Chapter 32: Fight To The Very Limits

"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Zanpakutō"
"Hollows/Vizard"
"[Reading/listening to a message/letter]"
"{Speaking a different language}"

-]|[-

In the skies above the southern end of the Karakura replica, Shunsui calmly deflected a thrust from Ulquiorra's sword. Without taking his eyes off his enemy, he noted Baraggan's surging Reiatsu. "Your boss seems pretty upset, don't you think?" He cheerfully asked the pale man. "If he hadn't wanted his men to perish, he shouldn't have sent them alone."

"He is not my boss, Shinigami," Ulquiorra refuted emotionlessly, "I only obey Aizen-sama."

Having centuries upon centuries of experience, Shunsui didn't so much as glance around as he drew his second sword and sliced towards the Espada's thigh in a single movement. Ulquiorra moved backwards slightly to evade the attack, directly into Soifon's stinger. The petite woman stabbed directly into his shoulder blade, causing a Hōmonka to form on his jacket. Reflexively, he swung his offhand back towards her, but Soifon dodged the relatively clumsy blow. Appearing in front of him a couple meters from Shunsui, she held up her Shikai, Suzumebachi. "That's one. If I strike that spot a second time, you'll die instantly, Arrancar."

Ulquiorra eyed her with a calculating gaze. "So all I have to do is destroy your weapon before you can strike me there again." The second captain narrowed her eyes at his impudence. She flashed forward at high speed, looking to stab him in the shoulder from the opposite side. Instead, she found her momentum halted when Ulquiorra grabbed her wrist tightly with his left hand. "Your weapon is useless if you can't reach me." Indeed, try as she might to push against him or to wriggle her arm enough to strike him with her stinger, Soifon found herself unable to strike him with her Zanpakutō. Of course, she was still one of the greatest Hakuda users in Soul Society. She used his grip on her as a pivot and swung her body upward, seeking to kick him directly in the jaw with all of her body's force behind the blow.

The pale Arrancar swung his Zanpakutō to sever her legs, only to find his other opponent blocking his attack. Soifon's foot crashed into his jaw and sent him reeling backwards, forcing him to release his grip reflexively. Though not especially harmed, he nonetheless glared at both Shinigami. "Now, now. It would be a crime to damage legs like those, don't you think?" Shunsui cheekily asked him. Now Soifon joined in glaring at him, to which the older man simply shrugged good-naturedly. "Well, can't win them all I guess."

-]|[-

Before Baraggan could rise from his throne and crush those he saw as beneath him, his two remaining fraccion kneeled before him. "Please, Baraggan-sama! Allow us to crush them in your stead!" The taller of the two, a very muscular man with long purple hair, pleaded. All of Baraggan's underlings knew how indiscriminate he was in combat. Should he fight or worse, use his resurreccion, there was only the slimmest of chances that they would survive.

The eldest living Hollow glanced at each of his remaining subordinates for a long moment before letting out a grunt of irritated acceptance. "Very well. Drench the ground in their blood, but do not fail me." Baraggan waved his hand dismissively. With that, he sat back once more to watch the proceedings.

The two Arrancar turned towards the assembled Shinigami. The purple haired one wore a half shirt that showed off his muscular arms and abs along with a mask fragment reminiscent of a tiara. The other one had had long black hair beneath a beak-like helmet of a mask fragment, no shirt, and numerous red tattoos all over his chest and face. The latter momentarily grumbled to himself, "Hm. I would've preferred fighting the one with the eye patch. He seemed fun." Scanning the assembled Shinigami, he pointed at Byakuya, "You, pretty boy! You'll do! I'm Abirama Redder, let's kill each other!" Then, to the nobleman's surprise, he hunched over and began shouting at the top of his lungs, "WAAAAAAGGGGHHH! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! I'M GOING TO STAB YOU! I'M GOING TO KICK YOU! I'M GOING TO GUT YOU! I'M- hey, what's wrong with you? You're supposed to join in!" As quickly as he had started, Abirama stopped again, frowning at Byakuya. "It's how two warriors hype each other up, by shouting how we intend to kill one another!"

For his part, Byakuya's typical stoicism was broken by an irritated scowl. The Arrancar's tattoos and long hair had reminded him of his lieutenant, but his attitude was pure Zaraki. Either way, he refused to indulge in such… nonsense. Without saying a word, he drew Senbonzakura.

