In this chapter, Nami's going to get some help in saving Ichigo and Rukia...you might be surprised at who it is though. Or maybe not. You've probably been reading the Bleach manga or watching the anime.

Of course, you're probably also wondering how Luffy's crew is doing. I'll include them in this chapter too. They're still in trouble at Whiskey Peak. They're going to need to evacuate...

Chapter 19: Unexpected Ally

Nami crashed into the ground, leaving an imprint shaped like herself in the process.

Miraculously, she had managed to survive the fall. It was if she was made of rubber like Luffy was.

Curious, Nami noticed that she seemed to be separated from her companions after she was shot out of that cannon. She got the feeling that Luffy wished that he had a cannon that big on his ship.

"Huh? Where did everybody go?" inquired Nami. Things seemed so quiet all of a sudden. It was actually kind of creepy. Was she some sort of ghost town? Technically, the residents of Soul Society WERE ghosts.

She was a bit worried. Were her friends alright? They weren't exactly in friendly territory. If they were scattered in different directions, they needed to regroup as soon as possible.

Perhaps she needed to look for them. Knowing Luffy he would probably get into trouble if he wasn't with his friends. However, she got the feeling that Orihime was with him. Knowing how smart she was, perhaps she could prevent Luffy from doing anything too foolish.

Immediately, she began to walk around the city. Maybe if she was lucky she would be able to find where Rukia and Ichigo were being held. That way she could bust them out and they wouldn't get executed.

She decided to pull out her zanpukuto just in case. She was not aware of what was out there. For all she knew it could be the biggest Hollow that there was...though since this was Soul Society she was talking about they probably already slew it. They didn't exactly tolerate Hollows around here.

It was not a moment too soon, as she heard someone approaching.

"Huh? Who could that be?" inquired Nami. It could be one of her friends...but it could also be a foe too.

As it turned out, it was Renji. Apparently, he was patrolling the city after he had caught wind of recent events.

"Why does Rukia have to die?" questioned Renji. It seemed rather unfair considering that she simply needed assistance in taking down a particularly tough Hollow. Ironically, the person who she had given her powers to was going to get executed too. Apparently, he had decided to give Shinigami powers to someone as well.

"He's directly in my path...I probably can't run from him..." acknowledged Nami.

Perhaps she was simply going to have to fight him.

Sure enough, Renji noticed her. His eyes widened upon spotting her.

"You!" exclaimed Renji. As it turned out, he just so happened to have encountered the intruders that was causing trouble around Soul Society. Why were they even there?

Quickly, Nami prepared her blade so that she could block Renji's. She didn't want to be gutted like a fish...speaking of which, fish would be good right now. Maybe if she was lucky she would get an opportunity to go back home so that she could catch some easily.

Of course, maybe there were fish in Soul Society too.

Luckily, Nami had not run into his captain Byakuya...otherwise she would be in trouble. She may be tough, but she wasn't captain of her pirate crew, let alone a Soul Society captain.

Immediately, Renji lunged at her with his blade.

"That's weird...I was under the impression that there would be more than just one of you..." questioned Renji.

"Yeah...I'm afraid I got separated from my companions..." answered Nami. Things were going to be lonely without them.

"I think two of them ended up at Mayuri Kurotsuchi's laboratory..." stated the lieutenant.

"Is that a bad thing?" inquired the pirate girl. Somehow simply hearing Renji say his name made her feel frightened.

"Let's just say that they're about to live out their worst nightmares..." explained Renji. He sure hoped that he never had to visit Mayuri Kurotsuchi.

Nami gulped. What kind of person was Mayuri Kurotsuchi?

She probably did not want to know.

Meanwhile where Ichigo and Rukia are being held...

Ichigo and Rukia were watching TV, waiting to see what was happening. At this point, Nami and her friends were all over the news. They were causing a lot of trouble. Soul Society residents were currently locking themselves inside their houses so that they could stay safe...though it probably wouldn't do them any good considering that Nami was rather good at picking locks.

Ichigo wondered if it was only a matter of time before they burst into the shrine where they were waiting execution.

As it turned out, Nami was in a swordfight with Renji. A rather fierce swordfight at that. Both of them were sweating.

"Surrender to Soul Society and we'll go easy on you!" exclaimed Renji.

"I know they won't go easy on Rukia and Ichigo..." remarked Nami.

"Should I root for Nami or Renji?" thought Rukia. To be honest, she didn't really know for sure. Of course, she did meet Renji LONG before she met Nami...back when she was stuck in the slums eating delicious gummy rats and drinking tasty sludge...

