Chapter 33: The Sharks Will Dine Upon His Flesh
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Zanpakutō"
"Hollows/Vizard"
"[Reading/listening to a message/letter]"
"{Speaking a different language}"
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Gin didn't have any particular thoughts as his Bankai shot towards Zaraki. After all, even to him, his Bankai moved at impossible speeds. While he was better able to handle it than others, given it was his Bankai, it still extended and contracted ten times in the timeframe of a single blink. Yet, both he and Zaraki were caught by complete surprise when his Kamishini no Yari was deflected upwards. "The fuck are you doing interfering with my fight?!" Zaraki tried to shout, though he was interrupted by coughing up blood more than once.
"Your fight is over," Sasakibe Chōjirō insisted firmly as he stared down Gin, his rapier already in hand. "You lost and thus, it is now my fight. Have your wounds treated; you're of no use to Soul Society dead." He made a gesture and Rangiku and Hisagi appeared behind him. "Bring him to the other wounded and heal him to the best of your ability," He ordered them. "I will deal with the traitor." Rangiku gave Gin one last look of hurt and disappointment before she joined Hisagi in carrying away Zaraki.
Gin watched them go in amusement before looking at Sasakibe, "Oh my, fighting me all by yourself? I heard you were the strongest lieutenant but you were unable to become a captain after all these centuries. Not to mention you were defeated in a single blow by that Kurosaki boy. Are you sure you want to do this? If you run, I'll give you a head start~"
Sasakibe's pupilless eyes narrowed slightly at the taunt. "You are right. I should thank Captain Kurosaki for it when I get the chance. He made me realize how complacent I had gotten that someone on his level managed to defeat me." He held his rapier vertically in front of his face before swishing it down into a fencing stance.
"Oh? Are you saying you think you can defeat me by yourself?" Despite himself, Gin couldn't help but be curious where the man's confidence came from. While he fully admitted to being a snake that would devour anything that caught his eye, he was also admittedly fairly nosy.
"What I am saying is… Bankai."
"What." Gin's response was hardly eloquent or poignant, but he could be forgiven given his shock. The lieutenant of 1st Division had participated in all of one fight in the entire time Gin had been a Shinigami. From what he had heard from the oldest captains, it was likely the man's first fight in a millennium. As such, he didn't react when the far older man raised his Shikai high and summoned a storm cloud, one that quickly blanketed the city. Rain began pouring from the skies and thunder rumbled within the clouds, briefly illuminating sections in flashes of yellow. A golden thunderbolt flew from the tip of Sasakibe's rapier into the sky, but before it hit the storm clouds above, it stopped, expanded, and turned into a large dome of lightning with several pillars of electricity rooting it to the ground.
The oldest and strongest lieutenant in Soul Society didn't announce his Bankai's name. Instead, a thunderbolt shot from the sky towards his enemy. Gin leapt away from the attack, only to find himself forced to dodge a second, and a third, and a fourth. A bead of sweat made its way down his face as he muttered, "I guess you really do learn something every day." As he dodged yet another attack, he aimed his Zanpakutō and shot it towards Sasakibe as fast as lightning. Only to learn actual lightning was much faster. A thunderbolt struck his Zanpakutō and raced up to his hand, causing all his muscles to spasm as he was electrified and forcing his attack off course. Some small part of his mind noted, 'Make that two things.'
While he was spasming, Sasakibe swung his blade through the lightning pillars of his Bankai. As he did so, each one broke away from the dome it was supporting and wrapped around his rapier. With a great lunge, he leapt forward and the lightning completely engulfed him and his blade in a shining yellow glow as he was propelled forward at incredible speeds. Gin had just enough time to bring his Zanpakutō to bear and extend it as the lieutenant reached him.
Both men were impaled almost simultaneously and stood there for several seconds. The younger of the two looked down at the sword sticking through his heart, the entire area blackened by the electrical discharge that had fried the organ completely. Lower still, his own sword was impaled through Sasakibe's stomach. He had been a fraction of a second too slow to aim his attack properly and it had cost him. "Well played," Gin managed to croak out before his life faded. His last thought was, 'It's a shame I won't see how it ends.'
