LOTUS
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any characters involved in Bleach…
A/N: I enjoyed writing this chapter, a healthy amount of action, hope you ENJOY!
Special thanks to my beta reader: MyNameIsARickRoll :D
"...bankai"
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Rangiku was almost trembling from the huge amounts of reiatsu being discharged from her captains position.
"Hey!" Braxis waved at her, trying to get her attention. "Helloooo?" Rangiku continued to ignore him. "Come in hotcakes!"
"Huh? What did you just call me?" She finally replied, Braxis smacked his right hand against his face.
"You know if you want to ditch this fight and go assist your captain, I'm perfectly fine with that!" He claimed enthusiastically.
"Give it a rest will you?" Rangiku said, yawning.
"Fine let's just get this over with then, I'll try not to tear you limb from limb." Braxis remarked, snickering.
"I can't make the same promise." Rangiku retorted with a grin.
With that the two leaped towards each other colliding in midair, Braxis was clearly over powering Rangiku at this point since her zanpakuto wasn't released. He was slashing from side to side, he was quick, but slow enough that Rangiku could block or parry his attacks with relative ease.
Rangiku kicked off of Braxis' chest, sliding a bit when she landed back onto solid ground.
"Growl Haineko." Rangiku announced.
Braxis had never seen a zanpakuto like it, as it evaporated into a cloud of charcoal coloured smoke suddenly the smoke rushed towards him, about to completely envelope him, Braxis had no choice but to dodge, using shunpo he quickly teleported away from the drifting dust cloud. It was difficult to avoid, Braxis was practically throwing himself out of it's path, and still just narrowly dodging it.
Braxis paused for a brief second, finally discovering a path of attack, he used shunpo teleporting next Rangiku and whipping his sword downwards, Rangiku stepped sideways, although the blade cut off a few of her hairs, as she noticed a few golden strings fluttering towards the ground.
Suddenly Braxis began using shunpo and attacking her from all directions, her ash was useless at this distance, Rangiku returned her zanpakuto to it's solid form and was using it to block Braxis rapid and wild blows.
Rangiku noticed an opening, charged forward and readied an uppercut, something was wrong though, Braxis didn't even attempt to read her movements or put up his guard, before she could fully reach her opponent, Braxis suddenly pulled his zanpakuto to the right, somehow yanking Rangiku in the same direction. Rangiku exhaled as a stinging pain shot through the left side of her stomach.
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White reiatsu was surrounding the man in front of Toshiro, Yori's zanpakuto was now made out of a solid bone-like material, although the guard and hilt had not changed, more of the bone like substance clung up his right arm, extending to his shoulder blade, then crawling up his spine, on both of his shoulders rested two wolf skulls, which were attached to the spine.
"Don't worry, I doubt this fight will last long enough time to escalate into such lengths that we would be able to seriously injure one another."
Ichigo gazed at the scene unfolding in front of him, not paying attention to his enemy which was charging for him, Ichigo was able to dodge, but stumbled backwards onto the floor, bracing himself for a heavy slash, when suddenly Renji stepped in, slinging Zabimaru in front of Shin's upcoming attack.
"Pay attention to what you're doing Ichigo!" Renji yelled, pulling back Zabimaru and scratching Shin's back.
"What the hell!" Ichigo screamed looking outraged, "the first attack you throw at him is a hit!"
"Next time you should pay attention to what you're doing!" Renji replied with a smirk, as he stepped up to battle Shin himself.
"No way, this is my fight!" Ichigo slammed his blade onto the enemies, budding in front of Renji to do so.
"Stop this!" Shin demanded, the frown returning to his face. "Decide which one of you will fight me!"
Renji and Ichigo looked at each other, fury lingering in both sets of eyes.
"Rock, paper, scissors!" they shouted in unison, throwing there fists downwards. Both had chosen rock.
"Rock, paper, scissors!" Both threw down scissors.
"Rock, paper, scissors!" Ichigo's hand was flat while Renji's was tightened into a fist.
"No! Best two out of three!" Renji groaned, but Ichigo ignored his request.
Ichigo took a stance in front of Shin. "Looks like you're still up against me."
"I'm glad, we can properly finish our battle." Shin replied, grinning.
Renji, moped his way back to the group of the others which had accumulated about thirty feet away from the two battles, most of them were standing on nicely trimmed emerald grass under a healthy sized tree.
"Guess I'm back to being useless." Renji mumbled as he approached the five standing in a cluster.
"Join the club." Katsuo said blankly.
"We could help by figuring out what's actually going on here." Uryuu suggested to the others. "First things first weren't you supposed to be the enemy?"
"We were hired to kill Rukia Kuchiki, but it was clearly a trap." Katsuo said, glancing at Rukia.
"So then what do you have to do with these people?" Uryuu replied.
"We are former members of Lotus, though it's been around 4 decades since we had escaped, it seems they're still trying to kill us, see, most of the members of Lotus were forced into becoming a part of it, some have been rejected by the soul society and simply seek power, but, Lotus is a secret society, and they're just as welcoming as the next." Katsuo said, a grim tone coating his voice. "Any member who is not in the 7 brigades or higher is treated like a prisoner, which is what they truly are."
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"Bankai! Daiguren Hyorinmaru!" Toshiro shouting, his body now shielded with ice.
"Although I did not want to fight you I admit, I've been eager to witness the famous child prodigy Captain Hitsugaya fight at bankai level." Yori smiled with excitement.
