White Sun Rising: Ultimate Rewrite Edition

Chapter 6: Breaking in, Breaking out

For a few hours the night before, the humans of the group had gone through a further reiatsu control exercise (Orihime's control was perfect, Tatsuki's was better then Chad's, who couldn't maintain the cannonball for more then two minutes and Uryū's attempt created a fucking hourglass) before being forced to go to sleep to prepare for the next morning.

The Rescue Team, plus Kaien and Ganju, (the latter of which was being forced into going by Kukaku) walked down a lit corridor while the lady in charge ignored all of Uryū's questions about how the corridor was lit.

"And we're here." They had arrived in a moderately large room, probably the inside of the huge-ass stack. In the center of the room was a massive tube. It looked suspiciously like... "Is that a fucking cannon?"

Kukaku looked at Tatsuki. "Oh, yeah. It's the Red Crane Cannon, your one-way ticket into the Seireitei!" She turned to fully face the group. "Or my name ain't Kukaku Shiba, fireworks master!"

Uryū facepalmed. He was in the land of insanity as well as the dead. "How does being a fireworks-"

She threw the cannonball into Uryū's face, shutting him up. "I fire that thing and it'll launch you toward the Seireitei with enough velocity to make those Onmitsukidō jackasses look like they're walking. The cannonball's there to form a shell powerful enough to keep you from getting killed by the barrier surrounding the Seireitei. It'll also keep you from getting killed by the speed you're going at, because you're going fast enough to turn you into a red paste otherwise."

Shinji smirked. "That'd be fun to experience." Hiyori pulled out the infamous sandal and smacked Shinji in the back of the head. "No, it wouldn't!"

Tatsuki saw Ichigo and Rukia in them for some odd reason. Unresolved sexual tension, perhaps? 'Nah. She just likes hurting the people she likes. Like a tsundere.' Tatsuki's eyes widened at that realization.

'Must. Get. Brain bleach. I do NOT want to think about that.'

Kaien pushed the two Vizards into the massive tube of doom.

"Look, we don't have all day. Get in the cannon, people!" Tatsuki had never been fired out of a cannon before. She suspected it would involve mass amounts of vomiting. Orihime, on the other hand... "I've never been shot out of a cannon before! It's like one of those American circus things I've heard about!" Uryū, now having recovered from the cannonball to the face, shook his head. Orihime Inoue was and barring certain circumstances always would be an airhead. The Rescue Team entered the opening of the cannon, and were instructed to sit down.

"Ok, get ready, people! Time to rescue Ichigo and Rukia!"

6th Division Cell block, Seireitei, Soul Society, July 25th, 2002, 1023 hours

Ichigo was, once again, talking with Rukia, mostly about their lives before they met, and wondering just who Urahara sent to say their asses. 'Speaking of Urahara, he owes me an explanation when we get back.'

'You DO realize that he couldn't've created the Hollows in those people? If that were the case, I wouldn't be here.' Ichigo knew Zangetsu had a point. (AN: Ichigo still doesn't know his name: I'm just not bothering to hide it from the readers anymore)

That didn't change the fact that Urahara had a lot of explaining to do. 'He could've 'woke up' the Inner Hollows, but I doubt that, too.' Ichigo raised an eyebrow as Rukia talked about her first few days at the Shin'o Academy.

'Oh?'

'Not sure 'bout you, but he don't seem the type to needlessly screw over his friends.' Ichigo tapped the hilt of Shirayuki's sealed state before wincing. Rukia knew why.

Sode no Shirayuki did not like being tapped. Ichigo looked like he was only halfway listening to what she was saying.

She briefly entertained the fact that he was talking with Shirayuki, but she tossed that out the window seconds in.

Only a shinigami that was close to or had attained bankai could do that. Ichigo might've had the most terrifying growth rate in shinigami history, but it was impossible. He had to be thinking about something pretty hard. "What are you thinking about, Ichigo?"

Ichigo blinked and looked at her. "Oh, I'm just talking with Shirayuki and my zanpakutō: he kinda woke up a couple of days ago, so-" He stopped when Rukia started gaping and he heard Shirayuki facepalming inside his head.

Which was kinda confusing, as it involved her head inside his head.

'Damned stupid of me...Why did I not realize that?' Ichigo blinked in confusion, and decided to voice a question at the same time as his zanpakutō. 'What?' 'The hell are you talking about, Shira?'

