White Sun Rising: Ultimate Rewrite Edition
AN: I sincerely apologize for the utter lack of updating, but I have two things to blame: Star Trek Online and my fellow co-authors 117Jorn, Takeshi Yamato, Titanic X and Patriot-112.
The former because it's fucking addicting.
The latter...well, my fics are on the lower end of my priority list at the moment, seeing as they ALWAYS need my help with something. I hate being the most knowledgeable Star Trek co-author around sometimes.
But I digress.
I actually had this ready almost two weeks ago, but Jorn and co needed me so often that I had almost zero time to edit it. Enjoy the chapter, because it's about fucking time I posted it.
Chapter 8: Bad to Worse
Sode no Shirayuki was screaming at Ichigo to get the hell away from the captain that was attacking him.
This was Kenpachi Zaraki, the most bloodthirsty captain of the 11th Division since the original Kenpachi: fighting him one on one was suicide. 'I need to buy time for Rukia to get out of here, Shirayuki! I don't plan on dying!'
Kenpachi delivered an overpowered strike that nearly cracked the khyber knife in Ichigo's right hand before the younger substitute kicked the fearsome man away.
'So, Zangetsu, any special powers I can use to save my ass from this guy?' Zangetsu's reply sounded anything but pleased. 'I'd prefer to show you myself and make you learn them, but since this guy is trying to kill us-' Kenpachi's chipped sword hit Zangetsu once more, this time actually cracking the sharpened edge.
'Zangetsu, either tell me what I need to do or we are both going to die!' 'Charge reiatsu into the blade, swing it at the son of a bitch and say 'Getsuga Tensho'!'
Ichigo jumped back, dodging another strike from the monster named Zaraki before doing just what Zangetsu said to do. "Getsuga..." Gold reiatsu built up on the edge of the blade before Ichigo swung it at Kenpachi. "Tensho!" The golden wave of energy launched from Zangetsu's edge heading for the Kenpachi, who was too perplexed to dodge the attack.
"What the f-" It impacted Kenpachi, sending him into a wall. Ichigo, meanwhile, was inspecting the blade. The Getsuga actually repaired some of the damage, surprisingly. 'Moon Fang Heaven Piercer? Really?'
'Hey, I didn't come up with the attack: I was just born with it!'
Ichigo narrowed his eyes at that. 'I WAS going to say it was actually kinda fitting.'
'Oh. Sorry, King.'
A warcry was heard as Kenpachi rocketed out of the ruined wall towards Ichigo.
'Son of a bitch.' Ichigo barely blocked the strike, with Kenpachi's chipped and very, VERY sharp blade getting too close for comfort.
"That was cheap, but then again, I do shit like that from time to time. Now FIGHT ME!"
Meanwhile
Kaien groaned as he unburied himself from the debris of the wall Komamura batted him into.
'That. HURT.' Something hit him on the head, then landed on his lap."Damn it, what's with things hitting-" He shut up the second he saw what it was.
An asauchi with a yellow hilt and a circular tsuba.
Komamura had knocked him into a storage room used by the 7th Division for spare zanpakutō.
"Well, my day just got better." He grabbed the blade and unsheathed it. 'Here's hoping this works.'
Releasing a zanpakutō using an asauchi had never been done before, but Kaien was rather desperate.
He began twirling the sword in his hand before calling out the release command. "Rankle the seas and the skies, Nejibana!"
Unexpectedly, it transformed into the halberd/trident hybrid, much to Kaien's surprise.
Still, this meant he was no longer almost totally defenseless, so who was he to complain?
He hopped to his feet before sending a torrent of water in Komamura's general direction. Komamura, meanwhile, was too focused on Shinji and Hiyori to notice the torrent heading toward him until it was too late.
A familiar scream was heard as Komamura was sent flying toward another wall, collapsing the building as well. Kaien jumped down and landed in front of Hiyori and Shinji.
His brother poked his head out from around a corner, as he was no match for a captain and he knew it. "Kaien-nii, you've got your zanpakutō back!"
"Took getting another asauchi to do it, but yeah. So, where the hell-"
A loud crash was heard, followed by Komamura emerging from the rubble.
"Son of a bitch." "Yeah, we should go."
With the other half of the Rescue Team
The human half of the team had snuck through the 11th Division as stealthily as possible, but they were nearly spotted five times, and although they evaded their pursuers, they couldn't run and hide forever.
Hence, this situation.
