Episode 4: Captains
*At Urahara's shop*
"Matsumoto- san, you're very welcome to stay with me if you like!" Urahara pleaded with her.
"Oh, but I must stay with Orhime! We're close friends! Right?" She hugs Orhime super tightly. Orihime laughs nervously and agrees. Ichigo and Renji are already shouting at each other.
"You look as ridiculous as ever! You already have more than enough tattoos!"
"Hey! Watch who you're talking to!" Renji jabs his thumb towards himself, "You're talking to the new captain of squad 5!"
Ichigo mutters to himself, "Air headed as always too."
"What?!" Renji growls. "What'd you say?!" Ichigo slams his forhead against Renji's
"I said you're an idiot!" They start growling and pushing each other.
"Immature idiots." Toshiro mutters. He looks away and sees Katsumi. He starts walking towards her, two other captains by his side. Toshiro introduces himself, they exchange their Japanese bows. Katsumi turns to the other captain, "Katsumi desu" and bows. His grey eyes look down at her, his silver scarf fluttering in the breeze,
"Kuchiki Byakuya, Squad 6 captain." He gave a small nod. She turned to the third. He stays quiet for a moment before saying very quietly,
"I'm….uh… Hisagi…uh…Hisagi Shuhei. Squad 9 captain." He immediately looks away. Ichigo and Renji stop fighting when they heard Toshiro ask,
"What are you?"
Katsumi isn't fazed at the rudeness of his question and doesn't hesitate in answering,
"I'm half shinigami, half hollow." Then Ichigo cuts in,
"But she's still human." After considering it very quickly, he added, "just like me." Urahara cleared his throat,
"Let's all go inside and clear things up."
*Inside Urahara's shop*
Everyone listens to Katsumi explain herself. Afterward, Toshiro sits there frowning.
"So you're saying that the moment he stabbed you with his zanpaktou he transferred all his knowledge to you and even allowed a glimpse into your own future?"
"Yes." She replies, "I saw all the hybrids he made, I've seen them die. He also showed me the hundreds of hollows and humans he's killed. That's how I knew how to kill him, in the visions I saw him slicing the hollows' masks and they would disappear. He also showed me the powers I would have in order to convince me to obey him as my master. He never thought I wouldn't do that and turn on him. All his other hybrids were tempted at the possession of power and agreed to serve him in exchange for it." She looks down at her zanpakto on the floor, thinking about its powers, the ones she hadn't discovered yet. Toshiro cuts into her thoughts,
"And these things you fought in the sky that could change form, did not appear until after you became involved with this girl?"
"Hold on!" Rukia protested, "They have nothing to do with Katsumi. Captain Kurosuchti personally told me that they have been a high level threat to the World of the Living as well as Soul Society for an extended period of time now."
Toshiro narrows his eyes, "And did captain Kurosuchti tell you that it wasn't until today, the day after Katsumi shows up, that the shifter population moved here into Karakura town? "
No one can deny that is suspicious. Everyone is silent. Orihime speaks up in her fake cheerful voice,
"Well whatever the reason the shifters are here now, with four captains and a wonderful vice captain, we can defeat them easily!"
Urahara looks down solemnly, "I wouldn't be so sure."
"Whaaaa?!" Matsumoto stands up angrily from the table. "Do you doubt our abilities?!" She says in her pouting voice.
Urahara smiles nervously waving his hands saying, "Oh, no no no, not at all!"
Matsumoto's complaining rant starts and Ichigo's and Renji's argument starts up again as well. Toshiro starts shaking from frustration.
"SHUT UP!" Everyone looks up at him. "We're not here to fight among ourselves, we need to strategize against our enemy." He looks at Katsumi. "And if you can really do what you say you can..."
Ichigo interrupts, "She can, we've already fought."
Toshiro glares at him for interrupting and continues, "We might have a very good chance. But you apparently lack any sort of physical strength."
Katsumi was about to protest but he ignores her.