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"You said I won't get a second chance, Shinigami," Halibel reminded Byakuya. "So why are you the only one bleeding?" In his defense, the wounds he had were few and shallow but it was nonetheless true that he had yet to injure her. It wasn't even because his strikes hadn't landed. The Espada's missing left sleeve confirmed he had hit her, but it seemed her hierro was too tough for his Senbonzakura to penetrate easily.
"Your arrogance is unbecoming. Do not think me bested just because my Shikai cannot cut you," The Kuchiki clan head scolded Halibel. The petals of his Shikai flowed back together to reform his Zanpakutō's blade. Inverting his grip, he held it upside down and promised, "I will crush that arrogance to dust. Bankai." With that last word, he let go of his Zanpakutō. Rather than fall to the ground beneath them, it sank into the sky as though the air itself was a pool of water. Behind Byakuya arose two rows of hundreds of titanic sword blades. "Scatter, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi." At his command, every blade dissolved into thousands of tiny blades. As the name implied, it resembled nothing so much as an entire forest's worth of sakura petals falling.
The swarm of blades flew towards Halibel all at once. She fired a cero at the incoming attack by swinging her blade in a wide arc, but the arc of energy only caught some of them, forcing her to vanish in a burst of Sonido to dodge. Almost as soon as she appeared, she felt a new presence behind her. Swinging her sword behind her, Halibel quickly twisted her wrist, trapping Hyōrinmaru in the empty hollow of her Zanpakutō. "Big mistake, Espada," Tōshirō taunted her. Immediately, ice erupted from his Zanpakutō and grew to engulf her sword and her arm.
Her response was a bala enhanced punch to the child prodigy's face, sending him flying back as she flexed her arm, shattering the ice and her remaining sleeve. By that time, Byakuya's Bankai was upon her once again. An unseen snarl on her face, Halibel exerted her Reiatsu fully. A tremendous pillar of yellow energy poured off her and the sheer weight of her Reiatsu crushed the buildings closest to her as it forced Senbonzakura Kageyoshi away from her.
When he landed, Tōshirō glanced up in confusion at the forming thunderstorm. The sky had been clear moments ago. Still, he wasn't going to question good fortune. The coming rain would make his Zanpakutō's ice powers even stronger. And it would be best to take full advantage of the change in weather. "Bankai." With Daiguren Hyōrinmaru summoned, he almost leapt back into the fray. But after a moment, he considered that perhaps a more subtle approach would work better, especially as the Espada was apparently capable of deflecting attacks with just the weight of her Reiatsu.
Halibel launched cero after bala after Ola Azul at Byakuya but what the captain couldn't dodge, he blocked with his Bankai. It would seem she'd have to get close. She fired another arced cero and readied herself. When he dodged, she followed rather than staying relatively still. Though the nobleman seemed surprised by her actions, the petals of his Bankai nonetheless blocked her path. Halibel pressed forward even as the blades left numerous tiny slices through her skin before, with an Ola Azul enhanced swing of her Zanpakutō, she burst through. To her surprise, despite being close enough to reach out and touch the captain, his Bankai didn't come closer. Halibel swung her sword at his chest and Byakuya surprised her by grabbing the inside of the blade tightly, ignoring how it sliced into his fingers. More curious was that his Zanpakutō still hadn't attacked her. "Your Bankai, it has a minimum range, doesn't it?" She questioned. He didn't respond, but his lack of denial was all she needed. "How unfortunate for you."
Byakuya raised his other hand to cast a Kidō but Halibel instantly grabbed his fingers and squeezed. To his credit, he barely grunted as his fingers broke and when she slammed her forehead into his nose, he let go of her sword and used the opportunity to kick her in the chest. Both fighters slid backwards which moved Halibel out of Senbonzakura's hurtless area. The blades converged on her in an instant, but this time, when she forced her way forward six lines of ice shot upwards around her. A moment later, the entire area was filled entirely with ice, freezing the Arrancar.
"Sorry it took so long," Tōshirō apologized as he appeared near Byakuya. "I had to set several traps up before she stumbled into one." It was his first time using Rokui Hyōketsujin while fighting alongside someone. While it was fairly easy for him to lure someone into triggering the technique on his own, doing so while they fought someone else complicated things more than he had expected.
Byakuya mentally called back his Bankai, minus the blades that had been caught inside his fellow captain's trap. "It is no matter," He insisted. "Victory is what is important."
