13 - Death 2

"The hell is this? You don't even look like a Shinigami!" Renji said with an outraged face, referring to Ichigo's lack of a shihakusho, and his relatively modern clothes while in spirit form. "Stop pretending you have a zanpaktou, let alone a shikai! That sword didn't even change, it only got darker like some kind of shitty light trick!"

"Why? Can't a human have a Zanpaktou?" said Ichigo.

"That's bullshit!"

Ichigo didn't bother responding to that, and simply disappeared in a flash step.

Renij saw the move and got his own sword in position to parry the overhead strike.

But before the two swords connected, a blue light gathered at the tip of Ichigo's zanpaktou, releasing an explosive wave of energy upon impact.

Renji was caught completely off-guard by the deceptive attack and hit point blank, expecting Ichigo to be a reckless melee fighter like Captain Kenpachi and his old 11th division comrades with the way he had acted.

The lieutenant captain was sent tumbling through the air until he landed face down right beside Byakuya, his robes torn and skin bruised underneath.

"Damn it…" He cursed while struggling back up, one hand covering his face that was bleeding from the multiple spots, and the other using Zabimaru to support himself.

"You should understand, right? I held back with that attack just now, because you're supposed to be Rukia's friend. Go back to Soul Society, Renji. Rukia's not going anywhere," said Ichigo.

"S-stop looking down on me you bastard…I'll kill you…!" Renji growled as he rose to his feet, preparing to show the human how a real man fought.

"Enough, Lieutenant Abarai, I will handle this," Byakuya said suddenly. Renji looked like he wanted to protest, but then he saw his Captain's stern gaze.

"Understood, Captain Kuchiki," Renji said through gritted teeth.

Then he blinked, and suddenly the Captain was already beside Ichigo, whose face was in shock.

'I didn't even see him pull out his blade or when he sheathed it!' Renji thought. 'Haven't seen that in a while…it's amazing!'

Blood spurted out from two spots on Ichigo's chest and abdomen and he fell forward cursing.

"I-Ichigo! No!" Rukia shouted with alarm as her friend collapsed on the ground, unmoving.

"Rukia. You will return with us to face Central 46's judgment," said Byakuya. He turned around and began to walk away without even waiting for a response, as if expecting her to obey without further objection.

Rukia was frozen in shock as she felt Ichigo's spirit pressure fall to nothing.

'Ichigo…I'm so sorry! I should've known we couldn't fight against Byakuya-aniki! It was hopeless from the beginning…'

Then she ran towards Ichigo's body. "Ichigo!"

However, Renji noticed and flashed right in front of her, prompting her to unsheathe her sword.

"What the hell is wrong with you? That rookie is dead! There's no point in getting into more trouble over a dead guy! If you go to him, it'll be another twenty years added to your sentence at least!"

Rukia clenched her sword tightly. "Renji, get out of my way, I'm going to heal him!"

Renji looked disbelieving as he shouted again. "Are you actually going to fight against us? Against Soul Society? All for a dead rookie?"

"I dragged him into this! If there's even the slightest chance…I won't let him die!" Rukia shouted back as her spirit pressure rose.

"In other words, even if your punishment worsens, you still want to help this boy?" Byakuya asked, having walked back to Ichigo's position. Then he glanced at Ichigo on the ground. "I see now, Rukia. This boy resembles him a lot."

Rukia's eyes widened with shock and her movements froze again.

"N-no, that isn't why…even if he does resemble Kaien-dono…" She said with a hint of self-doubt.

"Rukia. No matter what he may look like, he is not Lieutenant Shiba. He is just a human. You cannot make up for the past by saving him," said Byakuya.

Renji looked confused now at the conversation. He knew vaguely about Lieutenant Shiba of the thirteenth division, and that he had died during a hollow attack in Soul Society, but never knew the event had affected Rukia so deeply.

"I…I'm not…I'm not trying to make up for the past!" Rukia shouted, but the hesitant expression on her face suggested that she might have been trying to convince herself.

"Regardless, I will not permit it. We were ordered by Central 46 to kill or capture you, Rukia," said Byakuya, "and to kill this boy to whom you've illegally taught the Shinigami arts. Now sheath your blade and return with us obediently. Do not make this any more difficult."

Suddenly Ichigo's left hand shot out and grabbed Byakuya's foot.

"What kind of shitty brother are you?! Don't you know…big brothers are supposed to protect their little sisters?!" Ichigo shouted after raising his head.

'He can still move?' Renji looked back in shock.

"Ichigo!" Rukia shouted with a relieved expression.

