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.


This was the moment he had dreamed of, visioned a hundred times before! Finally, the release was here. Hoji's new form, Torakaze!

"Impossible!" Norbel shouted. "You're dead! I know you're dead! I opened your chest, dammit! You should be DEAD!"

"Yeah" Hoji growled. His life now existed solely on his spiritual energy which his sword miraculously provided. His blood was held withing him because of his pressure, which Torakaze supplemented passively.

Show him what kind of power you have, Hoji Araijin Torakaze said. Kick his ass! The last phrase, while unnecessary, made Hoji grin quite evilly. He bent his knees and clawed his hands, spreading them apart so they were parallel across his body.

"I'll rip you apart..." Hoji lowed. Norbel was intimidated, but he wouldn't let that stop him. He took a hand to his barrier of knives and gave a new command.

"Yoroi!" he shouted. The knives fluttered around him and coated him like scale plate armor. His face was the only thing left exposed. "Try hitting me now! I have already mastered the art of evasion to protect my head, Jiman-ho! All you efforts to hit me will be futile, and if you dare to hit me, I'll cut through your feeble weapon and rend your hands apart!" Despite this ample warning, Hoji prepared to dash forward. Mustering up all his physical and spiritual strength, he flashed. Time stopped.

"Woah" Hoji said, resuming the lapse of time. His flash landed him just behind Norbel, who still hadn't noticed that Hoji had moved. Hoji even looked past Norbel's head and saw himself standing there as an after-image. It wasn't even translucent yet. Taking the advantage, Hoji grabbed Norbel by the sharp shoulder an whipped him around. The knives that tried to slice off Hoji's fingers were now dented, much like Norbel's face from Hoji's following punch. From the middle of the tower, Norbel hit and flew through the high wall and was now sailing through the air.

"Holy hell!" Hoji hoarsely exclaimed. "What speed!"

The speed and power of the wind is yours now, Hoji Torakaze explained. Use it!

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "This'll be easy..." He reached his arms out in front of him and clawed at the air. He was able to grab a hold of the wind that blew around him and use his shikai's power to reel himself forward. He darted through the air faster than any flash step would have propelled him and soon loomed over Norbel who struggled to recover.

"Dammit!" Norbel cursed. "Not only is my face broken, I can't get back to the tower!"

"Suck to be you" Hoji said. He crouched in the air, arms crossed and raking at the whipping wind, and legs comfortably floating behind. Norbel was completely speechless, and all he could do now was watch as Hoji used the wind as a gripping bar to swing around and kick Norbel, once again, in the face. He flew back into the tower, plowed over many trees, and eventually settled.

"So" Hoji said as he slowly fell, "these things can also attack the wind. Nothing's sacred to you, is it Torakaze?"

I do what I must Torakaze responded. With my power you can use the wind in whatever fashion you wish. Maybe if you see a pretty girl walking around, you can blow up her skirt...

"Tch. Yeah!" Hoji excitedly said. "Hey, wait a sec! I ain't a goddamn pervert!" he now shouted. Using the same strategy and stance, he pounced like a tiger in a wide arc through the air, over the high walls of the tower, and beck into the grounds. "It seems the more open and gusty the area, the harder it is to get a grip on the air."

Indeed Torakaze confirmed. You can't fly with this power, but you can come pretty damn close to the sky. Go ahead and use this whelp as a tool and experiment a little further before you kill him.

"No" Hoji said. "That's what Hollows are for now..." With and evil grin, Hoji extended the index and middle finger of each hand. He spun his arms around, set his right in front with the fingers pointed up and the left a little further back and pointing down. With that stance, he lowered his legs, bending his left leg and standing on his toes while his right leg was straight and balanced on the heel. Norbel rose back up at length to see Hoji in this terrible stance and feared the worst.

No, this can't be real! Norbel told himself, his sword back in its original form. This has to be a dream! A terrible dream! That's it! I'm just asleep, I had too much sake. My mind is wandering from my previous worry of fighting a horrendous opponent with no manners...I'm fine. Just fine...Now then Hoji thought, what should I call this?


Does it matter!? Torakaze shouted. Just thrash him!

"That's it!" Hoji shouted. He sprang forth, lifting himself with his straight leg and spun his hands around to meet at his side and pressed them together, fingers flat and pointed out from the palm. "Torakaze, Shinkuuken!" Hoji brought his hands up in front of him as he flew and swiped them apart. The air made an explosive sound as an invisible blade of wind cut a windless path across the ground. The blade hit Norbel and gave him a shallow cut, but it kept going, and the resulting vacuum made all the wind rush in and decimate Norbel's bones and body. He nearly died, still convinced that he was in a terrible dream that wouldn't end.

"Now!" Hoji roared, coming in from above with his legs up and arms drawn back, "DIE!!!" As he neared the ground where Norbel fell, a broken heap that used to be man, Hoji shot forth his arms and blasted a terrible explosion of wind in front of him.

"SHIPPUUBAKUHAAAAAA!!!!"

The explosive force destroyed Norbel, sending him through every floor of the tower and out the bottom. The foundation of the monolith was destroyed, and the whole structure started to shake as each brick and stone was lodged out of place by Hoji's destructive attack. Hoji, meanwhile, floated calmly with his newly released and empowered weapon as the winds of doom continued to swirl around him.

