AN. THIS HAS NOT BEEN BETAED. ive sent it off but its taking too long for my liking with it having been so long since I last updated. I know I'm taking too long with writing this, and I'm trying to go quicker but I keep hitting roadblocks. I know how most of the stories going to go, I know most of the really major events, but getting from point A to point B is proving hard. I THINK the next chapter will be quicker, we have hit a point ive been planning for a while in one form or another

troubles in the south

Keigo swung his asachi down as he stepped up next to mizuiro, cutting a deep gash through the ribcage of his opponent. He felt he should be disturbed by his lack of emotion at the grisly act but now wasn't the time to think about it. ignoring the burning ache in his arms and shoulders, he brought his blade around to parry his next opponent. Ichigo had been right, they were definitely stronger and faster than an average human soul, but they just kept coming. Mizuiro copied his actions of a moment prior, stepping up to impale their foe, the pairs long friendship allowing them to predict the others movements to a degree.

"damn, we're getting good at this" keigo laughed weakly

"no we're not, the girls are leaving us behind" his friend replied

Keigo whimpered as he shifted his gaze to the due acting as the heavy hitters for their small unit. He watched as tatsuki smashed her fist into some poor woman's jaw and buried her asachi in their gut. It was crude and made very little use of real zanjutsu but when combined with the martial artists long years of practice and discipline it was making her one of ichigos better recruits in the south.

"second strongest woman in Japan huh? She's living up to it"

"strongest actually, she won this year's tournament"

"yeah? What did she fight through this year?"

"three broken ribs and a sprained wrist"

"thats not human"

"heads up, their right behind me!" Alice hollered as she skidded round the corner

Tatsuki rolled her eyes "and you lead them here? you idiot, i haven't known you long enough to be putting up with this sort of trouble"

"sorry, sorry, sorry but please help me" she begged

"fine fine" the martial artist agreed waving her friend off then rounded on the male duo "oi deadbeats! Get your asses up here and work. don't think im scrounging lunch up for you if you don't pull your weight, I know spirits don't need to eat to live. Why did i get stuck with the comedy act? Why not a dependable team like ichigo and uryu? Or sado! He can punch through steel!"

"now, now tatsuki-chan, aren't you being a bit unfair to us?" mizuiro called as they rushed to comply "you and alice-chan have years of training, we're really just making this up as we go along"

"don't get cute with me kojima im not one of your honey buns, you both chose to come along so learn faster."

"yeah, hey guys, 'life or death combat 101' is continuing in about ten seconds" keigo called as the mob came charging around the corner.

The gang was, like all the other ones they had come across over the last few hours, well armed. The group had been ordered by their commander, one kukaku shiba head of the southern reclaimation army, to patrol a group of small towns on the outskirts of their encampment and in her words "skirmish" with the outer forces of yet another approching rukongai army to prevent any attempt at a flanking or encirclement move.

As had become the norm, the martial artist was the first in. She was quickly developing a solid grasp on standard shinigami agility techneques though shunpo still elueded her. The opening blow was another standard of hers, a vicious kick to the crotch of the first man in reach. The duo were quick to join her, tatsuki was their strongest frontline fighter and it was a forgone conclusion what the likely outcome was if she went down. Keigo and mizuiro fell into the routine of guarding the young womans sides while doing all they could to stay out of her way. Mizuiro stepped up and moved his asachi through one of their improvised forms, leaving a deep gash in his first opponents arm cutting clear to the bone. His partaner wasn't so lucky, keigos foe proved to be made of sterner stuff as the pairs weapons clashed and hammered against each other, he was a lage man full of muscle wielding a large woodsmens axe with a broad head that clashed repeatedly with the thin blade of the unnamed sword. Soon chips and flakes of steel began to fly from the large axe as it gave out before the spirit weapon. The young man stepped forward and seized his chance when a large chuck of the thing sheered away and brought his sword arcing around to bury it in the larger mans side. From a more experiences fighter it would have been the end, keigos blade bit deep and lodged itself in a rib bone. The man, going wild with a mix of rage and pain, brought the remains of his axe overhead to split the smaller mans skull open. Tatsukis blade flashed out, severing the berserkers arm and buried her fist in anothers throat crushing their windpipe before continuing her bloody advance. Mizuiro, using his strange senses quickly appeared beside his friend.

"mizuiro, this isn't working"

"it is actually"

Tatsuki quickly leaped to out of the way as alice, finally finished with her incantation, sent a fireball crashing into their midst, killing many and stunning the rest.

"on your feet asano-san, if we're quick we can finish this now"

"i really hate this part, and can you at least use my name? You don't have to be so cold man"

The group swiftly moved to obey one of ichigos biggest lessons "glory and honor are usless in battle only duty and valor matter. If you cant throw them away then why are you even risking your life for this?" and set to butchering their enemies before they could recover. Once the gruesome work was done the quatrat gathered to catch their breaths.

