Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.
From the outer-most marked borders of Riev the trio arrived. Shin and Hoji walked upon the flowing river, ignoring its speed and keeping their own pace, with Suichi strolling on the banks. Over the cresting hill they could see the smoke of houses and the stumps of trees cut for wood. They were close.
"How are we going to do this?" Suichi yelled at the men in the water.
"Do what?" Hoji asked.
"Kill this man" Suichi clarified, "especially not knowing who he is."
"Easy" Shin started. "He's expecting us. We'll announce ourselves and wait for him to come to us." The resounding certainty of Shin's plan made Suichi suspicious.
"I doubt it will go that smoothly" Suichi interjected. Shin turned to him. "Remember Oka?" to which both Shin and Hoji shivered in disgust. "He had bodyguards with him. If these Kyuuhiouto guys are really all that they're cracked up to be, then this guy will have bodyguards too. And most likely, he'll have more."
"Why would you say that?" Shin asked. As soon as he asked, he knew the answer that Suichi would say.
"Because he's expecting us" Suichi answered with a shadowy smirk. Shin smirked back with just as much menace, and directed his smirk over to Hoji, who reeled back slightly with a curious face.
"...what?" Hoji asked as Shin smiled at him. Shin leaned in, widened his eyes and jutted out his jaw to smile even harder and creepier. "What!?" Hoji shouted, now getting scared. Suichi watched them frolic like idiots as Shin scared Hoji and slapped his head.
Down in the shanty-like town of farms and huts a troop of black-clad soldiers strode down the street. Each particular nameless man wore a standard shinigami robe with short hair cuts and masks that covered their all but their eyes. In the center of that group walked a shorter, much fatter man with a bowl cut, pudgy cheeks spotted with acne, a grossly thin mustache below his spherically bulging nose and very thin beady eyes. He was loudly munching on a large roll of some kind and glancing about between the gaps of his man-wall even now and then. Within the plentiful little houses hid the villagers, quivering behind whatever cover they had ready inside lest the terror would sweep down on them.
"Sir," one guard began with dignity, "where would you like to rest and wait for this Shin Kenpachi?"
"Not now!" the ugly man whined in a crackly voice. He munched hungrily more so on his food and wiped away the plentiful mess from his mouth. "Why aren't there any good restaurants here!?" He shouted.
"Because this is farmland, sir" on of his guards said. "The food used ins restaurants is grown here."
"I know that!!" the leader whined childishly. "Don't make me punish you!" The threat of punishment sent a sharp chill up every guards spine. "Anyway, let's find a spot and rest. This walking is irritating my feet." The guards immediately twitched their heads quickly to search for an adequate spot.
"How about over there?" on guard said, pointing to a flowing field of grain with a single fruit tree just across the way. Their leader stared at it blankly, then looked over to his left.
"OH! Let's wait in there!" he shouted, pointing to a women's bathhouse. The guards' faces sank as their employer started rushing off without regard.
"Wait, sir!" one guard shouted, trying to catch him.
"Wait?" the man repeated spitefully. The guard stopped dead and held his breath. "You foolish little ant, telling me to wait! I am Toshiro Watanabe, the Property Manager of the Kyuuhiouto! I can make it so you were never born with my sword and travel far into the future to bring down the apocalypse square on your ass! And you tell me to wait!? I Should kill you!"
The terrified guard riled back far and fell over as the stout, dwarf-like man loomed over him with his squinting eyes and his fat hand on his sword handle. The other guards quivered likewise, until the silence was ultimately broken by some boisterous announcer.
"YO! HERE WE ARE! SHIN KENPACHI AND COMPANY HAVE ARRIVED!" From the far side of town, where the mill met with the force of the local river, three strangers in tattered robes walked down the streets. One man with a nearly-bald head was spinning about and shouting their arrival with great vigor. "If the Kyuuhiouto are here, then prepare for a huge beat down, cause we came here to kill!!" The guards all placed their hands upon their swords and furrowed their brows. Toshiro turned around and moved up to the front of the pack with his arms crossed. Then, seeing the strangers approaching directly, he snapped his fingers.
"Oi! Hoji!" Shin shouted. "That's more than enough. If he's here, than he'll definitely come out soon." Hoji skipped back to Shin's side and rejoined the group as they came upon an ugly man sitting in a chair in the middle of the street, bordered by guards.
