Hope these chapters aren't too short, I begin and end them at strategic points for the story…
For those worrying about the fighting or not seeing their favorite characters around, as I've always said, worry not, all will receive time in the spotlight. Enjoy reading!
Let's get this started!
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or its characters, settings, etc... Did you really need me to tell you that?
Soul Society
Seireitei
Kaworu gasped for air as he felt himself submerged and slammed about like a toy in the two giant fists of water that had converged on him, smashing him hard as if he were a fly.
All his lungs took in were water as the falling fist-shaped waves brought him down hard into the sea below.
His last sight of the open air was Shunsui's smirking face high above, and then simply darkness, murky salt water burning his lungs and eyes.
He paddled and sent his spiritual pressure flying in all directions to no avail, finding it near impossible to tread through the wild and unyielding sea he was now submerged in.
Slowly he found himself…tired…light...head…
"My head…yowch."
Yoruichi smiled at him, wrapping her arms lovingly around Kaworu as she gave him a soft kiss on the forehead.
"Sparring with your father again? He's a rough teacher…I don't know how you can stand it…I'm lucky. Ukitake's a nice guy…"
Kaworu gave her a gentle reassuring grin that seemed overflowing with human warmth.
"I do it for you, Yoruichi…one day I think he intends me to take his place…I guess he wants to hammer the strength into me, no matter what it takes…It's so I can protect the land that I love, and the woman…that…I…love…"
He punctuated those final three words with snaking caresses gentle up Yoruichi's soft neck.
NOT THIS SHUT UP SHUT UP NOT THIS
Kaworu let out a terrible scream as he emerged from those fuzzy recollections, and he found all he could intake was water. So he had nearly succumbed, and it seemed it wouldn't be long before he drowned.
Hell, he could even hear that idiot Ukitake's voice in his head.
"Kaworu…give up…your body can't take such water pressure…I could blast the skin from your bones now…but I want you to go painlessly…breathe deep and take in my cold dark sea…"
Suddenly his eyes widened even through the fuzzy darkness threatening to overtake him. This was no mere fantasy! Ukitake was right there in front of him, seemingly comfortable and fine beneath the dark waters of the sea, staring sadly at Kaworu's limp body.
NOT THIS NOT THIS
Suddenly Ukitake's eyes widened in surprise and he was sent flying backwards into the cushioning water around him.
He shook his head in disappointment.
Kaworu was gone.
Ishida stared silently at Hisagi, his white robes fluttering about in the dusty wind as he adjusted his spectacles.
"You. What do you want?"
"I won't let you advance any further, Quincy."
Ishida smirked, raising his white spider-web like bow and glowing with a burning white spiritual presence that shook the air around him.
"Then perhaps I should introduce you to Ginrei Kojaku."
Hisagi stared hard at him, his expression stoic and mature despite the tattoos on his face and body.
"That would be polite. In turn if we're beginning introductions, I'd like to introduce you to my brother…"
Hisagi paused, pulling out the simple katana at his hip and then continuing.
"Hikou, Yakedo Shisō na Koi!"
Ishida's eyes widened in surprise as he felt Captain Shūhei Hisagi explode with a swirling spiritual power that was at least strong enough to equal his own.
Perhaps even greater...
Uryū Ishida floated back cautiously as he slowly studied the Shinigami Captain in front of him and the change that had occurred when Hisagi had called out those special words.
He had held his katana in both hands as he had spoken those words, one hand on the hilt and the other on the blade itself. The left hand which held the blade actually closed hard enough on it that blood began to spiral down the blade all along it.
The blood had spread and spiraled all across the blade until it seemingly enveloped it, as if the sword had become a dark crimson.
Slowly it also spread around Hisagi's hands until it was all a mass blob of blood floating from Hisagi's wrists, as if he had slit his wrists.
Ishida watched on in perturbed disgust. He had never been a fan of spilt blood, his Quincy arrows were always quite precise and he even felt disgusted when he cut himself with one of his sewing needles.