"three days, we,ve been at this for three days, these bastards have barely even let as sleep. If we didn't have reiryoku we would all be dead by now." keigo groaned

"stop bitching asano, besides, that should be the last of them for a bit. Mizuiro would still be on guard if there was more" their squad leader reassured as she gasped for breath

Mizuiro didn't reply, his eyes glazed over with a mixture of exhaustion and something else. The young man suddenly slammed into tatsuki as a series of loud cracks split the air. Mizuiro and alice dropped to the ground, the standing pair wirled around to the source of the sound. Four men, each of them almost completly devoid of reiatsu, having only just enough power to live on, each holding a primitive firearm. Mizuiros senses had screamed at him it wasn't over, on sheer instinct he had protected the fastest of them. tatsuki didn't waste the chance and quickly moved to close with the new threat. She skidded to a stop as a roaring detonation ripped the men apart. A following set of cracks had her diving for the floor, she watched as a black blur swatted speeding objects she could almost see out of the air before it shot forward and cut down the new threat.

"lady shiba figured you lot would be stuck in on them like stubborn, angery pups. Youre cut off, every other village and town in the area has fallen, orders are to retreat."

"...how...? i thought they were moving on our main force?" tatsuki asked in a daze, it shouldn't be possible, they had a force of thousands but a few days away.

"they did, we lost. It was those cursed guns, killed far too many before we even got close" the newcomer answered

"but i thought shinigami couldn't be harmed by guns"

"we cant, we shinigami ripped them apart." The shinigami gave her a strange look "you didn't think a few months in a combat school and picking up an asachi made you a shinigami did you? your friends are hurt, i can explain the rest later"

...

"settle down kurosaki." The young quincy snapped as he approached his friend "whats got you so riled up?"

"somethings happening in the south" the shinigami commander argued back

"well of course something is, youre in the north, what better place to strike? Ill go check it out, you stay here"

"damn it ishida I felt a reiatsu drop from the others!"

"which is another reason you need to stay here, unless youve suddenly manstered hirenkyaku as well as manifest your quincy powers?"

"what?"

"idiot, look on your back. Even if you have there are several reasons for me to do it, i have an appoint ment with some "friends" of ours back that way in a a few days, urahara contacted me, he says he has a way to fix our clensing problem, and most notably, you have an army headed this way. You would have thought of all this if you calmed down a bit."

"you stay youre better at fighting armies anyway. ill switch back to shinigami abilities, im quicker with sunpo"

Ishida marched up to his friend and smashed a fist into his gut followed through by a hook to the jaw, laying the shinigami out on the dirt "you will not abandon your post kurosaki-taicho! When you marched into the north you brought our centeral command post with you, messeges, reports, orders, logistics counts, it all flows through here, through you. We don't know what heppend down there, if they can beat one of our forces we have to assume they can beat this one too. If we lose this post, you, its all over, our forces are to spread out over to great a distance to quickly shift headquarters. It moves when you march, when you advance it advances with you, when you retreat it does too. every man and woman in our operation knows how to identify your reiatsu by now and thats just about disappeared now, you cant suddenly up and vanish it would be the same as a division losing its taicho. Now settle down, ive got this. You need to train hard, we need a taicho level combatant to make sure we win this area."

"What about rukia and momo? two fuku-taicho should do it." he continued to argue "Wait, where the hell are they?"

"they disappeared while you worked, said they had something to take care of. Stop fighting with me on this youre slowing me down!" the quincy roared back before vanishing in a burst of hirenkyaku

"fuck"

Ichigo reached out to reel in his reiryoku, to restore his shinigami power, his blood ran cold when it refused to respond. The hollows cackling laughter echoed through his mind.

"i don't think so partaner, isn't this what you wanted, what you worked so hard for? Looks like you and zangetsu have some work to do, that rukon trash isn't the only battle you have coming"

...

The young quincy flickered in and out of common sight as he passed through the rukon districts between their centeral command and the seireitei. He poked at ichigos reishi/reiryoku web as he went, it really was a good thing they wouldnt be fighting quincy any time soon, he had already managed to "hack" into his friends web and use it to view the situation he was heading into. They would have to find a way to protect themselves from anothers sklaverei. it always paid to be careful, there was no kill like overkill, but he was sure ichigo knew what he was doing, it was his power after all. This would be the second major clash between their people and the enemy that he wasn't present for. He didn't like it but once again he had other duties to see to, that meeting had been far too hard to set up for them to simply pass it by. And then there was urahara kisuke, who knew what the crackpot had cooked up now but if it worked it would secure the future of their people. Ishida hated the very idea of leaving his friend, his commander, without someone truely trustworthy to watch his back, but if this all worked out that that weight would be eased as well.

...

"we cant really be doing this" momo asked her companion

"we are, unless you can think of another way" rukia replied

"i know, but, this is treason"

...

Urahara snickered as he felt the young quincy approach, he was going to hate this. but if it all worked, if he agreed to try, who knew how the future could change. He would have to help secure their new technique he could feel in the air against others with even a modicrom of reishi manipulation, but what an ingeinious solution.