Stepping out of the garganta and into his room, Ichigo threw Kenpachi on the bed. Luckily, his dumbass father had taken his sisters on some dumb trip that Ichigo had weaseled out of, so he didn't have to worry about them. As Kenpachi tried to sit up Ichigo released enough Reiatsu to forcibly push him down on the bed.
"You IDIOT!" Ichigo shouted. "What were you thinking? You could have killed half the Soul Reapers in the Soul Society!"
"I was just having some fun. I don't see what I did wrong."
"Kenpachi, I know you haven't seen Yamamoto's Bankai, but I have. If his sword touched you, you would be dead. If he uses it for more than two minutes, it destroys a god damn dimension!"
Yachiru spoke up at this. "It would make me sad if you died, Kenny," she said with a frown and single tear in her eye.
The screeching roar of a hollow suddenly rang through the air and a great crash could be heard from downtown. Ichigo looked at Nel. "Lets go," he said and she nodded.
Yachiru hopped up on Kenpachi's back as Ichigo, Nel, and Kenpachi rushed to the sound. When they got there, they saw what looked like a dark-skinned cat-like woman with electricity forming ears and a tail. It was fighting what appeared to be a mix between a Vasto Lorde and swan. It was a humanoid creature with wings sprouting from its back, white feathers slowly drifting to the ground. Wherever the feathers had touched were devoid of life, plants shriveled and dry.
The cat began to move again after licking her 'paw.' "Ezekiel, blind him," she purred. That confirmed it. It was definitely Yoruichi fighting the titan. A great flash of light erupted from Yoruichi and her enemy roared in pain, wrapping its wings around its body. "Ezekiel, burn him!" Electricity pulsed around Yoruichi's body before converging into a ball in front of her. Just as it formed she spun, wrapped her lightning tail around it, and flung it at the giant's protective wings.
The second the orb of electricity made contact with the wings the giant screamed, and a large hole with smoldering edges was left in its wake. Yoruichi flew through the hole and said, "Ezekiel, bind him!" There was another flash as the giants body went flush against a skyscraper behind it with ropes of light binding it.
Yoruichi was on all fours licking her paws a second later before she looked up at the giant. "Divine art: Angelslayer." Yoruichi finally stood on two legs and raised her arm as a lance of light formed in her hand. She flung it at the 'Angel,' piercing its chest. The Angel let out a horrible scream before shattering into pieces.
Yoruichi turned to see her stunned friends as the lightning emanating from her body died down and dispersed. "What's up guys?" She asked as the building the Angel had been tied to toppled to the ground.
"Um..." Ichigo said. "What was that?"
"Ezekiel told me it was a Soulsinger, and that it needed to be killed or it would destroy the city... so I killed it."
The way she said it like it was no big deal left the group at even more of a loss for words. Sirens could be heard growing louder as people began to return to gawk at the destruction, unaware of the epic battle that had just finished.
"Let's get out of here before the cops start asking questions," Ichigo suggested, and they quickly made their way back to his house. On the way there, Yoruichi explained that she too, had been visited by a fallen Soulsinger in her sleep, and that Ezekiel ruled over light and movement. Ichigo, in turn, brought her up to speed with all that had happened in the past few days.
They arrived at Ichigo's house and descended to the underground cavern to make sure Starrk was okay. What they saw was Starrk standing amidst a hundred or so arrancar flat on the ground, unable to move from the immense pressure seeping from him. It seemed he wasn't sure how to keep it under control.
"Starrk what's wrong?" Ichigo asked with mild alarm.
"I can't seem to keep my power under control. Something named Samael is apparently bound to me. It said it controls poison. I guess it's similar to that Quincey's power with the lethal dosage. Apparently I'm creating lethal gravity to anything mortal, and dangerous to more powerful beings like arrancar."
"Okay. We'll get the arrancar out of here and then we'll get your power under control. Nel, Yoruichi," he nodded to them and they got to work carrying the incapacitated arrancar out of the chamber.
Some of the more powerful arrancar remained painfully conscious as they were carried away from the crushing energy. Halibel was in visible pain as Nel carried her up the ladder, but it was also clear from the blush on her face that Starrk's power was very attractive to her. Ichigo carried Grimmjow who was also in pain, but the frown on his face made his irritation clear. Kenpachi just stood itching to fight Starrk, staring him down with eager eyes.
After the last of the arrancar were cleared out, everyone returned to Starrk.
"Okay, when did this start?" Ichigo asked.
"When I woke up I felt a little heavier than normal. Then I heard a weird voice calling itself Samael in my head saying I was super strong now. When I looked around nobody else was standing," Starrk replied.
"Just let me fight him," Kenpachi said eagerly. "That should control his power some."
"Kenpachi, N—wait, you might have a point. This will also give us an idea of how you two fight."
After gaining a little bit of distance, Ichigo gave the signal for them to start their brawl.