"…let go, rookie," Byakuya said, still looking at Rukia.

Ichigo smirked and chuckled as he gripped more tightly onto Byakuya. "Why don't you make me?"

"You won't have that arm for much longer," said Byakuya, his spirit pressure rising.

Rukia realized her brother was serious about cutting off Ichigo's arm, and had a moment of indecision as to whether she should intervene. Either to fight and damn the consequences, or to go willingly to back to Soul Society and hope that Ichigo would make it out alive just as he told her happened in his dreams.

Wouldn't it be safer at this point to stick to the script? It would be better than for Ichigo to lose an arm, she thought, if this battle was hopeless.

However, the choice was taken out of her hands when Ichigo's spirit pressure suddenly returned in full force, and he launched himself slashing up at Byakuya with his sword using his other arm.

Byakuya was unable to dodge because his ankle was still being held by Ichigo, whose grip was surprisingly strong.

He was forced to draw his own sword, parrying upwards while he leaned sideways to avoid what he knew was coming next due to watching Ichigo attack Renji earlier.

Then with his other hand, he pointed his finger at Ichigo, white light gathering at its tips, even as blue light gathered at the tip of Ichigo's sword.

"Byakurai!"

"Getsuga Tenshou!"

Blue and white lances of light lashed out.

Byakuya's emotionless expression finally cracked as his eyes widened at the result of the exchange.

"Captain!" "Byakuya-aniki!" Renji and Rukia each shouted with shock.

A bloody gash had been torn up his chest to Byakuya's left shoulder as he couldn't avoid the whole blast, which was much larger than the one used on Renji.

Meanwhile, while Ichigo was utterly unharmed when the Byakurai hit him, just like when Renji couldn't pierce his clothes.

Byakuya unleashed his spirit pressure.

"Scatter, Senbonzakura!"

The explosion of spirit pressure forced Ichigo to let go, then he flashed away to avoid the incoming petals of Senbonzakura.

When Ichigo reappeared again much farther away, Byakuya noticed with wariness that Ichigo's wounds had been fully healed,

Yet he hadn't even noticed when Ichigo used healing Kido.

He'd also apparently missed the boy's Soul Chain and Soul Sleep, but the boy had seemingly understood what he had been aiming for, and pretended to get hit by suppressing his spirit pressure to coincide with the supposed loss of his powers.

Senbonzakura circled around him as he began taking the fight much more seriously, and keeping the petals on the defensive for now to analyze his opponent's true capabilities.

There was a momentary respite as the two fighters stared each other down.

Byakuya used a bit of healing Kido to stabilize his injury but didn't heal it all the way, as healing Kido cost a lot of spirit pressure, and his fighting style didn't really need his off hand.

Ichigo was trying to strengthen his spirit particle armor further. Earlier, when he had released Gesshokuro's incomplete shikai, his Shinigami spirit pressure had inadvertently scattered the armor he had layered on top of himself before the fight, resulting in a moment of weakness when Byakuya attacked his Soul Chain and Soul Sleep.

The armor took quite a long time to set up because it wasn't done through his Quincy Zeichen as a medium, so he faked getting hit just like in his dreams, except he'd pushed Byakuya's sword off the mark by using Zaraki's spirit pressure defense trick. Then he suppressed all of his Shinigami spirit pressure, which allowed him to much more easily gather spirit particles, and simultaneously use them to mask his spirit pressure signature.

This gave him the time necessary to reform his spirit particle armor reinforcement, even while healing himself.

It also let him get in a cheap shot while Byakuya was underestimating him.

A month ago, Ichigo might've been less eager to take advantage of these deceptive tactics like that, but he knew very well that Byakuya far outclassed him at the moment, and he needed every advantage he could get.

When the petals of Senbonzakura sped towards him again, signifying the continuation of their battle, Ichigo used flash step multiple times to dodge.

It soon became clear that Senbonzakura would be unable to keep up with Ichigo by itself.

'He's fast…he certainly saw my Senka and allowed himself get hit on purpose,' Byakuya thought. 'However, it's not fast enough.'

He then disappeared and reappeared right where Ichigo flash stepped, slashing with his sword.

Ichigo was forced to defend, but that moment of delay gave Senbonzakura the chance to hit him from the side.

Unlike the earlier Byakurai, these petals were strong enough to actually scratch though his clothes and leave minor cuts on his skin.

Byakuya narrowed his eyes at the sheer durability that Ichigo was displaying.

The two of them flashed around repeatedly, Ichigo getting lacerated all across his body, yet healing just as fast.

