Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
Yoruichi, where the hell are you?
"I'm right here, you ass." Kuukaku hadn't been aware she'd spoken her question out loud until Yoruichi answered, the breeze from her swift arrival still ruffling the fabric of her official uniform.
"Good," Kuukaku replied, "what's the situation?"
Yoruichi gave her a Look. "Well, you've blasted the sekiseki wall, invaded Sereitei, and attacked off-duty shinigami. You didn't wait for me to call Captain Toyoma out at the captains' meeting, you didn't wait for me to sweet-talk Yamamoto into admitting visitors from Rukongai, you didn't even wait for me to find you and brief you on what I've learned of Toyoma's motives so far." Yoruichi's voice was hard, "If you could've waited, we would have been able to - to -" her voice trailed off, and she stared intently past Kuukaku.
Kuukaku, having tuned out Yoruichi's lecture for the most part, noticed and followed Yoruichi's gaze. The Sereitei street was now lined with shinigami who, without orders from their captains, were waiting, watching, and standing at the ready. The few captains assembled seemed content to merely observe: the commander-general was nowhere to be seen, and without his direction, they waited hands on hilts, motionless. The street had been turned into an arena, the crowd silently focussed on the towering figure of Zaraki on one side, and the humble form of Toyoma on the other.
Kuukaku was about to ask Yoruichi what she had learned so far, but shut her mouth as Zaraki took a step forward, unsheathing his sword to hold it loosely at his side, the tip trailing in the dust at his feet.
"Hatori," he spoke, and Toyoma Hatori started at the free use of his given name. "Hatori, if that's your name, are you gonna fight me or what?"
A murmur went through the crowd, and Kuukaku saw the eleventh division captain's hand jerk involuntarily, but otherwise Toyoma stayed motionless, not responding. Looking closer, Kuukaku could see that the man seemed to be battling internally: his face, prematurely lined with worry, was fixed in a grim expression. He looked not so much like a scheming pedophile than a tired man caught in a situation beyond his control, but Kuukaku didn't allow herself to pity him. She reminded herself that this was the man who had sent squads of trained fighters to attack a lone traveller with a child.
"I see no reason to fight you, ryoka," Hatori's voice was quiet, and each word was deliberated. "Why do you call me out in single combat without even introducing yourself? Do you even know who I am?"
"Che," Zaraki spat, and Kuukaku reigned back her indignance at being completely overlooked as her curiosity came to the fore. The man hadn't exactly been wordy the entire time she'd been around him, and she'd been wondering if he was just stoic by nature, or because of some unnamed awkwardness around her, most likely because of his perceived debt to her for her hospitality. She grinned at the thought of Zaraki being a shit-talking fighter.
"I'm Zaraki Kenpachi, and I know enough about you. Yer a captain, and you've got no sense." Zaraki was saying, "Does there have to be a reason to fight? Or are ya scared?"
Interesting, thought Kuukaku. He completely skirted the issue of Yachiru; he won't admit her as his weakness in front of his enemies, though it must be obvious from the way she's clinging to his shoulder. Come to think of it...
"Yachiru," Kuukaku said quietly, "how about you watch the fight from my shoulder? It'll be a better view, I promise."
The girl, who had been completely ignoring the hostility of the situation in favour of making silly faces at Hatori, giggled and leapt down to Kuukaku's shoulder almost immediately. Kuukaku made an effort not to stagger with the sudden change in her balance; Yachiru put her hand up to the woman's ear and whispered loudly, "I think Ken-chan's gonna win this fight. Poor Hatori-san."
"I ain't in the habit of attackin' a man with no will to fight," Zaraki growled, as Toyoma's continued silence stretched on, "but I'll make a special exception fer you. You started it, after all."
A zing of tension was added to the atmosphere, but the whispers of the assembled shinigami were cut off by Toyoma's voice. "I am a Captain of the Gotei 13, and you're just a killer from the eightieth district. What's to stop me from having my squad attack you instead?"
"Che, bastard. You tried that before, and it didn't work. Captain? A coward like you doesn't deserve the title. Now fight me." Reiatsu pressure, which had been slowly rising the entire time, spiked, and the air wavered; breathing suddenly became difficult for many in the crowd.
