"Daichi, don't allow yourself to be distracted," Sorako shouted, noticing his lack of focus.
"She's leading the enemy…" Yoshitada muttered.
"I'm sorry, this means you'll have to—"
"I'm not sure I can…"
"Dad, what is it?" Tada asked as she caught up.
"Nothing, it's just that their leader will be a challenge."
"You can stop her, I believe in you," Tada assured.
"Get ready!" Mitsukore shouted to the lower ranking members of the squad. They were within one hundred feet of the enemy army when they all unleashed their shikai. One man, a shinigami named Komamura, who was fifth seat, leapt into the air and swung down at the enemy. The arrancar laughed as his blow missed, but it was swiftly followed by the appearance of a massive pair of arms holding a colossal sword. This weapon sliced through several enemies, sending the others leaping back.
"Static shock charge!" Yoshitada ordered.
As the enemy stared at the devastation of the blow, the other members of the seventh squad flashed through, cutting down several enemies, running in sporadic paths, changing direction unpredictably, giving the tactic its name. Yoshitada was closely followed by Sorako and Tada as they made their way to the enemy leader.
The seventh squad moved to one location, gathering in a circle in the middle of the enemy forces. As the arrancar surrounded them and prepared their attacks, the seventh squad vanished, reappearing next to the enemy, delivering deadly blows, then blurring through the enemies to another area, reforming their circle again.
This time, a large arrancar stepped out from the crowd to challenge them. He was a bulky jikurai, armed with two large swords. Yoshitada stepped out to challenge him. The arrancar flashed to Yoshitada's side and swung his swords horizontally in opposite directions. Yoshitada flipped between the blades and ran Benikami through the arrancar's chest. As he continued his back flip, he pushed off the arrancar's face and pulled the lance from the enemy, and landing in front of a group of arrancar.
"Decimate, Benikami!" Yoshitada shouted, swinging his lance across the unit. As he swung, a wave of black fire flew through the group, incinerating them. He flashed back to join the rest of the unit as the enemy circled again. This time each charged cero blasts. Yoshitada and his unit wait for the blasts, steadily watching the enemy.
As they let loose, the seventh division disappeared again, causing the blasts to incinerate several of their fellow arrancar. When the seventh division was spotted again, they were high above the battlefield and quickly descending. As they dropped, several other arrancar fired cero blasts at them. Sorako crossed her twin battle sickles, "Withstand, Haraakuma!"
As she ordered, a shield formed beneath them, blocking the cero blasts. The shield stayed until they forcefully landed. The shield shattered into small blades of energy that tore through the enemy and filled the air with dust. The seventh squad tore through the enemy again, merging in another area.
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"General Yukima, what do we do about the seventh squad?" a jikurai asked, horrified at the power of this new legion of enemies. Yukima couldn't gather the words, their army was being devastated and the only way to stop it was to order her army to kill her husband. She couldn't bring herself to do that, but she couldn't fail, or Kurokami would take out his anger on Yoshiko.
"I-I'll handle them," Yukima stammered, walking toward her husband's group. The unit waited to strike again, relaxing before the next charge. At once, they flashed toward the enemy and began to make their way to Yukima. The first to arrive swung at her. She blocked the blow and punched his stomach, sending him to the ground. The rest gathered around her, some helping their injured friend. Yoshitada stepped forward to challenge her. The rest of the unit continued to use the static shock charge to avoid and kill the enemy.
"It's been a long time," Yoshitada began, steadying his zanpakuto.
"It has," Yukima muttered.
"Why did you lead this group here?" he asked.
"I can't tell you, I had to swear not to."
"I see," Yoshitada muttered, "but I'm a captain of the Gotei thirteen, I can't let you do this…please…understand."
"I do, but understand that I am bound by circumstances I can't control," Yukima pleaded.
"I understand," Yoshitada nodded slowly as he raised his zanpakuto. Yukima unsheathed her zampakuto and prepared to fight.
Yoshitada ran at her with the lance, as she dodged, she kicked his stomach. He flew back and rolled along the ground. He charged again, holding his zanpakuto behind him. He swung it at her stomach. She leapt over the blow and slashed his arm, landing behind him, but hesitated to deliver another blow. He spun and swung at her again, hitting her shoulder. She rolled along the ground and slowly stood.