The battle was now moving so fast that Renji's eyes could barely keep up with it, and his mouth had dropped open in shock.

Rukia had gotten used to sparring against Ichigo when he moved at such high speeds, so she was still able to follow it even if she couldn't move at such speeds herself, and was increasingly surprised that Ichigo was holding his own against her brother.

"Sai," Byakuya said, launching the basic Bakudo at Ichigo in an attempt to bind his arms.

Ichigo was caught in it but broke it almost instantly.

The two continued to flash around, then Byakuya started moving even faster.

Ichigo soon realized that although the two of them had roughly similar reaction, reflex, and general movement speeds, Byakuya's Flash Step technique was still much better than his. He could step or stop faster and reach longer distances in a single step.

The battle had turned into an effective stalemate as Senbonzakura couldn't hit Ichigo with a large enough concentration to deal serious damage faster than Ichigo could heal himself, but neither did Ichigo have any opportunity to do more than simply block and parry Byakuya's sword strikes.

Eventually, however, Ichigo could be defeated by a thousand cuts as his concentration fell with a prolonged battle of attrition. His opponent was just attacking while Ichigo had to manage self-healing and repairing his spirit armor at the same time, juggling between Quincy and Shinigami spirit pressures.

But Ichigo could not afford to reveal his trump cards yet. He knew that Byakuya still had Bankai in reserve, and if he revealed his cards first and lost the element of surprise, then he would simply be crushed utterly.

He wasn't even sure if Byakuya had released his limiter yet. He certainly hadn't made any hand seals like Renji had when releasing his limiter.

While Ichigo was struggling to stall while he came up with ideas, Byakuya had other plans.

"Rikujokoro."

This time, the level 61 Bakudo trapped Ichigo in six rods of yellow light around the waist and he was unable to break out of it so easily.

"Bakudo #63: Sajo Sabaku," Byakuya said, adding a second Bakudo to wrap around Ichigo's arms and torso.

Senbonzakura quickly formed into several larger streams while Ichigo was struggling and surged towards him.

Byakuya himself simultaneously charged up a more powerful Kido. White light once again gathered at Byakuya's finger tips, but this time it was clearly far denser.

"Hado #4: Byakurai!"

Although it was the same spell as before, this Kido could be massively scaled up with more spirit energy, yet retain the shape of a thin beam, greatly enhancing its piercing power.

It tore through Ichigo's chest just underneath his right shoulder and went out the other side, while Senbonzakura made several large slashes on his chest, waist, back, and legs.

His knees went weak as blood spurted out everywhere.

Rikujokoro and Sajo Sabaku was still holding Ichigo in place while Byakuya stood in front of him passively with a cold expression, observing.

Rukia screamed Ichigo's name again, after seeing the horrific damage he took.

"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki!"

Renji, who had been standing beside her gawking at the fight between his Captain and Ichigo, got blown away by the release of spirit pressure.

"Next Dance, White Ripple!"

Rukia punctured the ground in front of her four times, and ice particles flew up.

A huge wave of ice surged forth towards Byakuya, covering the entire street but just missing Ichigo.

Then she turned and just barely blocked her brother's sword as he was suddenly behind her, having easily seen through her move's pre-attack preparation.

A rapid exchange of sword strikes and parrying ensued, along with several flash steps.

Renji watched while getting back up with wide eyes. Even Rukia was somehow almost keeping up with his Captain even though he could barely follow their movements.

However, she was slower than Ichigo and nowhere near as durable, so when the Senbonzakura petals came, she was hit with thousands of small cuts that effectively shredded her shihakusho robes.

Then Byakuya flashed away, and Rukia realized he was heading for Ichigo, who was still stuck in place, although he had broken the Sajo Sabaku around his arms.

She flashed over and put herself in the way, but she couldn't get her sword up in time to block, getting slashed by Byakuya down her chest.

She staggered back half covered in blood, but still stood strong.

Meanwhile, Byakuya noticed that a layer of frost had formed over his own blade, and the Senbonzakura petals were similarly moving more sluggishly because it was getting frozen.

"You have not used Sode no Shirayuki's Shikai once since Lieutenant Shiba's death," said Byakuya. "And yet you did so for this boy, even going as far as fighting against me, and defending him with your life?"

'She stopped using her Shikai? So she was hiding this much power all along? She could easily have made Lieutenant before me then!' Renji realized.

"Ichigo…is fighting for me…putting his life on the line, even though I've brought him nothing but pain and trouble…"

Rukia's aura of cold grew and the bleeding cuts on her body soon froze over.

