Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
Toyoma Hatori stood, his challenger helpless in front of him, and strove not to think about the situation in general. The man's blood ran dark into the dirt, his mouth drawn in a grimace of pain as the ropes constricted, but Hatori could see nothing else but the face of Aizen in the audience, looking down on the battle with mild interest.
Oh God. How much did Aizen know? He'd botched it up; he'd been trying to avoid this, but shit, the girl was just over there with the Shiba woman - oh yes, he'd know that insignia anywhere - and now this man, and there would be questions. Questions about the girl - Iba would have to be neutralized; he'd seen her in Sereitei before the other ryoka - questions about the man - Yoruichi had obviously fabricated this captaincy claim out of thin air - questions about the Shiba - what the hell did she have to do with this, anyway? Keiteki no Usagi shook in his hand; he cast about desperately for a distraction.
He did not want to kill the man, the Kenpachi. He had to keep him alive; as long as the fight went on, he would have time to think, to plan, to escape... He could let the Kenpachi kill him. The thought flashed through Hatori's mind and was immediately quashed by both his own thoughts and those of Keiteki no Usagi.
We run, The horned rabbit said softly, quickly, through his mind, but we do not surrender. We retreat, we bargain, we are sly and cunning, we use trickery and wit to get out of these situations. We fight if we have to. We do not lay down and die.
Hatori shook himself. He had to stall.
"Keiteki no Usagi is a kidou-based zanpakutou," he found himself saying. "When released, it focuses my reiatsu through the blades, and channels it to where I want it to go."
He had less than five minutes to come up with a plan before he ran out of things to say. Another part of his mind began to pray silently.
In the crowd, Kuukaku watched as Toyoma just stood there and began to explain his sword's function. What the hell was he playing at? She turned to say so to Yoruichi, but found the spot beside her was empty: a swift look around the crowd revealed the woman's purple head bent together with a scarred, bald one attached to a very old-looking man with a captain's robe. Yamamoto-soutaicho. Kuukaku decided not to barge in, instead beginning to look around for her other companion.
Yachiru had leapt off her shoulder and was drawing in the dust at her feet. Kuukaku peered at the image, but couldn't see what it was, exactly: Yachiru was working furiously, but blasts of reiatsu from Toyoma and Zaraki kept smudging the picture before she could finish it.
Kuukaku looked back at Zaraki. The man was still in the dirt, still bleeding, still grimacing...or wait. Kuukaku looked closer; the Kenpachi was doing something.
"When commanded, Keiteki no Usagi creates ropes of dense reiatsu to contain the victim; it is essentially an advanced binding spell, but with a twist. Each of Keiteki no Usagi's ropes is barbed with small thorns; instead of just containing an enemy, it is offensive as well."
Zaraki looked up as Toyoma finished. He noted the glint in the man's eye, the white knuckles of his sword hand, the way he was not looking at Zaraki, but at a point above his head. Someone in the crowd, no doubt. Interesting.
"Are ya done?" Zaraki asked, and flexed his reiatsu, as he'd been doing for the past few minutes. Once again, the ropes were forced a few centimetres off his skin, once again the thorns withdrew from his flesh before slamming back into place as Zaraki finished pushing.
"I - yes, I -" Toyoma looked caught off-guard, preoccupied. Dangerously so.
"Good," Zaraki said. "Cause I don't like fighting a man that doesn't pay me full attention."
"Fighting? You're hardly in a position to -"
"This ain't ever been about me," Zaraki interrupted, slowly beginning to stand, encumbered by the kidou as he was. "And it wasn't even all about the kid, either. Something else is botherin' ya, Hatori. You're bein' hunted."
"It's not -"
"Shutup when I'm talkin', Hatori," Zaraki finished standing, and began to flex his reiatsu again, bit by bit, degree by degree. "Someone's chasin' ya, or got ya backed into a corner, by the looks of it." His gruff, commanding voice was almost quiet for a moment, and he bent over, almost conspiratorially. "Look, I've been there, done that. Courtesy of you, in fact. I know what it's like..." He bent even closer. "But you know what makes me different from you?"
Hatori stared, openmouthed, at the man before him, and shook his head slightly, dazedly.
"I FOUGHT BACK!" Zaraki roared, and let his reiatsu loose.
