Chapter 9
In the past couple days, unknown to most the world of the living, Earth was under a massive hollow attack. Ichigo and his gang, along with his new apprentice Tatsuki were constantly on the move fighting off several hollows of varying skill levels that appeared all over Karakura Town. As soon as one of the beast's spiritual pressure was noticed by Ichigo, Tatsuki, Rukia, Renji, Chad, or Uryu, they would quickly move towards their foe and quickly dispose of them. With openings appearing all over Karakura town, each warrior was hoping that they would be able to finally lay eyes on Orihime's killer, Cedric Ares.
Also, in the two days, Ichigo regularly sparred with Tatsuki to do his best to increase her spiritual pressure and skill with the Zanpakuto as much as he could before Kisuke's portal to the Soul Society was ready. He hadn't trained this rigorously since he was with his Zanpakuto, Zangetsu learning his final attack to defeat Aizen.
As the two sparred rigorously in Urahara's basement training grounds, Ichigo noticed a significant increase in Tatsuki's power and skill. Her dedication to grow stronger was unparalleled, and she was an incredibly quick learner. She communicated well with her Zanpakuto, Simba. It's Shinkai appeared as a large golden yellow boomerang. It wasn't long before Tatsuki learned that she could throw the boomerang and control its movement with her own spirit energy. As the training progressed, Tatsuki also learned that she could hop on her own boomerang and rush towards her opponent, flying on the boomerang and attacking with her martial arts. Ichigo quickly learned that Tatsuki's weakness was when she ran out of spiritual energy. If she lost control of the boomerang due to exhausting her spiritual pressure, any experienced foe would be able to overcome her easily. The two trained non-stop for two days and Ichigo watched as Tatsuki grew stronger and stronger. Before long, he noticed that his apprentice had become more powerful than he was back when entered the Soul Society the first time to rescue Rukia Kuchki. Ichigo had 10 days of extensive training to reach this level. To see his apprentice and childhood friend reach his level in less than two days was truly astounding. Ichigo had never felt anything like Tatsuki's spiritual pressure. It was as if he was training a powerful dragon who had not yet realized the true beast it really was.
It was midway through their second day of training that the two's sparing was interrupted by the two sensing a very unusual spiritual presence. Tatsuki was lunging down off a large cliff towards Ichigo with her massive bladed boomerang Zanpakuto. The orange haired man quickly blocked the blade with his own, and before he could counter attack Ichigo stopped and turned backwards. Both felt the disturbance.
"Is that…another hollow?" Tatsuki asked, breathing heavily. "Because I'm ready to go out there and take out another one. They are getting way easy now."
"That's not a Hollow…" Ichigo replied, his voice grave with concern, "Oh dear God, this is the worst possible time for this crap again…"
Tatsuki had no chance to ask another question before Ichigo flash stepped out of the basement. Tatsuki was annoyed with this movement as she had not yet mastered the flash step yet. With a huff of anger at her mentor for leaving her, Tatsuki moved quickly out of the basement as well with her much less perfected flash step. (The young lady did not have any idea how impressive it was to everyone how close she had come to obtaining the flash step in less than two days.)
Ichigo had made it to the spot in Karakura Forest where the gate from the soul society opened. He watched as the Edo style gates appeared and began to open. Ichigo cursed under his breath as he saw the three figures that appeared.
"Ichigo Kurosaki!" The young princess, Rurichiyo Kasumiōji exclaimed with great joy as she saw her friend and one time body guard. "How good it is to see that you have come to properly greet me at my time of arrival in the world of the living! I can see your ability to sense spiritual pressure has gotten a lot better since we last met."
"Rurichiyo!" Ichigo exclaimed, terrified at the potential risk that the young ruler had created by appearing in the world of the living at this time. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Mind your manners, substitute soul reaper!" Kenryu, one of the princess's retainers quickly corrected Ichigo. "Lady Rurichiyo will not put up with your continued rudeness, and I will not remind you again."
"I don't have time for all that crap!" Ichigo exclaimed, somewhat frantically. "You guys CAN'T be here right now! The amount of danger you're in…"
"I don't understand…" the blonde haired princess shook her head in confusion, "Does this have anything to do with mass increase we've had of hollow sightings in the soul society? I'll have you know, that my faithful servants, Kenryu and Enryu have done a superb job protecting, and they will continue to do so…Please Ichigo, calm down. I came here when I heard news in the soul society of the death of Orihime Innoue…please, Ichigo, tell me is this true?"