Shirayuki ceased her facepalming and sighed before explaining. 'The only time we should even be able to talk is while you're in jinzen. Instead, we can speak to you while you are consciously aware of the outer world, something only shinigami that have acquired bankai should be capable of.' 'Wait, are you telling me we're close to bankai?! He can't even use my shikai!' 'The fuck is bankai, anyway?'

Before Ichigo could get any answer, the overly quiet sounds of multiple people shunpo'ing into the room were heard. Ichigo faced the new arrivals, and he was slightly surprised to see that they were, for lack of a better term, ninjas.

Shirayuki corrected him. 'They're Onmitsukidō. Their duties involve internal security and covert operations.'

'Spies and assassins, like the American CIA or the old Russian KGB? Fucking great.'

"Ichigo Kurosaki, you are under arrest." Ichigo narrowed his eyes dangerously. "For what?" "You are to be detained until the ryōka have been captured. This is a ruling from the Central 46." Ichigo's hand twitched slightly. He was ready for a fight. "And if I refuse?"

The leader of the team reached for his sword. "Then we will have to insist." An explosion was heard, accompanied by a bright light as something hit the barrier.

This distracted the Onmitsukidō operatives.

Mistake.

'King, if you're going to do something, do it NOW!' In one swift movement, Ichigo drew Sode no Shirayuki and cut through the bars before grabbing a bewildered Rukia and running into a wall. The sound of a wall exploding got their attention, and all turned to see a hole in wall.

Shaped more or less like their target.

Which was escaping with the prisoner.

"Son of a bitch: the captain's going to have our asses." "SHUT UP AND FOLLOW THEM!"

Back with our favorite duo... "STOP HITTING ME, RUKIA!" "THEN PUT ME DOWN, STRAWBERRY!" Yeah, status quo.

Ichigo was running like mad with Rukia in a fireman's carry (Shirayuki was sheathed before he went through the wall) while the shorter shinigami began pounding on his back with her fists. The squad of Onmitsukidō ninjas (Ichigo would not call them anything else for the time being, considering they WERE ninjas) were now hot on their trail, but they were about to lose said trail. "I'll put you down when we're not-" He didn't finish his sentence as they fell down a hole.

The Onmitsukidō squad failed to notice the open hole in the street, mostly because they were looking up, not down. They shunpo'ed past it and their targets. Idiots.

Back with Ichigo and Rukia, who were busy trying to recover from falling about 20 feet down an underground shaft. "Ow."

Rukia sat up, blinking. "Where are we?" Her question was answered when she saw brownish water and the smell hit her nose. "A sewer. You landed us in a sewer, Ichigo." Ichigo glared at Rukia. "At least we avoided the fucking ninja squad after our asses!"

'Keep quiet! Unless you want to be caught?' Ichigo winced. "Sorry." The proverbial lightbulb appeared over his head. "Hey, could I hand you back to her?"

Rukia looked at Ichigo. "What?" Ichigo waved it off. "Sorry, was talking to Shirayuki."

Shirayuki hummed in thought inside Ichigo's head. When Rukia was on his back, she could almost feel her true home.

She was going to miss the sideways world, but Ichigo was right. 'Do it.'

He pulled Shirayuki's blade out from his belt, scabbard and all, and presented it to Rukia. Rukia blinked, but reached for the zanpakutō. The moment she touched it, a bright gold flash blinded her and she fell on her ass.

When she regained her bearings, she discovered Shirayuki was at her waist once more, and that she was wearing a shihakushō rather then the prison garb she had on earlier. There were three tiny problems, though. One was quickly voiced by Ichigo. "What the fuck?! I still have her!"

A copy of Shirayuki's sealed state was on his hip. Yet Rukia had it. When she tried to get up, she noticed problem two.

There was a zanpakutō that wasn't Shirayuki on her back, hanging there by what appeared to be a braid made of moderately-sized diamond-shaped rosary beads. "And I've got another zanpakutō on my back!"

The third was quickly voiced by both. Rukia saw a cloth-covered hilt sticking out behind Ichigo's head, and Ichigo noticed the blade that was as tall as he was. "What the hell?!"

In both of their heads, a slightly warped version of Ichigo's voice spoke. 'This could be a problem.'

A couple of minutes earlier

The cannonball/barrier/whatever-the-fuck it was called hit the barrier, and was beginning to break apart seconds after getting through. "Son of a bitch!" The Rescue Team were almost into the Seireitei, as the barrier wasn't made to take on both spiritual and kinetic force. The cannonball won out, but just barely. "We are going to die!" "SHUT UP, ISHIDA!"

