14 – Death 3

"What the fuck?!" Renji swore as he tried to dodge, but there were so damn many and he was caught by surprise that he couldn't even escape with flash step.

"Argh!" He was pierced in his legs then collapsed on the ground.

Byakuya managed to flash step much farther away with a single stride, standing in the air.

"A Quincy…the reports did mention this," said Byakuya, as he closely observed the glasses-wearing Uryu who was in his full Quincy priest robes, wielding his fully powered Kojaku bow.

"Uryu! What are you doing here…?" Rukia asked.

"I felt your spirit pressures from across town, along with two disgusting Shinigami spirit pressures. I couldn't fall asleep trying to ignore it…after all, I hate Shinigami," said Uryu.

"Be careful, Uryu, he's strong, and extremely fast!" Ichigo shouted.

"I'm aware, Kurosaki. I was watching the fight earlier while hiding my spirit pressure," said Uryu.

In fact, he had been deliberately waiting to enter the fight, initially because it looked like Ichigo had things handled with Renji, and then because he heard about the limiter, at which point he decided to wait until both sides had expended enough spirit pressure to make the environment a little more friendly to Quincy powers, instead of rushing in and getting overwhelmed in a low spirit particle environment.

The longer they fought, the stronger his Quincy powers would become, while the opponent hopefully exhausted themselves.

He was about to speak more when Byakuya flashed right in front of him.

However, Uryu also flashed away, avoiding the sword strike. When he reappeared and Senbonzakura targeted him, he unleashed another huge wave of several hundred arrows and destroyed all the incoming petals.

"As I was saying, there is no need to worry," Uryu said with his back to Rukia and Ichigo, much to their shock at the ease with which he escaped and disabled Senbonzakura. "I have already mastered Hirenkyaku. It is evident that this technique is of a higher level than the Shinigami Shunpo."

"How arrogant…" Byakuya said, retracting the remaining half of Senbonzakura's petals back to himself. "Let me show you how wrong you are then, Quincy."

He disappeared again, and this time Uryu's eyes widened as he could barely see Byakuya move.

Uryu avoided Byakuya's attack with the barest of margins, and the two flashed around several times, with Uryu unable to counter attack at all.

'My body can't keep up with this speed! It's only because Hirenkyaku doesn't need any footwork that I'm able to dodge at all!' Uryu soon realized.

"Sai," Byakuya said.

The Bakudo hit Uryu almost instantly, giving him no opportunity to dodge.

His arms were forced behind his back, rendering him helpless as Byakuya came forward with a slash.

A wave of ice surged in front of Uryu, forcing Byakuya back, while Uryu quickly broke down the Bakudo holding him into spirit particles.

A quick flash later, Uryu was beside Ichigo, using a Seele Schneider to cut into the light rods binding him and breaking them apart into spirit particles with some concentration. "Kurosaki, why are you only using Shinigami techniques?" He asked with a whisper.

He at first thought that Ichigo was using a strategy similar to his own, waiting to use Quincy techniques until there were enough free spirit particles and spirit pressure in the air, but not even using it to break the opponent's Bakudo technique was excessive.

They could even make use of the enemy technique's scattered particle residue. The Seele Schneider was most efficient at doing this, but it wasn't as if they couldn't do it themselves even without it. Uryu knew that Ichigo had enough spirit pressure to just brute force it.

"Byakuya's not even close to going all out yet," Ichigo whispered back. "He has Bankai. If I show him everything I can do too soon, he'll destroy us once he releases Bankai. It makes him like ten times stronger. We won't stand a chance unless he underestimates us."

"Bankai? I see. The Shinigami's ultimate technique," said Uryu with a nod. "We must force him to use it then."

"Bankai? So you know about that," said Byakuya, having overhead Uryu's last words which weren't whispered. "And yet, you still think you have a chance of defeating me?"

"Hell yeah, so why don't you go ahead and show us your Bankai?" Ichigo said with a smirk.

"Ridiculous. Rukia, is this why you think you can fight against Soul Society successfully? You do not seem to understand the power that Captains possess," said Byakuya. "I suppose it is because you have never seen your own Captain Ukitake's Bankai. He and Captain Kyoraku are the strongest Captains aside from the Captain Commander, and so their Shikai is more than enough in almost all cases."

"Well I got news for you, Byakuya. Your Shikai just isn't gonna cut if you want to take us down. There's three of us, and only one of you, now that Renji's down for the count," said Ichigo.

"S-shut up, you orange bastard, I'm not done yet!" Renji yelled from the ground, but was unable to get up with his leg wounds, and he couldn't use healing Kido, or any Kido for that matter.