CRACK
Tōshirō's ice pillar split down the middle before suddenly shattering. Halibel glared at them as the ice fell apart around her, looking none the worse for wear. Reaching up, she grasped her torn jacket and ripped it off entirely, revealing both her mask fragment that covered from her nose down to her nipples and the large gothic 3 tattooed on the inside of her breast. "All that power, and she's only the third?" Tōshirō questioned in disbelief.
"Power?" Halibel inquired. "I have yet to show you my power." Much like Byakuya before her, she held her Zanpakutō upside down before her. "Hunt, Tiburón." A massive, heart-shaped wave formed behind the blonde before folding in on her like a cocoon. The water raged around her in a vortex as her power skyrocketed. Then a wide blade cut through the cocoon from the inside, causing the entire thing to collapse and reveal Halibel's new form. White armored boots covered her legs up to her knees where they merged into a black bodysuit with three white stripes adorned the outside of each thigh. Said bodysuit was then covered by white and blue-gray armor starting from her crotch and moving up to cover her torso, leaving only her collarbone and the tops of her breasts bare. Each shoulder was covered by a white spaulder with two lightning bolt stripes on it. While her upper arms were bare, her forearms were covered in white bracers that led down into black gloves with a thick white stripe covering her middle and ring fingers. A protrusion shaped like a shark's tail extended from her upper back and ended level with her backside. Her sword had transformed into a spear with a large shark tooth shaped head. Finally, her mask was gone, a blue lightning bolt on each cheek in its place, and her braids undone, leaving her hair messy and wild.
Tōshirō and Byakuya both tensed, ready for whatever new abilities their opponent would have. 'She's coming,' The younger of the two thought. In the end, he was only half right. Halibel swiped her spear through the air before her, almost too fast to see. An instant later, a barrier of petals formed in front of both captains and, to Tōshirō's shock, was actually pushed back slightly. 'With just the air pressure of her swing?!' Both men found themselves realizing they had greatly underestimated their opponent.
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As Baraggan dodged yet another attack, Jūshirō's eyes narrowed. The Espada was clearly a Vasto Lorde, yet he didn't seem as fast at a distance as he was in melee combat. There was something more at play. As he barely dodged an axe swing, he created some distance with Shunpo before testing his theory. "Hadō #31, Shakkahō!" The red orb sailed towards Baraggan the same as thousands he had cast before in his career. But as it came within approximately a meter of him, it slowed to an incredible degree. Jūshirō would be surprised if the Kidō was moving at even a fifth its previous velocity. As such, Baraggan had plenty of time to swat the Hadō aside with his Zanpakutō. "So, that's how your ability works," The white-haired captain noted, "You have some kind of field effect around you. But is it affecting speed or time?"
"Took you long enough, Shinigami," Baraggan dismissively scoffed. "My powers are unmatched in this world or any other. Each of the Espada holds dominion over a different aspect of death. The ten different paths that can lead a human to death. This is reflected in their individual abilities, their ideologies, and forms the basis of their existence. Isolation, Sacrifice, Nihilism, Despair, Destruction, Intoxication, Madness, Avarice, Wrath. The form of death I hold dominion over is 'Age', that is to say Time. The most absolute of them all. The one form of death that cannot be avoided. Let me show you." Baraggan attempted to rush him with Sonido, but Jūshirō dodged, immediately understanding he shouldn't let the elderly Arrancar place his hands on him. "Hmf. For an ant, you're quite good at running away. But you cannot outrun inevitability." Holding his axe upside down before him, he called, "Rot, Arrogante!"
A purple miasma bled off Baraggan's Zanpakutō and quickly engulfed him. As the fumes covered him, his flesh rotted away, leaving only a skeleton behind. His power grew massively as he transformed. Once the miasma cleared, what was left was a skeleton wearing a golden bejeweled crown, a golden pendant with a crimson gem in the center, and a purple robe trimmed with black fur. The skeleton held up a single finger and from his feet grew a cloud of the same miasma that had consumed him. As it spread, the foul smoke rotted away all it touched. "Respira," Baraggan growled the name of his technique. Ukitake wasted no time turning and fleeing at his best speed. 'Such a frightful opponent. I doubt my Shikai would do anything to that gas and if I try and fail, I'll be left without a Zanpakutō at all.' A tiny wisp of Respira touched his captain's haori, prompting him to tear the garment from his body as it was consumed. When the cloud finally stopped expanding, multiple blocks had been erased. Worse, Jūshirō wasn't sure that Baraggan had reached his maximum range rather than simply choosing to stop. 'No wonder he was the God King of Hueco Mundo. What a monster.'
