Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, or any of its characters. Tite Kubo does.
Torn
Chapter 14: The Face That Launched A Thousand Ships
As the two Captains walked side by side to the meeting that had been called, the one with short, purple hair turned to her comrade and spoke.
"You're not seriously going to do it, are you, Byakuya-bo?"
The Kuchiki Captain snorted dismissively.
"Do what, woman? And don't call me by that patronizing nickname, either; I'm not in the mood."
Yoruichi smirked briefly despite herself, before returning her thoughts to the serious matter at hand.
"I'm talking about your sister. You're not really going to kill her, are you?"
"That girl is no longer my kin, Shihoin," Byakuya grated out, "and a cat such as yourself should know by now that unbridled curiosity can be fatal."
"Was that a threat, Byakuya-bo?" the Second Division interim Captain said with mock hurt. "That cuts deep, it really does. I thought we were friends."
"I could never be friends with a fickle demon such as yourself, woman. But to return to the matter at hand, how can you be so sure that I won't kill Rukia?"
Yoruichi's golden eyes gleamed with mischief.
"Because you don't sound so sure yourself, Byakuya-bo," she prodded, "and I know that you're still a big softie underneath that stony exterior of yours."
"Any tenderness that might have resided in my heart perished with Hisana, woman," Byakuya all but growled.
"Keep telling yourself that, Byakuya," Shihoin parried, "but I've known you since you were a kid, and I can tell you're going to crack long before you see Rukia again. She's too much like Hisana for you to actually kill her, and you know it."
Byakuya was silent for several moments, giving his parting shot a few steps away from the doors to First Division's headquarters.
"I hate you."
Yoruichi just smiled, completely unfazed by the Kuchiki Captain's words.
"I know."
The two Soul Reapers stepped into the room and took their places beside the other Captains. When all of the strongest warriors in Soul Society had gathered together, Yamamoto pounded his staff on the floor and signaled the beginning of the meeting.
"Earlier this afternoon," he announced in a deep, rumbling voice, "some of the scouts from Second Division reported seeing a garganta appear on the far edge of the Rukongai. Their report states that a wounded, unconscious Arrancar was found at the scene, and promptly annexed by the scientists of Twelfth Division. Captain Kurotsuchi," the Captain-Commander spoke with a bite,
"Is there any reason why I have not been made aware of this development in an official report?"
Mayuri visibly tensed as every eye in the room turned to regard him, and his reply was as defensive as that of a cornered beast.
"I did not think it necessary to report such a trivial occurrence to my superior, sir," the skeletal-faced scientist spat out. "Besides, any research and experiments I choose to conduct in my laboratories fall under my direct, sovereign control as head of the Research and Development department. The same autonomy you extend to those sneaky rats in the SMC is also mine, by right!"
"Silence, Kurotsuchi!" Yamamoto spoke thunderously, choking off Mayuri's diatribe. "Know your place, or it will be stripped from you as punishment for your impudence. I have not finished. Later this afternoon, no less than two hours ago, a second garganta was sighted, near the same location as the first. The warriors who emerged from it were confirmed to be two Espada, an unidentified Hollow, and the traitor Ichigo Kurosaki."
At the mention of the last name, several members of the assembly became very, very concerned; any appearance made by the orange-haired Kurosaki was bound to bring strife to their doorstep.
"I cannot believe that this is a coincidence, Mayuri Kurotsuchi!" the Captain-Commander boomed. "Tell us, what exactly are you hiding in your laboratory?"
Before the Twelfth Division Captain could respond, every person's head jerked upwards slightly as a thread of kido was forced into their minds.
"This is…" Captain Ukitake began,
"Tenteikura…" Captain Kyoraku finished, and a few heartbeats later a voice echoed in their ears.
"Yo, is this thing on?" Ichigo's voice asked, before an irritated, harsh reply cut him off.
"Of course it's 'on', you moron," the speaker shot back in a harsh tone that sounded like a twisted version of Ichigo's voice. "It's kido, not a fucking microphone!"
