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.


"So where's this town anyway?" Shin asked as he walked. Hoji and Suichi were trying to catch up with him as they sparred the whole way down the road with sticks. Suichi was mostly focusing on his dodging, since Hoji was using a log to spar with.

"I'm not sure" Suichi admitted breathlessly.

"We should find water" Hoji began, "and follow it!"

"Maybe" Shin replied thoughtfully. "There's the possibility that a town is existing away from water. Especially one harboring major underground dogs..."

"Tch" Hoji huffed, striking down Suichi at last. "What's that mean?"

"The heads" Suichi started, still out of breath "of the Kyuuhiouto wouldn't base themselves in a town that could be easily found."

"That" Hoji said, cupping his chin, "or they wouldn't be in a town at all. Gevlav could be a city, or something. That way they'd be much harder to find."

"Good point" Shin added. Just as the trio was ready to start walking normally again, the road started to stop. The beaten path of dirt and earth was becoming less distinguishable from the grass around it. Soon, there was no road anymore, not even wagon tracks. Stretched across them was a wide plain of rolling hill covered with a lush grass carpet.

"This doesn't look good" Suichi pointed out.

"How so?" Shin asked.

"The road stopped" he continued warily "in the middle of nowhere. It looks like anyone who got this far never went anywhere."

"Maybe its a nature retreat" Hoji guessed. "That'd be neat."

"Nah" Shin logically dejected, "then there'd be a lodge or something."

"This doesn't surprise you two!?" Suichi shouted. "The road just fricken stops! Isn't that creepy!?" Shin and Hoji shook their heads negatively. Suddenly, a loud thunder came rolling across the plains. All three looked over to the gray skies in the distance, and then it came again. There was no lightning, just a booming bass of thunder. With every sounding it seemed to get closer. The sound was starting to get harder, more solid. Instead of thunder, it sounded like a very deep and resonant army marching with drums on their backs. But instead of an army, the boys braced themselves to the approach of a single man.

"Unn?" he grunted as he crested the hill. He had very lazy eyes and sloppily combed back blue hair. He also wore an eyepatch with the word 'Iwa' printed on it. On his back was a drum, one bigger than him, and in his hand he held a stick. He pounded the skin of the drum, and the noise actually blew Hoji and Suichi down. Shin had his sword raised up to block, of all things, the noise that thundered out. "Cool" he said to himself. "Survivors!"


"Who are you!?" Shin shouted across the plain. The man atop the hill placed his huge drum down in front of him, almost as if to aim it at the three.

"They call me a 'murderer'" he replied. "My name's Lulao Ranruran. Nice to meet you!" Suichi got up, rubbing his ears in pain, and looked at him.

"What'd he say?" he shouted to Shin.

"His name's Lulilaolin..." he paused when he realized how bad he stuttered, then continued "ranrurururu...nothing important."

"Hey!" Lulao yelled. "Are you flubbing up my name?"

"What!?" Hoji shouted. The noise had apparently deafened both of them.

"Get your sword" Shin warned. Hoji heard sword and raised him own up in a fighting stance. Lulao prepared to strike his drum again, bringing his arm up high, and then his other, pulling another stick out of nowhere and crashed them both down. The thunderous 'DON' shook the ground, blew back Shin and Suichi onto the still half-decayed part of the road behind them and sent Hoji into a rock.

"Who are you guys!?" Lulao asked, twirling his sticks around cockily. Shin tried to clean out his ears to stop the ringing, but he heard the man well enough.

"I'm Shin Kenpachi!" Shin announced. "Hoji Araijin, Suichi the Assassin and I are traversing the countryside to try and eliminate the Kyuuhiouto. Incidentally, do you know where we can find Gevlav!?"

Lulao tilted his head to the side and looked up thoughtfully, nodding to himself and shifting his feet about. "Oh yeah!" he shouted back. "Those guys hate me! The town's in this direction, past some mountains. I can take you there, if you can pay me."

Shin stared blankly at him, which Lulao caught from across the whole field. Hoji groaned and settled himself on his feet again, picking at his ears.

"What's going on now?" Hoji asked.

"We don't have any money" Suichi reminded his stone-faced leader. Lulao still stood expecting a response that would be good for him, leaning in with his hand cupping his ear.

"Then let me ask you this" Lulao started. "Can you guys fight!?" Shin gave a smirk and pointed at his face with his sword in that derelict fashion his is prone to do when he gets annoyed. Suichi released his sword and held up his arm for the drummer to see. Hoji, of course, still bent his back down a bit and kept his hands close to the ground. They all stared him down, silently accepting his challenge. "Fair enough. If any one of you can beat me, I'll escort you through the mountains to the city."

