Alright, I'm caught up to where I have written. No more guarantee of updates on time, folks, sorry :(

X-X-X

The Striking Snake

ch18

Blood in the Water

X-X-X

"Long time no see, Ichimaru Gin. Remember me?"

Gin gritted his teeth, but didn't let it show. He exhaled slowly and allowed his familiar predatory grin to spread across his face again.

"Hmm... I seem to remember an Abarai Renji," he mused. "Lieutenant of getting yer ass kicked by a rookie, as I recall." He turned back to the other two, his voice momentarily serious. "Hanatarō, Ganju, beat it. This'll be ugly enough without extra collateral damage."

As Gin's companions raced for the courtyard gate, Renji drew his sword smoothly. "We'll catch them soon enough," he said dismissively. "As for you beating me, well, I know better than to get caught off guard twice. Chōjirō! Tetsuzaemon!"

There were two more hisses of flash-steps, and two more shinigami appeared. Both wore lieutenant badges, and curiously, both had thin mustaches; the black-haired one had unusual sunglasses, while the white-haired one wore what appeared to be a white waistcoat over his shihakusō.

"Three on one? All lieutenants, versus one measly teenager?" Gin smirked. "Not very sporting of ya, Renji."

"This is the rogue that's been causing so much trouble?" Sniffed the sunglasses-wearer. "Doesn't seem like much. Third seat reiatsu at best. I don't even see a zanpakutō! Did you lose it or something?"

Gin deliberately looked left and right. "How about that. Oops."

"Don't be fooled, Tetsuzaemon," said Renji warily. "He's a lot more dangerous than he looks."

"I agree," said the older lieutenant. "He's hiding something. Tread carefully."

"Dangerous?" Tetsuzaemon scoffed. "This'll be over in seconds!"

Tetsuzaemon disappeared in a flash-step, reappearing in front of Gin and bringing his sword down -

On empty air.

From a foot to the right, Gin grinned at him, his blood-red eyes wide open.

"Isn't it interesting when three points form a line?" He whispered. "Ikorosé, Shinsō!"

The lethal blade shot from Gin's left sleeve, stabbing Tetsuzaemon through the center of his chest and just missing his heart.

It kept going.

From where he stood, Chōjirō couldn't see what was happening; the other lieutenant was in the way. Perhaps, had he been on guard, he would have dodged - but one cannot guard against a strike one cannot see.

Gin snapped his weapon back, and both lieutenants fell. Tetsuzaemon was inert; Chōjirō had fallen to his knees and was clutching a severe injury just above his hip - not in shape to stand, let alone fight.

"And now it's one on one. A lot fairer, wouldn't ya say? After all, I'm a third seat at best. Go easy on me, 'kay?"

Renji gritted his teeth. The rogue was every bit as unnerving as before, and clearly whole orders of magnitude more lethal.

Gin, meanwhile, was deriving a great deal of enjoyment from the situation. "I KO'd one lieutenant in the past, this time I knock two at once. Y'all Gotei Shinigami really need to step up! It's so easy ta blindside ya! It's like ya don't pay any attention to the fight once ya -"

Gin twisted his arm, bringing Shinsō behind his back to block a flash-strike from Renji. " - as I was saying... unlike me, none of ya seem to pay attention to yer fights when you're talking. Ya need to work on that in the future." He twisted to face Renji, his block never slipping. "Now, let's fight."

"Enough of this nonsense," growled Renji. "Roar, Zabimaru!"

Renji's blade became plastic. Gin knew to beware of Zabimaru's ability, but he hadn't counted on a sudden yield in pressure throwing off his block, and staggered.

Renji stepped forward and pulled the hilt across, clearly trying to wrap Gin with the elastic. An obvious move. Gin's smirk didn't falter.

Gin let himself fall, sliding out of the loop, and rolled - uncurling while still flat on his back. "Shoot to kill!"

Renji's eyes narrowed in concentration as he leaned back, the lance flying past him. Gin had to hand it to him; while he wasn't one for trickery or guile, Renji was lethally quick on his feet, and his zanjutsu was downright fierce. Its rough-and-risky aggressive style reminded him of Ikkaku.

Gin snapped the blade back, jumping to his feet just as Renji regained his balance. "Good dodge! You're not bad. Well, for a lieutenant."

"The hell's that supposed to mean?" Renji scowled. "I'm one of the strongest lieutenants! I'm ex-eleventh, and I can take Ikkaku in a straight fight. The only lieutenants who can beat me are Chōjirō and Yachiru!"

"Chōjirō?" Gin put on a mock expression of thoughtfulness. "Oh, you mean the old man I wiped the floor with just now?"

"You got the drop on him!"