"You're not helping, brother," Kurosaki grumbled, before coughing and beginning his message.
"Okay, so here's the deal," Ichigo's disembodied voice announced. "Your rat bastard of a Twelfth Division Captain has captured somebody that we care deeply about."
"Especially Ulquiorra," Grimmjow's voice cut in, jeering. "He's in love!"
"When this is over, I will kill you," the Fourth Espada's cold voice replied, before Ichigo cleared his throat and continued.
"Consider this an ultimatum," the Soul Reaper said seriously. "We are giving you an hour, during the duration of which we will be traveling towards the Seireitei. If Nel isn't back in our hands by then, we're going to tear down your walls and take her back by whatever means necessary. If you get in our way, we will trample you. If you draw your swords, we will shatter them.
"What is your answer?"
Every Captain knew that a tenteikura that could reach this far, and penetrate the spiritual barrier around the Seireitei no less, was being cast by someone who possessed monstrous spiritual power indeed. They expected Yamamoto to acquiesce, and waited anxiously for his reply.
"I refuse to honor your demand," Genryusai growled. "I will not negotiate with your ilk, nor be intimidated by your petty threats. If you desire to seize this… thing from us, then come and take it."
No reply was heard for a few moments, and then Ichigo sighed.
"So be it," he said frigidly, his voice as focused as a sword's edge. "Just know that if you have caused Neliel any irreparable damage, it will be repaid to you in kind."
The Tenteikura vanished with a snap, and Unohana turned to face Yamamoto.
"With all due respect, sir," she began, "do you not think that decision was a rash one?"
"Absolutely not," the ancient man replied, his voice hard and inflexible. "We cannot give in to demands such as that. Furthermore, the chance we have now to crush these scum cannot be ignored. They will come here full of fire, and we shall snuff it out with impunity. No quarter shall be given, nor will it be asked for. By the time the sun sets, their heads will be on pikes atop our walls!"
Most of the Captains in the room felt a great unease settle over them at the idea of another pitched battle so soon after Aizen had decimated their ranks, but they also knew that once Yamamoto had his mind set on something, he was not one to brook an argument.
"Mobilize your forces as you see fit," the Captain-Commander ordered. "Meet these pitiful insects out on the field of battle, and destroy them. Dismissed!"
The Captains all filed out of the hall, grim thoughts weighing down their minds. In one of the adjacent corridors, Captain Unohana approached Yoruichi.
"Lady Shihoin," the calm healer spoke, "may I ask you a question?"
The golden-eyed Soul Reaper nodded.
"You don't have to ask me permission, Captain Unohana. What's on your mind?"
"You know the boy Kurosaki the best out of all of us," the Fourth Division Captain spoke seriously. "Tell me, how dangerous is he?"
Shihoin sighed, still saddened that her former student had joined Aizen's ranks.
"It depends on how hard he's willing to fight," Yoruichi replied. "If he really cares about this Arrancar as much as he claims to, 'Wrath of God' doesn't even begin to describe the force he will bring down on us."
"I was afraid you would say that," Retsu answered, hanging her head. "To be honest, I still regret the day that we exiled Kisuke Urahara," she spoke, and Yoruichi's eyes widened at the name.
"Especially now that we know he was innocent of the charges levied against him, and such an act allowed Mayuri Kurotsuchi to rise in his place as Captain of Twelfth Division." Unohana continued, sighing. "But now is not the time to dwell on the darkness of our past," the wise Captain finished. "We must instead prepare for the darkness of the present, and the storm that gathers above our heads. Take care, Lady Shihion."
Yoruichi nodded and went on her way, her heart heavy with consternation. The last thing she wanted to do right now was fight a war, but Yamamoto, being the stubborn old codger that he was, didn't seem to want to give anyone a choice in the matter.
"I knew I shouldn't have taken this job," she groused. "Kisuke's probably still sleeping in right now, the jerk."