"Ah" Shin pointed out apathetically. "Looks like Hoji was right. It is a city."

"Let's go!" Lulao shouted. He clicked his sticks together rhythmically and let the other three charge. Then, as the neared the base of the hill, he slammed down, shooting them all back, and continued to pound to a fast beat while they flew. Hoji was able to spin back around and plant his hands a feet on the loose ground while he was hurled through the air, Shin and Suichi holding their ears to try and block the pain.

"It's not just the sound" Shin thought aloud "but the vibration that makes the force! His drum must not be a normal drum!" Lulao continued to beat on his huge drum, banging his head to the rhythm he made. Suichi watched on as Hoji progressed toward the hill, undaunted by the sound but being kept at bay by its force.

"So that's how it is, eh?" Lulao commented. He banged his sticks off the skin of the drum and let the twirl through the air. Hoji took the chance and rushed while Lulao decided to show off, jumping up and spinning in the air. He grabbed the sticks again and used the force and energy of his whole body to bang them both with a cataclysmic 'BOOM'. Hoji stuck his sword into the ground and held his arm up to his face. The crash of air echoed across the rolling hills, decimating rocks and stones throughout the passage to the mountains. Shin and Suichi were thrown back ,unable to hold their own with the pain of the bass in their ears, so now the battle was left to Hoji.


"How you like that!?" Lulao shouted. His voice even carried the distance equal to his drum. "The power of my sword, Chikyuu no Uta, is enough to move mountains and swell the sea! This weapon of mine has leveled entire villages with only a single note!"

"What'd he say?" Suichi moaned from within the ground.

"We fighters with no reason" he continued with his arms raised in the air, "we Manzenryuu, are the only real power in the world! We have no one to limit us, no chains to bind us! The sky is our limit, and the stars are our only real friends! I support you campaign, brothers, but as one of you I can't just hand over my help to you! So fight me or di---" And that's when, unseen from the side, Hoji delivered his nearly trade-marked flying kick to his opponent's face. Lulao tumbled all the way down the hill, grunting in pain each time he hit the dirt.

"There!" Hoji roared. "I beat you! Now what!?" Shin kicked himself up and looked at the hill. Hoji was on it, looking down the side, and picking his ears still. Hoji pulled a large, dense wad of disgusting moss out of his ear which had been lodged in when the first explosive blast knocked him down. Lulao, at the base of the hill, recovered himself and jumped back up to the top. Hoji caught him out of the corner of his eye and slashed with his sword, impacting and holding it on both of his drum sticks.

"That isn't normal wood, is it?" Hoji asked.

"Nope" Lulao replied. "You must be a smart fighter, to notice that the sound and the reverberations had to work together to make the weapon work. Since you couldn't hear the sound, you only had to move past the wind. You're good."

"I'm alright" Hoji admitted modestly, picking the rest of the crud out of his ears.

"Or you're a lucky idiot" Lulao said, embarrassed at himself. Hoji withdrew his sword onto his shoulder, letting Lulao move back to his drum. He gently set the sticks down, which still made a loud, unexpected bump, and Shin's sword was at his neck the next second.

"How do?" Shin lowed. "So then, you'll take us to Gevlav now?"

"Heh" Lulao chuckled nervously. "Sure thing, guy."

"Here's an idea" Suichi said, crawling up the hill exhausted. "Maybe you can help us. If you're against the Kyuuhiouto as well, you may as well stick with us for a bit longer."

"Meh" Lulao politely dejected. "I do my own thing. Like I said, we're all Manzenryuu fighters. If we start uniting and forming up, we may become a replacement for the Kyuuhiouto. Just kill them and do your next thing..."

"Hmm" Shin mused quietly. "Good point. By the way, why are they mad at you?"

"I leveled a town" Lulao explained "with a bunch of their soldiers and suppliers in it.

"Ah, that's cool" Shin noted. "We've defeated and effectively dethroned three of their highest advisors in the bordering towns in this region."

"Not bad" Lulao praised as Shin sheathed his sword. "But why are you guys fighting them?"

"I'm not sure" Shin admitted. "I mostly want to fight some strong people to get stronger myself, but now I feel like that won't happen immediately. So now, I just blame myself for this war." Lulao deactivated his sword and sheathed it behind his back. "Right now I''m fighting because I'm bored." Lulao nodded and started walking ahead of them.

"Stick close" he warned. "Hollows are everywhere here. If you see one, chop it down quick, okay?"

"Sure thing" Shin acknowledged, walking beside him.

"I assume it's quite far, right?" Suichi said, half-whining about it. Lulao nodded, Suichi slumped down, and all four of them started walking across the dark green plains towards the higher mountains in the distance.


Iwa: Rock (as in stone)

Chikyuu no Uta: Song of the Earth