A Black Heart

I hope you enjoy today's chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

"Normal speech"

'Inner speech/thoughts'

"Kido/Zanpakuto Attacks/Quincy Techniques"

"Zanpakuto speech/Inner Power"

"Hollow speech"

XXX

Chapter 21:

As the flames slowly died away, they revealed Sui-Feng crouched down on her knees, her breathing haggard. Across from her, Ichigo stood at ease, a twisted smirk on his face as the flames of his zanpakuto licked at his hand.

"Looks like your own technique backfired Captain-San," he said with a hint of mirth.

Scowling at him, Sui-Feng glanced down at her arm and internally winced at the blistered skin reaching up towards her shoulder.

When their two attacks collided, the flames along his blade seemed to wrap around her arm, fuelled by her own energy and inflicted far more damage than they should have. It was only thanks to some quick thinking on her part that she was able to prevent the spread of flames across the rest of her body.

Hearing the high pitched whistle of his blade screaming through the air, she cartwheeled backwards out of instinct and narrowly avoided his downward stab. Charging towards him, they began to rapidly exchange blows, a determined scowl on Sui-Feng's face, while Ichigo's smirk continued to grow. Disappearing from his sight for a split second, Ichigo hissed as she buried her zanpakuto into his shoulder, the golden stinger stopping only on contact with his bones. Grabbing her wrist and squeezing until he heard her bones crack; he pulled her forward into his knee causing her to gasp and sputter as her ribs cracked. Grabbing her shihakusho as she fell, he fired a point blank Sokatsui at her chest, sending her flying backwards.

Flying through the air, Sui-Feng suppressed a groan as she felt her skin burning under the intense heat of both his kido and zanpakuto. Flipping in mid-air, she grabbed at the reishi in the air, using it to slow her down. Glancing around at the devastated landscape she found herself in the middle of, she caught sight of his shadow and charged towards him once again.

As she closed in on him, she inwardly grinned as she burst through the flames, coming down on his unprotected neck. As she lashed out with her stinger though, she cried out in agony as she was thrown away from him once again, her torso feeling like it had been set aflame.

Rolling to a stop, she clutched at her torn shihakusho in surprise as she beheld the massive gash in her side. It was clearly not a wound from a blade as it looked far too ragged. It was almost as if a large beast had clawed her clean across her ribs, cutting through the cloth and her muscle straight down to her bone. Looking up, she backpedalled away as an immense brilliant white dragon glared down at her. As she stared at it, it lifted its left front claw and leisurely licked it, its expression almost ecstatic as it tasted her blood.

"I should mention that you managed to piss her off quite a bit Captain-san," Ichigo commented, walking around the dragon's other front leg to lean against it. "I told you that I had yet to show you my true power when it came to my zanpakuto didn't I? I trust that this is enough to convince you that your chances of winning just turned to ash. Stop struggling and I promise to give you a quick death…" he muttered, only to pause as he heard her chuckle softly. "What's so funny?" he asked, his eyebrow piqued in curiosity

"You," she muttered as she shakily climbed to her feet, her blood splattering across the ground. "You think just because you have the numbers advantage that it means anything? You think that a wound like this will bring me down to your level? Don't get cocky brat!" she screamed at him, summoning a dozen illusory clones to her side, before charging at him. As they closed in on him, they were swallowed in a sea of white flame as the dragon opened its maw and roared, releasing a torrent of fire at them.

Slicing through the inferno, Ichigo's eyes narrowed as he watched the copies disappear, before grunting as he was struck in the side by the original's heel, sending him skidding back a few feet. She couldn't take advantage of the opening though, as a flaming claw slammed into the ground between them, crumbling the stone under their feet and causing both of them to stumble slightly.

Dodging the next claw as it attempted to crush her, Sui-Feng grunted in pain as the tail of the dragon swung around and slammed into her back with the force of a freight train, sending her rocketing into a building and causing it to crumble down atop of her.

"Bakudo no. 61, Rikujokoro!" Ichigo chanted, firing several beams of light in her direction, hoping to immobilise her. As they neared her though, she seemed to flicker and vanish once again, reappearing at his side with her fingers glowing a golden yellow.

"Bakudo no. 63, Sajo Sabaku!" she chanted, sending a brilliant yellow chain at him, pinning his arms at his side, even as he struggled against it. Seeing her chance, she sprinted towards him, only to catch a glimpse of a gaping maw hurtling towards her. Leaping out of the way at the last second, she winced as she watched the beast crash into one of the towers, causing it to crumble and collapse, bringing down several more with it.

Retreating through the cloud of dust and debris, she hacked and coughed as she swallowed some of it and strained her eyes to see through the haze. Ahead of her, she could just make out a muted white light, as Ichigo's own blade acted like a beacon in the dust.

Using the brief reprieve he'd been given, Ichigo covered his body in the flames of his zanpakuto, hurriedly trying to melt the chains that bound him. As the chain dissolved into molten yellow globs, he heard the soft scuffle of a pair of feet and looked up into the dust cloud, just able to make out a shadow drawing closer to him. Just as the two finally caught sight of one another, Ichigo broke through his restraints, as Sui-Feng leapt at him, the pair of them falling to the ground as they struggled for dominance.