Captain Kyoraku stepped into the dingy Twelfth Division laboratory and immediately had to cover his nose. The place reeked of chemicals, blood and sweat. None of the usual assistants were around, either; Mayuri had wanted to keep this private for a reason, and whatever that reason was disturbed the Eighth Division Captain greatly. Moving swiftly through the lab, Shunsui soon found himself looking at a barred, prison-style cell. Peering through the darkness, Kyoraku saw a form slumped up against the cold stone and his eyes widened in pity.
The woman looked to be no older than 20, the only visible attribute that marked her as an Arrancar being the fractured mask on her head. Scores of cuts, both battle-inflicted and the smoother, more precise marks of incisions were scattered around her body. Her uniform had been torn to shreds, the pure white it had once been now looking brown and sullied by blood, dirt and tears.
"Gods…" Shunsui breathed out, before ripping open the door and stepping into the enclosure. The Arrancar stirred at the sound, her eyes widening in fear as she caught sight of the new visitor. She came sharply to life, scrambling up against the wall as her hands began scratching at the concrete, desperate to put distance between her and this Soul Reaper by any means necessary. Kyoraku closed the space between them swiftly before the poor woman scratched her nails raw, but when he got within arms-length the Arrancar lashed out, trying to claw at him. Shunsui took hold of her hands gently but firmly, stilling Neliel's animalistic reaction.
"I can't imagine what that man has done to you, child," the Captain said softly, "and I weep for your pains. Trust me when I say that I'm here to help you, not harm you."
Nel shuddered and tears began to flow from her eyes, but she made no sound.
"Here," Kyoraku spoke after a moment, taking off his floral cloak and draping it around the young woman's trembling form. "This should keep you warm. I'm Shunsui, Shunsui Kyoraku. What's your name, young one?"
The Arrancar said nothing, and even when she opened her mouth no sound came out. There were no scars on her throat, and her tongue was intact, and yet she could not speak.
Whatever had been done to her, the psychological trauma had rendered her mute.
Sighing and cursing Kurotsuchi's amorality, Shunsui unsheathed the shorter of his zanpakuto's blades and handed it to Neliel, tacitly expressing his goodwill by giving the prisoner a weapon.
"Use it to write your name," he urged gently, and Neliel took the short sword and carved the characters of her first name into the ground, before handing the blade back to the Captain.
"Neliel," Kyoraku sounded out. "That's a strong name."
The Arrancar got a cynical look on her face, giving Shunsui a sad smile.
"You will be fine, Neliel," Kyoraku said as he rose, turning to leave the cell. "Your comrades are coming, and I can guarantee that they won't stop until they reach you."
As he stood on the other side of the iron bars, the Captain raised his hand and formed a kyomon barrier across entire length of the cell.
"This should keep anyone from entering," he said, "but when the time comes, it should be a simple matter for you to break it from the inside. Good luck, child," Shunsui spoke in parting as he prepared to flash away. "I hope that, in time, your voice returns to you."
Neliel sighed and wrapped the cloak around her tightly, closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep. A smile formed on her face as she recalled the words Grimmjow had spoken over the tenteikura; she knew Ulquiorra would come for her.
"I can't believe they said no. Do they want to die?"
"They're just being stubborn idiots, Grimmjow," Ichigo replied. "This doesn't really change anything, anyway. It's not like we expected them to roll out a welcoming mat, after all."
"I, for one, can't wait to bust some heads," Hichigo said excitedly, but the orange-haired Soul Reaper cut him off.
"We're not killing anyone, brother," Kurosaki said sternly. "The last thing we want to do is deplete their forces before the battle against Aizen's actually started."
"Then you would let that scum Kurotsuchi live?' Ulquiorra asked, an uncommon amount of bitterness in his voice. Grimmjow raised an eyebrow, unable to keep from commenting on his fellow Espada's change in demeanor.
"You're acting pretty lively over there, Ulquiorra. What gives? You know I was joking earlier when I said…" The Sixth Espada's voice trailed off as the wheels turned in his head, and Grimmjow's blue eyes widened as he arrived at the answer.