Now that she thought of it, she was starting to see why Nami was so greedy.

"Yeah! Clobber him, Nami!" exclaimed Ichigo. He knew that she could do it. Perhaps she was stronger than he was.

Rukia wondered how Nami had gotten so strong since Ichigo had first given her his powers. She wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth though. If they were lucky, Nami was strong enough to save them.

However, it appeared that she didn't have her friends with her. That presented a problem.

If they didn't regroup, the Shinigami could potentially pick them off one by one. And she had no idea when the next one was going to show up.

Meanwhile...

After being knocked out when Mayuri Kurotsuchi injected a tranquilizer into his neck, Chad discovered that he was strapped to an operating table. Was he going to be vivisected? Or maybe Mayuri was going to aim a laser at his groin? So much for him being a hit with the ladies.

He decided to wait to see if anyone would show up. There wasn't much else that he could do, really. With his luck, it was probably going to be the guy that kidnapped him.

Taking a look at the walls, Chad noticed that they were dripping with blood. The laboratory was also not well-lit. Apparently Mayuri Kurotsuchi had not been paying his electricity bills.

At that very moment, Mayuri Kurotsuchi entered the laboratory, a sadistic smile on his face. He was going to have a lot of fun. There were lots of possibilities.

Apparently, this was the person who Uryu was worried about. How did HE end up as part of the Gotei 13? What was Yamamoto thinking?

Perhaps he should be worried too.

"Well, it looks like the rest of Soul Society is going to be happy with me...I managed to catch one of the intruders that they have been talking about!" remarked Mayuri Kurotsuchi.

As soon as he saw Mayuri Kurotsuchi, Chad realized that he was insane. Why did he have to end up in his clutches?

It looked like he was in for a world of pain. Did the author hate him or something?

"Let's see what we have here..." stated Mayuri Kurotsuchi as he looked into his chemistry set. There certainly were a lot of different chemicals that he would like to try out.

Chad wondered which one he was going to use. Hopefully none of them were poisonous.

Meanwhile...

"So let me get this straight...Whiskey Peak was a trap for us this whole time?" asked Sanji. Why did people have to deceive them? He was hoping to drink some more whiskey, but it was not to be.

"Uh-huh!" exclaimed Yuzu.

"Maybe we need to be more careful..." remarked Zoro. There were probably other traps for pirates like that. Maybe they should look for things that were suspicious.

"I don't want to go to jail!" exclaimed Usopp. Was this the day that their pirate adventures were finally coming to an end? Who would have thought that the marines would be so clever...setting up a trap like this.

"I guess we had better try to defend ourselves..." remarked Karin.

At that very moment, a few cutthroats entered the vessel.

"Time for us to collect your bounties!" exclaimed one of the cutthroats.

Fortunately, Usopp managed to shoot them down.

However, it quickly became apparent that more of them were coming. Apparently they were well-aware of the bounties on their heads...the bounties that seemed to grow by every passing day.

"We've got to get out of here!" exclaimed Yuzu. She didn't want the marines to give her a time-out...

"I know..." remarked Karin.

Quickly, Zoro began to steer the Going Merry out of Whiskey Peak. The sooner they got out of there, the better.

However, more bounty hunters were already boarding their vessel as they spoke.

"This is going to be a long day..." remarked Karin.

At Soul Society...

Currently, it looked like Renji and Nami were at a stalemate. In other words, neither one of them were gaining an advantage over the other...if you didn't feel like reading a dictionary.

Renji decided that now would be a good time to raise the odds in his favor.

Immediately, he activated his shikai.

Suddenly, his blade began to stretch like it was made out of taffy. Nami was rather impressed.

"That's better..." stated Renji. It was always nice to have an advantage during a swordfight.

Frantically, Nami attempted to avoid it. Who would have thought that Renji's blade was secretly made out of rubber?

Umfortunately for her, wherever she went, the blade followed.

"This blade is anything if not persistent..." remarked Nami. How was she going to keep running away from the blade?

However, she got an idea.

Immediatrly, she began to run away in several different directions.

Renji wondered what exactly she was doing. He was getting rather dizzy.

Unfortunately for him, he did not realize what Nami was planning until it was too late.

Gasping in shock, he realized that his blade was now tangled up in knots.

"What happened?!" exclaimed Renji.

"You lost, what else?" asked Nami.

Renji sighed. Nami was right. There was no way he was going to be able to continue fighting.