They were at an impasse, Kuukaku could see. Toyoma showed no inclination to fight Zaraki himself, despite the whispers among the rank and file shinigami, which were getting louder and louder. There was movement beside Kuukaku: Yoruichi strode forward to stand in front of Zaraki in the cleared street. The whispers among the shinigami became babble, and Kuukaku noticed several captains moved from their rooftop positions to the street.
"Yoruichi-sama," Toyoma seemed more resigned than surprised.
"Toyoma-taichou," Yoruichi said, and her voice was oddly formal and pitched to carry, "the man in front of you has challenged your claim to captaincy of the eleventh division." Kuukaku grinned, sudden understanding flashing through her mind. "As such," she carried on, "you can either respond to the challenge and defend your title, or hand the office over to your challenger. The required amount of squad members is present, as well as those from other divisions and their captains."
For an instant, the look that Toyoma gave Yoruichi was pleading, but the grim mask came down on it almost immediately. "Of course, Yoruichi-sama," he said, and his voice was tired. "Then, Zaraki Kenpachi, I accept your challenge, such as it is."
Yoruichi shunpo'd back to Kuukaku's side. Zaraki was grinning viciously; he turned to look down at the two of them. "So if I win this, I take his place here in Sereitei?"
"Yep," Kuukaku smirked back.
"What does a captain do, anyway?"
"Orders people around, mostly," Yoruichi gave him a mischievous smile, "You get to fight hollows in your spare time, though. And there's sake enough to go around here."
"Sounds kinda good. Yachiru, you okay with that?"
"Mmhm!" The girl kicked her legs happily and Kuukaku winced a bit as Yachiru's heels dug into her shoulder a few times.
"Alright then," Zaraki turned back to face Toyoma, still speaking. "Yachiru, watch this."
"O-kay Ken-chan!" Yachiru giggled, and Kuukaku had no time to wonder at the significance of this exchange before Zaraki was bearing down on Toyoma like a juggernaut: their zanpakutous met with a grating clash, the sparks flying.
Kuukaku, remembering her own spar with the Kenpachi, was moderately impressed by how well Toyoma bore up under the pressure of Zaraki's sword before breaking away in order to get space for an attack. Zaraki wouldn't let Toyoma go, however; the captain was forced into a defensive stance as his attacker hacked at him over and again, zanpakutous ringing and screeching with each blow.
Yoruichi leaned over to murmur in Kuukaku's ear. "This is it? I've never seen such a reckless lack of style in a fighter. Perhaps this is enough to beat up the thugs of Rukongai, but Toyoma is a kidou master, and once he goes shikai - or bankai, though it looks as though it won't need to come to that - your friend's going to be in trouble."
There was a muffled shout: a shot of blue hit Zaraki in the left shoulder and he staggered back as Toyoma sprang to the offensive. They met blade to blade, Zaraki smirking, Toyoma intense.
"I believe you may be underestimating him," Kuukaku didn't bother to keep her voice down, as the crowd was animated now: shinigami cheered on their captain, or took bets on who would win, and still others exclaimed over each successive attack. "Strength may be all he has, but it's something to be reckoned with."
"Yes, but will it be enough?" Yoruichi turned back to watch the fighters, and Kuukaku followed her gaze. She was struck once again by the sheer size of the Kenpachi: the eleventh division captain was perhaps just under six feet, not a height to sneeze at in a place where most did not reach over five feet six inches, but he seemed frail and small compared to Zaraki. The man was built like a brick shithouse, Kuukaku thought wryly, and seemed to have the fitting amount of finesse to go with it. But blunt though his style might have been, it was working, and Kuukaku watched Zaraki drive Toyoma back on the defensive: the captain was bleeding from his right side. Zaraki himself looked to be suffering several burns along his left side and the skin on his sword arm was cracked all the way up to the elbow, but he didn't seem to notice. Reiatsu leaped and crackled and the crowd began to quieten as it became necessary to concentrate in order to breathe.
"The trick is to pretend like you're a backwards bubble,"
"What?" Kuukaku started as the voice sounded in her ear; she'd nearly forgotten about Yachiru, who had been watching happily the entire time.