"Arisawa, WHY did you think it was a good idea to steal these from the shinigami?"
They were currently inside one of the 10th Division's store rooms.
Stealing uniforms.
In a general overview, it was either a horrible idea or a great one, depending on whether or not they ran into that division's captain.
"I'm getting tired of having to run. We need to search the place without having to fight everyone we run into." Uryū thought it was a bad idea, but that was his pride speaking.
Upon sending his pride into a deep, dark corner of his soul, (and shoving a few arrows into it to make it scream) he saw the benefits.
If the shinigami didn't bother closely sensing them, which they probably wouldn't, they'd ignore them until they did something stupid.
Or those two idiots from the 11th woke up.
Whichever came first.
"Ok, so we'll mostly look the part. Problem is, you're the only one with a zanpakutō, Arisawa." "They can't ALL be katanas, can they? They might be tantos or something."
With that argument over, Uryū and Chad had shihakushōs thrown on their heads by the karate expert, and by the time Uryū got himself detangled, he was greeted with the sight of a partly undressed Tatsuki, who had just barely put on the white hakama-himo while Orihime had barely gotten her top off.
Tatsuki snarled when she noticed Uryū was no longer blinded.
Pray he's got a good dental plan. "PERVERT!"
Meanwhile
Toshiro Hitsugaya, Captain of the 10th Division, was busy with paperwork, as invasion or not, bureaucracy went on.
He sometimes wished he didn't have to perform the duties, but he did them anyways, as he was far more responsible then some of his fellow captains. (Kyōraku and Zaraki instantly came to mind) He sipped his tea before returning to work, signing the papers.
Hitsugaya decided he would finish them before he went off to fight the ryōka, due to the fact that the Soul Society's bureaucracy was a bitch.
He felt slightly drowsy as he signed the tenth sheet, something which had not happened before during his time as a member of the 10th Division.
His head fell back, hitting the back of the chair he sat in.
Hitsugaya felt Hyōrinmaru scream, but the young captain could do nothing as he felt himself move against his will.
When he regained feeling, he was kneeling on a walkway within the 9th Division's grounds.
'How did I get-' He then saw traces of blood on his haori.
And none of it were his.
Hitsugaya found a trail of blood on a nearby wall, then looked upwards, eyes widening the whole while.
At the apex of the blood trail was Captain Sosuke Aizen of the 5th Division, impaled upon Kyoka Suigetsu, his own zanpakutō.
Hyōrinmaru was coated in blood, likely Aizen's.
There was no way he could have killed Aizen: he had fallen unconscious.
'Son of a bitch: I'm being framed for this!' Hitsugaya quickly removed his haori, as he would be more quickly identified that way.
The Gotai 13 would be after him soon, and he doubted Momo, so dedicated to her captain, would bother helping him.
His only hope were the ryōka.
'And I have no idea where they are.'
Hitsugaya ran to the edge of the railing and jumped off the walkway before shunpo'ing down to ground level. 'I might as well start looking for them. There's at least 6 of them, and Kuchiki was broken out by Kurosaki.'
Back with Ichigo
Ichigo had been crossing swords intermittently with Zaraki for 20 minutes, and he vowed NEVER to fight the crazy fucking bastard ever again.
It wasn't the fact that he was trying to kill Ichigo: according to Shirayuki, that was par for the course.
It was because his zanpakutō would NOT STOP SCREAMING.
Ichigo was more in tune with zanpakutōs then most, if not all, shinigami, meaning every time Zaraki's zanpakutō hit either Shirayuki or Zangetsu (Ichigo had decided to take up dual-wielding in order to hold him off longer) Ichigo heard the bastard's sword screaming in pain.
And Kenpachi was beginning to notice the pained look on Ichigo's face every time they clashed.
To be honest, he was getting confused about it, and while he didn't care about such things usually, this was getting in the way of a fight.
"The fuck is your problem? My strikes aren't doing that much damage to you!"
"I can hear your fucking zanpakutō SCREAMING every time it hits either of mine!"
Kenpachi might've been stupid when it came to zanpakutōs, but that didn't mean he was completely brainless. He knew all about shikai and bankai and shit, and he vaguely remembered something about the zanpakutō having a spirit...of..it's own...
'Son of a bitch.'
If this was why almost no one outside of the 11th Division wanted to fight him, (and in Zaraki's mind, having to hear someone's screaming that you couldn't stop was worse then any death he could inflect on his foe) then he'd have to solve that.