"You got me..." stated Renji.

"Now if you excuse me I'm going to look for Ichigo and Rukia..." said the teenage girl.

"You'd think that the Central 46 would be merciful..." stated Renji.

Suddenly, he noticed a newspaper saying that Mayuri Kurotsuchi was the judge, Quincy were the jury, and that their attorney was a monkey.

"Wait, what?!" exclaimed the lieutenant.

"Huh?" asked Nami.

"I can't let Rukia be executed! I have to stop this!" bellowed Renji.

"You're going to stop the execution?" inquired the teenage girl. He seemed to be determined to keep the execution going a few minutes ago.

"I need to get to the shrine immediately!" exclaimed the lieutenant.

"You know where Ichigo and Rukia are being held? That's perfect! You have to take me there!" bellowed Nami.

"I don't know...I wouldn't want to aid an enemy of Soul Society..." remarked Renji.

"I'm not really here to cause trouble for Soul Society...I just want to save Ichigo and Rukia..." explained the pirate girl.

"You help me save Rukia, and I'll help you save Ichigo. You got a deal?" questioned Rukia's childhood friend.

"OK..." nodded Nami.

Meanwhile...

"So, it looks like my own lieutenant has betrayed me...I should have known that he would try to save Rukia from being executed..." remarked Byakuya.

"I wonder why Mayuri Kurotsuchi of all people chose to be judge..." questioned Yamamoto.

"I suppose I'll just have to deal with my lieutenant as well..." acknowledged the captain. Perhaps Renji would wind up being executed for treason.

"He is your responsibility..." acknowledged the leader of Soul Society.

"Be careful...that elastic pirate beat me up..." remarked Kenpachi. He was a lot stronger than he looked.

Yachiru was currently crying. Luffy was such a meanie! Why did she have to do that to her poor captain?

She sure hoped that Luffy would get arrested by Soul Society.

However, she had no idea where he was.

Elsewhere in Soul Society...

"Uryu? Chad? Where are you?" inquired Luffy.

"Try not to make too much noise...we don't want to be discovered." warned Yoruichi.

"She's got a point..." remarked Orihime.

Suddenly, Ikkaku showed up.

"And someone just did..." remarked Yoruichi.

"I wonder what happened to his hair?" inquired the teenage girl.

"Are you making fun of me because I'm bald?" asked Ikkaku.

"What? Why would I do that?" questioned Orihime.

Immediately, Ikkaku began to attack Orihime. As it turned out, he was in a bad mood since Luffy had managed to defeat Kenpachi, his captain.

Speaking of which, he quickly noticed his appearance.

"You're the one who defeated Kenpachi!" exclaimed Ikkaku.

Quickly, he began to attack Luffy instead of Orihime.

"Uh-oh!" exclaimed Luffy.

However, Orihime managed to shield Luffy.

"Thanks..." murmured the pirate.

Orihime smiled. She was glad that she could keep Luffy safe.

Ikkaku sighed. It looked like Orihime was going to be HIS opponent.

Unfortunately for him, when he tried hitting Orihime with his staff, she ended up simply shielding herself.

This was going to be a long battle.

Meanwhile...

Fortunately for the Straw Hat Pirates, they managed to evacuate Whiskey Peak...after fighting many bounty hunters.

Now it was up to them to decide where they should try hiding from them.

Zoro decided to check the map.

"Let's see..." stated Zoro.

As it turned out, their was an island known as Little Garden nearby. Maybe they could avoid the bounty hunters that way.

For some strange reason, it was filled with prehistoric animals such as dinosaurs. Maybe it didn't end up getting hit by a meteor like everywhere else? The dinosaurs certainly had gotten a break, that was for sure. No ice age for them.

Curious, Yuzu decided to check the map.

"Ooh! Dinosaurs! Sounds like fun!" exclaimed Yuzu.

"Whatever keeps us safe from the marines, I guess..." remarked Karin. She never thought that she would end up running from the law. Strangely enough, she got the feeling that Ichigo had REALLY broken the law as of late. It was weird.

"I guess we're going to Little Garden..." stated Zoro.

"Yay!" cheered Ichigo's youngest sister.

Immediately, the Going Merry set sail towards Little Garden.

And Renji is now one of Nami's companions. Would you look at that. Now she just needs to find Uryu, Orihime, Luffy, and Chad...speaking of Uryu and Chad...it looks like Uryu is going to have to save Chad from Mayuri Kurotsuchi. And of course Luffy is going to chill with Orihime.