I updated late! Ahh!

And it's not even a very interesting chapter, really :(

I'm really sorry, everyone. I've been working on a project that's been eating up my time, and I just forgot about this one time too many... I hope it won't happen again, but I dunno if I can promise it :(

edit: WHAT. THE. FUCKING. FUCK. FF's site uploader fucked with the formatting of uploaded documents, AGAIN. I am SO FUCKING SICK OF THIS. If the moderators are going to be shitheads about what they ban, could they at least maintain their own site properly?

X-X-X

The Striking Snake

Ch23

Old Blood

X-X-X

Gin awoke, and gasped. Then he rolled over and coughed a series of great, hacking coughs as his fragile lungs made themselves painfully known.

He was lying on a futon on a flat rock floor. He seemed to be in some sort of small cave.

"Oh, sit still, Gin. You'll never get any better if you keep it up."

Gin rolled back, his unbandaged left eye glaring through its habitual narrow slit at the cat sitting by his head. "Yeah, I'll just... suppress involuntary... reflexes..." he rasped weakly. "Fuck... too wiped out... to think of a snarky comment..."

"You're recovering incredibly quickly, which means - as if beating Shunsui to his knees wasn't evidence enough - that your reiatsu has become nothing short of titanic," Yoruichi said. "Powerful enough to fuel and deploy a nineties-level kidō in less than a month. How does it feel to have beaten every academic record for shinigami, save one, in the last fifteen hundred years?"

"Feels like I've been roasted over an open fire," Gin muttered. "One left, huh...?"

"Yeah, one. We'll get to that once you've - "

"Rukia!"

Gin was already standing up, swaying and trying to stifle coughs. "If Hanatarō and Ganju moved fast, they'll have gotten to Senzaikyū by now. I gotta - " a particularly violent spasm racked his lungs, and he doubled over coughing again. "Dammit... don't have time for this... got a... mission..."

"You don't look like you can even walk, Gin. You really think you can help them?"

"Well..." He sat down, wheezing. "Shouldn't be too hard, from here... we were... on the prison doorstep..."

"Actually, I already went to check on them. They had the misfortune of running into Byakuya just as they were escaping the tower." Yoruichi shrugged, a rather strange gesture on a cat. "Ganju is badly injured, but I doubt either of them are dead; Ukitake showed up to intervene. They're probably in jail."

"Damn." Gin laid back down gingerly. "I barely beat Shunsui... I don't think Byakuya's... quite as deadly... but I can't take him like this..."

"You didn't beat Shunsui, you fool. Oh, you thrashed him good - better than I'd expect half of the current captains to do - but you're far worse off than he is. He'll be back on duty in a day." Yoruichi licked a paw. "Besides, you haven't seen Byakuya's zanpakutō, have you? Let me put it this way - it's one of only two or three weapons in the entire Seireitei that might match Shinsō in terms of pure, precise machination of death, and Katen Kyōkotsu is the one I'm not sure about on that list. Not to mention he excels in every combat discipline a shinigami could be asked to display. Byakuya may not be quite as ruthlessly cunning as Shunsui, but he's every bit as deserving of the haori."

Gin visibly deflated. "Fuck. Gotta think of a new plan, then..." a thought seemed to occur to him. "Hey... I know I'm skinny, but you're a damn cat... how the hell did ya carry me out here, wherever we are?"

"Oh, that was easy. I just went back to my original form for a few minutes."

Gin's grin returned. "Original form, huh? Y'know, I always had a feeling ya were hiding something..."

"Oh, yes. Secrets are how I roll. I wasn't made commander of the stealth force for nothing." Yoruichi was suddenly surrounded by a purple glow.
Gin's eyebrows rose. Then his good eye actually opened, and he abruptly looked away.

"Okay, jeez! First of all, you're a woman? Fuck, ya sure had me fooled with that cranky old voice. Second, put some clothes on! Hell, I'm a creepy, crazy bastard and even I know it ain't polite to flash people at random!"

"Hmm! Who would have guessed the legendary Ichimaru Gin would be such a prude?" Yoruichi purred, her voice much softer and normal-sounding.

