NOTE: Sorry for the late updates. It turns out I have a few chapters finished, more than I thought I did so I may post another chapter later on tonight if I feel like it.
D-F: So we're back with chapter 15! Woot! We're moving along quite quickly, but don't worry, this fic has lots of chapters to go! Last time Kyo was battling her childhood friend Akira using Ichigo's zanpaku-to. She was able to use his bankai (the reason will be given later) and then Akira used his ressurrecion. By the way, Fenix means phoenix in spanish. Well onto the story! And thanks for all who are still reading this and those of you who have reviewed, your comments keep me writing!
Chapter 15
When the smoke cleared and the could see his released form the group, with the exception of Kyo, gasped. He stood about six foot tall and his long green hair was now short and more like feathers pushed back from his face. He had magnificent red feathered wings jutting out from his back and the wing span must have been close to twelve feet; brilliant purple, black and yellow patterns dotted the feathers of both wings. His outfit had turned the same brilliant red as his wings with the same patterns all along it. His fingers had grown to long claws and his feet were now black talons. His mask had grown to cover most of his face, two horns now sprouting from either side and a sharp beak jutting out from where his nose woud be, partially covering his mouth.
"Still as flamboyant as ever Akira!" Kyo called out to the arrancar. His pink eyes narrowed, "You need to come up with new insults Kyo, at least you would if you were not going to die here today!" And Akira lunged at her, throwing all his force into those clawed hands. Kyo was almost not quick enough despite her heightened speed from Ichigo's bankai. The small girl jumped to the side as the green haired arrancar sped past. She could feel the heat from the fire of the phoenix feathers as they whipped past her.
Ichigo, Urahara and Yoruichi watched in awe as the brightly coloured arrancar fought with Kyo. He had gotten much faster and it looked as if he was matching Kyo's speed. "Ichigo, if she hadn't been able to use your bankai I don't think she would have survived this fight." Urahara commented. The orange haired teen nodded in agreement; he had been absolutely positive that he would have had to intervene, despite what Kyo had said to him. "I think she'll be fine," Yoruichi stated, "Though we haven't seen her fight yet and it would have been nice to have had the chance to evaluate her Ichigo." The substitute soul reaper glanced over at the purple haired woman, a deadpan look on his face.
"Ahhhhhhh!" Kyo cried out as one of Akira's claws came into contact with her arm, burning it in the process. Ichigo called out to her, panic beginning to rise in his voice, "Kyo!" The girl glanced behind her for only a moment saying, "One of his abilities is that his claws and feathers are full of fire, if he scratches or cuts you it burns the skin as well." Akira looked at her, a grin breaking out on his face, "I see you remember my abilities my friend, but don't forget my ultimate attack!" The tone in his voice was getting more and more insane sounding. Kyo's eyes widened as she remembered her former friend demonstrating his most powerful ressurrecion attack.
The air around them began to warm up, so much that it was rather quickly bcoming unbearable. Kyo turned back to Ichigo and the others, "Get out of here now!" Ichigo looked at her questioningly, but none of the three moved. Ichigo could feel the heat rising, it was becoming harder and harder to breathe. "It is soon going to be too much for your friends to handle." Akira sneered. Kyo growled and turned to face Ichigo and the others. "I said for you to get out of here!" She shouted, "You're not going to be able to survive this heat!"
Ichigo shook his head, "No, we're not leaving you behind! This heat isn't that bad." Kyo growled again and turned back to Akira saying, "This isn't the full attack." Akira laughed, "I take it you do remember this attack." The arrancar began to charge a cero in each hand, the only difference was that these ceros were red and looked more like fire than ceros. Kyo launched herself towards the arrancar to try and stop him from charging the ceros but Akira merely stepped out of the way and Kyo flew harmlessly past him. Akira looked over at the trio standing just outside the field of his battle with Kyo, the ceros burning brightly in his palms.
Kyo turned around to face him again and saw him looking at Ichigo, Urahara and Yoruichi. "Akira!" She shouted at him, attempting to get him to turn to face her, but he didn't move. Right then Kyo knew what he was going to do; Akira was going to fire his ceros at the trio. "No!" She cried and launched herself forward again, using sonnido as Akira joined the ceros together and launched the giant cero at her firends, calling out "Great Phoenix Cero!"
Ichigo both saw and felt the cero coming, as did Urahara and Yoruichi. It's heat was blistering and the brightness was begging to blind them. Neither could move, the speed and size of the cero was too great. There was no way they could have gotten out of the way in time. Just as it seemed they were going to get hit a small siloueted figure stepped in front of them. "Getsuga Tensho!" Black light with lavender lining burst from Tensa Zangetsu as Kyo swung the blade in a huge arc. The cero was cut in two and disintegrated as it passed harmlessly on either side of the group.