Raising his blade Yori suddenly teleported next Toshiro, whipping his blade wildly in all directions, Toshiro countered shooting a beam of ice his way, Yori blocked it, slashing his blade at the large chunk of ice shattering it into hundreds of pieces.
Yori then jumped into the air, Toshiro followed, both of them were now about 100 feet off of the ground.
"Allow me to make the first attack."
The wolf skull on Yori's right shoulder snapped open it's mouth, a small yellow light began growing inside it's mouth, growing until it was a ball nearly bigger than the skull itself, then it released, shooting a huge yellow ray across the sky, Toshiro dodged it easily, then jumped at Yori, their blades clashed, they held themselves there struggling to fight each other off for a minute or so. Suddenly the skull on Yori's left shoulder snapped open, Toshiro was barely able to dodge the attack this time, but used shunpo just before it reached him and reappearing to the right, a safe distance away.
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"Slice!" Braxis exclaimed, laughing. "I thought with hooters like those you'd weigh a bit more, silly me, you're as light as a feather!" Braxis continued to chuckle wildly.
Rangiku remained silent clutching her wound.
"Want me to give you a lesson on the way Setsudan works then?" Braxis held it out with the hilt facing Rangiku as if he was handing it to her. "Looks like any other, typical katana grip right? Wrong, it's actually rapped with a special kind of wire, which I can unwind and stick onto my enemies, allowing me to whip around my enemies as I please, its got pretty good range too, as long as its stuck to you I can toss you around from a considerably long distance, and even if you do manage to cut yourself free I can just get you again, of course, depending on which part of you it is hooked to it's effectiveness varies, but seems like I tagged you in the perfect spot." Braxis was smiling by the look of his large purple orbs.
"You just gave away your secret, now I can anticipate your attacks." Rangiku said rising an eyebrow.
He shrugged. "Whatever it's still a pretty unpredictable attack."
"You're underestimating me." Rangiku stated readying herself for battle once again.
"Maybe, or maybe you're underestimating me by assuming that I don't have anymore tricks up my sleeve!"
The two were suddenly drawn to the sound of an explosion coming from the spot where the two captain level shinigami were battling, both Yori's and Toshiro's were flaring, they were fighting at or at least close to full power.
"Man, it sure is getting rough, sure you don't want to go help out that kid, I'm actually being serious now." Braxis stated squinting towards the origin of the huge fight.
"Captain Hitsuguya is more than capable of handling himself, he's not a baby, besides, they must be using bankai, at that level of fighting I wouldn't be much help."
"I don't know, Takata is a badass." He responded.
"Why'd you just leave your friend back there." Rangiku suddenly asked.
"Yeah, I assumed Katsuo would notice me and drift along, but, apparently I was wrong." Braxis replied snickering.
Instinctively Rangiku kicked off towards her enemy, while his gaurd was down, Braxis shifted himself towards Rangiku's strike, blocking with his zanpakuto awkwardly, gripping his blade with just one hand and vulnerable to a rebound attack, Rangiku had a clear advantage here, raising her Haineko she made another quick attack, towards Braxis' torso, Braxis suddenly used shunpo, disappearing and reappearing several feet away and in the air. Braxis brought his left hand close to his face, her attack had landed evidently, the palm of his left hand had a deep gash across it and was bleeding an awfully large amount.
"Oh you're a sly devil aren't you, whatever I deserved it, I practically gift rapped that for you." Braxis said, followed by chuckles as usual, then continued. "Oh! I didn't catch your name did I?"
"And what makes you think I would give you the liberty of knowing my name?" Rangiku stated snootily.
"Fine don't tell me your name, just trying to break the ice."
Braxis lunged forward, whipping his katana to the left, Rangiku attempted to dodge, only to be yanked back into her previous position by Braxis' wire, she was able to block another slash from her opponent sending sparks jumping from their blades.
"Rangiku Matsumoto, vice captain of the 10th division." Rangiku recited launching a swift diagonal attack which Braxis was able to dodge.
"Houkaisuru (崩壊する)!" Purple reiastu was sent shooting from Braxis' zanpakuto, hitting a nearby home, which collapsed at impact.
Suddenly the sky begin to screech again, but this time it was a piercing noise, Rangiku and Braxis both blocked their ears, the pain stretching into their brains as they struggled to keep balance.
"They will be most displeased." Yori stated, frowning.
Shin slammed his blade downwards against Ichigo's, then rebounded with a swift punch to the gut, Ichigo pulled back, staggering a bit.
Ichigo returned a heavy uppercut, Shin was barely able to block the attack, Shin countered, smashing his blade against Ichigo and kicking Ichigo's ribs with his right shin, but Ichigo countered, grabbing his leg underneath his arm and splitting open Shin's left shoulder.
"Shin, we mustn't linger." Yori ordered from across the lot.
Shin obliged, grasping his newly obtained wound and jumping beside his captain.
"From this location we, will have to return manually, how tiresome." Yori muttered to his subordinate.
"What? You're leaving in the middle of a fight like cowards!" Ichigo yelled, as the two men lowered themselves to the ground.
"One thousand pardons, but we must be off, they are growing impatient with us. Also I'd like to inform you that though our battle was short, I have collected data on your fighting style, next time we meet I will be better fit to deal with you, I suggest you keep that in mind, Toshiro Hitsugaya."
I don't like stretching fights for a long time, but I kinda think this is necessary…