Chapter Six: Conflict and Sacrifice
The Living World
Rononeji Tatsuho was maintaining his watch on the home of Urahara Kisuke and his fellow fugitives. Day had broken, and Urahara Kisuke had departed along with Rukia (no longer a Kuchiki but a Kurosaki, as Tatsuho had learned eavesdropping on the house's residents) and the young boy, Tessai. The American David Crane, his wife Kurosaki Karin, and their niece Kurosaki Hisana remained behind.
Tatsuho had learned a great deal in the last twelve hours, much of it disturbing. The young boy and the American were unknowns, but Tatsuho knew that the other four were all spiritually aware. Kisuke and Rukia were former shinigami officers, and the Kurosaki family was famous in Seireitei even after the new Captain-Commander had forbidden any open mention of their name. Yet he could not sense reiatsu from any of them, which made it impossible to gauge the strength of the Kurosaki women. They were all concealing their reiatsu without any technological aid.
When Kisuke and Rukia had left, Tatsuho had considered following them, but rejected the idea. This was their home and they would return; more importantly, he needed to be ready for the reinforcements that were sure to arrive soon by senkai gate. Instead, he had dispatched a Hell Butterfly to his second in command, ordering the rest of the squad to keep an eye on the pair.
As though the thought had summoned it, Tatsuho sensed a surge of reiatsu and spied a blue glow through the trees. He hissed in dismay. If he felt it, likely at least one of the people in the house had as well. He had recommended gating in additional personnel farther away, but someone had chosen to ignore his recommendation. Quickly, he darted through the trees, making his way to the senkai gate.
Tatsuho arrived as it closed, and dropped to one knee before the pair who had emerged from it. The taller of the pair wore the tattered, sleeveless white haori of the 11th Division captain, the leader of the combat specialist division. His head was bald, and his wide set eyes were colored red on the upper lids and corners. Behind him was a slender, handsome man with shimmering raven hair and red and gold feathers woven around his right eye who wore the insignia of the 11th Division's lieutenant.
"Captain Ikkaku. Lieutenant Ayasegawa. Welcome. The fugitives Kisuke and Rukia have left the area. My men are tailing them." Tatsuho said, even as he winced internally at the incredible amount of reiatsu that poured off of the powerful pair of veteran fighters. There was no hope for surprise now. It wasn't his job to question the decisions of the captain commander, but he had to wonder all the same why a captain capable of stealth like Soifon of the 2nd Division hadn't been dispatched to deal with the renegades.
"We've been briefed on the situation," Lieutenant Ayasegawa Yumichika replied while Captain Ikkaku Madarame scanned the surrounding area, sheathed zanpakuto slung over his shoulder. "Those two are of secondary importance. Your last report mentioned a teen girl living with them. Who is she?"
Tatsuho blinked in surprise at their dismissal of Kisuke and Rukia. He hadn't learned the identity of Karin or Hisana until after his last Hell Butterfly was dispatched. "The girl is Kurosaki Hisana, Rukia's daughter. Her aunt, Kurosaki Karin and her uncle, an American, are all here."
Madarame and Yumichika exchanged a sober glance. "Might as well get this over with, then," Madarame said heavily. "Come on; let's go kidnap Ichigo's little girl." The 11th Division Captain made no effort to conceal his disdain for the mission. Tatsuho bowed, and then lead the pair at a run through the trees to the house.
Three heads came up at once in the house as a gentle pulse of reiatsu was followed by a pair of massive surges. The air became heavy with a saturation of spiritual energy. Karin's face went pale, and David's expression set into a hard mask. "That's not good," he observed. "I sense two of them; one's captain-class."
Hisana winced, horror filling her. "Oh, God, this is all my fault. How could I have been so stupid?" She had been grounded for months after her fight against Katsuko, and her parents still wouldn't let her go back to town at all.
Karin shook her head. "We don't know that. Besides, this is what we've been training for. Come on; get out of your body." Hisana swallowed hard and nodded, eating her mod soul and separating from her body as Karin did the same. Her aunt didn't suggest running, and Hisana knew why. In their bodies they couldn't outrun shinigami that strong, and leaving their bodies behind would be suicide. They commanded their bodies to hide in the training ground and saw them safely to the workshop. Then the pair made their way outside, David following behind them.
They emerged into the open yard behind the house a few moments before a trio of shinigami strode out of the trees. Karin's eyes narrowed in recognition. David rolled his head around his neck and shook his arms, stretching his muscles. Hisana just watched, heart hammering, struggling to control her fear.