"Fine," Abirama spat, frustrated that his opponent wouldn't partake in his ritual. He drew his own Zanpakutō and immediately called, "Scalp, Águila!" Crimson feathers covered his body as his hands and feet transformed into talons. From Abirama's back sprouted a pair of feathery wings and his mask transformed to cover his entire head in an eagle's skull. "Now, I'll kill you just like I promised, Shinigami!"

"I don't have time for this," Byakuya's voice came from behind him. Abirama's eyes widened in shock as he realized the captain was no longer in front of him. He barely began turning to look behind him when pain erupted in the middle of his chest. Looking down, he could just barely see around his mask to see his chest. A pair of stab wounds appeared almost directly in the center of his ribcage. Suddenly, his field of view cleared up as his resurreccion faded. "Interesting," Abirama heard his opponent comment, "It seems Arrancar do indeed have anatomy similar to Shinigami. I just stabbed you in your Saketsu and Hakusui. Your power is already fading." It wasn't just his power that was fading; Abirama could barely hold on to consciousness as he fell from the sky bonelessly. The last thing he heard was Byakuya calmly explaining, "You will never be a threat to Soul Society again."

-]|[-

Ukitake's opponent posed dramatically in front of him. "Okay, okay, okay, okay! Over here please!" The tall Arrancar called, "I'm Charlotte Chuhlhourne! Baraggan-sama's top Fraccion!" He capped off his introduction with a playful wink.

But to his consternation, rather than look impressed, the captain was grimacing in discomfort. "I'm sorry," He said, "It's just… Could you please pull your pants up? There are children present." Most of said children would object vehemently to being children, but he felt that was irrelevant. Displaying that much, ahem, lower body hair wasn't appropriate around children.

"What? Why?" Charlotte asked in confusion. "What's wrong with my pants?" Checking with both his eyes and his hands, he made certain his pants weren't about to fall off. Once he was sure, the muscular man pointed dramatically at Jūshirō. "You just don't understand fashion! But I'm afraid I cannot teach you, for His Majesty has ordered your death. Take this!" Drawing his sword he held it above his head with both hands and leapt towards Jūshirō while rapidly rolling in midair. "The Deadly Yet Beautiful Charlotte Chuhlhourne's Miracle Sweet Ultra Funky Fantastic Dramatic Romantic Sadistic Erotic Exotic Athletic Guillotine Attack!" His attack turned out to be a rather simple albeit powerful downward slash.

Ukitake's sole response was to hold his Zanpakutō horizontally above his head and easily block the attack. His hands didn't even shake slightly from the force. Charlotte wasn't deterred and came in for a horizontal slash with an equally long and overly complicated name. This time, Jūshirō didn't even use his Zanpakutō. Instead, he held up a finger and let the blade stop against his skin. Unlike before, Charlotte stared in shock at seeing his attack so easily repelled. Jūshirō gave him a sympathetic look and offered, "Just stop. Go home; you won't win."

Leaping backwards, the violette Arrancar held his Zanpakutō before him and boldly declared, "I cannot! His Majesty has given me a task and I shall complete it! Now sparkle, Reina de Rosas!" Charlotte was engulfed in a pastel pink cloud of smoke as his Zanpakutō glowed violet. When the smoke faded, Ukitake quirked an eyebrow at his opponent's transformation. Thus far, Arrancar resurreccions had been animal themed based off both after action reports and what he had seen himself. But not Charlotte's. He was now wearing a bone white crop top with extended shoulderpads and a short pink cape, white underwear with similar wings at his hips and a pink miniskirt that noticeably didn't cover his considerable bulge, just above which was a purple tattoo like a stylized heart. Finally, his shoes had become high heels and his mask fragment had grown larger and more ornate. "Now, accept my Deadly Yet Beautiful Charlotte Chuhlhourne's Final Holy Wonderful Pretty Super Magnum Sexy Sexy Glamorous Cero!" As he spoke, Charlotte took several dramatic poses before forming a heart with his hands over his own heart.

Charlotte's bright pink cero was much larger than ordinary and left little room to dodge. Ukitake, however, had no intention of dodging. He held up his Zanpakutō horizontally and generated a yellow orb which quickly flowed along the blade. "Hadō #32, Ōkasen!" A wide arc of Reiryoku blasted out of his sword and straight into them through the incoming cero. The fraccion didn't even have time to attempt to dodge before he was consumed by the blast. For his part, Ukitake frowned, unhappy that his opponent hadn't taken his offer to flee.