"Prude? Hey, I'm a psycho." Gin twisted his head back around, his grin widening and his tongue flicking over his teeth in a profoundly strange expression. "Manners and prudishness ain't the same thing, just like manners and mercy. Jeez, people think that I can't be evil just because I know how to behave in public."

Yoruichi winced at Gin's sudden, freakish stare, hastily donning her clothes. "Okay, point made," she said. "Now, shall we move on to things of actual importance?"

Gin coughed again, pushing himself up into a sitting position. "Yeah." His eye narrowed again, returning to his foxy, if temporarily monocular, visage. "Guess I might as well admit it - I got nothing. If Byakuya's even close to as dangerous as Shunsui, I can't take him... to say nothing of the fact that I might hit more than one captain at once. I'm powerful, ruthless, lethal... but not invincible."

"Oh, cheer up," said Yoruichi, grinning. "You'll be recovered enough for at least light training in a few hours. And you'll want to be training as soon as possible. There's one trick that Kisuke didn't have time to teach you."

Gin's brow furrowed. "Hmm?"

X-X-X

In the fifth division...

Momo tucked the folded paper back into her shihakusō. She knew what she had to do.

She stood up, her eyes steely with determination. She walked over to the bars, and focused her reiatsu.

It was no secret that Momo was something of a demon arts prodigy. However, exactly how phenomenal a skill she possessed was not as widely known. While she lacked the pure discharge power necessary to unleash world-breaking 80's or 90's Hadō spells, her mastery of intricate casting technique was so refined that she was one of only eight known shinigami who could improvise non-numeric spells on the fly. When she joined the fifth division after graduating from the Shin'o Soul Academy, it was to the sincere disappointment of Captain Soifon, who had offered her the fourth seat of the kidō Corps - an unprecedented rank for a raw greenhorn.

Casting a spell without even calling its name, a feat that most of the younger captains would hesitate to attempt, was a trivial thing for her.

The guard turned around just as her hazel eyes glowed a menacing violet, and purple flower petals began drifting through the air. By the time he had had the presence of mind to looked shocked, he was already falling into unconsciousness.

X-X-X

In the third division...

Though not many realized it, Izuru Kira had been a lieutenant for quite a long time; while his seniority did not compare to Isane or Chōjirō, he had earned the post earlier than his academy classmates Renji and Momo. He had even managed to secure his rank a few months before Shūhei Hisagi, whom everyone had expected to be the first of the century's new lieutenants.

He had certainly been a lieutenant longer than Yachiru, Nemu, Ōmaeda or Tetsuzaemon. He couldn't remember if he'd been promoted before or after Rangiku - she hadn't been in the academy in his day, so he didn't know her that well. But he had still been a lieutenant longer than more than half of the extant lieutenants.

In his many years, he had seen the division jailhouse more than a few times, and from both sides of the bars. Despite his foppish appearance and hesitant nature, he would never have made lieutenant if he couldn't break a few rules when the need truly merited it.

He knew he hadn't committed too grave an offense, and the circumstances were mitigated with Aizen's death and Momo attacking first. It probably wouldn't go to court-martial - he might even be out of the cell tomorrow. With the Seireitei in chaos, they needed officers.

Also, unlike some of his rather hotheaded friends, Kira's previous posting in the fourth division had instilled in him a patience and appreciation for boredom that only a true military man can understand. He was quite content to sit out his punishment like a good soldier.

Thus, he was a little taken aback when the jailhouse door was abruptly kicked down, the sturdy oak shattering like glass.

Kira could only stare as the haori-clad figure sauntered in, completely nonchalant despite his violent entry. "Hey there, Izuru," Ichigo said lazily, an enigmatic smile on his usually apathetic face. He stepped up to the bars and took one in his grip - and twisted.

The slide-rails and lock snapped like they were made from rotten string instead of reinforced steel. With a single hand, Ichigo lifted the cell door and tossed it aside.

"Got somethin' I need your help with, kid. Come on."

X-X-X

In the sixth division...

Renji got up from the bunk in his own jail cell, picked up Zabimaru (for unless the incarcerated was extraordinarily powerful, it was deemed unnecessarily cruel to separate a shinigami from their zanpakutō) and pressed himself against the far wall - shielding his eyes with one arm, and raising the other with its index finger extended.

"Nothing personal, kid."