Gin chuckled, an evil tint lacing it. "I've gotten the drop on a lot of people lately. My wins may not be fair, but any way ya slice it, they're still wins."

Renji roared, lashing out with his whiplike blade.

"Besides, best of the lieutenants?" Gin scoffed, dodging with ease. "All that says is that ya placed fourteenth in the power ranks. If you're so good, why aren't ya a captain yet?"

"You got a big mouth, boy," Renji snarled back as he destroyed a row of flagstones with his chainsaw-like blade. "I'd like to see you say that to my captain - given how well you managed last time you met him!"

The corners of Gin's smirk almost met behind his head.

"So it is him," he said softly, and flash-stepped up to Renji, feinting high. "I knew there was someone fueling yer inferiority complex. It stings to know that ya ain't even close to his level, doesn't it?"

Renji took the feint. Gin slashed low, leaving a dripping gash on his opponent's torso, and dodged back. However, instead of following up and eviscerating Gin while he was open, Renji stepped back and corrected his stance.

"Whew, that was lucky for me," said Gin, mimicking relief. "Looks like three is yer lash limit before ya need a minute to recharge. That was a big gamble! Ya would have butchered me if I'd been wrong."

Renji gritted his teeth. "Gamble? I don't think so. How the hell did you figure that out?"

"Actually... I do gamble, sort of. Call it a calculated risk." Gin scratched the back of his head. "A combination of feeling yer reiatsu drop a tiny bit after each strike, the reiatsu patterns of the weapon itself, and the fact ya put extra fire into the third blow. It was risky, but it looks like I got it right."

"You got it right, huh?"

Gin dropped and rolled as the lash sliced the air inches above him.

"Oh, I won't deny you're stronger, but god damn you've become arrogant for it! Just gambling away on the outcome of a death match? Who do you think you are?" The lash extended again, and Gin ducked left. "I've been a lieutenant since before you were born! You really think you can beat me?"

Renji's body exploded with crimson fire as he unleashed all the power of a shinigami lieutenant in his final blow, and the sheer pressure of the reiatsu shockwave slammed Gin against the wall behind him, pinning him with nowhere to duck.

The teeth of the blade ripped into his shoulder and down his chest, leaving a ragged, bleeding gash a foot and a half long - and continued on, ripping the building behind him like a chainsaw. He would later swear that the blade had cut almost through his ribs.

Gin staggered to his feet as the building behind him collapsed

He clutched the brutal wound on his shoulder, although he was still grinning. "Well... I guess I underestimated ya," he finally admitted. "Yer better than the other two, at least. I've been poking ya all through the fight and while I've gotten a rise or two, ya never actually left me an opening. Still, my little gamble paid off. I bet I can get ya, in that weak spot or otherwise."

"Hah. We'll see. I'm good at keeping that 'spot' covered." Renji squared his shoulders as he landed. "You gonna save Rukia that way? You gonna gamble every battle between here and whatever your escape plan is?"

Gin's smirk died, although his eyes remained narrow. Despite the continued bleeding, he dropped his hand from the wound.

He looked briefly at the Senzaikyū above them.

"Well, ya play yer hand till yer luck runs dry, Ell-Tee," said Gin, his gaze returning to Renji as he raised Shinsō in one hand and pointed her, his arm straight as an arrow. "And once it does? Ya play yer opponent, or yer weapons, or yer battlefield, because only beginners rely on luck."

Gin's reiatsu spiked and turned into a visible aura, glowing around him like an emerald furnace. Renji's eyes widened.

"Shoot to kill - "

The lieutenant stepped left, raising his blade just in case Gin swung the weapon while extended -

There was a hiss of flash-step.

" - Shinsō."

Renji blinked, then coughed around the spike of agony in his right lung.

"Three for three on lieutenants faced, and now I've gotten the drop on ya twice. So yeah, I really think I can beat ya," Gin whispered over Renji's shoulder. "Am I going to take a gamble on every battle between me and Rukia? Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not. But make no mistake, when they try to stop me - gamble or not, be they captain or lieutenant, I will cut them down. Even if this wasn't about what I owe her... the snake always gets his prey."

"Damn... Damn you, Ichimaru..." Renji coughed again, his sword falling from his limp fingers. "You... low... bastard..."

Gin raised an eyebrow.

"Decades of training... and I never even... got close to that man's level," he gurgled painfully. "And you... better and meaner than me... in just months..."

Renji twisted, despite the blade in his chest, and grabbed Gin's shoulder for support.

"I never even... had a chance... against her uptight brother," he wheezed. "I'm just... a backstreet thug at heart. Not... destined to rescue... noble daughters, huh?" He spat blood. "You... somehow you're even lower. You fight like... an animal... no honor, no mercy. if anyone can beat Byakuya... it's you, so... you better fucking win..."