She sensed immediately that the bald one with a captain's haori over his crimson robes was the strongest. The handsome man with dark hair who moved out to the left wore a lieutenant's badge and radiated almost as much power as his captain. His finely tailored dark red uniform was accented with a wisteria-colored scarf around his neck and shoulders. The third opponent was covered in dark cloth from head to toe like a ninja, carried a short blade and cast off no reiatsu; Hisana realized with surprise that he wore a cloak like the one her stepfather had shown her that masked reiatsu. Comprehension dawned on her. That one must have found them and summoned reinforcements.
Karin spoke first, glaring at the shaven headed captain and his lieutenant. "I remember you two. Madarame and Yumichika," she said in a voice heavy with anger. "Ichigo was your friend, you traitors. Madarame, you stood with him at his wedding! How dare you serve his murderer?" Karin had the momentary satisfaction of seeing the pair flinch, guilt and regret plain on their faces.
Madarame shook his head sadly. "He's the Captain-Commander, Karin. He has the King's Writ. Our oaths as officers of the Gotei 13 compel us to serve the King's appointed commander."
"That sounds like a coward's justification," Karin spat scornfully. "Did you even try to stop him?"
Madarame's face darkened and a vein pulsed in his forehead at being called a coward, but it was Yumichika who answered. "Komamura did," he said quietly. "He went berserk when the Gatekeeper came to arrest Old Man Yamamoto. He's dead now. The Gatekeeper killed him without even breathing hard. There isn't a 7th Division anymore, either. The next day light fell from the heavens and obliterated their barracks; the wrath of the King himself. So I hope you'll forgive us, but she," Yumichika pointed at Hisana, "is coming with us."
"Over my dead body," Karin grated, drawing her zanpakuto. "So where's Kenpachi? Did he become one of the Gatekeeper's personal bootlickers too?"
"Kenpachi dropped his haori at the Gatekeeper's feet and walked away when he was ordered to put on the red. Yachiru went with him. Even blew a raspberry at the Gatekeeper," Madarame said with a note of pride in his voice. "I would have done the same, but the Captain-Commander decreed that the 11th would join the 7th in oblivion if I didn't replace Zaraki, so not a lot of choice there." The bald captain shook his head. "Enough talking; give us the girl or fight."
"Well I guess talking isn't going to solve this. Dear, do you want the bald one or the fancy one?" David asked Karin, a feral gleam in his eye.
"Madarame's mine. Go ahead and kill his strutting peacock for me," Karin replied. David glanced at Yumichika and tilted his head towards the forest. The lieutenant smirked and then nodded in assent, and the pair disappeared into the trees. "Hisana, you're going to have to take out the one dressed like a ninja. Judging by his garb he's a member of the Secret Mobile Unit. You're most likely stronger than he is, but don't underestimate him; he's probably better hand to hand than you are, and members of his unit are full of tricks and never fight fair, so do whatever you need to and don't let your guard down for a second." That said, Karin launched herself at Madarame, who drew his own weapon and met her head-on, a wide grin on his face. Then Tatsuho attacked Hisana, and she had no more time to spare worrying about her aunt.
As soon as Yumichika disappeared into the trees with David, he performed a series of shunpo, curious to see if the American could keep up. When he reached the next clearing he paused and glanced back, disappointed to see that the gaijin was no longer behind him. He cast out his spiritual senses to locate his wayward opponent, and then turned in surprise. David stepped out of the trees on the far side of the clearing. "Your skill with hoho is decent, but you're no match for my hirenkyaku," he observed sardonically.
Yumichika's eyes widened a fraction. "You're a-"
David held out his right hand, a white gold ring with an embedded cross formed of four sapphires on his ring finger. The gems became luminous and then the ring vanished in a flash, the aura solidifying into a modern-looking pistol formed of blue light nestled in the American's grip. "I am. You may have wiped out Japan's Quincy, but I assure you, the Western families are still very much alive."
Yumichika's eyes narrowed, his usual air of indifference replaced with deadly concentration. "Vandenreich scum; killing you will be a pleasure." He drew his zanpakuto, darting forward to strike at David, who flashed away. Yumichika sensed hardened reiatsu headed his way and barely ducked away from a streak of light that passed by his face.
