Weeping Devil: Legend of the Dark Guardian
A woman stood on the side walk, observing the bar directly across the street from her. On account of the fact that it was the dead of night, she didn't draw much attention, but if there had been, it would have been quite the opposite.
For one thing, she had golden blond hair that was unruly for the most part, but some of it was in three long tails. For another thing, she had dark skin. Not the fake sort that delinquent girls got through ganguro, but natural and beautiful. Thirdly, she wore an odd white and black uniform that was completely different from any mainstream style that covered the bottom part of her face, but left her stomach bare.
The most obvious thing about her, though, would have to have been her, uh, assets. You, know, her double whammies. Her huge tracts of land. In short, her breasts, which were massive.
Tia Harribel narrowed ice blue eyes as she continued looking at the bar, "The Weeping Devil". "Why has Lord Aizen sent me here?" She asked herself. If the being inside, whom she'd been sent to collect, had been of any consequence, she reckoned that she would at least be able to sense him as something more than a tiny presence within the perception of her pesquisa. But she couldn't. As far as she could tell, there was nothing more than a normal human inside.
Sighing, the buxom blond began advancing toward the bar. She couldn't fathom the purpose of this, but Lord Aizen had given her her orders.
Inside the Weeping Devil, a white haired young man in blue jeans, a blue shirt with a black trench coat over it, and leather boots leaned back in a wooden chair, unaware of the potential danger lurking right outside his door.
He was reading a book of Shakespeare sonnets to pass the time until he felt like sleeping. He was thoroughly immersed, until the old rotary phone on his desk started ringing annoyingly.
"Weeping Devil." The proprietor of the Weeping Devil, Ichigo Kurosaki, answered. The person on the other end of the line started inquiring about the bar's opening, and then about some of the…services that he offered besides running the bar. "Sorry, we're not open yet." He said, hanging up abruptly. People who called this late at night irritated him. There was a sign outside the bar that clearly said when the bar would open for business, and it had been there long enough that everyone should know that no, he wasn't open yet.
"Ichigo Kurosaki." A husky voice said from the door. The teen looked up and his eyes widened. Standing in his threshold was probably the bustiest, blondest woman he'd ever seen. Probably, because he knew quite a few women with chests that were, uh, not inconsiderable. Shaking his head to clear away any naughty thought he may have had concerning the woman's massive mammaries, Ichigo resppnded,
"What can I do for you, Miss?" He set all four of his chairs legs on the floor. "We're not open for business yet, but if you need to use the bathroom, it's in the back." He informed, pointing his thumb vaguely behind him.
"Oh, who's to say that I didn't just drop in to see you?" She said, leaning over and inadvertently, or advertently, it was hard to tell, pushed pressed her generous bust against his wood table. "You're pretty easy on the eyes, you know." She said, leaning in real close. Ichigo simply chuckled.
"Why, thank you. But, come on, why're you really here?" He queried. Though he couldn't see the lower half of her face, her eyebrows shifted into a position indicative of a pout.
"Aw, you don't believe me?" she asked, rising from the table and walking slowly, sexily, behind him. "Why can't a girl drop in to talk to such a strapping young man as yourself?" she asked, teasingly running her finger across his shoulders. The snow haired youth shuddered in minor pleasure. His coat muted most of the sensation, but damn if what he did feel didn't feel good.
"Meh, I'm not that lucky." He said lightly, but cynically.
"Well," The woman said leaning into his back, pressing her breasts against it, and putting her hands over his shoulders and on to his stomach, which, she was minorly pleased to note, held firm under her touch. " if you come with me, you might just get that lucky." She purred into Ichigo's ear. Her host shuddered once more, before leaning back into her embrace.
"Do you promise to treat me nicely?" He asked idly, letting his eyes drift closed. Harribel grinned under her high collar and tightened her hold somewhat.
"Oh, I'll treat you so nicely that you'll never want to leave." She said breathily into his ear. Faster than any human, she then moved one hand, summoned her sword, Tiburon, and then stabbed it through the ivory haired teen's chest. "Ever." She finished. Pulling her sword from her now dead target and flicking the blood off of it, she walked back around the table and began heading for the door.