"Don't hold back, wolfy!" Yachiru shouted from the sidelines. They had decided that Kenpachi wouldn't use his bankai in favor of living.
"Fine," Starrk decided. "Divine poison: Nightshade." Black flower petals exploded from around him, creating the image of a living, writhing shadow. Just a moment later, a few dozen inch-long thorns dripping with deadly poison erupted from the cloud of petals.
"Divine Strength: Force," Kenpachi said, and brought his sword up in a vertical slash. The swing created a powerful whirlwind that stopped the thorns mid-flight. "Divine Strength: Speed," Kenpachi said, and dissapeared. He reappeared directly in front of Starrk and swung down with the strength of a god.
"Divine poison: Black Locust," Starrk said and tapped Kenpachi's arm. The arm sagged immediately as if it had lost all strength to move, and Kenpachi's Zanpakuto fell to the ground. Some of the force from his initial swing had remained in the attack, however, and a small fissure opened in the ground in front of the Zanpakuto. Starrk stumbled at this, giving Kenpachi an opening to kick him into a boulder.
"This is fun! Hit harder!" Kenpachi's manic laughter rang in Starrk's ears.
"Fine. Divine Poison: Hemlock." A great shriek erupted from his twin pistols as he drew them for the first time. Wolves with ragged fur colored a wicked purple rose from the ground all around him. The wolves moved in towards Starrk and climbed into the barrel of his guns, one by one. When every wolf had been loaded into the guns, Starrk pulled the trigger. "Bang," he said, and for a moment there was silent.
And then a chorus of howls shook the room.
Each of the two bullets Starrk fired expanded into a mass of hundreds of the front halves of wolves, snapping and howling. The back half of the masses seemed to be compressed into a single point; a bullet.
Both masses of wolves crashed into Kenpachi at the same time, engulfing him in a deadly maelstrom. Slowly, the mass of wolves appeared to shrink. As the last of the wolves vanished it became clear that the wolves hadn't just disappeared; they had been absorbed into Kenpachi.
Said Death God was currently writhing in pain on the ground. Starrk walked up to him panting, gravity finally returned to normal; it had slowly been doing so throughout the fight. Starrk was the first to speak. "I hit you with something thirty times as poisonous as hemlock. That's strong enough to kill even you," he said. "Luckily I can reverse the effect." Starrk tapped Kenpachi on the forehead and he almost immediately stilled, groaning.
"Man, that hurt like a bitch," Kenpachi said. "That was a great fight though. Thanks." With that, he passed out.
"Well," Ichigo said. "It looks like Starrk, Kenpachi and I will be more brute force, and Nel and Yoruichi will be more stealth based—" he stopped suddenly as a sharp pain split through his skull. He fell to a knee.
"Ichigo are you okay?" Nel asked. "What's wrong?"
"I... don't know... I think... the hollow's messing around..." With those last words, he lost consciousness.
Ichigo's eyes opened as a great shaking woke him. He looked around and spotted Arakiel moving his lips frantically in a tongue unknown to him.
"Ag ahrk aus, Vahdin se Dinok. Qolaas se vokul. Thu'um se tiid!" The shaking stopped and Arakiel fell to his knees. "That was close," he muttered.
"What just happened?" Ichigo asked.
"I used a language lost long ago to stop her from destroying our soul," Arakiel replied.
"Who is 'her?'"
"It turns out that the hollow situation is worse than I thought. The hollow has a Seraph helping him. Seraphs are the oldest Soulsingers, as well as the most powerful. They have 'aspects' similar to how the espada did. Most Seraphs are female, but a few are male. The one helping your hollow is Faith. Her strength is truly fearsome, and if I was not here, you would have no chance of victory."
"What did you do to stop her from killing us?" Ichigo asked.
"I used the 'Shout of Time' to send her a few days forward. She'll return soon, so I need to teach you everything I can right now."
They trained for the better part of a day until Ichigo finally learned some basic creation and destruction. At some point he even learned a Shout. When Arakiel had decided he had learned enough to survive, they began to move. As they grew closer to the source of the hollow corruption the air grew heavy. Arakiel muttered a few words in that ancient language and the weight dispersed somewhat, but was still tiring.
"What happens when we get there?" Ichigo asked.
"If when you say 'there' you mean the center of this filth, we wait. Like I said, she will reappear in a few days. The hollow is too weak to do anything without her support. He's using her like a lifeline."
"Okay, so what do we do while we wait?"
"During the day you can do whatever. At night, we train," Arakiel said.
Ichigo began to feel consciousness pull him back to reality.
"Well, looks like it's time for you to wake up. Bye, Ichigo."
Once again, Ichigo opened his eyes to worried friends. He sighed. He was getting really tired of this.
There you have it. Props to anyone who knows what language that is WITHOUT GOOGLE. Until next time.