Slowly the blood which had been spiraling and floating all around Hisagi began to concentrate and solidify in the form of two blood-red blades each connected to one of Shūhei Hisagi's arms like bracelets. They had quite an odd ornamental design, like small short swords connected to black metal choker bracelets much like the one around Hisagi's neck, except these held the swords to the underside of Hisagi's wrists and palms.
He lifted his arms and pointed them in Ishida's direction, in turn aiming the blades connected to the wrist chokers, of course.
"I hesitate to fight…always, unless it is completely necessary and unavoidable…but it seems you refuse to stop your pursuit and I have no choice…Ichigo told me your bow there has some energy-absorption properties…Cheap…Reminds me of Yumichika…I was fine with him winning, didn't want to resort to shikai and I lost fair and square…but now I have no choice but to release the blood-soaked curse of my brother and my zanpakutō…consider yourself forgiven for your transgressions, for you shall soon be dead…"
Kaworu Yamamoto-Genryūsai burst out from that terrible dark sea, gasping for air as he floated blindly above the water into the open sun again. His lungs and body felt like hell, and he knew he had nearly died…
Nearly drowned…that bastard.
His eyes slowly came into focus and he could see that Shunsui was floating lazily above, still not taking action.
Kaworu rasped out a taunt from his weakened lungs.
"What're you doing up there, you bastard!? Think you can just take your time one on one? You'd better team up before I rip your comrade apart, you lazy bum!"
Shunsui only smiled wryly, pointing down past Kaworu as he shook his head.
"I'd worry more about yourself…Ukitake can take care of himself just fine."
Kaworu looked down, following Shunsui's gesture to see…a massive great white shark bursting out of the sea up at him. It seemed to consist purely of water, blue and almost transparent, nearly as gigantic as the Inazuma that Komamura had summoned.
Kaworu gasped, trying to find reason as the great watery beast opened its maw to catch him in midair.
The path of least resistance…hmph…
Ukitake stared confidently up as the massive beast of water that had wafted from his creating palms swallowed Kaworu whole, deciding he would dissipate it and simply use it to bring Kaworu back underwater again like the fists.
Though this time he'd have to unfortunately use water pressure to end it, since Kaworu had been so unwilling to accept the mercy of drowning…he'd have to compress the poor boy into shattered bits of mangled bone and flesh. He'd done it to opponents before, it was quite an unsavory and frankly better avoided technique, but he figured there was no point in dragging this foolish fight on longer than he needed to.
His bemused confidence was suddenly shattered as the young Yamamoto-Genryūsai burst right out of the watery tail fin of the great shark Ukitake had conjured, before he could sent it back into the sea.
Kaworu hurtled out, inches away from Ukitake, using a terrible roundhouse kick that slammed hard into Ukitake's face and sent him splashing deep underwater with a gasp of pain.
Kaworu hovered a few feet above the sea now, staring down into its murky depths as he awaited Ukitake's return.
He definitely isn't dead…he'll try something weird…maybe a giant beast…or surprise attack…gotta be ready to dodge, I definitely can't go down THERE.
His clever thoughts of strategy seemed suddenly overthought however, as Ukitake simply plunged out of the water right in front of Kaworu.
The former Captain smirked in victory, a terrible precise point of lightning appearing around his right hand and slashing straight through Ukitake's chest. The lightning blade tore Jūshirō Ukitake apart, though Ukitake's body simply became water that splashed back into the waves with no great din.
What? Did he make a water clone of himself or something?! What kind of trickery is this?
Suddenly Kaworu Yamamoto-Genryūsai found himself surrounded by five Captain Ukitakes, each plunging out of the water and standing at a different direction next to him.
All the Ukitakes seemed quite surprised however as Kaworu simply closed his eyes and let his arms fall limply to his sides.
They didn't let this seeming surrender trouble them much though, all of them drawing identical twin zanpakutō also seemingly cloned out of water and slashing them on all sides at Kaworu.
Shunsui stared down in trepidation as Kaworu dissipated four Ukitake water clones in one great kick, his spinning foot finally landing on the solid skin of the final real Ukitake and sending him painfully skimming above the waves.