It surprised her how easy that had been. Lord Aizen had sent her, the third most powerful in his army, to take care of this? It defied all logic. If he could be dispensed as easily as having a sword driven though him, he might as well have sent Ulqiorra, or even that bastard Nnoitra. There was no need to waist her time on something so, so, frivolous.
The sound of a human gun cocking was the only thing she heard before her shoulder exploded in pain. The sheer forward force of whatever had hit her sent her tumbling to the floor as she clutched her now liberally bleeding shoulder. She turned her head in shock and found that the young man she'd just killed was holding an oversized black pistol in his hand.
"You know, that was a pretty mean trick you played on me, Blondy." The teen said, head still leaned back. He then proceeded to lean forward to look at her with a look that was both annoyed and amused all at once. "I actually thought I had a shot." Said the now revived Weeping Devil proprietor faux mournfully.
"How did you survive?!" Harribel bit out, the pain of her injured shoulder putting her in something of a snit. "No human should be able to live after being run completely run through!" She pointed out heatedly.
"You're right. No human should." Said Ichigo.
"What are you trying to say? That you're not…" She began, only for the teen to cut her off.
"Suffice it to say that I'm complicated." He said vaguely. He then looked down to the puncture wound in his chest, which now had a rapidly growing dark stain growing on the front of it. "Damn it woman, this was my favorite shirt, and my favorite coat for that matter." He said. He then sighed and began removing his shirt and coat. "Might as well make sure that I don't get too much blood on them."
Harribel didn't respond for a moment after he'd completely removed the bloody clothes. One reason was that her target was quite noticeably muscled. Not bulky by any stretch of the imagination, but she had the feeling that she could put water on his abs and use them like a washing board. At that, she had to banish any images of a wet, soapy Ichigo from her mind. The second reason was because his entire abdominal area, which should have sported a stab wound, was unblemished and no longer bleeding.
"Look, lady," Said Ichigo as he idly jerked his head to the side, popping his neck. "I'm gonna bet that you're not from around here, so I'll make you a deal: If you get the hell outta my place right now and never come back, your life will last longer than the next ten seconds." He bargained threateningly.
Harribel said nothing. Who did this human think he was? She was Tia Harribel, the Tercera Espada of Lord Aizen's army! What right did this child have to order her around?!
It occurred to her then that the ivory haired youth probably didn't know that. Oh well, that was no matter. She'd just have to put him in his proper place. So thinking, she stood and relaxed a portion of the iron control she'd been using to keep her spirit energy obfuscated in the world of the living, healing her shoulder instantaneously.
Ichigo acknowledged that the force of gravity seemed to be growing more and more intense around him. He acknowledged it like a normal person acknowledged that there was a fly buzzing around annoyingly. If he were to be completely honest, he'd have admitted to being amused by the whole situation. The blonde woman clearly thought that he was powerless, and so could be intimidated by this show of raw strength. Well, he'd just have to show her how wrong she was, wouldn't he?
"That's a pretty neat trick you got there, miss." He said. He then separated his soul from his body. His soul's physical form was clad in a sleeveless version of the standard soul reaper uniform that had a gun belt around its waist and a sword on its hip. "But you know what? I can do it to." He said, unleashing his own power and letting it rage around him like a hurricane.
Harribel couldn't believe this turn of events. The human hadn't been human at all! He was a soul reaper! To top that, he was powerful, almost frighteningly so. She hadn't let loose all the way herself, but she could tell that her opponent hadn't either, yet he was matching her current output exactly. The frightening thing was that she was currently putting off power comparable to that of a strong lieutenant class soul reaper, and Kurosaki didn't even look like he was straining to match her. That could only mean that he had more to spare. Wanting to test this, she unleashed even more of her power.
Ichigo raised a brow as the blond woman upped her power even more. She'd been somewhere around lieutenant level, but then she'd let loose a little more, and she now equaled a medium strength soul reaper captain. Meh, it wasn't a problem. He'd just have to relax his restraint a little more.
Harribel's eyes narrowed as Ichigo's power level rose to rival hers once more. How powerful was he? At this point, the only ones who should have been able to match her should have been the captains of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads! Underneath the sheer shock of the fact that there was a non-espada who could rival her in any respect, there was a sliver of fascination. She wondered, if she were to unleash her full power, would the ivory haired soul reaper rise to that challenge as well?