The guard looked back around and through the bars at the sound of Renji's voice - and squawked in sudden terror at the sight of the lieutenant's tattooed figure glowing a bright scarlet, lighting up the entire cell block.

"Hadō 31: Shakkaho."

The guard was thrown backwards by the violent red explosion, slamming heavily into the far wall. He seemed to have been knocked unconscious instantly.

Renji winced as a small shard of steel clipped his shielding arm. While he had the reiatsu power to drop potent Hadōs without incantations, fine control was not his strong point.

He hefted his zanpakutō. "Smile, Zabimaru," he muttered as he stepped out of the ruined cage. "We're back on track. I promise, before the sun sets on the eve of the execution... win or lose, you'll have a chance to go blade to blade with Senbonzakura. I don't care about our chances. I will not stand by as Rukia is executed."

The zanpakutō stirred, whispering in Renji's mind. "Surely you know he will crush you with ease. You cannot face a captain with just my release and your resolve."

"And I won't," he whispered back. "I brought you out once, so I can do it again. I'm ready for your challenge. All I need is a place to do it in."

Renji opened the jailhouse door, looking out into the night air. The reiatsu he was searching for was nowhere to be found.

He went from mere mortal to captain-class in just days, and he's undoubtedly planning to get stronger if he wants to stage a breakout. I'd bet my tattoos that he's doing, right now, exactly what I plan to do. He gritted his teeth. Where are you, Ichimaru Gin?

Renji had little talent for reiatsu sensing, but there were other ways to find someone. Incompetence did not earn lieutenant postings.

He fights like a snake. He thinks like a snake. What kind of places do snakes like?

Renji's eyes settled on the silhouette of the sokyōku hill against the dark sky.

Snakes like to hide under rocks...

There was a hiss, a blur, and then silence.

X-X-X

Tōshirō gritted his teeth as he flash-stepped across the rooftops of the Seireitei, homing in on a wild and unrestrained reiatsu flare.

I knew it. I knew he was up to something. Renji and Momo could easily have Kidō'd their way out, but Kira couldn't have ripped the door out on his own - only one person would have both the strength and the motive. He's overstepped his authority, and that's all the excuse I need.

With a final flash-step, Tōshirō skidded to a halt in front of the third division main office. "Huh. Why am I not surprised."

Kira's eyes widened. "Hitsugaya-taichō! I, uh - "

"Shut up, Kira. I don't particularly care about you." Tōshirō radiated a menace that no child his age should be able to. "Kurosaki-taichō... fancy meeting you here."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow, still smiling slightly. "What, you mean at my own division offices?" He glanced around languidly. "Doesn't seem too unusual to me."

Tōshirō's eyes narrowed. "I don't know what you're trying to do, but you're getting braver every day. Open hostility towards Aizen-taichō, a murder method that indicates someone of your capabilities, and now illegally breaking Kira out of jail... that's enough evidence for me to justify placing you under arrest, Kurosaki." Tōshirō's hand went to the hilt of Hyōrinmaru, drawing the large nōdachi from its baldric with a whisper of steel. "Are you going to come willingly?"

Ichigo cocked his head, his cocksure smile never wavering. "Oh? Isn't criminal investigation under the jurisdiction of the Onmitsukidō?"

"Clearly, you have never read the laws on the authority of a captain. Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."

"I suppose that's a no, then."

Tōshirō blurred, dashing forward and raising Hyōrinmaru to strike.

As he swung, however, a blade suddenly blocked his own - and its reiatsu was nothing like the raging, uncontrollable darkness of Zangetsu.

Tōshirō's eyes widened. "... Hinamori? What... what are you doing?"

"I never thought it'd be you, Tōshirō," Momo said through clenched teeth. "Why? Why would you?"

Tōshirō blinked, still trying to make sense of the situation. "Why would I what?"

"You won't even admit it to me..." Her eyes narrowed. "Dammit, Shiro! Why? I'll kill you!"

Tōshirō quickly realized she was not going to explain herself or give him a chance to speak in his defense. He parried her next strike - feeling a mild jolt of surprise at how strong her attack was - and thrust his hand forward.

"Tanma Otoshi."

Tōshirō's hand glowed white, and Momo immediately collapsed, unconscious.