"You didn't think I was joking," he said, his voice building towards a revelation. "You thought I was being serious when I said that! Oh man, you actually are in love with her?!"
Schiffer remained silent, knowing that by not saying anything he was proving Grimmjow right, but also realizing that if he said something defensive he would be doing the same thing.
"I can't say I blame the guy," Hichigo chimed in. "I'd invade Soul Society by myself if I knew I'd get to tap that."
"You're disgusting," Ichigo parried, and the Hollow just shrugged.
"Hey, I call it like I see it. I'm a creature of pure instinct, remember? It's not like I can help myself."
"This is wasting time," Schiffer spoke, trying to keep from lunging forward and strangling Hichigo on the spot. "Every second we linger here is a second Mayuri has Neliel in his hands."
"Point taken," Ichigo said seriously. "They've given us their answer, gentlemen," he spoke as he prepared to flash away,
"Now let's give them ours."
The foursome found their charge stalled by the massive wall of seki-seki stone that made up the Seireitei's main defensive barrier, looming tall and immune to spiritual energy.
"Well, this is kind of anti-climactic," Hichigo spoke out, breaking the frustrated silence. "Any ideas? We can't exactly use reiatsu to bust this thing down, so unless we want to start banging our heads against the wall, we need to think of something, and fast."
When the Hollow's words had had a chance to sink in, Jaegerjaques' eyes lit up as he had an epiphany.
"That's it!" he exclaimed. "we might not be able to use energy to blast it down, but blunt-force trauma should do the trick."
Ichigo raised a quizzical eyebrow.
"Where are we going to find enough blunt force to break through this?"
Grimmjow smiled a wide, feral grin.
"Watch and learn, Ichigo. Grind, Pantera!"
After the blue-haired Espada had entered his resurrecion form, he bent both of his elbows and produced five green, dart-like objects from each one.
"If these don't get the job done, nothing will," Grimmjow spoke as he let the projectiles fly. To the warriors' immense relief, the weapons succeeded in not just breaking the wall down, but also in all-but obliterating a section of it entirely. As the Espada resumed his normal form, Ichigo let out an impressed whistle.
"I guess that'll work," he said, and the four warriors stepped beyond the boundary and into the Seireitei itself.
"How shall we proceed?" Ulquiorra asked, and Kurosaki paused for a moment to think before answering.
"We should split up, and then meet up again at the Twelfth Division Headquarters. If we do that, we won't get in each other's way when fights crop up, and we quadruple our chances of getting there sooner compared to if we go as a single group. It also keeps us from being killed off all at once, as well."
"That sounds solid to me," Hichigo chimed in. "So, I'm assuming we're just looking for the building with the big '12' on it?"
"Pretty much," Grimmjow said, and the four warriors split off, one going in each of the cardinal directions. Before breaking up, however, they synced threads of their reiatsu together to form links, which could be communicated over like walkie-talkies. That way, one of them could let the others know as soon as they found the Twelfth Division building, and not a moment of time would be wasted trying to track each other down.
Hichigo ran through the streets like a man possessed, locking on to the strongest nearby reiatsu and chasing it down. When he finally ran into his opponent, the Hollow wasn't disappointed at all; this man had a frighteningly high level of reiatsu, a Captain's robe on and a berserker grin to rival his own.
"The Old Man said that we should mobilize like we saw fit," the man said, his voice gravelly and rough, "and I wasn't about to let Yachiru have all of the fun. You aren't gonna disappoint me, are ya, boy?"
Hichigo recognized this man from Ichigo's earlier battle with him as Zaraki Kenpachi, the Captain of the Eleventh Division.
"You aren't gonna go down as easily as you did against Ichigo, are ya?" the Hollow spat back, and Zaraki's grin widened.
"Come and find out, Hollow!" he shouted, and Hichigo laughed madly as he charged, Kenpachi's zanpakuto meeting the inverted Zangetsu in a furious clash as the duel began.
Grimmjow hurried along, in search of the Twelfth Division Headquarters, when an incredibly strong reiatsu appeared nearby, definitely Captain-class.