"That's a bit offensive," David said calmly from his perch on a tree branch above and behind the shinigami, his gun leveled at Yumichika. "It's like meeting a German for the first time and calling him a Nazi. The Vandenreich were a bunch of insane extremists, and the world is better off without them. But don't forget shinigami, your kind started the war that created the Vandenreich. The saddest thing is how unnecessary it was."
Yumichika sniffed in distaste. "The only mistake we made was leaving any of your kind alive after the first war. I won't repeat that mistake." He stepped into a shunpo, appearing before David and launching a horizontal slash at him.
David caught the strike on the barrel of his gun, sparks flying. He grinned, and then head butted Yumichika, slamming his forehead into the shinigami's nose and then following up with a kick to the chest as Yumichika stumbled back in surprise. He didn't follow up on his advantage, leaning back against the tree's trunk. "Straight to genocide, I see," David observed. "Ever wonder if that's why Aizen Sosuke almost succeeded here? Because you shinigami don't have any friends?"
Yumichika pressed his hand to his face, wincing when it came away bloody. "You almost broke my nose, you peasant!" he growled. Dropping into a combat stance, he ran his hand over his zanpakuto's blade. "Bloom, Fuji Kujaku!" The blade curved, and then split into a fan of four falx blades. Then the American brought up his gun again, and Yumichika had to dodge a series of deadly accurate shots. Seven streaks of blue light came at him as he broke into a run. Then they stopped, and Yumichika glanced up at the Quincy to see him wrapping both hands around the gun's grip. His reiatsu surged faintly. Even as Yumichika took advantage of the opening to close with David, the gun came back up and Yumichika had to dodge another volley. He could sense the strength of the near misses, and knew that getting hit with one would hurt.
After David had fired another eight shots Yumichika accelerated into a shunpo, and David had to dodge away. Yumichika chased him, and it took the Quincy a few moments to get far enough away from the shinigami to put reiatsu back into his gun again. In that moment of distraction Yumichika closed again, and David didn't get away clean, Fuji Kujaku slicing open a shallow gash in his leg before he could open fire and force Yumichika back.
"Keep running Quincy," Yumichika taunted. "You can't hit me with that ugly weapon of yours, and if you run too far, I'll just leave you and go grab the girl."
David scowled, and halted, his next volley grazing Yumichika's shoulder, but when his eight shots were gone, the shinigami closed in for the kill. Yumichika saw an amused expression on the Quincy's face, and felt a moment of alarm before David's gun came back up. He pulled the trigger, and a ninth shot hit Yumichika in the gut, tearing clean through him and exiting through his back. His eyes cold and focused, David dodged Yumichika's descending slash, elbowed him in the chest, whirled and kicked him in the face, and then fired two more shots, one into each of Yumichika's legs, as he flew backward from the force of the blows. Yumichika's back hit a tree trunk hard, and his vision went red for a moment as the impact jarred the painful wound in his stomach. He slumped to the ground, gasping in pain. He retained his grip on his zanpakuto and tried to rise despite the pain, but the wounds on his legs prevented him, and he fell to his knees.
David looked down at him coldly. "A Quincy's weapon can fire until his reiatsu is gone, pretty boy. Being limited to a set number of attacks is a weakness of shinigami weapons, not ours."
Pressing a hand to the hole in his gut, Yumichika gasped in pain, vision blurring for a moment. "Well fought, Quincy," he admitted.
David crouched near him, resting his gun on his knee. "It didn't have to be like this, shinigami. Ishida Soken had the right idea, and you all just ignored him and let him die. It could be so different. All over the world now, Quincy like me partner with black robes like Karin who survived your purge and escaped here. I weaken them, my wife buries them. We're more effective together, and no souls are destroyed this way. It's working everywhere but here in Japan where you chose your own little war of mutual extinction instead. How much shorter would your Winter War have been if you'd had Quincy as strong as the Vandenreich fighting with you instead of against you?"
Yumichika coughed, blood flecking his lips. "Maybe you're right, Quincy. But I don't have the luxury of living in the past. The present is all I can change, and too many people are relying on me to give up here." Yumichika's eyes focused despite the pain, and he grabbed the wisteria-colored scarf around his neck, tugging it off and flinging it away. "Split and Deviate, Ruri'iro Kujaku!"