The girl tapped Kuukaku's head several times. "A backwards bubble, Bedsheet-san! It makes it easier to breathe, sometimes, when Ken-chan's fighting. You pretend you're just a bubble in a glass of water, but a bubble of nothing. There's no air inside you so the water doesn't press on you, but you're still full of nothing, so the water can't take you over."
Kuukaku tried to think this through, and decided not to tell Yachiru that it made no sense. If the girl believed it worked, then it worked, at least for her. Kuukaku realized that she had yet to feel Yachiru's reiatsu: not once had the girl given off the slightest suggestion that she even had reiatsu...yet she was hungry and thirsty, and obviously could sense others' reiatsus. Perhaps this child had - in self-preservation - learned to conceal her reiatsu so completely that it was nearly invisible?
"Yay, go Ken-chan!" Yachiru cheered as her guardian sliced off half of Toyoma's left ear and left a ragged wound down the captain's jawbone. Zaraki shunpo'd away as Toyoma clutched at his head, and stood watching impassively.
"Is this all?" He called, and his tone was distinctly unimpressed. "I understood that the captains of Sereitei were strong. Yet all you've managed to do is burn me a coupla times with that kidou crap. This fight ain't as fun as I thought it would be."
Toyoma's only reply was a shout: "Kaku, Keiteki no Usagi!"
His zanpakutou shone, unsealing itself: Keiteki no Usagi was a sword with two blades attached to the same hilt, with two wicked-looking spines extending upwards from the main body of each blade. The overall effect was of a rack of small, jaggedly sharp antlers.
Onlookers drew in a sharp breath; Zaraki looked less than intimidated, half-grinning, he began an amused sentence. "What-"
He was forced to stop before the end of his sentence: Toyoma's reiatsu, dark blue and powerfully heavy, crashed over the crowd like a tidal wave as his energy spiked from the release of his zanpakutou. Kuukaku, caught off-guard, staggered a bit before righting herself: many others in the crowd were forced to the ground, whether having lost their balance completely or simply being unable to bear up under the sudden increase of pressure.
Toyoma Hatori's calm voice was the bright wind which cut through the dense waters. "Ibara no kan."
Light spilled out from Toyoma's twinned blades as he thrust the zanpakutou forwards towards Zaraki: a blue light so dark that it should not have - could not have - the capacity to leave the onlookers temporarily blinded and blinking, but it did nonetheless. Kuukaku threw her arm up in front of her eyes, reflexes trained by constant work with gunpowder to protect the eyes at all costs; it was the main reason that she was one of the first to see the scene which followed.
Toyoma stood, zanpakutou still pointed outwards, his heavy breathing belying his otherwise calm demeanor. Before him, in the dust, knelt Zaraki Kenpachi, bound with crackling ropes of deep blue reiatsu. Kuukaku's eyes widened: Zaraki was grimacing as he bled from more places than she could count, each wound concealed - and obviously caused - by the binding reiatsu.
"Shimeru."
Kuukaku drew her breath in sharply: it was a double-command shikai. For a moment, the Shiba clan-head wondered just what Zaraki had gotten himself into. The sword obeyed its master: the ropes began to constrict, the blood began to flow in earnest, and Yachiru began to search for a crayon.
A/N: Happy New Year to everyone, and I hope you all had a great holidays. My apologies for the lateness of this chapter: I had half of it written and then my 'net crashed and ate it. Thrice. So of course I've spent needless time trying to remember in vain what I'd written, because it was all so perfect beforehand, and Toyoma's been a bitch to write in action. In my head he's a very peaceful man who tries to avoid hurting others, so I seem to have a problem writing him in battle situations.
According to my Extensive and Expert Knowledge of Japanese (read: my online dictionary search skills), I was able to garble the language enough to come out with a name and function for Toyoma's sword. "Keiteki no Usagi" is "Horns of the Rabbit"; his sword spirit is what in some cultures is called a jackalope, the fusion of an antelope and a rabbit. Basically a large hare with horns and extreme speed. "Kaku" means "rake" or "scratch". "Ibara no kan" means "crown of thorns", and "shimeru" is "to constrict". For all Toyoma's nonviolence, he's a captain and incredibly powerful, and I hoped to get that across in this chapter.