Author's Note:
Hello everyone. Yes, I am, in fact, still alive. Unfortunately, that's the good news.
The bad news is that I won't be continuing Divergent Journeys. I know, I know, believe me. There was a time when I would have slapped myself upside the head for even considering leaving you guys hanging. There's nothing I've hated more as a fanfiction reader than a good story going unfinished. But, as those of you who've been following this story know, it's been over a year since I last updated. Part of the reason for that has been the fact that I'm almost done with college, which I'm STILL stalled on! One more paper and I'm done, but I just can't seem to find the energy when I don't have a plan for what to do with the rest of my life!
The other major reason that I haven't been working on this story, is that Bleach has fallen from being my favorite manga and anime series to not even being in my top twenty. The reasons are numerous, but the crux of my problem with Bleach is Tite Kubo's writing, or lack thereof. I don't want to get too into it, but I started off writing this story because, while I found some things that Kubo could've improved on, I genuinely liked the characters and the universe he had created. However, over the course of the past year and a half or so, I have found myself so incensed by the direction that Bleach has gone that I can no longer bring myself to read or watch it without recalling the outrage I feel at Kubo's treatment of his characters and his fans.
Now I don't expect you to agree with my opinion. If you still love Bleach, that's great. Really it is. I'm not here to preach at you. What I AM here for is this: to give you some closure. While I can't finish this story in the traditional sense, I did write most of this chapter. In addition, I can also outline the direction the rest of the story would have taken.
I'm sorry if this is disappointing, but Bleach is no longer my passion and I don't feel like I can bring the same level of quality to you guys anymore. Once I've finished with this, I will hopefully be able to move on to other ideas that I've been kicking around in my head.
Thank you all for your support.
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Chapter 18: Bad Things Come in Twos
"All of you run…" Rukia muttered tersely, her hand resting on the guard of her zanpakutō.
As they opened their mouths to protest, she cut them off with a sharp flick of her hand. "I will catch up with you when I can. Go now."
Seeing his companions' hesitation, Chad threw them both over his shoulders and dashed off in the opposite direction.
"Don't think I'll let you get away!" Renji yelled after them, starting to flash step after them.
However, halfway to his targets he found himself abruptly defending himself, as Rukia's zanpakutō met his in a clash of steel.
"You're not going anywhere, Renji."
"We'll see!" Renji muttered from between clenched teeth.
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"B-but…we can't just leave Kuchiki-san behind!" Orihime protested, looking to Ishida for support, but found him more interested in their embarrassing position.
"Put me down Sado-kun! I can walk on my own two feet!" her classmate yelled, attempting to wriggle out of Chad's grasp.
Their tall abductor remained silent and unwavering; ignoring their protests and only stopping once he had determined they were far enough away to avoid pursuit.
"We have to go b-…-ack!" Ishida said, stuttering and almost biting his tongue as Chad set him down.
"Don't be naïve, Ishida," their burly companion rumbled, setting Orihime down as well, "If we had stayed and helped, it would've drawn more attention. Our goal is to rescue Ichigo. If more soldiers had arrived we wouldn't have stood a chance."
"I suppose so…" Orihime said, looking back the way they came in spite of herself, "It just doesn't feel right leaving Kuchiki-san to fight alone."
"She did insist we go on ahead," Ishida admitted, looking thoughtful, "And she seemed to recognize that shinigami back there…perhaps they have history…"
"He…the shinigami…I've met him before…" Orihime said, causing her companions' jaws to drop.
"You what?" Ishida spluttered, "This…this is no time for one of your jokes Inoue-san!"
"I'm not joking!" Orihime pouted, put out that no one ever seemed to believe her, "He saved me from my br-…from a hollow once…"
"What else do you remember about him?" Chad inquired, slightly less skeptical than his bespectacled classmate.
"We didn't really talk much…" Orihime frowned, thinking back to her encounter with the red-haired shinigami, "He seemed a little grumpy though…like Kurosaki-kun…"
Ishida sighed,"Let's hope he's not as stubborn as Kurosaki…or Kuchiki-san wi-"
He broke off abruptly, whirling around and bringing his new bow to bear; nearly hissing in frustration at almost being caught unawares.
On the roof above the group stood two shinigami. Both were smirking confidently down at them.