David's eyes widened in alarm as the steel blades of Yumichika's zanpakuto melted into blue-green vines. He jumped back, but the zanpakuto's tendrils multiplied and shot out on every direction, one he couldn't avoid snagging his ankle. Like an octopus, the zanpakuto's other limbs struck, wrapping around his arms, legs, neck and torso. He got off a few shots at Yumichika, but the tendrils blocked and absorbed the bolts. Then Ruri'iro Kujaku started draining David's reiatsu, his weapon losing form and winking out of existence as the flower buds on the vines began to fill with David's power. "You have… bankai?" David gasped, surprise plain on his face. He struggled against the vines, which only squeezed tighter in response.
"I'm afraid not," Yumichika said, forcing himself to his feet. One of the blossoms near him opened, and he plucked it from the vine, biting off a petal. Feeling his body weakening, David watched as Yumichika's wounds faded. "This is my zanpakuto's true shikai. The other form is a limited release that I achieve by using a name that my zanpakuto's spirit doesn't care for. I don't like using this release, it's a bit like cheating for a member of the 11th Division, but as I said… there's too much riding on this for me to just give up."
"Damn it…" All of the energy drained from his body, David's vision blurred, and he passed out.
Yumichika felt the Quincy lose consciousness, and as he had done in his battle with Hisagi Shuhei years earlier reined in his zanpakuto before it drained the last of David's energy and killed him.
Slinging David's unconscious form over his shoulder, Yumichika sighed. "Ugly and heavy. Figures." With a leisurely pace he made his way back towards Madarame and the Kurosaki girl, not wanting to arrive too soon and spoil his friend's fight.
Hisana felt David's reiatsu drop, but didn't have time to worry about it, dodging a pair of shuriken from two different directions and sending a third pinging off of her released zanpakuto. Grimacing, Hisana darted behind a tree and felt a few more projectiles embed themselves in the trunk.
Aunt Karin was right about these ninja jerks not fighting fair. As soon as Karin and Madarame had started fighting Tatsuho had attacked her, driving her into the trees. As soon as she was out of Karin's sight, three more Stealth Force ninja had joined the fight. All of them wore the same uniform, and they all had the damned reiatsu cloaks, so she couldn't sense any of them. The fact that she was still alive told Hisana that she outclassed any of the four individually; she was faster than they were, and other than Tatsuho they all avoided getting anywhere near her and Kaze no Megami's blades. Instead, Tatsuho's subordinates hid in the dense tree cover and threw shuriken at her from all angles while Tatsuho attacked her close in, wielding his wakazashi with lightning speed. Irritatingly, while Tatsuho wasn't as fast as Hisana was, she could tell he was just as skilled with hakuda, and had a lot more combat experience. Hisana was already bleeding from a few shallow cuts, nothing serious, but small wounds could add up, and she hadn't been able to do much damage to Tatsuho or his minions.
Worse, Tatsuho's stabbing attacks and the thrown weapons didn't have much force behind them, leaving Kaze no Megami with little energy to absorb. Hisana was confident she could surprise Tatsuho with her zanpakuto's scream and take him out, but she was getting tired, and the golden mask was nowhere near having enough energy to launch that attack. Realizing she'd have to change strategies, Hisana waited until another shuriken came buzzing at her and leapt back, extending her free hand towards its source. "Shakkaho!" Hisana yelled, putting as much power as she could into the kido, which wasn't much with no incantation, firing it at the source of the shuriken. The orb of red fire didn't explode in her hand at least, flying in a straight line from Hisana's palm and detonating as it hit the area where the shuriken's owner had been. Twisting in midair, Hisana planted her feet on the trunk of a tree behind her and pushed off, flying past Tatsuho before he could react and right into the cloud of smoke from the kido blast.
It was a risk, jumping blind into the cloud, and Hisana winced as bits of wood and debris pelted her, but her gamble paid off when she emerged from the smoke right next to the coughing, fleeing ninja. Before her opponent could get away, Hisana reached out and grabbed the ninja's wrist. "Tsuzuri Raiden."
The ninja thrashed helplessly, enveloped in electricity from head to toe. When the kido faded Hisana grabbed her opponent in an arm lock and pressed her zanpakuto's twin blades to the ninja's throat, putting her own back to a tree with a wide trunk and forcing her captive in front of her as a shield. Fortunately, she'd gotten the smallest of the ninja, a woman not much larger than herself. "Move and I take your head," Hisana growled.
