So now the shinigami fight comes out. Enjoy. I luffs ya all.

Chapter 17

The air was cool, the city below seemed quiet. Karakura-town, she'd heard it called, but it was far larger than any town she'd witnessed. It was larger than most cities she knew. A sea of rooftops lay below them, interspaced with treed lanes, parks, poles with lines strung between them, and strangely paved roads buzzing with odd mechanical creations. There were buildings taller than the tallest mage towers she'd seen, speckled with dots of light.

The world buzzed with activity, and every sentient thing in it was human. What a strange notion.

"We all in?" Grimmjow asked, then continued without waiting for an answer, "use your pesquisa. If you find anything with a shred of reiatsu… kill it." He snarled with a grin, then closed his eyes and concentrated. Everyone else did the same. Vellena didn't – her reiatsu-sensing abilities were getting better, but she wasn't able to do this yet, if ever.

Grimmjow cursed briefly. "They're multiplying like insects. Reinforcements from Soul Society. Oh well. Kill them all." He extended a hand to the night elf. She took it, feeling a little unsteady as she was passed from Shawlong to Grimmjow. "You're coming with me." He said to her. Then he waved a dismissive hand, and his fracción dispersed instantly.

"The kid?" Vellena asked. The Espada hadn't stopped smiling, and he looked positively bloodthirsty.

"Yeah," he drawled. "I think I found him. Let's go." Under his control, they travelled faster than she would have thought possible. The scenery around them became a blur. "He's on the move – there's someone else with him I think. Going to D-Roy's location. Shit." Grimmjow said, the wind from their passage tearing his words from his lips. She could still hear him – her hearing was beyond excellent.

There was an explosion of ice, and she heard Grimmjow growl. D-Roy struck her as the weakest of his fracción. She understood his concern – if it could be called that. "SHIT!" he roared again as a column of ice pierced the sky. She felt something, a knowledge derived from her rudimentary reiatsu sense. D-Roy had fallen. "I'm going to kill that little fucker!" She knew he was referring to the shinigami kid. Grimmjow's voice was high with rage, he radiated deadly intent.

They zeroed in on the source of power, suddenly slowing in the sky a few feet from the ground. He released her, and she dropped lithely to her feet. Two figures in black were turning at their sudden presence – the carrot-topped boy and a short black-haired girl she did not recognize.

"What's this?" roared Grimmjow, "D-Roy's murderer is still hanging around? You won't get away. I'll kill you both! I'm the Sexto arrancar, Grimmjow. Remember it!"

Her presence seemed forgotten for now. Vellena stood down, waiting to see what occurred. Grimmjow was bellowing at the two shinigami, demanding to know which one was stronger. The short black-haired one was screaming at the kid to flee. She didn't scream long – Grimmjow put his hand through her chest. She was impressed with the arrancar's strength. The girl dropped.

"Rukia!" the kid screamed. He launched himself at the laughing Espada.

With no opponent, she observed the violent battle. She didn't get to watch for long. Footsteps pounded behind her, she turned to meet the runner. A black-clad, sword-wielding man pelted down the paved walkway, spiky red hair streaming from the ponytail at the top of his head, barely kept in check by the head-band which obscured black tattoos. "Rukia!" he shouted, spying the corpse of the short one. "Damn you, arrancar, you'll pay!"

Here was her opponent. She drew her swords. The sound of steel being drawn halted him, and he turned his attention to her. "Grimmjow is busy." She said flatly.

"Who the hell are you?" the shinigami demanded.

"Vellena Nightwind, Knight of the Ebon Blades." She replied. It was simple courtesy.

"Uhn, Abarai Renji, lieutenant of the Sixth… you aren't arrancar! What the fuck?!" He interrupted himself. If the situation hadn't been so deadly serious, she would have found that almost funny enough to laugh.

"That doesn't matter. The tyranny of your kind will not be tolerated." She said, gazing at him through the gaps of her gruesome helmet. He put his sword out in a guard position.

"What do you mean by that?!" he yelled. She attacked, guarding against his two-handed return strike easily with her left blade, but failing to connect with the right. He was fast and agile, a lot faster than she expected. And he seemed to know the same teleportation trick Grimmjow and Nnoitra had pulled – vanishing only to appear several yards farther back a split second later.