Captain Jūshirō Ukitake gasped, spitting real blood onto the waves below and staring hard and determined at Kaworu.
"H-How?!"
Kaworu smirked.
"You think such things can trick me more than once? It's quite easy to sense the electrical fields or lack thereof in your clones, I simply need to concentrate and extend Inazuma's crackling power…it's simple to discern the minor difference that reveals a true man from one merely constructed of water…no matter how convincing they look on the outside. "
"Hmmm…you've grown stronger, Kaworu…I'll give you that, but now I'll-"
"You'll what?! Die?"
Ukitake's eyes widened, turning to see Kaworu replying right behind him, Kaworu's words punctuated by a crackling fist of lightning that was aimed for Ukitake's neck.
He found himself paralyzed, unable to dodge from the sheer weariness and disease racking his body; though just as he made ready to react…a voice interrupted from above…Shunsui's worried but confident voice.
"Quickly Ukitake, let's do it together! Whirlpool Combo!"
Ukitake nodded instantly in response, making Kaworu quite quizzical and even more quizzical as he found himself frozen in midair like he had been before, his punch never even landing.
This again?! I can't move! Who's doing this?! Shunsui?!
Suddenly he saw Ukitake leaping backwards in the water away from the frozen Kaworu and simply submerging into it.
Seconds later the water began to churn and swell violently below him, and a massive gust of wind began to whirl around his body in a terrible spiral, sending him spinning around as it sucked him down into the violent waves below.
He found himself unable to resist the sucking speed of the wind, and found himself hurtling about in a great circle in the air as the water below him began to mimic his motions in a terrible swirling whirlpool.
Before he could even blink he was sucked down into it, but found himself passing through open air rather than dark water as the wind-fueled whirlpool opened a gaping hole in the great sea all around that lead directly to the ground which Kaworu felt his feet now glued and pressed down upon.
At that very moment, Ukitake reemerged from the waves that raged but remained fixed like walls around Kaworu, two swirling blades of water in both his hands which he quickly slammed with all his strength into Kaworu's chest.
At that same moment, the wind around him began to actually hurt as it spiraled fiercely, tearing away at his flesh and clothes. The combination of both strikes sent him flying helplessly out of the now dissipating wind and whirlpool in a mess of terrible agony and spilling blood.
The young Yamamoto-Genryūsai hurtled up in the air in intense pain, only to be caught from behind by Shunsui's firm arms which now constricted around his bleeding chest.
"Like that, did you Kaworu? As I said, we are bonded like brothers, Ukitake and I…that is only a sample of the fury that occurs when you cross us both…and crossing one of us means crossing both of us, mind you. Just die already!"
With that Shunsui shoved Kaworu's limp body back down towards the water in a terrible freefall.
Kaworu gasped, feeling his body wear and fatigue from the many blows it had been dealt, his hands outstretching parallel like wings as he witnessed another massive upsetting whirlwind in the sea below.
It quickly became another gigantic whirlpool that actually began to suck in Kaworu as he floated above it in the air, Shunsui's wind manipulation making the air all around fierce and the whirlpool sucking all around it like a vacuum cleaner.
Kaworu couldn't even make out Ukitake, though he knew the sickly bastard lay somewhere within those dark murky waves closeby the whirlpool which was now so intense that its apex revealed the dry ground underneath the great sea Ukitake had created.
Kaworu grit his teeth, clenching his fists as he felt the glowing wing of energy on his right shoulder wavering.
Shit…shit…I can't maintain this for long…either I get taken into that damned abyss again by these two fools, or I up the ante…it may cost me a limb or two…but I have no choice Inazuma!
His arms still stretched out, Kaworu let out a yell just as the power of the whirlwind above the water finally dragged him down spiraling into the whirlpool inside the water.
"RELEASING SECOND LIMIT, INAZUMA!"
Ishida grunted, sending a flurry of spirit arrows at Captain Hisagi's flash stepping form.