It didn't take long for Tatsuho and the other two ninja to emerge from the trees. Tatsuho emerged low, while his remaining subordinates both landed on the same branch, shuriken at the ready. "Back off!" Hisana warned, digging Kaze no Megami's blades into the ninja girl's neck, breaking the skin. Her captive squirmed, and Hisana had to wrench her arm painfully to still her.
Tatsuho just shook his head, eyes sad. "Your capture is the order of the Captain-Commander. Even if you kill my subordinate, I cannot disobey that order. Surrender and you have my word you won't be harmed."
Hisana was surprised to hear him say that, because he obviously thought she had a lot less information than she did. He was lying; she knew the Captain-Commander would kill her for being a Kurosaki. She wasn't sure why there had been any mention of capture, but she knew surrender wasn't an option.
A plan formulating in her mind, Hisana let her shoulders sag. "You promise you won't hurt me? I don't understand any of this, I haven't done anything wrong!" she injected a tremor of uncertainty into her voice, trying to sound younger and less sure.
Tatsuho and his subordinates relaxed a bit. "I swear it. You won't be harmed," Tatsuho said soothingly.
Hisana hated him for that lie, but continued acting the part, nodding and pushing the ninja girl away, using her captive's body to hide her movements. I'll only get once chance at this, she thought as she brought her open hand up, pointing it at the pair of ninja standing on a thick branch above Tatsuho. "Hado No. 33, Sokatsui!" Even the abbreviated incantation was a risk. Both of them were moving when the last syllable left Hisana's lips, but they had let their guard down for a fraction of a second, and that proved fatal. A huge wave of blue fire erupted from Hisana's hand. Both ninja were enveloped in the blast and fell out the far side smoking and burned, dropping to the ground limply. Before the third ninja could flee, Hisana slammed a hard elbow into the back of her neck, knocking her out too.
"Byakurai!" Hisana yelled, pointing her finger at Tatsuho. The ninja leader's reflexes saved him from a killing blow, but the beam hit, burning a hole through his left upper arm.
Hisana looked up at Tatsuho's shocked face as he gripped his wounded arm. "Liar!" she spat. "Your precious Captain-Commander butchered my whole family. You can't guarantee anything."
Tatsuho's eyes narrowed and Hisana could see the hate in them. This wasn't a job anymore. It was personal now. Good, she thought. The ninja switched his blade to a reverse grip in his right hand, his left arm hanging limp. He attacked with a roar of anger.
Hisana was forced on the defensive. She had been fighting for quite some time, and on top of that had cast four kido spells in the space of a few minutes, including the powerful and draining Sokatsui. She felt exhausted, and even with his arm injured, Tatsuho had more energy. But after they crossed blades a few times Hisana realized that she had gained the upper hand without the ninja leader realizing it. He had abandoned subtlety, hacking at her with his blade, and Kaze no Megami started to hum. Perhaps if Tatsuho had been less enraged he would have noticed the change in his opponent's weapon, but he only continued to attack. A minute later Tatsuho overextended himself, and Hisana ducked under his swing. She took a hard elbow to the side, and cried out in pain as she felt a rib crack, but she finished her motion, slamming Kaze no Megami's face into Tatsuho's chest. The mask's mouth opened just centimeters from his body. Hisana turned her head away as her zanpakuto's scream hit the ninja leader's body. When Hisana raised her head, Tatsuho was sprawled on the ground, senseless.
Gasping in relief, Hisana focused on the remaining sources of reiatsu. David's was weak, while his opponent seemed to remain at full strength. Hisana whistled to herself when she sensed her Aunt's reiatsu; Karin's power was at the same level as the captain she faced.
Focusing on the present, Hisana checked on her downed opponents. Her mother's harsh lesson was still fresh in her memory, but she reasoned there was no point in killing these shinigami; the red robes already knew where they were. Instead, she used a full incantation Bakudo No. 1: Sai on them. She knew none of them would have the strength to break free themselves, and it would take almost a day to wear off.
With that done, Hisana sensed David's opponent moving towards her aunt, and did the same, wincing at the pain from her cracked rib. "Doesn't matter," she murmured. "Have to be ready to help Aunt Karin." She made her way through the trees as quickly as she could.
Karin and Madarame exchanged only a few blows with their sealed zanpakuto before she stepped back. "I don't have time to play, Madarame. Release your zanpakuto," she said.
"Fair enough," Madarame said with a twisted grin, slamming his zanpakuto's hilt into the scabbard. "Grow, Hozukimaru!" The two pieces blended together, forming a nagitana with a red horsehair tassel on the pommel.