Renji passed out, and Gin pulled his sword back.

Only ten more to go - no, twenty-three, if you include the captains...

"Ichimaru-san!"

"Come on, Gin, we gotta get out of here!"

Gin turned at the sound of his companions returning. "Oh, hey guys. Yeah, let's just - " his right leg buckled and he staggered, only to fall to his knees. "Oh... oh dear..."

His head felt unusually heavy, and dark spots began swimming in his vision.

"Aah!" He vaguely recognized Hanatarō's voice. "Shit! Quick, help me pick him up! He's bleeding too fast - we gotta get him somewhere safe so I can - "

Then the sound faded from Gin's ears, and his eyes darkened. He barely even noticed as he keeled over.

X-X-X

Through the window, Rukia could feel so many things. The loss of her power had rendered her hypersensitive to reiatsu signatures, but even an academy first year could have noticed the chaos in the Seireitei.

In the course of a single day she had felt dozens of shinigami flare up for battle, and - distressingly - several of them had been killed extremely quickly. At one point, a captain had unleashed his zanpakutō, although at the distance she could not tell which. A captain! She had always known Gin's friends had potential, but enough to push a captain to such measures?

But the most distressing had been the recent fight in the upper citadel. The tall buildings obscured the west entrance courtyard from her remote view, but at such proximity, she could feel everything.

Gin had fought three lieutenants. Two had been struck down in mere seconds - and the fact that Gin had grown powerful enough to do such a thing was terrifying in its own right.

Then Renji had released his zanpakutō. Renji had always been powerful; hell, in another life he might have been a captain. For a while he held a critical advantage. From the feel of Gin's reiatsu, he had taken at least one harsh wound - right at the point where Renji released a blast of reiatsu strong enough to hospitalize an unseated shinigami from its force alone.

Then Gin had pulled it together somehow, and raised his own reiatsu to match Renji's, and then some. Then he had struck him down in a single blow.

It was fast becoming apparent that this was no longer the Gin Ichimaru she had last seen bleeding onto the sidewalk.

Oh, Gin was powerful - she'd known that as early as the moment he cut down the fishbone hollow - but not like this. His reiatsu had grown faster than she'd ever heard of, eclipsing known shinigami prodigies. And it had changed.

Gin wasn't nice. He never had been. But this was a new side of him - and his reiatsu had shifted to reflect it. He was focused and ruthless. In his heart there was no fear, no doubt of his ability - but neither was there even the smallest speck of mercy for his enemies, or remorse for having struck them down like errant insects. It was, paradoxically, altruistically evil. He took no malicious pleasure, felt no impassioned anger, and killed for no ulterior motive; in fact, quite the opposite of ulterior. And yet, she could tell, in the pursuit of her rescue he would commit the most unthinkable acts without even hesitating if he thought them necessary.

Benevolent or not, his blood was cold.

Rukia shivered, and for the first time since her arrest, she wondered if there were fates worse than the sokyōku blade.

X-X-X

"Yachiru!"

Said lieutenant looked up. "Ken-chan!" She squealed. "A ryoka was just here! They took him off to the fourth division like five minutes ago!"

Kenpachi grinned. "You beat his ass?"

"Sure did! He was strong, but he dropped pretty much as soon as I released."

"Will he have permanent scars?"

Yachiru put her index finger in her mouth. "Maybe one or two."

Kenpachi grunted. "Good, I don't like letting people forget their fights. Now hop on!" The sword-demon grinned like his hellish namesake as Yachiru jumped onto his shoulder. "The day ain't over. We're going ryoka hunting."

X-X-X

Painfully, Gin opened his eyes, and immediately closed them back down to slits. In this case, it was not for effect; rather, it was to ameliorate the pounding headache. It was not overly bright, but to Gin it might as well have been high noon in Africa.

"Where are we?" He groaned.

"I dunno. Looks like an office storeroom. Filing cabinets everywhere." Ganju opened one. "Fuck if I know what these files are records of."

"Ichimaru-san..." Hanatarō's timid voice spoke up. "Please lie still... I practically had to stitch your whole arm back on. Zabimaru leaves harsh wounds even from training sessions; I'd never even considered I might be repairing people on the receiving end of real blows..."

Gin grunted. "Hanatarō? Ya haven't split yet?" He sighed, flexing the fingers on his injured arm. "Well, guess I should be grateful. How long before I can get going again?"

"Well, you should be walking in two or three - "

Gin pushed himself upright, almost shoving his smiling face into Hanatarō's. "If the next word outta yer mouth isn't 'hours', we're gonna have a problem," he purred. "I didn't come here for the scenery, and I'm sick of delaying my mission. I imagine I've already been unconscious long enough to put us behind schedule."