Flames licked the blade of Tensa Zangetsu, slowly dissapearing and burn marks and ash covered Kyo. The small girl glared through her mask at Akira, "You baka! How dare you attack my friends, this fight was between you and me only!" Akira barked a laugh, "Ha! Like I, an arrancar of Lord Aizen's army is going to fight fair! Don't flatter yourself little girl." Kyo's eyes flashed in anger as tendrils of black and lavender energy began to encircle her small frame.
"Akira, my once dear friend, this ends now. You will die here today." Both arrancar lunged foreward, running at speeds so fast they were close to blurs to the trio watching them. As sword came into contact with claw sparks flew. The two hollows exchanged blow after blow, each getting cut as much as the other.
There was one final swing of claw and sword and blood spurted into the air. Akira hung limp against Kyo, the blade of Tensa Zangetsu had been driven straight through him. He coughed blood as he slowly reverted back to his slightly human appearance. Kyo slowly set Akiar on the ground, moving herself to lay his head on her lap. "I'm sorry Akira, I didn't want to kill you, and I'm so sorry for what happend when we were kids." The green haired arrancar coughed again, "Stupid girl, don't apologize for defeating your enemy. You were always such a moron." Tears began to form in Kyo's eyes as she gazed into Akira's pink eyes. The green haired arrancar coughed again, a smirk forming on his lips. "Once a moron, always a moron. You'ld better defeat Aizen if you want to be cool again."
Kyo's eyes widened as his closed. Tears began to pour down her face as Akira closed his eyes and stopped breathing. "Rest well Akira." She rose from the ground as the phoenix arrancar, true to his ressurrecion, burst into flames though there was no rebirth from the ashes. Tensa Zangetsu reverted back to it's original form as did Kyo's outfit. Her mask broke and fell to the ground in pieces. She turned to face Ichigo, Urahara and Yoruichi, tears still streaming down her face. "Kyo," Ichigo whispered. The girl shook her head as she walked to where her zanpaku-to lay and picked it up.
"I think the two of you have some explaining to do." Urahara stated giving Ichigo a blank stare. The orange headed berry glared at the hat wearing man. "I don't think that's such a good idea right now hat 'n clogs." He said. Kyo walked up behind him, shaking her head, "It's okay Ichigo, they deserve an explanation." Ichigo looked down at the shorter girl, "Are you sure?" She nodded, "Yes I am sure."
The group were currently seated at Urahara's table in the Urahara Shoten. Ichigo and Kyo were back in their bodies and were sitting cross-legged next to each other across from Urahara. Yoruichi was lounging next to them as a cat. Kyo had nearly had a heart attack when she saw Yoruichi come out of a room in her black cat form and all of a sudden the cat spoke. It took Ichigo a few minutes to reassure her that it was just Yoruichi in her cat form.
"So Kyo, please tell us, why were you able to use Ichigo's zanpaku-to? Other soul reapers can not do that, let alone arrancar." Urahara started the conversation. Kyo shrugged. Just then the group felt a sudden burst of spiritual pressure and three new people entered the room. Kyo looked up startled, she knew their ranks and it frightened her. One was a short white haired captain, one was a tall big chested strawberry blond lieutenant and the other was a tall red haired lieutenant with weird tattoos on his forehead.
"Hey! It's Toushiro!" Ichigo exclaimed. The short white haired captain scowled at Ichigo, "How many times do I have to tell you it's Captain Hitsugaya to you." The woman bent over Kyo and asked, "Who's this cutie?" Kyo smiled shyly. "What brings you here Captain?" Urahara asked, not answering the woman's question.
"The soul society recieved a report that two unkown sources of spiritual pressure had been detected in the world of the living." Hitsugaya stated, "The pressure was fluctuating dangerously so I was ordered to take lieutenant's Matsumoto and Abarai with me to check it out." Urahara nodded then turned to Kyo, "By the way, this is Captain Toushiro Hitsugaya, the woman is Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto, and the red haired one in lieutenant Renji Abarai." Kyo turned to look at each of them, smiling slightly.
Rangiku eyed Kyo asking, "Is this the little arrancar girl we've heard about?" Urahara nodded, "Yes this is her. She just took on and defeated and arrancar using Ichigo's zanpaku-to," Rangiku gasped and Hitsugaya and Renji just stared wide-eyed at Kyo, "That's not the strangest part though, she also used his bankai." "WHAT!"Renji shouted, jumping up from the floor. Kyo nodded, "Yes that's true." Hitsugaya turned to Kyo and studied her for several moments, his teal orbs burning into her violet ones. Finally the young captain spoke, "Do you have any idea as to why you, an arrancar, could use a soul reaper's bankai?"
