Chapter 6: Suspicions
"Aka Hebi - Red Snake"
Ichigo stood in the center of the battle and saw Grimmjow rushing over towards him. The panther was looking forward to not only killing a soul reaper, but also having a fight with a worthy foe. Ichigo didn't budge when he saw Grimmjow rushing towards him. Grimmjow went for a slash at the captain, but Ichigo flashed out of the way. H Grimmjow looked around for the soul reaper and saw him standing behind the snake he was fighting earlier.
"So, you just gonna run and hid behind someone else? You coward!" He yelled out as he rushed him again. "Doesn't matter to me! Two birds, one strike!" He went for another slash but was stopped when the captain grabbed his paw with a bare hand. Grimmjow was shocked by what just happened, same with the snake boy.
"Well? Ichigo started with a grin. "That all you got, kitty cat?" Ichigo flung Grimmjow away from him and the snake boy and watched him skid for a few seconds. Grimmjow caught himself to a stop and stared at the captain with rage burning in his eyes.
"You're so dead soul reaper!" He yelled out as he sonidoed towards them. Grimmjow appeared behind Ichigo and went for his neck, but when he did, he saw the captain slightly turn his head and glare at him. Grimmjow didn't know what came over him, but that glare was something strange to him. He would be the first to tell anyone that he wasn't a person who could feel fear towards anyone, but at that moment, Grimmjow knew fear just by that glare. Regaining himself, Grimmjow sonidoed away from them at the last second and looked over to the captain.
"I'm only gonna say this once, Grimmjow." Ichigo started, surprising the panther hollow in front of him. Ichigo touched the snake boy on his shoulder, sending a cold shiver through him. The boy nervously looked up to the captain and shuddered when he could practically see the venom coming from his eyes. "Next time you attack this kid, I'll make you beg me to kill you."
Grimmjow could see that venom coming from his eyes as well and slowly backed away. He had never felt fear like this before. With one last glance, Grimmjow turned and ran away from the soul reaper captain. The boy didn't know what to think as the captain looked back down to him. He tensed at the sudden look but noticed that it wasn't like before. There was none of that venom or deathly power behind his gaze. It was just a normal expression.
"I'm slightly impressed kid." Ichigo started as he looked at the boy. "Only a few hours and you already took on someone like Grimmjow and didn't die."
"Um." He started in with an unsure tone. "Why did you save me earlier?"
Ichigo let go of the boys shoulder and walked off. The boy followed and walked next to him. He looked up to Ichigo as he walked over to a familiar area to the boy. With a gasp the boy slithered i front of Ichigo to stop him.
"You can't go that way soul reaper!" He yelled out in an almost pleading tone. That stopped Ichigo, but he kept his gaze fixed on where a certain spirit energy was. "You may have been able to scare off Grimmjow, but the guy over there isn't afraid of anyone. He'll make you rot before you could even draw your sword." The boy said to no avail as the captain still had his gaze fixed on Las Noches. The boy decided to make the captain notice his warning the only way he could think of without attempting to fight him. "SOUL REAPER!"
"Ow! Dammit kid!" Ichigo started as he rubbed his ear. "I'm not deaf! I heard you the first time." Ichigo could see the confusion in his eyes and sighed. "First off, my name is Ichigo Kenpachi Kaiyo. It isn't soul reaper, so etch that name into your head, got it?" He saw the boy nod to him and continued. "Secondly, since you don't have a name, I'll call you Aka Hebi. That's your name from now on, so get used to it." Aka thought about it for a second before he looked at his hair and tail scythe. They were both red and he was a snake so the name does make perfect sense. Aka looked back up to Ichigo to see him smirking at him. "And lastly, I'm not looking for that one."
This confused Aka for a while before he felt several Vasto Lorde type energies approaching them. He looked out and saw them standing not too far away from them. They all looked over to Ichigo and Aka could tell that they were all very curious about how strong he was.
Ichigo crossed his arms and looked at the group of Vasto's standing there. "Before we get started." He said to them with a grin on his face. "Does anyone wish to leave?"
His answer was met with a light blue lance being thrown at him. He caught it with his left hand and held it in place. This surprised everyone there as Ichigo clenched his hand and the lance shattered. Ichigo looked over to the Vasto who threw it and recognized him immediately as Ulquiorra. Ichigo looked over the rest and recognized most of them as the espada that he's met before along with a few he had never seen before. He recognized Ulquiorra, Yammy who was hard not to miss, a blond woman with a shark mask on, Nel who was in her horse like form, the only one who looked more human than anyone, and tall man with multiple arms. He didn't recognize the pink haired hollow, a man with a pink pumpkin for legs, or the mass of grotesque purple ooze standing not too far away. Ichigo counted them all and made sure they saw him do it.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Hmm." He finished as he placed his hand on his chin.