The cannonball finally broke apart, and everyone grabbed onto someone else.

Shinji latched onto Hiyori, who grabbed Kaien, who was screaming at her to let him go. Ganju also grabbed onto his big brother's leg, causing the eldest Shiba to scream profanities at them all.

Tatsuki latched her hand onto Orihime while Chad grabbed Uryū and gripped onto Orihime's arm. Yoruichi was torn between helping the children (they WERE younger then her) or making sure Kaien wasn't driven insane.

'Forget Kaien: the kids need more help then he does.' She used shunpo to make her way over to Chad, latching onto him with her claws. The giant never noticed.

On the ground, a man dressed all in black looked upwards at the falling group before the largest one landed on him, causing a scream of pain.

Upon landing and hearing it, Chad winced, apologizing to the man he had landed on. He didn't hear it, of course: too busy being in pain and unconscious. Tatsuki got off of Chad's shoulders, then glanced at the guy Chad landed on. "Ouch. He's not getting up for a while."

"And neither will any of you, ryōka!" All of them turned their attention to the end of the street, where a familiar redhead was standing. Uryū remembered this guy: Ichigo called him Renji Abarai. "Howl, Zabimaru!" (BGM: Attack on the Beat, Bleach: The Diamond-Dust Rebellion OST) He drew his zanpakutō and swiped his hand over it, transforming it into the whip-sword from hell.

"Orihime, protect Tatsuki!"

"Fuck that, bow boy! I'm not hiding-" Renji swung the whip-sword at Tatsuki, who had to use her relatively new zanpakutō (which she had taken from Miyako's undead hands, temporarily gave to Kaien and reclaimed that morning prior to being launched out the big fucking cannon) to block most of the strike, but had to duck to avoid injury. "Ok, that worked."

Renji swung the blade toward Orihime, who deployed her Santen Kesshun to stop the whip of death. "What the fuck? How'd she-" "EL DIRECTO!"

An energy wave was sent in Renji's general direction, followed by a large number of arrows.

Renji shunpo'ed to avoid most of the attacks, but failed to notice Tatsuki pointing at him. "Hado 1: Sho!" Renji's eyes widened as that left Tatsuki's mouth, followed by the burst hitting him and knocking him into a building, partly collapsing it and covering the shinigami lieutenant in rubble.

"How's rock taste, bitch!?" While he shared Tatsuki's enthusiasm in beating Renji, Uryū was more calm and collected. Thus, he tried to take charge. "Arisawa, we need to hide: there will be more shinigami coming here soon, and that is the last thing we need."

They failed to notice that Yoruichi was gone, not that they saw her to begin with: they had bigger problems.

Like running from the Gotai 13.

Back with the more important characters of the fic

Zangetsu's comment was a MASSIVE understatement. "Really?! You think?!"

Rukia glared at Ichigo before pulling the zanpakutō off her back. It looked like a properly sized version of the sword Ichigo used, sans the tassel.

It was also the same length as Shirayuki's sealed state, and the angle of its' placing meant it was supposed to be drawn with the left hand. Ichigo's massive blade was the polar opposite: it appeared to be meant to be drawn with the right, and the Shirayuki copy by the left, as it had moved to his right side. Rukia's thoughts then turned to Shirayuki herself, and she mentally slapped herself for forgetting. 'It's good to have you back, Shirayuki.' 'Likewise, Rukia.' Then the slightly unwelcome voice that sounded like Ichigo, yet not him, spoke up. 'Gotta say, Shirayuki, your home is pretty looking.' Rukia was spooked, and Ichigo somehow knew why. 'Hollow, stop scaring her.' 'Ichigo?! How-' Shirayuki's facepalm was heard on both ends. 'We have a bigger problem then I first believed. It appears that you are...linked to one another.' Ichigo blinked. "Like...soul mates or something?" Rukia blushed, and was tempted to smack Ichigo had it not been for Zangetsu's cackle. 'Like it or not, you two act like a couple!'

Rukia wanted to hurt the spirit within Ichigo. "Do you know that bastard's name?" Ichigo shrugged helplessly. "I've been using Shirayuki; I don't know his name." Rukia was indignant. "You don't know-" 'Zangetsu.'

Both shinigami paused at the sound of his voice. 'My name, midget shinigami, is Zangetsu!'