Kyo nodded slightly, "I think I may know why." Ichigo glanced at her, an eyebrow raised. Is she really gonna tell them? She took a deep breath and looked at the group, "Have any of you heard of dream walkers?" Rangiku and Renji just looked at her, but Urahara, Hitsugaya and Yoruichi looked at her as if she had grown an extra head.
"Are you about to tell us that you are a dream walker?" Hitsugaya blurted his bright eyes wide with surprise. Kyo looked at the small captain and nodded, "Yes I am. My mother was a dream walker as well, one of the last I've been told." Urahara spoke next, "That's impossible, all the dream walkers were wiped out by hollows." Ichigo gasped and Kyo met his gaze, her eyes holding sadness deep in them. "Yeah but some did survive, my mother was one of them. It's much like the quincies." The girl said as she turned back to look at the shop owner.
"Anyway, when dream walkers enter someone's dream plane they create a bond with that person. This bond is extremely powerful and becomes stronger each time the dream walker enters that person's dream plane." The group all nodded, most of them knew this already. "First off, I never showed any signs of having the power my mother had. She died before I could be taught how to dream walk, but the night of Orihime's sleepover I noticed Ichigo having a nightmare. When I reached over to wake him I was pulled into his dream plane thus awakening my dorment powers. However, this one instance of dream walking with Ichigo didn't create a very strong bond, but the second and third made the bond much stronger not to mention showing him my dream plane."
Ichigo looked at her in question, "What do you mean third? I remember when I asked you to do it, then when you showed me yours, but there wasn't a third one." Kyo looked away from her friend, she couldn't bear to look at him she felt so guilty, "I'm really sorry Ichigo, I didn't mean to enter your dream plane without permission, but I did and I saw the night your mother..." She trailed off, but Ichigo didn't need her to finish, he knew what she meant. At first he felt angry, but quickly changed his mood, he understood that it wasn't her fault.
"It's okay Kyo, you didn't mean to do it, but do you know why you did?" Ichigo asked. Kyo shook her head, "I have no idea. All I know is that it made the bond between us strong enough to allow me to meet Zangetsu and use him in battle." Hitsugaya considered all he had heard for some time. "Well this power could prove to be dangerous, especially if Aizen were to find out about it. Your dream walker abilities might even be enhanced by your arrancar abilities which would be even worse." He commented. Urahara nodded, "I agree, you should probably let the Soul Society know immediately."
The small captain nodded, "Yes and then it will be decided what is to be done with Kyo." Kyo's eyes widened but Ichigo put an arm around her protectively causing her to blush. "I'm not gonna let Aizen get his hands on her, so you can tell everyone in the Soul Society not to worrry or bother deciding anything on what to do with her." Renji shook his head, "You're so arrogant, it's the Soul Society that needs to be protected, not some hollow." Ichigo was about to shout back at the red head but Rangiku intervened, "Come on guys, no need to fight. Ichigo the Soul Society needs to know about Kyo but I'm sure Captain Hitsugaya will try to keep them from deciding anything too bad and some of the other captain's will do the same thing. And Renji, she seems to be on our side, she did take out an arrancar today after all."
Hitsugaya nodded, "Yes I will try my best to make sure that whatever is decided won't be too bad and Rangiku's right, most of the other captains will do the same. Besides Kyo could turn out to be quite useful to us with this power f hers." Kyo gazed at the captain, she was impressed but a little bit intimidated by him. "Thank you Captain Hitsugaya." She said and he looked at her, a hint of a small smile playing on his lips.
Renji, Rangiku and Hitsugaya didn't stay much longer onve they got all the details of the incident with Akira. Ichigo and Kyo were walking home from Urahara's shop but they hadn't been allowed to leave until they promised to come back that weekend so Urahara could see Kyo's fighting style.
"I'm really sorry again Ichigo." Kyo said looking up at the tall teen. He was scowling as always but when he heard her apologize he looked down surprised, "You feel really bad about that don't you?" Kyo nodded, "Yeah, I really have to be more careful. I mean that was really something private that I didn;t need to know and now I do." Ichigo laughed lightly at this, "It's fine really, besides I know how your parents died so it's not too bad." Kyo looked up at him relief flooding her expression. Ichigo laughed again, "And don't worry, whatever the Soul Society decides I won't let them do anything to harm you."
Kyo turned about thirteen different shades of red, two of which are only known to apes. Ichigo had turned away and didn't even notice her blush. They walked the rest of the way home in silence, pausing outside Ichigo's house. "Hey Kyo, before you go I was wondering if you could tell me something." Kyo hesitated but nodded. "Why wouldn't Akira let you fight with your zanpaku-to? He said something about not wanting you to use your ressurrecion, but why?" Kyo's gaze dropped to the ground. "I'm sorry but I don't wish to talk about it." And before Ichigo could say another word she turned and dashed to her own house, leaving a stunned Ichigo to stare after her.