"Who are you soul reaper?" Ulquiorra asked him.
Ichigo looked over to him and smirked. "Captain Ichigo Kenpachi Kaiyo of squad eleven. I suggest you all get used to hearing that name." Ichigo turned around and walked off followed by a confused Aka.
Before Ichigo could even take five steps, he was met with multiple different cero's fired at his back. Every one of the beams collided with him and kicked up sand and dust all around in a massive explosion. All nine Vasto's looked unimpressed at how easy it was to dispatch one overly arrogant Soul reaper, but those unimpressed looks faded when the dust cleared to show the captain standing there completely unscathed. He had his zanpakuto in front of him and held it downward. Aka was behind him the entire time and looked behind him to see a massive arch of scorched sand. Ichigo looked at the nine and grinned at them before lowering his sword.
"Well at least I know how strong a cero fired by multiple different Vasto class hollows feels like now." He placed his blade on his shoulder and his free hand in his pocket. "What else any of you got?"
The nine tensed up for a moment before Yammy decided to trot over.
"You think that just because you got power that it makes you better than me?!" He yelled out as he trotted over. The other eight noticed that Ichigo had a killer look to his face and tried to stop the big guy, but to no avail. Yammy ran up to the motionless Ichigo and threw a punch to him. As the massive fist made it's way over to him, Aka was terrified at what was happening.
"Aka." Ichigo started, getting the boys attention. "Go stand next to them. You do not want to get in my way when I demonstrate my own power."
Aka didn't waste any time and sonidoed next to the blond haired woman. They were surprised by how fast the boy was, but kept their focus on Yammy and the soul reaper captain.
Yammy's fist approached Ichigo and before it made contact, Ichigo grinned devilishly. He raised his left hand and stopped the fist without even budging from his original spot. Yammy froze when that happened, same as everyone else. They had never seen anyone, hollow or soul reaper, stop Yammy's attack with nothing but pure strength before.
"My turn." Ichigo started as he brought his blade off of his shoulder. He flicked his wrist and left a massive gash on Yammy's arm. Yammy gripped his arm and yelped in pain. He had never felt anything like this before. He looked down to Ichigo and saw the grin on his face. That look wasn't the look of someone that you fight, but someone that you run away from. Yammy was about to do just that, but was too slow. Ichigo held his sword out in front of him and whispered.
"Carve their hearts out, Zangetsu."
His blade disappeared and was replaced with the two black blades. The pressure and killing intent coming from those blades and Ichigo was enough to have Yammy prepared to run for the hills, but he never got the chance as Ichigo flashed from in front of to in front of the others. They were all caught off guard at how fast he was and simply looked at him then to Yammy. Said hollow was completely motionless for several seconds until Ichigo brought his blades together to form his sealed blade. Suddenly, Yammy started to fall apart in massive junks of his body. The other hollows watched as his body parts fell onto the ground piece by piece and knew that if one of the most dangerous hollows in recent memory was brought down by one person so easily, then that meant they wouldn't fair too well themselves.
"That was amazing." The pink haired one said in awe.
"Thanks." Ichigo started as he slashed at the air to get rid of the blood. He sheathed his blade and crossed his arms to them. "So then tell me, what are your names?"
Everyone tensed as he watched them with his brown eyes carefully, almost like he was analyzing them one by one. There was an unnatural silence in the air for a short while before the blond decided to speak up first.
"Tia Halibel." She stepped forward and bowed in respect to Ichigo. He in return nodded to her and looked at the man with the pumpkin body.
"Z-Zommari Rurueaux." He bowed as well, earning him a nod.
"Ulquiorra Cifer."
"Neliel Tu Odelschwanck."
"Nnoitra Gilga."
"Szayel Aporro."
"Aaroniero Arruruerie."
"Coyote Starrk. This is Lilinette Gingerbuck."
With the last one introducing himself, Ichigo nodded to the group. He started to remember who most of them were at this point because of the bit of information the Hogyoku had on them. They were, for the most part, loyal to Aizen in his future, but mainly served him out of either respect, manipulation or fear. Ichigo knew that he had to break away from Aizen's way of controlling an individual and instead work on gaining their trust. It would be difficult considering he could clearly see fear in their eyes, but it was worth a shot.