"Looks like you guys are luckier than I thought," drawled the bald one, casually dodging the arrow Ishida shot at him, "Even if you can't aim for shit, four-eyes."
The Quincy gave no response, except to flicker from view and reappear directly behind the confident cue ball, an arrow poised to go straight through the shinigami's chest.
In the split second between releasing the arrow and it reaching its target, the projectile was sliced in twain by a curved sickle blade.
"Sake, Fuji Kujaku," the effeminate perpetrator said, saying his zanpakutō's command phrase after releasing it, to make up for his hasty wordless release.
Pivoting, he aimed his wicked-looking falx at Ishida; only to find the archer had reappeared next to his friends.
"Continue on without me," Uryū muttered quickly to Chad, "Take Inoue-san and go. I'll hold them off."
"Right," Chad replied simply, wasting no time in throwing Orihime over his shoulder and dashing away.
"Not you too Ishida-kun!" the surprised girl wailed, reaching out futilely towards him as she was carried off.
"S'matter? You guys break up?" the bald shinigami smirked, still confident enough that he hadn't drawn his sword yet.
"No," Ishida said calmly, sending a barrage of arrows at his two opponents, "I merely wished to spare her the sight of your disfigured bodies."
"Cocky little comedian, ain'tcha?" the shinier of the two chuckled, dodging once again, "You got this Yumichika?"
"Of course, Ikkaku," his companion replied, shrugging languidly.
"Don't think that it will be that easy," Ishida said, appearing before Ikkaku as the shinigami made to go after his friends and launching a wide spread of arrows at him.
As the bald man jumped deftly over him, he became distracted enough that he almost missed the four sickle-shaped blades tearing towards his chest. Using hirenkyaku to avoid it, Uryū swore to himself as he saw that he had failed to stop one of them from pursuing his friends.
"So, looks like it's just you and my beautiful self…" Yumichika smirked, his eyes glinting from between his four-edged weapon.
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Chad wasn't at all surprised that the bald shinigami, Ikkaku, wasn't it?, had chosen to follow him, rather than Orihime.
Having been in more fights than he could remember, he had encountered people like the bald man before. Chad was almost certain that Ikkaku was someone who enjoyed fighting, and a tall, muscular target was the natural choice when choosing a more challenging opponent.
Not that we weren't prepared, in case he had chosen differently,Chad thought as his pursuer drew closer.
Checking to make sure that the surrounding area was deserted, he stopped abruptly, turning to face Ikkaku.
"Had enough running huh?" the shinigami said, coming to a halt as well.
"Yes. This spot is mostly deserted. We will not be interrupted here."
"Suits me. I wouldn't want someone else to take credit for bringing down the intruders," Ikkaku grinned, finally drawing his sword and holding it and its sheath at the ready.
Merely nodding in reply, Chad drew his featureless blade from its casing as well.
Eager to test out his opponent, Ikkaku leapt forward, slicing away with reckless abandon.
Chad countered the shinigami's frenzied strikes with relative ease. His training in swordplay had not been wasted. In addition, years of getting into fights had honed his reflexes well.
The smiling shinigami's simple attack pattern niggled at something in the back of his mind though.
Just then, one of Ikkaku's wild strikes twisted mid-swing; becoming a stab, forcing Chad to dodge wildly out of the way.
Righting himself, Chad turned immediately to attack. However, panic shot down his spine as he felt his blade stop dead in mid-swing. His sword was lodged midway through Ikkaku's sheath.
He saw the bald man's grin widen and, having no time to dodge, brought his right arm up to protect himself.
His opponent felt an equal amount of surprise when his zanpakutō met, not flesh, but something distinctly harder.
Seizing upon Ikkaku's momentary distraction, Chad tugged hard on his nameless blade, while simultaneously taking hold of the man's sword.
The air was punctuated by a sickening groan as the large high school student bent the zanpakutō in half.
"What…what are you?" Ikkaku sputtered, having the presence of mind to at least put some distance between himself and the unknown quantity he was facing.
"I cannot say, for I don't know myself. I can say though, that I am not left-handed!"
Chad punctuated this remark by thrusting his armored fist forward; releasing an enormous wave of bluish energy. The force of the blast ripped away the outer walls of the surrounding buildings; sending them, as well as countless roof tiles, halfway down the street.