There was a moment of silence. Tōshirō abruptly noticed the corner of a crumpled piece of paper protruding from Momo's pocket.

He looked back up, Ichigo hadn't moved. He was still maintaining the slightly bored, slightly amused smile.

Not taking his eyes off the orange-haired rogue, Tōshirō bent down and retrieved the piece of paper. He quickly scanned over it.

He hissed as he read on. "Wait, I'm planning on some crazy scheme to destroy the Seireitei? What is this?" He looked back at Ichigo. "Aizen would never write this. Did you forge this, Kurosaki?"

"Oh, no," said Ichigo lightly. "He wrote it for me all by himself. He was such a useful boy. Stars in his eyes, though. Turned out he didn't have the stomach for what I was planning."

The dimly-lit evening darkness in the division courtyard faded away as a white glow formed around Tōshirō's skin.

"She held her sword so tightly... her hands are bleeding," he growled.

Ichigo looked at the unconscious lieutenant, and raised an eyebrow. "So?"

"Remember what I told you? I said if you cause her to spill even a drop of blood, I'll kill you! Reign over the frozen sky, Hyōrinmaru!"

Kira, who had been standing silently, cried out and stumbled backwards as a monstrous serpent made of pure ice shot from Tōshirō's sword. He clumsily lunged sideways as Ichigo nimbly flash-stepped around it. And finally, Ichigo drew his long katana, holding it in a battle stance.

The glowing reiatsu around Tōshirō brightened, and Kira staggered under the frigid pressure.

This... so this is the power of Hitsugaya Tōshirō... the greatest prodigy the Shin'o academy has ever seen, and the wielder of the mightiest ice-type zanpakutō in existence... Kira's eyes widened as he saw the dark clouds forming over the previously clear night sky. It even bends the weather to its will, as all water under the sun hears the call of its master... how can such a young boy hold so much power?

"Now who's breaking laws?" Ichigo said smugly, clashing swords with Tōshirō again. "Releasing your zanpakutō in the Seireitei? Not fitting behavior for a captain!"

"You know as well as I do that Yama authorized release," he said through gritted teeth. "I think arresting a traitor merits such measures."

"Is that so? Doesn't that letter brand you a traitor?"

Tōshirō flash-stepped backwards, hurling another ice-dragon at Ichigo. This time, however, he did not dodge.

"So arresting a traitor is worth releasing your zanpakutō for, huh? Well, who am I to argue." Ichigo pointed his sword straight at the incoming mass of ice. The white glow of Tōshirō's reiatsu dimmed as a malevolent darkness radiated from the other captain.

"Eclipse the sun, Zangetsu!"

The sable shockwave of reiatsu rattled the windows of the nearby buildings. Ichigo's large katana transformed into its signature form of a monstrous Khyber knife, and the huge blade bit into the dragon. Ichigo was pushed back, but eventually stopped.

Ichigo's enigmatic smile twisted into a crazy grin. "You asked for it! This is the real thing, baby - taste the fangs of the moon! Getsuga Tenshō!"

Tōshirō rolled sideways as the black blade of energy ripped through the air where he had stood. Had it connected, it would have effortlessly cut him in half.

Behind them, Kira could barely crawl under the reiatsu. So... powerful... he thought fuzzily. He feels... like he could crush... a building... with just an errant sneeze!

Ichigo flash-stepped, swinging the massive Zangetsu straight down. The wooden paving of the courtyard walkway cracked under Tōshirō's feet as he blocked.

Tōshirō pushed him back, swinging another dragon at him for good measure. Ichigo flash-stepped again -

And re-appeared on the other side of the compound. Noticeably, between him and Tōshirō lay the prone form of Momo Hinamori.

Ichigo raised Zangetsu, and the moonlight dimmed as a torrent of black energy sheathed the blade.

Tōshirō's eyes widened. If Ichigo released the attack, Momo would be cut in half.

"Getsuga - "

A final flash-step sounded. Both captains drew back in shock.

"M - Matsumoto?"

X-X-X

The huge ladder and immense, deathstone-lined hall were met with raised eyebrows. Gin looked around the massive cavern, and whistled. "One of these days, I've got ta ask Kisuke how he builds these things. How many has he got, anyway?"