"What the hell?!" seriously, did the guy have any other tone than yelling outraged confusion? "I don't know what you are Nightwind-temee, but you're in the way and I'm not going to hold back. Howl, Zabimaru!"

It seemed he was done clowning around. As she watched, ready to retaliate, his power flared. The sword in his hand became some kind of sword breaker-looking thing – it looked almost segmented. Even though he was too far away to effectively attack, he swung it at her. To her surprise, the segments parted, streaming towards her. Not a sword breaker – a sword whip. Her hurried parry was just in time, the sudden impact making the ribbing connecting the segments ripple like a wave.

The whip-blades retracted, snapping back and reassembling themselves as a sword with a click. Shit. She hated ranged opponents. She had to leap aside to avoid the sudden strike of his blade again as it coiled through the air, around and behind her. It hit the pavement where she had been standing, sending shards of the weird paving material flying and raising a cloud of dust.

She would need speed for this fight. She focused her energy on increasing her speed, her reaction time. She'd probably need a different weapon, but there wasn't time for that right now! Dodging again, she ducked under a sweeping coil, feeling the passage of a breeze on the tip of one ear – a little too close that time.

They both paused as they felt and incredible shockwave of power from Grimmjow and the kid. Then they faced each other again. Other peoples' battles would have to wait.

She had to close with him or she'd end up doing nothing but dodge his swirling weapon. Springing from the crouch, she raised her hand and lashed him with unholy power, yanking him into the path of her fist with one smooth movement. Frigid, plate-gauntleted fist met shinigami face with a nasty crack, using her sword's hilt as a structural brace. She lost her grip on him when she had to sidestep the flanking slash that came somewhat quicker than she expected, and then she didn't make it far enough away.

They both took a few steps backwards – the shinigami stumbled, free hand reaching for his broken, bloody nose; Vellena shifting in her armour. A quick mental assessment reassured her that the spines on his sword only made it through in places – some kind of lucky strike. All the same, he seemed worse off.

She recovered first. With a huff of exertion, she lashed out with glowing green swords. Eyes wide, he grabbed her right blade with his bare hand, shouting out a burbling sound of pain as she used unholy rune magic to infect him with a painful fever. Her other blade he deflected incompletely with his backside of his own – she only managed to graze the top of his shoulder. Then those damn spines tangled her up and she lost her left blade, the glowing runes winking out as it hit the ground.

She was able to retrieve it at her leisure, because he was a little busy with her disease. He turned an odd green shade that clashed with his red hair and clutched his stomach with his blistered left hand. Bending over, he retched on the street.

Head lifting, he spotted something behind her, expression changing to dismay. "—'Ukia! Sday dowd'!" he shouted, before regaining a surprised look and curling over to vomit yet again.

"Renji!" she heard the shinigami woman's voice, cracked with pain and fear. "Hadō number thirty-three—," Vellena whirled, amazed that the woman she thought was a corpse was up again, standing, and obviously casting. "Blue fire crash—!" she didn't get a chance to finish. Vellena gestured. The girl froze, making a choking noise, hand going to her throat. Her eyes rolled. She pitched over backwards, unconscious or dead.

"I hate casters…" muttered Vellena.

"Dabbid! 'Ukia! Bidch, you'll pay for 'dat! Ba'KAI!"

Uh oh, thought Vellena, turning back to her opponent as she felt the explosion of power from him. Clouds of dust or smoke obscured her vision briefly, then cleared. Yep, definitely 'uh oh.'

So there you have it, Renji. He was the first of my three picks, for multiple reasons. I opened up the field to comments more to see if there was some possibility I hadn't thought of, but oddly enough, most people said Renji too. I guess he's just a naturally good fit for this. Vellena is really mean to him.

We'll ignore the fact that he was supposed to be fighting Yylfordt. I'm allowed to take a little artistic license. Maybe Yylfordt gets Yumichika instead, or something, since Yumichika spent most of that fight sitting around narrating for Ikkaku. He can go be useful.

Thanks go out to Takaiteishu_Naruto, Shinryu-Twilight Dragon, and Kyrrlatur for their input into the shinigami battle.