Chapter Thirteen: The Final Countdown, Part One

The Guardian of Las Noches loomed overhead, causing Nell and her Arrancar companions to quiver in fear. Its masked face made of sand seemed to twist into horrid visages, leering at the so called trash.

Mizuiru knew that he must use his zanpakutoh on it, considering that it was made of sand and all. But just as he was about to call out his zanpakutoh, he heard from behind him,

"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki."

The large Arrancar was instantly frozen solid by the attack. As it crumbled to the ground in a thousand pieces, Mizuiru whipped around to face the Shinigami that stood behind him. Rukia had her sword extended, as she had just launched her zanpakutoh's attack. Renji stood slightly to her right and behind her. He had his arms crossed over his chest and his Zabimaru sheathed and strapped to his hip. And there was someone else standing behind Rukia on her left. He was a second division member. His sword was strapped to his waist, though horizontally behind him. His mask was kept in place, obscuring his face from view. But both Mizuiru and Keigo already knew who he was.

He was their Vaizard leader, after all.

Rukia smiled at Mizuiru as she made her way down the hill. He just looked at her as if to ask 'what took you so long?'. She stopped right in front of him, and just stood there, gazing into his eyes. He gazed right back into hers. Just as they were both about to be lost in each other's eyes, however, they were interrupted by the orange haired Shinigami of the Second Division.

"I do not mean to be rude, you two. But I believe it would be prudent to move along as quickly as possible. And while the whole romantic scene between you both is quite entertaining, I also believe that it is taking up valuable time. So then I propose a solution" He then turned his attention to Mizuiru, "Kiss her and be done with it."

Mizuiru thought about for all of a nano-second before complying. He quickly grabbed Rukia by the shoulders and brought her closer to him before placing his lips on hers. It took her longer to comply, but in the end she did so by pressing back with as much force as her male counterpart.

Both of them were blushing as they broke the kiss, but they seemed quite happy and content with what had just happened. Renji, however, did not look pleased. He wasn't upset about them getting together. Oh no, far from it. The only problem with those two getting together was that Rukia's brother would probably gain a very sour disposition. And then he would take it out on his subordinates. Which meant he would take it out on Renji. The form of his displeasure would probably end up being loads and loads and loads of paperwork.

Renji had thought it before, but he knew it for a fact now. His life sucked.

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Isane silently crept out of Seiretei. She was tailing her sister, making sure she was actually training. Knowing her sister, she was probably just heading out into Rukongai in order to have a good time, and had somehow or another had managed to get Soi Fon-Taichou to cover for her so that she wouldn't get in trouble.

Now it wasn't that Isane didn't trust her younger sister, it was just that sometimes Kiyone had been known to make a little white lie here and there. So Isane was just making sure that her sister was actually training. If she was, she would head back to Seiretei immediately. She had no business peaking on her sister's training longer than necessary.

As she came upon a clearing in the forest, she spotted Soi-Fon Taichou and another female Shinigami fighting in hand to hand combat. They moved with a kind of brutal yet fluid grace as they tried to land hits against one another. It seemed that neither had the true upper hand as they fought each other. Then suddenly, they both landed blows to each other that sent them flying.

Neither of them crashed, both of them having bounced on their hands and had performed a flip in order to land back on their feet. They slid back into ready stances and started to slowly circle each other, panting and sweating profusely. As the Second Division Captain's opponent's face came into view, Isane almost let out a gasp that would have surely given away her position to the two warriors.

Soi Fon's opponent was an older version of Kiyone. She was about the same height as her elder sister, and her face had matured to look a little bit more like Isane's as well. Unlike her younger incarnation, the new Kiyone had long hair that normally would more than likely reach the base of her spine. Her hair was tied in a braid at the moment, swaying like a rope in the wind.

Unbeknownst to Isane, Akito Smith was standing in a tree no farther than ten meters from her. This was not good, she thought, this was not good at all. She needed to contact Ichigo to inform him of this incident. She closed her eyes and calmed her mind, before trying to establish a mental connection with her Leader.

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As they had stormed the dark palace Las Noches, the seven infiltrators had been forced to split up upon the discovery of a five way split in the path before them. Ichigo and Chad both went the same path, while, Keigo, Renji, and Uryu went by themselves. This left the lovebirds, a.k.a. Mizuiru and Rukia, to take the last path.

As Ichigo raced through the palace along with Chad, he noticed that one of his seven Elders was trying to establish a mental connection with him. Not seeing a way to temporarily stop in order to take the "call", he put her on hold.

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Akito mentally growled. How dare he! He knew how much she hated 'Smack That', she had told him often enough. But noooo, he just had to do everything in his power to annoy the crap out of her. She never knew how he did it either. Seriously, how in the world does one going about programming music to play when one puts them on mental 'hold'?

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As Ichigo and Chad raced through the halls, they were intercepted by an Arrancar of low rank. More than likely, he had once been an Espada, making him a Privaron. As Chad began to engage him in battle, Ichigo moved to the sidelines and finalized the connection between himself and his subordinate.

Akito's voice broke through to him, "What the fuck took you so long to answer you miserable excuse for a Leader?"

Ichigo mentally chuckled, "Sorry about that, Akito. I just didn't think it prudent to stop suddenly in the middle of a hall in Las Noches just so I could talk to one of my Elders."

Akito's voice sighed, "Anyway, I believe I have some bad news. It appears that Isane Kotetsu has spotted Kiyone's true form. What should we do?"

Ichigo's reply was quick and precise, "First, I want you to knock her out. Then inject her with enough alcohol for her to be slightly drunk. Then I want you to get Hanatarou Yamada drunk as well. Then place them both in her quarters with several jugs of sake. Also put a couple empty jugs in there as well, if you would. Hopefully something will 'happen', and she will decide that what she just saw was merely a dream. Good luck."

And with that, Ichigo broke off the connection.

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TBC

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AN: Sorry about the late updates, Marching Band Camp was this week.

Chapter is kind of short, but I will try to have the next three in by next Thursday.

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