Coming out on top for a second, Ichigo threw a vicious haymaker at Sui-Feng's head, the blow connecting solidly with her cheek. Pressing the split second advantage, he continued to pummel her repeatedly. When she finally grew still, he released a ragged breath, staring at her bloody and broken face, before shakily getting to his feet, as the adrenaline in his system began to fade away. He had only taken a few steps before he was halted by a sudden tug on his leg. Spinning around in disbelief, he stared down at her as she struggled to crawl towards him.

"You just won't quit, will you?!" You keep getting back up; despite everything I throw at you. Will destroying your zanpakuto end this?! Will turning you to ash finally get you to stop?!" he asked in desperation, as he slammed his heel down on her stinger, crushing both the weapon and her finger under the immense force and causing her to utter a high pitched shriek as she rolled along the ground in agony, cradling her mangled hand.

Glancing at it through tear-streaked eyes, she watched as her blood slowly oozed out of the flattened metal, even as the appendage hung lamely in the air. Feeling Ichigo lift her up, she grunted and relented as he brought her up to his eye level. As she stared at him, she was barely able to take notice of how the sclera of his right eye was now pitch black, with a poisonous yellow iris.

"It's over for you now Captain. You're crippled both physically and mentally. You've exhausted your options and quite frankly pissed me the hell off!" he shouted, some spittle landing on her cheek, making her scowl in disgust. "Now it's time for you to just fucking die already."

"What if I said…I have one more trick left up my sleeve," she gasped out, feeling his grip on her throat tighten slightly.

"I'm not interested and I've wasted enough time with you as it is," he muttered, flinging her across the ground away from him. "Dispose of her," he muttered to his zanpakuto, turning his back on the woman as he looked to the dragon behind him. When she only seemed to stare curiously at the Captain though, he frowned and glanced over his shoulder at her, finding that she was standing on her feet once again. "You heard me, finish her!" he growled up at his zanpakuto, even as it growled back at him. They both froze as they heard Sui-Feng whisper something.

"Ban…kai," she muttered and immediately Ichigo felt a change in the intensity of her reiatsu, Turning to face her fully, he watched as the ground beneath her feet crumbled away, while the stinger on her arm acquired a brilliant white glow and began to writhe and spread to encompass her entire right arm. When the transformation finally died down, he was left stunned as what resembled a golden missile was attached to her arm, nearly twice her size. "Jakuho Raikoben," she grunted out softly as the transformation finally ended, leaning against the great golden weapon.

"What the hell is that?!" he screamed at her, trying in vain to remember what Kisuke had told him about zanpakuto and their releases. "You were already in your shikai, there's no way you couldn't have been!"

"Heh…how ignorant of your ryoka," she said with a chuckle as she stared down at him impassively. "Every zanpakuto has two stages of release, their shikai, the initial release and their Bankai, their final release. And while some shikai are already incredibly impressive, a Bankai is generally five to ten times stronger than the shikai," she explained, enjoying how his skin seemed to pale at the news. "You were right though, I needed to hit you twice in the same spot for my shikai to kill you instantly, if you didn't succumb to the blood loss or my other techniques that is, but this…this will kill you and anyone within 100 meters of you."

Stunned at the apparent destructiveness of her zanpakuto, he picked up on the part about its range. "Wait…at the distance you're at, unless you're immune to your own attack, you'll die here with me?!" he questioned frantically.

"You're right, but that doesn't matter Ichigo Kurosaki since I doubt that you would have let me live anyway. This will…" she coughed out, blood splattering across the ground again from her internal injuries. "This will ensure that if I can't leave here alive, then neither of us will."

"You idiot! What's the point in killing me if you're not around to savour the victory?! Why sacrifice your life to stop me when you could just leave it to one of the other Captains?! You've got to have some other reason for living besides protecting the afterlife right?!" he questioned frantically, while Sui-Feng continued to chuckle at him.

"Heh…what's the matter Kurosaki? Are you so prideful that you can't beg for mercy? That you're left with trying to appeal to some misplaced sense of self-preservation in me to save yourself?" she asked, as she enjoyed the look of outrage on his face.

"After suffering the indignation of you beating me like this…I don't even want to imagine the look of disappointment on her face," she muttered, her mind flashing through memories of her former mentor. "I always swore that I would surpass her one day…but now, this shame of being brought low by a mere ryoka like yourself, I don't have the right to even claim that I surpassed her."

"What are you…wait, surpass who? If you're trying to prove your strength to someone, well you can't do that dead. So why don't we just…" he began to say; only to fall silent as several fins unfolded from the missile and Sui-Feng took aim at him. "Zangetsu!" he shouted, causing the dragon to roar and launch itself forward towards her, it's body hiding them from one another. Despite that though, he flinched as he heard the missile fire, before the high pitched whistle of it flying through the air seemed to reverberate in his ears.