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"Don't underestimate us!" Tōshirō shouted as he sent a dragon of ice hurtling towards Halibel.
The mocha skinned woman merely held up her spear and pointed it at the oncoming dragon. "Hirviendo." As the ice construct approached, it suddenly melted entirely. The resulting water reformed as a shark and shot back towards the captains. However, hidden within the dragon had been countless petals of Senbonzakura Kageyoshi. They and many others that had been scattered throughout the area rose up and surrounded Halibel in a gigantic whirling sphere.
"Gōkei," Byakuya stoically called, one open palm outstretched towards the sphere. Behind him, Tōshirō refroze the watery shark, bringing it under his command once more. "We warned you not to underestimate us. This is your end." He clenched his outstretched hand into a fist and each of the million blades that made up his Bankai came crashing inward, seeking to both crush and slice Halibel from every direction at once. Their impact sent out a massive shockwave, forcing both captains to Shunpo backwards out of the blast range.
The technique completed, the blades began falling to the ground. Out of the cloud of petals flew a massive torrent of water, easily a dozen meters wide. With his compatriot's Bankai too far away to assist, Tōshirō quickly froze a giant ice wall in front of them to block the surge. For a moment, he thought it would hold, but then a spiderweb of cracks formed with a terrible crashing sound. Byakuya grabbed his younger partner and got them both out of harm's way just in the nick of time. The wall was destroyed and the cascade of water crashed down into the city below. Any building hit directly was simply erased by the thousands of tons of water striking them at high speed. Those buildings not directly hit were ripped apart and swept away in the current that quickly flooded nearly half the city. The source of the attack was Halibel, alive and, more worryingly, unharmed. "You are the ones who have been underestimating me. I warned you that I had yet to show you my power."
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Halibel's three fraccion stared in shock at what remained of Ayon. No one had ever beaten Ayon before outside of Halibel herself. They had killed the previous Second Espada, Leo Nardo, with Ayon; the snapping turtle Arrancar had been no match for their chimera. So how could some damn 3rd Seat manage it!?
"Well, I can't say I expected that." All three whirled to face their forgotten opponent. Yumichika was staring at Ikkaku's downed form in surprise. "For him to use Bankai where others would see it." Brushing his hair back with his free hand, the 5th Seat remarked, "If he's going to go all out like that, I suppose I can't do any less. Split and deviate, Ruri'iro Kujaku." The blades of his shotel shined with a multicolored light as they grew and split, turning into vines reaching towards the trio. All three quickly moved to dodge and found themselves regretting the current loss of their left arms. While they had strong enough regeneration to regain the limbs eventually, it would take several days at minimum. Right now, they had only healed enough to no longer be bleeding.
The three moved back-to-back, seeking to cover each other's blind spots. Mila Rose was swinging her sword left and right, hacking away at the grasping vines. Sung-sun twisted and contorted her body in a way her sisters couldn't match, though her much longer body worked to negate that advantage. From her remaining hand, she sent out more snakes to bite at the offending tendrils. Apacci was having the worst of it. She lacked Sung-sun's mobility or Mila Rose's bladed weaponry; her only notable method of attack was her antlers, which were meant for goring, not cutting. Instead, she lashed out with bala after bala. Her concussive blasts knocked the vines away but they kept coming.
Inevitably, a vine slipped through and wrapped itself around one of her antlers before pulling taut. Mila Rose quickly responded to her shout of alarm and sliced through the tendril holding Apacci, but in doing so, stopped paying attention to the ones attacking her. Both her legs and her remaining arm were grabbed, the vines snaking around the majority of each limb to hold her tight. That was the beginning of the end. With their most effective member helplessly bound, they were forced to stop defending themselves entirely in an effort to free her, only to be caught themselves. In less than a minute after releasing his true Shikai, Yumichika had all three women bound and helpless. "Tch, now what, you pervert? You gonna have your way with us?" Apacci attempted to put on a brave face, but knew they were beaten.