Suddenly, an explosive force came down from the sky and Hoji felt himself dropping. He reached out into the air and clawed himself some holes to grip. Still, the pressure that built on him made him drop through the continuous destruction below him. He tried to use his feet as well, and wound up finally stopping with his whole body in an X shape.

"What the hell was that!?" Hoji shouted. A warm sensation came riling up from his throat and forced him to spit out a good glob of his own red blood all over his neck and chest.

No! Torakaze shouted. If you lose consciousness, I'll deactivate and you'll die!

"Tch" Hoji coughed, leaking blood quickly, "Dammit!" So, in a desperate rush, he countered the pressure and started running vertically on all fours through the air itself. Once back up to the top of the crumbling tower, he found a proper patch of ground and sat. His gauntlets exploded into light which reformed into his sword in its own sheathe. Hoji's eyes went lucid and his body shut down once more.

It was a good first attempt Torakaze said, now speaking alone. I'll have to get used to this, being controlled by a young man, but I'll get used to it in the future... As the clouds continued to move and morph, the halo Hoji made was covered once more by the black skulls in the sky. Some wicked and powerful force was building not too far away, making the heavens cower and killing the faith of everything alive. Trees all around Hoji's body started dying, as if on impulse to die, and the winds of Torakaze used the dead bark as a shield to protect Hoji's body.

Black clouds that refused to drop any rain out of fear rolled in. Terrible, laughing skulls that covered the whole sky.


Finally, as his allies fought and won, Shin was still frozen in time staring down the very image of death. Death would not accept him, no matter how much he wanted it now. Mann was a statue, carven with a mixed arrogance and respect in his bloody jaw. His chest was scarred but closed, his sword was dented but intact, and the wind around him stopped for Shin and Death to talk. The whole world was on pause for the shinigami.

"Now what?" Shin asked, lurched over and panting, asking himself silently how he was alive.

"Be more respectful" the phantom said. It pulled out a bleach-white hand and arm of bone to point at the pathetic Shin in pain. "Do you now who I am?"

"...Death..." Shin said.

"Close" it replied. "I am not Death itself, as no such being can exist in this world. You, Shin Kenpachi, are as much a specter of death as I am, and as he is" referring to Mann.

"I can believe that" Shin said. "That is the man that delivered me to death."

"Get over it!" the towering ghost shouted. "You're not dead or dying! This is merely an intervention."

"What?" Shin asked, confused. "What exactly are you?"

"Look within yourself for the answer" the phantom said. "You shall find it there..." Shin stared up at the thing with labored breathing, then looked to his side. In his hand, his sword, and it was in perfect shape. No crack or dent or anything else, just a perfect and gleaming new sword with the same, odd hand guard as before.

"...my..." Shin started. "My sword." His picked his head up quickly in surprise. His eyes shot wide open with astonishment.

"That's right, Kenpachi" the phantom's voice boomed through Shin's sword. "I have arrived to bestow my power to you..."

"Why?" Shin asked. "Why now, when my life is almost over. Is this my last stand, the only time I'll get to see my full power!?"

"Shin Kenpachi" the voice began, "your life is far from over. Ask any wise man, or go back and ask the old grasshopper man, your journey has only begun. Your name will be forever etched into the vast history of the shinigami. Your power will change the entire world, start a war, end the same war. You will give rise to the greatest house of all the shinigami and incite the change that will carry this Soul Society into eternity!"

"But I don't care about that crap" Shin said very bluntly. "I just want to fight."

"And you shall" the sword said. "Take up your sword once more and find the power within you! There is only one place at the pinnacle of mayhem and destruction, and that place belongs to you! You are the God of Death! ACT LIKE IT!!!"

And so time resumed. Mann spun around on his heel, completely unaware that Shin was fine again, when a tidal wave of pressure came down on him. He was unable to turn around as Shin built up his force and spread it across the entire sky. The whole crater town was under his debilitating gaze now. As his inner spirit instructed, Shin closed his eyes and looked deep within himself to find what he needed.

The land of his soul was a parched, ancient battleground where a myriad of swords were lodged within the ground. As Shin stood in his own mental reflection, he looked around. An infinite expanse that rolled over the horizon ahead. Behind him, ruins that seemed to pile and rise up from the ground. Broken stone pillars and houses. All around him, on any side, a wall of swords from the fallen. And up in the sky, the sky that was cloudless yet dark gray, was the billowing robe of the phantom blocking the sun. As Shin stared upward the knowledge flowed in and the sun began to streak out onto the field.

Suddenly, the ground became radiant with life. Crimson butterflies and tiny dragons began flying about. Shin drew out his sword from its sheathe and held it, left hand on the handle and right hand near the end of the blade. The reflection he cast in his sword came back to him as a skull, staring vacantly into infinity. Back in reality, Mann had just turned, barely standing in Shin's super pressure field, and watched the energy swirl up. To him, it resembled a giant skull.

"Reaping time..." Shin incanted
"SHIKEI!!!"

There was a silent explosion as Shin's garb ruffled. In his hands now was no longer a sword, but a monstrous, black scythe...


Yoroi: Armor
Jiman-ho: Pride Step
Shinkuuken: Vacuum Blade
Shippuubakuha: Hurricane Blast
Shikei: Death Penalty