"Hisagi and Renji will work with you." Toshiro commands.
"What?!" Renji and Hisagi shouted together. Toshiro ignored their "immaturness" and says, "If Katsumi is really what these shifters want, then she has to learn to defend herself. I'd rather use what little time we have to train her than risk my life during battle to save her."
Katsumi is getting angrier as he continues,
"And I will help train your shikai, and captain Kuchiki will help your bankai. That is if you are even capable of achieving it. And naturally Ichigo will get your hollow side under control for you."
Katsumi can't stand it any longer. She jumps up to her feet and flashsteps across the table to where Toshiro is standing and lowers herself so she is right in his face and says,
"I really don't like you. You've underestimated me in every way. If I have to earn your respect through a battle, fine, I'm ready."
Toshiro, unblinking stares coldly back at her as he says, "Your eagerness to challenge me proves your stupidity. But I don't like you either, so if you must battle, I'll be glad to."
Katsumi smirks, "Bring it."
"Wait!" Urahara shouts before they whip out their zanpaktos. "Not in the dining room! Do you know how much this table cost me?!"
Byakuya looks at it disdainfully, "Looks cheap to me."
Katsumi and Toshiro are still glaring darts at each other.
*Underground training arena*
Katsumi crashes into the ground, a cloud of dirt shoots into the air. Toshiro frowns.
"Have you had enough yet?"
She emerges from the cloud of dust, bleeding, panting, but smiling.
"I guess you're right about my physical strength, I could get a little stronger." She wipes her bleeding lip with her sleeve, "but you're wrong about my shikai."
Toshiro narrows his eyes.
"I can even use my shikai to beat your bankai." She tries to provoke him. He doesn't let it get to him. "I guess you're too chicken to use it." She eggs him on.
"At least I have a bankai." He snaps at her.
"Let's see it."
Katsumi and Toshiro continue taunting and provoking each other, clashing swords and fighting all the while.
"I wonder why Hitsugaya taicho is so angry and, well, childish today?" Orihime asks the other spectators. Matsumoto laughs guiltily.
"Haha...uh he has a 10 ft. tall stack of paperwork on his desk and coming here, well he can't work on them. I always tell him, 'taicho, stop putting all this paperwork off, you'll be much less irritated and more enjoyable!' but he never listens to me."
"Oh, I see." Orihime says while Renji and Ichigo are laughing at her. Matsumoto twitches angrily,
"Shut up! Idiots." She turns around and stares them down. Their faces go blank, but they can't help but start smiling again and she punches their faces and yells at them.
"Amateurs." Byakuya mutters. Hisagi has a "you've got to be kidding me" look on his face.
*cuts back to the Toshiro and Katsumi's fight*
"All right, you asked for it!" Toshiro, panting, holds his zanpakto directly in front of him and shouts, "Bankai!"
Everyone watching goes silent as Toshiro releases his bankai.
"You can do it taicho!" Matsumoto cheers. Internally, she's growing concerned. Thinking to herself, "That girl has done nothing but attack with her zanpakto and a getsuga tensho that looks suspiciously similar to Ichigo's. I can't believe that is enough to push taicho to banaki. Who is she?" Matsumoto continues to watch, frowning.
Katsumi smirks, "Finally, time to show you..." She brandishes her zanpakto and point it front of her "...what I can do."
Toshiro launches attack after attack at her, but she avoids them all easily. Then,
"Shine, Hikari!"
Toshiro's eyes widen as he sees the light coming from her zanpakto. Then, wham! He is hit with the light and he's completely blinded. The pain in his eyes sends him crashing to the ground, completely disoriented. But he quickly gets back up as the light fades.
"I have to defeat her through physical strength." He thought. His eyes still fazed by the light, he uses his spiritual instincts to find Katsumi. Their zanpaktos clash. "This is it!" He thought triumphantly. He pushes hard against her sword expected to fling her back, but it was no use. He looks up, and sees a hollow mask, grinning maniacally down at him.
To be continued...