Her eyes grew pale and her pupils became lighter.

"…as a noble of the honorable Kuchiki clan, how can I fail to repay the favor?!"

"As a member of the Kuchiki clan, our duty is to uphold the sacred laws of Seireitei," said Byakuya in a stern voice. "And yet you break them without remorse."

'I wish I could tell him! But we have no proof of Captain Aizen's crimes…' Rukia thought.

"Didn't I already tell you, Byakuya? Big brothers are supposed to protect their little sisters! Can't you see that the law is wrong? Rukia was only doing her job as a Shinigami to save me! You should be helping her fight her case, not trying to arrest her!" Ichigo shouted.

His spirit pressure rose and the Rikujokoro finally broke.

But Byakuya calmly put another one on him before he could move away.

"You bastard…!" Ichigo's face was one of outrage.

"That's Captain Kuchiki to you, human. And even if you are correct, I cannot fight her case in front of the Central 46 until she returns to Soul Society first to face their judgment. There is a proper procedure that must be followed, even by nobles," said Byakuya. "All you are doing is making punishment more severe by fighting against us meaninglessly."

Rukia looked at her brother in surprise and a bit of happiness. 'So he is prepared to defend me through legal means…' Then her happiness turned to guilt. 'I'm just making things difficult for him by fighting.'

"You fool! The Central 46 is corrupt! If Rukia goes back, she'll be executed by the Sokyoku!" Ichigo yelled angrily.

Byakuya narrowed his eyes. "What do you know of Central 46? These are baseless accusations. You are just a human that has never been to Seireitei."

"You stupid human, stop tricking Rukia with these ridiculous lies! If her sentence is execution, it's only because you're making her fight against Soul Society!" Renji shouted as he flashed over to Byakuya's side, then swung Zabimaru at Ichigo.

"Stop it, Renji!" Rukia blocked Zabimaru and flash froze half of it before Renji retracted it with a gape.

"Enough, this ends now. Rukia, you will return with us to Soul Society. Continue resisting, and I shall stop holding back. I cannot allow you to throw away your chances at lessening your sentence. You should understand that the more you fight, the worse it will be for you. Even if we retreated without capturing you, Soul Society will send others who will be less sympathetic. This mission was to kill or capture. If any other Captain was sent, except perhaps your Captain Ukitake or the kind-hearted Captain Aizen, they would not hesitate to cut you down," said Byakuya.

Rukia listened to Byakuya speak, and realized that he was trying to protect her in his own way. But she had long since promised Ichigo that she wouldn't turn herself in, and seeing him fight so hard on her behalf, she couldn't find it in her to betray that trust.

"I'm sorry, Byakuya-aniki…I understand, but I can't do it. Even if I did return with you, wasn't your mission also to kill Ichigo? I can't let you do that," said Rukia.

There was a moment of silence.

Then a massive wave of arrows went towards Byakuya and Renji from behind.

A/N: Happy Holidays everyone!

Some review Q&A:

midnightscar17: His actual Shinigami powers are already active and being used, in the form of Kido and Shinigami spirit pressure which he uses for the scattering exercise. White is sealed.

Guest: If Zangetsu was, then it'd be the only one in history. But in this story, it's not a constant-release type. It only appeared that way because Ichigo didn't know how to seal it. The mechanics will be expanded upon later when Ichigo discovers it.

Exodus12345: Maybe not in other situations, but here they were given pre-approval for it due to Rukia defeating a Gillian-class Menos, as explained by Renji in the chapter. Soul Society didn't know how powerful "Arrancar" were, or if any of them were confirmed Menos-level.

Emrys Akayuki: He won't want to use it, but he doesn't hold back either if he judges the opponent to be actually strong enough to use it.

Murderleo38: It's not Hierro, though they're not too different in result. However, it's definitely not Hollow spirit pressure being used. In the anime, Ichigo used Zaraki's spirit pressure defense trick during the Bount arc and explicitly described it in the same manner as I did last chapter, where he concentrates spirit pressure to an area. There is one major difference though, which is that Hierro is a layer on top similar to spirit armor, but unstructured spirit pressure can be used to strengthen the skin. This is why this trick doesn't simply scatter the spirit particle armor, which it would, if he expelled spirit pressure outwards.

Scarease: Your question on Rukia is an interesting thought. I'm not sure it'll ever be relevant in this story, but yes, if a living Shinigami dies, they will just become a normal Shinigami. Except that they will remember their life before, unless Konso gets performed on them.

Kaiya Azure: He did. And yes, it would be a point of interest.