Karin spun her blade in one hand until it blurred. "Strike out, Koruku Daseki!" [Cork Bat] A blinding pillar of blue reiatsu erupted from Karin's body, forcing Madarame to shield his eyes and dig his heels in. When the light faded enough to see, he saw Karin step forward, haloed by reiatsu, her eyes almost glowing with an inner light. The weapon in her hand was no longer a sword. The handle was almost fifty centimeters long, black metal wrapped in gray boar hide. On the bottom of the hilt was a rounded pommel. The top of the hilt had no guard. Instead the weapon flared out into a cylindrical body that was 20 centimeters wide and 1.5 meters long from the hilt to the rounded top, all made of the same black metal. The size of the weapon reminded Madarame of Ichigo's shikai release, but it looked to be at least twice the mass of Ichigo's oversized blade. "That thing kind of does look like a baseball bat," Madarame observed laconically.
Karin gave him a humorless smile. "Well, that bald head of yours looks like a baseball. Let's play." Lunging forward in an attack, Karin swung the massive weapon with ease in a horizontal strike. Madarame blocked the swing with the haft of his nagitana, felt the wood flex and groan – and found himself airborne, thrown back by the force of the strike. Twisting in midair, he got his feet under him and skidded to a stop. Karin didn't give him any time to think, and he had to dodge a few more swings. Puzzled, he experimentally angled her next strike away, and was impressed again by the sheer force of the hit. Even expecting it, he was pushed back a few paces, and she kept coming.
Going on the offensive, Madarame launched a flurry of thrusts at Karin, forcing her to defend. Yet she avoided his blows easily. For all the size of the weapon she wielded, she could move it as quickly as a sealed sword, yet when she attacked it hit with the force of a much heavier weapon.
As he ducked under another of Karin's disturbingly fast swings and thrust his spear at her legs, making her jump up to avoid the attack, it clicked. "Your zanpakuto's power is like Izuru Kira's," Madarame observed. "It controls weight."
Karin grinned. "Not quite; Koruku Daseki's just a bit of a cheater. He doesn't change your weight, he alters his own mass: light as a feather, heavy as a mountain. Like this." Flashing forward at Madarame, she brought her zanpakuto down at him in an overhead strike. Madarame jumped back, but Karin's strike continued down, hitting the ground with a boom. A cloud of dirt and debris flew up in the air, and Madarame was pelted with sharp fragments of rock. Madarame lost sight of Karin in the dust cloud for a moment, but caught sight of her as she came in from the side again for another downward strike. He sent her weapon into the ground again with an angled deflection, throwing up another plume of dust. He launched a quick riposte at her as she lifted her massive weapon out of the crater. It struck close enough to her face that he saw severed hair drift past her cheek. Eyes narrowing, Karin pointed her index finger at Madarame, who started moving sideways, expecting a kido attack.
"Sho," Karin said, her hand tracking Madarame's movement. The impact kido hit him square in the forehead, snapping his head back.
Blue sky and green canopy flashed across Madarame's vision, and he staggered back. He'd been expecting a Byakurai, which he could have dodged, but Sho, while it did no penetrating damage and was the weakest of the Hado spells, was invisible and had no travel time. When Madarame turned his gaze back to Karin, his eyes widened in alarm; her massive weapon was aimed straight at him. He barely ducked under the swing, and couldn't dodge her follow up kick that slammed into the side of his head hard enough to set his ears ringing.
Madarame felt grudging admiration for Ichigo's sister as the fight wore on. Her weapon was so big that her attacks weren't hard to dodge, but he couldn't block them either; her zanpakuto was powerful enough to break Hozukimaru's haft if he tried. Her proficiency with kido and hakuda was taking its toll; he was accruing small wounds from Hado and reiatsu-enhanced kicks without doing much damage to Karin in return. Her fighting style of blinding speed, powerful zanpakuto blows and rapid-fire low level kido spells frustrated his preferred combat method of getting up close and pounding away at opponents. He suspected that either her late brother or Urahara Kisuke had briefed her on his abilities; of all the captains of the Gotei 13, Madarame was honest enough with himself to admit that he had the weakest shikai release. He relied on experience and toughness to see him through. Madarame's grin widened. It didn't matter if it took him a while to finish this fight; it was fun! He hadn't gotten to fight anyone as strong as Kurosaki Karin in a long time.