A bloodied Ikkaku stumbled out from one of the now de-walled buildings. Although he had been quick enough to get into one of the structures for cover, his chest had been torn open by several pieces of flying debris.
"Shit," Ikkaku coughed, blood leaking down his chin from his smiling, bloody lips, "I underestimated you. What's your name?"
"Sado Yasutora."
"That's a good name. Very strong. It suits you well. I'm Madarame Ikkaku."
"Do you always show such courtesy to your opponents?" Chad asked, readying his sword and right arm.
"Of course," Ikkaku replied, removing some ointment from the pommel of his sword and gingerly applying it to his wounds, "If you were about to die, wouldn't you want to know who killed you?"
Chad nodded, conceding the point. "Personally, I'd rather not die at all."
"Heh! Then do your best! And defeat me!" Ikkaku grinned. He then struck his zanpakutō and its sheath together, crying, "Nobiro, Hōzukimaru!"
Both the weapon and its case transformed, becoming rounder and longer; finally solidifying into a naginata.
"Don't miss it! Sado Yasutora!" the bald man roared, charging at him.
Chad, a glint in his eye, rushed forward to meet his opponent, bellowing, "RED BEAN PASTE!"
Ikkaku nearly tripped at the sudden outburst. "What the f-"
"Koten Zanshun, I reject!"
Following this unseen utterance, an arrow-like stream of light shot through Ikkaku's calf muscle.
"Hrrghhh!" the battle-hungry shinigami choked out, stumbling forward at the unexpected pain.
Batting aside his pole weapon with his nameless blade, Chad struck his opponent squarely in the chin with his red and black fist, saying, "El Gancho!"
Unknown to Chad, bluish energy radiated from between the small fins jutting from his right shoulder.
Ikkaku was sent flying a dozen feet into the air before landing in a heap on top of the wreckage of the buildings that had been destroyed earlier.
"Sorry about the ruse, but we can't afford to fight fair when time is against us," Chad said, his armor dissolving as he approached his fallen adversary; his auburn-haired companion soon joining him.
"I'm so sorry!" Orihime gushed, looking guiltily at Ikkaku's wounds, "Can I at least heal him Sado-kun?"
"You should, I think," Chad agreed, clambering up on top of the wreckage and hoisting the barely conscious shinigami over his shoulder, setting him down next to her, "We'll need to hide him once we've tied him up, and if he's still bleeding it will make it too easy for them to find him."
We'll need to leave some sort of mark for Ishida to find us, Chad thought, We might as well use 'red bean paste' again. There's no way Ishida would mistake it for something a shinigami wrote…
All Ikkaku thought as he was enveloped in warm light and his awareness consciousness began to fade was, How humiliating! I'm never going to live this down…
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Meanwhile, Ishida was doing his best to hold off Yumichika, which was proving rather difficult for the Quincy. Despite his natural advantage as a long range fighter, the narcissistic shinigami was quite agile and would rush him, forcing him to dodge; and then taking advantage of Ishida's momentary distraction to attempt pursuit of his friends. And so the cycle would begin again.
This is no good…Uryū berated himself, All he has to do is stall! I must end this quickly or more shinigami may arrive. I need an opening…perhaps…
He fired off another volley and, as expected, his opponent shunpo'd closer. However, rather than dodging away quickly, the Quincy hesitated; allowing Yumichika to clip his arm.
Ignoring the sudden pain, Uryū continued on the momentum the blow had sent him and fired off an arrow at the shinigami's face, slicing through Yumichika's cheek and leaving a small hole through his ear.
As he regained his footing and put some distance between them, Uryū could have sworn he heard a thunderclap, in spite of the clear weather. His adversary was radiating malevolence and hatred unlike anything he had experienced before.
"You…have scarred my beautiful face!" Yumichika roared, his angry visage quite the opposite of his usual demeanor, "I was going easy on you, but seeing as Ikkaku's far enough away, I can fight you with all I have! Sakikurue, Ruri'iro Kujaku!"
The shinigami's many pronged weapon glowed bright; its four blades extending and dividing into many colored vine-like protrusions, which latched onto Uryū faster than he could react.
Effectively immobilized, Uryū could feel himself getting weaker.
"What is this?" he demanded, struggling in vain against his glowing restraints.