The Captain leapt nimbly over them, whirling around to face Ishida's frustrated eyes.
Then he made a movement so subtle that Ishida wouldn't have even noticed it if it weren't for the drastic affect it had and the bloody result it caused.
Ever so slightly, Hisagi pressed his arms against the zanpakutō cradled under his wrists, and slowly they cut small gashes into his flesh.
It was then that Uryū Ishida noted that Captain Hisagi's arms and body were actually covered in scars and old cuts. They had only seemed diminutive because of the tattoos and Captain's robes that Hisagi wore as if he were trying to hide them.
He barely had anymore time for his observations however, as blood began too slip down Shūhei Hisagi's arms and then hover in frozen droplets below his limp hands.
Hisagi glanced up at Ishida with mature stoic eyes that revealed no pain despite the fact that his chest was clearly working to take in quick breathes. Without even pausing, the Captain lifted his arms in the direction of Ishida and let out a firm commanding shout.
"Ketsueki Harisensha!"
The droplets of blood joined by even more blood from Hisagi's arms pooled and formed what seemed like massive crimson icicles hovering below and around his hands.
Uryū Ishida barely had time to bring up his bow in reaction as the massive wave of spike-like blood hurtling at him.
Ukitake's eyes widened inside the murky dark waves, breathing it in naturally as it was the very sea of his massive and tragic soul.
He knew Shunsui had delivered him another whirlpool combo, and had expected Kaworu entrapped inside whirling water and wind once more so Ukitake could deliver a final blow …however…not like this…things hadn't ended up how he had envisioned.
Kaworu stood before Ukitake with two great glowing wings of golden ethereal energy floating behind his shoulders. All up and down both arms now were those spiraling golden tattoos and symbols, flashing and smoking in Kaworu's skin.
The latent power that Ukitake felt in Kaworu as the latter stood before him was enormous, fearfully dangerous. Perhaps he would've been able to handle it had he been fully healthy…but not like this…
Kaworu Yamamoto-Genryūsai seemed hardly entrapped, or the man he had been before as the waves parted around him in a massive blast of spiritual presence coming from Kaworu that was far more unsettling than the whirlpool Ukitake and Shunsui had created.
Nay, it was much like Moses parting the sea itself, and Kaworu calmly walked forward as the water receded from both he and Ukitake but stayed surrounding the inverted island of moist dirt they stood on.
The waves raged around them but couldn't converge any closer, like a pack of angry wild dogs biting at their leashes.
Jūshirō Ukitake found himself absorbed in awe, a cough and a blink and now Kaworu was directly in front of him with his glowing crackling palm outstretched to touch Ukitake's chest.
Shunsui let out a gasp high above, screaming for Ukitake to move, but even if the sickly Captain had tried to dodge, it wouldn't have been fast enough.
Kaworu's open-palm punch moved so fast that it seemed it had never landed.
Instead it looked like Ukitake had been forced a few steps back from an invisible force.
Ukitake gasped, stumbling weakly and staring in confusion up at the sky as it blurred weakly. The gasp he had let out was made entirely of smoke, and he could smell the scent of burnt flesh.
"What's…that smell?"
His eyes lolled and then rolled into the back of his skull as he began to falter and fall. In that very instant, the massive waves that had been uncontrollable around him, the very giant sea that had been created, simply disappeared.
In its place the now smoking twin zanpakutō of Ukitake clattered uselessly next to him on the ground.
Shunsui Kyōraku was there in an instant as the waves disappeared, not attacking Kaworu but instead catching and cradling Ukitake's limp form before it could hit the ground.
"You bastard?! What did you do?"
Kaworu turned to him, smirking magamiously with the two grand webbed wings of glowing golden lightning energy like two great dragon wings behind him.
"I simply tactically applied a bit of Inazuma's lightning to Ukitake's lungs. He has tuberculosis you know, a nearly incurable kind…His lungs are already quite weak, and with a little precise pressure…well it can do wonders on a man."
