Aquatic Soul
Chapter 3: Rebellious Ryoka
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of the characters involved except Guardian W. Water.
After a night's rest at the Shiba's home the group readied themselves to be fired into the Seretei. Once they had gathered their belongings they entered the training room and found it had been transformed into a control center for the cannon. In the center was a platform on which a small orb stood on a pedestal in the middle.
Kukaku approached them. "Alright, here's how this is gonna work. We're gonna load you into the cannon while you use the techniques taught to you by Ganju yesterday to form the 'cannonball' once ready we'll fire you over the Seretei wall. Once inside you're on your own."
"Alright. Sounds easy enough." Ichigo shrugged
"Says the guy who can't control his spiritual energy." Ganju muttered to himself
"What was that!" Ichigo shouted at him
"I said you suck at controlling your spiritual energy! You got a problem with that!" Ganju shouted back
"Yes I have a problem with that! I can-" Ichigo got in Ganju's face only for them both to receive a sound thwack from the Kukaku.
"Now that you two idiots are quiet. I trust that Yoruichi will be leading this expedition?"
"Oh yes, you have nothing to worry about." Yoruichi replied
"Alright then. Stand over there." She pointed the stick toward the pedestal.
The group approached and put their hands on the orb in the center. The floor beneath slid out and they were lowered into the barrel of the cannon.
"Deploy the orb." Ganju told them
They all nodded and went to work on their respective jobs. Soon a light blue orb surrounded them all and they remained as they were.
"Firing in three…two…one…" They were blasted out of the barrel and sent hurtling through the sky toward the Seretei. As they approached Ichigo, realizing he was finally going to be able to save Rukia, lost control of his spiritual power and released too much that the rest couldn't control. This broke their ball and they fell into the Seretei at random locations.
Ichigo stood up and rubbed his head. "Ah… what happened?" He asked himself
"I don't know, you tell me, Ryoka." A voice said from above him. He looked up to see a bald man sitting on a nearby building.
"You idiot, you broke the ball before we could land." Ganju said from beside Ichigo.
"My my, you two are quite an ugly sight." Another voice said from their right. They looked up and saw standing on the roof was a man with short purple hair and a red and yellow feather that made an L shape over his eye.
"Damn… what do we do now?" Ganju asked
"First we need to find Rukia and get her out of here." Ichigo replied standing and grabbing Zangetsu
"No you idiot. I meant about these two." Ganju asked standing up and pulling his sword out from the belt on his waist.
"What else? We kick their asses."
Water landed by herself into the midst of a platoon of squad eleven. They quickly surrounded her and released their Zanpaktos.
Water stood and looked around. "Oh great. Just what I needed, a bunch of muscle heads to block my path."
She reached down toward the cross-guard on her katana "Swim, Naginasae!" She pushed up on the guard and the small ring of metal turned almost the entirety of the blade into a long handle. She stopped when there was about a foot left of the blade and she swung it down. Her katana was now a Naginata.
"She's got her Shikai." A few of the members whispered among themselves.
"Shut it! Who cares what she has. She's a Ryoka, an intruder. And it's our job as members of squad eleven to-"
He didn't finish his speech as Water slammed the butt of her Naginata into his gut sending him flat on his back. The rest of the guards got the gist of his speech and charged at Water.
"Ichigo… wait for me… I might be a little late." She said to herself before slashing the nearest member across the chest with the blade.
Uryu and Oriheme fell together and when they had come to looked around to find that they had been forgotten. Apparently Ichigo and Water had drawn most of the guards attention to themselves. Uryu looked around.
"Alright Oriheme. I need you to follow me." He told her. "And stay quiet."
He led her around corner after corner until eventually they were caught. Uryu turned and saw that before them was a man in a white uniform with a white cape that had a + with two lines underneath. Beside him was a girl who was wearing a short dress that came to about mid-thigh.
"It's alright Ryoka, you can come out. I know you're behind that corner already." He told them
Uryu stepped out from behind the wall and glared at the man in front of him "Who are you?" he asked
"I am Mayuri. Captain of squad twelve and leader of the science division." He replied
"I am Uryu Ushida, last of the quincy." Uryu replied
"A quincy eh? Not one of you again." Mayuri replied as he pulled his sword out from the belt in the front of his waist.
"Again?" Uryu asked as he summoned his bow.
"Yes, yes, the quincy. I've met them before. Always rambling on about their honor. I'll defeat for the honor the quincy, I'll smite you for the honor of the quincy. I'll shut up for the honor of quincy should've been what they said." He mocked
Uryu glared at him "How dare you insult my honor!"
"See, right there. That shows that you're nothing but another stupid quincy." He replied
"Shut up!" Uryu shouted before loosing an arrow at him.
Mayuri slashed his sword and blocked the attack sending the arrow to the ground. "Stupid boy, thinking something like that would stop me. I know all about you quincy, how you gather reishi to form your bows and arrows. Well, I'd like to see that power try to defeat one of the thirteen court guard squad captains!" Mayuri shouted before charging at Uryu.