Yumichika raised an eyebrow, an expression all the more notable for the feathers attached to it. "Why do women keep assuming I'm interested?" He questioned exasperatedly. As he spoke, energy began flowing out of the Tres Bestias and into the flower buds covering the vines. "No, what will happen is my Shikai will absorb all your Reiryoku to feed these flowers." Indeed, the flowers were beginning to bloom as the women felt themselves slipping away. Though they struggled as much as they could, nothing helped. With a muttered curse from each, they collapsed as the flowers bloomed completely.
Yumichika plucked one before dispelling his Shikai. "Hm, it's awfully vibrant. I've never actually used this on multiple opponents before; perhaps that's the reason." Quickly, he took the flower to his fallen friend. He began healing him with Kaidō and, more importantly, bit into one of the flower petals, chewing it thoroughly. "The things I do for you, Ikkaku," He muttered without any rancor. Leaning over, he slowly drooled the mush of the petal into the bald man's mouth. Once he finished, he sat up again. "Ugh, how unsightly." Yet, the liquified flower did its job, quickly healing Ikkaku's wounds far more effectively than most of the healers in 4th Division could have managed.
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Staring down at her two opponents, Tia Halibel's eyes hardened. Individually, she could handle either with ease. But the pair worked well together. The younger one froze her attacks while the other would swarm her with his multitude of blades. Previously, she had been content to simply hold the line, but something had just happened to her fraccion and she could no longer sense them. 'Curse my reluctance. I should have just killed them from the start.' The Third Espada thought to herself. If she hadn't been occupied, she knew she could have saved them. But at least, she could still avenge them, starting with the two before her. Water began streaming from the head of her spear as she swung it in a wide circle around herself. The swarm of blades shot forth once more, seeking to shred her flesh from all sides, but it was too late. Raising her sword high, the grieving mother snarled, "Llanura Abisal!"
Before Byakuya's and Tōshirō's very eyes, the massive amount of water summoned by their foe's previous techniques rose up around them. Tōshirō swung his Bankai, aiming to once more freeze the attack, only to find the very air around them turned to water as well. Worse, his ice didn't seem to be doing anything; anything he froze simply shattered instantly then quickly melted. After a moment, the water darkened until it was pitch black and a strong current picked up, moving faster and faster every second. Though fast moving, the current wasn't enough to injure them but they quickly realized its true purpose was to disorient them. It didn't take long before they could no longer tell up from down, never mind which direction the edge of the conjured ocean was.
As if that weren't bad enough, a flash of color appeared in Tōshirō's field of vision. He barely had time to register it before it sped past and a horrific pain threatened to overwhelm him. He instinctively grasped his left leg where the agony was strongest, only to find the entire limb gone from about a third of the way down his thigh. The Espada appeared again, for who else could it be, but this time she clashed against Byakuya's Bankai, the countless blades forming a wall that held her briefly. She quickly broke through, but it bought the other captain just enough time to vanish in a Shunpo. In that brief moment, Tōshirō got a decent look at her. What had previously been a voluptuous chocolate skinned woman could now only be described as a mermaid made of nightmares. Her skin was a slate gray with darker, nearly black, stripes. A large dorsal fin sprouted from her back, her hands had become clawed and webbed, and her legs had fused into a single powerful tail. Her eyes were a solid black and set in a face that was all teeth. Her mouth and nose elongated enough to form a slight muzzle, Halibel's mouth had widened until it seemed to reach where her ears used to be and was filled with endless teeth. Within said mouth was his leg, the Espada's teeth digging into his knee. She had caught his eye in that instant and very pointedly bit straight through the joint, leaving the pieces of his leg to be carried away by the current. The message was as clear as the waters were opaque: "I will kill every last one of you."
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Within a warehouse not far outside the Fake Karakura, the eight Vizard debated. Well, some of them debated. Hachigan simply stated his opinion the first time then sat quietly, in contrast to Hiyori who was loudly arguing. "Fuck the Shinigami! We don't owe them shit!" She yelled for the umpteenth time, as though they somehow hadn't heard her every other time. "I say, we let them wear down Aizen then we fuck him up ourselves!"
"And if that fails?" Love asked. "We know from Ichigo that Aizen was creating an army of Arrancar. If they overwhelm the Shinigami, we won't be able to do a thing against Aizen."