Ichigo looked at each of them and then to Aka. He sighed when he turned and saw the pieces of Yammy scattered about. "Nine huh?" He said to himself. Ichigo shrugged before turning back to them. "I'll find a tenth one later." This caught their attention and Tia was the first to speak up.
"What exactly so you mean by that?"
Ichigo smirked at her question and chuckled under his breath. He stopped to answer her.
"I'm gonna need ten of the strongest hollows to join me in destroying the soul society. And by my count I only have nine." He already knew that Barragan would be a problem all things considered. The Hogyoku had told him that Barragan always planned on destroying Aizen at the most opportune time, but he never had the chance.
"Why would you want to destroy the soul society? You're a soul reaper." Neliel asked him.
"I have my reasons. That's all any of you need to know." Ichigo answered her.
"So you basically need to reform the Espada's?" Starrk asked him in an unsure tone.
"Yeah pretty much." Ichigo answered him in his usual tone. "Any of you know another powerful hollow that could fit in the ranks of the espada?"
"Well there is Barragan, but he would never join a soul reaper for any reason." Szayel started. "There's also Grimmjow, though he would most likely just fight you rather than join you."
The Hogyoku was definitely right about Szayel. An analyst through and through. He and Sosuke would be very useful to deal with Kisuke if it comes down to that.
"Then I'll deal with Barragan later." Ichigo said as he turned and walked away from the group. He stopped and opened a garganta, surprising everyone that he, a soul reaper was able to do that. He turned back to them. "I'll be back in a few days. I certainly hope none of you decide to try anything the next time I show up, otherwise you'll wind up like him." He motioned to Yammy and left them all to ponder just what to do next.
Ichigo came out of the garganta and was now in his room back in squad eleven. He lowered the barrier and left the room. When he did, he felt the spiritual pressure of Isshin Shiba knocking on his door. Ichigo had to think fast. He knew that if Isshin saw even a small amount of doubt in Ichigo's story, then everything would be undone. So, much to his embarrassment that his own father would see, Ichigo decided that the only way to get away with his trip was to sell his story. Bring up terrible memories and force tears, or at least make it look as if he was crying. When he did that, he went to his door and opened it.
"Captain Shiba." Ichigo started as he rubbed one of his eyes. "There something I can help you with?"
Isshin was very surprised to see that Ichigo had probably been remembering those times that he mentioned earlier. "Are you okay Ichigo?"
He sighed and looked around. When he saw none of his squad mates weren't around, he motioned for Isshin to follow him in. Ichigo closed his door and turned to Isshin.
"I uh, never told anyone that story before." Ichigo said to him as he sat on his bed. Isshin sat in a nearby chair and watched Ichigo with a concerned look on his face. "I thought that I'd made peace with what happened, but destroying that hollow and then telling it all of a sudden with some people that I don't even know."
"I'm sorry for bringing it up." Isshin said to him. "In all honesty I never thought you would show emotions other than rage and irritation." Isshin gave a weak smile that Ichigo.
"Yeah." Ichigo started as he rubbed his other eye and took a breath. He stood up along with Isshin and they walked to the door. Before they went through it, Ichigo stopped and took a deep breath and regained his composure. He looked over at Isshin and smirked. "Thanks Isshin. I think I really needed that."
Isshin put a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "Come on. Lets go get some drinks and talk about other things."
Ichigo smirked at him and nodded. Out of everyone back here in the past, his father was definitely someone that he didn't want to see hurt when his plans came to fruition.
I Know, I Haven't Updated This In A While, But Everyone Has Been Giving The World Of Women Story So Much Love That I Actually No Joke Forgot About My Other Fics And Have Been Stressing The Hell Out About This And School. So If I Sound Really Irritated Or Annoyed, I Just Want To Apologize In Advanced And Let You Guys Know That I'm Not Blaming Anyone But Myself For My Lack Of I Guess Commitment To Showing My Fans The Content That They Love To Read And View On A Consistent Basis. I Will Try My Absolute Damnedest To Get These Fics Both Old And New Out There So You Guys Can Read Them And Be Inspired, Entertained, Intrigued, And Motivated To Write Things Of Your Own. Again, I'm Very Sorry For My Own Lack Of Motivation To Update And Post And Hope You Guys All Stick With My Stories No Matter What. Wouldn't Be Doin This If It Weren't For You Guys.
So Thanks.
:)
I Do Plan On Having Aka As An Espada BTW Since I Did Just Kill Off Yammy. Hope Ya'll Like His Character.
You Guys Are Awesome.
Stay Sexy Out There, PEACE!