Madarame could sense Karin's irritation building as he avoided her most dangerous attacks, accepted the weaker ones that hit him, and got in jabs at her where he could, cutting her in a few places with shallow wounds. He realized that she really did believe she needed to finish the fight quickly, and started to wonder if the Captain-Commander had been correct when he had dismissed Kisuke and Rukia as threats. Madarame was confident that either he or Yumichika could take Rukia, but the Kisuke he knew could have finished both of them without breathing hard. Had the former 12th Division captain really lost his power as the Gatekeeper claimed?
Karin stepped up her attack, her reiatsu burning even brighter, and Madarame found it harder to avoid her zanpakuto strikes. Seeing a feral gleam in her eyes he jumped back from her swing and felt his back hit a solid surface, bouncing off of it and back into the path of her zanpakuto. From the corner of his eye he saw a faint curtain of white light behind him, disintegrating already just from being hit by the reiatsu of his body. He cursed mentally, realizing that she'd cast a barrier without any incantation, weak and costly in reiatsu, but effective in putting him in this situation. There was no time to dodge or deflect; Madarame grimaced and blocked the attack directly. As he'd feared Hozukimaru's haft splintered, Karin's massive metal bat tearing through the wood of his weapon. Barely slowed, her zanpakuto slammed into his chest, and he felt at least one rib break. Then he was flying backward, his progress stopped abruptly by the trunk of a fairly large tree.
Madarame had to roll as a shadow loomed over him, hearing wood explode as Karin's follow up blow tore through the trunk of the tree he'd hit. He was peppered with splinters, and his wounded ribs protested at his acrobatics. Grimacing in distaste even as he did it, Madarame scooped up a handful of dirt and threw it in Karin's face as she lunged at him again. Then he used a shunpo to put some distance between them. Regretfully, he glanced at his broken shikai and at Karin scrubbing at her eyes. "I think she might actually win if I keep up like this," Madarame observed to no one in particular, feeling a pulse of lazy agreement from his zanpakuto. "This is not the way I'd like to end this fight, but I don't think the Captain-Commander was kidding when he said he'd wipe out the 11th Division if we fail to bring him that girl," Madarame said, too softly for Karin to hear. As she glared at him and lunged forward to resume her attack, Madarame slammed the broken halves of his zanpakuto together. "Bankai: Ryumon Hozukimaru!"
Karin swore quietly, halting as she was buffeted by waves of enhanced reiatsu. "Guess it was too much to hope that two 11th Division captains in a row would lack a bankai," she muttered. When the light of the bankai release faded, she peered at her opponent, and then blinked. "You just had to one-up me, didn't you?"
Madarame laughed, a massive half-moon blade hovering over his shoulders, and an oversized monk's spade and guan dao with shortened hafts in his hands, all connected to each other by massive chains. "I don't like using this, but duty demands it. I don't suppose you'd reconsider surrendering."
Karin shook her head. "I broke your shikai, and I'll break your bankai. I already said it: you're taking Hisana over my dead body." Without another word she resumed her attack.
With his bankai, Madarame could meet her head on at last. The impacts of her zanpakuto sent shocks down his arms, but in this form Hozukimaru could take the punishment. Now she had to avoid his counterattacks too. Even with a full release, she was still frustratingly agile, and he had no more luck hitting her than she had hitting him. He didn't need to win though; he just needed to keep her from winning. His spiritual senses weren't as good as Yumichika's but he could sense that his lieutenant had won his battle and was skirting around his fight. Yumichika knew the mission, and would make sure the Kurosaki girl didn't try to flee.
Madarame didn't know how long the fight could have lasted if Karin hadn't felt pressured to defeat him quickly, but her attacks grew more reckless as she tried to land a decisive hit. Meanwhile, Madarame could feel the warm red light of Hozukimaru's dragon crest filling with reiatsu, and when she made a mistake, he was ready for it. Karin overextended herself a fraction too much on a swing. Madarame poured his bankai's extra energy into speed, and knocked her weapon out of position with the monk's spade, then brought the blade of his guan dao down hard. She tried to get out of the way, but the blade was too big and moving too fast; his zanpakuto bit deep into her, opening a long slice down the front of her body from her right shoulder to left hip.
Karin's eyes went wide, and blood spurted from the wound as she collapsed to her knees, then prone on the ground, zanpakuto slipping from her fingers. Blood slowly pooled around her.