"Kurosaki Ichigo…just how are you healing yourself like that? Healing Kido should be very costly in spirit pressure, but I cannot sense any decline in your spirit pressure," said Byakuya with an observant gaze.

He had noticed that while Ichigo was trapped in his Rikujokoro, he had fully healed himself yet again. Even the hole that had been torn through his shoulder had been fully regenerated, leaving unblemished skin.

Even more mind-boggling was that he could see the boy's spiritual clothes slowly repairing as well.

Rukia glanced at Ichigo and smiled, having seen this before many times. Uryu glanced at Ichigo as well, and felt a little jealous that Ichigo could heal himself indefinitely by combining his Shinigami and Quincy powers. He himself could also use spirit particles to temporarily treat wounds or artificially keep organs functioning, as well as recover his spirit pressure that way, but he couldn't properly integrate the spirit particles anywhere as fast without Healing Kido.

He had tried to learn it for himself, but it proved very difficult without Shinigami spirit pressure. He expected that there should be a superior Quincy healing technique, but his Grandfather never taught any to him before he passed away.

Ichigo chuckled. "What are you talking about Byakuya? They barely cost anything. Or do you have so little spirit pressure you can't even afford to heal your own injury?" he asked, making reference to the wound Byakuya had suffered from his Getsuga Tenshou.

"This scratch is hardly worth healing. You overestimate the damage you did," said Byakuya.

"Byakuya. Let's get one thing straight. You're not the only one that's still holding back," Ichigo said as his expression turned serious. "You're Rukia's brother, and I'd be a shitty friend if I killed you. But if you don't use your Bankai soon, I can't guarantee you'll survive."

"I don't need Bankai to deal with you, rookie," said Byakuya.

Ichigo shrugged. "It's your funeral."

Then he went to Rukia and placed a hand on her chest wound, sending in healing Kido. "Uryu, hold him off for a sec."

Uryu nodded, then began firing at Byakuya again, who rapidly dodged.

"Sokatsui." Byakuya launched the Hado in between dodging. It blew through the arrows coming at him and headed straight for Uryu, but it was easily large enough to hit Ichigo and Rukia as well, and Uryu couldn't fire anything big enough to stop it in time.

With a quick swipe of his sword, Ichigo launched his own attack to counter. "Getsuga Tenshou!"

The two attacks collided and canceled each other out, creating a large amount of smoke.

"What a pretentious name, heaven piercer, for such a weak attack," said Byakuya after the smoke cleared.

"Weak attack? Why would I use a stronger one if it isn't necessary? Show us your Bankai, then I'll show you what a true Getsuga Tenshou looks like," said Ichigo.

Byakuya merely scoffed and then disappeared in another flash step, reappearing in front of Uryu. When Uryu tried to flash away, Byakuya pointed with his fingers, and launched a Byakurai at the spot where Uryu reappeared.

"Uryu!" Ichigo shouted when he saw his friend take a glancing hit on his right arm.

The Quincy screamed in pain and his arm fell limply to his side.

"A higher level technique, you said? Compared to the Shunpo, the spirit particle platforms you are gliding with are easy to read," said Byakuya.

Ichigo quickly grasped what had happened. Although Uryu had claimed to have mastered the Hirenkyaku, he didn't step off the platforms he made, using them solely to glide.

The Hirenkyaku or "Pure Flying Step" definitely had an advantage by using the gliding to cover for subpar footwork, effectively allowing Quincies to move without using their legs. Unfortunately, if the Quincy didn't step off them, the gliding made it easy to read where they were going, if the opponent was skilled enough.

His Wogenschritt, or "Wave Step" on the other hand, although it was really the same technique at the base, it was used differently. The Wave Step also used spirit particles to glide, but by combining physical steps and colliding spirit particles against each other to create waves, the Quincy had access to a much broader range of movements that were far more difficult to read. Hopefully he could convince Uryu to train it properly as a melee footwork technique instead of relying on outdated ideas of Quincy archers using Hirenkyaku solely to maintain distance.

But now without his right arm, Uryu couldn't shoot arrows anymore.

Moreover, Rukia's wounds would take a lot longer to heal because she couldn't integrate spirit particles like he could.

But judging that Uryu's wound was more pressing, especially because Rukia could heal herself, he prepared to flash over to Uryu instead.

Byakuya saw this, and rushed at him.

Realizing that Rukia would get hit if he dodged, Ichigo was forced to block.