"I heard him that time!" Rukia, although insulted, was far more shocked. "So did I."

This was freaky.

But they had bigger problems: this was supposed to be impossible, so Rukia didn't want to end up in the 12th Division's labs as they tried to find how how it worked.

"So, we've got each other's shikai and maybe bankai if us hearing them without jinzen is a sign of things." 'Rukia, we must discuss something that concerns all of us. But it can wait until we are in a safe hiding place.'

The sewers had distracted the Onmitsukidō operatives, but only because they were not as competent as their commander would have liked them to be.

After all, only a total idiot doesn't look down as well as up.

Now for the information rant.

Ok, first off, I split the Rescue Team into two groups mostly to show off their new powers.

Uryū's at the midway point between the bow we see him using in the Soul Society and the Gatling gun bow we see him using later on, but he doesn't have the Seele Schneider or the Senrei glove, so no sword fighting or overpowered last attacks for him.

Chad's got stage two of his Fullbring and he can use the Fullbringer equivalent to shunpo, but he doesn't know about the latter yet. Still, he'll last for a time against a captain-level opponent and Kyoraku would have a harder time against him if he were at this state in canon.

Orihime, meanwhile, has learned that she can combine her Shun Shun Rikka for combined effects and thanks to Tessai knows a bit about kido.

Tatsuki is a bit of a hybrid of Yoruichi and Hueco Mundo Invasion-era Uryū as she can use her raw power for melee combat, much like Yoruichi with shunko, and she now has a sword (Miyako's zanpakutō, which Tatsuki took from her) that she uses sparingly, like Uryū and the Seele Schneiders.

That's the part I know you're going to bitch about. Allow me to pull up an example.

Kukaku Shiba.

She's not a shinigami, yet she can use kido. Sure, she's a pure soul, but that is no excuse for Orihime or Tatsuki not to be able. Hell, Ishida could probably do it if he had the inclination, Quincy or not.

Second is the zanpakutōs that Ichigo and Rukia now have and why Ichigo's Zangetsu is not sealed while both copies of Shirayuki and Rukia's Zangetsu are.

Shirayuki was originally created from an asauchi while Zangetsu was created from Ichigo's inherited shinigami powers and the Hollow White, and while I can see Shirayuki's sealed state being split in two for both of them, Zangetsu not so much.

And because Rukia lacks the reiatsu Ichigo does, (even after getting the damn thing reforged in the most recent arc, Zangetsu is STILL in shikai, meaning he CAN'T seal it due to his overwhelming power) she gets a properly sized version of Ichigo's canon proto-zanpakuto.

At least for now: once she recovers fully, both Zangetsus will be in permanent shikai, which is the way of things.

Skywalker seems to have forgotten that, and my oversight from the adopted version has now been corrected.

Now comes the painful part: Ichigo's zanpakutō and the fact that it likes to evolve.

First, it was a oversized khyber knife (for people who have no clue what this is, it's a Persian anti-chainmail dagger) with an undersized hilt. (at least if it was an actual 6-inch khyber knife)

Next it became what I like to call the trench knife from hell with an equally undersized, but proper, grip.

After being reforged, it became TWO swords: a forearm-length trench knife and a slightly hollowed out version of the massive khyber knife.

Well, it's not as though Ichigo's going to be dual-wielding Shirayuki and stage 3 shikai Zangetsu at the same time.

If Tensa Zangetsu remains a single blade, then dual-wielding with Hakka no Togame (about fucking time we got the real name for Rukia's bankai) remains an option, although Ichigo's going to need to skip shikai to bankai Shirayuki.

Well, for now at least, Tensa Zangetsu and Hakka no Togame are dual-wieldable blades.

This actually brings up a problem I'm going to have in another fic.

As you've noticed, I've been having the shit kicked out of me by Mortal Kombat character Scorpion. I'm trying to make an MK/Bleach fic, but-

(Kunai and rope hits author in the back)

Scorpion: NO SPOILERS! GET OVER HERE!

(Author gets dragged away screaming and Urahara pops his head out)

Urahara: I guess I'll finish it, then.

Wilhelm Scream count: 10

Next Time on WSR URE: The human half Rescue Team deals with everyone's favorite psychopaths while the spiritual half...well-

(Kunai n' rope hits Urahara)

Scorpion: You heard me! COME 'ERE!

Urahara: (resisting Scorpion's pull) Ja NEEE! (Gets pulled away)