He didn't get a chance to linger on his thoughts though. With a tremendous smash, Baraggan crushed the entirety of his throne with a single fist. From the remains of the bone chair, he drew out a large battleaxe, nearly as long as he was tall, with a red gem in the focal point of its two blades. From the rage and power radiating off the elderly Espada, Jūshirō knew there'd be no point in even attempting to dissuade him. With a single Shunpo, he appeared before the man, his own Zanpakutō at the ready.

-]|[-

Halibel looked back at her three daughters for a moment before picking out her opponent. "Return to me alive. That is your top priority." All three immediately answered in the affirmative and rushed off to find their own adversaries. She didn't intend to join one of the other in their battles. Besides not working well together as fighters, some such as Baraggan would be liable to attack her as well. It would be best to clear out the strongest fighters first, but she knew better than to attack the Head Captain recklessly. So that left her with three options: The child, the wolf, and the one who had killed Baraggan's fraccion. Make that left two options as the wolfman rushed off to a fight of his own. Her choice made, she hooked a finger through one of the three holes in the guard of her Zanpakutō and pulled, unsheathing her hollow sword.

The Kuchiki clan head's instincts blared a warning just in time. Quickly spinning around, he blocked Halibel's attack. Rather than disengage, the mocha skinned woman pressed down harder as yellow Reiryoku started filling the hollow of her sword. "Ola Azul," She intoned. The force pressing down on Byakuya suddenly magnified greatly. Despite his best efforts, the blow sent him hurtling down into one of the buildings below.

When he finally stopped, Byakuya found himself lying on a bed and staring up at a hole that went through several floors above him. Almost immediately, a yellow blade of energy came screaming down towards him. The nobleman silently released his Shikai and used the blades of Senbonzakura to block the attack. As the attack dissipated, he pointed skyward and chanted, "Hadō #33, Sōkatsui." The torrent of blue flames blasted away the entirety of the building above him as it shot towards Halibel. While she deflected it with her Zanpakutō, once again glowing with power, Byakuya appeared before her. "You wasted your one chance, Arrancar. You won't get another."

-]|[-

The Tres Bestias stood opposite Ikkaku and Yumichika. Apacci snorted in disdain, "Only two of you and you're not even lieutenants? Why don't you go get some of your friends if you want to make it even?"

"You're right, we should make it more even!" Ikkaku called back, much to the surprise of the trio. "How about I fight all of you at once? That should even the odds a little!" He couldn't possibly be serious, they thought. Yet, the other one actually started stepping back, clearly allowing him to fight alone. At this, Ikkaku turned his head towards him and reassured his partner, "I'm just kidding! I know you didn't get to fight any of the Ryoka; I'm not gonna take a fight away from you this time. Tell you what, I'll let you have the first pick! You choose who you want to fight and I'll take the other two!"

'These two are idiots,' They all thought simultaneously as Yumichika stepped forward and carefully studied each of them. "No, that one's too mannish," He commented while looking at Apacci, earning a cry of outrage from her and a bark of laughter from Mila Rose. Their moods were reversed when he looked at Mila Rose and declared, "That one looks like a gorilla." Her mouth hidden by her sleeve, Sung-sun quietly giggled to herself. Finally, Yumichika pointed at her, "I'll fight the pale one. She seems to be the only one to understand beauty, unlike those other two."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU PEACOCK BASTARD?!" Mila Rose and Apacci roared at the top of their lungs, veins bulging on their foreheads. "I'll HAVE YOU KNOW, I'M THE SECOND MOST BEAUTIFUL ARRANCAR IN HUECO MUNDO!"

The 5th Seat merely waved off their yelling. "Yes, yes. I'm sure with a few hours of preparation, you can bring yourselves up to a solid four. But you're merely proving my point by making such ugly faces."

Ikkaku watched in amusement as his friend riled up the two Arrancar. What made it even better is he knew the other man was being completely genuine rather than just taunting them. Yumichika was painfully honest about people's looks. His attention was drawn back to the women when they drew what he assumed were their Zanpakutō. Apacci's bracelets turned into something akin to spiked chakram while Mila Rose pulled a broad sword from… Okay, he actually had no idea where she was keeping that. Both charged in, seeking to cut up his best friend for his insults, only to find their weapons blocked by his sword and sheath. "Hey, we already decided you're fighting me," Ikkaku reminded them with a smile equal parts cheer and bloodlust, "So you have to kill me if you want to kill him!" With a spin, he shoved both women backwards.