Shunsui looked down at the comrade he cradled in his arms. Ukitake let out a weak cough, blood spiraling down his pale lips.
"You…you'll pay for this, Kaworu…"
"Oh yes, yes…I'm sure I will…but don't fret just yet, he's not dead…Though he might be if you don't take him to the infirmary in the next five minutes or so I reckon…What a dilemma, huh? Best be on my way so you can take-"
"This won't take longer than five minutes…I don't need that long for someone like you…"
Suddenly Shunsui had disappeared and reappeared right behind Kaworu with his fist raging with wind and aimed at Kaworu's back.
Kaworu snorted dismissively, not even turning as he hunched over and let the massive wings of energy behind him blast Shunsui up and away into the sky like a mere toy.
In an instant Kaworu was hurtling right above Shunsui before Shunsui's flight could even halt, the former Shinigami Captain sending a hard punch in Shunsui's back that sent the lazy Captain slamming into the ground below.
Captain Shunsui Kyōraku gazed defiantly up at Kaworu as the latter man stared down dominantly with the massive power he had gained with the second release of Inazuma's seal so clear and menacing that it was tangible in the electrical bolts that coursed around Kaworu.
"Fast…so fast…"
Kaworu's smirking voice now directly behind him.
"Yes…of course I am…how can you hope to even stop my movements?"
He sent his crackling fist hurtling at Kyōraku's back as the older man just stood there, apparently not even trying to dodge.
Given up, have you?! Wait…
Kaworu suddenly found his fist halting a few inches from the back of Kyōraku's neck where he had intended to strike. It was frozen in the air, against an invisible wall that felt like Kaworu had punched some transparent steel barrier.
Kyōraku turned his head slowly to give Kaworu a sour and serious look.
"I wouldn't worry about me…looks like you've slowed down a bit."
Shunsui's fist flashed with speed Kaworu had never seen before, slamming into Kaworu's face painfully and sending the former Shinigami Captain sliding backwards in his tracks and spitting blood.
"How?!"
Kaworu let out this enraged question as he flash stepped towards Shunsui, intending to send a kick towards his chest. However he found his movements sluggish and almost like child's play for Captain Kyōraku to dodge.
Shunsui smirked dourly and sent a flashing kick into Kaworu's stomach that sent him spiraling up in the air.
Kaworu stopped about twenty feet up, rubbing the aching pain in his gut.
"What the hell?!"
"You've noticed…haven't you? You're getting slower and slower and my speed and power continues to increase…even when you seemingly dodge my moves you still feel terrible pain. Thus is the wind, Kaworu. For every punch you launch, the wind resists you fiercely, and for every move it makes it encourages and rallies by my side. Simple, isn't it? But with enough concentrated power I can easily halve the speed and effectiveness of an opponent and double my own."
Kaworu sneered, though it was clear by his face that he was quite surprised and unsettled.
"Hmph! Cheap parlor tricks…If you want to play that way…so be it!"
It was Shunsui's turn to open his eyes wide in surprise and trepidation as Kaworu pointed his palms down towards Kyōraku and began to chant.
"Carriage of thunder. Life's terrible flax of sorrow. Return all to dust as it once was, and end mankind's true misery. Destructive Art: 95, Lighting Genesis, Crash Down."
The massive bolt of lightning that hurtled straight at Shunsui at such speed that it seemed to strike the instant it had been created was quite terrible…however even this tool of the gods was suddenly halted.
Kaworu's eyes widened as he saw Shunsui let out a roar of anger and exertion as the sweat dripped down his body.
Is he…wrestling a goddamn lightning bolt?! What the hell?!
Indeed Shunsui had his arms outstretched and a thick whirlwind of air was stretched out from his palms and caught around what seemed to be an immobile and imprisoned lightning bolt.
Imp…ossible…
Suddenly the prison of air exploded and the lightning and electricity simply dissipated into nothingness in thin air, Shunsui totally unharmed.
"Hmph…trying the same frying you did on poor Ukitake? He's sick you know, not nearly at his full power."