But that was later: right now, he had a fight to win, and Ichigo was strong enough to make him take off the eyepatch. Hell, the brat could hear the bells on the tips of his spiky head.
Meaning Ichigo was powerful enough to kill him if possible.
"I'll try to work on that screaming thing. But for now..." He reached for the eyepatch, which confused Ichigo. 'The fuck is he-' 'Ichigo, get out of there!'
Too late. Kenpachi removed the patch, and a tower of golden energy launched into the sky.
"What the hell?! What that thing hiding a weapon or something?!" Kenpachi scoffed at that. "Fuck no! Damn thing just keeps my reiatsu from crushing everything around me."
He flipped it around, showing Ichigo that it had a cluster of mouths on the side covering the eye itself. "Got too much for my damn good: I like long drawn-out fights. Unless I've got this thing, everything ends too quickly."
'That...is fucking sickening.' 'Amen to that, King: keep that thing away from me!' 'Not what I meant.' Shirayuki clarified Ichigo's comment unintentionally. 'I agree with Ichigo. Cutting yourself off from your zanpakutō will only hinder yourself and make the zanpakutō hate you in the end.'
Zangetsu was clearly surprised by that, but that was replaced with a larger amount of anger.
Ichigo saved Shirayuki from that fate and Shirayuki saved Zangetsu from it when she saved him from the Quincy spirit.
Now it was time for all of them to make Zaraki realize this undeniable fact once and for all. 'King, I want you to make this son of a bitch regret abandoning his zanpakutō in favor of his own strength for the rest of his days! Take all my strength and KICK HIS ASS!'
Zangetsu practically pulsed with power while the temperature around Sode no Shirayuki decreased to below zero.
Zaraki grinned manically, although deep in his mind, he had the feeling he was going to regret this course of action.
He would realize it later.
"COME ON, BOY! LET'S HAVE SOME FUN!"
MUCH later.
The crazed captain charged at Ichigo, who stabbed the ground once with Shirayuki, beginning the first dance. "Some no Mai-"
"You're not finishing that!"
"Tsugi no Mai: Hakuren!" Zaraki blinked at the new, female voice. He didn't get the chance to look at the source when a wave of snow hit him in the face, followed by being encased in a tower of ice that didn't quite reach the top of the buildings in the area they were in.
Ichigo blinked thrice before looking upwards, spotting Rukia on top of a building with a released Shirayuki in hand.
"Rukia, I thought-"
"Ichigo, I can read your mind now: I'm not going to let you fight alone anymore."
The icy pillar exploded before Ichigo could respond, and out came Zaraki, who was still alive, albeit frostbitten. "So...that's the power of a zanpakutō in full sync with its' wielder! Gotta get me some of that later."
'He's a goddamn demon.'
Demon or not, Zaraki was weakened from having TWO of Shirayuki's Dances thrown at him at the same time by captain and lieutenant-level opponents.
"But this fight ain't over-" "Snap, Tobiume!"
A fireball hit Zaraki in the back, and despite being on fire, Zaraki managed to cast a glare at the source of the attack: Momo, who, while still injured, was still more then combat capable.
"You little-"
"Getsuga Tensho!"
He turned his head to look at Ichigo just as a gold wave of reiryoku hit Zaraki in the face, FINALLY knocking the bastard out.
"Lieutenant Hinamori, I thought I told you to stay back there!"
Momo sealed Tobiume, then sheathed the blade before using it much like a cane as her leg was still damaged, although Rukia's healing kido had managed to heal it to the point where she could walk on it with some assistance.
"We both know I outrank you, Rukia. Besides, Captain Zaraki attacked all three of us and once he gives his report when he gets up, all of us are going to be on the run."
"Very astute, Lieutenant Hinamori."
Momo jumped at the sound of the second most terrifying captain in the Gotai 13's voice reached her ears.
She managed to shunpo down to street level, followed by Rukia, who seemed a bit faster then usual. Ichigo looked upwards at the captain who scared the shit out of Momo.
It was a tall woman wearing a haori, with her long black hair tied in a very loose reverse ponytail. 'Who the hell is she?'
'Retsu Unohana, Captain of the 4th Division...but this is odd: she's usually less...disheveled then this.'
Ichigo looked into her eyes, noticing the same look in her eyes that was in Zaraki's.
Pure bloodlust.
It was controlled, unlike the psychopath that was currently unconscious, but just barely.