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Sung-sun only briefly glanced towards where her sisters the pains in her ass had gone before looking back at the remaining Shinigami. Her hand poked its way out of her overly long sleeve, a sai firmly in her grasp. "Shall we then, Shinigami?" She might not be as volatile as the other two, but they had both their directive and their orders: Slay the Shinigami, come back alive.

Yumichika wasn't nearly as invested in fighting as Ikkaku but he could admit to enjoying a good battle from time to time. And it had been quite some time since he got to indulge. Nonetheless, he maintained a nonchalant air as he replied, "I suppose so. Bloom, Fuji Kujaku." At his command, his Zanpakutō transformed into a shotel which then split to show it actually had four blades.

"I'm afraid I'll be going all-out from the start. Strangle to death, Anaconda." With the release of her resurreccion, Sung-sun's legs fused together along with her dress, becoming a serpentine tail nearly ten meters long. Her mask fragment grew wider, changing from a hair clip to covering roughly half of her scalp and the pink dots under her right eye appeared beneath her left. Once her transformation completed, Sung-sun lifted both her arms, her hands still covered in her overly long sleeves. A loud hissing noise sounded and from within her sleeves came a multitude of white snakes, all lunging straight for Yumichika.

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One of Apacci's chakram flew through the air, heading straight for Ikkaku, who was engaged in combat with Mila Rose. With his sheath locked against Mila Rose's broadsword, he thrust his Zanpakutō towards her belly. She glanced behind him and saw Apacci's attack coming so she leapt backwards. His sword barely bit into her skin but the chakram was mere centimeters from his flesh. The amazon smirked confidently at his impending demise only to blink in shock as his sheath smacked the weapon aside. "You're strong," Ikkaku complimented, "But you're green. You gave away your friend when you looked away from me."

A bala slammed explosively into his lower back. Ikkaku was knocked forward as blood sprayed from his back. "Who gave what away, you stupid Shinigami?!" Apacci shouted in triumph, "Even if that gorilla can't fight worth a damn, you still have no chance against both of us!" She punctuated her statement with another bala.

"Who're you calling a gorilla, you flat-chested bitch?!" Came Mila Rose's indignant roar.

Her outraged yell became a cry of pain as a sword bit deep into her thigh just before a sheath struck her in the throat. Apacci let out an involuntary shout of alarm at seeing her injured. As Mila Rose fell back, choking and grasping her throat, Ikkaku retook his stance, heedless of his injury or ruined top. "Taking your eyes off me? You really are amateurs." He leapt towards the more distant Apacci, both his katana and sheath poised to attack. "You haven't even shown me those releases of yours yet!"

Apacci just managed to block both his attacks with her chakram. With a twist of her weapons, she locked him down tighter as a crimson cero formed at the tip of her horn. "We don't need them for some no-name Shinigami who hasn't even used his Shikai!" She argued just as the blast fired towards him.

To her surprise, Ikkaku let himself fall from the sky before sliding under her, avoiding the attack altogether. As he came up again he sliced into her side, cutting deep despite her hierro. "Is that all I need to do to make you fight seriously? You should have said so from the start!" Slamming his sword and sheath together, he declared, "Grow, Hōzukimaru!" Both katana and sheath fused together into a naginata. Ikkaku pointed his Shikai at the pair of Arrancar and demanded, "Well? Show me those resurreccions of yours!"

Though loath to obey a Shinigami, at least one who wasn't Aizen, the pair nonetheless complied. "Thrust, Cierva!" Apacci called. Her chakram melted into her arms as her body was covered in brown fur. Her feet turned into hooves and her horned mask fragment grew into a magnificent pair of antlers. Lastly, her right eye turned amber to match her left and both eyes gained red lightning shaped markings around them.

Mila Rose swung her broadsword before her and roared, "Devour, Leona!" Her crown-like mask fragment grew into a plate that covered the entire top of her skull and sprouted a long golden mane that ran down her back over top of her hair. The amazon's skirt was replaced with a bone thong and thigh high boots while her corset became a pair of claws cupping her breasts from below. An orange X mark appeared on her forehead as well. Curiously, unlike most of the Arrancar he had seen so far, she retained her weapon, though the broadsword had darkened to black and grown both longer and thicker, becoming akin to an overly thick zweihander.