"Oh? Why hello" Toshiro said casually. "I'm surprised you arrived as fast as you did...allow me to introduce-"
"Excuse us" Shin said, brushing past the guards. Hoji bowed and Suichi just jumped over, and the three continued on down the wide road, completely ignoring the now stunned with anger Toshiro.
"Did you see that guy?" Hoji said quietly. "He looks like he got mutilated with a bokken made from an ugly tree that grows on the south face of disgusting mountain!" Shin stifled his laughter as best he could, letting it escape in short bursts of compressed squeaks.
"That's cruel" Suichi chuckled. Unfortunately, Toshiro heard them. His face was flushed pure red. Toshiro drew out his short sword and pointed it furiously at the proceeding three men.
"Kill them!" Toshiro commanded. The symphonic sounds of unison swords unsheathing perked up Shin's ears. He stopped his laughter long enough to turn as the guards charged full force. "ESPECIALLY KILL THE BALD ONE!" Hoji's face twisted quickly and he snapped out hiss word. In a flash, he was already poised to kill the unsightly man with his sword at his fat neck. Toshiro was paralyzed for a moment. Beyond the sword stopped motionlessly in front of his neck by the evil looking man looming over him, he saw that all his guards were already face down in the dust. The other two men, one in the tattered, open robe and the other wearing a skin-suit, started approaching.
"Even if I were totally bald," Hoji started with a growl, "I'd look infinitely better than you." Toshiro twitched his face in terror and pursed his lips in fear. "You look like a frog with a stomped-in face" Hoji mocked once again, lowering his head. From the angle that he stood, Hoji's face was black with shining white eyes and a horrid white grin, like a monster. Toshiro backed away a few steps ,then tripped over himself and fell to the dirt.
"Y-y-yo-you-you don't want to mess with m-m-me" Toshiro fearfully stuttered. Hoji raised his sword up over his head. Shin grinned and watched, Suichi turned his head and scoffed. When Hoji swung down, the house inf front of him had its windows blown away and the steps cave in instantly, but there was no blood. Toshiro was gone. Hoji blinked and looked around. There was still no one ins the street but the trio and the unconscious guards.
"Like I said" sounded out Toshiro, now confident as he came from the women's bathhouse with a scantily clad young woman at sword point in front of him, "you don't want to mess with me!"
"Damn" Suichi said, "he's fast!"
"Heh" Shin scoffed. Despite Suichi's surprise, Shin was still smiling as he had been before. Hoji was at a loss for explanation, but stared ahead with his same killing intent at the fat man hiding behind a lovely girl.
"What will you do now?" Toshiro taunted, keeping his blade close to the gagged female's throat. "If any of you get to close, I'll take this woman's life!" Suichi stood serious for a moment, then vanished completely. Shin didn't even notice him leave or see where he went, but he was too amused to care. Hoji was, of course, unmoved. He lowered his sword and raised up his other hand, pointing his middle finger straight at Toshiro's head.
"What are you doing now?" Toshiro shot out. He took a step back and yanked the woman along with him. "If you come close I'll kill her!"
"Doesn't matter" Hoji said. "I can kill you from here." At that, a small orb of red and white light appeared at Hoji's finger tip. He kept his arm perfectly still, aiming right between Toshiro's beady eyes, which widened as soon as he knew what Hoji was doing.
"Senkou no..." he began. Toshiro's steady sword hand was now shaking at the squirming woman's throat. He gulped loudly and reversed his grip to hold his sword pointing at Hoji. "...itami" Hoji finished sternly. The ball shot out in an instant flash, piercing the young woman straight through her exposed chest between her bosoms. Hoji gasped, sheathed his sword and flashed over, and caught the woman as she fell back down before she hit the floor. She was unconscious, and moreover naked, as Hoji held her and gazed at the dark-red mark he made on her. Without and physical damage, his attack had made her entire body burst with immense muscular pain.
"Dammit, how!?" Hoji shouted. From behind him, in the middle of the street, he heard his opponent cackling annoyingly.
"I am Toshiro Watanabe!" he announced. Hoji snapped his head around and growled. "And this" began the ugly man, holding his sword pointed at the sky, "is my zanpakuto! Hiyakugama!" Hoji laid the girl down gently and stood back up with his face shrouded with black and his hand on his sword handle. He glared up at Toshiro who evilly grinned back, unaware of the pain about to fall on him from behind.
Before Shin's flying kick connected with Toshiro's face, Hoji smiled.
A bokken is a wooden training sword, for those of you who don't know.
Senkou no Itami: Flash of Pain
Hiyakugama: Leaping Toad