'I think the shit has hit the fan.'
Unohana shunpo'ed down, drawing her zanpakutō in the process. It seemed she only remembered the sword mid-step, like she rarely carried it.
"You fought and defeated Zaraki, and you are still standing. Had you only been barely able to defeat him, you would not have caught my notice."
The barely-tied ponytail finally fell apart, with the hair parting to either side. "But you still stand and are still able to do battle."
All three paled as Unohana's usual gentle and motherly smile, which had adorned her face the entire time, turned savage. "Allow me to introduce myself, Kurosaki-kun. I am Yachiru Unohana, current captain of the 4th Division and first captain of the 11th Division."
Rukia and Momo paled as they realized that this meant Unohana was the first Kenpachi. That meant she was FAR worse then Zaraki ever could be.
Ichigo, as usual, took it in stride. There was no way she could be worse then Zaraki, right?
"Do not worry, Kurosaki-kun. You will not die so easily. I learned to heal..." The smile she wore gained a tint of mad glee. "So my opponents could keep fighting."
Ichigo didn't like the sound of that.
'Great, she's WORSE then Zaraki!'
Back with the human half of the Rescue Team
Uryū and Chad led the team through the grounds of the 9th Division, avoiding as many people as humanly possible when they felt the sensation of enough reiatsu to make their breathing slightly more difficult. The fact that Uryū traced it's epicenter to a location almost on the other side of the Seireitei made it even worse. "Ok, did anyone else feel that?" Chad simply nodded while Tatsuki was more vocal. "That was Ichigo. Had to be." Uryū used his reiatsu detecting skills to find out what the hell was going on.
There were four shinigami with Kurosaki, one of whom was Rukia. One was unconscious, but two of them were awake and alert along with Rukia.
"They're in that direction."
"I was wondering where the ryōka were." All of them turned to spot a younger-looking shinigami with white hair and a zanpakutō strapped to his back.
"Shit!"
The shinigami raised his hands placatingly. "Wait! I'm not your enemy!" Tatsuki's hand was still on her zanpakutō, but she didn't draw it.
"Who are you?"
He lowered his hands. "My name is Toshiro Hitsugaya. I can take you to your friends, but it may not be as easy as you think." He pointed at the general area Ichigo seemed to be.
"That is the 5th Division's grounds. Getting there will be easy, but it seems Captain Unohana and M-Lieutenant Hinamori are there as well."
They were not exactly trusting of him, but they had little choice unless Yoruichi decided to show up, as they had no clue how to get there.
"What division are you part of?"
Toshiro winced, but sighed. "Captain of the 10th, but I'm currently on the run. Someone framed me for murder, and unless I can prove my innocence, I'm just as dead as Kuchiki could've been if Kurosaki didn't break her out." Tatsuki finally let go of her sword.
"Fine. But if you even THINK of betraying us-" Toshiro scoffed before she could finish.
"I won't. To clear my name and get your friends back, we have to work together."
And at that moment, an alliance was born. An alliance that would change everything.
The 'worse' in the chapter title? That was Unohana.
I was actually inspired by an AvP/Bleach crossover involving the crazy bitch fighting Ichigo after beating the shit out of Zaraki.
I thought about it. Thought about it some more. Then I realized it scared the piss out of me.
I liked it.
Then I realized I needed to pull the same thing.
Toshiro being framed comes from another fic, but I've long since forgotten which one. Tatsuki was there, too.
Kaien's got his zanpakutō back. Mostly because I wanted him to and that really, he's nothing without the damn thing.
And finally, there's the question that all of you are going to ask.
'Where the hell is Yachiru? Unless ordered to by Zaraki, she'd never leave his side.'
She's busy. Driving Yoruichi insane.
That's right: she's chasing the cat-woman.
Of course-
(Blades of Exile go past Author's head)
Author: Really? (Ducks as Kratos flies past) Who the hell is he- (Eyes widen) SHIT!
(Author dives for cover before Kenpachi Zaraki flies past with Kratos beating the shit out of him)
Yachiru: (Lands on Author's shoulders) Yay! Ken-chan's got a new playmate!
Author:... Get. The. Fuck. Off. Me.
Yachiru: Nope!
Author: (Shao Khan's voice from MK2) Prepare to die.
Wilhelm Scream count: 13
Next Time on WSR URE: Three on one! Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia Kuchiki and Momo Hinamori versus Yachiru Unohana!
Ja Ne!