"Now that's more like it!" Ikkaku gleefully stated.

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Around the same time, Komamura rushed off to confront his wayward friend. "Kaname!" The werewolf shouted once he got close, "Is this your justice?! The slaughter of a hundred thousand innocents?! Sacrificing their souls for the sake of Aizen's ambitions?!" He needed to understand his friend's reasoning. Tosen had always espoused the path of least bloodshed, but how could removing so many souls from the cycle of reincarnation possibly be the least bloody path available? Was he insane, deceived, or simply a liar? Komamura needed the answer, for closure if nothing else.

"Slaughter committed in the name of a higher cause is justice," the blind traitor insisted. "What would you have me do? Forgive the man who murdered my friend? Forgive the organization that didn't punish him? Would such an act be justice?" Before he had been standing stoically, but as he spoke, Tosen became more and more agitated until he began shouting, "NO! To enjoy my own peaceful life and to never avenge the fallen would be nothing more than evil!"

Komamura's wolfish face grew grim at his former friend's response. "So that's how it is. You would plunge the three worlds into war because a single woman was killed." Though he shifted into a more battle-ready stance, the giant captain still didn't draw his Zanpakutō. "It didn't have to be this way. Had you sought revenge merely against the perpetrator, had you satisfied yourself killing the man who killed Kakyō, I would have supported you. Instead, you decided countless others had to pay with their lives, people who had nothing to do with your friend's death." Komamura gave Tosen a look filled with both scorn and disappointment, "That is not justice. It is not even revenge. It is the act of a mad beast lashing out at the world for perceived slights."

Tosen didn't respond verbally. Or rather, he didn't refute the accusation as he gritted his teeth and leapt higher into the air. He swung his Zanpakutō in a semicircle and cried out, "Suzumushi Nishiki: Benihikō!" Dozens of blades appeared along the path his Zanpakutō had taken and hovered in the air for a moment before raining down upon Komamura. The wolfish man dodged backwards with Shunpo, only to find Tosen right in front of him and slashing downwards at his head.

-]|[-

As Ikkaku squared up again, bloody and happy, Sung-sun went bowling into her comrades, sent flying by Yumichika. "Sorry about that, Ikkaku," The 5th Seat called over the indignant squawking of the three Arrancar, "I didn't expect her to go so far."

Ikkaku shrugged as he watched the trio struggle to disentangle themselves. From what he could see, Mila Rose's mane was caught on Apacci's antlers and both of them were wrapped up in Sung-sun's coils. He'd be lying if he said their bickering wasn't entertaining, especially as they got increasingly loud over "You're pulling my hair!" and "Well, your fat cow ass is in my face!" Slapstick like this was hard to find in Soul Society. Finally, the trio managed to get back on their feet, figuratively speaking given one had hooves and another a tail. "Goddamnit!" Apacci screamed in frustration, "To hell with this! Let's finish them both off right now!"

As both the others gave their grudging agreement, Ikkaku and Yumichika looked on, curious as to what they intended. Whatever they were expecting, it wasn't for the three to tear, twist, and slice off their own left arms then throw them together. The three limbs warped together before the misshapen mass grew and bulged grotesquely, eventually forming a new being. The creature was gigantic, nearly eight meters tall. Its arms and hooved legs were covered in brown fur while its head sported a thick dark brown mane that covered everything except a deer skull in the center of its head. A thick off-white serpent tail extending from its back completed the picture. "My, quite the intimidating fellow, isn't he?" Yumichika offered.

"Mine," Came Ikkaku's immediate reply. "I know he's technically all three of them but, I'm calling dibs." He could tell this… thing was strong, probably stronger than the three who created it.

Apacci laughed at his confidence, "Hah! Dibs?! You'll need a dozen more fighters to even stand a prayer against our pet, Ayon! He'll tear you apart!" Gesturing with her remaining arm, she demanded, "Ayon, kill them!" Yet the giant didn't move. It didn't even react. "Damnit, Ayon! Attack!" Apacci angrily stomped her hoof.

"Don't bother. Ayon's never listened to us before," Sung-sun reminded her.