Yoruichi chuckled. "A few, here and there. But that's not important right now." She sat down on a nearby rock formation. "Ichimaru... what do you know about zanpakutō power?"

Gin sat, somewhat less elegantly, on the bare dirt - his injuries would take another hour or so to fully heal. "Well... ya call the name and command, and unleash the attack, right?" He frowned. "Although, seems to me that most Zan's have a released form, and they're primed to launch their power from there. Shinsō seems a bit unusual in that regard."

"Actually, Shinsō's perfectly normal," said Yoruichi. "At least, mostly. The extended form is her release form, which is why you can keep her extended if you want to fight with an incredibly long blade. However, it's true that her most effective moment is in the change, not in the form itself, so it wouldn't surprise me if the reiatsu costs of rapidly moving her between sealed and shikai were somehow streamlined."

Gin cocked his head. "Okay. But I doubt that's the point."

"True, true. You may notice I just called the released form 'shikai.' In fact, I know you noticed."

Gin raised an eyebrow, which was always an odd sight when layered over his narrow-eyed squint. "First release. Only the first one, huh?"

"Exactly." Yoruichi smiled slightly. "With a few very rare exceptions, every zanpakutō has the potential to reach two fundamental power stages. Reaching the shikai only requires learning the sword's name, but don't take that as a trivial task... it is no small matter to discern the name which defines your entire battle-psyche, and it requires a high degree of self-knowledge. Many unranked shinigami, lacking will or ambition, never achieve shikai for this very reason. Even the determined can take months or years."

"Hmm." Gin looked intrigued. "And...?"

"The next step is called Ban Kai."

Gin stood up as he rolled the word around in his head. "Complete release... nice."

"It well deserves its name. Bankai is a level of power whole orders of magnitude above shikai... one in ten shinigami achieves shikai in their lifetime, but less than one in a thousand achieves Bankai. It is telling that Bankai the only formal requirement to be eligible for interview for captaincy... it is reckoned that of all the souls in the two worlds, there have never been more than fifty living shinigami at a time with access to Bankai." Yoruichi tossed her hair back. "Even if there weren't laws against it, few captains would dare release their Bankai within the city limits of the Seireitei. The power surge alone could kill bystanders; the collateral damage of using Bankai in a fight could - in the case of the mightier captains - lay waste to whole districts at a time."

"Huh. I guess that would be why Shunsui didn't use his when he was fighting me..."

"How astute of you. In fact, Shunsui is a special case - as one of the four elder captains, and wielder of one of the most terrifying weapons known, he is loath to ever use Katen Kyōkotsu's Bankai. He would certainly never use it unless he was the only man left fighting. Some weapons are so terrifying they are simply better left unused." She cleared her throat. "However, your next opponent will almost certainly be Kuchiki Byakuya. And for all he acts detached, that boy is actually hotheaded as all hell. He might hesitate, but he will use Bankai against you."

"And there's no way I'd survive without Bankai of my own?"

"In all honesty, his shikai alone could cut through some Bankai I've seen. It's a murder weapon like no other. Its name is Senbonzakura - but don't let its sweet name fool you. The blade shatters into a thousand razor shards that fly as he commands, turning the very air around his enemy into a wind of countless blades. No way to parry, no escape - it cuts from every direction until its victim is little more than meat."

Gin's eyes actually opened for a second. "Yow! I see why you said it was up there with Shinsō for deadliness."

"Indeed. Now, the power of Bankai ain't exactly what you'd call easy to come by. It requires total control and subjugation of the zanpakutō - flawless understanding and acceptance of what drives one's will to win." Yoruichi sighed. "Apart from one or two prodigies, and Urahara Kisuke, I've never heard of a shinigami achieving Bankai in less than ten years of dedicated training."

"Huh." Gin found himself saying that a lot, recently. "Well I'll just go ahead and state the obvious - I ain't got that kind of time, and ya wouldn't bring it up if ya didn't have a workaround. So?"

"Workaround? You could call it that." Yoruichi smirked. "Kisuke himself achieved Bankai in three days, and I intend to use the same method on you. The question is, are you prepared to risk your life, body and soul on a highly dangerous training method that has succeeded only once, for one person?"

Gin couldn't have smiled wider if he tried.

X-X-X