"Disable, Benikami," Yoshitada ordered. A blast of black lightning shot from the blade. Yukima absorbed the blow with her hand. However, it was too much. It felt like the attacks from Kurokami, it sent her to the ground, her hand twitched from the energy that flowed through it.
"Prowl, Akumaneko," Yukima wheezed as she took out her sword. A cloud of smoke formed around her as she went into her released form. Her body was covered in exoskeletal armor, her hair flowed back in a black mane and the horns and ears of her mask reformed. Her fingers were tipped with sharp claws. Yoshitada knew he couldn't defeat her while she was in that form.
"Bankai," he muttered. An armor chest plate formed beneath his haori along with a shoulder pad. His zanpakuto turned into a double blade sword, one end covered with black fire, the other with white. On his left arm was a shield with spiked edges.
Yukima flashed to his side and jabbed at his ribs. He moved his left arm to block. The blow sent him stumbling back. As he stumbled, Yukima flashed behind him and jabbed at him again, this time the blow landed, stabbing through his armor and into his lower back. He shouted in pain as she pulled her hand out.
"Dad!" Tada shouted as she ran at Yukima. Yukima turned to Tada, amazed to hear her voice. Yukima smiled, so happy to see her oldest child again.
"Tada…" Yukima gasped, just as Tada's blade stabbed into her stomach. Yukima wrapped Tada in her shaky arms, just glad to be so close to her again, the pain meant nothing compared to it.
"Keep your hands off me!" Tada growled, twisting the blade.
Yukima cringed, but kept her arms where they were, "I'm sorry…for what I've done…but I'm glad to see you again."
"Who are you?" Tada muttered, twisting it further.
"Your…mother…Yukima," Yukima stammered.
"You can't be…my mother was an honorable woman, she would never become a hollow," Tada stated, trying to convince herself as she recalled stories Yoshitada told her.
"It's because of your death, and the deaths of all my children, as a spirit, I saw your younger sister die…I couldn't contain my grief, I became this monster…now I'm forced to fight you and your father…but you defeated me…you're so strong," Yukima smiled as she put her head on Tada's shoulder.
"You're lying…you have to be…" Tada cried.
"Hurry, get away from here, take your father and help him heal. When he wakes up, tell him that Yoshiko has been captured, she's in Hueco Mundo, you have to rescue her," Yukima ordered. Tada pulled the blade out and stepped back. Yukima smiled and fell.
Tada looked across the surrounding area. The arrancar were being held off by the other members of the seventh squad. Tada picked Yoshitada up and fled the battlefield as the arrancar army was forced to retreat. The retreating arrancar carried the body of their general as they returned to Hueco Mundo to recover.
Yoshitada woke in the mansion of the fourth squad. Unohana sat over him using healing kido. She saw that he was awake and smiled, "Good morning."
"To you too," Yoshitada groaned.
"You're going to be fine, she missed all your vital organs. You're lucky, she could have had her pick of any one, but chose a gap between areas of the intestine and the kidney, almost as though she was avoiding causing any major injury," Unohana explained, "Do you have any idea why she would do that?"
"I don't know. What happened to her after I was injured?" Yoshitada asked.
"Tada ran in and caught her by surprise, heavily wounding her. We couldn't confirm her death, because she was carried off by the others as they retreated," Unohana answered.
Yoshitada looked the other way to hide his grief.
Yukima's eyes opened slowly in a dimly lit room. An arrancar sat over her with medical instruments in hand. He looked at her and smiled.
"Oh good, you're awake, that little rat shinigami did quite a lot of damage to you. You shouldn't let your guard down, even if you've just slain you husband," he scolded.
"He wasn't my husband," Yukima muttered.
"Don't try to hide it, Kurokami has collected all your memories, he knows everything about you, now, shall we begin?" He began to work on the wound without anesthetics.
"What happened with the…woman who stabbed me?" Yukima cringed as he worked.
"Oh…she was killed, she tried to carry her father away and was caught by some of our men and killed," he smiled. Yukima reached up and grabbed his collar.
"Don't toy with—" she began, she stopped when he pinched one of her nerves.
"Be careful I'm working here," He smiled.
"Shut up, you've been lying this whole time," Yukima growled. He pinched another nerve.
"Whoops, you should really stop being so frightening, it's making me jumpy."