Ichigo's eyes widened as the blond woman's power level rose once more. Holy Fuck! How powerful was this chick?! As her power level continued to rise, her energy became visible. It manifested itself as a yellow aura that flared all round her as if someone had set her ablaze.
He was torn as to what course of action to take next. On the one hand, if he released all of his limiters, he could match her, maybe even outdo her, but who knew what would happen to his bar if he did that? His own spirit energy had a history of causing wide-spread collateral damage when he unleashed it all. But on the other hand, if he didn't match her and she attacked, there was a very good chance that she could actually kill him. He could heal like a bastard, but there was only so much that he could take.
But on top of everything, on top of the possibility of death or destruction of his place, there was the woman herself. She stared at him with twin pools of ice, almost like she was silently challenging him. Was that it? Had she increased her power this much just to see if he could match her? Was this some kind of test? If it was, Ichigo mused, then he had one hell of a tester, and it was probably the only test he'd actually enjoy in his entire life. Grinning an eager grin, he channeled spirit energy to his arm, causing a massive array of arcane symbols that covered his entire arm from his wrist to his elbow to appear.
Harribel quirked a brow in interest. What was Kurosaki doing? Those tattoos on his arm, they were unlike anything she'd ever seen before. Her intrigue only increased when the ivory haired young man unsheathed the blade from his side. It was a katana with no guard and a black blade. The unusual thing about it, besides it's ebony blade, was that it faintly glowed blue.
"What is that?" The blond asked curiously. Ichigo actually grinned at her question.
"This? This is my sword: the Zangetsu." He told her.
"'Slaying Moon'?" Harribel queried. "Isn't that kind of presumptuous?"
"Not at all. Zangetsu is probably the most practical zanpakuto there is. He's a melee type, so his power lies in cutting things. Originally, he wasn't as small as he is now, but I learned to compress my spirit energy so he shrunk to a more practical size, while also gaining a shit-ton of density. Because of that, he's extremely hard to break and his cutting edge never dulls. He's sharper than all hell, too. I'm confident that if I ever came across the Spirit King in my line of work, he would be cut by this blade." Ichigo explained. Harribel hmmed in intrigue.
"That's quite the boast. Can you back it up, or are you just posturing to try and intimidate me?" She queried. The ivory haired youth actually laughed out loud at that.
"Lady, I'm pretty sure that if I tried to intimidate you, nothing I did would do a shit thing against you." He declared. "But I got off track. You see, Zangetsu serves two purposes. He's the zanpakuto I gained when I became a soul reaper, but he's also my personal devil arm, the key to my true powers." He told her.
"Your true power?" Harribel queried.
"Uh-huh. I'm pretty sure it was Aizen who sent you. Am I right?" He took her responding silence as confirmation. "Then I'm sure he told you all about the gentei reiin, the thing that soul reapers use to seal most of their powers in the Human World." She nodded. "Well, these tattoos on my arm are kind of like that, but different. The normal limiter symbol wasn't strong enough and disintegrated pretty much immediately after they applied it. So, one of the soul reaper captains, a relative of mine in fact, came up with the idea for this." Ichigo held up his arm. "The tattoos are the lock, and Zangetsu is the key."
"It seems to me that for something like that to be necessary, you'd have to be ungodly strong." Harribel mused aloud. The teen chuckled, causing her to cock a curious brow. "What's so funny?" She asked.
"It's nothing; your word choice is just coincidental as hell, that's all." Ichigo said, still chuckling.
"Oh? How is that?" Asked Harribel.
"Meh, you wouldn't understand." Ichigo said, waving a hand dismissively. "But anyway, I have to thank you, Miss…" he trailed off in a questioning fashion.
"Harribel. Tia Harribel." The blond replied simply.
"I have to thank you, Miss Harribel, for giving me an excuse." The teen told her.
"An excuse?" Harribel questioned.
"Yes, an excuse. To cut loose and let all my power out. Normally, I'd catch ten different kinds of hell for using all of my power in the Human World, but I'm pretty sure I can justify it by saying that I was facing you." He said. "It wouldn't even be a lie."
"You're…welcome?" The blond espada didn't really know how to respond to that.
"As a token of my appreciation, I'm going to show you the full extent of the power that I have right now." He said before vanishing. He then reappeared in front of Harribel, put a hand on her head, and vanished again, her in tow.