Ichigo's frantic response to Rurichiyo's arrival subsided as his heart filled with sadness once more. Orihime had gotten along very well with Lady Rurichiyo back when she spent some time in the world of the living hiding from villainous assassins. For a girl so young, hearing the news of her death would be a terrible burden indeed.
"Oh, I am terribly sorry about that…" A voice was heard in the nearby bushes. The entire crew turned around to see a man appear with spikey purple hair, a red bandana covering most his face, blood red eyes, who was slowly twirling the blade of his sword which was attached by a chain to a hilt that was shaped like a gun. Ichigo instantly knew that the man they were looking upon was none other than the elusive Cedric Ares. "You see, little girl, I was the one that killed your friend. I needed a stone that was lodged in her soul, so I had to kill her to get it. The irony in all this is that I need another item, that is in the soul society…and by you coming to see your dead friend, I'm finally able to return the soul society to retrieved it. I can't decide if I should apologize for giving you so much pain, or thank you for making my life easier!"
"Cedric Ares…" Ichigo spoke as his eyes narrowed and he raised his blade towards the assassin. Spiritual Pressure was radiating around the substitute soul reaper's body in a light blue aura, as he spoke. "You're going to pay for what you did to Orihime!"
Ichigo lunged forward readying his blade to slash his enemy down in one blow. Cedric jumped backwards the orange haired warrior attempted to slice him in half. Cedric moved aside, with a cocky grin on his face as he continued to taunt his foe.
"To slow!" The rogue soul reaper spoke as he moved backwards and readied his blade for an attack. He threw his blade in the air, the chain link suppressed itself, bringing the strange gunblade into an normal sword state, with the blade connected to the hilt. Cedric eyes raged with power and ambition as he swung at the air with a wicked smile. He pulled the trigger on the gun part of his sword as he yelled the name of his attack. "Wind Slash!"
Ichigo braced himself as a power gust of wind appeared and blew him. He recognized this style of attack, it was similar to his Getsuga Tenshou but with wind energy. As the powerful slash hit Ichigo's own Zanpakuto he was shocked at how powerful this attack was. The sheer force alone pushed him back into several trees, he busted through three of them as he defended against the wind wave.
As the substitute soul reaper struggled with the wind slash, Cedric turned his attention back to Lady Rurichiyo, he moved forward as her two body guards drew their swords and readied themselves for battle. The former soul reaper narrowed his eyes in annoyance, realizing the two foes were about to try and attack him. In one quick flash step, Cedric appeared next to the agile noble, Kenryu, and the massive mound of muscle, Enryu. He cut deep into the side of Kenyru, as he elbowed the large Enryu in the neck with all of his force. Then with two spinning kicks, he knocked both body guards into opposing directions and out of his way completely. Rurichiyo backed slowly into a tree, and a dead end as the mysterious assailant closed in on her.
"What…what is it you want with me, you terrible fiend?" Rurichiyo demanded, standing strong in the face of certain death.
"It doesn't matter how long I have been exiled from the Soul Society," Cedric said with a manic smile, as he reached his hand into the princess's pink kimono and withdrew a small ornate blade, "All you old world royal clans haven't changed at all! Each noble always carries their own key back to their own personal gate to the soul society. Thanks kid, I needed to find a way into the Spirit World so I think I'm just going to take this dagger!"
"Get away from her!" Ichigo roared as he rushed towards Cedric once more.
"Still have the resolve to fight me, do you?" Cedric spoke as he turned around, wind beginning to swirl around his Zanpakuto, Osafu. "Cyclone Vortex!"
Out of the ground under Ichigo, a massive tornado rose, trapping the strong fighter. Ichigo let out a loud cry of pain as the winds spinning rapidly around him, slashing his skin. He was trapped, and unable to stop Cedric. After trapping his main opponent, and making sure the princess's body guards were down for the count, Cedric looked back at the young princess.