"My zanpakutō's true form," Yumichika answered, "My comrades prefer to fight with bladed weapons and so I hide its real form. Even now I'm sure you've realized its purpose: stealing your reiatsu."
Pointing with his free hand at the flowers which had begun blooming along his weapon's many vines, he continued, "And as soon as those flowers finish blooming, you will no longer be a threat. Fear not, for I will not kill you; the higher ups may wish to question you later. I will merely take enough so that once it has finished you will simply be unable to move."
"Damnit," the Quincy muttered, his head dipping against his chest as the last of the flowers bloomed.
His body limp, Yumichika released him. As the vines receded into his zanpakutō, the vein shinigami plucked one of the blossoms and popped it into his mouth. In moments, the injuries to his face and ear were gone, as if they had never occurred.
"Too bad, ryoka," he said, turning to go after Ikkaku.
Before Yumichika could make a single step, however, he was distracted by two blue lights which seemed to emerge from his very person, as well as the incredible pain he now felt in his chest.
Coughing out blood, he staggered to his knees; falling onto his side and staring in disbelief as his opponent got shakily to his feet.
"H-how?" he managed, clutching at his wounds in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
"I am a Quincy," Uryū replied, smiling in spite of his exhaustion, "Unlike shinigami, we derive most of our power from the spiritual energy around us, not from inside us, and Soul Society is full of it. So while you may have weakened my ability to move quickly, you did not stop me from using my weapon."
Examining his arm wound, he sighed. If I don't stop this bleeding I might be followed. Now what can I dress it with?
He spotted something convenient almost immediately.
"Sorry about this," he apologized, tearing off one of Yumichika's sleeves, in spite of the shinigami's futile attempts to stop him.
Tying it tight, Uryū was just about to leave when his fallen foe cried out weakly, "Don't leave me…like this!"
Turning a withering eye, the Quincy said, "You won't die. Probably. Consider yourself lucky to be alive: I hate shinigami."
Yumichika shook his head, his perception fading fast. "No…my sleeve…it's…tacky…"
Snorting in disgust, Uryu muttered, "Shinigami," and set off slowly after his classmates.
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Author's Note:
What follows is basically a rundown of what Rukia and Renji's fight, as well as the rest of the chapter, would have gone like. Enjoy.
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-The pair exchange blows (Rukia uses kido as well)
-Renji explains that he found her so quickly because he's known her for so long and is most familiar with her reiatsu signature. Also provides exposition about Jidanbo's death. Rukia is shocked and saddened. Due to his frustration with Rukia's seeming betrayal, Renji makes the mistake of bringing up Kaien's death.
-Rukia gets PISSED! She releases her zanpakutō and goes all out. Renji tries to keep his distance by swinging Zabimaru from long range, but Rukia freezes it up to the hilt, depriving him of a weapon. With his crappy kido skills, Renji is defeated easily. As he's about to lose consciousness, Rukia defends her actions and beats Renji unconscious. (I know Renji's not a bad guy, but he is kind of an insensitive asshole)
-Things are looking up, but then Byakuya shows up. And…Rukia shits a brick. Byakuya knows Renji's signature and followed him. He gives his usual speech about dishonor, etc.
-Luckily, Yoruichi shows up, having retrieved Zangetsu from twelfth division. She and Byakuya exchange barbs and Yoruichi promises to make Rukia stronger than him in three days' time. After they've made their escape, she then asks Rukia if she has "the emergency signal" Rukia does, gives it to her and Yoruichi lights the firework and shoots it into the sky.
-Back in Rukongai, Kukaku tells Ganju and her flunkies to ready the cannon.
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Author's Note:
So yeah. I was going to have Rukia learn Bankai. I figured as long as I was going to have Rukia and Ichigo switch roles, I may as well have her learn bankai. I also wanted to involve Ganju and Kukaku, because I felt they were a few of the more neglected side characters. I also wanted Orihime to get some kind of blow in because Bleach has very few, if any, fights that properly utilize teamwork (at least teamwork that's successful for the heroes that doesn't end with them getting curb stomped) .
Anyway, I'll continue the same sort of format as the last part there in the next update. Hopefully I'll be able to wrap up the summary of my intentions in one chapter, but we'll see how it goes.
Translations:
Nobiro, Hōzukimaru: Grow (sometimes translated as Extend), Demon Light
El Gancho: The Uppercut