When they both reappeared, the first thing that the blond nbotcied was that there was no solid ground beneath her feet. She looked down, and her eyes widened at the sheer height of where she currently was. Below the two of them, the lights of Karakura town all bled together to form one big patch of light.
"Where are we?" She queried, looking back up at the teen.
"We are currently…" He said, putting a hand to his chin in thought. "a mile above Karakura town." He said.
"Why so high?" Harribel asked curiously.
"Well, my energy's kind of finicky. It's fine for anyone who's a spiritual being in the first place, but for anything else, in large doses it's, well, suffice to say it ain't pretty." He explained. "It won't affect you a lick, and we're high enough in the air that it shouldn't do anything to any of the hapless humans below, so I feel comfortable doing this." He suddenly raised his left arm and gripped it with his right hand. "Stage One: Stare Into the Night, Zangetsu!" He yelled.
Twin pools of blue widened as the tattoos on the teens arm glowed before disappearing. They widened even further as the now bare human arm transformed into something distinctly…inhuman. In the most basic sense, it was humanoid: four fingers and a thumb. That, however, was where the similarities ended. For one thing, from the back of the hand to a spike that jutted out from the elbow, it was covered in some kind of organic looking red armor. For another thing, there were several veins running through the arm that, along with the now clawed hands and whatever else wasn't covered by the armor, glowed blue like Zangetsu's blade. A blond brow was cocked in fascination as the teen then switched said sword over to his left hand.
"Stage Two: Gentei Kaijo!"
Harribel had to shield her eyes at the explosion of raw energy that issued forth from the young soul reaper after his latest proclamation. It was a blast at first, then it began swirling around and about like a massive hurricane. It was only her own considerable power that allowed her to stay in place in the spiritual storm instead of being tossed about like a rag-doll.
Suddenly, the storm stopped raging uncontrollably, and started swirling around like a tornado. It flattened into a massive disk of rotating energy, and slowly began shrinking. It seemed to grow smaller with each revolution of its circular shape, until finally the entire storm had faded from existence, leaving only the young soul reaper, who now had a blue aura of his own surrounding him like some sort of shroud. Behind him, a blue tinted specter at least twice his size with two bull like horns on its head loomed. The teen looked up at her with eyes that glowed red.
"This is my true power." Ichigo told the blond with a voice that consisted of a higher pitched version of his actual voice along with the normal version. "The Devil Trigger. What do you think?"
If Harribel were to be quite honest, she would have said that she didn't know what to think. She could feel that the soul reaper was now her equal. Such would not be the case if she were to call Tiburon back to her and release her sealed powers, but no, that wasn't a tactic to be used at this point.
"I think that you're quite powerful, Ichigo Kurosaki. More powerful than I would have imagined." Said Harribel cooly before turning away from the teen. "My orders were to kill you or, failing that, get a feel for how powerful you really were. As it seems that I won't be able to kill you at the moment, I'll settle for returning to Lord Aizen with my findings." She stated. Ichigo merely shrugged before powering down and resealing both his sword and his powers.
"Go ahead, tell him." He commanded calmly. "By the time it'll even be an issue, I'll be even stronger, so your little report will be next to useless." He boasted.
"I hope you do become stronger, Kurosaki." Harribel declared. "When you get to my level, there are very few beings that can provide an actual challenge. If you get stronger, as you say you will, you'll give me a good fight before I kill you, for real this time." She told him. A Long black tear appeared in thin and spread to become a pitch black portal I front of the blond. She began to walk into it, but the calling of her would be opponent stopped her.
"Hey! All you espada have numbers, right? The stronger, the smaller the number?" Ichigo asked.
"Yes, what of it?" Queried the dark skinned espada.
"Can I at least of the rank of my future killer?" The teen asked sarcastically. Harribel decided that she didn't like his tone, and so resolved to remove the confident smile that was most likely adorning his features.
"I am the tercera, number three." She told him. She then turned toward him to see the gob-smacked expression on his face. Grinning under her collar, Harribel walked into the black portal, leaving herself alone in the void between Hueco Mundo and the World of the Living. Oh yes, she would see Ichigo Kurosaki again. Of that, she was certain. She was also certain that when they did meet again…
The battle would shake the very heavens.