"You are not a soul reaper, and your whole appearance in the world of the living has given me a way into the soul society." Cedric said glaring at the terrified young lady, "I owe you one kid, and so I'm not going to kill you. Thanks for the knife!"
Stepping away from Lady Rurichiyo, Cedric stabbed the knife into air using his own spirit energy combined with the mystic item to create a rift into space and opening a portal to the spirit world. Upon saying the magic word, "open", two edo style doors appeared and begun to open with light shining from the other side. The rogue soul reaper smiled as he felt in his heard, thanks to the stole Hell Gauntlet that he wore the presence of the keeper of the Blood Chalice was definitely in the other world. It was as if Cedric was taking a step closer to food he was desperately craving for. He knew it wouldn't be long before he had each artifact he sought and would be able to open a portal to the Void. All his hard work would finally produce labor. Cedric began walking into the gate, but turned back abruptly as he heard the enraged scream of a woman leaping from the shadows towards him with murderous intent.
Out of the bushes, Tatsuki appeared with Simba drawn and in boomerang form. Moving as fast as she could, she came very close to landing a killing blow to Cedric who just barely stepped out of the way of her blade. He was very surprised as he looked at the soul reaper in front of him with a red outfit.
"This woman…" Cedric thought to himself, "Wasn't she the human with the orange haired girl who held the Hell Stone? Last time I saw her, she could barely move next to my spiritual pressure…that's right, then she became enraged and slowly began to stand. What is this now, did she become a soul reaper?"
"Hahaha!" Cedric laughed as he moved backwards, completely dodging Tatsuki's surprise attack, "Oh dear, did you become a soul reaper to avenge your friend's death? What a complete waste of time! There is no way in Hell that you could ever be at my level! I've been at this for longer than over 500 years, kid…What a sad and futile attempt!"
"I'm going to kill you!" Tatsuki raged as she radiated with red spiritual pressure as she swung her boomerang a second time towards Cedric, who took this attack much more seriously than the last one. He blocked it with his sword, and quickly moved his blade to slash Tatsuki in the chest diagonally, causing her a massive wound that began to surge with blood spilling from her body.
Tatsuki fell to the ground as her near fatal blow caused her to lose a dangerous amount of blood. Cedric looked at the soul reaper with much disdain and repulsion as he sheafed his weapon and stepped over her damaged body and back into the portal to the soul society. "How utterly pathetic…it doesn't matter what color your outfit is. I hate soul reapers so much."
Tatsuki heard her enemy's words sink into her soul as she closed her eyes barely holding on to consciousness, as Cedric moved past her and into the portal. As she struggled to maintain her own life, deep within her mind she heard a familiar majestic voice beckon to her, "Get up! Don't give up now, girl!" Tatsuki's eyes quickly opened up as she found new strength to keep moving. She jumped back to her feet, as blood spilled from her body and leapt towards the assassin just as the doors to the gate were closing. She barely made it in, but was able to make it through the gate into the soul society.
As Cedric left the world of the living, his power controlling the vortex trapping Ichigo dissipated and the substitute soul reaper was free. He rushed towards Lady Rurichiyo to make sure his young friend was undamaged. The princess in turn pointed at her injured body guards, who though they protected her valiantly, were hardly a match for the soul reaper.
Ichigo wiped away the tears from Rurichiyo's eyes as she leaned over the body of her guardian, Kenryu who had a non-life threatening, but very bloody, cut in the stomach. "Don't worry Lady Rurichiyo, we'll get them the help they need to recover quickly.'
Ichigo's eyes then went back to where the portal was, "I hope Urahara has that gate to the Soul Society up now, because after I make sure these two are okay…I'm going to save Tatsuki, and stop Cedric! I just hope I'm not to late…"
A/N: It really bugged me in the Bleach series how the princess saga was just a random piece of Bleach storyline that didn't apply at all to the rest of the plot...I enjoyed it, but I didn't enjoy how it wasn't canon at all...So I wanted to bring the characters in a minor way into my story for a chapter! Rest easy, my "Princess Arc Haters", I don't foresee them having much more of a role, if any in the rest of the plot of my fanfic. What'd you think of the 3rd appearance of my OC Cedric Ares? He'll be in Chapter 10 for another exciting battle, and boy you will NOT want to miss it!