Kensei argued back, "We're stronger now than we were before. We can take em."
Rose shot him a questioning look. "Are we? We have our masks true, but we can only use them for three minutes-"
"Not me! I can go all night with mine!" Mashiro cheerfully interjected.
"Yes, we know," Rose rolled his eyes, "If we cannot achieve victory in that time, we'll be doomed to fail. It would be best to align with our former comrades to secure victory."
Shinji stepped up beside Lisa, who was once again reading one of her manga. A glance at the cover raised an eyebrow; that was a little more… tame, than her usual fare. "Not going to weigh in?" He asked her.
"There's no point," She replied with certainty, "I'm going. Whether the rest of you come or not is up to you."
"Oh? Eager to see Shunsui again?" He teased her as Mashiro interrupted the debate by shouting something involving a sentai pose.
If he wanted to rile the bespectacled woman up, he was disappointed. "Among others, yes. And stick to flirting with Hiyori, Shinji. She's the only one that likes your brand of humor." With that cutting remark, she turned a page of her current issue of Ranma 1/2. To herself she muttered, "Why doesn't he just fuck Shampoo? She's clearly better than Akane."
'Yeah, not touching whatever that is,' He decided. Out loud, he announced, "We'll put it to a vote. I'll abstain so there won't be a tie. Who wants to help Soul Society kill Aizen?" Five hands shot up. "And who wants to go it solo once the dust settles?" Three hands rose. "Mashiro, you're not supposed to vote twice." One hand lowered. "Well, the ayes have it. Let's go, everyone." Though Hiyori grumbled, everyone grabbed their Zanpakutō and headed for the exit. It was time to pay Aizen back for what he had done to them, with over a century's worth of interest on top of it.
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AN: Yes, Halibel has a different resurreccion than canon. I like the original well enough but I found some redesigns that I liked more and I combined two of them together (The main inspiration can be found as "Shark Empress by Arrancarfighter"). Remember how canon implied Halibel was building up to some ultimate attack, because why not just oneshot Tōshirō with the wind pressure of her swing a second time if she wasn't? Well, here it is. Llanura Abisal should translate to "Abyssal Plain", which is the bottom of the ocean (barring trenches) and covers approximately 60% of the Earth's surface while also being the least explored and understood part of the world. Halibel's technique is, much like that one Kidō, taken largely from Naruto (because for all my complaints about plot and characters, it's got some neat stuff), specifically Kisame Hoshigaki. Halibel transforms into what can best be described as "Horror movie mermaid" and traps her victims and herself inside a giant bubble of pitch-black water that's rotating at high speeds. The high speeds and pressure serve to tear apart any ice that forms and that same high-speed current melts whatever's left via friction. So Jaws but it's pitch-black, you can't get out of the water, and the shark is sapient.
As I said before, I'm doing my best to put respect on names. Speaking of which, the best in-universe argument I have for why the Vizard underperformed so hard in canon is because they were a century out of practice. Because even the lieutenants should have been captain level if they'd kept up their training. Granted, the meta reasoning was because the villains were already outnumbered roughly two to one before eight more fighters showed up. So only Hachigan really got to show off; contrast Shinji who did literally nothing with his mask on then got casually oneshotted after giving Aizen a shallow cut on his arm.
I'm sure someone will ask so I might as well address them now: Are Yumichika and Ikkaku a couple? No. Is Yumichika gay? In this story, Yumichika is bisexual and is drawn to certain types. He prefers a combination of beauty and ferocity. Someone like Orihime is beautiful but he'd think wanting to fuck her is like wanting to fuck a sunset. Of canon characters, he'd likely be most interested in Dordonni, Unohana, and maybe Grimmjow. Shutara might well be his ideal woman, being beautiful and fierce as hell. He respects and admires Ikkaku, but the man is his best friend, not his lover. Is Ikkaku gay? No. He is, however, someone who'd do well with Bambietta as they'd both be up for drinking and no-strings sex from time to time while having zero interest in an actual relationship.
This chapter was going to include more but I realized that if I ended it where I intended, it'd become horribly, massively, ridiculously bloated. So I decided to end it here.
Next time on Vow of the King: Another pretty young woman gets completely destroyed by an ugly old bastard.