Suddenly Zabimaru lashed out like a whip, breaking free of the ice that covered it. Renji swung it while lying on the ground, and it cut into Uryu's back while he wasn't expecting an attack.

Uryu's face contorted in pain, and then he collapsed forward.

"Now we're even, Quincy! That's for shooting me from behind earlier!" Renji said with a gleeful laugh.

"Renji, you fucker!" Ichigo shouted as he saw this and tried to go to Uryu.

"You should pay attention to yourself, brat," Byakuya said, blocking his way. "Rikujokoro."

"Again?! You need to learn some new tricks Byakuya!" Ichigo shouted in frustration as the six rods of light bound him in place.

"This one seems quite effective," said Byakuya.

"First Dance, White Moon!" Rukia suddenly shouted after having quickly drawn a circle around both Byakuya and Ichigo.

Byakuya's emotionless face cracked again as his feet instantly froze over, preventing him from Flash Stepping away. "This will hit your friend too, Rukia!"

"I know," said Rukia with a devilish smirk.

Byakuya saw Ichigo's feet similarly freezing. 'Why…? I thought she wanted to protect him, not kill him?'

"Hah! Sode no Shirayuki won't hurt me, Byakuya! I was her wielder, even if only for a short time!" Ichigo shouted with a laugh.

"…!"

A huge pillar of ice engulfed them both.

Renji looked on in shock as the ice shattered.

Byakuya was bloodied all over as the shattering shards of ice dug into his weakened flesh, even though he himself didn't shatter as his spirit pressure was high enough to resist the effect.

Nevertheless, he collapsed on the ground.

Meanwhile, Ichigo was unharmed and the Rikujokoro had instead been shattered.

He quickly ran over to Uryu to check on his condition, while Rukia flashed over to Renji and refroze Zabimaru again, this time in its entirety after several long seconds.

"C-captain Kuchiki! No way!" Renji stared disbelievingly at the scene. 'He was defeated…? They actually defeated a captain?'

Satisfied that Uryu was not in danger of dying any time soon with a quick healing, he prepared to go check on Byakuya to make sure he was actually defeated.

But before he could do that, Byakuya's voice stopped him cold. "Limiter release!"

Ichigo and Rukia looked horrified as Byakuya's spirit pressure reached a whole new level.

O O O

Hirenkyaku – Pure Flying Step

Wogenschritt – Wave Step

Shunpo – Flash Step

O O O

A/N: Happy new year everyone!

On to review responses:

Murderleo38: Maybe it's true. It's all very speculative, and I doubt we'll ever see definitive evidence or word of author that convinces either of us one way or another. Personally, I think that Kubo intended for the the conflict between Quincy and Shinigami to be much more complicated, and Yhwach was supposed to be more sympathetic villain, but he didn't have the publisher support to do it and drag it out, so he just used Auswahlen to make him more clearly the enemy and end things there. I think that Ichigo was originally meant to be the successor, not Uryu. That's why he had to reveal so much stuff about the history of Shinigami in the later novels.

Edocsiru: I don't think Ichigo learned about the Shiba until close to the end of the TYBW, and it was a minor point for him (because well, it didn't affect him in any way, so he just doesn't remember about it to be able to say anything to Byakuya.

Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: Haha...Uryu was deliberately waiting to join the battle, as he explains above.

midnightscar17: His power isn't crippled though, at least from my perspective. Regardless of how you interpret canon, it doesn't work that way here. "Balance" doesn't give more strength, in fact it weakens him in some ways, as explained multiple times already in this story with Quincy-Hollow conflict, which is well-founded in canon anyways. Besides, this is labelled Quincy!Ichigo story for a reason.

Kaiya Azure: I don't think Aizen had the power to manipulate thoughts. But I suppose he's manipulative enough that charisma could do it, though charisma isn't something you can really be immune to.

aGnamZer0: You're not the first to comment on not liking Sode no Shirayuki in Ichigo's inner world. But there's a critical plot reason for it, and it will become increasingly important in the future. It's not just there as a convenient way for them to train. Ichigo himself hasn't thought much on it, but if somebody can enter your "inner world", that implies certain things. As for Chad/Orihime, I'm not really decided on it. I personally don't like them all too much either, but it's somewhat difficult to keep them out of the spiritual world entirely in a way that makes sense. Because of course they want to help Ichigo, and certain parties have a vested interest in getting them involved. Plus Ichigo will probably need the help eventually.

Emrys Akayuki: The aim, yes, that's the extent of their plan. But really, they're just trying to keep Rukia away without going into hiding (because Aizen could threaten the town if they do).

And thank you to everything else for reviewing.