Hanatarō gulped. "Y- yes, of course!" He babbled. "You'll be good as new in just a few hours! Of course I wasn't going to say days - there's hardly a scratch on you!"

Gin's grin widened even further. "Good," he said. "Then we won't have a problem."

He was about to lie back down when something caught his eye.

"What's this?"

"What?" Hanatarō looked over. "Oh, that? Isn't it yours? I found it in your shihakusō. Renji must have broken it when he hit you."

Gin held up the two pieces of white bone, aligning the cracks. "No, this isn't mine," he frowned. "I wonder where it came from..."

"Throw it away." Hanatarō shuddered. "It gives me the creeps just looking at it."

Gin looked at the re-formed object in his hands. The empty eye-holes and painted crimson grin of a skeletal, demonic fox visage looked back.

"It's a mask," said Gin, slightly puzzled. He put it up to his face. "Think it'd look good on me?"

Both Ganju and Hanatarō cringed. "Please don't do that," said Ganju. "You look like the scariest hollow I've ever seen. Just throw it away, man."

"Naw, come on," Gin argued, still holding up the mask. "It looks like it saved me from being sliced in half. It's lucky! See, it even looks like a fox."

"It looks like a demon. Gin, it's a hollow's mask! Get rid of it."

"Oh, fine." Gin tossed the thing away, eliciting a faint shattering noise as the already weakened bone disintegrated. "Ya'll are no fun. Well, whatever - we better get moving."

Ignoring Hanatarō's protests, Gin stood up and began preparing to break camp.

X-X-X

The central citadel of the Seireitei had high walls and narrow streets; it was easy to get lost. However, given that it was much smaller than the main Seireitei, it was easier to find one's way again after the fact.

Kenpachi skidded around the corner at full tilt... only to see another huge, Haori-wearing figure in his path.

"You here to get in on the fight, then, Sajin?" He grunted. "Eh, well, word has it that this particular ryoka has enough fight in him for two anyway. Shall we take turns, or gang him?"

"I'm afraid you're mistaken, Zaraki-taichō," the giant captain replied. "To prevent excessive collateral damage, the sōtaichō has issued a specific order against any officer of the eleventh engaging the ryoka within the inner citadel."

Kenpachi gritted his teeth. "So you're leashing me?" He growled. "I should have known to make sure no-one was listening when I was talking to Ikkaku. I haven't had a decent fight in ages, Sajin!" His hand went to the hilt of his huge ōdachi. "And if I can't pick one with this ryoka, I'll pick one with you!"

"Desist, please." A soft voice cut over the brutal warrior. "I think we can all agree that now is a poor time for in-fighting."

The Kenpachi of Zaraki divided people into three categories, in his mind. Firstly, there were people he knew were weaker than he, which included almost everyone. These people, he tolerated, as a teacher might tolerate misguided student. Second, there were people he respected as, if not equals, at least beings of a comparable level. These people were far fewer: the only ones he could think of offhand were the captains Kurosaki, Kuchiki, Ukitake, Kyōraku, and - possibly - Hitsugaya.

Lastly, there were the only people he'd ever answered to: captains Yamamoto and Unohana.

It was the latter who had stepped in. "Zaraki-taichō, there have only been two ryoka sighted in the citadel. Surely, you and your elite troops should be hunting the five that must still be outside."

Kenpachi was about to protest, but he - along with every other ranking shinigami that had been a patient in her hospital - knew that tone of voice well: it was a command, not a question, and the consequences would be dire if she was not obeyed.

"Good idea," he managed. "But we can't let the ryoka have it their way in the citadel, either. Who's handling the two that got in?"

"Given that the 'Hyapponzashi' managed to critically injure three lieutenants, a captain has been dispatched to deal with him," Unohana replied. "However, due to the nature of our opponent, the one chosen is more suited to delicate and precise work than yourself."

Kenpachi rolled his eyes. "That means either Mayuri or Soifon. Way to be a killjoy. Mayuri's an underhanded freak and fun's fucking wasted on Soifon - she wouldn't know 'fun' if you shoved it up her ass on the end of a sword."

"Your personal distaste for her has no bearing on this," Komamura rumbled. "By order of the sōtaichō, you will not get in her way."

"Personal distaste? What? I said she was uptight, not boring. She rides her men harder than me, and she's a damn fine opponent if you don't mind unarmed combat." Kenpachi twisted his head, popping a bone in his neck. "Screw this, my lieutenant's getting more action than I am. I'm gonna go find someone worth killing."

The two figures watched him go, speeding away with his lieutenant clinging to his back. Unohana smiled.

X-X-X