Time seemed to stand still. A rent opened in the sky as a column of pure energy enveloped Zaraki, rooting itself in the earth and extending until it seemed to link the earth and the heavens. The blue ropes dissolved and blew away; Toyoma was thrown back, and Kuukaku had to catch Yachiru by the wrist to keep the girl from being tossed down the street by the blast. Shinigami shunpo'd out of the alleyway, ears popping and hearts skipping; others not so self-possessed lay unconscious.
Zaraki himself threw back his head and howled in laughter, pure energy singing through his veins. So this was power! He'd always known he was selling himself short...he made the hole in his mind and called the lightning down to fill it, marvelling at how easy it was. It felt good. It felt right. Yes, this was how it was supposed to be!
Teeth bared in a smile to shame the devil, Zaraki fixed his eyes on Toyoma and, once again, barked his challenge.
"Hatori, come fight me!"
Toyoma, who had landed on his feet, drew in a ragged breath. He knew, then, that even if he performed bankai, he would not win. The man standing in front of him was too powerful. Keiteki no Usagi shouted in his mind, but Toyoma knew in his heart that he could not win the fight; if he did indeed triumph over Zaraki, he would still ultimately lose to Aizen. He'd never thought it would end this way; it was almost laughable. No captain in living history had had to defend their title against a challenger; Toyoma thought bitterly; he'd always imagined dying by a knife in the back, or a kidou poison from a kind hand. Such was his life. Perhaps he didn't even deserve to die honourably like this, but Toyoma was thankful for small graces. Perhaps in his next life, he would meet his son.
And so Toyoma Hatori straightened up, ignoring his zanpakutou's furious words, and brought Keiteki no Usagi into an attack stance, raising his eyes to meet Zaraki's in a steady gaze.
There were three heartbeats.
One, and Keiteki no Usagi screamed against Zaraki's nameless blade.
Two, and Kuukaku was forced to her knees, ears and nose bleeding from the reiatsu pressure.
Three, and Toyoma Hatori's body fell to the ground, his head landing with an audible thump, several seconds later. Keiteki no Usagi, sheared in two, lay by his side.
There was a long breath, and time resumed its normal pace as reiatsu bled away.
Shinigami began to stand up again, leaning on each other for support, still silent. Kuukaku swallowed the scream that she had been choking back and wiped the blood off her face as best she could with the back of her hand. Standing up took effort, but Kuukaku managed to do it without grimacing, and looked up. Zaraki was straightening up, the cloak of the eleventh division captain slung over his shoulder, with Yachiru at his feet.
They stood like that for a moment, the girl stood looking up at her guardian, who regarded her solemnly, as if the insane laughter of battle had not just been written all over his face.
"Ken-chan?" Her voice was very soft, and Kuukaku felt almost as if she shouldn't be listening in, but the street was deathly silent, and the quiet tones carried.
"I'm okay, Yachiru." Zaraki knelt in front of the pink-haired child until they were face to face.
"It was a good fight, Ken-chan."
The man nodded. "Yeah. It was." He then scooped the girl up in one hand, deposited her on his shoulder, and stood again.
There was a muttering among the shinigami as Zaraki began to walk away from the body of the defeated captain and towards Kuukaku. She stood, feeling a bit lost, because neither of them knew what happened after this. They hadn't planned that far... but then, she thought wryly, she hadn't planned to get so involved with a wandering stranger. One thing she did know, however; his reiatsu, though slightly lessened after Toyoma's death, was still at an intense level of pressure: this became more apparent the closer he came.
He'd nearly reached her, and Kuukaku suddenly was struck by how the other shinigami must see this. The warrior, after defeating the foe, goes back to claim the girl. Ohhhh hell no. Luckily, Zaraki had shown not a scrap of romantic nature up to this point, and Kuukaku leaned heavily on this assumption as he came to stand in front of her.
Her breath hitching as she tried not to choke on reiatsu pressure, Kuukaku looked up at the Kenpachi and squinted. "You planning on controlling your reiatsu any time this century?" She barked, probably a bit more harshly than she should have, but a headache was beginning to pound fiercely at her temples.
Zaraki, predictably, turned his head. "Che." Then, less predictably, he continued. "I don't think I can."
A/N: Before you all ask, no, Toyoma didn't get a chance to use bankai. Part of that was due to his acceptance of his own death (and I hope I orchestrated his thoughts so that it didn't come out of the blue), and part of it will be explained in the next chapter.