"He's got to have ears in there somewhere though," Mila Rose reasoned, "He still reacts to sounds when he's fighting." Suddenly and without warning, Ayon moved. Almost too fast to see, it punched Ikkaku and sent him flying. At the same time, its powerful tail whipped into Yumichika, the effeminate man crashing through multiple buildings only to come to a stop near one of the pillars. "Oh, there he goes," Mila Rose remarked somewhat lamely.

Iba came rushing in from the east while Kira tended to Yumichika's injuries. Ikkaku, just now regaining his feet and noticing with irritation that nearly half of his Zanpakutō had been destroyed, tried to shout down the oncoming lieutenant, "Don't you dare! This is MY fight! Go do your job!" But his demands went unheeded. Iba attacked from the monster's blind spot, Shikai held high as he sought to cleave it in half. To the shock of both Shinigami, a massive eye opened up within the mane, staring directly at him. Another one gazed at Ikkaku. Directly in front of the pupils, ceros formed and almost instantly fired towards both men. Each was struck dead on and blasted away. While Iba was sent back in the direction he came, Ikkaku was blasted straight into the ground, forming an impressive crater with his body.

Battered, bloody, and broken but not beaten, Ikkaku stood up inside the crater and steadied himself as he stared up the monstrous Ayon. "Damn, you are one tough bastard," He complimented the beast. He wasn't sure how many of his bones were broken but he'd definitely be done after this. While a shame, as he had wanted to try fighting one of those Espada, this was nonetheless easily the best fight he'd had in the last decade. "Still, I've got one more card to play before we're done," Ikkaku warned Ayon. The beast merely stared at him, leaving the 3rd Seat uncertain if it even understood him. Slamming the two remaining fragments of his Shikai together, he declared, "Bankai!" His red Reiatsu engulfed him as his Zanpakutō transformed. Those who knew of his Bankai looked in Ikkaku's direction, surprised that he would actually use it. When the light faded, his broken three sectioned staff had transformed into three separate weapons, each connected together by a thick chain. In Ikkaku's right hand was a giant monk's spade while his left held an equally large guandao, both with crimson horsehair tassels. Finally, floating behind him was a large axe blade with a handle in its center and a dragon crest on the side of the blade. "Ryūmon Hōzukimaru."

Ayon had apparently decided it wanted to kill him now. The giant chimera threw a powerful haymaker right for Ikkaku. He juked to the side and slashed its arm with his guandao, biting deep into its flesh. Ayon roared in anger and one of its massive eyes fixated on Ikkaku, a red cero forming in front of it. The blast caught him right in the chest and blasted him backwards into one of the surrounding buildings even as it left his torso scorched and bleeding even more heavily than before. But his retaliatory swing took Ayon's uninjured arm clean off.

As the mute giant stared at its severed arm in apparent confusion, Ikkaku dug himself out of the rubble of what used to be a water tower. Now considerably cleaner, he briefly pondered that 12th Division actually filled the tank despite the whole city being a mockup. As he watched, Ayon started slapping its stump of an arm in increasing agitation. Then it swelled up, growing larger and larger until it was easily triple its previous size. However, a quick glance at his Bankai's middle blade showed the crest completely filled and shining with red light. "Let's GOOOO!" He roared in jubilation. Grabbing the axe blade's handle, he gleefully leapt towards his opponent, who was going completely berserk.

The duo met in midair, Ayon swinging its remaining fist and Ikkaku attacking with his central blade. The shockwave from their clash knocked down the building Ikkaku had previously struck and shattered windows for kilometers. When the dust finally settled, the bald Shinigami was holding the only remaining fragment of his Bankai, half a broken handle, in his right arm. His left arm and a not inconsiderable portion of his left side were completely gone. He fell out of the air with a gurgled, "Damnit," blood spilling from his mouth. Ayon, however, was only still standing due to its body apparently not realizing it was already dead. The great beast had been sliced in two from its right collarbone to its left hip. The injury wasn't clean or neat either, a great swathe of Ayon's torso and the entirety of its head had been obliterated by Ikkaku's last attack. With a great crash, its remains fell to the ground and disintegrated.

-]|[-

Gin took a moment to rest. While he had certainly kept ahead of Zaraki throughout their game of cat and mouse, it wasn't always easy. Kenpachi had excellent reflexes and was much faster than one would expect for someone who was so unskilled at Shunpo. More than once, he'd allowed himself to get stabbed just for the opportunity to grab Shinsō in an attempt to force Gin into a melee battle. Not to mention one of his attacks had taken off that eyepatch the 11th Division Captain used to limit his power. Still, the traitor had more tricks up his sleeve. His ever-present smirk seemed notably smugger as he offered, "Did you know my Shikai has a maximum size of one hundred times its normal size?" He took Zaraki's disinterested grunt to mean he didn't care, still he soldiered on, "But my Bankai? My Bankai is thirteen kilometers."