Hisana was running through the trees when she felt the enemy captain's reiatsu surge past her aunt's power level. Concern filling her, she ran as fast as she could, willing her weariness and injuries to let her make it in time. She was close when she felt her aunt's reiatsu drop to almost nothing. "No!" she screamed, bursting into the clearing. Her heart ached when she saw Karin on the ground, blood pouring from a nasty wound. She saw the bald captain's weapon rise to strike, and put on one last, desperate burst of speed. She got her zanpakuto up to block his blow, quailing at the massive size of the guan dao plunging at her. When it hit it shattered Kaze no Megami's blades and cut a gouge into the mask, and Hisana's hand went numb from the force of the blow. Shaking her arm gingerly, Hisana paled when she saw the angry look on his face.
"Are you trying to die, girl?" Madarame yelled, his own heart hammering; he almost hadn't been able to pull the hit in time. The Captain-Commander had been emphatic about wanting the girl alive and relatively intact; they were only to use lethal force if the alternative was her escape.
Hisana saw Yumichika arrive to one side, dropping David's unconscious form near them, and her stomach twisted into a cold knot. There was no one else to help; she knew she probably couldn't take either of them in a fight even if she was fresh, much less tired and wounded.
Glancing at her aunt and David, Hisana did the only thing she could. "You said your orders were to capture me, right?" When Madarame nodded she swallowed hard and released her shikai, sheathing her zanpakuto. "Then I surrender." Seeing surprise on Madarame and Yumichika's faces, she pressed on. "Please don't kill my family. I'll come quietly."
Madarame looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. "All right."
Yumichika looked at Madarame with surprise. "Ikkaku, the Captain-Commander didn't know Kurosaki Karin was here; you know he'd want her eliminated."
Madarame shook his head with a fox-faced grin. "I guess it's too bad for the Captain-Commander that the girl was the only one here. Who would have thought that she'd be the only one to stay and fight while the others ran before we even got a look at them?" When Yumichika gave him a baffled look, he rolled his eyes. "We're not going to tell anyone differently, and I don't think the girl's going to either."
Hisana nodded, having caught on. She knelt over her aunt, and when Madarame didn't stop her, started casting healing kido on Karin's wound. "I was really surprised when they left me alone," she said in her best scared-little-girl voice.
Yumichika snorted, getting it. "He'd probably believe that. All right." Giving Hisana a penetrating look, he asked, "What state did you leave that Secret Mobile Unit squad in?"
"Out of commission, but breathing," Hisana answered, forcing as much healing reiatsu into her aunt as she could in spite of her exhaustion. "They won't be able to contradict the story."
"All right then," Madarame said. "We're leaving. Come here."
Satisfied that her aunt would survive, Hisana nodded, heart hammering, and followed the two red robes to the edge of the clearing. "Bakudo No. 63: Sajo Sabaku," Yumichika's voice came from behind Hisana. She tensed, but didn't resist as the glowing yellow chains materialized, coiling around her torso, binding her arms and immobilizing her from waist to neck. The kido chains were heavy and solid; she could tell that she'd have no hope of breaking them on her own.
"Hisana… what are you doing… run!" a weak voice came from behind her. She turned in surprise, seeing that David had regained consciousness, extending a trembling hand towards her.
"I'm sorry, David. It's me they want, and I can't let you guys die." Behind her, Hisana felt a wash of reiatsu and blue light as the senkai gate opened. "You have to help Karin. Don't let any of them follow me. They have to think of Tessai. I couldn't bear if they got hurt because of me." She saw sadness in his eyes, but also understanding.
Yumichika's hand fell on her shoulder, shepherding her forward, and she allowed herself to be led to the gate of blue light. She managed not to shake as fear churned in her stomach, but she couldn't stop a single tear from trickling down her cheek. I wish I could have said goodbye to Mom and Dad and Tessai, she thought regretfully as she passed through the gate with her captors. At least they wouldn't be left wondering about her fate. The link between a substitute's body and soul worked both ways; when the Gatekeeper executed her in Seireitei, her body would die back in Japan. Maybe if he believed that her father's bloodline was finally wiped out he'd leave the rest of her family alone.
New determination filled Hisana as her captors lead her into the Dangai Precipice World. She'd have to do her best to convince the Gatekeeper that she was the last of the Kurosakis before he killed her.
Author's Note: Uh-oh! The Kurosaki girls are in trouble! Next update coming soon. Please review/share your thoughts!