiro could just barely block them all. Toshiro flipped backwards to give himself some space but Kenpachi didn't let up and flew after him slicing and hacking with amazing speed. Kenpachi still laughing his head off didn't appear to tire; Toshiro couldn't get enough space or time between them to unleash his bankai. Kenpachi stopped attacking for a second and jumped up high into the sky coming back down about ten times faster smashing into the ground beneath him causing a small earthquake and crumbling the ground.
'Oh no, Matsumoto,' thought Toshiro looking back at Rangiku's limp body still lying there about to fall into the ground. He quickly flash stepped next to her picked her up, flash stepped away, and laid her on the ground. He stood back up, walked forwards and almost immediately had to flash step up because a crazy Kenpachi came slamming down his sword. Kenpachi followed Toshiro into the sky and attacked once more. Toshiro blocked again but for some reason Kenpachi's attack seemed far more powerful than before and Toshiro was knocked back a fair distance.
'What the? How did your strength go up?' asked Toshiro trying to stall for time to catch his breath.
'Ha ha, what's the matter? Can't handle my power? Well I don't like to keep secrets so I'll tell you what made me this strong.' Kenpachi pointed to the mark on his forehead. 'You see, this is the mark of Hisaigo, it gives all his followers more power, now let me show you how it works.' He screamed out a battle cry, the mark on his forehead glowed a bright white, Kenpachi's spiritual pressure immediately shot off the scale. His speed was massively increased and he attacked Toshiro with an all out attack, Toshiro didn't have time to dodge so he took it head on. They were in a weapon deadlock and for a moment it looked like Toshiro was pushing Kenpachi back. 'Ha ha, don't think so,' he screamed once more.
'Oh crap,' thought Toshiro as he felt Kenpachi's spiritual pressure shoot up once more. Kenpachi's yellow spiritual pressure glowed around him and he pushed Toshiro back, he used all his strength and broke the deadlock. Toshiro was wide open hanging in mid-air. Kenpachi charged slashed once more, Toshiro blocked but had no power behind it because he was in mid-air and was blasted back into the ground. He hit the ground with an impact of a meteor the ground shock and cracked beneath him a dust cloud arose and covered the grounds. Kenpachi landed in front of where Toshiro landed and waited for the dust to clear. The dust slowly blew out of the way and a huge crater came into view, Toshiro lay in the middle on the crater covered in blood and unconscious.
'Hmph, that was too easy.' Kenpachi walked up beside him, 'Time to end this and put you out of your misery.' He swung his sword upwards and sliced down going for the kill, a fraction of a second later he was blocked by an unknown blade.
'Sorry Kenpachi, you won't be doing any killing today,' said Renji, holding back Kenpachi's attack.
Kenpachi looked surprised for a second but then smiled. 'Ha, don't get in my way,' shouted Kenpachi raising his sword once more and slashing down. A big crash sounded when Kenpachi came in contact with the ground. Renji had quickly and quietly flash stepped, grabbing Toshiro with him, he appeared once again by Byakuya who just came into view standing next to Rangiku's body.
'Hmph, if I'd've known they were this weak it would've been better to stay together. Guess the past is the past,' said Byakuya who faced Kenpachi. 'Renji, get both of them to safety, I'll handle this.' Renji obeyed and flash stepped away carrying both Rangiku and Toshiro on his shoulders.
Kenpachi smirked, 'You'll handle this? That's some big words; now let's see if you can back them up.' Kenpachi charged but stopped almost immediately, because Byakuya had disappeared.
Byakuya appeared instantly above him, 'Scatter, Senbonzakura,' the blade pieces cut through Kenpachi as if he was made of foam. Blood splattered on the floor as Kanpachi dropped to his feet. 'I think I can beat you because you have just used up all your strength fighting Toshiro, you don't have enough strength left to fight me. Give it up, you don't stand a chance.'
Kenpachi was panting hard facing the ground, 'DAMMIT, I WON'T LOSE TO YOU,' he shouted using the power of the mark, his spiritual pressure went up a bit more, but all power has a limit, and he couldn't rise up more.
'It's futile,' Byakuya held his sword upside down (in his bankai position) dropped his sword, 'Bankai,' the large blades rose out of the earth and split into one thousand pieces. 'Senbonzakura Kageyoshi.' The thousands of blades drifting with the wind, he raised his hand, 'and now you will die.' The blades all gathered together into a ball shape and darted at Kenpachi who for some reason couldn't move, 'I guess you used too much of your power. Oh well,' Byakuya turned around just when the huge mass of blades smashed into Kenpachi. The blades flew back to Byakuya and disappeared. Kenpachi was on the ground, a pool of blood underneath him, is he dead, or is he still alive? Byakuya didn't care; he walked away, his haori fluttered with the breeze.
A minute later Renji was checking out Toshiro and Rangiku's wounds when Byakuya suddenly appeared.
'How are they?' asked Byakuya trying to sound like he cared.
'They'll be okay, their lives aren't in danger. We just need to get them to Ratiasu and they'll be fine,' replied Renji his voice was full of confidence.
'Well, that's good I guess.' Byakuya stood up and looked around, they were near the front of the gate but no one was around, 'hmm, looks like there's no one here, the two guards must be guarding the other door. Looks like we've had our fight for the day. How long is it until we're supposed to be here?'
'Right now actually, so the others should be fighting at the moment over on the other gate.'
'Guess we'll wait.' Byakuya walked up to the gate and stared at it, and then he walked back to Renji and stood there, waiting patiently.
--
Meanwhile on the other side, Haruka and the rest only just arrived at the gate. The stopped in front of the gate and stopped as they were confronted by two vice-captains.
'Intruders I see,' said one of them.
'They shall die, in the name of Hisaigo,' said the other.
'Oh dear, looks like we have company,' said Haruka sounding amused.
'And just after we've faced a load of menos as well. Well guess it can't be helped,' said Hikari drawing her sword.
'Aww, I really didn't want anymore bloodshed. But I guess this is unavoidable,' said Ratiasu though not sounding very convincing.
'Let's get this over with,' shouted Rukia.
Everyone drew their swords and readied themselves for the fight. No one moved, until a chilly breeze blew (before you ask, no, there isn't a ball of hay blowing across).
Hikari was the first one to break the silence. 'Sorry about this, my friend. But you're in my way,' she shouted. She held her sword high and screamed, 'BANKAI.'
(note: the identity of the two vice-captains will be revealed in the next chapter, so keep reading)
Sorry for the wait, hope everyone had a good easter, mine wasn't too bad. Next chp next Wednesday, well it should be up at that time anyway