If he expected this information to intimidate his opponent, he'd be sadly disappointed. "Thirteen kilometers?" Zaraki scoffed. "Big deal. How are you going to even fight with a sword of such a ridiculous size?" Though he was never formally taught more than a single lesson, he had centuries of practical experience. One thing every fighter learned quickly was that while every weapon had a maximum range, they also had a minimum range. Someone with an ōdachi couldn't hit someone who was close enough to use a tanto.

"Oh, like this of course," Was Gin's mockingly amused reply. Holding his Zanpakutō up, he rested the hilt against his chest with the tip pointing towards Zaraki. "Bankai. Kamishini no Yari."

Unlike other Bankai, there was no massive explosion of power or dramatic transformation. Instead, there was a beam of silvery light extending from Gin all the way to Zaraki then through him. An instant later, the beam vanished. Gin was seemingly holding his sealed Zanpakutō and Zaraki had a new hole where his liver used to be. "What the?" The larger man choked out.

"Sorry, I suppose I misspoke," Despite his words, the silver-haired man didn't look remotely apologetic. "My Bankai's maximum length is thirteen kilometers. Obviously, I'm not swinging a thirteen-kilometer sword nonstop." His Zanpakutō moved ever so slightly before it became a beam of light once again. This time, Zaraki found his right leg sliced off entirely.

The man quickly braced himself with his Zanpakutō, keeping him from falling to the ground. "It's not the size that matters, is it?" He observed. "It's the speed."

"Oh my, you figured it out so soon? Why yes, what makes Kamishini no Yari so special is the speed at which it can extend and retract. Watch," Tucking his Zanpakutō against his chest, Gin clapped his hands together once. "Did the sound reach you? My Kamishini no Yari's speed… is five hundred times that." Once again, he aimed his Bankai at Zaraki and extended it. To his surprise, the man actually managed to deflect it, carefully balancing on one leg as he slashed his Zanpakutō aside. 'My my my. He really is something. To pull that off, he'd have to have started swinging before I even started extending my sword.' "Well, in that case, Butō: Renjin."

This time, what came out of Gin's Zanpakutō was akin to a massive storm of spears. With each contraction, he moved his Bankai ever so slightly before extending it again. Zaraki valiantly blocked, deflected, and dodged what he could, but he was forced to tank far too many attacks. Soon, he collapsed to the ground, immobile and barely conscious. Reaching out with his senses, Gin idly noted, "Oh, well it looks like I'll get the first kill for our side." He carefully aimed his Zanpakutō directly at the downed captain's head, "Goodbye, Zaraki Kenpachi."

-]|[-

AN: I couldn't write a full (non-smut) Bleach fic without Ikkaku using his Bankai. Especially since he's easily my favorite male Shinigami. Anyway, this means the "small" fights are done and it's time for the big ones. As you've undoubtedly noticed, I'm really not a fan of the "Four Lines, All Waiting" trope, which Bleach was pretty lousy with. In a vacuum, I'd prefer to end a fight the same chapter I've started it. That was very easy in Hueco Mundo and especially Soul Society as everyone was separated from each other. In Fake Karakura, the fights are happening largely simultaneously and all in the same general area (weird how a city counts as a general area). It was a bit necessary to set up each fight, but going forward, I hope to largely be able to focus on a single fight before jumping to another. Anyway, this does mean chapters will almost certainly go back to monthly after this as while I know how every fight ends, I don't necessarily know how it gets there. And unlike the fraccion, I intend to put respect on the traitor captains' and remaining Espadas names, which means slowing down to make sure fights feel legit and not like one side completely dominating another (unless they're supposed to, such as Byakuya's and Ukitake's "fights" this chapter).

Quick note because I got asked: Ichigo had Eikō no Yari out when he revived because the rest of his Bankai is completely borked. That's all he's got for the next several months, possibly longer. It's not an excuse to make him lose fights though; instead, it'll make it more obvious how far he's come and will come (which sounded less dirty in my head).

Next time on Vow of the King: Halibel swallows a captain's meat and has him spurting so hard, he almost passes out.