"Can't you at least put me out for this?" she muttered.
"Uh…sorry, don't have anything here."
"Bastard."
"I prefer sadistic son of a bitch, but that works as well."
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When Yoshitada recovered from his wounds, he began to train again, looking for new ways to gain strength. If he were to face another ichikurai arrancar, he would definitely have to make an improvement.
Knowing that Yukima was alive and had retained much of her human mind, he knew he had to help her destroy her hollow side. He began to train more in kido and secretly read books on other spiritual abilities such as those of Quincies, bounts, and vizards. The only ones he would be capable of achieving were those of the vizards. It was said that those who take control of their inner hollow more than double in strength, but if he were to acquire this ability, he would be banished from Soul Society and separated from his daughter and all the friends he had made.
He considered his choices as he sat on a porch of the seventh squad mansion. Sorako sat beside him. He looked up at her, she forced a smile.
"Good evening," Yoshitada greeted.
"Yeah," she sighed.
"Something wrong?" he asked, she looked to the floor for a moment, stiffened her shoulders then sighed, looking up at him.
"There's no chance for anything between us, is there?"
"What do you mean?" Again she paused, looking at the porch.
"I mean…you won't ever love me, will you?" This time he hesitated.
"Yukima is the only woman I'll ever love as a wife, but I love you, as a friend. I'm sorry."
"No…no it's fine, I should have known by now. Ever since I learned of her, ever since I heard of your life with her on earth, I should have known I can't get in the way of that…but what will you do from here? What if she was killed?"
"I trust that she wasn't, they would have left her behind if she had been, but they carried her away. Even the jikurai had their bodies left behind. She's in Hueco Mundo, and I'm going to rescue her and Yoshiko."
"Have you received the clearance from Yamamoto?"
"No, not yet, he believes it's foolish to attack them at their stronghold, but if we don't attack now, they'll gather a larger force to attack, and we'll be doomed. This attack was likely just to assess our strength, but now that they know, the next attack could mean the end of Soul Society."
"If that old man is that stubborn, then I suppose we'll have to do something by ourselves. I mean, we were the ones who caused the most damage, we lead the way, maybe others will follow," Sorako suggested.
"We won't stand a chance without all the shinigami forces behind us."
"What if…we request the help of the vizards?"
"Do you think they'd go for it?"
"It's worth a shot."
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Yukima slowly made her way down the hallway to the throne room. She knew what was in store. She was going to receive some form of punishment for her failure. Her stomach was yet to fully heal, but the pain wasn't nearly as intense. Aside from keeping her insides inside, the medic had done more harm than good. Still, she had seen Tada again, and she was doing well.
Yukima stepped into the room and looked to the throne. Kurokami sat with his legs crossed and his cheek on the palm of his hand, "Welcome, Yukima. I see your battle didn't go so well."
"Did you have a point in calling me here?" she muttered, looking to the floor.
"You can't always control how things go, I forgive you for losing."
"You're too kind," she rolled her eyes.
"You have yet to see the extent of my kindness. I wish to reward you for following my orders," he began, "I have given your daughter a special gift, a power…well, you'll appreciate it better if you see it yourself."
Yoshiko was led in the room from the side hallway. She wore a hollow mask on her forehead and walked very unsteadily. As she looked to Yukima, she burst into maniacal laughter.
"I gave her hollow powers. She seems happy with them, a little too much so, but it is a rather large jump from insignificant soul to mighty hollow."
"Yoshiko…" Yukima muttered.
"Yukima…" Yoshiko muttered.
"Yoshiko, are you alright?"
"Yukima, are you alright?"
"Yoshiko, please, snap out of it, get a hold of yourself,"
"Yukima…YuuuuUuuuUUUkiiiiIIIImaaAA," she sang, though forced to stop due to her laughter.
"Oh, I should have known this would happen, you see, when you became a hollow, you retained your humanity because the hollow side was weak, you overpowered it, but kept the form. As the hollow side grew, you adapted because you could fight it. However, Yoshiko was new to the experience and was given an adjucha level soul. She's fighting it, but it's pretty strong, she seems pretty unstable," Kurokami explained.
"You will pay for this," she muttered through gritted teeth.
"You're welcome," he scoffed, turning his nose to the ceiling.