As time seemed to pass in slow motion, he felt the exact moment his zanpakuto and the missile connected with one another and the duo detonated. The world seemed calm and tranquil for a moment, before the thunderous explosion of the blast deafened him and he was swallowed by an inferno.

XXX

"My, my she actually used her Bankai, how scary and reckless of her," Gin commented from their perch several hundred meters away, his haori and shihakusho fluttering in the gale force winds the explosion had created as they watched the district of the Seireitei the two were in completely disappear.

"Yes it seems as if she did, but neither of them died from it," Aizen commented, feeling the pair's reiatsu still fluttering slightly.

"Oh they both survived it? Well now doesn't that make you a happy man Captain Aizen?" Gin said with a chuckle.

"It does mean that I can enjoy my experiment for a while longer Gin," he replied with a small smile. "But I fear that I need you to do what we discussed earlier."

"Of course Captain Aizen," he said with a bow, before he vanished with a flicker of shunpo.

Looking in the direction he felt Ichigo's waning reiatsu in, Aizen took off at a leisurely pace, his smile still in place.

XXX

'Fuck…fuck…FUCK!' Ichigo roared into his mind, as his entire body flared in pain. As he tried to move his finger, he froze and uttered a mournful croak, as a fresh wave of agony coursed through him. He closed his eyes, enduring the pain as his skin cracked slightly from the action. Hell, he couldn't even be sure if he was even crying now as the nerves on his face seemed to be completely dead. He supposed that he was lucky that he was even still alive and not a pile of ash, but such thoughts did not come easily.

It had been last second thinking on his part, but the moment the flames neared him, he'd subconsciously wrapped himself in his own flames, using them to mitigate the immense heat around him. That didn't stop it getting through though, nor did it stop the concussive force behind the explosion sweeping him away.

'Everyone in the Seireitei should have seen that attack…even Inoue and the others. I just hope that they're the first ones here,' he thought with a sigh, feeling himself drifting closer and closer to unconsciousness. 'Dammit, every time I've gone up against a Captain, they've always had some little fucking trick up their sleeves. How the fuck can are they this powerful? Were they ever fucking human?!'

"My, my, isn't this a curious sight to stumble across," a cultured voice spoke, causing Ichigo's eyes to snap open. Staring in the direction of the voice, he found a man with light brown hair and eyes and a pair of black glasses staring down at him. What sent a shiver of fear down his spine though, was the white haori that he wore.

'Another Captain?! I can't take him on when I'm like this…' he thought internally, his body shivering slightly in fear as the man calmly walked towards him and smiled down at his prone form.

"It seems like Captain Sui-Feng certainly did a number on you Kurosaki-san," the man commented as he knelt down on his haunches next to him and began to examine his injuries. "You escaped with mainly second degree burns with only a few areas experiencing third degree burns…quite an achievement for an untrained soul reaper. And it seems as if the intense heat has also cauterised your wounds, how fortunate for you." Looking at Ichigo's face and seeing the look of terror in his eyes, he frowned and pulled the teen's jaw open. "Ah I see, that would explain why you can't speak," he said with a thoughtful nod, before holding a glowing green palm over Ichigo's throat.

Almost immediately, Ichigo began to feel an icy cold spread down his throat, soothing his throat and lungs and making it much easier to breathe. "W-Why?" he gasped out as the Captain cut off the spell with a nod.

"Why did I help you? Well I guess you could say I am curious," Aizen said with a smirk as he stood to his full height again. "That and I wish to see how this rescue attempt of yours plays out."

"How?" Ichigo asked, his eyes wide as Aizen seemed to know the purpose of their mission already and if one Captain knew, how long was it before all of them knew.

"How did I know of your plan to rescue Rukia Kuchiki? That's irrelevant right now. What does matter is that I am willing to aid you in this endeavour," he said, folding his arms and staring down at Ichigo imperiously.

"Your…price?" Ichigo choked out, speaking still proving to be difficult with what only seemed like minor healing provided, while he tried to understand why a Captain would even offer to help them.

"My price? What an interesting way to put it Kurosaki-san," he said with a laugh. "Well it's not too onerous in my mind. You see, some associates of mine and I are planning to depart the Soul Society soon, but we would still like to be kept abreast of any and all developments that the Gotei 13 will make. My price, as you say, is for you to provide that information."

"What if I say…no?" Ichigo croaked out, part of him already crying out at being enslaved by another person again.

"The consequences would not be pleasant for you Kurosaki-san," Aizen explain, placing his heel on Ichigo's sternum and pressing down with crushing force, causing Ichigo to flail about slightly and utter a strangled cry. "I trust you do not wish to argue the point any further," Aizen continued, getting a short nod of acknowledgement from Ichigo. "Excellent, now all I need to do is…" As he bent down again to tend to Ichigo, said teenager cried out in agony as he felt his cracked skin give way under the man's touch, feeling what little blood he had left, pour out onto the ground, before he was finally swallowed by oblivion's sweet embrace.

XXX

Finally, here's the conclusion for you guys and girls. I know I've been away, but life got pretty hectic again these last few months. Hope you enjoyed today's chapter. Till next time, bye-bye.