"H-How…"
"Fool boy, did I not say I am the wind? It is a mere trifle then to control the electrical fields and air movements around myself…your powers will have no effect on me."
Kaworu let out a gasp, first of surprise at Shunsui's words, then of terrible pain that felt like thousands of blades slicing into his body.
However…none appeared…all an invisible force and pressure cutting his body apart.
He flew backwards through the air, his profusely bleeding blood flow trailing him as the power of Shunsui's wind manipulation cut him apart.
Kaworu Yamamoto-Genryūsai grunted angrily, his body charging with power as the two wings behind him swelled with spiritual strength.
I'll kill that bastard!
Yet even as he was about to make a thunderously agile flash step, he found himself totally paralyzed and floating there in the air.
To his surprise, the drops of blood that had trailed him were now also frozen in midair, as if they were glimmering emeralds.
Shunsui's confident voice above him.
"And that paralysis you felt earlier…it is no great task to use the wind to control the very air flow around you. I can keep you still or throw you about like a mere toy, or simply suck the very air from your lungs. But…I'll end this quickly…As I said, I don't need five minutes for someone like you…"
The air around Shunsui began to swell and whirl again and hurl itself at Kaworu in the form of thousands of blades.
Kaworu let out a scream of agonizing pain as he was sent freefalling towards the ground below, his Captain's robes and body quite severely shredded up.
"Your Inazuma…They call him the Dragon of the Sky, don't they? You bearers of the Dragon have always had a great arrogance, I am glad Hitsugaya is nothing like you…Declaring yourself King of the Sky, are you? Well, then I am the very air and wind that surrounds you. Begone!"
Kaworu snarled, feeling a blast of wind sending him hurting down with a crash into the hard ground below. It had felt like a freight train hitting him in the chest.
His wind knocked out and severely wounded already, Kaworu gasped, struggling to rise while Shunsui watched solemnly now from above.
"And so, Kaworu Yamamoto-Genryūsai, you end here. I apologize for the trifling transgressions of Soul Society and your father, and I promise we will remember your life tenderly. However, you must cease to be."
Shunsui grit his teeth, concentrating hard until the veins were bulging in his delicate forehead, his hands outstretching to point down towards Kaworu.
"Fūton Renkūdan, Katen Kyōkotsu…"
Miniature whirlwinds seem to form around his arms as they pointed down, spinning with a terrible ferocity as Shunsui seemingly concentrated the power of the wind itself into two precise blade-shaped whirlwinds around his arms aimed at Kaworu below.
Kaworu sighed, slowly standing as he watched Shunsui concentrate all his spiritual power into one precise strike.
"I see…I have no choice…I was hoping to keep this a secret until I met father again…but I haven't a choice. It's a matter of survival now… Releasing final limit, INAZUMA!"
Kaworu ripped his Captain's robes aside, his body pulsating and the tattoos snaking up his arm seemingly swirling like serpents themselves as he held his palm in front of his chest. A small circular tattoo lay directly above his heart now, golden and glowing and spinning intricately like the gears of a grand clock around other spirals and circles tattooed on Kaworu's chest.
Shunsui stared down in awe, halting his preparation as he watched the madness below.
"Ye gods…so this is the power of the Dragon Inazuma…"
Did you understand where I was going with Hisagi's zanpakutō design? I could draw it…I have a very clear image in my head…I have really great things planned for his bankai…The Hisagi and Ishida fight didn't get much screen time this chapter, but it's just just just beginning. Heh. Get ready for weirdness and a lot of backstory into this curious and overlooked man known as Shūhei Hisagi and the odd markings and powers he possesses.
And did I just reveal Kaworu's FINAL LIMIT RELEASE?!
Well, sort of kind of...you haven't seen it in its full glory and appearance and power simply because it's from Shunsui's point of view and the chapter cuts it off. We'll see.
Anyway, looks like things are getting really intense, hope you're enjoying the fighting so far…for those who tire of it and want to see more of the other characters, worry not, all things come with patience…
Hope you guys stay along for the ride.
See ya next chapter.