"What's the hurry, handsome?" a velvety, amused voice called out from the Espada's left. "Why don't you stay a while and fight me?"
Jaegerjaques turned around to see a woman emerge from the shadows, with dark skin, short purple hair, sharp golden eyes and a white haori. Now there was no doubting that this woman was a Captain.
"I don't have time for this," the Espada snarled as he made to leave, only to find himself staring directly into those golden eyes, which were now no more than a foot from him.
"Then you should clear your schedule," the Captain said, "because I can't let you through."
It was only Grimmjow's fast reflexes that kept him from being hit by the punch that screamed towards his head a heartbeat later, and the Espada jumped backwards to give himself a bit of range, and time to catch his breath.
"Not bad, not bad," the woman said appreciatively. "It's been a while since I've met someone who could dodge that."
"I'm honored," Jaegerjaques replied sarcastically, cracking his knuckles and lunging forward. The Captain sidestepped with liquid grace, delivering a spin kick to Grimmjow's midsection that sent him flying backwards. As he sailed through the air, the Espada caught a glimpse of the number '2' on the back of the woman's haori. When he had regained his footing, Jaegerjaques spit up some blood and spoke.
"Who're you?" he asked. "I thought Shaolin was Captain of the Second Division."
"My name's Yoruichi…" the woman began, before stopping as her eyes widened in shock. "How do you know that name?" she asked, but Grimmjow just charged again.
"It doesn't matter," he growled. "Let's go, woman!"
Ichigo flash-stepped from roof to roof, figuring that the view would be better from higher up. Just when he thought he saw the Twelfth Division's roof appear in the distance, however, a voice spoke up from behind him that stopped the Soul Reaper in his tracks.
"Where do you think you're going, Ichigo Kurosaki?"
Sighing, the brown eyed warrior turned to face his opponent.
"Why am I not surprised to see you here, Byakuya? What's wrong, are you such a glutton for punishment that you couldn't wait for me to wipe the floor with you again?"
"It appears that your treachery has done nothing to dull your arrogance, boy," the Kuchiki noble answered coldly. "You leave me no choice but to annihilate you, and free Rukia from the grip of your deception."
Kurosaki's eyes widened as he heard the name of his loved one.
"What does Rukia have to do with this?"
"She seems to think that she loves such a piece of filth as you," Byakuya ground out, "and it has poisoned her mind and robbed her of the ability to reason. Once you fall here, perhaps the veil of this foolishness will be lifted from her eyes."
Ichigo's soul raged against the Captain's blindness, and he shifted directly into his bankai.
"I promised Rukia I would come back to her," he shouted as he launched his attack, "and you're not going to be the reason I break that oath, Byakuya!"
Ulquiorra had keyed into Nel's reiatsu, and was moving towards it as quickly as he could when a Captain flashed in front of him, blocking his path. He had a painted, skeletal face and his upper row of teeth showed at all times, amber eyes glowing starkly from their sockets.
"Hello there, Arrancar," he said in a strained voice. "Looking for someone?"
"Yes," Schiffer replied coldly, "I am. Would you obstruct my search?"
"Are you an idiot?" the man asked. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm not about to let someone just waltz in and steal my newest specimen, after all."
Ulquiorra's eyes widened in understanding at those words.
"Specimen?" he repeated. "Are you Mayuri Kurotsuchi?"
The Captain gave a wide smile.
"It seems as though my reputation precedes me," he said. "Excellent, most excellent. Yes, I am Mayuri Kurotsuchi. Who are you, Arrancar?"
"My name is Ulquiorra Schiffer," the Fourth Espada said as he drew his sword and readied it for battle,
"And I am going to destroy you."
A/N: I know I said the letter Nel wrote to Ulquiorra would make it into this chapter, but the story unfolded a bit differently than I had imagined earlier, and so the letter will have to wait for later. But rest assured, it will be revealed eventually; I'm not about to pull a MacGuffin. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and as always, please review!